Mastery Begins in the VowThe Six and Ten PerfectionsThe EmbraceThe Forbearance of Non-ArisingThe Ten MasteriesThe Refused Rest
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Part 5 · The Ten Masteries

Bodhisattva’s Mastery · 1 papers

Part Four ended by saying: the "Immovable ground" is no stagnant pool; reaching it, the bodhisattva instead gains power in full, which the canon counts as ten items, each called a [ from the book's part intro ]

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08The Ten Masteries of the Eighth GroundThe preceding part (Part 4) established the cognitive signature of the bodhisattva's mastery (the forbearance of non-arising, P06) and its marks after the forbearance (effortless flow · irreversibility, P07). This part (Part 5) asks further: this mastery after the forbearance, on the eighth, Immovable ground, is concretely enumerated as what? The answer: the ten masteries (daśa vaśitā). The thesis: the eighth ground's ten masteries are the most concrete enumerated signature of the bodhisattva's mastery — the Immovable ground's (effort-free · indestructible) mastery flowing of itself, manifesting in ten gates, countering ten fears; and these ten are gained at the "bodhisattva's" causal stage (path-bound), belonging to a list and a path-position other than the separately established tathāgata's (buddha's) ten masteries. Three layers. First, the content of the ten masteries and the treatise framework — the Avataṃsaka, the Daśabhūmika (Xuanzang), and the Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna (Vasubandhu) set the ten side by side (Avataṃsaka: life · mind · wealth · karma · birth · vow · resolve · psychic power · knowledge · dharma; Xuanzang: lifespan · mind · livelihood · karma · birth · conviction · vow · supernormal power · dharma · knowledge; Vasubandhu's sutra-text: life · mind · things · karma · birth · vow · conviction · psychic power · dharma · knowledge), Vasubandhu judging that they are gained from the threefold "container-world / being-world / world-of-awakened-knowing" mastery-conduct and that they counter, one by one, ten fears (death · the stain of affliction · poverty · evil karma · evil destinies · not getting what is sought · slandering the Dharma · not surviving · doubt · the majesty of the assembly). Second, the item-by-item function of the ten masteries is just the Immovable ground's effortless manifesting — the Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna and Daśabhūmika mark each mastery's function (life = sustaining life for inexpressible eons · mind = entering immeasurable samādhis with knowledge · things = sustaining and displaying adornments · karma = displaying karmic recompense · birth = taking birth · vow = manifesting awakening at will · conviction = displaying the buddhas' fullness · psychic = displaying transformed things · dharma = clearly setting forth dharma-gates · knowledge = displaying the buddhas' powers, fearlessnesses, distinctive dharmas), all ten being functions of "manifesting," taking up P07's effort-free flow after the forbearance (the Immovable ground's name "effort-free ground · indestructible") as the effortless manifesting of benefiting others (taking up P05, altruism is mastery). Third, the ten are path-bound to the causal stage, of a path-position other than the tathāgata's ten masteries (marking the path-position only, not adjudicating superiority, not reconciling) — the Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna states "this bodhisattva gains these bodhisattva's ten masteries" (the word "bodhisattva" repeated, bound to the causal stage), the Avataṃsaka separately establishes a gate of "the ten masteries of the buddhas, the world-honored ones" (the buddhas' ten masteries vs. the eighth-ground bodhisattva's ten, set out as distinct texts), and the Avataṃsaka records the buddhas exhorting the eighth-ground bodhisattva in person, "the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, the eighteen distinctive dharmas of the buddhas — these you have not yet attained" (the plain witness that the causal stage is not yet complete). To be marked with care: this paper, on the strength of these three witnesses, marks only the fact that "the eighth ground's ten masteries are at the causal stage, of a path-position other than the tathāgata's ten masteries," and does not adjudicate the superiority of the causal versus the fruit stage, nor perform a doctrinal reconciliation with this axis's tathāgata division — the question of superiority and the seam doctrine being the author's (Shi Huijing's) to adjudicate; and the three translations' differences of wording and order, being a matter of translation, are set side by side without selection. Conclusion: the eighth ground's ten masteries are the causal-stage enumerated signature of the bodhisattva's mastery (the Immovable ground's effortless manifesting · countering the ten fears), the repetition "these bodhisattva's ten masteries" signing precisely the path-bound causal stage, of a path-position other than the tathāgata's ten masteries (superiority and reconciliation left to the author).
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The Ten DoorsPart 5 · Ch. 1

Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.