Attainment · Tathāgata’s MasteryPart 5Paper 7 of 10

The Thirty-Two Marks and Eighty Signs

TATHAGATA-P07 · v1.0 · 2026-06

Why a Buddha's Marks and Signs Are the Form-Body Signature of Mastery (the Adornment of the Born-Body), Neither the Essence of Buddha-Virtue nor Irrelevant Ornament

中文主題：如來三十二相與八十種好——佛之相好何以是自在之色身簽名（生身之莊嚴），而非佛德之本質、亦非無關之嚴飾

I. The Question

Part 4 established the buddha-fruit's "function of mastery" — the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive dharmas, four analytical knowledges, all the already-established mastery turned toward beings as function, and, as the Dazhidu lun judges, the adornment of the "dharma-body" (the dharma-body adorned by the virtues of wisdom). This paper opens Part 5, turning to a Buddha's "form-body," and takes up the thirty-two marks and eighty signs (the eighty secondary marks) with a direct question: a Buddha's marks and signs — what are they?

The difficulty here differs from the prior six papers. What those six broke was, each time, the single temptation that "buddha-virtue is something acquired beyond severing the defilements and turning into wisdom"; what this paper faces is the two-poled misreading peculiar to the marks and signs. The one pole is "the grasping of the marks": to take the thirty-two marks and eighty signs as the essence of buddha-virtue, as where what is highest in a Buddha lies, and so to take "seeing a Buddha's marks" as "seeing what is ultimate in a Buddha," even grasping at the marks to seek a Buddha. The other pole is "the slighting of the marks": having heard "the dharma-body is markless" and "one should not see the Tathāgata by form," to take the marks as an inessential ornament that may be passed over, even to count any talk of the marks as a clinging to form. Both poles miss. This paper must set a middle way between them: the marks and signs are neither the essence of buddha-virtue nor an irrelevant ornament.

The thesis: the marks and signs are the "form-body signature" of the Tathāgata's mastery — the adornment of the born-body (the form-body). The proof has three faces of direct textual basis. First, the marks belong to the "born-body," not the "dharma-body": the Dazhidu lun judges "for the sake of the born-body the thirty-two marks are spoken; for the sake of the dharma-body the markless is spoken," and makes plain that "a Buddha's body adorns itself with the thirty-two marks and the eighty secondary marks; the dharma-body is adorned by the virtues of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, and eighteen distinctive dharmas" — the marks and the virtues of wisdom being the adornments of two registers, form-body and dharma-body. The dharma-body is markless; its adornment is the virtue of wisdom (the function established in Part 4), not the marks. So one who grasps the marks as the essence of buddha-virtue errs — the essence of buddha-virtue (the dharma-body) is precisely "markless," adorned by the virtue of wisdom, not by the marks. Second, the marks are felt as fruit of cultivated cause: the Dazhidu lun makes plain that the marks are not had by nature, but felt as fruit of the bodhisattva's separately sowing the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks" after three incalculable aeons — a conditioned, manifested born-body adornment, of the same order as the transformation-body / response-body's "manifesting for the deliverance of beings" (P03), not the very substance of the unconditioned dharma-body. Third, the marks are no irrelevant ornament: the Avataṃsaka takes "the marks and secondary marks" as the buddhas' "foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment," and the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra lists the marks together with the buddha-nature and judges both "inconceivable" — the marks being the most excellent form-body manifested for the deliverance of beings, an inconceivable aspect bound to the buddha-nature context; one who slights them also errs.

This carries forward the Attainment axis's constant frame, and supplies the "body" heading with its form-body-signature aspect. This series holds the buddha-fruit's aspects all to be disclosures of one mastery: name (the ten epithets, the readable aspect, P01) · body (the three bodies, the visible structure, P03) · wisdom (the four wisdoms, P04) · function (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and the rest, Part 4). P03 set the three bodies as the mastery's manifestation-structure (the markless dharma-body, with the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies as the manifested); this paper supplies, for its form-body face (the marks borne by the born-body / response-and-transformation body), one aspect: the marks are the mastery's "signature" upon the form-body — just as the ten epithets are the mastery's readable signature in language, the marks are its visible signature upon the form-body. A Buddha's markless dharma-body, in delivering beings, appears as a born-body complete with the marks and signs, making the perfection of the inner virtue legible to the eyes of beings and drawing forth their faith. So the marks are not the essence of buddha-virtue (the essence is the markless dharma-body), nor an irrelevant ornament (they are the most excellent form-body manifested for deliverance), but the "form-body signature" — a middle way between the two poles.

