華嚴經 品三十八 離世間品 · 結勸·現瑞·證成·偈頌分Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Detachment from the World · The Conclusion: The Exhortation, the Auspicious Signs, the Attestation, and the Verses

Why There Must Be a ‘Conclusion’ at All

The six segments before this have been answered through to the end — Chengguan says these six segments are “one question answered with ten, so as to display inexhaustibility,” and so they are reckoned the two thousand surpassing practices of Samantabhadra, what later readers call ‘the two thousand practices’ — everything has been said; why then add one more segment?

Because expounding the Dharma has a difficulty in it: the wider it is spoken, the less the hearer can take hold of. And so Samantabhadra does one thing first here: he gives this whole great mass of practice a name. “Son of the Buddha! This Dharma gate is named: the vast and pure practice of a bodhisattva.” Once the name is set up, the answering text scattered through the six segments before — what Chengguan calls ‘the two thousand practices’ — has a handle by which it can be remembered, named, and handed on.

After the naming the sense is at once raised: this Dharma gate is what “measureless buddhas expound in common,” and its working is that it “is able to make those who have wisdom understand measureless meanings and all give rise to gladness, and make the great vows and great practices of all bodhisattvas continue on unbroken.” These three clauses are to be read apart. Expounded in common says that it is not the view of one person at one time; giving rise to gladness says that to one who already has wisdom it can be understood and received; the great vows and great practices continuing unbroken is its true working — not that a hearer should be moved for a while, but that the vow and the practice already set going should not be cut off.

One misreading is to be set aside first. Hearing the five graphs ‘vast and pure practice’, one easily takes it for some especially high grade of practice-gate, as though one must finish all the stages before to have any share in it. The scripture’s own way of speaking is not that: this name is given, looking back, to the whole of the six segments before, and is not one more kind of practice added on. Chengguan distinguishes clearly here: the earlier general name, the pure practice, is spoken in terms of the substance of the practice expressed; the first of the ten names, the place of meritorious practice, is what “the first is in terms of what expresses” refers to; and the remaining nine names are set up in terms of the functions expressed.

Coming down to the reader: when one has finished reading a long scripture, the first thing most needing to be done is to give what one has read a name one can remember. A Dharma whose name is not remembered leaves, after a few days, nothing but a trace of feeling.

Hearing, Believing and Understanding, Practising — No Step Between Them May Be Skipped

The second passage begins the exhortation to faith: “Son of the Buddha! If there are beings who get to hear this Dharma, and having heard it believe and understand, and having understood it practise, they will assuredly accomplish very quickly anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

Ask first: why are ‘hearing, believing and understanding, practising’ split into three steps? Would it not be quicker to say them together as ‘believe in the Buddha and become a buddha’?

Because each of the three steps has its own place of falling away. To hear and not believe and understand is merely to have heard; to believe and understand and not practise is merely to have grasped the principle. The text strings them into a chain that cannot be skipped by the two graphs “having heard” and “having understood” — the former step completed, the latter has somewhere to land. And for the assurance given at the end, the scripture states its own reason: “And why? Because it is by practising as it is spoken.” Not because this Dharma is special, but because the person actually did as it says.

The misreading to be set aside here is to read “very quickly” as a shortcut. The cause of the “quickly” lies in the latter half of the clause, not the former; without the cause that is “practising as it is spoken,” the hearing and the understanding before it produce no “quickly” at all.

The use of it on the ground is simple: having read a passage of Dharma, ask yourself which step you have walked to. Most people are stuck between the second step and the third, and that step is the only one they can take themselves.

Said Once More the Other Way About: The One Who Does Not Do as It Says

The scripture goes on to say the same thing once more the other way about: “Son of the Buddha! If there are bodhisattvas who do not practise as it is spoken, one should know that such a person is forever cut off from the awakening of the Buddha; therefore a bodhisattva should practise as it is spoken.”

Ask first: is this not too heavy? It is merely a failing to do it — how is one at once “forever parted”?

Look at the subject. The subject of this clause is “bodhisattvas,” not one who has just heard the Dharma; to have received the Dharma and not practise, and not to have heard it yet and not practise, are two different matters. Then look at what the two graphs “forever parted” are set against — “the awakening of the Buddha.” It does not say that this person falls; it says that by an understanding that does not practise, that road toward the awakening of the Buddha cannot be walked to its end, and cannot be however long one waits — and therefore it says forever.

Setting the positive and the negative telling side by side is the manner of this segment: on the positive side, practising as it is spoken and quickly accomplishing; on the negative side, not practising as it is spoken and being forever parted. The same principle is said twice, and the purpose is to block off that third road which seems to lie between — understanding only, without practice, and yet arriving. The scripture’s position is: there is no such road.

The coming down to the ground lies in a everyday judgement: when you read a passage of Dharma and there rises in you the satisfaction of ‘I have grasped this principle’, that is exactly the place this clause of scripture warns against.

Ten Names: Why a Scripture Should Take So Many Names

The fourth passage sets out ten names: “this place of the practice of the merit of all bodhisattvas, the flower of settled meaning, the universal entering into all dharmas, the universal bringing forth of all-knowing wisdom, the transcending of the worlds, the leaving behind of the path of the two vehicles, what is not shared in common with any of the beings, what is able to illumine and understand all Dharma gates entire, the increasing of the roots of goodness of beings that go beyond the world, the chapter of the Dharma gate of detachment from the world.”

Ask first: the name ‘the vast and pure practice of a bodhisattva’ has already been given above — why then ten more?

Because one name can illumine one face only. Chengguan glosses this thus: the first name is set up in terms of what expresses — “because practice is born in dependence upon this, it is named a place”; while the other nine are set up in terms of the function of what is expressed. Following his reading straight through: the second name says that this practice assuredly can bring about the fruit; the third and the fourth speak of what is realized and of what realizes; the fifth says that having wisdom it is surpassing; the sixth that compassion raises the myriad practices; the seventh that each and every one is perfectly fused; the eighth that the rule and standard are complete; the ninth that principle itself extends into fact; the tenth that fact itself is the real. Ten names are not ten things; they are ten faces of one Dharma gate.

One misreading is to be set aside here: do not read “the leaving behind of the path of the two vehicles” and “what is not shared in common with any of the beings” as a disparaging of others. These two names, standing in the list of ten, speak of the measure of this Dharma gate — the practice it sets up is not shared with the two vehicles, nor is it something the common dharmas of the world can gather in. It is said of the scale of the Dharma, not of the high and low standing of persons.

