華嚴經 品二十六 十地品 · 第六地 現前地Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Ten Grounds · The Sixth Ground, Manifest

Why the Question Is about the “Aspect of Practice” and Not about Merit

Vimukticandra’s question is a single sentence: by what aspect of practice can one enter the ground that comes after. He does not ask how much merit this ground has, or how many buddhas one can see there, but for the aspect of practice — what the person entering this ground is actually doing in his mind. The very form of the question is a reminder: what separates one ground from the next is not the size of the recompense, but that the object contemplated and the mind that contemplates have changed. On the ground before this one contemplated the four truths; on this one, what is to be contemplated? The answer comes in the very next sentence: he contemplates the ten equalities. The easiest mistake in reading the ten grounds is to read them as a report card, each ground a rung higher than the last; in truth each ground is a question set, and when the question changes, the person changes. Brought home to oneself: rather than asking ‘which rung am I on’, ask ‘what is it that I am contemplating now’ — that is the aspect of practice.

The Ten Equalities: To Enter the Ground One Must First Set Down “the Defiled” and “the Pure” Together

Why must one contemplate the ten equalities in order to enter the sixth ground? Chengguan, following the treatise, explains the conceit that this ground counters, and he says it with perfect clarity: the fourth ground counters the conceit of a self among beings and the conceit of understanding the Dharma; the fifth counters the conceit of bodily purity; and by the sixth what is countered is the conceit of grasping at the marks of the defiled and the pure — what is countered grows ever finer, and therefore it is called surpassing. Once this is said, the use of the ten equalities becomes plain: on the grounds before, one contemplated the four truths, where suffering and its origin are the defiled and cessation and the path are the pure; and however well one contemplated, there still stood in the mind the discrimination ‘this side is dirty, that side is clean’ — and so long as that discrimination stands, there is still grasping, and still conceit. The ten equalities are the gate of contemplation that levels “the defiled” and “the pure” together. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: equality does not mean lumping good and evil together and no longer discriminating between wholesome and unwholesome; the equality the sūtra speaks of is equality in the nature of dharmas — at the level of self-nature, defiled dharmas and pure dharmas are alike without marks and alike unarisen. Brought down to daily life: the arrogance hardest to notice after long practice is usually not ‘I am better than others’ but ‘I am on the clean side.’

The Ten Equalities Are Ten Angles upon One and the Same Thing

Count the ten equalities through one by one and you find that they are not ten things but ten ways of taking hold of one thing. Without marks — there is no mark to be grasped; without substance — there is no solid self-substance; unarisen, unaccomplished — nothing was ever really produced, nothing ever really made; from the first pure — it is not clean because it has been washed, but was never stained; without conceptual proliferation — words find no place to settle; without taking up or laying down — there is nothing to pick up and nothing to drop; still — it is of itself at rest; like an illusion, like a dream, like a shadow, like an echo, like the moon in water, like an image in a mirror, like a mirage, like a conjured thing — eight similes running on together, all saying ‘present, yet not real’; existence and non-existence not two — the last clause gathers in both sides at once. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: these ten are not ten technical names to be memorized, but ten keys — use whichever one opens your lock. The way of applying them is very plain: when you meet an object you cannot put down, take up any one of them and press the question — has it a self-substance? is it not like the image in a mirror? Press it to the bottom, and the grasping mind loosens of itself.

He Gains the Bright and Keen Forbearance of Conformity but Not the Forbearance of the Non-arising of Dharmas — Stating One’s Own Measure Plainly

Having said that one enters the ground, the sūtra at once adds a sentence: what is gained is the bright and keen forbearance of conformity; the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas has not yet been gained. Readers often skip this line, and it is in fact the most honest place in the whole ground. Chengguan, explaining the five clauses of this passage, says that the first four are the practice by which one is able to enter and the last is the ground that is entered, and that the measure of the practice is discerned on two sides — the gaining of the bright and keen forbearance shows its excellence over against the grounds before, and the not yet gaining of the non-arising shows its insufficiency over against the grounds after. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: do not suppose that contemplating the ten equalities amounts to realizing non-arising. Forbearance has its stages: “conformity” is to conform and not go against; “non-arising” is the direct realization that dharmas do not arise. Brought home to oneself: this sentence is the very syntax a practitioner ought to learn — say in one breath both ‘where I have got to’ and ‘where I have not yet got to’; the first half guards against shrinking back, the second against overweening pride. Sentences that state one’s own measure in this way recur throughout The Ten Grounds, and the sixth ground states it most aptly of all.

Contemplating the Arising and Ceasing of the World: Why Great Compassion Must Come First

The first thing after entering the ground, the sūtra says, is “to make great compassion the forerunner, great compassion preeminent, great compassion fulfilled, and to contemplate the arising and ceasing of the world.” There is an order here that must be seen clearly: compassion first, and only then the contemplation. Why? Because in the matter of contemplating the twelve links, if there is no compassionate mind holding it up, then looking to the bottom yields only two outcomes — either one grows so weary of the world that one goes straight into stillness, which is the road of the two vehicles; or one grows so familiar with it that it becomes a doctrine explaining the world and has nothing to do with the mind. The sūtra places great compassion before the contemplation, within it, and at its fullness — three times over — precisely so that this contemplation should hang upon living beings from beginning to end. Chengguan divides the passage here into four clauses, the first three all compassion and only the last marking the object contemplated — this is the passage that sets the relation of compassion and wisdom straight. Brought down to practice: when reading dependent origination, if what you read out of it is coldness, turn back and see whether compassion is still there.

