地藏菩薩本願經 義疏通講

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing; before it stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. He fixes the character of the sūtra in his opening words: 「地藏本願經者，乃我佛所說之孝經也」—“The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha is the classic of filial piety spoken by our Buddha.” 〔X21n0383 0638c08〕 The Buddha ascends to the Heaven of the Thirty-Three and teaches the Dharma for his mother 「正以示出世之大孝」—“precisely to display the great filial piety that goes beyond the world.” 〔X21n0383 0638c10〕 His division of the text is equally blunt: the whole sūtra is 「隨文演義，為三：序、正、流通」—“unfolded in sense as the text runs, in three: introduction, main exposition, and transmission.” 〔X21n0384 0653b02〕 — this chapter holds the introduction to itself alone, chapters two through ten are the main exposition, and the last three chapters are the transmission. As for the manner of glossing, he states its order himself: 「今先通釋名題，次乃總示觀法，三則別解經文」—“Now first the title is explained in general; next the method of contemplation is set forth in sum; third, the sūtra text is explained in particular.” 〔X21n0383 0639c09〕 — following the Tiantai line all the way down. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

First, the Name

If one reads a sūtra to the end and still does not know what the name of its central figure means, the reading has been wasted. And this sūtra does not explain its own name — from beginning to end it says only “Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva” and does not gloss it. The sense of the name has to be fetched from elsewhere.

The Buddha has glossed it himself. Of this same bodhisattva there is a passage of praise in another sūtra, more than twenty similes in a row, of which two lines run: 「安忍不動猶如大地，靜慮深密猶如祕藏」—“Patient and unmoving as the great earth; still in contemplation and deeply hidden as a secret store.” 〔T13n0411 0722a08〕

Earth is being patient and unmoving; store is being still in contemplation and deeply hidden. The one says that he can bear it; the other says that he keeps it deep.

The reading handed down pushes “store” one layer further in. As to what store means, 「隱故名秘，覆故名藏」—“because it is hidden it is called secret; because it is covered it is called store.” 〔X21n0383 0640b05〕 — hidden away, and so called secret; covered over, and so called store. And what is stored? The secret store of the three virtues: 「大即法身，滅即解脫，度即般若」—“the great is the dharma-body, extinction is liberation, deliverance is prajñā.” 〔X21n0383 0640b18〕 — and these three dharmas each and all possess permanence, bliss, self, and purity.

What matters is the next line: this secret store of the three virtues is 「蘊在一切眾生身心之內」—“held within the body and mind of every sentient being.” 〔X21n0383 0640b09〕

It is not that the bodhisattva is keeping some treasure in store to give to beings. It is that beings have it stored in their own body and mind already, and simply do not know it. And so the next words: 「諸佛悟之而證得，眾生迷之而流轉」—“the buddhas awaken to it and realize it; sentient beings are deluded about it and go on turning.” 〔X21n0383 0640b10〕 — one and the same thing: awake to it, and one is a buddha; deluded about it, and one turns in the six destinies. 「然此秘藏初無改移」—“Yet this secret store from the first undergoes no alteration.” 〔X21n0383 0640b11〕 — in the time of delusion it is not one part the less.

A simile is matched to it as well. When Maitreya becomes a buddha, four great treasure-stores appear at once — gold, silver, bright pearl, and beryl — each figuring one of the four virtues, permanence, bliss, self, and purity; and 「彼之四藏，不越乎地」—“those four stores do not go beyond the earth.” 〔X21n0383 0640b20〕 — all four are buried in the ground. The most carefully placed stroke in the simile is this: before those four stores appear, each has its dragon-spirits guarding it in secret, keeping it and not losing it; once they have been opened up there is no guardian, and those who see them raise no covetous thought. And so it is said of the treasure-store of the mind-ground that 「雖在迷時，隱而不失，正當悟處，證而不著」—“though it is in the time of delusion, it is hidden and not lost; and just at the place of awakening, it is realized and not clung to.” 〔X21n0383 0640c07〕

In the time of delusion it will not be lost; at the moment of awakening you will not grasp it.

「地藏之名，其義若此」—“The name Kṣitigarbha: such is its sense.” 〔X21n0383 0640c09〕 — the name is done, the sūtra has not yet begun to speak, and who this bodhisattva is has already been handed over: he is called by this name because beings have this store within their minds.

What Kind of Vow the Original Vow Is

The second half of the title is “original vow.” For “original,” three senses were given of old: 「本即本昔」—“original is the original past.” 〔X21n0383 0640c22〕 — that is the past; and it is also original nature, which is the root; and it is also the force and function of that original nature, the strength that issues from the root.

A vow made in the past, made upon one’s original nature, and then producing force out of that nature — the three laid one upon another are what is called an original vow. To take it merely as “a promise made a long while ago” is to have got only the first of the three.

Of old a very weighty line is set down here: 「願不依諦，名為狂願」—“A vow that does not rest on truth is called a mad vow.” 〔X21n0383 0641a05〕 — and truth that does not follow from the mind is called false truth.

A vow must rest on something. On what? On principle. And the principle must come out of one’s own mind; it is not a doctrine carted in from outside. The mind is the ground, truth is the root, the vow is the trunk; only when root and trunk stand can branch and leaf spread out.

This line may be kept in mind. To make a vow is an easy thing; what is hard is whether there is anything holding the vow up from underneath.

A Whole Chapter, Judged to Be Introduction

That a whole chapter should be judged as the introductory section has not gone unchallenged. The smile and the sending forth of light may count as the occasion for the teaching; but the questions and answers about the causal ground, the elder’s son arousing his resolve, and the holy woman saving her mother ought by rights to fall under the main exposition; the earth spirit guarding the Dharma and the benefits of seeing and hearing look like main text as well; and what truly counts as transmission is only the last chapter, on entrustment.

The reading handed down answers hard: the dividing of a text is human sentiment in the first place, and sentiment always supposes that 「序未辯道，流通歇末，不得論於因果」—“the introduction has not yet argued the Way, and the transmission is a spent tail-end, so cause and fruit may not be discussed there.” 〔X21n0384 0653b07〕 — and so it cuts the three sections dead apart. But the three are not three separated rooms: 「序本序於正通，正本正於序通，通本通於正序」—“the introduction is fundamentally an introduction to the main exposition and the transmission; the main exposition is fundamentally main with respect to the introduction and the transmission; the transmission is fundamentally a transmitting with respect to the main exposition and the introduction.” 〔X21n0384 0653b09〕 — the introduction is for the sake of the main exposition and the transmission; the main exposition is for the sake of the introduction and the transmission; the transmission too is for the sake of the main exposition and the introduction. If they really were cut apart, the introduction would become a flavorless opening remark and the transmission a closing courtesy.

This way of judging is of use when we read any sūtra. The right Dharma is already being spoken in the introductory section, and real business is still being done in the section of transmission. A sūtra has no foreplay.

Teaching the Dharma for His Mother: One Sentence, Two Identities

After the five matters of the common introduction, the sūtra writes only one sentence more: the Buddha is in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, teaching the Dharma for his mother.

In point of form this sentence sits awkwardly. It is text belonging to the introduction that witnesses the teaching, and yet it carries the sense of the occasion that gives rise to it — the common introduction cannot contain it, and the particular introduction has not begun. For that reason a separate outline-heading was set up for it of old, with the question put to oneself: 「何故立此科」—“Why set up this heading?” 〔X21n0384 0654c03〕 The answer: this sentence is the fountainhead of the Tathāgata’s ascending to the Heaven of the Thirty-Three and of the three months’ retreat, and it is also the ground-plan for Kṣitigarbha’s making his vow for his mother; 「一以遮外道六師之疑謗」—“first, to shut off the doubt and slander of the six heterodox masters.” 〔X21n0384 0654c06〕, and second, to raise the filial thought of the fourfold assembly of later ages.

One sentence, two identities. The Buddha here is the one who teaches the Dharma, and he is also a son who has gone up to heaven for his mother’s sake. The two past lives that come later in the sūtra — the elder’s son and the brahmin woman — both grow out of this identity.

An introduction sets the scene. What this sentence sets down is why this sūtra had to be spoken in this scene.

Ten Great Light-Clouds

The Tathāgata smiles and sends forth a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of great light-clouds, ten kinds in a row: complete fullness, kindness and compassion, wisdom, prajñā, samādhi, auspiciousness, blessed merit, merit and virtue, refuge, praise.

The number ten is not made up to fill out a list. The commentator of old matches these ten lights one by one to the ten vehicles of contemplation of Tiantai — 「故約今家十乘觀法，對釋十種光雲」—“and so, taking the ten vehicles of contemplation of our own house, the ten kinds of light-cloud are explained in correspondence.” 〔X21n0384 0656c23〕; and 「大圓滿光明雲為十光之首」—“the great light-cloud of complete fullness is the head of the ten lights.” 〔X21n0384 0657a02〕, flowing out the other nine, and answering exactly to the first of the ten vehicles: contemplating the inconceivable object.

This matching may be consulted; it need not be taken as a sense the sūtra text itself carries. But it points out something the sūtra text is in fact doing: the ten lights are not ten ornaments — they have an order. The first is the great and complete fullness, and the other nine flow out of it: first there is a whole, and only then the separate statements of kindness and compassion, wisdom, prajñā, and the rest.

Sixteen Sounds

After the light comes sound, sixteen kinds in a row: one sound for each of the six pāramitās, and then kindness and compassion, joy and equanimity, liberation, the uncontaminated, wisdom, great wisdom, the lion’s roar, the great lion’s roar, cloud and thunder, great cloud and thunder.

The first six are gates of practice, the latter ten are aspects of virtue. Sending forth light is a manifesting; giving forth sound is a speaking. He manifests and then speaks, and what is spoken is counted from giving onward — in the order of the six perfections, the first step is to hand something over.

The judgment set down of old upon these sixteen sounds is: 「此表地藏隨類現身，應機說法」—“This signifies that Kṣitigarbha manifests a body according to kind, and teaches the Dharma as the capacity of the hearer requires.” 〔X21n0384 0658a03〕 — since the situations are not one, the sounds too are many.

Light is sent forth ray by ray; sound comes forth kind by kind. Sending forth light can illumine everyone at once, but teaching the Dharma has to take account of who is standing opposite. And so there are ten lights and sixteen sounds — not that sound has six things more than light, but that meeting a capacity is by its nature a more intricate business than shining upon what is there.

What It Is That the Buddhas Praise

The buddhas of the ten directions have all come, and they have come in order to praise. What is it that they praise? The sūtra writes it plainly: they praise Buddha Śākyamuni for “being able, in the evil world of the five turbidities, to manifest the inconceivable power of great wisdom and spiritual penetration, taming beings hard and stubborn.”

What are the five turbidities? A very homely simile is given of old: 「譬如清水，投之塵土，容貌泪然，名之為濁」—“It is as when dust and earth are thrown into clear water and its look becomes muddied: this is what is named turbidity.” 〔X21n0384 0655c05〕 Throw a handful of earth into clear water and the water is fouled — turbidity is not another thing besides; it is something clear by nature into which something has been stirred. Turbidity is of five kinds: the turbidity of the kalpa, of views, of the afflictions, of beings, of lifespan.

And the weight of the buddhas’ praise falls not on how great the spiritual power is, but on the two characters 「能於」 — being able, in: being able to do the work in a place like this.

To throw light on this, a passage of scripture is cited of old. In the Compassionate Flower Sūtra someone asks the World-Honored One: why do you dwell in this impure evil world of the five turbidities to become a buddha and to teach the three vehicles, rather than taking a pure world? The Buddha answers directly: 「以本願故，取淨妙國」—“It is by reason of an original vow that a pure and wondrous land is taken.” 〔X21n0384 0655c13〕; and it is likewise by reason of an original vow that an impure land is taken. A bodhisattva accomplishes great compassion, and so takes this corrupt, evil, impure land.

The pure land and the defiled land are taken by one and the same original vow.

This line is worth stopping over. We readily think of a vow as “I want a good place.” What is said here is that some people’s vow is for a bad place — not that they like what is bad, but that someone there needs them.

This praise at the head of the sūtra praises exactly this. And the bodhisattva the whole sūtra goes on to speak of does exactly this too — and the place he goes to is deeper than the Sahā world.

Śākyamuni: Two Non-Abidings

A word in passing about the name of the one who is praised, since it was of old opened out as a matched pair.

Śākya is the clan name, rendered of old as “Able in Humaneness”; Muni is the style-name, rendered of old as “Silent and Still.” And the two lines that lay it most nearly to the bone are these: 「姓從慈悲利物，故不住涅槃」—“The clan name follows from benefiting beings with kindness and compassion, and therefore he does not abide in nirvāṇa.” 〔X21n0384 0655c03〕 and 「字取智慧冥理，故不住生死」—“The style-name takes its sense from wisdom merging with principle, and therefore he does not abide in birth-and-death.” 〔X21n0384 0655c04〕

Compassion walks outward, and so he does not stop inside nirvāṇa; wisdom tallies inward, and so he does not fall into birth-and-death.

One name, and he abides at neither end. This is not a play on words — the vow made by the elder’s son in this very chapter closes 「盡令解脫，而我自身，方成佛道」—“until all are wholly delivered, and only then shall I myself accomplish the buddha’s path.” 〔T13n0412 0778b16〕, and that is walking exactly the side of not abiding in nirvāṇa, and walking it to the furthest point. (The line handed down in later ages, 「地獄未空，誓不成佛」—“while the hells are not empty I vow not to become a buddha” 〔ZW06n0052 0275a18〕, comes from a Song bodhimaṇḍa rite and is not text of this sūtra.)

Three Waves of the Assembly

The audience arrives in three waves.

The first wave is the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits, called by name from the Heaven of the Four Great Kings all the way to the Heaven of the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception, more than twenty tiers of heaven without one omitted. The second wave is the spirits: of the sea, of the great rivers, of the rivers, of trees, of mountains, of the earth, of streams and marshes, of the crops, of the day, of the night, of empty space, of the heavens, of food and drink, of grass and trees. The third wave is the ghost kings: Evil-Eyed, Blood-Devourer, Devourer of Vital Essence, Devourer of Embryos and Eggs, Spreader of Sickness, Gatherer of Poison — and then the tone turns all at once — Kindly-Hearted, Blessing and Benefit, Great Love and Reverence.

The order of these three waves is worth stopping over. The sūtra does not invite the upper realms alone. It writes from the heavens down to the mountains, rivers, grass, and trees, and then down to ghost kings who devour blood, vital essence, and embryos and eggs by trade; and it sets the ghost king Kindly-Hearted and the ghost king Great Love and Reverence in the same string with them, and says of them all alike that they “came and gathered in assembly.”

A sūtra that is going to speak of the hells begins by inviting the neighbors of the hells in at the door, and names them all, good and bad without distinction, as those present.

A Number That Cannot Be Counted

The assembly complete, the Buddha asks Mañjuśrī: do you know how many there are.

Mañjuśrī answers without hedging: with my own spiritual power, taking the measure of it for a thousand kalpas, I cannot know. The Buddha then says: even when I look with the buddha-eye, the count is still not exhausted.

This line is a pivot in the sūtra. The reading handed down points out what it is for: 「此正抑果揚因，遜己尊彼」—“This is precisely to press down the fruit and raise up the cause, to yield on one’s own part and honor the other.” 〔X21n0384 0664c19〕 — the Buddha presses his own fruition down and lifts Kṣitigarbha’s causal practice up. What is pressed down is himself; what is raised up is another.

And that number which cannot be counted to the end — what is it? The sūtra says so itself in the next breath: “All these are ones whom Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, over kalpas long past, has already delivered, is now delivering, and has yet to deliver; has already brought to accomplishment, is now bringing to accomplishment, and has yet to bring to accomplishment.”

It is not that the audience is large; it is that the people Kṣitigarbha has delivered are many. This one question and one answer convert the head-count of the whole assembly into one bodhisattva’s workload.

Mañjuśrī then asks about the causal ground. He states his reason for asking quite frankly: he himself believes as soon as he hears, but the śrāvakas of the lesser fruit, the eight classes of devas and nāgas, and the beings of ages to come will certainly doubt when they hear a thing like this; and even if they force themselves to accept it, they will hardly escape slandering.

So this question is not one Mañjuśrī asks for himself. The sūtra has written the doubt in beforehand, here.

The Simile of the Motes and the Kalpas

The Buddha answers with a simile.

All the grasses and trees and thickets and groves of the great trichiliocosm, the rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds, the mountains, stones, and fine motes of dust: each item counted as one number; each such number counted as one Ganges; each grain of sand in one Ganges counted as one world; each mote of dust in one world counted as one kalpa; and the number of motes accumulated within one kalpa taken over again, all of it, as so many kalpas.

The time since Kṣitigarbha realized the tenth ground is a thousand times more than that simile.

The way the simile walks is an enlarging layer upon layer: item → number → Ganges → grain of sand → world → mote → kalpa. Each layer takes the “smallest unit” of the layer above and makes it the “one” of the layer below. At the last, even the kalpa is broken down into motes and counted over again.

And when the Buddha has finished this long string he adds one line: how much longer still when Kṣitigarbha was on the grounds of the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha. Which is to say that what has been counted above is only the stretch after he realized the tenth ground.

The sūtra gives no total. What it gives is a way of counting that cannot be finished.

Two Past Lives: One Saw the Marks, One Saw a Mother

For the practice and the vow of the causal ground, the sūtra raises two accounts from the past.

The first: Kṣitigarbha was once the son of a great elder. He saw the marks and excellences of a buddha and the adornment of his thousandfold blessings, and asked that buddha what practice and what vow gained such marks. The buddha answered: if you would realize this body, you must for a long time deliver all beings who undergo suffering. And so he made his vow — throughout kalpas to come beyond all reckoning, for the beings of the six destinies who are guilty and suffering I shall set out every kind of skillful means, and only when they are all liberated shall I myself accomplish the way of a buddha.

The starting point of the vow is a most ordinary state of mind: to see something good and to want it — a mind we recognize as well. The sūtra does not write that he first aroused great compassion; it writes first that he saw the marks and excellences and was moved. What was sought was a buddha’s body, and the answer he got was sentient beings.

The second: the brahmin woman. Her mother believed in wrong teachings and slighted the Three Jewels; she set out every kind of skillful means to exhort her mother to give rise to right view, and her mother, without having come to complete faith, died, and her spirit fell into the Avīci Hell.

Her way of going about it was in three steps: she sold her house and lands, sought out incense and flowers and offering-implements in abundance, and made a great offering at the stūpa-monastery. Then she gazed upon that honored countenance and bowed, and a very human thought arose in her mind — a buddha’s name is Great Awakening, and he is complete in all wisdom; if he were in the world, perhaps I could ask him where my mother is.

The thought — so like one that would arise in us — had barely settled when a voice in the air answered it.

The Sea of Karma

She sat upright and recollected the Buddha for one day and one night, and suddenly she was at the shore of a sea.

The sūtra writes this sea in the most concrete way: the waters surge and boil; the evil beasts are all of them iron-bodied, flying and running above the sea, chasing one another east and west; men and women in the hundreds of thousands of myriads rise and sink in the sea and are seized and devoured in the scramble by the evil beasts; the yakṣas have many hands and many eyes, many feet and many heads, the teeth of their mouths thrusting outward, keen as sword-blades, driving the guilty ones near the beasts, and striking and seizing them themselves besides, wrenching head and foot together.

And then the sūtra writes one line: “At that time the brahmin woman, by the power of her recollection of the Buddha, was naturally without fear.”

She was not moved away, and she was not screened from it. Not one part of the sight was taken off. Only, she was not afraid.

The ghost king Poisonless tells her where this sea comes from: when beings of Jambudvīpa who have done evil have newly died, if after forty-nine days no one has performed meritorious deeds on their behalf, and if in life they had no wholesome causes either, then according to the hell their own karma has called forth, they naturally cross this sea first. A hundred thousand yojanas east of this sea is another sea, where the suffering is twice this; further east is yet another, where it doubles again. What the evil causes of the three kinds of karma have called down is together named the sea of karma.

When she asks after her mother, the ghost king first puts a question back: the bodhisattva’s mother — what deeds did she practise while she lived? The holy woman answers: wrong views; she mocked and slandered the Three Jewels; she believed for a moment and straightway was disrespectful again.

But the answer is this: it is now three days since the guilty woman Yuedili was born into the heavens. The reason: “it is said to be by the gift of a filial child, who made offerings and cultivated blessings for the mother and gave alms to the stūpa-monastery of the Tathāgata Flower of Awakening, King Sovereign in Samādhi” — and not she alone: on that day the guilty ones of the Avīci Hell “all received bliss, and were born away together.”

An offering made by one person who sold her house saved more than her own mother.

Past and Present Joined

Having understood this matter, the holy woman set up a great vow before the stūpa and image: I vow that throughout kalpas to come, for whatever beings there are who are guilty and suffering, I shall set out every kind of skillful means and cause them to be liberated.

At the last the Buddha discloses it: the ghost king Poisonless of that time is the present Bodhisattva Foremost in Riches; the brahmin woman is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.

The introductory section ends here. Looking back at this chapter, what it hands over is more than a scene: a number that cannot be counted, showing how much Kṣitigarbha has done; two past lives, showing why he began to do it; and a sea of karma, showing what sort of place it is that he is going to.

And that one sentence the sūtra left at the very front — that he taught the Dharma for his mother — only here shows its weight. The Buddha goes up to heaven and teaches the Dharma for his mother, and what he teaches is a bodhisattva who made his vow because he saved his mother: the one who speaks and the one spoken of are doing the same thing.

Transmission — A Classic of Filial Piety, and a Tiantai Mirror

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the threefold outline with its self-posed question and answer, the separate heading for “he taught the Dharma for his mother,” the division of the three introductions, the matching of the ten lights to the ten vehicles, and the judgment of pressing down the fruit and raising up the cause.

The Dharma-lineage he signs for himself is written plainly: 「嗣興天台教觀正宗第五世」—“fifth in the line succeeding to the orthodox school of the Tiantai teaching and contemplation.” 〔X21n0383 0639a22〕 The manner of glossing likewise states its own standard: 「準智者大師釋經方軌，先明五重玄義」—“Following the rule of Great Master Zhizhe for glossing sūtras, the fivefold profound meaning is first made clear.” 〔X21n0383 0639c10〕 — name, substance, theme, function, and doctrinal classification: he fills in all five for this sūtra: 「今以不思議人法為名」—“now the inconceivable person and dharma are taken as its name.” 〔X21n0383 0639c15〕, the inconceivable nature-consciousness as its substance, practice and vow as its theme, skillful means as its function, and 「開顯無上醍醐為教相」—“the disclosing of the unsurpassed ghee is taken as its doctrinal classification.” 〔X21n0383 0639c17〕 The books he cites show his house at a glance: the Fahua Xuanyi, the Words and Phrases of the Lotus, the Fuxing, Nanyue, and Siming. Reading this sūtra of original vows with a Tiantai eye is where this mirror comes from.

He also explains why he took up the brush. Since this sūtra was translated in the Tang, 「迨今尚無撰集法門，殊為闕典」—“down to the present no compilation of its Dharma-gate has been made; it is a marked gap among the standard works.” 〔X21n0383 0639a05〕 — in a thousand years no one had glossed it phrase by phrase. He divides the form of the work in two: 「遂綜綸貫而釋題」—“and so the guiding thread is drawn together and the title explained.” 〔X21n0383 0639a12〕, and then the outline and commentary are compiled to resolve the sentences. The first fascicle treats the profound meaning; the six that follow run phrase by phrase.

He often carries this eye into the glossing of the sūtra text as well. On the passage of the sending forth of light, he says first that the Tathāgata’s light flows out of the mind of wisdom, and that a single thought of a person inherently possesses the three thousand natures and marks and the hundred realms and thousand suchnesses, so that the two are “not two and not different.” The sixteen kinds of sound he judges thus: 「此表地藏隨類現身，應機說法」—“This signifies that Kṣitigarbha manifests a body according to kind, and teaches the Dharma as the capacity of the hearer requires.” 〔X21n0384 0658a03〕 — since the situations are not one, the sounds too are many. In glossing the elder’s son he cites the ten virtues of an elder set out in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus 〔X21n0384 0667b01〕, reading a worldly title of address as a set of virtues.

He looks for scriptural witness for the two words “original vow” as well. Glossing the evil world of the five turbidities, he cites the question of the bodhisattva Quiet Mind in the Compassionate Flower Sūtra: why does the World-Honored One dwell in this impure evil world of the five turbidities to realize awakening, rather than taking a pure world? The Buddha answers: 「以本願故，取淨妙國」—“It is by reason of an original vow that a pure and wondrous land is taken.” 〔X21n0384 0655c13〕; and it is likewise by reason of an original vow that an impure land is taken. A bodhisattva accomplishes great compassion, and so takes this corrupt, evil, impure land. He cites the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom too: 「諸佛大悲，徹於骨髓」—“The great compassion of the buddhas penetrates to the very marrow.” 〔X21n0384 0655c16〕 — it does not go by whether a world is fair or foul, but teaches and transforms according to who is to be delivered; as a loving mother loves her child, and though the child has fallen into a privy still labors to pull him out, and does not think it foul.

The pure land and the defiled land are taken by one and the same original vow. This light cast from the side illumines exactly that line of praise at the head of the sūtra — what the buddhas praise is that Śākyamuni is “able, in the evil world of the five turbidities,” to manifest the power of great wisdom and spiritual penetration and to tame beings hard and stubborn.

At the end of the Guiding Thread stands the date 「皇清康熙二十二年」—“the twenty-second year of Kangxi of the Imperial Qing.” 〔X21n0383 0652b02〕; while of the several prefaces placed at the head of the work, two are dated to the fifth year of Jōkyō in Japan, and one records besides that the book was carried from Zhejiang to Nagasaki and printed there. The composition was here, the printed edition there; both facts are set down.

And the sūtra’s own number that cannot be counted is bound to no mirror at all. What is not exhausted in the count even when looked at with the buddha-eye is the beings one bodhisattva has already delivered, is now delivering, and has yet to deliver — and that “yet to deliver” is still open today.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing; before it stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. The chapter before this was judged, whole, to be the introductory section; only from this chapter does the main exposition begin. He cuts the main exposition into four passages: 「初、分身集會一品，明能化主」—“first, the one chapter on the assembly of the divided bodies, making plain the lord who does the transforming.” 〔X21n0384 0675b08〕; 「二、業緣、業感、問獄三品，明所化機」—“second, the three chapters on karmic conditions, on karmic impulsions, and on the questioning about the hells, making plain the capacities that are transformed.” 〔X21n0384 0675b09〕; the three chapters after those make plain the conditions of deliverance; the last two make plain the cause of becoming a buddha. Of the thirteen chapters of the sūtra, only this one writes of that lord who does the transforming.

The Guiding Thread, glossing the title of this chapter, takes the characters apart and gives each back its own sense: 「分者，施也、別也。如海一源，施開萬派。如天一月，影現百川也」—“To divide is to spread out and to set apart. As the sea has one source and spreads out into ten thousand branches; as the sky has one moon and its reflection appears in a hundred rivers.” 〔X21n0383 0646c05〕; 「集者，同也、聚也。如天日將瞑，眾鳥同歸，聚集樹木之上而棲息也」—“To assemble is to come together and to collect. As when the sun in the sky is about to darken and the flocks of birds return together, collecting upon the trees to roost.” 〔X21n0383 0646c06〕; 「會者，總也、合也。周禮云：時見曰會」—“To gather is to bring into a whole and to join. The Rites of Zhou says: to appear at the appointed season is called a gathering.” 〔X21n0383 0646c07〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Dividing and Gathering Are the Two Ends of One Motion

The characters of the chapter title were read of old as one going out and one coming back.

「原其分散則從體起用，從本垂迹；集會則攝用歸體，攝迹會本也」—“Trace it to its origin: the dividing and scattering is the raising of function out of substance, the letting down of traces from the root; the assembling and gathering is the drawing of function back into substance, the drawing of traces back to meet the root.” 〔X21n0383 0646c09〕 To divide outward is to raise function out of substance; to gather back is to draw function into substance — one and the same motion: it is that in the going out, and it is that in the coming back.

The sentence that follows weighs more still: 「方其分散，則一為無量；在今集會，則無量為一」—“Just when they divide and scatter, the one becomes measureless; now at the assembling and gathering, the measureless becomes one.” 〔X21n0383 0646c11〕, and 「一為無量，則一不為一；無量為一，則多不為多」—“If the one becomes measureless, then the one is not a one; if the measureless becomes one, then the many are not a many.” 〔X21n0383 0646c11〕

When one is transformed into measureless, that one is no longer a solitary one; when the measureless is joined back into one, those many are no longer a heap of scattered many.

This line is worth stopping over. In our ordinary counting, one is one and many is many, two separate matters; what is said here is that, having passed through this one dividing and one gathering, neither one nor many keeps the sense it had before.

What this chapter goes on to write is exactly these two ends: at the head, the divided bodies coming to assemble out of the hells of the ten directions; at the end, the divided bodies joining back into one form. The frame of the sūtra has already been stated by its title.

They Did Not Arrive Later

The sūtra opens with 「爾時」 — at that time. Two characters easily slid past; yet the commentator of old stopped on purpose to ask which moment they point to: 「爾時者，正如來含笑放光，光雲出音，天龍鬼神同集之時」—“At that time: precisely the time when the Tathāgata smiled and sent forth light, when the light-clouds gave forth sound, and when the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits gathered together.” 〔X21n0384 0675b18〕

That is to say, the divided-body Kṣitigarbhas saw the light and heard the sound and came at once along with the rest — 「非問答已竟方來也」—“It is not that they came only after the questions and answers were finished.” 〔X21n0384 0675b20〕 They did not wait for the question and answer of the previous chapter to end before setting out. The reason the sūtra writes them in two places, one before and one after, is that speech cannot be uttered all in one breath: one company must be told of first and another after.

Before and after here are the before and after of the telling, not the before and after of the event.

And which of them came? The sūtra writes it with perfect clarity: from every place where there is a hell, the divided bodies of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva all came and gathered in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. Wherever there is a hell, there is one divided body — 「一獄一分身，皆來集會」—“one hell, one divided body; all came and gathered in assembly.” 〔X21n0384 0675c05〕

This one sentence says two things at once. 「此正顯世界難量，愈見地獄之夥」—“This is precisely to display that the worlds are hard to measure, and the more to show how thick the hells lie.” 〔X21n0384 0675c05〕: the worlds cannot be counted, and so the hells cannot be counted either; and 「地獄既多，彌彰分身莫測」—“the hells being many, the more is it made manifest that the divided bodies are past fathoming.” 〔X21n0384 0675c06〕 — as many hells, so many divided bodies.

The number of the divided bodies is not fixed by the bodhisattva. It is fixed by the hells.

Offering Is of Three Kinds, and the Third Need Have Nothing

The divided bodies having arrived, the first thing the sūtra writes them doing is making an offering: together they held incense and flowers and came to make offerings to the Buddha.

Incense and flowers are an offering one can see. Here the commentator of old cites another sūtra and divides offering into three kinds: 「準十輪經：供養有三：一、利益，以四事等；二、敬心，將華表情；三、修行，若有持說，即為供養」—“Following the Daśacakra Sūtra: offering is of three kinds. First, benefit, by the four requisites and the like. Second, a reverent mind, bringing a flower to show what is felt. Third, practice: if there be any who uphold and expound, that of itself is an offering.” 〔X21n0384 0676a04〕

The first is giving a thing: the four requisites of robes, food and drink, bedding, and medicine. The second is giving what is in the mind: a single flower in the hand, showing forth the measure of reverence within. The third is the most singular of all — to uphold and to expound is itself reckoned an offering. The first two cannot be carried out until one has something; the third need have nothing.

After the offering, what the sūtra writes is the eyes: they gazed up at the Tathāgata, their eyes not leaving him for a moment. Gazing and looking up were glossed of old at two ends: 「瞻者，相好，微妙看視無厭」—“To gaze is upon the marks and excellences: subtle and wondrous, one looks and is never sated.” 〔X21n0384 0676b14〕; 「仰者，智慧深遠，景慕有期」—“To look up is upon the wisdom, deep and far: one admires and longs, and holds an expectation.” 〔X21n0384 0676b14〕 What is gazed upon is the visible marks and excellences, and one is never sated with looking; what is looked up to is the invisible wisdom, and an expectation is held in the mind. Four characters, and two things inside them.

One Arm, Stroking Measureless Crowns

The assembly being settled, the sūtra writes the first thing the World-Honored One does: he stretches forth his golden-hued arm and strokes the crowns of the divided bodies.

「如來以一母陀羅臂，一兜羅綿手，遍摩所集無量阿僧祇分身地藏菩薩之頂」—“The Tathāgata, with one Mutuoluo arm and one hand of tūla-cotton, stroked throughout the crowns of the measureless asaṃkhyeyas of divided-body Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattvas there gathered.” 〔X21n0384 0676b23〕 One arm, stroking measureless crowns throughout — 「乃聖如意通中，轉變神力，故一臂能遍摩無量之頂，以慰勞安撫也」—“It is, within the noble penetration of doing as one wills, the spiritual power of transformation; and so one arm can stroke measureless crowns throughout, to console them and to set them at ease.” 〔X21n0384 0676b24〕

The intent of the stroking of the crown here was read of old as consoling and setting at ease.

What is worth noting is the order: the entrustment has not yet been uttered, and what is stroked first is the crown. What this chapter has to hand over further on is a matter of the utmost weight, and before handing it over the sūtra first writes a gesture of reassurance.

The Buddha First Speaks of His Own Difficulty

The stroking of the crowns finished, the Buddha speaks. His first sentence is not an instruction; it is an account of himself.

In the evil world of the five turbidities he teaches and transforms beings hard and stubborn such as these, so that their minds are tamed and they forsake the wrong and return to the right; and in one or two out of ten the evil habits are still there. One or two out of ten with the evil habits still in them — 「此明已調伏者十中有七八矣」—“This makes plain that of those already tamed there are seven or eight in ten.” 〔X21n0384 0676c19〕, while 「其有惡習深重，難於調伏者，十中猶有一二焉」—“those whose evil habits are deep and heavy and who are hard to tame are still one or two in ten.” 〔X21n0384 0676c19〕

And what sort are those one or two? 「習者，習氣。正使雖斷，餘習尚在；身雖調伏，心猶未調伏也」—“Habit means habit-energy. Though the active defilements themselves are cut off, the residual habit is still there; though the body is tamed, the mind is not yet tamed.” 〔X21n0384 0676c21〕 The active defilements are cut off and the habit-energy remains; the body is already tamed and the mind is not.

Here the commentator of old has cited a simile: 「昔無信鉤，致造重罪。如狂象無鉤，不可控制。今以慚愧鉤，鉤無慚心象」—“Formerly there was no hook of faith, and so grave offenses were committed. It is like a maddened elephant without a hook, which cannot be controlled. Now, with the hook of shame and conscience, the elephant of the shameless mind is hooked.” 〔X21n0384 0676c14〕 The maddened elephant is not beaten into submission; it is held by a hook — and that hook is called shame and conscience.

And the Buddha carries the saying further still. Here the commentator of old cites an old matter of the city of Śrāvastī: 「舍衛城中九億家。三億家眼見佛，三億家耳聞有佛，三億家不見不聞」—“In the city of Śrāvastī there were nine koṭis of households. Three koṭis of households saw the Buddha with their eyes; three koṭis of households heard with their ears that there was a Buddha; three koṭis of households neither saw nor heard.” 〔X21n0384 0677b17〕 — 「佛在舍衛二十五年，而此眾生不聞不見，何況遠者」—“The Buddha was in Śrāvastī twenty-five years, and these beings neither heard nor saw; how much more those who were far off.” 〔X21n0384 0677b18〕

In a city where the Buddha lived twenty-five years, a third of the households never once saw him in their lives, nor ever heard that there was such a person.

This passage is set before the entrustment, and its intent is plain: 「我佛化門調機尚爾，則知地藏分身非易」—“If in our Buddha’s own gate of transforming the taming of capacities is even so, then one knows that Kṣitigarbha’s dividing of his body is no easy thing.” 〔X21n0384 0677b20〕, 「故特以己形擊，彌顯其神力之難思也」—“and therefore he sets himself alongside on purpose, showing the more that his spiritual power is past thinking.” 〔X21n0384 0677b21〕 The Buddha sets himself alongside for contrast — not out of modesty, but so that one may see clearly how hard the entrusted thing is.

Before entrusting a thing, first make plain how hard the thing is. That is the form of this passage.

Four Kinds of People

Then the Buddha counts four kinds of people: some are of keen faculties and believe and accept as soon as they hear; some have wholesome fruits and are brought to accomplishment by earnest exhortation; some are dull and dim and turn back only after long transforming; some are heavy with karma and give rise to no reverence.

Where do the keen and the dull come from? 「根是根性，屬於過去。今世根性利鈍，總由宿障重輕」—“Faculty means the nature of the faculties, and it belongs to the past. Whether the faculties of this present life are keen or dull is wholly a matter of whether the obstructions of former lives are heavy or light.” 〔X21n0384 0677a18〕 The keenness or dullness of this life is what the stretch of road already walked has left behind; it is not a matter of higher and lower at this moment.

The reading handed down pairs the first two: 「利根是法行機，鈍根是信行機」—“Keen faculties are the capacity of one who practices by the Dharma; dull faculties are the capacity of one who practices by faith.” 〔X21n0384 0677b06〕 — the one hears and goes off to cultivate on his own; the other must be exhorted before he is brought to accomplishment. And as for the wholesome fruit of the second kind, 「善根的指菩提心」—“the wholesome root points precisely to the mind set on awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0677b11〕

What matters is the fourth. Some are heavy with karma and give rise to no reverence — those whose karmic obstruction is heavy raise no reverence even on seeing a buddha. The sūtra does not strike this kind off, nor move him elsewhere to be spoken of apart; the four stand side by side and fall alike into the next sentence: beings of these several sorts, each of them different, and the body divided to deliver them.

The fourth kind is not an excluded exception; it is the fourth direction in which the divided body has to go.

What Body to Manifest

And so comes the longest string in this chapter: the body of a man, of a woman, of a deva or nāga, of a spirit or ghost; mountain, forest, stream, plain, river, pool, spring, well; the body of a lord of the devas, of a Brahmā king, of a wheel-turning king, of a householder, of a king of a country, of a chief minister, of an official; bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī, upāsaka, upāsikā; and on to the bodies of śrāvaka, arhat, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva.

There is a dividing line within this string. The commentator of old sets it just before the bhikṣu: 「已上皆未受道者。此下皆受道之機」—“All above are those who have not received the Way. All below are capacities that have received the Way.” 〔X21n0384 0678b03〕 The first half are those not yet entered upon the Way — even the king of a country and the chief minister stand on that side; only the second half are already upon it. The bodies to be manifested are for the most part manifested outside the door.

And the eight in the middle are the most singular: mountain, forest, stream, plain, river, pool, spring, well. These are not people, nor devas, nāgas, ghosts, or spirits; they are mountains and waters. Read of old: 「此現依報度人」—“This is manifesting the recompense that is one’s environment, in order to deliver people.” 〔X21n0384 0678a07〕 — what is manifested is no one’s body but a stretch of ground. The sūtra then gives the reason itself: whatever brings benefit to people, all of it is used to deliver them. Whatever is of use to people counts.

A well counts too.

How does this string come to be manifested? 「今所以分身者，正顯如來從法垂應，被大小機，現勝劣身」—“The reason the body is now divided is precisely to display that the Tathāgata lets down his response out of the Dharma, covering capacities great and small, and manifesting bodies superior and inferior.” 〔X21n0384 0677a07〕, and 「從一派出，有無量身，攝用歸體，不離一性」—“branching out from one, there are measureless bodies; and drawing function back into substance, they never leave the one nature.” 〔X21n0384 0677a08〕 The bodies manifested are superior and inferior, yet the source is only one, and they have never left that one.

The commentator of old looks at the matter in three wheels: 「此是身輪現通」—“This is the wheel of the body manifesting its penetration.” 〔X21n0384 0677a13〕, which is the manifesting side; 「廣設方便。即是意輪鑒機」—“Setting out every kind of skillful means: that is the wheel of the mind discerning the capacity.” 〔X21n0384 0677a14〕, which is the side that sees clearly who stands opposite; 「乃以口輪說種種法，令熟者脫，未熟者熟，未種者種」—“and then, by the wheel of the mouth, he teaches every kind of Dharma, so that the ripe are liberated, the unripe are ripened, and those in whom nothing is sown have the seed sown.” 〔X21n0384 0677a15〕, which is the side that opens the mouth and teaches. The ripe are delivered; the unripe are brought to ripeness; and where not even a seed is there, a seed is sown first.

Manifesting a body is no conjuring trick; it is 「以王三昧力，不動法性，而往應之」—“by the power of the king of samādhis, without stirring the dharma-nature, to go and respond to them.” 〔X21n0384 0677c18〕 — not one part of the dharma-nature has stirred, and he has already gone.

The last sentence of this string the sūtra gathers up with great weight: it is not that the buddha-body alone appears before them. Read of old: 「非但佛身句，反顯不一，謂豈止佛身獨現眾機之前」—“The sentence on the buddha-body alone displays by contrary that it is not one only: how should it be the buddha-body alone that appears before the many capacities?” 〔X21n0384 0678b11〕; rather, 「隨其所感，普現色身」—“according to what each stirs, bodily form is manifested everywhere.” 〔X21n0384 0678b12〕

Whatever beings stir, that is what is manifested. There is not only one countenance that can save people.

One Who Knows He Is Paying a Debt

Before the entrustment the sūtra writes one sentence that looks back: behold my toil and hardship through accumulated kalpas, delivering beings such as these, hard to transform, hard and stubborn, guilty and suffering.

The two characters for guilt and suffering were read of old at two levels: 「杖楚寒熱等名身苦，餘殘名心苦」—“Beating with the rod, cold and heat, and the like are named suffering of the body; all the rest is named suffering of the mind.” 〔X21n0384 0678c07〕 — being beaten, being frozen, being scorched, and that sort are suffering in the body; everything else counts as suffering in the mind.

As to why that second level is there at all, the commentator gives a simile: 「如人知負他債，償之不以為苦」—“It is like a man who knows he owes another a debt: in repaying it he does not take it for suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0678c11〕; 「凡夫人不憶負債，故身心俱受現苦」—“the ordinary man does not remember that he owes a debt, and so he undergoes present suffering in body and mind alike.” 〔X21n0384 0678c11〕

One who knows he owes a debt does not feel it as suffering when he repays — he knows that this is repayment. One who does not remember ever owing must repay the same money, and yet his suffering has one layer more.

The simile does not say that the suffering is unreal; it says where that extra layer comes from.

That One Sentence of Entrustment in the Palace of Heaven

The words of the entrustment are written by the sūtra in a most singular way.

They are not “go and deliver them,” but: you should remember that I, in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, earnestly entrusted this to you. The first thing entrusted is to remember having been entrusted.

The term of the entrustment is written out as well: to bring it about that the beings of the Sahā world, from now until Maitreya comes forth into the world, are all brought to liberation, forever parted from every suffering, and meet a buddha who confers on them the prediction. The two characters for conferring the prediction were glossed of old: 「梵語和伽那，此云授記。聖言說與名授，果與心期曰記」—“In Sanskrit vyākaraṇa; here it means the conferring of the prediction. That the holy word is spoken and given is called conferring; that the fruit answers to what the mind expects is called the prediction.” 〔X21n0384 0679a15〕 — the Buddha opens his mouth and speaks it to him: that is the conferring; the fruit answering to what he holds in expectation: that is the prediction.

From Śākyamuni to Maitreya, that stretch of time between, when there is no buddha, the sūtra hands over to a bodhisattva. And the manner of handing it over is to ask him, at the very moment when the other is undergoing great suffering, to remember this day.

Numberless Bodies, Joined Back into One

In the passage of receiving the charge, the sūtra first writes a gesture: the divided bodies of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva from all the worlds joined again into one form.

Numberless bodies become one. 「合分身為一形者，一為諸身之本。故合末以宗本」—“That the divided bodies are joined into one form is because the one is the root of all the bodies; and so the branches are joined so as to honor the root.” 〔X21n0384 0679a23〕

Here the commentator of old first cites a saying that runs the other way — the words of Śāriputra recorded in the Āgama: 「變一身為無數身，以無數身合為一身，稱是神力者，卑陋下劣凡夫所行，非是賢聖之所修習」—“To transform one body into numberless bodies, and to join numberless bodies into one body, and to call this spiritual power: that is what mean and lowly ordinary men do; it is not what the worthy and the noble cultivate.” 〔X21n0384 0679b05〕; the true spiritual base of the worthy and the noble is another matter — 「於諸世間，愛色不愛色，二俱捨已，修平等護，專念不忘，斯乃名曰賢聖神足」—“Toward all in the world, the forms one loves and the forms one does not love, having let both go, to cultivate an even guarding, mindful in one direction and not forgetting: this is what is named the spiritual base of the worthy and the noble.” 〔X21n0384 0679b07〕 If the dividing and joining of bodies is taken as spiritual power only, not even the Lesser Vehicle allows it.

Only after citing this passage does the commentator say: 「小乘尚爾，況大菩薩乎」—“If it is so even for the Lesser Vehicle, how much more for a great bodhisattva.” 〔X21n0384 0679b08〕

Then one line is given to gather it up: 「一月影臨一切水，一切水月一月攝。正分身合身之旨」—“The reflection of one moon comes down upon all waters, and the moons in all waters are taken in by that one moon. This is precisely the purport of dividing the body and joining the body.” 〔X21n0384 0679b09〕

One moon shines upon all waters, and the moons in all the waters are all gathered back into that one moon. The dividing is not the moon broken to pieces, and the joining is not one moon more than there was.

And after the joining back into one form, the next thing the sūtra writes is weeping: tears in grief and longing. Four senses were read out of it of old: 「涕淚哀戀有四意：一悲六道造業不悛，二悲眾生剛強難化，三悲如來慧日將沉，四悲天宮付囑事大」—“Weeping tears in grief and longing has four senses: first, grief that in the six destinies karma is made and not amended; second, grief that beings are hard and stubborn and hard to transform; third, grief that the Tathāgata’s sun of wisdom is about to set; fourth, grief that the matter entrusted in the palace of heaven is great.” 〔X21n0384 0679b10〕 Beings will not amend; beings are hard to transform; the Buddha is about to go; the charge is too heavy — four things bearing down at once.

The Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra, a sūtra of the same honored one but of different text, writes the sense of this bodhisattva’s name with another set of characters: 「安忍不動猶如大地，靜慮深密猶如祕藏」—“Patient and unmoving as the great earth; still in contemplation and deeply hidden as a secret store.” 〔T13n0411 0722a08〕 The commentator of old cites this very line in the section on the joining of the bodies, and at once sets it back upon this bodhisattva: 「忍斯濁穢，化度泥犁，其猶地乎」—“To bear this turbid filth, and to transform and deliver in the niraya: is that not earth?” 〔X21n0384 0679a22〕 — to bear this stretch of turbid filth and to go down into the niraya to deliver people: is that not earth?

What makes earth earth is not its thickness but that it can bear what presses upon it. And what this sūtra writes at this moment is tears. Both are set down; neither is judged above the other.

Returning, and Revering

In his own account he first states where those he delivers come to rest: causing them to take refuge in and revere the Three Jewels, to be forever parted from birth-and-death, and to reach the bliss of nirvāṇa.

Returning and revering were glossed apart of old: 「歸以返還為義，令其返邪歸正；敬以專誠為義，令其去妄歸真」—“Returning has turning back for its sense: it makes them turn back from the wrong and return to the right. Revering has undivided sincerity for its sense: it makes them put away the false and return to the true.” 〔X21n0384 0679c11〕 — returning is turning one’s head and coming back; revering is one mind unmixed. As to why the Three Jewels are worth returning to, the commentator sets down four figures: 「三寶乃却惡之前陣，入道之初章，越苦海之舟航，到涅槃之要道」—“The Three Jewels are the front rank that repels evil, the first chapter of entering the Way, the ship that crosses the sea of suffering, the main road that reaches nirvāṇa.” 〔X21n0384 0679c12〕

The front rank that holds off evil, the first chapter of entering the Way, the boat that crosses the sea of suffering, the main road to nirvāṇa. To deliver a person is not to carry him off somewhere else; it is to have him turn his head and walk back.

One Hair, One Drop

Within his own account, what matters most is the last passage.

What came before was large figures: bodies filling a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of worlds numerous as the sands of the Ganges; in every world a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of bodies; every body delivering a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of people. But then the sūtra itself turns the figure down to the smallest: only let there be, within the Buddha’s Dharma, a good deed done — one hair, one drop, one grain of sand, one mote of dust, or so much as a hair’s breadth — and I will deliver such a one by degrees and cause him to gain great benefit.

The commentator of old weighed the words one by one: 「一毛甚輕，一渧極少，一沙甚微，一塵極小」—“One hair is very light; one drop is exceedingly little; one grain of sand is very slight; one mote of dust is exceedingly small.” 〔X21n0384 0679c19〕 These four do not describe muchness; they describe a littleness that all but fails to count.

And the sūtra says that such good too is delivered. The reading handed down joins it to another sūtra: 「此正會人天之小善，歸廣大之一乘」—“This is precisely to gather the small good of humans and gods and return it to the vast One Vehicle.” 〔X21n0384 0679c23〕 — 「即同法華徧開六道，低頭舉手，彈指散華，本是人天之福，今開即是緣因佛種」—“It is the same as the Lotus opening out the six destinies throughout: bowing the head, raising a hand, snapping the fingers, scattering flowers, were originally the blessings of humans and gods; opened out now, they are the conditioning cause, the seed of buddhahood.” 〔X21n0384 0679c23〕 The wording of that sūtra itself is 「乃至舉一手，或復小低頭」—“even to raise one hand, or to bow the head a little.” 〔T09n0262 0009a20〕

To raise a hand, to bow the head — gestures anyone can make. Such a gesture counted at first only as the blessing of humans and gods; opened out, it is a seed of buddhahood.

That string of astronomical figures comes down here. If delivering a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of people is the capacity, then one hair and one drop is the standard of measure — and only with the standard set as low as that does the astronomical figure hold.

Three Times, and the Last Sentence

Then comes the most famous sentence of this chapter: I pray only that the World-Honored One will not be anxious over the beings of later ages who do evil karma.

It is said three times.

What gives him the courage to say it? The commentator of old answers straight: 「慰勿慮者，明己能任事也」—“To console him and say that he need not be anxious is to make plain that he himself can take the task on.” 〔X21n0384 0680a05〕 — it is taking a thing on, not offering comfort. And the ground of that taking-on lies in one fact: 「即一闡提人，亦不斷性善」—“Even in an icchantika, the good that belongs to the nature is not cut off.” 〔X21n0384 0680a06〕 In one whose wholesome roots are cut, the good within the nature has not been cut along with them; 「儻遇法緣，善根復發，一善若起，萬惡全消」—“should he meet with a Dharma-condition, the wholesome roots put forth again; and if one good arises, ten thousand evils are wholly dissolved.” 〔X21n0384 0680a06〕

A single spark can burn off a whole field of firewood. And so those one or two in whom the evil habits are still there are not people beyond hope.

The Buddha’s answer is two cries of Excellent. Read of old: 「雙讚善哉者，一以能體佛心，敬承嚴命；二以分身利物，毫福不遺」—“The twofold praise of Excellent is, first, that he can embody the Buddha’s mind and reverently receive the strict charge; second, that he divides his body to benefit beings and lets not a hair’s worth of blessing be lost.” 〔X21n0384 0680a20〕 — the first praises him for understanding the Buddha’s mind, the second for letting not even a hair’s worth of blessing slip.

And the last sentence of the chapter is: you are able to bring to accomplishment the great vow you set up in kalpas long past; and the wide deliverance nearly done, you will straightway realize bodhi.

The commentator of old did not read this sentence as a timetable. He judges 「廣度兩言，我佛縱許之辭，亦自知其時耳」—“The two words on wide deliverance are our Buddha’s way of granting him leave; and he knows the time of it himself.” 〔X21n0384 0680a22〕, and puts a question back: 「是則地藏久矣證大菩提，何待廣度將畢耶」—“If so, Kṣitigarbha realized great bodhi long ago: why wait until the wide deliverance is nearly done?” 〔X21n0384 0680a24〕

Bodhi was realized long ago; there is no need to wait until the delivering is finished.

The sūtra does not answer this question again. It only leaves the two characters 「將畢」 — nearly done — standing where they are: this chapter begins from the divided bodies out of the hells of the ten directions, writes on to the divided bodies joined into one form, and comes to rest at the last upon a word not yet finished.

That 「畢」, done, has not arrived even today.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and Two Mirrors That May Be Read Alongside

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle and the Outline in one fascicle placed before it. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment of the four passages of the main exposition, the gloss on the characters of the chapter title, the fixing of the moment of “at that time,” one hell and one divided body, one arm stroking throughout, the three wheels, delivering people by the recompense that is one’s environment, one moon and all waters, the four senses of the tears, and the words of granting leave. The Dharma-lineage he signs for himself is 「嗣興天台教觀正宗第五世」—“fifth in the line succeeding to the orthodox school of the Tiantai teaching and contemplation.” 〔X21n0383 0639a22〕, and the books he cites show his house at a glance: the Great Calming and Contemplation, the Fuxing, the Lotus, the Great Treatise, the Compassionate Flower Sūtra, the Sūtra of Dwelling in the Womb, the Sūtra of Brahmā’s Stirring, the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, the Sūtra of Contemplating the Mind-Ground, the Sūtra of the Five Mothers and Their Son, and the Dīrgha Āgama.

In glossing this chapter he has two side-branches worth setting down.

The first: in glossing unsurpassed perfect awakening he cites the words of another ancient worthy: 「孤山曰：極果超因云無上，正則正觀中道，等則雙照二邊」—“Gushan says: that the ultimate fruit surpasses the cause is called unsurpassed; right means rightly contemplating the middle way; equal means illumining both extremes at once.” 〔X21n0384 0676a12〕 This is the second named voice within this chapter, and its words are to be returned to their own man, not assigned outright to the compiler.

The second: in glossing the divided bodies he turns all at once to a matter recorded in a gazetteer: 「唐至德間，有新羅國僧，曰金地藏者，渡海而來」—“In the Zhide era of the Tang there was a monk of the country of Silla called Jin Dizang, who crossed the sea and came.” 〔X21n0384 0675c09〕 — who settled at Mount Jiuhua, and at ninety-nine years passed away seated within a casket, and when it was opened three years later his color was as of one alive — and he judges 「亦分身之一也」—“this too is one of the divided bodies.” 〔X21n0384 0675c13〕 A work of commentary upon a sūtra, having come this far, points all at once to a mountain one can see. The matter is recorded; it is not adjudicated.

There are two further mirrors that may be read alongside, set side by side with no weighing of high and low.

The first is the Sūtra of the Lotus of the Wondrous Dharma. In its chapter on the appearance of the jeweled stūpa, Śākyamuni too summons his divided bodies: 「我分身諸佛——在於十方世界說法者，今應當集」—“The buddhas of my divided bodies, who are teaching the Dharma in the worlds of the ten directions, should now be gathered.” 〔T09n0262 0032c26〕; and once they were gathered, 「於釋迦牟尼佛一方所分之身猶故未盡」—“the bodies divided from Buddha Śākyamuni in one quarter alone were still not exhausted.” 〔T09n0262 0033a19〕 There what is gathered are divided-body buddhas; here what is gathered are divided-body bodhisattvas. There the divided bodies come from teaching the Dharma in the worlds of the ten directions; here they come from the hells of the ten directions. The same frame of divided bodies gathering together, and each comes down in a different place. Both are set down; no weighing of high and low is made.

The second is the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra. That sūtra writes this bodhisattva’s first coming to the Buddha’s place thus: 「以神通力，現聲聞像，從南方來，至佛前住」—“By his spiritual power he manifested the image of a śrāvaka, came from the south, and stood before the Buddha.” 〔T13n0411 0722b04〕 — what he manifests is the image of a śrāvaka. And in writing the breadth of his manifested bodies, that sūtra runs its list down to the last slot: 「或作剡魔王身、或作地獄卒身、或作地獄諸有情身」—“sometimes he becomes the body of King Yama, sometimes the body of a hell-warden, sometimes the body of the sentient beings in the hells.” 〔T13n0411 0726a02〕, 「現作如是等，無量、無數異類之身，為諸有情如應說法，隨其所應，安置三乘不退轉位」—“He manifests bodies of such kinds as these, measureless and numberless and of differing sorts, teaches the Dharma to sentient beings as fits them, and according to what fits each, settles them in the irreversible station of the three vehicles.” 〔T13n0411 0726a03〕 The long string of manifested bodies in this chapter stops at the body of a bodhisattva; the string in that sūtra manifests all the way down to the hell-wardens and to those undergoing suffering within the hells. A sūtra of the same honored one but of different text: set side by side for parallel reading, with no collation of wording.

And the sūtra’s own number is bound to no mirror at all. As many hells, so many divided bodies — and that number is counted from the other end, by the hells.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. Fascicle two of his outline and commentary opens with this very chapter, and at the head of it he sets up the frame of everything that follows the introductory section: from here on comes 「大章第二，明所化機」—“the second great chapter, making plain the capacities that are transformed.” 〔X21n0384 0680b09〕 — that is, who it is that is to be delivered. He draws the range narrowly: 「通論則六道，別明惟三塗，的指在地獄」—“Spoken of in general it is the six destinies; made plain in particular it is only the three evil paths; and pointed to precisely, it lies in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0680b09〕 He then makes the three chapters into one set: 「初、示業緣差別；二、示業感差別；三、示業報差別」—“first, showing the differences of karmic conditions; second, showing the differences of karmic impulsions; third, showing the differences of karmic requital.” 〔X21n0384 0680b11〕, and judges the three passages 「如次對惑業苦三道，為所化之機也」—“to answer in order to the three paths of delusion, karma, and suffering, as the capacities to be transformed.” 〔X21n0384 0680b12〕 This chapter is the first passage, and what it speaks of is the condition of karma. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

An Answer That Does Not Follow the Question

The one who asks has changed. In the two chapters before, it was Mañjuśrī and the World-Honored One who asked; in this chapter the one who opens her mouth is the Buddha’s mother. Her question is quite concrete: 「閻浮眾生，造業差別，所受報應，其事云何？」—“The beings of Jambudvīpa make karma each differently; and as for the requital they undergo — how does that matter stand?” 〔T13n0412 0779c16〕

Yet Kṣitigarbha’s first sentence in answer does not fall upon Jambudvīpa. He says that in a thousand myriad worlds and on to the lands, some have hells and some have no hells, some have women and some have no women, some have the Buddha’s Dharma and some have no Buddha’s Dharma, and that with śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas it is likewise unfixed whether they are there or not; and only at the end does he gather it up in one line: 「非但地獄，罪報一等。」—“It is not the hells alone: the requital of guilt too is not of one grade.” 〔T13n0412 0779c20〕

The reading handed down stops here and puts a question to itself: the exchange of host and guest ought to strike and answer as anvil and mallet do — 「夫主賓酬唱，如砧磓相扣」—“Now in the singing back and forth of host and guest, it is as anvil and mallet striking one upon the other.” 〔X21n0384 0680c08〕 — so how is it that the answer here does not match? The answer is that the question itself is too narrow — 「此因聖母問詞，意不相到」—“This is because in the holy mother’s wording of the question the sense does not reach so far.” 〔X21n0384 0680c08〕: the worlds are without bound, the lands are measureless, beings are inexhaustible, and the fruits of karma have no shore, while what is asked about is only the one continent of Jambudvīpa. And so he answers first with a thousand myriad worlds.

Within that passage the line about some having the Buddha’s Dharma and some having none is the easiest to slide past. Here the commentator of old cites a question and answer from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「何以貴有佛世界，賤無佛國」—“Why hold dear a world that has a buddha and hold cheap a land that has none?” 〔T25n1509 0285a09〕 The treatise answers without hedging: 「佛是莊嚴十方世界主」—“The Buddha is the lord who adorns the worlds of the ten directions.” 〔T25n1509 0285a10〕; 「若一切諸佛不出世者，則無三乘涅槃之道」—“If none of the buddhas came forth into the world, there would be no way of nirvāṇa by the three vehicles.” 〔T25n1509 0285a13〕

Asked about karmic requital, he answers first about worlds. Before setting his hand to the hells, the sūtra first puts the hells back into their place: the hells are not the ground color of every world; they are one place within a certain kind of world. The commentator of old brings the line down to actual cases — 「有地獄如娑婆等，無地獄如極樂等」—“Those that have hells are such as the Sahā world; those that have no hells are such as the Land of Utmost Bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0680c11〕 The Jambudvīpa the sūtra goes on to speak of is precisely the kind we are in.

The Mother Narrows the Question

The mother is not turned back by that sentence. She asks once more, and narrows the range herself: 「且願聞於閻浮罪報，所感惡趣。」—“I pray only to hear of the requital of guilt in Jambudvīpa, and of the evil destinies it calls forth.” 〔T13n0412 0779c21〕

Only then does Kṣitigarbha consent, and in the words of consent he first declares the form he will use: 「聖母！唯願聽受，我麁說之。」—“Holy mother! I pray only that you will hear and receive it; I shall speak of it coarsely.” 〔T13n0412 0779c22〕

Speaking coarsely is not a courtesy. The reading handed down gives two levels of reason: 「麤說有二」—“Coarse speaking has two senses.” 〔X21n0384 0681a11〕 — the first is 「獄名叢雜，苦事絲棼，若欲廣明，一劫不盡」—“The names of the hells are a thicket and their matters of suffering a tangle of silk; if one would make them plain at length, a kalpa would not exhaust them.” 〔X21n0384 0681a11〕; the second has to do with the register of speech: 「說空無相等名柔輭語，說地獄等名麤語」—“To speak of emptiness and signlessness and the like is called soft speech; to speak of the hells and the like is called coarse speech.” 〔X21n0384 0681a12〕

Both levels of reason are borne out at the end of this chapter. The closing passage of the sūtra says just this: if one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt in the hells and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end. At the head he says he will speak coarsely; at the close he says a full telling cannot be finished. The whole stretch between is set between two statements he makes about himself.

Five Kinds of Guilt, One Place They Come Down

What follows is five passages. Every one of them is written in exactly the same way: first the guilt committed is raised, then the place of falling. 「初舉所作罪當墮，下示所感報」—“First he raises the guilt committed and the falling that must follow; below he shows the requital called forth.” 〔X21n0384 0681a21〕 — and all five passages follow this pattern.

The closing line of the five passages is one and the same: through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out. The line above it runs, in four of the passages, that they shall fall into the Avīci Hell; only the second passage has two characters more, that they shall also fall into the Avīci Hell. Apart from that, the five passages do not alter a single character.

First in the order stands unfiliality. The commentator of old says that the order is itself a judgment: 「首舉不孝父母，見罪之極大極重」—“That he raises unfiliality toward father and mother at the head shows that the guilt is of the utmost greatness and the utmost weight.” 〔X21n0384 0681a21〕, since father and mother are as heaven and earth. Here he cites the four kinds of kindness hard to requite spoken of in the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma: 「有四種恩甚為難報：一母、二父、三如來、四說法師」—“There are four kinds of kindness exceedingly hard to requite: first the mother, second the father, third the Tathāgata, fourth the master who teaches the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0681b03〕 — those who gave the body and those who transmit the Dharma stand side by side, and those who gave the body stand first.