Coming down to the ground: hereafter, when you meet a scripture bearing many alternate names, do not hurry to remember the number; ask first which face each name illumines.

The Six ‘Should’ Clauses: The Sequence of the Exhortation to Learn

After the ten names the scripture gives six actions: “it should be honored, it should be listened to and received, it should be recited and upheld, it should be pondered, it should be gladly wished for, it should be practised,” and closes with one clause: “and if one is able to do so, one should know that such a person will very quickly gain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

Ask first: are these six set out at random?

Look at their order and you will know they are not. Honoring stands foremost — without a reverent mind, the five that follow cannot be got into at all; listening and receiving is entering by the ear, reciting and upholding entering by the mouth, pondering entering by the mind, gladly wishing for it is that the mind has raised the desire to have it, and only practising is the body beginning to move. The six actions make just such a road, from outside inward and then from inside outward again. The first three are the work of receiving and upholding, the fourth and fifth the work of digesting, the sixth the making good.

The misreading to be set aside is to take reciting and upholding for the end of the road. To recite it very fluently and not ponder it is to leave the Dharma on the lips; to ponder and not gladly wish for it is to leave the Dharma in the head as knowledge. Gladly wishing for it is the link most easily skipped, and it is exactly the pivot between pondering and practising.

Coming down to the ground: take these six as a checklist for yourself, and having read a scripture through, go down them one by one, and you will know where you have stopped.

Why the Great Earth Must Quake

The prose having been spoken to its end, the compilers of the scripture set down one event: “When this chapter was spoken, because of the spiritual power of the Buddha, and also because the very nature of this Dharma gate is just so, the measureless, boundless asaṃkhyeya worlds of the ten directions all quaked greatly, and a great light shone everywhere.”

Ask first: for whom are the quaking and the light made to appear?

The text gives two reasons, and gives them side by side. The former is “because of the spiritual power of the Buddha,” the latter “because the very nature of this Dharma gate is just so” — the Dharma is of itself thus, and therefore it moves, therefore it shines. The second reason is the vital one: the auspicious sign is not an ornament added on, nor a spiritual transformation specially arranged so as to win men’s trust; it is the natural response of the Dharma realm at the moment this Dharma gate is spoken.

One misreading is to be set aside here: do not read the appearing of the auspicious signs as a reward or a seal, as though it were well spoken and therefore a mark was given. The scripture’s own way of speaking is “because it is a dharma that is just so” — the Dharma being thus, what appears is thus, and there is no step of appraisal in between. Chengguan writes under this portion only the two graphs “it may be known,” and sets up no finer outline, precisely because the sense of this passage is plain of itself.

Coming down to the ground: when you meet a passage of auspicious signs in reading a scripture, look first for the clause of reason the text itself gives. If the reason lies in the Dharma, there is no need to read it as a marvel.

The Buddhas of the Ten Directions Praise the Dharma First and the Person After

The portion of the confirming has two sections, and their order may not be reversed. In the former section the buddhas of the ten directions “all appeared in bodily form before the bodhisattva Samantabhadra” and praised him, saying: “It is good, it is good! Son of the Buddha! You have actually been able to expound this place of the practice of the merit of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, the flower of settled meaning, the universal entering into all the Buddha’s dharmas, the chapter of the Dharma gate that goes beyond the world.”

Ask first: who is it that the buddhas praise?

Read the object of the words of praise and you will know — what is praised is “this … chapter of the Dharma gate,” the Dharma, and not the person. Chengguan judges this to be “the confirming that praises the Dharma.” The order is worth noticing: first it is proved that the Dharma spoken is true, and only then does it come round to the one who spoke it. Were it the other way about, praising the person first and coming to the Dharma after, then the Dharma’s trustworthiness would hang upon the person; as it is, the Dharma being praised first, the praise of the person has something to rest on.

The misreading to be set aside here is to read “it is good, it is good” as a courtesy. In this place it is a proof — the buddhas of the ten directions appear in bodily form at one and the same time to bear witness, and what they bear witness to is that this Dharma gate is indeed as it was spoken.

Coming down to the ground: to judge whether a passage of Dharma may be trusted, look first at whether it stands on its own, and after that at who spoke it. Reverse the order and it becomes taking the Dharma by the measure of the person.

Praising the Person and Vowing Together to Guard and Uphold

The latter section turns to the person: “Son of the Buddha! You have already learned this Dharma well, and expounded this Dharma well. You guard and uphold this Dharma by the power of your majesty, and we buddhas all rejoice with you entirely,” and it presses the rejoicing outward — “and just as we buddhas rejoice with you, so all the buddhas are likewise entirely.” Chengguan judges this to be “the confirming that praises the person.”

Ask first: what in Samantabhadra is being praised?

Three things: learning well, expounding well, and guarding and upholding by the power of his majesty. The sequence is still learning first, expounding after, and guarding and upholding last of all. This too is a reminder — one who is able to guard and uphold a Dharma is one who has first learned it and can state it clearly, not merely one who is zealous.

The last clause weighs most: “Son of the Buddha! We buddhas all with one and the same mind guard and uphold this scripture, so that among the multitudes of bodhisattvas present now and to come, those who have never yet heard it may all get to hear it.” This is the close of the whole prose portion, and what it settles is how this Dharma gate is to be handed on hereafter. The four graphs “all with one and the same mind” say that the guardians are not one buddha; the four graphs “now and to come” say that what is guarded is not bounded by the present sitting; “those who have never yet heard it may all get to hear it” says that the aim of the guarding is not the keeping of a text but the reaching of those who have not yet heard.

Coming down to the ground: the most substantial way to guard and uphold a Dharma is to let those who have not heard it hear it — this is the definition the scripture gives of itself.

The First Eight Verses: Stating Plainly First ‘What I Shall Speak Of, and How Much’

The prose being finished, Samantabhadra, “receiving the spiritual power of the Buddha, contemplated all the great assemblies of the ten directions and on to the whole Dharma realm, and spoke these verses.” Chengguan judges the verses to have two hundred and fifteen and a half in all, divided into three segments: first eight verses in seven graphs praising the depth and breadth of the virtue, next a hundred and thirty-one and a half generally setting out the virtue of practice, and last seventy-six versifying the prose before — the sections below follow this threefold division in speaking, and this dividing is fastened to Chengguan alone.

