Chapter 12 · The Fruit — Turning the Basis: Nirvāṇa That Dwells Nowhere, the Four Wisdoms, the Three Bodies

Part Three · The Path

The end of the previous chapter left four words hanging: "and thereby realizes the transformation of the basis." The road has been walked to its end — what does it look like?

This school's answer concerning the fruit-stage is not a picture of heaven but a precise account-book: what blocks the road (the two obscurations), how the pivot turns (turning the basis), why on arrival one does not, after all, abide (the nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere), what becomes of the mind (the four wisdoms), and then what (the three bodies). This chapter reckons the account item by item — and every line of the ledger reaches back to catch a thread laid down across the preceding eleven chapters.

1 · The Two Obscurations — What, Exactly, Blocks the Road

First, the question of obscuration. The Cheng Weishi Lun's definitions come in a pair:

"As for the affliction-obscuration: it is the grasping at a wholly-imagined real self, with the reifying view of self at its head, together with the one hundred twenty-eight root afflictions and the secondary afflictions that flow out from them. These all disturb and vex the body and mind of sentient beings, and can obstruct nirvāṇa; hence it is named the affliction-obscuration. As for the obscuration to the knowable: it is the grasping at wholly-imagined real dharmas, with the reifying view of self at its head — views, doubt, ignorance, craving, ill-will, conceit, and the rest. It veils the undistorted nature of the knowable object, and can obstruct bodhi; hence it is named the obscuration to the knowable."

The two definitions open with the same four words: "grasping the wholly-imagined." What blocks the road is not two new things; it is precisely the self-grasping and dharma-grasping refuted in chapter 5 — the one that grasps a "real self" disturbs body and mind and predominantly obstructs nirvāṇa, and is called the affliction-obscuration; the one that grasps "real dharmas" veils the knowable and predominantly obstructs bodhi, and is called the obscuration to the knowable. But "predominantly obstructs" must not be read as an exclusive one-to-one. The Cheng Weishi Lun, within its fruit-stage account, itself presses the question: since the obscuration to the knowable also obstructs nirvāṇa, why is it called only the bodhi-obscuration? Can the affliction-obscuration really not obstruct bodhi? The answer:

"One should know that the sacred teaching speaks according to the predominant function; in strict truth both can obstruct the two fruits alike."

So the pairing of the two obscurations with the two fruits is stated according to each one's most conspicuous function; spoken of as it really is, both obscurations can obstruct both nirvāṇa and bodhi. The difference still matters: "the two vehicles can cut off only the affliction-obscuration; the bodhisattva cuts off both" — what the two vehicles cut off is bounded by escaping the bondage of birth-and-death, while the bodhisattva, in order to accomplish supreme bodhi, cuts off both obscurations; yet one must not rewrite this into two mutually insulated lines of cause and effect.

The obscurations lie latent in the form of seeds (the language of chapter 8 is here reused throughout), and each of the two obscurations divides into what is to be abandoned by seeing and what is to be abandoned by cultivation. The seeds of the two obscurations to be abandoned by seeing are both first cut off on the path of seeing at the first ground; but the innate portion, to be abandoned by cultivation, cannot be said loosely to have its seeds cut off ground by ground throughout the ten grounds for both alike. The Cheng Weishi Lun divides it plainly: for the affliction-obscuration, the "seeds to be abandoned by cultivation are all cut off at once when the adamantine samādhi appears" — during the ten grounds' cultivation their seeds are not extinguished; only their coarse-and-heavy is gradually cut off and their active manifestation subdued; for the obscuration to the knowable, the "seeds to be abandoned by cultivation are, throughout the ten grounds, gradually cut off," becoming forever exhausted only when the adamantine samādhi appears. So the gradualness of the ten grounds is, on one side, the affliction-obscuration's coarse-and-heavy being gradually removed while its seeds remain to the very last, and on the other, the obscuration to the knowable's seeds themselves being gradually cut off; the adamantine samādhi then gathers up the last portion. Only when the account of the obscurations is clearly drawn can one ask after the pivot.

