華嚴經 品二十五 十迴向品 · 第五無盡功德藏迴向Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Ten Dedications · The Fifth, the Dedication of the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit

Putting the two graphs “inexhaustible” in their right place

Ask first: this dedication is named “the treasury of inexhaustible merit” — what is it that is inexhaustible? When ordinary people hear “inexhaustible” they think of a number so great it cannot be counted; but the roots of goodness this section dedicates are only eight clauses, and that is not many.

Chengguan explains the name of this dedication with great precision: because it is an inexhaustible object that is met when the dedication is made, an inexhaustible practice of the merit of roots of goodness is accomplished, and the fruit of ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury is obtained; the name is taken from the two ends together, the practice that does the dedicating and the fruit that is obtained. Said another way — the inexhaustible does not lie in that little root of goodness in your hand, but in the place you put it into. Eight clauses of roots of goodness are a limited thing, but “the buddhas of the three times,” “all sentient beings,” “the whole Dharma realm and the whole realm of empty space” are limitless; and a limited thing, once it is tied to a limitless object, becomes limitless along with it.

As for the graph “treasury,” Chengguan runs through two ways of taking it: with respect to the dedication set over against the practice, the dedication is what does the storing and the inexhaustible merit is what is stored; with respect to the cause set over against the fruit it is likewise. He further cites one sentence from the Benye jing saying that one constantly bestows the Three Jewels upon the person before one, and therefore it is named the treasury of inexhaustible merit.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “the inexhaustible treasury” as a warehouse packed with things. It is a relation — wherever you turn your roots of goodness toward, that place is their measure. Brought down to the ground: what this gate teaches is a way of seeing, not a feat of effort. One and the same good deed, dedicated to oneself, has an end; dedicated to all the sentient beings and all the buddhas of the three times, it is inexhaustible on the spot.

The roots of goodness dedicated are only eight clauses: repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · hearing the Dharma · a fourfold rejoicing

Ask first: a dedication must after all have something to dedicate — what is taken up here? Answer: eight clauses. Chengguan, outlining this passage, says that “the text has eight clauses,” and says that the first three may be known as they stand, that the fourth, hearing the Dharma and cultivating and realizing it, belongs to the exhortation — since if one asks the Buddha in person one will assuredly hear the Dharma — and that the latter four are all rejoicing.

The order of the eight clauses is in fact a whole method of practice. Chengguan here sets out the several masters' ways of opening out and gathering up: according to the Ligouhui suowen lifo fa jing there are eight layers in all (making offerings to the Buddha · praising the Buddha's virtue · saluting the Buddha, and the rest being the five acts of repentance), or one joins salutation and praise, or one omits the offering; or there are only five, since making a vow and dedicating differ only as the general and the particular; or there are only three, as the Zhi lun says, that in the three periods of the day and the three of the night one practices repentance · exhortation · rejoicing; and if one follows the Shanjie jing there are only the two matters of repentance and dedication. The Yanyi chao, taking up the commentary, makes it plain: the five here are repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · rejoicing · dedication, and dedication stands last. Fazang's Tanxuan ji establishes eight gates for repentance, and likewise raises seven layers of opening and gathering — eight · seven · six · five · four · three · two — and in the end says that for now he will explain according to the five matters.

Clear away a misreading: do not read repentance as an emotional remorse. Chengguan glosses the graphs: to confess is to disclose one's earlier offences, and to repent is to change what is past and cultivate what is to come, and the purpose is to remove the hindrance of evil karma. Reverent salutation removes the hindrance of conceit; exhortation removes the hindrance of slandering the Dharma and gives rise to the good of loving-kindness; rejoicing removes the hindrance of envy and gives rise to the good of impartiality — four matters, each a remedy for one disease. Brought down to the ground: these eight clauses can be done as they stand. Whatever dedication you can make today, the material for it is already among these eight, and there is no need to look elsewhere.

Why rejoicing takes four of the clauses: its merit cannot be reckoned by measure

Ask first: among the eight clauses rejoicing alone occupies four — why so heavy a weight? Chengguan says that the Shizhu and the Zhi lun both divide rejoicing into three stations — the good of the buddhas · the good of the two vehicles · the good of gods and humans; the four clauses here have a first clause that states in general that the three goods are already present in it, and among them the good of the two vehicles is precisely what ought to be reproved, and so it is not raised separately but is contained within “all sentient beings”; the latter three clauses are the particular, the second clause making the three goods plain separately and concluding them into a single rejoicing, and the last clause rejoicing over the cause and the fruit of the buddhas.

That rejoicing is worth four clauses is because its merit cannot be reckoned by measure. Chengguan cites the Dapin, its chapter on rejoicing, saying that of the sea-water of the great thousandfold world, if one splits a single hair into a hundred parts and takes up drops of the sea-water with it, one might yet know their number, but the merit of rejoicing cannot be known in number; and he cites the Fahua saying that even at the fiftieth person to whom it is passed on it is still hard to compare and measure, how much more the first rejoicing. He further makes the point that what is rejoiced over here is the Tathāgata's merit of the provisional and the real, and therefore the merit is greater still.

Clear away a misreading: do not suppose that rejoicing is a lazy gate that costs no effort. What it remedies is envy, and envy is precisely the state of mind hardest of all to notice in oneself. Brought down to the ground: rejoicing is the one kind of root of goodness that does not require you to have capital first — at every good thing another does, the moment you stir up a mind of gladness that root of goodness has entered into your own eight clauses.

The ten clauses of “all that is”: one root of goodness has ten faces

Ask first: the eight clauses have already been listed in full, so why go on to say the ten clauses that begin “all that is accumulated, all that is believed and understood”? Answer: this is to tie up the roots of goodness above once more, and vertically this time. Chengguan says that what precedes ties up horizontally what has been said and what has not been said, and that what follows ties up the preceding good vertically, meaning that whichever root of goodness it may be, it has these faces of accumulation and the rest.

