Appendix A · Academic Notes Index
The main text was written to be spoken to you. So the catalog numbers, the fascicle references, the source locations—all of these have been ushered out of its pages and gathered here.
This index serves two purposes. First, it lets the reader who wants to look closer go from any chapter of the book back to the exact place in the sūtras and treatises on which that chapter rests. Second, it gives a single overview of the principal scriptures and treatises cited across the book's twenty chapters. Nothing in this book is invented—every chapter's argument presses down on the original wording of the texts listed below. All quotations have been collated word by word against the CBETA Electronic Tripiṭaka (the Taishō canon and the Manji Zokuzōkyō).
Numbering conventions: T refers to the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō (volume and text number); X to the Manji Shinsan Zokuzōkyō. Where one and the same text is drawn on for different facets in different chapters, the facets are noted separately. One further note: the correspondence of the six gates to the Heart Sūtra (lifted at the volume's close) is the interpretive framework this series undertakes and answers for, not the scripture's explicit text—this declaration stands in the body text of Part Eight, and is not re-flagged entry by entry below.
1 · The Principal Scriptures and Treatises: An Overview
Āgamas and Birth-Stories
| Text | Number | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Ekottarāgama | T0125 (fasc. 16, the three samādhis; fasc. 38, the eight-precept observance and the Dīpaṃkara birth-story) | 1.1, 1.2, 2.2 |
| Saṃyuktāgama | T0099 (fasc. 3, sūtra 64; fasc. 21, sūtra 561) | 1.1, 2.1, 2.2 |
| Madhyamāgama | T0026 (fasc. 26, the Discourse on Wishes) | 2.2 |
| Collection of the Six Perfections (Liudu ji jing) | T0152 (fasc. 8, the youth Rutong receives the prediction) | 1.2 |
Mahāyāna Sūtras
| Text | Number | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Diamond Sūtra (Jin'gang Banruo Boluomi Jing) | T0235 (the arousing of the awakening-mind and the vow to liberate beings) | 7.1 |
| Heart Sūtra (Banruo Boluomiduo Xinjing) | T0251 | 8.1, 8.2 |
| Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra | T0220 (second assembly, chapter on gradual stages) | 8.2 |
| Avataṃsaka Sūtra (eighty-fascicle) | T0279 (fasc. 34, Ten Grounds chapter, Ground of Joy—the ten great vows and the ten exhaustion-clauses; fasc. 38, the Eighth, Immovable Ground; fasc. 52, Manifestation of the Tathāgata chapter) | 3.1, 3.2, 7.2, 8.1 |
| Avataṃsaka Sūtra (forty-fascicle) · Chapter on Samantabhadra's Conduct-Vows | T0293 (fasc. 40) | 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 |
| Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha (Sūtra of Immeasurable Life) | T0360 (fasc. 1: Dharmākara's vows, the Forty-Eight Vows, the verse restatement; fasc. 2: the vow-accomplishment passage) | 5.1 |
| Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa | T0475 (fasc. 3, Bodhisattva-Conduct chapter) | 7.3 |
| Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch | T2008 (Repentance chapter, the own-mind four vows) | 4.1 |
| Sūtra on the Practice of Contemplating Samantabhadra | T0277 (the five-part Dharma-body) | 8.2 |
| Brahmā Net Sūtra | T1484 (fasc. 2, the verse on receiving the Buddha's precepts) | 8.2 |
Treatises and Commentaries
| Treatise / Commentary | Number | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra (Nāgārjuna, trans. Kumārajīva)—the axis of the whole book | T1509 (fasc. 4, arousing the mind; fasc. 7, the vow as driver; fasc. 16, within the actionless; fasc. 26, the two desires; fasc. 30, not cutting off the original vow; fasc. 42, not passing into cessation by the original vow's power; fasc. 46, the resolved vow; fasc. 61, the substance of the good; fasc. 74, the prediction; fasc. 76, not taking the witness of nirvāṇa; fasc. 77, the patience of non-arising; fasc. 81, no dual mind; fasc. 87, emptiness does not obstruct the vow) | 1.x, 2.x, 3.3, 7.x, 8.1 |
| Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā (Nāgārjuna) | T1521 (chapters on entering the first ground and on the easy practice) | 1.3 |
| Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra (Vasubandhu) | T1522 (fasc. 3, the three excellences and the retinue) | 3.2 |
| Treatise on Rebirth (Vasubandhu, Upadeśa on the Sūtra of Immeasurable Life with Verses of Aspiration for Rebirth) | T1524 (the original-vow-power verse; the gate of making the vow among the five gates of mindfulness) | 5.1, 5.2 |
| Commentary on the Treatise on Rebirth (Tanluan) | T1819 (fasc. 2: "set up in vain"; the three-vow attestation; the feeble man and the wheel-turning king; the going-forth and returning aspects of dedication) | 5.2 |