This paper rests on the Dazhidu lun (the treatise standard for the marks' belonging to the born-body and for their karmic cause), the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (the marks listed with the buddha-nature, both inconceivable), and the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka (the marks as the foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment). The argument runs in three moves (§III): the marks are the adornment of the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body (breaking "the grasping of the marks," 3.1); the marks are not an irrelevant ornament but the form-body signature manifested for the deliverance of beings (breaking "the slighting of the marks," 3.2); the marks supply, within the axis's frame, the "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect (3.3). Section IV cuts the interdisciplinary convergence (rationale in §VI). Section V offers middle-way corrections and marks the Nirvāṇa's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity and the marks' binding to the buddha-nature as reserved to the author. Section VI concludes and hands the great compassion and all-kinds wisdom to P08, the Tathāgata's ten masteries and permanence-bliss-self-purity to P09, and the ultimate non-abiding nirvāṇa to P10.

II. The Canonical Basis

2.1 The placement and provenance of the marks: the adornment of the "born-body," felt as fruit of cultivated cause

The treatise standard for the marks is in the Dazhidu lun. Distinguishing the born-body's and the dharma-body's two adornments, it makes plain that the marks belong to the born-body:

為生身故，說三十二相；為法身故，說無相。佛身，以三十二相、八十隨形好而自莊嚴；法身，以十力、四無所畏、四無礙智、十八不共法諸功德莊嚴。¹

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

This standard is most pivotal. The treatise sets the two adornments answering to "born-body / dharma-body": the born-body's (form-body's) adornment is the thirty-two marks and eighty secondary marks; the dharma-body's adornment is the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas — that is, the buddha-fruit's virtue of wisdom established in Part 4. So the marks and the virtue of wisdom are not of one layer: the virtue of wisdom adorns the "dharma-body" (the markless substance of buddha-virtue), the marks adorn the "born-body" (the form-body manifested for the deliverance of beings). The phrase "for the sake of the dharma-body the markless is spoken" is especially crucial: the very substance of buddha-virtue (the dharma-body) is precisely "markless," its adornment lying in the virtue of wisdom and not in the marks; the marks are what is "spoken for the sake of the born-body," the aspect adorning the born-body. One who grasps the marks as the essence of buddha-virtue contravenes just this judgment that "the dharma-body is markless."

The marks 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 Dazhidu lun makes plain their karmic cause:

何時種三十二相業因緣？答曰：過三阿僧祇劫，然後種三十二相業因緣。²

"When are the karmic causes of the thirty-two marks sown? Answer: after three incalculable aeons, the karmic causes of the thirty-two marks are then sown."

The treatise makes plain: the marks are not a Buddha's natural endowment, but felt as fruit of the bodhisattva's separately sowing the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks" after three incalculable aeons (this being the precursor of the traditional "cultivating the marks over a hundred aeons" — after three great incalculable aeons of perfecting the virtue of wisdom, a further hundred aeons devoted to the karma of the marks). The marks are therefore a born-body adornment of the "conditioned, manifested" order, accomplished by sowing cause and feeling fruit, of the same order as the transformation- and response-bodies' "manifesting for the deliverance of beings" (P03). This must be kept clearly apart from Part 4's "the virtue of wisdom is not acquired": the dharma-body's virtue of wisdom (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and the rest) is not acquired beyond the severing of defilements (Part 4's frame), whereas the born-body's marks are expressly "felt as fruit of cultivated cause" — the two do not conflict, precisely because the marks belong to the born-body register (a form-body adornment felt as fruit of cause), not the dharma-body register (the markless substance of buddha-virtue). The marks' being "cultivated" is the form-body's adornment felt-as-fruit through cause, not a saying that the dharma-body's substance is in any way separately acquired.

