華嚴經 品三十九 入法界品 · 婆須蜜多女（寄無盡功德藏迴向）Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Entering the Dharma Realm · The Woman Vasumitrā (Assigned to the Dedication of the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit)

Why This Section Is Hard to Read

Sudhana has been journeying southward all along, and at this point he comes to the twenty-fifth good friend. Before this he has seen monks, nuns, laywomen, elders, householders, a youth, an outsider, a shipmaster, a king — and of this one the scripture text gives only a name and a house: the woman Vasumitrā. As for the Dharma she expounds, the occasions of it are seeing her, speaking with her, taking her hand, mounting her seat, embracing her, sucking her lips. Anyone who reads this far without stopping for a moment has probably not been reading at all.

One misreading must be cleared away first: this passage is not a side-branch of the scripture, nor a strange text smuggled in by later hands. It stands in all three witnesses, the eighty, the sixty, and the forty; in the scripture text of none of the three is there any wording of an assigned position, and the position comes only out of the outlines of the ancient worthies — Chengguan, Fazang, and Li Tongxuan all match her to the fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit, while Zhiyan makes it “the twenty-fifth, the bodhisattva-position of the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury.” All four houses of the ancient worthies have glossed it passage by passage. That is to say, it is a matter this scripture means of itself to speak of, and moreover a matter which every house held must be made clear.

Bringing it to the ground: in reading this section one must keep apart what she does and what Dharma she expounds. From beginning to end of the scripture text, what she manifests is a body and what she confers is the Dharma; and every clause of the ten samādhis comes down upon the four graphs “they then part from craving and desire.”

Assigned to the Dedication of the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit: Where the Name of This Position Comes From

One thing must be said first: the scripture text itself nowhere says that this good friend is the fifth dedication. The name “the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit” comes out of 〈The Ten Dedications〉; and what matches the woman Vasumitrā to that position is the outline of the ancient worthies. Chengguan, outlining this unit, sets down at the very head “the fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit”; Fazang has “within the good friend of the fifth dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit”; Zhiyan has “the twenty-fifth, the bodhisattva-position of the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury”; Li Tongxuan has “as for the fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit, it takes the perfection of meditation for its substance.” All four match her to the fifth, while the names they set up differ a little.

Why this position? Chengguan first sets up his outline heading, “the fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit,” and only then, under that heading, glosses the name of this city: “as for the city being named Jeweled Adornment, it is because going contrary while following worldly conduct is able to give birth to the treasury of inexhaustible merit” — following the conduct of the world while going contrary to its way, and what that gives birth to is precisely the inexhaustible treasury of merit. The sequence is first the outline heading and afterward the gloss of the name; the gloss of the name answers to the name of the position, and the city’s name is not made the ground for matching the position. The Yanyi chao, taking up this heading, glosses the name of the position: it is by the power of dedication that the inexhaustible treasury of merit is accomplished — the treasury is inexhaustible because of the power of dedication.

As to matching and not matching, Chengguan keeps a word of even-handedness of his own. At the place of the five aspects of the final assembly he says: “both have their reason, that is, since each and every position possesses many Dharma gates, how could it be that the ordinary mind may not learn and seek the dharma of the good friend, and so there is reason in not matching them; yet within what has no sequence of positions the sequence of positions is not obstructed, and to make the positions manifest is the constant rule, so that to match them is likewise not at fault.” Not to match has its reason, and to match is likewise not at fault — this is how he himself holds it.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the assigned position is something the scripture text marks for itself. It is not. Bringing it to the ground: in reading the judgment of an assigned position, one must remember that it is a line the ancient worthies read out, not something the scripture says of itself; the line has its own grounds, and those grounds are in the commentaries, not in the scripture.

The Benefit Accomplished in Accord with the Teaching: He Gained Eight Gates First, and Only Then Walked This Road

This section begins not with walking but with gaining the Dharma. The scripture text says that Sudhana’s “mind was lit up and opened by the light of great knowledge, and he pondered and contemplated and saw the very nature of dharmas,” and then follow eight clauses each with the word “gained” — the dhāraṇī gate of comprehending all speech and sound, the dhāraṇī gate of upholding all the wheels of the Dharma, the strength of great compassion that makes him a refuge for all sentient beings, the gate of light that contemplates the sense and principle of all dharmas, the pure vow that fills the Dharma realm, the light of knowledge that shines everywhere upon all dharmas in the ten directions, the sovereign strength that adorns all worlds everywhere, the full and perfect vow that sets going everywhere the works of all bodhisattvas. In the base text this passage has the word “gained” eight times, graph for graph.

