Realization · The Bodhi PathPart 2Paper 3 of 10

Entering the Abodes

BODHI-P03 · v1.0 · 2026-06

Where Position-Non-Regress Begins — the Abode of Arousing the Mind, Faith Becoming Dwelling

中文主題：入住——位不退之始（發心住）

I. The Question

When the last paper ended, the practitioner was still standing on the tidal flat. The Ten Faiths are outer-ordinary, "replete with all defilements," "both regress and advance"; meeting a good friend one advances, failing to meet one "sinks forever and does not emerge." That is a shore the tide covers and uncovers, its footing unsettled. It is a real beginning — arousing bodhicitta has already brought one through the gate of the Great Vehicle (BODHI-P01) — but it is a regressible beginning (BODHI-P02). So a question hangs there: where is the dry land? Walking across this tidal flat, where is the first step that sets one's foot on ground the tide will not wash away?

The canon's answer is plain: at "entering the abodes." After the Ten Faiths come the Ten Abodes, and the first of the Ten Abodes is named the "Abode of Arousing the Mind." Once one passes from faith into abode, the practitioner's standing turns in kind: he is no longer the pre-abode "provisional-name bodhisattva," but a "son of the Buddha" who "dwells in the family of the buddhas of the three times." The Keyūra drew this line long since: the faith-position is "roots-of-good of the regressing portion," whereas "one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing-portion roots-of-good" (cited already in BODHI-P02). The watershed of regressing-portion and advancing-portion falls at this step — entering the Abode of Arousing the Mind.

The thesis of this paper: the first of the Ten Abodes (the Abode of Arousing the Mind) is where the Mahāyāna's position-non-regress begins; faith becomes dwelling — the pre-abode, regressible "provisional-name bodhisattva" is here made good as a "son of the Buddha" who dwells in the Buddha-family and does not regress from the bodhisattva's position. This is the baton BODHI-P02 handed over: that paper said "the watershed of position-non-regress lies at entering the Abode of Arousing the Mind, not at the thought of arising"; this paper makes that step plain — how "abode" differs from "faith," what exactly "position-non-regress" does and does not lock, and what the Avataṃsaka's expressly-named "Abode of Non-Regress" discloses about the texture of non-regress.

One boundary must be stated honestly up front, and Section V will return to it: to say "entering the abodes is where position-non-regress begins," this classification of "position-non-regress" is a judgement of doctrinal classification (判教), not the literal self-statement of the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes. At its seventh "Abode of Non-Regress," the chapter says only that the bodhisattva "hears ten kinds of dharma and is firmly non-regressing," "does not regress in mind within the Buddha-dharma"; it does not itself judge "this position (or the ten abodes) to be position-non-regress, as the beginning relative to practice-non-regress and mindfulness-non-regress." To set the Ten Abodes as "position-non-regress," the Ten Dedications / first ground as "practice-non-regress," and the eighth ground as "mindfulness-non-regress" is a stational classification erected by later doctrinal systems (Tiantai's "distinct teaching," and the like) on the basis of their school and treatises. This paper argues from that classification — which is also the architecture this axis's PLAN has adopted — while marking throughout that it is a classificatory judgement, not canonical wording.

The argument proceeds in three moves. Section II lays out the canonical basis: the Abode of Arousing the Mind heading the ten; the abode set within the Buddha-family and addressed as "son of the Buddha"; the ten dharmas of the seventh Abode of Non-Regress. Section III is the core argument, distinguishing in three layers "abode differs from faith," "the exact content of position-non-regress," and "the texture of non-regress lies in view, not in experience." Section IV deliberately omits interdisciplinary convergence, for the reason in Section VI. Section V offers middle-way corrections, marking honestly the classificatory boundary and the difference between "two non-regresses." Section VI concludes and looks ahead to P04 and the Attainment-axis seam.