2.2 The measure of the marks: the foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment, inconceivable

Though the marks belong to the born-body and are felt as fruit of cultivated cause, they are no inessential ornament. The eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, in its "Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas" chapter, lists the buddhas' ten "most excellent unsurpassed adornments" and takes the marks as the first, the "bodily adornment":

一切諸佛皆悉具足諸相隨好，是為諸佛第一最勝無上身莊嚴。³

"All buddhas are fully possessed of the marks and secondary marks; this is the buddhas' foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment."

The Avataṃsaka judges "the marks and secondary marks" to be the buddhas' "foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment" — first among the buddhas' bodily adornments. So the marks are no negligible decoration: they are the most excellent aspect of the buddhas' form-body adornment, the aspect that first draws beings when a Buddha appears bodily to deliver them (the treatise, just after the passage cited above, says beings have two kinds of cause, of merit and of wisdom — the marks drawing precisely those of the cause of merit). And the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, in its "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter, lists the marks together with the buddha-nature and judges both "inconceivable":

佛性如是不可思議，三十二相、八十種好亦不可思議。⁴

"The buddha-nature being thus inconceivable, the thirty-two marks and eighty signs are likewise inconceivable."

The Nirvāṇa-sūtra lists the marks together with the buddha-nature as alike "inconceivable," binding the marks to the tathāgatagarbha / buddha-nature context. This shows the marks to be no merely external bodily decoration, but inconceivable as the buddha-nature is inconceivable — the disclosure, upon the form-body, of the already-perfected inner virtue, and so inconceivable as the buddha-nature. It must be marked with all seriousness: this passage of the Nirvāṇa is followed by the tathāgatagarbha's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity and its middle-way apophasis (fascicle 8, "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter); its definitive adjudication — the precise relation of the marks to the buddha-nature, the establishment of the "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity, whether the marks are the form-body disclosure of the buddha-nature — are all major doctrinal adjudications of the tathāgatagarbha line; this paper records the scripture (the marks inconceivable, bound to the buddha-nature) without adjudicating in the author's stead, leaving all of it to the author and to P09 (see §V, Correction 3). This paper takes from it only the one sense: the marks are no irrelevant ornament, but an inconceivable bodily adornment bound to the buddha-nature context.

III. The Core Argument

Section II has set out three things: the marks belong to the "born-body," while the dharma-body is adorned by the virtue of wisdom (2.1, first part); the marks are felt as fruit of cultivated cause (2.1, second part); the marks are the foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment, inconceivable as bound to the buddha-nature (2.2). This section establishes the thesis: the marks are neither the essence of buddha-virtue nor an irrelevant ornament, but the form-body signature of mastery. In three layers — the marks are the adornment of the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body; the marks are not an irrelevant ornament but the form-body signature manifested for the deliverance of beings; the marks supply the "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect.

3.1 The marks are the adornment of the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body (breaking "the grasping of the marks")

Break first "the grasping of the marks" — taking the marks as the essence of buddha-virtue, as where what is highest in a Buddha lies. This grasping pictures "becoming a Buddha" as "attaining the most excellent form-body of the thirty-two marks and eighty signs," and so takes seeing the marks as seeing what is ultimate in a Buddha, even grasping at form to seek a Buddha. But the Dazhidu lun's judgment plainly refuses this: "for the sake of the dharma-body the markless is spoken," "the dharma-body is adorned by the virtues of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas" (2.1). The substance of buddha-virtue is the "dharma-body," and the dharma-body is "markless" — its adornment lies in the virtue of wisdom (the function of Part 4), not in the marks. The marks are what is "spoken for the sake of the born-body," the aspect adorning the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body. So one who takes the marks as the essence of buddha-virtue inverts form-body and dharma-body: usurping the dharma-body's substance with the form-body's adornment.

