華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊15Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 15

A Question First: In a Portion That Teaches Practice, Why Begin from Where the Buddha Is Sitting

The scripture opens by saying one thing only — that the World-Honored One was in the palace of Universal Light within the wilderness place of awakening of the Dharma in the country of Magadha, seated upon the lion seat of the lotus treasury. A single clause naming the place of speaking looks like no more than a note of location; in truth it is the fixed pole-star of the whole chapter.

Why is it noted at all? Because this assembly is ‘the return to the palace of Universal Light’. Chengguan glosses this thus: the present portion is the portion of entrusting to the Dharma and advancing in cultivation so as to accomplish practice, whereas the great portion before it was the portion of cultivating the cause that answers to the fruit and so giving rise to understanding — what came before taught ‘understanding’, and what comes here teaches ‘practice’; understanding may pass through many places and grow clear by degrees, while practice must be gathered back to one place and arise all at once. And so he says that the assembly, named by its place, is called the assembly of the third gathering at the palace of Universal Light, and he fastens the reason for it upon “because at the end the assembly returns to the beginning.”

One misreading must be set aside first: this is not the Buddha walking back for another visit. Li Tongxuan puts it most plainly. He judges the Chapter on the Ten Concentrations and the Chapter on Detachment from the World to be alike the gate of substance and function, running through from beginning to end, and so both chapters open by looking back to the scenes of the first and second assemblies; that is “not a coming again to gather in assembly,” and the reader must not take it in the worldly way and picture the Buddha coming and going. He offers besides a comparison easy to remember: hang a hundred thousand jewelled mirrors in the air and set a single buddha-image on the ground, and in all the hundred thousand mirrors it appears all at once, the images in mirror after mirror entering into one another while in truth there is no coming or going at all.

Coming down to the reading: when you see the four graphs “the palace of Universal Light,” what is to be read out of them is not a point on a map, but this turn: ‘understanding is accomplished; it is time to set out in practice’.

Twenty-One Clauses of the Buddha’s Virtue: Establishing First ‘What Kind of Buddha This Buddha Is’

Next the scripture praises the Buddha in a long string of clauses: his subtle awakening full in every part, the two practices forever cut off, the markless Dharma penetrated, abiding in what the buddhas abide in, gaining the evenness of the buddhas, reaching the place where there is no obstruction and the Dharma that cannot be turned, all he practises unhindered, what he establishes inconceivable, seeing universally the three times.

Ask first: is this long string mere praise, or has it a structure? Chengguan glosses this thus: this passage is the fullness of the world of right and equal awakening, and what is praised in it is the twenty-one surpassing merits of a buddha; the first clause, “his subtle awakening full in every part,” is the general, and the clauses that follow are the particulars; and among the particulars the first four are for his own benefit while the rest are for the benefit of others. He also matches meaning to clause as he goes: the two practices forever cut off says that with regard to what is knowable he is throughout without obstruction; the markless Dharma penetrated says that he is able to enter the suchness, most surpassingly pure, in which being and non-being are not two marks. And he honestly sets down one further note — that by the sequence given in the treatises this scripture lacks the last clause, “to the end of the future,” and that the general and the particulars taken together are what make twenty-one clauses.

Ask first: where do these twenty-one clauses come to rest? In the last four — furnished with the equal liberation of a tathāgata, realizing the equal ground of the buddhas that has neither middle nor edge, to the end of the dharma realm, equal to the realm of space. Chengguan matches them one by one: furnished with the equal liberation of a tathāgata is matched with the merit of displaying differing buddha-lands according to the resolve of beings — “liberation” here, he says, is that very resolve, and as is fitting to the resolve of each thing, a tathāgata’s own resolve can display lands of gold and of silver, and it is so with buddha after buddha, and therefore it is called equal; realizing the equal ground of the buddhas that has neither middle nor edge is matched with the merit that the three buddha-bodies have no limit of place, Vasubandhu saying that the Dharma body of a buddha cannot be limited to so many places, nor can the enjoyment and transformation bodies be said to be so many worlds; to the end of the dharma realm is matched with the merit of constantly appearing to benefit and gladden all beings to the very limit of birth and death; and equal to the realm of space is matched with the merit of inexhaustibility, because a buddha’s real wisdom is inexhaustible as space.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “to the end of the dharma realm” and “equal to the realm of space” as descriptions of extent. The first says that there is no interruption in time — benefit and gladdening to the end of the future; the second says that there is no bottom to the substance of wisdom — the point is not how large a buddha’s body is, but that a buddha’s wisdom cannot be drawn dry.

Coming down to the reading: these four clauses are where the twenty-one close. The seventeen before them say how a buddha knows and how he acts; the last four say that all of this has no edge, no bottom, and no stopping.

Two misreadings must be set aside. The first: “the two practices forever cut off” does not mean that two kinds of cultivation have been broken off. Chengguan glosses this thus: to have knowing and to have not-knowing is the two practices, and now there is nothing that is not known, and therefore it is called forever cut off. The second: what is praised in this passage is not some other buddha, but the very same buddha who is the subject of the questions presently to be put — ‘how does he dwell in Tuṣita, how does he dwell in the womb, how does he subdue Māra’ — the prologue establishes the virtue of the fruit first, so that the practice asked after in the two hundred questions may have somewhere to come home to.

Coming down to the reading: passages praising the Buddha are the easiest of all to slide past, when in truth every clause here is laying down a foundation for what comes later.

The Body Pervading and the Wisdom Penetrating: From “Filling and Pervading” to “None Able to Measure”

The scripture goes on: his body constantly filling and pervading all lands, his wisdom constantly clear and penetrating all dharmas; knowing all practices, exhausting all doubts, none able to measure his body.

Ask first: if the body “fills and pervades,” why is it then said that “none can measure” it? The two clauses look like a contradiction. The answer lies in Chengguan’s clause-by-clause matching of meaning — his body constantly filling and pervading all lands is matched to the merit of manifesting the enjoyment body and the emanation body in all worlds, and speaks of two bodies pervading two kinds of land; his wisdom constantly clear and penetrating all dharmas is matched to the merit of cutting off doubt, and speaks of his being well able to decide concerning every object himself and therefore able to decide the doubts of others; none able to measure his body is matched to the merit of manifesting according to their resolve, and speaks of his manifesting a golden-hued body and the rest according to the various resolutions of beings, and yet, while manifesting this body, being without discrimination.

And so the contradiction unties itself: filling and pervading speaks of there being nowhere that what is manifested does not reach, while none able to measure speaks of the one who is able to manifest being beyond reckoning. The former speaks from what beings see; the latter from that whereby the Buddha is able to manifest at all.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “filling and pervading” as a filling up of volume. The scripture goes straight on to say “the wisdom that all bodhisattvas alike seek, reaching the further shore of the Buddha’s ultimate non-duality,” from which it is plain that what pervades is wisdom and not bulk.

Coming down to the reading: whenever you read of the marks of a buddha’s virtue, first make plain which clause speaks from what is manifested and which from what is able to manifest, and every clause will settle into its own place.

Who the Assembly Are: Those Who after One More Birth Will Attain Unsurpassed Awakening, Each Come from Another Quarter

The scripture says that those together with the Buddha were bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of buddha-lands, all of them persons who after one more birth would attain unsurpassed perfect awakening, and that each from the various lands of other quarters had come together and gathered.

Ask first: why is it pointed out expressly that they are “after one more birth” and “each from other quarters”? Chengguan glosses this thus: this section belongs to the fullness of the world of beings, and it raises the number first and praises the virtue, which is to say that the many are furnished with virtue. Only after the number is raised are the names set out, which is to say that the surpassing ones are furnished with virtue — universality established first, and then the standard.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not suppose that this is boasting of a crowd. What this chapter is to ask, later on, runs from the earliest practice all the way to becoming a buddha and displaying parinirvāṇa; the hearers fit to bear such asking must be persons whose practice is on the point of fulfilment. Were they an assembly of beginners, two hundred questions asked in one breath would be more than the hearers could take. The scripture fixes the standing of its hearers with “after one more birth” precisely so that the questions and answers of that single breath may have something to lodge in.

Coming down to the reading: when reading any scripture, look first at who the hearers are, and you will often know at once to what pitch this scripture is speaking.

Nineteen Clauses of Skillful Means and Wisdom: From Well Contemplating to Not Destroying Deeds and Their Fruits

In a long passage the scripture sets out the virtues of the bodhisattvas: well contemplating all beings and by skillful means causing them to be tamed, well contemplating all worlds and going universally to them all, well contemplating the state of nirvāṇa and cultivating wondrous practice without interruption, well taking in all beings, well entering the measureless dharmas of skillful means and knowing that beings are empty and have nothing whatever while yet not destroying deeds and their fruits, well knowing the various distinctions of the minds and the proclivities and the faculties and the objects of beings, upholding entire the Dharma of the buddhas of the three times, gaining understanding themselves and expounding it for others, well abiding in the measureless dharmas of the world and beyond the world and knowing their reality, well contemplating all dharmas conditioned and unconditioned and knowing that there is no duality.

Ask first: is there a sequence in these clauses? Chengguan glosses this thus: among the particulars, the nineteen clauses none of them fall outside skillful means and wisdom; the first ten clauses praise the virtue of their own portion, and the nine clauses from “in a single thought” onward praise the virtue of advancing beyond; the first eight clauses all have wisdom and have skillful means, function raised upon substance, and among them the first five begin with the words “well able.”

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “knowing that beings are empty and have nothing whatever” and “not destroying deeds and their fruits” as contradicting one another. This very clause is the first form of what makes “detachment from the world” possible in this chapter at all — because he knows emptiness he can be detached, and because he does not destroy deeds and their fruits he can practise within the world. When Chengguan explains the sense of detachment from the world he says that detachment has two gates, detachment in nature and detachment in fact: detachment in nature is that the nature of the world being empty is itself what transcends the world, and detachment in fact is that practice is accomplished and undefiled. In this one clause both gates are present together.

As for those nine clauses of the virtue of advancing beyond, Chengguan puts it very briefly — the first clause is the general, setting out in general the swift accomplishing of the wisdom of the fruit; the rest are all the operation of that wisdom of the fruit; and after them stands a separate summing up. Read in that order the passage lies open. “In a single thought they are all able to obtain the wisdom possessed by the buddhas of the three times” is the general: in one thought the wisdom of the buddhas of the three times is gained all at once, and this is the wisdom of the fruit already accomplished. The eight clauses that follow are that wisdom of the fruit raising its operation. “In thought after thought they are all able to display the accomplishing of right and equal awakening, causing all beings to give rise to the mind and to attain the path” is its operation upon the mark of becoming a buddha — one accomplishes it in the sight of others, and those who see it give rise to the mind. “Upon the object that a single being’s mind takes as its condition they know entire the states of all beings” is its operation upon the discerning of capacity — from the one object that one person’s mind conditions, they see through to the states of all beings. “Though they have entered the ground of the Tathāgata’s all-knowing wisdom, they do not abandon the various works that are done in the practice of a bodhisattva” is its operation upon not falling back from the practice that is the cause — realizing the fruit and yet not discarding the cause. “Using wisdom and skillful means while in truth doing nothing that is made” is its operation upon effortlessness — acting without seeing that there is acting. “For the sake of each and every being they abide in the world for measureless kalpas” is its operation upon time — not for beings in the mass, but for each one. “And in asaṃkhyeya kalpas they are hard to encounter” is its operation upon rarity — they abide long and yet do not appear cheaply, and so whoever meets them knows what he has met. “In turning the wheel of the right Dharma and taming beings, nothing is spent in vain” is its operation upon effect — those taught must gain something, and no turning is ever wasted. And the last, “the pure practices and vows of the buddhas of the three times they are already furnished with entire,” is still the operation of the wisdom of the fruit, gathering the operation of the eight clauses back into practice and vow; what follows it, “having accomplished such measureless merits, all the tathāgatas could not tell them to the end in boundless kalpas,” is what Chengguan calls the summing up.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “advancing beyond” as some further road higher than one’s own portion. One’s own portion is what one has already accomplished in practice; advancing beyond is that accomplished virtue pressing on toward the ground of the fruit — the latter half of one road, not a change of roads.

Coming down to the reading: those who practise are forever swaying between ‘everything is empty’ and ‘cause and effect are not void’, and the answer this clause gives is not a compromise but a simultaneity.

The Ten Foremost Named with “Universal”: The Name Is the Virtue

The scripture sets out their names: Samantabhadra (Universally Worthy), Universal Eye, Universal Transformation, Universal Wisdom, Universal Seeing, Universal Light, Universal Beholding, Universal Illumining, Universal Banner, Universal Awakening. Of the ten foremost there is not one whose name does not begin with the graph “universal” — Samantabhadra being, in the Chinese, “Universally Worthy.”

Ask first: is this a coincidence? Chengguan glosses this thus: of these ten clauses the first is the general and the rest are the particulars, and he matches virtue to name one by one — the first is the fulfilment of the vow that accords with principle, because the universal eye is complete; the second is being foremost in gathering in the Dharma, because of universal transformation; the third is upholding the right Dharma, because there is universal wisdom. Having finished the matching he says: the general clause is Samantabhadra, and the remaining nine have in order been matched and explained above. Which is to say that these ten names are in truth ten faces of the single virtue of Samantabhadra.

The nine clauses Chengguan matches are not only the first three; to the remaining six he likewise gives names — the fourth is not cutting off the buddha-seed, because he universally sees that beings have the nature; the fifth is knowing the manner in which the buddhas transform the world, because his light penetrates universally; the sixth is displaying the accomplishing of buddhahood, because he contemplates and sees where there is none; the seventh is purifying defiled capacities, because he illumines their source; the eighth is crushing the obstacles of others, because he has the banner of wisdom; the ninth is realizing the dharma realm, because he awakens to the nature of dharmas. Set these nine names back against the clauses of praise in the scripture and they answer one to one. “Wherever any buddha arises in the world, they are all able to go there and request the turning of the Dharma wheel” is the virtue of being foremost in gathering in the Dharma — where a buddha arises they must go, and the Dharma they must request, and so it is said that they gather in the Dharma for the sake of universal transformation. “They do not cut off the seed of any of the buddhas” is the virtue of not cutting off the buddha-seed — they universally see that beings have the nature, and so in their hands the buddha-seed is not cut off. “They well know the sequence of the predictions of all the buddhas arising in the world, their names, their lands, their accomplishing of right and equal awakening, and their turning of the Dharma wheel” is the virtue of knowing the manner of transformation — the whole sequence by which a buddha transforms the world is illumined for them, and so it is said that their light penetrates universally. “In worlds without a buddha they display a body and accomplish buddhahood” is the virtue of displaying the accomplishing of buddhahood — there was no buddha there, and seeing that there was none they display a body to supply it. “They are able to cause all defiled beings to be made wholly pure” is the virtue of purifying defiled capacities — the defilement is not washed away; its source is illumined, and it clears of itself. “They are able to extinguish all the karmic obstacles of bodhisattvas” is the virtue of crushing the obstacles of others — what is crushed is another’s obstacle, not one’s own. “They enter the unobstructed pure dharma realm” is the virtue of realizing the dharma realm — they awaken to the nature of dharmas, and this clause is where the nine come home.

A misreading to be set aside: do not suppose that these nine clauses are nine persons each holding one item. The scripture says expressly “all of them had accomplished,” which is the ten holding them in common; and Chengguan too says that the general clause is Samantabhadra and the remaining nine have in order been matched above — the nine clauses are nine faces of one person’s virtue, not a division of labor among nine.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the setting out of names as a roll-call. Straight after the names the scripture praises their virtue — “all of them had accomplished the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, and their deep minds and great vows were already fulfilled” — from which it is plain that name and virtue are one matter.

Coming down to the reading: in this chapter Universal Wisdom asks and Samantabhadra answers. The one who asks is named Universal Wisdom and the one who answers is named Samantabhadra; Chengguan glosses this thus: Universal Wisdom asks because his is the wisdom that answers to the Dharma realm and is able to set practice going — the asking and the answering are in truth the two ends of one and the same course of practice.

The Samādhi of the Adornment of the Buddha-Flower: Why the Host of the Assembly Enters Concentration First

The scripture uses a single clause: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Samantabhadra entered a vast samādhi, named the Adornment of the Buddha-Flower.

Ask first: why is the samādhi called by this name? Chengguan glosses this thus: Samantabhadra enters concentration because he is the host of the assembly and is to expound the practice of Samantabhadra; and the sense of the adornment of the buddha-flower is that the myriad practices spread open and adorn the Dharma-body. He says further that this samādhi has for its substance the mind-ocean of the gate of practice of the Dharma realm, because it is able to sustain without limit; and for its function the expounding of the Dharma so as to accomplish practice, and the prompting, because it is upon this concentration that such capability rests.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read entering concentration as the one who enters concentration having laid his work aside for a while. Chengguan adds elsewhere a most important sentence — to gather in understanding and make it into practice, one must still enter concentration. Concentration is not an interruption of practice; it is where practice draws its source.

Coming down to the reading: anyone who reads diligence as an unbroken doing should turn back at this clause. For a flower to open there must first be a root; before the myriad practices spread open, there is first the mind-ocean.

Quaking in Six Kinds and Eighteen Aspects: For Whose Sake Are the Auspicious Signs Shown

The scripture says: when he entered this samādhi, all the worlds there are in the ten directions quaked in six kinds and in eighteen aspects, and sent forth a great sound that there was no place where it was not heard.

Ask first: the quaking of the ground and the sending forth of sound — what is each for? Chengguan glosses this thus: the quaking of the ground is set out first in order to rouse and alert the various capacities, and the sending forth of sound is shown after in order to make the assembly hear the Dharma — the one wakes people up, the other carries the Dharma to them.

Here lies a joint peculiar to this chapter. Chengguan says that in all the assemblies before this one there was “empowering but no prompting,” that is, there was the Buddha’s empowering but not this passage of quaking that prompts; in this assembly it is the reverse, there being “prompting but no portion of empowering.” Why? He fastens the reason down with the utmost clarity: what went before displayed that understanding may be had from another, and so there was empowering from another; here it displays that practice must be established by oneself, and so the prompting comes by one’s own strength. And he adds one further sense — practice arises in dependence upon understanding and is no separate dharma, and therefore there is no need of empowering again.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not suppose that because there is no ‘empowering by the Buddha’ this assembly stands lower than those before it. Quite the contrary: the absence of empowering is precisely where the guiding purport of this chapter lies.

Coming down to the reading: another can teach you to understand, and no one can walk in your place. This passage of quaking is that sentence in the form of scripture.

Rising from the Samādhi: That One Step between Concentration and Speaking

The scripture passes over it in a single clause: and after that he rose up out of that samādhi. Chengguan says here only “the three senses are as before,” and outlines it as a portion standing on its own — the portion of the rising.

Ask first: why should coming out of concentration be set apart as a portion of its own? Because the five portions — prologue, samādhi, prompting, rising, request — are one complete line: first the place and the assembly (prologue), next the concentration (samādhi), next the auspicious signs that the concentration prompts (prompting), next the coming out of concentration (rising), and only then the asking (request). Lacking this one step of coming out of concentration, the asking would have no one to ask. Entering concentration is drawing the source; coming out of concentration is joining that source to speech. Everything asked and answered after this passage stands upon this one rising.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the coming out of concentration as the samādhi being over. What the scripture says is a “rising” from the samādhi, not an exhausting of it. What Chengguan later calls the answer of ‘two thousand practices’ is precisely the continuance of this same samādhi.

Coming down to the reading: between stillness and speech there is one step, and the scripture has marked that step out for us.

Universal Wisdom Asks Alone: Why Not Many Askers

The scripture says: the bodhisattva Universal Wisdom, knowing that the assembly had already gathered, asked the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, saying.

Ask first: in the earlier assemblies the askers are often more than one; why is there only a single one here? Chengguan glosses this thus: Universal Wisdom puts the question because his is the wisdom that answers to the Dharma realm and is able to prompt practice; and “that one person asks is because practice is accomplished alone, and it is not as it is with understanding” — understanding requires many conditions to draw one another forth, and therefore many ask; practice is a matter each accomplishes for himself, and therefore one asks.

There is a still more obvious turning-about: in all the assemblies before, the asking came first and the concentration after, while in this assembly the concentration comes first and the asking after. Chengguan brings out two senses. The first is that the manner of expounding has no fixed form: what went before displayed the weight of the Dharma, a stirring first and a response after; here it displays the depth of compassion, observing the capacities and wishing to speak — the assembly having already gathered, he therefore enters concentration first, so that people may know who the host of the exposition is. The second is that what is displayed differs: before, it was entering the real by way of the marks so as to accomplish right understanding; here, it is raising function upon substance so as to accomplish right practice.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “one person asks” as meaning that others need not ask. That practice is accomplished alone says that the accomplishing of practice rests with oneself; it does not say that the Dharma is given to one person only.

Coming down to the reading: before asking about the Dharma, look first at whether what you want is understanding or practice — if understanding, there is no harm in asking much; if practice, in the end you must ask yourself.

The Outline of the Two Hundred Questions: A Way of Reading Carried On from the Ancient Worthies

From “What is the support of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva?” to “Why does the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, display his entry into parinirvāṇa?” Universal Wisdom asks straight through in a single breath, with not one answer between. How is this passage to be read?

Here the attribution must be made plain first. The scripture itself gives these two hundred lines no name of a stage whatever. Chengguan glosses this thus: within the setting out of the questions proper there are two hundred lines, and the separately circulating Dushi jing makes of them six rounds of question and answer, each round being first the asking, next the answering, and last the quaking of the ground and the showing of auspicious signs; and the ancient worthies of old all took the text of that version and by it outlined this scripture, dividing it into six segments — first twenty lines, next twenty, next thirty, next twenty-nine, next fifty, next fifty-one — matching them in order to the practice of the ten faiths, the practice of the ten abodes, the practice of the ten practices, the practice of the ten dedications, the practice of the ten grounds, and the practice in which the cause is fulfilled and the fruit complete. Chengguan explains while carrying on this old outline; he does not set up a new judgement of his own. So in what follows, when the six segments are spoken of, remember throughout: this is the ancient worthies’ outline drawn from the Dushi jing, and Chengguan carried it on.

The count of lines in the fourth segment has one small joint besides: counted graph by graph it is thirty lines, and Chengguan says that among them the one line “unobstructed operation” is an empty clause of general heading, so that in fact there are twenty-nine. Checking the scripture graph by graph, the whole passage has two hundred and one question marks; subtract this one empty heading and it is exactly two hundred — the ancient worthies’ outline and the scripture’s own count fitting together without a seam.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the six segments as chapters the scripture divided for itself. Nor, on that account, suppose that the outline might as well be dispensed with — it has a version of the text for its ground, and that ground is the six rounds of the Dushi jing.

Coming down to the reading: hold these six segments in mind while reading the two hundred questions, and the asking is no longer a field of question marks but a single line running from the earliest beginning to the becoming of a buddha.

Segment One · Twenty Lines: The Asking Begins from “Support”

The first segment of twenty lines begins from “What is the support of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva?” and passes through the extraordinary thought, practice, the good friend, diligent exertion, the mind’s gaining of peace and ease, the maturing of beings, moral discipline, and knowing for oneself that one has received the prediction, asking all the way to entering into the bodhisattva, entering into the Tathāgata, entering into the mind and conduct of beings, entering into worlds, entering into kalpas, speaking of the three times, entering into the three times, giving rise to a mind that never wearies, the wisdom of distinctions, dhāraṇī, and expounding the Buddha.

Ask first: why is the very first word “support”? Practice must have something to lean upon before it can stand, and this is the first thing in the order of sequence. Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges these twenty lines to ask after the practice of the ten faiths; and he explains particularly why the ten faiths are taken and equal awakening not opened out — in the passages before, the intent lay in the stages, and the telling was by taking the stages; here the intent is upon practice, and so the practice of the ten faiths stands exactly at the beginning of practice. He cites besides a saying of Xianshou in evidence: that a bodhisattva’s setting his mind upon seeking awakening is not without cause and without condition, and that this is precisely what the giving rise to the mind leans upon.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not suppose that what is asked here is the stage called “faith.” Chengguan says it very plainly: this scripture speaks of the six stages three times over, and this is the round that speaks in terms of practice, taking the practice within the stages and not taking the stages.

Coming down to the reading: the twenty matters asked after in the first segment are every one of them things a beginner can measure himself against — what you lean on, whom you keep close to, whether you hold the precepts, whether your mind is at ease.

Segment Two · Twenty Lines: The Asking Begins from “Giving Rise to the Mind of Samantabhadra”

The second segment begins from “What is giving rise to the mind of Samantabhadra?” and asks after the dharmas of the practice of Samantabhadra, the cause from which great compassion arises, the causes and conditions of giving rise to the mind of awakening, giving rise to a mind of reverence toward the good friend, purity, the pāramitās, wisdom’s following and awakening, realizing and knowing, power, evenness, the clause of the real meaning of the Buddha’s Dharma, expounding the Dharma, holding, eloquence, mastery, the nature of non-attachment, the mind of evenness, bringing forth wisdom, and transformation.

Ask first: the first segment has already asked about the good friend; why does this segment ask again about “giving rise to a mind of reverence toward the good friend”? The former asks what a good friend is; the latter asks what mind one raises toward him — the one asks after the object, the other after the attitude. Repetitions of this kind are not few among the two hundred questions; they look like repetition, and in fact the level of the asking has shifted by one layer.

Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges these twenty lines to ask after the practice of the ten abodes. Here there is a further exchange between two houses. The Yanyi chao labels them expressly: the one who raises the difficulty and then offers a rescue is Huiyuan in the Kanding ji; the one who answers and breaks it is “the present commentary,” that is, Chengguan himself. The Kanding ji first asks why the opening segment takes faith and why the six-segment outline opens no stage of equal awakening; Chengguan answers that “there is a deep intent in this,” stating in general that what is asked after is practice throughout, and so faith comes first. The Kanding ji then puts forward its rescue: since the first segment already had reliance and the mind of awakening, is that not the abode of giving rise to the mind? — wishing to make the first segment ask after the ten abodes. Chengguan breaks it: this objection is even less to the point — the “giving rise to the mind of Samantabhadra” that opens the second segment, is that not even more like the abode of giving rise to the mind? And at the beginning of the ten faiths, is there then no giving rise to the mind at all? The text it cites does not get the sense of the text. The judgments of the two houses are recorded without adjudication; and it is plain from the exchange that to identify a stage by some one word is a way of reading that does not get to the bottom of the intent.

Coming down to the reading: when you meet a question that recurs, do not skip it; ask first, ‘which layer is being asked about this time’.

Segment Three · Thirty Lines: The Asking Begins from “Upholding by Power”

The third segment of thirty lines begins from “What is upholding by power?” and asks after gaining great gladness and comfort, entering deeply into the Buddha’s Dharma, reliance, giving rise to a fearless mind, giving rise to a mind without doubt, the inconceivable, skillful secret speech, the wisdom of skillful discrimination, entering samādhi, entering everywhere, the gate of liberation, the spiritual penetrations, clear knowing, liberation, the gardens and groves, the palaces, what is delighted in, adornment, giving rise to an unmoving mind, not abandoning the deep and great mind, contemplation, expounding the Dharma, purity, the seal, the shining of the light of wisdom, the abiding without equal, the mind without anything base, and the surpassing mind that is like a mountain, on to entering the ocean-like wisdom of unsurpassed awakening.

Ask first: words like gardens and palaces mixed in among liberation and the spiritual penetrations — is this wandering from the subject? It is not. What the scripture asks after is a bodhisattva’s gardens and a bodhisattva’s palaces — the realms he ranges in and the places he dwells in are themselves a part of practice from the first. That this segment has the most miscellaneous headings is precisely because what it asks after is practice in its breadth.

Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges these thirty lines to ask after the practice of the ten practices. In his general explanation of the two thousand practices he says something that may be borrowed for reading this segment: a single practice must pervade all and yet be never confused; because it is not confused, the sense of particularity is distinct and divided, and because it must pervade, the sense of universality gathers all in — like the figures in brocade, where many colors make the figure, ever universal and ever particular, thread interpenetrating thread.

Coming down to the reading: the gates of practice look like one item after another with nothing to do with each other, when in truth a thread runs through them all.

Segment Four · Twenty-Nine Lines: The Asking Begins from “The Abiding That Is Like a Jewel”

The fourth segment begins from “What is the abiding that is like a jewel?” and asks after giving rise to the mind of the great vow of the Great Vehicle that is like a vajra, the great giving rise, the ultimate great matter, unbreakable faith, receiving the prediction, the dedication of roots of goodness, gaining wisdom, giving rise to a boundless and vast mind, the hidden treasury, the code of discipline, and mastery; then comes the one general heading, unobstructed operation, and below it ten lines of unobstructed operation upon beings, upon lands, upon dharmas, upon bodies, upon vows, upon objects, upon wisdom, upon the spiritual penetrations, upon spiritual power, and upon power; and then it asks after play, the objects, power, fearlessness, the exclusive dharmas, karma, and the body.

Ask first: why is “unobstructed operation” set out expressly and then ten lines opened below it? This is exactly what Chengguan calls the empty clause of general heading — a general name is established first, and the ten lines below each speak of its unobstructedness with regard to one matter. Counted graph by graph it is thirty; in real sense it is twenty-nine.

Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges this segment to ask after the practice of the ten dedications. What deserves notice is that the line “the dedication of roots of goodness” falls within this very segment, while what the segment asks after by no means stops at dedication — which reminds the reader too that the ancient worthies’ outline matches by the momentum of a whole segment, and does not require every single line to answer to the name of a stage.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “unobstructed operation” as a display of spiritual powers. Of the ten unobstructed operations the scripture sets out, beings, lands, dharmas, bodies, vows, objects, and wisdom are all included, from which it is plain that what is called unobstructed is a penetration pervading every place, and not one particular extraordinary faculty.

Coming down to the reading: when you come to a string of terms, look first for the clause of general heading, and the string will not fall apart.

Segment Five · Fifty Lines: The Asking Begins from “Bodily Karma”

The fifth segment of fifty lines begins from “What is bodily karma?” and asks after the body, speech, cultivating the karma of speech in purity, gaining protection, and bringing the great matter to accomplishment; then the mind, giving rise to the mind, the all-pervading mind, the faculties, the deep mind, the surpassing deep mind, diligent cultivation, settled resolve and the entering of worlds and of the realm of beings by settled resolve; then it asks after the habit-energies, grasping, cultivating, accomplishing the Buddha’s Dharma, the path of falling away from the Buddha’s Dharma, the path of leaving birth, the settled Dharma, the path of bringing forth the Buddha’s Dharma, and the designation of a great man; next a run of questions upon the path — the path, the measureless path, what aids the path, cultivating the path, adorning the path; and it closes at last with the feet, the hands, the belly, the treasury, the heart, the armor that is put on, the weapons that are held, the head, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, the intent, walking, standing, sitting, lying down, the place where he abides, and the place where he walks.

Ask first: the feet, the hands, the belly, the treasury — these parts of the body, is it the flesh that is being asked about? It is not. What the scripture asks after is a bodhisattva’s feet and a bodhisattva’s hands, which, like the armor and the weapons before them, all set forth the Dharma by way of the parts of a body — this is a manner of speaking used throughout the scripture, and the answers later on will give the sense set forth by each in turn.

Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges these fifty lines to ask after the practice of the ten grounds. The whole segment begins from the three kinds of karma of body, speech, and mind, passes through the mind and the faculties in the middle, and ends with walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, the sequence going from the coarse into the fine and from within out to without.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not suppose, because this segment also asks after “the path of falling away from the Buddha’s Dharma,” that it is teaching about backsliding. Asking about falling away is precisely in order to know advancing; the scripture goes straight on to ask after the path of leaving birth and the path of bringing forth the Buddha’s Dharma.

Coming down to the reading: to ask about accomplishing and about falling away within one segment is to have a person recognize both ends clearly.

Segment Six · Fifty-One Lines: The Asking Runs from “Contemplating” to the Becoming of a Buddha

The sixth segment of fifty-one lines begins from “What is contemplating?” and asks after contemplating universally, the surge of vigor, and the lion’s roar; then the ten lines of pure giving, keeping of the precepts, patience, exertion, concentration, and wisdom, with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; then it asks after the meaning, the Dharma, the equipment that aids the path in merit, the equipment that aids the path in wisdom, the fullness of clear knowing, seeking the Dharma, understanding the Dharma clearly, and practising the Dharma; and next Māra, the work of Māra, forsaking the work of Māra, seeing the Buddha, the work of the Buddha, the work of conceit, and the work of wisdom, together with being taken in and held by Māra, by the Buddha, and by the Dharma.

Ask first: why are Māra and the Buddha set side by side in the asking? Because by this segment what is asked after is already the choosing that lies near the place of fulfilment. The words “taken in and held” are asked three times over — held by Māra, held by the Buddha, held by the Dharma — and what is asked is precisely ‘who is holding you at this moment’.

Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges these fifty-one lines to ask after the practice in which the cause is fulfilled and the fruit complete; and he says besides that among them only the last four lines belong to the stage of wondrous awakening, while the rest all belong to equal awakening. He explains too why equal awakening is gathered into the fulfilment of the cause — that here the intent is to speak of practice, and so the stage of equal awakening is not opened out separately.

Coming down to the reading: this segment is the sharpest of all the two hundred questions, because what it asks after is where one may still go astray upon that last stretch of the road.

The End of Segment Six: The Eight Aspects of Attaining the Path, and Why the Asking Is “Why”

At the end of the sixth segment the tone of the asking suddenly changes. Nearly all of the two hundred lines before are “what is,” and here they turn into “why” and “how” — after the work done while dwelling in the Tuṣita heaven: why does he display the ending of his life in the palace of the Tuṣita heaven, why does he display dwelling in the womb, what is displaying the subtle courses, why does he display his first being born, why does he display his smiling, why does he display his walking seven steps, why does he display the stage of a young boy, why does he display dwelling within the inner palace, why does he display leaving the household life, why does he display austerities, how does he go to the place of awakening, how does he sit at the place of awakening, what are the extraordinary marks when he sits at the place of awakening, why does he display the subduing of Māra, what is accomplishing the powers of the Tathāgata, how does he turn the wheel of the Dharma, why is it that by turning the wheel of the Dharma he gains the white and pure dharmas, why does the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, display his entry into parinirvāṇa.