II. The Canonical Basis

2.1 The beginning of entering the abodes: the Abode of Arousing the Mind heads the ten

In the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes, the bodhisattva Dharma-wisdom (Dharmamati), by the Buddha's majestic power, lists the names and number of the bodhisattva's ten abodes, with the "Abode of Arousing the Mind" at the head:

菩薩住有十種，過去、未來、現在諸佛，已說、當說、今說。何者為十？所謂：初發心住、治地住、修行住、生貴住、具足方便住、正心住、不退住、童真住、王子住、灌頂住。是名菩薩十住，去、來、現在諸佛所說。¹

"The bodhisattva's abodes are of ten kinds, which the buddhas of past, future, and present have taught, will teach, now teach. What are the ten? The Abode of Arousing the Mind, of Governing the Ground, of Cultivation, of Noble Birth, of Endowment with Means, of Right Mind, of Non-Regress, of Youthful Truth, of the Prince [of the Dharma], of Consecration. These are called the bodhisattva's ten abodes, taught by the buddhas of the past, future, and present."

The first of the ten is named the "Abode of Arousing the Mind." Note its relation to the entry of the Ten Faiths: the passage on the "Abode of Arousing the Mind" cited in BODHI-P01 (seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, or seeing beings' suffering, one "arouses bodhicitta, seeking omniscience") is precisely this head of the ten abodes. That is: "arousing bodhicitta," which in the Ten Faiths was the pre-abode "a single thought of faith thereupon arouses bodhicitta" (provisional-name bodhisattva, BODHI-P02), is at the Ten Abodes made good as the "Abode of Arousing the Mind," a named abode with a place. One and the same "arousing" has crossed the threshold from "pre-abode" to "entered the abode."

And the line "pre-abode regressible, entered-abode non-regressing" the Keyūra states most directly. BODHI-P02 cited it: "the roots-of-good of the regressing portion at the abode-gate are as stated above; one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing-portion roots-of-good."² What the faith-position cultivates are "regressing-portion" roots-of-good (able to fall back); one in the "Abode of Arousing the Mind" is "a person of the advancing portion" (advancing, non-regressing). The boundary between regressing-portion and advancing-portion falls plainly at the "Abode of Arousing the Mind." This paper's "where position-non-regress begins" has, on the textual side, its hardest fulcrum just here: the Abode of Arousing the Mind is where the "advancing portion" begins.

2.2 The mark of the abode: dwelling in the Buddha-family of the three times, equal to the dharma-realm and space, addressed as son of the Buddha

Why is "abode" a change in kind? The Chapter on the Ten Abodes opens — Dharma-wisdom, emerging from concentration, addresses the assembly — and its very first sentence sets the bodhisattva's "abode" in a place wholly other than the outer-ordinary:

佛子！菩薩住處廣大，與法界虛空等。佛子！菩薩住三世諸佛家，彼菩薩住，我今當說。³

"O son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva's dwelling-place is vast, equal to the dharma-realm and to space. O son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva dwells in the family of the buddhas of the three times; that bodhisattva's dwelling I shall now expound."

Two phrases fix the standing of "abode." First, "equal to the dharma-realm and to space" — the bodhisattva's dwelling-place is vast as the dharma-realm and space, not the come-and-go mooring of a tidal flat. Second, and most decisive, "dwells in the family of the buddhas of the three times" — the bodhisattva's abode is settled within the "family" of all the buddhas of the three times. A family is the belonging of lineage and blood, the place where one is at home; "entering the Buddha-family" is to enter the family of the Tathāgata-lineage, and from then to be one of that house. And so, throughout the Chapter on the Ten Abodes, all who expound or abide in the ten are addressed as "sons of the Buddha." "Son of the Buddha" is no loose honorific: against the pre-abode "provisional-name bodhisattva, nominal bodhisattva," set up upon a name, "son of the Buddha" is the real standing of one who has entered the Buddha-family and taken its surname. Faith's "provisional name" is here made good as "son of the Buddha."

2.3 The name of non-regress: the seventh "Abode of Non-Regress" and its ten dharmas

Among the ten abodes, the seventh bears "non-regress" for its very name — a "non-regress" the Avataṃsaka erects within the ten. The Chapter on the Ten Abodes explains the "Abode of Non-Regress":

佛子！云何為菩薩不退住？此菩薩聞十種法，堅固不退。何者為十？所謂：聞有佛、無佛，於佛法中，心不退轉；聞有法、無法，於佛法中，心不退轉……聞三世一相、三世非一相，於佛法中，心不退轉。是為十。⁴

"O son of the Buddha, what is the bodhisattva's Abode of Non-Regress? This bodhisattva, hearing ten kinds of dharma, is firmly non-regressing. What are the ten? Hearing 'a Buddha exists' or 'no Buddha,' his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma; hearing 'a Dharma exists' or 'no Dharma,' his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma; … hearing 'the three times are one mark' or 'the three times are not one mark,' his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma. These are the ten."