This is not to say the marks are false or to be discarded, but that they may not usurp the dharma-body's place. The dharma-body being markless, "one should not take the form-body's marks as a Buddha's ultimate" — a Buddha's ultimate is the markless dharma-body (adorned by the virtue of wisdom), and the marks are the adornment of this markless dharma-body's manifestation upon the born-body. To grasp the marks as the ultimate is like seeing a signature and saying the signature is the whole of the person — the signature is the person's mark, not the person's substance. The marks are the mastery's signature upon the form-body (a mark), not the mastery's substance (the substance being the markless dharma-body). This is precisely the first sense of this paper's "form-body signature": a signature identifies the person, it is not the person's essence; the marks identify a Buddha, they are not the essence of buddha-virtue.

3.2 The marks are not an irrelevant ornament but the form-body signature manifested for the deliverance of beings (breaking "the slighting of the marks")

Break next "the slighting of the marks" — having heard the dharma-body is markless, taking the marks as inessential, to be discarded and passed over. But the Avataṃsaka judges the marks "the foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment" (2.2), and the Nirvāṇa-sūtra lists the marks with the buddha-nature as alike "inconceivable" (2.2) — the marks are no irrelevant decoration, but the most excellent of the buddhas' bodily adornments, an inconceivable aspect bound to the buddha-nature. Why should a form-body adornment "spoken for the sake of the born-body" carry such measure? The answer is in "the deliverance of beings." A Buddha's delivering of beings must appear bodily before them; the body so appearing, its adornment with the marks is the most excellent skillful means for drawing beings and giving rise to pure faith (the treatise makes plain that the marks draw beings of "the cause of merit"). The markless dharma-body cannot be seen, and beings have nothing to lay hold of; so a Buddha appears in the world in a marks-bearing born-body felt as fruit of cultivated cause, making the markless inner virtue legible to the eyes of beings — seeing the perfection of the marks, they have faith in the perfection of the inner virtue. The marks are thus no dispensable decoration, but the necessity of "the markless dharma-body, for the sake of delivering beings, appearing as a visible form" — the form-body signature manifested by mastery for the sake of beings.

So the marks' being a "signature" shows here its second sense: a signature is the mark by which a person appears upon a document and is recognized; the marks are the form-body mark by which a Buddha appears to beings and is recognized. A signature, though not the person's substance, is the necessity of the person rendered legible; the marks, though not the dharma-body's substance, are the necessity of the markless dharma-body rendered visible for the sake of deliverance. To slight the marks is like discarding a signature as irrelevant: then the person has no way to appear upon a document, and recognition has nothing to rest on. The marks' not being slightable lies precisely in the necessity of deliverance — the markless virtue must have a visible form by which to draw beings, and the marks are that visible form.

3.3 The marks supply the "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect

The third layer gathers up in the axis's frame. This series sets the buddha-fruit's aspects: name (the ten epithets, readable, P01) · body (the three bodies, the visible structure, P03) · wisdom (the four wisdoms, P04) · function (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and the rest, Part 4). The marks' place is under the "body" heading, as its form-body-signature aspect. P03 set the three bodies as the mastery's manifestation-structure (the markless dharma-body, with the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies as the manifested); the marks are the adornment borne by the form-body face of this manifestation-structure (the born-body / response-and-transformation body) — the mastery's signature upon the form-body.

So the "signature" image appears thrice across the Attainment axis: the ten epithets are the mastery's readable signature in "language" (P01), the marks its visible signature upon the "form-body" (this paper), and both identify one and the same markless substance of mastery (the dharma-body, adorned by the virtue of wisdom). Name and mark, the one readable, the other visible, are both "signatures" — identifying their bearer, not the bearer's essence. A Buddha's mastery, its substance the markless dharma-body (adorned by the virtue of wisdom, Part 4's function), in its appearing in the world has two signatures, the readable name (the ten epithets) and the visible marks, by which the markless perfection of virtue is made legible and visible to beings. The marks supply the "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect, and so the axis's frame is the more complete: mastery's substance (the markless dharma-body, the virtue of wisdom), in its disclosure as name (readable), body (the visible structure and the form-body's marks), and function (world-facing), is in no aspect other than one mastery's disclosure, nor does any aspect usurp the mastery's substance. The marks' ultimate sense (their relation to permanence-bliss-self-purity and the buddha-nature in the definitive sense) is gathered up at P09; the great compassion and all-kinds wisdom on which their "manifesting for the deliverance of beings" rests, at P08.

