Patriarch's Teachings: Direct Interpretation
Chapter Seven: Explanations of Passages and Paragraphs from Buddhist Sūtras (Part Two)
Eleven: Mahāyāna Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Volume Three
Original text:佛言。大慧。我所说者。分别尔炎识灭名为涅盘。大慧言。世尊。岂不建立八种识耶。佛言建立。大慧言。若建立者。云何但说意识灭非七识灭。佛言。大慧。以彼为因及所缘故。七识得生。
大慧。意识分别境界起执著时。生诸习气长养藏识。由是意俱我我所执思量随转无别体相。藏识为因为所缘故。执著自心所现境界。心聚生起展转为因。大慧。譬如海浪自心所现。境界风吹而有起灭。是故意识灭时七识亦灭。
Explanation: The Buddha said: "Mahāmati, the nirvāṇa I speak of is when the six consciousnesses' mind, which can give rise to various discriminations and afflictions, ceases and no longer discriminates — that is nirvāṇa." Bodhisattva Mahāmati asked the World-Honored One: "Do not sentient beings have eight kinds of consciousness?" The Buddha said: "There are indeed eight kinds of consciousness." Mahāmati said: "Since there are eight kinds of consciousness, why do you say only that when the mind consciousness ceases, sentient beings attain nirvāṇa, and not that the cessation of the seven consciousnesses attains nirvāṇa?" The World-Honored One said: "Mahāmati, the seven consciousnesses can arise and operate only by taking the six consciousnesses' continuous discrimination and grasping as cause and as object condition."
When the six consciousnesses continuously discriminate the six sense objects and grasp them as real, they perfume the seventh consciousness, causing the seventh consciousness to form habitual tendencies; the seeds of these habitual tendencies are stored in the eighth consciousness, the Ālayavijñāna, perfuming the eighth consciousness and causing the karmic seeds within it to arise and cease. When a sentient being's five-aggregate body is born, the seventh consciousness, the manas, depending on the eighth consciousness, possesses innate grasping at self and grasping at what belongs to self; the manas's nature of constant, attentive deliberation then begins to operate — precisely because the six consciousnesses continuously discriminate and grasp and store seeds.
After the seeds of the six consciousnesses' operation are stored in the eighth consciousness, in future lives the eighth consciousness will output those seeds, manifesting the myriad dharmas of the three-realm world, and the seventh consciousness will continue to grasp these dharmas as self and as belonging to self. The seven consciousnesses take the eighth consciousness as cause and as condition, grasping the eighth consciousness's perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) as their own perceiving, and grasping the six sense-object realms produced by the eighth consciousness as their own possessions. Thus grasping at self and grasping at what belongs to self revolve around the eighth consciousness's perceiving-aspect and object-aspect (nimitta); the seven consciousnesses, the manas, thus operate ceaselessly without ceasing, and therefore nirvāṇa is not attained. The seven consciousnesses, the manas, are like the waves of the great ocean, arising as the wind of the realms manifested by the ocean blows. This means: when the eighth consciousness, this great ocean, manifests the six sense-object realms, the seven consciousnesses arise and operate following those realms; while the wind of sense objects does not cease — that is, while the six consciousnesses' discrimination and grasping do not cease — the ocean waves of the seven consciousnesses are unending. The World-Honored One said, therefore, if the six consciousnesses cease and no longer discriminate or grasp, the seven consciousnesses will no longer arise and operate; the seven consciousnesses also cease, and sentient beings attain nirvāṇa.
The meaning expressed in this passage of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is the same as the principle in the twelve links of dependent origination: "ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), volitional formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions name-and-form." Because sentient beings have ignorance in their minds, bodily, verbal, and mental actions are unceasing; because these actions are unceasing, the six consciousnesses are compelled to arise and operate; as the six consciousnesses arise continuously, their mental activities are stored as seeds of habitual tendencies in the eighth consciousness; the manas grasps the seeds in the eighth consciousness and brings them into manifestation. Thus the manas is unceasing, and name-and-form in future lives is unceasing, and sentient beings cannot attain nirvāṇa.