The second passage is drawing blood from the Buddha’s body, slandering the Three Jewels, and not revering the honored scriptures. Taken together, the first and second passages answer exactly to those four kindnesses: father and mother first, the Tathāgata and the master who teaches the Dharma after.

Three Passages All Turn on One Thing

The third, fourth, and fifth passages look like three different matters: encroaching on the Permanent Property and defiling monks and nuns; falsely acting the śramaṇa and breaking up and using the Permanent Property; stealing the goods of the Permanent Property. The three unfold separately, and yet the center of all three is one and the same word.

The Permanent Property is what the saṃgha of the four quarters holds in common. The commentator of old first fixes the name: 「常住者，梵語僧祇。此云四方僧物」—“As for the Permanently Abiding: in Sanskrit saṃghika; here it means the property of the saṃgha of the four quarters.” 〔X21n0384 0681c17〕

Fixing the name is not enough. The commentator then divides it, following the Vinaya Digest, into four kinds: 「律鈔明四種常住」—“The Vinaya Digest makes plain four kinds of permanent property.” 〔X21n0384 0681c17〕 — the first is permanent-permanent, that is, the temple buildings, trees, fields and gardens, servants and beasts of the saṃgha, of which 「體局當處，不通餘界，但得受用，不通分賣」—“the substance is confined to that place and does not pass to other precincts; it may be used but may not be divided and sold.” 〔X21n0384 0681c18〕; the second is permanent of the ten directions, that is, the standing food offered to the saṃgha, whose substance is common to the ten directions while its place is only the house it stands in — 「此二名僧祇物」—“these two are named the property of the saṃgha.” 〔X21n0384 0681c19〕 The third is present-present, of which 「得施之物，唯施此處現前僧」—“what is received in gift is given only to the saṃgha present in this place.” 〔X21n0384 0681c20〕; the fourth is present of the ten directions, that is, the goods left by a monk who has died, as they belong before and after the formal act — 「此二名現前僧物」—“these two are named the property of the saṃgha present.” 〔X21n0384 0681c21〕

It is divided so finely because each kind belongs differently: some are confined in substance to their own place and belong to this one temple; some are common in substance to the ten directions and belong to the saṃgha everywhere. Once a thing belongs to the ten directions, whoever lays a hand on it is not facing one temple.

The three passages differ in the manner of laying hands on it: the third is encroaching and damaging; the fourth is being within the saṃgha and yet breaking it up and using it; the fifth is taking by stealth. The fifth lets not even the taking of one thing go — what the sūtra itself writes is: on to any who take one single thing that is not given.

Why should the taking of one thing stand beside killing father and mother and drawing blood from the Buddha’s body? Here the commentator raises a reckoning one might not have thought of: 「隨盜一物，即望十方凡聖；隨境無邊，還結無邊等罪」—“With each single thing stolen, one stands over against the ordinary and the holy of the ten directions; and as the objects are without bound, so the guilt contracted is likewise without bound.” 〔X21n0384 0682b22〕 What is stolen is limited, and what it stands over against is the ten directions; and since the object is boundless, the guilt contracted is boundless too.

The fourth passage has one further level. The sūtra says of the one who falsely acts the śramaṇa that in mind he is no śramaṇa — outwardly he is, inwardly he is not. The commentator of old divides the śramaṇa into four, following the Yogācārabhūmi: 「一、勝道沙門，二、說道沙門，三、活道沙門，四、壞道沙門」—“first, the śramaṇa of the surpassing path; second, the śramaṇa who speaks the path; third, the śramaṇa who lives by the path; fourth, the śramaṇa who ruins the path.” 〔T30n1579 0446c08〕, and 「諸行邪行者，名壞道沙門」—“those who practice wrong practices are named śramaṇas who ruin the path.” 〔T30n1579 0446c12〕 He judges that what this passage speaks of is the last of the four, and glosses the word “falsely” thus: 「外現修行之狀，內藏瑕穢之情，即污道也」—“Outwardly he displays the appearance of cultivation, and inwardly he harbors a flawed and filthy disposition: this is defiling the path.” 〔X21n0384 0682a22〕

The five passages told, the sūtra gathers them up in one sentence of its own: 「若有眾生，作如是罪，當墮五無間地獄，求暫停苦，一念不得。」—“If there be beings who commit guilt such as this, they shall fall into the fivefold Avīci Hell, and though they seek that the suffering stop for a while, they shall not get so much as the space of a single thought.” 〔T13n0412 0780a07〕

These Five Are Not the Five Usually Spoken Of

The three characters for the fivefold Avīci point to something else elsewhere in the canon. The Abhidharmakośa says it plainly: 「言無間業者，謂五無間業」—“Speaking of the deeds of immediate retribution: these are the five deeds of immediate retribution.” 〔T29n1558 0092b27〕, and the five are 「一者害母、二者害父、三者害阿羅漢、四者破和合僧、五者惡心出佛身血」—“first, killing one’s mother; second, killing one’s father; third, killing an arhat; fourth, breaking a harmonious saṃgha; fifth, with evil mind drawing blood from the Buddha’s body.” 〔T29n1558 0092b28〕; and what the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra lists has the same bones: 「有五無間大罪惡業。何等為五？」—“There are five great deeds of guilt and evil bringing immediate retribution. What are the five?” 〔T13n0411 0737a17〕 — deliberately killing one’s father, deliberately killing one’s mother, deliberately killing an arhat, breaking the śrāvaka saṃgha through inverted views, and with evil mind drawing blood from the Buddha’s body.

Set the two lists side by side and only two items overlap: killing father and mother, and drawing blood from the Buddha’s body. The other three passages of this sūtra — encroaching on the Permanent Property, breaking it up and using it, stealing it — are nowhere to be found on that list.

The commentator of old did not re-read the five passages of this sūtra as those five deeds. He judges this passage thus: 「上來五種業，總是十惡上品」—“The five kinds of karma above are, taken together, the highest grade of the ten evils.” 〔X21n0384 0682c10〕; and as for how the two lists are to be joined, he cites another text of the Daśacakra as a bridge: besides the five deeds of rebellion there are four further grave offenses, equal to the four rebellions in violating a root offense, the first of which is 「若人捨財與佛、法、僧，主掌此物而輒用之，是名為盜犯根本罪」—“If a man gives wealth to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha, and one who has charge of that property uses it at his own will, this is named theft, a violation of a root offense.” 〔T13n0410 0694c06〕 To have charge of wealth given to the Three Jewels and to take and use it at will — this item falls exactly upon the fourth and fifth passages of this sūtra.

The two lists are set side by side here; the sūtra says what it says and the treatise what it says, and there is no need to force them into one. What the sūtra opens is five entrances; what the treatise counts is five kinds of deed. The entrances differ while the place arrived at is the same — and that much the sūtra says for itself.

And when the commentator of old has finished glossing these five kinds of guilt, he does not let the matter rest at the place of falling. Here he cites the Buddha’s own words as recorded in the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「我世世曾作小虫、惡人，漸漸集諸善本，得大智慧」—“Life after life I have been a small worm and an evil man, and gathering the roots of good little by little I gained great wisdom.” 〔T25n1509 0112c15〕; and now he has brought himself to buddhahood, his spiritual power measureless, highest and greatest — 「一切眾生亦可得爾，云何空受勤苦而墮小處」—“All beings too can come to this; why then undergo toil and hardship for nothing and fall into so small a place?” 〔T25n1509 0112c17〕

The Buddha says that he too was once a small worm, and once an evil man, and that it was gathered little by little. Since that road can be walked, all beings can walk it; and why undergo all this toil for nothing and come down in a place so small?

The passage of the five kinds of guilt closes upon that question. The sūtra counts five entrances; and when the entrances have been counted, what the reading handed down offers is not a threat but a “why bother.”

A City, a Wall, and a Bed

What the mother asks next is not about the suffering but about the name: 「云何名為無間地獄？」—“Why is it named the Uninterrupted Hell?” 〔T13n0412 0780a09〕

The answer begins from the outer ring: all the hells there are lie within the Great Iron Ring Mountains. The two characters rendered “all there are” look like a loose designation, yet the commentator of old reads them as a fixed number: 「然的指二十五有，因果不忘也」—“Yet what is pointed to precisely is the twenty-five existences, and that cause and effect are not forgotten.” 〔X21n0384 0683a02〕, and he sets out the verse for them: 「四洲四惡趣，六欲并梵天，四禪四空處，無想五那含」—“The four continents and the four evil destinies; the six desire heavens together with the Brahmā heaven; the four dhyānas and the four formless spheres; the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens.” 〔X21n0384 0683a04〕 The four great continents, the four evil destinies, the six desire heavens together with the Brahmā heaven, the four dhyānas, the four formless spheres, and with them the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens — from the lowest hell all the way up to the highest heaven, all twenty-five places of existence lie within this one ring.

The two characters for “not forgotten” are the bone of the line: 「所作善惡，皆有因果，經久不忘」—“Whatever good and evil is done has its cause and effect, and however long it lasts it is not forgotten.” 〔X21n0384 0683a03〕 That the twenty-five existences are ringed within the Iron Ring Mountains says not how large the hells are but that the account is not forgotten — up to the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens, they are reckoned in all the same.

Within this ring the great hells are eighteen; next there are five hundred whose names are each distinct; next again there are a thousand and a hundred whose names too are each distinct. Only then does the text come to that one city: more than eighty thousand li about, the city of solid iron and ten thousand li high, the fires gathering in heaps upon the walls with little in the way of empty gap; and within the city the several hells stand joined one to another, their names each distinct.

Having written this far, the sūtra draws its lens all at once down to a single one: 「獨有一獄，名曰無間。」—“There is one hell alone, and its name is Uninterrupted.” 〔T13n0412 0780a14〕 Eighteen thousand li about, the wall of the hell a thousand li high, the fire above piercing down below and the fire below piercing up above, iron snakes and iron dogs spewing fire and chasing one another upon the wall of the hell.

The reading handed down pauses once upon the word for iron: 「銕名黑金，性剛而冷，表惡人殘忍，性剛而心冷」—“Iron is named the black metal; its nature is hard and cold. It signifies that the evil man is cruel, his nature hard and his heart cold.” 〔X21n0384 0683b04〕 The whole city has only one substance — hard, and cold.

And then that bed. 「一人受罪，自見其身，遍臥滿床」—“When one person undergoes his guilt, he sees his own body lying stretched out and filling the whole bed.” 〔T13n0412 0780a18〕; and when a thousand myriad people undergo their guilt, each of them likewise sees his own body filling the bed. One person lies down and the bed is exactly full; a thousand myriad lie down, and what each of them sees is still his own single body filling the bed.

Number does not work here, and it runs exactly counter to our everyday reckoning. And the sūtra gathers it up in eight characters only: 「眾業所感，獲報如是。」—“What the manifold karma calls forth: such is the requital obtained.” 〔T13n0412 0780a19〕 It does not explain why it is so; it only points to where it comes from.

Those Who Carry Out the Punishment: Whose Making Are They?

The passage on the implements of suffering is written in the finest detail: yakṣas and evil ghosts, the teeth of their mouths like sword-blades, their eyes like the flash of lightning, their hands with claws of bronze; iron halberds striking the body, striking mouth and nose, striking belly and back, tossing into the air and catching on the turn; iron eagles pecking at the eyes, iron snakes coiling about the neck; long nails driven throughout the hundred limbs and joints, the tongue drawn out and plowed like a field, the bowels pulled forth and hacked and chopped, molten copper poured into the mouth, heated iron wound about the body. The closing line is 「萬死千生，業感如是。」—“Ten thousand deaths and a thousand births: such is what karma calls forth.” 〔T13n0412 0780a26〕

The instruments of punishment and those who wield them are written out to the full only in this passage. The thought that most readily arises on reading this far is: who are those yakṣas, after all? Is there another set of beings whose trade it is to beat people in the hells?

Here the commentator of old first cites a question and answer from a treatise, and what it asks is this very thing: 「諸地獄卒，為是有情數，為是非情數耶」—“Are the wardens of the hells counted among sentient beings, or are they counted among the non-sentient?” 〔X21n0384 0683c22〕 The answer falls in two halves: 「若以銕鎖繫縛初生地獄，往琰魔所者，是有情數」—“Those who bind with iron chains the newly born in the hells and take them to the place of Yama are counted among sentient beings.” 〔X21n0384 0683c23〕; 「若以種種苦具，於地獄中害有情者，非有情數」—“Those who with the several implements of suffering harm sentient beings within the hells are not counted among sentient beings.” 〔X21n0384 0683c24〕 The sort that escorts counts as sentient; the sort that is an implement of punishment does not.

The answer having fallen in two halves, the commentator at once cites a line that gathers both halves together: 「有情非情，並是共業所感，而為心變」—“Sentient and non-sentient alike are called forth by karma held in common, and are what the mind transforms into being.” 〔X21n0384 0684a01〕

The sentient half and the non-sentient half are alike called forth by karma held in common, and are manifested by the transformation of mind.

The city, the wall, the bed, the iron halberds, the iron eagles, the iron snakes, the long nails written of above, and with them those wardens of many hands and many eyes, read like an execution ground built ready beforehand on the outside, into which people are merely marched. And this line says: that whole execution ground, together with those who march them in and those who carry out the punishment, is called forth in common by the karma of beings. The commentator then joins it to the Śūraṅgama — 「此正楞嚴所謂觸報招引惡果」—“This is exactly what the Śūraṅgama calls the requital of contact drawing on evil fruits.” 〔X21n0384 0684a02〕, 「神識自見牛頭獄卒，馬頭羅剎，手執鎗矟，驅入無間也」—“the spirit-consciousness sees of itself ox-headed wardens and horse-headed rākṣasas, spears and lances in their hands, driving it into the Uninterrupted.” 〔X21n0384 0684a03〕 The two characters for seeing of itself carry the weight: it is not that someone comes to seize him; it is that the spirit-consciousness itself sees the one who comes to seize him.

That the mind manifests it does not amount to its not being there. What is manifested strikes just as painfully, and there are ten thousand deaths and a thousand births all the same. To say that it is manifested by mind is to say where it comes from; it is not to say that it does not count.

The later chapter on the names of the hells carries this further still — there it is said that in the hells there is no lord of the hells at all. The two chapters are to be read together: this chapter first writes out a whole execution ground and then, in the same passage, hands over where that ground comes from; and only in that chapter is the lord himself taken away as well.

When This World Is Destroyed, They Are Lodged in Another

The implements of suffering told to the end, the sūtra’s next sentence stops up the time as well: at the least stirring, koṭis of kalpas are passed through, and they seek to come out with no term of coming out.

The word for stirring the commentator of old did not read as passing through. What he glosses is this: 「動與靜對。心體本靜，人自動之」—“Stirring stands over against stillness. The substance of the mind is originally still, and man stirs it himself.” 〔X21n0384 0684c02〕, and he cites the Awakening of Faith as his ground: 「不知真如法一故動，動則有苦，果不離因故」—“Not knowing that the dharma of suchness is one, there is stirring; and where there is stirring there is suffering, since the fruit does not depart from the cause.” 〔X21n0384 0684c02〕; and he cites a dictionary for the form of the graph, 「力重為動」—“weight of force makes the graph for stirring.” 〔X21n0384 0684c04〕, and thereupon judges: 「凡夫業力甚深，故動成地獄億劫之壽」—“The karmic force of the ordinary man is exceedingly deep, and so his stirring makes a lifespan of koṭis of kalpas in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0684c04〕

The substance of the mind is still to begin with, and it is man himself who sets it stirring. Once it stirs, delusion arises; delusion arising, karma is made; karma made, requital is undergone. The length of koṭis of kalpas is not a term of punishment laid on anyone from outside; it is that the force of that one stirring is too heavy.

The section before said that the execution ground is manifested by the mind; this section says that the stretch of time is stirred out of the mind. The city and the hells written of earlier are all outside; these two are inside.

The sentence after that stops up the place as well. The sūtra says that when this world is destroyed they are lodged in another world; when that other world is destroyed in its turn they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter is destroyed they are passed on and lodged from one to the next; and after this world is formed again, they come back once more.

This sentence was read of old as a text resolving a doubt. Since the hells are beneath the continent of Jambudvīpa, and when the fire of the kalpa destroys as far as the first dhyāna the hells are destroyed first, where do the guilty go? The answer is that those whose karma of guilt is not yet fulfilled are lodged in another world and undergo it there; when that other world too is destroyed, they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter too is destroyed, they are passed on as before. When this world is formed again, they come back to undergo suffering — and here the commentator adds one qualification: 「此據罪未畢者說」—“This is said with reference to those whose guilt is not yet finished.” 〔X21n0384 0684c18〕 And the Dīrgha Āgama takes another road: when the fire-disaster arises, those who die out of the other hells are all born among men and cultivate the second dhyāna; and of that road he says 「此據罪已畢者說」—“This is said with reference to those whose guilt is already finished.” 〔X21n0384 0684c20〕

That worlds are destroyed is granted on all sides. What the sūtra says here is that the world is destroyed while the karma is not yet finished, and the karma moves house along with it. What is pointed to is not the solidity of the hells but the solidity of karma.

One Name, Five Senses

The question was about the name, and only here does the answer come down upon the name head-on: 「又五事業感，故稱無間。何等為五？」—“Further, there are five matters that karma calls forth, and therefore it is called Uninterrupted. What are the five?” 〔T13n0412 0780b01〕

The five items are written as evenly as a set of squares: each states one matter first, and each closes with the same three characters — and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

First: day and night they undergo their guilt, on to the number of the kalpas, and there is no time at which it is severed. The reading handed down gives this item a name: 「如是經無量劫，名時無間也」—“Passing measureless kalpas in this way is named uninterruptedness in time.” 〔X21n0384 0685a23〕 — no seam in time.

Second: one person also fills it, and many people also fill it. This is named form: 「各見身形，無間斷處，名形無間也」—“Each sees his own bodily form, and there is no place of interruption; this is named uninterruptedness in form.” 〔X21n0384 0685b09〕 — no seam between body and body.

Third: the implements of guilt, forks and cudgels and the long string that follows, and from the year through to the end of the kalpa the torments following one upon another. This is named suffering: 「略無絲毫樂間，名苦無間也」—“There is not the least hair’s breadth of pleasure between; this is named uninterruptedness in suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0685c23〕 — no seam between suffering and suffering.

Fourth: without asking whether man or woman, Qiang, Hu, Yi, or Di, old or young, noble or base, nāga or spirit or god or ghost — what the deeds of guilt call forth is undergone by all alike. This is named fruit: 「既果報不間，名果無間也」—“Since the fruit of requital is not interrupted, this is named uninterruptedness in fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0686a19〕 — no seam between one who undergoes and another.

Fifth: from the moment of first entering on to a hundred thousand kalpas, within one day and one night ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births, and though one seek to stay the space of a single thought one cannot. This is named life: 「既從初以至業盡，生死連綿，故名命無間也」—“Since from the beginning until the karma is exhausted birth and death run on unbroken, this is named uninterruptedness in life.” 〔X21n0384 0686b13〕 — no seam between dying and being born.

The five items taken together are five ways of having no seam: time, bodily form, the matter of suffering, the one who undergoes, and birth-and-death.

For that same name, the treatises take only one sense in their explanations. The Abhidharmakośa says: 「以於其中受苦無間，非如餘七大㮈落迦受苦非恒，故名無間」—“Because within it suffering is undergone without interruption, unlike the other seven great narakas where the undergoing of suffering is not constant, it is named Uninterrupted.” 〔T29n1558 0058b05〕 — the reason being that in the other seven great hells the suffering is not constant while here the suffering is constant; and the same work records another master’s account alongside it: 「有餘師說：阿鼻旨中無樂間苦故名無間」—“Some other masters say: because in the Avīci there is no pleasure to break the suffering, it is named Uninterrupted.” 〔T29n1558 0058b09〕 The Dīrgha Āgama takes yet another road: 「又其罪人彈指之頃，無不苦時，故名無間地獄」—“Further, for those guilty ones there is not the space of a finger-snap in which they are not suffering; and therefore it is named the Uninterrupted Hell.” 〔T01n0001 0125a23〕

One sense, two senses, and five senses stand together in the canon, each making its own account. This sūtra opens five doors; the treatise uses one only; the Dīrgha Āgama uses another. The three accounts stand side by side, and are not forced into one.

What Cannot Be Told to the End, and the One Who Withdrew

The five items told, the sūtra admits for itself that the passage has been abridged: the Avīci Hell, coarsely spoken of, is such as this — answering exactly to that sentence at the head, that he would speak of it coarsely. If one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end.

The reading handed down points out here why it cannot be finished: it is not that the implements of suffering are themselves many, but that the minds that made them are many — 「由諸罪人在生惡心徧布，晝夜相續，致墮地獄，循業發現」—“Because the guilty, while alive, spread their evil minds everywhere and continued them day and night, they came to fall into the hells, where things appear following upon karma.” 〔X21n0384 0686b17〕 What is told cannot be finished because what is made cannot be finished.

The last sentence writes of the one who listens: when Lady Māyā had heard this, she joined her palms in sorrow and care, bowed her head to the ground, and withdrew.

She does not ask again, and she does not praise. The commentator of old takes these twelve characters apart and reads them in four: her sorrow is that the guilty undergo suffering without end; her care is 「己力救援未逮」—“that her own strength does not yet reach to rescuing them.” 〔X21n0384 0686b22〕; 「合掌表自心不散，頂禮謝地藏能宣」—“The joining of the palms shows that her own mind is not scattered; the bowing of the head thanks Kṣitigarbha for being able to proclaim it.” 〔X21n0384 0686b23〕

The ending we are used to reading in a sūtra is that the one who asked about the Dharma, having received the answer, rejoices and puts it into practice. The questioner of this chapter, having heard it out, withdraws. The two chapters before wrote how many people one bodhisattva had delivered and into how many bodies he had divided himself; this chapter writes for the first time the place where those people are, and when the writing is done, the last gesture the sūtra leaves is a mother joining her palms and withdrawing from her seat.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and the Two Daśacakra Recensions It Cites

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The fascicle to which this chapter belongs is signed at its head as compiled by Lingcheng, bhikṣu of Qinglian, of Kuang’an in Guyan 〔X21n0384 0680b08〕. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment matching the three chapters to delusion, karma, and suffering; the self-posed question and answer on the answer that does not match the question; the two senses of coarse speaking; the pattern of the five passages, that the guilt committed and the falling that must follow are raised first; the five names of the fivefold uninterruptedness — time, form, suffering, fruit, and life; and the fourfold taking apart of the holy mother’s bowing and withdrawing.

His manner of glossing this chapter differs from his manner in the introductory section. There he mostly matched the sūtra text to the Tiantai methods of contemplation; here he turns instead to two other things — the dictionaries, and the records of response. In glossing the four characters for old and young, noble and base, he goes all the way down to the forms of the graphs: 「七十曰老」—“at seventy one is called old.” 〔X21n0384 0686a03〕, 「人生十年曰幼」—“ten years from a man’s birth is called young.” 〔X21n0384 0686a06〕; in glossing the iron halberd he measures it to the inch: 「戟，兵器也。單枝為戈，雙枝為戟」—“The halberd is a weapon. The single-branched is a dagger-axe; the double-branched is a halberd.” 〔X21n0384 0684a05〕; in glossing theft he divides it into two forms: 「灼然不與取名劫，潛盜不與取名盜」—“To take what is not given openly is called robbery; to take what is not given by stealth is called theft.” 〔X21n0384 0682b15〕 In the section on the iron eagles he cites the matter recorded in the Records of Retribution from the Unseen, of a man of Chengwu in Caozhou under the Tang who was fond of hunting and saw an eagle seize him — 「如冥報記，唐曹州城武人方山開」—“as in the Records of Retribution from the Unseen: Fang Shankai, a man of Chengwu in Caozhou under the Tang.” 〔X21n0384 0684a18〕; and in the section on killing brought on by lust he cites 「如唐洛州景德寺比丘尼任五娘」—“as with Ren Wuniang, a bhikṣuṇī of the Jingde monastery in Luozhou under the Tang.” 〔X21n0384 0682a08〕, who after death asked her younger sister to copy out scriptures and so left the hells. Into a book glossing the hells he has woven the notebooks of what people of the Tang saw and heard.

There is one further matter that becomes plain only in this chapter. He cites the Daśacakra Sūtra in three places in this chapter, and what he cites is not from one and the same recension. The passage cited in glossing the slandering of the Three Jewels — kṣatriya caṇḍāla kings and the rest who follow evil friends and harbor the conceit of cleverness, 「於三寶所無淳淨心」—“having no pure and simple mind toward the Three Jewels” 〔T13n0411 0740c26〕, on to 「挑壞無量眾生法眼」—“gouging out and ruining the Dharma-eye of measureless beings” 〔T13n0411 0741a10〕 and 「命終定生無間大獄」—“at the end of life they are certainly born in the great Avīci hell” 〔T13n0411 0741a20〕 — comes from the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra translated by Xuanzang; while the two passages glossing the deeds of rebellion and the property of the saṃgha of the four quarters have their wording from the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of the Ten Wheels, of the Northern Liang and of lost translatorship: 「有五種逆罪為最極惡」—“There are five kinds of deed of rebellion that are the most extremely evil.” 〔T13n0410 0694b26〕, 「復有四種大罪，同於四逆犯根本罪」—“There are four further grave offenses, equal to the four rebellions in violating a root offense.” 〔T13n0410 0694c04〕 Under one and the same title, two translations each yield a passage. Whoever cites their words must return each to its own recension.

As for the fivefold uninterruptedness of this chapter, a later line of reckoning arose besides. The Chart of the Establishment of the Dharma Realm, recorded by Renchao of the Ming, first quotes in part this sūtra’s text on the walled city of the Avīci, and then sets out another set of five names: 「一、趣果無間，捨身即生彼故」—“first, uninterruptedness in going to the fruit, because on casting off the body one is born there at once.” 〔X57n0972 0450b02〕, 「二、苦無間，中無樂故」—“second, uninterruptedness in suffering, because there is no pleasure between.” 〔X57n0972 0450b03〕, 「三、時無間，定一劫故」—“third, uninterruptedness in time, because it is fixed at one kalpa.” 〔X57n0972 0450b03〕, 「四、命無間，中不絕故」—“fourth, uninterruptedness in life, because it is not cut off between.” 〔X57n0972 0450b04〕, 「五、形無間，此獄縱廣八萬由旬，一人亦滿，多人亦滿故」—“fifth, uninterruptedness in form, because this hell is eighty thousand yojanas across, and one person also fills it and many people also fill it.” 〔X57n0972 0450b04〕 The five matters are still those five matters, and yet the order and the naming differ between the two lines. The two lines are set side by side, each keeping what it had.

And the sūtra’s own five sentences of “therefore it is called Uninterrupted” are bound to no mirror at all. They stand ranged there, saying one and the same thing sentence by sentence — that there is no seam.

The chapter before this speaks of karmic conditions; this chapter speaks of karmic impulsion. The Qing-dynasty commentary that runs through the text phrase by phrase — the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian — judges this chapter to be the second heading within the section of main exposition, and names it 「示業感差別」—“showing the differences that karmic impulsion calls forth.” 〔X21n0384 0686b24〕 He first explains the title of the chapter, and then divides the chapter’s text in two: Kṣitigarbha restating the entrustment, and the king who is the occasion asking about the great vows. He explains besides, and expressly, why the two chapters must be joined as closely as they are: 「由此二品，鉤鎖如環，不可杜斷」—“by reason of these two chapters, hooked and locked like a ring, they may not be cut apart.” 〔X21n0384 0687a17〕 — karmic conditions speaks of the conditions under which karma is made, karmic impulsion of the aspect under which requital is undergone; the two chapters are like a linked lock fastened together, and cannot be cut through in the middle. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Jambudvīpa: the Name of a Tree

Of the four characters of the chapter’s title, the first is a place-name. Jambudvīpa is the southern continent, and the continent takes its name from a tree. The commentator of old looks into this tree and cites the Dīrgha Āgama, which says that its fruit is as large as an earthen jar, that the juice is white as milk and the taste sweet as honey; and that the fruit of five places is apportioned to the gandharvas, to the people of seven kingdoms, to the creatures of the sea, to the birds and beasts, and to the gods of the constellations.

One tree feeds the six destinies.

And yet the same tree is also called the foul tree. The reading handed down gives two reasons: first, that seen from afar there is nothing to see but darkness, and so darkness is taken as the foulness; second, that 「又其果香氣，能染人心發顛狂」—“and the fragrance of its fruit can stain the human mind and set it raving.” 〔X21n0384 0687a03〕, so that defilement is taken as the foulness. There is a third account, stranger still: that the reason there is a black shadow in the moon is that the shadow of this tree has fallen into it — 「穢樹之名，得非取此義乎」—“the name of the foul tree: might it not be taken from this sense?” 〔X21n0384 0687a06〕

The sweet fruit and the fragrance that can drive a man mad grow upon one and the same tree. The twenty-three requitals this chapter is to speak of all grow in one and the same place as well.

The Nature-Consciousness Has No Fixity

Kṣitigarbha first restates the entrustment: he divides his body throughout a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of worlds and rescues and draws out all beings who undergo the requital of karma; and this is not his own capacity, but is upheld by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha. The reading handed down takes the three characters 「威神力」 apart and reads them one by one: 「威即四無畏，神即六神通，力即十力」—“awe is the four fearlessnesses, spirit is the six spiritual penetrations, power is the ten powers.” 〔X21n0384 0687a19〕

What the Buddha answers next is not the method of dividing the body, but why beings should need someone to divide his body to save them. The reason the sūtra gives is four characters: the nature-consciousness has no fixity.

What does having no fixity mean? The commentator of old glosses it bluntly: 「無定者，無堅住之定性」—“having no fixity means that there is no fixed nature that abides firmly.” 〔X21n0384 0687c08〕 — there is no compass-point that will stand still. And so good habits knot into good fruit and evil habits into evil karma; whether one does good or does evil hangs entirely on what situation is met with at the moment.

The sūtra then says 「結」, to knot. Evil habits knot into karma, good habits knot into fruit — and to knot is to tie a knot. The commentator strikes a fine comparison here: 「惑業相資，如巾挽結。若欲解之，必抽中心」—“delusion and karma sustain each other, like a cloth drawn into a knot. If one would undo it, one must draw out the middle.” 〔X21n0384 0687c22〕 A cloth tied into a dead knot pulls tighter the harder it is drawn from the two ends; to undo it, one must draw out the length in the middle.

The Fish Meets the Net

Here the sūtra gives the one simile this chapter has: like a fish swimming into a net and borne along in that long current — it slips in, it gets out for a moment, and then it meets the net again.

The reading handed down matches four things to it one by one: 「魚譬五道，網譬三界，長流譬業果」—“the fish figures the five destinies, the net figures the three realms, the long current figures the fruit of karma.” 〔X21n0384 0688a24〕, and slipping in and getting out for a moment figures the turning round of birth and death. As to why the fish goes into the net, the commentator puts it more exactly still: 「群魚貪食，而遭密網。眾生因愛，而入魔網」—“the school of fish is greedy for food, and so meets the close-meshed net; beings by reason of craving enter the net of Māra.” 〔X21n0384 0688b01〕

The net does not chase the fish. The fish swims over of itself.

What is most easily read past in this simile is the two characters 「暫出」, gets out for a moment. The commentator cites the Sūtra of the Sections on the Five Sufferings to gloss them: 「三惡道者，是為一切眾生之家，暫得為天，暫得為人，譬如作客。作客日少，歸家日多」—“the three evil destinies are the home of all beings; to get to be a god for a moment, to get to be a human for a moment, is like being a guest. The days of being a guest are few, the days of going home are many.” 〔X21n0384 0688b16〕

Birth among the gods and birth among humans neither the sūtra nor the commentator takes for a resting place; they take it only for being a guest.

And so the Buddha says 「吾當憂念」, I must be anxious and hold them in mind. Glossing this sentence the commentator says: 「佛觀大地眾生，猶同一子」—“the Buddha looks upon the beings of the whole earth as upon a single child.” 〔X21n0384 0688c03〕 What he is anxious about is not another’s business.

The Two Kings: There Seems to Be a Difference

King Sovereign in Samādhi asks about the vows Kṣitigarbha made through kalpas upon kalpas. The Buddha raises two accounts from the past, and the first is of the king of a small country.

In writing of this king the sūtra begins by giving a point in time: before he had left the household life, he was the king of a small country. The commentator of old pauses over these four characters and divides leaving the household life into four kinds: 「一、形心俱不出」—“first, neither the form nor the mind goes out.” 〔X21n0384 0689c09〕; the form goes out but the mind does not; the mind goes out but the form does not; and the last is 「四、形心俱出，能見佛性」—“fourth, both the form and the mind go out, and one can see the buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0689c10〕 And the household that is truly gone out from means the two kinds of birth-and-death — 「出二死家，方真出家」—“only when one has gone out from the household of the two deaths has one truly left the household life.” 〔X21n0384 0689c11〕 And then comes the judgment: 「昔王正第四人，故能成佛」—“the king of that former time is precisely the fourth sort of person, and therefore he could become a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0689c11〕

The body gone out with the mind still in does not count; the mind gone out with the body still at home counts, on the contrary, as one of the kinds. This passage, set in before the two kings make their vows, amounts to saying plainly beforehand that what makes the later of those two vows redeemable is not that it was made early.

The two kings were friends to begin with, practising the ten good acts together and benefiting beings. The people of the neighboring country were doing much evil of every kind, and the two kings took counsel together and set out every kind of skillful means. Up to here the two are still of one road. Then the sūtra writes down the fork: one king vowed to accomplish the way of a buddha early and then, become a buddha, to come back and deliver that company and leave none of them over; one king vowed that if he did not first deliver to the end those who are guilty and suffering, and bring them to peace and cause them to reach awakening, 「我終未願成佛」 — I will to the end not vow to become a buddha.

Which of these two vows is right?

The reading handed down first cites the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom to set up a frame: 「成就眾生有二種：有先自成功德，然後度眾生者；有先成就眾生，後自成功德者」—“there are two ways of bringing beings to accomplishment: there is accomplishing merit for oneself first and delivering beings afterward, and there is bringing beings to accomplishment first and accomplishing merit for oneself afterward.” 〔X21n0384 0690a12〕 Both are the bringing of beings to accomplishment; only the order is reversed. The first king accomplishes merit for himself first — becoming a buddha is the root of delivering beings, and only by standing in that position first can one transform at large. As for the second king, the commentator’s words are: 「一王作念，自未得度先度眾生，方是菩薩發心」—“one king made this thought: to deliver beings first while not yet delivered oneself — this is precisely a bodhisattva’s arousing of the resolve.” 〔X21n0384 0690a17〕

And then the commentator sets down a conclusion nicely measured: 「此正發僧那於始心，終大悲於赴難。故二王發願，似有不同也」—“this is precisely to put on the great armor at the first thought and to consummate great compassion in going to meet the peril. And so the vows of the two kings seem to have a difference between them.” 〔X21n0384 0690a21〕

「似有不同」 — they seem to have a difference — and not 「實有優劣」, the one is in fact better and the other worse. The two roads both lead to the same place; only one arrives first and one arrives later, and the one who arrives later arrives later by his own choosing. The sūtra straightway joins past and present: the one who became a buddha early is the Tathāgata Accomplishment of All Wisdom; the one who vowed to deliver the guilty and suffering forever and would not first become a buddha is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.

The one who has already become a buddha does not appear again in this sūtra. The one who has not yet become a buddha stands in the assembly in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.

One Meal, and the Question It Bought

The second account of a former life begins with a meal.

In the time of the Semblance Dharma there was an arhat who delivered and transformed beings by means of blessings. Teaching and transforming as he came to each in turn, he met a woman named Bright Eyes, who prepared a meal and offered it to him. The arhat asked her what it was that she would ask for.

The commentator of old glosses the name Bright Eyes as he goes, beginning from the eye and returning at the last to the Dharma: 「目表定，光表慧。因定發慧，慧光注目」—“the eye signifies concentration and the brightness signifies wisdom; by concentration wisdom is brought forth, and the light of wisdom is poured into the eye.” 〔X21n0384 0690c20〕

What Bright Eyes asks for is not her own affair. She says: from the day my mother died I have been cultivating blessings to rescue and draw her out; only I do not know into what destiny she has been born. Here the commentator cites a line of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: 「知恩者大悲之本，不知恩者甚於畜生」—“to know a kindness done is the root of great compassion; one who does not know a kindness done is worse than an animal.” 〔X21n0384 0691a11〕

What a woman asks in front of an arhat is a very small question — where is my mother now? The greatest vow in the whole chapter grows out of this one question.

The arhat entered concentration and contemplated, and saw that her mother had fallen into an evil destiny and was undergoing the utmost suffering. To gloss the three characters 「極大苦」 the commentator uses one sentence only: 「極大苦者，無間大地獄也」—“the utmost suffering is the great Avīci hell.” 〔X21n0384 0691a23〕

What Her Mother Was Habituated to Was a Household Thing

The arhat asks: what deeds did your mother do while she lived?

In Bright Eyes’ answer there is no killing of men and no setting of fires, only one thing out of the kitchen: she liked nothing so much as eating fish and turtles; of the fish and turtles she ate it was mostly their young that she ate, now fried, now boiled, eaten as her appetite pleased; and reckoning up the number of those lives, it is a thousand myriads and doubled again.

The sūtra reckons the account itself: not one life, but a thousand myriads and doubled again. The commentator states the account plainly: 「此乃博求眾命，以資一膳，不惟忍心，亦且損福」—“this is to seek widely for many lives in order to furnish a single meal; it is not only hard-hearted, it wastes one’s blessings besides.” 〔X21n0384 0691c06〕 — for one meal, to seek out lives from all under heaven. He cites besides a line from a man of old: 「性命之於彼極切，滋味之在我可賖」—“life is to them the most urgent of all things; flavor is to me a thing that can be deferred.” 〔X21n0384 0691c08〕 That life is everything to the creature; that taste is to a person only a moment.

And the word the sūtra uses is 「所習」, what one is habituated to. The commentator glosses it minutely: 「所習，指習性、習氣。惡習種子內熏現行，轉習於惡矣」—“what one is habituated to means habitual nature and habitual energy; the seeds of evil habit perfume the active manifestation from within, and by habit one is turned toward evil.” 〔X21n0384 0691b19〕 What one is habituated to is not a single act; it is an act repeated for a lifetime and no longer felt to be an act at all.

What fell into the Avīci hell was not one great evil; it was one small thing that had never been counted as evil, done for a lifetime.

A Painted Image

The method the arhat gives is two things only: to recollect the Tathāgata Pure Lotus Eyes with utmost sincerity, and to sculpt and paint his image besides.

The commentator glosses the two characters for sculpting and painting: 「埏土象物曰塑，繪施五彩曰畵」—“to knead clay into the likeness of a thing is called sculpting; to lay on the five colors in drawing is called painting.” 〔X21n0384 0692a04〕 And then he points out on which sentence the true weight of the sūtra’s words falls — 「畵像供養，人所易行。即捨所愛，人所難作」—“to paint an image and make offerings is what people find easy to do; to give up at once what one loves is what people find hard to do.” 〔X21n0384 0692a14〕

To paint an image of a buddha is not hard. What is hard is the four characters the sūtra writes: she gave up at once what she loved.

And what it means that she did so, the commentator says out in a single line: 「藉佛救母，以道報親，純孝之心，照耀千古矣」—“to save the mother by relying on the Buddha, and to requite the parent by way of the Path — a mind of pure filial devotion, shining down a thousand ages.” 〔X21n0384 0692a15〕

The Child in the Bondmaid’s House

In the dream the Buddha tells her: your mother will before long be born in your own house; as soon as she feels hunger and cold she will speak.

After this, within the house, a bondmaid bore a son, and before three days were out he spoke. The commentator glosses the character 「婢」 as he goes, citing the Shuowen: 「男入罪曰奴，女入罪曰婢」—“a male who has fallen into guilt is called a bondman; a female who has fallen into guilt is called a bondmaid.” 〔X21n0384 0692b19〕 To be born into such a household is itself a requital.

The child’s first words on opening his mouth are: the karmic conditions of birth and death — the fruit of them is borne by oneself. Only the second words are: I am your mother.

There are two layers in what he says, and the commentator separates them very plainly: 「先敘福力脫過去罪，後方求救脫將來苦」—“first he sets out how the power of blessings freed him from past guilt; only then does he beg to be saved and freed from suffering to come.” 〔X21n0384 0692c11〕 — the first half is thanks: upheld by the power of your blessings, I have at last been able to take birth; the second half is the plea: as a person of low station, and short-lived besides, with thirteen years for my span, and falling into the evil destinies again.

Already out of the hells and yet to fall into the evil destinies again — does that count as having been saved? The commentator answers honestly: 「重業輕報，更落惡道，餘殃未盡也」—“a heavy karma with a light requital, and falling into the evil destinies again: the remaining calamity is not yet spent.” 〔X21n0384 0692c13〕 The heavy requital has become a light one, but the calamity that remains is not yet done.

The sūtra gives no method of saving that goes all the way at one stroke. What it gives goes stretch by stretch.

That First Thought

Bright Eyes asks until the root guilt is clear — the two deeds of killing and harming, and of abusing and reviling — and then she makes her vow toward the empty air.

Earlier it was said that what her mother was habituated to was only a thing of the kitchen; here the sūtra supplies the other half itself: not the hands alone, but a mouth as well. The commentator of old gives each of the two a place: 「殺生居眾罪之上，毀罵在萬惡之先」—“the killing of living beings stands at the head of the many guilts; abusing and reviling comes first among the myriad evils.” 〔X21n0384 0693a15〕 One at the head of the many guilts, one first among the myriad evils — no higher and lower is drawn between them; they are two heads set side by side.

Her vow divides in two. The first stretch is still for her mother: that her mother be free of the hells forever, that when these thirteen years are full she have no grave guilt again and pass through the evil destinies no more. The second stretch opens wide all at once: if my mother may be parted forever from the three evil paths and from this low station, and even from the body of a woman, never through eternal kalpas to undergo them again — then I vow that from this day forth, before the image of the Tathāgata Pure Lotus Eyes, throughout the hundred thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas hereafter, for all the beings who are guilty and suffering in all the hells and in the three evil destinies of whatever worlds there are, I vow to rescue and draw them out… and only when all such people of karmic requital have finished becoming buddhas shall I then accomplish right awakening.

The first of those two vows was summed up of old in a matched couplet: 「畢此一十三齡之短，銷其一十八獄之長」—“let this short span of thirteen years be finished out, and let it dissolve the long span of the eighteen hells.” 〔X21n0384 0693b04〕 The shortness of thirteen years set to dissolve the length of the eighteen hells.

The commentator weighs the four characters 「自今日後」 very heavily: 「自今日後，標始心也」—“from this day forth marks the initial thought.” 〔X21n0384 0693c04〕; and he cites the Vibhāṣā besides: 「若離初心，則不成無上道。一切功德，皆在初心」—“apart from the first thought the unsurpassed Path is not accomplished. All merit lies in the first thought.” 〔X21n0384 0693c05〕

And then he says a thing of great moment for reading the sūtra as a whole: 「故知此經明地藏發心，前後四番，後却是前。今是最初，故曰自今」—“know then that this sūtra sets out Kṣitigarbha’s arousing of the resolve four times over, and that what stands later is in fact the earlier. This one is the very first, and that is why it says from this day.” 〔X21n0384 0693c06〕 This sūtra writes Kṣitigarbha’s arousing of the resolve four times; and in the order of the sūtra’s text, what is written later is the earlier in time. This one is the earliest of them.

And when the Buddha sanctions her, what he praises is not the filial devotion but that widening. The commentator states this sense quite bluntly: 「若但為母發心，何善何能，乃以曠濟之心，求畢母罪」—“had she aroused the resolve for her mother only, what goodness would that be, and what capacity? Rather she takes a mind of deliverance without bound, and with it seeks to have done with her mother’s guilt.” 〔X21n0384 0693c16〕 — to arouse the resolve for one’s mother alone counts for no great goodness and no great capacity; she takes the mind that delivers all beings and with it settles her mother’s guilt. He strikes a comparison as he goes: 「譬如大水而滅小火，豈有不滅者乎」—“it is as when a great water puts out a small fire: how should there be any that is not put out?” 〔X21n0384 0693c17〕

To put out one spark there is no need to measure the water; let the water be great enough, and the fire goes out of itself.

Three Requitals Turned at Once

The Buddha then tells her where her mother is to go hereafter: when the thirteen years are full and this body of requital is laid down, she will be born a brahman with a lifespan of a hundred years; and when that requital is past she will be born into the Land Without Sorrow, with a lifespan of kalpas beyond reckoning; and afterward she will accomplish the fruit of buddhahood and deliver gods and humans at large, in numbers like the sands of the Ganges.

The commentator counts them over here: 「一子求佛發心，其母三報俱轉」—“one child seeks the Buddha and arouses the resolve, and the mother’s three requitals are all of them turned.” 〔X21n0384 0694a03〕 — the first birth in low station turns the requital of the past; the next birth as a brahman turns the requital of the present; the later accomplishing of buddhahood turns the requital of what comes after.

He reads the flavor out of that land’s name besides. The sūtra says 「無憂國土」, the Land Without Sorrow, and the commentator says: 「無憂國土，即指極樂，轉憂為樂也」—“the Land Without Sorrow points to Utmost Bliss: sorrow is turned into bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0694a05〕 The sorrow has been counted all the way along: in the hells the sorrow was burning and boiling; in the bondmaid’s house it was low station; at the end of the thirteen years it was falling into the evil destinies again; born as a brahman it was wrong conduct and self-conceit — and only when the four layers of sorrow are stilled together here is it called without sorrow.

And the last line is the weightiest: 「昔為罪母，乃地獄所度之死囚。將作如來，乃人天能化之大覺」—“formerly the guilty mother, a condemned prisoner ferried across by the hells; hereafter to be a tathāgata, a great awakened one able to transform gods and humans.” 〔X21n0384 0694a10〕 One and the same person.

Two Savings of a Mother, Not One

The Buddha joins past and present: the arhat who delivered Bright Eyes by means of blessings is Bodhisattva Inexhaustible Intention; the mother of Bright Eyes is Bodhisattva Liberation; the woman Bright Eyes is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva.

The commentator glosses the name Bodhisattva Liberation by counting her whole road over from the beginning: formerly fallen into the iron city and passing through every hardship; next born into the bondmaid’s house and short-lived besides; afterward a brahman, and falling at the last into the current of wrong conduct — and now, turn upon turn, she has become a great one of inconceivable liberation. As for all these persons being at this moment in the assembly in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, he writes a line worth noticing: 「能所畢至，子母俱來，敻隔沙劫，一會儼然」—“the one who acts and the one acted upon have all arrived, mother and child have come together; sundered by kalpas as many as the sands, and in one assembly here, unmistakably.” 〔X21n0384 0694b01〕 Sundered by kalpas as many as the sands, and at this moment together in one assembly.

One easily confused thing is to be marked here. In the first chapter above there is likewise a daughter who makes a vow for her mother — the brahmin woman, whose mother believed in wrong teachings and slighted the Three Jewels and fell into the Avīci Hell; she sold her house and raised an offering, sat upright and recollected the Buddha, came in body to the sea of karma, met the ghost king Poisonless, and learned that her mother had already been born into the heavens. That is another account: another buddha (the Tathāgata Flower of Awakening, King Sovereign in Samādhi), another kind of guilt (wrong views, mocking and slandering the Three Jewels), another kind of saving (selling the house and raising an offering, and recollecting the Buddha until she came to the sea of karma).

The mother in this chapter’s account is guilty of killing and harming and of abusing and reviling; the saving lies in recollecting the Buddha and making an image; the way in which the mother’s place of birth is learned is a dream and the bondmaid’s child declaring it himself; and where she goes afterward is the Land Without Sorrow. The two accounts are each complete in themselves, and neither bears upon the other.

The commentator of old reads them as two accounts as well. In the fascicle that explains the title, where the two characters for “original vow” are treated, it is two persons that are named: 「乃菩薩昔生為婆羅門女及光目女時，所發之大願也」—“these are the great vows the bodhisattva made when in former births he was the brahmin woman and the woman Bright Eyes.” 〔X21n0383 0640c24〕; and where the particular vows of this sūtra are discussed it says again: 「若準今經，婆羅門女及光目女，皆為母發心，而救六道」—“if one follows the present sūtra, the brahmin woman and the woman Bright Eyes both aroused the resolve for their mothers’ sake, and thereby saved the six destinies.” 〔X21n0383 0641a17〕

Twice the resolve was aroused for a mother’s sake, in two different former lives. Taken together, that is the reason this sūtra is called a classic of filial piety.

Before the Twenty-Three, the Sūtra Opens a Door

After the joining of past and present, the sūtra does not turn at once to speak of requital. It first draws the talk on to ages to come and names a string of people: those who do no good; those who do evil; those who do not so much as believe in cause and effect; those who commit wrong lust and false speech; those who speak with a double tongue and with harsh words; those who slander the Great Vehicle. Upon these the sūtra’s judgment is hard: beings of such deeds as these will surely fall into the evil destinies.

And yet the very next sentence is the turn: 「若遇善知識，勸令一彈指間歸依地藏菩薩，是諸眾生，即得解脫三惡道報」—“if they meet a good friend who exhorts them to take refuge in Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in the space of a single snap of the fingers, these beings straightway obtain liberation from the requital of the three evil destinies.” 〔T13n0412 0781b06〕

Look first at that character 「若」, if. The commentator of old glosses it quite honestly: 「若者，不定之辭」—“if is a word of what is not settled.” 〔X21n0384 0695a02〕 — whether one meets with such a friend or not is not settled; 「惡中儻有毫善，或能遇之」—“if within the evil there yet remains a hair’s breadth of good, one may perhaps meet with him.” 〔X21n0384 0695a02〕, and if not, the meeting is hard to come by. As to who counts as a true good friend, he points it out directly: 「今教一彈指頃，歸依地藏菩薩，是真善知識」—“one who now teaches taking refuge in Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in the space of a snap of the fingers is a true good friend.” 〔X21n0384 0695a04〕

Look next at the measure. How long is a snap of the fingers? The commentator reckons it by the Vinaya: 「二十念為一瞬，二十瞬名一彈指」—“twenty thought-moments make one blink, and twenty blinks are called one snap of the fingers.” 〔X21n0384 0695a06〕 The length of four hundred thoughts — so short as to be scarcely a stretch of time at all.

And then comes the judgment upon this whole passage: 「然歸依祗一彈指，而惡道千生解脫」—“and yet the taking of refuge is but one snap of the fingers, while a thousand births in the evil destinies are undone.” 〔X21n0384 0695a07〕, and therefore 「歸依之力，莫可涯量」—“the power of taking refuge cannot be measured to its bound.” 〔X21n0384 0695a08〕 What is paid out is one snap of the fingers; what is untied is a thousand births in the evil destinies. The two ends are altogether out of proportion, and so it is said that no bound can be measured for it.

And after this sentence he adds four characters only: 「故勸之也」—“and therefore he exhorts them to it.” 〔X21n0384 0695a08〕

These four characters matter. At this point in its writing the sūtra’s tone is not admonition but exhortation. And the sūtra adds upward besides: if one can take refuge and pay reverence with a whole mind, gaze upon him and bow and praise him, and go on to serve him with incense, flowers, clothing, jewels of every kind, and food and drink, the fruit thickens layer upon layer. The snap of the fingers is the lowest of those steps, not the only one — and that step is low enough to be within reach.

The twenty-three requitals are set out after this passage. The door is opened first, and only then is the wall built.

Twenty-Three

The four heavenly kings raise their question: Kṣitigarbha has from kalpas long past made a great vow such as this — how is it that to this day the delivering is still not ended, and he pledges himself yet again with a vast vow?

The question is a real one — is the power of the vow somehow not reaching? or are beings truly so hard to deliver? The Buddha answers neither side head-on; he turns instead to enumerating: if Kṣitigarbha meets a person of such a kind, he speaks for him of such a requital. The sūtra’s text runs twenty-three items in a row, one sentence to an item, and every sentence of one form.

The commentator of old divides these twenty-three items into six groups. The first three: 「殺、盜、婬，身三惡也」—“killing, stealing, and lust: the three evils of the body.” 〔X21n0384 0697a09〕 The next two are deeds of speech: 「此示口四報。惡口當一，毀謗攝三」—“this shows the four requitals of speech. Harsh speech makes one, and slander takes in three.” 〔X21n0384 0697b06〕 — within the single item of slander are contained false speech and two others. Three more are 「此示意三報分別」—“this shows the three requitals of mind, told apart.” 〔X21n0384 0697b18〕: wrath is anger, and miserliness is greed; and as for why eating and drinking without measure should fall under the deeds of mind, the commentator writes four characters only, in an interlinear note: 「無度即痴」—“without measure is precisely delusion.” 〔X21n0384 0697c04〕 Eight items take in the ten evils entire.

The five that follow are 「次明雜業報」—“next, the requitals of miscellaneous deeds are made clear.” 〔X21n0384 0697c17〕: hunting; defying father and mother; setting fire to the trees of mountain and forest; venom toward the children of a former or a later marriage and toward step-parents; netting newly hatched fledglings. Four more are 「此明三寶中報。佛如醫王，法如良藥，僧如瞻病人」—“this makes clear the requitals with regard to the Three Jewels. The Buddha is like a king of physicians, the Dharma like good medicine, the saṃgha like those who tend the sick.” 〔X21n0384 0698b01〕: slandering the Three Jewels; making light of the Dharma and slighting the teaching; destroying or taking to private use what belongs to the permanent abode; defiling those of pure conduct and falsely accusing the saṃgha. The last six are again 「此明雜業報。湯火斬斫，殺生法也」—“this makes clear the requitals of miscellaneous deeds. Scalding water, fire, hacking and cutting are ways of killing.” 〔X21n0384 0698c01〕: scalding water, fire, and hacking and cutting; breaking the precepts and violating the fast; wantonly ruining and squandering what is for use; clinging to self and being haughty; setting others at odds with a double tongue and stirring up strife; wrong views.

And the head and the tail of this string the commentator sees to be set on purpose: 「然首舉殺生，眾惡之大本，終結邪見，業流之巨壑故耳」—“it raises killing first because that is the great root of the many evils, and it closes with wrong views because that is the vast gully into which the current of karma runs.” 〔X21n0384 0699a15〕 It opens at killing and closes at wrong views. The one is the coarsest, the other the finest.

After the twenty-three items the sūtra gathers them with a sentence of its own: beings of Jambudvīpa such as these, in the deeds of body, speech, and mind, have their evil habits knot into fruit, and a hundred thousand requitals answer to them; today it is told only coarsely and in brief.

Twenty-three items, and the sūtra says of itself that this is only coarse. As to which of the three kinds of deed is master, the commentator points it out very plainly: 「凡動身口，皆由心使。故三業皆以心為根本也」—“whenever body or speech is moved, it is the mind that sets it going. And so all three kinds of deed take the mind for their root.” 〔X21n0384 0699a23〕

Nor does he let the four characters 「百千報應」, a hundred thousand requitals, pass lightly. The doubt that most easily arises in reading this long string is: then why is it that some do evil all their lives and no requital is seen? He cites two sūtras to divide the matter.

The one divides the fruits: 「準彌勒問經，有三種」—“following the Sūtra of Maitreya’s Questions, there are three kinds.” 〔X21n0384 0699b01〕 — 「一、果報果，生地獄等」—“first, the fruit that is requital: birth in the hells and the like.” 〔X21n0384 0699b01〕, which is the place of falling; second is the fruit of habitual energy, 「出生人中，依殺生，有短命果」—“born among humans, on account of killing there is the fruit of a short life.” 〔X21n0384 0699b02〕, which is the portion carried along after the place of falling has been left; 「三、增上果，依彼十種不善業道，一切外物，無有氣勢」—“third, the dominant fruit: on account of those ten unwholesome paths of action, all outward things are without vigor.” 〔X21n0384 0699b04〕 — even the things outside the body grow thin along with it.

The other divides the times: 「準優婆塞戒經：眾生造業，有四種報」—“following the Sūtra of the Upāsaka Precepts: when beings make karma, there are four kinds of requital.” 〔X21n0384 0699b05〕 — 「一、現報〔今身作業，今身即受〕，二、生報〔今身造業，次後身受〕，三、後報〔今生造業，更二三生已去方受〕，四、無報〔猶無記等業〕」—“first, present requital 〔the deed made in this body is undergone in this body〕; second, requital in the next birth 〔the deed made in this body is undergone in the body immediately following〕; third, later requital 〔the deed made in this life is undergone only after two or three lives more have passed〕; fourth, no requital 〔as with karma that is morally indeterminate and the like〕.” 〔X21n0384 0699b06〕

With these two layers the twenty-three items read smoothly. A single requital is not an account settled at one stroke: it is divided by fruit and divided by time as well. Not to see it is not the same as its not being there; and to see it is not necessarily to see it come from this one deed.

Why Suffering Must Be Spoken Of

There is a question that cannot be left unasked at this point: since the requital of suffering is no good thing, why not speak straight out of good dharmas and exhort people to cultivate them? Why must the suffering be told item by item?

The reading handed down raises the question openly: 「此苦業報，既非善事，寧不直爾說善令習，何須稱情說苦業耶」—“since this requital of suffering karma is no good thing, why not speak straight out of the good and have them practise it? What need is there to speak of the karma of suffering in accord with their feelings?” 〔X21n0384 0696c19〕

The answer has three layers. The first is disclosure by contrast: 「善惡因果，法須相對。若不說其貪等是過，何由顯施等是善」—“good and evil, cause and fruit — as dharmas they must stand over against each other. If it is not said that greed and the rest are faults, by what means is it disclosed that giving and the rest are good?” 〔X21n0384 0696c20〕; 「若不宣三塗是苦，無由顯人天等樂」—“if it is not proclaimed that the three evil paths are suffering, there is no means of disclosing that the bliss of gods and humans is bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0696c22〕 Without speaking of suffering, bliss has no coordinates.

The second layer is the dividing of capacities. After hearing of suffering and giving rise to weariness and withdrawal, people go two ways. Those of dull faculties, hearing of the karma of suffering, seek worldly bliss, and their minds are turned by it and they cultivate deeds of blessing. Those of keen faculties, hearing of the karma of suffering, seek liberation, and their minds are turned by it and they can cultivate the contemplation of the Path — so that within delusion itself the cause of going out is raised. From one and the same passage two kinds of person walk away along two roads, and both roads go upward.

The third layer matters most: 「雖稱情說諸過惡，然心外無別業苦」—“though the several faults and evils are spoken of in accord with their feelings, yet outside the mind there is no separate suffering of karma.” 〔X21n0384 0697a05〕 In accord with the feelings of beings so many faults and evils have been told; and yet outside the mind there is no other thing called the suffering of karma.

And so the commentator gathers it into one line: 「故知苦業，厭離之本，起善之緣，是故須說」—“know then that the karma of suffering is the root of weariness and withdrawal and the condition for the arising of good, and that it must therefore be spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0697a03〕

The twenty-three items are not a threat; they are a table of correspondences. What the sūtra gives is differences, not a verdict.

The Causes Spread Like Vines and Are Not Cut Off

For the reason that Kṣitigarbha has to this day still not fulfilled his vow, the Buddha uses a word taken from plants: the causes spread like vines and are not cut off.

A vine is of the kudzu and creeper kind, twining upon a tree and drawing on without a break. The commentator takes the vine’s manner of going apart: 「此由惑滋業，由業潤生，生還造業，業復墮苦」—“here delusion nourishes karma, karma moistens birth, birth in turn makes karma, and karma falls again into suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0696b22〕 — delusion feeds karma; karma moistens the birth to come; the birth to come makes karma again; and karma falls into suffering again. The four stretches join head to tail and close into a ring.

In the same passage he cites a tighter comparison besides: 「一切眾生，常在長獄，十二重城圍之，三重棘籬籬之，六拔刀賊伺之」—“all beings are ever in a long prison, walled about by twelve rings of city wall, hedged about by three rings of thorn hedge, and watched by six robbers with drawn blades.” 〔X21n0384 0696a18〕, and those who can get out from within it are few indeed, few indeed. And each of these names points to something: 「長獄謂三界，十二重城謂十二因緣，三重棘籬謂三毒也」—“the long prison means the three realms; the twelve rings of city wall mean the twelvefold dependent arising; the three rings of thorn hedge mean the three poisons.” 〔X21n0384 0696a20〕

The wall is the twelvefold dependent arising, the hedge is the three poisons, the robbers are the six sense-faculties. Not one thing in that prison comes from outside.

And so, when the four heavenly kings have heard it, the sūtra writes only eight characters: they wept and sighed in grief, joined their palms, and withdrew. They asked nothing further.

And what the Buddha charges them with is four characters: protect the people, protect the country. This chapter begins from Kṣitigarbha’s dividing of his body, comes down to twenty-three requitals, and falls at the last upon the four heavenly kings — not telling them to go and save anyone, but telling them not to let the several karmas delude beings.

Transmission — A Classic of Filial Piety, and One Needle and Thread

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment that the two chapters are hooked and locked like a ring; the matching of the four terms of the fish and the net; the conclusion that the two kings 「似有不同」, seem to have a difference between them; the matching of the name Bright Eyes to concentration and wisdom; the count of four arousings of the resolve; the reckoning of three requitals turned at once; the division of the twenty-three items into six headings; and the self-posed question and answer, 「何須稱情說苦業」 — what need is there to speak of the karma of suffering in accord with their feelings?

His eye for reading a sūtra is seen best in the two characters 「針線」, needle and thread. The passage 「過去久遠劫中，如是慈愍發恒河沙願，廣度眾生」 — in kalpas long past he was thus kind and pitying, and made vows as many as the sands of the Ganges, delivering beings at large — looks like a closing sentence gathering up what came before; he moves it instead to the head of the next heading, and states his reason: this passage is not a close but the ground-plan laid for what follows, where beings who do evil in ages to come take refuge, make offerings, and are freed from suffering — 「針線之妙，後賢不可不知」—“the marvel of the needle and thread: those who come after must not fail to know it.” 〔X21n0384 0694b06〕 He had pointed out one such stitch earlier as well: saying of the Semblance Dharma that it is 「乃塔寺堅固之時」, the time when stūpas and monasteries stand firm, he points out at once that it is 「乃下文塑畵形像之伏案也」—“the case laid down beforehand for the sculpting and painting of the image below.” 〔X21n0384 0690c03〕 The two characters for the Semblance Dharma are not a setting of the background; they are a thread-end buried in advance for that painted image later on.

In glossing the sūtra he often brings in medicine, philology, and things of the world as he goes. Glossing the name Bright Eyes he speaks first of the essential energies of the five viscera and six bowels pouring upward into the eye, and only then turns to concentration and wisdom; glossing 「婢」 he cites the Shuowen; glossing disease of the throat he distinguishes the two passages of windpipe and gullet, saying that the windpipe lies in front and governs what goes out, while the gullet lies behind and governs swallowing. This eye falls upon the sūtra, and falls also upon the world the sūtra writes of.

