華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊17Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 17

A Question First: Why This Chapter Has to Be Expounded in a Different Place

A great scripture has come this far, and the eight assemblies before this one were either at the place of awakening, or in the Hall of Universal Light, in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, in the Yāma Heaven, in the Tuṣita Heaven, or in the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven; and now at this chapter it shifts of a sudden to the Jeta Grove, the Garden of the Benefactor of the Orphaned and Solitary, in the country of Śrāvastī, among men.

Why the shift? Chengguan glosses this thus: this chapter is ‘entering realization in dependence upon persons’ — the portions before it were entrusting to the Dharma and cultivating, where practice is established by the Dharma; this chapter is realizing the Dharma realm deeply in dependence upon the Buddha and the good friends, and once it is realized the Dharma is upon one’s own person, and therefore it is called accomplishing virtue. Li Tongxuan glosses this thus, and puts it more plainly still: the assemblies before all say “without leaving the place of awakening”, because that is still advancing in cultivation upon the substance of awakening; this assembly says outright that it is in the Jeta Grove in the country of Śrāvastī, because the ascending through the stages has already been walked to its end, and what this assembly is to expound is the practice of buddhahood accomplished and the fruit complete, delivering beings — and therefore it is in a garden and grove of a city among men.

One misreading must be set aside: do not read a change of place as a change of subject. The moving of the location is itself the doctrine — the Dharma comes back from the heavens to the human world, which is exactly ‘what is realized is to be used upon beings’.

Coming down to the reading: in reading a great scripture, look first at where it sets the scene. The scene is the scripture’s first sentence.

Five Hundred Persons: Why a Number Should Have Something It Displays

The scripture at its opening says only that the World-Honored One was in the storeyed pavilion of Great Adornment together with five hundred bodhisattva-mahāsattvas. Five hundred is not a large number — set beside the “dust-motes of buddha-lands” that come at every turn before this, it is oddly few.

Ask first: why five hundred? Chengguan glosses this thus: the bodhisattvas of this assembly are few in the names raised and many in the names set out, and this has something it displays; the number five hundred is meant to show that the five stages (the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten grounds, and equal awakening) realize and enter all at once, each stage being furnished with the ten perfections, and each fused with each, so that they make five hundred. And he adds a clause: the sixth, wondrous awakening, is the place entered, and therefore is not counted among the stages that do the entering; and this also displays that those who understand and practise are many while those who truly realize and enter are few.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read five hundred as a census. The numbers in the Huayan are almost always the structure of the Dharma, not the length of a roster.

Coming down to the reading: when a tidy number appears in a scripture, ask first what ‘stages’ it is counting, and not what people it is counting.

Two Foremost: Why Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī Stand Side by Side

Among the five hundred, the scripture marks out only two as foremost — the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.

Ask first: why should one assembly have two foremost? Chengguan glosses this thus: these two great sages are the hosts who assist in the transforming, and there is something they display, which is not stated outright until the text below. That ‘something displayed’ is made good over the whole chapter: this chapter begins from the all-at-once realization of the root assembly, while the final assembly is Sudhana giving rise to the mind at Mañjuśrī’s place and journeying south the whole way until at last he sees Samantabhadra — Mañjuśrī displays the understanding that is able to believe, Samantabhadra displays the practice that is brought to accomplishment, and the two, one at the head and one at the tail, buckle the whole chapter into a circle.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read ‘foremost’ as an order of seating. The foremost are the two gates of entry into the Dharma gate of this assembly.

Coming down to the reading: whenever the scripture marks out someone in particular as foremost, go and look at what that person carries in the text that follows — the name is usually the outline itself.

A Hundred and Forty-One Names: A Roster Is Also a Map

What comes next is a very long string of names, from the bodhisattva Light-Flame Banner all the way to the bodhisattva Dharma Realm Radiance Awakening, and the scripture itself closes it off with an ellipsis.

Ask first: this string of names reads as though it were mere pomp — what is there to read in it? Chengguan glosses this thus: here there are fourteen positions (fourteen groups), each group having ten, with additions and subtractions among them as well, making a hundred and forty-one persons in all, each name having its one sense and each carrying a deep purport. He goes further and divides these hundred and forty-one into two segments and matches them: the forty-one before display in general the four stages of abodes, practices, dedications, and the rest — the ten named with “banner” display the dedications, because the virtue of practice stands out high; the nine named with “majestic power” display the ten practices, because they are able to advance in cultivation; the ten named with “treasury” display the ten grounds, the sense being as explained before; the twelve named with “eye” display understanding, because they are able to illumine the Dharma. He explains besides why the order does not run straight: it is precisely to display that in the perfectly fused stages there is no before and after. The ten groups that follow, a hundred persons in all, then display severally, in order, the ten grounds and the ten perfections — the ten crowns display the first ground and giving, because the first ground crowns the head of all the grounds and giving crowns the front of all practices; the ten topknots display the second ground, moral discipline, discipline being without defilement and holding one in check, lofty and honoured; the ten lights display the third ground, patient endurance, sending forth the light of hearing and holding and so illumining patience with the Dharma; the ten banners display the fourth ground, vigour; the ten voices display the fifth ground, meditative concentration; the ten supremes display the sixth ground, wisdom; the ten excellents display the seventh ground, skillful means; the eleven sovereign kings display the eighth ground, vows; the ten voices display the ninth ground, powers; the nine awakenings display the tenth ground, knowledge, because at the Dharma-cloud one receives consecration and falls within the number of the buddhas.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the roster as decoration, and do not, on the other hand, read Chengguan’s matching of stages as the scripture’s own statement. The scripture only sets out names; the judgment matching them to stages comes from Chengguan.

Coming down to the reading: in reading a long Huayan roster, look at the suffix. A group sharing one suffix is often a side-portrait of a single stage.

‘Bodhisattva-Mahāsattvas of This Sort, Five Hundred Persons in All’: What This Concluding Clause Is Doing

After the roster the scripture closes off with a clause concluding the number — bodhisattva-mahāsattvas of this sort, five hundred persons together here.

Ask first: five hundred has already been said above, so why say it again here? Chengguan outlines this as the third of the three sections of setting out the names, ‘concluding the number in sum’, which together with ‘marking the foremost’ and ‘setting out the several names’ before it makes one complete piece of narration — first mark the foremost, then open out the several names, and last sum up their number. This is the fixed form of the Huayan in narrating an assembly: number, name, and virtue all three complete, and only then is the assembly reckoned to stand.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the repetition as redundancy. The repetitions in the scripture are almost always structural markers, telling you that a section has ended.

Coming down to the reading: in reading long passages, take clauses of the sort “of this sort …” as the lower boundary of a section, and the sections come clear of themselves.

“All of Them Had Accomplished the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra”: The General Clause of the Eleven Clauses Praising Their Virtue

Once the assembly stands, the scripture praises their virtue — the first clause is the general one, saying that these bodhisattvas had all of them accomplished the practices and vows of Samantabhadra; the ten clauses that follow are the particular ones, the first of them being that their states are without obstruction, because they universally reach all the buddha-lands.

Ask first: the names have already been reported one by one above, so why is a general praise still needed? Chengguan glosses this thus: the praising of virtue has eleven clauses in all, and the first clause is the general one; the names before were “displaying severally as fitting”, each taking one virtue by which to be named, while the virtue here is “in truth inwardly interpenetrating” — spoken of as it really is, each one’s virtue is in fact interpenetrating with the others, and therefore it says “all of them had accomplished the practices and vows of Samantabhadra”.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not take the one virtue inside a name for the whole of that bodhisattva. The name is a display made severally, the virtue is an inward interpenetration; the display made severally is so that you may see the facets clearly, while the inward interpenetration is how it really stands.

Coming down to the reading: in looking at persons, do not look only at the label. The scripture has just demonstrated it once — it gives you a hundred and forty-one labels first, and then tells you that beneath the labels it is one and the same matter.

The First Six Clauses: How the Functioning of Wisdom Reaches Everywhere

Below the general clause come ten clauses of particular praise. Chengguan glosses this thus: these ten clauses fall into two segments — the first six make clear that the functioning of wisdom reaches everywhere, and the last four make clear that the functioning of wisdom is apart from obstruction.

The first six are: the bodies they manifest are measureless, because they draw near to all the tathāgatas; their pure eyes are without screen, because they see the affairs of the spiritual transformations of all the buddhas; the places they reach are without limit, because wherever a tathāgata accomplishes right awakening they constantly go there universally; their radiance is without border, because with the light of wisdom they universally illumine the whole ocean of real dharmas; their expounding of Dharma is without exhaustion, because their pure eloquence is inexhaustible even through borderless kalpas; and together with the first of the particular clauses, “their states are without obstruction,” that makes exactly six — Chengguan says these first six make clear the universal reach of the working of wisdom, the last four its freedom from obstruction.

Chengguan further matches these ten clauses two by two into five pairs, and calls the first pair “the state pervading and the bodies many”, which says that the dependent recompense and the direct recompense are both exhausted; the second pair he calls “seeing, functioning, and reaching what is real”, which says that the ten eyes are apart from obstruction, that they see without needing to go, and that in a single thought they meet with what is real, body and mind reaching everywhere.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read these six clauses as six abilities. They are six facets of one and the same matter — when wisdom is put to work, it reaches everywhere and is nowhere partitioned off.

Coming down to the reading: with a string of parallel clauses, count them first, then look for their divisions. Between the six and the four there is a seam, and the two sides of the seam are speaking of different things.

The Last Four Clauses: How the Functioning of Wisdom Is Apart from Obstruction

The last four clauses are: they are equal to the realm of empty space, because all that their wisdom practises is entirely pure; they have nowhere they rest upon, because following the minds of beings they manifest bodies of form; they have extinguished the cataract of delusion, because they know that within the realm of beings there is no being; their wisdom is equal to empty space, because with a great net of radiance they illumine the Dharma realm through and through.

Ask first: why are these four clauses put under “apart from obstruction”? Chengguan glosses this thus: the third pair is “inwardly illumining and outwardly setting forth”, the fourth pair is “wisdom pure and form following”, and the fifth pair is “compassion deep and wisdom broad” — because it is a compassion that is wisdom itself, there is no screening cataract toward beings; and because it is a wisdom that has nothing outside it, its illumining is the same as empty space. He points out besides that the two uses of “empty space” differ: the one before takes the sense of ‘pure’, while this one takes the sense of ‘broad’.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “knowing that within the realm of beings there is no being” as there being no beings to deliver. What Chengguan fastens it upon is “extinguishing the cataract of delusion” — it is precisely because one does not cling to a mark of beings as truly there that delivering beings will not be obstructed by marks.

Coming down to the reading: the same word appearing twice within one passage is not necessarily the same in sense. When you come upon a repeated wording, ask in passing: which sense is being taken this time?

The Five Hundred Śrāvakas: Why Their Virtue Is Praised

After the assembly of bodhisattvas, the scripture says that five hundred śrāvakas were also present, and praises them in ten clauses — awakened to the true truth, realized the real limit, entered deeply into the nature of dharmas, forever come out of the ocean of existence, relying upon the merit of a buddha, left behind the fetters, servants, and bonds, abiding in the place without obstruction, minds tranquil as empty space, without doubt toward the buddhas, believing deeply and proceeding to enter.

Ask first: since the text below is going to say that the śrāvakas saw nothing at all, why is there praise here? Chengguan glosses this thus: these śrāvakas are in fact all bodhisattvas, who, in order to display the deep Dharma, entrusted themselves to appearing in the body of a śrāvaka, and therefore the virtue praised of them “in its wording holds both root and trace”. He accordingly opens two gates in explaining it: taking the trace and speaking in terms of the lesser, these ten clauses are all the virtue of a śrāvaka — gaining direct realization, entering the right nature and leaving birth behind, having exhausted what is to be learned, having ended the portion of birth, accomplishing virtue in reliance upon the Buddha, having exhausted the fetters of existence, without the hindrance of the afflictions, mind well liberated, wisdom well liberated, and not of fixed nature but able to turn the mind; taking the root and speaking in terms of bodhisattvas, he then cites the Sūtra of the Inconceivable State of the Tathāgata as witness, which says that measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of bodhisattvas appeared in the shape of śrāvakas and came to sit in the assembly as well, named Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and the rest — from which it may be seen that they are provisional manifestations.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the praise in the prologue and the not-seeing in the text below as a contradiction between before and after. In Chengguan’s outline the one is root and the other is trace, and root and trace do not obstruct each other.

Coming down to the reading: when two passages in a scripture look as though they were fighting each other, ask first whether they are speaking on the same level.

The Measureless World-Lords: Friends Who Come Unasked

The third class of the assembly is the measureless lords of the world. The scripture praises them in ten clauses: they had made offerings to measureless buddhas, were constantly able to benefit all beings, were friends who come unasked, guarded them constantly and diligently, never abandoned their vows, entered the gate of the most surpassing wisdom of the world, were born from the Buddha’s teaching, guarded the Buddha’s right Dharma, gave rise to great vows, did not let the lineage of the buddhas be cut off and were born in the house of the Tathāgata, and sought all-knowing wisdom.

Ask first: how are these ten clauses divided? Chengguan glosses this thus: the first clause praises merit; the four that follow praise compassion — among which the first is the general one and the other three are particular: the first is responding universally without any condition, the second is guarding and holding the beginner’s mind in thought, the third is vowing not to abandon the evil; two clauses more praise the virtue of wisdom, the first being wisdom entering the provisional gate and the second being practice guarding principle and teaching; the seven clauses above all belong to practice, the eighth clause is vow, and vow and practice are both complete; the ninth clause is entering the stage, the first nine clauses being one’s own portion and the tenth clause being advancing beyond.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not make light of the four graphs “friends who come unasked”. The beings have not opened their mouths to ask, and he comes first to be their friend — this is precisely the prelude to “great compassion for his body” in the text below.

Coming down to the reading: if a list of virtues will not read out its layers, look first for the general clause and for the words that turn, and the layers will surface of themselves.

The Request: Why the ‘Request’ of This Assembly Makes No Sound

The assembly has gathered complete, and by custom someone should come forward to make the request. But in this assembly there is none: the scripture says only that the bodhisattvas, the śrāvakas of great virtue, the kings of the world, and their retinues “all raised this thought” — that everyone in their hearts raised one thought all at once.

Ask first: why is there no sound? Chengguan outlines this as the portion of the request, and says that an assembly gathers precisely in order to hear the scripture. As for how the śrāvakas too could raise this same thought, he explains it in two senses: the first is spoken in terms of root and trace, that in terms of root they are able to have the thought while in terms of trace they do not know; the second is spoken only in terms of trace, and he cites the words of the Dharma Master Yi — that in principle the place is not partitioned off, and so they are able to share in the doubting; only that they have not yet piled up the great mind, and so cannot take their place in the ranks. Chengguan appraises this saying as “this too has its reason”, and strikes a comparison: it is just like the Duke of She’s love of dragons, where a true dragon appearing before him is precisely what he cannot bear to look at; dwelling together in one assembly and looking up together at one Dharma gate, it is only because what is manifested surpasses their kind that they are as though deaf and blind.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “a thought of the mind” as there being no request. Thought is also request, and it is the way of requesting peculiar to this assembly — and the Buddha’s answer below is likewise not speech, but the manifesting of appearances. Question and answer, both ends of it, make no sound.

Coming down to the reading: when you come upon the scripture using “raised this thought” rather than “said to the Buddha”, stop a moment and look at how the Buddha answers afterward.

The Ten Clauses of “the Tathāgata”: What It Is That Is Thought

The first segment of the thought of the mind raises ten “Tathāgatas” one after another — the state of the Tathāgata, the wisdom-practice of the Tathāgata, the empowering of the Tathāgata, the power of the Tathāgata, the fearlessness of the Tathāgata, the samādhi of the Tathāgata, the abiding of the Tathāgata, the self-mastery of the Tathāgata, the body of the Tathāgata, the wisdom of the Tathāgata.

Ask first: are these ten clauses an offhand spreading-out? Chengguan glosses this thus: this whole segment of thought has sixty-one clauses in all, of which the thirty clauses before and after are the Dharma requested while the thirty-one clauses in the middle are only the manner of requesting; and these thirty clauses of Dharma requested are for the most part the same as the forty clauses of dharmas in the first assembly — because the first assembly is the general one, and this assembly is about to draw to a close, and so it returns and joins with the root. He also matches and explains them clause by clause: the state is the allotment of what is taken as object; the wisdom-practice is the effortless practice in which compassion and wisdom are unobstructed; the empowering is sustaining by a surpassing power so that something may be done; the fourth is the ten powers; the fifth is the four kinds and ten kinds of fearlessness; the sixth is the concentrations such as the Lion’s Rousing; the seventh, the abiding, is the ground upon which a buddha abides; the eighth is the ten sovereignties; and the last two clauses, body and wisdom, gather up the ten clauses of the first assembly that spoke of the six faculties and the three actions — the body combines the six faculties with two of the actions, and the wisdom is the action of mind, because mind and thought cannot be known and can only be known by wisdom.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read these ten clauses as ten words of praise. They are a list of questions, and the manifestation in samādhi below is to answer them back clause by clause.

Coming down to the reading: read a passage of request as a table of contents; the order of the answer will usually follow that table.

The Ten Clauses of “None Able”: Admitting First That One Cannot Reach

The second segment is ten “none able” — all the gods and men of the world are none able to penetrate, none able to proceed in, none able to believe and understand, none able to know, none able to bear, none able to contemplate, none able to select, none able to open and show, none able to proclaim and clarify, nor is anyone able to make beings understand.

Ask first: since the Dharma is to be requested, why say first that one is not up to it? Chengguan glosses this thus: these ten clauses make clear that it is deep and wondrous and hard to think of, and that gods and men cannot fathom it: the first two clauses make clear in general that understanding and practice do not reach it, since wisdom cannot run through and the mind’s practice cannot arrive at realization; the five clauses that follow make clear that the three kinds of wisdom cannot fathom it, and therefore cannot accomplish benefit for oneself — the first three of them are the wisdom of hearing not reaching it, because being wondrous it cannot be stamped and held upon its object, because being deep it cannot be made clear in the mind, and because being broad it cannot be borne and taken in; the next clause is the wisdom of cultivating being unable to contemplate and illumine in detail, because it is profound; and the next is the wisdom of pondering being unable to select the better and the worse, because it is fused. He notes besides one divergence in the translations: the Jin text renders “selecting” as “pondering”, and ranges it above “contemplating”. The last three clauses are the four kinds of unimpeded speech being unable to declare it, and therefore unable to accomplish benefit for others.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read these ten clauses as modesty. They are marking the height of the Dharma — the unreachable must be stated clearly first, and only then does the “only excepting” of the next segment have anything to land upon.

Coming down to the reading: whenever a passage begins by saying ‘it cannot be done’, the very next clause is often where the turn lies.

The Ten Kinds of Power: Under What Conditions It Becomes Possible

The third segment is the “only excepting” — only excepting the power of the buddhas’ blessing, the power of the Buddha’s spiritual penetration, the power of the Buddha’s majestic virtue, the power of the Buddha’s original vow, together with the power of the roots of goodness of former lives, the power of the good friends’ gathering one in, the power of deep and pure faith, the power of great clear understanding, the power of the pure mind heading toward awakening, and the power of the vast vow seeking all-knowing wisdom.

Ask first: how are these ten kinds of power divided? Chengguan glosses this thus: the first four are the Buddha’s power added from above, and belong to condition; the last six are one’s own faculties being fit to receive, and belong to cause. Among the first four, the first three are present condition and the last is the vow of former lives; among the last six, the first is goodness of former lives and the other five are present virtue. He says besides that these ten clauses may be taken as “having in part one knows in part, having in full one knows in full”, and that in general they carry two intents: the one is to accomplish the depth displayed in the text above, the other is to bring on the request for exposition in the text below.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read empowering as a one-sided bestowal. Of the ten powers, four are in the Buddha and six are in oneself; and the sixth clause, “the power of the good friends’ gathering one in”, is especially to be kept in mind — the fifty and more good friends of the whole final assembly are the opening out of this one clause.

Coming down to the reading: this is a list one can check oneself against. Faith, understanding, the mind of awakening, and vow — all four are on one’s own side.

The Eleven Kinds of “Every Kind”: What the Buddha Is Asked to Accord With

The fourth segment turns to the request proper: we pray only that the World-Honored One will accord with our and all beings’ every kind of wish, every kind of understanding, every kind of wisdom, every kind of speech, every kind of self-mastery, every kind of ground abided in, every kind of purity of faculty, every kind of skillful means of thought, every kind of state of mind, every kind of relying upon the merit of the Tathāgata, and every kind of hearing and receiving the various dharmas expounded.

Ask first: why request “according with” before requesting the Dharma? Chengguan glosses this thus: these eleven clauses request that he accord with what suits their capacity — since it was said above that the gathering of conditions can be known, here it is requested that the Buddha follow the vessel according to the condition. Among them the first three clauses are in terms of the inner mind’s vessels differing; the fourth clause is in terms of the differences of outer kinds and sounds; and these four run through both the ordinary and the sagely. The seven that follow are mostly in terms of bodhisattvas — the first is that their resources and the like differ, the second is the higher and lower of their stages, the third is removing obstruction according to faculty, the fourth is the differences of the works they do, the fifth is the objects they take as condition being unlike, the sixth is what virtue they formerly relied upon in cultivating, and the seventh is what Dharma they formerly heard as their seed.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “according with” as accommodation. According with is a technical question of expounding the Dharma; it is not a lowering of the Dharma’s grade.

Coming down to the reading: if you really mean to explain something to someone, ask first what their wishes, their understanding, their faculties, and their objects are. This segment amounts to an outline of preparation for one who expounds the Dharma.

The Ten Clauses of “Formerly”: Requesting That the Buddha’s Causal Ground Be Expounded

The fifth segment is the first ten clauses of the Dharma requested: we pray that you will show the Tathāgata’s mind that formerly sought all-knowing wisdom, the great bodhisattva vows he formerly raised, the perfections he formerly purified, the bodhisattva grounds he formerly entered, the bodhisattva practices he formerly fulfilled, the skillful means he formerly accomplished, the paths he formerly cultivated, the dharmas of coming out he formerly gained, the affairs of spiritual penetration he formerly performed, and the past deeds and their causes and conditions he formerly had.

Ask first: why is it “formerly” that is requested? Chengguan glosses this thus: among these ten clauses, seven are entirely the same as the first assembly in name and sense; “the paths” is the first assembly’s ocean of the aiding path, and “skillful means” is the first assembly’s ocean of wisdom, differing in name and the same in sense; the first assembly has “the ocean of vehicles” and not the “past deeds” of this place, and this differs in both name and sense — because the first assembly requests in general concerning all bodhisattvas, and so must display that vehicle differs from vehicle, while here the question is put concerning the original teacher, and so past deeds are added.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read a question about the causal ground as an interest in history. To ask about what was formerly is to ask about the road — since the fruit is inconceivable, then look at where he walked from.

Coming down to the reading: if you wish to learn a person’s accomplishment, ask first what he did on his causal ground. This segment gives exactly ten ways of asking it.

The Ten Clauses of the Fruit’s Functioning: Requesting What Comes after Buddhahood

The sixth segment is the last ten clauses of the Dharma requested: and his accomplishing right and equal awakening, turning the wondrous Dharma wheel, purifying buddha-lands, taming beings, opening the Dharma-citadel of all-knowing wisdom, showing the road to all beings, entering the dwelling places of all beings, receiving what all beings offer, expounding for all beings the merit of giving, and manifesting for all beings the reflected images of the buddhas — dharmas of this sort, we pray that all be expounded for us.

Ask first: how do these ten clauses differ from the first assembly? Chengguan glosses this thus: these ten clauses set over against the thirtieth clause of the first assembly are largely the same in sense and much unlike in wording, which is in order to display that the fruit’s functioning is borderless, and so the wording is deliberately abridged. He matches them clause by clause to the ten oceans: first, the cause being fulfilled and the fruit accomplished is the ocean of buddhas; second, accomplishing must be followed by setting forth the Dharma, which is the ocean of exposition; third, the Dharma expressing itself in purifying lands is the ocean of worlds; fourth, all of it being for taming beings is the ocean of names; fifth, opening both together the fruit-citadel of awakening and of nirvāṇa is the ocean of liberation; sixth, showing the deeds and practices of birth as the cause for reaching the fruit is the ocean of beings; seventh, entering everywhere into the places of capacities and establishing a lifespan according to capacity is the ocean of lifespans; eighth, being a field for beings so that they may gain a constant life is the ocean of perfections; ninth, expounding the perfections as the pattern by which the ocean of worlds is set up; tenth, the transformations of the three wheels being like the moon in water and the image in a mirror is the ocean of transformations. At the end Chengguan closes with four graphs only: the concluding request may be known.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the eighth and ninth clauses, “receiving what all beings offer” and “expounding for all beings the merit of giving”, as small matters; the tenth, “manifesting for all beings the images of the buddhas,” is the close. The functioning of the fruit-ground is not in the heights; it is precisely in such everyday things as receiving offerings and expounding giving.

Coming down to the reading: having asked about the cause, ask next how the fruit is used. A complete request must ask about both cause and fruit.

Great Compassion for His Body: The Four Clauses before He Enters Concentration

The World-Honored One knew what the assembly was thinking in their hearts, and what the scripture writes next is not that he opened his mouth, but only that he had “great compassion for his body, great compassion for his gate, great compassion for his head, and took the dharma of great compassion as his skillful means”, filling and pervading empty space.

Ask first: why four clauses of great compassion before entering concentration? Chengguan outlines this as the cause of entering concentration, and says there are four kinds of compassion, taken as the root of entering concentration to benefit beings, each kind being furnished with two senses: as to “body”, the one is that the body relied upon in entering concentration is perfumed by compassion, the other is that body takes the sense of substance and of support, because to enter a deep concentration one must wholly rely upon great compassion as substance; as to “gate”, the one is that a buddha has the gates of great wisdom, great concentration, and great compassion, and now, wishing to benefit beings, he relies upon the gate of compassion alone to make beings enter, the other is that concentration is what is entered and compassion is what enters; as to “head”, the one is that whatever benefits beings takes great compassion as its forerunner, the other is the sense of the surpassing and supreme, not that the gates of wisdom and concentration are unused, but that this one gate is the more surpassing; as to “skillful means”, the one is that compassion and wisdom are skillful means to each other, and now compassion is taken as the skillful means for entering concentration and benefiting beings, the other is that this is a compassion that is wisdom itself and concentration itself, not stuck in affection and views, and therefore able to make beings universally enter the Dharma realm. Chengguan says besides that these four compassions are also the gradual order running from the Buddha toward the capacities.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read great compassion as an emotional lead-in before the concentration. In this passage great compassion is the substance of the concentration, not its overture.

Coming down to the reading: for anything at all done for the sake of others, ask first what its substance is. If the substance is compassion, the method will find its way to people of itself.

The Lion’s Stretching: Why a Concentration Takes This Name

Then the scripture has only one short clause: filling and pervading empty space, he entered the samādhi of the Lion’s Stretching.

Ask first: what does “stretching” mean? Chengguan glosses this thus: this concentration takes its name from its working, by way of a comparison; and there are those who say that the Sanskrit sound has been corrupted and abridged, and that it ought properly to be vijṛmbhita, translated as sovereign and without fear, like the lion king among the herd of beasts, sovereign and without fear. And he reconciles the new and old translations: the old scripture renders it “the Lion’s Rousing”, and the two sounds, pín and pí, are slightly liable to be confused with each other, while the wording “rousing” is moreover not much like vijṛmbhita; but since the Niepan, in fascicle twenty-five, speaks of “stretching and yawning”, it may be known that stretching and rousing were one and the same thing from the first — both being the manner of spreading out the four limbs, open and unhindered. He goes further and combines ten senses upon the lion: taking great compassion of one substance for its body, surpassing great compassion for its head, the great loving-kindness that is wisdom itself for its eyes, wisdom alone and unmixed for its fangs and claws, great compassion and skillful means for the lashing of its tail, the four compassions taken together for its feet, the samādhi of the Dharma realm for its den, great compassion without any condition for the door of its den, substance and function unobstructed for its stretching, and the setting forth of the Dharma gates of the Dharma realm for its roaring; and following the Niepan he sets up eleven matters, of which the ninth is exactly the taming of the outsiders and the two vehicles so that they become as though deaf and blind and cast off their arrogance — which buckles precisely onto the text below.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read a divergence in translated names as two concentrations. Chengguan has already judged it: the names differ and the matter is one.

Coming down to the reading: when you meet with two translated names for the same passage of scripture, look first at whether the ancient worthies have reconciled them; where they have, there is no need to raise a dispute afresh.

The Answer That Does Not Open the Mouth: Where the Substance of the Teaching Lies in This Assembly

What is most out of the ordinary in this passage is that the Buddha never speaks at all. After the request in thought, he enters concentration directly; and after entering concentration comes the transformation of the pavilion, of the grove and garden, and of empty space.

Ask first: does this count as an answer? Chengguan glosses this thus: this very portion is the repaying of the request in thought before it, answering by showing appearances; and he says besides that the reason the Buddha enters concentration himself is to display that only a buddha can exhaust the realization of the Dharma realm, and that the reason he answers without speaking is to display that what is realized is apart from words, and further to make the assembly witness it with their own eyes and realize it for themselves. He has even checked this “answer” clause by clause: the state manifested answers the question about the state; the four kinds of great compassion being manifested for beings answers the question about wisdom-practice; causing the assembly to see and witness answers the question about empowering; knowing that it is the Tathāgata’s majestic power answers the question about the Buddha’s power; the working of the samādhi answers the question about fearlessness; the entering of the samādhi proper answers the question about samādhi; the purified Dharma-realm land answers the question about the abiding; causing great and small to fuse and take in one another answers the question about self-mastery; seeing the Tathāgata’s body pervading the Dharma realm answers the question about the Buddha’s body; and seeing the Tathāgata’s great compassion and skillful means answers the question about wisdom; while the other twenty clauses are answered within the segment on the gathering of the assembly. What Zhiyan judged is close to this as well: this assembly does not, as the assemblies before it did, take sound as the exposition proper, but the Tathāgata’s releasing radiance and manifesting the three kinds of world so that the assembly may enter — this is the exposition proper.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read ‘he did not speak’ as there being no answer. The substance of the teaching in this assembly is appearance, not sound.

Coming down to the reading: some things cannot be explained and can only be done for people to see. Here the scripture has demonstrated once, at the highest grade, what a demonstration is.

The Pavilion of a Sudden Grew Vast: Why What Changes First Is the Very Room before Them

After he entered concentration, the first thing to change is not the Dharma realm but the great pavilion of Great Adornment right before them — of a sudden grown vast and borderless, adamant for its ground, jewel-kings covering it above, jewelled flowers and maṇi filling it everywhere, beryl for its pillars, jambūnada gold wish-fulfilling jewel-kings set upon it, high towers and passageways, ridgepoles and roof-beams, windows and doorways, stairs and courtyards, galleries and balustrades all provided, and banners and pennants raised at the sides of the gates releasing radiance that universally reaches through the Dharma realm.

Ask first: why begin from the nearest room of all? Chengguan glosses this thus: this portion first makes clear the vastness of the place, which is breaking up sentiment and displaying the Dharma, meeting the real in the very event — seen from within, it is vast and borderless; and yet the event is not destroyed, for seen from without, beyond the pavilion is the garden and beyond the garden is the empty sky, the adornments of each being different. He says that this is exactly principle and event interpenetrating, the ten directions and the three limits of time all perfectly fused, and the grove and the empty sky are to be read on this same pattern. As for the various adornments that follow, he says only one clause: the adornments proper are displayed, which is to show that of the myriad virtues of conditioned arising there is not one not furnished.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “of a sudden grew vast” as the room having got bigger. The pavilion is still that same pavilion; what changed is the allotment within which the one who sees is standing.

Coming down to the reading: change often begins from the nearest place. Once this one room before you is seen clearly, the world outside opens along with it.

The Jeta Grove of a Sudden Grew Vast: The Opening of the Second Layer

The second layer is the garden and grove: by the Buddha’s spiritual power the Jeta Grove of a sudden grew vast, as large as buddha-lands as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands — wondrous jewels interlaced, jewels beyond number for its walls, jewelled tāla trees adorning the sides of the roads; within it measureless fragrant rivers filled with fragrant water swirling in swift eddies, jewelled flowers turning to the right with the current and of themselves sending forth the sound of the Buddha’s Dharma; puṇḍarīka flowers spread over the water, trees of many jewelled flowers planted in rows on both banks, terraces and pavilions ranged in order; and fifteen kinds of jewelled banner raised, ranged in rows in adornment everywhere throughout the ten directions.

Ask first: the pavilion has already grown vast, so why open yet another layer? Chengguan glosses this thus: from the abridged to the broad there are three layers in all — adorning the pavilion, adorning the garden and grove, and adorning empty space, and these three layers display three kinds of conditioned arising: adorning the pavilion shows the conditioned arising of one’s own substance, the grove displays conditioned arising that is conditioned, and adorning empty space displays conditioned arising that is unconditioned.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the three layers as one and the same thing said three times over. It is a sequence running from within outward, and the three kinds of conditioned arising are matched exactly upon these three places.

Coming down to the reading: with a passage of spreading-out, count the layers first. Once the layers are clear, the spreading-out is no longer merely splendid.

The Ten Kinds of Cloud in the Empty Sky: The Opening of the Third Layer

The third layer is in the empty sky: above the Jeta Grove there are inconceivable clouds of heavenly palaces, clouds of fragrant trees beyond number, unspeakably many clouds of Sumeru mountains, clouds of music, clouds of jewelled lotus flowers sending forth wondrous sounds that sing the Tathāgata’s praise, clouds of jewelled seats, clouds of maṇi jewels in the forms of the deva kings spread with heavenly robes and with bodhisattvas seated upon them praising the Buddha’s merit, clouds of white true pearls, clouds of ornaments of red-pearl pavilions, and clouds raining down adamantine firm pearls — ten kinds, all abiding in the empty sky, filling it all round about.

Ask first: why should the third layer be set in empty space? By Chengguan’s outline of the three conditioned arisings, what adorning empty space displays is conditioned arising that is unconditioned — and the unconditioned dharma, being without shape and without abode, is displayed most aptly by clouds that abide in the empty sky and do not come down to earth.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the clouds as weather. Clouds in the scriptures are the mark of ‘many yet unobstructing, gathered yet without substance’, and are the handiest thing there is for displaying the Dharma.

Coming down to the reading: whenever you meet the graph for “cloud” in reading the Huayan, think of two things: first, that it is too many to be counted; second, that it can be seen and cannot be grasped.

The Ten Clauses of “Inconceivable”: Where All This Comes From

The scripture sets a question of its own: for what reason? And it answers at once with ten clauses — the Tathāgata’s roots of goodness are inconceivable, his white dharmas are inconceivable, his majestic power is inconceivable, his being able with a single body to transform himself sovereignly and pervade all worlds is inconceivable, his being able by spiritual power to make all the buddhas and the adornments of buddha-lands enter his body is inconceivable, his being able within a single dust-mote to manifest universally the reflected images of the whole Dharma realm is inconceivable, his being able within a single pore to display all the buddhas of the past is inconceivable, his every single ray of released radiance being able to illumine all worlds throughout is inconceivable, his being able within a single pore to bring forth clouds of transformation as many as the dust-motes of all buddha-lands and fill all buddha-lands is inconceivable, and his being able within a single pore to manifest universally the kalpas of forming, abiding, and decaying of all the worlds of the ten directions is inconceivable.

Ask first: how are these ten clauses arranged? Chengguan glosses this thus: this sets forth the cause of the adorning, that is, the adornment of right and equal awakening, and it is the manifesting for the assembly, above, of his bodily power and of the Buddha’s power added from above: the first is the power of the roots of loving-kindness and goodness, the second is the power of undefiled wisdom, and by these two powers the assembly is empowered; the third is the power of merit and majestic virtue; and the other seven clauses are all the power of sovereign spiritual penetration — among which the first is spreading out, the second is rolling up, the third is enclosing crosswise, the fourth is taking in lengthwise, the fifth is all being one, the sixth is one being all, and the seventh is forming and decaying being each the other.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “inconceivable” as “no need to think”. Chengguan has laid out spreading and rolling, crosswise and lengthwise, one and many, forming and decaying for us — inconceivable does not mean that thinking is forbidden, but that having thought to the end it still does not come to rest.

Coming down to the reading: if a thing cannot be given a reason, see first whether a structure can be laid out for it. If a structure can be laid out, it is not vague after all.

All the Worlds of the Ten Directions Are Seen Thus As Well: One Assembly Pervading Every Place

Then the scripture says: just as within this Jeta Grove, the Garden of the Benefactor of the Orphaned and Solitary, the buddha-land is seen pure and adorned, so too in all the worlds of the ten directions, to the ends of the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space, it is seen in this same way.

Ask first: does this mean that people of the ten directions look over here from afar? Chengguan picks out this very point: what is called “seeing the Tathāgata’s body abiding in the Jeta Grove” means abiding in the groves within each and every one of those worlds of the ten directions, and this states that one assembly pervades every place, just as in the Chapter on the Awakening by Radiance, and is not those worlds seeing this buddha from afar.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read pervading as distance. Pervading says that this very assembly is itself in every place; it does not say that every place is looking toward here.

Coming down to the reading: this clause is one of the key clauses of Huayan reading. Hereafter, whenever you come upon “so too in the ten directions”, calibrate once against this clause first.

The Fifteen Clauses of “Seeing”: What It Is That Is Seen

Beneath the general conclusion the scripture opens out what is seen in fifteen clauses of “seeing”: the first clause is seeing the Tathāgata’s body abiding in the Jeta Grove with the assembly of bodhisattvas filling it entirely, while the fourteen clauses after it all read “seeing clouds that universally rain down …” — clouds of adornment, clouds of the shining of jewelled radiance, clouds of maṇi jewels, clouds of adorning canopies covering the buddha-lands, clouds of heavenly bodies, clouds of flowering trees, clouds of robe-trees, clouds of jewelled garlands and necklaces spread throughout the whole earth, clouds of ornaments, clouds of incense of every kind in the shapes of beings, clouds of nets of subtle and wondrous jewelled flowers, clouds of heavenly women holding jewelled banners and pennants and circling to and fro, clouds of jewelled lotus flowers from among whose petals the sounds of music arise of themselves, and clouds of lion seats adorned with jewelled nets and necklaces.

Ask first: why is the first clause unlike the other fourteen in its pattern? Because what is seen in the first clause is the Buddha and the assembly, who are the lords of what is adorned; while what is seen in the other fourteen clauses are the marks of what is adorned. The lord stands first and the marks are spread after — this is the bone of the passage.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read all fifteen clauses alike as clouds. Counted out in fact, the first clause has no graph for cloud in it, and only the other fourteen are rained-down clouds.

Coming down to the reading: count once before reading a string of parallels. Once counted, you will not turn a passage into one vague impression.

The East Comes to Gather: Ten Segments for the Ten Directions, Each Segment Having Ten

After the manifesting of appearances comes the gathering of the assembly. The first segment is the east: beyond world-oceans as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands there is a world named Golden Lamp Cloud Banner, its buddha styled Vairocana Excellent-Virtue King; among them is a bodhisattva named Vairocana Vow-Radiance, who together with bodhisattvas as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands comes, raising ten kinds of heavenly cloud that fill the empty sky; having come to the Buddha he bows his head to the Buddha’s feet, and then in the east conjures up a jewel-adorned pavilion together with a lion seat of the jewelled lotus treasury that universally illumines the ten directions, draws a net of wish-fulfilling jewels over his body, and sits down cross-legged with his retinue.

Ask first: what is the structure of this segment? Chengguan outlines this as ten segments for the ten directions, each segment having ten, and matches the sense of each one by one: the first is the nearness or farness of the place they come from; the second is the difference of the world’s name; the third is the style of the buddha they formerly served; the fourth is the name of the host bodhisattva; the fifth is the retinue coming with him, so as to make host and companions; the sixth is raising offerings of clouds at length, displaying that the cause adorns the fruit; the seventh is going to the Buddha and paying reverence, displaying that the cause heads toward the fruit; the eighth is conjuring up a seat in his own quarter — the own quarter displaying that they take part and yet are not jumbled, the seat displaying the emptiness of dharmas, and the pavilion displaying that emptiness and being are shown doubly; the ninth is crowns and nets adorning the body, so as to show that surpassing virtue adorns the dharma-body; the tenth is the retinue sitting together, displaying that host and companions realize together. And he explains why they gather from afar: that all of them gather from afar displays that the realizing and entering is deeply profound; and that only the first assembly and this assembly gather from afar is because the first assembly is what is believed and this assembly is realizing and entering, and to realize and enter is to return to the very beginning, for it is one and the same mark.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the coming to gather as a scene of greeting guests. Every one of the ten items is displaying the Dharma, and all ten segments of the ten directions follow this same mould.

Coming down to the reading: with writing of repeated structure, take the first segment apart clearly first. Once the first segment is taken apart, the other nine are the same drawing coloured in ten times.

The South and the West: Why the Offerings Differ from Each Other

The second segment, the south: the world is named Adamantine Treasury, the buddha styled Universal Radiance Unsurpassed-Treasury King, the bodhisattva named Indestructible Vigour King, who comes “holding” ten kinds of jewelled net, necklace, flower, and garland the whole way. The third segment, the west: the world is named Maṇi Jewel Lamp Sumeru Mountain Banner, the buddha styled Dharma Realm Wisdom Lamp, the bodhisattva named Universally Excellent Unsurpassed Majestic-Virtue King, and the ten clouds he raises are all “Sumeru-mountain clouds”.

Ask first: why are the offerings of each quarter unlike? Chengguan fastens what each quarter displays: the offerings of the south all say “holding”, which displays cultivating and holding; the offerings of the west are all Sumeru-mountain clouds, because the four virtues are wondrously high, cool, and benefit beings.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the offerings as a list of gifts. In Chengguan’s outline the offerings are the images of the virtue realized in each quarter.

