Without the Least Effort

6.1 Without the Least Effort

Name, body, wisdom, function—all four headings are read. But when these four gather back into one, perfected upon a Buddha, does this "perfection" itself have an aspect of its own? It does. This chapter reads two: the Tathāgata's ten masteries (perfection's "capacity"), and the four virtues of the great nirvāṇa (perfection's "virtue").

The Fruit-Ground's Ten Masteries Are Not the Eighth Ground's Set Brightened

First the ten masteries. Part One laid a thread in waiting: a bodhisattva of the eighth ground has already attained a set of "ten masteries"; but the scripture went on to say the buddhas have, besides, a set "not yet attained" by him. That is the cause-ground's ten masteries, and the fruit-ground's are another—two sets. Set them side by side now: they are not one set of capacities merely brighter at the buddha level, but two sets, cause-level and fruit-level.

The proof is in the two places the Avataṃsaka itself lists them, separately. One is in the "Ten Grounds" chapter, where the bodhisattva Vajragarbha tells the ten masteries an eighth-ground (immovable-ground) bodhisattva accomplishes:

Having accomplished such a body of wisdom, the bodhisattva attains mastery of life, mastery of mind, mastery of wealth, mastery of action, mastery of birth, mastery of vow, mastery of understanding, mastery as-wished, mastery of wisdom, mastery of dharma.

Life, mind, wealth, action, birth, vow, understanding, as-wished, wisdom, dharma—these ten masteries are marked, in subject, as the "bodhisattva's," the "immovable ground's": cause-level. The other place is the "Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas" chapter, where the bodhisattva Blue-Lotus-Store lists, separately, the "buddhas, the World-Honored Ones'" ten masterful dharmas, marked in subject as the "buddhas'":

The buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, have ten masterful dharmas. What are the ten? All the buddhas master all dharmas, comprehending the various word-bodies and phrase-bodies, expounding the dharmas with unobstructed eloquence—this is the buddhas' first masterful dharma. All the buddhas teach beings never missing the time, expounding the true dharma according to their wishes, taming them all without break—this is the buddhas' second masterful dharma. All the buddhas can adorn the whole of space in measureless ways and make all worlds quake in six ways, raising or lowering, enlarging or shrinking, joining or scattering them, never harming a single being…—this is the buddhas' third masterful dharma. All the buddhas, by spiritual power, can purify all worlds, in a single thought manifesting the adornment of all worlds…bringing the purifying of every buddha-field equally into one field—this is the buddhas' fourth masterful dharma. All the buddhas, seeing one being fit to be taught, abide in lifespan for its sake through unspeakable, unspeakable aeons, to the very end of the future…taming it by skillful means without missing the time; as for one being, so for all beings alike—this is the buddhas' fifth masterful dharma. All the buddhas can go everywhere the Tathāgatas of all worlds traverse, without for a moment forsaking the whole dharma-realm…reaching all in a single thought by spiritual power, turning the unobstructed pure dharma-wheel—this is the buddhas' sixth masterful dharma. All the buddhas, to tame all beings, in thought after thought accomplish supreme awakening…penetrating without impediment, with measureless wisdom and measureless mastery, teaching and taming all beings—this is the buddhas' seventh masterful dharma. All the buddhas can do with the eye-faculty the buddha-work of the ear-faculty, with the ear-faculty the buddha-work of the nose-faculty…with the body-faculty the buddha-work of the mind-faculty, and with the mind-faculty, in all worlds, do measureless vast buddha-work in every mundane and supramundane realm—this is the buddhas' eighth masterful dharma. All the buddhas, in each single pore of their body, can contain all beings, each being's body equal to unspeakable buddha-fields yet uncrowded…and in all of it without any obstruction—this is the buddhas' ninth masterful dharma. All the buddhas, in a single thought, manifest buddhas as many as the dust-motes of all worlds…in a single thought all is manifested, in a single thought measurelessly abiding, yet never using the least skillful effort—this is the buddhas' tenth masterful dharma.

Set the two side by side and it is plain: the subject differs (one the "bodhisattva," one the "buddhas"), the list differs (the eighth ground's is life-mind-wealth-action… one name after another; the buddhas' is "mastering all dharmas, unobstructed eloquence… manifesting all buddhas in a single thought," told by its sense), and the order differs. The Avataṃsaka itself, by these two separate lists, judges the cause-level ten masteries and the fruit-level ten masteries plainly distinct—not one set at differing brightness.

And the fruit-level set's aspect is wholly in the last line: "in a single thought all is manifested… yet never using the least skillful effort." In a single thought the buddhas manifest buddhas as many as the dust-motes of all worlds, yet "never use the least skillful effort"—not stirring a hair's breadth of contrived skillful force. This is "effortless spontaneity": not a skill grown fluent by practice (that would still be "using" it), but not the least effort at all. The eighth ground, though called "immovable," though it has attained the effortless path, has its effortlessness still at the cause level (the effortlessness of the path, heading toward the buddha-fruit); the buddhas' "never using the least skillful effort" is the effortlessness of fruit-level perfection—with no step further. So the Tathāgata's ten masteries are not the eighth ground's set brightened, but one and the same "freedom" arrived at fruit-level perfection. This is just the line Parts One and Two carried all along: the fruit-level is not the cause-level brightened, but one and the same thing brought to fruit-level fullness. The eighth ground's ten masteries are still "freedom on the way" (en route, heading for the fruit); a Buddha's ten masteries are "freedom after arrival" (the fruit accomplished).

