華嚴經 品三十九 入法界品 · 寂靜音海夜神（寄難勝地）Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Entering the Dharma Realm · The Night Goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound (Assigned to the Ground Hard to Conquer)

This Question of Sudhana’s Is the Finest He Has Asked the Whole Way

At the places of the good friends before this, Sudhana’s way of asking was for the most part a single sentence: how is a bodhisattva to learn the bodhisattva practices, how is he to cultivate the bodhisattva way? Here at the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound he first asks that sentence as before; and then, once the night goddess has told him the name of her Dharma gate, he adds a further question, and this further question is four clauses: “What undertaking is this liberation gate? What realm does it walk in? What skillful means does it set in motion? What beholding does it carry out?”

What is it that he wants to ask? Not what this Dharma gate is called — the name has just been told him; but how this Dharma gate actually turns within the world: what it does, what realm it walks upon, what it starts up from, where its eyes are set.

A misreading must be set aside: that Sudhana is asking at wearisome length. The four clauses each point to something of their own, and moreover they answer to each other two by two — undertaking and realm are what is accomplished, skillful means and beholding are what is able to accomplish. Chengguan gives his judgment upon this very layer, saying that the four questions are “first, asking after the working that is set in motion; second, asking after the realm that is walked in; third, asking after the skillful means that is able to set in motion, which accomplishes what is set in motion above; fourth, asking after the beholding that is able to behold, which accomplishes what is walked in above.” Brought down to the ground: if a Dharma gate is to be asked after clearly, one must ask at once both what it has brought about and what it is that brings it about.

She Does Not Answer in the Order He Asked, and This Is the One Thing in This Section Most Worth Looking At

The order Sudhana asks in is undertaking · realm · skillful means · beholding; the order the night goddess answers in is skillful means · undertaking · beholding · realm. Four questions, four answers, not one of them out of place — and yet the order is not the same.

Why? Chengguan sets up a section of discrimination here, saying, “in the question, because it is meant to display the difference between what is able and what is accomplished, what is accomplished is asked after first and what is able afterward; in the answer, because it is meant to display that what is able and what is accomplished accomplish each other, they are fastened together clause by alternate clause. And further, since what is able gives rise to what is accomplished, what is able is set out first.” When one asks, the able and the accomplished are to be kept apart, and so the accomplished comes first and the able after; when one answers, the able and the accomplished are to be shown as accomplishing each other, and so they are matched at one clause’s remove — the third answers the first, the fourth answers the second. The Yanyi chao states this matching still more firmly: “within the question the first two are what is accomplished, and the third and fourth questions are both what is able, the third accomplishing the first and the fourth accomplishing the second.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the order of the scripture text is disordered, or that the translator’s brush was careless. Were it careless, the four answers would not fall out matching the four questions one by one. Brought down to the ground: a matter may be asked after in pieces, but a matter can only be answered in the order in which it itself grew — first there is the mind that sets it in motion, and only then the deed that is done.

Seeking in Accord with the Teaching: He Comes Carrying What the One Before Gave

The opening sentence of this section is not written about the road; it is written about what is carried. At the place of the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, Sudhana “heard the bodhisattva liberation gate of universally manifesting in all worlds and subduing sentient beings, understood it clearly and had faith in it, and dwelt within it at ease,” and only then “went on to where the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound was.”

Why must this sentence come first? Chengguan outlines it as the seeking in accord with the teaching — before the two Chinese characters ‘seeking after’ come the two Chinese characters ‘in accord with the teaching,’ and the teaching accorded with is the dharma the friend before had conferred. The Dharma gate of the one before was universally manifesting in all worlds and subduing sentient beings, which is to manifest everywhere and convert; the Dharma gate of this one is the vast joy that comes forth in thought after thought, which is the joy born of converting beings and of beholding the Buddha. The former is the deed that is done; the latter is the mind that arises within the doing of the deed; and the two are exactly continuous.

A misreading must be set aside: that to study under a teacher is to begin all over again with each change of teacher. The scripture text says plainly that toward the dharma of the one before he “understood it clearly and had faith in it, and dwelt within it at ease” — he dwelt in it, and then he walked. Brought down to the ground: whether you can see anything at all at the next one’s place depends on whether you can carry away what the last one gave.

Seeing, Paying Respect, and Inquiring: He Bows to Her Feet, Circles Her, Joins His Palms, and Only Then Speaks

Having met her, Sudhana first “bowed to her feet, circled her numberless times, joined his palms before her,” and only then spoke. The first thing he says is not a question; it is a report of where he himself stands: “I have already raised, before this, the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.” And then he tells what he seeks: to rely upon a good friend, to learn the bodhisattva practices, to enter them, to cultivate them, to abide in them.

Learn, enter, cultivate, abide — these four characters are four layers: to learn is to hear and to imitate; to enter is to go through it in one’s own person; to cultivate is to do it continuously; to abide is no longer to fall back. The four characters run on together, and they tell the whole course of seeking the Dharma at one stroke.

A misreading must be set aside: that the paying of respect is mere ceremony and may be passed over. In the scripture text Sudhana at every friend’s place first pays respect and afterward asks; and here what he circles is “numberless times,” not counted. Brought down to the ground: first to report that one has already raised the mind, and then to ask how one is to cultivate — before asking after the Dharma one stands still and says where one is, and only then can the asking go forward.

Praise: What She Praises First Is Not Sudhana, but That upon Which Sudhana Relies

The night goddess’s first words are “good, good! Son of good family! You are able to rely upon a good friend in seeking the bodhisattva practices.” What the praise falls upon is the four Chinese characters ‘rely upon a good friend’ — not upon Sudhana’s cleverness, nor upon how far he has walked.

Why praise this? Because in this assembly there are more than fifty good friends, and each one confers one dharma, and not one of them is complete; each one, at the end, must point to the superior and point out the one who comes next. Only one who can rely upon good friends in his seeking can keep walking; one who cannot rely upon them may listen to ever so much, and it remains so many separate holdings.

A misreading must be set aside: that praise here is a courtesy. Were it courtesy, what would be praised is the one who came; here what is praised is the road that the one who came is walking. Brought down to the ground: what deserves praise is often not what you have managed to do, but that you are willing to hand yourself over to an order of steps.

Briefly Setting Forth the Name and Substance: In the Name of the Dharma Gate, ‘Joy’ Is the Eye

The name the night goddess tells is “the bodhisattva liberation gate of the vast joy adorned that comes forth in thought after thought.” The most important word in the name is ‘joy’ — not concentration, not knowledge, not compassion, but joy.

Where does this joy come from? Chengguan judges here that it has two sources, saying, “from what follows there are two meanings: first, that beings are converted and their aims are met, and therefore joy arises, which is the adornment of merit; second, that one beholds the excellent working of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and therefore rejoices, which is the adornment of wisdom. Since the beholding and the converting are without break, the joy too comes forth in thought after thought.” One source is that the delivering of beings comes out right; the other is the seeing of the excellent working of the buddhas; the former is matched to the adornment of merit, the latter to the adornment of wisdom. And the reason it is said to “come forth in thought after thought” is that what is beheld and what is converted have no break in them, and so the joy has no break in it either.

These two sources are not set up by Chengguan out of the air; the prose of this section itself bears witness to them. At the end of the passage answering what undertaking it is, the scripture text closes of itself, “at that time I gained the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy” — this is the joy of converting beings. In the passage answering what beholding it carries out, the eight passages each close with “having seen this, great joy arose” — this is the joy of beholding the Buddha. Of the former Chengguan says plainly, “because she sees beings brought to profit, there is great joy; this is the first meaning within the glossing of the name.” As for the word ‘adorned’ in the name, Chengguan, reading this friend over against the passage upon the night goddesses in 〈The Wondrous Adornments of the World’s Lords〉, brings out two further senses — “first, seeing the Buddha, she cultivates the cause of joy and it adorns her, because she delights to see the fruit; second, gathering up this joy, the goddess adorns herself”: the first is that seeing the Buddha she cultivates the cause of joy, and that cause is itself the adorning; the second is that gathering this joy up, the goddess is adorned of herself. Joy is what adorns, and ‘adorned’ is what is thereby accomplished; the two words are not two matters standing side by side.

