How to Will Backwards: Time, Forgetting and Repetition in the Lotus Sutra

如何逆流往過去立志──《妙法蓮華經》重覆觀、忘記觀、時間觀

任博克(Brook Ziporyn)

《中華佛學學報》 13期(下) (2000/05) Pp. 21-43

https://doi.org/10.6986/CHBJ.200005.0004

摘要

本文探討《妙法蓮華經》對於時間的帷幄運籌，由本經典中數序中的重覆性和主角聲聞弟子，對於自己的菩薩本願的遺忘來著手，用天台智者大師的註解方法中的四種解釋立場（因緣、教相、本跡、觀心）的本跡立場來分析本經典對於聲聞弟子定位的問題。智者大師引申法華論，自己立義五種聲聞。其最後一種命名為大乘聲聞，同時也是大乘菩薩也是小乘聲聞，非為內菩薩外聲聞，亦非為部份菩薩部份聲聞。經文指出舍利子「忘記」自己早是菩薩，此「忘記」本身亦即是菩薩行的一個表現，並非是菩薩行的遺失或否定，亦可為愈當聲聞愈當菩薩。如經文所謂的真聲聞，即是大乘聲聞，亦即是「一聲聞一切聲聞」。依時間觀而言，此一剎那自認為菩薩，亦把自己無實過去、無窮未來，皆解讀為「菩薩行」。就算以後又忘掉自己菩薩的身份，亦無礙於現在眼目中所認識的事實：即是遺忘本身也是一種菩薩行。歸納此事含義的時間觀的話，可謂每一剎那是無限時光的總體，可以說是薰陶其他所有的剎那，把這一剎那的屬性特點都隱隱表現在所有剎那裡面，如經文說，授記以後的聲聞才是「真聲聞」，同時肯定跟否定聲聞的身份，含著天台宗中心思想的三諦概念，同時此種聲聞行具菩薩行成為天台性具思想的典故。如此聲聞彌隱彌顯。同理此一剎那各種屬性彌隱彌顯。此道理亦可引申到空間觀，如廣修法師談論「無情成佛」的道理所現，有情無情中間的關係亦如此剎那於其他剎那的關係一樣。有情成佛時，一切無情同時成佛。此佛性亦彌隱彌顯。

關鍵字

《妙法蓮華經》 ； 天台 ； 時間觀 ； 聲聞 ； 遺忘

並列摘要

This essay is an investigation into the certain distinctive rhetorical features of the Saddharmapundarika Sutra, with special attention to their relation to Tiantai doctrine. In particular, it focuses on the relation between the sravaka disciples and the Bodhisattva's, or between a particular figure's own sravakahood and the same figure's bodhisattvahood, which is seen as the primary locus classicus for the Tiantai doctrine of ＂inherent entailment.＂ In the case of Sariputra, we are told that he has forgotten his own Bodhisattva vows, that he has been a Bodhisattva all along without Knowing it. In the Tiantai reading, this further means that his practice as a sravaka has been a part of his practice as a Bodhisattvahood, and indeed his own forgetting of his Bodhisattvahood has been a part of this practice. Zhiyi analyzes the sutra according to four categories: 1) Narrative causes and conditions, 2) Categorization of Buddhist teachings, 3) Roots and traces and 4) Mind contemplation. It is the third of these categories that is of special relevance to the Lotus, the analysis of the ＂original＂ or ＂root＂ identities of all the characters in the text and their present ＂traces＂ of apparent situation and practice. We are told in this part of the Fahua wenju commentary that all the sravaka and Bodhisattvas in the text have long been Buddhas. Zhiyi further introduces the category of ＂Mahayana sravakas,＂ a contradiction in terms which crystallizes the Tiantai view on this matter. For he ends up concluding that we are not to understand the relation of roots and traces as a form of conscious dissimulation, where one is inwardly aware of one's Buddhahood but pretends to be a sravaka or even a heretic, or as a differentiation between ＂real＂ Bodhisattvahood and ＂merely apparent＂ sravakahood, but rather in accord with the forgetting of one's own status as a further exemplification of that status. The Mahayana sravakas are all the more Bodhisattvas the more they are real sravakas. Moreover, in a distinctive Tiantai move, they are only in this way ＂true sravakas＂-to be a Bodhisattva, in fact, is simply to be a sravaka (literally, ＂soundhearer＂) only moreso: they now ＂make heard＂ the ＂sound＂ of the Dharma universally, as Bodhisattvas. The vision of time that emerges from this, and the rhetorical Emphasis on repeated realization and homonymous Buddhas awakening again and again in the text, is one where certain moments of awakening distinguish themselves by their ability to recognize themselves in every past and future moment, to see all previous and future deviations from themselves as also instantiations of themselves; awakening is a moment which see all previous and future non-awakening as forms of awakening, as forgettings of awakening which further express awakening. This temporal position is analogous to the Tiantai treatment of the ＂Buddhahood of insentient beings＂ in the spatial register: being awakened means seeing awakening even in the non-awake insentient beings, as forms of the expression of awakening, such that it can never be definitively said that any of these beings are purely awakened or deluded, sentient or insentient. Hence we find that the Lotus Sutra's treatment of Sariputra's forgetting of his bodhisattvahood serves as a model for some of the most distinctive Tiantai doctrines.

並列關鍵字

Lotus Sutra ； Tiantai ； Time ； Sravaka ； Forgetting

參考文獻

Ruiguang(1978)。妙法蓮華經妙德玄記。