| Yogācārabhūmi (spoken by Maitreya, trans. Xuanzang) | T1579 (fasc. 21, wholesome desire; fasc. 49, the perfection of vow) | 2.1, 3.1 |
| Cheng Weishi Lun (Dharmapāla and others, trans. Xuanzang) | T1585 (fasc. 5, the mental factor of desire; fasc. 9, the two vows; fasc. 10, the nirvāṇa of no-abode) | 2.1, 3.1, 7.3 |
| Mahāyāna-saṃgraha corpus (drawing in the conditions to come) | T1594 | 3.1 |
| Upāsaka-śīla-sūtra | T1488 (the making of the pledge) | 1.1 |
| Commentary on the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra (Zhiyi) | T1699 (the two gates of vow and deed) | 4.1 |
| Sijiaoyi (Tiantai, Outline of the Fourfold Teachings) | T1931 (fasc. 1, raising the four vows on the objects of the Four Truths; the uncontrived four vows) | 4.1, 4.2 |
| Mohe Zhiguan (Zhiyi, Great Calming and Contemplation) | T1911 (fasc. 1, raising the four great vows; the full passage on the uncontrived Four Great Vows) | 4.1, 4.2 |
| Commentary on the Conduct-Vow Chapter (Chengguan) | X0227 (aspiration as vow; the cart's wheels and bird's wings; the division into inexhaustibility and unbrokenness) | 6.1, 6.2 |
| Separate-Circulation Commentary with Sub-commentary on the Conduct-Vow Chapter (Chengguan's commentary, Zongmi's sub-commentary) | X0229 (the vow already conduct; the power of contemplative practice; to turn and to orient) | 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 |
| Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Chengguan) | T1735 (fasc. 34, conduct and wisdom led by the vow; the ten vows comprising all) | 3.2 |
| Brief Commentary on the Heart Sūtra (Fazang) | T1712 (the cessation-fruit and the wisdom-fruit) | 8.1 |
2 · Chapter-by-Chapter Sources
Part One · Pāli Roots
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 1.1 The Vow: Turning the Direction Around | Ekottarāgama T0125 fasc. 38 (the eight-precept observance at the Jeta Grove; keeping the eight precepts together with one's vow, that the vow may turn with the practice); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 61 (the substance of the good cannot be given to another, what can be given is the fruit—the basis for the three moments of vow, pledge, and transference); Upāsaka-śīla-sūtra T1488 (the making of the pledge); Saṃyuktāgama T0099 fasc. 21, sūtra 561 (Ghosita's Park: cutting craving in dependence on desire—planted at the chapter's end) |
| 1.2 Before Dīpaṃkara, That Spread of Hair | Ekottarāgama T0125 fasc. 38 (before the Tathāgata Treasure-Store, the princess Muni offers the oil—the earlier life: "the princess Muni of that time—she is I"; in the city of Padumā, the brahmin youth's five flowers and the hair spread over the mud: "May I in a future age become a Buddha, even as the Buddha of Lamplight"; "Rise quickly… you shall be the Tathāgata Śākyamuni"; "the merit of a sworn vow cannot be reckoned"); Collection of the Six Perfections T0152 fasc. 8 (the youth Rutong receives the prediction); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 4 (the three things that name a bodhisattva; the verse of the first arousing; through three incalculable aeons, the heart knows and the mouth declares) |
| 1.3 Non-Retreat Is the Vow's Own Affair | Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 46 (the resolved vow is called the great adornment), fasc. 74 (the prediction of avaivartika); Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā T1521 (to raise the great-minded vow is to enter the assured company) |
Part Two · The Vow in the Āgamas
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 2.1 Wanting Comes in Two Kinds | Saṃyuktāgama T0099 fasc. 21, sūtra 561 in full (Ghosita's Park at Kauśāmbī; Ānanda's answer to the brahmin: craving is cut in dependence on desire; the craving cut, that desire too subsides; bounded, not boundless); Cheng Weishi Lun T1585 fasc. 5 (having longing toward a desired object as its nature, diligence as its function); Yogācārabhūmi T1579 fasc. 21 (what is wholesome desire: having heard the true Dharma and gained pure faith… by the dominant force of superior wholesome desire, going forth rightly); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 26 (not yet gained, wishing to gain; gained, wishing to increase—the Buddha has no such desire) |
| 2.2 Aspiring to Where No Aspiring Remains | Madhyamāgama T0026 fasc. 26, the Discourse on Wishes (the Jeta Grove; a monk comes to the Buddha at evening; the full ladder of "Monk, may I…"); Saṃyuktāgama T0099 fasc. 3, sūtra 64 (for one who grasps nothing there is also no seeking; for one who seeks nothing, nibbāna reveals itself); Saṃyuktāgama, the wanderer who would be born in Brahmā's heaven—the terminus exchanged (cited in substance); Ekottarāgama T0125 fasc. 16 (the Jeta Grove, the three samādhis; the definition of the concentration of the undirected; without these three samādhis one stays long in birth and death, unable to wake of oneself); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 30 (abiding in the three gates of liberation, contemplating nirvāṇa, yet not cutting off the original vow and good conduct) |