A misreading must be set aside: that joy in the Buddha-Dharma is a certain state of mind that is cultivated, and that one must set about cultivating it on its own. The joy here is the by-product of two matters — the deed came out right; the Buddha was seen. Brought down to the ground: if joy is to come forth in thought after thought, then first what is converted and what is beheld must go on without break in thought after thought.

Answering What Skillful Means It Sets in Motion: The Nineteen Clauses of ‘I Raise a Mind …’

The first of the four answers answers what skillful means it sets in motion. Skillful means, so called, is just those minds that set this Dharma gate going. The night goddess says out in one breath ‘I raise such and such a mind,’ and by the graphs of the base text it comes to nineteen clauses.

The first nine clauses face upward: pure and equal delight; the firmly adorned delight apart from the dust and defilement of the world; the laying hold of the station of no turning back and never turning back; the adorning of the jewel mountain of merit and virtue without shaking; having nowhere it dwells; universally manifesting before sentient beings and rescuing and protecting them; seeing the sea of buddhas without ever having enough; seeking the pure power of the vows of the bodhisattvas; dwelling in the sea of the light of great knowledge. The latter ten face downward, and, apart from the sixth, clause after clause is ‘causing all sentient beings’: to pass beyond the wilderness of grief and vexation; to cast off sorrow, grief, suffering, and vexation; to cast off the six objects that are not to their liking; to cast off the parting from what is loved and the meeting with what is hated; to cast off evil conditions and delusion and the like sufferings; to be a refuge for sentient beings in danger and hardship; to come forth from the place of the suffering of birth and death; to cast off the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death; to accomplish the unsurpassed joy of the Dharma of the Tathāgata; and all to receive joy and delight.

Chengguan outlines this passage as “now the first, within the skillful means that is able to set in motion there are twenty minds,” and judges that “the first ten raise the mind that seeks great knowledge above,” the latter ten being the mind of great compassion that converts below. Here one thing must be set down as it is: the outline of the commentary makes it twenty, while the eighty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to nineteen clauses; Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, says “within the first, there are first ten minds, one short”; and this passage in the forty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to twenty clauses. The number of clauses is uneven among the three witnesses from the start, and the outlines of the several houses follow each its own witness. Recorded together without adjudication.

A misreading must be set aside: that seeking above and converting below are two separate stretches of work, one stretch cultivated and then the other. Here the nineteen minds run on in one breath, with no turn of phrase between them. Brought down to the ground: raising the mind is not raising one mind but raising a string of minds; and within this one string, what faces upward and what faces downward are one and the same breath.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (1): The First Fifteen Gates, Curing the Ten Veils with the Ten Perfections

The passage answering what undertaking it is is the longest passage in this section. Its frame is the one sentence “having raised these minds, I then expound the Dharma for them, causing them to arrive by degrees at the ground of all-knowledge”; and below it the gates are set out one by one, by the graphs of the base text thirty-seven gates, of which thirty-two read ‘if I see sentient beings such and such, I expound the Dharma for them, causing them such and such,’ and the remaining five read “I expound for those ones,” “I display for them,” and “I expound for them” — the sentence pattern is not uniform.

The first fifteen gates Chengguan judges as “the first fifteen gates, converting and curing their ten veils with the ten perfections as is convenient for each,” and he divides them finely, saying, “within these, the first five gates make clear both giving and discipline, since when all clinging is given up the discipline is thereby pure; the latter ten minds make clear the remaining eight perfections, and wisdom and vows have two gates each.” What the first five gates cure is palaces and houses, father and mother and brothers and sisters, wife and child, the royal palace with its court women, and objective realms — all five are things clung to; and so Chengguan says these five gates make clear both giving and discipline: when all clinging has been given up, the discipline is pure of itself. The latter ten gates are then matched one by one to the remaining eight perfections: anger and hatred to forbearance; indolence to vigor; scatteredness to meditation; the thicket of views and the want of knowledge, two gates, to wisdom; the being defiled by and attached to the three realms to skillful means; the low and mean purpose and the dwelling only in the practices that benefit oneself, two gates, to the vows; feebleness in the strength of purpose to the powers; delusion and darkness of mind to knowledge.

A misreading must be set aside: that counteraction is one illness and one medicine, matched off mechanically. Here wisdom and the vows take two gates each, precisely because the illnesses they cure have two faces from the start. Brought down to the ground: what is cured is the ‘veil,’ not the thing — a palace is not itself an illness; the delighting in it and clinging to it is.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (2): The Middle Twelve Gates, Causing Them to Gain the Merit and Virtue of the Buddha’s Cause and Fruit

From the sixteenth gate the breath of it turns. What was cured before was the afflictions; what is cured here is ‘not having’ — form and marks not complete, appearance ugly, form and marks coarse and ill, feelings much given to grief and vexation, affliction by poverty; and then dwelling in groves and gardens, walking upon the road, being within a village, dwelling among human beings, living within a walled city, dwelling in the four corner quarters, dwelling in the several quarters.

Chengguan judges this group, saying, “there are twelve gates, converting sentient beings who are without merit and virtue, causing them to gain the merit and virtue of the Buddha’s cause and fruit and to see the first principle.” Those converted are ‘sentient beings who are without merit and virtue’ — not those who do evil, but those who lack; and what is given them is the merit and virtue of the Buddha’s cause and fruit — the pure body of form, the unsurpassed Dharma body, the subtle and wondrous body of form, ultimate peace and joy, the jewel treasury of merit and virtue, and the way of all-knowledge, the city of the King of the Dharma, and the wisdom that is equal in the three times.

Within this group the latter seven gates are especially to be noticed: groves and gardens, the road, the village, the dwelling among human beings, the walled city, the four corner quarters, the several quarters — every one of them tells of a place where people are. Wherever a person is, from there the Dharma is given him: on the road he is told of the way that goes toward all-knowledge; in the city he is told of dwelling in the city of the King of the Dharma.

A misreading must be set aside: that to expound the Dharma one must wait for people to come to a place of the Way. Here, of the twelve gates, seven expound the Dharma on the spot. Brought down to the ground: the place where a person is, is the very capacity to be cured; there is no need to move him away first.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (3): The Last Ten Gates, Breaking Down the Hindrances of Delusion by Gates of Counteraction

From the twenty-eighth gate it turns once more. To those much given to the practice of greed she expounds the contemplation of impurity; to those much given to the practice of anger, the contemplation of great kindness; to those much given to the practice of delusion, she causes them to gain a bright knowledge and to behold the sea of all dharmas; to those whose practice is in equal parts, she causes them to enter the sea of the vows of the several vehicles; and then, to those who delight in the joys of birth and death she causes weariness and turning away; to those weary of the sufferings of birth and death who are fit to be converted, she causes the manifesting of birth by skillful means; to those who love and cling to the five aggregates she causes them to dwell in the realm that has nothing to lean upon; to those low and mean in mind she displays the way of excellent adornment; to those in whom conceit and arrogance arise she expounds the forbearance of the Dharma that is equal; to those crooked and flattering in mind she expounds the straight mind of the bodhisattva.

Chengguan judges this group, saying, “ten gates, which merely break down their hindrances of delusion by gates of counteraction.” It differs from the two groups before: the first fifteen gates convert veils by the perfections, the middle twelve gates make up with merit and virtue what was lacking, and these last ten gates break down the hindrances of delusion directly, applying the medicine one to one.

Here there is one pair to be looked at: to those who delight in the joys of birth and death she causes weariness and turning away, while to those weary of the sufferings of birth and death she causes the manifesting of birth by skillful means. It is the one same birth and death; the one is to be drawn out of it, the other to be put back into it. A misreading must be set aside: that the Buddha-Dharma has only one attitude toward birth and death. Brought down to the ground: the medicine is not prescribed to the name of the illness, but to which side this person is leaning toward now.

