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Part 5 · The Ten Grounds
The Bodhi Path · 4 papers
The longest part of the book, walking the highest ten stations of the way—the Ten Grounds, which the scriptures call the "ten noble ones."[ from the book's part intro ]
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07The First Ground and the Path of SeeingThe preceding paper, BODHI-P06, brought the bodhisattva to the close of the three worthy ranks — the Ten Dedications full, practice-non-regress established, the bodhisattva poised at the threshold of the noble ranks; yet thus far not one affliction has been severed outright: the three worthy ranks (abodes · practices · dedications), throughout, are positions of "suppression," holding afflictions down by understanding without cutting their root. This paper argues: the first ground (the Ground of Joy) is precisely the pass of "entering the noble from the worthy," its pivot the "path of seeing" — here the bodhisattva first realizes the noble's place, first directly contemplates suchness by the wisdom of the equality of all dharmas, and on the path of seeing severs outright the "discriminated afflictions" (the bonds of view that are the path-of-seeing's to sever); this "severance" is not the three worthy ranks' "suppression" but the first cutting of the afflictions' root, whence "joy" ("first realizing the noble's place, much joy arises"). In the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Grounds and the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (Xuanzang's rendering "the Ground of Supreme Joy," the variant set side by side), the ten grounds from Joy to Dharma-Cloud are listed, taught in common by the buddhas of the three times; Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna glosses the first ground as "first realizing the noble's place, much joy arises" (the first of entering-noble-from-worthy), classes its obstacle as "the ordinary being's self-mark obstacle," and judges plainly that "the bonds of view are severed at the first ground, on the path of seeing," while the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation" "thin and recede gradually across the grounds," taking "on the path of seeing" and "on the path of cultivation" as the backbone of the ground-path. From this the paper argues three things: entering-the-noble as "first realizing the noble's place" (3.1); the path of seeing as "severance," not "suppression" (3.2); and the first ground's path-of-seeing severance of the discriminated afflictions versus the arhat's path-of-seeing severance — "one and the same grammar of severance, a different exit" (3.3: the same severing, yet the two vehicles head for quiescence while the bodhisattva, not abiding, climbs on). An honest mark: pairing "discriminated afflictions" with "the bonds of view severed on the path of seeing" is the classification of later Yogācāra (the Cheng weishi lun line), not the express word of T0279/T0287/T1522 (which say "the bonds of view" against "the afflictions of the path of cultivation"); this paper marks that classificatory nature, the equation to be ratified by the author; the Joy / Supreme-Joy variant is set side by side, no side taken. The conclusion: the first ground's path of seeing is a great turning-point of the whole bodhisattva path, from "suppression" to "severance," from worthy into noble; what is severed is only the discriminated afflictions — the innate afflictions await gradual severance across the grounds of cultivation (opening BODHI-P08).08The Second to Seventh GroundsThe preceding paper, BODHI-P07, established the first ground (the Ground of Joy) as the pass of "entering the noble from the worthy," showing that on the path of seeing it severs outright the discriminated afflictions (the bonds of view that are the path-of-seeing's to sever), and foreshadowing that the innate afflictions await gradual severance across the grounds of cultivation. This paper takes up that thread, treating the second to seventh grounds — the six grounds of Stainlessness, Radiance (Light-Emitting), Flaming (Blazing Wisdom), Hard-to-Conquer, Manifest, and Far-Reaching. This paper argues: the second to seventh grounds are the course in which the "path-of-cultivation positions" gradually sever the innate (path-of-cultivation's-to-sever) subtle afflictions; their severance differs from the first ground's path-of-seeing "outright severance" and is a "gradual severance" — Vasubandhu plainly judges that the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation" "thin and recede gradually across the grounds," a gradual thinning, not an all-at-once extinguishing. The obstacles they counteract likewise run from coarse into subtle, from the second ground's "obstacle of wrong conduct" through to the sixth ground's "obstacle of subtle afflictive habit" and the seventh's "obstacle of subtle-mark habit." And the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, "well cultivating the application of the markless practice, ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world," is precisely the express textual landing of "the same severance, a different exit" in the path-of-cultivation positions — the bodhisattva's path-of-cultivation severance shares one and the same grammar of severance with the arhat's, yet is able to "pass beyond" the world-transcending path