Twelve: Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra:佛说。所谓贪者。若取若舍。若触若味。系著外尘。堕二边见。复生苦阴。生老病死忧悲苦恼。如是诸患皆从爱起。斯由习近世论。及世论者。我及诸佛。说名为贪。是名摄受贪欲不摄受法。
Explanation: The Buddha said, what is so-called greed? Toward worldly dharmas, there may be a mind of grasping, or a mind of aversion, or one goes to touch them, or immerses oneself in them; the mind is drawn by external sense objects and falls into the wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) of the two extremes of annihilation and permanence — either holding that all dharmas perish forever in later lives and never arise again, or holding that all dharmas exist eternally without perishing. These are all manifestations of craving. With such craving, one falls into the aggregate of suffering feeling, and birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa) become unavoidable. All these faults of birth and death are entirely caused by craving.
The habit of craving arises from perfuming oneself with worldly treatises and associating closely with those who engage in worldly discourse, thereby giving rise to craving for worldly dharmas. The World-Honored One and all Buddhas uniformly name the dharmas perfumed by one's own mind as "greed." The Buddha said such perfuming is taking in craving desire, not taking in the Dharma. Here "taking in" means the mind has admitted and accepted craving. Craving and the Dharma run in opposite directions: craving is worldly, the Dharma is supramundane; the two are like the two ends of a balance scale — when one goes down, the other goes up at the same time.
Original text:大慧。云何摄受法。谓善觉知自心现量。见人无我。及法无我相。妄想不生。善知上上地。离心意意识。一切诸佛智慧灌顶。具足摄受十无尽句。于一切法无开发自在。是名为法。所谓不堕一切见。一切虚伪。一切妄想。一切性。一切二边。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Mahāmati, what is taking in the Dharma? It is being able to skillfully perceive that all the dharmas one knows and contacts are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha of one's own mind (sva-citta-pratyakṣa), manifested through the conjunction of the three transformative consciousnesses (parināma), born from the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, in dependence on conditions, and not truly existent. The eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, is the first consciousness capable of giving birth to dharmas; the seventh consciousness is the second consciousness capable of prompting dharmas to arise and manifest; the six consciousnesses are the third consciousness capable of guiding and manifesting dharmas. When the three conjoin, all dharmas come into operation.
When contacting all dharmas, one should clearly perceive that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and eighteen realms are the no-self of persons, and perceive that all dharma-marks are without self, without true existence; they are all produced dharmas, all impermanent, unreliable dharmas of arising, ceasing, and change. Having realized the no-self of persons and the no-self of dharmas, there are no more deluded thoughts; the minds of signlessness, non-action, and wishlessness arise; one no longer has any notions about all dharmas, the mind no longer depends on these dharmas, no longer stirs thoughts toward them, no longer gives rise to grasping (upādāna), and no longer gives rise to concepts of wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, right and wrong, beneficial and harmful, and so on.
Having realized the no-self of dharmas and possessing the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, having become a bodhisattva on the bhūmis, one must skillfully know the features of higher-ground bodhisattvas and the dharmas they should cultivate; one's own mind does not grasp true suchness, the manas, and the six consciousnesses, and grasps none of all dharmas. All Buddhas will bestow wisdom empowerment upon such a bodhisattva; the mind fully takes in the ten inexhaustible statements, giving rise to the ten pure great vows of a ground-attained bodhisattva. Toward all dharmas there are no more deluded thoughts, no longer thinking "I can do such and such," knowing that all dharmas, born of causes and conditions, lack self-mastery (avaśatā). From then on one will never again fall into any views, not fall into any false marks, not fall into any deluded thoughts, not fall into any dharma-natures, and not fall into the two extremes of existence and non-existence and so on.
Thirteen: Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra:佛告大慧。如来之藏。是善不善因。能遍兴造一切趣生。譬如伎儿。变现诸趣。离我我所。不觉彼故。三缘和合。方便而生。外道不觉。计著作者。为无始虚伪恶习所薰。名为识藏。生无明住地。与七识俱。如海浪身。常生不断。离无常过。离于我论。自性无垢。毕竟清净。
Explanation: This passage discusses the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The Buddha said the tathāgatagarbha is the cause of all wholesome and unwholesome dharmas; only because there is the tathāgatagarbha can there be all wholesome and unwholesome dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha can transform and create the life-bodies of all beings in the six realms, like a skilled performer who can manifest all six-realm realms. Moreover, it does not take the dharmas it creates as self or as belonging to self; it is not aware of a self, nor aware of what these dharmas are. This is the no-self nature of the tathāgatagarbha, utterly different from the self-nature of the seven consciousnesses, whose self-nature is extremely strong.
