華嚴經 品二十五 十迴向品 · 第十等法界無量迴向Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Ten Dedications · The Tenth, the Measureless Dedication Equal to the Dharma Realm

First, seeing clearly what this passage is saying

The ten dedications have reached here their tenth station, which is also the last step of the three worthy stages. Each of the first nine had its own thing to look at — rescuing and guarding sentient beings, indestructibility, equality with all buddhas, reaching every place, the treasury of inexhaustible merit, according with and making firm all roots of goodness, according equally with all sentient beings, the mark of suchness, liberation without attachment and without bondage — and in every one of them it is still possible to point out ‘which root of goodness is turned, and toward which place it is directed.’ At the tenth station the scripture changes its way of speaking: it no longer says what is turned or where it is directed, but says “measureless and equal to the Dharma realm.”

What does “equal” mean? Chengguan glosses it by saying that equal is the meaning of “entering,” because in the listing of the names in the root portion it was called entering the Dharma realm; and the Dharma realm being measureless is just that which is entered. Then what is it that enters? Chengguan opens this into four items — first, the practice-dharma that is turned, namely the practice of the giving of Dharma, because it is a giving that matches the Dharma realm; second, the substance of the practice performed, because it is vast and boundless; third, the wisdom that turns; fourth, the virtue toward which it is directed, that is, with the great wisdom that matches the Dharma realm turning roots of goodness that are equal to the Dharma realm, directing them toward a great function that is the same as the Dharma realm, and so accomplishing the substance of practice of the Dharma realm. The four taken together mean that the station is full to the utmost, and therefore “Dharma realm” is set up as the name. Fazang, commenting on the sixty-fascicle text, likewise opens four meanings, and their order is largely the same as Chengguan's; only in the fourth item he has “the virtue that is turned” and says “directing them toward the great function of the Dharma realm,” which differs from Chengguan's “the virtue toward which it is directed” by a single word, the two of them each making their own text.

There is also a misreading that must be set right at the outset. “Equal to the Dharma realm” does not mean ‘being equal to a thing called the Dharma realm.’ Chengguan says it very hard: those four items are wholly the same as the four kinds of Dharma realm, fused together and not two, so that what is able to be equal just is that to which it is equal, and it is not that there are two things that may lean upon one another; therefore what is said above about “entering” is in fact an entering with nothing entered. He further cites the words of the Pusa yingluo benye jing, “the Dharma realm has no equal, and is entered,” as an aid, saying that the markless middle way of the supreme truth is what is entered and that all dharmas being illumined as of one mark is what enters, and that these two being not two just is the Dharma realm — and so one may not take the “Dharma realm as phenomena” alone for this name. Chengguan's Yanyi chao then, on this ground, strikes at the earlier men's Kanding ji for construing “the Dharma realm being measureless” only as the phenomenal Dharma realm to which one is equal, saying that what one is equal to is fourfold and that “measureless” has two meanings, and how then may it be confined to phenomena.

“Measureless” too has two meanings. Chengguan says that the first is being without division into quantity, which is the Dharma realm as principle; the second is being without number, which is the Dharma realm as phenomena. In the text of this station the two meanings are both seen — where it says “as the Dharma realm is measureless, so too is the dedication of roots of goodness, and the wisdom obtained is in the end without measure,” that is being without division into quantity; where it says “there are measureless, boundless, unspeakably many great bodhisattvas,” that is being without number.

Last, look at the walk of the passage as a whole. Chengguan outlines the prose of this station into the two portions of the practice of the station and the fruit of the station; and the practice of the station is again three: first restating the name and raising the question, next explaining broadly in accordance with the question, and last concluding the name in accordance with the explanation. Within the broad explanation there are again three: first making clear the roots of goodness that are turned, next, from “with these roots of goodness” on, gathering in and about to dedicate, and last, from “when he dedicates in this way, he abides” on, the virtue accomplished by the dedication. And of that large portion, the gathering in and about to dedicate, Chengguan says that its way of outlining differs a little from that of the nine dedications before, that it comes in all to twenty-one gates, and that these fall into three sections — the first nine gates match the eleven clauses of the roots of goodness turned, one by one, to make clear the dedication, and these are the dedication of one's own portion; the middle four gates show the intent of the dedication generally; the last eight gates make clear the dedication separately by other gates, and these are the dedication of the advance beyond. And within those eight gates the order runs on as ‘dedicating to sentient beings, dedicating to awakening, what the dedication is for, dedicating to the true limit.’ The whole passage is prose, with no repeated verses; at the end of the section Chengguan says only the one sentence, “the prose is finished; the verses are below” — the verses belong to the end of the chapter, not to this station.

One. The question raised: what is asked is ‘what is called the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm’

First a question: this sentence is only a line long — why is it counted as a section of its own? Because every one of the ten dedications begins with this one question, and this is the joint between one station and the next. Chengguan outlines it as “restating the name and raising the question” — first the name of the station is restated, then a question is set, and only after that comes the “explaining broadly in accordance with the question.”

What must be noticed is the shape of the name. What the scripture asks here is “the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm,” whereas at the close of this station the scripture writes “the tenth dedication of abiding in the measurelessness equal to the Dharma realm,” with one graph more, the graph for abiding; the sixty-fascicle text names this station “the measureless dedication of the Dharma realm,” and its question-sentence reads “what is it that is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm,” its word order running “the Dharma realm, equal, measureless”; and Chengguan in setting up his outline writes yet again “the tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm.” One and the same station with several ways of writing it: so it has been handed down from of old, and both are recorded without judging which is right.

Setting a misreading right: do not suppose that this question is someone breaking in to ask. From the first to the tenth of the ten dedications, the prose is spoken by the bodhisattva Vajra Banner alone; “Sons of the Buddha” is his call to the great assembly present, and the asking too is his own asking and his own answering. Bringing it down to the ground: in reading the ten dedications, when you see “Sons of the Buddha! What is the …,” you know the station has changed — this is the paragraph mark the scripture gives of itself.

Two. Binding the head and standing in the station: first setting up ‘the one who speaks the Dharma’

First a question: dedication is about where roots of goodness go — why does the opening speak a whole passage about ‘a white silk band bound about the head’? Because the substance of this station is the giving of Dharma, and the giving of Dharma must have someone who gives, so the bodily standing of that person is set up first. Chengguan glosses this by saying that it is as when on the tenth ground one obtains the stainless samādhi and receives the station of the anointing of wisdom: within, one obtains this concentration poured upon the head of the mind, and without, one shows the outward mark of the white silk bound about the head, and the dharma takes its name from the simile and is called “the stainless silk band.” Having this mark, one knows that concentration has been obtained, which shows that the station is full and accomplished, and only then can one, like clouds moving and rain falling, expound the Dharma and benefit the host of beings — hence “the station of a Dharma master.”

Then what is “the station being full”? Chengguan says that the fullness of a station comes in five layers in all — the fullness of faith, the fullness of understanding, the fullness of practice, the fullness of skillful vows, and the fullness of realization; and this station belongs to the fourth layer, the fullness of skillful vows. He adds a further word that matters: of these five layers, whichever one is accomplished, principle and practice must correspond within it, and so all of them are called the fullness of a station; and if one speaks by the fused view, then once one station is full that is the cause brought to its end, and there is no need to wait upon the rest — moreover, having obtained one, one has obtained all the other stations as well.

Of the eleven clauses that follow, Chengguan says the first one is general and the other ten are particular. The ten particular ones are: setting sentient beings up in the mind of awakening with loving-kindness and compassion, benefiting beings without rest, growing goodness with the great mind, taming and guiding to the very end, the sun of Dharma shining everywhere, equally urging the cultivation of goodness, the mind pure and unhindered, showing the fruit like a caravan leader, guiding by the cause that is the myriad practices, and increasing what cannot be broken, which is the guarding and keeping in mind. He also glosses in particular the clause “his mind-ground is pure and undefiled, his wisdom is sovereign,” saying that inversion is of two kinds — one is a mind defiled by the one who transforms and the one transformed, whereas here he does not give rise to transforming and yet the benefit of transforming is all the greater, which is why it is called wisdom being sovereign; the other is that, seeing that there is neither an agent nor an object, one heads toward extinction, whereas here he does not cast away good deeds and yet phenomena and principle are without obstruction.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “abiding in the station of a Dharma master” as the getting of a title. The sixty-fascicle text here has “receiving the prediction of a great Dharma master,” which speaks of the inner realization being already full while the outer mark may be verified; it is not a matter of rank and name. Bringing it down to the ground: this passage is the common root of the twenty-one gates below — the roots of goodness turned in every one of those gates come out of these eleven clauses of the giving of Dharma.

Three. The practice accomplished and the first gate: from “taking the giving of Dharma as foremost” to the twenty practices of purity

First a question: having already spoken the eleven clauses of the giving of Dharma, why speak a further passage, “taking the giving of Dharma as foremost, he gives rise to all the pure white dharmas”? Chengguan says this is “the practice accomplished” — the former passage was the rousing of the practice, and this passage shows the practice already accomplished; he further points out that the sixty-fascicle text here has “the bodhisattva practices the giving of Dharma and all good dharmas,” which is a restating of what went before.