Note the content of this "non-regress": it is not a non-regress of the "experience holds firm, absorption is not lost" kind, but, in the face of a string of opposed dilemmas (a Buddha exists / no Buddha; a Dharma exists / no Dharma; … the three times are one mark / not one mark), "his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma." Each of these dilemmas is a metaphysical crux capable of shaking a beginner's root view: does a Buddha exist at all? Does a Dharma stand or not? Are the three times one or many? An ordinary being, hearing this, may easily sway between the two horns and even lose the faculty of faith. The non-regress of the "Abode of Non-Regress" bodhisattva is precisely this: before these ten regress-inducing dilemmas, his root view within the Buddha-dharma stands firm and unmoved. Section III will show that this discloses the very texture of "non-regress" — it is a matter of view, not of experience.

(It must be noted in passing: at this "Abode of Non-Regress," the Chapter on the Ten Abodes says "hearing ten kinds of dharma, firmly non-regressing / mind does not regress," and does not itself judge "this position is position-non-regress, and is its beginning relative to practice-non-regress and mindfulness-non-regress." That "where position-non-regress begins" is a matter of doctrinal classification; see Section V.)

III. The Core Argument

Section II presented three things: the Abode of Arousing the Mind heads the ten (and the Keyūra judges the Abode of Arousing the Mind to be the advancing portion); the abode is set within the Buddha-family and its dwellers addressed as sons of the Buddha; the seventh Abode of Non-Regress has "the mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma" for its mark. This section, in three layers: how "abode" differs from "faith" (3.1); the exact content of "position-non-regress" (3.2); the texture of non-regress as view, not experience (3.3).

3.1 How "abode" differs from "faith": dwelling in the Buddha-family, not mooring at the shore

The difference between "faith" and "abode" hides in the two words themselves. "Faith" is a mental factor, a cultivated, depreciating "touch" (BODHI-P02, 3.1); its position "both regresses and advances," like a tidal flat. But "abode" — to abide, to settle, to dwell — is a word of place, of having settled down. The sutra says this abode is "equal to the dharma-realm and to space," "dwells in the family of the buddhas of the three times" (2.2): not a mooring at the shore, but having entered a house and settled in.

The crux is that what is dwelt upon has changed. What the faith-position leans on is conditioned, regressible roots-of-good (BODHI-P02, 3.1); what the abode-position dwells in is the "Buddha-family" — the family of the Tathāgata-lineage. Lineage (the gotra of the Yogācārabhūmi's Lineage chapter, cited in BODHI-P01, 2.3) is "abiding-by-nature plus produced-by-cultivation," the capacity-nature fit for buddhahood, the support of the arising of the mind. To enter the abode is for this already-aroused mind to turn from "provisionally named upon faith" to "dwelling in the Buddha-family upon lineage." What is leaned on has changed from regressible roots-of-good to the standing-belonging of having entered the Buddha-family and taken the Buddha-surname — and a standing, once made good (becoming a son of the Buddha), no longer regresses on a whim the way touch does.

A contrast: the "auditing student" versus the formally "enrolled, on-the-register" student. The auditor (faith-position, provisional-name bodhisattva) comes and goes freely; miss three sessions and no one stops you, and a slackening of work severs you from the school entirely (both regresses and advances, sinks forever and does not emerge). But once formally enrolled, the registration settled (abode, son of the Buddha), you are a registered member of this school — you may fail a course (practice can regress), you may slacken at times (mindfulness can regress), but the registered standing "you are a student of this school" is not cancelled by one absence. Faith becoming dwelling is just this step from "auditing" to "on the register": the standing is made good, and what remains regressible is only the advance-and-regress within the standing, not the standing itself.

✅ Doctrinally sound: the canonical specification of "abode" — "equal to the dharma-realm and to space," "dwells in the family of the buddhas of the three times," addressed as "son of the Buddha" (Avataṃsaka, Ten Abodes) — establishes that "abode" is a standing-belonging (entering the Buddha-family, taking the Buddha-surname), unlike the faith-position's mooring upon conditioned roots-of-good. What is dwelt upon changes from regressible roots-of-good to a lineage-standing not lightly regressed: this is the substance of "faith becoming dwelling."