All dharmas are born from the conjunction of the tathāgatagarbha, karmic seeds, and the manas's deluded thinking; they arise expediently when causes and conditions converge. The non-Buddhists cannot awaken to the inner cause here, and hold that these phenomena must have a creator, such as Maheśvara, God, and so on, not awakening at all to the marvel of the tathāgatagarbha. Since beginningless kalpas, the tathāgatagarbha has been perfumed by sentient beings' beginningless false and deluded evil habits, storing immeasurable seeds of wrong views and the evil habit of grasping all dharmas as truly existent; therefore the tathāgatagarbha is also called the "consciousness treasury" that stores seeds.
Because the tathāgatagarbha stores these seeds of sentient beings' ignorance and evil karma, it gives birth to sentient beings' ground of ignorance, the worldly dharmas of the three realms, the five aggregates and eighteen realms. After giving birth to these dharmas, it is at every moment together with the seven consciousnesses, jointly and in conjunction operating, transforming, generating, and upholding these dharmas. Like the great ocean that gives birth to waves, it constantly gives birth to waves without interruption. The tathāgatagarbha constantly gives birth to all dharmas, yet itself has no fault of impermanence and no self-nature. Its own nature has no ignorance, afflictions, or defilements; its mind-nature is ultimately pure, absolutely pure.
Fourteen: Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra:其余诸识。有生有灭意意识等。念念有七。因不实妄想。取诸境界。种种形处。计著名相。不觉自心所现色相。不觉苦乐。不至解脱。名相诸缠。贪生生贪。
Explanation: Apart from the tathāgatagarbha, the self-nature pure mind, all the rest are minds subject to arising and ceasing — the manas, the mind consciousness, and so on. Sentient beings' every thought displays the arising-ceasing, changing, impermanent nature of the seven consciousnesses' mind. Because they do not know the true reality of the dharma realm, they give rise to superficial deluded thoughts, grasp realms as real, grasp the various forms and appearances of the six sense objects, and then attach names and signs to them. They do not know that all these realms and appearances are false appearances manifested by the self-nature pure mind. Because of this ignorance, they do not awaken to the suffering and pleasure brought by engaging with objects; with suffering and pleasure there is no liberation. Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have been bound by worldly names and signs, giving rise to all kinds of craving afflictions.
In the past, when patriarchs transmitted the Dharma and certified disciples' enlightenment, they used the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra as the standard to seal the mind; by the time of the Sixth Patriarch, it was changed to the Diamond Sutra. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra contains certification standards for eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and realizing from the first fruit to the fourth fruit; Hīnayāna practice can also be verified with the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.
Fifteen: Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra:大慧。此如来藏识藏。一切声闻缘觉。心想所见。虽自性清净。客尘所覆故。犹见不净。非诸如来。大慧。如来者。现前境界。犹如掌中。视阿摩勒果。
Explanation: Here it says that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, regarding the tathāgatagarbha, can only think about it; in their minds they conjecture that there is a tathāgatagarbha which is the self-nature pure mind, the true self. They merely have this view and opinion, and cannot truly realize it; only bodhisattvas who have made the great resolve can realize it — it is not guessing or conjecture. Although śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas know there is a self-nature pure mind, they are still obscured and covered by beginningless adventitious defilements and cannot see Him; therefore their views are still insufficient. Although they have already realized the purity of the Hīnayāna dharma eye, they have not yet given rise to the dharma eye regarding the tathāgatagarbha dharma, and their views are still not pure. Therefore śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot realize the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha; if they could realize it, they would be arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, and their lineage would have changed.
The Buddhas and Tathāgatas are not like this. For the Buddhas and Tathāgatas, when all dharmas manifest, they are directly present realms, all observed by direct perception, without imagination or thinking, much less conjecture — entirely a realm of direct perception; when a realm arrives before them, they know it immediately, as clear, transparent, limpid, and truly pure as viewing an āmalaka fruit in the palm of one's own hand.
