華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊10Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 10

Why the Opening of a Great Sūtra Is Worth Reading on Its Own

The Ten Grounds is the heart of the Avataṃsaka, and its opening — from the World-Honored One seated in the palace of the king of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations, all the way to Vajragarbha finally agreeing to begin — takes up one whole long stretch of text without touching the content of a single ground. Readers in a hurry to get to the ten grounds mostly skip it. Yet this passage is in fact answering a question that comes even earlier: on what grounds can a Dharma like this be spoken at all, by whom, to whom, and under what conditions does it become sayable?

Vasubandhu, in the Shidi jing lun, divides the first ground into eight parts — the part of the preface, the part of samādhi, the part of empowerment, the part of arising, the part of the root, the part of request, the part of exposition, and the part of the comparison of excellence. The first six are all here. Chengguan takes over this outline and opens the Ten Grounds chapter into ten sections, each ground possessing the eight parts; and when he comes to the part of request in this passage, he opens it further into three: first remaining silent, next the five requests from three quarters, and last the consent that sets the bounds of what is to be said. So this is not padding. It is structure: the whole set of conditions that must be in place before the Dharma is spoken, laid out by the sūtra one item at a time.

The Part of the Preface: In What Sort of Place, and to What Sort of People, Is the Essential Dharma Spoken

The opening first settles four matters: the time, the host, the place, and the assembly. Chengguan says that because this chapter is subsumed within the great compilation, two of the six perfections of the setting — faith and hearing — are absent, and only these four remain; and the reason the treatise weighs the time and the place in particular is to show the surpassing excellence of this Dharma — at the earliest time and in the most surpassing place, the most surpassing Dharma is spoken.

The place is the Hall of the Treasury of Maṇi Jewels in the palace of the king of the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations. Fazang reads a symbolic import out of this place: “others fashion the instruments of pleasure and one obtains the enjoyment of them oneself, which shows that it is not by one’s own power” — the suchness that is realized is not something one has manufactured oneself; and Chengguan goes a step further, saying, “in realizing suchness there is no mind, and yet this does not obstruct the subsequently attained wisdom from arising into function”: at the moment of realizing suchness there is no mind to be employed, and yet this is no obstacle to the arising into function of the wisdom attained afterward.

As for the virtues of the assembly, the sūtra lays out a whole run of clauses: non-retrogression; having come together from other quarters; dwelling in the realm in which a bodhisattva’s wisdom dwells; entering the place into which a tathāgata’s wisdom enters; cultivating diligently without cease; teaching beings by spiritual powers without missing the moment; cultivating without sloth in all worlds, all kalpas, and all lands for the sake of accomplishing the great vows; being furnished with the provisions of merit and wisdom that aid the path, and benefiting all universally without running short; having reached the far shore, the ultimate limit of wisdom and skillful means, and manifesting entry into birth-and-death and into nirvāṇa without casting the work aside; entering well the concentrations and spiritual powers, with mastery in whatever is done; being able in a single thought to go to every site of awakening, to act as the foremost of the assembly, to request the Dharma and guard the wheel of the Dharma; making offerings to and serving the buddhas with a vast mind; their bodies appearing universally in the world while their voices carry universally through the Dharma realm; their minds and wisdom unobstructed and universally seeing the three times; every merit cultivated to fullness, such that kalpas beyond telling would not exhaust the telling. This long string is not a courtesy. It is saying one thing: those who are able to sit here and listen to the ten grounds are people who have already walked the three worthy stages to the end and are just about to step across into the position of a noble one. The Dharma is not spoken to just anyone — the qualification of the listeners is itself one of the conditions for the speaking.

Next comes the roll of names. Thirty-nine bodhisattvas, and almost every name carries the word “treasury” — Vajragarbha, Jewel-Treasury, Lotus-Treasury, Virtue-Treasury, Sun-Treasury, Stainless-Moon-Treasury, Vairocana-Wisdom-Treasury … down to the last of them, the bodhisattva Vimukticandra. “Treasury” means what is held within and not yet brought forth; and at a Dharma gathering that is about to speak of the “grounds,” everyone who appears is a “treasury.” And the first name in the list and the last are precisely the two protagonists of the whole drama that follows: Vajragarbha speaks, Vimukticandra requests.

The Part of Samādhi: Before Speaking the Dharma, First Enter a Concentration

Vajragarbha does not open his mouth only after being asked. The first thing he does is to enter a concentration — he “enters the samādhi of the light of a bodhisattva’s great wisdom.” The name of this concentration is its content: the light of great wisdom.

Why must the speaking of the Dharma begin with entering a concentration? Because what is spoken is not something he thought up himself. That the part of samādhi stands as one part on its own among the eight is meant to mark exactly this point: the meaning of the grounds comes out of realization, not out of thinking — one who is able to speak must first go inside that realization, and only then do the words have a source. Fazang and Chengguan, in their way of judging the passage with respect to the teaching, even judge the part of samādhi to be the main body of the whole passage — because it is by entering this concentration that actual realization is made manifest.

The Part of Empowerment: Why the Buddhas of the Ten Directions Come to Empower Him

After he enters the concentration, in the ten directions, beyond worlds each exceeding the number of the dust motes of ten koṭis of buddha-lands, there appear in each direction buddhas as many as the dust motes of ten koṭis of buddha-lands — and every one of them bears the name Vajragarbha. Bearing the same name says that the one who empowers and the one empowered are one and the same in the Dharma.

The buddhas first give their praise, and then state the three sources of the empowerment: the power of the original vow of the Tathāgata Vairocana, the majestic spiritual power of the buddhas, and Vajragarbha’s own power of surpassing wisdom. Not one of the three can be missing — empowerment from without and realization from within, both sides are required.

Then come ten clauses of “namely,” stating what the empowerment is for: entering the ground of wisdom; gathering in all roots of goodness; discerning well all the teachings of the Buddha; knowing widely all dharmas; being able to preach the Dharma well; the purity of non-discriminating wisdom; not being defiled by any dharma of the world; the purity of the roots of goodness that transcend the world; gaining the realm of inconceivable wisdom; gaining the realm of wisdom of one who has omniscience. These ten clauses speak from the side of the inner conditions of the one who is to speak — only when there is wisdom such as this is there a Dharma that can be spoken.

Then the text turns over another layer, and ten clauses face toward the Dharma to be spoken and the beings to be taught: coming to know the beginning and end of the bodhisattva’s ten grounds; setting forth as they truly are the characteristics that distinguish the ten grounds; calling to mind all the teachings of the Buddha; cultivating and discerning the dharmas without outflows; selecting and contemplating well the great light of wisdom and its subtle adornment; entering well the gate of settled wisdom; setting forth in due order according to the place where one dwells, without fear; gaining the light of unobstructed eloquence; dwelling on the ground of great eloquence and gaining what is well settled; keeping the bodhisattva mind in mind without losing it; and on to bringing the whole realm of sentient beings to ripeness, and reaching everywhere universally to awaken beings with certainty. The first ten clauses say ‘he is able to understand it’; the second ten say ‘he is able to speak it, to speak it through to the end, to speak it rightly, and to speak it so that people can take it in.’

The third set of ten clauses states the body and mind upon which the empowerment rests: being borne by the spiritual power of the Buddha and empowered by the light of the Tathāgata’s wisdom; purifying one’s own roots of goodness; universally purifying the Dharma realm; universally gathering in sentient beings; entering deeply into the dharma-body and the wisdom-body; receiving the consecration of all the buddhas; gaining the body that is highest and greatest in all the world; passing beyond the path of all the world; purifying the roots of goodness that transcend the world; fulfilling the wisdom of omniscience.

Further on, the sūtra turns from “causing” to “giving” — what the buddhas of the ten directions actually gave him: a body none can outshine or take away; unobstructed eloquence in delighted speech; the pure wisdom that discerns well; the power of recalling well and not forgetting; the wisdom that settles well and understands clearly; the wisdom that reaches everywhere and awakens beings; the power of mastery in accomplishing the path; the fearlessness of a tathāgata; the eloquent wisdom that contemplates and discerns all the Dharma-gates; and the perfect adornment of the excellent and wondrous acts of body, speech, and mind of the tathāgatas.

Last, the sūtra puts a question to itself: “Why is this?” — on what grounds do they give these to him? The answer is again ten clauses: because the dharma of gaining this samādhi is thus; because his original vow set it in motion; because his deep mind is well purified; because the wheel of his wisdom is well purified; because he has amassed well the provisions that aid the path; because he has cultivated well the work to be done; because they are mindful that he is a vessel of the Dharma beyond measure; because they know that his faith and understanding are pure; because he has gained the total retention free of error; because he has been well sealed by the wisdom-seal of the Dharma realm. The weightiest of these ten are the two clauses “mindful that he is a vessel of the Dharma beyond measure” and “knowing that his faith and understanding are pure”: empowerment is not a favor bestowed, it is a correspondence — the vessel must be able to receive before anything is poured in.

The buddhas’ empowerment comes to rest at last in a single clause of commission: “You should expound this Dharma-gate, this dharma of distinctions and skillfulness.” This is not vague encouragement but a naming of the content to be spoken — the distinctions and the skillfulness of the Dharma-gate of the ten grounds; from this one clause the speaker receives at once the authority to speak and the topic to speak on.

The Part of Arising: The Rubbing of the Crown, and Then Coming Out of the Concentration

The buddhas of the ten directions each stretch out a right hand and rub the crown of Vajragarbha’s head. This is the empowerment of the body, and also the end of the part of empowerment. Vasubandhu points out here in particular that the power of rubbing the crown belongs to the supernormal power of will and to no other — the buddhas at a distance do not leave their own places, and yet are able to rub a crown in this place.

When the rubbing of the crown is done, Vajragarbha rises from the samādhi and addresses all the assembly of bodhisattvas universally — and with this the part of arising is complete. Receiving the empowerment within the concentration, and speaking upon coming out of it: the structure of the whole passage closes here.

The Part of the Root: He Speaks the Vow First, and Then Asks about the Ground

His first words on coming out of the concentration are not the ten grounds but the vow: “the great vows of the bodhisattvas are well settled, unmixed and not to be seen as a form, vast as the Dharma realm, ultimate as space,” reaching to the end of the future and pervading every buddha-land, rescuing all sentient beings, guarded by all the buddhas, entering the ground of wisdom of the buddhas of the three times. Setting up the vow first and speaking of the grounds after is a deliberate order — the ground is a road that a vow has walked out, not a piece of knowledge.

Then he asks himself and answers himself: “Sons of the Buddha! What is the ground of wisdom of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva?” — what is asked about is the “ground of wisdom,” not simply the “ground.” What makes a ground a ground is that it is the place where wisdom dwells. And the answer has ten: Joyful, Stainless, Luminous, Flaming-Wisdom, Hard-to-Conquer, Manifest, Far-Reaching, Immovable, Excellent-Wisdom, Dharma-Cloud.

Having spoken the ten names, he immediately gives three guarantees for them. First, the buddhas of the three times “have already spoken them, will speak them, and are speaking them now,” and I too speak thus — this is not a new teaching. Second, “I have never seen any buddha-land in which the Tathāgata does not speak these ten grounds” — this is not a special teaching. Third, why is this? Because it is “the highest path by which a bodhisattva-mahāsattva heads toward awakening, and it is also the gate of the light of pure dharmas” — this is not a minor teaching. And after these three, he closes on a turn: “This place is inconceivable — namely, the wisdom that the bodhisattvas attain according to what they have realized.” Guaranteeing that it is of the utmost weight, and in the same breath saying that it is inconceivable — this one clause is the seed of the whole silence that follows.

Worth noting is this: of the names of the ten grounds, the sūtra gives only the list and no explanation. The explanation of the meaning of the names has to wait for Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun to supply it — because on first realizing the place of a noble one much joy is born, it is named Joyful; because it is free of the defilement of breaking the precepts, it is named Stainless; because hearing, reflection, and cultivation illumine and make the Dharma manifest, it is named the Bright ground; because it burns the fuel of the afflictions, it is named the Flaming ground; because it can cross what is hard to cross, it is named Hard-to-Conquer; because prajñā is present before one, it is named Manifest; because it passes beyond the path of the two vehicles, it is named Far-Reaching; because the practice of the fruit is fully ripened, markless and without interruption, it is named Immovable; because it preaches the Dharma with unobstructed power, it is named Excellent-Wisdom; because it gains the great dharma-body and mastery, it is named Dharma-Cloud. And before the names the treatise sets a question: why is it settled that there are ten grounds? The answer is: in order to counteract ten kinds of obstruction — from the obstruction of the ordinary person’s notion of a self, all the way to the obstruction of not gaining mastery in the dharmas. The sūtra gives the names, the treatise explains the meanings: this is the clearest division of labor in the whole textual record of this passage.

The Part of Request, One: He Spoke the Names and Then Stopped

Then comes the strangest scene in the whole passage: “the bodhisattva Vajragarbha, having finished speaking the names of these bodhisattva ten grounds, remained silent and made no further discerning explanation.” The assembly hears the names but not the explanation, and “all gave rise to a mind of thirsting and longing,” and a doubt arises in them: for what cause, for what condition, does he speak the names and give no explanation?

This silence is not an awkward pause; it is Dharma. Vasubandhu poses the question and answers it with great directness: the silence is in order to make the great assembly thirst and long and request the teaching, and further to increase the bodhisattvas’ reverence for the Dharma. Chengguan says it more fully: “as for why he is silent — being about to expound it, he must first hold firmly to silence” — being about to set it forth, he first stubbornly withholds it. And he adds a second layer: in the part of the root the grounds have already been raised and praised as surpassing, so that the assembly delights in them; here the silence that waits for a request is meant to give rise, within this very request, to right understanding — it is through the requesting that the reason for the silence can be asked out, and it is through the reason for the silence that the substance of the grounds is shown to be most profound and apart from words and thoughts. Once the assembly has this understanding beforehand, they will not, when they later hear the part of exposition, take the meaning by the sound and fall into mistaken understanding.

So the function of this silence becomes clear: it is not a delay, it is a first adjustment of the reader’s expectation from ‘listening to a piece of knowledge’ to ‘receiving something difficult.’

The Part of Request, Two: Five Requests from Three Quarters — a Structure of Requesting Repeatedly Declined

Chengguan judges the whole stretch that follows to be “the five requests from three quarters.” The three quarters are three sets of requesters: Vimukticandra requests, the great assembly requests, the Tathāgata requests. Why must there be three quarters? He says: to show that the Dharma is deep and wondrous, and to make people hear it and understand — the foremost of the assembly comes forward to set it out, those for whom it is timely thirst and long, and the lord of the teaching himself urges it; only so is the matter complete.

The order of the three quarters also has its reason: Vimukticandra is the foremost of the assembly, and by his asking first the rest are kept from disorder; the reason the great assembly does not scramble to ask is that the earlier withholdings and requests have already raised and lowered the assembly of that hour, so that their minds are tamed; and last the Tathāgata urges the speaking, because the listeners’ reasoning has been exhausted — when people have asked to the point where there is nothing left to ask with, the Buddha comes forward.

The five requests are five sections formed by withholding and requesting multiplied together: first, the request that wonders at the silence and raises the doubt; second, the withholding that the Dharma is deep and hard to receive; third, the request that praises the assembly as fit to hear; fourth, the withholding that those unfit would be harmed; fifth, the request that praises both the persons and the Dharma. One request, one withholding; and the withholding is not a refusal — it raises the depth of the Dharma one notch higher and forces out a stronger request next time.

In the first request, Vimukticandra asks in five verses: since the merits of recollection and wisdom are complete, why is there power and yet no explanation? The whole assembly wishes to hear the wondrous meaning of the grounds, and their minds are without timidity. He praises the speaker as being without fault, and praises the listeners as being without fault, and the last verse closes with a simile — “like bees that long for good honey, like a thirsty man who longs for sweet dew.”

In the first withholding, Vajragarbha answers in five verses, and the sūtra takes particular care to state that his motive in speaking the verses is “wishing to make the assembled gathering glad at heart” — he withholds without losing kindness. He says that this matter is “the foremost of rare and difficult things,” subtle and hard to see, apart from thought and beyond the ground of mind, so that those who hear it are all bewildered; one who can hear it must “hold the mind firm as adamant, believe deeply in the surpassing wisdom of the Buddha, and know that the ground of the mind is without a self”; and he uses a simile again to show how hard it is to speak — “like painting colors in empty space, like the shape of the wind in empty space”; and the last line comes back to himself: there is no one in the world who can receive it, and therefore he is silent.

In the second request, Vimukticandra changes to prose and praises the assembly: this gathering is fully assembled, their deep minds well purified, their thoughts well cleansed, their practices well cultivated, the aids to the path well amassed, having drawn near a hundred thousand koṭis of buddhas, their merits and roots of goodness measureless, having cast off folly and doubt, their deep minds having faith and understanding, and in the Buddha’s Dharma not turned about by the instruction of another. Vasubandhu poses a question here: why does Vimukticandra praise this assembly again? The answer: because it was said earlier that those in the world who can realize and have faith are hard to find, and so it must be shown that this assembly is precisely a vessel that is able. Praising the assembly is the producing of evidence. He then states it over again in two verses.

In the second withholding, Vajragarbha grants that this assembly is indeed fit to hear, but brings out a new reason: “nevertheless there are still other sentient beings whose understanding is inferior,” who on hearing this deep matter, hard to conceive, will mostly give rise to doubt and through the long night undergo every kind of ruin and harm — I have pity on these people, and therefore I am silent. Vasubandhu puts it precisely: Vajragarbha, having taken in the pure merits of the assembly that Vimukticandra praised, still does not see, with respect to the Dharma to be spoken, a vessel for it. His two verses distinguish the two parties very clearly: this assembly is of minds “unshaken like the king of mountains, not to be overturned like the great ocean”; whereas those others are ones “whose practice is not long, whose understanding is not yet gained, who follow consciousness in their course and do not follow wisdom.” So the object of this withholding is not the assembly in front of him at all — withholding and requesting are not opposed.

In the third request, Vimukticandra brings out the most forceful piece of reasoning: when the ten grounds are spoken, the dharma of all bodhisattvas ought to be thus, and they gain the protective mindfulness of the Buddha; and because they gain that protective mindfulness, they can give rise to a valiant mind toward this ground of wisdom. In other words, the fear that people will doubt and fall into the evil destinies is exactly the thing that the buddhas’ protective mindfulness takes care of. Then he uses that famous simile: in the writing of letters and the reckoning of numbers, all of it takes the letters as its root and the letters as its end, and there is not the least part of it apart from the letters; and all the teachings of the Buddha are likewise, all taking the ten grounds as their root, and when the ten grounds are ultimately cultivated and accomplished, omniscience is gained. This simile lifts the ten grounds from ‘a table of stages’ to ‘the alphabet of the Buddha’s teaching’ — not to speak the ten grounds is not to teach the letters. Vasubandhu also poses a question here: why must the request be repeated? Because the doubt cannot be avoided, and not to speak would have many faults.

The fourth withholding has already been given above, and the fifth request is uttered by the whole assembly of great bodhisattvas with one voice at one time: they praise his wisdom, praise his eloquence, praise their own upright minds gathered by concentration and the precepts and free of conceit and wrong views, and they raise four similes in a row — like a thirsty man longing for cool water, like a hungry man longing for fine food, like a sick man calling to mind good medicine, like bees craving good honey. From one person’s request to the whole assembly requesting with one voice, the pressure of the situation leaves nothing further to push back against.

The third request closes with verses. The first of them — “Excellent, son of the Buddha, may you set forth the practice of the grounds that head into awakening! Of all the masterful lords of the ten directions, there is none who does not hold in protective mindfulness this root of wisdom” — shifts the reason for the request from ‘the assembly is already pure’ to the buddhas of the ten directions holding this root of wisdom in protective mindfulness, so that the burden of the speaking moves from the single speaker onto what the buddhas jointly allow. The second — “This wisdom in which one abides is likewise ultimate, the place from which all the teachings of the Buddha are born; just as writing and reckoning are gathered up by the letters, so too do the teachings of the Buddha rest upon the grounds” — restates the case with the simile of writing, reckoning, and the letters: the letters gather up all writing and reckoning, the grounds gather up all the teachings of the Buddha.

The Part of Request, Three: The Tathāgata Requests the Dharma with Light

By this point the people have asked all they can ask. So the World-Honored One comes forward himself — but not to speak; he sends out light. From between his brows issues a pure light named “the bright flame of a bodhisattva’s power,” with a hundred thousand asaṃkhyeyas of lights as its retinue, universally illumining the ten directions, and the suffering of the three evil destinies is all brought to rest; it illumines moreover the gathered assemblies of all the tathāgatas, and illumines the bodies of the Dharma-preaching bodhisattvas empowered by all the buddhas of the ten directions; and when these deeds are done, it forms into a terrace of the net of clouds of great light in the space above and remains there. The buddhas of the ten directions likewise send forth light, the name of the light, its retinue, and its work all the same, and they illumine as well the buddha and the great assembly of this Sahā world, and the body and the lion seat of Vajragarbha.

Vasubandhu poses a question here: why does the Tathāgata manifest his spiritual power and send forth light to join in the request? His answer points out the joint of the matter — the Tathāgata had earlier given the empowerment of mind, but not yet that of body or of speech, unlike the other buddhas, and so at this point he makes it up with light. Chengguan for his part judges this stretch to be the third of the three quarters, “the Tathāgata’s request.” That the Buddha requests without opening his mouth is the most rewarding stroke in the whole passage: whether or not a Dharma ought to be spoken is settled in the end by the lord of the teaching, and the lord of the teaching signifies his intent with light.

Within the terrace of light, by the majestic spiritual power of the buddhas, five verses are then spoken: the first praises the Buddha as without peer yet equal to space, his ten powers measureless; the second urges directly, “Son of the Buddha, you should receive the power of the buddhas and open this most surpassing treasury of the Dharma King”; the third states the benefit of receiving the Dharma — if one is empowered by the power of the Well-Gone One, one will gain the jewel of the Dharma entering one’s mind, and the grounds, stainless, are fulfilled in due order; the fourth judges who is fit to receive and who is not — though one dwell amid the waters of the ocean or the fire at the kalpa’s end, whoever is able to receive this Dharma will surely get to hear it, while those who doubt and do not believe will never get to hear such a meaning; the fifth concludes by urging what ought to be spoken: entering, dwelling, and cultivating in turn and in due order, the wisdom of the Dharma born from practice and its objects, for the benefit of all sentient beings. The fourth verse in particular deserves attention: the “ones who give rise to doubt” whom Vajragarbha was worried about are here acknowledged by the Buddha — they will indeed not get to hear it; but that does not constitute a reason for not speaking. The worry and the urging are here resolved.

The Part of Request, Four: The Twelve Verses of Consent — First Making Clear How Hard It Is to Speak

Vajragarbha at last consents to speak, yet he does not begin at once; he first surveys the ten directions, and then speaks twelve verses. Vasubandhu asks: why does he survey the ten directions? The answer: to show that he is without conceit and without partiality of mind. Chengguan judges these twelve verses into two sections: the first seven display the greatness of the meaning, the last five make clear the greatness of the speaking — first how great is the meaning that is spoken, then how great is the speaking that can speak it.

The first seven verses speak of the substance of the grounds: the path of the Tathāgata, the great sage, is subtle and hard to know, not an object of thought and apart from all thoughts, and though one wish to see it, it cannot be found; it is without arising and without ceasing, its nature pure and constantly still; its own nature is from the first empty and still, without duality and without exhaustion, gaining liberation in the destinies and dwelling in equality in nirvāṇa; it is neither beginning, nor middle, nor end, not what words can set forth, passing beyond the three times, its mark like space; stillness and cessation are what the Buddha practices and speech cannot reach so far — and “the practice of the grounds is likewise, hard to set forth and hard to receive.” Then a step further: wisdom gives rise to the realm of a buddha, which is not an object of thought and is apart from the path of the mind, and which is “not encompassed by the gates of the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-fields” — it is not a realm that can be framed by the five aggregates, the eighteen elements, and the twelve sense-fields. The section closes with a simile: “like the track of a bird in the sky, hard to set forth and hard to point out,” and so it is with the meaning of the ten grounds, which mind and thought cannot fathom.

Then comes the crucial turn: kindness and compassion together with the power of vows give birth to the practice that heads into the grounds, and step by step the mind is fulfilled — the practice of the grounds, though no field of deliberation, is nevertheless something that grows out of kindness, compassion, and vows. So it is not that there is no gate by which to enter; it is only that one does not enter by the gate of conceiving and deliberating.

The last five verses speak about the “speaking” itself: this field is hard to see, it “may be realized and known but cannot be told” — it can be realized and known, but not conveyed in words; and yet “through the power of the Buddha it is set forth, and you should receive it reverently.” That being so, the speaker’s attitude is settled too: koṭis of kalpas would not exhaust the telling, and “I now speak of it only in summary”; and speaking in summary loses nothing of the truth, because “of the true meaning nothing is left out.” He asks the listeners to wait single-mindedly and reverently, and states what he relies upon — “while I speak, borne by the power of the Buddha”; and the last verse gathers the sense of empowerment back to the beginning: “The spiritual powers of measureless buddhas all come and enter into my body; this field is hard to display, and I now speak of only a small portion.”

Here the whole opening ends, and the next sentence enters the first ground. Looking back, this whole stretch has really done just one thing: it has taken the matter of ‘the ten grounds can be spoken’ and pushed it, by way of silence, declining, requesting again, and the sending forth of light, all the way to ‘borne by the power of the Buddha, I speak a small portion’ — the speaker has never once made this Dharma his own.

A Reading in the Mirror of Consciousness-Only: The Names of the Ten Grounds, from Which Both Lines Alike Issue

This passage carries a particular weight for the consciousness-only line, because the list of the names of the ten grounds appears here first in the whole great sūtra (the closing statement of the Dharma-Cloud Ground at the end of the chapter and the simile of the ten mountain kings run through the ten names again), and the stages of the ten grounds spoken of in the treatises of that line take their names from here.

The Cheng weishi lun, in setting out the ten surpassing practices, the ten heavy obstructions, and the ten kinds of suchness, first raises the names of the ten grounds, giving the first ground as “the Ground of Utmost Joy” and explaining it as first gaining the nature of a noble one, fully realizing the two emptinesses, and being able to benefit both self and others, whence great joy arises — which is the same ground under two renderings as this passage’s “the first is the Joyful Ground.” The She dacheng lun likewise heads its ten grounds with “the Ground of Utmost Joy” and explains ground by ground the reason for each name. The Yuqie shidi lun joins the passage from another direction: it subsumes the bodhisattva stages under thirteen abodes, and at the abode of utmost joy it states of itself that “what the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds extensively sets forth as the bodhisattva’s ten grounds” is precisely the abode here — using the framework of the thirteen abodes to hold the list of the ten grounds; and its Section of Ascertainment quotes further the question of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara from the Jieshenmi jing, listing the names of the grounds Utmost Joy, Stainless, Luminous, Flaming-Wisdom.

Two things are to be noted. First, the Xuanzang line translates “Utmost Joy” and this sūtra translates “Joyful”: two names for the same ground in different renderings, and both are recorded without judgment between them. Second, what is genuinely inherited by the consciousness-only line out of this passage is the “names,” and the definition ‘the substance of a ground is the place where wisdom dwells’ — not the narrative of the five requests from three quarters; the scene of requesting the teaching belongs to the shape of one sūtra and one assembly, and the treatises do not take it up. That Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun explains this narrative clause by clause is exactly why it became the source of the outlines of the Huayan commentators: the Huayan line takes its outline from the treatise, the consciousness-only line takes its names from the sūtra, each taking what it needs, and both alike issuing from this one passage.

Lineage

The carrying forward of this passage runs along two lines. On the Huayan line: the eight parts of the first ground established by Vasubandhu were taken over by Chengguan and opened out into ten sections each possessing the eight parts, becoming the skeleton of the outline of the Ten Grounds chapter of the Avataṃsaka; and Chengguan further opened the part of request into the five requests from three quarters and the five sections of withholding and requesting multiplied together. Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, judges it otherwise with respect to the teaching in three divisions, taking the part of the preface as the introductory preface, the part of samādhi as the main body of realization, and the part of empowerment onward as the dissemination — which runs almost along the same track as Chengguan’s words, “the part of the preface is the preface, and the part of samādhi is the main body”; the wording of the two commentaries in this passage is close to identical, and which came first and which follows is recorded without a judgment. Li Tongxuan takes a third road, not entering by way of the eight parts at all, but taking the universally luminous wisdom of the Tathāgata as the substance of the grounds and the completion of the thirty minds before the grounds as the reason for this chapter’s coming — the track of symbolic import and the track of the outline run side by side, both are the settled accounts of the ancient worthies, and they are recorded without judging one above the other.

On the consciousness-only line: the list of the names of the ten grounds in this passage is inherited alike by the Cheng weishi lun, the She dacheng lun, and the Yuqie shidi lun, and each restates it within its own school’s system of stages — the ten grounds become the shared spine of both schools. An opening that speaks of not one single ground is at the same time the source of the Huayan outline and the root of the consciousness-only stages of practice; and one who reads the Ten Grounds chapter and skips it has skipped exactly the place where these two streams meet.

Where Is the Line Between Ordinary and Noble Actually Crossed?

Everyone asks how long the path of practice is; few ask where exactly the threshold between an ordinary person and a noble one is crossed. The ten grounds are the ladder of the bodhisattva’s noble positions, and the Joyful Ground is the first rung — and what this ground has to answer is precisely the matter of “entering the noble state” itself: what kind of mind it is that crosses over, and what has happened inside the one who has crossed.

The sūtra opens by counting off a long string of “wells”: roots of goodness deeply planted, the various practices well cultivated, the aids to the path well amassed, offerings well made to the buddhas, the pure and immaculate dharmas well amassed, being taken in by good friends, the deep mind pure — this is the store of provisions, the road that lies before the threshold. Then ten clauses of “for the sake of” are laid out in a row: for the sake of seeking the wisdom of a buddha, of gaining the ten powers, of gaining great fearlessness, of rescuing all the world … on up to turning the great wheel of Dharma without fear. Chengguan judges the reason for the coming of this assembly bluntly: what the earlier assemblies made clear was understanding, practice, and vow, and there the causes of the worthy stages come to an end; from here on it is “wisdom merging with suchness, the fruit of the position of a noble one established” — the earlier is the path of instruction, this is the path of realization. However well one cultivates the three worthy stages, one is still outside the door; this one step is the difference between inside the door and out.

The Moment This Mind Arises, One Is Born into the Family of the Tathāgata

What is that moment of crossing over? The sūtra’s answer comes with unexpected speed: “The moment the bodhisattva gives rise to a mind such as this, he passes beyond the stage of the ordinary person, enters the position of a bodhisattva, and is born into the family of the Tathāgata.” The moment this mind is raised, the stage of the ordinary person has already been passed. It does not count only once the cultivating is finished; it is at the very instant of raising the mind that the position is entered.

But one must see clearly what this “mind” is. The sūtra gives it four qualifiers: great compassion as its forerunner, wisdom preeminent in it, skillful means embracing it, the highest deep mind upholding it — compassion at the very front, wisdom as master, and for its measure, “vast as the Dharma realm, ultimate as space, reaching to the end of the future.” This is not a single good thought; it is a mind with the whole Dharma realm placed inside it. Precisely because the measure of this mind is the same as the Tathāgata’s, it is said that one is “born into the family of the Tathāgata”: from now on one is a son of the Buddha’s house, one’s lineage without blemish, and within the lineage of the Tathāgata destined to attain unsurpassed awakening. Dwelling in a dharma such as this is what is called dwelling on the Joyful Ground — and the clause the sūtra adds is the most important of all: “because he is in accord with the unshakable.” The mark of having entered the position of a noble one is not excitement but immovability: resolve and delight that cannot be moved, like a great king of mountains.

Li Tongxuan reads a further layer into this passage: this sentence, that the moment such a mind is raised one is born into the family of the Tathāgata, is word for word the same as what is said of the abode of the first raising of the mind among the ten abodes — what is ridden upon at the first raising of the mind and what is realized on the first ground have one and the same wisdom of the Tathāgata as their substance. On this basis the expositor of symbolic meaning holds that the first ground takes in the abode of the first raising of the mind together with itself: the raising of the mind and the realizing entry are the head and tail of one and the same thing.

Where Does the Joy Come From?

The name “Joyful” is the easiest thing here to read shallowly. The sūtra itself counts this joy off in two rounds: first ten clauses of “much” — much joy, much pure faith, much delight, much gladness, much rejoicing, much exultation, much valor, much freedom from contention, much freedom from harming, much freedom from anger; and then ten clauses of “because he recollects … joy arises” — because he recollects the buddhas, because he recollects the Dharma of the buddhas, because he recollects the bodhisattvas … on up to because he recollects entering the wisdom and skillful means of all tathāgatas. Vasubandhu explains how this ground gets its name and gathers it all into one sentence: because he perfects the unsurpassed practice of benefiting himself and benefiting others, and on first realizing the place of a noble one much joy is born. Chengguan, following the treatise, opens this out further into three joys: the delight of the mind that enters contemplation is joy of mind; the joyful feeling that accompanies coming out of contemplation is joy of the substance; joy filling one within and reaching outward to the five faculties as ease and harmony is joy of the faculties — a joy so full that even the bodily faculties are brought into harmony, and therefore this joy is also called bliss. Fazang, for his part, opens out three senses: the two benefits are for the first time brought about, the true principle is for the first time realized, the position of a noble one is newly gained — what one had been seeking all along was just this, and now the mind’s original expectation is fulfilled, and so joy is born.

But the deepest layer of this joy the sūtra states by way of “leaving the five fears.” The fear of not making a living, the fear of a bad reputation, the fear of death, the fear of the evil destinies, the fear of the majesty of the assembly — the five fears at the bottom of the human heart fall away all at once for the one who gains this ground. Why do they fall away? The sūtra’s reasoning is perfectly clean: “because this bodhisattva has left the notion of self behind.” He does not cherish his own body, how much less his goods, so he does not fear being unable to live; he seeks no offerings but only gives to others, so he does not fear a bad reputation; he is free of the view of a self and has no notion of a self, so he does not fear death; he knows for himself that after death he will not be parted from the buddhas and bodhisattvas, so he does not fear the evil destinies; in resolve and delight nothing in the world is his equal, so he fears no assembly’s imposing power. Trace all five fears to their root and it is one and the same “self” that is doing the fearing; once the notion of self is gone, fear has nothing to attach to. So the joy of the first ground turns out not to be the excitement of having got something; it is the ease that comes of having set “self” down — the gladness of someone who will never again be afraid.

The Ten Great Vows: Vowing All the Way to Where Nothing Can Be Exhausted

The first great matter after coming to dwell on the ground is making vows. The ten great vows are laid out in a row: to make offerings to all the buddhas, to receive and uphold the Dharma of all buddhas, to serve all the buddhas, to practice the two benefits, to ripen sentient beings, to serve the Dharma realm (vowing that wisdom shall know through and through the measureless worlds differentiated like Indra’s net), to adorn and purify the buddha-lands, to be of one mind and one practice with all bodhisattvas, that the three kinds of action not be in vain (whoever sees or hears him is benefited, as by the great king of medicine trees, as by a wish-fulfilling jewel), and to attain perfect awakening at every hair’s tip at one and the same time. Every one of them closes with the same refrain: vast as the Dharma realm, ultimate as space, to the end of the future through all the numbers of kalpas, without ceasing.

How large must a vow be before it counts? The sūtra turns the matter over once more: these ten vows are perfected by means of the “ten clauses of exhaustion” — were the realm of sentient beings to be exhausted, only then would my vow be exhausted; were the realm of worlds, and on down to the realm of the turning of the world, the turning of Dharma, and the turning of wisdom, to be exhausted, only then would my vow be exhausted. And the realm of sentient beings cannot be exhausted, and so “the roots of goodness of this great vow of mine have no exhausting.” This anchors the measure of the vow in inexhaustibility: not ‘I will do my best,’ but ‘unless beings can be delivered to the last one, there is no day on which this vow stops.’ Once a vow is made in this way it is no longer a thought in someone’s mind but a track as long-lived as the Dharma realm.

And the deepest doctrinal set of numbers in the Huayan school is hidden inside the fourth vow. The text of the vow says that the bodhisattva’s practice has “the characteristic of the whole, the characteristic of the parts, the characteristic of sameness, the characteristic of difference, the characteristic of formation, the characteristic of disintegration” — the scriptural ground for the very names of the six characteristics is right here. Vasubandhu in the treatise explains them one by one: “the whole is the root entry, the parts are the remaining nine entries,” sameness by way of entering, difference by way of the aspect of increase, formation by way of speaking summarily, disintegration by way of speaking at length, “as a world is formed and disintegrates.” The perfect interfusion of the six characteristics of the later Huayan school — one is all and all are one, the whole not obstructing the parts, each bringing the other about — has its seed in just these six words. Chengguan, commenting on the passage of the ten vows, points it out without hedging: within a single vow all vows are complete, entering one within another layer upon layer; “the perfect interfusion of the six characteristics lies precisely in this text.” The “net of Indra” in the sixth vow is an eye of the same kind: the jeweled net of Śakra’s heaven, jewel reflecting jewel, image holding image — later ages take Indra’s net to state the ten mysteries without end, and the place within the chapter from which that simile comes is the text of the vows of the bodhisattva of the first ground. To put it another way: the most profound doctrine of interfusion in Huayan was not spun out of abstract talk; it grew out of the vowing mind of the first ground.

From Vow to Practice: Giving Leads the Way, Gold Refined in Fire

The vows have been made; where does practice begin? The sūtra’s order is plain. The bodhisattva looks and sees that ordinary people “with the wind of rage and hatred fan the fire of mind and consciousness,” that name and form give rise to one another, that “in the field of the three realms there sprout once more the shoots of suffering,” that the twelve links hook one into the next, and that sentient beings in the mass of suffering neither realize nor know it — seeing this, he gives rise to the wisdom of great compassion and the bright wisdom of great kindness. Once compassion and kindness have arisen, the first gate of practice is relinquishing: wealth and grain and storehouses, gold and silver and maṇi jewels, cities and settlements, wives and retinue, and on down to head and eyes, hands and feet, blood and flesh and bone and marrow — “all of it he is able to give.” Hence among the ten perfections of the first ground the dāna-pāramitā is preeminent — it is not that the remaining nine are not cultivated, but that they are cultivated according to strength and share. Giving leads the way not because it is the loftiest but because it stands in the most direct relation to “leaving the notion of self behind”: to be willing to let go is the plainest exercise there is in no-self.

From relinquishing he proceeds to making offerings to the buddhas, transforming beings, hearing the Dharma, and perfecting wisdom; and the sūtra draws the characteristics of practice on this ground together in a simile: it is like a goldsmith refining gold, putting it into the fire again and again, so that it turns ever brighter and purer, becomes pliant and accomplished, and is fit for use as he wishes. Roots of goodness are not refined in a single firing; making offerings to the buddhas and teaching and transforming sentient beings — each round is another entry into the fire. This simile will come back on the later grounds, the heat deepening ground by ground; the first ground is only the first entry into the fire, and the gold has just begun to shine.

One further simile draws together the range of vision of this ground: a caravan leader who wishes to bring his company of merchants to a great city first asks, before setting out, whether the road is perilous or easy and lays in ample provisions, and then brings the whole company there safely. A bodhisattva dwelling on the first ground inquires accordingly about the characteristics and fruits of the second ground and on to the tenth, knows well the obstructions of the grounds and their antidotes and the advance from ground to ground, and then leads all sentient beings through the wilderness of birth and death to “arrive safely at the city of Sarvajñā” — the city of omniscience. This is what is most moving about the bodhisattva of the first ground: he has only just set foot on the first rung, and already his eyes hold the whole ladder and the city at the ladder’s end.

When practice is full the fruit appears: a bodhisattva of this ground mostly becomes a king of Jambudvīpa and gathers in sentient beings by great giving; and if he leaves the household and practices with vigor, then in the space of a single thought he gains a hundred samādhis, sees a hundred buddhas, shakes a hundred worlds, and transforms the sentient beings of a hundred worlds — “a hundred” is the measure of this ground, and it broadens ground by ground thereafter. And whether he stays in the household or leaves it, in all that he does he is “never apart from the recollection of the Buddha, never apart from the recollection of the Dharma, never apart from the recollection of the Saṅgha,” and on up to never being apart from the recollection of the wisdom of omniscience — a person on the Joyful Ground may do anything at all, but the thread in his heart stays tied to the Buddha.

