華嚴經 品三十九 入法界品 · 大願精進力救護一切眾生夜神（寄不動地）Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Entering the Dharma Realm · The Night Goddess Great Vow, Vigor, and Power Who Rescues All Beings (Assigned to the Immovable Ground)

What Sudhana Sees First This Time Is Twenty-Four Kinds of Body

Sudhana comes to the night goddess Great Vow, Vigor, and Power Who Rescues All Beings, and the first passage is not a conversation but a seeing. The scripture text writes the seat first — “seated upon a lion seat of the treasury of maṇi-kings that universally manifests all palaces,” with a net of maṇi jewels spread out and covering the seat; then it writes the body, twenty-four clauses one after another, every clause opening with the graph for “manifests” and closing with the graph for “body.”

Why should so many bodies be written first? Chengguan divides the twenty-four bodies into three passages: the first ten are the bodies that gather and convert in answer to the occasion; the six clauses from “a body that bows at the place of every buddha” onward are the bodies that answer to the Dharma and accomplish the practice; the rest are the bodies that leave obstruction behind and answer to principle. The order of the three passages runs from meeting the occasion, to cultivating the practice, to answering to principle — that is, from without inward. And upon this he sets down one general clause: “Mostly it is the inner virtue that makes the difference among the bodies manifest; seeing the body, one understands the mind.” The bodies differ because the inner virtue differs; to look at her body is in truth to look at her mind.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is an exhibition of spiritual power. Were it an exhibition, the twenty-four clauses might be added to or cut down at will; yet the last clause of the scripture text is “a body of dharma-nature pure from the origin,” and the first clause is the reflected images of sun, moon, and constellations — beginning at an image and ending at dharma-nature, this order is itself a statement. Brought down to the ground: in reading this passage one should ask all the way through, ‘for whom is this kind of body manifested,’ and the answers will sort themselves into those three passages.

Raising Ten Kinds of Mind toward the Good Friend: Regarding the Teacher as Oneself

What Sudhana does after seeing the bodies is to “bow with a single mind, cast his whole body down upon the ground, and only after a long while rise,” and then to raise ten kinds of mind. The pattern of these ten minds is one throughout: first it says what mind it is, then it says how it “causes me” to be — it speaks of the benefit from his own side.

The first of the ten minds is “toward the good friend he raised the mind that regards her as himself.” To regard her as oneself is to see the good friend as oneself and not to look upon her as a second person. After it come, in order, the mind of the pure fruit of one’s own deeds, the mind that adorns the bodhisattva practices, the mind that perfects all buddha-dharmas, the mind that is able to give birth, the mind of going forth, the mind complete in the sea of all merit and knowledge, the mind of increase, the mind complete in all good roots, and the mind that can accomplish great benefit. These ten minds are not ten bare names: each carries with it the reason why it is so, and two of them are the easiest to read past. The second, the mind of the pure fruit of one’s own deeds, is fastened by the scripture text to the cause “because to draw near to her and make offerings gives birth to good roots” — the fruit of one’s own deeds comes to be pure because drawing near and making offerings gives birth to good roots, and not because one cultivates some separate course of one’s own. The fifth, the mind that is able to give birth, is put by the scripture text as “because she is able to give birth to the unsurpassed Dharma in me” — the one who gives birth is the good friend, and what is born is the unsurpassed Dharma; what is born is not good feeling but Dharma. The gloss upon the last mind is the longest, saying three “becauses” in one breath — because it causes him to abide in all the dharmas of the bodhisattva, to perfect the path of all-knowledge, and to gain all buddha-dharmas — and so it gathers up the benefits of the nine minds before it.

A misreading must be set aside: that “the mind that regards her as himself” says that one is already equal to the teacher. The scripture text’s own gloss is “because this can cause me diligently to accomplish the dharmas that aid the path to all-knowledge” — to regard her as oneself is not to say that one already is the same, but that only by looking upon her as one body will one take the teacher’s business as one’s own and set about it. Brought down to the ground: if the first mind raised toward a good friend is admiration from below, one will remain a guest forever.

Eighty-Four Samenesses: Only after the Ten Minds Are Raised Is the Same Practice Gained

The moment the ten minds are raised, the scripture text follows immediately with one clause — “Having raised such a mind as this, he gained the same practice, as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land, that this night goddess holds in common with all the bodhisattvas” — and then sets out eighty-four items. Chengguan here points to the cause and the effect: because the ten minds beginning with regarding her as oneself were raised before, therefore the practice equal to that of the good friend is gained. The mind is first, the practice after.

The pattern of these eighty-four items is in two members: the former member sets up the name, the latter glosses the meaning. Chengguan judges of this pattern that “in the eighty-four samenesses, each has the setting up of a name and the glossing of a meaning, and the shape of the text displays it of itself.” The number Fazang reads out upon the sixty-fascicle witness is likewise eighty-four. The order of the list is not set down at random: it opens with the same mindfulness, the same wisdom, the same orientation, the same awakening, the same faculty, the same mind, the same objective realm, the same realization, and the same meaning, which speak of the inner realization; the middle turns to the same form-body, the same power, the same fearlessness, the same vigor, the same eloquence, the same kindly speech, the same wondrous voice, and the same perfect voice, which speak of the converting of others; below these come the same great kindness, the same great compassion, the same bodily deed, the same verbal deed, and the same mental deed, which speak of the three deeds; and the last passage turns to the same spiritual power, the same spiritual might, the same dhāraṇī, the same secret Dharma, and the same profound Dharma, closing at “the same going forth, because he fulfills the sea of all the great vows and perfects the knowledge of the ten powers of the Tathāgata.”

The eighty-four items cannot be read as names alone, and the glosses upon two of them must be made plain on the spot. Of the same unobstructedness, the gloss fastened to it is “because he understands that all dharmas are altogether without marks” — unobstructedness is not a strength great enough to pass through, but the understanding that all dharmas are from the first without marks: having no marks, there is nothing that can obstruct, and therefore it is unobstructed. Of the same non-reliance, the gloss fastened to it is “because he has cut off forever every mind that relies” — non-reliance is not the having of nowhere to dwell, but the cutting off forever of the very mind that would go and rely and dwell; what is cut off is the mind that relies, not the object relied upon.

The Four Meanings of Sameness, and Which One Is Meant Here

The graph for “same” must be asked after: the same as whom? Chengguan says in general discussion that sameness has four meanings — that person and dharma are not two is to be the same as the whole Dharma realm; that cause and effect are not two is to be the same as all the buddhas; that self and other are not two is to be the same as all the bodhisattvas; that the defiled and the pure are not two is to be the same as all beings. And he judges of the present text: what is said now is that he gained the bodhisattva practice held in common by this night goddess and the bodhisattvas, and that is exactly the third meaning, while the meaning also embraces the remaining three.

Why does it embrace them? He says that because one sees the first meaning, one is not other than the remaining two — because one sees that the substance of the Dharma realm is the same, one is therefore the same as the buddhas above and the same as beings below, and only so is the sameness ultimate.

Then why is sameness set out at length here, with this one good friend? Chengguan’s reason is tied to the station: “It is because upon the eighth ground one realizes the principle of non-arising, so that self and other act upon one another with no hindrance at all; therefore sameness is made clear especially here.” And he at once takes the scripture text itself as his witness: among the eighty-four items there is the one item “the same forbearance of non-arising, because he enters the sea of the assemblies of all buddhas.” This is to prove his own judgment in reverse by one clause of the scripture text, not to fit the station in mid-air.

A misreading must be set aside: that “sameness” means level equality, and that there is no more need to study. Were it level equality, Sudhana would not need to ask again for the name of the Dharma gate, nor to go on to the next friend. Brought down to the ground: it is sameness of practice, not sameness of station.

The Ten Verses of Praise: Sudhana Speaks Back to the Teacher What He Has Gained

Having gained the same practice, Sudhana “bared his right shoulder, bowed to her feet, and joined his palms with a single mind,” and spoke ten verses. Chengguan divides these ten verses into three passages: the first eight verses sing of the raising of the increasingly excellent mind above; the ninth verse sings of the deep realization and the sameness from afar above; the tenth verse sings of the weight of the kindness he bears. And he matches them clause by clause: each of the first six verses sings one clause of the ten minds; of the seventh verse the upper three lines sing the seventh clause and the lower line the eighth; of the eighth verse the upper half sings the ninth and the lower half the tenth.

The meaning of the ten verses also forms an order of its own. The first verse speaks of setting the will — “I have raised a firm resolve, and set my will upon seeking the unsurpassed awakening” — and points out “and I raise the mind that regards her as myself,” which answers exactly to the first of the ten minds. The second verse speaks of seeing the good friend and so extinguishing offenses and perfecting the fruit. The third verse speaks of seeing the good friend and of adorning his own mind with merit and virtue, and of vowing to cultivate the path “to the end of the land-kalpas of the future” — the one who adorns the mind and cultivates the path is Sudhana. The fourth verse says that the good friend gathers him in and enriches him, and shows him in full the right teaching and the true Dharma. The fifth verse says that she shuts the evil destinies, reveals the road of men and devas, and further reveals the path by which the tathāgatas perfect all-knowledge — it lists the benefits received layer by layer. The sixth verse says that the good friend is “the treasury of the merit and virtue of the buddhas,” who in thought after thought gives birth to a sea of merit and virtue like empty space. The seventh verse says what she gives: the perfections, merit beyond reckoning, pure merit and virtue; and its last line, “causes me to wear the headcloth of a buddha,” says that she causes him to put on the head-wrapping of a buddha, that is, the mark of the conferring of a prediction. The eighth verse speaks of the vow ever to rely upon her. The ninth verse says that by this his merit and virtue is complete, so that he can universally expound the path of all-knowledge for beings — benefit received turns into the benefiting of others. The tenth verse bears the kindness: “though measureless and numberless kalpas should pass, I could not repay her kindness.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the verses of praise are a courtesy. The order of the scripture text is benefit first, benefiting others after, and at the last the saying that the kindness cannot be repaid; were it mere courtesy, there would be no need to count out item by item what has been gained. Brought down to the ground: only the one who can say clearly what he has gained has truly gained it.

Three Questions, and Only Two Answered

The verses done, Sudhana asks three things: what this liberation gate is named, how long it has been since she raised the mind, and how much longer before she becomes a buddha. Chengguan first explains why he does not ask about the dharmas of cultivation: “Having already beheld the working of the liberation, he does not ask how it is cultivated, but simply inquires after the name.” The working has already been seen, and so he asks only after the name.

And the night goddess answers only the first two questions. Upon this Chengguan sets forth two meanings: one is to display the increase of compassion — as was said of Fulfilled Vow before; the other is to display the long-since accomplished, showing that she abides upon the ground of the cause. And he takes the latter text of this very section as his witness: those she rescued have long since become buddhas, how much more the one who rescued them.

A misreading must be set aside: that the non-answering is a missed answer. The scripture text says plainly further on, “Those offenders, whom I rescued, are Krakucchanda and the rest, the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa” — those rescued have become buddhas, and the one who rescued them still shows herself upon the bodhisattva station; this very matter is the answer to that third question. Brought down to the ground: some questions go unanswered because the answer has already been given elsewhere.

The Name of the Dharma Gate: Teaching and Converting Beings So as to Cause Good Roots to Be Born

The night goddess tells him, setting up the name: “This liberation gate is named: teaching and converting beings so as to cause good roots to be born.”

This name must be read in three lengths. Teaching and converting is what she does; beings are what it is directed toward; causing good roots to be born is the fruit accomplished. Chengguan glosses this name, saying: “That is, she manifests bodies and converts widely, causing good things to be born and ultimately to gain buddhahood; therefore it is named a root.” Why is it called a “root” and not a “fruit”? Because what is born is a good that is able to give birth; once the good root is born, buddhahood will ultimately be gained — the name is taken upon the cause.

Li Tongxuan reads this name along another road, tying it to the knowledge that does not act: he says that all beings are born from the knowledge that does not act, and that within this knowledge all good roots are born of themselves and all sufferings are extinguished of themselves. In the witness upon which Zhiyan relied, the name of this gate reads “the Dharma gate of awakening beings in answer to their kind and nurturing their good roots,” and Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, glosses the meaning of its name, saying, “the body converts in answer to their kind and the knowledge opens and awakens well, causing creatures to increase in good; therefore it says nurturing.” The glosses of the three houses each have their own track.

A misreading must be set aside: that “causing good roots to be born” means giving people a little advantage. The good roots the scripture text speaks of are threefold — “those not yet planted he causes to be planted, those already planted he causes to increase, those already increased he causes to ripen” — and at the last it comes down to non-retrogression. Brought down to the ground: a good root is a root because it grows of itself.

Inwardly Answering to Principle and to Phenomena: Sameness Is Spoken of First, and Only Then the Form-Bodies

After the setting up of the name, the night goddess says what it is that she has awakened to upon entering this liberation: “I have awakened to the sameness of the own-nature of all dharmas, entered into the true nature of all dharmas, realized the Dharma that leans upon nothing, and cast off the world.” These four clauses draw inward all the way — sameness, truth, non-dependence, casting off. Only then does she say “I know in full the differences among the forms of all dharmas,” and say further that blue, yellow, red, and white are in their nature not real.

Chengguan judges this passage to be “first, the making clear of the inward answering to principle and to phenomena,” and judges of the whole working: “That is, because it is a working that answers to principle, therefore the working is without bound and moving and still are not two.” The working is without bound because it answers to principle; and moving and still are not two for this same reason.

The Yanyi chao states the line of reasoning more directly: because within she realizes the real, therefore without she manifests form. It cites a question and an answer of the Qixin lun, as witness — if the dharma-body of the buddhas is apart from form, how can it manifest form? What is answered is that form and mind are not two: because the nature of form is the very nature of knowledge, the substance of form is without shape and is named the knowledge-body; because the nature of knowledge is the very nature of form, it is named the dharma-body pervading everywhere. Having cited it, the Chao sets down its own bound and measure: that was said with respect to buddhas, yet this station is already at its utmost and is greatly the same as a buddha.

A misreading must be set aside: that “in their nature not real” says that colors are false and need not be attended to. The clause the scripture text sets immediately after is “while yet I ever show measureless form-bodies” — it is precisely because she knows them to be unreal that she can show them measurelessly. Brought down to the ground: forms do not obstruct because one first does not cling, not because one first does not look.

Ninety-Seven Clauses of Form-Bodies: She Counts the Bodies She Can Manifest Ninety-Seven Times

Then comes the longest passage of this section: from “manifold form-bodies” onward, every clause closes with the two graphs for “form-body,” down to “form-bodies that show the image of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra” — counted clause by clause, ninety-seven clauses.

These ninety-seven clauses are not a saying of the same thing over again. The opening clauses speak with respect to number and measure: manifold, not of one kind, boundless, pure. Thereafter it turns to the marks of gathering and converting: form-bodies equal to all beings, form-bodies universally present before all beings, form-bodies that appear before beings according to what their minds delight in and subdue them. Further on it turns to the images of merit and virtue: form-bodies of great merit like the king of jewel mountains, form-bodies complete in a sea of great kindness. The last stretch turns wholly into images of cloud and rain: showing clouds of sun-wheels beyond telling, showing clouds of vast moon-wheels, sending forth clouds of measureless wondrous flowers of Mount Sumeru, raising clouds of all burning incense filling the Dharma realm, scattering clouds of the jewel treasury of all powdered incense — from body to cloud, from cloud to pervading. It closes at the one clause “form-bodies that show the image of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra,” answering to the return to Samantabhadra at the end of this assembly. Two further clauses within this list are clauses of limitation, and are not to be read past as more of the same spreading out. One is “form-bodies that toward all beings neither grasp nor cast away” — both ends, the grasping and the casting away, are set aside together: she manifests a body and yet does not grasp at the marks of beings, nor does she cast beings aside and go her own way; and it is just because there is no grasping that the body can be manifested toward all. The other is “form-bodies without fixity and without finality” — without fixity, it is not settled upon any one shape; without finality, it does not stop at any one body. It is these two clauses of limitation that keep the ninety-odd clauses before them from turning into a list that merely grows longer.

The numbers reckoned by the ancient worthies are not level with one another. Chengguan says, “He briefly displays ninety-eight kinds of form-body, and with the setting forth at the beginning and the conclusion at the end it makes a hundred bodies,” reckoning the opening clause and the closing clause into the count to make it up to a hundred. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, says, “Separately there are a hundred kinds of form; upon examining the text two clauses are wanting,” saying that the witness he relied upon lacked two clauses in this passage. The number in the two sayings stands alike at a hundred, while the reckoning by which the hundred is made differs in each.

By What Are These Bodies Manifested: Five Kinds of Power

The ninety-seven clauses listed, the scripture text makes a general conclusion: in thought after thought she manifests form-bodies such as these filling the ten directions, causing beings whether to see, or to call to mind, or to hear the Dharma spoken, or by drawing near, or by gaining awakening, or by seeing spiritual power, or by beholding a transformation, all in accord with what their minds delight in, to be subdued in due season.

Then it points out the causes, five “becauses” one after another: by the power of the great vow, by the power of all-knowledge, by the power of the bodhisattva’s liberation, by the power of great compassion, by the power of great kindness.

A misreading must be set aside: that the manifesting of bodies is the power of spiritual power. Among the five powers the scripture text lists, the first is the great vow and the last are great compassion and great kindness, with all-knowledge and liberation set between — spiritual power is not among them. Brought down to the ground: how many bodies one can manifest depends upon how great the vow is, not upon how strong the power is.

Within a Single Body, Layer upon Layer without End

In the passage below, the night goddess says the matter more fully still: “knowing that dharma-nature is without difference, and yet able to show measureless form-bodies,” each single body showing a measureless sea of forms, each single form sending forth measureless clouds of light, each single light showing measureless buddha-lands, each single land showing measureless buddhas arising in the world, each single buddha showing measureless power of spiritual power.

This is a chain running from body to form, to light, to land, to buddha, to spiritual power, and every link of it is “measureless.” Yet its landing place is not adornment but beings: opening up the good roots of beings from former lives, those not yet planted caused to be planted, those already planted caused to increase, those already increased caused to ripen; and in thought after thought causing measureless beings to become non-retrogressive in anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

A misreading must be set aside: that this passage describes the greatness of a realm. The syntax of the whole passage enlarges layer by layer, and then the last clause closes suddenly upon one very concrete matter — causing people to be non-retrogressive. Brought down to the ground: after all the spreading out, without this one clause the foregoing would be only scenery.

Taking Up the Question and Granting the Telling: She Reads the Question Over Once First

Before answering the second question, the night goddess reads Sudhana’s question over once first: “As to what you have asked — ‘From what time onward did you raise the mind of awakening and cultivate the bodhisattva practices?’” — and then says, “sustained by the Buddha’s spiritual power, I shall proclaim it for you.”

Chengguan outlines this portion as “praising its depth and granting the telling,” within which there are three members: first the taking up of the question and the granting of the telling; next the praising of the Dharma as most profound; after, the concluding by the sustaining power and the telling. Within the three members not a single clause of the true answer has yet been said.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a formality. The five similes below and a whole passage of a former life all hang upon this clause “sustained by the Buddha’s spiritual power”; without first setting up this word of sustaining, what is said after would become self-praise. Brought down to the ground: to read the question over once is to acknowledge what the other has asked — this step taken, the answer can meet it.

The Bodhisattva’s Wheel of Knowledge: It Cannot Be Measured by Kalpas

Before the true answer, a general setting forth is put up first: “The bodhisattva’s wheel of knowledge is far removed from every realm of discrimination, and it cannot be displayed by such kalpa-discriminations as long and short, defiled and pure, broad and narrow, many and few, within birth and death.” Then she asks and answers herself: why is this? Because “the bodhisattva’s wheel of knowledge is pure in its own nature, apart from every net of discrimination, beyond every mountain of obstruction, and shines universally according to whom is to be converted.”

Chengguan ties one meaning to each of these three clauses: the own nature is spoken of with respect to principle, being apart from discrimination with respect to knowledge, and being beyond obstruction with respect to what is cut off.

Thereupon a question arises: since there is no long or short, why does the scripture text plainly speak of kalpas further on — is this not self-contradictory? Chengguan resolves this difficulty, saying: “Since there is no long or short, that long and short are now spoken of is for the sake of benefiting the living. Would one have it long, then it is long, to display that the root of the Dharma is deep; would one have it short, then it is short, to display that the Dharma is surpassing.” Long and short are spoken of in order to benefit the living; it is not that within knowledge there truly is long and short.

The Yanyi chao also points out a general rule: the devas of the night of this assembly are for the most part asked how long ago they raised the mind, and what they all answer with is the wheel of knowledge — this is to answer substance and working to one another. What is asked is time; what is answered is substance and working.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is an evasion. The passage of the former life below tells out the name of the kalpa, the title of the buddha, the name of the land, and the names of the persons one by one, more concretely than any number of years. Brought down to the ground: to say first that ‘it cannot be measured by kalpas,’ and then to speak of kalpas, keeps the reader from taking the kalpas for the answer itself.

The First Simile: The Sun-Wheel of Itself Has Neither Day nor Night

The five similes follow in order. The first simile takes the rising and setting of the sun: a sun-wheel of itself has neither day nor night; only when it comes forth is it called day, and when it goes down is it called night. So too is the bodhisattva’s wheel of knowledge: it has no discrimination and no three times; only in accord with the mind does it appear, and it is said to abide in a former kalpa or a latter kalpa.

Chengguan sets up a name for this simile, “the simile of the bright sun according with the seasons,” and glosses its two sides: “The substance of the sun is ever bright, and it is against the mountains that it rises and sets; knowledge has no three times, and it is by the obstruction of the mind that the seeing differs.” The substance of the sun is bright from first to last, and its rising and setting are cast up against it by the mountains; within knowledge there are from the first no three times, and long and short are cast up against it by the obstructions in the minds of beings. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, sets up the name “the simile of the sun’s nature having no darkness,” taking the meaning to be that knowledge has no falsity and can break falsity; Zhiyan sets up the name “the simile of the gate of knowledge being perfect and ultimate.” The names set up by the three houses differ, while the image they point to is one.

Brought down to the ground: day and night are real; only they are not on the side of the sun.

The Second Simile: The Sun Is in the Sky, and Its Reflection Falls into All Waters

The second simile takes the sun’s casting of a reflection: the sun-wheel abides in the sky above Jambudvīpa, and its reflection appears within all jewels and within the pure waters of rivers and seas, and there is not a being who does not see it, “and yet that pure sun has not come here.” So too is the bodhisattva’s wheel of knowledge: it goes forth from the sea of the modes of existence, abides upon the Buddha’s true Dharma, “leaning upon nothing in the sky of stillness,” and for the sake of converting beings takes birth in the destinies according to their kinds, while in truth there is no birth and death.

Here the scripture text sets a question of its own: why is this? The answer is three clauses — the bodhisattva has ultimately left behind the thoughts of the mind and sees every inversion; he gains the true seeing and sees the true nature of the dharmas; he knows that all the worlds are like a dream and like an illusion and that there are no beings. And at the last it turns: “only by the power of great compassion and the great vow does he appear before beings to teach, convert, and subdue them.”

Chengguan sets up the name “the simile of the sun-wheel casting a reflection,” glossing it: “The white sun does not come, and yet it is hidden or shown according to the place; the wheel of knowledge is ever still, and yet the occasion sees it short or long.”

A misreading must be set aside: that “there are no beings” means there is no need to ferry beings across. The syntax of the scripture text is to say first that there are no beings, and then to say “only by the power of great compassion and the great vow” does he appear and convert — the two clauses run together. Brought down to the ground: only one who knows there are no beings to ferry across can ferry them for long.

The Third Simile: The Ferryman Cleaves to Neither Shore

The third simile changes the image it takes: the ferryman ever uses a great ship, and within the flow of the river depends not upon this shore, cleaves not to the far shore, and abides not in mid-current, and so ferries beings across without rest. The bodhisattva, with the ship of the perfections within the flow of birth and death, is likewise so, and “though through measureless kalpas he cultivates the bodhisattva practices, he has never discriminated the length or shortness of the kalpas.”

The first two similes both take the sun, speaking with respect to the substance of knowledge; this simile takes a boat, speaking with respect to the gathering in of beings. Chengguan sets up the name “the simile of the empty boat carrying creatures,” glossing outright what it likens as “the bodhisattva’s gathering in of beings without abiding.” Fazang names it “the simile of the empty boat relieving creatures”; the meaning is the same.

The three non-abidings are the bone of this simile: not depending upon this shore is not abiding in birth and death; not cleaving to the far shore is not abiding in nirvāṇa; not abiding in mid-current is not letting even “non-abiding” come to rest in the middle. Brought down to the ground: the boat can go on ferrying people precisely because it comes ashore on neither side.

The Fourth Simile: Empty Space Does Not Hinder Forming or Decaying

The fourth simile takes space: all the worlds form within empty space and decay within it, while space has no discrimination and is pure in its own nature, “no defilement and no disorder, no hindrance and no weariness, neither long nor short,” and to the end of the kalpas of the future upholds all the lands. The bodhisattva, with a vast and deep mind equal to the realm of empty space, sets in motion the wind-wheel of the great vow and gathers in beings, causing them to leave the evil destinies, to be born in the good destinies, and to abide in the station of all-knowledge, extinguishing the afflictions and the bonds of suffering of birth and death, “while in himself he has no mind of sorrow or joy, of fatigue or weariness.”

Chengguan sets up the name “the simile of great emptiness being without hindrance,” and what it likens is “the bodhisattva’s benefiting of creatures without effort” — benefiting creatures with no effortful working is exactly the mark of the eighth ground. Li Tongxuan, reading this passage, reckons the wind-wheel of the great vow as a further simile of its own, and so counts six similes; Chengguan, Fazang, and Zhiyan all make five.

A misreading must be set aside: that “no sorrow or joy” is coldness. Within the very same clause of the scripture text, the gathering in of beings, the causing them to leave the evil destinies, and the extinguishing of the bonds of suffering are all being done. Brought down to the ground: to work without being worn out is because the one who works does not reckon success and failure to his own account.

The Fifth Simile: The Conjured Man Has Limbs Complete and Yet Not the Ten Matters

The fifth simile is the most thorough: a man conjured up by illusion, though his limbs and members are complete, has not the ten matters of the out-breath and the in-breath, cold, heat, hunger, thirst, sorrow, joy, birth, and death. So too is the bodhisattva: with illusion-like knowledge and the dharma-body of sameness he shows forth many forms, and within the destinies of existence abides for measureless kalpas teaching and converting beings, while upon every realm within birth and death he has “nothing he is glad of and nothing he wearies of, nothing he loves and nothing he hates, no suffering and no pleasure, nothing he grasps and nothing he casts away, nothing that eases him and nothing that frightens him.”

Chengguan sets up the name “the simile of the illusory transformation having nothing real,” and what it likens is “stillness in the very working.” The first four similes all say ‘though it appears, it is not’; this simile takes outright a thing that from the first is not, as its image — the conjured man has shape and yet no matters, which answers exactly to the ten clauses of five pairs of “nothing.”

Chengguan also points out that this set of similes is the general pattern of this assembly: “Now, in the praising of depth by the devas of the night above, all take this Dharma and simile as their model.”

Brought down to the ground: the ten clauses of five pairs list opposite ends, and not one end is kept — it is not that suffering and pleasure have been held down, but that there is fundamentally no one there to receive suffering and pleasure.

Concluding by the Sustaining Power: Only at This Point Does the True Answer Begin

The five similes told, the night goddess says once more that she is sustained: “Though the bodhisattva’s wisdom is profound and hard to fathom such as this, I shall yet, sustained by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, expound it for you,” and she says what it is for — “so as to cause the bodhisattvas of ages to come to fulfill the great vow and to perfect the powers.”

This clause is the pivot of this section. Before it is the praising of depth; after it is the true answer; before it, it is said that kalpas cannot display it; after it, kalpas, lands, and persons are the very things spoken of. The turn between the two halves rests upon this clause.

Brought down to the ground: to speak of what cannot be spoken, one must first make clear by what one speaks.

The Former Life, One: The Kalpa Good Light and the Buddha King of the Lamp of Empty Space and the Sound of the Dharma Wheel

The true answer begins at “in an age long past, kalpas as many as the dust motes of a sea of worlds ago.” The kalpa is named Good Light, the world is named Jewel Light, within which ten thousand buddhas arose in the world, the first of them styled the Tathāgata King of the Lamp of Empty Space and the Sound of the Dharma Wheel. The royal city is named Jewel Adornment; to its east there is a great forest named Wondrous Light; within the forest there is a place of the Way named Jewel Flower; the seat is named the lion seat of the universally luminous maṇi lotus treasury. That tathāgata upon this seat perfected right awakening and “sat in the place of the Way for a full hundred years,” and expounded the Dharma.

Li Tongxuan takes each name for a symbol: the kalpa named Good Light symbolizes the setting up of the substance of the knowledge without effort; the world named Jewel Light symbolizes the knowledge without effortful working that manifests dharmas as creatures require; the arising of ten thousand buddhas symbolizes answering to the ten thousand practices with one knowledge; the sitting for a full hundred years symbolizes the fullness of the ten grounds and the ten perfections within a single ground. This is his consistent track of symbolic reading, another road than Chengguan’s clause-by-clause outlining and glossing.

A misreading must be set aside: that these names are a spreading out of background. What the night goddess answers is “how long has it been since you raised the mind,” and the starting point of the answer must have a definite time, place, and buddha — the names are the framework of the answer. Brought down to the ground: only when one can say at whose seat the mind was raised does that raising of the mind have a provenance.

The Former Life, Two: A King Who Built a Prison

The second passage turns dark of a sudden. The king is named Victorious Light, the lifespan of men was then ten thousand years, and in the world there was much taking of life, stealing, lewdness, false speech, ornate speech, double-tongued speech, and harsh speech, covetousness, anger, and wrong views, and also unfiliality toward father and mother and disrespect toward śramaṇas and brahmins. The king, in order to subdue them, “built a prison, shut them in with cangue and chain, and measureless beings suffered within it.”

Chengguan here glosses one graph: “Lingyu is the name of the prison of the Zhou.”

A misreading must be set aside: that this king is an evil man. The scripture text says that the king built the prison “wishing to subdue them,” and the repeated verses say further that he “ever governed the multitude with the right Dharma.” Brought down to the ground: the hard thing in this passage is precisely that the suffering was not made by a bad man but by a good intention.

The Former Life, Three: The Prince Good Subduing

The third passage brings out the chief person: the king had a prince named Good Subduing, “upright and excellent in his features, whom men delighted to see, complete in the twenty-eight marks of a great man.”

Here there is a divergent gloss of one of the ancient worthies. Li Tongxuan sets up a symbol upon the “twenty-eight marks,” saying that they are “wanting four marks and not filling out the thirty-two marks,” using this to symbolize that upon the eighth ground the fourfold cause and effect of the ninth and tenth grounds is not yet full. The scripture text says only twenty-eight and does not say why; Tongxuan’s gloss is his own symbolic reading. It is recorded without judgment.

Brought down to the ground: a man born complete in the marks, whom men delight to see, does as the first thing in the next passage this — he walks into a prison.

The Former Life, Four: He Walks into the Prison

Within the palace the prince heard from afar the voices of the prisoners in their bitter pain, and his heart was moved to pity; and so he came out from the palace and went into the prison. What the scripture text writes of what he saw grows heavier clause by clause: manacle, fetter, cangue, and chain binding them to one another in succession, set in a dark place, some roasted with fire, some smoked with smoke, some flogged, some suffering the cutting of the knee, naked in body and disordered in hair, hungry and thirsty and gaunt, “their sinews severed and their bones laid bare, crying aloud, their pain violent.”

Chengguan here glosses two graphs: “To flog is to beat. The knee-cutting is of the sort of the severing of the foot.” And the Yanyi chao adds a clause naming the five punishments of the world to make clear the knee-cutting as a punishment.

When the prince had seen them, “with a voice of fearlessness he consoled them” — first saying “do not be distressed,” then saying “do not be anxious and afraid,” and last saying “I shall surely cause you all to gain release.” The consoling comes first, the promise after. Then he goes to see the king, and what he says is very short: “The offenders in the prison suffer a bitter poison hard to dwell in; I pray you will grant them clemency and bestow fearlessness upon them.”

A misreading must be set aside: that compassion is a matter within the heart. The order of the scripture text is hearing the voices, coming out from the hall, entering the prison, seeing the suffering, uttering a voice, and going to the king — at every step the body is moving. Brought down to the ground: if compassion stays within the palace, it is only a pleasant sound.

The Former Life, Five: The Five Hundred Great Ministers Say That the One Who Rescues Should Die as Well

The king calls the five hundred great ministers and asks, “How stands this matter?” The ministers answer with great thoroughness: those offenders stole the goods of the state in secret, plotted to seize the royal throne, and entered by theft into the women’s quarters, and their offense is worthy of execution; and at the last they add one clause — “and if there be any who plead for their rescue, his offense too should reach to death.”

This one clause is the pivot of the whole passage of the former life. Before it, the matter is only whether the offenders should die; after this clause, it becomes that the one who rescues must die along with them.

Brought down to the ground: many a hard place is not in ‘whether one ought to rescue,’ but in the other side setting the price of rescue before you first.

The Former Life, Six: He Asks to Take Their Place with His Own Body

Hearing them, the prince’s “compassionate mind grew keener still.” What he says to the great ministers falls into two lengths. The former length is upon the matter: according to what you say, only release these men; as you deem fitting, it may be visited upon me; for their sake I can bear every bitter thing, “though my body be ground to powder and my life be lost, I shall not begrudge it,” if only the offenders may all be spared their pain.

The latter length is his asking himself the reason, and is also the most essential clause of this section: “If I do not rescue these beings, how shall I be able to rescue all the suffering beings in the prison of the three realms?” Then he speaks of the prison of the three realms in the finest detail — all beings within the three realms are bound by craving, veiled by delusion, poor and without merit and virtue, fallen into the evil destinies; their minds are confused, they do not seek the path of going forth, they have lost the light of wisdom, they delight in and cleave to the three modes of existence, “they dwell in the prison of suffering and have fallen into the net of Māra,” and the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, and harm ever press upon them. And the last clause: “I should cast away body and life and draw them out!”

Chengguan judges of this passage that “in eleven items there is the compassionate rescue of the offenders, the true answer to the beginning of the raising of the mind” — this one matter is the starting point of her raising of the mind.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a passing fit of indignation. The reason given by the scripture text is a single comparison: if this one prison before his eyes is not relieved, with what will that prison of the three realms be relieved? Brought down to the ground: the raising of the mind of awakening is not a vow made first and then met with an occasion; it is this one matter before one’s eyes that forces that vow out.

The Former Life, Seven: The Ministers Threaten with the Throne

The great ministers go together to where the king is and “all raised up their hands and cried aloud” — raising the hands and crying aloud is the look of many mouths speaking as one. What they say is: according to the prince’s intent, the law of the king is ruined and the calamity will reach ten thousand men; if the great king, out of love for him, does not reprove and punish him, “the jewelled throne of the great king too will not long stand.”

Chengguan glosses the two graphs for “jewelled throne”: “As for the jewelled throne, the throne is the station.” What they bring out is the royal station.

Hearing these words, the king “flushed with great anger” and gave order that the prince and the offenders be put to death.

Brought down to the ground: after this step, the rescuing of men is no longer a matter of compassion or no compassion, but of whether power and station stand firm.

The Former Life, Eight: The Queen and the Thousand Court Women

Hearing of it, the queen grieved and wept aloud, “marred her features and put on plain garments” — marring her looks and changing into unadorned clothing — and hastened with a thousand court women to where the king was, cast her whole body upon the ground and bowed to the king’s feet, and together they said one clause: “We pray only that the great king will pardon the prince’s life!”

The two clauses the king turns and says to the prince are harder still: “Do not rescue the offenders; if you rescue the offenders, I shall surely kill you!” — he hands the choice straight back into the prince’s hands.

What was the prince’s mind then? The scripture text lists three “because he would”: because he sought all-knowledge alone, because he would benefit beings, and because with great compassion he would universally rescue and gather them in — and therefore “he was firm in mind and without any shrinking back.” He answered in two clauses: “I pray you will forgive their offense; let my body receive the execution!” The king answered in one: “As you will!”

A misreading must be set aside: that firmness is a holding on by force. The scripture text sets the three reasons before the firmness — it is not that he could hold out, but that those three matters weighed more than his life. Brought down to the ground: what does not turn back has never been the will, but the one for whose sake it is done.

The Former Life, Nine: Giving for Half a Month

The queen speaks once more, and this time turns another way: “Great king! I pray you will let the prince give for half a month and cultivate merit as he pleases, and only then punish him.” The king consented.

To the north of the capital there was a great park named Sunlight, an old place of giving. The prince went there and set up a great assembly of giving, and the scripture text lists what was given: food and drink, garments, flower garlands, necklaces, unguent incense, powdered incense, banners and pennants, jewelled canopies, and adornments of every kind, “whatever any man sought, there was nothing not given to him in full.” The half month full, upon the last day, the king, the great ministers, the elders, the householders, the people of the town, and the followers of the other paths all came and gathered.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a bargaining for merit at the end of life. What the queen asked for was that he “cultivate merit as he pleases,” and what the prince did was that “whatever any man sought, there was nothing not given to him in full” — he spent the whole of his last half month upon giving to others. Brought down to the ground: what a man who knows he has half a month left does, tells what he has been doing all along.

The Former Life, Ten: The Buddha Comes upon the Last Day

Upon the last day the Tathāgata King of the Lamp of Empty Space and the Sound of the Dharma Wheel, “knowing that the season for the subduing of beings had come,” came together with a great company. The scripture text writes the eight classes attending him, each in its own manner: the deva kings encircling him, the dragon kings making offerings, the yakṣa kings guarding him, the gandharva kings praising him, the asura kings bending their bodies and bowing, the garuḍa kings with pure minds scattering jewelled flowers, the kiṃnara kings joyfully entreating him, and the mahoraga kings gazing up with a single mind.

The prince and the company saw from afar the Buddha coming, and the scripture text writes the marks of the Buddha: “upright and excellent, his faculties still and settled like a well-trained elephant, his mind without stain or turbidity like a pure pool,” showing great spiritual power, displaying great mastery, manifesting great awesome virtue, sending forth a great light that universally shone upon the worlds, from every pore giving birth to clouds of fragrant flame, quaking measureless buddha-lands in the ten directions. And the effect of it is one clause only: “those beings who saw him were pure and joyful in mind, and their afflictions were extinguished.”

Brought down to the ground: the season of the Buddha’s coming was not begged for by the prince; it was that “the season for the subduing had come” — beings ripened, and only then did the Buddha appear.

The Former Life, Eleven: Asking the Buddha to Sit, the Buddha Expounds the Dharma, the Prince Gains the Dharma

The prince and the company cast their five limbs upon the ground, bowed to the Buddha’s feet, set out a seat, joined their palms, and said: “Welcome, World-Honored One! Welcome, Well-Gone One! We pray only that you will have pity and gather us in, and be seated upon this seat!” By the Buddha’s spiritual power, the devas of the Pure Abodes transformed this seat into a seat of fragrant maṇi lotus flowers. The Buddha sat upon it, and the assembly of bodhisattvas encircled him on every side. All the beings in the assembly, because they had seen the Tathāgata, “had their suffering extinguished and their obstructions removed, and were fit to receive the holy Dharma.”

The Tathāgata, knowing that they might be converted, with a perfect voice proclaimed a sūtra named Universally Illuminating Wheel of Causes, causing all beings to understand it each according to his kind. Chengguan glosses this title of the sūtra, saying: “As for the Universally Illuminating Wheel of Causes, it causes them to know that good and evil each have their own cause, that the offenders are drawn on by an evil cause, and that the prince’s good cause is about to be fulfilled.” — what this sūtra expounds is exactly this very matter: what the offenders undergo is drawn on by an evil cause, what the prince does is a good cause about to be fulfilled. The title of the sūtra and the matter clasp one another.

The scripture text lists the benefits item by item: eighty nayutas of beings left dust and stain behind and gained the purity of the Dharma eye; measureless nayutas of beings gained the ground of no further learning; ten thousand beings abided in the path of the Great Vehicle, entered the practice of Samantabhadra, and brought their great vows to fullness; beings as many as the dust motes of a hundred buddha-lands in each of the ten directions were subdued in mind within the Great Vehicle; all beings of measureless worlds were spared the evil destinies and born among the devas. Only the last clause comes down to the chief person: “The prince Good Subduing, at this very time, gained the bodhisattva liberation gate of teaching and converting beings so as to cause good roots to be born.”

Brought down to the ground: he rescued men first, and only then gained the Dharma — the order must not be read the other way about.

Joining the Ancient and the Present, One: That Prince Was Myself

Only when she has said this much does the night goddess disclose it: “Was that prince of that time then another? He was my own self.” She tells of the cause by which she gained this liberation: in the past she raised a mind of great compassion, cast away body, life, and goods to rescue suffering beings, and opened the gates and gave greatly and made offerings to the Buddha.

Then she rules out, item by item, what her mind was then: only benefiting all beings, “not cleaving to the three realms, not seeking recompense, not coveting renown, not wishing to praise herself and belittle others,” upon every realm nothing coveted and clung to and nothing feared, only adorning the essential path of going forth in the Great Vehicle, ever delighting to contemplate the gate of all-knowledge, and cultivating ascetic practice.

A misreading must be set aside: that to cast away the body is of itself the bodhisattva practice. The four “nots” and the two “nothings” listed in this passage all say what was not mixed in at that time. Brought down to the ground: the very same casting away of the body, with the seeking of a recompense mixed in, is another thing altogether.

Joining the Ancient and the Present, Two: The Five Hundred Great Ministers Who Would Have Killed Me

The second question is harder: “Were those five hundred great ministers of that time, who would have harmed me, then others?” The answer is today’s Devadatta and the rest, five hundred in all.

And this saying does not stop at the identification. The night goddess goes on to say: these men, having received the Buddha’s teaching and conversion, will all gain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi; after kalpas as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru there will be a kalpa named Good Light and a world named Jewel Light, and within it they will become buddhas, five hundred buddhas arising in the world in order — the first named Great Compassion, the second Enriching the World, the third Lion of Great Compassion, the fourth Rescuing Beings, and so on down to the last, named King of Physicians.

What is worth noting is the titles of the buddhas: Great Compassion, Enriching the World, Lion of Great Compassion, Rescuing Beings — the five hundred men who in that day held that even the one who rescued should die will bear titles that are wholly upon kindness, compassion, and rescue. And the scripture text says further that, though the great compassion of those buddhas is the same, yet their lands, their clans, their fathers and mothers, their taking of birth, their going forth from the household, their study of the path, their turning of the Dharma wheel, their lifespans, and their titles are “each and all different.”

Brought down to the ground: the settling of an enmity lies not in his admitting his fault, but in his becoming a buddha too — and a buddha with a title like that.

Joining the Ancient and the Present, Three: Those Who Were Rescued Have Already Become Buddhas

The third question is of those offenders. The answer is: they are Krakucchanda and the rest, the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa, together with a million asaṃkhyeyas of great bodhisattvas — they raised the mind at the place of the Tathāgata Measureless Vigor and Power, Renown, Merit, and Wisdom, and now in the lands of the ten directions walk the bodhisattva path, and what they cultivate and increase is this very same liberation gate. King Victorious Light of that time is today’s great treatise-master Satya Nirgrantha-putra; the men of the palace and their kin are that Nirgrantha’s sixty thousand disciples, who came together with their teacher, set up the banner of the great treatise, disputed with the Buddha, were all subdued, and received the prediction.

Chengguan here glosses the name: “Satya means ‘having.’ Nirgrantha means ‘not bound’: naked in body and starving themselves, they are not bound by clothing and food.”

This passage is precisely where the witness lies for the ‘not answering the question about becoming a buddha’ above: the thousand buddhas she rescued have been accomplished, and the one who could rescue them is still upon the ground of the cause. Chengguan says this meaning is “to display the long-since accomplished, showing that she abides upon the ground of the cause.”

Brought down to the ground: that those you have rescued have walked on ahead of you is not a loss; it is what this road looks like of itself.

Going Forth and Gaining the Dharma: A Million within Five Hundred Years

After rescuing the offenders, his father and mother let him cast off land, wife and child, and treasure, and go forth and study the path at the place of the Buddha King of the Lamp of Empty Space and the Sound of the Dharma Wheel. In five hundred years he purely cultivated pure conduct, and what he gained is reckoned item by item in “a million”: a million dhāraṇīs, a million spiritual powers, a million treasuries of the Dharma, a million valorous vigors that seek all-knowledge; he purified a million gates of forbearance, increased a million minds of pondering, perfected a million powers of the bodhisattva, entered a million gates of bodhisattva knowledge, gained a million gates of prajñā-pāramitā, saw a million buddhas of the ten directions, and raised a million great vows of the bodhisattva; in thought after thought he shone upon a million buddha-lands in each of the ten directions, in thought after thought called to mind a million buddhas, in thought after thought knew the sea of the transformations of a million buddhas, in thought after thought saw the manifold destinies of all the beings of a million worlds.

Chengguan sets down a judgment upon this “million”: “That each is said to be a million means that at that time she had already gained the fourth ground.” The Yanyi chao glosses the reckoning: the first ground a hundred, the second a thousand, the third ten thousand, the fourth a million — the station is inferred backward from the number.

A misreading must be set aside: that these numbers describe abundance. The ancient worthies read them as numbers from which a station may be inferred. Brought down to the ground: the numbers in the scripture text are sometimes a measuring rod.

Taking Birth Again and Meeting Buddhas: He Keeps Changing His Standing

When his life came to its end, he was born again into that royal house and became a wheel-turning king. After the Tathāgata King of the Lamp of Empty Space and the Sound of the Dharma Wheel had passed into extinction, he met eight buddhas in order, and each time his standing was different: meeting the Tathāgata King of the Emptiness of Dharmas he served and made offerings; next as Śakra he met the Tathāgata Treasury of the Deva Kings; next as the Yāma deva king he met the Tathāgata Mountain of the Awesome Might of the Great Earth; next as the Tuṣita deva king he met the Tathāgata King of the Sound and Light of the Dharma Wheel; next as the Nirmāṇarati deva king he met the Tathāgata King of the Knowledge of Empty Space; next as the Paranirmitavaśavartin deva king he met the Tathāgata Banner That None Can Break; next as an asura king he met the Tathāgata King of the Thunder-Voice of All Dharmas; next as a Brahmā king he met the Tathāgata Universally Manifesting and Expounding the Sound of the Dharma of Transformation.

Chengguan outlines this, saying: “Eight buddhas are briefly listed, and the ten thousand are concluded in general” — the eight are a brief setting out, and the total is the ten thousand buddhas of that kalpa.

Brought down to the ground: his standing changed in every life, and the thing he did was one only — to draw near and make offerings.

The Ten Buddhas and the Sixty Koṭis of Buddhas within the Kalpa of Sunlight

The ten thousand buddhas of the kalpa Good Light having all been drawn near and served, there came next a kalpa named Sunlight, in which sixty koṭis of buddhas arose in the world. The scripture text lists ten of them one by one together with his standing at the time: at the Buddha Mountain of Wondrous Marks he was a king named Great Wisdom; at the Buddha Perfect Shoulders a householder; at the Buddha Stainless Youth a great minister; at the Buddha Valorous Upholding an asura king; at the Buddha Marks of Sumeru a tree spirit; at the Buddha Stainless Arm a caravan leader; at the Buddha Lion’s Roaming Step a city spirit; at the Buddha Jewelled Topknot the deva king Vaiśravaṇa; at the Buddha Supreme Renown of the Dharma a gandharva king; at the Buddha Crown of Light a kumbhāṇḍa king.

Among the ten standings there are a king, a householder, a great minister, and a caravan leader, and also a tree spirit, a city spirit, and kings of the non-human sort — there is no sorting out. Li Tongxuan, reading the number of the sixty koṭis of buddhas, takes it to symbolize that within the ten grounds the six stations are level, that cause and effect are one substance, and that there is neither before nor after.

Brought down to the ground: what is called ever following the Buddha in study is not the doing of one kind of person all the way through.

Concluding with Kalpas as Many as Dust Motes: From One Kalpa Inferred to All Kalpas

The last passage is the general conclusion. She says that within that kalpa she received manifold bodies, drew near and made offerings at the place of every buddha, taught, converted, and perfected measureless beings, and gained manifold gates of samādhi, gates of dhāraṇī, gates of spiritual power, gates of eloquence, gates of all-knowledge, gates of the illumination of the Dharma, and gates of wisdom, shining upon manifold seas of the ten directions, entering manifold seas of buddha-lands, and seeing manifold seas of buddhas. Then she pushes this one kalpa out to all: “And just as within this kalpa I drew near to and made offerings to buddhas so many, so too, in every place and in kalpas as many as the dust motes of a sea of worlds, to all the buddhas who arose in the world I drew near and made offerings, heard the Dharma expounded, and received it in faith and guarded it — this too was just so.” And at the last it comes home to the present gate: “At the place of every tathāgata I cultivated this liberation gate, and gained measureless further skillful means of liberation.”

Brought down to the ground: the last clause of the answer to ‘how long since you raised the mind’ is not a number, but the four graphs ‘this too was just so.’

The Repeated Verses, the Former Passage: Granting the Telling, the Kalpa and the Land, the King and the Prince

The prose done, the night goddess “wishing to proclaim once more the meaning of this liberation” spoke verses, counted verse by verse at thirty-four verses. Chengguan divides them into four passages: the first one verse sings of the concluding by the sustaining power and the granting of the telling; the next two verses sing of the arising of the ancient buddha; the next one verse and a half of the former king’s governing and converting; and the rest all sing of the night goddess’s cultivation of the cause.

The first verse says first why Sudhana is able to ask — “with a mind of joy and faith and delight you ask of this Dharma of liberation, hard to conceive” — and then why she herself is able to answer: “sustained by the Tathāgata’s power of protective mindfulness.” The second and third verses speak of the kalpa and the world, and say that ten thousand tathāgatas arose, that she drew near to and made offerings to them all, and “from them I studied out this liberation.”

The fourth verse brings out a name the prose does not have: the royal city is named Joyful Adornment, “broad and level in length and breadth, exceedingly fair,” and those who dwell within it are “beings of mingled deeds,” some pure in mind and some doing evil. In the prose the royal city is named Jewel Adornment; here it reads Joyful Adornment, and the two names stand together. The fifth verse speaks of the king and the prince: King Victorious Light “ever governed the multitude with the right Dharma,” and the prince Good Subduing was “upright in body and complete in every mark.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the repeated verses are only a repetition. The prose does not say how the king governed, and here one clause is added, “ever governed the multitude with the right Dharma”; the prose does not say who dwelt in the capital, and here one clause is added, “beings of mingled good and evil deeds dwelt within it.” Brought down to the ground: in reading repeated verses one must watch for what they say in addition.

The Repeated Verses, the Middle Passage: Nine and a Half Verses upon the Rescuing of the Offenders

From the sixth verse onward is the bone of the former life. The sixth verse says that the offenders were bound in prison and about to be executed, that the prince, seeing them, raised compassion, and that he made his plea above to the king asking clemency. The seventh verse is the word of the ministers, saying outright, “this prince now endangers the kingdom.” The eighth verse is the word of the king, only a clause and a half: “If you rescue those offenders, take it upon yourself!” — and the prince’s response is that “the prince’s pitying thought grew deeper still, and he vowed to rescue beings without shrinking back.” The ninth verse is the request of the consort and the court women; the tenth verse is the king’s consenting and the setting up of the great assembly of giving “to relieve the poor.” The eleventh verse writes the half month full and the time of the execution come, and “the great multitude, hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of men, at one time gazed up and wept aloud together” — the prose does not write the weeping of the multitude, and this verse supplies it.

The twelfth verse says that the Buddha came, and its reason is the same as the prose: “that buddha, knowing that the faculties of the multitude were about to ripen.” The thirteenth verse says that the Buddha with a single voice expounded by skillful means “that sūtra of the Universal Shining of the Lamp of the Dharma” — the prose reads Universally Illuminating Wheel of Causes, and here it reads the Universal Shining of the Lamp of the Dharma, and the two names stand together. And the benefit is that “measureless beings were made supple in their intent, and all received the conferring of the prediction of awakening.” The fourteenth verse says that the prince raised joy, raised the mind of unsurpassed awakening, and vowed to serve the Tathāgata. The fifteenth verse says that he went forth and abided in reliance upon the Buddha and cultivated the path of the knowledge of all modes, and “at that time he then gained this liberation.”

Chengguan judges these nine and a half verses to sing of the former matter while in the household, and the next one verse to sing of the going forth and the gaining of the Dharma.

Brought down to the ground: it is when the same matter is told a second time that the sound of weeping gets written in.

The Repeated Verses, the Latter Passage: The Sixteenth to the Thirty-Fourth Verse

What this section sets out runs from the sixteenth verse to the thirty-fourth, nineteen verses in all; Chengguan sets up a separate outline here, counting seventeen verses from “next, in buddha-lands” onward as singing the general conclusion as to time, place, and the gaining of the Dharma, and what he counts begins at the eighteenth verse — the two do not begin at the same place.

From the sixteenth verse it turns to what follows the gaining of the Dharma. “Abiding therein through seas of kalpas, he closely contemplated the true nature of all dharmas, ever rescuing beings within the sea of suffering” — abiding, close contemplation, and the rescuing of beings run together. The seventeenth and eighteenth verses say that all the buddhas of that kalpa were served, and that within kalpas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land offerings were made to each one.

The nineteenth verse is the reflecting back of the whole set of verses: “I call to mind that in the past, when I was a prince, I saw beings within the prison, and vowed to cast away my body and to rescue and guard them, and thereby realized this liberation gate.” It gathers the whole passage of the former life into four lines and says plainly that the cause of the realizing of the gate lies in that very vow. The twentieth and twenty-first verses say that through seas of kalpas she ever cultivated it, that in thought after thought it increased, and that she was awakened by the tathāgatas.

From the twenty-second verse below it turns to the working of the Dharma gate. The twenty-second verse says, “the sea of the Dharma of the buddhas is without bound, and I am able at one time to drink it all universally.” The twenty-third verse says that her body enters all the lands of the ten directions without obstruction and that in thought after thought she knows the names of the lands of the three times. The twenty-fourth verse says that she sees the buddhas of the three times clearly and can show forth her body and go universally to them. The twenty-fifth verse says that she universally rains down clouds of adornment as an offering. The twenty-sixth verse says, “and with a boundless sea of great questions I make entreaty to all the World-Honored Ones” — question as offering — and the Dharma she receives she “receives and upholds in full, without forgetting.” The twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth verses say that before the assemblies of the tathāgatas she sits upon a seat of wondrous adornment and shows forth transformations, “one body shows measureless bodies, and within measureless bodies one body appears.” The twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses say that from her pores she sends forth light to extinguish the fires of affliction, and sends forth clouds of transformed bodies to rain the Dharma rain universally.

The last four verses are exhortation and conclusion. The thirty-first verse says that the sons of the Buddha of the ten directions who enter this gate abide and cultivate to the end of the kalpas of the future; the thirty-second verse says that in accord with what their minds delight in she expounds the Dharma for them and rids them of the net of wrong views, and what is revealed runs from the road to the devas and the two vehicles “and on up to the all-knowledge of the Tathāgata” — the order is not overstepped. The thirty-third verse says that in the places where beings take birth she shows manifold bodies, “appearing in many images together with their kinds.” The thirty-fourth verse makes the conclusion: “If there be one who gains this liberation gate, he abides then within a boundless sea of merit and virtue,” whose measure is like the dust motes of a sea of lands.

The numbers of verses reckoned by the ancient worthies are not level: Chengguan makes thirty-four verses; Fazang and Zhiyan both make thirty-six verses; and the scripture text, counted verse by verse, is thirty-four verses. It is recorded without judgment.

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

The verses done, the night goddess says, “I know only this liberation gate of teaching and converting beings so as to cause good roots to be born,” and then sets out what the bodhisattvas know: they surpass the worlds, show forth bodies within the destinies, do not abide upon what is clung to, are without obstruction, penetrate the own-nature of all dharmas, gain the knowledge of no-self, realize the Dharma of no-self, teach, convert, and subdue all beings ever without rest, their minds ever abiding in the Dharma gate of non-duality, and universally enter the sea of all words and speech. At the last she asks herself of five matters: their sea of merit and virtue, their valorous knowledge, the place where their minds walk, the realm of their samādhi, and the power of their liberation — “how could I now be able to know or to tell of them?”

A misreading must be set aside: that this is politeness. Of the five matters she lists, each one is a concrete inability. Brought down to the ground: one who can say which five things he does not know is truly clear about which one thing he does know.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Perfect in Wondrous Virtue of the Park of Lumbinī

At the last she points out the next friend: in this Jambudvīpa there is a park named Lumbinī, and within that park there is a spirit named Perfect in Wondrous Virtue. The things to be asked are four: how a bodhisattva is to cultivate the bodhisattva practices, to be born within the house of the Tathāgata, to be a light for the world, and to be without weariness to the end of the kalpas of the future.

Chengguan has a gloss upon each of these two names. Of the park named Lumbinī he says, “here it means Excellent in Delight and Round in Light,” and records its origin — of old a deva woman came down to be born in this place, and hence the name; and with respect to the symbolism, it symbolizes that the light of the retention of the ninth ground shines upon everything. Of the friend’s name, Perfect in Wondrous Virtue, he says, “because good wisdom is without lack.” He supplies further the situation of this park: “Now, this park lies twenty li east of the city of Kapilavastu, and is the place where Māyā gave birth to the Buddha.” And at the last he explains why Sudhana here asks about “being born within the house of the Tathāgata”: “Moreover, from the ninth ground one is about to gain the anointing of station, and therefore he now asks about being born within the house of the Tathāgata.”

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

The judgment of assignment shows its traces here: the asking about “being born within the house of the Tathāgata” is because the next friend is assigned to the ninth ground, and upon the ninth ground one is about to gain the anointing of station. And this whole matching of stations is Chengguan taking it over from the ancient worthies; it is not set forth by the scripture text itself — Chengguan himself states its provenance quite plainly in the general judgment upon the five aspects of this assembly, saying that some of the ancient worthies only glossed the text as it ran and made no separate matching, and that some matched them all to the grounds, and that “both have their reason,” each having its reason, whether matched or not; yet Chengguan’s evenhanded word has a latter half as well — “yet within the absence of successive stations the successive stations are not hindered, and the displaying of stations is the common rule, and to match them is likewise no fault,” “the crosswise and the upright do not hinder one another” — and only at the last does he say, “and for the present we follow the ancient worthies in matching them as five aspects.”

Brought down to the ground: in reading the four graphs “assigned to the Immovable Ground,” one should remember that this is a pair of spectacles, and not one the scripture text put on itself.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave

The last passage is very short: Sudhana bowed to her feet, circled her measureless times, joined his palms and gazed up, and took his leave and departed. After several of the good friends before this there is often a passage setting out at length what was gained; here there is none.

Chengguan’s outline of this section stops at the pointing out of the next friend; for this passage he sets up no separate outline heading.

Brought down to the ground: what needed saying has all been said above, and at the going there remain only four actions.

Lineage

In the text of this section there are five lines of what is taken over from above and what is opened out below.

The first is the line of form and mind not being two. The Yanyi chao, in glossing the “inward answering to principle and to phenomena” of this section, cites the question and answer of the Qixin lun to make clear how the dharma-body can manifest form, and cites also its clause “fourth, the defilement of manifest form that is not associated, because it can be left behind by relying upon the Ground of Mastery over Form,” to prove that the eighth ground is the Ground of Mastery over Form, and sets forth its own way of judging the ground: there are seven grounds before and the ninth after, and therefore it is known that what is spoken of is the eighth ground. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, ties it likewise to the same authority, saying that in the Qixin lun the eighth ground is named the Ground of Mastery over Form. The authority the two houses cite is the same and the meaning made out is the same — that this section can manifest a hundred bodies is precisely because this ground is the Ground of Mastery over Form. The Yanyi chao points out further that the one meaning of the inward answering to principle and to phenomena in this section is wholly the same as the penetration of the knowledge of all form-bodies among the ten penetrations of this scripture, and so ties the meaning of this section back to another chapter of this scripture.

The second is the line of the long-since accomplished and the increase of compassion. The Yanyi chao, in glossing the phrase “the thousand buddhas she rescued” in Chengguan’s Shu, cites as authority the chapter on the Lifespan of the Tathāgata of the Fahua jing: “Since I in truth became a buddha, measureless, boundless, inconceivable asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas have passed.” The night goddess does not answer the third question, and Chengguan sets forth two meanings, one displaying the increase of compassion and one displaying the long-since accomplished; and that those rescued have become buddhas while the one who could rescue still dwells upon the ground of the cause is stated plainly within the scripture text of this section itself.

The third is the line of the divergent glosses of the several houses, each having its own track, recorded without judgment. As to the outline of this section, Chengguan divides it into seeking in accord with the teaching, seeing and paying respect and inquiring, conferring her own Dharma realm, humbling herself and pointing to the superior, and pointing out the next friend; Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, divides it into raising the Dharma and exhorting to cultivation, entering in accord with the teaching, seeing and paying respect and making request, and making clear the present realization of the Dharma realm; Zhiyan divides it into the teaching, entering in accord with the teaching, and the true entering; Li Tongxuan outlines at length six gates within the Dharma gate of the present friend’s true entering upon this station, and at the end of that passage sets up three further gates — the showing of the place where the good friend dwells, the glossing of the good friend’s name, and the paying of respect and taking of leave — to point to the next friend; as for the three gates of advancing by pushing on from virtue, that within this place of the Way there is a night goddess named thus, and the paying of respect and taking of leave, these are the outline at the end of the former friend’s passage pointing toward the present friend, and are not an outline of the present friend herself. As to the friend’s name, the eighty-fascicle witness has Great Vow, Vigor, and Power Who Rescues All Beings; the sixty-fascicle has Vow-Valor and Light Who Guards Beings; the witness Zhiyan relied upon has Vow-Valor and Light; the forty-fascicle has the Night Goddess Who Guards All Beings, of Great Vow, Vigor, Power, and Light. As to the glossing of the name, Fazang ties it to the ascendancy of the perfection of the vow, and notes upon the Sanskrit witness that it is the meaning of vigor and valor and not the look of a valor that stands out; Li Tongxuan ties it to the benefiting of creatures without rest by the wind of the original vow; Chengguan sets up no separate glossing of the name within the passage upon the present friend, saying only that the way without effortful working entrusts itself to the wind of the great vow; his glossing of the name stands apart in the cross-reading upon the company of night goddesses in the chapter on the Wondrous Adornments of the Lords of the Worlds. As to the number of the bodily forms, Chengguan upon the eighty-fascicle witness makes twenty-four bodies; Fazang upon the sixty-fascicle makes twenty kinds of mastery of body-clouds. As to the number of the dharmas held in common, the sixty lists eighty-four of them item by item, while Zhiyan, upon that one passage of dharmas held in common, makes a hundred clauses. As to the number of the form-bodies, Chengguan makes ninety-eight kinds and with the setting forth and the conclusion a hundred; Fazang makes a hundred kinds and says that upon examining the text two clauses are wanting. As to the number of the similes, Chengguan, Fazang, and Zhiyan all make five similes and each sets up his own names for them; Li Tongxuan makes six similes and sets out the wind-wheel of the great vow as one apart. As to the number of the repeated verses, Chengguan makes thirty-four verses; Fazang and Zhiyan both make thirty-six verses. As to the marks of the prince, the scripture text makes twenty-eight, and Li Tongxuan sets up upon this the symbol of four marks being wanting. All these divergent glosses are the settled sayings of the ancient worthies.

The fourth is the line of the glosses the ancient worthies devote to this friend in other chapters. Chengguan, glossing the company of night goddesses in the chapter on the Wondrous Adornments of the Lords of the Worlds, matches them station by station to the night-goddess friends of this assembly, and his seventh is the present friend; there he sets the friend’s name beside the name of the Dharma gate, saying that teaching and converting and opening and awakening differ in wording and are the same in meaning, that causing to be born and bringing to ripeness differ only as beginning and end, and saying further that equal guarding and nurturing is precisely the rescuing and guarding of all, and that it is by vigor and the great vow that one can do it — Chengguan does not set up the glossing of the friend’s name in the present passage, but there. The Yanyi chao looks back upon this section in two further places: in one it takes up the name of the scripture expounded by the ancient buddha of this section, notes that the Jin scripture names it only the Perfect Sūtra, and points out that this is the night goddess Great Vow, Vigor, and Power telling how of old she was the prince Good Subduing, rescued the prisoners, gave for half a month, and how, as the time of execution drew near, the Tathāgata entered the assembly and expounded the scripture; in the other, glossing the commentary upon another chapter, it takes this section directly for its instance, saying that when Sudhana first saw this night goddess he raised toward the good friend the ten minds beginning with regarding her as himself, and at once gained practices as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land. Li Tongxuan, for his part, sets up under the eighth ground, the Immovable, in the chapter on the Ten Grounds a separate gate upon Sudhana’s symbolic reading, and there glosses item by item the present friend’s place of the Way, her title, her palace, and her net of maṇi jewels, saying that the seventh ground practises knowledge in accord with compassion and is hard to accomplish, while this station practises compassion in accord with knowledge and is easily accomplished. Zhiyan, in the Kongmu zhang, lists the meanings of Sudhana’s friends, and his eighth is the present friend, fastened to mastery in the great vow, swift accomplishment, the gathering in of beings, and accomplishment in one substance; while his passage listing the devas of the night sets out only the name and no gloss — the gloss upon the actual meaning and the bare hit upon a listed name are two different things, and are not to be run together.

The fifth is the line of the sameness and divergence of the three witnesses. This friend’s window in the eighty, in the sixty, and in the forty is complete from beginning to end in each, and yet the numbers and the passages diverge again and again. Of the bodily forms first seen, the eighty lists twenty-four clauses, the sixty does not list them clause by clause but tells them in prose, and the forty lists twenty-five. Of the same practice, the eighty and the sixty both have eighty-four items, while the forty has eighty-eight. Of the form-bodies manifested, the eighty has ninety-seven clauses, the sixty ninety-eight, and the forty one hundred and three — Fazang relied upon the sixty, and his saying that upon examining the text two clauses are wanting answers exactly to the number ninety-eight. Of Sudhana’s first praise, the eighty and the sixty both have ten verses, while the forty has eleven. In the passage of the former life the forty adds twenty verses of the prince in praise of the Buddha, and the prince’s name there is not Good Subduing but Nature Able to Conquer. In the passage upon going forth, the eighty has five hundred years and reckons what was gained item by item in millions, the sixty likewise has five hundred years and reckons item by item in ten thousands, while the forty has a thousand years and reckons item by item in hundreds of koṭis. In the kalpas at the end, the eighty speaks of sixty koṭis of buddhas in the kalpa Sunlight and lists ten of them separately, while the forty speaks of a hundred thousand buddhas in the kalpa Sunlight and sets up a further kalpa named Wondrous Lotus, within which there are sixty koṭis of tathāgatas — the same number, sixty koṭis, is fastened to different kalpas in the two witnesses. Recorded without judgment.

Within one section, the former half says that ‘it cannot be measured by kalpas,’ and the latter half says nothing but kalpas and names. The two halves do not contradict one another — to say first that it cannot be measured is for fear that one take the number for the answer; to say it afterward in such detail is so that one may know that that raising of the mind truly had its time, its place, and its person. Asked ‘how long since you raised the mind,’ what she gave at the last was not a number, but a prison, a company of the condemned, and a man willing to die in their stead.