華嚴經 品二十六 十地品 · 第五地 難勝地Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Ten Grounds · The Fifth Ground, Hard to Conquer
看破了，還肯回來把世間的事一件件學會——這才叫難。
前四地得了出世之智，最順的下一步是不想再回來：生死是苦，涅槃是安。這一地要斷的正是這一偏。所以經文一面說「如實知此是苦聖諦」，一面說「世間技藝靡不該習」——文字算數、醫方星曆、歌舞園池，樣樣去學。真的與世間的，兩種智性相違，此地把它們合起來，故名『難勝』。
學這些有一道界限，經文自己下的：「但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法。」
而諦智再深，他仍老實承認：「以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知。」
如以妙寶磨真金，愈磨愈亮；如蓮華在水，不著一點。且入此地。
To have seen through it all, and still be willing to come back and learn the affairs of the world one by one — that is what is called hard.
On the four grounds before this he gained world-transcending wisdom, and the smoothest next step is not to want to come back: birth-and-death is suffering, nirvāṇa is ease. What this ground has to cut off is just that partiality. And so the text says on one side, “he knows as it really is that this is the noble truth of suffering,” and on the other, “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice” — letters and reckoning, medicine and calendrical lore, song and dance, gardens and pools, every one of them to be studied. What is true and what is worldly: two wisdoms contrary in their nature, and this ground joins them together — hence the name ‘Hard to Conquer’.
There is one limit set upon this studying, and the text sets it itself: “only that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings; for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth, gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma.”
And however deep the wisdom of the truths, he still admits it honestly: “he knows by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, not by the power of ultimate wisdom.”
Like true gold polished with a wondrous gem, brighter the more it is polished; like a lotus in the water, with not a drop clinging to it. Enter this ground.
〔T10 0191〕
菩薩聞此勝地行，於法解悟心歡喜，
空中雨華讚歎言：「善哉大士金剛藏！」
自在天王與天眾，聞法踊躍住虛空，
普放種種妙光雲，供養如來喜充遍。
天諸采女奏天樂，亦以言辭歌讚佛，
悉以菩薩威神故，於彼聲中發是言：
「佛願久遠今乃滿，佛道久遠今乃得，
釋迦文佛至天宮，利天人者久乃見。
大海久遠今始動，佛光久遠今乃放，
眾生久遠始安樂，大悲音聲久乃聞。
功德彼岸皆已到，憍慢黑闇皆已滅，
最極清淨如虛空，不染世法猶蓮華。
大牟尼尊現於世，譬如須彌出巨海，
供養能盡一切苦，供養必得諸佛智；
此應供處供無等，是故歡心供養佛。」
如是無量諸天女，發此言辭稱讚已，
一切恭敬喜充滿，瞻仰如來默然住。
是時大士解脫月，復請無畏金剛藏：
「第五地中諸行相，唯願佛子為宣說！」
爾時，金剛藏菩薩告解脫月菩薩言：
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩第四地所行道善圓滿已，欲入第五難勝地，當以十種平等清淨心趣入。何等為十？所謂：於過去佛法平等清淨心、未來佛法平等清淨心、現在佛法平等清淨心、戒平等清淨心、心平等清淨心、除見疑悔平等清淨心、道非道智平等清淨心、修行智見平等清淨心、於一切菩提分法上上觀察平等清淨心、教化一切眾生平等清淨心。菩薩摩訶薩以此十種平等清淨心，得入菩薩第五地。
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此第五地已，以善修菩提分法故，善淨深心故，復轉求上勝道故，隨順真如故，願力所持故，於一切眾生慈愍不捨故，積集福智助道故，精勤修習不息故，出生善巧方便故，觀察照明上上地故，受如來護念故，念智力所持故，得不退轉心。
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩如實知此是苦聖諦、此是苦集聖諦、此是苦滅聖諦、此是苦滅道聖諦，善知俗諦，善知第一義諦，善知相諦，善知差別諦，善知成立諦，善知事諦，善知生諦，善知盡無生諦，善知入道智諦，善知一切菩薩地次第成就諦，乃至善知如來智成就諦。此菩薩隨眾生心樂令歡喜故，知俗諦；通達一實相故，知第一義諦；覺法自相、共相故，知相諦；了諸法分位差別故，知差別諦；善分別蘊、界、處故，知成立諦；覺身心苦惱故，知事諦；覺諸趣生相續故，知生諦；一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦；出生無二故，知入道智諦；正覺一切行相故，善知一切菩薩地次第相續成就，乃至如來智成就諦。以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知。
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩得如是諸諦智已，如實知一切有為法虛妄、詐偽、誑惑愚夫。菩薩爾時，於諸眾生轉增大悲，生大慈光明。佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩得如是智力，不捨一切眾生，常求佛智，如實觀一切有為行前際、後際。知從前際無明、有愛，故生生死流轉，於諸蘊宅不能動出，增長苦聚；無我、無壽者、無養育者、無更數取後趣身者，離我、我所。如前際，後際亦如是，皆無所有。虛妄、貪著，斷盡出離；若有若無，皆如實知。佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩復作是念：『此諸凡夫愚癡無智，甚為可愍。有無數身已滅、今滅、當滅，如是盡滅，不能於身而生厭想，轉更增長機關苦事，隨生死流不能還返，於諸蘊宅不求出離，不知憂畏四大毒蛇，不能拔出諸慢見箭，不能息滅貪、恚、癡火，不能破壞無明黑暗，不能乾竭愛欲大海，不求十力大聖導師；入魔意稠林，於生死海中，為覺觀波濤之所漂溺。』佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩復作是念：『此諸眾生受如是苦，孤窮困迫，無救無依，無洲無舍，無導無目，無明覆翳，黑暗纏裹。我今為彼一切眾生，修行福智助道之法，獨一發心，不求伴侶；以是功德，令諸眾生畢竟清淨，乃至獲得如來十力、無礙智慧。』佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩以如是智慧觀察所修善根，皆為救護一切眾生，利益一切眾生，安樂一切眾生，哀愍一切眾生，成就一切眾生，解脫一切眾生，攝受一切眾生；令一切眾生離諸苦惱，令一切眾生普得清淨，令一切眾生悉皆調伏，令一切眾生入般涅槃。
〔T10 0192〕
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩住此第五難勝地，名為：念者，不忘諸法故；名為：智者，能善決了故；名為：有趣者，知經意趣，次第連合故；名為：慚愧者，自護、護他故；名為：堅固者，不捨戒行故；名為：覺者，能觀是處、非處故；名為：隨智者，不隨於他故；名為：隨慧者，善知義、非義句差別故；名為：神通者，善修禪定故；名為：方便善巧者，能隨世行故；名為：無厭足者，善集福德故；名為：不休息者，常求智慧故；名為：不疲倦者，集大慈悲故；名為：為他勤修者，欲令一切眾生入涅槃故；名為：勤求不懈者，求如來力、無畏、不共法故；名為：發意能行者，成就莊嚴佛土故；名為：勤修種種善業者，能具足相好故；名為：常勤修習者，求莊嚴佛身、語、意故；名為：大尊重恭敬法者，於一切菩薩法師處如教而行故；名為：心無障礙者，以大方便常行世間故；名為：日夜遠離餘心者，常樂教化一切眾生故。
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩如是勤修行時，以布施教化眾生，以愛語、利行、同事教化眾生，示現色身教化眾生，演說諸法教化眾生，開示菩薩行教化眾生，顯示如來大威力教化眾生，示生死過患教化眾生，稱讚如來智慧利益教化眾生，現大神通力教化眾生，以種種方便行教化眾生。佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩能如是勤方便教化眾生，心恒相續，趣佛智慧；所作善根，無有退轉，常勤修學殊勝行法。
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩為利益眾生故，世間技藝靡不該習。所謂：文字、算數、圖書、印璽；地、水、火、風，種種諸論，咸所通達；又善方藥，療治諸病——顛狂、乾消、鬼魅、蠱毒，悉能除斷；文筆、讚詠、歌舞、妓樂、戲笑、談說，悉善其事；國城、村邑、宮宅、園苑、泉流、陂池、草樹、花藥，凡所布列，咸得其宜；金銀、摩尼、真珠、瑠璃、螺貝、璧玉、珊瑚等藏，悉知其處，出以示人；日月星宿、鳥鳴地震、夜夢吉凶，身相休咎，咸善觀察，一無錯謬；持戒入禪，神通無量，四無色等及餘一切世間之事，但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法。
「佛子！菩薩住是難勝地，以願力故，得見多佛。所謂：見多百佛，見多千佛，見多百千佛，乃至見多百千億那由他佛。悉恭敬尊重，承事供養，衣服、飲食、臥具、湯藥，一切資生悉以奉施，亦以供養一切眾僧，以此善根迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。於諸佛所，恭敬聽法，聞已受持，隨力修行。復於彼諸佛法中而得出家；既出家已，又更聞法，得陀羅尼，為聞持法師。住此地中，經於百劫，經於千劫，乃至無量百千億那由他劫，所有善根轉更明淨。佛子！譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩，轉更明淨；此地菩薩所有善根亦復如是，以方便慧思惟觀察，轉更明淨。佛子！菩薩住此難勝地，以方便智成就功德，下地善根所不能及。佛子！如日月星宿、宮殿光明，風力所持，不可沮壞，亦非餘風所能傾動；此地菩薩所有善根亦復如是，以方便智隨逐觀察，不可沮壞，亦非一切聲聞、獨覺世間善根所能傾動。此菩薩，十波羅蜜中，禪波羅蜜偏多；餘非不修，但隨力隨分。
「佛子！是名：略說菩薩摩訶薩第五難勝地。菩薩住此地，多作兜率陀天王，於諸眾生所作自在，摧伏一切外道邪見，能令眾生住實諦中。布施、愛語、利行、同事——如是一切諸所作業，皆不離念佛，不離念法，不離念僧，乃至不離念具足一切種、一切智智。復作是念：『我當於眾生中為首、為勝、為殊勝、為妙、為微妙、為上、為無上，乃至為一切智智依止者。』此菩薩若發勤精進，於一念頃，得千億三昧，見千億佛，知千億佛神力，能動千億佛世界，乃至示現千億身，一一身示千億菩薩以為眷屬；若以菩薩殊勝願力自在示現，過於此數，百劫、千劫乃至百千億那由他劫不能數知。」
爾時，金剛藏菩薩欲重宣其義而說頌曰：
「菩薩四地已清淨，思惟三世佛平等，
戒心除疑道非道，如是觀察入五地。
念處為弓根利箭，正勤為馬神足車，
五力堅鎧破怨敵，勇健不退入五地。
慚愧為衣覺分鬘，淨戒為香禪塗香，
〔T10 0193〕
智慧方便妙莊嚴，入總持林三昧苑。
如意為足正念頸，慈悲為眼智慧牙，
人中師子無我吼，破煩惱怨入五地。
菩薩住此第五地，轉修勝上清淨道，
志求佛法不退轉，思念慈悲無厭倦。
積集福智勝功德，精勤方便觀上地，
佛力所加具念慧，了知四諦皆如實。
善知世諦勝義諦，相諦差別成立諦，
事諦生盡及道諦，乃至如來無礙諦。
如是觀諦雖微妙，未得無礙勝解脫，
以此能生大功德，是故超過世智慧。
既觀諦已知有為，體性虛偽無堅實，
得佛慈愍光明分，為利眾生求佛智。
觀諸有為先後際，無明黑闇愛纏縛，
流轉遲迴苦聚中，無我無人無壽命。
愛取為因受來苦，欲求邊際不可得，
迷妄漂流無返期，此等可愍我應度。
蘊宅界蛇諸見箭，心火猛熾癡闇重，
愛河漂轉不暇觀，苦海淪湑闕明導。
如是知已勤精進，所作皆為度眾生，
名為有念有慧者，乃至覺解方便者。
習行福智無厭足，恭敬多聞不疲倦，
國土相好皆莊嚴，如是一切為眾生。
為欲教化諸世間，善知書數印等法，
亦復善解諸方藥，療治眾病悉令愈。
文詞歌舞皆巧妙，宮宅園池悉安隱，
寶藏非一咸示人，利益無量眾生故。
日月星宿地震動，乃至身相亦觀察，
四禪無色及神通，為益世間皆顯示。
智者住此難勝地，供那由佛亦聽法，
如以妙寶磨真金，所有善根轉明淨。
譬如星宿在虛空，風力所持無損動，
亦如蓮華不著水，如是大士行於世。
住此多作兜率王，能摧異道諸邪見，
所修諸善為佛智，願得十力救眾生。
彼復修行大精進，即時供養千億佛，
得定動剎亦復然，願力所作過於是。
如是第五難勝地，人中最上真實道，
我以種種方便力，為諸佛子宣說竟。」
〔卷37〕
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
讚請分：天眾供讚，解脫月請說第五地
菩薩們聽了這殊勝的地上之行，對法解悟，心中歡喜；空中降下花雨，讚歎說：『善哉，大士金剛藏！』自在天王與天眾聽了法，踴躍歡喜，住在虛空中，普遍放出種種微妙的光雲，供養如來，喜悅充滿周遍。天上的諸位采女奏起天樂，也用言辭歌詠讚佛；她們都是承菩薩的威神之力，才在那樂聲之中發出這樣的話語：
『佛的本願久遠，如今才圓滿；佛道久遠，如今才證得。釋迦文佛降臨天宮，這位利益天人的人，隔了很久才見到一次。大海久遠，如今才開始震動；佛的光明久遠，如今才放出。眾生久遠，如今才開始得安樂；大悲的音聲，隔了很久才聽聞。功德的彼岸都已到達，憍慢的黑闇都已滅除；最極清淨如同虛空，不被世法所染，猶如蓮華。大牟尼世尊出現於世間，就譬如須彌山湧出巨海。供養佛能盡除一切苦，供養佛必定得諸佛的智慧；這是應供之處而供養無有等者，所以我們歡心供養佛。』
像這樣無量的諸天女，發出這些言辭稱讚之後，一切人都恭敬，喜悅充滿，瞻仰如來，默然而住。這時大士解脫月菩薩，再一次請問無所畏懼的金剛藏菩薩：『第五地中的種種行相，唯願佛子為我們宣說！』
那時，金剛藏菩薩告訴解脫月菩薩說：
入地十心：以十種平等清淨心趣入
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩把第四地所行的道修得善為圓滿之後，想要進入第五難勝地，應當以十種平等清淨心（於一切法上平等而無偏、清淨而無染的心）趣向而入。哪十種呢？就是：對過去佛法的平等清淨心、對未來佛法的平等清淨心、對現在佛法的平等清淨心、戒的平等清淨心、心的平等清淨心、除去見與疑悔的平等清淨心、道與非道之智的平等清淨心、修行智見的平等清淨心、對一切菩提分法作上上觀察的平等清淨心、教化一切眾生的平等清淨心。菩薩摩訶薩以這十種平等清淨心，得以進入菩薩第五地。
十二因得不退轉心
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩安住這第五地之後：因為善修菩提分法的緣故，因為善淨深心的緣故，因為又轉而追求更上勝道的緣故，因為隨順真如的緣故，因為有願力所任持的緣故，因為對一切眾生慈愍而不捨棄的緣故，因為積集福德智慧這助道之資的緣故，因為精勤修習不止息的緣故，因為出生善巧方便的緣故，因為觀察照明上上諸地的緣故，因為蒙受如來護念的緣故，因為有念與智之力所任持的緣故——得到不退轉的心。
四諦與十諦：如實知一切諦
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩如實地知道：這是苦聖諦、這是苦集聖諦、這是苦滅聖諦、這是苦滅道聖諦；善知俗諦（世間共許之理），善知第一義諦（究竟真實之理），善知相諦，善知差別諦，善知成立諦，善知事諦，善知生諦，善知盡無生諦，善知入道智諦，善知一切菩薩地次第成就諦，乃至善知如來智成就諦。
十諦逐釋：一一諦所以知之故
「這位菩薩因為隨順眾生的心所愛樂而令他們歡喜的緣故，知道俗諦；因為通達一實之相的緣故，知道第一義諦；因為覺了諸法的自相與共相的緣故，知道相諦；因為明了諸法分位上的差別的緣故，知道差別諦；因為善能分別蘊、界、處的緣故，知道成立諦；因為覺知身心的苦惱的緣故，知道事諦；因為覺知諸趣受生相續不斷的緣故，知道生諦；因為一切熱惱畢竟寂滅的緣故，知道盡無生智諦；因為出生無二的緣故，知道入道智諦；因為正覺一切行相的緣故，善知一切菩薩地次第相續成就，乃至如來智成就諦。
諦智之量：以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知
「這些諦智，是以信解的智力去知，不是以究竟的智力去知（此地所知已深，然尚未到佛地究竟之量）。
有為虛妄，大悲增上
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩得到這樣的諸諦智之後，如實地知道：一切有為之法虛妄、詐偽，誑惑愚夫。菩薩這時對於一切眾生轉而更增大悲，生起大慈的光明。
前後際觀：無我、無壽者
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩得到這樣的智力，不捨棄一切眾生，常常尋求佛的智慧，如實觀察一切有為之行的前際（過去）與後際（未來）。他知道：從前際的無明與有愛，所以有生，於是生死流轉；在諸蘊的屋宅之中不能動出，只是增長苦聚。這裡面沒有我、沒有壽者、沒有養育者、沒有一再取受後世之身的人，離開我與我所。前際如此，後際也是如此，全都無所有；虛妄而貪著，若能斷盡便得出離；有也好、無也好，都如實知道。
悲愍凡夫（一）：身已滅、今滅、當滅而不生厭想
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩又這樣想：『這些凡夫愚癡沒有智慧，實在可憐愍。他們有無數的身，已經滅了的、現在滅的、將要滅的，像這樣滅盡了，卻仍不能對這個身生起厭離之想，反而轉更增長那機關般轉動不停的苦事；隨著生死之流而不能還返，在諸蘊的屋宅裡不求出離；不知道憂懼四大這四條毒蛇，不能拔出種種慢與見之箭，不能息滅貪、瞋、癡的火，不能破壞無明的黑暗，不能乾竭愛欲的大海，不去尋求具十力的大聖導師；一入魔意的稠林，就在生死海中被覺與觀的波濤所漂溺。』
悲愍凡夫（二）：孤窮無依，我獨一發心
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩又這樣想：『這些眾生受這樣的苦，孤獨窮迫，沒有救者、沒有依者，沒有洲渚可上、沒有屋舍可歸，沒有引導者、沒有眼目，被無明所覆蔽，被黑暗所纏裹。我如今為那一切眾生，修行福德智慧這助道之法，獨自一人發起此心，不求伴侶；以這樣的功德，令一切眾生畢竟清淨，乃至獲得如來的十力與無礙的智慧。』
迴向：所修善根皆為眾生
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩以這樣的智慧觀察自己所修的善根：全都是為了救護一切眾生，利益一切眾生，安樂一切眾生，哀愍一切眾生，成就一切眾生，解脫一切眾生，攝受一切眾生；令一切眾生離開種種苦惱，令一切眾生普遍得到清淨，令一切眾生全都調伏，令一切眾生入於般涅槃。
住此地者的名號：二十一種名
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩安住這第五難勝地，名為『念者』，因為不忘失諸法的緣故；名為『智者』，因為能夠善巧決斷明了的緣故；名為『有趣者』，因為知道經的意趣、能次第連貫接合的緣故；名為『慚愧者』，因為自護也護他的緣故；名為『堅固者』，因為不捨棄戒行的緣故；名為『覺者』，因為能觀察何者是處、何者非處的緣故；名為『隨智者』，因為隨自智而不隨他人的緣故；名為『隨慧者』，因為善知有義之句與無義之句的差別的緣故；名為『神通者』，因為善修禪定的緣故；名為『方便善巧者』，因為能隨世間而行的緣故；名為『無厭足者』，因為善於積集福德的緣故；名為『不休息者』，因為常求智慧的緣故；名為『不疲倦者』，因為積集大慈悲的緣故；名為『為他勤修者』，因為想令一切眾生入涅槃的緣故；名為『勤求不懈者』，因為求如來的力、無畏、不共法的緣故；名為『發意能行者』，因為成就莊嚴佛土的緣故；名為『勤修種種善業者』，因為能具足相好的緣故；名為『常勤修習者』，因為求莊嚴佛的身、語、意的緣故；名為『大尊重恭敬法者』，因為在一切菩薩法師之處都依教而行的緣故；名為『心無障礙者』，因為以大方便常行於世間的緣故；名為『日夜遠離餘心者』，因為常樂於教化一切眾生的緣故。
十種教化眾生之行
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩這樣勤加修行的時候，以布施教化眾生，以愛語、利行、同事教化眾生，示現色身教化眾生，演說諸法教化眾生，開示菩薩之行教化眾生，顯示如來的大威力教化眾生，開示生死的過患教化眾生，稱讚如來智慧的利益教化眾生，現大神通之力教化眾生，以種種方便之行教化眾生。佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩能像這樣勤以方便教化眾生，心恆相續，趣向佛的智慧；所作的善根沒有退轉，常勤修學殊勝的行法。
世間技藝：五明無不該習
「佛子！這位菩薩摩訶薩為了利益眾生的緣故，世間的技藝無不兼習。就是：文字、算數、圖書、印璽；地、水、火、風等種種諸論，全都通達；又善於方藥，療治諸病——顛狂、乾消（形體枯瘦之病）、鬼魅、蠱毒，都能除斷；文筆、讚詠、歌舞、妓樂、戲笑、談說，都善其事；國城、村邑、宮宅、園苑、泉流、陂池、草樹、花藥，凡所布置排列，都能得其所宜；金、銀、摩尼、真珠、瑠璃、螺貝、璧玉、珊瑚等寶藏，都知道它們的所在，取出來示人；日月星宿、鳥鳴、地震、夜夢的吉凶、身相的休咎，都善於觀察，一無錯謬；持戒、入禪，神通無量，四無色定等以及其餘一切世間之事——但都以不損惱眾生為限，為利益眾生的緣故全都開示，漸漸令他們安住於無上佛法。
見多佛·出家聞法·久修善根
「佛子！菩薩安住這難勝地，以願力的緣故，得見許多佛。就是：見許多百佛，見許多千佛，見許多百千佛，乃至見許多百千億那由他佛。他都恭敬尊重，承事供養；衣服、飲食、臥具、湯藥，一切資生之物全都奉施，也用來供養一切僧眾，以這善根迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。在諸佛之處恭敬聽法，聽了就受持，隨自己的力量修行。又在那些佛的法中而得出家；出家之後，又更聽法，得陀羅尼，成為聞持法師（聞而能持不忘的法師）。安住此地之中，經過百劫，經過千劫，乃至無量百千億那由他劫，所有的善根轉更明淨。
二喻：真金硨磲磨瑩·風持日月宮殿；禪度偏多
「佛子！譬如真金，用硨磲去磨瑩它，會轉更明淨；此地菩薩所有的善根也是這樣，以方便慧思惟觀察，轉更明淨。佛子！菩薩安住這難勝地，以方便智成就功德，是下地的善根所不能及的。佛子！又如日月星宿的宮殿光明，被風力所任持，不可沮壞，也不是其餘的風所能傾動的；此地菩薩所有的善根也是這樣，以方便智隨逐觀察，不可沮壞，也不是一切聲聞、獨覺與世間的善根所能傾動。這位菩薩，在十波羅蜜之中，禪波羅蜜偏多；其餘並非不修，只是隨力隨分而已。
結名·兜率天王果·一念頃千億
「佛子！以上名為略說菩薩摩訶薩的第五難勝地。菩薩安住此地，多作兜率陀天王，對眾生所作自在，摧伏一切外道邪見，能令眾生安住於真實之諦中。布施、愛語、利行、同事——像這樣一切所作之業，都不離念佛，不離念法，不離念僧，乃至不離念具足一切種、一切智智。他又這樣想：『我應當在眾生之中為首、為勝、為殊勝、為妙、為微妙、為上、為無上，乃至作一切智智的依止者。』這位菩薩如果發起勤精進，在一念之頃，得千億三昧，見千億佛，知千億佛的神力，能震動千億佛世界，乃至示現千億身，一一身示現千億菩薩作為眷屬；如果以菩薩殊勝的願力自在示現，那就超過此數，百劫、千劫乃至百千億那由他劫也數不能知。
重頌
那時，金剛藏菩薩想要重新宣說這義理而說偈頌：
「菩薩把第四地修得清淨了，思惟三世諸佛之法平等，戒、心、除疑、道與非道——這樣觀察而入第五地。（頌十平等心）
「以四念處為弓、五根為利箭，以四正勤為馬、四神足為車，以五力為堅固之鎧破除怨敵——勇健不退而入第五地。（頌菩提分法）
「以慚愧為衣、覺分為華鬘，以淨戒為香、禪定為塗香，以智慧方便作微妙的莊嚴，入於總持之林、三昧之苑。（頌莊嚴）
「以四如意足為足、正念為頸，以慈悲為眼、智慧為牙——人中的師子作無我之吼，破煩惱之怨而入第五地。（頌師子喻）
「菩薩安住這第五地，轉修更上的清淨之道，志求佛法而不退轉，思念慈悲而無厭倦。（頌住地）
「積集福德智慧的殊勝功德，精勤方便觀察上地，蒙佛力所加而具足念與慧，了知四諦全都如實。（頌不退轉因）
「善知世諦與勝義諦，相諦、差別諦、成立諦，事諦、生諦、盡諦與道諦，乃至如來無礙之諦。（頌十諦）
「這樣觀諦雖然微妙，卻還未得無礙的殊勝解脫；以此能生大功德，所以超過世間的智慧。（頌諦智之量）
「既已觀諦，便知有為之法體性虛偽、沒有堅實；得佛慈愍光明的一分，為利眾生而求佛智。（頌有為虛妄）
「觀察諸有為的先際後際：無明的黑闇、愛的纏縛，流轉遲迴在苦聚之中，無我、無人、無壽命。（頌前後際觀）
「以愛取為因而受未來的苦，想尋求它的邊際卻不可得；迷妄漂流沒有返回之期——這些人可憐愍，我應當度他們。（頌悲愍）
「蘊的屋宅、界之蛇、諸見之箭，心火猛熾、癡闇深重，愛河漂轉而無暇觀察，苦海沉淪而缺少明導。（頌諸喻）
「這樣知道了便勤加精進，所作的一切都是為度眾生；名為有念者、有慧者，乃至覺者、解者、方便者。（頌二十一名）
「習行福智而無厭足，恭敬多聞而不疲倦，國土與相好都加以莊嚴——這一切都是為了眾生。（頌修行勝）
「為了教化諸世間，善知書、數、印等法，也善解種種方藥，療治眾病都令痊癒。（頌五明之一二）
「文詞歌舞都巧妙，宮宅園池都安穩，寶藏非只一種而都示人，為利益無量眾生的緣故。（頌五明之三四）
「日月星宿、地的震動，乃至身相也都觀察，四禪、無色定以及神通，為利益世間而全都顯示。（頌五明之五）
「智者安住這難勝地，供養那由他數的佛，也聽受其法；就像用妙寶磨瑩真金，所有的善根轉更明淨。（頌見佛久修·真金喻）
「譬如星宿在虛空中，被風力所持而無所損動；也如蓮華不著於水——這樣的大士行於世間。（頌二喻）
「安住此地多作兜率天王，能摧伏異道的諸邪見；所修的諸善都是為了佛智，願得十力以救眾生。（頌果報）
「他若又修行大精進，即時供養千億佛，得定、動剎也是如此；以願力所作的還超過於此。（頌一念頃千億）
「像這樣的第五難勝地，是人中最上的真實之道；我以種種方便之力，為諸佛子宣說完畢。（結說）
Praise and Request: The Host of Gods Makes Offerings and Praises, and Vimukticandra Asks That the Fifth Ground Be Expounded
The bodhisattvas, having heard of this surpassing practice upon the grounds, understood and awoke to the Dharma and were glad at heart; and from the sky there fell a rain of flowers, and there was praise, saying: ‘Well done, great being Vajragarbha!’ The Sovereign Heaven King and the host of gods, having heard the Dharma, leapt up in gladness and stood in the open sky, and sent forth everywhere clouds of light of every wondrous kind as an offering to the Tathāgata, delight filling them and reaching through them all. The heavenly maidens above struck up the music of the gods, and with words too they sang the Buddha’s praise; and it was because they were carried by the bodhisattva’s awesome spiritual power that they sent forth, amid that music, words such as these:
‘The Buddha’s original vow was long ago, and only now is it fulfilled; the Buddha’s path was long ago, and only now is it gained. Śākyamuni the Buddha has come down to the heavenly palace — this one who benefits gods and humans is seen only after a long while. The great sea was long ago, and only now does it begin to shake; the Buddha’s light was long ago, and only now is it sent forth. Sentient beings were long ago, and only now do they begin to be at ease; the sound of great compassion is heard only after a long while. The far shore of merit has all been reached, and the black darkness of arrogance has all been extinguished; utterly pure like open space, unstained by worldly dharmas as a lotus is unstained. The Great Sage, the World-Honored One, has appeared in the world, just as Mount Sumeru wells up out of the vast sea. To make offerings to the Buddha can exhaust all suffering; to make offerings to the Buddha assuredly gains the wisdom of the buddhas. This is a field worthy of offerings, and to make offerings here has no equal, and therefore with glad hearts we make our offering to the Buddha.’