Part Three · The Vow as Perfection
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 3.1 The Vow Has a Seat of Its Own | Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0279 fasc. 38 (the ship-entering-the-sea simile; the buddhas' exhortation: "be mindful of the vow you first made, to bring vast benefit to all beings"; "the perfection of vow is predominant; the other perfections are not uncultivated, but follow capacity and measure"); Yogācārabhūmi T1579 fasc. 49 (longing for the knowledge that lies further and further ahead is called the perfection of vow); Cheng Weishi Lun T1585 fasc. 9 (vow is of two kinds: the vow seeking bodhi, and the vow to benefit and gladden others); the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha corpus T1594 (the vow draws in the superior conditions of the perfections to come) |
| 3.2 The Road Is Held Open by the Vow | Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0279 fasc. 34 (the ten great vows of the Ground of Joy; "with these ten vow-gates as chief, fulfilling a hundred thousand myriad incalculable great vows"; the ten exhaustion-clauses in full: "should the realm of beings be exhausted, my vow would be exhausted… this great vow's root of good has no exhausting"); Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra T1522 fasc. 3 (the excellence of vow, of practice, of fruit-benefit; each vow with a hundred thousand myriad incalculable great vows as retinue; unbroken to the end, not a moment-by-moment ceasing); Commentary on the Avataṃsaka T1735 fasc. 34 (conduct and wisdom led by the vow; no vow falls outside these ten) |
| 3.3 Merit Is the Ox, the Vow the Driver | Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 7 (if one makes no vow, does one gain no merit?; merit without a vow sets up no aim—the vow is what steers and guides; the smelting-gold simile; "merit is the ox, the vow the driver"; by the vow one receives the surpassing fruit), fasc. 42 (he does not pass into cessation, the merits not yet complete; by the power of great compassion and the original vow he does not cease), fasc. 16 (though he knows the true mark of dharmas to be unconditioned and actionless, because by the original vow and great compassion he wishes to liberate beings, within the actionless, by the power of effort, he liberates all) |
Part Four · The Four Great Vows
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Four Sentences That Were a Map All Along | Commentary on the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra T1699 (the bodhisattva's path comes to no more than vow and deed; the gate of vows summed up as the Four Great Vows); Sijiaoyi T1931 fasc. 1 (from the first arising of the mind, taking the Four Truths as one's field, raising the Four Great Vows and cultivating the six pāramitās; one sentence to each truth; deeds must come to fill the vow); Mohe Zhiguan T1911 fasc. 1 (raising great compassion and great loving-kindness, raising the four great vows—pulling out two sufferings, giving two joys); Platform Sūtra T2008 (the own-mind four vows; when the wrong comes, liberate it with the right, when delusion comes, liberate it with awakening; to practice with constant mindfulness is the dharma of vow-power) |
| 4.2 Contending with Empty Space | Mohe Zhiguan T1911 fasc. 1 (though beings are like empty space, I vow to ferry beings-like-space; the vow mixed with poison; one attached to emptiness, whom the buddhas cannot transform; the great compassion of affection and views; like a bird flying through space, never dwelling in it; "contending with empty space," "the genuine raising of the awakening-mind"; though I know awakening to be nothing-whatsoever, within the nothing-whatsoever I therefore seek it; vowing to paint and adorn empty space; like planting a tree in empty space, yet making it flower and fruit); Sijiaoyi T1931 fasc. 1 (upon the wondrous object, raising the uncontrived Four Great Vows); eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0279 fasc. 34 (the ten exhaustion-clauses, recalled) |
Part Five · The Original Vows of Amitābha
