華嚴經 品十一 淨行品Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Pure Conduct

Why Pure Conduct Follows The Bodhisattvas Ask for Clarification

In the preceding chapter nine bodhisattvas questioned and answered in turn and said to the full the profound meanings of dependent origination, of teaching and transforming, and of the retribution of deeds; the reader has just been handed a whole set of views. The chapter that follows immediately upon it says no new doctrine whatever. It teaches only the one phrase “he vows: may all sentient beings,” and turns it over and over one hundred forty-one times. That drop is itself the intent of the arrangement. Chengguan's determination of the reason for this chapter's coming is put without the least softening: “One who would climb to the wondrous station must rely upon excellent practice; where there is understanding without practice, much learning is spent in vain, and therefore the preceding chapter clarifies understanding while this chapter discerns practice.” To ascend to the wondrous station one must rely upon actual practice; with views alone and no practice, much learning is only spent for nothing. He adds a further layer: what the preceding chapter clarified is the contemplative practice of entering the principle; what this chapter discerns is what is practiced in accordance with affairs.

One common misreading must be cleared away: do not suppose that “practice” is some separate thing to be done at a time set aside and in a place arranged for it. The affairs passed through in this chapter are all of them being at home, going forth, walking, washing the face, eating, sleeping; not one of them has been arranged on purpose for cultivation. Li Tongxuan, in establishing the reason for this chapter's coming, speaks from another angle: one who has already given rise to the aspiration for awakening and delights in faith in the true Dharma is to “turn over all views at a stroke,” overturning at once the ignorance, greed, and hatred that have been there without beginning. Turn them over where? Precisely upon these affairs. Coming down to oneself: anyone who habitually feels ‘I will cultivate once I have the time’ — this chapter was written for him.

Why the Two Graphs “Pure Conduct” Establish the Name

The two graphs of the chapter's name look ordinary enough, yet the ancient worthies spent fine effort here. Chengguan first glosses the three Sanskrit segments: what is practiced, all and everywhere, pure. Then he gives the definition: the three kinds of action passing through affairs and conditions one by one is called what is practiced; using skillful vows to guard against wrong, to depart from fault, and to complete virtue is called pure. So “pure” is not a further layer of cleanness laid on from outside; it is the quality of that very practicing itself — and Chengguan accordingly judges it an appositional explanation: “What is practiced is itself pure — an appositional explanation.”

He has a second explanation as well, and it raises the standard: “Again, compassion and wisdom carried on together is called what is practiced; because the practice surpasses that of the ordinary and the lesser it is called pure, for the uncontaminated of the two vehicles cannot benefit others as well, and so is not truly pure.” The uncontaminated of the two vehicles counts as pure too, but because it cannot benefit others as well, here it does not count as truly pure. That sentence is the threshold of this chapter: were the one hundred forty-one vows to lack the four graphs “he vows: may all sentient beings,” they would be no more than mottoes with which to remind oneself, and not pure conduct.

Fazang's explanation of the name differs from Chengguan's. Following the Sanskrit original he makes it “the chapter of Perfect Pure Conduct,” and further adduces the name in Asvabhāva's She lun, “the Scripture of Pure Practice,” and opens two explanations: the three kinds of action being without fault is pure, the mind giving rise to vows is conduct, and conduct according with the universal Dharma is perfect — this is the appositional explanation; pure is principle, conduct is wisdom, and principle and wisdom unobstructed is perfect — this is the dependent-determinative explanation. Li Tongxuan, for his part, does not gloss the Sanskrit, but establishes the name directly upon “turning over all views at a stroke” and “entering Samantabhadra's practice.” What the three masters establish differs; all is recorded, with no adjudication.

Foremost in Wisdom and Mañjuśrī: Why These Two

The choice of who asks and who answers is not casual. Chengguan explains this pair in particular: “Skillful vows made passing through affairs must have wisdom for their guide; the affairs are near while the import is far, and this belongs to Wondrous Virtue alone.” Passing through affairs and giving rise to vows looks near, but its import is far, and it must have wisdom for its guide; therefore Wondrous Virtue — Mañjuśrī — is the one who answers. He then states the division of labor between the two bodhisattvas with the utmost clarity: Mañjuśrī is prajñā contemplating emptiness, Foremost in Wisdom is upāya engaging affairs; engaging affairs and yet not deluded about the principle, therefore though he vows there is no grasping; contemplating emptiness and yet not abandoning affairs, therefore though he is quiescent he does not take realization. Chengguan names this the twin coursing of the provisional and the real.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the making of vows as a seeking after something. A vow has marks; contemplating emptiness is without marks; and if the two are set against each other this chapter becomes a text at odds with itself. What the ancient worthies do is to read them as two sides of one and the same thing — it is precisely because contemplating emptiness does not abandon affairs that vows can be made at all, and precisely because engaging affairs is not deluded about the principle that one can vow without grasping.

Foremost in Wisdom's First Question: The Three Kinds of Action Without Fault

The first question asks after “bodily, verbal, and mental action without fault.” Note that this is the head of the twenty questions and the general outline of them all. Chengguan determines this segment, saying that “the first single segment asks after the fruit in general, and the latter ten clarify it separately,” and says further that among these ten clauses “the first one displays being without fault in general, the next eight display it separately, and the last one brings out its cause in general.” So “without fault” is not one among ten kinds of virtue; it is the general statement, while the eight clauses below say separately in what respect the fault is absent, and the last clause says how it can be absent.

First the question, then the answer: where do the faults of the three kinds of action come from? Not from body, speech, and mind themselves, but from turning along with the afflictions. Further on Chengguan gives an exceedingly crisp set of pairings: not following hatred, hence doing no harm; not following conceit, hence not to be derided; not following evil views, hence not broken down; not following doubt, hence not turning back and not moved; not following greed, hence pure and undefiled; not following delusion, hence wisdom as forerunner. Read straight through in this way, the first segment of the twenty questions turns out to be a table setting afflictions against items of virtue. Coming down to oneself: to examine whether one's words and deeds are at fault, one need not check them item by item against the marks of the precepts; one need only ask in the train of which affliction this particular sentence was spoken.

Foremost in Wisdom's Second Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Do No Harm

“Doing no harm” counteracts hatred. Chengguan pairs them directly: “not following hatred, hence doing no harm.” Doing no harm is not merely not raising a hand; it is not even giving rise to the intention of injuring another. Here a reading that lowers the standard must be excluded: supposing that having no enemies is already doing no harm. Later in this chapter there is a vow that answers to it exactly: “On seeing a person who turns his back on kindness, he vows: may all sentient beings not repay in kind those who act with evil.” Not to repay in kind — that is the point at which doing no harm is actually measured, and the object is one who has turned his back on kindness, not a good person.