✅ Doctrinally sound: taken together, the three layers support "the marks are neither the essence of buddha-virtue nor an irrelevant ornament, but the form-body signature of mastery" — the marks are the adornment of the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body (the Dazhidu lun's "for the born-body the marks, for the dharma-body the markless" · the dharma-body adorned by the virtue of wisdom · breaking "the grasping of the marks": the dharma-body is markless, the marks may not usurp its place); the marks are not an irrelevant ornament but the form-body signature manifested for the deliverance of beings (the Avataṃsaka's "foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment" · the Nirvāṇa's marks and buddha-nature alike "inconceivable" · breaking "the slighting of the marks": the markless dharma-body appears as visible marks to draw beings); the marks supply the axis's "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect (name [the ten epithets, readable] and mark [the marks, visible], two signatures both identifying the markless substance of mastery, not its essence). The marks' karmic cause (felt as fruit of cultivated cause · belonging to the born-body register) does not conflict with the dharma-body's virtue of wisdom being "not acquired" (each in its register, 2.1); the Nirvāṇa's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity and the marks' binding to the buddha-nature in the definitive sense are recorded without adjudicating, reserved to the author and to P09 (§V, Correction 3).

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary-convergence section; the rationale is given in §VI. The aspect of the "marks" might seem comparable to semiotics' "bodily sign," sociology's "embodied charisma," or iconography's canons of the sacred image — a bodily adornment identifying a figure's status and drawing the beholder's faith. Yet that is dominated by "a socially constructed bodily symbol" or "a charisma projected by the beholder," only superficially like this paper's sense that "the marks are a born-body adornment felt as fruit of cultivated cause, the visible signature manifested by the markless dharma-body for the deliverance of beings." A bodily sign in semiotics is conventionally agreed by a community and varies with culture; the marks are a fruition-mark felt as fruit through the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks," inconceivable as bound to the buddha-nature, not a convention that can vary. The one is a socially constructed symbol, the other a form-body signature felt as fruit of cause and manifested for deliverance; to force the convergence would falsely cast "the buddha-body felt as fruit of cause" as "socially constructed charisma," and so it is better left out. The marks' binding to "the inconceivable" and "the buddha-nature" (the Nirvāṇa) is, still more, beyond what any worldly bodily sign can approximate, and is likewise marked, not unfolded.)

V. Middle-Way Corrections

This section clears away two opposed misreadings, and plainly marks one adjudication reserved to the author.

❌ Misreading 1 (the grasping of the marks): "The thirty-two marks and eighty signs = the essence of buddha-virtue, where what is highest in a Buddha lies; to see the marks is to see what is ultimate in a Buddha." This is one pole the paper breaks. The Dazhidu lun judges "for the sake of the dharma-body the markless is spoken," "the dharma-body is adorned by the virtues of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas" (2.1) — the substance of buddha-virtue is the "markless" dharma-body, its adornment in the virtue of wisdom, not in the marks; the marks are "spoken for the sake of the born-body," the aspect adorning the born-body (3.1). One who grasps the marks as the essence of buddha-virtue inverts form-body and dharma-body, usurping the person's substance with a signature.

❌ Misreading 2 (the slighting of the marks): "Since the dharma-body is markless, the marks are an inessential ornament that may be discarded and passed over." This is the other pole the paper breaks. The Avataṃsaka judges the marks "the foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment," the Nirvāṇa lists the marks with the buddha-nature as alike "inconceivable" (2.2) — the marks are the most excellent form-body manifested for deliverance, the necessity of drawing beings to pure faith (the markless dharma-body appearing as visible marks for the sake of deliverance). To slight the marks is like discarding a signature as irrelevant: then deliverance has no visible form by which to draw beings (3.2). The middle way is between the two poles: the marks are neither the essence (breaking the grasping) nor irrelevant (breaking the slighting), but the form-body signature.