The work of the first segment of eight verses is to state plainly first ‘what is to be spoken of’. The opening four verses are all of one pattern: first is said who it is that is praised, and only the last clause says that I shall speak of him. “Through measureless kalpas he cultivates austerities, and out of the right Dharma of measureless buddhas he is born; he causes measureless beings to abide in awakening — that practice beyond compare, hear me speak of it” — three clauses write the cause and one clause makes the promise to speak. In the second verse, “he makes offerings to measureless buddhas and casts off attachment, delivers beings widely and raises no thought” — making offerings to the buddhas without clinging, delivering beings without a notion of beings — this is to take the practice answered in the six segments before, what Chengguan calls ‘the two thousand practices’, and speak it once over with the bones drawn out.

Then two verses turn to the enjoining to listen: “giving, keeping the precepts, patience, exertion, concentration, wisdom, skillful means and loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity and the rest; through a hundred thousand myriad kalpas he practises them constantly — the merit of that person, sirs, you should listen to it.” The six perfections and the four immeasurables stand side by side, the time is set at a hundred thousand myriad kalpas, and only then is “you should listen” said. The enjoining to listen is no courtesy; it is the settling of the hearer’s mind beforehand upon a scale long enough.

The last verse states the measure: “to take measureless koṭis of kalpas to set forth his virtue would still be like one drop of the ocean — and that is not to be reckoned little; his merit is beyond compare and beyond likening, and now by the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha I speak in brief.” To speak of it with measureless koṭis of kalpas is still but one drop of the great ocean — but that one drop is not to be reckoned little. The misreading to be set aside in this clause is to read “in brief” as a perfunctory telling: the brevity is brief in relation to the inexhaustible, not a speaking at random.

How the Fifty Similes Are to Be Read

The second great segment does not enter upon similes at once; two verses set out the general mark first. “His mind is neither high nor low, and he seeks the Way without weariness; he causes all beings universally to abide in the good and to increase pure dharmas” — first the mind that does the practising: neither high nor low, which is to make no picking and choosing among those to be taught; without weariness, which is not to fall back over a long time. Only then does the simile come: “his wisdom benefits universally, like a tree, like a river or a spring, and like the great earth as well, the place upon which all things depend” — the tree taken for its shade, the river and spring for their not running dry, the great earth for its being depended upon. Chengguan judges these two verses to be “a summary setting out of Dharma and simile,” the Dharma in the former verse and the simile in the latter. Ask first: why should the clause “the place upon which all things depend” be set out at the head? Because whatever thing the fifty similes that follow may take hold of, the point at which each lands is this one matter of benefiting beings; with this clause set up first, what follows does not scatter. The misreading to be set aside is to pass over these two verses as mere words of opening — they are the general cap upon the whole section of similes, not a preface. Coming down to the ground: keep these two verses in mind before reading the similes, and the fifty have a single thread running through them.

The second great segment is the longest, and within it the section called “entrusting to things so as to make the Dharma manifest” uses fifty similes. Chengguan says of this passage, “there are fifty similes in all, hard to divide; now, letting like follow like, I divide them provisionally into ten” — he himself allows that they are hard to divide, and takes like with like in a provisional tenfold division. So the reader need not take the ten classes for a fixed frame; what matters is to see how the similes themselves work.

Look first at the two similes at the head. The lotus simile takes a flower apart and matches its pieces: “loving-kindness is its root, peace and ease its stalk, wisdom the many stamens, the code of the precepts its fragrance and cleanness” — root, stalk, stamens, and fragrance each have their match, and at the end one clause is added, “it is not stained by the water of the conditioned,” and this is where the force of the lotus simile truly lies. The Dharma-tree simile takes things apart in the same way: “it grows upon the ground of an upright mind, faith is the seed, loving-kindness and compassion the roots, wisdom its trunk, skillful means the branches, the five perfections its thick foliage, concentration the leaves, the spiritual penetrations the blossom, and all-knowing wisdom its fruit” — matched all the way from the ground to the fruit, and the half-verse at the end, “the most surpassing power is the vine that twines upon it, and the shade hanging down covers the three realms,” closes it upon the casting of shade.

This manner of writing has a rule common to it all: every part of the simile must have its match, and the whole simile closes upon a single working. If in reading one remembers only “the bodhisattva is like a lotus” and lets slip “not stained by the water of the conditioned,” it is to have taken a comparison and dropped the thing it was to say.

The misreading to be set aside is to take the similes for literary ornament. These fifty similes are no spreading out of rhetoric; they hang the invisible marks of practice upon visible things — Chengguan names this section “entrusting to things so as to make the Dharma manifest”: what is entrusted is the thing, and what is made manifest is the Dharma.

The Ten Classes of Simile Each Say One Thing

Chengguan gives each of these ten classes a name, and all of them are ‘such-and-such a practice’ — the practice that gladdens beings and casts its shade, the practice that crushes the wrong and leads the lost, the practice high and deep and firm and close, the practice that observes capacities and illumines and benefits, the practice sovereign and governing, the practice that contains and is undefiled, the practice that pervades and brings benefit to completion, the practice that holds in check and cultivates the person, the practice that tames and carries, the practice of outward function and of roaming and dwelling. These names are all set up by Chengguan and are not in the text of the scripture; in reading, it is enough to use them as clues.

Follow a few groups through. The lion class speaks of crushing the wrong: “the four truths are his feet, right mindfulness his neck, loving-kindness his eye and wisdom his head,” and it ends “within the empty valley of the surpassing meaning he roars the Dharma and makes the māras afraid” — a lion’s roar needs an empty valley to carry far, and so what is matched to it is the emptiness of the surpassing meaning. The caravan-leader simile speaks of leading the way: beings are in “the wilderness of birth-and-death, the perilous and evil places of the afflictions,” and the caravan leader does one thing only — “he shows them the straight and upright road.”