The sense of the eight gates may be told one by one. First, the dhāraṇī gate of comprehending all speech and sound: what it faces is the speech of sentient beings, and gaining it, whatever sound is uttered he knows its sense and is not shut out from it. Second, the dhāraṇī gate of upholding all the wheels of the Dharma: what it faces is the Dharma a buddha turns, and gaining it, the Dharma he has heard is held and not lost. Third, the strength of great compassion that makes him a refuge for all sentient beings: what it faces is the suffering of sentient beings, and gaining it, he can be leaned upon and turns no one away. Fourth, the gate of light that contemplates the sense and principle of all dharmas: what it faces is the sense and principle of the Dharma, and gaining it, he illumines the sense and is not left in the dark. Fifth, the pure vow that fills the Dharma realm: what it faces is the measure of the vow, and gaining it, the vow he sets going reaches to the end of the Dharma realm and is unmixed. Sixth, the light of knowledge that shines everywhere upon all dharmas in the ten directions: what it faces is the Dharma of the ten directions, and gaining it, the shining of knowledge has no limit of place. Seventh, the sovereign strength that adorns all worlds everywhere: what it faces is the buddha-lands, and gaining it, he is sovereign in the one matter of adorning worlds. Eighth, the full and perfect vow that sets going everywhere the works of all bodhisattvas: what it faces is the works of a bodhisattva, and gaining it, he can set those works going and his vow does not fall short. The first two lie in upholding, the next two in compassion and in knowledge, and the last four in vow, in knowledge, in strength, and in works — the eight are not eight scattered virtues but the mark of real knowledge and expedient knowledge coming down in eight places.

Chengguan judges this passage to be a benefit of two tiers. The first tier is the seeing of the real principle, of which he says it is “the benefit of gaining the sight of the real nature of dharmas, by reason of the real knowledge that went before”; the second tier is the gaining of the knowledge of expedient skill, of which he says it is “the benefit of gaining the expedient knowledge, by reason of the knowledge that went before and exhausted the differences of the three times.” Real knowledge illumines principle and expedient knowledge illumines matters — what illumines principle sees the nature of dharmas, and what illumines matters is unobstructed in each and every case of speech and sound, of the wheels of Dharma, and of the faculties and desires of sentient beings.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that Sudhana first goes to see the good friend and afterward gains the Dharma. The sequence of this passage is exactly the reverse: first there is the gaining of the eight gates, and only then does he “little by little travel on.” Bringing it to the ground: what kind of objective realm a person can stand firm in depends on what he already carries with him before he enters it. To walk this stretch of road, real knowledge and expedient knowledge are both needed and neither can be lacking — without real knowledge one is turned about by the objective realm, and without expedient knowledge one cannot read the Dharma.

Those in the City Who Do Not Know Her: They Are Anxious for Sudhana

Sudhana arrives at the city Jeweled Adornment and “everywhere sought for the woman Vasumitrā.” The city’s response falls into two kinds, and the kind that comes out first is those who do not know her. The scripture text says “in the city there were some who did not know this woman’s merit, virtue, and wisdom, and they thought in this way” — and note that this is thinking in the mind, not speaking to Sudhana.

What is it that they think? They look this youth over from head to foot, saying that “his faculties are still, his wisdom is clear and bright, he is neither deluded nor scattered,” saying that he “grasps at nothing and clings to nothing, his eyes look and do not blink, his mind is not shaken, and he is deep and broad, just like the great sea.” This whole string of sayings is praise, clause by clause. It is precisely because they have seen the good in this youth that they grow anxious for him.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this is idlers in the city speaking ill. It is not. The scripture text writes it out with the utmost clarity — they first affirm Sudhana’s virtue, and only then turn out that anxiety. Bringing it to the ground: the questions that truly put a person in difficulty mostly do not come from ill will; they come from half an understanding. To have seen the virtue of the person and not to have seen the depth of the objective realm is what gives rise to this kind of doubt.

What Exactly Is Doubted in That Doubt

They go on to say “he ought not, toward this woman Vasumitrā, to give rise to a mind of craving and love, or to a mind turned upside down, to take her for an object pure and pleasing, to take her for an object of desire,” and again “this youth does not do what Māra does, does not enter Māra’s objective realm, does not sink into the mire of desire, is not bound by Māra,” and at last it comes down to a single question — “with what sort of intention has he come seeking this woman?”

Four clauses each with the word “not,” and every one of them says that Sudhana is not that kind of person; and it is precisely because he is not that kind of person that the question stands: since it is so, what have you come to seek her for?

Chengguan judges this passage to be “the doubt of the shallow in knowledge, because contrary practice is hard to know,” and he singles out one thing in particular: those who doubt are the people of the city, not Sudhana himself. He says “as for his not doubting of himself, craving accords with compassion, and its obstruction of practice is the weaker, unlike the two before”; and again “moreover, having already been disciplined by the two before, here he does not doubt.” Fazang sets this same matter down as a pair of question and answer, asking why it is that with the two good friends before, who displayed anger and displayed wrong views, Sudhana himself gave rise to doubt, while here, where the mark of craving is displayed, it is others who doubt; and he answers, “because the two before are close obstructions to the bodhisattva path, whereas craving and love accord with compassion and their obstruction of practice is the weaker,” citing the Jueding pini jing — “a bodhisattva had rather give rise to a hundred thousand minds of craving than give rise to one of anger, and the rest” — for his ground.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the scripture text is saying that craving does not matter. What the two commentaries say is another thing: anger and wrong views run directly counter to a bodhisattva’s compassion, while craving runs in the same direction as compassion (both being turned toward sentient beings), and so in the strength with which they obstruct the path a heavier and a lighter are distinguished. This is said with respect to the strength or weakness of the obstruction to practice, not with respect to defilement and purity. Bringing it to the ground: only when one can tell apart “they doubt” from “I doubt” can this passage be read through. Sudhana does not doubt, and it is because the two friends before had already disciplined him.