2 · Turning the Basis — A Precise Accounting of the Pivot

Turning the basis: this school's general name for the fruit-stage. The verse says, "because the two coarse-and-heavy are cast off, one thereby realizes the transformation of the basis." The Cheng Weishi Lun glosses these words, clause by clause:

"'Basis' means the support, that is, the other-dependent, since it serves as the support for both the defiled and the pure dharmas; the defiled is the false, wholly-imagined; the pure is the real perfectly-accomplished nature. 'Turning' means two parts: turning-and-casting-off, and turning-and-attaining. By repeatedly cultivating non-discriminating wisdom, one cuts off the coarse-and-heavy of the two obscurations within the root consciousness, and so can turn and cast off the wholly-imagined upon the other-dependent, and turn and attain the perfectly-accomplished nature within the other-dependent. By turning the afflictions one gains great nirvāṇa; by turning the obscuration to the knowable one realizes supreme awakening."

Slow down, clause by clause. What is the "basis"? The other-dependent — the middle cell of the map of the three natures in chapter 7. The transformation of the basis happens in no other place: precisely upon the experiential flow of dependent arising itself. What is the "turning"? Two acts: casting off the wholly-imagined upon the other-dependent, and attaining the perfectly-accomplished nature within the other-dependent. Turning the basis is not sought apart from the other-dependent: what is cast off is the falsely-grasped real self and real dharmas upon the other-dependent, and what is attained is the perfectly-accomplished nature — revealed by the two emptinesses — within the other-dependent; the other-dependent is the support, not a permanent, unchanging entity. The last clause pairs the two obscurations with the two fruits by predominant function: turning the afflictions gains great nirvāṇa, turning the obscuration to the knowable realizes supreme awakening. This is a main-line pairing, not an exclusive relation; the qualification of the previous section, "in strict truth both can obstruct the two fruits alike," still holds here.

The treatise also gives a second reading — "basis" may likewise be read as suchness itself:

"The foolish, being inverted, are deluded about this suchness, and so from beginningless time undergo the suffering of birth-and-death; the noble ones, apart from inversion, awaken to this suchness, and thereby gain the ultimate bliss of nirvāṇa."

One and the same suchness: deluded about it, birth-and-death; awakened to it, nirvāṇa — the basis itself has not changed; what changes is delusion and awakening. The two readings (the other-dependent reading and the suchness reading) the treatise sets side by side without adjudicating, each disclosing one face.

Is turning the basis gradual or sudden? The treatises answer with two account-books of their own. The first is the Mahāyānasaṃgraha's gradual account, whose first half was seen already in chapter 9: the perfuming of right hearing "increases gradually, in sequence, through lower, middling, and higher grades" — its second half is redeemed here:

"As, more and more, the perfuming increases gradually, in sequence, through lower, middling, and higher grades, so, more and more, the maturation-fruit-consciousness gradually decreases, in sequence — that is the transformation of the basis. Once the basis of all the seeds has turned, the maturation-fruit-consciousness together with all the seeds turns to being seedless, and all the seeds are forever cut off."

As the perfuming increases by a degree, the maturation-consciousness decreases by a degree — like a dimmer switch, the one waning as the other waxes: "that is the transformation of the basis." Turning the basis is not one great thunderclap at the finish, but a slow transfusion of the blood that begins from the very first time one listens in accord with the Dharma. The second is the Cheng Weishi Lun's account of the six stages:

"The stages of turning the basis are, in brief, of six kinds. First, the turning that diminishes force and augments capacity: namely, in the first and second stages, by cultivating resolute conviction and conscience-and-shame, one diminishes the force of the defiled seeds within the root consciousness and augments the capacity of the pure seeds within the root consciousness; although one has not yet cut off the seeds of the obscurations, nor yet truly realized the transformation of the basis, one gradually subdues their active manifestation — this too is named a 'turning.'"