Summing Up the Undertaking: This Is Where the Joy Is Born

The thirty-seven gates told, the night goddess closes of herself: “with these measureless gifts of the Dharma I gather in sentient beings, and with every kind of skillful means I teach, convert, and subdue them, causing them to leave the evil destinies, to receive the joys of devas and human beings, to be freed from the bonds of the three realms, and to dwell in all-knowledge; and at that time I gained the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy, and my mind was glad and free, at peace and content.”

Leaving the evil destinies, receiving the joys of devas and human beings, being freed from the bonds of the three realms, dwelling in all-knowledge — these are four layers rising; and yet the last three phrases are written about herself: glad and free, at peace, content. This is precisely the first source of the ‘joy’ in the Dharma gate’s name. Chengguan says it straight out: “because she sees beings brought to profit, there is great joy; this is the first meaning within the glossing of the name.”

A misreading must be set aside: that to deliver sentient beings is to give out and to be diminished oneself. Here the scripture text is the other way about: the gift of the Dharma went out, and what came back was the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy. Brought down to the ground: this sentence is the first footing of the word ‘joy’ in this passage — joy is not the recompense; it is the other face of the same matter.

Answering What Beholding It Carries Out (1): Beholding the Bodhisattvas — a Passage That Uses Only One Word

The third answer is beholding. Chengguan divides it in two, saying “first, beholding the realm of the bodhisattvas,” and afterward beholding the excellent working of the Buddha.

The passage on beholding the bodhisattvas is very strange: the whole passage runs on with only the one word ‘every kind’ — every kind of vow and practice, every kind of pure body, every kind of constant radiance, every kind of light, every kind of skillful means, every kind of samādhi, every kind of spiritual transformation, every kind of sea of sound … down to “sit upon every kind of adorned throne.” Within the whole passage not one separate name comes out.

Why is it written so? Because what is beheld is “the assemblies at the places of the Way of all bodhisattvas,” not some one bodhisattva. Whatever can be listed by name has a number; and what is to be displayed here is exactly the numberless. And so the closing sentence is “knowing that the Buddha’s spiritual power is measureless and boundless, great joy arises” — what is beheld is in the bodhisattvas, but where it comes home is the spiritual power of the Buddha.

A misreading must be set aside: that ‘every kind’ is a lazy stroke of the translating brush. Were it exchanged for a listing of names one by one, it would turn the measureless into the measured. Brought down to the ground: there are some things that can only be listed by not being named.

Answering What Beholding It Carries Out (2): Eight Passages of Beholding the Buddha, Each Closed with Joy

In the passage of beholding the Buddha, the scripture text opens its clauses with “I behold,” “again I behold,” “again I see,” and the eight passages each close with “having seen this, great joy arose”: the pure body of form; the sending forth of a great light; the seas of light from the pores; the clouds of mountains of jeweled flame from the crown and the two shoulders; the clouds of fragrant light from the pores; the clouds of tathāgata bodies from each and every mark; the clouds of the Buddha’s transformations from the pores; the clouds of the bodies of the kings of the devas from the pores. After the eight passages, the clouds of the bodies of nine kings — the nāga kings, the yakṣa kings, the gandharva kings, the asura kings, the garuḍa kings, the kiṃnara kings, the mahoraga kings, the human kings, and the Brahmā kings — are gathered up as being of the same kind, and carried by the general clause “having seen these, in thought after thought great joy arose.” Chengguan outlines this passage as “what is truly displayed has ten gates within it.”

What the eight passages behold goes from coarse to fine: first the whole body of form, then the light, then into the pores, then into each and every mark; and what comes forth goes from thing to person — clouds of mountains of jeweled flame, clouds of fragrant light, and after them clouds of bodies, clouds of transformations, clouds of the bodies of the kings of the devas.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is description repeated. Brought down to the ground: it is one and the same buddha, and the finer one looks the more one sees; and that “great joy arose” comes eight times over says just this, that the joy is not had after one whole looking is done, but that each layer has its own.

After the Beholding of the Buddha: Six Clauses of ‘What in the Past Had Never … Now for the First Time …’

After the eight passages and the nine kings, the scripture text brings out a set of six clauses: “what in the past had never been gained, now for the first time was gained; what in the past had never been realized, now for the first time was realized; what in the past had never been entered, now for the first time was entered; what in the past had never been fulfilled, now for the first time was fulfilled; what in the past had never been seen, now for the first time was seen; what in the past had never been heard, now for the first time was heard.” Gaining, realizing, entering, fulfilling, seeing, hearing — six matters, and clause after clause of one type.

And then the scripture text raises a question of itself: for what reason? The answer has four clauses — because she is able to understand the mark of the Dharma realm; because she knows that all dharmas are of one mark alone; because she is able to enter the way of the three times equally; because she is able to expound all the boundless dharmas. Chengguan glosses this raising of the question, saying, “because the great knowledge that beholds answers to the substance and marks of the Dharma realm, the faith and the rest that are born of it are equal to all-knowledge.” And so such a ‘now for the first time’ is possible not because the looking was long, but because the knowledge that beholds has already come to answer to the substance and marks of the Dharma realm.

A misreading must be set aside: that “what in the past had never been gained, now for the first time was gained” is a report of progress in cultivation. Were it merely progress, there would be no need to follow it with a “for what reason?” Brought down to the ground: how much can be seen depends on whether the eye fits the measure of the Dharma realm, not on the length of the looking.

Answering What Realm It Walks In (1): The Ten Gates Expounded as Dharma

The fourth answer is the realm. Chengguan divides it into three, saying “the first, ten gates expounded as dharma,” next twenty-two gates expounded by simile, and last one sentence summing up and exhorting to cultivate.

The ten gates expounded as dharma are: without bound (because it enters universally the gates of all Dharma realms); without exhausting (because it raises equally the mind of the nature of all-knowledge); without limit (because it enters into the thoughts in the minds of all sentient beings, which have no limit); deep (because it is the realm known to tranquil wisdom); vast (because it pervades the realms of all tathāgatas); not to be destroyed (because it is what the bodhisattva’s eye of knowledge knows); without a floor (because it exhausts the very source and floor of the Dharma realm); and then three gates in which the sentence pattern turns — it is the universal gate itself (because within a single matter it universally sees all spiritual transformations); in the end not to be laid hold of (because all Dharma bodies are equal and undivided); in the end without arising (because it is able to understand that dharmas are like an illusion).

The first seven gates tell of measure: bound, exhausting, limit, depth, vastness, destroying, floor — all seven words are the bounds of a measure, and all seven clauses tell that it has no such bound. The latter three tell of nature: the universal gate is pervasion; not to be laid hold of is that there is nothing gained; without arising is that it is like an illusion.

A misreading must be set aside: that ‘without bound and without exhausting’ are words of praise. Here beneath every clause there stands a ‘because,’ and clause by clause the reason is given. Brought down to the ground: to say that a Dharma gate is vast, one must be able to say why it cannot be measured out.

Answering What Realm It Walks In (2): Twenty-Two Similes, and the Similes Divide the Work Among Themselves

From “like a reflected image” onward the scripture text runs on with twenty-two similes. Chengguan judges these as expounded by simile, and makes clear why similes are needed — “twenty-two gates expounded by simile, because the marks of its depth and vastness are hard to know.”

Each of the twenty-two similes has its own work to do, and the work is fastened every time upon that one word ‘because’ which the scripture text itself supplies — under each simile there follows a reason, and simile and reason are to be looked at together; the name of the simile alone does not show why it is there.

The first two similes tell where this liberation comes from. It is like a reflected image, “because it is born of the light of the vow of all-knowledge” — the image is born of the light of the vow, and so this liberation did not grow of itself; it is cast from the vow of all-knowledge. It is like a transformation, “because it transforms and gives birth to all the excellent practices of the bodhisattvas” — what is transformed and born is the excellent practices of the bodhisattvas, and so this liberation does not stand still either; it goes on transforming practices into being. One simile tells out of what it comes; the other tells what comes out of it; taken together the two have told the whole matter of practice arising out of the vow.