Beings Take Birth in the World Only because They Cling to a Self

The first conclusion the bodhisattva draws from contemplating the arising and ceasing of the world is so terse as to seem abrupt: beings take birth in the world only because they cling to a self; leave that clinging behind, and there is no place of birth. Why point straight at the “self” at the very outset? Because although the twelve links hook one into the next, what really bites down upon this chain and will not let go is the “self” that supposes itself to be inside it. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this does not say that the “self” is a thirteenth link outside the twelve, but that the twelve links become saṃsāra for a given person just because he has appropriated a self within them. Brought home to oneself: nearly every everyday affliction can be traced once by this sentence — this thing is painful because I have entered it in the account-book of “me.” This sentence is also where the present ground answers to the first: on the first ground the leaving behind of the five dreads was ‘because he leaves behind the notion of self’, and on this ground the contemplation of dependent origination likewise begins from “clinging to a self” — the same key, used on different locks.

Deeds Are the Field, Consciousness Is the Seed — The Whole Picture of the Ordinary Being’s Flowing On

The sūtra then uses a set of farming similes to draw the ordinary being’s flowing on as a single picture: deeds are the field, consciousness is the seed, ignorance is like an overcast sky covering it over, craving is the water poured upon it, conceit is the irrigating, and the net of views makes it grow, so that the sprout of name-and-form is born; the sprout grows into the five faculties, the faculties meet their objects and contact is born, contact gives birth to feeling, longing after feeling gives birth to craving, craving grown gives birth to grasping, grasping grown gives birth to becoming; becoming having arisen, a body of five aggregates is taken within the destinies, and this is called birth; born, it decays and changes, which is old age, and perishes at the last, which is death; at the time of old age and death all manner of burning distresses are born, and thereupon sorrow and lamentation, and the multitude of sufferings are all gathered. The most important thing in this passage is not the sequence itself but the two clauses that close it: it gathers in this way, yet there is no ‘one who gathers’; it ceases of its own course, and there is no ‘one who ceases’ either. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: no one who acts is not the same as no cause and fruit — field, seed, water, and light are all present in full, the fruit is set just the same, only there is no farmer in the field directing it. Brought down to practice: when you see an affliction rising in yourself, try changing ‘I am angry’ into ‘these conditions have come together, and anger has grown out of them’ — that clenched “self” loosens a degree at once.

The Gate of the Truth of the Supreme Meaning: The Same Twelve Links, Counted Another Way

The bodhisattva then counts the twelve links through once more, and this time the point of entry has changed: not to penetrate the truth of the supreme meaning is called ignorance; the fruit of the deeds done is the formations; the first thought of mind upon which the formations depend is consciousness; the four aggregates of grasping that arise together with consciousness are name-and-form; the growth of name-and-form is the six sense-fields; the coming together of the three, faculty and object and consciousness, is contact; what arises together with contact is feeling; defiled attachment toward feeling is craving; the growth of craving is grasping; the deeds with outflows that grasping gives rise to are becoming; the arising of the aggregates out of deeds is birth; the ripening of the aggregates is old age; the decaying of the aggregates is death. Why count them twice? The first count enters from “clinging to a self” and states how the ordinary being flows on; this one enters from ‘not penetrating the supreme meaning’ and states that the root of that flowing on lies in cognition. Only both together are complete: one is the symptom, the other the root of the illness. This passage also numbers off in detail the grief, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and distress at the time of death — the breast oppressed and stifled is grief, the tears and sighing are lamentation, what is in the five faculties is suffering, what is in the ground of the mind is unhappiness, and unhappiness and suffering turning ever more numerous is distress — divided so finely so that a person may recognize which square he is standing in. The closing clause is “there is only the tree of suffering growing”: a tree growing of itself, with no self, no what is mine, no one who acts, no one who feels.

If There Were One Who Acts There Would Be a Thing Done — Pressing ‘Who Is It That Suffers’ to Death

Hardly has the simile of the tree of suffering come to rest when the sūtra at once adds an inference: if there were one who acts, only then would there be a thing done; if there is no one who acts, then there is no thing done either — in the supreme meaning both are altogether unobtainable. In form this is like a debate, but its purpose is to cut off a thought. The most obstinate question in the human mind is ‘then who is it that suffers?’, and beneath that question lies a presupposition: suffering must have an owner. The sūtra does not argue with the presupposition; it puts owner and affair together into the supreme meaning and looks, and neither end is to be found. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: “unobtainable” does not say that nothing has happened; it says that at the level of the ultimate no substantial one who acts and feels can be found — at the level of the conventional, cause and fruit stand out plainly. Brought down to practice: the next time you are blocked by ‘why me’, you can change the question into ‘does this affair require a me in order to stand?’, and more often than not it passes.