⚠️ Correction 3 (the Nirvāṇa's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity · the marks' binding to the buddha-nature in the definitive sense, reserved to the author): the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra lists the marks together with the buddha-nature, binding them to the tathāgatagarbha's "permanence-bliss-self-purity" context; this paper records the scripture (the marks inconceivable, bound to the buddha-nature), reserving all its definitive adjudication to the author and to P09. This passage of the Nirvāṇa is followed by the tathāgatagarbha's "self" in its middle-way apophasis (fascicle 8, "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter: "if the self were abiding, it would be a permanent dharma, not apart from suffering; if there were no self, the cultivation of pure conduct would be of no benefit… such is the buddha-dharma's middle way, declaring the true dharma apart from the two extremes"). The adjudications this line involves — the establishment of the "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity, the precise relation of the marks to the buddha-nature (whether the marks are the form-body disclosure of the buddha-nature), the sameness or difference of the marks' "inconceivable" and the buddha-nature's "inconceivable" — are all core questions of the tathāgatagarbha / nirvāṇa line, and matters this series expressly reserves to the author and to cross-axis convergence; this paper takes only the sense "the marks are an inconceivable bodily adornment bound to the buddha-nature context," leaving the four nirvāṇic virtues (permanence-bliss-self-purity) to P09. Also, the variant names "the eighty signs" and "the eighty secondary marks" (T1509 mostly "the eighty secondary marks," T0374 / T0279 mostly "the eighty signs"), both referring to the aśīty-anuvyañjana, this paper records per the cited scripture's wording, marked, not unfolded.

VI. Conclusion

Essential restatement. The Tathāgata's thirty-two marks and eighty signs are neither the essence of buddha-virtue nor an irrelevant ornament, but the "form-body signature" of the Tathāgata's mastery — the adornment of the born-body (the form-body). Three layers support this: the marks are the adornment of the born-body, not a virtue of the dharma-body — the Dazhidu lun's "for the born-body the thirty-two marks, for the dharma-body the markless," the dharma-body markless and adorned by the virtue of wisdom (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas), the marks not usurping the dharma-body's place (3.1); the marks are not an irrelevant ornament but the form-body signature manifested for the deliverance of beings — the Avataṃsaka's "foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment," the Nirvāṇa's marks and buddha-nature alike "inconceivable," the markless dharma-body appearing as visible marks to draw beings (3.2); the marks supply the axis's "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect — name (the ten epithets, readable) and mark (the marks, visible), two signatures both identifying the markless substance of mastery, not its essence (3.3). The marks' karmic cause (felt as fruit of cultivated cause, belonging to the born-body register) does not conflict with the dharma-body's virtue of wisdom being "not acquired": the marks' being "cultivated" is the form-body's adornment felt as fruit through cause, not a saying that the dharma-body's substance is in any way separately acquired.

Guidance for practice. This paper corrects, for the practitioner, the two-poled grasping of the marks. First, it corrects "grasping at form to seek a Buddha" — taking the marks as a Buddha's ultimate and chasing the form-body's marks, thereby inverting form-body and dharma-body, usurping the substance with a signature; one should know a Buddha's ultimate is the markless dharma-body (the virtue of wisdom), the marks but its form-body signature, not to be grasped as the ultimate. Second, it corrects "slighting and discarding the marks" — discarding the marks wholesale because the dharma-body is markless, counting any talk of the marks a clinging to form; one should know the marks are the visible form the markless dharma-body manifests for the deliverance of beings, the necessity of drawing beings to pure faith, not to be slighted. The middle way is: neither to grasp the marks as the essence (and so not to seek a Buddha's ultimate in the form), nor to slight the marks as irrelevant (and so not to discard the form-body adornment manifested for deliverance); only to cultivate the markless dharma-body's virtue of wisdom (turning the defiled into the pure, perfecting the four wisdoms, possessing the virtues of wisdom), and the marks are of themselves its born-body signature (as a person's virtue being complete, the signature of itself appears upon the document), neither separately chasing the form nor, on the ground of marklessness, slighting the signature.