Ask first: why does the manner of asking change? Because the matter asked about has changed. What was asked before is what a bodhisattva cultivates for himself; what is asked here is why, having already become a buddha, he must yet display each of these things. Displaying is not something that cannot be helped, and therefore one must ask “why.”

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read this string as a life of the Buddha. What the scripture asks after is the reason of each aspect — even the smiling and the walking of seven steps are within the asking, from which it is plain that the weight lies not in the events but in the intent. Chengguan, carrying on the ancient worthies’ outline, judges the last four lines of this segment to belong to the stage of wondrous awakening, which is to say from “accomplishing the powers of the Tathāgata” onward.

Among this run of “why” there is lodged one “what is displaying the subtle courses,” the manner of asking turning back suddenly to “what is,” and it is easily read past. Ask first: why is this question inserted between dwelling in the womb and being first born? Because what is to be said next, after the dwelling in the womb, is precisely what is displayed within the womb. Later in this chapter the scripture answers the question itself: a bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of exceedingly subtle courses — within the mother’s womb he displays the first arousing of the mind of awakening and so on up to the ground of consecration; within the mother’s womb he displays dwelling in the Tuṣita heaven, displays his first being born, displays the stage of a young boy, displays dwelling in the royal palace, displays leaving the household life, displays austerities and going to the place of awakening and accomplishing right and equal awakening, displays turning the Dharma wheel, displays parinirvāṇa; and the last is that within the mother’s womb he displays the great subtlety, that is, the measureless gates of distinction of all the practices of bodhisattvas and of all the sovereign spiritual power of the tathāgatas.

The misreading to be set aside is this: “subtle” does not mean small. It is called subtle because the whole set of the eight aspects is gathered into the one place of the womb and displayed there — the place is at its smallest and what is displayed at its widest, and it cannot be measured by coarse marks. Coming down to the reading: the order of the questions speaks for itself — the subtle courses come directly after dwelling in the womb, and that is to tell you that the “dwelling in the womb” is no blank of ten months; the eight aspects have already been played out once within it.

Coming down to the reading: in reading the eight aspects of a buddha, if you read them only as a story you stop at being moved; ask once “why,” and you get as far as reading for whose sake they were displayed.

The Closing Request: It Is Good, Son of the Buddha! Dharmas of This Sort and the Like — We Pray You Will Expound Them

The two hundred questions asked through to the end, Universal Wisdom adds one sentence: “It is good, son of the Buddha! Dharmas of this sort and the like — we pray you will expound them!” Chengguan outlines the portion of request into three — first the general heading of the intent of the asking, next the setting out of the questions proper, last the closing request that they be expounded; and this sentence is that third.

Ask first: the asking is all done, so why add this sentence? The head of the questions proper already carries a general request, 「願為演說」 tr. “may you expound it,” and this sentence gathers that request up again — the two hundred lines before are “asking,” and this sentence is the “closing request.” Asking sets out what is doubted; requesting entrusts the answering to another. Lacking this sentence, the two hundred questions would hang there with nowhere to come home to; having it, asking and requesting meet head to tail, and they become the occasion of an expounding of the Dharma.

Further, this sentence and the separately circulating version throw light upon each other. In the Dushipin jing the words of request stand before the questions proper, and they say expressly that the practices of the bodhisattvas are to be expounded from beginning to end — and it is this very sentence that Chengguan cites in evidence: “We pray only that you will expound the practices of the bodhisattvas, from beginning to end, so that there may be no doubt.” He says that although that scripture does not match them to the names of the ten faiths and the rest, yet since it says from beginning to end, and since at the last it further makes clear the becoming of a buddha, one knows that what is asked after is assuredly the practice of the six stages.

Coming down to the reading: every asking must come down at last upon a “we pray you will expound.” Ask without requesting, and the Dharma will not come.

Lineage

After this passage Samantabhadra addresses Universal Wisdom and the other bodhisattvas and begins to answer. The manner of answering is one question, ten answers — Chengguan glosses this thus: in answering the two hundred questions before, one question is answered with ten, so as to display inexhaustibility, accomplishing the two thousand surpassing practices of Samantabhadra; and he cites a saying of Duke Ying to picture its momentum: two hundred questions rise up like clouds, two thousand replies pour down like a vase. It is on this account that the separately circulating version has the further title Sūtra of Samantabhadra Answering Two Thousand Difficult Questions. The two hundred questions set up in this passage are the whole table of headings for the remaining six units of this chapter.

How the two thousand practices are gathered up Chengguan sets down in four layers: gathering stages by stages, the six stages each gathering in all stages, so that one stage has the two thousand entire and makes twelve thousand practices; gathering gates by gates, the two hundred gates each gathering in all gates and so making forty thousand practices; gathering practices by practices, one practice having all practices entire, so that there are two thousand times two thousand; and gathering the broad by the brief, that is, gathering the breadth of the ten directions by the brevity of a single mote of dust. These four layers are the number given in Chengguan’s explanation of the text, recorded without adjudication.

In explaining the name of the chapter the several houses differ. Chengguan sets up three senses — in terms of dharma, in terms of practice, in terms of stage; and in terms of practice he opens four clauses further, following, detaching, both, and the vanishing of both, saying that only when these four clauses are fused so that all is unobstructed is it truly detachment from the world. Fazang sets up four senses — that the world is deluded clinging and detachment is its emptiness; that detachment is the absence of intrinsic nature in dependent arising; that in terms of practice one is constantly within the world and yet not gathered in by the world; that in terms of stage, humans and gods, the two vehicles, the bodhisattva, and the fruit of buddhahood are detachment each as measured against the last. Li Tongxuan opens two senses out of the very word “detachment”: regarded from the master of the expounding, who expounds the teaching and benefits beings, the chapter may be named one of benefiting the world; regarded from the beings who hear the Dharma and dwell in the world undefiled, it is named detachment from the world — this, he says, “explains it throughout by the two senses of the master of the expounding and of those who gain the benefit.” The number of senses the three houses set up and the places to which they fasten them are wholly unlike one another, each following the version he comments upon and the standard he sets up, and they are recorded without adjudication.

Whether the assembly is a returning or not, the three houses likewise differ. Chengguan fastens it upon the assembly at its end returning to the beginning, and passes it through with the two similes of the lights of lamps entering one another and a lamp-wick giving light again; Fazang fastens it upon the former being the dharma that gives rise to understanding, which may be lodged in many places, while now practice is accomplished in dependence upon that former dharma and so the assemblies are not many; Li Tongxuan says outright that it is not a coming again to gather in assembly. They are recorded side by side without adjudication.

As for the narrative prose and the words of request in this passage, they are not found cited graph by graph in the treatises of the Huayan house (works of the kind of the Fajie xuanjing); this is set down as vacant according to the fact, and nothing from elsewhere is used to fill it out. Among the commentaries, however, they are: Chengguan’s Commentary matches the sense clause by clause, as goes without saying, and Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun also cites the scripture by its opening and closing graphs and makes a long outline of ten segments, of which the present section is the first five — the portion of the prologue, the portion praising the fullness of the aspiration and virtue of the great assembly of bodhisattvas, the portion setting out the names and praising the virtue, the portion of entering and rising from the concentration, and the portion of the two hundred questions.

First, Be Clear What This Passage Is Answering

The bodhisattva Universal Wisdom asked two hundred sentences in one breath, and to each question the bodhisattva Samantabhadra answered with ten, which Chengguan reckons as two thousand practices; this passage is the first of those answers, twenty gates in all, ten sentences to each gate. That opening sentence, at that time the bodhisattva Samantabhadra said to the bodhisattva Universal Wisdom and to the other bodhisattvas, Chengguan places in his outline as the general address that opens the section of the telling, and only after the general address does the direct answer begin — so this sentence, short as it is, is the place where the whole of what Chengguan calls the two thousand practices takes its first step, and it does not belong to the introductory section.

In these twenty gates the sūtra text has fitted on no name of any rank or stage of its own; the word faith occurs just twice in this section — once in because the mind of faith is pure, once in believing deeply and single-mindedly — and both are faith as a state of mind, not faith as the name of a stage. Where do the names of the stages come from? Chengguan says it plainly: the separately circulating old translation was itself arranged as six rounds of question and answer, and the ancient worthies of old took the wording of that text as the basis for outlining this sūtra, and the outline of the six stages was established from it, and he has taken it over and used it. So the naming of this passage as the twenty gates of the practice of the ten faiths is an outline-name that the commentators received from the ancient worthies, and not a name the sūtra gives itself.

Someone will ask at once: when other sūtras and treatises judge the six stages, they all say that the stage of faith has not yet entered the ranks, and that the reckoning starts from the ten abodes — why does the reckoning here start from faith instead, and why is the stage of equal awakening not opened as a separate one? Chengguan’s answer is brisk: those accounts have the ranks in view, and take the ranks as the ground of what they say; this chapter has the practice in view, and therefore the practice of the ten faiths stands precisely at the beginning of practice. Someone pressed him further: if this gate speaks of relying on the mind of awakening, is that not the abode of rousing the mind? Chengguan answers harder still — this objection is especially wrong; the first gate of the second round of answers is called rousing the mind of Samantabhadra, so is that the abode of rousing the mind? And at the beginning of the ten faiths, is there then no rousing of the mind at all?

There is one general error to be cleared away before anything else. Ten is not a fixed number. Universal Wisdom asks one sentence and Samantabhadra answers with ten, which Chengguan says is answering one with ten so as to display the inexhaustible; the two hundred questions each answered with ten sentences is what leads him to reckon two thousand practices, and the twenty gates of this passage come to two hundred sentences. So the ten sentences of each gate are not ten steps of a stair, they are one single thing spread open into ten sides of the inexhaustible. Once this is seen, the twenty gates are not twenty checklists but twenty doorways.

Between gate and gate there is still a sequence. Chengguan divides the twenty gates into three: the first nine gates make clear that the practice of one’s own portion is full, the middle eight make clear that the advancing practice is complete, and the last three make clear the ultimate reach of both kinds of practice. One’s own portion is the finishing of one’s own foundation; advancing is walking upward into the realms of others and of the Buddha; the ultimate is the drawing in of the harvest. It does no harm to read at that rhythm.

Gate One · The Ten Reliances: What a Practice Has to Stand On

First the question: why should practice begin by speaking of reliance? Chengguan answers directly — reliance is that upon which the rousing of practice leans; it is by leaning upon the mind of awakening and the rest that the ten thousand practices come to stand. So the placing of reliance at the very front of the twenty gates is not a casual way of beginning.

How are the ten sentences to be read? Chengguan says that all ten are called reliances and are already the head of all practices, and that the mind of awakening is further the first among the ten, because it is the root of the ten thousand practices, and therefore it runs at the head of the two thousand. When he glosses the four words constantly does not forget and lose, he brings in a hard saying: to forget and lose the mind of awakening while cultivating roots of goodness is the work of Māra. So this sentence is the general one, and the remaining nine are the particular. Within the particular, the first four are for one’s own benefit, while vow and practice run through both self and other; the first seven are all reliance upon dharma, and the last three are reliance upon persons — companions because the wisdom is the same, and the making of offerings to the Buddhas and the reliance upon the Tathāgatas because only a Buddha is ultimate. The sixty-fascicle text that Fazang comments upon has the fruit relied upon, and he strings the ten sentences into a sequence in which each gives birth to the next, by a chain of though … if …: though there is a surpassing mind within, if there is no good friend without, the practice still cannot be completed; though one meets a good friend, if there are no roots of goodness from former lives one cannot cultivate along with him; though one has roots of goodness, if one does not obtain the dharma-gate to be practiced there is nothing to build with — and so on down to the tenth, that only a Tathāgata is the ultimate thing relied upon.

Clearing an error: do not read reliance as leaning on something and never standing up. The eighth sentence says that relying on all bodhisattvas is being of one and the same wisdom, and the tenth says that relying on the Tathāgatas is that their teaching is unbroken, as a kind father’s is — what is relied upon is the dharma and the teaching, not a patron to hide behind. Bringing it down: this gate is a checklist for oneself; if any one of the ten falls empty for long, the practice will come loose just there. Chengguan says that the surpassing benefit at the end is the great wisdom of buddhahood that becomes what all things rely upon, and he asks back, how then could one not cultivate it? — which is why he also calls this gate an exhortation to cultivate.

Gate Two · The Ten Extraordinary Perceptions: Looking at Things with Another Pair of Eyes

First the question: since the gate before has already spoken of reliance, what is this gate for? Chengguan says that the former relies upon causes and conditions so as to complete the practices, while here one relies upon surpassing perception so as to gather in roots of goodness — what is being turned over is the very source of deluded perception. Because these ten perceptions all come out beyond the perceptions of ordinary people, they receive the name extraordinary. Fazang says it more plainly still: these ten are all perceptions that go beyond what is expected, and so they are called extraordinary.

The bone of the ten sentences is taking down the boundary line. The first sentence takes another’s roots of goodness as one’s own roots of goodness, and Chengguan gives five reasons: that in rejoicing with another the feeling makes no this-and-that; that they are host and guest to one another and aid and profit one another; that they are of one and the same substance; that they are the very thing one practices oneself; and that self and other are each the other. The second sentence says that all roots of goodness are seeds of awakening, and he cites the Lotus as his witness — that those who lift a hand or lower a head have all already become Buddhas. The third says that all beings are vessels able to hold awakening, on the ground that even down to one cut off from goodness there is the Buddha-nature. On the fifth he cites the Viśeṣacintā: knowing detachment is what is called dharma. On the seventh, that all dharmas are the Buddha’s dharmas, he cites a saying of Mañjuśrī as witness — I do not see a single dharma that is not the Buddha’s dharma. The eighth, on the road of speech, is because it is by words that one reaches the principle while the principle is not in the words. The tenth, perceiving no difference between the Tathāgata and oneself, is because a Tathāgata is the very suchness of all dharmas.

Clearing an error: do not read extraordinary as odd or curious. It means a view that runs contrary to common feeling — common feeling draws roots of goodness, beings, vows, and dharmas all onto the side of someone else’s, and these ten perceptions strike out that line one by one. Bringing it down: Chengguan says that the surpassing benefit of this gate is that the perception that is no perception is called the skillful perception — the end of perceiving is not the adding on of another set of notions, it is no longer using self and not-self to assign everything in front of you.

Gate Three · The Ten Practices: Bringing the Perception Down into Deeds

First the question: since perception is already had, why must practice be spoken of? Chengguan answers: relying on the understanding that is surpassing perception, one builds and cultivates the great practice; perception is only upon the mind, whereas practice runs through the three activities of body, speech, and mind — to have the perception in vain and not to practice will get nothing done either. The sequence lies just there.

There is one thing about this gate that cannot go unsaid: the base text here lists only nine sentences, yet concludes with these are the ten. Chengguan, collating against the Jin translation, found that the eighty-fascicle text has dropped the third sentence here, studying well all the precepts; and having filled the ten out, he pairs them into five couples — first the transforming of those below and the seeking of what is above, second the stopping of evil and the advancing of good, third fine stillness and deep contemplation, fourth cultivating the cause and adorning the fields, fifth revering companions and serving teachers. The sixty-fascicle text that Fazang comments upon had ten sentences to begin with, and so he divides them as the first four the practice of the precepts (of which the first two are the precept that gathers in beings, the next one the precept of restraint, and the last one the precept that gathers in good), then one the practice of samādhi, then two the practice of wisdom, then one the practice of adorning Buddha-lands, and the last two the practice of requiting kindness.

Clearing an error: do not read the practice of all beings as the practice that beings perform. All ten sentences without exception are practices cultivated by the bodhisattva, named after what they take as their object — cultivated with beings as the object, hence called the practice of all beings; cultivated with the seeking of dharma as the object, hence called the practice of seeking all dharmas. Bringing it down: this gate cashes out the ten perceptions of gate two one by one. Perceive that all beings are vessels for awakening, and what it comes to in practice is bringing beings universally to ripeness; perceive that all dharmas are the Buddha’s dharmas, and what it comes to in practice is cultivating and studying them all. Only when perception and practice answer to each other has one finished walking the first two gates.

Gate Four · The Ten Good Friends: What Sort of Person Counts as a Good Teacher

First the question: why is the good friend spoken of directly after practice? Chengguan answers: once practice has arisen it must certainly lean upon good friends, and so this is made clear next. He also gives an extremely wide criterion — to make one know what one had not known and recognize what one had not recognized, so that whoever is of profit and accord to me is my good friend; and since each of these ten sentences begins with making one, all ten are named from the side of the benefit.

The order of the ten sentences is neat: first making one abide in the mind of awakening (the rousing of the mind), next making one give rise to roots of goodness and practice the pāramitās (the cultivating), next making one explain all dharmas and bring all beings to ripeness (understanding for oneself and transforming others), next making one obtain settled eloquence and not cling to any world (eloquence and detachment), next making one practice throughout all kalpas without wearying and abide in the practice of Samantabhadra, and last making one enter where all the wisdom of the Buddhas enters. Fazang’s commentary likewise makes ten stretches, with the last two as completing the universal practice and entering the Buddha’s wisdom, which agrees with this.

Clearing an error: do not read good friend as a title. None of the ten sentences of the sūtra says what a good friend is; each says only what he makes you accomplish — the criterion is in the effect, not in the standing. Nor should one therefore count as a good friend everyone who falls in with what one wants; what the ten sentences bring about is, item by item, the mind of awakening, roots of goodness, the pāramitās, and the Buddha’s wisdom, and not the following of one’s inclination. Bringing it down: take these ten sentences and look at the people around you — whoever can set you moving on these ten matters is the person this gate is speaking of; and whoever touches not one of the ten, however close, is not on this list.

Gate Five · The Ten Diligent Exertions: Where the Strength Is to Be Spent

First the question: with practice had and good friends had, why must exertion still be set up separately? Chengguan answers concisely: practice and companions are both in hand already, and diligence must be roused to move them. He also points out the crucial thing — in these ten matters one must leave the marks of body and mind behind and cultivate onward without mixture. Fazang sets the question another way: for what sense is this exertion cultivated? The answer is, in order to do these ten things that are to be done. So this gate does not ask whether one should work hard, it asks only at which ten places the work is to be spent.

The ten sentences can be seen in three stretches. The first four are one’s own lesson: teaching and transforming beings, entering deeply into the dharmas, adorning worlds, and cultivating what a bodhisattva ought to study. The middle three are the removing of obstruction: extinguishing the evil of beings, bringing to rest the suffering of the three evil destinies, and crushing all the hosts of Māra. The last three are vow and offering: vowing to be a pure eye for beings, making offerings to the Buddhas, and causing all Tathāgatas to rejoice. Fazang enters a note under the second sentence — that entering all dharmas is entering by the witness of wisdom; and under the fifth — that making beings extinguish evil is the extinguishing of the causes of their suffering.

Clearing an error: do not read exertion as being strung tight. Chengguan says one must leave the marks of body and mind behind and cultivate onward without mixture, and being strung tight is precisely having the marks of body and mind. Nor should crushing all the hosts of Māra be read as a wrestle with something outside; the sentence just before it speaks of bringing to rest the suffering of the three evil destinies, and both lie on the line of transforming and delivering. Bringing it down: of the ten sentences the one most easily skipped is the eighth — vowing to be a pure eye for all beings. Getting things done can run on a burst of energy; vowing to be another person’s eyes runs on being unwilling to shut one’s own.

Gate Six · The Ten Ways the Mind Comes to Rest: Only What Is Settled in Oneself Can Settle Another

First the question: why is rest spoken of after exertion? Chengguan answers: cultivating onward has accomplished the two matters of benefiting oneself and benefiting others, and therefore the mind comes to rest — by benefiting oneself the mind of wisdom rests, and by benefiting others the mind of compassion rests. So this gate is not telling anyone to take a break; it says that when the twofold benefit is carried on together to a certain point, the mind of itself stops swaying.

The sentence-pattern of the ten is perfectly regular: every one runs he himself … and he makes others also …, and the mind comes to rest. Chengguan divides them into five stretches: the first sentence is the root of practice (the mind of awakening); the next two leave faults behind (one, the samādhi of no contention, leaving all quarrel; two, going beyond the ordinary person and the foolish lesser vehicle); the next two advance in good; the next three are the entering by witness (entering the rank, entering the dharma, entering the benefit); and the last two are the fullness of cause and the completion of fruit. Under the third stretch he distinguishes a fine matter: slander has a coarse and a fine sense — the coarse is to say that this is not what a Buddha spoke, and its fault is very great; the fine is to speak in a way that does not accord with the real, and its fault is then slight. Only by being able to enter the real by witness is there no fine slander.

Clearing an error: do not read the mind comes to rest as a calm mood. Every one of the ten sentences requires that both sides, self and other, be done before rest is spoken of — do it only for oneself and leave others out of account, and not one sentence of this gate holds. Nor should the real dharma that has no self-nature of the seventh sentence be read as sheer nothingness at all; the sixty-fascicle text has this sentence as the inexhaustible nature of all dharmas, and reading the two texts together, what is meant is two faces of one and the same thing. Bringing it down: when the mind feels unsettled, hold it against these ten sentences one by one — most often it is not that the mind is insufficiently still, it is that of the ten matters there is one where only one’s own half has been done.

Gate Seven · The Ten Ways of Bringing Beings to Accomplishment: Ten Roads for Raising People Up

First the question: since the gate before has spoken of the mind at rest in the twofold benefit, what is this gate for? Chengguan answers: above was the general speaking of the mind at rest in the twofold benefit, and here is the particular speaking of the accomplishing of the work of benefiting others. So this gate brings benefiting others down from the mind onto the methods.

How are the ten sentences used? Chengguan says there are two senses. First, these ten are used in common for bringing all beings to accomplishment — giving, the body of form, expounding the Dharma, walking the same road, being unstained and unattached, opening up the bodhisattva practice, displaying the worlds ablaze, displaying the great awesome virtue of the Buddha’s Dharma, manifesting supernatural powers, and fine and secret skillful means: the ten may be used together. Second, each of the ten accomplishes one class of beings, matched in order: the first accomplishes the stingy, greedy, and poor; the second those who presume upon their looks and are arrogant; the third those who doubt the Dharma; the fourth the perverse and stubborn; the fifth the covetous; the sixth those who delight in the two vehicles; the seventh those who take no delight in adorning Buddha-fields; the eighth those who do not aspire to the Buddha’s fruit; the ninth those whose refuge is wrong; and the tenth those of wrong and crafty cleverness. What Fazang lists is much the same as this, differing only slightly in wording.

Clearing an error: do not read he brings beings to accomplishment by the body of form as winning people over by good looks. Set alongside giving, expounding the Dharma, and walking the same road, it says that the very presence of the body is itself a means of teaching. Nor should the pairing of the ten classes in the second sense be read as a rigid table of remedy against symptom — Chengguan first says used in common and afterward each accomplishes, and the two senses stand together. Bringing it down: the most usable thing in this gate is the fourth sentence, he brings beings to accomplishment by walking the same road as they do — of the ten, nine are what you give a person, and this one alone is your walking beside him.

Gate Eight · The Ten Precepts: A Precept Is Not Only What One Does Not Do

First the question: why are the precepts spoken of only after the bringing of beings to accomplishment? Chengguan answers most smoothly: to bring beings to accomplishment one must first stop evil and do good oneself. So the precepts are not ranked at the very front but after the benefiting of others — first know for whose sake one keeps them, and then speak of what is kept.

The bounds of the ten sentences are far wider than what is usually called a precept. Chengguan says that among the ten, to forget and lose the mind of awakening, and on down to the faculties transgressing against their objects, are all called breaking the bodhisattva precepts. He cites a sentence from earlier in the sūtra as witness, that with the great mind of compassion made firm the precepts are not broken. So the first sentence, the precept of not casting away the mind of awakening, and the tenth, the precept of the restraint of the faculties, are the two ends of this gate: the innermost end is the mind and its vow, the outermost end is the six faculties. The eight sentences between run from departing from the ground of the two vehicles, contemplating what benefits beings, making beings abide in the Buddha’s Dharma, and cultivating what a bodhisattva ought to study, all the way to grasping nothing at all in any dharma, dedicating and directing roots of goodness toward awakening, not clinging to the body of a Tathāgata, and pondering the dharmas and leaving grasping behind. Both Chengguan and Fazang assign them under the three groups of pure precepts (the gathering in of restraint, the gathering in of good dharmas, and the gathering in of beings), and both say that they are gathered in according to what each fits.

Clearing an error: do not read the precept of not clinging to the body of any Tathāgata as meaning that one need not revere the Buddha. It is spoken together with pondering all dharmas and leaving grasping and attachment behind, and what it screens off is grasping, not reverence. Nor should the precepts be read as a list of prohibitions — seven of the ten sentences are things to be done. Bringing it down: the checkpoints of this gate are at the two ends. On the side of the mind, ask whether the mind of awakening is still there; on the side of the faculties, ask whether the six faculties were kept today. With both ends in place, the eight sentences between will of themselves find somewhere to take hold.

Gate Nine · The Ten Dharmas of Receiving the Prediction: How One Knows for Oneself That the Road Is Right

First the question: is the prediction not something a Buddha gives — how can it be said that one knows it oneself? Chengguan answers: since faults have been left behind and virtue completed, one examines one’s own practice and sees that it must certainly draw down the fruit to come, and therefore one knows of oneself that one has received the prediction. The sūtra text itself puts the matter beyond argument — by these a bodhisattva knows of himself that he has received the prediction.

The ten sentences are ten threads of self-examination: rousing the mind of awakening with a surpassing intent, never wearying of the bodhisattva practices nor casting them away, abiding throughout all kalpas carrying out the bodhisattva practice, cultivating all the Buddha’s dharmas, single-hearted deep faith toward the Buddha’s teaching, cultivating all roots of goodness and bringing them to accomplishment, setting all beings within the Buddha’s awakening, being joined with good friends without a second mind, giving rise toward good friends to the perception of a Tathāgata, and constantly and diligently guarding the original vow of awakening. Chengguan marks the character of the cultivating in each — the first is that the principle is seen deeply and compassion is keen, so that the rousing of the mind is surpassing and the fruit is beyond doubt; if it is only that one wearies of suffering on another’s account, that does not count as surpassing, and the prediction is not yet settled either. The second is cultivating without wearying, the third cultivating over long time, the fourth cultivating with nothing left out, the fifth cultivating in accord with the principle. He also says that let any one of these ten sentences be present, and one knows of oneself that the prediction is had.

Clearing an error: do not read this gate as the ceremony of receiving a prediction or the marks of it. Chengguan says it clearly: what is distinguished here is the practice by which the prediction is had, not a display of how the marks of receiving the prediction differ; for an account of the marks, the Yogācārabhūmi has its own text elsewhere. Nor should one measure it by the ranks — Chengguan says that this gate is complete crosswise within the ten faiths, whereas elsewhere the account differs by the upright ladder of ranks; Fazang too says that these ten, taken in the round teaching, run through all the ranks, and that taken from where they begin, they lie within the ten faiths. Bringing it down: pick any one of the ten threads and press it to the end — take the eighth, for instance: toward a good friend are you truly joined without a second mind, or have you kept a portion in reserve? Whichever one you can answer is the handle you have at this moment.

Gate Ten · The Ten Enterings into the Bodhisattvas: Getting Inside Another’s Practice

First the question: the nine gates of one’s own portion being finished, where does the advancing begin? Chengguan answers: the practice of one’s own portion being complete, one therefore advances, going on to enter into the places that are entered. From this gate onward, eight gates make up the practice of advancing, and of these the first five are the ones whose names are entering. He first defines the word entering as having two senses — one, the sense of obtaining by witness; two, the sense of reaching by contemplation; entering the stage of cause may run through witness, while reaching through into the stage of fruit is only a reaching and not yet a witnessing.

What this gate enters is the bodhisattvas, that is, it enters the cause. Why enter the bodhisattvas? Chengguan says: what they cultivate is what I cultivate, and each aids and profits the other as fellow travelers. What the ten sentences enter are: original vows, practice, gathering, the pāramitās, accomplishment, vows of every difference, resolutions of every kind, the adorning of Buddha-lands, mastery of supernatural power, and the displaying of the taking of birth. Fazang’s commentary likewise matches them sentence by sentence, saying that entering is still witnessing and obtaining, and takes the seventh sentence as the entering by witness into the true nature. Two of the ten are the easiest to slide past. The gathering of the third sentence is not a gathering of people: Fazang glosses it as entering the eighty-four thousand gatherings of dharma and the rest — what is entered is the whole class of the dharma, and eighty-four thousand is raising up how many they are, not a count. Nor is the accomplishment of the fifth sentence something brought to completion as a thing: Fazang glosses it as entering because practice and stage are full and round, and so it is called complete — practice and stage are called complete only when they have come to their fullness, so this sentence enters a fullness, not a finished thing. The separately circulating text renders this gate as not seeking out each other’s shortcomings, and Chengguan expressly attaches this variant name.

Clearing an error: do not read entering the bodhisattvas as getting inside the mind of some particular bodhisattva. What is entered is practice — the ten sentences list vows, practices, perfections, accomplishments, Buddha-lands, and supernatural power throughout, and not one of them is a person. Bringing it down: this gate pushes another’s roots of goodness are my roots of goodness from gate two out of perception and into witness. Gate one, relying on all bodhisattvas, said only of one and the same wisdom; only here are the ten things in which they are the same set out one by one. The closing sentence of the sūtra says that by these a bodhisattva enters universally into all the bodhisattvas of the three times — not confined to the fellow travelers of one’s own age.

Gate Eleven · The Ten Enterings into the Tathāgatas: Getting Inside the Buddha’s Fruit

First the question: having entered the bodhisattvas, why must one still enter the Tathāgatas? Chengguan answers very briefly: this is entering the fruit; and the reason one must enter is that one is certain to enter it by witness. He also cites a sentence from earlier as a foil, that one then adorns oneself with the Buddha’s virtues. So this gate and the one before are a pair — the former enters the cause, this one enters the fruit.

All ten sentences are headed by the two words boundless: boundless accomplishing of right awakening, boundless turning of the wheel of the Dharma, boundless dharmas of skillful means, boundless sounds and voices of every difference, boundless taming of beings, boundless mastery of supernatural power, boundless bodies of every difference, boundless samādhis, boundless powers and fearlessnesses, and boundless displaying of nirvāṇa. The sixty-fascicle text that Fazang comments upon has entering deeply into the Tathāgatas, and he divides it as the first sentence showing the accomplishing of awakening, the middle eight gathering and transforming by the three wheels of body, speech, and mind (the first four being the activity of speech, the next two the activity of body, and the last two the activity of mind), and the last sentence showing the entering into nirvāṇa; and he says that the Buddhas of the three times likewise perform the same working, and so it is said that they enter it in common too. He further points out that being able to obtain this dharma while still within the stage of faith is precisely the character of the practice of Samantabhadra in the round teaching.

Clearing an error: do not read he enters into the boundless displaying of nirvāṇa as the Buddha really passing away. It stands head and tail with he enters into the boundless accomplishing of right awakening, and accomplishing and passing away are listed alike among the things entered, both of them displayings. Nor should this gate be read as meaning that one at the stage of faith is already the equal of a Buddha — Chengguan says it distinctly, that reaching through into the fruit is only a reaching and not yet a witnessing. Bringing it down: what this gate teaches is the range of one’s sight. The first ten gates were all making one’s own practice solid; this gate suddenly lifts the eyes to the Buddha’s fruit — not to tell you to reach it now, but to let you know where the practice you cultivate finally runs through to.

Gate Twelve · The Ten Enterings into the Practice of Beings: Being Able to Read What People Are Doing

First the question: the two gates before entered those who do the transforming — what is this gate for? Chengguan answers: the two gates before entered those who transform, and this gate makes clear the entering into the mind and practice of those who are transformed. So the three gates are one set — entering the bodhisattvas, entering the Tathāgatas, entering beings — walking through the upper, the middle, and the lower.

The ten sentences begin from time and end at timing. The first three enter the past, future, and present practice of beings; the next two enter good practice and not-good practice; the next four enter mind-practice, faculty-practice, resolution-practice, and the practice of afflictions and habit-energies; and the last one enters the practice of what is the time and what is not the time for teaching and taming. Under the last sentence Chengguan sets down a very weighty saying — the time and what is not the time speak of ripe and not yet ripe; one who does not know the time is no great master of the Dharma. He also points out that the questioning formula of the compilers has dropped the word practice here, and that practice is of many kinds, as may be known from the text. Fazang’s commentary likewise matches them sentence by sentence, and on the last sentence puts out two readings: those whose faculties are not ripe must be waited for until the time, and those already ripe need not be waited for; or else, that the time is waiting until it is ripe and then taming, and not the time is opening and awakening by skillful means without waiting.

Clearing an error: do not read he enters into the not-good practice of all beings as going along with their evil. What is entered is the knowing of it, not the flowing along with it; and the ten sentences and the ten classes of beings in gate seven set each other off exactly. Bringing it down: the most serviceable thing in this gate is the last sentence. However accurately you read a person, if the timing is wrong it comes to nothing — that saying of Chengguan’s, one who does not know the time is no great master of the Dharma, is not a turn of phrase, it is a criterion.

Gate Thirteen · The Ten Enterings into Worlds: There Is No Kind of World He Cannot Enter

First the question: having entered beings, why enter worlds as well? Chengguan answers: a world, with regard to a Buddha, is the environing reward, and with regard to beings it is the place of transforming. So what this gate makes clear is the place where the delivering is done.

The ten sentences make five pairs: defiled and pure, small and great, the worlds within a mote of dust and the fine and minute worlds, turned over and turned up, having a Buddha and having no Buddha. The first four pairs concern the coarseness or fineness and the posture of the realm, and the last pair carries the most weight — a bodhisattva enters not only the worlds that have a Buddha but the worlds that have no Buddha. Chengguan further glosses the two words enters universally in the closing sentence as having two meanings: one, that nothing falls outside these ten kinds; two, that the entering is all at once and not one after another. Fazang’s commentary divides them much the same way, saying that the first two are with regard to defilement and purity, the next four with regard to coarseness and fineness, the next two with regard to posture (the fallen facing downward, the upturned facing upward), and the last two with regard to the presence or absence of a Buddha.