Those in the City Who Do Know Her: They Are Glad for Sudhana

The other kind now come on. The scripture text says “among those people there were some who had known beforehand that this woman has wisdom, and they told Sudhana” — this time it is not thinking in the mind but speaking aloud. And the very first thing they say is “excellent, excellent.”

He speaks of four matters that are “resolute”: resolutely to seek the fruit-station of a buddha, resolutely to wish to make himself a support and shelter for all sentient beings, resolutely to wish to pull out from all sentient beings the poisoned arrow of craving and love, resolutely to wish to break in all sentient beings that thought of purity which they hold toward the form of a woman. In the base text this passage has the word “resolutely” four times, graph for graph. These four clauses are not vague encouragement; they push back, item by item, the doubt of those who came before — you suppose he is going toward the staining of desire? He is going to pull out the poisoned arrow of craving and love from all sentient beings, going to break in all sentient beings the thought of purity toward the form of a woman.

Chengguan judges this passage to be “the praise and teaching of those deep in knowledge,” first praising and afterward showing where she is. What is meant by being deep in knowledge is simply knowing the practice of this good friend for what it is.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that because one matter admits of two views it therefore cannot be settled. That the scripture text sets the two views side by side is not so that the reader may choose one, but so that the reader may see clearly where the dividing line runs — and the line runs exactly at knowing, or not knowing, “this woman’s merit, virtue, and wisdom.” Bringing it to the ground: one and the same act, with those who know, is the pulling out of a poisoned arrow, and with those who do not know, is a sinking into the mire of desire. The difference is not in the act but in whether it is read or not read.

North of the Market, Her Own House

The clause that points the way is extremely short: “son of good family, the woman Vasumitrā is within this very city, north of the market stalls and streets, dwelling in a house of her own.” The market stalls and streets are the noisiest place in a city.

Upon this one clause Chengguan lays three tiers of gloss. He says “the market is clamor and jumble; the north presides over extinction; her own house is ultimate emptiness and stillness, which is to say, practicing meditation while within desire, dwelling in clamor and constantly still” — the market is clamor, the north presides over extinction, and her own house is ultimate emptiness. Three names of places are three tiers in the mark of her practice: she dwells in the place of clamor, while what presides is extinction, and the house she dwells in is ultimate emptiness. This is a gloss Chengguan sets up upon the eighty, because in the sixty this place reads “within the deep palace inside this city,” and there is no such tier as “north of the market stalls”; Fazang sets up his gloss upon the sixty, citing the Sanfadu jing and saying “this woman is now truly realizing the suchness of desire, and therefore she is in the deep palace” — the two commentaries rest upon different witnesses, and so the marks they gloss differ as well.

Li Tongxuan reads this clause along another track. He makes the multitude and vexation of birth-and-death into the market stalls, saying “he takes the multitude and vexation of birth-and-death for the market stalls”; and he matches the quarters, saying “the north is the position of the trigram kan, and being the northern quarter it presides over blackness, and it is the position of the many deluded and foolish sentient beings”; and at the last he brings it home to a bodhisattva’s dwelling place, saying “as for her dwelling in a house of her own, the sea of birth-and-death of sentient beings is the house a bodhisattva dwells in of himself.”

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this is a later hand making something out of a place-name. The weight of this clause lies in its settling how the whole unit is to be read — had she dwelt in a deep mountain, this Dharma gate would be a different Dharma gate. Bringing it to the ground: to dwell in the noisiest place while what presides is extinction — this is the definition that this section gives for stillness.

Seeing the Dependent Surroundings: Why That House Is Written Out at Such Length

Sudhana, hearing the words, is glad and goes to her gate, and then comes a long passage writing out the house — jeweled walls, jeweled trees, jeweled moats, each with ten rings of encirclement; within the jeweled moats scented water standing brimming, golden sand spread upon the bottom, five kinds of water-flowers covering the water everywhere; palaces and towered pavilions, doorways and windows, nets and bells and pennants and banners, beryl for the ground, aloeswood and sandalwood, jeweled bells becoming sound when the wind stirs them, the flowers of the gods strewn everywhere; and at the end, “the storehouses of the several precious things numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and ten great parks and groves served for adornment.”

Why write it out at such length? Chengguan gives a reason: “within the seeing, first is the seeing of the dependent surroundings; within ultimate emptiness there is no virtue not fully possessed, and therefore its adornment is widely displayed.” The passage just before said that her own house is ultimate emptiness and stillness, and this passage writes its adornment out large — this is not a self-contradiction; it is precisely meant to display that within ultimate emptiness there is not one virtue that is not fully possessed. Emptiness is not that there is nothing; emptiness is that there is nothing it does not hold.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this passage is a spreading-out of literary ornament. Were it a spreading-out, three clauses would have been enough. Bringing it to the ground: when reading a passage of adornment in the Avataṃsaka, one should always turn back and ask what the clause just before it said — a text of adornment is mostly there to bear out the sense of the clause before.