Immeasurable goddesses such as these, having sent forth these words of praise, and everyone being reverent, delight filling them, gazed up at the Tathāgata and stood silent. Then the great being, the bodhisattva Vimukticandra, once again asked the fearless bodhisattva Vajragarbha: ‘The several aspects of practice within the fifth ground — may the son of the Buddha declare them for us!’
At that time the bodhisattva Vajragarbha told the bodhisattva Vimukticandra:
The Ten Minds for Entering the Ground: One Enters by the Ten Kinds of Equal and Pure Mind
Sons of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva has well brought to fullness the path practiced on the fourth ground and wishes to enter the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer (sudurjayā), he should turn toward it and enter by the ten kinds of equal and pure mind (minds that, with respect to all dharmas, are equal and without partiality, pure and unstained). Which ten? They are these: the equal and pure mind regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the past, the equal and pure mind regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the future, the equal and pure mind regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the present, the equal and pure mind of discipline, the equal and pure mind of mind itself, the equal and pure mind that removes views and doubt and regret, the equal and pure mind of the wisdom of what is the path and what is not the path, the equal and pure mind of the knowing and seeing of practice, the equal and pure mind that makes an ever higher observation of all the factors of awakening, and the equal and pure mind that teaches and transforms all sentient beings. It is by these ten kinds of equal and pure mind that a bodhisattva-mahāsattva gains entry to the fifth bodhisattva ground.
The Twelve Causes by Which the Mind of Non-Retrogression Is Gained
Sons of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides on this fifth ground: because he well cultivates the factors of awakening, because he well purifies the deep mind, because he turns again to seek the higher and more surpassing path, because he accords with suchness, because he is upheld by the power of his vow, because toward all sentient beings he is kindly and pitying and does not forsake them, because he amasses merit and wisdom, the provisions that aid the path, because he is diligent in cultivation and does not rest, because he brings forth skillful means, because he observes and illumines the ever higher grounds, because he is received and kept in mind by the Tathāgata, and because he is upheld by the power of mindfulness and wisdom — he gains the mind that does not turn back.
The Four Truths and the Ten Truths: He Knows All the Truths as They Really Are
Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva knows as it really is: this is the noble truth of suffering, this is the noble truth of the origination of suffering, this is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, this is the noble truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering; he knows well the truth of the conventional (what the world holds in common), he knows well the truth of the supreme meaning (what is ultimately real), he knows well the truth of characteristics, he knows well the truth of distinctions, he knows well the truth of establishment, he knows well the truth of the actual, he knows well the truth of arising, he knows well the truth of exhaustion and non-arising, he knows well the truth of the wisdom that enters the path, he knows well the truth of the accomplishing in due order of all the bodhisattva grounds, on up to knowing well the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata.
The Ten Truths Explained One by One: Why Each Truth Is Known
Because this bodhisattva accords with what the minds of sentient beings delight in and thereby makes them glad, he knows the truth of the conventional; because he penetrates the one real characteristic, he knows the truth of the supreme meaning; because he is aware of the own-characteristic and the shared characteristic of dharmas, he knows the truth of characteristics; because he understands clearly the distinctions among the positions of dharmas, he knows the truth of distinctions; because he is well able to discriminate the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases, he knows the truth of establishment; because he is aware of the suffering and distress of body and mind, he knows the truth of the actual; because he is aware that birth in the destinies continues on unbroken, he knows the truth of arising; because all burning distress is finally at rest and extinguished, he knows the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising; because there issues forth non-duality, he knows the truth of the wisdom that enters the path; and because he rightly awakens to all the aspects of practice, he knows well the accomplishing in due order and unbroken continuity of all the bodhisattva grounds, on up to the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata.
The Measure of the Wisdom of the Truths: Known by the Power of the Wisdom of Faith and Understanding, Not by the Power of Ultimate Wisdom
These wisdoms of the truths are known by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding; they are not known by the power of ultimate wisdom (what is known on this ground is already deep, yet it has not reached the ultimate measure of the ground of buddhahood).
The Conditioned Is False, and Great Compassion Increases
Sons of the Buddha! When this bodhisattva-mahāsattva has gained these wisdoms of the truths, he knows as it really is that all conditioned dharmas are false and deceiving, and that they delude and beguile the foolish. At this the bodhisattva turns to increase great compassion toward all sentient beings, and gives rise to the light of great loving-kindness.
The Contemplation of the Prior and Later Limits: No Self, No One Who Lives
Sons of the Buddha! When this bodhisattva-mahāsattva has gained a power of wisdom such as this, he does not forsake any sentient being, constantly seeks the Buddha’s wisdom, and observes as it really is the prior limit (the past) and the later limit (the future) of all conditioned practices. He knows: from the ignorance and the craving for existence of the prior limit there is birth, and thereupon the flowing on of birth-and-death; within the houses of the aggregates they cannot stir and get out, and only heap up the mass of suffering. Within this there is no self, no one who lives, no one who is nourished and grows, no one who again and again takes up a body in a later destiny; it is apart from self and from what belongs to self. As the prior limit is, so too is the later limit, and both are altogether without anything at all; there is falsity, and there is greedy clinging, and if these can be exhausted there is release; whether it be existence or non-existence, he knows both as they really are.
Compassion for Ordinary Persons (1): Bodies Already Perished, Now Perishing, and Yet to Perish, and Still No Thought of Weariness Arises
Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva thinks further in this way: ‘These ordinary persons are foolish and without wisdom, and are truly to be pitied. They have bodies beyond number, already perished, now perishing, and yet to perish; and though they perish thus utterly, still they are unable to give rise to a thought of weariness toward this body, but rather turn to increase those affairs of suffering that revolve like a contrivance and cannot be stopped; they follow the current of birth-and-death and cannot turn back, and within the houses of the aggregates they do not seek release; they do not know to be anxious and afraid of the four great elements, those four poisonous snakes; they are unable to draw out the arrows of the several conceits and views; they are unable to quench the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion; they are unable to break up the black darkness of ignorance; they are unable to dry up the great sea of craving and desire; and they do not seek out the great sagely guide who possesses the ten powers. Having once entered the dense thicket of Māra’s mind, they are swept away and drowned, in the sea of birth-and-death, by the waves and billows of thought and examination.’
Compassion for Ordinary Persons (2): Destitute and Unsupported, and I Alone Raise This Mind
Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva thinks further in this way: ‘These sentient beings undergo suffering such as this, alone and destitute and hard pressed, with none to save them and none to support them, with no island to climb upon and no house to return to, with none to guide them and no eyes of their own, covered over by ignorance and wrapped about by darkness. I now, for the sake of all those sentient beings, cultivate the dharmas of merit and wisdom that aid the path; alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions; and by merit such as this I shall bring all sentient beings to a purity that is final, on up to their gaining the Tathāgata’s ten powers and unobstructed wisdom.’
Dedication: All the Roots of Goodness He Cultivates Are for Sentient Beings
Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva, observing with wisdom such as this the roots of goodness he himself has cultivated, sees that they are all of them in order to rescue and protect all sentient beings, to benefit all sentient beings, to bring all sentient beings ease, to have pity on all sentient beings, to bring all sentient beings to accomplishment, to liberate all sentient beings, and to gather in all sentient beings; to make all sentient beings depart from every suffering and distress, to make all sentient beings universally attain purity, to make all sentient beings be tamed one and all, and to make all sentient beings enter parinirvāṇa.
The Names of One Who Dwells on This Ground: Twenty-One Names
Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva who abides on this fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, is named ‘one who is mindful’, because he does not forget the dharmas; named ‘one who is wise’, because he is able to decide and understand skillfully; named ‘one who has the drift of it’, because he knows the intent of the scriptures and can join them together in due order; named ‘one who has shame and conscience’, because he guards himself and guards others as well; named ‘one who is firm’, because he does not forsake the practice of discipline; named ‘one who is aware’, because he is able to observe what is possible and what is not possible; named ‘one who follows wisdom’, because he follows his own wisdom and does not follow others; named ‘one who follows insight’, because he knows well the difference between a phrase that has meaning and a phrase that has none; named ‘one who has supernormal powers’, because he cultivates meditation well; named ‘one skilled in means’, because he is able to act in accordance with the world; named ‘one who is never satiated’, because he is good at amassing merit; named ‘one who does not rest’, because he constantly seeks wisdom; named ‘one who does not tire’, because he amasses great loving-kindness and compassion; named ‘one who cultivates diligently for others’, because he wishes to bring all sentient beings into nirvāṇa; named ‘one who seeks diligently and does not slacken’, because he seeks the Tathāgata’s powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive dharmas; named ‘one who raises the intent and is able to practice’, because he accomplishes the adorning of a buddha-land; named ‘one who diligently cultivates every sort of good deed’, because he is able to complete the marks and signs; named ‘one who is constantly diligent in cultivation’, because he seeks to adorn the body, speech, and mind of a buddha; named ‘one who greatly honors and reveres the Dharma’, because in the presence of every bodhisattva Dharma master he practices according to the teaching; named ‘one whose mind is without obstruction’, because with great skillful means he constantly acts within the world; and named ‘one who day and night keeps far from other thoughts’, because he constantly delights in teaching and transforming all sentient beings.
The Ten Practices of Teaching and Transforming Sentient Beings
Sons of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva cultivates with such diligence as this, he teaches and transforms sentient beings by giving; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by kindly speech, by conduct that benefits, and by the sharing of tasks; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by displaying a bodily form; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by expounding the dharmas; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by opening up the bodhisattva’s practice; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by showing the Tathāgata’s great and awesome power; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by opening up the faults and troubles of birth-and-death; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by praising the benefit of the Tathāgata’s wisdom; he teaches and transforms sentient beings by manifesting the power of great supernormal transformation; and he teaches and transforms sentient beings by practices of every sort of skillful means. Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva, being able thus diligently to teach and transform sentient beings by skillful means, keeps his mind unbroken and continuous, turning toward the Buddha’s wisdom; the roots of goodness he brings about do not turn back, and he constantly and diligently cultivates and studies the surpassing dharmas of practice.
The Worldly Arts: Of the Five Sciences There Is Not One He Does Not Take Up
Sons of the Buddha! This bodhisattva-mahāsattva, for the sake of benefiting sentient beings, of the arts of the world takes up and practices them all together. That is: letters, reckoning, charts, and seals; the several treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind, all of which he penetrates; and further he is skilled in medicines and in the treating of illnesses — madness, wasting disease (an illness in which the body withers and grows thin), possession by sprites, and poisoning by venom, all of which he is able to cut off; composition and writing, praise and chanting, song and dance, entertainment and music, jesting and conversation, in all of which he is skilled; walled cities and villages, palaces and dwellings, gardens and parks, springs and streams, ponds and pools, grasses and trees, flowers and herbs — in whatever is laid out and arranged he is able to hit upon what is fitting; gold, silver, maṇi, pearls, lapis lazuli, conch, jade, coral, and the other hoards of treasure — he knows where they all lie, and takes them out and shows them to others; the sun, the moon, and the constellations, the cries of birds, the shaking of the earth, the good or ill omen of a dream at night, the fair or foul in the marks of a body — all these he observes well, and in not one is he mistaken; keeping the discipline, entering meditation, immeasurable supernormal powers, the four formless concentrations, and every other worldly matter besides — yet all with this for a limit, that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings; and for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth, gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma.
Seeing Many Buddhas · Going Forth and Hearing the Dharma · Long Cultivation of the Roots of Goodness
Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Hard-to-Conquer Ground, by the power of his vow, gains sight of many buddhas. That is: he sees many hundreds of buddhas, sees many thousands of buddhas, sees many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, on up to seeing many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas. To them all he is reverent and respectful, attending upon them and making them offerings; robes and food, bedding and medicines, all the requisites of life he presents to them, and he makes offerings as well to the whole assembly of monks, and with these roots of goodness he dedicates and directs them toward unsurpassed perfect awakening. In the presence of the buddhas he reverently listens to the Dharma, and having heard it he upholds it and practices according to his own strength. And within the Dharma of those buddhas he gains the going forth; and having gone forth he hears the Dharma yet more, gains dhāraṇī, and becomes a Dharma master of hearing and retention (a Dharma master who hears and is able to retain without forgetting). Abiding upon this ground, through a hundred kalpas, through a thousand kalpas, on up to immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn brighter and purer still.
Two Similes: True Gold Polished with a Giant-Clam Gem · The Wind That Upholds the Palaces of the Sun and the Moon; and the Preponderance of the Perfection of Meditation
Sons of the Buddha! It is as when true gold is polished with a giant-clam gem and turns brighter and purer still; so it is with all the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground: pondered and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, they turn brighter and purer still. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on this Hard-to-Conquer Ground accomplishes merit by the wisdom of skillful means, and the roots of goodness of the lower grounds cannot come up to it. Sons of the Buddha! And it is as when the radiance of the palaces of the sun, the moon, and the constellations is upheld by the power of the wind and cannot be spoiled, and no other wind is able to tilt or stir it; so it is with all the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground: followed out and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, they cannot be spoiled, and the roots of goodness of any śrāvaka, of any pratyekabuddha, or of the world are unable to tilt or stir them. In this bodhisattva, among the ten perfections, the perfection of meditation preponderates; the rest are not uncultivated, only that they follow his strength and follow his portion.
The Concluding Name · The Fruit of Being a King of the Tuṣita Heaven · A Thousand Koṭis in a Single Moment of Thought
Sons of the Buddha! What has been said above is called a summary account of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s fifth ground, Hard to Conquer. A bodhisattva abiding on this ground mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, is masterful in what he does for sentient beings, crushes all the wrong views of the outer paths, and is able to bring sentient beings to abide within the truth of the real. Giving, kindly speech, conduct that benefits, the sharing of tasks — in all the deeds he does such as these he does not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, does not depart from keeping the Dharma in mind, does not depart from keeping the Saṅgha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the possessing in full of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience. And he thinks further in this way: ‘Among sentient beings I ought to be the foremost, the excellent, the surpassing, the wondrous, the exceedingly wondrous, the higher, the unsurpassed, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience.’ If this bodhisattva raises up diligent vigor, then in a single moment of thought he gains a thousand koṭis of samādhis, sees a thousand koṭis of buddhas, knows the spiritual power of a thousand koṭis of buddhas, is able to shake a thousand koṭis of buddha-worlds, on up to displaying a thousand koṭis of bodies, and in each single body displaying a thousand koṭis of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if by the surpassing power of a bodhisattva’s vow he displays them masterfully, then it goes beyond this number, and in a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas one could not reckon and know it.