Reading Alongside the Consciousness-Only Mirror: The Ground of Utmost Joy Is the Path of Seeing

In the consciousness-only line this ground has a stricter name: the Ground of Utmost Joy. Explaining this ground, the Cheng weishi lun says that “because he first obtains the nature of a noble one, fully realizes the two emptinesses, and is able to benefit himself and others, great joy is born” — which fixes the content of “joy” with great precision: the first realizing of the suchness of the two emptinesses, the first obtaining of the nature of a noble one, and this moment, within the stages of consciousness-only practice, is exactly the “path of seeing.” The Jieshenmi jing says, “from the first, the Ground of Utmost Joy, it is called penetrating understanding”; the Cheng weishi lun, treating the path of seeing, states that one is “born into the family of the Tathāgata, dwells on the Ground of Utmost Joy, penetrates the Dharma realm well, and attains all the equalities,” which answers sentence for sentence to this chapter’s “enters the position of a bodhisattva, is born into the family of the Tathāgata”; and the seeds of the afflictive obstruction and the cognitive obstruction that arise from discrimination are first cut off precisely here, on the path of seeing of this ground — this is the exact counterpart, on the side of cutting off delusion, of “leaving the five fears”: once the discriminated view of self is cut off, the fears that stand upon that view can come away at the root. Vasubandhu composed the Shidi jing lun as a phrase-by-phrase explanation of this chapter, and the Bodhisattva Stage of the Yuqie shidi lun sets up the “abode of utmost joy” as the counterpart of this ground — the Joyful Ground of Huayan and the path of seeing of consciousness-only are two descriptions of one and the same threshold: the one speaks of the state of mind and the measure of the vow of the person inside the door, the other of what is cut off and what is realized in the step across it. Only when the two mirrors are set facing each other does the full weight of this ground become visible.

Lineage

The text of this ground was carried forward along two lines. On the Huayan side: the names of the six characteristics in the fourth vow — the characteristic of the whole, the characteristic of the parts, the characteristic of sameness, the characteristic of difference, the characteristic of formation, the characteristic of disintegration — passing through Vasubandhu’s explanation in the treatise, were singled out by Zhiyan and Fazang and grew into the doctrine of the perfect interfusion of the six characteristics; and Indra’s net of the sixth vow grew into the simile of the ten mysteries without end — the whole discourse of the interfused Dharma realm in Fazang’s school has its scriptural ground rooted here. On the consciousness-only side: Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun is the phrase-by-phrase explanation of this chapter; the She dacheng lun’s identification of entry into the Ground of Utmost Joy with the path of seeing, the Cheng weishi lun’s account of the ten grounds cutting off the ten obstructions and realizing the ten kinds of suchness, and the correlation of the Bodhisattva Stage of the Yuqie shidi lun’s abode of utmost joy — all of these are argued upon the stages of the ten grounds of this chapter. The text of a single chapter flowed east into the interfusion of Huayan and west into the stages of practice of consciousness-only — the joy of the first ground is the very spring from which both rivers rise.

Why the Name Is “Stainless” and Not “Keeping the Precepts”

Among the ten grounds, the second is the ground of the precepts. Since it is the ground of the precepts, why is it not named ‘the ground of keeping the precepts’ but ‘the Stainless Ground’? This one question is the very gate through which this ground is read.

The answer lies in a single word of the sūtra. The sūtra speaks of the ten courses of good action, and crowns the first nine of them with the word “by nature,” the tenth reading “and he leaves wrong views behind” — “by his very nature he leaves all killing far behind,” “by his very nature he does not steal,” “by his very nature he speaks no falsehood,” and on to “by his very nature he leaves ill will far behind.” “Nature” here means one’s own nature, one’s own substance. It is not that one has received the precepts and thereafter holds to them without transgressing; it is that the very thing able to transgress is no longer there. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun, citing the sūtra of this ground, gives as its overall heading the one line “by his own nature he has accomplished the ten courses of good action”; and Chengguan, explaining the name of the ground in accordance with the treatise, says that what is left behind on this ground is “the stain of the affliction that is able to give rise to a mistaken mind and to the breaking of the precepts” — the stain is not the deed transgressed, it is the affliction that can make a person transgress by mistake. Once the stain of affliction is left behind, the substance of the precepts is pure of itself, and so the name Stainless is established.

From this Chengguan opens out three senses: the first is the leaving behind of causes, the leaving behind of the affliction that is able to give rise to mistaken transgression; the second is the leaving behind of resultant conduct, the leaving behind of the evil deeds of breaking the precepts; the third is the leaving behind by way of counteragent, the full possession of pure precepts. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji has the same three senses, though the order in which he sets them out differs a little, and after the three senses he adds one further line — on this ground even “mistaken transgression” has already been left behind, and so there is nothing left for words to be applied to. Li Tongxuan, for his part, does not follow the treatise’s three ways of leaving behind, but judges directly that what is cured on this ground is the ten courses of good action of the very highest grade, and that the precepts of the ten courses of good action of the very highest grade are precisely the nature-precepts of the dharma-body: the substance of the precepts lies not in the particulars of conduct but in the wondrous principle of the dharma-body, whose substance is stainless from the first, and hence the name Stainless. What the three houses establish each has its own rule; here they are recorded, and no judgment is passed between them.

One common misunderstanding is to be set right: “stainless” does not mean ‘the precepts are no longer needed.’ From beginning to end the sūtra is speaking of the characteristics of the ten courses of good action, and speaking of them in more detail than on any other ground — precisely because the substance of the precepts is already pure, the characteristics of the ten courses of good action can be set out with such ease. Brought down to the ground it comes to a single sentence: the accomplishment of the precepts lies not in gritting one’s teeth and not transgressing, but in the mind able to transgress having dissolved first.

The Ten Minds for Entering the Ground: Not Ten Slogans but a Threshold

The sūtra opens not with the precepts but with the mind: a bodhisattva who has already cultivated the first ground and wishes to enter the second “ought to give rise to ten kinds of deep mind.” These ten minds are the gate for entering the ground — Vasubandhu judges them to be the “purity of what gives rise,” the aspect that gives rise to pure precepts, standing over against the “purity of the substance itself” that follows. There must first be a mind-ground such as this before the nature-precepts can be born from it.

The names of the ten minds are: the upright mind, the pliant mind, the capable mind, the tamed mind, the quiescent mind, the purely good mind, the unmixed mind, the mind without regard or attachment, the vast mind, and the great mind. These ten are not a list of virtues set side by side; they are a single line running from coarse to fine: upright is a mind that is not crooked; pliant is neither hard nor contentious; capable is able to bear the burden; tamed is having the sense-gates brought under cure; quiescent is not being agitated; purely good is being without admixture of evil; unmixed is not having some other aim mingled in; without regard or attachment is not turning back to hold onto anything; and vast and great are measure. The first eight speak of quality, the last two of measure — where the quality is not pure the precepts are a forced thing, and where the measure is not great the precepts serve only oneself.

The sūtra gathers it up in one sentence: “By means of these ten minds the bodhisattva is able to enter the second ground, the Stainless Ground.” Note the order of cause and effect here: it is not that one has these ten minds because one has entered the ground, but that one gives rise to these ten minds and thereby gets to enter the ground. Hence these ten minds can be cultivated even by someone who has not yet reached the second ground — they are precisely the place where an ordinary person can lay a hand. Brought down to the ground: ask yourself why it is hard to mend a transgression of the precepts, and it will mostly turn out to be not that the rule is hard to keep, but that one of these ten minds is missing.

The Ten Courses of Good Action (1): No Killing · No Stealing · No Sexual Misconduct

On this ground the ten courses of good action are not ten prohibitions but ten ways of “by nature leaving far behind.” Vasubandhu explains every one of them with the same framework: the leaving behind of causes, the leaving behind by way of counteragent, and the leaving behind of resultant conduct — first the cause able to transgress is cut off, then the direct counteragent is set up, and finally neither the coarse nor the fine of such conduct arises at all. Once this framework is understood, all ten branches are understood together.

No killing. The sūtra says “he keeps no knives or clubs, he harbors no enmity or hatred, he has a sense of shame and a sense of dread, he is fully endowed with benevolence and forbearance” — knives and clubs are the outer conditions of killing, enmity and hatred its inner cause, shame and dread together with benevolence and forbearance the inner guard; the treatise judges these four clauses to be the leaving behind of causes. Toward those that have life he “constantly gives rise to a mind of benefit and of kindly thought,” which the treatise judges to be the leaving behind by way of counteragent. And “he does not even vex sentient beings with an evil mind — how much less would he form the notion of a sentient being about another and then deliberately, with weighty intent, carry out killing and harm” is the leaving behind of resultant conduct: from a single evil thought at the finest, to weighty intent doing harm at the coarsest, none of it arises. What most needs to be seen here is the order: first the knives and clubs and the enmity are taken away, and only then can the mind of kindness stand firm; once the mind of kindness stands firm, evil thoughts do not arise of themselves. And one misunderstanding is to be set right: not killing is not simply not raising a hand — the sūtra counts “vexing sentient beings with an evil mind” as belonging here too.

No stealing. The cause lies in the sense of lack that arises from one’s own goods being insufficient, and so the place where the sūtra applies the counteragent is “constantly knowing how to stop and be content”; a further layer in is “toward others he is kind and forbearing, with no wish to encroach upon them or bring them loss,” which is the other face of the mind of giving. The leaving behind of resultant conduct is then fine to the utmost: “if a thing belongs to another, he forms the notion that it is another’s, and in the end he does not give rise to a thief’s mind toward that thing — down to a single blade of grass or a single leaf, if it is not given he does not take it, how much less the remaining articles that support life.” Not taking a single blade of grass or leaf unless it is given is a measuring rod — and the rod is this fine because what is being measured is not the size of the thing but the presence or absence of the mind.

No sexual misconduct. The sūtra’s leaving behind of causes is “content with his own wife,” and the counteragent is “does not seek the wife of another”; the objects listed as not to be transgressed against are of four kinds: the wives and concubines of others, women whom others guard, those whose betrothal has already been settled by a go-between among their kinfolk, and those who are guarded by the Dharma (such as those who have received the precepts and cultivate the pure practice). And the leaving behind of resultant conduct is “he does not even give rise to a mind of greedy defilement — how much less would he actually engage in the act! How much less by what is not the way!” — three levels of advance: the mind does not even arise, how much less the act, how much less what is not the way. The fineness of the precepts of a bodhisattva on this ground lies just here: not that he does not transgress, but that that single thought does not arise.

The Ten Courses of Good Action (2): The Four Faults of Speech

Of the ten courses of good action, four belong to speech, and the sūtra sets these out in the greatest detail. In this bodhisattva, “among the four means of gathering, kind speech is preeminent,” and that is precisely because he has left these four faults of speech behind — Chengguan and Fazang point to the same meaning: because the four faults of the mouth are left behind, kind speech is preeminent. This is one of the neatest relations of cause and effect on this ground.

No false speech. The positive aspect in the sūtra is “he constantly speaks words that are true, words that are real, and words that are timely.” Vasubandhu explains these three: words that are true are spoken in accordance with what is thought, mind and mouth not at odds; words that are real (the sūtra text of the treatise has “veracious words”) are well weighed and match the matter; words that are timely are spoken at their proper time, so as to bring no decline or vexation to oneself or another — lacking any one of the three, it does not count as truthful speech. The leaving behind of resultant conduct then reaches into dreams: “even in a dream he cannot bear to make a speech that covers something over — he has no mind to do it, how much less to transgress deliberately.” A dream is the fine, deliberate transgression the coarse; Vasubandhu explains this very passage by taking the dream as the fine aspect and the doer as the coarse aspect. Brought down to the ground: the breach in one’s speech mostly lies not in telling lies but in “covering over” — screening a thing off, letting it pass in a blur, which is exactly what the sūtra singles out by name.

No divisive speech. The sūtra sets out a whole string of clauses: no mind that would set beings at odds, no mind that would vex or harm; not taking the words of this side and speaking them to that side in order to break that side, nor taking the words of that side and speaking them to this side in order to break this side; what has not been broken apart he does not let be broken, what has already been broken apart he does not let grow; he does not delight in setting at odds, does not take pleasure in setting at odds, does not make speech that sets at odds, does not utter speech that sets at odds — and then adds the fiercest clause of all: “whether it be true or not true.” Even if the divisive words are true, he does not speak them. This one clause draws the line between divisive speech and right speech: the standard lies not in whether the words are true or false, but in whether the intent behind the speaking is to break the concord of others.

No harsh speech. The sūtra uses two long strings of names: first the casting away of seventeen kinds of evil speech (words that poison and harm, words that are coarse and rough, words that make others suffer, words that make others angry and hateful, words spoken to the face, words spoken behind the back, words that are base and evil, words that are vulgar and mean, words that are not pleasant to hear, words that displease the hearer, words of anger and rage, words that burn the heart like fire, words that knot up enmity, words that scald and vex, words that cannot be loved, words that cannot be delighted in, words that can ruin oneself and ruin others), and then the cultivating of ten kinds of good speech (words that moisten and enrich, words that are pliant, words that gladden the mind, words that are pleasant to hear, words that make the hearer rejoice, words that enter well into people’s hearts, words that are refined and well formed, words that many love, words that many take delight in, words that make body and mind leap up with gladness). Casting away and cultivating stand side by side — this is the pattern of the present branch: no harsh speech is not shutting the mouth, it is exchanging one whole language for another. Take particular note of the two items “words spoken to the face” and “words spoken behind the back”: stabbing a person to his face and speaking ill of him behind his back both belong alike to harsh speech.

No frivolous speech. What the sūtra lists here is “words weighed with care, words that are timely, words that are true, words that have meaning, words that accord with the Dharma, words that follow reason, words that are skillful in taming, words decided upon after weighing them at the proper time,” and at the end it adds a clause: “he weighs even a jest with constant care — how much less would he deliberately put forth scattered and idle words.” The root sense of frivolous speech is not ornateness but being meaningless and scattered. The standard lies in the two words “weighed with care” — whether one has taken the measure of a thing before saying it. Even a joke falls within the range of that measuring: this is the fineness of the present ground.

The Ten Courses of Good Action (3): No Covetousness · No Ill Will · Leaving Wrong Views Behind

No covetousness. The sūtra is extremely spare: “toward the goods and property of others, and toward what others use and enjoy, he gives rise to no greedy mind, does not wish for them, and does not seek them.” Three levels: giving rise to no greedy mind is the ground of the intellect, not wishing is not raising a hope, not seeking is not making a pursuit. Here lies the difference between covetousness and stealing — stealing is taking, while covetousness is only a stirring within the mind, and on this ground not even that stirring stirs.

Leaving ill will behind. On the positive side the sūtra lists six minds: a mind of kindness, a mind of benefit, a mind of pity, a mind of joy, a mind that is harmonious and enriching, a mind that gathers in; on the negative side three things cast away forever: anger and hatred, enmity and harm, and scalding vexation; and at the end it comes home to conduct: “he constantly thinks to act in accord with reason, benevolently and kindly aiding and benefiting others.” The counteragent to anger is not patience but the exchanging of the mind for kindness — patience presses down, kindness turns around. This is also where the present branch differs most from what the world calls self-cultivation.

Leaving wrong views behind. The sūtra lists four aspects: “abiding on the right path, not practicing divination, not taking up evil precepts, upright both in mind and in view, without deceit and without flattery,” and closes with one clause: “he gives rise to settled faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha.” The counteragent to the branch of wrong views comes to rest, of all places, upon settled faith in the three jewels — which shows that the tenth branch of the ten courses of good action is not a matter of being correct in what one knows, but of whether that in which one takes refuge is the right one. Divination and evil precepts (prohibitions not in accord with the Dharma) are named precisely because they are marks of ‘what one relies upon not being right.’ With this the ten branches have been fully set forth, and these ten branches are what Vasubandhu judges to be the “purity of the precepts of leaving behind,” which is to say the precepts of restraint among the three groups of pure precepts of later times.

Cultivating Oneself and Urging Others: Once a Dharma of Goodness Is Established It Has Two Faces

The ten courses of good action having been set forth, the sūtra makes a turn: the bodhisattva “guards and upholds the ten courses of good action in this way, constantly and without interruption,” and then gives rise to a thought — of all sentient beings that fall into the evil destinies there is not one who does so otherwise than by the ten courses of evil action, and therefore “I ought to cultivate right conduct myself, and also to urge others on, causing them to cultivate right conduct.” And a reason is appended: “if one cannot oneself practice right conduct and yet would cause others to practice it, there is no such possibility.”

This passage is the pivot of the whole ground. Cultivating oneself and urging others are not two matters set side by side but a sequence: if one does not cultivate oneself, urging others has no effect. Turned the other way about, if cultivating oneself does not turn outward into urging others, then the precepts too remain merely at restraint. After this one thought, the sūtra passes from the “purity of the precepts of leaving behind” into the “purity of the precepts of gathering in the dharmas of goodness” — this is where Vasubandhu’s outline turns. Brought down to the ground: to judge which layer one’s own keeping of the precepts has stopped at, look at whether this thought has arisen.

One and the Same Ten Courses of Good Action, Five Fruits: The Ten Courses of Good Action Leap from Human and Heavenly Goodness into the Common Cause of the Five Vehicles

What follows is the most open passage of this ground. The bodhisattva gives rise to a thought and considers the fruits of the ten courses of good action.

First the general cause is stated. “The ten courses of evil action are the cause of taking birth in the hells, among animals, and among hungry ghosts; the ten courses of good action are the cause of taking birth among humans, among gods, and on up to the Peak of Existence.” This is the worldly fruit of the ten courses of good action — reaching up to the Peak of Existence (the highest place of birth in the three realms), it is still within the three realms. If it went no further than this, the ten courses of good action would be no more than human and heavenly goodness.

Then the sūtra turns over four layers, and all four begin from the same clause: “furthermore, these ten courses of good action of the highest grade.” The ten courses of good action of the highest grade being the same, the fruits are altogether different because the measure of mind differs.

The first becomes the śrāvaka vehicle: cultivated with wisdom, yet “because the mind is narrow and inferior, because there is dread of the three realms, because great compassion is lacking, because understanding comes only after hearing the sound of another’s voice” — these four clauses of “because” are exactly the marks of a śrāvaka: small in measure of mind, afraid of the three realms, without great compassion, awakening by the voice of another.

The second becomes the pratyekabuddha vehicle: “cultivated and made pure, because one does not receive teaching from another but awakens by oneself, because great compassion and skillful means are not fully possessed, because one understands the profound dharma of causes and conditions” — the difference from the śrāvaka lies in awakening by oneself and in contemplating dependent origination, and the difference from the bodhisattva still lies in great compassion and skillful means being insufficient.

The third becomes the vast practice of a bodhisattva: “because the mind is vast and measureless, because pity and compassion are fully possessed, because they are embraced by skillful means, because great vows are given rise to, because sentient beings are not forsaken, because the great wisdom of the buddhas is sought after, because the grounds of a bodhisattva are purified, because all the perfections are purely cultivated” — eight clauses of “because,” standing exactly over against the “great compassion is lacking” and “not fully possessed” of the two former vehicles.

The fourth becomes all the dharmas of a buddha: “because they are pure in every mode, and on up to because the ten powers and the four fearlessnesses are realized, all the dharmas of a buddha are brought to accomplishment.” With this the ten courses of good action run straight through to the fruit of buddhahood.

The four layers set forth, the bodhisattva draws his own conclusion: “therefore I now practice the ten courses of good action equally, and ought to cause all of this to be fully possessed and pure.” The verses gather this passage into a single line: “the paths of the pratyekabuddha, the śrāvaka, and the buddha-vehicle are all accomplished by means of the ten courses of good action.” This is the most essential eye of the present ground: dharmas of goodness in themselves have no higher and lower; the higher and lower lie in the mind that raises them. One and the same act of not killing may purchase no more than a birth among humans or gods, or may run straight through to the ground of a buddha.

The Fruits of the Ten Courses of Evil Action: The Three Evil Destinies, and the Residual Fruits Among Humans

The bodhisattva gives rise to a further thought and counts out one by one the fruits of the ten courses of evil action. First he judges their weight in general: “those of the highest grade are the cause of the hells, those of the middling grade the cause of the animals, those of the lowest grade the cause of the hungry ghosts” — one and the same evil deed, and the place of falling differs according to whether the mind was fierce or faint.

Then branch by branch he states the residual fruits “if born among humans,” two of each: killing gains a short life and much illness; stealing gains poverty and holding property in common without being able to dispose of it freely; sexual misconduct gains a wife who is not chaste and good and not gaining the retinue one would wish for; false speech gains being much slandered and being deceived by others; divisive speech gains a retinue that falls apart and kinfolk who are corrupt and evil; harsh speech gains constantly hearing evil sounds and speech much given to disputes; frivolous speech gains that what one says no one accepts and that one’s words are not clear; covetousness gains a mind that does not know contentment and many desires that are never satisfied; ill will gains that others constantly search out one’s strengths and faults and that one is constantly vexed and harmed by others; wrong views gain being born into a family of wrong views and a mind that is crooked and fawning.

There is one thing in these ten pairs of residual fruits worth looking at closely: every fruit is of the same kind as the deed that made it. He who deceives others is deceived; he who breaks up another’s retinue has a retinue that falls apart; he who speaks to others words not pleasant to hear constantly hears evil sounds; the covetous gain a mind that does not know contentment — between deed and fruit there is no allotted quota of punishment, but the look of one and the same mind carried onward. The sūtra concludes: the ten courses of evil action “can bring forth these measureless and boundless masses of great suffering.” And so what the bodhisattva of this ground gives rise to upon contemplating the fruits is not fear but the vow of the passage that follows.

Taking the Ten Courses of Good Action as a Park of Dharma

Having contemplated the mass of suffering, the bodhisattva makes a vow: “I ought to leave the ten courses of evil action far behind and take the ten courses of good action as a park of Dharma, loving it and abiding in it at ease; I shall dwell within it myself and also urge others on, causing them to dwell within it.”

The two words “park of Dharma” are the eye of this passage. In most people’s minds the precepts are a wall, something that fences one in and forbids going out; the bodhisattva of this ground sees them as a garden — a place to roam and rest in, a place of ease and joy, and so it is said “loving it and abiding in it at ease.” Only when the keeping of the precepts has reached the point of no longer feeling like a bond but feeling like ease are the precepts truly the purity of one’s own substance. And the closing clause, “also urging others on, causing them to dwell within it,” once more brings out the two faces of self and other: a park is not for one person to live in alone.

The Ten Thoughts of Benefiting Others: From Vowing That They Abide in Right View to Vowing That They Abide in Vast Wisdom

From here the sūtra enters upon the “purity of the precepts of benefiting sentient beings.” First it lists the ten minds of a bodhisattva toward sentient beings: a mind of benefit, a mind of ease and joy, a mind of kindness, a mind of compassion, a mind of pity, a mind that gathers in, a mind that guards and protects, a mind that takes them as himself, a mind of a teacher, and a mind of a great teacher — “a mind that takes them as himself” is seeing sentient beings as his own self, and “a mind of a teacher” and “a mind of a great teacher” are the taking up of the charge of teaching and guiding. The ten minds arise together, and then come one “he thinks in this way” and nine instances of “he thinks further in this way,” ten thoughts in all. Every one of these thoughts has the same pattern: first see where the sickness of sentient beings lies, then vow to cause them to abide somewhere. These ten thoughts are the concrete unfolding of the great compassion of this ground; let us look at them one by one.

First, seeing sentient beings “fallen into the dense thickets of wrong views, evil understanding, evil desires, and evil destinies,” he vows to cause them to abide in right view and to walk the road of what is real. The sickness lies in view.

Second, seeing sentient beings “discriminating between others and self, breaking one another down, quarreling and hating, blazing without cease,” he vows to cause them to abide in unsurpassed great kindness. The sickness lies in the strife of self and other — and the counteragent is not making peace between them but great kindness.

Third, seeing sentient beings “grasping greedily and never satisfied, seeking wealth and profit alone, keeping themselves alive by a wrong livelihood,” he vows to cause them to abide in right livelihood with the deeds of body, speech, and mind made pure. The sickness lies in the manner of making a living.

Fourth, seeing sentient beings “constantly following after the three poisons” and not understanding how to set their will upon getting out, he vows to cause the great fire of the afflictions to be extinguished and them to be set down in the cool place of nirvāṇa. The sickness lies in the afflictions themselves; fire and coolness stand over against each other to make the simile.

Fifth, seeing sentient beings covered over by “the heavy darkness of delusion and the thick film of false views,” entering dense thickets of shadow and losing the light of wisdom, he vows to cause them to gain “the unobstructed and pure eye of wisdom, to know all dharmas as they really are, and not to follow after the teaching of another.” The sickness lies in ignorance, and what is given is an eye — Chengguan explains that this eye has two capacities: seeing things as they really are, and, by seeing what is real, not following after another.

Sixth, seeing sentient beings “within the perilous road of birth and death,” about to fall into the three evil destinies, entering the net of evil views, lost in the dense thicket of delusion and following after wrong paths; “it is as when a blind man has no guide: what is not the road out they take for the road out,” entering the realm of Māra and gathered in by evil brigands — he vows to draw them out of perils and difficulties and cause them to abide in the fearless city of omniscience. This thought takes the perilous road for its frame and the blind man without a guide for its simile. Chengguan divides and explains: the clause “it is as when a blind man” shows the lack of the eye of right wisdom, and the clause “has no guide” shows the lack of the condition of a good friend — one inner, one outer, and both lost, hence the peril.

Seventh, seeing sentient beings “drowned by the waves of a great torrent of water,” fallen into the flood of desire, the flood of existence, the flood of ignorance, and the flood of views; swept in the eddies of birth and death, drifting in the river of craving, dashed along with no leisure to look and examine; pursued by the thought of desire, the thought of hatred, and the thought of harm; the rākṣasa of the view of self seizing hold of them, dwelling upon the highland mound of conceit and settling in the village of the six sense-fields, with none good at rescuing them and none able to ferry them across — he vows to give rise to a mind of great compassion, to bring them relief with every kind of root of goodness, and to cause them to abide on the jewel island of omniscient wisdom. This is the longest simile of this ground. Chengguan reads the force of this water in five aspects: its depth (the four floods complete), its current (the eddies of birth and death), its name (the river of craving), its sweeping away (dashed along with no leisure to look and examine), and its breadth (the three thoughts pursuing everywhere); and within the water he sets up four difficulties: the grasping of the view of self, turning back and re-entering the thoughts of desire, being caught in the midst of enjoyment, and the mounting up of conceit. His explanation of the clause “the highland mound of conceit” is especially fine: conceit makes the mind high, and so it is figured as a high plain and mound — up above, the rain of Dharma does not stay on it; down below, the water of one’s nature is not seen. The harm of conceit lies not in haughtiness but in dryness.

Eighth, seeing sentient beings “dwelling in the prison of the world, with much suffering and vexation, constantly harboring love and hate and giving rise of themselves to sorrow and fear,” bound by the heavy fetters of greedy desire, with the dense thicket of ignorance as their covering, and within the three realms unable to get out by themselves — he vows to cause them to leave the three modes of existence forever and to abide in the unobstructed great nirvāṇa. Chengguan takes the bondage of the three realms to be like a prison, and a prison has five faults that follow upon it: the matter of suffering, the exhausting of one’s means, parting from what one loves, the bondage of existence, and obstruction. The simile of the prison and the torrent before it complement each other: the one flows crosswise, the other shuts in.

Ninth, seeing sentient beings “grasping at a self and not seeking to get out of the cave-dwelling of the aggregates,” resting upon the empty village of the six sense-fields, giving rise to the conduct of the four inversions, afflicted by the poisonous snakes of the four great elements and slain by the enemy brigands of the five aggregates — he vows to cause them to abide in the most excellent place where there is nothing to be attached to, which is the unsurpassed nirvāṇa in which all obstructions are extinguished. This thought lays down four similes at once: the aggregates are like a cave-dwelling (dwelt in and not gone out of), the six sense-fields like an empty village (seeming to have a master and in fact empty), the four great elements like poisonous snakes (constantly following the body and afflicting it), the five aggregates like enemy brigands (close to the body and doing it harm). Chengguan judges the first three clauses to be “losing the path, hence far from the joy of the highest truth,” and the latter three to be “losing cessation, hence fully possessed of every suffering.”

Tenth, seeing sentient beings “narrow and inferior in mind, not walking the highest road of omniscience, and though wishing to get out, taking delight only in the vehicle of the śrāvaka and of the pratyekabuddha,” he vows to cause them to abide in the vast dharma of a buddha and in vast wisdom. What the former nine thoughts would transform is the wrong and the suffering; what this one thought would transform is ‘being already on the right path yet small in mind’ — and so it is placed last.

Precepts and Compassion Are Root to Each Other

The ten thoughts set forth, the sūtra concludes with one line: “a bodhisattva who guards and upholds the precepts in this way is well able to make the mind of kindness and compassion grow.”

This one line is not to be passed over lightly. It strings all the foregoing passages into a single line of reasoning: restraint (the ten courses of good action), gathering in goodness (contemplating the fruits and considering them), and benefiting beings (the ten thoughts) are not three layers stacked one upon another but three faces of one and the same thing — and this is exactly how Chengguan reads it: guarding and upholding the precepts is the foregoing restraint and gathering in of goodness, and being well able to make the mind of kindness and compassion grow is the precept of benefiting beings. Precepts and compassion are root to each other: without precepts compassion has no strength, and without compassion the precepts have nowhere to come home to. Brought down to the ground: to test whether one’s own keeping of the precepts is alive, see whether it has grown compassion toward people; to test whether one’s own compassion is real, see whether it has come down into conduct that does not vex or harm others.

Seeing the Buddhas · Making Offerings · Receiving the Ten Courses of Good Action Again: The Pliancy of the Fruit of the Ground

The substance of the precepts having been accomplished, the fruit is spoken of. The first is the fruit of seeing the buddhas: a bodhisattva abiding on this Stainless Ground, “by the power of his vows, gets to see many buddhas” — counting from many hundreds of buddhas up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas. Note the four words “by the power of his vows”: on the first ground the number of buddhas seen is few, on this ground the number increases, and what increases is not spiritual power but the power of vows.

After seeing the buddhas there are three matters. The first is making offerings: “with a vast mind and a deep mind, he honors and reveres them, serves them and makes offerings to them,” and robes, food and drink, bedding, medicine, and all the articles that support life he offers up entirely, and makes offerings to the whole assembly of monks as well, and “with these roots of goodness he dedicates and directs everything toward anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi” — the offerings do not stop at merit but are without exception dedicated and directed toward awakening. The second is receiving the ten courses of good action again: “in the presence of the buddhas, with a mind of reverence, he receives and puts into practice the dharma of the ten courses of good action once again; and in accordance with what he has received, on up to the attaining of awakening, he never in the end forgets or loses it.” On this ground the nature-precepts are already accomplished; why then receive them again from the buddhas? Precisely because it is the ground of the precepts, the receiving is done again in the presence of the buddhas — what is received is not a prohibition but the goodness of learning from a buddha; and this receiving is held all the way to awakening, without loss along the way. The third is the purity that is refined out: “through measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, because he has left far behind the stains of stinginess, envy, and the breaking of the precepts, he is fully satisfied in the purity of giving and of keeping the precepts.” Stinginess and envy are the stains of the perfection of giving of the first ground, and the breaking of the precepts is the stain of the perfection of the precepts of this ground; both stains being left behind, giving and the precepts are pure together.

True Gold Placed in Alum: What This Ground Removes Is the Stain of the Substance Itself

Then comes the simile that gives this ground its name: “it is as when true gold is placed in alum and refined according to the method: it leaves every stain behind and turns brighter and purer still. So it is with a bodhisattva who abides on this Stainless Ground.”

This simile must be looked at together with the first ground before its depth is seen. The simile of the first ground is a goldsmith refining gold, putting it into the fire again and again — what the fire removes is the coarse stain outside the gold; the simile of this ground adds alum to the fire, and what the alum removes is the dimness within the body of the gold, so that after the refining it is not merely pure but “brighter and purer still.” Vasubandhu explains it most plainly: on the first ground the gold is refined by fire alone, and what is removed is the coarse stain of outward greed and the like; now on this ground it is further placed in alum and boiled, and what is removed is the stain upon the brightness of the substance itself, and so the meaning of the purity of the nature-precepts is stated. Chengguan takes this up and says: on the first ground the fire refines so as to remove the outer stain, while on this ground the alum takes in as well the purifying and brightening of the inner substance, and hence it is called wholly pure.

And so the two words “stainless” only here come down to earth: it is not the washing away of deeds transgressed, but the removing of that dimness of substance which makes a person able to transgress. Simile and name of the ground become one at this point.

Kind Speech and Keeping the Precepts Are Preeminent

At the end of the fruit the sūtra appends a clause of pattern: “in this bodhisattva, among the four means of gathering, kind speech is preeminent; among the ten perfections, keeping the precepts is preeminent; it is not that he does not practice the rest, but he practices them according to his strength and according to his share.”

Each of the ten perfections is preeminent on its own ground, and on the second ground what is preeminent is the precepts — which follows of itself; that kind speech should be preeminent takes one turn before it becomes clear — Chengguan and Fazang point to the same thing: on this ground the four faults of speech (false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, frivolous speech) have been left behind, and so among the four means of gathering kind speech is the most excellent. This is the power of gathering in beings opened directly out of the conduct of the precepts. And the clause “it is not that he does not practice the rest, but he practices them according to his strength and according to his share” is especially to be kept in mind: that each ground has its own preeminence does not mean that each ground lets the others fall away. Fazang here discusses four senses of the practices of the grounds, and one of these senses is precisely that “each and every ground fully possesses the ten perfections” — taken in respect of the particular, each has its own preeminence; taken in respect of actual practice, every ground possesses them all.

The Fruit of the Ground: A Wheel-Turning Sage King and Vigor in the Homeless Life

At the last the fruit of recompense and the fruit of vow-wisdom are stated. One who remains in the household “mostly becomes a wheel-turning sage king, a great lord of the Dharma, fully possessed of the seven treasures and having the power of sovereignty” — able to remove from all sentient beings the stains of stinginess, greed, and the breaking of the precepts, and by skillful means to cause them to abide in the ten courses of good action; and he becomes a great lord of giving, supplying all around without end. The position of a wheel-turning king is here not a display of the reward of merit but the form taken by a bodhisattva of the ground of the precepts in transforming others — what he removes is exactly the two stains he has himself already left behind.

The deeds of the four means of gathering that he does (giving, kind speech, benefiting, working alongside) are all such that he is “never apart from the recollection of the Buddha, never apart from the recollection of the Dharma, never apart from the recollection of the Saṅgha, and on up to never being apart from the recollection of the full possession of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience” — this is the same pattern as on the first ground: the higher the position, the less the cord tied to the Buddha is let go.

He also gives rise to the thoughts of being foremost: “among all sentient beings I ought to be the foremost, the best, the surpassing, the excellent, the sublime, the high, the unsurpassed, and on up to the one on whom they rely for the wisdom of omniscience.” These clauses are not to be misread as striving to win — the last clause, “the one on whom they rely for the wisdom of omniscience,” is where they come to rest: the reason for being foremost and best is to be able to serve as that on which sentient beings rely.

If he forsakes the household and leaves home, practicing with vigor, then “in the space of a single thought he gains a thousand samādhis, gets to see a thousand buddhas, knows the spiritual power of a thousand buddhas, is able to shake a thousand worlds, and on up to being able to manifest a thousand bodies, and in each single body able to manifest a thousand bodhisattvas as his retinue” — on the first ground it is a hundred, on this ground a thousand, widening ground by ground. And the turn at the very end is the fruit of vow-wisdom: “if by the sovereign power of a bodhisattva’s surpassing vows he manifests freely, then he surpasses this number — a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, and on up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas could not reckon and know it.” Numbers can be reckoned; vows cannot — the measure of a bodhisattva is in the end determined not by spiritual power but by vows.

The Matching of the Verses

The prose having been spoken, Vajragarbha restates the meaning in verse. The meaning of the verses is already fully present in the prose; here they only match what has been said in place, without teaching it over again.

The first verse, “upright and pliant and capable … by these ten minds one enters the second ground,” restates the ten kinds of deep mind. The next two verses, “abiding on this ground he perfects the merit of the precepts … and practices in accordance with the teaching without heedlessness,” restate the ten courses of good action of the precepts of restraint (where the line “false speech, harsh speech, divisive speech, and meaningless words” takes in the four faults of speech in four words, and “leaves the perilous and crooked behind, casts away arrogance and is utterly pliant and gentle” takes in as well the uprightness of mind belonging to the leaving behind of wrong views).

Next, the verse “in the hells and among animals they undergo every kind of suffering, and hungry ghosts burn with fierce flames breaking out from their bodies — all of this is brought on by the offenses they have done; I ought to leave those behind and abide in the dharma that is real” restates the fruits of the ten courses of evil action; the verse “among humans one gets to take birth as one wishes, and on up to the joy of the meditations in the Heaven of the Peak; the paths of the pratyekabuddha, the śrāvaka, and the buddha-vehicle are all accomplished by means of the ten courses of good action” restates the ten courses of good action as the cause running through humans and gods and the three vehicles; the verse “contemplating in this way without heedlessness, he keeps the pure precepts himself and teaches others to guard them; and seeing again the host of beings undergoing every kind of suffering, he turns and increases the mind of great compassion still further” restates cultivating oneself and urging others and the turning outward into great compassion — these three verses are the verses of the precepts of gathering in the dharmas of goodness.

The four verses that follow restate the ten thoughts of the precepts of gathering in sentient beings, taking their essentials and matching them in place: “the foolish and ordinary, by wrong understanding, do not understand rightly … I ought to cause them to remove the three poisons” answers to the foregoing thoughts of wrong views, of quarreling, of greedy grasping, and of the three poisons; “wrapped and covered by the great darkness of delusion … I ought to cause them to crush the brigand Māra” answers to the two thoughts of the thick film of delusion and of the perilous road of birth and death; the single verse “swept along by the four floods, their minds sunk and drowning, the three realms as though ablaze and their suffering measureless, reckoning the aggregates to be a house with a self inside it — in order to ferry them across I diligently practice the path” takes in three thoughts by itself — the four floods being the thought of the torrent, the three realms as though ablaze the thought of the prison of the world, and reckoning the aggregates to be a house the thought of the cave-dwelling of the aggregates; “even when they seek to get out, their minds are low and inferior … I would cause them to abide in the Great Vehicle” answers to the last thought, of the narrow and inferior mind.

The four verses below that restate the fruit of the position: “a bodhisattva abiding on this ground gathers merit, sees measureless buddhas and makes offerings to them all, and cultivating for koṭis of kalpas his roots of goodness grow brighter still, as when one refines true gold with a fine medicine” restates the seeing of the buddhas and the simile of refining gold with alum (the verse puts “a fine medicine” in place of the alum); “a son of the Buddha abiding on this ground becomes a wheel-turning king, teaching and transforming sentient beings everywhere to practice the ten courses of good action” restates the fruit of recompense as a wheel-turning king; “wishing to cast away the position of a king and his wealth and treasures … he obtains a thousand samādhis and sees a thousand buddhas” restates leaving home and practicing with vigor; “all the various powers of spiritual penetration a bodhisattva of this ground is able to manifest; and what is done by the power of his vows surpasses even these, measurelessly and freely liberating the host of beings” restates the surpassing of number belonging to the fruit of vow-wisdom.

The last verse, “the one who benefits all the world, the most excellent practice of a bodhisattva that he cultivates — such is the merit of the second ground, which I have now finished setting forth for the sons of the Buddha,” concludes and praises what has been expounded. Chengguan, going by the eighty-fascicle text, judges these verses repeating the meaning to be fifteen verses divided into three — ten verses restating the practice of the position, four restating the fruit of the position, and one concluding and praising; Fazang, going by the sixty-fascicle text, judges them to be twenty-six verses divided into six, and Li Tongxuan, going by the sixty-fascicle text, judges them to be forty-two lines of verse divided into five. The scriptural text they rely upon and the way of counting the verses differ, and both are here recorded.

A Mirror-Reading with Consciousness-Only: The Stainless Ground Is the Abode of Higher Morality

In the line of consciousness-only there is a stricter set of terms for this ground, and only after reading them together is the full weight of this ground seen.

First, the placing of the precepts. The Cheng weishi lun matches the ten excellent practices to the ten grounds, and what is matched to the second ground is śīla — “second, the Stainless Ground, in which pure śīla is fully possessed.” The two words “fully possessed” answer to this ground’s “by nature leaving far behind”: it is not holding to them without transgressing, but full possession of purity.

