淨名經關中釋抄 2.9.4

2.9.4

These are the traces of words, seeming to exist but not being verbal realities. Furthermore, the Buddha uses the provisional designation to call it emptiness, so as to discard ordinary people's existence that is definitely existent. Thus, since existence is already not existent, emptiness is also not empty. Yet those who are deluded, hearing of emptiness, cannot discard existence, and instead abandon existence to cling to emptiness. Therefore [Seng]zhao says: 'Emptiness, through being without illness, takes the emptiness of existence as its illness.' This means that being empty right within existence—this emptiness has no illness; abandoning existence to cling to emptiness—having emptiness is the illness. Therefore the Great Treatise [Da zhidu lun] says: 'All expoundings are right within emptiness in order to destroy all forms of existence; if anyone grasps at emptiness, the buddhas do not treat them.' Master Zhao also said: 'To abandon existence and go to emptiness is like fleeing a peak and plunging into an abyss; both fail to avoid disaster.' / Regarding 'by not experiencing, experiencing all experiences': this is the great being entering provisionality through great compassion to transform beings, which is the second contemplation—entering provisionality from emptiness—in the Yingluo jing. Earlier, praising the bodhisattva's virtues, it said that they open and close all gates to evil destinies, yet are born in the five destinies to manifest their bodies. In the Expedient Means Chapter, Vimalakīrti stays in brothels and wine shops, and later in the Buddha-Path Chapter it explains that practicing non-paths is the Buddha-path; all these represent the bodhisattva's correct awakening to non-arising, contemplating the three realms, the six destinies, and the nirvāṇa of the two vehicles as dreams, illusions, and bubbles—their karmic causes, hence 'without experience'. Through the provisional traces of great compassion and working in shared activities to undergo rebirth, it is said to 'experience'. The experiences in the three realms, six destinies, and the nirvāṇa of the two vehicles are not uniform; hence it says 'all experiences'. As for 'craving the flavor of dhyāna is the bodhisattva's bondage': the commentary says that undergoing rebirth in the higher realms and the two vehicles grasping realization are all due to attachment to dhyāna. Another explanation is that the flavor of dhyāna in the higher realms was subsumed under the previous gate of craving and views; here, 'flavor of dhyāna' refers exclusively to the two vehicles abiding in the samādhi of emptiness, sinking into emptiness and stagnating in quiescence, which is why it constitutes bondage. Thus the Śrīmālā Sūtra says: 'The two vehicles holding the vessel of the samādhi of emptiness are intoxicated with the unconditioned wine of prajñā.' Does it not mean this? Regarding 'arising through expedient means': the commentary says, 'Undergoing birth for the sake of beings, neither other nor self is bound; this is why it constitutes liberation.' This means that if one undergoes rebirth following clinging, it becomes bondage; using great wisdom to understand that arising is non-arising, yet manifesting birth through expedient means—expedient means is named liberation. / Regarding 'having expedient means, wisdom liberates': these four distinguish the two wisdoms of provisional and ultimate. Possessing only one constitutes bondage; realizing them completely brings liberation. Guanzhong considers that from the sixth abode downward, all are partial realizations that are not yet complete, and from the seventh bhūmi upward, both wisdoms are completely realized, only then being liberated; this may also be accepted. Furthermore, according to the Benevolent Kings Prajñā Sūtra, upon ascending to the bhūmis the two wisdoms become complete, and from the eighth bhūmi upward, functioning is ever quiescent; thus before the bhūmis is bondage, and ascending the bhūmis is liberation. Moreover, among these four passages, the first two explain expedient means with respect to benefiting others, and the latter two explain expedient means with respect to one's own practice. / Regarding 'although delighting in seclusion, not relying on the extinction of body and mind': it means that the two vehicles attain extinction when the fire of transformation burns the body, which is called the body's extinction; extinguishing wisdom to discuss emptiness is called the mind's extinction. The bodhisattva's dharmakāya has no body, yet as a body is identical to the six destinies; the true mind has no mind, yet being without mind, wisdom pervades all existences; therefore it is said to 'not be extinguished'. / Regarding 'although moving through the three realms, not destroying the Dharma-nature': the three realms arise dependently; arising, they lack reality, which is itself the Dharma-nature. Yet the deluded undergo rebirth in the six destinies and become defiled and attached according to their physical forms; being attached to forms, they lose benefit, which is spoken of as destroying the Dharma-nature. The thirty-seven aids to awakening are as explained previously in the Buddha Land Chapter. / Regarding 'practicing the four immeasurables without craving rebirth in the Brahmā world': ordinary people, relying on the fundamental concentrations of conditions, additionally cultivate the immeasurables as the kings of all dhyānas; bodhisattvas know them to be like illusions and therefore do not generate attachment. / Regarding 'practicing dhyāna-concentration and liberation': dhyāna-concentration belongs to the form realm; the four absorptions are the four formless concentrations of emptiness. Samādhis here are not emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness; rather, they are the three samādhis of with vitarka and vicāra, etc.—namely, with vitarka and vicāra is the first dhyāna; without vitarka and with vicāra is the intermediate dhyāna; without vitarka and without vicāra is the second dhyāna and above. In these three samādhis, ordinary people undergo rebirth according to their dhyāna, which is not the case for bodhisattvas. As for the three contemplations of emptiness, signlessness, and so on, and the principle of the four truths, they are not dharmas of undergoing rebirth; hence they are not the same.