華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊22Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 22

What This Section Is Asking

Sudhana has asked many good friends, “how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva practices?” — but this night goddess is not asked in that way. Sudhana first looks, and only when he has finished looking does he ask; and what he asks is not how the Dharma gate is cultivated, but two other sentences — “you raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi: how long has it been until now? And having gained this liberation, how long has that been?” How long since you raised the mind? How long since you gained the Dharma?

One question about time is answered with ninety-one verses. This passage of the sūtra is five thousand eight hundred graphs and more, of which these ninety-one verses are one thousand eight hundred graphs and more, about thirty-one per cent. What the answer contains is: a certain kalpa, a certain land, a certain ten buddhas, all of whom I made offerings to — and then one clause, “and yet I had not gained the eye of wisdom.” Not gained. Then another kalpa, another ten buddhas, another clause, “and still, within the dharmas, I reckoned as existing what does not exist.” Still not gained. Eight of the ten kalpas close in this way; the closing clauses of the eighth and of the tenth tell only of the offerings and do not tell of anything not yet gained.

So the subject of this section is not spiritual power; it is time. A misreading must be set aside: that to ask ‘how long’ is curiosity. The manner of the answer shows that it is not — the night goddess answers ‘how long’ with ‘what I passed through.’ Brought down to the ground: when you ask a person how long he has practiced, what you should really be listening for is what, time after time in those years, he did not gain.

Who This One Is: The Night Goddess Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings

By this point Sudhana has come to the thirty-third good friend. This one is a night goddess, named Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings; the scripture text also has “Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings, the goddess who presides over the night,” the two forms both appearing, and there is no need to make them even.

As to the sense of the name, the ancient worthies each have their saying. Fazang glosses this name, saying, “Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings: within she realizes the deep principle, and without she manifests eyes of kindness with which to look upon sentient beings, and therefore this title is set up” — what is realized within is the deep principle, what is manifested without is eyes of kindness, and therefore she is so named. Fazang also transmits a name from a Sanskrit witness of another translation, saying, “the witness from India names her Joyful Eyes Whose Light Shines Upon and Touches Sentient Beings.” Li Tongxuan, glossing this name, says instead, “that she is titled Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings makes clear the forbearance in dharmas and the practice of kindness,” turning ‘joyful eyes’ back to forbearance. Zhiyan does not gloss the name graph by graph, but only judges her position.

Chengguan outlines this unit, saying, “third, the night goddess Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings, assigned to the Luminous Ground. The text is furnished with six passages.” — ‘assigned to the Luminous Ground’ is Chengguan’s outline carried on from the ancient worthies, and the scripture text itself has no name of a ground. The Yanyi chao glosses the reason for this ‘assigning,’ saying, “that is, because she accomplishes the excellent concentrations and the comprehensive holding of the great Dharma, and is able to send forth the boundless light of wondrous wisdom”: concentration is accomplished, comprehensive holding holds, the light of wisdom can be sent forth — and therefore she is matched to the third ground.

A misreading must be set aside: that a ‘night goddess’ is a lower class of spirit and is therefore matched to a lower station. What this unit is matched to is the third of the ten grounds, which within the sequence Sudhana walks belongs to the grounds themselves. Brought down to the ground: shape is manifested according to capacity, and station is to be looked for in the dharma one has gained.

The Eight Clauses Called to Mind Before the Road

The opening of this section is not walking but calling to mind. Sudhana “honored the teaching the good friend had given, did as the good friend had said,” and then within his mind eight clauses of calling to mind arose, the first saying that a good friend is hard to see and hard to meet, and the seven below it each beginning with “seeing a good friend” — it causes the mind not to be scattered, it breaks the mountain of hindrances, it enters the sea of great compassion, it gains the light of wisdom, it cultivates the way of all-knowledge, it beholds the seas of buddhas of the ten directions, it sees the buddhas turning the wheel of the Dharma and holds it in memory without forgetting.

Chengguan judges this passage to be “first, the seeking in accord with the teaching, within which there are two: first, in accord with the teaching of the friend before him, he calls to mind the benefit the friend brings about” — first he goes in accord with the teaching of the good friend before him, and calls to mind the benefit a good friend can give a person. That is to say, these eight clauses are not lyric feeling; they count off, one by one, ‘what a good friend can do.’

A misreading must be set aside: that calling a good friend to mind is gratitude. If it were gratitude, one clause would have been enough; here eight items are counted, and each item tells of what change will take place in himself. Brought down to the ground: after leaving a teacher, what one thinks along the road — whether ‘what a fine person he was’ or ‘which kind of scatteredness I now have less of’ — are two different things.

The Ten Clauses of Bestowing and the Ten Clauses of What Is Brought About: Two Ranks That Match

After the calling to mind, the scripture text next brings out two ranks of ten parallel clauses each. The former rank is the night goddess bestowing her power upon Sudhana, clause after clause in the form “causing him to know that drawing near to a good friend, one can furnish oneself with the equipment that aids the way”; the latter rank is Sudhana going on to give rise to a thought, clause after clause in the form “by drawing near to a good friend, one can valiantly and diligently cultivate the way of all-knowledge.”

Chengguan points out that these two ranks are to be read against each other, saying, “in sequence these ten clauses answer to the ten clauses before” — the first ten clauses are what the bestowing causes him to know, and the latter ten are the benefit the bestowing brings about, answering to each other in order. The “four” that closes his clause is the number of the outline item that follows: he has already listed a first, a second, and a third in this passage, and the fourth is the truly displaying of the going on to the next friend from “at that time Sudhana” onward — it does not mean four clauses out of the ten before. Fazang, reading the sixty-fascicle witness, makes out three layers — “the first ten clauses are, by his own power, pondering and praising the virtue of the friend; the next ten clauses are Joyful Eyes bestowing her power so that excellent thoughts arise in turn” — and the third is “it makes clear that through the excellent thoughts before, the dharma of growth is gained,” which cites the sixty-fascicle passage “at that time Sudhana straightway understood”; the ten clauses of bestowing and the ten clauses of straightway giving rise to the thought in the eighty-fascicle witness answer to the second and the third of those layers. The bone of the two houses’ divisions differs, and it is recorded without adjudication.

What is worth noting is the difference of tone between the two ranks. The former rank is “causing him to know” — only causing him to know; the latter rank is “by drawing near” — the words are already his own. What lies between them is only one bestowing of power.

A misreading must be set aside: that bestowing power means giving strength. What the bestowing gives here is “knowing”: knowing what drawing near to a good friend can gain. Brought down to the ground: the deepest place at which a person is helped is often not that he has one measure more of strength, but that he suddenly sees clearly a thing that was in front of him all along.

Seeing, Paying Respect, and Inquiring: Only Seeing, No Asking

When Sudhana arrives there, the scripture text writes only his seeing — he sees the night goddess “within the assembly and place of the Way of the Tathāgata, seated upon a lion throne in a treasury of lotus flowers, entered into the liberation of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy,” and then at once the clouds come forth from her pores. It does not write that he bowed, nor that he asked.

Upon this Chengguan sets down one word: “it only makes brief mention of the seeing, and the paying of respect and the request are already contained in it” — the respect and the request are left out of the text, and yet the respect and the request are already contained within the “seeing.” Fazang, reading the sixty-fascicle witness, says the same, that “within the third passage, the paying of respect and the making of the request are omitted.”

Then does the dharma the night goddess displays count as an “answer”? Chengguan says it does, judging this passage to be “displaying her own Dharma realm: that is, she displays the marks beforehand, which in sense amounts to answering the question” — she displays the marks first, hanging in the air, and in doctrine this amounts to answering the question that has not yet been spoken.

A misreading must be set aside: that where there is no asking, a passage has been dropped. Brought down to the ground: some answers arrive before their questions; and the question only comes into being for the one who can catch the answer.

The Three Terms of the Dharma Gate’s Name: Great Mighty Power · Universal Joy · Banner

The Dharma gate this one has entered is named “the liberation of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy.” Chengguan does not run one sense through the whole of it, but glosses it term by term, saying, “there is nothing she does not gather in and subdue, and this is great mighty power. She answers everywhere to the capacities of the multitude, and therefore it is called universal joy. She demolishes and subdues, and stands high and manifest, and for this reason it is named a banner.” — there is nothing she cannot gather in and subdue, and so it is called great mighty power; she answers everywhere to the capacity of sentient beings, and so it is called universal joy; she subdues everything and stands high and alone, and so it is called a banner.

Li Tongxuan, glossing this name, turns it back to forbearance, saying, “that Sudhana gained the liberation of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy makes clear that he came out of the three realms with the hindrances exhausted, that forbearance in dharmas was accomplished and full, that greed, anger, wrath, and hatred, being delusions, could no longer arise, and that forbearance in dharmas being present, there is great mighty power”; and he says further, “the liberation of the Banner of Universal Joy makes clear that he is able to demolish the afflictions of self and of others, and is not tipped or stirred among the objective realms.”

The name of the Dharma gate is not even across the witnesses: the sixty-fascicle witness has “the Dharma gate of the Banner of Universal Light and Joy,” the forty-fascicle witness has “the stainless liberation gate of the Banner of Great Swiftness and Universal Joy,” and Zhiyan, citing it in turn, has yet another form, “the Dharma gate of the Banner of Stainless Joy.” The four forms stand together, and it is recorded without adjudication.

A misreading must be set aside: that “universal joy” means making people happy. The universal joy Chengguan glosses is “answering everywhere to the capacities of the multitude” — answering everywhere to every kind of capacity. Brought down to the ground: what truly makes a person glad is not that something pleasant was said, but that something was said that hit the mark.

The Clouds of Bodies from the Pores: One Body Unmoving, and the Expounding Fills the Dharma Realm

From here the main body of the scripture text begins: upon the night goddess’s body, “from each and every pore, there came forth measureless kinds of clouds of transformation bodies,” and each passage of clouds of bodies expounds one kind of dharma. Chengguan judges this to be the first part of the working, saying, “within the first: that is, because the clouds of bodies from the pores have no exhausting” — the cloud is used as the simile, taken for its having no end.

One thing must be seen clearly: what expounds the Dharma is not the night goddess’s mouth but her pores. From first to last she does not open her mouth — only later, when Sudhana has asked, does she answer in verse. Throughout this great passage, what the compiler writes is the working that manifests of itself from her body in concentration.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a display of spiritual powers. The closing clauses of the ten passages of clouds of bodies read, in some places, “in such ways as these, by skillful means, she brought sentient beings to ripeness,” in some, “causing all sentient beings to gain ripeness,” in some, “all of them she caused to rejoice and to accomplish all-knowledge,” in some, “causing them to arrive at all-knowledge,” and in some, “and thereby made benefit for them” — the wording is not even, but the point where they land is alike the benefiting of others. Brought down to the ground: to test whether a state is real, look at whether it has a place where it lands; and only what lands somewhere other than upon oneself is the working spoken of here.

The Ten Passages of Clouds of Bodies Are the Ten Perfections: Two Graphs as the Mark of Division

The clouds of bodies are ten passages in all. The first passage reads “there came forth measureless clouds of transformation bodies,” and each of the nine that follow begins with “again there came forth.” Chengguan points out that this is precisely the apportioning of the ten perfections, saying, “in sequence they are the ten perfections, each having ‘again there came forth’ as its mark of distinction. The deep purport within them is to be pondered according to the principle” — in sequence they are the ten perfections; the first passage begins with “there came forth measureless clouds of transformation bodies,” and each of the nine perfections that follow has an “again there came forth” for its boundary.

So there is a ready-made measuring rod for reading these ten passages: the first passage expounding “the dāna-pāramitā that the bodhisattvas practice” is giving; the second expounding “the keeping of pure discipline without lack or transgression” is discipline; the third expounding “the ability to bear all the manifold sufferings” is forbearance; the fourth, eleven clauses of “valiant vigor,” is vigor; the fifth, from shame and conscience and the practice of purity down to “entering the joys of the meditations and the samādhis,” is meditation; the sixth, “dried up the sea of doubt of all sentient beings,” “demolished the mountain of wrong views of all sentient beings,” “broke the darkness of delusion of all sentient beings,” is wisdom; the seventh, expounding differently according to capacity, is skillful means; the eighth, eleven clauses of “in thought after thought manifesting,” is vows; the ninth, thirteen clauses closed by “power,” is power; the tenth, ten clauses closed by “knowledge,” is knowledge.

This rod divides the passages, but it does not tell what each perfection teaches; each of the ten passages has its own place where it lands, and they must be looked at one by one.

The passage on giving tells of three matters: what is given up — “toward all things she had no fond clinging” — cutting off fondness comes first, not reckoning the amount; whom it is given to — “toward all sentient beings she gave universally; her mind was even, without contempt” — giving carried out with contempt does not become a perfection; and how far it reaches — “inward and outward alike she gave, and what was hard to give up she could give up,” the outward being goods and the inward being body and life. Let one of the three be missing, and giving is only the handing over of things.

The passage on discipline fastens discipline to three contemplations: “she expounded that all objective realms are impure, expounded that all dharmas are impermanent, expounded that all conditioned things are suffering and without savor” — impure, impermanent, suffering. Only after the three contemplations does it tell what discipline is for: “causing the worlds to cast off inversion, to dwell in the realms of the buddhas and keep the discipline of the Tathāgata.” The discipline here is therefore not merely the not doing of evil; it first breaks inversion, for where inversion is not broken, the discipline that is kept is only another kind of grasping. The closing clause takes perfume for its simile — “the perfume of discipline suffused everywhere, causing all sentient beings to gain ripeness” — discipline reaches others not by being told but by suffusing.

The passage on vigor has eleven clauses, each beginning with “valiant vigor,” and what they are directed toward gathers into three classes: toward oneself, subduing the foe that is Māra, “putting an end to all the troubles of the evil destinies,” “demolishing the mountain of unknowing”; toward the Dharma, making offerings to all the buddhas “without giving rise to weariness,” “upholding the Dharma wheels of all the buddhas”; toward beings, “delivering all sentient beings and bringing them out of the sea of birth and death,” “teaching, converting, and ripening all sentient beings,” “adorning and purifying all the buddha-lands.” And the root of the eleven stands in the third — “valiant vigor in raising the mind of awakening, unstirred and unretreating”: vigor not fastened to the mind of awakening is only the exertion of force.

The passage on meditation does not begin with entering concentration; it first tells of what must be taken apart beforehand: “she expounded shame and conscience, causing sentient beings to store and guard their faculties” is the guarding of the faculties; “she expounded that the realm of desire is the domain of Māra, causing fear to arise” is knowing the domain for what it is; “she manifested no delight in the desires and joys of the world, but abode in the joy of the Dharma” is the exchanging of one joy for another. These three accomplished, only then “according to their sequence she entered the meditations and the joys of the samādhis,” and thereafter “put an end to all the afflictions there were,” and at last reached “the free and playful manifesting by spiritual power of all the bodhisattvas’ seas of samādhi.” From guarding the faculties to playing freely is one complete sequence, not a list of other names for meditation.

The passage on wisdom sets three similes against three sicknesses: “she dried up the sea of doubt of all sentient beings” against doubt; “she displayed the vajra of wisdom and demolished the mountain of wrong views of all sentient beings” against wrong views; “she raised the sun-disc of wisdom and broke the darkness of delusion of all sentient beings” against delusion. Doubt is water, and so it is dried up; wrong view is a mountain, and so it is demolished; delusion is darkness, and so it is broken — the three sicknesses have different shapes, and what cures them takes different shapes too.

The five classes of the passage on skillful means are just so many instances of the four graphs “according to what suits them”: to expound the spiritual powers and the power of merit of the world is for one who still seeks merit; to expound that “the three realms are all to be feared” is for one who is fond of the three realms; to “praise the way of all-knowledge, causing him to pass beyond the stage of the two vehicles” is for one who has come out of the three realms and yet stopped at the lesser; to expound “abiding neither in birth-and-death nor in nirvāṇa” is for one who already knows the two extremes; to expound “dwelling in the palaces of the gods and even in the place of the Way” is for one able to raise the great mind. What is expounded in the five classes differs, and what each is made to do differs as well — skillful means is a perfection by what it causes, not by what it says.

The passage on vows has eleven clauses all reading “in thought after thought manifesting,” beginning with “all the practices and vows of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra,” running through pure vows filling the Dharma realm, adorning the seas of worlds, making offerings to the seas of tathāgatas, entering the seas of Dharma gates, entering the seas of worlds, cultivating the way of all-knowledge purely through kalpas to the end of the future, entering the powers of the Tathāgata, entering the seas of skillful means of the three times, and going to all lands to manifest spiritual transformations, and returning at the end to “manifesting all the practices and vows of the bodhisattvas, causing all sentient beings to abide in all-knowledge.” After the eleven there is one closing clause — “what she did in this way never rested”: vows are a perfection not by how great they are when raised, but by their not breaking off in thought after thought.