The punctuation of this clause is easily misread. Here "not yet" governs both "cut off the seeds of the obscurations" and "truly realized the transformation of the basis": in the two stages of provisions and preparation one has not yet cut off the seeds of the obscurations, nor yet truly realized the transformation of the basis; but by resolute conviction and conscience-and-shame one is already able to diminish the force of the defiled seeds and augment the capacity of the pure seeds, gradually subduing active manifestation — and so it is still named a "turning." Kuiji's Shuji adjudicates it plainly: this is the "cause of turning" and the "turning that can subdue," that is, "the first, provisionally-posited turning, since the true has not yet been attained"; the stages of true realization begin from the penetrating stage, the stage of cultivation, and the rest. So of a beginner's single thought of shame one should not straightway say that the transformation of the basis has been truly realized; more precisely, it is nurturing the cause that can turn, and beginning to diminish the defiled and augment the pure. The second and third stages correspond to the path of seeing and the ten grounds:

"Second, the turning of penetration: namely, at the penetrating stage, by the force of the path of seeing one penetrates suchness, cuts off the coarse-and-heavy of the two obscurations born of discrimination, and realizes one portion of the true transformation of the basis. Third, the turning of cultivation: namely, at the stage of cultivation, by repeatedly cultivating the practices of the ten grounds one gradually cuts off the coarse-and-heavy of the innate two obscurations, and gradually, in sequence, realizes the true transformation of the basis."

A single illumination on the path of seeing realizes "one portion"; the long nurturing of the ten grounds realizes it "gradually, in sequence" — the itinerary-map of the previous chapter is here converted into a progress-schedule of turning the basis. And the fourth stage gathers into the sudden:

"Fourth, the turning of the perfected fruit: namely, at the ultimate stage, through three great asaṃkhyeya eons of cultivating and gathering boundless, difficult, excellent practices, when the adamantine samādhi appears, one forever cuts off all the coarse-and-heavy there has ever been, and suddenly realizes the perfect transformation of the basis that is the fruit of buddhahood, benefiting and gladdening without end to the very end of future time."

The fifth and sixth stages record not progress but scale — one and the same "turning" turns out in two magnitudes:

"Fifth, the inferior turning: namely, at the two-vehicle stage, seeking one's own benefit alone, recoiling from suffering and delighting in quiescence, one can penetrate only the suchness that is the emptiness of persons, cut off the seeds of the afflictions, and realize true analytical cessation; lacking surpassing capacity, it is named the inferior turning. Sixth, the vast turning: namely, at the Mahāyāna stage, for the sake of benefiting others one heads toward great bodhi. Toward both birth-and-death and nirvāṇa one neither delights nor recoils; one is able to penetrate the suchness of the two emptinesses, to cut off, both together, the seeds of the obscuration to the knowable and of the affliction-obscuration, and to suddenly realize supreme bodhi and nirvāṇa; having surpassing capacity, it is named the vast turning."

One who seeks only self-benefit, recoiling from suffering and delighting in quiescence, has a transformation of the basis bounded by penetrating the emptiness of persons and cutting off the seeds of the afflictions, and so it is named inferior; one who, for the sake of benefiting others, "neither delights nor recoils" toward birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, realizes both emptinesses together and cuts off both obscurations together, and is named vast — the whole bearing of the next section's "nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere" is already there in those four words, "neither delights nor recoils." The six stages now fully listed, the gradual and the sudden may be reckoned together: the gradual account records, over the whole course, the gradual diminishing of defiled force, the gradual augmenting of pure capacity, and the portion-by-portion realizing; the sudden account records the last joint, cut through by the adamantine samādhi. The sudden is accomplished in dependence on gradual cultivation; the two are not two separate roads. (The Mahāyānasaṃgraha's "Fruit of Cessation" division has, besides, a list of six turnings of the basis; it and these six stages are two distinct accounts, set side by side without being confused.)