After the practice is accomplished, from the sentence “with these roots of goodness he dedicates in this way” the first of the twenty-one gates begins. Chengguan says this gate is the vow to hear the Dharma, to see the buddhas, and to cultivate the practice of the two benefits, and that it matches the first two of the eleven clauses before. Within the gate there are three parts: first the general raising of what is vowed, next, from “that is to say” on, the listing of the practices cultivated, and last, from “Sons of the Buddha” on, the meeting of a difficulty and the completing of the explanation. The first clause of what is vowed is “may I be able to cultivate, accomplish, and increase all realms, vast and unhindered,” and Chengguan says that the three words “all realms,” though the text of them stands only in the first passage, run in meaning through all twenty-one passages — the dedication of every passage is upon all realms, and these all realms are as vast as the Dharma realm, principle and phenomena, and phenomena and phenomena, being without any obstruction.

What is listed from “that is to say” on is the practice of purity. The scripture lists twenty names, from “the practice of purity unbroken” down to “the practice of purity without anger.” Chengguan says these twenty practices of purity agree for the most part with the ten precepts listed in the Da zhidu lun, and he arranges them into the four classes of the restraints, the according with the path, completeness, and the according with concentration, and so reads them: the first six clauses are all the restraints, and among them the unbroken stands foremost, because to violate the four grave or the ten grave precepts is like a broken vessel, wholly useless; the second, without gap, is the keeping of the saṃghāvaśeṣa precepts — the remnant is like a vessel with a chip, which may still be mended; and further down, the unmixed, the unblotted, the unlost, and the unscreened are thought, fine conduct, correspondence with the concentrated mind, and the not being ruined by conditions. From the seventh on come being praised by the wise, not relying on fame and gain, and not gaining a holder or a held, and then one enters the according with the path; the thirteenth, “without attachment,” is seeing the true and becoming a noble one; the four clauses after that are the completeness of the precepts; and from “unmoving” on all are the precepts that accord with concentration. At the end he adds one fine reading: to abide beyond compare is to abide in great loving-kindness and compassion; unmoving and unconfused is the mind of equanimity constantly present; and without anger is joy — read so, the four measureless minds may also be called the practice of purity.

Setting a misreading right: do not read these twenty names as a list of twenty rules of precept. Chengguan himself says “now it is opened into twenty-one,” while the scripture actually lists twenty names; the number was from the first not fixed in the opening and joining, which shows that what is to be looked at is the layer upon layer of fineness in keeping and violating, not the count of the items. Bringing it down to the ground: this gate is the doorway of the whole station — first hearing the Dharma, then seeing the buddhas, then cultivating the two benefits of self and other; and because the practice of purity is the root of the myriad practices, it is opened out here for special notice.

Four. Meeting the difficulty and completing the explanation: only when you yourself stand firm is there any talk of delivering others

First a question: is a bodhisattva not supposed to put others first and himself last? Yet here it speaks first of ‘practicing the pure practice of purity for oneself’ — is this not contrary? Chengguan says this is precisely the difficulty the scripture has laid down beforehand, and so what follows explains it — only let one practice for oneself, and one is then naturally able to benefit others; and this also accomplishes the two clauses before, “setting sentient beings up in the mind of awakening” and “with the mind of awakening nourishing and growing the roots of goodness.”

The scripture's way of answering falls into two layers. The first layer speaks straight: if the bodhisattva is able to practice for himself a pure practice of purity such as this, he is able everywhere to act for all sentient beings, causing them to abide, to have understanding opened, to be accomplished, to be pure, to be stainless, to be illumined, to be free of dust and defilement, to be without screening hindrance, to be free of burning affliction, to be free of entangling bonds, to be forever free of every evil, and to be without vexation and harm and pure to the very end — twelve clauses in all. Chengguan says the first six clauses make clear that there is the virtue of keeping, and the last six that there is no fault of violating: not rousing a fault of mind, therefore no dust and defilement; not violating with body or speech, therefore no hindrance of the reward of deeds; not violating, therefore cool and clear in both lives; free of what is bound by shamelessness and the entanglement of regret; free of evil causes and evil fruits; and not vexing oneself or others, and so accomplishing the perfections.

The second layer is a twofold raising of the question and explaining. The first asks, ‘the practices of self and other are different — how is one's own practice being for others?’, and the answer is that if one's own person is not upright the command is not followed, and therefore one's own practice just is being for beings; and here Chengguan cites the Weimojie suoshuo jing, “that one who is himself bound should loose another's bonds — there is no such case,” and the She dacheng lun, “if he himself abides in wrong practice and yet would set right another's wrong, such a man will never be able to check another's faults,” as his proofs. The second raising of the question is the sharper: a whetstone is not itself sharp and yet can sharpen a blade; if I do not practice myself, what is to hinder my teaching others? The answer is that if one violates oneself and yet teaches another, this becomes inversion; a bodhisattva is without inversion and must have word and deed matching, and so he must practice as he speaks, that he may speak as he practices.

Setting a misreading right: this passage is not about an order of ‘first delivering oneself and afterward delivering others’; it is about one's own practice and the transforming of others being from the first one single thing. The sixty-fascicle text here strings ten instances of “there is no such case” one after another, and its force is the more decisive. Bringing it down to the ground: the first checkpoint of dedication does not lie in how many the roots of goodness are, but in whether the one who speaks stands firm himself.

Five. The second gate: to take the Dharma in hand, and then to speak the Dharma out

First a question: since the former gate has already spoken of vowing to hear the Dharma and see the buddhas, what is this gate for? Chengguan says this gate is the vow to obtain the Dharma and expound it at large so as to benefit self and other, and that it accomplishes precisely the clause above, “he acts for all sentient beings as the master who tames and guides, and shows sentient beings the path of omniscience.” Within the gate there are three: first restating what came before and raising what follows, next, from “that is to say” on, the proper making clear, and last, from “this is” on, the general conclusion.

Within the proper making clear there are two vows. The first vow makes clear the obtaining of the Dharma generally, and its text has four sections — obtaining the Dharma, explaining it, benefiting those to be taught, and, from “crushing and destroying” on, the accomplishing of one's own virtue. The second vow makes clear separately the expounding of the Dharma, and falls into five sections: first the general making clear, next, from “as to each single” on, making clear the obtaining of the Dharma, next, from “obtain fearlessness” on, making clear the ability to expound, next, from “in order that” on, making clear those for whose sake it is done, and last, from “he then gives rise to this thought and says” on, the accomplishing of virtue by his own cultivation. Here one difference of rendering is worth noticing: the base text has “may I obtain the inexhaustible Dharma-gates of all the buddhas,” which is a vow for oneself, whereas the sixty-fascicle text has “causing all sentient beings wholly to obtain the inexhaustible Dharma-gates of the buddhas,” which is a vow for others; and so Chengguan says that the sixty-fascicle text has no words “may I” below “divergent arguments.”

The last section, from “he then gives rise to this thought and says” on, accomplishes ten kinds of virtue, and Chengguan analyzes it very finely — the first two clauses speak of “pervading,” which is pervading both phenomena and principle; the remaining eight clauses speak of “equal,” carrying with it the sense of being equal to non-obstruction, and this is an eliding in the wording. He also glosses in passing the graph for abiding, saying that it is of the sort of the noble abiding, the divine abiding, and the pure abiding.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “crushing and destroying every divergent argument of the outsider ways” as a fondness for disputing. What the scripture says immediately after is “set up surpassing aspirations,” “all give rise to gladness,” “expounding without a break, following the speech of each of their kinds” — what is crushed is a way of speaking that makes people confused, not a wish to beat others. Bringing it down to the ground: what this gate teaches is the self-examination of one who speaks the Dharma — has the Dharma come into your hand, are those you speak to glad, and when you have finished speaking have you yourself grown.

Six. The third gate: what I obtain, may sentient beings obtain just the same

First a question: how does this gate differ from the one before? Chengguan says this is the vow that the practice of the two benefits be full, and that it accomplishes the two clauses above, “he acts as a sun holding the treasury of the Dharma, and the light of the roots of goodness shines everywhere upon all” and “toward all sentient beings his mind is equal,” because the sun of the treasury of Dharma is what shines everywhere. Within the gate there is first a general speaking of the two benefits and afterward, from “and may I moreover” on, a separate making clear of the two benefits — first oneself becoming equal to principle, and afterward, from “as I myself obtain” on, causing sentient beings to become equal to oneself.

