Upāli's New Question

4.1 Upāli's New Question

A morning. The Venerable Upāli rose from meditation, came before the Buddha, bowed with his head at the Buddha's feet, circled Him three times to the right, sat down to one side, and asked a question:

"World-Honored One, if You now enter nirvāṇa, how am I to distinguish and know the śrāvaka precepts, the pratyekabuddha precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts? The World-Honored One has said that in keeping the Vinaya I am the foremost; yet I do not know the skillful means of the Vinaya—how am I to teach it?"

Remember who it is that asks. Part Three told of the First Council—the one who, as Mahākāśyapa asked line by line "Where was this rule first laid down? Who first transgressed?", recited the entire Vinaya canon from the beginning, was this same Upāli, acknowledged by the Saṅgha as foremost in keeping the Vinaya. Now even he stands before the Buddha and says: there is a kind of precept I no longer know how to judge. The śrāvaka precepts I know well; the bodhisattva precepts—where is the measuring-rule?

This scene is recorded in the Pusa shanjie jing (translated by Guṇavarman in the Liu Song). It marks a turning point: the precept had grown new branches that the Vinaya canon's rule could not measure.

Strict and Flexible, Closed and Open

The Buddha's answer first set the two kinds of precept apart at their base: the śrāvaka precepts and the bodhisattva precepts differ in causal conditions, differ in mind, differ in adornment, differ in skillful means—different in where they come from, different in what they intend, different in their bearing, different in their handling. Then He said something that sounds, at first hearing, alarming:

"If a śrāvaka, even for a single thought, does not seek further existence, this is called purity of the śrāvaka precepts; if a bodhisattva does not seek further existence, this is called a great breaking of the precepts, called impure precepts."

A śrāvaka practitioner who does not seek, for even one thought, to take up birth-and-death again—this is called purity of the precepts. A bodhisattva who refuses to enter birth-and-death again—that, on the contrary, is called a great breaking of the precepts. Why? Because the bodhisattva's original vow is to liberate sentient beings; sentient beings are in birth-and-death, and if he walks out by himself and will not come back, that vow is severed. Hence those two lines, famous through the ages:

"You should proclaim: the śrāvaka precepts are strict, the bodhisattva precepts are flexible; the śrāvaka precepts are closed, the bodhisattva precepts are open."

Flexible does not mean lax; open does not mean letting everything pass. The sūtra explains itself in the next breath: "the bodhisattva accords with the minds of sentient beings"—the bodhisattva's precept must turn with sentient beings, and so it is left wide; the śrāvaka's precept minds only one's own deliverance, and so it is drawn tight. The same sūtra says it more bluntly still: a bodhisattva who transgresses in the morning should, that very moment, still recollect unsurpassed bodhi, and so through the three watches of day and of night—"though the bodhisattva transgress again and again, he is not called a breaker of the precepts"; even "though the bodhisattva enjoy the pleasures of the five desires for kalpas equal to the sands of the Ganges, he still does not lose the bodhisattva precepts."

Yet this wide rule has one place where it is drawn tighter than the śrāvaka precepts—tight beyond any retreat. The same sūtra says: when a bodhisattva transgresses out of greed, however grave the transgression—grave enough to require day-and-night repentance before the buddhas of the ten directions for two full years—the road of repentance stays open; only "for a bodhisattva to break the precepts on a condition of aversion—there is no place for this; for one who has broken the precepts on a condition of aversion to obtain repentance—there is likewise no place for this." Greed has a gate of repentance; aversion has none. Why so asymmetrical? Because greed, though defiled, is a mind still cleaving to sentient beings; the moment aversion rises, it throws sentient beings out of the heart—and the lifeline of the bodhisattva precepts is one line only: do not abandon sentient beings.

Where it is wide and where it is severe is now plain: wherever one accords with sentient beings, the bodhisattva precepts are wide; wherever one turns one's back on sentient beings, the bodhisattva precepts are severer than all.

The Three Clusters: A New Master Map

What, then, is the overall structure of this new rule whose sight is set on "not abandoning sentient beings"? The Bodhisattvabhūmi (translated in the Northern Liang by Dharmakṣema as the Pusa dichi jing) gives the master map—the three precept-clusters:

"Three kinds: first, the śīla of restraint; second, the śīla of gathering wholesome states; third, the śīla of gathering beings. The śīla of restraint is the precepts received by the seven assemblies—bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī…"

The first cluster: the restraint cluster. Look at its content—"the precepts received by the seven assemblies": bhikṣu and bhikṣuṇī down to the lay men and women, each assembly's own precepts of individual liberation, taken in whole and intact. The entire Vinaya canon Part Three walked through—not one rule altered, not one rule dropped—is housed in the first cluster of the bodhisattva precepts. The Mahāyāna does not tear down and rebuild; it raises a building on the foundation.

The second cluster: the accumulation-of-virtue cluster. All the good that ought to be cultivated is likewise established as precept—the six pāramitās and the ten thousand practices, hearing, reflecting, cultivating, realizing: all of it is the precept's content. From now on, not to cultivate the good is itself to transgress.

The third cluster: the sattva-welfare cluster. The beings who ought to be liberated are likewise established as precept. From now on, to see beings suffer and not save them, to be able to benefit and not benefit—that is to transgress.

This is the greatest stretching the word "precept" has ever undergone. The Vinaya canon's precepts are precept-by-restraint—a list of "you may not"; the latter two clusters are precept-by-action—a list of "you must do." Ceasing evil, cultivating good, liberating beings—the three clusters together draw everything a bodhisattva does, from morning to night, from birth to death, inside the precept. So when the Dichi jing gathers this up, it uses a word of utmost weight:

"First, the śīla of restraint, which causes the mind to settle; second, the śīla of gathering wholesome states, which accomplishes the buddha-dharma in oneself; third, the śīla of gathering beings, which brings beings to maturity. This is called the bodhisattva's every task."

This is called the bodhisattva's every task—everything a bodhisattva does lies within the three clusters. And mark the function of the first cluster: "causes the mind to settle." Part One ended on "the precept is the foundation of concentration"; arrived at the Mahāyāna, the sentence stands unchanged—the restraint cluster is still that foundation on which the mind settles.

And take note, in passing, of a name. "The three clusters of pure precepts" is the name China later settled on; the sūtra itself says "three precept-clusters," "three kinds of reception." The later Tiantai commentary on the bodhisattva precepts went on to match the three clusters to the Buddha's three bodies—the restraint cluster the cause of the dharmakāya, the accumulation-of-virtue cluster the cause of the saṃbhogakāya, the sattva-welfare cluster the cause of the nirmāṇakāya; the three clusters interpenetrate, with neither superiority nor inferiority.

The Root Was Planted Long Ago

The third cluster establishes the benefiting of beings as a precept—at first glance a brand-new invention. In fact Part Two has already seen its root.

Remember the five great gifts—the Buddha said that abstaining from killing gives countless sentient beings freedom from fear, freedom from enmity, freedom from ill-will. A single precept-by-restraint, "no killing," and the Buddha with His own mouth spoke of it as a giving directed toward beings. The precept that ceases evil was aimed at beings from the start; the three clusters of pure precepts take this inborn direction and establish it, face on, as articles. From the five great gifts to the sattva-welfare cluster is one same root, grown up out of the ground.

The three clusters stretch the precept's frontier to the world of beings. But the Mahāyāna has a deeper cut still to make into the precept, entering from another direction—prajñā. The sūtra says: transgression is unobtainable. If even transgression is unobtainable, what is it the precept keeps?

In the next chapter, watch a poison-dragon answer that question.