Second, the precision of the stain that is left behind. The Section of Ascertainment of the Yuqie shidi lun, explaining the name of this ground, points out that what is left behind is “subtle breaking of the precepts” — what is removed on this ground is mistaken transgression so fine as to be nearly imperceptible. This is exactly the stain of what Chengguan calls “able to give rise to a mistaken mind,” and exactly what Fazang calls “on this ground even mistaken transgression is left behind.” The same treatise further sets up two kinds of delusion for this ground, that is, the obstructions to be cut off — the teaching that each ground cuts off its obstructions comes down, on this ground, upon mistaken transgression and upon the destinies of action.

Third, the matching of the abodes. The Bodhisattva Ground of the Yuqie matches twelve abodes to the ten grounds, and this ground answers to the “abode of higher morality,” and directly names and cites the sūtra: if it were to be expounded at length, it is as stated in the Stainless Ground of the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds. When Chengguan composed the Yanyi chao he cited that treatise’s four clauses on the abode of higher morality — purity of intent, full possession of the nature-precepts, leaving behind the stain of breaking the precepts, and thorough knowledge and penetration of the causes and fruits of all courses of action — in order to explain the name of this ground. The ancient worthies were already reading the two together in this way; it is not something begun by people of today.

Fourth, the pairing of the sense of the ground. The line of commentary on the She dacheng lun matches ten senses to the ten grounds, and this ground answers to the “sense of the most excellent,” while the first ground answers to the sense of universal pervasion. That the precepts should be matched to the most excellent is precisely because they are the most excellent place upon which all dharmas of goodness rest.

Looking at both mirrors together: what the Stainless Ground of Huayan states is ‘the stain being left behind, the precepts are pure of themselves and kindness and compassion grow of themselves’; what the abode of higher morality of consciousness-only states is ‘what is cut off is the delusion of subtle mistaken transgression, and what is accomplished is the excellent practice of pure śīla’ — the one speaks of the look of the state, the other of the graduations of cutting off and realizing, and both speak of one and the same ground.

Lineage

The text of this ground opens out two great currents below it.

The first is the current of the study of the precepts. Vasubandhu judges the pure precepts of this ground to be two purities, and the purity of the substance itself opens further into three precepts — the purity of the precepts of leaving behind, the purity of the precepts of gathering in the dharmas of goodness, and the purity of the precepts of benefiting sentient beings. These three precepts are the ground in treatise for what later times call the three groups of pure precepts (the precepts of restraint, the precepts of gathering in the dharmas of goodness, the precepts of benefiting sentient beings); and the actual scriptural text of the three groups is precisely the passage of the ten courses of good action, the passage of considering the ten courses of good action of the highest grade, and the passage of the ten thoughts of benefiting others of this ground. That the precepts of a bodhisattva do not stop at the halting of evil but must also cultivate goodness and benefit beings has its root here. The three rules Vasubandhu sets up in explaining the ten courses of good action — the leaving behind of causes, the leaving behind by way of counteragent, and the leaving behind of resultant conduct — likewise became the common pattern for explaining the characteristics of the precepts in later times.

The second is the current of the stages of practice in consciousness-only. The abode of higher morality of the Bodhisattva Ground of the Yuqie, the subtle breaking of the precepts and the two delusions of the Section of Ascertainment, the full possession of pure śīla together with the obstruction of wrong conduct and the most excellent suchness of the Cheng weishi lun, and the sense of the most excellent of the line of commentary on the She dacheng lun — all of these are established in reliance upon this ground.

The Huayan house, for its part, has another reading: Li Tongxuan takes what is cured on this ground to be the precepts of the ten courses of good action of the very highest grade, and judges that these precepts of the ten courses of good action of the very highest grade are precisely the nature-precepts of the dharma-body, with the substance of the precepts coming home to the wondrous principle of the dharma-body; hence the good friend who represents this ground in symbol dwells within the place of awakening, gains the gate of liberation of the roaming everywhere with the joy of quiescent meditation, and shows that the nature-precepts pervade everywhere and that his practice is coextensive with the Dharma realm, so that he dwells constantly in the world and yet is not defiled by its dust. Fazang, on this ground, discusses the four senses of the practices of the grounds — displaying their differences in respect of the particular, distinguishing the excellent as surpassing the inferior, taking them in respect of actual practice, and taking them in respect of the practice that realizes the principle: the rule by which both the graded array and perfect interfusion are set forth, and an instance of it is already to be seen in the coexistence on this ground of preeminence and full possession.

The text of a single ground becomes on one face a standard source for the study of the precepts, on another a graduation of the stages of practice, and on yet another the basis for the Huayan discourse on the nature-precepts — the second ground, Stainless, is just the place from which these three roads issue together.

Why a Ground Should Begin from Wearying

Along the road of the ten grounds, the first ground speaks of joy and the second of the purity of the practice of discipline; but when it comes to the third ground, the first thing the sūtra says is that one contemplates the true character of all conditioned dharmas — impermanent, suffering, impure, not secure, subject to decay, not long abiding, arising and ceasing in an instant. A bodhisattva who has only lately entered the position of a noble one: why should he spend such effort here on looking at what is wrong with the world?

One misunderstanding has to be cleared away first: this is not despondency, nor is it the world-weariness of the two vehicles. The skeleton that Vasubandhu, the master of the treatise, establishes for this ground is a set of four parts — the part of the arousing of the practice of wearying, the part of the practice of wearying, the part of wearying, and the part of the fruit of wearying — and every one of the four names carries the word “wearying”; and Chengguan explains that word with great precision: on this ground one cultivates dhyāna, and one not only wearies of and subdues the afflictions but wearies of dhyāna itself, so that even a delight in the great Dharma still belongs to the working of wearying. One can see, then, that on this ground wearying is not an emotion but a force that refuses to come to a stop — whatever can be halted in, whatever can be enjoyed, whatever can be taken as a destination, it pushes away. The pleasures of the three realms are pushed away, and the pleasure of concentration is pushed away too; and so the mind keeps going forward until it arrives at wisdom.

Brought down to actual practice, the doorway into this ground is the ten kinds of deep mind: the pure mind, the abiding mind, the mind that wearies and relinquishes, the mind free of craving, the non-retrogressing mind, the firm mind, the bright and flourishing mind, the valiant mind, the vast mind, the great mind. The first two grounds washed the mind clean and washed the conduct clean; these ten minds take the mind so washed and are mindful of it once again — Chengguan points out that the text of this ground deliberately says “deep mind” in a way unlike the single mention of deep mind on the two preceding grounds, precisely because one further takes the ten minds and is mindful with them of the ten deep minds of the ground before. Only when the ten minds are complete does the door of the third ground open.

The Twenty Clauses: First Look at Dharmas as Impermanent, Then at Persons as Without Rescue

The main text of the part of the practice of wearying is twenty clauses. Chengguan, following the treatise, divides them in two: the first ten contemplate impermanence, looking at the matter from the side of the very substance of conditioned dharmas; the latter ten contemplate the absence of rescue, looking at it from the side of the situation a person is in.

The first ten peel away layer by layer: impermanent, suffering, impure, not secure — these speak of their characteristics; subject to decay, not long abiding, arising and ceasing in an instant — these speak of their span; and “not born from the prior limit, not going toward the later limit, not abiding in the present” blocks off all three times — you want to look for where it came from in the past, and you cannot find it; you want to look for where it goes in the future, and you cannot find it; you want to look for the point at which it stands still in the present, and you cannot find that either. The master of the treatise gathers the general import of these ten clauses into a single sentence: because the formations of life do not abide, impermanence is set forth in general. This contemplation is not meant to make one loathe the world; it is meant to make one see clearly that there is not one place where a foot can be set down firmly.

The latter ten turn to the person: without rescue, without reliance, companion to sorrow and to grief, dwelling together with suffering and vexation, bound by love and hate, anguish and misery growing ever greater, nowhere to halt and lay up a store, the fire of the three poisons blazing without cease, bound about by a host of troubles and growing day and night, unreal as an illusion. The former passage said that dharmas cannot be relied on; this one says that within them a person has nothing to lean on. The most important thing is the last clause, “unreal as an illusion” — the fierce marks of suffering are a real experience, yet their very substance is not real; with this one clause, wearying will not slide into the view of annihilation. True wearying has always walked together with the wisdom of emptiness: knowing that it is suffering, one does not linger over it; knowing that it is illusory, one does not despair.

Why Seeing Suffering Makes One Better Able Not to Fall into the Lesser Vehicle

At this point a danger appears: when wearying is carried to its extreme, a person easily turns around and walks away — and that is precisely the road of the two vehicles. So the sūtra immediately adds a long passage: seeing the wisdom of a buddha.

Chengguan assigns this passage to “the practice of guarding against the lesser vehicle”, thirty clauses in all: the first ten guard against a small mind, the latter twenty against a narrow and inferior mind. The first ten describe the wisdom of a buddha: inconceivable, without compare, without limit, hard to gain, unmixed, without affliction, without sorrow, reaching the city of no fear, never again to retrogress, able to rescue measureless sentient beings who suffer and are in distress. Chengguan, following the treatise, divides them in two: the first five are the greatness of gathering in merit, and what is sought is the awakening of a buddha; the latter five are the greatness of purity, and what is sought is the fruit of nirvāṇa — awakening is a virtue accomplished by cultivation, hence “gathering in”; nirvāṇa is originally present and shows itself once obstruction is left behind, hence “purity”. And the last two clauses show the measure of the thing best of all: never again to retrogress is not to dwell in birth and death; able to rescue measureless suffering beings is not to dwell in nirvāṇa. Dwelling at neither extreme — that is why the wisdom of a buddha is “great”.

So the order of this ground is: first weary to the very bottom, then see something more worth having than everything conditioned. If one only wearies with nothing to turn toward, it becomes the reduction of the body and the extinction of knowing; if one has no wearying and turns toward something wildly, that “turning toward” is only craving in another form. Wearying and turning toward are two faces of one and the same thing.

The Ten Kinds of Pitying Mind: The More One Wearies, the Closer One Comes to Sentient Beings

The second danger is this: since the three realms are like that, then let one go off by oneself. So the sūtra adds another passage — the ten kinds of pitying mind.

The ten clauses in order are: orphaned and solitary with nothing to rely on; poor and destitute; burned by the fire of the three poisons; shut up in the prison of the several kinds of existence; constantly covered and obstructed by the dense thicket of the afflictions; unable to contemplate well; without desire for good dharmas; having lost the dharmas of the buddhas; drifting with the current of birth and death; having lost the skillful means of liberation. Chengguan, following the treatise, takes “orphaned and solitary with nothing to rely on” as the general clause and the remaining nine as particular, and explains the two words “orphaned and solitary” thus: to be young and fatherless is called orphaned, to be old and childless is called solitary; sentient beings have above them no reliance upon the skillful means of the kindly honored one, and below them no good mind that benefits others, and hence are called orphaned and solitary. He further assigns the nine particular clauses to three classes of beings: the first two belong to those who seek desire, the middle three to those who seek existence, and the last four to those who seek the holy life — and within the last four, the first three are the deviations of the lesser vehicle (practicing a small cause, holding to a small fruit, not obtaining the great final nirvāṇa), while the last is the case of those outside the way, who seek liberation and yet lose the means to it. Chengguan brings out another reading as well, running the ten clauses together as five pairs: without kin and without goods; having delusion and having suffering; having obstruction and without remedy; lacking the cause and losing the condition; following the current and turning one’s back on extinction.

There is a hinge here worth pausing over: wearying and compassion look like opposite directions, yet on this ground they are two results of one and the same act of contemplation. Because one has seen clearly that conditioned dharmas are impermanent and without rescue, one no longer harbors illusions about them (this is wearying); and precisely because one has seen this clearly, one knows that sentient beings are trapped within them all along without knowing it (this is compassion). The more thoroughly one sees, the less one can walk away.

Following upon the ten pitying minds come ten clauses of the vow to deliver: I ought to rescue, I ought to set free, I ought to purify, I ought to bring across; I ought to place them in a good place, to make them abide, to make them glad, to make them know and see, to make them tamed, to bring them to nirvāṇa. The master of the treatise, explaining these, raises three questions — where the deliverance takes place, by what one delivers, and how one delivers; Chengguan for his part gives another reading, matching the ten clauses one by one against the ten pitying minds before: rescuing the orphaned and solitary, freeing from poverty, purifying the three poisons, bringing across from the prison of existence, placing in a state without covering or obstruction, causing to abide in good contemplation, causing to gain desire for good dharmas, causing to know and see the nature and characteristics, taming the faculties, causing to attain nirvāṇa. Both readings stand; they are recorded below in the section on lineage.

Tracing Back Through Five Steps: The Highest Wisdom Stands with Its Feet on Extensive Learning

What comes next is the passage of this ground where the bone and sinew show most. The bodhisattva asks himself: sentient beings have fallen into the great suffering of the afflictions; by what skillful means can they be pulled out? And then he traces the matter back, step by step —

To deliver sentient beings and make them abide in nirvāṇa is not apart from unobstructed wisdom of liberation; unobstructed wisdom of liberation is not apart from the true awakening to all dharmas; the true awakening to all dharmas is not apart from the luminosity of the wisdom of practice that is without practice and without arising; the luminosity of the wisdom of practice that is without practice and without arising is not apart from the wisdom of skillful and decisive contemplation within dhyāna; the wisdom of skillful and decisive contemplation within dhyāna is not apart from skillful and extensive learning.

These are five steps traced from fruit back to cause. What is remarkable is where they end: traced back to the last, the whole thing comes to rest on the words “extensive learning” — not on spiritual powers, not on the depth or shallowness of samādhi, but on plainly and honestly listening to the Dharma. The master of the treatise, in explaining this last step, is very fine-grained: “dhyāna as skillful means” means the dhyāna of advancing excellence that has been gained; “decisive” means being decisive and free of doubt with regard to others; “contemplation of wisdom” means that it is one’s own wisdom that examines. All three must be present, and their common point of origin is the seeking and hearing of the Dharma day and night.

And it is out of this very passage that the name of this ground grows. Explaining “the wisdom of practice that is without practice and without arising”, the master of the treatise says: that wisdom is here named luminosity, and in dependence upon this luminosity the ground is named the Bright Ground. The eighty-fascicle version translates it as “Luminous”, while the sixty-fascicle version and the treatise text have “Bright” — two forms of the name, but what they point to is one and the same thing: that light of wisdom which concentration and the retention of what is heard, leaning on one another, issue forth. It is not that the body gives off light; it is that the mind lights up inside.

The Ten Practices of the Dharma and Giving Up the Body to Seek It: How the Price of the Dharma Is Reckoned

Since everything comes home to extensive learning, what follows is the ten practices of the Dharma: hearing the Dharma, delighting in the Dharma, taking joy in the Dharma, relying on the Dharma, following the Dharma, understanding the Dharma, complying with the Dharma, arriving at the Dharma, abiding in the Dharma, practicing the Dharma. Chengguan, following the treatise, assigns the first three to “the time of listening” — to hear the Dharma is to be without a mind of conceit, to delight in the Dharma is to be without a mind of envy, to take joy in the Dharma is not to inquire into the meaning with the aim of subduing others; and the last three to “the time of cultivating” — to arrive at the Dharma is, relying on concentration, to cultivate and arrive at the ultimate; to abide in the Dharma is to abide in world-transcending wisdom; to practice the Dharma is to accord with the Buddha’s practice of liberation. The ten clauses run all the way from the ear down to the feet; for one who hears but does not practice, the first three clauses are as far as it goes.

Then the sūtra does something quite blunt: it puts a price on the Dharma. To hear one phrase never heard before surpasses the treasures that fill a three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system; to hear one verse of true Dharma never heard before surpasses the position of a wheel-turning sage king; to gain one verse able to purify the practice of a bodhisattva surpasses the position of Śakra or of the great Brahmā king, held for measureless hundreds of thousands of kalpas. The price is raised higher and higher, until at the end it turns into a question put to the reader: someone says, ‘I have one phrase of the Buddha’s teaching able to purify the practice of a bodhisattva; if you can enter a great pit of fire and undergo the utmost suffering, I will give it to you’ — and the bodhisattva’s answer is that even were the whole three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system filled with a great fire, he would still be willing to cast himself down from the Brahmā heaven and receive it in person, how much less could he refuse one small pit of fire. The repeated verses press the question to its limit: from the first arousing of the intention until the attaining of buddhahood, all the sufferings of the hell of unremitting torment in between can be borne for the sake of hearing the Dharma.

This passage is not an exhortation to walk into fire. It is an answer to the question, ‘what do you take the Dharma to be?’ What a person is willing to pay for shows what weighs most in his heart. The answer of this ground is: the Dharma weighs more than a throne, more than treasure, more than life — because the twenty clauses earlier have already made it plain that thrones, treasures, and life are themselves impermanent, decaying, unable to abide long. Here the contemplation of wearying bears its fruit: it is not that one does not want one’s life, but that one knows the exchange of life for the Dharma to be a bargain worth making.

The Eight Concentrations: Why a Bodhisattva’s Concentration Differs from That of Ordinary Persons and the Two Vehicles

The main text of the part of wearying is the four dhyānas and the four formless attainments. The first dhyāna leaves desire and evil, unwholesome dharmas behind while initial and sustained thought remain, with joy and bliss born of leaving desire; the second extinguishes initial and sustained thought, the mind inwardly pure and one-pointed, with joy and bliss born of concentration; the third leaves joy behind and abides in equanimity, with mindfulness and right awareness, the body experiencing bliss; the fourth cuts off bliss, suffering and joy and sorrow having earlier been extinguished, neither suffering nor blissful, equanimity and mindfulness pure. Above these are the four formless attainments: passing beyond all notions of form, extinguishing notions of resistance, not calling to mind the many notions of difference, one abides in the station of the boundlessness of space, and passes in due order over to the station of the boundlessness of consciousness, the station of nothing whatever, and the station of neither notion nor absence of notion.

With the eight concentrations laid out in a row, a reader easily asks: how does this differ from the four dhyānas and eight concentrations cultivated by those outside the way? The sūtra gives the answer itself, in the sentence that comes after this long string: “But because he accords with the Dharma, he practices without taking delight or attaching.” Chengguan assigns this sentence to the heading “the intent in entering” — that is, where the mind is set in entering concentration: it is only to accord with the dharma of teaching and transforming sentient beings, unlike ordinary persons and the lesser vehicle, who have relish within concentration. The master of the treatise further lists five kinds of sentient beings to explain why the bodhisattva enters the dhyānas and formless attainments, the first being “for the sake of sentient beings conceited about the bliss of dhyāna” — which Chengguan explains as those who gain worldly dhyāna and grow conceited on the strength of it. Chengguan has one further sentence of contrast that puts it very clearly: ordinary persons relish concentration and still revolve in the three realms; those of the two vehicles ascend and mostly head toward extinction; the bodhisattva, by reason of concentration, gives rise to kindness and compassion, benefits sentient beings widely, and perfects the nature of a bodhisattva. One and the same sitting in concentration, and three kinds of person sit out three different results — the difference lying not in the depth of the concentration but in the mind with which one enters it.

The Fruit of Wearying: The Four Immeasurables and the Five Superknowledges

The last of the four parts is “the fruit of wearying” — the fruit that the eight concentrations bring forth. Chengguan divides it into three passages: the four immeasurables are the fruit of practice as skillful means, the five superknowledges are the fruit of practice as effective function, and the last is the general summation of mastery in entering and emerging.

The four immeasurables: the mind of kindness vast and immeasurable and not two, without enmity and without opposition, without obstruction and without harm, reaching everywhere, exhausting the Dharma realm and the realm of space, reaching throughout every world; and compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity likewise. The master of the treatise explains that the immeasurable is of three kinds — taking sentient beings as object, taking dharmas as object, and taking nothing as object — which is to say that the depth of the object contemplated differs. However deep one sits in concentration, if kindness and compassion do not come out of it, that sitting has been for nothing; and the four immeasurables are precisely the first door by which concentration opens outward.

The five superknowledges: spiritual bases, the divine ear, the minds of others, former abodes, the divine eye. By the superknowledge of spiritual bases he can shake the great earth, make one into many and many into one, vanish and appear without hindrance, pass through stone walls as though walking in empty space, go cross-legged as a bird in flight, enter the earth as though it were water, tread on water as though it were earth, send smoke and flame from his body as from a great mass of fire, rain down water as a great cloud, on up to stroking and touching the sun and moon with his hand and reaching, with his body at ease, as far as the world of Brahmā. By the divine ear he hears the sounds of humans and gods, far and near, on down to mosquitoes, gnats, horseflies, and houseflies. By knowing the minds of others he knows as they truly are more than twenty aspects of the minds of other beings — with craving and free of craving, with anger and free of anger, with delusion and free of delusion, with affliction and without affliction, small and broad, great and immeasurable, gathered and not gathered, scattered and not scattered, concentrated and not concentrated, liberated and not liberated, with something above and with nothing above, defiled and not defiled, broad and not broad. By knowing former abodes he recalls one life on up to measureless hundreds of thousands of lives, the kalpas of formation, of destruction, and of formation and destruction, with all their names and family names, clans, food and drink, life spans, sufferings and pleasures. By the divine eye he sees sentient beings at their birth and at their death, with good form and bad form, going to good destinies and evil destinies each according to his deeds, and sees too the good and evil of the three kinds of action, the slandering or not slandering of the worthy and the noble, and the deeds and causes and conditions of wrong views and of right views, with their results.

Chengguan makes two points about these five superknowledges that are worth keeping in mind. The first: wondrous function hard to fathom is called spiritual, and mastery without hindrance is called penetration. The second: on this ground only five are obtained and the exhaustion of the outflows is not listed, because the cultivation of this ground is lodged in common with the world. And as for why the divine eye stands last, he says it is taken with respect to the three kinds of action that benefit others — first, by spiritual bases one goes to the place of those to be transformed (action of body); next, one knows their minds (action of mind); and last, by the divine eye one knows their past deeds (bringing the teaching to completion).

The third passage is the summation: with respect to the several dhyānas, samādhis, and samāpattis, the bodhisattva can enter and can emerge, yet he does not take birth by their power, but only where the factors of awakening can be brought to fullness, being born there by the power of intention and vow. This sentence is the closing seam of the whole passage on the superknowledges — he can enter and emerge, so distraction cannot bind him; he does not take birth by the power of concentration, so concentration cannot bind him either. It is only here that the full sense of the word “wearying” comes out: even the concentration he has cultivated himself, he will not permit to become a home.

Refining True Gold: Cutting Off Delusion Is Not a Diminishing

The fruit of the ground is of three kinds, and the first is the fruit of pliancy. A bodhisattva of this ground, by the power of his vows, sees many hundreds of thousands and on up to hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas, makes offerings widely, dedicates and directs them toward unsurpassed awakening, reverently hears the Dharma, upholds what he has heard, and practices according to his ability. And within this seeing of buddhas and hearing of Dharma a contemplation arises: he contemplates all dharmas as neither arising nor ceasing, existing through causes and conditions. The master of the treatise explains this sentence: in the pure dharmas one sees no increase, in the afflictions and deluded imaginings one sees no decrease — there is only the arising of things from the gathering of causes and conditions; and Chengguan calls it directly “the contemplation of the nature of dharmas”.

With this contemplation, the very look of the cutting off of delusion changes: the bonds of view are extinguished first, and the bonds of desire, of form, of existence, and of ignorance all turn thin; because through measureless kalpas there is no more accumulating, wrong craving, wrong anger, and wrong delusion are all cut off, and the roots of goodness turn brighter and purer. For this the sūtra sets up the signature simile of the ground: it is like true gold skillfully refined, “its weight not lessened, and it turns brighter and purer”. Those few words are the eye of the whole simile — refining gold does not make the gold less; it takes the dross away so that the color of the gold is brighter. So too with the cutting off of delusion: what is cut off is what was mixed in, not you yourself. The first ground also had the simile of the goldsmith refining gold, but there the weight fell on “becoming pliant and accomplished, fit for use as one wishes”, while here it falls on “its weight is not lessened” — one and the same lump of gold, and when the firing reaches the third ground the teaching goes a step further.

Next comes the turning pure of thirteen kinds of mind: the mind of patience, the gentle mind, the harmonious and compliant mind, the pleasing and lovely mind, the mind free of anger, the unmoving mind, the unmuddied mind, the mind that holds none high or low, the mind that looks for no return, the mind that repays kindness, the mind free of flattery, the mind free of deceit, the mind free of crooked partiality. This whole string is almost entirely a matter of the ground of the mind in dealings with other people; and immediately after, the sūtra says that on this ground, among the four means of gathering, benefiting others is preeminent, and among the ten perfections, the perfection of patience is preeminent, the rest not being left uncultivated but cultivated according to one’s strength and share. That patience should be preeminent on this ground is of a piece with the giving up of the body to seek the Dharma and with the gentleness of the thirteen minds — one must be able to bear with things in order to hear a teaching through; and only when one has heard it through can the light of wisdom issue forth.

Last is the fruit of the recompense gathered in: a bodhisattva abiding on this ground mostly becomes a king of the Thirty-Three, able by skillful means to make sentient beings relinquish craving and desire; and in giving, kind speech, benefiting others, and working alongside — in all that he does — he is never apart from the recollection of the Buddha, of the Dharma, of the Saṅgha, on up to never being apart from the recollection of the full possession of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience. He further sets himself this aim: among all sentient beings to be the foremost, the best, the excellent, the high, the unsurpassed, on up to the one on whom they rely for the wisdom of omniscience. If he practices with diligent vigor, in the space of a single thought he gains a hundred thousand samādhis, sees a hundred thousand buddhas, shakes a hundred thousand buddha-worlds, manifests a hundred thousand bodies, each body having a hundred thousand bodhisattvas as its retinue; and if he manifests with mastery by the power of his vows, it exceeds this number, so that a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas could not count it. On the first ground the figure was a hundred; on this ground it is a hundred thousand — the widening from ground to ground, and the leap in quantity, records the leap in what has been realized.

How the Eighteen Repeated Verses Correspond

At the end the bodhisattva Vajragarbha restates the meaning in eighteen verses. Chengguan divides them into five: the first verse repeats the part of the arousing of the practice of wearying (pure, abiding, bright and flourishing, wearying, without craving, without harm, firm, valiant, vast — the verse on the ten minds); the next twelve repeat the part of the practice of wearying, of which the first two are on guarding against the afflictions, the next three on guarding against the lesser vehicle, and the last seven on gathering in by skillful means; third, one verse repeats the part of wearying together with its fruit (the four dhyānas and the formless attainments, the four equalities and the five superknowledges arising in order, without taking birth by their power); fourth, three verses repeat the fruit of the position (seeing buddhas and cutting off delusion as true gold is refined, mostly becoming the king of Trāyastriṃśa, the hundred thousand samādhis); fifth, one verse concludes the statement of the third ground. What the prose has already taught, the verses only match in position and do not teach over again; but two places are worth looking back at: one is “from the first arousing of the intention until the attaining of buddhahood, all the sufferings of the hell of unremitting torment in between can be borne for the sake of hearing the Dharma” — which pushes the pit of fire of the prose all the way to the hell of unremitting torment; the other is that the prose says “a king of the Thirty-Three” while this verse says “the king of Trāyastriṃśa”, one and the same heaven with two renderings standing side by side within the base text itself.

Read Against the Consciousness-Only Mirror: The Luminous Ground and the Abiding of the Higher Mind

Within the terminology of the consciousness-only line this ground has a strict set of correspondences. Chengguan, in explaining the name, cites the words of the Yogācārabhūmi: because of the luminosity of hearing and practicing the right Dharma and the luminosity of equipoise, and by what that luminosity displays, it is named the Luminous Ground; and because the inner mind is pure and able to issue forth luminosity, it is further called “the abiding of the higher mind” — “mind” here being concentration, and since concentration is the increase of the third ground, the abiding is named from the higher mind. As for the obstruction cut off, the consciousness-only line names it the obstruction of dullness, the innate portion within the obstruction to the knowable, which causes the dharmas of hearing, reflection, and cultivation to be forgotten and lost; divided finely, it is two follies — the folly of craving for desire, which obstructs surpassing concentration and the wisdom of cultivation, and the folly regarding the perfecting of the dhāraṇī, which obstructs the wisdom of hearing and reflection and the perfecting of retention. As for the suchness realized, it is named with regard to retention, and is called the suchness of surpassing outflow — the teaching that flows out of suchness being, among all teachings, the most excellent.

This set of correspondences answers to the text of this ground item by item: the “forgetting and losing” of the obstruction of dullness answers exactly to the practice of seeking the Dharma day and night and upholding what has been heard; the cutting off of the folly of craving for desire answers to the cultivation of the four dhyānas and four formless attainments; and the cutting off of the folly regarding the perfecting of the dhāraṇī answers to the fivefold tracing back that comes home at last to skillful and extensive learning. Vasubandhu, the master of the treatise, both composed the Shidi jing lun explaining this ground phrase by phrase and is the source upon which the consciousness-only line establishes the ten grounds as positions of practice; what the two lines see on this ground is one and the same thing from two sides: the Huayan side tells how the mind of this ground issues forth light, the consciousness-only side tells what this ground cuts off and what it realizes.

Lineage

As to the ground on which the name is established, four sayings of the ancient worthies run side by side. Vasubandhu, the master of the treatise, ties it to the luminosity of the wisdom of practice that is without practice and without arising, and so says that in dependence upon this luminosity it is named the Bright Ground. Chengguan gathers up the sūtra below together with the sūtras and treatises, and establishes three senses in general: the ten purified minds of first dwelling on the ground as that which issues forth, and surpassing concentration and the retention of what is heard as what is issued forth; the retention of what is heard as that which issues forth, and surpassing concentration as what is issued forth; surpassing concentration and retention together as that which issues forth, and the mark of luminosity realized on the fourth ground as what is issued forth — and he judges in sum that the practice this ground accomplishes is likewise only dhyāna and the seeking of the Dharma, and the fruit it obtains is likewise Dharma and dhyāna. Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, opens seven gates in explaining this ground, citing throughout the sayings of the consciousness-only treatise, the Suvarṇaprabhāsa, Asvabhāva’s explanation of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā, and the Renwang, and decides that the ground is named from the fruit-dharma that is issued forth. Li Tongxuan, for his part, does not establish the name from what issues forth and what is issued forth, but speaks directly of cultivating the eight dhyāna-concentrations of the realms of form and formlessness on this ground, penetrating those realms well, and exhausting the obstructions of karma in the three realms, saying that concentration is able to issue forth the light of wisdom, and hence the name Luminous. The four sayings stand side by side, all of them settled sayings of the ancient worthies; they are recorded, and no judgment is passed as to higher or lower.

The differences among the parallel translations should likewise be recorded side by side. For the second of the ten kinds of deep mind, the eighty-fascicle version has “the abiding mind”, the sixty-fascicle version has “the keen and sharp mind”, and the sūtra as cited in the treatise has “the unmoving mind”; for the eighth the three witnesses have “valiant”, “never satisfied”, and “rich and generous”; for the ninth, “vast”, “surpassing”, and “glad”. Within the twenty clauses of contemplation, the sixty-fascicle version has the three separate items “without self”, “of a character not to be trusted”, and “neither arising nor ceasing”, which the eighty and the treatise text lack, while the eighty has “not secure”, which the other two lack. For the ten pitying minds, the eighty has “pitying mind”, while the sixty and the treatise text both have “ten surpassing minds”. For the last of the five steps traced back, the eighty has “skillful and extensive learning”, the sixty has “the decisive wisdom of extensive learning”, and the treatise text has “the skillful means of the wisdom of hearing”; and after the five steps the sixty has a question and answer of its own, “what is the root of all the Buddha’s teachings? It is not apart from taking the hearing of the Dharma as the root”, which the eighty lacks. As for the name of the heavenly king of the fruit of recompense, the prose of the eighty has “a king of the Thirty-Three” while its own repeated verses have “the king of Trāyastriṃśa”, and the sixty and the treatise text both have “Trāyastriṃśa”. The witnesses differ among themselves in expansion and compression; all are recorded, without adjudication.

The differences in the outlines and explanations are likewise recorded as two tracks. For the reading of the ten clauses of deliverance, the master of the treatise raises the three questions ‘where the deliverance takes place, by what one delivers, and how one delivers’ and matches them to the three paths and the three trainings, while Chengguan brings out another reading in which the ten clauses answer one by one to the ten pitying minds before; Chengguan records his words of choice after the reading he brings out, yet the texts of both tracks stand, and the reader may consult them for himself. Again, for the word rendered as samāpatti in the sūtra, Chengguan, at the place of the general summation of mastery, records his doubt about the rendering, holding that since what the treatise text here means is the sense of equipoise that draws forth, the word ought to be samāhita; and yet the graph of the base text is not changed — the doubt of an ancient worthy and the graph of the base text stand side by side and are recorded.

The four dhyānas and eight concentrations, the four immeasurables, and the five superknowledges of this ground are judged by the Huayan school to be a cultivation lodged in common with the world — Chengguan says that this ground’s dharmas of cultivation are lodged in common with the world, and says too that of the superknowledges only five are obtained because they are lodged in common with the world. What is called practice lodged in the successive positions is precisely this: taking the characteristics of practice that the world holds in common, and carrying in them a ground of mind that the world does not share. The same eight concentrations: ordinary persons sit them into the round of rebirth, those of the two vehicles sit them into extinction, and the bodhisattva sits them into kindness and compassion. The entire weight of the third ground rests upon this ‘difference within sameness’.

Why It Is Only at This Ground That the Name “Flame” Appears

Each of the three preceding grounds has its own main axis — the first ground weighs resolve, the second discipline, the third concentration. And when concentration has been cultivated to its utmost, a barrier appears that hardly anyone notices: the savor within concentration is too good, and one easily becomes attached to it; the teaching one has heard is understood too smoothly, and conceit easily arises. Chengguan, in judging the reason for the coming of this ground, says it bluntly: the three preceding grounds are lodged in the world, and it is from this ground onward that one is lodged in what transcends the world; and he says further that though on the preceding ground one gained worldly concentration and total retention, one had not yet gained the factors of awakening and had not yet let go of the love of concentration and the love of dharmas — and therefore this ground has to be.

“Flame” is the simile; “wisdom” is the dharma. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun, explaining the name of this ground, attaches it to the simile of the maṇi jewel: realizing wisdom is like a maṇi jewel, and within the light of that jewel there is sent forth the light of the āgama, the teaching, which shines everywhere and shows itself — and so this ground is explained as named Flame. Chengguan follows this and opens three senses: at first entering the ground, realizing wisdom is able to burn the firewood that is the “conceit of understanding the Dharma” left from the preceding ground — that is the first sense; in the midst of the ground one properly cultivates the factors of awakening and the flame of wisdom increases — that is the second sense; and at the fullness of the ground the light of the teaching is sent forth from the maṇi jewel of realizing wisdom — that is the third sense.

One misreading has to be cleared away: “flame” does not refer to any fierceness of a practitioner’s feeling. From beginning to end the sūtra does not have one sentence about excitement; what it speaks of is entirely the four stations of mindfulness, the four right eliminations, the five faculties and the five powers — the plainest contemplative practices there are. The flame is a flame because wisdom is now able to burn; and what it burns is the love of concentration and the love of dharmas, the two subtlest clingings, the two that look most like merit. Brought down to where it is used: when a person has practiced until he feels good about himself for thinking ‘I have real concentration’ and ‘I really understand the Dharma’, that is precisely the illness this ground has to treat.

The Gate by Which the Ground Is Entered: The Ten Gates of Dharma-Light

First a question: on what strength does one step from the third ground to the fourth? The sūtra’s answer is the ten gates of Dharma-light. “Dharma” is the place that is entered; “the gate of light” is the gate by which one is able to enter — Chengguan says that “gate” just means passing in, and that by the shining of the light of wisdom one passes into the Dharma the Buddha has spoken. So these ten gates are not ten new things; they are the teaching one has already heard, swum into one by one and swum into over and over with wisdom; and the swimming in is the practice. The misreading lies in taking “gate of light” for ten technical names to be memorized; in fact they are ten realms one must contemplate one’s own way into. Where it comes down: if the Dharma one has heard stops at being understood, one will never get out of the third ground.

Which ten gates are they? To observe the realm of sentient beings, the Dharma realm, the realm of worlds, the realm of space, the realm of consciousness, the realm of desire, the realm of form, the formless realm, the realm believed in and understood by the vast mind, and the realm believed in and understood by the great mind. Chengguan reads them in three rounds: the first clause is the general one and the remaining nine are the particular ones, because the nine are all matters of sentient beings; the first eight belong to the defiled and the last two to the pure; the first five push from what depends to what is depended upon, and the last five establish what depends upon what is depended upon. He also points out expressly why the first clause stands first — sentient beings are only a name; the merely nominal is of three kinds, established by causes, by continuity, and by mutual dependence; and the nominal is the exposition of emptiness, and therefore it is observed first. The error to be cleared away is to suppose that “observing the realm of sentient beings” means taking a census of how many beings there are; in fact it is to see through the fact that under this name “sentient being” there is no substance at all. As for the last two gates, the faith and understanding of the vast mind is a mind vast enough to succor others as well, and the faith and understanding of the great mind is a mind that guards against the small and seeks the great — and both differ from the two vehicles, the one in not forsaking beings, the other in not taking up the small fruit.

And when the contemplation is full, what then? The sūtra closes the passage itself: by these ten gates of Dharma-light the bodhisattva gains entry to the fourth Flaming-Wisdom Ground. Chengguan puts it more finely: only when the observing is complete and merges with the principle of the ten does it count as entering the ground. Here the notion that ‘entering the ground is something conferred’ must be cleared away — entering the ground is the natural outcome of a ripened contemplative practice, not a rank handed over from outside.

Born into the Family of the Tathāgata: The Ten Wisdoms That Ripen the Dharmas

What does “born into the family of the Tathāgata” mean? The sūtra says that one who dwells on this ground is able, by the ten kinds of wisdom that ripen the dharmas, to gain that inner Dharma and to be born into the family of the Tathāgata. “Inner Dharma” is said by way of marking it off from outward aspect: this Dharma is not what it looks like from outside, it is the very Dharma of teaching and transforming that the Tathāgata has spoken. Chengguan opens the family of the Tathāgata into three — the family of the mind of awakening, into which one is born at the first abode; the family of the great teaching, into which one is born at the fourth abode; and the family of the Dharma realm, into which one is born at the moment of realization on the first ground; and what this ground answers to is the family of the great teaching. The treatise, for its part, says why one is able to turn and be born into it: because the wisdom that depends upon much hearing is brought to its end, and because, doing away with the obstruction to wisdom, one gathers in what is surpassing. The misreading lies in taking “born into the family of the Tathāgata” for a kind of honorary standing; in fact it says this: from now on this person’s mind takes the Buddha’s teaching as its household, and has no other lodging anywhere.

The first of the ten wisdoms: the deep mind that does not turn back. Why do the ten wisdoms begin with “not turning back”? The treatise gathers these ten clauses into four wisdoms, and the first is “the ultimate wisdom regarding one’s own place of abiding” — the bodhisattva’s own place of abiding is the great vehicle, the deep mind’s according with it is what “abiding” means, and “ultimate” is just not turning back. So not turning back is not gritting one’s teeth and holding on; it is that one has already settled where one’s own dwelling is. Where it comes down: the real turning back in practice is not slow progress, it is the mind quietly changing its address.

The second of the ten wisdoms: pure faith in the Three Jewels that in the end cannot be broken. The treatise gathers this as “the ultimate wisdom of revering the Three Jewels alike”, saying that it is realizing that the Three Jewels are of one substance and so completing an unbreakable faith. The error to be cleared away is reading “unbreakable faith” as steadiness of feeling; it is unbreakable because one has seen that the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha were never three outward things at all.

The third and fourth of the ten wisdoms: observing that the formations arise and cease, and observing that the self-nature of dharmas is unarisen. Why are these two raised together? The treatise gathers them as “the wisdom of suchness”, saying they are the two contemplations of the non-self of beings and the non-self of dharmas: it is only the formations, the aggregates and the rest, that arise and cease and flow on, and therefore there is no self of a person; and these dharmas of the aggregates are from the first unarisen, and therefore there is no self of dharmas. The misreading takes arising-and-ceasing and non-arising for a contradiction; in fact the one clause breaks the self of a person and the other the self of dharmas, and they are two faces of one and the same suchness.