Sixteen: Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Volume Two:尔时大慧菩萨摩诃萨。复白佛言。世尊。惟愿为说。离一异俱不俱。有无非有非无。常无常。一切外道所不行。自觉圣智所行。离妄想自相共相。入于第一真实之义。诸地相续渐次。上上增进清净之相。随入如来地相。无开发本愿。
譬如众色摩尼境界。无边相行。自心现趣部分之相。一切诸法。我及余菩萨摩诃萨。离如是等妄想自性。自共相见。疾得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。
Explanation: Bodhisattva Mahāmati requested the World-Honored One to expound the ultimate truth. After bodhisattvas understand the ultimate truth, they can advance from ground to ground, enter the Tathāgata ground, and become the perfectly accomplished Buddha, the World-Honored One. This ultimate truth is apart from oneness and difference, apart from together and not-together, apart from existence and non-existence as well as neither existence nor non-existence, apart from permanence and impermanence. The wisdom realm of this ultimate truth is not known by any non-Buddhists, and none of them can realize it; only the noble ones who have already awakened and attained the bhūmis can realize it.
The noble ones can be apart from the self-mark and common mark possessed by the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, and realize and enter the true profound principle, that is, the ultimate truth. Then, beginning from the first ground, they advance from ground to ground, the mind-ground becoming ever purer; when ignorance is fully severed and the seven consciousnesses' mind is thoroughly purified, they enter the Tathāgata ground and become the perfectly accomplished Buddha.
This ultimate truth is like a maṇi jewel that can manifest immeasurable, boundless radiance and immeasurable, boundless conditioned dharma-marks — the marks of part of the phenomenal realm manifested by one's own mind, and the marks of all dharmas. Bodhisattva Mahāmati said: I and the other bodhisattva-mahāsattvas can all be apart from these false appearances manifested by the ultimate truth due to the deluded thoughts of the seven consciousnesses' mind, apart from the self-marks and common marks of these false appearances, seeing only the mark of the ultimate truth; thus one can swiftly attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.
Among these, "oneness and difference" refers to the relationship between the ultimate truth and all dharmas: it is one and at the same time not one — neither one nor different. "Together and not-together" refers to the relationship between the ultimate truth and all dharmas: being together and at the same time not together — neither together nor not-together. "Existence and non-existence, neither existence nor non-existence" refers to the existence-nature and non-existence-nature of the ultimate truth: neither existent nor non-existent in nature, both having and not having a nature. "Permanence and impermanence" refers to the permanent and impermanent nature of the ultimate truth: both permanent and impermanent, and neither permanent nor impermanent.
The self-marks and common marks of deluded thoughts include the material-form part and the mental part produced by the ultimate truth. Dharmas include material dharmas and mental dharmas, true dharmas and false dharmas. Material dharmas have the self-marks and common marks of material dharmas; mental dharmas have the self-marks and common marks of mental dharmas; false dharmas have the self-marks and common marks of false dharmas. True dharmas have the mark of their own essence and no common mark.
Seventeen: The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra's Proof that the Manas Eradicates the View of the Body and the View of Self
Original text:佛告大慧。有三种须陀洹。须陀洹果差别。云何为三。谓下中上。下者极七有生。中者三五有生而般涅槃。上者即彼生而般涅槃。此三种有三结。下中上。云何三结。谓身见、疑、戒取。是三结差别。上上升进。得阿罗汉。
Explanation: The Buddha told Bodhisattva Mahāmati: There are three kinds of srotāpanna, differentiated in terms of fruit. What are the three? Lower, middle, and upper. The lower-grade srotāpanna, after at most seven more births alternating between humans and gods, attains parinirvāṇa; the middle-grade srotāpanna attains parinirvāṇa after three to five more births; the upper-grade srotāpanna attains parinirvāṇa in that very life. The fetters severed by these three kinds of srotāpanna are of three kinds, divided into lower, middle, and upper: the fetters of the view of the body, doubt, and clinging to precepts and rites. As these three fetters are progressively advanced and severed ever more thoroughly, the fruit of the arhat is attained.
Those who eradicate the view of self and realize the fruit of srotāpanna must all sever the three fetters. Because the degree of severing the fetters differs, the grade of the srotāpanna differs, and the time until parinirvāṇa differs. Now, are these three fetters severed by the mind consciousness or by the manas? Are the fetters of the mind consciousness severed, or the fetters of the manas severed? Judging from the case of the upper-grade srotāpanna, who can become an arhat in that very life and then attain parinirvāṇa, it must be that the manas's fetters were severed; of course the mind consciousness's fetters were also severed. The fetters of both consciousnesses must be fully severed for the view of self to be fully eradicated, for afflictions such as grasping at self to be fully severed, and for one to attain parinirvāṇa and liberation.