The sūtras and treatises he cites within this chapter alone include the Dīrgha Āgama, the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, the Abhidharmakośa, the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma, the Sūtra of the Sections on the Five Sufferings, the Treatise on the Ten Grounds, the Sūtra of Contemplating the Mind-Ground, the Sūtra of the Upāsaka Precepts, and the Daśacakra Sūtra. In glossing 「毀謗三寶」, slandering the Three Jewels, among the twenty-three items, he cites directly a sūtra of the same honored one but of different text: 「若有剎利旃陀羅於三寶所起於惡心，一切諸佛所不能救，常墮地獄餓鬼畜生，若得為人，盲聾瘖瘂」—“if there be a kṣatriya caṇḍāla who raises an evil mind toward the Three Jewels, none of all the buddhas can save him; he falls always into the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals, and if he gets to be a human he is blind, deaf, and dumb.” 〔X21n0384 0698b02〕 — this sūtra gives only the fruit; that one gives another set of conditions for the same fruit.

As for where the four heavenly kings come from, he goes over them one by one after the Sūtra of the Record of the World: in the east Upholder of the Nation, in the south Increase and Growth, in the west Various Speech, in the north Much-Hearing, each commanding his own troops. And in glossing why these four appear in this chapter he uses one sentence only: 「以我等正護四方，而南洲偏多惡業」—“because it is we who properly guard the four quarters, and the southern continent has more evil karma than the rest.” 〔X21n0384 0696a06〕 The heavenly kings put this question because the matter falls within their charge to begin with.

At the end, where the four heavenly kings have heard and weep and sigh in grief, he reads out one further layer: 「此由聞上業感差別之相，入心冥契，了本空寂，聞即無聞，是名心聞」—“this is because the aspects of the differences that karmic impulsion calls forth, heard above, entered the mind and tallied with it in the dark; the original emptiness and stillness was understood, and hearing was precisely no hearing — this is called hearing with the mind.” 〔X21n0384 0700a09〕 This is a Tiantai way of reading; it may be consulted, and need not be taken as a sense the sūtra’s text itself carries.

And the sūtra’s own sentence is bound to no mirror at all. What that king said was: if I do not first deliver those who are guilty and suffering, and bring them to peace and cause them to reach awakening, I will to the end not vow to become a buddha — and the tense of that sentence has not yet become past, to this day.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. He judges this chapter to be the passage 「示業報差別，二。初、品題」—“showing the differences in the requital of karma, in two: first, the title of the chapter.” 〔X21n0384 0700b06〕, and says that the reason this question comes in at this place is that it is 「次於業緣業感之後而問地獄業報差別之相」—“after karmic conditions and karmic impulsion, next to ask about the aspects of the differences in the requital of karma in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0700b13〕 — the two chapters before speak of karmic conditions and of karmic impulsion; this chapter speaks of what the place that karmic impulsion produces looks like. Within the chapter he divides with great fineness, and the most important cut of all is the one that separates the forty-odd names of hells from beneath the two great hells and sets them under a heading of their own. Where that cut falls will be said below. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Why the Hells Are Spoken of First, and Not Emptiness

This chapter is almost all of it names. Forty-six names of hells are called out in a row, and fourteen kinds of punishment besides, with only a short stretch of exhortation set between them. A sūtra that speaks throughout of a bodhisattva’s original vows turns all at once into an inventory.

The reading handed down answers here, first, a question that lies further back: why not speak of emptiness straight out?

「夫空無所有，無相無願，是道之要慧，不可為新學人說」—“emptiness, in which nothing is possessed, and signlessness and wishlessness, are the essential wisdom of the Path, and may not be spoken of to one newly come to learn.” 〔X21n0384 0700c21〕 — emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness are the essential wisdom of the Path, and yet they cannot be spoken to one just come in at the door. The reason is stated very concretely: 「聞無所有，便曠其心，不復修戒」—“hearing that nothing is possessed, he empties out his mind and cultivates the precepts no more.” 〔X21n0384 0700c22〕 Hearing that all things possess nothing, the mind goes hollow and the precepts go uncultivated; and then comes the question: if all is empty, what is there left to be done? That doubt is not an unfamiliar one.

And so a good friend has another order for teaching one newly come to learn: 「夫善知識欲教新學，漸語魔事，令護魔因緣，生死罪苦，五道分明，令信罪福，事事了了，乃可語道」—“a good friend who would teach one newly come to learn speaks by degrees of the affairs of Māra, so that he may guard against the conditions of Māra; and of the guilt and suffering of birth and death; and of the five destinies made plain, so that he may believe in guilt and in blessing; and when matter after matter is clear, only then may the Path be spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0700c23〕 First the affairs of Māra, then the guilt and suffering of birth and death, then the five destinies set out plainly so that one believes in guilt and blessing; and when matter after matter is understood, only then is there any speaking of the Path.

This chapter is that stretch of the work in which “the five destinies are made plain.” It does not argue; it calls out place-names. And why it should call them out so, the sūtra has already said for itself in the words of the request: 「使未來世末法眾生，知是果報」—“so that the beings of the last age of the Dharma in ages to come may know that these are the fruits of their deeds.” 〔T13n0412 0782a01〕

The One Who Asks Knew Already

It is Samantabhadra who asks.

The thing is a little strange in itself. The two great beings stand next to each other in virtue and in station; how should Samantabhadra not know the names of the hells? The reading handed down breaks this open: 「以地藏分身冥界，教化泥犁，當眾發明，誰不信受，故特興問耳」—“because Kṣitigarbha divides his body into the dark realms and teaches and transforms in the niraya, if he sets it forth before the assembly, who will not believe and accept it? And so the question is raised expressly.” 〔X21n0384 0700c02〕 Kṣitigarbha is the one who divides his body into the dark realms and does the teaching on the ground itself; one and the same sentence, spoken by him before the assembly, is what the hearers believe. And so this question is not asked for the asker’s own sake.

The sūtra writes this out more plainly further on. Kṣitigarbha asks him to listen a while, and Samantabhadra answers: 「吾已久知三惡道報」—“I have long known the requital of the three evil destinies.” 〔T13n0412 0782b03〕 — I knew it long ago. What he wants is 「令後世末法一切惡行眾生，聞仁者說，使令歸佛」—“that the beings of later ages, in the last age of the Dharma, who do every kind of evil, may hear the benevolent one speak and be turned toward the Buddha.” 〔T13n0412 0782b04〕

The one who asks knew already, and the one who answers knows that he knows. This question and this answer are spoken for a third kind of person to hear.

A Mountain with No Sun or Moon

The answer begins from a mountain. In the east of Jambudvīpa there is a mountain called the Iron Ring, and 「其山黑邃，無日月光」—“that mountain is black and deep, and has no light of sun or moon.” 〔T13n0412 0782a04〕

This is not the mountain’s first appearance in the sūtra. The sea of karma the brahmin woman came to in the first chapter, the ghost king Poisonless says, is the first of the seas on the western side of the Great Iron Ring Mountains; what is spoken of here is the eastern side of that same mountain. The sūtra does not set up a new stove; it walks on from where it was.

And the two characters for black and deep have a source. The commentator of old cites the chapter on the hells in the Sūtra of the Record of the World in the Dīrgha Āgama: between two rings of great adamantine mountains, 「二山中間窈窈冥冥，日月神天有大威力，不能以光照及於彼」—“between the two mountains it is dim upon dim and dark upon dark, and the divine gods of sun and moon, for all their great awesome power, cannot reach it with their light.” 〔T01n0001 0121c03〕 — it is not that sun and moon are not bright; it is that the light cannot get in. And so the commentator glosses that character: 「邃，深遠也。黑而且䆳，闇之極者矣」—“deep means far and distant. Black and deep besides: this is darkness at its very utmost.” 〔X21n0384 0701a21〕

First a place is set up that sun and moon cannot reach, and only then are names called out inside it. That is the order in which this chapter frames its view.

Two Names, One Place

Once inside the mountain, the sūtra first calls out two great hells: 「有大地獄，號極無間。又有地獄，名大阿鼻」—“there is a great hell called Utmost Uninterrupted. There is also a hell named Great Avīci.” 〔T13n0412 0782a05〕

And here is the trouble. Uninterrupted is a Chinese word and Avīci a Sanskrit sound, and of old the two were mostly taken for two names of one thing; yet this sūtra sets them side by side, and puts the character for “utmost” on top of Uninterrupted besides.

The reading handed down does not settle this question for the sūtra; on the contrary, it begins by admitting that it cannot be settled: 「無間、阿鼻二大地獄，或合或離，自古難定」—“the two great hells, Uninterrupted and Avīci, are now joined and now divided; from of old it has been hard to fix.” 〔X21n0384 0701b05〕 It then sets out the evidence on both sides: 「準長阿含及觀佛三昧經，合為一獄」—“following the Dīrgha Āgama and the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha, they are joined into one hell.” 〔X21n0384 0701b05〕; 「此經與楞嚴為二獄」—“this sūtra and the Śūraṅgama make them two hells.” 〔X21n0384 0701b07〕 There is ground for joining them and ground for dividing them. At the last he sets the cause down to the transmission: 「此經出不同譯師各異，致使二獄離合不同」—“this sūtra came forth from different translators, each of them differing, and so the dividing and joining of the two hells is not one.” 〔X21n0384 0701b09〕

And then he gives a simile: 「私謂譬如二姓，共居一宅，一門出入，各有眷屬」—“my own thought is that it is like two families of different surname dwelling together in one house, going in and out by one gate, each with its own kin.” 〔X21n0384 0701b10〕 Two households in one courtyard, going by one gate, each with its own relations. To one looking on from outside it will do to say one, and it will do to say two — 「同出一門，何妨說一；既是二姓，何妨說二」—“since they go out by one gate, what harm in saying one? and since they are two surnames, what harm in saying two?” 〔X21n0384 0701b11〕

Where the ancient worthy says plainly that it is hard to fix, it is hard to fix. The sūtra’s text is read by its own characters: two names stand side by side; and why they stand side by side the sūtra does not say.

Where the Cut Falls

What comes next is twenty-two of 「復有地獄，名曰」 — there is a further hell called.

In reading this long string, the mistake most easily made is to read them as twenty-two great hells standing shoulder to shoulder with Utmost Uninterrupted and Great Avīci. The reading handed down settles the matter before the names are called at all: 「是則下之四角、飛刀等，皆阿鼻之眷屬也」—“thus Four-Cornered, Flying Blades, and the rest below are all of them the retinue of Avīci.” 〔X21n0384 0701b23〕 That company below — Four-Cornered, Flying Blades, and the rest — is the retinue of Avīci. And he adds a line of rare weight: 「則下文以眷屬立科，千古定論，後賢不可不知」—“the text below is therefore given its heading as retinue: a settled conclusion for a thousand ages, which those who come after must not fail to know.” 〔X21n0384 0701c02〕

The ground for it is no guess. The Sūtra of the Sea of Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha, as cited, says 「阿鼻地獄，縱廣八千由旬，七重銕城，七層鐵網，刀林劍林等，各各七重」—“the Avīci Hell is eight thousand yojanas across and along, with seven rings of iron wall, seven layers of iron net, and forests of knives and forests of swords, each of them sevenfold.” 〔X21n0384 0701b21〕, and further that 「各有十八寒氷等獄」—“each has eighteen hells of cold ice and the like.” 〔X21n0384 0701b23〕 — a great hell comes with a whole set of attached hells of its own to begin with. And so those names below are things within that set.

The sūtra’s own text leaves a mark as well. The commentator points it out: 「皆言復有者，乃阿鼻大獄之眷屬也。其類甚多，故以二字點之」—“that all of them say ‘there is a further’ means that they are the retinue of the great hell Avīci. Their kinds are very many, and so they are marked with these two characters.” 〔X21n0384 0701c13〕 — the two characters for “there is a further” are that mark. Only when there is one more within the same set does it say “there is a further.”

With that one cut the terrain of this chapter changes: not forty-six hells standing side by side, but two great hells with a great stretch of retinue about them.

Three Ways of Saying It

Looked at after the cut, the sentence-forms in which the sūtra calls out its names are in fact three, and none of them trespasses on another.

The first is 「復有地獄，名曰」 such-and-such — there is a further hell called such-and-such — twenty-two of them. These are the retinue, spoken of following upon the great hells. The calling done, the sūtra says: 「鐵圍之內，有如是等地獄，其數無限」—“within the Iron Ring there are hells such as these, and their number is without limit.” 〔T13n0412 0782a17〕 — the number cannot be told to the end.

The second is “there are besides the hell of such-and-such,” and these too are twenty-two: Wailing, Tongue-Pulling, Dung and Urine, Copper Locks, Fire Elephants, Fire Dogs, Fire Horses, Fire Oxen, Fire Mountains, Fire Stones, Fire Beds, Fire Beams, Fire Hawks, Sawing the Teeth, Flaying the Skin, Drinking Blood, Burning Hands, Burning Feet, Inverted Thorns, Fire Houses, Iron Houses, Fire Wolves. The form of the sentence has changed, and what is said has changed with it — the passage above spoke of a number without limit, and this one speaks of names that differ. The calling done, the sūtra says: 「其中各各復有諸小地獄，或一或二，或三或四，乃至百千」—“within them there are again, each and all, many smaller hells — one or two, three or four, on up to a hundred thousand.” 〔T13n0412 0782a24〕, and 「其中名號，各各不同」—“the names within them are each and all different.” 〔T13n0412 0782a25〕

The third takes neither “there is a further” nor “there are besides,” but 「或有地獄」, there are hells where — fourteen sentences, one thing to a sentence: the tongue of the guilty taken and an ox set to plough it; the heart of the guilty taken and a yakṣa eating it; the body cooked in a boiling cauldron; a pillar of copper heated red and embraced; fires set burning that run the guilty down; nothing from end to end but cold ice; nothing but dung and urine without limit; nothing flying but iron 𨪏鏫; fire-spears massed in numbers; nothing done but the striking of chest and back; nothing burned but the hands and feet; iron serpents coiling and knotting; iron dogs driving to and fro; all alike made to ride iron mules. Not one of these fourteen sentences is a name. They do not call out the name of a hell; they call out only what happens there.

Three ways of saying it, answering to the three questions of this chapter: how many the hells are, what the hells are called, and what is done inside them.

There is one name that appears in two of the ways of saying: Burning Feet. In the first series it is 「復有地獄，名曰燒脚」—“there is a further hell called Burning Feet.” 〔T13n0412 0782a14〕; in the second it is 「燒脚地獄」—“the Hell of Burning Feet.” 〔T13n0412 0782a22〕 The reading handed down glosses the two places separately, and glosses them differently. At the first it cites the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise and says that this is a place of hot ash — 「罪人從大地獄出」—“the guilty come out of the great hell.” 〔X21n0384 0702c13〕, and see outside a stretch that is 「如平坦空地。見相起心，我應往彼」—“like level open ground. Seeing the look of it a thought arises: I should go over there.” 〔X21n0384 0702c13〕; one foot set down and the skin and flesh are at once destroyed, and as the foot is lifted, 「隨其舉脚，皮肉還復」—“as he lifts his foot, the skin and flesh come back again.” 〔X21n0384 0702c15〕 At the second it is put under the scorching of the eight hot hells: 「燒手、燒脚一類之事，八熱獄第六燒炙，第七大燒炙」—“burning the hands and burning the feet are matters of one kind: the sixth of the eight hot hells is Scorching and the seventh Great Scorching.” 〔X21n0384 0704a21〕 — those scorch the whole body, while here 「今從別業，但燒手脚」—“here it follows a particular karma, and only the hands and feet are burned.” 〔X21n0384 0704a22〕: the hands and the feet only, and no more.

One and the same name: in the one place, hot ash walked into by mistake; in the other, the one portion left out of a burning of the whole body. The sūtra calls it out twice, and that is not repetition.

It Can Match Sumeru

The names all called, the sūtra turns a page of its own.

「此者皆是南閻浮提行惡眾生，業感如是」—“all these are the beings of southern Jambudvīpa who do evil, and karma has called them forth to be as they are.” 〔T13n0412 0782a26〕 — that whole stretch of terrain above is what karmic impulsion has called forth. Then come the three weightiest clauses in the chapter: 「業力甚大，能敵須彌，能深巨海，能障聖道」—“the power of karma is very great: it can match Sumeru, it can outgo the great sea in depth, it can obstruct the holy path.” 〔T13n0412 0782a27〕

The reading handed down matches the three clauses across word for word: 「以須彌之高廣，能抵敵之；溟壑之汪洋，能濬深之；聖道之虗通，能障礙之」—“the height and breadth of Sumeru it can stand against; the vastness of the ocean gulf it can dredge deeper; the empty openness of the holy path it can obstruct.” 〔X21n0384 0704c11〕 The first two clauses compare in height and in depth; the third changes kind — the first two are things that can be measured, and the holy path is not. Here the commentator divides one layer further: 「有漏業能障三乘聖道，無漏業能障佛性中道」—“contaminated karma can obstruct the holy path of the three vehicles; uncontaminated karma can obstruct the middle way of the buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0704c14〕

And for where karma comes from, the commentator cites a judgment of Tiantai: 「招果為因，亦名為業。十法界業，起自於心；但使有心，諸業具足」—“what draws down a fruit is a cause, and it is also named karma. The karma of the ten dharma-realms arises from the mind; let there be a mind, and every karma is complete.” 〔X21n0384 0704c07〕 The karma of all ten dharma-realms arises from the mind; let there be a mind, and every kind of karma is there entire. And further down, more bluntly still: 「心取地獄，心取餓鬼，心取畜生，心取人天」—“the mind takes the hells, the mind takes the hungry ghosts, the mind takes the animals, the mind takes gods and humans.” 〔X21n0384 0704c09〕

Sumeru for all its height and the great sea for all its depth are pressed down under a single thought arising in the mind.

The Parting of the Ways

And so the sūtra sets down a word of exhortation: 「是故眾生莫輕小惡，以為無罪，死後有報，纖毫受之」—“therefore let beings not make light of small evil and think that it carries no guilt; after death there is requital, and it is undergone down to the finest hair.” 〔T13n0412 0782a28〕

This sentence has an earlier source in the canon. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: 「莫輕小惡，以為無殃，水渧雖微，漸盈大器」—“make no light of small evil, thinking it brings no calamity; the water-drop is slight, and yet by degrees it fills a great vessel.” 〔T12n0375 0693c25〕 — a drop of water is small, and slowly it fills a great vessel all the same. Following this sense the commentator adds two clauses: 「良以纖芥之惡，歷劫不亡；毫釐之善，積世長存」—“truly, an evil the size of a mustard-seed does not perish through kalpas; a good of a hair’s breadth is stored up and lasts through ages.” 〔X21n0384 0705a03〕

And then the sūtra says the coldest sentence in the chapter: 「父子至親，岐路各別，縱然相逢，無肯代受」—“father and son are the closest of kin, yet at the parting of the ways each goes his own; and though they should meet, not one is willing to undergo it in the other’s stead.” 〔T13n0412 0782a29〕

The reading handed down takes this sentence apart and speaks of it without any softening: 「然父修善，而子作惡，則父生天，而子墮苦，途路既岐，遭逢難必」—“but if the father cultivates good and the son does evil, then the father is born in the heavens and the son falls into suffering; the roads having parted, a meeting is not to be counted on.” 〔X21n0384 0705a06〕; and even if they truly should meet, 「縱使偶遇，父安肯以天堂之樂，易子地獄之苦乎」—“even should they chance to meet, how would a father be willing to trade the bliss of the heavens for his son’s suffering in the hells?” 〔X21n0384 0705a07〕 — would a father trade the bliss of heaven for his son’s suffering in hell? And with the son good and the father evil it is the same the other way about. The Sūtra of Rāṣṭrapāla, as cited, puts it more absolutely still: 「善惡隨人，如影隨身。人生獨生，死亦獨死」—“good and evil follow a person as the shadow follows the body. A person is born alone, and dies alone as well.” 〔X21n0384 0705a09〕

In the first chapter the brahmin woman sold her house to make an offering and got her mother out, and with her all the people of that hell on that day besides. Here it is said that father and son meet and neither is willing to undergo it in the other’s stead. The two do not conflict: what saved there was the offering and the Buddha’s power, not the blood tie. The blood tie parts at the fork in the road.

Copper, Iron, Stone, Fire

The fourteen sentences of punishment told, the sūtra makes a summation and gathers the implements of the whole chapter into four things: 「無非是銅，是鐵，是石，是火。此四種物，眾業行感」—“there is nothing that is not copper, iron, stone, or fire. These four things are called forth by the karmic acts of beings.” 〔T13n0412 0782b15〕

This gathering-up matters. The several hundred characters before it wrote of blades, wheels, crossbows, saws, cauldrons, pillars, garments, beds, pellets, and axes — and gathered up they come to four materials only, and all of them called forth by karmic acts. Following upon this the commentator says: 「器者，即眾生日用之器皿」—“an implement is precisely a vessel of beings’ daily use.” 〔X21n0384 0706a10〕; 「今銅、銕、石、火，乃地獄苦具，皆罪人業行所感，非天與人授也」—“now copper, iron, stone, and fire are the instruments of suffering in the hells, and all of them are called forth by the karmic acts of the guilty; they are not handed down by heaven or given by anyone.” 〔X21n0384 0706a11〕 They are issued by no one.

Further down the commentator cites a treatise and states it more fully still: 「如地獄中，無地獄主。而地獄眾生，依自然業，見地獄主，與種種苦」—“in the hells there is no lord of the hells; rather, the beings of the hells, by reason of their own karma working of itself, see a lord of the hells and are given sufferings of every kind.” 〔X21n0384 0706a15〕 — in the hells there is no lord of the hells; it is the beings who undergo the suffering who, on their own karma, see a lord of the hells. And he cites besides: 「我說地獄諸苦事，實無惡趣可來往；刀杖鉾矟眾苦具，亦無有能造作者」—“I speak of the sufferings of the hells, and yet there is truly no evil destiny to come and go in; of the knives and staves and spears and lances, the many instruments of suffering, there is likewise no one able to make them.” 〔X21n0384 0706a20〕

And yet the commentator does not stop here. He adds a clause after it that draws the words back: 「然而心外雖無地獄，惡業成時，強自妄見」—“and yet, though outside the mind there is no hell, when evil karma comes to completion one perforce sees it falsely of oneself.” 〔X21n0384 0706a19〕 Outside the mind there is no hell; and when evil karma comes to completion, one perforce brings it into false view of oneself.

That there is no master is not the same as that there is no such place. Set side by side the two clauses look contrary, and neither the sūtra nor the commentator mediates between them. And this is exactly why the chapter must call out forty-six names first and speak of there being no lord of the hells afterward — reverse the order and it becomes the kind of emptiness that was said above 「不可為新學人說」—“may not be spoken of to one newly come to learn.” 〔X21n0384 0700c21〕

The Three Paths Are Also the Three Virtues

At this point the three chapters on the hells are done. Karmic conditions, karmic impulsion, and the names: one chapter says why one falls, one says how it is undergone once one has fallen, and one says what the place where the suffering is undergone is called.

Of old the three chapters were taken together and given one name: 「上自業緣、業感以及此品，名為三道，亦名三障」—“from karmic conditions and karmic impulsion above down to this chapter, they are named the three paths, and named the three obstructions as well.” 〔X21n0383 0648b16〕 Delusion gives rise to karma, karma calls forth suffering, and suffering gives rise to delusion again — three things biting into one ring, and this is called the three paths; and they obstruct the dharma-body, prajñā, and liberation, and so are also called the three obstructions.

And then comes this line: 「欲開三道、三障為三德耳」—“the wish is simply to open the three paths and the three obstructions into the three virtues.” 〔X21n0383 0648b17〕

These three chapters are spoken in order that the three paths and the three obstructions may be opened into the three virtues.

To open is not to exchange. The question and answer of the Great Calming and Contemplation, cited of old, puts it minutely: if the three obstructions are opened through to the utmost, the three paths should be opened through to the utmost as well, because these three that are cultivated evil are, in their very substance, those three that are the nature’s good — 「修從性成」, what is cultivated is accomplished out of the nature. And so the verdict is: 「當知三道體之即真常樂我淨」—“know that the three paths, taken in their substance, are precisely the true permanence, bliss, self, and purity.” 〔X21n0383 0648b22〕, not two and not different from the three virtues — 「所以苦道即法身，煩惱即般若，結業即解脫」—“and so the path of suffering is precisely the dharma-body, affliction is precisely prajñā, and the karma that knots is precisely liberation.” 〔X21n0383 0648b23〕

The path of suffering is the dharma-body. Not that suffering, once undergone to the end, turns into the dharma-body; the path of suffering in its very substance is that.

Only when this line is set after forty-odd names of hells does its weight appear. Iron Bed, Iron Ox, Molten Copper, Ploughing the Tongue have just been counted through, one name after another, and what has gathered in the reader’s mind is fear. And what is gathered up here is not fear, but this: that substance which undergoes the suffering and the dharma-body are not two.

Of old the consequence of not opening them was stated as well: 「若不開之，則佛之知見，永埋四趣，長沒人天」—“if they are not opened, then the buddha’s knowledge and vision is buried forever in the four destinies and sunk for good among gods and humans.” 〔X21n0383 0648c01〕

Unopened, the buddha’s knowledge and vision stays buried forever in the four evil destinies. Read these three chapters as no more than an inventory of karmic requital, and that inventory buries the buddha’s knowledge and vision along with it.

And the road the sūtra is to walk next starts from here as well. It was said of old: 「上文業緣等三品已開三道成三德」—“the three chapters above, karmic conditions and the rest, have already opened the three paths and made them the three virtues.” 〔X21n0383 0648c04〕, and all by the inconceivable awesome spiritual power of Kṣitigarbha; and only therefore does the Tathāgata set forth his praise expressly before the host of gods and humans — the reason the next chapter, on the Tathāgata’s praise, comes when it does is that these three chapters have already opened what was to be opened.

Three chapters speak of the hells, and at the end of the speaking the three virtues are opened out, and only then does the Buddha open his mouth in praise. That is how the order joins.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and the Twenty-Odd Books Behind It

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment of the chapter as 「示業報差別」—“showing the differences in the requital of karma.” 〔X21n0384 0700b06〕; the marking of the retinue by the two characters for “there is a further”; the 「千古定論」—“settled conclusion for a thousand ages.” 〔X21n0384 0701c02〕 that Four-Cornered and Flying Blades are the retinue of Avīci; the difficulty of fixing Uninterrupted and Avīci, with the simile of two surnames dwelling in one house; the separate glossing of Burning Feet in its two places; and the word-by-word matching of the three clauses on the power of karma.

This chapter is the most densely cited stretch of the whole work. To gloss one name of a hell he will often change to another sūtra: for Four-Cornered he cites the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma and the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise; for Flying Blades and Fire Arrows, Embracing the Pillar, and A Thousand Blades, the Sūtra of the Sea of Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha; for Crushing Mountains, Flowing Fire, and Chopping the Head, the Treatise on the Three Measures of Dharma; for Iron Carts and Iron Bed, the Śūraṅgama; for Iron Garments, Piercing Spears, Flaying the Skin, and Inverted Thorns, the Lokaprajñapti Abhidharma Treatise; for Fire Dogs, Fire Mountains and Fire Stones, Sawing the Teeth, Fire Houses and Iron Houses, and Fire Wolves, the Sūtra of the Arising of Worlds and the Sūtra of the Storied Charcoal; for Fire Elephants and the iron mules, two accounts of the bhikṣu Saṃgharakṣa; for Iron Axe and Wailing, the Dīrgha Āgama; for the tongue taken and ploughed by an ox, the Sūtra of the Eight Masters; for Dung and Urine, the Sūtra of the Hells; for the passage on the power of karma, the Tiantai Great Calming and Contemplation and the Words and Phrases of the Golden Light; for the passage of exhortation, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Nothing Whatever, the Sūtra of Rāṣṭrapāla, and the Sūtra of the Four Self-Encroachments; for the passage on the instruments of suffering, the Guangji, the Treatise on Consciousness-Only, and the Definitive Vinaya. More than twenty books, ranged around forty-six names.

Citation so dense as this says something in itself: these names of hells have, in this sūtra, a name and no account — one name to a sentence, and the sentence over and gone. To know what lies beneath that sentence one must go and look in other sūtras. He sets what he finds back into its place, and the sūtra’s text turns from an inventory back into a stretch of country.

Nor is he merely carrying things over. Glossing Iron Carts he notes as he goes: 「案賢愚經，釋迦始起慈心，正在此獄」—“according to the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, it was in this very hell that Śākya first raised the mind of kindness.” 〔X21n0384 0702b01〕 — where Śākyamuni first aroused the mind of kindness was in the hell of the fiery cart. Glossing Iron Garments he cites the words of an ancient worthy: 「現見袈裟離體，將來銕褋纏身」—“seen now, the kāṣāya parted from the body; hereafter, cloth of iron wound about the body.” 〔X21n0384 0702b12〕 Glossing the two hells Contention and Much Anger, he judges the two to have one cause — 「諍論起於貪嫉，以貪嫉故遂多瞋恚」—“contention arises out of greed and envy, and it is by greed and envy that wrath then becomes much.” 〔X21n0384 0703a07〕 — and cites the words of a sūtra in exhortation: 「汝等莫於根本空中鬬諍，人身尚不可得，何況值佛」—“do not contend within what is fundamentally empty; a human body is hard enough to obtain, how much more the meeting with a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0703a14〕; 「今既墮地獄，悔恨晚矣」—“now that one has fallen into the hells, regret comes too late.” 〔X21n0384 0703a15〕

And when he has finished glossing the chapter he uses the comparison of a painter: 「眾生業力，不可思議。葢由心業畫師，自業畫作業果地分」—“the power of beings’ karma is inconceivable. It is because the karma of the mind is a painter that one’s own karma paints out the ground of one’s own karmic fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0706b12〕 — the karma of the mind is the painter, and one’s own karma paints out one’s own ground of fruit. Not one thing that is painted on comes from outside: 「秪由眾生，昔時觸境生著、起愛，今觸境，穢惡、受苦」—“it is only that beings, meeting with objects in former times, gave rise to attachment and to craving; and now, meeting with objects, they meet foulness and evil and undergo suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0706b14〕

This eye and the sūtra’s own gathering-up agree. The sūtra says of those four things only that 「無非是銅，是鐵，是石，是火」—“there is nothing that is not copper, iron, stone, or fire.” 〔T13n0412 0782b15〕; and as to who set them there, the sūtra points nowhere outside — it says 「眾業行感」—“called forth by the karmic acts of beings.” 〔T13n0412 0782b16〕

And Kṣitigarbha’s last sentence is bound to no mirror at all. He has called out forty-six names and told fourteen kinds of thing, and then says that even this is only a brief telling: 「若廣解說，窮劫不盡」—“were it explained at large, kalpas would run out before it was done.” 〔T13n0412 0782b18〕

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. The first five chapters set out the master who transforms and the capacities that are transformed; at this chapter he opens a new great division: 「大章第三，明度脫緣分」—“The third great section: making plain the conditions of deliverance.” 〔X21n0384 0706b17〕, and divides it in two — 「初、化主放光讚歎；二、閻王興問讚歎」—“First, the master of transformation sends forth light and praises; second, King Yama raises a question and praises.” 〔X21n0384 0706b17〕. This chapter is the first of the two, and beneath it there is a further division: 「初、世尊讚歎功德；二、地藏利益存亡」—“First, the World-Honored One praises his merit; second, Kṣitigarbha benefits the living and the dead.” 〔X21n0384 0706b22〕; so that in his outline this chapter and the next are the two halves of one thing. The outline within the chapter runs: 「二、品文，二。初、如來歎慈悲事；二、普廣請利益事」—“Second, the text of the chapter, in two: first, the Tathāgata praises the matter of compassion; second, Universally Broad asks about the matter of benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0706b24〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

The Buddha Opens His Own Mouth to Praise Someone

In the first five chapters it is mostly not the Buddha who speaks: Mañjuśrī asks, King Sovereign in Samādhi asks, the Four Heavenly Kings ask, Samantabhadra requests, and the Buddha answers. This chapter opens with no one asking. The Buddha raises his whole body and sends forth light, gives forth a great sound, and then says: listen to me today as I extol and praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.

That the Buddha should praise a bodhisattva of his own accord is a thing that itself requires a reason. The commentator of old cites a question and answer from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom and puts the question to himself: the buddhas do not cling to the world, and look upon outsiders, evil persons, bodhisattvas, and arhats all alike without difference — why then single out one person for praise? The answer is: 「佛雖無吾我，無有憎愛，於一切法，心無所著」—“Although the Buddha has no I and no mine, and neither hatred nor love, and his mind clings to nothing in any dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0707b18〕, yet he pities beings and with a mind of great kindness and compassion guides them all, and therefore distinguishes the good and gives them praise; and moreover 「以佛讚歎故，無量眾生，愛樂菩薩，恭敬供養，後皆成就佛道」—“because the Buddha praises him, measureless beings love and delight in the bodhisattva, revere him and make offerings to him, and afterwards all accomplish the way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0707b21〕

The praise is not for the sake of the one who is praised. It is for the sake of those who hear it.

As for what is praised, the sūtra itself says only one thing: that in the worlds of the ten directions he manifests the great and inconceivable power of awesome spiritual might and of compassion, and rescues and guards in every matter of guilt and suffering. Here a question may be put: why does the Buddha not praise his merit in the six perfections, but praise only the power of awesome spiritual might and of compassion? The reading handed down raises this question head on — 「問：佛何以不讚歎地藏六度功德，而獨讚歎威神慈悲之力乎」—“Question: why does the Buddha not praise Kṣitigarbha’s merit in the six perfections, but praise only the power of his awesome spiritual might and compassion?” 〔X21n0383 0648c19〕; and the answer it cites comes from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「眾生有二種：一者樂善法，二者樂善法果報」—“Beings are of two kinds: the first delight in good dharmas, the second delight in the fruits and recompense of good dharmas.” 〔X21n0383 0648c20〕, and therefore 「為樂善法者，讚歎諸功德；為樂善法果報者，讚歎大神力」—“for those who delight in good dharmas, the several merits are praised; for those who delight in the fruits and recompense of good dharmas, the great spiritual power is praised.” 〔X21n0383 0648c21〕

What the hearers want is the recompense, and so what is praised is the power. What is praised is not a station of fruition but the business of saving people — 「但慈悲之道，救拔為先；菩薩之懷，愍濟為用」—“Only, in the way of kindness and compassion, rescue comes first; in a bodhisattva’s heart, pity and relief are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0707a10〕

Light Is a Manifesting, Sound Is a Speaking

The sending forth of light and the giving forth of sound are both present in this chapter, and in the same order as in the first chapter: first the manifesting, then the speaking.

The reading handed down takes this light as having something to signify: 「顯大地同成智地，會羣生咸入無生」—“to show that the great earth becomes together the ground of wisdom, and to gather the flock of beings so that all enter the unborn.” 〔X21n0384 0706c08〕 The name Kṣitigarbha takes its sense from earth, and this light that shines across the sand-worlds shines upon that same character.

For the sound there is scripture and treatise to go by. 「大音聲，乃三十二相梵聲相」—“The great sound is the mark of the brahmā-voice among the thirty-two marks.” 〔X21n0384 0706c15〕 — it is one of the Buddha’s thirty-two marks, not a voice raised for the occasion. The commentator of old cites the five kinds of voice of the Brahmā King as the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom sets them out: 「其一、深如雷；二、清徹遠聞，聞者悅樂；三、入心敬愛；四、諦了易解；五、聽者無厭」—“the first, deep as thunder; the second, clear and penetrating, heard far off, and those who hear it are glad; the third, it enters the mind and is revered and loved; the fourth, it is exact and plain and easily understood; the fifth, the hearer never wearies of it.” 〔T25n1509 0091a09〕 Deep, far-carrying, lovable, easy to understand, never wearying — three of the five speak of the hearer.

And this sound is addressed to two companies. The commentator of old divides it plainly: 「告諸菩薩者，為流通是經。告天龍等，為擁護是經也」—“That he addresses the bodhisattvas is for the transmission of this sūtra; that he addresses the devas and nāgas and the rest is for the guarding of this sūtra.” 〔X21n0384 0706c20〕 The bodhisattvas are charged with passing it on, the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits with protecting it. One sentence, two commissions.

The sūtra text says only the four characters 「聽吾今日」 — listen to me today — yet the commentator stops a moment upon the character 「聽」, listen: 「聽者，耳之力」—“Listening is the power of the ear.” 〔X21n0384 0706c21〕; what the eye meets is much, and yet it does not enter a person as deeply as the ear does, because 「視散而聽收」—“seeing scatters, hearing gathers in.” 〔X21n0384 0706c23〕 Seeing spreads out; hearing draws in.

What this chapter asks people to do from beginning to end is precisely to read, to recite, to sing, to call the name — all of it upon the ear.

A Sūtra Is Handed Over into Keeping

After the sending forth of light the Buddha at once gives instruction for a matter after his own passing: after my extinction, you bodhisattvas and great beings, and the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits, are to set out every kind of skillful means and guard this sūtra, so that all beings may realize the bliss of nirvāṇa.

Why should a sūtra need to be 「衛護」, guarded? The commentator of old answers here by citing a passage: 「譬如栴檀，能療人病。一切眾生，莫不願得」—“It is as with sandalwood: it can heal people’s sickness, and there is no being who does not wish to obtain it.” 〔X21n0384 0707a21〕; and yet 「有人大得栴檀香樹，束薪賣之，無有買者」—“a man came by a great sandalwood tree, and bound it up as firewood to sell, and there was no one who would buy.” 〔X21n0384 0707a22〕 Someone got a whole sandalwood tree and bundled it up as kindling to sell, and so no one bought it. It is the same with the sūtra: 「此經能令人得道，無不度者」—“this sūtra can bring a person to the Way, and there is none it does not deliver.” 〔X21n0384 0707a23〕, and after the Buddha’s extinction it remains in the world; if no one looks after it, it is like that sandalwood sold for firewood.

The medicine has not gone bad. It is that no one recognizes it as medicine.

So the four characters 「廣作方便」 — set out every kind of skillful means — are not a courtesy. Skillful means is read here as a thing that may not be laid aside — 「方便乃菩薩二利之器，不可須臾暫離」—“Skillful means is the implement of a bodhisattva’s twofold benefit, and may not be set aside for a moment.” 〔X21n0384 0707a17〕

The Name Universally Broad

Next to come forward is the bodhisattva Universally Broad. He appears in this chapter alone in the whole sūtra, and the latter half of this chapter is entirely the Buddha’s answer to his question.

His name is taken apart and given back: 「從心發智，智彌法界，曰普。以智導行，行滿虗空，曰廣」—“Wisdom issues from the mind, and the wisdom fills the dharma-realm: this is called universal. With wisdom he leads his practice, and the practice fills empty space: this is called broad.” 〔X21n0384 0707b11〕 — wisdom reaching everywhere in the dharma-realm is called universal, practice filling empty space is called broad; and 「心是境體，普廣是用」—“the mind is the substance of the object; universal and broad are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0707b12〕

What he asks for the sūtra writes plainly: to expound the matters of the causes and fruits by which Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva benefits humans and gods. The commentator of old holds the two characters 「因果」, cause and fruit, tight: 「正修名因，已得名果」—“What is being cultivated is called the cause; what has been obtained is called the fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0707c06〕, and 「下文章章約人天以明因果」—“the text below, passage upon passage, makes cause and fruit plain in terms of humans and gods.” 〔X21n0384 0707c06〕 — what is spoken of passage by passage below is all the causes and fruits of that one layer, the human and the heavenly.

So this chapter does not speak of the ten grounds or of the three worthy stations. What it speaks of is this: what a person did, and what will come of it.

Counting from One Gaze and One Bow

The first thing the Buddha says in answer has a starting point astonishingly low: whoever hears the name of this Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva — whoever joins the palms, or praises, or bows, or yearns in longing — that person passes beyond thirty kalpas of offences.

To hear the name, to join the palms once, to say one word of praise, to make one bow, to hold him in mind for a moment — five things, and not one of them beyond us. The commentator of old assigns the latter four to the three kinds of action: joining the palms is 「此身業供養」—“this is offering by the action of body.” 〔X21n0384 0708b01〕, praising is 「此口業供養」—“this is offering by the action of speech.” 〔X21n0384 0708b02〕, bowing the head to the ground with the five wheels all rounded 「乃三業普供」—“is a universal offering of all three kinds of action.” 〔X21n0384 0708b03〕, and yearning in longing is 「此意業供養也」—“this is offering by the action of mind.” 〔X21n0384 0708b05〕 Four small things, and body, speech, and mind are all taken up.

And why should the name that is heard have such power? The reading handed down does not take it for a mere token: 「大士之名，萬行萬德莊嚴」—“The name of the great being is adorned with ten thousand practices and ten thousand virtues.” 〔X21n0384 0708a20〕; and the source of that adornment is written most concretely — 「自最初一念救母孝思，便為六道救苦發心根源」—“from the first single thought of filial care to save his mother comes the root and source of the resolve to save from suffering in the six destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0708a20〕 That first thought was only the wish to save one mother, and the resolve to relieve suffering throughout the six destinies grew out of that thought. Only so is the name matched with a simile: 「如耆婆攬草，無非藥者，普能愈病」—“like Jīvaka gathering herbs: there is nothing among them that is not medicine, and all of it can heal sickness.” 〔X21n0384 0708a23〕 — the good physician of old takes up a handful of grass, and not one blade of it is anything but medicine.

The brahmin woman of the introductory section who sold her house and lands to make offerings is where this name comes from. To call this name is to call that one thought.

The passage on sculpting and painting the image speaks more plainly still. The sūtra says only 「一瞻一禮」 — one gaze, one bow — and the commentator of old at once points out the form of the passage: 「此明修因甚少，下明得果極大」—“This makes plain how very little the cause cultivated is; what follows makes plain how very great the fruit obtained is.” 〔X21n0384 0708c09〕 The cause cultivated is as small as it can be made, and the fruit obtained is birth a hundred times over in the Thirty-Three Heaven and never falling into the evil destinies.

And the sūtra even lists the materials: earth, stone, glue, lacquer, gold, silver, copper, iron. The commentator glosses them one by one, and at the last of them says: 「銕於金品最下，而致用為多，民利不可闕也」—“Iron is lowest in rank among the metals, and yet it is put to the most uses; the people’s benefit cannot do without it.” 〔X21n0384 0708c04〕 — iron is the lowest in grade among the metals, and yet the most used, the thing ordinary people cannot do without.

Eight materials set side by side, the costly and the cheap alike counted. Only so can that judgment come down: 「金銀銅銕，價雖貴賤不同，體乃堅剛不異」—“Gold, silver, copper, and iron differ in price as dear and cheap, but in substance they are alike hard and firm.” 〔X21n0384 0708b19〕

The fruit of this passage the sūtra writes as 「猶為國王，不失大利」 — he will still be a king, and will not lose the great benefit. What is the great benefit? Read on the face of it, it is that when the blessings of heaven are spent and he is born down among humans he can still be a king. The reading handed down does not permit a halt here. He first grants the plain layer: taken generally, it is not losing this benefit of making the image and of gazing and bowing; and then he pushes the matter further — 「若深推其意，必以成佛為大利」—“If one pushes its sense deep, the great benefit must be the becoming of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0708c21〕, and cites the Lotus as witness: 「如是諸人等，漸漸積功德，具足大悲心，皆已成佛道」—“Persons such as these, accumulating merit little by little and becoming complete in the mind of great compassion, have all accomplished the way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0708c22〕 He gathers it up with a further judgment: 「今經欲收無始微善，咸趣菩提」—“This sūtra would gather up the slight good of beginningless time and make it all tend toward awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0708c24〕, 「若已發心，隨有毫善，莫非緣因」—“once the resolve has been aroused, whatever hair’s breadth of good there may be is nothing other than a contributing cause.” 〔X21n0384 0708c24〕

This line is the watershed of the chapter. The fruits promised throughout it are, on the face of them, mostly the blessed recompense of humans and gods — birth in heaven, kingship, an upright appearance, abundant clothing and food. If 「大利」, the great benefit, went no further than kingship, this chapter would be a book for seeking blessings. But the reading handed down reads it as the becoming of a buddha: those human and heavenly recompenses are things along the road, not the end of the road. Every blessing promised in the passages that follow is to be read beneath this one line.

The Passage on Being Weary of a Woman’s Body

The next two passages speak of women. The first is of one weary of a woman’s body who makes offerings with all her heart; the second is of one weary of being ugly and much sick who gazes and bows with a wholehearted mind.

The fruit promised in the first passage the sūtra writes in a most particular way: not a change of body but a change of birthplace — 「盡此一報女身，百千萬劫，更不生有女人世界」 — when the woman’s body of this one recompense is spent, through a hundred thousand myriad kalpas she will never again be born in a world that has women in it. The commentator of old points straight to the place: 「即指西方極樂，一向無有女人」—“This points to Ultimate Bliss in the West, where there have never been women at all.” 〔X21n0384 0709b19〕

The axis of original vows has a sibling sūtra. The eighth great vow of The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata runs: 「若有女人，為女百惡之所逼惱，極生厭離，願捨女身」—“If there be a woman oppressed and vexed by the hundred evils of womanhood, who conceives an extreme weariness and wishes to cast off the body of a woman.” 〔T14n0450 0405b05〕, and 「聞我名已，一切皆得轉女成男，具丈夫相」—“having heard my name, all shall be able to turn from woman into man and be complete in the marks of a man.” 〔T14n0450 0405b07〕 The commentator of old himself joined the two places, saying that this passage of our sūtra is 「同藥師願中」—“the same as within the vow of the Medicine Buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0709a07〕 in sense.

Set the two side by side, and this sūtra’s own two layers come out. There what is promised is a turning; here what is promised is never again to be born in such a world; and here there is one sentence more that the other does not have — 「除非慈願力故，要受女身，度脫眾生」 — unless it be by the power of a compassionate vow, that she must take a woman’s body in order to deliver beings. For the weary and for the unweary alike the sūtra leaves a door: some are weary of it and seek release, some are not weary and receive it still, and there is yet a kind who plainly need not receive it and deliberately will. The commentator raises two women as instances: of one, 「此以順愛法門，度眾生也」—“this is delivering beings by the Dharma-gate of going along with love.” 〔X21n0384 0709b22〕, and of the other, 「此以逆愛法門，度眾生也」—“this is delivering beings by the Dharma-gate of going against love.” 〔X21n0384 0709b24〕, and the method in both is 「先以欲鈎牽，後令入佛智」—“first to draw them with the hook of desire, and afterwards to bring them into the wisdom of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0709c02〕

The two sūtras are recorded side by side, with no weighing of higher and lower. What the sūtra itself leaves is that one sentence of exception.

The Two Characters: Wholehearted Mind

The fruit promised in the second passage is stranger still: one has only to 「志心瞻禮，食頃之間」 — gaze and bow with a wholehearted mind for the space of a single meal — before the image, and through a thousand myriad kalpas one’s features are full and complete.

The commentator of old stops here on purpose to give warning: these two characters are 「義深意重，貫於前後，勿輕看過」 — deep in sense and weighty in meaning, running through what goes before and after; do not pass lightly over them. And what is intent? 「志者，心之所至也」—“Intent is that at which the mind arrives.” 〔X21n0384 0710b01〕 — the place the mind reaches.

Then he sets stirring and response in one place: the ugly woman stirs by gazing and bowing, Kṣitigarbha responds by the power of kindness, and at both ends it is one and the same mind; if each clings to his own side, so that grasper and grasped stand apart and ordinary and holy fork away, then stirring and response cannot meet in the Way. Only when, in the very moment of gazing and bowing, one comprehends that grasper and grasped are alike empty, 「則醜婦與地藏，無二無別，功竝由於志心」—“then the ugly woman and Kṣitigarbha are not two and not different, and the merit in both alike comes from the wholehearted mind.” 〔X21n0384 0710b04〕 The weight of that sentence is that it sets the woman who despises her own ugliness in the very same place as the bodhisattva she bows to.

The same passage cites a line of the Ekottarikāgama: 「若欲禮佛者，當來及過去，當觀空無法，是名禮佛義」—“If one would bow to the buddhas, those to come and those past, one should contemplate emptiness and the absence of dharmas: this is what bowing to a buddha means.” 〔X21n0384 0710b06〕

The space of a single meal suffices, not because the time is short or long, but because of whether in that moment our mind has arrived.

Making Music, Singing Praise, and Bringing One Person Along

The sections before this all went by the eye and the body: gazing, bowing, sculpting, painting, making offerings. This section changes the gate — to sound. The sūtra says: to be able, before the bodhisattva’s image, to make every kind of music, and to sing praises, and to make offerings of incense and flowers.

The commentator of old does not let the opening character 「能」, able, pass: 「能者，信善之實」—“Able is the substance of faith in the good.” 〔X21n0384 0710b13〕; one whose faith has no substance cannot do such a thing. Making music takes the hands, singing takes the voice — set beside joining the palms and making a bow, this cannot be hidden.

Singing praises has a name of its own within the Buddhist house. The reading handed down joins the zan of the Middle Land to the bai of the Western Land: 「尋西方之有唄，猶東國之有讚」—“The West has its bai just as the Eastern country has its zan.” 〔X21n0384 0710b22〕; 「讚者從文，以結章；唄者短偈，以流頌」—“Zan follows the text and rounds it into a section; bai is a short verse and lets a chant flow.” 〔X21n0384 0710b23〕 — zan follows the wording and makes a section, bai is a short verse made into a chant. The last line settles it briskly: 「比其事義，名異實同」—“Compare them in matter and in sense: the names differ, the reality is the same.” 〔X21n0384 0710b24〕 Two names, one thing.

Then the sūtra writes a sentence found nowhere else: 「乃至勸於一人多人」—“and even exhorting one person or many.” 〔T13n0412 0782c29〕

This sentence matters. The causes throughout the chapter run downward — hearing the name, joining the palms, one gaze and one bow, the space of a meal, and even a single thought — and every one of them is something a person can finish alone. At this section the sūtra for the first time turns outward: 「不惟信心自為，更以普勸他作，或一或多，隨緣轉化」—“Not only doing it oneself out of a mind of faith, but universally exhorting others to do it, whether one or many, transforming them as conditions allow.” 〔X21n0384 0710c01〕 As for the number exhorted, the sūtra says only one person or many, and sets no threshold at which the count begins; move one, and that is one.

As for why making music should draw down protection, the commentator of old puts the question himself first: 「然作樂供像，何以得鬼神衛護耶」—“But making music as an offering to an image — how does it gain the guarding of ghosts and spirits?” 〔X21n0384 0710c03〕 His answer begins from the Book of Rites: 「禮樂之行乎陰陽，通乎鬼神」—“Rites and music move within the yin and the yang and reach through to the ghosts and spirits.” 〔X21n0384 0710c04〕; and then he fastens it closer — 「況乾闥、緊那皆天帝樂神」—“how much more when the gandharvas and the kiṃnaras are all musician-spirits of the lord of the gods.” 〔X21n0384 0710c06〕 The gandharvas and the kiṃnaras are the spirits who make music in Śakra’s train, and making music before an image falls squarely within their office.

And the fruit the sūtra promises is still upon the ear: constantly to have a hundred thousand ghosts and spirits guarding one day and night, 「不令惡事輒聞其耳」 — not letting an evil matter so much as reach one’s ears.

At one end a voice given out, at the other something not heard. From gate to fruit, this section does the business of the ear.

Three Kinds Who Mock and Slander

The sūtra next writes the reverse side, and writes it in finer detail than the obverse: idly giving rise to mockery and slander, baring the teeth in a laugh, objecting behind the back, exhorting others to object along with one, objecting alone, objecting together with many, and even a single thought that gives rise to mockery and slander. From a crowd’s open ridicule it draws all the way in to one thought in one person’s mind. That last slot is the hardest to see, because it has not even a sound.

Mockery and slander the commentator of old keeps clearly apart: 「譏者，嘲誚之言；毀者，謗壞之事」—“Mockery is a word of derision; slander is the act of defaming and ruining.” 〔X21n0384 0711a10〕; and as for their root: 「譏生忌嫉之心；毀起貪恨之念」—“Mockery is born of a mind of envy; slander arises from a thought of greed and hatred.” 〔X21n0384 0711a11〕, and therefore 「故知心為起惡之源，口乃召禍之本」—“know then that the mind is the source from which evil arises, and the mouth the root that calls down calamity.” 〔X21n0384 0711a12〕

The sūtra raises three kinds: the evil person, the evil spirit, the evil ghost. The commentator asks why they should be envious, and answers most tellingly: 「惡人恐以彼善，形我之惡也」—“The evil person fears that another’s goodness will set off his own evil.” 〔X21n0384 0711a04〕 — afraid that another’s good will show up his own evil; 「惡神恐其出界，失我之眷屬也」—“The evil spirit fears that the man will leave his precincts, and that he will lose one of his own retinue.” 〔X21n0384 0711a05〕 — afraid the man will slip out of his territory; 「惡鬼恐其齋戒，失我之血肉也」—“The evil ghost fears that the man will keep the fast and the precepts, and that he will lose his own flesh and blood.” 〔X21n0384 0711a06〕 — afraid the man will keep the fast and cut off his rations. Three private motives, each unlike the others, and yet 「懷私雖異，為惡是同」—“though the private motives they harbor differ, in doing evil they are the same.” 〔X21n0384 0711a06〕

As for why 「一念」, a single thought, should count as well, the commentator sets down two similes in succession: 「譬夫決江之流，濫觴於甕口；叅天之樹，發蘖乎毫芒」—“It is as when a river bursts its course: the flood begins at a gap the size of a jar’s mouth; and a tree that pierces the sky puts out its first shoot from a hair’s tip.” 〔X21n0384 0711a21〕 — the flood that breaks the dyke starts from a breach the size of a jar’s mouth, and the sky-piercing tree starts from the point of an awn. Then one line gathers it: 「唇口是弓，心慮如弦，音聲如箭，一念如機」—“Lips and mouth are the bow, the mind’s deliberation is the string, the voice is the arrow, and a single thought is the trigger.” 〔X21n0384 0711a22〕

Bow, string, and arrow are all still unmoving; what moves is the trigger.

Three Declarations at the Sickbed

The longest passage in this chapter is about a person long sick.

He lies long upon bed and pillow, seeking to live and seeking to die and getting neither; at night he dreams of evil ghosts and of his household’s kin, or roams perilous roads, or is often held down in sleep; as the days and months and years go deep he grows ever more wasted, and cries out in pain in his sleep. The sūtra explains the cause itself: 「此皆是業道論對，未定輕重」 — all this is a confrontation upon the paths of karma, where the heavier and the lighter have not been settled — the confrontation is going on upon the paths of karma, and the heavier and lighter have not been decided. The reading handed down blocks both ends: 「但未定其罪之輕重，豈便判其人之死生」—“So long as the heaviness or lightness of his offence is not settled, how should the man’s living or dying be judged?” 〔X21n0384 0712a23〕 The one who ought to die cannot for the moment let go of his lifespan; the one who ought not to die drags on unhealed.

And the sūtra at once says something of great importance: the worldly eyes of men and women cannot tell such a matter apart. Not being able to see it is precisely the ordinary condition of this pair of eyes of ours; the sūtra does not require that one see clearly first before being permitted to act.

So what is given below is not a diagnosis but three things that can simply be done: read the sūtra aloud once before the images; take what the sick person holds dear and call out aloud before him that it is given away; declare it three times to the sick person and let him hear it and know it.

Why should the first be read only once? The commentator answers: 「諸佛心者，慈悲為體，能作毉王，善療眾生身心之病」—“The mind of the buddhas has kindness and compassion for its substance; it can act as king of physicians and skillfully heal the sicknesses of beings in body and in mind.” 〔X21n0384 0712b07〕, and 「經是法藥，菩薩是瞻病之人」—“the sūtra is the medicine of Dharma, and the bodhisattva is the one who tends the sick.” 〔X21n0384 0712b08〕; and being medicine of Dharma, then 「金丹一粒，點銕成金，至理一言，革凡成聖」—“a single grain of the golden elixir touches iron and turns it to gold; a single word of the ultimate principle transforms the ordinary into the holy.” 〔X21n0384 0712b10〕

But what, in the end, does reading a sūtra heal? The reading handed down answers this question honestly. He first divides sickness in two: 「世人之病有二種：四大是身病，三毒是心病。身病可用藥，心病須修福」—“The sicknesses of people in the world are of two kinds: the four great elements are the body’s sickness, the three poisons are the mind’s sickness. For the body’s sickness one may use medicine; for the mind’s sickness one must cultivate blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0712b16〕 — earth, water, fire, and wind out of balance is the body’s sickness, greed, hatred, and delusion are the mind’s; for the body’s sickness one takes medicine, for the mind’s one cultivates blessings. He does not say that a sūtra can take the place of medicine: for ordinary cases of cold and fever, 「世醫藥餌，可能療治」—“the physicians of the world and their remedies are able to treat them.” 〔X21n0384 0712b06〕; while what this passage writes of is the sickness of karmic confrontation, 「今是惡業報病，須藉法力方祛」—“this being a sickness of recompense for evil karma, it must be dispelled by relying on the power of the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0712b07〕

So the sort of sickness this sūtra heals was never in the apothecary’s shop. That line above, 「業道論對」 — a confrontation upon the paths of karma — speaks of exactly this sort.

Why should the second be spoken aloud in the sick person’s presence? 「對病高唱者，令知代施功德，憶持在心不忘」—“Calling it out aloud before the sick is to let him know the merit given on his behalf, and to keep it in mind and not forget.” 〔X21n0384 0712b22〕 What is given away belongs to the family; what must remember is the sick person’s mind — the merit is for him himself to know. And why should what is given away be 「可愛之物」, what he holds dear? 「今割其愛，斷病之根也」—“To cut away his attachment now is to sever the root of the sickness.” 〔X21n0384 0712b19〕

The third is repetition. The same words must be said three times, and further 「遣令聞知」 — he must be made to hear it and know it; and the sūtra reckons even the time after death into it: even should the several consciousnesses be scattered and the breath be spent, then for one day, two days, three days, four days, and on to seven days, one need only declare it aloud and read the sūtra aloud.

The commentator here separates two cases: 「假令者，謂藉斯施福，病去身安，何善如之」—“‘Even should’ means: if by this giving and blessing the sickness departs and the body is at ease, what good could equal it?” 〔X21n0384 0712c19〕; 「借使大限難逃，世緣永絕」—“and supposing the appointed term cannot be escaped and the bond with this world is forever cut.” 〔X21n0384 0712c20〕, then within seven days one calls it out and reads just the same.

If the sickness lifts, that is one road; if it does not, that is a road as well. The sūtra does not give only the first.

The Kinsfolk Who Come in Dreams

Next comes another passage of dreams. The dreams of this passage are not of the same sort as those of the last, and the reading handed down separates them at the first word: 「此中之夢，與前夢不同」—“The dreams here are not the same as the dreams before.” 〔X21n0384 0713c01〕 — the last passage was the sick man’s own karmic confrontation; this one is kinsfolk of other lives coming to the door.

What is a dream? He cites an old saying: 「形接為事，神遇為夢」—“When forms touch, it is an affair; when spirits meet, it is a dream.” 〔X21n0384 0713c04〕 Waking is bodies coming into contact; in dream it is spirits that meet.

The forms seen the sūtra writes in detail: now grieving, now weeping, now sorrowing, now sighing, now in dread, now in terror. The commentator says in one line what sort of countenance that is — 「悲啼愁歎，親鬼乞憐之狀也」—“Grieving and weeping, sorrowing and sighing: this is the look of ghostly kin begging for pity.” 〔X21n0384 0713c12〕

Why must the road of dreams be taken? Because 「多生眷屬，故現諸形。未接生前，安能念及乎」—“Being kinsfolk of many lives, they therefore manifest in these forms. Never having met in this present life, how could one so much as call them to mind?” 〔X21n0384 0713c17〕 — kin separated by several lives have never once been met in this life, and if they do not come by way of a dream there is no second road open. Their situation is 「或沉地府，或墜鬼倫。經歷長途，出離寡助」—“Some sunk in the earth-prisons, some fallen among the ghosts; they pass along a long road, and there is little help toward getting out.” 〔X21n0384 0713c21〕; 「既失望福救之處，乃遠告多世之親」—“having lost every place from which to hope for blessing and rescue, they call from afar upon kin of many lives ago.” 〔X21n0384 0713c21〕 — only when there is nowhere left to hope do they speak to flesh and blood of another age. The commentator gathers it in a very weighty line: 「此鬼神無聊之極思有求之苦境也」—“This is the bitter state of ghosts and spirits at the last extremity of helplessness, in a thought that has something to ask.” 〔X21n0384 0713c22〕

And then comes the sentence in this chapter that most needs to be seen clearly. Of the business of cultivating blessings for the dead, the commentator first gives a simile: 「故知，為過去父母等作福，如餉遠人」—“Know then that to make blessings for parents and the rest who have passed is like sending provisions to someone far away.” 〔X21n0384 0713c23〕 — like sending grain to a person at a distance.

Provisions sent are sometimes not delivered. He at once cites a sūtra and sets a limit: 「若為亡人修福行布施」—“If one cultivates blessings and practises giving for a dead person.” 〔X21n0384 0713c24〕, 「鬼容得福，以鬼知悔，前身慳貪，故為施時，彼則歡喜」—“a ghost may obtain the blessing, because a ghost knows regret — knows that in his former body he was miserly and greedy — and so when the giving is done for him, he rejoices.” 〔X21n0384 0714a01〕; 「若生餘道，多無得力」—“but if he has been born into one of the other destinies, for the most part no strength is got from it.” 〔X21n0384 0714a02〕

One born among the ghosts receives it — because a ghost himself knows regret, knows that in his former body he was miserly and greedy, and so when the giving is done he rejoices. One born into the other destinies, for the most part, gets no strength from it.

This limit is a beam holding up both this chapter and the next. Cultivating blessings for the dead is the thing this sūtra teaches most diligently, and it has never been a thing that works unconditionally: the blessing cultivated is not a letter certain of delivery, and whether it arrives hangs on which destiny the one who is to receive it has fallen into. The commentator even follows the limit back to infer who it is that this passage writes of — 「今此輩求作方便，願離惡道，恐是餓鬼之類耶」—“These here, who seek that some means be devised and who wish to leave the evil destinies — are they not likely of the hungry-ghost kind?” 〔X21n0384 0714a02〕 Those who come in dreams to ask are likely just the kind that can receive.

The means the sūtra gives is to read this sūtra oneself with a wholehearted mind, or to request another to read it, three times or seven. Why three and seven? 「皆陽數也」—“Both are yang numbers.” 〔X21n0384 0714a10〕; and 「故唯取三、七之數，不取六、八者，以陰數坎陷，非超冥之道耳」—“therefore only the numbers three and seven are taken and not six and eight, because the yin numbers sink and pit downward, and are no way to rise out of the dark.” 〔X21n0384 0714a15〕 — to bring someone out of a dark place, the very numbers used must be of the kind that go upward.

There is one more line easily slipped over: the Buddha does not commit this business to the dead one’s family but to Universally Broad. Why? 「以世間愚人識恩分者少」—“Because among the foolish of the world few recognize what they owe.” 〔X21n0384 0714a06〕, and how much less kin separated by several lives; 「即有念及者，既未識面，縱形夢寐，想不及此」—“and even those who do call them to mind have never seen their faces, so that though they take shape in dream and sleep, the thought does not reach so far.” 〔X21n0384 0714a08〕 — even having dreamed of them, one would not know who they were.