Foremost in Wisdom's Third Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Cannot Be Derided

“Cannot be derided” counteracts conceit. Why should conceit invite derision? Because the conceited must have something open to reproach, and another's finger, once pointed, strikes home. Chengguan says “not following conceit, hence not to be derided,” and says further that this is “no delusion remaining, and so not to be derided.” So being beyond derision is not a matter of guarding one's name with eloquence; it is that there is in fact no handle by which one might be derided. Coming down to oneself: when one fears what others may say, what should be examined is not the one who says it, but whether the spot he has hit is still there.

Foremost in Wisdom's Fourth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Cannot Be Broken

“Cannot be broken” counteracts evil views. Once the view goes wrong, the practice is broken at the root. Chengguan says “not following evil views, hence not broken down,” and on the side of the fruit pairs it thus: “because adverse conditions cannot break it, one obtains the Buddha's ten powers.” The point lies in the passive voice of “cannot be broken” — it is not that one holds on tightly oneself, but that outer conditions cannot break it. Every keeping that is propped up by force of will can be broken; only when the view is upright is there what cannot be broken.

Foremost in Wisdom's Fifth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Do Not Turn Back

“Not turning back” counteracts doubt. Chengguan says “not following doubt, hence not turning back and not moved,” and pairs the fruit: “because of cultivation that does not turn back, the bodhisattva's practice is fulfilled.” The mechanism of turning back is for the most part not a collapse in the face of some great difficulty; it is that a thread of doubt — ‘does doing this actually do any good?’ — has come first into the mind, and the practice slackens by a degree each day. The vow-text of this chapter has an extremely concrete sentence for it: “On requesting to go forth, he vows: may all sentient beings obtain the dharma of non-retrogression, with nothing to obstruct their minds.” The dharma of not turning back and the mind without obstruction stand in the same line, and one sees from this that turning back comes from the feeling of obstruction.

Foremost in Wisdom's Sixth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Cannot Be Shaken

Among the twenty questions “cannot be shaken” stands next to “not turning back,” yet the sense differs: turning back is walking backward oneself, being shaken is being swayed by an outer force. Chengguan pairs the fruit thus: “because he is far removed from all marks and is thus unmoved, the cause of nirvāṇa is completed” — the ground of not being shaken is being far removed from all marks. This question receives a direct answer at the very end of the chapter: the concluding praise says that gods, Māra, Brahmā, śramaṇas, brahmins, and on to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas “are unable to shake him.” The first question of the chapter and its last answer are buckled together here.

Foremost in Wisdom's Seventh Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Are Excellent

“Excellent” does not mean being cleverer than others. Chengguan pairs the fruit thus: “because the practice of virtue is excellent, there is skill regarding dharmas” — the test of excellence lies in skill regarding dharmas, not in being esteemed by others. Clear away a misreading: to read excellence as a feeling of superiority is to fall straight back into the conceit that the third question counteracts. Coming down to oneself: to judge whether one's own cultivation is excellent, what is looked at is whether one can use the meaning of the Dharma skillfully when facing it, not how others regard you.

Foremost in Wisdom's Eighth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Are Pure

“Pure” counteracts greed. Chengguan says “constantly cultivating excellent practice and not following greed, hence pure and undefiled,” and pairs the fruit thus: “because the substance is pure as space, the conditions of the path are furnished.” Purity and the next question's “undefiled” look like a repetition; Chengguan's distinction is this: purity is spoken of with respect to the substance, as space has from the first nothing in it; being undefiled is spoken of with respect to engaging objects, having entered upon the object and yet taking on no defilement. The vow-text of this chapter has both layers: “On washing away the body's filth, he vows: may all sentient beings be pure and pliant, and finally without stain” is with respect to the substance, while “On seeing an empty bowl, he vows: may all sentient beings have minds that are pure, empty of the afflictions” is meeting an object and the mind not turning along with it.

Foremost in Wisdom's Ninth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Take On No Defilement

“Undefiled” is the question in this chapter closest to daily use. The bodhisattva is not one who does not engage the objects of the five desires: the eleven vows of the first group are all household affairs — gathering with wife and children, obtaining the five desires, gathering for song and music, wearing strings of jewels, ascending a tower. Chengguan pairs the fruit thus: “because he engages objects and takes on no defilement, his virtue is fit for a vessel that transmits the Dharma” — engaging objects and yet not defiled, he is qualified to transmit the Dharma. The misreading to be cleared away is understanding “undefiled” as avoidance: if it depended on avoidance, these eleven vows of the first group could never be given rise to at all.

Foremost in Wisdom's Tenth Question: The Three Kinds of Action That Have Wisdom as Forerunner

The tenth question is the cause of the preceding nine. Chengguan says it plainly: “The last one brings out their cause in general. If wisdom be the forerunner, bodily, verbal, and mental action are constantly without fault.” And he pairs the fruit thus: “because wisdom is the forerunner, the many wisdoms are accomplished.” This question is also the pivot of the whole chapter — the reason Mañjuśrī is the one who answers is precisely that skillful vows made passing through affairs must have wisdom for their guide. Coming down to oneself: what is called wisdom as forerunner takes, in this chapter's concrete form, the shape of giving rise to that one thought of vow at the moment the affair is met with, and not of adding a dedication after the thing is already done.

Foremost in Wisdom's Eleventh Question: The Ten Kinds of Fullness

The eleventh question turns to ask after ten things: fullness of birthplace, of family, of household, of form, of features, of mindfulness, of wisdom, of practice, of fearlessness, and of awakening. These ten look like the reward of merit, yet Chengguan judges them “a vessel for cultivating the path”: at the time the bodhisattva takes up cultivation he must be furnished with these ten, and only so does the practice of benefiting self and others come to completion. He cites the Yuqie shidi lun and pairs them item by item: constantly born where the Buddha's Dharma is present, of honorable family, born into a household with faith turned toward the three jewels, upright in form, unimpaired in the faculties, unforgetting in right mindfulness, lofty and clear in the awakening of wisdom, gentle and well tempered, firm and strong in resolve, awakened of itself in nature. For the item of “fearlessness” he cites in addition the Zhidu lun's four kinds of fearlessness: the fearlessness of retaining all, the fearlessness of knowing the faculties, the fearlessness of resolving doubt, and the fearlessness of answering objections — not fearing to forget, not fearing to err, not fearing inadequacy, not fearing to be stalled by doubt. The misreading to be cleared away: these ten are not conditions to be sought after; Chengguan's closing sentence says “again, these ten things, if taken with respect to the Dharma, are that being born in the Buddha's house is fullness of birthplace, and so on” — all of them may be read with respect to the Dharma.