The ten clauses are: accumulated · believed and understood · rejoiced over · fulfilled · accomplished · cultivated · obtained · known and perceived · taken up and held · increased and grown. Chengguan glosses four of them graph by graph — to be furnished entire is called fulfilment, to have finished learning is called accomplishment, to enter by realization is called obtaining, to penetrate the nature is called knowing and perceiving — and the rest of the words are plain in themselves.

Clear away a misreading: do not read these ten clauses as ten different roots of goodness. They are ten cross-sections of one and the same root of goodness: a single thing you have done may be spoken of from its accumulating, from your believing and understanding of it, from your gladness over it, on down to its increase. Brought down to the ground: look your roots of goodness over vertically once before you dedicate them, and you will find that there is more to dedicate than you supposed — not only ‘what I have done,’ but also ‘what I have believed’ and ‘what I have rejoiced over.’

First adorning the buddha-lands of the past: what a kind of buddha-world is

Ask first: the roots of goodness being now complete, what is the first place to dedicate them to? Answer: the lands of all the buddhas. The sutra first raises every place through which all the Tathāgatas passed in the kalpas of the past that were without bound or border, and then leads out with “that is to say” the passage on the kinds of buddha-worlds.

Chengguan here glosses it graph by graph: a kind of world is the great structure of quarters and places set out among one another, as was said in the first assembly; measureless says that it is without any measure; numberless says that its number is many; what the wisdom of a buddha knows says that it is manifested by pure consciousness and that only a buddha exhausts it; what a bodhisattva recognizes says that a bodhisattva who has ascended to the grounds can see it in part; what one of the great mind receives says that one before the grounds is able to receive it. Then the clauses “pure karmic practice, what it pours forth and draws forth, arising in accord with sentient beings” and the rest he determines as the completeness of the cause, and he distinguishes: the land of one's own enjoyment is what pure practice pours forth, while the land of another's enjoyment and the land of transformation are what pure karma draws forth; and the last clause, “all the buddhas accomplish the path within them,” he determines as the completeness of the work.

Clear away a misreading: do not read a kind of buddha-world as the name of some particular place. What it speaks of is that very structure in which worlds come to be by kinds and are set out among one another. Brought down to the ground: this passage tells the reader that a buddha-land is pure not because its materials are precious, but because it is poured forth by pure karmic practice — the cleanness of the land comes from the cleanness of the cause.

The buddha-lands of the future: the six adornments and the so-called eighteen completenesses

Ask first: after the past it speaks of the future — why does the sutra divide the buddha-lands of the three times and speak of them apart? Answer: because the buddha-lands of the three times each have their own aspect, and only taken together are they all of them. Chengguan outlines nine kinds of completeness from this passage, and says in sum that within these two passages the eighteen completenesses are present in full.

The passage on the future first states in general “to the very end of the future, all the Tathāgatas, the Worthy of Offerings, the Rightly and Fully Awakened,” and next makes plain the completeness of extent with “to the end of the Dharma realm and to the end of the realm of empty space, without bound and without border, without interruption and without exhaustion”; the clause “they all arise from the wisdom of the Tathāgata” Chengguan determines as the completeness of the fruit, and divides it: the land of one's own enjoyment arises from the wisdom of the great perfect mirror, the land of another's enjoyment from the wisdom of impartiality. From “adorned by measureless wondrous jewels” onward is the completeness of what upholds; he cites the Fodi jing saying that it is adorned by a multitude of measureless merits and that the great jewelled king of flowers is what upholds it, and then sets a limit to it himself with one sentence, that the Fodi takes it only with respect to the matter and speaks only of the lotus, whereas here it runs through both matter and principle, and therefore he speaks of the merit of the powers of a buddha. As for the six adornments — incense · flower · garment · treasury of merit · the powers of the buddhas · buddha-lands — Chengguan divides them into three adornments by things, two adornments by virtue, and one land that is upheld. “Where the Tathāgatas gather as in a capital” is the completeness of the lord, and from “inconceivable; the many pure multitudes who cultivated and practiced together and have a bond from former lives” onward is the completeness of the retinue that assists, taking in as well the completenesses of the entourage, of the quarter, of the gate in which all are alike, and of the benefit conferred.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “to the very end of the future” as a very long stretch of time. It is raised together with “to the end of the Dharma realm and to the end of the realm of empty space,” and what it speaks of is being without interruption and without exhaustion, not being very long. Brought down to the ground: the use of reading this passage is that it rescues the two graphs “adornment” from mere decoration — what is called adornment is that lord, entourage, quarter, and Dharma-gate are every one of them complete; it is not that the place looks handsome.

The buddha-lands of the present: the eleven kinds of implement of adornment

Ask first: why are the buddha-lands of the present spoken of in the greatest detail? Answer: because they are the aspect of the world in which the reader stands at this moment. The sutra first says “all the buddhas, the world-honored ones, of the present are in every way like this as well,” which Chengguan determines as a general statement that they are of a kind with the past and the future; next, “measureless shapes” makes plain the completeness of shape and “measureless light and color” the completeness of visible color, and the clause “all of them accomplished by merit” concludes them in general by the cause; from “measureless incense, measureless jewels, measureless trees” onward is the completeness of the dwelling place.

The clause “the good friends who come following upon the causes and conditions of former lives manifest the adornment of every merit” Chengguan determines as separately displaying the cause of the place — that is, the cause of another's enjoyment, and this is why it says “manifest.” Thereafter “that is to say” leads out the eleven kinds of implement of adornment — incense · garland · powdered incense · jewel · banner · jewelled silk streamer · jewelled railing · golden net · river · cloud-rain · music playing subtle and wondrous sounds; the first seven are crowned with “every,” the latter four with “asaṃkhyeya.”