The differing severity of each person's afflictive fetters of the mind consciousness and manas leads to differing severity of the view of self; moreover, each person's depth of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the five aggregates also differs. Thus the degree to which the three fetters are severed when eradicating the view of self differs, the liberation wisdom obtained differs, the grade differs, and the length of time to liberation from the three realms differs. Liberation is of course the liberation of the manas; birth and death are caused by the manas's one thought of ignorance. Severing the fetters requires not only severing those of the mind consciousness but even more those of the manas; when the manas's fetters are fully severed, the view of self is fully eradicated and grasping at self is fully severed, and it will no longer dominate the cycle of birth and death.
Original text:大慧。身见有二种。谓俱生及妄想。如缘起妄想。自性妄想。
Explanation: In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra the Buddha said the view of the body has two kinds. One is the innate view of the body — the view of the body that comes with the five aggregates at birth, which is the manas's view of the body, and this must be severed. The other is the imagined view of the body. "Imagined" means false, unreal, not true; "thought" means discriminating and grasping as marks, grasping as real, grasping as self and as belonging to self. Therefore when imagining there is also the view of the body, and the imagined view of the body also must be severed.
There are many kinds of imagined thoughts, such as the imagined thought of dependent origination: not viewing the dharmas born of various causes and conditions realistically, falsely grasping these dependently originated dharmas as self and as belonging to self, not knowing that these dharmas are all born of causes and conditions, all false, impermanent, arising and ceasing, changing, and suffering — not self and not belonging to self. The imagined thought of dependent origination includes not only the mind consciousness's imagining but even more the manas's imagining; the imaginings of both must be severed, no longer imagining that dependently originated dharmas are self and belonging to self — they fundamentally are not.
The imagined thought of self-nature: holding that all dharmas have their own self-nature, are truly real, can be relied upon, can be depended upon, and thus grasping them as self and as belonging to self. In this imagining there is both the mind consciousness's imagining and even more the manas's imagining; the imaginings of both must be severed for one to be one who has eradicated the view of self. Among the various imaginings, the manas's imagining is primary and the mind consciousness's imagining auxiliary.
Original text:譬如依缘起自性。种种妄想自性计著生。以彼非有、非无、非有无。无实妄想相故。愚夫妄想。种种妄想。自性相计著。如热时焰。鹿渴水想。是须陀洹妄想身见。彼以人无我。摄受无性。断除久远无知计著。
Explanation: For example, depending on the self-nature of dependent origination, after grasping that dependently originated dharmas have self-nature, various imaginings arise, universally measuring and grasping dependently originated dharmas, imagining that dependently originated dharmas are non-existent or non-nonexistent, neither existent nor non-existent, both existent and non-existent. Because these ideas are all unreal imagined illusions, they are the imaginings of foolish ordinary beings. Foolish ordinary beings give rise to various imaginings about dependently originated dharmas, grasping that dependently originated dharmas have the reality of self-substance, grasping all the appearances of dependently originated dharmas as real, as self and as belonging to self.
It is like the illusory mirage-water appearing on the beach in hot weather, which a thirsty deer imagines to be real drinkable water. Ordinary beings, like the thirsty deer, take the unreal, illusory five-aggregate body as the real self and as belonging to self, and grasp it ceaselessly — craving birth and giving rise to craving from birth. The srotāpanna who has severed the view of self, regarding this imagined view of the body, realistically contemplates that the five-aggregate body has no self or belonging-to-self, realistically knows the five-aggregate body has no self-substance, and severs his own beginningless ignorant grasping nature toward the five-aggregate body.
The above imagined view of the body still takes the manas's view of the body as primary and the mind consciousness's view of the body as auxiliary, because the text repeatedly speaks of "various imaginings of grasping self-nature," "grasping the marks of self-nature," and "beginningless ignorant grasping." These all refer to the manas's imagined view of the body; from the manas's imagined view of the body arises the mind consciousness's imagined view of the body. The mind consciousness's imagined view of the body is not long-lasting — only one lifetime — and then ceases. The manas does not cease, causing the next life's mind consciousness to again give rise to the imagined view of the body. Therefore, if practice does not properly deal with the deep-rooted problem of the manas, what is cultivated is merely superficial; it will arise again, and the effort is cast away in vain.