3.2 The exact content of "position-non-regress": not regressing from the bodhisattva's position

The three words "position-non-regress" are most easily read too full. They must be defined term by term: what does not regress is the position — the bodhisattva's position, the son-of-the-Buddha's position. Position-non-regress means no longer regressing from the bodhisattva's position: no longer falling back to the grounds of the two vehicles (turning into a śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha seeking only one's own quietude), no longer falling back to the ground of the ordinary (losing the bodhisattva lineage and reverting to outer-ordinary). What it locks is the irreversibility at the level of vehicle and positional standing.

This continues the thread of BODHI-P01 and P02, composing one clear lineage: arousing bodhicitta brings one through the gate of the Great Vehicle, counted among the bodhisattvas (P01: entry); but the first station entered (the Ten Faiths) is outer-ordinary, regressible, able to fall back (P02: the faith-position is unstable); walking through the Ten Faiths into the Abode of Arousing the Mind, the bodhisattva's "position" is at last established and no longer regresses (P03: position-non-regress). The three steps are "entry → instability → fixed position." What "position-non-regress" locks down is precisely the "bodhisattva standing" that P01 established and P02 left unstable — here made good, no longer at risk of "regressing into a two-vehicle or ordinary being."

Equally important is what it does not lock. Position-non-regress does not equal "nothing regresses at all," still less "henceforth non-regressing, a straight run to buddhahood without further trial." On the doctrinal architecture this axis adopts (PLAN): above position-non-regress (Ten Abodes) there remain practice-non-regress (Ten Dedications / first ground) and mindfulness-non-regress (eighth ground). That is: after entering the abodes, the bodhisattva may still regress in the "practice" of the six perfections and myriad deeds (practice not yet at non-regress), and may still regress in the "mindfulness" of moment-to-moment accord with dharma (mindfulness not yet at non-regress); only his "position" — being a bodhisattva who does not fall to the two vehicles or the ordinary — no longer regresses. To hear "position-non-regress" as "from now nothing regresses" is to over-extend one layer's irreversibility into the whole road's; Section V will clear this further.

✅ Doctrinally sound: with the Keyūra's "one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing portion" (the regressing/advancing boundary, 2.1) as hard fulcrum, and on the classificatory architecture (PLAN: position-non-regress = Ten Abodes), "position-non-regress" means exactly "not regressing from the bodhisattva's position (not falling to the two vehicles or the ordinary)," locking the irreversibility of vehicle-nature and positional standing, layered apart from the later practice-non-regress and mindfulness-non-regress.

3.3 The texture of non-regress: mind unregressing before ten dilemmas — a matter of view, not of experience

So what holds this "non-regress" up? The Chapter on the Ten Abodes' "Abode of Non-Regress" gives the most direct answer: the bodhisattva's non-regress is "hearing ten kinds of dharma, firmly non-regressing" — before the ten metaphysical dilemmas of a-Buddha-exists / no-Buddha, a-Dharma-exists / no-Dharma, … the three-times-one-mark / not-one-mark, "his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma" (2.3).

This discloses the texture of non-regress: it is a matter of view, not of experience. What can make a beginner regress is often just this kind of root dilemma — once one loses settled discernment between "does a Buddha exist or not, does a Dharma stand or not," the faculty of faith is shaken. And position-non-regress does not regress, not because he has amassed some depth of absorption or brightness of experience (those regress, BODHI-P02, 3.1), but because his root view within the Buddha-dharma has grown firm to the point that, hearing even the most doubt-inducing dilemma, his mind does not turn. What is leaned on is the steadiness of view, not the fullness of experience.

This is of one spine with the spirit of this axis's first division (sramana), carried over into the Great Vehicle. sramana-P01 established "the four śrāmaṇya-phalas are measured by severed fetters, not by experience" — the fruit hangs on the severance of the path of seeing, not on the depth of absorption. The Mahāyāna version here is: the bodhisattva's position-non-regress hangs on the view's not turning before dilemmas, not on the waxing and waning of experience. Two divisions — one saying the śrāvaka's fruit is not measured by experience, the other saying the bodhisattva's non-regress is not held up by experience — share one and the same backbone of "by insight, not by experience," running through both the subtraction and the accumulation.

