Chapter 10 · Entering — Hearing, Reflection, Cultivation, and the Fourfold Search

Part Three · The Path

So many concepts—the three natures, the hundred dharmas, the eight consciousnesses, the seeds—how do I turn them into a way of seeing, and not merely into knowledge that I understand?

This question strikes at the very wording of this school. The previous chapter already set out the teaching of the seeds perfumed by right hearing, yet it also stipulated plainly that one cannot certify oneself as having achieved right hearing merely on the strength of having read the words; the title of this chapter is entering the nature of consciousness-only—not studying it. To enter is a verb, the very act of the body stepping through the door. What this chapter sets out is precisely the several steps that the treatises have laid down between understanding and entering.

1 · Hearing, Reflection, Cultivation—One and the Same Thing at Three Depths

The general name for these steps is hearing, reflection, cultivation. The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha puts it very plainly:

「Herein, relying on the lower-grade perfuming one forms the middle-grade perfuming; relying on the middle-grade perfuming one forms the higher-grade perfuming—because, through hearing, reflection, and cultivation, by cultivating and working at them in large measure, one attains correspondence.」

Hearing is taking the Dharma in as it really is—the previous chapter already spoke of the procedure of "listening well, receiving well." Reflection is turning the words one has taken in over and over, until they mesh with one another and mesh with one's own experience. Cultivation is setting the reasoning, once meshed, upon the mind's activity in the present moment. The three are not three courses of study but one and the same thing at three depths; and when the treatise says the perfuming goes from lower-grade to middle-grade and from middle-grade to higher-grade, it makes plain another matter of importance: there is no skipping of grades. Each grade is nurtured by the one before it, so a person who at this moment has only the lower grade is lacking nothing—he is on the road to becoming the middle grade.

2 · The Map—the Three Natures

To enter, one must first have a map. The map this school gives is the three natures. The definition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, "Chapter on the Characteristics of All Dharmas," is worth reading slowly in full:

「What is the wholly-imagined mark of dharmas? It is that, for all dharmas, intrinsic-nature and distinctions are provisionally established by name, and so on, so as to give rise to verbal expression accordingly. What is the other-dependent mark of dharmas? It is the conditionally-arisen intrinsic-nature of all dharmas—that is, this being, that is; this arising, that arises… What is the perfectly-accomplished mark of dharmas? It is the equal suchness of all dharmas. With respect to this suchness, because the host of bodhisattvas takes valiant and vigorous effort as its cause and condition, and takes reasoned attention and undistorted thinking as its cause and condition, they become able to penetrate it. Having penetrated it, they gradually cultivate and accumulate, until at unsurpassed perfect enlightenment they at last realize it in full.」

Three definitions, three key points—let us slow down over each in turn:

The wholly-imagined mark: the scripture says it is "intrinsic-nature and distinctions provisionally established by name"—the name is provisionally affixed, yet we take the name together with the "intrinsic-nature" and "distinctions" it implies to be the very bones of the thing itself; and then "verbal expression arises accordingly"—language begins to roll forward upon this misrecognition, and the more it rolls the more solid it seems. What is misseen is not the world, but this hard shell nailed fast by names.

The other-dependent mark: the scripture defines it by the formula of dependent arising native to the Buddha's Dharma—"this being, that is; this arising, that arises"—and links it directly to the twelvefold dependent arising ("that is, ignorance conditions formations, and so on down to the amassing of the entire great mass of suffering"). Its meaning does not depart from conditioned arising; within the framework of the three natures, the other-dependent refers specifically to that aspect of all dharmas which arises in dependence on the manifold conditions and becomes the basis upon which the wholly-imagined superimposes. This is not to say that "dependent arising" in every scripture and treatise may be exchanged with the three-natures terminology without distinction, but that this scripture establishes the other-dependent by way of the meaning of dependent arising.

The perfectly-accomplished mark: "the equal suchness of all dharmas"—and into its definition the scripture has written the work of practice: "valiant and vigorous effort… reasoned attention, undistorted thinking… become able to penetrate it… gradually cultivate and accumulate." But subject and object must not be inverted: the perfectly-accomplished is not manufactured by cultivation; what is gradually cultivated and accumulated is the practitioner's penetration of suchness, until at unsurpassed enlightenment it is realized in full. Suchness is not the product of the effort; what the effort matures is the wisdom that can penetrate and can realize-and-see.

