It Goes by Itself

4.2 It Goes by Itself

The last chapter ended on this: the mind settles into reality, and so it is "immovable." But "the mind is immovable" sounds like stillness, like ceasing to stir—and this needs clearing up. The canon says just the reverse: once this mind settles into reality, it shows two shapes—one, "it goes by itself"; the other, "it cannot slide back." These two are the two faces of that one "immovability": not-acting (no need to strain and force—it just goes), and not-shaking (it can never regress). The canon calls this step the "Immovable ground," and the name itself carries both senses.

It goes by itself: no longer effortful

Take the first shape. The Avataṃsaka says that when a bodhisattva reaches the Immovable ground:

Abiding in the Immovable ground, he lets go of all effortful conduct and gains the effort-free dharma; the strivings of body, speech, and mind all cease, and he abides in the conduct of recompense.

"Lets go of all effortful conduct"—he sets down that way of working that is "step-by-step deliberate exertion, contrivance of mind"; "gains the effort-free dharma"—he comes to a way of working that need not strain, that flows of itself. Xuanzang's Daśabhūmika brings out two words: "apart from all effort, spontaneously flowing he reaches the attainment of the effort-free nature." "Spontaneous flow" is "moving along of its own accord, without your having to push it on."

Why is no strain needed at this step? Because once the last chapter's "settling into reality, setting down discrimination" is accomplished, this mind, in acting, need no longer "plan and exert step by step with a discriminating mind," but can let things flow of themselves along the reality it has directly seen. It is like rowing a boat. Against the current, in no wind, you must pull oar after oar with your arms, and the moment you rest the boat slides back (this is the effortful labor of the earlier grounds); but once the boat enters a following current, or catches a fair wind in its sail, you need row no more—the boat goes smoothly on by itself (this is "effortless flow").

The crucial thing here is not to hear "it goes by itself" as "lying down and quitting." What "letting go of all effortful conduct" lets go of is "the deliberate exertion of rowing," not "the voyage" itself—the boat is still moving, and moving more smoothly, with less strain. At this step the bodhisattva is not done delivering beings; he delivers "without strain"—benefit to others flows from him of itself, no longer needing deliberate rousing. The canon has a passage that proves this best: the moment a bodhisattva reaches the Immovable ground, his mind grows so still ("the activity of mind, will, and consciousness no longer arises," as below) that it verges on coming to rest; and so the Buddhas come in person to "urge" him not to stop:

Excellent, excellent, good man! … We buddhas—our ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and eighteen distinctive buddha-qualities, those masteries, you have not yet attained. To accomplish the mastery of the buddha-dharma, you should rouse vigour, and not abandon this gate of forbearance. … You should call to mind your original vows: to bring all beings to benefit, and to the gate of inconceivable wisdom.

The Buddhas say: it is well, but the buddha's ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive qualities—those masteries—"you have not yet attained"; to accomplish them "you should rouse vigour," not stop and let go here at the threshold of forbearance; you should call to mind the vow you first made—to bring all beings to benefit, into that gate of inconceivable wisdom. That the Buddhas must urge him so, "rise, do not stop," is the very proof, the other way around, that this step is not "no longer able to act," but "able to act without strain, yet at risk of coming to rest, and so needing to be reminded to go on." So "it goes by itself" is not lying down; it is "still going forward, without strain"—what is let go is the force of rowing, not the voyage itself.

It cannot slide back: rooted

Now the second shape. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, in one verdict:

The dharma of the forbearance of non-arising is just the irreversible (avaivartika) stage.

"Avaivartika" means "no turning back." Why, having trusted non-arising through, can the position no longer slide back? Because, as the last chapter said, the floor of this forbearance is "the wisdom of true reality, which nothing can break and nothing can move"—this trust in reality now has no condition that can break it or move it; and since it cannot be moved, the position naturally cannot slide back. So "the mind does not move" (cognition) and "the position does not regress" (mastery) are two ends of one thing: because the mind cannot be moved, the position cannot slide back. Its mark, the Śāstra says, is "abiding in the irreversible stage, life after life he always gains the spiritual powers of recompense, neither lost nor regressing"—life after life, the merit and powers already won are no longer lost, no longer fall away. The Daśabhūmika adds that at this step the effortful "activity of mind, will, and consciousness no longer arises," and even the afflictions "never manifest"—as one born in the Brahmā world: the coarse afflictions of the desire realm simply do not surface; not pressed down, but, the stage being what it is, naturally unmanifest. The afflictions not surfacing, there is no longer any "stirred by an affliction and so regressing."

This "cannot slide back" is like a tree that has taken root. A cutting stuck in the soil with no roots yet can stand upright for a while, but a storm topples it, a pull lifts it out, it can be moved elsewhere—like the bodhisattva before settling into reality, his roots of good still floating, regressing when adversity comes. A tree rooted deep in the ground a storm cannot uproot, cannot shake—this is the "cannot be moved, cannot slide back" after settling into reality. Non-regress is not a propping-up by force; it is roots gone down into reality, so that it naturally does not move.

A measure of plainness: this is still the causal stage

But here a measure of plainness must be kept. However high this mastery of "it goes by itself, it cannot slide back," it is still a matter of the bodhisattva's causal stage, not yet buddhahood. The plainest proof is in that very line where the Buddhas urge him—the Buddha says outright: those masteries, the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive qualities, "you have not yet attained." Even a bodhisattva who has reached the Immovable ground, who can flow effortlessly and not regress, the Buddha still reminds to his face, "you have not yet arrived." So this step is "the ripening of a causal-stage mastery," not "the fullness of the fruit-stage"; it is parted from buddhahood by the road still ahead. To take the Immovable ground's mastery for the Buddha's mastery erases that middle road, and goes against the Buddha's plain admonition, "you have not yet attained." How exactly the "masteries" of this ground are bounded off from the Tathāgata's, the next part treats on its own.

And just because "he has not yet arrived," this step hides a danger: the mind grows so still, still to the verge of nirvāṇa's quiescence, that if he clings to this "effort-free" stillness and will not rouse himself onward, he is stuck here, not advancing—the Buddhas' "urging him to rise" is precisely to cross this danger. So "it goes by itself, it cannot slide back" is not the terminus; it is to be "going on within the non-regress, delivering beings within the effortlessness." This sense of "not stopping in the quiescence halfway" is a deeper theme near this book's close (abiding in neither birth-and-death nor nirvāṇa); a marker is laid here.

Onward

A sentence: the mind settles into reality and does not move, and come down into mastery, that is these two shapes—it goes by itself (no strain, flowing of itself), and it cannot slide back (rooted in reality, nothing able to break or move it). One positive, one negative, both that single "immovability."

At this "Immovable ground," the bodhisattva has also gained something the canon counts as ten items, each called a "mastery"—over lifespan, over mind, over what he enjoys, over deeds, over birth … mastery in each. But these "ten masteries" are the bodhisattva's ten masteries, of the causal stage; how they are bounded off from the Tathāgata's ten masteries is the most crucial—and most easily blurred—line of all. The next part looks at these ten masteries on their own.