The scripture strings nine clauses of “equal to the Dharma realm and measureless” one after another: seeing the buddhas, taming sentient beings, holding and sustaining buddha-lands, realizing the wisdom of a bodhisattva, obtaining fearlessness, accomplishing dhāraṇīs, obtaining inconceivable abidings, being furnished with merit, and bringing to fullness the roots of goodness that benefit sentient beings. It is precisely here that Chengguan takes this passage as the scriptural ground for “being equal to the Dharma realm as phenomena” — he says that these vows to rouse measureless practices equal to the Dharma realm, to accomplish measureless virtues equal to the Dharma realm, and to obtain measureless fruits equal to the Dharma realm are all phenomena that just are principle. Then follow eleven clauses of “equality”: merit, wisdom, power, fearlessness, purity, sovereignty, right awakening, expounding the Dharma, meaning, certainty, and every spiritual penetration. It closes upon “as I myself obtain, so may all sentient beings obtain, no different from me.”

Setting a misreading right: “no different from me” is not self-praise; it is the very bone of dedication — if a dedication still keeps back a fraction of the mind that says ‘I have more than you,’ it is not called being equal to the Dharma realm. Bringing it down to the ground: this one sentence is the sentence of the whole station that can be put to use at once — every good thing you pray for, pray for in just the same shape for every single person.

Seven. The fourth gate: as the Dharma realm is, so is the dedication of roots of goodness

First a question: on what ground is this gate divided from the one before? Chengguan says this gate is the vow that the practice match the Dharma realm, and that it accomplishes the two clauses above, “his mind-ground is pure and undefiled, his wisdom is sovereign” — because every stirring of thought matches the Dharma realm, therefore there is nothing defiled; and this is why at the end of the passage it says “never to lose and ruin any of their pure practices.” He further judges that this chapter agrees for the most part with the Dharma realm as principle, saying that just as wisdom issues from principle, so it is the same as the Dharma realm, and that all the other clauses may be inferred by the same rule; and this is what “directing toward the true limit” means.

The ten clauses of the scripture are without exception a parallel of the form ‘as the Dharma realm is such and such, so too is the dedication of roots of goodness, and such and such’: measureless matched to wisdom measureless, boundless to seeing the buddhas without bound, without limit to going to the lands without a set limit, without border to cultivating practice without a shore, unbroken to abiding in wisdom unbroken, of one nature to being of one nature of wisdom together with sentient beings, pure by its own nature to causing sentient beings to be pure to the very end, according to causing sentient beings to accord with the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, adorned to causing sentient beings to take the practice of Samantabhadra for their adornment, and not able to suffer loss and ruin to causing bodhisattvas never to lose and ruin their pure practices.

Chengguan takes the sixth and seventh clauses of this passage — “as the Dharma realm is of one nature only” and “as the Dharma realm is by its own nature pure” — as the scriptural ground for “being equal to the Dharma realm as principle,” and says that texts of this sort are more than one.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “as the Dharma realm” as the making of a comparison. It is not being said here that roots of goodness are ‘like’ the Dharma realm; it is being said that once roots of goodness are dedicated, their measure is the measure of the Dharma realm — which is why the second half of each clause falls at once upon something concrete: the wisdom is without measure, the seeing of the buddhas is without bound. Bringing it down to the ground: these ten clauses are a measuring rod; any gate of practice whatever may be laid against these ten clauses once, to see whether it matches the Dharma realm.

Eight. The fifth gate: fourteen vows, that sentient beings constantly see the Buddha

First a question: since the former gate has already spoken of the vow that the practice match the Dharma realm, what is this gate for? Chengguan says this gate has fourteen vows, the vow to obtain the seeing of the buddhas and the understanding of the Dharma, and that it accomplishes the clause above, “he acts as the greatly wise caravan leader of all sentient beings.”

All fourteen clauses of the scripture begin with “may I, with these roots of goodness.” The first three vows are for oneself — serving the buddhas and bodhisattvas and causing them to be glad, swiftly entering the nature of omniscience, and being everywhere in every place and cultivating omniscience; the eleven vows after that are for others, running on with “causing all sentient beings constantly to be able to see the Buddha,” and the second half of every one of those vows is different: being able to do the work of a buddha, giving rise to no neglect, minds glad and pure and without turning back, minds well understanding, giving rise to no clinging, penetrating without hindrance, accomplishing the practice of Samantabhadra, present before them and never for a moment cast aside, giving birth to measureless powers, and never forgetting or losing any dharma.

There is an order here that must be seen clearly. The earlier vows seek only ‘seeing’; the middle turns to ‘what the mind is like after seeing’; the last turns to ‘what one can do after seeing.’ Seeing the Buddha is not the aim; seeing the Buddha is for the sake of not forgetting and losing the Dharma.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “constantly to be able to see the Buddha” as the seeking of a response from above. The scripture itself lays the weight upon “gives rise to no mind of neglect toward the work of a buddha” and “gives rise to no clinging” — to be able to see and yet to give rise to clinging is the same disease as not being able to see. Bringing it down to the ground: these fourteen vows can be taken as a table of stages, to see at which layer one is stuck.

Nine. Dedicating as the ten natures of the Dharma realm: a dedication that points at no thing at all

First a question: the fourth gate above has already spoken the ten clauses of “as the Dharma realm is measureless”; here it speaks ten clauses of “as the unarisen nature of the Dharma realm” — is this not a repetition? The former spoke of the measure of roots of goodness from the virtues of the Dharma realm; here it speaks of the mark of dedication from the nature of the Dharma realm — the one speaks of measure, the other of substance.

The ten clauses of the scripture are extremely short, one nature to a clause: the unarisen nature, the root nature, the self-substance nature, the unsupported nature, the unforgetting nature, the empty and nonexistent nature, the still and quiet nature, the placeless nature, the unshifting nature, and the undifferentiated nature. Even the half-sentence “so too is the dedication of roots of goodness” is left out, and only ‘dedicating as such and such a nature of the Dharma realm’ remains.

What matters most in these ten clauses are the two ends, “unarisen” and “unsupported.” Unarisen says that this business of dedicating has of itself no place from which it arises; unsupported says that it hangs upon no single thing. The empty and nonexistent, the still and quiet, the placeless, and the unshifting in the middle are all a repeated setting out of this one matter, that ‘there is no thing to be found that one may point to.’ The last clause, “the undifferentiated nature,” gathers up the nine before it — not even the differences among these natures are set up.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “the empty and nonexistent nature” as there being nothing at all. The “still and quiet,” “placeless,” and “unshifting” that follow immediately are still describing different sides of one and the same matter; and if there were truly nothing at all, there would be no ten clauses either. Bringing it down to the ground: this gate is the specific cure for the disease of ‘keeping an account in the mind after one has dedicated’ — to keep an account is to have arising, to have support, and to have a place.

Ten. The twenty vows for Dharma masters: that all sentient beings become those who speak the Dharma

First a question: why is this gate especially long? Because the substance of this station is the giving of Dharma, and the utmost of the giving of Dharma is to make all sentient beings become Dharma masters. The scripture begins from “whatever showing forth and whatever awakening the giving of Dharma has, together with all the roots of goodness that arise therefrom,” and then runs on with twenty instances of ‘may all sentient beings become such and such a Dharma master.’

The twenty Dharma masters have each their own virtue. The earlier group speaks of standing — bodhisattva Dharma masters guarded and kept in mind by the buddhas, unsurpassed Dharma masters who by skillful means set sentient beings up in omniscience, unyielding Dharma masters whom no question or challenge can exhaust, unhindered Dharma masters who obtain the unhindered light of all dharmas, Dharma masters who are treasuries of wisdom and skillfully expound all the Dharma of the buddhas, and sovereign Dharma masters well able to set out and distinguish the wisdom of the Tathāgata. The middle group speaks of the quality of the speaking — Dharma masters like the eye, who expound the Dharma as it truly is and are not taught by another; Dharma masters who hold it in memory, expounding in accord with principle and not going against the meaning of the words; Dharma masters of the path of the markless, who adorn themselves with wondrous marks and send out light and enter into dharmas; Dharma masters of the great body, whose bodies pervade the lands and who raise the cloud of Dharma and rain down the Dharma; Dharma masters who guard the treasury of Dharma, who set up a banner none can overcome and cause the ocean of true Dharma to suffer no diminishing; Dharma masters who are the sun of all dharmas, who obtain the eloquence of a buddha and skillfully expound the dharmas; Dharma masters of wondrous voice and skillful means, who well expound the treasury of the boundless Dharma realm; and Dharma masters who reach the further shore of the Dharma, who open the treasury of the true Dharma by wisdom and spiritual penetration. The last group speaks of what is countered — Dharma masters who abide in the true Dharma and expound the ultimate wisdom of the Tathāgata; Dharma masters who penetrate all dharmas and expound measureless and inexhaustible merit; Dharma masters who do not deceive the world and by skillful means cause others to enter the true limit; Dharma masters who break the hosts of Māra and are well aware of every deed of Māra; Dharma masters gathered in by the buddhas, free of the mind that grasps at a self and what belongs to a self; and Dharma masters who bring peace and safety to the world and accomplish the power of the bodhisattva's vow to expound the Dharma.