A contrast: the difference between a person who "believes" something and a person who has "thought it through." "Belief" can be fervent yet cannot withstand one elegant counter-example — at "but what if…?" it sways (faith-position). "Thinking it through" is otherwise: he has been through both sides, through the various dilemmas, and sees clearly at the root; so throw him the dilemma "a Buddha exists / no Buddha, a Dharma exists / no Dharma," and his mind does not turn — not because he is emotionally more stubborn, but because in view he has taken his stand. The ten dharmas of the Abode of Non-Regress depict just this "standing firm in view before the dilemma."

✅ Doctrinally sound: the ten dharmas of the "Abode of Non-Regress" (hearing ten opposed propositions, "the mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma," Avataṃsaka, Ten Abodes) show that the texture of position-non-regress lies in "the root view's not turning before dilemmas," not in the fullness of experience or absorption. This is of one spine with sramana's "the fruit is not measured by experience," turned in the Great Vehicle into "non-regress is not held up by experience."

Taken together, the three layers — abode dwells in the Buddha-family and takes the son-of-the-Buddha standing, unlike faith's mooring (3.1); position-non-regress means exactly not regressing from the bodhisattva's position (not falling to the two vehicles or the ordinary), locking vehicle-nature and standing, layered apart from practice- and mindfulness-non-regress (3.2); the texture of non-regress lies in the view's not turning before dilemmas, not in the fullness of experience (3.3) — jointly establish the thesis: entering the abodes (the Abode of Arousing the Mind) is the threshold where faith becomes dwelling, the outer-ordinary becomes a son of the Buddha, the regressible becomes position-non-regress; its non-regress is the steadiness of view, and is confined to the layer of "position" alone.

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary-convergence section; the rationale and explicit skip-declaration appear in Section VI. In brief: the core of "position-non-regress" is "the irreversibility of the bodhisattva position / Buddha-family standing" and "the view's not turning before metaphysical dilemmas," matters of classificatory station and of view; contemporary models of "the stability of identity" or "the robustness of a stance against being swayed," though superficially analogous, cannot sustain a three-layered convergence — likeness / fundamental difference / irreducibility — over the senses of "entering the Buddha-family · taking the Buddha-surname" and "position-non-regress as layered against practice- and mindfulness-non-regress" without lapsing into forced analogy. So, per the series' editorial convention, it is cut, and the skip declared here.)

V. Middle-Way Corrections

This section clears away three misreadings that crowd close upon the thesis; the first two bear directly on the boundary between classification and canonical text, and require special honesty.

⚠️ Correction 1: "Where position-non-regress begins" is a judgement of doctrinal classification, not the literal self-statement of the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes. This is the boundary this paper must mark most plainly. At its seventh "Abode of Non-Regress" (0085a14), the chapter says only that the bodhisattva "hearing ten kinds of dharma is firmly non-regressing," "his mind does not regress within the Buddha-dharma"; it does not itself judge "this position (or the ten abodes as a whole) to be position-non-regress, and its beginning relative to practice-non-regress and mindfulness-non-regress." To classify the Ten Abodes as "position-non-regress," the Ten Dedications / first ground as "practice-non-regress," and the eighth ground as "mindfulness-non-regress" is a stational framework erected by later doctrinal systems (Tiantai's "distinct teaching," and the like) on the basis of school and treatises. This paper argues from that classification — which is also the architecture this axis's PLAN has adopted — while marking throughout that it is "a classificatory judgement," not canonical wording. The treatise-side definitional cruxes for "position-non-regress" and "entering the right position" (the exegeses of Fazang and Chengguan, say) are not yet assembled in this paper's source-gathering, to be supplied in a later round of source-gathering; until then, this paper's argument for "where position-non-regress begins" has, on the textual side, the single hard fulcrum of the Keyūra's "advancing portion" (2.1), and, on the stational side, is plainly marked as classification.