The next four similes are earth, water, fire, and wind, and each of the four great elements is taken for its working and not for its substance: the great earth, “because it is the place all sentient beings rest upon,” taken for its bearing; the great waters, “because with great compassion they are able to moisten all,” taken for their moistening; the great fire, “because it dries up the water of the greed and craving of sentient beings,” taken for its drying — and what the fire dries is ‘the water of greed and craving,’ set right over against the moistening of the simile before; the great wind, “because it causes all sentient beings to go swiftly toward all-knowledge,” taken for its driving.

The next four similes are the ocean, the mountain, the city, and space: the great ocean, “because with every kind of merit and virtue it adorns all sentient beings”; Mount Sumeru, “because it brings forth the sea of the Dharma-jewels of all-knowledge”; the great walled city, “because it is adorned by all the wondrous dharmas”; empty space, “because it universally holds the spiritual power of the buddhas of the three times.” Notice the difference between the ocean and the city — the ocean adorns sentient beings with merit and virtue, while the city is what the wondrous dharmas adorn; the one adorns, the other is adorned, and they are not to be run together into one group of ‘vast holding.’ Nor is the sense taken from the mountain its height; it is its bringing forth: what it brings forth is the sea of the Dharma-jewels of all-knowledge.

The next three similes are the cloud, the sun, and the moon: the great cloud, “because it rains the rain of the Dharma universally for sentient beings”; the pure sun, “because it is able to break the darkness of the unknowing of sentient beings”; the full moon, “because it fills up the vast sea of merit.” Raining, breaking, filling — these three answer each to one lack in sentient beings: the lack of Dharma, the lack of light, the lack of merit.

The next four similes are suchness, one’s own shadow, the echo answering a call, and the reflected image: suchness, “because it is able to pervade everywhere throughout,” is pervasion, and the three below it all manifest in accord with what is met, yet what each accords with is other — one’s own shadow, “because it is transformed forth out of one’s own good deeds,” accords with one’s own good deeds; the echo answering a call, “because it expounds the Dharma in accord with what each is fit for,” accords with the capacity it meets; the reflected image, “because it shines forth in accord with the minds of sentient beings,” accords with the minds of sentient beings.

The last five similes are the tree, the vajra, the wish-fulfilling jewel, and the two maṇi jewels: the great tree king, “because it opens out all the flowers of spiritual powers”; the vajra, “because from the very beginning it cannot be broken”; the wish-fulfilling jewel, “because it brings forth measureless sovereign powers”; the maṇi jewel king of the stainless treasury, “because it displays all the spiritual powers of the tathāgatas of the three times”; the maṇi jewel of the banner of joy, “because it is able to bring forth equally the sound of the wheel of the Dharma of all buddhas.” Opening out, not being broken, bringing forth, displaying, bringing forth sound — these five come home to the one word ‘forth’; and the name of the last simile carries the word ‘joy’ in it, answering to the ‘joy’ in the name of the Dharma gate — the twenty-two similes, walked to their end, come back to the eye of this section.

Notice that the one name ‘reflected image’ comes out twice, before and after, and the sense taken from it is not the same: the first time it is “because it is born of the light of the vow of all-knowledge” — the image is born of the light of the vow; the second time it is “because it shines forth in accord with the minds of sentient beings” — the image appears in accord with the mind that meets it. One name used twice: the one told from the side of what gives birth, the other from the side of what is felt and answered.

A misreading must be set aside: that a simile is what stands in when a thing cannot be told clearly. The night goddess says of herself at the end, “I have now spoken these parables for you; you should ponder them, and in accord with them awaken and enter” — a simile is a doorway given to a person for pondering, not an abridgment of the telling. Brought down to the ground: the twenty-two similes are not twenty-two retellings; they close in from twenty-two directions upon one and the same matter that cannot be told outright.

Summing Up and Exhorting to Cultivate: She Hands the Matter Back to the One Who Listens

The similes told out, the night goddess adds only one sentence: “son of good family! I have now spoken these parables for you; you should ponder them, and in accord with them awaken and enter.”

Within the one sentence there are three matters: what the speaker does is only to “speak these parables”; what the listener does is to “ponder”; and where it arrives is “in accord with them, awaken and enter.” The one who speaks goes this far and no farther; the rest the listener must walk himself.

A misreading must be set aside: that to confer the Dharma is to hand the Dharma over. Here it is said plainly that what is handed over is only the parables. Brought down to the ground: what a good friend can give is a doorway; the walking in through it is a thing nobody can do in another’s place.

Making Clear the Cause of Gaining the Liberation: Sudhana Asks Once More ‘How Is It Cultivated’

The four answers finished, Sudhana raises a further question: “great sage! How is one to cultivate, so as to gain this liberation?”

Why ask again? The four answers before told what this Dharma gate is and how it turns; this question wants the place to take hold of — what must I do, to walk there. Chengguan outlines this as making clear the cause of gaining the liberation, which is exactly to ask apart ‘the marks upon the fruit’ and ‘the practice upon the cause.’

A misreading must be set aside: that to have understood a Dharma gate is to have gained it. Sudhana, having heard the four answers, does as the first thing ask once again how it is cultivated. Brought down to the ground: to be able to tell a Dharma gate through completely, and to know what one is to do tomorrow, are two different matters.

The Answer: The Ten Great Treasuries of the Dharma Are the Ten Perfections

The night goddess answers with “when a bodhisattva cultivates ten great treasuries of the Dharma, he gains this liberation,” and sets them out one by one: giving (making all content in accord with the minds of sentient beings), pure discipline (entering universally into the sea of the merit and virtue of all buddhas), forbearance (being able to ponder throughout the nature of all dharmas), vigor (going toward all-knowledge and constantly not turning back), meditative concentration (being able to extinguish the burning vexation of all sentient beings), wisdom (being able to understand throughout the sea of all dharmas), skillful means (being able to ripen throughout the seas of sentient beings), the vows (throughout all buddha-lands and all seas of sentient beings, cultivating the bodhisattva practices to the end of the kalpas to come), the powers (in thought after thought manifesting within all seas of Dharma realms and all buddha-lands the accomplishing of right and universal awakening, constantly without rest), and pure knowledge (gaining the knowledge of the Tathāgata, and knowing throughout all the dharmas of the three times without hindrance).

Chengguan lays down here only six Chinese characters: “the answer is that the ten perfections are the cause.” Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, judges the same, saying “because he cultivates the practice of the ten perfections, he gains this Dharma gate.” Li Tongxuan goes a step further and sets up host and companion for this particular ground, saying “taking the perfection of meditation for host and the remaining nine for companions, it cures the hindrance of not being at ease in the working of tranquillity, and causes ease to be gained” — the ten perfections are all cultivated, and upon this ground meditation is the host.

A misreading must be set aside: that a Dharma gate out of the ordinary must rest upon a way of cultivation out of the ordinary. What is answered here is just the ten perfections, with not one thing added. Brought down to the ground: the name of a Dharma gate may be one of a kind; the road in is still those ten.

Making Clear How Long Ago the Mind Was Raised: This Question Asks More Than Time

Sudhana’s third question: “holy one! You raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi: how long has it been until now?”

What is the good of asking after years of standing? Chengguan breaks it open, saying that this question is “making clear how long ago the mind was raised, in order to display that the root of the way is deep” — what is asked after is not the years, but how deep the root is. And he points out further that this one question in fact holds another within it: what the night goddess answers below, after the raising of the mind, is all a telling of gaining the Dharma through kalpas, and so “the first question also holds within it the asking after how long ago the Dharma was gained.”

A misreading must be set aside: that to ask how long is curiosity. Brought down to the ground: to ask a person how long he has walked is to want to know how solid the ground he stands on is.