The fifth through the tenth of the ten wisdoms: observing the forming and decaying of the world, observing that birth is on account of deeds, observing birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, observing the deeds of beings and of lands, observing the prior limit and the later limit, observing that there is nothing at all to be exhausted. The treatise gathers these six clauses as “the wisdom of what is discerned and declared”, which is to say the wisdom of the teaching — it is called discerning because it knows the conventional truth. Chengguan goes further and matches them with the four truths: the first two clauses are defiled, that is, the dependent and the primary recompense of the truth of suffering; the third clause has both defiled and pure, birth-and-death being origination and nirvāṇa cessation; and the last three are what accords with purification, that is, the truth of the path. Of these, the one most in need of being made plain is the last clause, “observing that there is nothing at all to be exhausted”: the treatise says that in the prior limit and the later limit there is neither lessening nor increasing, that within defiled dharmas not one dharma is seen that could be lessened and within pure dharmas not one that could be increased, and that this is why it is called there being nothing at all to be exhausted. The error to be cleared away is taking “exhausted” to mean wiped out; it says rather that neither the mark of increase nor the mark of decrease can be got at. Where it comes down: the calculation practitioners most often fall into is reckoning up how much their afflictions have decreased and how much their merit has increased — and this contemplation treats exactly that illness.

The Practice of Properly Abiding on the Ground: The Thirty-Seven Factors of Awakening

Why must a bodhisattva of the great vehicle cultivate dharmas that look like the small vehicle’s? The treatise divides the countering done on this ground into two: first, the practice that guards against the defilement of the afflictions; second, the practice that guards against the small vehicle. What the guarding against the defilement of the afflictions relies upon is precisely the cultivating of the factors of awakening. So the factors of the path are not the property of the small vehicle; they are the common dharma of every practice of going forth from suffering. As for how it is guaranteed that cultivating them will not fall into the small vehicle, the sūtra has a separate set of ten clauses of purpose to mark that off (see the next section). The misreading is that ‘the great vehicle need not cultivate the factors of the path’ — and that this ground lists all thirty-seven of them without omitting one is precisely the refutation.

The four stations of mindfulness · the station of the body. The sūtra says that he observes the inner body, the outer body, and the inner and outer body, observing them along the body, diligent and valiant, mindful and knowing, removing covetousness and grief with respect to the world. “Observing along the body” is observing in accordance with the body’s own character — not imagining, not evaluating. Inner is one’s own body, outer is another’s, and inner and outer is observing both. The error to be cleared away is reading the stations of mindfulness as a loathing of the body; the closing clause of the sūtra is “removing covetousness and grief with respect to the world” — both covetousness and grief are removed, from which one can see that what it treats is the mind that takes up and rejects, not the body.

The four stations of mindfulness · the station of feeling. He observes inner feelings, outer feelings, and inner and outer feelings, observing them along feeling. Feeling is the immediate sensation of pain, pleasure, or neither. What matters in this contemplation is this: to see that a feeling is a feeling, and not to splice it on into ‘I am suffering’ or ‘I am happy’. Where it comes down: when emotion rises, being able to stop at ‘this is a feeling’ means that covetousness and grief have nothing to splice onto.

The four stations of mindfulness · the station of the mind. He observes the inner mind, the outer mind, and the inner and outer mind, observing them along the mind. The mind flows on thought after thought, and observing it is watching it come and go without chasing it. The misreading is to want to contemplate the mind into emptiness; in fact one only sees its arising and ceasing as they are.

The four stations of mindfulness · the station of dharmas. He observes inner dharmas, outer dharmas, and inner and outer dharmas, observing them along dharmas. The dharmas here are all the dharmas that mind and feeling take as their objects. Taken together the four stations of mindfulness are one complete road: body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, from the coarse to the fine, taking “I” apart the whole way down.

The four right eliminations · the two clauses on cutting off evil. With regard to evil and unwholesome dharmas not yet arisen, that they may not arise, and with regard to evil and unwholesome dharmas already arisen, that they may be cut off, in both cases one gives rise to zeal, produces diligent vigor, and sets the mind on right elimination. Note that “zeal” here is the zeal for wholesome dharmas, not covetousness; without zeal there is no motive force. The misreading is to suppose that practice means being without any zeal at all.

The four right eliminations · the two clauses on cultivating good. With regard to wholesome dharmas not yet arisen, that they may arise, and with regard to wholesome dharmas already arisen, that they may abide and not be lost and by cultivation be made to increase and spread, in both cases one gives rise to zeal, produces diligent vigor, and sets the mind on right conduct. The reason the four right eliminations are a matter of “diligence” is that each of the two sides, evil and good, has the two states of already arisen and not yet arisen, and all four corners must be looked after. Where it comes down: to cut off evil without growing good, or to do good deeds without guarding against evil, is in either case to have done only half.

The four bases of supernormal power. The sūtra lists four practices of elimination accomplished through concentration — the concentration of zeal, of vigor, of mind, and of contemplation — by which the base of supernormal power is accomplished. The base of supernormal power is the foot of accord with wish; the sūtra as cited in the treatise has “factor of accord with wish”. The difference among the four lies in the leading power by which one enters concentration: with zeal as the leader, with vigor as the leader, with mind as the leader, with the wisdom of contemplation as the leader. The error to be cleared away is reading the base of supernormal power as a display of supernormal powers; it means that the power of concentration has become handy and free, according with one’s wish.

The five faculties. The faculty of faith, of vigor, of mindfulness, of concentration, and of wisdom. A faculty means what is able to give birth — once these five have taken root, wholesome dharmas can grow. The sequence is meant: faith gives birth to vigor, vigor to mindfulness, mindfulness to concentration, concentration to wisdom.

The five powers. The power of faith, of vigor, of mindfulness, of concentration, and of wisdom. They share the names of the five faculties but stand at a different place: the faculties are what has arisen, the powers are what cannot be broken. The misreading takes the five faculties and the five powers for a repetition; in fact the one speaks of their arising and the other of their being accomplished.

The seven factors of awakening. Mindfulness, the discernment of dharmas, vigor, joy, ease, concentration, and equanimity, the seven factors of awakening. Ease is pliancy of body and mind. These seven are the limbs present when awakening is present, and they also have a regulating use: when the mind is agitated one uses ease, concentration, and equanimity; when it is sunken one uses the discernment of dharmas, vigor, and joy. Where it comes down: when practice does not go well, the trouble is often that the medicine has been mismatched.

The eightfold right path. Right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right vigor, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The eight have right view at their head and right concentration at their end, and in the middle they contain the three limbs of speech, action, and livelihood — from which one can see that this path is not only on the sitting cushion but also in speaking, in doing, and in making a living.

The closing clause of the five sets from the bases of supernormal power onward: relying upon disgust, relying upon dispassion, relying upon cessation, dedicating it toward equanimity. Among the seven sets, the five sets of the bases of supernormal power, the faculties, the powers, the factors of awakening, and the branches of the path each close with “relying upon disgust, relying upon dispassion, relying upon cessation, and dedicating it toward equanimity”; the two sets of the stations of mindfulness and the right eliminations do not have these four clauses. These four clauses are the easiest thing here to read past. Disgust is disgust at birth-and-death, dispassion is being free of desire, cessation is heading for stillness — and in these first three clauses there is no difference from what the two vehicles cultivate. What matters is the fourth clause, “dedicating it toward equanimity”: what is cultivated does not halt at stillness, but is dedicated toward equanimity. The error to be cleared away is reading “equanimity” as giving up; the equanimity of this ground is not abiding in the fruit gained through disgust and dispassion. This clause is precisely the watershed between the factors of the path of the great vehicle and the factors of the path of the two vehicles.

The Ten Purposes for Which the Factors of the Path Are Cultivated: What Keeps One from Falling into the Small Vehicle

Cultivating the same factors of the path, how is it guaranteed that one does not turn into a follower of the two vehicles? The sūtra at once lists ten clauses of purpose: for the sake of not forsaking any sentient being, being upheld by the original vow, having great compassion go before, having great kindness accomplished, keeping in mind the wisdom of omniscience, accomplishing the adorning of a buddha-land, accomplishing the Tathāgata’s powers and fearlessnesses and exclusive dharmas of a buddha and marks and signs and voice all complete, seeking the surpassing path higher and higher, according with the most profound liberation of a buddha that has been heard of, and pondering the skillful means of great wisdom. The treatise judges this passage to be “the practice that guards against the small vehicle”. From which one sees that what marks the difference is not the practice itself but what it is done for — one and the same four stations of mindfulness, with a different raising of the mind, brings a different fruit. The misreading is to suppose that the great vehicle must cultivate some other set of dharmas; where it comes down: in examining one’s own practice, one need not first ask what dharma is being cultivated — ask first for whom this dharma is being cultivated.

Leaving the View of a Body Behind, and the Sifting of Deeds and Practices

Which kind of clinging is it that this ground departs from? The sūtra says that all the clingings that begin with the view of a body and arise with respect to self, person, sentient being, life-span, the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases, emerging and submerging as one reckons and calculates, are departed from by contemplating what counters them. The order here is worth noticing: the view of a body stands first, while the rest — self, person, sentient being, life-span — are named with respect to persons, and the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases are named with respect to dharmas; in one sentence both the clinging to a person and the clinging to dharmas are gathered in. The sūtra also lists four places of clinging: by reason of contemplating what counters them, by reason of what is mine, by reason of goods and property, by reason of the place clung to. The error to be cleared away is taking the view of a body for the coarse clinging to a self; what this ground departs from is the innate and fine grade, the thing that only the stage of cultivation can move at all.

How are deeds to be sifted? The sūtra says that if one sees that a deed is one the Tathāgata has rebuked and is defiled by the afflictions, one relinquishes it altogether; and that if one sees that a deed accords with the bodhisattva path and is one the Tathāgata has praised, one cultivates it altogether. Chengguan points out two reasons here: not doing deeds defiled by the afflictions is what differs from the ordinary person; doing deeds that accord with the bodhisattva path is what differs from the two vehicles. The misreading is to read this sentence as ordinary keeping of the precepts; it is in fact a description of how, the afflictions once gone, deeds turn along with them of themselves — the contemplative practice comes first, and only then such a clean taking up and setting down.

From Practice to Virtue: The Ten States of Mind · The Ten Virtues · The Three Accomplishments · The Ten Kinds of Vigor · The Marks of Virtue at the Fullness of the Ground

Where do the ten states of mind come from? The sūtra says that this bodhisattva, according to the wisdom of skillful means that arises in him, cultivates the path and the portions that aid the path, and thereupon gains the mind that moistens, the pliant mind, the well-tempered mind, the mind of benefit and ease, the mind free of defilement, the mind that seeks the Dharma higher and higher, the mind that seeks surpassing wisdom, the mind that rescues all the world, the mind that reveres those of virtue and does not go against their instruction, and the mind that cultivates well whatever Dharma it has heard. Chengguan says that the first clause is the general one and the remaining nine are the particular ones; that the general clause, “moistening”, has the sense of deep longing, love, and reverence; that pliancy is the excellence of delighting in practice and being well tempered is the excellence of sovereignty in samādhi, these two being the substance of the practice, while the seven clauses that follow are the countering of faults, which is the function of the practice. The error to be cleared away is taking these ten states of mind for ten emotions; they are the actual shapes taken in the mind by the two practices, the path and the aids to the path.

The ten virtues of knowing gratitude and of pliancy. The sūtra says that this bodhisattva knows gratitude and knows how to repay it, that his mind is exceedingly gentle and good, that he dwells with others in ease, that he is plain and upright and pliant, that he has no conduct of the dense thicket, that he has no conceit of self, that he is good at receiving instruction, and that he grasps the intent of one who expounds. Chengguan’s gloss on “conduct without the dense thicket” is especially concrete: with respect to the robes and food he makes use of, before the donor he does not conceal his own faults — the dense thicket being a figure for crooked covering and hiding. And the difference between “grasping the intent of one who expounds” and “being good at receiving instruction” is this: the one is being able to take in what is said, the other is being able to get hold of what is meant. Where it comes down: this whole set of virtues lies between one person and another, from which one can see that the realization of a bodhisattva on the grounds shows itself first in how he deals with people.

The three accomplishments. The sūtra says that thus forbearance is accomplished, thus pliancy is accomplished, thus stillness is accomplished, and then states them together — forbearance, pliancy, and stillness accomplished. Chengguan sums up the ten preceding clauses with these three forbearances. The error to be cleared away is reading “stillness” as immobility; here it says that the afflictions do not arise.

The ten kinds of vigor. Not resting, free of defilement, not turning back, vast, boundless, blazing, equal to the unequalled, unbreakable, ripening all sentient beings, and discerning well the path from what is not the path. Chengguan says that the first clause is the general one and the other nine are the particular ones, and of these he glosses “free of defilement” most finely of all: the practice of vigor must flow evenly, and defiled means shared with indolence and shared with attachment — attachment then goes too far and indolence falls short, like a lute-string too tight or too slack, and only neither pressing on nor slackening is the even flow. Where it comes down: the illness of practice is not only sloth, it is also haste; haste too is defilement.

The marks of virtue at the fullness of the ground. The sūtra lists the realm of the mind pure, the deep mind not lost, awakening and understanding clear and keen, roots of goodness increasing, distance from the defilement of the world, every doubt cut off, clarity and decisiveness complete, joy and bliss filling him, the buddhas guarding and keeping him in mind, and measureless resolve and delight all accomplished. Chengguan says that this is “the fruit that is the fullness of the original realm of the mind”: the mind of the factors of awakening is the original realm of the mind, and because one is rightly mindful of suchness and cultivates the factors of the path higher up, it is said to be full — and what makes that fullness possible is the vigor that came before. The misreading is to take these ten clauses for a reward; they are the fruit of what went before, not something added from outside.

The Fruit of Pliancy: Seeing Buddhas, Going Forth, and Two Similes

Why should the marks at the fullness of the ground be spoken of beginning from ‘seeing buddhas’? The sūtra says that one who dwells on this ground, by the power of his vow, gets to see many buddhas, on up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas, and that to all of them he is reverent and respectful, serving and making offerings, offering up robes, bedding, food and drink, and medicines and every furnishing that sustains life, and making offerings to the Saṅgha as well, and with these roots of goodness dedicating and directing them toward unsurpassed awakening. The error to be cleared away is treating the seeing of buddhas as a tally of merit; the weight of the sūtra’s sentence is on “by the power of his vow” — how many buddhas one sees is what the measure of the vow calls forth, not something exchanged for hours of practice.

Hearing the Dharma and going forth. The sūtra says that in the presence of those buddhas he reverently hears the Dharma, and having heard it upholds it and cultivates it completely; and further that within the Dharma of those buddhas he goes forth and cultivates the path, and cultivates his deep faith and understanding still further. Chengguan points out here a nicety of arrangement: the three preceding grounds are lodged in common with the world, and since on the first two grounds one is a human king there is text about going forth, while on the third one is a heaven king and there is none; from the fourth ground upward one is lodged at the head of what transcends the world, and therefore the text about going forth appears again, symbolizing that the mind goes forth. Where it comes down: the going forth here is not a judgment of outward form, it is that the mind no longer takes the world as its home.

The simile of the goldsmith refining gold. The sūtra says that it is like a goldsmith who refines true gold and makes of it an ornament, which all the rest of the gold cannot come up to; and that the roots of goodness of a bodhisattva dwelling on this ground are such that the roots of goodness of the lower grounds cannot come up to them. The treatise attaches this simile to “the teaching brought to completion as realization”: the true gold figures the teaching heard on the preceding ground, and the making of it into an ornament figures its being made now into realizing wisdom on this one. So the eye of this simile is not that gold is precious but that ‘it has now been made into a vessel’ — the same gold, unworked and worked, is not the same thing. The first ground also uses a gold simile, and what it says is putting it into the fire again and again so that it turns ever brighter and purer; by this ground the heat has reached the point of making a vessel.

The simile of the maṇi jewel. The sūtra says that it is like the pure orb of light of a maṇi jewel, able to send forth radiance, which the other jewels cannot come up to and which wind and rain and such conditions cannot damage; and that a bodhisattva dwelling on this ground is such that the bodhisattvas of the lower grounds cannot come up to him and the hosts of Māra and the afflictions cannot damage him. The treatise attaches this simile to “the teaching raised out of realization” — realizing wisdom is like the maṇi, and within the light of the jewel the light of the teaching is sent forth, shining everywhere and showing itself; and it is just in this that the name of this ground as Flame consists. Chengguan takes apart three of the words in the simile besides: being without stain is named pure, being still and illumining is named light, being full is named orb, and only when all three senses are furnished does it deserve the name of realizing wisdom. The error to be cleared away is taking the two similes for a repeated compliment; the one simile says the teaching brought to completion as realization and the other the teaching raised out of realization — their directions are exactly opposite, and only put together do they give the whole aspect of this ground.

Cultivation by Portion · The Concluding Name · The Body of the Fruit of Recompense

Why must the four means of gathering and the ten perfections be spoken of as preeminent? The sūtra says that among the four means of gathering this bodhisattva has the sharing of tasks preeminent and among the ten perfections vigor preeminent, and that the rest are not uncultivated, only that they follow his strength and his portion. The error to be cleared away is to suppose that on this ground only these two are cultivated; the four words “the rest are not uncultivated” have already blocked that misreading in advance. Preeminence says where the aspect of this ground shows itself — the sharing of tasks is sharing in the tasks of sentient beings, and vigor is that from which the flame of wisdom of this ground blazes up. Li Tongxuan too says that on this ground the perfection of vigor is foremost and the other nine are its companions.

The concluding name. The sūtra says: this is what is called a summary account of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s fourth ground, Flaming Wisdom. The two words “summary account” belong to the arrangement shared by all ten grounds — what is spoken is only a small portion of the aspects of practice of this ground.

The body of the fruit of recompense: he mostly becomes a king of the Suyāma Heaven. The sūtra says that a bodhisattva dwelling on this ground mostly becomes a king of the Suyāma Heaven, able by good means to remove from sentient beings the view of a body and such delusions and to establish them in right view. The correspondence here is very much to be seen: what he himself departs from on this very ground is the view of a body, and so what the station of the fruit he calls forth does is precisely to remove the view of a body for beings. The misreading is to take the station of a heaven king for the enjoyment of merit; it is the outward showing of the aspect of practice.

The four means of gathering do not depart from the three recollections. The sūtra says that in all the deeds of giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and the sharing of tasks, he does not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, does not depart from keeping the Dharma in mind, does not depart from keeping the Saṅgha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the complete possession of every mode and the wisdom of omniscience. This is a fixed formula shared by all ten grounds, and what matters in it are the words “does not depart”: the wider what one does, the less the tethering of the mind may be lost.

The vow-mind of advancing beyond. The sūtra says that the bodhisattva further thinks in this way: I should be, among all sentient beings, the foremost, the excellent, the surpassing, the wondrous, the subtly wondrous, the high, the unsurpassed, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience. The error to be cleared away is reading this string of “being excellent” as a mind that contends for excellence; the last clause, “being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience”, has already made it plain — the high station sought is sought so that beings may have somewhere to rely.

The number of the spiritual transformations at the fullness of the ground. The sūtra says that if he rouses diligent vigor, then in a single moment of thought he gains entry to koṭis of samādhis, sees koṭis of buddhas, knows the spiritual power of koṭis of buddhas, shakes koṭis of worlds, on up to manifesting koṭis of bodies, each body having koṭis of bodhisattvas as its retinue; and that if by a surpassing power of vow he manifests sovereignly, then it surpasses this number, and a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas could not reckon and know it. The first ground has “a hundred” and this ground has “a koṭi” — increasing ground by ground, which is the way of measuring shared by all ten grounds. And the last clause matters still more: what the power of vow manifests surpasses this number, and the number cannot be known. From which one sees that quantity is only a marker, not a ceiling.

How the Verses in Repetition Match the Prose

The verses in repetition are seventeen, and Chengguan divides them into three: the first twelve repeat the practice of the station, the next four the fruit of the station, and the last one shows the name and concludes the exposition. What the prose has already taught, the verses only match up with and do not teach over again — the verse “the bodhisattva has purified the third ground” matches the ten gates of Dharma-light; the two verses “no sooner has he mounted the Flaming Ground than his strength increases” and “he observes the forming and decaying of the world and that birth is on account of deeds” match the ten wisdoms and the birth into the family of the Tathāgata; the verse “having gained these dharmas, his kindness and pity increase” matches the four stations of mindfulness; the verse “the bodhisattva cultivates the four practices of right diligence” matches, in general, everything from the four right eliminations to the eightfold right path; the two verses from “to deliver sentient beings he cultivates those practices” onward match the ten purposes; the verse “the afflicted conduct that the Tathāgata rebukes” matches the sifting of deeds and practices; the verse “revering those of virtue, he cultivates the right Dharma” matches the knowing of gratitude and pliancy; the verse “the bodhisattva dwelling on this Flaming-Wisdom Ground” matches the marks of virtue at the fullness of the ground; the verse “the bodhisattva of this ground is the most excellent among humans” matches the seeing of buddhas, the going forth, and the gold simile; the verse “the bodhisattva dwelling here has merit complete” matches the maṇi simile; the verse “dwelling on this ground he mostly becomes a king of the Flaming Heaven” matches the body of the fruit of recompense; the verse “the bodhisattva applies himself to the power of vigor” matches the spiritual transformations at the fullness of the ground; and the last verse shows the name and concludes the exposition.

Two places in the verses are not in the prose, and must be spoken of separately. The first, “the sixty-two that begin with the view of a body”. The prose lists only the view of a body, self, person, sentient being, life-span, the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases, and marks out no number; the verse points directly to sixty-two. Why sixty-two? Because once the view of a body is set up, a net of views of every kind unfolds along the three times and along the extremes of existence and non-existence, and sixty-two is the name for their total. The error to be cleared away is taking the sixty-two views for sixty-two dogmas that must be broken one by one; the verse says “in this fourth ground all of them are left behind”, and what is left behind is the root that gives birth to the net of views — the view of a body. Where it comes down: entanglements at the level of opinion mostly need not be cleared away item by item; go back to the root, and to leave it is to have finished with them all.

The second, “setting his aim upon receiving the consecration, to deliver sentient beings”. The prose says that the ten states of mind are complete and that he seeks the buddha path single-mindedly, and says nothing of receiving the consecration; the verse says that he sets his aim upon receiving it. Receiving the consecration means receiving the station of a buddha when the tenth ground is about to be full, and its appearing here in the verses of the fourth ground is meant to mark out how far the measure of his mind reaches — he has only just mounted the fourth ground, and already what he aims at is the consecration. The error to be cleared away is reading this as an overreaching fantasy; the next line of the verse is “to deliver sentient beings”, from which one sees that what is aimed at is not the station but what can be done from it.

Reading Against the Consciousness-Only Mirror: The Flaming-Wisdom Ground and the Suchness Without Any Taking In

This ground has a strictly matched counterpart in the consciousness-only line. The Cheng weishi lun lists the fourth ground as the Flaming-Wisdom Ground and explains that, abiding in the most surpassing factors of awakening, one burns the firewood of the afflictions and the flame of wisdom increases — and both Fazang and Chengguan cite this as their principal ground when explaining the name. The obstruction that line establishes for this ground is named the obstruction of the active operation of subtle afflictions, meaning the innate portion within the obstruction to the knowable, the view of a body and the rest that accompany the sixth consciousness; it is called subtle because it is of the lowest grade, is not attended to as an object, and operates actively at a far remove — and this answers, sentence for sentence, to the passage of this ground about “all the clingings that begin with the view of a body”. The follies cut off are two: the folly of the love of the attainments, that is, savoring the eight concentrations, and the folly of the love of dharmas, that is, the conceit of understanding the Dharma — and Chengguan says expressly that these two are the illnesses of the love of concentration and the love of dharmas from the preceding ground, and that therefore this ground cannot treat them except by cultivating the factors of awakening. The suchness realized is named the suchness without any taking in, which Chengguan glosses as this suchness being attached to nothing and not being what the clinging to self and the rest depend upon and take up; and he adds a sentence of the greatest weight — gaining this suchness, where would any love of concentration or of dharmas still be? — so that one is able to accomplish the practice of the factors of awakening and the practice of the path of non-abiding, vigorous and not turning back. The She dacheng lun, where it assigns the ten grounds, has for the fourth ground precisely “by reason of the sense of being without any taking in” — the same axis. The Yuqie shidi lun, in the Bodhisattva Stage, names this ground as expounded at length in the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds under the Flaming-Wisdom Ground, and says that the wisdom of the teaching shines and illumines and therefore it is named Flaming Wisdom; and in the Section of Ascertainment it says further that the wisdom regarding the afflictions is like a flame of fire, and therefore the fourth is named Flaming Wisdom. Holding the two mirrors up together, one can see clearly: what the Huayan side speaks of is how wisdom burns and how the teaching is raised out of realization, while what the consciousness-only side speaks of is the folly cut off, the obstruction departed from, and the suchness realized — the one side speaks of the strength of the fire, the other of what firewood is burning.

Lineage

The meaning of this ground has been transmitted by the ancient worthies along several tracks, recorded side by side without adjudication. As to the explanation of the name, Fazang’s Tanxuan ji lists nine authorities under the gate of the explanation of the name for this ground: Vasubandhu’s Cheng weishi lun establishes the name by abiding in the most surpassing factors of awakening and burning the firewood of the afflictions so that the flame of wisdom increases; Asaṅga’s She lun establishes it by the factors of awakening burning up every obstruction; Asvabhāva’s explanation, by there being flaming wisdom on this ground and therefore its being named the Flaming Ground; Vasubandhu’s explanation of the She lun, by being able to burn all the root afflictions and derivative afflictions and reduce them to ashes; the Zhuangyan lun, by taking the wisdom of the factors of awakening as the self-nature of the flame and the twofold obstruction of delusion and of the knowable as the self-nature of the firewood, the bodhisattva of this ground being able to raise a flaming wisdom that burns the firewood of the two obstructions; the Jinguangming, by being able to burn the afflictions and by the fire of wisdom increasing the radiance, and by its being the place upon which the cultivating of the factors of the path depends, and so being named the Flaming Ground; the Jieshenmi, the Yuqie, and the Xianyang say much the same; the Dazhidu lun gives it the separate name of the Ground of Increasing Excellence; and the Shizhu piposha lun names it the Flaming Ground because giving, discipline, and much hearing blaze up in awesome virtue. Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun sets up another track: the preceding ground arose by reason of concentration and is therefore named Luminous, while this ground, by the thirty-seven gates of contemplation that aid the path, observes body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, and the self-nature being without support the wisdom grows brighter and purer, and so is named Flaming Wisdom; and he further, at the place of Sudhana’s symbolic reading, takes the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Universally Rescues All Sentient Beings, seen at this station, as symbolizing the thirty-seven factors of the path as the aiding skillful means by which the buddhas of the three times teach and transform sentient beings. Chengguan for his part gathers in both the sense of the treatise and the various authorities, opening the three senses of first entering, the midst of the ground, and the fullness of the ground, and gathering the maṇi jewel sending forth light under the fullness of the ground. All these accounts stand together; all are settled accounts of the ancient worthies, and they are recorded without adjudging one higher or lower.

The name of the obstruction departed from has likewise been transmitted by the ancient worthies in three forms: following the Shidi jing lun it is named the obstruction of the conceit of understanding the Dharma, Fazang saying that on the third ground one hears the teaching that flows down from the surpassing, gives rise to understanding, and so raises conceit, and that the fourth ground reverses this; following the Liang recension of the She lun it is named the ignorance of the view of a body and the rest arising together with subtle afflictions, having for its substance the seeds of the discriminated clinging to dharmas; following the Cheng weishi lun it is named the obstruction of the active operation of subtle afflictions. The three names are recorded side by side without adjudication.

The expansion and compression in the sentence on entering the ground has also been transmitted in divergent forms: the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka has “born into the family of the Tathāgata”, while the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka and the sūtra as cited in the treatise have “within the family of the Tathāgata he turns to have strength”. Chengguan has already furnished a reconciling account, saying that on the first ground one was already born into the family, that on the second and third grounds one set about cultivating skillful means and had strength early on, and that now, on the strength of the much hearing of the third ground, world-transcending wisdom is completed, and therefore it says that he turns to have it. This too is recorded without adjudication.

The text of this ground opens out into two streams. On the Huayan track, what is taken from this ground is the sense of teaching and realization giving rise to one another — the gold simile for the teaching brought to completion as realization and the maṇi simile for the teaching raised out of realization — and this became the scriptural ground for the Xianshou house’s doctrine that the two wisdoms of teaching and realization aid one another; and Li Tongxuan, in the later part of his treatise where he discusses the ten mysteries and the mutual containment of Indra’s net, also cites this ground as an example. On the consciousness-only track, this ground is taken as the station of practice of the fourth ground, and upon it are established the assignments of the obstruction of the active operation of subtle afflictions, the two follies, and the suchness without any taking in; the explanations of the fourth ground in the She dacheng lun and the Yuqie shidi lun alike are established upon this sūtra. The text of a single ground: on one side it grows into the Huayan perfect interfusion of teaching and realization, on the other into the consciousness-only cutting off of obstructions and realizing of suchness — while the sūtra itself has said only one thing, and that the plainest of all: one who dwells on this ground cultivates the four stations of mindfulness on up to the eightfold right path, relying upon disgust, relying upon dispassion, relying upon cessation, and dedicating it toward equanimity.

Where the Difficulty Lies: Two Wisdoms, and the Joining of What Is Hard to Join

Someone who has cultivated as far as the fourth ground has already gained world-transcending wisdom. World-transcending wisdom sees through things, and once one has seen through them the most natural direction to take is not to want to come back — birth-and-death is suffering, nirvāṇa is ease, and to turn toward ease and let go of suffering follows as a matter of course. What the fifth ground has to deal with is precisely this ‘matter of course’.

The name of the ground is Hard to Conquer. Where does the difficulty lie? Chengguan does not set up a new account of his own; he lists out one by one the explanations of the name given by the several houses of the ancient worthies and then gathers them all in, saying that these accounts “differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional.” The most direct of them is the sentence he cites from the She dacheng: the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality and the wisdom of the world “are mutually contrary, and one joins what is hard to join and makes them answer to one another.” Vasubandhu explains it more finely still: the wisdom of the truth of ultimate reality is without discrimination, the wisdom of worldly crafts and the like has discrimination, and these two wisdoms are contrary in their very nature, and yet one must cultivate until they are joined. The difficulty in Hard to Conquer lies here: it is not that it is hard to break the afflictions; it is that someone who is already able to be without discrimination must learn all over again to do things with discrimination, and must give short measure on neither side.

This is why an odd juxtaposition appears in the text of this ground: the first half speaks of “knowing as it really is that this is the noble truth of suffering” and runs on to the ten truths; the second half speaks of how “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice,” and goes on about letters and reckoning, medicine and calendrical lore, song and dance, gardens and pools. A reader will find this a jump at first — why should one who has realized the truths study such things? In fact this is precisely the substance of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground: the two wheels, the true and the conventional, turn together without partiality. Chengguan says that what is cut off on this ground is “the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle” and what is realized is “the suchness of the absence of difference in kind” — what is cut off is not the coarse afflictions but that partiality of ‘being weary of birth-and-death and delighting in nirvāṇa’; what is realized is not some other sort of truth, but that suchness in which birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are equal and without difference.

The request for the Dharma at the opening must also be read with an eye to who is speaking. This ground has no outline section for the Tathāgata’s empowerment and none for Vajragarbha’s declining; there is only the one question asked by the bodhisattva Vimukticandra: “The aspects of practice within the fifth ground — may the son of the Buddha declare them!” What is asked for is the ‘aspects of practice’, not the virtues of the fruit. Everything below, prose and verses in repetition alike, comes from the mouth of the bodhisattva Vajragarbha alone, and “sons of the Buddha” is his form of address to the assembly of bodhisattvas present. Keep this thread in mind as you read: this is a bodhisattva who has already entered the grounds, telling those who have not yet entered about the road he himself has walked.

The Ten Kinds of Equal and Pure Mind: The Gate by Which the Ground Is Entered

The text says that to enter the fifth ground one “should turn toward it and enter by the ten kinds of equal and pure mind.” Ask a question first: why ‘equal’? If the fourth ground has already gained world-transcending wisdom, what is still lacking? What is lacking is precisely ‘not treating that wisdom as a treasure’. Chengguan, following the treatise, points out that what this ground counters is named the ‘conceit of excellence’, and that it is of two kinds: “the first is the conceit regarding another ground — that is, on the fourth ground one gained world-transcending wisdom and took up its aspect of excellence, and this is called the conceit of excellence.” To look upon what was gained on the preceding ground as an aspect of excellence and so to lift oneself up — this is the conceit regarding another ground; and to go on seeking an aspect of excellence in these ten pure minds themselves is the conceit regarding one’s own ground. The reason the ten minds are called ‘equal’ is just that they treat this ‘taking up an aspect of excellence’.

The ten minds are laid out in a sequence. The first three are the equal and pure minds regarding the Dharma of the buddhas of the past, the future, and the present — Chengguan outlines them as “the first three make clear the Dharma of the buddhas,” meaning the powers and other virtues at the station of the fruit of buddhahood. The dharma realized by the buddhas of the three times is without duality and without difference, and if one raises a view of earlier and later, higher and lower, regarding it, then the mind is no longer equal. These three minds are set up first in order to put one’s eyes at the highest place first: what is to be accomplished is a dharma one and the same with the buddhas of the three times.

The fourth and fifth are the equal and pure mind of discipline and the equal and pure mind of mind itself. Here the eyes are drawn back to oneself: in the practice of discipline there are not two standards for different persons or different times, and in the ground of the mind there are not two faces for the favorable and the adverse. Chengguan, within the latter seven minds, judges that “within the former they are gathered into three trainings: the first is discipline, the next concentration, and the remaining four wisdom” — the fourth is the training in discipline, the fifth the training in concentration, and the four below them belong to the training in wisdom. So to read the ten minds is not to read ten scattered items; it is to read one complete establishment of discipline, concentration, and wisdom.

The sixth is “the equal and pure mind that removes views and doubt and regret,” and the seventh “the equal and pure mind of the wisdom of what is the path and what is not the path.” Views together with doubt and regret are put into one clause, gathering into one statement that set of delusions cut off at the path of seeing — the view of a body, doubt, and the grasping at rules and observances; while the wisdom of what is the path and what is not is the ability to judge what is the path and what is not. Chengguan, when he takes them apart into seven purities, says “taken apart they are seven purities: first, purity of discipline; second, purity of concentration; third, purity of view; fourth, purity in passing beyond doubt,” and points out that the sūtra joins views and doubt into a single clause so as to make up the number ten. What matters is this: if a person still wavers about ‘what the path is’, then his equality is only vagueness, not equality.

The eighth is “the equal and pure mind of the knowing and seeing of practice,” the ninth “the equal and pure mind that makes an ever higher observation of all the factors of awakening.” The eighth speaks of the knowing and seeing that belong to practice; the ninth speaks of making an ‘ever higher observation’ of the factors of awakening — it is not that having cultivated them once is enough, but that upon what has been cultivated one observes again and turns more excellent again. This is the easiest place to misread as a feeling of ‘dissatisfaction’; in fact it is the advance of insight: the deeper what one knows, the more one knows that it is not exhausted.

The tenth is “the equal and pure mind that teaches and transforms all sentient beings.” The first nine are for oneself, this one for others. Chengguan outlines these seven minds as “the latter seven make clear the according with the Dharma of the buddhas,” and within them the first six are for oneself and the last one for others. To place it last is not to make it lightest; it is the final closing of the mouth of the vessel: if the minds purified in the first nine do not come down upon sentient beings, then equality is only self-admiration.

With the ten minds complete, the text gives its own judging sentence: “It is by these ten kinds of equal and pure mind that a bodhisattva-mahāsattva gains entry to the fifth bodhisattva ground.” — entering the ground is not a response granted from without; it is the natural outcome once these ten minds have been cultivated to the full.

Twelve Occurrences of “Because”: Where the Mind of Non-Retrogression Comes From

The first thing said after entering the ground is about “the mind that does not turn back,” and the text gives it twelve reasons, every one of them closing with “because.” One must read the intent of this way of writing: not turning back is not a vow; it is a state that follows once the conditions are complete.

The twelve causes may be seen in three layers (Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun outlines them as “four clauses in the general statement” and “eight kinds of practice that accord with the path,” that is, four plus eight). The first layer carries on from before: “because he well cultivates the factors of awakening” — the thirty-seven factors of awakening cultivated on the fourth ground are the foundation; “because he well purifies the deep mind” — the ten equal minds have washed the deep mind clean. The second layer advances: “because he turns again to seek the higher and more surpassing path,” “because he accords with suchness” — on one side he seeks upward, on the other he accords with suchness and does not depart from equality; and Chengguan points out here that the former two clauses are what is to be countered (namely, raising in the pure mind itself a seeking after an aspect of excellence), while the latter two are exactly what counters it, since “not abiding in the pure mind and yet raising up all the practices is what counters the conceit of abiding in purity.” The third layer is the actual stuff of practice: being upheld by the power of the vow, being kindly and pitying toward sentient beings and not forsaking them, amassing merit and wisdom as aids to the path, being diligent in cultivation without resting, bringing forth skillful means, observing and illumining the ever higher grounds, being received and kept in mind by the Tathāgata, and being upheld by the power of mindfulness and wisdom.

One misunderstanding has to be ruled out: not turning back does not mean not growing weary. The text lists “because he is diligent in cultivation and does not rest,” which shows precisely that this is a state of continuous exertion, not an insurance policy bought once and for all. Brought down to oneself, these twelve clauses are in fact a checklist — a person who turns back usually does not turn back all at once; it is that one or two of these twelve items slackened first.

From the Four Truths to the Ten Truths: Ten Contemplations, Not Fourteen Truths

Next the text says that the bodhisattva of this ground “knows as it really is: this is the noble truth of suffering,” lists the four truths in full, and thereafter lists the truth of the conventional, the truth of the supreme meaning, the truth of characteristics, the truth of distinctions, the truth of establishment, the truth of the actual, the truth of arising, the truth of exhaustion and non-arising, the truth of the wisdom that enters the path, the truth of the accomplishing in due order of the bodhisattva grounds, on up to the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata. A question arises on first reading: besides the four truths there are again ten truths — are there then fourteen kinds of truth?

Chengguan has already blocked this misreading, and he says it flatly: “This is ten kinds of contemplation upon the four truths; it does not mean contemplating fourteen truths.” And he cites the words of the Yuqie in evidence — on this ground, with respect to the four noble truths, one knows them as they really are by ten kinds of aspect. That is to say, the four truths are the dharma contemplated and the ten truths are the gates that contemplate; and what the ten gates shine upon is still the one and the same four truths.

Then why open ten gates? Chengguan says that the meaning of the four truths gathers in the whole Dharma realm, that the bodhisattva shines exhaustively upon it and leaves nothing out, and that what is said differently according to different wisdoms cannot be exhausted; therefore ten gates are set out in brief to show that it is inexhaustible. And these ten gates are “all the bodhisattva’s own wisdom,” while the treatise masters distinguish them with respect to the differences in guiding and transforming beings. There is a key teaching point here: the ten truths are not a fine division of knowledge; they are for speaking different words to different sentient beings. The truth of the conventional is spoken to those who delight in the world, the truth of the supreme meaning to those who can receive the ultimate — one and the same four truths, with ten doors of entry.

The names of the ten truths are not entirely the same in the sixty-fascicle and the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka (the eighty has the truth of the conventional, the truth of establishment, the truth of arising, and the truth of the wisdom that enters the path, where the sixty has the truth of the world, the truth of exposition, the truth of coming to arise, and the truth of entering the path); this belongs to a difference in the systems of rendering, and both texts are recorded without adjudication. What is to be held on to is the structure beneath the names and numbers, which Chengguan explains thus: the first five contemplate the four truths throughout; the next four contemplate suffering, origination, cessation, and the path separately; and “the last one contemplates only cessation and the path, being the cause of the bodhisattva grounds, since it realizes the Buddha’s wisdom.”

The Ten Truths Explained One by One: Why Each Truth Is Known

The text then gives, clause by clause, ‘because of such and such, he knows such and such a truth’. These ten clauses are the bones of the whole passage, and are worth reading one at a time.

“Because he accords with what the minds of sentient beings delight in and thereby makes them glad, he knows the truth of the conventional” — the reason the truth of the conventional has to be known turns out to be what the minds of sentient beings delight in. Worldly principles are not for one’s own settling down; they are so that one can get on speaking terms with people. “Because he penetrates the one real characteristic, he knows the truth of the supreme meaning” — the supreme meaning is not another higher place; it is the penetrating of that one and only real characteristic.