Whatever Belongs to the Three Realms Is Only One Mind

Here the sūtra speaks the sentence most quoted by later ages in this ground — indeed in the whole of The Ten Grounds: whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind; the Tathāgata, upon this, sets forth in discrimination the twelve links of existence, and these too are established in dependence upon one mind. There follows at once a question put and answered: why is it so? Greed arising upon the matter at hand arises together with mind; mind is consciousness, the matter is the formations, delusion about the formations is ignorance, what arises together with ignorance and with mind is name-and-form — and so on down to old age and death. That is to say: the twelve links are not twelve events queuing up outside; they are twelve aspects that this one thought of mind turns up upon the objects it meets. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this sentence does not say that the world is something I have thought up, nor that all will be well if only I stop thinking; the sūtra’s purpose is to point out that upon which the twelve links depend — to cut this chain you need not go outside the chain to look for shears, for the shears are on the mind. At the verse “gathering it back to one mind” Chengguan makes a particular distinction: since the sūtra says that when mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted, it is plain that this “mind” cannot be taken as the true mind alone, for the true mind is not extinguished; he says that this is “the true and the false in combination,” spoken of as depending upon mind — the false which is the true has ceased, while the true which is the false has not ceased along with it. This distinction is most important, for it blocks two leanings at once: one that reads “one mind” as a substance able to give birth to the myriad things, and one that reads “mind extinguished” as a nihilistic cutting off. Brought down to practice: the place where cultivation takes hold is settled by this — not adding to or subtracting from objects, but recognizing on the mind.

The Two Functions of Each of the Twelve Links: Every Link Is at Once Fruit and Cause

The sūtra next assigns two functions to each of the twelve links, in a format as neat as a table: ignorance, first, makes beings deluded about the object they take as support, and second, acts as the cause of arising for the formations; the formations, first, are able to give birth to the recompense to come, and second, act as the cause of arising for consciousness — and so on down to death, which first is able to destroy the formations and second, because there is no awareness and no knowing, keeps the continuity unbroken. Why lay it out so? Because each of the twelve links has two faces: toward its object it has a function of its own, and toward the next link it is the cause of arising. Say only “ignorance conditions the formations” and it is easily read as a single line; add the two functions, and one sees that every link is doing something in its own right. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this is not breaking the twelve links into twenty-four items, but two functions of one and the same link. The most thought-provoking is the last link: the second function of death is “because there is no awareness and no knowing, the continuity is unbroken” — death ends nothing; it is just because even at death there is no awareness that the chain is joined on. Brought down to practice: the most useful thing in this passage is the reminder that one need not wait for the source in order to cut the chain; since every link is acting in its own right, every link is a place where one may set to work.

Because They Help to Bring About There Is No Cutting Off; Because They Do Not Help to Bring About There Is Cutting Off

Flowing on and ceasing the sūtra settles with two words, “helping to bring about”: that ignorance conditions the formations, and so on up to birth conditioning old age and death, is that because ignorance and so on up to birth act as conditions, the formations and so on up to old age and death are not cut off — because they help to bring them about; that when ignorance ceases the formations cease, and so on up to when birth ceases old age and death cease, is that because ignorance and so on up to birth no longer act as conditions, the formations and so on up to old age and death are cut off and cease — because they no longer help to bring them about. This way of putting it makes the sense of “condition” very light: a condition does not manufacture, it helps to bring about; it is not that one gives birth to another, but that with it standing alongside, the latter cannot be cut off. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: ceasing is not knocking the twelve links down one by one; it is bringing the “helping to bring about” to a stop, whereupon what follows cannot hold itself up. Brought down to practice: this is exactly the principle of moral discipline — one need not go and counter the affliction that has already rolled up large; simply stop lending it helping conditions, and it will disperse of itself.

The Three Paths: Delusion, Deeds, Suffering — A Bundle of Reeds

With the same twelve links the sūtra changes the view once more: that ignorance, craving, and grasping are not cut off is the path of the afflictions; that the formations and becoming are not cut off is the path of deeds; that the remaining links are not cut off is the path of suffering; and when the discriminating of the prior limit and the later limit ceases, the three paths are cut off. The closing clause is a simile — these three paths are apart from a self and from what is mine, there is only arising and ceasing, like a bundle of reeds. Why set up three paths? Because with the twelve links laid out flat one sees only sequence; gathered into three kinds, one sees the structure: delusion gives rise to deeds, deeds summon suffering, and within suffering delusion arises again, each giving birth to the next. The finest thing about the simile of the bundle of reeds is that they ‘stand by leaning together’: a bundle of reeds stands because each leans upon the others; pull out one, and the whole bundle falls — not one of them is standing on its own. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the three paths are not three stages, but three layers standing together at once and supporting one another. Brought down to practice: when countering afflictions, know that the three paths lean upon one another like a bundle of reeds — pull one away, and the other two do not stand.

The Three Times: Spreading the Twelve Links Out along Time

Another view is the three times: that ignorance conditions the formations is the contemplation of the past, consciousness up to feeling is the contemplation of the present, craving up to becoming is the contemplation of the future, and from this onward they turn about and follow one another without end; while that when ignorance ceases the formations cease is ‘the cutting off by way of dependence’. Why assign them to three times? Because all the views before this speak of structure, and only this one lets a person see how this chain steps across the joint between one life and another — the delusion and deeds of the past make the recompense of the present life, and the craving and grasping of the present life make in turn the cause of the life to come. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: assigning them to three times does not say that the twelve links can be assigned to this one temporal order alone; the sūtra itself has already given the three paths, the three sufferings, and other views besides, each with its own use, and they need not exclude one another. The four words ‘the cutting off by way of dependence’ deserve particular notice: the cutting off is not a stroke of the knife out of nowhere, but the seeing clearly that this exists in dependence upon that — the end depended upon being gone, the other end cannot stand. Brought down to practice: anxiety about “the future” is mostly writing a script on behalf of craving and grasping; recognize which link it belongs to, and the anxiety loses some of its solidity.