And at the end the sūtra gives a term by which the work may be checked: kinsfolk such as these in the evil destinies, once the sound of the recitation has filled out that number, shall gain release, 「乃至夢寐之中，永不復見」 — and even in dream and sleep they shall never be seen again. The word release is not read here in any recondite way: 「解脫者，離惡道也」—“Release means leaving the evil destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0714a19〕

The dream is a letter. That the dream does not come again is the reply.

Written for Those Who Cannot Be Their Own Masters

The people this chapter has written of so far are mostly people who can act for themselves: who can make an image, who can make offerings, who can give away what they hold dear, who can ask someone to read a sūtra. The section that follows writes of another kind.

The sūtra says: there are persons of every sort who are lowly, whether bondmen or bondwomen, and even persons of every sort who are not their own masters.

The five characters 「諸不自由之人」 — persons of every sort who are not their own masters — the reading handed down deliberately pushes one layer outward: 「非下賤奴婢之流，乃皂隸門舘之類」—“Not the class of lowly bondmen and bondwomen, but the sort who are runners and clerks and household retainers.” 〔X21n0384 0714b10〕 — not those bound by register, but the sort who are hired, supervised, and sent about at another’s word. He writes their days most concretely: 「月有請受，日藉資生」—“By the month they draw their pay; by the day they get their living.” 〔X21n0384 0714b10〕; 「聞呼喚而來，仰其鼻息；聽發遣而去，承其聲光，身不自從，非丈夫矣」—“Hearing the call they come, and look to another’s breath; hearing the dismissal they go, and take their cue from another’s voice and countenance; their bodies do not follow themselves — such a one is not his own man.” 〔X21n0384 0714b11〕 They draw a wage by the month and live from day to day; one call and they must come, one word and they must go, and their bodies are not their own.

And the threshold the sūtra sets is 「覺知宿業，要懺悔者」 — those who become aware of the karma of former lives and wish to repent. The commentator here separates two kinds of people: the unaware sort simply take their days for what they had to be; 「若稍黠慧有覺知者，豈惟哀之，誠欲脫之」—“but one who has a little sharpness of wit and does become aware — he does not merely grieve over it, he genuinely wishes to be free of it.” 〔X21n0384 0714b15〕 — not self-pity merely, but a real wish to get out.

Why should the unfree in particular need to repent? He cites a sūtra for the reason: 「繫屬於他，常有怖畏，不得自在，而造諸惡」—“Bound in subjection to another, constantly in fear, unable to be at their own disposal, they commit every kind of evil.” 〔T16n0663 0337a13〕 Held under another’s control, constantly in fear, unable to decide, they make evil in just this way. This line reads unfreedom as the situation in which karma is made, not as a recompense whose case is already closed.

The two characters for repentance are glossed as well: 「梵語懺摩，此云悔過，華梵雙標也」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed chanmo; here it means to repent of a transgression — the term sets Chinese and Sanskrit side by side.” 〔X21n0384 0714b17〕 — one word made of half Sanskrit and half Chinese. And where in the end does it come down? 「懺悔秪是三善業耳」—“Repentance is nothing but the three good kinds of action.” 〔X21n0384 0714b18〕 Doing good in the three places of body, speech, and mind — that and no more; there is no other contrivance.

The single seven days and the ten thousand recitations are explained too. 「一七者，世數，極於七也」—“A single seven: it is a worldly number, and seven is its limit.” 〔X21n0384 0714b22〕; 「一日念之不應，念之七日，必遂所求」—“If calling for one day brings no response, call for seven days, and what is sought will surely be granted.” 〔X21n0384 0714b22〕 The number ten thousand is a matched pair: 「滿萬徧者，表祛萬惡，集萬善也」—“To fill out ten thousand recitations signifies driving off ten thousand evils and gathering ten thousand goods.” 〔X21n0384 0714c01〕 — not a quota of work, but ten thousand evils set against ten thousand goods.

Not one of the causes in this section costs money: no image is made, no offering given, nothing handed over. What is left in the hands of a person whose body is not his own is a name and seven days. And the fruit promised is that when this recompense is spent he will constantly be born into honor — and the commentator finds even that not said far enough: 「今七日稱名，豈止千萬生中尊貴，不經惡道，即佛果必可期也」—“Calling the name for seven days now — how should it stop at honor through a thousand myriad births and at not passing through the evil destinies? The fruit of buddhahood itself may certainly be looked for.” 〔X21n0384 0714c07〕

A Child Just Born

The last section wrote of those who have lived half a life and cannot act for themselves; this one writes of one just come into the world, who has not yet had time to do anything at all. The causes of the chapter, walking downward, reach their lowest point here — the one who benefits has done nothing, and the ones who act are the people of his household.

Why is Jambudvīpa alone raised? The reading handed down compares the continents one by one: 「但舉南洲者，北洲產於樹下，亦無惡露苦惱」—“That only the southern continent is raised is because in the northern continent they give birth beneath a tree, and there is neither foul discharge nor distress.” 〔X21n0384 0714c12〕, and 「唯有南洲，女人多產多苦」—“only in the southern continent do women bear much and suffer much.” 〔X21n0384 0714c13〕 The reason is stated plainly: 「以一切諸眾生母，欲生子時，身體遍痛，受大苦惱，數坐數起，不能自安」—“because the mother of every being, when she is about to bear her child, aches throughout her body, undergoes great distress, sits down and rises again and again, and cannot settle herself.” 〔X21n0384 0714c14〕

He does not write childbirth as a happy occasion. He counts over the ways it can go wrong: 「或順生，或逆生，甚有一足先下，謂之踏蓮生，母腸同出，謂之盤腸生。此最險惡，命在須臾」—“Some come forth the right way about, some the reverse; there are even those where one foot comes down first, which is called a treading-the-lotus birth, and those where the mother’s bowels come out along with the child, which is called a coiled-bowel birth. This last is the most perilous, and life hangs upon a moment.” 〔X21n0384 0715a21〕

Why 「七日之中，早與讀誦」 — within seven days, and early, read and recite for the child — why early? The commentator cites a spell-sūtra in answer. That sūtra records the Great Brahmā King saying to the Buddha that 「有夜叉羅剎，常喜啗人胎」—“there are yakṣas and rākṣasas who constantly delight in devouring human embryos.” 〔X21n0384 0715a02〕, and can leave people childless, injure the womb, and even snatch the child away at birth; and it lists them by name one by one: 「此十五鬼神，常遊行世間為嬰孩小兒，作於恐怖」—“These fifteen ghosts and spirits constantly roam the world and work terror upon infants and little children.” 〔X21n0384 0715a06〕 Therefore 「今故早讀本願經，及與地藏名，則令善神擁衛門戶，惡鬼自遠遁矣」—“therefore one reads the Sūtra of the Original Vows early now, together with Kṣitigarbha’s name, and then good spirits guard the doorway and the evil ghosts flee far off of themselves.” 〔X21n0384 0715a08〕

What is guarded is the doorway; it is not a matter of holding the child and warding off blows.

This passage has an echo elsewhere within the sūtra. Later a ghost king, Master-of-Life, states his own office and speaks of the birth-chamber: 「是產難時，有無數惡鬼，及魍魎精魅，欲食腥血」—“At the time of that hard delivery there are numberless evil ghosts, and wangliang sprites and goblins, wanting to eat the raw blood.” 〔T13n0412 0785b20〕 — and he has already had the earth-spirits of house and grounds bear up and guard both child and mother. This chapter writes from the human end what ought to be done; that chapter writes from the ghost king’s end what he is already doing. One birth-chamber, seen from two sides.

And the fruit the sūtra promises is divided between two kinds of children. For one with calamitous recompense from former lives, 「便得解脫，安樂易養，壽命增長」 — he thereupon gains release, is at ease and easy to rear, and his lifespan increases; for one born upon the strength of blessings to begin with, 「轉增安樂，及與壽命」 — his ease and his lifespan are increased the more. The one in debt has his debt discharged, the one not in debt has blessing added — the sūtra does not write only for the unlucky sort.

Ten Days

What this chapter gives at the last is a calendar.

On the first day of the month, the eighth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the eighteenth, the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth, the twenty-eighth, the twenty-ninth, and on to the thirtieth — ten days. The sūtra says that on these days 「諸罪結集，定其輕重」 — the several offences are gathered together and their heaviness and lightness settled — and that to read the sūtra once through on these ten days leaves no calamity within a hundred yojanas, and the household forever free of the evil destinies.

The ten days are not counted off at random. The reading handed down first distinguishes three kinds of fast: 「世之持齋者，有三長齋、月六齋、十齋不同」—“Those in the world who keep the fast differ: there are the three long fasts, the six monthly fast days, and the ten fast days.” 〔X21n0384 0715b17〕; and the old ground for the six is the Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings — that sūtra says the Four Heavenly Kings 「常以月八日」—“constantly, on the eighth day of the month.” 〔T15n0590 0118b04〕 send down their envoys, and 「十四日遣太子下；十五日四天王自下；二十三」—“on the fourteenth they send down the princes; on the fifteenth the Four Heavenly Kings come down themselves; on the twenty-third.” 〔T15n0590 0118b06〕 the envoys come down again, on the twenty-ninth the princes again, and on the thirtieth the four kings again themselves, their charge being 「勤伺眾生，施行吉凶」—“diligently to watch over beings and to deal out fortune and misfortune.” 〔T15n0590 0118b10〕

The ten fasts add four more days on top of these six. Each of the ten days has its own name, and the reading handed down reports them day by day, following the Sūtra of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva on Good and Evil Days and the Constellations 〔X21n0384 0715b18〕: 「每月一日，梵云鉢闍底下」—“On the first day of each month, the one called in Sanskrit bosheti comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b18〕, 「是建名日。宜為善業，苦節修行布施等事，竝吉」—“This is the Day of Establishing the Name. It is fitting for good deeds; austere discipline, cultivation, giving, and the like are all auspicious.” 〔X21n0384 0715b19〕; 「八日、二十三日，是力戰日，婆娑善神下，宜力用之事」—“The eighth and the twenty-third are the Days of Battle-Strength; the good spirit Posuo comes down; they suit matters that require the use of strength.” 〔X21n0384 0715b20〕; 「十四日、二十九日，是勇猛日，藥蒭神下」—“The fourteenth and the twenty-ninth are the Days of Valor; the spirit Yaochu comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b21〕; 「二十四日，是凶猛日，嚕達囉尼神下」—“The twenty-fourth is the Day of Fierceness; the spirit Ludaluoni comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b22〕; 「二十八日，是最勝日，鉢折底神下」—“The twenty-eighth is the Day of Supremacy; the spirit Bozhedi comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b22〕; 「十五日、三十日，是吉相日，必多盧神下」—“The fifteenth and the thirtieth are the Days of the Auspicious Sign; the spirit Biduolu comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b23〕, and on these two days 「宜祭先亡，及布施供養父母、尊者、諸天，持齋戒施食」—“it is fitting to sacrifice to the departed, and to give to and make offerings for parents, elders, and the gods, and to keep the fast and the precepts and to give food.” 〔X21n0384 0715b24〕 Only when the names for all ten days have been listed does the line come down: 「故取此十日為齋日也」—“and so these ten days are taken as the fast days.” 〔X21n0384 0715c02〕

Establishing the Name, Battle-Strength, Valor, Fierceness, Supremacy, the Auspicious Sign — the ten days are not ten identical blanks. Some suit giving, some the use of strength; some are valorous and some are fierce; and the fifteenth and the thirtieth are the days set apart for sacrifice to the departed. The sūtra listed only the numbers; this roster is what the commentator has put in.

What shows most backbone in this passage is the few lines in which he defends the translator. The sūtra text says 「二十九日，乃至三十日」 — the twenty-ninth day, and on to the thirtieth — but the thirtieth comes straight after the twenty-ninth and nothing is skipped between them, so why 「乃至」, and on to? 「但乃至二字，自古講者，皆云超略之辭」—“As for the two characters ‘and on to,’ expounders from of old have all called them a phrase of skipping and abbreviating.” 〔X21n0384 0715c02〕, and so some reproached the translator with not understanding. He does not agree, and puts it very strongly: 「譯師不通甚矣。非也。含蓄深意，人不知也」—“‘The translator understood nothing at all.’ Not so. There is a deep meaning held in reserve, and people do not know it.” 〔X21n0384 0715c04〕 His own explanation is that the old gloss of the character is “hard,” and that what the two characters say is 「今言一日至三十日，如是十日無間，至難至難也」—“to say now, from the first day to the thirtieth, ten such days without a break — that is hard, hard indeed.” 〔X21n0384 0715c07〕 — to keep all ten of these days within one month is hard and hard again. And having said it, he puts a question back: 「若不信此解，若為通此二字乎」—“If you do not believe this explanation, how then will you make sense of these two characters?” 〔X21n0384 0715c08〕

The character for fast is itself glossed once through. The old gloss is 「齋之為言，齊也。齊不齊，以致齊者也」—“Fast says even: it evens what is uneven, and so brings about evenness.” 〔X21n0384 0716b18〕 — making even what is uneven. And within the Buddhist house, 「今釋氏以不過中食為齋」—“the followers of Śākya now take not eating past noon as the fast.” 〔X21n0384 0716b19〕; and deeper still, the commentator cites a line: 「齋者，只是中道也」—“The fast is simply the Middle Way.” 〔X21n0384 0716b21〕

Making the uneven even, not eating past noon, the Middle Way — three layers of sense laid one upon another in a single character.

As for why these days should be singled out at all, the commentator of old cites at the last a line of the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, which says it most plainly: 「六齋日，諸天來觀人心」—“On the six fast days the gods come to look at people’s minds.” 〔X21n0384 0716b13〕; 「若有是日受八戒持齋布施聽法，是時諸天歡喜，小鬼不得其便，利益行者」—“If on these days one receives the eight precepts, keeps the fast, gives, and listens to the Dharma, then the gods rejoice, the lesser ghosts find no opening, and the practitioner is benefited.” 〔X21n0384 0716b15〕

What they come to look at is not the offerings but people’s minds.

Those Who Read and See No Effect

The fruit promised in the passage on the ten fast days is very great: no calamity within a hundred yojanas, a household forever free of the evil destinies, clothing and food abundant and to spare.

The commentator of old does not let this pass. He puts the question to himself on the spot: 「然今非無讀經者，竟不獲報，何也」—“Yet it is not that there are none today who read sūtras, and still they gain no recompense. Why is this?” 〔X21n0384 0716c07〕 — it is not that no one reads the sūtra nowadays; why then is no effect seen?

He gives two answers. The first: 「一、方內之人，及居家之屬，前生罪惡深重，則是定業難逃」—“First, that among people within the region and the members of the household, the offences and evils of former lives are deep and heavy, and fixed karma is hard to escape.” 〔X21n0384 0716c08〕 The second lies with the one who reads: 「志心者，誦經得力，故能轉宿殃；不志心者，誦力既淺，福不勝罪，故難轉也」—“One of wholehearted mind gets strength from reciting the sūtra, and so can turn the calamity of former lives; one not of wholehearted mind has but shallow strength in his reciting, and his blessing does not outweigh his offences, and so it is hard to turn.” 〔X21n0384 0716c09〕

A book of commentary, at the very place where the blessings promised are richest, suddenly stops to admit that there are indeed people who read and get nothing by it. The admission does not weaken what came before — it raises once more those two characters from before, 「志心」, the wholehearted mind. One and the same reading of the sūtra: where our minds arrive as we read, there the result arrives too; and the difference is not a matter of how fluently it is recited.

Turning the Ears and Eyes Back

The ten fast days told, the Buddha draws his brush to a close: the beings of Jambudvīpa have a great affinity with this great being.

The two characters for affinity the reading handed down does not take in any recondite sense: 「因緣，秪是感應異名」—“Affinity is simply another name for stirring and response.” 〔X21n0384 0717a03〕 — a stirring at one end, a response at the other, and the line between them is called affinity. And the character 「大」, great, points to something else: 「大者，皆欲令其開、示、悟、入佛之知見，大事因緣也」—“Great means: all of it is meant to make them open, be shown, awaken to, and enter a buddha’s knowledge and vision — the affinity of the one great matter.” 〔X21n0384 0717a03〕

Why should it be the people of this one continent in particular who have an affinity with this bodhisattva? The answer is homely: 「譬子墮水火，父母騷擾救之；子有疾病，父母心偏愛之」—“It is as when a child falls into water or fire and the parents are thrown into a commotion to save him; or when a child is sick and the parents’ hearts are partial to him.” 〔X21n0384 0717a09〕; 「以南洲眾生，罪業偏重故也」—“because the karmic offences of the beings of the southern continent are particularly heavy.” 〔X21n0384 0717a10〕 It is not that the people here are better, but that the people here are more gravely ill. And between stirring and response there is no before and after — 「譬如磁石吸銕，應感同時」—“as a lodestone draws iron: response and stirring are at one instant.” 〔X21n0384 0717a12〕

Then comes the last question of the chapter: hearing a name, seeing an image, listening to three or five characters — how should that count for anything? The reading handed down gives a direct answer here: 「此言聞名見像者，明旋復之功也」—“That it speaks here of hearing the name and seeing the image is to make plain the work of turning back.” 〔X21n0384 0717a18〕

To turn is to come back round. Seeing and hearing run outward by nature: the eye chases forms, the ear chases sounds, and once out they cannot be gathered in again. 「今旋其妄聞，聞菩薩之名；旋其妄見，見菩薩之像」—“Now one turns one’s deluded hearing and hears the bodhisattva’s name; one turns one’s deluded seeing and sees the bodhisattva’s image.” 〔X21n0384 0717a21〕 — the same pair of ears and eyes, never exchanged, only turned in another direction; and at the furthest point, 「名無名，而真聞了了；像無像，而真見昭昭」—“the name is nameless, and the true hearing is perfectly clear; the image is imageless, and the true seeing is perfectly bright.” 〔X21n0384 0717a23〕 The name is heard until there is no name, and that hearing becomes utterly clear instead.

Only so does the sūtra dare to lower the threshold to three characters or five: 「一偈則一門超出，一句則一性圓明」—“By a single verse one gate is passed beyond; by a single line one nature is round and bright.” 〔X21n0384 0717b03〕

This section gathers all the causes of the chapter back into one place. Gazing, bowing, praising, singing, reading, calling the name — counted separately they are six or seven things; gathered up they are only one: turning the ears and eyes, which have always run outward, in another direction.

Three Names

At the last Universally Broad asks the name of the sūtra, and the Buddha gives three: the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha, the Original Practice of Kṣitigarbha, the Power of Kṣitigarbha’s Original Pledge.

The commentator of old glosses each in turn. Original practice 「即本昔之行」—“is the practice of the original past.” 〔X21n0384 0717c23〕; and the power of the original pledge he glosses from the Sanskrit: 「梵語僧那，此云弘誓」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed sengna; here it means the great pledge.” 〔X21n0384 0718a02〕, 「梵名娑羅，此云力」—“the Sanskrit name is transcribed suoluo; here it means power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a05〕 And the character 「力」, power, is not left as a generality but fastened item by item upon this bodhisattva: since he first aroused the resolve 「不為天魔沮壞，一力也」—“he is not thwarted or wrecked by the māras of the heavens: that is the first power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a08〕; wherever he is he benefits beings, the second power; he has the daring to transform the hells in particular, the third power; 「能為六道得依，四力也」—“he can be that on which the six destinies rely: that is the fourth power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a09〕

Of the three names, the Buddha chose none. Those who gathered the sūtra chose the first — 「此顯地藏之名，亦從本願而立」—“This shows that the name Kṣitigarbha too is set up from the original vow.” 〔X21n0384 0718a14〕, 「故集家單以本願立題，深有以也」—“and so the compilers set up the title by the original vow alone, and there is deep reason in it.” 〔X21n0384 0718a15〕

Vow, practice, and power are one string: from the vow the practice arises, and practice long continued becomes power. To set up the original vow alone is to set up the end that comes first.

Transmission — A Qing Outline-Commentary, and a Sibling Sūtra of the Same Axis

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the great division on the conditions of deliverance; the gloss on the sending forth of light and the giving forth of sound; the simile of the sandalwood bound up as firewood; the sense of the name Universally Broad; the judgment that the cause cultivated is very small and the fruit obtained very great; the pushing of the great benefit through to buddhahood; the simile of Jīvaka gathering herbs; the raising of the two characters for the wholehearted mind; that bai and zan differ in name and are the same in fact; the private motives of the three kinds who mock and slander; the order of the three things to be done in long sickness and the division of sickness into body and mind; the limit set upon cultivating blessings for those who come in dreams; the look of those who are not their own masters; the reason for reading early upon a birth; the names of the ten fast days one by one and the argument over 「乃至」; the work of turning back; and the gloss on the three names with the matching of the four powers. He opens by citing the Ratnamegha Sūtra to set the key of this chapter: 「寶雨經云：云何菩薩能令稱歎」—“The Ratnamegha Sūtra says: how does a bodhisattva bring it about that he is praised?” 〔X21n0384 0706b18〕, and the answer is 「如月出現，能使人間城邑聚落諸剎帝利、婆羅門等，若男若女，悉皆稱讚」—“As when the moon appears, it can make the kṣatriyas and brahmins and the rest, in the cities and towns and villages of the human world, whether men or women, all alike praise it.” 〔X21n0384 0706b19〕 — the moon comes out, and the whole city naturally lifts its head. With this he begins the section on the sending forth of light and the praising.

In his glossing of this chapter there are two side branches worth recording.

First, in glossing the provenance of the ten fasts he reports the books he follows one by one: 「準佛祖統記，引提謂經，明三長齋」—“Following the Comprehensive Record of the Buddhas and Patriarchs, it cites the Trapuṣa Sūtra to make plain the three long fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c09〕, 「引四天王經，明六齋」—“it cites the Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings to make plain the six fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c15〕, 「引十齋經，明十齋」—“it cites the Sūtra of the Ten Fasts to make plain the ten fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c19〕, and he records the law of the state in his own day: 「今國律，令諸州十直日，不得行刑，正據此義」—“the present statutes of the state order that in all the prefectures, on the ten appointed days, no punishment be carried out; this rests upon exactly this sense.” 〔X21n0384 0715c20〕 And what the Comprehensive Record of the Buddhas and Patriarchs itself sets down is just this: 「每月十齋日。持佛菩薩號乞福滅罪」—“The ten fast days of each month. One holds the names of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, praying for blessings and the extinction of offences.” 〔T49n2035 0320c06〕; and the same work records an edict of Gaozu of the Tang in the second year of Wude: 「正五九月及月十齋日。不得行刑屠釣。永為國式」—“In the first, fifth, and ninth months, and on the ten fast days of each month, no punishment shall be carried out, nor butchering, nor fishing. Let this be a standard of the state forever.” 〔T49n2035 0362b03〕 A calendar that came out of a sūtra was once written into the penal law of a dynasty.

Second, in glossing the passage on the use of glue in making images, he compares point by point the differences between the disciplinary rules and local products, and at the last sets up a rule about pennants: 「凡造旛法，切不得安佛菩薩像，及名號等」—“In the method of making pennants, one must on no account set upon them images of buddhas and bodhisattvas, or their names and titles.” 〔X21n0384 0709b10〕, the reason being 「旛是供具，供於所供，如何復以像名為之」—“a pennant is an implement of offering, offered to what is offered to; how then should the image or the name be made into it?” 〔X21n0384 0709b11〕 — a pennant is a thing brought as an offering, and the name of what is offered to should not be written upon it. Details of this kind are recorded, not adjudicated.

And there is one more thing, which he writes in the account of the occasion at the head of the work: he left home young, and before he could support them his parents had died; and so in the winter of the jiwei year of Kangxi he copied out a text of this sūtra with his own hand, and 「每遇十齋日，披衣敬讀一過」—“whenever a fast day of the ten came round, he put on his robe and reverently read it through once.” 〔X21n0383 0639a08〕, 「為資冥之大猷，作酬恩之常課」—“as a great plan for aiding those in the dark, and as a regular exercise for repaying kindness.” 〔X21n0383 0639a09〕 The ten days this chapter sets up, the man who glossed this chapter kept himself.

There are two further mirrors that may be read alongside, set side by side without weighing higher and lower.

The first is The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata. The two sūtras alike take 「本願」, original vows, into their titles, and alike make the hearing of the name the gate of benefit; that sūtra says 「我之名號，一經其耳」—“my name, once it has passed his ear.” 〔T14n0450 0405b02〕 and the sicknesses are all removed, while this chapter speaks of hearing the name, seeing the image, and even hearing three characters or five of this sūtra. The difference in the passage on weariness of a woman’s body has been seen above: there a turning of the body is promised, here a turning of the birthplace, and here there is one sentence of exception besides. The two sūtras are recorded side by side; no collation of wording is made.

The second is the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra. That sūtra speaks of the benefit of calling the name, and its sentence occurs nineteen times in the whole work: 「有能至心稱名、念誦、歸敬、供養地藏菩薩摩訶薩者」—“If there be any who with utmost mind call the name of, recite, take refuge in and revere, and make offerings to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.” 〔T13n0411 0724b23〕, all shall obtain what they seek in accordance with the Dharma and be free of every sorrow and suffering; and there is a verse that runs 「一日稱地藏，功德大名聞」—“To call upon Kṣitigarbha for a single day — the merit of it, and the great renown.” 〔T13n0411 0727c09〕, 「勝俱胝劫中，稱餘智者德」—“surpasses praising the virtue of other wise ones through koṭis of kalpas.” 〔T13n0411 0727c10〕 That calling the name for one day surpasses praising another through many kalpas shares its frame with this chapter’s 「乃至一七日中，念菩薩名，可滿萬遍」 — and within a single seven days call the bodhisattva’s name to the full ten thousand times. And that sūtra nowhere brings out any list of fast days — this calendar of ten fast days is a layer this sūtra alone has. Sūtras of the same honored one but of different text, set side by side for parallel reading, with no weighing of higher and lower.

And the sūtra’s own light is bound to no mirror at all. It goes forth from the Buddha’s whole body and shines across buddha-worlds as many as a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of sands of the Ganges, and comes down at the last beside a sick person’s bed, and upon ten days in the month of a single household.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing, before which stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. In glossing the title of this chapter the Guiding Thread first explains why it follows upon the chapter before: 「前品既讚歎威神之力，今明利益存亡，以顯其實」—“The previous chapter having praised the power of awesome spiritual might, the present makes plain the benefiting of the living and the dead, to display its substance.” 〔X21n0383 0648c24〕, and cites an old saying as a footnote — 「古聖云：駕之於空言，不如見之於實事」—“The sages of old said: to ride upon empty words is not so good as to see it in actual fact.” 〔X21n0383 0648c24〕 The previous chapter praised the power of awesome spiritual might; this chapter sets that power down upon one concrete matter. The Outline and Commentary divides this chapter into three passages: 「二、品文，三。初、地藏正明；二、大辯助顯；三、鬼神發心」—“Second, the text of the chapter, in three: first, Kṣitigarbha makes it plain directly; second, Great Eloquence helps to display it; third, the ghosts and spirits arouse the resolve.” 〔X21n0384 0718c08〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

At the Head of a Fascicle, a Thought First

This chapter is the first of Fascicle Two in the base text. The title at the head of the fascicle, 「地藏菩薩本願經卷下」 — The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Fascicle Two — is written out, and immediately after it comes the chapter title: the sūtra changes fascicle here.

The first six chapters spoke of the original vows, the divided bodies, karmic conditions, karmic impulsions, the names of the hells, and the Tathāgata’s praise, all of them vast scenes throughout. Turn the fascicle, and the first sentence comes down in the smallest place of all: 「舉心動念，無非是罪。」 — in every stirring of the mind and every rising of a thought there is nothing that is not offence.

The reading handed down takes this sentence apart: 「心念指六識，舉動是功能」—“Mind and thought point to the sixth consciousness; stirring and moving are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0718c14〕; 「由六七二識和合，濁亂八識主人」—“through the combining of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, the master that is the eighth consciousness is muddied and thrown into disorder.” 〔X21n0384 0718c14〕, and the eighth in turn drives the first five to covet sounds and cling to forms and to grasp at everything on every side, 「故曰無非是罪」—“and therefore it is said that there is nothing that is not offence.” 〔X21n0384 0718c16〕

Immediately after, the sūtra writes a very exact observation: 「脫獲善利，多退初心；若遇惡緣，念念增益。」 — if by chance they get some benefit from the good, for the most part they lose again the mind they began with; and if they meet with an evil condition, thought upon thought it grows and increases. The good side is easily lost, the evil side easily grows — an observation not strange to us. The commentator of old cites a line of scripture here in witness: 「僧護經云：閻浮提人，為性難信」—“The Senghu Sūtra says: the people of Jambudvīpa are by nature hard to bring to faith.” 〔X21n0384 0718c17〕

The two sides move at different speeds. This sentence is the premise of every method set out later in the chapter — for if good and evil went at the same rate, there would be no need for anyone to act on a dying person’s behalf.

The Heavy Stone in the Mud, and the One Who Carries It for Him

The sūtra then sets up a simile: 「如履泥塗，負於重石，漸困漸重，足步深邃。」 — like one walking upon a muddy road with a heavy stone upon his back, growing wearier and the stone heavier, his steps sinking deep. The reading handed down makes plain what it points to: 「初喻南洲眾生，善退惡增，如履淖泥之途」—“The first simile is of the beings of the southern continent, whose good recedes and whose evil grows, like walking a road of miry mud.” 〔X21n0384 0719a10〕 A muddy road is hard to walk in any case, and how much more with a stone on one’s back; the wearier, the heavier, and the heavier, the deeper he sinks — the sūtra uses a simile that accelerates of itself.

The simile is not yet finished. The sūtra at once writes the turn: 「若得遇知識，替與減負，或全與負。」 — if he is able to meet a good friend who takes off part of the burden for him, or who takes the whole burden upon himself. As to what a friend is, of old it is divided into a near and a far layer: 「知識有近遠。近指父母眷屬，為作福事者；遠指佛、菩薩等，銷滅其罪者」—“Friends are of the near and of the far. The near are parents and kin, who do deeds of blessing on his behalf; the far are the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the rest, who extinguish his offences.” 〔X21n0384 0719a15〕 The near are the family who act on his behalf; the far are the buddhas and bodhisattvas who dissolve his karmic offences. To lessen the load is to share half of it; to take the whole load is to take the entire thing over.

The sūtra has four more clauses below: 「復相扶助，勸令牢脚」 — and further supports and helps him, and exhorts him to set his feet firm — and 「若達平地，須省惡路，無再經歷」 — and if he reaches level ground, he should look back upon the evil road and not travel it again. The commentator of old matches each back to a place in practice: 「相扶，喻教十善；牢脚，喻持心無退」—“Supporting him figures teaching the ten good deeds; setting the feet firm figures holding the mind without falling back.” 〔X21n0384 0719a24〕; 「平路，譬升出人天；省惡，譬念三塗苦」—“Level ground likens rising out into the human and heavenly states; looking back upon the evil likens recollecting the suffering of the three evil paths.” 〔X21n0384 0719b01〕

There is a point in this simile easily passed over: the friend carries the stone for him, but does not walk for him. The stone is off, and that road is still walked to the end by himself.

The Few Things to Be Done at the End of Life

The simile told, the sūtra returns to the dharma in a single line: beings who practise evil begin from a hair’s breadth and come to the measureless.

Turn the two characters 「習惡」, practising evil, about, and you have 「惡習」, evil habit; and it is exactly this reversal that the commentator of old distinguishes: 「惡習，指種子。習惡，指現行」—“Evil habit points to the seed; practising evil points to the present activity.” 〔X21n0384 0719b05〕 The part that lies stored is called evil habit; the thing being done just now is called practising evil. Only where there is a seed is there a present activity, and so a hair’s breadth can reach the measureless.

One order of two characters divides cause from fruit into two ends. And the sūtra goes on to say 「是諸眾生，有如此習」 — these beings have such habits — and what it says is exactly that 「有」, have: not what he is doing at this moment, but what is stored in him.

「臨命終時，父母眷屬宜為設福，以資前路。」 — At the time when life comes to its end, the parents and kin should set up blessings for him, to provision the road ahead.

The sūtra lists five: hanging up pennants and canopies, lighting oil lamps, reading through the honored scriptures, making offerings to images of the buddhas and of the sages, and calling the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas and pratyekabuddhas. The reading handed down divides the five into two classes: 「此中修福有二栽果」—“In cultivating blessings here there are two kinds of fruit planted.” 〔X21n0384 0719c05〕 — 「一修事福果，懸旛設葢然燈，一敬三寶果，轉經供像稱名」—“one is the fruit of cultivating blessings in matters — hanging pennants, setting up canopies, lighting lamps; one is the fruit of revering the Three Jewels — reading the sūtra, offering to images, calling the name.” 〔X21n0384 0719c05〕 The first three are blessings upon the plane of things; the latter two are blessings of reverence for the Three Jewels.

Of the five, the sūtra speaks in special detail of the last: 「一名一號，歷臨終人耳根，或聞在本識。」 — one name, one title, passing through the ear-faculty of the dying person, or heard down into his root-consciousness. It does not say whether he believes, nor whether he understands; only that the sound passes through the ear-faculty and comes down into the lowest layer of consciousness. A simile is set up of old for this: 「譬之金剛入腹，經久不爛，要必穿腸而出」—“It is like a diamond swallowed into the belly: however long it stays it does not rot, and must in the end pass through the bowels and come out.” 〔X21n0384 0719c16〕 — a swallowed diamond will not be digested, and in time it must come out again. Hence it is said, 「一歷耳根，永為道種」—“once it has passed through the ear-faculty, it is forever a seed of the Way.” 〔X21n0384 0719c18〕

There is in truth not much that can be done at the moment of death. The five things the sūtra picks out all require nothing of the person concerned — which is to say, they are all things we can accomplish on his behalf.

A Sentence One Can Take Back and Test Oneself By

The five told, the sūtra gives the result: the evil karma these beings have made, if one reckons the fruit it stirs up, must bring them down into the evil destinies; but because the kin have cultivated these holy causes for the dying person, the many offences such as these are all extinguished. This is exactly the 「全與負」 of the earlier simile — the whole burden taken over. The commentator of old sets down two similes for it in succession: 「如猛風之吹浮雲，似大水之滅小火」—“like a fierce wind blowing away drifting cloud, like a great water putting out a little fire.” 〔X21n0384 0720a09〕

But just before this sentence he has inserted a passage of another kind. He cites a sūtra and asks: when beings cast off this body and receive that body, who is it that carries them across? The answer is 「業風力吹，移識將去，自所受業，而受其果」—“the force of the wind of karma blows, and shifting the consciousness carries it away; and according to the karma he himself has taken on, he receives its fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0720a05〕 Then he cites a line of Great Master Guifeng: 「欲驗臨終受生自在不自在，但驗尋常行心自由不自由」—“If you would test whether at the end of life you will be free or unfree in receiving birth, only test whether in ordinary times the mind you set going is free or unfree.” 〔X21n0384 0720a06〕; 「二六時中，常當省察」—“through the twelve watches one should constantly take stock of it.” 〔X21n0384 0720a07〕

This whole chapter speaks of things others do on one’s behalf — kin setting up blessings, a friend lessening the load, the saṃgha receiving offerings. This one sentence alone hands the matter back into one’s own hands: to know whether one will be master of oneself at the moment of death, one need not wait for that moment; look at whether the ordinary everyday mind is free, and one knows. And the time given is the twelve watches, the twelve hours of a day, with no gap left over in which taking stock is unnecessary.

The sūtra then pushes one step further on: if besides, within the seven times seven days after the body has died, they make much of every kind of good, they can cause the dead to leave the evil destinies forever and to be born among humans and gods. And having written this far, the sūtra suddenly adds a sentence that has nothing to do with the dead: the kin now living gain benefit beyond measure.

Does the blessing made for the dead vanish along with the dead? The commentator of old cites the Sūtra on Upāsaka Precepts here and answers hard: when blessings are pursued for the dead, the giving being done after the life has ended, 「是福追人，如影隨形」—“this blessing pursues the person as a shadow follows a shape.” 〔X21n0384 0720b03〕; 「或有說言，終已便失，是義不然」—“Some say that once life has ended it is simply lost; this is not so.” 〔X21n0384 0720b03〕 Some say that once a person is gone the blessing disperses; that is wrong.

Blessing is not a thing set down upon a person; it is a shadow that goes along with him.

The One Thing That Ought Least to Be Done

Then the sūtra turns the matter around: 「臨終之日，慎勿殺害，及造惡緣——拜祭鬼神，求諸魍魎。」 — on the day when life comes to its end, take the greatest care not to kill, nor to make an evil condition — sacrificing to ghosts and spirits, and begging of the sprites.

On the single character 「慎」, take care, the philology of old comes down heavily: 「慎，恒謹也」—“Shen is constant carefulness.” 〔X21n0384 0720b14〕; 「惟慎為真心，故从心从真」—“only carefulness is the true mind, and so the graph is made of ‘mind’ and ‘true.’” 〔X21n0384 0720b15〕; and then the character 「勿」, do not, is added — 「勿者，禁止也。慎而復禁，斷斷誓不殺害矣」—“Wu is prohibition. To be careful and to forbid besides is to pledge absolutely that there shall be no killing.” 〔X21n0384 0720b16〕 Careful, and forbidden besides: this is the hardest tone in the chapter.

The reason the sūtra gives itself: 「無纖毫之力利益亡人，但結罪緣，轉增深重。」 — it has not a hair’s breadth of power to benefit the one who has died; it only knots up the conditions of offence, and makes them deeper and heavier instead. The commentator of old cites a sūtra here on the limits of ghosts and spirits: 「十方譬喻經云：天上天下鬼神，知人壽命罪福，當至未至」—“The Sūtra of Parables of the Ten Directions says: the ghosts and spirits above the heavens and below know a person’s lifespan and his offences and blessings, what is about to come and what has not yet come.” 〔X21n0384 0720c03〕, and yet 「不能活人，不能殺人，不能使人富貴貧賤」—“they cannot keep a person alive, cannot kill a person, cannot make a person rich and noble or poor and mean.” 〔X21n0384 0720c04〕 To know is one thing; to be able to alter is another — two things we too commonly run together.

Of the two things the sūtra forbids, the four characters 「求諸魍魎」 — begging of the wangliang sprites — are for the most part obscure to a reader. The commentator of old gives no gloss upon them in this chapter, and only cites a passage of the Consecration Sūtra to describe their look: 「襍物之精，浮遊人村，既其無食，作諸變怪，扇動人心」—“Essences of miscellaneous things, drifting about the villages of men; and having nothing to eat, they work all manner of prodigies to stir up people’s minds.” 〔X21n0384 0720c07〕 — essences of miscellaneous things that roam into human villages, and having nothing to eat, work prodigies to shake people’s minds. It is a thing of this sort that is begged of at the end of life.

What matters is this: what the sūtra forbids is not sacrifice as such, but taking a life to make it. Another sūtra cited of old draws the line very plainly — 「不見世人種伊蘭子，生栴檀樹；斷眾生命，而得福德」—“One does not see people of the world plant a yilan seed and have a sandalwood tree grow from it; nor cut off the lives of beings and gain blessed merit thereby.” 〔X21n0384 0721a10〕; and the passage immediately following says: 「若欲祀者，當用香華乳酪酥果，為亡追福」—“If one would sacrifice, one should use incense, flowers, milk, curds, butter, and fruit, and so pursue blessings for the dead.” 〔X21n0384 0721a11〕 Sacrifice if you will; only change what is offered.

The sūtra then states the consequences in two layers. The first is of one who had a portion of good to begin with: he might have 「得獲聖分，生人天中」 — obtained a portion of the holy and been born among humans and gods — that portion being glossed of old as 「聖分即七菩提分、八聖道分、菩薩果分」—“the portion of the holy is the seven limbs of awakening, the eight limbs of the holy path, and the portion that is a bodhisattva’s fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0720c18〕 — and yet, because at the end of his life his kin made this evil cause, he comes to be 「殃累對辯，晚生善處」 — dragged into the calamity, made to be confronted and argue his case, and late in being born into a good place. The second is of one who had no root of goodness to begin with, and the sūtra closes with a single question turned back: 「何忍眷屬，更為增業？」 — how could one bear that his kin should add yet more karma to him? A simile is supplied for it of old: 「譬如抱石沉淵，人更投物壓之，求出應難矣」—“It is as though one sank into a deep pool clutching a stone, and someone threw more things down to press upon him: to seek to get out would surely be hard.” 〔X21n0384 0721a07〕

A Man Three Days Without Food, and a Little More Put upon Him

For that second layer the sūtra gives a simile of its own: a man comes from a far country, three days without food, and what he carries and bears comes to a little more than a hundred catties; suddenly he meets a neighbor, who puts a few more things upon him — 「以是之故，轉復困重」 — and for that reason he grows wearier and more heavily burdened still.

The commentator of old matches it word by word: 「有人，喻閻浮眾生」—“‘A man’ likens the beings of Jambudvīpa.” 〔X21n0384 0721a16〕; and 「隣人合眷屬，體心者是親友，不體心者如隣人」—“The neighbor answers to the kin: one who enters into his mind is a close friend; one who does not is like a neighbor.” 〔X21n0384 0721a21〕 Kin they are alike; the one who feels with him is a close friend, the one who does not is merely a neighbor.

The fineness of this simile lies in the two characters 「少物」, a few things. What is added is not in itself heavy; the weight lies in whom it is added to, and when. For a man three days without food and already overloaded, a little more is far too much.

In the earlier simile of the muddy road, someone lessens his load; here the neighbor adds to it. One sūtra, two similes, one taking off and one putting on — and both ends of what Kṣitigarbha has to say are said.

The Question the Elder Great Eloquence Asked

At this point an elder in the assembly puts a question. The sūtra first sets out where he comes from: 「久證無生，化度十方，現長者身」 — he had long since realized the unborn, transforms and delivers in the ten directions, and manifests the person of an elder — he is not really an elder; he manifests an elder’s person. His name is glossed of old: 「長者如前，梵語鉢底婆，此云辯才」—“Elder is as before; the Sanskrit is transcribed bodipo, and here it means eloquence.” 〔X21n0384 0721b15〕; 「辯，說也，展轉無滯，辯別分明，故曰辯才無礙」—“Bian is speaking: turning and turning without hindrance, distinguishing and dividing plainly, and so it is called unobstructed eloquence.” 〔X21n0384 0721b16〕, and eloquence 「有四種：一義，二法，三詞，四樂說」—“is of four kinds: first in meaning, second in dharma, third in wording, fourth in delight in speaking.” 〔X21n0384 0721b17〕

And what a man of unobstructed eloquence brings out is the plainest of questions: when after life has ended the kin cultivate merit for him, does the person whose life has ended 「得大利益及解脫不」 — gain the great benefit, and release?

Kṣitigarbha’s answer comes in two layers. The first gives the best case: on the day when life comes to its end, to hear the name of one buddha, one bodhisattva, or one pratyekabuddha, and then 「不問有罪無罪，悉得解脫」 — whether he has offences or has none, all gain release. The reading handed down here first asks two things on the reader’s behalf: 「既言臨終得聞，則平時不念可知」—“Since it says he hears it at the end of life, one may know that in ordinary times he did not call the name.” 〔X21n0384 0721c23〕 — the sūtra is speaking precisely of those who did not call it in ordinary times; how then should a single hearing at the end have such power? The answer: 「良由事急而心專也」—“It is truly because the matter is urgent and the mind is concentrated.” 〔X21n0384 0722a01〕 For this the words of the bhikṣu Nāgasena to the king are cited of old: 「如持百枚大石置船上，因船故不沒」—“as when a hundred great stones are taken and set upon a boat: because of the boat they do not sink.” 〔X21n0384 0722a07〕; and one further judgment below: 「真金一兩，勝百兩之疊華」—“One ounce of true gold surpasses a hundred ounces of cotton floss.” 〔X21n0384 0722a12〕 The measure lies not in quantity but in the stuff itself.

Of Seven Parts He Gains but One

In the second layer the sūtra gives a ratio with nothing polite about it: 「七分之中，而乃獲一，六分功德，生者自利。」 — of seven parts he gains but one, and the merit of six parts is the benefit of the living themselves. One part out of seven — most of us will feel it to be little.

The commentator of old says it very directly: 「七分獲一，得之甚少也。然功不唐捐，生者自得六分矣」—“One part in seven: what he gets is very little. Yet the merit is not spent for nothing, for the living themselves get the six parts.” 〔X21n0384 0722b03〕 And he cites a sūtra in corroboration: 「故往生經云：亡後作福，死者七分獲一，餘者屬現在者。兩經相同也」—“Thus the Sūtra of Rebirth says: when blessings are made after a death, the dead gets one part in seven and the remainder belongs to the living. The two sūtras agree.” 〔X21n0384 0722b04〕 The two accounts agree, and this ratio is not the word of this sūtra alone.

As to why he gets only one part, a reason has been given too. In the passage below the commentator cites another sūtra: the bodhisattva Universally Broad asks the Buddha whether, when parents and kinsfolk have died and are suffering, and blessings are cultivated for them, they gain much blessing. The Buddha answers: 「七分獲一。緣前生不信道德故」—“One part in seven; because in his former life he did not believe in the Way and its virtue.” 〔X21n0384 0722b15〕 The smallness lies not with those who cultivate blessings for him, but with that portion of unbelief in his own lifetime.

The sūtra at once turns its point toward the living: 「聞健自修，分分己獲。」 — cultivate for yourself while sound of hearing, and part by part it is gained by yourself. The sense of “sound” is glossed of old as 「聞健者，謂耳聰強健之時」—“‘Sound of hearing’ means the time when the ears are keen and the body strong.” 〔X21n0384 0722b08〕, and the intent of the sentence is stated plainly too: 「此勸人極早為之耳」—“this is exhorting people to do it as early as ever they can.” 〔X21n0384 0722b09〕

This passage speaks on the surface of the dead, and in fact leaves the largest share to the living. The sūtra does not say that cultivating blessings for another is useless — what it says is that the one who cultivates blessings for another gets more than the one they are cultivated for. And the six parts fall to the living precisely because the deed was theirs.

Within the Seven Times Seven Days, as if Dull, as if Deaf

What follows is the stillest passage in the chapter: 「無常大鬼，不期而到，冥冥遊神，未知罪福，七七日內，如癡如聾。」 — the great ghost of impermanence arrives without appointing a day; the spirit roaming in the dark does not yet know its offences or blessings, and within the seven times seven days it is as if dull-witted, as if deaf.

Each clause has its source. Impermanence is glossed of old as 「梵語薩迦耶薩，此云無常」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed sajiayesa; here it means impermanence.” 〔X21n0384 0722c02〕, with a treatise cited: 「大論云：一切有為法，盡屬因緣，新新生滅，故曰無常」—“The Great Treatise says: all conditioned dharmas belong wholly to causes and conditions, arising and ceasing newly and newly, and therefore are called impermanent.” 〔X21n0384 0722c02〕 The roaming spirit is glossed as the body of the intermediate state: 「大論云：凡夫人憶想分別，隨我心取相，故計有神，即中陰身也」—“The Great Treatise says: ordinary people, imagining and discriminating, take marks according to the mind of self, and so reckon that there is a spirit; that is the body of the intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0722c16〕 The two characters for offence and blessing are glossed most simply: 「罪福，即十惡十善」—“Offence and blessing are just the ten evils and the ten goods.” 〔X21n0384 0722c20〕 And the four characters 「如癡如聾」 are explained of old as 「故於七七日內，如癡狂無知，如耳聾無聞。正初死時也」—“Therefore within the seven times seven days he is like a madman knowing nothing, like a deaf ear hearing nothing. This is just at the first time after death.” 〔X21n0384 0722c21〕

For the provenance of the number seven times seven the commentator marks the ground he stands on — 「統紀明七七齋」—“the Comprehensive Record makes plain the seven-times-seven rites.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, whose text cites a treatise: 「瑜伽論謂人死，中有身若未得生緣，極七日住，死而復生」—“The Yogācārabhūmi says that when a person dies, if the body of the intermediate state has not yet found the condition for birth, it abides at most seven days, dies, and is born again.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, 「如是展轉生死至七七日，決定得生。若有生緣即不定」—“turning thus through death and birth up to seven times seven days, it certainly obtains birth; but if the condition for birth is present, it is not fixed.” 〔X21n0384 0723a23〕 Going back to the treatise itself, the text reads 「又此中有，若未得生緣，極七日住」—“Furthermore, this intermediate state, if it has not yet found the condition for birth, abides at most seven days.” 〔T30n1579 0282a27〕, and 「如是展轉未得生緣，乃至七七日住，自此已後，決得生緣」—“turning thus without finding the condition for birth, it abides up to seven times seven days; and after this it certainly finds the condition for birth.” 〔T30n1579 0282a29〕

But in the treatises this number has two accounts and not one only. One account is 「尊者世友言：此極多七日，若生緣未合，便數死數生」—“The Venerable Vasumitra says: this is at most seven days; if the condition for birth is not yet met, it dies and is born over and over.” 〔T29n1558 0046b27〕; the other is 「有餘師言：極七七日」—“Some other masters say: at most seven times seven days.” 〔T29n1558 0046b28〕 Both accounts have stood together from of old, and were never settled into one. The commentator himself records an exception in the same place: 「今尋經旨，極善惡，無中有」—“Now, seeking the sūtra’s intent: for the extremely good and the extremely evil there is no intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0723a24〕 — the extremely good and the extremely evil do not pass through this stretch.

As for the sūtra’s 「或在諸司，辯論業果」 — or he is among the several offices, where the fruits of karma are argued out — there is also a reading of old which says that there is no actual bureau out there: 「準正法念經及俱舍論，直是罪人惡業熏心，令心變異，無中妄見，實無閻羅在中，判諸罪人也」—“Following the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma and the Abhidharmakośa, it is simply that the evil karma of the guilty perfumes their minds and makes the mind change, so that they see falsely where nothing is; there is in fact no Yama within, judging the guilty.” 〔X21n0384 0723a14〕 This account is recorded here; the sūtra itself makes no such judgment.

And why people should make merit within these several sevens of days the commentator answers plainly: 「今世人於七七日作功德者，正所以慰亡人之望救耳」—“That people today make merit during the seven times seven days is precisely to console the dead one’s looking for rescue.” 〔X21n0384 0723b03〕

The sūtra here uses the one character 「望」, to look toward — 「望諸骨肉眷屬，與造福力救拔」 — he looks to his own flesh and blood among the kin to make a power of blessing for him and rescue him. What is written is not a verdict but a waiting.

The Rice-Water and the Vegetable Leaves Are Not Thrown on the Ground

Having spoken through the whole chapter, at the last it walks into the kitchen.

「未齋食竟，及營齋之次，米泔菜葉，不棄於地。乃至諸食未獻佛僧，勿得先食。」 — while the food of the feast has not been eaten to the end, and while the feast is being prepared, the rice-water and the vegetable leaves are not to be thrown away upon the ground; and so long as none of the food has been offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha, it may not be eaten first. The sense of “feast” here is settled first of old: 「初勸營齋，此明奉齋三寶，非指過午為齋」—“The first exhortation to prepare a feast: this makes plain the offering of a feast to the Three Jewels, and does not refer to the fast of not eating past noon.” 〔X21n0384 0723b22〕 — what is meant is an offering to the Three Jewels, not that other fast of eating nothing after noon. As for why the rice-water and vegetable leaves are not to be thrown on the ground, the commentator gives a practical method too: 「米泔菜葉不棄地者，當盛於器中。齋後施與畜生」—“That the rice-water and vegetable leaves are not thrown on the ground means that they should be kept in a vessel and given to the animals after the feast.” 〔X21n0384 0723b22〕

As for why 「諸食未獻佛僧，勿得先食」 should be set up as a rule at all, the reason the commentator of old gives does not lie in etiquette. He cites a treatise: the Buddha’s adamantine body does not depend upon food and drink, and only for the sake of delivering beings does he appear to eat, while in fact he does not; and 「為佛設食，佛未食者，人不能消」—“food set out for the Buddha, which the Buddha has not yet eaten, a person cannot digest.” 〔X21n0384 0723c02〕 — that portion having been marked out for the Buddha, whoever puts his mouth to it first cannot digest it. 「故未獻佛僧，勿得先食」—“Therefore, before it has been offered to the Buddha and the saṃgha, it may not be eaten first.” 〔X21n0384 0723c03〕

What follows upon breaking the rule he takes from the Sūtra on Guarding Purity, and the words are very heavy: to set out a gathering of blessing and then to taste and sip of it first oneself makes the food into leavings, so that the whole occasion is held in vain and had better not be held at all; 「諸天不歡，鬼神不喜」—“the gods are not gladdened and the ghosts and spirits are not pleased.” 〔X21n0384 0723c05〕, and the one who tasted first 「五百世中，受餓鬼苦」—“through five hundred lifetimes undergoes the suffering of a hungry ghost.” 〔X21n0384 0723c06〕

That acting for the dead must pass through the hands of the saṃgha another sūtra states still more directly: Maudgalyāyana by his own strength could not save his mother, and 「當須十方眾僧威神之力乃得解脫」—“the awesome spiritual power of the assembled saṃgha of the ten directions is required before she can gain release.” 〔T16n0685 0779b08〕 So this rule is not a regulation of the refectory but the fulcrum upon which the whole business rests: the food goes out, and only then can the power be borrowed back.

And in a feast held for the dead, if the one who holds it puts his mouth to it first, that recompense falls upon the one who held it.

Then the sūtra gives two outcomes, and the drop between them is enormous: for what is not according to the Dharma, 「是命終人，了不得力」 — this person whose life has ended gets no strength from it at all; for what is according to the Dharma, 「是命終人，七分獲一」 — this person whose life has ended gains one part out of seven. The same one feast, the same rice and vegetables: in the one case nothing whatever is got, in the other one part out of seven.

Where does the difference lie? The sūtra’s last sentence says it itself: 「設齋供養，志心勤懇，如是之人，存亡獲利。」 — to set out a feast as an offering, wholehearted in mind and earnest without slackening: persons such as these bring benefit to the living and to the dead. The commentator of old uses a single line to buckle the two ends together: 「志心勤懇，即精勤護淨之意」—“Wholehearted in mind and earnest is just the sense of being diligent and guarding purity.” 〔X21n0384 0723c17〕

The sūtra does not put the difference in the scale of the thing. A whole chapter of merit, of seven parts, of forty-nine days ends upon a basin of rice-washing water.

The Ghosts and Spirits Arouse the Resolve

At the end of the chapter a crowd who were not present suddenly arouse the resolve: 「說是語時，忉利天宮有千萬億那由他閻浮鬼神，悉發無量菩提之心。」 — while these words were being spoken, in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three a thousand myriad koṭis of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa all aroused a measureless resolve for awakening.

The reading handed down poses a question of its own here: 「何故鬼神至此發心」—“Why do the ghosts and spirits arouse the resolve at this point?” 〔X21n0384 0723c24〕 The answer is telling: 「上明祭祀鬼神無益，徒自令人造業。鬼亦有良，寧不愧耻，故發心為護法鬼神耳」—“Above it was made plain that sacrificing to ghosts and spirits is of no benefit and only makes people create karma. Ghosts too have good in them; how should they not be ashamed? And so they arouse the resolve to become ghosts and spirits who guard the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0723c24〕 It asks further: do they arouse it of themselves, or do the Buddha and Kṣitigarbha teach them to? The answer: 「但是感應道交而論發心耳」—“It is only that stirring and response meet in the Way, and on that footing the arousing of the resolve is spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0724a03〕

The very ghosts and spirits a whole chapter has been exhorting people not to worship, having heard all this, walk of themselves into the ranks of those who arouse the resolve. They were not driven off; they were moved.

At the last the elder Great Eloquence bows and withdraws. Even this sentence is questioned of old: 「既同在會，退至何處」—“Being alike present in the assembly, to what place does he withdraw?” 〔X21n0384 0724a06〕; and the answer: 「以問法時，出位前禮，酬唱既竟，禮退歸位」—“Because when he asked about the Dharma he came out of his place and bowed in front; the exchange being finished, he bows, withdraws, and returns to his place.” 〔X21n0384 0724a06〕, and 「即表各各自住三摩地耳」—“which signifies that each abides in his own samādhi.” 〔X21n0384 0724a07〕 To withdraw is to go back to one’s own place.

Transmission — A Classic of Filial Piety, and a Tiantai Mirror in a Qing Hand

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it, which explains the title and does not go phrase by phrase. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the threefold outline; the division of the five ways of setting up blessings into two classes; the gloss on the two characters for taking care and forbidding; the ground for the number seven times seven; and the self-posed question and answer on the ghosts and spirits arousing the resolve.

In glossing the title of this chapter the Guiding Thread first explains the four characters 「利」「益」「存」「亡」 — benefit, gain, the living, the dead — by worldly usage, and coming to 「亡」, the dead, says: when a filial child’s parent has died and, the burial done, he seeks and does not find, then 「乃祭以求之，事亡如存，猶望其親去而復還也」—“he sacrifices in order to seek the parent, serving the dead as though they were living, still hoping that the parent, gone, may come back again.” 〔X21n0383 0649a10〕 Then he changes eyes and explains it once more: 「若妙玄云：功德利益，一而無異，若分別者，自益名功德，益他名利益」—“As the Profound Meaning says: merit and benefit are one and not different; but if they be distinguished, then to benefit oneself is called merit, and to benefit another is called benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0649a11〕 — what one gains oneself is called merit; only what is given to another is called benefit. And so he judges why this chapter alone is called “benefiting,” on this ground: 「今地藏菩薩自勸諸人，當為病人修福念佛，慎勿殺害拜祭鬼神」—“Now Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva himself exhorts everyone to cultivate blessings and recollect the Buddha for the sick, and to take care not to kill or to sacrifice to ghosts and spirits.” 〔X21n0383 0649a12〕, and this, together with the causes of reciting the sūtra and offering the feast that the elder Great Eloquence brings out, are 「皆不為自身，惟為存亡眾生，故唯稱利益」—“none of them for one’s own sake, but only for beings living and dead; and therefore it is called benefiting alone.” 〔X21n0383 0649a14〕

He opens “benefit” into three layers as well: 「明此利益有三：一、遠益」—“Making plain that this benefit is of three kinds: first, the distant benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0649a15〕, the second being the near benefit, and 「三、當文益，即聞品後，千萬億那由他閻浮鬼神悉發無量菩提心」—“third, the benefit within the text itself: that after hearing the chapter, a thousand myriad koṭis of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa all aroused a measureless resolve for awakening.” 〔X21n0383 0649a19〕 — that crowd of ghosts and spirits at the end of this chapter is exactly the benefit within the text. This is reading this sūtra of original vows with a Tiantai eye, and it is where this mirror comes from.

For the source of the number seven times seven he marks his ground honestly: he first writes 「統紀明七七齋」—“the Comprehensive Record makes plain the seven-times-seven rites.” 〔X21n0384 0723a22〕, and only then cites the treatise. He had already used that same treatise passage once, in the first chapter, glossing “after forty-nine days have passed” — 「四十九日等，準瑜伽論：人死中有身」—“‘Forty-nine days’ and the rest: following the Yogācārabhūmi, when a person dies there is the body of the intermediate state.” 〔X21n0384 0672c06〕 The same number occurs twice in one sūtra, and he uses the same ground for both.

Look aside once more at a sūtra that likewise takes 「本願」, original vows, into its title. The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata, speaking of the first of the nine untimely deaths, sets down an admonition answering this chapter almost word for word: such people 「殺種種眾生，解奏神明，呼諸魍魎，請乞福祐，欲冀延年，終不能得」—“kill beings of every kind, make petition and report to the spirits, call upon the wangliang sprites, and beg for blessing and protection, hoping to lengthen their years; and in the end they cannot get it.” 〔T14n0450 0408a07〕 What is killed and what is sacrificed to are the same, but what is sought differs — there they seek to lengthen their own years; here what is written is the seeking of blessings for the dead.

More noteworthy still is where the same number stands in the two sūtras. That sūtra also speaks of forty-nine days: the sick person has already been led away to see the Dharma King Yama, and if his kin can take refuge for him, read the sūtra, light lamps, and hang pennants, then 「或經七日，或二十一日，或三十五日，或四十九日，彼識還時」—“after seven days, or twenty-one days, or thirty-five days, or forty-nine days, when that consciousness returns.” 〔T14n0450 0407b23〕 — that is a living person’s consciousness coming back. The forty-nine days of this chapter is the stretch in which one whose life has ended has not yet received birth. One number: at one end a returning to the light, at the other a waiting to be born; at one end written for the family of a sick man, at the other for the family of a dead one. Set side by side here, with no weighing of higher and lower.

And the sūtra’s own one sentence never changes. It never promised how many parts the dead would get; it only says: 「設齋供養，志心勤懇，如是之人，存亡獲利。」 — to set out a feast as an offering, wholehearted in mind and earnest without slackening: persons such as these bring benefit to the living and to the dead. The living half has never once left that sentence.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. He places this chapter under 「大章第三，明度脫緣分。二。初、化主放光讚歎；二、閻王興問讚歎」—“The third great section, making plain the part on the conditions of deliverance. Two. First, the lord of the transforming work sends forth light and is praised; second, King Yama raises a question and praises.” 〔X21n0384 0706b17〕 — the two chapters before it are the praise that follows upon the lord of the transforming work sending forth light, and this chapter is the praise that follows upon a king of the dark realm raising a question. For the word praise in the chapter title he gives the Sūtra of the Jewel Rain as his ground: the bodhisattva 「如月出現，能使人間城邑聚落諸剎帝利、婆羅門等，若男若女，悉皆稱讚」—“appears as the moon appears, and can make the kṣatriyas and brahmins of the walled towns and villages of the human world, men and women alike, praise him one and all.” 〔X21n0384 0706b19〕 Within the chapter he divides first 「二、品文，二。初、經家敘；二、正興問。敘中三。初、主伴來儀」—“Second, the text of the chapter, in two: first, the narration of the compilers; second, the raising of the question proper. Within the narration there are three: first, the coming of the host and his companions.” 〔X21n0384 0724a10〕, and closes with 「二、鬼王護助，二。初、惡毒擁護；二、主命助修」—“Second, the ghost kings guard and assist, in two: first, Evil and Poison gives protection; second, Master-of-Life aids the cultivation.” 〔X21n0384 0729b10〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Thirty-Four Names, Taken in Two Ways

At the head of this chapter is a roster. The measureless ghost kings within the Iron Ring Mountains go up together to the Heaven of the Thirty-Three in the train of Yama, Son of Heaven, and the sūtra calls them out one at a time, down to 「大祁利叉王、阿那吒王、大阿那吒王」—“the king Great Qilicha, the king Anazha, the king Great Anazha.” 〔T13n0412 0784c12〕 The commentator of old counted them for himself: 「已上三十四位，皆是大鬼王」—“the above are thirty-four in number, and all of them are great ghost kings.” 〔X21n0384 0725b18〕

Thirty-four names, and they are not taken in one way but in two.

The first twenty-eight are without exception written as ghost king so-and-so, and their names can be construed. Evil and Poison, Many Evils, Great Contention speak of what they do; White Tiger, Blood Tiger, Red Tiger speak of what they look like; Scatterer of Calamity, Flying Body, Lightning Flash, Wolf-Fang, Thousand Eyes, Devourer of Beasts, Bearer of Stones speak of their marks and their business. From Master-of-Wasting on, twelve of them are without exception headed by the word master — of wasting, of calamity, of food, of wealth, of livestock, of birds, of beasts, of sprites, of birthing, of life, of sickness, of perils — each master of one thing. And the last three go back to bodily form: Three Eyes, Four Eyes, Five Eyes.