Foremost in Wisdom's Twelfth Question: The Ten Kinds of Wisdom

The twelfth question lists ten wisdoms: excellent wisdom, foremost wisdom, highest wisdom, most excellent wisdom, measureless wisdom, wisdom beyond counting, inconceivable wisdom, wisdom with nothing to match it, wisdom that cannot be weighed, and wisdom that cannot be spoken. These ten items read like synonyms repeating, and Chengguan gives a clean division: the first four discriminate against what is inferior — the first surpasses the worldly, the second passes beyond the two vehicles, the third discriminates against the provisional teaching, the fourth is the buddha-fruit surpassing the stations of the cause; the latter six are spoken of with respect to wisdom's own substance — without measure, without any number, beyond word and thought, without match, hard to compare, corresponding to realization alone.

Most important is his explanation of “cannot be spoken,” four clauses in one breath: “Would one say that it is? It is without mark and without shape. Would one say that it is not? By it the sage is spiritually quickened. Would one say it is both? Wisdom has no two substances. Would one deny both? It is not that it cannot be set forth and displayed. Therefore it cannot be spoken.” Say it is, and it is without mark and without shape; say it is not, and by it the sage is quickened; say it is both is and is not, and wisdom has no two substances; say it is neither, and yet it is not that it cannot be set forth. Therefore it is called what cannot be spoken. What this comes down to is this: do not use “cannot be spoken” as an excuse for stopping thought — Chengguan says it cannot be spoken only after he has tried all four ways of saying it.

Foremost in Wisdom's Thirteenth Question: The Ten Powers

The thirteenth question lists ten powers: cause, aspiration, skillful means, conditions, the object of the mind, the faculties, observation, śamatha, vipaśyanā, and deliberation. Chengguan judges them in general as “precisely the furnishing of the causes and conditions of the path,” and says “in every case they are called powers because each of these ten has the capacity to aid the path.” His explanations one by one are exceedingly concrete: the power of cause is the seed-nature, the acquired seed already present joining with the unmistaken perfuming of hearing and with the innate seed; the power of aspiration is the excellent longing that seeks great awakening; skillful means is the power of constructive cultivation, which by way of the six skillful means — compassionate concern, understanding the formations, delighting in the Buddha's wondrous wisdom, not forsaking birth and death, not being defiled amid transmigration, and blazing vigor — completes compassion and wisdom; the power of conditions is the urging of good friends; the power of the object is the object of compassion and wisdom that is observed; the faculties are the five faculties of faith and the rest; observation is being well able to discriminate, in one's own and others' affairs and principles, the medicine and the illness; śamatha here means calming; vipaśyanā here means insight; deliberation is weighing what should and should not be done.

Here Chengguan cites the Liang-dynasty She lun and Asvabhāva's She lun to explain the power of cause: “The perfuming of much hearing joins with the nature of understanding within the ālaya-consciousness, and all the noble ones take this as their cause”; “Although this perfuming of hearing is contaminated, it is the seed-nature of the world-transcending mind.” The point is this: the perfuming of hearing is itself contaminated, and yet it is the seed of the world-transcending mind — which answers exactly the doubt ‘is much learning spent in vain?’ Much learning is not spent in vain; what is spent in vain is understanding without practice.

Foremost in Wisdom's Fourteenth Question: The Ten Kinds of Skill

The fourteenth question lists ten kinds of skill: the aggregates, the elements, the sense-fields, dependent origination, the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, the past, the future, and the present. Chengguan determines the whole in a single sentence: “Fourth, skill regarding dharmas, all taken with respect to transmigration. The first four are the substance of transmigration, the three realms its place, the three times its time” — the aggregates, elements, sense-fields, and dependent origination are the substance of transmigration, the three realms are the place where it transmigrates, the three times are the time in which it transmigrates. The ten kinds of skill are in fact the one matter of transmigration taken apart into its three sides: substance, place, and time.

What is skill? He gives two clauses and then adds a third on top: “first, knowing well that those dharmas are empty and have nothing at all; second, knowing well how not to destroy provisional names while distinguishing the marks of dharmas. Add to this the ability to gather in endlessly, and the skill is greater still.” Knowing emptiness, not destroying provisional names, and then in addition being able to gather in endlessly — that is the skill of this scripture. Coming down to oneself: to know only emptiness and be unable to distinguish the marks of dharmas, or to be able only to distinguish and not to know emptiness, is still short of skill.

Foremost in Wisdom's Fifteenth Question: The Awakening-Factors and the Three Kinds of Emptiness

The fifteenth question asks after the seven awakening-factors and emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Chengguan judges this segment as “cultivating the cause of nirvāṇa,” and says “the seven awakening-factors and the three kinds of emptiness are expounded at length in the chapter The Ten Grounds.” Here one should notice the usage of this chapter: not one of the sets of numbered dharmas that Foremost in Wisdom asks after is unfolded in this chapter; the unfolding takes place in other chapters. This is precisely the character of the question portion — raising up virtues and inquiring after their cause, asking ‘how is one to obtain it’ and not ‘what is it’. Coming down to the reader: if in reading the twenty questions one chases after each technical term in turn, one will miss the point of the asking; the point is that this long string of items of virtue is exchanged in the end for an answer of four graphs.

Foremost in Wisdom's Sixteenth Question: The Six Perfections and the Four Immeasurables

The sixteenth question asks after the fulfilling of the six perfections and the fulfilling of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. In his division of the five fruits Chengguan joins this segment with the next as the fruit of disjunction, and explains: “The cultivating of the six perfections and the four equalities at the outset is the fruit of a person's exertion; their fulfilling is the fruit of disjunction, because the several coverings are counteracted.” Cultivating the six perfections and the four equalities is the fruit of a person's exertion; their fulfilling is the fruit of disjunction, because fulfilling is precisely the coverings having been counteracted. The point lies in the word “fulfilled”: what is asked is not whether giving has been cultivated, but whether it is fulfilled; and the test of fulfillment is that stinginess, greed, and the rest have been left behind.

Foremost in Wisdom's Seventeenth Question: The Ten Powers of the Tathāgata's Knowledge

The seventeenth question asks after the ten powers of a buddha, from the power of knowing what is possible and what is not through to the power of cutting off all habits. In Chengguan's division of the five fruits this segment belongs to the latter half of the fruit of disjunction, and he says “and the seventh, being furnished with the ten powers, all as seen in the text above.” A misreading must be cleared away: that Foremost in Wisdom asks after the Buddha's ten powers is not a presumptuous leap over the stages, because the character of all twenty questions is “raising up virtues and inquiring after their cause” — raising up the virtues of the fruit so as to inquire after their cause; and the higher what is asked, the more plainly the cause inquired after shows its importance. And the cause Mañjuśrī gives is always only those four graphs.