Clearing an error: do not read he enters into the worlds within a single mote of dust as shrinking oneself down. It is listed as a separate sentence from he enters into fine and minute worlds; the former says that within one mote there are worlds, the latter says that the world itself is fine and minute — they are two matters. Nor should he enters into worlds that are turned over and worlds that are turned up be read as descriptions of direction and passed over; the turning over and turning up of worlds is common language in the Huayan account of the net of fields, and here it is only their kinds that are being listed. Bringing it down: the use of this gate is in the last pair. What really tests a practice is not what you can do where there is a Buddha’s Dharma, but whether you still do it when you have come to a place where there is none.

Gate Fourteen · The Ten Enterings into Kalpas: Time Too Is Something One Can Enter

First the question: having entered worlds, why enter kalpas as well? Chengguan answers: this is the time of the delivering. He also says that from this gate onward, three gates all complete the sense of knowing all in a single thought stated above, and there is nothing further to them.

The ten sentences fall in two halves. The first five enter directly: past kalpas, future kalpas, present kalpas, countable kalpas, uncountable kalpas. The latter five enter by mutual identity: countable are the very uncountable, uncountable are the very countable, all kalpas are the very absence of kalpas, the absence of kalpas is the very whole of all kalpas, all kalpas are the very single thought. Chengguan says this entering by mutual identity has two senses: one, that those kalpas are of themselves each the other, so that wisdom entering one enters the rest; two, that because those kalpas gather in one another and enter one another, entering only the one that gathers is entering at the same time those that it gathers. He further points out that this sense has already been stated above in the Chapter on the Merit of Rousing the Mind. Fazang’s commentary divides them the same way, saying that among the latter five, the first is the gathering of the many by the few, the second the gathering of the few by the many, the third the drawing of event into principle, the fourth the raising of event out of principle, and the fifth the mutual identity of two events; and that the last sentence, all kalpas are the very single thought, runs through both the gate of conditioned arising by mutual dependence and the gate of the fusion and penetration of dharma-nature.

Clearing an error: do not read he enters into all kalpas that are the very single thought as meaning that time is an illusion and need not be reckoned with. The first five sentences plainly enter past, present, and future and the countable and the uncountable — one enters their difference first, and only then is their identity spoken of. Bringing it down: this gate takes the pressure off one who has roused a long-range mind. Gate nine said he abides throughout all kalpas carrying out the bodhisattva practice, which sounds like a life sentence; only at this gate is it said that that length and this present single thought are not held apart.

Gate Fifteen · The Ten Ways of Speaking of the Three Times: How the Three Times Speak Through One Another

First the question: the gate before has already spoken of kalpas, and this gate speaks of the three times — is that not a repetition? Chengguan answers: the former gate is kalpas and this gate is ages, differing in length but alike being divisions of time, and both are the sense of the ten ages being separately established by their mutual separation. So the former gate speaks of the measure of time, and this gate speaks of the character of time.

Of the ten sentences the first nine are particular and the last is general. Within the particular the three times have three each, and so nine ages are made. Chengguan glosses sentence by sentence where they do not run even: the future is a dharma that goes on arising, and so the future of the future is called having no exhausting; the past has already arisen, and so the past of the past is not called having no exhausting. The present of the present is visible as the event itself, and set against the present of the past and of the future it is therefore called even. Then he breaks the readings of the ancients. The ancients said that the nine ages are only a way of speaking, and that in fact there are only five ages, as when five days are set against one another: the first three are the three ages of the past, the last three the three ages of the future, and the middle three the three ages of the present. Chengguan says that this reading, pressed forward, has no substance of nine ages, and drawn back, exceeds the number of three ages — and then how could a single thought be complete with nine ages? His own right sense is this: one need not let the nine ages be conditionally arisen by mutual dependence upon one another; let only the three times be conditionally arisen by mutual dependence, and the nine ages are made — the past being caused by the present and the future, then within the past there are the present and the future, and the present and the future being each caused by the other two ages, it is the same, and so each of the three times has three. He cites the Zhongguan as witness, if a dharma comes forth from what causes it, that dharma is not other than its cause, and says further that when the Zhonglun broke the grasping at time, three within one was a fault; here, where the working that is free of fault is made clear, three within one is a virtue — making medicine out of the disease, and is that not excellent? At the last he draws the nine into ten: as for the single thought, it is the gathering of the branches back to the root, without departing from a single thought, of the nine ages set against one another; and thereby, fusing nine by one, though nine they are constantly one, and fusing one by nine, though one it is constantly nine. The Yanyi chao assigns the four grounds that follow this passage to the four teachings, and further puts out four tiers of the fusing and penetrating of time — mutually effaced and both exhausted, mutually granted and both kept, mutually followed and gathering each other, and mutually being and identical with each other. Fazang’s commentary is briefer here, putting out one question and answer at the places where the future speaks of no exhausting and the present speaks of evenness, and referring the remaining sense to the chapter on the ten ages.

Clearing an error: do not read in the present age he speaks of evenness as meaning that the three times are of equal length. Chengguan says it clearly: it is because the present of the present is visible as the event itself, and it is called even as set against the present of the past and the present of the future. Nor should the nine ages be read as a cutting of time into pieces — quite the reverse; the nine ages say that the three times cause one another and cannot stand alone. Bringing it down: this is the deepest section of the passage, but its use is entirely plain. You suppose that the past is already fixed dead and the future has not yet begun; this gate says that within the past are your present and your future, and that in the single thought of this moment the three times are all present.

Gate Sixteen · The Ten Ways of Knowing the Three Times: Knowing What Is Held Inside the Three Times

First the question: having spoken of the three times, why must one also know the three times? Chengguan answers most distinctly: the two sections before made clear the time that lies upon dharmas, and this section distinguishes the dharmas that lie within time — that is, the dharmas by which beings are delivered, put into use according as they are set up, and they are the dharmas known in the text above. He also attaches the names in the parallel translations: the Jin scripture calls this gate the three world-spheres, and the Dushi jing calls it entering into the three places, both taking the events within them.

How are the ten sentences divided? Chengguan judges them by the established and the unestablished: the first seven know the established truths (setting-up, speech, discussion, rule and standard, designation, institution and ordinance, borrowed names), the eighth, he knows that they have no exhausting, runs through both sides — completing above that the events of what is established have no ending, and giving birth below to the nature of the unestablished that can nowhere be ended — and the last two, he knows that they are of themselves quiescent and he knows that all is empty, know the unestablished. In the sixty-fascicle text that Fazang comments upon this gate is entering the three world-spheres, and he puts out three readings: the first reading matches the sentences one by one to the dharmas that are established; the second divides the ten sentences into three stretches, the world-sphere of sense and principle, the world-sphere of speech, and the world-sphere of true character; and the last divides them into the world-sphere of the vessel, the world-sphere of beings, and the world-sphere of upright awakened wisdom. Having put out the three readings, he settles his own choice among them: though there are three readings, the first reading accords with the text.

Clearing an error: do not read he knows the many kinds of setting-up as knowing a heap of terms. To set up is to lay down and establish; speech, rule and standard, designation, and institution and ordinance are all orders that people have set up; and to know that they are set up is precisely so as not to be bound by them, which is why at the end it comes down to quiescence and emptiness. Nor should the first seven sentences be discarded on that account — if one did not know those set-up things through and through, the emptiness of the last two sentences would have nothing to be empty of. Bringing it down: what this gate teaches is a way of seeing that illumines both sides. The rules of the world must be understood perfectly clearly, and at the same time known to be things that were set up; lacking the first half is being out of touch with people, and lacking the second is being eaten by the rules.

Gate Seventeen · The Ten Minds That Do Not Weary: The Mind That Does Not Get Tired

First the question: why do the eight gates of advancing close with this one? Chengguan answers: since those to be transformed are boundless, that one neither wearies nor slackens in seeking the Dharma and in delivering is by reason of the gate before, in which it was already known that the afflictions have nowhere to arise. So this gate is not urging anyone to grit the teeth and hold on; it says that once that is known, weariness has of itself no root.

Chengguan divides the ten sentences into three stretches: the first four seek what is above (making offerings to the Buddhas, drawing near to good friends, seeking all dharmas, hearing the true Dharma); the next four transform those below (proclaiming the true Dharma, teaching and taming beings, setting beings within the Buddha’s awakening, passing through kalpas beyond telling and beyond telling in each single world carrying out the bodhisattva practice); and the last two run through both matters — journeying through all worlds is for drawing near to Buddhas and transforming beings, and contemplating and pondering all the Buddha’s dharmas is for the dharma of practice of the twofold benefit. Fazang’s commentary makes a division close to this, saying that the first four are the practice of one’s own benefit, the next three the gathering in of beings, the next one a further making clear of the breadth of one’s own practice, the next one a further distinguishing of the breadth of the transforming of others, and the last one making clear that the two practices are brought to fullness and the Buddha’s fruit is brought forth.

Clearing an error: do not read not wearying as not resting. What the ten sentences do not weary of is, item by item, making offerings to Buddhas, hearing the Dharma, expounding the Dharma, and transforming beings; not one sentence is speaking of bodily strength. Nor should the eighth sentence, passing through kalpas beyond telling and beyond telling carrying out the bodhisattva practice, be read as a hard punishment — it comes directly after all kalpas are the very single thought in gate fourteen, and that length has already been accounted for. Bringing it down: when weariness rises, do not first ask yourself whether you can still hold out; first take a look by way of gate sixteen — Chengguan says that the reason slackening does not arise is that one knows the afflictions have nowhere to arise. Loosen the way of seeing, and the strength comes back of itself.

Gate Eighteen · The Ten Wisdoms of Difference: Only One Who Can Tell Things Apart Can Teach

First the question: the last three gates make clear the ultimate reach of both practices — why is the wisdom of difference spoken of first? Chengguan answers: what this gate makes clear is that the wisdom of difference which is held reaches its ultimate. He cites a sentence from earlier to set it off, that one then, by the power of wisdom and eloquence, guides and draws them according to the minds of beings. So this gate gathers all the objects transformed in the seventeen gates before into one wisdom that is able to tell things apart.

What the ten sentences know are: beings, the faculties, deeds and their fruits, the taking of birth, worlds, the dharma-realm, the Buddhas, the dharmas, the three times, and all the roads of speech — ten things, each making one kind of wisdom of difference. Reading it against gate twelve makes it clearest: there what is entered is the practice of beings, and here what is known is the difference among beings; there it is entering, and here it is knowing. In the sixty-fascicle text that Fazang comments upon this gate is the wisdom that cannot be broken, and he glosses the name as knowing in accord with dharma, with nothing further altered, and therefore called unbreakable; and he divides the ten sentences into four classes: knowing beings and the rest is with regard to the defiled dharmas, knowing the three jewels and the rest with regard to the pure dharmas, knowing worlds and the rest with regard to what is both defiled and pure, and knowing the dharma-realm with regard to what is neither defiled nor pure. Note that the two texts differ in the items of this gate — nine of the ten answer to one another: the sixty-fascicle text has knowing the Saṅgha and the eighty-fascicle text does not, the eighty putting out instead knowing deeds and their fruits; as for knowing the three times, both texts have it, and it is not that the eighty put the three times in the place of the Saṅgha.

Clearing an error: do not read the wisdom of difference as a discriminating mind. A discriminating mind takes and rejects according to feeling; the wisdom of difference knows their differences as they really are, and the last sentence, the wisdom that knows the differences among all the roads of speech, is precisely being able to say different things to different people. Nor should it be read as wide learning — what the ten sentences know are kinds, not quantities. Bringing it down: this gate is the working capital of teaching. Gate twelve said that one who does not know the time is no great master of the Dharma, and this gate adds another line: one who does not know differences will transform no one either.

Gate Nineteen · The Ten Dhāraṇīs: Only What Is Held Fast Does Not Leak Away

First the question: since there is the wisdom that is held, why is the dhāraṇī spoken of as well? Chengguan answers: this is the ultimate of the holding that holds. So it and the gate before are a pair — the former is what is held, this one is what does the holding. He cites a sentence from earlier to set it off, that one cultivates the perfections and the surpassing liberation and the rest.

Chengguan puts out two divisions of the ten sentences. First: the first sentence is the holding of what is heard; the next four are the holding of the sense; the next four make clear at length the use of the holding of what is heard; and the last gathers up the holding of the sense above. Second: the first four hold, in order, the teaching, the practice, the principle, and the fruit; the next two further display the holding of practice, since they are concentration and wisdom; the next one holds the principle, since it is inconceivable; the next two further display the holding of the teaching; and the last further displays the fruit. Fazang’s commentary first distinguishes the substance, citing the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom for concentration and wisdom as the substance and the Treatise on the Buddha-Ground and the Yogācārabhūmi for heightened mindfulness and wisdom as the nature, saying that by wisdom one illumines the dharma and by mindfulness one remembers and holds it; and he further cites the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom for the straight rendering holding, able to hold good dharmas of every kind so that they are not scattered and lost, like a whole vessel holding water, or else rendered screening, able to screen off the unwholesome minds and not let them arise. He says besides that the four dhāraṇīs of dharma, sense, spell, and forbearance set up in the Yogācārabhūmi and the rest cannot be gathered together with these ten, because the classes are not the same.

Clearing an error: do not read the dhāraṇī as having a good memory. Of the ten sentences only the first is the holding of what is heard without forgetting; the other nine are contemplating, knowing, illumining, hearing the Dharma without scattering, understanding sounds and speech, setting forth the dharmas of the Buddhas of the three times, setting forth the boundless dharmas of the Buddhas, being able to hear all the dharmas spoken by Buddhas beyond telling, and abiding in the powers and the fearlessnesses of a Tathāgata — what is held is the use of the dharma, not the quantity of the text. Bringing it down: that simile of Fazang’s, the whole vessel holding water, is the most usable for examining oneself. It is not that the water must be much, but that the vessel must be whole; let any one of the ten sentences be cracked, and everything cultivated in the eighteen gates before will leak away from just there.

Gate Twenty · Speaking of the Ten Buddhas: At the Last, a Word on What a Buddha Is

First the question: why do the twenty gates close with the speaking of Buddhas? Chengguan answers: above, both the holding and what is held are the Buddha’s dharmas, and here is the ultimate of knowing the lord of the Dharma. He adds one more sentence of the greatest importance — because at the fullness of the mind of the ten faiths one obtains buddhahood. Fazang’s commentary is of the same sense, saying that at the fullness of faith the obtaining of the Buddha’s fruit is made clear, and therefore it is made clear at this place; and to one who asked, if the Buddha’s fruit is already obtained at the fullness of faith, why is it not made clear again at the fullness of the stage of understanding, he answers: because it was already made clear at the beginning of the stage of faith, and the stage of understanding may be known by comparison with this place.

The ten Buddhas are: the Buddha who accomplishes right awakening, the Buddha of the vow, the Buddha of the fruit of deeds, the Buddha who upholds and sustains, the Buddha of nirvāṇa, the Buddha of the dharma-realm, the Buddha of mind, the Buddha of samādhi, the Buddha of original nature, and the Buddha who accords with what is delighted in. Chengguan says that these ten Buddhas are entirely the same in name and sense as the ten ways of seeing the Buddha in the text that follows, and that with the ten bodies spoken of earlier the names have both sameness and difference while the sense is not different at all; and thereupon he matches them one by one — the Buddha who accomplishes right awakening is the body of awakening; the Buddha of the vow is wholly the same as before; the Buddha of the fruit of deeds is the body adorned with the marks and signs; the Buddha who upholds and sustains is the body of the power that upholds; the Buddha of nirvāṇa is the transformation body (because a transformation must display a passing away); the Buddha of the dharma-realm is the dharma body (because it is the true and undefiled realm); the Buddha of mind is the body of awesome force (because it depends upon mind-only, and though light too can gather and subdue, subduing by mind is the most excellent, as a mind of kindness subdues Māra); the Buddha of samādhi is the body of merit (because he is constantly within concentration, and concentration is the utmost of merit); the Buddha of original nature is the body of wisdom spoken of before (because he penetrates the original nature, and the great mirror wisdom and the wisdom of evenness are both originally there); and the Buddha who accords with what is delighted in is the body born of intent; and he attaches its parallel rendering, that the Jin scripture has the Buddha who is as one wishes. At the last he distinguishes why the naming differs: a Buddha is named from the awakening within, while a body is mostly named from the mark.

Clearing an error: do not read the ten Buddhas as ten different Buddhas. The ten sentences open out ten senses within one Buddha — accomplishing, vowing, deeds, upholding, passing away, the realm, mind, concentration, nature, and delight. Nor should at the fullness of the mind of the ten faiths one obtains buddhahood be read as meaning that at the stage of faith one is already the equal of a Buddha; what Chengguan says is that at the moment of the fullness of the mind one obtains the sight of the ultimate of the lord of the Dharma, and gate eleven had long since judged clearly that reaching through into the fruit is only a reaching and not yet a witnessing. Bringing it down: having walked the twenty gates to this place, look back at gate one — there it said he takes all Tathāgatas as what he relies upon, and here it speaks of ten kinds of Buddha. From relying on the Buddha at the start to knowing the Buddha at the end, everything cultivated in the eighteen gates between is the process of coming to see clearly what that relied-upon thing is.

Lineage

The outline of this passage has its source of old. In setting out the outline of the six stages Chengguan says expressly: the separately circulating Dushi jing was made as six rounds of question and answer, and in each round there is first the question, next the answer, and afterward the quaking of the earth and the showing of auspicious signs so as to display the benefit and attest to it; and the ancient worthies of old all took the wording of that text and used it to outline this sūtra, dividing it into six stretches, of which the first twenty sentences ask about the practice of the ten faiths, and thereafter in order about the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten grounds, and the fullness of the cause and the completion of the fruit. He further points out that although the sentences of the fourth stretch are thirty, because the one sentence unobstructed function is an empty sentence of general marking, there are in fact twenty-nine. Fazang’s commentary is likewise of the same account, and cites the words of the request in the Dushi jing as witness, saying that since it says from the beginning through to the end, and since at the very last the accomplishing of buddhahood is made clear as the end, one may know that the practice of faith at the very first is the beginning. The two masters judge alike as to the source from which the outline of the six stages comes.

As to the division into three, the two masters correspond as well, though their way of counting differs. Chengguan counts by gates, making the first nine gates the fullness of the practice of one’s own portion, the next eight the completeness of the advancing practice, and the last three the ultimate reach of both practices; Fazang counts by sentences, making the first ninety sentences, the next eighty, and the last thirty. For the opening gate of the third division Chengguan follows the eighty-fascicle text and has the wisdom of difference, while Fazang follows the sixty-fascicle text and has the ten wisdoms that cannot be broken — the difference in the outline-names has its source in the difference of the base texts.

In the gloss upon the gates one by one the judgments of the two houses differ here and there. In the gloss on gate one, Chengguan divides the ten sentences by four tiers, self-benefit and self-and-other, reliance upon dharma and reliance upon persons, while Fazang strings the ten sentences through with the sequence of mutual generation in the pattern though … if …; the forms are wholly different and do not attack each other. On the number of sentences in gate three, Chengguan judges from the Jin text that the eighty-fascicle has dropped the third sentence and fills it out into five couples, while Fazang follows the ten sentences of the sixty-fascicle and divides them into the five stretches of the practice of the precepts, of samādhi, of wisdom, of adorning Buddha-lands, and of requiting kindness. On the three sentences of entering by witness in gate six, Chengguan has entering the rank, entering the dharma, and entering the benefit, while Fazang has witnessing the rank, witnessing the dharma, and witnessing the way. On the division of gate sixteen, Chengguan makes the two divisions of the established and the unestablished and assigns seven, one, and two, while Fazang puts out three readings and takes the first for himself. On the division of gate nineteen, Chengguan makes the four stretches of the holding of what is heard, the holding of the sense, the use, and the gathering up, while Fazang makes the ten holdings of teaching, principle, wisdom, concentration, the speech of other regions, the three times, eloquence, the faculty of hearing, and the fruit. On the drawing together of gate twenty, Chengguan matches the ten Buddhas one by one to the ten bodies spoken of before, while Fazang only glosses the ten names briefly and refers the matter to a separate chapter. All of these divergences are settled accounts of the ancient worthies, and are recorded without being judged.

Li Tongxuan’s treatise has no gloss upon this passage gate by gate. He outlines this chapter at large into ten stretches, and in the section of the direct telling to which this passage belongs he states of himself: in this one stretch the bodhisattva Samantabhadra has two thousand answers, and the dharmas he answers with have ten dharmas apiece, and the text of each is complete of itself and needs no troublesome explanation — only practice as it is told. Among the senses he sets up at the level of the chapter, the one that touches this passage most nearly is the section on the lord of the telling: he asks why this chapter still has the bodhisattva Samantabhadra do the telling, and answers that these two thousand dharma-gates are the constant practice that Samantabhadra practices, and so Samantabhadra is still made to tell of himself and practice of himself, so that those who hear the Dharma may model themselves upon him and practice the practice of Samantabhadra.

The separately circulating Dushipin jing was translated by Dharmarakṣa of the Western Jin, and in it the twenty gates of this passage each have verses attached, while the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts have none — the repeated verses of this chapter are in the very last stretch. It was precisely upon the wording of this separately circulating text that the ancient worthies of old outlined the six stages of this chapter, and so for this chapter that translation is not only a collating witness but the very source from which the outline came.

Reading straight on, what follows this passage is the second round of answers in twenty gates, beginning from he rouses ten kinds of mind of Samantabhadra, making clear the dharma of practice of the ten abodes; and what precedes it are the five sections of the introduction, the samādhi, the prompting, the rising, and the request. Chengguan says that this sūtra tells of the six stages three times over from beginning to end, and that this is the second time and is with regard to practice — because the practice of Samantabhadra runs through all six stages. So although the twenty gates are named from the ten faiths, one need not, in reading, first put oneself into some one compartment; since Chengguan has already made clear that the intent of this sūtra takes the practice within the ranks and does not take the ranks, practice is the true subject of this passage.

First Be Clear About What This Passage Is Answering

Universal Wisdom Bodhisattva asks two hundred clauses in one breath, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva answers each question with ten clauses; this passage is the second round of answers, twenty gates in all, each gate with ten clauses. To these twenty gates the scripture itself attaches no name of any position — there is not one word ‘abode’ used as the name of a position. Where, then, do the names of the positions come from? Chengguan says it plainly: the ancient worthies outlined this scripture according to the text of a separately circulating old translation, and it was from this that the outline of the six positions was set up, and he takes it over from them. So the name ‘the twenty gates of the practice of the ten abodes’ for this passage is an outline-name of the commentators, not a name the scripture gives itself.

Once this distinction is established, what follows will not be misread. Some, on seeing ‘the ten abodes’, suppose that the scripture is talking about high and low rank and that one must find one's own number in the list; it is not so. The scripture is only opening practice-dharmas one gate after another, and the positions were fitted on by the commentators so that a reader could see the sequence. Chengguan himself also raises an objection: since the scripture has already dropped the names of the positions and keeps only the great practice, why fit them on again? His answer is that practice has two sides — take it as perfectly fused and the positions vanish; take it as spread out in array and there is no harm in a sequence — for if there were no sequence, what would there be to fuse?

There is one more error to clear away. ‘Ten’ is not a fixed number. Fazang, in explaining gate four, brings this up: as to the conditions for giving rise to the mind, some scriptures and treatises say there are four kinds and some say seven, while here ten are spoken of, and this is in order to display inexhaustibility. In explaining gate one he says again that these ten minds ‘are each a practice of its own, and they do not take one another in’ — not ten steps of a stair, but ten practice-gates that do not gather one another up and that each pervade everywhere. Once this is seen, the twenty gates are not twenty items on a list but twenty entrances.

Gate 1, the Ten Kinds of Samantabhadra Mind: What Is It That Giving Rise to the Mind Gives Rise To

First the question: since there is already the word ‘the mind of awakening’, why speak of ‘the Samantabhadra mind’ as well? Chengguan answers with great dispatch: the Samantabhadra mind is just the mind of awakening, only that the mind of awakening is set forth with respect to the fruit, while the Samantabhadra mind is spoken of with respect to mark and function — crosswise it goes all through the Dharma realm, lengthwise it exhausts the whole future. So this gate does not set up another kind of mind; it spreads the mind of awakening open and lets you see the look of it.

How are the ten clauses divided? Chengguan gives three ways of reading them. The first is by the awakening of three minds: the first three clauses are the mind of compassionately protecting sentient beings, the middle six are the mind that raises vows, and the last one is the mind of knowledge. The second is by the two protections: the first seven clauses protect against the mind of the lesser vehicle (the first three protect against narrowness, the latter four against smallness), and the last three protect against the mind of the afflictions, so that it differs from that of ordinary beings and of the lesser vehicle and is therefore called the mind of awakening. The third is by the four great vows: the first three are the vow to deliver sentient beings without bound — because in delivering beings one is not stingy, it says that one gives everything away; the next one is the vow to accomplish the unsurpassed path of a buddha; the next three are the vow to study the inexhaustible gates of Dharma; the last three are the vow to cut off the boundless afflictions. In the sixty-fascicle text on which Fazang comments, the division is made into three parts: the mind that rescues and protects sentient beings, the mind that seeks upward for the fruit of buddhahood, and the mind that turns away in weariness from the conditioned.

An error to clear away: the three clauses of vajra, the great ocean and the king of great mountains here are not descriptions of a mighty strength of mind. What is taken from vajra is not losing the vow when taking birth; what is taken from the ocean is that all the white and pure dharmas flow into it; what is taken from the mountain king is that all evil words are borne — all three clauses come down upon ‘not being turned by circumstances’. The place where it comes to the ground is the very last clause: the ultimate mind of prajñā ‘observes with skill that all dharmas are without anything at all’. The first nine clauses go on vowing and shouldering; the last clause cuts away at a stroke the solid clinging to ‘it is I who am shouldering it’, and only then does giving rise to the mind not turn into a burden.

Gate 2, the Ten Samantabhadra Practice-Dharmas: How a Vow Turns into a Practice

First the question: the previous gate has already given rise to the mind, and this gate speaks of practice-dharmas — is that not a repetition? Chengguan attaches this gate to the several setting-forth of the mind of awakening, saying that it is just the mind of the great vow, that is to say, the advancing practice in the earlier Chapter on the Ten Abodes. Fazang says: it is upon the great mind spoken of before that vast vowed practice is raised, and therefore it is set forth next; and of the ten clauses, the first nine are the breadth of the practice as cause, and the last one is the breadth of the accomplished fruit, because the one name ‘Samantabhadra’ runs through both cause and fruit.

The sentence-form of the ten clauses is most distinctive: every one of them opens with the word ‘vow’ and closes with the four graphs that read ‘Samantabhadra practice-dharma’ — abiding throughout all the kalpas of the future, making offerings to all the buddhas of the future, placing sentient beings in the practice of Samantabhadra, gathering roots of goodness, entering all the perfections, fulfilling the practice of a bodhisattva, adorning all worlds, being born in all the buddha-lands, observing all dharmas well, accomplishing unsurpassed awakening in all buddha-lands. The first nine are matters within the cause and the last one is a matter on the side of the fruit, and yet that one on the side of the fruit is still called a ‘Samantabhadra practice-dharma’ — this is just what Fazang means by Samantabhadra running through cause and fruit.

An error to clear away: do not read ‘vowing to abide throughout all the kalpas of the future’ as vowing to undergo the suffering of long kalpas. The content of the vow is ‘abiding’, that is, not withdrawing from one's seat; the length of the time only states how far the not-withdrawing goes. Coming to the ground: this gate is a checklist — if your giving rise to the mind is genuine, you should be able to say a sentence of your own about each of these ten matters; the ones you cannot speak to are exactly where the strength of your vow has not yet been laid.

Gate 3, the Ten Ways of Observing Sentient Beings and Giving Rise to Great Compassion: Compassion Is Not a Feeling

First the question: where is great compassion born from? The scripture answers this bluntly: it is born from ‘observing’. Each of the ten clauses reads ‘observing that sentient beings are thus and thus, and thereby giving rise to great compassion’ — first the seeing, and only then the compassion. This gate and the next, Chengguan says, contain two senses at once: on one side they complete the practice of the foregoing abode of giving rise to the mind, on the other they complete the practice of the following abode of governing the ground.

Chengguan divides the ten clauses into the general and the several: the first clause, ‘nothing to lean on and no one to protect them’, is the general one, because outwardly there is no good friend to lean on and inwardly no virtue of one's own to be protected by; the other nine are the several ones. Among the several, the first five are sentient beings of the seeking of desire, who only give rein to the feeling of the moment; the next one is sentient beings of the seeking of existence, and therefore they are sunk in the ocean of birth and death; the last three are sentient beings of the seeking of a false holy life, who are sick with ignorance and wrong views and want only wrong dharmas. Fazang puts out another explanation, dividing the ten clauses into four classes — the topsy-turvy, the seeking of desire, the seeking of existence and the seeking of the holy life — matched as two, four, two and two. What the two houses divide is different; both are settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and they are recorded together without adjudication.

An error to clear away: ‘observing that sentient beings sleep through the long night’ does not mean that people are fond of sleeping; it means that they do not wake within the long night of ignorance. Nor does ‘long entangled in the suffering of illness’ refer to bodily sickness alone. One sentence for coming to the ground: if compassion will not rise, it is mostly not that the heart is cold but that the looking has not been fine enough — these ten clauses are ten pairs of spectacles, and put on any one of them and compassion rises of itself.

Gate 4, the Ten Causes and Conditions for Giving Rise to the Mind of Awakening: Why One Gives Rise to It Matters More than What One Gives Rise To

First the question: the previous gate has already set forth compassion, so what is this gate for? Chengguan says that this gate severally displays the mind of knowledge, that it is a giving rise to the mind by observing objects and reasoning them through, and that it and the causes and conditions for giving rise to the mind within the practice of one's own portion in the earlier Chapter on the Ten Abodes abbreviate and display one another. Fazang says it still more plainly: the arising of compassion, vow and practice must depend on that by which it is caused; what was spoken of before is the substance of the mind given rise to, and what is discerned here is that by which the mind is given rise to.

Chengguan divides the ten clauses into two parts. The first five take sentient beings as their condition: the first clause is the general one, and the other four are the several ones — causing deluded suffering to be extinguished, gaining true cessation, cutting off the origination that is folly, and realizing the true path, which is precisely to give rise to the mind of awakening by reasoning out the principle of the four truths as uncontrived. The latter five take awakening as their condition: the first two are the causes of merit and knowledge, and the last three are the seeking after the fruits of merit and knowledge. So this gate is a map of cause and effect: look downward at the suffering, origination, cessation and path of sentient beings; look upward at the causes and fruits of the merit and knowledge of the buddhas; join the two ends, and the mind is given rise to.

An error to clear away: do not read ‘for the sake of getting to see the form-bodies and the marks and signs of all the buddhas, he gives rise to the mind of awakening’ as a craving attachment to adorned appearances. It stands in the same list as ‘entering the vast wisdom of all the buddhas’ and ‘displaying the powers and the fearlessnesses of the buddhas’: it is a seeking after the virtues of the fruit of buddhahood, not an admiring of good looks. Coming to the ground: when the mind you gave rise to has fallen back, turn round and check these ten causes and conditions — only when all ten are gone is it a true falling back; usually it is only that one or two have gone dim.

Gate 5, the Ten Minds to Be Raised in Drawing Near a Good Friend: The Bearing in Which One Learns the Dharma from Someone

First the question: why does this gate turn all at once to the good friend? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of the abode of governing the ground, saying that what it sets forth is that stretch of the advancing practice which is the drawing near to a good friend, and that within the clause of the heading a displaying sense is also contained. He divides the ten clauses into two halves: the first six are the matter of waiting upon and serving the good friend, and the last four are practicing together with the good friend without difference.

What matters is the fifth clause. The eighty-fascicle text has ‘the mind that does not seek anything else’, and Chengguan glosses it thus: what is meant by seeking is that one does not seek fame and gain, nor faults. In the sixty-fascicle text this clause reads exactly ‘the mind that does not seek profit’, and on the face of it this agrees with Chengguan's gloss. This clause is the pivot of the whole gate — serve a teacher while having some other design in your heart, and the waiting upon, the gladness, the not going against and the going along of the first four clauses all become a transaction.

An error to clear away: ‘the mind of the Tathāgata’ does not mean worshipping a person as a buddha until one has lost all discernment; standing as it does alongside ‘the mind of the same root of goodness, the mind of the same vow, the mind of fulfilling one's practice in the same way’, it means being of one direction with one's teacher in the Dharma. Coming to the ground: these ten minds are a self-examination sheet, and what is most often missing is not reverence but ‘the mind that is of a single direction’ — take a little here today and a little there tomorrow, and it looks like broad consultation while in fact there is no single direction at all.

Gate 6, the Ten Purities: What Happens After Drawing Near a Good Friend

First the question: is purity cultivated, or is it gained? The sentence-form of the scripture gives the answer: ‘if he gives rise to a mind like this, he will gain ten kinds of purity’ — it is the fruit of the previous gate. Chengguan attaches it in just this way: this gate is the fruit of the advancing drawing near to a friend, and therefore it says that giving rise to such a mind is at once the gaining of it.

Chengguan also accounts for the Sanskrit as transmitted for the word ‘purity’, saying that it has two senses: the first is pervading purity, which is these ten here; the second is utmost purity, which comes in another passage later in this chapter. He divides the ten clauses into four layers: the first six are the purity of the three kinds of action — of these the first three (the deep mind, the form-body, the voice) are the purity of substance and the latter three (eloquence, wisdom, taking birth) the purity of function; the next two (retinue, the fruit of recompense) are the purity of the fruit of recompense as principal and companions; and the last two (the great vow, the practices) are the purity of vow and practice.

An error to clear away: do not read ‘purity of the form-body’ as good looks; the scripture itself attaches the reason for it — ‘because he displays himself in whatever shape suits them’ — the purity lies in being able to display himself according to the capacity, not in being good to look at. Coming to the ground: this gate tells one a very practical thing — the effect of drawing near a good friend does not lie in a feeling but in whether these ten places have turned; if not one of the ten has moved, it is most likely that several of the ten minds of the previous gate are missing.