The Verses in Repetition
At that time the bodhisattva Vajragarbha, wishing to declare this meaning over again, spoke in verse:
The bodhisattva has cultivated the fourth ground until it is pure; he ponders the equality of the dharmas of the buddhas of the three times, and discipline, mind, the removal of doubt, and what is the path and what is not — observing thus, he enters the fifth ground. (Repeating the ten equal minds)
With the four stations of mindfulness for a bow and the five faculties for sharp arrows, with right exertion for a horse and the four bases of supernormal power for a chariot, with the five powers for firm armor to break the foe — valiant and not turning back, he enters the fifth ground. (Repeating the factors of awakening)
With shame and conscience for a robe and the factors of awakening for a garland, with pure discipline for incense and meditation for perfumed unguent, with wisdom and skillful means for a wondrous adornment, he enters the grove of total retention and the park of samādhi. (Repeating the adornments)
With the four bases of accord with wish for feet and right mindfulness for a neck, with loving-kindness and compassion for eyes and wisdom for fangs — the lion among men roars the roar of no-self, breaks the foe that is the afflictions, and enters the fifth ground. (Repeating the simile of the lion)
The bodhisattva abiding on this fifth ground turns to cultivate a yet higher and purer path; he sets his will upon the Buddha-Dharma and does not turn back, and he thinks of loving-kindness and compassion without wearying. (Repeating the abiding on the ground)
Amassing the surpassing merit of merit and wisdom, diligent in skillful means, he observes the higher grounds; upheld by the Buddha’s power he is complete in mindfulness and insight, and knows the four truths all as they really are. (Repeating the causes of non-retrogression)
He knows well the truth of the world and the truth of the supreme meaning, the truth of characteristics, the truth of distinctions, the truth of establishment, the truth of the actual, the truth of arising, the truth of exhaustion, and the truth of the path, on up to the unobstructed truth of the Tathāgata. (Repeating the ten truths)
Observing the truths in this way, though it be wondrous, he has not yet gained the unobstructed and surpassing liberation; yet by this he is able to bring forth great merit, and therefore he goes beyond the wisdom of the world. (Repeating the measure of the wisdom of the truths)
Having observed the truths, he knows that conditioned dharmas are false in their very nature and have no solidity; he gains a portion of the light of the Buddha’s kindness and pity, and for the benefit of beings he seeks the Buddha’s wisdom. (Repeating the falsity of the conditioned)
He observes the prior and later limits of all that is conditioned: the black darkness of ignorance and the bondage of craving, flowing on and lingering within the mass of suffering, with no self, no person, and no life-span. (Repeating the contemplation of the prior and later limits)
With craving and grasping for cause they undergo the suffering to come; one would seek its farther limit and cannot find it; deluded and adrift, with no season of returning — these are to be pitied, and I ought to deliver them. (Repeating the compassion)
The house of the aggregates, the snakes of the elements, the arrows of the views; the fire of the mind fiercely blazing and the darkness of delusion deep; the river of craving sweeping them along with no leisure to observe; sunk in the sea of suffering and lacking a bright guide. (Repeating the several similes)
Knowing this, he grows diligent and vigorous, and all that he does is for the deliverance of sentient beings; he is named one who is mindful and one who has insight, on up to one who is aware, one who understands, and one who is skilled in means. (Repeating the twenty-one names)
Practicing merit and wisdom without being satiated, reverent and widely learned without tiring, adorning both the land and the marks and signs — all of this is for the sake of sentient beings. (Repeating the excellence of his cultivation)
In order to teach and transform the several worlds, he knows well the dharmas of writing, reckoning, seals, and the like, and understands well the several medicines, treating the many illnesses and bringing them all to health. (Repeating the first and second of the five sciences)
In composition and song and dance he is skilled, and in palaces and dwellings, gardens and pools, all is secure; the hoards of treasure are not of one kind alone, and he shows them all to others, for the sake of benefiting immeasurable sentient beings. (Repeating the third and fourth of the five sciences)
The sun, the moon, and the constellations, the shaking of the earth, on up to the marks of a body, he observes them all; the four meditations, the formless concentrations, and the supernormal powers, for the benefit of the world he displays them all. (Repeating the fifth of the five sciences)
The wise one abiding on this Hard-to-Conquer Ground makes offerings to nayutas of buddhas and hears their Dharma as well; just as true gold is polished with a wondrous gem, so all his roots of goodness turn brighter and purer still. (Repeating the seeing of buddhas and the long cultivation · the simile of true gold)
It is as when the constellations stand in open space, upheld by the power of the wind and suffering no harm or stirring; and as the lotus does not cling to the water — such is the great being who walks within the world. (Repeating the two similes)
Abiding on this ground he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, and is able to crush the several wrong views of the divergent paths; all the goodness he cultivates is for the Buddha’s wisdom, and his vow is to gain the ten powers so as to rescue sentient beings. (Repeating the fruit of recompense)
If he cultivates further with great vigor, then at once he makes offerings to a thousand koṭis of buddhas; his gaining of concentrations and his shaking of lands are likewise so; and what he brings about by the power of his vow goes beyond even this. (Repeating the thousand koṭis in a single moment of thought)
Such is the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, the true path that is highest among men; with every sort of power of skillful means, I have finished declaring it for the sons of the Buddha. (Concluding the exposition)
難在哪裡：兩種智，合此難合
一個修到第四地的人，已經得了出世之智。出世智看得破，看破之後最自然的去向，是不想再回來——生死是苦，涅槃是安，趣安捨苦，順理成章。第五地要處理的，正是這個『順理成章』。
地名叫「難勝」，難的是什麼？澄觀不自立新說，他把古德諸家的釋名一一列出而後總收，說這些說法「言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙」。其中最直截的一句，是他所引《攝大乘》之語——真諦智與世間智「更互相違，合此難合令相應故」。世親釋得更細：真諦智是無分別的，世間工巧等智是有分別的，這兩種智體性相違，卻要修到令它們相合。難勝之難，難在這裡：不是難在破煩惱，是難在一個已經能無分別的人，要重新學會有分別地做事，而且兩邊都不打折。
所以這一地的經文才會出現一個奇特的並列：前半段講「如實知此是苦聖諦」，一路講到十諦；後半段講「世間技藝靡不該習」，講文字算數、醫方星曆、歌舞園池。讀者初看會覺得跳躍——證諦之人為何要學這些？其實這正是難勝地的地體：真俗兩輪，同轉不偏。澄觀說此地所斷者是「下乘般涅槃障」，所證者是「類無差別真如」——斷的不是粗煩惱，是那份『厭生死、欣涅槃』的偏；證的不是別種真理，是生死與涅槃平等無差別的那個真如。
一開頭的請法也要看清楚說者。這一地無如來加持、無金剛藏默然之科，只有解脫月菩薩一句請問：「第五地中諸行相，唯願佛子為宣說！」——問的是「行相」，不是問果德。此下長行與重頌，全部出於金剛藏菩薩一人之口，「佛子」是他對在座菩薩眾的呼告。讀時心裡要有這條線：這是一位已入地的菩薩，向未入者說他自己走過的路。
十種平等清淨心：入地的那一道門
經文說入第五地要「當以十種平等清淨心趣入」。先問一句：為什麼是「平等」？如果第四地已得出世智，還缺什麼？缺的正是『不把這個智當寶貝』。澄觀依論指出，此地所治名為「勝慢」，並且分兩種：「一他地慢，謂四地中得出世智，取其勝相名為勝慢」——把前地所得看成殊勝之相而生高舉，這是他地慢；於這十種淨心上再希求勝相，是自地慢。十心之所以叫「平等」，正是因為它專治這個「取勝相」。
十心的排法是有次第的。前三是對過去佛法、未來佛法、現在佛法的平等清淨心——澄觀科為「初三明諸佛法」，指的是佛果位上的力等功德。三世諸佛所證之法無二無別，若於此起先後高下之見，心就不平等了。這三心先立，是把眼睛先放到最高處：所要成的，是與三世諸佛同一之法。
第四、第五是戒平等清淨心、心平等清淨心。這是把眼睛收回到自身：戒行上不因人不因時而有兩套，心地上不因順逆而有兩幅。澄觀於後七心中判「前中合為三學，初戒、次定、餘四慧故」——第四是戒學，第五是定學，其下四心屬慧學。所以讀十心不是讀十件散事，是讀一套戒定慧的完整編制。
第六是「除見疑悔平等清淨心」，第七是「道非道智平等清淨心」。見與疑悔並為一句，是把身見、疑、戒禁取這一組見道所斷之惑合說；道非道之智，則是判別何者是道、何者不是道的能力。澄觀離為七淨時說「一戒淨；二定淨；三見淨；四度疑淨」，並指出經文把見與疑合為一句是為了成十之數。要緊的是：一個人若對『什麼是道』還搖擺，他的平等只是含糊，不是平等。
第八「修行智見平等清淨心」、第九「於一切菩提分法上上觀察平等清淨心」。八講行上的知見，九講對菩提分法作「上上觀察」——不是修過一遍就算，是在已修之上再觀察、再轉勝。這裡最容易誤讀成「不滿足」的情緒；其實它是慧的推進：所知愈深，愈知未盡。
第十「教化一切眾生平等清淨心」。前九自利，此一利他。澄觀科此七心為「後七明隨順諸佛法」，而於中「前六自利、後一利他」。放在最後不是最輕，是最後收口：前九所淨的心，若不落到眾生身上，平等就只是自賞。
十心齊備，經文自下判語：「菩薩摩訶薩以此十種平等清淨心，得入菩薩第五地。」——入地不是感應，是這十心修足之後的自然結果。
十二個「故」：不退轉心從哪裡來
入地之後第一句話是講「不退轉心」，而經文給它十二個理由，每一句都以「故」收尾。這種寫法要讀出它的用意：不退不是誓願，是條件具足後的狀態。
十二因可分三層看（世親《十地經論》科為「總中四句」與「隨順如道行有八種」，即四＋八）。第一層是承前：「以善修菩提分法故」——第四地所修的三十七菩提分是底子；「善淨深心故」——十平等心把深心洗淨了。第二層是推進：「復轉求上勝道故」「隨順真如故」——一邊向上求，一邊隨順真如而不離平等；澄觀於此指出，前二句是所治（即在淨心上起希求勝相之慢），後二句正是能治，「不住淨心而起諸行，即治住淨慢故」。第三層是行的實料：願力所持、於眾生慈愍不捨、積集福智助道、精勤修習不息、出生善巧方便、觀察照明上上地、受如來護念、念智力所持。
要排除一個誤解：不退轉不等於不會累。經文列出「精勤修習不息」，正表示這是持續用功的狀態，不是一勞永逸的保險。落到自己身上，這十二句其實是一張檢查表——退轉的人往往不是忽然退，是這十二項裡先鬆了一兩項。
從四諦到十諦：十種觀，不是十四種諦
接著經文說此地菩薩「如實知此是苦聖諦」，四諦具列，隨後又列出俗諦、第一義諦、相諦、差別諦、成立諦、事諦、生諦、盡無生諦、入道智諦、菩薩地次第成就諦乃至如來智成就諦。初讀會生一個問題：四諦之外又有十諦，難道諦有十四種？
澄觀早已擋住這個誤讀，他說得斬釘截鐵：「此乃十種觀於四諦，非謂觀十四諦也。」並引《瑜伽》之語為證——此地於四聖諦，由十種行相如實了知。也就是說，四諦是所觀之法，十諦是能觀之門；十門所照，仍是同一四諦。
那為何要開十門？澄觀說，四諦之義含攝法界，菩薩窮照無遺，隨智異說難以窮盡，所以略舉十門以顯無盡；而這十門「皆菩薩自智」，論家是就化導眾生的差別來分它們的異。這裡有一個關鍵的教學點：十諦不是知識的細分，是為了對不同的眾生說不同的話。俗諦向愛樂世間者說，第一義諦向堪受究竟者說——同一四諦，十種入口。
十諦的名目，六十華嚴與八十華嚴不盡相同（八十作俗諦、成立諦、生諦、入道智諦，六十作世諦、說諦、生起諦、入道諦），此屬譯語系統之異，二本並錄不判。要記住的是名數之下的那個結構，澄觀釋為：前五通觀四諦，次四別觀苦集滅道，「後一但觀滅道，菩薩地因，證佛智故」。
十諦逐釋：每一諦為何而知
經文接著逐條給出『因為……所以知某諦』。這十句是全段的骨，值得一句一句讀。
「隨眾生心樂令歡喜故，知俗諦」——俗諦之所以要知，理由竟是眾生的心樂。世俗之理不是為了自己安住，是為了能與人說得上話。「通達一實相故，知第一義諦」——第一義不是另一個高處，是通達那唯一的實相。
「覺法自相、共相故，知相諦」——自相是此法不同於彼法之處，共相是諸法共通之處；二相俱覺，才叫知相。「了諸法分位差別故，知差別諦」——同一法在不同分位上有差別，能了此差別，才不會把佛法講成一團模糊。
「善分別蘊、界、處故，知成立諦」——五蘊十八界十二處是佛法安立世間的基本架構，這叫「成立」。「覺身心苦惱故，知事諦」——事諦所對的是實際的苦：身之苦、心之惱，不是概念上的苦。
「覺諸趣生相續故，知生諦」——諸趣受生一環扣一環，知這相續不斷之相。「一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦」——熱惱畢竟滅，是盡；滅而不更生，是無生。
「出生無二故，知入道智諦」——入道之智所以為道，正因它出生於無二。「正覺一切行相故，善知一切菩薩地次第相續成就，乃至如來智成就諦」——末一諦最寬，從菩薩地的次第一路貫到如來智的成就。
這十句的共同句法值得注意：先說「覺」「了」「善分別」「通達」，後說『知某諦』。也就是說，諦不是被記住的名目，是被覺了之後才成立的知。六十華嚴此處把後四句直接標為苦諦、集諦、滅諦、道諦，八十則別立事諦、生諦、盡無生智諦、入道智諦——名異而所指之四事不異，二本並錄不判。
信解智力，不是究竟智力
十諦講完，經文自己補了一句極重要的限定：「以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知。」
這一句是全地的分寸所在。菩薩到第五地，諦智已如此廣深，卻不是佛的究竟智。為什麼要標這一句？防的正是「取勝相」之慢——十諦既知，若自以為已窮，則勝慢復起，前面十平等心就白修了。重頌把這一層說得更清楚：「如是觀諦雖微妙，未得無礙勝解脫」——微妙是實，未至無礙也是實。
落到讀者身上，這一句也是一把尺：學法之人常在懂了一個大道理之後，把「信解」當成「究竟」。菩薩在第五地都還老實承認自己是信解分齊，何況其餘。
有為虛妄，而大悲增上
得諸諦智之後，經文寫他所見：「如實知一切有為法虛妄、詐偽、誑惑愚夫。」虛妄是體上不實，詐偽是相上似有，誑惑愚夫是用上騙人——三個詞是三層。
接著出現全段最要緊的一個轉折：「菩薩爾時，於諸眾生轉增大悲，生大慈光明。」看破了有為法是虛妄，照理該冷下來，經文卻說悲心「轉增」。這正是難勝地的心法：智不冷，悲不盲。若看破而心冷，那是墮在下乘的般涅槃障裡；此地所以能斷此障，正因為它的智愈深、悲愈厚。慈與悲並舉——悲是拔苦，慈是與樂，「大慈光明」是說這慈能照，不只是心裡的柔軟。
前際後際：流轉的實相與無我
「如實觀一切有為行前際、後際」——前際是過去，後際是未來。菩薩觀什麼？「知從前際無明、有愛，故生生死流轉」：無明是不知，有愛是貪著，此二為因而有生，有生而有流轉。「於諸蘊宅不能動出，增長苦聚」——蘊像一所屋子，眾生住在裡面出不來，苦一層層堆高。
然後是無我句：「無我、無壽者、無養育者、無更數取後趣身者，離我、我所。」四個「無」要分開讀：無我，是無主宰者；無壽者，是無一個延續的命體；無養育者，是無一個受養而長的自體；無更數取後趣身者，是無一個一次次去投生的那個人。四者一併掃盡，最後歸到「離我、我所」。
再往下：「如前際，後際亦如是，皆無所有。」前際既無我，後際也無；然後「虛妄、貪著，斷盡出離」「若有若無，皆如實知」——連「有」與「無」二邊，都在如實知的範圍裡。這裡要防一個誤解：無我不等於斷滅。經文明說流轉是有的、苦聚是有的，所無者是那個作主的「我」。
可愍在何處：四個「不能」與一個「不知」
菩薩接著起念：「此諸凡夫愚癡無智，甚為可愍。」可愍的內容，經文寫得很具體：有無數身「已滅、今滅、當滅」，一次次死過，卻「不能於身而生厭想」，反而「轉更增長機關苦事」——像機關一樣自動轉動、自己停不下來的苦事。
隨後是一串比喻，五喻之中四作「不能」、首喻作「不知」：「不知憂畏四大毒蛇」——地水火風在身中如四條毒蛇同處一篋，眾生不知怕；「不能拔出諸慢見箭」——慢與見像箭插在身上，不拔則日日作痛；「不能息滅貪、恚、癡火」——三毒是火，燒的是自己；「不能破壞無明黑暗」——無明是闇，闇中無所見；「不能乾竭愛欲大海」——愛欲是海，深而無底。末後又添兩喻：「入魔意稠林」是迷路，「為覺觀波濤之所漂溺」是連自己的念頭都成了淹人的浪。
這一串喻要讀出它的教學次第：蛇在身、箭在體、火在心、闇在眼、海在前——由內而外，由近而遠。而後四句都用「不能」，不是「不肯」；首句作「不知憂畏」，是連怕都不知道怕。凡夫之可愍，不在惡，在不知與無力。菩薩見此而悲增，理由就在這個「不知」與「不能」上。
孤窮無依，我獨一發心
第二念寫得更悲：眾生受苦而「孤窮困迫，無救無依，無洲無舍，無導無目，無明覆翳，黑暗纏裹」。無洲是水中無可上之地，無舍是陸上無可歸之處，無導無目是既無人領又自己看不見。六個「無」疊下來，是把一切退路都寫盡了。
菩薩的回應是全地最有力的一句：「我今為彼一切眾生，修行福智助道之法，獨一發心，不求伴侶。」——「獨一發心，不求伴侶」不是孤高，是不把責任分攤出去、不等別人一起才肯做。緊接著說明目的：「以是功德，令諸眾生畢竟清淨，乃至獲得如來十力、無礙智慧」——所求於眾生者，是佛的果德，不是暫時的安慰。
迴向：善根的去處
菩薩再以智慧觀察所修善根，經文用一長串排比說明它們的去處：救護、利益、安樂、哀愍、成就、解脫、攝受一切眾生。七句遞進，從救急（救護）到終極（解脫、攝受）。
而後四句更緊：「令一切眾生離諸苦惱，令一切眾生普得清淨，令一切眾生悉皆調伏，令一切眾生入般涅槃。」離苦是先，清淨是中，調伏是行上的成熟，入般涅槃是究竟。要看清這裡沒有一句是為自己。此地菩薩的善根不是存起來的，是當下就有去處的——迴向不是儀式，是善根的方向本身。
二十一個名號：地上人的實名
經文用一整段給住此地者立名，一名一因，共二十一個。這是全品中極具教材性的一段：每一個名都不是稱號，是一種能力的實指。
前五個是根柢：「念者」，不忘諸法；「智者」，能善決了；「有趣者」，知經意趣、次第連合——這一名尤其要看重，它說的是讀經的能力：知道一段經的意思往哪裡去，前後如何接。「慚愧者」，自護護他；「堅固者」，不捨戒行。
次四個是判斷力：「覺者」，能觀是處非處，即分得清什麼可能、什麼不可能；「隨智者」，不隨於他，即以智為依而不隨人轉；「隨慧者」，善知義與非義句之差別，即分得出哪句話有義理、哪句沒有；「神通者」，善修禪定——神通之名繫在禪定上，不在異能上。
再四個是行力：「方便善巧者」，能隨世行；「無厭足者」，善集福德；「不休息者」，常求智慧；「不疲倦者」，集大慈悲。三個「不」字並列，說的是三種不停：福不停、慧不停、悲不停。
再三個是為他之勤：「為他勤修者」，欲令一切眾生入涅槃；「勤求不懈者」，求如來力、無畏、不共法；「發意能行者」，成就莊嚴佛土——發意而能行，是願與行不脫節。
再三個是修相：「勤修種種善業者」，能具足相好；「常勤修習者」，求莊嚴佛之身語意；「大尊重恭敬法者」，於一切菩薩法師處如教而行——恭敬之名，落實處是「如教而行」，不是禮數。
末二是心量：「心無障礙者」，以大方便常行世間；「日夜遠離餘心者」，常樂教化一切眾生。「餘心」即教化之外的別念——日夜遠離餘心，是說他的心裡幾乎沒有第二件事。
論家立此名段，句式與八十本略異（論作「名為意者」「名為去者」，八十作「智者」「有趣者」），六十本則先出因後標名，此屬譯本開合，並錄不判。要緊的是讀法：這二十一名連起來，就是一幅第五地菩薩的全身像——記得住、判得明、坐得住、做得動、放得下自己。
十種教化：法怎麼給出去
有了這身本事，接著講怎麼用。經文列十種教化：布施、愛語、利行、同事——這是四攝（經文合為一句）；再加示現色身、演說諸法、開示菩薩行、顯示如來大威力、示生死過患、稱讚如來智慧利益、現大神通力、以種種方便行。
澄觀於此段科為四攝之別明，並逐句配屬：示現色身是同事攝，演說諸法即愛語攝，「開示」以下皆利行攝，末後「種種方便」是總顯一切門一切種利行。他更點出各句所對之機——為於菩提無方便者示菩薩行，為於大乘疲倦者示佛威力，為樂世間著財位者示其過患，為不信大乘者讚如來智，為無智外道示以神通。這一配屬極可用：說法不是把法倒出來，是先看對面站的是誰。
段末經文自結：「心恒相續，趣佛智慧；所作善根，無有退轉，常勤修學殊勝行法。」——教化他人而自己的心不散、不退，這是難勝地的火候。
五明該習：世間學問為何是菩薩學處
接著就是全地最引人注目的一段：「世間技藝靡不該習。」文字、算數、圖書、印璽；地水火風種種諸論；方藥療病，顛狂、乾消、鬼魅、蠱毒悉能除斷；文筆、讚詠、歌舞、妓樂、戲笑、談說；國城村邑、宮宅園苑、泉流陂池、草樹花藥的布列得宜；金銀摩尼等寶藏知其所在而取以示人；日月星宿、鳥鳴地震、夜夢吉凶、身相休咎的觀察無謬；持戒入禪、神通無量、四無色定。
先問：這些算佛法嗎？澄觀判此段為五明，並引《大般若》語為據——「五地菩薩學五明故」。他逐項配屬：文字算數是聲明；圖書印璽以至種種諸論是因明（地水火風諸論屬諍論所攝，順世外道唯以地為因、水風二仙以風水為因、事火外道以火為因，皆邪計之異）；方藥療病是醫方明；文筆歌舞園池寶藏乃至占相是工巧明（他且釋文筆之別：韻屬曰文，對詞曰筆，顯德為讚，寄情曰詠）；末後持戒入禪神通四無色是內明，且一一配所治之染——持戒治破戒染，入禪治貪欲染，神通治邪歸依染，四無量治妄行功德染，四無色定治妄修解脫染。
於此可解本地地名之實義：真智與俗智之所以難合，就在這裡合了。一個證諦的人肯去學算數醫方、肯去懂歌舞園池，不是墮落，是他終於能與世間的人站在同一塊地上說話。李通玄從另一路讀同一件事，他以禪波羅蜜立此地之體，說此地「為以禪波羅蜜發起善根慈悲喜捨，通達世法，下地不如」——由定而能通達世法，故名難勝。澄觀依論而說真俗，通玄以定慧表法而說世法，二說並錄不判。
世法的界限：不為損惱
五明一段若只讀到『無所不學』，就漏了經文自己下的界限：「但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法。」
三句是三道關。第一關是「不為損惱」——凡學問技藝之能損惱眾生者不取；澄觀釋此為「異障中無障」，並舉捕獵等事為不取之例。第二關是「為利益故咸悉開示」——學了要給人，不是自珍。第三關是「漸令安住無上佛法」——世法是橋不是家，一個「漸」字說明它有次第、有終點。
所以此地菩薩的博學不是雜學。判準只有一個：這門學問能不能把人送到佛法上去。這也回答了讀者最容易起的疑：學世間事會不會妨道？經文的答案是——看你以什麼為量。
見佛、出家、聞持：久修的實況
接著是行滿之相。「以願力故，得見多佛」——多百佛、多千佛乃至多百千億那由他佛，都恭敬尊重、承事供養，衣服飲食臥具湯藥一切資生盡以奉施，也供養一切眾僧，並以此善根迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。供養之後是聽法：「恭敬聽法，聞已受持，隨力修行」——「隨力」二字老實，不誇。
再進一步：「復於彼諸佛法中而得出家；既出家已，又更聞法，得陀羅尼，為聞持法師。」出家之後不是停下，是「又更聞法」。得陀羅尼而為聞持法師，是總持不忘之能。澄觀於此有一個細膩的判：論說此地所得是聞持而非「得義持」，是「對勝顯劣」——般若尚未現前故；然而所以能得聞持，是因為他得了兩種難得——一是地初十平等心之難得能得，二是地中樂出世間智與現世間智這不住道之難得能得。也就是說，這個聞持不是三地那種世間聞持，是由二難所成。
而後是時間：「住此地中，經於百劫，經於千劫，乃至無量百千億那由他劫，所有善根轉更明淨。」修行不是幾時可完的事——這一句要老實讀。
二喻：真金硨磲、風持日月
經文以二喻收此地之行。第一喻：「譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩，轉更明淨」，合曰此地善根「以方便慧思惟觀察，轉更明淨」。初地作金師鍊金（數數入火），此地作硨磲磨金（以寶磨瑩）——同是一塊金，火候與工法都轉深了。澄觀更於喻中分出二事：證智契如，是真金；教智光明能示現如事，猶如那塊硨磲。也就是說，磨金的不是別物，正是教法之智。
第二喻：「如日月星宿、宮殿光明，風力所持，不可沮壞，亦非餘風所能傾動」，合曰此地善根「以方便智隨逐觀察，不可沮壞，亦非一切聲聞、獨覺世間善根所能傾動」。這一喻的關鍵在「風力所持」——日月宮殿懸在空中不墜，靠的是風；此地善根不壞，靠的是方便智。而「亦非餘風所能傾動」一句，正對聲聞獨覺與世間善根：它們也是風，卻動不了這一輪日月。
兩喻並看：前喻講轉勝（愈磨愈亮），後喻講不壞（動它不得）。一進一守，此地行相盡於此。
禪波羅蜜偏多
經文於此標出此地所偏之度：「十波羅蜜中，禪波羅蜜偏多；餘非不修，但隨力隨分。」
要先破一個誤解：偏多不是偏廢。十度地地皆修，只是各有增上；此地增上者為禪。為何是禪？因為前面所講的兩件事都需要它——十諦之觀要定為所依，五明之學要定力才不被境轉。李通玄即以此立地體，說此地「以禪波羅蜜為體，餘九為伴」；並以善財所參寂靜音海主夜神表此地之法，取「寂靜」表禪、「音海」表定能發慧之用。澄觀依論而言真俗二智，通玄依表法而言定體，二說並錄不判。
結名·果報：兜率天王與一念千億
經文自結：「是名：略說菩薩摩訶薩第五難勝地。」一個「略」字須看見——所說者已如此廣，仍稱為略。
果報有二。其一是王位：「多作兜率陀天王，於諸眾生所作自在，摧伏一切外道邪見，能令眾生住實諦中。」兜率天王之職，恰與此地相稱——摧邪見、住實諦，正是諦智之用於世間。而經文緊接著補一句最要緊的：布施愛語利行同事，「如是一切諸所作業，皆不離念佛，不離念法，不離念僧，乃至不離念具足一切種、一切智智」。在天上作王而三寶之念不斷，這才是果報而不是果報所轉。
其次是上首願：「我當於眾生中為首、為勝、為殊勝、為妙、為微妙、為上、為無上，乃至為一切智智依止者。」這一串遞進的「為」若孤讀，像是爭勝；接在前段「獨一發心，不求伴侶」之後讀，就明白它的意思——為首者是先擔者，作依止者是被靠者。願為上首，是願意站在最前面挨。
其三是勝進之相：「若發勤精進，於一念頃，得千億三昧，見千億佛」，乃至能動千億佛世界、示現千億身、一一身示千億菩薩為眷屬；若以願力自在示現，則過於此數，百劫千劫乃至百千億那由他劫不能數知。初地是「百」，此地是「千億」——數目的躍升，正是地地增勝的機械表法，不必求其實測，要看的是那個「若發勤精進」的前提。
重頌對位：頌與長行怎麼對讀
末後金剛藏「欲重宣其義而說頌曰」，二十二頌。澄觀科之為三：初十七偈頌地行，次四頌地果，後一結說。讀重頌有一條通則——長行已教之義，頌只作對位而不重教；頌中獨有之語，才另照著教。
依此讀之：首偈「菩薩四地已清淨，思惟三世佛平等，戒心除疑道非道」是頌十平等心，句句可與長行對回。次三偈是頌中最富教學意味的一段，長行所無：「念處為弓根利箭，正勤為馬神足車，五力堅鎧破怨敵」，以戰具頌菩提分法——四念處為弓、五根為箭、四正勤為馬、四神足為車、五力為鎧；「慚愧為衣覺分鬘，淨戒為香禪塗香」，以衣飾香塗頌慚愧、七覺分、戒、定；「如意為足正念頸，慈悲為眼智慧牙，人中師子無我吼」，以師子一身配四如意足、正念、慈悲、智慧，而以「無我」為吼——這一吼是全頌之眼：師子之所以能破怨敵，靠的不是力，是無我。
其下「善知世諦勝義諦，相諦差別成立諦」一偈頌十諦；「如是觀諦雖微妙，未得無礙勝解脫」一偈頌信解智之限；「既觀諦已知有為，體性虛偽無堅實」頌有為虛妄；「觀諸有為先後際，無明黑闇愛纏縛」與「愛取為因受來苦……此等可愍我應度」二偈頌前後際觀與悲愍；「蘊宅界蛇諸見箭，心火猛熾癡闇重」一偈把長行的五喻壓縮成兩句，蘊為宅、界為蛇、見為箭、心為火、癡為闇——喻密而不亂。
「名為有念有慧者，乃至覺解方便者」是頌二十一名，以「乃至」略之；「習行福智無厭足，恭敬多聞不疲倦」頌修行勝；「為欲教化諸世間，善知書數印等法，亦復善解諸方藥」以下三偈頌五明，逐項與長行相對；「智者住此難勝地，供那由佛亦聽法，如以妙寶磨真金」頌見佛久修與真金之喻；「譬如星宿在虛空，風力所持無損動，亦如蓮華不著水」則於長行二喻之外，添出蓮華一喻——這是頌獨有之義，須另照著教：日月喻其不壞，蓮華喻其不染。行於世而學世法者，最須要的正是這一句。
「住此多作兜率王，能摧異道諸邪見」頌果報，「彼復修行大精進，即時供養千億佛」頌一念頃之勝進。末偈結說：「如是第五難勝地，人中最上真實道，我以種種方便力，為諸佛子宣說竟。」——「人中最上真實道」一句是頌獨有之讚，六十本此處無之，二本並錄不判。
唯識鏡對讀：極難勝地
此地在唯識一系另有一名：極難勝地。成唯識論釋十地時說，此地是「真、俗兩智行相互違，合令相應」，故名極難勝——與澄觀所引《攝大乘》及世親釋，是同一義脈。瑜伽師地論於菩薩地直指此經為廣說之本，說欲廣宣說者，如十地經極難勝地所說；其攝抉擇分釋名則云極艱難方得自在，是故第五名極難勝地。攝大乘論釋列十地名，第五亦作極難勝地。
以澄觀所引唯識之判為鏡回照本地，可以看清三件事。其一，此地所斷之障有定名：下乘般涅槃障。前四地得出世智而厭生死、樂涅槃，此偏正障第五地；今入真俗無差別道，此障乃斷。其二，所證之真如亦有定名：類無差別真如——生死與涅槃、真與俗，同一類而無差別。其三，此地之慧澄觀判為「諸諦增上慧行」，其行判為「五明處教化行」，二行無礙，故得無差別法身之果。
要注意這是鏡照，不是改判。本經自身只說十平等心、十諦、五明、二喻，並未立障名真如名；那些名目是唯識論家依此經而立的判釋。以鏡照之，本地的骨架更清楚——但讀經時仍當以經文自己的次第為主。
承衍
本地之文，向後開出兩路。
其一是論家之路。世親《十地經論》科此地為三分——勝慢對治、不住道行勝、彼果勝，逐段牒經而釋；澄觀承其科而以加行道、解脫道、勝進道配之，並在釋文中立下一條解經通則：「又論與經有不次者，但可以論就經，不可迴經從論」——論與經次第不合時，以論就經，不可反過來把經文遷就論。此一則於後世解經影響極廣，錄之。
其二是宗家之路。法藏《探玄記》於此地開七門，其釋名門集《唯識》《攝大乘》世親釋以及《金光明》《莊嚴論》《顯揚論》《十住論》諸說，並誌《仁王經》以此地名「勝慧地」之異名；李通玄《新華嚴經論》則不循真俗二智之釋，以禪波羅蜜立地體、以寂靜音海主夜神表法，更立一釋——「為過三界惑，復不證涅槃，三界及涅槃總不能壞其無依住之智慧」，故名難勝。澄觀於本地釋文之末，直書「五地竟」而收。
諸家之釋名：有約菩提分法修習艱難者，有約真俗二智相違而合者，有約於諸聖諦妙智難勝者，有約能退二難於難得勝者，有約諸魔不能壞者，有約見思不能伏者，有約定體通達世法者。並錄不判。澄觀則明判「然諸經論言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙」——諸說不相妨。
Where the Difficulty Lies: Two Wisdoms, and the Joining of What Is Hard to Join
Someone who has cultivated as far as the fourth ground has already gained world-transcending wisdom. World-transcending wisdom sees through things, and once one has seen through them the most natural direction to take is not to want to come back — birth-and-death is suffering, nirvāṇa is ease, and to turn toward ease and let go of suffering follows as a matter of course. What the fifth ground has to deal with is precisely this ‘matter of course’.