Seeing the Proper Recompense: The Person Herself

Next the person is written. The scripture text says “her face and features were upright and adorned, her form and marks were full and complete, her skin was golden in color, her eyes and her hair were of a deep blue-black, she was neither tall nor short, neither coarse nor fine” — four graphs “neither,” writing the mark of the middle way by way of denial. Then her voice and sound are written, saying that of “all the differing speech and sound of all sentient beings she was fully possessed, with not one that she did not comprehend”; then her knowledge, saying that she “penetrated deeply into the sense of the written word, was skilled and adroit in talk and exposition, had gained the knowledge that knows things as illusions, and had entered the gates of skillful means”; then her retinue, saying that they were “all of them of common roots of goodness and of one and the same practice and vow”; and at the last the light, saying that “she sent forth from her body a vast and great light, shining everywhere upon all the palaces within that house,” and that “those whom this light met gained coolness in their bodies.”

Chengguan judges this passage, saying “afterward, from ‘at that time’ onward, is the seeing of the proper recompense, which possesses the virtue and the working of the principal and the companions” — the principal is she herself, the companions are her retinue, the virtue is what she possesses, and the working is the light sent forth from her body that makes people cool.

Two places deserve attention. The first is “had gained the knowledge that knows things as illusions”: this is the key to reading this section. One who has the knowledge that knows things as illusions knows that the marks he manifests are as illusions, and therefore can manifest them without clinging to them. The second is where that light comes down — not to make people give rise to desire, but to make their bodies gain coolness. The scripture text has fixed the direction beforehand of itself.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the scripture text writes her form and marks in order to write of her beauty. In the forty, under this clause, there are four extra words, “the heat of confusion in the mind is removed,” which may be read alongside the eighty: where the light reaches, the fever of vexation ceases. Bringing it to the ground: what a passage of writing says is seen from where it comes down, not from its ornament of phrase.

Sudhana’s Question: He Asks What He Asked of Every One Before

Sudhana bows to her feet, joins his palms and stands, and says “holy one! I have already first given rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and yet I do not know how a bodhisattva is to study the practice of a bodhisattva, or how a bodhisattva is to cultivate the path of a bodhisattva. I have heard that the holy one is good at instructing others — would that you would expound it for me.”

This question is the same question asked before every good friend that has gone before. Chengguan places this passage at the end of “the seeing, the paying of respects, and the inquiring,” passing over it with the one clause “the inquiring may be known of itself,” because it is of one form with the other units.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that before this one good friend the thing to be asked ought to have been something else. The scripture text does not alter a single graph. Bringing it to the ground: that before this friend what is asked is still this same clause shows that what is sought is one and the same matter — what changes is the good friend, not the Dharma that is sought. And it is precisely because the question is the same question that this section stands on one line with the units before it, and is not an interlude.

The Setting Forth of the Name: The Limit Apart from Craving and Desire

The first thing she says on opening her mouth sets forth the name of the Dharma gate: “son of good family! I have gained a bodhisattva liberation named the Limit Apart from Craving and Desire, and I manifest a body according to what beings desire and delight in.”

The four graphs “the Limit Apart from Craving and Desire” are the pivot of the whole unit. Here Chengguan sets down a passage distinguishing three tiers, saying “as for the limit apart from craving and desire: ordinary beings are stained by desire; those of the two vehicles see desire as something that can be parted from; a bodhisattva gains liberation without cutting off craving and desire, because his knowledge comprehends that the nature of it is empty, and desire is itself the path,” and gathering it at the end into one clause, “being stained in this way and yet not stained is what makes it the ultimate limit of parting from desire.”

The three tiers are these: ordinary beings are within desire and are stained by it; those of the two vehicles see desire as a thing that can be parted from, and so part from it and get out; a bodhisattva gains liberation without cutting off craving and desire, because his knowledge illumines that its nature is fundamentally empty. And so the word “limit” does not mean ‘parting away to somewhere beyond a boundary’; it means ‘the ultimate place of parting from craving and desire’ — and the ultimate place lies in being stained and yet not stained.

Fazang, upon the sixty’s “the pure Dharma gate of the true limit apart from desire,” sets up two senses: the first with reference to her own practice, saying “though by compassion and vow she keeps confusion and displays herself in the place of desire, yet great knowledge illumines desire and its very substance is empty, and this is named the purity of the true limit,” and citing the Jingming’s “within desire and yet practicing meditation” and the Zhufa wuxing jing’s “craving and desire are the very path, and so likewise are anger and delusion” as his evidence; the second with reference to benefiting beings, saying “though she keeps confusion and displays herself within desire, she makes the sentient beings who dwell in desire necessarily part from desire.”

Why this woman’s contrary practice stands side by side with the right Dharma, each of two houses sets out in a table of its own at the outline passage of the chapter. Chengguan sets up five senses: first, that upon the mark itself it is empty, and being empty it is the path — which is not to say that the three poisons are themselves the Dharma of a buddha; second, with reference to the use of illusion in gathering beings in, which likewise is not to say that they are it; third, that within confusion the mind is used as the common run of the world uses it, and here it is in contemplating the mind that it becomes the path, which likewise is not to say that it is the path; fourth, that confusion is kept to moisten birth and to lengthen the bodhisattva path, which likewise is not to say that they are it; fifth, that upon the mark itself it is the path, unlike the four before, because it is beyond thought. The first four all come home to the one clause ‘it is not that these three poisons are themselves the Dharma of a buddha,’ while the fifth grants outright that upon the mark itself it is the path — and what that granting rests upon is its being beyond thought, not a principle that can be reasoned out; this dividing line must not be dropped. Fazang, at the same place, sets up four senses: first, that upon the mark itself it is empty; second, with reference to the adroit gathering in of beings; third, with reference to keeping confusion to moisten birth — all three coming home to ‘it is not that these three matters are themselves the Dharma of a buddha’; fourth, with reference to its being so upon the mark itself, unlike the three before, of which he says himself that it is exceedingly hard to understand, because it is beyond thought. The two houses each form a table of their own, and they are here recorded without adjudication.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this says craving and desire are themselves liberation and need not be cut off. Chengguan’s sentence has a first half and a second: the first half is “gains liberation without cutting off craving and desire,” and the second is “because his knowledge comprehends that the nature of it is empty, desire is itself the path” — the second half is the condition of the first, and pull the second half out and the first half becomes another matter altogether. Fazang, at the conclusion of the working, sets a further limit: all that this passage speaks of is what great bodhisattvas of the utmost position do, and is not what those of the lower positions know. Bringing it to the ground: the threshold of this gate is not daring but knowledge, and position as well. Without that “knowledge comprehending that the nature is empty,” no one whatever is permitted the half-sentence before it.

