英語訳
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moistening the withered sentient beings of Jambudvīpa, constantly turning the dharma wheel of the four truths and emptiness of persons, crushing the twenty kinds of satkāya-dṛṣṭi (view of self-existence) and the great mountain of pride, and after purifying the mental defilements of the five aggregates, entering profound samādhi to secretly turn the Mahāyāna great emptiness Tathāgata-garbha esoteric dharma wheel, breaking the ground of ignorance and exhausting the two kinds of birth and death. This is the wonderful technique of gradually entering the secret treasury in the single transformation [teaching] of Jambudvīpa. The trace teaching of the Lotus Sutra and the first part of the Nirvana Sutra once demonstrate this secret method, which should be carefully observed.
The so-called manifest dharma wheel relies on the four noble truths to establish the three training grounds as the practice for entering principle. As the natural outflow of the Tathāgata's powers, fearlessness, and great compassion, it teaches the three dharma treasuries and explicates the three training grounds - namely sūtra, vinaya, and abhidharma. Sūtra is the path that discusses the training of superior mind; vinaya is the path that discusses the training of superior morality; abhidharma is the path that discusses the training of superior wisdom. Morality prohibits the evil transgressions of body and speech; concentration pacifies the mind's distraction; wisdom illuminates the mind's darkness. Also, morality can control and stop the karma arising from delusion; concentration can subdue delusion; wisdom can cut off delusion. Therefore the treatises say: "Morality is like catching a thief, concentration binds him, wisdom kills him." It should be known that the three practices mutually depend on each other like the legs of a tripod. Why? Because when moral conduct is pure, pure concentration naturally arises; when concentration is clear and pure, spiritual wisdom naturally emerges; when wisdom is clear and understanding, ignorant delusion naturally disappears; when ignorant delusion is extinguished, the pure mind manifests; countless samādhis and spiritual powers arise from this place; the secret treasury of Mahāyāna appears from this place; the forty-two stages of worthies and sages are established from this place. Therefore these three dharmas are called the three definitive paths, also called the three undefiled trainings, and also called the culmination of training. Indeed, these three trainings are precisely the inherent virtuous characteristics of the Tathāgata-garbha. The Tathāgata, with teacher-less wisdom and unobstructed wisdom, following the fundamental nature of tranquil illumination, established the three training grounds to
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provide the great standards for the path of learning. They are truly the mysterious principles according with nature, the wonderful gates of sweet dew. Therefore, during the Tathāgata's lifetime, the stream of noble disciples cultivated the three trainings equally without different approaches. They were distinguished by categories only according to their preferences - there were merely the designations of bhikṣus who maintained sūtras, bhikṣus who maintained vinaya, and bhikṣus who maintained the Māthṛkā. Seven days after the Tathāgata's nirvana, Venerable Mahākāśyapa assembled a thousand great arhats at Seven-Leaf Cave in Magadha to compile the three baskets. Venerable Ānanda compiled the sūtra basket, Venerable Upāli compiled the vinaya basket, and Venerable Mahākāśyapa compiled the abhidharma basket. This was called the Sthavira school. At that time, outside the boundary there were several tens of thousands of people in a great assembly; ordinary people and sages gathered together to compile five dharma baskets - namely the three baskets plus the miscellaneous basket and the dhāraṇī basket. This was called the Mahāsāṃghika school. Although inside and outside the cave were divided into two schools, the dharma milk was of one flavor without different disputes. This is called the first division into two schools.
Later, after more than 110 years, there was a great being called Mahādeva. Lamenting that scholars of the three baskets had fallen into names and characteristics and lost the sage's intent, he took the emptiness doctrine of Mahāyāna and mixed it with the three baskets, proclaiming that birth-death and nirvana are merely conventional designations. Moreover, using one verse he recited five matters, but the Sthavira school did not believe this and severely criticized and rejected it. The Mahāsāṃghika school then believed and used it, jointly reciting the five matters. Thereupon different attachments became clear, and the dharma path was not harmonized. This is called the second division into two schools.