The Three Sufferings: The Suffering of Formation Is the Hardest to Recognize

The third view is the three sufferings: ignorance and the formations up to the six sense-fields are the suffering of formation, contact and feeling are the suffering of suffering, the rest are the suffering of decay; and when ignorance ceases the formations cease is the cutting off of the three sufferings. Of the three sufferings the one most easily left out is the suffering of formation — the suffering of suffering is hurting and knowing that it hurts, the suffering of decay is the pain when a pleasant object breaks up, and these two everyone recognizes; the suffering of formation is that the ceaseless flowing on is itself suffering, with no definite pain, only being in motion at every moment and having nowhere to rest. That the sūtra assigns ignorance and the formations up to the six sense-fields to the suffering of formation says precisely this: even the very base on which we think ‘nothing is wrong’ is itself flowing. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: to speak of the three sufferings is not to make a person live in gloom, but to make him recognize the layers of suffering — one who knows only the suffering of suffering will fight to dodge pain; one who knows the suffering of decay begins to stop craving pleasure; only one who knows the suffering of formation will wish to come out. Brought down to practice: that unnameable unease felt when one grows quiet is mostly a corner of the suffering of formation showing itself; there is no need to press it down — recognizing it is enough.

The Ten Gates of Contemplation in Reverse and in Order: Looking at One Thing Ten Times

All the foregoing views the sūtra at last gathers into ten gates, saying that the bodhisattva in these ten ways contemplates dependent origination in reverse and in order: the links of existence following one another unbroken, gathered in by one mind, each with its own distinct function of deeds, not letting go of one another, the three paths not cut off, contemplating the past and present and future, the three sufferings gathered together, arising and ceasing by cause and condition, arising and ceasing as bondage, and the contemplation of there being nothing at all and of exhaustion. Chengguan, in summing up this passage, takes the occasion to make plain the sense of the very words “dependent origination”: the twelve are not one, and so they are called “manifold”; each earlier one acts as condition and causes the later to arise, and so it is called “dependent origination”; and again, because bound by the afflictions one arises again and again among the destinies, this too is called dependent origination. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the ten gates are not ten different dependent originations, but ten contemplations of one and the same dependent origination. Why look ten times? Because this matter of dependent origination cannot be seen through in one look, and each look breaks only one layer of clinging — the first look breaks the view of annihilation, the second gathers all back to mind, the third sees the function of deeds proper to each link — until at the tenth, “there is nothing at all, the contemplation of exhaustion,” one has contemplated it to the bottom. Brought down to practice: the contemplation that really works is never a fresh contemplation, but the willingness to look at the same thing a tenth time.

The Gate of Liberation of Emptiness: No Self, No Person, No Life-Span

The ten gates of contemplation being full, the fruit becomes manifest, and it becomes manifest as three gates in turn. The first is the gate of liberation of emptiness: the bodhisattva, contemplating dependent origination by these ten aspects, knows that there is no self, no person, no life-span, that self-nature is empty, that there is no one who acts and no one who feels — and at once the gate of liberation of emptiness becomes manifest before him. One must see clearly how this “knowing” comes about: it is not that one first believes a doctrine of “no self” and then fits dependent origination to it, but that having looked at dependent origination to the bottom, one cannot find that self. Chengguan, explaining the three gates of liberation, says that “samādhi” is named from the thing itself and “liberation” takes its name from what it depends on, and that these three are able to lead through to the liberation of nirvāṇa, and are therefore called “gates.” One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the gate of emptiness is not an empty mind thinking of nothing, but the not seeing, in the dharmas contemplated, any sovereign that could be obtained. Brought down to practice: when something happens, if you can refrain from first asking ‘how does this affect me’ and ask instead ‘what conditions have come together here’, in that moment you have touched the edge of the gate of emptiness.

The Gate of Liberation of Signlessness: Even ‘the Marks Contemplated’ Are Set Down

The second gate goes a layer deeper: the bodhisattva contemplates that all the links of existence are still in their self-nature and in the end liberated, with not the least mark of a dharma that could arise — and at that time the gate of liberation of signlessness becomes manifest before him. What the gate of emptiness breaks is ‘the self among persons’; what the gate of signlessness breaks is the marks of dharmas. In the first gate one saw that there is no one who acts and none who feels; in this one, one sees that even those very links being contemplated have no real mark that could arise. Why is this further step needed? Because one who cultivates contemplation most easily stops at ‘the self is gone, but the twelve links really exist’ — and that is still a mark that can be grasped. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: signlessness is not wiping out all marks so that a blank lies before the eyes, but no longer grasping at marks upon marks as real. Brought down to practice: here is a very fine test — when you say ‘I have seen through this affair’, is ‘this affair’ still being gripped tight by you? If it is, you are still inside the mark.

The Gate of Liberation of Wishlessness: Only Great Compassion Is Kept Back

The third gate best repays reading: having thus entered emptiness and entered signlessness, he has nothing more to wish for — save only the one thing of making great compassion the forerunner and teaching and transforming beings — and at that time the gate of liberation of wishlessness becomes manifest before him. Wishlessness means that one no longer raises a longing for any place at all in the three realms, so that not even the seeking of escape need be specially raised. Yet here the sūtra leaves an opening: only great compassion is excepted. This one word “except” is the watershed between the whole Great Vehicle and the two vehicles. The two vehicles halt at the wishless; the bodhisattva keeps a great compassion within the wishless, and so does not fall into stillness. The sūtra then says that in cultivating these three gates the bodhisattva leaves behind the notion of other and self, the notion of one who acts and one who feels, and the notion of existence and non-existence — and what the three gates leave behind is precisely the last three layers of clinging upon the twelve links contemplated before. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: keeping great compassion is not keeping a self-clinging that says ‘I am going to deliver beings’; were it that, it would no longer be wishlessness. Brought down to practice: at a certain stage of cultivation one finds that ‘there is nothing I want any more’, and the question to ask then is — is the compassionate mind still there?

