華嚴經 品十二 賢首品Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Foremost in Worthiness

Why This Chapter Stands Last in the Second Assembly

The chapter “Pure Conduct” has just finished setting out the hundred and forty-one vows and just finished speaking of ‘using the mind well’; a person actually practicing will naturally ask: if I go on using my mind this way, vow by vow, what in the end will grow out of it? The Foremost in Worthiness chapter is the answer to that question. Chengguan's judgment of the reason for this chapter's coming is extremely direct: “Now, practice is not set up for nothing; there must be its virtue. Since understanding and practice have been made perfect and wondrous, the excellent virtue must be beyond thought; it gathers up the preceding practice and vows to accomplish the virtuous function of faith, and therefore it comes next.” Practice is not set up in vain; being set up, it must have its virtue. The earlier chapter brought practice and vows to completeness; here what that practice and those vows accomplish is gathered up and spoken of. Zhiyan, over on the sixty-fascicle side, judges it the same way: “Practice having been established, there must next be an extensive praising of the function of its virtue that completes the station; therefore it comes.”

There is a further and tighter thread. Chengguan points out that the long string of questions the Bodhisattva Foremost in Wisdom earlier put to Mañjuśrī was a case of “raising up the fruit to enquire after the cause” — taking the fruit and asking about the cause; and that when Mañjuśrī answered he “set forth that cause at length while indicating the fruit only summarily,” expounding the cause in detail and marking the fruit with a single line, “one obtains all excellent and wondrous merits.” That line was not opened out, and so “therefore he questions Foremost in Worthiness so as to have him extend those words.” Mañjuśrī does not go on himself; he turns and asks Foremost in Worthiness, handing that half which is the virtue of the fruit over to another bodhisattva. This chapter finishes the sentence the previous chapter left unfinished.

Who Foremost in Worthiness Is: The Name Itself Is Doctrine

The chapter's name was not picked at random. Chengguan glosses the two graphs: “that whose substance and nature are utterly compliant, well-governed, and good is called ‘worthy’; that whose auspicious and excellent virtue is surpassing and outstanding is named ‘foremost’” — a substance and nature pliant, compliant, and well-governed is called “worthy”; auspicious and excellent virtue, surpassing and outstanding, is called “foremost.” He also makes clear why at this station the single graph “worthy” is singled out: “The chapter of Foremost in Worthiness, because it stands at the beginning of the station of worthiness and gathers all the virtues, singles out the name ‘worthy.’”

Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle side, comes at it from the Sanskrit, saying, “According to the Sanskrit text the name is bhadra, which here means ‘worthy’; and śrī, which here means ‘auspicious,’ or ‘virtue,’ or ‘foremost,’ or ‘surpassing,’” and he particularly rules out one misreading: “Therefore it is not the ‘foremost’ of ‘the first in order,’ nor the ‘foremost’ of ‘the foremost of the assembly’” — “foremost” is not the foremost of ranking first; it means surpassing and outstanding virtue. He judges the name an appositional compound: “‘Worthy’ pertains to substance and nature, ‘foremost’ to the function of virtue.”

Li Tongxuan's reading takes yet another track: “Beginning as an ordinary person and all at once setting forth in manifest brightness the cause and fruit, the principle and the wisdom, of all the buddhas of the Dharma realm at one and the same moment — this is called ‘Foremost in Worthiness.’” From the stage of an ordinary person to have the whole cause and fruit, principle and wisdom of a buddha shine out at once — only this is called Foremost in Worthiness. The three masters establish the name from different angles — Chengguan with respect to the station, Fazang with respect to the Sanskrit and to substance and function, and Tongxuan with respect to sudden manifestation. These three accounts come down from antiquity; they are recorded, with no adjudication as to higher or lower.

How Many Verses This Chapter Has: Three Numbers and One Thing Misread

The verse lines of the base text count out as seven hundred and seventeen, of which two are Mañjuśrī's question in verse and seven hundred and fifteen are Foremost in Worthiness's answer in verse. This is a fact that can be counted line by line.

The verse-counts recorded by the ancient worthies, however, are three. Chengguan, explaining the eighty-fascicle text, says “the verses number three hundred and fifty-nine and a half,” and divides them into four verses of modest praise and the granting of the exposition, three hundred and forty-six and a half of properly setting forth the excellent virtues, and nine of comparative measure and exhortation to uphold. Fazang's Tanxuan ji says of Foremost in Worthiness's answer that “there are in all three hundred and sixty-three verses: the first thirteen in five graphs to the line, the following three hundred and fifty in seven.” Zhiyan's Souxuan ji says “this chapter has seven hundred and fifteen and a half verses,” of which the answer takes up seven hundred and seven and a half.

The three numbers differ widely, and a reader easily suspects that someone has recorded it wrongly. Here one misunderstanding must be ruled out: the base texts the three masters explain are not the same. Chengguan explains the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka; Fazang and Zhiyan explain the sixty-fascicle. Fazang says “the first thirteen in five graphs to the line,” but in the eighty-fascicle text the opening clauses of the verse lines count out as seven hundred and seventeen lines of seven graphs, and the chapter has no section in five graphs at all; whereas the opening of the sixty-fascicle text does indeed have a section in five graphs. So that count of “five graphs” refers to the sixty-fascicle text. Since it is not one and the same base text, it is not fitting to subtract one number from another and argue about which is longer. Both are recorded, with no adjudication.

Modest Praise and the Granting of the Exposition: The Perfect Sense Hidden in the Words About One Drop of Water

Foremost in Worthiness's first words are “Very well, sir! Listen carefully,” and immediately he is modest about himself: what he expounds is only “like a single drop of water of the great ocean.” Further down he sets up two more similes — “it is as it were the patch of empty space trodden by a bird's two feet, or a single mote of dust upon the great earth.”

Ask one question first: if the merits are immeasurable, why speak at all? Chengguan resolves this passage superbly. He says that Foremost in Worthiness raises verses in answer for two reasons: “first, because few words gather in many senses; second, because fine words in praise and exposition give rise to pure faith.” Verse has few graphs and gathers in much sense, and its words are fine and can make people give rise to pure faith. As for those three modest similes, Chengguan says they carry two senses: “First, it shows a small portion by simile: the virtue of arousing the mind and practicing is like the great void and the great earth, while what is expounded is as narrow as one mote trodden by a foot. Second, it covertly likens them as not different: the space of a bird's foot is not different from the great void, and the finest mote is no other than the great earth.” — The first layer is genuine modesty: what is expounded is only a small portion. The second layer, though, is the hidden sense: the patch of space a bird's foot has trodden is not some other kind of space; it is the great void. The earth-nature of a single mote of dust is no different from the great earth. And so “this summary exposition is in its sense nowhere incomplete.”

Rule out one misreading: do not read these lines as mere politeness and pass on. This is the constant method of the Huayan — hiding the most perfect sense in the most modest place. Brought home to the reader: the one portion of the Buddha's Dharma you can understand today, if it really is that portion, is not of a substance other than the whole; what is to be feared is being unwilling to take even that one portion seriously.

The Character of Arousing the Mind: The Mind Is Not Aroused Out of Nowhere

The first section of properly setting forth the excellent virtues Chengguan judges as “first, five verses on the character of arousing the mind.” The scripture opens with “When a bodhisattva raises his intent and seeks awakening, this is not without cause and not without condition.”

First the question, then the answer: why must it first be declared that this is “not without cause and not without condition”? Because what people most easily do is take the arousing of the mind for a momentary surge of feeling. The scripture at once supplies the cause and condition — “it is because pure faith has arisen toward the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha that from this faith the vast mind arises.” The cause of arousing the mind is pure faith in the three jewels. This one line sets up the skeleton of the whole chapter in advance: the seven verses below on faith, the fifty and a half on the stations of practice that faith possesses, the two hundred and three on the great function faith accomplishes, all hang upon this one line.

The remaining four verses layer by layer rule out misunderstandings and establish the right direction: not seeking the five desires or the position of a king, not seeking wealth and renown, but only “to extinguish forever the suffering of sentient beings and to benefit the world that he arouses this mind”; positively, “he constantly wishes to benefit and bring ease to all sentient beings, to adorn the lands, to make offerings to the buddhas”; a step further, “the faith and understanding of his deep mind are constantly pure; he reveres and honors all the buddhas”; and finally it comes down to four things: faith in the Buddha, faith in the Dharma, faith in the path practiced by the sons of the Buddha, and faith in the unsurpassed great awakening. Brought home to oneself: in examining one's own arousing of the mind, one need not ask how fervent it is; one should ask what it hangs upon — what hangs upon feeling will fall back; only what hangs upon faith will stand.

Faith Is the Origin of the Path and the Mother of Merits: The Eye of the Whole Chapter

“Faith is the origin of the path and the mother of merits; it nurtures and grows all wholesome dharmas; it cuts off the net of doubt and brings one out of the flood of craving; it opens and shows the unsurpassed path of nirvāṇa.” This is the most celebrated verse of the whole chapter, and it is also the single line most often quoted whenever Han Buddhism speaks of faith. Chengguan judges these seven verses to be “the summary showing of its excellent capacity,” and says that their structure is “the first verse is the general indication, the next five verses the separate explanation, and the last verse the general conclusion.”

Let two words be made plain first. Origin of the path — origin means the beginning, the root; faith is the starting point of entering the path. Mother of merits — a mother is what can give birth; all merits are born from here. Two figures are used in succession, one horizontal and one vertical: horizontally it is the doorway, vertically it is the root. The lower half of the verse states two workings of faith: cutting off the net of doubt, and coming out of the flood of craving. Doubt is like a net that snares a person so that he cannot go forward; craving is like a flood that carries a person off so that he cannot stand. Once faith arises the net is broken and one comes out of the flood, and thereupon “it opens and shows the unsurpassed path of nirvāṇa.”

Then come five verses of separate explanation, clause after clause with faith as the subject. Within these seven verses the graph “faith” counts out as seventeen occurrences — this is not rhetorical repetition; it is Chengguan's so-called “summary showing of its excellent capacity” in operation: pointing out every one of faith's capacities. Faith makes the mind free of stain and turbid disorder and does away with arrogance; faith is “the foremost treasure of wealth within the treasury of the Dharma,” the “pure hand” that receives all practices; faith can make one give without stinting, enter the Dharma with joy, increase the merit of wisdom, and reach the ground of the Tathāgata without fail; faith makes the faculties pure, bright, and keen, and the power of faith is firm and cannot be spoiled; faith clings to nothing in any sphere of objects and can pass beyond the paths of the māras; faith is the seed of merit that cannot be spoiled and can grow the tree of awakening. The last verse concludes by coming down upon rarity: “delight in faith is the most excellent and also the hardest of all to obtain; it is just as in all the world it is hard to meet with that wondrous jewel that grants whatever the mind wishes.”

Rule out the commonest misunderstanding: faith here is not ‘believing provisionally until one understands.’ Were it that, it could only serve as a beginner's expedient and could not be the “mother of merits.” The scripture says it “can increase and grow the merit of wisdom” and “can bring one without fail to the ground of the Tathāgata” — that is, faith runs through to the end and walks together with wisdom. Brought home to oneself: when a person has practiced a long time and finds it has gone dry, more often than not it is not that concentration is insufficient but that faith has receded — without that portion of settled conviction that one “will without fail arrive,” every Dharma-gate is only a pastime.

Faith in the Three Jewels Accomplishing Practice: From Serving in Faith to the Sequence

From “if one can constantly serve the buddhas in faith, then one can uphold the precepts and cultivate the points of training” onward, the scripture changes to a particular clause-pattern: the first clause is the cause, the second the fruit, and the second then becomes the cause of the next verse, link locking into link. This long chain counts out in the base text as seventy-four rounds of “if … then …”. Chengguan judges that “third, from ‘if one constantly serves in faith’ onward, fifty and a half verses, extensively clarifying the stations of practice possessed within faith,” of which the first eight and a half verses are the practices possessed.

Ask first: why is a special sequential pattern used in speaking of faith? Because faith is not an isolated state of mind; it gives birth to things. This passage first sets up three roots: faith in the Buddha yields the ability to uphold the precepts and cultivate the training, and to raise and prepare great offerings; faith in the Dharma yields hearing the Dharma without ever having enough; faith in the Saṅgha yields a mind of faith that does not turn back. Each of the three jewels is matched with a fruit, and thereafter the faculties are pure, bright, and keen, one leaves far behind the bad friend, draws near the good friend, cultivates and amasses the vast good, accomplishes the great power of cause, and obtains an excellent and settled understanding — pushing on link by link. In the middle one verse is inserted on the precepts: “The precepts can open up the root of awakening, and training is the ground upon which one diligently cultivates merit.”

Ruling out a misreading: the sequential clauses are not a mechanical chain of cause and effect; in reading them one should see that every link comes back to faith. Brought home to oneself: this passage is in fact a measuring rod by which to check which link one's own faith has reached — if you still find yourself circling around bad friends, that shows the link of “faculties pure, bright, and keen” has not yet been passed.

The Station of the Ten Abodes: From Settled Understanding to Being Born in the House of the Tathāgata

Chengguan judges that “second, from ‘if by the buddhas’ onward, thirty-nine verses, clarifying the stations possessed,” and judges the first three verses to be the station of the ten abodes. The scriptural text is the three verses from “if one obtains an excellent and settled understanding, then one will be held in mind and protected by the buddhas” onward, ending with “then one can obtain a mind of delight in faith that is pure.”

First the question, then the answer: how is it that from settled understanding a single step brings one to “being born in the house of the Tathāgata”? Because what is called being born in the house of the Tathāgata does not speak of a change of status but of the establishing of a lineage — once settled understanding is established, one is held in mind and protected by the buddhas, arouses the mind of awakening, diligently cultivates the merits of the Buddha, and thereupon enters the lineage of the buddhas. The scripture's figure of the “house” in “being born in the house of the Tathāgata” takes precisely the sense that one can no longer fall back out of it.

Here one must keep in mind Chengguan's judgment of the whole passage: all of this is still what is possessed within the gate of faith. Brought home to oneself: to read “being born in the house of the Tathāgata” and think it far removed from oneself is to have read this chapter too narrowly — the scripture is saying precisely that within the gate of faith this station is already possessed.

The Station of the Ten Practices: From the Ascendant Mind to a Mind Unmoving in Making Offerings to the Buddhas

The station of the ten practices Chengguan judges as two and a half verses. The scriptural text: “if one obtains a mind of delight in faith that is pure, then one can obtain the ascendant, most excellent mind; if one obtains the ascendant, most excellent mind, then one can constantly cultivate the perfections,” and thereafter “then one can be furnished with the great vehicle,” “then one can make offerings to the buddhas in accordance with the Dharma,” “then one can be mindful of the Buddha with a mind that does not waver.”