Gate 7, the Ten Perfections: The Ten Are Not the Six with Four Added On

First the question: six perfections are commonly spoken of; why are ten spoken of here? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of one's own portion in the abode of cultivating the practice, saying that the earlier Chapter on the Ten Abodes opens one wisdom into ten kinds of observing, while here it displays in general that what is cultivated is complete in the ten perfections, and moreover that ‘the ten perfections are all explained in terms of the general mark, and each one contains much’, which is why the single clause on giving says ‘he lets go of everything’.

The names and senses of the last four perfections have to be seen clearly. As to the perfection of knowledge, Chengguan says that knowledge is just skillful means, the provisional knowledge that advances toward the powers of a buddha, and that the name of knowledge is therefore set up. As to the perfection of spiritual penetration, he attaches its variant rendering, saying that spiritual penetration is the perfection of power and that the Jin translation has ‘spiritual power’. As to the perfection of dharma, he says that dharma is just knowledge, named from what is known. The perfection of vows he attaches to Samantabhadra himself — ‘because he fulfills the various great vows of Samantabhadra’.

An error to clear away: do not suppose that the first six perfections are the foundation and the last four the advanced course. Since all ten perfections are explained in terms of the general mark, each one of them contains all the rest; the one perfection of giving, in saying ‘he lets go of every single thing he has’, has already gathered in the letting go of what is not Dharma that belongs to the precepts and the letting go of self-conceit that belongs to patience. Coming to the ground: the way to read this gate is not to set the ten in order but to take any one perfection and ask of it where its ‘each one contains much’ lies — read through once in this way, and the ten perfections become one perfection.

Gate 8, the Ten Wisdoms That Awaken in Accordance: How Wisdom Awakens in Accordance with Things and with Principle

First the question: the ten perfections have already been cultivated, so why is this gate set up as well? Chengguan attaches this gate to the advancing practice within the abode of cultivating the practice, saying that by the practice that went before an unmistaken mastery is accomplished, so that in accordance with things and in accordance with principle he can awaken and know them skillfully, and that it is therefore called wisdom that awakens in accordance; and that it is just the observing of the realms of sentient beings and the rest among the ten dharmas of advancing in the earlier Chapter on the Ten Abodes, the two abbreviating one another.

The ten clauses may be seen in three parts. The first five awaken in accordance with ‘realms’: the measureless differences of the worlds, the inconceivability of the realm of sentient beings, the one entering into the various and the various entering into one among the dharmas, the vastness of the Dharma realm, and the ultimacy of the realm of space. The next three awaken in accordance with ‘ages’: all worlds entering into the past age, into the future age, into the present age. The last two awaken in accordance with ‘buddhas’: the measureless practices and vows of all the Tathāgatas being fulfilled within a single wisdom, and the buddhas of the three times coming forth by one and the same practice.

An error to clear away: the third clause, ‘one enters into the various and the various enter into one’, does not mean that one thing turns into many things; it means that one and many enter into each other without ruining their marks — this is one of the most important sentence-forms in this scripture, and to read it as a spiritual power is to lose it altogether. Coming to the ground: the closing clause of this gate is weighty, saying that abiding in this dharma one gains the light of mastery over all dharmas and in the space of a single thought can understand them all — those three words ‘a single thought’ are tied to the same doctrine as ‘all dharmas are within a single thought’ in the following gate (gate nine, certain knowing), and are not a description of speed.

Gate 9, the Ten Realized Knowings: The Difference Between Knowing and Realizing for Oneself

First the question: the previous gate has already awakened and known, so why set up realized knowing as well? Chengguan attaches this one gate to the practice of the abode of being born noble, saying that it is by the mastery that went before that one can realize and can know, and that because of realizing one is born within the holy teaching. The word ‘realize’ in the name of the gate is exactly the distinction: the previous gate awakens in accordance with things and with principle, this gate knows by realizing for oneself.

Chengguan divides the ten clauses into four parts: the first three are the general knowing of all dharmas (one mark, measureless marks, within a single thought); the next five broadly set out the foregoing knowing of sentient beings (mental activity without obstruction, the equality of the faculties, the activity of the afflictions and latent tendencies, the activity of the afflictions that follow the mind, wholesome and unwholesome activity); the ninth clause, the vowed practice of bodhisattvas, is gathered into the karmic activity spoken of before; and the tenth clause, knowing the ten powers of the Tathāgata, is knowing nirvāṇa, set over against birth and death.

An error to clear away: ‘knowing that all dharmas have one mark’ and ‘knowing that all dharmas have measureless marks’ are not two contradictory clauses, nor two stages one after the other — the one mark is principle, the measureless marks are phenomena, and only knowing them at the same time is called realized knowing. Coming to the ground: the seventh clause, ‘knowing the activity of the afflictions that follow the mind in all sentient beings’, is the one most worth shining upon oneself — those afflictions are the ones that rise in the train of the mind; if one cannot even recognize them in a single day of one's own, there is no need to go discussing the knowing of others first.

Gate 10, the Ten Powers: Only What You Can Get Into Is Called Power

First the question: the powers of this gate share a name with the ten powers of a buddha — are they the same thing? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of the abode of complete skillful means, and says that according to the Sanskrit text the name of this gate is ‘gathering together’, which is the sense of being complete in skillful means — so these powers are powers accomplished by the bodhisattva's gathering together, not the ten powers on the ground of the fruit. He points out further that the earlier Chapter on the Ten Abodes says only that all the practices cultivated are for the sake of sentient beings but does not say what is cultivated, and that this gate is exactly the displaying of the practice cultivated.

Chengguan divides the ten clauses: the first six are the powers of understanding the Dharma, and the last four are the powers of seeking upward. The first six all open with ‘entering’ or ‘toward’ — entering the own-nature, entering their being like transformations, entering their being like illusions, entering their being all of them the Buddha's dharmas, no defiled attachment toward any dharma, the utmost clear understanding of all dharmas; the last four turn toward the good friend, roots of goodness, deep faith in the dharmas of the buddhas, and the not turning back of the mind of all-knowing wisdom.

An error to clear away: ‘the power of entering all dharmas as being like transformations’ and ‘as being like illusions’ do not mean that the world is false and so need not be minded. There is a decisive sentence of Chengguan's at the very last gate that can be borrowed to read this place: what is called transformation is that, just as it is real, it is like a transformation, and it is not that something else has to be transformed into being — being like illusions and like transformations speaks of the real mark of dharmas, not of the non-existence of dharmas. Coming to the ground: the test of this gate is very simple — if on hearing ‘all dharmas are the Buddha's dharmas’ your heart makes a discount, the fourth power is not yet there.

Gate 11, the Ten Equalities: Equality Has Three Layers of Meaning

First the question: is equality a levelling into sameness? Chengguan here gives the finest stretch of explanation in this passage. He attaches this gate to the practice of the abode of the upright mind, saying that by mastering equality the mind is unmoved whether it hears praise or slander; and he says that the word ‘equality’ runs through three senses: the first is the equality of phenomena, that is, the ten classes regarded severally over against one another, as when it is said that sentient beings alike have the buddha-nature, and so on up to the buddhas being of one dharma-body, one mind and one wisdom; the second is the equality of principle, that these ten classes are alike one and the same truth; the third is the equality of mind, whereby, having mastered the first two, one takes them into the mind, and so no high and low arise toward the ten kinds of object.

He explains the ten clauses one by one, and every clause blocks off some common partiality of mind: equality toward sentient beings is having neither enemy nor kin; equality toward dharmas is giving rise to no discrimination between good and evil; equality toward lands is seeing no high and low between the defiled and the pure; equality toward the deep mind is coming forth by one and the same true path; equality toward roots of goodness is that there is no root of goodness that is not for the sake of buddhahood; equality toward bodhisattvas is treating those who practice alongside as oneself; equality toward vows is that every single great vow goes right through to the limit of the future; equality toward the perfections is not saying that prajñā surpasses giving; equality toward practices is that any one practice goes right through both phenomena and principle; equality toward buddhas is not saying that this buddha here is the most excellent.

An error to clear away: the second clause, ‘giving rise to no discrimination between good and evil’, does not mean not distinguishing good from evil; it means not giving rise to a mind of high and low over good and evil — in matters one must still choose, while in the mind neither hate nor love arises. Coming to the ground: shine these ten clauses over yourself one by one, and the ones most easily missed are the eighth and the tenth, because those who practice most easily go ranking Dharma-gates and buddha-lands in secret.

Gate 12, the Ten Sentences on the Real Meaning of the Buddha-Dharma: Ten Sentences That Speak the Dharma Right Through

First the question: these ten clauses look like ten conclusions; how are they to be read? Chengguan attaches this gate to the advancing practice within the abode of the upright mind, and judges it by the three natures: the first clause is with respect to the imagined and clung-to, because there is nothing real in it at all; the next four are with respect to the other-dependent; the last five are with respect to the perfectly accomplished. The first clause he explains only by the words ‘because there is nothing real in it at all’; the words ‘within what has no name or mark one speaks by a borrowed name’ explain the first of the last five, that is, the sixth clause of the whole gate, ‘all dharmas are made only by written words’ — written words are spoken by a borrowed name within what has no name or mark.

Read on according to this judgment and the thread is clear: the opening clause first breaks the real existence of names and words; then the four clauses of illusion, reflected image, arising from conditions and the purity of karma set forth the marks of the other-dependent — being like illusions and like reflected images likens their lack of own-nature, arising from conditions says how they come to be, and the purity of karma says that they are of themselves undefiled; and last the five clauses of being made by written words, the true limit, having no mark, the highest meaning and the Dharma realm come home to the perfectly accomplished — the first of them is still gathered up under written words, while the latter four fall away one after another until the Dharma realm is reached.

An error to clear away: ‘all dharmas have only a name’ does not mean that nothing exists; it means that if one leaves the name and the word behind and goes looking for a substance under the name, it cannot be found. Coming to the ground: this gate is the floor under all the practice-gates that went before — without these ten clauses, the ten perfections, the ten powers and the ten equalities that went before would all quietly turn into ten ‘things I have brought off’.

Gate 13, Speaking Ten Kinds of Dharma: Speaking the Dharma Out

First the question: why does this gate suddenly speak of preaching? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of one's own portion in the abode of not turning back, saying that because one can proclaim the profound and vast dharma, therefore when one hears others preach the mind does not turn back; and he says that among the ten clauses, speaking of the nature of karma and the rest accomplishes the powers of the Tathāgata, and expounding according to the meaning keeps bodhisattvas from turning back — he also mentions that fascicle twenty-eight of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra sets forth at length the marks of turning back and of not turning back.

The ten clauses are arranged from the shallow to the deep: the profound, the vast and the various are the size and measure of the preaching; the dharma of all-knowing wisdom and the dharma that goes along with the perfections are what the preaching rests upon; the dharma that gives rise to the powers of the Tathāgata and the dharma that corresponds to the three times are what the preaching accomplishes; the dharma that keeps bodhisattvas from turning back and the dharma that praises the merit of the buddhas are what the preaching is for; and the last clause is the longest of all — proclaiming the dharma in which all bodhisattvas study the equality of all the buddhas and correspond to the field of experience of all the Tathāgatas — which brings the preaching home to the field of experience of a buddha.

An error to clear away: ‘speaking the various dharmas’ does not mean speaking in a jumble; read it together with the two clauses before it and it is plain — the profound is over against the shallow, the vast over against the narrow, the various over against the single, and the three clauses together are the three pervasions of preaching. Coming to the ground: this gate is really saying one thing — to whatever degree you can expound it, to that degree your mind is steady; the places you cannot make clear are exactly the places where you can still turn back.

Gate 14, the Ten Holdings: Holding Is Not Memorizing

First the question: is holding remembering? Under this gate Chengguan lays down the most effortless and most important of definitions: holding is receiving, holding and carrying out, not merely uttering with the mouth. Once this one sentence is out, the way to read all ten clauses is settled.

What the ten clauses hold runs from oneself outward and from phenomena to principle: the merit and roots of goodness one has gathered, the dharmas spoken by the Tathāgatas, all similes, the gates of the intent and drift of all dharmas, the gates that give rise to dhāraṇī, the dharmas that remove doubt, the dharmas that bring bodhisattvas to accomplishment, the gates of the samādhi of equality spoken by the Tathāgatas, the gates that illuminate all dharmas, and the power of the play of the spiritual penetrations of the buddhas. The first two clauses hold what one cultivates and what one has heard, the middle several clauses hold the gates by which one can enter, and the last three clauses hold the powers of concentration, of wisdom and of spiritual penetration (Fazang likewise judges the last three as recording the dharmas of the fruit: first the Buddha’s concentration-dharma, second the Buddha’s wisdom-dharma, third the Buddha’s penetration-dharma). Chengguan attaches this gate to the advancing practice within the abode of not turning back.

An error to clear away: ‘holding all similes’ does not mean collecting comparisons; in this scripture a simile is a vessel for preaching — to hold similes is to hold fast to that skillful means by which a person can be made to understand. Coming to the ground: to test whether you have ‘holding’, do not look at how much you remember but at how many items you have carried out; to have a whole scripture off by heart and not to practice one clause of it is, by the definition of this gate, still not to hold.

Gate 15, the Ten Eloquences: Eloquence Comes from Non-Attachment

First the question: is eloquence a gift of speech? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of one's own portion in the abode of youthful truth, and attaches the reason for it: because the three kinds of action are without fault, therefore there is an unattached eloquence; because he knows the desires and the understanding of sentient beings, therefore his eloquence can make others glad. These two sentences set the root of eloquence in virtue, not on the tongue.

The ten clauses may be divided into three parts. The first five speak of the eloquence's sticking to nothing: no discrimination, contriving nothing, clinging to nothing, mastering emptiness, no doubt or dimness — blocking off, one after another, the standing-place in the speaker's mind. The middle two speak of what the eloquence rests upon: the Buddha's sustaining, and awakening by oneself — half is the power of the Buddha and half is one's own realization. The last three speak of what the eloquence accomplishes: skill in the differences of phrases and words, true proclamation, and going along with the minds of sentient beings so as to make them glad.

An error to clear away: ‘the eloquence that gives rise to no discrimination toward any dharma’ does not mean speaking vaguely. No discrimination speaks of the mind not grasping marks; on the side of phrases and words, on the contrary, one must be ‘skillful in the differences’ — the eighth clause is set up precisely to ward off this misreading. Coming to the ground: open your mouth to preach with the thought of winning, of making a show, of making people submit, and not one of the first five clauses is there — eloquence is not an ability added on, it is what is left over after attachment has been taken away.

Gate 16, the Ten Masteries: The Ten Places Where One Can Be Master

First the question: is mastery doing as one pleases? Chengguan attaches this gate to the advancing practice within the abode of youthful truth, saying that displaying a body of transformation and mastery and the rest are all the sense of mastery. So mastery is spoken of with respect to function — whether one can bring the function into play in the place where it ought to be brought into play.

Of the places in which the ten clauses are masterful, the first four are the function of knowledge: teaching and disciplining sentient beings, illuminating all dharmas universally, cultivating the practice of all roots of goodness, and vast wisdom. The middle four are the function of practice: precepts that lean on nothing, dedicating roots of goodness to awakening, vigor that does not turn back, and crushing the hosts of demons with wisdom. The last two are the function of transforming others: causing sentient beings to give rise to the mind of awakening in accordance with what they delight in and desire, and displaying the accomplishment of perfect awakening in accordance with those who are to be transformed. In the sixty-fascicle text this gate reads ‘the ten surpassing dharmas’, and Fazang, following it, sets up his fourth division as ‘the fifty clauses from “the ten surpassing dharmas” onward’; Chengguan, following the eighty-fascicle text, has ‘the ten masteries’ — the outline-names of the two houses come from one and the same passage while the texts they rely on differ.

An error to clear away: ‘the mastery of precepts that lean on nothing’ does not mean not keeping the precepts; it means keeping them without exalting oneself by leaning on the marks of the precepts — let the leaning arise, and the precepts become one more sort of bondage. Coming to the ground: these ten clauses are best read backwards — in whatever place you are still being led by the nose, in that place there is as yet no mastery.

Gate 17, the Ten Non-Attachments: Not Even the Good Sticks

First the question: how does non-attachment differ from the leaning on nothing and the freedom from defiled attachment spoken of before? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of the abode of a prince of the Dharma, and attaches its effect: it is by non-attachment that one can know well the ten dharmas that follow. So non-attachment here is the threshold for entering the position, not a conclusion of practice.

The arrangement of the ten clauses is worth turning over: worlds, sentient beings, dharmas, what is done, roots of goodness, the place of taking birth, vows, practices, bodhisattvas, buddhas. The first four clauses are non-attachment to objects and affairs and are still the ordinary course; from the fifth clause on, what one is unattached to turns all the way into wholesome dharmas — roots of goodness, taking birth, vows, practices, bodhisattvas, and at last buddhas. That the scripture puts ‘buddhas’ too into the list of non-attachment is exactly the family manner of this scripture.

An error to clear away: ‘clinging to nothing in any buddha’ does not mean not revering the buddhas or not calling them to mind. Look at it together with ‘equality toward all buddhas’ in gate eleven and it is plain: not clinging is not taking them as gained by me and not grasping them as a fixed mark, and it is exactly because reverence has gone to its limit that one dares not frame them within one's own idea. Coming to the ground: for one who has practiced long, the hardest pass is that of the roots of goodness — the exercises done, the vows made, the road walked, all quietly turn into new possessions. This gate is set up for just that.

Gate 18, the Ten Minds of Equality: Equality Comes Down onto the Mind

First the question: gate eleven has already spoken of equality; why does this gate speak of the mind of equality as well? Chengguan attaches this gate to the advancing practice within the abode of a prince of the Dharma, saying that by equality one advances and studies the dharmas of the place of a king of the Dharma. The one extra word ‘mind’ in the name of the gate is exactly the distinction: the previous gate speaks of equality with respect to the ten classes of object, this gate speaks of equality with respect to the mind that takes them as its objects.

The places in which the ten clauses are equal: gathering merit, giving rise to all the differing vows, the bodies of sentient beings, the karmic recompense of sentient beings, all dharmas, pure and defiled lands, the understanding of sentient beings, giving rise to no discrimination toward any practice, the powers and fearlessnesses of the buddhas, and the wisdom of the Tathāgatas. Beginning from merit and vows, passing through the bodies, karma and understanding of sentient beings, then to the defilement and purity of lands, and coming home at last to the powers and wisdom of a buddha — from oneself outward, from the defiled to the pure, from cause to fruit, and the whole way it is one and the same mind.

An error to clear away: the second clause, ‘the mind of equality in giving rise to all the differing vows’, is the easiest to read past — the vows are differing, the mind is equal; it is not that all the vows are beaten into one piece, but that upon all the various differing vows no high and low arise. Coming to the ground: the sixth clause, ‘the mind of equality toward all pure and defiled lands’, is the most solid of all — when one is disgusted with the age and the surroundings one lives in, this clause is right there in front, putting one to the test.

Gate 19, the Ten Ways of Giving Birth to Wisdom: Wisdom Is Born from Where It Knows

First the question: is wisdom not innate? How can it be said to be given birth to? Chengguan attaches this gate to the practice of the position of consecration, saying that this gate sets forth the accomplishing of ten wisdoms and the studying of the ten wisdoms of a buddha. The sentence-form of the ten clauses is uniformly ‘knowing … and thereby giving birth to wisdom’ — first there is an object known, and wisdom is born from there; so the giving birth spoken of here is spoken with respect to function, and does not mean that what was formerly not there now comes to be.

The objects known in the ten clauses: the understanding of sentient beings; the various differences among the buddha-lands; the bounds and portions of the net of the ten directions; all the worlds, those lying face down and those lying face up and the rest; the one nature and the various natures of all dharmas and their vast abiding; all the various bodies; the topsy-turvy deluded thoughts of the world, with attachment to none of them; that all dharmas in the end come forth by one and the same road; that the spiritual power of the Tathāgata can enter the whole Dharma realm; that the buddha-seed of sentient beings of the three times is never cut off. The first six clauses know the measurelessness of phenomena, the seventh turns into non-attachment, and the last three come home to the one road, the Dharma realm and the buddha-seed.

An error to clear away: ‘knowing the bounds and portions of the net of the ten directions’ is not surveying a map. The worlds are like a net and each has its bounds and portions, and to know those bounds and portions is precisely so that, without ruining their marks, one may see their entering into one another — the same doctrine as ‘one enters into the various and the various enter into one’ in gate eight. Coming to the ground: the last clause is the most settling of all — knowing that the buddha-seed of all sentient beings of the three times is never cut off is where the buddha-wisdom studied at the position of consecration comes down: look at a person not for what he looks like now, but for that portion in him which cannot be cut off.

Gate 20, the Ten Transformations: Just as It Is Real, It Is Like a Transformation

First the question: is transformation a display of spiritual powers? Under this gate Chengguan lays down the last and the most important decisive sentence of this passage: the transformation here is that, just as it is real, it is like a transformation, and it is not that something else has to be transformed into being. He attaches this gate to the ten dharmas of the abode’s own portion within the abode of consecration — the Chao says plainly ‘this is the ten dharmas of the own portion in that scripture’, whose accomplishment of the ten knowledges is the shaking of countless worlds and the rest, and so he says that it is by this that one can shake the lands and the rest; the ten knowledges one is urged to learn, which belong to the advancing practice, are attached to the preceding gate, the giving rise to wisdom. And here he draws the whole passage to a close, saying that the textual marks of the several passages above are displayed together, and that although there is a deep purport, it can be known by comparison with what went before.

What the ten clauses transform: sentient beings, bodies, lands, offerings, voices, practices and vows, the teaching and disciplining of sentient beings, the accomplishing of perfect awakening, preaching, and sustaining. From sentient beings and bodies at the beginning to the accomplishing of perfect awakening and preaching at the end — that even ‘the accomplishing of perfect awakening’ is listed among the transformations is precisely the footnote to that phrase ‘just as it is real, it is like a transformation’: it does not say that the becoming of a buddha is false, but that the buddha's becoming and the buddha's preaching are alike like transformations, with no substance to be grasped.

An error to clear away: do not read this gate as the bodhisattva having learned conjuring tricks. Read by Chengguan's definition, this gate in fact takes all nineteen gates that went before and passes them through once more — the mind given rise to, the perfections cultivated, the powers gained, the dharma preached, each and every one of them like a transformation. Coming to the ground: the last clause of the twenty gates is ‘then he will be complete in all the unsurpassed dharmas of transformation’ — what is meant by being complete is that the practice of the twenty gates has all been done, and not one item of it has ever been taken as one's own.

Lineage

The outlining of this passage has three lines from of old. The outline of the ancient worthies as reported by Chengguan divides the twenty gates into four parts: the first six gates severally set forth the sense of the abode of giving rise to the mind; the next six, from ‘the ten perfections’ onward, set forth the practice of the inner virtue accomplished in the remaining nine abodes; three gates, from ‘the ten kinds of speaking dharma’ onward, set forth the practice of outward transforming within the abodes; five gates, from ‘the ten masteries’ onward, set forth the practice that is unobstructed and surpassing. Chengguan allows it to stand, saying that it is not without reason, and then takes for himself the outline that goes along with the ten abodes, fitting the gates one by one into the abode of giving rise to the mind and so on up to the position of consecration, and stating for himself the apportioning of the number of gates: the first four gates set forth the practice of the first abode; the second and third positions have two gates each; the fourth and fifth have one each; and the five that follow have two each. What Fazang comments on is the sixty-fascicle text, and his divisions correspond while being reckoned by clauses — first sixty clauses, next sixty clauses, next thirty clauses, last fifty clauses; as for the opening gate of the fourth division, Fazang, following the sixty-fascicle text, has ‘the ten surpassing dharmas’, and Chengguan, following the eighty-fascicle text, has ‘the ten masteries’, the difference of the outline-names having its source in the difference of the underlying texts. What the two houses judge is recorded together without adjudication.

The third line comes from Zhiyan. What Zhiyan comments on is likewise the sixty-fascicle text, and yet for this passage he sets up only three divisions and does not make four: the first fifty clauses set forth the skilful means of understanding; the seventy that follow are the practice of counteraction properly cultivated at the positions of understanding; the eighty that follow are the practice of benefiting others. To the bounds of the three divisions he fastens the names of the clauses at which they open — the first from ‘the Samantabhadra mind’, the next from ‘the ten purities’, the last from ‘the ten kinds of speaking dharma’. Reckoned by clauses they are fifty, seventy, eighty. Set beside the two lines that went before: the ancient worthies in four parts have six gates, six gates, three gates, five gates; Fazang has sixty clauses, sixty clauses, thirty clauses, fifty clauses; and Zhiyan has fifty clauses, seventy clauses, eighty clauses — the bounds of the first two lines correspond, and Zhiyan's threefold division differs from them. Here the divisions of the three lines are merely recorded, and which of them is right is not adjudicated.

In the explanation of gate one the two houses also differ. Chengguan puts out three layers (the awakening of three minds, the two protections, the four great vows), Fazang two (the three minds, the two protections); for the names of the three minds Chengguan has the mind of compassionately protecting sentient beings, the mind that raises vows, and the mind of knowledge, while Fazang has the mind that rescues and protects sentient beings below, the mind that seeks the fruit of buddhahood above, and the mind that turns away in weariness from the conditioned; and for the numbers of the two protections Chengguan has the first seven protecting against the lesser vehicle and the remaining three against the afflictions, while Fazang has the first six protecting against the lesser vehicle and the remaining four against the afflictions. In the classification of gate three, Chengguan has three classes (the seeking of desire, the seeking of existence, the seeking of a false holy life) matched as five, one and three, while Fazang's later explanation has four classes (the topsy-turvy, the seeking of desire, the seeking of existence, the seeking of the holy life) matched as two, four, two and two. All are settled sayings of the ancient worthies, and are recorded without adjudication.

In gates twelve and twenty, too, Fazang's explanation differs from Chengguan's. In gate twelve Chengguan divides the ten clauses by the three natures, the imagined, the dependent and the perfected; Fazang, commenting on the sixty-fascicle text, where the gate reads ‘the ten clauses of the Buddha's dharma of skilful means’, takes the first with respect to the imagined and the next five with respect to the dependent, and then does not bring the last four under the name of the perfected at all, dividing them instead by the empty tathāgata-treasury (the seventh, eighth and ninth: the true that is unborn, the true that is markless, the true that is the nature of naturelessness) and the non-empty tathāgata-treasury (the tenth, the Dharma realm furnished with virtues) — three natures first, two treasuries after, the frameworks themselves differing. In gate twenty Chengguan sets up only the one sense that the transformation is as illusory upon the real; Fazang first sets up the sense of the name, ‘turning about what originally is not and making it appear as though existent, hence it is called transformation’, matches the items one by one (transforming the bodies of other beings, transforming one's own body into other kinds, transforming a defiled land into a pure one, and so on down to manifesting relics), and then puts out a further reading, ‘these ten are also the using of transformation upon the real so as to display its equality’ — the former explanation takes transformation as turning about what originally is not so that it comes to be, the latter takes it as using transformation upon the real so as to display equality. What the two houses hold is recorded together without adjudication.

Of Li Tongxuan's treatise there is no phrase-by-phrase explanation of this passage that can be attested; a mechanical search yields zero occurrences, the lacuna is recorded as it stands, and nothing from elsewhere is used to fill it.

The separately circulating text of this passage is the Dushipin jing, the Scripture of the Chapter on Crossing Beyond the World, translated by Dharmarakṣa of the Western Jin; of its twenty gates, nineteen have verses attached (in one place an old note says the verses are wanting in all the editions), while the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts have none — the verses of repetition in this chapter come in the very last passage. It was precisely according to the text of this separately circulating translation that the ancient worthies outlined the six positions of this chapter, and so for this chapter that translation is not only a witness for collation but also that from which the outline itself comes.

Reading straight on, what follows this passage is the third round of answers in thirty gates, beginning from ‘the ten kinds of sustaining power’, which sets forth the practice-dharmas of the ten practices; and it carries on from the twenty gates of the first round of answers, the practice of the ten faiths. Among the three rounds the marks of practice are now broad and now brief, and yet the sequence is in perfect order — which is just what Chengguan means by ‘if one does not ruin the marks, there is no harm in a sequence’.

First, Where This Stretch Stands

In this chapter Samantabhadra answers the two hundred questions of Universal Wisdom. The manner of the answering is peculiar: one question is answered with ten, and Chengguan says that this “accomplishes the two thousand surpassing practices of Samantabhadra,” so that two hundred questions became what he calls two thousand practices. This unit is the third of those rounds — thirty questions, thirty gates, running from “the ten kinds of sustaining power” all the way to ‘the ten kinds of ocean-like wisdom that enters unsurpassed perfect awakening,’ with not one question inserted in the middle and not a single narrative turn of “at that time.” The one and only speaker throughout is Samantabhadra; those addressed are Universal Wisdom and the other bodhisattvas seated in the assembly; and the vocative “Sons of the Buddha” is a general form of address to the assembly of bodhisattvas present.

Why are these thirty gates reckoned as one set? Chengguan, in his Huayan jing shu, sets up the outline and says that these thirty gates answer the “thirty phrases of the question about the ten practices” in the earlier part of the questioning. Here a misreading must be cleared away at once: nowhere from beginning to end does the scriptural text itself produce such stage-names as “the ten practices” or “the practice of gladness.” The reason the six positions (the ten faiths, the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten grounds, and the fullness of cause and completion of fruit) may be used to outline this whole long stretch is that the ancient worthies of old divided it on the basis of the text of the six rounds of question and answer in the Dushipin jing; and Chengguan himself states the provenance plainly — he says that the ancient worthies of old all relied on the text of that scripture to outline this scripture. Therefore, in everything that follows, wherever ‘the such-and-such practice’ is spoken of, it is uniformly what Chengguan says in carrying on the outline of the ancient worthies, not what the scripture says of itself. If a reader takes the stage-names for scriptural text, the very foundation of his reading of the Avataṃsaka is set crooked.

Before the thirty gates Chengguan first records a division made by the ancient worthies: the first six gates make clear the practice of a great resolve that reaches far; the middle nine make clear the practice of the working of concentration and wisdom; and the last fifteen make clear the practice in which the virtues are complete and brought to fullness. His comment on this division is, “yet taken as perfectly interfused, this sense is not without warrant” — he does not deny it. Then he puts forward a division of his own: he does not disturb the sequence of the scriptural text, but assigns the gates to the ten practices position by position — three gates to the first practice, one each to the second and the third, two to the fourth, six to the fifth, two to each of the next four, and nine to the tenth. Added together, that comes to exactly thirty.

Why is the number of gates apportioned in this way? The reason Chengguan gives is very down-to-earth: giving stands at the beginning, and so it takes three gates; keeping the precepts and patience run through the world, and so they have only one apiece; meditative concentration and wisdom are honored and surpassing, and so they have many gates. And since the gates of wisdom are already many, the gate of prajñā is treated briefly; the remaining practices are of the next rank, and so two gates are used for each. This sentence is worth remembering, for it makes one thing clear — the “ten” of the Avataṃsaka is not a mechanical dividing into equal shares; the very number of the gates is itself saying something.

Gate 1. Sustaining Power: The First Question Is ‘What Holds Practice Up?’

When a person sets his resolve on the bodhisattva practice, the first practical question is not ‘what am I to cultivate?’ but ‘by what shall I hold up?’ This gate answers that. The ten kinds of sustaining power are the buddhas, the Dharma, sentient beings, deeds, practice, vows, the objective realm, time, good, and wisdom.

The two graphs “sustaining power” must first be understood rightly. Chengguan expressly sets three near-synonyms apart: dhāraṇī is holding all things, and what it holds is the letter and the meaning; receiving and upholding is taking in and carrying out; while sustaining power is empowering and sustaining — an empowering that comes from without and a sustaining in oneself, joined together to hold practice up. The three are not to be confounded with one another.

Now look at how the ten are assigned. Chengguan says that the first three are the three jewels, that is, the sustaining power of the objective realm; and as to why “sentient beings” should count as the jewel of the Saṅgha, his explanation is that the Saṅgha of bodhisattvas is precisely the world of sentient beings. Of the latter seven: the sustaining power of deeds is the deeds performed by the compassionate mind; the sustaining power of practice is the setting of practice rightly going; the sustaining power of vows is what holds practice; the sustaining power of the objective realm is that only where there is a realm of compassion and wisdom can practice come to anything; time is the time at which practice is set going; and the last two, good and wisdom, are blessings and wisdom. Counted in this way, the ten kinds of sustaining power are not ten scattered items but one structure of support: the three jewels are what is relied upon, compassion and vow are what set it in motion, time and realm are where it stands, and blessings and wisdom are what it comes to.

Brought home to use: when a person’s resolve fails, it is often not that he no longer wishes to practice, but that some one of the things that sustain him has been cut — either he no longer sees the buddhas and hears the Dharma, or his vow has gone slack, or the realm no longer meets him, or blessings and wisdom no longer follow. What this gate gives is a checklist for examining oneself.

Gate 2. Great Gladness of Heart: Why Practice Makes a Person Feel Wide Inside

The second gate speaks of ten things at which “the heart is greatly glad and consoled.” Notice the sentence-pattern of the text: every one of them first “thinks thus,” and then “contemplating in this way, the heart is greatly glad and consoled” — gladness is not an emotion that follows upon a piece of good fortune; it is a consolation that arises on the spot upon contemplating a certain matter.

Chengguan judges this gate to be “directly setting forth the sense of the practice of gladness,” and briefly gathers the ten into five pairs: first, serving the buddhas and making offerings to them; second, hearing the Dharma and drawing near to the good; third, the completion of the practice of the two benefits; fourth, adorning the lands and converting living beings; fifth, seeing what is hard to see and accomplishing what is hard to accomplish. He also makes a comparison that is quite interesting: what is usually spoken of as the practice of gladness is that upon seeing someone come to beg, one is doubly glad; here, on the other hand, it is because one knows that through giving one comes to see the buddhas and make offerings to them that the heart is greatly glad — and Chengguan says that the first practice is for the most part the same as the Joyful Ground.

There is a misreading to be cleared away here. The fifth item speaks of the five terrors before the mind was brought forth — the terror of not making a living, the terror of a bad name, the terror of death, the terror of falling into a bad destiny, the terror of the majesty of the great assembly — and the text says, “from the moment I brought forth the mind, all of these were left far behind.” This sentence is easily read as ‘once the mind is brought forth one is never afraid again.’ The wording of the text is in fact more precise: what it lists is these five particular terrors, and all five are fastened to the end that is “I”; once what one acts for turns wholly toward sentient beings, these five have no footing left. It is not that they are pressed down; it is that they have lost the place they stood on.