The passage on power has thirteen clauses, to be seen in three classes: the powers that hold oneself are the five, “the power without shore,” “the power that cannot be destroyed,” “the power without exhausting,” “the power that does not retreat,” “the power without interruption”; the powers that leave defilement are the four, “the power of no staining by the dharmas of birth and death,” “the power able to break all the hosts of Māra,” “the power that leaves behind all the filth of affliction,” “the power able to break the mountain of all karmic hindrance”; the powers that benefit beings are the four, “the power of abiding through all kalpas cultivating the practice of great compassion without weariness,” “the power of shaking all the buddha-lands so that all sentient beings rejoice,” “the power able to break all the outsiders,” “the power of turning the wheel of the Dharma everywhere in the world.” Power is not one power; it is non-retreat manifested in different places.

The passage on knowledge has ten clauses, and what they enter has a sequence: the first four enter sentient beings — the seas of their realms, of their minds, of their faculties, of their practices; the next two run through time and sound — “the knowledge that delivers all sentient beings without ever missing the time,” “the knowledge that brings forth the sounds of all the Dharma realm”; the last four run through the realms and the buddhas — pervading the seas of the Dharma realm in thought after thought, knowing the decay of the seas of worlds, knowing the differences of their formation, abiding, and adornment, and “the knowledge that in thought after thought freely draws near to and makes offerings to all the tathāgatas and receives their Dharma wheels.” It sets out from sentient beings and stops at the tathāgatas, with time and the realms lying between: knowledge is a perfection because it can walk the whole of that road.

A misreading must be set aside: that the ten perfections are ten separate matters, one done and then the next. The ten passages here in the scripture text are of one same time and one same body: the general heading reads “upon her body, from each and every pore, there came forth measureless kinds of clouds of transformation bodies,” and all ten passages are opened out beneath that one clause — each and every pore is furnished with all ten perfections, and it is not that one pore brings forth one perfection and another pore another. Brought down to the ground: the sequence of the ten perfections is told for the sake of those who learn, not to set a work roster for those who practice.

The Passage on Forbearance: Evil Deeds Belong to the Body, Evil Words to the Mouth

The third passage of clouds of bodies expounds forbearance, and what the scripture text lists is the four matters “cut apart, beaten, reviled, insulted,” and then it says “her mind is at ease and unmoved, neither stirred nor scattered.” Chengguan, in the later part of this section where the ten perfections are treated, points out a distinction, saying, “now within the first, forbearance: evil deeds belong to the body, and evil words belong to the mouth” — what is laid upon the body is evil deeds, what is laid upon the ear is evil words, and the two belong to body and to mouth respectively.

There is a further layer of teaching in this passage, not easily seen: forbearance is not only the bearing of suffering, but also the bearing of the fact that “the mind of awakening has no exhausting.” The scripture text says, “because the mind has no exhausting knowledge too has no exhausting, so that the afflictions of all sentient beings are everywhere cut off” — what forbearance takes as its object is not only the one who does harm, but also that vow which stretches so far that its end cannot be seen.

A misreading must be set aside: that forbearance is holding down what is hard to bear. What the scripture text goes on to say in this passage is “toward every practice she is neither cast down nor lifted up, toward sentient beings she gives rise to no conceit of self” — not cast down and not lifted up are a pair. Brought down to the ground: to press oneself low in order to take it is being cast down, not forbearance.

The Six Clauses of the Passage on Meditation: Chengguan Gives a Rod for Reading the Last Five Perfections

The fifth passage of clouds of bodies expounds meditation. Later, where she tells of her own original practice with sound, the scripture text’s section on the dhyāna-pāramitā lists six items: all the equipment, all the cultivating, all the accomplishing, all the purity, all the samādhis and spiritual powers it gave rise to, all the gates of the seas of samādhi it entered. Upon this Chengguan sets up a way of reading, saying, “within meditation there are six clauses: first the name and substance, second the supporting conditions, third the making and cultivating, fourth the gaining, fifth the curing of hindrances, sixth the giving rise to working. Though the clauses of the five perfections below are more or few, they may be understood upon this pattern” — name and substance, supporting conditions, making and cultivating, gaining, curing of hindrances, giving rise to working: six layers, and though the clauses of the five perfections below are more or fewer, they may be seen upon this pattern.

The use of this one judging word is great: the long lists of the five perfections that follow — wisdom, skillful means, vows, power, knowledge — which look like a heaping up of synonyms, are in truth different slots upon one and the same six-layered frame. Chengguan adds one clause each upon wisdom and skillful means, saying, “within wisdom, the sun is taken with regard to breaking darkness, the cloud with regard to setting forth the Dharma, and the treasury displays what it contains” — the three similes of sun, cloud, and treasury are each taken for something; and saying, “within skillful means, nature runs through both matter and principle, and purport of principle means purport of intention.”

A misreading must be set aside: that these long strings in the scripture text are rhetorical spreading out. Brought down to the ground: a long list one cannot read through is usually a list one lacks a rod for; and the rod is what the ancient worthies left behind, not what one thinks up oneself.

The Body That Sets Forth Her Original Practice: What Is Manifested Is a Body in “Likeness”

The ten perfections expounded, the scripture text turns to the second great passage: “again, within each and every one of her pores there came forth measureless kinds of clouds of bodies of sentient beings.” What comes forth in this passage is a mark in likeness to the ones to be converted — in the likeness of Akaniṣṭha, in the likeness of Brahmā, in the likeness of the gandharva kings, in the likeness of the dragons, in the likeness of the yakṣas, the thirteenth class in the likeness of “the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the hosts of the buddhas,” all the way down to the likeness of the earth spirits, the water spirits, the fire spirits, and the wind spirits, fourteen classes in all. “Likeness” tells of the form in which she manifests, and does not say that what is manifested is limited to the classes of ordinary beings — the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the hosts of the buddhas are within the fourteen classes as well.

Chengguan judges this passage to be “second, the coming forth of the body that sets forth her original practice, within which there are four: first, the coming forth of the body that is able to expound” — this is the “body that is able to expound,” and below it come the sounds manifested, the dharma expounded, and the benefit of the expounding, four parts in all.

The two graphs for “likeness” must be marked. The scripture text does not say ‘there came forth clouds of bodies of the gods’; what it says is “there came forth clouds of bodies in the likeness of the gods of Akaniṣṭha.” What is manifested is not that class of sentient beings itself, but a shape in likeness to them.

A misreading must be set aside: that manifesting a body of the same class is in order to make people feel close. What the scripture text manifests immediately afterward is twenty-one kinds of sound, and what it expounds is her own original practice — to manifest a body in likeness is in order that people may take in a very long account of the past. Brought down to the ground: to have someone listen to the road you have walked, you must first stand where he is standing.

The Twenty-One Kinds of Sound: From the Wind-Wheel to the King of Maṇi Jewels

The body that is able to expound having come forth, next is “before all those sentient beings she manifested every kind of sound.” The scripture text lists twenty-one: the wind-wheel, the water-wheel, flames of fire, the tide of the sea, the earth quaking, great mountains striking one against another, the citadels of the gods shaking, maṇi jewels striking one against another — these are the sounds of nature and of the vessel world; the kings of the gods, the dragon kings, the yakṣa kings, the gandharva kings, the asura kings, the garuḍa kings, the kiṃnara kings, the mahoraga kings, the kings of humankind, the Brahmā kings — these are the sounds of sentient beings; the goddesses singing, the music of the gods, the king of maṇi jewels — these are the sounds of music.

The three classes are set out mingled together, with no distinction of high and low. Among the sounds manifested there are the tide of the sea and the quaking of the earth as well as the singing of goddesses — the sound that expounds the Dharma need not first be a sound of solemn adornment.

Brought down to the ground: whether a sentence can become Dharma does not lie in whether it sounds like Dharma.

Telling Her Original Practice with Sound: An Autobiography Written in the Ten Perfections

The sounds having been manifested, what do they expound? The scripture text says, “with such kinds of sound as these she expounded the merit and virtue that the night goddess Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings had gathered together since she first raised the mind” — what is expounded is herself. And the bone of this autobiography is still the ten perfections: practicing the dāna-pāramitā is “what was hard to give up she could give up”; practicing the śīla-pāramitā is “casting away the position of a king, palaces, and kin, and going forth from home to learn the way”; practicing the kṣānti-pāramitā is bearing the sufferings of the world and the evil deeds and evil words of sentient beings; practicing vigor is “giving rise to the practice of all-knowledge and accomplishing all the buddha-dharmas”; and the five perfections after it no longer narrate but stand as columns of items — meditation lists six, its equipment · its cultivating · its accomplishing · its purity · the samādhis and spiritual powers it gives rise to · the gates of the seas of samādhi it enters; wisdom lists its equipment and its purity together with four similes, “the great sun of wisdom, the great cloud of wisdom, the great treasury of wisdom, the great gate of wisdom”; skillful means lists six, its equipment · its practice · its nature · its purport of principle · its purity · the matters that answer to it; vows list four, “its nature, its accomplishing, its cultivating, the matters that answer to it”; power lists five, its equipment · its causes and conditions · its purport of principle · its expounding · the matters that answer to it. Fazang, reading this place in the sixty-fascicle witness, says, “within skillful means, vows, and power there are five clauses each: first the setting forth of the substance of the practice, second the body that practices, third what is practiced, fourth the practice leaving hindrances behind, fifth the original cause of the practice” — the five clauses are one fixed frame. Knowledge lists the most: first its own items (equipment · nature · accomplishing · purity · place · growth · deep entering · light · displaying · purport of principle · matters that answer to it · discernment · the marks of its practice · the dharmas that answer to it), then turning into a list of what is known (the dharmas it gathers, dharmas, deeds, lands, kalpas, ages, the appearing of buddhas, buddhas, bodhisattvas), then turning into a list of the bodhisattva (the bodhisattva’s mind · station · equipment · setting forth · dedication · great vows · Dharma wheel · discernment of dharmas · sea of dharmas · sea of Dharma gates · whirling stream of dharmas · purport of the principle of dharmas), and closing with “all such objective realms as answer to the jñāna-pāramitā were wholly displayed, and sentient beings were ripened.” The items grow from few to many, which shows precisely that the last of the ten perfections is the hardest to expound in full. Each of these items points to something: the requisites are what the practice of the perfection relies upon, the substance is what the perfection itself is, the cultivation and the practice are how it is practiced, the causes and conditions are what lets it arise, the principle and purport are the principle it rests upon, the purity is the practice carried to spotlessness, and the corresponding matters are what answers to the perfection; only when all these faces are laid open under one perfection is that perfection fully practiced. The first four perfections close with a deed — giving, leaving home, forbearing, accomplishing the Buddha-dharmas; the latter six each close with “were wholly displayed,” and the perfection of knowledge adds “ripening sentient beings” at the end — for whom they are displayed is what makes this passage teaching material rather than a recital of her own.

Note this: the one who tells this autobiography is not the night goddess’s mouth, but the sound manifested by the clouds of bodies that came forth from her pores. She herself is still in concentration.

A misreading must be set aside: that to tell of one’s own practice is self-praise. The autobiography here is teaching material told for sentient beings — the ten perfections are not abstract headings; someone really walked this way. Brought down to the ground: the most convincing set of lecture notes on the ten perfections is a curriculum vitae.

The Sequence of Succession, and the Four Bodhisattva Practices

After the autobiography, the scripture text expounds one further layer, the “sequence of succession”: the sequence of succession of merit and virtue, of roots of goodness, of the perfections, of “dying here and being born there and of her names,” and then drawing near to good friends, serving the buddhas, upholding the true Dharma, and cultivating the bodhisattva practices, after which three matters are each opened out: what is seen after entering samādhi is “by the power of samādhi she universally saw the buddhas, universally saw the lands, universally knew the kalpas, entered deep into the Dharma realm, contemplated sentient beings, entered the sea of the Dharma realm, and knew sentient beings dying here and being born there” — samādhi does not stop at stillness; it is a whole expanse seen within stillness. Each of the five spiritual powers has its own object of knowing — “she gained the pure divine ear and heard all sounds,” “gained the pure divine eye and saw all forms,” “gained the knowledge of others’ minds and knew the minds of sentient beings,” “gained the knowledge of former abodes and knew the affairs of the former limit,” “gained the free knowledge of the base of miracles, without anything to lean on and without making, and traveled freely throughout the lands of the ten directions” — ear knows sound, eye knows form, the knowledge of others’ minds knows minds, the knowledge of former abodes knows the former limit, while the base of miracles goes freely wherever it will through the lands of the ten directions — the first four powers each have their object of knowing, the fifth is a going, and the five powers are not one and the same accomplishment. And after gaining liberation there is still a list that follows — “she entered the sea of the bodhisattva liberation, gained the bodhisattva’s mastery, gained the bodhisattva’s valor, gained the bodhisattva’s stride, abode in the bodhisattva’s thought, and entered the bodhisattva way” — liberation gained, one must still enter its sea, must still be able to walk, to abide, to go in. The whole is gathered up at the end by “the sequence of succession of all the merit and virtue of all these.”

Chengguan judges this passage to be “within the extending by class afterward to the remaining practices, the four bodhisattva practices are furnished; ponder it.” The Yanyi chao brings out the ground for it, saying, “because the Yogācārabhūmi has four bodhisattva practices, of which the first, the practice of the perfections, has already been treated at length above, the three below are therefore listed,” and matches them clause by clause: “first, the practice of the dharmas that are limbs of awakening: because the merit and virtue gathered together since first raising the mind all aids awakening, it is a limb of awakening. Second, from ‘entering the samādhis’ onward is the practice of samādhi. Third, from ‘gaining the pure divine ear’ onward is the practice of the spiritual powers. From ‘gaining the bodhisattva liberation’ onward is the practice of ripening sentient beings.” — the ten perfections before are the practice of the perfections, and this passage adds in order the practice of the limbs of awakening, the practice of samādhi, the practice of the spiritual powers, and the practice of ripening sentient beings.

The four graphs “sequence of succession” are the eye of this passage. What is expounded is not how much merit and virtue she has, but the order in which one piece of merit and virtue follows another.

A misreading must be set aside: that the fruits of practice are a heap of things set side by side. The scripture text uses “sequence of succession” six times running, and what it expounds is precisely that they have a before and an after. Brought down to the ground: what is truly to be relied upon in a person is that thread in which the before and after can be seen, not the heap of things.

The Benefit of Her Expounding: While She Is Expounding, It Is Already Happening

The close of this great passage is “while she expounded in this way, in thought after thought” — while she is expounding, the ten directions are already adorning and purifying unspeakably unspeakable many buddha-lands, delivering sentient beings of the evil destinies, causing sentient beings to be born among gods and humans, to come out of the sea of birth and death, to abide in the station of the two vehicles, and to abide in the station of the Tathāgata.

Chengguan’s judgment upon this passage is that it “displays the benefit of her expounding.” What must be seen clearly are the two graphs “while she expounded”: the benefit is not after the expounding is finished, but in the moment of the expounding.

Brought down to the ground: the power of the Dharma is not in the moment after it is understood, but in the moment where the expounding and the hearing meet.

Sudhana’s Realizing Entry: Ten Occurrences of “Because”

Having seen this far, Sudhana “having seen and heard all the rare things manifested above, contemplated them in thought after thought, pondered and understood them, and entered deep and abided in them,” and thereupon “he then gained the bodhisattva’s inconceivable liberation of the power of mastery of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy.” Chengguan judges this to be “second, beholding her working and gaining benefit, that is, realizing entry into the Dharma realm.”

Then the scripture text itself asks one clause, “why is this so,” and answers with ten clauses, each closed by “because.” The first clause is “because he had cultivated together with the night goddess Joyful Eyes in times gone by,” and below it come the bestowing of the Tathāgata’s spiritual power, the protecting and aiding of inconceivable roots of goodness, the gaining of the faculties of a bodhisattva, the being born within the family of the Tathāgata, the being gathered in by the power of good friends, the being guarded and borne in mind by the tathāgatas, the having been taught and converted by the Tathāgata Vairocana, that portion of his roots of goodness having ripened, and his being able to cultivate the practices of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra.

Of the ten clauses, only one speaks of this present time; the other nine all speak of what came before this time. This answers precisely to the subject of this passage — what was asked was ‘how long,’ and what is answered is ‘how long’ as well.

A misreading must be set aside: that realizing entry is the affair of that one moment. Brought down to the ground: whatever can be gained within a single moment began a very long time ago.

