The Ground Where Naming Is FullThe Three BodiesThe Four WisdomsThe Ten Powers, Four Fearlessnesses, and Eighteen Distinctive DharmasThe Marks, the Great Compassion, and the All-Kinds WisdomThe Perfected Freedom
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Part 5 · The Marks, the Great Compassion, and the All-Kinds Wisdom
Tathāgata’s Mastery · 2 papers
The first four parts read the name, the body, the wisdom, the function—this freedom's four headings, now complete. This part reads the heading "function" a layer deeper, in two fac[ from the book's part intro ]
論Study the papersfootnotes · abstracts
07The Thirty-Two Marks and Eighty SignsThis paper opens Part 5 (the marks and signs, the great compassion, the all-kinds wisdom — the full breadth of the buddha-virtues). Part 4 established the buddha-fruit's "function of mastery" (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive dharmas, four analytical knowledges) as the adornment of the dharma-body's virtue of wisdom; this paper turns to a Buddha's "form-body" and asks what the thirty-two marks and eighty signs (the eighty secondary marks) are. Are the marks and signs the essence of buddha-virtue (so that to see the marks is to see what is highest in a Buddha), an inessential ornament (so that they may be passed over), or do they have another provenance? The thesis: the marks and 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), the already-perfected inner virtue (the dharma-body, the virtue of wisdom) made visible as form, the form manifested for the deliverance of beings. In the Dazhidu lun, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, and the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, three points confirm one another. First, the placement of the marks and signs — the Dazhidu lun judges that "for the sake of the born-body the thirty-two marks are spoken; for the sake of the dharma-body the markless is spoken," making plain that the marks and signs are the adornment of the "born-body" (a Buddha's body adorns itself with the marks and signs), while the "dharma-body" is adorned by the virtues of wisdom — the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas; so the marks and signs and the virtues of wisdom are the adornments of two registers, the form-body and the dharma-body, not of one layer. Second, the provenance of the marks and signs — the Dazhidu lun makes plain that they 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 and signs over a hundred aeons"); they are a born-body adornment felt as fruit of cultivated cause, belonging to the conditioned, manifested form-body, not the very substance of the unconditioned dharma-body. Third, the measure of the marks and signs — the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka takes "the marks and secondary marks" as the buddhas' "foremost, most excellent, unsurpassed bodily adornment," and the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra lists the marks and signs together with the buddha-nature and judges both "inconceivable." Conclusion: the marks and signs are the "form-body signature" of mastery — carrying forward the Attainment axis's constant frame, name (the ten epithets, the readable aspect) · body (the three bodies, the visible structure, the marks and signs being the adornment of its form-body face) · wisdom (the four wisdoms) · function (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and the rest), the marks and signs supply the "body" heading's form-body-signature aspect: a Buddha's markless dharma-body, in delivering beings, appears as a born-body complete with the marks and signs, making the already-perfected inner virtue legible to the eyes of beings. Both the grasping of the marks (seeking them as a Buddha's essence) and the slighting of them (discarding them as irrelevant) miss the middle way; the adjudication of the Nirvāṇa's "self" among permanence-bliss-self-purity, and of the marks' binding to the buddha-nature in the definitive sense, is reserved to the author and to P09.08Great Loving-Kindness and Compassion, and the All-Kinds WisdomThis paper continues Part 5, gathering up the full breadth of the buddha-virtues turned toward beings. The prior paper (P07) established the marks and signs as the form-body signature "manifested for the deliverance of beings"; this paper asks after the motive force of that "deliverance" and the fullness of its cognition: a Buddha's great loving-kindness and compassion, and the all-kinds wisdom — what are they? Are they a sentiment of pity and a power of omniscience a Buddha cultivates and acquires apart from the other virtues, or the full breadth of one and the same mastery turned toward beings? The thesis: a Buddha's great compassion is not a pity the Buddha separately cultivates, but the defining root of buddhahood — without great compassion there is no Buddha, the great compassion is the root of the buddhas of the three times, and its being "great" is precisely because it is "in the mind of the buddhas" (tied to the rank of the eighteen distinctive dharmas); the all-kinds wisdom is not an omniscience the Buddha separately acquires, but prajñā-pāramitā's fruit-level fullness in the buddha-mind — at the bodhisattva level (seeking to cross to the far shore) it is named pāramitā, at the buddha level (having crossed) it is named the all-kinds wisdom, the name differing between the causal and fruit levels while the substance is one. Taken together: the great compassion as the motive force of turning toward beings, the all-kinds wisdom as the full cognition that makes that turning all-pervading and effective — this is the full breadth of mastery turned toward beings. In the Dazhidu lun, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, and the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, the texts confirm one another: great loving-kindness gives joy and great compassion draws out suffering (Dazhidu lun, fascicle 27); only the loving-kindness and compassion in the mind of the buddhas is named "great," tied to the rank of the eighteen distinctive dharmas (Dazhidu lun, fascicle 27); the great compassion is the root of the buddhas of the three times, without it there is no Buddha (Nirvāṇa, fascicle 11); great loving-kindness rescues, great compassion liberates and benefits all-pervadingly, resting on great skillful means, on the Tathāgata's arising, on the light of unobstructed wisdom (Avataṃsaka, fascicle 50); the all-knowledge (the general mark, the cause) and the all-kinds wisdom (the particular mark, the fruit) are distinguished (Dazhidu lun, fascicle 27); prajñā-pāramitā in the buddha-mind changes its name to the all-kinds wisdom, at the bodhisattva level named pāramitā, at the buddha level the all-kinds wisdom (Dazhidu lun, fascicle 18); the all-kinds wisdom is an epithet of the World-Honored One (Nirvāṇa, fascicle 2); the all-kinds wisdom is the ultimate direction of the bodhisattva's aspiration (Avataṃsaka, fascicle 24). Conclusion: the great compassion and the all-kinds wisdom are the full breadth of the already-established mastery (name · body · wisdom · function) turned toward beings — the great compassion as substance (the motive force of function), the all-kinds wisdom as guide (the full cognition of function), carrying forward the axis's frame and this division's keynote of "unobstructedness" (the great compassion ultimately resting on the light of unobstructed wisdom). "Compassion of one substance" (同體大悲) is a later expression, not the wording of these three scriptures; this paper uses the canonical equivalents and fabricates no scriptural witness for it; the precise relation of the all-kinds wisdom (fruit) to the bodhisattva's prajñā (cause), the convergence of "heteromorphic, not hierarchically superior," the two vehicles' omniscience, and the Nirvāṇa's "permanence" are reserved to the author and to P09 · P10.Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.