大智度論 往生品Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Rebirth
如果眾生畢竟不可得，連菩薩之名也只是假名而無實法，那麼「從哪裡命終、來生此間，又將往生何處」豈不是多餘一問？〈往生品〉一開頭就把這道難題端出來，並立刻給出全品的樞紐——佛法有二諦：為世諦故說有眾生，為第一義諦故說眾生無所有。問往生，其實就是問菩薩的行處；而菩薩的行處，正落在無我無來去、卻不捨眾生往生的這一不二之地。於是佛先以三處答其來——或從他方佛國、或從兜率天上、或從人道中；再就其去廣分別，鋪陳種種往生之相。他方來者利根，人中來者根鈍，其別只在能否常值諸佛、能否以念佛三昧與般若疾疾相應。其後所列，無一不是同一件事的深化：有得法性生身的菩薩，變化身遍入三界而不受業繫；有以方便力入禪而不隨禪生、還來欲界大姓度眾生的菩薩；有梵天勸請轉法輪、兜率補處一生成佛、六神通遊戲十方讚歎三寶的菩薩。到了中卷，方便與定慧再往深處收：菩薩能入超越定而不落小乘定法之限，能不取四果卻以八聖道令眾生得果，甚至一切阿羅漢、辟支佛的果與智，在菩薩份上只是無生法忍的一角；淨業與麁業的分判，也從外相轉入「取法相即是罪、法不可得乃名淨佛道」的內裡。下卷則以五眼次第收束——肉眼、天眼求見，慧眼破虛誑而見實相，法眼分別眾生根器與位次，佛眼入金剛三昧盡照無餘；般若能生五眼，學五眼者得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。神通亦然：六神通一一自性空、自性離，除為薩婆若心而修；六度則各住畢竟空，如金剛山四面來風而心無動轉。最後歸於一切眾生中生等心、得一切諸法等，現世為十方諸佛所念，並以三百比丘捨衣發心、佛微笑授記六十一劫後成佛、十千人願生淨土號莊嚴王的公案作結——業因緣果報相續，不可思議。讀此品，不必先替往生安上一個實在的去處或來處；只須在每一種往生相裡看同一件事：所往是否仍向一切智與一切眾生，能度所度是否已在畢竟空中放輕。無眾生可得而遍生度眾，無來去可執而常值諸佛——這正是般若二諦所開的往生之路。
If beings are ultimately unfindable, and even the name ‘bodhisattva’ is only a provisional name with no real dharma behind it, then is it not a superfluous question to ask from where one’s life ended, whence one came to be born here, and where one will be reborn next? The Chapter on Rebirth sets this hard question on the table at its very opening, and at once gives the pivot of the whole chapter: in the Buddha’s Dharma there are two truths; for the sake of the worldly truth it is said that there are beings, and for the sake of the truth of the highest meaning it is said that beings have no existence. To ask about rebirth is in fact to ask about the bodhisattva’s place of practice, and the bodhisattva’s place of practice falls exactly on this non-dual ground, where there is no self and no coming or going, and yet beings and rebirth are not abandoned. So the Buddha first answers where the bodhisattva comes from with three places: from another Buddha-land, from the Tuṣita heaven, or from among humans; then he distinguishes at length where the bodhisattva goes, laying out the many marks of rebirth. Those who come from elsewhere are of keen faculties and those who come from among humans of dull faculties, and the difference lies only in whether they constantly meet the Buddhas and whether, by the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, they come swiftly into accord with prajñā. Everything listed thereafter deepens this one matter: there are bodhisattvas who have obtained the body born of dharma-nature, whose transformation bodies enter the three realms everywhere without being bound by karma; there are bodhisattvas who by the power of skilful means enter the meditations yet are not born according to the meditations, but return to a great clan of the desire realm to deliver beings; there are bodhisattvas whom the Brahmā king entreats to turn the wheel of Dharma, bodhisattvas in Tuṣita who are one birth from buddhahood, and bodhisattvas who with the six supernormal powers roam at play through the ten directions praising the Three Jewels. By the middle fascicle, skilful means and concentration and wisdom are gathered deeper still: the bodhisattva can enter the leaping absorption without falling under the limits of the small vehicle’s laws of absorption, can decline the four fruits and yet, by the eightfold noble path, bring beings to attain the fruits, and indeed the fruits and knowledge of all arhats and pratyekabuddha are, on the bodhisattva’s side, but one corner of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas; and the division of pure from coarse karma turns from outward marks to the inside, where to grasp the mark of a dharma is itself offence, and the unfindability of dharmas is what is called purifying the Buddha path. The last fascicle closes with the sequence of the five eyes: the fleshly eye and the heavenly eye seek to see; the wisdom eye breaks through falsehood and sees the real mark; the Dharma eye distinguishes beings’ capacities and stages; the Buddha eye enters the vajra samādhi and illumines all without remainder. Prajñā can give birth to the five eyes, and one who trains in the five eyes attains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. So too the supernormal powers: each of the six is empty of own-nature and apart from own-nature, cultivated for nothing but the mind set on sarvajñā; and the six perfections each dwell in ultimate emptiness, like a vajra mountain with winds coming from four sides while the mind does not stir. At the end it returns to giving rise to an equal mind toward all beings and attaining the equality of all dharmas, being held in mind in this very life by the Buddhas of the ten directions, and closes with the case of three hundred bhikṣu who offered their robes and aroused the mind, the Buddha smiling and predicting their buddhahood sixty-one kalpas hence, and ten thousand people vowing to be born in a pure land under the name King of Adornment: the continuity of karma, cause, condition, and fruit is inconceivable. In reading this chapter there is no need first to fit rebirth with a real place gone to or come from; one need only see the same one thing in every mark of rebirth: whether where one goes still faces omniscience and all beings, and whether deliverer and delivered have already been made light in ultimate emptiness. With no being to be found, one is born everywhere to deliver beings; with no coming or going to grasp, one constantly meets the Buddhas. This is the very path of rebirth that prajñā’s two truths open.
總說
〈往生品〉開篇，舍利弗問了兩個看似平常的問題：與般若相應的菩薩，是從哪裡命終、來生此間？又從此間命終，將往生何處？佛先以三處答其來——或從他方佛國、或從兜率天上、或從人道中；再就其去廣分別，鋪陳種種往生之相。全品因此環繞一個「生」字，卻不是問一個實在的我如何在三界間搬移，而是問：一個深知眾生畢竟不可得的菩薩，憑什麼仍有來、有去、有往生度眾生之事？
這一問，論主在開篇即點出樞紐。既然般若之中眾生畢竟不可得，壽者、命者乃至知者、見者諸名皆空無實，連菩薩也但有名字而無實法，那麼「從何所來，去至何所」豈非戲論？論主的答覆是佛法二諦：為世諦故說有眾生，為第一義諦故說眾生無所有。二諦不是兩套互相取消的言說，而是同一實相的兩面——世諦上有菩薩、有往生、有度眾生之事可說，第一義諦上無眾生、無來去、無一法可得。所以問往生，其實就是問菩薩的行處；而菩薩的行處，正落在無我無往來、卻不捨眾生往生的這一不二之地。全品所列種種往生相，都須放回這個樞紐來讀：離了第一義，往生只成輪迴的續篇；離了世諦，度生便成空談。
論主還從另一面補足這個樞紐：舍利弗以天眼明見六道生死，於此本無所疑，所疑者唯是他方無量世界來生、與此間終而生他方佛國者，天眼所不能見，故問；又因聲聞人見菩薩久住生死、漏未盡而輕愍之，舍利弗欲令眾生於菩薩起敬心，故問。可見「往生」之問不是好奇一個去處，而是要顯出菩薩與凡夫、二乘往生之別——別不在有無往來，而在往來之中是否常值諸佛、是否以念佛三昧與般若疾疾相應、是否得法性生身而變化身入三界以度眾生。品中「隨業生」與「得法性身」兩種菩薩之分，正是這一別的骨幹：前者隨業受身而根鈍，後者不以結業受身，遍現三界而不受業繫。
全品依三卷分作三分弧。之上（卷三十八）立問而奠基：先以二諦答「畢竟空何以問往來」，再分別三處來、去處廣說，鋪出種種往生相——長壽天與欲界之不隨方便、方便入禪而不隨禪生、梵天勸請轉法輪、兜率一生補處、六神通遊戲十方、初發意即得諸禪定；末以乘羊、乘馬、乘神通三喻與阿彌陀佛先世法藏比丘的公案，顯利根久集福德者初發心即入菩薩位、淨其國土。這一分的重心，是把「往生」從業報之流，改寫為禪定方便力所導的度生行處。
之中（卷三十九）把方便與定慧往深處收。先明超越定——菩薩以方便力能於諸禪與滅盡定之間逆順自在，非小乘定法「超不過二」之限所能量；繼而說菩薩不取四果，卻以八聖道令眾生得須陀洹乃至辟支佛道，並直指一切阿羅漢、辟支佛的果與智，在菩薩份上只是無生法忍的一角。其後歷數種種菩薩相，並把淨業與麁業的判準由外相轉入內裡：取一切法相即是罪業，法不可得乃名淨佛道。分末轉入五眼——肉眼、天眼求見於外，慧眼破虛誑而見諸法實相，行於中道而無法不見。定慧至此已不是自證的高處，而是能不受占有地運作於度生之中。
之下（卷四十）以五眼圓成收束全品。法眼分別眾生隨信行、隨法行，斷三結而成須陀洹乃至辟支佛，並開出菩薩十九種法眼，知眾生退不退、受記未受記、到地未到地；佛眼則入金剛三昧得一切種智，具十力四無畏，而般若正是能生五眼之本，學五眼者得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。神通波羅蜜隨後展開，六神通一一自性空、自性離，皆除為薩婆若心而修；六度各住畢竟空，如金剛山四面來風而心無增減。末以一切眾生中生等心、得一切諸法等，現世為十方諸佛所念作結，並記三百比丘捨衣發心、佛微笑授記六十一劫後成佛號大相、生阿閦佛國，十千人願生淨土號莊嚴王——業因緣果報相續，不可思議。往生之路，至此歸於等心等法與淨願往生的實證。
本品的說法有經、論兩層。經文多先設一種往生相或一種眼，再由舍利弗發問，佛以三處、以不可得、以自性空作答；論釋則追問為何如此答、為何別說某處而不說某處、前後相如何銜接，又以牛足比丘、六牙白象、乘羊乘馬乘神通、法藏比丘等故事與譬喻顯出行法的重量。若只讀經列，往生種種相容易變成一串名目；若只讀論中的故事，又容易失去每則故事所回答的那一項難題。最穩妥的讀法，是先認出該段要顯的是「往生之別」的哪一面，再看經文如何以不可得淨化它，最後看論釋如何把它落回二諦、因緣與行動。