Foremost in Wisdom's Eighteenth Question: The Protection of the Ten Kings

The eighteenth question asks after constantly obtaining the protection, reverence, and offerings of the god-kings, the dragon-kings, and on to the Brahmā-kings. Chengguan judges this segment as the dominant fruit: “Eighth, the reverence and protection of the ten kings, is the dominant fruit.” And earlier he pairs its cause: “because there is no delusion remaining and he cannot be derided, the ten kings revere and protect him.” This question is the one most easily read as seeking a blessing, and it must be corrected by Chengguan's pairing of the cause: the reason protection is obtained is that one is oneself without any remaining delusion and so beyond derision, and not that one has petitioned for it. Coming down to oneself: real protection is drawn by virtue, not gained by asking.

Foremost in Wisdom's Nineteenth Question: Becoming Refuge and Rescue for Sentient Beings

The nineteenth question asks after “becoming a refuge, a rescue, a place of return, a destination, a torch, a light, an illumination, a guide, an excellent guide, and a universal guide.” Chengguan judges this segment together with the next as the fruit of uniform outflow, and distinguishes what each comes from: “By the power of the original vow, he becomes refuge and rescue and the rest. By the power of the original practice, he becomes the first and the rest.” Becoming refuge and rescue is the uniform outflow of the power of the original vow; becoming the first is the uniform outflow of the power of the original practice. He points out further that “the ten clauses of ‘refuge’ and the rest are as at the beginning of The Dedications” — these ten clauses have a further extended explanation in the opening section of the chapter The Dedications. This question buckles directly onto the answering portion of the chapter: the one hundred forty-one vows all turn upon the axis of “he vows: may all sentient beings,” which is precisely the operative face of the power of the original vow.

Foremost in Wisdom's Twentieth Question: Becoming the First Among Sentient Beings

The twentieth question asks after “becoming the first, the great, the excellent, the most excellent, the wondrous, the utterly wondrous, the high, the unsurpassed, the one without equal, and the one equal only to those without equal.” Chengguan explains name by name with respect to the buddha-fruit: the ocean of the Tathāgata's merit is full and lacks nothing further, and therefore he is called the first, this being also the general clause; the great is that his substance embraces the Dharma realm; the excellent is that self-benefit is perfect; the most excellent is that benefiting others is brought to its end; the wondrous is that the obstruction of the afflictions is exhausted; the utterly wondrous is that the obstruction to what is to be known is exhausted; the high is that looking downward there is none that reaches him; the unsurpassed is that looking upward there is none beyond; the one without equal is that looking downward there is none to be his match; the one equal only to those without equal is that, looking to his peers, they are all of them without equal.

With this the twenty questions are finished. Chengguan sets down one general verdict upon the whole long string of questions: “The reason so many virtues are raised up at length is the wish to display the excellence of the practice.” To lay out so many items of virtue has for its aim only to display how excellent the practice is. That sentence is the key to understanding the structure of this chapter: the longer and more splendid the question portion, the weightier those four graphs of the answer.

Mañjuśrī's First Step: He Praises the Question First

Mañjuśrī does not answer at once, but first praises the question: “Excellent, Son of the Buddha! Today, because you wish to bring manifold benefit and manifold security, out of pity for the world, and to benefit and gladden gods and humans, you ask about a meaning such as this.” Chengguan outlines this as “praising the question as bringing benefit to completion,” and explains it graph by graph: abundant benefit is benefit, security is peace and joy, and to benefit and gladden is precisely these two; and he notes that “the sense of ‘benefit and gladden’ has already appeared in the chapter Awakening by Light.”

Why praise first? Because what is praised is not Foremost in Wisdom's cleverness but the motive of his asking. The twenty questions raise up nothing but the highest virtues of the fruit, and were the motive a seeking for oneself, the question would become a coveting of what is high and great; Mañjuśrī first brings the motive into the open — for abundant benefit, for security, out of pity, to benefit and gladden — and only so does the question stand. Coming down to oneself: before asking about the Dharma, look first at why you are asking; this step matters more than asking beautifully.

Mañjuśrī's Answer: Make Good Use of the Mind

Then comes the heart of the whole chapter. Mañjuśrī says: “Son of the Buddha! If the bodhisattvas make good use of their minds, then they gain all excellent and wondrous merits.” Chengguan outlines this as the indication of the cause, and explains: “First he indicates the cause, namely making good use of the mind. The mind awakens to the depth of spiritual illumination; when the mind is upright, the myriad virtues come home to it. As for ‘making good use’, it is precisely the skillful vows made passing through conditions later on, entering the mystery upon contact with objects, as discerned above.”

Three layers must be kept distinct. First, this is a cause and not a fruit — what was asked above Chengguan counts as one hundred ten kinds of virtue, and what is given here is the cause by which those virtues can be obtained. Second, the two graphs “make good use” have a determinate content and are not a vague ‘be a bit more attentive’: Chengguan points straight to “the skillful vows made passing through conditions, entering the mystery upon contact with objects,” that is, the operation of the one hundred forty-one vows that follow. Third, everything hangs on the word “use” — everyone has a mind; the difference between good and not good lies in the using.

Clear away a misreading that matters: making good use of the mind is not the same as keeping in a good mood, nor is it looking on the bright side of everything. Half the affairs passed through in this chapter are adverse circumstances and ugly sights — hardship and distress, a road of peril, much dust, a person in distress, an ugly person, one who turns his back on kindness, coarse and rough food, receiving no reverence. If making good use of the mind were only positive thinking, there would be no way to use it when these are met. What the vow-text does is another way altogether: it turns the object before one into a vow for all sentient beings. What the object is does not matter; what matters is what it is used for.

Having indicated the cause, Mañjuśrī immediately turns the question back: “Son of the Buddha! How is the mind to be used, that one may gain all excellent and wondrous merits?” This sentence is the direct introduction to the one hundred forty-one vows. The structure of the whole chapter thus becomes clear: Foremost in Wisdom inquires after the cause by way of virtues; Mañjuśrī indicates the cause, then inquires after its use himself, and then demonstrates by one hundred forty-one affairs how it is used.

The Shape of the Vow-Text: One Sentence for Every Thing

The one hundred forty-one vows are cast from a single mold: first the affair met with is raised up, next comes “he vows: may all sentient beings,” and afterward the dharma vowed for is set out. Displaying the general purport of the text, Chengguan says “yet although these vow-sentences have four clauses, the affairs are only three”; of his commentary at that point only the first line survives here, the remaining clauses not being recorded in this edition, and the absence is set down as the facts stand.