Finally the treatise lays turning the basis out into four aspects — the path that turns (who does the turning), the basis that is turned (upon what the turning occurs: the seed-holding basis, that is, the root consciousness; the delusion-and-awakening basis, that is, suchness), what is cast off in the turning (what is cast off), and what is attained in the turning (what is attained). The deepest stroke among the four aspects lies in the division of "what is attained in the turning":

"First, what is attained by being revealed: namely, great nirvāṇa. Though this is intrinsically pure from the very beginning, it is covered by adventitious obstruction and made not to appear. When the true noble path arises and cuts off that obstruction, its characteristic is made to appear — this is called attaining nirvāṇa." "Second, what is attained by being generated: namely, great bodhi. Though this has, from the very beginning, seeds able to generate it, it is not generated because the obscuration to the knowable hinders it; by the force of the noble path, that obstruction is cut off, and it is made to arise from its seeds — this is called attaining bodhi. Once arisen, it continues in succession to the very end of future time."

Nirvāṇa is revealed into the open — the nature of suchness is pure, only covered by adventitious obstruction so as not to appear; bodhi is generated into being — arising from generating-seeds under the force of the noble path. The two accounts must be kept distinct. In the four-wisdom section the Cheng Weishi Lun plainly says: "though the four kinds of nature are all originally present, they must be perfumed and roused before they can become actively manifest." So the generating-seeds of the four wisdoms here are, on Dharmapāla's orthodox interpretation, originally-present seeds that become actively manifest by being roused and increased through perfuming. In chapter 9 the Mahāyānasaṃgraha separately calls the perfuming of right hearing the "seeds of the Dharma-body" — a different formulation by which that treatise explains whence the world-transcending mind arises; the two may be read together as the relation between hearing-perfuming and the fruit-wisdoms, but one may not straightway say they are one and the same new seed. The safest joint statement is: the perfuming of right hearing can rouse and increase the pure cause; as for whether the seed is originally-present, newly-arising, or established as both kinds together, that must be reckoned separately according to the treatise one relies on.

3 · The Nirvāṇa That Dwells Nowhere — Why, on Arrival, One Does Not Abide

Nirvāṇa, one of the two fruits, this school opens into four kinds; all four are listed in full below. The first is the most reassuring:

"First, the nirvāṇa intrinsically pure from the very beginning: namely, the principle of suchness, the [true] character of all dharmas — though it bears adventitious defilement, its own nature is pure; it possesses measureless subtle and marvelous qualities, neither arising nor ceasing, limpid as empty space, equally shared in common by all sentient beings, neither one with nor different from all dharmas."

"Equally shared in common by all sentient beings" — the first nirvāṇa is not something cultivated into being; it is the intrinsically pure suchness that all sentient beings share in common: though adventitious defilement covers it, its own nature is pure of itself, limpid as empty space. The second and third are two forms of perfect quiescence, divided according to whether the basis of suffering still remains or has already ceased; for one and the same noble being they may come one before the other, but it will not do to abstract them into two rungs of a ladder that everyone climbs alike:

"Second, the nirvāṇa with a remaining basis: namely, suchness emerged from the affliction-obscuration; although the basis of a slight suffering has not yet ceased, the obscuration is forever stilled — hence it is called nirvāṇa." "Third, the nirvāṇa without a remaining basis: namely, suchness emerged from the suffering of birth-and-death; the afflictions being exhausted, the remaining basis too ceases, and the mass of sufferings is forever stilled — hence it is called nirvāṇa."

With a remaining basis — the affliction-obscuration is already emerged from, yet this life's body and mind (the basis of suffering) still remain: the fire is out, but the residual warmth has not yet dispersed — the condition of a noble one dwelling in the world. Without a remaining basis — the afflictions being exhausted, the remaining basis too ceases, "the mass of sufferings forever stilled": even the last carrier is laid down. Note that the subject of all three nirvāṇas is one and the same — "namely, suchness" emerged from this and from that: nirvāṇa is not three places, but three names for one and the same suchness at the points where different veils fall away. And the fourth, possessed in full by the Buddha alone, is this school's signature:

"Fourth, the nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere: namely, suchness emerged from the obscuration to the knowable, ever supported by great compassion and prajñā. By this it dwells in neither birth-and-death nor nirvāṇa, benefiting and gladdening sentient beings to the very end of future time, functioning yet ever still — hence it is called nirvāṇa."