The class that crushes the wrong and leads the lost has ten verses in all, and after the lion and the caravan leader three more layers follow, which must be read on. First the sickness and its medicine: “the bodhisattva sees beings sick with the afflictions of the three poisons, with sufferings and troubles of every kind, seared and pressed by them the long night through,” and therefore “he raises the mind of great compassion and expounds at large the gates that remedy them, eighty-four thousand kinds, to extinguish the multitude of sufferings and ills.” Ask first: why must the gates of remedy run to eighty-four thousand? Because the sicknesses to be treated are not of one sort; if there were but one medicine, leading the lost would become forcing others to fit oneself. Next the Dharma king: “the bodhisattva is a Dharma king who teaches beings by the right path, causing them to go far from evil and cultivate the good, and to seek the merit of buddhahood single-mindedly,” and then “in the presence of all buddhas he is anointed on the crown and given the honored prediction, and he bestows widely the wealth of the sages, the precious jewels that are the limbs of awakening” — the receiving of the prediction and the bestowing of wealth stand side by side, the one what he himself receives, the other what he shares out to others; and it is just here that the Dharma king is a king, not in the height of his station. Last the Dharma wheel: “the bodhisattva turns the Dharma wheel as the Buddha turns it,” and his wheel is made with “the precepts for its hub and samādhi for its rim, wisdom adorning it and discernment made a sword” — the precepts the hub, samādhi the rim, while discernment is taken under another figure, that of a sword; and what it crushes is that “he breaks the bandits of the afflictions and destroys the enmity of the māras too.” The misreading to be set aside is to read “crushing the wrong” as contending for the upper hand with people: what this class breaks is the bandits of the afflictions and the enmity of the māras, not those who hold different views. Coming down to the ground: when you meet someone you cannot move, ask first whether you have only the one medicine in hand.

The class that is high and deep and firm and close takes hold of scale: the ocean of wisdom is “deep and broad and without shore or limit,” Mount Sumeru “rises up beyond the world,” vajra is “firm and not to be moved,” the thick cloud “rains down water of the eight virtues,” the city of the right Dharma has “prajñā for its rampart, and shame and conscience for its deep moat.” The class that observes capacities and illumines and benefits takes hold of illumining and of seizing: garuḍa “seizes gods, men, and nāgas, and sets them upon the shore of nirvāṇa,” the sun of the right Dharma “extinguishes the darkness of the afflictions,” the moon of the light of wisdom “roams within ultimate emptiness.” The eight similes are to be read as two classes together: the ocean of wisdom, Mount Sumeru, vajra, the thick cloud, and the city of the right Dharma speak of the marks of the bodhisattva's own virtue — deep beyond fathoming, high above the world, firm beyond moving, moistening without running dry, guarding without loss; garuḍa, the sun of the right Dharma, and the moon of the light of wisdom speak of the bodhisattva's use toward beings — seizing and setting them on the shore of nirvāṇa, breaking the darkness of the afflictions, illumining everywhere without attaching to any one realm. The former class is scale, the latter is illumining and benefiting; scale without benefiting is mere self-release, and benefiting without scale cannot last.

The class Chengguan names “the practice sovereign and governing” has six verses, and it takes in succession three lords of the world for its similes. First the Dharma king: “the bodhisattva is a great Dharma king, his body adorned with merit, the marks and the excellences all complete in him, and gods and men all look up to him,” what he uses being “the pure eye of skillful means and the vajra club of wisdom,” and what he accomplishes being that “in the Dharma he gains mastery, and by the Way he teaches the multitude of beings.” Next the Brahmā king: “the bodhisattva is a great Brahmā king, sovereign and risen beyond the three kinds of existence, with karma and delusion all of them cut off, and loving-kindness and equanimity all of them complete,” his business being that “in place after place he displays a body, and awakens beings with the sound of the Dharma,” and what he pulls up being that “there within the three realms he pulls up the roots of wrong views.” Last the Sovereign God: “the bodhisattva is a Sovereign God, risen past the ground of birth-and-death, his objects constantly pure and his wisdom without turning back,” and thereafter “he cuts off that path of the lower vehicle and receives the dharmas of anointing.” Ask first: why should three of the most honored stations be matched in succession? Because what is matched is not the honor but the governing — the Dharma king governs in the Dharma, the Brahmā king in the three kinds of existence, the Sovereign God upon the ground of birth-and-death; each has his own domain of governing, and apart from a domain there is no such thing as mastery. The misreading to be set aside is to read the three similes as an admiring of station. The closing clause of each of the three lands upon something other than his own enjoyment: the Dharma king upon “by the Way he teaches the multitude of beings,” the Brahmā king upon the pulling up of the roots of wrong views, the Sovereign God upon “his name and repute are heard everywhere.” Coming down to the ground: examine whether your own mastery holds only when nothing is happening — the mastery the scripture takes hold of is a mastery still had within the domain one governs.

The classes that follow come closer and closer to the body, and must be looked at class by class.

First are the two verses of “the practice that contains and is undefiled”: “the bodhisattva’s mind of wisdom is as pure as empty space, without nature of its own, without a place to depend upon, and all of it not to be got at” — and yet it goes straight on, “it has the power of great mastery, and is able to accomplish the affairs of the world; he is himself furnished with pure practice, and causes beings to be likewise.” Ask first: if all of it is not to be got at, where does the power that accomplishes the affairs of the world come from? The answer lies in the three graphs “like empty space” — empty space can hold the myriad things precisely because it is itself without nature and without dependence. Nothing to be got at is not doing nothing; it is not being stuck to what is done. The misreading to be set aside is to read “all of it not to be got at” as a passivity. The scripture at once adds “able to accomplish the affairs of the world,” and the two clauses are to be read together. Coming down to the ground: when you are doing something and feel yourself entangled by it, you may come back to this verse — look first whether ‘I am doing it’ has been set too heavily.

Next are the four similes of earth, water, fire, and wind: “the bodhisattva is the earth of skillful means, benefiting beings; the bodhisattva is the water of loving-kindness and compassion, washing clean the afflictions; the bodhisattva is the fire of wisdom, burning that fuel which is delusion and habit-energy; the bodhisattva is the wind that abides nowhere, roaming within the void of the three kinds of existence.” Each of the four great elements is matched with one practice — earth with skillful means, for its bearing and its nourishing; water with loving-kindness and compassion, for its washing; fire with wisdom, for its burning; wind with abiding nowhere, for its moving and not staying. Ask first: why is compassion matched to water and not to fire? Because what is to be remedied differs. The afflictions are like grime, and grime is to be washed; “the fuel of delusion and habit-energy” is the firewood piled up in one’s views, and cannot be cut off but by burning. The misreading to be set aside is to read the four elements as four temperaments, as though some bodhisattvas belonged to water and some to fire. What the scripture speaks of is four workings, and all four are in one person at one time: skillful means does not hinder loving-kindness and compassion, and loving-kindness and compassion do not hinder wisdom. Chengguan sets these two verses apart as a class of their own and names it “the practice that pervades and brings benefit to completion.” Coming down to the ground: meeting a matter, one may ask oneself which working should be raised at this moment — to bear, to wash, to burn, or not to stay.