“Because he is aware of the own-characteristic and the shared characteristic of dharmas, he knows the truth of characteristics” — the own-characteristic is where this dharma differs from that, the shared characteristic is what dharmas have in common; only when both are known is it called knowing characteristics. “Because he understands clearly the distinctions among the positions of dharmas, he knows the truth of distinctions” — one and the same dharma has distinctions at different positions, and only one who can understand these distinctions will not expound the Buddha-Dharma as one indistinct mass.

“Because he is well able to discriminate the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-bases, he knows the truth of establishment” — the five aggregates, the eighteen elements, and the twelve sense-bases are the basic framework by which the Buddha-Dharma sets up the world, and this is what ‘establishment’ means. “Because he is aware of the suffering and distress of body and mind, he knows the truth of the actual” — what the truth of the actual faces is suffering in fact: the suffering of the body and the distress of the mind, not suffering as a concept.

“Because he is aware that birth in the destinies continues on unbroken, he knows the truth of arising” — birth in the destinies is link upon link, and he knows this aspect of unbroken continuity. “Because all burning distress is finally extinguished, he knows the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising” — that burning distress is finally extinguished is exhaustion; that having been extinguished it does not arise again is non-arising.

“Because there issues forth non-duality, he knows the truth of the wisdom that enters the path” — the reason the wisdom that enters the path is the path is just that it issues forth out of non-duality. “Because he rightly awakens to all the aspects of practice, he knows well the accomplishing in due order and unbroken continuity of all the bodhisattva grounds, on up to the truth of the accomplishing of the wisdom of the Tathāgata” — the last truth is the widest, running from the due order of the bodhisattva grounds all the way through to the accomplishing of the Tathāgata’s wisdom.

The shared sentence pattern of these ten clauses is worth noticing: first come ‘is aware’, ‘understands’, ‘is well able to discriminate’, ‘penetrates’, and then ‘he knows such and such a truth’. That is to say, a truth is not a name to be remembered; it is a knowing that comes to stand only after there has been awareness. Here the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka marks the last four clauses directly as the truth of suffering, the truth of origination, the truth of cessation, and the truth of the path, while the eighty sets up separately the truth of the actual, the truth of arising, the truth of the wisdom of exhaustion and non-arising, and the truth of the wisdom that enters the path — the names differ and the four things pointed to do not; both texts are recorded without adjudication.

The Power of the Wisdom of Faith and Understanding, Not the Power of Ultimate Wisdom

Having finished the ten truths, the text adds a most important limiting clause of its own: “he knows by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, not by the power of ultimate wisdom.”

This sentence is where the whole ground finds its measure. When a bodhisattva reaches the fifth ground, the wisdom of the truths is already this broad and deep, and yet it is not the Buddha’s ultimate wisdom. Why must this clause be marked? What it guards against is precisely the conceit of ‘taking up an aspect of excellence’ — the ten truths being known, if one took oneself to have exhausted them, the conceit of excellence would rise again and the ten equal minds before would have been cultivated for nothing. The verses in repetition put this layer still more plainly: “observing the truths in this way, though it be wondrous, he has not yet gained the unobstructed and surpassing liberation” — that it is wondrous is a fact, and that it has not reached the unobstructed is a fact too.

Brought down upon the reader, this clause is also a measuring rod: a student of the Dharma will often, after understanding one great principle, take ‘faith and understanding’ for ‘the ultimate’. Even at the fifth ground the bodhisattva still honestly admits that he is within the compass of faith and understanding — how much more the rest of us.

The Conditioned Is False, and Yet Great Compassion Increases

After gaining the wisdoms of the truths, the text writes what he sees: “he knows as it really is that all conditioned dharmas are false and deceiving, and that they delude and beguile the foolish.” False means unreal in substance; deceiving means seeming to exist in their aspect; deluding and beguiling the foolish means cheating people in their function — the three words are three layers.

Then comes the most important turn in the whole passage: “at this the bodhisattva turns to increase great compassion toward all sentient beings, and gives rise to the light of great loving-kindness.” Having seen through conditioned dharmas as false, one would expect him to cool down; and yet the text says that the mind of compassion ‘turns to increase’. This is exactly the heart-method of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground: the wisdom does not go cold, the compassion does not go blind. If one sees through and the heart goes cold, that is falling into the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle; the reason this ground is able to cut off that obstruction is just that the deeper its wisdom, the thicker its compassion. Loving-kindness and compassion are raised together — compassion draws out suffering, loving-kindness gives ease, and “the light of great loving-kindness” says that this kindness is able to shine, and is not merely a softness within the heart.

The Prior Limit and the Later Limit: The Real State of Flowing On, and No-Self

“He observes as it really is the prior limit and the later limit of all conditioned practices” — the prior limit is the past, the later limit the future. What does the bodhisattva observe? “He knows: from the ignorance and the craving for existence of the prior limit there is birth, and thereupon the flowing on of birth-and-death”: ignorance is not knowing, the craving for existence is greedy clinging; these two are the cause and so there is birth, and there being birth there is flowing on. “Within the houses of the aggregates they cannot stir and get out, and only heap up the mass of suffering” — the aggregates are like a house, sentient beings dwell inside and cannot get out, and the suffering piles up layer upon layer.

Then comes the sentence of no-self: “there is no self, no one who lives, no one who is nourished and grows, no one who again and again takes up a body in a later destiny; it is apart from self and from what belongs to self.” The four occurrences of ‘no’ must be read apart: no self is that there is no one who governs; no one who lives is that there is no life-substance continuing on; no one who is nourished and grows is that there is no own-being that is fed and matures; no one who again and again takes up a body in a later destiny is that there is no person who goes off to be reborn time after time. All four are swept away together, and it comes home at last to “apart from self and from what belongs to self.”

Further on: “as the prior limit is, so too is the later limit, and both are altogether without anything at all.” The prior limit being without self, so too is the later; and then “there is falsity, and there is greedy clinging, and if these can be exhausted there is release,” “whether it be existence or non-existence, he knows both as they really are” — even the two extremes of ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence’ fall within the range of what is known as it really is. A misunderstanding must be guarded against here: no-self is not annihilation. The text says plainly that the flowing on is there and the mass of suffering is there; what is not there is that ‘self’ which governs.

Where the Pity Lies: Four Occurrences of “Unable” and One of “Do Not Know”

The bodhisattva then raises the thought: “These ordinary persons are foolish and without wisdom, and are truly to be pitied.” What there is to pity the text writes out very concretely: there are bodies beyond number “already perished, now perishing, and yet to perish,” dying over and over, and yet they “are unable to give rise to a thought of weariness toward this body,” but rather “turn to increase those affairs of suffering that revolve like a contrivance” — affairs of suffering that turn of themselves like a contrivance and that one cannot stop oneself.

There follows a string of similes, four of the five reading “unable” and the first reading “do not know”: “they do not know to be anxious and afraid of the four great elements, those four poisonous snakes” — earth, water, fire, and wind are within the body like four poisonous snakes together in one basket, and sentient beings do not know to fear them; “they are unable to draw out the arrows of the several conceits and views” — conceit and view are like arrows stuck in the body, and if they are not drawn out they ache day after day; “they are unable to quench the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion” — the three poisons are a fire, and what it burns is oneself; “they are unable to break up the black darkness of ignorance” — ignorance is darkness, and in the dark nothing is seen; “they are unable to dry up the great sea of craving and desire” — craving and desire are a sea, deep and without bottom. Afterward two more similes are added: “having once entered the dense thicket of Māra’s mind” is losing the road, and being “swept away and drowned by the waves and billows of thought and examination” is that even one’s own thoughts have become waves that drown a person.

This string of similes must be read for its teaching sequence: the snakes in the body, the arrows in the flesh, the fire in the mind, the darkness over the eyes, the sea ahead — from within outward, from near to far. And the last four all use “unable,” not ‘unwilling’; the first clause reads “do not know to be anxious and afraid,” which is not even knowing enough to be afraid. What is pitiable in ordinary persons lies not in evil but in not knowing and in not being able. That the bodhisattva sees this and his compassion increases has its reason just in this ‘not knowing’ and ‘not being able’.

Destitute and Unsupported, and I Alone Raise This Mind

The second thought is written with greater pity still: sentient beings undergo suffering and are “alone and destitute and hard pressed, with none to save them and none to support them, with no island to climb upon and no house to return to, with none to guide them and no eyes of their own, covered over by ignorance and wrapped about by darkness.” No island is that in the water there is no ground to climb onto; no house is that on land there is no place to return to; none to guide and no eyes is that there is neither anyone to lead nor sight of one’s own. Six occurrences of ‘no’ piled up write out every way of retreat as closed.

The bodhisattva’s response is the most forceful sentence on the whole ground: “I now, for the sake of all those sentient beings, cultivate the dharmas of merit and wisdom that aid the path; alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions.” — “alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions” is not aloofness; it is not sharing out the responsibility, not waiting until others come along before one is willing to act. Immediately after, the purpose is stated: “and by merit such as this I shall bring all sentient beings to a purity that is final, on up to their gaining the Tathāgata’s ten powers and unobstructed wisdom” — what is sought for sentient beings is the virtue of the Buddha’s fruit, not a temporary consolation.

Dedication: Where the Roots of Goodness Go

The bodhisattva then observes with wisdom the roots of goodness he has cultivated, and the text uses a long string of parallel clauses to state where they go: to rescue and protect, to benefit, to bring ease to, to have pity on, to bring to accomplishment, to liberate, and to gather in all sentient beings. Seven clauses advancing in order, from the urgent rescue (rescuing and protecting) to the ultimate (liberating and gathering in).

The four clauses that follow are tighter still: “to make all sentient beings depart from every suffering and distress, to make all sentient beings universally attain purity, to make all sentient beings be tamed one and all, and to make all sentient beings enter parinirvāṇa.” Departing from suffering is first, purity is in the middle, being tamed is maturity in practice, and entering parinirvāṇa is the ultimate. See clearly that not one clause here is for himself. The roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground are not stored up; they have somewhere to go at the very moment they arise — dedication is not a ceremony; it is the direction of the roots of goodness themselves.

Twenty-One Names: The Real Names of One Upon the Ground

The text gives a whole passage to naming one who dwells on this ground, one name with one reason, twenty-one in all. This is a passage of the greatest usefulness for teaching in the whole chapter: not one of the names is an honorific; each is a direct pointing at an ability.

The first five are the foundation: “one who is mindful,” who does not forget the dharmas; “one who is wise,” who is able to decide and understand well; “one who has the drift of it,” who knows the intent of the scriptures and can join them together in due order — this name especially is to be valued, for what it speaks of is the ability to read scripture: knowing where the sense of a passage is going and how what precedes and what follows join. “One who has shame and conscience,” who guards himself and guards others; “one who is firm,” who does not forsake the practice of discipline.

The next four are the power of judgment: “one who is aware,” able to observe what is possible and what is not, that is, able to tell what can be from what cannot; “one who follows wisdom,” not following others, that is, taking wisdom as his reliance and not being turned about by persons; “one who follows insight,” knowing well the difference between a phrase that has meaning and one that has not, that is, able to tell which sentence carries doctrine and which does not; “one who has supernormal powers,” who cultivates meditation well — the name of supernormal power is attached to meditation, not to strange abilities.

The next four are the power of practice: “one skilled in means,” able to act in accordance with the world; “one who is never satiated,” good at amassing merit; “one who does not rest,” constantly seeking wisdom; “one who does not tire,” amassing great loving-kindness and compassion. The three occurrences of ‘not’ set side by side speak of three kinds of not stopping: merit does not stop, insight does not stop, compassion does not stop.

The next three are diligence for others: “one who cultivates diligently for others,” wishing to bring all sentient beings into nirvāṇa; “one who seeks diligently and does not slacken,” seeking the Tathāgata’s powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive dharmas; “one who raises the intent and is able to practice,” accomplishing the adorning of a buddha-land — to raise the intent and be able to practice is that vow and practice do not come apart.

The next three are the marks of cultivation: “one who diligently cultivates every sort of good deed,” able to complete the marks and signs; “one who is constantly diligent in cultivation,” seeking to adorn the body, speech, and mind of a buddha; “one who greatly honors and reveres the Dharma,” who in the presence of every bodhisattva Dharma master practices according to the teaching — the name of reverence comes down in practice to ‘practicing according to the teaching’, not to ceremony.

The last two are the measure of the mind: “one whose mind is without obstruction,” who with great skillful means constantly acts within the world; “one who day and night keeps far from other thoughts,” who constantly delights in teaching and transforming all sentient beings. ‘Other thoughts’ are the thoughts besides teaching and transforming — to keep far from other thoughts day and night is to say that within his mind there is hardly a second matter.

The treatise masters set up this passage of names with a sentence pattern slightly different from the eighty (the treatise has “he is named one who has intent” and “he is named one who goes,” where the eighty has “one who is wise” and “one who has the drift of it”), while the sixty first gives the reason and then sets out the name; this belongs to the expansion and compression of the translations, and is recorded without adjudication. What matters is how to read it: these twenty-one names strung together make a full-length portrait of the bodhisattva of the fifth ground — one who can remember, can judge clearly, can sit still, can act, and can set himself aside.

Ten Kinds of Teaching and Transforming: How the Dharma Is Given Out

Having these abilities, the text goes on to how they are used. It lists ten kinds of teaching and transforming: giving, kindly speech, conduct that benefits, and the sharing of tasks — these are the four means of gathering (the sūtra text runs them together as a single clause); and then displaying a bodily form, expounding the dharmas, opening up the bodhisattva’s practice, showing the Tathāgata’s great and awesome power, showing the faults of birth-and-death, praising the benefit of the Tathāgata’s wisdom, manifesting the power of great supernormal transformation, and practices of every sort of skillful means.

Chengguan outlines this passage as a separate setting forth of the four means of gathering, and assigns them clause by clause: displaying a bodily form is the gathering by sharing of tasks; expounding the dharmas is the gathering by kindly speech; from ‘opening up’ onward all are the gathering by conduct that benefits; and the last, ‘every sort of skillful means’, is the general display of conduct that benefits in every gate and in every mode. He further points out the capacity that each clause faces — for those without skillful means with respect to awakening, the bodhisattva’s practice is shown; for those wearied of the great vehicle, the Buddha’s awesome power is shown; for those who delight in the world and cling to wealth and station, its faults are shown; for those who do not believe in the great vehicle, the Tathāgata’s wisdom is praised; for the witless of the outer paths, supernormal power is shown. This assignment is extremely usable: expounding the Dharma is not pouring the Dharma out; it is first looking at who is standing opposite.

At the end of the passage the text concludes itself: “he keeps his mind unbroken and continuous, turning toward the Buddha’s wisdom; the roots of goodness he brings about do not turn back, and he constantly and diligently cultivates and studies the surpassing dharmas of practice.” — to teach and transform others while one’s own mind neither scatters nor turns back: this is the heat of the Hard-to-Conquer Ground.

The Five Sciences Are to Be Taken Up: Why Worldly Learning Is a Bodhisattva’s Place of Study

Then comes the most striking passage of the whole ground: “of the worldly arts there is not one he does not take up and practice.” Letters, reckoning, charts, seals; the several treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind; medicines for the treating of illness, madness, wasting disease, possession by sprites, and poisoning by venom, all of which he can cut off; composition and writing, praise and chanting, song and dance, entertainment and music, jesting and conversation; the fitting arrangement of walled cities and villages, palaces and dwellings, gardens and parks, springs and streams, ponds and pools, grasses and trees, flowers and herbs; knowing where the hoards of gold, silver, maṇi, and the rest lie and taking them out to show others; the flawless observation of the sun, the moon, and the constellations, the cries of birds and the shaking of the earth, the good or ill omen of a dream at night and the fair or foul in the marks of a body; keeping the discipline and entering meditation, immeasurable supernormal powers, and the four formless concentrations.

Ask first: do these count as Buddha-Dharma? Chengguan judges this passage to be the five sciences, and cites the words of the Dabanruo in evidence — “because the bodhisattva of the fifth ground studies the five sciences.” He assigns them item by item: letters and reckoning are the science of sound; charts and seals on to the several treatises are the science of reasoning (the treatises upon earth, water, fire, and wind belong to what is gathered under disputation — the followers of the world take earth alone for the cause, the two sages of water and wind take water and wind for the cause, and those who serve fire take fire for the cause, all of them differing forms of wrong reckoning); medicines for the treating of illness are the science of medicine; composition and song and dance, gardens and pools, hoards of treasure, and even divination by marks are the science of crafts (and he explains too the difference between composition and writing: what is joined in rhyme is called composition, what is matched in phrasing is called writing, what displays virtue is praise, and what lodges the feelings is called chanting); and last, keeping the discipline, entering meditation, supernormal powers, and the four formless concentrations are the inner science, each matched with the defilement it treats — keeping the discipline treats the defilement of breaking the discipline, entering meditation treats the defilement of greed and desire, supernormal power treats the defilement of wrong reliance, the four immeasurables treat the defilement of falsely practiced merit, and the four formless concentrations treat the defilement of falsely cultivated liberation.

From this the real sense of the name of this ground can be understood: the reason the true wisdom and the conventional wisdom are hard to join is that they are joined just here. That one who has realized the truths is willing to go and learn reckoning and medicine, willing to understand song and dance and gardens and pools, is not a falling away; it is that he is at last able to stand on the same piece of ground with the people of the world and speak with them. Li Tongxuan reads the same matter along another track: he establishes the substance of this ground upon the perfection of meditation, saying that on this ground “by the perfection of meditation he raises up the roots of goodness — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — and penetrates the dharmas of the world, and the lower grounds do not come up to him” — it is by concentration that one is able to penetrate the dharmas of the world, and hence the name Hard to Conquer. Chengguan follows the treatise and speaks of the true and the conventional; Tongxuan takes concentration and wisdom as symbolic figures and speaks of worldly dharmas; both accounts are recorded without adjudication.

The Limit of Worldly Dharmas: To Do No Harm or Vexation

If the passage on the five sciences is read only as ‘there is nothing he does not study’, then the limit the text itself sets down has been missed: “only that it should do no harm or vexation to sentient beings; for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth, gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma.”

The three clauses are three barriers. The first barrier is “do no harm or vexation” — of learning and arts, whatever can bring harm or vexation to sentient beings is not taken up; Chengguan explains this as ‘being without obstruction amid what would obstruct’, and gives hunting and the like as instances of what is not taken up. The second barrier is “for the sake of their benefit he sets it all forth” — what has been learned is to be given to others, not hoarded for oneself. The third barrier is “gradually bringing them to abide in the unsurpassed Buddha-Dharma” — worldly dharmas are a bridge and not a home, and the single word ‘gradually’ shows that there is a due order and there is a destination.

So the broad learning of the bodhisattva of this ground is not miscellaneous learning. There is only one criterion: whether this branch of learning can carry a person over into the Buddha-Dharma. This also answers the doubt a reader most easily raises: does studying worldly matters hinder the path? The answer of the text is — it depends on what you take for your measure.

Seeing Buddhas, Going Forth, Hearing and Retaining: The Actual State of Long Cultivation

Then come the marks of practice brought to fullness. “By the power of his vow, he gains sight of many buddhas” — many hundreds of buddhas, many thousands, on up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas; and to them all he is reverent and respectful, attending upon them and making offerings, presenting robes and food, bedding and medicines, all the requisites of life, and making offerings also to the whole assembly of monks, and with these roots of goodness dedicating and directing them toward unsurpassed perfect awakening. After the offerings comes the hearing of the Dharma: “he reverently listens to the Dharma, and having heard it he upholds it and practices according to his own strength” — the two words ‘his own strength’ are honest and make no boast.

A further step: “and within the Dharma of those buddhas he gains the going forth; and having gone forth he hears the Dharma yet more, gains dhāraṇī, and becomes a Dharma master of hearing and retention.” After going forth he does not stop; he “hears the Dharma yet more.” To gain dhāraṇī and become a Dharma master of hearing and retention is the ability of total retention without forgetting. Chengguan has here a delicate judgment: the treatise says that what is gained on this ground is the retention of what is heard and not ‘the retention of the meaning’, and that this is “a showing of the lesser by setting it against the greater” — because prajñā is not yet manifest; and yet the reason he is able to gain the retention of what is heard is that he has gained two things hard to gain — first, the gaining of what is hard to gain in the ten equal minds at the beginning of the ground, and second, the gaining of what is hard to gain in the path of non-abiding within the ground, that is, delighting in world-transcending wisdom and in the wisdom of the present world at once. That is to say, this retention of what is heard is not the worldly retention of the third ground; it is brought about by those two difficulties.

And then comes the time: “abiding upon this ground, through a hundred kalpas, through a thousand kalpas, on up to immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn brighter and purer still.” Cultivation is not a matter that can be finished within any span of time — this sentence is to be read honestly.

Two Similes: True Gold and the Giant-Clam Gem, the Wind That Upholds the Sun and the Moon

The text closes the practice of this ground with two similes. The first: “it is as when true gold is polished with a giant-clam gem and turns brighter and purer still,” matched with the roots of goodness of this ground, which “pondered and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, turn brighter and purer still.” The first ground had the goldsmith refining gold (putting it into the fire again and again); this ground has the giant-clam gem polishing gold (burnishing it with a gem) — it is one and the same lump of gold, and both the heat and the workmanship have turned deeper. Chengguan draws two things out of the simile besides: realizing wisdom tallying with suchness is the true gold; the light of the wisdom of the teaching, which is able to display things as they are, is like that giant-clam gem. That is to say, what polishes the gold is nothing else than the wisdom of the teaching.

The second simile: “as when the radiance of the palaces of the sun, the moon, and the constellations is upheld by the power of the wind and cannot be spoiled, and no other wind is able to tilt or stir it,” matched with the roots of goodness of this ground, which “followed out and observed with the wisdom of skillful means, cannot be spoiled, and the roots of goodness of any śrāvaka, of any pratyekabuddha, or of the world are unable to tilt or stir them.” The key of this simile lies in “upheld by the power of the wind” — the palaces of the sun and the moon hang in space and do not fall because of the wind; the roots of goodness of this ground are not spoiled because of the wisdom of skillful means. And the clause “no other wind is able to tilt or stir it” answers precisely to the roots of goodness of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the world: they too are winds, and yet they cannot stir this one sun and moon.

Reading the two similes together: the former speaks of turning more excellent (the more it is polished the brighter it grows), the latter of not being spoiled (nothing can stir it). One advancing, one holding — the aspects of practice on this ground are exhausted here.

The Perfection of Meditation Preponderates

Here the text marks out the perfection that preponderates on this ground: “among the ten perfections, the perfection of meditation preponderates; the rest are not uncultivated, only that they follow his strength and follow his portion.”

A misunderstanding has to be broken first: preponderating is not neglecting. The ten perfections are cultivated on every ground; it is only that each has its own ascendancy, and what is ascendant on this ground is meditation. Why meditation? Because both of the matters spoken of above require it — the contemplation of the ten truths must have concentration for its support, and the study of the five sciences requires the strength of concentration if one is not to be turned about by objects. Li Tongxuan establishes the substance of the ground upon just this, saying that this ground “takes the perfection of meditation as its substance, and the other nine are its companions”; and he takes the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound, whom Sudhana visits, as the symbolic figure of the dharma of this ground, ‘tranquil’ standing for meditation and ‘sea of sound’ for the function whereby concentration is able to give rise to wisdom. Chengguan follows the treatise and speaks of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional; Tongxuan follows symbolic reading and speaks of the substance of concentration; both accounts are recorded without adjudication.

The Concluding Name and the Fruit of Recompense: The Tuṣita Heaven King and a Thousand Koṭis in a Single Moment of Thought

The text concludes itself: “this is called a summary account of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s fifth ground, Hard to Conquer.” The single word ‘summary’ must be seen — what has been said is already this broad, and it is still called a summary.

The fruit of recompense has two parts. The first is the royal station: “he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, is masterful in what he does for sentient beings, crushes all the wrong views of the outer paths, and is able to bring sentient beings to abide within the truth of the real.” The office of a Tuṣita heaven king answers exactly to this ground — to crush wrong views and to make beings abide in the truth of the real is just the wisdom of the truths put to use in the world. And the text immediately adds the most important clause: giving, kindly speech, conduct that benefits, and the sharing of tasks — “in all the deeds he does such as these he does not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, does not depart from keeping the Dharma in mind, does not depart from keeping the Saṅgha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the possessing in full of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience.” To be a king in the heavens and yet not break off the keeping in mind of the Three Jewels — this is to have the fruit of recompense rather than to be turned about by it.

The second is the vow to be foremost: “among sentient beings I ought to be the foremost, the excellent, the surpassing, the wondrous, the exceedingly wondrous, the higher, the unsurpassed, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience.” This advancing string of ‘to be’ read alone looks like contending for superiority; read after the preceding passage, “alone and by myself I raise this mind and do not seek companions,” its meaning becomes clear — to be foremost is to be the first to shoulder, and to be the place of reliance is to be the one leaned upon. To vow to be foremost is to be willing to stand at the very front and take the blows.

The third is the mark of advancing beyond: “if he raises up diligent vigor, then in a single moment of thought he gains a thousand koṭis of samādhis, sees a thousand koṭis of buddhas,” on up to being able to shake a thousand koṭis of buddha-worlds, to display a thousand koṭis of bodies, and in each single body to display a thousand koṭis of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if he displays them masterfully by the power of his vow, then it goes beyond this number, and in a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas one could not reckon and know it. The first ground had ‘a hundred’, this ground has ‘a thousand koṭis’ — the leap in the numbers is just the mechanical figure for the increase in excellence from ground to ground, and it is not to be pressed for an actual measurement; what is to be looked at is that prior condition, “if he raises up diligent vigor.”

Matching Up the Verses in Repetition: How the Verses and the Prose Are Read Together

At the end Vajragarbha, “wishing to declare this meaning over again, spoke in verse,” twenty-two verses in all. Chengguan outlines them in three: the first seventeen verses repeat the practice of the ground, the next four the fruit of the ground, and the last one concludes the exposition. There is one general rule for reading verses in repetition — where the meaning has already been taught in the prose, the verse only matches it up and does not teach it again; where a phrase is found in the verses alone, that is taught in its own right.

Reading them by this rule: the first verse, “the bodhisattva has cultivated the fourth ground until it is pure; he ponders the equality of the dharmas of the buddhas of the three times, and discipline, mind, the removal of doubt, and what is the path and what is not,” repeats the ten equal minds, and every phrase can be matched back to the prose. The next three verses are the passage of the greatest teaching interest within the verses, and are not found in the prose: “with the stations of mindfulness for a bow and the faculties for sharp arrows, with right exertion for a horse and the bases of supernormal power for a chariot, with the five powers for firm armor to break the foe,” repeating the factors of awakening by implements of war — the four stations of mindfulness for a bow, the five faculties for arrows, the four right exertions for a horse, the four bases of supernormal power for a chariot, the five powers for armor; “with shame and conscience for a robe and the factors of awakening for a garland, with pure discipline for incense and meditation for perfumed unguent,” repeating shame and conscience, the seven factors of awakening, discipline, and concentration by robe, ornament, and fragrance; “with the four bases of accord with wish for feet and right mindfulness for a neck, with loving-kindness and compassion for eyes and wisdom for fangs; the lion among men roars the roar of no-self,” matching the single body of a lion with the four bases of accord with wish, right mindfulness, loving-kindness and compassion, and wisdom, and taking “no-self” for the roar — and this roar is the eye of the whole set of verses: what enables the lion to break the foe is not strength but no-self.

Below this, the verse “he knows well the truth of the world and the truth of the supreme meaning, the truth of characteristics, the truth of distinctions, the truth of establishment” repeats the ten truths; the verse “observing the truths in this way, though it be wondrous, he has not yet gained the unobstructed and surpassing liberation” repeats the limit of the wisdom of faith and understanding; “having observed the truths, he knows that conditioned dharmas are false in their very nature and have no solidity” repeats the falsity of the conditioned; the two verses “he observes the prior and later limits of all that is conditioned: the black darkness of ignorance and the bondage of craving” and “with craving and grasping for cause they undergo the suffering to come … these are to be pitied, and I ought to deliver them” repeat the contemplation of the prior and later limits and the compassion; and the verse “the house of the aggregates, the snakes of the elements, the arrows of the views; the fire of the mind fiercely blazing and the darkness of delusion deep” compresses the five similes of the prose into two lines — the aggregates for a house, the elements for snakes, the views for arrows, the mind for fire, delusion for darkness — the similes dense and yet not confused.

“He is named one who is mindful and one who has insight, on up to one who is aware, one who understands, and one who is skilled in means” repeats the twenty-one names, abbreviating them with ‘on up to’; “practicing merit and wisdom without being satiated, reverent and widely learned without tiring” repeats the excellence of his cultivation; the three verses from “in order to teach and transform the several worlds, he knows well the dharmas of writing, reckoning, seals, and the like, and understands well the several medicines” onward repeat the five sciences, matching the prose item by item; “the wise one abiding on this Hard-to-Conquer Ground makes offerings to nayutas of buddhas and hears their Dharma as well; just as true gold is polished with a wondrous gem” repeats the seeing of buddhas and the long cultivation together with the simile of true gold; while “it is as when the constellations stand in open space, upheld by the power of the wind and suffering no harm or stirring; and as the lotus does not cling to the water” adds, beyond the two similes of the prose, the further simile of the lotus — this is a meaning found in the verses alone and must be taught in its own right: the sun and moon figure his not being spoiled, the lotus figures his not being stained. For one who walks in the world and studies the dharmas of the world, this is the very line most needed.

“Abiding on this ground he mostly becomes a king of the Tuṣita Heaven, and is able to crush the several wrong views of the divergent paths” repeats the fruit of recompense; “if he cultivates further with great vigor, then at once he makes offerings to a thousand koṭis of buddhas” repeats the advance in excellence within a single moment of thought. The last verse concludes the exposition: “such is the fifth ground, Hard to Conquer, the true path that is highest among men; with every sort of power of skillful means, I have finished declaring it for the sons of the Buddha.” — the line “the true path that is highest among men” is a word of praise found in the verses alone, and the sixty does not have it in this place; both texts are recorded without adjudication.

Read Against the Mirror of Consciousness-Only: The Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground

In the consciousness-only line this ground has another name: the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground. The Cheng weishi lun, explaining the ten grounds, says that this ground is one where “the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, are contrary to one another in their aspects, and to join them and make them answer to one another” is exceedingly hard to conquer — the same vein of meaning as the She dacheng and Vasubandhu’s explanation that Chengguan cites. The Yuqie shidi lun, in the Bodhisattva Stage, points directly to this sūtra as the text of the expounding at length, saying that one who would expound it at length should do as with the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground in the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds; and its Section of Ascertainment, explaining the name, says that only through exceeding hardship does one gain mastery, and therefore the fifth is named the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground. The She dacheng lun shi, listing the names of the ten grounds, likewise has the fifth as the Exceedingly Hard-to-Conquer Ground.

Taking the judgment of consciousness-only that Chengguan cites as a mirror in which to look back upon this ground, three things can be seen clearly. First, the obstruction cut off on this ground has a settled name: the obstruction of the parinirvāṇa of the lower vehicle. On the preceding four grounds one gained world-transcending wisdom and was weary of birth-and-death and delighted in nirvāṇa, and this partiality is exactly what obstructs the fifth ground; now, entering the path in which the true and the conventional are without difference, this obstruction is cut off. Second, the suchness realized also has a settled name: the suchness of the absence of difference in kind — birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, the true and the conventional, are of one kind and without difference. Third, the insight of this ground Chengguan judges to be ‘the practice of the ascendancy of insight regarding the truths’ and its practice to be ‘the practice of teaching and transforming in the places of the five sciences’, and these two practices being unobstructed, the fruit of a dharma-body without difference is gained.

Note that this is a looking in a mirror and not a re-judging. The sūtra itself speaks only of the ten equal minds, the ten truths, the five sciences, and the two similes, and sets up no name for an obstruction and no name for a suchness; those names are judgments established by the treatise masters of the consciousness-only line upon the basis of this sūtra. Looked at in the mirror, the skeleton of this ground stands out more clearly — but in reading the sūtra one should still take the sūtra’s own sequence as principal.

Lineage

The text of this ground opens out afterward along two roads.

The first is the road of the treatise masters. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun outlines this ground in three parts — the countering of the conceit of excellence, the excellence of the practice of the path of non-abiding, and the excellence of the fruit thereof — citing the sūtra passage by passage and explaining it; Chengguan carries on his outline and matches it with the path of applied practice, the path of liberation, and the path of advancing beyond, and within his explanation of the text he sets down a general rule for explaining scripture: “further, where the treatise and the sūtra do not run in the same order, one may only bring the treatise to the sūtra; one may not turn the sūtra around to follow the treatise” — where the sequence of the treatise and that of the sūtra do not agree, bring the treatise to the sūtra, and do not instead accommodate the text of the sūtra to the treatise. This rule has been of the widest influence in the explaining of scripture in later ages, and is recorded here.

The second is the road of the schools. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji opens seven gates upon this ground, and its gate of the explanation of the name gathers the accounts of the Weishi, the She dacheng, and Vasubandhu’s explanation, together with those of the Jinguangming, the Zhuangyan lun, the Xianyang lun, and the Shizhu lun, and records the divergent name by which the Renwang jing calls this ground the ‘Ground of Surpassing Wisdom’; Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun, for its part, does not follow the explanation by the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, but establishes the substance of the ground upon the perfection of meditation and reads it by the symbolic figure of the night goddess Sea of Tranquil Sound, and sets up a further explanation — “because he passes beyond the delusions of the three realms and yet does not take the realization of nirvāṇa, and neither the three realms nor nirvāṇa is at all able to damage his wisdom that is without support or abode” — and therefore it is named Hard to Conquer. Chengguan, at the end of his explanation of the text of this ground, writes plainly “the fifth ground is completed” and closes.

The explanations of the name given by the several houses: some are taken with respect to the difficulty of cultivating the factors of awakening, some with respect to the joining of the two wisdoms, the true and the conventional, that are contrary to one another, some with respect to the wondrous wisdom regarding the noble truths being hard to conquer, some with respect to being able to repel two difficulties and gain the victory amid difficulty, some with respect to the hosts of Māra being unable to damage him, some with respect to the afflictions of view and thought being unable to subdue him, and some with respect to the substance of concentration penetrating the dharmas of the world. They are recorded side by side without adjudication. Chengguan for his part judges expressly: “now the several sūtras and treatises differ in their words and agree in their meaning; all of them set forth the unobstructedness of the true and the conventional” — the several accounts do not hinder one another.

Why the Question Is about the “Aspect of Practice” and Not about Merit

Vimukticandra’s question is a single sentence: by what aspect of practice can one enter the ground that comes after. He does not ask how much merit this ground has, or how many buddhas one can see there, but for the aspect of practice — what the person entering this ground is actually doing in his mind. The very form of the question is a reminder: what separates one ground from the next is not the size of the recompense, but that the object contemplated and the mind that contemplates have changed. On the ground before this one contemplated the four truths; on this one, what is to be contemplated? The answer comes in the very next sentence: he contemplates the ten equalities. The easiest mistake in reading the ten grounds is to read them as a report card, each ground a rung higher than the last; in truth each ground is a question set, and when the question changes, the person changes. Brought home to oneself: rather than asking ‘which rung am I on’, ask ‘what is it that I am contemplating now’ — that is the aspect of practice.

The Ten Equalities: To Enter the Ground One Must First Set Down “the Defiled” and “the Pure” Together

Why must one contemplate the ten equalities in order to enter the sixth ground? Chengguan, following the treatise, explains the conceit that this ground counters, and he says it with perfect clarity: the fourth ground counters the conceit of a self among beings and the conceit of understanding the Dharma; the fifth counters the conceit of bodily purity; and by the sixth what is countered is the conceit of grasping at the marks of the defiled and the pure — what is countered grows ever finer, and therefore it is called surpassing. Once this is said, the use of the ten equalities becomes plain: on the grounds before, one contemplated the four truths, where suffering and its origin are the defiled and cessation and the path are the pure; and however well one contemplated, there still stood in the mind the discrimination ‘this side is dirty, that side is clean’ — and so long as that discrimination stands, there is still grasping, and still conceit. The ten equalities are the gate of contemplation that levels “the defiled” and “the pure” together. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: equality does not mean lumping good and evil together and no longer discriminating between wholesome and unwholesome; the equality the sūtra speaks of is equality in the nature of dharmas — at the level of self-nature, defiled dharmas and pure dharmas are alike without marks and alike unarisen. Brought down to daily life: the arrogance hardest to notice after long practice is usually not ‘I am better than others’ but ‘I am on the clean side.’

The Ten Equalities Are Ten Angles upon One and the Same Thing

Count the ten equalities through one by one and you find that they are not ten things but ten ways of taking hold of one thing. Without marks — there is no mark to be grasped; without substance — there is no solid self-substance; unarisen, unaccomplished — nothing was ever really produced, nothing ever really made; from the first pure — it is not clean because it has been washed, but was never stained; without conceptual proliferation — words find no place to settle; without taking up or laying down — there is nothing to pick up and nothing to drop; still — it is of itself at rest; like an illusion, like a dream, like a shadow, like an echo, like the moon in water, like an image in a mirror, like a mirage, like a conjured thing — eight similes running on together, all saying ‘present, yet not real’; existence and non-existence not two — the last clause gathers in both sides at once. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: these ten are not ten technical names to be memorized, but ten keys — use whichever one opens your lock. The way of applying them is very plain: when you meet an object you cannot put down, take up any one of them and press the question — has it a self-substance? is it not like the image in a mirror? Press it to the bottom, and the grasping mind loosens of itself.

He Gains the Bright and Keen Forbearance of Conformity but Not the Forbearance of the Non-arising of Dharmas — Stating One’s Own Measure Plainly

Having said that one enters the ground, the sūtra at once adds a sentence: what is gained is the bright and keen forbearance of conformity; the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas has not yet been gained. Readers often skip this line, and it is in fact the most honest place in the whole ground. Chengguan, explaining the five clauses of this passage, says that the first four are the practice by which one is able to enter and the last is the ground that is entered, and that the measure of the practice is discerned on two sides — the gaining of the bright and keen forbearance shows its excellence over against the grounds before, and the not yet gaining of the non-arising shows its insufficiency over against the grounds after. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: do not suppose that contemplating the ten equalities amounts to realizing non-arising. Forbearance has its stages: “conformity” is to conform and not go against; “non-arising” is the direct realization that dharmas do not arise. Brought home to oneself: this sentence is the very syntax a practitioner ought to learn — say in one breath both ‘where I have got to’ and ‘where I have not yet got to’; the first half guards against shrinking back, the second against overweening pride. Sentences that state one’s own measure in this way recur throughout The Ten Grounds, and the sixth ground states it most aptly of all.

Contemplating the Arising and Ceasing of the World: Why Great Compassion Must Come First

The first thing after entering the ground, the sūtra says, is “to make great compassion the forerunner, great compassion preeminent, great compassion fulfilled, and to contemplate the arising and ceasing of the world.” There is an order here that must be seen clearly: compassion first, and only then the contemplation. Why? Because in the matter of contemplating the twelve links, if there is no compassionate mind holding it up, then looking to the bottom yields only two outcomes — either one grows so weary of the world that one goes straight into stillness, which is the road of the two vehicles; or one grows so familiar with it that it becomes a doctrine explaining the world and has nothing to do with the mind. The sūtra places great compassion before the contemplation, within it, and at its fullness — three times over — precisely so that this contemplation should hang upon living beings from beginning to end. Chengguan divides the passage here into four clauses, the first three all compassion and only the last marking the object contemplated — this is the passage that sets the relation of compassion and wisdom straight. Brought down to practice: when reading dependent origination, if what you read out of it is coldness, turn back and see whether compassion is still there.

Beings Take Birth in the World Only because They Cling to a Self

The first conclusion the bodhisattva draws from contemplating the arising and ceasing of the world is so terse as to seem abrupt: beings take birth in the world only because they cling to a self; leave that clinging behind, and there is no place of birth. Why point straight at the “self” at the very outset? Because although the twelve links hook one into the next, what really bites down upon this chain and will not let go is the “self” that supposes itself to be inside it. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this does not say that the “self” is a thirteenth link outside the twelve, but that the twelve links become saṃsāra for a given person just because he has appropriated a self within them. Brought home to oneself: nearly every everyday affliction can be traced once by this sentence — this thing is painful because I have entered it in the account-book of “me.” This sentence is also where the present ground answers to the first: on the first ground the leaving behind of the five dreads was ‘because he leaves behind the notion of self’, and on this ground the contemplation of dependent origination likewise begins from “clinging to a self” — the same key, used on different locks.