at which the two vehicles stop, continuing toward buddhahood. In the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Grounds and the Daśabhūmika-sūtra, the ten grounds from Joy (Supreme Joy) to Dharma-Cloud are listed, taught in common by the buddhas of the three times; Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna glosses each ground's name and classes the second-to-seventh obstacles from coarse into subtle, judging plainly that the afflictions of the path of cultivation thin gradually across the grounds, with "on the path of seeing / on the path of cultivation" as its backbone. From this the paper argues three things: cultivation as "gradual severance," not "outright severance" (3.1); the obstacles from coarse into subtle (3.2); and the path-of-cultivation severance of the innate afflictions sharing one grammar with the arhat's yet a different exit, the seventh Far-Reaching Ground passing beyond the two vehicles (3.3). An honest mark: pairing "innate afflictions" with "the afflictions severed on the path of cultivation" is the classification of later Yogācāra, not the express word of this round's three texts (which say "afflictions of the path of cultivation" without the term "innate-arising"); Vasubandhu's gloss of the sixth, the Manifest Ground, is abridged in the source (passed over with "…"), and this paper does not supply it; the renderings Radiance/Flaming (the treatise's name-gloss) and Light-Emitting/Blazing-Wisdom (the sūtra's listing) are set side by side. The conclusion: the second to seventh grounds are the bodhisattva's path-of-cultivation course of severance "from coarse into subtle, thinning ground by ground," the seventh Far-Reaching Ground's passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path the plain evidence of "the different exit"; the innate subtle afflictions are not yet severed to the end — the course of the eighth ground and above opens BODHI-P09.09The Eighth Immovable GroundThe preceding paper, BODHI-P08, carried the bodhisattva through the path-of-cultivation positions of the second to seventh grounds — the innate, subtle afflictions thinning across the grounds, the obstacles from coarse into subtle, the seventh Far-Reaching Ground "able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world"; yet through the seventh ground all is still "the practice with application," cultivated by deliberate attention and effort. This paper takes up that thread, treating the full aspect of the eighth Immovable Ground (acalā). This paper argues: the eighth ground is a great turning-point of the bodhisattva path from "with application" to "without application." Its cognitive signature for entering the ground is the "forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas" — the bodhisattva, leaving all discrimination of mind, thought, and consciousness, entering the void-like nature of all dharmas, forbearingly accepts that dharmas neither arise nor cease, and in the wisdom of true reality is "indestructible, immovable"; "accomplishing this forbearance, he at once enters the eighth Immovable Ground." Having entered, he "casts off all practice-with-application, attains the dharma-without-application, the busy striving of body, speech, and mind all stilled, abiding in the practice of recompense" (Xuanzang's rendering plainly gives the words "spontaneously, of itself"); Vasubandhu glosses its name as "indestructible" (unable to be marred, hence immovable) and "the ground without application" (the path drawn on from the prior limit arising spontaneously). Its stage-virtue is the "ten masteries" (over life, mind, wealth, action, birth, vow, understanding, will, wisdom, dharma — the renderings of the three texts set side by side), which Vasubandhu judges to counteract ten terrors; its aspect of non-regress is "mindfulness-non-regress" — the forbearance of non-arising being the stage of avaivartika (non-regress), the fruit-recompense and spiritual powers never lost nor regressed life after life, the activity of mind, thought, and consciousness not manifesting. The evidence is in four texts: the Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka's "Chapter on the Ten Grounds · the Immovable Ground," the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (Xuanzang's translation), Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, and Nāgārjuna's Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa. From these the paper argues three things: the forbearance of non-arising as the cognitive signature for entering the eighth ground (3.1); effortless spontaneity as the character of the eighth ground (3.2); and the abiding of mindfulness-non-regress yet the causal stage's incompleteness, the eighth ground's ten masteries bound to the bodhisattva's causal stage (3.3). An honest mark: "mindfulness-non-regress" as a term is the proper name of a later (Tiantai / Yogācāra) classification of the three non-regresses, not the express word of the four sources (which say "avaivartika / never lost nor regressed"), and its corresponding stage is disputed (the Avataṃsaka / Daśabhūmika-sūtra binding it to the eighth ground, Yogācāra masters judging variously the seventh / eighth); the names of the ten masteries are set side by side across the three texts (life/lifespan, wealth/livelihood/goods, understanding/resolve/conviction, will/spiritual-power), with