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 6 · The Perfected Freedom
Tathāgata’s Mastery · 2 papers
The first five parts took this freedom apart into four headings and read them through—name, body, wisdom, function. But these four headings are, after all, one and the same freedom[ from the book's part intro ]
論Study the papersfootnotes · abstracts
09The Tathāgata's Ten Masteries and Permanence-Bliss-Self-PurityThis paper opens Part 6 (the ten masteries, the great nirvāṇa, the perfection of non-abiding), gathering up the perfected aspect of the buddha-fruit's mastery. This series takes "the ten masteries" as the essence-frame of this division (the Tathāgata's ten masteries, perfected); this paper takes up precisely these, together with the four virtues of the great nirvāṇa — permanence, bliss, self, purity. It asks: are the Tathāgata's ten masteries the same set as the eighth-ground bodhisattva's? Are permanence-bliss-self-purity the same in sense as what ordinary beings imagine? The thesis: the Tathāgata's ten masteries are the fruit-level perfected mastery, not the eighth-ground causal set brightened — the Avataṃsaka itself lists two sets: the immovable-ground bodhisattva's ten masteries (life, mind, wealth, action, birth, vow, understanding, as-wished, wisdom, dharma — the causal level) and the buddhas' ten masterful dharmas ("Detachment from the World" — a different list and order, the fruit level), differing in subject, list, and order; the Tathāgata's take "effortless spontaneity" (manifesting all buddhas in a single thought, yet never using the least skillful effort) as their fruit-level aspect, not the causal set magnified. Permanence-bliss-self-purity are the four virtues of the great nirvāṇa, not what ordinary beings imagine — the Nirvāṇa judges the worldly four-inversions' permanence-bliss-self-purity (taking the impermanent as permanent, the selfless as having self) to have words without meaning, and the supramundane great nirvāṇa's to have words with meaning, the four answering on the face of the words to the Tathāgata's dharma-body (permanence) · nirvāṇa (bliss) · the Buddha / tathāgatagarbha-buddha-nature (self) · the buddhas' and bodhisattvas' true dharma (purity). In the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka and the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra: an immovable-ground bodhisattva accomplishes the ten masteries of life, mind, wealth, action, birth, vow, understanding, as-wished, wisdom, and dharma (Avataṃsaka, fascicle 38, the causal level); the buddhas have ten masterful dharmas, mastering all dharmas, unobstructed in eloquence … and at last manifesting all buddhas in a single thought yet never using the least skillful effort (Avataṃsaka, fascicle 46, the fruit level); the great nirvāṇa takes permanence-bliss-self-purity as its four virtues, "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" (Nirvāṇa, fascicle 2); "self is the sense of the tathāgatagarbha; all beings have the buddha-nature, which is the sense of self" (Nirvāṇa, fascicle 7). Conclusion: the ten masteries (the perfected fruit-level capacities) and the four virtues (the virtues of the great nirvāṇa) together disclose the perfected aspect of the buddha-fruit's mastery — carrying forward the axis's frame of "the fruit-level is not the causal-level brightened" (P02's two sets of ten masteries here gaining the Avataṃsaka's two lists as full witness), and opening the closing paper P10's ultimate non-abiding nirvāṇa (the four virtues' "permanence" and "bliss" gathered into the not-abiding in nirvāṇa that benefits beings to the end of the future). The Nirvāṇa's "self" virtue — the self / no-self middle way, the true self versus the ordinary being's imagined self, the universality of the buddha-nature, the definitive sense of the marks' binding to the buddha-nature (P07) — are major adjudications of the tathāgatagarbha line, recorded without adjudicating, reserved to the author.10The Ultimate Non-Abiding Nirvāṇa—The Terminus of Both AxesThis paper is the closing paper of the Mastery of the Tathāgata division, and the close of the seam. The prior nine papers set the buddha-fruit's mastery as name (the ten epithets) · body (the three bodies, the marks) · wisdom (the four wisdoms) · function (the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive dharmas, four analytical knowledges, great compassion, all-kinds wisdom) · perfection (the ten masteries, the four virtues). This paper asks: where is this mastery's terminus? Is the buddha-fruit's mastery's ultimate return a cessation (like the without-remainder nirvāṇa of ash-body and extinguished-wisdom), or some other