Manifesting a Body of the Same Kind: Manifesting a Body According to What They Desire and Delight In

After the setting forth of the name comes the working, and the working speaks first of manifesting a body. The scripture text says “if a god sees me, I am a goddess, and my form and my light are surpassing beyond compare; and so on in this way, down to humans and non-humans and the rest who see me: for them I manifest myself as a human woman or a non-human woman, and according to what they delight in and desire, I let them all see it.”

Chengguan judges this to be “the displaying of the working, within which first is the manifesting of a body of the same kind.” To manifest a body of the same kind means: whatever kind the sentient beings are, a body of that kind is manifested. Gods seeing her, a goddess; humans seeing her, a human woman; non-humans seeing her, a non-human woman. This joins exactly onto the earlier clause “had gained the knowledge that knows things as illusions” — the condition of being able to manifest according to kind is knowing that what is manifested is not real.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this is a display of spiritual penetration. Where the manifesting of a body of the same kind comes down is not on the manifesting but on “according to what they delight in and desire” — she enters by way of what the sentient beings already delight in, and does not require that sentient beings first change into something else before they may see her. Bringing it to the ground: in drawing a person in, the first step is to go and stand where he is standing, and this clause is the scriptural ground of that step.

The First and Second of the Ten Samādhis: The Dharma Expounded and Desire Parted From · A Moment’s Sight and Gladness

The ten samādhis begin here. In the base text this passage has “if there are sentient beings” ten times graph for graph, “they then part from craving and desire” ten times graph for graph, and “samādhi” ten times graph for graph — ten clauses in even order.

The first clause is “if there are sentient beings bound about by the intention of desire who come to where I am, I expound the Dharma for them, and having heard the Dharma they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of the objective realm without attachment.” This clause matters most, because it is the only one that states the middle course expressly: when they come they are bound about by the intention of desire; in the middle there is “I expound the Dharma for them”; and only after they have heard do they part from craving and desire. From the second clause on, the expounding of the Dharma is not restated in the middle, and there remains only “merely see me for a moment, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of gladness.”

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that in the nine clauses that follow no Dharma need be expounded and the path is gained by contact alone. Since the first clause has already established the Dharma, the nine that follow speak in succession according to the shallowness or depth of the occasion, and the matter of expounding the Dharma has not been withdrawn. Chengguan judges these ten clauses as a whole, saying “within the benefiting of beings by the Dharma there are ten samādhis, all of them according to the convenience of the desire received, whereby such profound samādhis are gained — ponder it” — the words “benefiting beings by the Dharma” are the title of this whole passage, and “according to the convenience of the desire received” is a skillful means, not a substitute. Fazang judges by the same axis, saying “within it there are ten samādhis, all of them making use of desire to convert the sentient beings who dwell in desire, causing them to gain such profound samādhis as these.”

Bringing it to the ground: what is gained in the first clause is “the objective realm without attachment,” and what is gained in the second is “gladness” — what is gained after parting from desire is not a dry blandness but non-attachment and gladness. This is the keynote all the way down the ten clauses.

The Third and Fourth of the Ten Samādhis: Speaking and Gaining Unobstructed Voice and Sound · Taking the Hand and Gaining the Going to All Buddha-Lands

The third clause: “if there are sentient beings who merely speak with me for a moment, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of unobstructed voice and sound.” The occasion is speech and what is gained lies likewise in voice and sound — this is one plain rule of the passage: the matter that is the occasion and the samādhi that is gained mostly answer to each other in sense. Li Tongxuan reads this clause thus: “this makes clear the giving rise to wisdom out of concentration, and the comprehending that voice and sound have no substance,” setting the point down upon the absence of self-nature in voice and sound.

The fourth clause: “if there are sentient beings who merely take my hand for a moment, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of going everywhere to all buddha-lands.” The hand is the instrument of drawing in, and therefore what is gained is the going everywhere to all buddha-lands. Li Tongxuan glosses this clause as the sense of leading and drawing in.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the correspondence between the occasion and what is gained was pieced together by later hands. In the passage before, upon seeing the proper recompense, the scripture text had already said that of “all the differing speech and sound of all sentient beings she was fully possessed, with not one that she did not comprehend,” and that the one occasion of speech gains the samādhi of voice and sound runs through with that very clause. Bringing it to the ground: in reading these ten clauses one may ask of each in turn, ‘what is the answering between this occasion and this samādhi,’ and the scripture text has prepared the answer of itself.