Clear away a misreading: these eleven implements are not a list of eleven objects, for the closing clause, “implements of adornment measureless and numberless such as these,” has already said of itself that it is giving examples. Brought down to the ground: what deserves notice is the clause “the good friends who come following upon the causes and conditions of former lives” — the adornment of a buddha-land, the sutra says, comes from the manifesting of good friends. Adornment is not a fine landscape without people in it; there are people within it manifesting merit.

The twenty-nine names of buddha-lands: the names are taken from virtue and function

Ask first: twenty-nine names of buddha-lands one after another — how is the reader to read them? Answer: not as twenty-nine places. Chengguan says it plainly — there are twenty-nine kinds, and the names are established differently according to substance · virtue · function.

The twenty-nine names in order are: adorned · pure · impartial · fine and good · majestic · vast · peaceful and happy · indestructible · inexhaustible · measureless · unmoving · fearless · luminous · without contrariety · to be loved and delighted in · universally illumining · adorned and beautiful · fine and lovely · wondrously wrought · foremost · excellent · especially excellent · most excellent · utterly excellent · high · unsurpassed · unequalled · incomparable · beyond all likeness. The sequence begins with “adorned” and stops at “beyond all likeness”; the first half establish their names mostly with respect to virtue, while the latter half raise in a row the nine names excellent · especially excellent · most excellent · utterly excellent · high · unsurpassed · unequalled · incomparable · beyond all likeness, which is a way of forcing the praise, step mounting upon step, to the very end of what language can do. The sixty-fascicle text here has twenty-seven names, crowned with “buddha-field,” and its last name is “the equal of the unequalled” — both witnesses are recorded, without adjudging between them.

Clear away a misreading: do not look for a strict classification between one name and the next. It is a heaping up of words of praise, and the intent of the rhetoric lies precisely in the heaping. Brought down to the ground: at the words “beyond all likeness” one should stop a moment — the names run out here, and this is exactly the forewarning of the turn into being apart from marks that follows.

The first great vow: to adorn one is to adorn all

Ask first: the adornments of the buddha-lands of the three times having all been looked over, what is the first vow the bodhisattva makes? Answer: he vows to take all the pure adornments of all the lands of all the buddhas of the three times and use them entire to adorn a single world; and then, as it is with one world, so is it with all worlds.

Chengguan upon this establishes the doctrine of the pure land of Huayan, saying: what follows from “as it is with one world” gives the adorning as example, universal and all-round, and so displays the bounds of the adornment, causing the lands of the Dharma realm all to possess all the adornments of the three times; and since a single buddha-land already possesses inexhaustible adornment, then to adorn one is to adorn all, which further displays that one completeness is all completeness, layer upon layer without end, and this is what makes the completeness of the pure land of Huayan. The six clauses of the sutra, “wholly accomplished, wholly purified, wholly gathered, wholly made manifest, wholly made beautiful, wholly upheld and maintained,” are precisely this sense of ‘the whole of it falling in a single place,’ repeated six times over.

Clear away a misreading: do not read this vow as covetousness — as wanting to move every good thing into one's own land. Its bone is ‘one is all’: because one and all are of themselves mutually identical, to adorn one land is to adorn all lands, and nothing has been carried off from anywhere. Brought down to the ground: this is the first place where “inexhaustible” comes down onto the aspect of objects. If the one place you dedicate toward is truly the Dharma realm, then that one place is every place.

The second great vow: adorning the land with people

Ask first: the land has been adorned already, so why is a second vow still needed? Answer: because the adornment of a land does not lie in things. Chengguan says that what follows here is human jewels as the adornment, the same as the seventh of the ten great vows, which is to say the completeness of the retinue that assists, spoken of above.

The body of this vow is exceedingly long: he vows that all the buddha-fields he cultivates and completes have great bodhisattvas filling them full, and it lists the virtues of those bodhisattvas. Chengguan divides it into three parts: first the general vow for what is accomplished, next the separate display of the aspect of the vow, and last the conclusion in the adorning of the field. Within the separate display he further sets the vow for loftiness of virtue before the vow for breadth of work: the passage on loftiness of virtue has twenty clauses, of which the first two state in general the reality of substance and the roundness of wisdom, and the eighteen thereafter display them separately; he says that “well discriminate” is the provisional and “enter deeply” the real, and that from “accomplish the recollection of the Buddha” onward the first four only of the seven recollections are raised, while from “the sun of wisdom is fulfilled” onward is the great practice. The passage on breadth of work he divides into four, namely the completenesses of work · of vehicle · of fearlessness · of upholding. Last of all is the conclusion in the adorning of the field, where he glosses “perfumed and cultivated, utterly perfumed and cultivated” as perfuming and cultivating body and mind unceasingly with stillness and with insight, with wisdom alone and with compassion alone; that the afflictions of the present do not arise is why it says pure, and that the habits of the seeds do not stir is why it says utterly pure; tranquil means harmonious, at rest means at ease, and harmonious and at rest and still is the aspect of stillness within illumination.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “great bodhisattvas filling them full” as a crowd and a bustle. The sutra goes on to use ten layers of number — numberless · measureless · boundless · unequalled · beyond counting · beyond reckoning · beyond thinking · beyond measuring · beyond speaking · beyond speaking of beyond speaking — and Chengguan says that this is how many there are in a single quarter within a single field, and that thereafter the quarter is taken as example for the field and the field as example for the Dharma realm. Brought down to the ground: whether a land is good is a matter of what kind of people live in it. This vow moves the definition of adornment from vessels and objects onto one's fellow practitioners.

The ten skillful dedications: turning from the pure land to every place

Ask first: the two vows above have both spoken of buddha-fields — is dedication then only for the sake of buddha-lands? Answer: it is not. Chengguan says that what follows here is the dedication that gathers all in, and that it is not directed only to the pure lands of the buddhas; the text has ten clauses, the first three tying up what has already been said above and the latter seven setting forth what has not yet been made plain.