The Answer (1): First the Place Is Made Clear

The answer does not begin from time; it begins from a place. To the east of the World-Sea of the Adornment of the Flower Treasury, past ten world-seas, there is a world-sea named All Pure Light Jewel; within it a world-seed named Light and Sound of the Vows of All Tathāgatas; within that a world named Pure Light and Golden Adornment. This world has for its substance every kind of fragrant vajra maṇi king, its shape is like a storied pavilion, it has clouds of many wondrous jewels for its bounds, it rests upon a sea of every kind of jeweled necklace, and clouds of wondrous palaces cover it over — and the last four graphs are “the pure and the defiled are mingled together.”

Chengguan outlines this as “the first, displaying the sea of lands in general.” Notice those four graphs, “the pure and the defiled are mingled together”: everything before them is the speech of adornment, and yet the last sentence says that pure and defiled are mingled. This world is not a pure land.

A misreading must be set aside: that a bodhisattva must raise the mind within a pure buddha-land. Brought down to the ground: the place where she raised the mind is a place of the same kind as the place we are in.

The Answer (2): At One Buddha the Mind Was Raised, Under Nine Buddhas the Matter Went On, and Ten Samādhis

The place told, the time is told. Within that world, in an age long past, there was a kalpa named Universal Light Banner, a country named Wondrous Treasury Universally Full, a place of the Way named Light of the Wondrous Moon of the Treasury of All Jewels, and a buddha named Sound of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back who accomplished the way there; and she at that time was a spirit of the tree of awakening, named Banner of Light of the Lamp Furnished with Merit, guarding that place of the Way. Seeing the Buddha accomplish the way and manifest his spiritual power, at that very time she raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and gained a samādhi named Universally Illumining the Sea of the Tathāgata’s Merit and Virtue.

Chengguan takes the sense from the name of her body, saying “that the spirit is named Furnished and so forth also signifies that upon the fifth ground one enters the worldly, and that merit and knowledge are high and excellent.” Named ‘furnished with merit,’ it signifies just this: that upon this ground one enters the worldly, and merit and knowledge are high and excellent.

For the nine buddhas that follow, Chengguan outlines “briefly raising the nine buddhas that come next”: Mountain of Majestic Virtue of the Dharma Tree; King of the Sound of the Sea of All Dharmas; King of the Banner of the Lamp of Jeweled Light; Light of the Sumeru of Merit and Virtue; King of the Sound of the Dharma Cloud; King of the Shining of the Lamp of Knowledge; Banner of Wondrous Virtue and Valor in the Dharma; Lamp of the Knowledge of the Dharma, Lion-Valiant; King of the Mountain of the Power of Knowledge; and at each buddha she gains one samādhi — Universally Illumining All Realms Free of Greed; the Ground That Gives Birth and Growth to All Good Dharmas; Universally Manifesting Clouds of the Light of Spiritual Power; Universally Illumining the Sea of Buddhas; Lamp of the Sea of All Dharmas; Pure Lamp of Light That Extinguishes the Sufferings of All Sentient Beings; Treasury of the Light of the Tathāgatas of the Three Times; Wheel of Wisdom Unhindered in All Worlds; Universally Illumining the Faculties and Practices of the Sentient Beings of the Three Times.

In these nine passages there is one place that is uneven: under the first buddha it reads “I at that time came to the end of my life and was born again in that same place as the night goddess who presides over the place of the Way, named Light of Wondrous Merit and Knowledge,” while under the remaining eight it reads “I at that time, being a night goddess, was able to see the Buddha and served and made offerings to him.” The first passage alone records the coming to the end of one life and the changing of body; the remaining eight say straight out that she was a night goddess.

A misreading must be set aside: that to list so many names of buddhas and names of samādhis is display. At each buddha one samādhi is gained, and this tells one thing — one buddha seen, one dharma gained, and not one seeing was in vain. Brought down to the ground: what is called a deep root of the way is just this, counted off one buddha at a time.

The Answer (3): Buddhas as Many as the Motes of Dust in One Kalpa, and the Four Buddhas of the Sahā World

After the nine buddhas the scripture text draws in, saying that within that one kalpa “tathāgatas as many as the motes of dust in buddha-lands, so many as this, arose in the world,” and that she among them was sometimes a king of the devas, sometimes a nāga king, sometimes one of the kings of the eight classes, sometimes a human king or a Brahmā king, sometimes in the body of a deva or of a human being, of a man or of a woman, of a boy or of a girl, and with every kind of offering made offerings to all those tathāgatas and heard the dharmas they expounded. Chengguan outlines this as “concluding the brief and displaying the broad; this raises the buddhas as many as the motes of dust within one kalpa, all served and made offerings to.”

And then it turns to the Sahā world: coming to the end of her life there, she was born again within this world and passed through kalpas as many as the motes of dust in buddha-lands cultivating the bodhisattva practices; then she was born in the Sahā world of this World-Sea of the Adornment of the Flower Treasury, and met with the tathāgata Krakucchanda and gained the samādhi Light Free of All Dust and Defilement; next met with the tathāgata Kanakamuni and gained Universally Manifesting All Seas of Lands; next met with the tathāgata Kāśyapa and gained Setting Forth the Sea of the Speech and Sounds of All Sentient Beings; next met with the tathāgata Vairocana, who at this place of the Way accomplished right and universal awakening and manifests in thought after thought the power of his great spiritual transformations, and she was able to see it and so obtained this Dharma gate. Of the last passage Chengguan says, “it displays the meeting with her own teacher and the gaining of the present liberation” — all that was gained before, looked at from here, is cause.

A misreading must be set aside: that the sixteen kinds of body are a performance of spiritual transformation. The scripture text says plainly that the changing of body was for the sake of making offerings and hearing the Dharma. Brought down to the ground: how many stations one has passed through does not matter; what matters is that within every one of them the same one thing was being done.

The Answer (4): After the Dharma Was Gained — the Sea Entered, and the Fourfold Unfolding

Having gained the Dharma, what does she do? The scripture text says she is able to enter seas of the establishing of the Dharma realm as numerous as the dust-motes in ten untellable-untellable buddha-lands; and to see, in all those seas of the establishing of the Dharma realm, all the motes of dust of all buddha-lands, and within each and every mote of dust buddha-lands as numerous as the dust-motes in ten untellable-untellable buddha-lands; and within each and every buddha-land the tathāgata Vairocana seated at the place of the Way, in thought after thought accomplishing right and universal awakening and manifesting every spiritual transformation, and of the transformations he manifests each and every one pervading all the seas of the Dharma realm; and she sees also her own body in the presence of all those tathāgatas, and hears also the wondrous Dharma they expound, and sees also from each and every pore of all those buddhas seas of transformations coming forth and the power of spiritual powers manifested, turning the wheel of the right Dharma in accord with the minds of sentient beings.

Chengguan judges this as a layer upon layer of entering deeper, saying, “briefly it is fourfold: first, the motes of dust within the sea of lands; second, the lands within the motes of dust; third, the buddhas within the lands” — and the fourth is the transformations within the buddhas’ pores. The fourfold is one road going inward: within the sea there are motes of dust; within the motes of dust, lands; within the lands, buddhas; and within the buddhas’ pores again seas of transformations.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a telling of how large the cosmos is. The direction of the fourfold is toward the small, not toward the large. Brought down to the ground: when the Avataṃsaka speaks of the vast, it speaks of it for the most part out of a single mote of dust.

The Tenfold Entering, Step by Step: Within Each and Every One There Is Again All

Below this the scripture text turns again, saying that she gained the power of swift dhāraṇī, and with clear knowledge, sovereign knowledge, pervading knowledge, and equal knowledge entered universally into the dharmas; and then comes a linked chain: she awakens to and understands all Dharma gates; within each and every Dharma gate, all clouds of sūtras; within each and every cloud of sūtras, all seas of the Dharma; within each and every sea of the Dharma, all classes of the Dharma; within each and every class of the Dharma, all clouds of the Dharma; within each and every cloud of the Dharma, all streams of the Dharma; within each and every stream of the Dharma there come forth all seas of great joy; each and every sea of great joy brings forth all the grounds; each and every ground brings forth all seas of samādhi; from each and every sea of samādhi she gains all seas of seeing the buddhas; from each and every sea of seeing the buddhas she gains all seas of the light of knowledge; and each and every sea of the light of knowledge universally illumines the three times and enters throughout the ten directions.