The great vehicle here stands in a transcription of the Sanskrit. That being furnished with the great vehicle is attached here after constantly cultivating the perfections says that the great vehicle is not a title of affiliation but the substance of what remains once the six perfections have been cultivated to the full. And immediately after comes “making offerings to the buddhas in accordance with the Dharma” — the two words “in accordance with the Dharma” added to offering rule out offerings that are mere form. Brought home to oneself: when a person practices and his mind is constantly unsteady, more often than not it is not that concentration is insufficient, but that the earlier link, “the ascendant, most excellent mind,” has not truly been established.

The Station of the Ten Dedications: From Constantly Seeing the Buddhas to Setting Forth Boundless Dharma

The station of the ten dedications Chengguan judges as three verses. The scriptural text runs from “if one can be mindful of the Buddha with a mind that does not waver, then one can constantly behold measureless buddhas,” through “then one can see that the substance and nature of the Tathāgata abides constantly,” “then one can know that the Dharma is never cut off and extinguished,” “then one obtains eloquence that is unobstructed,” to “then one can set forth boundless Dharma-gates.”

Chengguan has one important distinction to make in this passage: “that the Dharma is never extinguished is dedication toward the true limit; the rest is dedication toward sentient beings.” Dedication has two destinations, one toward the true limit (suchness) and one toward sentient beings; among these lines of the scripture, the line “knowing that the Dharma is never cut off and extinguished” is the one dedicated toward the true limit, and the rest are dedicated toward sentient beings.

Ask first: how does seeing the buddhas arrive at knowing that the Dharma is not extinguished? Because what is seen is not the Buddha's form but “the substance and nature of the Tathāgata abiding constantly.” See the form and the form has arising and ceasing; see the substance and one knows the Dharma is not extinguished. And once one knows the Dharma is not extinguished, one speaks without fear, and so there is unobstructed eloquence. Brought home to oneself: eloquence here is not a gift for talk; it is that there is truly no doubt within, and therefore one can say it.

From the First Ground to the Seventh: From Compassionately Delivering Beings to Passing Beyond the Four Māras

Chengguan judges that “fourth, from ‘if one obtains the firm’ onward, thirty and a half verses clarifying the stations of the ten grounds,” and judges that “the first half-verse is the first ground.” The sequential clauses of this passage begin from “then one can compassionately deliver sentient beings” and “then one can obtain a firm mind of great compassion,” and pass through loving and delighting in the most profound Dharma, casting off the faults of the conditioned, leaving behind arrogance and heedlessness, benefiting all sentient beings together, dwelling in birth-and-death without weariness, being valiant and strong with none able to surpass one, raising up great supernormal powers, knowing the movements of beings' minds, bringing beings to accomplishment, obtaining the wisdom that gathers beings in well, and accomplishing the four means of gathering, to “then one can give sentient beings benefit without limit.”

First the question, then the answer: what is the mark of a bodhisattva upon the grounds? On this passage it is not the supernormal powers, but the firmness of the mind of great compassion and dwelling in birth-and-death without weariness. The supernormal powers appear very late here, and moreover as “if one dwells within birth-and-death without weariness, then one can be valiant and strong, with none able to surpass one” and “if one can be valiant and strong with none able to surpass one, then one can raise up vast supernormal powers” — the supernormal powers stand after freedom from weariness. The four means of gathering (giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and working alongside beings) appear at the close of this passage and come to rest at “giving sentient beings benefit without limit.”

Ruling out a misreading: do not read the stations as heights upon a staircase. Every link here is one capacity giving birth to another, not an accumulation of seniority.

The Eighth Ground: The Most Excellent Wisdom and Skillful Means, and the Crushing of the Māras

Chengguan judges that “seventh, from ‘if one is furnished with the most excellent’ onward, three verses clarifying the eighth ground,” and lists six senses, the first of which is “first, the excellence of the path: that is, the path of no applied effort, and therefore it says ‘valiant and unsurpassed.’” The scriptural text is “if one can give sentient beings benefit without limit, then one is furnished with the most excellent wisdom and skillful means; if one is furnished with the most excellent wisdom and skillful means, then one dwells upon the valiant, unsurpassed great path,” and thence through crushing and destroying the power of the māras and passing beyond the sphere of the four māras to the ground of non-retrogression, and on to “then one can obtain the profound patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.”

The mark of the eighth ground in the scriptures and treatises is the practice of no applied effort — no longer deliberately exerting force, and yet the practice accomplishes itself. Chengguan says that what the four words “valiant and unsurpassed” mark is precisely this path of no applied effort. The four māras are the māra of the afflictions, the māra of the aggregates, the māra of death, and the māra of the heavens; passing beyond the four māras one comes to the ground of non-retrogression, and not retrogressing one obtains the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.

Ruling out a misreading: the word “valiant” is easily read as exertion. Here it is precisely the opposite: it is not exerting force and yet being unbreakable. Brought home to oneself: the barriers one truly gets past are usually not the ones gritted out by clenching the teeth, but the ones where something within no longer needs to be held up.

The Ninth Ground: Receiving the Prediction and Becoming a Great Master of the Dharma

Chengguan judges that “eighth, two verses clarifying the ninth ground, acting as a great master of the Dharma,” and briefly distinguishes four senses. The scriptural text: “if one obtains the profound patient acceptance of non-arising, then one will receive the prediction from the buddhas; if one receives the prediction from the buddhas, all the buddhas will appear before one,” and thereafter “then one can penetrate the deep and secret working of the supernormal powers” and “then one will be borne in mind by the buddhas.”

The mark of the ninth ground among the stations is fine wisdom, freedom in expounding the Dharma, and so Chengguan marks it as “acting as a great master of the Dharma.” Yet these two verses do not speak of eloquence; they speak of receiving the prediction, of the buddhas appearing before one, and of being borne in mind by the buddhas — ask first: why, in speaking of a master of the Dharma, speak of these? Because the capital for expounding the Dharma does not lie in phrasing but in there being buddhas to attest what is expounded. To receive the prediction is for a buddha to confirm that one will become a buddha; the buddhas appearing before one and bearing one in mind means that the Dharma one expounds has a source. Brought home to oneself: whether one can expound the Dharma is first a question of whether what one expounds has a provenance.

The Excellent Virtue of the Three Kinds of Act on the Tenth Ground: Adorning Oneself with the Buddha's Virtue

Chengguan judges that “ninth, from ‘if by the Buddha's virtue’ onward, nineteen verses clarifying the station of the tenth ground,” of which “the first eight verses are the excellent virtue of the three kinds of act,” and judges further that “the first five and a half verses are the act of body” and “the latter two verses are the excellence of the act of mind, since wisdom goes before.” The scriptural text runs from “if one is borne in mind by the buddhas, then one can adorn oneself with the merits of the Buddha” through the body of wondrous blessings and upright beauty, the body shining dazzling like a mountain of gold, the thirty-two marks, the secondary signs, the light of the body without limit, the adornment of light beyond thought, lotus flowers born from the light, buddhas seated upon the flowers, and appearing throughout the ten quarters to tame sentient beings, to “then one displays measureless powers of supernormal transformation” and “then one dwells in lands beyond thought.”

Ask first: why does the tenth ground speak mostly of the marks and signs? Because at this point the virtue has become manifest in form. The thirty-two marks and the secondary signs are not decoration; they are the outward appearing of virtue. The scripture says “if one adorns oneself with the merits of the Buddha” — the material of the adornment is the Buddha's virtue, and nothing else. And the furthest reach of the marks and signs is lotus flowers issuing from the light, buddhas seated upon the flowers, and appearing everywhere in the ten quarters to tame sentient beings — the marks and signs come to rest at last upon delivering beings, not upon one's own adornment.

Ruling out a misreading: do not take this passage for a display of wondrous appearances. Its syntax is “if … then …”; each mark is the fruit of the virtue before it, and what one should watch in reading is that line of cause and effect.

The Vast Merit of the Three Kinds of Act: With Wisdom Going Before

Chengguan judges that “second, from ‘if with wisdom going before’ onward, four verses clarifying the vast merit of the three kinds of act and the virtue of gathering beings by the three wheels,” and divides it into “the first verse the act of body, the next the act of speech, the last two the act of mind.” The scriptural text runs from “then one can, by the power of wisdom and eloquence, guide and draw them on in accordance with the minds of sentient beings” to “then one can make wisdom go before, so that the acts of body, speech, and mind are constantly without fault,” “then the power of one's vows attains freedom, and one can manifest a body universally in accordance with every destiny,” “the sound of one's voice transforms according to each kind of being, beyond thought,” and ends at “then one can, toward the minds of all sentient beings, know them all in a single thought with nothing left over.”

There is one line here worth remembering by itself: “make wisdom go before, so that the acts of body, speech, and mind are constantly without fault.” The guarantee that the three kinds of act will not go wrong lies not in the fineness of the precept-rules but in wisdom walking in front. Chengguan says that what makes the act of mind on the tenth ground excellent is precisely that “wisdom goes before.”

Brought home to oneself: ordinary people manage the three kinds of act by after-the-fact repair — apologizing for a wrong word, repenting a wrong deed. This line offers another way: let wisdom take one step first. The two words “go before” denote order, not degree.

Distinguishing the Obtaining of the Dharma and Concluding the Station, and the Samādhi and the Receiving of the Station: From Knowing That the Afflictions Do Not Arise to Being Fit to Receive Consecration

Chengguan judges that “third, from ‘if one knows the afflictions’ onward, two verses distinguishing the obtaining of the Dharma and concluding the station,” and judges further what belongs to “fourth, from ‘if one obtains the ten grounds’ onward, three verses clarifying the samādhi and the receiving of the station.” The scriptural text runs from “then one knows that the afflictions have of themselves no arising, and thereby will never sink and drown within birth-and-death,” through “then one obtains the body of the nature of dharmas that is accomplished by merit, and by the majestic power of the Dharma appears within the world,” “then one obtains the ten grounds and the ten kinds of freedom, and cultivating the perfections obtains excellent liberation,” “then one obtains the great supernormal power of consecration and dwells within the most excellent samādhis,” to “then in the presence of the buddhas of the ten quarters one is fit to receive consecration and to ascend to the station.”

Ask first: the afflictions plainly do arise; how can it be said that they have “no arising”? What is spoken of here is knowing — knowing that of themselves they do not arise. The effect of that knowing the scripture supplies itself: “will never sink and drown within birth-and-death.” It is not that there is no birth-and-death; it is not sinking and drowning in it.

Consecration and the ascent to the station are the furthest point of the succession of stations. The figure of consecration is taken from the worldly rite of installing a crown prince, in which water is poured upon the head and the station is thereby settled; here it says that one receives consecration in the presence of the buddhas of the ten quarters, meaning that this station is attested by all the buddhas together.

The Great Function Beyond Fathoming and Advancing into the Buddha-Ground: The Body Filling and Pervading Like Empty Space

Chengguan judges that “from ‘if one is favored’ onward, two verses, which are also the advancing into the buddha-ground.” The scriptural text: “then one is favored by all the buddhas of the ten quarters, who with their hands take sweet dew and pour it upon one's crown”; “then one's body fills and pervades like empty space, dwelling unmoving and yet filling the ten quarters”; “then the sphere in which one moves is beyond compare, and neither gods nor humans can fathom it.”

The consecration with sweet dew makes concrete the mark of consecration in the preceding section. What matters is the juxtaposition of the two lines that follow: filling and pervading and unmoving are said at the same time. The body fills and pervades like empty space, and at the same time dwells unmoving and fills the ten quarters — this is exactly the sense that the two hundred and more verses of the latter half of the chapter are to unfold: pervading and stillness do not obstruct one another. Here one line is buried in advance; below, the ten samādhi-gates set it forth one by one. Brought home to oneself: at a certain point in practice one finds that delivering beings widely and an unmoving ground of mind are not two things to be balanced but two faces of one thing.

The Concluding Praise of That Virtue: The Mass of Merit Is Like the Adamant of the Great Ocean

Chengguan judges that “third, from ‘the bodhisattva diligently cultivates’ onward, three verses concluding with praise of that virtue, the first two expounding by way of dharma, the last one illustrating by simile.” The scriptural text: “A bodhisattva diligently cultivates the practice of great compassion and vows to deliver all sentient beings, and there is none in whom it is not fulfilled; those who see him, hear him, receive his Dharma, or make offerings to him — there is none who does not thereby obtain ease and joy”; “The majestic and supernormal power of those great beings is such that the eye of Dharma is constantly whole, without diminution”; and the last verse is the simile — “Just as within the great ocean there is a mass of adamant, and by its majestic power the many jewels are produced, neither decreasing nor increasing nor ever exhausted — so too is the bodhisattva's mass of merit.”

One must see clearly what this simile likens. The mass of adamant in the great ocean does not itself turn into jewels; it is “by its majestic power the many jewels are produced” — by its majestic power the many jewels come to be, while it itself “neither decreases nor increases nor is ever exhausted.” So too the bodhisattva's mass of merit: it brings forth measureless benefit and yet does not itself diminish by the giving.

Ruling out a misreading: do not think of merit as a deposit that will be used up. The scripture says plainly that its nature is neither to increase nor to decrease. Brought home to oneself: to fear that doing much will use one up is to be looking at merit as a deposit.

The Section of the Boundless Great Function: How the Outline-Names of the Ten Samādhi-Gates Should Be Read

From “in some lands there is no buddha” onward, the scripture enters the longest passage of the whole chapter. Chengguan judges it as “fourth, from ‘in some lands’ onward, two hundred and three verses, clarifying the section of the boundless great function,” and judges that upon which it rests: “That he is able to exercise this boundless great function is by reason of the pervasion of the virtue of Samantabhadra.”

In reading this passage there is a matter of editorial form that must be made clear first. Chengguan here sets out the names of ten gates: “first, the gate of the perfectly bright ocean-seal samādhi; second, the gate of the samādhi of the wondrous practice of the flower ornament; third, the gate of the samādhi of Indra's net; fourth, the gate of the samādhi of extensive offerings issuing from the hand; fifth, the gate of the samādhi of manifesting the various Dharma-gates; sixth, the gate of the samādhi of gathering beings by the four means of gathering; seventh, the gate of the samādhi of stooping to be one with the world; eighth, the gate of the samādhi of the benefit conferred by the shining of light from the hair-pores; ninth, the gate of the samādhi of the splendor of principal and companions; tenth, the gate of the samādhi of stillness and function without shore.” — These ten gate-names are Chengguan's outline-names, not the scripture's own designations. The samādhis the scripture itself names, counted clause by clause, are seven: the ocean-seal samādhi, the flower-ornament samādhi, the wondrous samādhi named According to Delight, the samādhi of expounding the Dharma, the excellent samādhi named Ease and Joy, the sun-lamp samādhi, and the excellent samādhi named Net of Quarters. Of these, the two names “the samādhi of expounding the Dharma” and “the sun-lamp samādhi” are not among Chengguan's ten gates. So wherever below one finds such names as “the gate of the samādhi of Indra's net” or “the gate of the samādhi of extensive offerings issuing from the hand,” these are without exception Chengguan's outline-names, and the reader should not take them for samādhi-names original to the scripture.