Coming down to the reading: when a difference appears within a repeated structure, that difference is often what the passage is really saying.

The North and the Northeast: Robes and Pavilions

The fourth segment, the north: the world is named Jewelled Robe Radiance Banner, the buddha styled Great Radiance Illumining Empty Space and the Dharma Realm, the bodhisattva named Unobstructed Excellent-Treasury King, and the ten clouds he raises are all robe clouds. The fifth segment, the northeast: the world is named Net of the Pure Radiance of Universal Joy, the buddha styled Unobstructed Eye, the bodhisattva named Transformation-Manifesting Dharma Realm Vow-Moon King, and the ten clouds he raises are all pavilion clouds.

Ask first: what do robes and pavilions each display? Chengguan glosses this thus: that the north all says robes is that tranquil endurance and shame and conscience adorn the dharma-body; that the northeast says pavilions is that the two benefits of compassion and wisdom are shown as causing each other.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “robes” merely as ornaments. In the scriptures robes often display endurance and shame and conscience — a thing that covers the body displays aptly the virtue that covers and guards the ground of the mind.

Coming down to the reading: with symbols, ask first what the object does in daily life. Robes cover the body, pavilions hold people, and the doctrine starts from there.

The Southeast and the Southwest: Full Radiance and Flame

The sixth segment, the southeast: the world is named Fragrant Cloud Adornment Banner, the buddha styled dragon Sovereign King, the bodhisattva named Dharma-Wisdom Light-Flame King, and the ten clouds he raises are all “clouds of full radiance”. The seventh segment, the southwest: the world is named Sun-Radiance Maṇi Treasury, the buddha styled Universally Illumining Wisdom-Moon King of All Dharmas, the bodhisattva named Wisdom-Banner King Crushing All the Armies of Māra, and the ten clouds he raises are all “flame clouds”, and each and every one of them comes forth from his pores.

Ask first: what is the difference between radiance and flame? Chengguan glosses this thus: that the southeast says full radiance is the practice in which the two wisdoms, provisional and real, lack nothing; that the southwest says flame is the burning of the firewood of confusion with pure wisdom, and it displays besides that these are all sustained by thought and not to be grasped.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read flame merely as blazing abundance. What Chengguan fastens it upon is “burning confusion” — the working of a flame is in reducing, not in adding.

Coming down to the reading: both alike are marks of radiance, and the one takes fullness while the other takes burning away. In reading symbols one must ask the direction in which they work.

The Northwest, the Nadir, and the Zenith: The Last Three Quarters Also Answer the Earlier Questions

The eighth segment, the northwest: the bodhisattva is named Vow-Wisdom Radiance Banner, who in thought after thought brings forth ten kinds of cloud of forms from all his marks and signs, pores, and bodily parts. The ninth segment, the nadir: the bodhisattva is named Valorous Wisdom-King Breaking Every Obstruction, who brings forth from all his pores ten kinds of cloud of sound. The tenth segment, the zenith: the bodhisattva is named Vow of the Distinctions of the Dharma Realm, who within his marks and signs, pores, bodily parts, limbs and joints, ornaments, and garments manifests the buddhas of the three times and ten kinds of ocean of past deeds of the ten perfections.

Ask first: why do the last three segments change their manner of writing all at once? Chengguan glosses this thus: the seven quarters above raise offerings and display the Dharma, which is answering in general the bodhisattvas’ spiritual penetrations; while the three segments below answer besides, in particular, the last twenty clauses of the request above — the ten clauses of the northwest answer “manifesting for all beings the reflected images of the buddhas”; the ten clauses of the pores of the nadir answer five of the questions in the cause and five in the fruit’s functioning; and the ten clauses of the marks and signs of the zenith answer in general the tenth, the past deeds and their causes and conditions, answering besides the perfections and the grounds entered, because the ten perfections are just what is practised on the several grounds. He explains besides why the order is not even: the ten directions come all at once and all the offerings appear at once, and the wording cannot be written over again, and so it is expounded differently according to quarter; if it be gathered back according to the order of the questions, there is in fact nothing uneven. He points out besides why the zenith all speaks of “past deeds”: it is to display that the substance of the dharmas of the three times abides constantly.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read ‘the order not being even’ as disorder. Chengguan has stated it plainly: the order of the wording obeys the scene, while the order of the sense still stands.

Coming down to the reading: if a passage looks disordered in its sequence, ask first whether its sequence has been determined by something else.

Thirty-Four Clauses of Particular Praise: What Kind of Persons Have Come

After the ten segments of the ten directions, the scripture praises these bodhisattvas in general: all born from the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, seeing the buddhas of the three times with pure wisdom-eyes, universally hearing the Dharma wheels of the buddhas; in thought after thought manifesting great spiritual transformations, a single body filling all worlds; knowing all beings as an illusion, the buddhas as a reflection, the births taken as a dream, karmic recompense as an image in a mirror, the arising of existence as a shimmering mirage in the heat, and worlds as a conjuring; accomplishing the ten powers and the fearlessnesses, able to give the lion’s roar; all the states of spiritual penetration already pure, crushing the armies of Māra; constantly penetrating the three times with wisdom and yet without grasping and attachment; entering the whole Dharma realm with the wisdom of skillful means, entering all lands with the wisdom of evenness, manifesting vast lands upon a fine and subtle object and fine and subtle lands upon a vast object.

Ask first: how is this long passage divided? Chengguan glosses this thus: the particular praise has thirty-four clauses in all, falling into three segments: the first five clauses make clear the virtue of drawing near to the buddhas above — the first, pure eyes seeing the Buddha, is the action of mind; the second, hearing the Tathāgata’s Dharma, is purifying and cultivating the action of speech; and the other three clauses all show self-mastery in the action of body; the next fourteen clauses make clear the virtue of gathering in beings below, and among them six clauses make clear the six comparisons in particular — being a gathering of conditions and not real, it is as an illusion; the original substance reflecting the light according to capacity and having its better and worse, it is as a reflection; the destinies being raised by thought, they are as a dream; the illumining reflecting the substance and having its fair and foul, it is as an image in a mirror; being sustained by thought, it is as a mirage in the heat; being nothing and suddenly there, and there for a moment and then nothing again, it is as a conjuring; the last fifteen clauses make clear the virtue of self-mastery in great functioning, the first clause making clear in general what is gained and the others making clear the penetrations and functions in particular, which are divided again into the three actions crushing the wrong, six clauses of self-mastery in the action of mind, and seven clauses of self-mastery in the action of body.

Ask one layer further: among the last fifteen clauses, the six clauses of self-mastery in the action of mind — what does each of the six say? Chengguan first sets down a general rule — all six are the provisional and the real practiced together — and then points them out one by one. The first: wisdom penetrates the affairs of the three times, while insight reaches through to the emptiness of the three times. The second: knowing dharmas to be like emptiness, and emptiness admitting of no dispute, and yet not destroying existence, and so not attached to emptiness. The third: pressing on with no mark of pressing on, and so it is said to have no coming. The fourth: existence itself is emptiness. The fifth: emptiness itself is existence, and so it is called skillful means. The sixth: with wisdom entering the land of the nature. The six are not six kinds of effort set out in a row; they are one and the same practicing-together said once from each of six angles: only when existence and emptiness stand at once without obstructing one another is there self-mastery in the action of mind. The scripture itself draws the line most clearly — though he presses on with diligence, he knows that omniscience in the end comes from nowhere: the diligence is real diligence, and yet the omniscience sought does not come from anywhere; though he contemplates the objective realm, he knows that the whole of existence is unobtainable: the contemplating is real contemplating, and yet not a fraction of the existence contemplated is to be had. Diligent and knowing there is no coming, contemplating and knowing there is nothing to be had — this is the provisional not obstructing the real, and the real not obstructing the provisional. The misreading to be set aside: with a sentence shaped “though … yet …”, do not take the first half for a concession and the second half for the truth — both halves are the truth, and only together are they one sentence; and do not read “practiced together” as two things done by turns.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the six comparisons as six ways of saying one thing. Chengguan has pointed out for each comparison why it is so; each of the six has its own angle, and they cannot be exchanged for one another.

Coming down to the reading: if a string of comparisons reads as saying the same thing over, then the point where each of them bears its weight has not yet been read out.

The Showing of Loss and Gain: Ten Great Śrāvakas Were in the Grove

With the gathering of the assembly thus complete, the scripture turns its brush of a sudden: the foremost among the great śrāvakas — Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Revata, Subhūti, Aniruddha, Nanda, Kapphiṇa, Kātyāyana, Pūrṇa, and the rest — were persons within the Jeta Grove, and yet none of them saw the ten matters of the Tathāgata, none saw the thirty clauses concerning the bodhisattvas.

Ask first: what is the intent of this passage? Chengguan outlines this as the portion of the showing of loss and gain, also named the raising of the inferior to show the surpassing, and says that it is to make clear what is not shared in common. He divides it into three sections: the first makes clear the persons who do not see, the next makes clear the states that are not seen, and the last explains the reason for not seeing. He has explained the names of these ten one by one as well: Śāri means the osprey, because the mother’s eyes were bright and keen like that bird, and “putra” is son, the designation being taken from the mother; Maudgalyāyana means of the bean-gathering clan; Mahākāśyapa means great drinker of light; Revata means the Star of the Chamber, being born through a sacrifice to that star; Subhūti means well manifest, the chamber being empty at his birth and good marks appearing; Aniruddha means unceasing; Nanda means joy; Kapphiṇa means yellow-headed; Kātyāyana means of the shaven clan; Pūrṇa means vow fulfilled. As for the states not seen, he outlines them too as first the ten clauses of not seeing the fruit and next the clauses of not seeing the cause, that is, the bodhisattvas, among which “universally arriving” is a coming here anew while “universally going forth” is a going from here.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read this passage as a belittling of the śrāvakas. Chengguan states it plainly in the questions and answers at the end: this is to display what is not shared in common, and is not a taking away of what they have realized.

Coming down to the reading: when someone in a scripture “does not see”, ask first whether the scripture means to reproach him, or means to let us see how high the state seen really is.

The Eighteen Clauses of “Because They Formerly …”: What Is Lacking Is the Cause of Former Lives

The scripture asks itself for what reason, and answers first with eighteen clauses: formerly not cultivating the roots of goodness for seeing the Buddha’s self-mastery, formerly not praising and telling of the pure merit of the buddha-lands of the ten directions, formerly not extolling the spiritual transformations of the buddhas, formerly not raising the mind of awakening in the midst of turning in birth and death, formerly not causing others to abide in the mind of awakening, formerly not being able to keep the lineage of the Tathāgata from being cut off, formerly not gathering in beings, formerly not exhorting others to cultivate the perfections, formerly not exhorting beings while in birth and death to seek the most surpassing great wisdom-eye, formerly not cultivating the roots of goodness that give birth to all-knowing wisdom, formerly not accomplishing the roots of goodness for a tathāgata’s coming forth in the world, formerly not gaining the wisdom of the spiritual penetration that adorns and purifies buddha-lands, formerly not gaining the states known to the bodhisattvas’ eyes, formerly not seeking the roots of goodness of the awakening that surpasses the world and is not shared in common, formerly not raising all the great bodhisattva vows, formerly not being born from the Tathāgata’s blessing, formerly not knowing that dharmas are as an illusion and bodhisattvas as a dream, and formerly not gaining the vast joy of the great bodhisattvas.

Ask first: how are these eighteen clauses divided? Chengguan glosses this thus: there is first one clause marking in general the difference between the great and the small in goodness, and then eighteen clauses raising the inferior in contrast with the surpassing — the first twelve clauses explain the cause of not seeing the buddha-fruit, and the last six clauses explain the cause of not seeing the bodhisattvas; within the first twelve clauses the first clause is general and the rest are particular, the first two clauses being not praising the fruit and the last nine being not cultivating the cause, and these nine dividing again into the first five lacking the practice of one’s own portion and the last four lacking the practice of advancing beyond. He adds at the end a word of exhortation besides: since it is by not cultivating in the original cause that they do not see, he wishes those who learn hereafter to cultivate the cause of seeing the Buddha, and not to stall in a dark quiescence.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read these eighteen clauses as a list of charges. It is a curriculum of learning written in reverse — turned clause by clause into the affirmative, it is a table of homework for a bodhisattva’s causal ground.

Coming down to the reading: change every “because they formerly did not …” into “because they formerly did …” and read it through once, and you will know what there is to cultivate.

Ten “Not Having” and Ten “Unable”: What Is Lacking Is the Present Condition

The scripture goes on to say “furthermore”, and shifts to another angle: the great śrāvakas do not have such roots of goodness, wisdom-eye, samādhis, liberations, spiritual penetrations, majestic virtue, might, self-mastery, dwelling place, or states, and therefore concerning these are unable to know, unable to see, unable to enter, unable to realize, unable to abide, unable to understand, unable to contemplate, unable to bear, unable to head toward, and unable to travel; and are unable besides to open out and explain them for others, to extol and display them, or to lead and exhort others onward.

Ask first: how does this passage differ from the one before? Chengguan glosses this thus: the passage before makes clear the lack of the cause of former lives, and this passage makes clear the lack of the present condition; these ten clauses of not having surpassing virtue and practice are exactly the states not seen above, and are exactly the four clauses among the causes of former lives about not cultivating the practice of advancing beyond — not cultivating, therefore not having; not having, therefore not seeing. He distinguishes besides the two senses of “entering”: the entering of the text above is in terms of realizing, while the entering here is in terms of penetrating and understanding.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the two passages as a repetition. The one speaks of the seed and the other of the present activity; the one speaks of the past and the other of the present.

Coming down to the reading: when a thing cannot be done, both ends usually want checking: nothing was planted before, and there is no condition furnished now either.

For What Reason: They Abide within Their Own Vehicle

Asking for what reason once more, the scripture answers: the great disciples came out by relying upon the śrāvaka vehicle, accomplished the śrāvakas’ path, fulfilled the śrāvakas’ practice, abided upon the śrāvakas’ fruit, gained a decisive wisdom concerning the truth of there being nothing there, abided constantly within the real limit, ultimately tranquil, far apart from great compassion, casting beings aside and abiding upon their own affair; and concerning wisdom of that other kind they were unable to accumulate, cultivate, abide in, vow for, accomplish, purify, proceed into, penetrate, know and see, or realize and gain it.

Ask first: does this passage not simply return to the starting point? Chengguan glosses this thus: these two passages are back and forth, completing each other: above it is asked for what reason they have no such roots of goodness, and the answer is that it is by abiding in their own vehicle and taking realization there; and one may ask again for what reason they take realization there, and the answer is that it is by having no surpassing roots of goodness — what is lacking being placed before, it is therefore abridged and not made clear again. He judges these ten clauses in general besides under four losses: the first clause is coming out of the coarse and not out of the fine, coming out of the birth and death of allotted portions only; the next four clauses are gaining the provisional and losing the real; the next three clauses are stalling in quiescence and losing compassion; and the last two clauses are abandoning beings and delivering only oneself.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “abiding constantly within the real limit, ultimately tranquil” as a defect. In itself it is what has been realized; the trouble lies in the clause that follows — far apart from great compassion, casting beings aside.

Coming down to the reading: a person’s strong point, if it is not joined onto beings, will become his boundary. This passage is speaking of exactly that.

The Ten Similes in General: Why Ten Comparisons Are Needed

After the exposition in terms of Dharma comes the exposition in terms of simile. The scripture uses ten comparisons one after another: the hungry ghosts of the Ganges, dreaming in a great assembly of Śakra’s city, the medicinal herbs of the Snow Mountain, the treasure hoard within the earth, the blind man at the island of jewels, the eye of Stainless Radiance, the monk in the concentration of the universal bases, the medicine that screens the form, the gods Born Together and of the Same Name, and entering the samādhi of cessation.

Ask first: why should one matter be compared ten times over? Chengguan first records the old explanation of the ancient worthies — that from of old the various worthies all matched the ten similes to the ten clauses of the buddha-fruit that were not understood above, and only the ninth, the simile of the two gods, is a simile for the second clause above, “the fine adornment of the Tathāgata”, the rest being matched in order; and he appraises it as “this too has its reason”. Then he sets forth two explanations of his own: the one is that every simile is a general simile for not seeing the states of cause and fruit and the rest, because the text that joins them also speaks of not seeing the assembly of bodhisattvas; the other is that they severally liken the several virtues, for if there were nothing severally likened at all, why should so many similes be needed? He divides them besides: the first nine similes set up the simile in terms of the surpassing state, and the last simile sets it up in terms of the inferior dharma — entering the samādhi of cessation being a simile for the two vehicles themselves.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the ten similes as one and the same sense repeated ten times. Chengguan has pointed out for each simile both a general and a particular intent.

Coming down to the reading: with a chain of similes, ask first whether they are ranged side by side or divided into groups.

Simile One: The Hungry Ghosts by the River

On the bank of the Ganges there are hundreds of thousands of koṭis of measureless hungry ghosts, naked of body, hungry and thirsty, their whole bodies scorched, with crows, vultures, and jackals vying to come and seize upon them; pressed by thirst they wish to seek water to drink, and though they dwell at the river’s edge they do not see the river, and even if they see it, it is dried up. The scripture joins it thus: those great śrāvakas are just so, dwelling within the grove and yet not seeing the vast spiritual power of the Tathāgata, because the cataract of ignorance covers their eyes and because they had not planted the roots of goodness of the ground of all-knowing wisdom.

Ask first: what does each single thing in this simile display? Chengguan has matched it graph by graph: their portion of birth being ended, they are called ghosts; not having gained the robe of the patience of non-arising, they are naked; not gaining the food of the Dharma realm’s practice, they are hungry; not gaining the taste of true liberation, they are thirsty, and therefore they are called starving; above all this there is no true path at all, which is the remnant of deeds; being driven along by the suffering of formations, their whole bodies are scorched, which is the remnant of suffering; the view of emptiness is the crows and vultures, the view of existence is the jackals; making a fixed interpretation upon these is the seizing upon them; holding within a great capacity and having a portion in true release is being pressed by thirst and wishing to seek water to drink; being present in the Dharma assembly is dwelling at the river’s edge, and not beholding the spiritual transformations is not seeing the river; and though they behold the World-Honored One they see only the sixteen-foot body, which is seeing it dried up.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the hungry ghosts as wicked men. The hungry ghosts in this simile are persons who ‘have the capacity and are obstructed’ — he is thirsty at this very moment, and he is at the river too.

Coming down to the reading: what is hardest to bear is not being far off; it is standing at the water’s edge and not seeing the water.

Simile Two: The Man Dreaming in the Great Assembly

A man falls into a heavy sleep in a great assembly and dreams of the palaces and parks, the gods and goddesses, the robe-trees and flower-trees and music of the great city Sudarśana on the summit of Mount Sumeru; he himself wears heavenly robes in the dream and moves about within it, while the assembly together with him in one place neither knows it nor sees it. The scripture joins it thus: all the bodhisattvas and the kings of the world are just so — because they had for long accumulated roots of goodness, raised the vast vow, studied the merit of the buddhas, cultivated the adorning path, fulfilled the dharmas of the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom, fulfilled the practices and vows of Samantabhadra, proceeded into the bodhisattvas’ wisdom-grounds, sported in the samādhis, and were already able to contemplate the states of the bodhisattvas’ wisdom without obstruction, therefore they all saw; while the śrāvakas were unable to see, because they had not the pure eye of a bodhisattva.

Ask first: how does this simile differ from the first? Chengguan glosses this thus: this is the simile of waking and dreaming set over against each other, a general simile for the lofty and vast virtue of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s sporting in spiritual transformations. The weight of this simile falls upon ‘being in the same place and seeing differently’ — it is not a matter of higher and lower ability, but of standing in a different state.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the dream as unreality. The dream here borrows one matter only: in one and the same place, some can see and some cannot.

Coming down to the reading: two people sitting in the same room are not necessarily in the same world. This is not a comparison; it is what this passage states outright.

Simile Three: The Medicinal Herbs on the Snow Mountain

The Snow Mountain is furnished with a multitude of medicinal herbs, and a good physician coming there can distinguish them all; while those who hunt and those who herd upon that mountain dwell there day after day and do not see the medicines. The scripture joins it thus: the bodhisattvas, having entered the state of wisdom and being furnished with the power of self-mastery, are able to see; while the great disciples seek only their own benefit and do not wish to benefit others, seek only their own peace and do not wish to give peace to others, and though within the grove, neither know nor see.

Ask first: why set the physician over against the hunter and the herdsman? Chengguan glosses this thus: the good medicine of the Snow Mountain is a general simile for the virtue that is remote and hard to see, and a particular simile for the Buddha’s state — because that is the state upon which compassion is set; and it is a simile too for the place where bodhisattvas abide — because rescuing beings in compassion is exactly what they abide in; while the men who hunt and herd are a simile for the śrāvakas’ having no great compassion to rescue the sicknesses of beings.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read ‘not seeing the medicine’ as a matter of eyesight. It is not that the hunter’s eyes are bad; it is that he did not come to this mountain in order to cure illness.

Coming down to the reading: what you see in a place depends upon what you came there to do.

Simile Four: The Treasure Hoard Underground

Within the earth there is a treasure hoard filled with rare and marvellous things of every kind; there is a man, clever and penetrating, well able to distinguish every buried hoard, and having besides the power of great merit, able to take and use them sovereignly according to his wish, to support his father and mother, to relieve his kinsfolk, and to succour the aged, the sick, and the poor and destitute; while men without wisdom and without merit, even walking to the place where the hoard lies, neither know it nor see it, and gain no benefit from it. The scripture joins it thus: the great bodhisattvas have the pure wisdom-eye, and are able to enter the Tathāgata’s deeply profound states, able to see the Buddha’s spiritual power, able to enter the gates of dharmas, able to roam the ocean of samādhis, able to make offerings to the buddhas, able by the right Dharma to open and awaken beings, and able by the four means of gathering to gather beings in; while the great śrāvakas do not see.

Ask first: why is it written in particular that he “supports his father and mother and relieves his kinsfolk”? The treasure in the simile is not for his own enjoyment; it is taken out to succour others — and this clause answers precisely to “by the right Dharma opening and awakening beings” and “by the four means of gathering gathering beings in” in the joining text. Chengguan glosses this thus: the hoard is a general simile for the virtue that is secret and hard to know, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s being honoured, eminent, and to be prized; and it is a simile too for the samādhis the bodhisattvas enter and for their contemplating, stretching, valour, and making offerings; while the man of thin merit is a simile for the śrāvakas’ having no such majestic virtue.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “knowing the treasure” and ‘taking the treasure’ as one thing. The simile divides them very clearly: one must have wisdom in order to know it, and one must also have merit in order to get it out.

Coming down to the reading: being able to see is still not enough; one must also have the strength to put it to use.

Simile Five: The Blind Man Arriving at the Island of Jewels

A blind man arrives at a great island of jewels, and whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, he does not see any of the many jewels; and because he does not see them he cannot gather them, and does not gain the use of them. The scripture joins it thus: the great disciples, though within the grove and drawing near to the World-Honored One, do not see the Tathāgata’s sovereign spiritual power, and do not see the great assembly of bodhisattvas either — because they have not the unobstructed pure eye of a bodhisattva, and cannot awaken to and enter the Dharma realm in due order and so see the Tathāgata’s sovereign power.

Ask first: is this simile not a repetition of the fourth? Chengguan glosses this thus: the island of jewels is a general simile for the virtue that is utterly cut off and hard to fathom, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s wondrous practice, practice piled up and perfectly wondrous, and a simile too for the bodhisattvas’ receiving the prediction, their ripening, and their valour; while blindness is a simile for the two vehicles’ having no such roots of goodness. The weight of the fourth simile falls upon “knowing” and “taking”, and the weight of this one falls upon the “eye” — the very door of seeing has not been opened.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “blind” as a defect one is born with. The joining text says it plainly: it is having no “unobstructed pure eye of a bodhisattva”, and that eye is gained by cultivation.

Coming down to the reading: not seeing, one will not gather; not gathering, one does not use. The three are one chain, and it is broken at the very first link.

Simile Six: The Man Who Gains the Eye of Stainless Radiance

A man gains a pure eye named Stainless Radiance, and no colour of darkness can obstruct him; in the darkness of night, in the midst of measureless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of people, he sees all their forms and bearings, while as for his own bearing, his advancing and withdrawing, those people do not see it. The scripture joins it thus: the Buddha is just so, having accomplished the wisdom-eye, pure and unobstructed, seeing universally the whole world; and the spiritual penetrations and transformations he displays have a great assembly of bodhisattvas circling round about them, while the great disciples are none of them able to see.

Ask first: in the similes before this it was beings who could not see, so why does this one write in particular that ‘he sees others while others do not see him’? Chengguan glosses this thus: this is the simile of the pure eye without obstruction, a general simile for the virtue of the illumining of wisdom that is beyond measure, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s majestic virtue; while the not beholding of his bearing in the five clauses from “the bodhisattvas’ dharma-body” onward is a simile for the two vehicles’ having no such self-mastery.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read ‘others do not see him’ as concealment. This is speaking of the unevenness between what can see and what is seen — the high place can see the low, and the low place cannot see the high.

Coming down to the reading: in a relationship where only one side can see, the responsibility mostly lies with the side that can see. And what follows this simile is precisely that the Buddha is still displaying himself within the assembly.

Simile Seven: The Monk Who Enters the Concentration of the Universal Bases

A monk in a great assembly enters the concentration of the universal bases, and the scripture sets out twelve of them: earth, water, fire, wind, blue, yellow, red, white, the gods, the bodies of beings of every kind, all speech and sound, and all objects taken as condition; the one who enters this concentration sees the objects he takes as his condition, while the rest of the great assembly are none of them able to see them, only excepting those who abide in this same samādhi. The scripture joins it thus: the inconceivable states of the buddhas that the Tathāgata manifests are just so — the bodhisattvas see them fully, while the śrāvakas do not behold them.

Ask first: why twelve and not the ten usually spoken of? Chengguan glosses this thus: a universal base is contemplating one base universally throughout without any gap, and therefore it is called a universal base; the Yujia, the Zhidu, the Jushe, and the other treatises all say there are ten, while here there are twelve, the first eight being the same, and the ninth there being named the universal base of space and the tenth the universal base of consciousness; this scripture, its guiding tenet being different, combines space and consciousness into the universal base of the gods, and adds three matters besides — the tenth, the universal base of the bodies of beings of every kind, is exactly the eye and the other faculties and forms that the other treatises set aside; the eleventh, speech and sound, is the object of sound; and the twelfth, all objects taken as condition, is the object of the six sense-fields, taking in scent and taste and the object of mind. He cites the Yujia, fascicle twelve, to make clear why the other treatises set up only the two bases of form and touch.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read a divergence of number as scripture and treatise contradicting each other. Chengguan has checked the account item by item: it is not that more are reckoned, but that the opening and combining differ.

Coming down to the reading: when you meet with the same term counted differently in two places, look into the opening and combining first, and only then talk of discrepancy.

Simile Eight: The Man Who Smears On the Medicine That Screens the Form

A man smears the medicine that screens the form upon his own eyes, and coming and going, sitting and standing in an assembly, no one is able to see him, while he for his part is able to see fully the affairs within the assembly. The scripture joins it thus: the Tathāgata is just so, passing beyond the world and universally seeing the world, and not what any of the śrāvakas is able to see, only excepting the great bodhisattvas who head toward the state of all-knowing wisdom.

Ask first: is this not very like the pure eye of the sixth simile? Chengguan has divided them: the sixth is the simile of the pure eye without obstruction, and its weight is upon being able to see; this simile is the simile of the wondrous medicine that screens the form, a general simile for the virtue of hiddenness and manifestness surpassing the world, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s upholding, and a simile too for the bodhisattvas’ virtue of raising clouds of transformation; and the not beholding is a simile for the śrāvakas’ having no such liberation.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “screening the form” as hiding away. The hiddenness here is surpassing the world — not falling within the world’s seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, and not at all a leaving of the assembly.

Coming down to the reading: one and the same person can be both present and unseen. This clause is the aptest of all for reading the Buddha’s displaying.

Simile Nine: The God Born Together and the God of the Same Name

A man has just been born, and there are at once two gods who constantly accompany him, one named Born Together, the other named of the Same Name; the gods constantly see the man, while the man does not see the gods. The scripture joins it thus: the Tathāgata is just so, manifesting great spiritual penetrations in the great gathering of the bodhisattvas, while the great śrāvakas are none of them able to see them.

Ask first: why use an example so near at hand? The eight similes before took states remote and surpassing, such as the Ganges, the Snow Mountain, and the island of jewels; this simile takes the two gods that go along with one’s own body and never leave it. Chengguan glosses this thus: the simile of the two gods accompanying a man is a general simile for the virtue that is subtle, wondrous, and hard to destroy, and a particular simile for the Tathāgata’s fine adornment and for the bodhisattvas’ virtue of bodies pervading the ten directions and practices fulfilled; and the not beholding of the two gods is a simile for the two vehicles’ having no such might, and a simile too for their being without compassion and casting beings aside. He records besides the old matching of the ancient worthies: among the ten similes only this one is matched to “the fine adornment of the Tathāgata”, the rest being matched in order.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “the man does not see the gods” as the gods hiding from the man. The force of this simile lies exactly in the four graphs “constantly accompany and follow” — what is nearest is often what is least seen.

Coming down to the reading: not seeing is not necessarily because of distance. The scripture has ruled out distance as an explanation for us.

Simile Ten: The Monk Who Enters the Samādhi of Cessation

A monk gains mastery of mind and enters the samādhi of cessation; the working of the six faculties is entirely stopped, and of all speech he neither knows nor perceives anything; and because the power of the concentration sustains him, he does not on that account pass into parinirvāṇa. The scripture joins it thus: all the śrāvakas are just so — though they dwell within the grove, with the six faculties entire, they do not know, do not see, do not understand, and do not enter the Tathāgata’s self-mastery and the various doings of the assembly of bodhisattvas.

Ask first: why does the last simile change the direction from which the simile is taken? Chengguan glosses this thus: the first nine similes take the simile in terms of the surpassing state, and this simile takes it in terms of the inferior dharma — entering the samādhi of cessation is exactly a simile for the two vehicles themselves; and he says besides that this simile makes clear in general what is not shared in common and displays the ten inexhaustibles, likening besides their abiding in their own vehicle.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read the samādhi of cessation as a term of disparagement. The weight of the simile is not upon the height or lowness of the concentration, but upon that state of ‘the six faculties entire and yet neither knowing nor perceiving’ — the man is there, the faculties are there, the object is present before him, and there is no answering to it.

Coming down to the reading: with the ten similes walked to the end, the lens turns from the outer state back to oneself. The true reason for not seeing lies not in the river, the mountain, the island, or the treasure, but in the concentration one is abiding in oneself.

The Concluding Praise: It Is Not What Their Capacity Can Bear

At the end the scripture asks and answers itself in conclusion: the states of the Tathāgata are deeply profound and vast, hard to see and hard to know, hard to fathom and hard to measure, surpassing all the worlds, inconceivable, and there is none able to destroy them, and they are not the states of any of the two vehicles; therefore the Tathāgata’s sovereign spiritual power, the assembly of bodhisattvas, and the Jeta Grove pervading all the pure worlds — of all these things the great śrāvakas neither knew nor saw anything, because it is not what their capacity can bear.

Ask first: does this clause shut the door for good? Chengguan outlines this as calling forth in order to conclude, and says that these ten clauses conclude exactly the ten similes above, only that the seventh and eighth clauses, following the joining text above, have their order exchanged, the rest answering one to another in order. And at the very end of the passage he sets a great question and answer: the Bore jing says that the śrāvakas’ wisdom and severance are all of them the bodhisattvas’ patience of non-arising; in the Wenshu xunxing jing five hundred śrāvakas hear and do not believe; and in the Fahua the bodhisattva Never Disparaging makes them hear as well — why then are they not made to hear here? He answers: to display what is not shared in common. And he judges the difference in the manner of transforming — the Fahua is the end of the gradual teaching, and has to gather in the spoiled seed, and therefore makes five thousand withdraw from their seats and spurs those in the assembly to believe and accept; while this scripture is the beginning of the sudden teaching, and to display the deep and surpassing it lets them remain in the assembly without making them hear, so that those who learn hereafter may cultivate the seed of seeing and hearing. At the last he turns the words over and says: it may be known that the deaf and the blind have their force in displaying the surpassing, because it is exactly they that make the surpassing show; the surpassing and the inferior set over against each other, their forces and functions interpenetrating, make a great conditioned arising, and only this is deep and profound.

The misreading to be set aside is this: do not read “because it is not their capacity” as their having no portion in it ever. Chengguan has stated it plainly: if it be taken in terms of the universal gathering-in, there is no being at all that does not possess the wisdom of a tathāgata, how much more the undefiled cause and fruit of the two vehicles; what is spoken of here is the one side of weighing the better against the worse.

Coming down to the reading: this portion is named the showing of loss and gain. The loss is the śrāvakas’ loss, and the gain is the gain of the one who reads the scripture — the scripture writes out the not-seeing in such detail so that you may turn every “formerly did not” into a “now to be cultivated”.

Lineage

• The order of the assemblies: Chengguan makes the present assembly the ninth, naming it the assembly of the storeyed pavilion of the Jeta Grove garden, taking the grove’s name of Victor to display dependence upon persons, the garden’s name of Benefactor of the Orphaned to display the depth of compassion, and the storeyed pavilion to show the two wisdoms adorning each other; Fazang makes it the assembly of the Jetavana storeyed pavilion, taking it that this Dharma succours beings and gathers the living, and so it is in the Benefactor’s garden, and that compassion is the mark of arising again upon the root wisdom, and so it is in the storeyed pavilion; while Zhiyan judges this to be the eighth assembly, expounded in the Jetavana storeyed pavilion, taking the senses of the beginning of the gathering and transforming and of the mind of compassion arising again upon the right wisdom. The number of assemblies each house judges and the display each takes differ, and they are recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The explanation of the chapter’s name: Chengguan sets up his account with “entering runs through both what enters and what is entered”, entering being a name for awakening, understanding, realizing, and gaining, and the Dharma realm being the Dharma that is entered; Fazang divides the three senses of Dharma (holding its own nature, being a rule, and answering to thought) and the three senses of realm (cause, nature, and allotment); Zhiyan sets up three kinds of Dharma and says that here all three run through; while Li Tongxuan explains the three graphs directly by the marks of delusion and awakening — reaching through from delusion at the first is called entering, body and mind and their states having of their own nature nothing to rest upon is called Dharma, and the one and the many running through each other with the obstruction of true and false, right and wrong, gone is called realm. The four houses are recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The explanation of the place of expounding: for the name Śrāvastī, Chengguan follows the Xiyu ji and explains it as “one who hears”, and says also “that which is heard”; Li Tongxuan explains it as “good in the Way”, and says also “that which is heard”. For the name of the Jeta Grove, Chengguan takes the prince’s name, which in this language is Victor; Li Tongxuan takes the three senses of going, crossing, and swiftness, and sets up the sense of the grove by the Tathāgata’s many practices and by the Dharma realm’s universally covering and shading and holding within it all that lives. The two houses are recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The translation of the samādhi’s name: the base text has the Lion’s Stretching, and the Jin translation has the Lion’s Rousing; Chengguan cites the ancient sound pishilinduo (restored as vijṛmbhita) and, following the Niepan, reconciles the two names as both being this word. Recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The substance of the teaching in the root assembly: Zhiyan judges that this assembly does not take sound as the exposition proper, and that the Tathāgata’s releasing radiance and manifesting the three kinds of world so that the assembly may enter is itself the exposition proper; Chengguan judges that the manifestation in samādhi answers in full the questions of the thirty clauses before. The two accounts are recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The matching of the ten similes: from of old the various worthies matched the ten similes in order to the ten clauses of the buddha-fruit that were not understood above, only the ninth, the simile of the two gods, being matched to “the fine adornment of the Tathāgata”; Chengguan records their account and passes an explicit judgment, “this too has its reason,” and further sets forth his own two explanations, the general and the particular. The account of the worthies and Chengguan’s two explanations are recorded side by side.
• The number of the universal bases: the base text has twelve, the Jin translation has seven, and the Yujia, Zhidu, and Jushe treatises collated by Chengguan have ten. Recorded side by side without adjudication.
• The correspondence of the three witnesses: besides the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts, the Zhenyuan forty-fascicle text also translates this one passage of the root assembly in full at its opening, from “thus have I heard” down to the closing clause of the śrāvakas not seeing, with all six portions complete — the gathering of the assembly, the assembly’s silent request, entering samādhi and the manifesting of the signs, the coming together from the ten directions, the śrāvakas not seeing, and the ten comparisons. The three witnesses are fuller and briefer by turns: as to the number of bodhisattvas, the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts have five hundred and the forty-fascicle text five thousand; as to the name of the samādhi, the eighty-fascicle and the forty-fascicle texts have the Lion’s Stretching and the sixty-fascicle text the Lion’s Rousing; as to the past deeds manifested from the upper quarter, the forty-fascicle text fastens them expressly to what that buddha practiced in the past, while the eighty-fascicle text says only “in the past”. Recorded side by side without adjudication.
• Divergent forms of terms: the scripture has one graph for Revata and the commentary another; the scripture has one graph for the jackal and the commentary another. Recorded side by side without adjudication.
• What is carried on within the chapter: this section is the first five portions of the ten portions of the root assembly, and after it there remain five portions more — the repeated verses praising the virtue, Samantabhadra’s opening and rousing, the tuft-light showing the benefit, Mañjuśrī’s recounting of the virtue, and the boundless great functioning; while the whole chapter, in Chengguan’s outline, is broadly divided into two — the root assembly making clear the fruit Dharma realm and the entering of the Dharma realm all at once, and the final assembly making clear the cause Dharma realm and the gradual entering of the Dharma realm. The “śrāvakas not seeing” written in this section, and Sudhana in the final assembly seeing the good friends one by one with his own eyes and entering by degrees through the stages, are precisely the two faces of this one fruit and one cause.

Why, after the Buddha Has Finished Displaying the Realm, the Scripture Suddenly Turns to Verse

In the passage before, the World-Honored One entered the samādhi of the lion's stretching, the Jeta Grove suddenly became a pure land beyond thinking, and the bodhisattvas of the ten directions gathered like clouds, while the śrāvakas, though seated there, neither saw nor heard. At this point one thing has been displayed to the end, and yet no one has told it out.

The present passage is the five segments that take it up and tell it. There are three batches of tellers: first the ten bodhisattvas of the ten directions each speak ten verses, then Samantabhadra with ten Dharma clauses opens out the function of the samādhi, and last Mañjuśrī with thirteen verses tells over what he sees in the grove. Between the three batches of voices there is set one passage with no voice at all — the World-Honored One sends forth a ray from between his brows, and the ray does not speak the Dharma but only causes them to see. At the end, those who have understood raise up its function and go to deliver beings.

A misreading has to be cleared away first: these five segments are not a repetition of the passage before. The passage before was the displaying; these five segments are the telling and the functioning. Chengguan outlines them as the portion of the verses of praise, the portion of Samantabhadra's opening, the portion of the ray's showing of benefit, the portion of Mañjuśrī's telling of virtues, and the portion of the boundless great function, and to each of the five portions he attaches one clause of the reason for it — of the praise of virtues, “since it has come to the chanting of virtues, it makes manifest what has been realized”; of the opening, “the displaying of the land makes it manifest in the Dharma realm, and Samantabhadra presides over this, and so is able to open it out”; of the ray, “it causes them to search out the light of wisdom, for that is what is able to realize”; of the telling of virtues, “Mañjuśrī presides over wisdom, and so after the ray he tells the virtues”; and of the great function, “what is opened must gain benefit, and benefit must profit the living”. All the way through it is the five links of displaying, telling, realizing, recounting, and functioning, and if one segment were missing this assembly could not be brought to a close.

Setting it on the ground: when reading this passage, do not read only how grand the words of praise are, but look at what work each segment is doing.

Ten Persons Speak Ten Times Over, and What They Speak Is Not in Fact One and the Same Thing

From each of the ten directions there comes forth one bodhisattva, and each speaks ten verses (the one of the upper direction eleven verses), the whole segment being two hundred and forty-eight lines of verse and one hundred and twenty-four verses in all. The opening clause of the ten segments does not shift by a single graph; all of them read ‘at that time the bodhisattva so-and-so, sustained by the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha, contemplated the ten directions and spoke these verses’ — in form they are wholly symmetrical.

Is the content, then, also a repetition? Chengguan outlines them as ten segments, and judges that “the first two praise the function of the place of the way, of the samādhi, and the rest; the remaining eight praise the virtue of the Buddha in common” — what the first two segments praise is the function of this place of the way and of this samādhi, and what the latter eight praise is the virtue of the Buddha himself. Fazang's Tanxuan ji, going by the sixty-fascicle text, likewise divides them into ten segments, while the number of parts he opens out in each segment mostly does not agree with Chengguan's (as in the second segment, where Chengguan divides five and Fazang six); the two stand side by side.

A misreading has to be cleared away: to take the ten segments as one and the same word of praise spoken ten times over, with only the speaker changed. In fact each of the ten segments has its own eye — the first segment speaks of “beyond thinking”, the second speaks of ‘no coming and no abiding, and yet they gather together at one time’, the third and fourth are wholly in similes, the fifth speaks of “the benefit gained from seeing the Buddha”, the sixth speaks of “what the ordinary and the lesser cannot know”, the seventh speaks of ‘the body of wisdom is not a body’, the eighth speaks of the stages of cultivation, the ninth speaks of “hard to see and hard to hear”, and the tenth speaks of “the kindness is deep and hard to requite”. Put together, the ten segments are the whole figure of one buddha.

Setting it on the ground: the ten segments may be read as ten camera angles of different kinds, and before reading each one, ask first where the eye of that segment lies.