The ten clauses are: dedicating to all buddha-fields · to all bodhisattvas · to all Tathāgatas · to the awakening of all buddhas · to all vast vows · to every path of the essential going forth · to the purifying of the whole realm of sentient beings · to seeing constantly in all worlds the buddhas appearing and arising in the world · to seeing constantly that the life-span of the Tathāgata is measureless · to seeing constantly all the buddhas filling and pervading the Dharma realm and turning the unobstructed and non-retrogressive wheel of the Dharma. Of the term “path of the essential going forth” Chengguan explains it by expressly dividing the great vehicle from the small: the essential going forth of the small vehicle has only the four, vigor · mindfulness · concentration · wisdom, since the thirty-seven factors do not depart from these; the essential going forth of the great vehicle has only the three headings, the four means of gathering · the four immeasurables · and the ten perfections; the pressing essential of the three vehicles is only stillness and insight, and the pressing essential of the great vehicle is only wisdom and compassion.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten clauses as ten different goals. The first three are the places adorned, the middle ones are the practices cultivated, and the last three are the things one vows constantly to see — they are ten destinations of one and the same dedication. Brought down to the ground: these ten clauses can be used directly as a text of dedication. They give a complete table of directions: toward the field · toward people · toward the buddhas · toward the fruit · toward vows · toward the path · toward sentient beings · toward the sight of a buddha.

Once the dedication is made, three places are purified at once

Ask first: dedication is a turning of direction within the mind — how then does it have an effect outside? Answer: the sutra says it with the utmost brevity — because he universally enters all the buddha-lands, all the buddha-fields are pure; because he universally reaches the whole realm of sentient beings, all bodhisattvas are pure; because he universally vows that in all the buddha-lands there be buddhas appearing and arising, the bodies of the Tathāgatas appear standing out above all in the whole Dharma realm and in all the buddha-lands. Three graphs “because,” and three results.

Chengguan determines this passage as the conclusion in which practice accomplishes benefit, and says that it gathers up in sum the three kinds of world — the world as vessel · the world of sentient beings · the world of wisdom and right awakening. The three purities answer to them exactly one by one: the buddha-fields are the vessel, the bodhisattvas are the sentient beings, the bodies of the Tathāgatas are wisdom and right awakening.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “all the buddha-fields are entirely pure” as the bodhisattva having the power to remodel lands. What the sutra says is “because he universally enters” — it is because the mind has universally entered that there is nothing it has entered which is not pure; what is purified is the mind that sees, not an object that has been remodelled. Brought down to the ground: here is given a way of testing whether a dedication is genuine — if the dedication is real, three places turn at one time, and it will never be one place only that turns.

The mind vast as empty space: the doorway into being apart from marks

Ask first: the adornment of following marks has by now been carried to its height — where does it go next? Answer: it goes back the way it came. Chengguan says that what follows here is the dedication apart from marks, which is directing toward the true limit; and that in the text he first makes plain that the wisdom which sees the real merges with the true limit, and after that displays that the virtue of being apart from the false accords with the true limit, these two passages completing each other by turning back and forth.

The sutra says: with a dedication such as this, beyond all comparison, he tends toward Sarvajñā, his mind vast as empty space, without limit or measure, entering the inconceivable, and he knows that all karma and its fruits of recompense are entirely still and extinguished; his mind is constantly impartial, without bound or border, universally able to enter throughout the whole Dharma realm. Chengguan points out that the first clause takes up the dedication toward awakening spoken of above, and that only from “his mind” onward does it properly display the being apart from marks; that being still and without shore is why it is called entering the inconceivable, that meeting the true right in the matter is why it is constantly impartial, and that by this it is able to enter universally — whether matter, or principle, or the unobstructed Dharma realm, all of these are called “all.”

Clear away a misreading: do not read “he knows that all karma and its fruits of recompense are entirely still and extinguished” as a denial of cause and effect. The text immediately below goes on to say “he does not destroy causes, he does not destroy fruits.” Stillness and extinction speak of their nature, not of their working. Brought down to the ground: being apart from marks is not the overturning of the adornment set out above; it is the not adding, on top of the adornment, of a further thought that ‘I am adorning.’ The two passages, before and after, must be read together, and to take up one side alone is to go astray.

The ten pairs of blocking away: taking apart the grasping at being and the grasping at emptiness together

Ask first: this long string of “does not discriminate,” “does not destroy,” “does not grasp,” “does not say” — what is it blocking away? Answer: Chengguan determines it with the greatest neatness — the text has ten pairs: the first six pairs block away the false grasping at being, since what is formed by conditions is without own-nature, and moreover what is blocked away is in every case a dharma of the dedication set out above; the next one pair blocks away the false grasping at emptiness; the last three pairs block away emptiness and being together.

