唯識三十論要釋 1.2

1.2

As for the 'occasions' (pratyaya), there are moreover two kinds: first, explaining the composition of the treatise; second, presenting its transmission and translation. Although the teaching gates by which the Buddha, the Bhagavat, compassionately guided sentient beings are manifold, their essentials have four [approaches]: conditioned arising (pratītyasamutpāda), vijñapti-mātra, signlessness (animitta), and tathatā. These were spoken individually in various sūtras according to what was suitable to faculties. For the other three doctrinal gates there were already extensive treatises, but the profound intention of vijñapti-mātra had not yet been elucidated. Nine hundred years after the Buddha's nirvāṇa, the Bodhisattva Asaṅga attended upon the Great Compassionate Honoured One, Maitreya, and requested the exposition of such treatises as the Yogācārabhūmi and Madhyāntavibhāga. He himself composed such treatises as the Prakaraṇāryavācā and Abhidharmasamuccaya to elucidate the principle of vijñapti-mātra, yet it was not yet fully perfected and clear. Therefore our Bodhisattva of Ever-Increasing Radiance, Vasubandhu, subsequently composed two treatises to open and clarify the Single Vehicle. The first treatise is named Viṃśatikā-vijñaptimātratā; it illuminates the principle of vijñapti-mātra, broadly refutes heterodox doctrines, and briefly sets forth his own tenet. The second treatise is named the Triṃśikā; using thirty verses, it illuminates the principle of vijñapti-mātra, briefly refutes heterodox doctrines, and broadly sets forth his own tenet. Before he could compose a commentary, he was reborn in the Tuṣita Heaven. Afterwards, Dharmapāla and ten other great treatise masters profoundly attained the ultimate of the inner tenets and thoroughly penetrated the external treatises. Their knowledge and vision were ever broader, and the benefit and happiness [they brought] were immensely vast. In their time, people praised their virtue and thereupon called them bodhisattvas. Each composed a commentary to explain and proclaim the verses. Although their true teachings circulated together in the world, the repository of the Way was preserved in the Western Regions and had not yet spread to the Eastern Florescence. In our Tang dynasty, during the Zhenguan era, there was the Great Tripiṭaka Master of Complete Enlightenment, whose name was Xuanzang. Having left household life in his youth, his aspiration soared beyond the world. Without regard to distance he sought teachers, and his learning encompassed both the inner and outer [texts]. Having thoroughly investigated the Dharma principles of the Central Lands, he wished to seek and investigate the traces of the teachings in other regions. He then shook out his robes to leave the Eastern Florescence, leaning on his staff toward the Western Heavens. Traveling throughout the realms of the Way, he extensively sought out sūtras and authoritative texts, plumbing the erroneous views of former sages and penetrating what ancient worthies had not yet heard. His name established and his purpose accomplished, he returned to his native land. The late emperor of our Tang invited him to be the Preceptor of the State. Although he extensively translated the true sūtras and broadly rendered the correct treatises, regarding the profound meaning of vijñapti-mātra, he kept it secret as the jewel in the topknot; because transmission was not to just any person, he did not immediately translate and impart it. He solely instructed Ci'en in this purport alone. First, in the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, he translated these root verses at Ci'en Monastery. Later, at the end of the Xianqing era, at Yuhua Palace Monastery in Fangzhou, he then translated the commentary. When first translated, the ten commentaries were circulated separately. Later, following a request, they were blended into a single work, encompassing terms and marks, and incorporating the heterodox and the orthodox. Now, taking the correct meanings, [we] interpret the verses. The explanation of the treatise's occasions is concluded.