The Segment of the East (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): First the Beyond-Thinking, Then Why It Is beyond Thinking

The first segment has ten verses, and it begins with a command: “You should all contemplate: the way of the Buddha is beyond thinking.” Chengguan judges of this segment, “the ten verses divide into two: the first is the general, the rest are the particular” — the first verse is the general, and the remaining nine verses are the particular.

Within the particular, the first four verses praise the Buddha. The second verse says “what it displays is without number” and that “all the worlds are bewildered by it and cannot make it out”; the third verse says “the various spiritual penetrations that he displays, no one in the whole world can fathom” — these two verses speak of the breadth of the measure and the depth of the principle. The fourth verse suddenly turns: “Because he has penetrated that all dharmas are without form, therefore he is named a buddha; and being furnished besides with the adornment of the marks, however one extols him it cannot be extolled to the end.”

This one verse is the joint of the segment. One must ask: are the formless and the adornment of marks not opposites? The scripture's way of answering is to fasten the name “buddha” to “having penetrated that dharmas are without form”, and to fasten “it cannot be extolled to the end” to “being furnished with the adornment of the marks” — and the reason is just this, that precisely because he has penetrated that no dharma at all has a fixed form, the forms he displays can be inexhaustible. If the forms were real, then each one displayed would be one the fewer. The fifth verse then draws back to this grove: “Today, inside this grove, he has displayed great spiritual power” — what is spoken of is still this matter before one's eyes, and not a tale of some other place.

The latter five verses turn to praising the host of bodhisattvas: the sixth verse, “from the lands of the ten directions they have come to see the World-Honored One”, is the general statement of their gathering like clouds; the seventh, “the vows they have made are all furnished complete, the practices they cultivate are without obstruction”, is the depth of vow and practice; the eighth, “all the pratyekabuddhas and those great śrāvakas are none of them able to know”, is their surpassing of the two vehicles; the ninth, “the great wisdom of the bodhisattvas has reached the end of every one of the grounds”, is the height of the ground of wisdom; the tenth, “the power of measureless samādhi, the spiritual changes that they display, has filled the whole Dharma realm”, is the breadth of the function of concentration. Chengguan judges these five verses as “first the general showing of their gathering like clouds; second the depth of vow and practice; third the surpassing of the lower stations; fourth the height of the ground of wisdom; fifth the breadth of the function of concentration”.

A misreading has to be cleared away: the eighth verse's saying that the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot know is not a belittling of the two vehicles, but an explanation offered in view of the fact, in the passage before, that the śrāvakas were seated there and did not see — it is not that the Buddha withholds the sight, but that the realm does not match the capacity. Setting it on the ground: where one cannot read a thing, ask first on which tier one is standing, and do not hurry to blame the scripture.

The Segment of the South (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): No Coming and No Abiding, and Yet They Can Gather Together at One Time

The ten verses of the second segment are wholly about the host of bodhisattvas. Chengguan gives one reminder: this segment “praises only the bodhisattvas, yet since it concludes by returning them to the power of the Buddha, it is also a praising of the Buddha” — the praise at the last returns to the power of the Buddha, and so it is still a praising of the Buddha.

The first two verses cause one to contemplate their inward virtue: the first verse, “the treasury of wisdom and of merit, the practice of awakening carried to its end”, is the fullness of their station; the second verse, “their minds are of themselves clear and penetrating, and they enter well into every kind of samādhi”, is the breadth and depth of concentration and wisdom. The next two verses show the place where they gather: the third verse, “today this Jeta Grove has been adorned and dressed in every kind of way”, and the fourth verse, “from the ten directions they have come here, and sit upon seats of jeweled lotus flowers” — putting the host back into this grove.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh verses are the most essential of the segment. The fifth verse says “there is no coming and no abiding, no leaning and no idle argument; parted from stain, their minds are unobstructed, and in the Dharma realm they have reached the end”; the sixth verse says “knowing that there is no dharma of transformation, they yet bring forth matters of transformation”; the seventh verse says “at one and the same time they all go thither, and yet neither do they divide their bodies”.

One must ask: since there is no coming and no abiding, how is it then said that “from the ten directions they have come here”? Since there is no dharma of transformation, how do they then bring forth matters of transformation? Since at one and the same time they go to the ten directions, how do they then not divide their bodies?

The scripture itself gives the answer: the lower halves of these three verses are all of them fastened to their upper halves — precisely because there is no coming and no abiding, they come with nothing that comes and go with nothing that goes, and so can go everywhere at the same time without having to cut the body up in fact. Chengguan judges these three verses as “making clear that stillness and function are unobstructed: the first verse and a half is the stillness, and the latter verse and a half is the raising of the function”. Stillness and function are not two matters done by turns; they are the two faces of one and the same matter.

The eighth verse, “look upon the sovereign power of the spiritual penetrations of the Śākya lion, who can cause the host of bodhisattvas all to come and gather together”, returns everything above to the power of the Buddha — and this is what Chengguan calls “concluding by returning them to the power of the Buddha”. The last two verses, “all the dharmas of all the buddhas are in the Dharma realm all of them even; it is only for the sake of speech that they differ” and “he sets forth differentiated dharmas, and his words have no end”, say that the difference lies only in the speaking, and not in the Dharma.

Setting it on the ground: in reading the Avataṃsaka one constantly meets clauses about “pervading every place”, and one should not take them as strange matters of spiritual penetration; their ground of reason is always the “no abiding” of the clause that precedes.

The Segment of the West (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): Three Verses Speaking by the Dharma, Seven Verses of Simile

The third segment is the first among the whole to use similes in quantity. Chengguan judges of it, “the ten verses divide into two: the first three speak by the Dharma … the latter seven make it manifest by simile”.

The three verses of speaking by the Dharma: the first verse, “he penetrates well the time and the not-time, and for the host sets forth the Dharma”, is the virtue of speaking the Dharma in season; the second verse, “he crushes down the multitudes of outsiders and all the divergent arguments”, is the function of crushing the wrong; the third verse is the general conclusion that leaves words behind — “the Rightly Awakened One is not one that has measure, nor yet is he one that is measureless; whether measure or the measureless, the Muni has passed clean beyond them.”

The third verse is to be marked well: it is not saying that the Buddha is measureless. Having measure and being measureless are a pair, and to fall on either side is still to be within the mutual dependence; the scripture with the three graphs “has passed clean beyond” sets the whole pair down together. This is the eye of the speaking by the Dharma in this segment.

The latter seven similes are, in order: the sun in empty space, likening the breadth of the shining of wisdom; the disc of the moon on the fifteenth night, likening the fullness of the white dharmas; the sun in the sky running on without cease, likening the continuing on of the spiritual changes; the lands of the ten directions unobstructed in space, likening the unobstructedness of the displaying of transformations; the earth of the world as that on which the flocks of the living depend, likening the wheel of the Dharma as that on which they depend; the fierce and swift wind unobstructed, likening the swift pervasion of the Buddha's Dharma; the great wheel of water as that on which the worlds depend, likening the wheel of wisdom as that on which the buddhas of the three times depend. Chengguan fastens one sense to each of these seven similes: “the first likens the vastness spoken of before; the second likens the fullness; the third and fourth liken the displaying of the penetrations, the one long in time and the other unobstructed; the fifth likens the setting forth of the Dharma; the sixth likens the crushing of the wrong; the seventh likens in general the virtues before, that on which the buddhas alike depend.”

A misreading has to be cleared away: the seven similes are not seven flourishes of rhetoric, but seven different things likened. The one and the same “sun” in the first simile is taken for its shining, and in the third simile for its running on without cease — the thing that likens is the same, while the sense taken from it differs. Setting it on the ground: in reading a simile, first find which point of the likening thing this simile takes, and do not carry the whole of the likening thing across.

The Segment of the North (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): Nine Jewel Similes, from the Mountain and the Ocean down to the Water-Clearing Pearl

The fourth segment has ten verses with nine similes, and Chengguan judges of it that it “praises the depth and breadth of the three virtues”, and divides: the first five verses with four similes liken the inward virtue (the first kindness, the second cutting off); the next three similes liken wisdom (the first high and far, the next two deep and broad); the latter five liken the great function (the first skillful displaying, the second according with wishes, the third shining upon capacities, the fourth tallying with principle, the fifth concluding the benefit).

The nine similes in order are: the great jewel mountain enriching those that bear consciousness; the water of the great ocean, clear and pure, taking away thirsting craving; Mount Sumeru coming forth out of the great ocean; the ocean furnished with a multitude of jewels so that seekers are satisfied; the skilled illusionist displaying every kind of matter; the wish-fulfilling jewel satisfying every wish; the bright and clear jewel universally reflecting all things; the eight-faced jewel mirroring the several quarters evenly; the water-clearing pearl able to clear turbid water. The fifth verse in the middle, “the deep wisdom of the Tathāgata is measureless and without number; and therefore the power of his spiritual penetrations, when displayed, is hard to think of”, is a speaking by the Dharma, and so there are ten verses and nine similes.

Of these, the simile “it is as with a skilled illusionist, who displays every kind of matter; the wisdom of the Buddha is just so, bringing forth every kind of sovereign power” calls for one question: if the wisdom of the Buddha is as an illusionist, is what is displayed not then false? The sense that the scripture takes lies only in ‘being able to display every kind without labouring at many arts’, and not in ‘what is displayed being unreal’ — for if one took its unreality, then the later line “seeing the Buddha is just so, and all the faculties become pure” would fall empty. This is the one place where the reading of similes most easily oversteps its bounds.

Fazang's Tanxuan ji, going by the sixty-fascicle text, sets up for the ten verses of this segment a name for each simile (the mountain of virtue enriching beings · the ocean of compassion taking away the burning · practice high and realization deep · the ocean of wisdom bringing forth · skillfully displaying in answer to capacities · fulfilling in accord with vows · the wisdom of kinds universally shining · displaying the Dharma according to the quarter · seeing the Buddha and the faculties made pure), and brings out besides another explanation matching them with ten virtues — great merit · great compassion · great concentration · the wisdom of principle · the wisdom of measure · the function of compassion · the wisdom of kinds · the mirror wisdom · the function of kindness. It differs from Chengguan's division, and the two stand side by side.

Setting it on the ground: the nine similes may be read as nine kinds of ‘what the Buddha does for me’ — stilling thirst, satisfying vows, shining on the mind, purifying the faculties; clause after clause falls on the side of what is received and used.

The Segment of the Northeast (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): Of Those Who See the Buddha, Not One Passes By Empty

The fifth segment begins with the emperor-blue jewel: “It is as with the emperor-blue jewel, which can dye every color blue; those who see the Buddha are so likewise, and all give rise to the practice of awakening.” Chengguan judges this verse to be “a general simile that of seeing there is no benefit lacking”, and under it he divides three tiers of particular making-clear.

The next three verses make clear in particular the benefit to the bodhisattvas: the second verse, “within each and every mote of dust the Buddha displays the power of the spiritual penetrations, causing measureless and boundless bodhisattvas all to become pure”, is the purifying of obstructions; the third and fourth verses, “this deep and subtle power is boundless and cannot be known” and “the bodies that the Tathāgata displays … bring all bodhisattvas to accomplishment”, are the accomplishing of the wondrous power.

The five verses after that make clear the universality of the benefit: the pervading of the accomplishing of the way (“those buddha-lands that are hard to think of — within them he accomplishes right awakening”), the pervading of the spiritual penetrations (“Śākya, the unsurpassed Honored One … displays the power of the spiritual penetrations”), the pervading of the showing of practice (“the various practices of the bodhisattvas … the sovereign power of the Tathāgata displays them all for them”), the pervading of the understanding of dharmas (“the sons of the Buddha cultivate well and learn the deep and various Dharma realms”), and the pervading of the turning of the Dharma (“by the majestic spiritual power of the Well-Gone One, for the host the wheel of the Dharma is turned”). The last verse, “the wisdom of the Tathāgata is round and complete, and his realm too is pure; it is as with a great dragon king, universally saving all the flocks of the living”, concludes the universality of the benefit.

A misreading has to be cleared away: “those who see the Buddha are so likewise, and all give rise to the practice of awakening” is not saying that one glance at an image of a buddha sets the mind giving rise of itself. That the emperor-blue jewel can dye every color blue is said in terms of the virtue of the jewel itself; and what this verse fastens on is that the virtue of the Buddha must be able to benefit things, and not the intent of mind of the one who sees. Setting it on the ground: this one verse may be taken to break a certain kind of discouragement — it is not that I have no power to give rise to the mind, but that I have not yet truly seen.

The Segment of the Southeast (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): Not Even the Raising and the Setting Down of a Foot Can Anyone Know

The sixth segment begins with three verses laying down three layers of denial one after another: the śrāvakas do not know the matter of the Buddha's raising and setting down of a foot, the pratyekabuddhas likewise do not know it, how much less ordinary persons. Chengguan judges this segment to divide in three: “the first three make clear that for the ordinary and the lesser it is hard to think of; the next four bring out the dharma that is hard to think of; the last three make manifest the person who is able to know.”

One must ask: why is the instance raised so small a matter as “raising a foot and setting down a foot”? Precisely because it is small. Had the instance raised been the Buddha's displaying of spiritual penetrations, to say that the two vehicles do not know it would not yet be strange; but to raise the lifting and lowering of a foot, and to say that the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas of all the three times cannot know it, is to push “beyond thinking” to its very bottom — the Buddha's daily use is just the Buddha's realm, and there is not one place in it that is ordinary.

The four verses in the middle bring out the dharma that is not known: “the unobstructed wisdom of the Rightly Awakened One has passed beyond the road of words” is the general; “it is as with the light of the bright moon, of which no one can fathom the limit” is the simile; and “each and every one of his skillful means, the transformations he works from thought to thought — though one used up measureless kalpas in pondering them, one would not make them out” together with “pondering all-knowing wisdom, this dharma beyond thinking, of each and every gate of skillful means one can find no limit” speak in terms of the gates of skillful means.

The last three verses suddenly bring out a road: “Suppose that there were one who toward such a dharma raised up a vast vow; then for him, as to this realm, to know it and see it would not be hard.” — after seven verses saying it cannot be known, here it is said that it can be, and the key word is “vow”. The ninth verse follows with “valiantly and diligently he cultivates”, and the tenth with “his mind and thought are tamed already, and his aspiration too is broad”.

A misreading has to be cleared away: not being able to know is not a road with no way out. The scripture places the boundary between “hard” and “not hard” upon vow and practice, and not upon the sharpness of faculties. Setting it on the ground: to read the four graphs “beyond thinking” and thereupon fall back is to have read this segment backwards — it is precisely meant to make one give rise to a vow.

The Segment of the Southwest (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): The Body of Wisdom Is Not a Body

The first clause of the seventh segment is the most perilous clause of the whole: “the body of wisdom is not a body, unobstructed and hard to think of.”

One must ask: having said it is a body, why is it then said not to be a body? The next verse of the scripture answers: “out of karma beyond thinking there arises this pure body, singular and wondrously adorned, not attached to the three realms.” What is called not a body means that it is not a body gathered in by the three realms, and not a body made of the four great elements; and since it does indeed appear, it is still named a body. Chengguan judges of this segment that it “praises the virtue of the body of wisdom being hard to think of”, and divides it in four: the first one verse makes manifest in general its being hard to think of; the next one raises the cause to make manifest the fruit; the next three show in particular the marks of its being hard to think of; and the last two conclude with an exhortation.

Among the three aspects of the particular showing, the third, fourth, and fifth verses speak of wisdom shining and purifying obstructions (“its light shines upon all, and the Dharma realm is wholly pure”; “it is as with the sun of the world, universally sending forth the light of wisdom … bringing forth the unsurpassed awakening”); the sixth verse speaks of the depth and breadth of the displaying (“he displays boundless forms, and these forms have no place they depend on”); and the seventh and eighth verses speak of the perfect fusion of thought and wisdom (“in a single thought of awakening he can be aware of all dharmas”; “in a single thought he understands clear through all the dharmas of the three times”).

The last two verses are the conclusion and exhortation, and are also the landing place of this segment: “one who has wisdom should be thus, and single-mindedly ponder the awakening of a buddha; and this pondering is hard to think of — pondered after, it is not to be got.” “Awakening cannot be spoken of, it has passed beyond the road of words; the buddhas are born out of it, and this dharma is hard to think of.” Chengguan puts the meaning of these two verses very straight — “that is to say, out of what is beyond thinking the body of the Buddha's wisdom is born, and it causes the thought of thinking to be cut off, and that is to think upon the Buddha”.

A misreading has to be cleared away: “pondered after, it is not to be got” is not a telling of people not to ponder. What the scripture says is “one should thus ponder single-mindedly”, and when one has pondered to the place where pondering is not to be got, that pondering at last is a pondering upon the Buddha. Setting it on the ground: to cultivate contemplation and to feel that ‘however I think, I cannot think to the bottom of it’ — that is not a signal of failure.

The Segment of the Northwest (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): Stages of Cultivation Joined On Clause after Clause

The eighth segment is the only one among the ten that speaks throughout of the course of cultivation. Chengguan judges of it that it “praises the virtue whereby the Buddha brings bodhisattvas to accomplishment, and divides in two: the first generally sets out the settledness that comes of contemplating well; the remaining nine turn forward one after another in accomplishing the benefit”, and he notes besides that “the first seven verses have each of them one item, and the latter two conclude in general its depth and breadth”.

The two graphs “turning forward one after another” are to be marked well — the ten verses of this segment are like a chain: the first verse sets the heading—contemplating well, therefore leaving behind the thoughts of folly and settledly upholding; the seven verses below it go tier by tier: gaining a settled mind, therefore being able to cultivate wondrous practice and forever to cut off doubt; and thence the mind not wearying and turning ever forward in cultivation; and thence faith and wisdom accomplished and from thought to thought increasing; and thence all the merit cultivated being dedicated and directed; and thence, though within birth-and-death, the mind not being stained; and thence the aggregates and elements and the dharmas being all cast away and left behind, and the merit of a buddha being single-mindedly sought; and thence, seeing the common folk entangled in delusion and drifting in the world, the bodhisattva with unobstructed mind saving them and setting them free. The second through the eighth verses have one tier to a verse, ring joined to ring.

The eighth and ninth verses turn toward other persons: “ordinary persons are wrapped about by falsity and delusion, and in the world constantly turn round and round; the mind of a bodhisattva is without obstruction, and he rescues them and causes them to be freed”; “the practice of a bodhisattva is hard to reckon … he takes away all suffering everywhere, and universally gives joy to the flocks of the living”. The tenth verse gathers it up in “having obtained the wisdom of awakening already, he pities besides all the flocks of the living” — after the gaining of wisdom the matter is not over; it is a turning back.

One must ask: this segment plainly speaks of the bodhisattva's own cultivation, so why does Chengguan judge it as “praising the virtue whereby the Buddha brings bodhisattvas to accomplishment”? Because this string of stages is not walked out by the bodhisattva himself but is brought to accomplishment by the Buddha; the name of the segment returns to the Buddha and the content returns to the bodhisattva, and the two are not at odds.

Setting it on the ground: this segment is best read as one's own progress chart — at each verse ask once, ‘have I arrived at this tier or not’, and do not skip about picking out the verses one likes.

The Segment of the Nether Direction (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): The Buddha's Name Is Hard to Hear, How Much More to Draw Near

The ninth segment speaks of the hardness of seeing and hearing. Chengguan divides it in two: “the first one sets out that the name is hard to hear, and that drawing near must cut off doubt; the rest make manifest in particular the marks of the benefiting of things”, and within the particular he divides again: “the first one is the benefit of producing merit; the next two the benefit of turning toward awakening; the next two the benefit of accomplishing wisdom; the remaining four conclude the benefit in terms of the person”.

The opening verse, “through measureless koṭis and thousands of kalpas the name of a buddha is hard to hear; how much more to be able to draw near and forever cut off every kind of doubt”, sets up a measure — koṭis and thousands of kalpas. One must ask: is this an exaggeration? The scripture's purpose in setting up this measure lies in the contrast, and not in the counting; the nine verses below all speak of the benefit of seeing and hearing a buddha, and if hearing the name were not hard, the benefit too would not need to be spoken of.

Below it: “the Tathāgata is the lamp of the world, and penetrates all dharmas; he universally brings forth the merit of the three times” is the benefit of producing merit. “The wondrous form-body of the Tathāgata is what all look up to and praise; through a koṭi of kalpas they constantly gaze up at it, and their minds are not satisfied” and “if there are sons of the Buddha who contemplate the wondrous form-body of the Buddha, they will assuredly cast away their attachment to the kinds of existence and dedicate and direct themselves to the way of awakening” are the benefit of turning toward awakening — and one should mark that the road here is entered from the form-body, and not from the principle of emptiness. The fifth and sixth verses, “he constantly sends forth a vast sound, his eloquence without obstruction” and “he causes them to enter the gate of wisdom, and gives to them the prediction of awakening”, are the benefit of accomplishing wisdom.

The last four verses conclude the benefit in terms of the person: “the Tathāgata appears in the world and acts as the great field of merit for the world”; “if there is one who makes offerings to a buddha, he forever takes away the dread of the evil destinies”; “if one sees the Honored One of Two Legs, one can raise up a vast mind”; “if one sees the most victorious among men and settles his intent upon awakening, this person can know of himself that he will assuredly accomplish right awakening.”

A misreading has to be cleared away: “their minds are not satisfied” is not greed. To gaze up and not to weary of it is because the realm gazed upon is inexhaustible, and not because the mind does not know when to stop. Setting it on the ground: what this segment gives is the plainest of roads — gazing up, making offerings, giving rise to the mind, and not one step of it is abstruse.

The Segment of the Upper Direction (the Quarter Assigned in Chengguan's Outline): The Four ‘Rather’ Graphs

The tenth segment has eleven verses, is the only one among the ten with a verse over, and is also the heaviest in tone. Chengguan divides it in four: “the first two generally raise the virtue of the Buddha, with the intent set upon his kindness; the next one, that the kindness is deep and hard to requite; the next four, the giving rise to the mind that bears his kindness; the last four, the explaining and establishing of the intent of bearing his kindness.”

The third verse puts the question: “The Tathāgata through numberless kalpas has toiled and suffered for the sake of beings; how are the worlds ever to requite the kindness of the great teacher?” The four verses below it are the answer — and the manner of the answering is to lay down four “rather” graphs one after another: rather, through measureless kalpas, undergo the suffering of the evil destinies, than ever forsake the Tathāgata and seek to go forth; rather, in the place of all beings, undergo all suffering in full, than ever forsake the Buddha and seek one's own ease; rather, within the evil destinies, constantly get to hear the name of a buddha, than wish to be born into the good destinies and for a time not hear of a buddha; rather be born within the hells and in each pass numberless kalpas, than ever go far from the Buddha and seek to go forth from the evil destinies.

One must ask: is this a denying of the whole matter of leaving suffering behind? It is not. What the four verses refuse is in no case the leaving of suffering itself, but that road of ‘forsaking the Buddha and seeking’ — the lower half of three of the four verses carries an “and seek”, the third verse instead reading “than wish to be born into the good destinies and there for a time not hear of a buddha”. What is refused is the condition, and not the result.

The eighth verse turns back and explains itself: “And why is one willing to dwell long within all the evil destinies? Because it is there that one gets to see the Tathāgata and to increase in wisdom.” This one question and answer draws the heavy words of the four verses above back onto the principle. The last three verses, “if one can see the Buddha, all suffering is extinguished”, “if one can see the Buddha, one casts off and leaves behind every obstruction”, and “the Tathāgata is able forever to cut off the doubts of all beings”, make the conclusion.

Setting it on the ground: this segment is the strongest in feeling of the whole, and yet its conclusion still falls upon the two graphs “seeing the Buddha” — it is not a contest of suffering, but an unwillingness to leave that upon which one depends.

Samantabhadra's Opening: The Buddha Has Displayed It All Already, So Why Speak Besides

After the ten segments of verses, Samantabhadra comes out and speaks. One must first ask a question: the realm has all been displayed and the host has all seen it, so why must it be opened out once again with words?

Chengguan explains this, saying: “above, the Buddha entered concentration and displayed the marks, causing the host to behold and personally to realize; now, borrowing words, he opens it out, so that by searching the words they may tally with the real.” — see it they did, and yet seeing it they could not of themselves search out its principle; and the use of speech is not to make the realm over again, but to give a road that can be followed, causing people to follow the words and tally with the real. This one clause is the key to understanding this outline-portion.

The skillful means that Samantabhadra uses are eleven clauses: equal to the Dharma realm, equal to the realm of empty space, equal to the realm of beings, equal to the three times, equal to all kalpas, equal to the karma of all beings, equal to the wishes of all beings, equal to the understandings of all beings, equal to the faculties of all beings, equal to the times of ripening of all beings, and equal to the light and shadow of all dharmas. Chengguan judges that “the first clause is the general, because it holds the depth and breadth of fact and principle”, and that the remaining ten clauses are the particular, and he points out that the graph “with” at the head of the clause runs on right through to the end.

One must ask: why, to open out one samādhi, are so many “equals” needed? Chengguan answers very plainly — “that is to say, the working and function of the samādhi of the stretching are deep and broad, and only with these ten skillful means that have no partition can it be opened out; how much more that the ten in turn signify inexhaustibility”. The tool used must be of the same partitionlessness as the realm to be opened, or it will not move it. Among the eleven clauses, the clause of empty space makes manifest its breadth without bound, the remaining eight clauses make manifest its manyness without partition, and the clause of “light and shadow” makes manifest the deep sense besides.

Setting it on the ground: if the skillful means of the telling be smaller than the Dharma told, then that Dharma has been made small in the telling.

The Ten Dharma Clauses: What Each Clause Is Saying

The ten Dharma clauses are the ten roads of speech by which Samantabhadra opens the samādhi. Chengguan gives one reminder: “what these ten clauses open is just what was displayed before, and is also the ten clauses of the fruit's function within the mindful request” — they are not a new dharma, but the opening out in speech of what was displayed before and what the great host had mindfully requested, only that the opening and folding of the order does not wholly correspond with what went before.

The first clause, “the order in which the buddhas arise and the order in which the lands are formed and destroyed”, Chengguan judges as the purity of the reliant and the principal in the purifying of a buddha-land — within a single mote of dust there are buddha-lands, and the Buddha arises within them, and so the lands have no limit. The second clause, “the sound of the praising of the merit of the tathāgatas to the exhaustion of kalpas to come”, is the flowing forth of the Dharma. The third clause, “the gates of the tathāgatas' appearing in the world and their measureless and boundless accomplishing of right awakening”, Chengguan matches with the accomplishing of right and equal awakening. The fourth clause, “the Buddha seated at the place of the way and the assemblies of bodhisattvas”, is the completeness of host and companions — where there is a buddha there must be a host.

The fifth clause, “within all the pores, from thought to thought, bringing forth the transformation bodies of all the buddhas equal to the three times, filling the Dharma realm”, Chengguan judges as “displaying for all beings the images of the buddhas”. The sixth clause, “able to cause a single body to fill all the oceans of lands of the ten directions and appear there evenly”, Chengguan judges as “entering into the dwelling places of all beings”. The seventh and eighth clauses both speak of the universal appearing of spiritual changes, the one speaking in terms of realms (“within all realms, universally displaying the spiritual changes of the buddhas of the three times”) and the other in terms of dust-motes (“within the dust-motes of all buddha-lands, universally displaying the various spiritual changes of buddhas as many as the dust-motes of all the buddha-lands of the three times, passing through measureless kalpas”) — and Chengguan points out that the difference between the two lies only in “the realm being coarse and the dust-mote fine”.

The ninth clause, “all the pores bringing forth the sound of the ocean of the great vows of all the buddhas of the three times, and to the exhaustion of kalpas to come opening out and guiding all bodhisattvas”, Chengguan judges as holding and gathering in the four clauses before it, of the taming of beings and the rest. The tenth clause, “the lion seat of a buddha equal in measure to the Dharma realm, the assemblies of bodhisattvas and the adornment of the place of the way equal and without difference, and to the exhaustion of kalpas to come turning every kind of subtle and wondrous wheel of the Dharma”, is just the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. At the last Samantabhadra concludes for himself: “Son of the Buddha! These ten are the foremost; there are Dharma clauses as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands, and all of them are the realm of the wisdom of the Tathāgata.”

A misreading has to be cleared away: the ten clauses are not a list of ten topics, but ten ways of opening one and the same matter — every one of the clauses can use the whole eleven kinds of skillful means before, and every one of the skillful means can set forth these ten clauses. Chengguan says it very straight: “each and every Dharma clause uses all the ten kinds of skillful means before, and each and every skillful means is able to set forth these ten clauses.” Setting it on the ground: in reading the ten clauses, do not lay them side by side to compare their size, but look down through each one to see how it speaks “inexhaustibility” once over.

Samantabhadra's Verses of Repetition: Why the Verses and the Prose Do Not Follow the Same Order

Samantabhadra having finished the prose, there follow ten verses of repetition. The manner of entering upon the verses in this passage is particularly long — it is not the customary single clause “sustained by the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha he spoke these verses”, but seven “contemplates” laid down one after another: contemplating the Tathāgata, contemplating the assemblies, contemplating the realms of the buddhas that are hard to think of, contemplating the boundless samādhis of the buddhas, contemplating the oceans of worlds that are beyond thinking, contemplating the wisdom of the dharma that is as an illusion and beyond thinking, contemplating that the buddhas of the three times are all of them even and that this is beyond thinking, and adding to these the contemplating of all the measureless and boundless dharmas of speech and word. Chengguan judges this as “first the manner and intent of the telling, having ten clauses: the first four clauses are the manner of the telling, and the latter six contemplate what is told”.

The verses are ten, and the first three lay down three “within each and every pore” one after another — within the pores are oceans of lands as many as dust-motes, within the oceans of lands the tathāgatas sit, and the Tathāgata sets forth the practice of Samantabhadra for the bodhisattvas. The fourth verse turns it about: “the Buddha sits within one land, and fills the worlds of the ten directions.” One entering and one pervading are the two faces of one and the same matter. The fifth through the ninth verses speak of the bodhisattvas: rising up from within the assembly, filling and pervading the ten directions, all abiding in the practice of Samantabhadra, cultivating through a koṭi of kalpas, entering the ocean of great vows, and penetrating the practice of Samantabhadra. The last verse, “their clouds of bodies are equal to the number of dust-motes, and fill and pervade all lands; universally they rain down the Dharma of sweet dew, and cause the host to abide in the way of the Buddha”, makes the conclusion.

And these ten verses do not correspond in order with the ten clauses of the prose. Chengguan says that they “versify the ten Dharma clauses, while the opening and folding is out of order”, and lists one by one the order he matches them in as the first · the third · the second · the fourth · the fifth · the sixth · the ninth · the seventh and eighth · the tenth; while Fazang's Tanxuan ji judges that “the ten dharmas before are versified in order”, taking them straight as a versifying in sequence. The two sayings stand side by side.

One must ask: since these are verses of repetition, why should they not follow the order? The scripture itself gives no explanation. What can be settled is this: the verses are not a duplicate of the prose, but have a momentum of their own in the making of their clauses — and so the correspondences that the ancient worthies read out of them come out different for each. Setting it on the ground: in reading verses of repetition, take them first as one whole poem, and then go and match them against the prose; do not take the prose and cut the verses up with it.

The Ray from the Brows: The One Thing the Buddha Does within This Passage

Between the ten segments of verses and Samantabhadra's opening, those who speak are all of them bodhisattvas; and here at last the World-Honored One stirs — from the mark of the white hair between his brows he sends forth a great light, the ray named “the gate that universally illumines the Dharma realm of the three times”, with besides rays of light as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands as its retinue, universally illumining all the oceans of worlds of the ten directions.

One must ask: why does the Buddha not speak? Chengguan explains this, saying that the ray “signifies the undefiled right wisdom of the middle way that is the Dharma realm, since only that is able to realize the Dharma realm displayed before”. What the bodhisattvas spoke before is the opening out by speech; what the Buddha sends forth here is the realizing that is wisdom; words can cause a person to search, but they cannot realize in a person's stead, and so this passage has a ray and no speech.

The graph “gate” within the ray's name Chengguan explains as well: “the three times are the marks, and the marks are just the Dharma realm; the substance and function of the Dharma realm are gates to one another. And again, in common they are all of them gates, for if one sees the nature and marks of the Dharma realm, one thereupon enters the substance and function of the samādhi.” — to see its nature and marks is just to enter its substance and function, and therefore it is named a gate.

A misreading has to be cleared away: the sending forth of the ray is not a performance of a marvel. The place from which the ray is sent is the white hair between the brows, what it shines upon is the buddha-lands of the ten directions, and what it brings about is the host's seeing — the verb of the whole passage is “to see”, not “to worship”. Setting it on the ground: all the benefit gained after this passage is fastened upon this one ray; without this ray, the eleven passages of speech before it would still be no more than speech.

Seeing the Dharma by the Ray: The Five Things the Great Host Saw within the Ray

The ray once sent forth, the great host of the Jeta Grove thereupon saw all the buddha-lands to the exhaustion of the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space, and within each and every mote of dust buddha-lands as many as dust-motes, with every kind of name, every kind of color, every kind of purity, every kind of dwelling place, and every kind of shape and mark, and within them all great bodhisattvas sitting upon lion seats at the place of the way and accomplishing right and equal awakening. Chengguan judges this as “first, the seeing that this assembly pervades the dust-motes and lands of the Dharma realm”.

Then the scripture with five “or” graphs opens out five matters, which Chengguan judges as “the gathering in and transforming of many kinds pervading the whole Dharma realm”:

The first, “or they saw that within assemblies as many as unspeakably many buddha-lands” a wondrous sound was sent forth filling the Dharma realm and the wheel of the right Dharma was turned — Chengguan judges this as “making clear the pervading of the vast assemblies”, and it is said in terms of the greatness of the assembly.

The second, “or they saw that within the palaces of the gods, the palaces of the dragons, the palaces of the yakṣas”, and the various palaces of the gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men, and nonmen — Chengguan judges this as “making clear the difference of the places pervaded, and all of them within the dust-motes and lands seen before”, and it is said in terms of the difference of the places. The last words are to be marked: these places are not somewhere else, but within the dust-motes and lands seen just before.

The third, “or in the villages, hamlets, royal capitals, and great places among men”, there appeared every kind of clan, name, body, mark, and light, abiding in every kind of deportment, entering every kind of samādhi, and bringing forth every kind of spiritual change — Chengguan judges this as “setting out in particular what is displayed”, and says that this passage “answers in common besides all that was mindfully requested before, and therefore says ‘every kind’”. The eight “every kinds” laid down one after another answer one by one what the great host had earlier mindfully requested.

The fourth, “or at times, of himself, with every kind of speech and sound” — the Buddha telling it himself.

The fifth, “or he caused bodhisattvas of every kind, within assemblies of every kind, to set forth dharmas of every kind with words of every kind” — his causing others to tell it.

One must ask: why must the last two matters set “telling it himself” and “causing others to tell it” apart? Because the first three matters speak of the places and the marks of what is displayed, while the last two matters speak of out of whose mouth the Dharma told comes; and telling it himself and causing others to tell it are alike the one power of the Buddha. Setting it on the ground: these five matters are the most concrete section of this passage — the realm is not in a far place, but in the palaces of the gods, in the palaces of the dragons, and in the villages and hamlets of men as well.

The Kind Extended to the Ten Directions and the Causes of the Seeing: Those Who Can See Are Not Standing There by Chance

After the five matters, the scripture presses on from ‘this one assembly’ to ‘all the assemblies of the ten directions’: within all the oceans of the quarters of the ten directions to the exhaustion of the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space, at each place of the size of a hair-tip there are lands as many as dust-motes abiding in order according to karma, and in them all there are likewise assemblies of bodhisattvas at the place of the way, and they likewise see the spiritual power of the Buddha in this way — and moreover, “not destroying the three times, not destroying the world”, appearing as an image within the minds of all beings, their form and marks differing while the wisdom is without difference. Chengguan judges this as “by that one likens this”, and points out the one clause within it that is most essential: “it makes clear that what they see is sovereign, that is to say, that though it is displayed at large the original marks are not destroyed.” Displayed at large and yet the original marks not destroyed — this is the measure the Avataṃsaka keeps consistently when it speaks of universal displaying.

Then the scripture answers a very practical question: on what ground is it these persons who see it? “All those who see this spiritual power of the Buddha have been gathered in by the roots of goodness of the Tathāgata Vairocana in times long past” — whether they were gathered in of old by the four means of gathering, or ripened by seeing, hearing, remembering, and drawing near, or of old taught to give rise to the mind of awakening, or of old planted roots of goodness together with them in the presence of the buddhas, or in the past taught and ripened by the skillful means of all-knowing wisdom. Chengguan explains this, saying: “that is to say, that they realize and see all at once is not without a cause from of old.”

A misreading has to be cleared away: to say that there is a cause from of old is not to say that the opportunity has been fenced off. The six causes the scripture lists are every one of them things that can be begun upon now — giving rise to the mind, drawing near, planting roots of goodness together. Setting it on the ground: today's seeing and not seeing have a cause from of old, and what one does today is the cause from of old for another day.

The Benefit Gained: The Ten Gates Entered, the Ten Gates by Which One Enters, and the Hundred and One Samādhis

In the passage on the benefit gained, the scripture first speaks in brief and then at length. Within the brief, it speaks first of what is entered: “or they entered into the dharma-body, or entered into the form-body, or entered into the practices accomplished of old, or entered into the perfections made complete, or entered into the adorned and pure wheel of practice, or entered into the grounds of the bodhisattvas, or entered into the power of accomplishing right awakening, or entered into the great spiritual changes wherein the samādhis in which the buddhas abide are without difference, or entered into the powers of the Tathāgata and the wisdom of his fearlessnesses, or entered into the ocean of the Buddha's unobstructed eloquence” — ten gates. Chengguan judges this as “setting out in particular ten gates so as to make manifest the inexhaustible”.

Then it speaks of that by which they enter: “with every kind of understanding, every kind of way, every kind of gate, every kind of entering, every kind of tenor of meaning, every kind of according, every kind of wisdom, every kind of aid to the way, every kind of skillful means, and every kind of samādhi” — likewise ten gates. Chengguan fastens one sense to each of the first six gates: understanding is “examining and penetrating plainly, of kinds that are not the same”; way means one way, two ways, and on to measureless right ways; gate means the gate of impermanence, the gate of the realm of dreams, and the rest; entering means the differences in what is realized; tenor of meaning means the difference of purport; according means that the capacities and the dharmas are of a myriad differences and all of them are accorded with. And he adds one clause that is essential: “this that enters is itself also what is benefited.” That by which one enters is itself the benefit gained, and it is not that one first gets a tool and then goes to fetch a profit.

When it speaks at length, the scripture sets out at length only the one gate of “samādhi”, and the remaining nine gates are to be taken after its example. Of the samādhis it lists, the base text by the graph comes to a hundred and one gates, from the samādhi of universally adorning the Dharma realm down to the samādhi of the lion's stretching that contemplates the place of liberation of all the tathāgatas. Chengguan judges of them, “it sets out in particular a hundred and two gates”, and divides them as “the former hundred and one gates are the particular workings and functions, and the latter one is the general mark that shares in the fruit”; Fazang, going by the sixty-fascicle text, judges them as a hundred gates — the three sayings as to the number stand side by side, and are recorded without adjudication.

One must ask: what use is there in listing so many names of samādhis? Chengguan gives a general judgment that can spare one the labor of seeking out an explanation for each name: “they all take their names from their working and function, and all of them have the true suchness of the nature of the dharmas for the root of the samādhi, and in each and every matter they are able to tally with the real, since the right receiving is present before them.” The names are taken from the function, while the root is only one. And why is the last gate the lion's stretching? Chengguan says, “if the general mark were not shared in, there would be no way of reaching to the bottom of the realm of a buddha” — the former hundred gates are the particular, the last one gate is the general, and only by getting a share in the general mark of a buddha does one reach to the bottom of the realm of a buddha.

Nor is it that Chengguan explains none of the names of the gates — the first gate he does explain. Of the samādhi of universally adorning the Dharma realm he says that “since entering this samādhi is able to make the Dharma realm universally and wondrously adorned, this is one sense of the stretching’s displaying of the pure land”, and takes that one gate at once for the rule by which the rest are to be read: “the samādhis below are all particular senses of the great function of the stretching, and so by the many particulars one enters into the general of a buddha.” One must ask: if they are all particular senses, why list so many? Chengguan’s answer is a loose one — “as for the particular senses of the several gates, the teller follows what befits the occasion.” The opening and folding of the particular senses is settled by the occasion, while the general into which they enter is only the one lion’s stretching. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: to say “what befits the occasion” is not to say that these names might as well be absent, but that their dividing and joining is not a fixed table; what the reader should hold is which face it is, not which number it is.

Setting it on the ground: in reading this long string of names there is no need to remember each name; it is enough to read out the rhythm of ‘in each matter a tallying with the real’ — and that is just the inexhaustibility this list is meant to make manifest.

The Ten Virtues of What Was Entered Set Out at Length: What Sort of Persons These Bodhisattvas Have in Fact Become

The samādhis listed, the scripture turns into a long passage of prose describing the virtue of these bodhisattvas. Chengguan judges that within it “there are ten virtues, setting out at length the particular clauses of the ten gates before”, and marks one by one where each begins: the virtue of the height and depth of the station of wisdom, the virtue of taming beings and being unstained, the virtue of fulfilling the perfections, the virtue of the power of wisdom and of fearlessness, the virtue of accomplishing the practices of old, the virtue of the fullness of the dharma-body, the virtue of the sovereignty of the form-body, the virtue of the sovereignty of eloquence, the virtue of samādhi and of spiritual change, and the virtue of accomplishing right and equal awakening.

Among the ten virtues, several clauses call for being singled out.

The first, “they knew that the Dharma gates are all of them as an illusion, that all beings are all of them as a dream, that all tathāgatas are all of them as a shadow, that all speech and sound is all of it as an echo, and that all dharmas are all of them as a transformation” — five matters each matched with a simile. One must ask: is even “all tathāgatas” as a shadow? What this clause breaks is the taking of a tathāgata to be something really existing over against one; and to be as a shadow is not to say that there is nothing, but that there is, and without a nature of its own. Without this one clause, the Buddha praised in the ten segments of verses before would become one more thing grasped at.