The name of the ground is Hard to Conquer. Where does the difficulty lie? Chengguan does not set up a new account of his own; he lists out one by one the explanations of the name given by the several houses of the ancient worthies and then gathers them all in, saying that these accounts “differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional.” The most direct of them is the sentence he cites from the She dacheng: the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality and the wisdom of the world “are mutually contrary, and one joins what is hard to join and makes them answer to one another.” Vasubandhu explains it more finely still: the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality is without discrimination, the wisdom of worldly crafts and the like has discrimination, and these two wisdoms are contrary in their very nature, and yet one must cultivate until they are joined. The difficulty in Hard to Conquer lies here: it is not that it is hard to break the afflictions; it is that someone who is already able to be without discrimination must learn all over again to do things with discrimination, and must give short measure on neither side.
This is why an odd juxtaposition appears in the text of this ground: the first half speaks of “knowing as it really is that this is the noble truth of suffering” and runs on to the ten truths; the second half speaks of how “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice,” and goes on about letters and reckoning, medicine and calendrical lore, song and dance, gardens and pools. A reader will find this a jump at first — why should one who has realized the truths study such things? In fact this is precisely the substance of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground: the two wheels, the true and the conventional, turn together without partiality. Chengguan says that what is cut off on this ground is “the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle” and what is realized is “the suchness of the absence of difference in kind” — what is cut off is not the coarse afflictions but that partiality of ‘being weary of birth-and-death and delighting in nirvāṇa’; what is realized is not some other sort of truth, but that suchness in which birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are equal and without difference.
The request for the Dharma at the opening must also be read with an eye to who is speaking. This ground has no outline section for the Tathāgata’s empowerment and none for Vajragarbha’s declining; there is only the one question asked by the bodhisattva Vimukticandra: “The aspects of practice within the fifth ground — may the son of the Buddha declare them!” What is asked for is the ‘aspects of practice’, not the virtues of the fruit. Everything below, prose and verses in repetition alike, comes from the mouth of the bodhisattva Vajragarbha alone, and “sons of the Buddha” is his form of address to the assembly of bodhisattvas present. Keep this thread in mind as you read: this is a bodhisattva who has already entered the grounds, telling those who have not yet entered about the road he himself has walked.
The Ten Kinds of Equal and Pure Mind: The Gate by Which the Ground Is Entered
The text says that to enter the fifth ground one “should turn toward it and enter by the ten kinds of equal and pure mind.” Ask a question first: why ‘equal’? If the fourth ground has already gained world-transcending wisdom, what is still lacking? What is lacking is precisely ‘not treating that wisdom as a treasure’. Chengguan, following the treatise, points out that what this ground counters is named the ‘conceit of excellence’, and that it is of two kinds: “the first is the conceit regarding another ground — that is, on the fourth ground one gained world-transcending wisdom and took up its aspect of excellence, and this is called the conceit of excellence.” To look upon what was gained on the preceding ground as an aspect of excellence and so to lift oneself up — this is the conceit regarding another ground; and to go on seeking an aspect of excellence in these ten pure minds themselves is the conceit regarding one’s own ground. The reason the ten minds are called ‘equal’ is just that they treat this ‘taking up an aspect of excellence’.
The ten minds are laid out in a sequence. The first three are the equal and pure minds regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the past, the future, and the present — Chengguan outlines them as “the first three make clear the Dharma of the buddhas,” meaning the powers and other virtues at the station of the fruit of buddhahood. The dharma realized by the buddhas of the three times is without duality and without difference, and if one raises a view of earlier and later, higher and lower, regarding it, then the mind is no longer equal. These three minds are set up first in order to put one’s eyes at the highest place first: what is to be accomplished is a dharma one and the same with the buddhas of the three times.
The fourth and fifth are the equal and pure mind of discipline and the equal and pure mind of mind itself. Here the eyes are drawn back to oneself: in the practice of discipline there are not two standards for different persons or different times, and in the ground of the mind there are not two faces for the favorable and the adverse. Chengguan, within the latter seven minds, judges that “within the former they are gathered into three trainings: the first is discipline, the next concentration, and the remaining four wisdom” — the fourth is the training in discipline, the fifth the training in concentration, and the four below them belong to the training in wisdom. So to read the ten minds is not to read ten scattered items; it is to read one complete establishment of discipline, concentration, and wisdom.
The sixth is “the equal and pure mind that removes views and doubt and regret,” and the seventh “the equal and pure mind of the wisdom of what is the path and what is not the path.” Views together with doubt and regret are put into one clause, gathering into one statement that set of delusions cut off at the path of seeing — the view of a body, doubt, and the grasping at rules and observances; while the wisdom of what is the path and what is not is the ability to judge what is the path and what is not. Chengguan, when he takes them apart into seven purities, says “taken apart they are seven purities: first, purity of discipline; second, purity of concentration; third, purity of view; fourth, purity in passing beyond doubt,” and points out that the sūtra joins views and doubt into a single clause so as to make up the number ten. What matters is this: if a person still wavers about ‘what the path is’, then his equality is only vagueness, not equality.
The eighth is “the equal and pure mind of the knowing and seeing of practice,” the ninth “the equal and pure mind that makes an ever higher observation of all the factors of awakening.” The eighth speaks of the knowing and seeing that belong to practice; the ninth speaks of making an ‘ever higher observation’ of the factors of awakening — it is not that having cultivated them once is enough, but that upon what has been cultivated one observes again and turns more excellent again. This is the easiest place to misread as a feeling of ‘dissatisfaction’; in fact it is the advance of insight: the deeper what one knows, the more one knows that it is not exhausted.
The tenth is “the equal and pure mind that teaches and transforms all sentient beings.” The first nine are for oneself, this one for others. Chengguan outlines these seven minds as “the latter seven make clear the according with the Dharma of the buddhas,” and within them the first six are for oneself and the last one for others. To place it last is not to make it lightest; it is the final closing of the mouth of the vessel: if the minds purified in the first nine do not come down upon sentient beings, then equality is only self-admiration.
With the ten minds complete, the text gives its own judging sentence: “It is by these ten kinds of equal and pure mind that a bodhisattva-mahāsattva gains entry to the fifth bodhisattva ground.” — entering the ground is not a response granted from without; it is the natural outcome once these ten minds have been cultivated to the full.
Twelve Occurrences of “Because”: Where the Mind of Non-Retrogression Comes From
The first thing said after entering the ground is about “the mind that does not turn back,” and the text gives it twelve reasons, every one of them closing with “because.” One must read the intent of this way of writing: not turning back is not a vow; it is a state that follows once the conditions are complete.
The twelve causes may be seen in three layers (Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun outlines them as “four clauses in the general statement” and “eight kinds of practice that accord with the path,” that is, four plus eight). The first layer carries on from before: “because he well cultivates the factors of awakening” — the thirty-seven factors of awakening cultivated on the fourth ground are the foundation; “because he well purifies the deep mind” — the ten equal minds have washed the deep mind clean. The second layer advances: “because he turns again to seek the higher and more surpassing path,” “because he accords with suchness” — on one side he seeks upward, on the other he accords with suchness and does not depart from equality; and Chengguan points out here that the former two clauses are what is to be countered (namely, raising in the pure mind itself a seeking after an aspect of excellence), while the latter two are exactly what counters it, since “not abiding in the pure mind and yet raising up all the practices is what counters the conceit of abiding in purity.” The third layer is the actual stuff of practice: being upheld by the power of the vow, being kindly and pitying toward sentient beings and not forsaking them, amassing merit and wisdom as aids to the path, being diligent in cultivation without resting, bringing forth skillful means, observing and illumining the ever higher grounds, being received and kept in mind by the Tathāgata, and being upheld by the power of mindfulness and wisdom.
One misunderstanding has to be ruled out: not turning back does not mean not growing weary. The text lists “because he is diligent in cultivation and does not rest,” which shows precisely that this is a state of continuous exertion, not an insurance policy bought once and for all. Brought down to oneself, these twelve clauses are in fact a checklist — a person who turns back usually does not turn back all at once; it is that one or two of these twelve items slackened first.
From the Four Truths to the Ten Truths: Ten Contemplations, Not Fourteen Truths
Next the text says that the bodhisattva of this ground “knows as it really is: this is the noble truth of suffering,” lists the four truths in full, and thereafter lists the truth of the conventional, the truth of the supreme meaning, the truth of characteristics, the truth of distinctions, the truth of establishment, the truth of the actual, the truth of arising, the truth of exhaustion and non-arising, the truth of the wisdom that enters the path, the truth of the accomplishing in due order of the bodhisattva grounds, on up to the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata. A question arises on first reading: besides the four truths there are again ten truths — are there then fourteen kinds of truth?
Chengguan has already blocked this misreading, and he says it flatly: “This is ten kinds of contemplation upon the four truths; it does not mean contemplating fourteen truths.” And he cites the words of the Yuqie in evidence — on this ground, with respect to the four noble truths, one knows them as they really are by ten kinds of aspect. That is to say, the four truths are the dharma contemplated and the ten truths are the gates that contemplate; and what the ten gates shine upon is still the one and the same four truths.
Then why open ten gates? Chengguan says that the meaning of the four truths gathers in the whole Dharma realm, that the bodhisattva shines exhaustively upon it and leaves nothing out, and that what is said differently according to different wisdoms cannot be exhausted; therefore ten gates are set out in brief to show that it is inexhaustible. And these ten gates are “all the bodhisattva’s own wisdom,” while the treatise masters distinguish them with respect to the differences in guiding and transforming beings. There is a key teaching point here: the ten truths are not a fine division of knowledge; they are for speaking different words to different sentient beings. The truth of the conventional is spoken to those who delight in the world, the truth of the supreme meaning to those who can receive the ultimate — one and the same four truths, with ten doors of entry.
The names of the ten truths are not entirely the same in the sixty-fascicle and the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka (the eighty has the truth of the conventional, the truth of establishment, the truth of arising, and the truth of the wisdom that enters the path, where the sixty has the truth of the world, the truth of exposition, the truth of coming to arise, and the truth of entering the path); this belongs to a difference in the systems of rendering, and both texts are recorded without adjudication. What is to be held on to is the structure beneath the names and numbers, which Chengguan explains thus: the first five contemplate the four truths throughout; the next four contemplate suffering, origination, cessation, and the path separately; and “the last one contemplates only cessation and the path, being the cause of the bodhisattva grounds, since it realizes the Buddha’s wisdom.”
The Ten Truths Explained One by One: Why Each Truth Is Known
The text then gives, clause by clause, ‘because of such and such, he knows such and such a truth’. These ten clauses are the bones of the whole passage, and are worth reading one at a time.
“Because he accords with what the minds of sentient beings delight in and thereby makes them glad, he knows the truth of the conventional” — the reason the truth of the conventional has to be known turns out to be what the minds of sentient beings delight in. Worldly principles are not for one’s own settling down; they are so that one can get on speaking terms with people. “Because he penetrates the one real characteristic, he knows the truth of the supreme meaning” — the supreme meaning is not another higher place; it is the penetrating of that one and only real characteristic.
“Because he is aware of the own-characteristic and the shared characteristic of dharmas, he knows the truth of characteristics” — the own-characteristic is where this dharma differs from that, the shared characteristic is what dharmas have in common; only when both are known is it called knowing characteristics. “Because he understands clearly the distinctions among the positions of dharmas, he knows the truth of distinctions” — one and the same dharma has distinctions at different positions, and only one who can understand these distinctions will not expound the Buddha-Dharma as one indistinct mass.
“Because he is well able to discriminate the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases, he knows the truth of establishment” — the five aggregates, the eighteen elements, and the twelve sense-bases are the basic framework by which the Buddha-Dharma sets up the world, and this is what ‘establishment’ means. “Because he is aware of the suffering and distress of body and mind, he knows the truth of the actual” — what the truth of the actual faces is suffering in fact: the suffering of the body and the distress of the mind, not suffering as a concept.
“Because he is aware that birth in the destinies continues on unbroken, he knows the truth of arising” — birth in the destinies is link upon link, and he knows this aspect of unbroken continuity. “Because all burning distress is finally extinguished, he knows the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising” — that burning distress is finally extinguished is exhaustion; that having been extinguished it does not arise again is non-arising.
“Because there issues forth non-duality, he knows the truth of the wisdom that enters the path” — the reason the wisdom that enters the path is the path is just that it issues forth out of non-duality. “Because he rightly awakens to all the aspects of practice, he knows well the accomplishing in due order and unbroken continuity of all the bodhisattva grounds, on up to the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata” — the last truth is the widest, running from the due order of the bodhisattva grounds all the way through to the accomplishing of the Tathāgata’s wisdom.
The shared sentence pattern of these ten clauses is worth noticing: first come ‘is aware’, ‘understands’, ‘is well able to discriminate’, ‘penetrates’, and then ‘he knows such and such a truth’. That is to say, a truth is not a name to be remembered; it is a knowing that comes to stand only after there has been awareness. Here the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka marks the last four clauses directly as the truth of suffering, the truth of origination, the truth of cessation, and the truth of the path, while the eighty sets up separately the truth of the actual, the truth of arising, the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising, and the truth of the wisdom that enters the path — the names differ and the four things pointed to do not; both texts are recorded without adjudication.
The Power of the Wisdom of Faith and Understanding, Not the Power of Ultimate Wisdom
Having finished the ten truths, the text adds a most important limiting clause of its own: “he knows by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, not by the power of ultimate wisdom.”
This sentence is where the whole ground finds its measure. When a bodhisattva reaches the fifth ground, the wisdom of the truths is already this broad and deep, and yet it is not the Buddha’s ultimate wisdom. Why must this clause be marked? What it guards against is precisely the conceit of ‘taking up an aspect of excellence’ — the ten truths being known, if one took oneself to have exhausted them, the conceit of excellence would rise again and the ten equal minds before would have been cultivated for nothing. The verses in repetition put this layer still more plainly: “observing the truths in this way, though it be wondrous, he has not yet gained the unobstructed and surpassing liberation” — that it is wondrous is a fact, and that it has not reached the unobstructed is a fact too.
Brought down upon the reader, this clause is also a measuring rod: a student of the Dharma will often, after understanding one great principle, take ‘faith and understanding’ for ‘the ultimate’. Even at the fifth ground the bodhisattva still honestly admits that he is within the compass of faith and understanding — how much more the rest of us.
The Conditioned Is False, and Yet Great Compassion Increases
After gaining the wisdoms of the truths, the text writes what he sees: “he knows as it really is that all conditioned dharmas are false and deceiving, and that they delude and beguile the foolish.” False means unreal in substance; deceiving means seeming to exist in their aspect; deluding and beguiling the foolish means cheating people in their function — the three words are three layers.
Then comes the most important turn in the whole passage: “at this the bodhisattva turns to increase great compassion toward all sentient beings, and gives rise to the light of great loving-kindness.” Having seen through conditioned dharmas as false, one would expect him to cool down; and yet the text says that the mind of compassion ‘turns to increase’. This is exactly the heart-method of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground: the wisdom does not go cold, the compassion does not go blind. If one sees through and the heart goes cold, that is falling into the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle; the reason this ground is able to cut off that obstruction is just that the deeper its wisdom, the thicker its compassion. Loving-kindness and compassion are raised together — compassion draws out suffering, loving-kindness gives ease, and “the light of great loving-kindness” says that this kindness is able to shine, and is not merely a softness within the heart.
The Prior Limit and the Later Limit: The Real State of Flowing On, and No-Self
“He observes as it really is the prior limit and the later limit of all conditioned practices” — the prior limit is the past, the later limit the future. What does the bodhisattva observe? “He knows: from the ignorance and the craving for existence of the prior limit there is birth, and thereupon the flowing on of birth-and-death”: ignorance is not knowing, the craving for existence is greedy clinging; these two are the cause and so there is birth, and there being birth there is flowing on. “Within the houses of the aggregates they cannot stir and get out, and only heap up the mass of suffering” — the aggregates are like a house, sentient beings dwell inside and cannot get out, and the suffering piles up layer upon layer.
Then comes the sentence of no-self: “there is no self, no one who lives, no one who is nourished and grows, no one who again and again takes up a body in a later destiny; it is apart from self and from what belongs to self.” The four occurrences of ‘no’ must be read apart: no self is that there is no one who governs; no one who lives is that there is no life-substance continuing on; no one who is nourished and grows is that there is no own-being that is fed and matures; no one who again and again takes up a body in a later destiny is that there is no person who goes off to be reborn time after time. All four are swept away together, and it comes home at last to “apart from self and from what belongs to self.”
Further on: “as the prior limit is, so too is the later limit, and both are altogether without anything at all.” The prior limit being without self, so too is the later; and then “there is falsity, and there is greedy clinging, and if these can be exhausted there is release,” “whether it be existence or non-existence, he knows both as they really are” — even the two extremes of ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence’ fall within the range of what is known as it really is. A misunderstanding must be guarded against here: no-self is not annihilation. The text says plainly that the flowing on is there and the mass of suffering is there; what is not there is that ‘self’ which governs.
Where the Pity Lies: Four Occurrences of “Unable” and One of “Do Not Know”
The bodhisattva then raises the thought: “These ordinary persons are foolish and without wisdom, and are truly to be pitied.” What there is to pity the text writes out very concretely: there are bodies beyond number “already perished, now perishing, and yet to perish,” dying over and over, and yet they “are unable to give rise to a thought of weariness toward this body,” but rather “turn to increase those affairs of suffering that revolve like a contrivance” — affairs of suffering that turn of themselves like a contrivance and that one cannot stop oneself.
There follows a string of similes, four of the five reading “unable” and the first reading “do not know”: “they do not know to be anxious and afraid of the four great elements, those four poisonous snakes” — earth, water, fire, and wind are within the body like four poisonous snakes together in one basket, and sentient beings do not know to fear them; “they are unable to draw out the arrows of the several conceits and views” — conceit and view are like arrows stuck in the body, and if they are not drawn out they ache day after day; “they are unable to quench the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion” — the three poisons are a fire, and what it burns is oneself; “they are unable to break up the black darkness of ignorance” — ignorance is darkness, and in the dark nothing is seen; “they are unable to dry up the great sea of craving and desire” — craving and desire are a sea, deep and without bottom. Afterward two more similes are added: “having once entered the dense thicket of Māra’s mind” is losing the road, and being “swept away and drowned by the waves and billows of thought and examination” is that even one’s own thoughts have become waves that drown a person.
This string of similes must be read for its teaching sequence: the snakes in the body, the arrows in the flesh, the fire in the mind, the darkness over the eyes, the sea ahead — from within outward, from near to far. And the last four all use “unable,” not ‘unwilling’; the first clause reads “do not know to be anxious and afraid,” which is not even knowing enough to be afraid. What is pitiable in ordinary persons lies not in evil but in not knowing and in not being able. That the bodhisattva sees this and his compassion increases has its reason just in this ‘not knowing’ and ‘not being able’.
Destitute and Unsupported, and I Alone Raise This Mind
The second thought is written with greater pity still: sentient beings undergo suffering and are “alone and destitute and hard pressed, with none to save them and none to support them, with no island to climb upon and no house to return to, with none to guide them and no eyes of their own, covered over by ignorance and wrapped about by darkness.” No island is that in the water there is no ground to climb onto; no house is that on land there is no place to return to; none to guide and no eyes is that there is neither anyone to lead nor sight of one’s own. Six occurrences of ‘no’ piled up write out every way of retreat as closed.
The bodhisattva’s response is the most forceful sentence on the whole ground: “I now, for the sake of all those sentient beings, cultivate the dharmas of merit and wisdom that aid the path; alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions.” — “alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions” is not aloofness; it is not sharing out the responsibility, not waiting until others come along before one is willing to act. Immediately after, the purpose is stated: “and by merit such as this I shall bring all sentient beings to a purity that is final, on up to their gaining the Tathāgata’s ten powers and unobstructed wisdom” — what is sought for sentient beings is the virtue of the Buddha’s fruit, not a temporary consolation.
Dedication: Where the Roots of Goodness Go
The bodhisattva then observes with wisdom the roots of goodness he has cultivated, and the text uses a long string of parallel clauses to state where they go: to rescue and protect, to benefit, to bring ease to, to have pity on, to bring to accomplishment, to liberate, and to gather in all sentient beings. Seven clauses advancing in order, from the urgent rescue (rescuing and protecting) to the ultimate (liberating and gathering in).
The four clauses that follow are tighter still: “to make all sentient beings depart from every suffering and distress, to make all sentient beings universally attain purity, to make all sentient beings be tamed one and all, and to make all sentient beings enter parinirvāṇa.” Departing from suffering is first, purity is in the middle, being tamed is maturity in practice, and entering parinirvāṇa is the ultimate. See clearly that not one clause here is for himself. The roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground are not stored up; they have somewhere to go at the very moment they arise — dedication is not a ceremony; it is the direction of the roots of goodness themselves.
Twenty-One Names: The Real Names of One Upon the Ground
The text gives a whole passage to naming one who dwells on this ground, one name with one reason, twenty-one in all. This is a passage of the greatest usefulness for teaching in the whole chapter: not one of the names is an honorific; each is a direct pointing at an ability.
The first five are the foundation: “one who is mindful,” who does not forget the dharmas; “one who is wise,” who is able to decide and understand well; “one who has the drift of it,” who knows the intent of the scriptures and can join them together in due order — this name especially is to be valued, for what it speaks of is the ability to read scripture: knowing where the sense of a passage is going and how what precedes and what follows join. “One who has shame and conscience,” who guards himself and guards others; “one who is firm,” who does not forsake the practice of discipline.
The next four are the power of judgment: “one who is aware,” able to observe what is possible and what is not, that is, able to tell what can be from what cannot; “one who follows wisdom,” not following others, that is, taking wisdom as his reliance and not being turned about by persons; “one who follows insight,” knowing well the difference between a phrase that has meaning and one that has not, that is, able to tell which sentence carries doctrine and which does not; “one who has supernormal powers,” who cultivates meditation well — the name of supernormal power is attached to meditation, not to strange abilities.
The next four are the power of practice: “one skilled in means,” able to act in accordance with the world; “one who is never satiated,” good at amassing merit; “one who does not rest,” constantly seeking wisdom; “one who does not tire,” amassing great loving-kindness and compassion. The three occurrences of ‘not’ set side by side speak of three kinds of not stopping: merit does not stop, insight does not stop, compassion does not stop.
The next three are diligence for others: “one who cultivates diligently for others,” wishing to bring all sentient beings into nirvāṇa; “one who seeks diligently and does not slacken,” seeking the Tathāgata’s powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive dharmas; “one who raises the intent and is able to practice,” accomplishing the adorning of a buddha-land — to raise the intent and be able to practice is that vow and practice do not come apart.
