The Visible Seal

5.1 The Visible Seal

A Buddha, to deliver beings, must show a visible body. That body's adornment is the thirty-two marks and the eighty signs (also called the eighty secondary marks). At the words "a Buddha has thirty-two marks and eighty signs," one readily slides toward one of two extremes. One extreme is "grasping the marks": taking the marks and signs for the essence of buddha-virtue, the highest in a Buddha, and so supposing that to see the marks is to see what is ultimate in a Buddha—even grasping at the marks to seek a Buddha. The other extreme is "slighting the marks": having heard "the dharma-body is markless," "one should not see the Tathāgata by form," one takes the marks and signs for an inessential ornament, to be passed over, and even feels that to speak of the marks is to be caught in form. This chapter says: both extremes are off. The marks and signs are neither the essence of buddha-virtue nor an irrelevant ornament; they are a seal this freedom shows upon its form-body—a seal that can be seen.

The Marks Are the Adornment of the Born-Body, Not the Virtue of the Dharma-Body

First, against "grasping the marks." The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra draws the line plainly: the marks and signs belong to the "born-body," not the "dharma-body":

For the sake of the born-body, the thirty-two marks are spoken; for the sake of the dharma-body, the markless is spoken. The Buddha's body adorns itself with the thirty-two marks and eighty secondary marks; the dharma-body is adorned by the virtues—the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four analytical knowledges, the eighteen distinctive dharmas.

The treatise sets two bodies, two adornments, side by side: the adornment of the born-body (the form-body) is the thirty-two marks and eighty secondary marks; the adornment of the dharma-body is the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas—the very virtues of wisdom the last part read. So the marks and signs and the virtues of wisdom are not on one layer at all: the virtues of wisdom adorn the "dharma-body" (buddha-virtue itself, markless), the marks and signs adorn the "born-body" (the form-body shown for delivering beings).

"For the sake of the dharma-body, the markless is spoken"—this line is the crux. Buddha-virtue itself—the dharma-body—is precisely "markless"; its adornment is in the virtues of wisdom, not in the marks and signs. So to take the marks and signs for the essence of buddha-virtue is to get it exactly backwards: the essence of buddha-virtue is markless—how could it be those visible thirty-two marks? One who grasps the marks as ultimate is like one who takes a person's signature for the person himself. A signature is the person's mark, not the person's own substance. The marks and signs are this freedom's seal (mark) upon the form-body, not this freedom's own substance (the substance is the markless dharma-body). This is the first sense of the word "seal": a seal identifies its owner, not the owner's essence; the marks and signs identify a Buddha, not the essence of buddha-virtue.

The Marks Are Shown for Delivering Beings, Not an Ornament One Could Do Without

Now, against "slighting the marks." Though the marks and signs belong to the born-body and are felt as fruit of cultivated cause, they are by no means an ornament one could do without. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, continuing that very passage, says a Buddha shows the marks and signs to deliver a certain kind of being:

Beings have two sorts of conditions, the treatise says—the condition of merit and the condition of wisdom. To guide beings of the "condition of merit," a Buddha uses the form-body of the thirty-two marks; to guide beings of the "condition of wisdom," the markless dharma-body. And the treatise puts it concretely—"for those who, seeing form, rejoice and rouse the mind of the path, He shows the body adorned with the thirty-two marks": some beings, seeing an adorned form, rejoice and thereby rouse the mind of the path; for them a Buddha shows the body of the thirty-two marks. And the treatise marks this above all: a Buddha shows the body of the marks and signs "to display what is most excellent among all beings, showing the thirty-two marks, yet not breaking the markless dharma"—showing the marks does not hinder or break that "markless" dharma-body. One face is the markless dharma-body (for beings caught in marks, the markless is spoken, that they not cling); one face is the born-body of the marks and signs (for beings who rejoice at form, the marks are shown, that they rouse the mind)—the two faces do not hinder each other.