⚠️ Correction 2: "the position-non-regress of the Abode of Arousing the Mind (the first)" and "the non-regress of the Abode of Non-Regress (the seventh)" are two layers, not to be conflated. This paper has used two pieces of "non-regress"-related testimony, and their boundary must be marked. First, "one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing portion" (Keyūra, 2.1) — this draws the regressing/advancing boundary at the entrance of the Ten Abodes (the Abode of Arousing the Mind), the fulcrum on which classification says "position-non-regress begins at entering the abodes," referring to the non-regress sense at the entrance of the Ten Abodes as a stational stretch. Second, the "Abode of Non-Regress" (Avataṃsaka's seventh abode, 2.3) — this is the seventh named abode within the Ten Abodes, named for "hearing ten dharmas, the mind unregressing." The former is "the starting-point of (the whole stretch of Ten Abodes') positional non-regress"; the latter is "an abode called non-regress (within the Ten Abodes)." Both touch "non-regress," at different layers. This paper sets the two side by side to show that the sense of "non-regress" appears in the Ten Abodes both at the entrance (advancing portion) and as a proper name (the seventh abode), but does not equate "the seventh Abode of Non-Regress" with "where position-non-regress begins," nor flatten the two into one.

❌ Misreading 3: "the position-non-regress of entering the abodes" = "henceforth nothing regresses, a straight run to buddhahood." Position-non-regress locks only the layer of "position" — not regressing from the bodhisattva's position, not falling to the two vehicles or the ordinary (3.2). It does not guarantee practice-non-regress or mindfulness-non-regress: on this axis's classificatory architecture (PLAN), practice-non-regress begins at the Ten Dedications / first ground, mindfulness-non-regress at the eighth ground. That is, after entering the abodes, the bodhisattva may still have "practice"-regress in the six perfections and myriad deeds, and "mindfulness"-regress in moment-to-moment accord; only his bodhisattva "position" no longer regresses. To hear "position-non-regress" as "nothing will regress now" is to over-extend one layer's irreversibility into the whole road's security, and may breed needless discouragement or self-doubt where "practice" and "mindfulness" still have places to regress. Position-non-regress is a real threshold, but it locks the position, not the whole.

VI. Conclusion

Essential restatement. The first of the Ten Abodes (the Abode of Arousing the Mind) is where the Mahāyāna's position-non-regress begins; faith becomes dwelling. On the textual side, the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes heads the ten with the "Abode of Arousing the Mind," sets the specification of "abode" by "dwelling in the family of the buddhas of the three times · equal to the dharma-realm and space · addressed as son of the Buddha," and at the seventh "Abode of Non-Regress" shows the mark of non-regress by "hearing ten dharmas, the mind unregressing within the Buddha-dharma"; joined with the Keyūra's "one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing portion," classification takes entering the abodes as where position-non-regress begins. On the doctrinal side, three layers support it: abode dwells in the Buddha-family and takes the son-of-the-Buddha standing, unlike faith's mooring (3.1); position-non-regress means exactly not regressing from the bodhisattva's position (not falling to the two vehicles or the ordinary), locking vehicle-nature and standing, layered apart from practice- and mindfulness-non-regress (3.2); the texture of non-regress lies in the view's not turning before metaphysical dilemmas, not in the fullness of experience — of one spine with sramana's "the fruit is not measured by experience" (3.3).

Guidance for practice. Let the practitioner know: there is dry land, and it has a definite threshold — not "how deep my experience, how fervent my faith," but "whether my root view within the Buddha-dharma has grown firm enough that, hearing every kind of dilemma, my mind does not turn." If one would still regress from one's root settled discernment of the Three Jewels and the true Dharma at one elegant counter-question, one elegant swaying argument, one is still on the tidal flat (faith-position); if, before dilemmas such as a-Buddha-exists / no-Buddha, a-Dharma-exists / no-Dharma, one's mind no longer turns, one has stepped onto the advancing portion, a son of the Buddha who has entered the family. Equally, let one not grow complacent at "position-non-regress" — the position does not regress, but practice and mindfulness have a long road ahead; past the threshold is not the end, but the beginning of the worthy ranks.

