Transition ⑦ · From the Vow and Emptiness to Attaining Bodhi

Part Seven has walked up to "the bodhisattva does not abide in nirvāṇa," and stopped. The page is about to turn.

This middle page is a breath—and this time, the last breath of the volume.

With Part Seven done, emptiness has relieved the vow of three loads. It relieved it of "the I who vows": vowed with nothing to attain, the vow goes looser and farther. It relieved it of "the hidden worry of retreat": the vow was never arisen; no thing has arisen that could be lost—immovable for having no ground. It relieved it of "the lure of the terminus": nirvāṇa too is no graspable resting place; seeing this far, the bodhisattva turns from the gate unhurried. Emptiness is not the vow's adversary but its deepest ally—that sentence has been honored.

But at the end of Part Seven, one word was left hanging—and it hangs still.

The Heart Sūtra runs its "no" all the way down—no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no suffering, origin, cessation, path; no wisdom and no attainment—"no" to the point where mountain and river give out; and then its last two sentences read like this: the bodhisattva-being, relying on the prajñā-pāramitā, has a mind without hindrance… reaching ultimate nirvāṇa. The buddhas of the three periods, relying on the prajñā-pāramitā, attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

The word "attain," standing in full view after "no wisdom and no attainment."

A scripture devoted entire to nothing-to-attain closes, of all words, on "attain." This is not a contradiction; it is a seam left there on purpose—and that seam is exactly the place of the gate of the vow on the whole road. After seven parts on the vow, what this book must account for last is its relation to that one word.

And one more thing can no longer be put off.

This book is the final volume of the Six Practice Gates. Recollection, giving, repentance, discipline, concentration, vow—six books, six gates, walked through one by one; and at the head of every volume the same thing was said: the six gates are one sequence, answering to a certain structure in the Heart Sūtra. But what that structure is as a whole, why the six gates stand in this order, why the sequence closes on the vow of all gates—through six volumes, only signposts were ever given, never the full map.

Because the full map can be opened only at the road's end.

The two chapters of Part Eight are the last two chapters of the whole series. Chapter one catches that word "attain"—what the "attaining bodhi" of the buddhas of the three periods is, and who it is that carries the bodhisattva's ultimate nirvāṇa onward into the buddhas' full accomplishment. Chapter two turns over the bottom of the six volumes—what the six gates have been, all along.

A reader who has walked seven parts may already half suspect. Suspected or not—once this page turns, please slow your steps. These last two chapters are to be read slowly.