The last six are otherwise. What the sūtra text writes is the king Qilishi, the king Great Qilishi, the king Qilicha, the king Great Qilicha, the king Anazha, the king Great Anazha — called king only, and not ghost king. That difference of one word is not an omission: these six names are transcriptions of a Sanskrit sound, and the Chinese lands never did render out their sense.

On this string the commentator of old is honest to a rare degree. He says first 「祁利失王等，未見翻譯」—“for the king Qilishi and the rest, no translation has been found.” 〔X21n0384 0725b02〕 Then he goes to the Lokasthiti Abhidharma Treatise and finds that south of the Ganges there is Mount Suoduoqili and north of it Mount Ximobaduo, and that the spirits south and north of those mountains are each named after their mountain; and so he judges that these words 「的是山名」—“are certainly the name of a mountain.” 〔X21n0384 0725b04〕, and since the realm of King Yama and Mount Qili both lie south of the Ganges, and the south belongs to fire, he infers that the sense comes near to a spirit of mighty fire. But at the very next character he stops — 「失字未詳」—“the character 失 is not ascertained.” 〔X21n0384 0725b10〕 Qilicha he construes with difficulty as 「叉具云：叉耶，秦言盡。即大力盡王」—“cha, given in full, is chaye, which in the tongue of Qin is ‘exhausted’; that is, the king of mighty strength exhausted.” 〔X21n0384 0725b11〕 At Anazha he cites the Great Sūtra on the eight-armed Nazha as a strong man among the gods, and then draws it back at once: 「則未可的指，然其名既同，未可知也」—“then it cannot be pointed to for certain; yet since the name is the same, neither can it be known.” 〔X21n0384 0725b12〕

We read this long string and it is easy to let the eye slide over it at a glance. The commentator stopped three times upon these six names, and all three times he stopped at the same place — he did not know.

Among the first twenty-eight there is one place where he says he does not know in just the same way. Glossing Thousand Eyes he writes: 「觀音千眼在手，獄卒六十四眼在角，此鬼千眼，不知如何安立」—“Avalokiteśvara’s thousand eyes are in the hands, the hell-warden’s sixty-four eyes are in the horns; where this ghost’s thousand eyes are set, I do not know.” 〔X21n0384 0724c09〕 — Avalokiteśvara’s thousand eyes grow upon the hands, the hell-warden’s sixty-four eyes grow upon the horns; where this one’s thousand eyes are set, he cannot say.

The roster is copied out as it stands, and where he does not understand, he says so as it stands. This is the first thing in this chapter worth noticing.

Evil and Poison at the Head

The first upon the roster is the ghost king Evil and Poison. The reading handed down explains the order: 「惡毒乃鬼王之首，故前列之」—“Evil and Poison is the head of the ghost kings, and so he is set out first.” 〔X21n0384 0724b03〕 The two words evil and poison are taken apart as well — 「惡毒即十惡三毒」—“evil and poison are the ten evils and the three poisons.” 〔X21n0384 0724b03〕, and 「三毒屬意，為身口七惡之本」—“the three poisons belong to the mind, and are the root of the seven evils of body and speech.” 〔X21n0384 0724b04〕: greed, anger, and delusion are in the mind; the seven — killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech and the rest — are in body and speech; and the former are the root of the latter.

But the line that comes next turns the whole nature of the roster over: 「然此等鬼王，皆是不思議菩薩，大權應化」—“yet these ghost kings are all of them inconceivable bodhisattvas, appearing and transforming by great expedient power.” 〔X21n0384 0724b05〕 These, whose names are fierce, are every one of them the skillful manifestation of an inconceivable bodhisattva. And therefore 「以惡攻惡，以毒出毒」—“with evil he attacks evil, with poison he draws out poison.” 〔X21n0384 0724b06〕, and 「故用惡毒，以為化門」—“and so he uses evil and poison as his gate of transforming.” 〔X21n0384 0724b07〕 — evil and poison are not his disease; they are his gate.

One and the same eye runs through the whole string. Many Evils 「外現忿怒之惡相，內起慈悲之善心」—“outwardly shows the wrathful marks of evil, and inwardly raises the good heart of kindness and compassion.” 〔X21n0384 0724b11〕; and Great Contention is more direct still — 「故鬼王以大諍法門化人無諍也」—“and so the ghost king transforms people into non-contention by the Dharma-gate of great contention.” 〔X21n0384 0724b18〕, teaching people not to contend by means of great contention.

This reading does not come out of the air. At the end of this very chapter the sūtra says the same thing in its own voice, only of another one of them: 「是大士，慈悲願故，現大鬼身，實非鬼也」—“this great being, by reason of his vow of compassion, manifests the body of a great ghost, and is in truth no ghost at all.” 〔T13n0412 0785c17〕 The reading given at the head of the roster is inferred backwards from that one line at the roster’s end.

The One Who Asks Is Himself Undergoing It

The roster called out, the one who speaks is Yama, Son of Heaven. Who he is, the sūtra does not say in a single line; to know it one must go back to the Sūtra of the Record of the World in the Dīrgha Āgama.

That text writes his dwelling first: 「閻浮提南大金剛山內，有閻羅王宮」—“within the great adamantine mountain south of Jambudvīpa there is the palace of King Yama.” 〔T01n0001 0126b09〕, and the place the king governs is six thousand yojanas across, and its city has seven walls. What comes next, however, is not his state and dignity: 「然彼閻羅王晝夜三時，有大銅鑊自然在前」—“yet three times by day and by night a great copper cauldron appears of itself before King Yama.” 〔T01n0001 0126b12〕 — when the cauldron appears within the palace, he goes out of the palace in terror; when it appears outside the palace, he goes back in to hide. And when he cannot escape it, 「有大獄卒，捉閻羅王臥熱鐵上」—“great hell-wardens take King Yama and lay him upon hot iron.” 〔T01n0001 0126b15〕, 「以鐵鈎擗口使開，洋銅灌之」—“they pry his mouth open with an iron hook and pour molten copper into it.” 〔T01n0001 0126b16〕, burning his lips and his tongue, and from throat to belly it passes clean through him. Only when it is undergone to the end — 「受罪訖已，復與諸婇女共相娛樂」—“the punishment undergone, he takes his pleasure again with his court women.” 〔T01n0001 0126b17〕; and 「彼諸大臣同受福者，亦復如是」—“for those great ministers of his who share the same blessings, it is likewise.” 〔T01n0001 0126b18〕

Three times a day. The one who has the dark realm in his charge has molten copper poured into his mouth three times a day.

The same sūtra also writes how he goes about his office. What he relies upon is three messengers: 「有三使者，云何為三？一者老，二者病，三者死」—“there are three messengers. What are the three? The first is old age, the second is sickness, the third is death.” 〔T01n0001 0126b19〕 The hell-wardens bring the guilty one before him and say 「此是天使所召也，唯願大王善問其辭」—“this one was summoned by the heavenly messengers; we pray the great king will question him well upon his words.” 〔T01n0001 0126b22〕 — we ask the great king to put his questions well. So he asks item by item: whether in the human world he ever saw a person with white head and fallen teeth, bent of back and leaning on a staff; whether he ever saw a person lying sick in bed who needed others to feed him; whether he ever saw a person cast out among the grave-mounds after life had ended. The guilty one answers each time that he saw. And each time the king presses once more: then why did you not think for yourself, I too shall be like that. And the answer each time is that I was heedless then, and did not know it of myself. At the last what he says is 「汝自有惡，汝今自受」—“the evil is your own; now you undergo it yourself.” 〔T01n0001 0126c04〕

Yama’s own trade is asking. The one question he puts to the Buddha in this chapter is exactly the work he does day after day — only this time the one questioned is not a guilty man, and the one who answers is not himself.

The commentator of old adds two things. The first is why he alone is called Son of Heaven: 「今唯閻羅一王興問者」—“that here it is Yama alone among the kings who raises the question.” 〔X21n0384 0725c19〕 — because his seat is at the very center and he governs all the other kings, and so the title Son of Heaven is added to him in particular; and he says 「以帝釋天為父王，命閻羅為天子，主攝冥司」—“Śakra of the heavens being the father-king, Yama is appointed Son of Heaven and given the dark offices to govern.” 〔X21n0384 0725c20〕 The second is that there is more than one such king: 「準長阿含：小千世界，有一千閻羅王」—“according to the Dīrgha Āgama, in a small chiliocosm there are a thousand King Yamas.” 〔X21n0384 0726a02〕

A thousand kings, each guarding one stretch of the dark realm, each undergoing the same suffering three times a day. The one who opens his mouth to ask in this chapter is one of them.

A Question Without Courtesies

The ghost kings all assembled, the one who asks is Yama, Son of Heaven. He praises first: 「我觀地藏菩薩，在六道中，百千方便，而度罪苦眾生，不辭疲倦」—“I see that Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, within the six destinies, with a hundred thousand skillful means delivers the beings who are guilty and suffering, and never excuses himself for weariness.” 〔T13n0412 0784c23〕; and the praise done, he turns at once: 「然諸眾生，脫獲罪報，未久之間，又墮惡道」—“and yet those beings, once they have got free of the retribution for their guilt, fall into the evil destinies again before long.” 〔T13n0412 0784c25〕

And then comes the first axle of this chapter: 「是地藏菩薩既有如是不可思議神力，云何眾生而不依止善道，永取解脫？」—“since this Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva has spiritual power so inconceivable as this, why is it that beings do not rest upon the good destinies and take liberation once and for all?” 〔T13n0412 0784c26〕

The reading handed down takes this question apart into two halves: 「此中問意兩關發疑」—“the sense of the question here raises its doubt at two joints.” 〔X21n0384 0726b18〕 — one doubt is that since the bodhisattva has this power, he ought of himself to make them take liberation once and for all; the second is that since the six destinies have received this transforming, they ought to rest long upon the good destinies. Since neither is so, on which side does the trouble lie: 「為地藏神力不逮歟？為眾生心力不及歟？」—“is it that Kṣitigarbha’s spiritual power does not reach so far? or that the strength of beings’ minds does not come up to it?” 〔X21n0384 0726b21〕

The one who asks is no outsider. He has the dark realm in his charge, and watches the same people go out and come back day after day. How long the “before long” he speaks of is, the commentator has reckoned for him: 「未久云者，如等活地獄，對四天王壽」—“as to the words ‘before long’: take the Reviving Hell over against the lifespan of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings.” 〔X21n0384 0726b13〕 — reckoning the Reviving Hell against the lifespan of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, 「人間五十年，為上天一日夜；縱經百年，冥司秪得二日，豈非纔出即來」—“fifty years among men is one day and night in that heaven above; so even a full hundred years comes to no more than two days on the reckoning of the dark offices — is that not going out and coming straight back again?” 〔X21n0384 0726b13〕 A full hundred years lived among men is, on the books of the dark offices, no more than two days.

Of the Buddha’s answer, only one line falls upon beings themselves: 「南閻浮提眾生，其性剛彊，難調難伏」—“the beings of southern Jambudvīpa are hard and stubborn in their nature, difficult to tame and difficult to subdue.” 〔T13n0412 0784c29〕 The commentator adds one stroke here, making plain which nature it is that is hard and stubborn: 「其性者，習性也，故曰剛強。若是法性，從本柔和」—“‘their nature’ means the nature formed by habit, and that is why it is called hard and stubborn. If it were the dharma-nature, it is soft and mild from the first.” 〔X21n0384 0726c03〕 What is hard and stubborn is the nature formed by habit, not the dharma-nature.

The answer does not fall upon any shortfall of spiritual power, nor upon who is to be held responsible. It falls upon habit.

But the Buddha’s answer has a second half, and it is the second half that is the plain business. The sūtra goes on: 「菩薩以方便力，拔出根本業緣，而遣悟宿世之事」—“the bodhisattva by the power of skillful means draws out the root of their karmic conditions, and makes them awaken to the matters of their former lives.” 〔T13n0412 0785a03〕

To draw out the root of the karmic conditions — which root is it that is drawn? If those four characters are not made concrete, the power of skillful means is no more than a pleasant phrase.

The commentator of old brings out the Sanskrit name and the gloss of sense together here: 「梵名阿浮訶那，此云拔除罪根」—“the Sanskrit name is Afuhena, which here means the plucking out of the root of guilt.” 〔X21n0384 0726c18〕 The root of guilt is then to be pursued one layer further down: 「須知諸惡，隨業受報，而以三毒為本」—“it should be known that all the evils receive their retribution according to their karma, and that the three poisons are their root.” 〔X21n0384 0726c18〕 — every evil receives its retribution according to its own karma, and the ground of them is greed, anger, and delusion. And within the three poisons there is one layer more: 「三毒之中，貪愛為根。如捉布一頭，餘則盡隨」—“among the three poisons, craving and love are the root. It is as when one takes hold of a cloth by one corner: the rest all comes after it.” 〔X21n0384 0726c19〕

Take a cloth by one corner and lift, and the whole cloth comes up with it. This is the most solid simile in the chapter: it is not that a person’s evil karma is worn away one piece at a time; it is that the corner is found.

Two lines are cited below in witness. One is 「若不斷愛，愛則潤生」—“if love is not cut off, love moistens birth.” 〔X21n0384 0726c20〕 — love uncut goes on watering the next birth; the other is 「如樹根不拔，其樹猶生。貪根不拔，苦樹常在」—“as a tree whose root is not pulled up goes on growing, so while the root of greed is not pulled up the tree of suffering stands always.” 〔X21n0384 0726c21〕 And so the judgment: 「故知生死，貪愛為本」—“hence it is known that birth and death have craving and love for their root.” 〔X21n0384 0726c22〕 As for what the drawing out looks like, the commentator cites a line of the Daśacakra: 「滅除一切惑障習氣，猶如烈日銷釋輕冰」—“he extinguishes every obstruction of delusion and every residue of habit, as a fierce sun melts away thin ice.” 〔X21n0384 0726c23〕

The second half of the sūtra’s sentence is “and makes them awaken to the matters of their former lives” — the root once drawn, a person remembers of himself: 「今根本業緣既拔，自悟宿世之事」—“the root of the karmic conditions being now drawn out, he awakens of himself to the matters of his former lives.” 〔X21n0384 0727a01〕, 「譬古鏡之重揩，其常光而自現矣」—“it is as when an old mirror is wiped again, and its constant brightness appears of itself.” 〔X21n0384 0727a01〕 The mirror has not had one part of brightness added to it; the dust that had gathered has been wiped away.

With that the two layers of this answer stand complete: what is hard and stubborn in beings is the nature formed by habit; and what is drawn out is the craving and love beneath that habit. One layer says where the disease is, the other says where the knife goes in.

The Road of Peril

The Buddha then spoke a simile, a long one such as this sūtra seldom gives.

「譬如有人，迷失本家，誤入險道」—“Suppose there were a man who lost his own home and strayed by mistake into a road of peril.” 〔T13n0412 0785a05〕 On that road of peril there are 「多諸夜叉，及虎狼師子、蚖蛇蝮蠍」—“many yakṣas, and tigers, wolves, lions, vipers, snakes, adders, and scorpions.” 〔T13n0412 0785a06〕, and the man who has lost his way 「須臾之間，即遭諸毒」—“in the space of a moment meets with all the poisons.” 〔T13n0412 0785a08〕

Two words must be fixed first: own home. The reading handed down says it without a turn — 「常寂光土為本家」—“the Land of Constant Quiescent Light is the own home.” 〔X21n0384 0727a18〕, and further 「十惡眾生，原是如來之子；三塗苦處，無非常寂之家」—“beings of the ten evils are from the first the Tathāgata’s own children, and the places of suffering in the three evil courses are none of them other than the home of constant quiescence.” 〔X21n0384 0727a19〕 The course of the straying is 「以不知真如法一，不覺無明風動，漂流異國，墮落他鄉」—“because he does not know that suchness and dharma are one, he does not notice the wind of ignorance stirring, and he drifts to a foreign country and falls into another land.” 〔X21n0384 0727a20〕, and thereupon 「既忘本處，便迷歸路，遊行逐境，險道斯臻」—“having forgotten his own place, he loses the road home; he wanders on chasing after objects, and the road of peril is reached.” 〔X21n0384 0727a21〕 That order runs backwards to what we habitually suppose: it is not that he cannot get home because he took the wrong road; it is that he first forgot where home was, and only then did the road become a road of peril.

The fierce beasts upon the road are each matched to their own as well. The yakṣas 「有智有通，飛行捷疾」—“have cunning and have powers, and fly swift and quick.” 〔X21n0384 0727b02〕, and answer to the sharp agents; 「故虎狼等，畜類愚頑，以譬鈍使」—“and so the tigers and wolves and the rest, being beasts and dull and stubborn, are made the figure of the dull agents.” 〔X21n0384 0727b04〕, and within these 「故以虎喻慢使」—“and so the tiger is the simile for the agent of pride.” 〔X21n0384 0727b07〕, 「狼譬貪使」—“the wolf is the figure of the agent of greed.” 〔X21n0384 0727b09〕, 「師子表癡使」—“the lion shows forth the agent of delusion.” 〔X21n0384 0727b10〕, 「蚖蛇蝮蠍譬瞋使」—“vipers, snakes, adders, and scorpions are the figure of the agent of anger.” 〔X21n0384 0727b12〕

And then a friend appears upon the road. The sūtra says only 「有一知識，多解大術，善禁是毒」—“there is a friend who understands many great arts and is skilled at binding these poisons.” 〔T13n0412 0785a08〕, and does not name him. The commentator names him: 「知識指地藏」—“the friend points to Kṣitigarbha.” 〔X21n0384 0727c03〕

This is not named out of nothing. In another sūtra of the same honored one but of different text, this bodhisattva is twice written as the one who guides upon a road: 「如迷方者所逢示導」—“like the guide met with by one who has lost his bearings.” 〔T13n0411 0722a02〕 — the one who points out the way, met by a person who has lost his direction; and again 「譬如明月，於夜分中，能示一切失道眾生平坦正路」—“like the bright moon, which in the watches of the night can show to all beings who have lost the way the level and right road.” 〔T13n0411 0727b02〕 — the moon that lights up the level and right road at night for those who have lost the way. The friend who appears all at once within the road of peril stands in exactly this place.

The first thing this friend does is not to pull the man along but to stop him with a shout: 「咄哉！男子！為何事故，而入此路？」—“Hey there! Good man! For what cause do you take this road?” 〔T13n0412 0785a10〕 The commentator glosses those two words: 「咄哉，喚醒之辭。男子，警惕之意」—“‘Hey there’ is a word that wakes one up; ‘good man’ carries the sense of putting him on his guard.” 〔X21n0384 0727c15〕 And upon this road that he asks about, the commentator here joins an old sentence from the first chapter of this very sūtra — 「以此路，二種人到。所謂威神、業力，非此二事，終不能到」—“by this road two kinds of person arrive: that is, by awesome spiritual power and by the power of karma; without one of these two things one can never arrive.” 〔X21n0384 0727c19〕 In the first chapter, when the brahmin woman asked the ghost king Poisonless how she had been able to reach the place of the hells, this is precisely what was answered. One and the same sentence: used once to explain how the holy woman came in, and once to stop a straying man from going in.

Only after the shout comes the leading out: 「是善知識，提携接手，引出險道，免諸惡毒，至于好道，令得安樂」—“this good friend took him up and took him by the hand, and led him out of the road of peril, and spared him all the evil poisons, and brought him to a good road, and made him find peace and ease.” 〔T13n0412 0785a13〕

And the most important passage of the whole simile stands at the parting. The friend does not simply walk away; he charges him with one thing: 「若見親知及諸路人，若男若女，言於此路多諸毒惡，喪失性命。無令是眾，自取其死」—“if you see those you know and are close to, and travelers upon the road, whether men or women, tell them that on this road there are many poisons and evils, and that they will lose their lives. Do not let these people take their own death upon themselves.” 〔T13n0412 0785a17〕 The commentator makes plain what this charge is for: 「臨別時，將他化也。令轉勸者，冀展轉傳化，化化不絕也」—“at parting, he is about to transform others. He is made to exhort them in turn, in the hope that the transforming will be handed on and handed on, and that transforming upon transforming will not come to an end.” 〔X21n0384 0728b19〕 The one who has been saved is to go and save others; and the way of saving is not to take them up and take them by the hand, but only to say out loud what is on that road.

For the last words, take their own death upon themselves, the commentator cites the Sūtra of the Sections on the Five Sufferings by way of explanation: King Yama has a vast and universal kindness, and shows himself to those fallen into the hells and asks them why they have come here; and the guilty ones answer that at death they did not know they had done all those evils, and were brought here as a matter of course. And the king says 「自汝所作，今當受之。吾不枉汝」—“it is your own doing, and now you must undergo it. I do you no wrong.” 〔X21n0384 0728c04〕 The commentator then sets down his judgment: 「譬如抱石投淵，自沉自墜；飛蛾赴火，自燋自爛。非天與人授也」—“it is as when one clasps a stone and throws himself into a deep pool: he sinks of himself and drops of himself; or as when the moth goes into the flame: it scorches of itself and shrivels of itself. It is not handed him by heaven or by any man.” 〔X21n0384 0728c05〕

Those last five characters were said once already, in the fifth chapter, where the instruments of suffering in the hells are set out. There it was said that the copper and iron and stone and fire are issued down by no one; here it is said that the road is pointed out by no one either.

This Road Is Spoken of Only as Far as Gods and Men

Read to this point, the simile of the road of peril still wants one thing added — and that thing bears not upon this chapter alone but upon how the whole book is to be read.

Above, the yakṣas were matched to the sharp agents, and the tigers and wolves and lions and vipers and snakes to the dull agents, and the own home was read as the Land of Constant Quiescent Light. On such a matching, the road of peril ought to be the whole of birth and death, and not the three evil courses alone. The reading handed down knows this of itself. It brings out first the judgment of the Words and Phrases of the Lotus: 「文句釋法華險難惡道，通譬九界生死因果」—“the Words and Phrases explains the perilous and evil road of the Lotus as figuring throughout the causes and fruits of birth and death in the nine realms.” 〔X21n0384 0727a22〕 — the perilous and evil road figures the nine realms throughout, and śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas are upon that road as well. But then he sets his own limit: 「今據下文生人天中，令受妙樂，秪以三塗為險道」—“here, going by the words below, ‘born among men and gods, made to receive wondrous bliss,’ we take only the three evil courses as the road of peril.” 〔X21n0384 0727a24〕 Because the sūtra itself says 「欲生天人中，令受妙樂」—“would have them born among gods and men and there receive wondrous bliss.” 〔T13n0412 0785a20〕, he narrows the road of peril down to the three evil courses, and the good road down to gods and men.

At the close of the whole simile he says this self-limitation more plainly still. He grants first: 「據此亦應約九界因果明險道」—“on this ground one ought also to make the road of peril plain in terms of the causes and fruits of the nine realms.” 〔X21n0384 0728a20〕, and that, walking it as the Lotus walks it, one must 「過五百由旬，到涅槃寶所，方為安隱」—“pass the five hundred yojanas and reach the treasure-place of nirvāṇa; only then is there safety.” 〔X21n0384 0728a20〕 That simile in the Lotus runs exactly this way: 「譬如五百由旬險難惡道，曠絕無人、怖畏之處」—“suppose there were a perilous and evil road five hundred yojanas long, a place waste and empty of people and full of dread.” 〔T09n0262 0025c26〕, 「有一導師，聰慧明達，善知險道通塞之相」—“and there is a guide, clever and clear-sighted, who knows well the marks of what is open and what is blocked upon a road of peril.” 〔T09n0262 0025c28〕 The same road of peril, and the same one guide; and what differs is that the guide there conjures up a city midway for the people to rest in, and when they have rested enough he makes the city vanish, and they go on toward the treasure-place.

And then comes the most important line of all. He says that his own reason for speaking only as far as gods and men — 「今秪約三塗人天敵論者」—“that here we argue only in terms of the three evil courses set over against men and gods.” 〔X21n0384 0728a21〕 — is that this is 「化五濁迷流之要著也」—“the telling move for transforming those adrift in the delusion of the five turbidities.” 〔X21n0384 0728a22〕: for people drifting in the five turbidities, this is the move that tells. And then, with his own hand, he blocks the misreading: 「先以小接，次令入大，方便巧逗，妙化隨機，毋謂是經秪生人天也」—“first they are caught with the small, and next they are brought into the great; skillful means draws them cunningly, and wondrous transforming follows their capacity. Do not say that this sūtra only brings birth among men and gods.” 〔X21n0384 0728a22〕 First catch them with the small, then lead them into the great — do not suppose that this sūtra can do no more than bring birth among men and gods. And at the end he writes six characters: 「點逗於此，前後例之」—“the point is touched in here; before and after, take it as the pattern.” 〔X21n0384 0728a23〕

Before and after, take it as the pattern: that is to say that this sentence governs not this passage alone, and that the rest of the book throughout is to be read by the same rule. A commentator stops at the very place where his own exposition runs most smoothly, and declares that he is speaking this way in order to draw people in, and that it is not to be taken for a boundary — a matter lying outside this chapter, and yet the thing one ought to know first in reading the whole of this sūtra.

They Revere That Person as They Revere the Buddhas of the Three Times

The simile finished, the speaker changes. The ghost king Evil and Poison joins his palms and speaks to the Buddha, reporting the plain truth about himself first: 「我等諸鬼王，其數無量，在閻浮提，或利益人，或損害人，各各不同」—“we ghost kings are measureless in number, and in Jambudvīpa some of us benefit people and some of us harm people, each differing from the other.” 〔T13n0412 0785a28〕, and further 「然是業報，使我眷屬，遊行世界，多惡少善」—“yet it is the retribution of karma that makes my kindred roam through the world with much of evil in them and little of good.” 〔T13n0412 0785b01〕 He offers no defense of himself. He says that his kindred have much of evil and little of good, and that this is the retribution of karma.

And then comes the weightiest line in the passage. He says whom it is that he reveres: 「我等鬼王，敬禮是人，如過去、現在、未來諸佛」—“we ghost kings revere that person as we revere the buddhas of the past, the present, and the future.” 〔T13n0412 0785b05〕

The threshold of that reverence is astonishingly low. What the sūtra lists is 「修毛髮善事」—“cultivates a good deed as small as a hair or a strand of down.” 〔T13n0412 0785b03〕 — no larger than that; 「乃至懸一旛一蓋，少香少華」—“or so much as hangs up one banner or one canopy, a little incense or a little flower.” 〔T13n0412 0785b03〕; 「或轉讀尊經，燒香供養一句一偈」—“or reads a venerable sūtra aloud and burns incense in offering to a single line or a single verse.” 〔T13n0412 0785b04〕 One banner, one canopy, one line, one verse — every one of them a quantity we can manage offhand.

The reading handed down poses its own question and answer: ghosts are of the company of evil, so how is it that upon seeing a person do a hair’s worth of good they revere him as the buddhas of the three times? The answer is a single line: 「所言佛者，修一切善法而得」—“what is called a buddha is gained by cultivating every good dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0730b06〕, and therefore 「今男女修諸善事，佛果斯栽，故鬼神敬之」—“now that these men and women cultivate good deeds, the fruit of buddhahood is planted right there, and so ghosts and spirits revere them.” 〔X21n0384 0730b07〕 What is revered is not that person’s present station but the seed already put down within that small deed. The commentator cites a saying of Jingxi in witness: 「一句一偈，增進菩提；一色一香，永無退轉」—“a single line, a single verse advances one toward awakening; a single form, a single scent, and there is never any falling back.” 〔X21n0384 0730a24〕

In the same passage there is a pair set over against each other as well, out of the Dīrgha Āgama: if the people of the world hold wrong views and do the ten evils, 「如是百千人，乃有一神護耳」—“for a hundred thousand such people there is but one spirit that guards them.” 〔X21n0384 0729c02〕; and if they cultivate good dharmas, hold right views and right faith, and do the ten good deeds, 「如是一人有百千神護」—“one such person has a hundred thousand spirits that guard him.” 〔X21n0384 0729c03〕 A hundred thousand people sharing one spirit, and one person getting a hundred thousand spirits — the same body of ghosts and spirits, and the proportion turned entirely upside down.

The Buddha’s response is short too: 「善哉！善哉！汝等及與閻羅，能如是擁護善男女等」—“Excellent! Excellent! That you and Yama are able to guard good men and good women in this way.” 〔T13n0412 0785b09〕, and he says 「吾亦告梵王帝釋，令衛護汝」—“I too shall tell the Brahmā King and Śakra to stand guard over you.” 〔T13n0412 0785b10〕 Those who guard others are themselves being guarded.

Why a Ghost Is a Ghost, and Why a King Is a King

That judgment at the head of the chapter — that these ghost kings are all inconceivable bodhisattvas appearing and transforming by great expedient power — is bracing to read, and it easily covers over the other half. The reading handed down did not speak of the expedient side alone; the same brush, following the path of karma, spoke also of why a ghost is a ghost.

For the cause of the ghost destiny he cites the Sūtra of the Right Mindfulness of the True Dharma: 「準正法念經，明其因行，乃由貪嫉、邪倿、諂曲、欺誑、積財不施」—“according to the Sūtra of the Right Mindfulness of the True Dharma, the practices that cause it are made plain: greed and envy, wickedness and sycophancy, flattery and crookedness, cheating and deceit, and heaping up wealth without giving it away.” 〔X21n0384 0729c09〕 Five things: greed and envy, wickedness and sycophancy, flattery and crookedness, cheating and deceit; and the last of them is heaping up wealth without giving it away — hoarding it and not willing to hand it out.

Among ghosts too there are rich and poor. He divides their dwellings in two: 「有威德者，住山谷空中海邊，皆有宮殿」—“those who have awesome virtue dwell in mountain valleys, in the open air, and by the sea, and all of them have palaces.” 〔X21n0384 0729b20〕; 「無威德者，依不淨糞穢草木塚墓屏廁故塸，皆無舍宅」—“those without awesome virtue depend upon filth and dung, upon grass and trees, grave-mounds, privies, and old ruined mounds, and none of them has house or dwelling.” 〔X21n0384 0729b21〕 In one and the same ghost destiny, one sort lives in palaces and the other has not so much as a place to cover its body.

And for why a king is a king he gives a cause as well: 「若惡中兼布施因，生鬼道中，大有威德，為諸鬼王」—“if within the evil there is also a cause of giving, then being born in the ghost destiny one has great awesome virtue and becomes a ghost king.” 〔X21n0384 0731a14〕 Giving mixed in with evil karma: hence he falls into the ghost destiny, and is a king there. What we do in a lifetime is never pure to begin with, and so the fruit of it is not pure either.

The line that comes next is a cold one: 「雖威德為王，恒為諸天駈役，守門防邏，導從給使，亦繫往業」—“though by awesome virtue he is a king, he is forever driven at the service of the gods — guarding gates and patrolling, going before as escort and waiting upon them — and this too is bound to former karma.” 〔X21n0384 0731a15〕 A king, and still sent on errands by the gods: guarding gates, patrolling, attending, serving; and these too alike are bound to former karma. So even the office of Master-of-Life is an assignment karma has made: 「其主命之職，亦循業而為之」—“his office of mastery over life is likewise performed in accordance with karma.” 〔X21n0384 0731a16〕

This reading and that judgment at the head of the chapter are on the face of it contrary to each other: the one says that they are bodhisattvas from the first, the other that they take their form in accordance with karma. The two accounts stand together within one and the same commentary, and no reconciling is offered. And the sūtra itself, at the end, identifies only one of them as 「實非鬼也」—“in truth no ghost at all.” 〔T13n0412 0785c17〕; of the other thirty-three the sūtra says nothing.

At the Time of Birth, at the Time of Death

The second axle stands in the latter half of this chapter. A ghost king in the assembly steps out of his rank, and his name is Master-of-Life. He states for himself what he is master of: 「我本業緣，主閻浮人命，生時死時，我皆主之」—“because of my own original karmic conditions I am master over the lifespans of the people of Jambudvīpa; at the time of birth and at the time of death, I am master of both.” 〔T13n0412 0785b12〕

That sentence is easily read too heavily. The reading handed down reins it in first: 「然言主者，不過司命存亡，非能與奪人命，令生之死之」—“yet to say master is to say no more than that he has charge of the register of life and death; he cannot give or take a life, or make one live or make one die.” 〔X21n0384 0731a06〕 — master means only that he has charge of their surviving and perishing, not that he can give or take a life, or make one live or die. What he holds is the register, not the power of life and death.

He then speaks of two things, one belonging to the time of birth and one to the time of death.

The one belonging to the time of birth is: do not kill. The sūtra says that at the first birth one should 「但作善事，增益舍宅」—“only do good deeds and so add to the increase of the household.” 〔T13n0412 0785b16〕; 「或已生下，慎勿殺害，取諸鮮味，供給產母」—“or when the child is already born, take the greatest care not to kill and harm living things, taking their fresh flavors to set before the mother who has given birth.” 〔T13n0412 0785b18〕 He gives the reason himself: at the hard hour of birth 「有無數惡鬼，及魍魎精魅，欲食腥血」—“there are numberless evil ghosts and goblins and sprites of essence that would eat the raw blood.” 〔T13n0412 0785b20〕, and he has long since charged the house and the numinous powers of that soil to bear the child and the mother up; and the household, seeing all at peace and ease, 「便合設福，答諸土地」—“ought then to set out blessings and requite the earth spirits.” 〔T13n0412 0785b23〕, and turns instead to killing and gathers the kindred together, and so 「犯殃自受，子母俱損」—“the calamity they commit falls upon themselves, and child and mother are both harmed.” 〔T13n0412 0785b24〕

Here the commentator cites a saying of Yunqi, plainly put and hard to dodge: 「生子不宜殺生。人無子則悲，有子則喜」—“when a child is born one ought not to take life. A man without a child grieves; with a child he rejoices.” 〔X21n0384 0731c06〕, and 「不思一切禽獸，亦各愛其子。慶我子生，令他子死，於心安乎」—“yet he does not consider that every bird and beast also loves its own young. To celebrate my child’s being born by making another’s child die — is the heart at ease in that?” 〔X21n0384 0731c06〕 He records an old story besides: Zhou Yu was boiling eels, and saw one arch its body upward with head and tail down in the broth; cutting it open, he found that it had young in its belly. And so the commentator says: 「雖人畜不同，愛子之心一也」—“though man and beast are not the same, the heart that loves its young is one.” 〔X21n0384 0731c11〕 To celebrate my own child’s birth by making another’s child die is a thing that gets done in our days again and again without our noticing it.

The same passage of the sūtra warns as well against gathering the kindred together, drinking wine and eating meat, and singing and music of strings and pipes, and says that these can make both child and mother fail of peace and ease. The commentator’s judgment is only two clauses: 「飲酒斷智慧種，食肉斷慈悲種」—“drinking wine cuts off the seed of wisdom; eating meat cuts off the seed of compassion.” 〔X21n0384 0731c21〕 One clause cuts off wisdom and one cuts off compassion — a banquet laid on for a newborn child, and it is cutting at both ends.

The one belonging to the time of death is the last hour. The sūtra writes it very coldly: 「臨命終時，神識惛昧，不辯善惡，乃至眼耳，更無見聞」—“at the time when life ends, the spirit-consciousness is dimmed and clouded and cannot tell good from evil, and even with eye and ear there is no more seeing or hearing.” 〔T13n0412 0785c01〕 The commentator describes it out of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: 「雖有五情，無所知覺」—“though the five senses are there, nothing is known or felt.” 〔X21n0384 0733a18〕; and the marks of the retribution of the good and evil formerly cultivated appear before him, 「如日垂沒，山陵堆阜，影現東移，理無西逝」—“as when the sun is going down and the shadows of hills and mounds appear moving eastward: there is no principle by which they should go west.” 〔X21n0384 0733a19〕 — the sun sinks in the west, and the shadow of the hill will only move east; there is no way for it to travel back west.

Of the order in which they depart the commentator sets down a line too: 「唯第八識最後去」—“the eighth consciousness alone departs last.” 〔X21n0384 0733a16〕 — the consciousnesses let go one after another, and the last to leave is that one. And once it has gone: 「中陰有二種：一善業果，二惡業果」—“the intermediate state is of two kinds: first, the fruit of good karma; second, the fruit of evil karma.” 〔X21n0384 0733b02〕, and following the causes and conditions of karma it goes to the place where it is to be reborn.

So the matter does not lie with the dead one but with those beside him: 「是諸眷屬，當須設大供養，轉讀尊經，念佛菩薩名號」—“their kindred ought to set out a great offering, to read the venerable sūtras aloud, and to recite the names of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas.” 〔T13n0412 0785c02〕 The commentator describes the timing of it: 「當須設供者，事之要處也。譬船行險處，急宜著力。稍有錯時，人船俱失」—“that an offering must then be set out — this is the crucial point of the whole affair. It is like a boat going through a perilous place: one must put out one’s strength at once. Let the moment be missed by a little, and boat and men are lost together.” 〔X21n0384 0733b01〕

And at the last he lowers the threshold once more: 「一切眾生臨命終時，若得聞一佛名、一菩薩名，或大乘經典一句一偈」—“when all beings come to the end of life, if they can but hear the name of one buddha or the name of one bodhisattva, or a single line or a single verse of a Mahāyāna scripture.” 〔T13n0412 0785c05〕, then apart from the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds and of killing and harming, 「小小惡業，合墮惡趣者，尋即解脫」—“their small evil deeds, those that ought to have made them fall into the evil destinies, are straightway loosed.” 〔T13n0412 0785c08〕 The commentator cites the Avataṃsaka in witness: 「寧受地獄苦，得聞諸佛名；不受無量樂，而不聞佛名」—“better to undergo the sufferings of hell and get to hear the names of the buddhas, than to receive measureless bliss and not hear a buddha’s name.” 〔X21n0384 0733c05〕

As to how hearing one name can count for anything, he cites two more lines. One is from the Larger Prajñā: 「若有一人稱南無佛，乃至畢苦，其福不盡」—“if there be one person who says ‘Homage to the Buddha,’ then even to the ending of suffering that blessing is not used up.” 〔X21n0384 0733b11〕 — say ‘Homage to the Buddha’ once, and that portion of blessing is still not spent when suffering has come to its end. The other explains why some gain it upon a single hearing: 「有眾生福德淳熟，結使心薄，若聞佛名，即時得道」—“there are beings whose merit is ripe and mellow and whose mind is thin of fetters, and if they hear a buddha’s name they attain the way at once.” 〔X21n0384 0733c08〕, 「如新淨白氈，易為受色」—“like new clean white felt, which takes color easily.” 〔X21n0384 0733c09〕 New white cloth takes the dye most easily — not because the dye is anything special, but because there is no other color on the cloth yet.

In My Original Vow

There is one line in what Master-of-Life says that is easy to read straight past: 「在我本願，甚欲利益」—“in my original vow I greatly desire to benefit them.” 〔T13n0412 0785b13〕

The two characters original vow are the title of this sūtra. In the whole sūtra those two characters are used in nine places: the four occurrences of the sūtra’s title at the head and the end of the fascicles; what the Buddha says in the sixth chapter when he gives the three names, 「此經有三名：一名地藏本願」—“this sūtra has three names: the first is The Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha.” 〔T13n0412 0783c16〕; the two places in the eleventh chapter where the sūtra is called by name; and in the thirteenth chapter 「或聞地藏本願事行」—“or hears of the deeds and practice of Kṣitigarbha’s original vows.” 〔T13n0412 0789c20〕 — and apart from these, the whole sūtra has only this one place where anyone says in the first person that he has an original vow, and the one who speaks is a ghost king.

Kṣitigarbha’s vow is spoken of everywhere in the sūtra, but always by others on his behalf — the Buddha tells it, Mañjuśrī asks after it, Yama praises it. The one who opens his own mouth and speaks of his original vow is this Master-of-Life.

The Buddha’s confirmation uses the same word: 「汝大慈故，能發如是大願，於生死中，護諸眾生」—“because of your great kindness you are able to make a great vow such as this, and to guard all beings in the midst of birth and death.” 〔T13n0412 0785c09〕, and he charges him 「汝莫退是願，總令解脫，永得安樂」—“do not withdraw this vow of yours, but bring them all to liberation and to peace and ease forever.” 〔T13n0412 0785c11〕 The ghost king’s answer is a single sentence of vowing: 「我畢是形，念念擁護閻浮眾生」—“to the end of this form of mine, thought after thought I shall guard the beings of Jambudvīpa.” 〔T13n0412 0785c12〕

He Manifests the Body of a Great Ghost, and Is in Truth No Ghost at All

At this point in the chapter the sūtra discloses it itself. The Buddha says to Kṣitigarbha: 「是大鬼王主命者，已曾經百千生，作大鬼王，於生死中，擁護眾生」—“this great ghost king Master-of-Life has already through a hundred thousand lives been a great ghost king, guarding beings in the midst of birth and death.” 〔T13n0412 0785c15〕, and then that line: 「是大士，慈悲願故，現大鬼身，實非鬼也」—“this great being, by reason of his vow of compassion, manifests the body of a great ghost, and is in truth no ghost at all.” 〔T13n0412 0785c17〕

Here the reading handed down sets up the sense of root and trace: 「凡論本跡，本同而跡異」—“in every discussion of root and trace, the root is one and the traces differ.” 〔X21n0384 0734a13〕, and it lays down a simile: 「譬一月在天，影臨眾水。若執影為真，則失本矣」—“it is as when one moon is in the sky and its reflection comes down upon many waters. If one grasps the reflection as the real thing, the root is lost.” 〔X21n0384 0734a16〕 The moon in the water is the reflection of that moon in the sky; take the reflection for the thing itself, and the thing itself is lost.

The three names of the prediction were not picked up at random either. He is to attain buddhahood, 「號曰無相如來。劫名安樂，世界名淨住」—“and his name shall be the Tathāgata Signless; the kalpa shall be named Peace and Ease, and the world Pure Abiding.” 〔T13n0412 0785c18〕 The commentator matches these three names back one by one to the marks of a ghost. Signless: 「不但無生住異滅之相，無相亦無，故名無相」—“not only are the marks of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing absent; the absence of marks is itself absent, and therefore he is named Signless.” 〔X21n0384 0734a24〕; and to become signless by way of the marks of a ghost is not to be empty of everything, and so 「今日之鬼相，即不思議之妙有」—“this day’s marks of a ghost are the inconceivable wondrous being itself.” 〔X21n0384 0734b04〕 As for the name of the kalpa and the name of the world, he speaks more directly still: 「孰謂鬼神恒受駈使不安樂乎，劫劫本自安樂」—“who says that ghosts and spirits are forever driven at others’ errands and never at ease? Kalpa upon kalpa they are of themselves at peace and ease.” 〔X21n0384 0734b07〕 Who says that ghosts and spirits can only be driven about and never be at ease — the name of that kalpa is Peace and Ease.

A fierce roster of thirty-four names opens the chapter, and a ghost king who is to become a buddha closes it. These two ends are the two ends of one and the same thing: the string of names at the beginning can be read as an appearing and transforming by great expedient power only because this one at the end was first identified by the sūtra as a great being.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and the Books It Cites

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the placing of this chapter under the third great section, the count of thirty-four, the reading of Evil and Poison at the head and of the appearing and transforming by great expedient power, the three admissions of doubt over the six transcribed names, the own home as the Constant Quiescent Light, the friend as pointing to Kṣitigarbha, mastery as neither giving nor taking, and the glossing of root and trace and of the Signless.

This chapter is the passage in the whole book where the books cited are most mixed. In glossing the two words evil and poison, besides the ten evils and the three poisons he cites a line of the Liezi — that they are given life and reared, settled and ripened — and says that 毒 shifts in sound to 篤 and is at root a word for great goodness. In glossing Great Contention he cites the Dīrgha Āgama on the Buddha and Śakra discussing how the knot of enmity arises wholly out of greed and envy, and cites besides the figure in the Zhuangzi of the wife and the mother-in-law wrangling. In glossing Wolf-Fang he cites the Chart of Baize on the sprites of grave-mounds. In glossing Master-of-Wasting, Master-of-Calamity, Master-of-Wealth, and Master-of-Food he cites throughout the account of the Most High’s spirit who keeps register of transgressions and takes away years. In glossing Master-of-Birds and Master-of-Beasts he cites the twelve beasts of the twelve watches from the Great Collection, as set out in the Tiantai Great Calming and Contemplation and the Fuxing. In glossing Master-of-Birthing he cites the Eastern Peak repentance rite and the elder sister of Hārītī. In glossing the ten kings of the dark realm he cites the Comprehensive Record of the Buddhas and Patriarchs. Sūtra, treatise, commentary, Daoist book, outer classic, and record of the strange all stand together in one place.

And in the one item where he cites the Comprehensive Record, he draws the boundary himself. He says first 「按道明和尚所傳十殿冥王，閻羅天子在五殿」—“according to the ten kings of the dark realm as handed down by the reverend Daoming, Yama, Son of Heaven, is in the fifth court.” 〔X21n0384 0725c13〕, and immediately copies out the Comprehensive Record’s own words: 「統紀云：十王名字，藏典傳記可考者六」—“the Comprehensive Record says: of the names of the ten kings, six can be verified from the canonical books and the records.” 〔X21n0384 0725c13〕 — of the ten names, only six can be verified from the canon and the records. For the six that can be verified he notes his grounds one by one, and the rest he does not fill in. One and the same brush: three times not ascertained upon those six transcribed names, and only six verified among the names of the ten courts.

The one fascicle of the Guiding Thread in which he explains the title had already, before this chapter, fixed the standing of Yama and his multitude. There he says first, following the aspect of events, 「是則閻王與眾臣佐，皆欲脫冥界之苦，故申讚嘆而發菩提心也」—“thus King Yama with his ministers and aides all wish to be free of the suffering of the dark realm, and therefore they set forth praise and raise the thought of awakening.” 〔X21n0383 0649b21〕, and then turns at once: 「若準下文主命鬼王本迹，則閻王與眾皆是不思議菩薩住王三昧」—“if one goes by the root and trace of the ghost king Master-of-Life below, then King Yama and his multitude are all inconceivable bodhisattvas abiding in the samādhi of kingship.” 〔X21n0383 0649b22〕 The key by which he reads the whole chapter is fitted on backwards from that one line at the chapter’s end.

Later hands went on reading it in this way. In the Rite of Repentance and Vows in Praise of and Homage to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, set down by Zhixu of the Ming, the section of homage to the buddhas brings this ghost king’s future buddha-name into the roll of those to whom homage is paid: 「一心頂禮未來淨住世界安樂劫中無相如來」—“with one mind I bow my head to the Tathāgata Signless, of the kalpa Peace and Ease in the future world Pure Abiding.” 〔X74n1486 0585a14〕 — in a book of ritual practice, the ghost king’s prediction has already become a buddha to whom homage is paid. Another work, the Jeweled Repentance of the Dharma-Wheel for the Great Water-and-Land Feast for the Holy and the Common of the Dharma Realm, makes a short comment upon each chapter, and writes under this one: 「閻羅王眾讚歎品，實者鬼神無所私，權者菩薩多所護」—“The Praise of King Yama and His Multitude: on the real side, ghosts and spirits show no favor; on the expedient side, bodhisattvas guard many.” 〔X74n1499 0890b01〕, and judges: 「心靈神妙，呼吸全通，成佛之鬼王，即地藏化身眷屬也」—“the mind is numinous and the spirit wondrous, and the breath passes wholly through; the ghost king who is to become a buddha is none other than kindred of Kṣitigarbha’s transformation-body.” 〔X74n1499 0890b02〕

And the sūtra itself gives no warrant for any of these readings. It only calls out the thirty-four names to the end, lets one of them speak, and then says of him 「實非鬼也」—“in truth no ghost at all.” 〔T13n0412 0785c17〕, and says that the devas and humans he has delivered are 「亦不可限量」—“likewise beyond all reckoning.” 〔T13n0412 0785c21〕

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. He judges the closing stretch of the sūtra as so many great sections, and this chapter is the head of one of them: 「大章第四，明成佛因分」—“The fourth great section, making plain the part on the causes of attaining buddhahood.” 〔X21n0384 0734b24〕; and beneath it he divides two branches — 「初、示成佛正行；二、顯成佛助道」—“first, the right practice for attaining buddhahood is shown; second, the auxiliary path to attaining buddhahood is disclosed.” 〔X21n0384 0734b24〕 Reciting the names of the buddhas is the right practice, and the weighing of giving in the next chapter is the auxiliary path. How the chapter walks he opens out plainly as well: 「品文。分三。初、地藏為說利益；二、如來許救罪苦；三、大士正稱佛名」—“The text of the chapter divides into three: first, Kṣitigarbha would speak of the benefit; second, the Tathāgata grants the rescue of the guilty and suffering; third, the great being properly recites the names of the buddhas.” 〔X21n0384 0734c03〕; and the passage of properly reciting the names of the buddhas divides again into two, 「初、稱名；二、結益」—“first, the reciting of the name; second, the concluding upon its benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0735b18〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

A Whole Chapter, and Only a Roster

This chapter is short. From the chapter title to the close, the sūtra does three things only: Kṣitigarbha asks leave to speak, the Buddha grants it and urges him to be quick, and Kṣitigarbha calls out a string of buddha-names.

A string of buddha-names. The first ten have a passage each, and each carries its number of kalpas, its way of practice, and the benefit gained by it; the last nine are crowded into a single sentence with their names alone, no kalpas and no benefit. Ten and nine make nineteen names. The roster called out, the sūtra turns to the difference between reciting one name and reciting many, then turns to the last hour, and then closes.

A sūtra that has to speak of hells, of the retribution of karma, of ghost kings — and into the middle of it comes a chapter like this, with no scene, no exchange of question and answer, no story. Only names.

The reading handed down gives an account of this at the outset: the reason this chapter had to be set up on its own is that the reciting of the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas has already been spoken of over and over above, and only now are there 「略出十名」—“ten names brought out in brief.” 〔X21n0384 0734c10〕 to serve as a target, 「次顯多佛，以至沙河也」—“and next many buddhas are disclosed, on out to the sands of the river.” 〔X21n0384 0734c10〕 — first ten actual names for a mark to aim at, and then the range pulled open to the sands of the Ganges. The roster, then, is not the whole of it; it is a doorway.

There is a further line that matters more: these buddhas 「皆指過去者，自地藏發心已來所值之諸佛也」—“all point to the past: they are the buddhas Kṣitigarbha has met with since he first raised the thought of awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0735c01〕, and moreover 「凡所舉佛名，皆後遠於前」—“of the buddha-names raised, each later one is more distant than the one before.” 〔X21n0384 0735c02〕

Read so, this roster is not merely a roster. It is Kṣitigarbha’s own history — the buddhas he met with all along his way. Every gate he brings out for beings to use is a gate he has gone through himself.

The four characters at the head of each entry are not a formula either. Nineteen buddhas, and each is led in with “there was a buddha who appeared in the world”; the reading handed down says that these four characters are 「慶幸之語」—“words of feeling fortunate.” 〔X21n0384 0735c03〕, and borrows a figure from the Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra — only when a buddha appears in the world can the sun of wisdom be opened out and the gate of sweet dew be opened, 「故喻如優曇華，時一現耳」—“and so it is likened to the udumbara flower, which appears but once in an age.” 〔X21n0384 0735c05〕 The udumbara appears once in a long, long while. Every name upon this roster is one such appearing.

The Buddha Answers with an Urgent Word

Kṣitigarbha opens his mouth to ask leave, and the Buddha grants it with the greatest speed: “set forth inconceivable matters — now is just the time; only speak of it quickly.”

And then the Buddha adds a line that is abrupt anywhere in this sūtra: “I am about to enter nirvāṇa, so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner; and then I shall have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come.”

I am about to enter nirvāṇa.

The commentator of old stops a moment here, saying of this line that it is 「人不忍聞」—“more than a man can bear to hear.” 〔X21n0384 0735b07〕, and explains why the Buddha presses so: 「如來化緣將熄，滅度靡常，不此申救，更待何時」—“the Tathāgata’s conditions for transforming are about to go out, and his passing is not fixed; if the rescue be not set forth now, what other time is to be waited for?” 〔X21n0384 0735a24〕 As for “so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner,” he reads it as a way of speaking that grants for argument’s sake — how could Kṣitigarbha’s vow ever be finished early? The Buddha’s meaning is: even if I were to enter nirvāṇa this instant, and even if your vow could truly be finished early, I should still have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come. And why no anxiety? 「有此稱名之法，人人可不墮苦」—“because there is this method of reciting the name, and every person may thereby not fall into suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0735b15〕

With that the standing of this chapter becomes plain. It comes after the praise of the ghost kings and before the weighing of giving, and it is the thing the Buddha hands over when his time is nearly used up. The chapters before said how beings fall, how the hells are undergone, how great karma is; here the sūtra hands over a thing that could not be smaller — remember one name.

Nineteen Gates, and No Two Thresholds Alike

The roster is worth going through slowly, because it is not even.

For the ten buddhas the ways of practice are: reverence arising for a moment; raising the thought and taking refuge in the space of a finger-snap; hearing the name of this buddha so that it passes through the faculty of hearing; taking refuge in a single thought; gazing and bowing with the whole of one’s mind, or praising him besides; hearing the name of this buddha; hearing the name of this buddha; giving rise to a heart of reverence; hearing the name of this buddha; hearing the name of this buddha.

And what is gained by each is: passing beyond the grave sins of birth and death of forty kalpas; never falling back upon the unsurpassed way; being born a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire; meeting measureless buddhas who lay their hands upon one’s head and give the prediction; being a Great Brahmā King in the assembly of the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa and receiving the highest prediction; never falling into the evil destinies but always born among humans and gods; in the end not falling into the evil destinies but always in the heavens; gaining before long the fruit of an arhat; passing beyond the sins of birth and death of a hundred great kalpas; meeting buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges who expound the Dharma at length, and certainly accomplishing awakening.

The way of practice descends all the way from reverence arising for a moment to passing through the faculty of hearing; and what is gained climbs from passing beyond forty kalpas up to certainly accomplishing awakening. The two are not in proportion. The few gates with the lowest thresholds are not the ones that give least.

The four characters of the first gate are worth stopping over most of all. The sūtra says: 「若有男子女人，聞是佛名，暫生恭敬，即得超越四十劫生死重罪」—“if there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and gives rise to reverence for even a moment, that one at once passes beyond the grave sins of birth and death of forty kalpas.” 〔T13n0412 0786a01〕 — reverence arising for a moment: four characters.

The reading handed down takes those four characters apart and glosses each: 「暫謂歷時不久」—“for a moment means that the time it lasts is not long.” 〔X21n0384 0735c14〕; 「生謂當下發心，恭謂束身翹仰，敬謂心無異緣」—“arising means raising the thought on the spot; reverent in bearing means drawing the body together and looking up; reverent in mind means that the mind has no other object to reach after.” 〔X21n0384 0735c14〕 A moment is a time not long; arising is raising this thought on the spot; the one word of reverence is gathering the body up and lifting the face; the other is having nothing else in the mind to reach for. Two of the four speak of the body and two of the mind, and the whole of it lasts only a moment.

And then comes the weightiest judgment in the chapter. He says that within so small a thought of understanding, 「即此一念微解，無非本性佛法」—“this one slight understanding in a single thought is nothing other than the buddha-dharma of one’s own original nature.” 〔X21n0384 0735c15〕, and therefore 「故於暫生恭敬心中，早已成名字佛」—“and so within the mind in which reverence arises for a moment, one has already become a buddha at the identity in name.” 〔X21n0384 0735c16〕

A buddha at the identity in name — to hear this name and thereby know that there is such a dharma is already to stand upon that first rank of buddhahood, the rank of the name. And he adds a limit below it: 「然此聞名暫敬，但得理性初開，便能超極重罪」—“yet in this hearing of the name and this momentary reverence, one gains only the first opening of the principle-nature, and with that can already pass beyond the gravest sins.” 〔X21n0384 0735c17〕 The principle-nature has opened by no more than a thread, and no fraction of practice has yet been done, and the gravest sins are already passed beyond.

This line answers the most basic doubt of the whole chapter: how can hearing one name count for anything? The answer is not that the name has some power outside; it is that the very thought of hearing is already the buddha-dharma. What the name does is only to let one recognize what was there already.

The lowest of them all is the third. In the passage of the Tathāgata Red Lotus Supreme the sūtra says only 「聞是佛名，歷於耳根」—“hears the name of this buddha, so that it passes through the faculty of hearing” — a name going in at the ear, and no more than that; and what is gained is birth a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire. The sūtra then adds a question of its own turned back: how much more one who recites it with the whole of his mind?

The reading handed down borrows the lotus here: the red lotus 「處泥不染，出水恒芬」—“stands in the mud and takes no stain, and rising from the water is always fragrant.” 〔X21n0384 0736b09〕, so that one who hears the name, though born in the heavens of desire, is in fact not attached to the five objects of desire there; and as to the number a thousand, he binds it to 「佛蓮千瓣，表千法明門，故云千返」—“the buddha’s lotus has a thousand petals, figuring the thousand bright gates of the Dharma, and so it is said a thousand times over.” 〔X21n0384 0736b13〕 That matching may be consulted. But the thing the sūtra itself brings out is harder: the threshold may come down to no more than hearing.

The second, the Tathāgata Jewel Nature, is the same sense said another way. In the space of a finger-snap one raises the thought and takes refuge, and upon the unsurpassed way one never falls back. The commentator of old sets it over against the long road of the three vehicles: 「三乘之士，歷僧祇劫而功行無成」—“men of the three vehicles pass through asaṃkhyeya kalpas and their practice comes to no accomplishment.” 〔X21n0384 0736a05〕, whereas 「念佛之門，於彈指頃而位階不退」—“by the gate of reciting a buddha’s name, in the space of a finger-snap the rank one stands in does not fall back.” 〔X21n0384 0736a06〕 He borrows the old similes besides to say why it can be so fast — like the poor woman with a treasure-store already in her house, like the strong man with a bright jewel already in his forehead: once it is pointed out, 「貧女發藏，受用靡窮。力士見珠，歡喜無量」—“the poor woman opens her store and the use of it is without end; the strong man sees the jewel and his joy is measureless.” 〔X21n0384 0736a24〕 Nothing new has been gained; what was there already has been pointed out.

For the weight of the two words taking refuge he brings in another sūtra for comparison: 「教四天下，及六欲天，得四果，不如三歸依功德多」—“to teach the four continents and the six heavens of desire so that they gain the four fruits is not so much merit as the threefold refuge.” 〔X21n0384 0736a07〕 — to bring all the people of the four continents and the six heavens of desire to the four fruits is still less merit than one taking of the threefold refuge; and he ties a verse to it, 「諸有歸依佛，不墮三惡趣」—“all those who take refuge in the Buddha do not fall into the three evil destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0736a09〕 And whom this gate takes refuge in he makes plain as well: 「此憑自性佛寶，以歸寶性，故於無上之道，永不退轉」—“this relies upon the buddha-jewel of one’s own nature in order to take refuge in Jewel Nature, and therefore upon the unsurpassed way one never falls back.” 〔X21n0384 0736a10〕 Relying on the buddha-jewel within one’s own nature, one takes refuge in the buddha whose name is Jewel Nature — the names are the same, and so the refuge holds.

A Name Without a Suffix

Among the nineteen names there is one unlike the rest.

For the sixth the sūtra text writes only 「號毘婆尸」—“named Vipaśyin.” It is not the Tathāgata Vipaśyin, nor the Buddha Vipaśyin — it is simply Vipaśyin. Every one of the eighteen names before and after carries the suffix Tathāgata or Buddha; this one alone stands there bare.

This is not a thing to be filled in, and ought not to be filled in. As the sūtra writes it, so it is to be read.

And what this one gives is precisely the most basic thing in the whole chapter: hearing the name of this buddha, one never falls into the evil destinies, but is always born among humans and gods and there enjoys supreme and wondrous bliss. Upon the side of practice there is no added condition at all — no reverence, no taking refuge, no gazing and bowing and praising, only the four characters “hears the name of this buddha.”

The commentator of old is careful here to a rare degree, saying 「聞是佛名，即不墮三惡道。此非易事」—“to hear the name of this buddha and thereby not fall into the three evil destinies — this is no easy matter.” 〔X21n0384 0737b04〕, and citing a treatise to show that Śākyamuni himself passed through long kalpas before he was always parted from the evil destinies. He blocks one thing besides: this one is not to be settled as the very buddha whom Śākyamuni met when he first planted the marks and excellences, because 「以毗婆尸佛甚多，安可專指釋迦種相初逢之勝觀也」—“since the buddhas named Vipaśyin are very many, how can one point exclusively to the Supreme Contemplation whom Śākyamuni first met when planting the marks?” 〔X21n0384 0737b03〕

A name without a suffix, a gate without a condition, and a gloss that refuses to close the matter. These three together make a very singular page in this chapter.

Three Deeds, Three Causes of Buddha-Nature

In the passage of the Buddha Krakucchanda the sūtra gives three things: hearing the name of this buddha, gazing and bowing with the whole of one’s mind, and praising him besides.

The reading handed down matches these three things to body, speech, and mind, and then to the three causes of buddha-nature: 「聞佛名屬意，是顯正因佛性」—“hearing a buddha’s name belongs to mind, and this discloses the direct-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c11〕, 「瞻禮屬身，是顯緣因佛性」—“gazing and bowing belong to body, and this discloses the conditioning-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c12〕, 「讚歎屬口，是顯了因佛性」—“praising belongs to speech, and this discloses the revealing-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c12〕

This matching comes out of the house-rule of the commentator of old, and is not a word the sūtra carries of itself. But it throws light on something the sūtra text is in fact doing: the practice in this chapter uses, from beginning to end, only the three commonest things of body, speech, and mind — hearing, bowing, opening the mouth. All the weight of the hells and all the greatness of karma laid out in the chapters before answer here to three motions that any of us can make.

There is a small block set up in the same passage as well. Krakucchanda, on the usual account, is the first buddha of the Worthy Kalpa, while the sūtra text plainly says 「又於過去」—“again, in the past.” The commentator of old therefore judges: 「此非賢劫第九，減至六萬歲時出世之佛」—“this is not the buddha who appeared in the world in the ninth decrease of the Worthy Kalpa, when the lifespan had come down to sixty thousand years.” 〔X21n0384 0736c08〕 — for if this one be read as the first buddha of the Worthy Kalpa, the words 「過去」—“in the past” above are an obstacle, and the kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges below are an obstacle too. For this he draws in the Sūtra of the Names of the Myriad Buddhas, the Sūtra of Bhaiṣajyarāja and Medicine Superior, and the accounts of the Fayuan, and argues at length how the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa can appear in the world at one time; and at the end he comes down only to this: 「恐後賢致疑，略示梗槩耳」—“lest later worthies fall into doubt, I have set out the general shape of it in brief, and no more.” 〔X21n0384 0737a19〕

He does not cover over the doubtful place, nor does he force it to a decision. This is the tone of the gloss upon this chapter.

Each Name Tells Which Face

The roster being a set of gates, no two gates are alike. The nineteen names are not nineteen ciphers; each points to some face of a buddha, and the reading handed down glosses them one by one. The third, Red Lotus Supreme, the fifth, Krakucchanda, and the sixth, Vipaśyin, have been opened above; the rest are gone through here in the order of the roster.