因此讀每一段往生相時，至少可問三層。其一，這一相所往之處與所以往之力是什麼——是隨業，還是法性生身的方便化現？其二，經文所說的不可得，究竟在清除哪一個能往、所往或往生果的執取相？其三，論釋用哪個問難，防止讀者把「無往來」讀成斷滅、或把「有往生」讀成實我流轉？本品的問答常先承認質疑有力，再以二諦、以因緣、以語義限定之——正是這種不草率抹平兩邊的方式，使往生既不是一個實我的旅程，也不是可以取消的方便說。順著這條二諦之路讀下去，全品種種往生相自會落定為同一件事：無眾生可得而遍生度眾，無來去可執而常值諸佛。
依原論次序讀下去
Overview
At the opening of the “Rebirth” chapter, Śāriputra asks two questions that seem ordinary: a bodhisattva in accord with prajñā—from where does his life end, so that he comes to be born here? And when his life ends here, where will he go to be reborn? The Buddha first answers his coming by three places—he comes either from the buddha-lands of other quarters, or from the Tuṣita Heaven above, or from the human destiny; then, concerning his going, he distinguishes broadly and lays out the many marks of rebirth. The whole chapter therefore revolves around the single word “birth,” yet it is not asking how a real self moves about among the three realms; it asks rather: a bodhisattva who knows deeply that beings are ultimately unfindable—on what ground does he still have a coming, a going, and the work of being reborn to liberate beings?
This question the treatise-author points out as the pivot at the very opening. Since within prajñā beings are ultimately unfindable, the names “one who lives long,” “one who has life,” up to “one who knows” and “one who sees” are all empty and without reality, and even the bodhisattva has only a name and no real dharma—then is not 「從何所來，去至何所」 tr. "from where does he come, and where does he go" idle discourse? The treatise-author’s reply is the Buddha-Dharma’s two truths: for the sake of worldly truth it is said that there are beings; for the sake of the truth of the highest meaning it is said that beings have no existence. The two truths are not two sets of discourse that cancel each other, but two faces of one real mark—in worldly truth there are a bodhisattva, rebirth, and the work of liberating beings that can be spoken of; in the truth of the highest meaning there are no beings, no coming and going, not a single dharma to be obtained. So to ask about rebirth is in fact to ask about the bodhisattva’s place of practice; and the bodhisattva’s place of practice falls precisely on this non-dual ground of no self and no going and coming, yet not abandoning beings and rebirth. All the many marks of rebirth that the chapter lists must be read by being set back upon this pivot: apart from the highest meaning, rebirth becomes only a sequel of saṃsāra; apart from worldly truth, liberating beings becomes empty talk.
The treatise-author also completes this pivot from another side: Śāriputra, with the divine eye, clearly sees the dying and being born of the six destinies, and about these he has no doubt at all; what he doubts is only those who come to be born here from the immeasurable worlds of other quarters, and those whose lives end here and who are born in the buddha-lands of other quarters—these the divine eye cannot see, and so he asks. Further, because śrāvakas, seeing that bodhisattvas dwell long in birth and death with their outflows not yet exhausted, look down on them and pity them, Śāriputra wishes to make beings give rise to a reverent mind toward bodhisattvas, and so he asks. It can be seen that the question of “rebirth” is not curiosity about a destination, but aims to show the difference between the rebirth of the bodhisattva and that of ordinary people and of the two vehicles—a difference that lies not in whether there is going and coming, but in whether, within going and coming, he constantly meets the buddhas, whether by the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha he swiftly comes into accord with prajñā, and whether he obtains the body born of the dharma-nature and with a transformation body enters the three realms to liberate beings. The chapter’s division between two kinds of bodhisattva, 「隨業生」 tr. "born according to karma" and 「得法性身」 tr. "having obtained the dharma-nature body", is the very backbone of this difference: the former receives a body according to karma and is of dull faculties; the latter does not receive a body through the karma of the fetters, and appears everywhere in the three realms without being bound by karma.
The whole chapter, following its three fascicles, forms an arc of three divisions. The first division (fascicle thirty-eight) sets up the question and lays the foundation: it first answers by the two truths “why, if all is ultimately empty, ask about going and coming,” then distinguishes the three places of coming and speaks broadly of the places of going, laying out the many marks of rebirth—not following the long-lived gods and the desire realm without skilful means; entering the meditations by skilful means yet not being born according to the meditations; the Brahmā god’s request to turn the wheel of the Dharma; the one who succeeds after one more birth in the Tuṣita Heaven; roaming at play through the ten directions with the six supernormal powers; obtaining the meditative concentrations at the very first arousing of intent; at its close, by the three similes of riding a goat, riding a horse, and riding supernormal power, together with the case of Amitābha Buddha in a former life as the bhikṣu Dharma Treasury, it shows that one of sharp faculties who has long accumulated merit enters the bodhisattva stage at the first arousing of the mind and purifies his land. The centre of gravity of this division is to rewrite “rebirth” from a stream of karmic recompense into the place of practice for liberating beings, guided by the power of skilful means in meditation.
The middle division (fascicle thirty-nine) draws skilful means, concentration, and wisdom further into the depths. It first makes clear the leaping absorption—the bodhisattva, by the power of skilful means, can move freely in reverse and forward order among the meditations and the attainment of cessation, which cannot be measured by the limit of the lesser vehicle’s method of concentration, 「超不過二」 tr. "the transcending does not pass over more than two"; it then says that the bodhisattva does not take the four fruits, yet by the noble eightfold path causes beings to obtain the path of the srota-āpanna and so on up to that of the pratyekabuddha, and points directly to the fact that the fruits and knowledge of all arhats and pratyekabuddhas are, in the bodhisattva’s share, only one corner of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. After that it recounts one by one the many marks of the bodhisattva, and turns the criterion of pure karma and coarse karma from outward marks inward: grasping the marks of all dharmas is itself sinful karma; dharmas being unfindable is what is called the pure path of the Buddha. At the end of the division it turns to the five eyes—the fleshly eye and the divine eye seek to see outward; the wisdom eye breaks through the empty and deceptive and sees the real mark of all dharmas, practising the middle way, so that there is no dharma it does not see. Concentration and wisdom here are no longer a height of self-realisation, but something that can operate within the liberating of beings without being possessed.