Severing the view of the body divides into severing the mind consciousness's view of the body and the manas's view of the body; then, severing the view of self of the consciousness-mind must all the more divide into severing the mind consciousness's view of self and the manas's view of self.
Original text:大慧。俱生者。须陀洹身见。自他身等。四阴无色相故。色生。造及所造故。展转相因相故。大种及色不集故。须陀洹观有无品不现。身见则断。如是身见断。贪则不生。是名身见相。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Mahāmati, the so-called innate view of the body is the view of the body to be severed by the srotāpanna, observing one's own body and others' bodies and so on. Among these, the four aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness have no form-mark and are not the form body; the form body has form-marks. When form-marks are born, the form body is formed, created by the seeds of the four great elements; the form-marks are the marks of the successive production of the form body, the causal marks forming the form body. The seeds of the four great elements cease immediately after arising and cannot accumulate to form form-marks, and the form-marks cannot accumulate into a form body. Therefore, when the srotāpanna contemplates the form body, he realizes the form body is neither existent nor non-existent, neither existent-nor-nonexistent, and thus the view of the body is severed.
The form body is composed of various material forms; the various material forms are the various form-marks. The various form-marks are composed of the particles of the four great elements, and the particles of the four great elements are composed of the seeds of the four great elements. The former speaks of the surface appearance; the latter speaks of the substance and fact. On the surface, the form body's mark seems to exist, to function, to be real; in fact there is no real form-body mark — it is illusory, empty, false. For example, a person who is dizzy sees black dots flying and dancing wildly before his eyes, when in fact there are no black dots — he sees wrongly. One cannot say the black dots exist or do not exist, cannot say the black dots neither exist nor not exist. The form body's mark is also like this: one cannot speak of the form body's existence or non-existence, nor of neither existence nor non-existence, nor of neither non-existence nor non-nonexistence. All dharmas are apart from the four propositions and cut off from the hundred negations.
Having severed the view of the body in this way, craving does not arise. What was said above is the true mark of the view of the body: neither existent nor non-existent, and also not existent-and-nonexistent. "Existent": the mark is visible; "not existent": the mark is empty, disintegrating, arising and ceasing. "Non-existent": the four great elements do not accumulate, so the mark does not accumulate; "not non-existent": the mark is visible. "Neither existent nor non-existent": it is not existence and not non-existence; existence and non-existence mutually contain; there is a false function, and even the function is not real.
Original text:大慧。疑相者。谓得法善见相故。及先二种身见妄想断故。疑法不生。不于余处起大师见。为净不净。是名疑相。须陀洹断。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Mahāmati, the mental mark of doubt is the mental mark of having gained realistic knowledge and vision of the Dharma, skillfully knowing the features of dharmas, skillfully knowing whether a dharma accords with principle or not; and because the deluded imaginings of the aforementioned innate view of the body and imagined view of the body have been severed, doubt about the Dharma no longer arises in the mind, no longer doubting whether the Dharma accords with principle or not. Because doubt has been severed in the mind, one no longer seeks evidence elsewhere to prove whether one's views are pure or impure, whether one has attained the purity of the dharma eye or not. Having such wavering doubt is the mark of doubt; the first-fruit srotāpanna has already severed the mark of doubt.
"Elsewhere" refers to the places of the non-Buddhists' wrong views of existence and non-existence. After the srotāpanna severs the view of the body and the view of doubt, he no longer takes the non-Buddhists' wrong views of existence and non-existence as his standard; whether those dharmas are pure or not, his own mind is very clear.
Original text:大慧。戒取者云何。须陀洹不取戒。谓善见受生处苦相故。是故不取。大慧。取者谓愚夫。决定受习苦行。为众具乐。故求受生。彼则不取。除回向自觉胜。离妄想。无漏法相行方便。受持戒支。是名须陀洹取戒相断。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Mahāmati, what does clinging to precepts and rites mean? The srotāpanna does not take up non-precepts, does not hold precepts that cannot bring liberation. Because the srotāpanna skillfully observes the marks of the suffering retribution and suffering fruits of holding precepts that do not accord with principle — which cannot liberate from birth and death — he therefore does not take up non-precepts and does not hold precepts that do not accord with principle. Mahāmati, those who grasp non-precepts not prescribed by the Buddha are foolish ordinary beings; they will certainly accept ascetic practices and perform them, aiming to obtain the various pleasures of the world, and so will undergo rebirth again. The srotāpanna will not grasp non-precepts — except when turning his mind toward the path to buddhahood, having already departed from deluded views, having severed afflictions in the mind-ground and reached the untainted, and, in order to expediently gather in sentient beings, he may expediently manifest holding the non-precepts of non-Buddhists in accordance with conditions. This shows the srotāpanna has severed clinging to precepts and rites.