Deeds Are the Field, Consciousness Is the Seed — The Whole Picture of the Ordinary Being’s Flowing On

The sūtra then uses a set of farming similes to draw the ordinary being’s flowing on as a single picture: deeds are the field, consciousness is the seed, ignorance is like an overcast sky covering it over, craving is the water poured upon it, conceit is the irrigating, and the net of views makes it grow, so that the sprout of name-and-form is born; the sprout grows into the five faculties, the faculties meet their objects and contact is born, contact gives birth to feeling, longing after feeling gives birth to craving, craving grown gives birth to grasping, grasping grown gives birth to becoming; becoming having arisen, a body of five aggregates is taken within the destinies, and this is called birth; born, it decays and changes, which is old age, and perishes at the last, which is death; at the time of old age and death all manner of burning distresses are born, and thereupon sorrow and lamentation, and the multitude of sufferings are all gathered. The most important thing in this passage is not the sequence itself but the two clauses that close it: it gathers in this way, yet there is no ‘one who gathers’; it ceases of its own course, and there is no ‘one who ceases’ either. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: no one who acts is not the same as no cause and fruit — field, seed, water, and light are all present in full, the fruit is set just the same, only there is no farmer in the field directing it. Brought down to practice: when you see an affliction rising in yourself, try changing ‘I am angry’ into ‘these conditions have come together, and anger has grown out of them’ — that clenched “self” loosens a degree at once.

The Gate of the Truth of the Supreme Meaning: The Same Twelve Links, Counted Another Way

The bodhisattva then counts the twelve links through once more, and this time the point of entry has changed: not to penetrate the truth of the supreme meaning is called ignorance; the fruit of the deeds done is the formations; the first thought of mind upon which the formations depend is consciousness; the four aggregates of grasping that arise together with consciousness are name-and-form; the growth of name-and-form is the six sense-fields; the coming together of the three, faculty and object and consciousness, is contact; what arises together with contact is feeling; defiled attachment toward feeling is craving; the growth of craving is grasping; the deeds with outflows that grasping gives rise to are becoming; the arising of the aggregates out of deeds is birth; the ripening of the aggregates is old age; the decaying of the aggregates is death. Why count them twice? The first count enters from “clinging to a self” and states how the ordinary being flows on; this one enters from ‘not penetrating the supreme meaning’ and states that the root of that flowing on lies in cognition. Only both together are complete: one is the symptom, the other the root of the illness. This passage also numbers off in detail the grief, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and distress at the time of death — the breast oppressed and stifled is grief, the tears and sighing are lamentation, what is in the five faculties is suffering, what is in the ground of the mind is unhappiness, and unhappiness and suffering turning ever more numerous is distress — divided so finely so that a person may recognize which square he is standing in. The closing clause is “there is only the tree of suffering growing”: a tree growing of itself, with no self, no what is mine, no one who acts, no one who feels.

If There Were One Who Acts There Would Be a Thing Done — Pressing ‘Who Is It That Suffers’ to Death

Hardly has the simile of the tree of suffering come to rest when the sūtra at once adds an inference: if there were one who acts, only then would there be a thing done; if there is no one who acts, then there is no thing done either — in the supreme meaning both are altogether unobtainable. In form this is like a debate, but its purpose is to cut off a thought. The most obstinate question in the human mind is ‘then who is it that suffers?’, and beneath that question lies a presupposition: suffering must have an owner. The sūtra does not argue with the presupposition; it puts owner and affair together into the supreme meaning and looks, and neither end is to be found. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: “unobtainable” does not say that nothing has happened; it says that at the level of the ultimate no substantial one who acts and feels can be found — at the level of the conventional, cause and fruit stand out plainly. Brought down to practice: the next time you are blocked by ‘why me’, you can change the question into ‘does this affair require a me in order to stand?’, and more often than not it passes.

Whatever Belongs to the Three Realms Is Only One Mind

Here the sūtra speaks the sentence most quoted by later ages in this ground — indeed in the whole of The Ten Grounds: whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind; the Tathāgata, upon this, sets forth in discrimination the twelve links of existence, and these too are established in dependence upon one mind. There follows at once a question put and answered: why is it so? Greed arising upon the matter at hand arises together with mind; mind is consciousness, the matter is the formations, delusion about the formations is ignorance, what arises together with ignorance and with mind is name-and-form — and so on down to old age and death. That is to say: the twelve links are not twelve events queuing up outside; they are twelve aspects that this one thought of mind turns up upon the objects it meets. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this sentence does not say that the world is something I have thought up, nor that all will be well if only I stop thinking; the sūtra’s purpose is to point out that upon which the twelve links depend — to cut this chain you need not go outside the chain to look for shears, for the shears are on the mind. At the verse “gathering it back to one mind” Chengguan makes a particular distinction: since the sūtra says that when mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted, it is plain that this “mind” cannot be taken as the true mind alone, for the true mind is not extinguished; he says that this is “the true and the false in combination,” spoken of as depending upon mind — the false which is the true has ceased, while the true which is the false has not ceased along with it. This distinction is most important, for it blocks two leanings at once: one that reads “one mind” as a substance able to give birth to the myriad things, and one that reads “mind extinguished” as a nihilistic cutting off. Brought down to practice: the place where cultivation takes hold is settled by this — not adding to or subtracting from objects, but recognizing on the mind.

The Two Functions of Each of the Twelve Links: Every Link Is at Once Fruit and Cause

The sūtra next assigns two functions to each of the twelve links, in a format as neat as a table: ignorance, first, makes beings deluded about the object they take as support, and second, acts as the cause of arising for the formations; the formations, first, are able to give birth to the recompense to come, and second, act as the cause of arising for consciousness — and so on down to death, which first is able to destroy the formations and second, because there is no awareness and no knowing, keeps the continuity unbroken. Why lay it out so? Because each of the twelve links has two faces: toward its object it has a function of its own, and toward the next link it is the cause of arising. Say only “ignorance conditions the formations” and it is easily read as a single line; add the two functions, and one sees that every link is doing something in its own right. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this is not breaking the twelve links into twenty-four items, but two functions of one and the same link. The most thought-provoking is the last link: the second function of death is “because there is no awareness and no knowing, the continuity is unbroken” — death ends nothing; it is just because even at death there is no awareness that the chain is joined on. Brought down to practice: the most useful thing in this passage is the reminder that one need not wait for the source in order to cut the chain; since every link is acting in its own right, every link is a place where one may set to work.

Because They Help to Bring About There Is No Cutting Off; Because They Do Not Help to Bring About There Is Cutting Off

Flowing on and ceasing the sūtra settles with two words, “helping to bring about”: that ignorance conditions the formations, and so on up to birth conditioning old age and death, is that because ignorance and so on up to birth act as conditions, the formations and so on up to old age and death are not cut off — because they help to bring them about; that when ignorance ceases the formations cease, and so on up to when birth ceases old age and death cease, is that because ignorance and so on up to birth no longer act as conditions, the formations and so on up to old age and death are cut off and cease — because they no longer help to bring them about. This way of putting it makes the sense of “condition” very light: a condition does not manufacture, it helps to bring about; it is not that one gives birth to another, but that with it standing alongside, the latter cannot be cut off. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: ceasing is not knocking the twelve links down one by one; it is bringing the “helping to bring about” to a stop, whereupon what follows cannot hold itself up. Brought down to practice: this is exactly the principle of moral discipline — one need not go and counter the affliction that has already rolled up large; simply stop lending it helping conditions, and it will disperse of itself.

The Three Paths: Delusion, Deeds, Suffering — A Bundle of Reeds

With the same twelve links the sūtra changes the view once more: that ignorance, craving, and grasping are not cut off is the path of the afflictions; that the formations and becoming are not cut off is the path of deeds; that the remaining links are not cut off is the path of suffering; and when the discriminating of the prior limit and the later limit ceases, the three paths are cut off. The closing clause is a simile — these three paths are apart from a self and from what is mine, there is only arising and ceasing, like a bundle of reeds. Why set up three paths? Because with the twelve links laid out flat one sees only sequence; gathered into three kinds, one sees the structure: delusion gives rise to deeds, deeds summon suffering, and within suffering delusion arises again, each giving birth to the next. The finest thing about the simile of the bundle of reeds is that they ‘stand by leaning together’: a bundle of reeds stands because each leans upon the others; pull out one, and the whole bundle falls — not one of them is standing on its own. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the three paths are not three stages, but three layers standing together at once and supporting one another. Brought down to practice: when countering afflictions, know that the three paths lean upon one another like a bundle of reeds — pull one away, and the other two do not stand.

The Three Times: Spreading the Twelve Links Out along Time

Another view is the three times: that ignorance conditions the formations is the contemplation of the past, consciousness up to feeling is the contemplation of the present, craving up to becoming is the contemplation of the future, and from this onward they turn about and follow one another without end; while that when ignorance ceases the formations cease is ‘the cutting off by way of dependence’. Why assign them to three times? Because all the views before this speak of structure, and only this one lets a person see how this chain steps across the joint between one life and another — the delusion and deeds of the past make the recompense of the present life, and the craving and grasping of the present life make in turn the cause of the life to come. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: assigning them to three times does not say that the twelve links can be assigned to this one temporal order alone; the sūtra itself has already given the three paths, the three sufferings, and other views besides, each with its own use, and they need not exclude one another. The four words ‘the cutting off by way of dependence’ deserve particular notice: the cutting off is not a stroke of the knife out of nowhere, but the seeing clearly that this exists in dependence upon that — the end depended upon being gone, the other end cannot stand. Brought down to practice: anxiety about “the future” is mostly writing a script on behalf of craving and grasping; recognize which link it belongs to, and the anxiety loses some of its solidity.

The Three Sufferings: The Suffering of Formation Is the Hardest to Recognize

The third view is the three sufferings: ignorance and the formations up to the six sense-fields are the suffering of formation, contact and feeling are the suffering of suffering, the rest are the suffering of decay; and when ignorance ceases the formations cease is the cutting off of the three sufferings. Of the three sufferings the one most easily left out is the suffering of formation — the suffering of suffering is hurting and knowing that it hurts, the suffering of decay is the pain when a pleasant object breaks up, and these two everyone recognizes; the suffering of formation is that the ceaseless flowing on is itself suffering, with no definite pain, only being in motion at every moment and having nowhere to rest. That the sūtra assigns ignorance and the formations up to the six sense-fields to the suffering of formation says precisely this: even the very base on which we think ‘nothing is wrong’ is itself flowing. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: to speak of the three sufferings is not to make a person live in gloom, but to make him recognize the layers of suffering — one who knows only the suffering of suffering will fight to dodge pain; one who knows the suffering of decay begins to stop craving pleasure; only one who knows the suffering of formation will wish to come out. Brought down to practice: that unnameable unease felt when one grows quiet is mostly a corner of the suffering of formation showing itself; there is no need to press it down — recognizing it is enough.

The Ten Gates of Contemplation in Reverse and in Order: Looking at One Thing Ten Times

All the foregoing views the sūtra at last gathers into ten gates, saying that the bodhisattva in these ten ways contemplates dependent origination in reverse and in order: the links of existence following one another unbroken, gathered in by one mind, each with its own distinct function of deeds, not letting go of one another, the three paths not cut off, contemplating the past and present and future, the three sufferings gathered together, arising and ceasing by cause and condition, arising and ceasing as bondage, and the contemplation of there being nothing at all and of exhaustion. Chengguan, in summing up this passage, takes the occasion to make plain the sense of the very words “dependent origination”: the twelve are not one, and so they are called “manifold”; each earlier one acts as condition and causes the later to arise, and so it is called “dependent origination”; and again, because bound by the afflictions one arises again and again among the destinies, this too is called dependent origination. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the ten gates are not ten different dependent originations, but ten contemplations of one and the same dependent origination. Why look ten times? Because this matter of dependent origination cannot be seen through in one look, and each look breaks only one layer of clinging — the first look breaks the view of annihilation, the second gathers all back to mind, the third sees the function of deeds proper to each link — until at the tenth, “there is nothing at all, the contemplation of exhaustion,” one has contemplated it to the bottom. Brought down to practice: the contemplation that really works is never a fresh contemplation, but the willingness to look at the same thing a tenth time.

The Gate of Liberation of Emptiness: No Self, No Person, No Life-Span

The ten gates of contemplation being full, the fruit becomes manifest, and it becomes manifest as three gates in turn. The first is the gate of liberation of emptiness: the bodhisattva, contemplating dependent origination by these ten aspects, knows that there is no self, no person, no life-span, that self-nature is empty, that there is no one who acts and no one who feels — and at once the gate of liberation of emptiness becomes manifest before him. One must see clearly how this “knowing” comes about: it is not that one first believes a doctrine of “no self” and then fits dependent origination to it, but that having looked at dependent origination to the bottom, one cannot find that self. Chengguan, explaining the three gates of liberation, says that “samādhi” is named from the thing itself and “liberation” takes its name from what it depends on, and that these three are able to lead through to the liberation of nirvāṇa, and are therefore called “gates.” One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the gate of emptiness is not an empty mind thinking of nothing, but the not seeing, in the dharmas contemplated, any sovereign that could be obtained. Brought down to practice: when something happens, if you can refrain from first asking ‘how does this affect me’ and ask instead ‘what conditions have come together here’, in that moment you have touched the edge of the gate of emptiness.

The Gate of Liberation of Signlessness: Even ‘the Marks Contemplated’ Are Set Down

The second gate goes a layer deeper: the bodhisattva contemplates that all the links of existence are still in their self-nature and in the end liberated, with not the least mark of a dharma that could arise — and at that time the gate of liberation of signlessness becomes manifest before him. What the gate of emptiness breaks is ‘the self among persons’; what the gate of signlessness breaks is the marks of dharmas. In the first gate one saw that there is no one who acts and none who feels; in this one, one sees that even those very links being contemplated have no real mark that could arise. Why is this further step needed? Because one who cultivates contemplation most easily stops at ‘the self is gone, but the twelve links really exist’ — and that is still a mark that can be grasped. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: signlessness is not wiping out all marks so that a blank lies before the eyes, but no longer grasping at marks upon marks as real. Brought down to practice: here is a very fine test — when you say ‘I have seen through this affair’, is ‘this affair’ still being gripped tight by you? If it is, you are still inside the mark.

The Gate of Liberation of Wishlessness: Only Great Compassion Is Kept Back

The third gate best repays reading: having thus entered emptiness and entered signlessness, he has nothing more to wish for — save only the one thing of making great compassion the forerunner and teaching and transforming beings — and at that time the gate of liberation of wishlessness becomes manifest before him. Wishlessness means that one no longer raises a longing for any place at all in the three realms, so that not even the seeking of escape need be specially raised. Yet here the sūtra leaves an opening: only great compassion is excepted. This one word “except” is the watershed between the whole Great Vehicle and the two vehicles. The two vehicles halt at the wishless; the bodhisattva keeps a great compassion within the wishless, and so does not fall into stillness. The sūtra then says that in cultivating these three gates the bodhisattva leaves behind the notion of other and self, the notion of one who acts and one who feels, and the notion of existence and non-existence — and what the three gates leave behind is precisely the last three layers of clinging upon the twelve links contemplated before. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: keeping great compassion is not keeping a self-clinging that says ‘I am going to deliver beings’; were it that, it would no longer be wishlessness. Brought down to practice: at a certain stage of cultivation one finds that ‘there is nothing I want any more’, and the question to ask then is — is the compassionate mind still there?

Great Compassion Turns and Increases: Why the Deeper the Realization, the Heavier the Compassion

After the three gates have become manifest, the sūtra says that this bodhisattva’s “great compassion turns and increases,” and that he cultivates with diligence so that the factors of awakening not yet fulfilled may be fulfilled. This order is worth pausing over: the road people imagine is that the deeper the realization the further the withdrawal, yet the sūtra says that after realizing the three gates of liberation, compassion has grown heavier still. Chengguan explains this place plainly — when contemplating the ten equalities earlier he had already raised the three compassions, and now, contemplating the conditions by the ten gates, he pities beings the more for being wound about in false dharmas. The principle is not hard: only when one has truly seen that what binds beings is a thing empty of self-nature does the pity that says ‘they never needed to suffer this’ truly arise. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the increase of great compassion is not being more upset in one’s feelings, but being more diligent in action — what the sūtra says next is “he cultivates with diligence.” Brought down to practice: a very accurate gauge of whether one’s view has really come to earth is this — as the view grows clearer, is one’s patience with people increasing or decreasing?

Where There Is Combining the Conditioned Turns: Knowing Its Faults yet Not Extinguishing It Altogether

After great compassion turns and increases, a thought arises in the bodhisattva: all conditioned things, where there is combining, turn, and where there is no combining, do not turn; where the conditions gather they turn, and where the conditions do not gather they do not turn; knowing thus that conditioned dharmas have manifold faults, I ought to cut off these causes and conditions of combining — yet for the sake of bringing beings to accomplishment I do not in the end extinguish the formations altogether. There are two halves to this saying, and neither may be missing. The upper half is the seeing through: conditioned dharmas are only because of combining, and therefore they can be cut off. The lower half is the not cutting off: knowing that they can be cut off, he does not cut them off to the end, because beings are still within the conditioned, and to deliver them one must stay within the conditioned. This is just what the name of the part called “the surpassing practice of not abiding” in the three-part division of this ground points to — not abiding in the conditioned, and not abiding in stillness. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: not extinguishing altogether is not clinging, but a choice made upon the power of vow. Brought down to practice: knowing well that certain attachments are conditionally born and can be let go, and yet shouldering them a while for the sake of others — the balance in that is the everyday version of not abiding.

Prajñā Becomes Manifest, Named the Light of Unobstructed Wisdom — Here Is Where the Name of the Ground Falls

All the contemplation that has gone before bears fruit only at this sentence: when the bodhisattva contemplates in this way that conditioned dharmas have manifold faults, are without self-nature, and neither arise nor cease, and yet constantly gives rise to great compassion and does not forsake beings — thereupon prajñā-pāramitā becomes manifest before him, named the light of unobstructed wisdom. The sixth ground is called “Manifest,” and it is this that is manifest. One must see clearly that the conditions of its becoming manifest are two limbs standing together: one limb is ‘contemplating that the conditioned is without self-nature’, the other ‘constantly giving rise to great compassion and not forsaking beings’; lacking the first limb it is undiscriminating kindness, lacking the second it is the view of annihilation — and only with both limbs together does prajñā become manifest. The sūtra then adds a sentence equally important: having accomplished this light of wisdom, though he cultivates the causes and conditions of the factors of awakening he does not abide in the conditioned, and though he contemplates that the conditioned is still in its self-nature he does not abide in stillness — because the factors of awakening are not yet fulfilled. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: “manifest” is not the gaining of some new thing; it is that the non-discriminating wisdom one already has is no longer covered over by the marks of the defiled and the pure, and so is now there before one’s eyes. Brought down to practice: the measuring-line this ground gives the practitioner is very clear — to know whether wisdom has really become manifest, see whether, when it becomes manifest, you are further from beings or nearer.

The Ten Samādhis of Emptiness: Concentration Is Nothing Else than the Contemplation of Emptiness Standing Firm

After prajñā becomes manifest the sūtra lists ten samādhis of emptiness: emptiness, the emptiness of self-nature, the emptiness of the supreme meaning, the first emptiness, great emptiness, combined emptiness, arisen emptiness, the emptiness that in accordance with reality does not discriminate, the emptiness that is not let go of, and the emptiness of apartness and of non-apartness; with these ten gates as head, hundreds of thousands of samādhis of emptiness all become manifest, and it is the same with the two classes of samādhi of signlessness and of wishlessness. Why samādhis of “emptiness” and not of something else? Because all that was cultivated before lies upon the contemplation of emptiness, and concentration is what that contemplation looks like when it stands firm — it is not another skill cultivated separately. Of the ten names the last two most repay pondering: the emptiness that is not let go of, and the emptiness of apartness and of non-apartness — even grasping at “emptiness” and not grasping at it are to be levelled. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the number of the samādhis is not a set of items to be gained one by one; the sūtra lists ten as head and hundreds of thousands following, which says that once the gate is opened, the many concentrations come of themselves. Brought down to practice: the moment in daily life nearest to samādhi is that instant when the mind neither chases a thing nor pushes it away — that little steadiness is the beginning of this road.

The Ten States of Mind Made Complete: Wisdom Needs a Ground of Mind to Bear It

After the samādhis the sūtra lists ten states of mind, saying that the bodhisattva dwelling on this ground cultivates yet further so that the mind that cannot be broken, the settled mind, the purely good mind, the most profound mind, the mind that does not turn back, the mind that does not rest, the vast mind, the boundless mind, the mind that seeks wisdom, and the mind joined with skillful means and wisdom are all made complete. Why, having finished with wisdom and samādhi, turn back to speak of “mind”? Because the wisdom realized needs a ground of mind to bear it up; where the ground of mind is thin, the view will slip back. Read through, these ten states of mind fall out thus: the first four speak of quality — unbreakable, settled, purely good, most profound; the middle two speak of continuance — not turning back, not resting; the last four speak of extent and function — vast, boundless, seeking wisdom, joined with skillful means and wisdom. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: this is not a checklist of ten mental practices to be cultivated, but the shape the mind naturally turns into after prajñā has become manifest. Brought down to practice: to judge how one’s own cultivation stands, one may measure by the middle two — not turning back and not resting are the most honest of all.

Conforming to the Buddha’s Awakening, Departing from the Path of the Two Vehicles

After the ten states of mind are complete, the sūtra says that with this mind the bodhisattva conforms to the awakening of the Buddha, does not fear the divergent doctrines of the outsiders, enters the manifold grounds of wisdom, departs from the path of the two vehicles and heads toward the wisdom of a buddha; the māras of the afflictions cannot thwart or break him; he abides in the light of the bodhisattva’s wisdom, cultivates well in the dharmas of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, has skillful means and wisdom constantly joined together, and practises the factors of awakening constantly without forsaking them. This passage gathers all that has gone before into a single sentence: he stands firm. Why is “departing from the path of the two vehicles” singled out? Because this ground contemplates the twelve links of dependent origination, which is precisely what the two vehicles contemplate — Chengguan judges this ground to be lodged in the station of the pratyekabuddha while cultivating the practice of a bodhisattva, and it is here above all that one may slip past. So the sūtra makes it plain: the contemplation of dependent origination is the same, but the mind heads toward the wisdom of a buddha and does not enter the two vehicles. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: departing from the two vehicles is not despising the two vehicles; it is not taking where they arrive as ultimate. Brought down to practice: a person may be doing what everyone else is doing, and the whole difference lies in what his mind faces toward — that is what this passage is about.

The Third, the Bright and Keen Forbearance of Conformity: At Entry It Was Called Insufficient, Here It Is Called Ascendant

At the last the sūtra accounts once more for the station of forbearance: a bodhisattva dwelling on this Manifest Ground gains the ascendancy of the practice of prajñā-pāramitā and gains the third, the bright and keen forbearance of conformity — because toward the aspect of dharmas as they really are he conforms and does not go against them. Read this sentence together with the one at the entering of the ground, and the beginning and the end of this ground close up: at entry it says “he gains the bright and keen forbearance of conformity but has not yet gained the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas”; after long dwelling it says he “gains the third, the bright and keen forbearance of conformity,” with prajñā in ascendancy. It is the same forbearance: at entry it is first gained, in dwelling it is ascendant. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: do not hear “the forbearance of conformity” as gritting one’s teeth and putting up with things; forbearance here means abiding unmoved and not going against dharmas. Brought down to practice: when in reading a sūtra you meet the same term twice within one ground, it is usually not repetition but a marking of progress — this is one of the habits of the style of The Ten Grounds.

Seeing Buddhas by the Power of Vows: Why the Roots of Goodness Grow Ever Brighter

After dwelling on the ground the recompense is spoken of, and the first item is the seeing of buddhas: by the power of his vows the bodhisattva gains the sight of many buddhas, on up to many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas, and toward all of them with a vast mind and a deep mind he makes offerings and pays reverence, honors and praises them, offers up all the goods that sustain life, and offers to the assembly of monks as well, dedicating these roots of goodness toward unsurpassed awakening; in the presence of the buddhas he listens to the Dharma with reverence, and having heard it upholds it, gains the light of wisdom of the samādhi that accords with reality, practises in conformity and keeps it in mind without letting go; he gains further the most profound treasury of Dharma of the buddhas, and through a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, on up to measureless kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn ever brighter and purer. Chengguan, explaining this passage, divides it into three sections — the conditions for the refining, the practice that refines, and the purity refined: seeing buddhas is the condition, making offerings and hearing and upholding the Dharma is the practice, and the roots of goodness turning purer is what is thereby brought about. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the multitude of buddhas seen is not a tally of merit; it is the number of times of the “refining.” Brought down to practice: what really changes a person is usually not hearing a new teaching, but the same teaching heard again and again and practised again and again in many circumstances.

The Simile of True Gold Polished: On This Ground the Working of the Fire Has Become a Polishing

The sūtra closes with similes: as true gold, polished again and again with a beryl gem, turns ever brighter and purer, so too the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground — with skillful means and wisdom he follows after them and contemplates them, and they turn ever brighter and purer, ever more still, with nothing able to overshadow them. Chengguan, in matching the simile, divides it finely: true gold is a simile for what is realized, and a simile for faith and the rest; beryl is a simile for the wisdom of skillful means, and by the wisdom of skillful means grinding again and again the world-transcending wisdom of realization is made to send forth the light of the wisdom of teaching, surpassing what went before; and in the matching passage, “skillful means and wisdom” is just the not abiding spoken of above, while “following after them and contemplating them” matches the “polishing again and again.” There is a layer here that may be read against the first ground: there the goldsmith refines gold, putting it into the fire again and again; here the beryl polishes the gold. Fire is smelting, polishing is burnishing — the coarse and the mixed are already gone, and what is done now is to burnish the gold already made until it is translucent. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the polishing does not grind the gold smaller; it takes the film away. Brought down to practice: cultivation reaches a stage where one feels there is nothing great left to do and only repetition remains — that is precisely the time of the polishing.

The Simile of the Moonlight and the Four Winds: Cool, and Not to Be Destroyed

The second simile turns in another direction: as the light of the moon shines upon the bodies of beings and makes them gain coolness, and the four kinds of wind-wheel cannot destroy it, so too the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground are able to extinguish the blazing fire of the afflictions of measureless beings, and the four kinds of path of Māra cannot destroy them. The former simile speaks of one’s own side — the roots of goodness grow purer the more they are polished; this one speaks of the side of beings — that purity goes outward and becomes coolness. Taken together, the two similes are just the two faces of not abiding: because he does not abide in stillness, the moonlight shines upon people; because he does not abide in the conditioned, the four winds cannot destroy it. The sūtra here adds a further sentence: among the ten perfections this bodhisattva has prajñā in preponderance, and it is not that he does not practise the rest, but that he practises them according to his strength and his share. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the coolness of the moonlight is not a power that beats out the fire; it is a different quality — burning distress meets coolness and stills of itself. Brought down to practice: what truly comforts a person is seldom that the reasoning is strong enough; it is usually that there is a certain coolness about that person.

Mostly Becoming a King of the Good Transformation Heaven: What Is Cultivated Shows in the Recompense

At the end of a ground, as is the rule, the recompense is spoken of: a bodhisattva dwelling on this ground mostly becomes a king of the Good Transformation Heaven, sovereign in what he does; all the questions and challenges of the śrāvakas cannot make him shrink back; he is able to make beings put away conceit and enter deeply into dependent origination; giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and the sharing of tasks, in all that he does, do not depart from keeping the Buddha in mind, on up to not departing from keeping in mind the being fully endowed with all modes and with the wisdom of omniscience; he vows further to be, among all beings, the foremost and the most excellent, on up to being the place of reliance for the wisdom of omniscience; if he applies himself with diligence and vigor, in the space of a single thought he gains a hundred thousand koṭis of samādhis, on up to manifesting a hundred thousand koṭis of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if by the power of his vows he manifests sovereignly, then he surpasses this number. Two clauses in this passage fit the present ground most closely: one is ‘the questions and challenges of the śrāvakas cannot make him shrink back’ — this ground contemplates dependent origination rightly, and so he can hold his answer on the very topic in which the two vehicles are most skilled; the other is “he makes beings put away conceit and enter deeply into dependent origination” — what he himself counters is the conceit of grasping at the marks of the defiled and the pure, and so he sets others also to work upon conceit and dependent origination. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: the numbers of the recompense (a hundred thousand koṭis) are not for comparison; they are the format that marks the widening from ground to ground. Brought down to practice: the teaching a person cultivates will show itself in the kind of problem he is best at solving for others.

Matching the Verses in Repetition: How the Verses Say Again What the Prose Has Said

The verses in repetition are not a restatement. The verses of this ground match the prose in order: having fulfilled the fifth ground he contemplates that dharmas are without marks and without nature, unarisen and unaccomplished and from the first pure, substance and mark still and like an illusion, existence and non-existence not two and apart from discrimination — these repeat the ten equalities and the entering of the ground; the wisdom of the bright and keen forbearance of conformity being complete he contemplates the arising and ceasing of the world, by the power of dark delusion the world arises, and if dark delusion is extinguished the world is not — these repeat the contemplation of arising and ceasing with great compassion; from “not to know the true truth is named ignorance” onward repeats the gate of the truth of the supreme meaning; “what ignorance does is of two kinds” repeats the two functions; “from dark delusion up to the six sense-fields is the suffering of formation” repeats the three sufferings; “ignorance and the formations belong to the past” repeats the three times; “ignorance acting as condition is the arising of bondage” repeats the two gates of bondage and of conformity; the five clauses from “the links of existence following one another, gathered in by one mind” onward repeat the summary of the ten gates; “contemplating universally in this way the practice of dependent origination,” “like an illusion, like a dream, like the play of light and shadow,” “and like a fool chasing a mirage” repeat the ten gates and the contemplation of emptiness; from “contemplating in this way he enters into emptiness” onward repeats the three gates of liberation; and thereafter “the great being cultivates the gates of liberation,” “the gates of the samādhi of emptiness are fully a hundred thousand,” “with a deep mind, further, he makes many offerings to the buddhas,” “as gold is polished by beryl,” “as the moon, cool, covers the multitude of things,” “on this ground he mostly becomes a king of Good Transformation” match in order the turning and increasing of great compassion, the ten samādhis of emptiness, the seeing of buddhas and the making of offerings, the two similes and the recompense — closing with the praise, “this ground is most profound and subtle, hard to see and to know; the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas cannot penetrate it.” Chengguan’s division of these verses is likewise threefold: one clause repeats the countering of conceit, ten verses and three clauses repeat the surpassing practice of not abiding, and four verses repeat the fruit thereof. There is one place only in the verses that the prose has not said in this way — “he penetrates that the three realms exist in dependence upon mind, and the twelve links of dependent origination are likewise; birth-and-death is all made by mind, and if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted”; the prose says “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind,” speaking of that upon which they depend, while the verse says outright “if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted,” placing the point of application for ceasing upon the mind. And it is precisely beneath this line that Chengguan makes the distinction that one may not take it as the true mind alone. Brought down to practice: to read the verses as mere revision is to read them for nothing; what one should look for is just such a line as the verses alone have.

A Mirror-Reading with the Consciousness-Only Line: The Place of This Ground within That Tradition

The section that follows is a mirror — not what the present sūtra says outright, but the text of this ground set within the sayings of the consciousness-only line, so that one may see how the two are handed on to each other. Vasubandhu composed the Shidi jing lun explaining this chapter passage by passage, and in the text of the sixth ground that he cites this sentence stands as “the three realms are false; they are only the making of one mind,” with the treatise explaining, “that they are only the making of one mind is because all the three realms turn by mind alone”; whereupon he asks of himself how the distinctions of the conventional truth stand, and answers that conforming to and contemplating the conventional truth is entry into the truth of the supreme meaning — that is, he uses “mind only” as the gathering-in of the distinctions of the conventional, and takes this as the road of entry into the supreme meaning. The She dacheng lun, explaining the name of this ground, says that because the wisdom of dependent origination is that upon which it depends, it is able to make prajñā-pāramitā become manifest, and therefore it is named the Manifest Ground; the Cheng weishi lun, explaining the sixth ground, likewise says that dwelling in the wisdom of dependent origination he draws forth the most surpassing non-discriminating prajñā and makes it become manifest; and the bodhisattva section of the Yuqie shidi lun says that on this ground the wisdom without attachment becomes manifest and prajñā becomes manifest before one, whence the name Manifest Ground, and takes “the abode of the ascendancy of wisdom associated with dependent origination” as the name of this abode. Taking the four together, the grasp of this ground in the consciousness-only line is of one mind: with the wisdom of dependent origination as support, the non-discriminating wisdom is made to become manifest. As for the obstruction cut off, Chengguan cites the masters of consciousness-only, who name it the obstruction of the active operation of coarse marks — a portion of the innate within the obstruction to the knowable, the active operation that grasps at the coarse marks of the defiled and the pure; on entering the sixth ground it is forever cut off by contemplating the ten equalities, and the follies cut off are two, the grasping at there being the defiled and the grasping at there being the pure. This set of readings shines back exactly upon the opening of this ground: why must one contemplate the ten equalities in order to enter? Because what is to be cut off is just the clinging to the defiled and the pure. Only when both mirrors are held up is the weight of this ground fully seen: the present sūtra says from the side of the aspect of practice what is contemplated and what is gained, and the consciousness-only line says from the side of cutting off obstruction and realizing suchness what is cut off and what is realized.

Lineage

The one sentence of this ground, “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind,” is a place inherited along two axes by later ages, and the several houses inherit it by different tracks, which are set down together here. As to the variant wording: the eighty-fascicle text has “whatever belongs to the three realms is only one mind”; the sixty has “the three realms are false, being only the making of mind”; and the Shidi jing lun, citing the sūtra, has “the three realms are false; they are only the making of one mind” — later quotation mostly follows the treatise’s text, while the eighty-fascicle text itself has neither the two graphs for “false” nor the graph for “making”; this belongs to the choices made in rendering, and is set down without adjudication. As to the reading: Vasubandhu explains it with “because all the three realms turn by mind alone,” and the consciousness-only line inherits this and establishes the teaching of consciousness-only; Chengguan, at the verse “if mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted,” makes his distinction, saying that since it says that when mind is extinguished birth-and-death is exhausted, it is plain that one may not construe it as the true mind alone, but that the true and the false in combination are spoken of as depending upon mind — the false which is the true having ceased, the true which is the false is not therewith absent; and he cites the Qixin lun, “it is only the marks of mind that cease, not the substance of mind,” in evidence. Both readings are settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and both are set down. As to the name of the ground: the She dacheng lun explains “manifest” by the wisdom of dependent origination making prajñā become manifest, and Chengguan judges this explanation to “accord rightly with the present sūtra, spoken with respect to the ground”; Fazang brings together the names of the She lun, the Cheng weishi, the Yuqie, the Shenmi, the Zhuangyan lun, the Shizhu lun, the Renwang jing, and the Jinguangming, and concludes that there is no further divergent account; Li Tongxuan does not take the explanation by the wisdom of dependent origination, but explains the name directly by all the wisdom of this ground, worldly and world-transcending alike, becoming manifest, and further takes the night deity called Guardian of All Cities, Increasing Might, whom Sudhana sees in the chapter on Entry into the Dharma Realm, as symbolizing the practice of this ground, and at the close returns to the doctrine of the six characteristics, to be pondered as whole and as parts. The three tracks run side by side, all being settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and are set down; Chengguan’s “accords rightly with the present sūtra, spoken with respect to the ground” and Fazang’s “there is no further divergent account” are each that house’s express adjudication, and each is recorded as its own. As to the outline: Vasubandhu sets up three parts — the countering of conceit, the surpassing practice of not abiding, and the fruit thereof — and Chengguan inherits these and matches them to the text of the sūtra; Li Tongxuan, for his part, divides the text of this ground by a long outline into nine sections. The two outlines stand together, and are likewise set down without adjudication.

The Two Words “Far-Reaching”: Far in What Respect?

When the ten grounds reach the seventh, the name of the ground suddenly changes its tone. The names of the first six grounds speak of what is gained — Joyful, Stainless, Luminous, Flaming-Wisdom, Hard-to-Conquer, Manifest, each brighter than the last; on this ground the name speaks instead of the road travelled: Far-Reaching. Far in what respect? The sūtra itself gives no direct explanation of this name; at the end of the ground it says only the one sentence, “this is called: a brief statement of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s seventh ground, the Far-Reaching”, setting the name down there and letting the marks of practice speak for it. The ancient worthies therefore supplied the name from the marks of practice.

Chengguan says, “as for the words ‘far-reaching’, there are in general four senses”, and raises the accounts of four houses, drawing them at last into two senses: first, that he has come far from what lies behind, all the way to the edge of exertion; second, that standing at the last edge of exertion he is able to go far into the stations that lie ahead. The one looks back, the other looks forward — and the Far-Reaching Ground, the midpoint of the road, is spoken of as far at both ends. Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, raises three explanations, and the first of them is “taking it as the last edge of exertion”: on this ground the practice of exertion has reached its ultimate, and although no sign whatever can shake him any longer, with respect to signlessness he is still counted as “having practice” — and this sentence is the crucial one. It is not that he still clings to signs; it is that he is still ‘holding signlessness in place by exertion’, and exertion itself is still practice. Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun establishes its sense from the sūtra’s own sentence explaining the name, saying, “because the exertion of practice is carried through to the end, it is named the Far-Reaching Ground”: exertion has walked to its end, and so it is called far-reaching. Li Tongxuan’s reading differs most of all; he speaks not from exertion but from pervasion: on this ground one practices the perfection of skillful means, entering all worlds with a wisdom free of doing, and in accord with the practice of sentient beings causing it to pervade everywhere — “because he enters the practice of the world, pervading everywhere and vast, it is named the Far-Reaching Ground.” Far is not being distant from things; far is going everywhere.

What the four houses point to is not one and the same, and yet they all circle a single matter: this ground is the last station of ‘exertion’. Hold on to this general mark, and every passage of the sūtra below can be set in its place.

The Ten “Though … Yet …”: Within Emptiness Not Abiding in Emptiness, Within Existence Not Abiding in Existence

For the first passage of entering the ground the sūtra gives ten sentences of one and the same shape: “though he well cultivates the samādhis of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, yet in kindness and compassion he does not forsake sentient beings” — the upper half of the sentence contemplates emptiness, the lower half goes out into existence. These ten sentences together are called the ten kinds of wisdom in skillful means, and they are the bridge by which one strides from the sixth ground into the seventh.

First a question that is easily skipped over: the sixth ground is already the ground where “prajñā is manifest”, where the contemplation of emptiness has been carried to its furthest point — why should another bridge be needed? Chengguan answers very directly: precisely because the contemplation of emptiness has been done so well, “delighting in and clinging to the prajñā that contemplates emptiness” has itself become the obstruction that this ground departs from. The illness of the ground before is not clinging to existence but clinging to emptiness — lingering within signlessness and unwilling to come out and do anything. And so the counteragent of the seventh ground is not to teach emptiness over again; it is to teach ‘how to raise existence within emptiness’. Chengguan judges the syntax of these ten sentences thus: “thus, because it is within existence that he cultivates emptiness, he does not abide in emptiness, and this is the wisdom of skillful means within emptiness; because it is from emptiness that he goes out into existence, he does not abide in existence, and this is the surpassing path within existence.” When the upper clause gains the lower, emptiness does not become a dead emptiness; when the lower clause gains the upper, existence does not become a defiled existence. Only when the two clauses each gain the other is it called the wisdom of skillful means.