Below these comes the class Chengguan names “the practice that holds in check and cultivates the person,” six verses in all. The boundary of this class must first be seen clearly: the two verses of the jewel, vajra, the necklace, and the maṇi, the two verses of the flower of virtue, the garland of vow, the incense of the precepts, and the anointing incense of wisdom, and the two verses of the curtain of power, the banner of wisdom, the figured silk of subtle practice, and the clothing of shame and conscience — the three groups together are one section of Chengguan’s, not three sections. Ask first: why must these six verses be gathered into one class? Because everything matched here is a thing worn upon the body: the jewel that relieves poverty, the vajra that crushes the views upside down, the necklace that “adorns the body of the three kinds of existence,” the maṇi that “increases all practices,” the garland of vow bound upon the heads of beings, the incense of the precepts upheld without breach or lack, the curtain of power that “screens off the dust of the afflictions,” the clothing of shame that “covers all beings universally.” From wearing and anointing to covering, the whole way through it is speaking the four graphs “holding in check and cultivating the person” — practice cultivated upon oneself, not talked about for others. The misreading to be set aside is to read these as a show of finery. What the necklace adorns is “the body of the three kinds of existence,” and what the clothing covers is “all beings”; every ornament turns at the last toward others. Coming down to the ground: in reading this class one may go down them piece by piece — jewel, vajra, necklace, maṇi, flower, garland, incense, curtain, banner, clothing — and the piece one most lacks is the practice to be made up now.

The last class Chengguan names “the practice of outward function and of roaming and dwelling,” six verses beginning from the uḍumbara flower; and before it stand the two verses of “the practice that tames and carries,” which are the unobstructed vehicle, the elephant of great strength, the horse with the bases of spiritual power, and the Dharma-expounding nāga — these four are all things that carry and convey people, standing exactly opposite the former class cultivated upon the body. From “the bodhisattva is an uḍumbara flower, hard for the world to meet with” onward it turns to the courageous general, the wheel of the Dharma, the lamp, the river of merit, the bridge of exertion, the sturdy ship, the garden of play, and the flower of liberation. Ask first: why should this class begin from the uḍumbara flower? Because what the uḍumbara takes hold of is the being hard to meet. The difficulty of meeting is spoken first, and then the string of lamp, bridge, and ship that follows shows how precious they are. The misreading to be set aside is to read “hard to meet with” as meaning that bodhisattvas are rare, and so to fall back in one’s mind; what the scripture gives next is wholly things near at hand and fit for use — the lamp is for men to see the road by, “great wisdom and the vast vow together make a firm and sturdy ship, drawing beings across and setting them upon the further shore of awakening” is for men to cross by, and the garden is for men to roam and rest in. Coming down to the ground: “the bodhisattva is a bridge of exertion, delivering all beings widely” is the most substantial clause of all — the bridge does not itself cross the river; it only lets others get across.

Coming down to the ground: the fifty similes need not be memorized one by one; remember the way of reading common to them all — find first what each part is matched to, and then find upon which working the whole simile closes.

Making Practice Clear by the Dharma Itself: No Similes, Practice Spoken of Directly

The latter half of the second great segment changes to another manner of writing. Chengguan names it “making practice clear by the Dharma itself,” meaning that it no longer entrusts to things but speaks of practice by the Dharma directly. The very first clause fixes the height: “the bodhisattva is equal with the Buddha, awakening beings; what else could the mind of a buddha be — right awakening is the awakening of the world.”

Ask first: is this not said too high? How can a bodhisattva be equal with a buddha?

Look at the next clause and it is clear in what he is equal — “what else could the mind of a buddha be; right awakening is the awakening of the world.” What is equal is this one matter of awakening the world; it is not said that their stations are the same. Then three verses turn to the surpassing of the multitude of kinds below: “the bodhisattva has measureless power, which none in the world can destroy,” “though he has left behind name and form, he displays every kind of mark” — what is spoken of is a rising beyond what the world can fathom. Then four verses promise to speak and enjoin listening, closing upon “merits of this kind, you should listen to and receive.”

After this, sixty-four verses set out the depth and breadth in particular, which Chengguan gathers into ten practices, of which two pairs are most worth remembering. One pair is “compassion not losing wisdom” and “wisdom not losing compassion” — the former uses the five similes of the skilled conjuror, the shadow of sun and moon in water, the dream in sleep, the valley’s echo, and the shimmering mirage, saying that though the bodhisattva raises compassion and rescues, he does not lose the wisdom that sees the illusion; the latter uses the contemplation of the five aggregates, the six bases, and the eighteen elements, saying that though he knows all is still and void he does not forsake beings, and the most vital clause is “he understands through and through that all dharmas are empty, and yet constantly seeks the wondrous Dharma; he does not join with the afflictions, and yet does not exhaust the outflows either.” The three graphs of not exhausting the outflows are to be read slowly: it is not that he cannot cut them off, but that for the sake of delivering beings he does not take up the realization of exhausted outflows.

The first of the ten Chengguan names “the practice deep and broad in the three kinds of action,” six verses, speaking of depth and breadth in just those three places, body, speech, and mind. Body: “with a single body he can display measureless differing bodies; without a mind and without an object, he responds universally to all beings.” Speech: “within a single sound he expounds fully all the sounds of speech; the modes of language of beings, he can make them all according to their kind.” Mind: “his mind is constantly still and extinguished, pure as empty space.” Ask first: displaying measureless bodies with one body, expounding all sounds with one sound — upon what does this rest? The scripture gives its own answer — “without a mind and without an object.” It is not that a mind to display is raised first and then there is displaying; it is that mind and object being alike still, the responding comes of itself. The two verses between carry this meaning over into the taking of birth: “he has left the body of afflictions forever, and yet displays a sovereign body; he knows that the Dharma cannot be spoken, and yet makes every kind of speaking,” and “upon a body he has nothing he is stuck to, and yet he can display a body; within all the worlds he takes birth as is fitting in response.” The misreading to be set aside is to read “nothing he is stuck to” as a not taking birth. The text says the opposite: it is having nothing he is stuck to that makes him able to bear birth — “though he is born in every place, he does not abide in the birth he takes.” Coming down to the ground: the depth and breadth of the three kinds of action lie not in doing much, but in whether, while doing, there is in the mind an ‘I’ that must do it.

