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Part 2 · The Ten Abodes
The Bodhi Path · 2 papers
The tidal zone has an end. Walk the Ten Faiths through, and ahead lies dry ground—the Ten Abodes.[ from the book's part intro ]
論Study the papersfootnotes · abstracts
03Entering the AbodesThe preceding paper, BODHI-P02, left the practitioner on the tidal flat of "both regresses and advances" — the outer-ordinary Ten Faiths, where the faith-position can still regress. Where, then, is the dry land, the beginning of "non-regress"? This paper argues: the first of the Ten Abodes, the Abode of Arousing the Mind (發心住), is where the Mahāyāna's position-non-regress begins; here faith (pre-abode, provisional-name, outer-ordinary) becomes dwelling — entering the family of the buddhas of the three times, called a son of the Buddha, the first of the three worthy ranks. In the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes, the ten are headed by the "Abode of Arousing the Mind"; the chapter opens by setting the bodhisattva's dwelling "equal to the dharma-realm and to space," "dwelling in the family of the buddhas of the three times," and addresses all who abide in the ten as "sons of the Buddha"; and the seventh of the ten is expressly the "Abode of Non-Regress," its sense being that the bodhisattva, hearing ten pairs of opposed propositions (a Buddha exists / no Buddha; a Dharma exists / no Dharma; … the three times are one mark / not one mark), does not regress in mind within the Buddha-dharma. Joined with the Keyūra line cited in BODHI-P02 — "one in the Abode of Arousing the Mind is a person of the advancing-portion roots-of-good" — the doctrinal classification takes entering the Ten Abodes as the beginning of position-non-regress. The paper further distinguishes: position-non-regress is not emotional perseverance, but non-regress of mind in the face of ten dilemmas at the level of the Buddha-dharma's root view; faith's "provisional name" is here made good as "son of the Buddha." Yet it must be strictly bounded — position-non-regress is only "not regressing from the bodhisattva's position" (no longer falling back to the two vehicles or to the ordinary), not practice-non-regress or mindfulness-non-regress (matters of later positions). The conclusion: entering the abodes is the threshold where faith becomes dwelling, the outer-ordinary becomes a son of the Buddha, and the regressible becomes the non-regressing.04The Ten Abodes, to the ConsecrationThe preceding paper, BODHI-P03, set "entering the abodes" as the threshold — faith becoming dwelling, the beginning of position-non-regress. This paper walks the full course within the door: the Ten Abodes, from the first "Abode of Arousing the Mind" to the final "Abode of Consecration," form one complete arc of "entering the Buddha-family, maturing, and being invested as a son of the Buddha." In the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Abodes, the bodhisattva Dharma-wisdom lists the full names and number of the ten abodes (Arousing the Mind, Governing the Ground, Cultivation, Noble Birth, Endowment with Means, Right Mind, Non-Regress, Youthful Truth, the Prince, Consecration); the chapter opens by setting all ten as "dwelling in the family of the buddhas of the three times," "equal to the dharma-realm and space," and addresses their dwellers as "sons of the Buddha"; and the bodhisattva of the final "Abode of Consecration" "accomplishes ten kinds of knowledge" (shaking, illuminating, sustaining countless worlds, and the rest), whose bodily deeds, spiritual transformations, and knowledge of the three times are such that "even the Prince-of-the-Dharma bodhisattva cannot know them." This paper argues: the very names of the Ten Abodes disclose an arc of royal lineage — Noble Birth (born noble within the Buddha-family), Youthful Truth, the Prince (of the Dharma), Consecration (as a prince is anointed to inherit the throne); within the family of the buddhas of the three times the bodhisattva, from the entry of arousing the mind, matures by degrees, and at the Abode of Consecration is invested as a true Dharma-prince, accomplishing the ten kinds of knowledge. The paper reads this arc from the canonical names (the full list) and the framing (Buddha-family · son of the Buddha), and details the mark of the final consecration; the per-abode doctrine of the middle abodes, for want of assembled treatise-texts (see Section V), is deliberately not unfolded one by one. A strict bound: though the Abode of Consecration is the consummation of the last of the Ten Abodes, it remains a causal-stage position, still the first of the three worthy ranks, not buddhahood — the long road of the Ten Practices, Ten Dedications, and Ten Grounds lies above. The conclusion: the Ten Abodes are the maturing of a son of the Buddha within the Buddha-family, from entering the house to being invested, completing the "abode-position," the first stretch of the worthy ranks.Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.