The Fifth and Sixth of the Ten Samādhis: Mounting the Seat and Gaining the Light of Liberation · A Moment’s Looking and Gaining Still Adornment

The fifth clause: “if there are sentient beings who merely mount my seat for a moment, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of the light of liberation.” In the sixty this clause reads “those who lodge together with me gain the samādhi of the light of liberation,” the wording of the occasion differing in the two witnesses while the name of the samādhi is the same. Li Tongxuan glosses the mounting of the seat thus: “the mounting of the seat is the increase of the knowledge that is without marks.”

The sixth clause: “if there are sentient beings who merely look upon me for a moment, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of still adornment.” The occasion is looking, and what is gained is still adornment. Li Tongxuan glosses this clause thus: “‘merely looking upon me’ is the sense of contemplative illumination” — the one occasion of looking answers exactly to the knowledge of contemplative illumination.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the closer the occasion the coarser the Dharma. Under the ten occasions the scripture text sets one samādhi to each occasion and establishes the name of each, and nowhere judges the coarseness or fineness of the Dharma by the nearness or distance of the occasion. Bringing it to the ground: the sequence of this passage runs contrary to the judgment of the world, and finding it unaccustomed is exactly the place it means to cure.

The Seventh and Eighth of the Ten Samādhis: Stretching and Crushing the Outsider Paths · Blinking and Gaining the Light of a Buddha’s Objective Realm

The seventh clause: “if there are sentient beings who see me stretching, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of crushing the outsider paths.” Stretching is the mark of extending the body. Li Tongxuan glosses this clause thus: “stretching is the sense of delight in the Dharma.”

The eighth clause: “if there are sentient beings who see me blink, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of the light of a buddha’s objective realm.” To blink is for the eyes to close and open once. Li Tongxuan glosses this clause thus: “blinking is the seeing of the truth and the entering into the objective realm of a buddha’s knowledge.”

These two clauses are the two finest occasions in the whole passage — an extending of the body, a single blink of the eyes. And what is gained is, in the one, the crushing of the outsider paths, and in the other, the light of a buddha’s objective realm.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this says a posture can deliver people. The subject of the scripture text from first to last is that one word “gain” — those who gain are the sentient beings, and the occasion by which they can gain is what they have seen in this good friend. Bringing it to the ground: the occasion can be as fine as a single blink because within that blink there is the whole weight of her concentration; it is not that the gesture itself has power.

The Ninth and Tenth of the Ten Samādhis: Embracing and Gaining the Gathering In of All Sentient Beings · Sucking the Lips and Gaining the Increase of the Treasury of Merit

The ninth clause: “if there are sentient beings who embrace me, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of gathering in all sentient beings and never forsaking them”; the tenth clause: “if there are sentient beings who suck my lips, they then part from craving and desire and gain the bodhisattva samādhi of increasing the treasury of merit of all sentient beings.”

These are the two nearest occasions in the whole passage. In the sixty these two clauses keep transcribed words, reading “those who aliyi me gain the samādhi of gathering in all sentient beings” and “those who azhongbi me gain the samādhi of the secret treasury of all merit and virtue”; Fazang, upon that witness, transmits their names in this tongue, saying “as for aliyi, in this tongue it is embracing, holding, and touching, which is the mark of gathering in, and therefore that samādhi is gained,” and saying “as for azhongpi, in this tongue it is the mouthing of the mouth, and what is gained is the concentration of the secret treasury of the teaching in words”; what Zhiyan transmits reads as fundamental desire and right desire. Li Tongxuan glosses directly upon the wording of the eighty, saying “as for those who embrace me, it is the sense of gathering in sentient beings and not forsaking them; as for those who suck my lips, it is the sense of receiving the teaching and expounding the Dharma.”

The names of what is gained should be seen clearly: what embracing gains is “gathering in all sentient beings and never forsaking them,” and the mark of embracing answers to the sense of gathering in and not forsaking; what sucking the lips gains is “increasing the treasury of merit of all sentient beings,” and the mark of the mouth answers to the sense of teaching in words. Of the two sayings of Fazang and Li Tongxuan, the one matches the mouth to the concentration of the secret treasury and the other matches the mouth to receiving the teaching and expounding the Dharma, and each stands on a track of its own.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the scripture text here is describing the fine details of an outward matter. The sixty keeps the transcription and the eighty translates directly; and those who expressly gloss these two occasions by gathering in and by teaching in words are two houses, Fazang and Li Tongxuan — Fazang takes aliyi for the mark of gathering in and azhongpi for the concentration of the secret treasury of the teaching in words, while Li Tongxuan takes embracing for the sense of gathering in sentient beings and not forsaking them and the sucking of the lips for the sense of receiving the teaching and expounding the Dharma. What Zhiyan transmits reads as fundamental desire and right desire, a track of its own; and Chengguan, in this passage, judges the ten samādhis only in general and does not gloss these two occasions one by one. Bringing it to the ground: how a passage of writing is to be read is first seen from where those who have read it from of old bring it down.

