大乘起信論廣釋卷第三．四．五 5.2

5.2

[Treatise:] "The differentiation of setting forth... because it has the meaning of proceeding toward." / Commentary: Below is the third [section], on the characteristics of setting forth on the path. Within this there are two parts: first, indicating the intention and revealing the name; second, distinguishing them separately. This is the first. Here, one should first clarify the meaning of "path" (mārga), and only then reveal the characteristics of setting forth and so forth. What is called the "path" has four meanings: because of the meanings of being able to traverse, being traversed, being relied upon, and proceeding toward. Since this [subsumes] teaching, principle, practice, and fruition, all phenomena can be [called] "path" [...]. In these sūtras, different explanations are given according to suitability. Some [...] explain teaching as the path. As the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: "Expounding it for others is called the path." Because of hearing the Dharma, one severs doubt, understands, and attains bodhi. Although this is the general explanation, in distinguishing them separately: some say that the Mahāyāna teaching alone is called the path, because the sound of the Buddha's path causes all to understand, [whereas lower] teachings are all not definitive explanations, for not having departed from form and sound, one walks a heterodox path. Or, it broadly encompasses the teachings of the three vehicles as also being called the path: "I am like a guide who knows the path and explains the path," because for those seeking the three vehicles, he expounds the Dharma of the three vehicles. Or, spoken teachings of the Dharma are all called the path: all vocal sounds, the voice of the wheel of Dharma, subsume speech and letters and perform Buddha-works, maturing the wholesome roots of humans and devas; the bodhisattva also relies on non-Buddhist teachings. Or, some sacred teachings explain principle (yukti/tattva) as the path: everywhere they speak of the principle of the path and the principle of the path, precisely because this principle is the path itself. Having explained this generally, to distinguish them separately: some explain only the ultimate truth as the path, saying that by riding the true and real path one achieves correct awakening, because the intrinsically pure mind is called the truth of the path (mārgasatya). Or, it broadly encompasses both truths as both being called the path; hence the sūtras speak of four kinds of reasoning: reasoning of dependence, reasoning of function, reasoning of demonstration through evidence, and reasoning of natural law (dharmatā). These broadly apply to both kinds of principle, ultimate and conventional. Or, it broadly encompasses all phenomena as being capable of being called the path, saying that all phenomena are likewise suchness; the ten directions and three periods of time are a single granary of dust; the one is all, the all is one; harmonious and unhindered, all are identical to the real. For this reason, sūtras say that passion, anger, delusion, and so forth are all called the path, that the defiled phenomena of saṃsāra are themselves the path, and so forth; the bodhisattva broadly penetrates all principles in order to accomplish all-knowledge. Or, some sacred teachings explain practice as the path; hence it is said: "Diligently practice the path; you should seek escape; take heed against increasing negligence." Yet within this there are also distinctions: some say that only Mahāyāna practice is called the path, saying that walking the great path shows the insignificance of the small tracks, because only by practicing the bodhisattva path will one become a Buddha. Or, the practices of the three vehicles are broadly called the path: "What you practice is the bodhisattva path"; the thirty-seven factors of awakening and wholesome dharmas are broadly the paths practiced by the three vehicles; because the three vehicles also possess contaminated and uncontaminated, self-emptiness and dharma-emptiness, superior paths. Or, all practices are called the path, because the bodhisattva broadly carries out all practices, up to and including manifesting the practices of non-Buddhists in order to tame all sentient beings and prevent Māra from finding an opening in their agitation. Or, some sacred teachings explain fruition as the path. The Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra speaks of the name of the Buddha path, and also speaks of "shall accomplish the path of bodhi," and also speaks of "swiftly proceeding toward the path of nirvāṇa." Yet within this there are also distinctions: some say that only the Buddha-fruition is called the path, for there is only the Buddha-vehicle, without a second or third vehicle; riding this jeweled vehicle, one's path proceeds toward the bodhimaṇḍa, and having extinguished the conjured city, one heads toward the path of the jeweled resting place; therefore only the Buddha-fruition is called the path. Or, it broadly encompasses the fruitions of the three vehicles as all being called the path: all share this one wondrous Dharma, the pure path, all share this one ultimate purity; moreover, it speaks of "one path, one practice, one condition," and also speaks of the three vehicles sharing the same liberation, and so forth. Or, all fruitions are called the path: the Tathāgata's nirmāṇakāya pervades the six destinies, and the fruitions of the six destinies are all subsumed by the Buddha; cultivating the path of non-self, one accomplishes this fruition, because marks of physical and mental self-substance are not maintained; fully possessing the provisions of merit, one accomplishes this fruition, because marks of all bodies and minds are fully provided; if one maintained a single mark as one's own substance, the mark of self would not be extinguished and one could not be called a noble one; if one lacked a single mark of others, it could not be called the complete and perfect fruition; because it is fully endowed with the fruition of all bodies and minds, it is called ultimate, correct, and equal bodhi. Since it is said that the path has four kinds, which one is spoken of here? One position holds: Here it speaks of the path of Buddha-fruition, because it is the place of proceeding that is being differentiated; that is, the Buddha's qualities are the realized path, because they are what the nominal Buddha relies on and realizes, and they are the realm of the fruition-path toward which all bodhisattvas resolve and practice to proceed; since it is the place relied on, realized, and proceeded toward, only the Buddha-fruition is uniquely called the path. Another position holds: Here it also speaks of the path of principle, because the initially awakened Buddha-fruition is none other than original awakening; the true principle is that upon which the Buddha relies and realizes, because by realizing this principle one attains the Buddha-fruition; it is also the path toward which the bodhisattva proceeds, because the bodhisattva resolves to proceed toward the fundamental source; the new translation calls it the correct cause for attaining the path, and the correct cause is precisely the principle of tathatā; therefore here it also reveals the path of principle. Another position holds: Here it also reveals the path of practice, because one must depend on the cause of practice to realize the fruition of principle; the new translation calls it the correct path of cultivation, because practice is the characteristic of the correct path that is cultivated; moreover, it says that it is the correct cause for the Buddha to attain the path, so practice is also the correct cause of the path; it says that the bodhisattva cultivates to bring it to presence, meaning that the practice undertaken is called coming to presence; it says that when a person cultivates all wholesome practices, they naturally accord with the Dharma of tathatā; because the Buddha's realizing wisdom relies on practice to accomplish Buddhahood, it is said to be the path realized by all Buddhas, and it is also the place toward which the bodhisattva, through resolving and practicing, nominally proceeds; therefore practice is also called the path. Another position holds: Here teaching is also called the path, because it is also that which is able to proceed, that which is proceeded toward, and so forth; as the equal outflow from the true dharmadhātu, serving as the hearing-permeation that accomplishes the supramundane; its entire substance being the great activity of complete wisdom [...], capable of serving as the cause for bodhi; pervading all preceding phenomena without exception, it is also the path realized by the Buddha's wisdom; wishing to fully reveal the pure and secret voice, the bodhisattva initially generates the mind based upon this; therefore, including teaching is fully luminous in principle. Although these four interpretations are all viable in meaning, according to the preeminent sense, one takes only principle and fruition, because they are the deep and perfect path of reliance and destination. Relying on teaching, one generates practice in order to proceed toward this realized principle and the fruition attained, for principle and fruition are tathatā, and the three greatnesses are the primary purport of this treatise.