After the definitions, the scripture itself supplies a simile—herein is this scripture's considerateness, sparing later generations from having to devise another:

「Just as, in the eye of a person afflicted with a blurring cataract, there is the affliction of that blurring cataract, so too, one should know, is the wholly-imagined mark. Just as the manifold appearances of the blurring cataract to a person so afflicted—whether hair-strands, wheels, bees and flies, or sesame-seeds…—so too, one should know, is the other-dependent mark. Just as a person of pure eye, free from the affliction of a blurring cataract in the eye, and the unconfused field of objects ranged over by the very nature of that pure eye—so too, one should know, is the perfectly-accomplished mark.」

A person with a film over the eye sees hair-threads, flying flies, and rings of light in the air. Here one must divide the single "hair-ring" into two aspects: the semblance of a hair-ring appearing upon consciousness in dependence on conditions—arising from causes and conditions, without any fixed nature—is the other-dependent; the hair-ring that is superimposed upon this semblance and grasped as fixedly real—the real thing thus grasped never existed at all—is the wholly-imagined; the unconfused field of objects ranged over by the nature of the pure eye is the perfectly-accomplished, which is revealed upon the other-dependent once this grasped-nature is left behind. The eye-disease sets out only the cause of the confused appearing, and cannot be equated outright with the wholly-imagined. The three natures are not three worlds, but three ways of reading one and the same experience: semblance-appearing in dependence on conditions, deluded grasping at the fixedly real, and what is revealed once grasping is left behind.

The Thirty Verses compress this map into three verses, easy to carry in one's travel-pack:

「Through this and that imagining, one imagines manifold things; this that is wholly-imagined and grasped has no intrinsic-nature at all. The other-dependent nature is born from discrimination through conditions. The perfectly-accomplished, with respect to that, is ever removed from the former nature. Therefore it and the other-dependent are neither different nor not-different, like the nature of impermanence and the rest; and so this and that are not seen apart from one another.」

The final verse's "neither different nor not-different" resolves a common perplexity: what is the relation between the perfectly-accomplished and the other-dependent? It is like "impermanence" in relation to conditioned things—impermanence does not set up a separate thing outside conditioned things, yet neither can one say that it simply is those conditioned things. The perfectly-accomplished does not set up a separate thing outside the other-dependent; but if one has not realized that what is grasped upon the other-dependent is originally empty, neither can one know the other-dependent as it really is.

With the map in hand, place-names are still lacking. The place-names are the hundred dharmas—the hundred dharmas in five categories break down mind, matter, and even the unconditioned to a granularity fine enough to be pointed out; Chapter Six of this book has already laid out their outline, and the edition of the Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas' Gate of Understanding is a reference-chart to keep at hand. The map gives the layout; the place-names serve to locate one's own mind, at this moment, within the layout.

3 · Mental Speech—the Medium of the Work

To lay the map over the territory, one must pass through a checkpoint peculiar to this school, called mental speech. The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, "Entering the Characteristic of the Knowable," sets out by what the practitioner enters:

「Through the mental speech—which is of the class perfumed by hearing, held by reasoned attention, appearing as semblance-dharma and semblance-object, and possessed of a seeing [aspect]—」

This sentence is dense; let us walk through it taken apart: what is nurtured by the perfuming of hearing and held fast by reasoned attention is the "mental speech" that is "semblance-dharma and semblance-object." Mental speech cannot be narrowly construed as a soundless stream of talk within the mind; Asvabhāva's Commentary on the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha defines it outright: "The term 'mental speech' means the mind-consciousness." It further says that semblance-dharma and semblance-object "appear just as they are grasped," and that the outer thing signified by the words and names, in the course of thinking, "turns as though it were an outer characteristic, while it is really only within." Thus this chapter construes mental speech as the semblance-dharma and semblance-object representations that appear in the mind-consciousness in dependence on names and words: it includes discrimination by name and word, yet is not limited to silently recited phrases. The scriptural words and names, and the object-characteristics they signify, that are contemplated here seem to point to something outside the mind, but they in fact arise within the mind-consciousness; and the preparatory effort investigates, upon this very mental representation, its name, its object, its intrinsic-nature, and its distinctions.