The second, “they cultivated the great ocean of wisdom that has no shore, arrived at the far shore where the perfection of wisdom reaches its end, and were held and sustained by the perfection of prajñā; by the perfection of spiritual penetration they entered universally into the world, and in dependence upon the perfection of samādhi gained sovereignty of mind” — four perfections raised together, with prajñā as that which holds and sustains. The order cannot be inverted: only when the holding and sustaining is there first do the spiritual penetrations and the samādhis not become an ability of the outsiders' ways.

The third, “with the wisdom that is not upside down they knew all meanings, with the wisdom of skillful discrimination they revealed the treasury of the Dharma, with the wisdom that makes plain they glossed the words of the text, and with the power of great vows they set forth the Dharma without end” — of the four, the first three are the ability to know and to tell, and the last is the vow. Chengguan gives the reminder that “though there are the four kinds of eloquence, the intent lies in wisdom”.

The fourth, “able to cause the small and the great to enter into one another with sovereign ease” and “within the nature that is without form displaying all forms, and with all the quarters entering universally into one quarter” — these are the two most Avataṃsaka clauses of the passage, speaking of the unobstructedness between great and small, between form and emptiness, and between the quarters. And they are fastened to the clause before, “knowing that the nature of the dharmas is without birth and without arising”: precisely because there is neither birth nor arising, the small and the great can enter into one another.

The fifth, “they gained the light of the wisdom of the realm of a buddha, and entered the deep samādhi of good seeing; they entered the limit of the unobstructedness of all dharmas, were sovereign in the excellent wisdom upon all dharmas, and every realm was purely adorned” — Chengguan marks its name as “the virtue of samādhi and of spiritual change”, and takes the four graphs “gained the realm of a buddha” for the place where it begins. The order of the three clauses may not be reversed: first “they gained the light of the wisdom of the realm of a buddha”, which is what is seen; next “entered the deep samādhi of good seeing”, which is where they abide; last “entered the limit of the unobstructedness of all dharmas”, which is the limit they reach. One must ask: is samādhi not a still concentration — how should there be “spiritual change” in it? Because the concentration here is not a ceasing; the scripture goes straight on to say “sovereign in the excellent wisdom upon all dharmas” — only where wisdom is sovereign within the concentration is there any displaying to speak of; were the concentration merely a not-moving, the whole passage of the raising up of function that follows could not come. One misunderstanding must be cleared away: “the limit of unobstructedness” does not say that there is no limit, but that upon every dharma one can reach that limit; there is a limit and yet no obstruction, and that is the use of the graph “limit”. Setting it on the ground: this virtue is just what those hundred and one gates of samādhi come to when they land in a person — the gates are the name, this is the fact.

The sixth, the last clause, “there were none that were not within the Jeta Grove, deeply entered into the great ocean of the merit of the Tathāgata, and all of them seen within the shining of the light of the Buddha” — virtue as vast as this is still drawn back into this grove. This drawing back answers all through to the later “not leaving the Jeta Grove”.

Setting it on the ground: this passage may be read as an account of ‘what one will become after seeing the ray’; clause after clause is the mark of the fruit, and not a method of cultivation.

Bearing His Kindness and Raising Up Offerings: The Ten Kinds of Great Clouds of Adornment

After the benefit gained comes the requiting of kindness. The bodhisattvas gained the light of the right Dharma that is beyond thinking, their minds were greatly glad, and thereupon upon their own bodies, upon the towered halls, the articles of adornment, and the lion seats, throughout all the things of the Jeta Grove, they displayed ten kinds of great clouds of adornment filling the Dharma realm of the ten directions.

The ten clouds in order are: the cloud of sending forth great light (awakening beings), the cloud of maṇi jewel bells (praising the merit of the buddhas of the three times), the cloud of music (setting forth the karmic retribution of beings), the cloud of the forms and marks of the vows and practices of every kind of bodhisattva (telling the great vows of the bodhisattvas), the cloud of the sovereign transformations of the tathāgatas (sending forth the speech and sound of the buddhas), the cloud of the bodies of bodhisattvas adorned with the marks and signs (telling the order in which the tathāgatas arise), the cloud of the places of the way of the tathāgatas of the three times (displaying the merit and adornment of the accomplishing of right awakening), the cloud of the dragon kings (raining down all the scents), the cloud of the bodies of the lords of the world (setting forth the practice of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra), and the cloud of the jewel-adorned and pure buddha-lands (displaying the tathāgatas turning the wheel of the right Dharma).

The clause-pattern the ten clouds have in common is to be marked: every one of the clouds “fills the ten directions”, and every one of the clouds is telling the Dharma — they are not sent forth and then dispersed. What is offered is itself the Dharma that is told, and this is the particular thing about offering in the Avataṃsaka.

At the end of the passage the scripture itself explains the reason: “these bodhisattvas, because they had gained the light of the Dharma that is beyond thinking, and as to the Dharma it ought to be so”. One must ask: this being a requiting of kindness, why is it said that “as to the Dharma it ought to be so”? Chengguan judges this passage as “concluding the cause of it, that it is by reason of having gained the ten kinds of virtue before” — having gained virtue of that sort, offerings of this sort come forth of themselves, and are no forced repayment.

Setting it on the ground: requiting kindness is not the paying back of a debt. To have gained and to be able to bring forth is the mark of having gained; if nothing can be brought forth, it is most likely that one has not truly gained.

Mañjuśrī's Telling of Virtues: After Wisdom, the Telling of Virtues, and Thirteen Verses Praising the Three Kinds of World in Common

Samantabhadra opens out before the ray, and Mañjuśrī tells the virtues after the ray. This order of before and after is not set down at random, and Chengguan explains it, saying: “Mañjuśrī presides over wisdom, and so after the ray he tells the virtues. The ray is fundamentally for causing them to realize the samādhi, and wisdom is fundamentally for making manifest the Dharma realm; searching wisdom, one gets the principle, and therefore he tells and praises what is within the grove.” And he says besides: “the gate of Samantabhadra before makes the principle manifest by practice, and this makes the principle manifest by understanding, since understanding and practice being not two, one is then able to enter.” — Samantabhadra makes the principle manifest by practice, Mañjuśrī makes the principle manifest by understanding, and the two gates being not two, one can then enter the Dharma realm. This is the most essential judgment of the passage, and is also the reason why this assembly must have the two of them at the head and at the tail.

Mañjuśrī's verses are thirteen, and are the only segment in the whole in seven graphs (the remaining eleven segments are all in five). Chengguan judges of them that they “praise in common the sovereign function of the three kinds of world within this one assembly”, and divides them into six: the first two verses praise in general (the first the pervading, the latter the wide holding); the next one verse praises the world of beings; the next two verses praise that the reliant and the principal are within each other; fourth, three verses tell of the sky above the grove; fifth, three verses tell of the inexhaustibility of the reliant and the principal in right awakening; sixth, the last two verses make manifest in general the universal gathering up. Fazang, going by the sixty-fascicle text, judges them instead as “thirteen and a half verses, divided in two”, which differs from Chengguan's division, and the two stand side by side.

Verse by verse: the first verse, “you should contemplate this Jeta Grove — by the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha it is vast and without limit”, begins with “you should contemplate” just as the first verse of the ten segments of verses does — that first verse reading “you should all contemplate”, and answers to it before and after. The second verse, “within those seats and the rest of the realms, their forms and images are plainly and wholly made manifest”, is the wide holding. The third verse, “out of the pores of the sons of the Buddha there come clouds of jewel-flames of every kind of adornment”, speaks of the world of beings. The fourth and fifth verses, “within the flowers of the jeweled trees there appear wondrous bodies” and “within each and every pore of the Tathāgata there constantly appear transformation bodies hard to think of”, are the principal within the reliant and the principal within the principal. The sixth through the eighth verses speak of how the sky above the grove, the jeweled trees within the grove, and the realms within the grove are all able to send forth sound and display buddhas — what is called “telling of the sky above the grove”. The ninth through the eleventh verses, “all the lands there are in the ten directions … wholly enter within the pores of the Tathāgata”, “within all the adornments there appear buddhas”, and “flames of scent, multitudes of flowers, and treasuries of jewels”, speak of the inexhaustibility of the reliant and the principal in right awakening. The last two verses, “all the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times, and all the wondrous places of the way that are adorned, within the realm of this park and grove, each and every form and image is plainly made manifest” and “all the sons of the Buddha that are as Samantabhadra, and the lands they have adorned through oceans of a hundred thousand kalpas, their number is measureless and equal to beings, and there is none that is not seen within this grove”, gather all up — everything is gathered into the four graphs “seen within this grove”.

A misreading has to be cleared away: what Mañjuśrī tells is not a praising of the Buddha once again, but a praising of this grove. The subject of the thirteen verses is almost always the grove, the trees and the sky within the grove, and the adornments displayed within the grove. Setting it on the ground: the Dharma realm that is realized is not in some other place, but is just this ground before one's eyes — and this is precisely why the chapter on entering the Dharma realm begins from one park and grove.

The Boundless Great Function: Twenty-Five Gates, from the Gate of Impermanence to the Gate of Awakening Beings

The last segment is the “function”. Those bodhisattvas, because they were shone upon by the light of the samādhi of the Buddha, thereupon got to enter samādhi, and each gained gates of great compassion as many as the dust-motes of unspeakably many buddha-lands; from each and every pore upon their bodies they sent forth light, and each ray of light displayed bodhisattvas whose bodily shapes and features were as the lords of the world, appearing universally before all beings. Chengguan judges of this passage that it “first makes manifest in general the cause of the function, that is to say, that it is by the samādhi of the Buddha, and that having gained the samādhi before they accomplish this gate of compassion, and therefore are able to have function” — the reason the function can be raised up is that concentration and compassion are there first, and not that one wishes to get something done.

Of the gates displayed, the scripture lists twenty-five. Chengguan judges that “the first eight gates make clear in a mixed way the transforming by the gates of gladness and weariness and the rest, and the remaining gates make clear the transforming by the gates of the ten perfections”, and divides the latter seventeen gates again: the first six gates one perfection each; the next three gates make clear the perfection of skillful means; the one gate of subduing the māras is the perfection of power; and the remaining seven gates are all of them the perfection of knowledge, while the perfection of vows, having been made clear already within the gates of gladness and weariness before, is here left out.

The first eight gates are the gladness and the weariness: the gate of the impermanence of the palaces of the gods (weariness), the gate of the taking of birth by all beings (weariness), the gate of the cultivation and practice of all bodhisattvas (gladness), the gate of the realms of dreams (weariness), the gate of the great vows of a bodhisattva (gladness), the gate of the quaking of the worlds, the gate of the differentiating of the worlds, and the gate of the displaying of the arising of the worlds. One must ask: why does the teaching and transforming begin from “impermanence” and “the realms of dreams”? Because gladness and weariness are the first movers — only when one has seen that the palaces of the gods too will be destroyed and that birth-and-death is as a dream is one willing to turn back; and only when one has seen that the practice and the great vows of a bodhisattva are to be gladdened at is there anywhere to go.

The next six gates are just the six perfections: the gate of the dāna-pāramitā (giving), the gate of the śī-pāramitā (keeping the precepts) wherein all the tathāgatas cultivated merit and austerities of every kind, the gate of the kṣānti-pāramitā (patience) of the cutting up of the limbs and members, the gate of the diligent cultivation of the vīrya-pāramitā (exertion), the gate of the cultivation by all bodhisattvas of the samādhis, the meditative concentrations, and the liberations (meditative concentration), and the gate of the light of the wisdom wherein the way of the Buddha is round and complete (prajñā). Mark that the gate of patience uses the four graphs “the cutting up of the limbs and members” — among the six perfections this gate alone raises the most extreme of matters, and it is not an exaggeration, but because the measure of patience is the hardest to see to the bottom of.

The next three gates make clear the perfection of skillful means: the gate of diligently seeking the Dharma of the Buddha and, for the sake of a single word and a single clause, casting away numberless bodies and lives; the gate of drawing near to all the buddhas and inquiring after all the dharmas with a mind that never wearies; and the gate of going, in accord with the seasons and the wishes and delights of beings, to where they are, and by skillful means ripening them and causing them to abide in the light of the ocean of all-knowing wisdom. Of the three gates, one is the seeking of the Dharma, one the drawing near, and one the going out to meet capacities, and all are gathered in by skillful means.

The gate of subduing the multitudes of māras, holding down the outsiders' ways, and displaying the power of the merit and wisdom of a bodhisattva, Chengguan judges as the perfection of power.

The last seven gates are all of them the perfection of knowledge, and the first six of them have one and the same clause-pattern, “the gate of the clear wisdom that knows …”: the gate of the clear wisdom that knows all crafts and skills, that knows the differences among all beings, that knows the differences among all dharmas, that knows the differences in what the minds of all beings delight in, that knows the faculties and conduct, the afflictions, and the habit-energies of all beings, and that knows the various kinds of karma of all beings; while the last gate is not made a gate of “knowing”, but gathers up with the gate of awakening all beings. Mark what is known in the seven gates: four gates have beings for what is known (the differences, what the minds delight in, the faculties and conduct and afflictions and habit-energies, and the various kinds of karma), one gate has dharmas for what is known, one gate has crafts and skills for what is known, and the last gate speaks not of what is known but of awakening.

Setting it on the ground: the twenty-five gates read through, one may ask oneself one question — is what I lack the mind of gladness and weariness, or the practice of the six perfections, or the wisdom that knows persons?

The Places of the Teaching, the Benefit of the Teaching, and That Clause That Appears Again and Again, “Not Leaving This Jeta Grove”

After the twenty-five gates, the scripture speaks of the places where they teach: or they go to the palaces of the gods and the dragons, or to the palaces of the yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas, or to the palace of the Brahmā king, the palaces of the kings of men, and the palace of King Yama, or to the dwelling places of the animals, the hungry ghosts, and the hells — gathering in beings with even great compassion, even great vows, even wisdom, and even skillful means. The four “evens” are the bone of this clause: the places differ as the palaces of the gods differ from the hells, while the mind has no distinction of high and low.

The benefits of the teaching are seven: some, having seen, are thereupon tamed; some, having heard, are thereupon tamed; some, having called to mind, are tamed; some, having heard the sound, are tamed; some, having heard the name, are tamed; some, having seen the round halo, are tamed; some, having seen the net of light, are tamed. The seven run from the heavy to the light — the heaviest is to see him in person, and the lightest is only to have seen the net of light.

Thereafter the scripture has two closing clauses that are almost one and the same text, differing only in the first graph, the one “however” and the other “and yet” — the former place reads “however neither have they left this Jeta Grove and the place of the Tathāgata”, and the latter place reads “and yet neither have they left this Jeta Grove and the place of the Tathāgata”. Chengguan explains this, saying: “as for the concluding with not leaving the Jeta Grove, it makes clear that without moving he is universally present, that amid the thick of the arising he is constantly still, and that the branch does not leave the root.” And he adds one clause of foretelling: “Mañjuśrī's roaming below likewise does not leave the root assembly, since root and branch, fact and principle, are neither identical nor apart.”

One must ask: since he pervades the ten directions and causes all to see him, how is it still said that he does not leave his original place? This is just the joint at which the passage closes — to pervade is not to leave this place and go to that place, but that this place is of itself already pervading. If one had to leave this in order afterward to be able to be there, that would become a moving, and not a pervading.

The last passage lists twelve kinds of appearing bodily: or displaying measureless clouds of transformation bodies, or displaying one's own body as one alone and without companion (these two being the general), and the ten below being the particular — the body of a śramaṇa, of a brahmin, of one practising austerities, of one in abundance, of a king of physicians, of a caravan leader, of one of pure livelihood, of a musician, of one who serves the gods, and of one of crafts and skills. The places to which they go are the encampments and walled towns, the royal capitals and hamlets, and the mark of their conduct is “just as the net of Śakra”. The dharmas they tell are five: all the crafts and undertakings of the world, the bright lamp of all wisdom that lights the world, what is adorned by the power of the karma of all beings, the ranks and stages wherein the lands of the ten directions set up the vehicles, and the realms of all the dharmas that the lamp of wisdom shines upon. Having told them, it still holds the whole passage fast with “and yet neither have they left this Jeta Grove and the place of the Tathāgata”.

Setting it on the ground: among the ten particular bodies, a physician, a merchant, a musician, a craftsman are all of them stations within the market and the street (the “measureless clouds of transformation bodies” of the two general bodies before them are not of this sort). The function of this root assembly comes down and lands just here.

Lineage

What this passage opens out downward, the most direct thread of it is that one judgment of Chengguan's: “here much of it is the same as what Sudhana saw, and therefore it is known that Sudhana's friends are just the bodhisattvas of this assembly.” The twelve bodies listed in the last passage are precisely the general catalogue of the fifty-three visits of the last assembly — and the Yanyi chao matches, one by one down the list, the eleven marks from “one alone and without companion” onward among the twelve bodies: one alone and without companion is matched with Cloud of Virtue, the śramaṇa with Ocean Cloud and Well-Abiding, the brahmin with Most Excellent and Tranquil, the austerities with Victorious Heat, abundance with Well-Seeing and Fulfilled Vow, the king of physicians with Universal Eye and Megha, the caravan leader with Unsurpassed Victory, pure livelihood which likewise gathers in the brahmin as matching in sense Immovable and Fully Endowed, the musician as matching in sense Vasumitrā, the body that serves the gods with Mahādeva, and crafts and skills with the youth Sovereign Master. Thus the root assembly and the last assembly are joined into one matter: the bodhisattvas displayed in the root assembly, changing their station and walking into the walled towns, are just the good friends whom Sudhana visits.

The second thread is the two gates of Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī. Chengguan takes Samantabhadra as presiding over practice and Mañjuśrī as presiding over wisdom, judges that “understanding and practice being not two, one is then able to enter”, and with Mañjuśrī's great wisdom wherein the provisional and the real are not two, and Samantabhadra's practice of principle wherein substance and function are joined, they “make manifest in common the virtue of the fruit of the samādhi of the Tathāgata”. The very bone of the whole chapter on entering the Dharma realm lies in these two persons at the head and at the tail, and this passage is the first time the two appear within one and the same segment.

The third thread is the one sense of “without moving he is universally present”. Chengguan sets up this judgment at the closing clause of this passage, and foretells besides that Mañjuśrī's roaming in the text below likewise does not leave the root assembly — and this judgment still holds good when one comes to Sudhana's journeying south in the last assembly: Sudhana walks through more than a hundred cities, and the root assembly has not dispersed.

The fourth thread is the reading against the forty-fascicle text. The root assembly has its counterpart entire in the forty-fascicle text translated by Prajñā of the Tang: from the verses of the ten directions, through Samantabhadra's opening, the World-Honored One's sending forth of the ray and Mañjuśrī's telling of virtues, down to the end of the boundless great function, segment answers to segment. The most conspicuous difference of form lies in Samantabhadra's verses of repetition: the ten verses of Samantabhadra in the eighty-fascicle text are in five graphs, while the Samantabhadra verses of the forty are in seven; in the eighty, within the whole passage, only the one segment of Mañjuśrī is in seven graphs, while in the forty both Samantabhadra's and Mañjuśrī's verses are in seven. The name of the ray too differs by a single graph — the eighty-fascicle text and the sixty both have “the gate of the universal shining upon the Dharma realm of the three times”, while the forty has “the gate of the universal shining forth upon the Dharma realm of the three times”, with one graph more. The number of bodies displayed in the last segment also differs: the eighty has ten bodies, the sixty nine images, and the forty thirteen bodies, bringing out separately the four bodies of one gone forth in another path, of a courtesan, of Vaiśravaṇa and of a lord of the world, while having no body of pure livelihood. Each of the three texts has what it transmits; they are recorded clause by clause, and no adjudication is made of high or low.

As for the divergent explanations of the several houses, the outlines and divisions of this passage differ in a good many places: Fazang's Tanxuan ji makes the root assembly ten portions and stops at the telling of virtues by Mañjuśrī, setting up no separate portion of the boundless great function, its text being fastened under “the second, the making manifest of the virtue and the benefit”, which he sets up after Mañjuśrī's verses, and he concludes the root assembly with the clause “the ten sections from the beginning of the assembly up to here, differing among themselves, have in sum made clear the root assembly, and it is done”; Chengguan for his part sets it up separately as the tenth; and the Yanyi chao, when it tells them over again, makes the tenth “the portion of the great function without bound”, the order of the graphs being the reverse of the Shu. As for the opening and folding of the ten segments of verses one by one, the numbers into which Chengguan and Fazang divide them differ in almost every segment. As for the correspondence of Samantabhadra's verses of repetition with the ten Dharma clauses, Chengguan opens and folds them out of order, while Fazang makes it a versifying in sequence. As for the number of the gates of samādhi, Chengguan makes it a hundred and two gates, Fazang going by the sixty-fascicle text makes it a hundred gates, and the base text by the graph comes to a hundred and one gates. As for the number of verses in Mañjuśrī's verses, Chengguan makes it thirteen verses and Fazang thirteen and a half. These several settings-up of the houses have each of them their own track; they are recorded, and no adjudication is made of high or low.

Fazang opens the last two of the five gates of the function of compassion into three apiece, and these two threefold divisions are worth a look. The fourth gate is the transforming by the bodies of the three kinds of world: first the transforming by the body of the world of right and equal awakening; next, from “or they display hearers” onward, the transforming by the body of the world of beings; third, “or they display the likenesses of all walled towns and the like,” which is the body of the world as receptacle. The three kinds of world are right awakening, beings, and the receptacle: what the Buddha realizes, what he transforms, and what he dwells upon. The transforming body does not stop at displaying the body of a buddha or the body of a hearer; even such insentient marks as walled towns and palaces Fazang judges to be one register of bodily transforming. Hence the clause he sets below it, “according to what befits them, the function of transforming is concluded”: the three sorts of body are not three separate accomplishments but one act displayed according to what befits; what body is displayed is settled by the one to be met, not by the one who displays.

The fifth gate is the transforming by the gates of the three karmas: first the transforming by body and speech; next, from “the many kinds of skill and craft” onward, the transforming by mind; last, from “they display all” onward, the concluding of the place of transforming. The former gate divides by the realms displayed, this one by the karmas that do the transforming; the former tells how far the transforming reaches, the latter tells by what it proceeds. Body and speech may be seen and heard; the transforming by mind has no mark to point at, and so Fazang fits to it the one clause “the many kinds of skill and craft”: skill and craft are neither body nor speech, but what the mind sets in motion and what takes shape in affairs, and therefore belong to the karma of mind. And this gate ends in “the concluding of the place of transforming,” answering to the former gate's “the function of transforming is concluded”: function and place both come home to the conclusion of this passage. Without leaving the Jeta Grove, the places transformed and the function raised up are nowhere not universal.

Li Tongxuan and Zhiyan too have each their own explanation of this passage. Neither uses the five outline-names of the commentarial houses, and the boundaries they set up differ from Chengguan's and Fazang's alike. Li Tongxuan takes the sending forth of the ray for the boundary: before it is “the gate of meeting principle by practice”, with Samantabhadra host and Mañjuśrī companion; after it is “the gate of meeting practice by principle, perfectly fused, sovereign and unobstructed”, with Mañjuśrī host and Samantabhadra companion. This is near in track to Chengguan's judgment that “Samantabhadra makes principle manifest by practice, Mañjuśrī makes principle manifest by understanding”, and yet the assignment is the reverse — Chengguan speaks of understanding and practice being not two by taking the head and the tail of the passage, while Tongxuan speaks of one gate turning into another by the exchange of host and companion. As for what the ray stands for, Tongxuan says that “this ray is the root universal-light wisdom within the body of the Dharma realm”, and goes on to say that once this wisdom is present “then with the many practices one raises up the wisdom of differentiation, knowing the faculties and benefiting beings, universally throughout the oceans of fields without any rest, and this is named the practice of Samantabhadra” — the root wisdom appears first, the wisdom of differentiation arises after, and the practice of that differentiating wisdom is just what is named the practice of Samantabhadra; this differs in the sense taken from Chengguan, who makes the ray stand for the undefiled right wisdom of the middle way, though both speak of the one ray. The two sayings are recorded side by side, and no adjudication is made whether they accord.

Zhiyan, for his part, outlines with the greatest economy: the ten segments of verses are “the eighth, the praise of virtues”, Samantabhadra's opening is “the ninth, the further discernment of the function of the virtue of the samādhi”, and from the ray onward is “the second, the direct setting forth”. The question he sets up after Samantabhadra's verses is the one most worth turning over: “Question: why does Samantabhadra illuminate again? Answer: the man of the fruit enters the samādhi and makes manifest that the Dharma is real. But if the man of the cause does not realize it, those who cultivate along with him do not advance; therefore Samantabhadra, a man of the cause, illuminates, and draws those who begin to cultivate to enter in.” The Buddha is the man of the fruit, and the Dharma made manifest in his samādhi is of course real; but a man still in the position of cause, if he does not see one of his own kind realizing it too, will not set out — and so Samantabhadra, a man of the cause, must illuminate once more. One must ask: where does this differ from Chengguan's judgment? Chengguan argues from the opening up — “the displaying of the land makes the Dharma realm manifest, and Samantabhadra presides over this, and only so can it be opened” — the Dharma realm displayed must be opened by Samantabhadra; Zhiyan argues from the capacity of the learner — it is not that speech was insufficient, but that a learner needs to see one of his own kind get through. The two point at different things; they are recorded without adjudication. Zhiyan sets up another question of his own: “why is it by the Buddha's sustaining that they enter the Dharma realm, and not by attainment according to the stages?”, and the sense of his own answer is this: entering the Dharma realm needs both one's own power and another's together, and this passage speaks under one aspect only, one's own power going by the stages, while another's power is the Buddha's sustaining — entering the Dharma realm requires both one's own power and another's together, and what is displayed in this passage is only the one aspect of another's power, not a saying that one's own power may be dispensed with. Setting it on the ground: in reading of the Buddha's sustaining here, one need not doubt that one's own practice is of any use; the saying of one aspect is set down precisely so that no one should take the one aspect for the whole.

Of the text of this one assembly, the eleven passages of speech before it all tell ‘what the Buddha has displayed’, and the last passage tells ‘what is to be done after one has seen’. From the verses to the ray, from the ray to the telling of virtues, and from the telling of virtues to entering the market and the street and displaying the twelve bodies — this order of the passage is the whole course by which the Avataṃsaka turns the virtue of the fruit into a gate of practice.

Where This Passage Stands in the Whole Sūtra: After the Root Assembly, at the Head of the Last Assembly

The Avataṃsaka has reached its ninth assembly. What the eight assemblies before it told of was the Dharma realm manifested by the Buddha and the great bodhisattvas within concentration; and when it came to the Jeta Grove, the Buddha entered the samādhi of the lion's stretching and manifested an inconceivable realm, and the great bodhisattvas saw it, while the śrāvakas who sat in that very assembly neither saw nor heard. When that great stretch has ended, the sūtra text suddenly changes key — Mañjuśrī comes out of the Tower of Good Abiding, goes off toward the south, and walks into the human realm.

Chengguan sets up a great division of the outline here, saying that what follows is the second great division, the last assembly, and he first opens ten gates as a general framework: the general display of the sense of the assemblies, the opening and combining of the number of the assemblies, how many the lords of the assemblies are, the settling of the name and sense of an assembly, the drawing together under the two stations, the distinguishing of the five marks, the perfect gathering of beginning and end, the classes of persons in the Dharma realm, the events and senses of the Dharma realm, and the explaining as the text runs. The ten gates are held in common by all fifty stretches of the last assembly, and so they have to be set up here in this first stretch.

An error must be cleared away first: the last assembly is not an appendix to the eight assemblies before it. Chengguan says that what came before is the sudden that is not other than the gradual, in which many gates and many persons alike accord with it, and that here is the gradual that is not other than the sudden, in which one person passes through the stages and cultivates them perfectly — before, many persons accorded with one dharma; here, one person passes through every stage to the end. And he explains why there has to be such a stretch: now the cultivation is entrusted to a person so as to give the later followers a track to run in, so that the great teaching may be spread wide — this is the root intent of it. A dharma has to be walked through once by someone before those who come later have a track to follow. Bringing it down to the ground: do not read this passage as the opening of a story, read it as the opening of a pattern — every step Sudhana walks, he walks on the reader's behalf.

How Many Assemblies Are There in This Assembly: Chengguan's Five Ways of Reckoning

Under the last assembly, one good friend makes one stretch — so how is an assembly to be counted? Chengguan does not give one fixed number; he gives five ways of reckoning.

Reckoned by the capacities that are transformed, there are only three assemblies: if it is taken by the capacities gathered in, there are only three assemblies: first the monks, second the persons of the various vehicles, third the assembly of Sudhana — and within this one passage all three of these assemblies are walked through. Reckoned by transformer and transformed together, there are fifty-five, because Sudhana himself has fifty-three, while Mañjuśrī alone makes four assemblies, Virtue-Born and Endowed with Virtue share one question and answer, and Universal Friend, who gives no answer, does not make an assembly. Reckoned by lords and companions, if it is taken by lords and companions, there come to be one hundred and ten assemblies. And if it is taken by the scattered telling, then there are assemblies as many as the dust-motes of a Buddha-land. And if it is taken by the virtue of Samantabhadra, then the assemblies are endless — if it is taken by the virtue of Samantabhadra, then the assemblies are endless.

The number of the lords of the assemblies goes the same way: if it is fixed by persons, there are only fifty-four, and if the persons are displayed by the assemblies there are fifty-seven, because Mañjuśrī is divided among four places.

Clear away an error: these several numbers are not divergent accounts contradicting one another, they are countings of one and the same thing under different measures. Chengguan says so himself: and therefore, taking only the transformer, it is not enough to settle the assemblies — you cannot settle the number of assemblies by looking only at the number of persons who transform. Bringing it down to the ground: later men often quote the phrase the fifty-three visits, and one should know that this is said with regard to the number of Sudhana's visits and not with regard to the number of assemblies; the Mañjuśrī of this passage is the one who sets it in motion, standing outside those fifty-three.

Drawing Together Under the Two Stations: Mañjuśrī Stands for the Mind That Is Able to Have Faith, Samantabhadra for the Dharma Realm Relied Upon

Many as the persons of the last assembly are, Chengguan says: the assemblies here do not go beyond Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra, and there are in brief two gates: first, making the symbolism clear by setting them opposite; second, displaying the perfect by their mutual fusion. The gate of setting them opposite has three pairs.

The pair of what is able and what is its object: Samantabhadra stands for the Dharma realm relied upon, that is, the Tathāgata-womb wrapped in the bonds, for which Chengguan cites the Prajñā of the Guiding Principle, all beings are the Tathāgata-womb, as his witness; and Mañjuśrī stands for the mind that is able to have faith, for which he cites the Sūtra of the Names of the Buddhas, all Buddhas give rise to the mind by reason of Mañjuśrī, as his witness. The pair of understanding and practice: Samantabhadra stands for the ten thousand practices that are set in motion, Mañjuśrī for the understanding that is able to set them in motion. The pair of principle and wisdom: Samantabhadra is the Dharma realm that is witnessed, and Mañjuśrī is the great wisdom that is able to witness it.

The gate of mutual fusion then says that faith must have faith in the principle, and that understanding sets practice in motion and practice witnesses the principle, and therefore principle and wisdom are not two.

Clear away an error: Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra are not two deified symbols; what the two stand for is a pair of joints in cultivation — on one side the mind that is able to have faith and to understand, on the other the Dharma realm that is believed in and witnessed. Bringing it down to the ground: the reason this passage begins with Mañjuśrī coming out of the tower is precisely that the whole road sets out from faith; and Sudhana's seeing Samantabhadra at the last is the other end of that road.

The Assignment of the Five Marks Is For the Present, Following the Ancient Worthies, and Not the Sūtra Text Dividing Itself So

The sixth of the ten gates is the distinguishing of the five marks. The five marks are the dividing of the fifty stretches of the last assembly into five: the mark of cultivating under an assigned stage (forty-one persons), the mark of the conditions being gathered and entering the real (the eleven persons from Lady Māyā onward), the mark of gathering virtue and completing the cause (Maitreya), the mark of wisdom's illumination being not two (the later Mañjuśrī), and the mark of the vastness of the cause (Samantabhadra).

This is the most important line to be drawn in the way this passage is read: these five marks are not marked out by the sūtra text itself. Before he set up the five marks, Chengguan first recorded the divergence of two houses — as for Dharma-master Yi and the treatise of the Terrace Mountain, they only explain as the text runs and make no separate assignment; masters such as Guangtong all assign the stages — one house not assigning the stages, one house assigning them. He judged that both have their reason, and he supplied the reason on behalf of the house that does not assign: since each single stage is furnished with many Dharma-gates, it is not that the mind of an ordinary person may not practice and seek the dharma of the good friend, and so not assigning them also stands to reason. Only then did he say: yet where there is no order of stages, this does not obstruct the order of stages; to display the stages is the ordinary rule, and to assign them is no fault either. And that last sentence, for the present I follow the ancient worthies and assign them as five marks — that one phrase, for the present, states the weight of the matter plainly.

Clear away an error: reading assignment to a stage as though the sūtra text had plainly laid out a ladder of ranks. The sūtra text says only that Sudhana went south, met such and such a friend, and obtained such and such a Dharma-gate; not one name of a stage appears in it. Bringing it down to the ground: the judgment of assigned stages should be read as a ruler that the ancient worthies set up for those who came after; the ruler can measure depth and shallowness, but it cannot measure out a pronouncement of the sūtra text itself.

Why Mañjuśrī Is Only One Person: Faith Has Not Yet Become a Stage

Under the mark of cultivating under an assigned stage there are five divisions, and to the other four stages ten persons are assigned apiece, while to the first alone there is only the one person, Mañjuśrī. Why so? Chengguan answers in the shortest possible way: the first, Mañjuśrī, one person assigned to the ten faiths — faith has not yet become a stage, and so there is only one person.

He says the same thing over again in the gate on the classes of persons in the Dharma realm. Of those in the last assembly who manifest the body of a bodhisattva there are six in all, distributed over three places: among them the bodhisattvas are six, manifesting bodies in three places: first, the initial Mañjuśrī — because the stage of faith is weak, only one person is displayed. Second, the middle, where they advance by degrees, manifests two persons, namely Great Compassion and Right Course. Third, after the stages are fulfilled, three persons are displayed, namely Maitreya and the rest.

In the same gate Chengguan also says that the good friends do not fall outside what the five births of a bodhisattva gather in. The five births are those distinguished in the Yogācārabhūmi: first, the birth that stills suffering, born so as to rescue beings from suffering, as when he becomes a great fish; second, the birth according to kind, manifesting according to every kind; third, the superior birth, surpassing in form, clan, and wealth; fourth, the birth of ascendancy, from the first ground to the tenth as kings and the like; fifth, the final birth, the bodhisattva in his last body. The Yanyi chao says that there is now a small difference is because the intent is to take that sense and gather in these friends — it is not a matter of fitting the fifty-odd good friends one by one into five boxes; the sense of the five births is borrowed so as to gather them in: that a friend manifests such a body and stands in such a station is in every case the mark of a bodhisattva's responsive birth. Reading on, whenever a good friend appears in the body of an elder, a king, or a girl, one may first ask which of the five births this is.

An error must be cleared away: faith has not yet become a stage does not mean that faith is unimportant; it means that faith has not yet become a rank that can be set up. From the ten abodes upward, every stage can be settled in and abided in, and so ten persons are assigned to each so as to display the ten gates within that stage; faith is only the stretch at the entrance, and does not yet have the body and span of a stage, and so it is not enough to have ten persons listed for it. Bringing it down to the ground: this sentence, read the other way about, is also a reminder to the learner — do not be in a hurry to fix a rank for your own faith. The homework of faith is to go on having faith, not to measure your own height.

The Perfect Gathering of Beginning and End: One Stage Is All Stages

After the assigning of stages, Chengguan immediately adds a further gate as a rescue. The seventh gate says: the above assigned the dharmas so as to display the earlier and later of a spread-out arrangement; taken as they really are, they are perfectly fused, one stage being all stages and so on without end. Assignment to a stage is the difference of a spread-out teaching; perfect fusion is the real mark; the differences passed through are all the many within one, the one and the many at once and without obstruction.

Clear away an error: thinking that because the Avataṃsaka speaks of perfect fusion one may therefore pay no attention to the order of stages. Chengguan's two sentences stand side by side — the order is there so that people have steps to climb; the fusion is there so that people do not take the staircase for a cage. That earlier sentence of his, yet where there is no order of stages, this does not obstruct the order of stages, means exactly this. Bringing it down to the ground: in reading Sudhana's fifty-three visits, one must be able to see both that he walks step by step and that at no step does he ever leave the whole.

Mañjuśrī Comes Out of the Tower: Why Youth, and Why Out of the Tower of Good Abiding

The very first sentence of the sūtra text is at that time the youth Mañjuśrī came out of the Tower of Good Abiding. There are two expressions here that have to be accounted for.

The first is youth. Mañjuśrī is by origin a great being of equal awakening, and when the sūtra text listed the assembly of bodhisattvas earlier it listed him among the bodhisattvas; yet here he is called a youth. Chengguan says: the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is by origin a youth, and earlier he was listed among the bodhisattvas. That the youth is brought out here is because it symbolizes the first entering into the Buddha's Dharma; and he says as well that without the practice of youthful truth one cannot enter the Dharma realm either. The second is the Tower of Good Abiding. Chengguan glosses the name of this tower thus: the provisional and the real lean upon each other, and compassion and wisdom abide nowhere — this is named the tower of good abiding — the provisional and the real uphold one another, and compassion and wisdom neither of them come to a halt; this is called good abiding. And as for coming out, it is not a departing from this tower, it is a coming out from here to benefit the living.

Clear away an error: reading coming out of the tower as having left that realm behind. Chengguan says plainly, coming out from here to benefit the living is the coming out; it is not a departing from this. Bringing it down to the ground: this one coming out and going forth is the opening gesture of the whole last assembly — it is not a stepping down from a height, it is a walking out from within abiding nowhere.

The Twenty-Three Classes of Retinue: Wisdom Leads the Ten Thousand Practices

When Mañjuśrī came out, besides the measureless bodhisattvas who walked with him there was also a long string of spirit kings. The sūtra text lists them one by one, twenty-three classes by actual count: fourteen presiding spirits (vajra spirits, body-multitude spirits, foot-going spirits, the earth-presiding spirit, the water-presiding spirit, the fire-presiding spirit, the wind-presiding spirit, the direction-presiding spirit, the night-presiding spirit, the day-presiding spirit, the space-presiding spirit, the sea-presiding spirit, the mountain-presiding spirit, the city-presiding spirit) and nine kinds of kings (great nāga kings, yakṣa kings, gandharva kings, kumbhāṇḍa kings, garuḍa kings, asura kings, mahoraga kings, great god-kings, great Brahmā kings).

Notice how this string is written: before every class there hangs a sentence of virtuous conduct — the earth-presiding spirit who loves to hear the wondrous Dharma, the water-presiding spirit who constantly cultivates great compassion, the fire-presiding spirit whose light of wisdom shines out — the name is the common designation, and what hangs before it is the virtue that this class stands for. This is exactly how Chengguan reads it: second, among the retinue, the first are of the same birth and the rest are all of different birth; and they are all taken by their common designations, names that symbolize the Dharma, so as to make clear that wisdom leads the ten thousand practices. The bodhisattvas who walk with him are the multitude of the same birth, and the rest, the spirit kings, are the multitude of different birth; the names are common names and the virtues are the symbolism; and the general sense they symbolize is a single sentence — wisdom leads the ten thousand practices.

Clear away an error: taking this string for a spreading out of pageantry. Bringing it down to the ground: this is the practice that Mañjuśrī brings with him when he goes forth — if wisdom really comes out to benefit the living, then compassion, vigor, guarding, and the wiping away of darkness all come out along with it; wisdom does not come out alone.

Śāriputra Sustained by the Buddha's Spiritual Power: The Wisdom of the Lesser Vehicle Also Assists the Great Transforming

After Mañjuśrī has gone south, the sūtra text changes to another person: at that time the venerable Śāriputra, sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power, saw the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, together with the adorned assembly of bodhisattvas, come out of the Jeta Grove, whereupon he gave rise to the thought of going south along with him, and took six thousand monks with him and left after taking leave of the Buddha.

There are two places here worth pointing out. The first is that it was sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power that Śāriputra saw it — earlier, within the root assembly, the śrāvakas sat in the assembly and neither saw nor heard; here, once the Buddha's power is added, he sees. The second is that Chengguan judges this stretch to be the first, making clear the assisting of the transforming and the gathering into the great, and says because the wisdom of the Lesser Vehicle also assists the great — Śāriputra here is not the object of the delivering, he is the one who assists Mañjuśrī in delivering and transforming.

Clear away an error: thinking that this stretch is disparaging the śrāvakas. The arrangement of the sūtra text is exactly the reverse: this matter of turning from the lesser and entering the great is brought about by the very hand of the foremost in wisdom among the śrāvakas. Bringing it down to the ground: the one who urges a person upward is very often precisely the one who has walked another road and knows its limits.

The Six Thousand Monks: Why Six Thousand, and Why They Must Have Not Long Gone Forth

The sūtra text takes particular care over where these six thousand come from: these six thousand monks were those who dwelt together with Śāriputra himself, and they had not long gone forth from the household life. Neither of these two sentences is idle, and Chengguan gives an account of each.

On the number: the six thousand are because they symbolize the purity in nature of the six faculties, which can enter the Dharma realm — each of the six faculties is furnished with a thousand, symbolizing the purity of the six faculties. On having not long gone forth: that they had not long gone forth is because they had not yet witnessed the real limit and so could easily be turned; and because their mind of faith was still slight and so had to be enticed and transformed. Those who have already entered and witnessed the real limit are on the contrary hard to turn; those newly gone forth, whose grasping is not yet set firm and whose faith is still slight, are exactly the capacity that can be turned and enticed.