The Ten Verses of Praise: A Judgment in Four Parts

Having gained the Dharma, Sudhana praises the night goddess in ten verses. Chengguan divides these ten verses into four, saying, “the ten verses divide into four: the first one verse is the cause of the manifesting and expounding; the next one is the intent of the manifesting and expounding; the next six are the substance and marks of the manifesting and expounding, all of them the working that is one with stillness; the last two gather up in general that the manifesting and expounding are unobstructed.”

Reading by this judgment: the first verse, “through measureless and numberless kalpas she has learned the buddhas’ most profound Dharma,” is the cause of the manifesting and expounding — that she can manifest so is because she learned for so long; the second verse, “knowing that sentient beings are sunk in confusion and bound about by deluded thoughts,” is the intent of the manifesting and expounding — why she must manifest; the middle six verses, from “the Dharma body is constantly still” to “having gained the buddhas’ power of skillful means,” are the substance and marks of the manifesting and expounding, and they say one and the same thing — still, and yet able to work; and the last two verses gather up its unobstructedness.

The sentence pattern of the middle six verses is worth looking at: for the most part the first half tells of stillness and the latter half of working. “The Dharma body is constantly still, pure and without a second mark” is stillness, and “for the sake of teaching and converting sentient beings, she displays every kind of shape” is working; “clinging neither to inward dharmas nor to outward, having already crossed the sea of birth and death” is stillness, and “yet she manifests every kind of body and dwells within the realms of existence” is working; “with a single mind she abides within samādhi, and for measureless kalpas is unstirred” is stillness, and “from her pores there come forth clouds of transformation bodies that make offerings to the buddhas of the ten directions” is working.

The “stillness” of the middle six verses is not of one kind; each verse points to its own: the stillness of the third verse is the original stillness of the Dharma body — “the Dharma body is constantly still, pure and without a second mark”; the stillness of the fourth is having no clinging among the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields — “among the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields she has never had any clinging,” and yet she still “displays practice and a form body and tames the whole multitude,” which is not abiding even in the body she manifests; the stillness of the fifth is clinging neither to inward nor outward dharmas, having already crossed the sea of birth and death; the stillness of the sixth is being far from every discrimination and unmoved by frivolous talk — “far removed from every discrimination, unmoved by frivolous talk” — and what she proclaims there is “the dharma of the ten powers,” which shows plainly that leaving frivolous talk behind is not leaving the Dharma unexpounded; the stillness of the seventh is abiding with a single mind in samādhi, unstirred for measureless kalpas, while the pores still send forth clouds of transformation to make offerings to the buddhas; and the eighth turns from stillness to the shorelessness of the working — “having gained the buddhas’ power of skillful means, in thought after thought without shore.” The last two verses gather up its unobstructedness, and the ninth brings out one sense besides: “knowing the seas of existence, adorned by every kind of deed, she expounds for them the unobstructed Dharma” — the seas of the three kinds of existence are what sentient beings have adorned with their deeds, and therefore what must be expounded is the “unobstructed Dharma”: what deeds have knotted together is untied by what is unobstructed.

A misreading must be set aside: that verses of praise are courtesies. These ten verses are Sudhana restating what he has just seen — the praise is his report upon his reading. Brought down to the ground: only one who can tell clearly what he has seen has really seen it.

Two Questions, Two Layers of Answer

What Sudhana asks is two sentences: how long since the mind was raised, how long since the Dharma was gained. Chengguan judges this to be “first two questions are raised; afterward two answers are furnished,” and the form of the two answers is itself twofold — first the answer in verse, afterward the bringing together of past and present.

The verse answer is ninety-one verses in all. Chengguan says, “within the former there are ninety-one verses in all, divided into two: the first seventy-nine verses answer how long ago the mind was raised, and the latter twelve verses answer when the Dharma was gained” — the first seventy-nine verses answer the first question, and the latter twelve answer the second.

One question of ‘how long,’ answered with seventy-nine verses; and within these seventy-nine verses years and months are almost never reckoned in figures — the one place where they are is “for twenty thousand years I made offerings to that tathāgata,” and the rest is only ‘a certain kalpa, a certain land, a certain ten buddhas, a certain dharma I had not yet gained.’

Brought down to the ground: the length of time can be measured only by the things one has passed through.

The Thirty-One Verses of the First Kalpa: One Dream, One Raising of the Mind

The first seventy-nine verses divide into ten repetitions, that is, ten kalpas. The first kalpa carries the greatest weight, taking up thirty-one verses. Chengguan divides these thirty-one verses into six, saying, “the first, the kalpa Still Sound, is precisely the time when the mind was raised, and has thirty-one verses, divided into six: first, one verse of general heading; second, eight verses displaying her former life; third, ten verses making clear the occasion of raising the mind; fourth, one verse truly displaying the raising of the mind; fifth, six verses making clear the virtues after the raising; sixth, five verses on meeting with further buddhas in turn.”

The eight verses of her former life tell of what that world was like: the land named Maṇi Light, the kalpa named Still Sound, the royal city named Fragrant Banner Jewel, the wheel-turning king with the thirty-two marks born by transformation from a lotus flower, a thousand sons, a koṭi of assisting ministers, ten koṭis of consorts and attendants — and “I at that time was a jewel maiden, furnished with the sound of a pure brahmā voice”: in that life the night goddess was one of the wheel-turning king’s consorts and attendants.

The ten verses on the occasion of raising the mind tell of that one night: the light of the sun had gone, the music had stopped, everyone in the palace was asleep; and at that moment the buddha Sea of Virtue appeared in the world, sending forth light and shaking the earth, and “within each and every pore there came forth a sea of transformation bodies of the Buddha.” And the jewel maiden saw it within a dream — “I at that time within a dream saw the Buddha’s every kind of spiritual transformation.” It was ten thousand goddesses who preside over the night who woke her from within empty space: “worthy and wise one, you should rise! The Buddha has appeared within your land; within a sea of kalpas he is hard to meet with, and those who see him gain purity.”

The one verse truly displaying the raising of the mind comes just after the waking: “having seen him, joy arose within my mind, and I gave rise to a thought such as this: ‘may I gain, as the Buddha has, a vast and great spiritual power.’”

A misreading must be set aside: that the mind must be raised upon some solemn occasion. The occasion here is the middle of the night, within a dream, being woken by someone. Brought down to the ground: the sentence that wakes you often comes earlier than any resolve of your own.

“A Night Goddess Awakened Me”: The Closed Circle of Cause and Effect in This Section

Among the six verses on the virtues after the raising, one verse is the key to this passage: “a night goddess awakened me and caused me to gain benefit; I vowed to take on such a body and to awaken those who are heedless.” — In those days a night goddess woke me, and therefore I vowed to take on such a body too, and to go and wake those who are heedless.

This one verse explains why she is a night goddess. Being a night goddess is not an arrangement of karmic recompense; it is the shape of a vow: in those days she was woken from sleep and dream by a night goddess, and so she vowed to be a night goddess life after life and wake others.

A misreading must be set aside: that a good friend’s station is a rank she cultivated her way into. Brought down to the ground: what a person becomes in the end is often exactly the kind of person he most needed in those days.

The “Not Yet Gained” of the Ten Kalpas: Making Sequence Out of Negation

From the end of the first kalpa onward, the ten kalpas are for the most part closed in one same manner: the names of ten buddhas are listed, and then one clause telling of what she herself had not yet gained. In the first kalpa it is “and yet I had not gained the eye of wisdom that enters the sea of liberation”; in the second, “and still, within the dharmas, I reckoned as existing what does not exist”; in the third, “I was not able to understand the dharmas clearly and enter the sea of the buddhas”; in the fourth, “and yet I had not gained the deep knowledge that enters the sea of the dharmas”; in the fifth, “and yet I was still not able to awaken deeply to the pure Dharma that is like empty space”; in the sixth, “and yet I was still not able to be pure and leave behind the ways of every hindrance”; in the seventh, “and yet, as to the gates I had entered, I was not able to accomplish forbearance”; in the ninth, “and I had not yet gained the pure forbearance that enters deep into the sea of the dharmas.” The closing clause of the eighth kalpa reads “these ten were the foremost, and my offerings left none of them out,” and does not tell of anything not yet gained; the closing clause of the tenth kalpa reads “such buddhas as these I made offerings to, all of them,” and likewise does not tell of anything not yet gained.

Chengguan fastens what was not gained in each kalpa to a station: the first kalpa, “that she had not gained the eye of wisdom is because she had not gained the light of right wisdom of the ten understandings”; the third kalpa, “third, within the kalpa Brahmā Light, that she was not able to understand the dharmas clearly is because she had not understood the true dharmas of practice of the ten practices”; the fourth kalpa, “fourth, the kalpa Moon of Merit: because she had not gained the deep knowledge of skillful dedication that goes forward into the sea of the buddhas’ knowledge”; the fifth kalpa, “fifth, the kalpa Still Wisdom: because she had not gained the pure dharma of suchness that is the twofold emptiness upon the grounds”; the sixth kalpa, “sixth, the kalpa Good Appearing: because she had not purified the hindrances upon the path of cultivation”; the seventh kalpa, “seventh, the kalpa Gathered Firm King: she had not gained the deep and accordant forbearance of conditioned arising of the sixth ground”; the eighth kalpa, “eighth, the kalpa Wondrous Excellent Lord: that she cultivated the most excellent way is because the wisdom of the sixth ground is the excellent way”; the ninth kalpa, “ninth, the kalpa Thousand Merits: because she had not gained the pure forbearance of non-arising of the eighth ground”; the tenth kalpa, “tenth, the kalpa Adornment Without Clinging, four and a half verses: that it tells only of the offerings is because what follows makes clear the gaining of the Dharma” — the tenth kalpa does not tell of anything not gained, because just below, the gaining of the Dharma is about to be told.

The Yanyi chao adds one clause upon the second kalpa, “in the former kalpa she had not gained the own portion of the ten abodes; in this kalpa she had not gained the excellent advance of the ten abodes”; upon the seventh kalpa, “because upon the sixth ground one gains the highest grade of accordant forbearance”; and upon the eighth kalpa, “there is no concluding word of gaining; it ought to say that she had not gained the seventh ground.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the ten kalpas are ten failures. The sequence of the scripture text is one of advance — what is not gained is deeper each time than the last. Brought down to the ground: the most exact question for judging how far one has come is not ‘what have I mastered,’ but ‘which layer am I stuck at now.’

The Ten Kalpas Matched to the Ten Grounds: Chengguan’s Two Readings and the Chao’s One Addition

As to the relation of these ten kalpas to the ten grounds, Chengguan gives two readings, and does not settle upon one. The first reading sets the sequence upon what was “not yet gained,” and he says, “further, the former ones in sequence all tell of what was not yet gained, so that each later one has already gained each earlier one” — what each kalpa tells of as not gained shows precisely that the layer before it has been gained. The second reading matches kalpa to ground one by one, and he says, “it may also be that in the first kalpa she had already gained the first ground and had not gained the second, and so on until in the ninth she had not gained the tenth ground, and only within the tenth kalpa did she gain fullness. The names of the kalpas too accord with the sense of the grounds; ponder it as the text stands.”

The Yanyi chao opens out the ‘names of the kalpas according with the sense of the grounds’ of this second reading one by one, saying, “because the first kalpa is named Still Sound, she had already gained the first ground; the second, the kalpa Excellence of the Gods, where god means purity, accords also with Stainless. The third, Brahmā Light, accords with Luminous. The fourth, Moon of Merit, accords with Flaming Wisdom, because the moon has a light that sends forth flames of brightness. The fifth, Still Wisdom, accords with the increase of meditation. The sixth, Good Appearing, accords with Manifest. The seventh, Gathered Firm King: because effort is full, she has already gained a skillful means that cannot be destroyed.” — the very names of the kalpas accord with the sense of the grounds: Excellence of the Gods accords with Stainless, Brahmā Light with Luminous, Moon of Merit with Flaming Wisdom, Still Wisdom with the increase of meditation of Hard to Conquer, Good Appearing with Manifest, Gathered Firm King with the indestructible skillful means of Far-Reaching. The Chao carries the matching of the last three kalpas on in the same passage: “the eighth, the kalpa Excellent and Wondrous, accords with the Unmoving, because it is without effort. The ninth, Thousand Merits, is the station of a master of the Dharma. The tenth, Adornment Without Clinging: wisdom is without clinging, and the two adornments are full.” — the eighth, Excellent and Wondrous, accords with the Unmoving Ground, taken for its being without effort; the ninth, Thousand Merits, accords with the Ground of Good Wisdom, taken for the station of a master of the Dharma; the tenth, Adornment Without Clinging, accords with the Ground of the Dharma Cloud, taken for wisdom without clinging and the fullness of the two adornments of merit and of knowledge. Only here are the names of the ten kalpas matched one by one to the ten grounds; the Shu first says “the names of the kalpas too accord with the sense of the grounds” and matches all ten, and the Chao takes this up and unfolds it kalpa by kalpa — the first seven and the last three stand in one and the same passage, not each book matching its own half.

What must be made clear is this: this whole matching is Chengguan’s outline carried on from the ancient worthies, and is not set forth by the scripture text itself. The scripture text gives only the names of the kalpas, the names of the buddhas, and what was not gained; it gives no names of grounds.

Brought down to the ground: the outline of the ancient worthies is a rod for reading the scripture; and one who uses the rod must remember that the rod is not the scripture.

The Twelve Verses on When the Dharma Was Gained: The Three Grounds Without Effort

The latter twelve verses answer the second question. Chengguan divides them into a first four and a latter eight, saying, “the first four verses are the gaining of the three grounds that are without effort: that is, the great vow that has nothing to lean upon of the eighth ground, the comprehensive holding of the samādhi of cessation of the ninth ground, and the accomplishing of the powers of the Tathāgata of the tenth ground.”

Read against the scripture text: “at that time the Buddha expounded for me the wondrous Dharma gate that has nothing to lean upon” is the great vow that has nothing to lean upon of the eighth ground; “I gained the pure eye, the comprehensive holding of the samādhi of cessation” is the comprehensive holding of the samādhi of cessation of the ninth ground; “making the mind of awakening grow and accomplishing the powers of the Tathāgata” is the accomplishing of the powers of the Tathāgata of the tenth ground. The three clauses are set out within four verses.

The place where the Dharma was gained is the presence of the buddha Banner of Merit, and the station in which it was gained is “I was then a god of the Moon Face.” From jewel maiden to god of the Moon Face, ten kalpas lie between.

A misreading must be set aside: that gaining the Dharma is an end point. Here, after the four verses of gaining the three grounds without effort, there are eight verses still. Brought down to the ground: the Dharma gained, the story has only reached its second half.

Bringing to Completion the Station of Samantabhadra’s Practice: From Seeing the Suffering of Beings Back to the Raising of the Mind

Upon the latter eight verses Chengguan says, “the latter eight bring to completion the station of Samantabhadra’s practice, and within them there are three: the first four and a half verses cite and raise the beginning of the great mind; the next two and a half verses make clear the end of the accomplishing of virtue; the last one verse gathers up the fullness in general — cause and fruit are round and merged, and beginning and end run through each other, and therefore she enters the way of Samantabhadra.”

The four and a half verses citing and raising the beginning of the great mind tell of why she raised the mind in the first place: “I saw sentient beings inverted, clinging to the permanent, the joyful, the self, and the pure,” “they walk and rest within the dense forest of wrong views, going to and fro within the sea of covetous desire,” “within all the destinies they take on bodies according to their deeds,” and then “for the sake of those sentient beings I raised the unsurpassed mind.” This is a turning back to restate once more the ground of her raising the mind.

The two and a half verses on the end of the accomplishing of virtue are “the clouds of vows all cover over everything, entering everywhere into every way” and “swiftly entering the grounds, entering the seas of skillful means of the three times.” The last verse gathers it up: “son of the Buddha, I at that time gained entry into the way of Samantabhadra, knowing the ten Dharma realms and all the gates of their differences.”

What is worth seeing is the direction of these eight verses: they do not walk upward to the fruit, but walk back to the cause, and from the cause bring the way of Samantabhadra to completion. Chengguan calls this “cause and fruit are round and merged, and beginning and end run through each other” — the first and the last run through each other.

Brought down to the ground: the mark that a road has been walked to its end is not that one is farther from the starting point, but that looking back one sees the starting point still there.

Bringing Together Past and Present: That Wheel-Turning King Is Mañjuśrī, That Night Goddess Is Samantabhadra

After the verse answer comes the second layer of answer, which Chengguan judges as “second, the concluding bringing together.” The night goddess says to Sudhana: “son of good family! What do you think — that wheel-turning sage king of those days, named Lord of the Ten Directions, the one who was able to carry on and make flourish the family of the buddhas, was he another? He is Mañjuśrī the youth!” And she says further: “and the night goddess who awakened me at that time was nothing other than an emanation of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra!”

