大乘起信論廣釋卷第三．四．五 4.100

4.100

[Treatise:] From newly resolved bodhisattvas up to the stage of the dharmakāya... [Commentary:] Below, the saṃbhogakāya is revealed. Herein there are two [parts]: first, explaining what is seen before the bhūmis; second, revealing what is seen on the bhūmis. This is the first. Previously, it was explained that the saṃbhogakāya extends across both before and after the bhūmis; now, distinguishing inference from direct realization, the saṃbhogakāya is clarified again. This passage reveals what is seen before the bhūmis. In the text there are two clauses. First, it directly clarifies what is seen. Relying on the gate of inferential contemplation, they see the principle of tathatā; this is resembling awakening, termed "partial seeing." Because it differs from the preceding ten faiths, it is called "deep"; because it differs from the subsequent true realization, it is only called "faith." As for "knowing that..." and so forth, this reveals the characteristics of partial seeing. Because they see tathatā, differing from ordinary beings and followers of the Two Vehicles, they know that the Buddha's bodies and lands have no coming or going, and so forth. "Exclusively appearing reliant upon the mind" explains that because there is no coming or going in the deluded mind, there is coming yet nowhere come from, and because it proceeds from deluded confusion, there is no cognition and nowhere gone to. "Not separate from tathatā" explains being free from boundaries: since those physical marks are not separate from the true, they are all equal to tathatā and without boundaries. This describes the saṃbhogakāya seen before the bhūmis. When the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and other texts state that it is seen on the bhūmis, they speak in terms of the stage of fruition where one personally realizes tathatā on the bhūmis and attains concord with realization. Here, it speaks in terms of the partial seeing concordant with inferential contemplation, seeing the true partially before the bhūmis. Since it is not true seeing, there is no contradiction with those texts. It merely differs from ordinary beings and followers of the Two Vehicles who grasp at a Buddha outside the mind; thus it reveals seeing partially in terms of mind-only. However, that these bodhisattvas still have conceptual discrimination is precisely to distinguish them from the bodhisattvas on the bhūmis: because they attain deep understanding by relying on contemplation but have not yet realized the true, they have conceptual discrimination.