The next three are the marks of cultivation: “one who diligently cultivates every sort of good deed,” able to complete the marks and signs; “one who is constantly diligent in cultivation,” seeking to adorn the body, speech, and mind of a buddha; “one who greatly honors and reveres the Dharma,” who in the presence of every bodhisattva Dharma master practices according to the teaching — the name of reverence comes down in practice to ‘practicing according to the teaching’, not to ceremony.
The last two are the measure of the mind: “one whose mind is without obstruction,” who with great skillful means constantly acts within the world; “one who day and night keeps far from other thoughts,” who constantly delights in teaching and transforming all sentient beings. ‘Other thoughts’ are the thoughts besides teaching and transforming — to keep far from other thoughts day and night is to say that within his mind there is hardly a second matter.
The treatise masters set up this passage of names with a sentence pattern slightly different from the eighty (the treatise has “he is named one who has intent” and “he is named one who goes,” where the eighty has “one who is wise” and “one who has the drift of it”), while the sixty first gives the reason and then sets out the name; this belongs to the expansion and compression of the translations, and is recorded without adjudication. What matters is how to read it: these twenty-one names strung together make a full-length portrait of the bodhisattva of the fifth ground — one who can remember, can judge clearly, can sit still, can act, and can set himself aside.
Ten Kinds of Teaching and Transforming: How the Dharma Is Given Out
Having these abilities, the text goes on to how they are used. It lists ten kinds of teaching and transforming: giving, kindly speech, conduct that benefits, and the sharing of tasks — these are the four means of gathering (the sūtra text runs them together as a single clause); and then displaying a bodily form, expounding the dharmas, opening up the bodhisattva’s practice, showing the Tathāgata’s great and awesome power, showing the faults of birth-and-death, praising the benefit of the Tathāgata’s wisdom, manifesting the power of great supernormal transformation, and practices of every sort of skillful means.
Chengguan outlines this passage as a separate setting forth of the four means of gathering, and assigns them clause by clause: displaying a bodily form is the gathering by sharing of tasks; expounding the dharmas is the gathering by kindly speech; from ‘opening up’ onward all are the gathering by conduct that benefits; and the last, ‘every sort of skillful means’, is the general display of conduct that benefits in every gate and in every mode. He further points out the capacity that each clause faces — for those without skillful means with respect to awakening, the bodhisattva’s practice is shown; for those wearied of the great vehicle, the Buddha’s awesome power is shown; for those who delight in the world and cling to wealth and station, its faults are shown; for those who do not believe in the great vehicle, the Tathāgata’s wisdom is praised; for the witless of the outer paths, supernormal power is shown. This assignment is extremely usable: expounding the Dharma is not pouring the Dharma out; it is first looking at who is standing opposite.
At the end of the passage the text concludes itself: “he keeps his mind unbroken and continuous, turning toward the Buddha’s wisdom; the roots of goodness he brings about do not turn back, and he constantly and diligently cultivates and studies the surpassing dharmas of practice.” — to teach and transform others while one’s own mind neither scatters nor turns back: this is the heat of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.
The Five Sciences Are to Be Taken Up: Why Worldly Learning Is a Bodhisattva’s Place of Study
Then comes the most striking passage of the whole ground: “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice.” Letters, reckoning, charts, seals; the several treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind; medicines for the treating of illness, madness, wasting disease, possession by sprites, and poisoning by venom, all of which he can cut off; composition and writing, praise and chanting, song and dance, entertainment and music, jesting and conversation; the fitting arrangement of walled cities and villages, palaces and dwellings, gardens and parks, springs and streams, ponds and pools, grasses and trees, flowers and herbs; knowing where the hoards of gold, silver, maṇi, and the rest lie and taking them out to show others; the flawless observation of the sun, the moon, and the constellations, the cries of birds and the shaking of the earth, the good or ill omen of a dream at night and the fair or foul in the marks of a body; keeping the discipline and entering meditation, immeasurable supernormal powers, and the four formless concentrations.
Ask first: do these count as Buddha-Dharma? Chengguan judges this passage to be the five sciences, and cites the words of the Dabanruo in evidence — “because the bodhisattva of the fifth ground studies the five sciences.” He assigns them item by item: letters and reckoning are the science of sound; charts and seals on to the several treatises are the science of reasoning (the treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind belong to what is gathered under disputation — the followers of the world take earth alone for the cause, the two sages of water and wind take water and wind for the cause, and those who serve fire take fire for the cause, all of them differing forms of wrong reckoning); medicines for the treating of illness are the science of medicine; composition and song and dance, gardens and pools, hoards of treasure, and even divination by marks are the science of crafts (and he explains too the difference between composition and writing: what is joined in rhyme is called composition, what is matched in phrasing is called writing, what displays virtue is praise, and what lodges the feelings is called chanting); and last, keeping the discipline, entering meditation, supernormal powers, and the four formless concentrations are the inner science, each matched with the defilement it treats — keeping the discipline treats the defilement of breaking the discipline, entering meditation treats the defilement of greed and desire, supernormal power treats the defilement of wrong reliance, the four immeasurables treat the defilement of falsely practiced merit, and the four formless concentrations treat the defilement of falsely cultivated liberation.
From this the real sense of the name of this ground can be understood: the reason the true wisdom and the conventional wisdom are hard to join is that they are joined just here. That one who has realized the truths is willing to go and learn reckoning and medicine, willing to understand song and dance and gardens and pools, is not a falling away; it is that he is at last able to stand on the same piece of ground with the people of the world and speak with them. Li Tongxuan reads the same matter along another track: he establishes the substance of this ground upon the perfection of meditation, saying that on this ground “by the perfection of meditation he raises up the roots of goodness — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — and penetrates the dharmas of the world, and the lower grounds do not come up to him” — it is by concentration that one is able to penetrate the dharmas of the world, and hence the name Hard to Conquer. Chengguan follows the treatise and speaks of the true and the conventional; Tongxuan takes concentration and wisdom as symbolic figures and speaks of worldly dharmas; both accounts are recorded without adjudication.
The Limit of Worldly Dharmas: To Do No Harm or Vexation
If the passage on the five sciences is read only as ‘there is nothing he does not study’, then the limit the text itself sets down has been missed: “only that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings; for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth, gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma.”
The three clauses are three barriers. The first barrier is “do no harm or vexation” — of learning and arts, whatever can bring harm or vexation to sentient beings is not taken up; Chengguan explains this as ‘being without obstruction amid what would obstruct’, and gives hunting and the like as instances of what is not taken up. The second barrier is “for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth” — what has been learned is to be given to others, not hoarded for oneself. The third barrier is “gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma” — worldly dharmas are a bridge and not a home, and the single word ‘gradually’ shows that there is a due order and there is a destination.
So the broad learning of the bodhisattva of this ground is not miscellaneous learning. There is only one criterion: whether this branch of learning can carry a person over into the Buddha-Dharma. This also answers the doubt a reader most easily raises: does studying worldly matters hinder the path? The answer of the text is — it depends on what you take for your measure.
Seeing Buddhas, Going Forth, Hearing and Retaining: The Actual State of Long Cultivation
Then come the marks of practice brought to fullness. “By the power of his vow, he gains sight of many buddhas” — many hundreds of buddhas, many thousands, on up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas; and to them all he is reverent and respectful, attending upon them and making offerings, presenting robes and food, bedding and medicines, all the requisites of life, and making offerings also to the whole assembly of monks, and with these roots of goodness dedicating and directing them toward unsurpassed perfect awakening. After the offerings comes the hearing of the Dharma: “he reverently listens to the Dharma, and having heard it he upholds it and practices according to his own strength” — the two words ‘his own strength’ are honest and make no boast.
A further step: “and within the Dharma of those buddhas he gains the going forth; and having gone forth he hears the Dharma yet more, gains dhāraṇī, and becomes a Dharma master of hearing and retention.” After going forth he does not stop; he “hears the Dharma yet more.” To gain dhāraṇī and become a Dharma master of hearing and retention is the ability of total retention without forgetting. Chengguan has here a delicate judgment: the treatise says that what is gained on this ground is the retention of what is heard and not ‘the retention of the meaning’, and that this is “a showing of the lesser by setting it against the greater” — because prajñā is not yet manifest; and yet the reason he is able to gain the retention of what is heard is that he has gained two things hard to gain — first, the gaining of what is hard to gain in the ten equal minds at the beginning of the ground, and second, the gaining of what is hard to gain in the path of non-abiding within the ground, that is, delighting in world-transcending wisdom and in the wisdom of the present world at once. That is to say, this retention of what is heard is not the worldly retention of the third ground; it is brought about by those two difficulties.
And then comes the time: “abiding upon this ground, through a hundred kalpas, through a thousand kalpas, on up to immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn brighter and purer still.” Cultivation is not a matter that can be finished within any span of time — this sentence is to be read honestly.
Two Similes: True Gold and the Giant-Clam Gem, the Wind That Upholds the Sun and the Moon
The text closes the practice of this ground with two similes. The first: “it is as when true gold is polished with a giant-clam gem and turns brighter and purer still,” matched with the roots of goodness of this ground, which “pondered and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, turn brighter and purer still.” The first ground had the goldsmith refining gold (putting it into the fire again and again); this ground has the giant-clam gem polishing gold (burnishing it with a gem) — it is one and the same lump of gold, and both the heat and the workmanship have turned deeper. Chengguan draws two things out of the simile besides: realizing wisdom tallying with suchness is the true gold; the light of the wisdom of the teaching, which is able to display things as they are, is like that giant-clam gem. That is to say, what polishes the gold is nothing else than the wisdom of the teaching.
The second simile: “as when the radiance of the palaces of the sun, the moon, and the constellations is upheld by the power of the wind and cannot be spoiled, and no other wind is able to tilt or stir it,” matched with the roots of goodness of this ground, which “followed out and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, cannot be spoiled, and the roots of goodness of any śrāvaka, of any pratyekabuddha, or of the world are unable to tilt or stir them.” The key of this simile lies in “upheld by the power of the wind” — the palaces of the sun and the moon hang in space and do not fall because of the wind; the roots of goodness of this ground are not spoiled because of the wisdom of skillful means. And the clause “no other wind is able to tilt or stir it” answers precisely to the roots of goodness of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the world: they too are winds, and yet they cannot stir this one sun and moon.
Reading the two similes together: the former speaks of turning more excellent (the more it is polished the brighter it grows), the latter of not being spoiled (nothing can stir it). One advancing, one holding — the aspects of practice on this ground are exhausted here.
The Perfection of Meditation Preponderates
Here the text marks out the perfection that preponderates on this ground: “among the ten perfections, the perfection of meditation preponderates; the rest are not uncultivated, only that they follow his strength and follow his portion.”
A misunderstanding has to be broken first: preponderating is not neglecting. The ten perfections are cultivated on every ground; it is only that each has its own ascendancy, and what is ascendant on this ground is meditation. Why meditation? Because both of the matters spoken of above require it — the contemplation of the ten truths must have concentration for its support, and the study of the five sciences requires the strength of concentration if one is not to be turned about by objects. Li Tongxuan establishes the substance of the ground upon just this, saying that this ground “takes the perfection of meditation as its substance, and the other nine are its companions”; and he takes the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound, whom Sudhana visits, as the symbolic figure of the dharma of this ground, ‘tranquil’ standing for meditation and ‘sea of sound’ for the function whereby concentration is able to give rise to wisdom. Chengguan follows the treatise and speaks of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional; Tongxuan follows symbolic reading and speaks of the substance of concentration; both accounts are recorded without adjudication.
The Concluding Name and the Fruit of Recompense: The Tuṣita Heaven King and a Thousand Koṭis in a Single Moment of Thought
The text concludes itself: “this is called a summary account of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s fifth ground, Hard to Conquer.” The single word ‘summary’ must be seen — what has been said is already this broad, and it is still called a summary.
The fruit of recompense has two parts. The first is the royal station: “he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, is masterful in what he does for sentient beings, crushes all the wrong views of the outer paths, and is able to bring sentient beings to abide within the truth of the real.” The office of a Tuṣita heaven king answers exactly to this ground — to crush wrong views and to make beings abide in the truth of the real is just the wisdom of the truths put to use in the world. And the text immediately adds the most important clause: giving, kindly speech, conduct that benefits, and the sharing of tasks — “in all the deeds he does such as these he does not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, does not depart from keeping the Dharma in mind, does not depart from keeping the Saṅgha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the possessing in full of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience.” To be a king in the heavens and yet not break off the keeping in mind of the Three Jewels — this is to have the fruit of recompense rather than to be turned about by it.
The second is the vow to be foremost: “among sentient beings I ought to be the foremost, the excellent, the surpassing, the wondrous, the exceedingly wondrous, the higher, the unsurpassed, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience.” This advancing string of ‘to be’ read alone looks like contending for superiority; read after the preceding passage, “alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions,” its meaning becomes clear — to be foremost is to be the first to shoulder, and to be the place of reliance is to be the one leaned upon. To vow to be foremost is to be willing to stand at the very front and take the blows.
The third is the mark of advancing beyond: “if he raises up diligent vigor, then in a single moment of thought he gains a thousand koṭis of samādhis, sees a thousand koṭis of buddhas,” on up to being able to shake a thousand koṭis of buddha-worlds, to display a thousand koṭis of bodies, and in each single body to display a thousand koṭis of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if he displays them masterfully by the power of his vow, then it goes beyond this number, and in a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas one could not reckon and know it. The first ground had ‘a hundred’, this ground has ‘a thousand koṭis’ — the leap in the numbers is just the mechanical figure for the increase in excellence from ground to ground, and it is not to be pressed for an actual measurement; what is to be looked at is that prior condition, “if he raises up diligent vigor.”
Matching Up the Verses in Repetition: How the Verses and the Prose Are Read Together
At the end Vajragarbha, “wishing to declare this meaning over again, spoke in verse,” twenty-two verses in all. Chengguan outlines them in three: the first seventeen verses repeat the practice of the ground, the next four the fruit of the ground, and the last one concludes the exposition. There is one general rule for reading verses in repetition — where the meaning has already been taught in the prose, the verse only matches it up and does not teach it again; where a phrase is found in the verses alone, that is taught in its own right.
Reading them by this rule: the first verse, “the bodhisattva has cultivated the fourth ground until it is pure; he ponders the equality of the dharmas of the buddhas of the three times, and discipline, mind, the removal of doubt, and what is the path and what is not,” repeats the ten equal minds, and every phrase can be matched back to the prose. The next three verses are the passage of the greatest teaching interest within the verses, and are not found in the prose: “with the stations of mindfulness for a bow and the faculties for sharp arrows, with right exertion for a horse and the bases of supernormal power for a chariot, with the five powers for firm armor to break the foe,” repeating the factors of awakening by implements of war — the four stations of mindfulness for a bow, the five faculties for arrows, the four right exertions for a horse, the four bases of supernormal power for a chariot, the five powers for armor; “with shame and conscience for a robe and the factors of awakening for a garland, with pure discipline for incense and meditation for perfumed unguent,” repeating shame and conscience, the seven factors of awakening, discipline, and concentration by robe, ornament, and fragrance; “with the four bases of accord with wish for feet and right mindfulness for a neck, with loving-kindness and compassion for eyes and wisdom for fangs; the lion among men roars the roar of no-self,” matching the single body of a lion with the four bases of accord with wish, right mindfulness, loving-kindness and compassion, and wisdom, and taking “no-self” for the roar — and this roar is the eye of the whole set of verses: what enables the lion to break the foe is not strength but no-self.
Below this, the verse “he knows well the truth of the world and the truth of the supreme meaning, the truth of characteristics, the truth of distinctions, the truth of establishment” repeats the ten truths; the verse “observing the truths in this way, though it be wondrous, he has not yet gained the unobstructed and surpassing liberation” repeats the limit of the wisdom of faith and understanding; “having observed the truths, he knows that conditioned dharmas are false in their very nature and have no solidity” repeats the falsity of the conditioned; the two verses “he observes the prior and later limits of all that is conditioned: the black darkness of ignorance and the bondage of craving” and “with craving and grasping for cause they undergo the suffering to come … these are to be pitied, and I ought to deliver them” repeat the contemplation of the prior and later limits and the compassion; and the verse “the house of the aggregates, the snakes of the elements, the arrows of the views; the fire of the mind fiercely blazing and the darkness of delusion deep” compresses the five similes of the prose into two lines — the aggregates for a house, the elements for snakes, the views for arrows, the mind for fire, delusion for darkness — the similes dense and yet not confused.
“He is named one who is mindful and one who has insight, on up to one who is aware, one who understands, and one who is skilled in means” repeats the twenty-one names, abbreviating them with ‘on up to’; “practicing merit and wisdom without being satiated, reverent and widely learned without tiring” repeats the excellence of his cultivation; the three verses from “in order to teach and transform the several worlds, he knows well the dharmas of writing, reckoning, seals, and the like, and understands well the several medicines” onward repeat the five sciences, matching the prose item by item; “the wise one abiding on this Hard-to-Conquer Ground makes offerings to nayutas of buddhas and hears their Dharma as well; just as true gold is polished with a wondrous gem” repeats the seeing of buddhas and the long cultivation together with the simile of true gold; while “it is as when the constellations stand in open space, upheld by the power of the wind and suffering no harm or stirring; and as the lotus does not cling to the water” adds, beyond the two similes of the prose, the further simile of the lotus — this is a meaning found in the verses alone and must be taught in its own right: the sun and moon figure his not being spoiled, the lotus figures his not being stained. For one who walks in the world and studies the dharmas of the world, this is the very line most needed.
“Abiding on this ground he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, and is able to crush the several wrong views of the divergent paths” repeats the fruit of recompense; “if he cultivates further with great vigor, then at once he makes offerings to a thousand koṭis of buddhas” repeats the advance in excellence within a single moment of thought. The last verse concludes the exposition: “such is the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, the true path that is highest among men; with every sort of power of skillful means, I have finished declaring it for the sons of the Buddha.” — the line “the true path that is highest among men” is a word of praise found in the verses alone, and the sixty does not have it in this place; both texts are recorded without adjudication.
Read Against the Mirror of Consciousness-Only: The Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground
In the consciousness-only line this ground has another name: the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground. The Cheng weishi lun, explaining the ten grounds, says that this ground is one where “the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary to one another in their aspects, and to join them and make them answer to one another” is exceedingly hard to conquer — the same vein of meaning as the She dacheng and Vasubandhu’s explanation that Chengguan cites. The Yuqie shidi lun, in the Bodhisattva Stage, points directly to this sūtra as the text of the expounding at length, saying that one who would expound it at length should do as with the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground in the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds; and its Section of Ascertainment, explaining the name, says that only through exceeding hardship does one gain mastery, and therefore the fifth is named the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground. The She dacheng lun shi, listing the names of the ten grounds, likewise has the fifth as the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground.
Taking the judgment of consciousness-only that Chengguan cites as a mirror in which to look back upon this ground, three things can be seen clearly. First, the obstruction cut off on this ground has a settled name: the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle. On the preceding four grounds one gained world-transcending wisdom and was weary of birth-and-death and delighted in nirvāṇa, and this partiality is exactly what obstructs the fifth ground; now, entering the path in which the true and the conventional are without difference, this obstruction is cut off. Second, the suchness realized also has a settled name: the suchness of the absence of difference in kind — birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, the true and the conventional, are of one kind and without difference. Third, the insight of this ground Chengguan judges to be ‘the practice of the ascendancy of insight regarding the truths’ and its practice to be ‘the practice of teaching and transforming in the places of the five sciences’, and these two practices being unobstructed, the fruit of a dharma-body without difference is gained.
Note that this is a looking in a mirror and not a re-judging. The sūtra itself speaks only of the ten equal minds, the ten truths, the five sciences, and the two similes, and sets up no name for an obstruction and no name for a suchness; those names are judgments established by the treatise masters of the consciousness-only line upon the basis of this sūtra. Looked at in the mirror, the skeleton of this ground stands out more clearly — but in reading the sūtra one should still take the sūtra’s own sequence as principal.
Lineage
The text of this ground opens out afterward along two roads.
The first is the road of the treatise masters. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun outlines this ground in three parts — the countering of the conceit of excellence, the excellence of the practice of the path of non-abiding, and the excellence of the fruit thereof — citing the sūtra passage by passage and explaining it; Chengguan carries on his outline and matches it with the path of applied practice, the path of liberation, and the path of advancing beyond, and within his explanation of the text he sets down a general rule for explaining scripture: “further, where the treatise and the sūtra do not run in the same order, one may only bring the treatise to the sūtra; one may not turn the sūtra around to follow the treatise” — where the sequence of the treatise and that of the sūtra do not agree, bring the treatise to the sūtra, and do not instead accommodate the text of the sūtra to the treatise. This rule has been of the widest influence in the explaining of scripture in later ages, and is recorded here.
The second is the road of the schools. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji opens seven gates upon this ground, and its gate of the explanation of the name gathers the accounts of the Weishi, the She dacheng, and Vasubandhu’s explanation, together with those of the Jinguangming, the Zhuangyan lun, the Xianyang lun, and the Shizhu lun, and records the divergent name by which the Renwang jing calls this ground the ‘Ground of Surpassing Wisdom’; Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun, for its part, does not follow the explanation by the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, but establishes the substance of the ground upon the perfection of meditation and reads it by the symbolic figure of the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound, and sets up a further explanation — “because he passes beyond the delusions of the three realms and yet does not take the realization of nirvāṇa, and neither the three realms nor nirvāṇa is at all able to damage his wisdom that is without support or abode” — and therefore it is named Hard to Conquer. Chengguan, at the end of his explanation of the text of this ground, writes plainly “the fifth ground is completed” and closes.
The explanations of the name given by the several houses: some are taken with respect to the difficulty of cultivating the factors of awakening, some with respect to the joining of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, that are contrary to one another, some with respect to the wondrous wisdom regarding the noble truths being hard to conquer, some with respect to being able to repel two difficulties and gain the victory amid difficulty, some with respect to the hosts of Māra being unable to damage him, some with respect to the afflictions of view and thought being unable to subdue him, and some with respect to the substance of concentration penetrating the dharmas of the world. They are recorded side by side without adjudication. Chengguan for his part judges expressly: “now the several sūtras and treatises differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional” — the several accounts do not hinder one another.