Within the fourteen verses of the class where wisdom does not lose compassion there is a passage that lists the dharmas learned item by item, and it must be gone down item by item. First three ‘threes’: “according with the three codes of discipline, he sets forth the three gates of liberation, establishes the path of the three vehicles, and accomplishes all-knowing wisdom” — the codes of discipline what he himself accords with, the gates of liberation what he sets forth, the path of the three vehicles what he establishes, the three passing from himself to others in a plain order. Then are listed the items of the Buddha’s powers: “he understands through and through what is the case and what is not, the karmas and the faculties, the elements and the inclinations and the concentrations, and the paths that lead to every destination,” “the recollection of former lives and the divine eye, and the extinguishing of every delusion” — and the scripture at once adds the clause, “he knows the ten kinds of power of a buddha, and yet has not been able to accomplish them.” Ask first: if he understands each one through and through, why is it said he has not been able to accomplish them? Because the ten powers are the virtue of the ground of buddhahood; standing in the bodhisattva’s station he knows them by name and mark and has not yet accomplished them. “He does not join with the afflictions, and yet does not exhaust the outflows either,” in the same passage, is not-joining and yet not-exhausting; each of the two clauses has its own qualification, and they are not to be run together into one sense. The misreading to be set aside is to read “has not been able to accomplish them” as a falling short. It is a word of measure, marking a station: the knowing is the bodhisattva's, the accomplishing belongs to the ground of buddhahood. It closes upon “the three heaps are all pure, and the three times are all clearly penetrated; with great loving-kindness he is mindful of beings, and in all of it there is no hindrance” — purity spoken first, penetration next, and the last clause returning to loving-kindness; when Chengguan judges of this class that “the last two clauses do not lose compassion,” it is just this place he points to. Coming down to the ground: in reading this passage mind those several ‘and yets’ — knowing and yet not accomplishing, not joining and yet not exhausting; every ‘and yet’ marks a line of measure.

The other pair is time-and-place and knowing the faculties: “measureless kalpas are a single thought, and a single thought is measureless kalpas” speaks of time, and “within a single mote of dust he sees universally all the buddhas” speaks of place; while “he knows entirely that the faculties of beings differ as high, middling, and low, and knows too that the faculties shift” speaks of the work that comes before the expounding of the Dharma.

After the knowing of faculties, Chengguan sets up a further class and names it “the practice of stillness and function, swift and quick,” which speaks of moving and not moving at one and the same time. “The bodhisattva’s wisdom of spiritual penetration, its power and force already sovereign, can within a single thought go to lands without limit” — that is the moving. “Going thus swiftly, to the exhausting of numberless kalpas, there is no place he does not pervade, and yet he does not stir by the breadth of a hair’s tip” — that is the not moving. Ask first: if there is no place he does not pervade, how is it then said that not a hair’s tip stirs? Because the places gone to are not such as have a distance to be crossed; were there really a stretch of road to walk, then even at the utmost speed it would still be walking. What the scripture speaks of is that the pervading is so of itself, and only therefore does it say “he does not stir by the breadth of a hair’s tip.” To be read alongside this is the verse just before: “abiding in the inconceivability of a buddha, in the ultimate mind of wisdom, within a single thought he can know entirely the practices of all beings” — the knowing within a single thought and the going within a single thought; stillness and function are two faces of one matter. The misreading to be set aside is to read “swiftly” as fast. Fast is set up over against slow; what is spoken of here is what stands over against nothing. Coming down to the ground: when your own practice feels slow, this verse may serve as a calibration — the trouble is often not in the speed, but in having set the road too long.

Among these ten practices set out in particular, the second must be lifted out by itself. “The bodhisattva’s body is without limit, appearing universally in every place, constantly with reverence making offerings to the most surpassing Honored One of Two Legs” — the body being already limitless and appearing universally in every place, the first thing he does is not to expound the Dharma and deliver beings, but to make offerings to the buddhas. The two verses below say it more plainly: “incense, flowers, and every kind of music, banners, pennants, and jewelled canopies — constantly with a deep and pure mind he makes offerings to the buddhas,” and “he does not leave this one buddha’s assembly, and yet is universally in the presence of all the buddhas, and within those great assemblies he puts questions and listens to and receives the Dharma.” Ask first: a bodhisattva whose body is already limitless and who appears universally in every place — why should he still be putting questions and hearing the Dharma in a buddha’s assembly? It is exactly this misreading that must be set aside — the notion that once practice has come to a certain point one may leave the teacher and stand alone. The answer the scripture gives is “he does not leave this one buddha’s assembly, and yet is universally in the presence of all the buddhas”: not leaving this one assembly, and at the same time pervading the presence of all buddhas; the hearing of the Dharma is the one thing not laid down even after practice has come to the limitless. Coming down to the ground: however many scriptures you have read, do not give up your seat among the hearers.

After the practice where the two adornments are unobstructed come three verses that Chengguan names “the practice of contrary and accordant, brought to completion.” The first verse sets up the general mark: “he displays all manner of forms, and displays mind and speech as well; he enters the nets of beings' conceptions, and yet is ever without attachment” — what is displayed reaches body, speech, and mind, entering the nets of beings' conceptions and yet ever unattached, and this is the ground of everything displayed in the two verses that follow. The second verse raises the two ends: “he may display the first raising of the mind, benefiting the world; or he may display long cultivation, vast and without bound or limit” — the first raising of the mind and long cultivation are alike things displayed. The last verse lists the dharmas practised: “giving, the precepts, patience, exertion, concentration, and wisdom, the four brahmā abidings and the four means of gathering, all the most surpassing dharmas.” Ask first: having cultivated long, why should he still display the mark of one who has just raised the mind? Because what is displayed is displayed with regard to the capacity before him, not with regard to his own station; to display a beginner before a beginner is exactly where the drawing-in happens. Chengguan names this class with the two graphs “contrary and accordant”; what the scripture displays includes both the first raising of the mind and long cultivation, and does not run along one line from earlier to later — this section name is fastened to Chengguan alone. The misreading to be set aside is to read “he may display” as a disguising. Displaying comes in response to capacity; it is not a concealing of real virtue, and though the class that follows displays more widely still, the practice it rests upon is never two. Coming down to the ground: walking with another, there is no need to be quick to show how far you have got; only being able to stand where the other stands makes walking together possible at all.