The treatise then draws up the account: "All sentient beings have the first; the adepts of the two vehicles may have the first three; only our World-Honored One can be said to possess all four." Everyone already has the first; the two-vehicle adepts may have the first three; all four in full, the Buddha alone. "Dwells nowhere" — dwelling in neither birth-and-death nor nirvāṇa. Why, on arrival, does one not abide after all? The answer lies in the six words "ever supported by great compassion and prajñā": prajñā sees birth-and-death as illusory, and so is not held fast by birth-and-death; great compassion does not forsake beings, and so refuses to treat nirvāṇa as an exit and move in to abide there. One wing guards against sinking, one wing guards against fleeing — only with both wings spread can one, "to the very end of future time, benefit and gladden sentient beings" while "functioning yet ever still": functioning forever, yet all the while at rest. A single line of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha's "Fruit of Cessation" division says it in full:

"'Cutting-off' means the bodhisattva's nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere; its characteristic is a transformation of the basis that, of the two supports, casts off defilement yet does not cast off birth-and-death."

Casting off defilement, not casting off birth-and-death — what is cast off and what is not cast off stand side by side as the characteristic. And this not-casting-off has its craft: the bodhisattva, on the path of cultivation, "retains the affliction-obscuration to aid the vow and take on birth, not like the two vehicles who swiftly head for perfect quiescence." This is not merely leaving "a single spark" that may be ignored as a negligible little ember; on the account of the stages of cutting-off given above, the affliction-obscuration's seeds to be abandoned by cultivation are retained throughout the ten grounds until the adamantine samādhi, while their active manifestation is regulated by the power of subduing and the power of deliberate intention — in the first seven grounds it may arise temporarily for the sake of the vow to take birth, and from the eighth ground on it utterly does not operate. What is called "retaining the afflictions to moisten [continued] birth" is a strict regulation, by vow and by wisdom, of active manifestation, seeds, and the mechanism of taking birth — not a matter of calling the obscuration already cut off and then borrowing it back out of thin air. The vow set forth in chapter 9, and the abiding of effort in chapter 11, remain, at the fruit-stage, that same running thread.

4 · The Four Wisdoms — Are the Eight Consciousnesses Extinguished?

The second of the two fruits is bodhi, whose substance is the four wisdoms. Here let us first ask, on the reader's behalf, a question that has hung over half the book: after so much talk of the eight consciousnesses, what is said of them at buddhahood? The treatise sets up its account with the phrase "attained by turning in dependence on consciousness" — neither destroying the eight consciousnesses as entities, nor saying that the eight contaminated consciousnesses are merely renamed while left wholly intact:

"This turns the associated groups of the contaminated eighth, seventh, sixth, and fifth[-sense] consciousnesses, attaining [the four wisdoms] respectively."

In the order of the associated groups: the associated groups of the contaminated eighth, seventh, sixth, and the first-five consciousnesses turn, respectively, into the mirror-like wisdom, the equality wisdom, the discerning wisdom, and the duty-fulfilling wisdom. This is a correspondence of four sets of bases, not an organ-refit that forces "eight" to reckon as "four"; the treatise says a little later, "though wisdom is not consciousness, it is turned in dependence on consciousness." First, the definition of the mirror-like wisdom:

"First, the mind-group associated with the mirror-like wisdom: this mind-group is free of all discrimination; its object and mode of apprehension are so subtle as to be hard to know; it neither forgets nor is confused about any object-character; in nature and character it is pure, free of all defilement, of pure and perfect virtue; it is the support that holds the manifest seeds, able to manifest and generate the reflected images of bodies, lands, and wisdoms, without interval or interruption, to the very end of future time — like a great round mirror displaying the multitude of forms."