These two sentences join the past of the ninety-one verses back to what is before his eyes. Mañjuśrī is the head of this assembly, the one who sent Sudhana south; Samantabhadra is the end of this assembly, the last one Sudhana will ask of. And upon that night measureless kalpas ago, the one was the king of that land, and the other the night goddess who woke the jewel maiden.

The night goddess goes on to say of herself that “from then until now, through as many kalpas as the dust motes of a buddha-land, I have not fallen into the evil destinies, but have constantly been born among humans and among the gods, and in every place have constantly seen the buddhas,” until “at last, in the presence of the buddha Wondrous Lamp Banner of Merit, I gained this bodhisattva liberation of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the bringing together of past and present is a coincidental way of closing. Brought down to the ground: the people Sudhana meets along this road had known one another for a very long time before ever he met them.

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

Her account of the past finished, what the night goddess joins to it is the passage most of the friends seen in this assembly have: “son of good family! I have gained only this liberation gate of the Banner of Great Mighty Power and Universal Joy.” Upon this Chengguan says only, “fourth, the humbling of herself and the pointing to the superior, which may all be understood as it stands.”

The content of the pointing to the superior is again a long list of “in thought after thought” — going everywhere to the presence of the tathāgatas, entering the seas of great vows, bringing forth all practices, within each practice bringing forth bodies as many as the dust motes of the lands, each body entering all the gates of the Dharma realm. The list is not finished there; its latter half turns from “body” to “seeing”: having entered the gates of the Dharma realm, “within each gate of the Dharma realm, within all the buddha-lands, they expound every wondrous practice according to the minds of sentient beings” — entering is not for the sake of arriving but for the sake of expounding; and after expounding it turns to seeing, “within each and every dust mote of all the lands they wholly see the shoreless seas of tathāgatas” — to see shoreless buddhas within a single mote is the very principle of the clouds coming forth from the pores before. And after seeing the buddhas there are four further layers of what is seen: “they wholly see the spiritual powers of the buddhas pervading the Dharma realm” is seeing the working of the buddhas; “they wholly see the bodhisattva practices cultivated in kalpas gone by” is seeing the cause of the buddhas; “they uphold and guard all the Dharma wheels there” is receiving the dharma of the buddhas; “they wholly see the seas of spiritual transformations of all the tathāgatas of the three times” is seeing the whole of the three times. And only then is it closed by “but how could I know or tell of their merit and virtue and their practice?” — the finer the telling, the smaller the one gate she has gained appears.

One thing must be seen clearly: she has just finished telling of measureless kalpas of practice in ninety-one verses, and after that there is one further layer, the bringing together of past and present — the wheel-turning king of that life is Mañjuśrī, and the night goddess who woke her was an emanation of Samantabhadra — and only when past and present have been brought together does she say “I have gained only this.” The longer the passage before, the heavier the clause after.

Brought down to the ground: the more clearly a person can tell of the road he has walked, the better he can tell how far he has come and no farther.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Alike Within This Assembly

At the end she points out the next friend, saying, “son of good family! Within this assembly there is a night goddess named Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings.” Upon this Chengguan points out one sense, saying, “fifth, the pointing out of the friend who comes next. They are alike within the station of realization, and therefore it says ‘within this assembly’” — there is no need to travel south, because they are alike within one assembly and alike within the station of realization; and he says that what is raised below this is “the practice of vigor being raised.”

For most of the friends before, it was ‘from here travel south, there is a certain country and a certain city’; here it changes to “within this assembly.” The place has not changed, but the person has.

Brought down to the ground: walking on far enough, the road is no longer a changing of places, but a changing of the eyes with which one sees the same place.

Lineage

For the text of this section, three streams open downward from it.

The first is the thread of the matching of assigned position. As to the judgment of position for this section, Chengguan makes it “assigned to the Luminous Ground,” Zhiyan makes it “the third, the god of the night named Joyful Eyes, is a bodhisattva of the third ground, who enters the Dharma gate of the Banner of Stainless Joy,” Fazang calls it “within the third, the friend of the ground of brightness” without using the name of a ground, and Li Tongxuan, taking “the third ground is the cultivating of forbearance in reliance upon the principle of awakening, because forbearance is the head of practice,” assigns it to the third ground — all four houses point to the third ground, while the terms and the sense they rely upon differ. This whole matching comes from the ancient worthies, and is not set forth by the scripture text itself. Recorded without adjudication.

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

Chengguan, in the general discussion of the five aspects within this chapter’s outline passage, has already stated the ground of his choosing: he first raises the two paths of glossing as the text runs and of matching the positions of the grounds, and then says, “both have their reason: namely, since each and every position is furnished with many Dharma gates, how could it be that an ordinary mind may not learn and seek the dharma of the good friends? — and therefore not to match them has its reason. Yet within there being no sequence of positions the sequence of positions is not obstructed, and to display the positions is the constant rule; so to match them, too, is no fault. The crosswise and the upright are unobstructed; for the present, following the ancient worthies, they are matched as five aspects” — both paths have their reason, and so he takes the matching of the ancient worthies without discarding the other path.

The second is the thread of the ten perfections and the four bodhisattva practices. That the ten passages of clouds of bodies are matched to the ten perfections is Chengguan’s outline; and the Yanyi chao further cites the four bodhisattva practices of the Yogācārabhūmi to judge the “extending by class to the remaining practices” of this section’s last passage, adding the practice of the dharmas that are limbs of awakening, the practice of samādhi, the practice of the spiritual powers, and the practice of ripening sentient beings after the practice of the perfections. This is reading the long lists of the scripture text by a framework of practice from a treatise, and the fastening is made plain.

The third is the thread of the divergent interpretations of the commentators, each with its own track, recorded without adjudication.

Chengguan makes six passages (seeking in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respect, and inquiring · displaying her own Dharma realm · humbling herself and pointing to the superior · pointing out the next friend · the taking of leave, treated in passing); and the first passage is in truth divided into two, the four being opened only beneath the latter of them; the one part that is the working is likewise in three (the displaying of the working that has no shore · beholding the working and gaining benefit · rejoicing at the benefit and praising), and only beneath the first of the three are the body that expounds cultivation in general and the body that sets forth her original practice divided.

Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, opens it into five great passages — raising the dharma and exhorting to cultivate it · entering in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respect, and making the request · displaying her own Dharma realm · the looking up and pointing to the superior — and under displaying her own Dharma realm opens further her bearing · the working · the bringing out of the cause · the concluding of the name, his gloss ending only at “the third ground is finished.” Several of his readings between differ from the other houses: of the last four perfections he says, “within skillful means, vows, and power there are five clauses each: first the setting forth of the substance of the practice, second the body that practices, third what is practiced, fourth the practice leaving hindrances behind, fifth the original cause of the practice”; he judges the number of the sounds as “separately distinguishing twenty-four kinds of sound”; he judges the verse answer as “within the former there are eighty-nine and a half verses, divided into two” — first seventy-seven and a half verses answering the time of raising the mind, then twelve answering how long ago the Dharma was gained; he judges the benefit of the expounding as “the benefits of six stages in gradual succession,” and Sudhana’s ten verses as five pairs — the working manifested from the surpassing cause, transformations from the Dharma body, benefit without attachment, marvels from concentration, and the manifesting of the body to expound the Dharma; and he matches the power of mindfulness of the dhāraṇīs to the ninth ground — “the first, the power of mindfulness of the dhāraṇīs and the rest, makes clear that upon the ninth ground the four unobstructed understandings are gained and the comprehensive holding is accomplished” — and the bright and pure eye, the samādhi and the dhāraṇī, to the tenth — “second, that I gained the bright and pure eye, the samādhi and the dhāraṇī, makes clear the gaining of the Dharma gate of the tenth ground.” The numbers of sounds and of verses he raises are the numbers of the sixty-fascicle witness and differ from the twenty-one sounds and ninety-one verses of the eighty-fascicle witness; each follows its own witness.

Zhiyan makes three passages, and his true entering is in truth divided into two branches (her own portion · the looking up and pointing to the superior), the four belonging beneath her own portion and not opened directly beneath the true entering. Of the clouds of bodies of the ten perfections he says, “within the first, the clouds of bodies of the ten perfections, each and every one has four senses: first what it rests upon, second the body, third the work it does, fourth the benefit” — what it rests upon, the body, the work it does, the benefit: four senses running through them all, which may well be read against the closing clauses of the passages before; of the passage on knowledge he says “within knowledge there are thirty clauses” and lists their names one by one; and of the verse answer he says, “second, the god of the night answers in eighty-nine and a half verses; third, the concluding bringing together of past and present,” and further, “within the answer, the first twenty-five answer how long ago the mind was raised” — these numbers too are the numbers of the sixty-fascicle witness.

Li Tongxuan takes signifying dharmas rather than outline names for his principal way, and yet his passage of glossing the sense as the text runs has an outline of its own: beneath “within the first, the true entering upon the Dharma gate of the station in question” it is “divided into five gates: first, calling to mind the teaching of the good friend and pondering it so as to advance,” and from the seeing of the night goddess’s throne onward “the long outline makes twelve passages”; the one part on making offerings opens into eleven passages, “the first ten passages have ten names of buddhas each, and the last passage has one name of a buddha,” and “all of them are matched to the eleven grounds, advancing according to station, one ground matched to ten names of buddhas.” Upon this he sets up one reading of his own — “because this first ground is the first ground within the third ground, and so on until the tenth ground is the tenth ground within the third ground”: the ten grounds matched to the ten kalpas are the ten grounds within the third ground, and not a second walking of the ten grounds apart from the station in question. He sets up principal and companion upon this friend’s forbearance as well, saying, “the good friend of the third, the Luminous Ground, has the kṣānti-pāramitā as principal and the remaining nine as companions”; and upon the scripture’s clause about the equipment of the dhyāna-pāramitā he glosses the equipment as “giving, discipline, forbearance, vigor, the four contemplations of mindfulness, the thirty-seven limbs of the way and the rest are the equipment of the house of meditation” — the equipment of meditation is not a sitting mat but the four perfections before it and the limbs of the way. At the end he sets up a separate item, “within the second, the gate of pointing to virtue and advancing upward,” answering to Chengguan’s humbling herself and pointing to the superior.

As to the glossing of the name, Fazang makes it the realizing of the deep principle within and the manifesting of eyes of kindness without, and transmits the name of the witness from India; Li Tongxuan makes it the making clear of forbearance in dharmas and the practice of kindness, and in the passage of glossing as the text runs says, “that there is a night goddess named Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings is the kindness within forbearance, and it is named joyful eyes,” “not forsaking sentient beings is named beholding,” and glosses the three graphs for god and spirit of the night — “this third, the Luminous Ground, cultivates the eight meditations, and being able to be one with those meditations without being stained by the nature of meditation, and one with the realm of desire without being stained by the nature of desire, it is named the Luminous Ground and named god of the night,” “her knowledge answers to the true, and so she is titled a spirit”; Zhiyan does not gloss the name graph by graph; and Chengguan glosses it beforehand in the general heading upon the ten friends, saying, “beholding and universal joy — this is named joyful eyes,” having first said, “the virtue of this liberation is furnished with everything and its converting leaves nothing out, and so it is named great mighty power,” “her body and her delusions are alike pure, and there is none who is not glad to see her, and therefore it says universal joy,” “compassion is the mark of her virtue, which is the sense of the banner” — each of the four members of the gate’s name receives its gloss: virtue furnished and converting complete is great mighty power, body and delusions alike pure is universal joy, compassion as the mark of virtue is the banner, beholding and universal joy is joyful eyes; and where the section proper opens he glosses the friend’s name once more, “because she bears with the evil and looks upon beings, it says joyful eyes; because she sends forth the light of hearing and retaining, it says beholding” — that she can bear the evil and still consent to look upon beings is why the eyes are joyful; that the light of hearing and retaining goes forth is why beholding is beholding. In separate chapters Li Tongxuan fastens this friend both to forbearance and to the substance of discipline: “the third, the Luminous Ground, has the kṣānti-pāramitā for its substance, and the spirit is named Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings, because through forbearance there is nothing that does not gladden her,” “that she is not far from the place of the Way makes clear that forbearance has the unmade Dharma body for its substance”; while another chapter says, “within the ten grounds it is cultivating great compassion that is the substance of discipline, and this is the night god and spirit Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings” — the one taking forbearance for the substance and the other the discipline that is great compassion, both from one hand, each following what its own chapter is about. As to the name of the Dharma gate, the eighty-fascicle, the sixty-fascicle, and the forty-fascicle witnesses, together with the form Zhiyan cites, stand as four forms together. All these divergent interpretations are settled sayings of the ancient worthies.

Beyond this section itself, the table of the sequence of the good friends in Zhiyan’s Kongmu zhang lists the name of this section, which belongs to the recording of sequence and not to the glossing of sense; and a search of the five texts — the Cheng weishi lun, the She dasheng lun, the Yogācārabhūmi, the Jieshenmi jing, and the Shidi jing lun — and of the treatises of the Huayan house finds no name of this friend in any of them. This section is not 〈The Ten Grounds〉, and therefore no separate Yogācāra fastening is set up.

In the text of one section, the first half is looking and the latter half is listening. What is looked at is the working of one body unmoving that reaches throughout the Dharma realm; what is listened to is the ninety-one verses, kalpa after kalpa of what was not yet gained. Put together, the two say only one sentence — a working like that came about like this.

Where This Section Differs from the Several Before It

By the time Sudhana reaches the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, before he has opened his mouth to ask, half the Dharma has already been conferred.

The order of the scripture runs like this: the moment he arrives, the night goddess displays the liberating spiritual power of a bodhisattva subduing sentient beings, sends forth light from between her brows, and the light enters the crown of his head, and on the spot he gains concentration; and having gained concentration he sees, within every single dust mote between the two night goddesses, the forming and decaying of worlds, the differences among the five destinies, and the nine classes of sentient beings; and only when he has finished seeing does he pay respect, does he praise in verses, does he ask the name. When Chengguan outlines this unit he marks this one point out on its own, saying that the six-passage outline usual to this assembly must here be combined: it combines the second and the third, for as regards Sudhana it is the seeing and paying respect, while as regards what the night goddess manifests it is the working of the liberation, and this amounts to conferring the Dharma realm in silence — the night goddess has not said a word, and the Dharma realm has already been silently conferred.

There is a misreading to set aside: this is not that Sudhana came at a bad moment and missed the expounding. The whole unit runs to eight thousand eight hundred graphs and more; Sudhana’s asking is only three clauses, and the night goddess’s answer takes up seven thousand graphs and more, and what she answers is nearly all a single account of her former life — she tells from the beginning who she was measureless kalpas ago, how she raised the mind, and with whom she studied.

Set upon the ground: what is to be read in this section is not what a liberation gate is, but how a person comes to stand where she stands today.

That Stretch of Road before Setting Out: What He Was Doing in His Heart

This section does not begin with walking; it begins with the mind. After Sudhana had heard the liberation gate of the Banner of Universal Joy in the presence of the night goddess Joyful Eyes Beholding Beings, the scripture uses eleven acts to write the intent with which he set out: trusting, understanding, advancing, entering · knowing and according · pondering and cultivating · calling to mind all the instructions the good friend had given · not laying them down in his heart for a moment · his faculties undistracted · single-mindedly wishing to see the good friend · everywhere in the ten directions seeking with diligence and never slackening · wishing always to draw near and bring forth every merit and virtue · sharing one and the same root of good with the good friend · gaining the good friend’s practice of subtle skillful means; and at the end, in reliance upon the good friend entering the sea of vigor, in measureless kalpas never being far apart from her. Having raised this vow, only then does he set out.

Chengguan outlines this passage as seeking in accord with the teaching, and divides it into two halves — the first half is cultivating and entering the Dharma that came before, and the second half, from single-mindedly wishing to see onward, is seeking the friend to come. That is to say: what the friend before conferred must first be cultivated and entered before there can be any talk of seeking the next.

A misreading to set aside: that studying under friends is a matter of changing the subject, that when one has heard out this station one changes to the next. The order of the scripture is exactly the reverse: the intent one carries away on leaving decides what one is able to see when one reaches the next.

Set upon the ground: that Sudhana, later in this section, gains concentration the moment he arrives and is able to see the great working, is not that the night goddess treats him with special favor; it is the fruit of his not laying them down in his heart for a moment along this whole road.

One Ray of Light, and the Name of a Concentration

The first thing the night goddess manifests is light. She adorns her body with all the marks and signs, and from between her two brows sends forth a great light named Lamp of Knowledge Illuminating Everywhere, Banner of Purity, with measureless lights as its retinue, shining everywhere upon all the worlds; and having shone upon the worlds, it enters the crown of Sudhana’s head and fills his body. On the spot Sudhana gains the samādhi of the Wheel of Ultimate Purity.