Great Compassion Turns and Increases: Why the Deeper the Realization, the Heavier the Compassion

After the three gates have become manifest, the sūtra says that this bodhisattva’s “great compassion turns and increases,” and that he cultivates with diligence so that the factors of awakening not yet fulfilled may be fulfilled. This order is worth pausing over: the road people imagine is that the deeper the realization the further the withdrawal, yet the sūtra says that after realizing the three gates of liberation, compassion has grown heavier still. Chengguan explains this place plainly — when contemplating the ten equalities earlier he had already raised the three compassions, and now, contemplating the conditions by the ten gates, he pities beings the more for being wound about in false dharmas. The principle is not hard: only when one has truly seen that what binds beings is a thing empty of self-nature does the pity that says ‘they never needed to suffer this’ truly arise. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the increase of great compassion is not being more upset in one’s feelings, but being more diligent in action — what the sūtra says next is “he cultivates with diligence.” Brought down to practice: a very accurate gauge of whether one’s view has really come to earth is this — as the view grows clearer, is one’s patience with people increasing or decreasing?

Where There Is Combining the Conditioned Turns: Knowing Its Faults yet Not Extinguishing It Altogether

After great compassion turns and increases, a thought arises in the bodhisattva: all conditioned things, where there is combining, turn, and where there is no combining, do not turn; where the conditions gather they turn, and where the conditions do not gather they do not turn; knowing thus that conditioned dharmas have manifold faults, I ought to cut off these causes and conditions of combining — yet for the sake of bringing beings to accomplishment I do not in the end extinguish the formations altogether. There are two halves to this saying, and neither may be missing. The upper half is the seeing through: conditioned dharmas are only because of combining, and therefore they can be cut off. The lower half is the not cutting off: knowing that they can be cut off, he does not cut them off to the end, because beings are still within the conditioned, and to deliver them one must stay within the conditioned. This is just what the name of the part called “the surpassing practice of not abiding” in the three-part division of this ground points to — not abiding in the conditioned, and not abiding in stillness. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: not extinguishing altogether is not clinging, but a choice made upon the power of vow. Brought down to practice: knowing well that certain attachments are conditionally born and can be let go, and yet shouldering them a while for the sake of others — the balance in that is the everyday version of not abiding.

Prajñā Becomes Manifest, Named the Light of Unobstructed Wisdom — Here Is Where the Name of the Ground Falls

All the contemplation that has gone before bears fruit only at this sentence: when the bodhisattva contemplates in this way that conditioned dharmas have manifold faults, are without self-nature, and neither arise nor cease, and yet constantly gives rise to great compassion and does not forsake beings — thereupon prajñā-pāramitā becomes manifest before him, named the light of unobstructed wisdom. The sixth ground is called “Manifest,” and it is this that is manifest. One must see clearly that the conditions of its becoming manifest are two limbs standing together: one limb is ‘contemplating that the conditioned is without self-nature’, the other ‘constantly giving rise to great compassion and not forsaking beings’; lacking the first limb it is undiscriminating kindness, lacking the second it is the view of annihilation — and only with both limbs together does prajñā become manifest. The sūtra then adds a sentence equally important: having accomplished this light of wisdom, though he cultivates the causes and conditions of the factors of awakening he does not abide in the conditioned, and though he contemplates that the conditioned is still in its self-nature he does not abide in stillness — because the factors of awakening are not yet fulfilled. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: “manifest” is not the gaining of some new thing; it is that the non-discriminating wisdom one already has is no longer covered over by the marks of the defiled and the pure, and so is now there before one’s eyes. Brought down to practice: the measuring-line this ground gives the practitioner is very clear — to know whether wisdom has really become manifest, see whether, when it becomes manifest, you are further from beings or nearer.

The Ten Samādhis of Emptiness: Concentration Is Nothing Else than the Contemplation of Emptiness Standing Firm

After prajñā becomes manifest the sūtra lists ten samādhis of emptiness: emptiness, the emptiness of self-nature, the emptiness of the supreme meaning, the first emptiness, great emptiness, combined emptiness, arisen emptiness, the emptiness that in accordance with reality does not discriminate, the emptiness that is not let go of, and the emptiness of apartness and of non-apartness; with these ten gates as head, hundreds of thousands of samādhis of emptiness all become manifest, and it is the same with the two classes of samādhi of signlessness and of wishlessness. Why samādhis of “emptiness” and not of something else? Because all that was cultivated before lies upon the contemplation of emptiness, and concentration is what that contemplation looks like when it stands firm — it is not another skill cultivated separately. Of the ten names the last two most repay pondering: the emptiness that is not let go of, and the emptiness of apartness and of non-apartness — even grasping at “emptiness” and not grasping at it are to be levelled. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the number of the samādhis is not a set of items to be gained one by one; the sūtra lists ten as head and hundreds of thousands following, which says that once the gate is opened, the many concentrations come of themselves. Brought down to practice: the moment in daily life nearest to samādhi is that instant when the mind neither chases a thing nor pushes it away — that little steadiness is the beginning of this road.