terminus? The thesis: the ultimate non-abiding nirvāṇa is the terminus of the buddha-fruit's mastery, and this terminus is no cessation, but "mastery as non-abiding" — suchness emerged from the cognitive hindrance, ever supported by great compassion and prajñā, not abiding in birth-and-death (by great compassion) nor abiding in nirvāṇa (by prajñā), benefiting beings to the end of the future, functioning yet ever-quiescent; the Cheng weishi lun plainly judges that the two vehicles' adepts may have the prior three nirvāṇas, but only the Buddha, the World-Honored One, may be said to possess all four (the non-abiding nirvāṇa belonging to the buddha-ground's ultimate alone). This division's keynote of "unobstructedness" (apratihata) here reaches its name: a Buddha's ultimate liberation is the "unobstructed liberation" (apratihata-vimokṣa) — the Dazhidu lun makes plain that a Buddha pulls out the afflictions and their traces at the root, is unobstructed in wisdom over all dharmas, and so it is named the unobstructed liberation. And this terminus is the sublime-awakening seam: in a single thought-moment of the vajra-like samādhi the two hindrances are cut at once, one enters the tathāgata-ground, the four wisdoms are perfected and bright — this single thought-moment the realization axis reads as the path's last step ("the aspect of ignorance's ending is the vajra"), and the attainment axis reads as the freedom that has no step further ("the aspect of ending being without aspect is the sarvajña"), the two faces of one and the same turning, two readings. Realization (arrival, the sublime awakening) and attainment (the mastery after arrival, the Tathāgata's mastery) meet at this seam — the terminus of both axes. In the Cheng weishi lun, the Dazhidu lun, and the Renwang Prajñā sūtra: among the four nirvāṇas the non-abiding nirvāṇa is suchness emerged from the cognitive hindrance, supported by compassion and wisdom, not abiding in birth-and-death-or-nirvāṇa, benefiting beings to the end of the future yet functioning-and-ever-quiescent, only the World-Honored One possessing all four (Cheng weishi lun, fasc. 10); the buddhas attain the unobstructed liberation and are unobstructed in wisdom over all dharmas, pulling out the afflictions and traces at the root, named the unobstructed liberation (Dazhidu lun, fasc. 21); at the ultimate stage, emerged from the hindrances and round-bright, the four-wisdom mind-groups wholly subsume all the conditioned virtues of the buddha-ground, this the uncontaminated realm whose four-wisdom basis is permanent (Cheng weishi lun, fasc. 9 · 10); a bodhisattva raises the vajra-like samādhi and in a single thought-moment cuts the three realms and the cognitive-hindrance seeds, entering the tathāgata-ground (Cheng weishi lun, fasc. 9 · 10); first entering the vajra all is comprehended, in one turning the sublime awakening ever-clear, the aspect of ignorance's ending the vajra, the aspect of ending being without aspect the sarvajña (Renwang, fasc. one); seated at the place of the path one attains the vajra samādhi, cutting all afflictions and traces and attaining supreme awakening (Dazhidu lun, fasc. 23); entering in sequence the vajra-like samādhi one attains the all-kinds wisdom and accomplishes the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four analytical knowledges, eighteen distinctive dharmas, great compassion (Dazhidu lun, fasc. 40, gathering this division's virtues). Conclusion: the terminus of the buddha-fruit's mastery is the ultimate non-abiding nirvāṇa (mastery as non-abiding · only the Buddha possessing all four); its name reaches the unobstructed liberation (mastery taking unobstructedness as aspect from beginning to end); its seam is the sublime awakening, where the two axes of realization and attainment end. The Mastery of the Tathāgata division is herewith complete. The convergence of complete (the Tathāgata's ultimate · only the Buddha possessing all four) and forming (the bodhisattva's non-abiding nirvāṇa · the causal-level process of compassion and wisdom jointly cutting the cognitive hindrance), the cross-axis convergence with the bodhisattva division's "heteromorphic, not hierarchically superior" frame, the two vehicles' without-remainder ("no different from a Buddha's, but without the awakening's work of benefiting others"), the two vehicles' ultimacy, the turning-from-the-small-to-the-great, the seam's doctrine (the adjudication of the two readings), and terms such as "primal-grade ignorance" — are all reserved to the author and to cross-axis convergence; this paper records the texts without adjudicating.Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.