Chengguan takes from among these the clause “become Dharma masters who cultivate the path of the markless, adorning themselves with all the wondrous marks” as the scriptural ground for “being equal to the Dharma realm of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena” — mark and marklessness being unobstructed to one another is just what this clause is.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “Dharma master” as a profession. Among the twenty vows there is not one that speaks of a seat or of a following; what they speak of throughout is whether the questioning exhausts one, whether the meaning of the words is gone against, and whether there is in the mind a ‘what belongs to me.’ Bringing it down to the ground: this gate is the one in the whole station most easily laid against oneself — whoever opens his mouth to speak the Dharma may check himself against these twenty, one by one.

Eleven. The ten non-clingings: not seizing even upon “dedication”

First a question: dedication is of itself the turning of roots of goodness outward — why must it be said that “he does not dedicate by way of clinging to dedication”? Because the very act of turning them outward can also be seized upon. The scripture runs on with ten clauses of ‘he does not dedicate by way of clinging to such and such’ — deeds, the fruits of reward, mind, dharmas, affairs, causes, speech and sound, names and phrases and the body of letters, dedication, and benefiting sentient beings.

There is an order in the way the ten clauses run down. The first six clauses set aside the coarse marks of what is taken as object — the deeds done, the reward felt, the mind that takes an object, the dharma taken as object, the affair faced, and the cause depended on; the seventh and eighth turn into speech — speech and sound are sound, and names and phrases and the body of letters are the vehicle of meaning, and neither may be grasped; the ninth clause is the most vital, “he does not dedicate by way of clinging to dedication,” which sets aside once again all the setting-aside that has gone before; and the tenth clause, “he does not dedicate by way of clinging to benefiting sentient beings,” is finer still — benefiting sentient beings is a good thing, and yet once seized upon it is a bondage all the same.

Zhiyan, in the Kongmu zhang, sets under the name of this station the question “dedication — what meaning is this?” and answers, “no dedication is it,” which bears upon the setting-aside sentence pattern of this passage; this is recorded without adjudication.

Setting a misreading right: do not read ‘not clinging to benefiting sentient beings’ as not needing to benefit sentient beings. The gate just before has this moment roused twenty great vows for the benefit of others; what is set aside here is the “clinging,” not the “benefit.” Bringing it down to the ground: to check whether your own dedication has any “clinging” in it, the quickest question is this — if the fruit of this root of goodness were never to come to your knowledge at all, would you still do it.

Twelve. Seventeen things set aside and eleven “only for”: what he does not dedicate for, and what he dedicates only for

First a question: the gate before has already spoken the ten non-clingings; what is this gate for? The gate before set aside ‘seizing’; this gate sets aside ‘motive’ — for the sake of what one dedicates. The scripture goes first in the negative and then in the positive, forming the sharpest pair of contrasts in the station.

The negative side has seventeen clauses in all. The first twelve clauses are engrossment and seeking — being engrossed in the realm of form; being engrossed in the realms of sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; seeking birth among the gods; seeking the pleasures of desire; clinging to the realms of desire; seeking a retinue; seeking sovereignty; seeking the pleasures of birth-and-death; clinging to birth-and-death; delighting in the states of existence; seeking the pleasure of coming together; and seeking a place that is lovely and to be clung to. The thirteenth clause, “he does not dedicate for the sake of harboring a mind of poison and harm,” is a matter of the working of the heart. The last four clauses change the sentence pattern, reading not “not for the sake of” but “he does not dedicate ruining roots of goodness, he does not dedicate in reliance upon the three realms, he does not dedicate clinging to the meditations, liberations, and samādhis, he does not dedicate abiding in the vehicle of the śrāvakas or of the pratyekabuddhas” — what is set aside is no longer the pleasures of the world but concentration and liberation and the fruit of the two vehicles.

The positive side has eleven clauses in all, every one of them beginning with “only for”: teaching and taming sentient beings; bringing to fullness the wisdom of omniscience; obtaining unhindered wisdom; obtaining pure roots of goodness free of hindrance; causing sentient beings to pass beyond birth-and-death and realize great wisdom; causing the great mind of awakening to be unbreakable like vajra; accomplishing the ultimate deathless Dharma; adorning the lineage of the buddhas with measureless adornment and manifesting the sovereignty of omniscience; seeking the bodhisattva's great wisdom of spiritual penetration that illumines all dharmas; practicing the practice of Samantabhadra full and without turning back in the whole Dharma realm and the whole realm of empty space and causing sentient beings to abide in the ground of Samantabhadra; and delivering sentient beings through all the kalpas of the future with never a rest.

Setting a misreading right: do not suppose that what is set aside is only bad things. Concentration, liberation, samādhi, and the vehicle of the śrāvakas and of the pratyekabuddhas are not bad things, and yet they stand in the same list of what is set aside — what is set aside is the taking of them for the destination of a dedication. Bringing it down to the ground: this gate is a set of true-or-false questions, seventeen on the negative side and eleven on the positive; ask yourself of each one, ‘in which column does this dedication of mine stand.’

Thirteen. The ten equal minds and the twenty “so that”: with what mind he dedicates, and for what he dedicates

First a question: the gates before spoke of the roots of goodness turned and of the motives set aside; what does this gate supply? It supplies “the mind that turns them.” The scripture says, “when he dedicates with those roots of goodness, it is with a mind such as this that he dedicates,” and runs on with ten clauses of mind — the mind equal as to root nature, the mind equal as to the nature of dharmas, the mind equal and measureless as to all sentient beings, the mind equal and without contention, the mind equal as to the arising of nothing from its own nature, the mind that knows all dharmas to be unconfused, the mind equal as to entering the three times, the mind that gives birth to the lineage of the buddhas of the three times, the mind that obtains spiritual penetrations not lost or turned back from, and the mind that gives rise to the practice of omniscience. The first five clauses all carry the two graphs for equality; the last five turn into knowing, entering, giving birth, obtaining, and giving rise — a passage from the still into the moving.

Then follow twenty clauses of “so that all sentient beings … he dedicates.” The first five clauses remove suffering — forever free of the hells, not entering the destiny of animals, not going to the place of Yama the king, extinguishing the dharmas that hinder the path, and satisfying the roots of goodness. The six in the middle accomplish virtue — turning the wheel of Dharma at the fitting time and causing all to be glad, entering the wheel of the ten powers, satisfying the boundless pure vows for the Dharma, following the instruction of good friends so that the vessel of the mind of awakening is filled full, receiving and upholding and practicing the most profound Dharma of the Buddha and obtaining the light of the wisdom of the buddhas, and cultivating practices free of hindrance so that they are constantly present. The last nine clauses are strung together throughout by the three graphs for “constantly present before them” — seeing the buddhas present, the light of the Dharma present, the fearless great mind of awakening present, inconceivable wisdom present, the mind of great compassion present — and then close upon adorning the buddha-lands, crushing the deeds of Māra, cultivating in all the buddha-lands with nothing relied upon, and rousing the mind of the wisdom of all modes and entering the vast gate of the Dharma of the Buddha.

Setting a misreading right: “the equal mind” is not an absence of discrimination so complete that right and wrong are no longer told apart. The scripture immediately after uses twenty clauses to divide things extremely finely — which destiny is to be left, which virtue is to be accomplished, which mind is to be present. Bringing it down to the ground: what this gate teaches is the tuning of the mind before one dedicates — first see with which kind of mind you are turning, and then see for which matter you are turning.

Fourteen. Dedicating with right mindfulness and purity: twenty-two things it is for, laid out in one breath

First a question: since the gate before has already listed twenty things it is for, and this gate lists twenty-two more, is this not an overlapping? The things the former gate is for are all tied to sentient beings, while the things this gate is for take in one's own realization and the expounding of the Dharma as well — the first three clauses, “dedicating with right mindfulness and purity; dedicating with wisdom that is decided; dedicating with the exhaustive knowing of all the skillful means of the Dharma of the buddhas,” do not even use the graph for “for the sake of,” but state directly the mark of the one who turns.

Below, it lays them out one after another. First one's own realization — accomplishing measureless and unhindered wisdom, and satisfying the pure and surpassing mind. Next the four measureless minds — for sentient beings abiding in great loving-kindness, great compassion, great joy, and great equanimity. Next being free of the two clingings and abiding in surpassing roots of goodness, and pondering, contemplating, setting out, and expounding all the dharmas of dependent origination. Next the setting up of banners — setting up the mind that is a banner of great valor, setting up the treasury that is a banner none can overcome, and breaking the hosts of Māra. Next the obtaining of mind — obtaining a mind pure and unhindered in all dharmas, cultivating the bodhisattva's practice without turning back, obtaining a mind that delights in seeking the foremost and most surpassing Dharma, and obtaining a mind that delights in seeking the dharmas of merit and the sovereign, pure wisdom of omniscience.