The last division (fascicle forty) closes the whole chapter with the perfecting of the five eyes. The dharma eye distinguishes beings who follow by faith and who follow by the Dharma, who cut off the three fetters and become srota-āpannas and so on up to pratyekabuddhas, and it opens out the bodhisattva’s nineteen kinds of dharma eye, knowing whether beings will retrogress or not, have received the prediction or not, have reached the ground or not; the buddha eye enters the vajra samādhi and obtains the omniscience of all kinds, complete with the ten powers and the four fearlessnesses; and prajñā is precisely the root that can give birth to the five eyes—one who trains in the five eyes obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The perfection of supernormal powers then unfolds: each of the six supernormal powers is empty of own-nature and apart from own-nature, and all are cultivated solely for the sake of the mind of sarvajñā; each of the six perfections abides in ultimate emptiness, like a vajra mountain with winds coming from its four sides while the mind neither increases nor decreases. It concludes with giving rise to an even mind among all beings and obtaining the equality of all dharmas, so that in this very life one is held in mind by the buddhas of the ten directions; and it records that three hundred bhikṣus offered up their robes and aroused the mind, that the Buddha smiled and predicted that after sixty-one kalpas they would become buddhas named Great Mark and be born in the land of Akṣobhya Buddha, and that ten thousand people vowed to be born in the pure land and were named Adornment King—karmic causes and conditions and their fruits and recompense continue on, inconceivable. The path of rebirth here comes home to the actual realisation of an even mind, the equality of dharmas, and rebirth by pure vows.
The teaching of this chapter has two layers, sūtra and treatise. The sūtra text mostly first sets out one mark of rebirth or one eye, then Śāriputra asks, and the Buddha answers by the three places, by unfindability, by emptiness of own-nature; the treatise’s commentary then presses on why the answer is so, why one place is spoken of separately and another not, how the earlier and later marks join together, and further, by stories and similes such as the bhikṣu Ox-Foot, the six-tusked white elephant, riding a goat, riding a horse, riding supernormal power, and the bhikṣu Dharma Treasury, brings out the weight of the practice. Read only the sūtra’s list, and the many marks of rebirth easily become a string of names; read only the stories in the treatise, and one easily loses the particular difficulty each story answers. The surest way of reading is first to recognise which face of ‘the difference in rebirth’ a given passage is meant to show, then to see how the sūtra text purifies it by unfindability, and finally to see how the treatise’s commentary brings it back down to the two truths, to causes and conditions, and to action.
Therefore, in reading each mark of rebirth, one can ask at least three layers. First, what is the place gone to by this mark, and the power by which one goes there—is it following karma, or the skilful-means transformation of the body born of the dharma-nature? Second, the unfindability of which the sūtra text speaks—which grasped mark of the one who goes, the place gone to, or the fruit of rebirth is it clearing away? Third, by which challenge does the treatise’s commentary keep the reader from reading ‘no going and coming’ as annihilation, or reading ‘there is rebirth’ as the transmigration of a real self? The questions and answers of this chapter often first acknowledge that the doubt has force, and then qualify it by the two truths, by causes and conditions, by limits of meaning—it is precisely this way of not hastily levelling both sides that makes rebirth neither the journey of a real self nor an expedient saying that could be cancelled. Read on along this two-truth path, and the many marks of rebirth throughout the chapter will of themselves settle into one and the same matter: with no beings to be obtained, yet born everywhere to liberate beings; with no coming and going to be clung to, yet constantly meeting the buddhas.
Reading On in the Order of the Treatise
承衍
〈往生品〉的義脈，前有所承，後有所啟。所承者是前之〈習相應品〉：彼品明菩薩習應般若時，不見菩薩、不見般若，無菩薩亦無般若——一切法畢竟空，本無往來可說。本品緊接著發問：既已說無菩薩、無般若，今何以又說有菩薩往生、有從何處終而來生此間？可見〈往生品〉不是另起爐灶，而是把前品所立的「無」推到度生的現場，逼出二諦的答案：無者就第一義諦門說，往生者就世諦門說，二諦說般若而不相違。所啟者，則是本品末所記三百比丘捨衣發心、佛微笑授記六十一劫後成佛、十千人願生淨土號莊嚴王——度生之果既已於眼前彰顯，讚歎度生之廣大功德，便自然成為其後義脈的去向。
後來古德讀本品，最著眼的正是這條二諦樞紐。吉藏《大品經義疏》三處明引「大智論釋往生品云」，皆在二諦說法的脈絡下徵引：他以本品「前習應品明無菩薩、則無去來，今何故說有菩薩、有去來」的問答對觀，釋為凡聖二諦不相違——為凡說無去來、為聖說有去來，為聖說無去來、為凡說有去來；又謂本品與《中論》同屬一套二諦邏輯。其中一處更直接牒引本品開篇「問曰／答曰」的問答架構，判為具說二諦、但說第一義、但說世諦三種說法型態之首例，指出前明「無菩薩無般若」是就第一義諦門說般若，今說「菩薩往生」是就世諦門說般若，此即就二諦說般若。這三處引文都環繞本品開篇「佛法中有二諦」一段，可見古德所取，正是本疏〈總說〉所拈出的同一樞紐，而非泛引全品。此處僅誌錄吉藏所引段落與本品的對應關係，以見一家如何讀本品，不判其詮釋高下。
把這一路承衍帶回本品，最值得保存的不是一張更繁複的往生分類，而是它對「往生」二字的改寫。凡夫式的往生，以我從此處滅、往彼處生為實事；本品則反過來，愈是深達第一義諦的無來去，愈能在世諦門中不捨一處往生、不捨一類眾生。他方來者常值諸佛、法性生身遍入三界、方便力不隨禪生而還生大姓、六神通遊戲十方讚歎三寶、乃至捨衣一施而感六十一劫後成佛——每一種往生相，都是同一件事的深淺不同：無眾生可得而遍生度眾，無去來可執而終不離佛。
因此，〈往生品〉最終不是教人推算自己來自何處、將生何國，而是留下一條可反覆使用的問路法：我此刻所執的往生，是實我的流轉，還是不可得中的度生行處？所往之處，是否仍向一切智與一切眾生？能否既不把往生當作實有可占，又不因畢竟空而廢度眾之事？在每一個當下答好這幾問，便已走在無來無去而能遍往生的二諦之路上。
Further Resonances
The line of meaning in the chapter “Rebirth” has something it inherits from before and something it opens onto after. What it inherits is the preceding chapter, “Practising in Accord”: that chapter made clear that when a bodhisattva practises in accord with prajñā, he does not see a bodhisattva and does not see prajñā—there is no bodhisattva and no prajñā either—all dharmas are ultimately empty, and there is originally no going and coming to speak of. This chapter follows directly with its question: since it has already been said that there is no bodhisattva and no prajñā, why now say again that there are bodhisattvas who are reborn, that there are those who end somewhere and come to be born here? This shows that “Rebirth” does not start afresh from nothing, but carries the ‘no’ established in the preceding chapter out into the very scene of delivering beings, and presses from it the answer of the two truths: the ‘no’ is spoken from the gate of the truth of the highest meaning, rebirth is spoken from the gate of worldly truth, and the two truths speak prajñā without contradicting each other. What it opens onto is recorded at the end of this chapter: the three hundred bhikṣus who offered up their robes and aroused the mind, the Buddha’s smile and his prediction that after sixty-one kalpas they will attain Buddhahood, and the ten thousand people who vow to be born in a pure land, all to be named King of Adornment—since the fruit of delivering beings has already been made manifest before one’s eyes, praise of the vast merit of delivering beings naturally becomes the direction the line of meaning takes thereafter.
When ancient masters later read this chapter, what they fixed their eyes on most was precisely this pivot of the two truths. In Jizang’s Commentary on the Larger Sūtra, three places explicitly cite 「大智論釋往生品云」 tr. "the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, explaining the Chapter on Rebirth, says," and all of them cite it within the context of teaching by the two truths. He sets side by side this chapter’s question and answer, 「前習應品明無菩薩、則無去來，今何故說有菩薩、有去來」 tr. "the earlier Chapter on Practising in Accord made clear that there is no bodhisattva and so no going and coming; why now say that there are bodhisattvas and there is going and coming?", and explains it as the two truths of ordinary beings and noble ones not contradicting each other: for ordinary beings it is said there is no going and coming, and for noble ones it is said there is going and coming; for noble ones it is said there is no going and coming, and for ordinary beings it is said there is going and coming. He further says that this chapter and the Middle Treatise belong to one and the same logic of the two truths. One of these places goes further and directly cites the question-and-answer frame (“Question … Answer”) with which this chapter opens, classing it as the first instance of three types of teaching—fully speaking both truths, speaking only the highest meaning, and speaking only worldly truth—and pointing out that the earlier making clear of 「無菩薩無般若」 tr. "no bodhisattva and no prajñā" is speaking prajñā from the gate of the truth of the highest meaning, while the present speaking of 「菩薩往生」 tr. "the rebirth of bodhisattvas" is speaking prajñā from the gate of worldly truth, and this is speaking prajñā in terms of the two truths. All three of these citations revolve around the passage at the opening of this chapter, 「佛法中有二諦」 tr. "In the Buddha-dharma there are two truths"; this shows that what the ancient master took up is exactly the same pivot that this exposition’s Overview picks out, and not a loose citation of the whole chapter. Here only the correspondence between the passages Jizang cites and this chapter is recorded, to show how one master read this chapter, without judging whether his interpretation is higher or lower.