The first six pairs are: not discriminating self and what belongs to self · a buddha and the Dharma of a buddha · buddha-fields and their adorning purification · sentient beings and their taming · karma and the fruit of recompense of karma · not clinging to thinking and to what arises from thinking. Note that each pair answers to a passage above — not discriminating buddha-fields and their adorning purification blocks away precisely the vow to adorn fields set out above; not discriminating sentient beings and their taming blocks away precisely the purifying of the realm of sentient beings set out above. The seventh pair is not destroying causes and not destroying fruits, of which Chengguan says that because they are identical with emptiness, yet without any hindrance to their standing, the provisional names are not destroyed, and because it is the real mark that is spoken of, cause and effect are not destroyed. The last three pairs: the pair not grasping at matters and not grasping at dharmas blocks away matter and principle, of which he says that dharma is the dharma of principle, and that since the two are mutually identical they cannot be grasped as fixed; the pair not saying that birth-and-death is a thing discriminated and not saying that nirvāṇa is constantly still and quiescent blocks away the turning away from one and toward the other of birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, of which he speaks through two senses — first with respect to being apart from marks, that birth-and-death and nirvāṇa exist over against each other and both are empty and not to be got hold of; second with respect to the melting of substance, that taking the conditioned as the real, birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, and taking the real as the conditioned, nirvāṇa is birth-and-death — and he cites the Zhonglun saying that the true limit of nirvāṇa and the limit of the world, these two limits, are without the difference of a hair's breadth, and he further takes up the sixty-fascicle text saying that birth-and-death is not confused and nirvāṇa is not quiescent, the words differing and the sense being the same. The last pair, not saying that the Tathāgata has entered into and realized the sphere of a buddha and that there is not the least dharma that could stand in one place together with a dharma, blocks away the realizer and the realized, and here he cites the Lengqie saying that one is far removed from the aware and what is aware, and cites the Wenshu wen jing saying that if one realizes the Dharma realm by the Dharma realm, that is contention.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten pairs as ten negations. They have a sequence: first the grasping at being is broken, then the grasping at emptiness, and last the two extremes of emptiness and being. Brought down to the ground: these fourteen clauses are a mirror. However great the vow you made above, however adorned the land you imagined, here it asks you clause by clause — is that self who made the vow still there or not?

Dedicating to sentient beings: giving universally without falling into grasping

Ask first: after the dedication toward awakening, why does the sutra set up a separate passage on dedicating to sentient beings? Answer: Chengguan says that this is the general statement, namely that at the very time of dedicating toward awakening above he dedicates his roots of goodness to sentient beings, and that this is why it says “when he dedicates in this way.”

From “decisively” onward is the separate display of the aspect of practice, and Chengguan determines that it has seven clauses: two clauses of following marks — first, a mind that does not cast anyone off; second, no mark of enemy or intimate; and five clauses of being apart from marks — first, not seeing the mark of a sentient being; second, not grasping at the conditions of conversion; third, not weighing and measuring capacities; fourth, no self or person who does the delivering; and the last clause a general conclusion. Set against the sutra text this comes to: universally giving to sentient beings · decisively causing them to ripen · teaching and transforming them impartially belong to following marks; without marks · without any object seized upon · without weighing and measuring · without falsity · far removed from all discriminating and grasping belong to being apart from marks.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “without marks, without any object seized upon” as coldness. The clause immediately before it is “with his manifold roots of goodness he universally gives to sentient beings, decisively causing them to ripen” — only when there is first a mind decisively set upon ripening them can there be any talk of being without marks. The order cannot be reversed. Brought down to the ground: these seven clauses are a self-examination for the time when one gives to people — have I given anyone up? have I made distinctions of near and far? have I in my heart been grading another's capacity? have I felt that it is I who am delivering him?

The nine gainings of inexhaustible roots of goodness: where the inexhaustible comes back from

Ask first: the dedication has gone out — how is it that on the contrary the text says “he obtains inexhaustible roots of goodness”? Answer: Chengguan says that because following upon each practice he gives rise to an inexhaustible mind, an inexhaustible virtue is accomplished; the text has ten clauses, the first clause being the general and what follows “that is to say” the particular.

The nine particular clauses are: calling to mind all the buddhas of the three times · calling to mind all bodhisattvas · purifying the buddha-fields · purifying the whole realm of sentient beings · entering deeply into the Dharma realm · cultivating the measureless mind that is equal to the realm of empty space · deeply understanding the sphere of all buddhas · diligently cultivating the deeds of a bodhisattva · penetrating the three times. Chengguan sorts them into groups: the first four clauses are what following marks accomplishes, of which the first two are cause and fruit and the latter two are the dependent and the proper; the next two clauses are what being apart from marks accomplishes, displaying its depth and breadth; the two after that are understanding and practice, running through both following marks and being apart from marks; the last two display in general that the dedication set out above is the same as that of the three times.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “he obtains inexhaustible roots of goodness” as the wages of the dedication. It is not an exchange but the other face of one and the same thing — the object you meet being inexhaustible, your roots of goodness are inexhaustible on the spot, and there is no waiting for it. Brought down to the ground: these nine clauses may be read alongside the ten skillful dedications above — there it says where one goes, and here it says what those roots of goodness are like once one has gone.

The ten clauses of knowing: four clauses of the emptiness of self · six clauses of the emptiness of dharmas

Ask first: these ten clauses, “he knows that in the whole realm of sentient beings there is no sentient being” — do they say that sentient beings do not exist? Answer: they do not. Chengguan determines this passage as the benefit of accomplishing the wisdom of the two emptinesses, the first four of the ten clauses being the emptiness of self and the latter six the emptiness of dharmas.

For the four clauses of the emptiness of self he gives a reason clause by clause: first, no sentient being, which is being apart from the defilement of a sentient being; second, no life-span, which is being apart from birth-and-death; third, no doer, also called no self, which is being apart from the defilement of self; fourth, no one who takes up the destinies, which is that the earlier and later limits are cut off. The latter six clauses are the emptiness of dharmas — without wrath and contention · arising from conditions and having no place where they abide · all things having nothing to lean upon · all fields being entirely without any abiding · the practices of all bodhisattvas likewise having no place · all spheres being entirely without anything at all.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “there is no sentient being” as meaning there is nobody to deliver. The passage just above has only now said “with his manifold roots of goodness he universally gives to sentient beings, decisively causing them to ripen.” What is absent is the mark of a sentient being, not the matter of sentient beings. Brought down to the ground: these ten clauses are a prescription for the practitioner. Only by delivering sentient beings without seeing the mark of a sentient being will one avoid growing heavier and heavier in the midst of delivering others; but to leave off delivering on that account is to have taken the medicine for the disease.