Read alongside the eighth consciousness of chapter 6, one sees the thread of function carried over: "so subtle as to be hard to know," "holds the manifest seeds," "without interval or interruption." But the name and the nature have already changed: the name "ālaya," which belongs to the ordinary being and to those still in training, is established on account of defiled grasping-and-storing, and is discarded once the basis is turned; the utterly pure eighth consciousness at the stage of the Tathāgata is named the undefiled consciousness, and is no longer the contaminated maturation-consciousness. So one may say that the supporting functions — holding the pure seeds, manifesting bodies and lands, and so on — continue; one may not say 'the ālaya storehouse is still there, only washed clean.' The mirror-like wisdom is free of discrimination and free of defilement, like a mirror displaying images yet not adhering to them.

The second pairing is more moving still. The seventh, manas — that organ in chapter 6 which grasps at a self day and night — turns into this:

"Second, the mind-group associated with the equality wisdom: this mind-group contemplates all dharmas, and self and other sentient beings, as all utterly equal. It is ever conjoined with great loving-kindness and compassion and the rest; in accord with what the various sentient beings delight in, it manifests the differentiated reflected images of enjoyment-bodies and lands. It is the distinctive basis of the discerning wisdom, and that upon which the nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere is established, of a single savor, continuing without break to the very end of future time."

The treatise explains the turning of the seventh consciousness's associated group by a before-and-after contrast: "In the pre-turning state, it constantly and examiningly reckons the character of the self it grasps; in the post-turning state, it likewise examiningly reckons the character of no-self." Before the turning, it examiningly reckons a grasped self; after the turning, the equality wisdom contemplates self and other beings as equal, ever conjoined with great compassion. This is to speak of a reversal of function upon one and the same class of basis — not to say that the defiled manas, its original substance unchanged, becomes wisdom. The definition also records its two functions: manifesting enjoyment-bodies and lands in accord with what beings delight in (here is the source of the next section's other-enjoyment body), and establishing the nirvāṇa that dwells nowhere.

The third pairing: the sixth consciousness — that mind-consciousness which deliberates and discriminates, giving rise to delusion and to understanding alike — turns into this:

"Third, the mind-group associated with the discerning wisdom: this mind-group well contemplates the particular and shared characteristics of all dharmas, turning without obstruction. It gathers in and contemplates the measureless gateways of dhāraṇī and samādhi, and the treasures of merit they bring forth. In the great assembly it can display boundless differentiations of function, all in sovereign freedom; it rains down the great rain of Dharma, cutting off every doubt, causing all sentient beings to gain benefit and joy."

"Well contemplates the particular and shared characteristics of all dharmas, turning without obstruction" — the sixth consciousness's associated group could originally discriminate and select; the discerning wisdom attained through the turning contemplates without inversion, "raining the great rain of Dharma, cutting off every doubt" in the great assembly. One may say the supporting function has a traceable reorientation; one may not say the contaminated discrimination is preserved as it was, merely repurposed.

The fourth pairing: the five consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body turn into this:

"Fourth, the mind-group associated with the duty-fulfilling wisdom: this mind-group, out of the wish to benefit and gladden all sentient beings, everywhere throughout the ten directions manifests all kinds of transformational deeds of the three karmas, accomplishing the tasks that the power of the original vow ought to accomplish."

"Accomplishing the tasks that the power of the original vow ought to accomplish" — the duty-fulfilling wisdom everywhere in the ten directions manifests the transformational three karmas, bringing to completion the being-benefiting work that the original vow ought to do (here is the source of the next section's transformation body). The four wisdoms now fully listed, one may survey their division of labor as a whole: the mirror wisdom holds the pure seeds and manifests bodies and lands; the equality wisdom contemplates self and other as equal; the discerning wisdom preaches the Dharma and cuts off doubt; the duty-fulfilling wisdom manifests the three karmas to benefit beings. These four groups are attained by turning the associated groups of the eighth, seventh, sixth, and fifth consciousnesses — but not as if the old consciousnesses' functions were preserved just as they were, with nothing relinquished.