The Ten States of Mind Made Complete: Wisdom Needs a Ground of Mind to Bear It

After the samādhis the sūtra lists ten states of mind, saying that the bodhisattva dwelling on this ground cultivates yet further so that the mind that cannot be broken, the settled mind, the purely good mind, the most profound mind, the mind that does not turn back, the mind that does not rest, the vast mind, the boundless mind, the mind that seeks wisdom, and the mind joined with skillful means and wisdom are all made complete. Why, having finished with wisdom and samādhi, turn back to speak of “mind”? Because the wisdom realized needs a ground of mind to bear it up; where the ground of mind is thin, the view will slip back. Read through, these ten states of mind fall out thus: the first four speak of quality — unbreakable, settled, purely good, most profound; the middle two speak of continuance — not turning back, not resting; the last four speak of extent and function — vast, boundless, seeking wisdom, joined with skillful means and wisdom. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this is not a checklist of ten mental practices to be cultivated, but the shape the mind naturally turns into after prajñā has become manifest. Brought down to practice: to judge how one’s own cultivation stands, one may measure by the middle two — not turning back and not resting are the most honest of all.

Conforming to the Buddha’s Awakening, Departing from the Path of the Two Vehicles

After the ten states of mind are complete, the sūtra says that with this mind the bodhisattva conforms to the awakening of the Buddha, does not fear the divergent doctrines of the outsiders, enters the manifold grounds of wisdom, departs from the path of the two vehicles and heads toward the wisdom of a buddha; the māras of the afflictions cannot thwart or break him; he abides in the light of the bodhisattva’s wisdom, cultivates well in the dharmas of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, has skillful means and wisdom constantly joined together, and practises the factors of awakening constantly without forsaking them. This passage gathers all that has gone before into a single sentence: he stands firm. Why is “departing from the path of the two vehicles” singled out? Because this ground contemplates the twelve links of dependent origination, which is precisely what the two vehicles contemplate — Chengguan judges this ground to be lodged in the station of the pratyekabuddha while cultivating the practice of a bodhisattva, and it is here above all that one may slip past. So the sūtra makes it plain: the contemplation of dependent origination is the same, but the mind heads toward the wisdom of a buddha and does not enter the two vehicles. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: departing from the two vehicles is not despising the two vehicles; it is not taking where they arrive as ultimate. Brought down to practice: a person may be doing what everyone else is doing, and the whole difference lies in what his mind faces toward — that is what this passage is about.

The Third, the Bright and Keen Forbearance of Conformity: At Entry It Was Called Insufficient, Here It Is Called Ascendant

At the last the sūtra accounts once more for the station of forbearance: a bodhisattva dwelling on this Manifest Ground gains the ascendancy of the practice of prajñā-pāramitā and gains the third, the bright and keen forbearance of conformity — because toward the aspect of dharmas as they really are he conforms and does not go against them. Read this sentence together with the one at the entering of the ground, and the beginning and the end of this ground close up: at entry it says “he gains the bright and keen forbearance of conformity but has not yet gained the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas”; after long dwelling it says he “gains the third, the bright and keen forbearance of conformity,” with prajñā in ascendancy. It is the same forbearance: at entry it is first gained, in dwelling it is ascendant. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: do not hear “the forbearance of conformity” as gritting one’s teeth and putting up with things; forbearance here means abiding unmoved and not going against dharmas. Brought down to practice: when in reading a sūtra you meet the same term twice within one ground, it is usually not repetition but a marking of progress — this is one of the habits of the style of The Ten Grounds.

Seeing Buddhas by the Power of Vows: Why the Roots of Goodness Grow Ever Brighter

After dwelling on the ground the recompense is spoken of, and the first item is the seeing of buddhas: by the power of his vows the bodhisattva gains the sight of many buddhas, on up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas, and toward all of them with a vast mind and a deep mind he makes offerings and pays reverence, honors and praises them, offers up all the goods that sustain life, and offers to the assembly of monks as well, dedicating these roots of goodness toward unsurpassed awakening; in the presence of the buddhas he listens to the Dharma with reverence, and having heard it upholds it, gains the light of wisdom of the samādhi that accords with reality, practises in conformity and keeps it in mind without letting go; he gains further the most profound treasury of Dharma of the buddhas, and through a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to measureless kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn ever brighter and purer. Chengguan, explaining this passage, divides it into three sections — the conditions for the refining, the practice that refines, and the purity refined: seeing buddhas is the condition, making offerings and hearing and upholding the Dharma is the practice, and the roots of goodness turning purer is what is thereby brought about. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the multitude of buddhas seen is not a tally of merit; it is the number of times of the “refining.” Brought down to practice: what really changes a person is usually not hearing a new teaching, but the same teaching heard again and again and practised again and again in many circumstances.

