Part Eight · Attaining Bodhi · Laying Down the Brush

This part is the last of this volume, and the last of the entire Six Practice Gates series.

Two chapters, two matters.

Chapter one catches the word "attain" at the end of the Heart Sūtra. The text first says the bodhisattva "reaches ultimate nirvāṇa," and at once says the buddhas of the three periods "attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi"—one sentence, two subjects, and between them not one breath is broken. Are these two steps one thing said twice, or a two-step ascent? And who is it that carries the first step onward into the second? The answer sets the "vow" this volume has spent seven parts on into its final place on the whole road of the Buddha-way.

Chapter two turns over the bottom of the whole series. Recollection, giving, repentance, discipline, concentration, vow—six volumes walked to the end; looking back, are these six gates six things, or six faces of one thing? What this chapter lifts is the full map the six volumes have only ever signposted and never spoken aloud.

Chapter one is the gathering of this volume; chapter two is the gathering of all six. Whoever has come this far—whether through all six volumes in order, or entering by this one alone—please walk this last stretch slowly.

In the chapter that lays down the brush, the words will run out. The vow will not.