The tool for seeing through is the four investigations. The verse says:

「Name and thing are mutually guests; their nature should be investigated. On the two as well one should press further—as mere-measure and mere-provisional.」

The treatise's prose unfolds it:

「Through the four investigations—that is, through the investigations into the provisional establishing of name, object, intrinsic-nature, and distinctions; and through the four kinds of thorough knowledge as-it-really-is—that is, through the thorough knowledge as-it-really-is of the provisional establishing of name, thing, intrinsic-nature, and distinctions—inasmuch as all these alike are unobtainable.」

The four investigations and the four kinds of knowledge as-it-really-is answer to one another one by one: investigating name, investigating object, investigating the intrinsic-nature posited by name-and-object, investigating the distinctions posited by name-and-object; and thereafter knowing thoroughly, as it really is, that name, object, intrinsic-nature, and distinctions are all provisionally established and are really unobtainable. Vasubandhu's commentary divides them by before and after: first the seeking-out that they are provisionally established is called investigation; afterward the knowing as-it-really-is that they are unobtainable is called the four kinds of thorough knowledge as-it-really-is. Asvabhāva's commentary instead divides them by expedient-means and fruit: the four investigations are the expedient means, and the four kinds of knowledge as-it-really-is are the fruit-wisdom born from that means. The two commentaries divide and join differently, but the sequence is the same: "first seek, then know."

The four targets of the seeking-out—let us slow down over each:

Investigating name—name and thing are "mutually guests": the name is a guest of the thing, and the thing too is a guest of the name; neither is the other's host. The name can be changed, can be missing, can be mistaken, while the thing neither increases nor decreases along with it—the name is provisionally affixed. Investigating object—the "object" that the name points to, I take to stand out there; but pressing the inquiry, where is it grasped? Within mental speech. "Seeking out the object of this scriptural word-name, it too is only mental speech"—the outer thing signified by the name turns within the mind-consciousness as though an outer characteristic, while it in fact does not depart from the inner appearing of a grasping [subject] and a grasped [object]; one must not shrink this line down to merely observing the silently-recited sound in the head. Investigating intrinsic-nature, investigating distinctions—a thing's "own inherent nature," and the "distinctions inherently present" between things: these two, the most bone-like of things, are sought out to the very end: "Seeking out the intrinsic-nature and distinctions of name-and-object, they are only provisionally established"—they are grid-lines laid down by name and word, not gradations that the thing carries of itself.

Pressed to the point of ripeness, the treatise records that turning-point:

「When one realizes that there is only mental speech, at that time…」

The four investigations are a seeking-out; when the seeking-out ripens, it turns into the four kinds of knowledge as-it-really-is—no longer merely halting at seeking-out, but able to determine and know that they are provisionally existent and really nonexistent. Here, though, one must still keep to one's station: the four kinds of knowledge as-it-really-is belong to the with-image contemplation of the stage of preparatory effort, and are still the antecedent-mark of the true direct realization of the path of seeing; the Cheng weishi lun judges plainly that at the stage of preparatory effort "because there is still something attained, one does not yet truly abide in consciousness-only." Thus it marks the deepening from expedient means into fruit-wisdom, but must not be written up prematurely as already personally realized, as already truly abiding in consciousness-only; truly to abide in consciousness-only, apart from the characteristics of the two graspings, must await the next step, the stage of penetration.

4 · Rope, Snake, One Step More—the Order of Awakening into the Three Natures

What does the four investigations look like brought down onto a concrete instance? The treatise itself supplies that famous rope:

「Just as a rope in the dark appears as though a snake—as, on the rope, the snake is not real, because it does not exist—once one has understood that that object is absent, though the perception of the snake ceases, the perception of the rope still remains. If one analyzes it into subtle categories, this too is unreal, because color, smell, taste, and touch are its characteristics.」

Seeing a rope in the dark, one starts in fright, taking it for a snake. Making it out clearly as a rope, the snake dies—for most people the work stops here, supposing it finished. The treatise deliberately goes one step further: "though the perception of the snake ceases, the perception of the rope still remains." And this perception of the rope itself? Analyzed finely, the so-called rope is nothing but a composite of a few conditions—color, smell, taste, touch—"this too is unreal." The simile has two turns of the body: the first removes the snake, the second lets go even of the rope. One who turns only the first takes "consciousness-only" for a new rope, and clings to it without letting go.