Open questions. First, this paper cuts the Section IV interdisciplinary convergence (the marks and "the bodily sign" / "embodied charisma" are only superficially alike). Second, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra's listing of the marks with the buddha-nature, binding them to "permanence-bliss-self-purity," and the adjudications it involves — the establishment of the "self," the precise relation of the marks to the buddha-nature, the sameness of their two "inconceivables" — are reserved to the author and to cross-axis convergence, the four nirvāṇic virtues left to P09. Third, the stage-detail of the marks' karmic cause (sowing the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks" after three incalculable aeons · cultivating the marks over a hundred aeons) and the item-by-item listing of the thirty-two marks and eighty signs with their several karmic causes are not this paper's task, marked, not unfolded. Fourth, this paper opens Part 5 (the full breadth of the buddha-virtues); the rest are handed on in order: the great loving-kindness and compassion and the all-kinds wisdom (a Buddha's great compassion and the fullness of buddha-wisdom · function in its full breadth toward beings, and the great compassion and all-kinds wisdom on which the marks' "manifesting for the deliverance of beings" rests) to TATHAGATA-P08; the Tathāgata's ten masteries and permanence-bliss-self-purity (the fruit-level's ten masteries · the four nirvāṇic virtues · the "self"-virtue of the marks' binding to the buddha-nature) to P09; and the ultimate sense that "mastery's function necessarily turns toward beings, not abiding in nirvāṇa while ever manifesting the body to benefit others" (the non-abiding nirvāṇa) is gathered up by this division's closing paper, P10.

Notes

References

Primary Buddhist Sources

Dazhidu lun (Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, 大智度論). Attributed to Nāgārjuna, trans. Kumārajīva. T25, no. 1509. Fascicle 29 (the two adornments of born-body and dharma-body · "for the born-body the thirty-two marks, for the dharma-body the markless" · the dharma-body adorned by the virtue of wisdom); fascicle 4 (the karmic causes of the thirty-two marks · sown after three incalculable aeons).
Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra (eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, 大方廣佛華嚴經). Trans. Śikṣānanda. T10, no. 0279. Fascicle 46, "Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas" (the marks and secondary marks as the buddhas' foremost unsurpassed bodily adornment).
Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (northern recension, forty fascicles, 大般涅槃經). Trans. Dharmakṣema. T12, no. 0374. Fascicle 8, "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter (the marks and the buddha-nature listed together · both "inconceivable" · bound to the permanence-bliss-self-purity context — recorded · definitive adjudication reserved to the author).

Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; the argument rests entirely on Buddhist primary sources, following the open-source spirit of "return to the source." The interdisciplinary-convergence section having been cut, no corresponding modern literature appears.)

Sūtra & Śāstra Index

Point	Source	CBETA id
For the born-body the thirty-two marks, for the dharma-body the markless · the marks adorn the born-body, the virtue of wisdom the dharma-body	Dazhidu lun fasc. 29	T25n1509_p0274a12
The karmic causes of the thirty-two marks · sown after three incalculable aeons (the marks felt as fruit of cultivated cause)	Dazhidu lun fasc. 4	T25n1509_p0086c17
The marks and secondary marks as the buddhas' foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment	Avataṃsaka (80) fasc. 46	T10n0279_p0244b22
The thirty-two marks and eighty signs listed with the buddha-nature · both "inconceivable" (recorded · definitive sense reserved to the author)	Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra fasc. 8	T12n0374_p0410b13