Brought home to use: this gate is for those who find practice bitter. Item by item it points out that setting one’s eyes upon the whole future and upon all sentient beings is, on the contrary, the way of living in which the heart is most at ease.

Gate 3. Entering Deeply into the Buddha-dharma: Not Understanding It, but Getting into It

The ten phrases of the third gate: the first six begin with the graph “enter,” the latter four with the graph “know.” Chengguan points out that this division is deliberate — “the two passages of realizing entry and of fully knowing are made manifest” — the first half speaks of realizing entry, the latter half of fully knowing.

Now look at what is entered. Chengguan divides it into three worlds: the first four phrases enter the world as receptacle (the first three severally enter the three ages, past, future, and present, and the fourth speaks generally of the various natures of all worlds); the next two enter the world of sentient beings (the various deeds and their fruits, and the various practices of the bodhisattvas); the latter four enter the world of the wisdom of perfect awakening (the first three entering the buddhas of the three times, and the last phrase entering the Dharma). Seen in this way, “entering deeply into the Buddha-dharma” is not entering deeply into some scripture; it is walking into all three layers of world — the receptacle, living beings, and the wisdom of perfect awakening.

The hardest is the last phrase: “though knowing that all dharmas are without any discrimination, still speaking the various dharmas, for the reason that all of them enter the Dharma realm and yet there is no place that is entered.” Here a common misreading must be cleared away: no-discrimination does not amount to being unable to speak. Chengguan’s way of explaining it is this — because all of them enter the Dharma realm, therefore there is no difference; because there is no place that is entered, therefore the various can be spoken. He further raises a question against himself: if there were some other place that is entered, then in the entering the original mark would be lost, and on the contrary the various could not be spoken. Precisely because the thing itself is of itself empty and is therefore named entering the Dharma realm, and there is no separate place to be entered, the various are not destroyed.

Brought home to use: what this gate cures are the two ailments of ‘having understood, one need not speak’ and ‘having spoken, it does not count as realization.’ The position of the text is to take neither side.

Gate 4. Reliance: Practice Must Be Set upon Good Conditions

The ten phrases of the fourth gate are all of one and the same structure — relying on some matter, one carries out the bodhisattva practice. What is relied upon is making offerings to the buddhas, taming sentient beings, drawing near to good friends, accumulating roots of good, adorning and purifying buddha-lands, not forsaking sentient beings, entering deeply into the perfections, fulfilling the vows of a bodhisattva, the measureless mind of awakening, and the awakening of all the buddhas.

Chengguan assigns this gate to the practice within the second practice (the station of benefiting), and says: the previous gate spoke of realizing entry, this gate speaks of being set upon good conditions. He adds one sentence that matters — one must rely upon all ten of these before sentient beings can be benefited; it is not a matter of relying on the precepts alone; and besides, the precepts of themselves take in the good, so what could still be lacking?

The misreading to be cleared away here is this: people readily understand “reliance” as reliance on one master or one precept. Among the ten items the text lists, the good friend occupies only one. So “reliance” here is the whole spread of ground on which practice stands, not a single point of support.

Brought home to use: examine whether your own practice is standing on only one leg. The more of the ten are missing, the less steadily the walking goes.

Gate 5. Bringing Forth the Fearless Mind: No Fear Arises before Ten Hard Matters

The fifth gate is assigned to the third practice (the station of no contrariety). Chengguan’s way of explaining it is very clear: because one has relied upon the good of restraint of a bodhisattva, therefore in ten hard matters one can “do what is hard to do and bear what is hard to bear,” and this is called bringing forth the fearless mind.

He also labels the ten phrases one by one as ten hardships: first, obstructions hard to extinguish; second, the Dharma left behind hard to guard; third, evil demons hard to subdue; fourth, body and life hard to forsake; fifth, outsiders hard to crush; sixth, the minds of beings hard to suit (the minds of sentient beings being hard to meet one by one); seventh, the great assembly hard to gladden; eighth, the eight kinds of beings hard to tame; ninth, the lower vehicle hard to leave; tenth, the higher practice hard to cultivate. Having finished the labeling he asks in return: if one gives rise to no fear before all ten of these hardships, would one still fear that sentient beings might trouble and harm one?

That very question forces out the sense of ‘the practice of no contrariety’ — what is meant by no contrariety is not holding one’s temper down; it is that when the ten hardships are already without fear, being troubled and harmed by others simply does not make it onto the list.

Brought home to use: fear is often because one has not set out the things one fears and looked at them. What this gate does is first to set the ten hardest things out in full, and then to say ‘in all of these there is nothing feared.’

Gate 6. Bringing Forth the Mind without Doubt: First Get the Will Settled

The sixth and the seventh gates Chengguan assigns to the fourth practice (the station of no flinching). The position of this gate is this: because one already does not dread hard matters, therefore in ten matters to be done one settles the will without doubt — and Chengguan says that this is the vigor of donning armor among the ten kinds of vigor. To don armor is first to take an oath and set a term, as one puts on a coat of mail before going into battle.

The sentence-pattern of the text is extremely forceful: every one of them runs, “when they bring forth this thought, it is decided and without doubt; that a doubting mind should arise — there is no such thing.” Notice those last words, “there is no such thing” — it is not saying that one ought not to doubt; it is saying that within that state of mind doubt simply cannot get a footing.

Chengguan labels the ten matters very tidily: first, gathering beings in with the ten perfections; second, serving the buddhas and making offerings to them; third, adorning the lands with light; fourth, taming and ripening over a long time; fifth, being complete in all-knowing wisdom; sixth, being a bright lamp of the world; seventh, expounding the Dharma and bringing beings to awakening; eighth, extinguishing obstructions and attaining buddhahood; ninth, leaving the deluded behind and awakening of oneself; tenth, decidedly accomplishing awakening.

A misreading in one sentence: these ten are not ten promises, they are ten places where doubt cannot get in. What most drains a practitioner is not the doing, but that half of him is doubting while he does. This gate spends the strength first on cutting doubt clean away.

Brought home to use: after the vow is made, do not go back and haggle. The haggling is itself the leak.

Gate 7. The Inconceivable: Ten Matters Hard to Fathom

The seventh gate is still within the fourth practice. Chengguan says: because the will is settled and without doubt, therefore what is done is hard to fathom, and this is called the inconceivable.

He divides the ten phrases very finely: the first three speak of the roots of good alone — the roots of good, the vows, and knowing dharmas to be like an illusion — and because both vow and wisdom accord with the nature of things, they are called inconceivable; the remaining seven are inconceivable because the provisional and the real are carried on together, and of these the first four speak in terms of practice and the latter three in terms of wisdom, wisdom being the inward clarity and practice the outward mark. Of the first four: the fourth is entering into existence while the one path is pure; the fifth is having awakened to emptiness while the myriad practices seethe up; the sixth is cultivating the cause while the fruit of the eight aspects is accomplished; the seventh is manifesting the fruit while the great functioning is not forsaken. Of the latter three: the eighth is the mutual identity of the two truths; the ninth is the three matters fused and yet not fused; the tenth is the provisional and the real identical and yet not identical.

The ninth phrase matters most: “fully knowing that mind is equal to awakening, fully knowing that awakening is equal to mind, and that mind and awakening are equal to sentient beings.” Chengguan directly fastens these three matters to mind, buddha, and sentient beings being alike without difference, as stated in the verses of Forest of Awakening Bodhisattva in the Chapter on the Praises in Verse in the Palace of Yama. This is one of the most central scriptural grounds of the whole Huayan school, and this stretch holds one place among them.

The misreading to clear away: that the three matters are without difference does not say that the three are one and the same thing. The text goes straight on to say, “and yet giving rise to no inversion of mind, no inversion of thought, no inversion of view” — if one reads “equal” as merged into one, one falls precisely into inversion. When Chengguan says that the ninth is “fused and yet not fused,” this is what he means.

The eighth phrase is ten sentences in five pairs, and the text sets them down in one breath: “fully knowing that in all dharmas the markless is the mark and the mark is the markless, that non-discrimination is discrimination and discrimination is non-discrimination, that what is not existent is existent and what is existent is not existent, that non-doing is doing and doing is non-doing, that what is not spoken is spoken and what is spoken is not spoken.” Chengguan says these ten are five pairs, that is, the five dharmas: mark, false imagining, suchness, right wisdom, and name; and that each pair may be read on two levels. Read directly in terms of the substance of the dharmas, the markless is the real and the mark is the conventional, and the two are always of themselves identical: this is the first level. Read in terms of delusion and awakening, this is the second: deluded about suchness, one takes there to be marks; awakened to marks as markless, this is suchness — this is the first pair. Deluded about the non-discriminating right wisdom, one becomes false discriminating imagination; awakened to false discrimination as the right wisdom’s non-discrimination — this is the second pair. Understanding that suchness is not an existent is truly to have suchness; if one grasps at a suchness to be had, it is not suchness — this is the third pair. If wisdom does nothing, that is the doing of right wisdom; if it has something done, it is not the doing of right wisdom — this is the fourth pair. Knowing that the name is not the thing spoken is truly the speaking of the name; if one takes the name to hold what is spoken, that is not the speaking of the name — this is the fifth pair.

To ask first: is this back-and-forth of assertion and reversal a mere tongue-twister? It is not. The point of the five pairs is not which side, mark or markless, is the right one, but that one is not permitted to halt on either side. The misreading to clear away: what a reader most often does is take only the latter half — reading “the mark is the markless” as “nothing counts at all.” The text says both ends; “the markless is the mark” is in it as well. To dismantle the side of existence and be left holding the side of emptiness is still to be on one side. Brought home to use: to judge whether one has fallen to a side, see whether one can say the sentence backwards without the heart growing anxious.

The tenth phrase is the longest, and it is “identical and yet not identical.” It begins: “in thought after thought entering the concentration of cessation, exhausting every outflow and yet not realizing the real limit, and not exhausting the roots of good that have outflows” — in thought after thought one can enter the concentration of cessation and every outflow is exhausted, and yet one does not take up the realization of that real limit, nor does one use up the roots of good that have outflows. To ask first: if the outflows are exhausted, why not realize the real limit? What Chengguan speaks of here is cutting off, and substance and function: spoken of in terms of the time of cutting off, it is exhausted and yet not exhausted; setting the nature of dharmas over against that cutting off, it is not, and yet not not. The misreading to clear away: not realizing the real limit is not an inability to reach it, but an unwillingness to halt there and rest; not exhausting the roots of good that have outflows is not the keeping back of a little affliction as seed, but the refusal to strike out at a stroke all those good deeds by which bonds are formed within the world. Brought home to use: when one has practiced to the point of feeling that the affairs of the world may all be let go, this phrase stands in the way.

Brought home to use: whoever grows large-hearted upon reading that ‘mind, buddha, and sentient beings are three without difference’ must read the latter half along with it.

Gate 8. Skillful Secret Speech: A Secret That Can Be Spoken Aloud

The six gates from the eighth through the thirteenth Chengguan assigns to the fifth practice (the station of no folly and disorder), and divides them into three sections: the first two gates are the practice of no folly; the next two are the practice of no disorder; the last two make clear in both respects the merits brought forth by the two preceding sections. He further matches these three sections with three kinds of meditation — the meditation that benefits sentient beings, the meditation of abiding in the delight of the true Dharma, and the meditation that brings forth merits.

This gate stands at the head of the six, and what it speaks of is that outward speech is not foolish. Chengguan expressly sets out five senses of “secret speech”: first, speaking a profound and secret dharma; second, speaking all dharmas in a single utterance; third, near and yet not heard, and far and yet without partition (near and yet not heard, as Śāriputra sat in the assembly; far and yet without partition, as Maudgalyāyana went in search of the voice); fourth, the words near while the sense is far, or the words far while the sense is near (as in saying that the three vehicles are ultimate, or in saying that to get fire in cold weather is called nirvāṇa — this sense is also called hiding the real and speaking the provisional); fifth, speaking a different dharma with different words. And he says that among the ten phrases of the text the first phrase is complete in all five senses, because it is the general one and is the whole of the teaching.

The misreading to clear away: “secret speech” is not a code, and it is not a refusal to let people understand. The five senses above are each a road of its own: a profound and secret dharma; a single utterance gathering all dharmas; the near and the far in hearing; the near and the far between words and sense (this being the hiding of the real and speaking of the provisional); speaking a different dharma with different words — all are the skilful bestowing of the speaker, each hearer receiving in their own measure, and not one of them is a concealing.

Taking the ten phrases one by one, one can see how the “secret” comes to rest upon actual matters. The first is within all the buddhas’ scriptures — this is the general phrase, and it was said above to be complete in all five senses, because the whole of the teaching lies within it. The second is within every place of taking birth — where a bodhisattva manifests the taking of birth, that birth is itself a stretch of Dharma-preaching. The third is within all the bodhisattvas’ superknowledges and transformations and their attaining of perfect awakening — displaying the superknowledges and showing the attaining of buddhahood are alike words beyond words. The fourth is within the deeds and retributions of all sentient beings — one deed, and yet the retribution shallow or deep; that it can be spoken and yet not fixed is the secret. The fifth is within the defilement and purity that sentient beings give rise to — Fazang says it plainly here: skillfully to speak of sentient beings as defiled while undefiled, and to call this stain; as undefiled while defiled, and to call this purity. One and the same matter, spoken with the grain, is stain; spoken against it, is purity; and so it is secret. The sixth is within the gate of ultimate unobstructedness in all dharmas — the speaking of all within one. The seventh is within the whole of space, where in place after place worlds form or decay with no gap between — that within decay there is formation is the secret.

The eighth is within the whole dharma-realm, all ten directions, down to the most minute place, where everywhere the Tathāgata displays first birth and on to buddhahood and entry into parinirvāṇa, filling the dharma-realm and each seen distinctly. To ask first: if the Buddha has already entered nirvāṇa, how is he everywhere newly born? The answer is in “filling the dharma-realm and each seen distinctly” — universally he manifests birth and entry into extinction, and the one who sees stands at this secret place and speaks; therefore it is secret speech.

The ninth and the tenth phrases carry the weight of this gate. The ninth: “seeing that all sentient beings are evenly nirvāṇa and without alteration, and yet not forsaking the great vow, so that the vow of omniscience, not yet fulfilled, may be brought to fulfillment.” Sentient beings are of themselves even, which is nirvāṇa, and there is no alteration to speak of; by that reasoning, since there is none to be delivered, the great vow ought to rest — and yet it does not rest. Fazang judges this phrase to be skillful secrecy: understanding that sentient beings are nirvāṇa itself and need not be extinguished again, and yet still not forsaking the great vow to gather beings in. The tenth: “though knowing that no dharma is awakened to through another, yet not parting from good friends.” Awakening is not given by another — that is the definitive sense; and yet one does not on that account leave the good friends, but rather “grows the more reverent toward the Tathāgata.” The text then sets out four samenesses — the same doing, the same substance and nature, the same going forth, the same accomplishing: with the good friend, what is done is one doing, the substance is one substance, the going forth is one going forth, the accomplishing is one accomplishing.

The misreading to clear away: these two phrases are the ones most easily taken up as a warrant for idleness. “Sentient beings are of themselves nirvāṇa” does not lead to “there is no need to deliver them”; “not awakened to through another” does not lead to “there is no need to draw near good friends.” The sentence-pattern of the two is exactly the same: first the ultimate and definitive sense is set up, and then with “and yet not forsaking” the practice is brought back in. Brought home to use: whenever one hears a lofty principle and there floats up the thought “then I need not do such and such,” look first at the pattern of this gate — the real secret is that the definitive sense and the practice can be spoken in one breath.

Brought home to use: one who expounds the Dharma, if he fears that he is speaking shallowly, may look at the fourth sense — words near and sense far is also secret speech.

Gate 9. The Wisdom of Skillful Discernment: Inward Wisdom Is Not Foolish

The ninth gate is paired with the one before it. Chengguan’s statement is extremely brief: outward speech being already hidden, and inward wisdom being further skillful, therefore in benefiting sentient beings there is no folly or darkness.

The ten phrases of the text are all “the wisdom of skillful discernment that enters …”: entering lands, entering the dwelling places of sentient beings, entering mental conduct, entering the faculties, entering deeds and their fruits, entering the practices of the śrāvakas, entering the practices of the pratyekabuddhas, entering the practices of the bodhisattvas, entering the dharmas of the world, entering the dharmas of a buddha.

Here it is worth stopping a moment: these ten cover place, sentient beings, mind, faculties, and deeds, and then the practices of the three vehicles and the dharmas both worldly and world-transcending. In other words, what skillful discernment knows is of three kinds: places and sentient beings (where to convert, whom to convert), the practices of the three vehicles (where to set those converted), and the dharmas of the world and of the Buddha (by what dharma to convert) — Fazang matches the ten phrases to these four questions. Discernment here is not the discerning of deluded imagining; it is knowing where the person in front of you is standing and by what dharma they are to be converted.

The misreading to clear away: the seventh gate has only just spoken of “no discrimination,” and here “the wisdom of skillful discernment” is set up, which looks like a contradiction. The two are of different stations — no discrimination speaks of the substance that is realized, skillful discernment of the functioning that converts others. There being no discrimination in the substance, there is no harm in discerning in the functioning; and this is exactly the carrying on of both the provisional and the real that Chengguan speaks of again and again.

Brought home to use: real compassion must first see accurately. Compassion that does not see accurately often turns into imposition.

Gate 10. Entering Samādhi: Taking Ten Kinds of Object and Entering Concentration

Of the tenth and the eleventh gates Chengguan says that they are “the practice of no disorder, all of them the substance of concentration.” This gate makes clear the entering of samādhi, showing that the places taken as object and the rest are not the same; the next gate makes clear universal entering, and there the touching of one kind pervades all.

The objects of the ten phrases of the text: all the worlds, the bodies of all sentient beings, all dharmas, seeing all the buddhas, abiding in all the kalpas, rising from samādhi and manifesting an inconceivable body, the bodies of all the buddhas, awakening to the equality of all sentient beings, within a single thought entering the samādhi-wisdom of all bodhisattvas, and within a single thought with unobstructed wisdom accomplishing the practices and vows of all bodhisattvas.

Chengguan’s observation is very fine: though the objects of these ten gates are each different, all ten run through everything; and the first five are matters of one layer, while the latter five are an interpenetrating perfect fusion; the ninth and tenth phrases are both a being one and yet many.

The misreading to clear away: it is easy to read samādhi as ‘entering concentration and attending to nothing.’ Look at the tenth phrase — within a single thought, with unobstructed wisdom, accomplishing the practices and vows of all bodhisattvas without rest, and this is still within samādhi. Concentration and practice are not here two stretches, one before and one after.

Brought home to use: concentration is not leaving the object behind; it is being with the object in another manner.

Gate 11. Universal Entering: To Enter One Kind Is to Pervade All

The eleventh gate stands over against the one before it. Chengguan likens it to the ten universals of the Lesser Vehicle, saying that this makes samādhi gradually broader still; and he points out that the previous gate spoke of being able to enter all bodies (such as the body of a youth and the rest), which need not, however, be at one and the same time; whereas this gate is that upon entering one kind one pervades all, as when Ocean of Wisdom Bodhisattva first came and all at once everything was water.

What the ten phrases of the text universally enter is: sentient beings, lands, the various marks of the world, the calamity of fire, the calamity of water, the buddhas, adornment, the boundless body of merit of the Tathāgata, all the various expoundings of the Dharma, and all the various offerings to the tathāgatas.

The misreading to clear away: this gate is easily read as a display of spiritual penetrations. Its weight lies in “upon entering one kind, pervading all” — it is not doing ten things at once, but doing one thing with the other ten all present within it. This is the root way of reading the Avataṃsaka, and not a matter of how great an ability is.

Brought home to use: there is no need to covet quantity. Carry one thing through to the end, and the rest is naturally inside it.

Gate 12. Gates of Liberation: Unobstructedness in Functioning

The twelfth and the thirteenth gates Chengguan assigns to the meditation that brings forth merits. This gate makes clear that functioning is unobstructed, and so it is called liberation; the next gate is that in the objective realm there is no blockage, and so it is called spiritual penetration.

Chengguan here makes a distinction on the side of Sanskrit: the liberation here is in Sanskrit vimokṣa, which means surpassing liberation, pointing to a surpassing functioning, and is not the eight liberations accomplished on the basis of meditative concentration. This is to be remembered, because in the fifteenth gate there is another “liberation,” and its Sanskrit is different.

The ten phrases of the text are all a mutual containing of body and realm: one body pervading all the worlds; manifesting measureless forms in all the worlds; making all the worlds enter one buddha-land; universally empowering the whole realm of sentient beings; filling all the worlds with the adorned bodies of the buddhas; seeing all the worlds within one’s own body; within a single thought going to all the worlds; within a single world manifesting the appearing in the world of all the tathāgatas; one body filling the whole Dharma realm; within a single thought manifesting the sporting spiritual penetrations of all the buddhas.

The misreading to clear away: these ten phrases are not a list of ten spiritual penetrations; they are ten sides of “unobstructedness” — the large entering the small, the small containing the large, one being many, many being one.

Brought home to use: if on reading “one body fills the whole Dharma realm” one feels it too far from oneself, one may go back to the sixth phrase — seeing all the worlds within one’s own body. The place of entry is in fact just this body.

Gate 13. Spiritual Penetrations: No Blockage in the Objective Realm

For the thirteenth gate Chengguan makes his comparison with the six penetrations drawn forth by the four meditations: if the first four of these ten are gathered under the six penetrations, they can be matched; the next five are the penetration of the divine faculty; the last is the exhaustion of the outflows, for the reason that awakening is accomplished. He also says that because the stations differ, these ten penetrations are slightly different from the ten penetrations spoken of in another place.

The ten phrases of the text all conclude with “the penetration of the wisdom of skillful means”: recollecting former lives, the divine ear without obstruction, knowing the mental conduct of others, contemplating with the divine eye, manifesting great spiritual power according to the mind, one body universally manifesting measureless worlds, within a single thought entering everywhere into unspeakable worlds, bringing forth articles of adornment and adorning worlds, manifesting unspeakable transformation bodies, and, according to the minds of sentient beings, manifesting the accomplishing of perfect awakening in unspeakable worlds.

The misreading to clear away: the four words “the wisdom of skillful means” appended at the end of every phrase are the key. Spiritual penetration here is not an ability belonging to the fruit of one’s deeds; it is skillful means — an instrument set up for the sake of delivering beings. The last phrase is plainest of all: even the manifesting of the accomplishing of perfect awakening is manifested according to the minds of sentient beings.

Brought home to use: to judge whether a spiritual penetration is genuine, do not look at how wonderful it is; look at whether it is a skillful means for delivering beings.

Gate 14. Clarity: The Substance of Prajñā Appearing as Ten Kinds of Clarity of Wisdom

The fourteenth and the fifteenth gates Chengguan assigns to the sixth practice (the station of good manifesting). This gate directly displays the substance of practice, which is prajñā, and so it is called clarity of wisdom; the next gate makes clear the leaving behind of the obstruction to wisdom, and so it is called liberation. He also says that these are all a wisdom in which the provisional and the real are unobstructed, and so it is called skillful.

Chengguan divides the ten phrases into two sections: the first seven speak of a single wisdom alone, the latter three are the carrying on of both. Of the first seven, the first three are in terms of those converted (deeds and their fruits, the quiescence of the realm, the one mark of what is taken as object), and the next three in terms of the one who converts (the subtle sound heard everywhere, the destroying of defiled attachment, the manifesting of the taking or not taking of birth), each of these sets going first by way of phenomena, next by way of principle, and last by way of returning phenomena to principle; the seventh leaves behind the thought of a grasper and a grasped, and gathers all back into prajñā. Of the latter three, the eighth is a speaking that is no speaking and an accomplishing that is no accomplishing; the ninth is the clarity of wisdom that gives rise to birth from no-birth; the tenth is the clarity of wisdom of teaching in evenness.

The ninth phrase is a long one, and the text itself gives it a name — the skillful clarity of wisdom of dependent origination. Chengguan divides it into three parts: first the direct setting forth; next the raising and explaining at “why is this”; last the concluding of the name at “this is called.” And within the direct setting forth there are again two layers: first the saying that there is no condition (the true mind of sentient beings according with principle, not to be got at; and if there were no condition there would be nothing converted), and then, from “and yet they know” onward, the saying that the true mind accords with conditions and does not destroy dependent origination, and that therefore there is after all something converted. He further matches that long string of “knowing causes, knowing conditions, knowing things, knowing realms, knowing courses, knowing arising, knowing ceasing” one by one with the twelvefold dependent origination — causes being ignorance and the rest, conditions being the deeds of the formative activities, things being consciousness, name-and-form, and so on, realms being contact, feeling, and the objects of the senses, courses being craving and grasping in the present, arising being the link of birth, and ceasing being aging-and-death.

That long string of “knowings” numbers thirty-one. The first seven have been matched above with the twelvefold dependent origination, and Chengguan gives a place to the remaining twenty-four as well; taken group by group, the frame becomes clear.

The eighth is “knowing speech”: Chengguan says this one is spoken generally in terms of according with the conventional, because what arises from conditions is not apart from the three times. It stands as a part of its own and closes off the first seven — the twelve links having been set out, the very setting out of them is itself an according with convention.

From “knowing delusion” to “knowing non-attachment” are twelve phrases in six pairs, which Chengguan judges to be a general knowing of defilement and purity, delusion and awakening. Delusion and freedom from delusion are the first pair; inversion and freedom from inversion the second; defilement and purity the third — deluded about principle, one is inverted and defiled; awakened, each is the reverse. Birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are the fourth pair; what can be got at and what cannot the fifth; grasping and non-grasping the sixth. Chengguan says that according with convention both sides may be got at, while in the ultimate sense neither side may be got at; and that “got at and not got at” is spoken in terms of principle, while “grasping and non-grasping” is spoken in terms of wisdom. To ask first: if in the ultimate sense neither side can be got at, why must they still be known pair by pair? Because the bodhisattva must be able to recognize, within conventional truth, which side a being stands on, before there is any place to begin.

From “knowing abiding” to “knowing taming” are eleven phrases, and here Chengguan turns to the knowing of the movements of mind. Abiding is the original nature; stirring is the adventitious dust. To follow the adventitious dust is to go and not return; to see the original nature is to return to the source and turn back to the root. Going and returning are both still the arising of mind; only when returning and abiding are both gone is there the stillness of not arising. And when mind arises, all goods are lost and ruined; when it does not arise, one goes forth from the coverings and bonds and knows quiescently upon contact with objects — and this is ripening: “knowing loss and ruin,” “knowing going forth,” “knowing ripening” fall exactly here. Last, “knowing the faculties, knowing taming” is a further knowing of capacity: spoken of one’s own faculties, that the six faculties are not dragged along by their objects is taming.

The misreading to clear away: the thirty-one “knowings” are not a list of thirty-one marvels. They are a single line: first knowing the twelve links of dependent origination; then knowing that the words in which they are spoken are still an according with convention; then knowing on which side of the six pairs of defilement and purity, delusion and awakening, a being stands; then knowing whether that mind abides or stirs, goes or returns, arises or does not arise; and last knowing how far this person’s faculties are ripened and whether he can be tamed. Only when the knowing reaches this last step does it join to the text’s own words, “teaching and converting in the various ways that answer to each.” Brought home to use: to wish to help someone without knowing which square he is in leaves one able to help only out of one’s own habit.

The misreading to clear away: this gate is most easily read as a string of marvelous knowings and seeings. In fact its frame is a single sentence — knowing that there is no one to be delivered, and yet delivering. The text answers for itself why this is possible: a bodhisattva brings forth the mind only for the sake of benefiting sentient beings, and has nothing else for which he acts.

Brought home to use: if the bringing forth of the mind still has some other purpose mixed into it, it cannot hold up ‘practicing while carrying out nothing at all.’

Gate 15. Liberation: Freedom from the Two Obstructions

The “liberation” of the fifteenth gate has the same name as that of the twelfth but a different sense. Chengguan says it flatly: here the Sanskrit is vimukti, meaning liberation, and it is not the same as the earlier one. The earlier was the surpassingness of functioning; this is freedom from bondage.

He divides the ten phrases: the first four are freedom from the three obstructions of the ordinary person (the afflictions, wrong views, the various graspings, and the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields), for the reason that grasping increased becomes deeds; the latter six are freedom from the obstruction to wisdom; and of those latter six, the first phrase sets aside the inferior (surpassing the two vehicles), while the rest all display the surpassing.

Of the latter six, the first sets aside the inferior, and so the remaining five are the surpassing displayed by degrees, each wider than the last, and each must be looked at in turn.

The sixth is the liberation of the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas. Forbearance here is not endurance; it is that the mind can come to rest — resting upon the fact that dharmas are from the first unarisen, without alarm and without retreat. What the first four are freed from is the afflictions, wrong views, the various graspings, and the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, and these are still “a something to be freed from”; at this phrase, what is freed from is the very notion of arising.

The seventh is the liberation of freedom from attachment with respect to all worlds, all lands, all sentient beings, and all dharmas. The former phrase rested in non-arising; this one puts non-arising to use: to world, to land, to beings, to dharmas — in none of the four does one stick. To ask first: is not sticking the same as not caring? The text has answered elsewhere — not seeing that there is any sentient being, and yet teaching, taming, and expounding the Dharma. Freedom from attachment is not sticking; it is not a not-doing.

The eighth is the liberation of boundless abiding. Since one does not stick in the four, what is dwelt in has no boundary to speak of. This phrase turns the “freedom from” of the former phrase into a positive saying: it is not that there is nowhere to abide, but that the abiding has no limit.

The ninth is the liberation of bringing forth all the bodhisattva practices and entering the Tathāgata’s ground of non-discrimination. This phrase speaks of practice and ground together: on one side bringing forth all the bodhisattva practices, on the other entering the Tathāgata’s ground of non-discrimination. Practice discriminates, the ground does not, and the two are at once; therefore it is liberation and not an indulging.

The tenth is the liberation of being able, within a single thought, to know fully all three times. This is the last barrier, that of time. The preceding nine have gone on freeing until the ground of non-discrimination; this one says that the three times are known entire within one thought — not that the three times are compressed into a point, but that one is not barred by the length or shortness of time.

The misreading to clear away: these five are often read wholesale as “the state getting higher and higher.” See clearly what each is freed from: the sixth, the notion of arising; the seventh, sticking; the eighth, the bound of a dwelling place; the ninth, the separation of practice from ground; the tenth, the separation of times. When Chengguan says that the first four are freedom from the ordinary person’s three obstructions and the latter six from the obstruction to wisdom, this is exactly that order — what is freed from before is on the side of the afflictions, what is freed from after is on the side of the knowable. Brought home to use: one who feels that he “has already let go” may take these five and put them as five questions, one at a time.

The misreading to clear away: one and the same Chinese word appearing twice within one stretch and pointing to different things is very common in the scriptures translated into Chinese. If a reader does not look into it, he will mix the ten phrases of the twelfth gate and the ten phrases of the fifteenth into a single heap. The way to tell them apart is not to look up the Sanskrit but to look at the context — every phrase of the twelfth gate speaks of ‘pervading, manifesting, filling,’ and that is functioning; every phrase of the fifteenth speaks of ‘being freed from what,’ and that is bondage.

Brought home to use: practitioners often say ‘I want liberation,’ and should first ask which kind is wanted. Unobstructedness in functioning and the cutting off of bondage are two different labors.

Gate 16. Gardens and Groves: Taking the Place You Least Want to Go as a Garden

The sixteenth and the seventeenth gates Chengguan assigns to the seventh practice (the station of no attachment), and says that this gate makes clear a roaming ground where the feelings are given free rein and the next makes clear a resting place of ease and delight, and that both run through the two benefits, being provisional and real skillful means with nothing grasped at.

The force of this gate lies wholly in its first phrase: “birth-and-death is the garden of a bodhisattva, for the reason that there is nothing he wearies of and forsakes.” A garden is where people of the world roam and take their pleasure, and yet the text sets birth-and-death in that place. The nine phrases that follow use the same stroke: teaching sentient beings, abiding in all the kalpas, purified worlds, the palaces of all the demons, contemplating the dharma one has heard, the six perfections and the four means of gathering and the thirty-seven factors of the path, the ten powers and the four fearlessnesses and the eighteen exclusive dharmas, manifesting majestic power and spiritual penetrations, and within a single thought universally manifesting the accomplishing of perfect awakening.

The misreading to clear away: this is not saying that birth-and-death is fine, nor is it making merry in the midst of suffering. Every phrase has a reason appended to it — “for the reason that there is nothing he wearies of and forsakes,” “for the reason that he does not tire,” “for the reason that he takes up and holds the great practices.” What makes a garden a garden is not the circumstance but that in it there is nothing wearied of and forsaken. The fifth phrase, “the palaces of all the demons are the garden of a bodhisattva, for the reason that he subdues that host of demons,” is plainest of all: he goes there because there is work to do.

Brought home to use: to judge whether one has “no attachment,” a ready measure is this — the place you least wish to go, can you stay there?

Gate 17. Palaces: The Place Where One Sets One’s Body

The seventeenth gate is set over against the one before: a garden is a roaming ground, a palace a resting place. The ten phrases begin with the mind of awakening and end with receiving the prediction sealed by the anointing of the king of all-knowing wisdom.

Chengguan here points out only one thing, but points it out accurately: the “meditative concentration of the four dwellings of Brahmā” among the ten phrases is the four measureless minds, and is also the cause of the realm of form; and he cites the Dushipin jing as witness, saying that that scripture has “cultivating the four practices of Brahmā, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.”

The way the text arranges them is worth looking at: the mind of awakening (never forgotten and lost), the ten courses of good deeds (converting the realm of desire), the four dwellings of Brahmā (converting the realm of form), birth among the gods of the Pure Abodes (undefiled by afflictions), birth in the formless realm (causing beings to leave the difficult conditions), birth in a defiled world (causing beings to cut off afflictions), dwelling manifestly amid the wives and retinue of the inner palace (bringing to accomplishment those who practiced together), dwelling manifestly as a wheel-turning king, a world-guarding king, Śakra, or Brahmā (taming those whose minds are set on mastery), abiding in the bodhisattva practice and sporting in spiritual penetrations, and receiving the prediction sealed by the anointing of the king of all-knowing wisdom. From the three realms to the station of a king to the inner palace, all of it counts as a palace.