The last four clauses suddenly lengthen. One clause is “fulfilling every vow and removing every contention” and turning for sentient beings the wheel of Dharma that does not turn back; one is obtaining the sun of the wisdom of the Tathāgata's highest and most surpassing Dharma, adorned by a hundred thousand lights and shining everywhere upon the sentient beings of the Dharma realm; the third is the longest, speaking of taming sentient beings and constantly satisfying whatever they delight in, not casting away the original vow, and to the very end of the future hearing the Dharma and cultivating practice, and then five acts in a row — obtaining the stainless light of pure wisdom, cutting off conceit, extinguishing the afflictions, tearing the net of craving and desire, and breaking the darkness of delusion. The last clause, “for the sake of all sentient beings, that through asaṃkhyeya kalpas they may constantly and diligently cultivate the practice of omniscience without turning back, and that each and every one of them may obtain unhindered subtle wisdom and manifest the sovereign spiritual penetrations of the buddhas without any rest, he dedicates,” draws time out to asaṃkhyeya kalpas and pushes practice on to a state without rest.

Setting a misreading right: do not read these twenty-two clauses as a list of wishes. Every clause hangs upon the three graphs “he dedicates,” and what is spoken is what the dedication is for, not a table of the results of practice. Bringing it down to the ground: this gate may be read as one long text of dedication, running in a single breath from one's own realization to the benefit of others to the breaking of confusion.

Fifteen. The nine kinds of roots of goodness dedicated: the hand that dedicates may carry no greed

First a question: after so much has been said about what it is for, why does this gate suddenly turn back to “he should not cling with greed to the three states of existence or to the realms of the five desires”? Because the end of the gate before ran on to the breaking of the darkness of delusion, and its force was at its height; here it is drawn back at once and the root is held down. The scripture sets itself the question “why?” and then answers with nine clauses — he should dedicate with roots of goodness that are without greed, without anger, without delusion, doing no harm, free of conceit, without flattery, straight and honest, of diligent effort, and of cultivation.

The nine clauses divide clearly. The first three clauses are the positive side of the three roots of goodness; the fourth, “doing no harm,” counters the conduct of anger; the fifth, “free of conceit,” and the sixth, “without flattery,” counter the crookedness of the mind; the seventh, “straight and honest,” is the positive statement of the two before; and the last two, “diligent effort” and “cultivation,” turn into the carrying out. If the roots of goodness turned have themselves greed, anger, delusion, conceit, and flattery mixed into them, then however many the acts of dedicating, they only work in the service of those afflictions.

At the end of the passage the scripture states of itself what one who dedicates in this way obtains — obtaining a pure mind of faith, gladly forbearing in the practice of a bodhisattva, cultivating the pure great path of a bodhisattva; being furnished with the lineage of a buddha and obtaining the wisdom of a buddha; casting away every evil and being free of the deeds of Māra; drawing near to good friends and accomplishing one's own great vow; inviting all sentient beings and setting up a great assembly of giving. The last sentence, “inviting all sentient beings and setting up a great assembly of giving,” is especially worth turning over — the giving of Dharma here turns out into an assembly of giving again, and the fruit that benefits oneself is at once spread out once more.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “he should not cling with greed to the three states of existence or to the realms of the five desires” as a guarding only against the pleasures of desire. The three states of existence are existence in the three realms itself, and even the mind that ‘would still like to go on existing’ stands in what is guarded against. Bringing it down to the ground: before dedicating, look first at whether the handful of roots of goodness in your hand is clean; this gate gives nine items to check.

Sixteen. The vows of voice: the forty-four kinds of voice

First a question: why does a dedication suddenly begin to speak of sound? Because this station has the giving of Dharma for its substance, and the giving of Dharma must depend upon voice. The scripture runs on with forty-four clauses of ‘obtaining such and such a voice’: the first thirty-five clauses are spoken in one breath, and the last nine begin a separate group with “and again, with these roots of goodness.”

The earlier group may be divided again. The first thirteen clauses speak of the quality of the voice — pure and wondrous, soft and gentle, like the drums of the gods, measureless and numberless and inconceivable, to be loved and delighted in, pure, pervading all the buddha-lands, adorned with the merit of a hundred thousand nayutas beyond speaking, high and far-carrying, vast, extinguishing all scattering, filling the Dharma realm, and gathering in the speech of all sentient beings. The four clauses in the middle suddenly turn into “the wisdom of sounds of voice” — the wisdom of the boundless sounds of voice of all sentient beings, the wisdom of all pure speech and sounds of voice, the wisdom of measureless speech and sounds of voice, and the most sovereign voice with the wisdom that enters all sounds of voice. Chengguan here points out one layer: the reason “the wisdom of sounds of voice” is spoken in the middle is that in the mind it is wisdom and in the uttering it is called voice, and both sides ought properly to be furnished, the scripture merely eliding as it speaks. The eighteen clauses further down turn into the function of the voice — expounding all the Dharma of the buddhas so that the name is heard everywhere, causing sentient beings to obtain the adornment of dhāraṇī, reaching everywhere to the assembly-sites of the Dharma realm, holding and sustaining the vajra sentences, opening and showing all dharmas, being able to expound the treasury of wisdom that distinguishes letters and phrases beyond speaking, expounding with nothing clung to and without breaking off, shining brightly, causing the world to be pure and to reach to omniscience, everywhere holding the phrases and meanings of dharmas, guarded by spiritual power and sovereign and unhindered, and the wisdom that reaches the further shore of all the world, and the rest.

The later group of nine clauses inclines to “being without fault” — not lowly, without fear, without stain or clinging, gladdening all assembly-sites, concordant and beautiful, expounding well all the Dharma of the buddhas, cutting off doubt and causing awakening, complete in eloquence, and everywhere awakening from the sleep of the long night. Chengguan divides it in just this way: first with respect to being furnished with virtue, as with the soft and gentle and the rest; second with respect to being without fault, as with the not lowly and the rest.

Setting a misreading right: do not read this gate as the seeking of a fine voice. Of the forty-four clauses, only the first thirteen truly speak of the quality of the sound; all the rest speak of this voice being able to cut off doubt, to open and show, and to reach the further shore. Bringing it down to the ground: one who speaks the Dharma may check himself against these forty-four clauses — what is wanting is for the most part not in the timbre but in that one clause, “cutting off the doubting thoughts of all sentient beings.”

Seventeen. The ten freedoms from faults and evils: that sentient beings be free of faults and evils

First a question: the gate before vowed that sentient beings obtain voice; what is this gate for? Chengguan says the gate before caused sentient beings to obtain the virtue of voice, while this gate generally causes sentient beings to be furnished with virtue, and that its text has ten clauses, the first five being the fullness of the fruit and the last five the roundness of the cause.

All ten clauses without exception begin with “may all sentient beings obtain, free of every fault and evil,” each clause the same, only the thing obtained at the end being changed. The first five clauses are fruit — the pure dharma-body, pure and wondrous merit, pure and wondrous marks, pure fruits of deeds, and a pure mind of omniscience. The last five are cause — a measureless pure mind of awakening, the pure skillful means of knowing the faculties, pure faith and understanding, pure and diligently cultivated unhindered practices and vows, and pure right mindfulness and wisdom and eloquence.

The sentence pattern of these ten clauses is worth noticing. The scripture does not say ‘may sentient beings obtain a pure dharma-body,’ but says ‘may sentient beings obtain a pure dharma-body free of every fault and evil’ — the four graphs “free of every fault and evil” are driven in between, ten times without once being spared. What is prayed for is not one more good thing added on; it is the pulling of the thing already there out of faults and evils.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “fault and evil” only as evil in conduct. The seventh clause says “the pure skillful means of knowing the faculties,” and the tenth says “pure right mindfulness, wisdom, and eloquence” — even deviations in knowing and in speaking stand among what is to be left behind. Bringing it down to the ground: these ten clauses may be taken directly as a daily text of dedication, from the body to the mind to eloquence, with not one item missing.

Eighteen. The ten pure and wondrous bodies: like a mirror

First a question: the virtues vowed for above are already many — why open a passage on “body” by itself? Chengguan says that the ten clauses of the fruit sentient beings obtain should each have many, and that here only the “body” of the first clause is expounded at large, from which the rest may be inferred. Within the gate there are three parts: first making clear the obtaining of the body, next showing the function of the body, and last generally concluding what is accomplished.

The ten bodies have each what they are chiefly of. Chengguan divides them very finely — light is the light of the body and the light of wisdom, illumining all without exception; free of turbidity is the substance having no dark hindrance, able to be seen through; without stain is the substance not taking on defilement, like a warm and moist jade that is dyed and does not go black; pure is the pure virtue filled within, like a jade without a flaw; utterly pure is a purity that is not for a time only. These three clauses above are spoken with respect to the substance. The three clauses below face the object — free of dust is not being soiled by dust, utterly free of dust is not being touched by the most minute, and free of defilement is being unstained by filth; and if they are spoken with respect to inner virtue, the exhausting of the hindrance of the afflictions is called free of dust, the perishing of the habit-energies as well is called utterly free of dust, and not abiding in the knowable is called free of the defilement of mind. The ninth, to be loved and delighted in, is being furnished with marks and furnished with virtue; the tenth, without hindrance, is the form filling the Dharma realm and the wisdom pervading the ten directions, so that mountains and rivers, phenomena and principle, cannot hinder it.