Bringing this line of further resonance back to this chapter, what is most worth keeping is not a more elaborate classification of rebirth, but its rewriting of the word “rebirth.” Rebirth in the ordinary person’s manner takes it as a real event that I perish from this place and go to be born in that place; this chapter turns it the other way round: the more deeply one reaches the no-coming-and-going of the truth of the highest meaning, the more one can, in the gate of worldly truth, not abandon a single place of rebirth and not abandon a single kind of being. Those who come from other quarters always meeting the buddhas; the body born of dharma-nature entering everywhere into the three realms; by the power of skilful means not being reborn according to one’s meditations but being reborn instead in a great clan; with the six supernormal powers roaming in play through the ten directions praising the Three Jewels; and even a single gift of robes bringing about Buddhahood after sixty-one kalpas—every mark of rebirth is the same one matter at differing depths: with no being to be attained, one is born everywhere to deliver beings; with no going and coming to cling to, one never leaves the buddhas.
Therefore “Rebirth” in the end does not teach one to calculate where one has come from and in what land one will be born; rather, it leaves behind a way of questioning that can be used again and again: is the rebirth I now cling to the wandering of a real self, or is it the field where beings are delivered within what cannot be attained? Does the place I go to still face toward omniscience and toward all beings? Can I neither take rebirth as something really existent that can be occupied, nor, because of ultimate emptiness, abandon the work of delivering beings? To answer these few questions well in each present moment is already to be walking the road of the two truths, which is without coming and going yet able to be reborn everywhere.
考據Apparatus
一、科判
本品在《大智度論》釋《大品般若》的次第中屬〈釋餘品〉一段，繫卷三十八至卷四十，論文自題「大智度論釋往生品第四之上」〔T25 0336b02〕，中、下二卷續題「之餘」，總釋《大品般若》〈往生品第四〉〔T08 0225a24–0229c04〕。全品以舍利弗一問發端：「世尊！菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜，能如是習相應者，從何處終，來生此間？從此間終，當生何處？」〔T25 0336b07〕論主先答前世三處來（他方佛國、兜率天、人道），再廣分別後世往生之相，末以五眼、六神通、六度畢竟空及三百比丘捨衣受記收束。
三卷章節嚴整：之上（卷三十八·0336b02–0343a05）明前世三來與初禪至四禪不隨禪生諸類菩薩，終於阿彌陀佛先世法藏比丘公案；之中（卷三十九·0343a06–0348c06）明超越定、四念處八聖道、身口意麁業淨業之判、以及五眼中肉眼、天眼、慧眼三眼淨；之下（卷四十·0348c07–0354a28）明法眼、佛眼、神通波羅蜜、六度住畢竟空、眾生等法等，並以三百比丘脫衣受記、佛微笑八因緣終品。論主釋文與所牒經段嚴格【經】【論】交替。
論主於開篇即立本品綱領：問既已於前品說「眾生畢竟不可得」，此中論主自徵「今舍利弗何以作此問」〔T25 0336b28〕；其自答之樞紐，是下文所詳之二諦。前明畢竟空而不遮往生，後明有往生而不壞畢竟空——兩面相須，是全品之骨。
二、術語考
二諦（世諦·第一義諦）。 論自釋：「佛法中有二諦：一者、世諦，二者、第一義諦。為世諦故，說有眾生；為第一義諦故，說眾生無所有。」〔T25 0336b28–c02〕本品「有菩薩往生」之所以能與前品「無菩薩」不相違，全繫於此。
隨業生·法性身（得法性身菩薩）。 論列二種菩薩以判往生之身：「菩薩有二種：一者、隨業生；二者、得法性身，為度眾生故，種種變化身生三界，具佛功德，度脫眾生。」〔T25 0340a02〕不隨禪生而還生欲界大姓者，論判為「業因緣生身」，非法身自在變化。
生身菩薩·法身菩薩。 論又以斷結與否別二種菩薩：「菩薩有二種：一者、生身菩薩，二者、法身菩薩。一者、斷結使，二者、不斷結使。」〔T25 0342a22〕法身菩薩斷結得六神通，生身菩薩不斷結或離欲得五神通。此判與「隨業生／法性身」相為表裏，同判往生主體之階位。
念佛三昧。 論釋「與般若相應故常值諸佛」之因：「因般若波羅蜜故，行念佛三昧等諸善法，生值諸佛。」〔T25 0338c12〕往生值佛非偶得，乃般若攝念佛等善法之果。
超越定。 之中卷首牒經明菩薩「以方便力故入超越定」〔T25 0343a15〕，論釋其非小乘《阿毘曇鞞婆沙》所說之定法〔T25 0343a22〕，而是菩薩方便力所成，能從初禪起入滅盡定、乃至非有想非無想，出入自在。
五眼。 之中、之下逐眼別釋，總標作「淨於五眼：肉眼、天眼、慧眼、法眼、佛眼。」〔T25 0347a07〕肉眼見色至三千大千世界，天眼見眾生死此生彼，慧眼不念有為無為世出世間，法眼別隨信行隨法行，佛眼入金剛三昧得一切種智。論並結云般若能生五眼、學五眼者得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
六神通（神通波羅蜜）。 之下牒經明修神通波羅蜜「受種種如意事：能動大地；變一身為無數身」〔T25 0351b03〕，如意、天耳、他心、宿命、天眼、漏盡六者，各皆「自性空故、自性離故、自性無生故」而不著，唯「除為薩婆若心」。神通在此不作神異之炫，而是空慧所攝之度生具。
等心（眾生等·法等）。 之下明「一切眾生中生等心；一切眾生中生等心已，得一切諸法等」〔T25 0353a11〕。於眾生起等心是行門之始，得諸法等是其所歸；兩者相因，非二事。
三、譬喻與故事
本品譬喻與本生密集，是論主教學命脈之所在。明大菩薩處人身而不染，論以「如鵝入水，水不令濕」〔T25 0337b07〕喻之。破「身滅便無」之斷見，論以乳酪酥喻業之相續不一不常：「譬如乳中著毒，乳變為酪，酪變為酥；乳非酪、酥，酪、酥非乳，乳、酪雖變而皆有毒。」〔T25 0338a23〕又以冬木「得時節會，則次第而出」喻因緣成熟乃生果報。
釋「初發心即得阿鞞跋致」之疾速，論設三乘之喻：「譬如遠行，或有乘羊而去，或有乘馬而去，或有神通去者。」〔T25 0342c03〕乘羊者久久乃到，乘馬者差速，乘神通者發意頃便到——以喻三種發心利鈍之別。釋劫量之長，論引芥子城與拂石喻：長壽人百歲持一芥子去、迦尸輕軟疊衣百歲一拂，芥盡石盡而「劫猶不澌」〔T25 0339b〕。
本生二則最著。其一，釋迦文佛先世為欝多羅，於迦葉佛前口出惡言「此禿頭人，何能得菩提道」〔T25 0341a15〕，論斷此乃「住諸法實相智中，入無上方便慧，度眾弟子故」而現惡口，「非是實也」，藉以顯法身菩薩種種變化身以度眾生之義。其二，之下三百比丘於說品時捨衣發心、佛微笑授記六十一劫後成佛號大相〔T25 0353b〕，論以此釋佛微笑八因緣、及捨衣非破戒。之下明六度住畢竟空者，「是人如金剛山，四面風起，不能令動」〔T25 0352c29〕——罵讚之來如四面風吹金剛山而心無異。
四、所釋經文
本論所牒之【經】段，與後秦鳩摩羅什譯《摩訶般若波羅蜜經》〈往生品第四〉〔T08 0225a24–0229c04〕逐項同序。以下十一組逐字對位，證論所釋確係此本經文，非別譯或改寫。