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 5.1 If, When I Attain Buddhahood | Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha T0360 fasc. 1 (the Buddha Lokeśvararāja; "at that time there was a king who, hearing the Buddha teach the Dharma, was glad at heart… relinquished his country, gave up the throne, and went forth as a śramaṇa, called Dharmākara"; the verse of praise "even though this body should abide amid every pain and poison, my practice shall press on; enduring, I shall never regret"; the two hundred and ten koṭis of buddha-fields; the first vow "If, when I attain buddhahood, there should be in my land the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, or the animal realm, may I not take the perfect awakening"; the verse restatement "I have founded a vow surpassing the worlds… may I not become a fully awakened one"; the planting of virtue through inconceivable, immeasurable aeons), fasc. 2 (the vow accomplished: "the bodhisattva Dharmākara has now already become a buddha and dwells at present in the West… since his attaining buddhahood, ten eons in all have passed"); Treatise on Rebirth T1524 (beholding the Buddha's original vow-power, none who meet it pass by in vain; it can swiftly fill the great jewel-ocean of merit) |
| 5.2 Other-Power Can Be Ridden | Commentary on the Treatise on Rebirth T1819 fasc. 2 ("were it not for the Buddha's power, the Forty-Eight Vows would be set up in vain"; the three-vow attestation; the simile of self-power and other-power: "a feeble man who cannot so much as mount a donkey, yet following in the train of a wheel-turning king, rides through the air and roams the four continents"; "How foolish! Let later students, hearing that other-power can be ridden, give rise to faith, and not confine themselves to their own portion"; the returning aspect: "one returns into the dense forest of birth-and-death, teaching all beings to turn together toward the Buddha way"); Treatise on Rebirth T1524 (the gate of making the vow among the five gates of mindfulness: "to constantly make the vow with the mind, single-mindedly and wholly intent, to be reborn at last in the Land of Peace and Bliss") |
Part Six · Samantabhadra's Conduct-Vows
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 6.1 Conduct-Vow Is a Single Word | Forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0293 fasc. 40 (Samantabhadra, having extolled the Tathāgata's merit, addresses the bodhisattvas and Sudhana; "should cultivate ten kinds of vast conduct-vows"; the list of ten; "the ocean of conduct-vows"; "by the power of Samantabhadra's conduct-vow"); Commentary on the Conduct-Vow Chapter X0227 (aspiration is the vow, undertaking is the conduct, lodged in the round number ten and so spoken as ten; "these two uphold each other, like the two wheels of a cart, like the two wings of a bird; to soar through the sky and reach afar"); Separate-Circulation Commentary with Sub-commentary X0229 (this vow is already conduct—hence "conduct-vow"—unlike the ordinary person's empty, dated pledge) |
| 6.2 Moment to Moment, Without Weariness | Forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0293 fasc. 40 (the homage vow in full; the recurring closing "moment to moment it continues, without interruption; the deeds of body, speech, and mind never weary"; the verses "to the end of all future aeons, never wearying," "practicing without tiring through oceans of aeons," "through future aeons forever untiring"); Commentary on the Conduct-Vow Chapter X0227 (first it shows the inexhaustibility, then it makes manifest the unbrokenness; "weary" means fatigue, "satiety" means having had enough); Separate-Circulation Commentary with Sub-commentary X0229 (without the power of Samantabhadra's contemplative practice, how could thought-moment after thought-moment go unbroken?) |
| 6.3 The Last Turn | Forty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0293 fasc. 40 (the tenth vow in full: "from the first act of homage down to according with beings, all the merit accrued is wholly transferred… I will undergo it all in their stead… at last accomplish unsurpassed awakening"; the gathering verse "transferred to sentient beings and to the Buddha-path"; the sealing "the ten great vows full and complete"); Separate-Circulation Commentary with Sub-commentary X0229 (hui means to turn, xiang means to orient); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 61 (the substance of the good cannot be given to another—recalled) |
Part Seven · The Vow and Emptiness