Let one further thing be recorded in passing: where Chengguan sets out the names of the ten gates he has “the gate of the samādhi of the wondrous practice of the flower ornament,” while where he explains the text section by section he has “the samādhi of the fine practice of the flower ornament”; both designations are met with in his commentary, and they are recorded, with no adjudication.

The Gate of the Ocean-Seal Samādhi: All Is Manifested, and Yet the One Who Manifests Has No Mind About It

Chengguan judges that “now for the first: six verses clarifying the ocean-seal samādhi.” The scriptural text runs from “in some lands there is no buddha, and there the bodhisattva displays the attaining of perfect awakening” onward, speaking of displaying the attaining of buddhahood where there is no buddha and expounding the treasury of the Dharma where the Dharma is unknown; “without discrimination and without applied effort, in a single thought he pervades the ten quarters”; in the ten quarters, thought after thought, displaying the accomplishing of the buddha-path, turning the wheel of Dharma, entering quiescence, and distributing relics; or displaying the teachings of the three vehicles; or displaying the forms of boys and girls, of gods, dragons, and asuras, and even of mahoragas; and the last line concludes: “all of this he is able to manifest, and this is the majestic power of the ocean-seal samādhi.”

The ocean-seal is a name the scripture itself supplies. Ask first: why is it called the ocean-seal? When the ocean-water is clear and still, the myriad images are all imprinted within it, and yet the ocean has not gone out to imprint them. The key line of this passage is exactly “without discrimination and without applied effort” — without discriminating, without applying effort, and yet manifesting everywhere throughout the ten quarters.

Rule out one misunderstanding: do not read “displaying” as performing. What the scripture says is that in a land without a buddha he displays the attaining of buddhahood, and in a land that does not know the Dharma he expounds the treasury of the Dharma — what is manifested is determined by what that place lacks, not by the wish of the one who manifests. Brought home to oneself: real benefiting of others is determined by what is needed, not by what one would like to do.

The Gate of the Samādhi of the Wondrous Practice of the Flower Ornament: Adornment and the Six Perfections Expounded Together

Chengguan judges that “second, from ‘he adorns and purifies’ onward, the samādhi of the fine practice of the flower ornament. The text has ten clauses, summarily distinguishing seven practices.” The scriptural text runs from “he adorns and purifies those buddha-lands beyond thought, makes offerings to all the buddhas and Tathāgatas” onward, speaking of releasing great light, delivering sentient beings, wisdom free, and expounding the Dharma unobstructed, and then lists “giving, keeping the precepts, patience, energy, and meditation, wisdom, skillful means, and the supernormal powers, and the rest,” ending at “in all of this he attains freedom, and it is by the power of the Buddha's flower-ornament samādhi.”

The flower-ornament samādhi is likewise a name the scripture itself supplies. Chengguan says that within these ten clauses “the seventh and eighth are the practice of the ten perfections” — that is, those two lines that list the six perfections and on to skillful means and the supernormal powers gather in the ten perfections. So the content of this gate is in fact of the plainest: adorning the lands, making offerings to the buddhas, delivering beings, plus the six perfections and the myriad practices. That it is named for the flower ornament while what it expounds is the six perfections shows precisely that the flower-ornament samādhi does not lie outside the six perfections.

Brought home to oneself: reading the four graphs “flower-ornament samādhi” easily gives rise to abstruse imaginings, but the scripture gives only giving, precepts, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. What is abstruse is that “in all of this he attains freedom,” not the items themselves.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Indra's Net: Entering Samādhi Within a Single Mote of Dust

Chengguan judges that “third, from ‘within a single mote of dust’ onward, four verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of Indra's net,” and says “the first two lines indicate the mind and its object in concentration.” The scriptural text: “Within a single mote of dust he enters samādhi and accomplishes the concentrations of all motes of dust, and yet that mote of dust does not grow larger, while within this one mote he universally manifests lands beyond thought”; within that one mote there are lands in multitude, some with buddhas and some without, some defiled and some pure, some vast and some narrow, some forming and some decaying, some upright and some tilted; “some are like the shimmering heat-haze of the open wilds, and some like Indra's jeweled net in the heavens”; and at the end, “as is displayed within this one mote of dust, so it is within all motes of dust.”

Ask first: how can a single mote of dust contain countless lands? The scripture has already blocked the easiest wrong construal — “and yet that mote of dust does not grow larger.” The mote has not become bigger. So this is not a question of spatial containment.

The four graphs “Indra's net” in the name of the gate are Chengguan's outline-name; the scripture itself has only the one simile-phrase “or like Indra's jeweled net in the heavens.” Indra's net is the jeweled net above the palace of Śakra, with a pearl fastened at each mesh, and pearl reflecting pearl, and within each reflection again containing every reflection, layer upon layer without end. Chengguan takes this simile to establish the name of the gate, taking precisely that layer upon layer without end.

Brought home to oneself: what this gate teaches is not imagination but a judgment — the small does not, because it is small, contain less. A single act that looks negligible contains no less than a great one.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Extensive Offerings Issuing from the Hand (First Half): One Hand Pervading the Three Thousandfold World

Chengguan judges that “fourth, from ‘if he wishes’ onward, eighteen verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of extensive offerings issuing from the hand, the first one being the general indication, the last one the general conclusion, and those between the separate display.” The first three verses are the general indication and the raising of the hand: “If he wishes to make offerings to all the buddhas, he enters samādhi and gives rise to supernormal transformation, so that with a single hand he can cover the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system and make offerings universally to all the Tathāgatas”; and thereafter the excellent and wondrous flowers of the ten quarters, unguents and powdered incense and jewels beyond price all issue from his hand as offerings to the most excellent ones beneath the tree of awakening; priceless jeweled robes, mixed wondrous incense, jeweled banners and pennons and canopies, flowers of true gold and curtains of jewels — “there is not one of them that is not rained down from his palm.”

Ask first: why must the offerings issue from the hand? Because what this gate displays is that the articles of offering are not sought from outside. When he would make offerings he need not first go and accumulate them; the samādhi once arisen, the things follow. This removes entirely that layer of obstruction which is ‘having the heart to make offerings but not the means.’

Brought home to oneself: in reading this passage it is easy to see only the splendor of the transformation. What one should look at is the premise — “if he wishes to make offerings to all the buddhas.” The wishing comes first, the being able comes after.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Extensive Offerings Issuing from the Hand (Latter Half): Offerings Issuing from the Palm and Offerings Issuing from the Light

The latter fifteen verses spread the matter out item by item. First what issues from the palm: the wondrous things of the ten quarters, the music of the ten quarters (bells and drums, zithers and lutes), the hymns of praise of the ten quarters — “are set forth from within his palm.” Then it turns to what issues from the light: the right hand releases a pure light, and within the light fragrant water rains down and sprinkles everywhere over the ten quarters; further a light of Wondrous Adornment is released and brings forth jeweled lotus flowers; further the seven lights of the Adornment of Flowers, of Fragrance, of Powdered Incense, of Robes, of Jewels, of Lotuses, and of Necklaces, each of which ‘gathers such and such things into a curtain’ and “scatters it everywhere over the lands of the ten quarters as an offering to all the World-Honored Ones of great virtue” — these seven clauses are of one pattern, and in the base text count out as seven occurrences; then the light of the Adornment of Banners and the canopies adorned with mixed jewels, the silken pennons, and the maṇi jeweled bells; and it concludes generally with “The articles of offering brought forth from his hand are beyond thought — thus does he make offerings to one guide, and in the presence of every buddha it is likewise so; this is the supernormal power of the great being's samādhi.”

Ruling out a misreading: this long string of clauses of one pattern is not the redundancy of a copyist. The repetition of one pattern is itself the meaning — the matter of making offerings is done in the same way in every quarter and in the presence of every buddha, with no thickness or thinness. Brought home to oneself: what is called universal offering lies not in how magnificently one offers on one occasion, but in treating every place alike.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Manifesting the Various Dharma-Gates: Twenty Gates of Dharma-Medicine

Chengguan judges that “fifth, from ‘the bodhisattva dwells’ onward, eight verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of manifesting the various Dharma-gates,” and divides it into four, of which “the first one is the general indication of the many gates.” The scriptural text runs from “the bodhisattva dwelling within samādhi gathers in sentient beings by every kind of free means” onward, listing clause by clause “or by the Dharma-gate of …,” which in the base text counts out as twenty gates: making offerings to the Tathāgata, giving beyond thought, the ascetic practices and keeping the precepts, unshaken patient endurance, ascetic energy, quiescent meditation, decisive wisdom, skillful means in what is practiced, the Brahmā-abidings and the supernormal powers, benefit through the four means of gathering, the adornment of merit and wisdom, liberation through causes and conditions, the faculties and powers and the right path, the śrāvakas' liberation, the pratyekabuddhas' purity, the great vehicle's freedom, impermanence and the many sufferings, no self and no living being, impurity and freedom from desire, and the samādhi of cessation. It gathers all of this up with three clauses beginning “according as”: “According as the sicknesses of sentient beings differ, he treats them all with the medicine of Dharma; according as their minds delight in this or that, he satisfies them all by skillful means; according to the differences in their conduct, he brings them all to accomplishment by skillful devices.”

Ask first: is there higher and lower among these twenty gates? From the three “according as” clauses, no — the criterion lies not in the height of the gate but in the sickness of the being. And so the gate of the śrāvakas' liberation stands alongside the gate of the great vehicle's freedom, and the gate of impermanence and the many sufferings alongside the gate of the samādhi of cessation.

Ruling out a misreading: do not suppose that because the Huayan is the perfect teaching it uses only the highest Dharma-gate. This passage says precisely that a bodhisattva keeps twenty gates ready as one keeps medicines ready. Brought home to oneself: to urge the Dharma upon others and recommend only the one gate one likes best is to have made a medicine into a preference.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Gathering Beings by the Four Means of Gathering (First Half): The Samādhi According to Delight, and Giving and Kindly Speech

Chengguan judges that “sixth, from ‘there is a wondrous’ onward, seventeen verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of gathering beings by the four means of gathering.” The first five verses begin from the name the scripture itself supplies: “There is a wondrous samādhi named According to Delight; the bodhisattva dwelling in it contemplates universally, and displaying himself as is fitting he delivers sentient beings, causing them all to rejoice in mind and to follow the transforming power of the Dharma.” Thereafter comes gathering by giving: in a kalpa of famine and calamity he gives the articles of ease and satisfies whatever they wish; food of the finest savor, jeweled robes and ornaments, and even the position of a king he can give away, “so that those who delight in giving all follow his transforming power”; then he appears adorned with the marks and signs, with garments, flower-garlands, and fragrance anointing the body, “whatever forms, features, and garments the world loves and esteems … he manifests universally as is fitting to them and satisfies their minds.”

Ask first: does gathering people by beautiful form and features not fall into worldliness? The scripture's own wording is “satisfies their minds” and “comply with the path” — to go along with their minds is in order to draw them into the path. The samādhi is named According to Delight, and what it accords with is precisely what sentient beings delight in.

Ruling out a misreading: according with delight is not indulging delight. What the scripture says immediately after is “causing them all to rejoice in mind and to follow the transforming power of the Dharma” — rejoicing is the means, following the Dharma's transforming power is the end. Brought home to oneself: whether one is willing, in drawing a person in, to take one step in his direction first is a matter of the measure of compassion, not a concession of principle.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Gathering Beings by the Four Means of Gathering (Latter Half): Gathering by Working Alongside and by Beneficial Conduct

The latter twelve verses turn to speech and to deeds. First the furthest reach of kindly speech: the wondrous notes of the kalaviṅka, the kokila, and the rest, “every kind of pure Brahmā-sound is fully his, and according as the minds of sentient beings delight he expounds the Dharma for them”; then it lists the eighty-four thousand Dharma-gates by which he transforms and delivers as is fitting. Then comes gathering by working alongside — “Suffering and pleasure, gain and loss, and all such things done in the world, he is able to manifest correspondingly and to work at them alongside sentient beings”; and all the sufferings and troubles of the world, deep and wide as the sea, “he shares alongside them and is able to endure them all.” Below that, for those who do not know how to go forth from the world he displays casting off country and wealth and leaving the household life, and explains the reason: “The household is the place where craving binds; wishing that sentient beings should all be freed from it”; and for those whose lifespan is long and whose pleasures are ample he displays undergoing old age, sickness, and death; and for those blazing with craving, hatred, and delusion he manifests old age, sickness, and death. It concludes with the Tathāgata's ten powers, fearlessnesses, eighteen exclusive dharmas, and three displays that guide, all of which he can manifest, and closes with the lotus simile: “it is just as the lotus grows in the water and yet is not stained by it — thus does he dwell in the world and cause deep faith.”

First the question, then the answer: where is the hardest part of gathering by working alongside? In “he is able to endure them all.” To share one and the same affair with sentient beings is to undergo the suffering that lies within that affair. The scripture describes that suffering as “deep and wide as the great ocean,” and then says that he can endure it.

The simile of the lotus not clinging to water is the eye of this whole gate. To work alongside without being carried along, to comply without being stained — brought home to oneself: willing to go in, and able to come out again; neither of these two can be missing.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Stooping to Be One with the World (First Half): Entering the Occupations of the World

Chengguan judges that “seventh, from ‘elegant in thought’ onward, seventeen verses, the gate of the samādhi of stooping to be one with the world,” and divides it so that “the first six are being of the same body as the world.” The scripture lists the worldly identities the bodhisattva manifests: elegant in thought and deep in talent, singing, dancing, and discourse, all the arts and crafts like an illusionist; an elder, the lord of a town, a caravan-leader, a king or a great minister, a good physician; in the open wilds becoming a great tree, healing herbs, a hoard of jewels, a jewel that answers whatever is sought; and when a world has newly formed and beings have not yet the articles that sustain the body, “then the bodhisattva becomes an artisan and displays for them every kind of trade.” At the end it sets one boundary: “He does not make things that oppress and vex sentient beings; he speaks only of what benefits the world.”