舍利弗發問一段，經作「舍利弗白佛言：世尊！菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜能如是習相應者，從何處終來生此間」〔T08 0225a25–a27〕，本論卷首同段文字全同。三處來答，經作「或從他方佛國來生此間，或從兜率天上來生此間，或從人道中來生此間」〔T08 0225a28–b01〕，本論全同。長壽天不隨方便一段，經「不以方便入初禪乃至第四禪…是菩薩諸根不利…是菩薩諸根亦鈍」〔T08 0225b15–b21〕與本論逐字一致。賢劫成佛句，經「如是菩薩，賢劫中當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」〔T08 0225b27–b28〕與本論末句全同。
其餘各組亦近乎逐字。超越定，經「入初禪，從初禪起入滅盡定…以方便力故入超越定」〔T08 0226a17–a23〕與本論0343a15起全同。淨於五眼，經「淨於五眼：肉眼、天眼、慧眼、法眼、佛眼」與本論0347a07全同。神通波羅蜜如意事、一切眾生中生等心二段，經文〔T08 0228b02–b03；0229b08–b09〕與本論0351b03、0353a11逐字或近乎逐字相符。
兩本可見之實質差分僅二處，皆版本或譯字之異，非義理歧。其一，經「諸深妙法皆現在前」〔T08 0225b04〕，本論底本作「深法要皆現在前」，而0336b14校勘正記「法要【大】｜妙法【宋】【元】【明】」——證經文「妙法」乃本論宋元明本之異讀，兩本各自版本不同，非引文訛。其二，經「除阿惟越致」〔T08 0225b09〕，本論作「除阿毘跋致」——「惟越致」與「跋致」為同名古今譯字之異，義無別。又「從一佛國至一佛國，常值諸佛，終不離諸佛」〔T08 0225b12–b14〕，本論0337b27作「常值諸佛，」而「終不離佛」少一「諸」字，屬字句小異。凡此皆分列並存，不強合一讀。
五、般若義眼
本品立義之樞在二諦：前品既說「眾生畢竟不可得」，此品復問往生從來、去至何所，論主不以為相違，而判為世諦說有、第一義諦說無〔T25 0336b28–c02〕。空非撥無往生，往生非壞畢竟空——此即全品之眼。
論主又力破新學取空成斷之病。有取空相者難「若一切法畢竟空，無來無去…云何死而有生」，論以乳酪酥毒、冬木時節、先世憂喜等種種因緣廣說有死有生〔T25 0338a–0338b〕，並引《中論》偈「一切諸法實，一切法虛妄，諸法實亦虛，非實亦非虛！涅槃際為真，世間際亦真，涅槃世無別，小異不可得！」〔T25 0338c01〕結云「畢竟空，不遮生死業因緣，是故說往生」〔T25 0338c05〕。破空見所以立往生，往生正所以顯畢竟空。
品中諸類菩薩之往生相，一一帶回此結構。隨業生者著禪味而根鈍，得法性身者變化自在度生〔T25 0340a02〕；三生補處雖在十住猶修諸行，為未取證故；五眼之淨在於「不念」有為無為（慧眼），六神通之修在於「自性空故…除為薩婆若心」〔T25 0351b10〕；六度之行在於住畢竟空而不分別施受戒犯。往生千差而不著相，行門萬別而歸薩婆若——不取而能行、行而不取，是般若義眼始終所在。
六、諸家異釋
古德引用本品者，此目誌錄其所引與本品之對應，不判各家詮釋高下。
吉藏《二諦義》T45n1854 三處明引，皆在二諦脈絡下徵引本品開篇問答。其一：「大論釋往生品云。問云。前習應品。明無菩薩則無去來。今何故說有菩薩有去來耶。釋云。不相違。為凡說無去來。為聖說有去來。為聖說無去來。為凡說有去來。」〔T45 0081a01〕其二承上：「中論既然。往生品類爾可知也。」〔T45 0081a23〕其三最詳：「竝出經論。大智論釋往生品云。問曰。前習應品。明菩薩習應波若。不見菩薩。不見波若。無菩薩無波若。今何意復說有菩薩往生來生耶。答曰。前明無菩薩無波若者。就第一義諦門說波若。今說菩薩往生者。就世諦門說波若。此就二諦說波若也。」〔T45 0081b15〕三處皆環繞二諦義，所引正是本論釋往生品開篇「答曰：佛法中有二諦」一段之問答架構。
智顗《妙法蓮華經文句》T34n1720 兩處引本品：一取「菩薩從一佛土至一佛土」〔T34 0386c24〕，即本品「從一佛國至一佛國」句；一作「又《釋論．往生品》云『菩薩若證四諦成辟支佛』」〔T34 0425c05〕，對應本品「未證四諦」及法眼段「若取證者成辟支佛」之義。湛然《法華文句記》T34n1721 引「《智論》釋〈往生品〉明三百比丘脫衣上佛舉手」〔T34 0517a27〕，即之下三百比丘捨衣受記段。他如T33n1699引本品慧眼義〔T33 0120a22〕、T38n1772引兜率天眾利根一生補處〔T38 0278c10〕，皆各誌其所對段落。以上僅誌錄各家所引，不判其詮釋。
七、互讀與承衍
本品「二諦立往生」與「畢竟空不遮生死」二義，是般若一系反覆承用之骨。論主自以《中論》偈證成畢竟空不遮往生〔T25 0338c〕，本品遂與中觀二諦說相互印發；古德承衍最清楚者即吉藏，其《大品經義疏》以本品問答與《中論》同判二諦，謂「中論既然，往生品類爾可知」〔T45 0081a23〕——是本品義理下傳於三論一系之顯證。
本品五眼、六神通、六度畢竟空諸義，亦為後出般若諸經所承。五眼之次第與佛眼「能生五眼」之結，可與《大品》他品乃至般若諸經之五眼說互讀；神通波羅蜜「自性空故…除為薩婆若心」〔T25 0351b10〕之判，則為般若攝神通歸薩婆若之定式。此諸承衍在於義脈之相續，各家所取隨其宗趣，本目誌其相承而不代為定讀。
八、校本與版本說明
本品校勘可與經義相涉者，擇要如下；異本讀法並列保存，正文仍從現行底本讀法。
0336b14：法要【大】｜妙法【宋】【元】【明】——即上文所釋所釋經對讀第一組之異讀根據：本論底本作「深法要」，宋元明本作「深妙法」，與《大品》T223「深妙法」相合。兩讀義通，皆謂深妙法門。
0336b02：卷題「大智度論釋往生品第四之上（卷三十八）【大】｜摩訶般若波羅蜜經品第四往生品四卷四十【石】」——石本以「摩訶般若波羅蜜經」冠題，反映《大智度論》與所釋經共題之傳統。
0339b16–18／0339c20：跋【大】｜颰【宋】【元】【明】【宮】【石】——阿跋致／阿颰致之音譯用字歧異，諸本一致換用「颰」，屬全帙系統性異體，非個別訛字。
0337a15：任【大】｜任得道【宋】【元】【明】【宮】——「不任」／「不任得道」，宋元明宮本多二字，語意更顯，義同。
0353a17：減【大】｜滅【宮】——「不減於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」／宮本作「滅」，或涉形近；「不減」謂於無上菩提無所退減，文義通順，正文從底本「減」。
以上諸條記錄正文傳遞與版本異讀，不延伸為各本高下之判。本品全帙校勘記詳存於工作底本（校勘記四百七十四條全錄），本表僅傳錄與經義措辭相涉之要目。
I. Structural Placement
Within the sequence in which the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa comments on the Larger Sūtra, this chapter belongs to the section of the Commentary on the Remaining Chapters and falls in Fascicles 38 to 40. The treatise gives its own title as 「大智度論釋往生品第四之上」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on Rebirth, the Fourth, First Part"〔T25 0336b02〕, and the middle and last fascicles continue the title as 「之餘」 tr. "the remainder"; together they comment on the whole of the Larger Sūtra's Chapter 4, "Rebirth"〔T08 0225a24–0229c04〕. The whole chapter opens with a single question from Śāriputra: 「世尊！菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜，能如是習相應者，從何處終，來生此間？從此間終，當生何處？」 tr. "World-Honored One! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises prajñāpāramitā and is able thus to practise in accord with it, from where does he end his life to come to be born here? Ending his life here, where will he be born?"〔T25 0336b07〕 The treatise-author first answers that in the former life such bodhisattvas come from three places (other Buddha-lands, the Tuṣita Heaven, and the human path), then distinguishes at length the marks of rebirth in the lives to come, and at the end gathers the chapter up with the five eyes, the six supernormal powers, the ultimate emptiness of the six perfections, and the three hundred bhikṣus who give up their robes and receive the prediction.