The function of the body falls into two layers. The first four clauses are the function of the form-body — manifesting the reflected images of deeds in all worlds, manifesting the reflected images of speech in all the world, manifesting the reflected images of what is set up in all palaces, and then “just as in a pure bright mirror colors and images of every kind appear of themselves”; Chengguan says the first three clauses spread one body throughout the Dharma realm, and the last clause gathers the myriad images into one body. The five instances of “shows sentient beings” that follow are the function of the wisdom-body, and the last, “shows sentient beings the nature of omniscience that brings to fullness the practices and vows of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra,” is the function that runs through both bodies.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “the pure bright mirror” as a passive reflecting. The simile of the mirror here says ‘neither welcoming nor refusing, and the images appear of themselves,’ which is why what follows immediately is all “shows sentient beings” — an active teaching, not a still reflecting. Bringing it down to the ground: what this gate speaks of is the teaching by the body of one who speaks the Dharma — wherever the body appears, there the Dharma is shown.

Nineteen. The vow that the body abide wherever it goes: wherever the body reaches, there the practice is cultivated

First a question: the gate before has spoken of the body; what is this gate for? Chengguan says this gate is the vow that the cause of the second fruit be round, and that within the gate there are two — the first half is the practice of rousing function from principle, and the second half, from “enter all” on, is the practice of entering the deep by way of phenomena.

The first half lays them out one after another. The body abides wherever it goes and in all worlds cultivates the practice of a bodhisattva, and sentient beings who see it are none of them left empty-handed and rouse the mind of awakening never to turn back; according with the truly real meaning, he cannot be shaken; through all the kalpas of the future he abides in the path of a bodhisattva without weariness; his great compassion is even and everywhere, its measure equal to the Dharma realm; he knows the faculties of sentient beings and expounds the Dharma at the fitting time, constantly without rest; his mind holds good friends constantly in right mindfulness, not casting them aside for so much as the moment of a single thought; all the buddhas are constantly present before him and his mind holds them constantly in right mindfulness, never for a moment slack; he cultivates every root of goodness with nothing false in it; he sets sentient beings in omniscience and causes them not to turn back; he is complete in the light of the Dharma of the buddhas, holds the great cloud of Dharma and receives the great rain of Dharma. Chengguan says that this passage first makes clear the conditions for accomplishing practice, because the body abides wherever it goes; next, from “sentient beings who see it” on, is the benefit of others not being empty; and afterward, from “toward good friends” on, it runs through both the benefit of self and the benefit of others.

The second half strings ten instances of the graph for entering one after another — entering all sentient beings, all buddha-lands, all dharmas, all the three times, the wisdom of the deeds and rewards of sentient beings, the wisdom of the skillful means of bodhisattvas, the wisdom of the arising of bodhisattvas, the wisdom of the pure realms of bodhisattvas, the sovereign spiritual penetrations of the buddhas, and the boundless Dharma realm. Chengguan says this is entering the deep by way of phenomena, that wisdom's tallying is called entering, and that the boundless Dharma realm runs through both body and wisdom and is entered. The last sentence still draws back to “abiding herein, cultivating the practice of a bodhisattva” — having entered to the very end, it is still practice, and there is no separate place to settle the body.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “entering” as a going somewhere. Among the objects of the ten “enterings” there are sentient beings, there are dharmas, there are the three times, and there is wisdom — it is not an arriving in space, but the removing of a partition. Bringing it down to the ground: what this gate teaches is that ‘wherever the body is, there one cultivates,’ and there is no need to seek another place of practice.

Twenty. The jeweled adornment of the buddha-lands: why ninety-four uses of “asaṃkhyeya”

First a question: the two gates before spoke of the body and of practice — why does this gate begin to speak of the adornments of a buddha-land? Chengguan says this gate is the vow that the fruit that is the dependent reward be accomplished — the body is the direct reward and the land the dependent reward, and when the cause is round both fruits are full. Within the gate the general comes first and the particular after.

Of the ten general clauses, Chengguan says the first restates what came before and raises what follows, and that the other nine properly show the marks of what is vowed — that they be pure, that they be adorned, that their measure pervade everywhere, that they be purely good, that they be without hindrance, that they be furnished with pure light, that there be buddhas manifest, that they fuse and take in one another, and that one be raised as an example for the rest. Among them the one most to be looked at is “the pure realms within one buddha-land are all able to manifest all buddha-lands; and as with one buddha-land, so with all buddha-lands alike” — one land spread open and its measure is equal to the Dharma realm, one land rolled up and it manifests all without remainder, and the spreading and the rolling being unobstructed to each other, this is what one buddha-land is. It is precisely this clause that Chengguan takes as the scriptural ground for “being equal to the Dharma realm of the non-obstruction of phenomena and phenomena.”

Within the particular showing, the scripture caps each item with “asaṃkhyeya,” and counted out these come to ninety-four items. Chengguan here makes plain a matter of importance: the sixty-fascicle text here has throughout “measureless asaṃkhyeya,” from which it may be seen that “asaṃkhyeya” is not one number among numbers but only means “numberless” — and if it were fixed as some one number, it would on the contrary become a confining limit. As to the number one hundred, he picks out from within the ninety-four items six further attendant things carrying ‘measureless, numberless, a hundred thousand, inconceivable’ to make up the count — the flowers and fruits of the jeweled trees, the bodhisattvas in the palaces, the jeweled treasuries after the showing of the cause, the bodhisattvas upon the garlands, the birds among the jeweled branches, and the bodhisattvas within the jeweled flowers — and so fills the count of a hundred.

The ninety-four items have layers within them as well. Chengguan divides the hundred items, after the filling out, into the first eighteen items which briefly make clear what is surpassing and the latter eighty-two which show at large; and the showing at large falls again into five sections: twenty-four items adorned purely with outer jewels, fifteen items set up under the name of a thing and explained by a gate of Dharma, three items with respect to a gate of Dharma alone, twenty-two items which by a jewel that is a thing accomplish a gate of Dharma, and eighteen items which show that the six faculties and the three kinds of deeds of the inner body are all named jewels. At the end he passes one general judgment that matters — that these things, whether pure or mixed, whether direct or dependent reward and unobstructed, are all summoned by taking the gate of the non-obstruction of phenomena and phenomena as their cause.

Setting a misreading right: do not read this long passage as a spreading out of display. From “jeweled sentient beings” on, the eighteen items speak throughout of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind and the deeds of body, speech, and mind — the jewel at the last is one's own self, not an outward thing. Bringing it down to the ground: this gate is the most concentrated passage of the Huayan contemplation of the dependent reward, and in reading it one may go item by item and look at ‘what it takes for its cause.’

Twenty-one. Adornment by the jewel that is people, and the remaining adornments shown by kind: where the real jewel lies

First a question: since the jewels have been spoken to the end, why a further passage on bodhisattvas filling the land? Chengguan says the former was the general showing of the jeweled adornment, and here is the separate making clear of “adornment by the jewel that is people” — he cites the Miaofa lianhua jing, “why is that land named Great Jeweled Adornment? Because within that land bodhisattvas are taken for the great jewel,” as his proof, and brings alongside it the old matter of the courts of Chu and of Wei, which did not hold gold and jade for a treasure but held worthy ministers for their jewel, saying that only when in every dust-mote place throughout the Dharma realm there are many bodhisattvas may it be called adorning a land with the great mind.

The scripture's way of saying it is extremely brief: within one buddha-land, one quarter, one place, one space the size of the tip of a hair, there are measureless, boundless, unspeakably many great bodhisattvas who have accomplished pure wisdom and dwell there filling it full; and every space the size of the tip of a hair throughout the whole of empty space and pervading the Dharma realm is likewise. This is precisely the side of “being without number” among the two meanings of “measureless” above.

The last section, “the remaining adornments shown by kind,” has the scripture say that as with the jeweled adornment so it is expounded at large, and that besides these there are the eleven kinds of adornment by fragrance, flowers, garlands, unguent incense, burning incense, powdered incense, garments, canopies, banners, pennants, and maṇi jewels. Chengguan says that each of these eleven things has the hundred items above, and added to the original hundred this makes twelve hundred; and as to the scripture's phrase “in due order and on to a hundredfold beyond this,” he first passes judgment upon the rendering — if it be said that the matters of adornment go beyond, then it should not be said “all of them as with the jeweled adornment”; and if one follows the sixty-fascicle text's “garments, canopies, banners, and pennants, on to a hundred things of adornment,” then it takes fragrance and the rest as the hundred, and so the three graphs “multiplied beyond this” are not well rendered. He at once puts forth an explanation of his own as well — if one runs it through by a separate principle, then the jeweled adornment above listed only a hundred items and yet is not only a hundred, and should go a hundredfold beyond, so that a hundred hundreds make ten thousand, which is just what shows the fused ten thousand practices. This is recorded without adjudication.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “the space the size of the tip of a hair” as a tiny corner. The scripture's meaning is just the reverse — even a place as large as the tip of a hair has unspeakably many bodhisattvas dwelling in it. Bringing it down to the ground: this passage turns the center of gravity of the ninety-four items before it over — what makes a land a jewel lies in people, not in things.