After this account the treatise adds a rare note of self-annotation:

"In order to urge sentient beings to rely on wisdom and relinquish consciousness, it is said that the eight consciousnesses are turned and these four wisdoms are attained."

"In order to urge" — the very way of speaking, "the eight consciousnesses are turned into the four wisdoms," is declared by the treatise's author to be a designation with a hortatory purpose: wisdom is not identical with consciousness; it is turned in dependence on consciousness; and only in order to urge beings to relinquish the contaminated consciousnesses and rely on the uncontaminated wisdoms is this said. So this section can only say that [the wisdoms] are attained by turning upon the classes [of consciousness], with a reorientation of function; it cannot say the eight consciousnesses are left untouched, nor that after buddhahood [the eighth] is still named ālaya. Even the fruit-stage formula this school marks as having a verbal, expository function — the vigilance over "mental discourse" from chapter 10 is kept up all the way to the final chapter.

5 · The Three Bodies — To Arrive Is Already to Be Able to Save

The final question: one has arrived — and then? The Cheng Weishi Lun's "ultimate stage" begins from this question — "Next, the ultimate stage: what is its character?" The verse answers:

"This is the uncontaminated realm — inconceivable, good, and constant, blissful, the body of liberation; in the Great Sage it is named the Dharma."

The prose commentary, glossing the word "realm," gives a twofold explanation: "'Realm' has the sense of treasury, for herein are contained boundless, rare, great qualities; or it has the sense of cause, for it can generate the acts of benefit and joy, mundane and supramundane, of the five vehicles" — a treasury, and so it contains; a cause, and so it can generate. The fruit-stage is not a full stop, but a store-treasury and a source of seeds. In glossing "constant," one must first hold to a boundary-line: the treatise plainly says that the four-wisdom mind-groups are "not constant in their own nature, since they arise from causes" — they are not unconditioned, permanent entities existing independent of causes; their constancy is the constancy of the suchness that is their basis, and, further, they continue without break because the original vow and the beings to be transformed are inexhaustible. So what is shown by "because, through the power of the original vow, the beings to be transformed have no term of exhaustion, [it lasts] to the very end of future time, without break and without end" is not a static, eternal thing, but the inexhaustibility of the work of benefiting beings. Glossing "blissful," it says the two turnings of the basis are in their own nature free of vexation, and "they can also bring bliss to all sentient beings, and so the two turnings of the basis are both named blissful" — being themselves free of vexation, they can also bring bliss to beings. As for the distinction between "liberation-body" and "Dharma[-body]": "the fruit of the two turnings of the basis attained by the two vehicles only forever departs the bondage of the affliction-obscuration, and, lacking surpassing qualities, is named merely the liberation-body" — one who has only left bondage but lacks excellent virtues is sufficiently called a liberation-body; only one who possesses the boundless qualities of merit is named the Dharma-body, the "Dharma" of the Great Sage.

The Dharma-body opens into three aspects, that is, the three bodies:

"This Dharma-body has three distinct aspects. First, the self-nature body: namely, the true, pure Dharma-realm of the Tathāgatas, the equal basis of the enjoyment [body] and the transformation [body], apart from characteristics and quiescent, cut off from all conceptual proliferation, possessed of boundless true and constant qualities; it is the equal real nature of all dharmas. This very self-nature is also named the Dharma-body, since it is the basis on which the great qualities of merit rest."