Jakuren (the author) says: The first division into two schools was not entirely without difference. The Sthavira school was the legitimate heir of Kāśyapa (Śākyamuni), with five teachers in succession exclusively propagating the three baskets and not transmitting other baskets. They kept Mahāyāna Vaipulya teachings strictly secret and did not transmit them. The Mahāsāṃghika school was a branch line that transmitted and maintained five baskets, producing bodhisattva dharmas from the miscellaneous basket, and moreover the Ā-
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gama's mention of "unprecedented dharmas" seems to point precisely to Mahāyāna dharmas. How could the positions held by the two schools not already have some differences? Paramārtha Tripiṭaka said that within the later Mahāsāṃghika school, there were those who transmitted Mahāyāna sūtras such as Avataṃsaka, Prajñāpāramitā, Golden Light, Vimalakīrti, Śrīmālā, Nirvana, etc. Among the assembly there were those who believed these sūtras and those who did not believe them. He also said that within the Bahuśrutīya school, they occasionally proclaimed profound meanings and became involved with Mahāyāna. Inferring from these statements, we know that the first Mahāsāṃghika school already secretly transmitted Mahāyāna, and due to this secret transmission, later people included both believers and non-believers. Also, the Dharmaguptaka and Sautrāntika schools that emerged from the later Sthavira school established five dharma baskets, and their teachings also touched on profound meanings, with purports often according with the Mahāsāṃghika school and Mahāyāna. However, since the Sthavira school's propagation kept profound meanings strictly secret, when later the Sarvāstivāda flourished in the world, their corruption increasingly fell into names and characteristics, eventually not knowing that the Tathāgata had extremely profound secret treasuries. When they occasionally heard profound meanings being taught, they considered them not the Buddha's teaching and detested them like enemies. The true meaning of the three baskets was nearly about to perish. At that time within the Sthavira school, there were those who lamented that their school's declining customs would lose the sage's intent, but they merely made separate theories based on what seemed reasonable, as with the Dharmaguptaka and Sautrāntika schools, etc. Also, within their dhāraṇī basket, there should have been many vidyā secret dharmas. Among them, the secret sūtras of the three divisions and five divisions especially revealed the mysterious ultimate of Tathāgata secret treasuries, so dharma-transmitting bodhisattvas concealed them in various asura caves, iron towers, etc. Observing from this, not only did the positions of the later two schools differ, but the transmissions and maintenance of the first two schools also had different approaches, as can be known. Question: The
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transmission of the five sages of the first Sthavira school included only the three dharma baskets and absolutely nothing else. How do we know they also had secret treasuries? Answer: There are both doctrinal and scriptural reasons for this. Now let me first present scriptural evidence. The Treatise on the Succession of Dharma Treasures says: When Śāṇavāsin descended to visit Upagupta's chamber, he pointed his hand at empty space and fragrant milk immediately descended like a hanging spring flowing from a high mountain peak. He asked: "Gupta, what samādhi characteristic is this?" Upagupta immediately entered samādhi and observed with deep mind but could not understand it. He immediately asked his teacher: "What samādhi is this?" Śāṇavāsin answered: "This is called the dragon's vigorous advance samādhi." In this way he sequentially asked about the names of five hundred samādhis but understood none of them. "Gupta, you should know: the Tathāgata's samādhis - all the pratyekabuddhas do not know their names; the samādhis of solitary realizers - all śrāvakas cannot understand them; the samādhis entered by Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Śāriputra and others - the remaining arhats cannot fathom them; the samādhi characteristics of my teacher Ānanda - I do not know them at all; my present samādhis - you also do not know them. Such samādhis will all perish following me after my nirvana. There are 77,000 jātaka sūtras, a complete 10,000 abhidharma baskets, and 80,000 pure vinaya rules. Such dharmas will also perish following me. Therefore, Gupta, after the Tathāgata's nirvana when worthies and sages disappear, such dharma treasuries will gradually decline and be damaged." Using this as evidence, the inner realizations of the various sages contained immeasurable samādhi wisdom and immeasurable secret dharma treasuries that are not within the scope of ordinary beings' understanding. Therefore, the three baskets and Mahāyāna currently maintained in the human realm are merely one part in hundreds of thousands of millions of the dharma aggregates realized in the minds of the great arhats, dharma-treasury successors, and various sages. The secret treasuries should be carefully considered. There are quite many doctrinal proofs, reaching to below