The name of this concentration must be looked at closely. Chengguan glosses it graph by graph, saying: first Sudhana gains concentration — because the three kinds of action and the six faculties are all free of obstruction, it is called ultimate purity, which is the fullness of pure knowledge; and because it demolishes obstruction it is a wheel, and therefore what is seen is unobstructed. Purity is said with respect to the three kinds of action and the six faculties being free of obstruction; and wheel is not taken in the sense of turning, but in the sense of crushing — a wheel is a thing that crushes obstructions to pieces.

A misreading to set aside: that the great passage of seeing which follows is a scene conjured up by spiritual power. Chengguan’s line is exactly what guards against this misunderstanding: that what is seen is unobstructed is not that the power of the eye has been enlarged; it is that obstruction has been demolished. Once obstruction is demolished, what was there all along shows itself.

Set upon the ground: for everything one cannot see, ask first whether it is obstruction; do not ask first whether the light is bright enough.

Between the Two Night Goddesses: The First Layer of What Is Seen Is the Place

Having gained concentration, the first layer of what Sudhana sees is the space between the two places where the two night goddesses, Joyful Eyes and Who Saves All Beings, dwell. What is in that space? The dust motes of all earth, of water, of fire, the dust motes of vajra and maṇi and the many jewels, the dust motes of flowers and incense, of strings of gems, of all the implements of adornment — and within each and every dust mote he sees severally the forming and decaying of worlds as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land.

Looking further outward, there is the massing of all the great elements of earth and water and fire and wind; there are all the worlds joined one to the next, all of them upheld and made to abide by the earth-wheel; there are mountains and seas of every kind, rivers and pools, groves of trees, palaces — the palaces of the devas, of the dragons, of the yakṣas, on down to the palaces and dwellings of the mahoragas and of humans and nonhumans, and then the hells, the animals, the realm of King Yama and all their places of dwelling, the turning within the destinies, the coming and going of birth and death, the receiving of retribution according to deeds, each and every one of them different.

Chengguan divides this great passage into three layers, saying that what is seen has three within it: first the place where converting is done, second the benefit by which converting is done, third the intent for which converting is done. This first layer is the place where converting is done.

A misreading to set aside: that the space between the two places is only a distance to be traveled. That the scripture points to this stretch of distance on purpose is to say this: the seemingly blank stretch between one good friend and another good friend holds the whole Dharma realm.

Set upon the ground: the stretch of road between two teachers is not an empty interval.

The Ten Differences among the Worlds: The Pure and the Foul Turn into Each Other

Looking more closely into the place where converting is done, there are ten differences among the worlds (counted out word for word, some worlds appears ten times): foul and mixed · pure · tending toward the foul and mixed · tending toward the pure · foul and mixed yet pure · pure yet foul and mixed · wholly pure · its shape level and even · abiding overturned · abiding tilted upon its side.

Two among them are directions of tending, and two others are mixtures. Chengguan, glossing these clauses, says: as for tending toward the foul and mixed and the rest, they are turning and changing toward the defiled or toward the pure; foul and mixed yet pure means that the defiled is the greater part, and the clause below reverses this; wholly pure is said over against the two above; the first two clauses are the general statement. Fazang, glossing the same passage in the sixty-fascicle, makes the two mixtures plainer still: pure-yet-impure is where the pure is the greater and the foul the lesser; impure-yet-pure is where the foul is the greater and the pure the lesser. Taken together: tending toward the foul and mixed and tending toward the pure are the two directions — the one turning right now toward the defiled, the other turning right now toward the pure; foul and mixed yet pure and pure yet foul and mixed are the two mixtures — the pure and the foul standing together with one side the greater, and the side named first being the greater one; and wholly pure is said relative to those that come before.

A misreading to set aside: that pure lands and foul lands are two fixed classes of place. Of the ten the scripture lists, two are speaking of a direction — turning right now toward the pure or toward the defiled; and two others are speaking of a mixture — the pure and the foul standing together with one side the greater.

Set upon the ground: to judge a place, a person, a stretch of time, one must look at the direction it is turning in, and not only at where it stands at this moment.

The Nineteen Fears: What the Night Goddess Saves Is the Fear Innermost in a Person

Having seen the place, what is seen next is the night goddess, at all times and in all places, according to the differences among sentient beings in shape and appearance, in speech, and in practice and understanding, appearing everywhere before them by the power of skillful means and converting and delivering them as is fitting. Chengguan judges this layer to be the benefit by which converting is done, and divides it into two passages: first the converting of the five destinies, and after that, from he saw further all sentient beings onward, the converting of the nine classes.

Look first at the passage on the five destinies. Sentient beings in the hells are caused to be spared all bitter poisons of suffering; sentient beings among the animals are caused not to devour one another; sentient beings among the hungry ghosts are caused to be without hunger and thirst; the dragons and the rest are caused to leave behind all fear; sentient beings of the realm of desire are caused to leave behind the suffering of the realm of desire — and when it comes to the human destiny the scripture suddenly slows down and in one breath lists nineteen fears (counted out word for word, nineteen): the fear of the dark of night · of being reviled · of ill repute · of the great assembly · of not making a living · of death · of the evil destinies · of cutting off the roots of good · of turning back from the mind of awakening · of meeting an evil friend · of parting from a good friend · of falling to the ground of the two vehicles · of every kind of birth and death · of dwelling together with sentient beings of another kind · of being born in an evil time · of being born among an evil clan · of doing evil deeds · of the obstruction of deeds and afflictions · of being bound by clinging to perceptions.

The order of these nineteen is worth looking at. The first few are outward circumstances — the dark coming on, being cursed by others, one’s name ruined, standing before a crowd, being unable to make a living, dying. In the middle it turns to the fears that belong to the way — fear of cutting off the roots of good, fear of turning back from the mind of awakening, fear of meeting an evil friend, fear of parting from a good friend, fear of falling to the two vehicles. In the last few there is no outward circumstance left at all — fear of one’s own evil deeds, fear that deeds and afflictions will raise obstruction, fear that one’s own clinging will bind one.

A misreading to set aside: that what the night goddess saves from is calamity. Among the nineteen fears the true calamities take up only the first few; the further down one goes the more they are the fears within a practitioner’s own heart, and the scripture reckons them all alike as what is to be saved from.

Set upon the ground: the night is dark, and so what the night goddess has charge of is the fear in the dark; and the darkest place in a person is not outside.

The Nine Classes of Sentient Beings and the Nineteen Occurrences of For the Sake Of: The Reasons for the Rescuing

The second passage is the converting of the nine classes. The scripture lists those born from eggs, from wombs, from moisture, and by transformation, those having form and those without form, those having perception and those without perception, and those neither having perception nor without perception — this is to state all sentient beings exhaustively — and then says that the night goddess appears everywhere before them and ever diligently rescues and protects them.

What comes next is the most essential place in this passage: the reasons for the rescuing. The scripture gives nineteen clauses of for the sake of one after another (counted out word for word, nineteen clauses), from for the sake of accomplishing the bodhisattva’s power of great vows to for the sake of causing them to gain the pure light of all-knowledge. Chengguan judges this layer to be the intent for which converting is done, and points out where it runs through and where it is confined, saying: third, from for the sake of accomplishing onward, is the intent of the converting; being for the accomplishing of all dharmas, it runs through both the converter and the converted.

Runs through both the converter and the converted is the key. Of these nineteen clauses, the first five speak of oneself — accomplishing the power of great vows, entering deeply into the power of samādhi, making firm the power of spiritual powers, bringing forth the power of Samantabhadra’s practices and vows, enlarging the sea of great compassion; the last five speak of sentient beings — entering the sea of the minds of all sentient beings, knowing the faculties of all sentient beings, purifying the faith and understanding of all sentient beings, breaking the dark of ignorance in all sentient beings, causing them to gain the pure light of all-knowledge; and the nine in between, from gaining the unobstructed great kindness that covers sentient beings everywhere to gathering all roots of good and cultivating all wondrous practices, carry both the converter and the converted together. This business of saving people is at one and the same time that business of accomplishing oneself; within one passage the two are carried together.

A misreading to set aside: that a bodhisattva’s saving of sentient beings is purely for others, with nothing at all for herself. The scripture does not say so of itself — it puts for the sake of accomplishing the bodhisattva’s power of great vows first among the nineteen clauses.

Set upon the ground: a rescuing that can be carried on for long is one that is at the same time nourishing the one who does it; what only goes out and never comes in cannot hold up for measureless kalpas.

Putting Away the Marks of Adornment, Returning to Her Own Form

Sudhana, having finished seeing, rejoiced measurelessly, made obeisance with his head and face, and single-mindedly gazed up. At this the night goddess does one thing: she then puts away the marks of bodhisattva adornment and returns to her own form, and yet does not put away her sovereign spiritual power.

Chengguan outlines this passage as paying respect and praising with the three kinds of action, and divides it in three: first the reverence of body and mind, next the displaying of the friend’s sovereignty, and after that the praising in verses with the mouth. This middle section is the displaying of the friend’s sovereignty.

What must be looked at closely is the last clause. What is put away is the marks; what is not put away is the spiritual power. The marks were manifested for Sudhana, and once manifested they are withdrawn; the spiritual power is not withdrawn along with the marks.

A misreading to set aside: that a good friend’s ability lies in showing forth an extraordinary appearance. The scripture says exactly the opposite: the manifesting of marks is for the sake of teaching, and when the teaching is done the marks are withdrawn, while the power remains.

Set upon the ground: what a person truly has is whatever is still there when he is not performing.

Sudhana’s Twenty and a Half Verses: How Chengguan Divides Them

Sudhana reverently joins his palms, withdraws and stands to one side, and praises her in verses. These verses come to forty-one lines (counted out word for word); Chengguan reckons them as twenty verses and a half, and divides them, saying: the first verse is the general, and the remaining verses are the particular; and within the particular there are two again — the first nine and a half verses make clear that the working of the light is without bound, and after that, from I carry onward, restates the earlier receiving of the light and gaining of benefit; and the last passage is divided in three again: the first half-verse ascribes the merit back to its root, the next two and a half verses tell of gaining the samādhi, and the rest tell of seeing the great working.

Read by this division, the frame of these forty-one lines is: the first verse is the general — I, Sudhana, have gained the sight of such great spiritual power; my mind gives rise to rejoicing, and I speak verses in praise. The nine and a half verses that follow write of the light — the marks of her body like stars in the sky, the light she sends forth as many as the dust motes of measureless lands, the light of her pores as many as the minds of sentient beings, jeweled lotus flowers coming forth at the tips of the light, bodies of transformation coming forth within the flowers to extinguish the suffering of sentient beings, wondrous fragrance coming forth within the light, the light between her two brows equal in measure to Sumeru, the light of her mouth like measureless suns, the light of her eyes like measureless moons, closing with the manifesting of bodies of transformation of every kind, the wondrous body pervading the ten directions, and the extinguishing of all fears of water and fire and thieves and kings.

Further down, the half-verse I carry of Joyful Eyes, today I have been able to come to the honored one is the ascribing of the merit back to its root — giving what was gained back to the good friend who came before. The next two and a half verses tell of gaining the samādhi: seeing the mark between the honored one’s brows, the sending forth of a great pure light, its entering into my body, my meeting with the perfect light, gaining the samādhi of total retention, seeing everywhere the buddhas of the ten directions. The rest tell of seeing the great working: in the places passed through all the dust motes are seen, within each and every dust mote lands as many as dust motes are seen, some turbid and foul, some defiled yet pure, some pure yet defiled, some measureless seas of pure lands, closing with what the Buddha Vairocana adorned and purified in kalpas gone by, the Buddha sitting beneath the tree of awakening in all lands, and I see the Deva Who Saves All Beings going everywhere to make offerings.

A misreading to set aside: that verses of praise are only courtesy. These forty-one lines are Sudhana’s restating of what he himself has seen — only when he has said over for himself what he saw does the seeing count as truly seen. And that half a verse is kept on purpose to say I carry of Joyful Eyes is to give the merit back to the one before.

Set upon the ground: the first thing to do after gaining a Dharma is to be able to say where that Dharma came from.

The Three Questions, and This Business of Asking the Name

His verses finished, Sudhana asks three clauses: What is it called? How long has it been since you gained this liberation? What sort of practice did you cultivate that it came to be pure?

Chengguan glosses each clause and its reason: first, asking the name — the name was set forth earlier, and that was the words of the one who compiled the scripture, and so he asks it only here; second, asking how long ago the Dharma was gained — wishing to show that the cultivation is long and the virtue far off; third, asking the cause cultivated and the purifying — seeking the road by which to enter.

The gloss on the first clause is the most essential. Earlier it was said that what the night goddess displayed was the liberating spiritual power of a bodhisattva subduing sentient beings — that was a name set down by the compiler of the scripture for the reader, and Sudhana himself did not hear it from the night goddess’s mouth, and so it is only here that he asks. The second question is not curiosity about her years; it is to show the virtue of long cultivation. The third question is for a road he can himself walk up.

A misreading to set aside: that asking the name is a small matter and asking about practice is the great one. The three questions are one set: not knowing its name one cannot recognize it, not knowing its length one does not know its weight, not knowing its cause one cannot enter it oneself.

Set upon the ground: of a real thing, the three that ought to be asked are these — what it is called, how long it took, and how it was cultivated.

Why It Is Said to Be Hard to Know: Chengguan’s Four Angles

The night goddess does not answer first; she praises its depth first. She says: this place is hard to know; the devas and humans and all those of the two vehicles cannot fathom it — and then uses nine clauses of it is the realm of one who to make clear why it is hard to know: the realm of one who abides in the practice of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, of one who abides in the treasury of great compassion, of one who rescues and protects all sentient beings, of one who is able to purify all three evil destinies and eight difficulties, of one who is able in all buddha-lands to carry on and raise up the buddha-seed without cutting it off, of one who is able to uphold all the buddha-dharmas, of one who is able in all kalpas to cultivate the bodhisattva practice and bring the sea of great vows to fullness, of one who is able within all the seas of the Dharma realm with the pure light of knowledge to extinguish the obstruction of the dark of ignorance, of one who is able with the light of the wisdom of a single thought to shine everywhere upon all the seas of skillful means of the three times. Only then does she say: carrying the power of the Buddha, I shall now tell it for you.

Upon this depth Chengguan sets one question and four answers: What is the mark of its depth? If it be taken with respect to the time of gaining, the time is far off, and so it is not a matter of long or short. If with respect to the cause cultivated, the practice of the cause is vast. If both of these together, then the according with the principle is deep. If with respect to the telling of the name, the name is as the substance and function are; the name is the guest to the real, and it is hard to exhaust the real.

The four angles answer severally to Sudhana’s three questions. As to the time the Dharma was gained, the time is too far, so far that it cannot be measured by long or short; as to the cause cultivated, the practice of the cause is too vast; taking the two together, it is the depth of according with the principle; as to the name — a name, over against the real, is the guest and not the host, and a guest cannot exhaust the host.

A misreading to set aside: that hard to know is an evasion, an unwillingness to speak. She goes on to speak seven thousand graphs and more. Praising its depth is not refusing to speak; it is first setting up a measure: what is about to be said cannot be measured by the ordinary way of measuring.

Set upon the ground: whenever one meets with something truly deep, admit its depth first and then open one’s mouth; only so will what comes out not be shallow.

The First Sentence of the Former Life: A Kalpa, a World, a Host of Buddhas

The body of the answer begins here. In an ancient age gone by, past kalpas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land, at that time there was a kalpa named Perfect Purity, and a world named Vairocana’s Great Majestic Virtue, and Tathāgatas as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru appeared within it. (The name of this world, at the place of the verses restating, reads at that time there was a world named Lamp Shining Everywhere; both forms are the base text graph for graph, recorded without adjudication.)

Chengguan divides the whole prose passage into ten passages, and this one sentence is the first, and he says of it that it has already in brief repaid the question of how long — the second question is in fact answered in the very first sentence, only answered with the utmost brevity: that many kalpas ago.

A misreading to set aside: that the account of the former life is only a story. It is the direct answer to the three questions: this whole stretch from beginning to end is answering how long and how cultivated.

Set upon the ground: telling how one came to be as one is is the most solid kind of answer there is.

What That World Looked Like: Made Up of the Pure and the Foul Together

The second passage displays the marks of the land in general. That buddha-world had as its substance all the maṇi jewels that are kings of fragrance, was adorned with the many jewels, and abode upon a sea of undefiled and luminous maṇi kings; its shape was truly round, and it was made up of the pure and the foul together; clouds of canopies of all the implements of adornment covered it above, and mountains that were rings of all-adorning maṇi encircled it a thousand times over. Within it there were a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of sets of four continents, and those who dwelt there fell into four classes: sentient beings of evil deeds, sentient beings of mixed deeds, sentient beings possessed of roots of good, and the great bodhisattvas who are wholly pure.