The General Conclusion of the Working: Whatever Sentient Beings Draw Near to Me

After the ten clauses comes one clause of general gathering: “whatever sentient beings draw near to me, all of them are able to abide in the limit apart from craving, and to enter the liberation, present before them and unobstructed, of a bodhisattva’s ground of omniscient knowledge.” The ten clauses before all read “if there are sentient beings,” and this clause turns to “whatever sentient beings” — the particular occasion turns into the general occasion, and the ten samādhis are gathered into a single “abiding in the limit apart from craving.”

Li Tongxuan glosses this clause thus: “it raises them all together, that of all who draw near not one passes by in vain, and all obtain the gate of omniscient knowledge”; and upon this he draws out a further sense, saying “this makes clear that those of the two vehicles and the bodhisattvas who have come out of the bonds seek only to part from suffering, and have not entered into great kindness and compassion, entering the sea of birth-and-death to share in the work and draw beings in,” and saying “they do not reach the sovereign king of knowledge of the Dharma realm, who dwells in the defiled and the pure and yet is without stain.”

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that after the ten clauses each goes its own way and there is no general gathering. The concluding clause says it plainly: the names of the ten samādhis differ one from another, and yet what they come home to is one place only — abiding in the limit apart from craving, entering a bodhisattva’s ground of omniscient knowledge. The names differ and the coming home is one; nor is the shallowness or depth of the occasion made a judgment of high and low. Bringing it to the ground: in reading a passage that sets things out in a list, the clause of general gathering at the end is often weightier than the ten clauses before it.

Sudhana Asks Again: How Did You Come by This?

Sudhana does not stop at praising; he asks a second question: “holy one, what roots of goodness did you plant, what works of merit did you cultivate, that you have been able to accomplish such sovereignty as this?”

This question asks after the cause. The former question asked after the Dharma (how is a bodhisattva to study the practice of a bodhisattva), and this one asks how it is that this good friend can have such a Dharma. Chengguan judges this to be “the occasion by which the Dharma was gained, first the asking and afterward the answering.”

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that this is curiosity. Among the several units of this assembly, not every one has the asking after the occasion by which the Dharma was gained; this unit has this one question precisely because the mark she manifests is so far out of the ordinary that without knowing its cause the mind cannot be at rest. Bringing it to the ground: when you see a person able to do what you cannot do, to ask ‘how did you come by this’ is of more use than to ask ‘what are you doing.’

The Answer: One Jeweled Coin

Her answer is a passage of a bygone matter. In the past a buddha appeared in the world named Lofty Practice, and the city of his royal capital was called Wondrous Gate. That tathāgata, taking pity on sentient beings, entered the royal city and set his foot upon the threshold, and the whole city shook, and of a sudden became vast and broad, adorned with the many jewels, the music of the gods struck up together, and the gods filling the empty sky. At that time she was an elder’s wife named Excellent Wisdom; seeing the Buddha’s spiritual power, awakening arose in her mind, and together with her husband she went to where the Buddha was, and “made an offering of one jeweled coin.” At that time Mañjuśrī the youth was the Buddha’s attendant, and expounded the Dharma for her, causing her to give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Upon this jeweled coin Chengguan sets up two senses, saying “as for the giving of one jeweled coin, there are two senses: first, that it was a jewel and yet she could give it away, and so she gained the parting from craving; second, that one coin though slight, being given with the mind of awakening, accomplished this sovereignty.” The first is with reference to the thing given away — it was a jewel and yet she could give it away, and so she called forth the fruit of parting from craving; the second is with reference to the mind that gave — the coin was but one, and the mind was awakening, and so she called forth such sovereignty as this. Li Tongxuan makes a separate division, saying “this makes clear that in the cause of the past, the giving away of the jeweled coin she held dear is the parting from craving, and Mañjuśrī’s urging her to give rise to the unsurpassed mind of awakening is the parting from desire,” and saying again “as with the one jeweled coin, what was given was not much, but because the mind held it dear, that she could give it away is no different from giving much.”

There is a fact of the parallel translations to be set down here: in the sixty what is offered at this place is not a jeweled coin but “a wondrous jeweled crown of the gods”; only the eighty and the forty have one jeweled coin. Chengguan’s and Li Tongxuan’s two senses of the one jeweled coin are both fastened to the wording of the eighty.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that to accomplish such a Dharma gate the ground of the cause must have been some startling great affair. What the scripture text gives is one coin. Bringing it to the ground: a cause is a cause not by its quantity but by whether that one thought is the mind of awakening. This passage is the place in the whole unit where the foot finds surest ground.

Humbling Herself and Pointing to the Superior: I Know Only This One

She goes on to say “son of good family! I know only this bodhisattva liberation of the limit apart from craving. As for the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, they have accomplished the boundless knowledge of skillful and adroit means, their treasury is vast and great, and their objective realm is beyond compare — how then could I be able to know, or be able to tell of, their practices of merit and virtue?”

Most of the good friends of this assembly have this passage; Chengguan, speaking of the common rule, says that only the first friend and the last three lack these two matters, the humbling of oneself and the pointing to the superior. Fazang sets it up as a heading of its own, calling it “looking up and pointing to the superior advance: the great bodhisattvas have measureless and vast skillful means, and how could I be able to know it”; Zhiyan makes it “looking up and pointing to the superior portion.”