考據Apparatus
第五地＝真俗二智由相違而相合之地：出世之真智與世間之俗智，性相乖違，「合此難合令相應」，故名難勝。此地以十平等清淨心入，以四諦十諦為觀門，以五明世法為化生之具，以禪波羅蜜為所偏；世親《十地經論》科此地為『勝慢對治·不住道行勝·彼果勝』三分，澄觀承之而以『斷下乘般涅槃障、證類無差別真如』定其斷證——前四地厭生死而趣涅槃，至此始入真俗無差別道，是為十地中真俗交關之樞。
一、科判定位
| 科判系統 | 此地之位 |
|---|---|
| 底本 T279 三十九品 | 品二十六 十地品（第六會 他化自在天宮）；第五地 難勝地＝卷三十六〔T10 0191a20–0193b16〕（下接卷尾題記，d06 現前地起於 0193b17） |
| 澄觀《華嚴經疏》 | 第五難勝地科起〔T35n1735 0795b20〕；四門＝來意·釋名·宗趣·釋文；釋文三分＝讚請分（九頌半）·正說分·位果；「五地竟」〔0800b16〕 |
| 世親《十地經論》 | 難勝地第五＝卷之七〔T26n1522 0163a04〕–〔0167c09〕；三分科＝勝慢對治·不住道行勝·彼果勝 |
| 法藏《探玄記》（六十華嚴疏） | 第五難勝地七門〔T35n1733 0337b13〕–〔0342b07 前〕 |
| 李通玄《新華嚴經論》 | 第五難勝地五門〔T36n1739 0893c08〕–〔0895b25 前〕 |
來意——澄觀開四義，首約寄位（四五六地寄出世間，前地寄初果，此地寄羅漢）：
「第五難勝地。所以來者，略有四義：一約寄位。四五六地寄出世間，前寄初果、此寄羅漢，義次第故。」〔T35n1735 0795b20〕
餘三義為：前明覺分相應慧、今辨諸諦相應慧；前得出世未能順世、今能五明攝化；前得三十七菩提分、今辨方便所攝菩提——「此後三意出於《瑜伽》。」〔T35n1735 0795c01〕
論之三分科（世親立·澄觀承之）——
「第五地中分別有三：一、勝慢對治；二、不住道行勝；三、彼果勝。」〔T26n1522 0163a08〕
澄觀以三道配之：
「初即加行道，及初住地無間道；次即正住地解脫道；後即地滿勝進道。」〔T35n1735 0796a11〕
勝慢之二種——
「慢有二種：一他地慢，謂四地中得出世智，取其勝相名為勝慢，今以十種淨心為治。二自地慢，謂於此十心希求勝相，從以為慢。」〔T35n1735 0796a13〕
讚請分科——本單元首九頌半屬讚請：
「初讚請分中九頌半，分二：初八頌半供讚、後一頌請說。」〔T35n1735 0795c29〕
重頌科——
「第三重頌。二十二頌分三：初十七偈頌地行、次四頌地果、後一結說。」〔T35n1735 0800b04〕
本單元說者——本地唯金剛藏菩薩一人說法（長行＋重頌），解脫月菩薩唯請法一句「第五地中諸行相，唯願佛子為宣說！」〔T10n0279 0191b10〕；無如來加持段、無金剛藏默然段（此二屬序請分之科，本地不重演）。
二、術語
| 漢 | 古德傳梵（羅馬字·發音輔助） | 所徵 | 精義 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 難勝地 | —（音寫從闕；玄奘系他經譯極難勝地，見成唯識論〔T31n1585 0051a27〕） | 澄觀引《瑜伽》：「今此地中，顯示菩薩於諸聖諦決定妙智極難可勝，名難勝地。」〔T35n1735 0795c09〕 | 真俗二智行相互違而能合之地；諸家釋名並見目六 |
| 十種平等清淨心 | — | 本品「當以十種平等清淨心趣入」〔T10n0279 0191b13〕 | 入五地之門；六十華嚴作「十平等心」·論牒經作「十平等深淨心」（目四） |
| 十諦 | — | 本品「善知俗諦……乃至善知如來智成就諦」〔T10n0279 0191b28〕 | 於四聖諦上開十種觀門；澄觀明「此乃十種觀於四諦，非謂觀十四諦也」〔T35n1735 0797a01〕 |
| 信解智力／究竟智力 | — | 本品「以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知」〔T10n0279 0191c11〕 | 此地諦智之量：信解分齊而未至究竟 |
| 蘊宅 | — | 本品「於諸蘊宅不能動出」〔T10n0279 0191c18〕 | 以五蘊為所居之舍；六十華嚴作「五陰歸處」「歸五陰舍」（目四） |
| 盡無生諦 | — | 本品「一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦」〔T10n0279 0191c08〕 | 十諦之第八；六十華嚴此位作「滅諦」（目四） |
| 五明 | — | 澄觀判經文世間技藝段為五明：聲明·因明·醫方明·工巧明·內明〔T35n1735 0799c02 起〕 | 菩薩利生所學之世間學處；「五地菩薩學五明故」為《大般若》語〔0799c02〕 |
| 陀羅尼／聞持法師 | — | 本品「得陀羅尼，為聞持法師」〔T10n0279 0192b28〕 | 總持不忘；澄觀云「非得義持者，對勝顯劣」〔T35n1735 0800a23〕 |
| 兜率陀天王 | — | 本品「多作兜率陀天王」〔T10n0279 0192c12〕 | 此地調柔果之王位報 |
| 硨磲 | — | 本品「譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩」〔T10n0279 0192c01〕 | 磨金之寶；喻見目三 |
| 禪波羅蜜 | — | 本品「十波羅蜜中，禪波羅蜜偏多」〔T10n0279 0192c09〕 | 此地所偏之度；李通玄即以此立地體〔T36n1739 0893c12〕 |
三、譬喻·修辭
(一) 真金硨磲磨瑩喻——「譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩，轉更明淨」〔T10n0279 0192c01〕：
- 喻依：以硨磲之寶磨真金，金轉明淨。
- 喻體：此地菩薩「以方便慧思惟觀察」之善根。
- 所顯義：善根非一次而淨，藉磨而顯。澄觀分喻中二事：「真金硨磲磨瑩者，證智契如事為真金。教智光明能示現如事，猶彼硨磲。」〔T35n1735 0800a28〕——證智為金，教智為磨具。
- 承前：初地作『金師鍊金』（入火），此地作『硨磲磨金』（磨瑩）；同一金而鍊法轉深。
(二) 風持日月宮殿喻——「如日月星宿、宮殿光明，風力所持，不可沮壞，亦非餘風所能傾動」〔T10n0279 0192c05〕：
- 喻依：日月星宿之宮殿懸於空中，為風輪所持，餘風不能動。
- 喻體：此地善根「以方便智隨逐觀察」，非聲聞獨覺世間善根所能傾動。
- 所顯義：所持者為方便智，故不壞；澄觀於此引論云「依阿含增長智慧光明勝前地智故」〔T35n1735 0800b02〕，以教智光明勝前地珠光。
(三) 四大毒蛇·諸慢見箭·貪恚癡火·無明黑暗·愛欲大海——悲愍凡夫段之連喻〔T10n0279 0191c22 段內〕：
- 「不知憂畏四大毒蛇」：四大在身如四蛇同篋。
- 「不能拔出諸慢見箭」：慢與見如箭在體。
- 「不能息滅貪、恚、癡火」「不能破壞無明黑暗」「不能乾竭愛欲大海」：三毒為火·無明為闇·愛欲為海。
- 「入魔意稠林，於生死海中，為覺觀波濤之所漂溺」：稠林·波濤二喻收束。
- 所顯義：凡夫非不苦，是不知苦之所在；五喻之中四言其「不能」，首喻言其「不知憂畏」，故菩薩於此轉增大悲。
(四) 頌中之戰具莊嚴喻——重頌以三組喻頌菩提分法與此地德相〔T10n0279 0192c25 起〕：
- 戰具：「念處為弓根利箭，正勤為馬神足車，五力堅鎧破怨敵」——四念處·五根·四正勤·四神足·五力，一一配弓箭馬車鎧。
- 莊嚴：「慚愧為衣覺分鬘，淨戒為香禪塗香」——慚愧·七覺分·戒·定，一一配衣鬘香。
- 師子：「如意為足正念頸，慈悲為眼智慧牙，人中師子無我吼」——以師子一身配四如意足·正念·慈悲·智慧，而以「無我」為吼。
(五) 蓮華不著水——「亦如蓮華不著水，如是大士行於世」〔T10n0279 0193b04〕：所顯義：住世行五明而不為世法所染——與長行「但於眾生不為損惱」相呼應。
四、異譯對勘
本單元要句之漢譯校本：實叉難陀 T279（底本）· 佛馱跋陀羅 T278（晉譯六十華嚴·全本主對校）· 世親《十地經論》T1522 牒經（別行《十地經》文）。60 譯地名亦作「難勝地」，然句式與名相系統仍異，逐句對之。
句一 入地起句·十平等心
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 佛子！菩薩摩訶薩第四地所行道善圓滿已，欲入第五難勝地，當以十種平等清淨心趣入。 | T10n0279 0191b11 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 佛子！菩薩摩訶薩已具足第四地，欲得第五地，當以十平等心。 | T09n0278 0555c09 |
| 《十地經論》牒經 | 爾時金剛藏菩薩言：諸佛子！若菩薩得第四菩薩地善滿諸行已，欲入第五菩薩地，當以十平等深淨心得入第五地。 | T26n1522 0163a10 |
異文所繫：(甲) 心名三異——80「十種平等清淨心」／60「十平等心」／論「十平等深淨心」。(乙) 前地圓滿之語——80「第四地所行道善圓滿已」／60「已具足第四地」／論「得第四菩薩地善滿諸行已」。(丙) 60 十心逐條作「一、過去佛法平等；二、未來佛法平等；三、現在佛法平等；四、戒淨平等；五、心淨平等；六、除見疑悔淨平等；七、道非道淨平等；八、行知見淨平等；九、諸菩提分法轉勝淨平等；十、化眾生淨平等。」〔T09n0278 0555c11〕，80 則十句皆綴「平等清淨心」而以「所謂」總標。
句二 十諦名列
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 善知俗諦，善知第一義諦，善知相諦，善知差別諦，善知成立諦，善知事諦，善知生諦，善知盡無生諦，善知入道智諦 | T10n0279 0191b28 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 是菩薩善知世諦，善知第一義諦，善知相諦，善知差別諦，善知說諦，善知事諦，善知生起諦，善知盡無生諦，善知入道諦，善知一切菩薩次第成就諸地起如來智諦。 | T09n0278 0555c23 |
異文所繫：80「俗諦」／60「世諦」；80「成立諦」／60「說諦」；80「生諦」／60「生起諦」；80「入道智諦」／60「入道諦」。
句三 十諦逐釋之後四諦名（開合異）
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 覺身心苦惱故，知事諦；覺諸趣生相續故，知生諦；一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦；出生無二故，知入道智諦 | T10n0279 0191c07 段內 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 以身心苦惱故，知苦諦；諸趣生相續故，知集諦；畢竟滅一切惱故，知滅諦；至不二法故，知道諦 | T09n0278 0556a01 |
異文所繫：同一四句之所知，80 標為『事諦·生諦·盡無生智諦·入道智諦』，60 標為『苦諦·集諦·滅諦·道諦』——60 以四聖諦之名收之，80 別立十諦之名。二本並錄，不判。
句四 二十一名句式
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 名為：念者，不忘諸法故 | T10n0279 0192a12 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 是菩薩住難勝地，不忘諸法故，名為念者； | T09n0278 0556b04 |
| 《十地經論》牒經 | 是菩薩住此第五菩薩難勝地已，名為念者，不忘諸法故。名為意者，善決定智慧故。名為去者，知經書意次第故。 | T26n1522 0165b25 |
異文所繫：(甲) 句式——80／論先標名後出因，60 先出因後標名。(乙) 名相——80「智者」／論「意者」；80「有趣者」／論「去者」／60「有道者」。(丙) 60 於此列中有「名為遠離破戒者」「名為常念佛法者」「名為莊嚴佛國者」等，與 80 之「為他勤修者」「勤求不懈者」「發意能行者」開合不齊，二本名數各自成列。
句五 60 有而 80 無之句
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 佛馱 T278 | 以方便思惟故，福德善根轉倍明淨，而不取證，亦不疾成於無上道。 | T09n0278 0556c19 |
| 實叉 T279 | 以方便慧思惟觀察，轉更明淨 | T10n0279 0192c03 段內 |
異文所繫：60 於善根轉淨之後加「而不取證，亦不疾成於無上道」一句（明不住道之意），80 此處無對應句而以下文「不可沮壞」段別明之。全錄不判。
句六 結頌
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 如是第五難勝地，人中最上真實道，我以種種方便力，為諸佛子宣說竟。 | T10n0279 0193b09 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 如是第五地，種種諸方便，上智慧大人，如法解說竟。 | T09n0278 0557c20 |
異文所繫：80 五言四句而有「人中最上真實道」之讚語，60 五言四句而無此句，以「上智慧大人」屬能說之人。
五、宗義之經據〔眼〕
(一) 真俗二智之合——難勝之所以難：澄觀集諸論而歸一義：
「然諸經論言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙。」〔T35n1735 0795c19〕
其所集之要義，以《攝大乘》一句最直：「由真諦智與世間智更互相違，合此難合令相應故。」〔T35n1735 0795c04〕世親釋更析其違處：「由此地中知真諦智是無分別，知世間工巧等智是有分別，此二相違應修令合，能合難合令相應故，名極難勝。」〔0795c06〕——真智無分別、俗智有分別，二者體性相違，令其相應故稱難勝。此即本地「世間技藝靡不該習」與「如實知諸諦」二段所以同居一地之理據。
(二) 斷下乘般涅槃障·證類無差別真如：
「故此地中斷於下乘般涅槃障者，即前四地出世，厭生死苦、樂趣涅槃，此障五地。今入真俗無差別道，便能斷之。」〔T35n1735 0795c22〕
「此斷欣厭，即是二愚。由此證得類無差別真如」〔T35n1735 0795c24〕
——所斷者非煩惱之粗，乃『厭生死·欣涅槃』之偏；所證者為生死涅槃平等無差別之真如。
(三) 十觀四諦，非十四諦：
「此乃十種觀於四諦，非謂觀十四諦也。」〔T35n1735 0797a01〕
其所依為《瑜伽·住品》：「此地於四聖諦，由十行相如實了知。」〔T35n1735 0797a03〕——十諦者，四諦之十種觀門，論家以「化生差別」明其異，故通名「所知法中智清淨」。
(四) 五明為菩薩學處：澄觀判經文世間技藝段為五明，並引《大般若》「五地菩薩學五明故」〔T35n1735 0799c02〕：一「文字算數是其聲明」〔0799c03〕，二「圖書至咸通達，即當因明」〔0799c06〕，三「即醫方明，即四大不調眾生毒相病障對治故」〔0799c18〕，四工巧明（「韻屬曰文，對詞曰筆，顯德為讚，寄情曰詠」〔0799c24〕），五「內明，治五種染：一持戒治破戒染；二入禪治貪欲染；三神通治邪歸依染」〔0800a06〕。經文以「但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法」為此段之限——世法之學，唯以利生為量。
(五) 論經不次之則：澄觀於五明段末立一通則：
「又論與經有不次者，但可以論就經，不可迴經從論。」〔T35n1735 0800a11〕
(六) 唯識橋（第五地＝極難勝地）：成唯識論十地段：「五、極難勝地，真、俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」〔T31n1585 0051a27〕；瑜伽師地論〈菩薩地〉直指本經：「若廣宣說，如十地經極難勝地。」〔T30n1579 0559a17〕；〈攝抉擇分〉釋名：「極艱難方得自在，是故第五名極難勝地。」〔T30n1579 0729c23〕；攝大乘論釋十地名列「四、焰慧地，五、極難勝地，六、現前地」〔T31n1594 0145b22〕。諸論之釋名，與本地經文「如實知諸諦」而兼「世間技藝靡不該習」之雙軌相應。
六、諸家異釋（古德·標宗）
澄觀《華嚴經疏》T35n1735 ·《演義鈔》T36n1736（八十華嚴逐文·主）
澄觀釋名不自立一說，而集古德諸釋並列其所約（初·中·後·地滿·地中），逐條如次：
- 《解深密》云「即由於彼菩提分法，方便修習最極艱難，名極難勝。」〔T35n1735 0795c02〕——澄觀繫之曰「此從初說故」。
- 《攝大乘》云「由真諦智與世間智更互相違，合此難合令相應故。」〔0795c04〕——並云「《唯識》同此」。
- 世親釋云「由此地中知真諦智是無分別，知世間工巧等智是有分別，此二相違應修令合，能合難合令相應故，名極難勝。」〔0795c06〕——澄觀繫之曰「此通初中後」。
- 《瑜伽》云「今此地中，顯示菩薩於諸聖諦決定妙智極難可勝，名難勝地。」〔0795c09〕——繫之曰「唯約地中」。
- 《莊嚴論》云「於此五地有二種難：一勸化無惱難、二生不從心無惱難。此地菩薩能退二難，於難得勝。」〔0795c11〕——繫之曰「此多約地滿」。
- 《顯揚論》云「證得極淨緣諦所知諸微妙慧，成極難成，不住流轉，寂靜聖道，名極難勝。」〔0795c14〕——繫之曰「此大同本分」。
- 《十住論》云「功德力成，一切諸魔不能壞故。」〔0795c17〕——澄觀云「此對人顯勝，亦兼於惑煩惱魔故」，以答「未知何等無能勝耶」之問。
十平等心之科釋：「初三明諸佛法」〔0796b06〕、「後七明隨順諸佛法，二利因行順成果故」〔0796b07〕；於七中復開三學與七淨——「前中合為三學，初戒、次定、餘四慧故」〔0796b09〕、「離為七淨：一戒淨；二定淨；三見淨；四度疑淨」〔0796b10〕。
《演義鈔》於本地無獨立科題（鈔體依疏行文，不逐地重立科），唯見引論釋難勝地句：「但引於當地之文。」〔T36n1736 0505a28〕
義疏所引澄觀逐字之補錄：「不住淨心而起諸行，即治住淨慢故。」〔T35n1735 0796c13〕· 「然十皆菩薩自智，智相難明故，論約化生以明其異」〔0797a10〕· 「後一但觀滅道，菩薩地因，證佛智故。」〔0797a22〕· 四攝配屬「一示色身，是同事攝」〔0799b12〕「二演說法，即愛語攝」〔0799b13〕「此句為於菩提無方便眾生示菩薩行，即利行自性。」〔0799b16〕「四於大乘疲倦眾生示佛威力，即一切利行未成令成故。」〔0799b17〕「五為樂世間眾生著財位故示其過患」〔0799b18〕· 「四無量治妄行功德染，謂治殺生祀祠求梵福故；五四無色定治妄修解脫染。」〔0800a08〕· 「一異障中無障，故云但於眾生不為損惱。」〔0800a14〕「今無此捕獵等之異障」〔0800a16〕· 「一地初十平等心，難得能得故；二地中樂出世間智、現世間智，此不住道難得能得故。」〔0800a25〕· 「其所成行亦成二種，謂諸諦增上慧行。五明處教化行，此二無礙故，得無差別法身之果」〔0795c26〕。
法藏《探玄記》T35n1733（六十華嚴疏·判釋淵藪）
「第五難勝地，七門同前。初釋名者」〔T35n1733 0337b13〕
法藏所集之釋名，與澄觀多同而有出入者二：
- 《唯識》云「真俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」〔T35n1733 0337b14〕
- 《金光明》云「是修行方便勝智自在難得故，見思煩惱不能伏故，名難勝地。」〔0337b24〕
- 又誌異名：「《仁王經》名勝慧地，諸餘經論多分皆同。」〔0337c03〕
李通玄《新華嚴經論》T36n1739（表法異軌）
「將釋此地，五門如前。一釋地名目者」〔T36n1739 0893c09〕
通玄不循論家「真俗二智」之釋，而以禪度立名立體：
- 「此地何故名為難勝地？為以禪波羅蜜發起善根慈悲喜捨，通達世法，下地不如，故名難勝地。」〔T36n1739 0893c09〕
- 「此地以禪波羅蜜為體，餘九為伴。」〔0893c12〕
- 又一釋：「為過三界惑，復不證涅槃，三界及涅槃總不能壞其無依住之智慧，故名難勝地。」〔0893c29〕
- 表法門：「云去此地不遠有夜神，名寂靜音海」〔0893c14〕——以〈入法界品〉寂靜音海主夜神寄此地，明定能發慧之用。
誌錄不判：釋名之諸說，有約真俗二智相違而合者（《攝大乘》·世親釋·《唯識》），有約菩提分法修習艱難者（《解深密》），有約於諸聖諦妙智難勝者（《瑜伽》），有約退二難於難得勝者（《莊嚴論》），有約諸魔不能壞者（《十住論》），有約見思不能伏者（《金光明》）；法藏並列而復誌《仁王》異名，李通玄則以禪度立地體、以夜神表法讀之。諸說皆古德成說，並錄之，不判高下。
澄觀明判：「然諸經論言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙」〔T35n1735 0795c19〕——總收諸說。
七、互讀·承衍
本地經文為唯識行位「極難勝地」之經源，亦為華嚴宗真俗無礙義之品內據。承衍繫鏈皆回本編既鎖考據出處（零新考據）：
- 世親《十地經論》T26n1522：本地三分科〔0163a08〕為澄觀所承；牒經逐段——十平等心〔0163a10〕· 不退轉心十二因〔0163b11〕· 十諦〔0163c09〕· 有為虛妄〔0164a24〕· 前後際觀〔0164b10〕· 悲愍凡夫〔0164c10〕· 孤窮無依〔0165a07〕· 迴向十句〔0165a27〕· 二十一名〔0165b25〕〔0165c25〕· 十化眾生行〔0166a26〕· 世間技藝〔0166b26〕· 見多佛〔0167a11〕。
- 成唯識論 T31n1585（本編《成唯識論》 考據）：十地十障十真如段內本地句「五、極難勝地，真、俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」〔0051a27〕——與澄觀所引《唯識》釋同一義。
- 攝大乘論釋 T31n1594（本編《攝大乘論》 考據）：十地名列「四、焰慧地，五、極難勝地，六、現前地」〔0145b22〕；澄觀·法藏釋名所引《攝大乘》句即出此系。
- 瑜伽師地論 T30n1579（本編《瑜伽師地論》 考據）：〈菩薩地〉「若廣宣說，如十地經極難勝地。」〔0559a17〕——以本經為廣說之本；〈攝抉擇分〉「極艱難方得自在，是故第五名極難勝地。」〔0729c23〕。澄觀本地釋文亦多依《瑜伽》：「上來所釋多依本論及《瑜伽》十三四五」〔T35n1735 0800a10〕。
- 華嚴宗方面：本地「真俗無礙」「不住道」之義，與澄觀所立「今入真俗無差別道」〔T35n1735 0795c24〕相貫，為圓融門中理事無礙之地位安立；五明攝化一段則為華嚴『不壞世法而入法界』之經據。
八、校本定位
- 實叉 T279（底本）：第五地難勝地〔T10n0279 0191a20〕起–〔0193b16〕訖（卷三十六）。讚請段 0191a21 起（解脫月請 0191b09）· 十平等清淨心 0191b13–0191b19（結入地 0191b20）· 不退轉心十二因 0191b21–0191b26 · 四諦十諦 0191b27（諦智之量 0191c11）· 有為虛妄觀 0191c13 · 增上悲 0191c14 · 悲愍凡夫（一）0191c22 · 悲愍凡夫（二）·迴向十句 0192a01 · 二十一名 0192a12 · 十化眾生行 0192a29 · 世間技藝 0192b09（醫方 0192b11）· 見佛供養 0192b21 · 久修 0192b29 · 真金硨磲喻 0192c01·風持日月喻 0192c05 · 禪度偏多 0192c09 · 結名 0192c11 · 兜率王果 0192c12 · 一念頃十事 0192c19 · 重頌 0192c25–0193b09。
- 佛馱 T278（晉譯主對校）：本地段 0555c07–0557c21（請說 0555c07 · 十平等心 0555c09 · 十諦名列 0555c23 · 十諦逐釋 0556a01 · 二十一名 0556b04 · 十化眾生行 0556b22 · 世間技藝 0556c01 · 見佛久修 0556c10 · 不取證句 0556c19 · 兜率王 0556c21 · 重頌起 0557a01 · 結頌 0557c20）。
- 《十地經論》T1522（世親）：難勝地第五＝卷之七〔0163a04〕–〔0167c09〕；三分科 0163a08 · 牒經諸段出處見目七。
- 澄觀《疏》T35n1735：第五難勝地 0795b20 起–0800b16 訖（來意 0795b20 · 釋名諸家 0795c01–0795c18 · 真俗無礙 0795c19 · 斷障證如 0795c22–0795c25 · 讚請分科 0795c29 · 三道配三分 0796a11 · 勝慢二種 0796a13 · 十心科 0796b06–0796b10 · 十觀四諦 0797a01–0797a03 · 四攝科 0799b11 起 · 五明 0799c02–0800a09 · 論經不次 0800a11 · 位果三果 0800a20 · 真金硨磲釋 0800a28 · 教智淨 0800b02 · 重頌科 0800b04 · 五地竟 0800b16）。《鈔》T36n1736：0505a28（引論釋難勝地句）。
- 法藏《探玄記》T35n1733（六十疏）：第五難勝地 0337b13 起–0342b07 前（釋名 0337b14–0337c03）。
- 李通玄《論》T36n1739：第五難勝地 0893c08 起–0895b25 前（釋名 0893c09 · 地體 0893c12 · 表法夜神 0893c14 · 復釋名 0893c29）。
- 闕錄誌：①《演義鈔》T36n1736 於本地無獨立科起（鈔依疏行文，不逐地重立科題）——據實標闕，非缺陷；另 0682c23 為〈入法界品〉寂靜音海主夜神寄難勝地段，屬他品寄位互涉，誌錄存查，不收入本地正科。②智儼《搜玄記》T35n1732 依本帙裁（六相相涉處誌錄·不逐單元強列），本單元未列。③探玄記七門、通玄五門之餘門（來意·斷障·證真·成行·得果等）本單元未逐字取，屬未搜，非查無。
- 異讀：本單元 T279 範圍〔0191a20〕–〔0193b16〕內大正校記 7 條，逐條照錄不判（底本【大】｜他本異讀；多本異讀以／分列）：〔0191a20〕第五地【大】｜無此字【宋】【元】【明】【宮】【聖】【福】 · 〔0191a25〕采【大】｜婇【宋】【元】【明】 · 〔0191b25〕受【大】｜愛【福】 · 〔0191c16〕行【大】｜無【南藏】（明註曰行南藏作無） · 〔0192b12〕魅【大】｜鬼【福】 · 〔0192b13〕妓【大】｜技【宋】／伎【宮】 · 〔0193a26〕詞【大】｜辭【宋】【元】【明】。
- 異讀補記：CBETA 回改 1 條（不入上列大正校記之數）：〔0193a19〕湑【CB】【麗-CB】｜胥【大】／𭂘【宋】【元】【宮】【福】。
The fifth ground is the ground upon which the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, pass from mutual contrariety into mutual accord: the true wisdom that transcends the world and the conventional wisdom of the world are contrary to one another in nature and in aspect, and it is a matter of 「合此難合令相應」 tr. “joining what is hard to join and making them answer to one another” — hence the name Hard to Conquer. This ground is entered by the ten kinds of equal and pure mind; the four truths and the ten truths are its gate of contemplation; the worldly dharmas of the five sciences are its implements for transforming beings; and the perfection of meditation is what preponderates in it. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun outlines this ground in three parts, ‘the countering of the conceit of excellence · the excellence of the practice of the path of non-abiding · the excellence of the fruit thereof’, and Chengguan carries this on, settling what is cut off and what is realized as ‘the cutting off of the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle and the realizing of the suchness of the absence of difference in kind’ — the four grounds before this were weary of birth-and-death and turned toward nirvāṇa, and only here does one enter the path in which the true and the conventional are without difference. This is the pivot at which the true and the conventional join within the ten grounds.