Clear away an error: thinking that the longer one cultivates, the easier it is to turn back. What Chengguan reads out of this gloss is the reverse — the one who has not yet sealed himself shut has, on the contrary, the better chance. Bringing it down to the ground: this sentence can be used to ask oneself a question — on my own road, am I still able to walk, or have I already walked it into a road that cannot turn a corner.

The Ten Sentences Praising Their Virtue: Great Vessels by Origin, Lodging Their Traces as Monks

After the names are listed, the sūtra text praises these six thousand in ten sentences: they had made offerings to measureless Buddhas, had planted roots of goodness deeply, their power of understanding was vast, the eye of their faith was bright and clear through and through, their minds were wide and broad, they contemplated the realm of a Buddha, they penetrated to the original nature of dharmas, they benefited beings, and they constantly delighted to seek diligently after the merits of the Buddhas; and the last sentence is all of this was what Mañjuśrī's telling of the Dharma and teaching and transforming had brought to accomplishment.

Chengguan judges these ten sentences thus: the text has ten sentences: the first two praise the causes of former lives, the next seven make clear the present virtues, and the last one draws the virtues together and assigns them to the condition. The first two sentences speak of the causes of former lives, the middle seven of the virtues now present, and the last one assigns all of this to the one condition that is Mañjuśrī. And he points out what such praise is for: everything praised is virtue of the Great Vehicle, from which one can see that these persons are great vessels by origin, lodging their traces as monks, showing themselves as monks and no more.

Clear away an error: thinking that this is praising their attainment as śrāvakas. Every one of the sentences of praise is a virtue of a bodhisattva; not one sentence of the dharma of a śrāvaka appears. Bringing it down to the ground: the last sentence matters most — every one of the present virtues hangs upon a single condition; without that condition, even the causes of former lives cannot come out.

The Ten Matters of Contemplating: Śāriputra Teaches People How to Look at a Good Friend

On the road as they walk, Śāriputra points at Mañjuśrī and teaches the monk Ocean-Awakening how to look. The sūtra text runs down ten sentences of you may contemplate, and by actual count word for word they are exactly ten matters: the bodily marks, the round halo, the net of light, the assembly, the road he walks (eight paces to left and right), the place where he dwells (seats of awakening turning along with him), the hidden treasuries beside the road, the adorned treasuries among the trees, the lords of the worlds raining down clouds of offering-articles, and the Buddhas of the ten directions sending out the light of the white hair-tuft to enter from the crown of his head.

Chengguan judges these ten sentences to be ten surpassing virtues, and names them one by one: first, surpassing in bodily marks; second, surpassing in the constant halo; third, surpassing in sending out light; fourth, surpassing in the assembly; fifth, surpassing in the road he walks, symbolizing that he constantly relies upon the eightfold right path, and after these, sixth, surpassing in his dwelling place; seventh, surpassing in the adornment of merit; eighth, surpassing in the trees of the grove; ninth, surpassing in sovereign mastery; tenth, surpassing in being gathered in from above. The reason the fifth is matched to the eightfold right path is that it takes the number in eight paces to left and right; and the reason the tenth is named being gathered in from above is that the light of the Buddhas enters from the crown, symbolizing that his mind is constantly gathered up into the dharmas of the Buddhas above.

An error must be cleared away: these ten sentences are not praising an appearance. There is a care taken in the order of the looking — first look at the body and at the light, which is with regard to his person; next look at his assembly, at his road, and at his dwelling place, which is with regard to what he practices and where he is; last look at the light of the Buddhas entering his crown, which is with regard to what he receives. Bringing it down to the ground: these ten sentences are in fact a teaching manual on how to contemplate a good friend — first look at the person, then at the road he walks and the multitude he gathers, and last at what it is that he receives and carries on.

The Monks Gain the Benefit: Faith Is Born from Praise, and Practice from Faith

Having heard this extolling, a change comes over the monks. The way the sūtra text writes it advances in layer upon layer: first their minds became pure, their faith and understanding became firm; then the response in the body — they could not hold themselves for joy, their whole bodies leapt up, their forms became supple, their faculties were glad; then the removal of obstruction — their sorrow and suffering were all removed, their defilement and obstruction were all exhausted; then what was gained — they constantly saw the Buddhas, sought deeply after the right Dharma, were furnished with the faculties of a bodhisattva, obtained the powers of a bodhisattva; and last, great compassion and great vows were born of themselves, they entered the profound realm of the many perfections, and toward omniscience they gave rise to deep faith and delight.

Clear away an error: thinking that faith is a matter inside the mind and has nothing to do with the body. The sūtra text writes from their minds became pure through to their forms became supple, which is to write faith as a matter of the whole body. Bringing it down to the ground: a person in whom faith has really arisen is loose in the body, not tight — and this is a mark by which one may examine oneself.

Going to the Surpassing Person and Being Gathered In by Him: What the Elephant King's Turning Means

Having gained the benefit, the monks then ask Śāriputra to present them: we only wish that the great master would take us and lead us, and go to where that surpassing person is. And when they arrive, the sūtra text gives Mañjuśrī's response in one sentence only — he looked back upon the monks as an elephant king turns.

Chengguan glosses this simile very finely: as an elephant king turns means that body and head turn together, because there is nothing light in the lifting. For an elephant to look back, its whole body must turn along with it; it cannot simply twist its head about. The sense taken is in the weight of it — to gather in this company is a matter of the whole body, not a casual glance.

The monks then bow their heads and join their palms and make a vow: that they too may obtain such a form-body, such a voice, such marks and signs, and such sovereign mastery as Mañjuśrī has. Notice whom they ask to bear witness — we only wish that the benevolent Mañjuśrī, and the preceptor Śāriputra, and the World-Honored One Śākyamuni may all bear witness and know, three persons named together, with the preceptor in the middle. Bringing it down to the ground: this vow does not shy away from the charge of seeking the marks and signs, because the marks and signs sought are Mañjuśrī's marks and signs, which is in fact to seek Mañjuśrī's virtue.

The Ten Freedoms from Weariness, Part One: Why All Ten Sentences Hang upon No Weariness or Vexation

The first dharma Mañjuśrī gives when he opens his mouth is the ten sentences of the dharma that tends toward the Great Vehicle. The marking sentence is: monks, if a good man or a good woman brings to accomplishment ten kinds of dharma that tend toward the Great Vehicle, then he is able swiftly to enter the ground of a Tathāgata, how much more the ground of a bodhisattva — even the ground of a Tathāgata can be swiftly entered, how much more that of a bodhisattva.

The contents of the ten sentences differ one from another — gathering up roots of goodness, serving the Buddhas, seeking after the Buddha-dharmas, practicing the pāramitās, bringing the samādhis to accomplishment, entering the three times, adorning and purifying Buddha-lands, teaching and transforming beings, bringing the practice of a bodhisattva to accomplishment in all lands and kalpas, and cultivating pāramitās as many as dust-motes for the sake of ripening beings — and yet the ending of every one of the sentences is the same sentence: no weariness or vexation in the mind, and by actual count word for word it appears exactly ten times.

Why does every sentence come down upon these four words? Chengguan's answer goes straight to the point: that they all say no weariness or vexation is because the Dharma-gates are without end and beings are without bound, and to cultivate while grasping at marks gives rise to much weariness and vexation; and vexation makes one fall back into the two vehicles. If one cultivates without craving and views, then there is no weariness. The root of weariness and vexation is not in the number of things to be done, it is in grasping at marks; cultivate while grasping at marks and the work will never be finished, and what is never finished brings vexation, and vexation brings falling back.

Clear away an error: reading no weariness or vexation as endurance by force of will. What the sūtra text speaks of is not gritting the teeth and holding on; it is pulling out the source of the fatigue, which is the grasping at marks. Bringing it down to the ground: when you examine your own vexation, do not first ask whether there is much to be done; first ask whether you are counting up how much you have done.

The Ten Freedoms from Weariness, Part Two: The Structure of Five Pairs in the Ten Sentences

The ten sentences are not ten matters set side by side. Chengguan says the ten sentences are gathered into five pairs — first, the inward cause and the outward condition (gathering up roots of goodness / serving the Buddhas); second, seeking the Dharma and completing the practice (seeking all the Buddha-dharmas / practicing the pāramitās); third, deep concentration and wondrous wisdom (bringing the samādhis to accomplishment / entering the three times in due order); fourth, adorning the lands and taming the living (adorning and purifying Buddha-lands / teaching and transforming beings); fifth, long duration and vastness (bringing the practice of a bodhisattva to accomplishment in all lands and kalpas / cultivating pāramitās as many as dust-motes for the sake of ripening beings and bringing the ten powers of a Tathāgata to accomplishment).

The third pair is called deep concentration and wondrous wisdom because entering the three times is precisely what wisdom enters. The fifth pair is called long duration and vastness because the former sentence is said with regard to time and the latter with regard to quantity; and Chengguan says as well that the fifth pair also runs through to the cultivation of advancement.

Clear away an error: skipping over a passage because it is a string of parallel sentences. Bringing it down to the ground: these five pairs may be taken as a checklist for examining oneself — cause and condition, Dharma and practice, concentration and wisdom, lands and beings, time and quantity; five pairs, ten items, and whichever is lacking is the one to make good.

Raising Up the Benefit and Urging Cultivation: What Happens After These Ten Minds Are Given Rise To

When the ten sentences are finished, Mañjuśrī goes on to tell the benefit of giving rise to this mind: monks, if a good man or a good woman brings deep faith to accomplishment and gives rise to these ten minds free of weariness and vexation, then he is able to nourish and grow all roots of goodness, and after it a whole string — leaving behind the destinies of birth-and-death, passing beyond the lineages of the world, not falling into the ground of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, being born in the house of all Tathāgatas, being furnished with all the vows of a bodhisattva, studying the merits of a Tathāgata, practicing the many practices of a bodhisattva, obtaining the powers of a Tathāgata, crushing down the hosts of Māra and the non-Buddhist paths, wiping out all afflictions, entering the ground of a bodhisattva, and drawing near to the ground of a Tathāgata.

Chengguan judges this stretch also to be five pairs: first, growing goodness and leaving birth; second, passing beyond the ordinary and going past the lesser; third, being born in the house and being furnished for the work; fourth, practicing toward the fruit and cultivating the cause; fifth, crushing the wrong and entering the witnessing.

Here the four words brings deep faith to accomplishment deserve notice. The ten sentences before are practice, and here a faith is set up first; and this sentence is the most direct scriptural warrant for assigning this passage to the stage of the ten faiths. Clear away an error: thinking that not falling into the ground of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is a rejection of the two vehicles. The very ones being spoken to are the six thousand monks, and they are in the act of being drawn out; what is not fallen into is the limiting of oneself to that ground, not any fault in the ground itself. Bringing it down to the ground: the test of giving rise to the mind is not at the moment of giving rise to it, but in whether this string of things gradually appears afterward.

Obtaining the Samādhi: Seeing the Realm of All Buddhas with the Unobstructed Eye — Four Uses, and Therefore Called Unobstructed

When the monks have heard the Dharma they obtain a samādhi named Seeing the Realm of All Buddhas with the Unobstructed Eye. To the word unobstructed in this name Chengguan gives three senses: what sees is free of obstruction, what is seen is unblocked, and one is furnished with many uses.

What is meant by one is furnished with many uses is the long stretch that follows. The sūtra text lists what is seen and known, and there are in fact four classes: first, what the eye sees (seeing the Buddhas and Tathāgatas, seeing the beings of the destinies, seeing the differences among the worlds, seeing the dust-motes of the worlds, seeing the palaces of beings); second, what the ear hears (hearing the Buddhas' speech and sound setting forth the dharmas, with wording and glossing, and understanding it all); third, knowing the minds of others (contemplating the faculties of all beings and what their minds desire); and fourth, the calling to mind of former abodes (calling to mind the ten births before and after of beings, calling to mind the matters of the ten kalpas past and to come, calling to mind the ten matters of the former births of the Tathāgatas down to their ten kinds of eloquence). Chengguan says: one eye is furnished with these four uses, and therefore it is called unobstructed — a single eye furnished with the use of four spiritual penetrations: this is what is called unobstructed.

Clear away an error: reading the unobstructed eye as extremely good eyesight. What is unobstructed is that there is no partition between what perceives and what is perceived; that the use of one faculty can run through the matters of four faculties is what unobstructed means here. Bringing it down to the ground: this stretch speaks of the measure of seeing the realm of a Buddha; it is not a display of marvels.

The First Mind of the Ten Faiths Obtains the Use That Belongs After the Ten Grounds: Gathering the End into the Beginning

After obtaining the samādhi, the sūtra text says that they further brought to accomplishment ten thousand minds of awakening, ten thousand samādhis, ten thousand pāramitās, that they obtained the light of the fullness of great wisdom, and obtained the ten spiritual penetrations of a bodhisattva.

Here there is a place that looks out of order — these persons have only just turned from the lesser and entered the great, so how is it that they obtain the ten spiritual penetrations of a bodhisattva? Chengguan answers it head on: this displays how the perfect teaching gathers in capacities, so that at the first setting up of the great mind one obtains the use of the ten penetrations that belongs after the ten grounds, because the end is gathered into the beginning; and he says that this is the same principle as what is distinguished in the Chapter on the Merit of the First Arousing of the Mind. To be in the beginning stage and obtain the use of the final stage is a mark of how the perfect teaching gathers in capacities.

Clear away an error: thinking that this is a skipping of grades. What the perfect teaching means by gathering the end into the beginning is that within the first arousing of the mind the virtues of the later stages are already gathered up entire; it does not mean that the cultivation in between may be skipped. Bringing it down to the ground: this is exactly why the first arousing of the mind is precious; and precisely because it has already gathered everything up, the beginner's mind is all the less to be taken lightly.

Receiving the Dharma of Advancement: Abiding in the Practice of Samantabhadra, and a String of Having Done So

Mañjuśrī does not stop at the ten minds; he goes on to urge them to abide in the practice of Samantabhadra. The sūtra text writes it like a chain of links: having abided in the practice of Samantabhadra, they entered the sea of great vows; having entered the sea of great vows, they brought the sea of great vows to accomplishment; because they had brought the sea of great vows to accomplishment, their minds were pure; because their minds were pure, their bodies were pure; because their bodies were pure, their bodies were light and nimble; because their bodies were pure and light and nimble, they obtained the great spiritual penetrations with no turning back; because they had obtained these spiritual penetrations, they did not depart from beneath Mañjuśrī's feet, and yet universally manifested their bodies in the presence of all the Buddhas of the ten directions.

Chengguan judges this to be the receiving of the dharma of advancement — the ten sentences before only made clear that the great mind is free of weariness; only here are they made to abide broadly in practice and vow and to advance toward universal cultivation.

Notice that last sentence, they did not depart from beneath Mañjuśrī's feet, and yet were able to manifest everywhere in the ten directions. Clear away an error: thinking that to manifest everywhere in the ten directions one must first leave this place. What the sūtra text says is exactly the reverse — without stirring from this place, one pervades every place. Bringing it down to the ground: this chain has an order to it — vow, mind, body, penetration, link joined to link; and the secret of that last link is not departing.

Arriving at the City of Blessings: Why the Place of Transforming Is the Stūpa-Shrine East of the City

The assembly of monks having ended, Mañjuśrī journeys south to the east of the City of Blessings and dwells at the place of the great stūpa-shrine in the Grove of Śāla Trees of the Banner of Adornment. The sūtra text accounts for the provenance of this place: the Buddhas of former times had stayed here and taught and transformed, and it is also the place where the World-Honored One in former times, cultivating the practice of a bodhisattva, was able to give away measureless things hard to give away, and therefore the name of this grove is heard universally throughout measureless Buddha-lands.

Chengguan glosses these place-names word by word. The name of the city: the people who dwell in that city have much merit, and so it is called the City of Blessings; and a city symbolizes the warding off of wrong. The direction: the east is the head of the directions, symbolizing the beginning of entering the path by according with the portion of blessings and with goodness. The name of the grove: as for the grove of śāla trees, this means lofty and far-reaching; the trees of the grove stand tall and thick, symbolizing that the ten thousand practices are to be raised up as an adornment. And the stūpa-shrine is the place where one returns to the source. He cites as well, as witness, what the Tripiṭaka master Rizhao transmitted from his own sight of the place: this city is in South India, and the great stūpa east of the city is the stūpa of an ancient Buddha, and again, most of the people who dwell in this place sing songs about Sudhana.

Clear away an error: thinking that these place-names are only background. What Chengguan reads out of them is a whole set of symbolism: a place where people of merit dwell together (blessings), the direction of first coming forth (the east), a lofty and far-reaching grove (practice), and a stūpa where one returns to the source (the root). Bringing it down to the ground: Sudhana's arising as a condition happens in a place that has both merit and the traces of an ancient Buddha — capacity and place answer to each other, and only then can a condition come together.

Telling the Sūtra of the Universal Illumining of the Dharma Realm: The Nāgas Hear the Dharma and Cast Off Their Bodies

Here Mañjuśrī tells the Sūtra of the Universal Illumining of the Dharma Realm, with a million koṭis of nayutas of sūtras as its retinue. Chengguan glosses the name of this scripture thus: that it is named universal illumining and the rest is because the use of wisdom is broadly unfurled, and so it says universal illumining; and what is illumined is both deep and wide, and so it is called the Dharma realm.

Among the listeners the sūtra text makes particular record of the nāgas: measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nāgas came, and having heard the Dharma they turned away deeply in weariness from the destiny of nāgas, sought squarely after the Buddha's path, and all of them cast off their nāga bodies and were born among gods and human beings, and ten thousand nāgas obtained non-retrogression with regard to the unsurpassed awakening; and besides them measureless beings were each of them tamed within the three vehicles. Chengguan says that the nāgas obtained the intent of the principal teaching, and so it says sought squarely after the Buddha's path, while those beings afterward obtained the intent of the retinue scriptures, and so it says only that they were tamed and does not set forth their case separately, and therefore no separate assembly is established for them.

Clear away an error: thinking that the nāga multitude casting off their bodies is a marvelous episode. The sense of this stretch is that weariness and seeking arise together — only when one has first turned away deeply in weariness from the destiny one is in can there be any talk of squarely seeking the Buddha's path. Bringing it down to the ground: the strength to leave a situation comes half from seeing it clearly and half from seeing that something else is possible.

The Four Assemblies Rushing Like Clouds: The Number Five Hundred and the Names of the Four Assemblies

The people of the City of Blessings hear the news and come out of the city. The sūtra text lists four assemblies: five hundred laymen (Great Wisdom at their head), five hundred laywomen, five hundred boys (Sudhana at their head), and five hundred girls, each with names listed and the rest abbreviated with an ellipsis. By actual count word for word the persons named are: eleven laymen (Great Wisdom at their head, and ten more after that is to say), ten laywomen, eleven boys (Sudhana among them), and ten girls.

Chengguan glosses the names of the four assemblies: first, the layman, which here means the man who serves in attendance, meaning that he draws near to the monks and serves them, and the laywoman is the woman who serves in attendance; both receive the name of serving in attendance because they take the five precepts; and boys and girls can be understood on the same pattern. As for why the number of each of the four assemblies is five hundred, he says: and that the numbers are all five hundred is because they symbolize that the witnessing entry of the five stages runs through them all alike. Five hundred symbolizes the five stages, and each of the four assemblies is furnished with it, symbolizing that the witnessing entry of the five stages runs through all four assemblies.

Clear away an error: thinking that the four assemblies gathering like clouds is only there to set off the scene. Chengguan judges the text from at that time the people of the City of Blessings onward to be the third of the three assemblies, the assembly of Sudhana, and what it displays is the displaying of the capacity of the pure one vehicle, accomplished in a single life; the second, the assembly of the persons of the various vehicles, is the earlier stretch of the dragons and of the further beings who are tamed, displaying the running through and gathering in of the various provisional capacities into the one real. That all four assemblies come makes them the multitude of Sudhana's assembly — what is displayed is the capacity of the pure one vehicle, to be accomplished in a single life. Bringing it down to the ground: the way Sudhana enters is worth noticing — he is not summoned by himself, he comes on stage within the list of five hundred boys.

Taming and Transforming by the Three Kinds of Action: Manifesting the Body of Sovereign Mastery and the Four Sovereign Masteries

The four assemblies having gathered, the first thing Mañjuśrī does is not to tell the Dharma but to know that the people of the City of Blessings have all now gathered and come, and, according to what their minds delight in, manifest the body of sovereign mastery, whose awesome light blazes forth and outshines the great multitudes. Ask first: the multitude has already gathered, so why still manifest the body of sovereign mastery and not tell the Dharma straight off? The sūtra text answers itself in the four sentences below — with sovereign great kindness he made them cool, with sovereign great compassion he gave rise to the mind to tell the Dharma, with sovereign wisdom he knew what their minds delighted in, and with vast eloquence he was about to tell them the Dharma. The four sentences are four sovereign masteries: the sovereign mastery of kindness is able to remove the burning vexation of the hearers and make them cool; the sovereign mastery of compassion is able to give rise, in the one who tells, to the mind to tell the Dharma; the sovereign mastery of wisdom is able to discern and know what each single hearer's mind delights in; and the sovereign mastery of eloquence then makes it possible to say aloud what is known. The four generate one another in order: first settle their minds, next give rise to the intent to tell, next know their capacity, and only afterward is there speech.

Chengguan outlines this stretch as taming and transforming by the three kinds of action, and judges that within it there are two: first, taming the capacity by body and by mind; second, ... the giving of the Dharma to the one at hand; and the former is again two — first the general taming of the great multitude, which is the skillful means for giving the Dharma, and so it says about to tell — and only afterward is Sudhana contemplated separately. So manifesting the body of sovereign mastery is not an ornament of deportment, it is the skillful means that precedes the telling of the Dharma; the manifesting of the body and the taming by mind are both still at the station of about to tell them the Dharma, and no sound has yet been uttered.

Clear away an error: thinking that whose awesome light blazes forth and outshines the great multitudes is describing Mañjuśrī as more honorable than the multitude. What the sūtra text points to is not high and low but the taming of capacity — what the light reaches is meant to make them cool, not to make them ashamed of themselves. Bringing it down to the ground: to say a thing to someone, first let the other person's mind cool down and first know what he wants to hear, and then the words will have somewhere to land; to speak before the capacity is tamed is the speaker's haste, not the hearer's benefit.

Contemplating Sudhana's Outward Conditions: The Tower of Seven Jewels · The Seven Hidden Treasuries · The Five Hundred Jeweled Vessels

Mañjuśrī has manifested the body of sovereign mastery and is about to tell the Dharma, and then he suddenly turns aside to contemplate one person: and again at this time he contemplated by what cause and condition it was that Sudhana had this name.

The sūtra text's answer falls into two halves. First it tells the outward conditions: at the time of entering the womb there welled up of itself within the house a tower of seven jewels, beneath the tower were seven hidden treasuries, and above the treasuries the ground split open and there grew forth sprouts of the seven jewels — gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, true pearl, giant clam shell, carnelian, the seven of them named one by one. He was in the womb for ten months and then born, his form upright, and his seven great treasuries, each of them full seven cubits in length, in breadth, in height, and in depth, welled up out of the ground. Within the house there further appeared of themselves five hundred jeweled vessels, and the many kinds of things filled them of themselves, which the sūtra text writes in thirteen sentences, of which four pairs hold each other's contents two by two: the vajra vessel holding incense, the incense vessel holding clothing, the fine jade vessel holding food and drink, the maṇi vessel holding precious things, and the vessel of gold and silver holding lapis lazuli and maṇi jewels — these five are single sentences; and after them gold and silver hold each other, crystal and giant clam shell hold each other, carnelian and true pearl hold each other, and fire-maṇi and water-maṇi hold each other — these four pairs make eight sentences. And there rained down the many precious things, and the storehouses were all filled.

Because of this matter, his parents and his kin, together with those skilled in reading the marks of the body, together called this child by the name Sudhana.

Clear away an error: thinking that this is writing about wealth and rank. Chengguan explains the sense from the name: wealth for the most part belongs to the environing reward, while goodness runs through both the environing and the direct; that wealth appears is the mark of his goodness, and so he is called Sudhana — wealth is the environing reward, and goodness runs through both rewards, direct and environing; the reason the wealth appears is that it is the mark of the goodness. Bringing it down to the ground: these treasures are not his provisions, they are the manifest mark of his goodness in former lives; the sūtra text writes them out so minutely in order to let people know that what the name Sudhana points to is not a family fortune.

Contemplating Sudhana's Inward Causes: Ten Sentences

After the outward conditions come the inward causes. The sūtra text says that Mañjuśrī knew as well that this youth had already made offerings to the Buddhas of the past, had planted roots of goodness deeply, that his faith and understanding were vast, that he constantly delighted to draw near to the good friends, that in the actions of body, speech, and mind he was without fault, that he purified the path of a bodhisattva, sought after omniscience, was a vessel for the dharma of becoming a Buddha, that his mind was pure as empty space is, and that he dedicated and directed himself toward awakening without obstruction — ten sentences in all.

Here Chengguan changes to another sense in explaining the name: and again, that the mind accords with the principle is goodness, and that virtue is gathered without end is wealth — the former explained it from the outward conditions, this one explains it from the inward causes; one name with two senses. And he says of these ten sentences that the first one alone is the cause of former lives, and from faith and understanding onward they all run through past and present.

Clear away an error: taking the outward conditions and the inward causes for two unrelated matters. That the sūtra text writes the treasuries first and the roots of goodness after is precisely to let people know that the marks that appear have something they rest upon. Bringing it down to the ground: these ten sentences are the list of qualifications by which Sudhana is able to carry the fifty-three visits, and the most substantial sentence among them is he constantly delighted to draw near to the good friends — which is exactly what he is about to do for the rest of his life.

The Ten Sentences of Dharma Given to the One at Hand: From the Cause of a Buddha to the Fruit of a Buddha

Mañjuśrī's contemplation being finished, he comforted and instructed him, and set forth for him all the Buddha-dharmas, and the ten sentences that follow all begin with he told of all Buddhas': the dharma of gathering up, the dharma of continuing on, the dharma of due order, the dharma of the purity of the assemblies, the dharma of transforming and guiding by the Dharma wheel, the dharma of the marks and signs of the form-body, the dharma of the accomplishment of the dharma-body, the dharma of wording and eloquence, the dharma of shining illumination, and the dharma of equality and non-duality.

Chengguan judges these ten sentences thus: the first two sentences are with regard to the cause of a Buddha (first, the gathering up of the ten thousand practices; second, thought after thought unbroken); the next seven are with regard to the fruit of a Buddha (the first three being the wondrous use that gathers in the living, and the last four the substance and use fully furnished); and the tenth sentence runs through both cause and fruit, and through both principle and event.

Clear away an error: thinking that these ten sentences are a table of contents of ten Buddha-dharmas. Look at the structure of it — from cause into fruit, with the last sentence returning to equality and non-duality; this is a single line. Bringing it down to the ground: the first lesson Mañjuśrī gives a beginner is not a method of cultivation; it is to let him first see what it is for a Buddha to be a Buddha. With that whole prospect in the mind first, the road will not go crooked.

Concluding the Telling and Urging Him Onward: Giving Rise to the Mind of Awakening, and Also Calling Past Roots of Goodness to Mind

The ten sentences told, the sūtra text says that Mañjuśrī earnestly urged and instructed them, increased and grew their strength, caused them to rejoice, caused them to give rise to the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening, and caused them as well to call to mind their roots of goodness in the past; and having done these things, he told the Dharma again for beings according to what suited them, and only then departed.

Chengguan judges this section to be the concluding of the telling and the urging onward, and attaches its use sentence by sentence: to conclude what was told before is to spread it universally without partiality; to point to the dharma of the cause told before is to urge them to cultivate onward; to cause them to give rise to the great mind is to seek the Buddha-fruit told before; and to make them call former goodness to mind so that they do not think lightly of themselves.

The last item is to be pointed out. Besides giving rise to the mind, they are also made to call to mind their roots of goodness in the past, and the intent is to keep them from thinking lightly of themselves. Clear away an error: thinking that giving rise to the mind requires only looking up at what is lofty and far off. What the sūtra text does is to give both ends — before, it lets him see the height of the Buddha-fruit; after, it reminds him of the thickness of his own goodness in former lives. Bringing it down to the ground: to cure a mind that falls back, it is not enough to speak of the greatness of the goal; one must also make the person remember the road he has already walked.

Sudhana's Thirty-Four Verses, Part One: The First Four Verses Tell of His Own Sinking and Drowning

Mañjuśrī being about to go, Sudhana speaks thirty-four verses. Chengguan judges their great division into two: the thirty-four verses divide into two: the first four verses grieve over his own sinking and drowning and exhort himself that he is unable; the last thirty look up to the virtue and rely upon the person, asking that he be drawn out and rescued.

The first four verses are one whole picture of a walled city. The three kinds of existence are a walled city, and arrogance is its rampart wall, and under it the destinies are its gates and doors, and the water of craving is the moat that guards it; and after that the scene within the city is written — the darkness of delusion covers it over, the fire of greed and anger blazes, Māra the king plays the sovereign, and benighted children take their dwelling there. The third verse changes the simile and writes the bonds upon the body: craving is the cord that binds, flattery and deceit are the reins and bridle, and doubt covers the eyes so that one walks into wrong paths. The fourth verse tells the fruit: stinginess, envy, and arrogant self-satisfaction bring one into the three evil places, or else one falls into the many destinies and undergoes the suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Chengguan judges the first two verses to be making clear that the cause is set in motion from the fruit relied upon and the last two to be making clear that from the cause one tends toward the fruit; and he says as well that the first two are confusion about suffering and its origin, and the last two the loss of cessation and the path.

Clear away an error: thinking that these four verses are a modest formality. Look at the structure — city, wall, gates, and moat all present: this is a picture of a place one cannot walk out of; and why one cannot walk out of it the sūtra text says very plainly — Māra the king plays the sovereign, and benighted children take their dwelling there — one has acknowledged that sovereign oneself. Bringing it down to the ground: before seeking the Dharma, first see clearly where you are; this is the first step in order that this passage gives.

Sudhana's Thirty-Four Verses, Part Two: Thirteen Verses Praising the Person and Seeking the Dharma

Of the last thirty verses Chengguan makes three divisions: the first thirteen verses praise the person and seek the Dharma; the next fifteen praise the Dharma and seek the vehicle; the last two draw together both person and Dharma.

The stretch praising the person and seeking the Dharma is extremely regular in form — Chengguan says in each the upper three lines praise the virtue of Mañjuśrī, one virtue to each verse, and the last line squarely asks to be carried and delivered; in every verse the first three lines praise one virtue and the last line asks for rescue. The first six verses face the suffering and its origin above and hope to be drawn out and rescued: the orb of the sun (the pure sun of wondrous wisdom), the orb of the moon (the pure moon of wondrous wisdom), the king of the Dharma realm, the great caravan leader, the armor of patience and the sword of wisdom, and dwelling upon the summit of the Sumeru of the Dharma. The last seven face the cessation and the path that were lost above and hope to accomplish the practice and its fruit; Chengguan divides them still more finely as the first one asks generally for his path; the next two ask for the path of nirvāṇa; the next two ask for the path of awakening; the last two ask for the conditions for seeing the path.

Clear away an error: thinking that praise is a courtesy. Every verse of these thirteen has its praise directed at one particular sickness — in darkness one asks for sun and moon, in confusion one asks for a forerunner, in timidity one asks for a guard, in bondage one asks to be drawn out. Bringing it down to the ground: in asking someone for the Dharma, one must first be able to say what one lacks; if you cannot say what you lack, praise really is nothing but courtesy.

Sudhana's Thirty-Four Verses, Part Three: Fifteen Verses Seeking the Vehicle by the Simile of the Carriage

From with vows for its wheels and great compassion for its hubs, with faith for its axle and firm patience for its linchpins onward, fifteen verses run on, each matching the parts of a carriage to dharmas, and the last line is pray let me mount this carriage (twelve verses), pray make me mount this carriage (one verse), or I pray you give me this carriage (two verses). The wheels are vows, the hubs great compassion, the axle faith, the linchpins firm patience; the carriage-box is total holding, the canopy kindly pity, the bells eloquence; the cushions are the practice of brahmacarya, the serving women the samādhis, the drum the sound of the Dharma; the treasury is the four means of gathering, the jewels the adornment of merit, the harness-straps shame and conscience. After them come the wheel of giving, the incense of pure precepts, and the adornment of patience; the carriage-box of meditative concentration and the yoke of wisdom; the wheels of great vows and the strength of total holding; and on to the firmness of vajra, the skill of a conjuring, the breadth of empty space and the Dharma realm, the unshakenness of the earth, and the universal moistening of water.

Chengguan judges these fifteen verses in four parts: the first four ask for the vehicle of compassion, wisdom, and concentration, which gathers in the benefiting of others; the next three ask for the vehicle of the ten perfections as practice for oneself; the next four ask for the vehicle of the twofold benefit that wipes out obstructions; the last four ask for the vehicle whose carrying is vast. And he says that these four stretches correspond broadly to the three worthy stages and the ten holy stages, and that the wording and sense in every case hold much, and may be got at by intent.

Clear away an error: thinking that this is a heaping up of rhetoric. A carriage has wheels, an axle, a box, a canopy, bells, and a yoke — not one of them can be lacking, and this is exactly the point of taking the simile: what is asked for is not some one virtue, it is a whole outfit able to carry a person a long way. Bringing it down to the ground: check your own carriage against these fifteen verses, and what is most often lacking is not the wheels (vows), but the linchpins (firm patience).

Sudhana's Thirty-Four Verses, Part Four: The Last Two Verses Draw Both Together

Of the last two verses Chengguan judges that the last two verses draw together both person and Dharma, and says that the first verse draws the Dharma together and asks to see it; the second draws the person together and asks to be gathered in. The former verse, the four means of gathering are its full orb, total holding is its pure light, still speaks with regard to the Dharma and asks to see it; the latter verse, you have already entered the city of the Dharma-king, you have already put on the crown of the wisdom-king, speaks with regard to the person and asks to be gathered in — the three matters of entering the city, putting on the crown, and binding on the silk band describe Mañjuśrī's station as having reached its utmost, and so the last line asks for one thing only, a look of kindness.

Clear away an error: reading the last two verses as a closing courtesy. The thirty-two verses before have been saying all along what I lack and what you have; only here are the two sides put together — the Dharma being thus, and the person being thus, therefore gather me in. Bringing it down to the ground: the structure of a plea for the Dharma may be seen here: first set out your own sickness, next praise his virtue, then ask for his Dharma, and last come to asking to be gathered in.

The Great Sage Teaches Again, Part One: Brief Praise and Brief Teaching, and the Elephant King Turning a Second Time

The verses finished, the sūtra text uses the simile of the elephant king a second time: at that time the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, as an elephant king turns, looked back upon the youth Sudhana, and then said good indeed, good indeed! Good man! You have already given rise to the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening.

Chengguan judges what follows to be the great sage teaching again, and divides it into four: first, brief praise and brief teaching; second, the broad asking and the broad answering; third, pointing out the next friend; fourth, calling the kindness to mind and taking leave. The brief praise has two — first, praising his giving rise to the mind, second, praising his drawing near to friends — and after that he teaches him to go and draw near to good friends. Why is drawing near to friends the first cause and condition of the wisdom of the kinds? Chengguan's reason is that where the Dharma has no one to spread it, then though there be wisdom it will not be understood, and he cites the Nirvāṇa as witness: as for the near cause and condition by which all beings obtain unsurpassed awakening, nothing comes before a good friend.

Here something said earlier is to be joined on: in the ten gates on gathering in the assembly of Sudhana, Chengguan points out expressly that in the first, with Mañjuśrī, before the mind is given rise to there is therefore no praising; only when he has urged him to give rise to the mind does he then praise him. Clear away an error: thinking that praise is a device for encouraging people. The praise here has something it points at, and what is praised is precisely the one thing that has just happened. Bringing it down to the ground: praise should land upon a deed; praise that cannot land upon a deed does a person no good.

The Great Sage Teaches Again, Part Two: Sudhana's Eleven Sentences of Question

Having been praised, Sudhana asks a long string: I only wish that the holy one would tell me at large: how should a bodhisattva study the practice of a bodhisattva? and after it, sentence by sentence — cultivate, tend toward, carry out, purify, enter, bring to accomplishment, accord with, call to mind, broaden and increase — and the last sentence is how should he cause the practice of Samantabhadra swiftly to reach fullness, by actual count word for word eleven sentences.

Chengguan says that these eleven sentences stand in two relations to the verses before: first, that the verses were particular and these are general (the compassion and wisdom and the rest in the verses above are particular practices; here it is general cultivation); second, that the verses were crosswise and these are lengthwise (practices such as compassion and wisdom are cultivated alike in every stage; here it runs from beginning to end). Among the eleven sentences, the first two are general — the words study and cultivate already gather up understanding and practice entire, and so most of the later good friends raise only these two sentences; the other nine are particular: the first tending toward, the taking up of the work of cultivation, the curing of obstructions and leaving of faults, the reaching and witnessing made plain, the being furnished and obtaining, the according with person and Dharma, the long duration without interval, the cultivating with nothing left over, and the ultimate fullness. And he further matches these nine lengthwise to the ten abodes and on to the ten grounds and equal awakening.

Clear away an error: thinking that these eleven sentences are repetitions of one meaning. Bringing it down to the ground: these eleven questions are in fact a checklist for the whole course of cultivation, asking from beginning to study all the way to fullness; and everything the fifty-two good friends afterward answer is within this list.

The Great Sage Teaches Again, Part Three: Mañjuśrī's Ten Verses in Answer

Mañjuśrī answers in ten verses. Chengguan judges that the ten verses divide into five: the first two verses praise his giving rise to the mind; the next one verse teaches briefly; the next one verse praises again the virtue of giving rise to the mind; the next five verses teach broadly; the last one verse draws the benefit together.

Within the two verses praising his giving rise to the mind, Chengguan points out that the first two lines are general praise, and that the next three lines point to the substance of giving rise to the mind, which is the three kinds of mind — compassion that rescues below, wisdom that seeks above, and the great vow as the lord; and he cites the words of Maitreya as witness: the lamp of the mind of awakening: great compassion is its oil, the great vow is its wick, and its light illumines the Dharma realm; while the last three lines display the intent and delight of giving rise to the mind, which is for the sake of beings and not for the five desires or a royal station. The one verse of brief teaching says if there are bodhisattvas who are not wearied by the suffering of birth-and-death, which Chengguan glosses thus: if one is wearied by suffering and tends toward quiescence, then the great path is not furnished and one is broken by Māra and by the lesser; but if one is able to penetrate the reality of birth-and-death, then one gathers in the hosts of Māra as one's attendants. The one verse of renewed praise matches the four lines the light of blessings, the awesome power of blessings, the place of blessings, the pure sea of blessings one by one to their senses: blessings that have wisdom are the light of blessings; blessings that the ordinary and the lesser cannot break are the awesome power; being able to give birth to the many blessings is the place of blessings; and being free of obstruction, deep and wide, is the pure sea.

Of the five verses of broad teaching Chengguan says that they answer the eleven sentences of question completely — the first verse answers the two general sentences, the next verse answers the next three sentences, the next two lines answer entering and bringing to accomplishment, the next two lines answer according with, the next one verse answers calling to mind, and the last one verse answers the last two sentences. The final verse draws the benefit together.

Clear away an error: thinking that verses are only a restatement of the prose. Here it is exactly the reverse: the eleven questions of the prose are answered one by one within the verses. Bringing it down to the ground: ask finely and the answer can be fine; this matching of question to answer is the place in this passage most worth comparing sentence by sentence.

The Great Sage Teaches Again, Part Four: The General Teaching — Only Seek Friends and Leave Faults, and All the Questions Before Are Complete

After the ten verses the sūtra text returns to prose, first praising that you have already given rise to the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening and are seeking the practice of a bodhisattva, and saying one heavy sentence: to give rise to the mind is already hard, and having given rise to the mind, then to be able further to seek the practice of a bodhisattva, that is harder still by twice as much.

Then comes the general teaching. Chengguan says that the sense of this stretch is that if only one can seek friends and leave faults, then all the questions before are complete — the eleven questions before were asked so finely, and here only one road is given: seek out a true good friend. The four sentences of the sūtra text are in seeking the good friend do not give rise to weariness or indolence, in seeing the good friend do not give rise to satiety, toward all the instruction that the good friend has you should be compliant, and toward the good friend's skillfulness in means do not look for his faults. Chengguan divides them into warnings and urgings: complying is the urging, and the rest are all warnings; and upon the last sentence he adds a sentence of great weight: even were there a real fault, one should still take the Dharma and let the wrong go — how much more when the provisional and the real have many sides and the ripe and the unripe are hard to fathom.

He further glosses the name good friend and opens it into five ranks: now good friends are of five kinds: first, one who knows the causes and fruits of good and evil in the world and makes people cultivate and cut off; second, one who is wearied of the joys of the world and delights in nirvāṇa; third, one who has the mind of compassion and a mind that still abides in marks, and cultivates the perfections; fourth, one who by markless wisdom causes beings to cultivate and practice; fifth, one who causes them to cultivate the practice of Samantabhadra to fullness without obstruction, and he judges that of these five, each earlier one is not the true; the true is only what the fifth person can practice.

Clear away an error: thinking that do not look for his faults is asking for blind following. What Chengguan says is taking the Dharma and letting the wrong go — taking it with regard to the Dharma and not reckoning up the affairs of the person; and he sets up five ranks at the same time precisely so that people will know that what is sought is the fifth kind. Bringing it down to the ground: in the matter of seeking friends one must have both the clarity to discriminate and the generosity not to be harsh; lacking either of the two, the road cannot be walked.