From the scriptural text itself three things can be seen clearly. First, the affair comes before and the vow after — the object comes first; the vow is not made out of nothing. Second, the dharma vowed for and the affair met with are often linked by a single graph or a single aspect: seeing a thorn tree he vows that the thorns of the three poisons be cut away; seeing a bridge he vows that all be ferried across as by a bridge; seeing a great river he vows entry into the ocean of the Buddha's wisdom; seeing flowers open he vows that the supernormal powers open out. This linkage is no word-game; it is the point of leverage by which the mind is turned out of the object. Third, the object of what is vowed is in every case “sentient beings” and not oneself — this is the line that divides this chapter from every motto, admonition, and formula for training the mind.

In the resolution of objections Chengguan states the full weight of this. Someone asks: the text has only some hundred-odd vows; where is there practice in it? He answers: the practice here has several layers — from going forth at the beginning to lying down and waking at the end, all is the practice of affairs; knowing the home to be empty in nature is the practice of principle; not being deluded upon contact with objects and comprehending affair and principle well is the practice of wisdom; guiding wisdom by vows and not being detained in self-benefit is the practice of great compassion; the practice of principle and the practice of wisdom being not two is the practice in which compassion and wisdom are unobstructed. And he pushes further down: that upon meeting objects adverse or favorable the mind does not run scattered is the practice of calming, that wisdom does not sink away is the practice of contemplation, and together they are the practice in which calming and contemplation are carried on together; understanding well what is wrong and what is right and vowing that all sentient beings may be so is the contemplation of the provisional, knowing the body to be empty and still with the mind free of defiling attachment is the contemplation of emptiness, seeing the principle as it really is is the contemplation of the middle; and on to this, that seeing evil he would surely have it cut off and seeing good he would surely have it made complete is precisely the practice of the four great vows.

Thus within a single sentence of vow there are the practice of affairs, the practice of principle, the practice of wisdom, the practice of compassion, calming and contemplation, the three truths, and the four great vows, all of them. This is why this chapter dares to use one hundred forty-one repetitions of a single sentence pattern without its being felt as poverty.

Vow-Group One, At Home: It Begins at Home, Not at a Monastery

In the first group of eleven vows the affairs passed through are all within the household: being at home, serving father and mother with filial obedience, gathering with wife and children, obtaining the five desires, gathering for song and music, being within palace chambers, wearing strings of jewels, ascending a tower, giving something away, a multitude gathering, being in hardship and distress. That the scripture places the starting point of bodhisattva practice in the most ordinary place is itself an admonition.

Open up the first vow: “When the bodhisattva is at home, he vows: may all sentient beings know the home to be empty in nature and be freed from its oppression.” Why “know the home to be empty in nature” and not ‘be weary of the home and leave it’? What makes the home oppress a person is not the house and the family, but the grasping of the home as really existent — with real existence there is gain and loss, and with gain and loss there is oppression. So the counteraction is not moving out; it is knowing that its nature is empty. And note the second half: what is escaped is the oppression of sentient beings, not one's own. With this vow made, every particle of unfreedom within the household is turned into compassion for all sentient beings.

Open one more vow to see the method: “On gathering with wife and children, he vows: may all sentient beings hold foe and kin in equal regard and forever leave craving and attachment behind.” Of all occasions the scripture attaches the dharma of holding foe and kin in equal regard to the most intimate one. This is the general rule of the chapter — the dharma vowed for is often exactly the flavor most lacking in the affair met with. Coming down to oneself: the home is not an obstruction to cultivation; the home is the place of practice appointed by these eleven vows of the first group.

Vow-Group Two, Going Forth and Receiving the Precepts: From Leaving the Household to the Full Precepts

The second group of fifteen vows, from “when leaving the household” to “on receiving the full precepts,” is a complete sequence of going forth: leaving the household, entering the saṃghārāma, calling upon the greater and lesser master, requesting to go forth, taking off lay clothing, shaving hair and beard, putting on the kāṣāya, going forth proper, the three refuges, receiving and studying the precepts, receiving the ācārya's instruction, receiving the upādhyāya's instruction, and receiving the full precepts.

At the three vows of the three refuges Chengguan has a note on the history of the institution: “As for the first three, taking refuge oneself: in the days when the Buddha was present it was one of the five modes of receiving; after the Buddha's extinction, the receiving of the five and the eight precepts must rely upon the three refuges.” While the Buddha was in the world the three refuges were one of five ways of receiving the precepts; after the Buddha's extinction, the five precepts and the eight precepts must be received in reliance upon the three refuges.

Open one vow: “On taking refuge in the Dharma oneself, he vows: may all sentient beings enter deeply into the storehouse of the scriptures, their wisdom vast as the sea.” This vow has been recited most widely in later ages, and in reading it one easily takes it for mere praise. Seen with respect to the usage of this chapter, it is the method of using the mind at the very moment of taking refuge in the Dharma: taking refuge is not the completion of a formality; it is, in that moment, vowing at once for the whole storehouse of the scriptures and for the wisdom of all sentient beings. It may also be mentioned that this vow agrees graph for graph in the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts, and is one of the few sentences of the chapter in which the two texts do not differ.

Vow-Group Three, The Time of Sitting in Meditation and Contemplation: The Seven Vows Chengguan Outlines

The third group of seven vows runs from “on entering the hall” to “on rising from the cross-legged posture.” Chengguan outlines this as “the vows at the time of sitting in meditation and contemplation,” and states their number plainly as seven — which agrees with the actual count of the scriptural text.

The sequence of the seven vows is one complete sitting: entering the hall, spreading the seat, sitting upright, crossing the legs, cultivating concentration, cultivating contemplation, leaving the seat. What is to be noticed are the two ends. At the head: “On entering the hall, he vows: may all sentient beings ascend the unsurpassed hall and abide there unmoved” — the moment one comes through the door the mind is already being used; it is not that one begins once settled in the posture. At the tail: “On rising from the cross-legged posture, he vows: may all sentient beings contemplate all conditioned dharmas as returning to dispersal and extinction” — the very act of leaving the seat is used to contemplate impermanence, so that even getting up is not the end of cultivation.

Open the pair in the middle: “On cultivating meditative concentration, he vows: may all sentient beings subdue the mind by concentration and be finally without any delusion remaining,” and “On cultivating the wisdom of contemplation, he vows: may all sentient beings see the principle as it really is and be forever without contradiction and dispute.” The function of concentration is stated as subduing the mind, the function of contemplation as seeing the principle as it really is; the division of labor is clear and the two are not confused. Coming down to oneself: what moves one in these seven vows is precisely that they do not allow anyone to cut ‘on the cushion’ and ‘off the cushion’ into two pieces.