I. Doctrinal Outline and Placement
| Outline system | The place of this ground within it |
|---|---|
| The base text T279, in thirty-nine chapters | Chapter 26, The Ten Grounds (the sixth assembly, in the palace of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations); the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer = fascicle thirty-six 〔T10 0191a20–0193b16〕 (the colophon at the end of the fascicle follows next; the sixth ground, Manifest (see 〈The Sixth Ground, Manifest〉 in this volume), begins at 0193b17) |
| Chengguan, Huayan jing shu | The outline of the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, begins 〔T35n1735 0795b20〕; the four gates = the reason for its coming · the explanation of the name · the tenet and aim · the explanation of the text; the explanation of the text in three parts = the part of praise and request (nine and a half verses) · the exposition proper · the fruit of the station; 「五地竟」 tr. “the fifth ground is completed” 〔0800b16〕 |
| Vasubandhu, Shidi jing lun | Hard to Conquer, the fifth ground = fascicle seven 〔T26n1522 0163a04〕–〔0167c09〕; the outline in three parts = the countering of the conceit of excellence · the excellence of the practice of the path of non-abiding · the excellence of the fruit thereof |
| Fazang, Tanxuan ji (commentary on the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka) | The seven gates of the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer 〔T35n1733 0337b13〕– up to just before 〔0342b07〕 |
| Li Tongxuan, Xin Huayan jing lun | The five gates of the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer 〔T36n1739 0893c08〕– up to just before 〔0895b25〕 |
The reason for its coming — Chengguan opens four senses, the first with respect to the station in which the ground is lodged (the fourth, fifth, and sixth grounds are lodged in what transcends the world; the preceding ground is lodged in the first fruit, this one in the arhat):
「第五難勝地。所以來者，略有四義：一約寄位。四五六地寄出世間，前寄初果、此寄羅漢，義次第故。」 tr. “The fifth ground, Hard to Conquer. As for the reason for its coming, there are in brief four senses. First, with respect to the station in which it is lodged: the fourth, fifth, and sixth grounds are lodged in what transcends the world, the preceding one being lodged in the first fruit and this one in the arhat — the sense follows in sequence.” 〔T35n1735 0795b20〕
The remaining three senses are these: the preceding ground made clear the wisdom that answers to the factors of awakening, while the present one sets forth the wisdom that answers to the truths; on the preceding ground one gained what transcends the world but was not yet able to accord with the world, while on the present one one is able to gather and transform beings by the five sciences; on the preceding ground one gained the thirty-seven factors of awakening, while the present one sets forth the awakening that is gathered in by skillful means — 「此後三意出於《瑜伽》。」 tr. “These latter three senses come out of the Yuqie.” 〔T35n1735 0795c01〕
The outline of the treatise in three parts (established by Vasubandhu, carried on by Chengguan) —
「第五地中分別有三：一、勝慢對治；二、不住道行勝；三、彼果勝。」 tr. “Within the fifth ground the distinctions are three: first, the countering of the conceit of excellence; second, the excellence of the practice of the path of non-abiding; third, the excellence of the fruit thereof.” 〔T26n1522 0163a08〕
Chengguan matches them with the three paths:
「初即加行道，及初住地無間道；次即正住地解脫道；後即地滿勝進道。」 tr. “The first is the path of applied practice, together with the uninterrupted path of first abiding on the ground; the next is the path of liberation of properly abiding on the ground; the last is the path of advancing beyond at the fullness of the ground.” 〔T35n1735 0796a11〕
The two kinds of conceit of excellence —
「慢有二種：一他地慢，謂四地中得出世智，取其勝相名為勝慢，今以十種淨心為治。二自地慢，謂於此十心希求勝相，從以為慢。」 tr. “Conceit is of two kinds. The first is the conceit regarding another ground — that is, on the fourth ground one gained world-transcending wisdom and took up its aspect of excellence, and this is called the conceit of excellence; now the ten kinds of pure mind are taken as its counter. The second is the conceit regarding one’s own ground — that is, seeking an aspect of excellence in these ten minds and thereupon taking that as conceit.” 〔T35n1735 0796a13〕
The outline of the part of praise and request — the first nine and a half verses of this unit belong to praise and request:
「初讚請分中九頌半，分二：初八頌半供讚、後一頌請說。」 tr. “First, within the part of praise and request there are nine and a half verses, divided into two: the first eight and a half verses are the offering and the praise, and the last one verse is the request that it be expounded.” 〔T35n1735 0795c29〕
The outline of the verses in repetition —
「第三重頌。二十二頌分三：初十七偈頌地行、次四頌地果、後一結說。」 tr. “Third, the verses in repetition. The twenty-two verses divide into three: the first seventeen verses repeat the practice of the ground, the next four the fruit of the ground, and the last one concludes the exposition.” 〔T35n1735 0800b04〕
The speakers of this unit — on this ground the Dharma is expounded by the bodhisattva Vajragarbha alone (the prose together with the verses in repetition), and the bodhisattva Vimukticandra has only the one sentence of request, 「第五地中諸行相，唯願佛子為宣說！」 tr. “The aspects of practice within the fifth ground — may the son of the Buddha declare them!” 〔T10n0279 0191b10〕; there is no passage of the Tathāgata’s empowerment and no passage of Vajragarbha’s declining (these two belong to the outline of the preface-and-request section and are not performed again on this ground).
II. Terminology
| Term | Sanskrit as transmitted by the ancient worthies (roman letters · pronunciation aid) | Attestation | Essential sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Hard-to-Conquer Ground | — (no transliteration transmitted; in other sūtras of the Xuanzang line it is rendered the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground, see the Cheng weishi lun 〔T31n1585 0051a27〕) | Chengguan, citing the Yuqie: 「今此地中，顯示菩薩於諸聖諦決定妙智極難可勝，名難勝地。」 tr. “Here, within this ground, it is shown that the bodhisattva’s settled and wondrous wisdom regarding the noble truths is exceedingly hard to overcome; hence it is named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔T35n1735 0795c09〕 | The ground on which the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary in their aspects and yet can be joined; the explanations of the name by the several houses are all found under rubric VI |
| the ten kinds of equal and pure mind | — | this chapter: 「當以十種平等清淨心趣入」 tr. “he should enter by way of the ten kinds of equal and pure mind” 〔T10n0279 0191b13〕 | The gate for entering the fifth ground; the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka has 「十平等心」 tr. “the ten equal minds”, and the sūtra as cited in the treatise has 「十平等深淨心」 tr. “the ten equal, deep, and pure minds” (rubric IV) |
| the ten truths | — | this chapter: 「善知俗諦……乃至善知如來智成就諦」 tr. “he knows well the truth of the conventional … on up to knowing well the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata” 〔T10n0279 0191b28〕 | Ten gates of contemplation opened upon the four noble truths; Chengguan makes it clear that 「此乃十種觀於四諦，非謂觀十四諦也」 tr. “this is ten kinds of contemplation upon the four truths; it does not mean contemplating fourteen truths” 〔T35n1735 0797a01〕 |
| the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding / the power of ultimate wisdom | — | this chapter: 「以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知」 tr. “he knows by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, not by the power of ultimate wisdom” 〔T10n0279 0191c11〕 | The measure of the wisdom of the truths on this ground: it is within the compass of faith and understanding and has not yet reached the ultimate |
| the house of the aggregates | — | this chapter: 「於諸蘊宅不能動出」 tr. “within the houses of the aggregates they cannot stir and get out” 〔T10n0279 0191c18〕 | The five aggregates taken as the dwelling one inhabits; the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka has 「五陰歸處」 tr. “the place of resort of the five aggregates” and 「歸五陰舍」 tr. “resorting to the house of the five aggregates” (rubric IV) |
| the truth of exhaustion and non-arising | — | this chapter: 「一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦」 tr. “because all burning distress is finally extinguished, he knows the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising” 〔T10n0279 0191c08〕 | The eighth of the ten truths; at this position the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka has 「滅諦」 tr. “the truth of cessation” (rubric IV) |
| the five sciences | — | Chengguan judges the passage of the sūtra on worldly arts to be the five sciences: the science of sound · the science of reasoning · the science of medicine · the science of crafts · the inner science 〔T35n1735 0799c02 onward〕 | The worldly places of study that the bodhisattva takes up for the benefit of beings; 「五地菩薩學五明故」 tr. “because the bodhisattva of the fifth ground studies the five sciences” is a phrase of the Dabanruo 〔0799c02〕 |
| dhāraṇī / a Dharma master of hearing and retention | — | this chapter: 「得陀羅尼，為聞持法師」 tr. “he gains dhāraṇī and becomes a Dharma master of hearing and retention” 〔T10n0279 0192b28〕 | Total retention without forgetting; Chengguan says 「非得義持者，對勝顯劣」 tr. “that it is not the gaining of the retention of the meaning is a showing of the lesser by setting it against the greater” 〔T35n1735 0800a23〕 |
| a king of the Tuṣita Heaven | — | this chapter: 「多作兜率陀天王」 tr. “he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven” 〔T10n0279 0192c12〕 | The recompense in a royal station that is the fruit of pliancy on this ground |
| the giant-clam gem | — | this chapter: 「譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩」 tr. “it is like true gold polished with a giant-clam gem” 〔T10n0279 0192c01〕 | A gem for polishing gold; for the simile see rubric III |
| the perfection of meditation | — | this chapter: 「十波羅蜜中，禪波羅蜜偏多」 tr. “among the ten perfections, the perfection of meditation preponderates” 〔T10n0279 0192c09〕 | The perfection that preponderates on this ground; Li Tongxuan establishes the very substance of the ground upon it 〔T36n1739 0893c12〕 |
III. Similes and Rhetoric
(1) The simile of true gold polished with a giant-clam gem — 「譬如真金，以硨磲磨瑩，轉更明淨」 tr. “it is like true gold which, polished with a giant-clam gem, turns brighter and purer still” 〔T10n0279 0192c01〕:
- The vehicle of the simile: with the gem that is the giant clam one polishes true gold, and the gold turns brighter and purer.
- What it figures: the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground, which are 「以方便慧思惟觀察」 tr. “pondered and observed with the wisdom of skillful means”.
- What it shows: roots of goodness are not made pure at a single stroke; they are made manifest by being polished. Chengguan divides two things within the simile: 「真金硨磲磨瑩者，證智契如事為真金。教智光明能示現如事，猶彼硨磲。」 tr. “As for true gold polished with a giant-clam gem: realizing wisdom, in its tallying with suchness, is the true gold; the light of the wisdom of the teaching, which is able to display things as they are, is like that giant-clam gem.” 〔T35n1735 0800a28〕 — realizing wisdom is the gold, the wisdom of the teaching is the polishing implement.
- What carries over from before: on the first ground the figure was ‘the goldsmith refining gold’ (putting it into the fire); on this ground it is ‘the giant-clam gem polishing gold’ (the burnishing). It is one and the same gold, and the method of refining has turned deeper.
(2) The simile of the wind that upholds the palaces of the sun and the moon — 「如日月星宿、宮殿光明，風力所持，不可沮壞，亦非餘風所能傾動」 tr. “like the radiance of the palaces of the sun, the moon, and the constellations, upheld by the power of the wind, which cannot be spoiled and which no other wind is able to tilt or stir” 〔T10n0279 0192c05〕:
- The vehicle of the simile: the palaces of the sun, the moon, and the constellations hang in space, upheld by the wheel of wind, and no other wind can stir them.
- What it figures: the roots of goodness of this ground, which are 「以方便智隨逐觀察」 tr. “followed out and observed with the wisdom of skillful means”, and which the roots of goodness of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the world are unable to tilt or stir.
- What it shows: what upholds them is the wisdom of skillful means, and therefore they are not spoiled; Chengguan here cites the treatise, 「依阿含增長智慧光明勝前地智故」 tr. “because in dependence upon the āgama the light of wisdom increases and surpasses the wisdom of the preceding ground” 〔T35n1735 0800b02〕, taking the light of the wisdom of the teaching to surpass the light of the jewel of the preceding ground.
(3) The four great elements as poisonous snakes · the arrows of conceits and views · the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion · the darkness of ignorance · the great sea of craving and desire — the linked similes in the passage of compassion for ordinary persons 〔T10n0279 0191c22, within the passage〕:
- 「不知憂畏四大毒蛇」 tr. “they do not know to be anxious and afraid of the four great elements, the poisonous snakes”: the four great elements within the body are as four snakes in one basket.
- 「不能拔出諸慢見箭」 tr. “they are unable to draw out the arrows of the conceits and the views”: conceit and view are as arrows lodged in the body.
- 「不能息滅貪、恚、癡火」 tr. “they are unable to quench the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion”; 「不能破壞無明黑暗」 tr. “they are unable to break up the black darkness of ignorance”; 「不能乾竭愛欲大海」 tr. “they are unable to dry up the great sea of craving and desire”: the three poisons are fire, ignorance is darkness, craving and desire are a sea.
- 「入魔意稠林，於生死海中，為覺觀波濤之所漂溺」 tr. “they enter the dense thicket of Māra’s mind and, in the sea of birth-and-death, are swept away and drowned by the waves and billows of thought and examination”: the thicket and the billows are two similes that draw the passage to a close.
- What it shows: ordinary persons are not without suffering; it is that they do not know where the suffering lies. Of the five similes, four speak of their 「不能」 tr. “being unable”, and the first speaks of their 「不知憂畏」 tr. “not knowing to be anxious and afraid” — and therefore the bodhisattva here turns to increase great compassion.
(4) The similes of the implements of war and of ornament in the verses — the verses in repetition use three sets of similes to repeat the factors of awakening and the marks of virtue of this ground 〔T10n0279 0192c25 onward〕:
- The implements of war: 「念處為弓根利箭，正勤為馬神足車，五力堅鎧破怨敵」 tr. “the stations of mindfulness are the bow and the faculties the sharp arrows, right exertion the horse and the bases of supernormal power the chariot, and the five powers the firm armor that breaks the foe” — the four stations of mindfulness · the five faculties · the four right exertions · the four bases of supernormal power · the five powers, each matched with bow, arrow, horse, chariot, and armor.
- The ornaments: 「慚愧為衣覺分鬘，淨戒為香禪塗香」 tr. “shame and conscience are the robe and the factors of awakening the garland, pure discipline the incense and meditation the perfumed unguent” — shame and conscience · the seven factors of awakening · discipline · concentration, each matched with robe, garland, and fragrance.
- The lion: 「如意為足正念頸，慈悲為眼智慧牙，人中師子無我吼」 tr. “accord with wish is the feet and right mindfulness the neck, loving-kindness and compassion the eyes and wisdom the fangs; the lion among men roars the roar of no-self” — the single body of a lion is matched with the four bases of accord with wish · right mindfulness · loving-kindness and compassion · wisdom, and 「無我」 tr. “no-self” is taken as the roar.
(5) The lotus that does not cling to the water — 「亦如蓮華不著水，如是大士行於世」 tr. “and like the lotus that does not cling to the water, so does the great being walk in the world” 〔T10n0279 0193b04〕: what it shows — he dwells in the world and practices the five sciences and yet is not stained by worldly dharmas, answering to the prose sentence 「但於眾生不為損惱」 tr. “only that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings”.
IV. Collation with Parallel Translations
The Chinese witnesses for the principal sentences of this unit: Śikṣānanda T279 (the base text) · Buddhabhadra T278 (the Jin translation, the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka; the principal witness for collation throughout) · the sūtra as cited in Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun T1522 (the text of the separately circulating Sūtra of the Ten Grounds). The sixty likewise gives the name of the ground as 「難勝地」 tr. “the Hard-to-Conquer Ground”, yet the sentence patterns and the system of terms still differ, and so they are collated sentence by sentence.
Sentence 1 · The opening sentence of entering the ground · the ten equal minds
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | Sons of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva has well brought to fullness the path practiced on the fourth ground and wishes to enter the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, he should enter by way of the ten kinds of equal and pure mind. | T10n0279 0191b11 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | Sons of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva has fully accomplished the fourth ground and wishes to gain the fifth ground, he should do so by the ten equal minds. | T09n0278 0555c09 |
| The Shidi jing lun, citing the sūtra | At that time the bodhisattva Vajragarbha said: Sons of the Buddha! If a bodhisattva has gained the fourth bodhisattva ground and has well brought his practices to fullness, and wishes to enter the fifth bodhisattva ground, he should by the ten equal, deep, and pure minds gain entry to the fifth ground. | T26n1522 0163a10 |
Where the variants lie: (a) The name of the minds differs in three ways — the eighty has 「十種平等清淨心」 tr. “the ten kinds of equal and pure mind”, the sixty 「十平等心」 tr. “the ten equal minds”, and the treatise 「十平等深淨心」 tr. “the ten equal, deep, and pure minds”. (b) The wording for the fullness of the preceding ground — the eighty has 「第四地所行道善圓滿已」 tr. “having well brought to fullness the path practiced on the fourth ground”, the sixty 「已具足第四地」 tr. “having fully accomplished the fourth ground”, and the treatise 「得第四菩薩地善滿諸行已」 tr. “having gained the fourth bodhisattva ground and well brought all the practices to fullness”. (c) The sixty gives the ten minds item by item as 「一、過去佛法平等；二、未來佛法平等；三、現在佛法平等；四、戒淨平等；五、心淨平等；六、除見疑悔淨平等；七、道非道淨平等；八、行知見淨平等；九、諸菩提分法轉勝淨平等；十、化眾生淨平等。」 tr. “first, equality regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the past; second, equality regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the future; third, equality regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the present; fourth, equality in the purity of discipline; fifth, equality in the purity of mind; sixth, equality in the purity of the removal of views, doubt, and regret; seventh, equality in the purity of what is the path and what is not the path; eighth, equality in the purity of the knowing and seeing of practice; ninth, equality in the purity of turning ever more excellent in all the factors of awakening; tenth, equality in the purity of transforming sentient beings.” 〔T09n0278 0555c11〕, while the eighty appends 「平等清淨心」 tr. “equal and pure mind” to each of the ten clauses and heads them all with 「所謂」 tr. “they are these”.
Sentence 2 · The list of the names of the ten truths
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | He knows well the truth of the conventional, knows well the truth of the supreme meaning, knows well the truth of characteristics, knows well the truth of distinctions, knows well the truth of establishment, knows well the truth of the actual, knows well the truth of arising, knows well the truth of exhaustion and non-arising, knows well the truth of the wisdom that enters the path | T10n0279 0191b28 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | This bodhisattva knows well the truth of the world, knows well the truth of the supreme meaning, knows well the truth of characteristics, knows well the truth of distinctions, knows well the truth of exposition, knows well the truth of the actual, knows well the truth of coming to arise, knows well the truth of exhaustion and non-arising, knows well the truth of entering the path, knows well the truth of the arising of the wisdom of the Tathāgata through the accomplishing of all the bodhisattva grounds in due order. | T09n0278 0555c23 |
Where the variants lie: the eighty has 「俗諦」 tr. “the truth of the conventional” and the sixty 「世諦」 tr. “the truth of the world”; the eighty has 「成立諦」 tr. “the truth of establishment” and the sixty 「說諦」 tr. “the truth of exposition”; the eighty has 「生諦」 tr. “the truth of arising” and the sixty 「生起諦」 tr. “the truth of coming to arise”; the eighty has 「入道智諦」 tr. “the truth of the wisdom that enters the path” and the sixty 「入道諦」 tr. “the truth of entering the path”.
Sentence 3 · The names of the last four truths in the item-by-item explanation of the ten truths (a divergence of expansion and compression)
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | because he is aware of the suffering and distress of body and mind, he knows the truth of the actual; because he is aware of the continuity of birth in the destinies, he knows the truth of arising; because all burning distress is finally extinguished, he knows the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising; because there issues forth non-duality, he knows the truth of the wisdom that enters the path | T10n0279 0191c07, within the passage |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | because of the suffering and distress of body and mind, he knows the truth of suffering; because of the continuity of birth in the destinies, he knows the truth of origination; because all distress is finally extinguished, he knows the truth of cessation; because he arrives at the non-dual dharma, he knows the truth of the path | T09n0278 0556a01 |
Where the variants lie: for the very same four clauses of what is known, the eighty marks them as ‘the truth of the actual · the truth of arising · the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising · the truth of the wisdom that enters the path’, while the sixty marks them as ‘the truth of suffering · the truth of origination · the truth of cessation · the truth of the path’ — the sixty gathers them under the names of the four noble truths, while the eighty establishes separately the names of the ten truths. Both texts are recorded, without adjudication.
Sentence 4 · The sentence pattern of the twenty-one names
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | he is named: one who is mindful, because he does not forget the dharmas | T10n0279 0192a12 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | This bodhisattva, dwelling on the Hard-to-Conquer Ground, because he does not forget the dharmas, is named one who is mindful; | T09n0278 0556b04 |
| The Shidi jing lun, citing the sūtra | This bodhisattva, dwelling on this fifth bodhisattva ground, Hard to Conquer, is named one who is mindful, because he does not forget the dharmas. He is named one who has intent, because of the wisdom of good decision. He is named one who goes, because he knows the intent and the due order of the scriptural texts. | T26n1522 0165b25 |
Where the variants lie: (a) The sentence pattern — the eighty and the treatise first set out the name and then give the reason, while the sixty first gives the reason and then sets out the name. (b) The terms — the eighty has 「智者」 tr. “one who is wise” and the treatise 「意者」 tr. “one who has intent”; the eighty has 「有趣者」 tr. “one who has the drift of it” , the treatise 「去者」 tr. “one who goes”, and the sixty 「有道者」 tr. “one who has the way”. (c) In this same list the sixty has 「名為遠離破戒者」 tr. “he is named one who keeps far from breaking the discipline”, 「名為常念佛法者」 tr. “he is named one who constantly keeps the Buddha-Dharma in mind”, and 「名為莊嚴佛國者」 tr. “he is named one who adorns the buddha-land”, which do not tally in their expansion and compression with the eighty’s 「為他勤修者」 tr. “one who cultivates diligently for others”, 「勤求不懈者」 tr. “one who seeks diligently and does not slacken”, and 「發意能行者」 tr. “one who raises the intent and is able to practice”; the names and their number in the two texts each form a list of their own.
Sentence 5 · A sentence the sixty has and the eighty does not
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Buddhabhadra T278 | Because of pondering with skillful means, the roots of goodness of merit turn doubly bright and pure, and yet he does not take realization, nor does he swiftly accomplish the unsurpassed path. | T09n0278 0556c19 |
| Śikṣānanda T279 | pondering and observing with the wisdom of skillful means, they turn brighter and purer still | T10n0279 0192c03, within the passage |
Where the variants lie: after the roots of goodness turn pure, the sixty adds the one sentence 「而不取證，亦不疾成於無上道」 tr. “and yet he does not take realization, nor does he swiftly accomplish the unsurpassed path” (making clear the sense of the path of non-abiding), while the eighty has no answering sentence here and makes the point separately by the passage below on 「不可沮壞」 tr. “what cannot be spoiled”. Recorded in full without adjudication.
Sentence 6 · The concluding verse
| Witness | Verbatim, rendered | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | Such is the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, the true path that is highest among men; with the power of every sort of skillful means I have declared it for the sons of the Buddha. | T10n0279 0193b09 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | Such is the fifth ground, with its every sort of skillful means; the great man of higher wisdom has explained it in accordance with the Dharma. | T09n0278 0557c20 |
Where the variants lie: the eighty has four lines of five graphs and contains the words of praise 「人中最上真實道」 tr. “the true path that is highest among men”, while the sixty has four lines of five graphs without this line and assigns 「上智慧大人」 tr. “the great man of higher wisdom” to the one who expounds.
V. Scriptural Grounds of Sectarian Doctrine (the doctrinal eye)
(1) The joining of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional — wherein the difficulty of Hard to Conquer lies: Chengguan gathers the several treatises and brings them back to one sense:
「然諸經論言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙。」 tr. “Now the several sūtras and treatises differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional.” 〔T35n1735 0795c19〕
Of the essential senses he gathers, the one sentence from the She dacheng is the most direct: 「由真諦智與世間智更互相違，合此難合令相應故。」 tr. “Because the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality and the wisdom of the world are mutually contrary, and one joins what is hard to join and makes them answer to one another.” 〔T35n1735 0795c04〕 Vasubandhu’s explanation analyzes the point of contrariety further: 「由此地中知真諦智是無分別，知世間工巧等智是有分別，此二相違應修令合，能合難合令相應故，名極難勝。」 tr. “Because on this ground one knows that the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality is without discrimination and that the wisdom of worldly crafts and the like has discrimination, and these two being contrary one must cultivate so as to join them; because one is able to join what is hard to join and make them answer to one another, it is named Exceedingly Hard to Conquer.” 〔0795c06〕 — the true wisdom is without discrimination, the conventional wisdom has discrimination, the two are contrary in their very nature, and because they are made to answer to one another it is called Hard to Conquer. This is precisely the ground upon which the two passages of this ground, 「世間技藝靡不該習」 tr. “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice” and 「如實知諸諦」 tr. “he knows the truths as they really are”, come to dwell upon one and the same ground.