Chengguan says, “now the first: there are ten repetitions of ‘all,’ displaying the inexhaustible Dharma gates. Of the ten, the first five are upon what is awakened to,” the latter five upon what is able to awaken; and the last passage upon the light of knowledge he judges to be an eleventh repetition, saying, “second, the separate displaying of the working of the light of knowledge is the eleventh repetition; but it broadens only the last repetition, whose working is boundless, and thereby the repetitions before it are of the same kind, layer upon layer, and cannot be exhausted.”

Notice the middle of this linked chain: what comes forth within the streams of the Dharma is the ‘sea of great joy’ — the ‘joy’ of the Dharma gate’s name comes out here once more, and this time as the thing brought forth. A misreading must be set aside: that joy is merely a feeling of cultivation. Brought down to the ground: the joy here is a station able to bring forth ‘grounds’ and ‘seas of samādhi’; it is not a state of mind at the end of the road.

The Thirty Clauses of Knowing and Seeing: Both the Crosswise and the Upright Are Within Thought After Thought

Next come thirty clauses of “I know measureless tathāgatas.” The first twelve clauses know the practices of the buddhas upon the cause: the seas of the practices of ages past, the seas of their former deeds, the seas of the giving that is hard to give, and the seas of the nine perfections of discipline, forbearance, vigor, meditative concentration, wisdom, skillful means, vows, powers, and knowledge. The next six clauses know their stations upon the cause: passing beyond the bodhisattva grounds in ages past, dwelling upon the bodhisattva grounds within measureless seas of kalpas and manifesting the power of spiritual powers, entering the bodhisattva grounds, cultivating them, putting them in order, beholding them. The next five clauses know the working upon the cause: when in ages past they were bodhisattvas, constantly seeing the buddhas; seeing the seas of buddhas to the full and dwelling together with seas of kalpas; being born throughout the seas of lands with measureless bodies; cultivating vast practices throughout the Dharma realm; manifesting every kind of gate of skillful means, subduing and ripening sentient beings. The next five clauses know the working upon the fruit: sending forth a great light that universally illumines the seas of lands; manifesting great spiritual power and appearing universally before sentient beings; the vast ground of knowledge; the turning of the wheel of the right Dharma; the manifesting of a sea of marks. Two clauses more: the manifesting of a sea of bodies, and the vast sea of powers. And at the end it is gathered up: “those tathāgatas, from their first raising of the mind until the Dharma comes to its end — in thought after thought I am able to know and see it all.”

Chengguan judges this passage as first general and then particular, saying, “the first clause takes in the crosswise and the upright together,” and below it the particular displaying, divided into five and closed with “the three above know the cause” and “knowing cause and fruit together.”

A misreading must be set aside: that so much knowing and seeing must take a great deal of time. The last sentence of the scripture text is “in thought after thought I am able to know and see it all.” Brought down to the ground: the crosswise is the pervading of all buddhas; the upright is the going through one buddha from beginning to end; and these two matters happen within one and the same thought.

Concluding by Answering His Question: The Number Comes Out at Last

After going round so wide a circle, the night goddess comes back at last to Sudhana’s question: “son of good family! You asked me, saying, ‘how long has it been since you raised the mind?’” The answer is: past kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands, within the world Pure Light and Golden Adornment, as a spirit of the tree of awakening, she heard the tathāgata Sound of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back expound the Dharma and raised the mind; and within kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands she cultivated the bodhisattva practices, and only then was born within the Worthy Kalpa of this Sahā world.

And below she reaches on into the time to come: from the buddha Krakucchanda to the buddha Śākyamuni, and all the buddhas yet to come within this kalpa, she draws near to and makes offerings to them all in this way; and in all worlds and all kalpas, to all the buddhas yet to come, likewise. The last two sentences are most to be looked at: “that world Pure Light and Golden Adornment is even now present, and the appearing of buddhas there goes on without break. You should with a concentrated mind cultivate this bodhisattva gate of great valor.”

Chengguan points out here that the eighty-fascicle witness wants one graph, saying that if the kalpa Universal Light be taken as one of the motes of dust in lands, then the number of kalpas concluded here still wants one graph; and he cites the Jin scripture, “within that world he passed through kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands,” as his witness, which then accords with the words about two kalpas below.

A misreading must be set aside: that when the past has been told the matter is over. What she says at the end is that that world “is even now present” — the past is not a past tense. Brought down to the ground: this is why the last sentence can be “you should with a concentrated mind cultivate this bodhisattva gate of great valor” — that road is open still.

The Night Goddess’s Ten Verses: One Verse Admonishing to Listen, Eight Verses of Her Practice of Old, One Verse Concluding the Bounds

After the prose the night goddess, “wishing to set forth again the meaning of this liberation,” speaks ten verses. Chengguan outlines them as “second, the verses, ten verses, divided into three,” and judges their division thus: “the first one admonishes to listen and exhorts to cultivate; the next eight truly make clear her practice of old, of which the first four are the practice of knowledge making offerings above and the latter four the mind of compassion rescuing below; the last one concludes the bounds of the practice.”

The first verse: Sudhana, listen as I tell of the pure gate of liberation; having heard it let joy arise, and cultivate it diligently until it is brought to the end — first he is told to listen, then to cultivate.

The next four verses are the practice of knowledge making offerings above: in ages past, within seas of kalpas, she raised a mind of great faith and delight, pure as empty space, and constantly beheld all-knowledge; toward the buddhas of the three times she raised a mind of faith and delight, and toward their assemblies wished constantly to draw near; in ages past she saw the buddhas and made offerings for the sake of sentient beings, and came to hear the pure Dharma, and in her mind was great joy; constantly she honored father and mother and revered them and made offerings to them, without rest or indolence, and so entered this gate of liberation. The fourth verse is especially worth pausing over — the making of offerings to father and mother and the entering of the gate of liberation, the scripture text writes them within one and the same verse.

The latter four verses are the mind of compassion rescuing below: the aged, the sick, the poor, and those whose faculties are not complete, all pitied and relieved and caused to gain peace; peril of water and fire, of the king and of thieves, and terrors within the sea, all for the rescuing of those beings; the afflictions constantly blazing, beings covered and bound by the hindrance of their deeds and fallen into perilous roads, and she rescues those beings; within all the evil destinies measureless bitter torments, and birth and old age and sickness and death, all of which she shall extinguish.

The last verse concludes the bounds: she vows that to the end of the kalpas to come she shall, for all the multitude of beings everywhere, extinguish the suffering of birth and death and cause them to gain the ultimate joy of the Buddha. To conclude the bounds of the practice, so called, is to gather all the practices told before within the one limit of ‘to the end of the kalpas to come’ — and this limit is in fact no limit at all.

A misreading must be set aside: that verses repeating the prose merely tell the prose over again. What the prose tells is how many buddhas she saw and how many samādhis she gained; what the ten verses tell is faith and delight, offerings, and relieving. Brought down to the ground: the prose records what was gained; the verses record what was done.

Humbling Herself and Pointing to the Superior: Her ‘I Know Only This’

After the ten verses the night goddess says: “son of good family! I know only this liberation of the vast joy adorned that is born in thought after thought. As for the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, they enter deeply into all the seas of the Dharma realm, they know entirely the number of all the kalpas, they see universally the forming and the breaking up of all lands — but how could I know or tell of their merit and their practice?”