One graph deserves attention: at the setting forth of the name the scripture text reads “the limit apart from craving and desire,” and at the humbling of herself it reads “the liberation of the limit apart from craving,” one graph, “desire,” being fewer — the base text is thus graph for graph, and the two places are not level with each other.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the humbling of herself is a courtesy. What she points to is “the boundless knowledge of skillful and adroit means” — precisely the very road she has walked all her life. To point to the superior where what is pointed to is of one kind with oneself is harder than to say vaguely that one falls short. Bringing it to the ground: to know which gate it is that one knows matters more than to know many things.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Encompassing of the City Good Deliverance

“Son of good family! From here, going southward, there is a city named Good Deliverance; and within it there is a householder named Encompassing, who constantly makes offerings at the buddha-stūpa of the sandalwood seat. Go to him and ask: how is a bodhisattva to study the practice of a bodhisattva and to cultivate the path of a bodhisattva?”

Three names come out together — the city named Good Deliverance, the person named Encompassing, and his practice, which is constantly making offerings at the buddha-stūpa of the sandalwood seat. Li Tongxuan glosses the city’s name thus: “as for the city being named Good Deliverance, it is with reference to this householder’s good deliverance of sentient beings.” In the sixty this place has the city named Shoupoboluo and the elder named Abiding at Ease, and in the forty the city named Pure Arrival at the Other Shore and the householder named Encompassing in the other transcription — the names in the three witnesses differ from one another.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that the pointing out of the next friend is a bridging phrase for a change of scene. It is in fact the bone of the whole of 〈Entering the Dharma Realm〉 — each good friend pushes Sudhana on to the next, and the journey of more than a hundred cities is strung together in just this way. Bringing it to the ground: a true good friend will always send a person on beyond himself.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave

The last passage is extremely short: “at that time, Sudhana the youth bowed to her feet, circled her measureless times, gazed up at her earnestly, took his leave, and departed.”

The taking of leave in this unit is pared down to four matters only — bowing, circling, gazing up, departing. Chengguan’s outline within the window of this section stops at the passage of the occasion by which the Dharma was gained, and he sets up no separate headings for these three; the titles of these three sections are named after his common headings for the six passages.

Clear away a misreading: to suppose that where the text is short the matter is light. The whole weight of this section has already come down upon the long passage in the middle, and the last passage needs nothing added. Bringing it to the ground: when a stretch of road has been walked one goes on forward, and that is the whole meaning of the four graphs “took his leave and departed.”

Lineage

Of the text of this section, three streams are opened downward.

The first is the line of the witnesses. As for this woman’s name, the eighty and the sixty both have Vasumitrā and the forty has Vasumitrā in the other transcription. As for the name of the Dharma gate, the eighty and the forty have the limit apart from craving and desire, the sixty the true limit apart from desire; the name Zhiyan uses is the same as the sixty’s, and Fazang in his prose likewise uses the pure Dharma gate of the true limit apart from desire — which name is used is fastened to which witness is read. As for the thing offered in the passage of the former life, the eighty and the forty have one jeweled coin, the sixty a wondrous jeweled crown of the gods; as for the elder’s wife’s name, the eighty has Excellent Wisdom, the sixty Good Woman, the forty Wondrous Knowledge. The city and the person of the next friend likewise have their several names in the three. After the general conclusion of the ten samādhis the forty has a further question and answer of its own, discussing the faults and troubles of a woman’s form and coming home to the parting from desire, which passage neither the eighty nor the sixty has — the having and the not having are set down as they are, without judging which is the original text.

The second is the line of the gloss on the name. All three houses transmit the two names Friend of the World and Friend of the Gods (Zhiyan sets up no separate gloss of the name within the window of this section): Chengguan says it is because she converts by expedients according to the people of the world and the gods, Fazang says it is because she is adroit and able to lead in and gather up all the worlds, Li Tongxuan says it is because she can be a teacher and friend to the people of the world, and can be a teacher and friend to the gods. Li Tongxuan transmits two further sayings, the one that it is Exchanging Jewels and the other that it is exchanging jewels for goods; and upon this woman’s practice he sets down one word, saying “this is being unstained and yet stained, which only Samantabhadra’s knowledge reaches.” The three houses agree in the gloss of the name while the sense each fastens it to has its own leaning; recorded without adjudication.

The third is the line of the divisions of the outline. Chengguan makes three divisions (seeking in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respects, and inquiring · conferring her own Dharma realm); Fazang, upon the sixty, makes four passages and after the showing of her own Dharma realm sets up a fifth, the looking up and pointing to the superior advance; Zhiyan makes three passages and within the true realization opens two further (expounding the Dharma gate of herself · looking up and pointing to the superior portion); Li Tongxuan does not outline unit by unit but sets up five gates of truly entering the Dharma gate of the present position and five gates of pointing to virtue and advancing upward. As for the place of dwelling, the eighty has north of the market stalls, in a house of her own, and Chengguan sets up his gloss upon clamor and stillness; the sixty has the deep palace, and Fazang sets up his gloss upon the three objective realms of the Sanfadu jing — the witnesses they rest upon differing, the marks they set up differ as well. These several divergent glosses are all the settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and are recorded without adjudication.

Within one city, two kinds of people, looking at one and the same matter. Those who cannot see through it are anxious for him; those who can see through it are glad for him. The scripture text has kept both voices and cut away not one clause. To read this section, one must first admit that one may well be among them.