Then what weight does this "for the sake of the born-body" form-body adornment carry? In the Avataṃsaka's "Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas" chapter, the bodhisattva Blue-Lotus-Store lists the buddhas' ten "most excellent, unsurpassed adornments," and places the marks and signs first:

All the buddhas are fully complete in the marks and secondary marks—this is the buddhas' foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment.

The marks and signs are the buddhas' "foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment"—first among the buddhas' bodily adornments. Plainly the marks and signs are no ornament to be made light of: they are the most excellent aspect of the buddhas' form-body adornment, the aspect that first draws beings in when a Buddha shows His body to deliver them. The markless dharma-body beings cannot lay hold of; so a Buddha shows in the world a body of marks and signs felt as fruit of cultivated cause, making that markless inner virtue visible to the eyes of beings—seeing the fullness of His marks and signs, they trust the fullness of His inner virtue. One who slights the marks is like one who discards a person's seal as irrelevant, so that the person can no longer appear upon a document, no longer be recognized. That the marks may not be slighted lies just here, in their necessity for delivering beings: a markless virtue must have a visible aspect by which to draw beings in, and the marks and signs are that visible aspect.

This Seal Is Cultivated—Cultivated After Three Incalculable Aeons

The marks and signs belonging to the born-body, their provenance too follows the born-body's principle—felt as fruit of cultivated cause, not had by nature. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra asks: when are the karmic causes of the thirty-two marks sown? It answers:

After three incalculable aeons have passed, then are the karmic causes of the thirty-two marks sown.

Only after three incalculable aeons does one further sow the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks" (here is the root of the later phrase "cultivating the marks and signs over a hundred aeons"). The treatise, telling of the three incalculable aeons, comes right back to that matter from Part One: from the buddha Ratnaśikhin to the buddha Dīpaṃkara is the second incalculable aeon—where the bodhisattva offered Dīpaṃkara blue lotuses, spread his hair over the mud, and Dīpaṃkara prophesied to him, "you shall be a Buddha in a future age, named Śākyamuni"; from Dīpaṃkara to the buddha Vipaśyin is the third incalculable aeon. Only after these three incalculable aeons are the karmic causes of the marks sown. So the marks and signs are an adornment on the form-body's side, felt as fruit through cause—and this does not conflict with the last part's "the virtues of wisdom are not acquired beyond severance": the dharma-body's virtues of wisdom are not acquired from outside, while the born-body's marks and signs are plainly felt as fruit of cultivated cause; the two do not conflict, precisely because the marks and signs belong to the "born-body" register (a form-body adornment felt through cause), not the "dharma-body" register (buddha-virtue itself, markless). The marks and signs' "being cultivated" is a form-body adornment felt through cause, not a saying that the dharma-body's own substance acquires anything besides.

Onward

Join this seal back to the main thread. Part One said the ten epithets are a seal this freedom shows upon its "name," a seal that can be read. This chapter says the marks and signs are a seal this freedom shows upon its "form-body," a seal that can be seen. One readable, one visible, both are "seals"—both identify the one and the same markless freedom-substance (the dharma-body, the virtue of wisdom), and not the essence of that substance. A Buddha's freedom is itself the markless dharma-body (adorned by the virtue of wisdom); yet once it appears in the world, it has two seals—the readable name (the ten epithets) and the visible marks (the marks and signs)—making that markless fullness readable and visible before beings. The marks and signs supply the "body" heading's form-body-seal aspect.

So the middle way lies between the two extremes: neither grasping the marks as essence (and so not seeking a Buddha's ultimate in form), nor slighting the marks as irrelevant (and so not discarding the form-body adornment shown for delivering beings). Only cultivate the markless dharma-body's virtue of wisdom (turn the defiled into the pure, perfect the four wisdoms, complete the virtues of wisdom), and the marks and signs are of themselves its born-body seal—as, when a person's virtue is complete, his seal appears of itself upon the document, with no need to chase after it in form, nor to slight the seal because the dharma-body is markless.

Only—this visible seal is "shown for delivering beings." That "for delivering beings" itself—the root that makes a Buddha unable not to show His body and deliver, and the fullness that makes this deliverance answer the capacities of all—what is it? The next chapter: compassion is the root.