The misreading to clear away: these ten phrases are not saying that a bodhisattva enjoys good fortune. Beneath the seventh phrase, “dwelling manifestly amid the wives and retinue of the inner palace,” the reason appended is “for the reason that he brings to accomplishment the sentient beings who practiced together with him in former times” — the place one is in is for the sake of the people who are there.

Brought home to use: there is no need to loathe and cast off the circumstances one is now in. Ask one question — ‘for whose accomplishment am I here?’ — and the circumstance turns from a cage into a palace.

Gate 18. What Is Delighted In: What the Inward Mind Takes Joy In

The eighteenth and the nineteenth gates Chengguan assigns to the eighth practice (the station of what is hard to obtain). He says that this gate is the vowing and delighting of the inward mind, and that the vow is the substance of practice; being already in a palace, one’s feelings naturally take joy in surpassing delights.

The ten things delighted in: right mindfulness, wisdom, going to the presence of the buddhas, the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, the gates of samādhi, dhāraṇī, unobstructed eloquence, accomplishing perfect awakening, and turning the wheel of the Dharma. Every phrase carries its reason; for instance, delighting in dhāraṇī is “for the reason that he holds the Dharma without forgetting and hands it on to sentient beings” — note the last words: the delight of holding all things does not stop at one’s own remembering.

The misreading to clear away: “what is delighted in” is not a matter of interest or taste. It is the source of the motive force of practice. Chengguan says “the vow is the substance of practice,” which means: what a person truly delights in is what his practice grows up to be.

Brought home to use: do not only examine what you have done; examine also what you delight in. The former can be forced; the latter cannot.

Gate 19. Adornment: Adorning the Vow with a Multitude of Virtues

The nineteenth gate is paired with the one before it. Chengguan says: the previous gate was the vowing and delighting of the inward mind; this gate is the outward furnishings of the adornment of virtue, adorning that vow with a multitude of virtues.

The ten adornments are: power, fearlessness, meaning, the Dharma, the vow, practice, the land, the universal sound, sustaining power, and transformation. Every one of them carries its reason — as the adornment of meaning is “for the reason that he speaks meanings that cannot be spoken and does not exhaust them,” and the adornment of the Dharma is “for the reason that he contemplates and expounds the eighty-four thousand collections of Dharma without forgetting or losing them.”

The misreading to clear away: adornment is easily read as an outward splendor. Not one of the ten here is outward — power, fearlessness, meaning, and the Dharma are all virtues. The sense of “adornment” here is close to ‘making a thing complete and manifest.’ The ninth, “the adornment of sustaining power,” looks back to the first gate of this whole stretch, which shows that the thirty gates are not each of them standing alone.

Brought home to use: to make your vow stand firm, the way is not to make the vow over and over, but to fill in these ten one item at a time.

Gate 20. Bringing Forth the Unmoving Mind: Outward Conditions Cannot Move It

The twentieth and the twenty-first gates Chengguan assigns to the ninth practice (the station of the good dharma), and says that this gate makes clear that outward conditions do not move one and the next makes clear that the inward mind does not forsake; he further says that this gate makes clear firmness of mind and the next makes clear entering deeply, and that both carry the sense of “power.”

Chengguan makes one fine division upon the ten phrases: the second and the ninth are the power of deliberating and choosing, and the rest are all the power of repeated cultivation. He also counts one by one the kinds of faith listed in the eighth phrase — that phrase of the text lists faith that has a root, faith that is unmuddied, pure faith, utterly pure faith, faith free of defilement, faith that is clear through, faith that reveres and makes offerings to all the buddhas, faith that does not turn back, faith that cannot be exhausted, faith that none can destroy, and faith of great gladness and exultation — and Chengguan counts eleven of them, giving a reason for each: the first is that faith can give birth to the fruit of buddhahood; the second is unmixed, because it is not muddied by unbelief; the third is pure, because it is without afflictions; the fourth is without subtle stirrings of thought; the fifth is apart from the defilement of the knowable; the sixth penetrates the source of phenomena; the seventh tends toward the station of the fruit; the eighth is firm in its own portion; the ninth is inexhaustible in virtue; the tenth is unmoved by conditions; the eleventh realizes suchness.

The misreading to clear away: an unmoving mind is not numbness. Look at the fifth phrase — “universally gathering in sentient beings without choosing between enemy and kin” — this is being moved to the widest extent while the mind does not shift; it is not a not-moving.

Brought home to use: the distinction between the power of deliberating and choosing and the power of repeated cultivation is very practical. Some kinds of unmovingness must come by thinking a thing through (deliberating and choosing); some can come only by doing it over and over until it is familiar (repeated cultivation). Use the wrong method, and the labor is spent for nothing.

Gate 21. The Deep and Great Mind Not Forsaken: The Inward Mind Does Not Let Go

The twenty-first gate is paired with the one before it. Chengguan’s way of explaining it is finished in a sentence: because one is unmoved, therefore one can go to the very end of both principle and phenomena; principle being deep and phenomena being broad, it is called “deep and great.”

All ten phrases begin with “not forsaking”: not forsaking the bringing to fulfillment of the awakening of the buddhas, not forsaking the teaching and taming of sentient beings, not forsaking the not cutting off of the family and nature of the buddhas, not forsaking the drawing near to good friends, not forsaking the making of offerings to the buddhas, not forsaking the single-minded seeking of the dharmas of merit of the Great Vehicle, not forsaking the practice of pure conduct and the guarding of the pure precepts, not forsaking the drawing near to bodhisattvas, not forsaking the seeking of the skillful means by which the dharmas of a buddha are guarded and upheld, not forsaking the fulfilling of the practices and vows of a bodhisattva and the gathering of the dharmas of the buddhas.

The misreading to clear away: if the two words “deep and great” are read as adjectives (a very deep and very great mind), Chengguan’s division is lost. Deep points to principle and great points to phenomena — this mind is deep and great precisely because it holds on to both ends, principle and phenomena, at once.

Brought home to use: the previous gate said that outward conditions cannot move one; this gate says that one does not oneself let go. These two are to be examined separately: for many people, the outward conditions have not moved and they have let go first.

Gate 22. Contemplation with Wisdom: The First of the Nine Gates of the Tenth Practice

From the twenty-second gate on there are nine gates in all, which Chengguan assigns to the tenth practice (the station of the real), and he labels these nine gates as nine wisdoms: the wisdom of contemplation, the wisdom of expounding the Dharma, the wisdom of leaving obstruction behind, the wisdom of deciding upon examination, the wisdom of shining through, the wisdom without equal, the wisdom that is not inferior, the wisdom that towers up, and the wisdom deep and vast. This is the longest set in the whole stretch, and also the set Chengguan divides most tidily.

The first is the wisdom of contemplation. Chengguan says: precisely because one does not forsake the deep and great, therefore one is able to contemplate. He also notices one detail — that in the earlier part of the questioning only “contemplation” was said and the two graphs “with wisdom” had dropped out, and that by this passage of the answer the lack can be made good.

The ten things contemplated: skillfully discriminating and proclaiming all dharmas, all the roots of good of the three times, the mastered transformations of the practices of the bodhisattvas, the gates of the meaning of the dharmas, the majestic power of the buddhas, the gates of dhāraṇī, universally proclaiming the true Dharma in all the worlds, entering the whole Dharma realm, all that is inconceivable in the ten directions, and the light of the wisdom of all the dharmas of a buddha being without obstruction.

The misreading to clear away: the “contemplation” here is not the inward looking of sitting in meditation. Among the ten phrases there is expounding the Dharma, there is entering the Dharma realm, there is knowing the majestic power of the buddhas — it is looking at everything with wisdom in hand, not one particular method of practice.

Brought home to use: the practice of the real begins from contemplation. To make no mistake in the matter at hand, one must first see accurately; and the precondition of seeing accurately is the not forsaking of the gate before.

Gate 23. Expounding the Dharma: From Inward Contemplation to Outward Speaking

The second is the wisdom of expounding the Dharma. Chengguan says: because one is able to contemplate inwardly, therefore one is able to speak outwardly. The sequence cannot be inverted.

He divides the ten phrases into two sections, the real and the conventional: the first two speak of the conventional (all arising from conditions, all being like an illusion), the latter eight speak of the real, and he labels the sense of each: first, there is no duality to be disputed; second, the substance and its virtue are alike broad; third, the mark is deep and far; fourth, the substance is firm and sharp; fifth, suchness is unmoved; sixth, the substance cuts off the hundred negations; seventh, bound within, it is undefiled; eighth, substance and mark are of one flavor.

The misreading to clear away: all ten phrases begin with “expounding that all dharmas,” and are easily taken for ten slogans. In truth it is a table of the sequence of expounding the Dharma — beginning from the two conventional phrases easiest to take hold of, arising from conditions and being like an illusion, and running all the way to “all abide in one meaning and are accomplished in their original nature.”

Brought home to use: which phrase to give a person first when teaching him has already been set in order by this gate. Skip the first two phrases and go straight to “accomplished in their original nature,” and the hearer cannot catch it.

Gate 24. Purity: Leaving the Obstruction to Wisdom Behind

The third is the wisdom of leaving obstruction behind. Chengguan says that what this gate leaves behind is the obstruction to wisdom, and points out that in the Jin translation this gate is named “without defilement”; he further says that though both are called purity, what is purified is not the same — this is a reminder to the reader not to confound the purity here with purity elsewhere. He also compares these ten phrases with the “seven purities,” saying that the opening out and the drawing together differ and that this is easily seen in the text, and that the discussion of the seven purities is at the beginning of the fifth ground.

The ten phrases are: the deep mind, cutting off doubt, leaving views behind, the objective realm, seeking all-knowing wisdom, eloquence, fearlessness, abiding in the wisdom of all bodhisattvas, receiving the disciplines of all bodhisattvas, and being complete in the accomplishing of unsurpassed awakening, the thirty-two marks of a hundredfold merit, the white and pure dharmas, and all the roots of good.

The misreading to clear away: purity here is not a cleanness in the moral sense; it is the absence of obstruction in wisdom. The second phrase, “purity of cutting off doubt,” and the third, “purity of leaving views behind,” make this plainest of all — what is purified is doubt and view.

Brought home to use: one who feels that his practice is not pure may first ask whether it is the obstruction of the afflictions or the obstruction to what is knowable. What this gate cures is the latter.

Gate 25. The Seal: Deciding and Sealing

The fourth is the wisdom of deciding upon examination. Chengguan says it very clearly: with pure wisdom one decides and seals all dharmas, and therefore it is called a seal; in the Jin translation this gate is named “the seal of wisdom”; and the benefit concluded at the end is likewise the seal of wisdom, just as with the three seals of the Dharma.

He labels the ten seals one by one as ten decisions: first, when the circumstance of suffering is peacefully received, the wisdom of forbearance does not move; second, when others do not benefit one, the practice of forbearance is decided; third, deep faith and forbearance toward the Buddha-dharma are decided (that is, the forbearance that examines dharmas); fourth, deciding to attain buddhahood and deliver beings; fifth, deciding to know that the wisdom of a buddha is boundless; sixth, deciding to long for the fruit of buddhahood without turning back; seventh, deciding to take no thought for body or life so as to draw near to persons and to the Dharma; eighth, deciding to deliver those who have already entered the Great Vehicle; ninth, deciding to deliver evenly; tenth, deciding to be of one substance with the buddhas, the cause full and the fruit complete.

The misreading to clear away: a “seal” is not a token of certification, nor is it some kind of experience. Look at the first seal — knowing the three kinds of suffering and single-mindedly seeking the Buddha-dharma without giving rise to indolence, not startled and not fearful, not alarmed and not terrified. This is the mind not turning in the very worst circumstance, and so it is called a seal: like a seal sealing a thing, it cannot be altered.

Brought home to use: the quickest way to examine whether one has these ten seals is to look at the second seal — when one is abused with evil words and harmed with knives and staves, is one still upon the mind of a bodhisattva?

Gate 26. The Shining of the Light of Wisdom: Shining Through Unobstructed

The fifth is the wisdom of shining through. Chengguan passes over it in a sentence: because of the sealing that went before, therefore the shining through is unobstructed, and the ten phrases are easily understood.

The ten phrases are: knowing that one will decidedly accomplish perfect awakening, seeing all the buddhas, seeing sentient beings dying here and being born there, understanding the gates of Dharma of all the scriptures, relying on good friends to bring forth the mind of awakening and gather roots of good, manifesting all the buddhas, teaching sentient beings and causing them to abide on the ground of the Tathāgata, expounding inconceivable and vast gates of Dharma, skillfully knowing the spiritual penetrations and majestic power of the buddhas, and fulfilling all the perfections.

The misreading to clear away: the first phrase, “the shining of the light of wisdom that fully knows that he himself will decidedly accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening,” is not self-conceit. What it follows upon is precisely the seal of the gate before — the sealing being already decided, this matter turns from a wish into a fact that is shone upon and seen. Without the ten seals of the previous gate, this phrase would be a deluded imagining.

Brought home to use: this gate makes one thing clear — certainty is shone out, not thought out. Certainty cannot be arrived at by thinking; one can only walk up gate by gate.

Gate 27. Abidings without Equal: Abiding in Both Phenomena and Principle

The sixth is the wisdom without equal. Chengguan says: because of the shining through that went before, therefore one does not abide partially on one side but is able to abide in both phenomena and principle, and so it is named as having no equal. He further says that all ten phrases are the carrying on of both the provisional and the real, being either the functioning that is quiescence itself or the quiescence that is functioning itself.

The syntax of the ten phrases is nearly the same throughout, all of them “though … yet …”: though contemplating the true limit, yet not realizing it; planting roots of good equal to the Dharma realm, yet without grasping; practicing the bodhisattva practice and knowing that it is like a transformation, yet giving rise to no doubt about the Buddha-dharma; though leaving deluded imaginings behind, yet still able to bring the mind to bear and not to weary; grasping at nothing among all dharmas, yet not realizing nirvāṇa; knowing that all kalpas are themselves no-kalpa, yet truly speaking the number of the kalpas; knowing that all dharmas are without doing, yet not forsaking the practice of doing the path; knowing that the three realms are mind-only and the three times are mind-only, yet fully knowing that this mind is measureless and boundless; for the sake of a single sentient being carrying out the bodhisattva practice through unspeakable kalpas, yet giving rise to no weariness; though fulfilling his practice, yet not realizing awakening.

The eighth phrase is the one place in the whole stretch where mind-only is directly stated, and is worth remembering. And for the tenth phrase the text gives its own reason — a bodhisattva thinks thus: what I do was from the first for the sake of sentient beings, and therefore I ought to dwell long in birth-and-death.

The misreading to clear away: “abiding without equal” is not ‘being higher than others.’ At the head of the passage the text says, “none among all sentient beings, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas is equal to them,” and the place where none is equal is the abiding in both — śrāvakas abide in principle and forsake phenomena, ordinary beings abide in phenomena and are dark to principle, and only here are both ends kept hold of.

Brought home to use: there are two common leanings in practice, one attending only to being freed from birth-and-death and paying no heed to the human world, the other busy only with phenomena and unclear in principle. This gate is the mirror in which those two leanings are seen.

Gate 28. Bringing Forth the Mind That Is Not Inferior: Looking Upward without Slighting Oneself

The seventh is the wisdom that is not inferior. Chengguan’s way of explaining it is deft: the previous gate looked downward and had no equal, this gate looks upward and is not inferior; with regard to ten surpassing matters one decides that they are to be done, and so it is called not inferior. He also mentions that in the Jin translation of the scripture this gate is named “without timidity.”

He divides the ten phrases into five pairs: first, the pair of subduing the demons and curbing the outsiders; second, the pair of gladdening others and fulfilling oneself; third, the pair of accumulating blessings and accomplishing wisdom; fourth, the pair of converting below and accomplishing above — these four pairs all being set forth singly; the fifth is the pair of compassion and wisdom brought to the end, and this alone is the carrying on of both. Of these, the ninth phrase is a compassion that is wisdom itself, in which compassion and wisdom are carried on together, and though compassion is practiced no fruit in return is sought; the tenth phrase is a wisdom that is compassion itself, in which the provisional and the real are carried on together. The tenth phrase is the longest, and Chengguan divides it into four parts: first the listing of what is known; then, from “in this way” onward, the setting forth of the one who knows (knowing suffering and awakening to the deluded, seeing principle and realizing cessation, cultivating the path and cutting off arising); then, from “and yet within” onward, the brushing away of the mark of the one who knows (the one who knows being without discrimination, therefore without merit; what is known being without variety, therefore without realm); and last, from “neither existent” onward, the gathering back into the Middle Way. He also distinguishes two graphs: otherness speaks of alteration lengthwise, difference speaks of unlikeness crosswise.

The misreading to clear away: the mind that is not inferior is not self-encouragement. The ninth phrase is being able to give away hands and feet, ears and nose, blood and flesh, bone and marrow, and even the throne of a king, without giving rise to a single thought of sorrow or regret — this kind of ‘not inferior’ goes in the direction of giving away, not in the direction of getting.

Brought home to use: for one who feels that his capacity is poor and that he cannot succeed in practice, this gate is exactly the remedy. But note that the prescription it gives is ‘decide to do ten surpassing things,’ not ‘believe that you are very capable.’

Gate 29. The Ascendant Mind Like a Mountain: The Myriad Practices Tower Up

The eighth is the wisdom that towers up. Chengguan says: because one is not inferior, therefore the myriad practices tower far up and it is hard to look up to their height; with regard to surpassing matters one decides to do them, and so one goes straight toward awakening and cannot be shaken.

He labels the ten phrases one by one: first, diligently cultivating the wisdom that is able to realize; second, constantly contemplating the principle that is realized; third, inwardly cultivating what is without outflows; fourth, outwardly drawing near to good persons. Upon the fourth phrase he speaks most weightily — to draw near for the sake of fame and gain or for the sake of some other seeking, or to hear a single word from another and then say that one has already understood, this is called stealing the Dharma; and he cites the Guanfo sanmei jing to say that such a person falls into the hells as swiftly as an arrow shot, and says that this is an admonition to those who come after. The fifth is the great forbearance that delivers beings while the great oath increases still further, and for this he uses a comparison: as firewood makes the fire fiercer. The sixth is decidedly surpassing the realms of the demons, for the reason that having accomplished surpassing virtues he is not attached to them but only takes the delight of the Dharma as his support, and then the realms of the demons all become the realm of a buddha. The seventh is diligent and brave practice, and for it he cites a verse of the She dacheng lun: though a fool practices but a little while, his slothful mind suspects that he has been long at it; the Buddha through measureless kalpas was diligent and brave in vigor, and took it only for an instant. The eighth is not forsaking evil persons; the ninth is standing alone and being equal to the buddhas; the tenth is the carrying on of both the provisional and the real.

The tenth phrase of the text is a long one, and Chengguan divides it into four parts, and upon the raising of the question at “why is this” he distinguishes two layers of sense: one question is that practice must accord with principle, and since principle is without anything got at, why is the vow not forsaken? and since the vow is not forsaken, what need is there further to contemplate that nothing is got at? His two explanations are these: first, if there were something got at, awakening would not be got, for it is precisely because nothing is got at that awakening comes forth, and therefore, though the vow is not forsaken, one must still contemplate that nothing is got at; second, the dharma of nothing-got-at does not lie outside the getting, and one must seek all dharmas everywhere before the source of nothing-got-at is exhausted, and therefore, wishing to realize that nothing is got at, one must not forsake the vow for awakening.

The misreading to clear away: this gate is most easily read as an exhortation. Look at the eighth phrase — not forsaking evil persons; look at the ninth — not waiting for another to help one in one’s practice. The place where it towers up is not in its momentum, but in still standing where others cannot.

Brought home to use: the admonition against stealing the Dharma in the fourth phrase is worth copying out by everyone who reads the scriptures. To hear a single word from another and say one has understood is the most labor-saving and the most damaging of shortcuts.

Gate 30. Entering the Ocean-like Wisdom of Unsurpassed Awakening: The Substance of Wisdom Is Deep and Vast as an Ocean

The ninth is the wisdom deep and vast, and it is also the last of the thirty gates. Chengguan says: it is not only a seeking to rise up lofty and steep, but also because the substance of wisdom contains what is deep and vast — the height of a mountain and the breadth of an ocean are precisely the pair of final gates of the tenth practice.

He divides the ten phrases: the first four are the four measureless realms; the latter six are all the realm of a buddha. The latter six are further divided: the fifth is entering the roots of good of the buddhas of the three times; the sixth, seventh, and eighth are entering the realms of the buddhas of the three times (past, future, and present, one each); the ninth is making offerings to many buddhas; the tenth is seeking many dharmas. At the end he concludes with a sentence: “by this ocean of cause, entry into the ocean of fruit is gained.”

What is worth looking at is the eighth phrase, the longest in length: from the buddhas sitting at the place of awakening, subduing the demons, and accomplishing perfect awakening, to turning the wheel of the Dharma, entering nirvāṇa, the compiling of the treasury of the Dharma, and the adorning of the stūpas of the Buddha — a whole set of the deeds of a buddha, all of it seen everywhere in thought after thought; and the text asks itself why it is that this contemplation can be everywhere and yet without error, and answers itself that it is because one fully knows that all the buddhas are like a dream, and yet still goes to the presence of all the buddhas and reverently makes offerings.

The misreading to clear away: “like a dream” here does not say that the buddhas are not real. It is joined to the next phrase, “and yet they are able to go to the presence of all the buddhas and reverently make offerings” — precisely because there is no grasping, therefore in the making of offerings one never has enough. Read as though the buddhas were unreal and need not be revered, the whole thing is turned upside down.

Brought home to use: walking the thirty gates as far as this, it comes to rest on four words, “never having enough.” The twenty-nine gates before all spoke of how to hold up, how not to turn back, how not to grasp; and this last gate speaks of this: to go on walking in this way is neither to finish nor to wish to stop.

Lineage

The standing together of two outlines. There are two outlines of the thirty gates: the ancient worthies divide them into three, the first six gates making clear the practice of a great resolve that reaches far, the next nine the practice of the working of concentration and wisdom, and the last fifteen the practice in which the virtues are complete and brought to fullness; Chengguan, on the other hand, “does not disturb the sequence” but assigns them to the ten practices position by position — three gates to the first practice, one each to the second and the third, two to the fourth, six to the fifth, two to each of the next four, and nine to the tenth. Chengguan passes an explicit judgment on the division of the ancient worthies: “yet taken as perfectly interfused, this sense is not without warrant” — these are his words of judgment, and this piece marks them as Chengguan’s judgment while recording the two outlines side by side, ranking neither in his stead. And what matters still more is the layer already spoken of above: the names of the six positions do not appear at all in the scriptural text, but were assigned as an outline by the ancient worthies of old on the basis of the text of the Dushipin jing, and Chengguan carried it on — wherever this piece speaks of a position, it belongs to that assigning.

The agreement of the number of gates in the three translations. The eighty-fascicle recension has thirty gates; the sixty-fascicle recension in this stretch yields thirty passages of answer in fact — the ninth gate of the eighty, “the wisdom of skillful discernment,” answers to the ninth passage of the sixty, “the wisdom of skillful and expedient discernment,” and the tenth gate, “entering samādhi,” to the tenth passage, “right-reception samādhi,” corresponding one by one from beginning to end; the separately circulating Dushipin jing, in its second round, likewise yields thirty gates. The numbers agree in the three translations while the names of the gates mostly differ; this is recorded as it stands and not forced into agreement.

Divergences in the names of the gates, and divergences in what Chengguan reports. Chengguan mentions the Jin translation’s names in four places: for the first gate he says that the Dushi jing names it “the ten establishings,” which agrees with the actual text of that scripture; for the third gate he cites a sentence of the Jin scripture in order to explain the text of the eighty-fascicle recension; for the twenty-fourth gate he says the Jin name is “without defilement” and for the twenty-fifth that the Jin recension names it “the seal of wisdom,” and both of these agree with the actual text of the sixty-fascicle recension; only for the twenty-eighth gate, where he says the Jin scripture names it “without timidity,” the actual text of the sixty-fascicle recension reads “bringing forth the mind without indolence,” while the Dushipin jing reads ‘the mind not timid, bringing forth the mind of the path’ — the name Chengguan reports agrees with the Dushi and differs from the sixty-fascicle recension. The three recensions are recorded together without judgment. Besides this, where the eighty-fascicle recension of the first gate reads “the sustaining power of time” the sixty reads “marvelous sustaining”; and in the fifteenth gate, where the eighty reads “the various graspings” the sixty reads “blazing,” and where the eighty reads “the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-fields” the sixty reads “the heaps, elements, and entries,” and in that gate the sixty lists only eight phrases — these too are recorded together.

The explanations of the three commentators, and three outlines. For this unit three commentators may be adduced. Chengguan’s Shu explains gate by gate, as above. Chengguan’s Yanyi chao sets up no separate outline, but cites the Shu phrase by phrase to set out what each rests upon — that the Shu’s “now one who expounds the Dharma” comes from the Maudgalyāyana chapter of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra; that “not merely relying upon the precepts” comes from Ānanda’s four questions, where the Buddha bade them take the precepts as teacher; how the two senses of “ten phrases in five pairs” in the eighth phrase of the seventh gate are each explained twice; that the fifth kind of secret speech comes from the secret of transformation among the four secrets of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha — all of these the Chao points out. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji, for its part, does have an explanation of this section gate by gate: from the outline of “the third great section” it explains gate by gate as far as the thirtieth and then passes on to the next round, and there is explicit text on the ten sustainings of gate 1, the five senses of secret speech in gate 8, the three successive explanations of gate 9, the outline of gate 14, and the two kinds of liberation in gate 15. Only, what the Tanxuan ji comments on is the sixty-fascicle recension, and so its names for the gates and its counts of phrases in many places do not agree with the eighty. It is only Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun that, in chapter thirty-eight, takes up a doctrinal framework for the whole chapter and does not cite the text gate by gate, so that for this stretch there is no gate-by-gate explanation of his to be adduced; the absence is recorded as it stands, and the text of some other place is not used to fill it out.

Three outlines of the thirty gates therefore stand together. The ancient worthies divided them into three — the first six gates, the practice of great and far-reaching aspiration; the next nine, the practice of the working of concentration and wisdom; the last fifteen, the practice of merit fully accomplished — and this is what Chengguan transmits. Fazang also divides into three, but counts by phrases: the first sixty phrases, the practice of great and far-reaching aspiration; the next ninety, the practice of the working of concentration and wisdom; the last hundred and fifty, the practice of merit fully accomplished. Chengguan himself does not break the sequence, but assigns the gates to the ten practices station by station. The names of the three parts in the first two are wholly the same; what differs is that the one takes the gate and the other the phrase as its unit, and since each gate has ten phrases, six gates are sixty phrases, nine gates ninety, and fifteen gates a hundred and fifty, the two counts answering to each other. The three outlines are recorded together, and no judgment is made among them.

Places for cross-reading. For the ten sustainings of the first gate, Chengguan once collated them with the eleven sustainings of the part on the great exhaustion in the tenth ground of the Chapter on the Ten Grounds — there one sustaining of the afflictions is added, because it is spoken with reference to the unbroken continuity of responsive manifestation; here it is spoken only with reference to the root of practice, and so there is no sustaining of the afflictions. Again, there there is a sustaining of offerings and a sustaining of kalpas but no sustaining of the objective realm and no sustaining of the power of good; Chengguan says that here kalpas are taken in under time, and there the power of good is taken in under practice and offerings arise in dependence upon the realm, and so there is no real divergence. The mind, buddha, and sentient beings without difference of the ninth phrase of the seventh gate Chengguan fastens to the verses of Forest of Awakening in the Chapter on the Praises in Verse in the Palace of Yama. And when explaining the first sense of secret speech in the eighth gate, Chengguan fastens it to “the secret treasury of the Tathāgata” of the Chapter on the Appearance of the Tathāgata. All three of these places may be read across.

How this bears upon the name of the chapter. The tenth phrase of the seventh gate says, “though fully knowing that the Buddha-dharma is the dharma of the world and the dharma of the world is the Buddha-dharma, yet not within the Buddha-dharma discriminating the dharma of the world and not within the dharma of the world discriminating the Buddha-dharma,” which Chengguan judges to be “identical and yet not identical,” saying that it is by the thing itself being of itself empty that it is named mutual identity, and that it is not that within the world there is a separate Buddha-dharma to be got at. This chapter is named Detachment from the World, and this phrase is precisely the inside and the outside of that name — what is detached from is not the world as such, but that single thought which discriminates and grasps between the world and the Buddha-dharma.

First, See Clearly What This Stretch Is Asking

Universal Wisdom Bodhisattva asked two hundred questions in one breath, and Samantabhadra answers each question with ten. This round is the twenty-nine questions lying between the seventy-first and the ninety-ninth; twenty-eight of the gates read ‘Sons of the Buddha! Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas have ten kinds of such-and-such,’ and one reads ‘bring forth ten kinds.’ The first thing a reader must establish is this: the scriptural text does not itself say that this round is the station of the ten dedications. Among the twenty-nine gates, apart from gate 7, “the dedicating of roots of good,” and the third of the dharmas not held in common, which speaks of “dedicating and directing with skill” — both of them names of dharmas of practice — nowhere in the whole stretch does a name of a station appear.

Then where do the four graphs “the practice of the ten dedications” come from? They come from an outline set up by the ancient worthies of old on the basis of the six rounds of question and answer of the Dushipin jing, and Chengguan carried that outline on and explained the gates one by one under it. At the beginning of the chapter Chengguan states it plainly for himself: the ancient worthies of old all relied on the text of that scripture to outline this scripture. Therefore in this piece, wherever the six positions are spoken of, they are uniformly fastened to ‘Chengguan carrying on the outline of the ancient worthies,’ and are not taken as what the scriptural text says of itself. If this layer is not established first, a reader will read the expedient of the outliners as the Buddha’s own speaking — which is the mistake most easily made in reading the Avataṃsaka.

The number of the gates must also be explained first. Chengguan produces two numbers: the proper outline gives twenty-nine gates, and if that one sentence generally listing “the unimpeded workings” is also counted as a gate, then there are thirty. Where does the difference lie? After the ten masteries the scriptural text first lists generally, “there are ten kinds of unimpeded working,” and sets out the ten names from sentient beings down to powers, and only then answers gate by gate. That sentence of general listing does not itself answer ten phrases, and so it is not reckoned a gate; but it may also be reckoned one, and the ancient worthies did so reckon it. The two numbers stand together, and there is no need to judge which is right.

The Threefold Division of the Ancient Worthies and Chengguan’s Tenfold Assigning: Two Measuring Rods for One Stretch of Text

Chengguan here records a threefold outline of the ancient worthies: the first eleven gates make clear the firmness of the substance of practice within the station of the dedications; the twelve gates from the ten masteries onward make clear the mastery of the working of practice; the seven gates from the ten kinds of sporting onward make clear the completeness of the virtues of practice. This is to see the twenty-nine gates as three sections — substance, working, virtue.

Chengguan then lays out a measuring rod of his own: assigning them anew according to the sequence of the ten dedications — four gates to the first dedication, two gates each to the second and third dedications, one gate each to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh dedications, the eighth dedication being just the ten unimpeded workings, three gates to the ninth dedication, and four gates to the tenth.

One and the same stretch of scriptural text, divided into three and divided into ten. What must be noticed is that these two rods neither conflict with nor gather in each other; they are two angles. A reader need not ask which is ‘the original intent of the scripture’ — the scripture only speaks gate by gate, and the outline is what later people set in place so that the thread might be seen. Brought home to use: when reading a long stretch of numbered dharmas, first find a rod by which to divide it into sections, then ask of each section whether it is speaking of substance, of working, or of virtue, and one will not read it as a mere running account.

Gate 1. Abiding like a Jewel: Why the Place Abided In Is Called a Jewel

The first gate does not say “ten kinds of abiding,” but “ten kinds of abiding like a jewel.” Wherein lies the preciousness? Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that the roots of good abided in are precious and complete, and therefore it is called a jewel.

The sequence of the ten phrases has an order to it. Chengguan names them one by one: the first is making offerings to and serving many buddhas; the second, hearing the Dharma and receiving and upholding it; the third, taking birth with mastery; the fourth, speaking the dharmas of root and branch; the fifth, mastery in the knowing and the cutting off; the sixth, compassion and wisdom carried on together; the seventh, knowing that nature and characteristic are unimpeded; the eighth, the obtaining that obtains nothing; the ninth, contemplating emptiness and fulfilling the vow; the tenth, receiving and practicing without weariness.

First ask a question: the first phrase is only ‘going to many buddhas and bowing and making offerings’ — what is precious in that? The answer lies in the eight graphs “all able to go to measureless worlds” — it is not going to one place, but that there is no place he is unable to go. This is already not the offering of an ordinary being; it is the mastery that comes only after the substance of practice is firm. The second phrase goes on to say that he hears the Dharma and “does not let it be forgotten and lost,” and that “the wisdom of awakening grows” — from which one sees that making offerings to a buddha is not for the sake of seeking blessings but for the sake of receiving the Dharma. Brought home to use: if a person makes offerings to a buddha but does not receive the Dharma, he has the first phrase of this gate and not the second, and the jewel cannot come to be abided in.

Gate 1, Phrases Three and Six: Taking Birth Without Confusion, and Speaking of Directions and Places Where There Is No Place

The third phrase is a single sentence: “passing away from this land and appearing in birth in another place, and yet as to the Buddha-dharma being in nothing confused.” The first half is something ordinary beings have as well — dying here and being born there; the whole of the preciousness lies in the limiting clause that follows: as to the Buddha-dharma being in nothing confused. Chengguan names this phrase taking birth with mastery, and Fazang the same. First ask: why should taking birth have a gate set aside for it? Because the confusion of the interval between bodies is the most concrete barrier a practitioner meets — whether the dharma understood in this life will still be remembered in the next. The scriptural text’s answer is not that memory is kept by spiritual penetration; it is that as to the Buddha-dharma he is not confused. What is confused over is one’s birth and circumstance; what is not confused over is the Dharma. Brought home to use: whether a thing can be carried across depends on whether the Dharma has become a view in you, and not on whether it has become a memory.

