No Lapse, No Impediment

4.2 No Lapse, No Impediment

The Avataṃsaka raises the ten powers and four fearlessnesses, together with the eighteen distinctive dharmas, and names them outright "the Tathāgata's masterful function." The last chapter looked at the first two clusters. This one looks at the rest: the eighteen distinctive dharmas, the four analytical knowledges. The question is still the same: is this yet another batch of vessels carried in? This chapter says: no—and these two, above all, let one see why the "function" is not "acquired."

The Eighteen Distinctive Dharmas: Eighteen, and Not One a "Newly Gained Feat"

First the eighteen distinctive dharmas. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra lists them one by one:

First, the Buddhas' body without lapse; second, speech without lapse; third, mindfulness without lapse; fourth, no errant ideation; fifth, no unconcentrated mind; sixth, no inattentive equanimity; seventh, zeal without diminution; eighth, vigor without diminution; ninth, mindfulness without diminution; tenth, wisdom without diminution; eleventh, liberation without diminution; twelfth, the knowing-and-seeing of liberation without diminution; thirteenth, all bodily action following wisdom; fourteenth, all verbal action following wisdom; fifteenth, all mental action following wisdom; sixteenth, wisdom knowing the past unobstructed; seventeenth, wisdom knowing the future unobstructed; eighteenth, wisdom knowing the present unobstructed.

Look at the face of these eighteen. Not one of them is "a Buddha has gained some new feat"; all eighteen are three aspects: non-, following, unobstructed.

The first sort is "non-"—the three non-lapses (of body, speech, mindfulness) and the six non-diminutions (of zeal, vigor, mindfulness, wisdom, liberation, and the knowing-and-seeing of liberation). This is the language of negation, not the building of a new ability. "Body without lapse, speech without lapse, mindfulness without lapse" does not mean a Buddha has gained three "powers of not erring"; it means that in a Buddha's already-perfected three actions of body, speech, and mind, not one lapse is any longer to be found—just like the last chapter's "seeing not the slightest mark of fear": upon the already-perfected virtue, seek a lapse, seek a diminution, and however one tries, none is to be found. The "six non-diminutions" likewise: zeal, vigor, mindfulness, wisdom, liberation, and the knowing-and-seeing of liberation, these six, in a Buddha never retreat or diminish—not that He has gained "six powers of non-diminution," but the aspect of the six virtues already possessed being "incapable of diminution."

The second sort is "following"—the three actions following wisdom (body, speech, and mind, all turning with wisdom). This too is no further-gained "power of making the three actions obey wisdom"; it means a Buddha's three actions of body, speech, and mind have not one straying outside wisdom, not one act that wisdom does not carry. This is the last part's corollary: the four wisdoms being a Buddha's cognitive structure, His every move and stir is, without exception, threaded through by that cognition—"following wisdom" is the aspect of the three actions wholly held by wisdom.

The third sort is "unobstructed"—the three-times knowledge unobstructed (knowing the past, the future, the present, unobstructed). This is just the last chapter's ten powers (the all-modes wisdom shining on the ten objects) fallen upon "the three times": knowing the past, knowing the future, knowing the present, without obstruction. The word "unobstructed," once again, written straight into the names of the buddha-virtues.

So the eighteen distinctive dharmas, not one of them "a feat carried in beyond severing the defilements and turning into wisdom"—all eighteen are one and the same already-perfected wisdom-virtue and severance-virtue, shown forth in these four aspects of "non-lapse, non-diminution, following wisdom, unobstructed."

The treatise even raises a question of its own: all these are buddha-dharmas; why are just these eighteen called "distinctive"? Because the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha have "no share" in these eighteen—these eighteen are not held in common with the two vehicles, and so are called "distinctive." Here a word must be marked gravely for the reader: when the treatise says the two vehicles have "no share," what it sets up is the fruition-aspect that "only the buddha-fruit fully possesses these eighteen"—which is just what this book has said all along, that "the fruit-stage differs from the cause-stage." But how this "distinctiveness" is to be reconciled with what the bodhisattva volume said—"heteromorphic, and not higher-and-lower"—and on which of these the two vehicles and the cause-stage bodhisattva have or have not a share: that is a larger adjudication. This book only records the words of the treatise and the scripture, and leaves the adjudication to the author; it does not, here, pronounce on high-and-low in its stead.

The Four Analytical Knowledges: Penetration Without Impediment Is Called Unobstructed

Now the four analytical knowledges. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra lists four unobstructed knowings—of meaning, dharma, expression, and eloquence—and explains them with "earth" (the ground) as example:

Here earth's solid mark is the "meaning"; the name "earth" is the "dharma"; speaking this earth in words is the "expression"; mastery in expounding, among the three knowings, is "eloquence"; penetrating these four matters without impediment is called "unobstructed knowing."