Taken one by one, the ten sentences are exactly the demolishing of ten misgivings about ‘falling into existence’. The first fears that kindness and compassion will spoil the contemplation of emptiness, and the sūtra says that though he cultivates the three samādhis, in kindness and compassion he does not forsake sentient beings; the second fears that once the dharma of equality is realized there is no buddha left to make offerings to, and the sūtra says that though he has realized the dharma of the equality of the buddhas, he delights in constantly making offerings to the buddhas; the third fears that cultivating merit has signs, and the sūtra says that though he enters the gate of the wisdom that contemplates emptiness, he diligently amasses merit; the fourth fears that to adorn the three realms is to be enamored of the three realms, and the sūtra says that though he is far removed from the three realms, he adorns the three realms — and here Chengguan points out that this is birth taken by the power of vows, not birth taken through deeds and delusions, and that this is why it says “far removed”. The fifth is stranger still: though he has utterly extinguished the flames of his own afflictions, he can raise for sentient beings the gate of practice that “extinguishes the flames of the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion” — it is not that he goes to light a fire, but that for the sake of putting out fire he manifests a fire there to be put out. The sixth lists eight similes: like an illusion, like a dream, like a shadow, like an echo, like a mirage, like a magical transformation, like the moon in water, like an image in a mirror, without duality in their own nature, and yet he does work in accord with mind in measureless distinction — all eight similes say “existent and yet not real”, and it is precisely because they are not real that the work is unobstructed. The seventh: though he knows the lands are like empty space, he adorns a buddha-land; the eighth: though he knows the dharma-body is by nature bodiless, he adorns his body with the marks and signs; the ninth: though he knows the voice of the buddhas is empty and quiescent in nature and cannot be spoken, he sends forth all kinds of pure sounds in accord with sentient beings — the environing recompense, the direct recompense, and the teaching, three wheels, each one of them a case of ‘knowing emptiness and yet doing’. The tenth is deepest of all: though he follows the buddhas in knowing that the three times are but a single thought, he discriminates in accord with the understanding of sentient beings and cultivates the practices with all kinds of signs, all kinds of seasons, all kinds of numbers of kalpas — time for him is already a single thought, and yet he is still willing to walk the numbers of kalpas alongside sentient beings.

The misreading commonly arises here: to read “though … yet …” as reluctance, as grievance, as though the bodhisattva knew it to be empty and still had to put on a show of existence. It is not so. Chengguan says that the ten sentences “do not stagnate in emptiness or in existence, and so in each the word ‘though’ is used” — the word “though” is not a concession; it is the mark that neither side is fallen into. The sūtra closes the passage: “by ten kinds of wisdom in skillful means such as these the bodhisattva gives rise to surpassing practice and passes from the sixth ground into the seventh; and once he has entered, this practice is constantly present before him, and it is called: dwelling on the seventh ground, the Far-Reaching” — note those words “constantly present before him”: the mark of entering the ground is not that something new has been gained, but that this twofold practice has become his ordinary state. Brought home to oneself, this passage asks: can my contemplation of emptiness get out of the gate of contemplation? And once out, is it still there?

The Twenty “Enterings of the Measureless”: Taking the Whole Dharma Realm as the Surface of One’s Work

After dwelling on the ground, the sūtra sets out in one breath twenty sentences of “entering the measureless”: entering the measureless realms of sentient beings, entering the measureless work of the buddhas in teaching and transforming sentient beings, entering the measureless net of worlds, entering the measureless pure lands of the buddhas, entering the measureless dharmas of every kind and distinction, entering the measureless wisdom by which the buddhas awaken in the present, entering the measureless numbers of kalpas, entering the measureless wisdom by which the buddhas comprehend the three times, entering the measureless distinctions in the faith and understanding of sentient beings, entering the measureless bodies of name and form that the buddhas manifest, entering the measureless distinctions in the desires, delights, and faculties of sentient beings, entering the measureless speech and sounds of the buddhas that gladden sentient beings, entering the measureless workings of mind of every kind in sentient beings, entering the measureless vast wisdom that the buddhas comprehend, entering the measureless faith and understanding of the vehicle of the śrāvakas, entering the measureless proclaiming by the buddhas of the path of wisdom that brings beings to faith and understanding, entering the measureless attainments of the pratyekabuddhas, entering the measureless proclaiming by the buddhas of the gates of profound wisdom that brings beings to enter in, entering the measureless practices of skillful means of the bodhisattvas, entering the measureless matters of the assembling of the Great Vehicle spoken by the buddhas whereby bodhisattvas are able to enter in.

Spread out, the twenty sentences turn out to be paired two by two: one sentence tells the measurelessness on the side of sentient beings, the next the measurelessness on the side of the buddhas — the realms of sentient beings against the buddhas’ work of teaching and transforming, the faith and understanding of sentient beings against the buddhas’ wisdom of the three times, the workings of mind of sentient beings against the buddhas’ vast wisdom. This is just the unfolding of the ten wondrous practices of the passage before: since existence can be raised within emptiness, what is “entered” is no longer one object and then another, but a whole expanse of the measureless. It is these very sentences that Li Tongxuan cites when he explains the name of the ground: entering all worlds with a wisdom free of doing, “equalling the practice of sentient beings and causing it to pervade everywhere” — he reads “far-reaching” straight off as the pervasion of these twenty enterings.

The sūtra then gives a sentence of the bodhisattva speaking to himself: “such measureless realms of the Tathāgata cannot be known even on through hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas; I should bring them all to fulfillment with a mind free of exertion and free of discrimination.” Within this sentence is hidden the turning point of the whole ground. What comes before it, the twenty enterings, is action of what vastness — and here it says that they are to be brought to fulfillment with “a mind free of exertion and free of discrimination”. He has seen it for himself: this account cannot be settled by relying on exertion. Vasubandhu, explaining this passage (where the sūtra as cited in the treatise reads “spontaneously, and not accomplished through discrimination”), says, “as for spontaneously: because its own nature is excellently free of discrimination.” Only a man who has exerted himself to the utmost truly knows that exertion has an edge; and it is here that the vow-mind begins to point toward the eighth ground.

Within Thought After Thought, the Ten Perfections Are Full Together

Then comes the most famous passage of this ground: “in thought after thought this bodhisattva is constantly able to complete the ten perfections.”

First a question: the marks of practice of the ten perfections are each distinct — giving is relinquishing, discipline is stopping, patience is receiving, vigor is spurring; how could they possibly be brought to fullness all at once within a single thought? The sūtra sets up this question itself and answers it itself: “because in thought after thought he takes great compassion as his forerunner, practices the Buddha’s Dharma, and turns toward the wisdom of a buddha.” Chengguan follows this and judges it to be “a single thought all at once furnished with the practice of the ten perfections, because the benefit of its meaning is wide” — the crux lies not in the action but in what the mind is turned toward. One and the same thought, taking great compassion as its forerunner and dedicating itself toward the wisdom of a buddha, already has the meaning of the ten perfections complete within it; the ten perfections are not ten separate matters queuing up to be finished, but ten facets within a single thought.

The sūtra then gives the definitions of these ten facets one by one, and none of them is a definition drawn from ritual observance; each is drawn from the mark of the mind. All his roots of goodness given to sentient beings for the sake of seeking the wisdom of a buddha is the perfection of dāna — the definition of giving falls upon “giving to sentient beings” and not upon goods and property; the ability to extinguish the burning of every affliction is the perfection of śīla — the function of discipline is spoken of as the extinguishing of burning; taking kindness and compassion as forerunner and doing no harm to sentient beings is the perfection of kṣānti — the root of patience is kindness and compassion, not gritted endurance; seeking the surpassing wholesome dharmas without ever having enough is the perfection of vīrya — the mark of vigor is never having enough; the path of omniscience constantly present before him and never scattered is the perfection of dhyāna — the mark of concentration is being unscattered and not the entering of stillness; the ability to accept that the dharmas neither arise nor cease is the perfection of prajñā — prajñā too is spoken of here with the word “acceptance”: only when one can settle down into non-arising is it wisdom; the ability to bring forth measureless wisdom is the perfection of skillful means; the ability to seek the higher and ever more surpassing wisdom is the perfection of vows; that no divergent doctrine and no host of Māra can break him down is the perfection of power; knowing all dharmas as they really are is the perfection of knowledge. Chengguan further apportions compassion and wisdom among them: “dāna runs through both compassion and wisdom; patience is taken with respect to compassion alone; the rest are all taken with respect to wisdom” — the ten perfections are not ten equal shares.

And the threshold of this passage really lies in the few sentences before it: “dwelling unshaken, without a single thought of rest or of putting it aside; walking, standing, sitting, lying down, and even in sleep and dream, he never for a moment consorts with the covering obstructions.” Vasubandhu explains this as “within a single thought the two practices, śamatha and vipaśyanā, are manifest together” — stopping and contemplating arise together within one and the same thought, and this is the “twofold practice” of this ground. Chengguan adds a line: that sleep and dream are raised is “to make the dim serve as a measure for the alert” — even in the most benighted state it is unbroken, how much more when awake. At the end the sūtra widens the range once more: the four means of gathering, the four holdings, the thirty-seven factors, the three gates of liberation, stated briefly on up to all the factors of awakening, are brought to fullness in thought after thought. Chengguan explains the “four holdings” as the places where four houses dwell: the house of prajñā, which is that which illumines; the house of the truths, which is that which is illumined; the house of relinquishing the afflictions; and the house of the purity of suffering. Brought home to oneself: what is called “unbroken in thought after thought” is not forcing oneself never to rest; it is that the direction of that one thought has never once been changed.

Why the Seventh Ground Is the Most Excellent: The Watershed of Exertion and Its Absence

Vimukticandra breaks in here with a question: is it only the seventh ground that fulfills the factors of awakening, or can all the grounds fulfill them? The question is extremely well put — if all the grounds fulfill them, is not the excellence of the seventh set up for nothing?

Vajragarbha’s answer has two layers. The first: all ten grounds are able to fulfill the factors of awakening, and he gives the reason ground by ground — the first because it takes all the Buddha’s dharmas as its object and vows to seek them, the second because it is free of the stains of the mind, the third because its vows increase further and it gains the radiance of the Dharma, the fourth because it enters the path, the fifth because it accords with what is done in the world, the sixth because it enters the profound gate of the Dharma, the seventh because it gives rise to all the Buddha’s dharmas. Seven reasons set out in a row: the first six grounds each have their own facet, and the seventh alone “gives rise to all the Buddha’s dharmas” — it raises them all together. The second layer is the watershed itself: “from the first ground up to the seventh a bodhisattva accomplishes the portion that is exertion possessed of wisdom; and by the power of this, from the eighth ground up to the tenth, practice without exertion is accomplished in its entirety.” The first seven grounds are one stretch that has exertion, the last three a stretch that has none, and the seventh ground is the place where the stretch that has exertion is full — hence “because on this seventh ground the practice of exertion is complete, he gains entry into the practice in which wisdom is free.” Its excellence is not that it stands higher than the other grounds; it is that it is the closing of a whole stretch.

And so the sūtra gives the simile of the space between two worlds: suppose there were two worlds, one defiled and one wholly pure; the space between the two is hard to pass through, save only for a bodhisattva who has great skillful means, spiritual powers, and the power of vows. Vasubandhu’s treatise, citing this simile, gives it as “first, the defiled-and-pure world; second, the wholly pure world.” The point of the simile must be seen exactly: what is hard to pass is neither the defiled world nor the pure world; it is that border. The most dangerous place in practice has never been the filthiest place; it is the place that is nearly clean and not yet clean — when exertion has been carried to its utmost, the next step forward cannot be taken by exertion, and just this one step is hard. It is precisely by this that Chengguan brings out that “this seventh is doubly neither defiled nor pure”, establishing its sense as the middle.

Defiled Practice or Pure Practice: The Wheel-Turning King and the Brahmā King

Vimukticandra then asks something sharper still: is this bodhisattva of the seventh ground one of defiled practice, or one of pure practice?

Vajragarbha does not choose a side outright. He says that from the first ground to the seventh all the practices carried out have already forsaken the deeds that are afflictions, because they are dedicated toward unsurpassed awakening and because a portion of the path of equality has been gained — this is the pure side; “and yet they still cannot be called practice that has surpassed the afflictions” — this is the side that still cannot be counted as pure. Then he gives the simile: a wheel-turning sage king rides the jewel that is the heavenly elephant and travels the four continents, and seeing that there are people poor and in distress is not defiled by those many troubles; and yet he has not surpassed the station of a “human”. But if he casts off the body of a king and is born in the Brahmā world, riding a celestial palace, seeing a thousand worlds and travelling a thousand worlds, manifesting the radiance and majestic virtue of the Brahmā heaven — this is what is called surpassing the station of a human. Joined to the Dharma: from the first ground to the seventh he rides the vehicle of the perfections and travels the world, knowing the faults and troubles of the afflictions and undefiled by them, and yet is still not named practice that has surpassed the afflictions; if he forsakes every practice that has exertion and passes from the seventh ground into the eighth, riding the pure vehicle of the bodhisattva and travelling the world, this at last is named practice that has surpassed the afflictions. Chengguan attaches the simile with perfect clarity: the wheel-turning king figures the seventh ground and the Brahmā king the eighth — the wheel-turning king’s freedom from defilement is ‘undefiled while still among humans’, and the Brahmā king’s surpassing is ‘a change of body’.

The misreading commonly arises here: to suppose that the bodhisattva is not yet clean at the seventh ground because his practice has gone badly. Not so. The sūtra follows immediately with the most precise of sentences: “this bodhisattva of the seventh ground has surpassed in full the host of afflictions, much greed and the rest, and dwells on this ground; he is not called one who has afflictions, nor called one who is without afflictions.” Why not called having them? “Because none of the afflictions actively operate.” Why not called without them? “Because his mind that seeks the wisdom of the Tathāgata is not yet fulfilled.” This second sentence bears the most reading: his “not yet fulfilled” is not that greed and hatred remain, but that the “seeking” remains. Chengguan carries the matter through to the end: “exertion is itself an affliction, because there is a stirring in it.” That one thought of exertion that seeks the wisdom of a buddha counts, by the standard of this ground, as a stirring. This is no harsh reproach; it is that the measure has been raised a notch: the cleanness of the first ground is a cleanness free of the view of a self, while the cleanness of the seventh is a cleanness in which even ‘seeking by exertion’ must be set down. Chengguan further lists the order in which the grounds surpass the delusions — the first ground surpasses greed, the second and third surpass hatred, the third also surpasses delusion, the fourth surpasses conceit, the fifth surpasses doubt, the sixth surpasses views, and at this point the secondary afflictions are surpassed in the whole — and so it is called “surpassed in full”; while the sūtra says “much greed and the rest”, and that one added word “much” is precisely what leaves standing the subtle ones not yet surpassed.

Purity of the Three Kinds of Action · The Great Illumining Master · A Million Samādhis

From here on is the fruit portion of this ground. Vasubandhu judges it to be “the fruit thereof” among the five aspects; Chengguan divides it into four fruits: purity of action, the gaining of excellent samādhis, the gaining of the surpassing of the grounds, and the gaining of excellent practice.

The first is purity of action. The sūtra says that a bodhisattva dwelling on this seventh ground, “with a deep and pure mind, perfects the action of body, perfects the action of speech, perfects the action of mind” — the unwholesome courses of action that the Tathāgata reproves have all been forsaken, and the wholesome deeds that the Tathāgata praises are constantly and well cultivated; all the books and arts there are in the world, as was said within the fifth ground, he carries out of themselves, without recourse to exertion. The bodhisattva of the fifth ground has to study the arts of the world with an applied mind; on the seventh he no longer needs to — those words “without recourse to exertion” appear everywhere on this ground, and they are its hidden thread. Vasubandhu explains purity of action as having four aspects, and the first he raises is the excellence of purity in discipline.

Then the station is spoken of: within the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system this bodhisattva acts as a great illumining master, and apart from the Tathāgata and the other bodhisattvas of the eighth ground and above there is none whose deep mind and wondrous practice can equal his; the various dhyānas, samādhis, samāpattis, spiritual powers, and liberations are all able to appear before him. Chengguan here distinguishes five kinds of samāpatti — the four formless attainments, the eight bases of mastery, the ten universals, the concentration of complete cessation, and the concentration of non-perception; the first four the bodhisattva often enters, for the sake of transforming sentient beings, while the concentration of non-perception he does not enter, because it is not a noble dharma. And the sūtra itself supplies a most important restriction: “and yet these are accomplished by cultivation; they are not like the eighth ground, which accomplishes them by recompense.” The same spiritual powers and samādhis appear, but on the seventh ground they are gained by cultivation and on the eighth by recompense — this sentence is one more face of the difference between the seventh ground and the eighth, and it also lays the ground for what follows, that he does not make realization of the concentration of cessation.

The second is the gaining of excellent samādhis. The sūtra lists the names of ten samādhis: the samādhi of well discerning and selecting, the samādhi of well selecting the meaning, the samādhi of supreme wisdom, the samādhi of distinguishing the treasury of meaning, the samādhi of distinguishing the meaning as it really is, the samādhi of well abiding in firm faculties, the samādhi of the gate of wisdom and spiritual powers, the samādhi of the action of the Dharma realm, the samādhi of the excellent benefit of the Tathāgata, and the samādhi of the gate of the manifold treasury of meaning, of birth-and-death and nirvāṇa; and it says that he enters “a million samādhis such as these, furnished with the gate of great wisdom and spiritual powers, and thereby purifies this ground.” Among the ten names, “well selecting”, “distinguishing the meaning”, and “distinguishing the meaning as it really is” mark out selecting and meaning again and again — the concentration of this ground is not a concentration without discrimination, but a concentration well able to discriminate within concentration, which answers exactly to the name of the wisdom of skillful means. Having gained these samādhis, “because he is well able to purify the wisdom of skillful means and because of the power of great compassion, he surpasses the ground of the two vehicles and gains the ground of discerning wisdom”; Vasubandhu explains the surpassing of the two vehicles as having two aspects: first, the cultivation of the power of the wisdom of skillful means; second, the power of great compassion. What surpasses the two vehicles is skillful means and compassion, not depth of concentration.

The third passage speaks of the signlessness of the three kinds of action: because he well purifies the signless practice of measureless action of body, of speech, and of mind, he “gains the radiance of the acceptance that dharmas do not arise”. Vasubandhu explains the “signless practice of measureless action in the three” as the mark of remoteness in entering concentration — the two vehicles too have the mark of remoteness in purified action, but it is not “measureless”. What is gained of that acceptance on this ground is its “radiance”, not yet the substance of the acceptance itself, which belongs to the eighth ground; this too is left over for the ground that follows.

The Power of Vows and the Power of His Own Wisdom: The Simile of the Prince

Vimukticandra asks again: have not all the measureless actions of body, speech, and mind that a bodhisattva has had since the first ground already surpassed the two vehicles?

Vajragarbha answers: those have all surpassed them, “and yet that was only because he vowed to seek the dharmas of the buddhas, and not by the power of his own wisdom in discerning; now, on the seventh ground, it is by the power of his own wisdom, and so none of the two vehicles can come up to him.” One and the same “surpassing”, and two different things relied upon before and after: the first ground relies on the vow, the seventh on his own wisdom. It is like a prince born into the house of a king, born of the queen, furnished with the marks of a king, who from the moment he is born surpasses all the host of ministers — but that is by the power of the king; only when his body has grown up and his arts and studies are all complete does he surpass everyone by his own power. The simile is plain in the extreme, and yet it sorts out one thing in practice that is constantly confused: a station gained by setting one’s will and a station gained by actual strength can look the same from outside and are not the same within. To say at the first raising of the mind that one “surpasses all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas” is no boast — that is the blood of the royal house; to say at the seventh ground that one “passes out beyond all the two vehicles” — that is arts and studies all complete.

The end of the answer gives the settled mark of this ground: “a bodhisattva who dwells on this seventh ground gains the action of body, speech, and mind that is profound, far removed, without practice, and constantly coursing, and he diligently seeks the higher path without forsaking it — and therefore the bodhisattva, though he courses in the real limit, does not make realization of it.” Vasubandhu explains these three words one by one: profound, because it enters far; far removed, because those obstructions are extinguished; without practice, because the other grounds, world-transcending and worldly, cannot practice it. Chengguan adds “constantly coursing, because this is without interval”, and points out that the two vehicles too have action apart from signs, yet they take a little and are satisfied and cannot seek awakening above — and so the surpassing of the seventh ground lies in “diligently seeking the higher path without forsaking it”.

Entering the Concentration of Cessation in Thought After Thought Without Making Realization of It: Boarding a Ship and Entering the Sea

And so comes the most dangerous question of the whole ground: from which ground onward is a bodhisattva able to enter the concentration of cessation?

Vajragarbha answers: from the sixth ground onward he is able to enter the concentration of cessation; and now, dwelling on this ground, he is “able to enter it in thought after thought and also to rise from it in thought after thought, and yet he does not make realization of it”. The concentration of complete cessation is the gate of quiescent cessation to which the two vehicles go; enter it deeply and there is the danger of taking realization of it — and once realization is taken, the bodhisattva path is cut off right there. And so the sūtra says expressly ‘entering in thought after thought, rising in thought after thought’: to enter and be able to rise is what it is not to make realization. Therefore this bodhisattva is called one who has perfected inconceivable action of body, speech, and mind, “coursing in the real limit and not making realization of it”. Vasubandhu explains the reason for it in five graphs only: “because he does not forsake existence.” Because he does not forsake existence, he does not fall into realization.

The simile says: it is like a man who boards a ship and enters the sea and by the power of his skill meets with no disaster in the water; so it is with the bodhisattva of this ground, who rides the ship of the perfections and sails the sea of the real limit, and by the power of his vows does not realize cessation. Chengguan explains the “power of skill” in the simile as knowing the method of sailing a ship and knowing the marks of water; and in the joining of the simile the “ship of the perfections” is prajñā and the rest, while “by the power of his vows” is “the cause of skillful means that does not forsake existence”. Water is what can drown a man, and a ship is what can travel upon water — the real limit is not something that cannot be entered; it is something that cannot be entered without a ship.

Then come ten sentences on the virtue of the twofold practice: though he manifests birth-and-death, he constantly dwells in nirvāṇa; though a retinue surrounds him, he constantly delights in solitude; though by the power of vows he takes birth in the three realms, he is not defiled by the dharmas of the world; though constantly in quiescent cessation, by the power of skillful means he blazes up again, and though he blazes he is not burned; though he accords with the wisdom of a buddha, he manifests entering the grounds of the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha; though he has gained the treasury of the realm of a buddha, he manifests dwelling in the realm of Māra; though he has passed beyond the path of Māra, he manifests carrying out the dharmas of Māra; though he manifests conduct in common with the outsiders, he does not forsake the Buddha’s Dharma; though he manifests according with every world, he constantly carries out all the dharmas that transcend the world; and all the affairs of adornment that are his pass beyond whatever belongs to the devas, the dragons, and the eight classes, on up to Śakra, the Brahmā kings, and the four heaven kings, and yet he does not forsake the mind that delights in the Dharma. These ten sentences have the same syntax as the ten wondrous practices of entering the ground, but they stand at a different station: the ten sentences of entering the ground are ‘knowing emptiness and being able to raise existence’, while these ten are ‘raising existence and not losing emptiness’. Vasubandhu gathers these ten sentences into eight kinds of practice that counteract in common, and Chengguan explains the principle by which they gather one another: the counteracting and the counteracted, the two practices, go together, as when manifesting birth-and-death is what is counteracted and constantly dwelling in nirvāṇa is what counteracts, so that because what counteracts gathers in what is counteracted he is not defiled by birth-and-death; and the reverse holds as well, manifesting birth-and-death being what counteracts, so that he does not realize nirvāṇa. This is no play of words; it is the very reason that the twofold practice is twofold — each side being the counteragent of the other, neither of them falls.

Offerings to the Buddhas · True Gold · Sunlight: The Perfection of Skillful Means Preeminent

The end of the fruit portion speaks of pliancy. A bodhisattva who has perfected wisdom such as this and dwells on the Far-Reaching Ground gains by the power of his vows the sight of many buddhas, on up to seeing many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas; in the presence of those buddhas, with a vast mind and a mind of increasing excellence, he makes offerings and pays reverence, presenting clothing, food and drink, bedding, and medicine, everything that supports life, and making offerings to the whole assembly of monks as well, and dedicating these roots of goodness toward unsurpassed awakening; again in the presence of the buddhas he reverently listens to the Dharma, and having heard it receives and upholds it, gaining the radiance of the wisdom of samādhi as it really is and practicing in accord with it; in the presence of the buddhas he guards and upholds the true Dharma and is constantly praised and delighted in by the tathāgatas, “no question or challenge that the two vehicles may raise can make him fall back”, he benefits sentient beings, and his acceptance of the dharmas is pure. Vasubandhu takes precisely this passage for his explanation of the name: the treatise says, “as for the one who guards the true Dharma of the buddhas: because within the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system he gets to be a great master, and because his cultivation of the practice of skillful means is brought to fullness”, and it cites the sūtra, “because he benefits sentient beings, because his acceptance of the dharmas turns purer, and because the exertion of practice is carried through to the end, it is named the Far-Reaching Ground” — the grounds for the name of this ground lie, after all, within this very passage of the marks of its fruit.

Two similes close it. It is like true gold adorned with many wondrous jewels set in among it, turning ever more excellent and its radiance doubled, so that none of the other ornaments can come up to it — Vasubandhu explains the simile of true gold as the bringing to fullness of the exertion of the practice of skillful means among the factors of awakening, so that the roots of goodness turn more excellent and pure. The ground before also had a simile of refining gold, but there it was ‘a goldsmith refining gold, putting it into the fire again and again’, which speaks of treating; on this ground it is ‘jewels set in among it’, which speaks of adorning — the gold has been refined clean, and what is added is adornment. And one simile more: it is like sunlight, which the light of the stars and the moon cannot come up to and which can dry up all the mire and standing water upon the earth of Jambudvīpa; so with the bodhisattva of this ground, whom none of the two vehicles can come up to and who can dry up all the deluding mire and standing water of sentient beings. Chengguan distinguishes the two lights of sun and moon: moonlight is cool, like prajñā; sunlight is wide in its function, like skillful means — the prajñā of the sixth ground is like the moon and the skillful means of the seventh like the sun, and the simile is exchanged with perfect precision. And so the sūtra says at the last: among the ten perfections of this bodhisattva the perfection of skillful means is preeminent; it is not that he does not practice the rest, but only that he does so according to his power and his portion. Li Tongxuan, explaining what gate of practice this ground cultivates, also lands precisely upon the perfection of skillful means: by the three gates of liberation that go forth from birth-and-death he is able to enter the world and share the myriad practices of sentient beings, “and yet he does not depart from the world and does not follow after birth-and-death, and because he makes great kindness and compassion grow, it is named the perfection of skillful means.”

The Conclusion of the Ground and Its Fruit of Recompense: He Mostly Becomes a Sovereign Heaven King

The sūtra concludes with “Sons of the Buddha! This is called: a brief statement of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s seventh ground, the Far-Reaching”, and then speaks of the body of recompense: a bodhisattva who dwells on this ground mostly becomes a Sovereign Heaven King, well proclaiming for sentient beings the dharma of realizing wisdom and causing them to enter into realization. The Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations is the summit of the realm of desire — the bodhisattva of this ground does not hide away in concentration; he sits at the very top of the world and preaches, which answers just to the sense of “entering the practice of the world and pervading everywhere”. All the works he does — giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, the sharing of tasks — do not depart from the recollection of the Buddha, on up to not departing from the recollection of the perfect possession of all modes and of the wisdom of omniscience: the four means of gathering are the hands that reach outward and the three recollections the thread that runs inward, and however far the hands reach the thread is not broken. He further makes a vow: “I should be, among all sentient beings, the foremost and the most excellent, on up to being the one upon whom they rely for the wisdom of omniscience.” This sentence of vowing is the same on every ground; it is not a contending for height but an acknowledging of the load. At the end the measure of his vigor is stated: if he gives rise to diligent vigor, then in the space of a single thought he gains hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of samādhis, on up to manifesting hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of bodhisattvas as his retinue; and if by the surpassing power of vows he manifests freely, it exceeds even this number, so that through hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas it could not be counted and known.

The verses in repetition walk the prose through once more, and among them is one sentence that the prose does not have: the conspectus of the virtues of the ten grounds — “the first ground takes its object and its merit is full, the second is free of stain and the third has contention stilled, the fourth enters the path and the fifth accords in its practice, the sixth shines with the light of the wisdom of non-arising, the seventh dwells in awakening and its merit is full, and all the great vows are complete in every kind; and by this it can bring it about that within the eighth ground everything done is pure.” The ten grounds are set out with one virtue to a clause, and at the end it comes back to the purity of the eighth — this is to say once more, by way of a single table, that ‘the seventh ground is the closing’. The verses end with the lotus resting in water as a simile for the freedom from defilement of the eighth ground, and close with “this is the bodhisattva’s Far-Reaching Ground, the pure path of the wisdom of skillful means; none in any world, neither devas nor humans, neither śrāvakas nor pratyekabuddhas, is able to comprehend it.”

A Reading Against the Mirror of Consciousness-Only: The Abiding in Signlessness with Applied Practice and with Exertion · The Obstruction of the Active Operation of Subtle Signs

This ground has, within the line of consciousness-only, a more technical name and placement. Chengguan, explaining the reason for its coming, directly cites the words of the Yuqie as his authority: on the ground before, although he was already able much to abide in attention to signlessness, he was not yet able to make that attention “without interval and without lack”, and in order to bring it to fullness this ground comes — and within the divisions of the bodhisattva abidings of the Yuqie, this ground is precisely “the abiding in signlessness that has applied practice and has exertion”: signlessness is already his ordinary state, but the maintaining of it still requires applied practice and still requires exertion. The sūtra’s words, “on this seventh ground the practice of exertion is complete”, answer exactly to this.

As for the obstruction departed from, Chengguan says it is “the obstruction of the active operation of subtle signs”, and opens it into two follies: the first is the folly of the active operation of subtle signs, which grasps at a subtle sign of arising in the flowing on of conditioned arising; the second is the folly of seeking signlessness by sheer attention, which grasps at a subtle sign of cessation in the returning to stillness. The second folly especially must be seen clearly — it is not a clinging to existence, but “diligently seeking signlessness by sheer attention, not yet able to raise the surpassing practice of existence within emptiness”. Since this is what is cut off, what is realized is “the suchness of the non-differentiation of dharmas”: knowing that the manifold teachings are alike true and signless, he is therefore able to raise existence within emptiness and to perfect the perfection of skillful means. Fazang too, in the Tanxuan ji, following the Di lun, says that this ground departs from “the obstruction that is the habit of subtle signs”, and cites the text of the Weishi alongside it. As for the name of the ground, of the four houses Chengguan raises, the first is the sense given in the Cheng weishi: “because he comes to the last edge of exertion in the abiding in signlessness, and passes out beyond the world and the path of the two vehicles”; while the Jieshenmi says, “because he is able far to realize and enter attention to signlessness that is without lack and without interval, and is adjacent to the pure grounds, it is named far-reaching”; and Vasubandhu’s commentary on the She dacheng points out the joint still more exactly: although no sign whatever can shake him, “with respect to signlessness he is still said to have practice”.

What Huayan says here is ‘the space between two worlds is hard to pass through’, and what consciousness-only says is ‘cutting off the folly of seeking signlessness by sheer attention’ — the one is the difficulty of a man on the road, the other the name of a delusion to be cut off; both speak of one and the same step. Only when the two mirrors shine together is the weight of this ground fully seen.

Lineage

The text of this ground is carried on along two axes in later times. On the side of the Huayan school: Chengguan takes “sheer signlessness not obstructing the raising of practice” as the distinguishing sense of this ground, and judges the syntax of the ten wondrous practices by ‘the wisdom of skillful means within emptiness · the surpassing path within existence’ — the talk of the unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena, landed upon a station, and this is the passage where the bone shows most plainly; Li Tongxuan, for his part, takes the good friend whom Sudhana visits at this station as a figure, saying that “the one named Blossoming Tree-Flowers figures the tree of the wondrous wisdom of signlessness blossoming into the flower of the practice of Samantabhadra”, and reads the vast joy of this ground by “not dwelling in the defiled or the pure, and therefore named liberation” — the matching of the ten grounds with the fifty-three visits is one line of figurative reading.

The divergent explanations of the ancient worthies concerning this ground are set down together without adjudication: as to the number of senses in explaining the name, Chengguan raises four senses and draws them into two, Fazang raises three explanations, Li Tongxuan explains it as entering the world and pervading everywhere, and Vasubandhu explains it as the exertion of practice carried through to the end; as to the name of the ground in the Shizhu lun, Chengguan cites it as “the Far Ground” and Fazang cites it as “the Ground of the Far Body”; as to the number of verses of praise and request, Chengguan gives twelve verses, while the sixty-fascicle text upon which Fazang comments gives fourteen; as to the assignment of the five aspects, Chengguan assigns the mind of entering, the mind of abiding and issuing, and the fullness of the ground, while Fazang assigns the path of applied practice, the uninterrupted path, the path of liberation, and the path of advancing further; as to the number of the verses in repetition, Chengguan gives twenty-one verses and Li Tongxuan gives forty-two lines of verse. Each of these accounts has its own grounds; they are set down on record.

On the side of the axis of consciousness-only: Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun is the explanation of this chapter passage by passage, and the outline of the five aspects came from his hand; the obstruction of the active operation of subtle signs that is departed from, the suchness of the non-differentiation of dharmas that is realized, and the placement as “the abiding in signlessness that has applied practice and has exertion” are all doctrines established upon the text of this ground. The utmost of exertion and the beginning of what is without exertion: in Huayan they are one border between two worlds, in consciousness-only the seventh of the ten obstructions and ten suchnesses — one passage of scripture, flowing east into the marks of practice of Huayan and west into the stations of consciousness-only.

From ‘Still Having to Exert Strength’ to ‘Not Having to Exert It’

Practice reaches a certain step at which a problem appears that few have ever thought to expect: it is not that one still cannot do it, but that one is still doing it. The bodhisattva of the seventh ground illumines both emptiness and existence, and the contemplation of the markless can already run on unbroken; but that running on has to lean upon applied practice — it must be raised up, must be brought to mind, must be kept going. What is to be crossed at the eighth ground is exactly this step: to set down the exerting of strength itself, and yet have the practice not break off.

And so the name of this ground is Immovable. It must be noticed that this does not mean ‘motionless and at a standstill’. Chengguan, in explaining the name of this ground, gathers citations from the treatises at large and reduces them to three senses: effort cannot move it, marks cannot move it, the afflictions cannot move it; and, relying upon the words of the Cheng weishi lun, he judges it as “undiscriminating wisdom running on of itself unbroken”, saying that because it moves of itself, effort cannot move it; because it runs on unbroken, marks cannot move it; and by these two, the afflictions cannot move it. The Yanyi chao, counting what Chengguan has cited, says that he gathers eight explanations in all, and that taking in as well the explanations of Asvabhāva and of Vasubandhu there are ten, and that the conclusion comes to no more than the three senses. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji opens three accounts — the first account takes only the immovability with respect to effort; the second takes in the afflictions as well; the third has it immovable alike by practice, by marks, and by the afflictions. The name is one, but what the ancient worthies take from it is more or less — and just here lies the doctrinal weight of this ground.

Li Tongxuan reads this name along another road: he says that the wisdom of a bodhisattva of this station within the world “needs no effort and no deliberation of thought, and does not think and does not act, and yet the wisdom accords with the ten thousand things and transforms them everywhere without any fixed direction”, and therefore it is named the Immovable Ground — immovable not meaning that it does not function, but that it functions without deliberation. The three houses are recorded here side by side, without adjudging one above another.

‘Vimukticandra’s question’ — this ground too opens with a request. After the assembly has become still, the bodhisattva Vimukticandra asks Vajragarbha to say “May you expound what is to be entered in due sequence, the aspects of practice within the eighth ground”. What is asked about is “what is to be entered in due sequence” — that which is to be entered according to the order of the stages. The ten grounds are not ten states set side by side; they are one road that has a sequence to it; and it is by asking about the sequence that one can bring out where the boundary lies between this ground and the one before it.

Why It Is Now: All That the Seven Grounds Gathered Becomes the Far Means of This Ground

‘The aspect of the fullness of the seventh ground’ — Vajragarbha, opening his answer, does not speak of the eighth ground but first enumerates the seventh. From “Upon the seventh ground he is good at cultivating the wisdom of skillful means” onward: good at purifying the paths, good at gathering the dharmas that aid the path, taken up by the strength of the great vows, sustained by the strength of the Tathāgata, upheld by the strength of his own goodness, constantly keeping in mind the Tathāgata’s powers, fearlessnesses, and dharmas not shared with others, good at purifying the thought and awareness of the profound mind, able to accomplish merit and wisdom, with great kindness and great compassion not forsaking sentient beings, entering the path of measureless wisdom — eleven clauses.

Why enumerate these first? It is easy to mistake them for a courteous look back. Chengguan judges this part to be “the part of the general clarification of the skillful means that gather and make the ground”, and says expressly that what is gathered is not the seventh ground alone but the whole of the seven grounds before: although the seventh ground too has these ten dharmas, it does not have them in due sequence; because it is the place where the practice requiring effort comes to its fullness and the practice requiring no effort is at hand, they must be gathered together in the aggregate. He divides these eleven clauses further into two halves: the first three clauses are the shared aspect, the practice that all the grounds have in common; the latter eight are the aspect proper to each, seven of them being what each single ground severally cultivates — the great vows of the first ground, the being sustained by the Buddha’s strength within discipline of the second, the upholding of itself by the concentration and penetrations of the third, the mindfulness that penetrates the dharmas of a buddha of the fourth, the profound and pure mind of the fifth, the great compassion of the sixth that observes dependent origination and accomplishes merit, and the wisdom of skillful means of the seventh together with its surpassing practice that does not forsake sentient beings; the last clause, ‘entering the path of measureless wisdom’, stands as an item of its own. Chengguan judges this gathering of the seven grounds to be “the far means”, saying that the whole of the seven grounds before is the means of this one.

This makes the place of the eighth ground clear: it is not a new hearth built from nothing, but the place where the practice requiring effort of the whole seven grounds comes to its ripening as fruit. And so Chengguan says that of the seven parts the first two are the means of approaching the ground, one far and one near — the far being the aggregate of the seven grounds before, the near being the light of the forbearance gained on the preceding ground, which is here cultivated to ripeness and made pure.

The Part of Gaining Pure Forbearance: Ten Clauses of Non-Arising, Four Kinds of Non-Arising

‘The ten clauses on the absence of intrinsic nature’ — the text of the sūtra next sets out a string of negations: “he enters into all dharmas, which from the beginning are without arising”, and thereafter without rising up, without mark, without formation, without breaking down, without exhaustion, without turning, and then turns the last clause about and says “having no intrinsic nature as their nature”; and to these are added: beginning, middle, and end alike equal; the place entered by the undiscriminating wisdom of suchness; apart from every discriminating notion of mind, mentation, and consciousness; without grasping, like empty space; entering into all dharmas as being of the very nature of empty space.

A string of the word “without” is what is most easily read as hollow. Vasubandhu’s explanation is not hollow: he gathers these clauses into four kinds of non-arising — non-arising of the event, non-arising of intrinsic nature, non-arising of the differences of number, and non-arising of the differences of the operation of deeds; and he says that the first seven clauses are the non-arising of the event, each of them countering one clinging to something “real”: reckoning intrinsic nature to be there from the first, reckoning a fresh arising again and again, reckoning marks, reckoning a later limit, reckoning a prior limit, reckoning exhaustion, reckoning defilement. That is to say: each “without” is not a loose generality but has something it breaks — and what it breaks is a way of looking at dharmas that fixes them dead. The eighth clause, “having no intrinsic nature as their nature”, is the non-arising of intrinsic nature: not that there was first something and now there is nothing, nor that there is no true substance at all, but that it takes the absence of an intrinsic nature as its own intrinsic nature. That beginning, middle, and end are alike equal is the non-arising of the differences of number: within the three times, the defiled and the pure neither increase nor lessen. That it is the place entered by the undiscriminating wisdom of suchness is the non-arising of the operation of deeds.

‘Gaining the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas’ — after these ten clauses the sūtra gives it a name: “this is called gaining the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas”. What is forbearance? Chengguan divides it into two layers: taken with respect to the dharma, all principles in which there is no rising and no doing are called non-arising, and because the mind of wisdom rests in them it is called forbearance; taken with respect to practice, only when the practice of the fruit is fully ripened, when wisdom is merged with the principle, and when mind and consciousness and false delusion are still and do not arise is it called non-arising — and this is what is meant by “pure forbearance”. He says expressly that the former layer runs through all the grounds, and that until one gains the latter it does not suffice to be called pure forbearance. This sentence is of great weight: the principle of non-arising is understood already on the grounds before; it is at this ground that the principle becomes one’s very constitution.