The Simile of True Gold Polished: On This Ground the Working of the Fire Has Become a Polishing

The sūtra closes with similes: as true gold, polished again and again with a beryl gem, turns ever brighter and purer, so too the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground — with skillful means and wisdom he follows after them and contemplates them, and they turn ever brighter and purer, ever more still, with nothing able to overshadow them. Chengguan, in matching the simile, divides it finely: true gold is a simile for what is realized, and a simile for faith and the rest; beryl is a simile for the wisdom of skillful means, and by the wisdom of skillful means grinding again and again the world-transcending wisdom of realization is made to send forth the light of the wisdom of teaching, surpassing what went before; and in the matching passage, “skillful means and wisdom” is just the not abiding spoken of above, while “following after them and contemplating them” matches the “polishing again and again.” There is a layer here that may be read against the first ground: there the goldsmith refines gold, putting it into the fire again and again; here the beryl polishes the gold. Fire is smelting, polishing is burnishing — the coarse and the mixed are already gone, and what is done now is to burnish the gold already made until it is translucent. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the polishing does not grind the gold smaller; it takes the film away. Brought down to practice: cultivation reaches a stage where one feels there is nothing great left to do and only repetition remains — that is precisely the time of the polishing.

The Simile of the Moonlight and the Four Winds: Cool, and Not to Be Destroyed

The second simile turns in another direction: as the light of the moon shines upon the bodies of beings and makes them gain coolness, and the four kinds of wind-wheel cannot destroy it, so too the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground are able to extinguish the blazing fire of the afflictions of measureless beings, and the four kinds of path of Māra cannot destroy them. The former simile speaks of one’s own side — the roots of goodness grow purer the more they are polished; this one speaks of the side of beings — that purity goes outward and becomes coolness. Taken together, the two similes are just the two faces of not abiding: because he does not abide in stillness, the moonlight shines upon people; because he does not abide in the conditioned, the four winds cannot destroy it. The sūtra here adds a further sentence: among the ten perfections this bodhisattva has prajñā in preponderance, and it is not that he does not practise the rest, but that he practises them according to his strength and his share. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the coolness of the moonlight is not a power that beats out the fire; it is a different quality — burning distress meets coolness and stills of itself. Brought down to practice: what truly comforts a person is seldom that the reasoning is strong enough; it is usually that there is a certain coolness about that person.

Mostly Becoming a King of the Good Transformation Heaven: What Is Cultivated Shows in the Recompense

At the end of a ground, as is the rule, the recompense is spoken of: a bodhisattva dwelling on this ground mostly becomes a king of the Good Transformation Heaven, sovereign in what he does; all the questions and challenges of the śrāvakas cannot make him shrink back; he is able to make beings put away conceit and enter deeply into dependent origination; giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and the sharing of tasks, in all that he does, do not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the being fully endowed with all modes and with the wisdom of omniscience; he vows further to be, among all beings, the foremost and the most excellent, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience; if he applies himself with diligence and vigor, in the space of a single thought he gains a hundred thousand koṭis of samādhis, on up to manifesting a hundred thousand koṭis of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if by the power of his vows he manifests sovereignly, then he surpasses this number. Two clauses in this passage fit the present ground most closely: one is ‘the questions and challenges of the śrāvakas cannot make him shrink back’ — this ground contemplates dependent origination rightly, and so he can hold his answer on the very topic in which the two vehicles are most skilled; the other is “he makes beings put away conceit and enter deeply into dependent origination” — what he himself counters is the conceit of grasping at the marks of the defiled and the pure, and so he sets others also to work upon conceit and dependent origination. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the numbers of the recompense (a hundred thousand koṭis) are not for comparison; they are the format that marks the widening from ground to ground. Brought down to practice: the teaching a person cultivates will show itself in the kind of problem he is best at solving for others.

Matching the Verses in Repetition: How the Verses Say Again What the Prose Has Said

The verses in repetition are not a restatement. The verses of this ground match the prose in order: having fulfilled the fifth ground he contemplates that dharmas are without marks and without nature, unarisen and unaccomplished and from the first pure, substance and mark still and like an illusion, existence and non-existence not two and apart from discrimination — these repeat the ten equalities and the entering of the ground; the wisdom of the bright and keen forbearance of conformity being complete he contemplates the arising and ceasing of the world, by the power of dark delusion the world arises, and if dark delusion is extinguished the world is not — these repeat the contemplation of arising and ceasing with great compassion; from “not to know the true truth is named ignorance” onward repeats the gate of the truth of the supreme meaning; “what ignorance does is of two kinds” repeats the two functions; “from dark delusion up to the six sense-fields is the suffering of formation” repeats the three sufferings; “ignorance and the formations belong to the past” repeats the three times; “ignorance acting as condition is the arising of bondage” repeats the two gates of bondage and of conformity; the five clauses from “the links of existence following one another, gathered in by one mind” onward repeat the summary of the ten gates; “contemplating universally in this way the practice of dependent origination,” “like an illusion, like a dream, like the play of light and shadow,” “and like a fool chasing a mirage” repeat the ten gates and the contemplation of emptiness; from “contemplating in this way he enters into emptiness” onward repeats the three gates of liberation; and thereafter “the great being cultivates the gates of liberation,” “the gates of the samādhi of emptiness are fully a hundred thousand,” “with a deep mind, further, he makes many offerings to the buddhas,” “as gold is polished by beryl,” “as the moon, cool, covers the multitude of things,” “on this ground he mostly becomes a king of Good Transformation” match in order the turning and increasing of great compassion, the ten samādhis of emptiness, the seeing of buddhas and the making of offerings, the two similes and the recompense — closing with the praise, “this ground is most profound and subtle, hard to see and to know; the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas cannot penetrate it.” Chengguan’s division of these verses is likewise threefold: one clause repeats the countering of conceit, ten verses and three clauses repeat the surpassing practice of not abiding, and four verses repeat the fruit thereof. There is one place only in the verses that the prose has not said in this way — “he penetrates that the three realms exist in dependence upon mind, and the twelve links of dependent origination are likewise; birth-and-death is all made by mind, and if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted”; the prose says “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind,” speaking of that upon which they depend, while the verse says outright “if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted,” placing the point of application for ceasing upon the mind. And it is precisely beneath this line that Chengguan makes the distinction that one may not take it as the true mind alone. Brought down to practice: to read the verses as mere revision is to read them for nothing; what one should look for is just such a line as the verses alone have.