Vow-Group Four, The Time of Setting Out and Robing: The Six Vows Chengguan Outlines

The fourth group of six vows runs from “when the foot is set down and one stands” to “on putting on the saṃghāṭī.” Chengguan outlines this as “clarifying the vows at the time of setting out and robing,” and states their number plainly as six — which agrees with the actual count of the scriptural text.

The first two vows are about the feet: “When the foot is set down and one stands, he vows: may all sentient beings attain liberation of mind and abide unmoved”; “On lifting the foot to step, he vows: may all sentient beings come out of the sea of birth and death and be complete in the many wholesome dharmas.” One setting down and one lifting, one still and one moving, each with its own vow — this is the finest cutting of the gate of practice in the whole chapter, and Chengguan's phrase in his explanation of the name, “the lifting of the foot and the setting down of the foot are wholly Mañjuśrī's mind,” points exactly here.

The latter four vows are about the robes: the inner robe, the belt, the upper robe, the saṃghāṭī. Open one vow: “On arranging the robe and fastening the belt, he vows: may all sentient beings gather in and keep watch over their roots of goodness, and not let them be scattered and lost.” The belt is fastened so that the robe is not loose, and what is vowed is that the roots of goodness be not scattered — the affair met with and the dharma vowed for meet upon the word “fasten.” Coming down to oneself: dressing, that wholly meaningless daily act, becomes here one taking of stock of the roots of goodness.

Vow-Group Five, The Time of Washing and Rinsing: The Seven Vows Chengguan Outlines

The fifth group of seven vows runs from “taking the willow twig in hand” to “washing the face with water.” Chengguan outlines this as the vows at “the time of washing and rinsing,” and states their number plainly as seven — which agrees with the actual count of the scriptural text.

This group is the least ‘decorous’ passage in the whole chapter, relieving oneself being among them: “When relieving oneself, he vows: may all sentient beings cast away greed, hatred, and delusion, and clear away the dharmas of offense.” There is no need to make excuses for the passage. That the scripture ranks it here is precisely to show that no single affair falls outside the vow; and if this one affair could be excepted, the four graphs “make good use of the mind” would have a gap in them.

Open one vow: “On chewing the willow twig, he vows: may all sentient beings have minds pliant and clean and bite through the afflictions.” Chewing and biting through are one and the same action, the one applied to the twig, the other to the afflictions. All seven vows of the group use this method of taking the simile from close at hand — taking up the twig and vowing to obtain the wondrous Dharma, washing the hands and vowing to receive and uphold the Buddha's Dharma, washing the face and vowing to obtain the pure Dharma-gate. Coming down to oneself: the daily acts of cleansing cost the least attention and for that very reason are the easiest to pass through empty; these seven vows are what fits those empty intervals with content.

Vow-Group Six, Taking Up Staff and Bowl, Setting the Foot Toward the Road

The sixth group of five vows runs from “taking the tin staff in hand” to “traveling along the road,” and is the beginning of going out to beg for food. The tin staff and the alms vessel are the things carried; setting out, being upon the road, and traveling along it are the stages walked.

At the vows on begging for food Chengguan has a general explanation: “Because of begging for food he gives rise to vows that are alike in kind. The path with nothing to depend upon is the true path. Turning toward the dharma without remainder is true nirvāṇa. The truly pure Dharma realm is what the mind treads upon.” What is called a vow alike in kind is taking, from the affair before one, a dharma of like kind to vow for. One who begs has nothing to depend upon, and therefore he vows to “enter the place where there is nothing to depend upon”; he walks upon a road, and therefore he vows to “tread the pure Dharma realm.” Chengguan points out in particular that the path with nothing to depend upon is the true path — this is not a simile made in resignation, but the direct sense.

Open one vow: “On holding the alms vessel, he vows: may all sentient beings accomplish themselves as vessels of the Dharma and receive the offerings of gods and humans.” What is held in the hand is a vessel for holding food; what is vowed is that sentient beings become vessels that carry the Dharma. Receiving offerings, in this chapter, is never a seeking after offerings, but a vow that sentient beings be fit to receive them.

Vow-Group Seven, The Sights of the Road

The seventh group of eleven vows runs from “on seeing the road going up” to “on seeing a high mountain,” and the affairs passed through are all sights of the road: the road going up, the road going down, the crooked road, the straight road, much dust, no dust, the road of peril, an assembly, a great pillar, a dense grove, a high mountain.

This group exposes the method of the chapter most clearly: the sights are some good and some bad, while the dharma vowed for is in every case good. Seeing the road going up he vows to come out of the three realms forever; seeing the road going down he vows that the mind be humble; seeing the crooked road he vows that the path that is not straight be cast away; seeing the straight road he vows that the mind be straight; seeing much dust he vows to leave the soiling of dust far behind; seeing no dust he vows constantly to practice great compassion. Vows can be made upon objects of either kind, and one sees from this that making a vow does not depend upon whether the object is good or bad.

Open one vow: “On seeing a great pillar, he vows: may all sentient beings depart from the mind of self and of contention and be without rancor.” What has a great pillar to do with the mind of self and contention? A pillar as a thing stands alone and upright and will not bend — and this is precisely the look of a contentious mind. This vow takes its simile from the greatest distance of any in the group, and it explains best the four graphs “entering the mystery upon contact with objects”: it is not that the dharma was in the object to begin with, but that the one who uses his mind sets the dharma upon the object.

Vow-Group Eight, Plants, Waters, Springs, and Gardens Seen

The eighth group of fifteen vows runs from “on seeing a thorn tree” to “on seeing a garden park,” and what is seen is grass and trees, flowers and fruit, rivers and marshes, pools and wells, springs, bridges, flowing water, garden plots, and groves and parks.

The similes in this group are the densest: thorns paired with the thorns of the three poisons, thick foliage with concentration and liberation for shade, flowers opening with the supernormal powers opening out, the flowers of a tree with the thirty-two marks, fruit with realizing awakening, a great river with entering the ocean of the Buddha's wisdom, a marsh with the one-flavored Dharma, a pool with fulfillment in verbal action, a well with eloquence, a gushing spring with roots of goodness without end, a bridge with ferrying beings across far and wide, flowing water with washing away the stain of doubt, a garden plot with hoeing out the weeds of craving, a sorrowless grove with leaving craving behind, and a garden park with turning toward the Buddha's awakening.