The sixth phrase has the pattern of a double turn: “knowing that what the minds of all sentient beings discriminate is all without place, and yet also speaking of there being various directions and places; and though he is without discrimination and without anything made, yet for the sake of taming all sentient beings there is cultivation and there is what is done.” Knowing there is no place is the real; speaking of directions and places is the provisional. Being without discrimination and without anything made is the real; there being cultivation and what is done is the provisional. Look closely at “for the sake of taming all sentient beings” — this clause is where the reason of the whole sentence lies, and it is the ground upon which the provisional is not empty. Chengguan names this phrase compassion and wisdom carried on together; Fazang says it more plainly: knowing that beings are empty and yet carrying on their conversion. First clear away a misunderstanding: since there is no place and nothing made, are the speaking of places and the doing of what is done not a self-contradiction? It is not a contradiction; it is that each half is set over against something of its own — being without place is spoken over against the discriminating of the mind, and there being directions and places is spoken over against the one being converted. If, because one knows emptiness, one neither speaks nor acts, compassion has been cut off; if, because one must speak and act, one forgets emptiness, wisdom has been cut off. Brought home to use: when a person is speaking the Dharma, if he is still in his heart reckoning whether he has spoken it rightly and whether it has had effect, most often it is the first half of this phrase that has not held.

Gate 1, the Fourth: One Dharma Brings Forth All Dharmas, and Yet All Meanings Are at the End One Meaning

The fourth phrase says, “knowing that from a single dharma all dharmas can be brought forth, and being able to discriminate and expound them one by one,” and the closing phrase is, “because the various different meanings of all dharmas are, when brought to the end, one and the same meaning.” Chengguan explains this phrase in two halves: the first half is the arising of the branch from the root, the second half the gathering of the branch back into the root, and the second half serves precisely to establish the first. He further raises a cross-reading: as is said in the scripture, they are born from a single dharma, and that one dharma is without characteristic.

Here a misreading must be cleared away. ‘All meanings are at the end one meaning’ is easily read as ‘therefore whatever one speaks of is the same, and there is no need to discriminate’ — the very opposite. What the scriptural text says is “being able to discriminate and expound them one by one”; to be able to discriminate is the very capacity in question. And the reason he can discriminate without confusion is precisely that he knows the meanings return at the end to one. If there were discriminating without the returning to one, the speaking of the Dharma would become a piling up of knowledge; if there were the returning to one without the ability to discriminate, it would become vagueness. Both sides are needed.

Gate 1, the Fifth: Not Realizing the Real Limit, and Yet Arriving at the Far Shore of the Real Limit

The fifth phrase is the weightiest sentence in the whole stretch: “knowing how to grow weary of and leave the afflictions, knowing how to bring the afflictions to rest, knowing how to guard against the afflictions, knowing how to cut off and remove the afflictions; cultivating the bodhisattva practice and yet not realizing the real limit, and yet arriving at the end at the far shore of the real limit.”

Chengguan matches the first four knowings to the four paths: the path of the requisites is the wearying and leaving, the path of preparation the guarding against, the uninterrupted path the cutting off and removing, while precisely the realizing and entering of the path of liberation is not taken up. He says it plainly: the not taking up of the realizing and entering is in order to differ from the two vehicles, and also because the bodhisattva retains the delusions — only by retaining them uncut can the cutting and realizing be brought to the end; Fazang likewise gives the two reasons side by side, ‘because of differing from the two vehicles, because of retaining the delusions.’ It is the bodhisattva who retains the delusions, not the two vehicles.

First ask: is the not realizing a not yet being able to realize? It is not. The scriptural text goes on to answer this itself: “being skillful in means, learning well all that is to be learned, causing the vows and practices of former times all to be brought to fullness.” It is for the sake of fulfilling the vows of former days that he does not take it up. Chengguan here raises a very vivid comparison: like arrows shot into the sky, where the arrow behind props the notch of the arrow in front, so that the arrows never fall to the ground. The bodhisattva’s not entering nirvāṇa is just such a propping, one power of vow after another.

Brought home to use: once a practitioner has tasted the sweetness of quiescence, it is easiest of all to stop there. This phrase is to be read at just such a time — that one may stop is not the problem; if the vow is large enough, it will of itself keep propping.

Gate 1, the Seventh to the Tenth: Nature and Characteristic Effaced, and Yet the Differences Still Spoken

The seventh phrase first sets up “knowing that all dharmas are of one and the same nature, namely: without intrinsic nature,” running down seven occurrences of “without” that efface nature and characteristic entirely; and then the brush turns and runs down fifteen occurrences of “this is”: this is the dharma of the buddhas, this is the dharma of the bodhisattvas, this is the dharma of the pratyekabuddhas, this is the dharma of the śrāvakas… down to the conditioned dharmas and the unconditioned dharmas. Chengguan names this phrase “knowing that nature and characteristic are unimpeded.”

First ask: since they are of one and the same nature, why must fifteen kinds still be divided out? Because the effacing is spoken with reference to principle, and the dividing with reference to teaching. If one cannot divide, there is no gate by which to speak the Dharma; if one does not know the effacing, discriminating becomes grasping. The unimpeded is unimpeded precisely here — it is not that the two sides are reconciled into a middling thing, but that each side goes to its own utmost and yet they do not hinder one another.

The eighth phrase, “seeking a buddha, one does not get one,” and yet “not forsaking the vow to tame and subdue sentient beings and cause them to accomplish perfect awakening in respect of all dharmas,” Chengguan names “the obtaining that obtains nothing”; the ninth, knowing that all skillful means are established by the thinking of the mind and yet are “neither upside-down nor false and deceiving,” he names “contemplating emptiness and fulfilling the vow”; the tenth, hearing unspeakable dharmas of prediction and being “not startled and not alarmed, not confused and not perplexed,” he names “receiving and practicing without weariness.” Read as four phrases together, they speak of one and the same matter: having seen emptiness, the vow stands all the more firmly.

Gate 2. The Mind of Vow of the Great Vehicle like a Vajra: Why the Vow Must Be like a Vajra

The second gate is ten great vows. Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that this is the rescuing and protecting of the great vow, and explains why it is placed second: a dedication must have the great vow going before it. He further points out the two dimensions of the vow — with regard both to what is to be done and to the practice presently being done, there is no bounding limit, and the mind must be firm and exhaust the bound of it.

As to how the ten phrases are assigned, Chengguan is very exact: the first is the vow to know the inexhaustible gates of the Dharma; the second, the vow to deliver boundless sentient beings; the third, adorning the lands; the fourth, dedicating; the fifth, making offerings to the buddhas. Of these, the latter three — adorning the lands, dedicating, making offerings to the buddhas — Chengguan says are the vow to accomplish the fruit of buddhahood, and the first five are all with reference to what is to be accomplished, all discussed crosswise as being without shore. The sixth, being unattached in seeing and hearing, and the seventh, patient endurance without disturbance, are with reference to what is presently done, and are lengthwise, deep and without limit. The last three return to what is to come: the eighth is the practice of the two benefits pervading time and place, the ninth is the boundless great practice accomplished with the mind for its essential, and the tenth is the setting going of the working from within quiescence.

What do crosswise and lengthwise mean? Crosswise is breadth — the ten directions inexhaustible; lengthwise is depth — being able to bear it within a single thought. A vow that has only the crosswise is an empty vow; one that has only the lengthwise is a small vow. Brought home to use: one who makes a vow may well ask himself whether his vow is one that spreads out, or one that holds up.

Gate 2, the Seventh: The Body Cut Apart and No Anger or Harm Arising

The seventh phrase is written with the utmost weight: there are sentient beings who revile and abuse and shame, who whip and beat and cudgel, who even cut off hands and feet, slice off ears and noses, gouge out eyes, and sever heads, and “all such things he is able to bear, and in the end he does not on that account give rise to a mind of anger and harm.” The scriptural text gives the reason itself: “because he has already contemplated well that all dharmas are without the two characteristics, his mind unshaken and undisturbed, and is able to give up his own body and bear that suffering.”

First clear away a misunderstanding: this is not teaching a person to be numb, nor saying that it does not hurt. What the scriptural text says is “without the two characteristics” — there is no one who harms set over against a me who is harmed. Where there are two characteristics, patience is only suppression; where there are none, patience is patience that really holds. Chengguan, following this phrase, notes the four graphs saying that to sever a head is to take a head-count, pointing out the archaic graph in the scriptural text, and judges that the sixth and seventh phrases are the temporary cutting off of the afflictions.

Brought home to use: an ordinary person flares up at a single heavy word, precisely because the two characteristics are distinct. This phrase does not have to wait until someone comes to cut you down before it can be used; it can be tested in the very moment of a single word.

Gate 2, the Tenth: The Threefold Raising and Explaining of the Working Set Going from Within Quiescence

The last phrase is the longest. The bodhisattva knows that buddha, awakening, bodhisattva, dharma, sentient being, mind, practice, the three times, the world, and the conditioned and unconditioned are altogether not to be got at, and so abides in quiescence and on to abiding in the real limit, twelve abodes; and yet from “not forsaking any of the great vows” there run down nine occurrences of “not forsaking.” The scriptural text then raises a question against itself three times.

Chengguan sets out these three levels very clearly. The first level asks: since there is quiescence, why is the working still set going? The answer: because the wisdom of the original vow does not forsake great compassion. The second level asks: why does wisdom not forsake compassion? The answer: wisdom exists for sentient beings from the first. The third level asks: why must quiescence and working necessarily be carried on together? The answer has two senses: first, that all the buddhas do so; second, that I have already before made a vow.

These three questions and three answers are the heart of the whole stretch. They answer a difficulty that everyone who reads prajñā must sooner or later run into: since nothing at all is to be got at, what is all this busyness for? The scripture’s answer is not a reasoning that circles back, but two facts — the buddhas all do so, and I gave my word. Brought home to use: when one cannot think one’s way through on the level of principle, there is no need to force the thinking; first look at what the buddhas do, then look at what one promised at the beginning.

Gate 3. Great Setting Forth: Setting the Mind Really in Motion

All ten phrases of the third gate read ‘I would do such and such.’ Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that this is that for the sake of which the dedication is made, and that setting forth means causing it to be present before one. He divides the ten phrases into the two halves of self-portion and advance-onward: the first six are the self-portion, of which the first three are greatness in the deed of blessings and the next three greatness in the deed of converting (adorning the lands too being for the sake of gathering in beings); the last four are the advance onward, the seventh and eighth advancing onward and gathering in blessings, and the last two advancing onward and setting going the converting — the ninth realizing the substance, the tenth setting going the working.

First ask: how does setting forth differ from the mind of vow before it? A vow is the firmness of the mind; a setting forth is the pushing forward of an affair. And so every phrase of this gate is concrete: making offerings to the buddhas, nourishing roots of good, adorning stūpas, teaching and converting sentient beings, adorning the worlds, exhausting the future age for one sentient being, passing inconceivable kalpas with one tathāgata, raising stūpas and making images, accomplishing unsurpassed awakening, and still expounding the true Dharma after accomplishing perfect awakening.

Brought home to use: if a person stops at ‘I have brought forth the great mind,’ this gate reminds him that the mind must come down into affairs that will actually be finished, one by one.

Gate 4. Great Matters Brought to the End: Ten Matters to Be Carried Through

Chengguan explains this gate in one sentence only: this is the bringing to fullness of what is done, and the ten phrases may be known. He says no more, because the aspect of the text is plain. But the two graphs “brought to the end” are worth pausing over.

Every one of the ten phrases uses the same structure: such-and-such a matter — a great matter brought to the end. Revering and making offerings to the tathāgatas, rescuing and protecting the sentient beings that come to mind, seeking the Buddha-dharma single-mindedly, gathering together roots of good, pondering the Buddha-dharma, fulfilling vows, accomplishing the bodhisattva practices, serving good friends, going to the places of the buddhas, hearing and holding the true Dharma of the buddhas. Not one of these ten, taken alone, is remarkable; what is precious is the “brought to the end” — not having done it, but having carried it through.

Read together with Chengguan’s outline, this gate is the last of the four gates of the first dedication — the first gate sets up the substance of practice, the second sets up the great vow, the third sets it forth, and the fourth brings it to fullness. The four gates together make one complete act of dedication. Brought home to use: examining one’s own practice, one is mostly not short of the first three items; what is short is the fourth.

Gate 5. Faith That Cannot Be Broken: Faith Is to Be Set in Ten Places

The second dedication is named “unbreakable,” and Chengguan takes this gate as making clear precisely the unbreakable, and says that the sense of the ten phrases is as was said before.

The objects of the faith in the ten phrases are arranged in an interesting way: the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the bodhisattvas, good friends, sentient beings, the great vows of the bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva practices, the matter of making offerings to the buddhas, and the matter of the bodhisattva’s teaching, converting, taming, and subduing sentient beings by skillful and hidden means. The first five are the objective realms revered; the last five are the affairs practiced.

The one most easily overlooked among them is the sixth: “faith in all sentient beings that cannot be broken.” First ask: what is one to have faith in with regard to sentient beings? Faith that they can become buddhas. If this phrase is broken, all the earlier faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha turns into the faith of one who saves only himself. Brought home to use: the moment one utterly gives up on a particular person is the moment this phrase is broken.

Gate 6. Obtaining a Prediction: Ten Ways of Being Settled and Sealed

Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that this is the accomplishing of the practice of dedication, and assigns the ten phrases to the positions: the first is understanding and meeting the mind of a buddha; the second, being complete in the good that is a portion of liberation; the third, the great practice having been cultivated — these three are mostly with reference to the three worthy stages; the fourth and fifth are spoken with reference to being face to face and not being face to face, and he further adduces as warrant a text of the Lotus to the effect that those who are not in this assembly, you shall proclaim it to them; the sixth is realizing suchness on the first ground; the seventh is accomplishing the patient acceptance of non-arising on the eighth ground; the eighth is being complete in the means of taming and converting on the ninth ground; the ninth is the fulfilling of the three great kalpas on the tenth ground; the tenth is that at equal awakening one has already entered the twofold mystery and therefore it is called mastery, as with the prediction given to Maitreya.

Chengguan here also opens two readings: if one follows the graded sequence, this station has only the first five phrases and the rest come in by way of convenience; if one follows the perfectly interfused, all ten run through. This is precisely the house-style of the Avataṃsaka — one and the same stretch of text has, read as graded, the order of the graded, and read as perfectly interfused, station gathering station.

Brought home to use: on reading “prediction” one need not imagine a ceremony. Of the ten kinds listed by the scriptural text, six are not the Buddha opening his mouth at all, but a being settled and sealed of itself upon reaching a certain point in practice.

Gate 7. The Dedicating of Roots of Good: Setting Up No Accomplishment of One’s Own

The ten phrases of this gate are entirely alike in pattern: ‘taking my roots of good to be the same as such-and-such of the good friend, accomplishing in this way, setting up no separate accomplishment of my own.’ Vow, mind, practice, roots of good, evenness, mindfulness, purity, what is abided in, bringing to fullness, unbreakableness — ten things, all the same.

Chengguan fastens this gate to the dedication of being even with all buddhas: this gate makes clear precisely the being even with the buddhas; a buddha is the true good friend, and “the same” has the sense of “even.” He further explains why all ten phrases say “the same” — because they are of one and the same substance, and because no two characteristics are seen. And as to what lies within the ten phrases, he says that the mind is compassion and wisdom, because only when the mind is even does it accord with principle, and that the rest each have a sense of their own.

First ask an important question: what after all is a dedication? Most people take it to be the transferring of merit away, like a bank transfer. The answer this gate gives is entirely different: to dedicate is “to set up no separate accomplishment” — to set up no accomplishment belonging to me. Merit was never a thing that could be held; to say ‘send it away’ already presupposes holding it first.

Brought home to use: having done a good deed, the hardest thing is not being willing to dedicate it, but not quietly entering it in one’s own account. This gate is spoken for the sake of that entry.

Gate 8. Obtaining Wisdom: Ten Gates Where Wisdom Arises

Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that this too is the accomplishing of the practice of dedication, and adduces as warrant the text of the fruit of that station in the Chapter on the Ten Dedications, saying that abiding in this samādhi one enters the deep and pure objective realm of wisdom.

The wisdom spoken of in the ten phrases does not come out of concentration but out of affairs: gaining mastery in giving, understanding the Buddha-dharma deeply, entering the boundless wisdom of the Tathāgata, cutting off doubts in questioning and answering, entering the meaning of those who have wisdom, understanding the skillfulness of the Tathāgata’s speech and sounds, knowing that a few roots of good will surely bring the pure and white dharmas to fullness, accomplishing the inconceivable abodes, going in a single thought to unspeakable buddha-lands, and being awake to the awakening of all the buddhas while hearing and holding all the dharmas.

Among them the seventh phrase is the most worth turning over: “understanding deeply that the planting of but a few roots of good in the presence of the buddhas will surely be able to bring to fullness all the pure and white dharmas.” First ask: how can a few roots of good bring all dharmas to fullness? Because they are planted in the presence of the buddhas. This is not an opportunist’s reckoning; it says that the value of a root of good is not to be measured only by its quantity, but also by the objective realm it faces. Brought home to use: this phrase is to be read by one who feels he has cultivated too little.

Gate 9. Bringing Forth the Measureless and Boundless Vast and Great Mind: The Mind Grows Broad with the Realm

Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that this is the practice within the dedication of reaching everywhere — since the objective realm is measureless and boundless and there is nowhere it does not reach, the mind grows vast along with the realm.

The ten phrases mostly read ‘contemplating such-and-such, bringing forth the measureless and boundless vast and great mind’ (six state “contemplating” outright; the other four read in the presence of the buddhas, rightly bringing to mind, adorning and purifying, entering everywhere): in the presence of the buddhas, contemplating the realm of sentient beings, contemplating all lands and all ages and all Dharma realms, contemplating that all dharmas are like empty space, contemplating the vast and great practice of the bodhisattvas, rightly bringing to mind the buddhas of the three times, contemplating the inconceivable fruits and retributions of deeds, adorning and purifying the buddha-lands, entering everywhere into the great assemblies of the buddhas, and contemplating the marvelous sounds of the tathāgatas.

There is a method of practice in this: the mind does not grow large by one’s wishing it large; it is the objective realm taken as support that stretches it open. And so the ten phrases for the most part first say what is taken as support and afterward say what is brought forth. Brought home to use: when one feels the measure of one’s mind is small, there is no need to force oneself to ‘enlarge the mind’ — one need only change what is taken as support.

Gate 10. Hidden Treasuries: The Dharma Is Itself the Treasury

Chengguan, in explaining this gate, takes the two graphs “treasury” and “hidden” apart: within all dharmas these ten meanings are held, and therefore it is called a treasury; contemplating the dharma just as it is, the deluded do not see it, and therefore it is called hidden. He further says that this gate is the practice within the dedication of the inexhaustible treasury of merit, and that all things having ten kinds each is what inexhaustible merit is.

The pattern of the ten phrases is mostly ‘knowing that all dharmas are the treasury of such-and-such’ (seven read so; the other three have each their own object of knowing): the treasury that gives rise to the practices of merit, the treasury of right pondering, the treasury of the shining clarity of the dhāraṇīs, the treasury of eloquence that opens up and expounds, the treasury that cannot be spoken of and yet is well able to be awake to the real, the treasury of contemplating and manifesting, the treasury of skillfully bringing forth evenness, the treasury of constantly seeing all the buddhas, the treasury of being well able to penetrate that all abide as illusions, and the treasury able to bring forth joy and pure faith.

First clear away a misunderstanding: a hidden treasury is not a hoard of jewels that the Buddha put away somewhere for people to go and find. The scriptural text says it plainly — the treasury lies upon “all dharmas,” and it is not seen because of delusion, not because it has been hidden away. Brought home to use: practice is not going elsewhere to seek treasure; it is seeing through this one dharma before one’s eyes.

Gate 11. Rules of Discipline: Spoken Not from the Characteristics of the Precepts but from the Root of Practice

A reader coming to “rules of discipline” will mostly expect articles of precept, and yet the scriptural text lists not one characteristic of a precept; all ten phrases are workings of the mind: not slandering the Buddha-dharma, a mind of faith and delight in the buddhas that cannot be broken, honoring the bodhisattvas, not forsaking good friends, not calling the two vehicles to mind, leaving far behind what causes turning back from the bodhisattva path, not giving rise to a mind that harms sentient beings, cultivating roots of good and causing them to be brought to the end, subduing the demons, and bringing the perfections to fullness.

Chengguan makes his explanation precisely upon this point: that station (the dedication of according with and being firm in all roots of good) is with reference to the head of practice, and therefore the roots of good are made clear at length in terms of giving; this gate is with reference to the root of practice, and therefore the rules of discipline are set forth in brief. He further says that the roots of good all accord with the principle of evenness and truly run through all things. And as to the eighth phrase, “causing all roots of good to be brought to the end,” he points out that being brought to the end is precisely the sense of according and being firm, which fastens upon the very name of that station. Upon the gate as a whole he passes but one comment: the ten phrases gathering in good and benefiting others are complete in every part, run through all good, and may plainly be known.

Brought home to use: if the characteristics of the precepts are kept and yet the working of the mind does not accord with principle, the rules of discipline are in fact empty. This gate pushes the rules of discipline down one layer to the root.

Gate 12. Mastery: The Free Movement of the Working

The ten masteries are an old term of the Avataṃsaka — life, mind, requisites, deeds, taking birth, resolute conviction, vows, spiritual power, Dharma, and wisdom. Chengguan does not explain them again here, but says only that the ten masteries are as set forth on the eighth ground, and fastens this gate to the dedication of according evenly with all sentient beings: only being complete in the ten masteries can one accord.

Notice the sentence-pattern of the scriptural text: every phrase is ‘such-and-such a mastery’ plus a reason carried by the graph “for the reason that.” The reason for mastery over life is that one is able to sustain one’s life-span through unspeakable kalpas; the reason for mastery of mind is that wisdom is able to enter measureless samādhis; and so on by the same pattern. The clause of reason is the real content; the name is only a label.

Then let the eight clauses of reason be looked at one by one. The reason for mastery of requisites is “that he is able to adorn all worlds with measureless adornments” — requisites are not what one enjoys oneself but what is taken up to adorn worlds, so that the content of this mastery is in fact giving and not having. The reason for mastery of deeds is “that he receives the recompense according to the time,” and the graph “according to” is what matters most: it is not that recompense is not received, but that the season of receiving it rests with him and not with the deed. The reason for mastery of taking birth is “that he manifests taking birth in all worlds” — note that it is manifesting and not being dragged, which joins directly to the not-being-confused of the third phrase of the first gate. The reason for mastery of resolute conviction is “that he sees the buddhas filling all worlds” — conviction here is ascendant conviction, and ascendant conviction at its furthest is that all that is seen is buddhas. The reason for mastery of vows is “that according to his wish and according to the time he attains right awakening in the lands” — even the greatest of all matters, the attaining of right awakening, has entered into “according to his wish and according to the time,” from which one sees that mastery of vows is the least bound of the ten. The reason for mastery of spiritual power is “that he manifests all the great spiritual transformations,” this gate speaking only of manifesting and not of the transforming itself. The reason for mastery of the Dharma is “that he manifests boundless gates of the Dharma” — mastery of the Dharma does not fall upon how many dharmas one has penetrated oneself, but upon how many gates one manifests for others. The reason for mastery of wisdom is the longest: “that in thought after thought he manifests the ten powers of a tathāgata, the fearlessnesses, and the attaining of right awakening,” where “thought after thought” presses time down to its shortest, and what is manifested is the fruit-virtue of a buddha. First ask: is there a rationale to the sequence of these ten? There is — from life and mind, which guard the body and guard the thought; to requisites, deeds, and taking birth, which have to do with affairs; to resolute conviction, vows, and spiritual power, which face toward the fruit; and at the last the Dharma and wisdom, which take up directly what a buddha has. Fazang here collates them name by name against the eighth ground, saying that what is here adornment is there named mastery over goods and possessions, that what is here resolute conviction is there named mastery of faith and understanding, and that what is here spiritual power is there named mastery of the wish-fulfilling kind — the names differ and the sense is one. Brought home to use: in reading the ten masteries it is easiest to remember only the names, whereas the real sense of every phrase lies wholly in that clause of reason carried by the graph “for the reason that.”

First ask: how does mastery differ from the unimpeded working that follows? This is precisely the question Chengguan takes up at the head of the next gate — he says that earlier, mastery was made clear, which is the working moving freely; now the unimpeded is made clear, displaying that the working is unbound. Moving freely is being effortless; unbound is being unrestricted. Brought home to use: to have practiced to the point of effortlessness is not yet to be unrestricted.

The General Listing of the Unimpeded Workings: One Stretch of Text in Four Sections

From here begins one great stretch of eleven gates. The scriptural text first lists the ten names generally, then raises the question, then explains gate by gate, and last concludes generally and accomplishes the benefit. Chengguan marks these four sections very clearly: first the general listing of the ten headings; second, from “Sons of the Buddha, what is called” onward, the general raising of the question upon the ten headings; third, from “Sons of the Buddha, bodhisattvas” onward, the separate explaining according to the headings; fourth, from “Sons of the Buddha, in this way” onward, the general conclusion and the accomplishing of benefit. He further says that within the first section there are also three small sections — the listing, the raising of the question, and the setting out of the names; and that among the ten passages of the separate explaining, each passage likewise has four parts — the listing, the raising of the question, the explaining, and the conclusion.

There is a matter concerning the speaker to be stated here. The sentence in the scriptural text, “Sons of the Buddha! What is called the unimpeded working of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva with regard to sentient beings and the rest?” is Samantabhadra raising a question against himself and answering it himself; it is not Universal Wisdom breaking in with a question — from beginning to end of the whole stretch there is no narrative turn of the compilers and no second speaker. In reading a long question-and-answer, this kind of self-raised and self-answered sentence is what is most easily misread as a change of speaker.

Chengguan passes two judgments upon the unimpeded. First: the unimpeded is of two kinds, the unimpededness with regard to wisdom and the unimpededness with regard to phenomena; among the ten gates some run through and some are particular, the gates of dharmas and of wisdom being mostly with reference to wisdom alone, the gates of bodies and of lands and the like mostly with reference to phenomena alone, while the one gate of sentient beings runs through both phenomena and wisdom. Second: the unimpededness with regard to phenomena necessarily runs through wisdom, while the objective realm of the unimpededness with regard to wisdom does not necessarily run through phenomena; yet both are the working that is identical with the substance, and therefore both alike are called unimpeded working. He further says that all ten gates run through both benefiting oneself and benefiting others, and that they are here spoken of, for the moment, with reference to converting others: the first gate is those to be converted, the second gate the place of converting, and the rest are that which converts.

Gate 13. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Sentient Beings: Spoken from the Side of Those to Be Converted

Chengguan divides the ten phrases of this gate into two halves: the first three set forth the unimpeded with reference to wisdom — the first phrase is the penetration of the emptiness of nature, the second is being manifested by the mind alone, and these two are the real wisdom; the third, knowing the occasion and speaking the Dharma, is the provisional wisdom. The remaining seven are with reference to the unimpededness of phenomena — the fourth is being able to manifest sentient beings, the fifth is the near gathering into a single hair, the sixth is the distant showing of other lands, and the remaining four are the manifesting of the bodies of those who stand foremost.

The first phrase, “knowing that in all sentient beings there is in fact no sentient being,” is most easily read as saying that there are no sentient beings and therefore no need to deliver them. First ask: are there really none? The second phrase of the scriptural text at once supplies the answer — “knowing that all sentient beings are only held in being by thinking.” It is not that there is nothing at all; it is that there is no real self standing there. What there is, is a continuity held in being by thinking. If there truly were no sentient beings, the eight phrases that follow, on manifesting and converting, would have nothing whatever to rest upon.

Brought home to use: what this gate teaches is a kind of eyesight — in looking at a person, to see at once that he is not a fixed self, and also to see that at this moment he is indeed suffering. Lacking either side, compassion goes wrong.

Gate 14. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Lands: The Gathering In and the Letting Out of the Lands

Chengguan, explaining this gate, says that the phrase of knowing the lands to be inexhaustible runs through both wisdom and phenomena, and raises two parallel translations as warrant: the Jin recension reads “entering deeply into the inexhaustible skillful means with regard to all lands,” and the Dushi reads “the inexhaustibility of what is entered in all buddha-realms,” both of them running through phenomena. The remaining nine phrases are unimpededness with regard to phenomena alone; he further points out that “deep lands” means the subtle and fine lands, and that the rest may plainly be known.

The framework of the ten phrases is four pairs of gathering in and letting out: making all lands into one land and putting all lands into a single pore are gathering in; filling all lands with one body and bringing forth all lands within a single body are letting out; adorning one land with the adornments of all lands and adorning all lands with the adornments of one land are again a pair of gathering in and letting out. Inserted among them is the phrase “shaking all lands without causing sentient beings to be terrified” — a phrase that reminds the reader that the measure and proportion of spiritual transformation also lie within the unimpeded.

Brought home to use: the Avataṃsaka’s mutual entering of the great and the small is not talking about physics; it is talking about a fact already at hand — the boundary of magnitude comes from the opposition of grasper and grasped, and once that opposition loosens, magnitude is no longer a problem.

Gate 15. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Dharmas: Able to Speak Them, and Never to Finish Speaking Them

Chengguan says that this gate is wholly with reference to wisdom: upon the dharma in which nature and characteristic are unimpeded, one is able to know and able to speak, and gains mastery. He names the phrases one by one: the first is the one and the many being identical and entering into one another without destroying what is basic; the second, the real wisdom bringing forth the provisional; the third, without letters, showing letters; the fourth, one speaking, many characteristics; the fifth, the speaking that is without speaking; the sixth, one word complete and round, the sense of the letter-wheel (he says that this sense is explained separately in the place of Megha); the seventh, gate gathering gate; the eighth, gathering the mundane by the true; the ninth, crosswise knowing the boundless; the tenth, lengthwise exhausting its limit.

These ten phrases handle one and the same contradiction over and over: the dharmas are apart from letters and speech, and yet they must be spoken to people. The scripture’s solution is not a compromise but a simultaneous establishing — the third phrase says, “knowing that all dharmas are apart from letters, and yet being able to cause sentient beings all to enter into awakening,” and the fifth says, “knowing that all dharmas are apart from speech, and yet being able to speak boundless gates of the Dharma for others.” Knowing that they are apart is the substance; being able to speak is the working. To speak without knowing that they are apart is to speak mere names and characteristics; to know that they are apart and not to speak is to let the Dharma be cut off.

Brought home to use: one who speaks the Dharma and, fearing to fall into verbal designations, dares not open his mouth, has obtained only half.

Gate 16. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Bodies: Between Body and Body There Is No Wall

All ten phrases are the mutual entering of body and body: the bodies of sentient beings entering one’s own body, one’s own body entering the bodies of sentient beings, all the bodies of the buddhas entering the body of one buddha, the body of one buddha entering all the bodies of the buddhas, all lands entering one’s own body, one body pervading the dharmas of the three times, one body manifesting boundless bodies and entering samādhi, one body manifesting bodies equal in number to the sentient beings and accomplishing perfect awakening, manifesting one body and all bodies within the bodies of sentient beings, and manifesting the dharma-body upon the bodies of sentient beings and the bodies of sentient beings upon the dharma-body.

Upon this gate and the next Chengguan says only one thing: the text in both cases may be known. He does not explain, because the sense of the phrases is plain. But plain does not mean easy to believe. First ask: how can bodies enter one another? Because a body was never a substance with a boundary. The second gate above has already said that the body of a tathāgata is “neither real nor unreal, neither existent nor nonexistent”; this gate only brings that principle down into the working.

Brought home to use: the last phrase, “manifesting the dharma-body upon the bodies of all sentient beings and manifesting the bodies of all sentient beings upon the dharma-body,” is where the ten phrases come to rest — between sentient beings and the dharma-body too there is no such wall.

Gate 17. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Vows: The Ten Ways in Which a Vow Is Unrestricted

Upon this gate likewise Chengguan says only that the text may be known. The ten phrases are still worth seeing clearly one by one: taking the vows of all bodhisattvas as one’s own vow; manifesting one’s own accomplishing of perfect awakening by the power of the buddhas’ vow to accomplish awakening; accomplishing awakening oneself in accordance with the sentient beings to be converted; the great vow unbroken through boundless kalpas; leaving far behind the body of consciousness, not clinging to the body of wisdom, and manifesting all bodies with a masterful vow; casting away one’s own body to bring to fullness the vows of others; teaching and converting everywhere and yet not forsaking the great vow; walking the bodhisattva practice through all kalpas with the great vow unbroken; manifesting the accomplishing of perfect awakening within a single pore and pervading all the buddha-lands; and speaking one phrase of Dharma that pervades the whole Dharma realm.

The very first phrase takes apart the notion of ‘my vow’: it takes the vows of all bodhisattvas as one’s own. If a vow is still mine, it has a bound; only when it is not mine can it be boundless. The sixth phrase goes a step further — “casting away one’s own body in order to bring to fullness the vows of others.”

The last phrase is the most finely written of the gate: raising up the cloud of the great true Dharma, making shine the lightning-flash of liberation, shaking the thunder-sound of the real Dharma, raining down the rain of the taste of sweet dew. Four images run down in sequence, speaking of what a single phrase of Dharma sets going. Brought home to use: one who makes vows often worries that the vow is too great to be carried out; the answer of this gate is that a vow can be carried out precisely because it is great enough no longer to be one person’s affair.

Gate 18. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Objective Realms: Ten Pairs of ‘Being Here and Not Forsaking There’

The sentence-pattern of this gate is throughout a pairing: being within objective realm A and yet not forsaking objective realm B — seven phrases read “not forsaking,” one “not cutting off,” and of the last two one “manifesting” and one “manifests.” The Dharma realm and sentient beings; the buddhas and the demons; nirvāṇa and birth-and-death; omniscience and the seed-nature of a bodhisattva; quiescence and distraction; being like empty space and the frivolous discourse of sentient beings; the powers and liberation and all directions and places; the limit where there are no sentient beings and the teaching and converting of sentient beings; the concentrations and the spiritual penetrations and quiescence, and the manifesting of taking birth; the Tathāgata’s accomplishing of perfect awakening and the deportment of the two vehicles.