The Four Virtues of the Great Nirvāṇa: Permanence, Bliss, Self, Purity

Now the four virtues. The Tathāgata's ten masteries are perfection's aspect of "capacity"; the great nirvāṇa's permanence-bliss-self-purity are its aspect of "virtue." At the words "permanence, bliss, self, purity," one readily doubts: does the Dharma not teach "impermanence, suffering, no-self, impurity"? How does nirvāṇa then say "permanence, bliss, self, purity"? In the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, the Buddha undoes this knot for the assembled monks head-on:

The world too has permanence-bliss-self-purity, and the supramundane too has permanence-bliss-self-purity. The worldly have words without meaning; the supramundane have words with meaning.

The Buddha says: the world too has "permanence-bliss-self-purity," and the supramundane too has it—but these are two different things. The world's permanence-bliss-self-purity is an inversion: reckoning the impermanent as permanent, the selfless as having self (it has those four words, but not the true meaning of those four words; it is a false reckoning, hence "words without meaning"). The great nirvāṇa's permanence-bliss-self-purity, supramundane, alone has "words with meaning." The scripture matches these supramundane four virtues, one by one:

Self is the sense of Buddha, permanence the sense of the dharma-body, bliss the sense of nirvāṇa, purity the sense of dharma. … The selfless is named birth-and-death, the self is named the Tathāgata; the impermanent are the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, the permanent is the Tathāgata's dharma-body; suffering is all the outsiders, bliss is nirvāṇa; the impure is the conditioned, the pure is the true dharma possessed by the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Permanence is the permanence of the Tathāgata's dharma-body (not a falsely-reckoned permanence, but the dharma-body's true permanence—precisely the "permanence" of the three bodies' permanence in Part Two). Bliss is nirvāṇa's bliss (not the world's, but nirvāṇa's quiescent bliss). Purity is the purity of the buddhas' and bodhisattvas' true dharma (not the conditioned's). Self is the Tathāgata, is Buddha. And in the "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter the scripture takes this "self" straight as the tathāgatagarbha:

Self is the sense of the tathāgatagarbha. All beings have the buddha-nature, which is the sense of self.

Nirvāṇa's "self," on the face of the words, points to the tathāgatagarbha, the buddha-nature—the buddha-nature all beings inherently have, this is the sense of "self"; it is permanent from the first, only covered over by the afflictions so beings do not see it. The scripture gives an image: like a poor woman with a store of real gold in her house, who does not herself know it, until one with skillful means points it out to her (the one with skillful means is the Tathāgata, the poor woman is all beings, the store of real gold is the buddha-nature).

A Line That Must Be Held

At this word "self," this book must halt, and gravely hold a line.

This virtue of "self" is the deepest, and most delicate, point of the whole tathāgatagarbha line. Note: the Nirvāṇa itself sets "no-self" and "self" side by side—on one hand "the selfless is named birth-and-death" (the no-self ordinarily taught), on the other "the self is named the Tathāgata" (nirvāṇa's true self). How are this "self" and "no-self" to be reconciled? Where lies the line between the "true self" nirvāṇa speaks of and the "false self" the ordinary being grasps, the self that no-self sets out to break? How far does the "all" of "all beings have the buddha-nature" extend? These are the most central, and most delicately weighed, adjudications of the tathāgatagarbha line.

Here this book does one thing only: it records the scripture. As the scripture says, so this book quotes—the four virtues have words with meaning, the self is the tathāgatagarbha-buddha-nature. As for how the definitive sense of this "self" is to be told, how it is to be reconciled with no-self, this book pronounces not one word in the author's stead. This is the line this book has held from first to last: every adjudication of this deepest kind—the cross-axis reconciliations, the ultimacy of the two vehicles, the judgments of the tathāgatagarbha—this book records the scripture and leaves the judgment to the author. And this "self" of "permanence-bliss-self-purity" is the very one that most awaits the author's own ruling. Here this book leaves it open—setting out the scripture only, and not adjudicating in his stead.

Onward

Perfection's "capacity" (the ten masteries) and "virtue" (the four virtues) are both set. But among the four virtues, "permanence is the Tathāgata's dharma-body," "bliss is nirvāṇa"—this nirvāṇa's permanence, nirvāṇa's bliss, what manner of nirvāṇa is it? The buddha-fruit's mastery, perfected to the utmost, where at last does it come to rest? In a cessation like the two vehicles' without-remainder, or in some other terminus? This is the last chapter, and the place where the two axes come, together, to close.

In, then, to the last chapter: non-abiding is freedom.