Notice that the name of the Dharma gate here is not the same as when the name was first set forth: at the setting forth it read “the liberation gate of the vast joy adorned that comes forth in thought after thought,” and here it reads “the liberation of the vast joy adorned that is born in thought after thought,” wanting the graph for ‘comes,’ and at the end wanting the graph for ‘gate’ as well. By the graphs of the base text, it is not even.

The three matters raised in pointing to the superior are: entering deeply into the seas of the Dharma realm; knowing entirely the number of the kalpas; seeing universally the forming and breaking up of the lands. These three matters are exactly what she has just been telling of herself — she has entered the sea of the establishing of the Dharma realm, she has counted kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands, she has seen the buddhas within the lands. The same three matters: she says the great bodhisattvas can do them, and that she herself cannot.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is modest speech. Brought down to the ground: to be able to say that what one knows is ‘this one gate’ and not ‘everything’ — this sentence is the last dharma this good friend gives.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Guarding All Cities and Increasing Majestic Power

The one she points to next is a night goddess “within this assembly of the Tathāgata at this site of awakening,” named Guarding All Cities and Increasing Majestic Power.

Chengguan sets up a gloss upon this name and this place, saying, “wisdom is what is upheld in the gaining of buddhahood, and so it says the site of awakening. When wisdom appears, then the city of the mind and the city of all-knowledge are well guarded, and the myriad practices are born of it, which is the increasing of majestic power.” It is said to be at the site of awakening because wisdom is what is upheld in the gaining of buddhahood; and she is named guarding the cities and increasing majestic power because, once wisdom appears, the city of the mind and the city of all-knowledge can be held, and the myriad practices are born of this. This is a signifying set up by Chengguan; the scripture text itself gives only the name and the place.

A misreading must be set aside: that pointing out the next friend is merely the giving of an address. Here even the words of the asking are laid down: “how is a bodhisattva to learn the bodhisattva practices and to cultivate the bodhisattva way?” — the same one question, which Sudhana asks over and over of the friends along this road. Brought down to the ground: the question does not change, and it is the answer that goes down layer by layer.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave: This Time Sudhana First Looks, Then Praises, Then Pays Respect

In the last passage Sudhana “beheld with a concentrated mind the body of the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, who presides over the night,” and spoke ten verses, and then bowed to her feet and took his leave. Chengguan outlines this as cherishing her virtue and taking leave, and judges its three joints thus: “first with the mind he beholds, next with verses he praises, last with the body he pays respect”; and of the verses he judges, “within the verses, the ten verses are divided into four: the first one makes clear that it is through the friend that he came to see; the next two display her excellence by setting up a contrast; the next six display her excellence in her very marks; the last one sums it up in perfect fusion.”

The first verse makes clear that it is through the friend that he came to see: because of the teaching of a good friend I have come here to the deva-spirit, and see the deva-spirit dwelling upon a jeweled throne, her body’s measure without any bound — that he is able to see is because of the friend’s teaching.

The next two verses display her excellence by setting up a contrast: it is not those who cling to form and marks and reckon dharmas to exist, poor in knowledge and shallow in awareness, who are able to know it; the devas and human beings of the world may behold her for measureless kalpas and be unable to fathom her, because her form and marks are without bound. The setting up of a contrast, so called, is to take those who cannot know and by them display, in reverse, how hard the thing known is.

The next six verses display her excellence in her very marks, telling of the night goddess herself clause by clause: she is far apart from the five aggregates, nor does she dwell in any place, and has cut off forever the doubts of the world and manifests her sovereign power; she lays hold neither of inner nor of outer dharmas, unshaken and unhindered, and with the pure eye of wisdom sees the spiritual power of the buddhas; her body is the treasury of the right Dharma and her mind the knowledge that is unhindered, and having gained the shining of the light of knowledge she turns back and shines upon the multitude of beings; her mind gathers up boundless deeds and adorns the several worlds, and she understands that the world is wholly mind and manifests a body equal to sentient beings; she knows that the world is like a dream, the buddhas like reflections, the dharmas like echoes, and causes the multitude to cling to nothing; for the sentient beings of the three times she manifests her body in thought after thought, and yet her mind dwells nowhere and she expounds the Dharma throughout the ten directions.

The last verse sums it up in perfect fusion: the boundless seas of lands, the seas of buddhas and the seas of sentient beings, are all within a single mote of dust — this is the power of this venerable one’s liberation.

A misreading must be set aside: that verses of praise are politeness. Sudhana’s ten verses are clause by clause what he himself has seen, and the last verse says outright that what is seen is “the power of this venerable one’s liberation.” Brought down to the ground: what one is able to praise a good friend as being shows what one has been able to see.

Lineage

For the text of this section there are four threads that open out from it.

The first is the thread of the sense of the name of the Ground Hard to Conquer. Chengguan’s Yanyi chao glosses the name of the ground, saying, “that is, because the practice-marks of the two knowledges, the true and the conventional, are at odds with each other, and to join them and cause them to answer to each other is exceedingly hard to conquer” — the hardness is that the practice-marks of the two knowledges are at odds and must be made to answer to each other. Li Tongxuan does not speak from the two knowledges but from meditation and worldly knowledge: “the reason this ground is named the Ground Hard to Conquer is that upon this ground, within meditative concentration, one learns worldly knowledge well, and knows all the five sciences and the worldly arts, the working of concentration reaching that far.” Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, makes yet another road of it, saying, “upon the fifth ground meditation increases, and therefore the name Tranquil Sound,” fastening the sense of the ground’s name upon the name of the good friend. The three houses have each their own track; recorded without adjudication.

The second is the thread of what the good friend’s name signifies. Chengguan glosses the name, saying, “because of meditation, tranquil; entering the worldly and setting forth the Dharma, converting beings deeply and widely, and therefore it says ocean of sound” — concentration is the tranquil, and the deep and wide converting of beings is the ocean of sound. Li Tongxuan glosses the name, saying, “it makes clear that the tranquil and the working pervade everywhere. The tranquil is concentration; the ocean of sound is the working,” and sets up signifyings upon her throne and her retinue as well, saying, “it makes clear that the substance of concentration is stainless, without any defilement or attachment” and “it makes clear that the substance of concentration pervades everywhere, and the practice too pervades everywhere”; and he sets up one further meaning, saying, “this night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound is the mother of the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, which signifies that concentration is able to accomplish the practice of vigor,” and adds a sentence, “were there no concentration, all practices would have weariness in them.” Chengguan too sets up mother and child: in the Shu, under this goddess’s name, he says that it “signifies that true vigor comes forth from concentration,” and the Yanyi chao draws the sense out further, saying, “true vigor is apart from body and mind, and without concentration there is no such thing.” Both houses alike make concentration the mother of the vigor of the friend before, though the words each sets up are other; recorded without adjudication.

The third is the thread of the divergent interpretations of the commentators, each with its own track, recorded without adjudication. As to the outline of this section, Chengguan makes six divisions (seeking in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respect, and inquiring · praising and conferring the Dharma · humbling herself and pointing to the superior · pointing out the next friend · cherishing her virtue and taking leave); Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, opens seven gates beneath the true conferring of the Dharma (displaying the name and substance of the dharma · setting out the working of the dharma · making clear the realm of dharmas beheld · skillful means · the ground of gaining the dharma · the depth or shallowness of the faculties · concluding the name and bringing it home to herself); Zhiyan makes three passages and within her own portion opens four further; and Li Tongxuan outlines the Dharma gate of truly entering the present position in ten passages for this friend, and at the end sets up five gates of pointing to virtue and advancing upward (the six gates at the end of the previous friend’s passage, which point to this friend, are a reference from outside the bounds). As to the clauses of the raising of the minds, Chengguan, upon the eighty-fascicle witness, outlines twenty minds, and Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, says “first ten minds, one short,” while the eighty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to nineteen clauses and the forty-fascicle witness by its own graphs to twenty. As to the number of gates that meet the capacities, Chengguan upon the eighty-fascicle witness makes thirty-seven gates in three groups, and Fazang upon the sixty-fascicle witness makes thirty-three kinds in five groups. As to the number of the similes, Chengguan upon the eighty-fascicle witness makes twenty-two gates, and Fazang upon the sixty-fascicle witness twenty-three. As to the division of the verses, Chengguan makes the first one · the next eight · the last one, and Zhiyan makes “the first one commands to listen and exhorts to cultivate; the next four are verses upon the causes and conditions of the Dharma gate gained above; the five below are verses upon the meaning of the practice accomplished above and the benefiting of sentient beings.” All these divergent interpretations are settled sayings of the ancient worthies.