Chengguan’s judgment upon this gate is very compact: within these ten objective realms of the superior and the inferior that stand contrary to one another, to dwell on the superior side and yet be able to manifest the inferior side, turning about unimpeded, is the objective realm of the bounds of a bodhisattva.

First clear away a misunderstanding: this does not say that a bodhisattva has a foot in two boats. What are contrary are the objective realms; what is not contrary is the mind. “Being within the objective realm of the buddhas and yet not forsaking the objective realm of the demons” does not mean facing toward the buddhas and toward the demons at once; it means that being in the realm of the buddhas he does not avoid the place where the demons are. Brought home to use: practitioners often have a kind of fastidiousness, willing to stay only in clean objective realms; this gate says that only being willing to go into the unclean place and not be stained by it is called unimpeded.

Gate 19. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Wisdom: Setting Forth the Working of Wisdom Throughout

Chengguan first explains how this gate stands to the gates before it: earlier there was wisdom too, but it was gathered in each under its own class; this gate throughout sets forth the working of wisdom alone. He further says that wisdom in itself has no several kinds, and that it is the dharmas illumined that make the differences appear; the unimpeded working with regard to dharmas above takes wisdom as following the dharmas, and this gate takes the dharmas as following wisdom.

He divides the ten phrases into four layers: the first two are the wisdom that is able to convert; the next three are the wisdom that knows those to be converted; the sixth enters upward into the wisdom of a buddha — these first six are all the provisional wisdom; the seventh and eighth are the wisdom in which the provisional and the real are unimpeded; the last two are the wisdom in which phenomenon and phenomenon are unimpeded.

The most practical of the ten phrases is the fifth: knowing the desires and delights, the latent tendencies, the habit-energies, and the sickness of the afflictions of sentient beings, and “giving the medicine according to what each is fit for.” The comparison of the physician is here left implicit — only by knowing the illness can medicine be given, and to give medicine without knowing the illness is to recite from a manual. Brought home to use: this phrase is one that everyone who wishes to help others ought to read.

Gate 20. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Spiritual Penetrations: The Outward Working Unblocked

Between this gate and the next Chengguan makes a division: spiritual penetration is mostly with reference to the unblockedness of the outward working, spiritual power mostly with reference to there being an inward capacity of strength. He further matches the phrases one by one to the ten penetrations: the first is the penetration of measureless form-bodies; the second, the divine ear; the third, knowing others’ minds; the fourth, discriminating speech; the fifth, the penetration of former abodes (he says that the Dushi jing names it seeing former lives); the sixth, the penetration of going to all buddha-lands; the seventh, the penetration of the kalpas to come — since the past has already been made clear above, the three times are therefore raised together; the eighth, the penetration of the wisdom of all dharmas; the ninth, the divine eye.

For the tenth phrase Chengguan judges the base text to have a lacuna. Following the Jin recension he reads, “Sons of the Buddha, spoken in brief, the bodhisattva’s mastery of the penetration of contemplating all dharmas evenly,” and says that this is the samādhi of the extinction of all dharmas, running through evenness and quiescence; and he adduces the Dushi as warrant. His words are plain: the present text has dropped this phrase, and within the text it is raised only in brief and so is not exhaustive in detail, but the great purport is not different, and the detail is set forth in the Chapter on the Ten Penetrations. This piece records his judgment, and does not alter a single graph of the base text.

Brought home to use: that an ancient worthy points out a lacuna in the base text and yet does not presume to alter it is itself a rule for reading a scripture — record the divergence, do not alter the text.

Gate 21. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Spiritual Power: The Inward Capacity of Strength

Chengguan says that the ten phrases of this gate are mostly with reference to such things as one hair holding all within it, and judges that this is the power of the body, the next gate being the power of wisdom. He adds a further remark of much interest: if the powers be gathered in under the penetrations, the ten kinds of spiritual power are no more than the single penetration of spiritual feet; it is precisely because the penetrations and the powers have been divided as two things that the penetration of the spiritual realm is little spoken of in the Chapter on the Ten Penetrations.

The ten phrases are written with tremendous force: setting unspeakable worlds within a single mote of dust; bringing forth within a single mote of dust buddha-lands equal to the Dharma realm; putting the waters of all the great oceans into a single pore and carrying them round the ten directions; putting unspeakable worlds into one’s own body; tying the Vajra Encircling Mountains with a single hair and journeying with them; kalpas long and short made into one another; manifesting the destruction of the three calamities without vexing sentient beings; guarding the requisites of sentient beings when the three calamities destroy; hurling worlds with a single hand beyond unspeakable worlds; and declaring that all lands are the same as empty space.

What deserves notice is that four of the ten phrases add such words as “without causing sentient beings to be terrified,” “without vexing or disturbing sentient beings,” and “without causing sentient beings to have a thought of alarm and terror.” First ask: why is this stressed again and again? Because a spiritual power that terrifies people is not unimpeded but oppressive. Brought home to use: the greater the capacity, the more one must watch whether the other can bear it — this is the boundary the scriptural text itself draws around the spiritual penetrations.

Gate 22. The Unimpeded Working with Regard to Powers: The Power of Compassion and Wisdom

Upon this gate Chengguan has only two sentences: the powers of compassion and wisdom are alike without obstruction; and there is also the unimpededness of the working upon phenomena, spoken of according to the greater number.

The sentence-pattern of the ten phrases differs from that of the gates before: every phrase carries its own reason. The power over sentient beings is teaching and converting, taming and subduing, and not forsaking; the power over lands is manifesting adornment; the power over dharmas is causing all that has a body to enter bodilessness; the power over kalpas is cultivation unbroken; the power of a buddha is awakening those asleep; the power of practice is gathering in the bodhisattva practices; the power of the Tathāgata is delivering and liberating sentient beings; the power without a teacher is awakening of oneself to the dharmas; the power of omniscience is accomplishing perfect awakening by omniscience; the power of great compassion is not forsaking sentient beings.

Among the ten phrases, “the unimpeded working of the power of a buddha, for the reason that they awaken those asleep,” is the shortest and the weightiest. Sleep here is not lying down asleep; it is the torpor of ignorance. Brought home to use: the ten powers come to rest at last in the power of great compassion — the utmost of power is not how much can be done, but not forsaking a single person.

The General Conclusion of the Unimpeded Workings: Obtaining the Fruit without Forsaking the Cause

The eleven gates having been spoken, the scriptural text concludes: for one who obtains these ten unimpeded workings, as to unsurpassed awakening, whether to accomplish it or for the while not to accomplish it goes as his mind intends and is not gone against; and though he has accomplished perfect awakening, he does not break off the bodhisattva practice. Chengguan here passes a judgment: having already obtained the unimpeded, to be able further to obtain the fruit and yet not forsake the cause displays the unimpeded all the more.

First ask: to walk the bodhisattva practice after becoming a buddha — is this not superfluous? If becoming a buddha be taken as a terminus, then of course it is superfluous. This very sentence is meant to take apart that imagining of a “terminus” — the bodhisattva practice is not a means toward the fruit of buddhahood, and the fruit of buddhahood is not the ending of the bodhisattva practice. The scriptural text then answers for itself why this is so: because the great vow has been brought forth, because the gate of boundless unimpeded working has been entered, and because he manifests with skill.

Brought home to use: if practice is read as a road with a terminus, weariness will certainly arise along the way. This sentence is what dissolves that weariness.

Gate 23. Sporting: The Mastery That Does Not Damage the Original Character

From this gate on are the seven gates of the third section as divided by the ancient worthies, making clear the completeness of the virtues of practice. Chengguan first states generally where these three gates come from: that station (the dedication of liberation without bond and without attachment) has a hundred gates, broadly displaying the accomplishing, through liberation without bond and without attachment, of the masterful working of the wisdom of Samantabhadra; here three gates are raised in brief — this gate is the mastery of roaming and enjoying with the practice of the resolve accomplished, the next gate makes clear that the objective realm is beyond measure, and the one after that makes clear the capacity of strength of the working of wisdom, all of them coming from being without bond and without attachment.

He gathers the ten phrases into five pairs: first, the supporting and the supported, the defiled and the pure, being made into one another and yet all without destroying the original character, which displays precisely the sense of sporting — as one sports at one’s pleasure in the world with nothing damaged or disturbed, the remaining pairs being modeled upon this; second, the great and the lesser vehicles manifesting one another; third, cause and fruit manifesting one another; fourth, birth-and-death and nirvāṇa manifesting one another; fifth, mastery in concentration and in distraction, of which the former phrase is setting going the working within concentration while constantly in concentration, and the latter is entering concentration within the working while constantly working.

The four graphs “without destroying the original character” are the eye of this gate. First ask: how does sporting differ from spiritual transformation? Spiritual transformation is being able to change; sporting is changing without losing. The bodies of sentient beings are made into the body of a land and yet the bodies of sentient beings are not destroyed — if they were destroyed, that would be annihilation, not sporting. Brought home to use: one who is truly masterful need not first destroy what he originally was in order to do anything.

Gate 24. Objective Realms: The Realm Walked and the Realm of Bounds

Chengguan says that this gate runs through two kinds of objective realm: first, the realm walked in sporting, which the Jin scripture names surpassing practice; second, the realm of bounds, that is, coming forth and sinking away unimpeded, which only a bodhisattva is able to do. He further divides them: of the ten phrases the first three are the realm walked that runs through, and the last seven are all the realm of bounds.

The ten phrases are a string of mutual bringings-forth: manifesting the gate of the boundless Dharma realm; manifesting the marvelous adornments of the worlds; going in transformation to the realms of sentient beings; bringing forth the body of a bodhisattva upon the body of a tathāgata and the body of a tathāgata upon the body of a bodhisattva; bringing forth worlds within the realm of empty space and the realm of empty space within a world; bringing forth the realm of nirvāṇa within the realm of birth-and-death and the realm of birth-and-death within the realm of nirvāṇa; bringing forth within the speech of one sentient being the speech of all the Buddha-dharma; making with boundless bodies a single body and with a single body all the differing bodies; filling the Dharma realm with a single body; and causing within a single thought all sentient beings to bring forth the mind of awakening, each manifesting measureless bodies and accomplishing perfect awakening.

Bounds means measure. The measure of a bodhisattva lies not in how far he can go, but in his being able to come forth and to sink away without being bound. Brought home to use: the last phrase most deserves notice — the utmost of the objective realm is not how many bodies one has manifested oneself, but the causing of all sentient beings to bring forth the mind.

Gate 25. Powers: The Power of the Self-Portion and the Power of the Advance Onward

Chengguan divides the ten powers into two halves: the first seven are the power of the self-portion, the last three the power of the advance onward. Within the first seven, the first three are for benefiting oneself — the first phrase seeks deeply throughout, and so he explains it as being unmixed; the second seeks the Buddha-dharma deeply, and so the Buddha-dharma is itself the ascendant; the third has what is done brought to the end because there is skillfulness; the next two are for benefiting others; and the last two run through both benefiting oneself and benefiting others. The rest he says may plainly be known.

The ten phrases are: the power of the deep mind, the power of the mind deep and ascendant, the power of skillful means, the power of wisdom, the power of vows, the power of practice, the power of the vehicle, the power of spiritual transformation, the power of awakening, and the power of turning the wheel of the Dharma. Every phrase carries a reason, and the reason is the content.

Then let the reasons of the seven phrases that follow be looked at one by one. The reason for the power of wisdom is “that he fully knows all the workings of mind” — wisdom does not fall upon how many dharmas are known but upon knowing what a person’s mind is doing; Fazang names this phrase knowing the minds of beings and assigns it to practice for the benefit of others, which fastens on exactly this. The reason for the power of vows is “that he causes all that is sought to be fulfilled,” and what is sought is not what he himself seeks but what sentient beings seek; Fazang names it fulfilling the wishes of beings. The reason for the power of practice is “that to the end of the coming limit it is not cut off,” and what makes practice a power is that it is uncut, not that it is fierce. The reason for the power of the vehicle keeps the finest measure: “that he is able to bring forth all the vehicles and yet does not cast off the Great Vehicle” — bringing forth all the vehicles is breadth, and not casting off the Great Vehicle is not losing the root; to bring forth all the vehicles and cast off the Great Vehicle would be to accord with others until oneself is lost. The reason for the power of spiritual transformation is “that within each and every pore he severally manifests all pure worlds and all tathāgatas arising in the world,” and note that the transformation of this phrase manifests no strange appearance: what it manifests is buddhas arising in the world. The reason for the power of awakening is “that he causes all sentient beings to bring forth the mind and become buddhas without any cutting off” — the power of awakening does not speak of his own obtaining of awakening but of causing others to bring forth the mind, and that without any cutting off. The reason for the power of turning the wheel of the Dharma is the most worth turning over: “that in speaking a single phrase of Dharma it answers to the faculties, natures, and desires of all sentient beings,” and a single phrase answering to all faculties and desires is what makes the wheel of the Dharma a wheel. First ask: since the last three are named the powers of fruit belonging to the advance onward, why do they still speak of sentient beings? Because the advance onward of the power of fruit is not an ascent away from sentient beings, but the carrying of one and the same thing through to the end. Brought home to use: these seven phrases may be taken as a sheet for self-examination — knowing people’s minds, fulfilling people’s wishes, practice uncut, breadth without loss of the root, what is manifested being buddhas and not marvels, causing people to bring forth the mind and not to depend, and speaking a single phrase from which every person can take use.

The first phrase, “the power of the deep mind, for the reason that it is unmixed with any worldly sentiment,” is the root of the ten powers. First ask: what is being unmixed with worldly sentiment? It is not being unfeeling toward people; it is that the motive of one’s practice has no worldly calculation mixed into it. If this phrase does not hold, the nine powers after it will all go off in flavor. Brought home to use: in examining whether one has power, one need not first look at how much has been done, but at whether the motive is pure.

Gate 26. Fearlessnesses: Ten Times ‘Because He Does Not See It, His Mind Obtains Fearlessness’

This gate is the most regular in form of the whole stretch; all ten phrases use the same structure: a certain accomplishment — thinking in this way — “because he does not see it, his mind obtains fearlessness”; seven of them close further upon “the shore of great fearlessness,” while the fourth, fifth, and seventh do not carry that phrase.

Chengguan first states where this gate stands among four gates: from the ten fearlessnesses onward, four gates make clear the practice within the dedication of the measureless Dharma realm, and divide into three sections — this gate makes clear the roots of good dedicated, the next gate the substance of the practice of the Dharma realm, and the last two the virtues accomplished. He says that this gate is the fearlessness of the roots of good of the giving of Dharma, because fearlessness is the virtue of speaking the Dharma. He further names the phrases one by one and points out what each does not fear: the first is the fearlessness of hearing and holding, the second the fearlessness of eloquence, and these two do not fear being unable to answer a difficult question; the third is the fearlessness of the two emptinesses, for penetrating the two emptinesses one does not fear deluded thoughts; the fourth is the fearlessness of deportment without flaw and the fifth the fearlessness of the three kinds of deed without fault, and these two do not fear reproach from without; the sixth is the fearlessness of outward guarding, not fearing the demons and the outsiders; the seventh is the fearlessness of right mindfulness, not fearing forgetting; the eighth is the fearlessness of skillful means, not fearing birth-and-death — and here he raises a comparison: as one who manages a boat well does not dread the perils of the sea; the ninth is the fearlessness of the mind of omniscience, not fearing the two vehicles; the tenth is the fearlessness of complete practice, not fearing being unable to convert beings.

The weightiest thing in this gate is that “not seeing.” First ask: is fearlessness a screwing up of one’s courage? It is not. Ten times over the scriptural text says “because he does not see it” — it is not a forcing of oneself not to fear, but that there is simply nothing frightening to be seen there. Not seeing is not evasion; it is how the matter really stands. The third phrase says it most thoroughly: having left far behind the self and what belongs to a self, one does not see in the dharmas the least nature or characteristic, and so one does not see who could damage and vex one.

Brought home to use: against fear, most people’s method is to strengthen themselves; the method of this gate is to see clearly that the “I” that was threatened is not there at all.

Gate 27. Dharmas Not Held in Common: Setting Practice Going in Accord with the Dharma Realm

Chengguan explains the two layers of not being held in common: because the practice is set going in accord with the Dharma realm, it is not held in common with ordinary beings and the two vehicles; and because the awakening is not by another, neither is it held in common with another. These two layers answer exactly to the two key terms of the scriptural text — every phrase is capped with “not taught by another,” and what every phrase practices is a practice of the Dharma realm.

He names the phrases one by one: the first is the practice of benefiting oneself; the second, the practice of converting others; the third, the practice of seeking upward; the fourth, the practice of skillfulness — and within this phrase he further divides five sections: skillfully departing from the two vehicles, skillfully cultivating the samādhis, skillfully according with the world, skillfully abiding in the vehicles, and skillfully exhausting cause and fruit; the fifth is the practice not held in common of carrying both on together, which has a listing, an explaining, and a conclusion; the sixth is the practice in which the three kinds of deed follow upon wisdom in their working; the seventh, the practice of compassion undergoing the sufferings of others in their stead; the eighth, the practice of great kindness gathering in beings; the ninth, the practice of firm purity for oneself and others — and here he fastens on that the simile of the spring pool of the Nirvāṇa may be spoken of within this; the tenth, the practice of constant cultivation with the station fulfilled.

The fifth phrase, “carrying the provisional and the real on together,” is the most perilous and the most refined of the gate: abiding in nirvāṇa and manifesting birth-and-death; knowing that there are no sentient beings and diligently teaching and converting; being extinguished to the end and manifesting the arising of afflictions; constantly delighting in the joy of the Dharma and manifesting women attendants who sing; adorned with the many marks and manifesting an ugly, poor, and lowly form; gathering together the many goods and manifesting birth in the three bad destinies. The scriptural text passes a verdict of its own: such wisdom the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not even able to know.

“Abiding in a single firm and close body of wisdom that is the dharma body, and yet universally manifesting measureless bodies of sentient beings” — the real is the single firm and close, the provisional is the measureless bodies of beings; and the two graphs “firm and close” are to be noticed, for the dharma body is able to manifest universally precisely because it is one and inseparably close: were it divisible, to manifest in one place would be to be less in another. “Constantly entering deep concentration and yet showing himself receiving the pleasures of desire” — this phrase is the easiest to read as an excuse for license. Clear that misunderstanding away first: what the scriptural text says is constantly entering deep concentration, and that word “constantly” is the premise; for one who does not constantly enter deep concentration, showing himself receiving the pleasures of desire is simply receiving the pleasures of desire. “Constantly far removed from the three realms and yet not casting off sentient beings” — what is removed from is the binding of the three realms, and what is not cast off is the people within them; were “removed” read as leaving the place, the phrase could not stand at all, for having left the place, how would one not cast them off? “Though he has already reached the far shore of a buddha’s wisdom, yet neither does he cast off the wisdom-body of a bodhisattva” — this phrase is where the gate gathers, and it answers from afar to the fifth phrase of the first gate, the not realizing of the real limit: he reaches the shore and does not cast off the boat. First ask: since a buddha’s wisdom is already reached, of what further use is a bodhisattva’s wisdom-body? The answer lies in the general sense of the dharmas not held in common — not held in common does not mean standing a grade higher; it means that practice is set going in accord with the Dharma realm, and the practice of the Dharma realm has no day on which it is finished, so that above a buddha’s wisdom the body of a bodhisattva is still kept. Brought home to use: practitioners are forever imagining a final end, and these four phrases say over and over one and the same thing — the further on one goes, the less one lets go of what came before.

First clear away a misunderstanding: this does not say that a bodhisattva may manifest evil conduct as he pleases. What the scriptural text says is “carrying the provisional and the real on together” — the real is the being extinguished to the end, the provisional is the characteristic manifested; where there is no real but only the provisional, that is a fall, not a manifesting. Brought home to use: one must be honest in reading this phrase — what is seen is the objective realm of a buddha, not an excuse found for oneself.

Gate 27, the Ninth: The Jewel Pure Adornment

The ninth phrase is the one complete simile in the whole stretch. There is a jewel named Pure Adornment: placed in mud and standing water its light and color do not change, and it is further able to make the turbid water clear. Joined to the bodhisattva: though his body is in the places of the foolish, the ordinary, and the mixed and turbid, in the end he does not lose or destroy the pure jewel-mind that seeks omniscience, and is further able to cause those evil sentient beings to leave far behind deluded views, afflictions, and defiled turbidity.

This simile has two layers, and neither may be lacking. The first layer is the not changing — not being stained oneself. The second layer is the being able to clarify — being able further to make the water clear. With only the first layer it is self-keeping; only with both is it a bodhisattva. Chengguan here fastens on that the simile of the spring pool of the Nirvāṇa may be spoken of at this place.

Brought home to use: in a turbid place most people can manage only the first layer, and often manage it by keeping away. What this phrase speaks of is not keeping away and yet not changing, and moreover turning about and clarifying it.

Gate 28. Deeds: The Working of the Virtues Accomplished

Chengguan speaks of the last two gates together: from the ten kinds of deed onward, two gates make clear the virtues accomplished, of which the first makes clear the working of the deeds, its ten phrases being plainly knowable, and the latter gate, the ten bodies, displays the obtaining of the substance. He adds one general judgment: whether body or deed, both are measureless as the Dharma realm, and ten kinds are merely raised in brief.

The ten phrases are: the deed with regard to all worlds, the deed with regard to all the buddhas, the deed with regard to all bodhisattvas, the deed with regard to all sentient beings, the deed with regard to all that is to come, the deed of all spiritual power, the deed of all light, the deed of the seed of the Three Jewels not being cut off, the deed of all transformation, and the deed of all sustaining. Every phrase carries a reason.

Since the clauses of reason are the content, let them be looked at one by one. The reason for the deed with regard to all worlds is “that he is able to adorn and purify them all” — the deed, as it bears upon worlds, is not a making but an adorning and purifying; Fazang judges this phrase to be with reference to place, and it is the starting point of the ten deeds. The reason for the deed with regard to all the buddhas is “that he is able to make offerings to them all”; the reason for the deed with regard to all bodhisattvas is “that he plants the same roots of good together with them”; the reason for the deed with regard to all sentient beings is “that he is able to teach and convert them all” — these three Fazang judges to be with reference to persons, and the three directions of offering upward, walking alongside, and converting downward are set out at one stroke. The phrase about planting the same roots of good is to be noticed: toward bodhisattvas it is neither offering nor converting but planting together, and this is what makes walking alongside a walking alongside. The reason for the deed with regard to all that is to come is “that to the end of the coming limit he gathers it in,” which Fazang judges to be with reference to time. The reason for the deed of all spiritual power is written most strangely: “that without leaving one world he reaches everywhere to all worlds” — first ask: not leaving, and yet reaching everywhere; how is that possible? If “reaching” is understood as moving, it is of course impossible; what the scriptural text says is that without needing to move there is no place he is not. This is precisely the principle set up in the earlier gate of unimpeded working with regard to lands, now brought home upon deeds — the boundaries of extent come from the opposition of grasper and grasped, and being unmoving yet everywhere is because there was never any here-and-there to begin with. Read together with the tenth phrase it becomes clearer still. The reason for the tenth, the deed of all sustaining, is “that in a single thought, according to what the minds of all sentient beings desire, he manifests for them all, causing all their vows to be fulfilled” — the single thought is not-moving in time, and according with what their minds desire is reaching everywhere in space, so that the two phrases, the one vertical and the other horizontal, answer to each other exactly. Notice too where this phrase gathers: causing all their vows to be fulfilled. Sustaining is not doing it in another’s stead; it is causing his own vow to come to fulfillment. The reason for the ninth, the deed of all transformation, is “that in all worlds he speaks the Dharma and teaches and converts sentient beings” — the deed of transformation does not fall upon what is transformed into being, but upon speaking the Dharma and converting; and this is the same track as the seventh phrase before it, where light is sent forth and within the light bodhisattvas appear: what is manifested is Dharma, not a marvel. Brought home to use: the ten deeds begin from adorning and purifying worlds and gather into causing all vows to be fulfilled, and among them there is not one phrase that is done for oneself.

Of these the seventh is written with the most vivid picture: sending forth boundless light of color, within each and every light a lotus seat, and upon each a bodhisattva sitting cross-legged and appearing. The eighth is the weightiest: after the buddhas have passed into extinction, guarding and sustaining the dharmas of the buddhas — this phrase is the reason why the Buddha-dharma has been able to continue down to today. Brought home to use: on reading this phrase one should know that the scripture now in one’s hands is one that someone guarded through.

Gate 29. Bodies: Ten Bodies That Display the Substance

The ten bodies of the last gate: the body that does not come, the body that does not go, the body that is not real, the body that is not unreal, the body that is not exhausted, the body that is firm, the body that is unmoving, the body complete in the marks, the body without characteristics, and the body that reaches everywhere.

Chengguan collates these ten bodies with the ten bodies of the ninth practice of the Chapter on the Ten Practices, saying that they are largely the same and slightly different, and matches them one by one: the not coming and not going here are the not being born and not ceasing there; the not real and not unreal are the not real and not false there; the not exhausted and the firm are the not shifting and not destructible there — and he further distinguishes a layer, that the not shifting is crosswise, without shifting or change, while the not exhausted is lengthwise, speaking of what has no end. The unmoving here is the one characteristic there, and he adduces the Mañjuśrī Prajñā as warrant, saying that the Dharma realm is unmoving and the Dharma realm is precisely one characteristic, and that because one characteristic is obtained the demons are unable to move it. The body complete in the marks here is the body entering all the destinies of all worlds there; the body without characteristics bears the same name in both places; the body that reaches everywhere is the body entering all worlds without destinies there — the present edition punctuates Chengguan’s sentence as ‘the body of the destinies is without characteristics, the same in name as the body that reaches everywhere,’ while this piece reads it as three pairs according to the actual list of the ten bodies of the ninth practice in the Chapter on the Ten Practices (which has a body without characteristics of its own); both readings are recorded. The rest, he says, are as set forth in the ten practices.

The first four bodies make two pairs, in the sentence-pattern of the double negative. First ask: not real and also not unreal — what then is it? The scriptural text gives the reasons itself — it is not real because all worlds are obtained as they really are, and it is not unreal because it manifests in the world by the principle of how things really are. One and the same really-so: spoken of from what is obtained, it is not real; spoken of from what shows, it is not unreal.

Brought home to use: this gate comes to rest upon “the body that reaches everywhere, for the reason that it is of one and the same body with the buddhas of the three times.” The twenty-nine gates, having walked as far as this, have spoken out the three sections of the substance of practice, the working of practice, and the virtues of practice, and return at last to one sentence — of one and the same body with the buddhas of the three times.

Lineage

The outline of this stretch comes out of the six rounds set up by the ancient worthies of old on the basis of the Dushipin jing, which Chengguan carried on and explained, stating for himself at the beginning of the chapter what he carries on. This is the first layer to be kept apart in reading this chapter: the station is what the outliners set in place, the practice is what the scriptural text says. As for the reckoning of the number of the gates, Chengguan produces two numbers — the proper outline gives twenty-nine gates, and if the sentence generally listing the unimpeded workings be joined to them there are thirty. There are likewise two ways of dividing the stretch — the ancient worthies divide it in three, eleven gates for the firmness of the substance of practice, twelve for the mastery of the working of practice, and seven for the completeness of the virtues of practice; while Chengguan reassigns it according to the ten dedications as four, two, two, one, one, one, one, the ten unimpeded, three, and four. The two outlines stand together, and this piece records both without judgment.

The divergences in the names of the gates among the translations are also many. For the first gate the eighty-fascicle recension reads “abiding like a jewel,” the sixty reads it as “the jewel, abiding in and accomplishing unsurpassed perfect awakening,” and the Dushipin jing reads ‘like brightness showing forth in the night’; for the second gate the eighty reads “the mind of vow of the Great Vehicle like a vajra,” the sixty “bringing forth the vajra mind and adorning the Great Vehicle,” and the Dushi ‘resolved upon the armor of the Great Vehicle’; for the third gate the eighty reads “great setting forth,” the sixty “setting forth the great matter,” and the Dushi ‘great diligence’ (its gate ‘able to let flow forth great vigor’ answers to the next gate of the eighty, “completing the great matter”). What most deserves notice is the eleven gates of the unimpeded working: the eighty names them throughout “unimpeded working,” the sixty names them throughout “mastery” — and since the gate before them in the sixty is also called mastery, the earlier and the later bear the same name there; whereas in the eighty the earlier stretch is mastery and the later stretch unimpeded working, the names being distinct. Chengguan explains precisely upon this difference of the two names: earlier, mastery is spoken of, which is the working moving freely; here, the unimpeded is spoken of, displaying that the working is unbound. For the gate of sporting the sixty reads “sporting with the spiritual penetrations,” and for the gate of objective realms the sixty reads “surpassing practice.” All of these are divergences among the translations, and are recorded together without judgment.

For the tenth phrase of the unimpeded working with regard to spiritual penetrations, Chengguan judges the eighty-fascicle recension to have a lacuna, and supplies its sense from the Jin recension and the Dushi, saying that the great purport is not different and that the detail is in the Chapter on the Ten Penetrations. This piece records his judgment, and does not alter a single graph of the base text.

What the commentators have left upon this stretch must be spoken of house by house. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji is a commentary upon the sixty-fascicle recension, and upon this stretch it does have an outline at the level of the gate, one that stands as a system of its own: he reckons the total by phrases, saying that this great section has three hundred phrases answering the foregoing twenty-nine questions, because the ten phrases of the chapter-headings within the ten masteries are not among the questions. His threefold division has the same section-boundaries as the threefold division of the ancient worthies recorded by Chengguan, and he divides the first of the three again into two layers — the first forty gates making clear that the substance of practice is accomplished and perches high upon the far shore, and from the ten faiths that cannot be broken onward seventy gates making clear that the substance of practice departs from obstruction and gathers in the many ascendant virtues; this layer Chengguan does not have. Explaining the naming of the first gate he brings out two senses, the direct and the reverse: abiding in the place of the right Dharma that is precious is of course called abiding like a jewel, and taking non-abiding as abiding is also called abiding like a jewel. Most worth notice is the fifth phrase: he says the reason for not realizing the real limit is twofold, first that he differs from the two vehicles and second that he retains the afflictions — and both reasons are fastened to the bodhisattva, the retaining of afflictions being the bodhisattva’s retaining them in order to take birth; and Chengguan’s same phrase, “in order to differ from the two vehicles he retains the afflictions and does not cut them off, and only then is able to cut off and realize to the end,” admits of two readings — read as the bodhisattva retaining the afflictions in order to differ from the two vehicles, it says the same as Fazang; this piece takes that reading and records the other beside it. Under the gate of mastery over lands he further poses a question and brings out five senses as the general cause of the whole stretch of the gates of mastery — fully understanding that conditioned arising is mutually dependent in its characteristics; penetrating that the nature of dharmas is fused and thoroughgoing; the power of concentration setting going the ascendant penetrations; obtaining the power of liberation and being able to turn things about; and the power of wisdom understanding dharmas to be like an illusion or a dream and following upon what his own mind manifests — saying that all of it is because the obstruction to the knowable is exhausted, and saying of himself that this explanation runs through the gates above and below. The ten masteries he collates name by name against the eighth ground; the difficulty in the gate of sporting, that a bodhisattva should make a buddha’s body become the two vehicles, he poses and answers and then adds a further explanation; and for the ten powers, the ten deeds, and the ten bodies he brings out headings in every case — among which, upon the ten deeds, Chengguan says only that they may plainly be known and brings out no headings at all. At the end of this stretch he states a judgment of his own: from of old the worthies have mostly gathered the ten deeds and ten bodies into the ten grounds, but since in the Dushi jing these stand at the end of the fourth round, he outlines them into the dedications — which is the same as what Chengguan gathers in, save that here the reason is spoken out. Li Tongxuan’s Xin Huayan jing lun divides the whole chapter into ten sections by a long outline, and this stretch lies within the sixth section, the part of the proper speaking; he says of himself that the text of the two thousand answers is in every case complete of itself, that there is no need to trouble with explaining it, and that one need only practice according to what is spoken, and so at the level of the gate the absence is recorded as it stands. The Yanyi chao has two places of review upon this stretch, not one: the first, the citing of the scripture for the second mind of the second gate in another fascicle; the second, the simile of the boat in the eighth fearlessness, that of expedient means, of gate twenty-six, and the simile of the spring pool in the ninth practice of gate twenty-seven — of the boat he points out that it is originally the sense of the Larger Perfection of Wisdom and was already cited at the seventh ground, and the spring pool he opens into two explanations, by teaching and by principle: by teaching he cites in full the text of the Nirvāṇa’s simile of the spring pool and records the outline of Master Yuan and the explanation of the Guanzhong master; by principle he takes the present scripture directly and speaks by contemplation of mind, assigning the three graphs bright, pure, and wondrous of the jewel named Pure Adornment to the three virtues of prajñā, liberation, and the dharma body, assigning mud to ordinary beings and standing water to the two vehicles, and gathering all into the one phrase that it is not the practice of ordinary beings and not the practice of the worthy and the holy but is the practice of a bodhisattva. The Chao does not adjudicate which of the two explanations is ascendant, and neither does this edition.

This stretch may be read across with three places. The first is the ten bodies of the ninth practice of the Chapter on the Ten Practices, which Chengguan judges to be largely the same as and slightly different from the ten bodies of the last gate, and matches one by one. The second is the Chapter on the Ten Penetrations, where Chengguan says the dropped text of the unimpeded working with regard to spiritual penetrations is set forth in detail, and where, since he judges spiritual penetration and spiritual power to be two distinct things, the penetration of the spiritual realm is little spoken of. The third is the ten masteries of the eighth ground in the Chapter on the Ten Grounds, of which, at gate 12, Chengguan says only that they are as set forth on the eighth ground and does not explain them again. As for the Chapter on the Ten Dedications, when Chengguan explains the station to which each gate is assigned, he repeatedly adduces as warrant the text of the fruit of that station in that chapter, and the two chapters are scriptural grounds for each other.

The Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang and the Huayan jing zhigui have upon this chapter only general references at the level of the chapter, and a citation phrase by phrase of the twenty-nine gates of this stretch is not found; the Cheng weishi lun, the She dacheng lun, and the Yuqie shidi lun likewise yield nothing corresponding to be adduced for this stretch. The absence is recorded as it stands, and no attribution is forced.