What deserves particular notice in this passage is how concretely it writes the occupations of the world — physician, merchant, artisan, king. Bodhisattva practice is not confined within the lecture hall. And the boundary is equally clear: crafts may be manifested, but “things that oppress and vex sentient beings” alone are not made.

Brought home to oneself: this passage is for people living in the household. The trade you practice can itself be a gate of stooping to be one with the world, and there is only one criterion — does it benefit people, or does it oppress and vex them?

The Gate of the Samādhi of Stooping to Be One with the World (Latter Half): Entering Among the Outsiders and Expounding the Four Truths

The latter fifteen and a half verses go one step further and manifest the bodies of outsiders. The scripture lists: one gone forth among the outsiders, undergoing hardship in mountain forests, going bare and without garments and yet acting as their teacher; manifesting the practices of wrong livelihood, manifesting the bearing of a brahmanical ascetic and acting as their foremost; undergoing the five heats and turning with the sun, keeping the ox-, dog-, and deer-vows, wearing cast-off rags and serving the fire; displaying visits to the shrines of the gods, entering the waters of the Ganges, eating roots and fruits; displaying squatting, standing on one raised foot, lying upon grass and thorns and ashes, lying upon a wooden pestle in the quest for deliverance. At the end it states the effect: “observing what their minds understand, he works alongside them, and the austerities he displays the world can hardly bear, so that seeing them they are all tamed.” Then it turns to the exposition proper: for those who take up wrong teachings and dwell in evil views he expounds the wondrous Dharma by skillful means, and that Dharma is the four truths — the scripture expounds the four truths in ten successive clauses, which in the base text count out as ten: the incantatory speech of the borderlands, skillful secret speech, the plain speech of humankind, the secret speech of the gods, distinguishing of the written word, decisive determining of the sense, skillful refuting of other positions, a principle no outsider can shake, the speech of the eight classes, and speech of every kind whatsoever. It closes with “to know that the sphere of speech is beyond thought — this is called the power of the samādhi of expounding the Dharma,” which is likewise a name the scripture itself supplies.

Ask first: if a bodhisattva manifests the practices of outsiders and of wrong livelihood, is he not teaching people wrong dharmas? The sequence in the scripture answers this — first he “works alongside them,” and afterward he “expounds the wondrous Dharma”; what he manifests is the place where he stands, and what he expounds is the four truths. Working alongside is the door; the four truths are what is given.

Ruling out a misreading: do not read this passage as meaning that skillful means has no floor. What is manifested is austerity and bearing; what is expounded is always the four truths, without a single clause altered. Brought home to oneself: one may walk right into another person's situation, but once inside, what one has to give cannot be exchanged for something else.

The Gate of the Samādhi of the Benefit Conferred by the Light from the Hair-Pores · The Indication of the Gate and the General Distinguishing: The Samādhi Named Ease and Joy

Chengguan judges that “eighth, from ‘there is an excellent samādhi’ onward, eighty-nine and a half verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of the benefit conferred by the shining of light from the hair-pores,” and judges that “the text divides into five: the first one verse is the indication of the gate and the general distinguishing.” The scripture supplies its name itself: “There is an excellent samādhi named Ease and Joy, able universally to rescue and deliver the multitudes of beings, releasing a vast light beyond thought, so that those who see it are all tamed.”

This is the longest gate in the whole chapter, taking up nearly ninety verses. Its editorial form is perfectly regular: one light, one name; it says whom this light awakens and what benefit it brings; and then it says by what cause in ages past this light was accomplished. In the base text the lights that receive a name count out as forty-four.

Let one way of reading be set up first: this passage is not a catalogue of lights but a catalogue of causes and effects. The last line of nearly every section is “and thereby he obtained such a light as this” — the light is not released out of nothing; it is the fruit of some practice in ages past. Brought home to oneself: this long string is in fact saying one thing — the place where you are able to benefit people today is exactly the place where you once put your mind to work.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Fine Manifesting and Shining Radiance: The Light Has a Name, the Light Has a Cause

The first light is named Fine Manifesting: “if there are sentient beings who meet with this light, it will surely bring them benefit and not be spent in vain,” and its cause in ages past is “That light displays the buddhas, displays the Dharma, displays the Saṅgha, and displays the right path; it displays also the buddha-stūpas and the buddha-images.” The second light is named Shining Radiance, able to eclipse the light of the gods and to remove darkness and obstruction, its cause in ages past being “causing them to take up lamps and make offerings to the buddhas,” with the fruit stated explicitly: “because he offered lamps to the buddhas, he attains to being the unsurpassed lamp of the world.” Below this are further listed offerings of oil lamps, butter lamps, bright torches, and the many fragrances, wondrous medicines, and fine jeweled candles.

Here the form of the whole passage is established: the name of the light — those it awakens — the benefit obtained — the cause cultivated in ages past. That by offering lamps to the buddhas one becomes “the unsurpassed lamp of the world” shows a plain likeness between cause and fruit — this is the device used again and again through this long passage.

Brought home to oneself: one need not read it as an account-book of retribution. What it teaches is a way of seeing — what one does shapes the particular kind of light one will later be able to give to others.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Ferrying Across and Extinguishing Craving: Crossing the Four Torrents, Extinguishing the Thirsts of Craving

The light Ferrying Across causes beings “universally to arouse a mind of great vows and to deliver the multitudes within the sea of desire,” and thereupon “then one can cross beyond the four torrents and guide sentient beings toward the city of liberation where there is no sorrow”; its cause in ages past is “at the great waters along the roads people travel, he built bridges and rafts, and disparaged the conditioned and praised the quiescent.” The light Extinguishing Craving causes beings “to cast off the five desires and to think single-mindedly upon the wondrous savor of the Dharma of liberation,” and thereupon “then one can with the Buddha's rain of sweet dew universally extinguish the many thirsts of craving in the world”; its cause in ages past is “he bestowed ponds, wells, and flowing springs … and disparaged the five desires and praised meditation.”

The four torrents are so named because they sweep a person away as a torrent does. The matching of cause and fruit in these two lights is particularly plain: because he built bridges and rafts to carry people across the water, he accomplishes a light that carries beings across the four torrents; because he gave ponds, wells, and springs to relieve people's thirst, he accomplishes a light that extinguishes the thirsts of craving. The one is a crossing, the other a slaking of thirst; both take water as their figure, once negatively and once positively.

Brought home to oneself: between a single good deed in the world and a particular capacity beyond the world, what the scripture gives is not a relation of simile but a relation of cause and effect.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Joy and Delight: Longing for Awakening, Delighting in the Three Jewels

The light Joy “causes them to long for the Buddha's awakening and to arouse the mind that vows to realize the path awakened to without a teacher,” its cause in ages past being “he set up images of the Tathāgata's great compassion, adorned with the many marks and seated upon flower-thrones, and constantly praised the most excellent merits of every kind.” The light Delight “causes their minds to delight in the buddhas, and to delight in the Dharma and to delight in the Saṅgha,” and thereupon “then within the assemblies of the Tathāgata one can accomplish the unsurpassed and profound patient acceptance of the Dharma”; its cause in ages past is “he awakened measureless sentient beings and caused them universally to be mindful of the three jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and showed them the meritorious practice of arousing the mind.”

The path awakened to without a teacher means the Buddha's awakening by himself, not awakened to from another. Both these lights come to rest upon drawing near to the three jewels: the one is longing for awakening, the other is delighting in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. And the fruit of delight is extremely high — “accomplish the unsurpassed and profound patient acceptance of the Dharma.”

Ask first: how can merely delighting in the three jewels in one's mind reach the profound patient acceptance of the Dharma? Because delight is a power that continues. A drawing near that is forced will break off, while delight needs no maintaining. Brought home to oneself: in examining one's relation to the three jewels, one need not ask about the degree of one's diligence; ask first whether one delights in them.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Amassing of Blessings and Being Furnished with Wisdom: Giving Without Restriction, Understanding Measureless Gates in a Single Thought

The light the Amassing of Blessings “causes them to practice every kind of measureless giving, and with this merit to seek the unsurpassed path,” its cause in ages past being “he set up a great assembly of giving with no restriction, satisfying all who came to ask, and not letting their minds lack anything.” The light Furnished with Wisdom “causes them, within one dharma and one thought, to understand measureless Dharma-gates,” its cause in ages past being “for the sake of sentient beings, he distinguished the dharmas and determined decisively their true meaning, expounding the meaning of the Dharma well and without diminution.”

The three graphs “with no restriction” are the eye of this passage. To give with a limit set is already to have made a selection; to give with no restriction is to give to whoever comes. And the cause of the light Furnished with Wisdom is “expounding the meaning of the Dharma well and without diminution” — expounding the Dharma without discounting it, and hence the fruit of understanding measureless gates in a single thought.

Brought home to oneself: the cause in both these cases lies in a single ‘not falling short’ — giving without restriction, expounding without diminution. And so the fruit in both lies in “measureless.”

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Lamp of Wisdom and Freedom in the Dharma: Knowing That Nature Is Empty and Still, Obtaining the Dhāraṇīs

The light the Lamp of Wisdom “causes them to know that the nature of sentient beings is of itself empty and still, and that all dharmas are without any own-being,” its cause in ages past being “he expounded that all dharmas are empty and without a master, like an illusion, like a heat-haze, like the moon in water, and even like the images in a dream.” The light Freedom in the Dharma “causes them to obtain the inexhaustible dhāraṇīs, able to retain in full all the dharmas of the buddhas,” its cause in ages past being “he reverently made offerings to those who uphold the Dharma, attended upon and guarded the worthy and the noble, and gave to sentient beings the gift of the Dharma in every form.”

A dhāraṇī is a retention, able to retain all dharmas without loss. The light of the Lamp of Wisdom speaks of emptiness, the light of Freedom in the Dharma of retaining — a letting go and a holding, and the two are not contrary: only by knowing that dharmas are without own-being can one retain all dharmas without their becoming a burden.

Ruling out a misreading: like an illusion, like a heat-haze, like the moon in water does not say that dharmas do not exist; it says that they are without a ruler and without a substance of their own. The graphs the scripture uses are “empty and without a master,” and the graph for “master” must be seen clearly.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Able to Give Away and Removing Fever: Governing the Stingy Mind, Upholding the Pure Precepts

The light Able to Give Away “awakens the stingy among sentient beings, causing them to know that wealth and jewels are none of them lasting, so that they constantly delight in giving with a mind that does not cling,” its cause in ages past being “though the stingy mind is hard to govern, he was able to govern it, understanding that goods are like a dream and like a floating cloud.” The light Removing Fever “awakens those who break the prohibitions, causing them universally to receive and uphold the pure precepts,” its cause in ages past being “he exhorted and drew sentient beings on to receive and uphold the precepts, causing the ten paths of good action all to be made pure.”

The cause in ages past of the light Able to Give Away is written with great honesty: it is not that he was never stingy, but that “though the stingy mind is hard to govern, he was able to govern it.” This line is worth remembering — the scripture admits that the stingy mind is hard to govern, and then says that he governed it.

The name Removing Fever takes the afflictions as a fever; the precepts can remove the fever, hence the name. Brought home to oneself: the causes in ages past of both these lights are not natural endowments but antidotes. A stingy man who governs his stinginess accomplishes the light Able to Give Away — this is a road for ordinary people.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Adornment of Patience and Valor: Removing Hatred, Passing Beyond the Four Māras

The light the Adornment of Patience “awakens those given to hatred, causing them to remove the hating mind and to leave behind self-conceit, and constantly to delight in the dharma of patient endurance and gentle harmony,” its cause in ages past being “when sentient beings were violent and evil and hard to bear with, for the sake of awakening his mind did not waver.” The light Valor “awakens the indolent, causing them constantly, among the three jewels, to revere and make offerings without weariness,” and thereupon “then one can pass beyond the sphere of the four māras and swiftly accomplish the unsurpassed awakening of a buddha”; its cause in ages past is “he exhorted and transformed sentient beings and urged them to press on, constantly and diligently making offerings to the three jewels, and when the Dharma was about to perish he guarded it single-mindedly.”

The light of the Adornment of Patience raises hatred and self-conceit together — to remove hatred one must necessarily leave behind conceit, since hatred mostly arises out of conceit. The light Valor puts the antidote to indolence in reverence and offering toward the three jewels rather than in ascetic exertion, and says that this is how one passes beyond the sphere of the four māras.

Brought home to oneself: for the antidote to slackness, what the scripture offers is not to add to one's exertions but to give rise to reverence toward the three jewels without weariness. This changes the place from which one's strength comes.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Quiescence and the Adornment of Wisdom: Leaving Distraction, Realizing the Truths and Understanding Dependent Arising

The light Quiescence “awakens those whose minds are distracted, causing them to leave far behind craving, hatred, and delusion, so that their minds do not waver and they enter right concentration,” its cause in ages past being “he cast off every bad friend, meaningless talk, and defiled conduct, and praised meditation and the wilderness retreat.” The light the Adornment of Wisdom “awakens the foolish and confused, causing them to realize the truths and understand dependent arising, so that their faculties and their wisdom are all penetrating,” and thereupon “then one obtains the dharma of the sun-lamp samādhi, and by the light of wisdom accomplishes the fruit of buddhahood”; its cause in ages past is “he was able to give away even the wealth of his country and his own person, and for the sake of awakening sought the right Dharma, and having heard it diligently expounded it for sentient beings.”

The wilderness retreat is a place of quiet. Among the causes in ages past of the light of Quiescence there is one very concrete item — “meaningless talk” is also among the things cast off; the cause of distraction often lies in idle chatter. The light of the Adornment of Wisdom sets realizing the four truths and understanding dependent arising side by side as the benefit it confers, while its cause in ages past is giving away body and wealth for the Dharma and, having heard it, expounding it for others.

Brought home to oneself: to want an undistracted mind, the scripture first asks which bad friends and which meaningless talk you have cast off. This is far more concrete than simply saying ‘you must concentrate.’

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Buddha's Wisdom and Fearlessness: Seeing Measureless Buddhas, Bestowing Fearlessness

The light the Buddha's Wisdom “awakens all who have consciousness, causing them to see measureless and boundless buddhas, each seated upon a jeweled lotus flower,” its cause in ages past being “he praised the Buddha's majestic virtue and his liberation, expounded the Buddha's freedom as without measure, and made manifest the Buddha's powers and supernormal faculties.” The light Fearlessness “touches those who are afraid, so that all the poisons and harms inflicted by non-human beings are one and all swiftly removed and extinguished,” its cause in ages past being “he was able to bestow fearlessness upon sentient beings, and wherever there was vexation and harm he urged it to stop, and rescued those in distress and calamity, the orphaned and the destitute.”