The fourth is the thread of the separate glosses the ancient worthies made upon the very phrases of this section, scattered through their several books, all of them touching upon it.

After his discrimination upon this section, the Yanyi chao sets out three matters further. The first is the answer to why what is able is answered first: Chengguan raises a question of his own — why, in the asking, is what is able not asked after first? — and answers it himself, “he asks because, seeing what is accomplished, he seeks what is able. It is seeing the fruit and tracing back the cause, just as with the four truths.” This sentence is most to be looked at: Sudhana asks after what is accomplished first because he is tracing back from the fruit he has seen to the cause, just as the four truths set forth the fruit, suffering, before tracing back its cause, arising, and show the fruit, cessation, before expounding its cause, the path. The second is his faulting of the matching made by the men of old: the men of old took both the first, the skillful means, and the second, the undertaking, as answering the first question, and took the third answer as answering both the second and the fourth questions; and Chengguan faults it, “if it be glossed in this way, then not only are the marks of the four answers not clear, but the answers are out of order and confused as well.” The third is his gloss upon the number of kalpas in the last passage: the passage before has the name of the great kalpa without the number of the small kalpas, and this passage has the number of the small kalpas without the name of the great kalpa, and the two texts take each other over by reflection, so that “there are together kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands”; and therefore he says that the eighty-fascicle witness ought to have one graph ‘two’ here. Beyond these are two things more: one is how the knower and the known cross — “within contemplation, though there is what is contemplated, it is for the sake of accomplishing the contemplator, just as within prajñā, though there is the real mark, it is for the sake of accomplishing wisdom; within the objective realm of practice, whether knower or known, both are what is practiced”: contemplation is set up upon the contemplator, while in the realm of practice both knower and known are what is practiced, so the two questions do not overlap; the other is where the four questions belong — “as against the bodhisattva’s gate of liberation, the undertaking is only one of the four,” all four questions belonging to the working of this liberation, while “under any one profound dharma there are many kinds,” “as one perfection of giving has nine gates and so on,” a single gate having branches of its own.

Li Tongxuan, glossing the fifth ground in 〈The Ten Grounds〉, had already set up his signifying upon the friend of this section: he glosses ‘as for its saying “not far”’ as “because it is without departing from the substance of awakening that there is the practice of the perfection of meditation”; he glosses her name as “it makes clear that meditation is the tranquil; and ocean of sound signifies that concentration is able to bring forth the working of wisdom”; he glosses the adorning of her throne as “because by the working of the meditation of the nature that is without contriving the myriad practices are adorned,” the banner as “the substance of the concentration of the Dharma-nature does not move with objects” — object and mind settled in their very substance, because both are without self-nature — and the lotus as “practice without stain” — the nature of practice not other than the meditation without contriving; and he glosses the three terms within the name of the Dharma gate apart from one another — “the delight of meditation without grief is named joy; to adorn wisdom with concentration is named adorned; not to be deluded about stillness and disturbance is named liberation.” And at the end he lays down a judgment upon the capacities the four questions meet: those who dwell in the desire realm with much mind are caused to cultivate the tranquil concentration, while those with much meditation of the form and formless realms are caused to raise knowledge and skillful means and to deliver sentient beings widely, “so that they may not be left guarding purity and dwelling in the pleasure of meditation.” That sentence is the eye of Li Tongxuan’s passage — the meditation of the fifth ground is not a bidding to settle down in the pleasure of concentration. As for his direct gloss upon this assembly, he glosses the name of the Dharma gate as “principle and practice adorn each other, and this is named adorned”; he judges its station as “the Dharma gate of one ground entering the ten grounds and the eleventh ground”; he matches the ten buddhas to the ten grounds, “from here the first buddha is matched to the first ground, the next to the second ground, the next to the third ground”; and he gathers it up with “it makes clear that within this fifth ground the knowledge of the eleventh ground is complete and the practice of Samantabhadra is full, and takes the “offerings to four buddhas” of her former life to signify the fruit within the first four grounds before the fifth — the four buddhas are the four grounds already walked.” His gloss upon the phrase ‘the pure and the defiled are mingled together’ is especially to be noticed — “it makes clear that in the gate of the great tranquil concentration of the Dharma realm knowledge and compassion advance together, and that the land of the buddhas and the land of sentient beings are one substance without hindrance”: pure and defiled can be mingled because the land of the buddhas and the land of sentient beings are one substance from the start.

Fazang’s Tanxuan ji, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, brings out four further glosses: upon the passage ‘what arises is not arisen’ he says, “what arises is then not arisen, which makes clear that the working is ever tranquil; and what rejoices and what is rejoiced in are alike equal and without own-nature”; after the similes he concludes, “in truth of principle this dharma is not what a worldly simile can liken; a small portion of it is briefly raised by simile” — saying plainly that what is taken for a simile is what no simile can reach; upon what is entered after the Dharma is gained he says, “the bringing forth and the rest are because the working raised upon realization is differentiated,” and counts the repetitions, “in this way, layer upon layer, the bringing forth goes on to eleven repetitions, each and every one of them”; and upon the sixty-fascicle witness’s sentence “and that world Stainless Light Adorned with Golden Color is present still even now” (which Fazang abbreviates in his lemma as “that Stainless world is present still”) he says, “because it is the past within the ten times, and the present is then the present of the present,” glossing that ‘still present’ by the ten times. Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji outlines the sixty-fascicle passage ‘arising is not’ as ‘the wiping out of marks and the entering into the real.’ And in the gate upon the good friends of the stations of realization of the ten grounds, Zhiyan’s Kongmu zhang brings out separately the sense of this friend: “the fifth friend. Upon the separate teaching of the one vehicle. At the place of becoming a buddha. Near to the holy purport. Tranquil, and answering to the capacities. Skillful means advancing to the higher. Every kind of skillfulness. The sense of the Dharma gate of guarding sentient beings and benefiting them.” — not merely a name upon a table of sequence.

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

As to the assigning of position: the judgment matching the good friends of this assembly to the ten grounds is an outline Chengguan carries on from the ancient worthies, and is not marked by the scripture text itself. Chengguan sets out his reason under the five marks of this assembly, saying, “masters such as Guangtong all matched them to the stations of the grounds,” and then keeps both sayings standing, saying, “both have their reason: since each single station is furnished with many Dharma gates, how should the mind of an ordinary person be denied the practice of seeking the dharma of the good friends? Therefore not to match them has its reason. And yet, within what has no order of stations the order of stations is not hindered, and to display the stations is the constant rule, so that to match them also is without fault.” As to this section’s judgment of assignment to the Ground Hard to Conquer, the four houses of Chengguan, Fazang, Li Tongxuan, and Zhiyan agree. And the table of the sequence of the good friends in Zhiyan’s Kongmu zhang lists this section as the thirty-sixth.

Further: in the eighth of the ten gates expounded as dharma the scripture text tells of this liberation of itself, “it is the universal gate itself, because within a single matter it universally sees all spiritual transformations.” When Chengguan glosses the gate of the subtle containing and establishing among the ten mysterious gates in the Yanyi chao, he takes up this one clause and judges explicitly, “since it says universal gate, it is the same as the gate of simultaneous completion and mutual correspondence” — the universal gate of this section is the gate of simultaneous completion and mutual correspondence among the ten mysterious gates.

One question in four clauses, and four answers not in the same order. It is not that she does not answer as you asked; it is that she answers in the order in which the matter itself grew — first there is the mind, and then the deed; first the beholding, and then the realm.