The treatise's prose then joins this rope back onto the three natures, in a clearly ordered sequence, worth reading in full:

「Thus, because the bodhisattva awakens into the semblance-object characteristic of mental speech, he awakens into the wholly-imagined nature; because he awakens into consciousness-only, he awakens into the other-dependent nature. How does he awaken into the perfectly-accomplished nature? When he has extinguished the notion of consciousness-only that is of the class [produced by] mental speech and the perfuming of hearing the Dharma, then the bodhisattva has dispelled the notion of an object, and no semblance-object whatsoever can any longer arise, so that even the semblance of consciousness-only cannot arise; through this cause and condition he abides in the nondiscriminative naming of all objects, and within the dharma-realm attains a corresponding direct seeing and so abides. At that time the bodhisattva's nondiscriminative wisdom, in which the object-condition and the subject-condition are utterly equal, has arisen; and by this the bodhisattva is said to have awakened into the perfectly-accomplished nature.」

Slowing down line by line:

Awakening into "the semblance-object characteristic of mental speech"—seeing that the seemingly-outer object in fact appears within the mind-consciousness, while the grasped real object outside the mind is unobtainable—is precisely awakening into the wholly-imagined nature: not having read and grasped the definition of the wholly-imagined, but discerning where the grasped object-characteristic appears and where it is superimposed. Awakening into "consciousness-only"—that all that appears is only the appearing of consciousness, the level of the rope—is precisely awakening into the other-dependent nature. And the way of entering the perfectly-accomplished is the most startling: "extinguishing… the notion of consciousness-only." Even the thought "consciousness-only" is set down—the notion of an object having been dispelled, no semblance-object arises, the semblance of consciousness-only too cannot arise—and nondiscriminative wisdom thereupon arises. The Thirty Verses, within its account of the stages, long ago gave warning of this very pass:

「Setting up before oneself some slight thing and calling it the nature of consciousness-only—because there is still something attained, one does not truly abide in consciousness-only.」

To set "the nature of consciousness-only" before oneself and hold it as a thing—because there is something attained—is precisely not yet to have entered and abided in consciousness-only. The map leads you to the border of the territory; at the last step, the map itself must be set down too. This is why this school says "enter" and not "study": each nature is one more turn in the way of seeing, not one more item added to one's knowledge.

5 · Guarding Against Decay—Breaking Grasping, Kept Up Constantly

A view once changed can regress. The inertia of names and words is enormous; the two graspings—at self and at dharmas—are subdued and rise again, like mildew in the corner of a wall. The first verse of the Thirty Verses is a medicine to keep always on hand:

「By reason of the provisional talk of self and dharmas, manifold characteristics turn forth. These rest upon the transformations of consciousness.」

Whenever "self" and "dharmas" harden again, growing again the bones of an intrinsic-nature, return to this line: provisional talk, characteristics turning forth, the transformations of consciousness. The systematic de-mildewing works are in the Twenty Verses, already detailed in Chapter Five of this book—understanding must be kept constant, and the guarding against decay must be done constantly.

6 · Drawing Together—Why One Must Enter

Finally, the treatise asks itself a question that we would ask on the reader's behalf: for the sake of what does one walk so fine a course of work?

「Furthermore, for the sake of what meaning does one enter the nature of consciousness-only? By reason of the world-transcending wisdom of calming-and-insight that takes the general dharma as its object… in order to sever the seeds of all the characteristics of the store-consciousness, together with its characteristic; in order to grow the seeds that can contact the dharma-body; in order to transform the basis; in order to realize all the qualities of a buddha; in order to realize the knowledge of all-knowledge—one enters the nature of consciousness-only.」

The answer is a list, and every item on the list points ahead to a later chapter: "the world-transcending wisdom of calming-and-insight"—the very substance of the work, taken up in the next chapter; "in order to transform the basis"—the fruit of the path, taken up in Chapter Twelve. Entering consciousness-only is not the terminus but the establishing of the gate of practice. The treatise's prose, in passing, lifts one corner of the distant prospect:

「Because he awakens into the nature of consciousness-only, he awakens into the characteristic of the knowable; because he awakens into this, he enters the ground of supreme joy, well penetrates the dharma-realm, and is born into the family of the Tathāgata… this is precisely what is called the bodhisattva's path of seeing.」

Born into the family of the Tathāgata—this is the vista of the path of seeing, waiting at the third station of the five stages.

Returning to the question opened at the chapter's start: how do concepts become a way of seeing? The answer can now be gathered up—not by memorizing the map, but by the fourfold seeking-out that lays the map over the territory; when the seeking-out ripens it turns into knowledge as-it-really-is; and when one walks to the border of "there is only mental speech," even the map is handed back. To walk this stretch along the original texts: on the reading-path, the sixth station, the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, "Entering the Characteristic of the Knowable"; the third station, the Thirty Verses of Consciousness-Only; and the fifth station, the main text of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, await.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