(2) The cutting off of the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle · the realizing of the suchness of the absence of difference in kind:
「故此地中斷於下乘般涅槃障者，即前四地出世，厭生死苦、樂趣涅槃，此障五地。今入真俗無差別道，便能斷之。」 tr. “Therefore, that on this ground the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle is cut off means this: on the preceding fourth ground one transcended the world, was weary of the suffering of birth-and-death, and delighted to turn toward nirvāṇa — and this obstructs the fifth ground. Now, entering the path in which the true and the conventional are without difference, one is able to cut it off.” 〔T35n1735 0795c22〕
「此斷欣厭，即是二愚。由此證得類無差別真如」 tr. “What is cut off here, delight and weariness, is precisely the two follies. By this one realizes the suchness of the absence of difference in kind” 〔T35n1735 0795c24〕
— what is cut off is not the coarseness of the afflictions but the partiality of ‘being weary of birth-and-death and delighting in nirvāṇa’; what is realized is the suchness in which birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are equal and without difference.
(3) Ten contemplations upon the four truths, not fourteen truths:
「此乃十種觀於四諦，非謂觀十四諦也。」 tr. “This is ten kinds of contemplation upon the four truths; it does not mean contemplating fourteen truths.” 〔T35n1735 0797a01〕
What this rests upon is the Chapter on the Abodes in the Yuqie: 「此地於四聖諦，由十行相如實了知。」 tr. “On this ground, with respect to the four noble truths, by ten aspects he knows them as they really are.” 〔T35n1735 0797a03〕 — the ten truths are ten gates of contemplation upon the four truths, and the treatise masters make clear their difference by 「化生差別」 tr. “the differences in transforming beings”; hence they are named in common 「所知法中智清淨」 tr. “the purity of wisdom within the dharmas to be known”.
(4) The five sciences as the bodhisattva’s place of study: Chengguan judges the passage of the sūtra on worldly arts to be the five sciences, and cites the Dabanruo, 「五地菩薩學五明故」 tr. “because the bodhisattva of the fifth ground studies the five sciences” 〔T35n1735 0799c02〕: first, 「文字算數是其聲明」 tr. “letters and reckoning are its science of sound” 〔0799c03〕; second, 「圖書至咸通達，即當因明」 tr. “from charts and writings on to ‘he penetrates them all’ answers to the science of reasoning” 〔0799c06〕; third, 「即醫方明，即四大不調眾生毒相病障對治故」 tr. “this is the science of medicine, since it is the countering of the sickness-obstructions and the marks of poison in sentient beings whose four great elements are out of harmony” 〔0799c18〕; fourth, the science of crafts (「韻屬曰文，對詞曰筆，顯德為讚，寄情曰詠」 tr. “what is joined in rhyme is called composition, what is matched in phrasing is called writing, what displays virtue is praise, and what lodges the feelings is called chanting” 〔0799c24〕); fifth, 「內明，治五種染：一持戒治破戒染；二入禪治貪欲染；三神通治邪歸依染」 tr. “the inner science, which treats five kinds of defilement: first, keeping the discipline treats the defilement of breaking the discipline; second, entering meditation treats the defilement of greed and desire; third, supernormal power treats the defilement of wrong reliance” 〔0800a06〕. The sūtra itself sets the limit of this passage with 「但於眾生不為損惱，為利益故咸悉開示，漸令安住無上佛法」 tr. “only that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings; for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth, and gradually brings them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma” — the study of worldly dharmas has for its measure the benefit of beings alone.
(5) The rule for where the treatise and the sūtra do not run in the same order: at the end of the passage on the five sciences Chengguan establishes a general rule:
「又論與經有不次者，但可以論就經，不可迴經從論。」 tr. “Further, where the treatise and the sūtra do not run in the same order, one may only bring the treatise to the sūtra; one may not turn the sūtra around to follow the treatise.” 〔T35n1735 0800a11〕
(6) The bridge to consciousness-only (the fifth ground = the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground): the passage on the ten grounds in the Cheng weishi lun: 「五、極難勝地，真、俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」 tr. “Fifth, the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground: because the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary to one another in their aspects, and to join them and make them answer to one another is exceedingly hard to conquer.” 〔T31n1585 0051a27〕; the Yuqie shidi lun, in the Bodhisattva Stage, points directly to this sūtra: 「若廣宣說，如十地經極難勝地。」 tr. “If it is to be expounded at length, it is as the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground in the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds.” 〔T30n1579 0559a17〕; the Section of Ascertainment explains the name: 「極艱難方得自在，是故第五名極難勝地。」 tr. “Only through exceeding hardship does one gain mastery, and therefore the fifth is named the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔T30n1579 0729c23〕; and the She dacheng lun shi, in the list of the names of the ten grounds, has 「四、焰慧地，五、極難勝地，六、現前地」 tr. “fourth, the Flaming-Wisdom Ground; fifth, the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground; sixth, the Manifest Ground” 〔T31n1594 0145b22〕. The explanations of the name in these treatises answer to the double track of the text of this ground, which both 「如實知諸諦」 tr. “knows the truths as they really are” and at the same time holds that 「世間技藝靡不該習」 tr. “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice”.
VI. Divergent Interpretations of the Commentators
Chengguan, Huayan jing shu T35n1735 · Yanyi chao T36n1736 (following the eighty-fascicle text phrase by phrase · the principal commentary)
In explaining the name Chengguan does not set up an account of his own; he lists side by side the explanations of the ancient worthies together with what each is taken with respect to (first entering · the midst · the latter part · the fullness of the ground · within the ground), item by item as follows:
- The Jieshenmi says 「即由於彼菩提分法，方便修習最極艱難，名極難勝。」 tr. “It is just because the cultivating of those factors of awakening by skillful means is exceedingly difficult that it is named Exceedingly Hard to Conquer.” 〔T35n1735 0795c02〕 — Chengguan attaches to it 「此從初說故」 tr. “this is spoken with respect to the first entering”.
- The She dacheng says 「由真諦智與世間智更互相違，合此難合令相應故。」 tr. “Because the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality and the wisdom of the world are mutually contrary, and one joins what is hard to join and makes them answer to one another.” 〔0795c04〕 — and he says further 「《唯識》同此」 tr. “the Weishi is the same as this”.
- Vasubandhu’s explanation says 「由此地中知真諦智是無分別，知世間工巧等智是有分別，此二相違應修令合，能合難合令相應故，名極難勝。」 tr. “Because on this ground one knows that the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality is without discrimination and that the wisdom of worldly crafts and the like has discrimination, and these two being contrary one must cultivate so as to join them; because one is able to join what is hard to join and make them answer to one another, it is named Exceedingly Hard to Conquer.” 〔0795c06〕 — Chengguan attaches to it 「此通初中後」 tr. “this runs through the first, the middle, and the last”.
- The Yuqie says 「今此地中，顯示菩薩於諸聖諦決定妙智極難可勝，名難勝地。」 tr. “Here, within this ground, it is shown that the bodhisattva’s settled and wondrous wisdom regarding the noble truths is exceedingly hard to overcome; hence it is named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔0795c09〕 — he attaches to it 「唯約地中」 tr. “this is taken only with respect to the midst of the ground”.
- The Zhuangyan lun says 「於此五地有二種難：一勸化無惱難、二生不從心無惱難。此地菩薩能退二難，於難得勝。」 tr. “On this fifth ground there are two difficulties: first, the difficulty of exhorting and transforming without vexation; second, the difficulty of remaining without vexation when things do not go as one’s mind would have them. The bodhisattva of this ground is able to repel these two difficulties, and amid difficulty gains the victory.” 〔0795c11〕 — he attaches to it 「此多約地滿」 tr. “this is mostly taken with respect to the fullness of the ground”.
- The Xianyang lun says 「證得極淨緣諦所知諸微妙慧，成極難成，不住流轉，寂靜聖道，名極難勝。」 tr. “He realizes the utterly pure and subtle wisdoms that take the truths as their object and as their known, accomplishing what is exceedingly hard to accomplish; not abiding in the round of transmigration, the noble path being tranquil, it is named Exceedingly Hard to Conquer.” 〔0795c14〕 — he attaches to it 「此大同本分」 tr. “this is largely the same as the root portion”.
- The Shizhu lun says 「功德力成，一切諸魔不能壞故。」 tr. “Because the power of merit is accomplished, and none of the hosts of Māra is able to damage it.” 〔0795c17〕 — Chengguan says 「此對人顯勝，亦兼於惑煩惱魔故」 tr. “this displays the excellence by setting it against persons, and it takes in as well the Māra of delusion and the afflictions”, answering thereby the question 「未知何等無能勝耶」 tr. “it is not yet known what it is that none can conquer”.
The outline and explanation of the ten equal minds: 「初三明諸佛法」 tr. “the first three make clear the Dharma of the buddhas” 〔0796b06〕, 「後七明隨順諸佛法，二利因行順成果故」 tr. “the latter seven make clear the according with the Dharma of the buddhas, since the causal practice of the two benefits accords in bringing the fruit to completion” 〔0796b07〕; and within the seven he further opens the three trainings and the seven purities — 「前中合為三學，初戒、次定、餘四慧故」 tr. “within the former they are gathered into three trainings: the first is discipline, the next concentration, and the remaining four wisdom” 〔0796b09〕, 「離為七淨：一戒淨；二定淨；三見淨；四度疑淨」 tr. “taken apart they are seven purities: first, purity of discipline; second, purity of concentration; third, purity of view; fourth, purity in passing beyond doubt” 〔0796b10〕.
The Yanyi chao has no separate outline heading for this ground (the Chao follows the running text of the commentary and does not set up a fresh outline for each ground); there is met with only the line citing the treatise’s explanation of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground: 「但引於當地之文。」 tr. “It cites only the text belonging to the ground in question.” 〔T36n1736 0505a28〕
Supplementary verbatim record of the passages of Chengguan cited in the exposition: 「不住淨心而起諸行，即治住淨慢故。」 tr. “Not abiding in the pure mind and yet giving rise to the practices — this counters the conceit of abiding in purity.” 〔T35n1735 0796c13〕 · 「然十皆菩薩自智，智相難明故，論約化生以明其異」 tr. “yet all ten are the bodhisattva’s own wisdom, and because the aspects of wisdom are hard to make plain, the treatise makes their difference plain with respect to the beings transformed” 〔0797a10〕 · 「後一但觀滅道，菩薩地因，證佛智故。」 tr. “the last one contemplates only cessation and the path, because it is the cause of the bodhisattva grounds and realizes the wisdom of a buddha.” 〔0797a22〕 · the assignment of the four means of gathering, 「一示色身，是同事攝」 tr. “first, manifesting a physical body is the gathering by the sharing of tasks” 〔0799b12〕 「二演說法，即愛語攝」 tr. “second, expounding the Dharma is the gathering by kindly speech” 〔0799b13〕 「此句為於菩提無方便眾生示菩薩行，即利行自性。」 tr. “This clause shows the bodhisattva practice to sentient beings who lack skillful means toward awakening; it is the self-nature of conduct that benefits.” 〔0799b16〕 「四於大乘疲倦眾生示佛威力，即一切利行未成令成故。」 tr. “Fourth, showing the Buddha’s awesome power to sentient beings weary of the Great Vehicle is bringing to completion every beneficial conduct not yet completed.” 〔0799b17〕 「五為樂世間眾生著財位故示其過患」 tr. “fifth, for sentient beings who delight in the world and are attached to wealth and position, showing them its faults” 〔0799b18〕 · 「四無量治妄行功德染，謂治殺生祀祠求梵福故；五四無色定治妄修解脫染。」 tr. “Fourth, the four immeasurables counter the defilement of falsely practicing for merit, that is, they counter killing living beings in sacrifice to seek the blessings of Brahmā; fifth, the four formless concentrations counter the defilement of falsely cultivating for liberation.” 〔0800a08〕 · 「一異障中無障，故云但於眾生不為損惱。」 tr. “First, being without obstruction amid the differing obstructions; hence it says that he only does no harm or vexation to sentient beings.” 〔0800a14〕 「今無此捕獵等之異障」 tr. “now there is none of this differing obstruction of hunting and the like” 〔0800a16〕 · 「一地初十平等心，難得能得故；二地中樂出世間智、現世間智，此不住道難得能得故。」 tr. “First, the ten equal minds at the start of the ground, which are hard to gain and yet are gained; second, within the ground, delighting in world-transcending wisdom and manifesting worldly wisdom — this path of non-abiding, which is hard to gain and yet is gained.” 〔0800a25〕 · 「其所成行亦成二種，謂諸諦增上慧行。五明處教化行，此二無礙故，得無差別法身之果」 tr. “the practices it accomplishes are likewise two kinds, namely the practice of higher wisdom regarding the truths and the practice of teaching and transforming through the five sciences; because these two are unobstructed, one gains the fruit of the dharma-body without difference” 〔0795c26〕.
Fazang, Tanxuan ji T35n1733 (commentary on the sixty-fascicle text · the wellspring of judgments and explanations)
「第五難勝地，七門同前。初釋名者」 tr. “The fifth ground, Hard to Conquer: seven gates, the same as before. First, the explanation of the name” 〔T35n1733 0337b13〕
What Fazang gathers by way of explanations of the name largely agrees with Chengguan, with two that stand apart:
- The Weishi says 「真俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」 tr. “Because the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary to one another in their aspects, and to join them and make them answer to one another is exceedingly hard to conquer.” 〔T35n1733 0337b14〕
- The Jinguangming says 「是修行方便勝智自在難得故，見思煩惱不能伏故，名難勝地。」 tr. “Because the mastery of the surpassing wisdom of the skillful means of practice is hard to gain, and because the afflictions of view and of thought are unable to subdue him, it is named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔0337b24〕
- And he records a divergent name: 「《仁王經》名勝慧地，諸餘經論多分皆同。」 tr. “The Renwang jing names it the Ground of Surpassing Wisdom, and most of the other sūtras and treatises are all the same.” 〔0337c03〕
Li Tongxuan, Xin Huayan jing lun T36n1739 (a different track of symbolic reading)
「將釋此地，五門如前。一釋地名目者」 tr. “About to explain this ground: five gates, as before. First, the explanation of the name of the ground” 〔T36n1739 0893c09〕
Tongxuan does not follow the treatise masters’ explanation by 「真俗二智」 tr. “the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional”, but establishes both the name and the substance of the ground upon the perfection of meditation:
- 「此地何故名為難勝地？為以禪波羅蜜發起善根慈悲喜捨，通達世法，下地不如，故名難勝地。」 tr. “Why is this ground named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground? Because by the perfection of meditation he raises up the roots of goodness — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — and penetrates the dharmas of the world, and the lower grounds do not come up to him; therefore it is named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔T36n1739 0893c09〕
- 「此地以禪波羅蜜為體，餘九為伴。」 tr. “This ground takes the perfection of meditation as its substance, and the other nine are its companions.” 〔0893c12〕
- And a further explanation: 「為過三界惑，復不證涅槃，三界及涅槃總不能壞其無依住之智慧，故名難勝地。」 tr. “Because he passes beyond the delusions of the three realms and yet does not take the realization of nirvāṇa, and neither the three realms nor nirvāṇa is at all able to damage his wisdom that is without support or abode, it is named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔0893c29〕
- The gate of symbolic reading: 「云去此地不遠有夜神，名寂靜音海」 tr. “it says that not far from this place there is a night goddess named Sea of Tranquil Sound” 〔0893c14〕 — taking the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound of the chapter Entry into the Dharma Realm as lodged at this ground, and thereby making clear the function whereby concentration is able to give rise to wisdom.
Recorded without adjudication: among the several accounts of the explanation of the name, there are those taken with respect to the joining of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, that are contrary to one another (the She dacheng · Vasubandhu’s explanation · the Weishi); one taken with respect to the difficulty of cultivating the factors of awakening (the Jieshenmi); one taken with respect to the wondrous wisdom regarding the noble truths that is hard to conquer (the Yuqie); one taken with respect to repelling two difficulties and gaining the victory amid difficulty (the Zhuangyan lun); one taken with respect to the hosts of Māra being unable to damage him (the Shizhu lun); and one taken with respect to the afflictions of view and thought being unable to subdue him (the Jinguangming). Fazang sets them side by side and further records the divergent name from the Renwang, while Li Tongxuan establishes the substance of the ground upon the perfection of meditation and reads it by the symbolic figure of the night goddess. All these accounts are settled accounts of the ancient worthies; they are recorded side by side, without adjudging one higher or lower.
Chengguan’s express judgment: 「然諸經論言異意同，皆辨真俗無礙」 tr. “Now the several sūtras and treatises differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional” 〔T35n1735 0795c19〕 — this gathers all the accounts in.
VII. Cross-Reading and Lineage
The text of this ground is the scriptural source of the 「極難勝地」 tr. “Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground” in the station-scheme of the consciousness-only line, and is likewise the warrant within the chapter for the Huayan school’s doctrine of the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional. The chain of lineage links back throughout to sources of apparatus already fixed above (no new apparatus):
- Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun T26n1522: the outline of this ground in three parts 〔0163a08〕 is what Chengguan carries on; and the citations of the sūtra, passage by passage — the ten equal minds 〔0163a10〕 · the twelve causes of the mind of non-retrogression 〔0163b11〕 · the ten truths 〔0163c09〕 · the falsity of the conditioned 〔0164a24〕 · the contemplation of the prior and later limits 〔0164b10〕 · compassion for ordinary persons 〔0164c10〕 · the destitute and unsupported 〔0165a07〕 · the ten clauses of dedication 〔0165a27〕 · the twenty-one names 〔0165b25〕〔0165c25〕 · the ten practices of transforming sentient beings 〔0166a26〕 · the worldly arts 〔0166b26〕 · the seeing of many buddhas 〔0167a11〕.
- The Cheng weishi lun T31n1585 (the apparatus of the Cheng weishi lun within this collection): within the passage on the ten grounds, the ten obstructions, and the ten suchnesses, the sentence for this ground, 「五、極難勝地，真、俗兩智行相互違，合令相應極難勝故。」 tr. “Fifth, the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground: because the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary to one another in their aspects, and to join them and make them answer to one another is exceedingly hard to conquer.” 〔0051a27〕 — the same sense as the explanation of the Weishi that Chengguan cites.
- The She dacheng lun shi T31n1594 (the apparatus of the She dacheng lun within this collection): the list of the names of the ten grounds, 「四、焰慧地，五、極難勝地，六、現前地」 tr. “fourth, the Flaming-Wisdom Ground; fifth, the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground; sixth, the Manifest Ground” 〔0145b22〕; the sentence of the She dacheng cited in the explanations of the name by Chengguan and by Fazang comes from this line.
- The Yuqie shidi lun T30n1579 (the apparatus of the Yuqie shidi lun within this collection): the Bodhisattva Stage, 「若廣宣說，如十地經極難勝地。」 tr. “If it is to be expounded at length, it is as the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground in the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds.” 〔0559a17〕 — taking this sūtra as the text of the expounding at length; and the Section of Ascertainment, 「極艱難方得自在，是故第五名極難勝地。」 tr. “Only through exceeding hardship does one gain mastery, and therefore the fifth is named the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground.” 〔0729c23〕. Chengguan’s explanation of the text of this ground also follows the Yuqie in much: 「上來所釋多依本論及《瑜伽》十三四五」 tr. “what has been explained above follows for the most part the root treatise and the Yuqie, fascicles thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen” 〔T35n1735 0800a10〕.
- On the side of the Huayan school: the sense of 「真俗無礙」 tr. “the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional” and of 「不住道」 tr. “the path of non-abiding” on this ground runs through with what Chengguan establishes as 「今入真俗無差別道」 tr. “now one enters the path in which the true and the conventional are without difference” 〔T35n1735 0795c24〕, and is the placing of a station within the gate of perfect interfusion where principle and phenomena are unobstructed; while the passage on gathering and transforming by the five sciences is the scriptural ground for the Huayan doctrine of ‘entering the Dharma realm without breaking the dharmas of the world’.
VIII. Edition Location Register
- Śikṣānanda T279 (the base text): the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, begins 〔T10n0279 0191a20〕 and ends 〔0193b16〕 (fascicle thirty-six). The passage of praise and request begins 0191a21 (the request of Vimukticandra 0191b09) · the ten kinds of equal and pure mind 0191b13–0191b19 (the concluding sentence of entering the ground 0191b20) · the twelve causes of the mind of non-retrogression 0191b21–0191b26 · the four truths and the ten truths 0191b27 (the measure of the wisdom of the truths 0191c11) · the contemplation of the falsity of the conditioned 0191c13 · the ascendancy of compassion 0191c14 · compassion for ordinary persons (1) 0191c22 · compassion for ordinary persons (2) · the ten clauses of dedication 0192a01 · the twenty-one names 0192a12 · the ten practices of transforming sentient beings 0192a29 · the worldly arts 0192b09 (medicine 0192b11) · the seeing of buddhas and the making of offerings 0192b21 · the long cultivation 0192b29 · the simile of true gold and the giant-clam gem 0192c01 · the simile of the wind upholding the sun and the moon 0192c05 · the preponderance of the perfection of meditation 0192c09 · the concluding name 0192c11 · the fruit of the Tuṣita king 0192c12 · the ten matters in a single moment of thought 0192c19 · the verses in repetition 0192c25–0193b09.
- Buddhabhadra T278 (the Jin translation, the principal witness for collation): the passage of this ground 0555c07–0557c21 (the request that it be expounded 0555c07 · the ten equal minds 0555c09 · the list of the names of the ten truths 0555c23 · the item-by-item explanation of the ten truths 0556a01 · the twenty-one names 0556b04 · the ten practices of transforming sentient beings 0556b22 · the worldly arts 0556c01 · the seeing of buddhas and the long cultivation 0556c10 · the sentence on not taking realization 0556c19 · the Tuṣita king 0556c21 · the verses in repetition begin 0557a01 · the concluding verse 0557c20).
- The Shidi jing lun T1522 (Vasubandhu): Hard to Conquer, the fifth ground = fascicle seven 〔0163a04〕–〔0167c09〕; the outline in three parts 0163a08 · for the locations of the passages citing the sūtra see rubric VII.
- Chengguan, Huayan jing shu T35n1735: the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, begins 0795b20 and ends 0800b16 (the reason for its coming 0795b20 · the several houses on the explanation of the name 0795c01–0795c18 · the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional 0795c19 · the cutting off of the obstruction and the realizing of suchness 0795c22–0795c25 · the outline of the part of praise and request 0795c29 · the three paths matched with the three parts 0796a11 · the two kinds of conceit of excellence 0796a13 · the outline of the ten minds 0796b06–0796b10 · the ten contemplations upon the four truths 0797a01–0797a03 · the outline of the four means of gathering, beginning 0799b11 · the five sciences 0799c02–0800a09 · the treatise and the sūtra not running in the same order 0800a11 · the three fruits of the fruit of the station 0800a20 · the explanation of true gold and the giant-clam gem 0800a28 · the purity of the wisdom of the teaching 0800b02 · the outline of the verses in repetition 0800b04 · the fifth ground is completed 0800b16). The Chao T36n1736: 0505a28 (the line citing the treatise’s explanation of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground).
- Fazang, Tanxuan ji T35n1733 (the commentary on the sixty): the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, begins 0337b13 – up to just before 0342b07 (the explanation of the name 0337b14–0337c03).
- Li Tongxuan, Xin Huayan jing lun T36n1739: the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, begins 0893c08 – up to just before 0895b25 (the explanation of the name 0893c09 · the substance of the ground 0893c12 · the symbolic reading of the night goddess 0893c14 · the further explanation of the name 0893c29).
- A record of what is lacking: (1) The Yanyi chao T36n1736 has no separate outline opening for this ground (the Chao follows the running text of the commentary and does not set up a fresh outline heading for each ground) — recorded honestly as lacking, and not a defect; further, 0682c23 is the passage of the chapter Entry into the Dharma Realm where the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound is lodged at the Hard-to-Conquer Ground, which belongs to the mutual involvement of stations lodged in another chapter, recorded for reference and not taken into the proper outline of this ground. (2) Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji T35n1732, following the settled practice of this collection (recorded where the six characteristics are involved · not forcibly listed for every unit), is not listed for this unit. (3) The remaining gates of the seven gates of the Tanxuan ji and the five gates of Tongxuan (the reason for its coming · the cutting off of obstructions · the realizing of the true · the completing of practice · the gaining of the fruit, and so on) have not been taken verbatim for this unit; they are unsearched, not not-found.
- Variant readings: within the range of T279 covered by this unit, 〔0191a20〕–〔0193b16〕, the Taishō base text carries 7 collation notes, recorded one by one without adjudication (base reading 【大】｜variant readings of other witnesses, several witnesses separated by ／): 〔0191a20〕第五地【大】｜無此字【宋】【元】【明】【宮】【聖】【福】 · 〔0191a25〕采【大】｜婇【宋】【元】【明】 · 〔0191b25〕受【大】｜愛【福】 · 〔0191c16〕行【大】｜無【南藏】（明註曰行南藏作無） · 〔0192b12〕魅【大】｜鬼【福】 · 〔0192b13〕妓【大】｜技【宋】／伎【宮】 · 〔0193a26〕詞【大】｜辭【宋】【元】【明】.
- A further note upon the variant readings: 1 CBETA emendation (not counted among the Taishō collation notes listed above): 〔0193a19〕湑【CB】【麗-CB】｜胥【大】／𭂘【宋】【元】【宮】【福】.