Twenty-two. What the dedication is for, one: twenty-three clauses for the sake of sentient beings

First a question: so much of dedication has already been said — how does the “for the sake of … he dedicates” here differ from what came before? Chengguan says these are the two gates of “what the dedication is for” among the eight gates of the advance beyond, this gate being what should be done for sentient beings and the next what should be done for awakening. He says this gate has twenty-three clauses, of which the first two, though their text stands foremost, run in meaning through both places, and that the third clause, “he dedicates for the sake of accomplishing all sentient beings,” is the general clause, all below being particular clauses, running from the mind of faith all the way to the wisdom of all modes.

The way the twenty-three clauses walk is this. The first two clauses, “for the sake of nourishing and growing every root of goodness” and “for the sake of adorning and purifying all buddha-lands,” run through both self and other; the third clause states generally the accomplishing of sentient beings; and the twenty below open item by item — pure and unshaken minds, entering the most profound Dharma of the Buddha, obtaining pure merit none can surpass, obtaining pure power of blessedness that cannot be broken, obtaining inexhaustible power of wisdom to deliver beings and cause them to enter the Dharma of the Buddha, obtaining equal and measureless pure speech and voice, obtaining an equal and unhindered eye and accomplishing an equal wisdom, obtaining pure mindfulness and knowing all the worlds of the kalpas of the earlier limit, obtaining unhindered great wisdom and deciding and penetrating every treasury of Dharma, obtaining a great awakening without limit or measure pervading the Dharma realm, obtaining equal and undifferentiated roots of goodness of one same substance, obtaining pure deeds of the three kinds adorned with merit complete, obtaining what is the same as the practice of Samantabhadra, being able to enter all the pure buddha-lands of one same substance, contemplating omniscience and all tending toward its fullness, being far removed from unequal roots of goodness, obtaining equality without any differing mark and with a profound mind bringing omniscience in due order to fullness, abiding in every white dharma, in a single thought realizing omniscience and attaining its very end, and bringing to fullness the pure path of omniscience.

Setting a misreading right: do not suppose that this is merely a repetition of the vows for others before. Every clause of this gate hangs upon the three graphs “he dedicates,” and what is spoken is the direction of the dedication, not the items of practice; and moreover, apart from the two clauses at the head that run through both self and other, every clause is “causing all sentient beings to obtain.” Bringing it down to the ground: these twenty-three clauses are a complete text of dedication, dedicating from the mind of sentient beings all the way to their wisdom of all modes.

Twenty-three. What the dedication is for, two: fourteen clauses for the sake of awakening

First a question: since he has already dedicated for the sake of sentient beings, why set up a further gate of dedicating for the sake of awakening? Chengguan says this gate is what should be done for awakening, making clear that when the cause is round and the fruit full, the great function is inexhaustible. The scripture takes up from the gate before with “when he, with all his roots of goodness, has dedicated in this way everywhere for the sake of all sentient beings,” from which the order may be seen to be plain — first sentient beings, and afterward awakening.

The fourteen clauses fall into three layers. The first seven clauses use the graph for “wishing to” one after another, and speak of the fullness of the Dharma — wishing to bring wholly to fullness the power of expounding all the dharmas of pure practice, wishing to accomplish the majestic power of pure practice and obtain oceans of Dharma beyond speaking, wishing within each single ocean of Dharma to be complete in the pure light of wisdom equal to the Dharma realm, wishing to open and show and expound the phrases and meanings that distinguish all dharmas, wishing to accomplish the boundless and vast samādhi of the light of all dharmas, wishing to accord with the eloquence of the buddhas of the three times, and wishing to accomplish the sovereign body of all the buddhas of the three times. The two clauses in the middle change to the graph for “for the sake of” — for the sake of honoring the lovable and unhindered Dharma of all the buddhas, and for the sake of satisfying the mind of great compassion and rescuing and guarding sentient beings constantly without turning back. The last five clauses return again to “wishing to” and “for the sake of” alternating — wishing to accomplish inconceivable distinguished dharmas and unhindered wisdom and to enter everywhere the assembly-sites, wishing in all the buddha-lands, whether overturned or upright, whether coarse or fine, whether broad or narrow, whether small or great, whether defiled or pure, constantly to turn the equal wheel of Dharma from which there is no turning back, wishing in thought after thought to obtain fearless and inexhaustible eloquence of every kind and with the light of the wondrous Dharma to open and show and expound, for the sake of delighting to seek every goodness and rousing the mind to cultivate it so that the faculties turn surpassing and he obtains the great wisdom of spiritual penetration in all dharmas, and wishing in all assembly-sites to draw near and make offerings and to expound all dharmas for sentient beings and cause them all to be glad.

Among them the clause “whether overturned or upright, whether coarse or fine, whether broad or narrow, small or great, defiled or pure” is the most worth noticing — not choosing among the marks of lands, but constantly and without exception turning the equal wheel of Dharma from which there is no turning back: this is just the meaning of “equal to the Dharma realm” falling upon the expounding of the Dharma.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “dedicating to awakening” as seeking the fruit of buddhahood for oneself. Among the fourteen clauses there is not one that seeks a fruit-station; all of them seek the power to expound the Dharma, eloquence, light, and the entering everywhere of assembly-sites. Bringing it down to the ground: what this gate teaches is that to be directed toward awakening is to be directed toward that capacity ‘to be able to expound all dharmas for all sentient beings.’

Twenty-four. Dedicating to the true limit: twenty-nine clauses of “abiding in the measurelessness of the Dharma realm”

First a question: dedicating to sentient beings and dedicating to awakening have both been spoken — what is there left to dedicate? Chengguan says this is “dedicating to the true limit,” the last of the three places of dedication. He says this passage has twenty-nine clauses; that where every clause says “the Dharma realm,” it is the Dharma realm of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena; and that where every clause says “abiding,” it is that wisdom tallies with the principle that just is phenomena and so has nothing it abides in, and abiding is the meaning of entering, because it is an abiding in peace; and that the Dharma realm being not two is just the meaning of “equal.” He also glosses the first clause, “the measureless abiding,” in particular — all roots of goodness are what is abided in, and now, with an abiding that is no abiding, it is the same as the Dharma realm's being measureless; and all the other clauses are to be seen in the same way.

There is an order in the arrangement of the twenty-nine clauses. The first clause is general, speaking of “abiding” itself. The second to the fourth are the three kinds of deeds — deeds of body, of speech, of mind. The fifth to the ninth enter the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-fields — the equality of form, the equality of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, the equality of the aggregates, the equality of the elements, the equality of the sense-fields. The tenth and eleventh are the inward and the outward. The twelfth to the sixteenth turn into the practice of the mind — arousing, the profound mind, skillful means, faith and understanding, and the faculties. The seventeenth is time — the earlier limit, the middle limit, and the later limit. The eighteenth and nineteenth are deeds and their rewards, and the defiled and the pure. The twentieth to the twenty-third are objects — sentient beings, buddha-lands, dharmas, and the light of the world. The twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh are the noble stations — the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the practices and vows of a bodhisattva, the going forth of a bodhisattva, and the teaching and taming of a bodhisattva. The twenty-eighth clause, “the equality of the not-twoness of the Dharma realm,” gathers up all that has gone before. The last clause, “the equality of the assembly-sites of the Tathāgata,” falls back to the place where the Dharma is expounded.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “the true limit” as some higher place to go to. The scripture does not say in a single clause that one is to go anywhere; every clause is “abiding” — dedicating to the true limit is not a transferring, it is an abiding. Bringing it down to the ground: these twenty-nine clauses may be made into one extremely fine contemplation, looking from one's own deeds of body, speech, and mind all the way to the assembly-sites, to see whether in any of these places there is still a corner that is ‘not the Dharma realm.’

Twenty-five. The benefit accomplished by the dedication: eight abidings, giving rise to two functions

First a question: since he has dedicated to the true limit, why is there a further passage, “when he dedicates in this way, he abides”? Chengguan says this is the third of the three parts of the broad explanation, “the virtue accomplished by the dedication,” which is to say the benefit of the dedication. He says this passage has ten clauses in its text, all of them saying “abides,” because above, wisdom has already tallied, and therefore he is able to be at peace.