The first, Boundless Body, looks least of all like a name. The commentator reads it as a sense running through all three bodies, and cites a treatise glossing the body of self-nature: 「一自性身，謂諸如來真淨法界，具無邊際真實功德」—“first, the body of self-nature, which is the true and pure dharma-realm of all tathāgatas, complete in boundless true merits.” 〔X21n0384 0735c06〕; the dharma-body is boundless, the reward-body is boundless, and the response-body is boundless too, and so he concludes 「故知三身即一，一即三身也」—“hence it is known that the three bodies are one, and the one is the three bodies.” 〔X21n0384 0735c12〕 The three taken together are one buddha, and one buddha opened out is three bodies — and this is what the boundless in the name is saying.

The second, Jewel Nature, takes gold. Among the seven jewels gold stands at the head, and gold has four senses — its color does not alter, its substance takes no stain, it may be worked into anything without hindrance, and it makes a man rich — which the commentator matches as 「以譬法身常淨我樂四德」—“as the figure of the four virtues of the dharma-body: permanence, purity, self, and bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0736a04〕 It does not rust, it takes no dye, beat it into what you will and it is still gold, and having it you are not poor: four things figuring permanence, purity, self, and bliss.

The fourth, Lion’s Roar, takes the mark of expounding the Dharma. He cites the Dīrgha Āgama: 「於大眾中，廣說法時，自在無畏，故號師子」—“when he expounds the Dharma at length in the midst of a great assembly he is sovereign and without fear, and therefore he is named the lion.” 〔X21n0384 0736b19〕 What is taken is not ferocity but fearlessness — to say the Dharma out in the midst of a great assembly and not be afraid.

The seventh, Jewel Supreme, is the only one of the nineteen gates that leaves a story behind it. The commentator cites the Golden Light directly: 「光明流水品，十千魚得聞寶勝之名，尚盡生忉利」—“in the chapter of Flowing Water in the Golden Light, ten thousand fish get to hear the name of Jewel Supreme, and even so are all born in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” 〔X21n0384 0737c07〕 The story runs thus: the elder’s son Flowing Water saw a pool about to dry up with ten thousand fish dying in it, borrowed elephants to carry water and fill the pool, took food from his own house to feed the fish, and at the last went into the water and expounded the twelve links of dependent arising for them, and 「亦當稱說寶勝佛名」—“and he was also to call out the name of the Buddha Jewel Supreme.” 〔T16n0663 0353a22〕 — for he had once heard that 「若有眾生臨命終時，得聞寶勝如來名號即生天上」—“if any being at the end of life gets to hear the name of the Tathāgata Jewel Supreme, he is at once born in the heavens.” 〔T16n0663 0353a20〕 And afterward 「時十千魚同日命終，既命終已生忉利天」—“at that time the ten thousand fish came to the end of life on the same day, and having died were born in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” 〔T16n0663 0353b09〕

Those who heard the name were fish. This is the one example outside the roster in which the gaining of benefit by hearing a name is drawn out into a story, and the side that did the hearing did not so much as have a human body.

The eighth, Jewel Mark, is matched to the four wisdoms. He cites the Avataṃsaka on the four blazing great jewels of light, 「日藏，表大圓鏡智」—“the sun-store figures the great perfect-mirror wisdom.” 〔X21n0384 0737c16〕 and so on, each matched to one wisdom, and says 「若如來法海，無此四智饒益眾生，三界六道，悉皆漂沒」—“if in the Tathāgata’s ocean of Dharma there were not these four wisdoms to benefit beings, the three realms and the six destinies would all be swept under and drowned.” 〔X21n0384 0737c17〕; and he judges at the end 「無去無來，法性實相，實相尊貴，故名寶相是也」—“neither going nor coming, the dharma-nature is the mark of reality; and the mark of reality is honored, and therefore the name Jewel Mark.” 〔X21n0384 0737c18〕

The ninth, Kāṣāya Banner, is the one of the nineteen names most like an everyday thing. He cites the Sūtra of Contemplating the Mind-Ground: 「袈裟，即是如來寶幢之相」—“the kāṣāya is the very mark of the Tathāgata’s jewel banner.” 〔X21n0384 0738a14〕, and says that to think of it as a jewel banner when one puts it on can extinguish the multitude of sins and give birth to all blessings, 「猶如甲冑，煩惱毒箭不能害故」—“for it is like armor, so that the poisoned arrows of the afflictions cannot wound.” 〔X21n0384 0738a16〕 A garment sewn of cloth, read as a suit of armor.

The tenth, Great Universal Mountain King, stands at the end of the ten names brought out singly, and the commentator takes it apart into cause and fruit: 「山王，即須彌山」—“the mountain king is Mount Sumeru.” 〔X21n0384 0738a23〕, 「此喻報身佛也」—“this is the figure of the reward-body buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0738a24〕; and 「則大通是般若因，山王是報身果」—“then great and universal is the cause that is prajñā, and mountain king is the fruit that is the reward-body.” 〔X21n0384 0738b05〕 One name holding one cause and one fruit; and so the benefit it discloses is stated most fully of all: 「聞一佛名，而得修性一如，因果成就」—“hearing the name of one buddha, one gains that practice and nature are of one suchness, and that cause and fruit are accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0738b09〕

The last nine are crowded into a single sentence, and the commentator still gives a gloss for each. Pure Moon — 「應物現形，如水中月」—“appearing in form as things require, like the moon in water.” 〔X21n0384 0738b15〕 Mountain King — this one has a Sanskrit name of its own, 「山王，梵名勢禮捺囉惹，此云山王」—“Mountain King: the Sanskrit name is 勢禮捺囉惹, which here means mountain king.” 〔X21n0384 0738b17〕, and it is not the same as the Great Universal Mountain King above. Wisdom Supreme — 「智勝，即一切種智」—“Wisdom Supreme is the wisdom of all modes.” 〔X21n0384 0738b20〕 Pure Name King — 「五住二死淨盡淨，自在故」—“the afflictions of the five abodes and the two kinds of birth-and-death are purified away entirely, and there is sovereignty.” 〔X21n0384 0738b23〕 Wisdom Accomplished — 「智成就，以權實二智悉成就故」—“Wisdom Accomplished: because both wisdoms, the expedient and the real, are wholly accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0738c01〕 Unsurpassed — 「有所斷者，名有上士。既無所斷，名無上矣」—“one who still has something to cut off is called one with something above him; having nothing left to cut off, he is called unsurpassed.” 〔X21n0384 0738c02〕: while there is still something to cut off he has something above him, and only when there is nothing left to cut is he unsurpassed. Wondrous Sound — he cites the Sūtra of the Right Mindfulness of the True Dharma: 「山谷曠野，其中多有迦陵頻伽，出妙音聲」—“in mountain valleys and open wastes there are many kalaviṅkas, which give out a wondrous sound.” 〔X21n0384 0738c05〕, which neither gods and men nor kiṃnaras can match, 「唯除如來音聲」—“the voice of the Tathāgata alone excepted.” 〔X21n0384 0738c07〕 Full Moon and Moon Face the commentator joins in one item: 「滿月，月面二佛，大意相同」—“the two buddhas Full Moon and Moon Face are much the same in sense.” 〔X21n0384 0738c07〕, the sense being taken from 「如十五日月，圓滿具足，眾星中王，最上最勝」—“like the moon of the fifteenth day, round and full and complete, king among the host of stars, highest and most supreme.” 〔X21n0384 0738c08〕

The nine called out, the commentator states for himself why he no longer sets out kalpas and benefits one by one: 「有如是等不可說佛者，不復具出劫數，及聞名利益，故總結之」—“as for ‘buddhas such as these, beyond all telling,’ the kalpas and the benefit of hearing the name are no longer set out in full, and so they are gathered up together.” 〔X21n0384 0738c09〕

Having gone once through the nineteen gates, one thing can be seen: not one of these names is a title hung up empty. The dharma-body, the four virtues, fearless expounding, the dying brought to birth, the four wisdoms, the kāṣāya, cause and fruit, the moon in water, the wisdom of all modes, nothing left to cut off — the nineteen names divide a buddha’s virtue into nineteen faces; and whichever face one hears, it is a gate one can go in by.

One Name, and Many Names

The roster called out, the sūtra gathers it up in a line of its own: “if one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is measureless — how much more the reciting of many names?”

The setting of one over against many opens upward here. The reading handed down brings in a passage from the sūtra of the same honored one but of different text to match it: 「若念一佛，則見一佛。若念多佛，則見多佛」—“if one recites one buddha, one sees one buddha; if one recites many buddhas, one sees many buddhas.” 〔X21n0384 0738c23〕, and further down that reciting a buddha of small body one sees a buddha of small body, reciting a buddha of great body one sees a buddha of great body, reciting a buddha of measureless body one sees a buddha of measureless body. The measure of what is recited is the measure of what is seen.

And the sūtra turns at once from merit to the hour: “such beings as these, at the time of birth and at the time of death, gain great benefit of themselves, and in the end do not fall into the evil destinies.”

At the time of birth, at the time of death. This is the first mention of death in the chapter.

Down and Down to the Lowest

From here the sūtra begins to come down.

First the number of people comes down to the fewest: of the kindred in the house, “even one.” Then what is recited comes down to the least: “recites aloud the name of a single buddha” — one buddha, one name. And the one who recites is not even oneself, but the person beside one.

The commentator of old points out that this descent is deliberate: 「乃至一人念一佛名者，此從多人多佛，略至極少也」—“that even one person recites the name of one buddha is a coming down from many people and many buddhas, brought in brief to the very least.” 〔X21n0384 0739a21〕 Above it was said that one buddha is not so much as many buddhas, and here it comes down all the way to one person and one buddha — this is no contradiction; it is pressing the threshold flat to the ground.

The one for whom it is recited is the sort of person with the least room left of any in the whole sūtra: he is at the end of life. He has no time to practice, no time to repent, no time to sell his house and lands and raise offerings at a stūpa-monastery. The people in the chapters before still had time — the brahmin woman could sit upright and recollect the Buddha for one day and one night, and the girl Bright Eyes could seek out an arhat. This one has nothing at all, only one family member beside him willing to speak aloud — and that place, the place of the one who speaks, is a place most of us have sat in.

And the fruit the sūtra gives is: “the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are taken away, and the remaining karmic retributions and the rest of them are all extinguished.”

How the Character 除 Is to Be Read

Those five characters, 「除五無間罪」, leave room for a divergence of reading. 除 may mean to take away, and it may mean to except.

The sūtra text itself gives the answer in the very next sentence: the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds, though heavy in the utmost degree, and though a koṭi of kalpas may pass and one still cannot get out of them, yet by the strength of another’s calling and reciting a buddha’s name at the end of life, “even within these sins there is a gradual extinguishing.” Even the five Uninterrupted are being extinguished; only one word has been added — gradual.

The reading handed down puts a small note in at just this place, and stops the matter dead: 「除者，去之也。非聽除而不銷也」—“to remove is to take away. It is not that they are let off and not extinguished.” 〔X21n0384 0739a24〕 — to remove is to take away, not to set aside and leave alone. His reasons are laid out quite straight: 「更何疑五無間罪之不銷耶」—“what further doubt can there be that the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are extinguished?” 〔X21n0384 0739a23〕, 「極重逆罪既銷，餘之中下業報，豈不悉滅哉」—“the gravest sins of rebellion once extinguished, how should the middling and lesser karmic retributions not all be extinguished as well?” 〔X21n0384 0739a23〕

Here is the judgment of old, and it is transmitted as it stands, with no reconciling done on its behalf. And the word gradual that the sūtra left of itself is kept along with it: the heavy are not the unextinguished, they are the slowly extinguished.

As to why one thought at the end of life should weigh against a whole lifetime, the gloss cites a treatise and answers with some interest: 「是心雖少，而力猛利」—“this mind is small, and yet its force is fierce and keen.” 〔X21n0384 0739c09〕, 「如火如毒雖少，能成大事」—“as fire and poison, though small, can accomplish great things.” 〔X21n0384 0739c10〕; it is the mind at the moment of giving up the body, when the faculties are pressed to the utmost, 「是垂死時心，決定猛健，故勝百歲行力」—“this mind at the point of death is fixed and fierce and strong, and therefore surpasses the force of a hundred years of practice.” 〔X21n0384 0739c10〕

How Much More When He Calls and Recites for Himself

The last sentence of the chapter is a question turned back: “how much more when beings call and recite for themselves? The blessings gained are measureless, and the sins extinguished are measureless.”

All the way down it has been coming down, down to another reciting on your behalf; and at this sentence the sūtra turns it back up — if another reciting on your behalf does this much, how much more your reciting for yourself. The commentator of old reads out exactly this turn: 「此況結者，正勸人自念為勝」—“this concluding by ‘how much more’ is precisely an exhortation that reciting for oneself is better.” 〔X21n0384 0739c07〕, 「以它人代念，滅罪尚爾，何況自念者哉」—“if another’s reciting on one’s behalf extinguishes sins to that degree, how much more one who recites for himself.” 〔X21n0384 0739c07〕

The chapter ends here. It does not turn back to speak of the hells again, nor does it promise birth in any pure land. It sets the nineteen names down where they are, and says one thing: recite a single one of them, and the merit of it is already measureless.

And immediately after this chapter the sūtra turns into the weighing of giving — in that division of the outline, reciting the name is the right practice and giving is the auxiliary path. That is how the order is set.

The Two Words Sin and Blessing Must Be Put Down at the Last

All the way through this chapter what has been spoken of is sin and blessing: how many sins are extinguished, how many blessings gained. And at the very end of the chapter the reading handed down turns those two words over itself.

He first presses that thought at the end of life to its limit: 「是後心，名大心」—“this last mind is called the great mind.” 〔X21n0384 0739c11〕 — at the moment of giving up the body the faculties are pressed to the utmost, and so a thought of the Buddha at that time makes sins themselves become blessings, 「如耆婆攬草，無非藥者，普能愈病」—“as when Jīvaka gathers grasses, and there is not one that is not a medicine, and all of them can heal.” 〔X21n0384 0739c12〕 Not a blade of grass that Jīvaka picked up was other than medicine. And then he writes down this: 「全心滿日，無非佛境」—“the whole mind and the day filled full, and there is nothing that is not the realm of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0739c13〕

When eye and mind are filled with nothing but the realm of a buddha, what then are sin and blessing? He goes on: 「所觀罪福，即是實相」—“the sin and blessing that are contemplated are the mark of reality itself.” 〔X21n0384 0739c14〕, 「既純實相，覓罪福了不可得，復何論有量無量耶」—“being purely the mark of reality, one searches for sin and blessing and cannot find them at all; and then what is there to say of measured or measureless?” 〔X21n0384 0739c14〕 — search for sin and it is not to be found, search for blessing and it is not to be found, and then what is left to argue about measure and measurelessness?

Then how is the sūtra’s own line about measureless blessings gained and measureless sins extinguished to be reckoned? He states it himself: 「今且順俗，故言自稱自念，獲福滅罪」—“here we go along with the common way for the present, and so it is said that calling and reciting for oneself gains blessings and extinguishes sins.” 〔X21n0384 0739c15〕 Going along with the common way for the present — speaking, for now, in the manner of the world.

So the words of this chapter fall into two layers. The layer that goes along with the common way is true: recite one name, and blessings are really gained and sins really extinguished. The layer at the end is true as well: once you are there, the two words sin and blessing will empty themselves out. The first layer is the gate, and the second is what comes after the gate is open — go in at the gate first; there is no need to pull the gate down first.

Transmission — A Chapter on Reciting the Buddha’s Name inside a Classic of Filial Piety

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment of the part on the causes of attaining buddhahood, the threefold division of the chapter’s text, the order of the ten names, the matching of the three deeds to the three causes of buddha-nature, the gloss of the character 除, and the treatise cited on the fierce keenness of a single thought at the end of life.

In glossing this chapter he brings in a stretch of matter seldom met with elsewhere. Coming to the benefit of reciting the name, he first cites scripture to the effect that reciting a buddha’s name surpasses giving, and then writes down a string of names outright: 「以故東土倡始於遠公，西京大盛於善導」—“and so in the eastern land it was Master Yuan who first raised the call, and in the western capital it flourished greatly with Shandao.” 〔X21n0384 0735a07〕, counting on down through Zhizhe, Siming, Yongming, and Ciyun, all the way to Yunqi of the Wanli era of the Ming. The judgment he gives this Dharma-gate is: 「葢由此法門，能橫截惡道，直造本源」—“for it is by this Dharma-gate that one can cut crosswise through the evil destinies and go straight to the fountainhead.” 〔X21n0384 0735a11〕, and what it asks for he states just as plainly: 「然須諦信不疑，精勤無間」—“yet one must believe it truly and not doubt, and be diligent without a break.” 〔X21n0384 0735a13〕

At the passage on reciting the name at the end of life he carries his words even outside the present sūtra. He grants first that the buddhas listed in this chapter are the buddhas Kṣitigarbha himself met with, served, and gained benefit from; and then he writes: 「然諸經論，唯讚西方阿彌陀佛，接引娑婆，願力偏重」—“yet the sūtras and treatises praise the Buddha Amitābha of the west alone, who draws in the Sahā world, and whose power of vow weighs heaviest.” 〔X21n0384 0739a11〕, 「是以普賢行願，獨指彌陀為至」—“and so the Vows and Practices of Samantabhadra point to Amitābha alone as the ultimate.” 〔X21n0384 0739a13〕 He records two old matters besides: a vinaya master who had once slighted and disparaged the Pure Land, and who after a grave illness threw away all he had learned in his life and sought only the teaching-gate of the Pure Land; and a great master who saw Mañjuśrī on Mount Wutai and asked what Dharma-gate was most needful for a common man of the last age, and received the answer 「諸修行門，無如念佛」—“among all the gates of practice, none is like reciting the buddha’s name.” 〔X21n0384 0739b11〕

That light cast from the side sets this chapter within a larger arena. A sūtra whose character is filial piety has in the middle of it one chapter devoted to reciting the names of the buddhas; and those who read it joined it offhand to the Pure Land road. The sūtra itself names no western land — what it lists is nineteen buddhas of the past. Both stand together, and there is no need to reconcile them.

And the sūtra’s own shortest promise is bound to no mirror at all. If one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is measureless — and that “one” is still, today, a weight a single person can carry.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing; before it stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. He reads this chapter and the one before it as a pair: to recite the names of the buddhas is the direct practice of becoming a buddha, and this chapter is the aid to the way — at the head of the chapter he poses a question to himself, 「既稱佛名，正行已成，何須復明布施為助道耶」—“Since the names of the buddhas have been recited and the direct practice is already accomplished, what need is there to set out giving again as an aid to the way?” 〔X21n0384 0740a06〕, and answers out of the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「準大論，以生死輪轉，利益之業無過布施」—“Following the Great Treatise: in the turning of birth-and-death there is no deed of benefit that surpasses giving.” 〔X21n0384 0740a07〕 In the recension he follows, the lower fascicle begins at just this chapter 〔X21n0384 0740a04〕, while the lower fascicle of the base text begins at the chapter on benefiting the living and the dead — the fascicle-divisions differ, and the correspondence between the two sides goes by chapter, not by fascicle. His chapter title too differs from the base text by one character, reading 「較量布施功德緣品第十」—“Chapter Ten, on the Causes of Merit in the Comparative Weighing of Giving” 〔X21n0384 0740a17〕. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

Why Giving Must Still Be Spoken of After the Reciting of Names

The chapter before has only just finished saying it: recite one buddha’s name, and the merit is already measureless. What, then, is left for this chapter to say?

The reading handed down first brings the question into the open, and then gives a most practical answer: in the turning of birth-and-death there is no deed of benefit broader than giving. One who gives gladly has his good name spread abroad, stands among the multitude with nothing to fear and nothing hard to face, and at the hour of death has no regret — and this is still only the joy of humans and gods; higher than this, it 「乃能開無量佛道之處」—“can open the place of the measureless way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0740a11〕 The reason lies in the order of the six perfections: 「以六波羅蜜是佛道，檀為初門，餘行皆悉隨從」—“because the six pāramitās are the way of a buddha, and dāna is the first gate, all the other practices follow after it.” 〔X21n0384 0740a11〕 And so giving is judged to be the 「初助道因緣」—“first of the causes and conditions that aid the way.” 〔X21n0384 0740a13〕

Dāna is giving; the six perfections begin with it. Reciting the name is a doorway; giving is a road. That this chapter follows upon the names of the buddhas is not a change of subject: it joins to the very low threshold of the chapter before a stretch of road that can be walked.

One Question: The Giving Is the Same — Why Is the Recompense Not?

Kṣitigarbha rises from his seat, kneels on his right knee, joins his palms, and asks about something very fine-grained: of the giving performed by the beings within the paths of karma, some is light and some is heavy — some receive blessings for one life, some for ten lives, some receive great blessing and benefit for a hundred lives and a thousand lives. How does this come about?

The question itself is worth stopping over. He does not ask whether one ought to give; he asks why, after the giving is done, things are not the same.

The commentator of old turns aside here to ask something else first: does Kṣitigarbha truly not know, or is he asking on behalf of beings? — 「為地藏真不知耶？為眾生疑耶」—“Is it that Kṣitigarbha truly does not know? Or is it that beings are in doubt?” 〔X21n0384 0740b07〕 The answer is an honest one: 「實知、不實知，非凡情所測」—“Whether he truly knows or truly does not know is not to be measured by ordinary feeling.” 〔X21n0384 0740b08〕 He then cites an old story to show why one may say that he truly does not know: someone offered a single golden āmra blossom at a buddha’s stūpa and afterward asked a man of the Way how much blessing he had gained; the man of the Way said that a matter so deep he could not know, and sent him to one who recited the scriptures; the reciter said that he had no divine eye and no spiritual penetration, and sent him to an arhat of the six penetrations; the arhat entered concentration and looked, and saw that after casting off this body the man would receive blessings among gods and among humans, and that at eighty thousand great kalpas the blessing was still not exhausted, and beyond that he could see no further; the arhat sent a conjured man to ask Maitreya, and Maitreya said that bodhisattvas bound by one more birth, as many as the sands of the Ganges, still could not know it, how much less he alone — 「待我將來成佛，乃能知之」—“Wait until I have become a buddha in a time to come; then it can be known.” 〔X21n0384 0740b19〕 And so the commentator judges: 「據此，即不實知，誰曰不然」—“On this ground, that he truly does not know — who shall say it is not so?” 〔X21n0384 0740b20〕

A question that in the end only a buddha can answer, and yet the answer is not abstruse. What the Buddha says next is concrete throughout: who gives, to whom, in what manner, and where the single thought goes once the giving is done.

Why This Matter Is Spoken of in Heaven

Before the Buddha consents to speak, he first states the place: here and now, in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, before the whole multitude gathered in assembly, he will speak of the giving done in Jambudvīpa.

This sentence is easy to slide past. The commentator of old did not let it slide. He asks: giving is a matter of Jambudvīpa — why must it be spoken of in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three? The answer is a single line — 「以閻浮提人能行布施者，必報生天上」—“because the people of Jambudvīpa who are able to practice giving are certainly recompensed with birth in the heavens.” 〔X21n0384 0740c01〕

Those seated in the assembly are themselves the fruit of giving.

So this chapter need raise no separate example to prove that giving has its recompense. The hall is full of them. The sūtra has put the thesis and the evidence for it in one and the same room.

As for why the Buddha first enjoins that “you should listen closely,” the commentator gives a reason for that too, and the reason is not that the Dharma is deep but that people are close-fisted: 「夫布施之業，乃眾行之源，且財物無常，五家爭奪」—“The deed of giving is the source of all practices; and goods and wealth are impermanent, contended for and seized by the five houses.” 〔X21n0384 0740c03〕

What one is told to listen closely to has never been the passage that is hard to understand; it is the passage that is hard to let go of.

The First Weighing: The Highest Person Gives to the Lowest

The first pair the Buddha raises pulls the two ends as far apart as they will go.

The ones who give are kings of southern Jambudvīpa, chief ministers of the court, great elders, great kṣatriyas, great brahmins; the ones who receive are the lowest and poorest, and even the infirm, the maimed, the mute, the deaf, the witless, the eyeless — poor to the utmost, and with it the bodily faculties not whole, the mouth unable to speak, the ear unable to hear, the mind unable to discriminate, the eye unable to see things. The reading handed down judges people of this kind to be the field of compassion: 「此即悲田，尤宜種福」—“This is the field of compassion; here above all one should plant blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0740c20〕

The sūtra then writes how this king gives, and writes it in the finest detail: complete in great kindness and compassion, lowering the mind and with a smile upon the face, giving with his own hands to all alike, or else sending someone to give, comforting and instructing with gentle words. The commentator takes it apart word by word: 「下心，則降尊貴而就卑劣；含笑，則示喜捨而無悋情」—“To lower the mind is to bring down what is honored and noble and go to what is humble and mean; to keep a smile is to show a glad relinquishing with no grudging feeling.” 〔X21n0384 0741a17〕 The line about his own hands is 「忘己富貴，愍人貧賤，而等施之」—“forgetting his own wealth and rank, pitying the poverty and lowness of others, and giving to them equally.” 〔X21n0384 0741a19〕 And comforting and instructing with gentle words holds two senses — when one sends another to give in one’s stead, that person is to be charged to give well; and whether one gives oneself or another gives, gentle words are to be used to comfort the one who receives.

And the fruit is this: as the benefit of the merit of giving to a hundred Ganges’ sands of buddhas.

This is the first place in the whole chapter where a reader stops. Give to one poor man who cannot see, and the blessing equals making offerings to a hundred Ganges’ sands of buddhas. The sūtra gives the reason itself — not that much was given, but that the mind of great kindness was aroused. The commentator presses on from this line to a very hard judgment: fields of blessing are of two kinds, compassion and reverence — 「悲是貧華，敬是三寶。悲是田劣而心勝，敬是田勝而心劣。若取心勝，施佛不如施貧」—“Compassion is the poor and needy; reverence is the Three Jewels. In compassion the field is poor but the mind excels; in reverence the field excels but the mind is poor. If one takes the excelling of the mind, then giving to a buddha does not equal giving to the poor.” 〔X21n0384 0741b18〕

This line is not telling anyone not to make offerings to the Buddha. It is saying: what this balance weighs is not how high the person opposite stands, but how low the mind on this side goes. And how low it has gone, each of us knows — that motion need not be learned.

An example from the other side is recorded as well. A man sees others gathering a crowd to make blessings and, only to gain a name, empties his household of goods and gives them away; and then, turning around and meeting the poor and suffering, the orphaned and destitute, he berates them and drives them out and does not relieve them by a hair. The commentator cites a sūtra calling this 「顛倒作善」—“doing good upside down” 〔X21n0384 0741b22〕, and sets a judgment upon it: 「用財甚多，獲福甚少」—“The wealth spent is very much; the blessing gained is very little.” 〔X21n0384 0741b23〕

The same wealth, two directions. What this passage weighs is that head bowed down.

The Three Characters 「何以故」 Carry One Layer More

The recompense of the first weighing is too heavy, and the sūtra knows it, and so sets down the three characters 「何以故」 — why is this? — as a question to itself. The answer the sūtra gives is that the mind of great kindness was aroused.

Beneath those three characters the commentator of old lays one layer more. He asks the same thing — how giving to a man poor to the utmost can equal making offerings to a hundred Ganges’ sands of buddhas — and his answer runs to only six characters: 「以心平等，無分別故」—“because the mind is even, and makes no distinction.” 〔X21n0384 0741b02〕

Evenness is not raising the poor man to the height of a buddha, nor bringing a buddha down to the height of the poor man. It is that the giving end is not dividing.

He then cites in witness a passage spoken by the layman Vimalakīrti to the elder Excellent Virtue: 「若施主等心施一最下乞人，猶如如來福田之相，無所分別，等於大悲，不求果報，是則名曰具足法施」—“If a giver with an even mind gives to a single lowest beggar, as though to the mark of a tathāgata’s field of blessing, making no distinction, equal in great compassion, and seeking no fruit of recompense, this is called the complete giving of Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0741b03〕, and attaches to it the line 「正合今文」—“exactly matching the present text.” 〔X21n0384 0741b05〕

With an even mind giving to a single lowest beggar, as though to the mark of a tathāgata’s field of blessing — this does not say that the beggar is a tathāgata; it says that within a mind that does not divide, the line between one field and another was never drawn at all.

And so the words about the benefit of the merit of giving to a hundred Ganges’ sands of buddhas are not a stroke of exaggerated rhetoric but a very hard mechanism: blessing comes out of the measure of the mind, and when the mind does not divide, the measure has no edge. This line runs all the way to the last words of the chapter, that if the mind is great it is great; and every dedication passed along the way walks upon it.

The Two Ends of the Balance Come from One and the Same Line

The sūtra sets the king and the lowest and poorest at the two ends of one balance, and they look like two kinds of people. The commentator of old, however, joins the two ends back to one and the same thing.

Take the low end first. Glossing the lowest and poorest, he says this is 「舉人中最卑劣者，此即作惡不施之後身」—“raising up the humblest and meanest among men: this is the later body of one who did evil and did not give.” 〔X21n0384 0740c20〕, and cites a line from the Sūtra of Mahāprajāpatī: 「有財不施，世世受貧」—“Having wealth and not giving, one receives poverty life after life.” 〔X21n0384 0740c21〕

Now the high end. In the section on exhorting others within the third weighing he cites the Sūtra of Guilt and Blessing in the Five Destinies: 「人而豪貴，國王長者，從禮事三寶中來」—“That a man is powerful and noble, a king of a state or an elder, comes from revering and serving the Three Jewels.” 〔X21n0384 0743a16〕

Read together, the two ends of one balance turn out to be two moments upon a single line: the one who can give today is the one who gave in a former day; the one who receives today is the one who held on and did not give.

For this the commentator cites two very plain lines: 「要觀前世因，今生受者是；要知後世因，今生作者是」—“Would you look upon the cause of a former life? What is received in this life is it. Would you know the cause of a later life? What is done in this life is it.” 〔X21n0384 0741a07〕

When the king lowers his head, it is not condescension. What he sees is where he came from, and where he is going.

Dedication: One Turn Alters the Fruit of a Whole Passage

From the second weighing on, one more word appears in the sūtra text — dedication. And the manner of its appearing is very regular: first a passage of giving without dedication, with one fruit; then the same deed with dedication added, and another fruit.

Meet with a stūpa or monastery of the Buddha, an image of the Buddha, or even an image of a bodhisattva, a śrāvaka, or a pratyekabuddha, and see to the offering in one’s own person — the fruit is three kalpas in the body of Śakra. That very same deed, if one can take the blessing and benefit of this giving and dedicate it to the dharma-realm, and the fruit becomes ten kalpas constantly as the Great Brahmā Heavenly King.

Repair the stūpas and shrines, scriptures and images of former buddhas that are ruined and broken and fallen away, seeing to it oneself or exhorting others, even a hundred thousand persons, to come and form a bond — the fruit is a hundred thousand lives constantly in the body of a wheel-turning king, and those who gave along with him constantly in the body of a lesser king of a state. And if they are further able, before the stūpa and shrine, to arouse the mind of dedication, the fruit becomes that they all accomplish the way of a buddha, and by this recompense, measureless and boundless.

The reading handed down takes dedication apart into three turnings: 「一、迴事向理」—“first, turning the phenomenal toward the principle” 〔X21n0384 0742a11〕 — what is cultivated in the phenomenal came in the first place out of what principle holds complete, and now this one thought is turned back toward the real; 「二、迴自向他」—“second, turning from oneself toward others” 〔X21n0384 0742a13〕 — formerly one adorned only one’s own person, and now, following one’s original nature, one turns toward beings; 「三、迴因向果」—“third, turning cause toward fruit” 〔X21n0384 0742a14〕 — a hair’s breadth of good among the three kinds of deed all becomes the two causes, the conditioning and the revealing, and cause must display fruit, and all returns alike to the final three virtues. And he uses three ready similes to say why it works: 「如迴聲入角，音則大；杯水投海，則不涸；少物上王，得報多」—“Like turning a sound into a horn, and the note grows great; a cup of water thrown into the sea, and it does not dry up; a small thing presented to a king, and the return is much.” 〔X21n0384 0742a10〕

The sound was only ever that loud, and it rings once it enters the horn; a cup of water would have dried, and thrown into the sea it does not; a small thing was worth little, and presented to a king it brings back much. The three similes say one and the same thing: what is given does not change; what changes is where it lands.

As for the two characters of dharma-realm, the commentator gives its Sanskrit name, saying 「梵名達磨䭾都，此云法界」—“In Sanskrit dharmadhātu; here it means the dharma-realm.” 〔X21n0384 0742a15〕, and cites the Tiantai account in explanation: the ten dharma-realms all rest upon the dharma-realm, and outside the dharma-realm there is no further dharma; turning the phenomenal toward the principle is the truth of the real, turning from oneself toward others is the truth of the conventional, turning cause toward fruit is the truth of the middle. And he cites a line more comprehensive still: 「法界者，一切眾生，身心之本體」—“The dharma-realm is the original substance of the body and mind of every sentient being.” 〔X21n0384 0742a22〕

So to dedicate to the dharma-realm is not to send the merit off to some very distant place. It is to stop drawing it back into this small plot of one’s own. When we say in the ordinary way, “this is merit I made,” that “mine” is exactly the drawing back.

At the end of this passage the commentator attaches two lines: 「無不從此法界流，無不還歸此法界」—“There is nothing that does not flow out of this dharma-realm; there is nothing that does not return to this dharma-realm.” 〔X21n0384 0742b15〕 The good one cultivates came out of there in the first place; dedication is no more than letting it go back.

Kalpas Are of Three Grades

Across the four weighings the sūtra gives four kalpa-figures in a row: three kalpas, ten kalpas, a hundred kalpas, two hundred kalpas. Set out on paper, the figures look as though their sizes could be compared directly.

They cannot.

Beneath the recompense of the second weighing the commentator of old first sets up a measuring rod. On the authority of the Dharma Garden he divides kalpas into three grades: 「欲界中壽一劫是小劫，初禪三天壽劫是中劫，二禪已去壽劫是大劫」—“In the realm of desire a lifespan of one kalpa is a small kalpa; the lifespan-kalpa of the three heavens of the first dhyāna is a middling kalpa; the lifespan-kalpa from the second dhyāna upward is a great kalpa.” 〔X21n0384 0742b04〕 — the same character 「劫」, said in the realm of desire, is a small kalpa; said in the first dhyāna, a middling kalpa; said above the second dhyāna, a great kalpa.

With this rod in hand the figures in the sūtra text can at last be read. Three kalpas in the body of Śakra he fixes as 「三劫，三小劫也」—“three kalpas: three small kalpas.” 〔X21n0384 0742a04〕; the ten kalpas as Great Brahmā Heavenly King after dedication he judges as 「準此，今之十劫，乃是中劫」—“Following this, the ten kalpas here are middling kalpas.” 〔X21n0384 0742b05〕

Three small kalpas become ten middling kalpas. On the face of it three has become ten; in fact the graduation has been changed along with it — ten is not merely seven more than three; it is a different kind of kalpa being counted.

One dedication moves the recompense from Śakra at the summit of the realm of desire to the Great Brahmā Heavenly King of the realm of form, and at the same time lifts the unit of measure up one grade. The sūtra text says not one word more; the measuring rod is in the commentator’s hands.

And this rod will be taken up once more further on, upon the weightiest weighing in the whole chapter.

Repair: Making New Does Not Equal Mending Old

The third weighing carries something else within it. The first two weighings speak of meeting — meeting with poverty, meeting with a stūpa or monastery or image; the third speaks of meeting with what is ruined and broken and fallen away.

Here the commentator cites a sūtra for a comparison: 「造新不如修故，作福不如避禍」—“Making new does not equal mending old; making blessings does not equal avoiding calamity.” 〔X21n0384 0742c03〕 And he cites a verse from the Vinaya: 「真金百千擔，持用行布施，不如一團泥，敬心治佛塔」—“A hundred thousand loads of true gold, taken up and used to practice giving, do not equal one lump of clay used with a reverent mind to mend a buddha’s stūpa.” 〔X21n0384 0742c17〕; and in the same place there is another verse that says it more fully still: 「人等百千金，持用行布施，不如一善心，恭敬禮佛塔」—“Were men to take a hundred thousand in gold and use it to practice giving, it would not equal one wholesome thought that reverently bows to a buddha’s stūpa.” 〔X21n0384 0742c19〕

One lump of clay, one wholesome thought. And in this weighing the sūtra adds a further matter: not only that one repairs it oneself, but that one exhorts others, even a hundred thousand persons, to give together and form a bond. The recompense accordingly divides into two tiers — the one who can exhort becomes a wheel-turning king, the one who is exhorted becomes a lesser king. The commentator gathers it in one line: 「故能勸者為大王，所勸者為小王」—“Hence the one who can exhort becomes a great king, and the one exhorted a lesser king.” 〔X21n0384 0743b02〕

As for why dedication is still needed after the repairing, his answer is direct: everything performed above is still giving on the side of phenomena, and 「報感人天，非涅槃因」—“its recompense draws down humans and gods; it is not the cause of nirvāṇa.” 〔X21n0384 0743b08〕 For this he raises the old exchange between Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu of Liang — the emperor asked what merit lay in building monasteries and ordaining monks, and the answer was 「實無功德。此是人天小果，有漏之因」—“Truly no merit. This is the small fruit of humans and gods, a cause with outflows.” 〔X21n0384 0743b10〕; asked further what true merit is, the answer was 「淨智妙圓，體自空寂，如是功德，不於世求」—“Pure wisdom, wondrous and complete, its substance of itself empty and still: merit such as this is not sought in the world.” 〔X21n0384 0743b11〕 And so he says: 「必須迴事向理，方與般若實智相應」—“One must turn the phenomenal toward the principle; only then does it answer to the real wisdom of prajñā.” 〔X21n0384 0743b12〕

The Fourth Weighing: The Aged, the Sick, and a Woman in Childbirth

The fourth weighing is the lightest matter of the four, and also the one nearest at hand. The first three require a stūpa or monastery, or goods, or standing; the three kinds of people met with in this one are people beside whom, sooner or later in a lifetime, every one of us will stand a while.

Seeing the aged, the sick, and a woman in the very act of giving birth, and within the space of a single thought being complete in the mind of great kindness, one gives medicine, food and drink, and bedding, and brings them ease and joy. The commentator glosses these three kinds very concretely: the aged have faculties ripened and breath short, and need another to feed them; of the sick he writes 「百骸酸痛，一命絲懸，若無奉事，待斃奚辭」—“the hundred bones ache, the one life hangs by a thread; with none to wait upon them, what is left but to await death?” 〔X21n0384 0743b24〕; a woman newly delivered has the lochia upon her body, and if food and drink are not given in time, mother and child are both lost. He gathers it in a line: 「故老病產婦，最是悲田植福處」—“Hence the aged, the sick, and women in childbirth are of all the field of compassion the best place to plant blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0743b21〕, and records that the Buddha himself, while in the world, went the rounds of the monks’ quarters to look after the sick, calling 「看病為第一福田」—“the tending of the sick the first field of blessing.” 〔X21n0384 0743c01〕

How long is a single thought? The commentator cites a treatise saying that periods of time have twelve tiers, and 「第一名剎那，翻為一念」—“the first is called kṣaṇa, rendered as one thought.” 〔X21n0384 0743c07〕 — the shortest notch there is in time.

There is a divergence of one character worth noticing. In the first three weighings the sūtra text writes 「具大慈悲」—“complete in great kindness and compassion”; at this weighing it suddenly writes only 「具大慈心」—“complete in the mind of great kindness” — one character, 悲, compassion, has dropped away, and yet the recompense rises instead to the most inconceivable of all.

Here the commentator has cited the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom in explanation: 「若說慈，則已說悲、喜、捨」—“If kindness is spoken of, then compassion, joy, and equanimity have already been spoken of.” 〔X21n0384 0743c10〕; and again 「慈是真無量，慈為如王，餘如人民」—“Kindness is the true immeasurable; kindness is as the king, and the rest are as the people.” 〔X21n0384 0743c11〕 Kindness is the king; compassion, joy, and equanimity are the people. Name the king, and the people are within the name. And so he judges: 「以慈能具悲，故言大。既言一念，即同體慈也」—“Because kindness can hold compassion complete, it is called great. And since a single thought is spoken of, this is the kindness of one substance.” 〔X21n0384 0743c13〕

It is not that one item has been left unsaid; it is that the saying has reached the root. And the two characters 「同體」—“of one substance” — part this weighing further from the three before it: there it was that I pity him; here it is that he and I were one from the first.

And the judgment the sūtra sets under this weighing is the weightiest line in the whole chapter: blessing and benefit such as this is of all things the most inconceivable. The commentator does not let even the character 「最」 go by: 「軍前曰最，乃前軍第一人」—“At the head of an army it is called zui: the foremost man of the front ranks.” 〔X21n0384 0744a02〕 — it is the first inconceivable among the inconceivable. He also heads off a difficulty for the reader: lodging, bedding, food and drink and medicine are no more than worldly things; how are they called most? The answer falls upon that single thought: 「此由正行施時，一念具大慈心，便是成佛根本」—“This is because at the very moment of giving, a single thought complete in the mind of great kindness is itself the root of becoming a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0744a05〕 And so he judges: 「故知最不思議，正應畢竟成佛句」—“Know therefore that being most inconceivable answers exactly to the line about becoming a buddha in the end.” 〔X21n0384 0744a07〕

What is inconceivable is not the hundred kalpas as lord of the Pure Abodes heavens, nor the two hundred kalpas as lord of the six heavens of desire. Within that long string of recompenses the sūtra gives, the commentator points out that what really holds up the character 「最」 is the four characters 「畢竟成佛」 — in the end they shall become buddhas.

A Hundred Kalpas and Two Hundred Kalpas: This Weighing Must Be Read the Other Way Round

The recompense of the fourth weighing the sūtra writes thus: through a hundred kalpas constantly lord of the Pure Abodes heavens; through two hundred kalpas constantly lord of the six heavens of desire.

Go by the letter, and two hundred is more than a hundred, and the lord of the six heavens of desire ought to surpass the lord of the Pure Abodes. The reading handed down is exactly the reverse, and the difference falls upon that measuring rod set up earlier.

Under the hundred kalpas the commentator notes: 「此中百劫，據大劫說」—“The hundred kalpas here are spoken of in terms of great kalpas.” 〔X21n0384 0744a11〕; under the two hundred kalpas he notes: 「言二百劫，據小劫也」—“The two hundred kalpas spoken of are in terms of small kalpas.” 〔X21n0384 0744a13〕

A hundred great kalpas; two hundred small kalpas. The item with the smaller figure is the longer beyond any comparison.

And why great kalpas here and small kalpas there — for that too he gives a reason, and the reason is still in the mind. The item of the lord of the Pure Abodes he fastens to 「以慈心，是清淨心施故」—“because the mind of kindness is a giving from a pure mind.” 〔X21n0384 0744a11〕; for the item of the lord of the six heavens of desire he cites the treatise saying that it is 「眾生緣慈，是有漏，但緣欲界」—“the kindness that takes beings for its object, which is with outflows and takes only the realm of desire for its object.” 〔X21n0384 0744a12〕 — the same kindness, but the one is a pure mind while the other still carries outflows, and what it takes as its object is still the realm of desire, and so its recompense too reaches only the six heavens of that realm.

The one phrase about being complete in the mind of great kindness is four characters in the sūtra text; in the recompense it parts into two tiers. And the knife that parts them cuts between pure and impure, not between much and little.

This is the place among the four weighings of the chapter where the graduation is most easily read backward. Read backward, this chapter becomes a price list on which “the more one gives, the higher the heaven”; read rightly, it is still a book that weighs the mind.

One and the Same Giving, Six Destinations

What Kṣitigarbha asked at the opening was this: the giving being the same, why do some receive blessings for one life and some receive great blessing and benefit for a hundred lives and a thousand lives? The four weighings are walked through, and at the end of this one the commentator adds a table — and that is the direct answer to the question.

He first sets up a general judgment: 「行施之時，慈有勝不勝，心有淨不淨」—“At the time of giving, kindness may excel or not excel, and the mind may be pure or not pure.” 〔X21n0384 0744a17〕 Then he cites the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom and lists the stages one by one.

「未離欲布施。生人中富貴，及六欲天中」—“Giving without having left desire: birth among the wealthy and noble of humankind, and in the six heavens of desire.” 〔X21n0384 0744a19〕 — the mind is still within desire, and the fruit falls among the wealth and rank of humankind and the six heavens of desire.

「若離欲心布施，生梵世天」—“If one gives with a mind that has left desire: birth in the Brahmā heavens.” 〔X21n0384 0744a20〕, and on up to the Heaven of Vast Fruit; and if one gives with a mind that has left form, birth among the formless heavens — the mind has left desire, and the fruit rises to the realm of form; form too is left, and it rises to the formless realm.

Giving apart from the three realms, for the sake of nirvāṇa, gains the way of the śrāvaka; giving while wearying of clamor and delighting in quiet and stillness gains the pratyekabuddha.

The last stage is this: 「布施時，起大悲心，欲度一切，第一甚深畢竟清淨智慧，得成佛道」—“Giving while arousing the mind of great compassion, wishing to deliver all, with the foremost, most profound, and finally pure wisdom: this gains the accomplishing of the way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0744a23〕

One and the same motion, six destinations: humans and gods, the realm of form, the formless realm, the śrāvaka, the pratyekabuddha, the buddha.

The fork is not in the thing given, nor in the person who receives; it lies wholly in which tier the mind rests upon at the moment of giving. If the mind is still within desire, the fruit is within the realm of desire; if the mind does not seek escape for itself but arouses great compassion and would deliver all, the fruit is the way of a buddha.

The four weighings above weigh the size of that single thought; these stages tell its position. Only when the two are put together is Kṣitigarbha’s question fully answered: the recompense differs not because the amounts given differ, but because of where the giver was standing at the time.

And so the commentator gathers it into one line: 「然千山勢止嶽邊，萬派聲消海上，正意在畢竟成佛耳」—“Yet the sweep of a thousand mountains halts at the flank of the great peak, and the sound of ten thousand streams dies away upon the sea: the true intent lies in becoming a buddha in the end.” 〔X21n0384 0744b01〕 The sweep of a thousand mountains halts at the flank of the peak; the sound of ten thousand streams dies away upon the sea — every stage above is gathered at the last into the last stage of all.

The four weighings end here, and the sūtra makes its own conclusion: those who can give in this way obtain measureless blessings, and if they are further able to dedicate them, then no question is asked how much or how little, and in the end they shall become buddhas. The four characters that ask no question of much or little are the center of gravity of this conclusion. Only then does the Buddha turn and charge Kṣitigarbha: exhort beings universally to learn in just this way.

From Kings and Ministers to Good Men and Good Women

In the first half the givers are all kings, ministers, brahmins; in the second half the persons change — a good man, a good woman.

The threshold comes down with them. A root of goodness planted within the Buddha-dharma, if only so much as a hair or a mote of sand, brings a blessing and benefit that cannot be told by any simile. The commentator puts a question: why is it that planting little within the Buddha-dharma gains much blessing? The answer is fastened to the field — though there are fields of blessing of every kind, a buddha is the first field of blessing, and 「佛田能獲無量果報」—“the field that is a buddha can obtain measureless fruit of recompense.” 〔X21n0384 0744c16〕 And he takes the line back at once to the very eye of this sūtra’s title: 「今地藏本願，正開未來毫善得福也」—“Now the original vows of Kṣitigarbha open precisely this: that in ages to come a hair’s breadth of good gains blessing.” 〔X21n0384 0744c24〕

The second half lists three matters. The first is meeting with four kinds of image — an image of the Buddha, an image of a bodhisattva, an image of a pratyekabuddha, an image of a wheel-turning king — and giving and making offerings. The first three are the field of reverence; for the fourth the commentator gives a separate explanation: a wheel-turning king has not yet left birth-and-death, and yet he transforms the world with the ten wholesome deeds and holds the waters and lands besides, and so he is the 「黎氓恩田」—“field of kindness for the common folk.” 〔X21n0384 0745a15〕 The second is meeting with the scriptures of the Great Vehicle and, though one hear only a single verse or a single line, arousing an earnest and weighty mind, praising and revering. The third is meeting with a stūpa or monastery of the Buddha and with the scriptures of the Great Vehicle: what is new, one gives to and makes offerings to, gazing and bowing and praising; what is old and ruined, one repairs and sets in order, arousing the resolve alone or exhorting many to arouse it together.

And behind all three matters comes the same line: if able to dedicate it to the dharma-realm, that blessing cannot be told by any simile.

Glossing the character for meeting, the commentator says it is 「遘也，慶幸之語」—“an encountering; a word of good fortune.” 〔X21n0384 0745b15〕, and uses two similes to picture that meeting: 「如饑者之遇王饍，鼓腹而歌；旱苗之遇甘雨，勃然而興」—“like a starving man meeting with a king’s banquet, who drums his belly and sings; like parched seedlings meeting with sweet rain, which spring up all at once.” 〔X21n0384 0745b16〕 To meet with a scripture of the Great Vehicle is, in his reading, a thing of this order.

As for the repair of scriptures, he speaks in the finest detail: 「若遇毀損破壞者，即當修治補完，經營料理」—“If one meets with what is damaged and broken, one should at once mend it and make it whole, and set it in order.” 〔X21n0384 0746a17〕; and he records an old admonition — that between the opening and closing of a chest, worms and moths rot them and paper and ink split apart, and to leave them unmended oneself and be unwilling to let them circulate is an offense; and that if they truly cannot be mended, they still must not be burned. He cites the Vinaya in conclusion: 「諸餘葉紙，佛經磨滅，應拭故者，更可書新」—“As for the remaining leaves and papers, where a buddha’s scripture has been worn away, one should wipe the old and write it anew.” 〔X21n0384 0746a23〕

What Changes in the Second Half Is Not Only the Persons but the Kind of Giving

In the four weighings of the first half what is given is goods: the seven jewels, medicine, food and drink, bedding, the lump of clay that mends a stūpa. In the three weighings of the second half, what is given has quietly changed.

What the second weighing meets with is the scriptures of the Great Vehicle: hearing a single verse or a single line and arousing an earnest and weighty mind, praising and revering. What the third meets with is a stūpa or monastery of the Buddha and the scriptures of the Great Vehicle: what is new, given and offered to; what is ruined, repaired and set in order. When the commentator comes to giving a finely mounted scripture to another, so that he gazes and bows and praises and joins his palms in reverence, he gives it a name outright: 「即名法施也」—“this is what is called the giving of Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0746a16〕

The giving of Dharma. Once those two characters 法施 are set up, the second half parts from the first.

Where the parting lies he says very plainly, citing the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「佛說二種施中，法施為第一。以財施果報有量，法施果報無量」—“Of the two kinds of giving the Buddha spoke of, the giving of Dharma is first; for the fruit of giving goods has measure, and the fruit of giving Dharma is measureless.” 〔X21n0384 0745b05〕 The fruit of giving goods has measure because goods have measure; the fruit of giving Dharma is measureless because Dharma is measureless.

But he does not let the giving of Dharma become a title of a higher rank. He at once draws its boundary: 「若不求名聞財利力勢，但為學佛道弘大慈悲心，度眾生老病死苦，是名清淨法施」—“If one does not seek fame, gain, or power, but only to learn the way of a buddha and to enlarge the mind of great kindness and compassion, and to deliver beings from the suffering of age, sickness, and death, this is called the pure giving of Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0745b07〕; and if it is not so, he says, that is called trafficking in the Dharma — taking the Dharma to market.

The giving end has its boundary, and the hearing end has its measure too. He cites the three kinds of person in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra as a simile: 「一、無目，譬凡夫人，常不聞法。二、一目，譬聲聞，雖暫聽法，其心不住。三、二目，譬菩薩，專心聽法，如聞而行」—“First, the eyeless, likened to ordinary people, who constantly do not hear the Dharma. Second, the one-eyed, likened to śrāvakas, who hear the Dharma for a moment but whose minds do not abide in it. Third, the two-eyed, likened to bodhisattvas, who hear the Dharma with concentrated mind and practice as they have heard.” 〔X21n0384 0745b23〕

The eyeless did not hear it; the one-eyed heard and could not keep it; the two-eyed heard and did as they had heard.

In the second half the sūtra asks only that one hear a single verse or a single line — the threshold has truly come down to one line. And for a single line brought that low to count, it must be heard with two eyes.

Giving Is Not Itself the Blessing

Before the last passage the commentator puts in a line. This line orders the whole chapter’s categories over again, and does so without ceremony:

「布施非即是福，但能破慳貪，開善法門。善根名為福」—“Giving is not itself the blessing; it is only what can break stinginess and greed and open the gate of wholesome dharmas. It is the root of goodness that is named blessing.” 〔X21n0384 0747a01〕

Giving is not the same thing as blessing. Giving is what can break stinginess and greed and open the gate of wholesome dharmas; what is really named blessing is the root of goodness.

This line matters because it settles giving into a place — the place of medicine. Stinginess and greed are the illness, giving is the medicine, and the worth of the medicine hangs upon the illness. Without that illness the medicine is only a thing that looks well on display. So of the same sum of goods given away, one man has broken off a measure of stinginess and another has broken off none: the first has taken the medicine, the second has set it out on the table as an offering.

Only here is the balance of the chapter really made plain. What is weighed upon it is neither goods nor the field of blessing, but how much stinginess and greed has been broken off.

And whether it can be broken or not has nothing to do with the size of the thing. For this the commentator cites an old story from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: the Buddha and Ānanda went out of the city begging and came away with an empty bowl; an old serving-woman was carrying a broken earthen vessel of foul rice-washing water out to pour away, and seeing that the Buddha’s bowl was empty, the thought of giving stirred in her; the Buddha knew it and held out the bowl, and she gave to the Buddha with a pure mind. The Buddha told Ānanda that the recompense of this one gift was fifteen kalpas of blessing and joy among gods and among humans without falling into the evil destinies, and afterward the gaining of a male body, going forth, and becoming a pratyekabuddha. A brahmin standing by did not believe it, and the Buddha asked him what strange thing he had ever seen; he said he had seen a nyagrodha tree whose shade could cover five hundred carts; the Buddha asked how large the seed of that tree was, and he answered 「大如芥子三分之一」—“as large as a third part of a mustard seed.” 〔X21n0384 0747a15〕 And so the Buddha said that his seeing this woman give to the Buddha with a pure mind and gain a great fruit of recompense is like this tree — 「因少報多」—“the cause little and the recompense much.” 〔X21n0384 0747a17〕

A third part of a mustard seed grows into a shade that covers five hundred carts. The commentator writes the conclusion of this story in six characters: 「可以為施，不限多少」—“One may give; there is no limit of much or little.” 〔X21n0384 0747a21〕

A Single Hair, a Single Mote; a Single Grain of Sand, a Single Drop

In the last passage the sūtra draws every quantity down to the smallest: roots of goodness planted within the Buddha-dharma, whether by giving and making offerings, or by repairing stūpas and monasteries, or by mounting and setting in order the scriptures, down to a single hair, a single mote, a single grain of sand, a single drop.

Here the commentator says the most important line in the whole chapter: 「故不間毛塵沙渧，竝取乎心。心大則大，心小則小。若心冥法界，即福等虗空」—“Hence no distinction is made among hair, mote, grain, and drop; all is taken from the mind. If the mind is great it is great; if the mind is small it is small. If the mind merges with the dharma-realm, the blessing is equal to empty space.” 〔X21n0384 0747a02〕

No question is asked whether it is a hair or a mote; only the measure of that single thought is looked at. This line gathers the beams of all four weighings into one place — what was weighed was never the thing. To the end the sūtra never says how much ought to be given; it says only how great that single thought may grow.

And at the last the sūtra gives a comparison. With these same wholesome deeds: if only they can be dedicated to the dharma-realm, the merit is the highest and most wondrous bliss through a hundred thousand lives; if they are dedicated only to one’s own household and kin, or to the benefit of one’s own person, the fruit is bliss for three lives, one part given away and ten thousand parts of recompense obtained.

The commentator reads the second as a limitation: once one says one’s own household, one can no longer keep others in mind. For this he cites a sūtra listing the five causes and conditions by which kin are kin — an enemy, a creditor, one repaying a debt, an original vow, a true friend; and he says that when a man of the world lies sick and pinned to his bed and tells his kin to take a share of his pain, they all say they cannot; and that when age, sickness, and death come, good and evil, suffering and joy are borne alone, and there is none to take one’s place. He cites besides a verse of Yongjia by way of comparison: 「住相布施生天福，猶如仰箭射虗空，勢力若盡還墮地，招得來生不如意」—“Giving that abides in marks brings the blessing of birth in heaven, like an arrow shot up into empty space: when its force is spent it falls back to the ground, and draws down a next life that does not go as one would wish.” 〔X21n0384 0747c06〕; and having cited the verse he adds a judgment: 「住相布施，名第三生怨」—“Giving that abides in marks is called the enmity of the third life.” 〔X21n0384 0747c07〕

The arrow going up is the first thing, its reaching the top the second, its falling back the third. And that falling back is not called a pity in the sūtra; it is called enmity.

But look closely at the sūtra’s own tone. It does not say the second is bad. One given, ten thousand obtained — those five characters are still, in themselves, words of praise. The sūtra merely sets two numbers side by side: on the one hand a hundred thousand lives, on the other three lives; on the one hand the dharma-realm, on the other one’s own household.

And then it closes upon the plainest of sentences: the causes and conditions of giving — the matter is just so.

The Last Line: Wisdom Is the Root, Merit Is the Foundation

The phrase-by-phrase gloss reaches the causes and conditions of giving, and the matter being just so, the chapter is done. And after it is done the commentator of old writes a few lines more, and those lines are the conclusion he sets upon the whole chapter.

He first raises an old story: two bhikṣus alike gained the fruit of the stream-enterer; one made blessings and the other did not, and in the life to come the one was born into an elder’s house and the other born a bondmaid. And so he says a word meant for those who practice: 「行道之人，不但持戒禪誦，亦當布施作福」—“One who walks the way should not only keep the precepts and sit and recite; he should also give and make blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0748a11〕

And then the conclusion:

「故入道必以智慧為本，智慧必以福德為基」—“Hence entering the way must take wisdom as its root, and wisdom must take merit as its foundation.” 〔X21n0384 0748a13〕

Entering the way takes wisdom as its root — that is a line everyone agrees to. The hard part is the second half: wisdom takes merit as its ground. For this he sets down two similes in a row: 「譬之鳥備二翼，儵舉萬尋；車足兩輪，一馳千里」—“It is as a bird complete in two wings, which rises ten thousand fathoms in an instant; or a cart furnished with two wheels, which runs a thousand leagues at one going.” 〔X21n0384 0748a13〕 A bird needs two wings before it can rise; a cart needs two wheels before it can run far. Lacking one side is not going a little slower; it is not moving at all.

At the last he takes the matter back to buddha-nature: 「緣了之資成正因，事度之助開佛性，不可不信也」—“The provisions of the conditioning and revealing causes accomplish the direct cause; the aid of the perfections practiced in the phenomenal opens buddha-nature. This may not be disbelieved.” 〔X21n0384 0748a14〕 The provisions heaped up by the conditioning cause and the revealing cause accomplish that direct cause which was there from the first; the help given by the six perfections practiced in the phenomenal opens buddha-nature.

So giving in this chapter is not, from beginning to end, a trading for recompense. It is the laying of ground for a wisdom that is to arise. What the four weighings weigh at the last is whether that ground has been laid firm enough.

Transmission (承衍) — A Fascicle on Giving, and a Tiantai Mirror

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment of direct practice and aid to the way, the outline of the four weighings, the three senses of dedication, the comparison of the two fields of compassion and reverence, the gloss on the character 「最」, and the judgment that if the mind is great it is great.

He glosses the title of this chapter in a separate passage in the Guiding Thread. That passage first glosses the two characters 「較」 and 「量」 — 「較者，不等也；量者，寬虗容物也」—“Jiao is what is not equal; liang is what is broad and empty and holds things.” 〔X21n0383 0650a21〕 — and starts from weights and measures, running on through the five measures, the yue, the ge, the sheng, the dou, and the hu, and on to 「量多少者，不失圭撮」—“in measuring much or little one does not lose so much as a gui or a cuo.” 〔X21n0383 0650b02〕 Then he puts a question back to himself: giving is a blessing that goes beyond the world, and merit is not merit — why weigh it out by the ounce and the grain? The answer falls upon the four siddhāntas — a bodhisattva with a mind of great compassion teaches the practice of blessings, and 「施福雖同，福德多少，隨心優劣，故須較量也」—“though the blessing of giving be the same, the amount of merit follows upon whether the mind excels or not; and therefore it must be weighed comparatively.” 〔X21n0383 0650b07〕

There too he divides 「較量」 into two roads: 「一約福田較量，二約施心較量」—“first, weighing in terms of the field of blessing; second, weighing in terms of the mind that gives.” 〔X21n0383 0650c01〕 In terms of the field: giving to an ordinary person does not equal giving to a seer, giving to a seer does not equal giving to one stream-enterer, and on up to giving to a hundred pratyekabuddhas not equalling giving to one tathāgata; and so it is said 「當知大福從良田生」—“Know that great blessing is born of a good field.” 〔X21n0383 0650c07〕 In terms of the mind: he cites the treatise saying that giving is of two kinds, pure and impure. The impure is 「直施而已」—“a mere giving and nothing more.” 〔X21n0383 0650c09〕 — whether from fear of losing the goods, or for love of kin, or without single-mindedness and without reverence, slighting the one who receives. The pure is 「治心故施，莊嚴意故施，為得第一利故施」—“giving so as to govern the mind, giving so as to adorn the intent, giving so as to gain the foremost benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0650c10〕, and 「譬如新華未萎，色好且香，淨心布施，亦復如是」—“It is as a fresh flower not yet withered, fair in color and fragrant besides: giving with a pure mind is just so.” 〔X21n0383 0650c12〕

And with the two roads set side by side, he chose the second himself. He records the old story of Śāriputra offering a bowl of rice to the Buddha and the Buddha at once giving it on to a dog, and the question which of them gained the greater blessing, to which Śāriputra answered 「佛施狗得福多」—“The Buddha, giving to the dog, gained the greater blessing.” 〔X21n0383 0650c15〕; and so he judges: 「以是故，知大福從心，不在田也」—“For this reason, know that great blessing comes from the mind and does not lie in the field.” 〔X21n0383 0650c15〕, and adds a line, 「良田雖得福多，而不如心」—“A good field gains much blessing, and yet it does not equal the mind.” 〔X21n0383 0650c16〕 The close of this passage is the eye he fixes for the whole chapter: 「大要了四相之原空，達三輪之本寂，體財即法，無住生心，是布施第一義門」—“The chief point is to understand that the four marks are empty at their source, to reach the original stillness of the three wheels, to see that goods in their substance are Dharma, and to give rise to the mind without abiding: this is the gate of the first meaning of giving.” 〔X21n0383 0650c17〕

This eye reads giving as the entrance to prajñā. The sūtra itself does not speak of the emptiness of the three wheels; what it speaks of is being complete in the seven jewels, the body of Śakra, the Great Brahmā Heavenly King, the body of a wheel-turning king. The two stand together; there is no need to reconcile them.

And this passage was said in the Guiding Thread while glossing the title, said before the chapter proper; the conclusion he sets down after glossing phrase by phrase is in another tone — merit the foundation, wisdom the root, the two wings of a bird, the two wheels of a cart. One man, two places where the brush came down: before the title he closes upon emptiness, after the text he closes upon the provisions. These two also stand together, and these too need no reconciling.