The pure eye: even “the impure” is no longer seen

Ask first: what is meant by “his eye in the end does not see an impure buddha-field”? Have the buddha-fields really all become clean? Answer: Chengguan determines this as the virtue of accomplishing the purity of the sphere, and gives three reasons with respect to the purity of fields: first, knowing that the defiled is identical with emptiness; second, as the Brahmā king with the conch-shaped topknot saw purity in the defiled place; third, that though he sees pure and defiled there is no mark of seeing. The purity of sentient beings likewise has three senses: being of one emptiness · being of the same Tathāgata-womb · having no mark of seeing; and the purity of dharmas is spoken of with respect to distinguishing wisdom from dharmas, first that emptiness is without a grasper and a grasped, second that they are of one suchness, so that to raise one is to take in the whole — outside wisdom there is no suchness that wisdom could enter, and outside suchness there is no wisdom that could enter into suchness.

The last clause, “he understands that the body of the Tathāgata is not like empty space,” is the most essential of all. Chengguan says that this is the purity of a buddha; that in order to break the grasping at being it is said that a buddha is like empty space, and that if on this account one takes a buddha to be the same as an empty nothing, that view is not pure; here it is made plain that the virtue of the twofold benefit is complete, and that it is not like empty space in being a sheer nothing throughout.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the pure eye as a kind of extraordinary faculty. It is no longer taking up objects under the marks of pure and defiled; it is not a new pair of eyes that can see treasures. Brought down to the ground: within one passage the simile of empty space is set up three times and then at the end is hemmed in — this is the sutra itself demonstrating how a simile is to be used: a simile may be used, but one may not take up residence in it.

Obtaining the ground of the ten powers in thought after thought: why the bodhisattva becomes a field of merit

Ask first: by this point in the dedication, what has come about in the practitioner? Answer: the sutra says that in thought after thought he obtains grounds of the ten powers beyond speaking of beyond speaking, is furnished with every merit, accomplishes pure roots of goodness, and is a field of merit for all sentient beings.

Chengguan determines this as the virtue of accomplishing inexhaustible merit and wisdom, and explains: the first clause is the taking in of a buddha's wisdom from above, namely the ground of the wisdom of the ten powers, and because it has functions beyond speaking, in thought after thought much merit is obtained; from “furnished with” onward is his becoming a field of merit himself; from “this bodhisattva” onward is the inexhaustibility of merit and wisdom.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “field of merit” as a qualification for receiving others' offerings. That a field of merit comes to be is on account of the four graphs before it, “for all sentient beings” — he has first become what sentient beings rely upon, and only so can roots of goodness planted in him by others come up at all. Brought down to the ground: this sentence gives a very solid criterion: whether a person has gained anything in practice is judged not by what he has obtained, but by whether others who draw near him can grow roots of goodness.

The treasury of merit of the wish-fulfilling maṇi: here the graph “treasury” comes down to the solid ground

Ask first: the whole section is named “the treasury of inexhaustible merit” — where does the sutra actually speak of a “treasury”? Answer: just here — he accomplishes the treasury of merit of the wish-fulfilling maṇi, and according as there is anything he needs, all the implements of ease are obtained entire; according to whatever quarter he travels to, he is everywhere able to adorn and purify all the lands; according to whatever place he passes through, he causes sentient beings beyond speaking of beyond speaking to be entirely pure. The clause giving the reason is “because he takes up merit and orders his practices thereby.”

The maṇi is a jewel that manifests according as the mind seeks. The sutra uses it as a simile, and what it takes from it is that nothing need be arranged beforehand — it is not that one first stocks a storehouse of things and then takes them out to give to people, but that according as there is anything needed it is obtained on the spot. Three graphs “according” come one after another: according as there is anything needed · according to whatever quarter he travels to · according to whatever place he passes through; and what all of them speak of is the absence of prior arrangement.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the wish-fulfilling jewel as a tool for satisfying private desires. What is followed is what sentient beings need, and what is accomplished is the purity of lands; it is not that whatever one wants for oneself is there. Brought down to the ground: this passage answers the question with which the whole piece began — the treasury is inexhaustible because it is not a stock in store but a responding. A stock gets used up; a responding does not.

The conclusion in which practice accomplishes virtue: the two faces of merit and wisdom

Ask first: the prose is drawing to its close — with what does the sutra bind it up? Answer: with a passage in which practice accomplishes virtue. Chengguan determines this as the fifth virtue, namely the virtue in which merit and wisdom surpass, and divides it: the first clause displays in general the cause of merit and wisdom, and from “merit” onward properly displays the aspect of surpassing, of which the earlier part makes plain the surpassing of merit and from “his mind” onward displays the surpassing of wisdom.

On the side of merit: he cultivates all the practices of a bodhisattva, his merit is especially excellent and his form and marks beyond all comparison; his majestic power and light surpass the worlds, and the māras and the households of the māras are unable to look him in the face; his roots of goodness are furnished entire and his great vows are accomplished. On the side of wisdom: his mind becomes ever more broad, equal to omniscience; within a single thought he is everywhere able to pervade measureless buddha-fields; the power of his wisdom is measureless, he penetrates the spheres of all the buddhas, and toward all buddhas he obtains a deep believing understanding; he abides upon the power of the mind of awakening that is boundless wisdom, vast as the Dharma realm and ultimate as empty space.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “the māras and the households of the māras are unable to look him in the face” as a spiritual power for driving off demons. What the sutra says is “unable to look him in the face” — the māras cannot even meet him face to face, and this comes of majestic virtue, not of fighting. Brought down to the ground: merit and wisdom are here two faces of one body, and it is not that one cultivates merit and afterwards cultivates wisdom. Merit at its utmost is “his great vows are accomplished,” and wisdom at its utmost is “ultimate as empty space” — the one speaks toward fullness and the other toward emptiness, and they speak of one and the same person.