Take "earth" as example: earth's hard mark is its "meaning" (the import to be told); the name "earth" is the "dharma" (the name that tells); putting this earth into spoken words is the "expression"; and to expound in mastery among these three, gladly speaking to the listener's bent, is "eloquence." To penetrate these four—meaning, dharma, expression, eloquence—with not a single point of impediment: this is called "unobstructed knowing."

Bite down on the treatise's closing words: "penetrating these four matters without impediment is called unobstructed knowing." The exact sense of "unobstructed" is just "penetration without impediment." So the four analytical knowledges are no four eloquence-sorceries a Buddha gains besides; they are that "unobstructed" wisdom—the very wisdom of the last part's observation wisdom, "turning without hindrance, teaching and severing doubt"—when it teaches beings, in its aspect of penetrating without impediment the four matters of the meaning told, the name that tells, the words that speak, and the eloquence that suits the occasion. The last chapter's latter two fearlessnesses (declaring what obstructs the path, declaring the path to the end of suffering) were already a Buddha's fearlessness in "speaking"; these four analytical knowledges open that "speaking" further into four faces, each penetrating without impediment. (One word to mark: this passage of the treatise speaks of the four analytical knowledges through the cause-stage bodhisattva's too, while the consummation of the buddha-ground's four is set up apart; and the grounds each rests on, the knowings each comprises, the treatises tell differently—these finer discriminations this book records as the treatise's own text, and does not reconcile in its stead.)

Worth marking once more: the four analytical knowledges have the word "unobstructed" whole within their name; and the fourth, "eloquence," the treatise further calls "mastery in expounding"—"unobstructed" plus "mastery." This book's keynote, "unobstructed mastery," upon this fruition-virtue's name, stands all but explicit.

Onward: The Completeness and Opening-Out of the Function

Draw the whole part together. The ten powers and four fearlessnesses (last chapter), the eighteen distinctive dharmas and four analytical knowledges (this chapter), make up that one line of the Avataṃsaka, "the Tathāgata's masterful function." These four clusters can be seen in two faces—the function's "completeness," and the function's "opening-out."

The ten powers (wisdom's knowing-as-it-is) and the eighteen distinctive dharmas (virtue's non-lapse, non-diminution, following-wisdom, unobstructedness) show the function's "completeness": a Buddha's wisdom-virtue bright and full, the three actions without lapse or diminution, every move following wisdom, the three times unobstructed—this is the aspect of the freedom's "self-benefit complete"; precisely because self-benefit is complete, His deliverance of beings does not err, does not retreat, does not run dry. The four fearlessnesses (the lion's roar that sees not the slightest mark of fear) and the four analytical knowledges (the exposition that penetrates without impediment) show the function's "opening-out": a Buddha's teaching that none can challenge, meaning and dharma and expression and eloquence penetrating everywhere—this is the aspect of the freedom's "other-benefit unobstructed"; precisely because other-benefit is unobstructed, His deliverance of beings is everywhere, without congestion, met to every capacity. Completeness is why the function can be relied on; opening-out is why the function reaches beings. Both faces are one and the same freedom's function, not two affairs.

Here this book's main thread stands fourfold complete: name (the readable aspect), body (the visible aspect), wisdom (the cognitive aspect), function (the aspect toward the world, delivering beings). Four, all the showing of one and the same buddha-fruit freedom, not four batches of things acquired beyond the freedom. And this part above all lets one see: a Buddha's freedom, its function, whether in completeness or in opening-out, has "unobstructed" for its aspect—unobstructed in knowing (the ten powers, the three-times knowledge unobstructed), unobstructed to challenge (the four fearlessnesses none can challenge), unobstructed in speaking (the four analytical knowledges penetrating without impediment). The "unobstructed freedom," at this part, has truly written "unobstructed" out in fact, one place after another.

For one who walks the road, this rights a thought: to suppose the fruition-virtues are things to be "gotten" batch by batch—gaining the four wisdoms, then gaining the ten powers and four fearlessnesses, then gaining the eighteen distinctive dharmas and four analytical knowledges—and so, beyond the transformation of the basis, to seek batch by batch a further work of "getting virtue." This part is the medicine: the eighteen distinctive dharmas are no eighteen capacities to be gotten from outside, but the aspect of already-perfected virtue's "non-lapse, non-diminution, following-wisdom, unobstructedness"; the four analytical knowledges still less an eloquence to be drilled from outside, but the aspect of "penetration without impediment." So what one who walks should do is still to "turn the defiled into the pure"—wisdom and severance once full, non-lapse and non-diminution are of themselves the aspect of perfected virtue, penetration without impediment of itself the aspect of exposition, as a mirror polished bright shines on all and mirrors all clear, with no need to seek outside the mirror a further "shining that does not err," a "mirroring that does not impede." Once one chases after "virtue to be gotten," it becomes a fresh bondage; only do to the full the work of turning the defiled into the pure, and the function's completeness and opening-out will show of themselves.

Only—this "function" has yet one face unopened: upon what manner of bodily form does it appear? And that root of being "for beings," toward which it has turned all along—what is it? The next part looks to the marks, the great compassion, and the all-modes wisdom.