Those who have consciousness are sentient beings. These two lights are one inward and one outward: the one makes a person see the buddhas, the other makes a person free of fear. The cause in ages past of the light Fearlessness is written very plainly — urging vexation and harm to stop, and rescuing those in distress, the orphaned and the destitute, are all things that can be done here and now.

Brought home to oneself: the gift of fearlessness is one of the three kinds of giving, and yet it is the most easily overlooked. Not one of the three things the scripture instances requires supernormal power.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Security and Seeing the Buddha: Removing the Suffering of Sickness, Seeing the Buddha at the End of Life

The light Security “shines upon those who are sick, causing them to be rid of every pain, and all to obtain the joy of samādhi in right concentration,” its cause in ages past being “he gave good medicine to save people from their ailments, prolonged life with wondrous jewels and anointed the body with fragrance, and provided butter, oil, milk, and honey for food and drink.” The light Seeing the Buddha “awakens those who are about to pass away, causing them, according to what they call to mind, to see the Tathāgata, and at the end of life to be born in his pure land,” its cause in ages past being “when he saw those at the point of death he exhorted them to be mindful of the Buddha, and further showed them a venerable image so that they might gaze upon it with reverence, and caused them to take deep refuge in and look up to the Buddha.”

This item on the light Seeing the Buddha is of the greatest importance for the practice of assisting the dying with recitation in the Han tradition: the scripture says plainly that the dying person, “according to what they call to mind, sees the Tathāgata, and at the end of life is born in his pure land,” and that the cause in ages past is precisely that one had oneself once, at another's dying, exhorted him to be mindful of the Buddha and shown him a venerable image. Cause and fruit are all but the two ends of one and the same act.

Brought home to oneself: what this item teaches is something that can be done today — reminding another, when he needs it most, to call the Buddha to mind.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Delight in the Dharma and Wondrous Sound: Rejoicing in the Right Dharma, Hearing All Sounds as the Buddha's Voice

The light Delight in the Dharma “causes them constantly to rejoice in the right Dharma, hearing it, setting it forth in exposition, and writing it out,” its cause in ages past being “when the Dharma was about to come to an end, he was able to expound it for others, filling to the full the minds of those who sought the Dharma.” The light Wondrous Sound “opens the awakening of the bodhisattvas, and can cause all the sounds there are in the three realms to be heard by the hearer as the voice of the Tathāgata,” its cause in ages past being “with a great voice he extolled the buddhas, and gave as gifts bells and every kind of music.”

The benefit conferred by the light Wondrous Sound is one of the most singular items in the whole passage: it is not that one hears the Buddha's voice, but that every sound in the three realms sounds, to the hearer, like the Buddha's voice. This is a transformation in the one who hears, not a replacement of what is heard.

Brought home to oneself: what this item speaks of is in truth the ground of the mind. The same din of the streets is vexation to one person and the voice of the Dharma to another — the difference lies in the hearer.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Bestowing Sweet Dew and the Most Excellent: Casting Off Heedlessness, Hearing the Ascendant Dharma

The light Bestowing Sweet Dew “causes them to cast off every heedless practice and to cultivate in full every kind of merit,” its cause in ages past being “he expounded that conditioned dharmas are not secure, that measureless suffering and vexation fill them everywhere, and he constantly delighted to extol the joy of quiescence.” The light the Most Excellent “causes them in the presence of the buddhas universally to hear the ascendant dharmas of the precepts, concentration, and wisdom,” its cause in ages past being “he constantly delighted to extol the excellent precepts, excellent concentration, and surpassing wisdom of all the buddhas.”

Sweet dew is in India the name of the medicine of deathlessness, and here it figures nirvāṇa. The cause in ages past of both these lights is “extolling” — the one extolling the joy of quiescence, the other extolling the Buddha's precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Extolling occurs a great many times in this long passage; it is a practice that can be done and is easily made light of.

Brought home to oneself: what one constantly says is what one grows. This passage says a great deal about the positive working of the act of speech.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Adornment of Jewels and the Adornment of Fragrance: Obtaining Treasuries of Jewels, Gladdening the Mind at the Fragrance

The light the Adornment of Jewels “causes them to obtain treasuries of jewels without end, and with them to make offerings to the Tathāgatas,” its cause in ages past being “with every kind of fine and wondrous jewel he made offerings to the buddhas and to the buddha-stūpas, and gave them also to the poor and the destitute.” The light the Adornment of Fragrance “causes those who smell it to be gladdened in mind and to be assured of accomplishing the merits of a buddha,” its cause in ages past being “with the wondrous fragrances of humans and gods he anointed the ground as an offering to all the most excellent lords, and used them also in building stūpas and buddha-images.”

In the causes of both these lights there are two destinations: offering to the buddhas and relieving the poor; offering to the buddhas and making images. The scripture does not treat making offerings to the three jewels and relieving the destitute as two separate things; it states them together within a single cause.

Brought home to oneself: people often find themselves torn between “making offerings to the Buddha” and ‘saving people.’ In the causes of both these lights the two are present together.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Mixed Adornment and Pure Cleanliness: Banners and Canopies Filling All, Making the Ground Level

The light Mixed Adornment manifests “jeweled banners and pennons and canopies beyond number, incense burning and flowers scattered and every kind of music sounding, filling the towns within and without,” its cause in ages past being “with subtle and wondrous sounds of music, and with the many fragrances, wondrous flowers, banners and canopies, and every kind of adornment, he made offerings to the buddhas.” The light Pure Cleanliness “can make the surface of the ground level as the palm of a hand,” its cause in ages past being “he adorned the buddha-stūpas and their precincts.”

From the light Pure Cleanliness onward the scripture's form turns to the utmost brevity: one light gets only three clauses — the name of the light, what it does, and its cause in ages past, with no further unfolding in between. This is a gathering-in of the movement of the text, not a carelessness of content.

What the light Pure Cleanliness does is only the one thing of “making the ground level,” and its cause in ages past is only the adorning of the buddha-stūpas and their precincts. Brought home to oneself: to put one place in order and make it clean, the scripture is willing to count as the cause of a light.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Great Cloud and Ornaments: Raining Fragrant Water, Giving Fine Garments

The light Great Cloud “can raise clouds of fragrance and rain down fragrant water,” its cause in ages past being “he sprinkled the stūpas and courtyards with water.” The light Ornaments “can cause those whose bodies are bare to obtain fine garments,” its cause in ages past being “he gave away wondrous things that adorn the body.”

These two are of the same pattern as the last, both of them the smallest of acts answering to the greatest of functions. Sprinkling and sweeping the stūpa courtyard accomplishes a light able to raise clouds of fragrance and rain down fragrant water; giving another the things that adorn his body accomplishes a light that gives garments to the naked.

Brought home to oneself: the point of this string of short clauses is to dispel a certain notion — that only great deeds have great fruits.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · Fine Savor and Great Wealth: The Hungry Obtain Food, the Poor Obtain Jewels

The light Fine Savor “can cause those who are hungry to obtain fine food,” its cause in ages past being “he gave away every kind of choice viand.” The light Great Wealth “causes the poor and destitute to obtain treasuries of jewels,” its cause in ages past being “with inexhaustible goods he gave to the three jewels.”

The cause of the light Great Wealth uses the three graphs “inexhaustible goods,” which differ from the “fine and wondrous jewels” of the light of the Adornment of Jewels above. Inexhaustible is not a quantity; it is that in one's mind no floor is set.

Brought home to oneself: giving food accomplishes the light of Fine Savor, and giving to the three jewels accomplishes the light of Great Wealth — this pair takes in the two things most commonly done by people living in the household.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Lights of the Purity of the Six Faculties: Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body, and Mind

From here the scripture releases six lights in succession in the order of the six faculties. The light of the Purity of the Eye “can cause the blind to see the many forms,” its cause in ages past being “he gave lamps to the buddhas and the buddha-stūpas”; the light of the Purity of the Ear “can cause the deaf all to hear well,” its cause being “with drums and music he delighted the buddhas and the buddha-stūpas”; the light of the Purity of the Nose “causes fragrances never smelled before to be smelled,” its cause being “he gave incense to the buddhas and the buddha-stūpas”; the light of the Purity of the Tongue “can with a lovely voice extol the buddhas and remove forever coarse and unwholesome speech”; the light of the Purity of the Body “causes those whose faculties are defective to be made whole,” its cause being “with his body he bowed to the buddhas and the buddha-stūpas”; the light of the Purity of the Mind “causes those who have lost their mindfulness to obtain right mindfulness, and to attain freedom in all their practice of samādhi.”

The matching of cause and fruit in these six is perfectly regular: giving lamps obtains the eye, giving music obtains the ear, giving incense obtains the nose, removing evil speech obtains the tongue, bowing obtains the body, cultivating samādhi obtains the mind. Six lights of the six faculties are matched with six kinds of act toward the buddha-stūpas.

Brought home to oneself: this group matches every one of the body's doors with a concrete act. It is not an abstract ‘cultivating blessings’; each has its own counterpart.

The Light from the Hair-Pores · The Lights of the Purity of the Six Objects: Form, Sound, Scent, Taste, Touch, and Dharma

Next it releases six lights in succession in the order of the six objects. The light of the Purity of Form “causes people to see the forms of the buddhas that are beyond thought,” its cause in ages past being “with the many wondrous colors he adorned the stūpas”; the light of the Purity of Sound “causes people to know that the nature of sound is of itself empty and still, and to contemplate the dependent arising of sound as an echo in a valley”; the light of the Purity of Scent “causes every kind of foul stench to become fragrant and clean,” its cause being “with fragrant water he washed the stūpas and the tree of awakening”; the light of the Purity of Taste “can remove the poison in every kind of food and savor,” its cause being “he constantly made offerings to the Buddha, the Saṅgha, and his father and mother”; the light of the Purity of Touch “can cause every harsh touch to become soft,” and manifests that “spears, lances, swords, and halberds rain down from the sky, and he causes them all to be turned into wondrous flower-garlands,” its cause in ages past being that in ages past upon the roads he anointed them with fragrance, scattered flowers, and spread out garments, escorting the Tathāgata and causing the Buddha to tread upon them; the light of the Purity of Dharma “can cause all the hair-pores to set forth wondrous Dharma beyond thought,” and the Dharma it sets forth is “that dharmas arisen from causes and conditions are from the first unarisen; that the dharma-body of the buddhas is not a body of form; that the nature of dharmas abides constantly like empty space.”

Two items in this group call for particular notice. The light of the Purity of Sound does not make sounds pleasant to hear; it “causes people to know that the nature of sound is of itself empty and still” — what is turned about is knowledge and view. And the three clauses set forth by the light of the Purity of Dharma are the only place in the whole passage that speaks directly of the nature of dharmas, and they are the resting-place of these eighty-nine and a half verses: that what arises from conditions is unarisen, that the dharma-body is not a body of form, and that the nature of dharmas abides constantly like empty space.

The cause in ages past of the light of the Purity of Taste, “he constantly made offerings to the Buddha, the Saṅgha, and his father and mother,” sets father and mother alongside the Buddha and the Saṅgha, which is not often met with in the scriptures, and it is recorded.

Brought home to oneself: reading from the giving of lamps and incense all the way to the constant abiding of the nature of dharmas, the scripture has itself joined merit and wisdom into a single line.

Concluding the Summary and Showing the Breadth: Gates of Light as Many as the Sands of the Gaṅgā

Chengguan judges that “from ‘such and the like’ onward, the concluding of the summary and the showing of the breadth.” The scriptural text: “Such gates of light of every kind, as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā and without limit of number, all issue forth from the hair-pores of the Great Seer, and the work each one does is in each case different.”

The named lights listed above count out in the base text as forty-four. Here a single line makes it clear: those were only instances; in fact they are as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā. The Great Seer is another name for the Buddha.

Ask first: since they are without limit of number, why instance forty-four? Because the limitless cannot be spoken, while forty-four can. Instancing is in order to let one know the form of the thing — one light, one name; one name, one cause. Brought home to oneself: having read the forty-four and known their pattern, one can go on and infer the forty-fifth for oneself.

Displaying by Class the Working of the Light from the Hair-Pores and Concluding That upon Which the Function Rests: As One Hair-Pore Is

Chengguan judges that “from ‘as with one hair’ onward, the displaying by class of the working of the light of all the hair-pores, together with the concluding of that upon which the function rests.” The scriptural text: “As with the light released from a single hair-pore, measureless and numberless as the sands of the Gaṅgā, so it is with all the hair-pores — this is the power of the Great Seer's samādhi.”

The previous section said, horizontally, that the lights are of countless kinds; this section says, vertically, that the places from which the light issues are likewise countless. A single hair-pore is already measureless and numberless, and all the hair-pores the more so. The last line comes back to the power of samādhi — that upon which all this rests is concentration and nothing else.

Brought home to oneself: this one line draws the ninety verses of spreading-out back into one place. All the functions issue from one substance.

Explaining and Establishing the Extent: The Light Follows the Original Practice, the Seeing Follows the Conditions of Past Lives

Chengguan judges that “from ‘as with his original practice’ onward, the explaining and establishing of the extent.” The scriptural text: “As with the light obtained from his original practice, so it accords with those who in past lives shared the same conditions and the same practice; and because he releases light today, so it is likewise — this is the freedom of the Great Seer's wisdom.” And further: “Those who in ages past cultivated works of blessing together with him, and those who loved and delighted in what he cultivated and were able to rejoice with him, and those who saw what he did and likewise rejoiced — these are all able to see this light.”

Extent means a boundary. This section says that there is an extent to those upon whom the light falls: what it shines upon are those who in past lives shared the same practice and the same vow. And what deserves notice is that it counts “rejoicing” in as well — one need not have done the thing alongside him at the time; if one merely saw what he did and gave rise to love, delight, and sympathetic joy, one likewise gets to see this light.

Brought home to oneself: sympathetic joy is here not a consoling word but a real way of forming the connection. The thing you were too late to do, you may rejoice in another's doing, and you are on that same line.

The Benefit of the Light to Those Who Hear and Have Faith: Seeing and Not Seeing Lie in the Capacity, Not in the Light

Chengguan judges that “from ‘if there be’ onward, the benefit of the light to those who hear and have faith.” The scripture first speaks of those able to see: “If a person cultivates works of blessing of every kind of his own, and makes offerings to buddhas beyond number, and constantly cherishes a longing for the Buddha's merits, such a person is the one this light is to awaken.” Then it sets up two similes. The first is the sun: “It is just as one born blind does not see the sun, and this is not because no sun rises in the world,” and therefore “so too is the light of the great being: those who have wisdom are all able to see it, while ordinary people and those of wrong faith and poor understanding are not able to see this light.” The second is the palaces and carriages of maṇi jewels, “are furnished naturally to those who have merit, and are not what the virtueless can occupy,” and therefore “those who have deep wisdom are all touched by it, while ordinary and foolish people of wrong faith and poor understanding are not able to see this light.” The last verse turns into an exhortation to faith: “If a person hears of the differences among these lights and is able to give rise to a pure and deep faith and understanding, he will be able to cut off forever every net of doubt and swiftly to accomplish the unsurpassed banner of merit.”