The single concluding sentence: among the ten dedications only this one says “this is called”

Ask first: what is special about this sentence, “Sons of the Buddha! This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's fifth dedication, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit”? Answer: among the concluding sentences of the ten dedications, the rest all read “this is,” and the fifth alone reads “this is called”; and the sixty-fascicle text here likewise reads “this is called.” The unevenness of form is left as the base text has it and is not levelled by us.

There is another asymmetry worth noticing: the question that opens this dedication reads “what is the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva” without the crown “the fifth,” whereas the concluding sentence does carry “the fifth”; in the sixty-fascicle text both the question and the conclusion carry “the fifth.”

Clear away a misreading: do not take unevennesses of this sort in the wording for errors and go about levelling them. The texts of the ancient translations each have their own countenance, and to keep them graph for graph is the first rule in reading a scripture. Brought down to the ground: it is useful to notice where the concluding sentence stands as well — it stands before the ten inexhaustible treasuries. Which is to say that the treasuries are the fruit obtained after “abiding in this dedication,” and are not the dedication itself.

The ten inexhaustible treasuries: the fruit opens out in ten places

Ask first: why is the fruit of the station ten treasuries rather than one? Answer: Chengguan determines that the text of the fruit of the station has four parts, the statement · the question · the explanation · the conclusion, and that in the explanation all ten clauses first state a name and afterwards explain its sense; among them the first six clauses are benefit for oneself, the next three benefit for others, and the last one gathers practice into the accomplishing of the fruit.

The first six are: the inexhaustible treasury of seeing the buddhas (within a single pore he sees asaṃkhyeya buddhas appearing and arising in the world) · the inexhaustible treasury of entering the Dharma (by the power of a buddha's wisdom he contemplates and sees that all dharmas enter entirely into a single dharma) · the inexhaustible treasury of holding in memory (he receives and holds all the Dharma taught by the buddhas without forgetting it) · the inexhaustible treasury of decisive wisdom (he well knows the secret skillful means of all the Dharma taught by the buddhas) · the inexhaustible treasury of understanding the drift of the meaning (he well knows the drift and the bounds of the principle of the dharmas) · the inexhaustible treasury of boundless awakened understanding (with a wisdom like empty space he penetrates all the dharmas of the three times). Chengguan says that the first is with respect to the gate of the subtle and minute, and upon the sense of the single hair he sets forth further — that the nature of mind of itself has neither large nor small, that awakening to it becomes wisdom, and that both body and land then become the shadows of wisdom, so that when wisdom is pure the shadow is bright, and therefore large and small are unobstructed and one and many enter into each other; the next five are the seeing of dharmas, that is, the gate of mutual entering, divided into realizing the dharma of principle · holding the dharma of the teaching · wisdom knowing the hidden intent · the meaning exhausting the drift of the intent · hearing the treasury while cultivating and realizing along with it.

The next three, benefit for others, are: the inexhaustible treasury of merit (he fills full the minds and intentions of all sentient beings inexhaustibly) · the inexhaustible treasury of valiant wisdom and awareness (he removes and extinguishes the cataract of folly of all sentient beings) · the inexhaustible treasury of decisive eloquence (he sets forth and expounds the impartial Dharma of all the buddhas and causes sentient beings to understand it clearly); Chengguan says that these are, first, merit filling the intentions of others; second, wisdom extinguishing the delusions of others; third, eloquence teaching them impartially. The last is the inexhaustible treasury of the ten powers and the fearlessnesses: he is furnished with all that a bodhisattva practices, and with a silk band free of defilement bound about his crown reaches the unobstructed omniscience — and this is the aspect of the consecration and the conferring of office. Chengguan says besides that these ten treasuries have much in common with the chapter “The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries,” and may be read alongside it.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten treasuries as ten spiritual powers. The graph “because” beneath each clause is tied in every case to an object or a function, and not to a list of capacities. Brought down to the ground: the ten treasuries may serve as ten self-examinations — can I see a buddha? can I hold the Dharma? can I speak it clearly? can I supply the intentions of others? — and the treasury is inexhaustible because each of these ten places is itself without end.

The single closing sentence: the treasury is obtained at the time of dedicating

Ask first: the ten treasuries have been listed already, so why does the sutra tie it up once more with “when he dedicates all his roots of goodness, he obtains these ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury”? Answer: because the fruit is to be buckled back onto the cause. Above, “abiding in this dedication, he obtains ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury” was said with respect to the station; this sentence, saying “when he dedicates,” is said with respect to the time — not after the dedicating but at the very time of the dedicating.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten treasuries as a reward after the practice has been perfected. Both times the sutra ties them to the two graphs “dedication,” once by abiding and once by time. Brought down to the ground: this returns us exactly to the sense with which the piece opened — the inexhaustible is not accumulated into being; it is that the object met is of itself inexhaustible, and therefore the moment the dedication is made the treasury is made along with it, and there is no waiting.

Matching the verses of praise

The prose being finished, the bodhisattva Vajra Banner universally contemplated the ten directions and spoke twenty-five verses. The sense of the verses is already complete in the prose, and here they are only matched up portion by portion, without teaching it over again.

Chengguan determines that these twenty-five verses divide into two: the first single verse praises the roots of goodness dedicated, and contains them fully within the text; the remaining twenty-four verses doubly praise both the roots of goodness dedicated above and the conclusion in which practice accomplishes benefit. Of the twenty-four, the first eleven praise the two passages on following marks and the latter thirteen the two passages on being apart from marks.

The first verse — “the bodhisattva has accomplished the power of the profound mind, and universally in all dharmas has attained sovereign freedom; with the merit obtained by his exhorting and his rejoicing, by unobstructed skillful means he dedicates it well” — praises the eight clauses of the roots of goodness dedicated, and the four graphs “exhorting and rejoicing” within it are the pivot of the eight clauses.