Open questions. First, this paper deliberately cut the Section IV interdisciplinary convergence, for the reason above. Second, the most pressing documentary gap to fill: the classification "where position-non-regress begins" has, on this paper's textual side, only the Keyūra's "advancing portion" as hard fulcrum, while the treatise-side classificatory cruxes (the definitional pivots of "position-non-regress / entering the right position" in the exegeses of Tiantai's distinct teaching, of Fazang and Chengguan) are not yet assembled in this round's source-gathering; once a later round of source-gathering supplies them, this paper's classificatory argument should be reinforced. Third, this paper treats the single step of "entering the abodes" (the first of the ten and the sense of non-regress); the full course of the Ten Abodes — from the Abode of Arousing the Mind, through Governing the Ground, Cultivation, Noble Birth, Endowment with Means, Right Mind, Non-Regress, Youthful Truth, the Prince, to the final Abode of Consecration "accomplishing the ten kinds of knowledge" — and its making-good as "entering the Buddha-family, a son of the Buddha," will be borne by the immediately following BODHI-P04. Entering is the threshold; P04 walks the ten chambers within the door.

The seam (SEAM). This paper meets the Attainment-axis attainment-signatures/bodhisattva at the two faces of "non-regress": the Realization axis (this paper) tells how "where position-non-regress begins" is established at the causal stage (the entrance of the Ten Abodes) — a matter of the journey, "where one is said to stand firm"; the Attainment axis reads the fruit-virtue this non-regress accrues (bodhisattva mastery, gradually disclosed with the two provisions and the firming of non-regress). One walks the position; the other signs its firmness. The doctrine of the seam is the author's to ratify; this paper does not speak for the Attainment axis.

Notes

References

I. Buddhist Primary Sources

Avataṃsaka-sūtra, 80-fascicle (大方廣佛華嚴經). Trans. Śikṣānanda. T10, no. 0279. (Chapter on the Ten Abodes: the ten names; dwelling in the family of the buddhas of the three times; the seventh Abode of Non-Regress.)
Bodhisattva-keyūra-sūtra (菩薩瓔珞本業經). Trans. Zhu Fonian. T24, no. 1485. (Chapter on Explaining the Meaning: regressing-portion / advancing-portion; one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing portion.)

II. Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; the argument rests entirely on Buddhist primary sources, following the open-source spirit of "return to the source." The interdisciplinary-convergence section having been cut, no corresponding modern literature appears. The classification of "position-non-regress" awaits the assembling of treatise-side classificatory texts in a later round of source-gathering, and this paper does not pre-cite modern studies of doctrinal classification.)

III. Index of Canonical Citations

Point	Source	CBETA id
Ten-abode names · headed by the Abode of Arousing the Mind	Avataṃsaka fasc. 16, Ten Abodes	T10n0279_p0084a22
The bodhisattva's dwelling equal to the dharma-realm and space · dwells in the Buddha-family of the three times · addressed as son of the Buddha	Avataṃsaka fasc. 16, Ten Abodes	T10n0279_p0084a18
The seventh Abode of Non-Regress · hearing ten opposed propositions, the mind unregressing within the Buddha-dharma	Avataṃsaka fasc. 16, Ten Abodes, Non-Regress	T10n0279_p0085a14
One in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing portion (regressing/advancing boundary)	Keyūra, lower, Explaining the Meaning	T24n1485_p1017a25

Paper: BODHI-P03 · 入住 · The Bodhi Path · Part 2 · The Ten Abodes Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Realization Paths（行階位歷程） License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CBETA collation: 全文引用均依 CBETA 電子佛典核校（《大方廣佛華嚴經》T0279、《菩薩瓔珞本業經》T1485）。「位不退之始」之科判標明為判教義理，非經文明文。本篇為大乘分區，無巴利雙軌義務；引文均待 CBETA XML 實核。 Repository: https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/realization-paths

Footnotes

Avataṃsaka-sūtra (80-fascicle), fascicle 16 (Chapter on the Ten Abodes), T10n0279_p0084a22. Trans. Śikṣānanda. Collated against the CBETA digital canon. ↩
Bodhisattva-keyūra-sūtra (Yingluo), lower fascicle (Chapter on Explaining the Meaning), T24n1485_p1017a25. Trans. Zhu Fonian. This line was cited and argued in BODHI-P02 (2.2, 3.2); this paper takes it as the textual-side hard fulcrum for "where position-non-regress begins." ↩
Avataṃsaka-sūtra (80-fascicle), fascicle 16 (Chapter on the Ten Abodes), T10n0279_p0084a18. ↩
Avataṃsaka-sūtra (80-fascicle), fascicle 16 (Chapter on the Ten Abodes, the seventh Abode of Non-Regress), T10n0279_p0085a14. ↩