The eight clauses of abiding have each what they abide in. The first three clauses are body, speech, and mind; the fourth is the pure practices and vows of the bodhisattvas; the fifth is the pure assembly-sites; the sixth is the pure wisdom that expounds all dharmas at large for all bodhisattvas; the seventh is the body that is able to enter all the worlds of the whole Dharma realm; the eighth is the pure fearlessness of the light of all dharmas. Chengguan says that body and the rest are of themselves differentiated phenomena, and now they are just equal and pure; and equal and pure just is the Dharma realm being inexhaustible, and the Dharma realm being pure just is what is obtained, wisdom being able to abide and wholly the same as the Dharma realm.

From these eight abidings the two functions that follow are accomplished. The first function is “he is able with a single voice to cut off entirely the net of doubts of all sentient beings, and following their faculties and their desires to cause them all to be glad”; the second function is abiding within the unsurpassed wisdom of all modes, the powers, the fearlessnesses, the sovereign spiritual penetrations, the vast merit, and the dharmas of going forth. Chengguan says that the virtues of a buddha are many but that here four are briefly raised — the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the ten sovereignties, and the six spiritual penetrations — and are named the vast virtue; and set against the wisdom of all modes above, these are the two adornments of a buddha, which are just the dharmas of going forth.

Setting a misreading right: do not read “a single voice” as a marvelous power. The scripture itself says that the working of the single voice is to “cut off entirely the net of doubts of all sentient beings” — the cutting off of doubt is the point, and the single voice merely describes its being unpartitioned. Bringing it down to the ground: this section is the report card of the station — whether the eight places are abided in may be asked of oneself one by one; and the way to test it lies in the two functions that follow — can you cut off another's doubt.

Twenty-six. The concluding of the name and the fruit of the station: the three worthy stages are here brought to fullness

First a question: why is the concluding sentence written “the tenth dedication of abiding in the measurelessness equal to the Dharma realm,” with one graph more, the graph for abiding? The concluding sentences of the other nine dedications none of them carry this graph. The sixty-fascicle text here has “the tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm,” and Chengguan in setting up his outline has yet again “the tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm”: three places and three shapes, so handed down from of old, and both are recorded without judging.

Below the concluding of the name is the fruit of the station. Chengguan divides it into three sections — first stating the cause obtained, next, from “brings to fullness” on, listing what is obtained, and last, from “all such things as these” on, concluding the marks of what is obtained. What is obtained falls again into three kinds of fullness of fruit: the first is the fullness of the benefit of cause and fruit, that is, bringing to fullness the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, adorning and purifying all buddha-lands, and causing sentient beings to be complete in boundless wisdom and to penetrate all dharmas; the second is the fullness of sovereignty in seeing the buddhas, first stating generally that in thought after thought he sees all the buddhas arising in the world, and afterward showing sovereign power separately in fourteen clauses — vast, unattached, unhindered, inconceivable, purifying all sentient beings, establishing all worlds, manifesting speech beyond speaking, appearing in response to the time, abiding in the spiritual penetrations and wisdom from which there is no turning back, expounding the whole boundless Dharma realm with nothing left over, giving birth to the borderless eye of Samantabhadra, with unhindered ear-consciousness hearing and holding the true Dharma of the buddhas, with one body sitting cross-legged pervading the ten directions and yet crowding none of the sentient beings, and with full and complete wisdom entering everywhere the measureless dharmas of the three times; the third is the fullness of the fruit of purity, ten clauses in all — the purity of all sentient beings, of all buddha-lands, of all dharmas, of the wisdom that knows everywhere in all places, of the boundless wisdom pervading the realm of empty space, of obtaining the wisdom of distinguished speech and voice and responding everywhere to sentient beings, of sending out measureless and full light shining everywhere upon the boundless worlds, of giving birth to the wisdom of the practice of the bodhisattvas of the three times, of the wisdom that in a single thought enters everywhere the assembly-sites of the buddhas of the three times, and of entering the boundless worlds and causing sentient beings all to do what they ought to do. Chengguan says that the fullness of the fruit of purity is accomplished by the purifying of the hindrance of confusion and the seeing of the purity of one's own nature.

Last, nine clauses in parallel with the graph for “all” close it off — all attained complete, all attained accomplished, all cultivated and put in order, all attained equal, all present before him, all known and seen, all awakened into, all contemplated, all attained pure — and then it falls upon the four graphs “reach the further shore.” Of the two graphs for “equal” among them Chengguan glosses that it is because the knower and the known have been left behind; the rest he says are easily understood.

Setting a misreading right: do not suppose that the fruit of the station is a reward this station obtains for itself. Among the three kinds of fullness of fruit there is not one clause that says “I obtain”; the first group says outright “causing all sentient beings likewise to attain this,” and of the sovereign powers and the purities obtained in the latter two groups there is likewise not one that is for oneself. Bringing it down to the ground: the ten dedications are here brought to fullness, and below come the ten grounds; and what enables this station to lead through to the ten grounds lies precisely in this one sentence — what is brought to fullness are the measureless and boundless practices and vows of a bodhisattva of Samantabhadra.

Lineage

Chengguan, explaining the name of this station, opened “equal” into four Dharma realms and “measureless” into two meanings, and this set of readings afterward became the settled understanding of the station. His Yanyi chao divides the text of the Shu into ten sections, and in the section “striking at the men of old” sets out word for word the earlier men's Kanding ji, which took “the Dharma realm being measureless” as the phenomenal Dharma realm to which one is equal, and then strikes at it, saying that what one is equal to is fourfold and that “measureless” has two meanings, and how then may it be confined to phenomena. The text of the Kanding ji and the text of Chengguan's striking, the two makings, are both recorded as above, without judging which stands higher.

Fazang, commenting on the sixty-fascicle text, likewise sets up four gates to explain this station, and the four meanings of his explanation of the name agree largely with Chengguan's — the practice-dharma that is turned, the substance of the practice that is turned, the wisdom that turns, and the virtue that is turned — only that in the second meaning he has “the substance of the practice that is turned” where Chengguan has “the substance of the practice performed,” and in the fourth he has “the virtue that is turned” and “directing them toward the great function of the Dharma realm” where Chengguan has “the virtue toward which it is directed” and “directing them toward a great function that is the same as the Dharma realm.” As for the two gates of the coming of the meaning and of the substance of the dharma, what the two of them say is almost word for word the same, both saying that the former station makes clear the rousing of function from substance and this station makes clear substance and function unobstructed and fused to the utmost and sovereign, and both taking the giving of Dharma broadly accomplishing the sovereign and greatly skillful virtue of Samantabhadra as the substance of this station.

Li Tongxuan's rule is of itself different. He does not set up his explanation from the four Dharma realms, but says that this station has the perfection of wisdom for its substance, and takes as its symbolic showing the earth spirit Abiding Firmly whom Sudhana saw — the earth spirit is a goddess, and the position of earth lies in the southwest yet dwells in the central palace and governs the four seasons, showing that with wisdom in her dwelling place she practices compassion to fullness; and he says further that the sky spirit of the station before shows wisdom while the earth spirit of this station shows compassion, and that the two stations fuse in meeting to make one station. He urges the reader that “one must make one's wisdom like that spirit and one's mind like the earth, bearing and rearing the myriad things and not counting it a labor.” As for the long outline, Chengguan judges the prose of this station into the two portions of the practice of the station and the fruit of the station, and opens the gathering in and about to dedicate into twenty-one gates, while Li Tongxuan outlines this station at length into twenty-six passages. The scripture relied on and the way of outlining differ in each; this is recorded without adjudication.

The shape of the name of the station has now been seen four times — the base text's concluding sentence has “the tenth dedication of abiding in the measurelessness equal to the Dharma realm,” the sixty-fascicle text has “the tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm,” Chengguan's outline has “the tenth measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm,” and Fazang's explanation of the name has “the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm.” As to the number of the practices of purity, the scripture lists twenty names while Chengguan says “now it is opened into twenty-one.” As to the number of the jeweled adornments, the items capped with “asaṃkhyeya” in the scripture are ninety-four while Chengguan supplies six to fill out a hundred. As to the phrase “a hundredfold beyond this,” Chengguan passes judgment upon the text of the sixty-fascicle version and says that the three graphs of the present rendering are not well done, and then puts forth a separate explanation of his own, taking a hundred hundreds for ten thousand to show the fused ten thousand practices. All these divergent accounts are texts made by the ancient worthies; they are recorded together, without adjudication.

As for how this station bears upon the treatises of later times: searching the Cheng weishi lun, the She lun, the Yuqie lun, and the Jie shenmi jing, none of them has the name “the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm”; and among the treatises of the Huayan school, only Zhiyan's Kongmu zhang lists this name and sets the question “dedication — what meaning is this?”, answering “no dedication is it,” which bears upon the setting-aside sentence pattern of the gate of the ten non-clingings in this station. Chengguan, at the head of this chapter, once cited the Jie shenmi jing, the Yuqie shidi lun, and the Liang rendering of the She dacheng lun to make clear the meaning of turning the cause and directing it toward the fruit; but that text of his belongs to the general meaning of the chapter “The Ten Dedications” and does not explain this station in particular, and so the want is recorded as it stands, and the text of another place is not taken to fill it.