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 7.1 Vowing with Nothing to Attain | Diamond Sūtra T0235 (Subhūti asks how the mind should abide; "One should give rise to such a mind: 'I should bring all beings to final liberation. Yet when I have brought all beings to liberation, there is not a single being who has in reality been liberated'"; "there is in truth no dharma whatever that arouses the mind of supreme, perfect awakening"; "one should give rise to the mind without dwelling anywhere"); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 87 ("Ultimate emptiness, having nothing whatever, obstructs nothing—how should it stand in the way of arousing the mind to become a Buddha?… If it could obstruct, it would itself possess own-being—how then could it be called the nature of having-nothing-whatever?"; the medicine simile: "It is like a man who has obtained a fine medicine, while his kin and friends lie in the sufferings of sickness—how could he not give it?"). The vow's three wheels (vower / vowed / vow) are a structural projection modeled on the three wheels of giving, not a sentence of the scriptures—stated openly in the body text |
| 7.2 Immovable for Having No Ground | Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 77 (the exchange "if a dharma cannot be apprehended, should that dharma arise?"; this is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's patience of non-arising; "the ordinary person, because of the mind that clings to a self, has fear; this bodhisattva, because the mark of self is severed, is without fear. Know that this bodhisattva abides, at once, on the ground of avaivartika"); eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0279 fasc. 38 ("when a bodhisattva accomplishes this patience, that very instant he enters the Eighth Ground, the Immovable Ground"; "because he is able to obtain the dharma of non-regression, it is therefore said that he abides in the Immovable Ground"; "he relinquishes all effortful activity and attains the dharma of effortlessness") |
| 7.3 The Bodhisattva Does Not Abide in Nirvāṇa | Cheng Weishi Lun T1585 fasc. 10 ("the nirvāṇa of no-abode: this is suchness freed from the cognitive obscuration, ever supported by the two wings of great compassion and prajñā. By this it abides neither in saṃsāra nor in nirvāṇa, benefiting and gladdening sentient beings to the end of all future time—functioning, yet ever still"; only the World-Honored One can be said to possess all four); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 16 (by the original vow and great compassion… within the actionless he liberates all); Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa T0475 fasc. 3, Bodhisattva-Conduct chapter (not exhausting the conditioned, not abiding in the unconditioned; teaching and transforming beings, never for a moment wearying; to train in emptiness, yet not take emptiness as one's realization) |
Part Eight · Attaining Bodhi · Laying Down the Brush
| Chapter | Principal sources |
|---|---|
| 8.1 One Unbroken Breath | Heart Sūtra T0251 (the bodhisattva-being… reaches ultimate nirvāṇa; the buddhas of the three periods, relying on the prajñā-pāramitā, attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi); Brief Commentary on the Heart Sūtra T1712 (first, the bodhisattva attaining the cessation-fruit of nirvāṇa; then, the buddhas attaining the wisdom-fruit of bodhi); eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka T0279 fasc. 52, Manifestation of the Tathāgata chapter (the ocean of omniscience "arises wholly from the great vows the Tathāgata made in ages past"; the Tathāgata's body "has no fixed location, neither real nor void; yet by the power of the buddhas' original vow, whenever beings are fit to be liberated, it appears"); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 fasc. 81 (in transferring, he gives rise to no dual mind: who is the one transferring? toward what is it transferred?), fasc. 76 (not taking the witness of nirvāṇa; "he does not see even this emptiness as a dharma; and because he does not see it, there is nothing realized"), fasc. 7 (the vow as driver—recalled) |
| 8.2 The Six Gates Were One Sentence All Along | Heart Sūtra T0251, the body of the text in six segments; Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra T0220, second assembly ("cultivating the prajñā-pāramitā, increasing by gradual stages, adorning and purifying buddha-lands, ripening sentient beings"); Sūtra on the Practice of Contemplating Samantabhadra T0277 ("one naturally accomplishes the five-part Dharma-body: discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge-and-vision of liberation. The buddha-tathāgatas are born from this dharma"); Brahmā Net Sūtra T1484 ("when beings receive the Buddha's precepts, they enter at once the station of the buddhas; their station equal to the Great Awakened, they are truly children of the buddhas"); Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 (the chain of the three trainings—discipline gives rise to concentration, concentration to wisdom; cited in substance). Both the correspondence of the six gates to the Heart Sūtra and the cross-gate arc of "first death, then birth" are the interpretive framework this series undertakes, not the scripture's explicit text—declared twice in the body text |