And the sūtra’s own balance is bound to no mirror at all. What it weighs has never once changed — a single hair, a single mote, a single grain of sand, a single drop; it looks only at where that one thought goes.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing; before it stands the Guiding Thread in one fascicle. The main exposition of the whole sūtra runs only as far as the weighing of giving in the chapter before, and this chapter is the opening of the section of transmission: 「大章第三，流通」—“the third great division: transmission” 〔X21n0384 0748a16〕, and beneath it a division into three — 「初、地神護法流通；二、見聞利益流通；三、囑累人天流通」—“first, the transmission of the earth spirit’s protection of the Dharma; second, the transmission of the benefit of seeing and hearing; third, the transmission of the entrustment to humans and gods.” 〔X21n0384 0748a17〕 The two characters for transmission he takes apart to gloss: 「流名下注，通名不壅」—“Liu names a flowing downward; tong names an unobstructedness.” 〔X21n0384 0748a18〕, like water running down with nothing to block it the whole way. The path within the chapter he opens just as bluntly: 「初、堅牢歎德；二、教主述成」—“first, Firm-and-Stable praises his virtue; second, the master of the teaching confirms it.” 〔X21n0384 0748a24〕 — the first half the earth spirit speaks, the second half the Buddha. In glossing the title of this chapter he raises the earth spirit and the four heavenly kings as a pair: 「以天王是陽故如父，地神是陰故如母」—“because the heavenly kings are yang they are as a father, and because the earth spirit is yin she is as a mother.” 〔X21n0383 0651a17〕, closing at the last upon the line 「以具四悉檀義，故能為神，主閻浮提，而護本願法門」—“because she is complete in the sense of the four siddhāntas she can be a spirit, have charge of Jambudvīpa, and protect the Dharma-gate of the original vows.” 〔X21n0383 0651a22〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

The Shortest Chapter in the Whole Sūtra

This chapter is short. From the title to the close it is five hundred and sixty-four characters — the shortest of the thirteen chapters, more than a hundred characters shorter than the next shortest, the chapter on the assembly of the divided bodies.

And it has no small business to do: the earth spirit first praises Kṣitigarbha, then tells the ten benefits of making offerings to his image, then vows to guard those who recite the scripture; the Buddha then praises her spiritual power, explains what she has charge of, hands over whom she is to protect, and last makes plain why even the gods will come to guard. Seven matters, in a little over five hundred characters.

A sūtra written this far has finished its main exposition. What is next to be handed over is this: what is to be done once it has been spoken. And the first answer the sūtra gives is not to call in another great bodhisattva to lend his power, but to let a spirit who has charge of the ground stand up.

The commentator of old explains for her why she stepped out of rank to speak: to spread a sūtra one must have ground, and to turn the Dharma one must have food — 「意道弘經必藉地，轉法須賴食」—“The sense is that spreading a sūtra must depend on ground, and turning the Dharma must rely on food.” 〔X21n0384 0748b18〕; the ground is what I have charge of and the food is what I bring forth, and 「若吾不護持，其何以流通哉」—“if I do not guard and uphold it, how then is it to be transmitted?” 〔X21n0384 0748b19〕 And so, before the great assembly in the heavenly palace and from among measureless earth spirits, she 「毅然任護法之重擔」—“resolutely took up the heavy burden of protecting the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0748b20〕

Transmission is not an abstract matter. For a sūtra to be handed down there must be ground a person can stand on, and a belly that has eaten its fill.

Who Firm-and-Stable Is

The sūtra text writes only the four characters 「堅牢地神」 — the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable — and gives no introduction.

The commentator of old fills in two layers. Spoken of on the side of phenomena, the name is 「取力能承載發生，資益地味，養育萬民，安立羣品」—“taken from her power to bear up and to bring forth, to enrich the savor of the earth, to nourish the myriad people, and to settle the kinds of beings.” 〔X21n0384 0748b06〕; spoken of on the side of the Dharma, it is 「以智度法門，常無改變」—“because the gate of the perfection of wisdom is constant and undergoes no change.” 〔X21n0384 0748b07〕 The latter layer is matched further with the four virtues of permanence, bliss, self, and purity: 「常也，能荷山川；樂也，能生萬物；淨也，地力自在」—“permanence: she can carry mountains and rivers; bliss: she can bring forth the myriad things; purity: the power of the earth is sovereign.” 〔X21n0384 0748b07〕, and self is complete in her as well, so that with the four virtues in place she is called a spirit.

There is also a question and an answer that looks like an idle stroke and is not idle at all: 「問：地神男耶？女耶？答：女神也」—“Question: is the earth spirit male or female? Answer: a female spirit.” 〔X21n0384 0748b10〕 The ground of it is the four great heavenly spirits recorded in the Dīrgha Āgama — earth, water, wind, and fire — where the earth spirit had held fast to the view that within earth there is no water, fire, or wind; the Buddha taught her the Dharma, and far from dust and parted from defilement she gained the pure eye of Dharma, and thereupon declared her taking of refuge, vowing that to the end of her life she would not kill, and on down to not drinking liquor: 「聽我於正法中為優婆夷」—“Permit me to be an upāsikā within the right Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0748b16〕 She is an upāsikā, and 「故知是女神也」—“hence it is known that she is a female spirit.” 〔X21n0384 0748b17〕

A laywoman who once held a wrong view, was persuaded by the Buddha, and took the five precepts. Such is the provenance of the protector of the Dharma in this chapter.

This sūtra has written it so all along: in the gathering of the introductory section, the ghost kings who devour blood and devour vital essence arrive listed together with the ghost king Kindly-Hearted and the ghost king Great Love and Reverence; and by the chapter on King Yama and his multitude, those who vow to guard beings are that very company of ghost kings.

What She Speaks of First Is Not Herself

The whole of the earth spirit’s first passage, when she opens her mouth, is given to others.

She says that from times long past she has gazed up at and bowed her head to measureless bodhisattvas, and then raises one alone: among all the bodhisattvas, Kṣitigarbha’s vow is the deepest and the weightiest. Set against him are Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Avalokiteśvara, and Maitreya — these four also manifest a hundred thousand kinds of body and form and deliver beings in the six destinies, and yet “their vows still have an end at which they are done.”

To be done means that a day comes when it is finished.

This sentence is easily read as a ranking. The commentator of old sets a line across it here: 「非謂功德有優劣，正以誓願有畢竟不畢竟耳」—“It is not to say that their merit is better or worse; it is only that a vow may or may not have an end at which it is done.” 〔X21n0384 0748c14〕 — not that merit stands higher or lower, but that a vow may or may not have a day on which its term falls due.

Another sūtra of the same honored one has a passage of the same type: 「假使有人，於其彌勒及妙吉祥，并觀自在、普賢之類，而為上首，殑伽沙等諸大菩薩摩訶薩所，於百劫中，至心歸依、稱名、念誦、禮拜、供養、求諸所願」—“Suppose a person, before Maitreya and Mañjuśrī together with Avalokiteśvara and Samantabhadra and their like as the foremost, and before great bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the sands of the Ganges, for a hundred kalpas with utmost mind takes refuge, calls their names, recites, bows, makes offerings, and seeks what he wishes.” 〔T13n0411 0726a10〕, 「不如有人於一食頃，至」—“it does not equal a person who for the space of a single meal, with utmost” 〔T13n0411 0726a13〕 mind takes refuge in Kṣitigarbha. The two sūtras set the same thing in one frame and each says what it says; both are recorded here, and no mediation is made between them on their behalf.

The South, and a Niche-Chamber

What follows is the most concrete passage in the chapter: in the place where one dwells, upon clean ground to the south, one makes a niche-chamber with earth and stone, bamboo and wood; within it one sculpts and paints, and even with gold, silver, bronze, and iron makes an image of Kṣitigarbha, burning incense and making offerings, gazing and bowing and praising.

Before treating this passage the commentator of old sets a word in front of it: 「真智靡方，不局東西南北；法身無像，豈假銅銕金銀」—“True wisdom has no quarter and is not confined to east, west, south, or north; the dharma-body has no image — what need has it of bronze or iron, gold or silver?” 〔X21n0384 0749a15〕 — true wisdom has no direction, and the dharma-body has no form. That being so, why choose a place, and why make an image? He answers it himself in the next breath: 「然地乃供像之所，像為起敬之門」—“Yet ground is the place where an image is offered to, and an image is the gate by which reverence arises.” 〔X21n0384 0749a16〕; 「被俗之儀，不壞假名談實相；闡性之法，必由假相悟真容」—“In the observances that reach the worldly, one does not destroy provisional names in speaking of the real mark; in the dharma that opens out the nature, one must come by way of the provisional mark to awaken to the true countenance.” 〔X21n0384 0749a16〕

Why the south, he gives a reason for that too: to the south of the continent of Jambudvīpa lie the palace and dwelling of King Yama, and 「地藏偏現身地獄，作幽冥教主。故就垂形之處，作室於南」—“Kṣitigarbha manifests his body especially in the hells and is master of the teaching in the dark realms; and so, going by the place where he lets his form down, the chamber is made in the south.” 〔X21n0384 0749a24〕; and it accords besides with the great assembly — 「即大集會中，從南方世界，現香雨華雲而來之意」—“that is, the sense of his coming in the great assembly from a world in the south, manifesting fragrant rain and clouds of flowers.” 〔X21n0384 0749b02〕 Further down he borrows the compass point to say one thing more: the south belongs to the trigram Li, and Li is the sun, and is brightness and beauty, and so to make the chamber and offer to the image at this quarter 「正令人人出坎陷之幽途，升離明之陽地，以陰主死而陽主生也」—“is precisely to let every person come out of the dark road of the pit of Kan and climb to the yang ground of the brightness of Li, since yin governs death and yang governs life.” 〔X21n0384 0749b05〕 This layer may be consulted.

The sūtra states one further condition: clean ground. The commentator does not read it as sweeping the place tidy. He glosses the two characters by the method of building an altar in the esoteric division, saying 「必須穿去穢土，取下淨土」—“one must dig away the foul soil and take the clean soil beneath.” 〔X21n0384 0749b07〕 — the dirty earth above is to be dug off and the clean earth below taken, and the work done in an open quiet grove or on clean ground beside a river, and only then does it accord with the Dharma.

The character for a niche he glosses in a line as well: 「龍窟也」—“a dragon’s den.” 〔X21n0384 0749b09〕, taking the sense of lying hidden with the door shut, still to the utmost degree.

A niche-chamber is therefore not merely a box in which an image is set. To dig down a layer and take the clean earth, and to shut the door and be still to the utmost degree — these two things are themselves the practice. The passage of the chapter that can most readily be followed in deed is here.

And the most important thing in the sūtra text itself lies in the materials. It lists two sets in one breath: earth, stone, bamboo, wood; and gold, silver, bronze, iron. The first set is to be had at hand; the second costs money. The sūtra writes them down side by side, ranks neither above the other, and does not say which carries the greater merit.

The threshold is set at the lowest notch: a heap of earth and a few stalks of bamboo also count.

The Ten Matters Are a Chain

Before the ten benefits the commentator of old sets up a premise. He says of this passage 「此顯人尊處勝」—“this displays that when the person is honored the place excels.” 〔X21n0384 0749b16〕 — only when the person has become honorable does the place he dwells in become excellent along with him.

And by what is the person honored? He divides it into two layers: 「初則一念信解，次則兼行六度」—“first, a single thought of faith and understanding; next, practicing the six perfections alongside it.” 〔X21n0384 0749b17〕 First one hears of Kṣitigarbha’s vow and awesome power and is able to believe and to understand — that is the single thought; only then does one make the chamber, sculpt the image, burn incense, make offerings, gaze and bow and praise — that is the practice. Faith first, practice after; and only when both layers have arrived does he say 「隨所住地，竝名吉祥。故每萃休徵，有十種利益也」—“whatever ground he dwells upon is alike named auspicious; and so good omens gather there again and again, and there are ten kinds of benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0749b18〕

So the ten benefits are not ten rewards handed out; they are that a person who has already given rise to faith and has also set his hands to work makes auspicious whatever place he dwells in.

Nor are the ten benefits ten advantages set out side by side; they are a chain in which each link gives birth to the next.

The commentator of old points it out very plainly: 「列次第相生，則有十利」—“listed in order, each giving birth to the next, there are ten benefits.” 〔X21n0384 0749c01〕; 「首相土地，以立其居；次明家宅，以安其身」—“first he looks to the soil, so as to establish his dwelling; next he makes plain house and home, so as to settle his body.” 〔X21n0384 0749c01〕, and so on down the line, 「乃至鬼神護助，以終遇聖因」—“and on to the guarding help of ghosts and spirits, ending with the meeting of holy causes.” 〔X21n0384 0749c02〕

Walk the chain through once: first the soil is rich and abundant, and only then can the dwelling be set up; the soil being good, 「既得豐壤之土地，則家宅可永安矣」—“having gained rich and abundant soil, house and home may be at peace forever.” 〔X21n0384 0749c13〕; the living being settled, the blessing reaches back to the forebears, and those who died before are born into the heavens; and if it is so even for the forebears, how much more for those now alive — and so those now living have their lifespan increased; and having a lifespan while nothing else goes smoothly would not count, and so what is sought is fulfilled according to one’s wish — 「既有壽已，而諸事不諧，曷足貴乎。今凡所祈求，莫不遂意」—“Having gained long life, if all one’s affairs do not go smoothly, what is there in it to prize? Now whatever is prayed for is in every case fulfilled according to one’s wish.” 〔X21n0384 0749c24〕

Thus far it has run inward. Now it turns outward: 「遂意在內，災祥在外」—“the fulfilling of one’s wish is within; calamity and good fortune are without.” 〔X21n0384 0750a04〕, and so there are no calamities of water or fire; and with the outside at peace, waste and loss must still be warded off — 「內外雖獲安寧，又須辟除虗耗」—“though peace has been gained within and without, waste and loss must still be warded off.” 〔X21n0384 0750a10〕; the day’s affairs going smoothly, one must still sleep soundly at night, and so bad dreams are cut off — 「晝既諸緣順適，夜須眠夢安祥」—“the day’s conditions being agreeable, sleep and dreams at night must be tranquil.” 〔X21n0384 0750a16〕; dreams being at peace, going out and coming in must be at peace too, and so one is guarded by spirits going out and coming in — 「日居月諸，坐享貞吉；晝出夜入，尤望安寧。今修福善，出入神護」—“Through sun and moon he sits and enjoys the good fortune of steadfastness; going out by day and coming in by night, he hopes above all for peace. Now, cultivating blessings and goodness, he is guarded by spirits going out and coming in.” 〔X21n0384 0750a18〕

The order in which these nine are laid out is the order in which a household worries its way through a year: land, house, forebears, length of days, livelihood, flood and fire, wastage, sleep, going out and coming in. There is not one item among them that we do not recognize.

The nine walked through, the last one turns aside: 「已上九種，皆世間利益；第十聖因，乃出世利益」—“the nine kinds above are all benefits within the world; the tenth, holy causes, is the benefit that goes beyond the world.” 〔X21n0384 0750a21〕 And what is a holy cause? 「乃出世正聖之修因也」—“it is the cause cultivated for the true holiness that goes beyond the world.” 〔X21n0384 0750a22〕, and put concretely, 「如聞法悟道、修齋、布施、塑像、修塔、補治經像之類」—“such as hearing the Dharma and awakening to the way, keeping the fast, giving, sculpting images, repairing stūpas, and mending scriptures and images.” 〔X21n0384 0750a23〕

Sculpting images. That is precisely the matter named in her first sentence.

The last of the ten benefits is meeting more often with the chance to do that very thing. The chain has come round to its own beginning — what the sūtra gives as recompense is more causes.

The same household tone is found elsewhere as well. The Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings records: 「隨戒多少，若持一戒，令五神護之；五戒具者，令」—“according to how many precepts are kept: if one precept is kept, five spirits are set to guard him; and for one complete in the five precepts, there are set” 〔T15n0590 0118b17〕 「二十五神營衛門戶，殃疫、眾邪、陰謀消滅，夜」—“twenty-five spirits to keep watch over his gate and door, so that plague, all manner of evil, and secret plots are extinguished, and at night” 〔T15n0590 0118b19〕 there are no bad dreams; and it says besides 「縣官、盜賊、水火、災變終而不害」—“magistrates, robbers and thieves, water and fire, and calamitous changes in the end do him no harm.” 〔T15n0590 0118b20〕, and says 「臨其壽終，迎其魂神」—“when his life comes to its end they meet his spirit” 〔T15n0590 0118b22〕 and it is born above in the heavens. Gate and door, bad dreams, water and fire, the end of life — the items answer to one another almost one by one. Talk of guarding at this register has a lineage of its own within the canon; it is not a tone peculiar to this chapter.

Offering to the Image Gains the Ten Benefits; Keeping the Scripture Gains Her Guard

Having finished the ten benefits, the earth spirit opens her mouth once more. This time what she speaks of is not the same matter.

The commentator of old divides this second passage in two: 「初明經像住處。次明力護滅惡」—“first, making plain the place where scripture and image dwell; next, making plain the guarding by her power and the extinguishing of evil.” 〔X21n0384 0750b20〕 The first tells of the place that has this scripture and this image; the second tells how she guards, and what she guards away.

The watershed lies in one act. The ten benefits above hang upon making the chamber and sculpting the image; this passage hangs upon being “further able to recite the scripture aloud and make offerings to the bodhisattva” — reciting aloud has been added. Offering to the image gains ten kinds of benefit; keeping the scripture gains her guard by day and by night: two matters, two lists, and the sūtra does not merge them into one.

The calamities she promises to extinguish also answer item by item to what went before. The commentator points out that 「水火銷滅，即上六七八三事」—“the extinguishing of water and fire is the sixth, seventh, and eighth matters above.” 〔X21n0384 0750b22〕 — which are precisely the three among the ten benefits: no calamity of water or fire, waste and loss warded off, bad dreams cut off. What was promised above is a having; what is promised here is a not-having: one list written from the positive side, one from the negative.

And the four characters 「大橫」 and 「小橫」 are terms with a fixed reference, not a figure of speech. The commentator glosses them by citing two sūtras outright: 「大橫，如藥師經，九橫死。小橫，如九橫經」—“The great untimely deaths are as in the Sūtra of the Medicine Buddha, the nine untimely deaths; the lesser untimely deaths are as in the Sūtra of the Nine Untimely Deaths.” 〔X21n0384 0750b23〕 What is untimely is the kind of thing that comes when it should not come and dies when it should not die; and the division of great and lesser has, for each, a sūtra that speaks of it.

As for the “all evil things” of the sūtra text, he takes a passage from the assembly of the Golden Light to fill out a longer list: 「以是經故，惡夢蠱道、五星諸宿、變異災禍、一切惡事，消滅無餘」—“by reason of this scripture, bad dreams and sorcery, the five planets and the constellations, portents and disasters, and all evil things are extinguished without remainder.” 〔X21n0384 0750b24〕

At the end of this passage the commentator speaks a doubt aloud on the reader’s behalf: 「世有不信之人，謂是誘進之語」—“there are unbelieving people in the world who call these words a lure to draw one on.” 〔X21n0384 0750c04〕 — someone will say that all this is no more than talk to get a person started on the road.

He does not evade it, and his answer is not abstruse either. He asks back: have you not heard that 「積善之家，必有餘慶」—“a household that heaps up goodness will surely have a surplus of blessing” 〔X21n0384 0750c05〕, and that a household that heaps up what is not good will surely have a surplus of calamity? And have you not heard that 「出言善，千里之外應之」—“if the word one utters is good, it is answered a thousand leagues away” 〔X21n0384 0750c06〕, and that if the word one utters is not good, it is opposed a thousand leagues away? Word and deed are the pivot of a gentleman; they move heaven and earth and stir the ghosts and spirits.

The answer is not “you must believe this.” The answer is that this holds good already, upon a level of principle that people have long since granted.

In the Buddha’s Reply, the Weight Does Not Fall on the Ground

The Buddha takes up her words and praises her at once: your great spiritual power is such as few among the spirits can match. Then he explains what she has charge of: the soil of Jambudvīpa is wholly under her protection, and on down to grass and trees, sand and stones, rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds, grain and rice, treasures and shells — whatever comes to be from the earth is by her power.

Up to this point, everything said falls within the proper office of an earth spirit.

But there is a link here that the sūtra does not write and the commentator supplies. Grass and trees, sand and stones, rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds, grain and rice, treasures and shells come to be from the earth, all by the earth spirit’s power — then why is the earth at some times generous and at others thin?

His answer takes both ends: 「固因地神威力，亦由眾生業感」—“it is indeed by the earth spirit’s awesome power, and it is also by what the karma of beings draws down.” 〔X21n0384 0750c22〕 And he cites the Sūtra on the Differences in Karmic Retribution as his ground: 「復有十業，能令眾生得外惡報」—“there are, further, ten kinds of karma that can bring beings an evil recompense in outward things.” 〔X21n0384 0750c23〕; when beings largely cultivate the ten unwholesome kinds of karma, the outward things they draw down are in every respect not complete, and cultivating the ten wholesome kinds runs contrary to this.

And so he clasps the link shut: 「此因眾生惡業熾盛，以致地神不護，減損萬物。若多修德，增其威力，萬物加美」—“This is because the evil karma of beings blazes up, so that the earth spirit does not protect and the myriad things are diminished. If they cultivate virtue abundantly, her awesome power increases and the myriad things grow finer.” 〔X21n0384 0751a01〕

The earth spirit’s awesome power is not a fixed quantity. When the karma of beings grows heavy, the guarding withdraws and the myriad things diminish; when beings cultivate virtue, her power increases and the myriad things grow fine.

He cites besides, in witness, a line the earth spirit herself spoke at another assembly: 「我服甘露無上法味已，閻浮提地豐壤倍常」—“Having tasted the sweet dew of the unsurpassed savor of the Dharma, the soil of Jambudvīpa is twice as rich and abundant as its wont.” 〔X21n0384 0751a05〕 — even she must hear the Dharma; and having heard it, the earth grows richer.

Without this link, the ten benefits above are only the largesse of a deity; with it, those ten matters return into cause and effect. Whether the ground one dwells on will be rich and abundant lies half with her and half with the person who dwells there.

The turn comes in the next sentence: and you constantly praise and proclaim Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva’s deeds of benefit; your merit, and your spiritual penetration too, are a hundred thousand times those of an ordinary earth spirit.

The reason for the hundred thousand times is not that she bears up more, but that she constantly praises another. The commentator of old follows the sentence out: since she can have charge of the things of Jambudvīpa and can also praise and proclaim Kṣitigarbha’s benefits, 「則為護法地神，其福業慧業，自然深廣」—“then as an earth spirit who protects the Dharma, her karma of blessing and her karma of wisdom are of themselves deep and broad.” 〔X21n0384 0751a17〕, and so 「較餘地神超過萬倍」—“compared with the other earth spirits she surpasses them ten-thousandfold.” 〔X21n0384 0751a18〕

There is something here worth stopping over. Another sūtra of the same honored one says of Kṣitigarbha himself: 「常普任持一切大地，常普任持一切種」—“He constantly and universally sustains all the great earth; he constantly and universally sustains all seeds” 〔T13n0411 0725b28〕 — and it says besides 「此善男子威神力故，能令大地一切，草木、根鬚、芽莖、枝葉、」—“by the awesome spiritual power of this good man, all the great earth’s grasses and trees, roots and fibers, sprouts and stems, branches and leaves,” 〔T13n0411 0725b29〕 and flowers and fruits alike grow, and 「藥穀、苗稼、花果、茂實成熟，潤」—“medicinal grains, seedlings and crops, flowers and fruits ripen luxuriant and full, glossy” 〔T13n0411 0725c02〕 and fragrant and clean. There it is Kṣitigarbha who sustains the great earth and the seeds; here it is by the earth spirit’s power that grass and trees, rice and hemp, and grain come to be from the earth. The two sūtras fasten one and the same matter each to its own figure; both are set here side by side, and no reconciliation is forced upon them. And the measure this chapter gives for itself is very clear: that the earth spirit surpasses the ordinary earth spirit a hundred thousandfold hangs upon the one matter of her opening her mouth to praise Kṣitigarbha.

Praising and Extolling Is a Gate of Practice with a Name

That the earth spirit surpasses her own kind a hundred thousandfold hangs upon the one matter of her opening her mouth to praise. And the four characters 「稱揚讚歎」 the commentator of old recognized the moment he opened his: 「稱揚讚歎，乃普賢十願中第二門」—“Praising and extolling is the second gate among the ten vows of Samantabhadra.” 〔X21n0384 0751a14〕

This line matters. Praising and extolling is not here a pleasant disposition, not the virtue of speaking well of others — it is a gate ranked second among the ten great vow-kings of Samantabhadra, with a name, a place, and an order. What the earth spirit does is precisely this gate.

Once the gate stands, its weight follows. The commentator’s next line runs: 「葢一念稱揚，萬德自具」—“for in a single thought of praise the ten thousand virtues are of themselves complete.” 〔X21n0384 0751a14〕 — one thought of praise, and the ten thousand virtues are all within it. And so whenever the sons of the buddhas come to a Dharma assembly, whether they see for the first time or have long heard, they first send forth the chanting of hymns: praise is what one does on entering the door, not a courtesy after the talk is over.

Why should one line of praise have such power? The commentator fastens the reason to the one who is praised, and makes it plain with a simile: 「譬之諸天甘露，不問貴賤」—“It is like the sweet dew of the gods, which asks nothing of noble or base” 〔X21n0384 0751a19〕 or of old or young: of all who taste it there is none who does not live long and not die.

Sweet dew does not pick and choose. So the one who praises need not first be anyone — she is only a spirit with charge of the ground, whose proper business is to bear up the myriad things and to make them grow. And the one matter in which her merit and spiritual penetration exceed her kind lies not in the bearing up but in her opening her mouth to speak another’s good.

Relying on This One Thing Alone

When the Buddha hands over who is to be protected, he speaks narrowly: one who makes offerings to the bodhisattva and recites this scripture aloud, “one who practices by relying on this single matter, the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha, alone.”

One character: 「但」, only. The sūtra does not add a condition upward; it takes one away downward.

The commentator of old follows the character out into single-minded practice: 「初明人法。但依下，令專修。即制心一處，無事不辦也」—“First, making plain the person and the dharma. From ‘relying only’ onward, he makes it single-minded practice — that is, holding the mind at one place, and there is nothing that will not be accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0751a24〕; and he glosses the character for relying: 「梵語膩地，此云依。依，憑也」—“In Sanskrit nidi; here it means to rely. To rely is to lean upon.” 〔X21n0384 0751b01〕 — leaning upon the working of this scripture to come out of the sea of suffering.

This character 「但」 is easily read as exclusion — only this one counts and no other. Here the commentator sets down a footnote that decides the matter: 「涅槃明四依，此即依了義經，不依不了義經之指」—“The Nirvāṇa Sūtra sets out the four reliances; this points to relying on the scriptures of definitive meaning and not relying on the scriptures of non-definitive meaning.” 〔X21n0384 0751b02〕

The four reliances are the four standards of reliance set up in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, and one of them is precisely to rely on the scriptures of definitive meaning and not on those of non-definitive meaning. So 「但依一事」, relying on this one thing alone, does not shut the other scriptures outside the door; it says that reliance must rest upon the one that is definitive. What is narrow is not the compass of the mind but the point of purchase leaned upon.

He then borrows an old saying as a comparison: 「千羊之皮，不如一狐之腋。故知眾典不及此經」—“The pelts of a thousand sheep do not equal the fur beneath one fox’s foreleg. Know therefore that the many canonical texts do not come up to this scripture.” 〔X21n0384 0751b03〕; and he distinguishes why this should be — that persons are of the conceivable kind and the inconceivable kind, and scriptures of the disclosed kind and the not-yet-disclosed kind, and 「今專讀不思議、開顯之經，罪頓消而功速成」—“to read exclusively now the inconceivable and disclosed scripture is for guilt to be extinguished at a stroke and merit to be accomplished quickly.” 〔X21n0384 0751b04〕, without seeking many things and throwing the will into confusion. At the last he gives the matter a Tiantai name: 「此即南岳有相安樂行也」—“this is Nanyue’s practice of ease and joy with marks.” 〔X21n0384 0751b06〕

To read one scripture exclusively has a formal name within the teaching of this house; it is not one person’s preference.

Fearing besides that one might read and not practice, he adds a line: 「言修行者，謂如說而行。若聞而不行，如說食數寶，何濟饑貧」—“By ‘practices’ is meant practicing as it is spoken. To hear and not to practice is like talking of food and counting another’s treasure — what relief is that to hunger and poverty?” 〔X21n0384 0751b06〕, and he cites the common saying 「說得一丈，不如行得一寸」—“Ten feet of talk does not equal one inch of doing.” 〔X21n0384 0751b08〕

As for which notch such a person is counted at, he gives a station for that too: 「以此善信，若佛現在，足稱四信。今於滅後，可當五品」—“With such wholesome faith, were the Buddha present in the world, it would be enough to be called the four faiths; now, after his extinction, it may answer to the five grades.” 〔X21n0384 0751b12〕, and within these 「以讀經是第二品，供養乃第四」—“reciting the scripture is the second grade, and making offerings the fourth” 〔X21n0384 0751b13〕, the grade of practicing the six perfections alongside; 「當知五品觀行為如佛，故令擁護也」—“Know that one of the five grades of contemplative practice is as a buddha, and therefore he is to be guarded.” 〔X21n0384 0751b14〕 This assignment of station comes out of the Tiantai house and may be consulted; what the sūtra says for itself is only one line: practicing by relying on this one thing alone.

The Buddha next charges her, “with your own spiritual power do you guard and protect him,” and the commentator takes even the character 「本」, one’s own, apart: 「本神力者，約事，指主地為本；約法，指四德為本」—“As for her own spiritual power: on the side of phenomena it points to her charge of the earth as her own; on the side of the Dharma it points to the four virtues as her own.” 〔X21n0384 0751b15〕

On the side of phenomena, her own is that piece of ground she has charge of; on the side of the Dharma, her own is the four virtues of permanence, bliss, self, and purity spoken of above. What the guarding leans upon is nothing outside her.

Guarded as Far as the Ear

The manner of speech the Buddha uses in handing over how the earth spirit is to guard is a singular one: do not let any calamity, nor any matter that goes against his wish, so much as reach his ear — how much less let him undergo it?

The boundary of the guarding is drawn not at the body but at the ear.

The commentator of old presses it one stage further along: of these calamities and matters against one’s wish, 「此等災害不如意事，尚不輒聞於耳，況眼見身受耶」—“calamities and matters against one’s wish such as these do not even reach the ear — how much less are they seen with the eye or undergone in the body?” 〔X21n0384 0751c01〕 The calamities he supplies run along the line of heavenly signs: 「彗星現怪，流星崩落，五星失度，兩日竝現」—“comets appearing as portents, meteors crashing down, the five planets losing their courses, two suns appearing together.” 〔X21n0384 0751b20〕; and the matters against one’s wish run along the line of human affairs: 「穀米湧貴，饑饉凍餓，怨賊侵掠，人民多苦」—“grain and rice surging dear, famine and freezing and starving, hostile bandits raiding and plundering, the people much afflicted.” 〔X21n0384 0751b22〕

Hearing, seeing, and undergoing in the body are three tiers. The sūtra draws the line of guarding at the outermost of them. Bad news reaching the ear is already itself a kind of undergoing — and this tier is one that none of us finds strange.

From the Earth to the Sea

In the last passage the Buddha opens out the number of those who guard: not that you alone protect him, but there are also the retinues of Śakra and of Brahmā and the retinues of the gods. The commentator of old glosses the two characters for holy and worthy in passing: 「聖謂真正，賢名善直」—“Holy means true and correct; worthy names the good and upright.” 〔X21n0384 0751c19〕, 「以正直者為天為神耳」—“for it is the correct and upright who become gods and become spirits.” 〔X21n0384 0751c20〕

And then the closing sentence of the chapter: why does he gain the guarding of such holy and worthy ones? It is all because he gazes upon and bows to the image of Kṣitigarbha and recites aloud this Sūtra of the Original Vows — and of himself, and without fail, he comes out of the sea of suffering and realizes the bliss of nirvāṇa.

Of himself; without fail. The commentator of old presses once upon each of these two words: 「言自然，則不加勉強。說畢竟，則到底不虗」—“To say ‘of himself’ is that no forcing is added. To say ‘without fail’ is that it does not come out empty in the end.” 〔X21n0384 0752a05〕 And which sea the sea of suffering is he joins back to the opening of the sūtra: 「今指業海，苦有萬端；既由禮讀，出離無難」—“Here it points to the sea of karma, where suffering has ten thousand forms; and since it is by bowing and reciting, coming out of it is no hard thing.” 〔X21n0384 0752a04〕

The sea of karma is precisely the one the brahmin woman came to in the introductory section after recollecting the Buddha for one day and one night. The whole sūtra began from that sea, and at this chapter it speaks of coming out.

And this chapter itself began from the earth. The first benefit is soil rich and abundant; the last sentence is coming out of the sea of suffering. Of the ten benefits nine are within the world — house, lifespan, harvest, dreams, going out and coming in — and only the tenth turns toward what goes beyond the world; and beyond the ten benefits the Buddha adds one line more that carries all the way to nirvāṇa.

The shortest chapter of all puts the lowest threshold and the farthest destination into one and the same passage.

Transmission (承衍) — The Ground Within a Classic of Filial Piety, and Another Assembly

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, who titles himself at the head of the fascicle 「古鹽匡菴青蓮苾蒭靈椉父輯」—“compiled by Lingcheng, bhikṣu of Qinglian, of Kuang’an in Guyan” 〔X21n0384 0700b05〕. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the threefold division of the transmission, the twofold outline of the chapter text, the two senses of Firm-and-Stable and the four virtues, the question and answer about her being a female spirit, the gloss on the south, the ten benefits each giving birth to the next, the instruction on single-minded practice, the station among the five grades, and the explanation of “of himself” and “without fail.” The sūtra text is five hundred and sixty-four characters; his gloss runs to more than five thousand two hundred — close to tenfold. The shortest chapter in the whole sūtra has been matched with a commentary that is not short.

One thing is worth pointing out: in glossing the name of the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable, the frame is not of his own making but received. Zhizhe of Tiantai’s Words and Phrases of the Golden Light Sūtra has a section glossing the chapter on the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable 〔T39n1785 0076c01〕, in which it says: 「上諸天或住善權方便道，為眾生法父；此天住善實智度道，為眾生法母，一義也」—“The gods above may abide in the way of skillful expedient means, and are a Dharma-father to beings; this deity abides in the way of the good and real perfection of wisdom, and is a Dharma-mother to beings — this is the first sense.” 〔T39n1785 0076c02〕; and again 「智度法門常無改變，義曰堅牢，常也。能荷，樂也。能生，淨也，名之為地」—“The gate of the perfection of wisdom is constant and undergoes no change: its sense is called firm and stable, which is permanence. That she can carry is bliss. That she can bring forth is purity; and this is named earth.” 〔T39n1785 0076c07〕, 「德力自在，我也，稱之為神」—“That the power of her virtue is sovereign is self; and this is called a spirit.” 〔T39n1785 0076c09〕 The matching of the four virtues to the name cited above from this chapter is almost word for word the same; and the four layers set up in the Guiding Thread’s gloss on the title are precisely Zhizhe’s four senses matched one by one with the four siddhāntas. This eye takes its provenance from Tiantai.

Those four senses and the four siddhāntas are worth listing once, for the line cited at the head of this chapter, that she is complete in the sense of the four siddhāntas, comes down to solid ground only by way of them. The four senses Zhizhe sets up are: 「上諸天或住善權方便道，為眾生法父；此天住善實智度道，為眾生法母，一義也」—“The gods above may abide in the way of skillful expedient means, and are a Dharma-father to beings; this deity abides in the way of the good and real perfection of wisdom, and is a Dharma-mother to beings — this is the first sense.” 〔T39n1785 0076c02〕; 「譬如陰陽覆載草木，智度養育出生眾善，二義也」—“As yin and yang cover and carry the grasses and trees, so the perfection of wisdom nourishes and brings forth all goodness — this is the second sense.” 〔T39n1785 0076c03〕; 「餘度各有所主，未亡未泯；實智照了，無相無名，三義也」—“The other perfections each have what they preside over, not yet done away and not yet effaced; real wisdom illumines and understands, without mark and without name — this is the third sense.” 〔T39n1785 0076c05〕; 「餘度有等有上，智度無等無上，是究竟度，四義也」—“The other perfections have an equal and have a superior; the perfection of wisdom has no equal and no superior, and is the final perfection — this is the fourth sense.” 〔T39n1785 0076c06〕

The Guiding Thread fastens each of these four senses to the name of a siddhānta. Of the pairing of father and mother, 「此約世界悉檀釋也」—“this is glossed in terms of the worldly siddhānta.” 〔X21n0383 0651a17〕; 「譬如陰陽覆載卉木，智度養育，出生眾善」—“As yin and yang cover and carry the plants and trees, so the perfection of wisdom nourishes and brings forth all goodness.” 〔X21n0383 0651a18〕, 「此約為人悉檀釋也」—“this is glossed in terms of the siddhānta for each person.” 〔X21n0383 0651a19〕; 「餘度各有所主，實智照了，無相無名」—“The other perfections each have what they preside over; real wisdom illumines and understands, without mark and without name.” 〔X21n0383 0651a19〕, 「此約對治破惡悉檀釋也」—“this is glossed in terms of the counteractive siddhānta that breaks evil.” 〔X21n0383 0651a20〕; 「餘度有等有上，智度無等無上，是究竟度」—“The other perfections have an equal and have a superior; the perfection of wisdom has no equal and no superior, and is the final perfection.” 〔X21n0383 0651a20〕, 「此約第一義悉檀釋也」—“this is glossed in terms of the siddhānta of ultimate meaning.” 〔X21n0383 0651a21〕; and at the last it gathers into 「以具四悉檀義，故能為神，主閻浮提，而護本願法門」—“because she is complete in the sense of the four siddhāntas she can be a spirit, have charge of Jambudvīpa, and protect the Dharma-gate of the original vows.” 〔X21n0383 0651a22〕

Set the four layers side by side and what the four siddhāntas are shows itself: one and the same earth spirit, and four intentions in the speaking of her — the first layer settles her station (over against the four heavenly kings, one yang and one yin, one father and one mother); the second says that she brings goodness to birth (covering and carrying the grasses and trees, nourishing and bringing forth all goodness); the third says that she breaks attachment (without mark and without name, unlike the other perfections that each have what they preside over); the fourth returns to the final (no equal and no superior, the final perfection). Settling the station, bringing goodness to birth, breaking attachment, entering the principle: each layer deeper than the last.

The same Guiding Thread uses the term elsewhere as well, saying that Kṣitigarbha 「用四悉檀赴緣」—“uses the four siddhāntas to meet conditions” 〔X21n0383 0644a04〕, teaching according to the capacity that comes. The two characters for meeting conditions are the key: teaching the Dharma is not one manner of speaking only; it is a matter of what condition has come. So the four siddhāntas are not four doctrines; they are four doors opened upon one and the same thing, facing four kinds of person.

Why the earth spirit can be a spirit and can protect this scripture — the reason this house reads out of it lies here: within her single person all four intentions are complete.

He himself points the matter toward another assembly as well: 「此見地神護法之心，與光明會上發願護經同」—“Here one sees that the earth spirit’s mind of protecting the Dharma is the same as her vow to protect the scripture at the assembly of the Golden Light.” 〔X21n0384 0750b20〕, and he quotes the words of that sūtra — 「若隨是經典所流布處，我當在中，常作宿衛」—“Wherever this scripture is spread abroad, I shall be there within it and constantly keep watch.” 〔X21n0384 0750b21〕

A passage of the sūtra text of that assembly is itself worth setting beside this one. The Golden Light Sūtra of the Most Excellent King has a chapter on the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable 〔T16n0665 0440a17〕, which opens: 「爾時，堅牢地神即於眾中，從座而起，合掌恭敬而白佛言」—“At that time the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable rose from her seat within the multitude and, joining her palms in reverence, said to the Buddha” 〔T16n0665 0440a18〕 — almost the same sentence as this chapter’s 「爾時，堅牢地神白佛言」. What she promises there is 「我以神力不現本身，在於座所，頂戴其足」—“By my spiritual power I shall not show my own body, but shall be at the place of his seat and bear his feet upon my head.” 〔T16n0665 0440a24〕; and the fruit she reports is 「令其地味悉皆增益」—“causing the savor of that earth all to increase.” 〔T16n0665 0440a28〕, 「亦使肥濃田疇沃壤倍勝常日」—“and making the fat and rich fields and fertile soil twice as good as on ordinary days.” 〔T16n0665 0440a28〕, and on to 「若諸有情受用如是勝飲食已，長命色力，諸根安隱」—“if beings partake of such excellent food and drink, their life is long, their color and strength good, and all their faculties at ease.” 〔T16n0665 0440b03〕 The Buddha there also promised a fruit close to the third benefit of this chapter: 「若有眾生為欲供養是經王故，莊嚴宅宇，乃至張一傘蓋、懸一繒幡」—“if beings, wishing to make offerings to this king of scriptures, adorn their dwellings, and even spread a single canopy or hang a single silken banner” 〔T16n0665 0440c07〕, by that cause and condition they are born among the six heavens.

Two assemblies, one and the same earth spirit, and different scriptures protected. There she hides her body beneath the Dharma-seat and bears upon her head the feet of the one who preaches; here she guards by day and by night the household that keeps the scripture, and tells the ten benefits. Both are recorded; there is no need to reconcile them.

And this chapter’s own sentence is bound to no mirror at all. Why the earth spirit’s merit is a hundred thousand times that of an ordinary earth spirit — the sūtra gives only one reason: she constantly praises another’s deeds of benefit. And that sentence came from her own mouth.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. He judges the whole sūtra into three divisions — introduction, main exposition, and transmission — with the last three chapters belonging to the transmission; this chapter stands second within that division, and why it can serve as transmission he makes plain in a single line: 「見聞利益流通，謂見地藏之像，聞地藏之名，無不獲大利益」—“The transmission by the benefit of seeing and hearing: that is, seeing the image of Kṣitigarbha and hearing the name of Kṣitigarbha, there is none who does not obtain great benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0752a17〕 And in passing he likens it to another bodhisattva — 「例同觀音聞名見身心念者，皆能滅苦」—“parallel to the case of Avalokiteśvara: those who hear his name, see his body, and keep him in mind can all extinguish suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0752a18〕 This likening is no idle stroke: this chapter is precisely the one in which Avalokiteśvara comes forward and asks about the Dharma. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

The Two Words “Seeing and Hearing”

The chapter title is only four characters: the benefit of seeing and hearing. The four look ordinary enough, and yet the one who explained the title of old stopped a long while over them.

First the characters are glossed. Seeing and hearing: the one belongs to the eye, the other to the ear — 「光所照曰見」—“what the light shines upon is called seeing.” 〔X21n0383 0651a24〕, and seeing belongs to the eye; 「自耳通心曰聞」—“what passes in from the ear to the mind is called hearing.” 〔X21n0383 0651b01〕, and hearing belongs to the ear. The eye and the ear are where the mind does its business, and so it is said that there is no one whose ears and eyes are narrow and whose measure of mind is broad.

Then it is turned over a layer. If at the very moment of seeing a form and hearing a sound one 「了知一一皆心，心尚叵得，見聞何有」—“knows clearly that each and every one of them is mind; and the mind itself cannot be got hold of, so where are seeing and hearing?” 〔X21n0383 0651b05〕 — if even the mind cannot be got hold of, then where are seeing and hearing? And so it is said 「即此見聞，非見聞矣」—“this very seeing and hearing is not seeing and hearing.” 〔X21n0383 0651b06〕 Only when this layer has been turned over does the next line follow: 「於無見中見如來種種輪光」—“within no-seeing, one sees the Tathāgata’s many kinds of wheel-light.” 〔X21n0383 0651b07〕, and within no-hearing one hears the inconceivable matters of Kṣitigarbha.

The turning done, it comes down again, and comes down into four grades: 「或圓伏五住，而位登五品」—“some, subduing the five abodes in the perfect manner, ascend in station to the five degrees.” 〔X21n0383 0651b09〕; 「或先落二垢，而得淨六根」—“some first shed the two stains and gain the purifying of the six faculties.” 〔X21n0383 0651b10〕; 「或頓破無明，而開佛知見」—“some break through ignorance all at once and open the knowledge and vision of a buddha.” 〔X21n0383 0651b10〕; 「或無明斷盡，而頓圓佛果」—“some cut off ignorance to the very end and complete the fruit of buddhahood all at once.” 〔X21n0383 0651b11〕 The four grades run upward all the way: first the five abodes are subdued in the perfect manner and the station of the five degrees is reached — subdued, but the root is not yet stirred; next the two stains are shed and the six faculties are pure; then ignorance is broken through all at once and the knowledge and vision of a buddha open; and last ignorance is cut off to the end and the fruit of buddhahood is completed all at once. Subduing stands first, breaking through next, cutting off to the end last of all.

And the benefit likewise divides into four pairs: 「如此似益真益」—“benefit like this is semblance-benefit and true benefit.” 〔X21n0383 0651b11〕, 「因益果益，前利後利，淺利深利」—“benefit on the cause and benefit on the fruit, the earlier gain and the later gain, the shallow gain and the deep gain.” 〔X21n0383 0651b12〕 — the benefit that is a semblance and the benefit that is true, the benefit of the ground of the cause and the benefit of the ground of the fruit, what is gained first and what is gained after, the shallow and the deep.

After the four pairs comes one line that binds them all: these are 「竝從見聞，而修而證」—“all of them, from seeing and hearing, both cultivated and realized.” 〔X21n0383 0651b12〕

This line is the eye of the chapter title. The thirty-two lights, the eight matters beyond conceiving, the one bodhisattva who asks on behalf of others — all of it hangs upon these four characters: the entrance is only the two gates of seeing and hearing, and whoever goes in by those two gates counts, at whatever grade he arrives. And so the chapter is not named response, and not named efficacy, but the benefit of seeing and hearing — what is spoken of is the gate, not the proof of the working.

What Is Meant by a Stimulus

Seeing and hearing are the gate. For a gate to open, something must move first; and what moves first was of old called the stimulus.

The stimulus divides by the three kinds of action. 「見身致禮，即身業機」—“seeing the body and offering a bow: that is the stimulus of bodily action.” 〔X21n0384 0752a19〕; 「聞名故稱，即口業機」—“hearing the name and therefore calling it: that is the stimulus of vocal action.” 〔X21n0384 0752a19〕; 「身口由心，即意業機」—“body and speech come from the mind: that is the stimulus of mental action.” 〔X21n0384 0752a19〕 Let any one of the three actions move, and the stimulus stands. Once the stimulus stands, 「機感既成，冥顯自應」—“the stimulus and the response being complete, the response comes of itself, hidden or manifest.” 〔X21n0384 0752a20〕 — the response divides of itself into two roads, one in the open and one in the dark.

This word must be settled first, or the text below will not move. Of the eight matters in this chapter, the turning point of every one of them lies in the two words seeing and hearing; and that turning is not the bodhisattva suddenly deciding to help — it is the stimulus moving and the response rising. So the giving of the prediction in a dream and the consecration in a dream, further down, are no stranger than gazing and bowing while awake: the one is manifest, the other hidden, and both roads start from the movement of one of the three actions.

A simile was matched to it of old as well: like the grasses and trees upon the ground, 「一雨均霑」—“one rain wets them evenly.” 〔X21n0384 0752a21〕, and there is none that is not moistened. The rain is one and the same rain; the grasses and trees each drink their own.

The Light Comes from the Gate at the Crown

Light has been sent forth earlier in this sūtra. In the introductory section the Tathāgata smiles and sends forth a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of great light-clouds, ten kinds in a row — and the sūtra does not say from where they are sent. In this chapter the text marks the place expressly: the World-Honored One, from the gate at the crown of his head, sends forth a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of great hair-mark lights.

The crown is the highest place of the whole body. The reading handed down says a few words more here: as for the Sanskrit name of the crown, 「梵名烏瑟膩沙，此云佛頂」—“in Sanskrit uṣṇīṣa; here it means the buddha-crown.” 〔X21n0384 0752b05〕; and it is called a gate on the strength of the old sūtra’s account of the three parts of the human body — the head is the hall, the crown is the gate of heaven. That the light comes out of the highest place signifies function arising upon the substance of ultimate wisdom. As for the relation between the hair-mark and the light, the commentator of old divides it finely: 「毫相是一，即用之體。光色不同，即體之用」—“the hair-mark is one: it is the substance of the function. The colors of the light are not the same: they are the function of the substance.” 〔X21n0384 0752c05〕 The hair-mark is of one kind only; the colors of its light may be measureless.

The sūtra then calls the lights by name one after another, thirty-two kinds. The first twenty are called hair-mark lights: white, great white, auspicious sign, great auspicious sign, jade, great jade, purple, great purple, blue, great blue, azure, great azure, red, great red, green, great green, gold, great gold, felicitous cloud, great felicitous cloud. The last twelve change their designation and are called only hair-lights: thousand wheel, great thousand wheel, jeweled wheel, great jeweled wheel, sun wheel, great sun wheel, moon wheel, great moon wheel, palace, great palace, sea cloud, great sea cloud.

This change of designation the sūtra text divides quite plainly for itself; it is not an abbreviation of one name. The first twenty are colors and auspicious signs — white, jade, purple, blue, azure, red, green, gold, with the auspicious sign and the felicitous cloud added; the last twelve are shapes and things rested upon — wheel, palace, sea cloud. From color to shape, from shape to what is rested upon, and all the way it grows larger as it goes. The commentator of old saw this turn as well, and marked it under the name thousand wheel: 「此下輪光，較散光尤勝」—“the wheel-lights from here down surpass the scattered lights.” 〔X21n0384 0753a21〕; and the last name he explains as 「以光雲遍覆，如海無垠」—“because the cloud of light covers everywhere, like a sea without a shore.” 〔X21n0384 0753b21〕

This line has a second half, and it is the second half that gives what is signified: 「此表生佛一如，依正不二」—“this signifies that beings and buddhas are one and the same, and that the world relied upon and the body that relies are not two.” 〔X21n0384 0753b21〕, 「染淨同源，苦樂無異」—“defilement and purity have one source; suffering and pleasure are not different.” 〔X21n0384 0753b22〕 The point of the sea as a simile is not its vastness but its being without discrimination — 「情生分別，法法條然，智入一無，事事平等」—“when feeling gives rise to discrimination, every dharma stands as a separate strand; when wisdom enters the one and the none, every matter is level with every other.” 〔X21n0384 0753b23〕 Once discrimination arises, every dharma becomes its own separate strand; when wisdom enters the one, every matter is made level. And so the thirty-two names, arriving at the last of them, do not come to rest upon a scene without a shore: they come to rest upon beings and buddhas being not two, and the world relied upon and the body that relies being not two. Take the figure and drop what it signifies, and this ending is nothing but scenery.

The light sent forth, the Buddha gives out a subtle and wondrous sound and tells the great assembly and the eightfold host of devas and nāgas what it is that he will speak of today: 「不思議事、超聖因事、證十地事」—“matters beyond conceiving, matters of the cause that surpasses toward sagehood, matters of realizing the ten grounds.” 〔T13n0412 0787c05〕, and matters of never in the end falling back from unsurpassed perfect awakening. Five times over, the word “matters.” Sending forth light is a manifesting, giving forth sound is a speaking; he manifests and then speaks, and what he speaks of is matters, not principle.

Five Times “Matters” — a Table of Contents

These five occurrences of “matters” are not a mere parallel series. Of old they were read as the outline of the chapter’s headings, one clause to each chapter-heading: 「於人天下，結歎四章」—“under ‘among humans and gods,’ he binds up his praise into four chapter-headings.” 〔X21n0384 0753c16〕

「利益等事，結名章」—“matters of benefit and the like: this binds up the heading of the name.” 〔X21n0384 0753c17〕 — because 「以稱名讀經，人天俱解脫故」—“since by calling the name and reading the sūtra humans and gods alike are liberated.” 〔X21n0384 0753c17〕, this clause gives the chapter a name. 「不思議事，結體章」—“matters beyond conceiving: this binds up the heading of the substance.” 〔X21n0384 0753c18〕 — substance belongs by rights to principle, and yet here it speaks of matters, because that which is relied upon from first to last, and which delusion and awakening alike possess, is precisely the matter that is principle. 「超聖二句，結宗章」—“the two clauses on surpassing toward sagehood bind up the heading of the theme.” 〔X21n0384 0753c20〕 — the cause that surpasses toward sagehood and the realizing of the ten grounds are the theme, and a theme must have cause and fruit accomplished together. 「不退菩提，結用章」—“not falling back from awakening binds up the heading of the function.” 〔X21n0384 0753c20〕 — because 「地藏巧施方便，為令成就菩提」—“Kṣitigarbha skillfully sets out expedient means in order that awakening may be accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0753c21〕

Name, substance, theme, and function are the four places in which Tiantai explains a sūtra: first there must be a name, then a substance relied upon, then a cause and fruit taken as the theme, then an expedient means put to use. The Buddha, after sending forth the light, says only five clauses; and the reading handed down takes those five clauses as the four headings the chapter reports for itself.

So the place where these five occurrences of “matters” stand is of consequence: the light has been sent forth, the matters themselves have not begun to be told, and the Buddha first sets out a table of contents. And the first entry of that table is benefit, and the last is not falling back from awakening — it begins at the gain of humans and gods and ends at the fruit that does not fall back. The eight matters in between stand between those two ends.

The One Who Asks Has Been Changed

A change appears in the sūtra here that is easy to read past.

In the eleven chapters before this, the one who rises to ask has changed several times: Mañjuśrī, Universally Broad, and the earth spirit Firm-and-Stable ask the Buddha, while Samantabhadra asks Kṣitigarbha. In this chapter the one who rises to ask is Avalokiteśvara.

And the Buddha’s answer does not answer about Kṣitigarbha first; it answers about Avalokiteśvara himself first: 「聞汝名者、見汝形者、戀慕汝者、讚歎汝者」—“those who hear your name, those who see your form, those who long for you, those who praise you.” 〔T13n0412 0787c19〕, these beings shall certainly not fall back on the unsurpassed way. Before answering the question about the benefit of seeing and hearing Kṣitigarbha, the Buddha hands the questioner a portion of that same benefit.

The arrangement of this passage is worth stopping over. That Avalokiteśvara is able to raise this question was accounted for of old by the likeness of the two in office — 「以志同道合，均與閻浮提有大因緣也」—“because their aims are the same and their ways agree, and both alike have a great affinity with Jambudvīpa.” 〔X21n0384 0754b01〕 One and the same work: the one answers voices in the human world and rescues from suffering, the other draws out the guilty and suffering along the dark roads; the Buddha confirms the former first, and then has the former call forth the latter. The sūtra does not set one bodhisattva to measure himself against another; it lets the one who does the same work open his mouth on behalf of beings.

Avalokiteśvara’s stated reason for asking is plain as well: he does not ask for himself, but so that the eightfold host of devas and nāgas may gaze and bow and gain blessings. One who already has a great affinity asks on behalf of those who do not yet have one.

Eight Matters, Set Out from the Heavens Down to the Door

The prose of the Buddha’s answer the reading handed down counts as eight passages — 「別示不思議事文有八段」—“the text that shows the matters beyond conceiving one by one has eight passages.” 〔X21n0384 0755b09〕, whose list is 「一、轉天人衰相，乃至第八安水陸險道」—“first, turning the marks of a deva’s decline, and so on down to the eighth, making safe the dangerous roads of water and land.” 〔X21n0384 0755b10〕

Read the eight straight through and a downward line comes into view.

The first is in the heavens: a deva has the five marks of decline appear. The second is at the end of a life: the beings of the six destinies hear the name at the time of death. The third is a grief of the human world: to lose father and mother and brothers in childhood, and to want, once grown, to know where they have gone. The fourth is the arousing of resolve: wishing to arouse a vast mind of kindness, wishing to cultivate unsurpassed awakening, wishing to go forth from the three realms. The fifth is the seeking of a wish: a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of wishes present and to come, a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of affairs. The sixth is study: wishing to read and recite the sūtras of the Great Vehicle and not being able to. The seventh is ordinary domestic life: clothing and food that do not suffice, much illness, a house that is not at peace, a family scattered, fright and fear in sleep and dream. The eighth is going out of doors: entering the mountain forests, crossing rivers and seas, going by dangerous roads.

From the heavens down to the end of a life; from the end of a life down to being orphaned in childhood; then on to arousing the resolve and to seeking a wish; and at the last coming to rest upon clothing and food, upon sleep and dream, and upon the road out of doors. The sūtra does not put the great matter last as the crowning piece; on the contrary the further it goes the nearer and the finer it grows, and the last matter is fearing to meet a tiger or a wolf on the road. The further on, the more it is a situation we recognize every day.

These eight matters share one shape: each first writes the strait, then writes the seeing and hearing, then writes the turn. The strait is written concretely; the turn is written short. The sūtra does not spend many characters on the turn.

There is one thing in the last matter that is easily missed. The sūtra writes 「是人先當念地藏菩薩名萬遍」—“this person should first recite the name of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva ten thousand times.” 〔T13n0412 0788c08〕 — and who is “this person”? Of old it was read very broadly: 「是人通指九界」—“‘this person’ refers to all nine realms alike.” 〔X21n0384 0760b17〕, and the reason given is direct — 「以初地菩薩尚不免虎狼之難」—“since even a bodhisattva of the first ground does not escape the peril of tigers and wolves.” 〔X21n0384 0760b17〕 If even a bodhisattva of the first ground may meet tigers and wolves on a mountain road, how much more those below. As for why ten thousand recitations, the note says it plainly: 「必萬徧者，舉極數，見至誠也」—“that it must be ten thousand times is the raising of the extreme number, in order to show utmost sincerity.” 〔X21n0384 0760b18〕 Ten thousand is not a fixed quota; it is stating the number to its limit in order to show sincerity.

And so this downward line has one more layer to be seen: the last matter, though nearest to human affairs, reaches in the persons it covers all the way to the nine realms. The line is laid downward, and laying it to the bottom has not shut out those above — the tigers and wolves on the mountain road must be walked past by a bodhisattva of the first ground as well.

The Five Marks of Decline Appear

For the first matter the sūtra writes only four characters: 「有五衰相現」—“the five marks of decline appear.” 〔T13n0412 0787c26〕

The marks of a deva’s decline the treatises state more finely than the sūtra. The commentator of old cites a treatise here, saying that when the gods’ lives are about to end two kinds of five marks appear first: 「準新婆沙論：諸天命終，先有二種五衰相現，一小二大」—“Following the new Vibhāṣā: when the gods’ lives end, there first appear two kinds of five marks of decline, the lesser and the greater.” 〔X21n0384 0755b18〕; the lesser five are that the body gives out an ill sound, the body’s radiance grows faint, bathing water clings to the body, one clings to objects and will not let them go, and the body is unsteady and the eyes blink. The greater five are that the garments become soiled, the flower-crown withers, sweat runs from both armpits, the body gives out a foul smell, and one no longer delights in one’s own seat. What separates the two is the outcome: 「小五相現，若不歸依求救」—“when the lesser five marks appear, if one does not take refuge and seek rescue.” 〔X21n0384 0755b22〕, there is still a turn to be had; but 「大五衰現，必從天死退下」—“when the greater five marks of decline appear, one must die out of the heavens and fall back down.” 〔X21n0384 0755b23〕

The treatise divides them into greater and lesser; this sūtra does not. The sūtra says only that the five marks of decline appear, and does not say which kind, nor which kind still leaves time. Here the sūtra and the treatise differ in their closeness of grain; the divergence is of old, and is recorded here without adjudicating in the sūtra’s stead.

And the means the sūtra goes on to give does not vary with whether the marks are greater or lesser: when the marks appear, one either sees the image or hears the name, and 「一瞻一禮」—“gazes once and bows once.” 〔T13n0412 0787c29〕, and the heavenly blessings are increased. The sūtra gives one and the same gate, and does not ask on which side of the gate the comer is standing.

There is a further layer that lights up where this matter stands. A treatise divides death into three kinds — 「云何死？謂由壽量極故」—“What is death? It is that the measure of the lifespan is at its limit.” 〔T30n1579 0281b03〕, and death thereupon comes; and this is again of three kinds, 「謂壽盡故，福盡故，不避不平等故」—“namely, because the lifespan is spent; because the blessings are spent; and because one does not avoid what is not equable.” 〔T30n1579 0281b04〕: that the lifespan has run out is one, that the blessings have been used up is one, and that one has met what one ought not to have met is one. The first matter of this chapter writes of a deva 「受天福盡」—“whose heavenly blessings have been used up.” 〔T13n0412 0787c26〕, which falls exactly within the second; the second matter writes only “at the time when the life is ending,” without dividing the kinds, and all three are inside it.

A deva does not die of illness; his blessings are used up. This differs from death in the human world: a human may still say his time has not come, while a deva’s time is what he himself has spent. The eight matters take this as their first, and the first suffering they write is a suffering produced by the enjoyment of blessings.

Four Characters: “Borrowing from the Causes of Their Deeds”

The third matter writes of a very concrete person: 「或乳哺時」—“or at the time of being suckled.” 〔T13n0412 0788a15〕, or at three years old, or five, or ten, or under, he loses father and mother, and even loses elder and younger brothers and sisters; and once grown he thinks back upon father and mother and does not know into which destiny they have fallen.

The sūtra counts upward from the smallest age. The words for being at the breast the commentator of old glosses finely — 「乳哺時者，嬰孩在襁褓也」—“the time of being suckled: the infant is still in swaddling clothes.” 〔X21n0384 0756b24〕, still in swaddling clothes; and milk is transformed from the mother’s blood, 「兒所飲汁，乃母血所化」—“the fluid the child drinks is what the mother’s blood has been transformed into.” 〔X21n0384 0756b24〕 It counts from the time when he was still at the breast up to ten years old and under. The sūtra does not first speak of the pain of being orphaned; it first makes the age plain: at that time he did not yet understand what had happened.

And why these family members are in an evil destiny the sūtra states in four characters only: 「假因業故」—“by borrowing from the causes of their deeds.” 〔T13n0412 0788a20〕 These four are easily read past as a narrative joint. Of old they were read as doctrine: 「假即因成、相續、相待之三假也」—“‘borrowed’ is the three borrowings: completion by causes, continuity, and mutual dependence.” 〔X21n0384 0757a05〕, 「以虗妄不實，故名為假」—“because they are false and not real, they are called borrowed.” 〔X21n0384 0757a05〕

The three borrowings are three ways in which a borrowed existence is set up, and the note cites the Great Calming and Contemplation for what each of them is stated in terms of: 「止觀云：因成，約外塵內根」—“The Calming and Contemplation says: completion by causes is stated in terms of outer objects and inner faculties.” 〔X21n0384 0757a06〕, 「相續，但約內根」—“continuity is stated in terms of the inner faculties alone.” 〔X21n0384 0757a06〕, 「相待，豎待滅無之無，橫待三無為之無心」—“mutual dependence: vertically it depends upon the nothing that is the nothing of extinction; horizontally it depends upon the no-mind of the three unconditioned dharmas.” 〔X21n0384 0757a07〕 The names have already said it: completion by causes is that a thing is only when many conditions come together; continuity is that a former thought joins to a later one so that there seems to be a thing there; mutual dependence is that one end can be spoken of only over against the other. Deeds are a thing that exists just so — it is not that a solid thing has been thrown into an evil destiny, but that there is an undergoing there, by way of completion by causes, of continuity, of mutual dependence.