Open one vow: “On seeing one tending a garden plot, he vows: may all sentient beings hoe out the weeds of craving in the garden plot of the five desires.” Another is hoeing the weeds upon the ground; the one who makes the vow sees the weeds of craving in the garden plot of the five desires. This vow displays the direction of the chapter best of all — it is not a descent from the meaning of the Dharma to the mark of the affair, but a rise from the affair before one straight up to the meaning of the Dharma, and never apart from that “he vows: may all sentient beings.” Coming down to oneself: seeing a fine sight and giving rise to a mind of enjoyment, seeing an ugly one and giving rise to a mind of distaste, are both the mind being used by the object; these fifteen vows are a demonstration of the mind using the object.

Vow-Group Nine, The People Seen, and Walled Cities, Royal Capitals, and Wooded Marshes

The ninth group of twenty-seven vows is the longest group in the chapter, running from “on seeing a person richly adorned” to “on seeing one dwelling in woods and marshes.” The persons seen are ranged in pairs: adorned and unadorned, delighting and not delighting, glad and distressed, free of illness and ill, upright in form and ugly, repaying kindness and turning his back on kindness; then come the śramaṇa, the brahmin, the practitioner of austerities, the person of integrity, the one clad in armor, the one without armor or weapons, the debater, and the one of right livelihood; and last the king, the prince, the elder, the great minister, the walled city, the royal capital, and the wooded marsh.

Pairing is the usage of this group, and no pair praises the one and disparages the other. Seeing a glad person he vows that they constantly obtain peace and joy; seeing a distressed person he vows that they obtain fundamental wisdom and extinguish suffering; seeing a person upright in form he vows that pure faith be constantly given rise to toward the buddhas and bodhisattvas; seeing an ugly person he vows that no delight be taken in what is unwholesome. Favorable and adverse circumstances, beautiful and ugly appearances — from all of them a vow can come.

Open one vow: “On seeing a person who turns his back on kindness, he vows: may all sentient beings not repay in kind those who act with evil.” This is the hardest sentence in the chapter. What is seen is one who has turned his back on kindness and duty, and the most natural response is indignation, while what the scripture vows for is not repaying in kind — and what is vowed is not that oneself will not repay, but that all sentient beings will not repay. At the neighboring vow on repaying kindness Chengguan has a remark: “As for being able to know the kindness and virtue of the buddhas and bodhisattvas: the buddhas and bodhisattvas, from their first arousing of the mind, take all sentient beings universally as their object …” — the reason knowing kindness is hard is that the kindness of the buddhas and bodhisattvas has from the arousing of the mind taken all sentient beings universally as its object and is not for me alone, and so is not easily noticed. Coming down to oneself: whether, on meeting with betrayal, one can in that moment change it into a vow, is the point at which the whole practice of this chapter is actually measured.

Vow-Group Ten, Entering the Village to Beg and Receiving Food

The tenth group of eighteen vows runs from “entering the village to beg for food” to “when the meal is finished,” and is one complete round with the bowl: entering the village, reaching the gate, entering the house, seeing one unwilling to give, seeing one able to give, the empty bowl, the full bowl, receiving reverence, receiving no reverence, seeing one with a sense of shame, seeing one without it, fine food, food not fine, soft food, coarse food, eating, receiving the flavor, and the meal finished.

What shows the most skill in this group are the four pairs of adverse and favorable: bowl empty and bowl full, reverence obtained and not obtained, food fine and not fine, food soft and coarse. In none of the four pairs is the adverse side read as an obstruction — the empty bowl vows that the mind be pure and empty of afflictions, receiving no reverence vows that no unwholesome dharma be practiced, food that is not fine vows that the flavor of the samādhis be obtained, coarse food vows that worldly craving be cut off.

Open one vow: “On seeing an empty bowl, he vows: may all sentient beings have minds that are pure, empty of the afflictions.” An empty bowl is the most concrete frustration of one who begs, and yet this vow turns about directly upon the word “empty”: the emptiness of the bowl becomes the emptiness of the mind. This is the utmost of the chapter's linking by kind, and it is also the line dividing it from ordinary words of consolation — it does not say ‘an empty bowl does not matter’; it uses emptiness itself as the dharma. This vow agrees graph for graph in the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts.

Vow-Group Eleven, Expounding, Leaving the House, Entering the Water, Heat and Cool

The eleventh group of six vows runs from “when expounding the Dharma” to “when the heat withdraws and the cool first arises.” Expounding the Dharma, coming out from the house, entering the water, bathing, high summer, the heat withdrawing — this is the stretch from after the meal to bathing.

Open the pair on heat and cool: “In the fierce and cruel heat of high summer, he vows: may all sentient beings cast off the many torments and may they all be utterly gone,” and “When the heat withdraws and the cool first arises, he vows: may all sentient beings realize the unsurpassed Dharma and be cool at last.” In the heat he vows for freedom from torment; in the cool he vows for the ultimate coolness — one and the same word “cool,” which in the first vow is felt by the body and in the second is what is realized. The scripture does not evade the body's pleasure and pain, but vows for the substance of the Dharma's meaning by way of the name of what the body feels. Coming down to oneself: the weather is the object least open to choice, and this chapter does not let even that go.

Vow-Group Twelve, Reciting, Seeing the Buddha, Homage at the Stūpa, Praising the Buddha

The twelfth group of ten vows runs from “when reciting the scriptures” to “when praising the Buddha's marks and signs,” and is the one group in the whole chapter that belongs entirely to religious observance: reciting the scriptures, seeing the Buddha, contemplating the Buddha truly, seeing a stūpa, contemplating a stūpa, bowing the head, circling to the right, circling three times, praising his merits, praising his marks and signs.

Note that the chapter gives this group no special treatment — the sentence pattern of these ten vows is exactly the same as that of “when relieving oneself.” This is precisely the evenhandedness of “making good use of the mind”: paying homage at a stūpa and washing the face are, as uses of the mind, one and the same thing; the difference lies only in the object.

Open one vow: “On contemplating the Buddha truly, he vows: may all sentient beings be, every one, like Samantabhadra, upright and beautiful.” What is vowed at the time of looking upon the Buddha is not that oneself may see the Buddha, but that all sentient beings may be like Samantabhadra. This answers to “the marks of their virtue are such as Samantabhadra's, and their form and figure are foremost” in Mañjuśrī's indication of the cause. Open one more: “On circling the stūpa to the right, he vows: may all sentient beings be without contrariety in what they do and accomplish omniscience.” Circling a stūpa to the right is the mark of what is not contrary, and what is vowed is precisely that what is done be without contrariety — the mark of the affair and the meaning of the Dharma are joined upon the one word “contrary.”

Vow-Group Thirteen, The Time of Waking, Sleeping, and Resting: The Three Vows Chengguan Outlines

The last group of three vows runs from “when washing the feet” to “on first waking from sleep.” Chengguan outlines this as “tenth, from ‘when washing the feet’ onward, the three vows at the time of waking, sleeping, and resting,” and states their number plainly as three — which agrees with the actual count of the scriptural text.