Made up of the pure and the foul together is to be remembered. This is a world in which a buddha appears, and it is not purely pure — its shape is truly round, yet its stuff is the pure and the foul put together, and those who dwell in it fall into four ranks.

A misreading to set aside: that the place where a buddha appears must be pure and unmixed. The scripture says of itself that it is made up of the pure and the foul together, and says outright that sentient beings of evil deeds dwell within it.

Set upon the ground: do not wait for the world to be clean before cultivating; the Buddha accomplished the Way in a place made up of the pure and the foul together.

That Set of Four Continents to the East: Rice and Grain Growing without Plowing

The third passage displays the place of birth in particular. The set of four continents beside the encircling ring of mountains at the eastern border of this world is named Banner of Jeweled Lamps and Flowers: its lands pure, its food and drink abundant, without the labor of plowing rice and grain grew; its palaces and towers all of them marvelous; wish-fulfilling trees standing ranked in place after place, fragrance-trees bringing forth clouds of fragrance, garland-trees bringing forth clouds of garlands, flower-trees raining down wondrous flowers, jewel-trees bringing forth marvelous jewels, music-trees bringing forth music as the wind stirred them; the maṇi jewel-kings of the light of sun and moon shining everywhere upon all, and by day and by night pleasure enjoyed without a moment’s break.

Further down is the measure: this set of four continents had a million koṭis of nayutas of lands, one land had a thousand great rivers encircling it, over the rivers wondrous flowers were spread and heavenly music came forth, along the two banks jewel-trees were ranked; between two rivers there were a million koṭis of cities, one city had a million koṭis of nayutas of villages, and the walled towns and villages each had measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of palaces and gardens.

A misreading to set aside: that these numbers are adjectives. The scripture sets out these measures in order to say one thing in the next passage — that in just such a place, abundant to the utmost, people over one sentence of you are not so fair as I diminished their own lifespan and strength of color.

Set upon the ground: the more magnificent the spreading-out of this passage, the heavier the turn of the next.

The King, the Queen, the King’s Daughter: The Three People of the Former Life

The fourth passage makes clear the parents of the former life, and the fifth passage the body of the former life. Within Jambudvīpa there was a land named Jeweled Flower Lamps, at peace and abundant and joyful, its people flourishing, the sentient beings within it all furnished with the practice of the ten good deeds. There was a wheel-turning king named Vairocana Wondrous Jewel Lotus Topknot, born of a sudden within a lotus flower, with the thirty-two marks and the seven treasures complete, ruling as king over the four continents and ever guiding the flocks of the living with the true Dharma. The king had a thousand sons, and a million koṭis of nayutas of palace women and court maidens, all of whom had planted roots of good together with the king, had cultivated the practices together with him, and had been born at the same time as he. The king had a chief queen named Perfect Countenance, the king’s treasure among women, her skin of the color of gold, her eyes and hair of a deep blue-black, her speech like the sound of Brahmā, upon her body a heavenly fragrance, ever giving off a light that shone a thousand yojanas afar. The king had one daughter named Eyes of the Wondrous Virtue of the Flame of Universal Knowledge, her form upright and dignified, her color and appearance surpassingly fine, so that sentient beings who saw her never had their fill of looking.

These three people will each show their identity at the end of this section: the king is Maitreya, the queen is the next good friend, the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, and the daughter is this very night goddess who is speaking. Here their names are only set down.

A misreading to set aside: that the weight of the former life lies in the king’s wealth and rank. The scripture gives the most ink to had planted roots of good together, had cultivated the practices together, and had been born at the same time — that is to say that this whole company were cultivated into being together.

Set upon the ground: with whom one is born at the same time and in the same place was planted together in ages gone by.

My Body Is Upright, Your Form Is Mean and Ugly: The Cause of a Buddha’s Appearing

The sixth passage Chengguan outlines as sentient beings raising evil, which is the cause of the Buddha’s appearing. The scripture writes it very briefly: at that time the lifespan of sentient beings was measureless, and yet there were those cut off midway and dying untimely; their shapes and colors, their sounds, their names, their clans, the foolish and the wise, the brave and the timid, the poor and the rich, the suffering and the happy, in measureless classes were each and every one different. And thereupon someone said to another: My body is upright; your form is mean and ugly. Having said this, they reviled and abused one another and gathered unwholesome deeds; and because of these deeds, their lifespan, their strength of color, and every pleasant thing were all diminished.

The ruin of a whole abundant world arises from one comparison. And Chengguan outlines this passage as the cause of the Buddha’s appearing — it is not that the Buddha chose a good time to come; it is that sentient beings brought themselves to the pass of needing a buddha to come.

A misreading to set aside: that arrogance is a small failing. The scripture says it very plainly: because of these deeds, the lifespan grew short, the strength of color grew weak, the pleasant things were gone. What was compared was precisely appearance, and what was diminished was precisely appearance.

Set upon the ground: to take one’s own strong point and measure it against another’s weak point diminishes one’s own lifespan.

The Tree North of the City, the Pool before the Tree, the Flower within the Pool

The seventh passage is the Buddha’s appearing and benefiting beings, which Chengguan divides again into three: the site of the gaining of the Way, the general display of the number of buddhas, and the particular account of the first buddha.

The site of the gaining of the Way is like this: north of the city there was a tree of awakening named Banner of the Sound of the Dharma-Cloud of Universal Light, having as its root the firm maṇi king in which, in thought after thought, the adornments of the places of the Way of all the Tathāgatas appear, having all maṇi as its trunk and the many-colored wondrous jewels as its leaves, perfect and adorned in the four directions and above and below, sending forth jeweled lights and bringing forth wondrous sounds, expounding the most profound realm of all the Tathāgatas. Before the tree there was a fragrant pool named Light of Jeweled Flowers, giving out the thunder-tone of the Dharma, with wondrous jewels for its banks, a million koṭis of nayutas of jewel-trees encircling it, every one of them shaped like the tree of awakening. Within the pool there came forth a great lotus flower named Cloud of the Adorned Realm of All the Tathāgatas of the Three Times Made Manifest, and buddhas as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru appeared within it. The first buddha among them was named Banner of the Wondrous Virtue of the Jewel-Flame of Universal Knowledge, who upon this flower first accomplished the Way and for measureless thousands of years expounded the true Dharma and ripened sentient beings.

A misreading to set aside: that the place of the Way is ground the Buddha chose. The order of the scripture is: first there is the tree, before the tree there is the pool, within the pool there is the flower, upon the flower a buddha comes forth — the place of the Way is grown, not arranged.

Set upon the ground: that a place can bring forth a buddha is because it has first grown into being so of itself.

The Eleven Layers of Light: The Buddha Had Not Yet Come, and the Light Came Ten Thousand Years Ahead

This is the most moving passage in the whole unit. In the time when that Tathāgata had not yet become a buddha, this great lotus flower first sent forth light — ten thousand years beforehand it sent forth the light Manifesting All Spiritual Powers and Ripening Sentient Beings, and those who met with it had their minds open and awaken of themselves and knew that ten thousand years later a buddha would appear; nine thousand years beforehand it sent forth Lamp That Frees All Sentient Beings from Defilement, and those who met with it gained a pure eye; eight thousand years beforehand, Sound of the Fruits of the Deeds of All Sentient Beings, and those who met with it knew of themselves the retribution of their deeds; seven thousand years beforehand, Sound That Brings Forth All Roots of Good, and those who met with it had all their faculties made perfect; six thousand years beforehand, Sound of the Inconceivable Realm of the Buddha, and those who met with it had their minds made vast; five thousand years beforehand, Sound of the Adorning and Purifying of All Buddha-Lands, and those who met with it saw the pure buddha-lands; four thousand years beforehand, Lamp of the Realm of All Tathāgatas without Difference, and those who met with it were able to go and behold the buddhas; three thousand years beforehand, Bright Lamp of the Three Times, and those who met with it saw the seas of the former deeds of the buddhas; two thousand years beforehand, Lamp of the Knowledge of the Tathāgata Free of Film, and those who met with it gained the universal eye; one thousand years beforehand, Causing All Sentient Beings to See the Buddha and Gather All Roots of Good, and those who met with it accomplished the samādhi of seeing the buddhas; and next after this, seven days beforehand, Sound of the Rejoicing of All Sentient Beings, and those who met with it saw the buddhas everywhere and gave rise to great rejoicing. Ten layers by the count of years and one layer of seven days, eleven layers in all (counted out word for word, if there were sentient beings who met with this light appears eleven times).

Chengguan reckons their number and says: the marks before the accomplishing of the Way — that is, the sending forth of light to tune the capacities has eleven layers, and within each and every layer there is the working of the light bringing about benefit; matching the benefit to the name, one may reason it out. He brings out a further gloss upon what they signify, saying: if taken as signifying dharmas, then the first ten are the light of the ten perfections in their sequence, and the last one is the light of the ten perfections in their perfect fusion, and shining upon the mind with this, one’s own knowledge appears — the first ten layers matched to the sequence of the ten perfections, the last layer to their perfect fusion.

A misreading to set aside: that a buddha’s appearing in the world is a sudden event. The scripture says that the Buddha had not yet become a buddha and the light had already been sent forth for ten thousand years, and step by step it ripened the faculties of sentient beings: first awakening, then the pure eye, then knowing deeds, then faculties made full, then the mind made vast, then seeing lands, then seeing buddhas, then seeing former deeds, then gaining the universal eye, then accomplishing samādhi, and only last of all rejoicing. By the time the Buddha truly appeared, those who ought to see had long been made ready.

Set upon the ground: everything that looks as though it happened suddenly has behind it a long stretch of preparation that no one noticed.

The Seven Days Fulfilled: The Worlds Quaked, and All Who Ought to Come Came

When the seven days were fulfilled, all the worlds quaked entirely, purely pure and without defilement, and in thought after thought there appeared everywhere all the pure buddha-lands of the ten directions and the adornments of every kind of those lands; and if there were sentient beings whose faculties were ripe and full and who ought to see the Buddha, they all came to the place of the Way. This is what Chengguan outlines as the quaking of the lands and the gathering of the assembly.

Next comes the manifesting of marks and the showing forth of virtue: within that world all the encircling rings, the Sumerus, the mountains, the great seas, the earth, the cities, the walls, the palaces, the music, and the speech all gave forth sounds praising and telling of the realm of the spiritual power of all the buddhas, the Tathāgatas; and there came forth fifteen kinds of cloud — clouds of fragrance, of burning incense, of powdered incense, of fragrant maṇi in the likeness of images, of jewel-flames, of the treasury of flames, of maṇi garments, of strings of gems, of wondrous flowers, of the light of the Tathāgatas, of the halos of the Tathāgatas, of music, of the sound of the vows of the Tathāgatas, of the seas of the speech and tones of the Tathāgatas, and of the marks and signs of the Tathāgatas — showing forth the inconceivable marks of a Tathāgata’s appearing in the world.

A misreading to set aside: that the gathering of the assembly is a being summoned. What the scripture says is whose faculties were ripe and full and who ought to see the Buddha, they all came to the place of the Way — those who were ripe came of themselves.

Set upon the ground: when even the walls and the music give out sound, it is not that the sound has grown louder; it is that the listener has ripened.

The Support and the Person of the Accomplishing: Beyond the One Flower, Flowers as Many as the Dust Motes of Ten Buddha-Lands

The fifth part is the support and the person of the accomplishing of the Way. This great jeweled lotus-flower king of the adorned realm of all the Tathāgatas of the three times shone upon everywhere had lotus flowers as many as the dust motes of ten buddha-lands encircling it about, and within all those lotus flowers there were lion seats of the treasury of maṇi jewels, and upon every seat there was a bodhisattva sitting cross-legged.

The sixth part is the first accomplishing of right awakening, and here the scripture’s way of putting it is most essential: that Tathāgata, when he accomplished anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi here, then accomplished anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi within all the worlds of the ten directions. Chengguan judges of this that one accomplishing is the accomplishing of all.

A misreading to set aside: that the accomplishing of the Way is an event that takes place at one time and in one place. The scripture says that accomplishing here is accomplishing in all places of the ten directions — it is not that a divided body goes elsewhere and accomplishes it a second time.

Set upon the ground: once one has truly reached that step, there is no need to walk it again.

The Twenty Clauses of Turning the Wheel of Dharma: From Leaving the Suffering of the Evil Destinies to the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra

Having accomplished the Way he turns the wheel of Dharma according to the minds of sentient beings, and the scripture heads twenty clauses with he caused measureless sentient beings (counted out word for word, twenty clauses): to leave behind the suffering of the evil destinies, to gain birth among the devas, to abide upon the ground of the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas; then ten practices of awakening — going forth, the banner of valor, the light of the Dharma, pure faculties, the power of equality, entering the city of the Dharma, the indestructible power of spiritual powers reaching everywhere to all places, entering the way of the skillful means of the universal gate, abiding upon the gate of samādhi, taking as object all pure realms; and then to raise the mind of awakening, to abide upon the bodhisattva way, to abide upon the way of the pure perfections, to abide upon the first ground of the bodhisattva, to abide upon the second ground and on to the tenth, to enter the surpassing practices and vows of the bodhisattva, and to abide upon the pure practices and vows of Samantabhadra.

Chengguan judges the sequence of these twenty clauses, saying that the earlier part benefits ordinary beings, the next benefits the two vehicles, and the later benefits bodhisattvas; and within the bodhisattvas, first the practice is accomplished and then the station, and he matches the clauses to the stations one by one — the mind of awakening is the station of abiding; the bodhisattva way is the station of practice; the pure perfections are the station of dedication, since with the sea of great vows the earlier perfections are purified; the last two clauses are the station of equal awakening. The Yanyi chao adds a line on why the ten grounds are not spoken of, saying: as for not speaking of the ten grounds, it is because the ten grounds are manifest in the text of the two clauses above; the other stations are hidden in sense, and so they are pointed out separately — the ten grounds are already stated outright in the scripture, and so need not be marked again.

A misreading to set aside: that a buddha, once he appears in the world, expounds the highest Dharma straightway. These twenty clauses begin from leaving behind the suffering of the evil destinies, and in the middle they pass honestly through gods and humans and the two vehicles.

Set upon the ground: the sequence of a teaching is ranked according to those who listen, not according to the height of the Dharma.

Samantabhadra Comes: How a Good Friend Appears

The eighth passage is the guiding of the good friend, which Chengguan divides into six: knowing the capacity and the raising of evil, manifesting a body that surpasses, the capacities of beings startled and wondering, telling them of the Buddha’s appearing, the daughter raising the great mind, and the father king going to the Buddha.

It begins with Samantabhadra knowing that the sentient beings within the city of the King of Jeweled Flower Lamps were presuming upon their color and appearance and upon all their circumstances and were giving rise to arrogance, slighting and despising others. He does not expound the Dharma first; he first manifests by transformation a marvelous body, upright and surpassing, goes to that city and sends forth a great light, causing the light of that sage king and of all the marvelous jewels, of the sun and moon and stars, and upon the bodies of sentient beings, all of it, not to appear — and the scripture takes two similes: just as when the sun comes out the many shadows are robbed of their brightness, and as a lump of ink set against Jambū-river gold. The sentient beings are thereupon startled and wondering, saying, Who is this? Is it a deva? Is it Brahmā? They ponder it in every way, and none is able to understand it.

A misreading to set aside: that a good friend manifests a body in order to show forth his superiority. Look at what Samantabhadra is treating: the people of this city are comparing who is the fairer. So he manifests a body so fair that no fairness can hold up as fairness at all. The sickness arises from arrogance; the medicine is the robbing of brightness.

Set upon the ground: to treat a sickness is sometimes not to argue the point, but to leave the sickness with no ground to stand upon.

A Little Girl’s Vow: Ever to Gain Not to Be Parted from This Good Friend

Samantabhadra abides in the empty sky above the wheel-turning king’s palace and tells them: Great king, you should know that now within your land a buddha has arisen in the world, beneath the tree of awakening, Banner of the Sound of the Dharma-Cloud of Universal Light.

At this the daughter of the sage king — whom the scripture here names Wondrous Eyes of the Lotus Flower — seeing the sovereignty of the light of the form-body Samantabhadra manifested and hearing the wondrous sounds that came forth from the implements of adornment upon his body, rejoiced in her mind and made a thought. The scripture writes this thought out in full: may it be that all the roots of good I have gain such a body, such an adornment, such marks and signs, such deportment, such sovereignty; now this great sage is able within the dark of the long night of the birth and death of sentient beings to send forth a great light and show forth that a Tathāgata has arisen in the world, and may it be that I too gain the like and become for all sentient beings a light of wisdom, breaking the dark of their ignorance; and the last clause is: may it be that in whatever place I receive birth, I ever gain not to be parted from this good friend.