Pointing Out the Next Friend and Taking Leave: The Land of Surpassing Joy · Mount Wondrous Peak · The Monk Cloud of Virtue

At the last Mañjuśrī points the way: good man, here to the south there is a land named Surpassing Joy; in that land there is a mountain named Wondrous Peak; within that mountain there is a monk named Cloud of Virtue. And he charges him to go and ask those three sentences of question above — study, cultivate, and on to the practice of Samantabhadra swiftly reaching fullness — and says the monk Cloud of Virtue will explain it for you.

Chengguan glosses all three of these names. The name of the land: that the land is named Surpassing Joy is because the friend next below is assigned to the first abode, which surpasses the stage before it and is what faith delights in — the first abode surpasses the stage of faith, and so it is named Surpassing Joy. The name of the mountain, Wondrous Peak, has two senses: first, quiet and unmoving; second, high and giving a view all around, so as to liken the understanding-mind of the first abode being first set up and wisdom being roused in dependence upon concentration. The name of the friend: that the friend is named Cloud of Virtue is that he is furnished with virtue as a cloud is, and a cloud has four senses — pervading, moistening, shading, and pouring down rain — which are matched in order to concentration, blessings, compassion, and wisdom.

The south in here to the south also has its point. Chengguan first bounds it by station: the good friends before the grounds are mostly in the south, within the grounds there is no direction, and after the grounds the two are combined — so the south is not the geography of the whole journey; what it symbolizes differs with the station. Of old the south had five senses: first, with regard to the event, one quarter's good friends are raised to stand for all the rest — one quarter alone has measureless friends, how much more the other quarters; second, the sense of brightness, the brightness of the south in which the ten thousand things see one another, symbolizing casting off darkness and turning toward wisdom; third, the sense of the middle, leaving behind the two extremes of east and west and according with the right way of the center; fourth, the sense of birth, the south presiding over the yang and giving birth to the ten thousand things, symbolizing Sudhana's growth in practice; fifth, the sense of according, turning the left side away and facing the right, going from east to south with the turning of sun and moon, symbolizing Sudhana according with the teaching and its principle. Of the five, the first runs through all; the sense of brightness and the last two symbolize the stage before the grounds; the sense of the middle symbolizes the stage after them, and it applies as well to the stage before the grounds as true realization apart from marks.

There is one more question, and the sūtra text itself raises it: since Mañjuśrī has the wisdom to expound and Sudhana the capacity to receive, why not say it all at once, instead of sending him to serve friend after friend? Chengguan sets out ten senses: first, to make a pattern for later learners — Sudhana seeking the Dharma without slackening, the good friends teaching it without stinting; second, to display the excellence of the conditions of practice — a true good friend is the whole of the brahma-conduct; third, to break the grasping of folly, so that one does not take one's own foolish mind as teacher but empties oneself and seeks everywhere; fourth, to break views and pride, so that one does not look at lineage and is not ashamed to ask those below one; fifth, to break the grasping of a pervasive emptiness — within there being nothing to seek, one deliberately seeks; sixth, to make event and practice one — better to hear little and be able to witness entry than to hear much and not witness; seventh, to break the possessive mind of the one who teaches — my disciple, my pupil, the view of this side and that; eighth, to display the gradual cultivation of entering under assigned stages — without pushing on to the next, one would settle in each stage with no advance; ninth, to display how deep and vast the Buddha-dharma is — even the good friends all humbly defer, how should the common run presume to decide; tenth, to display that Sudhana and the friends together form a dependent arising, the enterer and the entered having no two marks — there being no Sudhana outside the good friends, one is all; there being no good friends outside Sudhana, all is one. Chengguan himself sums up: the first runs through teacher and pupil alike, the next five speak mostly of the learner, the seventh of the teacher, the last three of the teaching. Bringing it down to the ground: the fifty-three visits are not there because Mañjuśrī could not finish telling; the teaching itself requires a person to walk the road once.

The last stretch is Sudhana's response: he rejoiced and leapt up, bowed his head to his feet, circled him measureless times, gazed up at him earnestly, and wept and shed tears. Chengguan glosses this one joy and one grief thus: he leapt for joy because he rejoiced to hear of the friend to come; he wept in grief because he was downcast at taking leave of the voice of virtue, and he says that at all the good friends below this pattern may be followed.

Clear away an error: reading the weeping as weakness. This grief comes from being unwilling to part with the sound of the instruction, and this joy comes from there being a further person to learn from — that this passage closes with this pair of feelings sets the keynote of the fifty-three visits exactly. Bringing it down to the ground: the preciousness of a good friend is seen most clearly at the very moment of taking leave.

Lineage

The text of this passage opens three lines that are carried on from it.

The first is the line of the outline. This passage is the head of the last assembly, and here Chengguan sets up the ten gates as a general framework and the distinguishing of the five marks, and all fifty stretches below are read according to them. As for the assignment of the five marks, Chengguan first recorded the non-assignment of Dharma-master Yi and of the treatise of the Terrace Mountain and the assignment of masters such as Guangtong, judged that both have their reason, said of himself for the present I follow the ancient worthies and assign them as five marks, and closed the matter evenhandedly with yet where there is no order of stages, this does not obstruct the order of stages; to display the stages is the ordinary rule, and to assign them is no fault either; assigning and not assigning stand together as two tracks, and they are recorded without being judged. Fazang's Tanxuan ji, upon the sixty-fascicle text, likewise takes the sentence of Mañjuśrī coming out of the tower to divide the root assembly from the last, and his three opposed pairs take a different road from Chengguan's ten gates — and thus the earlier makes clear the Dharma realm of the fruit, and the later the Dharma realm of the cause, and again, the earlier makes clear the sudden entering of the Dharma realm, and the later the gradual entering of the Dharma realm, and again, the earlier is general and the later particular. Li Tongxuan sets up a gate-name of his own and judges this passage to be the gate of accommodating the worldly and benefiting the living so as to complete practice, with a long outline of three divisions below it, and he takes the three dharmas of Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and the Buddha as the substance of cause and fruit in the five stages; as for the number of the retinue, the eighty-fascicle text by actual count word for word has twenty-three classes, while Tongxuan, upon the eighty-fascicle text, has this one stretch, together with the bodhisattvas, spirits, and gods, has thirty-two multitudes. Zhiyan's Souxuan ji, beyond its general explanation of the chapter in four gates, also sets up three divisions for this passage: Mañjuśrī and his retinue taking leave and going south as the condition for transformation; from Śāriputra onward, gathering in and transforming in response to conditions; from Mañjuśrī knowing Sudhana onward, his own stage being fulfilled and entering the superior state; and within the gathering and transforming, three again — transforming and drawing in the śrāvakas, gathering in the multitudes of dragons, and gathering in and transforming the multitude of people. What these several houses set up each has its own track; they are recorded, and no ranking is judged among them.

The second is the line of Sudhana's stage. This is the greatest divergence among the ancient glosses within this chapter. Chengguan records that as for the youth Sudhana, is he a sage or an ordinary man? The ancients have many explanations, and below it there is the account that he is a bodhisattva on the grounds, the account that he is an ordinary man of real reward below the grounds, and further an account that cites the passage of the earth goddess Peaceful Abiding, this person has already been born into the lineage of the Dharma-king, as its proof and then makes two explanations of its own; while Xianshou sets up three stations and says he should be a person within the practice of faith in a good destiny, and says that is, while in faith he is of the stage of faith, and while in the abodes he is of the stage of the abodes; in one body he passes through the five stages, and wherever he is he is gathered in by that one. Chengguan says beneath Xianshou's account that this one explanation accords very well with the tenet of the sūtra, and then sets out his own: but there is yet another principle: cultivating through the stages, when he comes to see Samantabhadra, all is complete at once — this is the commentary's correction of Xianshou's account of the three lives, and the Yanyi chao says plainly the commentary corrects that explanation: being complete at once is the third, the life of witnessing entry, and here the gradual and the sudden interpenetrate. He still closes at the last with let no one harm the tenet of the sūtra with a view through a tube, fixing no stage for where Sudhana begins and ends. The several accounts stand together, and are recorded without being judged.

The third is the line of the treatises that carry it on. This passage belongs to the narrative of the compilers and does not enter the passages that bridge to consciousness-only: in the whole of Vasubandhu's Shidi jing lun (the Treatise on the Ten Grounds Sūtra) the three words Mañjuśrī, Sudhana, and City of Blessings do not appear; nor do the sentences of this passage appear in the four treatises, the Cheng weishi lun, the She lun, the Yogācārabhūmi, or the Jieshenmi jing. Among the treatises of the Huayan house, the Ten Mysterious Gates of the One Vehicle of the Huayan cites the matter of Sudhana giving rise to the mind at Mañjuśrī's place in this passage; the Essential Purport of the Huayan Sūtra takes Sudhana's cultivating in reliance upon the sūtra as an instance of the mark of benefit; the Essay on the Divisions of Doctrine of the One Vehicle of the Huayan takes Sudhana's passing through the stages as an instance of the ranks of the five teachings; and the Kongmu Essay on the Huayan Sūtra touches Sudhana in more than one place, and in its explanation of the text of the forty-five friends it directly carries on the doctrine of this passage — the first friend speaks the ten great minds for those who turn their minds, and explains at length the ten right dharmas of the buddhas for Sudhana so as to accomplish the practice of faith — while the Mysterious Mirror of the Dharma Realm of the Huayan does not touch the matter of Sudhana at all. In the works examined, the carrying on from this passage lies mostly in the person and not in the marks of dharmas, the one place in the Kongmu Essay alone also carrying on the doctrine of this passage (the ten great minds · the ten right dharmas) — which accords exactly with the root intent of the last assembly, that the cultivation is entrusted to a person so as to give the later followers a track to run in.

In the text of this one passage, the first half is the turning from the lesser and entering the great, and the second half is a pure capacity receiving the Dharma. Mañjuśrī is only one person because faith has not yet become a stage; and the reason the fifty-three visits can be walked to the end is precisely that the first step is faith.

The First Step of the Fifty-Three Visits: What Sudhana Received from Mañjuśrī Was an Admonition, a Place-Name, and a Person's Name

Sudhana gave rise to the mind in Mañjuśrī's presence, and Mañjuśrī did not keep him; he first taught him that he “should resolve to seek a true good friend”, to comply with all that a good friend teaches, and to see no fault in a good friend's skillful means, and then gave him a direction—the land of Surpassing Joy in the south, Wondrous Peak Mountain, a monk named Cloud of Virtue. The whole course of study through the entering of the Dharma realm begins with one sentence of directions such as this.

A misreading has to be set aside first: the notion that ‘visiting good friends’ means going to hear a complete set of teachings. The sequence the sūtra text sets out is not that. Most every portion of the Dharma Sudhana obtains comes after he has first walked a stretch of road, first taken a setback, first stood before someone and opened his mouth to ask. The Dharma does not appear out of nowhere within the question and answer; it grows out of the fact that he has already set out.

Chengguan outlines this as ‘seeking in accord with the teaching’—going toward and searching for in accord with the teaching one has received. Of the four words, ‘in accord with the teaching’ comes first and ‘going and seeking’ comes after: it is not that there is something sought first and then he sets out, but that he has received a teaching first and so has something he can seek. Brought down to the ground: in reading this section one may ask oneself a question—what I call seeking the Dharma, is it that someone pointed out a road and then I walked it, or that I imagined for myself a direction to go?

Climbing the Mountain, Seven Days, a Different Mountain: Four Sentences of Sūtra Text, Four Layers of Reading by the Ancient Worthies

The sūtra text writes only four things: “going toward the land of Surpassing Joy, and climbing Wondrous Peak Mountain,” “observing and searching” upon the mountain in the ten directions, “seven days passed,” and then “he saw that monk upon another mountain, walking slowly back and forth.”

On the surface these four sentences are the record of a journey. Chengguan sets up, sentence by sentence upon these four, a reading of what they signify: he says that climbing the mountain is “the view of the mind ascends the stage”—when one's insight rises a degree, the stage of the position rises with it, and so it is called climbing a mountain; that observing in the ten directions is “wisdom examining the practice of the stage”; that longing to see him is “the feeling that has caught the point”; that the passing of seven days is “the seven factors of awakening aiding the path,” the seven factors of awakening aiding the completion of one's path, and so it is called seven days; and that the last of the four sentences falls upon “a different mountain”—Chengguan glosses this saying, “Only when one forgets the stage one abides in does one get the point, and so he is seen upon a different mountain”: the man sought is precisely not on the mountain one has climbed oneself, and just because one is to see the way, one must first forget the thought that ‘I have already climbed to such and such a stage.’

As for “walking slowly back and forth,” Chengguan glosses it with the pairing of stopping and observing—slowness is stopping, because one does not abide in scattered thought; walking is observing, because one does not abide in a quieted mind; and if it be stated in terms of the matter, it is the right cultivation of the pratyutpanna samādhi.

Set aside a misreading: these readings are not what the sūtra text says of itself; they are what Chengguan sets up as signified upon the words of the sūtra text. The sūtra text itself says only that he walked, climbed, and waited seven days. Brought down to the ground: both layers have to be held—on the side of the matter one really does have to walk those seven days, and on the side of the principle one has to know that walking to the end is for the sake of putting down ‘I have arrived.’

Bowing the Head, Circling Three Times to the Right, Standing Before Him: Why the Rite of Seeing and Revering Is Written Out

After he sees the man, the sūtra text writes four actions: “having seen him, he went forward to call upon him, bowed his head to his feet, circled him three times to the right, and stood before him,” and only then does he speak. Chengguan judges this to be the first sub-outline of ‘seeing, paying respect, and inquiring’ within the six-part outline, and calls it the setting up of the manner of reverence, on the ground that it is “because the person and the Dharma are held weighty”—one reveres the person because one reveres the Dharma he holds.

Someone will ask: what are such formalities doing written into a sūtra? The answer lies in where the next sentence stands. The sūtra text does not say ‘having seen him he asked’; it says he saw, bowed, circled, stood, and then asked. The four actions push the asking back. That stretch of pushing back is precisely the stretch in which the one seeking the Dharma sets down his own bearing. If the bearing is not set down, what he hears in answer will be only the echo of the views he already had.

Brought down to the ground: this section may be read as the ritual for every request for the Dharma—before asking, do three things: walk up to the person, set yourself down, and stand still.

Sudhana's Question: Three Questions and a Conclusion, and Why the Compilers Left Out the Middle

Sudhana's question is, “Holy one! I have already given rise, before this, to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, yet I do not know how a bodhisattva is to study the practice of a bodhisattva. How is he to cultivate the practice of a bodhisattva? And so on, up to: how should he bring the practice of Samantabhadra swiftly to fullness?”—and afterward he concludes with one more sentence, “How is a bodhisattva to accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi?”

Chengguan takes this stretch apart into three sub-outlines: first, ‘stating one's own giving rise to the mind’—to say that one has already given rise to the mind is “to make clear that there is a vessel for the Dharma”; one first states one's own vessel, and only then does the good friend know to what measure he can confer; next, ‘setting out directly what is asked’—“making clear that one does not yet know, and requesting that the telling be suited to one's capacity”; and after that, ‘praising his virtue and requesting the telling,’ that is, the sentence “I have heard that the holy one is skilled at drawing others on and instructing them,” where Chengguan glosses ‘drawing on’ as drawing on by illustration, which is instruction in the teaching, completing the understanding spoken of before, and glosses ‘instructing’ as instructing by showing, which is instruction by admonition, completing the practice spoken of before.

In the question there is an “and so on, up to.” Chengguan says this is an abridgement by the compilers of the sūtra—“Of the eleven sentences above, the first is raised and the rest abridged; this is the compilers' abridgement. If Sudhana had abridged, how would the friend have grasped it?”: what is abridged is not abridged by Sudhana; if Sudhana had really asked only two sentences and a half, how would the good friend have known that what he wished to ask was eleven things? The Yanyi chao goes one layer further: at first it is judged an abridgement by the compilers, yet on examining the Sanskrit of the newly translated chapter on Samantabhadra's Practices and Vows, the eleven sentences stand there in full, and so the sub-commentary says “it is in fact the translator's abridgement.” The two statements point to different hands—the commentary to those who gathered the text of the sūtra, the sub-commentary to the one who translated it; both are recorded. What they share is one point: what is abridged is the text, not Sudhana's asking. This sentence is a key to reading the prose of the Avataṃsaka: the “and so on, up to” that fills its pages is for the most part an abridgement of the text, not a gap in the sense.

Brought down to the ground: in asking about the Dharma, first report your own standing, then say what you do not know, and last make clear why it is this person you ask. When the three steps are complete, the answer has somewhere to land.

It Is Good, It Is Good: First the Marking of Two Hard Things—Already Able to Give Rise to the Mind, and Further Able to Ask

The first thing Cloud of Virtue says is, “It is good! It is good! Son of good family! You have already been able to give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and you are further able to ask about the practice of the bodhisattvas. A thing such as this is the hardest of hard things.”

The two words “further able” have to be seen clearly. Chengguan says under this outline, “First the two hard things are marked”—to have been able to give rise to the mind is one hard thing, and, having given rise to the mind, still to be willing to open one's mouth and ask another is the second hard thing; the two hard things stated together are what is called “the hardest of hard things.” The illness that most easily arises after giving rise to the mind is to feel that one is already on the road, and therefore to ask no more. The sūtra text places its praise upon the asking, and this is exactly the point of that illness.

Chengguan says the work of the praise is “to make him hold his own treasure firm, and to gladden him for the hearing of the Dharma”—to let the one seeking the Dharma himself hold weighty the mind he has given rise to and make it firm, and only then will he be in a frame of mind to hear the Dharma. So this praise is not a courtesy; it is the first procedure of conferring the Dharma.

Brought down to the ground: to check whether one has fallen back after giving rise to the mind, one need not look at the size of one's vow; look at whether one still asks others.

The Eleven Sentences of the Hardest of Hard Things: The Eleven Things Sought Are the Question Opened Out

Below the praise, the sūtra text sets out eleven sentences of “seeking the bodhisattva's …”: seeking the bodhisattva's practice, realm, path of coming forth, pure path, pure and vast mind, accomplishing of spiritual powers, displayed gate of liberation, displayed works done in the world, according with the minds of beings, gate upon birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, and contemplating of the conditioned and unconditioned with a mind that clings to nothing.

Chengguan judges these to be “a separate rehearsing of the question above, in eleven sentences: the first sentence rehearses the general, and the remaining ten rehearse the particulars”—the first sentence, “seeking the bodhisattva's practice,” is the general, and the other ten sentences are the particulars. This turns back and confirms the “and so on, up to” spoken of above: Sudhana's question was eleven sentences to begin with, and before answering, Cloud of Virtue first rehearses it back, not letting one sentence fall.

Chengguan's matching sentence by sentence returns each of the ten sentences Cloud of Virtue rehearses to Sudhana's question; only when the two sides answer to each other does one see that Cloud of Virtue is not starting something of his own. The first sentence, “realm,” matches the earlier question about going toward the bodhisattva's practice, and here Chengguan separates two senses, “going toward” and “realm”: going toward takes in both what goes and what is gone toward, while realm is said only of what is gone toward—so that in rehearsing it back he says realm and not going toward, yielding the one that goes to the earlier question. The second sentence matches the earlier “practice,” on the reasoning that “practice is what comes forth”: practice is named practice because it can come forth. The third matches the earlier “pure.” The fourth matches the earlier “entering,” and entering is entering because it “does not stay stuck in emptiness or existence, and so the mind is vast”—not halting in emptiness, not halting in existence, and only then is the mind called vast. The fifth matches “accomplishing.” The sixth, seventh, and eighth all match the earlier “according with,” and according with has three faces: the gate of liberation is what accords, displaying the works done is according in works, and according with the minds of beings is according to capacity; of the eighth Chengguan says further that it “is also holding in mindfulness, for it is mindful of beings,” one sentence carrying two senses. The ninth matches “increasing and broadening,” and its reasoning lies wholly in not abiding—“not abiding in nirvāṇa is the gate of birth-and-death; not abiding in birth-and-death is the gate of nirvāṇa; and by the path of not abiding one is able to increase and broaden”: birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are gates of going out and coming in to each other, and only by not halting at either does what one practices broaden. The tenth matches “bringing the practice of Samantabhadra swiftly to fullness.”

The order of the ten sentences also has its reasoning. Chengguan matches them sentence by sentence to the question above, and the last sentence weighs most: “contemplating the conditioned and the unconditioned with a mind that clings to nothing”—he glosses this sentence as “if one understands that the conditioned and the unconditioned are neither one nor different, and clings to nothing, then it is swiftly fulfilled,” which matches exactly the earlier question, “bringing the practice of Samantabhadra swiftly to fullness.” So the eleven sentences are not a list laid side by side; they are one line, gathered into the three words “clings to nothing.”

Set aside a misreading: the notion that those sentences about spiritual powers and gates of liberation are the fruits sought. The sentence pattern of the sūtra text is throughout “seeking the bodhisattva's” such and such; what is sought is what a bodhisattva practices, not something one is to obtain for oneself. Brought down to the ground: take these eleven sentences as a table to check oneself against, asking sentence by sentence whether what one seeks is a practice or a gain.

The Power of Sovereign and Decisive Understanding: What the Substance of This Dharma Gate Is

Cloud of Virtue states what he himself has obtained, and the first sentence is “I have obtained the power of sovereign and decisive understanding, the eye of faith is pure, the light of wisdom shines.” Chengguan judges “the power of sovereign and decisive understanding” to be the marking of the name, and “the eye of faith is pure” and what follows to be the explaining of the marks.

The four terms have their sense term by term. Sovereign has two senses—sovereignty over the objective realm observed, and sovereignty in functioning; decisive likewise has two—decision on the side of wisdom, and freedom from wavering on the side of faith; ‘understanding’ here is settled understanding, which is, first, as the cause of faith, the acceptance of the objective realm, and second, as the cause of functioning, the holding fast of the objective realm. Taking the three together, Chengguan says, “faith and wisdom support each other, and other objective realms do not move it; therefore it is called a power, and this is the sense of samādhi”—faith and wisdom hold each other up, other objective realms cannot shake it, and this is called a power, while the word power points to samādhi.

“The eye of faith is pure” explains the sense of understanding spoken of before: to cultivate the samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha, one ought first to have right faith, and next to settle the matter with wisdom; because settled understanding accepts the objective realm, a pure faith arises toward the real virtues of the Buddha and one sees them distinctly, and so it is called an eye. “The light of wisdom shines” then explains decisiveness.

Chengguan further ties this substance to the stage: “Now, as it is assigned to a stage, this is precisely the substance of the abode of first resolve”—the original nature of understanding is opened out now by the power of hearing perfumed into it, and therefore it is called decisive understanding. This sentence is the most important attribution in this section: the substance of the dharma gate is the substance of the stage to which it is assigned.

Brought down to the ground: one whose faith is not pure cannot bring the contemplation of the Buddha to completion, not because the technique of visualization is insufficient, but because there is still wavering left within the faith, and wavering is what it means for other objective realms to be able to move one.

The Number of Buddhas Seen: Counting from One Buddha to Buddhas as Many as the Dust Motes of Unspeakably Unspeakable Buddha-Fields

Next comes the longest string of numbers in this section: in the east one Buddha, two Buddhas, ten Buddhas, a hundred Buddhas, a thousand Buddhas … a nayuta of koṭis of Buddhas … unspeakably unspeakable Buddhas, and then it turns into dust motes—Buddhas as many as the dust motes of Jambudvīpa, as many as the dust motes of the four continents, on up to Buddhas as many as the dust motes of unspeakably unspeakable Buddha-fields; and then one sentence, “as it is in the east, so it is in the south, the west, and the north, in the four intermediate directions, above, and below—all of them likewise,” gathers the ten directions entire.

This string of numbers is not a flourish of rhetoric. Chengguan places it under the outline of ‘the surpassing function,’ in the part on ‘the many that are seen,’ and the reason the surpassing function can be such he ties to the substance: taking the substance that is one with function spoken of before, “with an awakening that has no mind he accords with an objective realm that is nothing but suchness,” and therefore “the function that is one with the substance is a function that nothing exhausts”—seeing many is not the fruit of looking hard; it is because the substance relied upon has of itself no bound or limit.

Under the outline of the surpassing function Chengguan first divides the inward function and after it the outward. The part on the inward function has five sentences, and the five are not laid side by side; they are “explained one from another and so completed”—Chengguan assigns, sentence by sentence, what each explains: ‘contemplating objective realms universally’ explains the functioning of the eye of faith, ‘apart from every obstruction’ explains the two graphs of “pure,” ‘contemplating with skill’ explains ‘the light of wisdom shines,’ ‘the universal eye is clear through’ completes the sense above, and ‘furnished with pure practice’ gathers them into the samādhi of one practice. “Contemplating objective realms universally” is the functioning of the eye of faith, and glosses at the same time the word “eye”; and why can it be universal? “Taking suchness as the Buddha, there is no objective realm that is not the Buddha”—taking suchness as the Buddha, not one realm fails to be a Buddha-realm; and the recompense body and the transformation body are contemplated at one time; therefore it is called universal. “Apart from every obstruction” explains the two graphs of “pure”: sinking and floating, the five hindrances and the two graspings, are all obstructions to samādhi, and only when the obstructions are gone is it called pure. “Contemplating with skill” explains “the light of wisdom shines”: to contemplate the marks of form where there are of themselves no marks of form—that is what is called skill. “The universal eye is clear through” completes the sense above—when the eye of faith can contemplate objective realms universally, it is called the universal eye; when it exhausts suchness and the Dharma realm, it is called clear through. Last, “furnished with pure practice” gathers them, and Chengguan closes, “being thus apart from obstruction and seeing suchness, this is called being fully furnished with the pure samādhi of one practice; ‘one practice’ means the practice of the one Dharma realm.” So these five sentences are five steps in a single matter: once the eye of faith stands, obstruction goes, contemplation becomes skilled, the eye becomes universal, and the practice becomes pure, each in its order; take away any step in the middle, and ‘furnished with pure practice’ at the end has nothing to rest on.

Where one enters the samādhi of one practice, Chengguan does not say of himself; he cites. The Chao sets out for this stretch two passages from the Mañjuśrī section of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā: to enter the samādhi of one practice one must first draw near someone who understands prajñā, hear and receive from him, and only then can one enter; and ‘one practice’ means the practice of the one Dharma realm, ‘and there is no one, either’. Read together, the two frame the gate from both ends. The first says it has an order of entry — not reached in a single thought, but by there being someone to draw near and a Dharma to hear. The second says that in the end not even that ‘one’ is set up, for otherwise the practice of the one Dharma realm would become a countable thing. So the ‘one practice’ of “furnished with pure practice” is a one with nothing to grasp at, not one practice picked out of ten.

The Chao further gives its mark: the Dharma realm is of one mark; the tie of conditions is to the Dharma realm; the Dharma realm does not move. ‘Tied’ and ‘unmoving’ are two faces of one matter — what is tied is tied to the Dharma realm, not to some one objective realm, and therefore it is tied and yet does not move. The five sentences of the inward function were called five steps above; this is where the steps end: practice made pure is practice upon a Dharma realm that has no mark of one.

The part on the outward function Chengguan reads in three sentences: going without moving, holding without being mindful, seeing without going. The sūtra text's “going to all the lands of the ten directions” is going without moving; “constantly being mindful of all the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, and holding entire the right Dharma of all the Buddhas” is holding without being mindful; “constantly seeing all the Buddhas of the ten directions” is seeing without going. All three sentences say one and the same thing: the three functions of going, being mindful, and seeing none of them depart from their substance.

Chengguan also leaves a note upon the editions in this passage: where the sūtra text says “the dust motes of Buddha-fields” twice over, he says that according to the Sanskrit text it ought to read “ten Buddha-fields,” a word having dropped out of the Chinese translation. It is recorded.

Brought down to the ground: in reading this passage one need not try to picture so many Buddhas; what should be thought is this—if seeing Buddhas depends on going, on being mindful, on searching, then however many are seen there is an end to them; only what does not depend on these has no end.

How the Buddhas in Each Single Direction Differ: Color and Mark, Shape and Appearance, Spiritual Power, Sport, Assembly, Light, Land, Life Span

The counting done, the sūtra text turns to the ways in which “all the Buddhas in each single direction” differ one from another: every sort of color and mark, shape and appearance, spiritual power, sport, assembly adorning the place of awakening, light shining boundlessly, land, and life span; and in accord with the various delights in the minds of beings they display every sort of gate of accomplishing right awakening, and “give the lion's roar in the midst of the great assembly.”

Chengguan judges this part to be ‘the differences among what is seen’—the part before speaks of the manyness of the number, this part of the difference of the marks. The two have to be seen together: if one sees only the manyness of the number and not the difference of the marks, what is seen is copies of a single Buddha; if one sees only the difference of the marks and not the manyness of the number, what is seen is a scattering of many Buddhas.

After the eight “every sort of,” the sūtra text comes down upon “in accord with the various delights in the minds of the various beings”—the reason the Buddhas have so many differences lies not on the side of the Buddhas but in the delights of beings' minds. And the last sentence, “the lion's roar,” gathers all this displaying back into the telling of the Dharma: the manifesting of every sort of body is for the sake of telling one Dharma.

Brought down to the ground: that the marks under which the Buddha is seen differ one from another is not disorder; it is response to capacity. The one mark that oneself sees is likewise what one's own mind's delight has called forth.

I Have Obtained Only This: The Full Name of the Dharma Gate, and the Word “Only”

Before deferring to the superior, Cloud of Virtue first reports the full name of his dharma gate—“I have obtained only this dharma gate of universal seeing by the light of the wisdom of the realm of all the Buddhas held in mindfulness.”

This name has to be read apart. Chengguan concludes it stretch by stretch: “the realm of all the Buddhas” concludes what is observed, which runs across the ten powers horizontally and reaches through the three times vertically, and so it says all—horizontally it runs through the ten powers of the Buddha, vertically it reaches through the three times, and so it says “all”; “the light of wisdom” concludes that which observes, that is, the light of wisdom shining spoken of before; “the dharma gate of universal seeing” gathers up the first two and so concludes the name of it, that is, the universal eye clear and penetrating spoken of before. So the name of the dharma gate is not a label; it draws the three matters of the whole section—what is observed, that which observes, and what is thereby accomplished—into one sentence.

And directly below the word “I” at the head of the sentence stands the word “only.” This one word “only” is the pattern by which a good friend reports his Dharma: having reported what he has obtained, Cloud of Virtue first says “I have obtained only this,” next says “how could I know,” and after that points to the next person. Chengguan judges this to be ‘humbling himself and deferring to the superior’—first he humbles what he himself knows, concluding his own portion; after that he defers to the superior as knowing much, thereby increasing the other's advance.

Set aside a misreading: the notion that a modest phrase is politeness. It is not. If Cloud of Virtue did not say this “only,” Sudhana would have stopped upon Wondrous Peak Mountain. What Sudhana relies upon to be able to walk on is exactly that Cloud of Virtue is willing to say ‘I have only this one gate.’

Brought down to the ground: a real good friend will send you away.

Why the First Visit Teaches Mindfulness of the Buddha First

Here a question has to be asked: of all the many dharma gates in the fifty-three visits, why is it mindfulness of the Buddha that the first good friend teaches?

Chengguan raises this question here himself and answers it, in three layers of reason. The first: “that the first good friend makes clear the dharma gate of mindfulness of the Buddha first is because it is the first of all practices”—mindfulness of the Buddha is the head of every practice. The second: he cites the Zhidu lun, “a bodhisattva takes prajñā-pāramitā as mother and the pratyutpanna samādhi as father,” and says that it is by relying on the Buddha that one can accomplish the remaining surpassing practices. The third: “because in the first abode one gives rise to the mind with the Buddha as its object and delights in making offerings”—the person in the abode of first resolve gives rise to the mind with the Buddha as its object to begin with and delights in making offerings, and so the dharma conferred at this stage is naturally mindfulness of the Buddha.

The three layers of reason interlock: stated as the order of practice, mindfulness of the Buddha comes first; stated as what practice relies upon, mindfulness of the Buddha is the father; stated as what suits the stage, this stage has the Buddha as its object. Brought down to the ground: to regard mindfulness of the Buddha as ‘an expedient for beginners’ is to read the order backward—the order of the sūtra text is that it stands foremost because all the rest come out of it.

The commentary sets out only two senses; the Chao goes further and lists ten. Of the ten, the first three still unfold the commentary's own: the warrant of the Zhilun; that only in reliance on the Buddha are the other surpassing practices accomplished; that its merit is high and its advance easy, and so it encourages beings. The remaining seven each open something of their own: that the contemplation runs through shallow and deep and so gathers all; that it wipes out heavy obstruction and so is a surpassing condition; that it takes person and Dharma together and so is easily guarded; that bodhisattvas of all ten grounds are mindful of the Buddha; that the three jewels are auspicious and so are spoken at a sūtra's beginning; that this very mind is the Buddha, and so the objective realm is one; that one in the first abode resolves in reliance on the Buddha and delights in making offerings. The Chao itself notes that its tenth is the commentary's second, and so lists them without hiding the overlap. The point of listing ten is not the number but that it spreads the priority of mindfulness of the Buddha across seven or eight different orders of reason — some by how the gates gather one another, some by obstruction, some by protection, some by stage, some by mind and Buddha not being two. Take any one layer, and the priority still stands.

The eighth sense carries a further point about order: the three jewels are auspicious and are spoken at a sūtra's beginning, and so the first friend is mindfulness of the Buddha, the second, Sāgaramegha, is the hearing of Dharma, and the third, Supratiṣṭhita, is reliance on the Saṅgha — they are in order. This sense glosses not the stretch on Cloud of Virtue alone but strings the first three friends together: Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha visited in their order, so that the first friend's teaching mindfulness of the Buddha is not an isolated choice.

The Chao also records the four-graph instruction handed down by the Venerable Daxing of the Northern Qi: the two graphs faith and recollection are not to leave the mind; the two graphs invocation and reverence are not to leave body and speech. The four are apportioned to body, speech, and mind: faith and recollection in the mind, invocation and reverence in body and speech. This draws the height of the twenty-one gates down to the lowest rung — at its simplest, mindfulness of the Buddha is no more than a mind that does not leave faith and recollection, and a body and speech that do not leave invocation and reverence. It was said above that to treat mindfulness of the Buddha as a beginner's expedient is to read the order backwards; these four graphs make clear that although the order cannot be reversed, the place of entry may indeed be very low.

Before the Twenty-One Gates: First, How Chengguan Reads These Twenty-One Names

The part on deferring to the superior sets out twenty-one gates of mindfulness of the Buddha. Three things have to be known before reading them, all of them attributable to Chengguan.

The first is the pattern: “Among the particulars there are twenty-one gates, each first marking the name and afterward explaining the mark, and all of them take their names from their working”—every gate first marks a name, and there follows a sentence explaining the mark, closed with “because”; and the name is taken from what it does. So to read the name of a gate is to know its working, and no further explanation need be sought.

The second is the parallel edition: Chengguan says that according to the Jin translation every one of the gates reads “gate of the samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha,” and that this translation has abridged away the two words “samādhi.” So all twenty-one gates, gate by gate, point to samādhi, and not to a scattered mindfulness.

The third is that the number of gates is not fixed: Chengguan says that these twenty-one gates are “all of them the last one, and because the marks differ there are many gates,” and says further that “twenty-one is a summary telling, no more”—twenty-one is not a closed list, but a provisional opening out made according to the difference of the marks. He also gathers them, in terms of the mind that is mindful, into five kinds: mindfulness of the Buddha that takes the objective realm as its object, mindfulness of the Buddha that gathers the objective realm into mind-only, the mutual vanishing of mind and objective realm, the mutual unobstructedness of mind and objective realm, and layer upon layer without end. These five are a measuring rod for reading the twenty-one gates.

What “all of them the last one” points to has to be seen by returning to the order in which Chengguan opens the gates. He first sets up mindfulness in terms of the three bodies—mindfulness of the Dharma body, the recompense body, and the transformation body; each of the three bodies has its circumstantial and its principal recompense, making six contemplations; within the principal recompense of the latter two bodies he divides again into inward virtues and outward marks, making eight gates; among the eight, the two gates of the Dharma body are the substance of the six that follow; substance and marks being unobstructed makes a ninth gate; and fusing all the foregoing gates into one, so that in a single fine place one sees Buddhas without end, layer upon layer like Indra's net, is the tenth gate, which is to say the gate of Samantabhadra's samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha. When it is said that the twenty-one gates are “all of them the last one,” it is precisely this tenth gate that is meant: all twenty-one stand within it, and are opened out as many gates only because the marks they face are different. And so Chengguan says further that the twenty-one gates and the ten gates before them open and gather into each other (the phrase has already been met with above)—the ten gates distinguish the Buddha who is held in mindfulness, while the twenty-one open out the marks according to the sentences of the sūtra text; one goes by what is held in mindfulness and the other by the text, so the numbers naturally do not answer to each other, nor need they.

The five kinds of mind that is mindful are another measuring rod: the eight gates and the ten gates above are all said in terms of what is held in mindfulness, while these five are said in terms of the mind that is mindful. The first is mindfulness of the Buddha that takes the objective realm as its object—mindful of the true and of the responsive, of the principal and of the circumstantial, and even merely uttering the name does not leave the objective realm; therefore most of the gates above belong to this one. The second is mindfulness of the Buddha that gathers the objective realm into mind-only, which is the eighteenth and nineteenth gates: the eighteenth is mind-only in its general mark, mind itself being Buddha, mind itself making Buddha; the nineteenth likewise follows the mind, yet “the mind's deeds are of many kinds, and so the Buddhas seen are better or worse”—both are mind-only, and yet what is seen has its shallow and deep. The third is the mutual vanishing of mind and objective realm, for which Chengguan cites “the earlier gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that is far removed, and part of the gate of what cannot be seen, and the gate that is like empty space.” The fourth is the mutual unobstructedness of mind and objective realm, which is the first gate, illumining both phenomena and principle, unobstructed whether they stand or vanish, and therefore named universal shining. The fifth is layer upon layer without end, which is what contemplates in accord with the tenth gate, as in the gate that abides in the subtle and the rest, and is also the general sense within this gate. These five are not five dharma gates laid side by side; they are one line running from outward to inward, from coarse to fine: beginning from the objective realm, gathered into mind-only, advancing to the vanishing of both mind and realm, unobstructed in that vanishing, and ending in layer upon layer without end. And that last kind joins straight onto the “last one” spoken of before—the furthest reach of the mind that is mindful and the furthest reach of what is held in mindfulness are gathered into one and the same gate.

These five kinds of mindful mind are not Chengguan's own making; they are a revision of an earlier hand. The Chao sets out the five gates the ancients already had: mindfulness of the Buddha by invoking the name for rebirth; by contemplating the image to wipe out offences; by gathering the objective realm as mind only; with mind and objective realm unobstructed; and by the perfect penetration of dependent arising. The Chao gives Chengguan's grounds for revising them one by one: the names of the first two are ‘barred in’ — too narrow; and invoking the name alone still lacks the sense of mindfulness, for invoking a name is not necessarily being mindful. As for the fifth, the Chao says its name ‘is wholly good’; the fault lies not in the name but in the gloss — the ancients glossed that gate only as far as the unobstruction of principle and phenomena, so that name and sense did not answer to each other, and therefore Chengguan revised it.

The revision goes two ways. The first is to merge: the present first gate, mindfulness of the Buddha with the objective realm as its condition, takes in the ancients' first two, so that invoking the name and contemplating the image both fall within having an objective realm as condition — which is what gives the phrase ‘even bare invocation of the name does not leave the objective realm’ its footing. The second is to advance: the present fifth gate, the endlessness upon endlessness, is what is truly the perfect penetration of nature-arising, taking the sense of the unobstruction of phenomenon with phenomenon and not of principle with phenomenon. This is the joint of the whole string. The ancients' five gates stop at mind and objective realm unobstructed, and their last gate, though named perfect penetration, means no more than principle and phenomena. Chengguan pushes the last gate to the unobstruction of phenomenon with phenomenon, and only then do the five kinds of mindful mind become a line running from coarse to fine and ending in endlessness — and only then do they join the tenth gate to which the twenty-one gates return.

Upon this the ancient worthies have another way of opening and gathering, which Chengguan records, saying, “the first ten are mindfulness of the Buddha in the fullness of surpassing virtue, and the latter eleven are mindfulness of the Buddha in the sovereignty of wondrous function—this too is one reasoning”; what Chengguan takes for himself is “to argue it strictly and in detail, every one of them is mindfulness of the Buddha whose substance and function are unobstructed.” The two statements stand together.

The Twenty-One Gates (One): the Light of Wisdom Shining Everywhere · Causing All Beings · Causing Secure Abiding in the Powers · Causing Secure Abiding in the Dharma · Illumining All Quarters

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha in which the light of wisdom shines everywhere, whose mark is “because he constantly sees all the lands of all the Buddhas, and every sort of palace within them wholly adorned and pure.” This gate stands first, and Chengguan says of it that it “runs through the dharma-body, the reward body, and the transformation body, and through both the dependent and the proper recompense, this gate being the general one”—one gate running through the dependent and proper recompense of the three bodies, and so it is the general gate of the twenty-one. It should be noted that its explaining of the mark falls upon “lands and palaces,” which is the dependent recompense; to display the Buddha of whom one is mindful by the adorned purity of the dependent recompense is the road this gate takes. Brought down to the ground: when a beginner contemplating the Buddha cannot raise up the Buddha's body, to contemplate his land first has scriptural ground.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that causes all beings, whose mark is “because, in accord with what the minds of beings delight in, he causes them all to see the Buddha and obtain purity.” What is particular to this gate is that what is held in mindfulness is not for oneself. Chengguan says one thing about the name: the name of this gate is not sufficient in the text, and if one follows the Jin edition it ought to read “causing all beings to leave inversion far behind,” and then the sense is round and complete. Seeing the two editions together, this gate turns mindfulness of the Buddha into a practice of benefiting others—it is not that I see the Buddha, but that others are caused to see the Buddha and obtain purity.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that causes secure abiding in the powers, whose mark is “because he causes one to enter into the ten powers of the Tathāgata.” Chengguan judges this to be “mindfulness of the inward virtue”—what is held in mindfulness is not the Buddha's marks and signs but the Buddha's ten powers. The ten powers are the virtue the Buddha realizes inwardly. When mindfulness of the Buddha reaches the inward virtue, the object of mindfulness has turned from outward mark into working.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that causes secure abiding in the Dharma, whose mark is “because he sees measureless Buddhas and hears their Dharma.” Chengguan says this too is inward virtue, and points out why it is so—the intent of seeing the Buddha is for the sake of obtaining the Dharma. This gate joins mindfulness of the Buddha to the hearing of the Dharma: if one sees the Buddha and does not hear the Dharma, seeing and not seeing are the same.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that illumines all quarters, whose mark is “because he wholly sees, within all the various world-systems, the oceans of Buddhas who are equal and without difference.” The eye of the gate is in the four words “equal and without difference.” Chengguan says this gate runs through the three bodies, the dependent and proper recompense, and both inward virtue and outward mark, on the ground that “the Tathāgatas of the ten directions share together one dharma-body”—the reason the Buddhas of the ten directions can be seen at one time as equal and without difference is that what is seen is one dharma-body to begin with.