From “he may display practice brought to fullness” Chengguan sets off a separate class and names it “the practice of displaying at the universal gate,” ten verses in all, and the passage in the whole set of verses that lists marks most densely. What is displayed runs through stations, the three vehicles, gods and men, householder and renunciant, young and old: “he may display practice brought to fullness, having gained the forbearance that does not discriminate; or he may display the state bound to one more birth, with the buddhas anointing him,” “he may display the mark of a hearer, or again display a solitary awakened one,” “he may display being Śakra, or display being a Brahmā king,” “he may display being a monk, stilling and taming his mind,” “he may display being a woman of skillful arts, or display cultivating austerities,” “he may display first coming to birth, or youth, or age and death,” on to “he may enter or abide in a womb, become a buddha and turn the Dharma wheel,” “he may sit beneath the tree of awakening and of itself accomplish right awakening.” Ask first: displaying as miscellaneously as this, does it still count as the bodhisattva’s practice? The scripture has set a limit within it. He displays hearer and solitary awakened one, and yet “in place after place he enters parinirvāṇa, and does not forsake the practice of awakening” — the mark of nirvāṇa may be displayed, the practice of awakening is not forsaken; he displays the receiving of the five desires, and the same verse sets over against it “or he may display entering the concentrations”; he displays becoming a buddha and turning the Dharma wheel, and still stands in the company of “or he cultivates the path of no turning back, gathering up the equipment of awakening.” What is displayed may be of the widest; what is not forsaken is one thing only. The misreading to be set aside is to read this passage as a catalogue of transformations. The scripture puts down its own judging clause: “should there be one who tries to reckon it, his mind will doubt and break out in madness” — this is not asking men to imagine, but to know that beyond what is displayed there is a practice that does not stir. Coming down to the ground: when the marks a person displays are hard to judge by, look at what he forsakes — a mark that has forsaken the practice of awakening, however adorned, is not the universal gate spoken of here.

At the end of the second great segment the scripture sets down a conclusion of its own: “because he has entered this Dharma gate he has been able to accomplish such practice; what I have told is but a small portion of it — the sense of the adornment of merit.” And a verse follows straight upon it: “though one told of it to the end of numberless kalpas, his practice could not be told to the end; I now tell but a small portion, like one dust-mote upon the great earth.” Set it beside “like one drop of the ocean” in the eight verses of the first segment — at the head and at the foot both say “a small portion,” and between them lie the hundred and thirty-one and a half verses. Ask first: so much having been said, why is it still called a small portion? Because the measure of telling and the measure of practice are not on one scale: telling has an end, practice has none; the drop and the dust-mote both take hold of this. The misreading to be set aside is to take “a small portion” for a modest word. It is a word of measure, marking where the boundary of this stretch of text lies — not that it is poorly told, but that it cannot be told to the end. Coming down to the ground: having read this great segment through, what should be remembered is not how much you have read, but that the scripture itself allows it has not finished speaking.

Coming down to the ground: this segment is the part of the whole body of verses most like a manual of practice. If only one clause is to be carried away, one may take the half-clause standing just before “in a single thought he gains awakening and accomplishes all-knowing wisdom” — namely, “defiled practice and pure practice, every kind of them he knows entire.” Knowing entirely comes first; only then is there any talk of turning.

The Third Segment of Verses: Turning Back to Versify the Prose Again

The seventy-six verses of the third great segment differ in kind from the two segments before. Chengguan points out that the first two “are both of them gāthā,” while the third “is at last geya” — gāthā is verse that stands up on its own, and geya is verse that repeats the prose. Which is to say that the two segments before spoke of what the prose did not set out in detail, while this segment versifies once more what was said before.

Of these, the first thirty-nine verses versify the portion of exposition before. Chengguan carries on the outline of the ancient worthies, taking the portion of exposition before as six stages and matching a count of verses to each. The names of these six stages are not set up by the text of the scripture; they are what the worthies of old outlined by following the text of the separately circulating version, and Chengguan carried it on — in reading the verses it is enough to know in one’s mind that this thread is there, without reading the names of the stages into the clauses of the scripture.

The opening verse is much like a general heading: “he abides in dependence upon the wisdom of the Buddha, gives rise to thoughts of the extraordinary, practises the most surpassing practice, and is furnished with great loving-kindness and compassion.” Four clauses, four matters — what he depends on, the thought he raises, the practice he cultivates, the mind he is furnished with. Thence it versifies straight on: “he gives rise to the mind of Samantabhadra, and cultivates his practices and vows” is the beginning of one section, and “like a jewel he abides in the Dharma, with a mind that puts on the armor of the vow” is the beginning of another, each section led off by a key term.

From “bodies of every kind and the karma of the body, speech and speech cultivated in purity” onward, what is versified are the gates of body, speech, and mind; and coming to “the lion seat at the place of awakening, lying as Brahmā lies and having emptiness for his abode,” the marks of sitting and lying are used to speak of abiding. The last section, beginning from “he contemplates universally the conduct of beings,” versifies the six perfections one by one — “free of greed he practises pure giving, casting off conceit he keeps the pure precepts, without anger he is constantly patient, without sloth he is constantly exerting” — the first four perfections each matched with one hindrance left behind (greed, conceit, anger, sloth), while the last two read “gains mastery” and “has nothing to practise” — and this way of matching is far more useful than naming the six perfections alone.