Chengguan outlines this section as the daughter raising the great mind, and notes one line: it is also the cause of entering the Dharma.

A misreading to set aside: that she is merely envying Samantabhadra’s fairness. Her vow falls into three: the vow to gain such a body, the vow so to be a light for sentient beings, and the vow to be born life after life without parting from this good friend. The first is what she saw, the second is what she would learn, the third is what she would keep. Of the three, the third is the most essential — the several thousand graphs that follow prove that she truly never left.

Set upon the ground: after meeting a person who is truly a person, the vow most worth raising is not I want to be like him, but I do not want to leave him.

The Wheel-Turning King’s Ten Verses: Urging Them All to Go Together

The sixth section is the father king going to the Buddha, which Chengguan divides into four: his body placed in the empty sky, praising in verses and drawing them on, raising up broad clouds of offerings, and arriving there and paying reverence.

The wheel-turning king, with his treasure-woman, his thousand sons, his retinue, his great ministers and counselors and his fourfold armies, and with the measureless people within the city, by the king’s spiritual power rose together into the sky to the height of one yojana, sent forth a great light shining upon the four continents, and praised the Buddha in verses. These verses come to twenty lines, ten verses (counted out word for word). Chengguan divides them, saying: the first one urges in general, the next five verses gloss the urging, and the last four verses conclude the urging, that since it is surpassing one ought to go.

Read by this: the first verse is the general urging — The Tathāgata has appeared in the world, saving and protecting everywhere all the flocks of the living; you should all of you rise up quickly and go to where the Guide is. The next five verses gloss why one ought to go: that a buddha is hard to have arise in the world; that the Buddha beholds the world upside down and thereupon raises great compassion; that through numberless thousands of koṭis of kalpas he cultivated the practice of awakening, all by the power of great compassion; that his head and eyes and hands and feet, all of it, he was able to give up; that a Guide is hard to meet with, and that to see him, to hear him, and to serve him is none of it passed in vain. The last four verses conclude the urging: now I shall go together with you all to behold the Tamer of Beings; gaze up at the body of the Tathāgata sending forth measureless light; from each and every pore he sends forth light that shines everywhere and causes rejoicing; you should all of you give rise to a vast mind of vigor and go and make offerings.

A misreading to set aside: that a king’s seeing the Buddha is his own private affair. The first thing he does is to take the whole city with him — and to do it by urging: telling them it is hard to meet with, telling them it is precious, telling them that going will not be in vain.

Set upon the ground: to gain a good thing oneself and not tell of it, and to tell of it and yet not urge others to go along, both still fall short by a stretch.

The Daughter’s Strings of Gems: The Cause Is Small and the Fruit Is Great

The ninth passage is the daughter of virtue cultivating the cause. Chengguan divides it in three and matches each with what it signifies: first, the implements of adornment offered to the Buddha, signifying the cultivating of the myriad practices, since they are turned toward the fruit of buddhahood; second, from at that time these implements of adornment onward, the seeing of the Buddha manifesting transformations, signifying that the cause is small and the fruit is great; third, from having seen these onward, the gaining of benefit from beholding the transformations.

What the scripture writes: the wheel-turning king’s daughter Eyes of the Wondrous Virtue of the Flame of Universal Knowledge loosens all the implements of adornment upon her body and scatters them upon the Buddha, and these implements of adornment become in the empty sky a jeweled canopy, with jeweled nets hanging down and dragon kings upholding them, ten kinds of jeweled canopy encircling it about, shaped like a tower, pure within and without. Within the canopy there is a tree of awakening, its branches and leaves luxuriant, covering everywhere the Dharma realm, in thought after thought displaying measureless adornments. The Tathāgata Vairocana sits beneath this tree, with bodhisattvas as many as the dust motes of unspeakable buddha-lands encircling him before and behind, all of them born of the practices and vows of Samantabhadra.

What she sees opens out layer upon layer: she sees all the lords of the worlds; she sees the sovereign spiritual power of the Tathāgata; she sees all the kalpas in due order and the forming and decaying of the worlds; she sees within all the worlds the due order of the arising of all the buddhas; she sees that within all the worlds there is in each and every one the bodhisattva Samantabhadra making offerings to the Buddha and subduing sentient beings; she sees that of all the bodhisattvas there is not one who is not within Samantabhadra’s body; she sees her own body within his body; she sees her own body before all the Tathāgatas, before all the Samantabhadras, before all the bodhisattvas, before all sentient beings; and she sees further that all the worlds have each of them worlds as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land with every kind of border, upholding, shape, substance-nature, arrangement, adornment, purity, name of kalpa, arising of buddhas, three times, quarter and place, on to every kind of site of awakening of a Tathāgata, power of spiritual powers, lion seat, sea of the great assembly, difference among the assemblies, subtle skillful means, turning of the wheel of Dharma, wondrous tone and sound, sea of speech, and cloud of sūtras. Having seen these, her mind became pure and she gave rise to great rejoicing.

A misreading to set aside: that the greatness of an offering lies in the costliness of the thing offered. What she scattered was only what she wore upon her body, and what it became was a tree of awakening covering the whole Dharma realm — what Chengguan calls the cause is small and the fruit is great.

Set upon the ground: what one is able to bring out is just this little upon one’s body; what happens after it is brought out is not one’s own affair.

After Hearing the Sūtra: Ten Thousand Samādhis, Thirty Minds, Ten Seas of Vows

The tenth passage is the gaining of benefit from hearing the sūtra. The Buddha proclaims for her a sūtra named The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma by All Tathāgatas, with sūtras as many as the dust motes of ten buddha-lands as its retinue. What she gained after hearing the sūtra the scripture sets out in three layers, which Chengguan judges as three benefits: first the benefit of gaining the samādhis; next, from having gained such as these onward, the benefit of gaining the great mind, which is the mind of compassion and knowledge and the rest; and after that, from single-mindedly pondering onward, the benefit of bringing the vows to completion — and he judges these three benefits to be themselves the subduing of sentient beings, since liberation and the three things are all of them dharmas of subduing. That is to say, these three benefits are just the content of this friend’s Dharma gate.

The benefit of the samādhis: she gains the accomplishment of ten thousand gates of samādhi, her mind soft and pliant and without coarseness or hardness, and the scripture describes it with three similes: like one just received into the womb, like one just born, like a sāla tree just putting out its shoots. The samādhis listed come to twelve names (counted out word for word, twelve names, closing with an ellipsis): seeing all buddhas before her · shining everywhere upon all lands · entering the gates of all three times · expounding the wheel of Dharma of all buddhas · knowing the sea of the vows of all buddhas · awakening all sentient beings and causing them to come forth from the suffering of birth and death · ever vowing to break the dark of all sentient beings · ever vowing to extinguish the suffering of all sentient beings · ever vowing to bring forth the joy of all sentient beings · teaching all sentient beings without giving rise to weariness · the unobstructed banner of all bodhisattvas · going everywhere to all pure buddha-lands.

The benefit of the great mind: she gains thirty kinds of mind (counted out word for word, thirty names). The first six names are the groundwork of the mind — the mind of wondrous concentration, the unmoving mind, the rejoicing mind, the comforting mind, the vast mind, and the mind that accords with the good friend. The last nine names are the breadth of the mind — the mind that rescues and protects the sea of all sentient beings, the mind that shines everywhere upon the sea of all worlds, the mind that brings forth everywhere the sea of the vows of all buddhas, the mind that breaks utterly the mountains of all obstructions, the mind that gathers the merit that aids the way, the mind that sees before it the ten powers of the buddhas, the mind that shines everywhere upon the realms of the bodhisattva, the mind that increases what aids the bodhisattva way, and the mind that takes as its object everywhere the seas of all quarters. The fifteen names in the middle are the bone of these thirty minds, and they are just where the dharmas of subduing come to stand; they are to be read group by group.

The first group, two names: the mind that takes as its object the deep knowledge of all things, and the mind that abides in the vast sea of skillful means. One end is fastened to the depth of knowledge, the other to the breadth of skillful means. Subduing sentient beings is not a matter of compassion alone: if knowledge is not deep one does not know where a being’s sickness lies, and if skillful means are not broad one cannot lay a hand to it even when one knows. These two stand first because they are the two roots of subduing.

The second group, four names: the mind that casts off all clinging, the mind that does not abide in any realm of the world, the mind that enters the realm of the Tathāgata, and the mind that shines everywhere upon the sea of forms. The first two are a going out — casting off clinging, not abiding in the world’s realms; the latter two are a going in — entering the Tathāgata’s realm, shining everywhere upon the sea of forms. One who would subdue must first go out, for without that the one to be subdued carries her away; but going out without going in ends in caring only for oneself. Going out and yet able to go in, and going in so far as to shine upon the whole sea of forms — that is standing in the midst of sentient beings without being turned by the realms of sentient beings.

The third group, five names: the mind without harm, the mind without haughtiness, the mind without weariness, the mind that does not turn back, the mind without indolence. Five “withouts.” The first two speak of one’s bearing toward others — not harming them, not looking down upon them; subduing goes wrong most easily at just these two points, either harming people in the name of subduing them, or being able to subdue and therefore holding oneself high. The latter three speak of one’s own endurance — not wearying, not turning back, not slackening. The sea of sentient beings is not to be subdued in a season, and without these three the knowledge and skillful means above cannot be kept up.

The fourth group, four names: the mind that ponders the own-nature of all dharmas, the mind that abides in the sea of all Dharma gates, the mind that observes the sea of all Dharma gates, and the mind that knows through the sea of all sentient beings. Pondering own-nature is seeing the Dharma; abiding in the sea of Dharma gates is holding it; observing that sea is examining it; knowing through the sea of sentient beings is recognizing a being’s capacity. Where seeing, holding, examining, and recognizing are all furnished, “meeting the capacity” is no empty phrase — one knows what capacity is before one, and knows which gate one has to hand.

So when Chengguan says these thirty minds are dharmas of subduing, the whole weight of it falls upon these fifteen in the middle: casting off and not abiding, and so able to enter, so that the one subdued does not turn the one who subdues; without harm and without weariness, and so able to last, so that a subduing of a season becomes a subduing of ages; knowing the Dharma and knowing the capacity, and so able to answer, so that each one subdued gets the gate that is his. The first six names are the groundwork of all this, and the last nine are all this widened out to the breadth of a sea.

The benefit of the vows: single-mindedly pondering the great vows of Samantabhadra, she raises seas of vows as many as the dust motes of ten buddha-lands, listing ten vows (counted out word for word, ten vows, closing with an ellipsis): to adorn and purify all buddha-realms · to subdue all sentient beings · to know everywhere the whole Dharma realm · to enter everywhere all the seas of the Dharma realm · to cultivate the bodhisattva practice in all buddha-lands to the ends of the kalpas to come · not to give up any bodhisattva practice to the ends of the kalpas to come · to gain the drawing near to all the Tathāgatas · to gain the serving of all good friends · to gain the making of offerings to all buddhas · to cultivate the bodhisattva practice in thought after thought and increase all-knowledge without a break. It closes with she accomplished all the great vows of Samantabhadra.

A misreading to set aside: that the samādhis, the minds, and the vows are three separate batches of gain. Chengguan says the three are all of them dharmas of subduing — concentration is the strength that can subdue, the mind is the measure that can subdue, the vow is the direction in which it subdues; only the three together are that one Dharma gate.

Set upon the ground: with concentration but no vow one cannot go far; with vow but no concentration one cannot move at all.

An Earlier Time Still: She Once Repaired a Buddha-Image That Had Fallen into Ruin

Having come this far, the prose suddenly pushes back further. Before this, yet another ten great kalpas back, there was a world named Maṇi of the Light of the Sun-Wheel, and the buddha’s title was Wondrous Mark of the Banner of Indra. This maiden Wondrous Eyes, within the Dharma that Tathāgata left behind, was urged by the bodhisattva Samantabhadra to repair a buddha-image upon a lotus seat that had fallen into ruin; and having repaired it she painted it further with colors, and having painted it with colors she adorned it further with jewels, and gave rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Chengguan outlines this passage as making clear the beginning of the raising of the mind, and glosses why this passage has to be added: as for before this, it is before the kalpa in which the Dharma was gained, and it shows that the gaining of the Dharma before was not without a cause. That earlier gaining of the Dharma looks magnificent, and in fact it too has its cause, and that cause is as small as the repairing of a single ruined image.

Then the night goddess says: I call to mind the past — it was because of the good friend, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, that I planted this root of good. From then until now I have never fallen into the evil destinies, but have ever been born among the clans of all the deva-kings and the human kings … ever have I seen the buddhas and ever gained the drawing near to the bodhisattva Samantabhadra; and even to this day he is guiding and awakening me and ripening me and causing me to rejoice.

A misreading to set aside: that the raising of the mind must begin from some grand occasion. Her raising of the mind began from a piece of work in her hands — mending the ruined image upon the seat, and having mended it painting it, and having painted it adorning it.

Set upon the ground: the moment of raising the mind often does not look like raising the mind; it looks like doing a small thing that ought to be done.

Bringing Together Past and Present: The Father King Is Maitreya, the Queen Is the Next Good Friend, That Daughter Is I

The third passage is the bringing together of past and present. The night goddess asks Sudhana: What do you think? The wheel-turning sage king of that time, Vairocana Treasury Wondrous Jewel Lotus Topknot — was he another person? He is the bodhisattva Maitreya of today. The queen of that time, Perfect Countenance, is the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, whose dwelling place now is not far from here. The maiden Eyes of Wondrous Virtue of that time is my own self.

Each of the three shows his or her identity. And she goes on to string cause and fruit together: At that time I first began to raise the mind; then he guided me further and caused me to gain the sight of the Buddha Banner of Wondrous Virtue, and I loosened the strings of gems upon my body and scattered them upon the Buddha as an offering, and saw the Buddha’s spiritual power and heard the Buddha expound the Dharma, and then gained the bodhisattva liberation gate of Appearing Everywhere in All Worlds and Subduing Sentient Beings.

Only here is Sudhana’s first question truly answered through — the name of the Dharma gate is grown out of this stretch of causes and conditions; it is not hung upon it.

What is to be noticed is the two fastenings the scripture makes of itself. First, the father king is Maitreya — the great good friend Sudhana is to visit later on. Second, the queen is just the next good friend, the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, and moreover her dwelling place now is not far from here. Both of these clauses the scripture says of itself; they are not matched by later hands.

A misreading to set aside: that the bringing together of past and present is the wrapping-up of a story. It is the answer of this section: what is called a good friend is not someone met by chance upon the road; it is one who has walked alongside for measureless kalpas.

Set upon the ground: who the people before one’s eyes are cannot be told by what is before one’s eyes alone.

The Ten Buddhas of the Kalpa Great Light: The Ten Kinds of Body I Took

The second great passage answers the third question in particular — what sort of practice was cultivated that it came to be pure. What was said before is what came before the gaining of the Dharma; this passage is what came after.

After the kalpa Perfect Purity there next came a world named Wondrous Adornment of the Jewel-Wheel, the kalpa named Great Light, and five hundred buddhas appeared within it, and she served and made offerings to them all. The scripture names ten among them in particular (counted out word for word, ten buddha-names), and matches each with a kind of identity: when the first buddha Banner of Great Compassion first went forth from the home, she was a night goddess; at the time of the buddha Banner of the Vajra Nārāyaṇa she was a wheel-turning king; at the time of the buddha Vajra Unobstructed Virtue she was a wheel-turning king; at the time of the buddha Wondrous Adornment of the Mountain of Fire-Flames she was the daughter of an elder; at the time of the buddha King High and Surpassing of the Sea of All Dharmas she was an asura king; at the time of the buddha Light of the Dharma of the Sea and the Peaks she was the daughter of a dragon king; at the time of the buddha Lamp of the Mountain of Jewel-Flames she was a sea spirit; at the time of the buddha Wheel of the Light of the Sea of Merit she was a seer of the five spiritual powers; at the time of the buddha Treasury of the Merit of Vairocana she was a spirit presiding over the earth named Bringing Forth the Sense of Equality; and at the time of the last buddha, Lamp of Wondrous Virtue Filling the Empty Sky and the Dharma Realm, I was a courtesan, named Fair Countenance, who seeing the Buddha enter the city made her offering with song and dance, and carrying the Buddha’s spiritual power leapt into the sky and praised the Buddha in a thousand verses. The Buddha for her sake sent forth the light from between his brows named Great Light Adorning the Dharma Realm, touching her body all over, and having received this light she gained the liberation gate named The Treasury of the Skillful Means of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back.