Ask first: if the light shines universally, why is there anyone who does not see it? The scripture answers with finality — “this is not because no sun rises in the world.” It is not that there is no sun; it is that one is blind. The two similes go two ways: the one with respect to wisdom (the simile of one born blind), the other with respect to merit (the simile of the palaces); seeing and not seeing hang upon the capacity, not upon the light.

Rule out one misunderstanding: this does not say that those of poor understanding are shut out. The last verse at once supplies the way through — to hear of the differences among these lights and be able to give rise to a pure and deep faith and understanding is to cut off the net of doubt forever. So hearing and having faith is itself the place of entry. And this comes back precisely to the eye of the whole chapter: faith.

Brought home to oneself: to have read this long passage of lights and to feel that it has nothing to do with oneself is exactly the place this verse speaks of — have faith first; once the net of doubt is cut, the road opens.

The Gate of the Samādhi of the Splendor of Principal and Companions: Like the Bright Moon Among the Stars

Chengguan judges that “ninth, from ‘there is an excellent samādhi’ onward, six verses, the gate of the samādhi of the splendor of principal and companions, which is also the samādhi of manifestation.” The scriptural text: “There is an excellent samādhi able to bring forth the adornment of a retinue, all of it free”; there is a wondrous lotus flower adorned with light, its measure equal to the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system, and his body sits upright upon it and fills it; there are further wondrous lotus flowers as many as the dust-motes of ten lands surrounding it, and the sons of the Buddha sit within them; those beings “in past lives accomplished wholesome causes and conditions and cultivated in full the merits of the Buddha,” and therefore they surround the bodhisattva, joining their palms and gazing without ever having enough; it closes with the simile, “Just as the bright moon dwells among the many stars, so too does the bodhisattva dwell amid the great assembly”; and then it displays the ten quarters by class with “as is displayed in one quarter … so it is likewise in every quarter.”

Ask first: is the character of principal and companions a character of higher and lower? The simile of the bright moon among the stars answers this. The moon among the stars does not overpower the many stars; it is naturally the center. And the scripture takes special care to state the provenance of those who surround him — “in past lives accomplished wholesome causes and conditions”: the retinue is not summoned; it has gathered out of a shared cause.

Brought home to oneself: the adornment of what is called a place of practice lies not in its furnishings but in whether those gathered in one place have come out of a shared cause.

The Gate of the Samādhi of Stillness and Function Without Shore · The Indication of the Name and the General Distinguishing: The Samādhi Named Net of Quarters

Chengguan judges that “tenth, from ‘there is an excellent samādhi named Net of Quarters’ onward, thirty-four and a half verses clarifying the gate of the samādhi of stillness and function without shore,” and explains the name, saying “with respect to place it is named ‘quarter’” and “the ten quarters interlace, entering and issuing crosswise and lengthwise, and therefore it is named ‘net.’” The scripture supplies the name itself: “There is an excellent samādhi named Net of Quarters; the bodhisattva dwelling in it opens and shows extensively, manifesting his body universally in every quarter, either displaying entry into concentration or displaying issuing from it.”

“Quarter” is place, and “net” is interlacing. What this gate opens up is freedom, with respect to place, in entering and issuing from concentration. The gate-name “stillness and function without shore” is Chengguan's own establishing — stillness is entering concentration, function is the arising of activity, and without shore is that there is no boundary.

Ask first: what is there to say about entering and issuing from concentration? For ordinary people, once they have entered concentration they are here, and only once they issue from it can they act. What this gate has to say is precisely the removal of that limitation.

Stillness and Function Without Shore · Freedom with Respect to the Receptacle World: Entering in the East and Issuing in the West

The scripture at the outset gives a formula of the utmost simplicity: “Or in the eastern quarter he enters right concentration and in the western quarter he issues from concentration; or in the western quarter he enters right concentration and in the eastern quarter he issues from concentration; or in some other quarter he enters right concentration and in some other quarter he issues from concentration.” And then it concludes: “Thus entering and issuing throughout the ten quarters — this is called the power of a bodhisattva's samādhi.”

This sentence must be read slowly. The entering and the issuing are not in one and the same place — he enters in the east and issues in the west. If concentration were the mind's staying unmoving in one place, this sentence could not be made sense of; so what it displays is that concentration is not tied to place.

Then the scripture raises up all the Tathāgatas throughout the lands of the eastern quarter, and “he displays himself before every buddha, drawing near universally, while dwelling in samādhi still and unmoving.” Drawing near to the buddhas and being still and unmoving at one and the same time. Brought home to oneself: this passage begins the formal answering of that line buried earlier, “the body fills and pervades like empty space, dwelling unmoving and yet filling the ten quarters.”

Stillness and Function Without Shore · Freedom with Respect to the World of Right and Perfect Awakening: Still in Concentration While the Offerings Do Not Cease

The scripture then states the eastern and western quarters crosswise: before the buddhas of the east “dwelling in samādhi still and unmoving,” while at the same time in the presence of the buddhas of the west “he displays rising from samādhi and cultivating measureless offerings extensively”; and reversed, still in the west and rising in the east, likewise. It gathers all up with “Thus into all the worlds of the ten quarters the bodhisattva enters with none left out, either displaying samādhi still and unmoving, or displaying reverent offerings to the buddhas.”

Ask first: how can one and the same person be at once still and unmoving and at the same time cultivating offerings extensively? The scripture does not explain; it simply sets the two things side by side and states them. Chengguan explains the character of this passage, saying “being here he is constantly there, without before or after” — being here he is constantly also there, with no before and after.

Ruling out a misreading: do not think of it as the trick of dividing the body. A divided body is still two bodies, and there is a before and an after. What the scripture says is that there is no before and after. Brought home to oneself: at a certain point in practice one comes to know that the line between sitting still and getting things done is not to be erased by switching between them faster.

Stillness and Function Without Shore · Freedom in Faculty and Object Set over Against One Another: The Six Faculties and Six Objects Entering and Issuing in One Another

The form of this passage is perfectly regular. The scripture sets the six faculties over against the six objects and sets up entering and issuing one by one: within the faculty of the eye he enters concentration and within the object-field of form he issues from it, “displaying that the nature of form is beyond thought”; and reversed, within the object-field of form he enters concentration and from the faculty of the eye he rises from it, expounding that “the eye is from the first unarisen and has no rising, its nature empty and still, without anything done.” Ear and sound, nose and scent, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and dharmas — each pair is of the same pattern. In the base text, entering by way of a faculty counts out as six and entering by way of an object-field as six.

Chengguan attaches this passage to “third, from ‘within the faculty of the eye’ onward, twenty-five and a half verses, displaying freedom throughout the three kinds of world,” and under it judges this to be “first, clarifying faculty and object as set over against one another so as to distinguish freedom.” One should notice that what is said in the two directions differs: where he enters by way of a faculty and issues in an object, it speaks of the object as beyond thought (the nature of form beyond thought, distinguishing all speech and sound, universally obtaining all the finest fragrances …); where he enters by way of an object and rises in a faculty, it speaks without exception of the faculty as unarisen (the eye unarisen, the ear unarisen, the nose unarisen, the tongue unarisen, the body unarisen, the mind unarisen), and clause by clause in the same wording — “its nature empty and still, without anything done.”

First the question, then the answer: why does the one direction speak of the wondrousness of function and the other of the emptiness of substance? Because faculty and object set over against one another is exactly the place where ordinary beings are bound. Entering by the faculty and issuing in the object displays that its function is unobstructed; entering by the object and rising in the faculty displays that its substance is from the first empty. Only the two spoken together are freedom.

Brought home to oneself: this passage is the section of the whole chapter closest to daily life. The eye is seeing and the ear is hearing all day long without cease; the scripture says that right here one may enter concentration, and right here one may know their non-arising.

Stillness and Function Without Shore · Freedom with Respect to Other Bodies and the Receptacle World: Entering in This Body, Issuing in That

The scripture next extends what the entering and issuing rest upon from faculty and object to bodies and the receptacle world. First other bodies: youth and man in his prime, man in his prime and old man, old man and good woman, good woman and good man, good man and nun, nun and monk, monk and one training or beyond training, one training or beyond training and pratyekabuddha, pratyekabuddha and Tathāgata, Tathāgata and the gods, the gods and a great dragon, a great dragon and a yakṣa, a yakṣa and a ghost-spirit. Then the receptacle world: ghost-spirit and a single hair-pore, a single hair-pore and all hair-pores, all hair-pores and the tip of a single hair, the tip of a single hair and a single mote of dust, a single mote of dust and all motes of dust, all motes of dust and the adamantine ground, the adamantine ground and a maṇi tree, a maṇi tree and the Buddha's light, the Buddha's light and the rivers and seas, the rivers and seas and the fire element, the fire element and the wind, the wind element and the earth element, the earth element and the palaces of the gods, the palaces of the gods and empty space.

Chengguan judges this to be “second, from ‘a youth’ onward, clarifying freedom with respect to other bodies,” and attaches it to the outline of “displaying freedom throughout the three kinds of world.” The three kinds of world are the world of sentient beings, the receptacle world, and the world of right and perfect awakening. The arrangement of this long string is like a linked chain — the place of issuing in each clause is the place of entering in the next, running on without a break.

Ruling out a misreading: do not read “within the body of a Tathāgata he enters right concentration” as meaning that the bodhisattva has become a buddha. What this passage displays is the absence of limitation in what the entering and issuing rest upon, not a usurpation of the order of stations.

Brought home to oneself: this passage reads like a string of dazzling transformations, but in fact it says only one thing — there is no single place upon which concentration cannot rest.

The General Conclusion That It Is Beyond Thought: The Freedom of Samādhi Is Beyond Thought

Chengguan judges that “third, from ‘this is what is called’ onward, one verse of general conclusion,” and explains its syntax: “the first line names the person by his virtue, the next line displays the virtue by way of the person.” The scriptural text: “This is what is called one of measureless merits, whose freedom in samādhi is beyond thought, and which all the buddhas of the ten quarters, throughout measureless kalpas, could not exhaust in the telling.”

With this the two hundred and more verses of the section of the boundless great function are gathered in. The manner of the gathering-in is interesting — it does not offer a summarizing definition, but says “could not exhaust in the telling.” If the buddhas of the ten quarters through measureless kalpas could not exhaust it, how much less these two hundred and more verses.

Brought home to oneself: to finish this long passage and feel that one has no grasp of it is normal. The scripture has itself said that it cannot be exhausted in the telling.

The Section of Illustrating the Profound Purport by Simile · That No Simile Can Serve as a Simile: Simile Cannot Liken It, and Yet by Simile the Sense Is Understood

Chengguan judges that “fifth, from ‘all’ onward, the section of illustrating the profound purport by simile, also named the section of raising the inferior to display the superior,” and judges its opening as “the preceding verse and a half clarify that no simile can serve as a simile for this, and the latter half-verse borrows simile to convey the profound.” The scriptural text: “All the Tathāgatas together expound that the ripening of sentient beings' deeds is beyond thought, that the transformations of the dragons and the Buddha's freedom, and the supernormal power of a bodhisattva too, are alike beyond thought”; then it states its own difficulty: “One would display it by simile, but in the end there is no simile that can be a simile for this”; and then it turns: “yet those persons of wisdom and penetrating understanding do, by reason of simile, understand its sense.”

These three and a half lines are the method of the latter part of the whole chapter. First it acknowledges that simile cannot exhaust it, and then says that similes must nonetheless be set up. Chengguan's explanation of the intent of setting up similes is put most vividly: “In adducing these similes there are, in brief, two senses: first, to display that a bodhisattva's freedom is not of the same order; second, to make it of value that sentient beings should give rise to faith. Now, the people of Jiangnan do not believe in a felt tent that holds a thousand men, and those of Hebei mostly doubt a boat of ten thousand bushels — simply because their ears and eyes have not reached so far.” — People of the south do not believe there is in the north a felt tent that can hold a thousand men; people of Hebei doubt that in the south there are great boats carrying ten thousand bushels, only because their ears and eyes have never been there. And so the scripture “raises up some things that are seen with the eye, and some that rest on persons still wholly bound,” raising things visible before one's eyes and things that people still carrying their afflictions can do, so as to display the bodhisattva by contrast.

Brought home to oneself: this passage first teaches a matter of reading the scriptures — only when one knows the limit of a simile will one not take the simile for the reality.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Simile of the Śrāvakas' Eight Liberations: If Those Without Compassion Are Thus

The first simile takes the śrāvakas. The scriptural text: “The śrāvakas, their minds dwelling in the eight liberations, are free in all that they manifest, able with one body to manifest many bodies, and again to make of many bodies one body”; in empty space they enter the concentration of the light of fire, and walking, standing, sitting, and lying down are all in the air, water issuing above and fire below, fire above and water below, “All this is within a single thought, with every kind of freedom without bound or measure.” And then it turns: “They are not furnished with great compassion, nor do they seek the buddha-path for the sake of sentient beings, and still they can manifest such things beyond thought — how much more so that free power which greatly benefits!”

This is the first application of “raising the inferior to display the superior,” and it settles the pattern for all the similes that follow: first state what they are able to do, then point out what they lack (not furnished with great compassion, not seeking the buddha-path for the sake of beings), and finally display by contrast with “still they can … how much more …”

Brought home to oneself: this pattern in fact teaches a way of thinking — one need not begin by trying to conceive how inconceivable a bodhisattva is; look first at what the world and the two vehicles can already do, and then reason upward.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Images of Sun and Moon and the Fourfold Army in Clear Water: Universal Manifesting and Yet Without Discrimination

The scripture sets up two similes. The simile of sun and moon: “It is just as the sun and moon course through empty space, and their images pervade everywhere throughout the ten quarters, so that in springs and pools, marshes and the water in vessels, and in the rivers and seas made of the many jewels, there is none in which the image does not appear,” with the joining: “So too are the bodhisattva's forms and images: throughout the ten quarters he universally manifests beyond thought.” The simile of the fourfold army in clear water: “It is as when in clear water there appear the images of the elephant troops, the horse troops, the chariot troops, and the foot troops, each distinct and unmixed,” with swords, halberds, bows, arrows, armor, helmets, and carriages of many kinds, and yet “there is none that does not appear within the water,” the key lying in the last line, “and yet the water of itself has no discrimination — so too is the bodhisattva's samādhi.”