Original text:须陀洹断三结。贪痴不生。若须陀洹作是念。此诸结我不成就者。应有二过。堕身见。及诸结不断。大慧白佛言。世尊。世尊说众多贪欲。彼何者贪断。佛告大慧。爱乐女人。缠绵贪著种种方便。身口恶业。受现在乐。种未来苦。彼则不生。所以者何。得三昧正受乐故。是故彼断。非趣涅槃贪断。
Explanation: The Buddha said the srotāpanna has severed the three fetters, and craving and delusion do not arise. If the srotāpanna has this thought: "If I do not accomplish the severing of these fetters, there will be two faults: falling into the view of the body and the non-severing of the various fetters." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, you have said sentient beings have many cravings; which craving has he severed? The Buddha told Mahāmati: the craving for and delight in women, entangled and attached to women, using various means and methods to commit evil bodily actions and evil verbal actions, enjoying present pleasure and planting future suffering. This craving the srotāpanna has severed and it no longer arises. Why is this so? Because he has attained the bliss of meditative absorption (samādhi) and proper reception. Therefore that craving is severed — but not the severing of the craving that inclines toward the bliss of nirvāṇa.
This says that in the srotāpanna a certain craving does not arise, not that all craving does not arise; that all craving does not arise is the third-fruit person. The first fruit has severed the three fetters including the view of the body, and the entangled craving for the opposite sex does not arise, because of the bliss of meditative absorption. The so-called bliss of meditative absorption is the meditative experience and clarity phenomenon at the time of realizing the first fruit. Therefore realizing the first fruit requires meditative concentration, preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi); then, when realizing the first fruit, there is the realm of samādhi, including meditative concentration and the wisdom of eradicating the view of self.
Therefore, some people say that realizing the first fruit does not require meditative concentration — this contradicts the Buddha's intent. Whoever believes he has eradicated the view of self and realized the first fruit, if at the time of realizing the fruit there was no phenomenon of the bliss of meditative absorption, has certainly not eradicated the view of self. If after realizing the fruit the afflictions remain as before, he has certainly not eradicated the view of self, has certainly not severed the three fetters. Then he must take responsibility for himself and for the future-life retribution, and again cultivate concentration, contemplative practice, and investigate the dharma of the non-self of the five aggregates. The Buddha has already said very clearly: after the first fruit severs the three fetters, a portion of craving and delusion must be severed, and afflictions are somewhat subdued. The first-fruit person begins to have purity of the dharma eye; there must be the merit and benefit of purity of the dharma eye, and there must be a portion of the merit and benefit of liberation. If there is not, there has certainly been no eradication of the view of self, certainly no realization of the fruit.
In the Sahā world, especially now in the Dharma-ending age more than two thousand years after the Buddha, the phenomenon of sages filling the streets will absolutely not appear; even when Śākyamuni Buddha was in the world, the phenomenon of sages filling the streets did not appear. The evil world of the five turbidities is, after all, called the evil world of the five turbidities; it differs greatly from other worlds, and differs greatly even from the era when Maitreya Buddha appears in the world. Sages filling the world is purely wishful thinking — one may not even see it in a dream.
Whoever considers himself to have eradicated the view of self and seen the mind, yet still has improper male-female relations, has certainly not severed the view of self and the three fetters, and has certainly not seen the mind. In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra the Buddha said: because of the bliss of meditative absorption, one does not receive the pleasures of male and female. How could one who has severed the three fetters still be entangled in foolish, lingering male-female love? That shows one does not have the bliss of meditative absorption; with the bliss of meditative absorption one would reject the pleasure of male-female relations and no longer like it, because the bliss of meditative absorption is far superior to the pleasure of male-female relations. No one would choose the lowest pleasure and abandon the superior pleasure; ordinary people would not do this.