Series Cross-Reference Index

★ TATHAGATA-P03, "Mastery Appearing as Three Bodies" (the frame · supplying the form-body-signature aspect): P03 set the three bodies as the mastery's manifestation-structure (the markless dharma-body, with the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies as the manifested). This paper supplies, for its form-body face (the born-body / response-and-transformation body), one aspect: the marks are the mastery's signature upon the form-body — the markless dharma-body's visible adornment manifested for the deliverance of beings.
★ TATHAGATA-P04, "Turning Consciousness into Wisdom" · Part 4 (P05 · P06) (born-body adornment vs dharma-body adornment): the Dazhidu lun judges the marks to adorn the "born-body," the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas to adorn the "dharma-body" (the virtue of wisdom). This paper's marks (born-body adornment) and Part 4's virtue of wisdom (dharma-body adornment) belong to the two registers, form-body and dharma-body; the marks' "felt as fruit of cultivated cause" and the virtue of wisdom's "not acquired" do not conflict (each in its register).
★ TATHAGATA-P01, "The Ground Where Naming Is Full" (the frame · two signatures): the ten epithets are the mastery's readable signature in language, the marks its visible signature upon the form-body; both identify the markless substance of mastery (the dharma-body, the virtue of wisdom), not its essence. Name (readable) and mark (visible), two signatures, together disclose the sense of "mastery made legible and visible to beings."
TATHAGATA-P08, "Great Loving-Kindness and Compassion, and the All-Kinds Wisdom" (forthcoming · that for which the marks are manifested): this paper sets the marks as the form-body signature "manifested for the deliverance of beings"; the great compassion on which it rests (manifesting the body for the sake of delivering beings) and the all-kinds wisdom (knowing beings' faculties and manifesting the marks to draw them) are gathered up in full at P08.
TATHAGATA-P09, "The Tathāgata's Ten Masteries and Permanence-Bliss-Self-Purity" (forthcoming · the marks bound to the buddha-nature's self-virtue): this paper records the Nirvāṇa's listing of the marks with the buddha-nature, both "inconceivable," bound to the "permanence-bliss-self-purity" context; the establishment of the four nirvāṇic virtues and the marks' binding to the buddha-nature in the definitive sense are gathered up at P09.
TATHAGATA-P10, "The Ultimate Non-Abiding Nirvāṇa: The Terminus of Both Axes" (closing the division): the ultimate ground on which the marks are "manifested for the deliverance of beings" — not abiding in nirvāṇa while ever manifesting the body to benefit others — is gathered up at P10.

Paper: TATHAGATA-P07 · 如來三十二相與八十種好 · The Mastery of the Tathāgata · Part 5 · The Marks, the Great Compassion, and the All-Kinds Wisdom Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Attainment Signatures（證自在簽名） License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CBETA collation: 全文引用均依 CBETA 電子佛典核校（《大智度論》T1509、《大方廣佛華嚴經》T0279、《大般涅槃經》T0374）。Fascicle of ¹ corrected against the XML to fascicle 29. Pāli 引文採 PTS reference 雙軌標示（本分區為大乘，無 Pāli 雙軌義務）。 Repository: https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/attainment-signatures

Footnotes

Dazhidu lun (Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra), fascicle 29 (in the chapter on the first matters), T25n1509_p0274a12. Attributed to Nāgārjuna, trans. Kumārajīva. Distinguishing the born-body's and dharma-body's two adornments: "for the born-body the thirty-two marks are spoken, for the dharma-body the markless"; the born-body adorns itself with the thirty-two marks and eighty secondary marks, the dharma-body is adorned by the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, and eighteen distinctive dharmas. The marks belong to the born-body register, the virtue of wisdom adorns the dharma-body — two layers. 〔Fascicle corrected against CBETA XML: the search-stage had fascicle 34; the locus is in fact fascicle 29 (T25n1509_p0274a12).〕CBETA-collated. ↩ ↩²
Dazhidu lun, fascicle 4 (in the "Exposition on the Bodhisattva," chapter on the first matters), T25n1509_p0086c17. Making plain that the marks are not had by nature, but felt as fruit of the bodhisattva's separately sowing the "karmic causes of the thirty-two marks" after three incalculable aeons (the precursor of the traditional "cultivating the marks over a hundred aeons"). The marks are a born-body adornment felt as fruit of cultivated cause. ↩
Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra (eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka), fascicle 46, "Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddhas" chapter (33rd), T10n0279_p0244b22. Trans. Śikṣānanda. Listing the buddhas' ten most excellent unsurpassed adornments, taking "the marks and secondary marks" as the buddhas' "foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment." ↩
Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (northern recension, forty fascicles), fascicle 8, "Tathāgata-Nature" chapter, T12n0374_p0410b13. Trans. Dharmakṣema. Listing the thirty-two marks and eighty signs together with the buddha-nature, judging both "inconceivable," binding the marks to the tathāgatagarbha / buddha-nature context. This passage is followed by the tathāgatagarbha's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity in its middle-way apophasis; its definitive adjudication is reserved to the author and to P09 (see §V, Correction 3). ↩