The three fascicles are divided in strict order. The First Part (Fascicle 38 · 0336b02–0343a05) makes clear the three places of coming in the former life and the various kinds of bodhisattvas who, from the first dhyāna to the fourth dhyāna, are not reborn according to the dhyānas, and it ends with the case of the bhikṣu Dharma Treasury, Amitābha Buddha in a former life. The Middle Part (Fascicle 39 · 0343a06–0348c06) makes clear the leaping absorption, the four foundations of mindfulness and the eightfold noble path, the judgement between coarse acts and pure acts of body, speech, and mind, and, among the five eyes, the purity of three eyes: the flesh eye, the divine eye, and the wisdom eye. The Last Part (Fascicle 40 · 0348c07–0354a28) makes clear the Dharma eye, the Buddha eye, the perfection of supernormal powers, the six perfections abiding in ultimate emptiness, the equality of beings and the equality of dharmas, and it ends the chapter with the three hundred bhikṣus who take off their robes and receive the prediction, and with the eight causes and conditions of the Buddha's smile. The treatise-author's explanations alternate strictly with the passages of the sūtra, Sūtra and Treatise in turn.
At the very opening the treatise-author sets up the guiding thread of this chapter. The question: since the preceding chapter has already said 「眾生畢竟不可得」 tr. "beings ultimately cannot be found", the treatise-author here raises the objection himself, 「今舍利弗何以作此問」 tr. "why does Śāriputra now ask this question?"〔T25 0336b28〕; the pivot of his own answer is the two truths, set out in detail below. First it is made clear that ultimate emptiness does not preclude rebirth; then it is made clear that there is rebirth without destroying ultimate emptiness. The two sides depend on each other, and this is the backbone of the whole chapter.
II. Terms Examined
The two truths (worldly truth · the truth of the highest meaning). The treatise itself explains: 「佛法中有二諦：一者、世諦，二者、第一義諦。為世諦故，說有眾生；為第一義諦故，說眾生無所有。」 tr. "In the Buddha's Dharma there are two truths: first, worldly truth; second, the truth of the highest meaning. For the sake of worldly truth, it is said that there are beings; for the sake of the truth of the highest meaning, it is said that beings are non-existent."〔T25 0336b28–c02〕 That this chapter's 「有菩薩往生」 tr. "there are bodhisattvas who are reborn" does not contradict the preceding chapter's 「無菩薩」 tr. "there is no bodhisattva" rests entirely on this.
Birth according to karma · the dharma-nature body (bodhisattvas who have attained the dharma-nature body). The treatise lists two kinds of bodhisattvas in order to judge the body in which rebirth takes place: 「菩薩有二種：一者、隨業生；二者、得法性身，為度眾生故，種種變化身生三界，具佛功德，度脫眾生。」 tr. "Bodhisattvas are of two kinds: first, those born according to karma; second, those who have attained the dharma-nature body, who, in order to liberate beings, are born in the three realms in all kinds of transformation bodies, endowed with the merits of a Buddha, liberating beings."〔T25 0340a02〕 Those who are not reborn according to the dhyānas and yet are born back into great clans in the desire realm the treatise judges to be 「業因緣生身」 tr. "bodies born of the causes and conditions of karma", not the free transformations of the dharma-body.
Birth-body bodhisattvas · dharma-body bodhisattvas. The treatise further distinguishes two kinds of bodhisattvas by whether or not the fetters have been cut off: 「菩薩有二種：一者、生身菩薩，二者、法身菩薩。一者、斷結使，二者、不斷結使。」 tr. "Bodhisattvas are of two kinds: first, birth-body bodhisattvas; second, dharma-body bodhisattvas. First, those who have cut off the fetters; second, those who have not cut off the fetters."〔T25 0342a22〕 Dharma-body bodhisattvas cut off the fetters and attain the six supernormal powers; birth-body bodhisattvas, either not cutting off the fetters or being free of desire, attain the five supernormal powers. This judgement and 「隨業生／法性身」 tr. "birth according to karma / the dharma-nature body" stand to each other as outside and inside, and together they judge the stage of the one who is reborn.
The samādhi of recollecting the Buddha. The treatise explains the cause of 「與般若相應故常值諸佛」 tr. "because one is in accord with prajñā, one always meets the Buddhas": 「因般若波羅蜜故，行念佛三昧等諸善法，生值諸佛。」 tr. "Because of prajñāpāramitā, one practises the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha and the other wholesome dharmas, and is born where one meets the Buddhas."〔T25 0338c12〕 Meeting the Buddhas in rebirth is not obtained by chance; it is the fruit of wholesome dharmas such as the recollection of the Buddha, gathered in by prajñā.
The leaping absorption. At the head of the Middle Part, the sūtra cited makes clear that the bodhisattva 「以方便力故入超越定」 tr. "by the power of skilful means enters the leaping absorption"〔T25 0343a15〕. The treatise explains that this is not the method of concentration spoken of in the Small Vehicle's Abhidharma Vibhāṣā〔T25 0343a22〕, but is accomplished by the bodhisattva's power of skilful means: he can rise from the first dhyāna and enter the attainment of cessation, and so on up to neither perception nor non-perception, going in and out freely.
The five eyes. The Middle and Last Parts explain the eyes one by one, and the general heading reads: 「淨於五眼：肉眼、天眼、慧眼、法眼、佛眼。」 tr. "Purify the five eyes: the flesh eye, the divine eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye, the Buddha eye."〔T25 0347a07〕 The flesh eye sees forms as far as the three-thousand great-thousand world; the divine eye sees beings dying here and being born there; the wisdom eye does not think of the conditioned or the unconditioned, the worldly or the world-transcending; the Dharma eye distinguishes those who proceed by faith from those who proceed by the Dharma; the Buddha eye enters the vajra samādhi and attains omniscience of all kinds. The treatise also concludes that prajñā can give rise to the five eyes, and that those who train in the five eyes attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi (unsurpassed, right, and complete awakening).
The six supernormal powers (the perfection of supernormal powers). The Last Part cites the sūtra making clear that one who cultivates the perfection of supernormal powers 「受種種如意事：能動大地；變一身為無數身」 tr. "enjoys all kinds of wonders at will: he can shake the great earth; he transforms one body into countless bodies"〔T25 0351b03〕. The six—wonders at will, the divine ear, knowing the minds of others, recollection of former lives, the divine eye, and the extinction of the outflows—are each not clung to, 「自性空故、自性離故、自性無生故」 tr. "because their own nature is empty, because their own nature is apart, because their own nature is unarisen", only 「除為薩婆若心」 tr. "except for the mind that is for sarvajñā (omniscience)." Here the supernormal powers are not displayed as marvels; they are instruments for liberating beings, gathered in by the wisdom of emptiness.
The mind of equality (the equality of beings · the equality of dharmas). The Last Part makes clear: 「一切眾生中生等心；一切眾生中生等心已，得一切諸法等」 tr. "toward all beings one gives rise to the mind of equality; having given rise to the mind of equality toward all beings, one attains the equality of all dharmas"〔T25 0353a11〕. Giving rise to the mind of equality toward beings is the beginning of the gate of practice; attaining the equality of dharmas is where it returns. The two are cause of each other; they are not two things.
III. Similes and Stories
The similes and jātakas (birth-stories) of this chapter are dense; they are where the lifeblood of the treatise-author's teaching lies. To make clear that the great bodhisattva dwells in a human body without being stained, the treatise uses the simile 「如鵝入水，水不令濕」 tr. "like a goose entering water: the water does not make it wet"〔T25 0337b07〕. To refute the annihilationist view that 「身滅便無」 tr. "when the body perishes there is nothing", the treatise likens the continuity of karma, neither one nor constant, to milk, curds, and butter: 「譬如乳中著毒，乳變為酪，酪變為酥；乳非酪、酥，酪、酥非乳，乳、酪雖變而皆有毒。」 tr. "Just as when poison is put into milk, the milk changes into curds and the curds change into butter; the milk is not the curds or the butter, and the curds and the butter are not the milk; though milk and curds change, all of them contain the poison."〔T25 0338a23〕 Again, with the trees in winter, which 「得時節會，則次第而出」 tr. "when they meet the right season, come forth in sequence", it likens the arising of the fruit of retribution to the ripening of causes and conditions.
Explaining the swiftness of 「初發心即得阿鞞跋致」 tr. "at the first arousing of the mind one at once attains avaivartika", the treatise sets out a simile of three ways of travel: 「譬如遠行，或有乘羊而去，或有乘馬而去，或有神通去者。」 tr. "Just as in travelling far, some go riding a goat, some go riding a horse, and some go by supernormal power."〔T25 0342c03〕 The one riding a goat arrives only after a very long time, the one riding a horse somewhat faster, and the one going by supernormal power arrives in the moment of a thought: a simile for the difference in sharpness and dullness among three kinds of arousing of the mind. Explaining the length of a kalpa, the treatise cites the simile of the city of mustard seeds and the simile of brushing the rock: a long-lived person takes away one mustard seed every hundred years, and with a light, soft cotton cloth of Kāśi the rock is brushed once every hundred years; the mustard seeds are exhausted and the rock is worn away, yet 「劫猶不澌」 tr. "the kalpa is still not used up"〔T25 0339b〕.