Within the eleven verses on following marks Chengguan makes three divisions: the first eight verses praise the dedication toward awakening, of which the first four praise the adorning of fields set out in the text above — the four verses “all the Tathāgatas of the three times,” “all the dharmas of the buddhas of the three times,” “though one exhaust all the kalpas of the three times,” “all buddha-fields such as these” — the third verse making plain the sense of the inexhaustible by the kalpas being exhaustible while the merits of a buddha-field are not, and the fourth verse praising exactly the adorning of one being the adorning of all with “gathering them all together he adorns a single buddha-land, and with all buddha-lands it is likewise so”; the next three verses and a half praise human jewels as the adornment — the three verses “there are sons of the Buddha whose minds are pure,” “those bodhisattvas are furnished with all,” “the bodhisattva abides within the manifold samādhis,” together with the half-verse “buddha-fields such as these, with none left out, are all of them filled full with these bodhisattvas” — among which “like a great ocean that is without end” is the one simile in the whole section that is raised expressly with the words “like”; and the latter half-verse, “they have never called to mind the vehicle of the śrāvakas, nor do they seek after the path of the pratyekabuddhas,” praises the dedication that gathers all in. Next, the one verse “the bodhisattva whose mind is pure in this way dedicates his roots of goodness to sentient beings” praises the dedicating to sentient beings. Next again, the two verses “all the multitude of māra-foes of the ten directions” and “the bodhisattva, by the power of a great vow such as this” praise the conclusion in which practice accomplishes virtue, praising the five passages throughout — and the latter verse, “he enters the treasury of inexhaustible merit; past, future, and present, it is constantly without end,” answers exactly to the name of this dedication.

Of the thirteen verses on being apart from marks Chengguan again makes three divisions: the first seven verses praise the awakening apart from marks set out above, praising it with the two aspects, the seeing of the real and the being apart from the false, interwoven, so as to display that these two complete each other — namely the seven verses “the bodhisattva well contemplates the dharmas of the formations,” “there is no dharma of form and no dharma that is formless,” “all dharmas arise from causes and conditions,” “in every place where the language of sentient beings is,” “just as the nature of sentient beings is originally still and extinguished,” “with wisdom such as this he makes his dedication,” “dedicating in this way, his mind is without defilement”; the next two verses, “all the manifold good karma that he practices” and “all the false views there are,” praise sentient beings apart from marks; the last four verses praise the being apart from marks in the conclusion where practice accomplishes virtue, of which the first two verses, “the bodhisattva does not destroy any dharma” and “he knows that the sentient beings of the three times,” praise the virtue of the purity of the sphere, and the latter two verses, “he penetrates that the nature of karma is not karma” and “he knows that sentient beings have no arising,” praise the virtue of the wisdom of the two emptinesses. The last line, “it is only in dependence upon the worldly that they are set forth by convention,” binds up the whole section — the teaching of being apart from marks is still established in dependence upon the worldly, and is not a having nothing to say.

Lineage

The text of this dedication opens out three roads below it.

The first is the stream of the method of repentance. The eight clauses of roots of goodness dedicated are just the five gates of repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · hearing the Dharma · rejoicing, and Chengguan and Fazang both match them against the openings and gatherings of the several scriptures and treatises — eight layers · seven · six · five · four · three · two, each master differing from the others. Under the gate of reverent salutation Chengguan takes up the seven kinds of salutation spoken of by the Tripiṭaka master Ratna and adds three of his own to make ten kinds of salutation, the tenth of which is called the inexhaustible salutation, entering the sphere of the net of Indra, where whether buddhas or salutations they are layer upon layer without end — and by this the Huayan sense of the inexhaustible enters into the method of salutation. The scriptural ground of the later rites of repentance has its actual text precisely in this section.

The second is the doctrine of the completeness of the pure land. Chengguan outlines the adornment of the buddha-lands of the three times by the eighteen completenesses, cites the great jewelled king of flowers that upholds from the Fodi jing and the untainted roots of goodness of the Tathāgata-womb consciousness as cause from the Fodi lun, determines the causes of the three lands of one's own enjoyment · another's enjoyment · transformation, and establishes as the standard for the adornment of a pure land the senses that “to adorn one is to adorn all” and that “one completeness is all completeness, layer upon layer without end.”

The third is the track of symbolic exposition in the Huayan line. Li Tongxuan matches the ten perfections to the ten dedications and matches the fifth to meditation, saying that this dedication takes the perfection of meditation as its substance, and takes Vasumitrā, whom Sudhana visited, as the person who symbolizes this station; he explains that the name of the land where she dwells, Perilous and Hard, is real wisdom meeting the mundane, and that the name of the city, Adorned with Jewels, is that in meeting the mundane the substance is of itself real, making plain that concentration and disorder are both melted together and that wisdom and compassion do not hinder each other; and he further sets alongside her the elder Liberation, fifth of the ten abodes, and the elder Jewelled Topknot, fifth of the ten practices, forming a comparison of one gate across three stations. He does not follow the commentators' outlines but makes a long outline of this section into thirteen portions by counting lines — what he relies upon being different, his track too is different, and both are recorded without adjudication.

Besides this, the ten treasuries of the fruit of the station and the ten treasuries of the chapter “The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries” differ in their names while alike establishing treasuries under the word “inexhaustible,” and Chengguan says that it may be got by intent, so that the reader would do well to read them alongside each other; the ten treasuries of inexhaustible merit of the sixty-fascicle text differ from the eighty-fascicle text in the names and senses of the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth treasuries, and these too are recorded together.

A single section of text becomes on one side the ground of authority for the methods of repentance, on another side the standard for the pure land, and on yet another the support for Huayan symbolic exposition — and the fifth dedication, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit, is precisely the place from which these three roads issue together.