The Twenty-One Gates (Two): Entering the Places That Cannot Be Seen · Abiding in All Kalpas · Abiding in All Times · Abiding in All Lands · Abiding in All Ages

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that enters the places that cannot be seen, whose mark is “because he wholly sees, within all the minutely fine objective realms, the sovereign spiritual-power deeds of the Buddhas.” Chengguan judges this to be the contemplation of the unobstructedness of phenomena and principle, “because principle fuses phenomena”; that following upon one fine objective realm one sees many spiritual powers is the province of the eye of wisdom alone, and so it is named as what cannot be seen. What this gate breaks is a settled opinion: the notion that the Buddha is only in great places. The sūtra text says that the Buddha's sovereign spiritual-power deeds are precisely within the finest objective realms.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in all kalpas, whose mark is “because within all kalpas he constantly sees everything the Tathāgata sets up and does, without letting go of it for a moment.” Chengguan judges this and the gate following to be “both stated in terms of time,” and this gate to be “stated in terms of the unbrokenness of the Buddha's deeds that are held in mindfulness”—what is held in mindfulness is that the Buddha's doings are unbroken in time.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in all times, whose mark is “because at all times he constantly sees the Tathāgata, drawing near and dwelling together with him without parting.” Set it against the gate before: the gate before speaks of the unbrokenness of the Buddha's deeds, and this gate speaks of “the seamlessness of the time-divisions of the one who is mindful”—it is the time on one's own side that has no gap. The two gates are the one that is held and the one that holds, and only together do they make “constantly sees.” Brought down to the ground: what is called constant mindfulness of the Buddha is not that the Buddha appears now and then, but that on one's own side no gap is left.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in all lands, whose mark is “because within all lands he sees the body of the Buddha, surpassing all and having none that can be its equal.” Chengguan judges this gate to “hold in mindfulness both the dependent and the proper”—the lands are the dependent, the Buddha's body is the proper, one gate holding two matters in mindfulness. And “surpassing all and having none that can be its equal” is stated of the proper recompense, that is, that the body seen within all lands is beyond all comparison.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in all ages, whose mark is “because, in accord with what his own mind desires and delights in, he universally sees the Tathāgatas of the three times.” What this gate holds in mindfulness runs through the three times. Here Chengguan cites the Wenshu boruo, “when the present Buddha abides in the world, then all the Buddhas abide, because they are alike in one inconceivability,” and says that the Buddhas of the past abide in the limit of not entering nirvāṇa and that the Buddhas of the future are likewise already complete—the reason the three times can be universally seen is that the Buddhas of the three times are alike in one inconceivability.

The Twenty-One Gates (Three): Abiding in All Objective Realms · Abiding in Quiescent Cessation · Abiding in Leaving Far Behind · Abiding in Vastness · Abiding in the Minutely Fine

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in all objective realms, whose mark is “because universally, within all the various objective realms, he sees the Tathāgatas appearing in succession.” Chengguan says this gate is “likewise the function that is one with the substance; because one understands that there is nothing that is not the Buddha's objective realm, in every objective realm the Buddha appears”—it is not that the Buddha goes into the objective realms, but that one understands there is not one objective realm that is not the Buddha's objective realm, and so in every objective realm the Buddha is seen.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in quiescent cessation, whose mark is “because within a single thought he sees all lands and all the Buddhas displaying nirvāṇa.” What this gate holds in mindfulness is the Buddha's display of extinction. Chengguan judges this to be “mindfulness of the responsive”—what is held in mindfulness is the mark of responsive transformation. The display of nirvāṇa is one mark manifested in response to capacity, and to see it is as much seeing the Buddha as to see the accomplishing of the way.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in leaving far behind, whose mark is “because within a single day he sees all the Buddhas going forth from the places where they dwell.” This gate is the most easily misread, and Chengguan distinguishes it particularly: in the gates before, the Buddha is seen within objective realms, and one easily supposes that the Buddhas dwell within those objective realms; this gate makes clear the knowledge that the Buddhas have no dwelling place at all, and therefore it leaves far behind the thought of time and place, and so sees within a single day a going forth thought after thought. So “leaving far behind” is not the Buddha departing; it is oneself departing from the thought that ‘the Buddha dwells in such a place.’

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in vastness, whose mark is “because his mind constantly observes that the body of each single Buddha fills and pervades all the various Dharma realms.” Chengguan judges this to be mindfulness of the marks and signs of the reward body, the eyes and ears and the rest each and every one pervading the Dharma realm. What vastness points to is not that the Buddha's body is very large, but that every single portion of the marks and signs each pervades the Dharma realm.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in the minutely fine, whose mark is “because at the tip of a single hair there appear Tathāgatas as many as are unspeakable, and he goes to the place of every one of them to attend upon them.” Chengguan distinguishes particularly how this gate differs from the earlier ‘entering the places that cannot be seen’: the former displays that within the dependent recompense there is the proper recompense, whereas this gate is “the proper within the proper,” and so the two do not run together. It is to be noted that the explaining of the mark in this gate ends with the two words “attend upon”—having seen, one must further go and attend; this gate does not stop at seeing.

The Twenty-One Gates (Four): Abiding in Adornment · Abiding in the Accomplishing of Deeds · Abiding in the Sovereign Mind · Abiding in One's Own Karma · Abiding in Spiritual Transformation · Abiding in Empty Space

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in adornment, whose mark is “because within a single thought he sees that in all lands there are Buddhas accomplishing equal right awakening and displaying spiritual transformations.” Chengguan judges this to be “mindfulness of the round fusion of kalpas”—that within a single thought one sees the accomplishing of the way in all lands is the mutual entering of times and kalpas. Seen together with the gate before, the gate before is the mutual entering of places and this gate the mutual entering of times.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in the accomplishing of deeds, whose mark is “because he sees all the Buddhas appearing in the world, sending forth the light of wisdom and turning the wheel of the Dharma.” Chengguan judges this to be mindfulness of the inward virtue. Of the deeds a Buddha can accomplish by appearing in the world, the sūtra text raises only two: sending forth the light of wisdom, and turning the wheel of the Dharma. So as for the deeds of mindfulness of the Buddha, what is held in mindfulness is the telling of the Dharma.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in the sovereign mind, whose mark is “because he knows that, in accord with whatever his own mind desires and delights in, all the Buddhas manifest their forms.” Chengguan judges this gate together with the gate following as mindfulness of color and mark, and among the five kinds of mind that are mindful gathers the two into “mindfulness of the Buddha that gathers the objective realm into mind-only,” saying that this gate is the general mark of mind-only—this mind is the Buddha, this mind makes the Buddha. Of the twenty-one gates, this is the one in which the road of mind-only is plainest.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in one's own karma, whose mark is “because he knows that, in accord with the karma beings have accumulated, there is manifested a reflected image answering to it, so as to make them awaken.” Set it against the gate before: the gate before accords with the desires and delights of one's own mind, this gate accords with the karma of beings. Chengguan says the reason this gate is set up separately is that “minds and karmas are of many kinds, and so the seeing of the Buddha is better or worse”—both are mind-only, yet karma has its differences, and so the Buddha that is seen is better or worse. Brought down to the ground: how the mark of the Buddha one sees stands is a mirror of one's own karma; and the last words, “to make them awaken,” make plain the intent of manifesting this reflected image—it is not for people to look at, but for people to wake.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in spiritual transformation, whose mark is “because he sees that the vast lotus flower upon which the Buddha sits pervades the Dharma realm and opens wide.” Chengguan judges this gate to be “mindfulness of the dependent”—what is held in mindfulness is the dependent recompense. That one flower opening wide pervades the Dharma realm is a spiritual transformation upon the dependent recompense.

The gate of mindfulness of the Buddha that abides in empty space, whose mark is “because he observes that all the body-clouds the Tathāgata has adorn the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space.” This gate stands last, and Chengguan says of it that it “runs through inward and outward, true and responsive, and all body-clouds”—the true body and the responsive body, inward virtue and outward mark, all gathered within the two words “body-clouds.” To take the cloud as a likeness is to take its covering everywhere while having no fixed mark. The twenty-one gates begin from the general of “the light of wisdom shining everywhere” and close in the general of “body-clouds,” a general gate at each of the two ends.

And How Could I Know or Tell: The Closing Sentence of Deferring to the Superior

The twenty-one gates told, Cloud of Virtue closes with one sentence: “And how could I know, or be able to tell of, their practice of merit?”

Chengguan judges the part on deferring to the superior into three: first the general, next the particular, and after that the conclusion; and this sentence is the conclusion. It is to be noted that “able to know” and “able to tell” are spoken of apart—it is not only that he cannot tell it; he cannot even know it. This draws clear the boundary between one's own portion and the advance beyond it: the realm beyond one's own portion is not a matter of being unable to state it clearly, but of its not lying within what one knows at all.

Brought down to the ground: only one who is willing to say ‘I do not know’ can push the next station forward. One who glosses it over becomes himself the terminus of those who study.

Pointing to the Next Friend: The Land of Sea Gate, the Monk Ocean Cloud—Both Names Say the Same Thing

Cloud of Virtue points the road: “Son of good family! In the south there is a land named Sea Gate; there is a monk there named Ocean Cloud. Go there and ask him: how is a bodhisattva to study the practice of a bodhisattva and to cultivate the path of a bodhisattva?”

Both the land's name and the person's name carry the word sea. Chengguan sets up a gloss for each of the two names: as for the land of Sea Gate, “because that land stands right at the mouth of the southern sea,” which is geography on the side of the matter; while as what it signifies it is “to signify that the sea of the contemplating mind is deep and vast, and is the gate for governing the ground of the mind.” As for the monk Ocean Cloud, “he takes the contemplation of the sea as his dharma gate, moistening all things with the Dharma-cloud of the universal eye,” signifying the contemplating and giving rise to the ten kinds of mind in the abode of governing the ground and the sense of the deep and vast cloud of compassion. Chengguan says outright that this is “the good friend of the abode of governing the ground”—the second good friend answers to the second of the ten abodes.

It is to be noted that the words Cloud of Virtue charges Sudhana to go and ask are nearly the same text as the words Sudhana originally asked of him: “how is a bodhisattva to study the practice of a bodhisattva and to cultivate the path of a bodhisattva.” What is asked does not change, and the answers differ step by step—this is the usual way of the fifty-three visits: the same question asked again of friend after friend, save at a few assemblies where it is not asked again.

Brought down to the ground: true study by visiting is not the changing of the question, but the carrying of one and the same question before different people.

Praising the Surpassing Virtues of the Friend: Nine Sentences That Point in Advance to What Will Be Told

After pointing the road, Cloud of Virtue praises the virtues of the next friend in nine sentences, of which eight read “will cause you” and one reads “will explain for you”: entering the vast stage of the aids to the path, giving rise to the power of vast roots of goodness, explaining the cause of giving rise to the mind of awakening, giving rise to the light of the vast vehicle, cultivating the vast pāramitās, entering the vast ocean of the various practices, fulfilling the vast wheel of vows, purifying the vast gate of adornment, giving rise to the power of vast kindness and compassion. Before these there is one further sentence of general praise—“the monk Ocean Cloud is able to distinguish and explain the causes and conditions for giving rise to vast roots of goodness.”

Chengguan judges that “among them are ten sentences: first one of general praise, and after it, from ‘son of good family’ onward, nine sentences of particular praise in terms of the benefit to the one who is to receive it,” and says that these nine sentences “have one sense apiece, and point in advance to what will be told after”—the nine sentences are not praise in general terms; they point out in advance the content that the stretch on Ocean Cloud is going to tell.

“They have one sense apiece” is no loose phrase; Chengguan points out sentence by sentence what each one indicates in advance: the first is the benefit gained after Ocean Cloud has been seen; the second is hearing the past cause of his converting beings; the third praises the place where he gave rise to the mind; the fourth is hearing where he holds and keeps what he has received; the fifth, sixth, and seventh belong to one matter, all of them what is realized through the dharma gate of the universal eye; the eighth is hearing the adornment of his circumstantial and principal recompense; the ninth shows forth the marks of giving rise to the mind. Since the nine sentences each point in advance to what the stretch after will tell, reaching the end of the stretch on Cloud of Virtue is like being handed the table of contents of the next: once at Ocean Cloud's place, these nine matters are made good one by one.

Set aside a misreading: the notion that these nine sentences are the promise of nine benefits. The sentence pattern of the sūtra text is “will cause you” to do such and such—will cause you to enter, will cause you to give rise, will cause you to cultivate—and what is indicated is the teaching Ocean Cloud is to give, not a reward Sudhana is to receive. Brought down to the ground: a good friend's advance notice is not a courteous preamble; it is a list handed to the student to check against. Once at that station, checking it back item by item is how one knows whether one has received it or not.

Eight of the nine sentences are crowned with the word “vast” (only the sentence “will explain for you the cause of giving rise to the mind of awakening” has it not). This word sets the key for the next station: the key word of the stretch on Cloud of Virtue is “constantly sees,” and the key word of the stretch on Ocean Cloud is “vast.” Brought down to the ground: between good friends there is not repetition but relay; one of the duties of the one before is to report in advance the subject of the one after.

Cherishing His Virtue, Bowing, and Taking Leave: Three Actions Close the First Visit

The sūtra text closes with three matters: “At that time, the youth Sudhana bowed to the feet of the monk Cloud of Virtue, circled him to the right and beheld him, and then took his leave and went.”

Chengguan glosses this part saying, “because there arises the thought of a thing hard to meet with, he cherishes; because he is glad to see the friend to come, he takes leave”—cherishing and taking leave at the same time. The thought of a thing hard to meet with makes one unwilling to go; gladness at seeing the friend to come makes one willing to go; and lacking either of the two, study by visiting breaks off right there: with cherishing alone, one stops where one stands; with taking leave alone, the Dharma one obtains is not deep.

It is to be noted that in the middle, in “circled him to the right and beheld him,” there are the two words “beheld him.” Bowing to the feet is reverence, circling to the right is the manner of it, and beholding is looking once more over the Dharma one has received. Only when one looks back before going can one carry it away.

Brought down to the ground: how one passes the moment just after a stretch of Dharma has been heard decides whether it stays.

Lineage

The text of this section opens out along three lines.

The first is the line of the outlines. Chengguan sets up here a six-part outline—seeking in accord with the teaching, seeing and paying respect and inquiring, praising and conferring the Dharma, humbling oneself and deferring to the superior, pointing to the next friend, cherishing his virtue and bowing and taking leave—and says plainly, “now in the abode of first resolve, the text has these six complete”; from here onward these six parts run through all the stretches on the good friends, and are the bone of reading the chapter on entering the Dharma realm. And what the several houses set up differs: Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, makes five parts (raising the Dharma and exhorting to cultivation, entering in accord with the teaching, seeking out and selecting, rightly obtaining the Dharma realm, and looking up and deferring to the advance); Zhiyan makes three parts and matches them to the three wisdoms of hearing, pondering, and cultivating; Dharma Master Bian makes three parts and matches them to the three stages of preparatory practice, direct realization, and subsequently attained; and there is a further five-part outline (raising the Dharma and exhorting to cultivation, entering in accord with the teaching, requesting and revering after having seen him, directly showing the Dharma realm, and looking up and deferring to the advance). Chengguan's comment upon the first two outlines is “in sense it is very good, but as to the text it is a little inconvenient”—this one sentence is Chengguan's plain judgment, and so he takes instead the outline of the Master Yi and the Wutai lun. As for the number of parts, the names of the parts, and the stages to which they are matched, which all differ among the several houses, the several accounts are recorded side by side, without judging which is higher.

Li Tongxuan takes another road. Where he sets them out in general he does gather the ten good friends of the ten abodes into one outline, but at this stretch on Cloud of Virtue he does not divide by outlined parts; he takes his sense from the events of the sūtra text one event at a time, opening eleven gates: hearing the name and rejoicing, bowing and taking leave, arriving at the place and seeking, seeking for seven days, seeing him upon another mountain, circling three times to the right, setting out the request, praising the two hard things, first raising the ten bodhisattva practices, stating his own virtue, and closing with the name of the dharma gate. The road each takes is different: Chengguan's six parts divide by the stages of going and studying, while Li Tongxuan's eleven gates take the sense event by event from the text. The senses taken also differ. Of the same “seven days passed,” Chengguan ties it to the seven limbs of awakening aiding the path, while Li Tongxuan says it is “the seven limbs of awakening seeking out and advancing, removing the mind of sinking and agitation,” and bounds sinking and agitation as “to dwell in concentration is called sinking; to come out of concentration is called agitation”—what the seven days remove is precisely these two ills. Of the same Wondrous Peak Mountain, Chengguan takes “the mind of seeing climbs to the stage,” while Li Tongxuan takes “undefiled stillness is Surpassing Joy, and body and mind unmoving as a mountain—this is the practice of concentration,” and matches it with “seeking throughout the ten directions is contemplation,” so that one mountain and one seeking make the two gates of concentration and contemplation. At “circling three times to the right,” Li Tongxuan glosses further by the positions of odd and even, saying “one, three, five, seven, nine are the positions of yang; two, four, six, eight, ten are the positions of yin. Yang gives life and yin takes it away, and so three is taken in the sense of giving life.” And for the stage to which Cloud of Virtue is assigned, he closes straightaway with the principal and attendants among the ten perfections—“with the pāramitā of giving as principal and the other nine as attendants.” The eleven gates of the one and the six parts of the other differ in the number of parts, in the names of the parts, and in the senses they are matched to; both are recorded without judgment.

The second is the line of the name. The name of this friend reads Cloud of Virtue in the eighty-fascicle text, and in the Jin sixty-fascicle text and in Zhiyan's Souxuan ji and Huayan jing kongmu zhang it reads Merit Cloud. Fazang's Tanxuan ji collates the text from India and records his Sanskrit name as Miqieshili, miqie being cloud and shili being virtue, saying that following the order of the Sanskrit he ought to be named the monk Cloud Virtue, and recording also of the text he relies upon that “it renders the name as Merit Cloud.” The difference among the three names lies only in the fullness or brevity and the order of the Chinese words used to render it. Fazang further matches the four senses of cloud (pervading everywhere, moistening, sheltering, and pouring down rain) to four virtues (the virtue of concentration, the virtue of merit, the virtue of compassion, and the virtue of wisdom), which is one road of reading that sets up a sense upon the name.

The third is the line of the dharma gate. The mindfulness of the Buddha conferred in this gate joins onward not within the single house of Huayan but with the line of the contemplation gates. What Chengguan cites in this section is three: the Zhidu lun, which takes the pratyutpanna samādhi as father; the single-practice samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha in the Wenshu boruo; and the prior contemplation of the jeweled ground and jeweled trees in the Wuliangshou guan jing. None of the three is a Huayan text, and Chengguan takes them to gloss this gate—which shows precisely how the one dharma of mindfulness of the Buddha runs through. He also states himself why he is uncommonly full here: “because the gate of mindfulness of the Buddha is praised in every teaching, its principle reaching far and the world commonly practicing it, I explain it in summary and do not weary of a full telling.”

The text of one visit begins with a sentence of directions and ends with a sentence of directions. The one gate conferred in between, told to the bottom, only teaches a person constantly to see the Buddha; and what makes constant seeing possible lies not in diligence but in the substance. What the first visit establishes is this one word.

Before Leaving, Walking Once More Through What the Last Friend Taught: The Ten Gates of Right Mindfulness

Sudhana leaves the monk Cloud of Virtue, and the sūtra text does not write of his hurrying along the road; it writes first that he “single-mindedly pondered the teaching of the good friend,” and then, ten times over, “rightly held in mindfulness and observed”—the gate of the light of wisdom, the gate of the bodhisattva's liberation, the gate of the bodhisattva's samādhi, the gate of the bodhisattva's great ocean, the gate of the Buddhas appearing before one, the gate of the quarters and places of the Buddhas, the gate of the rules and standards of the Buddhas, the gate of the Buddhas being equal to the realm of empty space, the gate of the order in which the Buddhas come forth, and the gate of the skillful means the Buddhas enter by.

Why recite it once through first? Chengguan outlines this stretch as ‘right contemplation in accord with the teaching,’ and says that this “makes clear the warming over of what is old,” while the journeying south below it is the seeking of the new. If what one has studied is not walked through once more before one sets out, it has only been heard, not learned.

A misreading has to be set aside: these ten gates are not ten new dharma gates; they are ten faces of the one dharma conferred by the good friend before. Chengguan glosses this saying, “In the calling to mind of what precedes, there are eleven sentences: the first is the general, the rest are the particular”—“single-mindedly pondered the teaching of the good friend” is the general sentence, and the ten gates below it are the particular. He further points out why all ten sentences use the four words “rightly held in mindfulness and observed”: “In the particular, all of them say rightly holding in mindfulness and observing, because there is neither sinking nor lifting, and stillness shines upon the flowing of change.” Not sinking is not being dull; not lifting is not being scattered; being still, one can shine; shining, one does not go turning along with the flow. Brought down to the ground: what is called review is not looking over one's notes again; it is bringing that once-seen objective realm to appear before one once more, with a mind neither dull nor scattered.

Chengguan does not stop at dividing general from particular; he rehearses each of the ten gates back to what was obtained in the stretch of the last good friend, and not one gate is passed over empty: “Among the ten, the first is the sovereign ease in contemplating objective realms above; the second is the liberation of functioning above; the third is the substance of the samādhi of one practice, together with the various gates of samādhi in the deferring to the superior; the fourth is the calling to mind of the various assemblies above; the fifth is the seeing of the Buddha above; the sixth is the ten directions above; the seventh is the life span and the spiritual powers and so forth; the eighth is the contemplating throughout of the Buddha's pervading; the ninth is the various accomplishings of right awakening; the tenth is the according with what the minds of various beings delight in.” Set them back one by one: what the gate of the light of wisdom holds in mind is the sovereign ease in contemplating objective realms, one of the two senses of ‘sovereign ease’ in the stretch before; what the gate of the bodhisattva's liberation holds in mind is liberation in the matter of functioning; what the gate of the bodhisattva's samādhi holds in mind is the substance of the samādhi of one practice, and it gathers in besides the various gates of samādhi raised when the last friend humbled himself and deferred to the superior; what the gate of the bodhisattva's great ocean holds in mind is the various assemblies seen in the stretch before; what the gate of the Buddhas appearing before one holds in mind is the seeing of the Buddha in the stretch before; what the gate of the quarters and places of the Buddhas holds in mind is the ten directions of the stretch before; what the gate of the rules and standards of the Buddhas holds in mind is such matters as the Buddha's life span and spiritual powers; what the gate of the Buddhas being equal to the realm of empty space holds in mind is the contemplating throughout of the Buddha's pervading; what the gate of the order in which the Buddhas come forth holds in mind is the various accomplishings of right awakening; and what the gate of the skillful means the Buddhas enter by holds in mind is the according with what the minds of various beings delight in.

First the question, then the answer: why must each gate be pointed back? Because if these ten gates were really ten new subjects, Sudhana would have to study them all over again on the road; Chengguan's tying each sentence back is precisely the proof that there is not one new thing among them—all that is held in mind is Dharma already obtained, only gone through once more in a changed posture. Brought down to the ground: to see whether what one calls review is review, see whether each item can be pointed back, sentence by sentence, to where it came from; the few that cannot be pointed back are most often imagined rather than learned.

Why ‘Pondering’ and ‘Cultivating’ Are Judged to Belong to the Later Assembly

There is a question about the outline over which Chengguan stops on purpose to explain. Sudhana's rightly holding in mindfulness and pondering, and his cultivating as told, are plainly matters of what he studied in the earlier assembly—why are they judged to stand at the head of the later assembly?

His answer is this: these four things are of themselves the four proximate causal conditions told of in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra—drawing near to a good friend, hearing the right Dharma, binding one's mindfulness and pondering, and cultivating as told. The first two belong to the earlier assembly; the latter two could of themselves also belong to the earlier assembly. But Chengguan says, “Now, the earlier sense is made to belong to the going forward of what follows, and the later sense to the pointing forward from the friend before; they are hook and lock to each other, showing that host and companion cross and take part, and for the present, judging by assembly, it is made to belong to the later one,” and he adds a further sentence: “below, all follow this.”

The meaning is: pondering and cultivating are both the fruit of the earlier assembly and the cause of the later one, and they can be hung on at either end; hanging them at the later end is in order to show that before and after are not two stretches broken apart, but a hook and a lock buckled into each other. A misreading has to be set aside: this is not Chengguan accommodating his divisions of the text; it is his telling of the real state of studying by visiting—what you carry to the door of the next good friend is precisely what the last one left you. Brought down to the ground: the moment one leaves a teacher is the moment one enters the door of the next.

At the Door, Four Things First: Bowing the Head, Circling to the Right, Joining the Palms, Setting Out What He Asks

Sudhana reaches the land of the Sea Gate, and the sūtra text writes that he “came to the dwelling place of the monk Ocean Cloud and bowed his head and face to his feet, and when he had finished circling around him to the right, he joined his palms before him,” and only then opened his mouth. Three acts, and not a word yet said.

Why write these three acts first? Because before seeking the Dharma there is first the karma of the body. Chengguan outlines this stretch as ‘seeing, paying respect, and inquiring,’ and divides it into three: first the setting up of reverence, next the stating of his own giving rise to the mind, and after that the inquiring about the essentials of the Dharma. The order cannot be reversed—first reverence, then the telling of where one has come from, and last of all the asking.

A misreading has to be set aside: this is not politeness in the matter of manners. What Sudhana states of himself is “I have already given rise, before this, to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi”—he first makes plain where he himself stands, and then asks the road. Brought down to the ground: say plainly how far you have come before you ask a person, and only then does the other know where he is to take it up. The pattern of this stretch is walked in just this way at the door of every good friend in this chapter afterward.

The Ten Questions of Sudhana (one): The First Five Ask About One's Own Side

The ten questions are matched sentence by sentence, the first half breaking down and the latter half setting up. Leaving behind the household of the world and being born into the household of the Tathāgata; crossing over the ocean of birth-and-death and entering the ocean of the Buddha's wisdom; leaving the ground of the ordinary person and entering the ground of the Tathāgata; cutting off the stream of birth-and-death and entering the stream of the bodhisattva's practice; breaking the wheel of birth-and-death and accomplishing the wheel of the bodhisattva's vows.

First the question, then the answer: why is every question one breaking down and one setting up? Because cultivation is not a matter of throwing away the bad and having done with it; where something is thrown away, something must take its place. The five words household, ocean, ground, stream, and wheel are all the same word turned over—one and the same word, which in the standing of the ordinary is thus, and in the standing of the holy is so.

Of these, the term “the wheel of vows” Chengguan has glossed on purpose: “As to saying the wheel of vows here: vows exhaust the three periods and have neither end nor beginning, and so, over against birth-and-death, the name of wheel is set up.” Birth-and-death is a wheel because it turns without stopping and has no way out; vows too are a wheel because, exhausting the three periods, they likewise have neither end nor beginning. Using one and the same word is precisely to make a person see: it is not that there is no turning, but that the direction of the turning has changed. Brought down to the ground: examine the vow you yourself have set up, and see whether it looks like a wheel—whether it will come to a stop.

The Ten Questions of Sudhana (two): The Latter Five Ask About the Side of Beings

The latter five questions are: extinguishing the realm of Māra and bringing the realm of the Buddha to light; drying up the ocean of craving and desire and growing the ocean of great compassion; shutting the gate of the many calamities and the evil destinies and opening the gate of the heavens and of nirvāṇa; coming out of the city of the three realms and entering the city of all-knowing wisdom; giving up all things of delight and fondness and benefiting all beings.

Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, judges these ten sentences to be “the first five sentences asking about one's own practice, the latter five asking about the practice of benefiting others, each of them twofold, that is, turning the back on the ordinary and facing the Buddha, and giving up birth-and-death and facing the Buddha-fruit.” Zhiyan makes it “in the questions, the first seven are the practice of one's own portion, and the next five sentences the practice of benefiting others”—the number the two houses divide by differs; recorded without judgment.

A misreading has to be set aside: the last question, “giving up all things of delight and fondness,” is not asceticism. The latter half of the sūtra sentence is “taking them all to benefit all beings”—giving up is not for the sake of being empty-handed, but for the sake of handing over. Brought down to the ground: to give up a thing one is fond of playing with and feel in one's heart that one has lost by it is not yet to have reached this question; to give it up and feel that the thing has at last been put to its right use—that is.

Why, at the Very First Meeting, He Asks Back ‘Have You Given Rise to the Mind?’

Sudhana has only just finished asking, and Ocean Cloud does not answer but first asks a question back: “Son of good family! Have you already given rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi?” Sudhana answers once more: “Just so! I have already given rise, before this, to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.” The same sentence is said twice within one stretch.

First the question, then the answer: why must this sentence be asked? Chengguan glosses this saying, “because giving rise to the mind is hard; if one has not given rise to the mind, one is not fit to be conferred the Dharma, not being a vessel for the Dharma.” This is the testing of the vessel. Giving rise to the mind is not a form of entry; it is the capacity to take up what comes after.

A misreading has to be set aside: this is not doubting Sudhana. The sūtra text writes Sudhana's answer as beginning with a single word—“Just so”—answered without hesitation, from which one may see that what Ocean Cloud asks is not whether he has it, but whether he knows that he has it. Brought down to the ground: whether a person can be taught depends on whether he can say where he stands; the one who cannot say it will not catch what he is taught.

Ten Things: Behind the Person Who Can Give Rise to This Mind There Are Ten Things Being Done

Ocean Cloud does not straightway confirm him; he first states the reverse: “If beings do not plant roots of good, they cannot give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.” Then he lists ten things—the light of the roots of good of the universal gate, the wisdom-light of the samādhi of the true and real path, the vast ocean of merit, nourishing pure and white dharmas without slackening or resting, serving good friends without giving rise to weariness or aversion, not caring for body or life and having nothing hidden away or hoarded up, a mind level like the earth with no high and no low, a nature constantly kind and pitying toward all beings, being single in mindfulness in the various destinies and not abandoning them, and constantly delighting in observing the realm of the Tathāgata.

Chengguan judges of these that “there are ten sentences throughout: the first sentence is the general, that is, the planting in former lives of the dharma gate of Samantabhadra, because it forms the seed-nature”—the first sentence is the general, because the roots of good of the universal gate are the seed-nature; the nine sentences below it are the particular. He further points out that among these ten sentences “serving the friend is the condition, and the rest are all causes”: only the one sentence about serving good friends is an outward condition, and the other nine sentences are all causes in oneself.

A misreading has to be set aside: giving rise to the mind is not counted done the moment a thought arises. The sense of the sūtra text is ‘these ten things must first be obtained, and in this way one is then able to give rise to the mind of awakening’—these ten things must be there first, and then that mind can be given rise to. Brought down to the ground: the person who feels he cannot give rise to the mind need not exert himself upon the mind; let him look back and see which of these ten things he has not been doing.

The Eleven Sentences of Giving Rise to the Mind of Awakening (one): The Five of Kindness and Compassion

Of the eleven sentences from “as for giving rise to the mind of awakening” onward, Chengguan makes three groups: “The first five are the mind of great kindness and compassion; the first two are general and the other three particular.”

The first two sentences are the general—the mind of great compassion, “because one is to rescue all beings everywhere,” and the mind of great kindness, “because one is to guard and bless all the worlds equally.” Compassion draws out suffering and kindness gives ease: these are the two faces of kindness and compassion. The three sentences below them are the particular: the mind of ease and joy, “because one is to make all beings extinguish every sort of suffering”; the mind of benefiting, “because one is to make all beings leave behind evil dharmas”; the mind of pity, “because whatever has fear is to be guarded.”

First the question, then the answer: since the first two are already the general, why open out three more? Because there is present suffering, there is suffering to come, and there is the suffering of one who is at this moment afraid. Extinguishing every sort of suffering is drawing out present suffering; leaving behind evil dharmas is cutting off the cause of suffering to come; guarding those with fear is catching the alarm of the present moment. Fazang judges this more finely: “The first four are minds that gather beings in: one, rescuing present suffering; two, conferring present ease; three, extinguishing suffering to come; four, removing its cause, that is, evil karma.” Brought down to the ground: in giving rise to a mind of kindness and compassion toward a person, one must ask oneself which sort of suffering one is facing—different sufferings want different hands.

The Eleven Sentences of Giving Rise to the Mind of Awakening (two): The Four of the Deep Mind and the Two of the Straight Mind

The next four sentences Chengguan judges to be the deep mind: “The next four are the deep mind, cultivating the great vow, because it exhausts the realm of empty space.” The mind without obstruction, “because one is to leave behind and let go of all manner of obstacles”; the mind that is vast, “because one is to fill the whole Dharma realm everywhere”; the mind that is boundless, “because one is to be equal to the realm of empty space and reach everywhere without exception”; the mind that is broad and wide, “because one is to see all the Tathāgatas”—four sentences, each one wider than the last, from removing obstacles to pervading the Dharma realm to being equal to empty space to seeing all the Buddhas.

The last two sentences are the straight mind: “The last two are the straight mind, not going against the nature of dharmas, because it is the wisdom that realizes the fruit.” The mind that is pure, “because toward the wisdom of the dharmas of the three times there is nothing that goes against”; the mind of wisdom, “because one is to enter everywhere into the ocean of all wisdom.”

A misreading has to be set aside: the eleven sentences are not eleven kinds of mind of which one may pick out one to give rise to; they are eleven faces of one mind, and they have an order—rising from kindness and compassion, passing through the breadth of the deep mind, and gathered up in the straight mind that does not go against the nature of dharmas. Chengguan further says, “these ten minds are mostly the same as the ten minds of the own portion of the abode of governing the ground; fearing prolixity, I do not match them,” tying them back to the mind of this very stage. Brought down to the ground: the person who reckons his mind of kindness and compassion strong and yet constantly feels that the measure of his mind will not open out is lacking those four sentences in the middle.

Chengguan says “fearing prolixity, I do not match them”; the Yanyi chao matches them for him. The sub-commentary first brings out the ten minds of the own portion of the abode of governing the ground—the mind of benefiting, the mind of great compassion, the mind of ease and joy, the mind of abiding securely, the mind of pity, the mind of gathering in, the mind of guarding, the mind that takes others as oneself, the mind of the teacher, and the mind of the guiding teacher—and then matches them item by item: “Here the first is great compassion; the second is benefiting; the third is ease and joy; the fourth is the mind of abiding securely, because one leaves evil dharmas and abides in good dharmas; the fifth is pity; the sixth is guarding, because it makes one leave obstruction; the seventh is taking others as oneself, because it pervades the Dharma realm; the eighth is gathering in, because in the Dharma realm and empty space there is nowhere it does not go to gather; the ninth is the mind of the teacher, because one sees the Buddhas; the tenth is the mind of the guiding teacher, because one enters the wisdom of all kinds.”

What is to be looked at is not the sameness of the names but the reason for the matching; and since the sub-commentary says only ‘is’ for each item, without rehearsing the names of the sūtra's sentences, the one road back to the sūtra text is by way of the reasons. The reason of the fourth is “because one leaves evil dharmas and abides in good dharmas”—the sūtra's mind of benefiting says exactly “because one is to make all beings leave behind evil dharmas,” and leaving evil and abiding in good are two faces of one thing, and so it is matched with the mind of abiding securely. The reason of the sixth is “because it makes one leave obstruction”—the sūtra's mind without obstruction says “because one is to leave behind and let go of all manner of obstacles,” and to remove another's obstacles is to guard him, and so it is matched with the mind of guarding. The reason of the seventh is “because it pervades the Dharma realm”—the sūtra's mind that is vast says “because one is to fill the whole Dharma realm everywhere,” and once the mind pervades the Dharma realm the boundary between others and oneself is gone, and so it is matched with the mind that takes others as oneself. The reason of the eighth is “because in the Dharma realm and empty space there is nowhere it does not go to gather”—the sūtra's mind that is boundless says “because one is to be equal to the realm of empty space and reach everywhere without exception,” and boundlessness is not open emptiness but there being nowhere it does not go to gather, and so it is matched with the mind of gathering in. The reason of the ninth is “because one sees the Buddhas”—the sūtra's mind that is broad and wide says “because one is to see all the Tathāgatas,” and what breadth reaches to is the seeing of all Buddhas, and the Buddha is precisely the teacher, and so it is matched with the mind of the teacher. The reason of the tenth is “because one enters the wisdom of all kinds”—the sūtra's mind of wisdom says “because one is to enter everywhere into the ocean of all wisdom,” and to enter all wisdom is to enter the wisdom of all kinds, and so it is matched with the mind of the guiding teacher.

A misreading has to be set aside: this is not two lists forced together. The sub-commentary lists ten and the sūtra has eleven, and the text of the sub-commentary does not say plainly which sentence it has folded in; yet the reason of each item answers to the ‘because’ tied to each sentence of the sūtra, and the substance of the matching is not shaken by the difference in number. Brought down to the ground: in reading a passage of matching, do not first look at whether the names agree; look first at whether the reason stands. If the reason stands, then even under different names it is one and the same thing.

Twelve Years: Why a Number of Years Must Be Read as a Stretch of Cultivation

Ocean Cloud states of himself: “I have dwelt in this land of the Sea Gate twelve years, constantly taking the great ocean as my objective realm.” This is the sentence of this section most easily read past.

Chengguan does not take it as a number of years: “As to saying twelve years: one cycle has come round, signifying that ten thousand kalpas have been passed and the second abode has been entered. It also signifies the observing in general of the twelve abodes and the twelve entries of the bodhisattva.” Twelve years are one cycle; one cycle having come round signifies that the stages of the ten faiths are full; entering the second abode is precisely the stage to which this section is assigned. The later “a thousand two hundred years” he ties to the same sense—“a thousand two hundred years, the sense signified is the same as twelve years.”

A misreading has to be set aside: to say that the twelve years signify a dharma is not to say that there were no such twelve years. The sūtra text says plainly “constantly taking the great ocean as my objective realm”—what was done for twelve years was one thing, looking at the ocean. Brought down to the ground: that a person is willing to spend twelve years upon one and the same objective realm is itself the stage of his position; the one in a hurry to change his subject will not get as far as the second abode.

The Ten Ponderings of the Great Ocean: Why One Ocean Must Be Looked At in Ten Lookings

The ten sentences of “pondering the great ocean”—vast and beyond measure, deep and hard to fathom, deeper and wider by stages, measureless jewels of many kinds wondrously adorning it, gathering measureless water, the colors of the water different and inconceivable, the dwelling place of measureless beings, holding and receiving beings of every sort with great bodies, able to receive the rain that the great clouds send down, and neither increasing nor decreasing.

First the question, then the answer: one and the same ocean—why must it be looked at ten times? Because there is only one ocean, and there are ten virtues; if one cannot see the ten, it amounts to having seen only water. Chengguan lays down here a weighty judgment: “The ten senses of the ocean of wisdom are as told in the Ten Grounds. Here it is the ocean of compassion.” The same ten virtues, which in the Ten Grounds are matched with wisdom, are here matched with compassion. The Yanyi chao matches the ten virtues one by one with the ten minds of compassion of this very stage, and says at the end, “taking these ten compassions and setting them over against these ten similes, it is as though they were tallies fitted together.”

The words “tallies fitted together” are not description; the sub-commentary buckles them on group by group, and of the ten groups not one is missing. The first, vast and beyond measure, is matched with the mind of benefiting, the reason being “because benefiting is broad and wide”—what makes benefiting benefiting is its breadth. The second, deep and hard to fathom, is matched with the mind of great compassion, the reason being “because great compassion is deep and none can fathom it”—compassion at its depth is precisely what cannot be sounded to the bottom. The third, deeper and wider by stages, is matched with the mind of ease and joy, the reason being “because it begins from worldly joys, giving them in every sort”—the giving of joy starts from the joys of the world, and so it is by stages. The fourth, measureless jewels wondrously adorning it, is matched with the mind of abiding securely, the reason being “that is, beings of evil conduct are made to abide in good conduct, and this is the many jewels”—to settle one who acts badly upon good conduct: that is the jewel in the ocean. The fifth, gathering measureless water, is matched with the mind of pity, the reason being “because it wraps in and takes in all”—the mark of pity is that it takes everything without picking. The sixth, the colors of the water being different, is matched with the mind of gathering in, the reason being “because those of the various outside ways are gathered in and made to have right faith, as water of many colors is alike in one ocean”—colors differ and yet are alike in one ocean, just as the views of those outside the way differ and yet are alike gathered into right faith. The seventh, the dwelling place of measureless beings, is matched with the mind of guarding, the reason being “because all who have given rise to the mind are guarded, and this is the dwelling and resting of measureless beings”—all who have given rise to the mind are guarded, and so it is called the place where beings dwell and rest. The eighth, holding and receiving beings of every sort with great bodies, is matched with the mind that takes others as oneself, the reason being “that is, gathering in the great vow of awakening, beings are as one's own body, and therefore there is a great body”—to take beings as one's own body: only then is that body great. The ninth, able to receive the rain that the great clouds send down, is matched with the mind of the teacher, the reason being “that is, one who practices and goes forward upon the road of the great vehicle is deferred to as a teacher, since a teacher must inquire of and receive the great Dharma rain”—one willing to go forward on the road of the great vehicle is deferred to as a teacher, and one who is a teacher must receive the great Dharma rain. The tenth, neither increasing nor decreasing, is matched with the mind of the guiding teacher, the reason being “that is, one complete in merits is revered as a Buddha, and so it is limpid, without increase or decrease”—to revere one complete in virtue as a Buddha: such a mind is limpid, and therefore without increase or decrease.