This reading turns a sentence of narrative into a sentence of doctrine. And it is at the same time the ground on which the passage stands: since they are borrowed, there is a place where they can be undone, and the sculpting and painting and gazing and bowing that the sūtra goes on to speak of can be brought to bear. If deeds were truly a solid thing, how could sculpting an image or bowing once move them at all?

One Cup of Water, One Day and One Night

Of the eight matters, the sixth is written at the greatest length and in the greatest detail.

A person conceives a deep and treasuring regard for the sūtras of the Great Vehicle, arouses an inconceivable mind, and wishes to read and recite them; yet even when he meets a clear-sighted teacher and is made to practice until they are familiar, he 「旋得旋忘」—“gets them and forgets them at once.” 〔T13n0412 0788b16〕, and though months and years go by he cannot read them. The sūtra’s judgment is direct: this is an obstruction from former deeds not yet dissolved, and therefore with the sūtras of the Great Vehicle he has 「無讀誦性」—“no capacity for reading and reciting.” 〔T13n0412 0788b18〕

The sūtra does not stop at the judgment. It goes on to give a set of practices, the passage in the whole sūtra that most resembles a rite: hearing the name and seeing the image, he declares the whole of his own mind in reverence; he makes offerings of incense, flowers, garments, food and drink, and every kind of plaything; he takes one cup of pure water and sets it before the bodhisattva for one day and one night; then with palms joined he asks to drink it, turning his head toward the south, and when it is about to enter his mouth he is of utmost mind and grave in his bearing; the water drunk, he guards against the five pungent roots, wine and meat, wrong sexual conduct and false speech and every kind of killing, for one seven-day period, or for three.

This is the one passage in the whole sūtra that can be carried out as it stands, and so it is worth looking at action by action.

Why water? — 「用淨水者，藉緣發慧也」—“the use of pure water is to bring forth wisdom by borrowing a condition.” 〔X21n0384 0758c16〕 Water has the office of flowing through and washing away filth, and the merit of moistening things and making them grow, and this condition is borrowed in order to bring forth wisdom. Why one cup, and one day and one night? — 「一盞，表一道清淨。一日夜，表制心一處」—“one cup signifies one path of purity; one day and night signifies holding the mind in one place.” 〔X21n0384 0758c21〕; and day and night each signify something, 「目表智明，夜表愚暗也」—“the day signifies the brightness of wisdom, the night signifies the darkness of folly.” 〔X21n0384 0758c21〕 Why ask for it with palms joined? — 「合掌請服，表一心佩戴」—“joining the palms and asking to drink signifies wearing it upon oneself with a single mind.” 〔X21n0384 0758c22〕 One cup of water is not a medicine, and one day and one night is not a length of hours; what is signified is singleness and purity. And as for why reverence is required, the note answers with an old saying: 「以誠能動物，不誠，未有能動」—“it is by sincerity that one can move things; without sincerity, nothing has ever been moved.” 〔X21n0384 0758c08〕

The hardest to construe is the turning of the head toward the south. Of old it was explained as 「迴首向南，表背坎向離」—“turning the head toward the south signifies turning the back on Kan and facing Li.” 〔X21n0384 0758c23〕 — Kan and Li are two of the eight trigrams’ quarters: Kan is in the north and belongs to water and to what is dark; Li is in the south and belongs to fire and to what is bright. In the chapter before this, where the earth spirit teaches how an image is to be set up in a clean place, the matter is stated still more plainly: 「離為南方，為正、為日、為明麗」—“Li is the southern quarter; it is the upright, it is the sun, it is the bright and shining.” 〔X21n0384 0749b03〕, and therefore a room is made and an image offered at the place marked out, 「正令人人出坎陷之幽途，升離明之陽地」—“precisely so that everyone may come out of the dark road of the pit of Kan and rise to the sunlit ground of the brightness of Li.” 〔X21n0384 0749b05〕, because 「以陰主死而陽主生也」—“the yin governs death and the yang governs life.” 〔X21n0384 0749b06〕

One turning of the head, and the notes to two chapters are speaking of the same thing: turning from the dark side toward the bright. The sūtra writes only the four characters for turning the head toward the south, without explaining; and that south is the same south as the one in the chapter before.

The five pungent roots to be guarded against after drinking the water were also listed of old: 「五辛者，梵網云」—“as for the five pungent roots, the Brahmā Net says.” 〔X21n0384 0759a07〕 garlic, mountain scallion, onion, leek, and xingqu. And one easily confused matter is distinguished — 「夫葷、辛是二義」—“rank and pungent are two different senses.” 〔X21n0384 0759a08〕: 「葷而非辛，阿魏是；辛而非葷，芥薑是」—“rank but not pungent: asafoetida is such; pungent but not rank: mustard and ginger are such.” 〔X21n0384 0759a09〕, 「是葷是辛，五辛是也」—“both rank and pungent: the five pungent roots are such.” 〔X21n0384 0759a09〕 What is forbidden is not everything with a strong smell, but those five that are both rank and pungent. It is divided this finely because the form of a precept must be able to land in the hand; a blurred form of a precept buys only a blurred keeping of it.

Worth noting is that the sūtra gives a term: one seven-day period, or three. Several of the earlier matters give numbers too: one day up to seven days, three times seven days, ten thousand recitations, a thousand a day up to a thousand days. This sūtra is willing to give numbers where benefit is concerned, and behind the number there is often a more consequential line still — 「莫退初心」—“do not fall back from the first mind.” 〔T13n0412 0788a19〕 The reading handed down weighs these four characters very heavily: 「莫退初心一悟，是最要之誡」—“that one insight, not to fall back from the first mind, is the most essential admonition.” 〔X21n0384 0756c20〕, and cites a scripture by way of comparison: 「魚子菴羅華，菩薩初發心，三事因中多，及其結果少」—“fish spawn, the flowers of the mango, and a bodhisattva’s first arousing of the resolve: of these three, many in the cause, few when they come to fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0756c23〕 Fish spawn and mango blossoms come to fruit but seldom, and of those who arouse the resolve few accomplish it. It is not that arousing the resolve is hard; it is that not falling back is hard — and this, presumably, we all recognize.

Dreams

There is one word that comes back again and again in this chapter, and on a first reading it is easily taken for an accident.

The third matter: reciting the name for three times seven days to the full ten thousand, the bodhisattva manifests a boundless body and 「具告是人眷屬生界」—“tells this person in full the realm into which his family have been born.” 〔T13n0412 0788a26〕; or else 「或於夢中，菩薩現大神力」—“or within a dream the bodhisattva manifests great spiritual power.” 〔T13n0412 0788a26〕, and personally leads this person through the worlds to see his family. The fifth matter: after all that is wished and sought has been accomplished, this person 「即得菩薩摩頂授記」—“straightway obtains the bodhisattva’s touch upon his head and his prediction.” 〔T13n0412 0788b13〕 — and that too within sleep and dream. The sixth matter: after drinking the water and keeping the precepts, within sleep and dream he sees the bodhisattva manifest a boundless body 「於是人處授灌頂水」—“and confer the water of consecration in the place where this person is.” 〔T13n0412 0788b25〕 The strait of the seventh matter is itself a dream — 「睡夢之間，多有驚怖」—“in sleep and dream there is much fright and fear.” 〔T13n0412 0788c01〕; and its turn comes to rest upon dream as well: 「乃至於睡夢中，悉皆安樂」—“and even within sleep and dream, all is peace and ease.” 〔T13n0412 0788c04〕

Four of the eight matters happen within a dream. The commentator of old divided two roads for this, the manifest and the hidden: 「上是顯機顯應，故於稱禮之際，現身告知其界」—“the above is a manifest stimulus and a manifest response, and so at the moment of calling and bowing he manifests his body and makes the realm known.” 〔X21n0384 0757b14〕, which is the road of waking; 「此屬冥機冥應，故於夢中相告」—“this belongs to a hidden stimulus and a hidden response, and so the telling is within a dream.” 〔X21n0384 0757b14〕, which is the road of sleep. The response while awake asks for gazing and bowing and calling the name; the road while asleep is not ours to command. The sūtra sets the two roads side by side and does not say which is the truer.

And upon the matter of dreams the note says one thing that reaches further still: 「迴觀世間，皆夢中事，唯大覺朗然，稱大夢覺耳」—“turn and look back at the world: it is all of it a matter within a dream; only the great awakening is clear and bright, and that is what is called awaking from the great dream.” 〔X21n0384 0757b19〕 This line has already gone past the sense of the passage; it borrows the dream to speak of awakening. The sūtra itself does not say so; the sūtra only sets a dream of fright over against a dream of ease, and then puts the giving of the prediction and the consecration into dreams as well.

As for why a response sometimes fails to appear, the note sets up a question and answer, and the answer is not gentle: 「須知一心，有事有理，二途無取，胡能感聖」—“know that in the one mind there is the matter and there is the principle; if neither road is taken up, how can one stir a sage?” 〔X21n0384 0757b06〕, and it is likened to 「譬如臨鏡背視，對谷吞聲」—“like standing before a mirror and looking away, or facing a valley and swallowing one’s voice.” 〔X21n0384 0757b07〕 — turning your back on the mirror and wanting a reflection, swallowing your voice at the valley and wanting an echo. These are the words of the commentator, not the words of the sūtra; the sūtra says only 「至心恭敬，念滿萬遍」—“with utmost mind and reverence, filling out ten thousand recitations.” 〔T13n0412 0788c02〕

The Two Matters Missing from the Verse

The prose finished, the World-Honored One speaks in verse.

Verse usually says the prose over again. The verse of this chapter, however, does not say the whole of it again. The commentator of old counted: 「六長行有八章，今略第二、第五，故唯六章」—“the prose above has eight chapter-headings; here the second and the fifth are passed over, and so there are only six.” 〔X21n0384 0761a08〕 — of the eight matters of the prose the verse praises only six, and the second (hearing the name at the time of death) and the fifth (seeking a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of wishes) are not praised.

This is a thing that can be checked. Set the verse against the prose passage by passage: praising the marks of decline, praising the showing of the realm of birth, praising the accomplishing of the deliverance of beings, praising the bringing forth of wisdom, praising the turning of evil aspects, praising the making safe of water and land — six headings indeed, and the passage on the end of life and the passage on seeking a wish are not among them.

The sūtra does not say why they are passed over. The close of the verse does, however, say something else: 「若能以此迴法界，畢竟成佛超生死」—“if one can dedicate this to the dharma-realm, one will at the last become a buddha and pass beyond birth and death.” 〔T13n0412 0789a22〕 The eight matters before it are every one of them a seeking, and every one of them a thing we would seek: blessings, long life, news of where one’s family have gone, the ability to read a sūtra through, clothing and food, safety on the road. In the last two lines of the verse the sūtra turns the whole of what was sought in another direction — dedicating it to the dharma-realm. All eight matters come to rest in the pleasures of the human and heavenly realms; only these two lines pass through.

The mechanism of that passing through was given of old as well. The last six lines of the verse divide into two parts: 「前四句結上聞名瞻像等」—“the first four lines bind up what is above concerning hearing the name and gazing at the image and the rest.” 〔X21n0384 0762b22〕, and one must receive the wondrous pleasure of humans and gods; 「後二句結上迴向法界，必超生死成佛」—“the last two lines bind up what is above concerning dedicating to the dharma-realm: one must pass beyond birth and death and become a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0762b22〕 And the reason this can be so is 「以具有四悉檀利益故也」—“because it possesses the benefit of the four siddhāntas.” 〔X21n0384 0762b23〕

The four siddhāntas are the four ways in which a buddha gives the teaching. To speak of the name of Kṣitigarbha as a distinction made for the world is to let people gain the benefit of gladness; to speak of his name and his marks for each person severally is to let people gain the benefit of producing goodness; to call the name and bow to the image when the five marks of decline appear, or when one is trudging a dangerous road, and so turn misfortune into good fortune, is the benefit of breaking evil; and to dedicate the matters above to ultimate truth is the benefit of entering the principle.

The first three benefits all come to rest upon matters, and only the fourth comes to rest upon principle. So the eight matters above have not been told in vain — they are the first three modes, the hand that brings a person in at the door; the last two lines are the fourth mode, the step taken after coming in. Without the first three, no one would come; without the fourth, those who came would stop at the pleasures of humans and gods. Here is the reason why this chapter dares to write down, one by one, the seeking of clothing and food and the seeking of safety, without fearing that it falls into the vulgar.

And so at the last the Buddha says to Avalokiteśvara: therefore, Avalokiteśvara, you should know: proclaim it everywhere to lands as many as the sands of the Ganges. The reading handed down joins the word “therefore” back to what came before: 「是故者，承上八種事故而言也」—“‘therefore’ is said in succession to the eight kinds of matter above.” 〔X21n0384 0762c15〕; and it says further that this word “everywhere” must not be taken small — 「言普告，則應通九界；言諸國，則豈局同居」—“if it says proclaim everywhere, then it must reach all nine realms; if it says all the lands, then how could it be confined to the land where all dwell together?” 〔X21n0384 0762c17〕

A chapter begins with one light from the gate at the crown and closes upon a single word, “everywhere.” Of the eight matters in between, the greatest is in the heavens and the smallest at the door.

Transmission — A Tiantai Mirror, and the Avalokiteśvara It Reflects

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian, with the Guiding Thread in one fascicle placed before it. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the place of this chapter within the division of transmission, the division of the chapter’s text into two headings (「初、釋迦現相歎德事」—“first, Śākyamuni manifests signs and praises the matters of his virtue.” 〔X21n0384 0752a23〕, and second, Avalokiteśvara asks that it be spoken for the transmission), the list of the eight passages of prose, the judgment that the verse passes over two and keeps six, and the division of hidden and manifest stimuli. He glosses the sūtra following the Tiantai line all the way down, and in this chapter it shows especially.

The thirty-two hair-mark lights he first matches to the three virtues — 「大即法身，以遍滿故」—“the great is the dharma-body, because it fills everywhere.” 〔X21n0384 0752b16〕, the hair-mark is liberation, and the light is prajñā; then he cites the Words and Phrases of the Lotus to liken the colors to the paths: 「以五色譬五道，青譬地獄因果」—“the five colors are likened to the five destinies: blue is likened to the cause and fruit of the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0752c06〕, yellow to the hungry ghosts, red to the animals, white to humans and gods. For five of the colors he finds Sanskrit names: white, 「梵語叔離，此云白色」—“in Sanskrit 叔離; here it means the color white.” 〔X21n0384 0752c12〕; purple, 「梵名羅差，或勒叉，此云紫色」—“the Sanskrit name is 羅差 or 勒叉; here it means the color purple.” 〔X21n0384 0753a03〕; blue, 「梵名尼羅，此云青色」—“the Sanskrit name is 尼羅; here it means the color blue.” 〔X21n0384 0753a05〕; red, 「梵名阿盧那，此云赤色」—“the Sanskrit name is 阿盧那; here it means the color red.” 〔X21n0384 0753a10〕; gold, 「梵名伊尼延，此云金色」—“the Sanskrit name is 伊尼延; here it means the color gold.” 〔X21n0384 0753a16〕 For azure and green he gives no Sanskrit name, and takes their sense from the dictionaries instead: for azure he cites the Shuowen, 「說文謂石之青美」—“the Shuowen calls it the beautiful blue among stones.” 〔X21n0384 0753a08〕; and for green, 「綠毫相光，綠，瀏也」—“the green hair-mark light: green is limpid.” 〔X21n0384 0753a14〕, a color between blue and yellow, 「總表獄鬼同入法流也」—“signifying altogether that the beings of the hells and the ghosts alike enter the stream of the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0753a15〕 One set of light-names, and he reads it by two methods: where there is a Sanskrit name he gives it back its Sanskrit name, and where there is none he gives it back the sense of its character.

Avalokiteśvara’s Sanskrit name he gives as well: 「西音名阿那婆婁吉低輸」—“in the Western sound the name is 阿那婆婁吉低輸.” 〔X21n0384 0754a14〕, which here means the contemplator of the world’s sounds; contemplating is the wisdom that contemplates, the world’s sounds are the object contemplated, and object and wisdom are joined in the designation. In the same place he adds a note on geography, recording that on the seacoast of southern India, on Mount Potalaka, there is a stone heavenly palace which is the constant dwelling of the Bodhisattva Sovereign Observer. This has nothing to do with doctrine; he set it down in passing.

The passage on consecration he glosses by name as 「梵名毗灑迦，此云灌頂」—“the Sanskrit name is 毗灑迦; here it means consecration.” 〔X21n0384 0759b13〕, and likens it to a kṣatriya pouring water on the head to establish a prince — the water of Dharma is poured on the head, and one succeeds to the station of the Dharma King. Why a prediction given in a dream may be trusted he settles by citing a treatise on the difference between sleep and dream: 「今是染污心眠夢」—“this is a dream in sleep with a defiled mind.” 〔X21n0384 0759b06〕; and he states the unfailingness of response with a verse: 「菩薩清涼月，常遊畢竟空，眾生心水淨，菩提影現中」—“the bodhisattva is the cool moon, forever moving in ultimate emptiness; when the water of a being’s mind is clear, the reflection of awakening appears within it.” 〔X21n0384 0757b04〕

The passage on poverty in the seventh matter he writes with the most feeling. He cites the self-lament of an elder who had lost his wealth, saying that in coming and going, in stopping and starting, in speech and in bending and looking up, a poor man’s every act is a fault; and the lament at its furthest is this line: 「貧有大力，能使所親捨我極速」—“poverty has great power: it can make those close to me abandon me with the utmost speed.” 〔X21n0384 0759c19〕 — and this too is not the commentator’s own line but the self-lament of that elder after he had lost his wealth and got it back, from the Sūtra of the Causes and Conditions of Lamp-Finger: 「嗚呼怪哉！富有大力，能使世人來歸極疾。嗚呼怪哉！貧有大力，能使所親捨我極速」—“Alas, how strange! Wealth has great power: it can make the people of the world come and turn to me with the utmost swiftness. Alas, how strange! Poverty has great power: it can make those close to me abandon me with the utmost speed.” 〔T16n0703 0810c19〕 One poverty, one wealth, two cries of alas. And this sūtra writes only eight characters: clothing and food do not suffice, and his seeking runs contrary to his wish.

And at the end of the chapter he gathers the eight matters altogether into emptiness: 「地藏但有名字，名字性空，不住內外中間」—“Kṣitigarbha has only a name; the nature of the name is empty and does not abide within, without, or in between.” 〔X21n0384 0762c05〕; he only lets down a reflected image, and the nature of an image is likewise apart; and the offerings of incense and flowers have causes and conditions for their substance. And so the reason the eight matters can be dedicated to the dharma-realm is that what is dedicated does not, from the first, abide anywhere at all.

This is the Tiantai eye. The sūtra itself does not take this step; the sūtra walks as far as the three characters for dedicating to the dharma-realm, and stops.

As for why he reads the whole chapter as transmission, the line at the opening has already said it: seeing the image and hearing the name, there is none who does not obtain great benefit. And the sūtra itself, in this chapter, sets seeing and hearing between thirty-two lights and one bodhisattva who asks on behalf of others — first it lets a person see, then it lets a person hear, and only then does it say anything at all.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. The last three chapters he judges to be the section of transmission, and within it this chapter is set apart in a class of its own: 「上名別者，別在此經也。此名通者，經經囑累也」—“the name above is particular, particular to this sūtra; this name is general, for sūtra after sūtra has its entrustment.” 〔X21n0384 0762c19〕 — the transmission of the two chapters before is this sūtra’s own affair, whereas an entrustment is the ending every sūtra has; and yet 「既屬今經，雖通仍別矣」—“since it belongs to the present sūtra, though general it is still particular.” 〔X21n0384 0762c20〕 The way the chapter runs he divides in two: 「初、化主憂天人囑累；二、空藏問瞻禮福利」—“first, the lord of the transforming work, in his concern for humans and gods, makes the entrustment; second, Ākāśagarbha asks about the blessed benefit of gazing and bowing.” 〔X21n0384 0762c22〕; and the first of these divides again: 「初、世尊摩頂付囑；二、地藏互跪承旨」—“first, the World-Honored One touches the crown and entrusts; second, Kṣitigarbha kneels and receives the charge.” 〔X21n0384 0762c23〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

The Crown Touched Once Again

At the beginning of the chapter the sūtra writes only one gesture: 「爾時，世尊舉金色臂，又摩地藏菩薩摩訶薩頂」—“At that time the World-Honored One raised his golden arm and again touched the crown of the head of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.” 〔T13n0412 0789a25〕

What matters is that word “again.”

The whole sūtra writes the Buddha touching a crown only twice. The first was in the chapter on the assembly of the divided bodies: 「舒金色臂」—“he stretched out his golden arm.” 〔T13n0412 0779b11〕, and what he touched was the crowns of all the divided bodies of Kṣitigarbha in a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of measureless worlds. This time he raises his golden arm, and what he touches is only the one standing before him.

The reading handed down sets the two side by side: 「前摩頂，慰勞度生辛苦；今摩頂，囑累救拔勞煩」—“the earlier touch upon the crown consoles him for the toil of delivering beings; this touch upon the crown entrusts to him the labor of rescuing and drawing out.” 〔X21n0384 0763a11〕 — the first consoles a labor already performed, the second hands over what has not yet been done. And further: 「前一手摩無量頂，乃表一多自在；今一臂摩一頂，以表本同一道」—“the earlier one hand touching measureless crowns signifies sovereignty in the one and the many; this one arm touching one crown signifies that they are fundamentally one and the same way.” 〔X21n0384 0763a12〕, and therefore 「則顯六道九界，更無二道也」—“it shows that in the six destinies and the nine realms there is no second way at all.” 〔X21n0384 0763a13〕 As for the gesture of raising the arm itself, the commentator of old reads it as 「舉金色臂者，金色本黃，表乎中道」—“raising the golden arm: gold is at root yellow, and signifies the middle way.” 〔X21n0384 0763a09〕, while 「臂有提拔之功」—“an arm has the office of lifting and drawing up.” 〔X21n0384 0763a09〕, so that it is 「正顯提携六道，竝歸中道一性」—“precisely to show the leading of the six destinies by the hand, all returning to the one nature of the middle way.” 〔X21n0384 0763a10〕

These matchings may be consulted. But the sūtra text itself has certainly done one thing: it has performed a second time a gesture already performed. Having touched the divided bodies, he touches the body itself; having entrusted once, he entrusts again.

In the chapter of entrustment in the Lotus, the same gesture is performed three times over: 「以右手摩無量菩薩摩訶薩頂」—“with his right hand he touched the crowns of measureless bodhisattva-mahāsattvas.” 〔T09n0262 0052c04〕, 「如是三摩諸菩薩摩訶薩頂」—“thus three times he touched the crowns of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas.” 〔T09n0262 0052c08〕 There, three touches upon the crowns of a multitude of bodhisattvas; here, two touches upon the crown of one. Both are set side by side; no judgment of higher and lower is made.

Kṣitigarbha! Kṣitigarbha!

After the touch upon the crown the Buddha opens his mouth, and his first utterance is the name called twice over: 「地藏！地藏！」—“Kṣitigarbha! Kṣitigarbha!” 〔T13n0412 0789a26〕

Such a doubled calling occurs twice in the chapter. The first is followed by praise — spiritual power, kindness and compassion, wisdom, and eloquence, four things beyond conceiving; the second is followed by the entrusting — 「記吾今日在忉利天中」—“Remember what I say today, here in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” 〔T13n0412 0789b01〕

The reading handed down separates the tone of the two: 「前呼名，愛語喜聲也；今呼名，苦語悲聲也」—“the earlier calling of the name is a word of love, a glad sound; this calling of the name is a word of bitterness, a grieving sound.” 〔X21n0384 0763c14〕 The first is gladness, the second is bitterness. The same two characters, and the manner of saying them different.

For a doubled calling of this kind the commentator of old set down a very worldly comparison: 「如國大王將崩，儲君幼稚、頑劣，欲託孤大臣輔弼，必執手頻呼愛卿」—“as when a great king of a country is about to die and the heir is young and unruly, and he would entrust the orphan to a great minister for support, he must take him by the hand and call again and again upon his beloved lord.” 〔X21n0384 0763a20〕, because the child is small and the state is large, and the days are long and the hearts of men change easily, and 「中有滿腔說不盡之意」—“within it is a breastful of meaning that cannot be said out.” 〔X21n0384 0763a22〕 He also glosses the two characters for “remember what I say”: 「記吾等，囑令勿忘末後之說，如父遺命孝子銘骨勿諼也」—“remember me and the rest: it charges him not to forget these last words, as a father leaves his dying command to a filial son to be graven upon the bone and never let slip.” 〔X21n0384 0763c15〕

A sūtra with filial piety written into its very bones, and the posture the Buddha takes as it closes is precisely that of a father setting his affairs in order.

Four Things beyond Conceiving

The praise has only four items: spiritual power, kindness and compassion, wisdom, and eloquence.

Take the first. The two characters for “spiritual power” were of old trained apart — 「諸聖罔測名為神，八自在我名為力」—“what the sages cannot fathom is called spiritual; the self of the eight sovereignties is called power.” 〔X21n0384 0763b02〕 Spiritual is what even the sages cannot measure; power is the power of the self of the eight sovereignties. So spiritual power is not “a very great strength”; it is a working that cannot be measured and is at the same time sovereign.

To each of the four items “beyond conceiving” is fastened. These four characters are not an adjective either. Of old a treatise was cited to give a list of them: 「準大論，有五事不可思議」—“Following the Great Treatise, there are five matters beyond conceiving.” 〔X21n0384 0763b03〕, 「謂眾生多少、業果報、坐禪人力、諸龍力、諸佛力」—“namely, the number of beings; the fruit and recompense of deeds; the power of those who sit in meditation; the power of the nāgas; the power of the buddhas.” 〔X21n0384 0763b04〕, and 「佛力最不可思議」—“the power of the buddhas is the most beyond conceiving of all.” 〔X21n0384 0763b05〕 How many beings there are, how the recompense of deeds is knotted, how great is the strength of one who cultivates concentration, how great the strength of the nāgas, how great the strength of the buddhas — these five cannot be reached by thought.

So “beyond conceiving” is a judgment with a list behind it, not a compliment. To judge these four items of virtue into that class is to say: they are not within the range of what can be reckoned. The four clauses that open the chapter each end upon these four characters; and what is judged is that they cannot be measured, not that they sound well.

The reading handed down gathers the four items into three places: 「不越能化三輪」—“they do not go beyond the three wheels of the one who transforms.” 〔X21n0384 0763b02〕 — 「初句，讚身輪現通」—“the first clause praises the wheel of the body manifesting penetration.” 〔X21n0384 0763b02〕; kindness and compassion belong to the wheel of mind, 「意輪即是慈悲與拔」—“the wheel of mind is just kindness and compassion, the giving and the drawing out.” 〔X21n0384 0763b08〕, and 「若欲與拔，必須現通。故曰身輪由意」—“if one would give and draw out, one must manifest penetration. Hence it is said that the wheel of the body comes from the mind.” 〔X21n0384 0763b09〕; while wisdom and eloquence go to the wheel of speech, 「知慧辯正讚口輪」—“wisdom and eloquence precisely praise the wheel of speech.” 〔X21n0384 0763b12〕 So the four items are not four things ranged side by side; they are the unfolding of three places, body, mind, and speech: first the manifesting, which comes of discerning the capacity; and having manifested, the speaking.

After the praise, the sūtra sets a limit of its own: 「正使十方諸佛，讚歎宣說汝之不思議事，千萬劫中，不能得盡」—“Even were the buddhas of the ten directions to praise and proclaim these inconceivable matters of yours, through a thousand myriad kalpas they could not reach the end of it.” 〔T13n0412 0789a28〕

It is not that one buddha cannot exhaust the telling; the buddhas of the ten directions all telling together cannot exhaust it. This sentence is the same device as 「吾以佛眼觀故，猶不盡數」—“because I look with the buddha-eye, the count of them is still not exhausted.” 〔T13n0412 0778a19〕 in the introductory section — push a number until it cannot be counted out, and then give no total.

Those Who Are Inside the Burning House

What is entrusted is set down very concretely: 「再以人天諸眾生等，未出三界，在火宅中者，付囑於汝」—“Once again I entrust to you the beings of every kind among humans and gods who have not yet gone forth from the three realms and are within the burning house.” 〔T13n0412 0789b03〕

The two characters for the burning house come from the Lotus: 「三界無安，猶如火宅」—“the three realms have no peace; they are like a burning house.” 〔T09n0262 0014c22〕 What is entrusted is not those who have already come out; it is those who have not yet come out.

The commentator of old stops here expressly to say that this passage is not the same as the elder’s handing over of his estate in the Lotus: 「此與法華，長者付業，聚會親族不同」—“this differs from the Lotus, where the elder hands over his estate and gathers his kin together.” 〔X21n0384 0763c17〕 His reasons are laid out plainly: there, 「彼教久化之機，至此大功克就，聚眾付業，推門落臼，更有何難」—“there, the capacities long ripened by the teaching have by this point brought the great work to completion; gathering the multitude and handing over the estate is like pushing a door onto its socket — what difficulty is left in it?” 〔X21n0384 0763c18〕; here, 「此付未調之眾，為令佛種不斷，似救子於水火，竟不知如何了局」—“this entrusts a multitude not yet tamed, so that the buddha-seed may not be cut off; it is like rescuing a child from flood and fire, and in the end one does not know how it will be settled.” 〔X21n0384 0763c19〕

On the one side the estate is already made and the household gathered to be told of it; on the other the fire is still burning and the child is still inside, and the one who does the telling does not himself know how it will end.

And so the line the Buddha adds next carries its weight: 「無令是諸眾生，墮惡趣中一日一夜」—“Do not let these beings fall into an evil destiny for so much as one day and one night.” 〔T13n0412 0789b04〕 It is not that falling is forbidden; not even one day and one night is allowed.

And the reason the sūtra states for itself: the beings of southern Jambudvīpa are 「志性無定，習惡者多」—“unsettled in aim and in nature, and many of them are habituated to evil.” 〔T13n0412 0789b07〕; even if a good mind is aroused, in a moment it falls away, and if an evil condition is met, it grows thought by thought. Therefore the Buddha divides his form into a hundred thousand koṭis to deliver them. The reading handed down writes both ends of it concretely here: 「但善類登山，理為難上；惡如崩墜，實可易行」—“goodness is a climbing of mountains, and by rights hard to go up; evil is a landslide, and truly easy to travel.” 〔X21n0384 0764a15〕, and therefore 「是以天宮間曠，來蹤葢寡；地獄籠樊，往人爭湊」—“and so the heavenly palaces stand empty and idle, and few are the tracks of those who come; while the cage of the hells is thronged, and those who go there crowd one another to get in.” 〔X21n0384 0764a16〕

One Hair, One Mote, One Grain of Sand, One Drop

In the second passage of entrusting, the Buddha presses the threshold to its lowest.

Those entrusted are the people who 「於佛法中，種少善根，一毛一塵，一沙一渧」—“within the Buddha’s Dharma have planted a little root of goodness: one hair, one mote, one grain of sand, one drop.” 〔T13n0412 0789b11〕 All four figures are things as small as small can be — so small that we may not remember having done them ourselves. And the thing to be done is to guard this person and let him cultivate step by step toward the unsurpassed, and not let him fall away — not to deliver him to accomplishment, but to keep him from falling.

The two characters for earnestness the commentator of old read with much feeling: 「然觀殷勤二字，不覺泣數行下」—“yet looking at the two characters for earnestness, one lets fall several lines of tears without knowing it.” 〔X21n0384 0764a23〕; because 「今我佛為未來眾生，降尊就卑，屈上湊下」—“here our Buddha, for the sake of beings to come, lowers his honor and takes the humble place, bends from above and draws near to what is below.” 〔X21n0384 0764b02〕

And why the Buddha can entrust at all lies in the line that immediately follows; the sense of the entrusting was fastened of old to the buddha-nature — 「一切眾生，同有佛性，闡提雖惡，性善具存」—“all beings alike have the buddha-nature; and though an icchantika is evil, the goodness of his nature is wholly present.” 〔X21n0384 0764b04〕 An icchantika is one whose roots of goodness are cut off; the roots of goodness are cut, and the goodness of the nature is still there.

This line matters. Without it, the Buddha’s entrusting of beings to Kṣitigarbha is a stretch of compassion; with it, it is the disposing of a fact — what is entrusted is not a hope, but that thing in every person which has not been spoiled. That a little root of goodness, one hair and one mote, can be planted at all is precisely because there was already something in the ground.

That a small goodness is not to be slighted was also given scriptural witness of old: 「如菩薩本行經云：若有人，能於佛法，少作微善，如毛髮許」—“as the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva’s Original Conduct says: if a person is able within the Buddha’s Dharma to do a slight good, as small as a hair.” 〔X21n0384 0764b08〕, 「所生之處，受報弘大，無有窮盡」—“in whatever place he is born, the recompense he receives is vast and great, and has no end.” 〔X21n0384 0764b09〕 The low threshold is not a word of consolation; it has a ground.

The note puts what the Buddha entrusts into the form of a charge: 「今願地藏，當如慈母之育嬰孩，必使成立，毋稍懈怠，致令夭亡」—“now I would that Kṣitigarbha be as a loving mother rearing an infant, who must bring it to stand on its own and may not slacken in the least and let it die young.” 〔X21n0384 0764b15〕 And he borrows an old simile to show why a single falling back is no small matter — 「盲龜浮木孔，時時猶可值；人一失命根，億劫復難是」—“the blind turtle and the hole in the floating log may still be met with now and then; but once a person loses the root of life, through koṭis of kalpas it is harder than that to meet again.” 〔X21n0384 0764b12〕; and so 「故知一退其失非細」—“hence we know that in one falling back the loss is not a small one.” 〔X21n0384 0764b14〕

And the smallness of the root of goodness planted he does not take for smallness either: 「故知施福由心，豈關施物巨細」—“hence we know that the blessing of giving comes from the mind; what has it to do with whether the thing given is great or small?” 〔X21n0384 0764b10〕

Come as Far as the Door

The third passage is the most urgent in the chapter.

The situation the sūtra writes is this: according to the recompense of his deeds a person has already fallen into an evil destiny, 「臨墮趣中，或至門首」—“on the point of falling into the destiny, or already come as far as the door.” 〔T13n0412 0789b14〕 He is at the door.

Why has he walked as far as the door? The sūtra gives only eight characters: 「隨業報應，落在惡趣」—“according to the recompense of his deeds, he falls into an evil destiny.” 〔T13n0412 0789b14〕 Of old a verse was cited here as a note: 「假使百千劫，所作業不亡，因緣會遇時，果報還自受」—“Though a hundred thousand kalpas pass, the deeds one has done are not lost; when causes and conditions come together, one undergoes the fruit oneself.” 〔X21n0384 0764b20〕, and it is judged 「故知影形相隨，誰能逃避」—“hence we know that shadow follows form; who can escape it?” 〔X21n0384 0764b21〕

Deeds do not expire. This verse standing here is not a threat; it joins the “do not let him fall away” of the passage above to the arriving at the door of this one: the door will come sooner or later, and therefore the guarding must be early.

At that moment only one thing is left that can be done: to be able to recite the name of one buddha, the name of one bodhisattva, one line or one verse of a sūtra of the Great Vehicle.

Why one line or one verse can outweigh a whole hell was given scriptural witness of old: 「一句一偈者，普賢觀經云」—“as for one line or one verse, the Sūtra of the Contemplation of Samantabhadra says.” 〔X21n0384 0764c21〕, 「若誦大乘經，思第一義，甚深空法，於一彈指頃」—“if one recites a sūtra of the Great Vehicle and thinks upon ultimate truth, the profound dharma of emptiness, then in the space of a finger-snap.” 〔X21n0384 0764c21〕 one removes the sins of birth and death of a million koṭis of nayutas of Ganges-sands of kalpas. What matters are the three characters in the middle — thinking upon ultimate truth. What is recited is a line; what is thought is the meaning; and that a finger-snap can remove so much lies not in the length of the sentence but in what is being thought.

And what Kṣitigarbha is to do is 「現無邊身，為碎地獄，遣令生天，受勝妙樂」—“manifest a boundless body, break the hells to pieces for him, and send him to be born in the heavens and receive surpassing and wondrous pleasure.” 〔T13n0412 0789b17〕

The reading handed down explains why the moment is set so tight: 「臨墮至門首者，若一到獄，急難得出，故於臨入之時，即令念佛免苦」—“as for being on the point of falling and coming to the door: once one has arrived in the hells it is urgent and hard to get out, and so at the moment of entering he is made at once to recollect the Buddha and escape the suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0764c07〕 Once inside it is hard to come out, and so it must be caught in the instant before entering.

This passage is the same gate as the chapter on reciting the names of the buddhas, only set later. In that chapter the one who recites is the family standing beside; in this chapter the one who recites is oneself, and one is already at the door. For this the commentator of old raises an old affair: a king killed his father and set himself up, and when his life ended he fell into Avīci; and because he had been taught in life to call the names of buddhas, he still remembered on entering the hells and called upon a buddha in a loud voice, whereupon 「獄中罪人，聞稱佛聲，一時同稱，猛火即滅，皆得解脫，出生人中」—“the guilty ones in the hells, hearing the sound of the buddha’s name being called, all called it together at once; the fierce fire went out at once, and all of them were set free and were born among humans.” 〔X21n0384 0764c13〕; and he raises another affair, of escaping the hells by reciting a verse, 「聲徹地獄，罪人聞聲竝蒙解脫」—“the sound reached through the hells, and the guilty ones who heard it were all set free.” 〔X21n0384 0765a02〕 He therefore judges: 「故知念佛菩薩名，及誦經偈，皆得超淪，受勝妙之樂也」—“hence we know that reciting the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and reciting the verses of a sūtra, all bring one up out of the depths to receive surpassing and wondrous pleasure.” 〔X21n0384 0765a04〕

A sound made by one person at the door saves more than himself. This is the same structure as the introductory section, where the brahmin woman sold her house and raised an offering and the guilty ones of Avīci were released together on that same day. And that door is one we all come to sooner or later.

Kṣitigarbha Answers with a Single Line

Prose and verse both finished, Kṣitigarbha at last opens his mouth. His first words are: 「唯願世尊，不以為慮」—“I pray only that the World-Honored One will not make this his care.” 〔T13n0412 0789b23〕

Do not let it weigh on your mind.

Then he reports his own threshold, one notch lower than what the Buddha entrusted: what the Buddha entrusted was those who plant a little root of goodness, and what Kṣitigarbha answers with is those who 「於佛法中，一念恭敬」—“within the Buddha’s Dharma give rise to one thought of reverence.” 〔T13n0412 0789b24〕 One thought. The reading handed down notes here: 「現前介爾之心，甚小甚微，故曰一念」—“the least stirring of the present mind is very small and very slight, and so it is called one thought.” 〔X21n0384 0765a17〕, and fastens to it 「故知千念萬念，始乎初念」—“hence we know that a thousand thoughts and ten thousand thoughts begin from the first thought.” 〔X21n0384 0765a21〕 With the threshold as low as this, we can stand upon it at any moment.

And having answered, Kṣitigarbha turns it up a layer himself: 「何況聞諸善事，念念修行」—“how much more one who hears of every kind of good matter and cultivates it thought after thought?” 〔T13n0412 0789b25〕 This way of turning with “how much more” is the same gesture as the closing line of the chapter on reciting the names of the buddhas.

With this the matter of the entrusting is complete. In the whole exchange Kṣitigarbha says only these few sentences, and the Buddha has spoken a whole chapter.

The Last One to Ask

The next to come forward is the Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha.

The commentator of old points out here the head and the tail of the whole sūtra: 「此經始文殊發問，謂非大智，莫識地藏端倪」—“this sūtra begins with Mañjuśrī raising a question, meaning that without great wisdom one cannot make out the least trace of Kṣitigarbha.” 〔X21n0384 0765b13〕, and 「終空藏收科，以非太虗，安泯大士化跡」—“it ends with Ākāśagarbha binding up the outline, for were it not the vast void, how could the traces of the great being’s transforming be effaced?” 〔X21n0384 0765b14〕 The opening is Mañjuśrī asking about Kṣitigarbha’s causal ground; the close is Ākāśagarbha asking about the blessed benefit of seeing and hearing. A sūtra that rises with great wisdom and closes with the vast void.

And this head and tail are not merely handsome. Of old they were read further as an argument of the three truths. To bind up the outline with Ākāśagarbha is 「乃攝有歸空，全假即空意也」—“to gather existence back into emptiness: the sense that the whole of the provisional is emptiness.” 〔X21n0384 0765b15〕 — gathering all the many existents the sūtra has spoken of back into emptiness; while what Ākāśagarbha asks about is precisely blessed benefit, and 「而空藏問福利者，乃从空談有，全空即假意也」—“that Ākāśagarbha asks about blessed benefit is to speak of existence from within emptiness: the sense that the whole of emptiness is the provisional.” 〔X21n0384 0765b15〕 — speaking existence out again from within emptiness. Only after the one gathering and the one releasing comes the judgment: 「空假不二，當體即中」—“emptiness and the provisional are not two; in their very substance they are the middle.” 〔X21n0384 0765b16〕, 「圓融妙行，同歸秘藏」—“the perfectly fused and wondrous practice returns alike to the secret store.” 〔X21n0384 0765b17〕, 「故終乎虗空藏也」—“and so it ends with Ākāśagarbha.” 〔X21n0384 0765b17〕

So this last one to ask is himself the ending, in his very name: empty space is emptiness, and store is existence. A sūtra that began by speaking of the earth closes upon a bodhisattva whose name holds emptiness and existence at once. And the two lists of benefits the sūtra is about to speak are exactly that existence which is spoken “from within emptiness” — not a retreat into existence, but an existence spoken after emptiness has been passed through.

There is here a matter from a sūtra of the same honored one that may be set beside it. The last chapter of the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra is also called an entrustment — 「獲益囑累品」—“The Chapter on Obtaining Benefit, and on Entrustment.” 〔T13n0411 0776b15〕; and the one entrusted in that chapter is precisely Ākāśagarbha: 「爾時，世尊告虛空藏菩薩摩訶薩言」—“At that time the World-Honored One said to the Bodhisattva-mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha.” 〔T13n0411 0776c16〕, 「吾今持此地藏十輪大記法門」—“I now take this Dharma-gate of the great record of the ten wheels of Kṣitigarbha.” 〔T13n0411 0776c17〕, 「付囑汝手，汝當受持，廣令流布」—“and entrust it into your hands; you are to receive and uphold it and cause it to circulate widely.” 〔T13n0411 0776c17〕

One sūtra entrusts beings to Kṣitigarbha, and Ākāśagarbha asks the last question; the other sūtra entrusts to Ākāśagarbha the Dharma-gate that speaks of Kṣitigarbha. The two sūtras share one honored one and both name their last chapter an entrustment, and the persons entrusted change places. Set side by side and so recorded; no judgment of better and worse is made.

Before the Lists Are Opened, a Railing Is Set Up

What Ākāśagarbha asks is a thoroughly practical question: 「得幾種福利」—“how many kinds of blessed benefit can be gained?” 〔T13n0412 0789c02〕 Once that question is out, the sūtra is about to open two long lists. And of old, before the lists were set out, a railing was put up first.

The railing is three sentences: first it sets up, then it breaks down, then it says why it is still to be spoken.

Setting up: 「須知福利由心，心能造福」—“know that blessed benefit comes from the mind, and the mind can make blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0765c17〕 — blessings do not drop from outside; they are made by the mind. Breaking down: 「心尚叵得，福利奚存」—“and the mind itself cannot be got hold of, so where does blessed benefit subsist?” 〔X21n0384 0765c17〕 — even that mind which can make blessings cannot be got hold of, so where does blessed benefit exist? By this point the two lists have in fact already been half dismantled.

And then the third sentence, saying why it is still to be spoken: 「然化門引物悕向，福利為要」—“yet in the gate of transforming, to draw beings on and give them something to hope toward, blessed benefit is the essential thing.” 〔X21n0384 0765c18〕 The gate of transforming is the gate of teaching, and drawing beings on is the receiving of them; and if a person is to be willing to walk forward, he must first have something to look toward, and the readiest thing to look toward is blessed benefit. Ākāśagarbha’s asking for a brief account is on the same ground — 「必求略說者，導物生善之要門也」—“that he must ask for a brief account is the essential gate for guiding beings to produce goodness.” 〔X21n0384 0765c22〕 Not to speak the blessed benefits out would be, on the contrary, to block the gate of goodness.

Of old a line was drawn here as well: to seek blessings is not, in every case, the same thing. 「至若嚴禱祀以徼福鬼神，隨因果而悕報冥寞，此利心之邪求，詎可同年而語哉」—“As for setting up prayers and sacrifices to importune ghosts and spirits for blessings, or following after cause and effect in the hope of a recompense out of the dark and silent — that is the wrong seeking of a profit-minded heart. How could the two be spoken of in the same breath?” 〔X21n0384 0765c24〕 To set up sacrifices and buy a blessing from ghosts and spirits is the wrong seeking of a profit-minded heart, and cannot be spoken of together with the blessed benefit meant here. The dividing line is not whether one seeks, but where the seeking heart is going.

When the Buddha consents to speak, the sūtra writes 「諦聽！諦聽」—“Listen closely! Listen closely.” 〔T13n0412 0789c04〕 Of old even these two characters were turned over a layer: 「夫善說法者，無說無示；善聽法者，無得無聞」—“one who is good at speaking the Dharma has nothing spoken and nothing shown; one who is good at hearing the Dharma has nothing gained and nothing heard.” 〔X21n0384 0766a04〕

These few sentences laid one on another are the posture in which the two lists below are to be read: blessed benefit comes from the mind, the mind cannot be got hold of, and yet it is still to be spoken; and the one who speaks and the one who hears do not come to rest in the speaking and the hearing. The twenty-eight items and the seven are recited within that posture. The railing is set up first, and only then can the list avoid becoming a list of wishes.

Twenty-Eight and Seven

The Buddha answers with two lists.

The first has twenty-eight items, and the practice they answer to is seeing the image, hearing this sūtra, and even reading and reciting it, together with the giving and offering of incense and flowers and food and drink and garments and precious things, and praising and gazing and bowing. The second has seven items, and the practice they answer to is only hearing the name, bowing to the form, hearing of the affairs and the practice of his original vows, and praising and gazing — with no offering.

The two lists have a further difference, earlier than the difference of practice: the persons reached are not the same. The first is addressed to 「有善男子、善女人，見地藏形像」—“a good man or a good woman who sees the image of Kṣitigarbha.” 〔T13n0412 0789c05〕, that is, to human beings; the second changes — 「若現在未來，天龍鬼神，聞地藏名」—“if devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits, present or to come, hear the name of Kṣitigarbha.” 〔T13n0412 0789c19〕, and those who receive it are devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits.

The sūtra here divides two capacities of its own accord, the one human and the other not human. This division must be seen first, or the second list cannot be read through.

Why must the two lists be set out separately? The reading handed down poses the question for itself: 「此中修因，與上似同，何故列作二文」—“the cause cultivated here seems the same as the one above; why then is it set out as two texts?” 〔X21n0384 0767b08〕; and the answer is: 「須知上加種種供養，緣了兼修。此但聞禮讚歎，了因獨進，以此小異，故別列之」—“know that above there are added every kind of offering, so that the conditioning cause and the revealing cause are cultivated together; here there is only hearing, bowing, and praising, so that the revealing cause alone advances. By this small difference they are listed apart.” 〔X21n0384 0767b08〕, and it comes back to a single line: 「正顯聞益尚爾，況思修兼行乎」—“this precisely shows that the benefit of hearing is already such — how much more when thinking and cultivating are practiced together?” 〔X21n0384 0767b10〕

The lists themselves are worth reading slowly, because they are not even. Among the twenty-eight are very worldly matters — clothing and food in plenty, sickness and plague that do not come near, no calamity from thieves, ease in the dreams of the night, a household glad together; and also very unworldly ones — the gathering of the superior causes of sagehood, the road of deeds removed forever, becoming a buddha at the last. It lists very nearly everything a person will fear in a lifetime: illness, flood and fire, thieves, sudden misfortune, bad dreams, and where the dead have gone. And among the seven there is not one worldly matter; every one of them is on the path: swiftly surpassing into the ground of the sages, evil deeds dissolved away, the buddhas guarding and looking down, the original power increased, former destinies wholly penetrated — not because the second list is finer than the first, but because the capacity that hears it does not stand in the human world of clothing and food and sickness and pain in the first place. Clothing and food in plenty is no benefit to speak of to a deva or a nāga.

Four Cuts within the Twenty-Eight

The first list is not a flat roster of names either. The reading handed down cuts it four times.

The first item is the root. 「初句總標，下乃別列」—“the first clause states it in general; below, it is listed item by item.” 〔X21n0384 0766b02〕, and why devas and nāgas guarding and keeping in mind should stand first the note says plainly: 「天龍乃造化之權衡，為陰陽之管轄」—“devas and nāgas are the steelyard of creation and the governance of yin and yang.” 〔X21n0384 0766b02〕; reading the sūtra, holding the name, gazing, bowing, and making offerings stir the guarding and mindfulness of devas and nāgas, and by this the fruits of goodness and the causes of sagehood grow, 「故首舉之，示福利之本也」—“and so it is raised first, to show the root of blessed benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0766b05〕 The guarding is the root, and the other twenty-seven grow upon it.

The second part is items two, three, and four read together: 「二、三、四三益，事迹相連」—“the second, third, and fourth benefits are linked in their traces.” 〔X21n0384 0766b06〕, 「果由因而增進，因藉果而積集」—“the fruit advances by the cause, and the cause accumulates by the fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0766b06〕, 「因果相資，自然菩提不退」—“cause and fruit assisting each other, one naturally does not fall back from awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0766b07〕 The fruits of goodness increasing daily, the superior causes of sagehood gathered, not falling back from awakening — these three are three stages of one road, not three things ranged side by side.

The third part runs all the way to the twenty-second item. The note makes a cut here: 「已上，皆自身福利」—“all of the above is blessed benefit to one’s own person.” 〔X21n0384 0767a09〕 From clothing and food in plenty to ease in the dreams of the night, this whole stretch speaks of what happens upon oneself.

The fourth part begins from the twenty-third. Of the item on the dead who went before being parted from suffering: 「乃上資祖禰也。下明當來福利」—“this is to assist upward the forefathers; below, the blessed benefit of what is to come is made clear.” 〔X21n0384 0767a10〕 — assisting upward those who went before; and what is spoken of after this item is the blessed benefit of what is to come.

The four parts together make one order: first the root of guarding is set up, next what one receives oneself, then reaching up to the dead who went before, and last reaching to what is to come. Without these four cuts, the twenty-eight items are a list; with them, they are a road — from having someone to guard you, to getting through your own life, to being able to turn and look after those who went before, to having a say in what comes after. In a sūtra whose bone is filial piety, the placing of “assisting upward the forefathers” after the benefit to one’s own person and before the benefit of what is to come is not a casual arrangement either.

The least benefit-like item among the twenty-eight is the twenty-seventh: rich in a mind of kindness and pity. How is having a little more kindness and pity a good thing gained by me? An answer was given of old: 「以慈有五利」—“because kindness has five gains.” 〔X21n0384 0767a22〕 — 「刀不傷，毒不害，火不燒，水不沒，瞋惡見喜」—“the blade does not wound, poison does not harm, fire does not burn, water does not drown, and the angry and the evil are glad at the sight of him.” 〔X21n0384 0767a22〕 Kindness is a thing that guards the body. And at the same time it is 「此利生之要行」—“the essential practice for benefiting beings.” 〔X21n0384 0767a21〕 One item holding both ends: toward oneself a guarding, toward others a practice.

Two of the items appear in both lists. Not falling back from awakening is the fourth among the twenty-eight and the fourth among the seven as well. And the last item is exactly the same in both — becoming a buddha at the last.

The commentator of old weighs this heavily, saying of the last of the twenty-eight that 「此是究竟利益」—“this is the ultimate benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0767a24〕, and setting it out with two similes: 「滙江河淮濟而注之海，同成鹹味；鎔瓶盤釵釧而入於爐，盡作精金」—“gather the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Huai, and the Ji and pour them into the sea, and they become one salt taste alike; melt down flask and dish and hairpin and bracelet into the furnace, and they all become pure gold.” 〔X21n0384 0767b01〕 Rivers differ, and entering the sea they are equally salt; vessels differ, and entering the furnace they are equally gold. And then he fastens the matter back to the business of this chapter: 「此我佛付囑之心，地藏承命之意」—“this is the heart with which our Buddha entrusts, and the intent with which Kṣitigarbha receives the charge.” 〔X21n0384 0767b02〕, 「所謂唯此一事實，餘二則非真。故兩文皆以此終焉」—“as it is said: only this one matter is real, and the other two are not true. Therefore both texts end with this.” 〔X21n0384 0767b03〕

The twenty-eight and the seven alike come at the last to rest in the same place. The twenty-seven before and the six before are matters on the road.

Nothing Is Said about All Rejoicing Greatly

The last two sentences of the sūtra are written with the greatest economy.

The buddhas and tathāgatas of the ten directions, the great bodhisattvas, and the eightfold host of devas and nāgas, having heard Śākyamuni extol and praise Kṣitigarbha, 「歎未曾有」—“marvelled at what had never been before.” 〔T13n0412 0789c27〕; the Heaven of the Thirty-Three rained down incense and flowers, heavenly garments and pearl necklaces, in offering to Śākyamuni and to Kṣitigarbha. And then comes the last sentence of the whole sūtra: 「一切眾會，俱復瞻禮，合掌而退」—“The whole assembly gazed upon them and bowed once again, joined their palms, and withdrew.” 〔T13n0412 0789c29〕

This sentence has only twelve characters, and of old every one of them was given substance. 「一切眾會，即前所集之眾，今將各還本住」—“the whole assembly is the multitude gathered before, who are now about to return each to his own dwelling.” 〔X21n0384 0768a17〕 — it is that great multitude of the introductory section, called by name from the Heaven of the Four Great Kings to the Heaven of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception and on to the ghost kings who devour blood and vital essence, now each going back to his own place. “Gazed upon them and bowed once again” he takes apart into gazing and bowing, two layers: 「俱復瞻仰，重師道而戀戀靡忘」—“all gazing up again: they honor the way of the teacher and cling to it and do not forget.” 〔X21n0384 0768a18〕 is the gazing, and 「尊經法而心心無間」—“they revere the Dharma of the sūtra, and thought after thought without interval.” 〔X21n0384 0768a18〕 is the bowing — what is gazed upon is the one who speaks the Dharma, what is bowed to is the Dharma spoken.

And in the last four characters, what was read out of old is not a breaking-up of the assembly: 「合掌，表十界一體。而退，顯萬類同歸」—“the joining of palms signifies that the ten realms are one body; the withdrawing shows that the myriad kinds return alike.” 〔X21n0384 0768a19〕 The joining of palms is two hands brought together, and what it signifies is that the ten realms are one body; the withdrawing is each returning to his own dwelling, and what it signifies is that the myriad kinds return alike.

They scatter and do not scatter. The heavenly garments rained down in the sentence before have something signified as well — 「天衣從樹而生，輕細自然，表證寂滅之忍」—“the heavenly garments grow from trees, light and fine and unforced; they signify the realizing of the forbearance of quiescent extinction.” 〔X21n0384 0768a05〕 Heavenly garments falling, the multitude joining palms, each withdrawing: three gestures in succession, and what was read out of those three gestures of old is the forbearance of quiescent extinction, the ten realms as one body, the myriad kinds returning alike. A sūtra that opened in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three and wrote its way through the hells closes upon a last scene of the utmost stillness, and in the stillness there is not one part that is empty.

And only then comes the thing that was not written.

There is no “all rejoiced greatly, and received it in faith and put it into practice.”

The commentator of old noticed this, and wrote a passage expressly for it. He first marks it out: 「然而不同諸經結皆大歡喜者」—“yet it differs from the sūtras that close with all rejoicing greatly.” 〔X21n0384 0768a20〕, and then explains why the multitude are not written as rejoicing — 「以見在會大眾，从此重增勝心，效地藏之僧那，救三塗而不了」—“because the great multitude present in the assembly from this point redouble their surpassing resolve, imitating Kṣitigarbha’s armor of vows, rescuing from the three evil paths without ever having done.” 〔X21n0384 0768a20〕, 「遵迦文之囑累，弘是典而彌窮」—“following Śākyamuni’s entrustment, spreading this canonical text further and further without end.” 〔X21n0384 0768a21〕; because there is another half to what they feel at this moment: 「上同聖母之愁憂，却類天王之悲歎」—“above, they share the sorrow of the holy mother; and they are like the heavenly king in his grieving lament.” 〔X21n0384 0768a22〕 And so he says: 「則聞法之大喜，固內蘊襟懷，而濟世之殷憂，已外彰眉宇」—“then the great joy of having heard the Dharma is indeed stored within the breast, while the earnest sorrow of saving the world already shows outwardly between the brows.” 〔X21n0384 0768a23〕 — the joy inside, the sorrow on the face. At the last he supplies a line for the compiler: 「經家不敘斯語者，意見乎言之表也」—“that the compiler of the sūtra does not set down these words is because the meaning appears beyond the words.” 〔X21n0384 0768a24〕

This is a judgment of old, transmitted as it stands, without mediating in its stead. And what the sūtra itself has left is only that blank where nothing was written.

Transmission — The Closing of a Classic of Filial Piety

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the distinction of general and particular in the entrustment, the division of the chapter’s text into two, the pairing of the two touches upon the crown and the two callings of the name, the matching of the three wheels of the one who transforms, the difference from the elder’s handing over of his estate in the Lotus, the reason the twenty-eight and the seven are listed apart, and the explanation of the closing that does not say all rejoiced greatly.

When he glosses this chapter, the collateral evidence he brings in is unusually miscellaneous. On beings being unsettled in aim and nature he cites the Sūtra of the Store of the Transmission of the Dharma; on how hard a human body is to regain once lost he cites the blind turtle and the floating log of the Sūtra of Dwelling in the Womb; on a small goodness not to be slighted he cites the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva’s Original Conduct; on reciting a buddha’s name on the point of falling he cites the parricide king of the Sūtra of Similes and the escape from the hells by reciting a verse in the Records of Responses from the Dark World; on one thought of reverence he cites the Sūtra of the Four Self-Injuries Spoken by the Buddha. By the time he reaches the passage of the twenty-eight benefits he hangs a book upon nearly every item: devas and nāgas guarding and keeping in mind upon the Daśacakra, clothing and food in plenty upon the Daśacakra, sickness and plague not coming near upon the Dīrgha Āgama and the Daśacakra; for parting from the calamities of water and fire he even pulls in the Zuo Commentary and the Shuowen to distinguish fire made by men from fire sent from heaven; and for quickness of hearing and sight and keenness of faculty he cites Xunzi: 「目不兩視而明，耳不兩聽而聰」—“the eye does not look at two things and see clearly; the ear does not listen to two things and hear sharply.” 〔X21n0384 0767a18〕 Of the twenty-eight items there is only one over which he makes no sound at all — the fifteenth, “or he becomes an emperor or a king”: the items before and after it both have notes, and this one alone he passes straight over.

For the seven benefits he changes to another measure: 「前後之益，俱約圓論」—“the benefits before and after are both discussed in terms of the perfect teaching.” 〔X21n0384 0767b15〕 Swiftly surpassing into the ground of the sages he reads as 「一、速超聖地，即指圓十地之聖種性」—“first, swiftly surpassing into the ground of the sages: this points to the holy lineage-nature of the ten grounds of the perfect teaching.” 〔X21n0384 0767b15〕, because 「以圓人根利智猛，故於住行向位，速得超入聖地也」—“since a person of the perfect teaching is keen of faculty and fierce of wisdom, he swiftly surpasses into the ground of the sages from the stations of abiding, practice, and dedication.” 〔X21n0384 0767b16〕 Evil deeds dissolved away he reads not merely as the extinguishing of evil deeds but as 「故知雖舉惡業，自得三障圓銷」—“hence we know that though only evil deeds are raised, the three obstructions are of themselves perfectly dissolved.” 〔X21n0384 0767b20〕 The word for “looking down” in the buddhas guarding and looking down he trains expressly: 「臨，蒞下也」—“to look down is to come upon what is below.” 〔X21n0384 0767b22〕, and fastens to it a very handsome comparison — 「今諸佛臨下，正如月之臨江，固不庸心於其間也」—“now the buddhas looking down are just as the moon looks down upon a river: they certainly do not exert the mind in the matter.” 〔X21n0384 0767b24〕: the moon shines upon the river and does not go out of its way to shine. The increase of the original power he reads as 「即修因外熏，增真如本力」—“it is that the cultivation of the cause perfumes from without and increases the original power of suchness.” 〔X21n0384 0767c02〕 And at becoming a buddha at the last, he gathers it into the two things of blessing and wisdom: 「今修讀經持名之智，及瞻形禮像之福，故致成佛」—“here one cultivates the wisdom of reading the sūtra and holding the name, and the blessing of gazing at the form and bowing to the image, and so arrives at buddhahood.” 〔X21n0384 0767c11〕, and then writes: 「此名因攝果，攝自他之利益也。別流通竟」—“this is called the cause taking in the fruit, taking in the benefit of self and of others. The particular transmission is complete.” 〔X21n0384 0767c12〕

Where this eye came from was already seen at the head of the fascicles: it reads this sūtra of original vows with a Tiantai eye. And his six-fascicle commentary lays down the brush at the end of this very chapter: 「地藏菩薩本願經卷下科注卷之六〔終〕」—“The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Lower Fascicle; Outline and Commentary, Fascicle Six 〔the end〕.” 〔X21n0384 0768b03〕 The colophon appended after it speaks already of the affairs of Mount Jiuhua — the prince of Silla who came across the sea, the layman Min who gave the land, and his son who left the household life as Daoming; and after that come three verses in praise of the sūtra, the last of which reads 「囑累人天，世世廣流傳」—“the entrustment to humans and gods: age after age, may it be spread widely abroad.” 〔X21n0384 0768c05〕 The commentary stops here, and the mountain gazetteer and the liturgies take over from this point on.

And the sūtra’s own closing is shorter than anyone’s. The buddhas of the ten directions marvel at what has never been before, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three rains down incense and flowers, heavenly garments and pearl necklaces, and then the whole assembly 「俱復瞻禮，合掌而退」—“gazed upon them and bowed once again, joined their palms, and withdrew.” 〔T13n0412 0789c29〕 Immediately after it there is nothing left but one line, the title at the end of the fascicle: 「地藏菩薩本願經卷下」—“The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Fascicle Two.” 〔T13n0412 0790a01〕

No rejoicing, no receiving in faith and practice, no making obeisance and departing. A sūtra that opened with that one sentence in the palace of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, that he taught the Dharma for his mother, leaves at the breaking up of the assembly only two gestures — palms joined, and then they withdraw. The burning house is still burning, that one sound at the door has not yet been called out by anyone, and the sūtra comes to a stop here.