Each of the two similes displays its own thing. The simile of sun and moon displays universal manifesting: one sun and one moon appear throughout all waters. The simile of the fourfold army displays the absence of discrimination: the water reflects images differing by a thousand degrees while the water itself makes no discrimination.

Ruling out a misreading: do not read “without discrimination” as failing to tell right from wrong. The water does not discriminate, and yet the fourfold army it reflects is “each distinct and unmixed” — precisely because it is in itself without discrimination, what it manifests is not disordered in the least. Brought home to oneself: the fewer preconceptions in the mind, the more clearly one in fact sees a matter; this is the real sense this simile gives.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Sea-God Fine Sound and the Woman Named Eloquence: If Those Still Bound Are Thus

The scripture raises two instances. The first is the sea-god: “Within the great ocean there is a god named Fine Sound, whose voice complies universally with the sentient beings of the sea, so that all their speech he can discern,” and yet “That god still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can well understand every kind of sound — how much more one furnished with the free power of retention: could he fail to gladden the assembly!” The second is the woman named Eloquence: “There is a woman named Eloquence, born because her father and mother made supplication to a god,” and whoever has left evil and delights in what is true, she enters into his body and eloquence of wondrous kind is born; “She still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can bestow eloquence according to a person's conduct — how much more a bodhisattva furnished with wisdom.”

Both these similes take the capacity of speech. What Chengguan called “some that rest on persons still wholly bound” refers to this class — raising up people still within craving, hatred, and delusion, who nevertheless are like this.

Brought home to oneself: this way of reasoning has one advantage, that it does not ask a person first to believe in things beyond thought; it asks only that he grant what is already there before his eyes.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Illusionist and the Asuras: Even Conjuring Can Delight the World

The scripture raises two more instances. The illusionist: “It is as when an illusionist knows the arts of illusion and can manifest every kind of measureless thing, in a moment producing sun, moon, and years, and making a city rich and abundant, vast and at ease,” and yet “The illusionist still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can by the power of illusion delight the world — how much more the power of meditation and liberation.” The battle of the gods and the asuras: the asuras are defeated and flee, and “their weapons, chariots, and their hosts of followers all at once hide themselves away so that they cannot be seen,” and yet “They still have craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can work transformations beyond thought — how much more one who dwells in the supernormal powers and the dharma of fearlessness.”

The simile of the illusionist is commonly used in the Buddhist scriptures to say that dharmas are like an illusion; here, however, it is used in reverse — it does not speak of the emptiness of illusion but of the capacity of illusion. Brought home to oneself: the intent of this passage is throughout the same, to have a person reason from what he already believes before his eyes to what he does not yet believe.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · Indra's Elephant King and the Asura Treading the Sea: The Transformations of Those Still Bound

The simile of the elephant king is spread out most lavishly: Indra's elephant transforms itself into thirty-three heads, each head furnished with six tusks, each tusk bearing seven pools, each pool holding seven lotus flowers, each flower bearing seven heavenly maidens, “all skilled in the arts, who play every kind of music and take their pleasure together with Indra”; and that elephant can further “cast off its original form and transform its body to be the same as the gods', its bearing and its comings and goings all alike theirs.” The closing line is again in the old pattern: “It still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can manifest these supernormal powers — how much more one furnished with skillful means and wisdom: could he fail to be free in the concentrations!” The simile of the asura treading the sea: “Again, an asura transforms his body and, treading the adamantine limit, stands within the sea, so that the sea, deep as it is, reaches only to his middle, and his head stands level with Mount Sumeru,” closing with “how much more one who subdues the enmity of the māras, the lamp that illumines the world.”

The layer-upon-layer unfolding of the elephant-king simile (thirty-three heads, six tusks, seven pools, seven flowers, seven maidens) and the layered mutual involvement of the earlier gate of the samādhi of Indra's net answer to one another at a distance in point of form. This is recorded.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · Indra's Thousand Eyes and the Heavenly Drum of Trāyastriṃśa: A Small Power of Merit Is Yet Thus, a Formless Sound Can Yet Benefit

The simile of Indra's thousand eyes: when the gods and asuras do battle, Indra “according to the number of the asura host, manifests bodies equal to theirs and opposes them”; the asuras give rise to the thought “Śakra, lord of the gods, is coming against me; he will surely seize my body and bind it with the five bonds” and are worn down with anxiety; Indra “manifests his body with a thousand eyes, holding the adamantine cudgel from which flames issue,” and the asuras, seeing him, withdraw and submit; it closes with “By that small power of merit he is yet able to crush a great foe — how much more one who delivers all beings.”

The simile of the heavenly drum is longer and weightier. Within Trāyastriṃśa there is a drum “born of itself out of the ripening of deeds in heaven,” and when it knows the gods are heedless it sends forth a sound of itself in the air. The scripture cites what it says: all the five desires are “like foam gathered upon water, false in their nature”; all existences are “like a dream, like a heat-haze, and also like a floating cloud, like the moon in water”; “Heedlessness is enmity and is vexation; it is not the path of sweet dew but the road of birth-and-death”; the qualities of the five desires are of a “nature to perish,” and it urges them to “love and delight in the Dharma that is real.” The gods, hearing it, come up into the Hall of the Fine Dharma, and Indra expounds for them the wondrous Dharma. It closes: “That sound is formless and cannot be seen, and yet it can benefit the host of gods — how much more one who manifests bodies of form according as the minds of sentient beings delight: could he fail to deliver the multitudes!” And a further passage: in time of battle the drum sends forth a sound telling the host, “You should have no anxiety and no fear!”, and the gods put away anxiety and increase in strength while the asuras withdraw; the joining says, “The wondrous concentration of sweet dew is like that heavenly drum, constantly sending forth the quiescent sound that subdues the māras.”

What is singular about the simile of the heavenly drum is this: that drum has no mind, no form, and is struck by no one, and yet precisely when the words needed saying it said the words that needed saying. The joining states plainly that what it likens is “the wondrous concentration of sweet dew” — concentration's sending forth of sound is likewise mindless and yet timely.

Brought home to oneself: this is the one among all the chapter's similes most fit for self-examination. A reminder that truly lands is usually not one that someone deliberately said to you.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · Indra Responding to the Goddesses and the Kings of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment and of Brahmā: Even Worldly Freedom Is Thus

The scripture raises three more instances. Indra responding universally to the goddesses: the goddesses are “ninety-two nayutas” in number, and Indra responds to them all at once, causing each to think within herself, “The lord of the gods is taking his pleasure with me alone”; it closes with “Indra still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet can cause his retinue all to rejoice — how much more the supernormal power of great skillful means.” The king of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations: “attains great freedom within the realm of desire, and with deeds, delusion, and suffering as his net binds all ordinary beings,” closing with “He still has craving, hatred, and delusion, and yet attains freedom over sentient beings — how much more one furnished with the ten kinds of free power.” The great Brahmā king: “in all the places where the Brahmā gods dwell, is able to manifest his body seated there and to send forth the wondrous Brahmā voice,” closing with “He dwells within the Brahmā path of the world, and his meditation and supernormal powers are yet as he wishes — how much more one unsurpassed and beyond the world.”

The three instances mount in order: Indra in Trāyastriṃśa, the king of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment at the summit of the desire realm, and the Brahmā king in the form realm. The higher one goes, the nearer to concentration is the freedom instanced, and the nearer also to the concentration beyond the world is what is displayed by contrast.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · Maheśvara and the Great Wind That Raises Up the World: Counting the Raindrops, Raising Up the World

The simile of Maheśvara: “The wisdom of the god Maheśvara is free, so that when the dragon king of the great ocean sends down rain, he is able to distinguish and count the drops one by one, discerning them all within a single thought,” closing with “One who through measureless koṭis of kalpas has diligently cultivated and obtained this unsurpassed wisdom of awakening — how should he not, in a single thought, universally know the minds of all sentient beings!”

The simile of the great wind: “The ripening of sentient beings' deeds is beyond thought: by the power of the great wind the world is raised up, the vast seas, the mountains, and the palaces of the gods, the light of the many jewels and the kinds of the myriad things”; and the wind can further raise clouds and send down rain, scatter and dissolve the clouds, ripen the grains, and bring ease to the multitudes. The closing line is particularly worth remembering: “The wind cannot train in the perfections, nor does it train in the merits of a buddha, and still it can accomplish things beyond thought — how much more one furnished with all the vows!”

The former simile displays by contrast the knowing of all beings' minds in a single thought; in the latter the thing raised up is no longer a sentient being but the wind. Even the mindless wind accomplishes things beyond thought — this is “raising the inferior to display the superior” pushed to its furthest point.

Brought home to oneself: the two similes together say one thing — what one is able to do and what one has cultivated are not always in proportion; and if so, then what one who truly cultivates is able to do is all the more beyond any limit.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Sounds That Please and the Even Seal of the Great Ocean: Knowing Sound as Echo, Embracing Without Refusal

The simile of the many sounds: “The sounds of every kind made by men and by women, the sounds of every kind of bird and beast, and the sounds of the great sea, of flowing streams, and of rolling thunder, are all able to please the minds of sentient beings,” closing with “How much more one who knows that the nature of sound is like an echo and who has attained unobstructed and wondrous eloquence.” This simile answers to the earlier light of Wondrous Sound and to the passage on faculty and object with its “contemplate the dependent arising of sound as an echo in a valley.”

The simile of the even seal of the great ocean: “The great ocean has a rare and singular property, that it can be an even seal for all things; sentient beings, jewels, and flowing streams — all of them it embraces universally with nothing refused”; and the joining says, “One who has inexhaustible meditation and liberation is such an even seal likewise: merit, wisdom, and every kind of wondrous practice — all of them he cultivates universally without ever having enough.”

The even seal is the crucial phrase. That the ocean is an even seal lies in its not selecting — sentient beings, jewels, and streams it embraces alike. Yet what it is joined to is not the embracing of sentient beings but “all of them he cultivates universally without ever having enough” — not selecting among the wondrous practices. This moves evenness from what is received over to what is cultivated.

Brought home to oneself: fussiness about what one will practice is the least easily noticed kind of selecting.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Dragon King at Play · Cloud-Colors and Lightning: Differing According to the Place

From “when the dragon king of the great ocean is at his play” onward, the scripture enters the longest group among all the similes. Chengguan judges it to be “the simile of play, likening the bodhisattva's virtue of playful supernatural transformation.”

First the color of the clouds: the dragon king raises clouds filling the four continents, and the color of the clouds differs place by place — in the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations like true gold, in the Heaven of Delight in Emanations the color of red pearls, in Tuṣita the color of frost and snow, in Yāma the color of lapis lazuli, in Trāyastriṃśa the color of agate, in the heaven of the four kings the color of crystal, above the waters of the great ocean the color of adamant, among the kiṃnaras the color of wondrous fragrance, in the dwellings of the dragons the color of lotus flowers, in the dwellings of the yakṣas the color of white geese, among the asuras the color of mountain rock, in Uttarakuru the color of golden flame, in Jambudvīpa the color of blue jewels, and “in the remaining two continents it is an adornment of mixed colors, appearing in response to what sentient beings delight in.” Then the lightning, likewise differing place by place, with the last line, “as with the color of the clouds, so it is with the lightning.”

Ask first: why spread it out at such length? Because what is to be displayed is precisely ‘one raising, ten thousand differences.’ The dragon king is only at play raising clouds, and yet in every place the clouds put forth the color proper to that place. This is the same sense as the earlier “without discrimination and without applied effort” of the ocean-seal samādhi, only stated at greater length.

Brought home to oneself: at one and the same teaching, each hearer gets what he needs — it is not that the expounder made distinctions; the capacities are of themselves different.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Dragon King at Play · Thunder-Sounds and What Is Rained Down: One Raising, Ten Thousand Responses

Next the thunder-sounds: in the Heaven of Free Enjoyment like the Brahmā voice, in the Heaven of Delight in Emanations like a great drum, in Tuṣita like singing, in Yāma like the voices of heavenly maidens, in Trāyastriṃśa like the many sounds of the kiṃnaras, in the dwellings of the four world-guarding kings like the sound of the gandharvas; within the sea like two mountains striking together, among the kiṃnaras like flutes and pipes, in the cities of the dragons like the kalaviṅka, in the dwellings of the yakṣas like the voices of dragon maidens, among the asuras like the heavenly drum, and “within the human destiny it is like the sound of the ocean tide.”

Next what is rained down: the Heaven of Free Enjoyment rains wondrous fragrance and mixed flowers; the Heaven of Delight in Emanations rains tāla flowers, mandārava flowers, and marsh-fragrance; Tuṣita rains maṇi jewels (“the pearls in their topknots like moonlight, and fine garments of the color of true gold”); Yāma rains banners, pennons, and canopies, flower-garlands, unguents, and music; Trāyastriṃśa rains wish-granting jewels, hard black aloeswood and sandalwood, and the fragrant waters of saffron, keśara, and tamāla; within the cities of the world-guardians it rains fine viands “furnished with color, fragrance, and savor, that increase one's strength,” and rains also the many wondrous jewels beyond thought — and the last line names that upon which all this rests: “all of this is done by the dragon king.”

The threefold spreading-out (color, sound, rain) is of one and the same form: one place, one color; one place, one sound; one place, one thing. Brought home to oneself: the patience this long passage teaches is itself a training in how to read — only by being willing to read through place by place does one learn that ‘differing according to the place’ is not a summarizing phrase but something done item by item.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Rains in the Sea and in the Four Continents: The Dragon King Is Free and Yet His Body Does Not Move

The scripture goes on with the rains in the sea and in the several places: within the great ocean “the rain pours down unbroken like the shafts of chariots,” and it rains also inexhaustible great treasuries of jewels and jewels of adornment; in the realm of the kiṃnaras it rains necklaces, lotus flowers, garments and jewels, and the fragrances of vārṣika and mallikā; in the cities of the dragons it rains red pearls, in the cities of the yakṣas radiant maṇi jewels, among the asuras weapons “with which to crush and subdue every foe,” in Uttarakuru necklaces and wondrous flowers, in the two continents of Pūrvavideha and Aparagodānīya articles of adornment, and upon Jambudvīpa pure water, “fine and moistening and always in season, nurturing the many flowers, fruits, and healing herbs, and ripening all the crops in the fields.” It gathers all up with one verse: “Such measureless wondrous adornments, the clouds, lightning, and thunderous rains of every kind, the dragon king in his freedom is able to make them all, and yet his body does not move and is without discrimination.”