Li Tongxuan does not take the road of matching the minds of compassion; he takes what each sentence of the ocean's marks signifies, and the six items each signify their own. First, gathering measureless water: “taking the waters of the several cravings as the water of great compassion, he ponders the great ocean”—the craving-water of beings is not sought elsewhere and exchanged; the craving-water itself is taken as the water of great compassion, and it is just in this that the ocean gathers measurelessly. Second, the colors of the water being different: “within fundamental wisdom there arises the kindness of measureless differentiating wisdom”—one ocean and the colors are many, just as fundamental wisdom is of one taste while the differentiating kindness of wisdom that arises from it is measureless. Third, the dwelling place of measureless beings: “it is to make clear that within the ocean of the Buddha there is the dwelling place of measureless beings, who do not awaken to it and do not know it”—what is dwelt in is the ocean of the Buddha, and yet the dwellers neither awaken to it nor know it; what is lacking is not the place dwelt in but the awakening and the knowing. Fourth, holding and receiving beings of every sort with great bodies: “it makes clear that measureless bodhisattvas all dwell within the ocean of birth-and-death, and each one's body and land fills it completely, like shadows and like light, not obstructing one another”—the bodies and lands of the bodhisattvas each fill this ocean and yet do not hinder one another, and so the ocean can hold great bodies. Fifth, able to receive the rain that the great clouds send down: “the ocean of the bodhisattva's mind is fit to receive the Dharma rain of the Buddhas from the great clouds”—that the rain can be received lies in the ocean's fitness to receive, and that the Dharma can enter lies in the mind's fitness to receive. Sixth, neither increasing nor decreasing: “the ocean of the nature of the wisdom of the Buddhas has neither increase nor decrease”—what has no increase or decrease is not a quantity that does not alter, but the nature of wisdom, which of itself has no increase or decrease. The six run as one: what Tongxuan signifies is that the ocean of birth-and-death is itself the ocean of wisdom, and so the craving-water is the water of compassion, the dwelling place of beings is the ocean of the Buddha, and within the ocean of birth-and-death are the bodies and lands of the bodhisattvas. It stands together with Chengguan's matched reading of the ocean of compassion, and the roads differ; it is recorded, and no judgment is made.

A misreading has to be set aside: this is not fitting ten good points of the ocean with ten fine-sounding names. The joint of every group lies in that word ‘because’—the virtue of the ocean and the mind of compassion can be set against each other because the reason of the two is one and the same reason. Brought down to the ground: in reading these ten groups, ask of each in turn what single reason this virtue and this mind hold in common; only when one can answer has that group been read.

A misreading has to be set aside: these ten sentences are not the observing of nature; they are an examination of the mind—every sentence of the ocean's virtue is a sentence about the mark of a mind of compassion. Brought down to the ground: to see a thing that is vast and have one's mind not grow vast along with it is not yet the pondering told of here.

The Four Questions: At the Very Height of Contemplation, Asking Instead ‘Is There Anything Greater?’

The ten ponderings being complete, Ocean Cloud says that he “gave rise to this further thought,” and asks four sentences in a row: is there anything more broad and wide than this ocean, is there anything more measureless than this ocean, is there anything more deep than this ocean, is there anything more rare and outstanding than this ocean.

First the question, then the answer: since he has already praised the virtues of the ocean to the full, why ask further whether there is anything that surpasses it? Chengguan judges this one turn as “second, forgetting the wording and seeking the point is the intimate cause of seeing the Buddha,” and the Yanyi chao, in the reader's stead, breaks this seeming contradiction open: “Since he has praised it as rare and outstanding, how can it be called forgetting the wording? Leaving the ten marks before and seeking further what surpasses this is precisely the meaning of forgetting the wording and seeking the point. It is by this forgetting and seeking that he gets to see the Buddha.”

There is a further question to ask: since he contemplated ten times before, why does the forgetting of the wording come to only four sentences and not ten? The sub-commentary accounts for them sentence by sentence: “Here there are only four sentences: one, broad; two, much; three, deep; four, outstanding. The first two are opened out from the first above; the third is the second; the fourth is the sixth, for one ocean with many colors is therefore rare and outstanding. The remaining six sentences do not go beyond deep and broad, and so only four are raised. Further, what the other six sentences tell of other places may also have, and so these four are rehearsed to show what is rare in it.”

The provenance of the four is this: the sentences broad and much are the first of the ten ponderings, ‘vast and beyond measure,’ opened out into two; the sentence deep is the second, ‘deep and hard to fathom’; the sentence outstanding is the sixth, ‘the colors of the water different and inconceivable’—one ocean holding colors of every sort, and so it is called rare and outstanding. Why are the other six not asked about separately? The sub-commentary gives two layers of reason: first, the virtues those six tell of do not go beyond the two senses of deep and broad, and the four sentences have already gathered them all in; second, what those six tell of, waters elsewhere may also have, and only these four are the rare thing proper to this ocean alone, and so only these four are rehearsed.

A misreading has to be set aside: it is not that six sentences have been dropped, but that those six are already within the four. Brought down to the ground: when a stretch of work comes to the point of being gathered up, one does not count over again item by item all that was done; one picks out the few things in it that are truly not shared with anywhere else—and to be able to pick them out is to know what it is one has been doing.

The ten virtues are the wording, the marks that words can reach to; asking ‘is there anything that surpasses’ is not stopping upon these ten marks. What is forgotten is not what is contemplated, but the mark of what is contemplated. A misreading has to be set aside: this is not finding the ocean not good enough; it is not taking the ocean as the terminus. Brought down to the ground: any objective realm one has cultivated well, if one stops there, is a wall; only if one is willing to ask, ‘is there anything deeper,’ is it a door.

The Great Lotus Flower Suddenly Appears: The Flower Was Not Sought For

No sooner does the thought arise than “below this ocean a great lotus flower suddenly appeared.” The stalk is the indranīla jewel, the calyx is the vaiḍūrya jewel, the leaves are jāmbūnada gold, the dais is aloeswood, the filaments are agate, and it “spread open and scattered wide, covering the great ocean over.”

First the question, then the answer: why “suddenly”? Because it was not called for. Chengguan glosses this saying, “First, the general marking of substance and marks: when one contemplates deeply the ocean of mind and the ocean of dharmas, then the flower of the mind and the flower of practice blossom of themselves, because there is nothing of the untainted virtues of the nature that is not complete”—when the ocean of mind is contemplated deeply, the flower of the mind opens of itself; it is not that one goes off and plants another flower.

The laying out of the retinue is not decoration either: the sentences of “a million” are met with twenty-two times running in the base text, the first twelve sentences being the retinue and the latter ten the maṇi jewels. Chengguan judges this stretch as “the outward marks serving as adornment.” Li Tongxuan, on the other hand, takes what each item signifies, as when he glosses “a million asura kings holding up its stalk: a million are the functionings that follow wisdom, dwelling in birth-and-death and not sinking,” taking the likeness of the asura who dwells in the great ocean and yet sinks only half his body, to signify the ten thousand practices dwelling in birth-and-death and not sinking. The roads the two houses take differ; recorded without judgment. Brought down to the ground: when the work has come, the objective realm will come of itself; if one has not come to it and seeks the objective realm first, what comes will not be the flower.

Li Tongxuan takes what each item signifies one by one, and treats not one of them as a foil. Of the maṇi-jewel adorning nets covering it over, he says it “makes clear that with fundamental wisdom one gives rise to differentiating wisdom, and that this is born as the recompense of setting up the teaching everywhere”—that the nets cover over takes the mark of the teaching being set up everywhere. Of the nāga kings raining down fragrant water, he says it “makes clear that with wisdom one follows the practice of compassion, raining down the fragrant water of the precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation, to bathe the defilements of beings' minds”—what is rained down is the precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation, and what is bathed is the defilement of beings' minds. Of the garuḍa kings holding strings of jewels and jeweled bands hanging down all around, he says, “wisdom follows the ten thousand practices, and great kindness and compassion are let down to be one with birth-and-death; this is the sense of drawing beings in and taking them up”—the mark of hanging down takes the drawing in. The rākṣasa kings observing with minds of kindness he ties to guarding: the rākṣasa king is Vaiśravaṇa, dwelling on the northern face of Sumeru, and this “makes clear the sense of guarding and protecting; his likeness is taken in order to signify the Dharma.” Of the yakṣa kings reverently bowing, he says their “likeness is taken to signify the leaving behind of arrogance and of cruelty and harm”—in people's minds the yakṣa is one who harms, and the sūtra writes him reverently bowing, and it is just this reversal that is taken. Of the gandharva kings with music of every sort praising and making offerings, he says it “makes clear that with the joy of the Dharma one gives joy to beings.” Of the deva kings raining down heavenly flowers, garlands and incense, and garments, banners, pennants and canopies and the like, he says it “makes clear that vast benefiting is in every case sovereign and at ease, the ten thousand affairs being complete and all-round like a deva king.” At the end he gathers this long string into one sentence: “signifying with ten kings, it makes clear that within the ocean of birth-and-death one penetrates ignorance and the practices of the twelve conditions, and all that is unwholesome becomes the fullness of the wholesome practice of great wisdom and great compassion, set forth by simile as kings”—what the ten kings signify is one and the same thing, the turning of everything unwholesome within the ocean of birth-and-death into the wholesome practice of great wisdom and great compassion.

A misreading has to be set aside: this is not reading the retinue as ten symbols. What Tongxuan takes is the likeness, not the name—the likeness of the asura who dwells in the ocean and does not sink, the likeness of the yakṣa who is constantly reverent, the likeness of Vaiśravaṇa who dwells in the north and guards; the likeness lies in the thing, and the sense lies beyond the thing. The roads the two houses take differ; recorded without judgment.

Where This Flower Is Born From: Like an Illusion · Like a Dream · Pure Karma

The sūtra text next gives an account of where the flower comes from: “this great lotus flower was given rise to by the roots of good of the Tathāgata's coming forth into the world,” and it is “born from dharmas like an illusion, born from dharmas like a dream, born from pure karma,” adorned by “the dharma gate free of contention,” and it “enters the seal of the unconditioned and abides in the gate without obstruction.”

First the question, then the answer: since it is said to be given rise to by roots of good, why is it further said to be born from dharmas like an illusion and like a dream? Because if it were said to be really existent, it would become an outward objective realm; and if it were said to be altogether nothing, the twelve years of contemplation before would come to nothing. The sūtra text's use of illusion and dream says that it appears and yet has no nature of its own; its use of birth from pure karma says that it appears and yet has somewhere it comes from. Only the two sentences together are the whole sentence.

A misreading has to be set aside: like an illusion does not amount to false. Brought down to the ground: a good objective realm that appears in the course of cultivation is neither to be taken as a real gain and stored away, nor to be taken as a hallucination and refused—see which karma it comes from, and one knows whether to go on from there.

The Tathāgata Upon the Flower: Nineteen Sentences of the Inconceivable

“At that time I saw that upon that lotus flower there was a Tathāgata seated with legs crossed, and his body reached from here up to the Summit of Existence.” Below this, “inconceivable” is met with nineteen times running in this stretch: the first thirteen sentences speak of the Buddha's marks of virtue—the jeweled lotus-flower seat, the assembly of the place of the way, the accomplishing of the marks, the fullness of the signs that follow the form, the spiritual powers and transformations, the purity of form and mark, the mark of the crown that cannot be seen, the mark of the broad and long tongue, the skillful telling, the fullness of the voice, the strength without bound, the pure fearlessness, and the vast eloquence; the latter six sentences, from “I further called to mind that the practices that Buddha cultivated in the past were inconceivable” onward, speak of the Buddha's cause and function—the practices cultivated in the past, accomplishing the way with sovereign ease, telling the Dharma with a wondrous voice, displaying by the universal gate, the differences in what those on his left and his right each saw, and bringing all benefits to fullness.

The thirteen sentences are to be looked at one by one first, because they are not praises of one kind. The jeweled lotus-flower seat and the assembly of the place of the way tell of where the Buddha sits and the multitude he faces—the seat is what he rests on, the assembly is who is reached; with these two set up first, the Buddha is not one body hung alone. The accomplishing of the marks and the fullness of the signs that follow the form tell of the marks and signs—the marks are the large body of it, the signs are the fine that follow upon the marks; only when the marks are accomplished and the signs full is the bodily form called complete. The spiritual powers and transformations and the purity of form and mark tell of the function of the body and the substance of the body—the function can transform, the substance is unstained. The mark of the crown that cannot be seen and the mark of the broad and long tongue raise one mark apiece: that the crown cannot be seen states the endlessness of its height; that the tongue is broad and long states that his speech is without falsity. The skillful telling and the fullness of the voice turn to the karma of speech—skillfulness stated of what suits those told, fullness stated of the measure of the voice that tells. The strength without bound and the pure fearlessness are virtues—strength without bound, and fear altogether absent. The last sentence, vast eloquence, gathers it upon the capacity to tell the Dharma; and so the thirteen sentences rise from the seat and the assembly, pass through marks and signs, bodily karma, and karma of speech, and are gathered upon eloquence.

The latter six run another road. The practices cultivated in the past are the cause, and accomplishing the way with sovereign ease is the fruit; these two together tell where the Buddha comes from. Telling the Dharma with a wondrous voice and displaying by the universal gate tell what the Buddha sets forth—the one by voice, the other by display. The differences in what those on his left and his right each saw tells that those reached differ in capacity and so differ in what they see: one and the same Buddha-body, and what each sees is different. Bringing all benefits to fullness gathers it up: though those reached differ, the benefit obtained is alike full.

First the question, then the answer: since the first thirteen sentences have already praised the inconceivable, why must the latter six praise it again? Because the former is what was seen present before him and the latter what his calling to mind reached; seeing is of the moment, calling to mind runs through the three times. The two words “further called to mind” are exactly where the sūtra text changes breath.

The sūtra text says of this flower that “all the bodhisattvas gave rise to faith and delight in it, and in the worlds of the ten directions there was none where it was not present”—all bodhisattvas who saw it gave rise to faith and delight, and there was not one place in the worlds of the ten directions where it was not present; and it says that it “filled all the lands of the ten directions, followed along with the deep realm of the Buddhas, and though its merits were praised for countless hundreds of thousands of kalpas they could not be exhausted”—it fills the lands everywhere, accords with the deep realm of the Buddhas, and its merits cannot be praised to the end in countless hundreds of thousands of kalpas. Read the four together: the bodhisattvas' faith and delight is stated of those who can see it, the presence throughout the ten directions of where it appears, the according with the Buddhas' deep realm of the objective realm it rests upon, and the praise that cannot be exhausted of the measure of its virtue. A misreading has to be set aside: this is not making a flower large. The flower is the mark of contemplation come to completion, and to tell of the flower's greatness is to tell of the contemplation's completion; the sūtra praises this flower as inexhaustible in merit, and from the merit of the flower the reader may see what the contemplation has accomplished.

Chengguan judges these two divisions as “first making clear that the marks of virtue are complete, and after ‘I further called to mind’ the cause is full and the function is wide,” and the Buddha seen he judges to be original awakening: “Second, from ‘at that time I saw that’ onward makes clear the seeing of the direct recompense: when the practice of the mind has blossomed, the Tathāgata of original awakening appears suddenly.”

Fazang has another judgment, resting upon a different text from Chengguan's. Upon the sixty-fascicle text he judges this stretch of the seeing of the direct recompense into twenty sentences: “the first ten make clear that the virtues of the Buddha-fruit are complete, and the latter ten that the wondrous functioning is sovereign and at ease”—the first ten stated of the completeness of the virtues of the fruit, the latter ten stated of the sovereign ease of the wondrous functioning; the twenty sentences are thus cut into virtue and functioning. This judgment is not to be run together with Chengguan's thirteen-and-six above: what Chengguan divides are the nineteen occurrences of 『inconceivable』 that run on in the eighty-fascicle text, the first thirteen stated of the marks of virtue and the latter six, from “I further called to mind” onward, stated of cause and function; what Fazang divides are the twenty sentences of the sixty-fascicle text, the first ten stated of the completeness of virtue and the latter ten of the wondrous functioning. The two rest upon different texts, and so the numbers divided do not answer to one another. The two houses each set up upon their own text, and they are stated separately, not forced into one saying; a reader who stacks thirteen-and-six upon ten-and-ten has taken the sentence-counts of two texts for one and the same string of sentences.

A misreading has to be set aside: the nineteen sentences are not a heaping up of adjectives. The first thirteen are what was seen present before him, the latter six what his calling to mind reached—seeing and calling to mind are two things, and the sūtra text has divided them with the two words “further called to mind.” Brought down to the ground: to read through a long string of “inconceivable” and feel that it is only praise is to have missed this turn.

Stroking the Crown of the Head: The Dharma Is Conferred, Not Taken

“At that time, this Tathāgata stretched out his right hand and stroked the crown of my head, and expounded for me the dharma gate of the universal eye.”

First the question, then the answer: Ocean Cloud contemplated for twelve years—why must the Dharma still wait for the Buddha to confer it? Because contemplation can make the vessel; it cannot bring forth the Dharma of itself. The order of the sūtra text is very clear—first contemplating, then seeing the Buddha, the Buddha stroking the crown of the head, and then the telling of the Dharma; not one step has been spared.

Chengguan here sets up a question and answers it himself: “The reason it is told within the ocean is that it signifies its flowing forth from the ocean of compassion and wisdom.” The place where the Dharma is told is in the ocean because this is to show that this Dharma flows out of the ocean of compassion and wisdom, and is not carried in from somewhere else.

A misreading has to be set aside: the stroking of the crown of the head is not the adding of a power to him; it is the confirming that he is fit to receive. Brought down to the ground: the person who has cultivated to a certain step and is long without advance is most often not lacking in effort, but has not yet been willing to lower his head and let another stroke it.

The Dharma Gate of the Universal Eye: Within One Dharma Seeing All

After the stroking of the crown of the head, the sūtra text uses eleven sentences to tell what this dharma gate sets forth: opening up and showing the realm of all the Tathāgatas, bringing to light all the practices of the bodhisattvas, making clear the wondrous dharmas of all the Buddhas, all the wheels of the Dharma being gathered into it; being able to purify all the lands of the Buddhas, able to crush all the false doctrines of those outside the way, able to extinguish all the armies of the Māras, able to make beings all give rise to gladness, able to shine upon the workings of the minds of all beings, able to know completely the faculties of all beings, and, following the minds of beings, making them all awaken.

First the question, then the answer: why is it called the “universal eye”? Chengguan glosses this saying, “As to the universal eye: because it sets forth the universal dharma, and because it universally sets forth all dharmas. One who obtains this dharma, within one dharma, sees all.” Three senses: the dharma set forth is the universal dharma, the setting forth reaches to all dharmas, and the one who obtains the dharma sees all within one dharma. The third sense is the most direct sentence of doctrinal eye in this section—the universal does not lie in manyness; it can be seen within one dharma.

A misreading has to be set aside: the eleven sentences are not eleven functions; they are eleven aspects of one dharma gate, and the last sentence, “following the minds of beings, making them all awaken,” is the gathering up—all that the ten sentences before it open out falls upon the mind of the one who receives the Dharma. Brought down to the ground: to judge whether what one has studied is the universal dharma, see whether one can see all the remaining dharmas within this one dharma in one's hand.

Ocean of Ink and a Brush of Sumeru: That It Cannot Be Written Out Is Not Exaggeration

“Suppose there were someone who, with as much ink as the great ocean and a brush heaped up like Sumeru, wrote out this dharma gate of the universal eye—of one gate within one chapter, of one dharma within one gate, of one meaning within one dharma, of one sentence within one meaning—he could not obtain even the smallest part of it, how much less be able to finish it!”

First the question, then the answer: why is it that the greatest ink and the greatest brush cannot set down even the smallest sentence? Chengguan gives the reason: “First, showing in general that the dharmas held are many, because this is the endless dharma gate in which one and many are mutually identical.” It is not that the quantity is too great; it is that the pattern is of another kind—within one sentence all is already contained, so that to set down one sentence amounts to having to set down all, and therefore it cannot be finished.

The Yanyi chao rehearses a similar simile in an ancient treatise and judges the difference in what the two take it to mean: “This is stated of writing the text and not finishing; that is stated of receiving the many and not finishing.” The one says the words cannot be written to the end; the other says that what is received is too much to be finished. Brought down to the ground: the person who, reading the Avataṃsaka, feels the sentences repetitious and long-winded is reading it as a text that can be written to the end; if within one sentence one sees all, then repetition is not repetition.

A Thousand Two Hundred Years: Ten Lights of Dhāraṇī

“I was at the place of that Buddha a thousand two hundred years, receiving and holding this dharma gate of the universal eye,” receiving it each day with ten lights of dhāraṇī—hearing and holding, the gate of stillness, boundless turning, observing ground after ground, majestic strength, the adornment of the lotus flower, pure speech and sound, the treasury of empty space, the gathering of light, and the treasury of the ocean.

First the question, then the answer: why must there be ten? Because receiving and holding is not one thing. Chengguan divides them saying, “The first one is the holding of what is heard; the rest are all the holding of the meaning”—the first kind is remembering the words, and the other nine are holding the meaning. He further glosses one by one the reason of each: boundless turning is able to “enter everywhere” because “within one meaning it turns measurelessly”; observing ground after ground is able to “distinguish” because “ground after ground the meaning differs”; the adornment of the lotus flower takes the sense of the flower opening and the fruit being seen; and of the treasury of the ocean he says, “the tenth is like the ocean containing ten virtues, each being sorted out and analyzed,” and at the end he adds a word of exhortation—“those who hold the sūtras should model themselves on this passage.”

For the other four Chengguan likewise brings out the reason of each. Why the gate of stillness stands next after the holding of what is heard: “the second is because one accords with the fundamentally still wisdom, and only then can one enter”—after one has taken it in, one must first accord with the wisdom that is still from the first, and only then can the holding of the meaning below it get in; which is to say, the second is not one more accomplishment, but the pass at which the first either turns into the eight that follow or does not. Why majestic strength is called strength: “the fifth, majestic strength, is because it gathers everything universally into one's bosom”—that the meanings held can be taken in all together and kept in the bosom: this is what is called majestic. And Chengguan gives a second reading: “if it be stated of what is set forth as gathering in, then by majestic strength one gathers in beings, the same as what is told of the dhāraṇī of majestic virtue in the ninth ground”—stated of the Dharma set forth, this majestic strength is the strength that gathers beings in, and it runs the same road as the dhāraṇī of majestic virtue told of in the ninth ground. Why the treasury of empty space is called a treasury: “the eighth is like space, which is without mark and yet contains all, bringing the wondrous principle to light and showing the marks of dharmas”—space itself has no mark, and yet there is nothing it cannot hold; when the holding of meaning is held to the point of being markless and yet containing all, only then does the wondrous principle come to light and the marks of dharmas get shown plainly. Why the gathering of light is called a gathering: “the ninth is because, when many lights of wisdom are gathered upon one dharma, the meaning and principle are enlarged”—gather many beams of the light of wisdom upon one dharma, and the meaning and principle of that one dharma widen out.

A misreading has to be set aside: these four are not four higher objective realms. The reasons of the four sentences run along two roads—the gate of stillness and the treasury of empty space tell of the ‘not’ (according with stillness, being without mark), while majestic strength and the gathering of light tell of the ‘is’ (gathering universally, gathering light); one who holds the meaning must walk both roads, and to walk only one is to go lopsided. Brought down to the ground: when one cannot get in, ask which road is missing—the road of the ‘not’ (the mind not still, the mark not forgotten), or the road of the ‘is’ (being unwilling to gather what was obtained elsewhere onto the one sentence before one's eyes).

A misreading has to be set aside: these ten are not spiritual powers; they are a way of reading. Brought down to the ground: when one cannot get into a sūtra, it is often not that one's memory is poor, but that one has used only the first—hearing and holding; and of the latter nine holdings of the meaning not one has been roused.

Beings of the Ten Directions Come to Hear: A Dharma Gate Must Be Able to Be Handed On

“If there were beings who came from the ten directions,” the sūtra text lists ten kinds, and for each kind raises both its multitude and its king: gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, human beings, and Brahmās. Ocean Cloud “opened up and explained for them all, extolled and praised, and made them all delight in, go into, and abide securely within this dharma gate of the universal eye of the light of the practice of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.”

Chengguan outlines this as ‘handing on’—after receiving and holding there must be a handing on, and this is the third of the three divisions of this stretch (expounding, receiving and holding, and handing on).

First the question, then the answer: why must those who come be divided into ten kinds? Because their capacities differ. One and the same dharma gate must be opened differently for ten kinds of differing capacity, while what they are made to abide securely in is still one and the same dharma gate. A misreading has to be set aside: handing on is not repeating. The sūtra text uses four verbs—opening up, explaining, extolling, and praising—and only then delighting in, going into, and abiding securely; the one who tells does four things, and the ones who hear accomplish three. Brought down to the ground: if the Dharma one uses oneself cannot be spoken into another's mind, it is most often that one has done only the one thing of “explaining.”

Humbling Himself: I Know Only This Dharma Gate of the Universal Eye

“Son of good family! I know only this dharma gate of the universal eye.” Twelve years of contemplation, a thousand two hundred years of receiving and holding, ten dhāraṇīs, and the handing on to the ten directions—at the end it all falls upon the one word “only.”

Chengguan outlines this as ‘humbling oneself and deferring to the superior,’ and explains what is intended by it: “Humbling oneself concludes what precedes; deferring to the superior advances toward what follows.” Humbling oneself gathers up what has been told before; deferring to the superior pushes Sudhana on toward the next friend. He says a further sentence of great weight: “I am only one ocean—how could I be spoken of in the same breath as they?” I am only one ocean; how could I be put on a level with the bodhisattvas.

A misreading has to be set aside: humbling oneself is not courtesy. What Ocean Cloud knows is indeed only one dharma gate; this is the plain truth—and just because what he says is the plain truth, Sudhana will not stop with him. Brought down to the ground: the mark of a true good friend is that he knows where his own boundary lies, and is willing to send a person out beyond that boundary.

The Ten Oceans: What It Is That the Deferring to the Superior Defers To

The stretch of deferring to the superior lists ten oceans—the ocean of the bodhisattva's practice, the ocean of great vows, the ocean of all beings, the ocean of the minds of all beings, the ocean of the faculties of all beings, the ocean of all lands, the ocean of all the Buddhas, the ocean of all dharmas, the ocean of all merits, and the ocean of the words and speech of all beings—and under each sentence a “because” is tied: because they cultivate in accord with the power of their vows, because they dwell in the world through measureless kalpas, because they follow what their minds delight in and benefit them vastly … and at the end it is gathered up in “and how could I know, or be able to tell of, their merits and their practice?”

The ten ‘becauses’ do not say the same thing. The cause of each ocean the sūtra text ties plainly, sentence by sentence: entering the ocean of the bodhisattva's practice, “because they cultivate in accord with the power of their vows”; entering the ocean of great vows, “because they dwell in the world through measureless kalpas”; entering the ocean of all beings, “because they follow what their minds delight in and benefit them vastly”; entering the ocean of the minds of all beings, “because they bring forth the unobstructed light of the wisdom of the ten powers”; entering the ocean of the faculties of all beings, “because they teach and transform in season and bring all under discipline”; entering the ocean of all lands, “because they fulfill their original vows and adorn and purify the lands of the Buddhas”; entering the ocean of all the Buddhas, “because they vow constantly to make offerings to the Tathāgatas”; entering the ocean of all dharmas, “because they are able with wisdom to awaken to and enter them all”; entering the ocean of all merits, “because they cultivate each one and make it complete”; entering the ocean of the words and speech of all beings, “because they turn the wheel of the right Dharma in all lands.”

First the question, then the answer: why must a ‘because’ be tied to every ocean? Because the ocean is the place entered and the ‘because’ is the thing done—without that ‘because’ tied on, the ten oceans are only ten large words. Read down sentence by sentence and the road shows itself too: the first two oceans are tied to one's own vow and time (practicing in reliance on the vow, dwelling long in the world), the middle three to beings (benefiting what they delight in, opening their minds, disciplining their faculties), and the last five to the affairs of the Dharma realm (adorning and purifying lands, making offerings to the Buddhas, awakening to and entering the dharmas, completing the merits, turning the Dharma wheel in all lands). A misreading has to be set aside: the ten oceans are not ten pieces of scenery; they are ten things being done. Brought down to the ground: one who says the measure of his mind is vast should check through these ten ‘becauses’ sentence by sentence—as many as he can actually do, so much measure his mind has.

First the question, then the answer: why does the deferring to the superior also use the ocean? Because the whole of this section is threaded on the ocean—what is asked is an ocean, what is contemplated is an ocean, the ink with which it is written is an ocean, and the surpassing practice deferred to at the end is still an ocean. The ten oceans follow the order of the sūtra text: the first five are “the ocean of all the practices of the bodhisattvas,” “the ocean of great vows,” “the ocean of all beings,” “the ocean of the minds of all beings,” and “the ocean of the faculties of all beings”; the latter five are “the ocean of all lands,” “the ocean of all the Buddhas,” “the ocean of all dharmas,” “the ocean of all merits,” and “the ocean of the words and speech of all beings.”

A misreading has to be set aside: these ten sentences are not that Ocean Cloud cannot, but that Ocean Cloud has not reached. Brought down to the ground: to know that there is an ocean one has not yet gone down into matters more than keeping to the one already gone down into.

Pointing to the Next Friend: Sixty Yojanas and Beside the Laṅkā Road

“Son of good family! Going south from here sixty yojanas, beside the Laṅkā road there is a settlement named Ocean Shore; there is a monk there named Well-Abiding. Go to him and ask: how is a bodhisattva to purify the practice of a bodhisattva?”

First the question, then the answer: why must even the number of miles and the name of the road be written? Because in Chengguan's reading these are all Dharma. He glosses the sixty yojanas saying, “as to sixty yojanas, it is because one cultivates the practice of the six perfections and purifies the six faculties”; he glosses the name of the place saying, “the settlement being named Ocean Shore, it is on the road that goes to Mount Laṅkā, next to the north shore of the southern sea”; he glosses the name of the mountain saying, “now, Laṅkā is a Sanskrit word, and here it means hard to go to,” and says of what it signifies, “that it signifies that the abiding of cultivation is the entering of the ocean of wisdom, the road that cuts off the four propositions and leaves discrimination behind”; and he glosses the name of the friend to come saying, “as to the monk Well-Abiding, it is because his body abides in empty space.”

Of this mountain Laṅkā, Chengguan does not only translate the name; he lists four senses: “one, it is formed of jewel-natures of every sort, because its adornment is rare and wondrous; two, it has a great light, because it outshines sun and moon; three, it is high and open, broad and wide; four, the Laṅkā king and the rest dwell there, and the Buddha too opened and transformed the multitude there, doing the work of surpassing benefit.” Taking the four together, he says, “now, its substance is jewel; being complete in these four senses, it is named the unsurpassed jewel, and so the Sanskrit sound is kept”—the substance of the mountain is jewel, and only when complete in these four senses is it called the unsurpassed jewel, and so the Chinese keeps its Sanskrit sound rather than rendering the meaning. As for what “hard to go to” really is, he accounts for that too: “this mountain lies within the ocean, with no gate on any of its four sides, and none but one who has gained the spiritual powers goes there, and so it is said to be hard to go to”—the mountain is in the ocean, there is no gate on any side, and one who has not gained the powers cannot reach it.

The name of the friend to come joins on as well. Why Well-Abiding is named Well-Abiding, Chengguan says, is “because his body abides in empty space,” and what empty space signifies is “that within this abode one observes all dharmas as being like empty space, without place.” For this sentence the Yanyi chao brings out the full text: the ten practices of contemplation of this abode are observing that all dharmas are impermanent, are suffering, are empty, are without self, are without doing, are without savor, are not as named, are without place, are apart from discrimination, and are without solidity. The commentary takes only the third, ‘empty,’ and the eighth, ‘without place’; the sub-commentary says that this is “raising only the third and the eighth sentences, so as to accord with abiding in emptiness,” and adds, “yet the other eight are also the sense of emptiness”—to take two sentences is not to say that the other eight do not count, but to raise those that accord with the ‘abiding in emptiness’ of this very abode. Chengguan further says, “that he too is a monk is because he has entered the way not long since, and ought to rely on the Saṅgha,” and then points out the order of the three stations: “further, at first he was mindful of the Buddha, next he heard the Dharma, and now he cultivates in reliance on the Saṅgha.”

First the question, then the answer: why must the pointing of the road point to a mountain hard to go to? Because the ease or hardness of the road is precisely the shallowness or depth of the stage—Laṅkā being hard to go to, what it signifies is “that it signifies that the abiding of cultivation is the entering of the ocean of wisdom, the road that cuts off the four propositions and leaves discrimination behind,” and that road was never one walked at ease. A misreading has to be set aside: abiding in emptiness is not stopping upon emptiness. What the sūtra signifies is the observing of all dharmas as being like empty space and without place: what is observed is all dharmas, and where it comes to rest is without place; to take emptiness for a place one can abide in is exactly to have a place. Brought down to the ground: after mindfulness of the Buddha, the hearing of the Dharma; after the hearing of the Dharma, cultivation in reliance on the Saṅgha—only when the Three Jewels have been walked station by station does that stretch of road hard to go to come round.

A misreading has to be set aside: to read in this way is not forced attachment; it is the pattern of this chapter—the names of places, of persons, and of dharma gates in this chapter are all set up from what is contemplated. Brought down to the ground: whether the next stretch of road is hard to walk is seen from what mountain it leads to; the place that is hard to go to is precisely the place to go.

Bowing and Taking Leave: A Stretch That Ends Upon Acts

“At that time, the youth Sudhana bowed to the feet of Ocean Cloud, circled around him to the right and gazed up and beheld him, and then took his leave and went.”

This answers exactly to the “bowed his head and face to his feet, and when he had finished circling around him to the right” at the head of the stretch—three acts on coming, three acts on going, and one whole dharma gate in between. Chengguan outlines this stretch as the sixth, “from ‘at that time Sudhana’ onward, cherishing his virtue and bowing and taking leave,” and the sūtra text he outlines is indeed here. Cherishing is toward the virtue already obtained; taking leave is for the sake of the next friend.

A misreading has to be set aside: the two words “gazed up and beheld” are not a lingering unwillingness to go. Chengguan has glossed this pair at the end of the previous sub-stretch—because he thinks of him he cherishes, and because he is glad to see the friend to come he takes leave; cherishing and taking leave are present at the same time, not one before the other. Brought down to the ground: only the person who can take leave well can walk the next stretch of road; the one who cannot walk it has usually never truly obtained anything.

Lineage

The text of this section opens out below it along three lines.

The first is the line of the name of the stage. The judgment that Ocean Cloud is assigned to the abode of governing the ground comes out of the outlines of the ancient worthies; the sūtra text itself, from first to last, shows no name of a stage. Chengguan's Yanyi chao glosses this stage saying, “Second, Ocean Cloud is assigned to the abode of governing the ground. That is, constantly following the mind of emptiness, he purifies and governs the eighty-four thousand dharma gates, and because he purifies and whitens the ground of the mind, it is so called,” and what his words carry on from is the second of the glosses of the names of the ten abodes in the Benye—“as to the abode of governing the ground: constantly following the mind of emptiness he purifies the eighty-four thousand dharma gates, and because he is pure and white, it is named the abode of governing the ground.” So the name of this stage has that upon which it rests, and what it rests upon is the sense of the stage, not the sūtra text of this section.

The second is the line of the substance of the sūtra. Fazang's Huayan jing zhigui sets up ten kinds of substance of the sūtra, and the third of them takes this very section as its proof, rehearsing the sūtra that Ocean Cloud received and held and the simile of the ocean of ink and the brush of Sumeru, and judging that it is not what writing can set down, and is held only by the power of dhāraṇī. One simile of this section is by this turned into a pillar of a doctrine of the substance of the sūtra for the whole house. Zhiyan's Huayan jing kongmu zhang, for its part, records this section as the third in the list of the names of the good friends, with the monk Merit Cloud above it and the monk Well-Abiding below it.

The third is the line of the glossing of the meaning, in which the ancient worthies each have their own road. Chengguan matches the ten ponderings of the great ocean to the ten minds of compassion, matches the twelve years to the fullness of the stage, takes forgetting the wording and seeking the point as the intimate cause of seeing the Buddha, and takes the universal eye as seeing all within one dharma—this is the eye with which the Huayan line reads this section. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, sets up five gates, and upon the name of the good friend takes the two sides of objective realm and wisdom and sets up three glosses. Li Tongxuan sets up another road, taking the ocean of birth-and-death of the twelve links of existence to be itself the ocean of the wisdom of all-knowing wisdom of the Tathāgata, so that what he weighs is not the matching of the ocean of compassion but the substance in which birth-and-death is itself wisdom, and he says that apart from this ocean of birth-and-death there is no other place of becoming a Buddha. Zhiyan gathers it in three divisions, and judges the good friend of this section to have “entered the dharma gate of Samantabhadra.” What these several houses set up each has its own road; it is recorded, and no judgment is made as to which is higher.

What Fazang's road opens out, besides the three glosses upon the name, has three places that the other houses do not have. The first is the frame of this stretch: he judges Ocean Cloud's account of himself into five divisions—observing the great ocean is the skillful means of the gate of realization, obtaining the sight of the unobstructed dependent and direct recompense of the Dharma realm is what is realized, receiving the boundless teaching Dharma that flows forth is the teaching obtained, handing it on to beings so that they enter the Dharma realm alike is what is practiced, and concluding that what he knows is one only and not the rest is the concluding; the five divisions run in one line, from contemplating to realizing, from realizing to the teaching, from the teaching to the handing on, and from the handing on to the concluding—after which a fifth, the looking up and deferring to the superior advance, is separately raised, and that is the deferring, and the order of this stretch is by this plain at a glance. The second is the gloss on the twelve years: he sets up no saying of his own but records three of other houses—someone says it is contemplating the great ocean of the twelve links of dependent origination, another that it is dwelling in the twelve abodes of the bodhisattva, another that this is the second of the ten abodes and therefore says twelve; the three are recorded together, and like Chengguan's one cycle come round they are all signifying, while what they signify differs among them. The third is the judgment of the three worlds: the twenty sentences of the outward adornment of the lotus flower he divides into the first eleven as the adornment of the world of beings and the latter nine as the adornment of the receptacle world, while the ten sentences of the stretch that raises what it comes forth from he judges to be the adornment of the world of the wisdom of right awakening—the adornment of one flower is read as the three worlds complete. He further points out, in the stretch on receiving and holding, the sense of receiving anew day after day: ink as much as the great ocean cannot write out even one chapter to the end, and yet within a single day, with the ten holdings, that many chapters are received, and thus through a thousand two hundred years they are received anew day by day, and so this sūtra is said to be an endless sūtra of the one vehicle. Of the ten sentences of deferring at the end, he judges the first five to be the practice of one's own portion and the latter five the practice of entering the Buddha-fruit, and glosses why all of them are called oceans: this monk knows only his own one ocean, and there are further many oceans that he himself cannot know, and so in every sentence he defers. What these several houses set up each has its own road; it is recorded, and no judgment is made as to which is higher.

Li Tongxuan's road, besides the ocean of birth-and-death being itself the ocean of wisdom, has also the practice of this stage to tell of. He sets the stretch of Cloud of Virtue and this stretch side by side: the former, by the gate of calming and contemplation, showed the dharma gate of universally seeing the light of the wisdom of the realm of the Buddhas and so accomplished the ultimate truth, while this stretch directly with wisdom observes the twelve links of existence, the conventional truth of the world, to be the realm of the Buddha, and cultivates throughout the vow-practice of great compassion and of Samantabhadra—the station before accomplishes the ultimate truth, this station the conventional truth, and what the conventional truth observes is precisely the twelve links of existence. The practice of this stage he ties to the precepts: “the perfection of the precepts is taken as host, and the other nine as companions”—among the ten perfections the precepts are host and the other nine companions, which answers to the very name of the abode of governing the ground. What is governed he divides into two readings: “stated of wisdom, the three realms are observed throughout and governed alike; stated of the stage, it governs in particular the hindrance of delusion of the desire realm”—stated of wisdom, the three realms are contemplated and governed all together; stated of the stage, this one stage governs in particular the hindrance of delusion of the desire realm. At the end he sets up a general rule for the stages that follow: “in the stages below, whatever objective realms are seen and whatever names of Tathāgatas there are, all of them are dharmas met with in the Buddha-fruit of one's own mind. If one's own mind does not meet with them, then face to face there is no occasion of seeing”—at every station onward, the objective realms seen and the Buddha-names heard are dharmas met with in the Buddha-fruit of one's own mind; if one's own mind does not meet with them, then though the Buddha be face to face one does not see him. This general rule is not for this section alone; it is recorded.

As for the consciousness-only line and the remaining treatises of the Huayan house, upon the three terms of this section nothing at all was found by search; the opening out of this section runs in its line only among the several houses of the one Huayan school and the line of the name of the stage of the Benye.

The text of one section is question in its first half and ocean in its second. The question is what Sudhana brought; the ocean is what Ocean Cloud looked out in twelve years—and that flower is what opened of itself after the question and the ocean had met.