Two jātakas are the most notable. In the first, Śākyamuni Buddha in a former life was Uttara, who before Kāśyapa Buddha uttered the harsh words 「此禿頭人，何能得菩提道」 tr. "how could this bald-headed man attain the path of awakening?"〔T25 0341a15〕. The treatise judges that he showed harsh speech 「住諸法實相智中，入無上方便慧，度眾弟子故」 tr. "abiding in the knowledge of the real mark of all dharmas, having entered the unsurpassed wisdom of skilful means, for the sake of liberating his many disciples", and that it 「非是實也」 tr. "was not real", thereby revealing the meaning that the dharma-body bodhisattva liberates beings through all kinds of transformation bodies. In the second, in the Last Part, three hundred bhikṣus, at the time the chapter was being spoken, offered up their robes and aroused the mind, and the Buddha smiled and predicted that after sixty-one kalpas they would become Buddhas named Great Mark〔T25 0353b〕; the treatise uses this to explain the eight causes and conditions of the Buddha's smile, and that giving up the robes is not a breach of the precepts. Where the Last Part makes clear those who abide in ultimate emptiness in the six perfections: 「是人如金剛山，四面風起，不能令動」 tr. "this person is like a vajra mountain: when winds arise on the four sides, they cannot make it move"〔T25 0352c29〕. When abuse and praise come, it is as when winds from the four sides blow on the vajra mountain, and the mind does not change.
IV. The Sūtra Passage Explained
The Sūtra sections cited by this treatise follow, item by item and in the same order, Chapter 4, "Rebirth"〔T08 0225a24–0229c04〕, of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra translated by Kumārajīva of the Later Qin. Below, eleven groups are aligned word for word, proving that what the treatise explains is indeed the sūtra text of this version, not another translation or a rewriting.
For the passage of Śāriputra's question, the sūtra reads 「舍利弗白佛言：世尊！菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜能如是習相應者，從何處終來生此間」 tr. "Śāriputra said to the Buddha: World-Honored One! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises prajñāpāramitā and is able thus to practise in accord with it, from where does he end his life to come to be born here?"〔T08 0225a25–a27〕, and the same passage at the head of this treatise is wholly identical in wording. For the answer of the three places of coming, the sūtra reads 「或從他方佛國來生此間，或從兜率天上來生此間，或從人道中來生此間」 tr. "some come to be born here from other Buddha-lands, some come to be born here from the Tuṣita Heaven, some come to be born here from the human path"〔T08 0225a28–b01〕, wholly identical with this treatise. For the passage on the long-lived gods who do not follow skilful means, the sūtra's 「不以方便入初禪乃至第四禪…是菩薩諸根不利…是菩薩諸根亦鈍」 tr. "entering the first dhyāna up to the fourth dhyāna without skilful means … this bodhisattva's faculties are not sharp … this bodhisattva's faculties are also dull"〔T08 0225b15–b21〕 agrees word for word with this treatise. For the sentence on attaining Buddhahood in the Auspicious Kalpa, the sūtra's 「如是菩薩，賢劫中當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "such a bodhisattva will attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi in the Auspicious Kalpa"〔T08 0225b27–b28〕 is wholly identical with the final sentence in this treatise.
The remaining groups are also nearly word for word. For the leaping absorption, the sūtra's 「入初禪，從初禪起入滅盡定…以方便力故入超越定」 tr. "he enters the first dhyāna; rising from the first dhyāna he enters the attainment of cessation … by the power of skilful means he enters the leaping absorption"〔T08 0226a17–a23〕 is wholly identical with this treatise from 0343a15 onward. For the purification of the five eyes, the sūtra's 「淨於五眼：肉眼、天眼、慧眼、法眼、佛眼」 tr. "purify the five eyes: the flesh eye, the divine eye, the wisdom eye, the Dharma eye, the Buddha eye" is wholly identical with this treatise at 0347a07. For the two passages on the wonders at will of the perfection of supernormal powers and on giving rise to the mind of equality toward all beings, the sūtra text〔T08 0228b02–b03；0229b08–b09〕 agrees word for word or nearly word for word with this treatise at 0351b03 and 0353a11.
Between the two texts only two visible substantive differences remain, both differences of edition or of transcription graphs, not doctrinal divergences. First, the sūtra's 「諸深妙法皆現在前」 tr. "all the deep and wondrous dharmas appear before him"〔T08 0225b04〕, where this treatise's base text reads 「深法要皆現在前」 tr. "the deep essentials of the Dharma all appear before him", and the collation note at 0336b14 records exactly 「法要【大】｜妙法【宋】【元】【明】」 tr. "'essentials of the Dharma' in the Taishō | 'wondrous dharmas' in the Song, Yuan, and Ming"—proving that the sūtra's 「妙法」 tr. "wondrous dharmas" is the variant reading of this treatise's Song, Yuan, and Ming editions. Each of the two texts differs by edition; it is not a miscopying of the quotation. Second, the sūtra's 「除阿惟越致」 tr. "except the avaivartika"〔T08 0225b09〕, where this treatise reads 「除阿毘跋致」 tr. "except the avaivartika": 「惟越致」 tr. "weiyuezhi" and 「跋致」 tr. "bazhi" are older and newer transcription graphs of the same name, and the meaning does not differ. Further, for 「從一佛國至一佛國，常值諸佛，終不離諸佛」 tr. "from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, always meeting the Buddhas, never apart from all the Buddhas"〔T08 0225b12–b14〕, this treatise at 0337b27 reads 「常值諸佛，」 tr. "always meeting the Buddhas," while 「終不離佛」 tr. "never apart from the Buddha" lacks one character, 「諸」 tr. "all"; this is a minor difference of wording. All of these are listed separately and kept side by side, without forcing them into a single reading.
V. The Prajñā Eye
The pivot of the meaning established in this chapter lies in the two truths. The preceding chapter has already said 「眾生畢竟不可得」 tr. "beings ultimately cannot be found", and this chapter asks again where rebirth comes from and where it goes; the treatise-author does not take the two to contradict each other, but judges that worldly truth says there is, and the truth of the highest meaning says there is not〔T25 0336b28–c02〕. Emptiness does not deny rebirth, and rebirth does not destroy ultimate emptiness: this is the eye of the whole chapter.
The treatise-author also forcefully refutes the illness of beginners who grasp emptiness and turn it into annihilation. One who grasps the mark of emptiness objects: 「若一切法畢竟空，無來無去…云何死而有生」 tr. "if all dharmas are ultimately empty, with no coming and no going … how is there birth after death?" The treatise speaks at length, through all kinds of causes and conditions—the poison in milk, curds, and butter, the trees and the season, the joy and sorrow of former lives, and so on—of there being death and there being birth〔T25 0338a–0338b〕, and it cites the verse of the Middle Treatise: 「一切諸法實，一切法虛妄，諸法實亦虛，非實亦非虛！涅槃際為真，世間際亦真，涅槃世無別，小異不可得！」 tr. "All dharmas are real; all dharmas are false; dharmas are real and also false; neither real nor false! The limit of nirvāṇa is true; the limit of the world is also true; nirvāṇa and the world are not different—not the slightest difference can be found!"〔T25 0338c01〕 It concludes: 「畢竟空，不遮生死業因緣，是故說往生」 tr. "ultimate emptiness does not preclude the causes and conditions of the karma of birth and death; therefore rebirth is spoken of"〔T25 0338c05〕. Refuting the view of emptiness is the very means by which rebirth is established; rebirth is the very means by which ultimate emptiness is revealed.
The marks of rebirth of the various kinds of bodhisattvas in the chapter are each brought back to this structure. Those born according to karma are attached to the taste of dhyāna and have dull faculties; those who have attained the dharma-nature body transform freely to liberate beings〔T25 0340a02〕; those who are successors after three births, though in the ten abodes, still cultivate all the practices, because they have not yet taken realisation; the purity of the five eyes lies in 「不念」 tr. "not thinking of" the conditioned and the unconditioned (the wisdom eye); the cultivation of the six supernormal powers lies in 「自性空故…除為薩婆若心」 tr. "because their own nature is empty … except for the mind that is for sarvajñā"〔T25 0351b10〕; the practice of the six perfections lies in abiding in ultimate emptiness without discriminating giving and receiving, keeping and breaking the precepts. Rebirth takes a thousand different forms without clinging to marks; the gates of practice differ in ten thousand ways and return to sarvajñā. Not grasping yet able to practise, practising yet not grasping: this is where the prajñā eye lies from beginning to end.