The Part of Gaining Surpassing Practice: Entering the Ground and Deep Practice

‘Accomplishing the forbearance is entering’ — “he at once gains entry to the eighth ground, the Immovable” — the same turn of phrase as the first ground’s ‘the very arousing of this mind at once passes beyond the ground of the ordinary being’: once the forbearance is accomplished the ground is entered on the instant, without waiting upon any separate cultivation.

‘The bodhisattva of deep practice’ — and once he has entered, what is he like? The sūtra says that he is “a bodhisattva of deep practice, hard to make out, without differentiation”, apart from every mark, every notion, and every clinging, measureless and boundless, beyond the reach of the two vehicles, far from all wrangling, with quiescence present before him. Vasubandhu, explaining “deep practice”, opens it into seven depths: the depth hard to enter, the depth of shared practice, the depth of the object, the depth of cultivation, the depth of non-retrogression, the depth of parting from obstruction, and the depth of the presence of the counteragent; and he attaches each to a clause of the sūtra — “hard to make out” is the depth hard to enter, “without differentiation” the depth of shared practice (that which the bodhisattvas of the pure grounds share), “apart from every mark, apart from every notion and every craving and clinging” the depth of the object (the grasped and the grasper are not present), “measureless and boundless” the depth of cultivation, “which no śrāvaka and no pratyekabuddha can break down” the depth of non-retrogression, quiescence the depth of parting from obstruction, and presence the depth of the presence of the counteragent. Word for word it has its attachment, and this passage therefore ceases to be a heaping up of adjectives.

Three Similes: Coming to Rest Is Not Vanishing

The sūtra next brings down three similes in a row, all of them saying one and the same thing — coming to rest.

‘The simile of the concentration of cessation’ — “it is as with a monk who is complete in the spiritual penetrations, who has gained mastery of mind, and who in due sequence enters at last into the concentration of cessation”, where every moving of the mind and every remembering thought and discrimination has wholly come to rest. So too the bodhisattva abiding on the Immovable Ground lets go of every practice requiring effort and gains the dharma requiring no effort; the deliberations and labors of the activity of body, speech, and mind come to rest, and he abides in the practice of the fruit. Vasubandhu judges the use of this simile to be “that it shows that practice to be quiescent”, and explains “he abides in the accomplishing of the practice of the fruit” as “because he abides well within the suchness that is the dharma of the ālaya consciousness” — the place of coming to rest is not annihilation; it is a resting within the dharma of suchness. Here is the essential point: requiring no effort is not doing nothing; it is that what is done is no longer driven by deliberation.

‘The simile of crossing a river in a dream’ — in a dream he sees his own body fallen into a great river, and in order to cross he gives rise to great valor and sets up great skillful means; and at the utmost reach of that valor — he wakes; and having woken, all that he was doing comes to rest. Where the simile is joined to its meaning it says that the bodhisattva sees sentient beings within the four torrents, and in order to deliver them gives rise to great valor and raises up great vigor, and by this arrives at the Immovable Ground; and having arrived, all his effort comes to rest. Vasubandhu judges this simile to be “that it shows that within this practice there is guarding against the notion of that fault, and there is the notion of right wisdom”. What is most worth turning over in this simile is this: it is not out of sloth that he stops — it is precisely because he exerted strength to the very end that he wakes; and having woken, the strength no longer needs to be exerted. All the effort of the seven grounds before was not spent in vain: it was that “giving rise to great valor”.

‘The simile of birth into the world of Brahmā’ — as for one born into the world of the Brahmā heavens the afflictions of the realm of desire naturally are not present, so too for one abiding on the Immovable Ground all the workings of mind, mentation, and consciousness are not present. This says how the coming to rest happens — it is not a suppression; the realm has been exchanged, and those things naturally do not arise.

‘The four minds not given rise to’ — the sūtra pushes this layer to a point that startles: “he does not even give rise to the mind of a bodhisattva, the mind of a buddha, the mind of awakening, or the mind of nirvāṇa”, how much less a worldly mind. Not even the mind of awakening and the mind of nirvāṇa arise? One must see clearly that what is said is “does not give rise to”, not that they are unwanted. The ten clauses of non-arising above have already said “apart from every discriminating notion of mind, mentation, and consciousness”; that at the level of thought the grasping is let go, and along with it even the best few thoughts, is precisely the real sense of requiring no effort. If one must still raise up a thought that ‘I am seeking awakening’, then effort has not truly come to rest.

The Seven Exhortations of the Buddhas: The Barrier of Not Entering Nirvāṇa

‘The buddhas appear before him’ — here the sūtra brings out the most dramatic passage of this ground. Because of the strength of his original vows, the buddhas, the world-honored ones, appear in person before the bodhisattva of this ground, give him the wisdom of a Tathāgata, and cause him to gain entry within the gate of the Dharma-stream. The speaker of this passage must be noticed: Vajragarbha here is relaying the words of the buddhas, not admonishing on his own account. The seven passages that follow, each opening with “Excellent, excellent”, are what the buddhas say to the bodhisattva of this ground.

‘The first exhortation’ — praise, and then exhortation — “This forbearance is the first of all, and it accords with the dharmas of the buddhas”; and yet the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, and the eighteen dharmas of a buddha not shared with others you have not yet gained, and you should add diligence and vigor, “and do not for this let go of the gate of this forbearance”. First the affirming, then the pointing out of what is not yet enough: he is neither permitted to fall back from this forbearance nor permitted to take this forbearance as the end.

‘The second exhortation’ — though you have gained the liberation that is quiescence, ordinary beings have not realized it; every sort of affliction is present before them and awareness and examination wound one another; you should have pity upon sentient beings such as these.

‘The third exhortation’ — “you should keep in mind the vows you originally made”, benefiting all sentient beings everywhere and vastly, causing them to enter the gate of inconceivable wisdom. This exhortation is the pivot of the whole passage — what calls the bodhisattva back out of quiescence is no force from outside; it is the vow he himself made at the beginning.

‘The fourth exhortation’ — “the dharma-nature of these dharmas, whether a buddha appears in the world or does not appear, abides constantly and does not alter”; the buddhas are not called Tathāgatas because they have gained this dharma, and those of the two vehicles can also gain this undiscriminated dharma. This sentence most needs to be made clear: the dharma-nature is held in common, and those of the two vehicles too can realize the undiscriminated dharma; so what makes a buddha a buddha does not lie in having gained this dharma, but elsewhere — in the measureless marks of body, measureless wisdom, measureless lands, measureless skillful means, measureless radiance, measureless sounds, that is, in what the fifth exhortation raises. To put it another way: if the bodhisattva of this ground halts at ‘I have realized the dharma-nature’, the place where he halts is one that those of the two vehicles can also reach, and that is not the end of the buddha-path.

‘The fifth exhortation’ — look upon us: the marks of our bodies are measureless, our wisdom measureless, our lands measureless, our skillful means measureless, our radiance measureless, our pure sounds without limit; you should now accomplish these things — it points out that what is lacking is the function, not the substance.

‘The sixth exhortation’ — “what you have just now gained is a single light of the Dharma”, namely that all dharmas are without arising and without discrimination; whereas the Tathāgata’s light of the Dharma has measureless enterings, measureless functionings, measureless turnings, unknowable even in hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, and you should cultivate the practice and accomplish this dharma. One light of the Dharma set against measureless lights of the Dharma — this is where the proportion lies.

‘The seventh exhortation’ — observe the measureless lands, measureless sentient beings, measureless dharmas of the ten directions and their many differences, and penetrate all those matters as they truly are.

Taken together, the seven exhortations are a turning about of direction: from ‘I am already quiescent’ toward ‘sentient beings are measureless, the dharmas of a buddha are measureless’. Li Tongxuan, reading the gate of practice of this ground, takes just this sense, saying that this ground has the perfection of vows as its principal, that the substance of wisdom is pure of itself and yet it is by the vow that practice is raised, and that “were one not to raise wisdom by the vow, one would fear to become the same as the two vehicles; the vow is used to guard against it, so as not to let one stagnate in purity” — the vow is the sluice-gate that keeps one from lingering in purity.

The Gate That Raises Wisdom: Were It Not Given, He Would Enter Nirvāṇa

‘Giving the gate that raises wisdom’ — the buddhas give this bodhisattva measureless gates that raise wisdom, causing him to raise up measureless, boundless works of differentiated wisdom.

‘Otherwise he enters nirvāṇa’ — and next comes the most startling sentence of the whole chapter — “at that time he would enter final nirvāṇa”, casting away every work of benefiting sentient beings. Were the buddhas not to give the gate that raises wisdom, this bodhisattva would enter final nirvāṇa. This must be read as it stands and may not be softened: the quiescence that requires no effort has in itself such a tendency, and that is precisely why the exhortation of the buddhas has to be. And just for that reason the third exhortation, ‘keep the original vow in mind’, is not a word of encouragement; it is the hook at the crucial place.

‘The comparison’ — after gaining the gate that raises wisdom, the work of wisdom brought forth in a single thought, set beside all the practices cultivated from the first arousing of the mind up to the seventh ground, is such that they do not come up to one part in a hundred, nor to a hundred-thousand-koṭis-of-nayutas part, nor to the asaṃkhyeya fraction, the kalā fraction, the fraction of calculation, the fraction of likeness, or the upaniṣad fraction. The sūtra uses a long string of numerical names to say one thing: practice requiring no effort and practice requiring effort are not of the same order of magnitude.

‘Why is this’ — the sūtra asks and answers itself — formerly he raised up his practice with a single body; now, abiding on this ground, he gains measureless bodies, measureless sounds, measureless wisdom, measureless births, measureless pure lands; he teaches measureless sentient beings, makes offerings to measureless buddhas, enters measureless gates of the Dharma, is complete in measureless spiritual penetrations, has the differences of measureless assemblies and sites of the Path, and abides in measureless activity of body, speech, and mind, gathering together the whole bodhisattva practice — “because he has gained the dharma of immovability”. The root of the difference is gathered into a single phrase: the dharma of immovability.

‘The simile of taking ship’ — it is as when one takes ship in order to enter the great ocean: before reaching the ocean much strength must be used; once the ocean is reached one goes only as the wind carries one, without borrowing human strength, and the distance travelled in a single day is such that a hundred years before the ocean was reached could not come up to it. This simile brings the principle of “not coming up to one part” down to an experience one can touch: it is not that the ship has exerted more strength; it is that the strength which drives it has been exchanged for another.

‘The wisdom requiring no effort’ — joining the simile to its meaning, it says that the bodhisattva gathers the vast provision of roots of goodness, takes ship in the Great Vehicle and arrives at the ocean of the bodhisattva practice, and “enters by the wisdom requiring no effort into the realm of the wisdom of omniscience”, while the practice that formerly required effort could not reach it in measureless kalpas. This sentence is the very bone of this ground — all the vast realms that follow arise out of this one wisdom.

The Part of Purifying the Buddha-Land: Seeing the World through to the Bottom

From here the text of the sūtra turns to what is observed. Chengguan judges this part to be “the part of purifying the buddha-land”, and it is the beginning of the practice of properly abiding on the ground.

‘Observing the forming and the breaking down’ — by the awareness requiring no effort he observes the realm traversed by the wisdom of omniscience — he observes the forming of worlds and observes the breaking down of worlds, “because deeds such as these are gathered together there is forming, and because deeds such as these are exhausted there is breaking down”; how long the forming, how long the breaking down, how long the abiding after forming, how long the abiding after breaking down, all known as it truly is. The essential point lies in the cause of the forming and the breaking down: the forming and breaking down of a world hang upon the gathering and the exhausting of deeds. It is not something that is there without a cause, nor something made by another’s power.

‘The aspects of the four great elements’ — he knows further the small aspect, the great aspect, the measureless aspect, and the differentiated aspect of the earth element, and so likewise of water, fire, and wind. Small, great, measureless, differentiated are four ways of looking at one and the same element — with respect to one portion of it, small; with respect to it as a whole, great; with respect to its being unexhaustible, measureless; with respect to its many kinds of unlikeness, differentiated.

‘The wisdom of dust-motes’ — he knows further the fine aspect, the differentiated aspect, and the measurelessly differentiated aspect of dust-motes; take any world you please, and the masses of its dust-motes and their differentiated aspects are known as they truly are, and on to how many dust-motes there are to each of earth, water, fire, and wind, how many to the precious things, how many to the bodies of sentient beings, how many to the body that is the land; he knows of how many dust-motes the great and small bodies of sentient beings are composed, knows of how many dust-motes the bodies of the hells, of animals, of hungry ghosts, of asuras, of gods, and of humans are composed. This is not the satisfying of curiosity — the sūtra itself names it “the wisdom of the differentiation of dust-motes”. To be able to know the finest particle of a world without confusion is the foundation of the wisdom of bodies and the wisdom of lands.

‘The wisdom of the differences of the three realms’ — he knows further the forming, the breaking down, and the small, great, measureless, and differentiated aspects of the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the formless realm, and gains the wisdom of observing the differences of the three realms. With this the observation of the receptacle world is complete. Chengguan judges the virtue of this ground to be mastery over the three world-realms, and the receptacle world is one of them.

Displaying a Body according to Kind: Immovable and Yet Appearing Everywhere

‘Raising the light of wisdom to teach and transform’ — the sūtra turns to the world of sentient beings — this bodhisattva raises up further the light of wisdom and teaches and transforms sentient beings: good at knowing the differences among the bodies of sentient beings, good at distinguishing them, good at observing the places into which they are born, and according to what is fitting displaying a body for them, teaching, transforming, and bringing them to ripeness.

‘Displaying birth everywhere’ — within a single three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system he displays birth everywhere by the light of wisdom, according to the differences of the bodies and of the faith and understanding of sentient beings; and so likewise within two, three, up to a hundred thousand, up to unspeakably many three-thousandfold great-thousand world-systems.

‘The body does not move and yet appears everywhere’ — “upon a single buddha-field his body does not move”, and yet within the assemblies of unspeakably many buddha-fields he displays his body in every one. This sentence is the annotation on the spot for the name of the ground — immovability and appearing everywhere do not obstruct one another; it is exactly because there is no need to move and no need to bring anything to mind that he can appear in every place.

‘Displaying a body according to faith and understanding’ — following upon the many differences among the bodies and minds and the faith and understanding of sentient beings, he displays his body within the assemblies of those buddha-lands. The measure of the displaying of a body lies not in the bodhisattva’s own wish but in the faith and understanding of sentient beings.

‘Displaying a form according to kind’ — within a host of śramaṇas he displays the form of a śramaṇa, within a host of brahmins the form of a brahmin, within a host of kṣatriyas the form of a kṣatriya; vaiśyas, śūdras, householders, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Thirty-Three, the Yāma, the Tuṣita, the Heaven of Delight in Emanations, the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others’ Emanations, the host of Māra, the host of Brahmā, and on up to the host of the Akaniṣṭha Heaven — for each he displays a form according to its kind. From the four castes of the human world all the way up to the Heaven of the Ultimate of Form, and the host of Māra among them too — no place where transformation is called for is left out.

‘The four bodies of deliverance’ — for one to be delivered by the body of a śrāvaka he displays the form of a śrāvaka, and so likewise for the pratyekabuddha, the bodhisattva, and the Tathāgata. To display the form of a Tathāgata and yet not set oneself up as a Tathāgata is the most thoroughgoing point of the functioning that requires no effort.

The Part of Gaining Mastery: The Ten Bodies and the Ten Masteries

‘Abiding in equality’ — the sūtra first sets down a sentence as the ground for being able to display bodies thus — “this bodhisattva is far removed from every discriminating notion about bodies, and abides in equality”. Only when one is first apart from notions of the body can there be any talk of making bodies of every sort.

‘Knowing the ten bodies’ — this bodhisattva knows the body of sentient beings, the body that is the land, the body of the recompense of deeds, the body of the śrāvaka, the body of the pratyekabuddha, the body of the bodhisattva, the body of the Tathāgata, the body of wisdom, the dharma-body, and the body of empty space. The list of ten bodies is the passage of this ground richest in the air of the Huayan: from the coarsest, the body of sentient beings, to the most inconceivable, the body of empty space, all lie within what one wisdom knows.

‘Making bodies out of bodies’ — knowing what is delighted in within the minds of sentient beings, he is able to make the body of sentient beings his own body, and also the body that is the land, the body of the recompense of deeds, and on up to the body of empty space; so likewise making the body that is the land his own body; so likewise the body of the recompense of deeds; and making his own body the body of sentient beings, the body that is the land, and on up to the body of empty space. According to the differences of what sentient beings delight in, he displays upon this body such a form. This passage is the mutual making of the ten bodies out of one another — between body and body there is no partition; here is the aspect of Huayan interfusion spoken directly in the text of this ground.

‘The ten aspects of the body that is the land’ — he knows of the body that is the land the small aspect, the great aspect, the measureless aspect, the defiled aspect, the pure aspect, the broad aspect, the aspect of standing upside down, the aspect of standing upright, the aspect of universal entering, and the differentiated aspect of a net of the quarters. Standing upside down and standing upright, universal entering and the net of the quarters, say that the manner in which worlds stand is in each case unlike the rest and yet all of it lies within what is known.

‘The provisional names of the body of the recompense of deeds’ — he knows the differences of the provisional names of the body of the recompense of deeds, and knows the differences of the provisional names of the body of the śrāvaka, the body of the pratyekabuddha, and the body of the bodhisattva. The two words “provisional name” are the key — the name and mark of a body is set up by convention, and only by knowing it to be a provisional name is one not bound by the marks of bodies.

‘The ten bodies of the Tathāgata’ — he knows that the body of the Tathāgata has the body of awakening, the body of the vow, the emanation body, the body of sustaining power, the body adorned with the marks and signs, the body of majestic might, the mind-made body, the body of merit, the dharma-body, and the body of wisdom. The Tathāgata is one body, and yet ten bodies are opened out of it; this is the passage of scripture upon which later discussions of the buddha-body rest, and the object known by the bodhisattva of this ground lies just here.

‘The aspects of the body of wisdom’ — he knows of the body of wisdom the aspect of good deliberation, the aspect of settling upon things as they truly are, the aspect of being gathered in by the practices that are its fruit, the aspect of the difference between the worldly and the world-transcending, the aspect of the difference among the three vehicles, the shared aspect, the unshared aspect, the aspect of going forth, the aspect of not going forth, the aspect of the learner, and the aspect of the one beyond learning. The body of wisdom is not one undivided mass of light; it has aspects that can be distinguished.

‘The aspects of the dharma-body’ — he knows of the dharma-body the aspect of equality, the aspect of not being broken down, the aspect of the differences of provisional names according to the times and according to what is customary, the aspect of the difference between the dharmas of sentient beings and of what is not a sentient being, and the aspect of the difference between the dharmas of the Buddha and the dharmas of the noble Saṅgha. The dharma-body is equal and cannot be broken down, and yet it still has differences of provisional name according to the times and what is customary — equality and difference stand together here.

‘The aspects of the body of empty space’ — he knows of the body of empty space the measureless aspect, the all-pervading aspect, the formless aspect, the aspect without otherness, the boundless aspect, and the aspect of making a form-body appear. The last clause must on no account be passed over: the body of empty space actually has “the aspect of making a form-body appear” — the formless can make form appear, and this is the utmost of being immovable and yet appearing.

‘The ten masteries’ — having accomplished the wisdom of the bodies thus, he gains mastery over life-span, over mind, over goods, over deeds, over birth, over vows, over understanding, over what accords with his wish, over wisdom, and over the Dharma. The ten masteries are the fruit of the wisdom of the bodies; Chengguan records that the Jin translation has here “he is able to gain the ten kinds of wondrous and great wisdom of mastery”, and both texts are kept side by side.

‘The four kinds of wise one’ — because he has gained these ten masteries, he becomes one of inconceivable wisdom, one of measureless wisdom, one of vast wisdom, one whose wisdom none can break down. Chengguan explains these four by taking the first as the general one, saying that because he abides neither in the world nor in nirvāṇa and his quiescence and his functioning are hard to fathom he is named inconceivable, and opening three senses — inconceivable in that cultivation is carried through to the end, inconceivable in what is known, inconceivable in the removing of obstruction.

The Part of Great Ascendancy: Activity without Fault, Virtues That Have Their Abiding

‘The three kinds of activity without fault’ — when this bodhisattva has entered thus and accomplished thus, he gains activity of body finally without fault, activity of speech without fault, and activity of mind without fault; his activity of body, speech, and mind proceeds in accord with wisdom, the perfection of wisdom is preeminent, great compassion is his forerunner, he is skillful in means, well able to distinguish, good at raising great vows, guarded by the power of the buddhas, constantly and diligently cultivating the wisdom that benefits sentient beings, and abiding everywhere in worlds of boundless difference. Chengguan explains “proceeding in accord with wisdom” as meaning that body, speech, and mind are what is raised and wisdom is what raises them, and that the two must be simultaneous — the purity of activity is not a polishing of word and deed; it is that action arises out of wisdom.

‘To raise the essential point’ — a bodhisattva abiding on this Immovable Ground, in whatever his activity of body, speech, and mind does, is able to gather together every dharma of a buddha. One sentence gathers up what went before: whatever he does, he is gathering the dharmas of a buddha.

‘The ten strengths of abiding well’ — he gains the strength of abiding well in the profound mind (because the afflictions no longer operate), in the surpassing mind (because he does not part from the path), in great compassion (because he does not forsake the benefiting of sentient beings), in great kindness (because he rescues and guards all the world), in dhāraṇī (because he does not forget the Dharma), in eloquence (because he well observes and distinguishes all dharmas), in the spiritual penetrations (because he goes everywhere to boundless worlds), in the great vows (because he does not forsake anything a bodhisattva ought to do), in the perfections (because he accomplishes every dharma of a buddha), and the strength of the Tathāgata’s guarding and keeping in mind (because all modes and the wisdom of omniscience are present before him). Every one of the strengths has its “because” — no strength is set up idly. The sūtra concludes: having gained the strength of wisdom such as this, he is able to display every manner of thing to be done, and among all those things there is no fault.

The Part of the Explanation of the Name: Ten Names for One and the Same Ground

‘Ten explanations of the name of the ground’ — “the wisdom-ground of this bodhisattva is named the Immovable Ground, because there is nothing that can spoil or break it” — and thereafter the Ground That Does Not Turn Back (because wisdom does not retreat), the Ground Hard to Attain (because nothing in all the world can take its measure), the Ground of Youthful Truth (because it is apart from every fault), the Ground of Birth (because he is masterful according to what he delights in), the Ground of Completion (because there is nothing further to be done), the Ultimate Ground (because wisdom is settled), the Ground of Transformation (because things are accomplished according to his vow), the Ground of Sustaining Power (because others cannot move him), and the Ground of No Effort (because it was already accomplished beforehand).

The ten names are not a tautology; they are ten sides from which one and the same ground is seen. Chengguan has here two explanations standing together: first, following the treatise, he gathers the ten clauses into six — the first two are the countering of defilement, the next one the gaining of what is profound, the next two the purity of raising up practice, the next two the ascendancy of purity with doing in it, worldly and world-transcending, the next one the ascendancy of purity without doing in those two, and the last two the ascendancy of the bodhisattva-ground; afterwards he puts forward an explanation of his own, matching the several names to the several parts of the sūtra that went before — the first two take their names from the part of pure forbearance, the next two from the part of gaining surpassing practice, the next three from the part of the pure land, the next one from the part of mastery, the next one from the part of great ascendancy, and the last name, No Effort, runs through from beginning to end. Both explanations are recorded; and at the end he himself judges in a single sentence, “it looks as though the house of the treatise lacked any pointing to a clear authority” — taking the house of the treatise to be lacking a clear authority. Chengguan further records one variant: the eighth ground ought to answer to the eighth abode and share the name Youthful Truth, whereas the sūtra as cited in the treatise has “prince”, and he judges expressly, “it looks as though it did not accord with the text” — the variant is recorded, and the judgment is recorded too.

The Wise One and the Explanation of the Name: One-Directional Immovability and Immovability of One Substance

‘Entering the realm of the buddhas’ — the bodhisattva, having accomplished wisdom such as this, enters the realm of the buddhas, is illumined by the merit of the buddhas, accords with the deportment of the buddhas, has the realm of the buddhas present before him, and is constantly guarded and kept in mind by the Tathāgatas; Brahmā, Śakra, the Four Kings, and the vajra-strong men constantly attend and guard him; he never forsakes the great samādhis, is able to display the differences of measureless bodies, upon each single body has great might, and by the spiritual penetrations and mastery of samādhi gained by recompense displays the accomplishing of right awakening wherever there are sentient beings who can be transformed.

Vasubandhu, explaining this passage, judges it into two senses: one-directional immovability, and immovability of one substance. This section belongs to the former, and he sets it forth by five virtues — the virtue of offering (Brahmā, Śakra, and the Four Kings come to welcome him), the virtue of guarding (the vajra spirits keep watch), the virtue of resting upon (he does not forsake the samādhis), the virtue of the purity of the land (he is able to display the differences of bodies), and the virtue of teaching and transforming sentient beings. Chengguan carries this on and attaches it clause by clause to the sūtra, and records that the Jin translation has ten clauses while the present text lacks one, and that the clause “he is able to receive measureless predictions” is lacking in the present text as well — the expansion and compression of the two texts, recorded word for word.

‘Entering the assembly of the Great Vehicle’ — the bodhisattva thus enters the assembly of the Great Vehicle, obtains great spiritual penetrations, sends forth great radiance, enters the unobstructed Dharma realm, knows the differences of worlds, displays all the great merits, is masterful according to his wish, is well able to penetrate the prior limit and the later limit, subdues everywhere every path of Māra and of the wrong, enters deeply into the realm traversed by the Tathāgata, and cultivates the bodhisattva practice within measureless lands. Vasubandhu judges this to be immovability of one substance, explains “entering the number of the host of the Great Vehicle” as the sense of not being broken down, and opens nine kinds of not being broken down — wisdom not broken down, speech not broken down, liberation not broken down, the purity of the buddha-land not broken down, the entering of the Great Vehicle not broken down, the spiritual penetrations not broken down, the ability to explain the meaning not broken down, the sitting at the site of the Path not broken down, and right awakening not broken down — attaching them one by one to these ten clauses. What Fazang attaches in the commentary on the sixty-fascicle text, nine clauses, runs upon the same track.

‘Concluding the name’ — “because he is able to obtain the dharma of non-retrogression, he is therefore said to abide on the Immovable Ground.” — only here is the name of the ground concluded by the sūtra itself. The ten explanations before were the opening out; here is the gathering in: every sense of immovability comes home to non-retrogression.

The Fruit of the Ground: The Weight of the Roots of Goodness

‘Constantly seeing the buddhas’ — abiding on this Immovable Ground, by the strength of samādhi he constantly gains the seeing of measureless buddhas present before him and never forsakes attending upon them and making offerings; within each single kalpa and each single world he sees measureless hundreds of buddhas and on up to measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas, revering, honoring, attending upon and making offerings to them, and bestowing upon them all the goods that sustain life.

‘Receiving the lights of the Dharma’ — in the presence of the buddhas he gains the profound treasury of the Dharma of the Tathāgata and receives measureless lights of the Dharma such as the differences of worlds; and should there be hard questions upon such matters as the differences of worlds, there is none who can make him yield. Chengguan explains this as “because the Dharma he receives is the cause of his mastery” — the Dharma he receives is the cause of the mastery that comes later. Passing through long kalpas, all his roots of goodness turn ever more to increase in brightness and purity.

‘The simile of the crown of true gold’ — it is as when true gold is refined and made into a jeweled crown and set upon the head of the sage king who is lord of Jambudvīpa: none of the ornaments of his ministers and people is its equal; so too the roots of goodness of the bodhisattva of this ground, which none of the roots of goodness of the two vehicles nor even of a bodhisattva of the seventh ground can come up to — because the great light of wisdom of one abiding on this ground everywhere extinguishes the darkness of the afflictions of sentient beings and is well able to throw open the gate of wisdom. Several of the grounds before have used a gold simile too, but the gold of this ground has already been made into a royal crown and is already upon the king’s head: it is no longer in the refining; it is after the vessel is made. Chengguan explains this simile as figuring the gaining of a pure ground, the body and mind being surpassing, and says that on this ground the practice of the fruit is fully ripened and there is mastery over the three world-realms, and therefore the king is specially added.

‘The simile of the radiance of the Brahmā king’ — it is as with a great Brahmā heaven king who is lord of a thousand worlds and is able to raise a mind of kindness everywhere and send forth radiance everywhere filling a thousand worlds; so too the bodhisattva of this ground is able to send forth radiance illumining worlds as many as the dust-motes of a million buddha-fields, causing sentient beings to extinguish the fire of the afflictions and gain coolness. Chengguan compares this simile with the simile of sunlight on the preceding ground and says that the Brahmā king’s light surpasses the sunlight in three respects — first in being many, second in being pure, third in being broad. That the mind of kindness and the radiance are raised together says that this light is not merely an illumining; it extinguishes the heat of the afflictions and gives coolness.

‘The preeminence of the perfection of vows’ — among the ten perfections the perfection of vows is preeminent; the remaining perfections are not uncultivated, but only cultivated as strength and measure allow. That this ground takes the vow as preeminent is all of a piece with the ‘keeping the original vow in mind’ of the seven exhortations above and with Li Tongxuan’s “the vow is used to guard against it, so as not to let one stagnate in purity”: what the ground requiring no effort most needs is not more strength, but the vow.

‘The limit of the brief exposition’ — “this is called the brief exposition of the eighth ground of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, the Immovable”; were it expounded at length, measureless kalpas would not exhaust it.

The Fruit of Pliancy: He Becomes a Brahmā King and Yet Does Not Depart from Keeping the Buddha in Mind

‘He mostly becomes a great Brahmā heaven king’ — abiding on this ground he mostly becomes a great Brahmā heaven king, lord of a thousand worlds, most surpassing and masterful, good at expounding every meaning, able to give to śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas the path of the perfections; and should there be hard questions upon the differences of worlds, there is none who can make him fall back. On the first ground he becomes a king of Jambudvīpa; on this ground, the lord of a thousand worlds — the station rises with the ground, and yet what he does is still the giving of the Dharma.

‘The four means of gathering, without departing from keeping the Buddha in mind’ — giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, working alongside — in all these works that he does he never departs from keeping the Buddha in mind, and on up to never departing from keeping in mind all modes and the wisdom of omniscience. However high the station and however broad the transforming function, that thread is still tied to the Buddha.

‘Foremost and most surpassing’ — he thinks further — “I should be, among all sentient beings, the foremost and the most surpassing, and on up to the one upon whom they rely for the wisdom of omniscience”. This thought is not a contending for the first place; it is a shouldering: to be that upon which sentient beings rely.

‘The measure of the samādhis’ — should he raise up the strength of great vigor, in a single thought he gains samādhis as many as the dust-motes of a million three-thousandfold great-thousand world-systems, and on up to displaying bodhisattvas as his retinue as many as the dust-motes of a million three-thousandfold great-thousand world-systems; and displaying them masterfully by the strength of a surpassing vow, he exceeds this number, so that in hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas one could not count and know them. The first ground has “a hundred”; this ground has “as many as the dust-motes of a million three-thousandfold great-thousand world-systems” — the increase of the measure is exactly what shows the difference between requiring no effort and requiring effort.

The Verses in Repetition: Saying One Ground Over Again

What the verses repeat has already been taught in the prose, and so here they are only matched to their places and not taught over again.

The first verse and a half repeat the part of gathering and making the ground: “Upon the seventh ground he cultivates and refines the wisdom of skillful means, is good at gathering the dharmas that aid the path and the strength of the great vows”, and gains besides the sustaining of the Honored One among men, and, seeking the surpassing wisdom, ascends to the eighth station. Next they repeat the part of pure forbearance: knowing that dharmas are of the aspect of not arising and not rising up, without formation, without breaking down, without exhaustion, without turning; apart from being, equal, cut off from discrimination, passing beyond the workings of mind and abiding as empty space abides; accomplishing this forbearance he passes beyond frivolous talk, profound, immovable, and constantly quiescent.

They repeat the three similes: “Abiding on this ground he does not discriminate, as a monk who has entered the concentration of cessation; as one who crossed a river in a dream and, waking, finds it gone; as one born into the Brahmā heaven, cut off from the desires of the realm below” — three similes gathered up in a single verse. They repeat the exhortation of the buddhas: by the strength of his original vow he receives their urging; they praise his forbearance as surpassing and consecrate him; the words are that all the dharmas of a buddha that we have you have not yet obtained and you should add diligence and vigor; though you have extinguished the fire of the afflictions the flames of delusion in the world still blaze, and you should keep your original vow in mind and deliver sentient beings. They repeat the fourth exhortation: “The dharma-nature is truly constant and apart from thoughts of mind, and those of the two vehicles can gain it here as well; it is not because of gaining this that one becomes a world-honored one, but rather by that profound and unobstructed wisdom.” Chengguan points out expressly that this last line is not in the prose, and records that the Jin translation has here an entire verse — that there are verse lines going beyond the prose is recorded.

They repeat the gate that raises wisdom and the spiritual penetrations: one thus worthy of the offerings of gods and men gives him this wisdom and causes him to observe, boundless dharmas of a buddha are all accomplished, and in a single thought he passes beyond his former practices; the bodhisattva abiding on this subtle ground of wisdom thereupon obtains vast strength of spiritual penetration, and in a single thought his divided body fills the ten directions, “as a ship entering the ocean is carried across by the strength of the wind”. They repeat the observing of forming and breaking down: “His mind requires no effort and moves of itself along with the strength of wisdom; he knows entirely the forming, the breaking down, and the abiding of lands”, the many elements each unlike the other, the small, the great, and the measureless all made out; the four great elements of the three-thousandfold worlds, the bodies of the beings of the six destinies each apart, and the number of dust-motes in the many jewels — observing with wisdom, he leaves nothing over.

They repeat the displaying of a body: “The bodhisattva is able to know all bodies, and in order to teach and transform sentient beings he becomes the same as their forms”, the lands measureless and of every sort of difference, and for all of them he displays a form and there is nowhere he does not reach. Within the verses one simile comes out on its own: “It is as when the sun and moon abide in empty space and there appears a reflection in every water; abiding in the Dharma realm he does not move, and yet the reflections he displays according to the minds of beings are just so.” — this simile stands in the verses in the eighty-fascicle text, but in the sixty-fascicle text it stands in the prose passage on displaying a body; the two texts differ in its position, and both are recorded. The sun and the moon have never come down into the water, and yet not one reflection in the waters is left out: immovable and yet appearing everywhere — of this the simile is the plainest of all.

They repeat the ten bodies: the body of sentient beings, the body that is the land, the body of the recompense of deeds, the many kinds of body of wisdom and dharma-body of the noble ones, and the aspects of the body of empty space, all of them equal, and everywhere for the sake of sentient beings he displays their functioning; with the ten kinds of noble wisdom he observes everywhere, and further, according with kindness and compassion, does the many works that benefit beings, all the dharmas of a buddha are accomplished, and he upholds the precepts unmoved as Sumeru; “The ten powers are accomplished and he does not waver; the whole host of Māra is unable to turn him”, the buddhas guard and keep him in mind, the heaven kings pay him reverence, and the vajra-bearers of secret trace constantly attend upon him. They repeat the fruit of the ground and the fruit of pliancy: the merit of this ground is without bound, in thousands of myriads of koṭis of kalpas it could not be expounded to the end, and because he makes offerings to the buddhas his roots of goodness grow the brighter, like the ornaments upon a king’s head; “The bodhisattva abiding on this eighth ground mostly becomes a Brahmā king, lord of a thousand worlds”, expounding the three vehicles without exhausting it, the radiance of his compassion shining everywhere and removing the delusions of beings; the many samādhis obtained in a single thought are equal to the number of the dust-motes of a million worlds.

The last verse concludes the exposition: “The bodhisattva’s eighth ground, the Immovable — I have now expounded it to you in brief; but were one to distinguish it at length and in due sequence, one could not exhaust it in a koṭi of kalpas.” — answering to and gathering up the prose, “were it to be expounded at length, measureless kalpas would not exhaust it”.

Reading Alongside the Mirror of Consciousness-Only: The Immovable Ground Is the Path Requiring No Effort

This ground has an exceedingly precise placement within the consciousness-only line. The Cheng weishi lun, explaining the names of the ten grounds, has for the eighth “undiscriminating wisdom running on of itself unbroken, so that marks, functioning, and the afflictions cannot move it” — and since Chengguan and Fazang both cite these words first of all when explaining the name of this ground, one can see that at this ground the sense of the two axes is of itself in accord. The Yuqie shidi lun says “because in the markless he gains the requiring of no effort, and within the marks he is not moved by the afflictions that operate actively”, and therefore the eighth is named Immovable — the sense of the words is at one with the former.

More precise still is the obstruction that is cut off. Fazang cites the consciousness-only teaching: what is cut off on the eighth ground is “the obstruction of applied practice within the markless” — on the first five grounds the contemplation with marks is much and the markless little; on the sixth the contemplation with marks is little and the markless much; on the seventh the contemplation is purely markless and, though it runs on constantly, there is still applied practice; and it is exactly because there is still applied practice within the markless that he has not yet been able to make marks and lands appear of themselves. At the eighth ground, the path requiring no effort, this obstruction is cut off for good. Chengguan says it more briefly still: this ground cuts off two follies — the folly of making effort in the markless, and the folly with respect to mastery over marks.

As for what is realized after the obstruction is cut, Chengguan sets up the name “the suchness that is the support of mastery over marks and over lands”, saying that having realized this suchness one is masterful in making marks appear and making lands appear, and that the practice thus accomplished is precisely what is named the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas. The She dacheng lun, among the ten aspects of the Dharma realm to be known, has for the eighth ground exactly “the sense of neither increasing nor lessening, the sense of being the support of mastery over marks, the sense of being the support of mastery over lands” — the terms answer to one another almost word for word.

This reading alongside joins the two faces of this ground: what the Huayan side speaks of is the mutual making of the ten bodies, the displaying of a form according to kind, the body that does not move upon a single buddha-field and yet appears everywhere in measureless fields; what the consciousness-only side speaks of is mastery over marks and the suchness that is the support of mastery over lands. The one describes the phenomena — how bodies and lands are masterful; the other points out the ground of it — what obstruction has been cut off, what suchness has been realized. And that Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun explains the abiding of the practice of the fruit as “abiding well within the suchness that is the dharma of the ālaya consciousness” is a case of the two axes using one and the same phrase. The weight of the eighth ground is seen in full only when both mirrors shine upon it.

Lineage

This ground is a great joint in the Huayan school’s judging of the teachings by lodged stations. Chengguan, in judging the reason for its coming, says expressly: the first three grounds are lodged as the same as the world, the next four are lodged in the dharmas of the three vehicles, and from the eighth onward the One Vehicle is lodged and set forth; and so from the earlier differentiation one enters the One Vehicle. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji opens three senses of the reason for its coming, of which the first is entirely the same as this, and adds two more — that on the earlier station, though the contemplation was purely markless, it had to wait upon applied practice, whereas at this station it is fully ripened and is present of itself without waiting upon applied practice; and that the earlier runs through apportioned birth-and-death while this one is transformational only. That the eighth ground is where the One Vehicle is lodged and set forth is the root in the sūtra and its commentaries of this judgment of the school of Xianshou.

Li Tongxuan carries it on along his own road of symbolic reading: this ground has the perfection of vows as its practice, the substance of wisdom being pure of itself while practice is raised by the vow; the first seven grounds have “practice and opening forth”, while this ground has “within practice and opening forth, no practice and no opening forth”, letting the function of wisdom go free and fulfilling great compassion. Reading the good friend whom Sudhana meets at this station, whose name is “Rescuing and Protecting All Sentient Beings by the Power of Great Vows and Vigor”, he says that only at this station can one answer to one’s original vow and deliver beings without limit — which tallies exactly with the sūtra’s seven exhortations to keep the original vow in mind and with the preeminence of the perfection of vows.

On the consciousness-only axis, the Cheng weishi lun’s explanation of the name of the eighth ground, the Yuqie shidi lun’s establishing of the name Immovable, and the She dacheng lun’s sense of being the support of mastery over marks and lands are all of one blood with the text of this ground and with Vasubandhu’s Shidi jing lun; and Vasubandhu’s explanation of the text word by word — the seven aspects of differentiation, the four kinds of non-arising, the seven kinds of deep practice, the two kinds of immovability and the nine kinds of not being broken down — is the skeleton of every later treatise-explanation of the eighth ground.

As for Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji upon this ground, this apparatus records nothing; this is recorded honestly as lacking, and no text from elsewhere is used to fill it out.