A Mirror-Reading with the Consciousness-Only Line: The Place of This Ground within That Tradition

The section that follows is a mirror — not what the present sūtra says outright, but the text of this ground set within the sayings of the consciousness-only line, so that one may see how the two are handed on to each other. Vasubandhu composed the Shidi jing lun explaining this chapter passage by passage, and in the text of the sixth ground that he cites this sentence stands as “the three realms are false; they are only the making of one mind,” with the treatise explaining, “that they are only the making of one mind is because all the three realms turn by mind alone”; whereupon he asks of himself how the distinctions of the conventional truth stand, and answers that conforming to and contemplating the conventional truth is entry into the truth of the supreme meaning — that is, he uses “mind only” as the gathering-in of the distinctions of the conventional, and takes this as the road of entry into the supreme meaning. The She dacheng lun, explaining the name of this ground, says that because the wisdom of dependent origination is that upon which it depends, it is able to make prajñā-pāramitā become manifest, and therefore it is named the Manifest Ground; the Cheng weishi lun, explaining the sixth ground, likewise says that dwelling in the wisdom of dependent origination he draws forth the most surpassing non-discriminating prajñā and makes it become manifest; and the bodhisattva section of the Yuqie shidi lun says that on this ground the wisdom without attachment becomes manifest and prajñā becomes manifest before one, whence the name Manifest Ground, and takes “the abode of the ascendancy of wisdom associated with dependent origination” as the name of this abode. Taking the four together, the grasp of this ground in the consciousness-only line is of one mind: with the wisdom of dependent origination as support, the non-discriminating wisdom is made to become manifest. As for the obstruction cut off, Chengguan cites the masters of consciousness-only, who name it the obstruction of the active operation of coarse marks — a portion of the innate within the obstruction to the knowable, the active operation that grasps at the coarse marks of the defiled and the pure; on entering the sixth ground it is forever cut off by contemplating the ten equalities, and the follies cut off are two, the grasping at there being the defiled and the grasping at there being the pure. This set of readings shines back exactly upon the opening of this ground: why must one contemplate the ten equalities in order to enter? Because what is to be cut off is just the clinging to the defiled and the pure. Only when both mirrors are held up is the weight of this ground fully seen: the present sūtra says from the side of the aspect of practice what is contemplated and what is gained, and the consciousness-only line says from the side of cutting off obstruction and realizing suchness what is cut off and what is realized.

Lineage

The one sentence of this ground, “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind,” is a place inherited along two axes by later ages, and the several houses inherit it by different tracks, which are set down together here. As to the variant wording: the eighty-fascicle text has “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind”; the sixty has “the three realms are false, being only the making of mind”; and the Shidi jing lun, citing the sūtra, has “the three realms are false; they are only the making of one mind” — later quotation mostly follows the treatise’s text, while the eighty-fascicle text itself has neither the two graphs for “false” nor the graph for “making”; this belongs to the choices made in rendering, and is set down without adjudication. As to the reading: Vasubandhu explains it with “because all the three realms turn by mind alone,” and the consciousness-only line inherits this and establishes the teaching of consciousness-only; Chengguan, at the verse “if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted,” makes his distinction, saying that since it says that when mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted, it is plain that one may not construe it as the true mind alone, but that the true and the false in combination are spoken of as depending upon mind — the false which is the true having ceased, the true which is the false is not therewith absent; and he cites the Qixin lun, “it is only the marks of mind that cease, not the substance of mind,” in evidence. Both readings are settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and both are set down. As to the name of the ground: the She dacheng lun explains “manifest” by the wisdom of dependent origination making prajñā become manifest, and Chengguan judges this explanation to “accord rightly with the present sūtra, spoken with respect to the ground”; Fazang brings together the names of the She lun, the Cheng weishi, the Yuqie, the Shenmi, the Zhuangyan lun, the Shizhu lun, the Renwang jing, and the Jinguangming, and concludes that there is no further divergent account; Li Tongxuan does not take the explanation by the wisdom of dependent origination, but explains the name directly by all the wisdom of this ground, worldly and world-transcending alike, becoming manifest, and further takes the night deity called Guardian of All Cities, Increasing Might, whom Sudhana sees in the chapter on Entry into the Dharma Realm, as symbolizing the practice of this ground, and at the close returns to the doctrine of the six characteristics, to be pondered as whole and as parts. The three tracks run side by side, all being settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and are set down; Chengguan’s “accords rightly with the present sūtra, spoken with respect to the ground” and Fazang’s “there is no further divergent account” are each that house’s express adjudication, and each is recorded as its own. As to the outline: Vasubandhu sets up three parts — the countering of conceit, the surpassing practice of not abiding, and the fruit thereof — and Chengguan inherits these and matches them to the text of the sūtra; Li Tongxuan, for his part, divides the text of this ground by a long outline into nine sections. The two outlines stand together, and are likewise set down without adjudication.