no side taken; the eighth ground's ten masteries are attained by the "bodhisattva" in the causal stage (the treatise reads "the bodhisattva attains the bodhisattva's ten masteries"), the Avataṃsaka setting up separately a "ten masteries of the buddhas, the world-honored ones," and the sūtra recording the buddhas exhorting the eighth-ground bodhisattva that "the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, the eighteen distinctive dharmas of the buddhas, you have not yet attained" — so the eighth ground's ten masteries are bound to the causal stage, not the consummation of buddhahood; their height relative to the tathāgata's ten masteries is for the author to adjudicate, this paper marking only their coexistence. The conclusion: the eighth Immovable Ground is the ground where the bodhisattva realizes the forbearance of non-arising, casts off application and is spontaneous, attains the ten masteries and is mindfulness-non-regress, yet the causal stage is not complete, opening the ninth and tenth grounds (opening BODHI-P10).10The Ninth and Tenth GroundsThe preceding paper, BODHI-P09, carried the bodhisattva to the eighth Immovable Ground — realizing the forbearance of non-arising, casting off application and becoming spontaneous, mindfulness-non-regress and accomplishing the bodhisattva's ten masteries; yet the buddhas exhorted that "the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, the eighteen distinctive dharmas of the buddhas that we possess, you have not yet attained," so the eighth ground is non-regressing yet the causal stage not complete. This paper takes up that thread, treating the last two of the ten grounds — the ninth Ground of Good Wisdom and the tenth Dharma-Cloud Ground — and the close of the ten grounds, the brink of buddhahood. This paper argues: the last two grounds are the course in which the bodhisattva's causal-stage "function of benefiting others and substance of wisdom" ripens, and the tenth Dharma-Cloud Ground's consecration that confers office is the final stage of "near buddhahood yet not yet buddhahood." The ninth Ground of Good Wisdom has the "perfection of power" predominant and is named for "the unobstructed power of teaching, accomplishing the practice of benefiting others" — the eighth ground's self-realization being firm, it broadens into the mastery of benefiting others by unobstructed teaching; the tenth Dharma-Cloud Ground has the "perfection of wisdom" predominant, the matching of the ten perfections here consummated, and is named for "attaining the great dharma-body, mastery complete" — the dharma-body like a cloud, covering and moistening all. The tenth-ground bodhisattva enters the "position of conferred office (consecration)," the buddhas' water of wisdom anointing his crown, "by fulfilling the ten powers of the tathāgata, he falls within the number of the buddhas," likened to a wheel-turning sage-king anointing the crown of the crown prince with the water of the four great oceans to confer the kingly office. Yet the boundary must be held: though he falls within the number of the buddhas and fulfills the ten powers, Vasubandhu still judges that "here there is a subtle obstacle of cognition, so there is no mastery; to counteract this obstacle, the buddha-ground is spoken of separately" — above the tenth ground there is yet a last subtle obstacle of cognition unexhausted, so the buddha-ground is spoken of separately. The evidence is in three texts: the Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka's "Chapter on the Ten Grounds," the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (Xuanzang's translation), and Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna. From these the paper argues three things: the last two grounds as the ripening of benefiting-others and wisdom (3.1); the consecration that confers office and falling within the number of the buddhas as the brink of buddhahood (3.2); and the yet-remaining subtle obstacle of cognition and the buddha-ground spoken of separately as the close of the causal stage (3.3). An honest mark: the relation of the Ground of Good Wisdom's "unobstructed teaching" to the later-matched "four unobstructed discernments (of dharma, meaning, expression, eloquence)" is not the express wording of this round's three sources, and is not supplied; "the awakening-of-equivalence and the wondrous awakening" as proper names of stages between the ten grounds and the buddha-ground are a later (Yingluo-jing / Tiantai) teaching-classification, not the express word of the three sources, and this paper does not presume to judge them; the source unit's D-3 (the T0279 closing sentence of the Dharma-Cloud Ground's conferred office) is not included or fabricated, its line unverified. The conclusion: the tenth Dharma-Cloud Ground is the close of the bodhisattva's causal stage, the brink of buddhahood where, by the consecration that confers office, he falls within the number of the buddhas, yet with a subtle obstacle of cognition remaining and the buddha-ground spoken of separately — this too is the close of the Realization-axis Bodhi Path (from the ten faiths to the ten grounds), its buddha-ground above (the tathāgata's mastery with the subtle obstacle severed) seaming to the Attainment-axis's final division, for the author to adjudicate.Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.