淨名經關中釋抄 2.15

2.15

The preceding "Inquiring after the Illness Chapter" states: "By receiving nothing, one experiences all feelings." Now, this chapter extensively clarifies that the three realms, the six destinies, the two vehicles, and external teachings are all without receiving. / "Avīci" is the Sanskrit term for "uninterrupted" (wujian). The new [translation] says: "Avīci" is translated here as "uninterrupted." For these five types of karma, there are four kinds of uninterruptedness: first, uninterrupted retribution in the destinies; second, uninterrupted bodily size; third, uninterrupted lifespan; fourth, uninterrupted suffering. / "Hell" (diyu) in Sanskrit is Naraka, translated here as "bitter [...]"; the old [translation] had Niraya, or said Nīraya, translated here as "non-conduct," meaning a place of unlawful conduct. / The "eight wrong dharmas" refer to wrong view, wrong intention, wrong effort, wrong awakening, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong mindfulness, and wrong concentration. / The "high plains and dry land" and "sowing seeds in empty space" are metaphors for the two vehicles seeking the seed of the Tathāgata within analytical cessation and the unconditioned. Because this is the cessation of abandoning saṃsāra and not the quiescence of non-arising and non-ceasing, they cannot obtain the seed of the Tathāgata. / The "low-lying, wet mire" and "fertilised field" are metaphors for the defilements of ordinary beings. If they can hear the seed and subtly awaken to [the principle that] defilements are themselves bodhi, they can perceive the seed of the Tathāgata. Regarding "fertilised" (rang), the Shangshu says: "Earth without clods is called rang." / "Perceiving the unconditioned" refers to the sixteen minds of the Hinayana path of seeing and beyond. Due to two conditions, they cannot obtain the seed of the Tathāgata: first, because they have severed defilements, they can no longer awaken to defilements as [the work of] a bodhisattva; second, because they have abandoned saṃsāra, they cannot return to enter it and generate great compassion. Therefore, the text below says: "As for the bodhisattva, he does not exhaust the conditioned, nor does he abide in the unconditioned." / Regarding "if one does not enter the great ocean of defilements, one cannot obtain the treasures of all-knowledge": the two vehicles grasp one-sidedly at the real, abandoning saṃsāra and witnessing nirvāṇa. Having abandoned the former to witness the latter, how could they return to enter saṃsāra, and through great compassion broadly save [beings], receiving all feelings by receiving nothing? Such a one-sided awakening cannot attain unexcelled bodhi; bodhi is the knowledge of all aspects. In the case of the bodhisattva of the middle way, saṃsāra is itself nirvāṇa. As he cannot abandon saṃsāra and immediately witness nirvāṇa, he can likewise, without leaving nirvāṇa, enter saṃsāra. Never not leaving, never not saving—for this reason, the Dharma-body of the Buddha arises from within the mud of defilements. / Regarding "their roots are not severed": formerly, the Buddha spoke to the śrāvakas of the physical Buddha attaining the Way beneath the bodhi tree with thirty-four minds and entering nirvāṇa in the twin Śāla grove; he did not speak of the Tathāgata's constantly abiding dharmakāya, unarisen and unceasing, manifesting birth and death as responsive traces for sentient beings. Thus, the śrāvakas only knew that the three vehicles equally possess a physical body that attains the Way and enters nirvāṇa as reduced to ashes, unaware of the constantly abiding dharmakāya and its manifestation of birth and death as responsive traces. Now, in this sūtra, when they suddenly hear of the Great Being practicing what is not the Way as the Buddha Path—namely, that the seed of defilement is the Buddha-seed—they mistakenly reflect to themselves: "Our defilements are already exhausted and the remaining retribution has not yet [ripened?]. If we wish to wander broadly in what is not the Way, our outflowing karma has already been eliminated; thus, to take up bodhi would lack the practice of three asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Furthermore, we do not yet know that the Dharma-nature responds to produce great compassion and wandering conversions." Therefore, the lament over withered roots arose from this. If they reach the Lotus Sūtra and greatly awaken to the provisional and ultimate, profoundly understanding the true and responsive, then they will have no such lament. Furthermore, the śrāvakas eliminate defilements to grasp the real; their one-sided awakening diverges from the middle way. In using this to attain the unexcelled Buddha Dharma, they are far indeed! Although ordinary beings are fully endowed with defilements, they have never abandoned delusion to grasp realization. If they hear the Mahāyāna—that delusion is itself defilement, is itself purity, is itself form, is itself concentration—the perfect, true Buddha-seed will arise from this. There are those who examine the sūtras without understanding this intention, taking the śrāvakas to be decisively and ultimately unable to attain unexcelled bodhi, which is a great error. Why is this? If defilement is Buddha-nature, the two vehicles possess the defilement of fundamental ignorance abiding in concentration; how could this defilement alone not be Buddha-nature? If the nature of saṃsāra is itself the nature of nirvāṇa, the two vehicles possess transformation saṃsāra; how could this saṃsāra not be the nature of nirvāṇa? Furthermore, just as in the severe winter months water freezes into ice, and in mid-spring ice turns into water: when deluded, it is defilement; when awakened, it is bodhi. The principle being like this, what further delusion can there be in mind? What is more, the śrāvakas point to the sixteen-foot body as a body of saṃsāra. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: "This body of mine is itself the eternal body, the dharmakāya." Only this principle of saṃsāra being itself nirvāṇa and defilement being itself Buddha-nature exhausts it. / "Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) is the mother of the bodhisattva": wisdom is right view; skillful means is the myriad practices. When there is wisdom and one can have faith, the dharmakāya first comes to birth. / From "Dharma joy" downward to "ointment," it clarifies cultivating and upholding to increase and develop, subduing and extinguishing, practicing with clarity and ease, becoming completely [...]; from "although knowing" downward, it clarifies responding to beings. / "Woman" represents provisional wisdom: yielding gently and accommodating beings' minds is like a woman. "Man" represents ultimate wisdom: being upright and shattering all hundred negations is like a man. / Hair signifies not accepting deviousness and flattery. / "The disciple is the dust-body": formerly, the bodhisattva was in darkness, driven as a servant by the lord of ignorance and the demon king of craving; now that he has attained complete awakening, his wisdom is perfect and defilements are exhausted, and all gates of worldly toil are made into Buddha-work and driven at will; thus they are like disciples. / "The forest of the undefiled": leaving behind the heat of defilements is like the shade of trees, yielding great coolness. / "The flower of awakening intention": this flower is an herb blossom, because it produces the fruit of wisdom. The flower of the garland below is an ornamental flower, not a fruit-bearing flower. / "Liberation": this refers to the nine uninterrupted [paths] and nine liberations. Through wisdom one severs the defilements of the stage of neither perception nor non-perception, and upon reaching the ninth liberation it is called the fruit of wisdom. When it speaks below of the "eight difficult liberations," these are liberations subsumed under meditative concentration, not dharmas of wisdom. The eight liberations are: first, internally possessing the perception of form, one views external forms; second, internally lacking the perception of form, one views external forms; third, the pure liberation, fully abiding and witnessing it with the body; fourth, the station of boundless space; fifth, the station of boundless consciousness; sixth, the station of nothingness; seventh, the station of neither perception nor non-perception; eighth, the liberation of the absorption of cessation. / "The seven flowers of purity": the two purities of defilement and mind reside in the stages of the seven expedient means. Purity of view, purity of overcoming doubt, and purity of discerning path and non-path—these three belong to the worldly path of seeing. Leaving behind the three views of the body, extremes, and wrong views is called purity of view; leaving behind doubt is called purity of overcoming doubt; discerning the grasping of views and knowing the grasping of wrong paths and right paths is called purity of discerning path and non-path. Purity of conduct: in the stage of the worldly path of cultivation, leaving behind the defilements of cultivation of the nine levels is called purity of conduct. Seventh, purity of nirvāṇa: the worldly path of the non-learner. / "Pure livelihood arises": what is called seeking livelihood refers to fraudulently displaying unusual appearances to sustain life with a corrupt mind, which is called wrong livelihood. Leaving behind this wrong livelihood is pure livelihood, meaning sustaining life with a pure mind. When it says here "pure livelihood arises," it refers to ordinary beings cultivating dhyāna out of greed and craving, being born in the Brahmā realm without seeking transcendence; such tasting of dhyāna is called wrong livelihood. If, seeking nirvāṇa and feeling revulsion toward the three realms, one cultivates dhyāna, this correct seeking of the life of wisdom is why it says "pure livelihood arises." "Food" is wisdom, because it nourishes the dharmakāya; "drink" is meditative concentration, because it removes the thirst of desire. / "Bathing with a pure mind": there are three kinds of pure mind. First, when the mind is purified and one rejoices in the Dharma of dhyāna, the exhaustion of defilements is purity. Second, viewing the Buddha with a pure mind without rejoicing over Māra, faith without doubt is purity. Third, as Vimalakīrti here delights in bathing to remove sins, repentance to remove sins is purity. / "Or manifesting the conflagration at the end of an aeon, etc.": this refers to the aeons of the three great calamities. / Master Zhao's gāthās on the aeon say: