華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊1Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 1

Why Beings Go Astray

That the preface to a sūtra should begin by speaking of why people go astray is deliberate. It says: “for this reason people lost their way as to the four forbearances, and turn round and round within the six destinies; household after household is bound up by the five hindrances, and sinks and drowns beneath the three evil paths.” Delusion is not an accident that suddenly befalls one; it has names, and it has an order. The first line is matched with turning round and round, and speaks of the breadth of that flowing on; the second is matched with sinking and drowning, and speaks of the depth of that falling. One misreading must be cleared away here: do not read “the four forbearances” and “the five hindrances” as two parallel lists of faults. The syntax of the preface makes each line a single leaf of the door, with a cause and its effect: having lost one’s way as to what should be borne with patience, one goes round within the six destinies; household after household being bound by five obstructions, they sink toward the bottom of the three evil paths. As for the items of the four forbearances, what the various masters of old took them to be does not agree, and the preface itself adds no explanation; here the place is left blank as the record stands, and no account is put in its stead. Brought down to the reader, these two lines are the only place in the whole preface that speaks of ‘us’ — everything lofty that follows is spoken with this situation in view.

Why the Buddha Is Called Honored

The preface then sets the Buddha before us: “the Dharma King whose wisdom is a sun looks out from on high, having passed beyond the four great elements; the Tamer of Beings in mid-heaven dwells in honor, having gone past the ten grounds.” The question to ask is: wherein does the honor lie? The answer is in the two verbs — “passing beyond” and “going past.” What is passed beyond is the body made of the four great elements; what is gone past is the position of the ten grounds. The first says that the Buddha does not share the limits of a physical body; the second says that not even the highest of the bodhisattva stages is where he is. What is most easily misread here is to take “going past the ten grounds” as ‘having cultivated his way through the ten grounds’ — the sense of the line is not a career but a position: the ten grounds are a place that can be reached, while the Buddha is what no position takes in. The line that follows immediately, “he takes in the Iron Ring, he lengthens and shortens kalpas as many as the sands,” supplies space and time: horizontally, the outer wall of a whole world is within what he takes in; vertically, a long kalpa can be shortened and a short one lengthened. His being honored is a matter of not being bounded by measure, not of measuring larger.

Substance and Characteristic

The preface fixes the Buddha’s substance and characteristic with a matched pair of lines: “spoken of as to his substance, he neither arises nor ceases; spoken of as to his characteristic, he neither goes nor comes.” Why say it in two leaves? Because the one who asks has two doubts in mind: one asks ‘does he exist at all,’ the other asks ‘where is he now.’ The first question is answered from the side of substance — because there is no arising there is no ceasing, since there is simply no thing that has come to be that could be destroyed. The second is answered from the side of characteristic — because there is no going there is no coming, since there is simply no thing that has departed that would need to return. The misreading to be cleared away here is this: “neither arising nor ceasing” does not say that there is some permanent unchanging thing hidden away in there, and “neither going nor coming” does not say that the Buddha never manifested any coming or going. The preface is speaking with respect to substance and with respect to characteristic separately, and only the two lines together make one Buddha. When, further on in the sūtra, the reader meets phrases of the kind “without moving, yet everywhere,” their ground lies in this pair of lines.

The Buddha’s Practice and His Mind

“The applications of mindfulness and the right exertions, the thirty-seven factors, are his practice; kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, the four measureless dharmas, set his mind in motion.” Question: since the Buddha has already gone past the ten grounds, why is he still said to have a practice and a mind? Answer: what is spoken of here is not the Buddha cultivating, but that the dharmas he practices and the mind he sets in motion just are these. The preface names two classes, the applications of mindfulness and the right exertions, as the first, so as to gather in the whole number of the thirty-seven factors of the path; this is the parallel-prose method of naming a part for the whole, and must not be read as ‘the Buddha cultivates only these two classes.’ The four measureless states are the four minds without limit: kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Note the division of labor between “practice” and “mind”: practice is the road walked, mind is the measure set in motion. The one speaks of the path, the other of what is held in the heart. The place of these two lines in the preface matters a great deal — they bring that lofty one who ‘passed beyond the four elements and went past the ten grounds’ back down onto names that can be cultivated and learned, so that the reader knows that road is not one without tracks to follow.

Skillful Means and the Meeting of Capacities

“The power of his skillful means is hard to fathom, and the capacities he answers perfectly are many-threaded.” The section above spoke of the Buddha’s own practice and his own mind; this line turns to the side of him that faces living beings. “Skillful means” is what does the meeting, “answering perfectly” is what is met; “hard to fathom” says that the power of it cannot be taken the measure of, and “many-threaded” says that the doors it opens are not of one kind. Question: since the Buddha’s practice is the thirty-seven factors and his mind the four measureless states, why should skillful means be spoken of separately at all? Answer: practice and mind are stated from the side of the Buddha himself, while skillful means is stated from the side of living beings — one and the same compassion, coming down upon capacities that differ by a thousand degrees, becomes a thousand different provisions. The two graphs rendered “many-threaded” carry the most weight here: a thread is a thread of the matter, one capacity one thread, and because capacities are without number the threads are without number; it is not that the Buddha keeps a second set of devices, but that difference arises of itself in the meeting. Two misreadings must be cleared away. The first is to read “skillful means” as an expedient falsehood — the preface speaks of a power, a working that brings beings to completion, not of a second best. The second is to read “many-threaded” as disorder — the “perfectly” in “answering perfectly” says precisely that the threads, many as they are, do not obstruct one another. The place of this line in the preface is deliberate as well: before it stands what the Buddha practices and what he holds in his heart, and after it stands the measure of him that no counting and no naming can reach. This line set between them is there so that the reader knows that the one beyond counting and naming is not hung up out of reach — he is facing your capacity at this moment, and for it he has his one thread.

Too Large to Be Counted, Too Small to Be Said

“He merges with the great emptiness and takes it as his measure — how could numbering exhaust it? He enters the minute region of a mustard seed — it is not what names and words can set out.” Here the preface pushes both ends to their limit: at the large end he takes the emptiness of the great void as his own measure, and so numbering fails; at the small end he enters a region as fine as a mustard seed, and so names and words fail. Question: since it is already beyond counting at the large end, why speak of the small end as well? Answer: being beyond counting proves only that he is vast, not that he is wondrous; to be able to enter the utterly small without any lessening of the vast — that is the Huayan way of putting it. The misreading to be cleared away here is to read “entering a mustard seed” as shrinking — the preface does not say that he became small, only that he can enter. And this is why the next line follows with “the one of whom nothing can be said — it must be, one supposes, none but the Greatly Awakened One”: it is not that no fitting adjective can be found, but that the very act of predication has lost its purchase at this point. The later line of the preface, “within a single hair, buddha-lands are set down and it is not cramped,” is precisely the continuation of this line in the sūtra’s own terms.

A Passage of the Preface’s Own Account of a Prophecy Received

“The Golden Immortal sent down his decree, and the verses of the Dayun jing made it manifest first; the jade screen received the auspicious sign, and the words of the Baoyu jing came after.” These are the author’s own words about herself: first there was the decree sent down by the Buddha, and the verses made it manifest first; afterward there was the receiving of the auspicious sign, and the scriptural text came after. In reading this section one boundary must be kept: this piece records these words solely on the preface’s own account of itself, drawing no inference from outside the preface and citing no discussion from outside it. Question: why should the author insert an account of herself into the preface of a sūtra? Answer: the thread of the preface is continuous — before this it spoke of how the Buddha is beyond predication, here it speaks of the prophecy she received and the blessings she gathered, and after this it speaks of how thereby the tribute came from the four quarters and the Sanskrit original came east. The self-account is a passage setting out the conditions under which the sūtra came to be translated; it is not a digression. As for how this section came to be discussed in later ages, that is not what this piece treats; the words are recorded without adjudication.

The Substance of This Sūtra

Coming to a direct presentation of the sūtra, the preface uses only two words: “this is the secret treasury of all the buddhas, the ocean of the Tathāgata’s nature.” Secret treasury speaks of its being hidden — not that it is put away where no one may look at it, but that it naturally does not fall within the field of shallow sight; ocean of nature speaks of its depth and breadth — not that there is much water, but that the Tathāgata’s own nature and virtue takes the ocean as its measure. The preface then takes its evidence from two kinds of person: “those who look upon it cannot make out where it is headed; those who dip from it can seldom fathom how far its shores extend.” One who looks cannot find where it is going; one who draws from it can seldom measure where its edge is. The misreading to be cleared away is to read “cannot make out” and “can seldom fathom” as terms of disparagement — the preface is not saying that readers are incapable, but that the measure of this sūtra is not settled by the measure of the reader’s understanding. These two words later became common designations among the masters of the Huayan house, and their source in this preface to the sūtra is just here.

Why the Two Vehicles Do Not Dare to Hear and Receive It

“Learners and those beyond learning cut off in their aspiration all peering and coveting; the two vehicles and the three vehicles do not dare to hope to hear and receive it.” Question: the noble ones of the śrāvaka path have already cut off the afflictions; why then do they not dare even to wish to hear and receive it? Answer: the preface’s words are exact — “cut off in their aspiration” and “do not dare to hope” speak of not daring to give rise to the thought in one’s aspiration, not of being excluded by lack of qualification. A learner is one whose training is not yet finished, one beyond learning is one whose training is finished; this is said with respect to the śrāvaka line, while the two vehicles and three vehicles are spoken of in the common terms of the teaching-gates. The misreading to be cleared away here is to read these two lines as a disparagement of the lesser vehicle. The preface’s purpose is to set forth the height of this sūtra, not to pass judgment on the shortcomings of others — so high that even one who has attained the state beyond learning does not dare to peer at it: this is language in praise of a sūtra, not language appraising persons. From this the reader should know what weight of book he is facing.

Supreme Knowledge of All Modes on the Side of the Fruit, Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī on the Side of the Cause

“The supreme knowledge of all modes — the traces of its adornment are already abundant; Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī — the causes that are their vows and practices are here fulfilled.” One line speaks of the fruit, one of the cause. On the side of the fruit it names supreme knowledge of all modes, saying that the traces of its adorning practice are already abundant in this sūtra; on the side of the cause it names Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī, saying that the causes that are vow and practice are fulfilled in this sūtra. Question: why does the causal side name no other bodhisattvas? Answer: the preface takes these two precisely because in this sūtra the one presides over vow and practice and the other over knowledge and understanding, so that together the causal position is complete. Note the two expressions “already abundant” and “here fulfilled” — the point is not that this sūtra mentions cause and fruit, but that in it both cause and fruit reach their utmost. This also explains why the preface dares to say that the two vehicles and the three do not dare to hear and receive it: it is not that the threshold has been set high, but that the content itself stands at both extremes of cause and fruit.

Within a Single Sentence

“Within a single sentence, the boundlessness of the Dharma realm is contained; within a single hair, buddha-lands are set down and it is not cramped.” This is the deepest sentence in the whole preface. Question: how can one sentence contain the boundless Dharma realm? Answer: if “contain” is read as holding things inside, of course it will not hold them; what the preface speaks of is gathering in — nothing of the meaning is left out, and so it is called containing. Chengguan, describing the effect of this sūtra’s transmission, says that “the wonder of a single line gathers in the meaning without remainder,” which speaks of exactly the same thing: the wonder does not lie in a great many words, but in the fact that within a single line nothing of the meaning is left out. The second half goes one step further: within a single hair buddha-lands are set down without its being felt to be narrow, and the words “not cramped” are the eye of the line — it is not that they can be squeezed in, but that there is simply no such thing as crowding here. The misreading to be cleared away is to take this as talk of miraculous transformation. The preface is speaking of how the Dharma realm is to begin with, not of some device that someone has applied.

The Places of the Assemblies

“In the country of Magadha the conditions for the wondrous assembly first arose; in the Dharma hall of Universal Light the principle of quiescence was there spread out.” The preface uses two place-names to set out where this sūtra was spoken: the one where the conditions for this Dharma assembly first arose, the other the hall where the principle of quiescence was expounded. Question: why should the preface to a sūtra record place-names at all? Answer: in the Avataṃsaka the places of the assemblies are themselves a part of the doctrine — where he first attained the Way and where he next spoke the Dharma bears on the whole structure of seven places and nine assemblies. The misreading to be cleared away here is to read “the principle of quiescence” as extinction. The preface pairs the verb “spread out” with “quiescence,” which says precisely that the principle of quiescence is something that can be spread out and expounded, not a place where there is nothing to say. When the reader comes to the main text and sees the assemblies shifting from place to place while the Buddha does not rise from his seat, he will know that these two lines are a miniature of the structure of the whole sūtra.

Half a Pearl

“Looking back over the deep meaning, it was translated in the Jin dynasty; the time has passed through six dynasties, and the years come to nearly four hundred. Yet of this book that is a whole and complete one, no more than thirty thousand and some words were obtained — only half a pearl was opened, and the whole treasure was never seen.” Question: since the Jin translation had already been current for nearly four hundred years, why is it still said that the whole treasure was never seen? Answer: the preface’s judgment falls on extent, not on correctness — “only half a pearl was opened” says that half has been opened, “the whole treasure was never seen” says that the whole has not been seen. The misreading to be cleared away is to read these lines as a disparagement of the old translation. The preface sets “this book that is a whole and complete one” over against the words “no more was obtained”: the book itself is whole, while what was obtained was not whole; this is a limit of the work of translating, not a fault of the translator. Just because of this, the preface must go on below to set out where the Sanskrit original came from and how the work of translating was carried out — the point is not to replace the old translation but to make up what it lacked.

The Sanskrit Original Came from Khotan

“I heard that its Sanskrit original was formerly in the country of Khotan, and sent envoys to welcome it with due honor, and only recently has it arrived here. Having seen the hundred thousand wondrous verses, I then opened out the ten myriad of the text proper.” The preface finishes the matter of the Sanskrit original coming east in four actions: hearing, sending, welcoming, arriving. Question: since the old translation already ran to sixty fascicles, why seek an original a thousand leagues away? Answer: it follows from “the whole treasure was never seen” above — what was lacking lay in the Sanskrit original, and so an original had to be sought rather than the translation revised. “The hundred thousand wondrous verses” and “the ten myriad of the text proper” are figures the preface records for itself, and the reader would do well to take them at face value as a way of saying how very many they were, rather than converting them outright. The function of this section within the whole preface is to turn the argument: above it spoke of what the old translation lacked, below it will speak of the work of the new translation, and between them there must be this passage of provenance before the work of translating has any ground to stand on.

The Day the Translation Began

“It was in the first year of Zhengsheng, the year being yiwei, in the month whose pitch-pipe is guxian, of which month the first day was wushen, that on its fourteenth day, xinyou, in the Monastery of the Great Universal Emptiness, I myself took part in the setting down and the cutting away, and reverently translated this sūtra.” The preface records the day the translation began complete with year, month, first day of the month, and day, which is a rare degree of gravity in a preface to a sūtra. Question: why record it in such detail? Answer: translating a sūtra was public business, and to write down the year, the month, the first day, and the day is to make it something that can be checked and verified. The four graphs rendered “myself took part in the setting down and the cutting away” must be seen clearly: setting down is putting brush to paper, cutting away is deleting what is to be removed, and the author states of herself that she took part in the work in person. As for the site of the translation office, the preface records for itself the Monastery of the Great Universal Emptiness, while what the various masters record differs from this in places — that layer belongs to divergence among the documents, and this piece does not adjudicate it here; see the Lineage section. Here it is enough to remember this: what the preface relates is a work of translation with a time, a place, and persons.

Sweet Dew and Enriching Rain

“Thereupon sweet dew came flowing in moisture, answering beforehand in a dream on the night of gengshen; an enriching rain fell and soaked the ground, extending afterward to the day renxu.” The preface records two responses: one appearing first in a dream, the other extending afterward. Question: how should such a record be read? Answer: the preface itself supplies the way of reading it — what follows immediately is “this opened the gate of true reality, and accorded in return with the moisture of a single taste”: the sweet dew and the enriching rain are not a heaping-up of auspices, but are used to match “the gate of true reality” and “the moisture of a single taste.” The former speaks of a gate opening, the latter of a moistening that is universal. Chengguan, in describing the responses attending this sūtra’s transmission, likewise has the words “when the highest teaching was translated under the Tang, sweet dew presented an auspice,” which is the same event as the one the preface relates of itself, the attribution being separate while what is pointed to is one. The Yanyi chao, glossing that line, goes on to cite these two lines of the preface, and explains the interval between the nights of gengshen and renxu and the first translating on xinyou by saying that “because the first translating was on the fourteenth day, xinyou, there was a subtle response one day on either side of it” — this is Chengguan’s explanation, not the preface speaking for itself. The misreading to be cleared away is to read these two lines as ornament in the preface — within the structure of the preface they are testimony that the work of translating met with its response.

The Fair Copying Completed

“In the second year of Shengli, the year being jihai, the tenth month whose first day was renwu, on the eighth day, jichou, the fair copying was completed; this added waves to the ocean of the nature and opened wider the borders of the Dharma realm.” The day of beginning is recorded, and the day of finishing is recorded too, the two answering each other, so that the whole course of a work of translation is complete from head to tail. Question: since the translating was finished, why speak only of “the fair copying completed”? Answer: the fair copying is the last stage of the whole undertaking, and when it is done the book exists; hence it stands for completion. The two lines that follow are the preface’s own appraisal of this work of translating, and they still use the old figures from above — the ocean of the nature was the substance of the sūtra set up earlier, and now waves are added to it; the Dharma realm was what was said earlier to be contained, and now its borders are opened wider. Note that it does not say ‘made up what was missing’ but ‘added waves’: the preface’s sense of proportion is that it increased what was there, not that it altered what was not.

The Character of the Teaching as the Preface Judges It

“The sudden teaching of the Great Vehicle covers everywhere to the point of endlessness; the true instrument of the vaipulya reaches far and gathers in all that has consciousness.” These two lines are the judgment on the character of the teaching that the author of the preface passes on this sūtra herself. Question: what does “sudden teaching” mean? Answer: taken as the preface itself uses the word, sudden is said over against gradual — it covers everywhere without borrowing a sequence of stages, and so it is said to “cover everywhere to the point of endlessness.” “Vaipulya” is the class to which this sūtra belongs, and the “instrument” in “true instrument” was originally a trap for catching fish, borrowed to mean the implement by which the meaning is got; put together, it means the teaching that is true and can be relied upon, and so it is said to “reach far and gather in all that has consciousness.” The attribution must be kept firm here: this judgment issues from the mouth of the preface, and is not the classificatory language of the later masters of the house; the two must not be confounded. When the reader meets the doctrines of classification set up by the various later masters, he should know that they and the judgment of this preface each have their own source.

The Last Five Hundred Years

“Who would have thought that in the last five hundred years one would suddenly receive the words of the golden mouth; that within the realm of Sahā the secret of the jeweled casket would of a sudden be opened.” Question: why do the words “who would have thought” matter? Answer: they are the turn in the tone of the whole preface — up to this point it has been praising the height of the sūtra and relating events in detail, and here it turns of a sudden into an expression of astonished delight: who would have thought that in a season far removed from the Buddha one could still receive words spoken by the golden mouth. The two words “suddenly” and “of a sudden” answer each other, and both speak of an encounter that was not looked for. The misreading to be cleared away is to read “the last five hundred years” as a precise reckoning of a number of years — the preface uses it for its sense of ‘far removed from the holy ones,’ so as to show how hard such a meeting is to come by. This section answers at a distance to the earlier line “in kalpas long past I planted the causes”: the one speaks of the cause laid down long ago, the other of the meeting today, and the two ends of the preface’s account of itself close together here.

Speaking Where There Is Nothing to Say

“Although there is neither speech nor showing, and the principle accords with the gate of non-duality, yet it is by relying on words to make words manifest that the meaning of the great thousandfold world is set forth.” With this the preface closes, answering a question head-on: knowing that the principle lies outside words, why write a preface? The answer is in the four graphs rendered “relying on words to make words manifest.” Question: if words cannot exhaust the principle, what is the use of speaking? Answer: the preface does not say that words can exhaust the principle, only that without borrowing words there is no way for it to be made manifest — the first “words” are the words that make manifest, the second are the teaching that is made manifest. The upper line establishes the principle of non-duality, the lower establishes the use of relying on words; principle and use stand together without obstructing each other. The misreading to be cleared away is to read “neither speech nor showing” as keeping one’s mouth shut. Were that so, this preface need not have been written, nor this sūtra translated. And so the closing line says, “I have presumed to put forward this poor composition, and so have inscribed it as a preface” — deprecating her own words, and in the end saying them all the same.

Lineage

The lineage of this preface lies not in the treatises on doctrine but along the single line of the history of the translations. Chengguan, in his commentary on the sūtra, sets up the doctrine of four versions: “this sūtra was translated, in all, twice only; adding the supplying of what was missing, there are four versions, not the same.” The first is the sixty fascicles translated by Buddhabhadra in the Yixi period of the Jin; the second is Divākara’s supplying, in the Yonglong period, of the text missing from the Entry into the Dharma Realm chapter; the third is the new translation that this preface heads; and the fourth is Xianshou’s, who collated the new and the old scriptures against the Sanskrit original and set Divākara’s supplement into the place where the text had dropped out. Chengguan judges that “what is transmitted today is the fourth version.” This judgment matters greatly to one reading this preface: the preface was composed when the third version had just been completed, so that “reverently translated this sūtra” in the preface refers to the third version, while the eighty fascicles held in the hand today are already the fourth — between the preface and the present text there stands one collation and supplying.

The imperial rescript is a piece by the same hand as this preface, and its attribution has three layers, which must be kept distinct one by one. Chengguan’s Yanyi chao, glossing the phrase of the commentary “she herself took up the imperial brush,” first cites the biography as saying that “after the new sūtra had first been translated, the senior masters of the Monastery of the Buddha’s Prophecy invited the reverend Fazang to lecture on it,” next records how the lecturing was opened by imperial order on the fifteenth day of the tenth month, and how on the evening of the twelfth day of the twelfth month, when the lecture reached the passage on the shaking of the ocean of worlds of the Flower Treasury, the lecture hall shook, and last sets down the rescript in the imperial brush: “yesterday, on account of the setting forth of subtle words and the spreading abroad of the secret and profound, on the day of the first translating a dream of sweet dew presented an auspice; at the hour of the opening of the lectures, the earth was felt to move and marked it as extraordinary.” Thus Chengguan cites the biography, and the biography sets down the imperial rescript, and the rescript issues from the same hand as this preface — three layers, each with its own author, which must not be run together into the words of one person when they are cited. The rescript’s “on the day of the first translating a dream of sweet dew presented an auspice” and the preface’s “thereupon sweet dew came flowing in moisture, answering beforehand in a dream on the night of gengshen” are two pieces of writing by one person recording one event, each bearing witness to the other.

The work of translating differs from record to record among the various masters. As to the site of the translation office, the preface records for itself the Monastery of the Great Universal Emptiness, the commentary has the Monastery of the Buddha’s Prophecy, and the catalogues and biographies name both the Monastery of the Great Universal Emptiness within the palace and the Monastery of the Buddha’s Prophecy. As to the sense of the chief translator’s name, three renderings stand: Joy in Learning, Joy and Awakening, and Learning and Joy. The names of those who translated together with him, the name of the envoy who escorted him home, and the day on which his tongue was sent back also differ in small ways from one record to another. These are all settled accounts of the masters of old, recorded one by one without adjudicating which is right; see the apparatus in detail. As to whether this preface is cited in the various works on doctrinal classification of the Huayan house, this piece has not collated the matter; it is listed apart from the items marked as absent, and neither stands in for the other.

Seeing Clearly What This Passage Is Doing

The whole eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka opens with the words “Thus have I heard,” and from there down to the close of fascicle one the text does only three things: it states who heard this sūtra, and when and where; it lays out the adornments of the place of awakening; and it lists, one by one, the forty assemblies that had come. There is not one question and answer, not one verse, and not one figure who opens his mouth to speak. The whole passage is the third-person narration of those who compiled it.

First-time readers often get stuck right here: why should one read a name-list this long?

One thing has to be distinguished at the outset. The outline-names attached to this passage — “the part on the causes and conditions of the teaching’s arising,” “the attesting preface,” “the six fulfillments” — not one of them comes from the sūtra itself. The division into five parts comes from Fazang: searching the text that follows, he divided the whole at large into five, of which the first is “the initial chapter is the part on the causes and conditions of the teaching’s arising,” and he said of these five parts himself that they “depend on what precedes to raise what follows; the text is sequential and mutually generating and the doctrinal sense is complete, and for this reason they are neither added to nor reduced.” Chengguan took them over, saying only that he “combines the latter two and names them entering realization through a person.” The items of the six fulfillments were likewise established by the commentators on the basis of the treatises: Chengguan says that, following the Zhi lun, the Treatise on Wisdom, he opens the five matters of the Fodi lun, the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground, out into six fulfillments — “first faith, second hearing, third the time, fourth the master, fifth the place, sixth the assembly.” So the naming of this passage as ‘the prologue · the attesting preface · the gathering of the assembly’ is the commentators’ outline-name, not the sūtra’s name for itself.

Once that boundary is set, the question can be pressed further: what is this list actually saying? Chengguan gives one sentence that matters most — “Of the three, the first two are the Tathāgata’s dependent and proper recompense; the assembly is the supporting wing that keeps the pure land from being empty.” Among the three worlds, the first two are the Tathāgata’s dependent recompense and his proper recompense, while the assembly is the supporting wing that keeps this pure land from falling empty. The list is no mere accompaniment; it is an indispensable part of the realm that this sūtra manifests. Once this move is understood, the forty assemblies are not forty names but forty angles from which the ‘rulers of the worlds’ each send forth their bodies to adorn one and the same awakening.

Correcting a misreading: do not read this passage as the routine opening found in other scriptures, of the type ‘together with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks.’ Chengguan deliberately points out where this sūtra differs — the adornment of the vessel-world is “what differs from the place in other sūtras,” and the reason it is set out at length is “to show forth the wondrousness of the awakening just spoken of.” The adornment is not stage-dressing; it is the realm of that one awakening spread open for people to look at.

The Six Fulfillments: One Sentence, “Thus Have I Heard,” Carries Six Things

First the question: why must a sūtra open with “Thus have I heard”? Chengguan lists six reasons. First, to be set apart from the non-Buddhist paths, whose scriptures place some other auspicious phrase at the head. Second, to put a stop to disputation; he cites the Zhidu lun, the Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom, which says that if one does not trace the words back to what was heard from the Buddha but says instead that one composed them oneself, disputation arises, and so ‘I made this’ is set aside and ‘heard from him’ is said. Third, to be free of the fault of addition and reduction; he cites the Fodi lun, the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground, which says that this sentence is meant to avoid the faults of adding and of cutting away — this Dharma I heard in person from the Buddha, and both its wording and its sense are settled; it is not something transmitted at second hand and so subject to increase or loss. Fourth, to cut off the doubts of the assembly; he cites a vinaya text quoted by Paramārtha: at the compilation Ānanda ascended the seat and his body changed to look like the Buddha’s, and the great assembly gave rise to three doubts — first, that the great master had risen again after nirvāṇa; second, that a buddha from another quarter had come; third, that Ānanda had turned into a buddha; and the moment the sentence “Thus have I heard” was spoken, the three doubts were cut off at once, for if he says ‘I heard,’ then he is not the Buddha. Fifth, to give rise to faith. Sixth, to accord with the buddhas of the three times.

The six fulfillments open this sentence, together with what follows it, into six items: faith, hearing, the time, the master, the place, and the assembly. Within this passage, “Thus” is faith and “have I heard” is hearing; “at one time” is the time; “the Buddha was at the site of awakening named the Dharma of Araṇya in the land of Magadha” is the place; the merits of the teacher, from “having just accomplished right awakening” onward, are the master; and the listing of the forty assemblies is the assembly.

Correcting a misreading: do not treat the six fulfillments as a dead grid to be filled in item by item. Chengguan himself forbids reading them so. He says that the two matters of faith and hearing are “restricted in wording to the opening, but in sense they run through all nine gatherings” — the words stand only at the head, yet the doctrinal sense runs through the nine gatherings; the two of time and master are “unrestricted in both wording and sense”; the two of place and assembly are “restricted in both wording and sense.” Then he adds a concluding line: “Following the characteristics it is so; taking the reality, they interfuse.” Spoken of in terms of characteristics they divide this way; spoken of in terms of the reality they interfuse with one another.

Landing it: do not hurry past the prologue. The six things this one sentence carries are exactly the frame of the whole sūtra — who heard it, when, who spoke, where, and to whom it was spoken. Of the five, three have their answer in the list that follows.

The Site of Awakening: Ground, Tree, Palace, Lion Throne

First the question: why should the place of awakening take up a whole passage telling how firm the ground is, how tall the tree, how vast the palace, how wondrous the throne?

Chengguan’s outline runs thus: this passage is called ‘the adornment of the vessel-world,’ the adornment of the vessel-world among the three worlds, and it “widens the adornment of the site spoken of before, shows forth the wondrousness of the awakening spoken of before, and differs from the place in other sūtras.” He divides it into four matters — the adornment of the ground, of the tree, of the palace, and of the lion throne — and says, “Within them the four matters each have ten kinds of adornment, making clear that purity is shown in the very midst of defilement.”

Each of the four matters has its own eye. The eye of the ground’s adornment lies in “that ground was firm, made of vajra” — what is made of vajra cannot be destroyed, and this is the nature of the ground of awakening, not an embellishment of its material. The eye of the tree’s adornment lies in the tree’s being able to speak Dharma: “that bodhi tree constantly issued lovely sounds, proclaiming all manner of dharmas, without ever coming to an end” — the tree is not merely a thing that gives shade; it is an instrument of preaching. The eye of the palace’s adornment lies in “and because of the spiritual power added by the buddhas, in a single thought-moment it wholly contained the Dharma realm” — one palace containing the whole Dharma realm in a single thought-moment: this is the earliest sentence in this sūtra in which the one and the many are each the other. The eye of the lion throne’s adornment lies in the throne’s being able to set forth Dharma: “and further, sustained by the awesome majesty of the buddhas, it set forth the vast realm of the Tathāgata.”

The four words “purity shown in the very midst of defilement” are Chengguan’s key to reading this passage. Ground, tree, palace, and throne are all things native to the defiled world, and what appears here is purity shown directly upon these very forms — not the exchange of one place for a cleaner one, but seeing, in the same place, what it has been all along.

Correcting a misreading: do not read this passage as architectural description of a buddha-land. The line “the dwellings in which all sentient beings live all show their reflected images herein” has already given it away — what appears in the net of the place of the Way is the dwellings of sentient beings, not the splendor of some other world. Landing it: in reading the adornment of the vessel-world, keep your eye on the ‘therefore’ of every sentence, not on the names of the jewels.

The Teacher Beyond Thought: The One Who Accomplished Right Awakening

First the question: the words “having just accomplished right awakening” have already said it all — why write a further long passage?

Chengguan’s outline calls this ‘the body of awakening,’ and he says, “The text divides in two: first the general, then the particular. Here is the first, the general discussion. The body of awakening is complete in inexhaustible virtues and is honored by the world.” He also says, “When the mark of the throne appears, the body is at once set upon it, because wisdom abides in dharmas with no before and after” — the moment the mark of the throne appears the body is set upon it, because wisdom abides in dharmas that of themselves have no sequence. And he glosses “accomplished the utmost right awakening” word by word: “‘Accomplished the utmost right awakening’ shows the wisdom that is able to awaken. Opening into understanding is called awakening; being free of inversion is what ‘right’ means; reaching the very limit is what ‘utmost’ names.” Opening into understanding is why it is called awakening; being free of inversion is why it is called right; reaching the very limit is why it is called utmost.

The virtues spoken of in this passage are, sentence by sentence, ‘beyond thought.’ “His wisdom entered the three times and all of them equally” — wisdom enters the three times, and the three times are equal. “His body filled every world, and his voice universally accorded with the lands of the ten directions” — both body and voice are pervasive. Then two similes of empty space: “it is as when empty space holds and contains every kind of form, yet makes no discrimination among the various objects” speaks of containing without discriminating, and “again as when empty space universally reaches everything, and enters equally into the various lands” speaks of pervading and being equal. Further down, “every single hair’s tip can receive all worlds without obstruction” is the non-obstruction of one and many, and “his body pervades the ten directions with no coming or going” is pervading with no going or coming.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “makes no discrimination” as not knowing. Empty space holds and contains all forms without picking and choosing precisely because its holding is exhaustive; not discriminating is not an inability to tell things apart, but a not needing to know by way of taking and rejecting. In the same way, “he knows that dharmas are empty and still” stands alongside the earlier “teaching and taming all sentient beings” without conflicting with it — emptiness and stillness are not inaction.

Landing it: this passage is the general characteristic of the teacher for the whole sūtra; when, later, each of the forty assemblies obtains a gate and speaks verses in praise of the Buddha, what they praise are the virtues set out here. If the verses that follow are hard to understand, come back and read this passage.

The Assembly of Bodhisattvas: Those Who Came Together, with Samantabhadra at Their Head

First the question: among the forty assemblies, why is the assembly of bodhisattvas alone marked “as many as the dust-motes of ten buddha-worlds,” while the remaining assemblies are given only as “as many as the dust-motes of a buddha-world,” or as measureless, innumerable, inconceivable in number, or beyond reckoning? The sūtra uses five expressions of number, and only here is the one word “ten” added. The sūtra itself offers no explanation, and it is recorded here as it stands.

At their head is Samantabhadra. The names of twenty bodhisattvas are listed one by one, with Samantabhadra first, and gathered up by “with such as these as their heads.” Chengguan divides the virtue-clauses of this passage into three: “first, the practice of self-benefit is complete; second, the practice of benefiting others is fulfilled; third, the realization of principle reaches the extreme of its stage.” Within the completeness of the practice of self-benefit there are again three clauses. The first is the fulfillment of the practices of the perfections — “that is, the six perfections, the ten perfections, the eighty-four thousand; through many kalpas they are amassed until fact and principle are exhausted, and so it is called perfect.” The second begins from “the eye of wisdom,” of which he says, “the ten eyes are clear and penetrating; discernment is named wisdom, and illumining beholding is called the eye.” Besides these he judges that there is also a fruit-practice of further advance, “divided in two: first, obtaining the dharma of the fruit; second, giving rise to the function of the fruit.”

Several places within the virtue-clauses need to be seen clearly. “In past ages they all gathered wholesome roots together with the Tathāgata Vairocana” — these bodhisattvas were companions of the teacher on one and the same ground of cause; they are not an audience that arrived later. “They were all born out of the Tathāgata’s sea of wholesome roots” — their very origin lies within the Tathāgata’s wholesome roots. “They are able to follow skillful means and enter into any one ground, and are upheld by the sea of all vows” — they enter a ground yet do not halt on that ground, and what carries them is the sustaining of the sea of vows. The last clause matters most: “Constantly, by the sea of Samantabhadra’s vows which they have obtained, they cause the wisdom-body of all sentient beings to be complete.” What they themselves have obtained is turned over, in its entirety, toward sentient beings.

Correcting a misreading: do not read “they have already trodden the Tathāgata’s ground of universal radiance” as meaning that they have already become buddhas. Standing alongside it is “they have already made offerings to all the buddhas throughout boundless kalpas, joyfully and without weariness” — to be at the stage of cause and yet not weary of it is exactly the shape of Samantabhadra’s practice. Landing it: this passage is the template for all forty assemblies — first the names are listed, then a virtue is attached, and the virtue always falls in one of two places, the practice of the cause or the benefiting of others.

The Gathering, One: The Nineteen Assemblies of Miscellaneous Spirits

From the vajra-holding spirits down to the spirits presiding over day there are nineteen assemblies in all, the first large group among the forty. For the assembly of vajra-holding spirits Chengguan sets an outline: “The gathering of virtue is complete. The ten clauses divide in two: the first two clauses generally display vow and practice”; and from “they amassed” onward the text “separately displays the marks of that fullness,” which he glosses clause by clause as “first, blessings amass pure works; second, wisdom penetrates the realms of concentration.” The virtue-clause of this one assembly is the longest; most of the remaining assemblies have only a single clause attached.

One general question first: what are all these spirits? The answer is in their names — each presides over one thing: earth, mountains, forests, medicines, crops, rivers, seas, water, fire, wind, space, the directions, night, and day, as well as cities, the place of the Way, the body, and going on foot. These are the rulers of the vessel-world. The order of the list works outward from what is nearest the Buddha’s body: the vajra-holding spirits stand at the Buddha’s side; the bodily-retinue spirits and the foot-faring spirits are tied to the Buddha’s body; the spirits of the place of the Way and the spirits presiding over cities are tied to the location; and only then come mountains and rivers, plants and trees, wind and fire, day and night.

The Assembly of Vajra-Holding Spirits

First the question: with a vajra in hand, whom are they going to strike? The virtue-clause gives the answer: “Wherever any tathāgata dwells, they constantly and diligently stand guard.” Their office is guarding, not conquest. The virtue-clause of this assembly is the longest, and Chengguan outlines it as ten clauses; it can serve as a model for how the forty are to be read. First the vow is stated — “throughout measureless kalpas in the past they constantly gave rise to great vows, vowing always to draw near to the buddhas and make offerings to them”; then the fulfillment of practice — “following the practice of what they vowed, they have already attained perfection and reached the far shore”; then blessing and concentration — “they amassed boundless pure works of blessing, and with respect to the realms practiced within the samādhis they have already understood clearly”; then penetration and entry — “they gained the power of spiritual penetration, dwelling in accordance with the Tathāgata, and entered the inconceivable realm of liberation”; and last the transforming of others — “they manifest their bodies as sentient beings deserve to see them, and show them the way of taming.” Vow, practice, blessing, concentration, penetration, transforming — the line runs from end to end. Landing it: for the guarding to be accomplished, not one of the five stages before it can be missing.

The Assembly of Bodily-Retinue Spirits

The virtue-clause is “in past ages they all accomplished great vows, making offerings to and rendering service to all the buddhas.” First the question: the vow is the same as in the previous assembly, so where is the difference? The previous assembly’s vow was ‘always to draw near and make offerings,’ followed by a long string of the fruits of practice; this assembly says only that they accomplished great vows and made offerings and rendered service — the wording is extremely spare. That the sūtra adds no elaboration here is exactly what shows that the virtues of the forty assemblies are given “as the sense makes convenient, following the differences of kind” — one meaning attached to each according to its kind, and not every one need be complete in all. Landing it: in reading the list, do not rank one above another; look at which kind of virtue is attached to each assembly.

The Assembly of Foot-Faring Spirits

The virtue-clause is “throughout measureless kalpas in the past they drew near to the Tathāgata, following after him and never letting go.” First the question: why are spirits of going on foot given ‘following after and never letting go’? Name and virtue correspond — one who presides over going on foot has his virtue in keeping up and not falling behind. Correcting a misreading: do not read following after as blind obedience; standing beside it is ‘drawing near to the Tathāgata,’ and the one they follow is the Buddha. Landing it: the hardest thing in practice is not the giving rise to the aspiration but the not breaking off; that is exactly what this assembly figures.

The Assembly of Spirits of the Place of the Way

The virtue-clause is “in past ages they met with measureless buddhas, accomplished the power of their vows, and raised up vast offerings.” First the question: what is the virtue of the spirits of the place of the Way? It lies in ‘meeting buddhas’ — being able to meet a buddha’s appearing in the world, and to meet not just one. Meeting a buddha is no accident, and the sūtra ties its cause to “accomplishing the power of their vows.” Landing it: the place of the Way is the place that lets people meet a buddha, and the virtue of this assembly is tied to exactly that.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Cities

The virtue-clause is “throughout measureless inconceivable kalpas they adorned and purified the palace wherein the Tathāgata dwells.” First the question: why do spirits presiding over cities have charge of a palace? A city and a palace are alike vessels in which people dwell, and what this assembly adorns is specifically the dwelling of the Tathāgata. The adornment of the palace within the earlier passage on the adornment of the vessel-world is precisely this assembly’s work. Landing it: the purifying of the outer environment and the purifying of the inner mind are, in this sūtra, two faces of one thing.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over the Earth

The virtue-clause is “in past ages they gave rise to deep and weighty vows, vowing constantly to draw near to the buddhas and tathāgatas and to cultivate works of blessing together with them.” First the question: what is the virtue of earth? The sūtra does not say firmness; it says ‘cultivating works of blessing together.’ Earth can bear things up and can bring things forth, and so its virtue lies in accomplishing together with others. Correcting a misreading: do not confuse the spirits presiding over the earth with the ground of the place of the Way in the earlier line “that ground was firm, made of vajra” — that is the adornment of the vessel-world, while this is one kind among the assemblies. Landing it: what earth figures is cultivating together with others and claiming no credit.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Mountains

The virtue-clause is “they all gained the pure eye with respect to all dharmas.” First the question: why is an ‘eye’ attached to mountains? When a mountain is high, one sees far. The virtue of this assembly falls not on the weight and solidity of mountains but on the purity of what is seen. Landing it: raise your view by an inch and the horizon widens by ten feet; what this assembly figures lies in seeing, not in strength.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Forests

The virtue-clause is “they all possess measureless delightful radiance.” First the question: why should a forest have radiance? A forest is a gathering of many trees; one tree does not make a forest. The sūtra ties its virtue to the word ‘delightful’ — not a light that overawes, but a light that makes people glad to come near. Landing it: the Dharma draws people in two ways, by majesty and by delightfulness; this assembly figures the latter.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Medicines

The virtue-clause is “their nature is free of stain, and with benevolence they bless all things.” First the question: where does the virtue of medicine lie? In curing illness — and yet the sūtra says first that ‘their nature is free of stain’: one who can cure others must first be undefiled himself. Then it says ‘with benevolence they bless all things,’ and this is medicine’s intent. Landing it: whoever would rescue others should first ask whether he is not himself still ill.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Crops

The virtue-clause is “there is not one but attains the accomplishment of great joy.” First the question: why is ‘joy’ attached to the spirits of sowing and reaping alone? Sowing and reaping have their planting and their harvest, and the time of harvest is one of great joy. Landing it: practice has its seasons, and between the sowing and the reaping there must be waiting; what this assembly figures is exactly that unhurried joy.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Rivers

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently rouse the intention to benefit sentient beings.” First the question: what have rivers to do with rousing intention? The use of a river lies in flowing, not in standing still; it must run on without ceasing. The words ‘diligently rouse the intention’ deserve weight — benefiting sentient beings does not happen of itself; it is done by rousing the mind and forming the intention. Landing it: a good thought counts only once it has actually been raised.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over the Seas

The virtue-clause is “they have all filled their own bodies with the great sea of the Tathāgata’s merits.” First the question: the virtue of the sea lies in its breadth, so why does the text here say ‘filled their own bodies’? What makes the sea a sea is that it can receive, can contain, and does not overflow. This assembly’s virtue lies not in how great they themselves are, but in being able to receive the Tathāgata’s sea of merits entire. Landing it: capacity is not inborn; it shows itself only after it has been filled.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Water

The virtue-clause is “they constantly and diligently rescue and guard all sentient beings and give them benefit.” First the question: water is listed alongside fire, so why is ‘rescuing and guarding’ attached to water alone? Water moistens and flows downward without contending, and its use is in keeping things alive. Correcting a misreading: do not run this together with the river-presiding spirits’ ‘diligently rousing the intention to benefit sentient beings’ — there the weight falls on ‘rousing the intention,’ here on ‘rescuing and guarding’; one is the raising of the mind, the other the sustaining of protection. Landing it: after the mind has been raised, it still has to be held.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Fire

The virtue-clause is “they are all able to display all manner of light, causing the burning distress of sentient beings to be extinguished.” First the question: fire by nature produces heat, so how can it remove burning distress? This is the most worth pondering of all the lines in this passage. What fire manifests is ‘light,’ not scorching heat, and what the light removes is ‘burning distress’ — the heat of the afflictions. Of one and the same fire, take its brightness and it removes distress; take its blaze and it burns the body. Landing it: of one and the same thing, everything turns on which side of it you take.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Wind

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently scatter away the mind of self-conceit.” First the question: why should wind counteract self-conceit? The use of wind is in blowing things apart. Self-conceit is a thing that has been gathered up — a gathering of self, of views, of the wish to surpass others — and one pass of the wind scatters it. Landing it: the mind of conceit need not be pressed down by force; loosen your grip and it disperses.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Space

The virtue-clause is “their minds are all free of stain, vast and bright and clean.” First the question: why should the virtue of space fall upon the ‘mind’? The earlier passage on the teacher beyond thought had already twice used empty space as a simile, taking its containing and its pervading. This assembly’s virtue draws empty space back and speaks of it upon the mind — vast is its measure, bright and clean its quality. Landing it: the greatness of a mind’s measure lies not in how much it can hold but in its keeping no stain.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over the Directions

The virtue-clause is “they are able by skillful means to emit light universally, constantly illumining the ten directions, continuing on without break.” First the question: why is this assembly’s virtue-clause strung out in four layers? A direction is a settled bearing. The clause has four layers: first skillful means, then universal emitting, then constant illumining of the ten directions, and last continuing without break. The crux is in those last words — shining brightly is not hard; shining without break is. Landing it: once the direction is right, one still has to walk it a long time.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Night

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently cultivate, taking the Dharma as their delight.” First the question: why are the spirits of night given ‘taking the Dharma as their delight’? Night is when sentient beings sleep, and this assembly alone stays awake and takes its pleasure in the Dharma. The earlier passage on the teacher carries the sense of the ‘long night,’ and the line of night-presiding spirits among those Sudhana visits likewise continues from this. Landing it: when there is no one to talk to, the Dharma is still there — that is taking the Dharma as one’s delight.

The Assembly of Spirits Presiding over Day

The virtue-clause is “they are all able to give rise to faith and understanding in the wondrous Dharma, and constantly together, with diligence, adorn and embellish the palace.” First the question: why do the day spirits also have charge of a palace? This clause has two halves: the first is faith and understanding, the second is adorning. Faith and understanding are within, adorning is without, and the sūtra ties them together with the words ‘constantly together’ — it is done by many working jointly, not by one alone. Landing it: cultivating inner and outer together, and doing it with others — this assembly’s virtue-clause is the plainest of all.

The Gathering, Two: The Eight Assemblies of the Eight Classes and the Four Kings

Chengguan sets an outline here: “Second, the assemblies of the eight classes and the four kings. The text has eight sections: the first four are the miscellaneous kinds; of the latter four, the ones who command are the heaven kings and the ones commanded are the eight classes.” The sūtra has exactly eight assemblies: the first four are the asura kings, the garuḍa kings, the kiṃnara kings, and the mahoraga kings; the latter four are the yakṣa kings, the great dragon kings, the kumbhāṇḍa kings, and the gandharva kings. The names of the heads of those latter four assemblies are listed by the sūtra in order as Vaiśravaṇa the yakṣa king, Virūpākṣa the dragon king, Growth the kumbhāṇḍa king, and Upholder of the Realm the gandharva king — precisely the four heaven kings who command, each leading the class it commands. Chengguan’s outline and the sūtra’s list of names correspond here one to one.

The Assembly of Asura Kings

First the question: what is an asura? Chengguan explains at length: “Asura, also called asuluo — it is only that the Sanskrit sound differs between one region and another. The Vibhāṣā renders it as non-god.” He further cites the Fodi lun, the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground: “They are included within the destiny of the gods, but because they much practice flattery and lack the real practice of a god, they are called non-gods.” The virtue-clause is “they have all already diligently crushed and subdued self-conceit and all the afflictions.” Asuras are known for loving strife and contending for supremacy, and this assembly’s virtue is precisely the crushing of self-conceit — what is cured is exactly the illness of their kind. Landing it: what a person most needs to cultivate is often just what people of his kind are most liable to.

The Assembly of Garuḍa Kings

The virtue-clause is “they have all already accomplished the great power of skillful means, and are well able to rescue and gather in all sentient beings.” First the question: the garuḍa’s nature is to seize and carry off, so why is ‘rescuing and gathering in’ attached to it? Its power of function is unchanged; what has changed is where it is directed — the same pair of talons that can seize is used to rescue and gather in sentient beings. Landing it: an ability in itself is neither good nor evil; what matters is where it is put to use.

The Assembly of Kiṃnara Kings

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently press onward, contemplating all dharmas, their minds constantly glad, sporting in freedom.” First the question: why do vigor and gladness stand in the same clause? This assembly presides over music, and so its virtue-clause closes with ‘glad’ and ‘sporting.’ Yet the sūtra ties the source of that gladness quite clearly — it comes after “contemplating all dharmas.” Landing it: one who has gained strength in the Dharma is at ease, not strained.

The Assembly of Mahoraga Kings

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently cultivate vast skillful means, causing sentient beings forever to cut through the net of delusion.” First the question: why is ‘delusion’ attached to this assembly alone? Mahoragas belong to the great crawling kinds, and their coiling, entangling shape resembles a net. What is cured is delusion, and what is used is vast skillful means. The words ‘forever cut’ deserve weight — it is not untying, it is severing. Landing it: some bonds cannot be loosened and can only be cut.

The Assembly of Yakṣa Kings

At their head is Vaiśravaṇa the yakṣa king. The virtue-clause is “they all diligently guard all sentient beings.” First the question: yakṣas are named for devouring and for being fearsome, so why is guarding attached to them? Read it against the vajra-holding spirits’ “wherever any tathāgata dwells, they constantly and diligently stand guard” — those guard the place where the Buddha dwells, these guard all sentient beings. Landing it: a fearsome power turned into a guarding power is the whole meaning of this assembly.

The Assembly of Great Dragon Kings

At their head is Virūpākṣa the dragon king. The virtue-clause is “there is not one but diligently exerts itself to raise clouds and spread rain, causing the burning distress of sentient beings to be extinguished.” First the question: how does this differ from the fire-presiding spirits’ “causing the burning distress of sentient beings to be extinguished”? Those remove burning distress by light, these dissolve it by cloud and rain — one enters from the side of brightness, the other from the side of moisture, and what is removed is in both cases burning distress. Landing it: for one and the same illness, the gates of cure may be exactly opposite.

The Assembly of Kumbhāṇḍa Kings

At their head is Growth the kumbhāṇḍa king. The virtue-clause is “they all diligently study and cultivate the dharma-gate of no obstruction, and emit great radiance.” First the question: this assembly’s appearance is fearsome — among the names the sūtra lists is “the kumbhāṇḍa king Exceedingly Fearsome” — so why are ‘no obstruction’ and ‘radiance’ attached to it? A fearsome appearance and an unobstructed dharma do not hinder one another, and this is exactly the rule in the prologue’s listing of assemblies: shape and kind are not selected for, and what is attached is always the Dharma. Landing it: do not judge an assembly by its looks.

The Assembly of Gandharva Kings

At their head is Upholder of the Realm the gandharva king. The virtue-clause is “they all give rise to deep faith and understanding in the great Dharma, rejoicing in it and holding it dear, cultivating diligently and without weariness.” First the question: gandharvas preside over music, the same kind as the kiṃnaras, so why is the virtue-clause different? The kiṃnaras’ virtue falls on ‘contemplating dharmas and being glad,’ this assembly’s on ‘faith and understanding in the great Dharma’ — one lies in contemplating, the other in faith. The sequence of the phrases should also be watched: deep faith and understanding, then rejoicing and holding dear, then cultivating diligently without weariness — these are the three stages of faith, delight, and practice. Landing it: if faith does not arise, the delight is false; if the delight is not real, diligent practice is bound to weary.

The Gathering, Three: The Twelve Assemblies of the Gods

Chengguan sets an outline: “Within the text there are first seven sections setting out the gods of the desire realm, and afterwards five sections setting out the gods of the form realm. Of the former, the division is into seven, and here is the first.” The sūtra is exactly so: the divine sons of the moon, the divine sons of the sun, the kings of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the kings of the Suyāma Heaven, the kings of the Tuṣita Heaven, the kings of the Heaven of Delight in Emanations, and the kings of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations are the seven sections of the desire realm; the kings of the Great Brahmā Heaven, the kings of the Heaven of Radiant Sound, the kings of the Universally Pure Heaven, the kings of the Heaven of Vast Fruit, and the kings of the Great Sovereign Heaven are the five sections of the form realm.

The Assembly of Divine Sons of the Moon

Chengguan explains the name: “The divine son of the moon: the moon means waning, because it has its waxing and waning.” The virtue-clause is “they all diligently disclose the jewel in the minds of sentient beings.” First the question: the moon wanes, so how can it disclose the jewel of the mind? The moon’s light is soft and belongs to the night; it does not dazzle, and yet by it one can see. The words “the jewel of the mind” deserve weight — the sūtra does not speak of giving but of disclosing; the jewel is already there in the minds of sentient beings. Landing it: to teach someone is not to pour something in, but to bring to light what he already has.

The Assembly of Divine Sons of the Sun

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently cultivate, benefiting sentient beings and increasing their wholesome roots.” First the question: how does this differ from the divine sons of the moon? The moon lies in disclosing, the sun in increasing. One reveals, the other nourishes, and the two assemblies of sun and moon make a pair. This assembly lists eleven names. Landing it: after something has been seen, there must still be what makes it grow.

The Assembly of Kings of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three

At their head is the heaven king Śakra Indra. The virtue-clause is “they all diligently set in motion the vast undertakings of every world.” First the question: why should heaven kings have charge of ‘the undertakings of the world’? The Heaven of the Thirty-Three is the summit of the earth-dwelling gods of the desire realm and is nearest to the human world, so what it administers is precisely worldly affairs. This assembly lists eleven names, one more than the usual rule. Landing it: the dharma that goes beyond the world does not obstruct the undertakings of the world, and this assembly is the proof.

The Assembly of Kings of the Suyāma Heaven

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently cultivate vast wholesome roots, their minds constantly glad and content.” First the question: how does ‘glad and content’ differ from the crop-presiding spirits’ ‘accomplishment of great joy’ earlier? That is the joy of harvest, this the joy of contentment — being already sufficient without awaiting more. Landing it: those whose wholesome roots are cultivated most widely are, on the contrary, the readiest to be satisfied; the sense of insufficiency comes mostly from not having cultivated deeply.

The Assembly of Kings of the Tuṣita Heaven

At their head is the heaven king Contentment. The virtue-clause is “they all diligently recollect and uphold every name possessed by all the buddhas.” First the question: why is ‘recollecting and upholding the buddhas’ names’ attached to this assembly alone? Tuṣita is the heaven where bodhisattvas of the final birth dwell, and so it is nearest to buddhahood. Recollecting and upholding a name is the simplest of practices and also the hardest not to break off. Landing it: among the dharma-gates some are elaborate and some simple, and the simple kind has to be held up by the word ‘constantly.’

The Assembly of Kings of the Heaven of Delight in Emanations

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently tame all sentient beings, causing them to attain liberation.” First the question: this heaven takes its pleasure in emanating its own five desires, so why is its virtue-clause the taming of sentient beings? One who can transform things for himself is precisely fit to use that for taming others — the power of transformation turned toward liberation. This assembly lists eleven names. Landing it: a person’s strong point, if it is not turned toward others, is no more than self-amusement.

The Assembly of Kings of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations

The virtue-clause is “they all diligently cultivate the vast dharma-gate of sovereign skillful means.” First the question: the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations is the summit of the desire realm, and its king is the place the world calls the demon king — so why is it listed in the Dharma assembly? The prologue’s listing of assemblies does not select for shape and kind, and what is attached is only the Dharma; what is attached to this assembly is ‘sovereign skillful means.’ Landing it: to be free amid what others have emanated — if that kind of power is used upon the Dharma, it is skillful means.

The Assembly of Kings of the Great Brahmā Heaven

At their head is the heaven king Śikhin. The virtue-clause is “they are all complete in great loving-kindness, taking pity on sentient beings, unfolding their light to shine universally, and causing them to attain gladness.” First the question: entering the first section of the form realm, why does the virtue-clause single out ‘great loving-kindness’? Brahmā gods have as their nature the purity of being free of desire, and only after desire is left behind can the mind of loving-kindness be unmixed. The sequence of the four phrases is: complete in kindness, taking pity, unfolding light, causing gladness — from within outward. Landing it: loving-kindness is not an emotion; it is the natural surplus of strength that follows upon being free of desire.

The Assembly of Kings of the Heaven of Radiant Sound

The virtue-clause is “they all abide in the unobstructed dharma-gate of vast stillness and joyful ease.” First the question: this heaven uses light in place of speech, so why does its virtue-clause fall on ‘stillness and joyful ease’? Without speech there is quiet, and after quiet come gladness and ease — and this gladness is ‘unobstructed.’ Correcting a misreading: stillness is not the absence of feeling; what is joined to it here is precisely gladness and ease. Landing it: within a real quiet there is joy; if there is only dullness, that is not stillness.

The Assembly of Kings of the Universally Pure Heaven

The virtue-clause is “they have all already come to abide in the vast dharma-gate, and within the various worlds diligently raise up benefit.” First the question: if they already ‘abide,’ why do they also ‘diligently raise up benefit’? The two halves of this clause are exactly the pair of stopping and acting, abiding and going. This assembly lists eleven names. Landing it: to abide is not to come to a halt; it is to have found firm footing so that work can be done.

The Assembly of Kings of the Heaven of Vast Fruit

The virtue-clause is “there is not one but takes the dharma of stillness as its palace and abides therein.” First the question: what does it mean to take the Dharma as a palace? A palace is the vessel one dwells in, and what this assembly dwells in is not a thing but the dharma of stillness. Read against the adornment of the palace in the earlier passage on the vessel-world: one is a vessel that is manifested, the other a dharma that is dwelt in. Landing it: where a person really lives is shown by where his mind is at rest.

The Assembly of Kings of the Great Sovereign Heaven

This is the last of the forty assemblies, and also the summit of the form realm. Chengguan has a discrimination here: “The kings of the Great Sovereign Heaven. Further, within the three vehicles this is set up as a pure land, the dwelling of the reward body; but taking the reality, it is only the fruit of the recompense gathered by a bodhisattva of the tenth ground, who mostly acts as king there.” The virtue-clause is “they all diligently contemplate the dharma of no marks, and are equal in all they do,” which Chengguan glosses: “In the virtue: at the summit of the three realms, without the markless there is no going beyond. It is not sought apart from marks, and therefore all they do is equal.” Having reached the summit of the three realms, without the dharma of no marks there is no getting past; and the reason equality is possible is precisely that it is not sought apart from marks. Landing it: the lesson at the highest place is to put down the word ‘high’ as well.

The Last Line of the Fascicle: Equal in All They Do

With the forty assemblies listed out, fascicle one stops at the single line “they all diligently contemplate the dharma of no marks, and are equal in all they do.” Chengguan closes the whole outline of the gathering here, and adds a line of the greatest importance: “Yet the explanations of names and praises of virtue above are mostly given as the sense makes convenient, following the differences of kind; if one speaks of the actual virtues, there is not one that they do not have in common, and all may be sought in the empty. The cloud-gathering of the sea of assemblies is finished.”

First the question: with one virtue to each of the forty assemblies, does that mean the fire-presiding spirits can only remove burning distress and the wind-presiding spirits can only scatter self-conceit? Chengguan says it plainly — the explanations of names and praises of virtue above are mostly spoken as the sense makes convenient, following the differences of kind; if one speaks of the actual virtues, there is “not one that they do not have in common.” Every assembly is complete in all the virtues; it is only that the sūtra attaches one meaning to each so that people can see clearly.

Correcting a misreading: so do not read this list as a table of divided labor. Nor should one suppose that having read the forty virtues one has exhausted them — the words “all may be sought in the empty” say that none of these virtues is a solid thing that can be grasped.

Landing it: only now is the way of reading the list complete. The forty assemblies each send forth one virtue to adorn this one awakening, and virtue by virtue they have all in common; and so this awakening is not the affair of Śākyamuni alone, but one event brought about together by the rulers of the three worlds who have come. That is exactly why the chapter is called “The Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the Worlds.”

Lineage

The interpretation of the chapter’s name has from of old been made by each master on the basis of his own recension. What Chengguan commented on is the eighty-fascicle recension, and in the Yanyi chao he glosses the two words ‘rulers of the worlds’ character by character: world means the worlds, that is, the three worlds — the world of sentient beings, the vessel-world, and the world of correct awakening in wisdom; ruler means a sovereign, and the Buddha together with the various kings, and the earth spirits and water spirits, the forest spirits and mountain spirits, are the rulers of the vessel-world; the heaven kings, dragon kings, yakṣa kings and the rest are the rulers of the world of sentient beings; the Tathāgata is the ruler of the world of correct awakening in wisdom, and also transforms the first two in general and commands all three throughout, and so they are together called rulers of the worlds. The two words ‘wondrous adornment’ he ties down just as clearly: this adornment likewise sets out the dharma-gates of the three kinds of world as that which adorns, restricted to the rulers alone. The three great sections of this passage — the adornment of the vessel-world, the virtues of the teacher, and the listing of the forty assemblies — are precisely the three worlds each sending forth their rulers to come and adorn together.

Li Tongxuan comments on the same eighty-fascicle recension, yet says something different. He says that as for the chapter “The Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the Worlds,” bodhisattvas who manifest birth are all rulers of the worlds, and because they arrive together at the ocean-assembly it is called wondrous adornment — Chengguan’s ‘ruler’ runs through the Buddha and the various kings, while Tongxuan’s ‘ruler’ is spoken of with respect to bodhisattvas manifesting birth. What the two masters take as the ruler is not the same; both are recorded without adjudication.

Zhiyan and Fazang commented on the sixty-fascicle recension, in which this chapter is named “The Pure Eye of the World.” Zhiyan glosses it saying that the pure eye of the world means the three worlds — the times, the vessel, and the rest; and he brings out a simile: when the Tathāgata had not yet appeared in the world there was no good guide and so it was as if blind, and now that the Buddha has appeared and manifests the purity of self and others, it is like a clear eye. He also judges the place of this chapter, saying that as for “the pure eye of the world,” this ought to be named the preface. As for Fazang, within the range recorded in this passage only his outline of the six fulfillments in the common manner is to be seen; his section on the interpretation of the name does not fall within the range recorded, and this is noted as a gap according to fact. He divides the prologue of the sixty-fascicle recension into three — the first four words are attesting alone, from “at one time” onward runs through both prefaces, and from “the earth quaked” onward is the arousing preface alone — which differs from Chengguan’s division on the eighty-fascicle recension into “first the attesting preface, and after, from ‘at that time, the Tathāgata’s place of the Way,’ the arousing preface.” Each of the two masters’ opening line for the arousing preface follows his own recension. All these divergences are the settled sayings of the ancient worthies, recorded without adjudication.

The number of divisions in the outlines also differs. Fazang brings out Master Dayuan’s division of this sūtra into four parts — the first chapter named the part of conditioned arising that purifies the capacity; the “Vairocana” chapter named the part that marks the doctrine and spurs the will; from the “Names” chapter down to the eighth gathering named the part that displays the path and spurs cultivation; and the verses spoken by Samantabhadra at the very end named the part of entrustment and circulation — while he himself sets up a further division into five, taking the first chapter as the part on the causes and conditions of the teaching’s arising. As for the number of gatherings and of chapters, Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle recension, gives seven places and eight gatherings and thirty-four chapters; Li Tongxuan, on the eighty-fascicle recension, says that this sūtra has in all the excellent canon of forty chapters. The eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka that is the base recension here in fact has thirty-nine chapters; this is recorded according to fact and not adjudicated.

Reading straight on, what follows this passage is “at that time, the sea of assemblies at the Tathāgata’s place of the Way had all gathered like clouds,” which Chengguan outlines as “the part that extols and praises the virtues,” saying that it “is likewise the arousing preface.” From there the forty assemblies each obtain a dharma-gate and, borne by the Buddha’s awesome power, speak verses in praise of him. This passage only lists names and does not speak of the dharma-gates — the words “gate of liberation” do not occur even once in this passage, and within chapter one this sentence-pattern first appears in the next passage’s “the great sovereign heaven king Wondrous Flame Sea obtained the gate of liberation of the power of the still skillful means of the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space.” By the “Entry into the Dharma Realm” chapter, the good friends whom Sudhana visits each confer one gate, and the sentence-pattern belongs to the same line: in chapter one the various assemblies each obtain one gate and together adorn one buddha; in that chapter the various friends each confer one gate and together complete one visit. Both open gate by gate, the one in the prologue, the other in realization.

Looking further on, what appears in this passage is the adornment of the vessel-world of one site of awakening; by the “Flower Treasury World” chapter, what appears is the disposition of the flower-treasury adorned ocean of worlds and the differences within the net of buddha-fields. One is near and one far, one small and one great, and yet what they adorn is one and the same awakening.

First, See Clearly What This Passage Is Doing

The text just before this one was the assemblies gathering; the text here is the assemblies speaking. Chengguan places this whole great section under the heading ‘the section of praising and extolling the virtues,’ and says that it is at the same time the preface that sets the sūtra in motion — the preface is not yet over, and the praising of virtues is a part of the preface. He divides this section again into three: first the summing up of the deportment and settled bearing of the great assembly; next the setting forth in general of why they should have such virtue; and only then, assembly by assembly, the particular showing forth of their obtaining the Dharma and praising the Buddha. What is read in this unit is precisely one complete round of those three, together with the first great batch of the obtaining of the Dharma and the praising of the Buddha — the twelve assemblies of gods.

Make the pattern clear at the outset and the one hundred and twenty-four gates that follow will not be read as a list of one hundred and twenty-four items. The text of every assembly is cast in one and the same mold: the compiler of the sūtra first says ‘next,’ then one by one the obtainers of the Dharma are listed off, each of them tied to a clause ‘obtained such-and-such a gate of liberation’; when the listing is done, the compiler says one more sentence, ‘at that time such-and-such a god-king, sustained by the Buddha’s majestic power, universally contemplated all the hosts of such-and-such gods and spoke these verses’ (the verb of this marker in fact has three variant forms, noted at each place where they occur); and then that foremost god-king speaks the verses. The prose of length is the compiler narrating; the verse is the god-king speaking at the time.

Here is a place where it is easy to read wrongly, and Chengguan pointed it out expressly: the verses are not a restatement in verse of the prose of length. He says it very plainly: these ten verses each in turn gather up one gate of Dharma, and it is these verses that are taken to make the prose of length — it is not that the prose came first and the verses then sang it over again. So do not bring to it the habit of reading restatement-verses; do not suppose that the verses repeat the prose. As for the division of labor between the prose of length and the verses, Chengguan established it as a settled rule: the prose of length speaks with respect to what the god-kings obtain, while the verses are praise of the Buddha. On the one side you watch what the assemblies obtained; on the other you watch what the Buddha is. The two sides mirror each other, and only so does the meaning become easy to understand.

There is one more correction to make, this one about sequence. The twelve assemblies speak one after another, and it looks as though they were lining up to take the floor. Chengguan says they were not: the gathering of the assemblies and the praise of the verses were originally all at one and the same time, and only because writing cannot set it all down at once was it arranged as before and after. The text has an order; the event has none — this sentence is one of the keys to reading the Huayan, and this passage is the first place it is put to use.

Last comes the matter of the names of the divisions. ‘The section of praising and extolling the virtues,’ ‘the assemblies of different birth,’ ‘the assemblies of the same birth,’ ‘the gods of form,’ ‘the gods of desire’ — the sūtra itself has not one of these words; they are all Chengguan’s outline-names. The sūtra says only ‘at that time the ocean of the assembly in the Tathāgata’s place of practice,’ ‘what they obtained is as follows,’ and ‘next.’ Get this boundary standing first.

The Summing-Up Passage: On What Ground Were They Able to See the Buddha

First a question: with so many god-kings, why should every one of them have a gate of Dharma the moment he opens his mouth? Before going through the assemblies one by one, the sūtra gives a passage of general statement that accounts for where this great assembly came from. Chengguan divides this passage into three layers: first, making clear that they had left the obstructions behind and their seeing was pure; next, that the roots of their being transformed ran deep; last, that their virtue and practice were complete.

The first layer is “they had already left behind all afflictions, all defilements upon the mind, and the residual habits besides.” Chengguan explains it with great fineness: “afflictions” are the afflictive obstruction, and “defilements upon the mind” are the cognitive obstruction — this obstruction screens the mind and makes one deluded about the knowable; and to say “all” is to reckon in both what arises through discrimination and what is innate, both the seeds and their present activity. As for “the residual habits,” they are the lingering air of the two obstructions, and he cites two ancient cases: the haughty tone of Pilindavatsa, and Kāśyapa’s inability to sit still. The correction lies here: the residual habits are not the afflictions themselves; they are the habitual tone of voice and cast of body that remain after the afflictions have been cut off. The sūtra says that this great assembly had left behind even the residual habits, which is as much as to say that they were no beginners.

The second layer is “they had smashed the mountain built of heavy obstructions, and they saw the Buddha with nothing obstructing them.” Chengguan says that this shows the dharma by way of a simile: the path that is able to smash smashes the mountain of the two obstructions, and the reason it is called a mountain is that the substance of an obstruction is solid and thick and towering. And “seeing the Buddha with nothing obstructing them” is the fruit that follows upon the cutting off of the obstructions.

The third layer is the causes and conditions of ages past. “He had gathered them in of old by the four means of gathering” — the four means are giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and working alongside. Chengguan gives four very serviceable placings: giving is the condition of gathering, because it furnishes people with support; kind speech is the substance of gathering, because it tells people straight out what harms and what benefits; beneficial conduct is the place of gathering, because it sets people down in a good place; and working alongside is the resolving of doubts, because only when one is in it together with them can they make up their minds. These four sentences can be taken up directly to examine which side one’s own way of gathering people leans toward.

A sentence to bring it down to the ground: the sūtra says that they “constantly saw the Buddha, plainly and with clear discernment.” Chengguan explains “plainly” as not relying on inference to know, and “clear discernment” as not seizing upon the marks of form. To see the Buddha while still seizing upon marks is not called clear discernment.

Three Words, “Gate of Liberation”: The Pivot of This Passage

First a question: what is a “gate of liberation”? This is the most important term in this unit, and all one hundred and twenty-four gates without a single exception close with it. Chengguan’s explanation falls into two halves. The first half treats “liberation”: upon the fruit of buddhahood the obstructions are already stilled and the great function is unobstructed, and therefore it is called liberation; and true liberation is just the penetrating knowing of the Tathāgata. The second half treats “gate”: it can be roamed in and entered into, and therefore it is called a gate; and the assembly each and all realize and accord with it, and therefore it is called “obtaining.”

Then he sets up a distinction between the whole and the parts, and this is where the doctrinal eye of the passage lies: the Buddha obtains the whole of it, and the ocean of the assembly obtains the several parts. It is one and the same liberation; on the Buddha’s side it is called simply liberation, while on the assembly’s side the dharma they obtain is called a gate — because it can lead through into the functioning of the Buddha’s fruit. So the one hundred and twenty-four gates are not one hundred and twenty-four dharmas each going its own way; they are one and the same buddha-virtue opening one hundred and twenty-four entrances upon one hundred and twenty-four kinds of capacity.

A correction: since these are “parts,” does it not look as though the Buddha’s virtue had been cut into pieces? It is precisely here that Chengguan closes the matter off, saying that the whole and the parts are perfectly interfused, that cause and fruit interpenetrate, and that layer upon layer there is no obstruction — only so is it truly a gate of liberation. To divide without obstructing the whole is the Huayan way of dividing.

Then a further question: why does one god-king obtain only one gate, and not several? Chengguan answers it very well — it is precisely because each obtains one that the inexhaustibility of the Buddha’s virtue is shown. If one person could obtain it all, the Buddha’s virtue would have a bottom to it. And he cites the sūtra in evidence, saying that the realm of the Tathāgata is without bound, and that each in accordance with his own liberation is able to contemplate and see it. Set over against this is Samantabhadra: when the assemblies of the same birth come, Samantabhadra alone obtains ten gates, and that is meant to show that he is equal to the Buddha’s inexhaustibility. So “obtaining one” and “obtaining ten” are not a difference of higher and lower; they are a difference in what is being shown.

A sentence to bring it down to the ground: at the end of this passage Chengguan opens a further layer that has to do with the reader’s own mind — when mind and object do not obstruct one another, that is called liberation; and entering into the principle thereby is called a gate; whereas if one treats the gate as a really existent gate to be passed through, one does not get through at all. He says that only “entering rightly with both sides gone” is a true gate. This sentence pulls the one hundred and twenty-four gates down out of the heavens and onto the reader: the gate is not off in the distance; it is in that moment when your mind and its object stand facing each other without obstructing each other.

Assembly One, the Heaven of Sovereignty: Ten Gates That Set the Standard for the Whole Passage

Chengguan divides the gods into the gods of form first and the gods of desire after; the gods of form have five sections, and this is the first — the Heaven of Sovereignty, with ten dharmas in its prose of length. This assembly is the model for the whole passage, and Chengguan explains its gates one by one in full. When he judges the verses of this passage to be of the gāthā kind, he notes to himself that “the rest below are to follow this,” meaning that the verses of all the later assemblies are likewise to be judged gāthā. So these ten gates are worth taking one at a time.

The first gate, “the gate of liberation of the power of the still and quiet skillful means of the Dharma realm and the realm of space,” Chengguan judges to be the liberation of the dharma-body. What matters is the words “Dharma realm”: if one said only space, that would be pervasion of one layer; to say Dharma realm is to have every layer pervaded — space can hold each and every place of each and every dust-mote, and within each and every dust-mote of those very things each accords with the real and each has boundless oceans of lands, and the great functioning of the Buddha’s body fills them all. “Still and quiet” is the substance and “skillful means” is the function, and stillness and function do not obstruct one another, and so it is called “power.”

The second gate, “the gate of liberation of universally contemplating all dharmas and being wholly sovereign over them,” Chengguan judges to be the liberation of the body of knowing, and he gives it three senses: first, that with the universal eye there is no dharma at all that he cannot contemplate; second, that he contemplates all dharmas as being wholly principle without the characteristics of phenomena being destroyed; third, that within a single dharma he sees all and is unobstructed. The third gate, “the gate of liberation of knowing that all dharmas neither arise nor cease, neither come nor go, and are the practice that requires no effort,” Chengguan judges to be the liberation of own-characteristic and shared characteristic, and this is the gate he explains at greatest length. On neither arising nor ceasing he speaks once from each of the three natures: with respect to what is wholly imagined, the dharmas that are deludedly grasped originally have no arising or ceasing at all; with respect to the nature that is other-dependent, dharmas have no substance of their own and arise by taking hold of conditions, so that their very arising is no arising; with respect to the perfectly accomplished nature, being not a conditioned thing, it has no characteristic of arising and ceasing. Neither coming nor going he treats with respect to practice: right knowing turns its back on deluded grasping and so has nowhere it goes, and it moves toward the realizing of the true principle and so does not come. At the end he comes round to “the practice that requires no effort” — great knowing is without thought and yet responds to what meets it, like the wish-fulfilling jewel, like the heavenly drum, which are without deliberation and yet accomplish things. The correction lies here: requiring no effort is not doing nothing; it is doing without that one thought, ‘I am doing it.’

The fourth gate, “the gate of liberation of the ocean of wisdom that directly beholds the true character of all dharmas,” Chengguan judges to be the liberation of contemplating the meaning, and he points out expressly that the words “directly beholds” are there to mark it off from knowing by inference — this is seeing for oneself, not thinking one’s way through. The fifth gate, “the gate of liberation of the concentration of great skillful means that bestows boundless ease and joy upon sentient beings,” he judges to be the liberation from the obstruction to kindness: to be apart from all peril and dread is called ease, and to be gladdened in body and mind is called joy. The sixth gate, “the gate of liberation of causing sentient beings to contemplate the still and quiet dharma and to extinguish every kind of delusion, darkness, and fear,” he judges to be the liberation from the obstruction to compassion, and here Chengguan says something very hard: sentient beings are deluded and therefore make deeds, they make deeds and therefore undergo suffering, they are in darkness and therefore cannot see what is to come, and not seeing what is to come they topple and fall — and so nothing is a greater object of dread than delusion. Whereas once they are made to contemplate that it is originally still, the characteristic of delusion is originally empty, and at that point they will not even contrive what is good, let alone do what is evil.

The seventh gate, “the gate of liberation of skillfully entering boundless realms while giving rise to no act of thinking belonging to any state of existence,” he judges to be the liberation from the obstruction of deeds: the Buddha’s appearing throughout the ten directions is a boundless object, and to fathom that it has no nature to rest upon is what is called entering skillfully — one does not even rest upon the Buddha, so how should one give rise to the thinking that makes deeds? The eighth gate, “the gate of liberation of universally going to the ten directions to speak the Dharma while remaining unmoved and without anything to rest upon,” he judges to be the gate of the liberation of no-characteristic: though the body responds to the ten directions, it is silent and unmoved and does not seize upon characteristics. The ninth gate, “the gate of liberation of entering the Buddha’s still and quiet realm and universally manifesting radiance,” he judges to be the liberation from name and characteristic: the Buddha’s knowing accords with suchness, and this is called entering the still realm; being still it can yet respond, and so it universally manifests radiance. The tenth gate, “the gate of liberation of abiding in the place of his own awakening while taking boundless and vast realms as his object,” Chengguan explains as being apart from the characteristic of the two graspings while being able to benefit both self and others: the place of one’s own awakening is just the leaving behind of that which is aware and that which is made aware, so that the sagely knowing of self-awareness is constantly present; and to take the boundless as one’s object is to take as object the boundless Dharma realm, to deliver boundless sentient beings, and thereby to obtain vast awakening.

For the verses of this assembly Chengguan has two further general rules that can be put to use. The first is that the verse of the foremost king does not gather up his own name — because that is the speaker’s own dharma, and there is no need to gather it up again. The second is that the name gathered up in the closing line of each of the other verses is the same in meaning as its gate of Dharma, and it is only to spare wordiness that he does not match them one by one. And there is one more thing he mentions: in the tenth verse the god-king’s name is somewhat inverted from the way it stands in the earlier listing, and such expansions and compressions are very common in the sūtra, which he lays to the work of translation. When readers come upon a name that does not tally, they need not suspect that the sūtra is in error.

Assembly Two, the Heaven of Lesser Extent and the Rest: Ten Gates Working at ‘How to Bring People In’

This assembly has the god-king Delightful Dharma Radiance Banner as its foremost, and those it is matched to are the hosts of the Heaven of Lesser Extent, the Heaven of Measureless Extent, and the Heaven of Extensive Fruit. Fazang, explaining “Extensive Fruit,” says that the fourth meditative heaven is the most excellent among the good fruits of the world, and so it is also called Extensive Fruit.

The ten gates have one line running through them all: they all come down upon the skillful means of drawing in and of teaching and transforming. The first gate is universally observing the faculties of sentient beings and speaking the Dharma so as to cut off their doubts — first look at the faculties, then speak the Dharma; the order cannot be reversed. The second is causing one to see the Buddha as soon as one calls him to mind: let the calling-to-mind arise and the Buddha is present at once, and this gate sets the threshold of seeing the Buddha upon mindfulness. The third is the adorned body wherein the nature of dharmas is equal and rests upon nothing: to take resting upon nothing as adornment — this is the Huayan sense of adornment, not something pretty added on. The fourth is knowing that all the dharmas of the world establish within a single thought an inconceivable ocean of adornment — within a single thought the inexhaustible is established, and here the threshold of time is taken away.

The fifth is manifesting inconceivable buddha-lands within a single pore without obstruction, and here the threshold of space is taken away too; with the fourth gate, one of time and one of space, they make a pair. The sixth is entering the universal gate and observing the Dharma realm: a universal gate is one that is not entered by a narrow opening. The seventh is appearing in every sort of way for all sentient beings and being constantly present through boundless kalpas — appearing is not a one-time affair. The eighth is contemplating all the realms of the world and entering into the inconceivable dharma: entering from realms that can be seen into a dharma that cannot.

The ninth is revealing to all sentient beings the dharma that is the essential road out — the words “essential road out” are the point: it is not merely speaking the Dharma, it is pointing out the essential road by which one gets out. The tenth is observing all sentient beings who ought to be transformed and causing them to enter the Buddha’s Dharma: first observe who is fit to be transformed, then cause them to enter. The first and the last gate both turn upon “observing,” and the concern of this assembly is quite clear.

A correction: these ten gates all sound like teaching directed outward, and it is easy to read them as ‘this is the bodhisattvas’ business and has nothing to do with me.’ But the last line of the verses says that the World-Honored One constantly with great compassion sends down the rain of Dharma equally and fills each one’s vessel — and the vessel is each person’s own. The rain of Dharma is equal; how much is received depends on the vessel. And here is the ground of it: to enlarge the vessel is the business of the reader’s own side.

Assembly Three, the Heaven of Lesser Purity and the Rest: Eleven Gates, the Largest Group in Any One Assembly

This assembly has the god-king Pure Wisdom Renown as its foremost, and those it is matched to are the hosts of the Heaven of Lesser Purity, the Heaven of Measureless Purity, and the Heaven of Universal Purity. Fazang, explaining “Universal Purity,” says that within the third meditative heaven, because joy has been left behind, body and mind are universally pure. This assembly is the first of the four assemblies in this passage that have eleven kings — counting the kings of the sūtra one by one, this assembly lists eleven god-kings. So ‘ten dharmas to an assembly’ is a common pattern and not a universal rule, and when readers come upon eleven they need not suspect an omission.

The eleven gates may be seen in three bundles. The first bundle is fathoming and manifesting: fathoming the skillful means of the path of liberation of all sentient beings; universally manifesting, like light and shadow, in accordance with what the gods delight in; and the great skillful means of universally adorning and purifying all the realms of the buddhas. The three words “like light and shadow” are what matters — the manifesting is there, the substance is not.

The second bundle is following and calling to mind: following sentient beings who forever revolve within the ocean of birth and death; calling to mind the Tathāgata’s practice of taming and training sentient beings; and that which streams forth from the ocean of the dhāraṇī of the universal gate. The first of these is easy to misread — it is not revolving along with sentient beings; it is following that revolving in order to go into it and rescue. A dhāraṇī is total holding, the holding of all dharmas without forgetting them; and to say “that which streams forth from the ocean” is to say that every gate of teaching flows out from that total holding.

The third bundle is causing faith to arise and causing beings to go forth: being able to cause sentient beings to meet with a buddha and give rise to the treasury of faith; being able to cause all sentient beings, upon hearing the Dharma, to believe and rejoice and go forth; entering the taming and training practice of all bodhisattvas, which like space is boundless and inexhaustible; contemplating the measureless afflictions of sentient beings and universally raising up compassion and wisdom; and sending forth light and manifesting the Buddha’s gathering and transforming by the three wheels. The “three wheels” of the last gate are the three functions of teaching — the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind — and the gathering and transforming of sentient beings rests entirely upon these three wheels. And in the gate about contemplating the afflictions there is something to notice: what is contemplated is measureless afflictions, but what is raised up is compassion and wisdom both together — compassion without wisdom will be dragged down, and wisdom without compassion will never set to work.

A sentence to bring it down to the ground: this bundle of eleven gates begins with “fathoming” and ends with “gathering and transforming,” and everything in between turns upon the word “cause” — cause them to have faith, cause them to go forth, cause them to enter. What is called a gate of Dharma is for the most part not a place where one enjoys something oneself; it is a place by which others may come in.

Assembly Four, the Heaven of Lesser Light and the Rest: Ten Gates upon “Shining” and “Sound”

This assembly has the god-king Delightful Radiance as its foremost, and those it is matched to are the hosts of the Heaven of Lesser Light, the Heaven of Measureless Light, and the Heaven of Utmost Light. Fazang, citing the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, says that the second meditative heaven is commonly named Light-Sound, and that when the gods of that heaven speak, boundless pure light comes forth from their mouths. In the gates and the verses of this assembly, light and sound are the two densest matters.

The first gate is constantly receiving the joy of stillness while being able to descend and appear and extinguish the sufferings of the world: he is himself within the joy of stillness, and yet can come down and extinguish the world’s suffering — this gate joins ‘enjoyment for oneself’ and ‘benefiting others’ into a single thing. The second is the ocean corresponding to the mind of great compassion, the treasury of joy and delight for all sentient beings: great compassion is not an aspect of suffering; it is where the joy and delight of sentient beings are stored. The third is universally manifesting within a single thought the power of the merit of all sentient beings throughout boundless kalpas. The fourth is universally causing all the worlds that form, abide, and decay to be wholly as pure as space — forming, abiding, and decaying are the appearance of the world, and being pure as space is its reality.

The fifth is loving, delighting in, believing, and accepting the dharma of all the noble ones. The sixth is being able to abide through kalpas expounding the meaning of all the grounds together with their skillful means — “the meaning of the grounds” refers to the doctrine of the several grounds, and this gate joins on ahead of time to the ten grounds of the later text. The seventh is the skillful means of the great offering made when all bodhisattvas pass away from the palace of the Tuṣita heaven and descend to be born, and this is one of the few gates in the whole passage established upon the single matter of a buddha’s descent to birth. The eighth is contemplating the ocean of inexhaustible supernormal powers and wisdom.

The ninth is the power of skillful means whereby the ocean of the merit of all buddhas is fulfilled and he appears in the world: he appears only when the merit is fulfilled, and the appearing is itself the skillful means. The tenth is the treasury of deep faith and delight brought forth by the power of the Tathāgata’s vows of old — faith does not arise out of nothing; it is drawn forth by the Buddha’s vows of old.

A correction: the first of this assembly’s verses says “I call to mind what the Tathāgata practiced of old,” and it is easy to read this as remembering things past. Its landing place is the last line — “by the Buddha’s majestic power today I see it all.” Calling to mind is not nostalgia; it is seeing here and now by the Buddha’s majestic power. And the ground of it: one who reads this passage and cannot raise this thought has most likely put the Buddha in the past rather than in this moment.

Assembly Five, the Brahmā Heaven: Ten Gates and One Line, “Like a Cloud in the Sky”

This assembly has the Brahmā-king Śikhin as its foremost, and those it is matched to are the hosts of the Heaven of the Brahmā-Body, the Heaven of Brahmā’s Ministers, the Heaven of Brahmā’s Retinue, and the Heaven of Great Brahmā. Fazang, explaining “Brahmā,” says that it is being apart from the defilement of desire, the utmost within purity; and explaining “Śikhin,” says that here it means fire-color, or else fire-crown, because the calamity of fire rises as far as this heaven and stops. The prose of length calls him “the Brahmā-king Śikhin” while at the speaking of the verses he is called “the great Brahmā-king Śikhin”: these are two ways of naming one and the same god-king, and the sūtra has it so from the first; there is nothing to suspect.

The ten gates walk all the way along ‘speaking the Dharma without being stained by it.’ The first gate is universally abiding within the places of practice of the ten directions and speaking the Dharma, his conduct pure and stained by nothing — speaking the Dharma is the thing that most easily gives rise to staining, and this gate is exactly its remedy. The second is causing all sentient beings to enter the samādhi of meditative concentration and abide there; the Brahmā gods take meditation as their occupation, and this gate is their own proper color. The third is universally entering all inconceivable dharmas. The fourth is entering the ocean of all the voices of the buddhas — and from this comes the matter of the perfect voice in the verses.

The fifth is being able to call to mind the skillful means by which bodhisattvas teach and transform all sentient beings. The sixth is manifesting the characteristics of the recompense of deeds in all the worlds, each and every one distinct. The seventh is appearing before and taming and training all the classes and kinds of sentient beings according to their differences — it makes a pair with the sixth: only when one has seen the differences of the recompense of deeds can one tame and train according to kind. The eighth is abiding in the realm of the pure characteristic of all dharmas and of the practice of quiescence.

The ninth is being attached to nothing among all the states of existence, having no boundary, resting upon nothing, and yet constantly and diligently appearing — after four negations comes a “constantly and diligently,” and this is one of the most savorable gates in the passage: unattached, unbounded, unresting, and yet not unmoving. The tenth is constantly contemplating and considering the inexhaustible dharma.

The fourth of this assembly’s verses says that the perfect voice of the buddhas is equal to the world, that sentient beings each according to their kind obtain their own understanding, and that the Buddha gives rise to no discrimination as to sound; and here Chengguan establishes three senses of the perfect voice: first that it is broad and boundless, second that it expresses distinctly, third that it is without discrimination, corresponding exactly to the first three lines of the verse; and he says that the full treatment is in the chapter “The Manifestation of the Tathāgata.” A correction: the perfect voice is not the Buddha speaking one language that everybody understands; it is the Buddha not discriminating while the hearers each obtain their own understanding. And the ground of it lies in the first verse: without characteristic, without activity, without image, like a cloud in the sky — if you would see the Buddha’s body, see it just so.

Assembly Six, the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations: The First Section of the Realm of Desire

From this assembly on we enter the realm of desire. Chengguan begins a new outline heading here, saying that below this is the second part, the gods of the realm of desire, whose text has seven sections, of which the first is the god-king of the Heaven of Others’ Emanations. Fazang, explaining “free enjoyment of others’ emanations,” says that one causes others to fashion the instruments of pleasure and thereby shows one’s own sovereignty, and hence the name. There is one thing worth noticing: in the outline of the earlier section on the gathering of the assemblies, Chengguan has seven sections setting forth the gods of the realm of desire first and five sections setting forth the gods of the realm of form after; but here in the section on praising the virtues he has the gods of form first and the gods of desire after. The two places run in opposite order, and each has its own warrant; both are recorded without adjudication.

The bone of these ten gates lies in two words, “following” and “smashing.” The first several gates are of following: the sovereign treasury that brings measureless sentient beings to ripeness in his very presence; observing what all sentient beings delight in and causing them to enter the delight of the realm of the noble ones — and this gate is the finest sentence of pedagogy in the whole passage, for it does not tell people to give up what they delight in, it exchanges what they delight in for the delight of the noble ones; causing sentient beings to take up practice in accordance with their every kind of desire and resolved understanding — first follow their desire and understanding, then cause them to take up practice, and the order cannot be inverted; universally upholding the meaning of what is spoken for all sentient beings; calling to mind the Tathāgata’s vast and great kindness and thereby advancing in his own practice.

The several gates after these are of smashing and taming: manifesting the gate of great compassion and smashing down every banner of arrogance; taming and training the minds of anger and harm in all the world. Arrogance and anger-and-harm are exactly the two heaviest sicknesses of the realm of desire, and the medicine used for both is not suppression — what smashes arrogance is the gate of great compassion, and what deals with anger is taming and training rather than breaking down.

The last three gates come back to the Buddha: the boundless buddhas of the ten directions all coming at the calling of mind; universally manifesting the accomplishing of perfect awakening in accordance with the thoughts of sentient beings; universally entering the dharma of great majestic power and sovereignty in all the world. The first of these mirrors this heaven’s own “sovereignty” exactly — free enjoyment of others’ emanations is causing others to fashion while oneself is sovereign, whereas the Buddha’s sovereignty is coming at the calling of sentient beings’ minds.

A sentence to bring it down to the ground: the verses say that the arrogance of sentient beings is like a high mountain and is smashed by the ten powers without remainder, and that this is “the working of the Tathāgata’s great compassion.” Smashing arrogance is a working of compassion, not a working of might — read this line and the two earlier gates come clear.

Assembly Seven, the Heaven of Delight in Emanations: Eleven Kings and Ten Verses

This assembly has the god-king Good Transformation as its foremost. Fazang, explaining “Delight in Emanations,” says that they delight in transforming things themselves, producing every kind of instrument of pleasure for their own amusement; and further that because the instruments of pleasure they produce for themselves are then enjoyed by themselves without encroaching on others, they are named Good Transformation, and also Delight in Emanations.

For this assembly one fact about the sūtra text itself has to be stated first: there are eleven god-kings, but only ten verses. The seventh, the god-king Excellent Light, obtained “the gate of liberation of awakening the knowing of all sentient beings,” and in the verses there is no line gathering up his name. This is not a thing about which one may pronounce an omission — Chengguan had already established a general rule earlier in this passage: the prose of length and the verses have from the first many points of difference; the number of syllables in the verses is fixed while the length of the prose varies; and setting the two texts side by side, there may be a difference of cause and fruit, or a distinction of substance and function, or a mutual eliding of what the other supplies, or a taking of turns between the hard and the easy, or a difference of dharma and simile, or an alternating showing forth of the active and the passive. Mutual eliding is precisely a case of this kind. The reader need only record the fact as it stands: this assembly has eleven gates, and one of them has no verse.

The eleven gates are almost all upon “deeds” and “transformation.” The first gate is revealing the power of transformation of all deeds — the gods of this assembly take transformation as their occupation, and so the Buddha speaks of deeds by way of transformation. The second is casting off every clinging to conditions. The third is universally extinguishing the deluded and darkened minds of all sentient beings and causing their wisdom to be complete. The fourth is manifesting boundless sounds that gladden the mind. The fifth is knowing the characteristics of the inexhaustible merit of all buddhas. The sixth is universally knowing the sequence of the forming and decaying of all past kalpas. The seventh is awakening the knowing of all sentient beings. The eighth is stretching forth radiance that swiftly fills the realm of space in the ten directions. The ninth is the power of vigor wherein nothing that is done can be destroyed. The tenth is knowing the recompense that sentient beings undergo on account of their deeds. The eleventh is manifesting the inconceivable differences of the shapes and kinds of sentient beings.

A correction: the gods of this assembly take transformation as their delight, and yet the sūtra does not scold transformation; it takes transformation itself as the occasion for revealing the nature of deeds. The first verse says that the nature of the world’s deeds is inconceivable and that the Buddha reveals for the deluded throng the true principle of causes and conditions — transformation is not something to be denied, it is something to be seen through. And the ground of it is in the last verse: it teaches one to contemplate a single pore of the Buddha, within which all sentient beings are wholly present, and yet they neither come nor go. The delight of transformation and the neither-coming-nor-going are gathered into one place in that verse.

Assembly Eight, the Heaven of Contentment: Ten Gates upon the Word “Full”

This assembly has the god-king Contentment as its foremost. Fazang says that this heaven’s new name is Tuṣita, which here means joyous contentment, and cites the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground to the effect that the bodhisattva of his last birth teaches and transforms there and greatly cultivates the practice of joyous contentment, and so it is called joyous contentment. And indeed the gates of this assembly run all the way along “fulfillment” and “universal purifying.”

The first gate is all buddhas arising in the world and fulfilling the wheel of the teaching. The second is the body of pure radiance that exhausts the realm of space. The third is the ocean of pure vows that extinguishes the sufferings of the world — the reason a vow can extinguish suffering is that it is a pure vow. The fourth is universally manifesting his body and speaking the Dharma; manifesting the body and speaking the Dharma are one thing. The fifth is universally purifying the whole realm of sentient beings.

The sixth is the inexhaustible treasury that universally teaches and transforms the world and is constantly present. The seventh is revealing the realm of the perfect awakening of all buddhas. The eighth is making firm the mind of awakening in all sentient beings so that it cannot be broken — what this gate governs is not the raising of the mind but its not being broken after it has been raised. The ninth is the skillful means of drawing near and observing whenever any buddha arises, and of taming and training sentient beings. The tenth is knowing within a single thought the minds of sentient beings and appearing in response to their capacities.

A correction: the two words “contentment” are easily read as fewness of desires. This heaven’s name is joyous contentment, meaning that it cultivates the practice of joyous contentment; and yet the gates the sūtra gives this assembly grow larger one after another — fulfilling the wheel of the teaching, exhausting the realm of space, the inexhaustible treasury. Contentment is not the shrinking of one’s measure; it is not giving rise to the thought of lack in the place of what one has obtained, and for that very reason one can let go into the inexhaustible. A sentence to bring it to the ground, from the last verse: the ocean of the minds of sentient beings is inconceivable, without abiding, without motion, without any place to rest, and yet the Buddha within a single thought sees them all plainly. The mind does not have to be settled first in order to be seen.

Assembly Nine, the Heaven of Time-Divisions: Ten Gates upon “Removing Calamity” and “Turning the Wheel”

This assembly has the god-king Time-Division as its foremost. Fazang says that Yāma here means the heaven of time, so named because the opening and closing of the flowers of the seasons distinguish day from night; and citing the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground, that there one receives pleasure according to the time, and so it is named Time-Division.

The ten gates fall into two bundles. The first bundle is the removing of calamity: arousing the roots of goodness of all sentient beings and causing them forever to leave grief and vexation; universally entering all realms; the wheel of great compassion that extinguishes every calamity — the three words “wheel of great compassion” are what matters, for what removes calamity is not force but compassion; knowing the minds of all sentient beings of the three times; and the radiance of the gate of dhāraṇī that holds all dharmas in mind without forgetting them.

The second bundle is turning and transforming: skillfully entering the inconceivable skillful means of the own-nature of all deeds; the skillful means of turning the wheel of Dharma and bringing sentient beings to ripeness; universally observing sentient beings with a vast eye and going to tame and train them — note the word “going”: having seen, one must go; surpassing all obstructions of deeds and not following what Māra does; and skillfully leading on and instructing all the hosts of gods, causing them to take up the practice and their minds to become pure. The last gate is especially worth noticing: those it is matched to are “the hosts of gods,” what it uses is “leading on and instructing,” and what it seeks is that they “take up the practice” and not merely that they understand.

A correction: the gods of Time-Divisions receive pleasure according to the time, and readers easily take “time” to be time in stretches and segments. The first verse says that through measureless and far-distant kalpas the Buddha has already dried up the ocean of the world’s grief and vexation — “already dried up” is the language of completion. What the gods of time-divisions delight in is according to the time, while what the Buddha does is done with time. A sentence to bring it to the ground: the last verse says that the whole assembled multitude is vast as an ocean and that the Buddha within it is the most majestically glorious, universally sending down the rain of Dharma to moisten sentient beings. Those who receive their pleasure within time are within that same rain of Dharma.

Assembly Ten, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three: Eleven Gates, and Li Tongxuan Matches This to the First Ground

This assembly has the god-king Śakra Indra as its foremost. Fazang says that Trāyastriṃśa here means the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and cites the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground to the effect that each of the four sides of the wondrous high mountain has eight great god-kings with Śakra dwelling in the middle, and so there are thirty-three; and says further that in full he should be called Śakra Devendra, which here means the lord able over gods. Li Tongxuan, however, opens another track here: he does not explain gate by gate, but takes ten great god-kings from the Heaven of the Thirty-Three down to the Great Sovereign god-king and matches them, as positions lodged for symbolic showing, to the ten grounds, matching the Heaven of the Thirty-Three to the first ground, the Joyful, and Yāma to the second, the Stainless; and he says the reason for doing so is that when the bodhisattva obtains the Joyful Ground he obtains the delight of Dharma, and in his mind there is no clinging to the five desires of the world, just as when a person of the world is first born in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three and receives the wondrous pleasures of the gods. He himself guards against one misreading, saying that in truth the bodhisattva’s compassion and wisdom pervade the six destinies and he does not abandon beings of the evil destinies; the lodging of the symbol in gods and kings only takes the sense of sovereignty, and is not a matter of admiring worldly pleasure. This is Li Tongxuan’s own symbolic showing, and what it takes hold of differs from Chengguan’s explanation that follows the text; both are recorded without adjudication.

Most of the eleven gates are upon “calling to mind” and “revealing.” The first gate is calling to mind the arising of the buddhas of the three times and even the forming and decaying of their lands, seeing it all plainly and greatly rejoicing — the reason calling to mind gives rise to joy is that the seeing is plain. The second is being able to cause the Buddha’s form-body to be the most pure and vast, beyond compare in the world. The third is the cloud of kindness universally covering and sheltering, the shortest gate in the whole passage, four characters. The fourth is constantly seeing the Buddha manifesting bodies of every kind of shape and majestic virtue before all the rulers of the worlds. The fifth is knowing from what merit the cities and palaces of sentient beings are born — this gate traces the dwelling before one’s eyes back to deeds of old.

The sixth is revealing the work by which the buddhas bring sentient beings to ripeness. The seventh is knowing the characteristics of the turning and changing of the kalpas of the forming and decaying of all worlds. The eighth is calling to mind the practice by which bodhisattvas to come will tame and train sentient beings — the earlier gate calls to mind the buddhas of the three times, this one calls to mind bodhisattvas to come, the two gates being one of fruit and one of cause. The ninth is knowing the causes of the joys of all the gods. The tenth is revealing to all the sons of the gods the roots of goodness of their birth 『𢔌』 and being without delusion or confusion — 『𢔌』 is a graph coined in this sūtra at this place, in the sense of causing, that is, causing the sons of the gods to be without delusion or confusion as to the roots of goodness of their birth. The eleventh is awakening all the hosts of gods and causing them forever to cut off every kind of doubt.

A correction: three of this assembly’s gates are established with respect to “the gods” expressly — knowing the causes of the joys of the gods, revealing to the sons of the gods the roots of goodness of their birth, and causing the hosts of gods to cut off their doubts. The place where the recompense of the gods is most abundant is exactly the place where it is easiest not to ask why. A sentence to bring it to the ground, from the verses: if one can call to mind even a little of the Tathāgata’s merit, or for so much as a single thought look up with concentrated mind, the fears of the evil destinies are wholly and forever removed. The threshold is set as low as a single thought.

Assembly Eleven, the Sun God-Sons: Eleven Gates upon “Light” and “Shining”

This assembly has the sun god-son as its foremost, and it is one of the two assemblies among the twelve that are called by “god-sons” rather than “god-kings” (the other is the moon god-sons at the very end). The compiler’s marker for the speaking of the verses in this assembly reads “contemplated throughout” rather than “universally contemplated,” and is recorded word for word.

Almost every one of the eleven gates has light in it. The first gate is the pure radiance that universally illumines the sentient beings of the ten directions and through all future kalpas constantly works their benefit. The second is awakening sentient beings with bodies of every kind matched to their kinds and causing them to enter the ocean of wisdom. The third is being the lord of all sentient beings and causing them diligently to cultivate boundless pure merit — the sun is the lord of the multitude of lights, and so the gate is established upon lordship. The fourth is cultivating every ascetic practice with a deep mind of joy: ascetic practice and yet a deep mind of joy — this gate joins suffering and joy together. The fifth is the unobstructed radiance that universally illumines and causes all sentient beings to have their spirits made bright. The sixth is the pure radiance that universally illumines the bodies of sentient beings and causes them to give rise to an ocean of joyous faith and understanding.

The seventh is the radiance that universally illumines all the world and causes them to accomplish every kind of wondrous merit. The eighth is the ocean of great compassion manifesting the jewels of every kind of form and character in boundless realms. The ninth is purifying and healing the eyes of all sentient beings and causing them to see the treasury of the Dharma realm — the gates before this were all sending forth light, and only this one treats the eye. With light but no eye, there is still no seeing. The tenth is bringing forth a pure and continuous mind and causing it not to be lost or broken: the word “continuous” is what matters, for a purity of one moment does not count. The eleventh is universally revolving the sun-palace so that it shines upon all the sentient beings of the ten directions and causes them to accomplish the work they undertake.

A correction: the light of the sun god-sons is easily read as no more than light in the figurative sense. But the ninth gate plainly shifts the weight from the light to the eye — the Buddha wishes to cause a pure eye to arise in sentient beings, and therefore lights for them the lamp of wisdom. A sentence to bring it to the ground, from the end of the verses: within a single gate of Dharma there are measureless gates, and one may proclaim them thus through measureless thousands of kalpas without coming to the end. To the reader who has come through this passage and feels that one hundred and twenty-four gates are already a great many, this line is addressed.

Assembly Twelve, the Moon God-Sons: Ten Gates Closing a Fascicle

This assembly has the moon god-son as its foremost, and it is the last assembly of this unit. The compiler’s marker in this assembly reads “sustained by the Buddha’s spiritual power” rather than “sustained by the Buddha’s majestic power” — which is the same as in the fifth assembly, the Brahmā gods; and the speaking of the verses reads “and spoke these verses, saying” rather than “and spoke these verses,” which in the whole passage occurs only here. Both are recorded word for word. Those it is matched to are also unusual: “all the assembled hosts of gods within the moon-palace.”

The ten gates lie between “shining” and “upholding.” The first gate is the pure radiance universally illumining the Dharma realm and gathering and transforming sentient beings, which stands opposite the sun god-son’s first gate, save that what is illumined here is the Dharma realm. The second is observing the whole realm of sentient beings and causing them universally to enter the boundless dharma. The third is knowing the every kind of clinging to conditions and revolving within the ocean of the minds of all sentient beings — the revolving of clinging to conditions is the actual state of sentient beings’ minds, and this gate first knows it as it is. The fourth is bestowing inconceivable joy upon all sentient beings and causing them to leap up in great rejoicing.

The fifth gate is the most unusual: to be like a farming household at its work, sowing the seed and guarding the sprout and the stalk, watching over them in their season so that they come to fruition. Among the whole passage’s one hundred and twenty-four gates, this one alone takes a worldly occupation for its simile. What it teaches is sequence and waiting — the sprout is guarded as a sprout in its season, the stalk as a stalk in its season, each having its own guarding. It cannot be hurried, and it cannot be abandoned either. The sixth is rescuing and protecting all sentient beings with compassion and causing them to see before them the undergoing of suffering and the undergoing of joy. The seventh is being able to uphold the pure moon and universally manifest it in the ten directions — a moon god upholding the moon, a gate of his own proper color, with the weight upon “uphold.”

The eighth is revealing that all dharmas are like an illusion, like space, without characteristic, and without own-nature. The ninth is universally raising up great work and function for all sentient beings. The tenth is universally cutting off every doubt and confusion. The last three gates run together: first illusion is spoken of, next the great functioning, and last the cutting off of doubt — it is having spoken of illusion and there still being great functioning that makes the doubt possible to cut off.

A sentence to bring it to the ground, from the end of the verses: the pores of the Buddha’s body universally send forth sound, the cloud of Dharma covers and shelters the world without remainder, and among those who hear there is none who does not rejoice. One fascicle, twelve assemblies, one hundred and twenty-four gates, gathered up in the single line “among those who hear there is none who does not rejoice.”

Lineage

Chengguan’s outline of this passage is drawn very finely. He judges the section of praising and extolling the virtues to be the preface that sets the sūtra in motion, and divides it into the summing up of the deportment and settled bearing, the setting forth in general of the causes and conditions of their virtue and practice, and the particular showing forth of their obtaining the Dharma and praising the Buddha; and within the obtaining of the Dharma and praising of the Buddha, the assemblies of different birth come first and the assemblies of the same birth after; and within the assemblies of different birth, the gods first, the eight classes of beings next, and the spirits last; and within the gods, the gods of form first and the gods of desire after; five sections of gods of form and seven sections of gods of desire. What is read in this unit is precisely the twelve assemblies of gods. In one place the two outlines run in opposite order: the outline of the section on the gathering of the assemblies has seven sections setting forth the gods of the realm of desire first and five sections setting forth the gods of the realm of form after, while the outline of the section on praising the virtues has the gods of form first and the gods of desire after. Each of the two places has its own warrant; recorded without adjudication.

After this unit, the assemblies of different birth still have two sections. The section of the eight classes of beings and the spirits follows upon it, and Chengguan outlines it in eight sections, saying that the first four are of mixed kinds, and that among the latter four the ones who govern are god-kings while the ones governed are the eight classes. After that come the assemblies of the same birth, that is, the assemblies of bodhisattvas, which Chengguan outlines in three: first showing forth Samantabhadra Bodhisattva obtaining all the gates of Dharma, next the ten universal bodhisattvas each obtaining one gate, last the ten bodhisattvas of differing names. Samantabhadra alone obtains ten gates, standing in exact contrast with the gods of this passage each obtaining one — Chengguan says that each obtaining one shows the inexhaustibility of the Buddha’s virtue, while Samantabhadra’s obtaining ten shows the inexhaustibility of one who is equal to the Buddha. To see the weight of the one hundred and twenty-four “obtainings of one” in this passage, one must look at that “obtaining of ten” in the assemblies of the same birth along with them.

The turn of phrase “gate of liberation” is used one hundred and twenty-four times in this passage, and it continues on in the later text of this sūtra. In the chapter “Entry into the Dharma Realm,” this phrase appears first in “the gates of liberation of the several samādhis and meditative concentrations,” which is said with respect to the practice that cultivates; and afterward it appears in Sudhana’s words in seeking the Dharma, “show me your gate of liberation,” which is said with respect to the request that seeks the Dharma. The one is in cultivating oneself, the other in seeking from another; while this passage speaks with respect to obtaining the Dharma — Chengguan explains the word “obtain” as “the assembly each and all realize and accord with it.” Looking at the three places together, the three uses of a single turn of phrase become clear.

What Fazang commented upon was the sixty-fascicle text, the chapter “The Pure Eye of the World.” In the sixty-fascicle text, at the place corresponding to this passage, the pattern is greatly different from that of the eighty-fascicle text: there the god-kings are listed by name, with a single clause at the end of each assembly summing up that assembly’s virtue, and there is no gate of liberation for each king, nor any verse from the foremost of each assembly. So Fazang’s comment at this place is likewise only an explaining of the names heaven by heaven — Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma, Tuṣita, Delight in Emanations, Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations, Brahmā, Light-Sound, Universal Purity, Extensive Fruit, Maheśvara — explaining the sense of each name one by one, and citing the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground, the Long Discourses, the Sūtra of the Three Measures of Dharma, and the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom for their bodily measure, the measure of their garments, the measure of their life span, and the aspect of their dwellings. Such is the expansion and compression of the two texts; wholly recorded without adjudication.

Li Tongxuan’s treatise forms a track of its own. He takes ten great god-kings and lodges them in positions matched to the ten grounds, and cites the Sūtra of Humane Kings to match them to the positions of the wheel-turning kings, and at the end matches the dāna-pāramitā to the first ground, saying that the ten god-kings below are the ten perfections within the dāna-pāramitā. This is a treatise of symbolic showing, not a commentary that follows the text; and what it takes hold of differs from Chengguan’s gate-by-gate explaining. Both are recorded without adjudication. Should one wish to read them together, the units of chapter twenty-six on the several grounds in this collection may be consulted alongside it.

Reading straight on, after the twelve assemblies of gods come the eight classes of beings and the spirits, running one more round of the same pattern; and after that the assemblies of the same birth, the bodhisattva assemblies, come forth, Samantabhadra obtains his ten gates, and with that the preface is complete. Chengguan says that the gathering of the assemblies and the praising in verse were originally all at one and the same time, and that only because writing cannot set it all down at once was it arranged in sequence — read this fascicle through and then look back, and the before and after of the twelve assemblies will be seen to have been, from the first, the affair of a single moment.

First, See Clearly What This Section Is Doing

From beginning to end this fascicle does only one thing: host by host it reports the names, one by one it states which gate of liberation each has gained, and then one foremost figure of that host, sustained by the Buddha’s majestic power, speaks a set of verses on behalf of the host. So it goes for all thirteen hosts — twelve sets of ten verses each and one set of eleven for the dragon kings, one hundred and thirty-one verses in all, without one wasted sentence and without a single line of summing up.

The first thing to ask is why it should be written this way. A modern reader who turns to this page most readily has the thought, ‘this is only a roster,’ and skips it. To skip it is to throw away the eye of this chapter. The chapter is called The Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the Worlds — the rulers of the worlds adorn this assembly with the virtue each of them has gained. Adornment is not display; it is that each ruler comes bearing his own real place of entry. The roster is long precisely because the gates really are that many; and the gates have to be listed one by one precisely because not one of them can stand in for another.

The second misreading to rule out is sequence. These ten gates are not ten stages. The formula of the sūtra is ‘gained the … gate of liberation’, one clause to one person, and between clause and clause there is no connective such as ‘and from this he then went on’ or ‘advancing in due order’. Chengguan outlines the first eight hosts as the eight classes and the hosts of the four heavenly kings, and places the latter five hosts among the spirit hosts; but the headings he gives are only divisions, not a judgment of high and low. So the way to read is this: whichever gate you can walk into today is your gate.

Third, the speaker has to be kept straight. The prose is the narration of the compiler of the sūtra, telling which king or which spirit gained which gate; the verses are what that one foremost figure says with his own mouth, and before he says them there are always the four graphs ‘sustained by the Buddha’s majestic power’. Those four graphs are not a courtesy. They mean that the virtues of the Buddha praised in these verses are not measured out by these rulers of the worlds from their own insight; it is under the sustaining power of the Buddha that they are able to say them at all. Read the verses carrying this, and they stop being hymns of praise: they are reports made faithfully by one who has been sustained.

There is one small matter to settle first as well. The last line of nearly every verse brings out a name — ‘this is what King Tree Light is able to see’, ‘the dragon Takṣaka awakened into this road’, and the like. Chengguan states the pattern generally in the asura section: ‘this section above and the night-spirits below all conclude by returning to a name; it is the same pattern throughout, and for fear of prolixity it is not explained.’ By actual count it comes to this: the opening verse of each of the thirteen hosts — the one the foremost figure speaks of himself — concludes with no name, and the remaining one hundred and eighteen each conclude by returning to their name. So the verses and the prose are broadly mortised together: the prose says that a certain king gained a certain gate, and the verse takes four lines to set out the meaning of that gate, mostly returning the name at the end. Once you see that joint, the one hundred and thirty-one clauses stop being a roster: they are one hundred and thirty-one paired sets of ‘gate and realization’.

The Gandharva Host: Ten Gates That Begin from “Taking In”

Gandharvas are a class that feeds on fragrance and makes music for the gods. Fazang explains their name by saying ‘it means here seeking fragrance’, and further that ‘they are also named eaters of fragrance, feeding only on subtle fragrance’, and that ‘they dwell among the ten jewel mountains and constantly make music for the gods.’ That the makers of music should be the first host is itself a hint: the first to report in at this assembly are not those whose marks of practice are most adorned, but those nearest to the pleasures of the world.

Ask first: the first king, Upholder of the State, gained ‘taking in all sentient beings by sovereign skillful means’ — where is the sovereignty in it? Chengguan answers to the point: ‘taking in and subduing, going against and going along, are of many kinds, and because he skillfully answers to the capacity of beings it is named sovereign.’ Sovereignty is not doing as one pleases; it is using the grain and using the counter-grain, keeping both taking-in and subduing in hand and shifting with the vessel before one — it is only when one is not tied down by one’s own single method that it is called sovereign.

The second gate is the universal seeing of all merit and adornment. Chengguan says it ‘means causing sentient beings to see all the merit and adornment of the Buddha. A single hair of the Buddha makes for benefit, and each and every one is so; therefore it says universally seen.’ The point is in ‘each and every one is so’: it is not that the Buddha’s merits are summed up and then shown to people; it is that every single pore is whole, so that from wherever you look in, what you see is the whole of that virtue. The verse says ‘within each and every pore of the Tathāgata, the great ocean of merit is wholly filled’ — just this sense.

The remaining eight gates are opened one by one below. The third, ‘forever cutting off the sorrow and suffering of all sentient beings and giving birth to the treasury of joy’ — the cutting off of suffering and the giving birth to joy are two faces of one thing: if suffering is not cut off, joy floats; hence it is called a treasury, one that can give birth without being used up. The fourth, ‘forever cutting off the wrong views and delusions of all sentient beings’ — the former gate cuts off feeling, this one cuts off views; everyone is willing to be parted from suffering, but wrong views are commonly taken to be one’s own position, and so a separate gate has to be set up. The fifth, ‘spreading wide like a cloud, universally shading and moistening all sentient beings’ — the virtue of a cloud lies in not picking and choosing, and the shading and the moistening come at once, the blocking of the sun and the falling of rain being one act. The sixth, ‘manifesting a vast and wondrously fine body, causing all to gain ease’ — a bodily form is made a gate because many people first grow easy in what they see, and only then in the Dharma. The seventh, ‘universally scattering to the ten directions the jewel of every great renown’ — renown here is not empty repute; it is taking the Buddha’s names as a jewel and scattering them, so that those who have not yet heard get to hear. The eighth, ‘manifesting a pure body of the radiance of all great joy’ — it looks like a repetition of the sixth, and the difference lies in the one word ‘joy’: the former makes people secure, this one makes them glad. The ninth, ‘universally nourishing all trees into flourishing, causing those who see them to rejoice’ — the tree is taken as a simile, and it is said with respect to the roots of goodness of sentient beings: one who nourishes them into flourishing does not tug at the seedlings. The tenth, ‘skillfully entering the realms of all buddhas and giving ease to sentient beings’ — the first nine gates are all on the side of benefiting others, and the last gate mortises entering the realms of the buddhas together with giving ease to sentient beings into a single clause: if you do not go in yourself, you have nothing to hand out.

One line to put it to ground: if you want to check yourself against these ten gates, ask whether you have only one method when you take people in; ask whether you are waiting until your merits are all gathered before you are willing to be seen; ask whether, when you speak the Dharma, you are making people secure or making them glad. Answer all three and this host’s gate is no longer somebody else’s gate.

The Kumbhāṇḍa Host: Ten Gates That All Open from ‘Removing Harm’

Kumbhāṇḍas are a class led by the Heavenly King of the South. The first king is named Increase, which is exactly the translation of the sense of Virūḍhaka, the Heavenly King of the South — Zhiyan cites an ancient treatise saying ‘the god of the south is named Virūḍhaka, which here means Increase.’

Ask first: why do the gates of this host so largely carry the aspect of extinguishing? Look at the ten gates and you will see. The first, ‘the power that extinguishes all enmity and harm’, is the general one; the nine below take enmity and harm apart and give each piece its own counteragent. The second, ‘cultivating the ocean of boundless gates of practice’ — enmity and harm are boundless, and therefore the gates of practice must be boundless too; one method cannot answer to ten thousand capacities. The third, ‘knowing what all sentient beings delight in within their minds’ — the first step in removing harm is not to raise a hand but to know first what the other wants. The fourth, ‘universally accomplishing the work done by the pure great radiance’ — the work done must be pure, or else the very act of removing harm becomes a fresh harm. The fifth, ‘disclosing to all sentient beings the path of security and fearlessness’ — terror is itself a harm, and so security is precisely the removing of harm. The sixth, ‘drying up the ocean of the craving and desire of all sentient beings’ — outer harm is easy to see, while the harm of craving and desire is within, and so it gets a gate of its own. The seventh, ‘universally manifesting the cloud of radiance of the destinies’ — only when one sees which destiny one is standing in does the source of the harm become clear. The eighth, ‘emitting radiance universally and extinguishing obstructions piled up like a mountain’ — obstruction heavy as a mountain cannot be finished off by gradual removal, and so the aspect taken is that of radiance illumining all at once. The ninth, ‘disclosing the treasury of great compassion that is non-retrogressive’ — if the mind that removes harm can retreat, the harm will never be removed, and so it must not turn back. The tenth, ‘universally manifesting a body that turns within the destinies’ — this gate matters most: it is not standing on the bank and removing harm, but manifesting a body that turns and entering into the destinies.

Rule out a misreading. The verse says ‘the guide of the world who has perfected the power of patience’, and it is easy to read this as the Buddha being able to endure. Patience here is being able not to strike back; it is cutting the chain of enmity and harm at one’s own link. The verse goes on, ‘he has forever left behind the arrogance and delusion of the world, and therefore his bodily form is the most adorned and pure’ — the cause of that adorned purity is not in the marks and signs but in arrogance already being gone. To put it to ground: if the ‘enmity and harm’ you meet is always of one and the same kind, most likely the trouble is not outside; it is that the third gate and the sixth are not yet open.

The Dragon Host: Eleven Dragon Kings, Eleven Gates

This host is unlike the rest: the other twelve hosts have ten apiece, and this one alone has eleven, so that its verses too are eleven. This is no copyist’s slip; it is the number the sūtra actually has, and the reader need not round it off for it.

The first king, Virūpākṣa, is the Heavenly King of the West; Zhiyan cites an ancient treatise saying ‘the god of the west is named Virūpākṣa, which here means Varied Speech; he leads two divisions of ghosts and spirits, the first the dragons and the second the pūtanas.’ The first gate, ‘extinguishing all the blazing suffering of the destiny of dragons’ — first the suffering of one’s own destiny is removed. The destiny of dragons has blazing as its suffering, and so the gate gained faces that suffering directly; this is a general rule: a gate very often opens at the place where one’s own pain is sharpest.

The second gate, ‘in a single thought turning away his own dragon form and manifesting the bodies of measureless sentient beings’ — to turn away the form of one’s own body is not to cling to one’s own kind. The third, ‘within all the destinies of existence, proclaiming with a pure voice the ocean of the Buddha’s boundless names’ — to enter the destinies by voice is to take the dragon’s power of bringing rain and turn it to another use. The fourth, ‘universally manifesting the differences in the establishing of boundless buddha-worlds’ — seeing the differences among worlds without being thrown into confusion, and so the verse says ‘measureless, boundless lands and their assemblies the Buddha can cause to enter into a single pore.’ The fifth, ‘the coverings and entanglements formed of the anger and folly of all sentient beings, which the Tathāgata in his compassion and pity causes to be extinguished’ — anger and folly are the habits of the destiny of dragons, and this gate makes one’s own habit the very field of the beings one crosses over. The sixth, ‘disclosing to all sentient beings the ocean of merit of great joy and ease’ — merit is spoken of as an ocean, which is to say it can be accumulated and cannot be used up. The seventh, ‘extinguishing all terrors with a pure voice of rescue and protection’ — the voice of rescue must be pure, for a rescue carried out in anger is still a terror. The eighth, ‘manifesting the form-bodies of all buddhas together with the sequence of the kalpas of their dwelling in the world’ — form-bodies and the number of kalpas displayed together, which is to hand over the aspect of space and the aspect of time at once. The ninth, ‘giving birth to the ocean of joy in which all sentient beings greatly delight’ — delight here is not craving; it is the gladness born of seeing a buddha. The tenth, ‘manifesting a voice that is everywhere equal, pleasing to the mind and unobstructed’ — pleasing and yet equal, and therefore unobstructed; a voice that pleases only one sort of person is obstructed. The eleventh, ‘extinguishing all the suffering of the world with the cloud of great compassion that covers universally’ — it gathers the whole host up under the aspect of a covering cloud, answering back to the blazing of the first gate.

There is one further difference of pattern here: the sentence introducing this host’s verses reads ‘having contemplated the whole host of dragons universally, he then spoke verses saying’, whereas the other twelve hosts all read ‘and spoke verses saying’. So it stands word for word, and it is set down together without adjudication.

The Yakṣa Host: Ten Gates That All Come Down to the Word ‘Rescue’

Yakṣas are a class led by the Heavenly King of the North. In the prose the first king is given as the yakṣa king Vaiśravaṇa, while at the speaking of the verses he is called the great yakṣa king Much-Heard; Zhiyan, citing an ancient treatise, explains Vaiśravaṇa as precisely ‘which here means Much-Heard’ — the two designations are the same in sense, and both forms stand together in the text of the sūtra, recorded word for word.

The first gate, ‘rescuing and protecting evildoing sentient beings by boundless skillful means’ — it marks out the one word ‘evildoing’ in particular. Ask first: why mark it? Because rescue is easy to extend to the lovable and hard to extend to the doer of evil; a gate opened at the hard place is what makes it a gate. The second, ‘contemplating sentient beings universally and rescuing and protecting them by skillful means’ — observe before rescuing, and only a rescue that follows observation will not go wrong. The third, ‘being able to sustain and nourish all sentient beings who are utterly feeble and utterly evil’ — the feeble and the evil are named together: the one has no strength, the other has strength and uses it wrongly, and both kinds must be sustained and nourished. The fourth, ‘extolling the ocean of merit of all noble ones’ — to extol is to rescue, since it causes people to give rise to a mind of glad longing. The fifth, ‘the wisdom of great compassion that contemplates all sentient beings universally’ — compassion and wisdom joined in one gate: compassion without wisdom is indiscriminate, wisdom without compassion is cold. The sixth, ‘benefiting and bringing ease to all sentient beings by all kinds of skillful means’ — benefit and ease are stated separately: benefit is to give what they lack, ease is to remove what pains them. The seventh, ‘universally entering into the meaning of all dharmas’ — a rescue must in the end rely on the meaning of the Dharma, and so this gate is the floor beneath the previous six. The eighth, ‘guarding all sentient beings and causing them to abide in the path, with not one of them passing in vain’ — the words ‘not one passing in vain’ weigh a great deal: to guard is not to keep watch but to guarantee that it does not come to nothing. The ninth, ‘increasing the accumulation of merit of all sentient beings and causing them constantly to receive ease and joy’ — the word ‘constantly’ matters; a moment’s joy does not count. The tenth, ‘in accord with mindful recollection, giving birth to the light of wisdom of the Buddha’s powers’ — it closes with the recollection of the Buddha’s power, for the strength by which one rescues others is in the end not one’s own.

Rule out a misreading. The verse says ‘the sins and evils of sentient beings are deep enough to be dreadful, and for a hundred thousand kalpas they do not see a buddha’ — it does not say the Buddha has hidden himself. The cause of not seeing is the obstruction of sin and evil, and the Buddha arises in the world precisely for this. To put it to ground: the ten gates of this host can be used as a table of the order in which one rescues people — first observe, then sustain, then extol, then bring compassion and wisdom to bear together, and at the last come back to the recollection of the Buddha’s power; skip any step in the middle and rescuing turns into meddling.

The Mahoraga Host: Ten Gates That Begin from ‘Coolness’

Mahoragas are the class among the eight that crawl upon the ground on their great bellies. The first gate, ‘causing sentient beings to amass merit by every skillful means of spiritual penetration’ — spiritual penetration is made the gate, and yet it comes down on the amassing of merit; spiritual penetration is only a means. The second, ‘causing all sentient beings to be rid of affliction and to gain cool and joyful ease’ — the two words ‘cool and clear’ are the eye of this host, and the verse too says ‘he shows them the path of ambrosia and makes them cool’; the aspect of affliction is heat, and therefore the aspect of its counteragent is coolness.

The third gate, ‘universally causing all sentient beings, whether their thoughts are good or not good, to enter the pure Dharma’ — those with good thoughts and those with thoughts not good are taken in together, and this is the place where a misreading is ruled out: the pure Dharma is not a reward handed only to good people. The fourth, ‘fully understanding the sovereign and equal characteristic of the merit that clings to nothing at all’ — merit that is able to cling to nothing is what is called sovereign; the person who clings to his merit is the least sovereign of all. The fifth, ‘disclosing to all sentient beings and causing them to leave the path of darkness and terror’ — darkness and terror are one thing, for it is because one does not see clearly that one is afraid. The sixth, ‘knowing the merit of all buddhas and giving rise to joy’ — knowing, and then rejoicing, not rejoicing first and knowing after. The seventh, ‘being, by the power of valor, the rescuer and protector and lord of all sentient beings’ — rescue requires strength, and so valor is set up as a gate of its own. The eighth, ‘causing all sentient beings, in accord with their mindful recollection, to give rise to boundless joy and ease’ — joy and ease are tied to recollection, and so do not wait upon outer circumstance. The ninth, ‘being decidedly unmoved with respect to every object of mind, reaching the far shore and being fulfilled’ — the verse says ‘like Mount Sumeru he has never tilted or stirred’; the unmovedness is not rigidity, it is that the object stands before one and the mind does not turn with it. The tenth, ‘disclosing the path of equality to all unequal sentient beings’ — it closes on equality, answering back to the third gate’s taking in of the good and the not good together.

In the prose the first king is given as the mahoraga king Good Wisdom, and at the speaking of the verses he is called the mahoraga king Good Wisdom and Majestic Light — two forms word for word, recorded without adjudication. To put it to ground: if one gate out of these ten is to be picked up and used today, it is the ninth — whichever object has moved you today, try being unmoved right there.

The Kiṃnara Host: Ten Gates That All Rest upon ‘Joy and Ease’

Kiṃnaras have song as their work, and so nearly every one of their ten gates carries the aspect of joy and ease. Ask first: how can joy and ease constitute a gate of liberation? Because suffering and joy are both places of entry, and those who enter by suffering are many while those who enter by joy are few and find it harder — joy easily comes to rest in joy. The ten gates of this host are exactly a pushing of joy upward, layer by layer.

The first gate, ‘universally giving birth to every deed of joy and ease’ — it speaks first of deeds: joy and ease have their causes. The second, ‘being able to give birth to unsurpassed joy in the Dharma and to cause all sentient beings to receive ease’ — exchanging worldly joy for joy in the Dharma is the turning point of this host. The third, ‘the treasury of vast, pure faith and understanding in which all merit is fulfilled’ — what joy rests on is faith and understanding, and if faith and understanding are not pure the joy is bound to alter. The fourth, ‘constantly sending forth every sound that pleases the mind, causing those who hear to leave sorrow and fear behind’ — sound is made the gate, which is what their own calling is best at. The fifth, ‘settling all sentient beings by great compassion and causing them to awaken to what they take as their object’ — at this point joy turns out into compassion, for otherwise joy is only self-amusement. The sixth, ‘manifesting every subtle and wondrous form-body’ — taking people in by form is still their own calling. The seventh, ‘knowing the deeds from which every surpassing adorned fruit is born’ — seeing the fruit and knowing the cause; this is the gate that rules out a misreading: adornment is not something one is born with. The eighth, ‘contemplating well the retribution born of the deeds of all the world’ — the previous gate observes the causes of good fruit, this one observes the retribution of all deeds, and so takes in the retribution of suffering as well. The ninth, ‘constantly setting in motion every affair that benefits sentient beings’ — the one word ‘constantly’ brings joy down into deeds. The tenth, ‘knowing well the minds of all kiṃnaras and skillfully taking them in and governing them’ — at the end it comes back to one’s own kind: only when one can take in the minds of one’s own people is there anything to be said about taking in all.

To put it to ground: the verse says ‘every matter of ease and joy in the world comes entirely from seeing the arising of a buddha.’ This line need not be read as a declaration of faith; it can be read as a test: of what you call ease, how much is left once the joy of seeing the path is taken away?

The Garuḍa Host: Ten Gates Between ‘Seizing’ and ‘Not Seizing’

Garuḍas are the golden-winged birds, and seizing is their nature. And yet the gates of this host lie mostly upon non-clinging, upon equality, upon vastness — and this is exactly what makes a gate a gate: it opens from the reverse side of one’s own disposition.

The first gate, ‘universally contemplating the realm of sentient beings with an eye that neither clings nor is obstructed’ — first the eye that seizes is exchanged for an eye that does not cling. The second, ‘universally abiding in the Dharma realm and teaching and transforming sentient beings’ — abiding stands opposite to flying and seizing, and so is set up separately. The third, ‘universally accomplishing the power of vigor of the pāramitās’ — vigor is the strength of their own nature, and here it is taken over into the dharmas of crossing to the far shore. The fourth, ‘entering the realm of the Tathāgata by the power of valor’ — the power of valor is turned toward the realm of the Tathāgata, and no longer downward to seize a thing. The fifth, ‘entering the vast ocean of wisdom of the practice of the buddhas’ — an ocean is what is entered, answering back to their beating of the ocean with their wings. The sixth, ‘accomplishing the wisdom of the distinctions among boundless sentient beings’ — knowing distinctions is essential to transforming others. The seventh, ‘adorning the city of the Buddha’s Dharma’ — the verse says ‘the city of Dharma is vast and cannot be exhausted, and its gates are of many kinds and beyond number’; the city has gates and the gates are without number, which is the consistent sense of this whole fascicle. The eighth, ‘accomplishing the indestructible power of equality’ — to speak of equality as a power is to say that it can stand up to being struck. The ninth, ‘knowing the bodies of all sentient beings and manifesting a form for them’ — the form manifested follows the capacity, and is not the form one likes oneself. The tenth, ‘universally entering the wisdom of the courses of dying and of taking birth of all sentient beings’ — death and birth are contemplated together, hence the name ‘dying and taking birth’.

Rule out a misreading. The verse says ‘all the buddhas are one dharma-body; suchness is equal and without discrimination’ — it does not say there is only one buddha. It says that the Dharma realized is not two, while the aspects manifested are many. To put it to ground: this host teaches one to hand over one’s own strongest disposition and put it to another use, rather than to press it down.

The Asura Host: Ten Gates That Turn ‘Being Foremost’ into ‘Equality’

Asuras have the merit of gods and are fond of quarrelling and fighting. The first gate, ‘manifesting as the foremost and surpassing lord within the great assembly’ — if this gate is not read through to the end, it looks most of all like indulging their habit. Chengguan explains it with perfect clarity: ‘the asura’s being foremost and surpassing is a match for the height of Sumeru; the Tathāgata’s majestic radiance eclipses the great assemblies of the ten directions, and sentient beings each see the true surpassing lord.’ The aspect of being foremost now appears on the body of the Buddha; the ‘surpassing’ that the asuras contend for is moved to the place where it truly belongs, sentient beings each see the true surpassing lord, and the contending mind of itself dies down.

The second gate, ‘manifesting measureless kalpas’ — the length of time counteracts their haste. The third, ‘extinguishing all the suffering of sentient beings and making them pure’ — contending turns into compassion. The fourth, ‘cultivating every ascetic practice as his own adornment’ — the strength of contending is turned into the capacity to bear. The fifth, ‘shaking the boundless realms of the ten directions’ — the verse says in particular ‘it does not cause sentient beings any alarm’, and this is the place where a misreading is ruled out: to shake without frightening people is what makes strength well used. The sixth, ‘settling all sentient beings by all kinds of skillful means’ — settling stands paired against shaking. The seventh, ‘universally amassing indestructible roots of goodness and purifying every defiling attachment’ — that the roots of goodness cannot be destroyed answers precisely to the asuras’ disease of great merit easily destroyed. The eighth, ‘being, by the power of great compassion, a lord in whom there is no doubt or confusion’ — Chengguan says ‘because compassion employs wisdom, it universally causes there to be no doubt’; if compassion has no wisdom, people cannot trust it. The ninth, ‘universally causing beings to see the Buddha, to serve and make offerings to him, and to cultivate every root of goodness’ — Chengguan says ‘because serving and making offerings and cultivating goodness have surpassing virtue’; the two words ‘surpassing virtue’ still do not leave their own nature behind, and yet what is surpassed has changed. The tenth, ‘universally entering the decidedly equal practice of all the destinies’ — Chengguan says ‘universally entering the destinies, making clear that there is no place he does not pervade’; the last gate closes with equality, which stands exactly paired with the ‘being foremost’ of the first.

To put it to ground: this host is the clearest demonstration in the whole fascicle — one’s disposition need not be destroyed first and practice taken up after; it is turned around on the spot.

The Host of Day-Spirits: Ten Gates That Begin from ‘Universal Entry’

The five hosts that follow do not belong to the eight classes; Chengguan outlines them separately as the spirit hosts, and this fascicle has the first five of them.

For the first gate, ‘universally entering all the worlds’, Chengguan brings down three similes in a row: ‘wisdom understanding the minds of beings, like space entering into form; radiance illumining bodies and the vessel-world, like the sun merging with space; the body pervading the vessel-world, like an image within a mirror.’ Each simile states one part — knowing minds as space enters into form, reaching everywhere without obstructing anything; illumining bodies as the sun merges with space, pervading and leaving no trace; the body pervading as an image is in a mirror, appearing and yet not existent. He further says ‘the place entered is precisely the palace’, which explains this spirit’s name exactly: the palace is not somewhere else; the place entered is it.

For the second gate, ‘universally contemplating all sentient beings, giving benefit to them all and causing them to rejoice and be fulfilled’, Chengguan says ‘the meaning being complete and answering to capacity, therefore the mind is filled and benefit accomplished’ — the meaning stated must be complete and must also answer to capacity, and if either is lacking there is no fulfilment. For the third, ‘being able to emit the boundless and lovable radiance of the Dharma’, Chengguan says ‘the two radiances, of the body and of the Dharma, are both lovable’ — the radiance of bodily form and the radiance of the Dharma are equally lovable. For the fourth, ‘opening up the pure minds of faith and understanding of boundless sentient beings’, Chengguan takes rain moistening a seed as the simile: ‘the rain of Dharma moistens the seed — in one that already holds fruit, understanding opens goodness; in one not yet sprouted, faith is set forth’ — one and the same fall of rain, and the ripe one opens into understanding while the green one puts forth faith. For the fifth, ‘amassing the power of the adorned universal radiance’, Chengguan says ‘there being no dharma he does not awaken to is named the power of universal brightness, cultivated and gathered through vast kalpas into the adornment of wisdom.’ For the sixth, ‘universally awakening all sentient beings, whether in suffering or in ease, and causing them all to gain the joy of the Dharma’, Chengguan says ‘by skillful means disclosing that worldly joy is also suffering, so as to cause them to awaken and enter and to see the joy of the Dharma of principle’ — one who is in the midst of joy must first know that joy too is suffering before he will consent to enter the joy of the Dharma.

The seventh gate, ‘the body of the distinctions of the Dharma realm of the ten directions’, is the deepest gate for doctrine in this fascicle, and Chengguan’s explanation should be read clause by clause: ‘the cloud of the Tathāgata’s body — taken as to its substance it is neither existent nor non-existent; taken with respect to the capacities of beings it is differentiated and pervades the ten directions, so it cannot be called non-existent; taken with respect to the Buddha it answers to the true Dharma realm, so it cannot be called existent.’ It cannot be said to be non-existent, and it cannot be said to be existent either — and so he goes on to say ‘the dharma-body, which accords with conditions and is not existent, constantly manifests without differing from phenomena, in order to transform sentient beings, who are quiescent and are not non-existent and are constantly established without differing from the true; and this is precisely differentiation within non-differentiation.’ Which is to say: the dharma-body manifests according to conditions and does not depart from the aspects of phenomena, and sentient beings are of themselves quiescent and do not depart from the true nature, so that neither end falls to one side, and the differentiation is a differentiation upon non-differentiation. The verse of the sūtra seals this exactly: ‘the nature of it is neither non-existent nor existent — this is what the Spirit Contemplating the Directions entered into.’

For the eighth gate, ‘rescuing and protecting all sentient beings and causing them ease’, Chengguan says ‘those in peril he protects and makes secure; those who have suffering he rescues and makes joyful’ — protecting and rescuing, security and joy, each answering to its own. For the ninth, ‘universally giving birth to the power of merit of contentment’, Chengguan says ‘sentient beings are in darkness through many desires, and therefore sink in the long night. Opening their understanding with the Dharma, contentment comes first’ — this gate answers precisely to the name of the day-spirits: the counteragent of the long night is daybreak, and the way into daybreak is contentment. For the tenth, ‘his renown being universally heard, so that sentient beings who see him gain benefit’, Chengguan says ‘having the virtue and conduct of awakening, therefore his renown is universally heard; and since his merit is broad and his name lofty, his benefit is therefore not in vain’ — only when the name is lofty and the benefit is not empty does one count as having gained this gate.

The Host of Night-Spirits: Ten Gates, the First Seven Being the Good Friends of the Grounds Whom Sudhana Later Visits (Chengguan)

This host holds a particular place in the sūtra as a whole. Chengguan states it outright: ‘Second, the night-spirits, ten dharmas. The first seven night-spirits are Sudhana’s good friends of the ten grounds; their insight is deep and wide, which all the more displays how inconceivable are the Dharma-gates of the ocean of the assembly.’ That is to say, the seven night-spirits who pass by in a flash in the prologue of this fascicle are precisely the good friends on the grounds whom Sudhana visits one by one in the later section on the entry into the Dharma realm. The assembly of the prologue is no supporting cast; it is the announcement of the main exposition to come.

Matched one by one as Chengguan has it: the first, Pure Radiance of Universal Virtue, is the good friend of the Ground of Freedom from Defilement whom Sudhana visits, and he says ‘there the name is entirely the same, and the Dharma-gate is named Universally Roaming in the Joy of Quiescent Meditative Concentration’; the second, Joyful Eyes Contemplating the World, is ‘the good friend of the Ground of Brightness’; the third, Guarding the Vital Essence of the World, is ‘the good friend of the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, whose name there is Wondrous Virtue That Universally Rescues Sentient Beings’, and he explains that name by saying ‘guarding the vital essence of the world is precisely rescuing the living, and it is by guarding the living that the wondrousness of the virtue is displayed’; the fourth, Quiescent Ocean Sound, is ‘the good friend of the Ground Difficult to Conquer’; the fifth, Universally Manifesting Auspiciousness, is ‘the good friend of the Ground of Manifestation’, and in the verse he is called Śrī, of which Chengguan says ‘because the Sanskrit sound holds two senses: first it means auspicious, and second it is rendered as guarding’; the sixth, Universally Opening Tree Blossoms, is ‘the good friend of the Far-Reaching Ground’, and of the sense of that name he says ‘all opening is precisely universally opening’; the seventh, Equal Protection and Nurture, is ‘the good friend of the Immovable Ground’.

The eighth, the night-spirit Playful Delight, Chengguan does not force into the match: ‘this seems the same as Sudhana’s good friend of the Joyful Ground, but the text differs in many places, and moreover it is not in that order; therefore it is simply explained directly.’ This sentence is worth remembering — when the ancient worthies are matching positions and come upon something that does not fit, they say plainly that it does not fit, and do not force it. The ninth, Whose Faculties Are Always Joyful, has for its gate ‘universally manifesting the adorned gate of great compassion’, of which Chengguan says ‘for sentient beings hard to break down by the three poisons, through the gate of great compassion he manifests an adorned body’, and he cites the ancient stories of the shadow left behind and the dragon transformed to show that an aspect can transform people. The tenth, Manifesting Pure Merit, has for its gate ‘universally causing everything all sentient beings delight in to be fulfilled’, of which Chengguan says ‘it is for the sake of sentient beings, and therefore his own virtue is accomplished, and the delight of others is fulfilled’ — the cause of one’s own virtue being accomplished lies in its being for the sake of sentient beings.

Rule out a misreading. Night-spirits preside over the night, and it is easy to read them as spirits of gloom. Yet what the ten gates of the sūtra speak of lies in purity, in joy, in kindness and compassion, in delight — the first gate ‘the great valor of the joy of quiescent meditative concentration’, the second ‘the vast, pure, and lovable characteristic of merit’, the fourth ‘amassing a vast mind of joy’, the sixth ‘the vast treasury of joy in which radiance is fulfilled’, the eighth ‘the boundless kindness that rescues and protects sentient beings’, the ninth ‘universally manifesting the adorned gate of great compassion’, the tenth ‘universally causing everything all sentient beings delight in to be fulfilled’; the word ‘merit’ does not occur in the names of the gates, only in the name of the night-spirit Manifesting Pure Merit. The sense of night here is not blackness; it is that at the hour when sentient beings lie sunk in sleep there are still guardians who do not sleep. One line to put it to ground: that these seven are both the assembly of the prologue and the good friends of the ten grounds in the later text shows one thing — the merits of the grounds need not wait until the end of the journey to appear; they are already seated at the very first assembly.

The Host of Direction-Spirits: Ten Gates Between ‘Where One Is’ and ‘Where One Goes’

The direction-spirits preside over the quarters and the places within them, and their ten gates broadly say this: a place does not obstruct pervading everywhere.

For the first gate, ‘the power of universal rescue and protection’, Chengguan says ‘manifesting a body and preaching the Dharma, causing beings to awaken and gain the fruit — all of this is the power of rescue and protection’ — rescue and protection are not some other matter: manifesting a body and preaching the Dharma so that people gain the fruit is just that. For the second, ‘bringing to completion the work of spiritual penetration that transforms all sentient beings’, Chengguan distinguishes the active and the passive: ‘spiritual penetration displaying appearances is the work that brings to completion; sentient beings coming out of suffering is the work that is brought to completion.’ For the third, ‘the great radiance that breaks through every obstruction of darkness and gives birth to joy and ease’, Chengguan says ‘the light of the Dharma breaks through darkness; darkness is cut off and wisdom is born. Wisdom and the joy of the Dharma are born together, and the cutting off takes quiescence as its joy.’ For the fourth, ‘universally manifesting in every place and not laboring in vain’, Chengguan says ‘universally manifesting and preaching the Dharma — those who hear must have their delusions extinguished, and therefore it is not labor in vain’ — the test of not passing in vain lies in the hearer’s delusions being extinguished, not in the speaker’s toil.

For the fifth gate, ‘manifesting names equal in number to all sentient beings and thereby giving rise to merit’, Chengguan gives a line that matters: ‘a noble one has no name, and names are set up in accord with beings; what is precious lies only in giving birth to virtue and in extinguishing delusion.’ That the names are as many as sentient beings is not a proliferation of names and forms; it is that they are set up in accord with beings, and the preciousness of setting up a name lies solely in whether it can give birth to virtue and extinguish delusion. The sixth gate, ‘constantly sending forth wondrous sounds and causing all who hear to rejoice’, and the seventh, ‘raining down great rain universally like a dragon and causing sentient beings to rejoice’, come to the same rejoicing, the one by sound and the other by rain.

For the eighth gate, ‘manifesting the sovereign power in which the deeds of all sentient beings are without distinction’, Chengguan says ‘deeds are alike empty of nature, and yet retribution is not lost, and in both respects there is no difference’, and further ‘speaking of how they can call forth retribution causes evil deeds to be removed, and speaking of the emptiness of the nature of deeds means that good deeds too fall away’ — this is the gate that rules out a misreading: to speak of the emptiness of the nature of deeds is not to sweep away cause and effect, and each of the two statements has its own ailment to treat. For the ninth, ‘contemplating the various deeds by which one takes birth within the destinies’, Chengguan says ‘the foregoing was in terms of speaking of the nature and characteristic of deeds, so as to cause beings to have done with deeds; this is in terms of knowing the distinctions among deeds, so as to be ready to transform beings according to their capacity’, which stands exactly paired with the eighth gate. For the tenth, ‘bringing everything he does to completion and giving birth to the joy of all sentient beings’, Chengguan’s explanation has the most feeling in it: ‘among people of the world there is none who lacks a beginning, but few who can have an end; now a noble one has both resolve and ability, and therefore what he does is brought to completion. People of the world let others follow their own desires and cannot let both go; now, having kindness and having pity, he causes beings to rejoice.’ To begin and not to finish is the common way of people; only having both resolve and ability is called bringing a thing to completion.

The Host of Space-Spirits: Ten Gates, Ten Verses in Five Syllables

The verses of this host are all in five syllables, unlike the seven syllables of the other twelve hosts — so it stands word for word, and there is no need to make it tidy.

For the first gate, ‘universally knowing the minds of all sentient beings within the destinies’, Chengguan says ‘when wisdom reaches the principle, the ten eyes illumine widely; when sun and moon merge with space, the myriad images stand out one by one.’ For the second, ‘universally entering the Dharma realm’, Chengguan gives eight graphs only: ‘the two radiances of body and wisdom pervade and enter the Dharma realm.’ For the third, ‘fully understanding the bodily forms of boundless realms’, Chengguan says ‘the Buddha’s body being like space is the boundless realm, and being unborn and undefiled is the auspicious wind’, which explains this spirit’s name exactly. On this gate he has a further detailed explanation, adjudicating that emptiness has four senses and embraces five dharmas: ‘first, being free of the arising of the grasper, which is the cutting off of deluded conception; second, being free of the characteristic of the grasped, which is without characteristic and without name; third, the object having no nature of its own, which is precisely suchness; fourth, the mind gaining nothing, and this is right wisdom.’ The four senses gather each other up two by two, and he goes on to say ‘outside suchness there is no wisdom, and the substance of wisdom is precisely suchness; these two are like space, quiescent and illumining without obstruction. To see the Buddha in this way — this is called auspicious’ — the auspicious is not an omen; it is seeing the Buddha with suchness and wisdom not two.

For the fourth gate, ‘being able to remove the obstruction of deeds and the obstruction of delusion of all sentient beings’, Chengguan says ‘extensively proclaiming the noble path means leaving the three obstructions and abiding in the two emptinesses.’ For the fifth, ‘universally contemplating and pondering the vast ocean of practice’, Chengguan says ‘seeking above and transforming below is named vast practice, and it is for the security of sentient beings, as with the wondrous topknot’ — the sense of ‘vast’ lies in both directions, above and below. For the sixth, ‘universally rescuing and protecting all sentient beings from calamity and hardship with the light of great compassion’, Chengguan says ‘sunk in the calamity and hardship of birth-and-death, they are relieved by the light of compassion and wisdom’, and he cites an ancient treatise for the five senses in which birth-and-death gets the name of an ocean: that its extent is boundless, that it is exceedingly deep, that it is hard to cross, that it cannot be drunk, that it is what great treasures depend on; the first four senses are the aspect of sentient beings turning round in it, while the fifth is the very reason a bodhisattva enters the ocean. For the seventh, ‘universally entering the power of merit that clings to nothing at all’, Chengguan says ‘not obstructing the mutual leading of merit and wisdom — this is called surpassing power.’ For the eighth, ‘being able to cause the minds of all sentient beings to leave the coverings behind and be pure’, Chengguan gives four graphs: ‘delusion is dispelled by wisdom.’ For the ninth, ‘universally seeing the light of wisdom of the ten directions’, Chengguan gives four graphs: ‘a wondrous voice that speaks well.’ For the tenth, ‘universally manifesting in the world without stirring from his own place’, Chengguan says ‘without destroying his own place he answers to being everywhere throughout the ten directions’ — this is the one line in this fascicle that best represents the Huayan way of reading: to pervade is not to leave one’s own place and go everywhere; it is to pervade without stirring.

The Host of Wind-Spirits: Ten Gates, Six of Them Taking the Wind as Simile

This is the last host of the fascicle. In explaining these ten gates Chengguan takes the wind as his simile in so many words in six of them — the first, second, third, fourth, seventh, and tenth; in the sixth he depicts the aspect of wind with the hundred hollows blowing differently; and the fifth, eighth, and ninth do not involve wind. The places where the simile is taken read like a small rhapsody, and may be read gate against gate.

For the first gate, ‘universally entering the Buddha’s Dharma and all the worlds’, Chengguan says ‘with the wind of skillful means joined to the sunlight of wisdom, wisdom enters the deep Dharma without obstruction, and the body enters the world without leaving an image’ — entering the Dharma and entering the world proceed together, the one deep and unobstructed, the other pervading and leaving no trace. For the second, ‘making vast offerings wherever buddhas appear in measureless lands’, Chengguan says that the bodhisattva ‘with a body wholly of Dharma makes offerings in a single thought to boundless buddhas, just as that power of wind accomplishes all.’ For the third, ‘universally extinguishing the illnesses of all sentient beings with a fragrant wind’, Chengguan matches it most beautifully: ‘a long wind suddenly comes and the floating clouds scatter and vanish; the wind of kindness suddenly rises and the sickness of delusion and suffering dies away.’ For the fourth, ‘universally giving birth to the roots of goodness of all sentient beings and causing the mountain of heavy obstruction to be shattered’, Chengguan says ‘the wind of the adornment of merit and wisdom shatters obstructions that are like mountains.’ For the fifth, ‘being able to break the boundless hosts of evil Māras’, Chengguan says ‘the ten powers subdue Māra, and the ten armies are all destroyed’, and further explains why this spirit alone is named Drying Up the Waters: ‘because craving desire comes first’ — the armies of Māra have craving desire at their head, and so the aspect of drying up the waters is taken.

For the sixth gate, ‘forever extinguishing the terrors of all sentient beings’, Chengguan says ‘the kindly sound from his pores extinguishes the five terrors; like the hundred hollows blowing differently, it roars everywhere and gladdens each capacity’ — the sounds issuing from the hundred hollows are each different and are all wind, and the Buddha’s voice roars everywhere and gladdens each capacity in its own way. For the seventh, ‘entering the ocean of eloquence of the true character of all dharmas’, Chengguan says ‘because wisdom enters the true character, his wondrous eloquence is like an ocean; as the wind strikes a tree, so it can hang down’, which explains the name Topknot Hanging from the Treetops exactly. For the eighth, ‘the treasury of skillful means that tames all sentient beings’, Chengguan says ‘the skillful means of taming beings is what wisdom enters, and therefore it is named a treasury.’ For the ninth, ‘entering the gate of quiescent meditative concentration and extinguishing the exceedingly heavy darkness of folly’, Chengguan says ‘the palace of meditative concentration must have concentration and wisdom roaming as a pair, and therefore it can extinguish the darkness of folly’, and adds a further line, ‘taken with respect to the Buddha, stirring and quiescence are not two, and to see him must extinguish folly’ — ruling out a misreading: to enter concentration is not to come to a halt and stop moving; it is concentration and wisdom coursing as a pair that can extinguish folly. For the tenth, ‘the unobstructed power that accords with the practice of all sentient beings’, Chengguan says ‘the brightness of sun and moon does not revolve without wind’ — however great the brightness of sun and moon, without wind they will not turn; and to accord with the practice of sentient beings is precisely that wind which makes the brightness revolve.

Lineage

After this passage the sūtra goes on to open out the spirit hosts from the fire-spirits onward, still on the same pattern, until the bodhisattvas of the assembly of the same birth gain the Dharma and praise the Buddha. The assemblies of different birth gather first and the assembly of the same birth arrives after; this is the order in Chengguan’s outline.

Three readings part ways at this passage, and they are set down together without adjudication. Chengguan follows the eighty-fascicle text and outlines and explains it phrase by phrase, gathering the first eight hosts under the eight classes and the hosts of the four heavenly kings and placing the latter five as the first five of the spirit hosts, matching sense to each gate and never going outside the text of the sūtra. Fazang and Zhiyan comment on the sixty-fascicle Jin translation, and both take up the ancient account that the four heavenly kings each lead two divisions of ghosts and spirits, explaining the names of the gandharvas and the other three hosts as ‘named after what they lead’, their weight falling on where the names come from — Zhiyan says it most bluntly: ‘the four hosts that follow, the gandharvas and the rest, are precisely the four heavenly kings; they are named after what they lead, and therefore this is said.’ Li Tongxuan takes yet another track: he does not explain these kings phrase by phrase in the present chapter, but in the section on the ten dedications takes the kings of the eight classes as the vehicles of symbolic import attached to things, matching them one by one into the ten dedications and the ten perfections — the yakṣa kings matched to the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury of merit and presiding over the perfection of meditation, the gandharva kings matched to the dedication of the characteristic of suchness, taking the sense of seeking fragrance to say that the bodhisattva delights sentient beings with the undefiled fragrance of the five-part dharma-body. The three tracks rest on different texts, outline different places, and take up different senses; all are settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and they are set down here without adjudication of which is higher.

There is one further thread worth following on. What the thirteen hosts of this fascicle have gained is in every case named a gate of liberation; and by the section on the entry into the Dharma realm at the end of the whole sūtra, when Sudhana visits one good friend after another, what he seeks is still a gate of liberation, his set formula for seeking the Dharma being ‘show me the gate of liberation’. In the prologue those who have already gained one each report their gate; in the main exposition one who has not yet gained one goes place after place to seek. One and the same designation, and at the one end it is the aspect of a fruit, at the other the practice of a cause. And the host of night-spirits joins the two ends directly — the seven night-spirits that Chengguan matches are precisely the good friends on the grounds whom Sudhana visits. So this fascicle is no roster: it is a map of the road that the later text will walk station by station, spread open once and for all at the assembly.

First, Be Clear About What This Fascicle Is Doing

The form of this fascicle is extremely regular: fourteen classes of spirit hosts, and for each class the narrator first tells through in one breath the one gate of liberation that each of ten spirits has realized, and then the foremost of that class, sustained by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, surveys the host of his own kind everywhere and speaks ten verses, one verse answering to one spirit. Of the fourteen classes, thirteen have ten spirits and ten verses; only the spirits of the place of awakening have eleven spirits and eleven verses — and Chengguan, in his commentary, does not treat this as an error or an omission but marks out word for word that the passage on the spirits of the place of awakening has eleven dharmas and eleven verses. Within the regularity of this fascicle there are three exceptions in all, and this is the first; the other two are that in the case of the presiding spirits of mountains the speaker of the verses is not the foremost of that class in the prose passage, and that in the case of the spirits that go on foot the set phrase reads sustained by the spiritual power of the Buddha rather than sustained by the awesome power of the Buddha — and in this one instance the Song, Yuan, and Ming witnesses read the regular form, see the collation notes in the textual apparatus (see the section on lineage). Keep this in mind as you read.

First a distinction has to be set up. The part to which this fascicle belongs, ‘the part of extolling and praising the virtues,’ and the paired names ‘the assemblies of different birth’ and ‘the assembly of the same birth,’ do not occur even by a single word in the text of the sūtra. These are all outline-names that Chengguan established when he laid out the structure of this sūtra. At the end of this fascicle Chengguan closes with the sentence that the assemblies of different birth are herewith finished, and only after that does he enter the assembly of the same birth, that is, the host of bodhisattvas beginning with Samantabhadra. So when you read the words ‘different birth,’ know that this is a label affixed by the commentator so that you can see the structure; it is not an identity that the sūtra itself gave to these spirits.

The second distinction matters even more. What are these spirits? It is very easy to read this as a register of deities — fire has fire spirits, water has water spirits, mountains have mountain spirits, and even walking has spirits that go on foot. Read that way, this fascicle is nothing but a tediously long roster of those in attendance. But look at the sentence pattern of the text: the gate that each spirit has realized is fastened to the very matter he presides over, and fastened tight. The first gate the presiding spirits of fire obtain is the removing of the darkness of the world; the first gate the presiding spirits of rivers obtain is the raining down everywhere of the rain of Dharma; what the spirits that go on foot obtain is the taming of sentient beings in the lifting and the setting down of a foot. At the end of the passage on the spirits of the place of awakening Chengguan lays this fastening bare in one sentence: since they are the spirits of the place of awakening, what they obtain is liberation within the affairs of that place. Affair and Dharma are not two separate lengths; whatever matter you preside over is the matter you enter by.

There is a further layer of correcting a misreading. These one hundred and forty-one gates are not one hundred and forty-one different kinds of Buddha-dharma, nor are they a staircase. They are one hundred and forty-one ways in. When Fazang was explaining the corresponding passage of the sixty-fascicle version, he put a very weighty question on the reader’s behalf: Samantabhadra stands in the ocean of the fruit together with the Buddha; these spirits are a lowly and miscellaneous sort, so by what right are they too reckoned within the ocean of the fruit? The answer he himself gave has two sides: on one side the fruit is able to gather in the cause, for it is the Buddha who accomplished them, and so there is no difference; on the other side the cause is able to enter the fruit, for by riding the gate of liberation as one’s cause one has entered the fruit, by riding the particular one has entered the whole, by riding a single gate one has entered the entire ocean. That answer is precisely the key to how this fascicle is to be read — you are not being asked to count the one hundred and forty-one gates but to recognize that by whichever gate you go in, where you arrive is the same one ocean.

What follows explains class by class and gate by gate. Wherever the explanation is Chengguan’s, or Fazang’s, or Li Tongxuan’s, it is marked at each place as whose word it is.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Fire: What Fire Stands For Is Removing Darkness and Ripening

Chengguan places this class sixth in his outline. He first gives the class as a whole its import: by the power of vigor they manifest in the world and remove the ignorance of sentient beings, and because this class stands at the head of the fourteen, the import of fire is taken in a one-sided way. Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle version, sets out the import of fire in more detail, saying that fire is the import of ripening, the import of illuminating, the import of burning up, and the import of removing darkness, the first two of which accomplish the two adornments of merit and wisdom, and the latter two of which extinguish the two obstructions of the afflictions and of what is knowable. These two layers of import taken together are the skeleton of the ten gates of this class.

The first gate, removing utterly all the darkness of every world, is the opening sentence of this whole fascicle and the guiding thread of the class as well — for what fire is as fire, the most direct use of it is to shine through darkness. The second gate is stilling the suffering of sentient beings’ manifold delusions that sweep them adrift and of their burning distress, and Chengguan points out that delusion has two operations, one being the sweeping adrift and the other the distress, and that if one can skillfully turn them about one can still them. This division matters a great deal: the harm of delusion is not merely that the burning distress is hard to bear, but that it washes a person away. The third gate is the treasury of great compassion formed by the unshakable power of merit, and Chengguan says that this is a merit that accords with the nature of things, which neither marks nor delusions can shake; joined with great compassion, one’s own benefit too is unshaken; and because it can gather in and hold inexhaustible merit it is called a treasury. The fourth gate is beholding how the Tathāgata manifests by the power of spiritual penetration without any bound, and this is the one gate among the ten that has a variant-edition problem, on which Chengguan recorded the discrepancy between the Sanskrit and the various editions (see the section on lineage). The fifth gate is light shining upon the boundless realm of space, and here Chengguan opens out at length, setting up ten meanings from the relation of sun to space in order to distinguish how it is past conceiving: sun and space are neither identical nor apart; neither abiding nor not abiding; the sun is the good condition for breaking darkness and so reveals space; though it extinguishes darkness and reveals space, space is neither diminished nor increased; when darkness is removed the nature of space does not increase, and yet all the images appear; though the nature of space is pure, without the sun darkness arises; space cannot remove darkness of itself but must borrow the sun; if the sun had no space it would have nothing to shine on, and if space had no sun the darkness would not remove itself; the nature of darkness neither comes nor goes, and the substance and mark of the sun neither arise nor cease; and where there is a sun shining on space, then heaven and earth are lit up clear through. Having finished these ten meanings, he hooks the simile back onto practice: shining the sun of wisdom upon the space of the nature of mind also has ten meanings, and one should think them through by following the simile. And he states expressly that these ten meanings are not an explanation of this one line only but can reach far into many scriptures and string together what comes before and after.

The sixth gate is the still light adorned by manifold merits, and Chengguan says that the substance-nature is still and yet sends out its illuminating function, and so it is named still light, and that by this is accomplished the bodily mark adorned by merit. As to the seventh gate, extinguishing the blazing suffering of the destinies, and the eighth gate, opening up in sovereign freedom the awakening of all the worlds, here Chengguan says only that they may be known — meaning that for the import of these two gates the way of reading already established by the earlier gates is enough: blazing suffering is still the reverse side of the import of fire, and awakening the world is still the function of illuminating. The ninth gate is forever demolishing all views of delusion and attachment, and Chengguan divides it into two layers: discriminating the marks of dharmas is what forever leaves behind the delusion of not understanding, and awakening into the real nature of dharmas is what leaves no view of attachment — delusion and view are two illnesses, and two medicines are needed. The tenth gate is accomplishing the power of every vow and letting out a great roar, and Chengguan says that it is by practice that the vow is propped up, and therefore one can manifest in the world and make the lion’s roar; a vow with no practice holding it up cannot roar out any sound at all.

Correcting a misreading: do not read fire as destruction. Not one of the ten gates of this class is about burning anything up; every one of them falls upon illuminating, removing, extinguishing suffering, and awakening. The place where this comes down to the ground is the tenth gate — if you have a vow and no sound comes out of it, what is missing is not the vow but the practice.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Water: Kindness Is Water, and the Markless Dharma Realm Is Water Too

Chengguan places this class seventh. The thread running through this class lies in two properties of water: moistening and flowing.

The first gate is the kindness that benefits all sentient beings impartially, and Chengguan judges it outright to be the great kindness that has no object, and therefore it is called impartial — for if kindness still picks and chooses its objects, it is not impartial. The second gate is the adornment of boundless dharmas, which is to adorn oneself and adorn others by boundless dharmas of practice. The third gate is observing those who ought to be transformed and gathering them in everywhere by skillful means, and Chengguan says that it is being still and unmoving in order to observe their capacity, and being stirred and thereby penetrating in order to accord with them and gather them in; and he adds a simile of water: in winter it piles up as snow congealed and white, in summer there is nowhere it does not flow — the unmoving and the flowing everywhere are one and the same water. The fourth gate is expounding everywhere the profound domain of the buddhas, which is to expound the deep purport of the Buddha with a wondrous sound and make beings awaken into the whirlpool of the wondrous Dharma. The fifth gate is manifesting everywhere the pure great light, and Chengguan says that it is the two lights, of the body and of wisdom, awakening and opening beings everywhere, filling the Dharma realm, pure and without defilement.

The sixth gate is the pure Dharma realm that is without marks and without nature, and this gate most needs attention, because its form differs from that of the gates before and after it — what those speak of is function, whereas what this one speaks of is substance. Chengguan’s words here are very sparing: in the pure Dharma realm both nature and marks are utterly cut off, and since there is no virtue that is not seen, the great function is not lost. What he wants to block is a misreading: since it is without marks and without nature, does that mean there is nothing at all? No — it is precisely because nature and marks are both cut off that the great function does not come to nothing. The seventh gate is the inexhaustible ocean of great compassion, and Chengguan says that because sentient beings are not exhausted, great compassion is not exhausted, full and yet never brimming over, and that here lies the import of contentment — this spirit is named Contentment and Sovereign Freedom, and contentment is not asking for a little less; it is being full to the point of not brimming over. The eighth gate is being a treasury of great joy within the place of awakening where the host of bodhisattvas assembles: it is because the Buddha is seen everywhere that the great joy is inexhaustible, and because the joy is born from the Buddha, the Buddha is what is called the treasury. The ninth gate is appearing everywhere by the vast power of merit that is without obstruction, and Chengguan says that it is a merit in which nature and marks are unobstructed, and therefore he can manifest spiritual penetration everywhere. The tenth gate is observing sentient beings and arousing means of taming that are like space, said to be that the practice of taming beings is as broad as space is boundless, and that it functions without pausing for a moment as space is inexhaustible.

Chengguan has a separate explanation of the verses of this class, which falls upon the first verse: the first half distinguishes the cause and fruit of a single mark, the next line extends this to the rest, and the last line distinguishes the benefit. He says that with kindness as cause one gains the fruit of the wondrous marks, and with the marks as cause one gains the fruit of never looking one’s fill; and here he places a sentence of the utmost weight in the doctrine of the Huayan school — the unmixed and the mixed are unobstructed, cause and fruit are fused, and it is a perfect accomplishing and not an accomplishing by portions, so that a single mark and a single hair of the Buddha is identical with the Dharma realm and has no measure, and this spirit has simply entered the inexhaustible marks by way of one gate of kindness. Coming down to the ground: if you have cultivated only one kind of mind, do not despise it as too little; the gate opens from just that one kind of mind.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of the Sea: The Sea Stands for Holding All, and Also for Not Moving

Chengguan places this class eighth, and at the head of the outline he notes that the verses of this class have lost the third (see the section on lineage).

The first gate is giving to sentient beings with an impartial mind, an ocean of merit, and a body adorned with the many jewels, and Chengguan says that it is making offerings to the Buddha for the sake of sentient beings, which is the merit of impartial giving, and so one obtains the mark of the many jewels adorning one’s body. The second gate is guarding the roots of goodness of sentient beings by skillful means, which is skillfully according with their faculties and inclinations in preaching the Dharma so as to guard their goodness and let it grow to maturity. The third gate is being able to dry up the ocean of the afflictions of sentient beings, which is expounding a deep and broad Dharma and penetrating the emptiness of the afflictions. The fourth gate is making sentient beings leave the evil destinies, of which Chengguan says that if one sees the domain of the Buddha then delusion perishes and suffering ceases. The fifth gate is extinguishing everywhere the darkness of great delusion, in a single sentence: by wisdom delusion is extinguished. The sixth gate is extinguishing the suffering of the destinies and bestowing peace and happiness, of which Chengguan says that what is shifted about by conditioned activity is all suffering, and that once the cause of awakening arises the suffering of arising and ceasing perishes and one gains the peace and happiness of the stillness of nirvāṇa — this gate states the dividing line between suffering and happiness with the utmost clarity: it does not lie in the objects but in the cause.

The seventh gate is purifying the manifold wrong views and the nature of delusion in sentient beings, and this gate should be read against the fifth. Chengguan says: to take wisdom and extinguish delusion with it still does not escape falling into a view; to penetrate the very nature of delusion and of the view, and delusion and view perish of themselves. To observe the true and the false as equal — this is the domain of a buddha. The fifth gate is extinguishing; the seventh gate is penetrating — first extinguish, then penetrate, and the sequence is clearly marked. The eighth gate is bringing forth the mind of awakening, that lineage precious as jewels, and Chengguan says that all sentient beings have the lineage of a buddha, perfectly luminous and worth prizing, complete with virtue and so called jewel-like; the Buddha’s eye observes it everywhere and the Buddha’s wisdom shows it everywhere, and thus the cause that was already there is made manifest, as when a hoard of gold is taken out from under the ground; and once the great mind arises it is like a seed putting out a sprout, and so it is said to bring forth. The ninth gate is the ocean of merit of the unshaken mind, which is that penetrating suchness without grasping at it, the mind does not waver, but is limpid as a sea come to rest; and since the myriad virtues have their home there, Sumeru may topple and yet Māra cannot trouble it. The tenth gate is entering everywhere the gate of the samādhi of the Dharma realm, which is that having entered the concentration of the Dharma realm, one pervades as the Dharma realm pervades.

Correcting a misreading: in this class the sea does not stand for capacity alone. The sea of the ninth gate is a sea come to rest, an unmoving one; the sea of the third gate is the ocean of afflictions that is to be dried up. The same word, in one place the thing likened to and in another the thing to be destroyed — they must not be read as one.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Rivers: Ten Gates, Ten Kinds of Water

Chengguan places this class ninth. This class is the passage in the whole fascicle where similes are used most densely — Chengguan matches nearly every gate with an image of water, which comes to explaining ten gates by ten kinds of water.

The first gate is raining down everywhere the boundless rain of Dharma, of which he says that practice being accomplished one rains the Dharma, like a torrential rain extinguishing delusion and producing virtue, like a river hung aloft rushing down with nothing to block it. The second gate is appearing everywhere before sentient beings and making them leave afflictions forever, which is manifesting the body and stilling distress, like springs and streams washing the mind. The third gate is washing away everywhere by the skillful means of great compassion the manifold dust of delusion, which is a real washing away of defilement in which kindness and wisdom aid one another, like a jade-green pool of clear water where emptiness and form reflect each other — and so this spirit is named Dust-Free Pure Eyes. The fourth gate is constantly sending forth the sound that benefits sentient beings, which is the perfect voice benefiting all everywhere, like crashing waves giving out their sound. The fifth gate is constantly giving rise, among all that has consciousness, to the kindness that does no harm, in one sentence: saving those adrift and drowning. The sixth gate is showing everywhere all cooling roots of goodness, which is that roots of goodness with no delusion in them may be called cooling, like Lake Anavatapta where there is never any burning distress. The seventh gate is cultivating giving to the full and making beings leave stinginess and attachment forever, which is that the gate of giving is measureless and makes them free of stinginess, like water plants, caltrops, and lotuses that gladden everyone. The eighth gate is being a field of merit that gives joy to all, which is that the merit of one’s practice accords with what is real and so none who see it fail to be delighted, like a deep lake and a broad pond — and this is what is called vast virtue. The ninth gate is making those who are defiled become pure and those poisoned with anger become joyful, which is that the power of skillful means and wisdom makes all that is defiled pure, and the strength of kindness turns enmity, harm, and anger into joy instead, like ten thousand acres of stilled waves whose light is mirrored under heaven. The tenth gate is making sentient beings enter the ocean of liberation and constantly receive happiness in full, which is gathering up the myriad good things entirely and making them come home to nirvāṇa, like the hundred rivers all coming home to the great sea; and it is by wisdom that one can come home to the sea, and so this spirit is named Ocean Virtue Light.

Correcting a misreading: these ten images of water are not a flourish of rhetoric; they are ten different modes of operation. The rushing current is being unblocked; springs and streams are washing; the clear pool is reflecting; crashing waves are sound; the cold lake is being without heat; lotuses and water plants are being delightful; the broad pond is being able to hold; stilled waves are mirroring the sky; the hundred rivers are coming home to the sea. If you want to benefit someone, first look at which kind of water is called for. Coming down to the ground: the ninth gate is the hardest — to make the one who hates you rejoice instead, and what it depends on, Chengguan says, is kindness, not argument.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Crops: The Dharma Has a Savor, and What Is Sown Must Be Able to Bear Fruit

Chengguan places this class tenth. Crops are grain in the field; Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle version, has them as grain spirits and says that this is the import of supplying and sustaining, nourishing the common people and making them rejoice.

The first gate is giving sentient beings the savor of the Dharma and making them accomplish the body of a buddha, of which Chengguan says that the two savors of the Dharma, merit and wisdom, nourish and so form the body of a buddha. The second gate is making them receive vast joy and happiness, said to be that joy and happiness come about through the removal of suffering — happiness is not something added from outside; it is the way things already are once the suffering is gone. The third gate is purifying the manifold objective realms by the perfect Dharma-gates, said to be that sentient beings are the realms to be purified. The fourth gate is seeing the Buddha’s great compassion and the measureless power of his spiritual transformations, said to be that because compassion is deep, spiritual penetration is broad — penetration is not having great capability; it is having compassion deep enough. The fifth gate is showing everywhere the Buddha’s field of merit and making what is sown never be lost or spoiled, said to be that what is sown in the field of sentient beings must surely come to fruit and not be spoiled. The sixth gate is opening out everywhere the flower of pure faith in sentient beings, said to be that wisdom opens out the faith of sentient beings, and because a fruit is obtained it is called a flower. The seventh gate is pitying and succoring sentient beings with great kindness and making their ocean of merit increase, said to be that regarding beings with an eye of kindness makes the mass of merit measureless, and that kindness is calm and delightful, so that in the verse it is called the supreme path. The eighth gate is setting forth at large all the dharmas of practice, said to be that it is by practice that buddhahood is accomplished, and so at the very first accomplishing of right awakening he declares the dharmas of practice — this line hooks exactly onto the scene of the first accomplishing of right awakening in this sūtra. The ninth gate is making beings cast off sloth, sorrow, distress, and the manifold evils and become pure everywhere, said to be that slackness in cultivation is where sorrow and distress arise, and that when the faculties are diligently urged on, the manifold evils become pure; the root of sorrow and distress is not in one’s circumstances but in sloth. The tenth gate is observing their roots of goodness, preaching the Dharma as is fitting, and making them joyful and satisfied, said to be that preaching in accord with their faculties fulfills what they seek and so they rejoice.

Coming down to the ground: the logic of this class is the logic of farming — first there is savor, and only then can it be eaten; first the suffering is removed, and only then is there happiness; first the seed is sown, and only then is there fruit; first there is diligence, and only then is there no sorrow. The sequence cannot be skipped.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Herbs: Ten Ways of Treating Illness

Chengguan places this class eleventh, and notes that it is ten dharmas and ten verses. Herbs are for treating; Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle version, says that the herb spirits are the import of counteraction, the Dharma-medicine that dispels delusion being the gate of compassion.

The first gate is observing everywhere the minds of sentient beings and diligently gathering them in, of which Chengguan says that those who go along with one’s intent are easy to gather in and those who go against it are hard to tame, and therefore one observes them everywhere — the first step in gathering in a multitude is to see clearly who is hard to tame. As to the second gate, gathering in sentient beings by light so that those who see him do not see in vain, and the third gate, extinguishing the afflictions of sentient beings by pure skillful means, Chengguan says that the second and third may be known; the import of these two gates is just what the words say: where the light reaches, nothing is in vain; where the skillful means reaches, the afflictions are extinguished. On the fourth gate, increasing the boundless ocean of roots of goodness by his vast renown, Chengguan lays down a very weighty judgment: the beginner takes renown for a real retinue, while the great being takes renown for the Buddha’s work — one and the same renown, which an ordinary person uses to weight himself and a bodhisattva uses to ferry others across. The fifth gate is hastening by the banner of great compassion to every realm where there is the suffering of sickness, said to be that by the power of the roots of goodness of kindness he sends forth the moon-love light and the rest, and bodily sickness and mental sickness are extinguished the moment he is recollected. The sixth gate is healing blind and benighted sentient beings and making the eye of their wisdom pure, and Chengguan distinguishes two kinds of delusion: being deluded about principle and being deluded about the retribution of deeds, these two delusions being blind and benighted so that one gives rise to defilement and creates deeds and undergoes manifold suffering in full; and the Buddha opens the eye of their wisdom with the golden lancet of the right Dharma and lets them see the three truths clearly, and so it is called purifying.

As to the seventh gate, being able to send forth the voice of a buddha and declare the differentiated meanings of the dharmas, and the eighth gate, being a good friend and making beings give rise to roots of goodness, Chengguan says the seventh and eighth may be known. The ninth gate is the pure treasury of great compassion, able by skillful means to give rise to faith and understanding, said to be a great compassion with no admixture of craving or view, able to produce the virtue of sentient beings and therefore named a treasury — a great compassion still carrying craving and view along with it is no treasury. The tenth gate is making beings recollect the Buddha by skillful means and extinguishing the sicknesses of sentient beings, and here Chengguan speaks at his greatest length and most concretely: the world’s medical treatment, though it cures, is followed by sickness again, and for extinguishing forever and producing virtue nothing comes before recollecting the Buddha; recollecting on account of sickness and recollecting on account of light are both skillful means. He goes on to explain why recollecting the Buddha is effective: the Buddha has boundless marks, the marks have boundless excellences, the excellences send forth boundless light, and the light gathers in boundless sentient beings. He also says that following one’s recollection means that the virtues of buddhas are level and equal, so that whichever buddha you invoke as your conditions and inclination lead you, the samādhi is easy to accomplish; revere one, and the strength of mind is concentrated, and it is likewise with all the rest.

Correcting a misreading: do not read the tenth gate as saying that recollecting the Buddha can take the place of medicine. What Chengguan says is that the world’s physician treats the layer where, though it is cured, it arises again, and that recollecting the Buddha treats the layer from which the sickness arises in the first place; the two layers do not get in each other’s way. Coming down to the ground: he adds one more line — how much more so when the mind is settled fast upon the road of awakening, for then even in the dark one is treading the great highway.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Forests: The Virtue in a Single Hair Cannot Be Told Out in Oceans of Kalpas

Chengguan places this class twelfth, ten dharmas and ten verses. Forest is tree spirit in the sixty-fascicle version, and Fazang says that a tree is the import of establishing, the tree of virtue standing tall and so there is joy.

The first gate is the treasury of the vast and boundless ocean of wisdom, of which Chengguan says that the boundless virtues of a buddha all rest upon the ocean of wisdom, which holds merit within and lets light stream out, and so it is named a treasury. The second gate is vast cultivation and universal purification, said to be that a compassion equal to sentient beings is what is called vast, and that being freed of obstruction one by one is what is called universally pure. The third gate is increasing the manifold sprouts of pure faith, said to be that all excellent causes are for the sake of the path of buddhahood, and that as each mind becomes pure, the manifold sprouts come up. The fourth gate is the mass adorned by all pure merits, and this gate is the doctrinal eye of the class — Chengguan says that all merits adorn a single hair, and that every hair is likewise, and therefore the Buddha is a mass of virtue; and then he gives the reason: the fruit and the cause of buddhahood are both a perfect accomplishing and not an accomplishing by portions, and therefore one cause produces all fruits and one fruit gathers in all causes, all of them perfectly fused and unobstructed. This is the plainest place in this fascicle where the doctrine of the Huayan school comes to rest, and it belongs to Chengguan.

The fifth gate is constantly surveying the Dharma realm with the pure wisdom of the universal gate, said to be that a wisdom penetrating the myriad dharmas is called the universal gate and that adventitious dust not arising is called pure; and he divides it into the two sides of awakening and of effort — awakening is like the sun shining, all at once pervading the Dharma realm, while the effort of cultivation is like polishing a mirror, the wisdom growing gradually brighter, the brightness being the brightness that was always there and the gradualness being a gradualness within what is already perfect. The sixth gate is knowing everywhere the ocean of the conduct of sentient beings and spreading out the cloud of Dharma, said to be knowing the conduct that goes through every destiny and spreading the Dharma as is fitting. The seventh gate is bearing disagreeable sounds and sending forth a pure voice, said to be that having penetrated the nature of sound as being all the same as the Buddha’s voice, there is nothing that is disagreeable; and only being able to let the world hear the Buddha’s voice is what is called pure. The eighth gate is manifesting everywhere in the ten directions the domain of the vast practice cultivated in former times, said to be that the practice of former times accorded with pervading the Dharma realm, and this is the vast domain, and that his spiritual penetration is everywhere so that people may see it and take it as their model. The ninth gate is benefiting the world with the dharmas of merit, and Chengguan says that sentient beings are fawning and crooked and do not cultivate virtue themselves — how should they have a mind to recommend the worthy? And now, benefiting others with merit and wisdom, this is to benefit both others and oneself. The tenth gate is making beings see the Buddha arise, keep him constantly in reverent recollection without forgetting, and adorn the treasury of merit, said to be that reverent recollection makes the Buddha arise, and the Buddha arising, the treasury of virtue is adorned; those whose obstructions are heavy neither recollect nor see — could the Buddha ever be other than constantly present? Therefore one ought to see him and to see him constantly.

Coming down to the ground: that question in the tenth gate is very weighty — it is not that the Buddha is sometimes there and sometimes not; it is that your reverent recollection is sometimes there and sometimes not.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Mountains: Ten Faces of Concentration, and Even What Happens in Dreams Counts

Chengguan places this class thirteenth. A mountain stands for not moving, and nearly all ten gates of this class turn upon concentration and upon not moving.

The first gate is entering the light of the great concentration of stillness, of which Chengguan says that being still it constantly illumines, and so there is nothing the light does not open out. The second gate is gathering and cultivating the roots of goodness of kindness and ripening sentient beings past conceiving in number, said to be that the light of the marks and excellences ripens their capacities, all of it by the power of the roots of goodness of kindness. The third gate is observing what sentient beings delight in and adorning and purifying their faculties, said to be that cultivating the causes that adorn the faculties was from the start for the sake of according with sentient beings, and so people see eyes like lotuses and are gladdened, and see a face like the full moon and their hearts rejoice; and one may also say that each and every faculty pervades the Dharma realm, in which case the joy and benefit are deeper still. The fourth gate is diligent vigor through boundless oceans of kalpas without weariness or sloth, said to be that being unstained as space is unstained, through long kalpas there is no slackening — the secret of not wearying is not being stained. The fifth gate is awakening beings everywhere by the light of boundless merit, said to be that because of delusion there is long sleep, and only merit and wisdom can wake one. As to the sixth gate, being able to ripen himself and also to make sentient beings cast off deluded conduct, the seventh gate, pulling out all suffering so that nothing is left, and the eighth gate, expounding the light of the teaching and revealing the merit of the Tathāgata, Chengguan says that the next three may be known: ripening oneself and thereafter ripening others; pulling out suffering and leaving no remainder; expounding the Dharma and thereby revealing the Buddha’s virtue — the words are the meaning.

The ninth gate is making sentient beings increase their roots of goodness even within a dream, and on this gate Chengguan opens out especially: whether asleep or awake, they are made to hear the Dharma and advance in practice, and this is the Buddha’s work. He cites the Da yingluo jing as saying that in the past there was a buddha who, whenever he was about to preach the Dharma, would let the great assembly fall asleep and preach to them in their dreams, making their roots of goodness increase, so that when they woke they obtained the fruit of the path; and he cites what the Nirvāṇa says about seeing the image of a rākṣasa in a dream, saying that this too shows that all dharmas are like a dream. And at the end he says a very fine thing: within the long night of the great dream there must surely be the brightness of the great awakening. The tenth gate is bringing forth the boundless ocean of great meaning, said to be that the Dharma-gate that accords with the nature of things has boundless great meaning and a single voice can expound it, and this is the bringing forth.

Correcting a misreading: the ninth gate is not teaching people to seek out significant dreams. Chengguan’s emphasis is on whether asleep or awake — it is not that dreaming is superior to waking; it is that even in the stretch of time you took for a blank, the Buddha’s work has not stopped.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of the Earth: It Can Carry, and Therefore It Is Firm

Chengguan places this class fourteenth. Earth stands for carrying and for holding within; Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle version, says that the earth spirits dwell below and are the import of carrying.

The first gate is observing all sentient beings everywhere in thought after thought with a mind of kindness and compassion, of which Chengguan says that thought after thought without a gap, observing everywhere impartially, cultivating kindness and guarding the Dharma, one obtains the substance of vajra; and he adds a line — vajra is the very substance of the inward illumination. This gate is the guiding thread of the class: the reason the earth is firm is that it has been carrying all along. The second gate is manifesting everywhere the power of merit of sentient beings, said to be that the power of merit in a single hair manifests the manifold merits all at once. The third gate is entering everywhere into all dharmas and bringing forth the adornments of all buddha-lands, said to be that realizing and entering the unarisen does not get in the way of adorning buddha-lands — the unarisen and the adorning of lands do not obstruct each other, and this is the eye of this gate. The fourth gate is cultivating the manifold samādhis and making sentient beings remove the defilement of their obstructions, said to be that it is wholly for the sake of others; samādhi is not for one’s own enjoyment. The fifth gate is making sentient beings constantly disport themselves in happiness, said to be that appearing in accord with their capacity is what is called disporting. The sixth gate is manifesting every pure body and taming sentient beings, said to be that only by manifesting a body free of delusion can one tame the delusion of sentient beings. The seventh gate is knowing the ocean of the Buddha’s merit and his great majestic power, said to be that having the ocean of virtue complete within, he manifests a body of majestic power, as the great earth holds the moisture of the sea within and brings forth the hundred grains, the hundred grains and the standing crops all being the fragrant hair of the earth — and this spirit is named precisely Fragrant Hair Emitting Light.

The eighth gate is holding and sustaining everywhere the ocean of the speech and sounds of all sentient beings, and here Chengguan sets the prose passage against the verse: the prose gathers all in without remainder in a single phrase, while the verse pervades without limit in a single phrase. The ninth gate is filling the buddha-lands with the nature that is free of defilement, said to be that the cloud of flames pervades everywhere, and making beings free of defilement is its very nature. The tenth gate is being held and sustained by all the wheels of the Buddha’s Dharma and manifesting everywhere, said to be that the Dharma can hold and sustain the conduct of the mind, like the wheel of vajra; and the Buddha, unmoving, manifests in the world, like Sumeru rising out of the sea. At the end of this class Chengguan gives one further hint about how to read the verses: in the verses below there are also two lines that bring the dharma home to the person, and this may be grasped by intent — and this is exactly the shared way in which the verses of all fourteen classes in this fascicle come to a close.

Coming down to the ground: the earth does not pick and choose what it carries. The fourth gate says samādhi is wholly for others; the fifth gate says appearing is called disporting — if a person cultivating concentration finds it hard going, it is most often because he has made the concentration into a thing of his own.

The Ten Gates of the Presiding Spirits of Cities: A City Is Protection, and What Is Protected Is the Dharma

Chengguan places this class fifteenth, and notes that some say this class has lost its ninth dharma while the ten verses are complete (see the section on lineage). A city presides over defense, and all ten gates of this class fall upon three words: protecting, opening, and breaking.

The first gate is benefiting sentient beings by skillful means, of which Chengguan says that light and the rest, every kind of skillful means, are all for ripening and benefiting. The second gate is knowing the faculties of sentient beings and teaching and ripening them, said to be matching the medicine to the illness so that he can take and use it — knowing the faculties is not for the sake of ranking people high and low but for the sake of matching the medicine. The third gate is constant joy that makes sentient beings receive the manifold merits, said to be that when the Dharma is protected the Dharma survives, and the Dharma surviving, sentient beings receive merit; and he adds a line, that all four — the teaching, the principle, the practice, and the fruit — have their protection, which is the most important expansion in this gate, for protecting the Dharma is not only protecting the scrolls of scripture. The fourth gate is the treasury of great compassion that rescues from the manifold dreads, said to be that the rescuing of compassion is inexhaustible and so it is named a treasury. The fifth gate is understanding everywhere the great wisdom, in one sentence: penetrating the Buddha’s great wisdom. The sixth gate is manifesting everywhere by skillful means, in one sentence: manifesting the body by skillful means. The seventh gate is observing sentient beings everywhere and making them cultivate the vast ocean of merit, in one sentence: cultivating the Buddha’s virtue together with them. The eighth gate is awakening sentient beings who are benighted in darkness, of which Chengguan says that being deluded about the principle of the true and the conventional is what is called benighted in darkness, and that the Buddha appears in the world and reveals it and makes them awaken and enter; the original delusion has been there from beginningless time, like a man blind from birth who, though he hears it compared to this and that, never in the end recognizes what milk is like, and only a buddha’s appearing in the world can make him understand.

The ninth gate is beholding how the sovereign power of the Tathāgata reaches everywhere throughout the world and tames sentient beings; and on this gate Chengguan brings out, on the authority of the Sanskrit, a different gate-name and gate-meaning (see the section on lineage), and upon that variant reading gives a passage on the simile of stench and fragrance. He also explains the word ‘dream’ in the verse of this gate: a dream is the roaming of the spirit-consciousness, and it is also what the residual force of what one has seen and heard produces; if he can tame beings even in a dream, how much more when they are awake. The tenth gate is being able to break the mountain of obstruction of all sentient beings with a great light, said to be that the two obstructions and the five hindrances are piled up like a mountain, and nothing but the light of wisdom can break them — and this gate is fastened most tightly to what a city is taken to mean in this class: a city wall is protection, and the mountain of obstruction is also a wall; one is broken and one is raised, and it depends on whose wall it is.

The Eleven Gates of the Spirits of the Place of Awakening: One of the Three Exceptions in This Fascicle

Chengguan places this class sixteenth, and marks out word for word that this class is eleven dharmas and eleven verses. Of the fourteen classes of the whole fascicle, this alone is not ten.

The first gate is the power of the vow to bring forth the vast adornments with which the Buddha is served, and Chengguan first explains the wording: the words ‘bring forth’ are used twice in this one line, meaning that when there is a buddha who comes forth, there come forth the adornments that are used to make offerings; the Buddha did so in former times, and this spirit takes it as his model with a great vow. The second gate is appearing before all sentient beings and accomplishing the vast practices of awakening, said to be accomplishing one’s practice in the face of sentient beings so that they take it as their model; and giving comes first among all practices, and so the verse singles out giving. The third gate is following what sentient beings delight in and making them see the Buddha preach the Dharma to them in a dream, said to be that dreaming and waking can both be occasions of transforming, and then time and place are both pervaded. The fourth gate is being able to rain down all the manifold jeweled adornments that are hard to give away, said to be that outward wealth and the eyes of one’s own body are, layer upon layer, hard to give away; and it is for sentient beings that the practice of relinquishing is preached, and therefore it says he can rain them down. The fifth gate is being able to manifest a subtly adorned place of awakening and teach sentient beings at large and ripen them, and here Chengguan notes that the spirit Pure Flame Form did not appear in the earlier list of names — and this is precisely where the extra one in this class lies. The sixth gate is preaching the Dharma according to their faculties and making them give rise to right recollection, and on right recollection Chengguan says something extremely fine: for one who doubts about the objective realm, mind-only is the right recollection; for one who doubts about the nature of dharmas, the unobtainable is the right recollection. And speaking truly, only when there is neither right nor wrong can it be called right, and only what is neither recollecting nor not recollecting is true recollection; when the manifold recollections do not arise, right recollection then arises. Therefore he rains the Dharma according to their faculties, cutting off doubt and giving rise to wisdom.

The seventh gate is being able to rain down everywhere the boundless dharma of joy by eloquence, said to be that eloquence rains the Dharma and, according with their faculties, gives rise to joy. The eighth gate is praising at large the merit of the buddhas, said to be that praising the Buddha deeply and broadly, name and reality are both fair. The ninth gate is manifesting boundless trees of forms and adorning the place of awakening, said to be the retinue of the king of trees, just as was stated at the opening of this sūtra. The tenth gate is being still and unmoving beneath the tree of awakening and yet filling and pervading the ten directions, said to be just what was spoken of before, the body pervading the ten directions without coming or going, and wisdom entering into all marks and penetrating the emptiness and stillness of the nature of dharmas — being unmoving and filling everywhere are one and the same thing. The eleventh gate is revealing the manifold powers of the Tathāgata, said to be that the Buddha has measureless powers, and so the practices in the causal state are measureless as well, and all of them are revealed by the adornments. At the end Chengguan closes the whole class in one line: since they are the spirits of the place of awakening, what they obtain is liberation within the affairs of that place.

Correcting a misreading: do not take the eleven for an error and try to read it back into ten. Chengguan both marked it as eleven dharmas and eleven verses and pointed out that the spirit Pure Flame Form is not in the earlier list — he left this exception standing as it is. Coming down to the ground: the tidiness of numbered lists of dharmas is for the sake of remembering, not for the sake of tidiness itself; the sūtra itself has places where it is not tidy.

The Ten Gates of the Spirits That Go on Foot: This Business of Walking

Chengguan places this class seventeenth. This class shows most plainly what this fascicle means by ‘entering the Dharma by way of the affair at hand’ — even lifting a foot and setting it down is a gate.

As to the first gate, raining down the manifold jewels everywhere and giving rise to vast joy, and the second gate, manifesting the body of the Buddha seated upon lotus seats of every light and color and making those who see him rejoice, Chengguan says the first two may be known: raining jewels gives rise to joy, manifesting the seat gives rise to joy, and the words are the meaning. The third gate is establishing within every single thought all the assemblies of the tathāgatas and their places of awakening, said to be that inwardly one abides in thought after thought upon principle and upon affairs, and outwardly one establishes places of awakening in place after place — thought and place are two sides of one thing. The fourth gate is taming boundless sentient beings in the lifting of a foot and the taking of a step, and this is the eye of the class, of which Chengguan says that in the lifting and the setting down of a foot the ocean-seal sends out its radiance, and that of all the modes of deportment there is not one that is not the Buddha’s work. The fifth gate is transforming and manifesting in thought after thought the nets of lotus flowers and their light, raining down the manifold jewels everywhere and sending forth wondrous sounds, said to be that by flowers and by light he rains jewels and rains the Dharma. The sixth gate is bringing forth the boundless ocean of joy, said to be that boundless sentient beings are the realm the Buddha transforms, and seeing the Buddha and hearing the Dharma, joy arises. The seventh gate is awakening everywhere by a fragrant wind all the assemblies at the place of awakening, said to be that the perfect voice rouses sentient beings, being the same as a fragrant wind of sandalwood: let one be perfumed by it but once, and one feels body and mind grow harmonious. As to the eighth gate, sending forth light from every pore and expounding the subtle sound of the Dharma, the ninth gate, his body sending out everywhere the nets of light and illumining all things, and the tenth gate, awakening all sentient beings and making them give rise to the ocean of roots of goodness, Chengguan says the remaining three may be known: the pores expound the Dharma, the body sends out nets of light, and awakening produces goodness — none of these go outside the import already established above.

Coming down to the ground: the fourth gate is what this class has to say to one who practices. You do not have to wait until you have a Dharma to preach before it counts as the Buddha’s work; the very way you walk is already preaching.

The Ten Gates of the Spirits of the Bodily Host: The Body Is Like Space, and Also Like a Good Field

Chengguan places this class eighteenth. On the name of the foremost spirit of this class Chengguan brings out a divergent account (see the section on lineage).

As to the first gate, recalling the ocean of the Buddha’s vows of former times, the second gate, light shining everywhere upon boundless worlds, and the third gate, awakening sentient beings everywhere with a great sound and making them rejoice and be tamed, Chengguan says the first three may be known: recalling the vows, sending forth light, giving out sound — the meaning is seen in the very words. The fourth gate is the body abiding pervasively like space, and here Chengguan opens out: marks are precisely marklessness, and so it abides pervasively like space; and space is not a bare emptiness, for it also pervades within form, and abiding pervasively is not that a portion of it abides upon a single dust mote, but that it pervades. Just as the space within a mustard seed cannot be exhausted, because the body and the nature of dharmas cannot be divided from each other. This gate is the doctrinal eye of the class. The fifth gate is showing all sentient beings the domains of the buddhas, said to be that deportment and the giving of transformation manifest all at once without a mind that does so, and this is the domain of a buddha, hard to speak of and hard to think. The sixth gate is making hungry and destitute sentient beings satisfied in color and strength, of which Chengguan says that the Buddha is a good field, hard to encounter in the world, and that if one but raises the slightest offering, the retribution obtained is five things that are constant; the text of the sūtra names only color and strength for brevity, but there are in fact also long life, ease, and eloquence, and these five are all constant, and only that is called being satisfied; and since the retribution received is inexhaustible, all of them leave poverty behind. The seventh gate is removing the defilement of the afflictions of sentient beings, said to be that the light between the teeth removes defilement, showing that what he preaches is pure.

The eighth gate is turning about the deluded work of Māra in sentient beings, and here Chengguan explains Māra through and through: to be stained toward the five dust-objects and without kindness toward the six destinies is the deluded work of Māra; penetrate the nature of the five desires, empty yourself and forget yourself along with them, and that work is turned about, and so it is named guarding. What is called sustaining is guarding the gates of the senses well, gathering in what is scattered and thereby holding merit — and thus one is far from Māra. He also says that the work of Māra and delusion do not go outside the three poisons and conceit, and that Māra’s troubling of sentient beings does not go outside three things — the finest of the five desires, the manifold instruments of suffering, and preaching wrong dharmas to them; the three poisons are born from these, and the three poisons within, once grasped at, become the work of Māra. Now that one guards and is aware, what can Māra still do? This is the path of liberation spoken of in the verse. The ninth gate is revealing the marks of adornment everywhere within the palaces of all the rulers of the worlds, and Chengguan gives three layers of meaning: first, that though the body pervades the Dharma realm, he mostly manifests as a king, because in gathering in and governing he is sovereign; second, that the eight phases of accomplishing the path take place in a royal palace, in order to stoop down and draw sentient beings in; third, that beneath the tree of awakening in the Dharma realm is itself the palace of the King of Dharma. The tenth gate is gathering in all sentient beings everywhere and making them all give rise to pure roots of goodness, said to be that being deluded about original emptiness there is the suffering of false imagining, and that the uncontaminated is what was there all along, and that is the pure root of goodness.

Correcting a misreading: the eighth gate is not teaching people to fight it out with Māra. What Chengguan says the turning about consists in is the nature of things and guarding — recognize the nature of the five desires and hold the gates of the senses, and Māra has nowhere to get a grip.

The Ten Gates of the Vajra-Bearing Spirits: Seeing the Body of Boundless Forms

Chengguan places this class nineteenth, the last class of this fascicle. The vajra-bearing spirits are the Buddha’s close attendants and Dharma-protectors, and all ten gates of this class fall upon ‘seeing the body of the Buddha’ and ‘preaching the Dharma of the Buddha.’

The first gate is seeing how the Tathāgata manifests a body of boundless forms, of which Chengguan says that seeing the body of the Tathāgata is a universal manifesting and not a particular one — how should it be a manifesting for the sake of ordinary persons alone? The place where he is is itself boundless marks, and moreover each and every form he accords with is likewise without bound. As to the second gate, every single hair of the Buddha’s body revealing manifold clouds of light like a sun-wheel, the third gate, the great spiritual transformation of manifesting measureless bodies, the fourth gate, the boundless sound that accords with each kind, and the fifth gate, manifesting as the ruler of every world and awakening sentient beings, Chengguan says the next four may be known; only on the name of the fifth spirit does he have something further to say (see the section on lineage). The sixth gate is setting forth everywhere the gates of the distinctions among all the dharmas of the Buddha and exhausting them with nothing left out, said to be that the ocean of Dharma is deep and abstruse and its branchings differ, and he skillfully declares them and makes them appear with nothing left over. The seventh gate is gathering in all the tree spirits with lovely adornments, and here Chengguan draws a contrast: speaking from the side of the spirits, one may provisionally say that jeweled ornaments are the adornment, with which he skillfully gathers in his own retinue; speaking from the side of the Buddha, then skillful means and the marks and excellences are the adornment, and there is nothing that is not gathered in. The eighth gate is being fully and clearly aware of the mass of the vast merit and adornment of the Tathāgata, said to be that because the cause is deep, great merit can serve as adornment, and because the fruit is excellent, the marks of virtue are all clear and complete.

The ninth gate is observing everywhere the minds of dangerous and evil sentient beings and manifesting for them a body of awesome dignity, and Chengguan explains the wording: evil refers to the ten evils, and dangerous is the cause of that evil, because it can entrap oneself and others and is a perilous road. So manifesting a body of awesome dignity for dangerous and evil sentient beings is not intimidation; it is stopping their danger. The tenth gate is raining down everywhere all the adornments of the bodhisattvas and the maṇi topknot, and Chengguan brings out two readings: if one goes by the present text, then the maṇi topknot is what is rained down; if one takes it by the meaning, since this spirit is named Lotus Maṇi Topknot, one may also say that the topknot is what does the raining and the adornments of all the bodhisattvas are what is rained, showing that the light of the bodhisattvas’ wisdom is complete.

Among the verses of this class Chengguan separately explains the words ‘whirling eddy’ in the sixth verse: a whirling eddy is the place where water spirals and swirls around, and it has three meanings — first, being very deep; second, turning about; third, being hard to cross. And the whirling eddy of the ocean of Dharma is likewise: first, only a buddha can plumb it; second, the true and the false circle round one another so that their beginning and end are hard to exhaust; third, one hears emptiness spoken of and takes it for emptiness, and then one is sunk in the eddy, and one hears existence spoken of and takes it for existence, and so on — all of which may be inferred in the same way. Therefore the verse speaks of all the differentiated meanings. Having finished his explanation, Chengguan closes the whole of the assemblies of different birth with a single line: the assemblies of different birth are herewith finished.

Coming down to the ground: the two readings of the tenth gate are worth noticing — one and the same line of scripture, and whether one takes the spirit as the one who rains or as the thing rained, the doctrine that comes out holds either way. This is exactly how the one hundred and forty-one gates of the fourteen classes of this fascicle are to be read: which side the gate is on depends on which side you come in from.

Lineage

‘The assemblies of different birth’ is an outline-name belonging to the commentator — the divisional name ‘the part of extolling and praising the virtues’ and the paired terms ‘the assemblies of different birth’ and ‘the assembly of the same birth’ were all established by Chengguan when he laid out the structure of this sūtra; the text of the sūtra has no such names. At the end of this fascicle Chengguan closes with ‘the assemblies of different birth are herewith finished,’ and below that enters the assembly of the same birth. Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle version, also uses this phrase and distinguishes their virtue in general, and sets up a doubt of his own: Samantabhadra is of the same birth and stands together in the ocean of the fruit; these assemblies of different birth are a miscellaneous and lowly sort — how are they also gathered into the ocean of the fruit? His explanation divides into the two gates of the fruit being able to gather in the cause and the cause being able to enter the fruit. This question and answer belong to Fazang, and what is explained is the sixty-fascicle version.

The record of omissions in the translations — Chengguan records discrepancies among the translations in five places in this fascicle, all of them attributed to ‘some say,’ ‘according to the Sanskrit,’ or ‘the ancient worthies say,’ without judging on his own account. On the fourth gate of the presiding spirits of fire, some say that according to the Sanskrit the fourth has been lost here, the spirit’s name in the Sanskrit being Supreme Stamen Light Universally Illuminating and the Dharma-gate being universally able to remove the dust of the afflictions; and Chengguan further says that most of the editions do not have it, while some editions have it complete as the presiding spirit of fire Manifold Wondrous Palaces obtaining the gate of liberation of great kindness and compassion that broadly shelters sentient beings, and that this is likely an omission in the copying; and at the verses he says that the verses have added the fourth. For the class of the presiding spirits of the sea, Chengguan says at the head of the outline that there are ten dharmas but the verses have lost the third, and he quotes four lines of verse from the Sanskrit; and these four lines that Chengguan quotes — that all the guides of every world let the cloud of Dharma rain down immeasurably, drying up the inexhaustible oceans of suffering, and that this is the Dharma-gate that Unmixed with Dust and Defilement entered — are present in the base text of this unit, precisely as the third verse of the presiding spirits of the sea, and are not absent from the base text; Chengguan argues that if one goes by this text then it is the drying up of the ocean of suffering; and he further says that if one goes by the present text, the third is the afflictions and the fourth is suffering, whereas if one goes by the Sanskrit, the former is suffering and the latter is delusion, and that because the translator made an omission the wording and the sense are thrown out of line, and therefore the ancient worthies say that the fourth verse was lost, but since the concluding names are the same, one knows that what was lost is the third. For the class of the presiding spirits of cities, Chengguan says that some hold that the ninth dharma was lost while the ten verses are complete, and he brings out the Sanskrit as reading the presiding spirit of cities Fragrant Banner Adorned Topknot obtaining the gate of liberation of breaking the stench of all afflictions and bringing forth the fragrance of the nature of omniscience, and upon this gives a passage on stench and fragrance — the active defilements are the stinking thing and the residual habits are its stench, while the nature of wisdom is the substance of fragrance and benefiting beings is its scent; the scent is like clouds coming out of a high mountain, according with the nature of wisdom and inexhaustible, and the stench is like a fragrant wind rolling up a fog, equal to the emptiness of nature and boundless. He also says that some editions likewise have it complete as the presiding spirit of cities Fragrant Topknot Adornment obtaining the gate of liberation of opening out the pure and wondrous wisdom of sentient beings, and judges that this too is likely an omission in the copying, the sense not differing from the former. On the name of the foremost spirit of the bodily host, Chengguan says that in the place where the names were first listed it reads Flower Topknot Adornment, and that either the name is longer and only half of it is cited here, or else the Sanskrit sounds are similar and it is the translator’s error, and he says honestly that he has not himself collated the Dharma-gate against the Sanskrit. On the fifth of the vajra-bearing spirits, Chengguan says that in the first fascicle the name is Beautiful and Wondrous Faculties, whereas here it reads only Wondrous Arm, and both wording and sense are deficient; and the two words Lord of Gods were added because he manifests as a ruler of the world. All these records are what the ancient worthies brought out, and they are set down together without judgment.

The number eleven of the spirits of the place of awakening — of the fourteen classes only this one is eleven dharmas and eleven verses; Chengguan marks the number word for word and points out that the fifth spirit, Pure Flame Form, does not appear in the earlier list of names. This is one of the three exceptions in this fascicle; the other two are in the next paragraph, and they are set down as they stand.

One divergent form in the speaker of the verses — in all fourteen sets of verses of praise, the speaker is the foremost of that class in the prose passage, with the single exception of the presiding spirits of mountains: the foremost in the prose reads the presiding spirit of mountains Jewel Peak Opening Flowers, while the speaker of the verses reads the presiding spirit of mountains Opening Flowers Encircling the Earth. Likewise in the set phrase for being sustained by the Buddha, thirteen read sustained by the awesome power of the Buddha and only the set for the spirits that go on foot reads sustained by the spiritual power of the Buddha; and in this one instance the Song, Yuan, and Ming witnesses read the regular form, see the collation notes in the textual apparatus. Both places are recorded following the original wording of the sūtra, neither altered nor judged.

The divergence in the outlines of the several houses — the order of the classes in the text of the eighty-fascicle version is fire, water, sea, river, crops, herbs, forest, mountain, earth, city, the place of awakening, going on foot, the bodily host, and the vajra-bearers; the order of the classes in the sixty-fascicle version, in the passage listing the names of the assembly, is the place of awakening, dragons, earth, trees, herb-plants, grain, rivers, sea, fire, wind, space, the presiding spirits of the directions, the presiding spirits of night, and the presiding spirits of day, and it does not divide into ten gates of liberation and verses of praise but makes a single passage listing the names with one line of general virtue attached. Chengguan follows the eighty-fascicle version, going through the text and numbering the outline from the sixth to the nineteenth; Fazang follows the sixty-fascicle version, explaining class by class; and their manner of explaining differs too — Chengguan mostly explains the import of the gate of liberation gate by gate, while Fazang first explains the import of each spirit’s name class by class (dwelling above, dwelling below, dwelling between, counteraction, supplying and sustaining, flowing and moistening, being complete in virtue, ripening) and only then treats their virtue. Li Tongxuan takes yet another track of his own, not using the order of the classes but matching them to the ten practices by position: the presiding spirits of the sea to the practice of non-opposition and the perfection of patience, the presiding spirits of water to the practice of not shrinking back and the perfection of vigor, the presiding spirits of fire to the practice of freedom from delusion and confusion and the perfection of meditation; and about the sequence of positions before and after he says one thing — this is sequence within what has no before and after, sameness and difference within a single nature that has no distinctions, and it must not be construed as before and after by the sentiments of ordinary understanding. The outlines of all three houses differ entirely, and they are set down together without judgment.

Its bearing upon the chapter on entering the Dharma realm — the sentence pattern of this fascicle, ‘obtained such and such a gate of liberation,’ belongs to the same system of vocabulary as the sentence pattern by which Sudhana studies one gate of liberation after another in the fifty-three visits of the chapter on entering the Dharma realm. This fascicle is a collected display in which each of the spirit hosts realizes one gate, while the chapter on entering the Dharma realm is the unfolding one by one of the sequence of the causal positions. The two sentence patterns bear upon each other, and how deep or shallow that relation is, is set down without judgment.

What is not found — Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji has no corresponding explanation for the passages on the spirit hosts of this fascicle; his occurrences of ‘earth spirit’ and ‘spirit of the place of awakening’ all fall in the passage of the fifty-three visits in the chapter on entering the Dharma realm, and are not explanations of this chapter. Searching the treatises of the Huayan school — the Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang, the Shixuan men, the Fajie xuanjing, and the Wangjin huanyuan guan — the names of the spirits of this fascicle are nowhere to be seen; where these four treatises cite this sūtra they mostly take the chapter on the ten grounds and the passages on the ten mysteries and the six characteristics. The above is marked as absent according to the facts, and nothing from elsewhere is used to fill it in.

First, See Clearly What This Fascicle Is Doing

The first fascicle of chapter one sets out, assembly by assembly, the rulers of the world and the spirits, gods and dragons who gathered like clouds at the place of awakening; it only lists their names, and does not yet say what gate each attained or give their verses. From the second fascicle onward the sūtra sets out, assembly by assembly, the gate of liberation each attained, and the foremost of each assembly, sustained by the Buddha's awesome power, speaks verses in praise of the Buddha — commonly ten members to an assembly and ten verses as well, though the base text plainly records exceptions: the assembly of the spirits of the place of awakening has eleven members, and the assembly of dragon kings has eleven verses. By this fifth fascicle, those set out are no longer gods or spirits or the eight classes of beings, but bodhisattvas. Chengguan classifies this stretch as the ‘assembly of the same birth’, and the preceding four fascicles as the ‘assembly of a different birth’ — two names of which the sūtra itself contains not one word; they are headings a commentator set up so that the reader could see the order of the assemblies. Chengguan further divides the stretch on the assembly of the same birth into three parts: first Samantabhadra alone attains all the gates of Dharma, next ten bodhisattvas whose names contain ‘Universal’ each attain one gate, and next ten bodhisattvas of differing names each attain one gate; and all three parts have prose first and verse after. There is besides one further part, in which bodhisattvas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-field are born from within the adornments of the Tathāgata's lion throne, and ten of them, as the foremost, each speak a set of verses; and at the end the Flower-Treasury world quakes, the rulers of the worlds raise up offerings, and the passage extends to the ten directions — and here Chengguan brings the whole chapter to its close, saying that with this the ten parts of the ‘portion setting out the causes and conditions of the teaching's arising’ are finished.

So the frame of this fascicle is four plus one: four groups who attain the Dharma and praise the Buddha, and one concluding extension. Of the four groups, the first three ‘attain gates’ and the fourth is a ‘bringing forth of an assembly’; all four have verses, and the number of verses is not uniform — the first three groups have ten verses each, while of the ten bodhisattvas born of the adorned throne, eight speak ten verses each and two, Universal Sound of the Dharma Realm and Cloud-Sound Pure Moon, speak eleven each. Those two sets of eleven are not a stray remainder: one is the ten perfections plus a general statement, the other the ten grounds plus a general statement, and each has its own reason for being eleven.

Set up one correction at the outset. Seeing the phrase “each attained one gate of liberation”, it is easy to read it as though each bodhisattva were allotted a tenth of the whole Dharma, like slicing a cake. It is precisely here that Chengguan lays down a sentence that matters: what is set out both before and after is ‘entering the whole by way of the particular’, and that is why it says each attained one gate of liberation, just like the hundred rivers. The hundred rivers are not each a tenth of the ocean; each is a road that walks into the ocean. Once this distinction stands, the thirty gates of the three groups that follow will not be read as thirty scattered accomplishments.

The Two Summary Lines of the Samantabhadra Passage: The Gate of Cause and the Ocean of Fruit

First the question. Before Samantabhadra speaks the ten gates, the sūtra gives two lines — he enters the ocean of skillful means that is the inconceivable gate of liberation, and he enters the ocean of the Tathāgata's merit. What is the relation between these two? Chengguan separates them with great clarity: the first line points out the substance of the Dharma, the second sets forth its function. What is the substance? He glosses “inconceivable” as that whose number exceeds all reckoning and whose principle cuts off speech and thought; he glosses “ocean of skillful means” as accomplishing activity without stirring the real, skillfully joining the gate of cause to the fruit, and therefore called skillful means. What is the function? He says it is realizing and entering the fullness of the cause and going forth into the ocean of the fruit.

These two lines taken together are the most important pair of boundary-stakes in this fascicle. The first stands on the side of cause, the second on the side of fruit; and what makes it possible to travel from cause to fruit lies in those six words, accomplishing activity without stirring the real — not putting suchness aside in order to act, nor finishing the act and then turning back to realize suchness, but the real not stirring at all while activity accomplishes itself.

A correction: “skillful means” here does not mean an expedient, nor a making-do. What the sūtra speaks of is entering an ocean of means, and an ocean is a measure without end; what Chengguan speaks of is skillfully joining the gate of cause to the fruit, and skill here is skillfulness, not cunning. Putting it to work: when you read the ten gates below, you can hold each one up against these two lines — by which cause does this gate enter, and to which portion of the ocean of fruit does it arrive?

Samantabhadra's Ten Gates: The Name of the Gate Is the Meaning of the Gate

First the question. Why do these ten gates have only names and no explanation? Because in the pattern of this sūtra the name of the gate is the meaning of the gate — ‘there is a gate of liberation named such-and-such’, and that ‘such-and-such’ says in one breath what is practised, what it is for, and where it arrives, so that no further gloss is required.

The first gate, adorning and purifying all buddha-lands, taming beings, and causing them to come forth once and for all: one gate holding three things, the land purified, beings tamed, and a coming forth at the last, gathering up both ends, land and being. The second gate, going everywhere to where all Tathāgatas are and cultivating the realm of their complete merit: this is not paying a visit; it is going to where all buddhas are and cultivating there the realm of their complete merit — the weight falls on cultivating, not on going. The third gate, establishing the oceans of great vows upon all the grounds of the bodhisattvas: the bodhisattva grounds are stations, the ocean of great vows is a measure of vowing, and this gate fastens station and vow together — one does not rise in station by seniority, one is established there by vow. The fourth gate, manifesting everywhere measureless bodies as many as the dust motes of the Dharma realm: the number of bodies takes the dust motes of the Dharma realm for its measure, and these are bodies that answer to capacity, not a trick of dividing the body. The fifth gate, expounding the differing names, inconceivable in number, that pervade all lands: what is expounded is names — the measureless differing names within all lands, each unlike the rest and every one of them speakable. The sixth gate, manifesting within every single dust mote the realm of the spiritual powers of boundless bodhisattvas: what is manifested is not the buddha-realm but the bodhisattva-realm; the practice of practitioners manifested within a dust mote is precisely an exhortation to cultivate. The seventh gate, manifesting within a single thought the forming and decaying of the eons of the three times: the utmost length of time enters the utmost brevity of a thought. The eighth gate, manifesting the ocean of the differing faculties of all bodhisattvas so that each enters his own realm: what is manifested is the ocean of the faculties of a great many practitioners, and each enters his own realm — they are not levelled into a row. The ninth gate, being able by the force of spiritual power to transform and manifest bodies of every kind pervading the boundless Dharma realm: read it together with the fourth, and the fourth is the measure of ‘manifesting bodies’ while this one is the reach of ‘transforming and manifesting’. The tenth gate, displaying the graded gateway of the practices the bodhisattvas cultivate and so entering the vast skillful means of omniscience: it gathers all ten gates with the two words ‘graded order’ — the first nine gates open with no aspect of gradation, and the last speaks of gradation on purpose, exactly so that one may know that within the endless there is still a road that can be walked.

A correction: the ten gates are not ten stages, and the tenth is not the last step. It stands alongside the first nine, and only displays that ‘gradation’ itself is also a gate. Putting it to work: these ten gates can serve as ten questions for examining oneself — at which gate does the place where I actually take hold of practice fall? If it falls at none of them, then for the most part the aspiration has not yet truly been raised.

Samantabhadra's Ten Verses: The Verses Do Not Repeat the Prose

First the question. The prose has already set out the ten gates, so why say them again in verse? Look at the verses and you will see that these ten are not a restatement of the ten gates one by one. The first verse speaks of the buddha-fields and the sons of the Buddha within them; the second, that seeing in one assembly is seeing within every dust mote, and that the Buddha's body neither comes nor goes; the third, that displaying the practice and speaking the principle causes entry into the Dharma realm; the fourth, transformation-buddhas answering to capacity; the fifth, that his names pervade the world and no means of his falls empty; the sixth, the manifesting of great spiritual power within the dust; the seventh, the forming and decaying of the three times manifested in thought after thought; the eighth, that the ground of the buddhas is hard to measure; the ninth, that the Buddha is like space, making no discrimination; the tenth, the subtle voice and the impartial Dharma.

Among these, the seventh verse answers to the seventh gate of the prose (a single thought manifesting the forming and decaying of the three times), the sixth verse to the sixth gate (manifesting within the dust motes), and the third verse to the tenth gate (displaying what is cultivated, the measureless means of entering the grounds) — the verses answer to the prose without matching it clause for clause. This is the ordinary practice of verse in this sūtra: the prose opens the gates, and the verses take another turn outside the gates, joining up the breath that runs between one gate and the next.

A correction: the second verse's “the Buddha's body neither goes nor comes” is not saying that the Buddha does not move. It stands in the same verse as “so is it within every dust mote”, and what it says is that he appears in every place without needing to come or go — the absence of coming and going is precisely the reason for appearing everywhere, not an exception to it. Putting it to work: the ninth verse is where these ten verses land — “the Buddha, like space, makes no discrimination, equal to the true Dharma realm and resting upon nothing.” After so much has been said about manifesting, a line about making no discrimination and resting on nothing must follow at the end, or else the manifesting will be read as something deliberately contrived.

The Ten Universal Bodhisattvas: Why a Name Has to Be Added Before There Are Ten

First the question. The names of these ten bodhisattvas all begin with the word ‘Universal’ — so why is it that the first alone, Pure Virtue Wondrous Light, did not appear when the names were listed earlier? Chengguan explains here a point of pattern that matters very much: among the ten Universal ones listed earlier, Samantabhadra was originally counted as one of them; now that Samantabhadra has been set apart in a passage of his own and speaks the ten gates alone, this group is one short, and so a further name is added to fill out the number ten — his own words are “added so as to make ten, thereby showing perfect completeness”.

That one sentence says everything about the character of the word ‘ten’ in this sūtra. Ten here is not the outcome of a count; it is the form in which the Dharma is displayed. So the person may be exchanged, but the number may not be short. One is missing, so one is supplied — and what is supplied is not a person but that aspect of ‘perfect completeness’.

A correction: do not therefore take Pure Virtue Wondrous Light to be a makeweight. The gate the sūtra gives him is “going everywhere to the assemblies of bodhisattvas in the ten directions and adorning the places of awakening” — going everywhere to all the assemblies of bodhisattvas and adorning the places of awakening is precisely the gate among the ten that best shows the sense of ‘universal’, and there is nothing forced about listing him first. Putting it to work: hereafter, whenever you meet the numbers ten, twenty, or a hundred thousand in this sūtra, ask first — is this counting, or is this a display of the Dharma? This passage has handed you a ready-made precedent.

The Ten Gates of the Ten Universal Ones: Where the ‘Universal’ Falls

First the question. All ten are named ‘Universal’, so must all ten gates be universal too? Look at them gate by gate and it becomes clear that the ‘universal’ falls in a different place each time.

In the gate of Pure Virtue Wondrous Light, the universal falls on “going everywhere” — all the bodhisattva assemblies of the ten directions, with not one left out. In the gate of Universal Virtue Supreme Lamplight Illumination, it falls on “a single thought” — within one thought he manifests the inexhaustible gates of accomplishing true awakening, and teaches and ripens the inconceivable realms of beings; the singleness of the moment and the endlessness of the measure are joined in one clause. In the gate of Universal Light Lion Banner, it falls on “bringing forth” — he cultivates the adornment of a bodhisattva's merit, and what is brought forth is all buddha-lands; the merit does not stop at his own enjoyment but issues directly as lands. In the gate of Universal Jewel-Flame Wondrous Light, it falls on “without confusion” — he contemplates the realm of the Buddha's spiritual powers and is not confused, and this is the universality of the beholder: however marvellous the realm, he is not thrown into disorder. In the gate of Universal Sound Merit-Ocean Banner, it falls on ‘manifesting all within one’ — within a single assembly at a single place of awakening he manifests the adornments of all buddha-lands, and this is the sūtra's sense of one being all, stated outright in the name of a gate. In the gate of Universal Wisdom Light Illumining the Tathāgata's Realm, it falls on “following after” — he follows after the Tathāgata and contemplates the profound and vast treasury of the Dharma realm; following after is not parting from him, contemplating is not being blind. In the gate of Universal Awakening Delightful Voice, it falls on “serving” — he draws near to and serves the treasury of offerings to all buddhas, and to speak of offering as a treasury is to say that making offerings is itself a gate one can enter. In the gate of Universal Purity Inexhaustible Merit Majestic Light, it falls on “sustaining power” — he brings forth the vast sustaining power of all spiritual transformations; transformation comes forth from that sustaining power, not from any boast of one's own strength. In the gate of Universal Jewel-Topknot Flower Banner, it falls on “entering the conduct of the world” — he enters everywhere into the conduct of all worlds and brings forth the boundless gates of bodhisattva practice; worldly conduct is not what must be avoided, it is the very place the gates of practice come forth from. In the gate of Universal Marks Supreme Light, it falls on ‘appearing within the markless’ — he is able, within the markless Dharma realm, to bring forth the realms of all buddhas.

A correction: the last gate is the easiest to read wrongly. “Bringing forth the realms of all buddhas within the markless Dharma realm” does not say that outside the markless there is some other realm to be manifested; it says that just because it is markless, all realms can appear without obstructing one another. Putting it to work: these ten gates set side by side actually give a map of the ‘universal’ — going everywhere, a single thought, bringing forth, no confusion, all within one, following after, serving, sustaining power, entering the world, the markless. Whichever square you are most lacking at this moment is your gate.

Pure Virtue Wondrous Light's Ten Verses: From Purity in an Instant to Suchness Manifesting a Body

First the question. The ten Universal bodhisattvas each attained one gate, so why does Pure Virtue Wondrous Light alone speak the verses? Such is the ordinary practice in the passages on the gathered assemblies in this sūtra — the foremost of an assembly is put forward, and sustained by the Buddha's awesome power he speaks verses on behalf of the whole assembly. The sūtra says plainly that he spoke only after he had, “sustained by the awesome power of the Buddha, looked everywhere upon the ocean of all the bodhisattvas' gates of liberation”: first he looks everywhere upon the ocean of all the bodhisattvas' gates, and then he opens his mouth; what he sets in verse is not his own gate alone.

The order of the ten verses can be read as a single line. The first verse says that in an instant the lands of the ten directions are all adorned and pure — this is the aspect of fruit. The second says that in one thought the Dharma realm is filled and within every dust mote a place of awakening is established — this is the pervasion of that fruit. The third and fourth look back to ages past and say that the World-Honoured One cultivated through a hundred thousand measureless eons and that his spiritual power has no limit. The fifth turns suddenly into an exhortation — “you should look upon the realm of the Buddha's spiritual powers”. The sixth follows by saying that looking will not obtain its measure, that not even the weight of a single hair can be taken. The seventh says that the Tathāgata served boundless buddhas in eons past, and therefore beings come racing to make offerings like a hundred rivers. The eighth says that the Tathāgata appears throughout the ten directions and within every dust mote are measureless lands. The ninth says that the Buddha cultivated an ocean of great compassion for beings and entered birth-and-death along with them. And the tenth closes upon “the Buddha abides in the treasury of the Dharma realm that is suchness, markless and formless and apart from every defilement”, while what beings behold is bodies of every kind, and by them their sufferings are extinguished.

A correction: the sixth verse's “not obtaining the measure of a single hair” is not an attack on contemplative practice. It comes immediately after the fifth verse's “you should look upon the Buddha” — first the exhortation to look, then the statement that looking does not reach the bottom; and that one still looks though the bottom is not reached is exactly what looking is. Putting it to work: the last verse is where the whole piece sets the heart at rest. The Buddha's substance is markless and formless, while what beings see is bodies of every kind — there is no need to be anxious over whether what you see is the ‘real Buddha’; that bodies of every kind are seen and suffering is extinguished is the proof of this gate working.

The Ten Differently Named Bodhisattvas: Where the Names Differ, the Gates Differ Too

First the question. The ten before were all named ‘Universal’, and this group of ten have names that all differ, which Chengguan classifies as “the third, the ten of differing names” — so is the difference of name arbitrary? Look at the gates and you will see it is not. The gates of this group hold closer to stations of practice and to concrete matters than those of the ten Universal ones.

The gate of Ocean-Moonlight Great Brightness is ‘bringing forth the grounds of the bodhisattvas and the perfections, teaching beings, and the means of adorning and purifying all buddha-lands’ — one gate gathering up four things, the grounds, the perfections, the teaching of beings, and the purifying of lands, which is why he is put forward as the foremost of this group. The gate of Cloud-Sound Ocean-Light Stainless Treasury is “entering everywhere, in thought after thought, into the differing places of the Dharma realm” — what he enters is the differing places, not an entering into sameness that leaves difference behind. The gate of Wisdom-Born Jewel Topknot is “manifesting, through inconceivable eons, pure and great merit before all beings” — the merit appears before beings, it is not kept hidden. The gate of Sovereign King of Merit Pure Light is “seeing everywhere the adornments of every kind at the moment when all the bodhisattvas of the ten directions first come to the place of awakening” — what is seen is that very moment of “first coming to the place of awakening”, for the aspect of the first arousing is the most worth treasuring. The gate of Well-Valiant Lotus Topknot is “following the ocean of the faculties and understandings of beings, and displaying to them everywhere all the Buddha's teachings” — he speaks according to their faculties, and what he speaks is still the whole of the Buddha's teaching, not a discounted Dharma. The gate of Universal Wisdom Cloud-Sun Banner is “accomplishing the wisdom of the Tathāgata and abiding forever through measureless eons” — the accomplishing of wisdom and the length of abiding in the world joined into one gate. The gate of Great Vigor Vajra is “entering everywhere into the power of all the boundless seals of Dharma” — a seal of Dharma is what fixes and certifies, and power is what can hold. The gate of Fragrant-Flame Light Banner is “displaying how all present buddhas first cultivated the bodhisattva practices and so came to accomplish the mass of wisdom” — what is displayed is the whole course of a buddha, from the earliest cultivation to wisdom gathered into a mass. The gate of Great Bright Virtue Deep Beautiful Voice is “abiding in all the oceans of great vows of Vairocana” — pointing straight at the ocean of vows of this sūtra's own teacher. The gate of Great Merit-Light Wisdom-Born is “displaying the Tathāgata's profound realm that pervades the Dharma realm” — closing with the display of the buddha-realm.

A correction: do not read these ten gates as ten kinds of supernormal power. Of the ten, those that genuinely speak of “displaying” and “manifesting” display the causal practice of a buddha and the realm of a buddha, and the purpose is to exhort cultivation and give rise to faith, not to show off marvels. Putting it to work: read this group together with the group of ten Universal ones, and one group speaks of the bearings of the ‘universal’ while the other speaks of the order of the stations of practice — the former answers ‘how far does it reach’, the latter answers ‘how does one walk’.

Ocean-Moonlight Great Brightness's Ten Verses: From the Perfections and Grounds to Realms Without End

First the question. Since the gate he attained is the bringing forth of the grounds and the perfections, do his verses then set the grounds and the perfections in verse? The first verse does indeed open by saying “the perfections together with the grounds are vast, past thinking, and wholly complete”, and goes on to say that beings are all tamed and the buddha-lands all adorned and pure — precisely the four things of that gate of his.

But from the second verse onward it opens out. The second verse says he teaches the realms of beings and turns the wheel of Dharma in one thought; the third, that through measureless eons the Buddha manifests everywhere before beings and shows them his cultivation of ages past; the fourth turns suddenly to the first person — “I have looked throughout the ten directions with nothing left over, and I have seen the buddhas raise up their spiritual powers” — the speaker steps forward as a witness. The fifth says the vast and radiant dharma-body can manifest in the world by skillful means and rain down the Dharma to match capacity; the sixth names three bodies in a row: the body of suchness, impartial and markless; the pure dharma-body of stainless radiance; and the body of wisdom, still and without limit. The seventh says the powers of the Dharma-King are pure and his wisdom like space, and that he opens all for beings, leaving nothing withheld or hidden. The eighth says that as the Buddha cultivated in ages past and so accomplished omniscience, he now emits a light that pervades the Dharma realm. The ninth says the Buddha raises up spiritual powers by his original vows and expounds all within a net of light. The tenth says the realms of the ten directions are without end, each and every one differing, and that the Buddha with unobstructed force sends out a great light making all the lands plainly manifest.

A correction: the “I” of the fourth verse is not the speaker boasting of the breadth of his own vision. Set among the other verses, its work is to turn the preceding ‘the Buddha is thus and thus’ into ‘I have indeed seen it’ — a verse of praise must have this turn, or it is only hearsay. Putting it to work: the three bodies of the sixth verse can serve as a measuring rod — does the Buddha you understand stop at the markless body and the pure dharma-body, or do you also recognize the still body of wisdom along with them? Only when all three are recognized will the word ‘buddha’ not be read too narrowly.

The Adorned Throne Brings Forth an Assembly: Bodhisattvas Who Come Out of the Adornments

First the question. The three groups before were already present at the assembly, but this group is born from within the adornments of the Tathāgata's lion throne — its many jewels, wondrous flowers, wheel-terraces, stepped base and lattices, and from within every single adornment there are born bodhisattvas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-field. What does this mean? The sūtra itself offers no explanation, but its being placed at the end of the four groups is already speaking: the first three groups are ‘those who have attained the Dharma coming to praise the Buddha’, and this group is ‘the Buddha's own adornment bringing forth those who praise him’. The adornment of the throne is not dead decoration; it gives birth to practitioners.

After they are born, the sūtra writes of three things. First, the raising of offerings: each raises up offering-clouds of every kind, ten cloud-names being listed and then gathered up with “such kinds as these”, their number as the dust motes of a buddha-world, rained down upon the ocean of assemblies at every place of awakening, continuously and unbroken. Second, the sitting down: they circle the World-Honoured One to the right through measureless hundreds of thousands of rounds, and each following his own quarter, at a place not far from the Buddha, conjures a lion throne of jewelled lotuses and sits upon it with legs crossed — first the circling, then the sitting; first the reverence, then the settling. Third, the praising of their virtues: it says that the practice of these bodhisattvas is pure and vast as the ocean, that they have attained the universal gateway of the Dharma which the light of wisdom illumines, that following the buddhas their practice is unobstructed, that they can enter the ocean of the Dharma of all eloquence, have attained the inconceivable gate of liberation, abide upon the Tathāgata's ground of the universal gateway, have already attained every gate of dhāraṇī, can receive and contain the whole ocean of the Dharma, are well established upon the ground of the wisdom impartial towards the three times, have attained deep faith, vast joy and delight, boundless accumulations of merit and the utmost excellence of purity, that there is no place in space or the Dharma realm they do not contemplate, and that wherever a buddha arises in any land of the ten directions they diligently make offerings.

Chengguan, glossing this praising of virtues, sets down a paired explanation under the two clauses “well established upon the ground of the wisdom impartial towards the three times” and “have attained deep faith, vast joy and delight”: first, that wisdom rests securely in both principle and phenomena, and so it says “well established”; second, that there is no merit they do not cultivate, and so faith and delight arise. And he adds a line: the single point of impartiality towards the three times has already been set out at the opening of the sūtra, and here it is only briefly shown again — stated from the side of the buddhas, it is that buddha and buddha are equal, because the dharma-body and the wisdom-body neither increase nor decrease.

A correction: “well established” does not mean sitting steadily. Chengguan's sense is that only when wisdom rests securely on both sides, principle and phenomena, is it well established; resting on principle alone and not on phenomena, or the reverse, is not it. Putting it to work: this string of virtues can serve as a practitioner's health check, and the order in which it is arranged is deliberate — practice first, then wisdom, then eloquence, then liberation, then the power that holds all together, then impartial wisdom, and only then faith and delight, merit and purity, and at the last it returns to making offerings to the buddhas. Faith and delight are placed late, which says that they are a fruit cultivated into being, not a threshold for entry.

Ocean-Wisdom Sovereign King of Spiritual Powers: The Virtue of the Throne

First the question. Since the ten bodhisattvas were born from the adornments of the throne, what will their verses set in verse? Look at the first of them and you will know — six of his ten verses praise the throne directly. The first two praise the Buddha as already knowing what the buddhas awakened to, his merit filling the ten directions and his sitting everywhere beneath every king of trees; the third says he manifests inexhaustible forms in a single thought and that each beholds according to his own liberation; the fourth looks back to oceans of eons of diligent cultivation and the taming of beings by skillful means. From the fifth verse onward it enters the throne: Vairocana complete in adornment and beauty seated on the lion throne of the lotus treasury; the maṇi treasuries sending out light while the Tathāgata sits above them; the auspicious gateways sending out lamplight unceasingly while the Sage of Stillness dwells above; the lovely lattices sounding a subtle music while the Buddha seated above them is especially manifest; the jewelled wheels bearing the throne in a half-moon with topknotted bodhisattvas circling it always; and transformations of every kind filling the ten directions while every image appears within.

A correction: this is not a description of furniture. The third verse has already set up a criterion — “each, according to his own liberation, is able to behold it”; the aspects of the throne appear according to the liberation of the beholder, and so the throne-aspects of verses six through ten are not the outward look of one throne but the gathered sum of what measureless beholders see. Putting it to work: whenever in reading this sūtra a long stretch of adornment begins to feel tedious, return to that one line, “each, according to his own liberation, is able to behold it”, and the tedium turns into a distinction — it is saying that there are as many kinds of seeing as there are kinds of liberation.

Thunder-Sound Universal Quaking: From the Throne to the Ground

First the question. The first bodhisattva set the throne in verse, so why does the second turn to the ground? His first four verses are still upon the throne — the World-Honoured One gathering the practice of awakening in ages past, so that nothing within the throne is unseen; fragrant-flame maṇi inlaying the lion throne of wondrous flowers; the Buddha's throne manifesting adorned forms everywhere, each seeing the Buddha seated upon it according to his own understanding; jewelled branches hanging in nets of lotuses, and bodhisattvas leaping forth as the flowers open to praise the Tathāgata seated upon the throne. The fifth verse is the pivot: “the measure of the Buddha's merit is like space, and every adornment is born from it” — one line accounting for where the adornment comes from; and so from the sixth verse the view drops from the throne to the ground: vajra as the ground that nothing can destroy; that ground boundless and distinctive in colour with true gold ground to powder; the earth spirits rejoicing and leaping and gazing constantly before the Buddha; jewelled lamps and fragrant flame with which the earth spirits make their offering; and the last verse saying that every adornment upon the grounds of all the fields of the ten directions is now, at this place of awakening, without exception manifest, and that this is by the Buddha's awesome spiritual power.

A correction: do not read “every adornment is born from it” as the Buddha arranging scenery. The lower half of that verse is “but the matter of the adornments within each single ground no being is able to comprehend” — the adornment is born from the measure of the Buddha's merit, while beings cannot comprehend how this is so; what is being said is that it is past conceiving, not that there is someone contriving it. Putting it to work: this turn from throne to ground is the prelude to the whole set of ten sets of verses in this fascicle — those who follow will turn from the ground to the tree, to the palace, to the Buddha's powers and perfections. The ten bodhisattvas are not each saying his own thing; they are passing the task along so that one place of awakening is spoken of entire.

Many-Jewels Radiant Topknot: How the Ground Expounds the Dharma

First the question. The ground is an insentient thing, so how can it expound? His ten verses answer this directly. The first verse says that when the World-Honoured One was cultivating in ages past he saw that the lands of the buddhas were all complete, and that the grounds so seen are without end and are now all made manifest at this place of awakening — first establishing the reason, that this ground is the total manifestation of all the buddha-lands seen in ages past. The second and third verses say that his spiritual power spreads out light and rains jewels, and that this ground together with the tree of awakening “gives out light and sound by turns and expounds the Dharma”. The fourth says that jewelled lamps rain down from the sky and “all of them give out subtle sounds and expound the voice of Dharma — this is what the earth spirits manifest”, fastening the act of expounding upon the earth spirits, not upon stones that talk by themselves. The fifth says the jewelled ground manifests clouds of wondrous light and jewelled nets cover it above. The sixth is the eye of the whole set: “look, all of you, upon this ground everywhere, adorned with wondrous jewels of every kind; it displays the ocean of the manifold deeds of beings, and causes them to comprehend the true nature of things.” The seventh through tenth say that the trees of awakening of the ten directions are all manifest here and expound the Tathāgata's pure Dharma, that the ground gives out a subtle sound according to what beings delight in, that the ground gives out constantly a light of fragrance so that those who hear have their afflictions extinguished, and that every single adornment is wholly complete and could not be exhausted in the telling through a koṭi eons.

A correction: the sixth verse matters most and is the easiest to slide past. It says that what the adornment of the ground displays is “the ocean of the manifold deeds of beings” — not a display case of the Buddha's merit, but the aspect brought on by the deeds of beings themselves; and the purpose of the display is to make them comprehend the true nature of things. So to see the adornment and merely feel admiration is to read this verse backwards. Putting it to work: when the ground of the place of awakening expounds the Dharma, what it expounds is your own deeds; and one who can hear it hears the nature of things.

Great Wisdom-Sun Valiant Insight: The Palace

First the question. After the throne and the ground, why the palace? The sūtra moves all along from the throne the Buddha sits upon and the ground he dwells upon out to the dwelling he inhabits — from the near to the far. The first of his ten verses says that the World-Honoured One, wholly composed and pure, dwells within the hall of Dharma and shines forth brilliantly within the palace, and that following what beings delight in his body manifests everywhere in the lands of the ten directions; the second, that the Tathāgata's palace is past conceiving and adorned with treasuries of maṇi; the third, the pillars, the bells, the jewelled stairways, the doors; the fourth, the curtains, the trees, the pendants, with “the ocean of wisdom sits within it, deep and still”; the fifth, the net, the banner, the lamplight, with “the one of right knowing who surpasses the world is seated here”; the sixth, that clouds of transformation appear throughout the ten directions and their expounding pervades the world, all manifested from the Buddha's palace; the seventh, that maṇi forms the tree putting forth wondrous flowers and that the adornments of the lands of the three times all cast their images within; the eighth, the heaps of maṇi, the doors and lattices, the beams and eaves; the ninth, that all palaces are manifest within it and in each a Tathāgata is seated; the tenth, that the Tathāgata's palace has no bound and the self-awakened one dwells within it, and that of all the assemblies of the ten directions there is not one that does not turn towards the Buddha and come to gather.

A correction: the ninth verse's “all palaces are manifest within it, and in each single one a Tathāgata is seated” does not say that there are a great many buddhas. Read it together with the first verse's “his body manifests everywhere in the lands of the ten directions” and it becomes plain — the body of one buddha manifests everywhere, and so within each single palace a Tathāgata is seated; this is a manifesting within manifesting, not a dividing into many bodies. Putting it to work: this set of verses enlarges ‘where the Buddha dwells’ layer upon layer to the boundless, and yet the last line closes upon “there is not one that does not turn towards the Buddha and come to gather” — however boundless the palace, it is still the place beings turn towards, not a lodging where the Buddha abides alone.

Inconceivable Merit Jewel Wisdom-Seal: The Tree of Awakening

First the question. What this bodhisattva sets in verse is the tree of awakening, so why does he begin by speaking of merit? The first verse says “the Buddha in ages past cultivated oceans of merit, as many as the dust motes of all the fields; born of spiritual power and the force of vows, the place of awakening is adorned and pure and free of every defilement” — the purity of the tree comes from the ocean of merit and the force of vows, and so the cause is established before the aspect is described. The second verse says the king of wish-fulfilling jewels is the root of the tree and vajra maṇi its trunk, with jewelled nets covering above and wondrous fragrance wreathing round; the third, that the branches are furnished with every jewel and maṇi forms the boughs, the twigs massed thick as banked cloud with the Buddha sitting beneath at the place of awakening; the fourth, that the place of awakening is vast and the tree covers all of it, dense leaves and thronging flowers sheltering one another and maṇi fruits forming within the flowers; the fifth, that a wondrous light comes forth from the branches and shines throughout the place of awakening, and that it is by the force of the Buddha's vows that it is seen so; the sixth, that treasuries of maṇi serve as its flowers and their fragrance is spread about the trunk; the seventh exhorts a looking upon the lotuses and jewelled nets, all pure, in the place of awakening of the Well-Gone One; the eighth, that of all the trees adorned with wondrous colour in the ten directions there is not one not manifest within the tree of awakening; the ninth, that the branches rain jewels without end and bodhisattvas appear from within the jewels and go to the ten directions to make offerings; the tenth, that the realm of the buddhas is past conceiving and everywhere causes that tree to send out the sound of music, and the assemblies hearing that sound all see the path of awakening he gathered in ages past.

A correction: the fifth verse says plainly “it is by the force of the Buddha's vows that it can be seen so” — to see such an aspect of the tree is granted by the force of the Buddha's vows, not because the beholder has good eyesight. And the ninth verse's “from within the jewels bodhisattvas appear” is the same pattern as the passage on the adorned throne bringing forth an assembly: practitioners are born from within the adornment. Putting it to work: the last verse makes the use of the tree's music plain — hearing that sound, one sees “the path of awakening he gathered in ages past”. The tree is adorned so that people may see the road the Buddha walked, not so that people may admire the tree.

Hundred-Eyed Lotus Topknot: Everything at the Place of Awakening Gives Out Sound

First the question. The one before has already set the tree in verse, so why does this one set the tree in verse again? Look closely and they differ: the one before set in verse the form and fruit of the tree, and this one sets in verse the sound and fragrance of the place of awakening. The first verse says that all the maṇi give out a wondrous sound extolling the names of the buddhas of the three times; the second, that the thronging flowers open in rivalry and clouds of light stream abroad, and that “the spirits of the tree of awakening hold them out towards the Buddha, and with single-minded gazing make their offering”; the third, that the flames of maṇi light form banners and a wondrous fragrance blazes within them perfuming the whole assembly; the fourth, that the lotuses hang out a golden light which expounds clouds of the Buddha's wondrous voice and quenches forever the fever of beings' afflictions; the fifth, that by the sovereign power of the king of trees of awakening a pure light is sent out constantly and the boundless assemblies of the ten directions all cast their images within the place of awakening; the sixth, that the flame of light from the jewelled branches is like a bright lamp and expounds a voice proclaiming the great vows; the seventh, that the spirits beneath the tree are as many as the dust motes of the fields and each, before the Tathāgata's tree of the path, “proclaims the gate of liberation in thought after thought”; the eighth, that the World-Honoured One cultivated in ages past and made offerings to all the Tathāgatas, and that his practice and his renown are all manifest within the maṇi jewels; the ninth, that everything at the place of awakening gives out a wondrous sound reaching the ten directions and that none able to receive the Dharma is left untamed and unpurified; the tenth, that the Tathāgata cultivated everywhere in ages past all the measureless matters of adornment, and that each single tree of awakening of the ten directions has adornments of measureless kinds.

A correction: the seventh verse's “proclaims the gate of liberation in thought after thought” is the very same term as the ten gates of liberation that Samantabhadra entered at the opening of this fascicle. Do not suppose that what the spirits beneath the tree proclaim is some other body of teaching — the sūtra uses one and the same name precisely to show that this fascicle from beginning to end is speaking of one single matter: the gate of Dharma is everywhere in all places, and anyone may proclaim it. Putting it to work: this set of verses pushes the range of ‘those who expound the Dharma’ to its widest — the maṇi, the flowers, the light, the fragrance, the tree spirits, the place of awakening, not one of which is not expounding. Not hearing it is a matter of the ear, not of the place.

Golden-Flame Perfect Light: The Ten Powers

First the question. Those before were all setting in verse the adornment of the place of awakening, so why does this one suddenly set in verse the Buddha's ten powers? This is the second pivot of the ten sets of verses in this fascicle — from the place that supports, to the inner virtue of the Buddha who is supported. His ten verses set the Buddha's ten powers in verse one by one, in orderly sequence: the power concerning what is and is not the case (“what is and what is not the case he knows purely and without doubt — this is the Tathāgata's first power of wisdom”); the power concerning deeds (contemplating impartially the nature of things so that all the oceans of deeds are clear); the power concerning faculties (guiding and drawing beings according to their faculties, and so accomplishing the power of knowing the faculties); the power concerning desires and understandings (as the understandings of beings differ, so he expounds according to what each should receive); the power concerning realms (throughout the oceans of fields and realms of beings of the ten directions, the Buddha's wisdom impartial as space); the power concerning the paths leading to all destinations (the practices of every place the Buddha wholly knows, and in a single thought the three times are exhausted with nothing left); the power concerning concentrations and liberations (“the power of his meditative concentrations and liberations is without bound, and so too his samādhis and his skillful means”); the power of recollecting former abodes (the Buddha's wisdom unobstructed and encompassing the three times, and all that is manifested coming by the power of his recollection); the power of the divine eye (“the Buddha's eye is vast as space, and sees the Dharma realm everywhere with nothing left over”); and the power of the exhaustion of the outflows (all beings possessed of every fetter, of their latent tendencies and habitual forces, and the Tathāgata appearing and causing them all to be removed by skillful means).

A correction: of the ten verses only the first says outright “this is the Tathāgata's first power of wisdom”; the remaining nine do not each carry a name. So to call this a set of verses on the ten powers is a determination made from the sense and sequence of the verses, not something the sūtra labels verse by verse. Putting it to work: the ten powers are easily read as a curriculum vitae of the Buddha. But the writing of this set of verses holds to beings throughout — knowing the faculties is for guiding, knowing desires and understandings is for expounding, knowing the exhaustion of the outflows is for causing removal. What makes a power a power is that it can be put to use.

Universal Sound of the Dharma Realm: The Ten Perfections

First the question. Why is this bodhisattva's set eleven verses rather than ten? Because the first verse is a general statement — “the Buddha's awesome spiritual power pervades the ten directions, manifesting vastly and without discrimination; the perfections that are the practice of great awakening, fulfilled by him in ages past, he causes all to see” — first stating in general that the perfections which are the practice of great awakening were fulfilled in ages past, and then ten verses setting the ten perfections in verse one by one: giving, pure discipline, patience, vigour, meditative concentration, prajñā, skillful means, vows, power, and wisdom. One general and ten particulars make precisely eleven.

The syntax of the ten verses is extremely regular, uniformly ‘because he cultivated thus in ages past, therefore he is thus now’. He cultivated giving, therefore his body is the most excellent and wondrous and those who see it rejoice; he cultivated pure discipline, therefore he obtained a pure body pervading the ten directions and everywhere quenches the heavy sufferings of the world; he cultivated patience and was pure, therefore his forms and marks are complete and he sends out light everywhere; he cultivated diligently through many eons and could turn away the heavy hindrances of beings' deeds, therefore he can divide his body throughout the ten directions; he cultivated the great ocean of meditative concentration, therefore those who see him rejoice deeply and the defilements of the hindrance of affliction are removed; he was complete in prajñā, therefore he spreads out his light shining clear and utterly destroys the darkness of delusion; by skillful means of every kind he teaches beings, therefore he goes everywhere throughout all the ten directions; he purified the perfection of the vows, therefore he appears pervading the world and rescues beings to the end of the future; he cultivated the power of all dharmas, therefore he can accomplish spontaneous power; he cultivated the wisdom of the universal gateway and the nature of omniscience is like space, therefore he came to accomplish unobstructed power.

A correction: of the ten verses, only six write out the three words ‘perfection’ in full — the practice of great awakening, giving, pure discipline, prajñā, the vows, and the power of dharmas; patience, vigour, meditative concentration and skillful means are set in verse by descriptive language, and the name of the perfection does not appear. So one cannot say ‘all ten verses carry the name of a perfection’. Putting it to work: the value of this set lies in its syntax of cause and effect. Every perfection is given a verifiable fruit — bodily form, a pure body, completeness, dividing the body, freedom from affliction, the breaking of delusion, going everywhere, rescuing beings, spontaneous power, unobstructed power. Cultivate a given perfection and watch for the corresponding fruit; there is no need to speculate.

Cloud-Sound Pure Moon: The Ten Grounds

First the question. This bodhisattva's set is also eleven verses — is the pattern the same as the one before? It is. The first verse is a general statement — “the realm of his spiritual powers is equal to space, and there is no being in the ten directions who does not see; and just as the ground was accomplished by his practice in ages past, so within the maṇi fruit it is all expounded in full” — pointing out that what is set in verse is ‘the ground accomplished by his practice’, and that it is expounded from within the maṇi fruit. The ten verses that follow set the ten grounds in verse in order.

But this must be stated precisely: of the ten verses, those that write out the name of the ground in full are only the Stainless Ground, the Ground of Brightness, the Ground Hard to Conquer, the Ground of Excellent Insight, and the last verse's “the vast Dharma-cloud, the tenth ground”; the remaining five grounds are given by descriptive language — the first ground as “entering the first ground and utterly joyful”, the fourth as “the unequalled ground of the blazing ocean of luminous insight”, the sixth as “the ground of the ocean of insight where practice is cultivated at large”, the seventh as “the far journey of ages past”, and the eighth as “this unequalled ground”. Each verse carries with it the aspect of practice belonging to that ground: the first ground brings forth the vast wisdom of the Dharma realm and sees everywhere the buddhas of the ten directions; the second keeps pure discipline in a measure equal to the number of beings; the third is the treasury of śamatha with its firm forbearance; the fourth understands well the objects of knowledge and gives rise to compassion; the fifth has movement and stillness according with one another without conflict; the sixth knows every gate of Dharma throughout; the seventh has every skillful means wholly pure; the eighth has no discrimination able to move it; the ninth has the power of the light that enters well the teaching; the tenth holds all within it and pervades space.

A correction: do not take these ten verses for a complete teaching of the ten grounds. The full exposition of the ten grounds lies in the later chapter on the ten grounds; here they are marked out as the sequence of stations of practice in passing, within verses of praise, and every line is of the barest brevity. Nor should the incompleteness of the names lead one to doubt that these are verses on the ten grounds — the sequence, the aspects of practice, and the last verse's “tenth ground” agree with one another, and that is enough. Putting it to work: that this sūtra already marks out once, in its first chapter, the names and the aspects of practice of the ten grounds, is itself a piece of news — the framework of the whole sūtra's stations of practice has already shown its bones in the earliest verses of praise.

Well-Valiant Light Banner: The Differences in What Beings See

First the question. Last of the ten bodhisattvas, why does this one set in verse neither the Buddha nor the place, but what beings see? Because it is time to gather up. The opening of his set of verses also differs from the nine before — they were “sustained by the awesome power of the Buddha, looked everywhere upon the ocean of assemblies at every place of awakening / the ocean of assemblies”, while he was “sustained by the awesome spirit of the Buddha, contemplated the ten directions”; not contemplating the place of awakening but contemplating the ten directions, exactly matching what he sets in verse.

Of the ten verses, the first two say that measureless beings dwell in the assembly with faith and understanding of every kind and pure in mind, that each has raised up pure vows and cultivated the practices, and that they are able to see the Tathāgata's true substance. From the third verse through the ninth, eight occurrences of the word “some” set out the differences in what is seen: some see the Buddha's dharma-body, into which the boundless natures of dharmas all enter; some see the Buddha's wondrous form-body, which changes according to the differing understandings of beings; some see the unobstructed body of wisdom, impartial towards the three times and like space; some comprehend the Buddha's voice, unobstructed according to what each ought to understand; some see the Tathāgata's lights of every kind; some, within the Buddha's radiance, see furthermore the buddhas raising up spiritual powers; some see the Buddha's ocean-cloud of light coming forth from his pores and manifesting the path of his practice in ages past; some see the Buddha's marks adorned by merit and see besides where that merit was born from. The last verse gathers all up: the Tathāgata's merit cannot be measured and fills the Dharma realm without bound, and as for his spiritual powers and every realm, “it is by the Buddha's power that they can be proclaimed”.

A correction: the eight occurrences of “some” do not say that there are eight kinds of people who see eight different buddhas, nor that any one of those seeings is the truer. Read together with the third verse of Ocean-Wisdom Sovereign King of Spiritual Powers, “each, according to his own liberation, is able to behold it”, one knows that the difference in what is seen lies in the liberation of the beholder, while the Buddha does not differ. Putting it to work: this set of verses is a mirror held up to the reader. Which is it that you see now — the marks, the radiance, the voice, or the dharma-body? See clearly which square you stand in and you will know what to cultivate next.

The Concluding Extension, One: The Earth Quakes

First the question. The assemblies have all finished their praises, so why does the sūtra have the earth quake? The sūtra says that it was “by the spiritual power of the Buddha” that “it quaked in its every ground with six kinds and eighteen aspects” — the six kinds being shaking, rising, surging, rumbling, roaring and striking, and each kind having three, making eighteen aspects. Chengguan, glossing these six kinds, says that rumbling is sound and shaking is form; on the side of sound it includes roaring and striking, and on the side of form it includes rising and surging, and so there are six. And he glosses each aspect in turn: unsteady swaying is called shaking, rising gradually from below is called rising, a sudden leaping upward is called surging, a muffled giving out of sound is called rumbling, a mighty pent-up sound is called roaring, and a crashing report is called striking. As for the unfolding of the eighteen aspects, he says that when one quarter alone shakes it is simply called shaking, when four quarters shake it is called shaking throughout, and when eight quarters shake it is called shaking universally throughout.

For what purpose is the quaking? Chengguan cites a sūtra which says there are seven occasions for it: to make the demons afraid, to keep the minds of the great assembly from scattering while the Dharma is expounded, to make the negligent become aware, to make beings know the character of things, to make beings look upon the place where the Dharma is expounded, to make those who are ripe attain liberation, and to make them accordingly ask after the true meaning; and he says that these seven occasions are precisely what is intended in the present sūtra, while the four occasions given in a certain treatise do not fit this passage. He adds a further line: the above is stated with reference to the outer vessel-world; and if stated with reference to the ground of mind, the ground of the noble and the wise, and the ground of the nature of things, there too the sense of quaking obtains, and may be sought out.

A correction: the quaking of the earth is neither a calamitous portent nor an atmosphere. Of the seven occasions, not one is for the display of marvels; every one of them falls upon beings' hearing of the Dharma. As for the place that quakes, the sūtra says it is the Flower-Treasury Adorned Ocean of Worlds, and Chengguan explains that although the land of Magadha is what is named, what quakes is the Flower-Treasury, because the defiled and the pure interfuse. Putting it to work: whenever in reading this sūtra you meet the words ‘the earth quaked’, go straight to the question of which of those seven occasions it is — the fear of demons, the unscattered mind, awareness, knowing the character of things, looking upon the place of expounding, attaining liberation, asking after the true meaning.

The Concluding Extension, Two: The Rulers of the Worlds Raise Up Offerings

First the question. After the earth quakes, why is it “these rulers of the worlds” who come forward to make offerings, and not the bodhisattvas who have just praised the Buddha? Chengguan has an important attribution here: he says that the reason the word ‘ruler’ is used where the number is stated is that the assembly of the same birth may also be called rulers of the worlds — because they are that upon which beings depend. So the rulers of the worlds here is a general term, gathering up both the assembly of a different birth of the four preceding fascicles and the assembly of the same birth of this one.

As for the aspect of the offerings, the sūtra lists eleven cloud-names — clouds of adornment of all fragrant flowers, clouds of the wondrous ornaments of all maṇi, clouds of nets of flowers and jewelled flame, clouds of the round light of maṇi jewels of boundless kinds, clouds of treasuries of pearls and jewels of every colour, clouds of the fragrance of all jewelled sandalwood, clouds of all jewelled canopies, clouds of maṇi-kings of pure and wondrous sound, clouds of wheels of sunlight maṇi pendants, clouds of the radiant treasuries of all jewels, clouds of adornments each and every one distinct — and then gathers them with “such kinds as these”, saying their number is measureless and past conceiving.

A correction: this list has eleven names and not ten, unlike the ten cloud-names listed earlier in the passage on the adorned throne; the listings of this sūtra do not make everything add up to ten, and there is no need to force them into line. Putting it to work: note that the last of the eleven names is “clouds of adornments each and every one distinct” — the words ‘each and every one distinct’ are the eye. The first ten names are all of one class and one aspect; the last takes ‘differing one from another’ itself and makes it a kind of offering. The completeness of an offering does not lie in uniformity but in being able to hold what is distinct.

The Concluding Extension, Three: Eleven Clauses of Benefit, and the Last of Them Is Still the Gate of Liberation

First the question. At the close of the whole chapter the sūtra uses eleven occurrences of “each and every one” — each has his own faith and understanding, each his own object, each his own gate of samādhi and skillful means, each cultivates his own dharmas that aid the path, each has his own accomplishment, each his own joy, each his own entering, each awakens to and understands the gates of Dharma, each enters the realm of the Tathāgata's spiritual powers, each enters the realm of the Tathāgata's powers, each enters the Tathāgata's gate of liberation. Why pile them up so? Chengguan counts them exactly: he says there are eleven clauses here, that they are the benefit gained from hearing the Dharma, and he divides them into three tiers — first the benefit of hearing, which is each having his own faith and understanding, believing his words and understanding their meaning; second the benefit of reflection, weighing carefully upon the object confronted; and third the benefit of cultivation, which opens further into seven — the gate of cultivation is samādhi and skillful means, the dharma of cultivation is the provisions that aid the path, the fruit of cultivation is accomplishment by according with principle, the benefit of cultivation is the joy in Dharma that comes with whatever is gained, the turning of cultivation is each entering the measureless gates of the vehicles and the realms of beings, the sameness of cultivation is awakening to and understanding the gates of Dharma so as to agree with the sages of old, and the utmost of cultivation has three — the utmost of great compassion is entering the realm of the Buddha's spiritual powers, which accomplishes the virtue of kindness; the utmost of great wisdom is entering the realm of the Buddha's powers, which accomplishes the virtue of a buddha's wisdom; and the utmost of sovereign freedom is entering the Tathāgata's gate of liberation, exhausting every obstruction so that mind and object are free, which accomplishes the virtue of a buddha's severance.

Chengguan puts a hook back at the very last clause: he says that “entering the Tathāgata's gate of liberation” is just those gates of liberation spoken of earlier. This fascicle opens with Samantabhadra entering the inconceivable gate of liberation, and this fascicle closes with all the rulers of the worlds each entering the Tathāgata's gate of liberation — beginning and end are one and the same gate.

A correction: do not read “each and every one” as each going his own way and each getting a one-sided portion. The eleven clauses are a single ascending line, walking from faith and understanding all the way to the virtue of severance; “each and every one” speaks of a difference in the place of entry, not a difference in what is entered. Putting it to work: these eleven clauses can be asked of oneself clause by clause — at which clause do I stop? Most people stop somewhere between the first clause and the sixth; the five that follow all require that one begin from “entering”.

The Concluding Extension, Four: Taking the Flower-Treasury as the Instance for the Dharma Realm

First the question. Is the final line, “just as it was within this Flower-Treasury Ocean of Worlds, so was it likewise within all the oceans of worlds throughout the ten directions, to the ends of the Dharma realm and the realm of space”, merely a formula? Chengguan does not see it so. He divides the concluding extension into two: first it concludes within the Flower-Treasury, then it concludes beyond the Flower-Treasury. In concluding within, he further accounts for the measure of the Flower-Treasury — that within the Flower-Treasury there are world-species as many as the dust motes of unspeakably many buddha-fields, and within each species there are again worlds as many as the dust motes of unspeakably, unspeakably many buddha-fields, and within all those worlds there are rulers of the worlds making offerings. In concluding beyond, he says that the Flower-Treasury is taken as the instance and extended to the Dharma realm, that everywhere throughout the Dharma realm there is each such an assembly, together making one great assembly of the Dharma realm — and it is only when he reaches this point that it is the endless exposition of this sūtra.

A correction: “so was it likewise” does not mean that the same thing is put on again elsewhere, like copying. Chengguan, in glossing the passage on the Buddha seated at the place of awakening, has already set up two senses: first, that those rulers of the worlds each make offerings to the buddha of their own place; second, that those rulers of the worlds also make offerings to this buddha, and that this buddha also sits at the place of awakening in their world — so it is not a great many parallel Dharma assemblies, but one assembly that pervades. Putting it to work: when the numbers in this sūtra grow so large as to feel unreal, return to these two senses. You are not asked to imagine measureless assembly halls; you are asked to recognize that this one assembly is those measureless ones.

Lineage

There are three lines of ancient classification for this passage. Chengguan sets up the division of same birth and different birth, taking this fascicle as the assembly of the same birth and dividing it internally into three — the passage on Samantabhadra, the passage on the ten Universal bodhisattvas, and the passage on the ten differently named bodhisattvas, each of the three having prose and verse; the bringing forth of an assembly from the adorned throne is given a heading of its own, while the quaking and the concluding extension are attached to the manifesting of verification and to the concluding of the endless, and at the last the ten parts of the ‘portion setting out the causes and conditions of the teaching's arising’ bring the whole chapter to a close.

What Fazang commented upon was the sixty-fascicle text. At the place of the gathered assemblies he first distinguishes same birth from different birth, and points out that the defining of these two terms varies with the teaching: on the terms of the Lesser Vehicle, the auditors are the same and bodhisattvas, spirits and the rest are all different; on the terms of the initial teaching, home-leaving bodhisattvas and auditors are the same; on the terms of the final teaching, bodhisattvas are the same and auditors different; there are further the two positions that only bodhisattvas above the grounds are the same, and that only those from the eighth ground upward are the same, which run through both the initial and the final teachings; there is further the position that only bodhisattvas are the same while gods and spirits are different; and at the last, on the terms of the One Vehicle, two senses are given — either bodhisattvas and spirits alike are the same, since the Dharma realm is not two; or both alike are different, since the Dharma realm is differentiated. Seven definitions for one and the same set of terms: this is Fazang's method of classifying the teachings, put to work upon this passage. He also lists the eight senses of ‘great’ in the assembly of the same birth (great in number, in virtue, in the work performed, in the reverence received, in excellence, in practice, in vows, and in time), cites three old explanations to gloss the term ‘bodhisattva’, and cites a treatise to gloss the word ‘together’.

Li Tongxuan does not use the division of same and different. He gathers Samantabhadra together with the ten bodhisattvas named ‘Universal’ under the single name ‘the assembly of ten Samantabhadras’, saying that this is the assembly which the buddhas of past and present practise Samantabhadra's practice in common, and he uses the simile of “like a great royal road” — all bodhisattvas take this as their substance and all ordinary beings take it as their conveyance; the road is of itself constant, and walking or not walking is no difference in the road. He sets up his own classification into five portions, taking this first assembly together with the assembly of ten Samantabhadras as the first portion, ‘the portion that manifests the fruit and forms the cause so that faith is born’, on the grounds that the Tathāgata is the fruit of true awakening, that Samantabhadra and the rest are the fruit of the Buddha's practice, and that the Flower-Treasury pure land is the recompensed support of the Buddha, and that beings, contemplating these three sorts of cause and fruit, give rise to faith; and he judges this first assembly, together with the second assembly down to a certain chapter, twelve chapters in all, to be in sum the portion that holds up the fruit and exhorts cultivation so that faith is born. As for the group of ten differently named bodhisattvas in this fascicle, he has already assigned them to his second portion — differing from Chengguan, who attaches them to the third part of the assembly of the same birth. But he himself explains at the same time: “Ocean-Moonlight Great Brightness too is of the assembly of Samantabhadra and the rest; the point of dividing them off as differently named is to show that it is still with the gate of Samantabhadra's practice within the station of the fruit of buddhahood that they enter the common world to benefit beings, and their names differ according to their practice”; and he says further, “the ten differently named bodhisattvas such as Ocean-Moonlight and the rest, within the assembly of Samantabhadra, are taken as forming the initial mind of the ten abodes”. So for him this group still belongs to the assembly of Samantabhadra, only that they are given differing names according to their practice, and are borrowed to show the initial mind of the ten abodes. The three lines of classification each form a system of their own, and are set down together without adjudication.

The sixty-fascicle text differs greatly from the eighty in the fullness and brevity of this passage. The sixty has only two groups: Samantabhadra's ten gates plus one set of verses, and the bringing forth from the adorned throne of bodhisattvas as many as the dust motes of one buddha-world with a listing of ten foremost names, plus one set of verses; the eighty's two groups of ten Universal bodhisattvas and ten differently named bodhisattvas, twenty gates in all with their two sets of verses, are absent from the sixty. Of the names of the ten bodhisattvas of the adorned throne, only Universal Sound of the Dharma Realm is wholly the same in the two texts, and the other nine all differ; the eighty has ten bodhisattvas each speaking one set of verses, while the sixty has only one speaker, and the name of that speaker differs again from the first of the listed names. The rendering of the name of the gate also differs as a system between the two texts: the eighty has “gate of liberation” uniformly, the sixty “gate of Dharma” uniformly. In the eighteen aspects of quaking, the number of the six kinds is the same in the two texts while their items are not; the eighty has ‘striking’ where the sixty has ‘awareness’, and in the third tier the eighty has ‘universally throughout’ where the sixty has ‘equally throughout’. All of this is set down word for word, without adjudging which is nearer the original.

Reading straight on, what follows this fascicle is the second chapter, on the Tathāgata's manifesting of his marks. This fascicle closes with all the rulers of the worlds each entering the Tathāgata's gate of liberation, and the next chapter opens with the bodhisattvas raising questions in their minds and the Tathāgata emitting light — a closing and an opening joined. The Flower-Treasury Adorned Ocean of Worlds named in this fascicle has its aspects set out at large in the fifth chapter, on the Flower-Treasury world; the names of the ten grounds marked out in the set of verses of Cloud-Sound Pure Moon in this fascicle are set out at large in the twenty-sixth chapter, on the ten grounds; the ten perfections marked out in the set of verses of Universal Sound of the Dharma Realm in this fascicle are set out at large in the ninth ground of the twenty-sixth chapter and in the thirty-eighth chapter, on leaving the world. The first chapter has already marked out, within verses of praise, the framework of several chapters to come — this is the sūtra's pattern of ‘the first assembly holding up the whole’, and it is also what Chengguan meant by taking the Flower-Treasury as the instance for the Dharma realm, together making one great assembly of the Dharma realm.

This Chapter Does Something No Other Scripture Does

The gathering of the multitudes in the preceding chapter being done, this chapter opens straightway with a request for the Dharma. What is strange is that those who make the request do not utter a single word — “they thought in this way,” which is thinking in the mind; and the Buddha of whom the request is made answers not a single word either — he emits light, manifests a flower, brings forth a multitude. Between the one question and the one answer there is not a single word of speech.

Chengguan states the matter with the utmost clarity. Assessing the rite of requesting and questioning in the first assembly, he says: requesting is of two kinds, one requesting aloud in words, one requesting silently in thought; and answering too is of two kinds, one answering by uttering words, one answering by manifesting a mark. Set crosswise against one another these should make nine clauses, and yet in the text only four are actually used. The present assembly accounts for two of these kinds of question and answer — the prose of the chapter on the manifestation of marks is the request in thought, and the verses from within the cloud of articles of offering are the request aloud; while on the Buddha’s side, “first the light points out the lord of the preaching; manifesting the flower betokens the meaning, and manifesting the multitude betokens the teaching” — and this is called the answer by displaying a mark. He adds a further sentence that nails the principle down: the Buddha’s mind is sovereignly free and need not wait upon the raising of words; the Buddha’s power is surpassing, and to manifest one mark is already to answer.

So in reading this chapter the one error most to be guarded against is taking the light, the flower, and the coming of the multitudes to be a stage-setting laid down before the preaching. They are not a setting; they are the answer. The chapter is named the manifestation of the Tathāgata: the mark is the answer, not a prelude to the answer. Brought home to oneself: a person who has truly been answered has not necessarily heard a word; sometimes it is that all at once there is light before the eyes, and the doubt disperses.

How to Read the Chapter’s Name: The Person Who Manifests and the Dharma That Is Manifested

Chengguan’s way of explaining the chapter’s name is well worth learning. He first splits the name into two halves: “the Tathāgata is the person who manifests, and the mark is the dharma that is manifested.” The word “manifest” in the middle runs through both sides — and so he says, “‘manifest’ runs through both the one who acts and what is acted upon; the one who acts and what is acted upon are stated together, and substance and function are set forth as a pair, and so its designation is established.” The name is itself a structure that raises substance and function together.

Then he does something finer still: the Tathāgata has five senses, and manifesting marks also has five senses, “and so they make up ten.” The five senses of Tathāgata are — set forth with respect to principle (the nature of dharmas is named “thus,” coming out of the obstructions is named “come”), stated with respect to practice alone, stated with principle and wisdom joined, stated as free of marks, and stated as fusing and gathering in; and the last of these shows the Huayan house-style most of all: “the one thusness has no second thusness; whether principle or wisdom, whether opened out or joined together, there is nothing that is not thus, and therefore it is named ‘thus.’ There is no dharma outside thusness, and ‘come’ too is just thusness; one who comes in this way is the true Tathāgata.”

It is the five senses of manifesting marks that form the frame of the whole chapter. Chengguan lists them: first, manifesting the mark of light at the mouth, which summons the multitudes of the ten directions; second, manifesting the mark of light between the brows, which points out the lord of the preaching; third, shaking the net of lands, which alerts the faculties of the many; fourth, manifesting a flower before the Buddha, which betokens that the preaching rests upon the fruit; fifth, bringing forth the multitude from the tuft of white hair, which betokens that the teaching flows from the Buddha. The Yanyi chao further points out the syntax of these five: each of them is two clauses, the first settling the mark and the second settling the intent — it says what mark is manifested, and it says why that mark had to be manifested.

Take these five back to the text of the chapter, and the passages of this chapter follow them exactly, not one item too many and not one too few. This is a serviceable way in to reading the Avataṃsaka: the outline is not a frame added from outside; it marks out the rhythm the scripture itself has.

Where the Forty Clauses of Question Come From, and How They Are Apportioned

As to the number of questions, the ancient worthies reckon differently. Chengguan, following the eighty-fascicle text, makes forty clauses, and sets them within the whole scripture’s pattern of questions: in the four places there are three hundred and ten clauses of question in all, the first assembly and the second having forty questions each, the eighth two hundred, and the ninth thirty. Li Tongxuan makes thirty-seven questions — his reckoning is that the earlier part of the prose “purely requests eighteen kinds of the Buddha’s dharma,” and the later part, asking about the seas of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, “has nineteen questions,” making thirty-seven in all. Zhiyan follows the sixty-fascicle text, where the opening out and drawing together of the wording is different, and he reckons twenty-three clauses of question. The three houses each follow the syntax they have sectioned and the text they rely upon; there are these three accounts from of old, and here they are recorded without adjudicating which is superior.

By Chengguan’s division: the forty clauses divide first into two halves — “the first twenty clauses are the request that simply holds a doubt in thought, and the latter twenty are the request that cites an example and raises a dharma.” The first twenty put the doubt directly, and the latter twenty make their request by citing as an example the dharmas that the buddhas of the ten directions have already expounded for other bodhisattvas. Then, by the kinds of sense, he gives a further and more important division: “among the forty clauses, the first twenty ask about the fruit; the last ten ask about the cause; the middle ten make clear that the function of transforming pervades everywhere, and they ask generally about the supporting and supported, the defiled and the pure, cause and fruit. For the first is what is sought, the last is what is practiced, and the middle is what is known.” — The aim of this assembly is to raise up the fruit and urge faith, and therefore it asks about the fruit first.

The first twenty clauses divide again in themselves: the first ten ask about the perfection of virtue and function, the latter ten about the manifestness of substance and mark. Here Chengguan also records a want of correspondence in the wording: the verses for the first ten clauses number only eight, and within them the two questions of supernormal penetration and sovereign freedom are not separately brought out; he does not force a judgment, but sets down both possibilities side by side — either it is a dropping out, or the sense is contained within the clause “that which cannot be appropriated.” This one stroke shows the measure of the ancient worthies well: where the text does not correspond, set it down as it is; do not patch the scripture’s hole for it.

Asking about the Fruit, Part One: From the Ground of a Buddha to That Which Cannot Be Appropriated

1. What is the ground of the buddhas? Chengguan says it straight: “as for ‘the ground of a buddha,’ it is the apportioned station of the virtue of wisdom.” Why is it called a “ground”? Because it has the capacity of generating and the capacity of sustaining. And he gathers the substance in to what matters most: “in essence there are only two that take in everything, namely, true principle and subtle wisdom fused and not two — this is the ground of the buddhas.” True principle and subtle wisdom fused into one savor: that is the ground of a buddha. This clause he judges to be the general one, and the nine clauses beneath it are particular. To set one error right: do not conceive “the ground of a buddha” as a place; it is an apportioned station of virtue.

2. What is the realm of the buddhas? Chengguan explains “realm” in two senses: “it is what compassion and wisdom take as their object, and it is also a delimitation.” It is both the object upon which compassion and wisdom bear and the boundary drawn between what acts and what is acted upon. So to ask about the realm is to ask how far the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom shine — and the answer lies in the universal appearing of the seas of lands of the ten directions in the passages that follow: they shine until there is no farther.

3. What is the sustaining power of the buddhas? Sustaining is not an addition coming from outside. Li Tongxuan takes the text below as the answer: the Tathāgata sustains Samantabhadra so that he enters samādhi — this is the sustaining power of the buddhas. So the sense of sustaining in this scripture is the Buddha’s power entering into the person of the cause and enabling him to preach — and this question takes its proper shape only in the next chapter, when Samantabhadra enters concentration and the buddhas lay their hands upon his crown.

4. What is that which the buddhas walk? Li Tongxuan cites the scripture as the answer: “unobstructed practice is the practice of the Tathāgata,” and again, the practice of Samantabhadra is the practice that all the buddhas walk in common. What is walked is not an itinerary; it is the very path in which a buddha abides and moves; and this chapter’s answer lies in “the surpassing practice of Samantabhadra” celebrated again and again in the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas.

5. What is the power of the buddhas? Power is the virtue that can bring things to accomplishment. This chapter’s answer by displaying a mark falls upon the four graphs “by the spiritual power of the Buddha” — that the multitudes of the ten directions can come, that the bodhisattvas can speak their verses, is in every case said to be by their receiving the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power. Ask about power, and the answer is the source of the motive force of the whole assembly.

6. What is the fearlessness of the buddhas? Fearlessness is the mind’s being without timidity when preaching, because nothing known is left out. For this question there is no separate passage in this chapter to point to, and its answer lies in the broad exposition of the chapters that follow; the reader should know that these forty questions are not one answer to one question: Fazang judges that “they are all in general answered together in this chapter,” limiting it to this chapter; Li Tongxuan, with respect to the thirty-seven questions he reckons, judges that this chapter and several that follow answer them in sum. The two houses set different limits to the range, and the reader should follow each according to its own account, not merging them into one.

7. What is the samādhi of the buddhas? Samādhi is the mind resting on a single object without stirring. The prose of this chapter gives no separate answer, yet the chapter on the samādhi of Samantabhadra follows immediately upon it, and that is the direct taking up of this question — which is just why Chengguan judges the two chapters to be the far and the near skillful means of the manner and rite of preaching the Dharma.

8. What are the supernormal penetrations of the buddhas? 9. What is the sovereign freedom of the buddhas? These two questions Chengguan expressly records as not separately brought out in the verses, and he points out that in the first answer of the chapter on the formation of the worlds it is likewise so. The two possibilities he gives are a dropping out, or a containing of the sense. The reader need not choose one on the ancient’s behalf; what is to be learned is why he did not choose.

10. What is that which cannot be appropriated in the buddhas? This clause is the easiest of all to misread. It does not say that the Buddha does not gather in sentient beings; it says that there is no dharma whatever that can, the other way about, gather in and delimit the Buddha. In the chapter on the Dharma realm Chengguan records a further comparison: there “that which cannot be appropriated” and “supernormal penetration” are wanting, and only “sovereign freedom” is there; hence these three things “joined together may be one, and opened out are three,” and so their appearing and not appearing differ. Three names saying the different openings and joinings of one and the same matter — this is a key for reading the numbers in the Avataṃsaka.

Asking about the Fruit, Part Two: The Six Faculties and the Body-Light, the Voice, the Wisdom

The latter ten clauses Chengguan judges to “ask about the manifestness of substance and mark” — the first ten ask about the function of the virtue, and these ten ask how the substance and mark of that virtue are made manifest.

11. What is the eye of the buddhas? Here the questioning of the six faculties begins. Ask a question first: having already asked about power, fearlessness, samādhi, supernormal penetration, and sovereign freedom, why ask again faculty by faculty? The answer is in the verses of the general request: “Why is the Buddha’s eye without measure? Are the ear, nose, tongue, and body likewise so?” — what is asked is not whether the Buddha has an eye, but why the Buddha’s eye is “without measure.” Measure is delimitation: the eye of a sentient being has its limits of light and dark, of near and far, of inner and outer, and wherever there is one limit, what is seen becomes one portion. That the Buddha’s eye is without measure does not mean that the limits have been enlarged; it means that it does not fall upon the road of delimitation at all. One misunderstanding to be set right: without measure is not the same as seeing very far. However far one sees, it is still a measure of near and far, and once a measure of near and far is set up, there is still the side that cannot be seen. Where it comes to earth: the reader need not try to imagine a pair of eyes that can see through everything; what he should consider is this — that what I see at this moment has a bound because I first set up a position from which to see. Set up the position, and the bound is set up along with it.

12. What is the ear of the buddhas? The verses carry it on with the line “the ear, nose, tongue, and body likewise so,” and those words “likewise so” say that the way of asking about the four faculties of ear, nose, tongue, and body is wholly the same as for the eye: all ask about being “without measure.” So the question of the ear is not how good the Buddha’s hearing is; it is why hearing is without delimitation. The ear of a sentient being has its limits of loud and soft, its boundary of what can and cannot be heard, and it must wait for a sound to come before it hears. That the Buddha’s ear is without measure lies in this, that hearing is established without waiting for the coming and going of sound. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s ear must not be confounded with “the voice of the buddhas” of the nineteenth question — the voice is the mark that is uttered, the ear is the faculty that receives; since the scripture sets up two separate questions, they should be read separately. In the prose of this chapter there is no separate passage displaying a mark for the Buddha’s ear; its mark is set forth at length in the chapters that follow, and here only the question is raised. Where it comes to earth: what we fail to hear is mostly not that the sound is too small, but that the mind has already chosen and rejected, and choosing and rejecting is just delimitation.

13. What is the nose of the buddhas? The nose asks about fragrance. The fragrances manifested in this chapter are exceedingly abundant — the bodhisattvas gathering from the ten directions each present “clouds of powdered-incense trees,” “clouds of unguent incense and burning incense in all their colors and forms,” “clouds of every fragrant tree,” and clouds of fragrance fill space and do not disperse. But see this clearly: these fragrances are offerings presented from the side of sentient beings; they are not the answer by displaying a mark for the virtue of the Buddha’s nose. That the Buddha’s nose is without measure does not hang upon how surpassing and subtle the fragrance smelled may be. One misunderstanding to be set right: one must not reverse it and say that since the offering of fragrance is so grand, the virtue of the Buddha’s nose may be seen from it — that is to fill out what acts with what is acted upon. Since the scripture asks a separate clause, it is so that people may know that each of the six faculties, gate by gate, has its own measurelessness, and that this is not taken from the object each faces. Where it comes to earth: fragrance is the object that most easily draws a person along; to smell a fragrance and have the mind follow after it is just where the nose has measure; to smell and not follow is where the measure begins to loosen.

14. What is the tongue of the buddhas? The tongue as a faculty can taste and can also speak. Since the scripture sets up below it a separate question, “what is the voice of the buddhas,” we may know that the tongue here is not the same as the voice: the voice is the mark that is spoken out, the tongue is the faculty that can speak. To ask that the Buddha’s tongue is without measure is to ask why the virtue that can speak is never exhausted — speaking without waiting upon deliberation, speaking without repetition, speaking without diminishing however many are spoken to. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s tongue must not be read as the excellent mark of “the broad and long tongue” and left at a matter of shape; the excellent marks are one portion of the body, whereas what is asked here is the function of a faculty. In the prose of this chapter there is no separate passage displaying a mark for the Buddha’s tongue, and its sense is taken up in what the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas say about “a single sound.” Where it comes to earth: human speech is exhaustible because before speaking one must first take up a standpoint; where there is no standpoint to take up, speech does not obstruct speech.

15. What is the body of the buddhas? Of the six faculties, only the body has a perfectly plain answer by displaying a mark in this chapter. The bodhisattva Supreme Sound of All Dharmas, receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, says: “The Buddha’s body fills the whole Dharma realm, appearing everywhere before all sentient beings; according with conditions he goes to meet what calls, and there is nowhere he does not pervade, and yet he constantly abides upon this seat of awakening.” The four lines answer exactly to the measurelessness of the body: filling the Dharma realm is being nowhere absent; appearing before sentient beings is responding to everything; according with conditions and meeting what calls is responding without missing the occasion; constantly abiding upon this seat is responding without moving from the root. One misunderstanding to be set right: filling the Dharma realm does not mean that the Buddha’s body is very large — large is still a measure. The opposite of large is small, and small and large stand over against one another, which is to have measure. What is said here is that it does not fall within any place, and therefore there is no place of which one could point out that it is not there. Where it comes to earth: the line “and yet he constantly abides upon this seat of awakening” is the most important to read — pervading and not moving are established at the same time, and only so is it the Buddha’s body; take only the pervading and lose the not-moving, and it falls into being a body that runs about everywhere.

16. What is the mind of the buddhas? For the mind the verses set up a line of its own: “And what is it for the mind to be without measure? Would that you reveal for us the skillful means by which this can be known!” — asking and then further requesting to be shown the skillful means by which it may be known, from which we see that the measurelessness of the mind is the hardest to know at once. The answer by displaying a mark in this chapter lies in the one line just before the emitting of light: “At that time the World-Honored One knew what the bodhisattvas were thinking in their minds.” The question of the assembly of seas was a thought in the mind, never uttered, and yet the Buddha already knew it; knowing it, he emitted light as the answer. This knowing does not wait upon the asking in order to know, nor is it wearied by the many things known. One misunderstanding to be set right: the Buddha’s mind must not be read as an exceedingly quick and exceedingly broad inferring; inferring has that which infers and that which is inferred, which is still to have measure. Here what is thought is of itself already present, and there is no act of going to know it. Where it comes to earth: hereafter, whenever the reader meets the words “he knows the minds of sentient beings” in a scripture, he should come back to this passage to read them — the Buddha’s answer arises from the thought in the mind, not from words spoken.

17. What is the body-light of the buddhas? 18. What is the radiance of the buddhas? These two questions should be read apart. The body-light is the light a buddha’s body constantly has, and is substance; radiance runs through the light that is emitted, and is function. This chapter thereupon emits light twice — the light of the teeth at the mouth and the light of the tuft between the brows — and these are exactly the answer by displaying a mark for these two questions. Fazang, explaining the substance and the function of the light in the sixty-fascicle text, says it plainly: jewel-color is the substance of the light, lamp-brightness is the function of the light; because principle is precious it is named jewel-color, because wisdom illumines everywhere it is named lamp-brightness.

19. What is the voice of the buddhas? The question of the Buddha’s voice is answered in the single sound expounding, celebrated again and again in the verses of the eleven bodhisattvas — “the Tathāgata’s single sound is without measure,” “the Buddha sets forth a single subtle sound, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions.” The voice, as a question, asks why a single sound can answer to measureless minds.

20. What is the wisdom of the buddhas? This is the gathering up of the first twenty clauses. Wisdom is the substance of the ground of a buddha, and every virtue and function asked about in the preceding nineteen questions is, at root, tied to this one wisdom. So when the question reaches wisdom, the side of the fruit has been asked out to the end.

The Twenty Seas Requested by Citing an Example

The twenty-first item is a whole passage: the assembly of seas no longer asks directly, but cites as an example the dharmas that all the buddhas of the world-seas of the ten directions “have expounded for the bodhisattvas,” asking that the Buddha too expound thus for us. This turn is of the greatest importance. The first twenty clauses were ‘I do not understand; please tell me’; these twenty seas are ‘elsewhere the buddhas have already spoken in this way; would that you too speak so’ — placing oneself within the pattern of the buddhas’ sameness of path in order to make the request. Chengguan says that this is exactly the “request that cites an example and raises a dharma,” and points out that in the second assembly these two layers are also present, and that within its citation of an example what is asked is the same as the direct request here, “just so as to set forth the sense of the buddhas’ sameness of path in abbreviated reflection.”

The twenty seas divide into two groups. The first ten seas belong to a buddha: the sea of worlds, the sea of sentient beings, the sea of the arraying of the Dharma realm, the sea of buddhas, the sea of the perfections of a buddha, the sea of the liberations of a buddha, the sea of the transformations of a buddha, the sea of the expositions of a buddha, the sea of the names of a buddha, the sea of the life-spans of a buddha. The latter ten seas belong to the bodhisattvas: the sea of vows, the sea of setting forth, the sea of the aids to the path, the sea of vehicles, the sea of practices, the sea of going forth, the sea of supernormal penetrations, the sea of perfections, the sea of grounds, the sea of wisdom. Counted item by item, the two groups have ten each, with none wanting and none in excess. By Chengguan’s threefold division of the forty clauses, within these latter twenty clauses “the last ten ask about the cause” — the ten seas of the bodhisattvas are the cause; and “the middle ten make clear that the function of transforming pervades everywhere” — the buddha’s sea of worlds, sea of sentient beings, and the seas that follow ask generally about the supporting and supported, the defiled and the pure, cause and fruit.

Why are they all called “seas”? A sea is deep and vast and shoreless and takes in what is inexhaustible. This is the habitual language of the Avataṃsaka’s way of measuring, not a rhetorical flourish: whenever what a Dharma-gate contains is itself still inexhaustible Dharma-gates, it is called a sea. Brought down to the reading: when the reader meets the word “sea” in the Avataṃsaka, he should at once withdraw any imagining of a singular thing.

Where the Doubt Comes From: Doubt and Answer Complete One Another

Here there is a real question, and Chengguan raises it himself: “the kings and the bodhisattvas are all at the perfect utmost of their stations; how can there be doubt?” The bodhisattvas and the rulers of the worlds are already at the perfect utmost of their stations; how can there still be doubt?

He first records two explanations from of old: some say the doubt is raised on behalf of sentient beings; some say it is out of longing for the fruit of buddhahood, and further that it sets forth how far apart cause and fruit stand. He appraises these two as “the first provisional and the latter real, and both have a principle that will carry through the other teachings” — both will pass, but that is a way of speaking that carries through other gates of teaching. Coming to this sūtra, he sets up another sense: “within this sūtra, whether real or provisional, there is nothing that is not the doubt of the Dharma realm; for doubt is taken as having power, and together with what is preached and verified it makes dependent origination.” Doubt here is not a deficiency; it is a power, and it and the dharma preached are mutually dependent in their arising.

He then uses an excellent simile: the relation of doubt and answer “is like the mold of an image” — where the mold is convex the image is concave, and where the mold is concave the image is convex. The height and depth of the doubt are exactly what make the height and depth of the answer; it is not that first there is doubt and then the doubt is removed, but that “thought after thought there is always doubt, thought after thought it is always cut off,” both established at once. He adds one further line: “this matter is so from of old, appearing all at once in the ocean-seal” — it is originally so, and in the ocean-seal concentration it appears all at once.

Set one great error right: do not read this passage as ‘the sage feigns having doubts.’ Chengguan precisely does not take that provisional account as final. Brought home to oneself: if a person supposes that practice is a wiping away of doubts one by one until there are none left, that is a schematized imagining; the real state of things is that question and answer arise and subside on one and the same rhythm, and the deeper the asking, the deeper the answer.

A Sound Arises of Itself from the Cloud of Articles of Offering: The Half That Is the Request Aloud

After the request in thought in the prose comes the request aloud. The speaker must be seen clearly — it is not that some bodhisattva rises and speaks, but that “through the majestic and spiritual power of the bodhisattvas, from within the cloud of all the articles of offering a sound arose of itself and spoke these verses.” The sound arises of itself from within the cloud formed of the vessels of offering, and its motive force is the majestic and spiritual power of the bodhisattvas.

This thing is itself a piece of doctrine. The articles of offering are things presented, and of themselves they have no mind; and yet where the mind reaches, the things give voice. This is a glimpse of the Avataṃsaka’s non-obstruction of the supporting and the supported: between the mind that offers and the thing that is offered there is no hard wall. The reader need not hurry to explain it as a marvel; what is to be seen is why the scripture arranges for “things” to utter these forty-one lines of the general request — because those who request the Dharma are not only those few bodhisattvas; it is the whole assembly together with all its adornment that is making the request.

The content of the verses asks the forty clauses of the prose over again, and with more of feeling in it: first praising the Buddha, “through measureless kalpas his practice was fulfilled; beneath the tree of awakening he accomplished right awakening,” next telling of the feeling of the multitudes who have come, “together they have come to this assembly and alike look up in reverence,” and then setting out one by one the ground of a buddha, the buddha’s realm, the sustaining, what he walks, the buddha’s power, the samādhi, the fearlessness, the supernormal penetrations, the six faculties, and the seas, closing with “in this place of awakening, would that you expound them all.” Chengguan records how it differs from the prose: the verses no longer cite an example, but join the two places of the text into a direct request.

Emitting Light from between the Teeth of the Mouth

“At that time the World-Honored One knew what the bodhisattvas were thinking in their minds” — these eight graphs are the hard anchor for the attribution of the speaker in the whole chapter. The request was in thought, and the Buddha responds by knowing the thought; the whole possibility of the answer rests upon this “knowing.” In the eighty-fascicle text and the sixty-fascicle text this line stands without a single graph altered, from which its importance may be seen.

The place from which the light is emitted is “between the teeth of his mouth.” Of this word for “mouth,” Fazang, in his commentary on the sixty-fascicle text, records three different accounts from of old: one house says it is simply the mouth; one says it is the proper front of the face and does not separately indicate the mouth; Master Guangtong says it is the space below the nose and above the mouth. Having set the three accounts side by side, he does not adjudicate which is right, but goes instead by way of the Sanskrit transliteration: in Sanskrit, face and mouth and gate are one and the same word, mukha, and so rendering it as “the mouth of the face” raises the three things together. Upon this he opens out four layers of sense: the mouth betokens that the path of teaching reaches afar; the face betokens facing properly toward the faculties; the gate betokens opening the Dharma and gathering in beings; the teeth betoken the surpassing function — which surpassing function is that “they chew over the savor of the Dharma, and they grind down and break the obstruction of delusion.” The work of teeth is to bite through and to grind, and set upon the Dharma this is digesting the savor of the Dharma and breaking down the obstruction of delusion.

What is the emitting of light for? Fazang settles four intents: manifesting a mark to betoken the real; startling faith into arising; illumining and touching so as to rescue from suffering; summoning from afar in order to gather the multitudes. These four intents cover everything that comes after this passage — why there must be a manifesting, why sentient beings will believe, why there is the benefit of leaving suffering, why the ten directions will come.

The names of the ten rays of light are likewise no random display. Fazang, following the sixty-fascicle text, settles the kinds of sense in them: “the first six are the sea of buddhas, the next two the sea of receptacle-worlds, the next one the sea of sentient beings, and the last one the sea of the skillful means of the Dharma realm”; taken from another angle they may be settled as “the first eight are the wheel of prediction and preaching that is the activity of mind, the next one the wheel of supernormal penetration that is the activity of body, and the last one the wheel of right teaching that is the activity of speech.” One and the same set of names may be divided by the objects illumined and may also be divided by the three activities — this is the ordinary state of Avataṃsaka reading: one set of numbers will often hold more than one sectioning.

Verses Spoken within the Light: Why the Light Can Speak

After the light reaches the other quarters, “the bodhisattvas within those world-seas each and all got to see, within the light, this Flower-Treasury Adorned World-Sea” — first seeing, then hearing. Next comes a sentence to be marked: “By the spiritual power of the Buddha, that light spoke these verses before all the bodhisattva assemblies of the other quarters.” The speaker is the light, and the motive force is ascribed to the spiritual power of the Buddha.

The function of these verses is perfectly definite: it is summoning from afar. So nearly every one of its ten verses closes with an urging to go: “you should go forth and together look up and pay reverence,” “that Honored One of Two Feet, you ought to go and see him,” “you may hasten quickly to where the Tathāgata is,” “you may go and behold, and hear the Dharma that he speaks.” Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle text, settles the structure of these verses in four senses: first raising the Buddha’s virtue in general in order to urge going; next setting forth severally the one who can preach in order to urge coming; then marking out severally what is preached in order to urge beholding; and last concluding generally with the Buddha’s virtue in order to set forth its depth and breadth — and moreover “these four all explain the earlier by the later,” each later part explaining why the earlier part is worth going to.

Set one error right: do not suppose that the light’s speaking is a mythical ornament. The doctrinal landing point of this passage is this — for the teaching to be able to reach a distant place, there need not first be a person who walks there. When the mark appears there, the meaning has arrived there. This is one application, at a distance, of the answer by displaying a mark.

The Ten Directions Receive the Light and Gather: A Response Reaching Ten Places

“At that time all the assemblies of the world-seas of the ten directions, having received the Buddha’s radiance and been awakened by it, each and all came together to where Vairocana Tathāgata was, to draw near and make offerings” — this is the general clause, and the ten directions below are the particulars.

Fazang settles that each of the ten quarters has seven items: the name of the world-sea; the name of the land (these two being the marks of the dharmas relied upon, differing only as general and particular); the name of the buddha; the name of the bodhisattva (these two being the wisdom that enters, differing only as full and partial); host and companions coming together (making clear that the virtues are complete and perfect); raising offerings and making offerings to the Buddha (the sense of according and benefiting, the cause according with the fruit); sitting according to their original quarter (making clear the gathering in of what is scattered and the return to stillness). Counted quarter by quarter, all ten quarters are complete with these seven items, and not one quarter wants any of them. If the reader has hold of these seven items, the ten long passages are no longer a heap of repetitions but the same structure sounded ten times over.

There is also a question asked from of old: why begin from the east? Fazang’s answer is very down to earth — it sets forth the beginning of opening and brightening, and it accords with the customs of the Western Region, where the east is taken as uppermost; the halls and palaces there all face east, and the Tathāgata too for the most part faces east when he preaches, and so the light from his mouth comes forth directly toward the east. He does not make a mystery of the quarters, but explains by custom and rite.

He does not avoid the deeper difficulty either: below it is said that the Flower-Treasury world-sea is boundless; if it is boundless, how can there still be east, west, south, and north? He answers that bound and boundless are not two — “without destroying the bound it is ever boundless, and without breaking the boundless it is ever bounded” — and uses woven brocade as a simile: the white thread runs right through the weaving and is not confounded with the purple nest, and the purple likewise; there must be purple within the white for it to be woven silk, and if there were no purple at all within the white, the purple thread would not run through both weavings, and it would then be embroidery and not woven silk. The sense of the simile is that white and purple run through one another and yet are not confused. He goes a step further and asks: are those ten worlds then the Flower-Treasury? Answer: because they “are it,” they “are not it.” Last he brings out the sense of host and companion — “because the Flower-Treasury is host and those ten are companions, and this host and these companions are perfectly interfused and pervade everywhere every dust-path, layer upon layer, like Indra’s net.” The ten directions are not outside the Flower-Treasury; they are the layered manifesting of the Flower-Treasury itself.

The East: Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, and the Throne of the Treasury of Flower-Radiance

From the east comes the bodhisattva Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, from the world-sea Pure Light Lotus Adornment and the land Maṇi-Necklace Vajra Treasury, the buddha there being named King of the Boundless Space of the Awakening of the Dharma-Water. The nine classes of clouds of offering he manifests set up no common class-name (whereas in each of the remaining nine quarters the items have a tail-word of a shared kind), and two of them bear the word “flower”: clouds of the bodily marks of bodhisattvas, clouds raining down the radiance of every jeweled lotus, clouds of jeweled Sumeru peaks, clouds of the light of sun-orbs, clouds of jeweled flower necklaces, clouds of every music, clouds of powdered-incense trees, clouds of unguent incense and burning incense in all their colors and forms, clouds of every fragrant tree.

Fazang matches senses to the articles of offering: the flower is the sense of purity and the sense of opening out; Sumeru is the sense of surpassing height; the sun is the sense of removing darkness. Taken together, the lotus, the Sumeru, and the sun-orb offered in the east all fall upon the word ‘opening’ — answering to the east as the beginning of opening and brightening. The bodhisattva’s name, Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma, lies on the same line: contemplating is the function of wisdom, the lotus is pure and opens out, and the banner stands out alone and high. The place of sitting is “a lion-throne of the treasury of the radiance of flowers,” conjured according to his quarter.

One thing for the reader to learn: these names are not decoration. Name, offering, and throne are very often of one and the same class of sense — a person’s name, the offering he brings, and the throne he sits upon commonly say the same thing. The passage on the east is a broad instance on this line: nine items share no class-name, and yet the one sense of the lotus runs through the name (Lotus Banner Who Contemplates the Supreme Dharma), the offering (clouds raining down the radiance of every jeweled lotus), and the throne (the lion-throne of the treasury of flower-radiance).

The South: Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, and the Clouds of Maṇi-Kings

From the south comes the bodhisattva Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, from the world-sea Treasury Adorned with the Radiance of Every Jewel-Moon and the land Boundless Light, Perfect Adornment, the buddha there being named Sumeru King of the Virtue of the Radiance of Universal Wisdom. The ten classes of clouds of offering he manifests all take the maṇi-king as their substance: clouds of maṇi-kings that are treasuries of the radiance of every adornment, clouds of maṇi-kings raining down every jeweled ornament and illumining everywhere, clouds of maṇi-kings whose jeweled flames blaze and extol the names of the buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings that proclaim all the Buddha’s teachings, clouds of maṇi-kings of manifold subtle trees adorning the place of awakening, clouds of maṇi-kings whose jeweled radiance illumines everywhere and displays manifold conjured buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings that display everywhere the adorned images of every place of awakening, clouds of maṇi-kings of dense-flamed lamps that tell of the realms of the buddhas, clouds of maṇi-kings bearing the images of the inconceivable palaces of the buddha-lands, clouds of maṇi-kings that display everywhere the images of the bodies of the buddhas of the three times.

The maṇi is the wish-fulfilling jewel, and its virtue lies in being able to display — displaying names, displaying the Buddha’s teachings, displaying conjured buddhas, displaying places of awakening, displaying the bodies of buddhas. And so among the ten clouds of the south three are ‘displaying such and such’ — displaying manifold conjured buddhas, displaying the adorned images of the places of awakening, displaying the images of the bodies of the buddhas of the three times. The bodhisattva’s name, Wisdom That Illumines Everywhere the Sea of Dharma, says the very same thing: the illumining of wisdom is like the containing of a sea, and each thing contained gets to be displayed.

Fazang, matching the ten senses of the articles of offering, says that the jewel “is the sense of being precious.” Precious and able to display — this is the place the maṇi holds in the betokening of this chapter.

The West: Moonlight and Fragrant Flame, Universal Adornment, and the Clouds of Pavilions

From the west comes the bodhisattva Moonlight and Fragrant Flame, Universal Adornment, from the world-sea Lovely Jeweled Radiance and the land Bringing Forth Supreme and Subtle Articles That Sustain the Body, the buddha there being named Jeweled Adornment of the Merit of Fragrant Flame. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the pavilion as their substance: clouds of pavilions of jeweled fragrance and manifold subtle flowers, clouds of pavilions of jewel-kings of boundless colors and forms, clouds of pavilions of jeweled lamps and fragrant flames, clouds of pavilions all of pearl, clouds of pavilions of every jeweled flower, clouds of pavilions adorned with jeweled necklaces, clouds of pavilions that display everywhere the treasury of the radiance of every adornment of the ten directions, clouds of pavilions adorned with manifold jewel-powder inlaid together, clouds of pavilions of every adornment extending throughout the ten directions, clouds of pavilions with flower gates and nets of bells.

Fazang explains the sense of the pavilion as “the sense of building up in tiers, as when compassion and the rest are raised upon right wisdom” — a pavilion is built up story upon story, and to raise great compassion upon right wisdom is to build up in tiers. So what the passage on the west betokens is the layering of practice: not merit laid out flat, but built up one tier resting upon another.

The name of the land, Bringing Forth Supreme and Subtle Articles That Sustain the Body, answers to this as well — the articles that sustain the body are the conditions relied upon; and a pavilion is a thing relied upon raised upon a thing relied upon. The reader may notice this: when the Avataṃsaka takes architecture as a simile, it is mostly speaking of successive stages that rely upon one another without obstructing one another.

The North: Radiance of the Lion’s Swift Valor, and the Clouds of Trees

From the north comes the bodhisattva Radiance of the Lion’s Swift Valor, from the world-sea Perfect Treasury of the Radiance of the Beryl Lotus and the land Adorned with Utpala Flowers, the buddha there being named King of the Sound of the Banner of Universal Wisdom. The clouds of offering he manifests all take the tree as their substance: clouds of manifold subtle trees of every fragrance and maṇi jewel, clouds of trees adorned with dense leaves and subtle fragrance, clouds of adorning trees that conjure forth trees of every boundless color and form, clouds of trees adorned with every flower spread all about, clouds of trees adorned with the perfect radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of trees adorned with the display of bodhisattva bodies of every sandal fragrance, clouds of trees adorned with the display of the inconceivable adornments of the places of awakening of former times, clouds of trees that are treasuries of manifold jeweled garments and are like the radiance of the sun, clouds of trees that send forth everywhere every delightful sound.

Fazang explains the sense of the tree as “the sense of establishing.” A tree is a thing that grows out of one root and spreads branches and leaves everywhere — and this chapter is at this moment set beneath the tree of awakening, so the betokening of the tree is all the more intimate. What the passage on the north betokens is spreading everywhere from a single root: the root once set up, colors and forms, flowers, flames, fragrance, bodies, and sounds all come forth from it.

The bodhisattva’s name, the Lion’s Swift Valor, is the mark of bold decision and fearlessness, and it matches the sense of establishing: whoever can establish must first be able to decide.

The Northeast: Supreme Lamp of Radiance, Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, and the Clouds of Lion-Thrones

From the northeast comes the bodhisattva Supreme Lamp of Radiance, Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit, from the world-sea Banner of the Crystal Color of Jambū-River Gold and the land Adorned with Manifold Jewels, the buddha there being named Lamp of Fearlessness in All Dharmas. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the lion-throne as their substance: clouds of lion-thrones of the jeweled lotus treasury of boundless colors and forms, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the radiance of maṇi-kings, clouds of lion-thrones decked with every adornment and every manner of ornament, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of manifold jeweled garlands and lamp-flames, clouds of lion-thrones raining down jeweled necklaces everywhere, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of every fragrant flower and jeweled necklace, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of maṇi-kings that display the adornments of every buddha’s seat, clouds of lion-thrones with doors and windows, steps and terraces, and the necklaces and every adornment, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the jeweled branches and stems of every maṇi tree, clouds of lion-thrones of the treasury of the radiance of the sun inlaid with jeweled fragrance.

Fazang explains the sense of the throne as “the sense of gathering in and benefiting.” A throne is a place of abiding, able to bring a person to rest and to receive benefit. That the first of the four intermediate quarters offers thrones has its sense here: having come and gathered, they must have a place to abide.

Worth noting is that what this quarter offers is thrones, and after arriving they too “each conjured a lion-throne of the banner of the radiance of jeweled lotus and maṇi” and sat. To offer thrones to the Buddha and oneself also to have a throne — between what is offered and what is received there is no separation at all, and this is a small footnote to the non-obstruction of the supporting and the supported in this chapter.

The Southeast: Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, and the Clouds of Curtains

From the southeast comes the bodhisattva Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, from the world-sea Golden Adornment, Beryl Radiance Illumining Everywhere and the land Pure Fragrant Radiance, the buddha there being named King of Universal Joy and Deep Faith. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take the curtain as their substance: clouds of maṇi curtains of every wish-fulfilling king, clouds of curtains adorned with sapphire and every flower, clouds of maṇi curtains of every fragrance, clouds of curtains of jeweled flame-lamps, clouds of maṇi-king curtains that display the Buddha’s supernormal penetrations and his preaching of the Dharma, clouds of maṇi curtains that display the colors and images of every adorning garment, clouds of curtains of the radiance of every cluster of jeweled flowers, clouds of curtains with the sound of jeweled nets and bells, clouds of curtains with maṇi for their dais and lotuses for their net, clouds of curtains that display the colors and images of every inconceivable adornment.

A curtain is a thing that covers and protects, of a kind with the canopy but closer-woven. The buddha of this quarter is named King of Universal Joy and Deep Faith, and the bodhisattva Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness — faith and wisdom being inside and outside of one another: faith is like a curtain that covers and protects, bringing a person to safety; wisdom is like a lamp that is universally bright, bringing a person to see. There must be covering and protecting before there can be long abiding, and long abiding before wisdom can come to completion.

Here one easily confused thing should be pointed out: the bodhisattva of this quarter is named Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness, the same name as the sixth of the bodhisattvas who speak verses later on. These are two different sets of persons — the bodhisattvas of the ten directions who come to the gathering are one set, and the bodhisattvas who appear within the radiance and from the tuft of white hair and speak the verses are another. The reader must distinguish them when citing, and not take them for one person.

The Southwest: Topknot of Universal Flower Flame-Light, and the Clouds of Canopies

From the southwest comes the bodhisattva Topknot of Universal Flower Flame-Light, from the world-sea Sunlight Illumining Everywhere and the land Lion Sun-Radiance, the buddha there being named Sound of the Radiance of Universal Wisdom. The clouds of offering he manifests take the canopy as their substance: clouds of jeweled canopies of manifold subtle adornments, clouds of flower canopies adorned with radiance, clouds of canopies of the pearl treasury of boundless colors, clouds of maṇi-king canopies that send forth the sound of the compassion of all bodhisattvas, clouds of canopies of manifold subtle jeweled flame-garlands, clouds of canopies decked with subtle jewels and hung with nets and bells, clouds of canopies adorned with the branches of maṇi trees, clouds of maṇi-king canopies with sunlight illumining everywhere, clouds of canopies of every unguent incense and burning incense, clouds of canopies of the sandalwood treasury, clouds of canopies adorned with the universal radiance of the vast realm of a buddha — this quarter lists one item more than the others, the actual count item by item being eleven; the scripture is not uniform here, and this is recorded as it is, without forcing it into uniformity.

Fazang explains the sense of the canopy as “the sense of shading and covering.” What the canopy betokens is the shade of kindness: among these items, the one called the maṇi-king canopy that sends forth the sound of the compassion of all bodhisattvas puts the sound of compassion directly into the canopy, and the sense is plainest there. The buddha’s name, the world’s name, and the land’s name of this quarter all carry “sunlight” — the sun can illumine and can also scorch, and so a canopy is needed; illumining and shading go together, which is wisdom and compassion going together.

The Northwest: Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, and the Clouds of Perfect Radiance

From the northwest comes the bodhisattva Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, from the world-sea Jeweled Radiance Shining Forth and the land Adorned with Manifold Fragrances, the buddha there being named Radiance of the Sea of Measureless Merit. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take perfect radiance as their substance: clouds of the perfect radiance of every jewel, clouds of the perfect radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of the perfect radiance of every subtle flower, clouds of the perfect radiance of every conjured buddha, clouds of the perfect radiance of the buddha-lands of the ten directions, clouds of the perfect radiance of jeweled trees with the thunder-sound of the realm of a buddha, clouds of the perfect radiance of every beryl jewel and maṇi-king, clouds of the perfect radiance that in a single thought displays the forms of boundless sentient beings, clouds of the perfect radiance that sends forth the sound of the great vows of all tathāgatas, clouds of the perfect radiance of maṇi-kings that set forth and transform with the sounds of all sentient beings.

The two words “perfect radiance” are the eye of this quarter. In the quarters before, what was offered was flowers or trees or thrones or canopies, all still carrying shape; here what is offered is light, and light that is perfect — the sense of shape is spent, and only the sense of illumining is left. Among these items, the one called the perfect radiance that in a single thought displays the forms of boundless sentient beings is the most worth turning over: the perfection of the light lies not in how bright the light is in itself, but in this, that within a single thought the forms of boundless sentient beings all appear within it.

The bodhisattva’s name, Maṇi-King of Inexhaustible Radiance, agrees wholly with what he offers, which bears out what was said above of name and offering being of one class.

The Nadir: Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm, and the Clouds of Radiance

From below comes the bodhisattva Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm, from the world-sea Treasury of the Subtle Virtue of Lotus Fragrance and the land Jeweled Lion-Radiance Shining Forth, the buddha there being named Radiance of the Dharma Realm. The clouds of offering he manifests take radiance as their substance: clouds of the radiance of every maṇi treasury, clouds of the radiance of every fragrance, clouds of the radiance of every jeweled flame, clouds of radiance that send forth the sound of every buddha preaching the Dharma, clouds of radiance that display the adornments of every buddha-land, clouds of the radiance of every subtle flower pavilion, clouds of radiance that display how the buddhas of every kalpa teach and transform sentient beings, clouds of the radiance of every inexhaustible jeweled flower-stamen, clouds of the radiance of every adorned throne.

Below and above are, among the ten directions, the pair in which the sense of “non-obstruction” shows most. Below is commonly conceived as low, as sunken; and yet the names of this quarter run all the way through as Radiance of the Dharma Realm and Wisdom of the Flaming Radiance of the Dharma Realm — at the very lowest place what is offered is still the light of the Dharma realm. This is precisely where the Avataṃsaka will not let a person rank high and low by the quarters.

Among these items, the one called the clouds of radiance that display how the buddhas of every kalpa teach and transform sentient beings takes time also into the light: the light illumines not only space but the kalpas as well.

The Zenith: Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, and the Clouds of Flaming Radiance

From above comes the bodhisattva Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, from the world-sea Adorned with the Shining Forth of Maṇi Jewels and the land Markless Subtle Radiance, the buddha there being named King of the Radiance of Unobstructed Merit. The ten classes of clouds of offering all take flaming radiance as their substance: clouds of jeweled flaming radiance of boundless colors and forms, clouds of the flaming radiance of nets of maṇi jewels, clouds of the flaming radiance of the adornments of every vast buddha-land, clouds of the flaming radiance of every subtle fragrance, clouds of the flaming radiance of every adornment, clouds of the flaming radiance of the transformations of the buddhas, clouds of the flaming radiance of manifold subtle trees and flowers, clouds of the flaming radiance of every vajra, clouds of maṇi flaming radiance that tells of the boundless practices of a bodhisattva, clouds of the flaming radiance of every pearl lamp.

The name of the land, Markless Subtle Radiance, is the most important name among all the ten directions. Come to the zenith, and even the mark is withdrawn; only subtle radiance is left. And what is offered is flaming radiance — flame being what moves and does not stay, light that has force in it. The bodhisattva’s name, Wisdom of Unobstructed Power and Diligence, says the same thing: marklessness is not forcelessness; it is just because there is no mark that there is no obstruction, and just because there is no obstruction that the power of diligence is inexhaustible.

With this the ten directions are complete. Counted quarter by quarter, the ten places of the ten directions each have one great bodhisattva, one world-sea, one land, and one buddha’s name, and not one quarter wants any of them; while the classes of clouds of offering manifested, counted quarter by quarter, are: east nine · south ten · west ten · north nine · northeast ten · southeast ten · southwest eleven · northwest ten · below nine · above ten — the ten quarters are not uniform, and this is recorded as it is, without forcing it into uniformity.

The Conclusion of the Gathering: The Six Layers of Non-Obstruction and the Benefit Thought after Thought

After the ten directions are told severally comes the conclusion. The scripture first states the measure — within world-seas numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands there are bodhisattva-mahāsattvas numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands, and each of them again has a retinue numerous as the dust motes of a world-sea surrounding him. Next it states the virtuous substance: once seated, from within the pores of the bodies of these bodhisattvas each severally manifests rays of radiance numerous as the dust motes of ten world-seas, and within each ray there appear again bodhisattvas numerous as the dust motes of ten world-seas, all seated upon lion-thrones of the lotus treasury; and these bodhisattvas are able to enter everywhere into each single dust mote in every sea of the arraying of the Dharma realm, and within each single dust mote there are vast lands numerous as the dust motes of ten buddha-worlds, and within each single land there are the buddhas of the three times.

Fazang takes this one clause apart into six layers of non-obstruction, and moreover “each manifold times more than the one before” — body and light unobstructed; light and person unobstructed; person and dharma unobstructed; dust mote and land unobstructed; the supporting and the supported unobstructed; the function of transforming unobstructed. Each layer has one more manifold of levels than the one before. And he adds a judgment of the greatest importance: this is “the real virtue of the dependent origination that is just so of itself in the Dharma realm of the One Vehicle; it is not a transformation.”

Set one great error right: do not read this passage as a display of spiritual transformations. Fazang says plainly, “it is not a transformation” — it is not conjured up; it is the real virtue of the Dharma realm being originally so. A transformation has one who transforms and something transformed; the real virtue of dependent origination has no such twofold division. Brought down to the reading: in reading the inexhaustible passages of the Avataṃsaka, if the mind keeps asking ‘how was this conjured up?’, it will keep failing to get in.

Next comes the benefit in function. The scripture leads with “thought after thought” and gives ten Dharma-gates — sovereign freedom within dreams; displaying the passing away and taking birth of the gods; proclaiming all the practices of a bodhisattva; shaking every land everywhere and praising the Buddha’s merit and spiritual transformations; purifying the buddha-lands and revealing the seas of great vows; the Buddha’s voice that gathers in everywhere the speech of all sentient beings; being able to rain down clouds of all the Buddha’s teachings; radiance illumining everywhere the lands of the ten directions and displaying spiritual transformations throughout the Dharma realm; displaying the Buddha’s body everywhere, filling and pervading the Dharma realm, with the power of the liberation of every tathāgata; the bodhisattva Samantabhadra establishing every sea of the places of awakening where assemblies gather. Counted item by item, they are ten, with none wanting. Fazang settles these ten clauses as “the first nine set forth severally, and the last one concludes generally” — the first nine are Dharma-gates opened out separately, and the last, ‘Samantabhadra establishing,’ gathers them in.

Then comes the benefit gained. The scripture leads with “causing sentient beings numerous as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru” and gives ten things: leaving the suffering of the evil destinies; entering into the rightly settled; being born among the gods according to delight; dwelling in the position of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; serving good friends and being complete in every meritorious practice; arousing the unsurpassed mind of awakening; going toward the non-retrogressive ground of a bodhisattva; gaining the pure eye of wisdom and seeing the dharmas of equality that the Tathāgata sees; dwelling in the seas of the powers and vows and purifying the buddha-lands; dwelling in Vairocana’s vast sea of vows and being born into the family of the Tathāgata. Counted item by item, they are ten. These ten things run from leaving suffering all the way to being born into the family of the Tathāgata, a complete stairway. Fazang, explaining this passage in the sixty-fascicle text, opens out four layers of matched explanation (matching the six stations of the common teaching, the three teachings, the four teachings, the three vehicles and the One Vehicle), and records of himself that “all the above is benefit within a single thought; all other thoughts are to be reckoned by this” — all of it within a single thought.

Verses Spoken with One Voice within the Radiance: The Bodhisattvas Tell of Themselves

The speaker of these verses must be got right: it is “the bodhisattvas within the radiance sent forth their voices at one and the same time” — not one representative, but the bodhisattvas together giving voice within the radiance. Earlier, the sound arising from within the cloud of articles of offering was a thing speaking; here it is a multitude speaking; in neither case does it fall upon a single person.

The content of the verses is a telling of the realm in which they practice: practicing through sea-like kalpas without weariness; exhausting the seas of kalpas cultivating skillful means and yet constantly proclaiming that the nature is quiescent; cultivating and purifying every vow of the buddhas of the three times; entering everywhere into the assemblies of the buddhas; seeing all the lands everywhere with the pure eye of wisdom; dwelling on the tip of a single hair and shaking the ten directions without causing sentient beings to be afraid; measureless bodies within each single dust mote; all the kalpas of the three times displayed in a single instant; knowing this body to be like an illusion, without substance. The last verse comes home to “the surpassing practice of Samantabhadra he is able wholly to enter.”

Fazang, on the sixty-fascicle text, settles these ten verses as “the first five praise the bodhisattvas’ virtue in general, and the latter five celebrate the foregoing Dharma-gates,” and within the first five he divides again into three of the virtue of their own portion (self-benefit, transforming others, gaining the Dharma) and two of advancing beyond (outward benefit, inward completeness), while the latter five answer to manifesting the Dharma, shaking the lands, the adornment of the body, entering the kalpas, and preaching the Dharma.

The position of these verses within the whole chapter is very delicate: they come after the gathering of the multitudes and before the light between the brows. The multitudes have gathered, the Dharma has not yet been preached, and the multitudes tell of their own realm — which is to tell the reader what kind of person it is who can receive the Dharma that follows.

Emitting Light between the Brows: Pointing Out the Lord of the Preaching

At the second emitting of light the place has changed — no longer the mouth, but between the brows. What it is for has changed too: the first time it was to summon the multitudes, this time it is “in order that the whole great assembly of bodhisattvas might gain the spiritual power of the Tathāgata’s boundless realm.” The second of Chengguan’s five senses of manifesting marks says it plainly: manifesting the mark of light between the brows, which points out the lord of the preaching.

Fazang explains the betokening of the space between the brows and of the white tuft: the space between the brows lies in the middle of the two eyes, and betokens the dharma of the One Vehicle of the middle way; the white tuft is white in color, and betokens the untainted white and pure dharma of the path of realization; and moreover white is the root of all colors, so it betokens further that this One Vehicle is the source of all the teachings. These three layers should be read apart: the middle way is said with respect to position, the white purity with respect to color, and the root of all colors with respect to the relation between white and the other colors.

In this passage there is also the third of the manifested marks — “it also shook everywhere the net of the many worlds, and within each single dust mote there appeared countless buddhas,” which is what Chengguan calls “shaking the net of lands, which alerts the faculties of the many.” The shaking is not to frighten; it is to alert. One who is deep asleep must first be shaken awake before there can be any talk of seeing.

Most important of all is the way the light is gathered back: “Having done these things for the assembly at the place of awakening of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, that light circled the Buddha to the right and entered in beneath his feet.” The light comes forth from between the brows and yet enters in beneath the feet. Fazang answers this excellently: coming forth from the tuft and entering at the feet “betokens that the dharma above can be handed down below, and that handing it down does not lose the root — therefore it returns and enters in”; and asked how, the space between the brows and the soles of the feet being different places, it can be said to “return,” he answers that it is because it sets forth that above and below are not two. He gives a second layer as well: that the light of the tuft illumines Samantabhadra makes clear the fruit riding upon the cause; that it returns and enters in beneath the feet makes clear the cause completing the fruit.

Brought home to oneself: what comes from a high place must be able to come down to the lowest place, and only when it comes down to the lowest place without losing its root is it called handing down.

A Great Lotus Appears before the Buddha: Betokening That the Preaching Rests upon the Fruit

The fourth manifested mark is “manifesting a flower before the Buddha, which betokens that the preaching rests upon the fruit.” The scripture says, “At that time, before the Buddha, a great lotus suddenly appeared. This flower had ten kinds of adornment, and no other lotus could match it.”

The ten kinds of adornment, item by item, are: manifold jewels inlaid together making its stalk; the king of maṇi jewels making its treasury; the manifold jewels of the Dharma realm everywhere making its petals; the many fragrant maṇi jewels making its stamens; Jambū-river gold decking and illumining its dais; a subtle net covering it above with light and color pure; within a single thought displaying the spiritual transformations of boundless buddhas; being able to send forth every sound everywhere; the Buddha’s body appearing in reflection within the king of maṇi jewels; and within its sounds being able everywhere to proclaim all the practices and vows that bodhisattvas cultivate. Counted item by item they are ten, agreeing with the “ten kinds” the scripture itself marks. The first five are the shape and body of the flower (stalk, treasury, petals, stamens, dais), and the latter five are the function of the flower (covering, displaying transformations, sending forth sounds, reflecting the Buddha’s body, proclaiming the practices and vows) — five of body and five of function, shape and function each half.

Why a lotus? Fazang settles it bluntly: the lotus is the meaning that is expressed, and the bodhisattva Supreme Sound is the teaching that expresses; and that Supreme Sound sits upon the flower is called “the bestowing of the teaching in accordance with the meaning.” The teaching is set up upon the meaning, not the meaning upon the teaching — and this is the root order for reading every scripture and teaching. What is called “betokening that the preaching rests upon the fruit” is just this: what this flower betokens is the fruit-virtue relied upon, and the Dharma is about to be preached in reliance upon it.

Set one error right: do not read this flower as scenery. It is the doctrinal foundation of this preaching, and the throne upon which Samantabhadra relies when he enters concentration in the next chapter comes forth from it.

Bringing Forth the Multitude from the Tuft of White Hair: The Teaching Flows from the Buddha

The fifth manifested mark is “bringing forth the multitude from the tuft of white hair, which betokens that the teaching flows from the Buddha.” The scripture says that after this flower was brought forth, in a single thought, from within the mark of the tuft of white hair of the Tathāgata there was a bodhisattva-mahāsattva named Supreme Sound of All Dharmas who came forth together with bodhisattvas numerous as the dust motes of a world-sea.

The order here cannot be reversed: first the flower, then the coming forth of the multitude; first the meaning, then the teaching. After Supreme Sound comes forth he sits upon the dais of the lotus, and his retinue upon the stamens, each dwelling in due order — even the order of the seating tells the levels of what expresses and what is expressed.

The scripture goes on to describe the virtue of Supreme Sound: he had penetrated the profound Dharma realm and given rise to great joy; he had entered the path the Buddha walks and his wisdom was without hindrance; he had entered the immeasurable sea of the Buddha’s dharma-body; he had gone to where the tathāgatas are in every land; from all the pores of his body he displayed supernormal penetrations; thought after thought he contemplated the whole Dharma realm; and moreover “the buddhas of the ten directions together bestowed their power upon him,” causing him to dwell everywhere in every samādhi and to the end of future kalpas constantly to see the buddhas. This passage establishes his standing as speaker for the verses that follow — he is able to speak because the buddhas of the ten directions together bestowed their power upon him.

Then he “thereupon within the great assembly, receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, contemplated the ten directions and spoke these verses.” These verses are the first of the eleven praises. Chengguan sections this passage as “the text divides into two: the first one is the praise of the bodhisattva from between the brows, and the latter ten are the praises of the bodhisattvas of the ten directions” — one plus ten, eleven in all. So the reader should be clear: the praise of Supreme Sound is an independent first, and the ten that follow are another set.

The verses of Supreme Sound open with one of the two most famous lines in the whole scripture — “the Buddha’s body fills the whole Dharma realm, appearing everywhere before all sentient beings.” The structure of these verses runs from the pervading of the Buddha’s body, on to a single hair displaying many seas of lands, on to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions gathering like clouds, on to the wisdom-realm of dividing the body being established within the practice of Samantabhadra, and home at last to “everywhere for sentient beings they emit great radiance, and each rains down the rain of Dharma in accord with their minds.” From pervading to entering, from entering to establishing, from establishing to benefiting beings — one complete line.

A General Word on the Ten Praises: Praise as Answer

Below, ten bodhisattvas speak verses one after another. One thing must be made clear first: these ten praises are not ten sets of impressions; they are answers. Among these praises Chengguan settles the ten verses of one praise as answering the foregoing question about “sovereign freedom,” dividing them into three parts — the first six verses make clear the gathering in of beings with none left out, the next two the non-obstruction of quiescence and function, the last two the shorelessness of the great function. And at the end of the chapter he sums up by saying that the above has matched ten clauses in summary, and that within them the sense of the forty clauses is complete, though it cannot be pointed out one by one.

This ties the front and the back together: the question of forty clauses is answered in the marks of light, and answered too in these eleven praises. So with each praise below the reader may bring a question to set against it — what is this praise answering?

One general pattern for the speakers must also be accounted for: all ten say “receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, he contemplated the ten directions and spoke these verses” (two of them saying “the majestic power of the Buddha,” and one “contemplated the ten directions throughout”). Counted item by item, of the ten, eight say “receiving the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha” and two say “receiving the majestic power of the Buddha”; nine say “contemplated the ten directions” and one says “contemplated the ten directions throughout.” The wording differs a little and the attribution is wholly the same: the speaker is a bodhisattva, and the motive force is the Buddha. This is the fixed form of the attribution of speakers in the prose of the Avataṃsaka, and it must not be read as a bodhisattva showing off his own powers.

Praise One, King of the Wisdom of the Lotus Radiance Who Contemplates All Supreme Dharmas: Wisdom Enters the Dharma Realm and Appears According to the Occasion

The first is King of the Wisdom of the Lotus Radiance Who Contemplates All Supreme Dharmas. His verses begin from “the profound wisdom of the Tathāgata enters everywhere into the Dharma realm” — the first words fall upon wisdom, answering exactly to the foregoing question, “what is the wisdom of the buddhas?”

The backbone of this praise is the pair of same and different. “The buddhas are one and the same dharma-body, without support and without difference” is the same; “in accord with the minds of all sentient beings he causes them to see the form and shape of a buddha’s body” is the different. On the side of the same, the dharma-body is without support and without difference; on the side of the different, the form and shape that sentient beings see are each unlike. The two are not one before the other; they are at once: it is just because there is no difference that he can appear in accord with every difference.

He goes on to say “upon a single buddha-body he conjures forth measureless buddhas” and “within each single pore, nets of radiance reach the ten directions,” coming home to “in each single body of the Tathāgata the buddhas he displays are equal in number to sentient beings.” Set one error right: do not read “the buddhas he displays are equal in number to sentient beings” as meaning that the number of buddhas equals the number of sentient beings — that turns it into arithmetic. What it says is this: wherever there is one sentient being, there is a buddha there answering him; and where the answering reaches, there the Buddha is.

Praise Two, Radiance of the Wisdom of Dharma-Joy: Without Birth, Yet Displaying Birth

The second is Radiance of the Wisdom of Dharma-Joy. The eye of this praise is the four lines in the middle: “the Buddha’s body has no birth, and yet he is able to display being born; the nature of dharmas is like space, and the buddhas abide within it.” When Li Tongxuan explains “what is the ground of the buddhas,” it is precisely these two lines he cites as the answer — the nature of dharmas is like space and the buddhas abide within it, and this is the ground of the Tathāgata.

Without birth and yet able to display birth: this is the hardest knot in the whole chapter. If the Buddha’s body really had birth, then having birth it must have cessation, and could not constantly appear; if the Buddha’s body were purely without birth and could not display birth, then sentient beings would forever have no share in seeing him. The scripture’s answer falls on neither side: “without a place of dwelling and without any going, everywhere one can see the Buddha”; “without substance, without a place of dwelling, and with no birth that can be got at, without mark and without shape, all that he displays is like a shadow.”

The last verse says, “the bodies of all the buddhas all have inexhaustible marks, and though what they display is measureless, their colors and forms are never exhausted” — what is displayed is measureless and yet the colors and forms are never exhausted, precisely because it was never taken out of a limited store to begin with. Brought home to oneself: seeing the Buddha is not waiting for a thing to appear; it is seeing at the place where nothing is got.

Praise Three, Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of Fragrant Flame-Radiance: One Who Sees the Buddha’s Spiritual Power Is One Who Has Already Entered

The third is Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of Fragrant Flame-Radiance. This praise changes the angle — it speaks not of the Buddha but of the person who can see the Buddha. It opens with “the bodhisattvas of this assembly have entered the ground of the Buddha beyond conceiving, and each and every one of them is able to see the spiritual power of every buddha.”

Why can they see? Because “their wisdom-bodies are able to enter throughout the dust motes of every buddha-land, they see their own bodies within them, and they see the buddhas everywhere.” The condition of seeing is not standing near; it is that the wisdom-body has already entered throughout. He says further, “the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, cultivated and purified, are already bright and clean, and so within every buddha-land they are able to see everywhere the Buddha’s spiritual transformations” — being cultivated and purified and bright and clean is the precondition.

The use of this praise to the reader is the most direct of all: it converts all the inconceivable scenes that went before into a condition of practice. Set an error right: do not suppose that the realm of the Avataṃsaka is put on for people to gawk at. The scripture says clearly that the one who can see that realm is one who is already within it. “Their bodies abide in every place, and every place is equal; and when wisdom is able to move in this way, one has entered the realm of the Buddha” — practicing equality is the gate of entry.

Praise Four, Radiance of the Wisdom of the Lion’s Swift Valor: The Pervading of the Wheel of Dharma and the Difference of the Names

The fourth is Radiance of the Wisdom of the Lion’s Swift Valor. This praise speaks specially of turning the wheel of Dharma, and it opens by marking the name of the lord: “the Buddha Vairocana is able to turn the wheel of true Dharma; the many lands of the Dharma realm are all pervaded by it like clouds.”

Most worth turning over are these two lines: “in all the lands of the buddhas, within the vast assemblies, his names are each different, and according to what befits them he sets forth the subtle Dharma.” The Buddha’s names in different lands are each unlike, and yet what is turned is one and the same wheel of Dharma. This settles a practical perplexity — why the names of buddhas in the scriptures are so many. The answer is: the names differ according to the occasion, and the substance of the Dharma does not differ with them.

He says further, “the Buddha’s body is equal to the dust motes of the lands, and everywhere he rains down the rain of Dharma, without birth and without difference, appearing throughout all the worlds” — still no difference and yet difference appearing. The last verse says, “past, future, and present, all the buddhas, the tathāgatas, and the subtle wheels of Dharma they turn — in this assembly all of it may be heard”: the wheels of Dharma turned by the buddhas of the three times can all be heard within this one assembly. This is a direct statement of the Avataṃsaka’s view of time, and it also answers to the earlier line, “all the great vows of the buddhas of the three times will be proclaimed beneath the tree of awakening.”

Praise Five, Treasury of Merit, Wisdom of the Sea of Dharma: From the Sea of Sounds to the Ground of the Powers

The fifth is Treasury of Merit, Wisdom of the Sea of Dharma. The thread of this praise is sound, answering exactly to the question “what is the voice of the buddhas?”

He speaks first of those who can enter: “the sons of the Buddha of this assembly have well cultivated the manifold kinds of wisdom, and such people as these are already able to enter a gate of skillful means such as this.” Then of the pervading of the sound: “within each single land they send forth everywhere a vast voice, proclaiming the place where the Buddha walks, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions.” Then he turns to the side of the hearer: “the vast voice of the buddhas — there is nothing in the Dharma realm that does not hear it; and a bodhisattva is able to know it and skillfully to enter the sea of sounds.”

Most important are these two lines: “all the sounds that sentient beings have, and the sovereignly free voice of the Buddha — having gained the wisdom of sounds, he is able to know them all.” The sounds of sentient beings and the voice of the Buddha are, for one who has gained the wisdom of sounds, one and the same thing — not that the speech of sentient beings is translated into the Buddha’s Dharma, but that they were the same all along.

The last verse, “from one ground he gains a further ground, and dwells within the ground of the powers; through koṭis of kalpas he diligently practices, and the Dharma he gains is just so,” brings the whole praise back to the stations of practice: none of this is inborn; it is gained from one ground to another, through koṭis of kalpas of diligent practice. This is the line closest to the successive stages of practice among all eleven praises of this chapter.

Praise Six, Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness: Only Free of Marks Does One See the Guide

The sixth is Lamp of Wisdom, Universal Brightness (not the same person as the bodhisattva of the same name who came to the gathering from the southeast, as was distinguished above). This praise opens with the steepest line in the whole chapter: “all the tathāgatas are far removed from the manifold marks; and if one can know this dharma, then one sees the guide of the world.”

The praises before have said so much of marks — pores, nets of radiance, form-bodies, seas of lands; and here of a sudden it is said that the Tathāgata is far removed from the manifold marks. This is not a reversal of the verdict; it sets the foregoing marks back in the place where they belong. Marks can be seen, and yet to see a mark is not to see the Buddha; one must know that the buddhas are far removed from the manifold marks before one counts as having seen the guide.

He then gives the method of seeing: “within the samādhi of a bodhisattva the light of wisdom is universally clear, able to know of all the buddhas the sovereignly free nature of their substance” — knowing the nature of the substance by the light of wisdom within concentration. And again, “seeing the true substance of the Buddha, one then awakens to the profound Dharma, contemplating everywhere the Dharma realm and taking a body in accord with one’s original vow.”

“The one solid and dense body may be seen within every dust mote” is the key line of this praise. Solid and dense means it cannot be divided; being one and yet seen within every dust mote is precisely the joining of being free of marks and appearing everywhere. The last verse comes home to “because of the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power, the many bodhisattvas appear; and sustained by the Buddha’s power they see the tathāgatas everywhere” — even the seeing itself is sustained by the Buddha’s power.

Praise Seven, Topknot of Flower Flame, Wisdom of Universal Brightness: The Dharma-Body and Faith

The seventh is Topknot of Flower Flame, Wisdom of Universal Brightness (this one receives “the majestic power of the Buddha,” not “the majestic spiritual power,” a difference of wording with the same sense). This praise speaks of the relation between the dharma-body and sentient beings.

“The Buddha takes the Dharma as his body, pure as space; and the manifold colors and shapes he displays are all to bring beings to enter into this Dharma” — the colors and shapes displayed are not the end; they are for bringing people to enter into the Dharma. This one line is the master key to the betokening of the whole chapter: every manifested mark is for the sake of bringing beings in.

He then distinguishes two kinds of person: “if there are those who deeply believe and rejoice and who are moreover gathered in by the Buddha, one should know that people such as these are able to give rise to a mind that comprehends the Buddha’s wisdom”; and “those who have little wisdom are unable to know this dharma, but those whose eye of wisdom is pure are able to see it here.” Deep faith and a pure eye of wisdom are on one side, little wisdom on the other. Set an error right: “little wisdom” here is not an insult; it states a boundary — the scripture itself admits that this Dharma-gate is not opened to every faculty all at once.

The last part says, “abiding in the buddha-lands, arising in every place, without going and without coming — such is the dharma of the buddhas,” and closes with “in the sea of all sentient beings the Buddha’s body appears like a shadow; and according to the differences in their understanding they see the guide accordingly” — what is seen differs according to understanding, and this hands the responsibility back to the reader: what kind of buddha you see depends on how far you understand.

Praise Eight, Inexhaustible Radiance of Majestic Wisdom: The Marks of the Lands and the One Real Principle

The eighth is Inexhaustible Radiance of Majestic Wisdom. What is special about this praise is that it is the only one of the eleven to treat in detail the shapes of the lands: “the many seas of lands of the ten directions, buddha-lands of every kind and measureless, are all level and pure, formed of sapphire. Some are inverted, some abide on their side, some are like a lotus closing up, some are round, some are square, and there are manifold forms of every kind.”

Inverted, on their side, like a lotus closing up, round, square — this passage is of one system with the shapes of the seas of lands treated at length in the chapter on the Flower-Treasury world further on. Here a summary of them is given first, laying the ground for what follows.

And having told a thousand differences of shape, he gathers at once to the one: “the subtle wheel of Dharma that he turns — the nature of dharmas is without difference, and relying upon the one real principle he sets forth the manifold marks of dharmas.” The shapes are measureless; the principle relied upon is one. This is the axis of the praise.

The last verse, “within all the lands one sees the Buddha seated at the place of awakening, the Buddha’s body appearing like a shadow, and neither arising nor ceasing can be got at,” answers to “all that he displays is like a shadow” in the second praise. The eleven praises often echo one another like this, and the reader may take note: they are not each speaking on their own.

Praise Nine, Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of the Dharma Realm: Faith, Understanding, Vow, and Wisdom as the Steps of Entry

The ninth is Wisdom of the Universal Brightness of the Dharma Realm (this one also receives “the majestic power of the Buddha”). This praise is the most serviceable of all: it sets out the conditions of “being able to enter” as a stairway.

First what is seen: “the subtle body of the Tathāgata, its colors and forms are beyond conceiving; those who see it give rise to joy, and reverently they take faith and delight in the Dharma” — seeing and giving rise to joy, reverence, faith and delight: this is the first step. Next those who can know: “the bodhisattvas of great wisdom enter deeply into the sea of dharmas, and sustained by the Buddha’s power they are able to know this skillful means.” Then four things are set out: “if there are those who have faith and understanding, together with the great vows, and are complete in profound wisdom, they penetrate all dharmas” — faith and understanding, great vows, profound wisdom, penetration, one after another.

Then the fruit: “they are able, upon the bodies of the buddhas, to contemplate them one by one, and colors and sounds are no obstruction to them, and they comprehend the manifold realms”; “they are able, upon the bodies of the buddhas, to dwell in what wisdom practices, swiftly to enter the ground of the Tathāgata and to gather in the Dharma realm everywhere.”

The last two verses say, “numerous as the dust motes of the buddha-lands, lands of every kind such as these they are able to cause, within a single thought, to appear within each single dust mote” and “all the many lands and the affairs of supernormal penetration all appear within a single buddha-land — such is the power of a bodhisattva” — coming home at last to “the power of a bodhisattva.” After so much has been said of the Buddha’s realm, this praise sets it upon the bodhisattva’s own power: this is not scenery for an onlooker; it is a matter that can be cultivated and gained.

Praise Ten, Unobstructed Wisdom of the Power of Diligence: The Single Sound and Not Grasping

The tenth, and the last, is Unobstructed Wisdom of the Power of Diligence. He begins from sound: “the Buddha sets forth a single subtle sound, heard throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions; the manifold sounds are all complete within it, and the rain of Dharma fills and pervades all.” A single sound in which the manifold sounds are complete — this is the last answer to the question of the Buddha’s voice.

The middle turns to the dharma-body: “the dharma-body is like space, without obstruction and without difference; and its colors and shapes are like a reflected image, the manifold marks of every kind appearing.” Then he uses an exceedingly clear explanation: “a reflected image has no quarter or place, and like space it is without substantial nature; and one whose wisdom is vast penetrates their equality.” When Chengguan explains this passage he says the sense of the reflected image through to the end — that the reflected image sets forth having no quarter or place means that when the light is in the east the shadow is in the west, and when the light is in the west the shadow is in the east; when the substance stands opposite the image is born and yet comes from nowhere; when the substance withdraws the image perishes and yet goes nowhere; and therefore this image is, in its very substance, empty and without substance. His explanation of the next line, “like space,” is likewise most spare: because it cannot be grasped; though it manifests a shape, it is like the moon in water, equal as space.

And so the four lines at the end follow of themselves: “the Buddha’s body cannot be grasped, without birth and without any making; in response to beings it appears everywhere before them, equal as space.” Cannot be grasped and yet appears everywhere before them — this is precisely the general answer to the forty questions of the whole chapter.

The last two verses close with “the Buddha Vairocana, whose power of vow pervades the Dharma realm, within all the lands constantly turns the unsurpassed wheel” and “within a single hair he displays spiritual transformations, and all the buddhas alike proclaim it; and though one pass through measureless kalpas, one cannot reach its bound.” To close with shorelessness is exactly the Avataṃsaka style.

The Conclusion Extended without End: This Is Only One Place of Awakening in Jambudvīpa

One sentence at the end of the chapter pushes the scale of the whole assembly open again: “Just as in this place of awakening within these four continents, where by the spiritual power of the Buddha bodhisattva multitudes numerous as the dust motes of a koṭi world-seas came from each of the ten directions to the gathering, so should it be known that within all the world-seas, in the many places of awakening within each set of four continents, it is likewise so.”

Chengguan sections this passage into two layers: first raising this case; second, with the words “it should be known,” extending it to that. He also settles a small question — why say “the four continents”? “As for ‘the four continents,’ the intent is upon Jambudvīpa — the words are general and the intent particular.” The words say the four continents in general, but the meaning falls upon Jambudvīpa. He points out at the end the use of this sentence: since it is the gathering of the bodhisattvas like clouds that is here concluded and extended, it is all the more set forth that what was praised above is that of the ten directions. At the end of the chapter the commentary reads “the far skillful means is finished” — this chapter, as the far skillful means of the manner and rite of preaching the Dharma, ends here.

This sentence is the reader’s last calibration: the multitudes numerous as the dust motes of a thousand million buddha-lands seen above are a matter of this one place of awakening only, and places of awakening like this are in every set of four continents within all the world-seas. Set an error right: if on reading this far the numbers feel unreal, one is still reading them as quantity. It is not reporting a count; it is withdrawing the notion that ‘this one assembly is special.’

Lineage

The sense of this chapter was carried on by four later tracks, all of them recorded without adjudication. The line of Chengguan: he opens the chapter with the four gates of the reason for its coming · the explanation of the name · the tenet and aim · the explanation of the text, sets up ‘the five senses of Tathāgata and the five senses of manifesting marks’ to make ten, judges the text of the chapter to divide broadly into six (the assembly of seas requesting together · light summoning those with affinity · the summoned rushing like clouds · auspicious signs betokening the preaching · the Buddha’s virtue extolled · the conclusion extended without end), and assesses the requesting and questioning of the first assembly in five gates, judging this assembly to be a question of forty clauses and its answer to be “the answer by displaying a mark”; and on the question whether the doubt is provisional or real, he records the two explanations from of old and then sets up separately the sense that “doubt is taken as having power, and together with what is preached and verified it makes dependent origination,” using the mold and the image as a simile — this is where the Avataṃsaka’s sense of dependent origination comes to rest in this chapter. The line of Fazang: he explains this scene within the chapter Rocana Buddha of the sixty-fascicle text, sectioning it by the “long division into ten,” of which this chapter is the first two parts; on the word for “mouth” he records three explanations from of old and does not adjudicate, going instead by way of the Sanskrit transliteration; he settles the four intents of emitting light, the four intents of gathering the multitudes, the seven items for each of the ten quarters, and the ten senses of the articles of offering; on the bound and the boundless of the Flower-Treasury he sets up the simile of the brocade nest and the answer of host and companion in Indra’s net; and on the virtue of the bodhisattva multitude he settles six layers of non-obstruction and pronounces it “the real virtue of the dependent origination that is just so of itself in the Dharma realm of the One Vehicle; it is not a transformation.” He also refutes the old opinion that “these questions are to be matched to answers in the assemblies below,” holding that the forty questions are answered generally in this chapter. The line of Zhiyan: he explains in accordance with the sectioning of the sixty-fascicle text, settling the tenet and aim by person and dharma each complete in substance, mark, and function; he reckons the clauses of question as twenty-three, and matches the three bodies to the first twelve clauses — this together with Chengguan’s forty clauses and Li Tongxuan’s thirty-seven questions makes three numbers, and there are these three accounts from of old, which are recorded here. The line of Li Tongxuan: he takes this chapter and the four that follow under the general gate of “raising the fruit to urge cultivation,” reckons the questions as thirty-seven (eighteen kinds of the Buddha’s dharma plus nineteen seas of the buddhas and bodhisattvas), judges this chapter to have two emissions of light, three when the pores of the bodhisattvas are included, and ten through the whole scripture from first to last, and cites the text below as the answer to each question in turn — a track different from those who explain by the sectioning of a commentary, and this too is recorded without adjudication.

As for the framework books of the Huayan school, upon a thorough search the items of this chapter are not found in them, and the absence is recorded in accordance with fact, nothing from elsewhere being put in its place. Outside this chapter, the answers to its forty questions are distributed among the chapters that follow: the seventh and eighth items, samādhi and supernormal penetration, have their proper exposition in the chapter on the samādhi of Samantabhadra and beyond; the questions about the seas have their broad treatment in the chapter on the formation of the worlds and the chapter on the Flower-Treasury world; while as to the uneven appearing of the two items “that which cannot be appropriated” and “supernormal penetration,” Chengguan has already pointed out that in the chapter on the Dharma realm they are opened and joined otherwise. What this chapter opens is a mark, and what it answers is the whole scripture — this is the thing most to be remembered in reading the first assembly.