大乘起信論廣釋卷第三．四．五 3.5

3.5

Treatise: As bodhisattvas of the dharmakāya [...] it is called partial awakening. Commentary: This is the third characteristic of awakening. "Bodhisattvas of the dharmakāya" are the persons capable of awakening. At the first stage, one can realise the omnipresent tathatā, manifesting the stage wherein one's own dharmakāya is all-pervading; up through the tenth stage, all equally realise this, and therefore all are called bodhisattvas of the dharmakāya. In "awakening to the abiding of thoughts," this is the characteristic of what is awakened to. The four kinds of dreams of abiding arise from the sleep of avidyā. Having attained the true, markless cognition of the emptiness of dharmas, they awaken from the dream of abiding, so that the characteristic of abiding is forever gone; this is called "awakening to the abiding of thoughts, so that thoughts are without the characteristic of abiding." In "having departed from the coarse thoughts of discrimination," this is the benefit of awakening. That is, these dream thoughts of attachment to dharmas that are departed from are called the "characteristics of coarse thoughts of discrimination." Distinct from the previous coarse grasping to personal self, it is only called "discrimination"; distinct from the subsequent subtle thoughts of the characteristic of arising, it is called "coarse thoughts." Regarding a single attachment to dharmas, two terms are spoken according to meaning. In "it is called partial awakening," this is the scope of the awakening. Although they attain such non-discriminative awakening, they have not yet departed from micro-subtle discrimination, and must still slumber in the dream of the characteristic of arising, so the path of awakening is not yet complete; thus it is called "partial." Alternatively, at this stage one attains the cognition of true realization, abandoning both the mark of thought and the mark of thoughtlessness; this is called "awakening to the abiding of thoughts, so that thoughts are without the characteristic of abiding." Through this, one is able to abandon medium discrimination; this is called "departing from the coarse thoughts of discrimination." This is the "dhyāna that takes tathatā as object" spoken of in the sūtra. Thus the Laṅkāvatāra says: "If one discriminates that non-self has two kinds, this is false thinking; if one knows it as it truly is, those thoughts do not arise—this is called dhyāna that takes tathatā as object." The former explanation conforms to the old treatise and contradicts the new treatise; the latter explanation conforms to the sūtra and also accords well with the new treatise. Thus the new treatise says: "awakening that thoughts and thoughtlessness are both without marks, one abandons medium discrimination."