The self-nature body is suchness itself — "apart from characteristics and quiescent, cut off from all conceptual proliferation" — corresponding to the sense of nirvāṇa "attained by being revealed" in the previous section: when the adventitious obstruction is removed, suchness appears, formless and beyond speech. Upon it is set the enjoyment body, divided into self and other:

"Second, the enjoyment body; this is of two kinds. First, self-enjoyment: namely, the boundless real qualities that the Tathāgatas raise up through three incalculable eons of cultivating and gathering measureless provisions of merit and wisdom, together with a form-body utterly perfect, pure, constant, and all-pervading, continuing limpid to the very end of future time, ever enjoying for themselves the vast bliss of the Dharma. Second, other-enjoyment: namely, that by the equality wisdom the Tathāgatas manifest a subtle, pure body of merit, dwelling in a wholly pure land, and for the host of bodhisattvas abiding on the ten grounds display great spiritual powers, turn the wheel of the true Dharma, and resolve the nets of their doubts, causing them to enjoy the bliss of the Mahāyāna Dharma."

Self-enjoyment is the self-enjoyment of the merit-and-wisdom qualities gathered through three great eons of practice; other-enjoyment is manifested by the equality wisdom — this wisdom is attained by turning the seventh consciousness's associated group, and is not the same as the old seventh consciousness itself — and preaches the Dharma expressly for the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds. And for the bodhisattvas before the grounds, the two vehicles, and ordinary beings, there is yet another body:

"Third, the transformation body: namely, that by the duty-fulfilling wisdom the Tathāgatas transform and manifest measureless transformation-bodies according to kind, dwelling in pure and impure lands, and for the hosts of bodhisattvas not yet arrived at the grounds, the two vehicles, and ordinary beings, in keeping with their capacities and needs, manifest spiritual powers and preach the Dharma, causing each to obtain the various acts of benefit and joy."

"According to kind," "in keeping with their capacities and needs," "dwelling in pure and impure lands" — the transformation body chooses neither place nor recipient, but manifests a body and preaches the Dharma to suit each person's faculties. The benefit-sense of the three bodies cannot be measured by 'two of the three names'; the treatise's assured verdict is: "The other-enjoyment body and the transformation body belong to benefiting others alone, since they are manifested for others." How the self-nature body, the self-enjoyment body, and the two other-benefiting bodies are assigned has its own finer account, whereas the other-enjoyment and transformation bodies are plainly manifested for others. This is precisely the answer to the question that opened the chapter: to arrive is not to cease benefiting beings. The last of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha's ten excellences is here redeemed: "The three buddha-bodies — first, the self-nature body; second, the enjoyment body; third, the transformation body — are called the substance of the fruit-wisdom." Beginning from the "basis of the knowable" and closing with the fruit-wisdom, the whole framework of the ten excellences is walked through to the end.

6 · The Dedication — The Author's Own Close

The Cheng Weishi Lun, ten fascicles now expounded, how does it close? First it names itself: "This treatise establishes consciousness-only in three parts, and is therefore called the Cheng Weishi Lun." And then — the treatise's very last words are not a conclusion, but a verse of dedication:

"Having relied on the sacred teaching and right reasoning to discern the meaning of consciousness-only's nature and characteristics, 　the merit thereby obtained I bestow on the multitude of beings — may we together swiftly ascend to supreme awakening."

In reliance on the sacred teaching and right reasoning, the discerning of consciousness-only's nature and characteristics is now finished — the exposition is done, and then the whole merit gained by expounding this treatise is bestowed, all of it, upon all beings. What the last two words of this whole thousand-year great treatise lead with is 'may we together': not I have arrived, but may we together arrive a little sooner. The vow opened the road (the arousing of the aspiration, chapter 9), carried the effort (the abiding, chapter 11); now, standing at the fruit-stage and looking back, it is still the vow — dedicating even the fruit outward. This school's road begins in the vow, proceeds in the vow, and ends in the inexhaustibility of the vow.

To walk this stretch along the original texts: on the reading-route, station seven, the Cheng Weishi Lun §25–28; station six, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha's "Fruit of Cessation" and "Fruit of Wisdom" divisions; station three, the Triṃśikā, verses 29–30 — these await you. And along the whole route of eight stations, every station is a scripture or treatise — this book here lays down its pen; the road is in the edition itself.

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