The Last Thirty-Seven Verses: Telling of the Merit as Something That Can Be Put to Use

The last thirty-seven verses of the third great segment versify the portion of the concluding exhortation before. They open with a word of modesty: “those practices of the bodhisattvas, cultivated through measureless kalpas, are vast and without limit, and I now tell but a small portion.” — Chengguan marks these thirty-seven verses as beginning under ‘though he causes’; yet reckoning by the counts of verses he himself sets out, they must begin from ‘those practices of the bodhisattvas’ if the thirty-seven are to be full. The two sayings are recorded side by side without adjudication. And a vital clause is added at once: “though he causes measureless beings to abide in the merit of a buddha, yet within beings and within dharmas he ultimately grasps and clings to nothing.” — so much done and yet nothing grasped: this is the fixed pole of the whole segment.

Then follows a string of marks of spiritual transformation: “upon a hair-tip he sets down many lands, and passes through a koṭi of thousands of kalpas,” “and with a single pore he takes in universally all the oceans, and the great oceans neither increase nor decrease, and beings are not disturbed or harmed.” One great misreading must be set aside here: do not read this as a display of magical arts. At the end of the passages on holding the lands and setting them back and on taking in the oceans there is a clause of restraint — beings do not know or feel it, the great ocean neither increases nor decreases, beings are not disturbed or harmed; the passage on setting the lands in a pore closes upon “truly causing all to see,” the passage on grinding to dust closes upon the dust being knowable while the bodhisattva's wisdom is hard to measure, and the two passages on sending forth light and uttering sounds close upon the benefit to those converted. That the spiritual transformation is a virtue of practice and not a show of powers lies exactly in this, that it does not startle or disturb the realm it transforms.

The section on the three times is the same: “all the kalpas that are past he sets into the future and the present; the kalpas of the future and the present he turns about and sets into the past age” — what is spoken of is that the kalpas of time may be set one within another. The last eight and a half verses change to entrusting to things: the seven jewels of a wheel-turning king are matched to the bodhisattva’s practice — “the pāramitās are the wheel-jewel, the penetrations the elephant-jewel, the bases of spiritual power the horse-jewel, wisdom the bright-pearl-jewel; subtle practice the palace-woman-jewel, the four means of gathering the treasurer-minister-jewel, skillful means the general-jewel” — and then city wall and palace, level ground and river water, clear pool and flower of awakening are matched down the whole way. Chengguan says of this section, “some are what was not there before, and some are the same thing with a different sense, and both may be got at by intention” — which is to say that these matchings both repeat what went before and bring in what is new, and evenness need not be insisted upon.

The two concluding verses use a set of extreme comparisons: the dust-motes of the lands may be numbered, empty space may be measured, the thoughts of beings’ minds may be reckoned, but “the merits of a son of the Buddha cannot, though one speaks, be spoken to the end.” The three things before are already impossible, and the impossible is used to set off what is more impossible still — a manner of speaking this scripture uses often.

The last two verses are the conclusion of the whole chapter, and are its very last words: “would one be furnished with merit of this kind, and with every kind of superior and wondrous dharma, would one cause beings to leave suffering behind and be constantly at ease, would one cause body, speech, and mind to be all of them equal with the buddhas, then he should give rise to the vajra mind, and learn this practice of merit.” Three clauses of ‘would one’ are set out, and one action only is given — to give rise to the vajra mind. What vajra takes hold of is that it cannot be broken: the two thousand practices Chengguan speaks of having been told to the end, what is handed over into the reader’s hands is not a list, but a giving rise of the mind that will not scatter along the way.

Lineage

• The three houses’ outlines standing together: Chengguan judges this chapter into ten portions, and this passage falls to the seventh, the portion of the concluding exhortation to practise; the eighth, the portion of the auspicious signs appearing; the ninth, the portion of the confirming; and the tenth, the portion of the verses. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji judges the whole assembly into eight portions, and makes of these the three portions of the concluding exhortation, the displaying and confirming, and the verses, gathering the auspicious signs into the displaying and confirming before it without setting them up apart. Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun has instead a general outline of five gates, and under “explaining the sense following the text” a long outline in ten sections, the last four of which — entrusting and circulating, the Dharma’s might shaking the earth, the verses on the vast and peerless, and the five-syllable verses of similes — fall exactly to this unit. The three houses’ systems of outlining differ each from each; recorded without adjudication.
• The explanation of the chapter’s name: Fazang sets up four senses in explaining “detachment from the world” — in terms of deluded clinging, of dependent arising, of practice, and of stage; of these, the sense in terms of practice says “one is constantly within the world and yet not gathered in by the world, and therefore it is called detachment,” while the sense in terms of stage runs all the way from humans and gods and the two vehicles to the fruit of buddhahood. Li Tongxuan explains it through by two senses: in terms of the host of the exposition it is the benefiting of the world, and in terms of the beings who hear the Dharma it is dwelling in the world undefiled. Neither house takes it as ‘leaving the world behind’. Recorded without adjudication.
• A variant reading within the verses: the Yanyi chao brings out only one item upon this passage, fastened to the fifth verse of the class of similes of garuḍa, pointing out that the eighty-fascicle text has “the bodhisattva is a moon of the light of wisdom,” while the treatise-scripture it cites has “the bodhisattva is a cool and clear moon … and the dharmas of mind are all made to appear.” The two texts differ; recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The added passage in the separately circulating version: the separately circulating Dushipin jing, after the verses, has a further passage in which the bodhisattva Universal Knowing asks ‘why is this scripture named the Chapter of Passing Beyond the World’ and the Buddha himself answers and explains the name, explaining “shut up within the world” by the covering over of the five aggregates and the six wearers-away, and explaining “passing beyond” by provisional wisdom abiding neither in birth-and-death nor in cessation. The eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts both stop at the last clause of the verses and have no passage answering to it. Recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The citations in the treatises of the Huayan house: Fazang’s Huayan jing zhigui cites the verse of this passage beginning “all the kalpas that are past” in evidence of the Dharma gate of the ten times; the Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang raises this chapter together with the ninth ground in evidence of the inexhaustibility of the ten minds; the Huayan yisheng shixuan men takes this chapter in evidence of the sense of the ten buddhas. All three are citations of a schematic kind, and not explanations clause by clause.
• A check of the treatises that carry the lineage on: in the four treatises, the Cheng weishi lun, the She lun, the Yogācārabhūmi, and the Saṃdhinirmocana, a mechanical search for the terms of this passage gives only one literal hit, “profoundly going forth from the world” in the Yogācārabhūmi, which is not the chapter’s name, and none elsewhere; no hits do not amount to evidence that those treatises have nothing to do with it, and it is set down as vacant according to the fact.