The course of a day ends here and begins again. Washing the feet vows for the power of the bases of supernormal power; lying down to rest vows that the body be secure and the mind unagitated; and the last vow is where the whole chapter comes to rest: “On first waking from sleep, he vows: may all sentient beings awaken to omniscience and look round upon the ten directions.” Chengguan explains it thus: “As for the awakening of omniscience, it is not only that the three times are equally illumined; it is also that the ten directions are penetratingly understood.” The very instant of waking from sleep is used as a figure for the awakening of omniscience, and its measure is not confined to the three times but takes in the ten directions as well.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the last vow as an exhortation to rise early. “Waking” is here the general emblem of all the “using of the mind” in this chapter — to give rise to that one thought of vow upon each single affair is one waking. Coming down to oneself: one hundred forty-one vows in a day, beginning at home and ending at waking from sleep, with not one stretch in between left blank.

The Concluding Praise: What It Is That Cannot Be Shaken

At the end of the chapter Mañjuśrī sums up: “Son of the Buddha! If the bodhisattvas use their minds in this way, then they gain all excellent and wondrous merits; all the gods of every world, and Māra, and Brahmā, śramaṇas, brahmins, gandharvas, asuras, and the rest, together with all the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, are unable to shake him.”

Three things are to be seen clearly. First, the four graphs “using the mind in this way” buckle back onto “making good use of the mind” where the cause was indicated; the chapter is hooped from head to tail by the two graphs “use the mind,” and the one hundred forty-one vows in between are the content of “in this way.” Second, the fruit obtained is graph for graph the same as what was promised where the cause was indicated — “then they gain all excellent and wondrous merits” — Mañjuśrī adds nothing at the close. Third, the list of those unable to shake him runs from gods, Māra, and Brahmā all the way to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; that the two vehicles too are listed among those unable to shake him accords exactly with what Chengguan said in explaining the name, that “the uncontaminated of the two vehicles cannot benefit others as well, and so is not truly pure.”

And this sentence is also the direct answer to Foremost in Wisdom's sixth question, “how is one to obtain bodily, verbal, and mental action that cannot be shaken.” Of the twenty questions, this one alone receives at the chapter's end an answer that corresponds to it graph for graph — the answers to the other nineteen are all in those one hundred forty-one sentences of vow.

Lineage

• The difference in the number of the vows: the base text yields by actual count one hundred forty-one occurrences of the sentence “he vows: may all sentient beings.” Chengguan's Shu plainly states “one hundred forty-one vows”; Fazang's Tanxuan ji makes it “one hundred forty vows, answering throughout all the foregoing questions”; Li Tongxuan's Xin Huayan jing lun has throughout “one hundred forty great vows.” The three masters' counts differ by one vow; all are recorded, with no adjudication, and the vernacular and the exposition of this reading edition follow the actual count of the scriptural text and make it one hundred forty-one.
• The outlining of the number of questions: Chengguan determines what Foremost in Wisdom asks as “twenty occurrences of ‘how is one to’, eleven segments in all, each segment of ten clauses, making one hundred ten kinds of virtue,” and brings out two further ways of gathering them up — either gathered into four pairs of cause and fruit (the cause and fruit of merit, the cause and fruit of wisdom, the cause that is skillful understanding and the fruit that is contemplative practice, the cause that is the many practices and the fruit that is completed virtue), or divided into two (the first ten questions asking after the substance of pure conduct, which is asking after cause, and the latter ten asking after what the practice accomplishes, which is asking after fruit). Three outlines stand together upon one and the same passage, and Chengguan does not adjudicate which is right.
• The determination by the five fruits: Chengguan gathers up the latter ten segments by the five fruits — the first one the fruit of maturation, the next four the fruit of a person's exertion, the next two the fruit of disjunction, the next one the dominant fruit, the last two the fruit of uniform outflow. This determination is taken from the gate of fruits in the analysis of dharma-characteristics and applied to the text of this scripture; it belongs to the commentator's own determination.
• The three masters on the name: Chengguan sets up the appositional explanation alone; Fazang, following the Sanskrit original, makes it “the chapter of Perfect Pure Conduct,” adduces Asvabhāva's She lun's “Scripture of Pure Practice” as a different name, and opens both the appositional and the dependent-determinative explanations; Li Tongxuan does not gloss the Sanskrit but establishes the name upon “turning over all views at a stroke.” The three accounts are recorded, with no adjudication.
• The difference in the indication of the cause (at the level of the witnesses): the eighty-fascicle text has “making good use of the mind,” the sixty-fascicle text has “accomplishing bodily, oral, and mental action”; the eye of this chapter is a phrase the sixty-fascicle text does not have. Both are recorded, with no adjudication.
• The objection from no-thought: in the resolution of objections Chengguan records a question — wondrous practice is wholly no-thought; now one sees good and sees evil, vows to depart and vows to complete: how should this be the path? His answer is that to depart from thought in seeking no-thought is not yet to have attained true no-thought, much less the unobstructedness of thought and no-thought; and further, that no-thought is only one among the practices, and could hardly accomplish the sudden perfection in a single thought. This question and answer is where the vows and practice of this chapter meet the line of no-thought, and it is recorded here.
• Ties to other chapters: the seven awakening-factors and three kinds of emptiness and the skill regarding dependent origination asked after in this chapter Chengguan indicates as expounded at length in the chapter The Ten Grounds and in the sixth ground; the ten clauses on refuge and rescue he refers to the beginning of the chapter The Dedications; the ten names of surpassing excellence and eminence he explains by citing the Shidi jing lun; and the two graphs “benefit and gladden” in the praise of the question as bringing benefit to completion he says have already been explained in the chapter Awakening by Light of the same assembly. This chapter asks without explaining; the explaining is in other chapters.
• What is lacking in the Yanyi chao: Chengguan's Suishu yanyi chao has no continuous passage of explanation where the outline of this chapter opens; the occurrences of the Pure Conduct chapter's vow-text within the Chao are all citations serving as instances in the commentary on other chapters, and the absence is set down as the facts stand.
• What is lacking in the Huayan school's treatises: in the Wujiao zhang, the Shixuan men, the Fajie xuanjing, the Huanyuan guan, the Kongmu zhang, and the Qixin lun yiji, the strings “pure conduct,” “he vows: may all sentient beings,” and “make good use of the mind” have no occurrences, and the absence is recorded.
• The distribution of “he vows: may all sentient beings”: this phrase occurs one hundred forty-one times by count in the whole of the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, equal to the number of this chapter's vows — that is, it is found in the whole scripture only in this chapter.