尔时,文殊师利菩萨问觉首菩萨言:佛子!心性是一,云何见有种种差别?所谓:或乐或苦,或善或恶,或善巧或愚痴,或见或盲,或正或邪……觉首菩萨以偈答言:仁今问是义,为晓悟群蒙。我如其性答,惟仁应谛听。诸法无作用,亦无有体性;是故彼一切,各各不相知。
逐句解释
心性是一,云何见有种种差别?
文殊师利问了《华严经》中最核心的一个哲学问题:如果「心性」(心的本性,即佛性)是一,为什么我们所见的世界是千差万别的?苦与乐、善与恶、智与愚……这些差别从何而来?这个问题直指「一与多」「理与事」的张力,是华严哲学的核心议题。
If the nature of mind is one, how do we observe all these different distinctions? Such as: some happy, some suffering; some good, some evil; some skilful, some deluded; some sighted, some blind; some correct, some mistaken…
This is one of the great philosophical questions of the Avatamsaka, and indeed of all of Mahayana Buddhism. If Buddha-nature (佛性) is universal and undivided — if, at the deepest level, all minds share one nature — why does the world manifest as such radical diversity? Why are some beings liberated and others not? Why does the same essential nature appear as wisdom in one person and delusion in another? Manjushri is not asking out of confusion; he is setting up a teaching dialogue that will illuminate the relationship between the absolute (一, the one nature) and the relative (多, the many appearances).
诸法无作用,亦无有体性;是故彼一切,各各不相知
觉首菩萨以偈答:一切法(现象)没有固定的「作用」,也没有固定的「体性」(自性)——因此,一切现象彼此之间「各各不相知」,互不干涉,各自以各自的条件显现。差别的存在不是因为有一个「心」在不同地方产生了不同效果,而是因为诸法本无自性,各随因缘而起,因缘不同,显现自然各异。这是般若空性在华严语境中的诠释。
All phenomena have no fixed activity, nor any inherent nature; therefore, all these things do not know each other — each arising separately according to its own conditions.
Juéshou's answer draws on the Prajnaparamita doctrine of emptiness (空, sunyata): phenomena have no fixed, inherent self-nature (自性). Because nothing has a rigid, independent essence, everything arises freely in dependence on conditions (缘起). Suffering arises when conditions for suffering are present; joy arises when conditions for joy are present. The "one nature" of mind is not a substance that gets modified into different forms — it is the open, empty ground in which all forms arise and pass. Diversity does not contradict unity; diversity is what empty, open unity looks like when conditions are at play. This answer became a touchstone of Huayan-Chan synthesis in Tang-dynasty China.
(文殊师利问财首菩萨:一切众生非无种种差别智,云何而得成就?)
对话继续:文殊师利接着问财首菩萨——众生的「种种差别智」(各种各样的智慧能力)是如何成就的?财首菩萨回答:一切智慧的根本,在于「随顺一切众生」,在于对众生的深切了知。智慧不是从外部获得的信息,而是在与众生的真实相遇中生长出来的。这把「智慧论」和「慈悲论」合为一体。
[Manjushri asks Bodhisattva Caishou: all beings have various forms of discriminating wisdom — how is this wisdom accomplished?]
The dialogue in Chapter 10 proceeds through ten pairs of bodhisattvas asking and answering ten fundamental questions about mind, wisdom, practice, and reality — with Manjushri providing the synthesising response to each exchange. The question about "various discriminating wisdom" leads to a key Huayan insight: wisdom is not acquired through study alone but through deep, attentive relationship with beings and phenomena. This is the bodhisattva's distinctive epistemology: you come to know reality truly by caring for it, by entering its conditions, by refusing to remain at a distance. Compassion is not separate from wisdom — it is wisdom's mode of operation in the world.
文殊师利答:菩萨在此会,能知众生性;随其所应度,为彼说法教
文殊师利在第十品中每次作最终回答,都回归到同一个要点:「随其所应度,为彼说法教」——随顺对方的根器和因缘,为他说合适的法。这是整个第七至第十品(名号品、四圣谛品、光明觉品、菩萨问明品)所反复揭示的核心:真理是一,但引导众生趋向真理的方式是无量的,必须因人而异、因缘而化。觉悟的智慧,同时也是觉悟的慈悲。
Manjushri answers: the bodhisattva, within this assembly, can know the nature of all beings; following what each should be liberated by, he teaches the Dharma accordingly.
Manjushri's recurring answer throughout Chapter 10 points to the bodhisattva's defining skill: knowing beings. Not knowing about beings in an abstract way, but knowing the particular conditions, capacities, wounds, and readiness of each individual being — and responding precisely to what is actually needed. This is prajna (wisdom) and karuna (compassion) operating as one movement. In the Huayan framework, this is the "Buddha's knowing" (佛知见) that the practitioner is gradually developing across the bodhisattva path: a knowing so intimate that it spontaneously generates the appropriate response, the right name, the right teaching, the right gesture — for every being, in every moment.
总结 · Summary
第十品是《华严经》最精彩的哲学对话之一。十位菩萨就心性、智慧、差别、修行等十个根本问题展开问答,文殊师利作最终综合。核心回答是:诸法无自性,随缘显现,因此虽心性本一,差别万千——差别非障碍,乃缘起之庄严。而菩萨的智慧,根本上是「知众生」的智慧:随其根器,为说相应之法。智慧与慈悲,在这里合而为一。
Chapter 10 is the Avatamsaka's great philosophical symposium. Ten bodhisattvas take turns asking Manjushri the ten most fundamental questions about reality, wisdom, and practice — and Manjushri's answers consistently circle back to a single insight: phenomena have no fixed nature; they arise in dependence on conditions; wisdom is the capacity to know beings well enough to respond to exactly what each needs. The one and the many are not a problem to be solved but a dynamic to be inhabited. And the practitioner who inhabits it well — knowing the nature of each being and responding accordingly — is exactly what a bodhisattva is.