VI. Divergent Readings of the Masters
For the ancient masters who cite this chapter, this section records what they cite and its correspondence with this chapter, and does not judge the relative merit of the masters' interpretations.
Jizang's Meaning of the Two Truths, T45n1854, cites it explicitly in three places, all quoting the opening question and answer of this chapter within the context of the two truths. First: 「大論釋往生品云。問云。前習應品。明無菩薩則無去來。今何故說有菩薩有去來耶。釋云。不相違。為凡說無去來。為聖說有去來。為聖說無去來。為凡說有去來。」 tr. "The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, explaining the Chapter on Rebirth, says: A question says: The preceding chapter, Practising in Accord, made clear that there is no bodhisattva and so no going and coming. Why now is it said that there are bodhisattvas and that there is going and coming? The explanation says: They do not contradict each other. For ordinary people it is said that there is no going and coming; for the noble ones it is said that there is going and coming. For the noble ones it is said that there is no going and coming; for ordinary people it is said that there is going and coming."〔T45 0081a01〕 Second, following on from this: 「中論既然。往生品類爾可知也。」 tr. "Since the Middle Treatise is so, the Chapter on Rebirth can be known to be of the same kind."〔T45 0081a23〕 Third, the most detailed: 「竝出經論。大智論釋往生品云。問曰。前習應品。明菩薩習應波若。不見菩薩。不見波若。無菩薩無波若。今何意復說有菩薩往生來生耶。答曰。前明無菩薩無波若者。就第一義諦門說波若。今說菩薩往生者。就世諦門說波若。此就二諦說波若也。」 tr. "Both appear in the sūtras and treatises. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, explaining the Chapter on Rebirth, says: Question: The preceding chapter, Practising in Accord, made clear that the bodhisattva practising in accord with prajñā does not see the bodhisattva and does not see prajñā; there is no bodhisattva and no prajñā. What is the intent in now saying again that there are bodhisattvas who are reborn and come to be born? Answer: Where it was made clear before that there is no bodhisattva and no prajñā, prajñā was spoken of by way of the gate of the truth of the highest meaning. Where it now speaks of bodhisattvas being reborn, prajñā is spoken of by way of the gate of worldly truth. This is speaking of prajñā in terms of the two truths."〔T45 0081b15〕 All three places revolve around the meaning of the two truths, and what they cite is precisely the question-and-answer framework of the passage at the opening of this treatise's explanation of the Chapter on Rebirth, 「答曰：佛法中有二諦」 tr. "Answer: In the Buddha's Dharma there are two truths."
Zhiyi's Words and Phrases of the Lotus, T34n1720, cites this chapter in two places. One takes 「菩薩從一佛土至一佛土」 tr. "the bodhisattva goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land"〔T34 0386c24〕, which is this chapter's sentence 「從一佛國至一佛國」 tr. "from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land"; the other reads 「又《釋論．往生品》云『菩薩若證四諦成辟支佛』」 tr. "Further, the Chapter on Rebirth of the Expository Treatise says: 'If a bodhisattva realises the four truths, he becomes a pratyekabuddha'"〔T34 0425c05〕, corresponding to the meaning of this chapter's 「未證四諦」 tr. "not yet having realised the four truths" and of the Dharma-eye passage's 「若取證者成辟支佛」 tr. "if he takes realisation, he becomes a pratyekabuddha." Zhanran's Notes on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus, T34n1721, cites 「《智論》釋〈往生品〉明三百比丘脫衣上佛舉手」 tr. "the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, explaining the Chapter on Rebirth, makes clear that three hundred bhikṣus took off their robes and offered them up to the Buddha, and the Buddha raised his hand"〔T34 0517a27〕, which is the passage in the Last Part on the three hundred bhikṣus who give up their robes and receive the prediction. Others, such as T33n1699, which cites this chapter's meaning of the wisdom eye〔T33 0120a22〕, and T38n1772, which cites the sharp-facultied among the host of the Tuṣita Heaven as successors after one birth〔T38 0278c10〕, each record the passage to which they correspond. The above only records what the masters cite and does not judge their interpretations.
VII. Cross-reading and Further Resonances
The two meanings of this chapter, 「二諦立往生」 tr. "rebirth established by the two truths" and 「畢竟空不遮生死」 tr. "ultimate emptiness does not preclude birth and death", are a backbone that the prajñā lineage takes up again and again. The treatise-author himself uses the verse of the Middle Treatise to prove that ultimate emptiness does not preclude rebirth〔T25 0338c〕, and so this chapter and the Middle-Way teaching of the two truths illuminate each other. Among the ancient masters, the clearest further resonance is Jizang, whose Commentary on the Larger Sūtra judges this chapter's question and answer together with the Middle Treatise as the two truths, saying 「中論既然，往生品類爾可知」 tr. "since the Middle Treatise is so, the Chapter on Rebirth can be known to be of the same kind"〔T45 0081a23〕: clear evidence that the doctrine of this chapter was handed down into the Three Treatises lineage.
The meanings of this chapter—the five eyes, the six supernormal powers, and the ultimate emptiness of the six perfections—were also taken up by later presentations of the prajñā teaching. The sequence of the five eyes and the conclusion concerning the Buddha eye, that it 「能生五眼」 tr. "can give rise to the five eyes", can be read together with other chapters of the Larger Sūtra and with the teaching of the five eyes in the prajñā sūtras generally; the judgement on the perfection of supernormal powers, 「自性空故…除為薩婆若心」 tr. "because their own nature is empty … except for the mind that is for sarvajñā"〔T25 0351b10〕, is the fixed formula by which prajñā gathers the supernormal powers back into sarvajñā. These further resonances lie in the continuity of the line of meaning; what each master takes follows the purport of his own school, and this section records the line of transmission without fixing a reading on anyone's behalf.
VIII. Witnesses and Editions
Of the collation notes for this chapter, those that bear on the meaning of the sūtra are selected as follows; the variant readings are preserved side by side, while the main text continues to follow the reading of the current base text.
0336b14: 法要【大】｜妙法【宋】【元】【明】 ('essentials of the Dharma' in the Taishō | 'wondrous dharmas' in the Song, Yuan, and Ming)—this is the basis of the variant reading in the first group of the reading of the explained sūtra, as explained above: this treatise's base text reads 「深法要」 tr. "the deep essentials of the Dharma", while the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions read 「深妙法」 tr. "the deep and wondrous dharmas", agreeing with the Larger Sūtra T223's 「深妙法」 tr. "the deep and wondrous dharmas." The two readings are consistent in meaning; both refer to the deep and wondrous gates of the Dharma.
0336b02: the fascicle-head title 「大智度論釋往生品第四之上（卷三十八）【大】｜摩訶般若波羅蜜經品第四往生品四卷四十【石】」 tr. "'Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter on Rebirth, the Fourth, First Part (Fascicle Thirty-eight)' in the Taishō | 'Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Chapter Four, Chapter on Rebirth, Four, Fascicle Forty' in the Ishiyama text"—the Ishiyama text heads the title with 「摩訶般若波羅蜜經」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra", reflecting the tradition in which the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa shares its title with the sūtra it explains.
0339b16–18／0339c20: 跋【大】｜颰【宋】【元】【明】【宮】【石】 ('ba', first graph, in the Taishō | 'ba', second graph, in the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, and Ishiyama texts)—a divergence in the graph used to transcribe a-ba-zhi (avaivartika). The editions uniformly substitute 「颰」 tr. "ba (second graph)"; this is a systematic variant graph throughout the whole text, not an isolated miswriting.
0337a15: 任【大】｜任得道【宋】【元】【明】【宮】 ('able' in the Taishō | 'able to attain the path' in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace)—「不任」 tr. "not able" / 「不任得道」 tr. "not able to attain the path": the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace editions have two more characters, making the sense more explicit; the meaning is the same.
0353a17: 減【大】｜滅【宮】 ('diminish' in the Taishō | 'extinguish' in the Palace)—「不減於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "does not diminish with respect to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi" / the Palace edition reads 「滅」 tr. "extinguish", perhaps through similarity of form. 「不減」 tr. "does not diminish" means that there is no retreat or diminution with respect to unsurpassed awakening, and the sense reads smoothly; the main text follows the base text's 「減」 tr. "diminish."
The items above record the transmission of the main text and the variant readings of the editions, and do not extend into a judgement of the relative merit of the editions. The complete collation notes of this chapter are preserved in the working base text (all four hundred and seventy-four collation notes recorded in full); this list transcribes only the principal items that bear on the wording of the sūtra's meaning.