梵網經述記卷第一 1.48

1.48

Sūtra: "This bodhisattva..." down to: "expediently rescuing and protecting." / Commentary: Third, encouraging the cultivation of the antidotes, which has three minds: first, the mind of kindness and compassion; second, the mind of filial compliance; third, the mind of expedient rescue and protection. As for the mind of kindness and compassion, as stated in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra: for the sake of each and every sentient being, one is burned and boiled in the Avīci Hell for immeasurable kalpas, with a mind as pure as the supreme. Furthermore, the nineteenth fascicle of the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'One should contemplate that none can escape old age, sickness, and death; one should arouse a mind of kindness and compassion. How could one inflict harm upon beings?' As for the mind of filial compliance, it means honoring those above and complying with those below to transform sentient beings. 'Honoring those above' means respectfully making offerings to sentient beings who possess virtue or kindness. 'Complying with those below' means following the various capacities and temperaments of those to be transformed so as to benefit them. 'Expedient rescue and protection' means rescuing and protecting sentient beings through the expedients of the four means of embrace and the four immeasurables. As the ninth fascicle of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra says: 'Just as a person has an only son who has virtue, giving rise to supreme love, the bodhisattva arouses toward all beings a sublime state surpassing that.' (Kindness and compassion are the sublime state.) Furthermore, its twelfth fascicle says: 'The bodhisattva acts toward sentient beings like a mother toward her child, performing five kinds of benefit: first, conceiving in the womb; second, giving birth; third, nurturing; fourth, preventing harm; fifth, teaching speech. The bodhisattva is also like this: first, turning an equal mind toward sentient beings; second, giving birth to them on the noble ground; third, nurturing all roots of goodness; fourth, guarding against all evil actions; fifth, teaching them through much learning. Furthermore, he is like a father to his child in five kinds of benefit: first, planting the seed; second, teaching arts and crafts; third, taking a wife for him; fourth, entrusting him to good friends; fifth, settling debts so that there is no future repayment. The bodhisattva is also like this: first, causing faith to arise as the seed of the noble nature; second, causing them to train in the higher precepts and concentration as arts and crafts; third, causing them to attain the joy of liberation as taking a wife; fourth, causing them to request the Buddhas as good friends; fifth, stopping all hindrances as settling debts. Furthermore, he is like a companion who performs five kinds of benefit for oneself: first, giving joy; second, giving benefit; third, constantly giving joy; fourth, constantly giving benefit; fifth, never parting. The bodhisattva is also like this. Furthermore, he is like an able servant performing five kinds of benefit for his master: first, doing all that must be done to the utmost; second, achieving non-deception; third, enduring all beatings and scoldings; fourth, doing work skillfully and well; fifth, having skillful expedients. The bodhisattva is also like this: first, bringing sentient beings to maturity; second, revealing the essential path of departure; third, enduring all evil deeds; fourth, giving worldly joy; fifth, giving supramundane benefit', and so on in full detail. What is meant here is that looking down upon the lower class resembles the kindness of parents; complying upwards with the superior resembles an able servant; and toward those of the same class, one displays the appearance of a companion. This is how the bodhisattva, through filial compliance, expediently rescues and protects sentient beings. Because he can rescue and protect sentient beings who have no protection, it is called 'rescue and protect'. 'Having no protection' means being solitary and destitute. As the fifth fascicle of the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā says: 'Herein, "those without protection" are so because they are solitary and destitute.' The solitary, destitute, and unprotected have nine metaphors: first, being constantly impoverished, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; second, the fire of the three poisons blazing unceasingly, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; third, being imprisoned in the firm jail of the three realms of existence, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; fourth, bound to be covered by the dense thickets of afflictions, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; fifth, lacking the power of correct contemplation, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; sixth, being far removed from virtuous dharmas with no joy in mind, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; seventh, losing the wonderful Dharma of the Buddhas, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; eighth, constantly drifting with the worldly current, solitary, destitute, and unprotected; ninth, losing the expedients of nirvāṇa, solitary, destitute, and unprotected. It is explained in full detail as in that text: the bodhisattva can rescue these nine kinds of unprotected sentient beings; hence it is called 'expediently rescuing and protecting'. As for the expedients of the four means of embrace, they are giving, affectionate speech, beneficial conduct, and shared activity, as explained in the Bodhisattvabhūmi of the Yogācārabhūmi.