That gathering line is the eye of the whole group — “and yet his body does not move and is without discrimination.” The three preceding spreadings-out wrote out every kind of difference to the full, and the last line at a stroke brings it back to being unmoving and without discrimination. This is of the very same form as the gate of stillness and function without shore, where “dwelling in samādhi still and unmoving” goes together with “cultivating measureless offerings extensively.”

Brought home to oneself: to have done a very great many things and yet to have neither increase nor decrease within — this is the place this simile points to.

Illustrating the Profound Purport · The Concluding Exposition That Displays the Virtue: If the Dragon King Is Thus, How Much More One Who Enters the Sea of the Dharma

Chengguan judges that “third, one verse concluding the exposition and displaying the virtue.” The scriptural text: “He dwells within the sea of the world, and still can manifest such power beyond thought — how much more one who enters the sea of the Dharma and is furnished with merit: could he fail to work great supernormal transformations!” And then it turns to the gathering-in: “The gates of liberation of those bodhisattvas no simile whatever is able to display; I now, by means of these similes, expound only in summary their free power.”

These two verses buckle the whole section of illustrating the profound purport together at head and tail. At the beginning it said “in the end there is no simile that can be a simile for this”; at the end it says “no simile whatever is able to display”; and between them so many similes were set up, only to come back at last to the incapacity of simile. The setting of the sea of the world over against the sea of the Dharma is also finely made — the dragon king dwells in the sea of the world, the bodhisattva enters the sea of the Dharma.

Brought home to oneself: to finish this long string of similes and still feel that one has not truly seen a bodhisattva's freedom is exactly the outcome the scripture itself acknowledges. A simile is a door, not the room.

The Section of Comparative Measure and Exhortation to Uphold · Concluding the Preceding Six Wisdoms: The Names of the Six Wisdoms

Chengguan judges that “third of the main text, from ‘the first wisdom’ onward, nine verses, the section of comparative measure and exhortation to uphold,” and states its intent: “In this vast function everyone has a share; to see it and not practice it is truly to deceive oneself, and therefore those of middling capacity may be exhorted and so advance.” — A function as vast as this, and everyone has a share in it; to have seen it and not go on to practice it is to deceive oneself.

One verse of the scripture concludes what precedes: “The first wisdom, the vast wisdom, the true wisdom, the boundless wisdom, the excellent wisdom, and the surpassingly excellent wisdom — such a Dharma-gate has now been expounded.” Chengguan explains these six wisdoms name by name: “The first, because nothing can be added above it. Second, the vast, which speaks of its measure as surpassing the two vehicles. Third, the true, which makes clear that its substance and nature, inwardly realized, are without falsity. Fourth, the boundless, which has two senses: first, because the wisdom of measure knows universally; second, because it is apart from the various pairs of extremes — that is, the wisdom of the Middle Way. Fifth, the excellent, because it surpasses the stations of the grounds. Sixth, the surpassingly excellent, because it is the same as Samantabhadra's.”

The six wisdoms are not six different wisdoms but six aspects of one and the same wisdom: unsurpassed, surpassing the two vehicles, inwardly realized and without falsity, the Middle Way, surpassing the stations, the same as Samantabhadra's. Brought home to oneself: having read through seven hundred and more lines of merit and great function, here six names draw it all back to a single graph — wisdom.

The Rarity of Receiving It in Faith: To Have Faith in This Dharma Is the Hardest of Hard Things

Chengguan judges that “second, from ‘this Dharma’ onward, eight verses clarifying the rarity of receiving it in faith,” and judges that “the first one is the general display, the remaining seven the separate clarification.” The opening verse of the scripture: “This Dharma is rare and most extraordinary; if a person, having heard it, can accept it in patient assent, can have faith in it, receive it, and praise and expound it — such a deed is exceedingly hard.” Chengguan explains these four matters graph by graph: “‘Hearing’ means meeting with the scripture. Acceptance in patient assent means the cause of faith; where there is faith the mind is pure. ‘Receiving’ means taking in the text and taking in the sense. ‘Praising’ extends to both speech and writing, while ‘expounding’ pertains to speech alone.” And he explains “rare”: “A buddha's appearing is remote and already hard to meet with, and only at his first attaining does he expound it all at once, and therefore it is rare. ‘Extraordinary’ means that the beginning can possess what comes after; ‘most’ means that it far surpasses all the vehicles.”

The verses that follow measure by comparison layer upon layer: among the ordinary people of the world “to be able to have faith in this Dharma is most hard to obtain,” and those who can have faith do so by two powers — Chengguan says “first, because the pure merit cultivated in the present accords with what is sought; second, because the perfuming of hearing in past causes now brings forth the seed.” Further down comes that celebrated comparison: “Among the multitudes of beings in all the worlds, few are those who wish to seek the śrāvaka vehicle; those who seek to be pratyekabuddhas are fewer still; and those who set out upon the great vehicle are harder yet to meet with. Those who set out upon the great vehicle are yet the easier case; to be able to have faith in this Dharma is harder still — how much more to be able to uphold and recite it and to expound it for others, and to practice in accordance with the Dharma and truly understand it!”

Ask first: setting out upon the great vehicle is already extremely hard; why is having faith in this Dharma harder? Chengguan answers with the utmost brevity: “Because the initial mind is at once possessed of all merits, and therefore it is hard to have faith in.” The hardness of believing lies precisely in that sense of perfect interfusion set out earlier — that the initial arousing of the mind is at once possessed of all the stations. This one line strings the whole chapter together from beginning to end.

Let one thing be recorded in passing: when Chengguan cites this verse he has “those who have faith in the great vehicle are yet the easier case,” while the base text has “those who set out upon the great vehicle” and the sixty-fascicle text “those who seek the great vehicle”; the ancient worthies, in citing scripture, often abbreviate and alter, and both are recorded, with no adjudication.

Brought home to oneself: if in reading this far the thought arises, ‘this is surely putting it too grandly,’ the scripture has long since expected it — it has written that very thought into the three graphs “most hard to obtain.” And Chengguan leaves a way out for those who do not have faith: “Those who do not have faith now — would that they might hear even a little; as a drum smeared with poison, it will in the end become a firm seed.”

The Comparative Measure of the Merit of Reciting and Upholding by Instances: The Blessings of Reciting and Upholding This Chapter Are the Most Excellent

Chengguan judges that “third, four verses of comparative measure by instances,” and judges that “the first three measure the difficulty of faith: the first two raise two hard things so as to set off the hardness of faith, and the last raises the excellence of merit so as to display the excellence of faith. The last one measures the difficulty of the other practices, clarifying only reciting and upholding,” and says that of these four matters “each latter one surpasses the one before it.”

The four verses of the scripture: to bear the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system upon one's head for a kalpa without the body stirring — “what he did would still not be hard; to be able to have faith in this Dharma is hard”; to lift up ten buddha-lands with the hands and stand in the air for a kalpa — “what he did would still not be hard; to be able to have faith in this Dharma is hard”; to give the articles of ease for a kalpa to sentient beings as many as the dust-motes of ten lands — “his merit would still not be excellent; one who has faith in this Dharma is the most excellent”; to attend upon Tathāgatas as many as the dust-motes of ten lands for a kalpa — “if a person can recite and uphold this chapter, his merit is the most excellent and surpasses the other.”

Ask first: is this exaggeration? Look at the manner of the comparison and it becomes plain — the first two instances compare hardness, the last two compare excellence; the first three all speak of faith, and only the last speaks of reciting and upholding. The scripture's point of rest is not on ‘how much merit reading this chapter can gain’ but on ‘how hard it is to have faith in this Dharma.’

Brought home to oneself: the whole chapter begins with Mañjuśrī putting a question and ends with the reciting and upholding of this chapter, and the seven hundred and more lines in between speak wholly of the virtue that faith gives birth to. That it comes to rest upon reciting and upholding is a handing of that “faith” back into the reader's own hands — what you are now reading is precisely the chapter of which it speaks.

The Section of Manifesting the Real and Verifying It: The Buddhas of the Ten Quarters Stroke His Crown in Confirming Praise

Chengguan judges that “third of the main divisions, from ‘at that time Foremost in Worthiness’ onward, the section of manifesting the real and verifying it,” and divides it into four: “first, the quaking of the worlds, because the great capacity is aroused; second, the eclipsing of the palaces of Māra, because it is the sphere of buddhas alone; third, the ceasing of the evil destinies, because the benefit and joy are deep; fourth, the buddhas' present verification, because it accords with the buddhas' mind.” And within the buddhas' present verification he judges that “the stroking of the crown, the praising of it as good, and the rejoicing in it are the verification by all three kinds of act, exhorting beings to faith and practice.”

The scriptural text is the one passage of prose in the whole chapter: Foremost in Worthiness having expounded the verses, “the worlds of the ten quarters quaked in six ways, the palaces of Māra were eclipsed and hidden, and the evil destinies came to rest”; the buddhas of the ten quarters all appeared before him, “each with his right hand stroking his crown, and with one voice praised him, saying: ‘Excellent! Excellent! Well have you expounded this Dharma! We all alike rejoice in it.’”

Ask first: why must there be this passage? Because the seven hundred and more lines that precede all set forth the virtue of the fruit, and the expositor is Foremost in Worthiness alone. This passage is the buddhas themselves attesting that what he says is not false. Chengguan says that the stroking of the crown is the verification by the act of body, the praising as good the verification by the act of speech, and the rejoicing the verification by the act of mind — all three kinds of act verify it.

The second assembly ends here. At the close of his commentary Chengguan marks four graphs, “the second assembly is concluded” — from “The Names of the Tathāgata” down to this chapter, six chapters clarifying faith, and the assembly closes upon a single “excellent” from the buddhas.

Lineage

The sense of this chapter was carried on by three tracks in later ages; all are recorded, with no adjudication.

The line of Chengguan: following the eighty-fascicle text word by word in dividing the outline, he sets up the four gates of the reason for its coming, the explanation of the name, the tenet and aim, and the explanation of the text; judges the whole chapter as three divisions — Mañjuśrī's raising of the matter, Foremost in Worthiness's extensive exposition, and the present verification by the ten quarters; judges Foremost in Worthiness's answer as three divisions — modest praise and the granting of the exposition, properly setting forth the excellent virtues, and comparative measure and exhortation to uphold; divides the section of properly setting forth the excellent virtues again into five; and within the section of the boundless great function establishes the names of ten samādhi-gates. What he applies his strength to most in this chapter is the resolving of the difficulty, ‘how can the gate of faith be possessed of all the later stations’ — establishing the two gates of the graded sequence of the arrayed stages and of perfect interfusion and comprehensive inclusion, opening under the gate of perfect interfusion the two further gates of mutual dependence in dependent arising and of the fusion and inclusion of the Dharma realm, and judging that the taking in of one another by the stations of practice has four accounts: the beginning possessing the end, the end possessing the beginning, all the stations gathered together at once, and all the stations effaced. He further distinguishes the arousing of the mind in this chapter from the abode of the initial arousing of the mind among the ten abodes, judging that “the arousing of the mind here covers both beginning and end”; and he rebukes those who take this text as marking the leaving of the ordinary and the entering of the noble, saying “to judge it as entering the grounds is a reckless account.” All these judgments are where the Huayan school's doctrine of the perfect interfusion of the stations of practice comes to rest in this chapter.

The line of Fazang: on the sixty-fascicle text he explains the chapter's name from the Sanskrit bhadra and śrī, judges it an appositional compound, and opens out the four turns of person and dharma; he judges the text of Foremost in Worthiness's answer into eight parts — praising its depth and the difficulty of expounding it, the summary showing of the character of practice, the summary distinguishing of its excellent capacity, gathering in the stations of practice, the boundless great function, illustrating the profound purport by simile, comparative measure and exhortation to arouse the mind, and manifesting the real and verifying it; and he records the count of three hundred and sixty-three verses and the division into lines of five and of seven graphs. His eight parts and Chengguan's three divisions and five subdivisions each make a line of their own; two accounts come down from antiquity, and they are recorded.

The line of Zhiyan: on the sixty-fascicle text he explains the name by “the station where the ten kinds of faith are already fulfilled is the beginning of the worthy and the noble,” attaches the reason for its coming to “practice having been established, there must next be an extensive praising of the function of its virtue that completes the station,” judges the tenet to be the praising of virtue, and judges the text into three — “within the text there are three: first, Mañjuśrī's question; second, seven hundred and seven and a half verses, Foremost in Worthiness's answer proper; third, Foremost in Worthiness's exposition” — with six verses below the end of the chapter as the buddhas' verification displayed by the compilers of the scripture; and he records the verse-count of seven hundred and fifteen and a half. The six verses of verification he records stand precisely over against the eighty-fascicle text's prose — one and the same passage, and the two witnesses differ in form; it is recorded, with no adjudication.

The line of Li Tongxuan: he distinguishes roughly five gates — explaining the title of the chapter, explaining the reason for the chapter's coming, clarifying the tenet and aim of the chapter, clarifying the abiding and backsliding of the mind of faith, and explaining the meaning following the text. Among these, the gate “clarifying the abiding and backsliding of the mind of faith” is not found in the other masters, and marks a track of its own. He explains the name Foremost in Worthiness as “beginning as an ordinary person and all at once setting forth in manifest brightness the cause and fruit, the principle and the wisdom, of all the buddhas of the Dharma realm at one and the same moment,” and judges this Foremost in Worthiness to be “the Foremost in Worthiness of the practice of Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra within the ocean of the buddha-fruit,” “the foremost of faith in the cause and fruit, the principle and the wisdom, of the Buddha, and the foremost of the fulfilling of understanding and practice of the Dharma realm without beginning or end” — reading it by sudden manifestation and by the absence of beginning and end, which differs from a reading by the sequence of the stations; this account comes down from antiquity, and it is recorded.

As for the three masters' differing counts of verses — Chengguan's three hundred and fifty-nine and a half, Fazang's three hundred and sixty-three, Zhiyan's seven hundred and fifteen and a half — the base texts they explain are themselves different (Chengguan explains the eighty-fascicle text, Fazang and Zhiyan the sixty-fascicle text), while the verse lines of the base text count out as seven hundred and seventeen. All are recorded, with no adjudication as to higher or lower, and with no subtracting of one from another for comparison.

Among the works that are the guiding compendia of the Huayan school, the two names “Foremost in Worthiness” and “the ocean-seal samādhi” are met with in several places in the Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang, the Huayan yisheng shixuan men, and the Wangjin huanyuan guan; all of these are citations of wording in setting up the marks of the teaching, in establishing the doctrine of the ten mysteries, and in establishing the names of contemplative practice, and are not the expounding of this chapter's scriptural text; they are recorded, with no adjudication. And the line “faith is the origin of the path and the mother of merits” yields no occurrences at all in any of these works; the absence is recorded as the facts stand, and nothing is inferred from it about the line's circulation.