These ten identities are to be looked at together: night goddess, wheel-turning king, wheel-turning king, daughter of an elder, asura king, daughter of a dragon king, sea spirit, seer of the five spiritual powers, spirit presiding over the earth, courtesan. There are kings and spirits and seers, and there is also a courtesan. But the gaining of a liberation gate must be read in two places. This friend’s own Dharma gate, the bodhisattva liberation gate of Appearing Everywhere in All Worlds and Subduing Sentient Beings, was gained in that earlier life — when she saw the buddha Banner of Wondrous Virtue, loosened the strings of gems upon her body and scattered them upon him as an offering, saw the Buddha’s spiritual power, and heard him preach the Dharma. What she gained in this life as the courtesan Fair Countenance, upon receiving the light from between the Buddha’s brows, is another gate, named The Treasury of the Skillful Means of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back. The two gates are of different times and of different names, and are not to be spoken of as one occasion.

A misreading to set aside: that cultivation must wait upon a good station and a good circumstance. The scripture places the last and most essential time upon the lowest station, and the manner of the offering was her own trade — song and dance.

Set upon the ground: make your offering with the station you have now; there is no need to change it first.

Because I Rely upon the Light of All-Knowledge

The prose closes at the end with two clauses very swiftly. Within this world there are such kalpas as these, as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land, and all the Tathāgatas appeared within them; and I served them all and made offerings to them with reverence — and of the true Dharma expounded, down to not forgetting a single line or a single phrase; and in the presence of each and every Tathāgata she extolled and praised, worked vast benefit, gained the light of all-knowledge, made manifest the sea of the Dharma realm of the three times, and entered into all the practices of Samantabhadra.

The last clause is the conclusion of the whole passage: Because I rely upon the light of all-knowledge, in thought after thought I see measureless buddhas; and having seen the buddhas, all the practices of Samantabhadra that I had not gained before and had not seen before are brought to fullness. Why is this so? Because I have gained the light of all-knowledge.

Chengguan outlines this section as seeing the buddhas and the practice being brought to completion. What is to be looked at is its sequence: first the light of all-knowledge is gained, and only then does she see buddhas in thought after thought; and having seen the buddhas, only then are the practices of Samantabhadra brought to fullness. It is not that seeing much brings the light, but that having the light is why the seeing can be seen.

A misreading to set aside: that the number of times one has seen buddhas is a score-sheet of cultivation. The scripture states the cause and fruit the other way round: the light comes first, the seeing after.

Set upon the ground: before asking oneself what one has seen, ask first by what one is looking.

The Forty-One Verses Restating: The Names of One Hundred and Ten Buddhas

The night goddess, wishing to make clear once more the meaning of this liberation and carrying the spiritual power of the Buddha, speaks verses for Sudhana. These verses come to eighty-two lines, forty-one verses (counted out word for word). Chengguan divides them, saying: the first two verses raise the Dharma and charge him to listen, the next thirty-eight verses restate the direct exposition before, and the last verse raises the cause and urges cultivation; and within the restating of the direct exposition, the first thirty-six verses restate the first kalpa, and the last two verses restate the general display of the kalpas before.

Within the thirty-six verses it is almost all buddha-names. Ten make a set, and set is joined to set by thereafter in due order there were again ten buddhas who appeared (counted out word for word, ten occurrences), which together with the first set make eleven sets. Chengguan reckons their total number and judges what they signify: there are one hundred and ten buddhas, signifying that in the ten grounds and equal awakening each takes its first buddha as host and the remaining nine as companions. What the last two verses signify he tells as well: it also signifies that knowledge being full and practice being perfect, there is nothing that is not buddha.

There are three other markers within the verses: at the end of the first set it says, in the presence of these ten buddhas the Dharma gate was first awakened to; at the end of the second set, when these ten appeared, the Dharma gate was awakened to a second time; at the end of the third set, in the presence of these ten buddhas the Dharma gate was awakened to a third time (counted out word for word, three places); and thereafter the count is not marked again. The last two verses gather it all in: of all the buddhas within kalpas as many as the dust motes of Sumeru, who all were lamps for the world, to them all I once made offerings; of all the buddhas who appeared in kalpas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land, to them all I once made offerings and thereby entered this liberation gate. And the final verse urges cultivation: Through measureless kalpas I cultivated and gained this way; if you are able to cultivate, before long you too shall gain it.

A misreading to set aside: that a long string of buddha-names may be skipped over in reading. These one hundred and ten names are the content of those thirty-six verses, and are also the true answer to that question of how long — not a number, but a string of names served one by one, one after another.

Set upon the ground: how many names of those who truly taught one a person can hold in mind through a lifetime is that person’s history of cultivation.

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

The verses done, the night goddess says: I know only this bodhisattva liberation of Appearing Everywhere in All Worlds and Subduing Sentient Beings. Then she lists what the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are able to do — gathering boundless practices, bringing forth every kind of understanding, manifesting every kind of body, being furnished with every kind of faculty, bringing to fullness every kind of vow, entering every kind of samādhi, raising up every kind of spiritual transformation, being able in every kind of way to behold the dharmas, entering every kind of gate of wisdom, gaining every kind of light of the Dharma — and closes with how then could I know or tell of their practices of merit and virtue.

This section is one that most of the friends of this assembly have (in the base text, within this section, I only appears once). Its use is not politeness: a good friend who has just spoken seven thousand graphs and more about her own history of cultivation through measureless kalpas says at the end that she knows only this one.

A misreading to set aside: that the humbling discounts what was said before. Every clause of what was said before holds good; the humbling is saying something else — that she knows which one it is that she knows.

Set upon the ground: only when one can say where one’s own boundary lies is what one said before to be trusted.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Dhyāna Is Born of Vigor

The last part is the pointing out of the next friend. Not far from here there is a night goddess named Ocean of Tranquil Sound, who sits upon a lotus-flower seat adorned with a maṇi banner of light, with a million asaṃkhyeyas of night goddesses encircling her before and behind. Go to her and ask: how is a bodhisattva to study the bodhisattva practice and cultivate the bodhisattva way?

Chengguan sets down three layers of gloss here. The first glosses not far: again, dhyāna is set forth in reliance upon vigor, and therefore it is said to be not far — this friend is assigned to vigor, and the friend to come presides over dhyāna, and dhyāna is set forth in reliance upon vigor, and so it is said to be not far. The second glosses the name of the friend to come: because of dhyāna she is tranquil, and because she enters the common world and sets forth the Dharma and converts beings deeply and broadly, she is called ocean of sound — tranquil is the substance of concentration, ocean of sound is its function. The third sets up a signification upon the text of the former life: and yet this goddess is the mother of Who Saves All Beings, signifying that true vigor comes forth after all from concentration, since to raise the mind and stir a thought is the false and not vigor — the scripture has only just said that the queen Perfect Countenance is the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, so the friend to come is this friend’s mother; and since a mother bears a child, it signifies that true vigor is in fact born of concentration. The Yanyi chao adds its reason: as for the commentary’s signifying that true vigor comes forth after all from concentration — true vigor is what is apart from body and mind, and without concentration there is no such thing.

There is a fine going-back-and-forth here: seen by sequence, vigor is before and dhyāna after; seen by signification, dhyāna is the mother of vigor. The two statements do not obstruct one another — Chengguan sets up the signification upon the relation of mother and daughter in the scripture, not upon a change of the sequence.

A misreading to set aside: that vigor means exerting force. Chengguan says it very clearly: the sort that raises the mind and stirs a thought is the false, not vigor; true vigor is apart from body and mind, and without concentration one cannot have it.

Set upon the ground: to strain with all one’s might while the mind is unsettled is not vigor but expenditure.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave

The last sentence is very short: At that time, Sudhana the youth bowed to her feet, circled her numberless times, gazed up at her with earnest devotion, took his leave, and departed. Four acts, and not a word.

He did the same when he left the friend before. And what he carries away from this section is a long story — a night goddess who measureless kalpas ago was a king’s daughter, who repaired a ruined image, who was led by Samantabhadra to see the Buddha, and who afterward was a courtesan and gained a liberation gate within song and dance.

Set upon the ground: to hear out a person’s whole history and then bow to her feet — that bow is not the same as the bow one made on arriving.

Assigned to the Ground of Flaming Wisdom: Whose Judgment Is This

From beginning to end this section never once has the three graphs ground of flaming wisdom in it. The one who says this friend is assigned to the Ground of Flaming Wisdom is Chengguan, whose words are: fourth, the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, assigned to the Ground of Flaming Wisdom; and the Yanyi chao glosses the reason, saying: that is, abiding in the most surpassing factors of awakening, burning the firewood of the afflictions, the flame of wisdom increases.

Li Tongxuan too places this friend upon the Ground of Flaming Wisdom, but by a different approach. Glossing the name of the ground he says: upon this ground one cultivates the contemplation gates of the thirty-seven factors that aid the way, and contemplation of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas turns ever brighter and purer, and therefore it is named the Ground of Flaming Wisdom. Glossing the principal practice of this ground he says: second, making clear what practice-gate is cultivated upon this ground — the perfection of vigor is taken as chief, and the remaining nine as companions. Glossing the name of the goddess he says: for this reason this goddess is named Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings; wondrous virtue makes clear that the contemplation of the thirty-seven factors that aid the way is able to show forth the wondrous wisdom of self and others. Glossing the name of the Dharma gate he says: to make clear that the thirty-seven factors of the way of this station are cultivated in common by the three vehicles and the one vehicle, and are the great road of subduing, it is named Appearing Everywhere and Subduing All Sentient Beings, the liberation. And upon this friend as set against the three grounds before he says: the fourth, the Ground of Flaming Wisdom, has the perfection of vigor as its substance, and the goddess’s name is Who Saves All Beings, since the perfection of vigor is the sense of saving all. Glossing the differences among the worlds this friend manifests, he says they are “the mastery of the pure and the mixed light of the knowledge of the various differences” — the purity and foulness of worlds is, for Li, the pure and the mixed in the light of the knowledge of differences; and he matches the hundred and ten buddhas’ names in the verses to the buddha-positions of cause and fruit of the ten grounds and the eleventh, matching “the first buddha named Flame of Knowledge” to the first ground, the Joyful — the buddhas’ names are not a roll but positions climbed ground by ground.

And as for this business of assigned position itself, Chengguan at the outline of the five marks of the final assembly has already himself set out the two readings handed down of old: one that glosses as the text runs without matching stations separately, and one that does match stations. Both tracks stand together, recorded without adjudication.

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

Having set out the two tracks, Chengguan then gives a judgment of his own: both have their reason — since each and every station is furnished with many Dharma gates, how could an ordinary mind be barred from studying and seeking the dharmas of the good friends, and so not to match them has its reason; and yet within the absence of ranked stations the ranked stations are not obstructed, and to show the stations is the constant rule, so that matching them too is not amiss. Not to match has its reason — every station is furnished of itself with many gates, and one may not bar an ordinary person from studying the dharmas of all the good friends. To match is not amiss either — within the absence of ranked stations ranked stations are not obstructed, and showing the stations is the constant rule. This is Chengguan’s own judgment, and not an adjudication of this edition.

A misreading to set aside: that assigned to the Ground of Flaming Wisdom is a rank the scripture marks of itself. The scripture says only that this is a night goddess and that there is such a Dharma gate; the matching of stations is done by the ancient worthies, and the ancient worthies themselves say that both matching and not matching have their reason.

Set upon the ground: a station is a measuring-rod to help one read the sequence, not a word of the scripture itself — to use the rod is well enough; to take the rod for the scripture will not do.

Lineage

Of the text of this section, the streams opened below it run in three lines.

The first is the line the scripture fastens within itself. At the bringing together of past and present in this section, the scripture itself joins three people to elsewhere: the father king is the bodhisattva Maitreya of today, pointing far ahead to the friend Maitreya later in this assembly; the queen is the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, who is the very next friend, and moreover the scripture says her dwelling place now is not far from here. These two fastenings are said by the scripture itself and do not wait upon later hands to match them. Upon the one sense of mother and daughter Chengguan sets up a signification, saying that this friend’s vigor comes forth after all from concentration.

The second is the line of the glossing of the name by the several houses. Chengguan glosses the friend’s name by the flame of knowledge is auspicious, and so she is called wondrous virtue, and fastens her to the Ground of Flaming Wisdom; Li Tongxuan glosses the name of the ground by the contemplation gates of the thirty-seven factors that aid the way, and glosses the name of the goddess by the perfection of vigor; and the glossing of the name of the Dharma gate too goes each by its own track. Fazang’s Tanxuan ji and Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji both comment upon the sixty-fascicle, where this friend is named Wondrous Virtue Who Rescues and Protects Beings, and both houses have a gloss of their own upon this section, made as the text runs. Fazang glosses her name, saying: auspicious and surpassing knowledge is what is named wondrous virtue; gathering beings in and setting practice afoot is what is named rescuing and protecting beings — the surpassingness of knowledge is the wondrous virtue, and setting practice afoot to gather beings in is the rescuing and protecting, so that the two halves of the name each have what they are fastened to. He also divides the kinds of world-shape into the two directions and the two mixtures, brings out the sense that the fear of untimely birth is being born when one does not meet a buddha’s age, and records the Indian name of this Dharma gate. Zhiyan sets it forth as: fourth, the night deva named Wondrous Virtue Who Rescues and Protects Beings — that is, the bodhisattva station of the fourth ground, fastening her straight to the fourth ground; he outlines the text of this section in three, as the urging by the teaching, going toward and entering in accord with the teaching, and the realization; and under truly entering he divides out four matters — the substance of the dharma of one’s own portion, the strength and working of the samādhi, the cause of gaining the Dharma, and the conclusion upon what is known in one’s own portion: the substance is what is depended upon, the working is what is manifested, the cause is why it is so, and the conclusion is knowing one’s own measure. Read straight through, those four make the bone of this section plain. So the houses that gloss as the text runs are in fact four, and not two; only that Fazang and Zhiyan depend upon the sixty-fascicle, and Chengguan and Li Tongxuan upon the eighty-fascicle, each speaking from his own witness. Chengguan besides made one cross-chapter reading, in glossing the assembly of the lords of night in the chapter Lords of the Worlds and Their Wondrous Adornments, where he says: third is the good friend of the Ground of Flaming Wisdom, whose name there is Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings; it is in guarding the vital essence of the world that beings are saved, and it is because she guards living beings that the wondrousness of her virtue is shown forth; the Dharma gate is wholly the same, and the sequence too accords — that is to say, when they are moved she must appear before them, and she subdues them and makes them pure. Guarding life is what shows the wondrousness of her virtue, and being moved she appears and subdues them into purity: that one sentence joins her name and her Dharma gate into a single matter.

The third is this section’s place among the treatises of the Huayan lineage. In the four works Huayan jing zhigui, Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang, Shixuan men, and Fajie xuanjing, the name of this friend is not found at all; but the Huayan jing kongmu zhang does bear upon it in two places — the first in the passage that sets up the sense of each friend in turn, where Zhiyan gives this friend a single clause of Dharma-gate sense, saying: at the place of becoming a buddha; the dharma of sovereignty in awakening; the sense of the Dharma gate of showing forth benefit to sentient beings; and the second in the passage of the list of names, where this friend is listed as the thirty-fifth night deva under the sixty-fascicle form of her name. That is to say, this section has not gone unset up as a doctrinal instance in the treatises: Zhiyan had already set a clause for it, and what he set — showing forth benefit to sentient beings — answers exactly to this friend’s Dharma gate of subduing sentient beings; sovereign in awakening at the place of becoming a buddha, she can therefore show forth; showing forth so as to benefit is itself the subduing. All these divergent interpretations are the settled statements of the ancient worthies.

An answer of seven thousand graphs and more in one unit answers three questions; and of the three questions, the one she spends the most strength upon is how long. Her way of answering is not to give a number, but to say out one by one the people and the things along the road she came. Only when she has said it to the end does Sudhana know: what is called a liberation gate is the name of just such a stretch of road.

This Question of Sudhana’s Is the Finest He Has Asked the Whole Way

At the places of the good friends before this, Sudhana’s way of asking was for the most part a single sentence: how is a bodhisattva to learn the bodhisattva practices, how is he to cultivate the bodhisattva way? Here at the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound he first asks that sentence as before; and then, once the night goddess has told him the name of her Dharma gate, he adds a further question, and this further question is four clauses: “What undertaking is this liberation gate? What realm does it walk in? What skillful means does it set in motion? What beholding does it carry out?”

What is it that he wants to ask? Not what this Dharma gate is called — the name has just been told him; but how this Dharma gate actually turns within the world: what it does, what realm it walks upon, what it starts up from, where its eyes are set.

A misreading must be set aside: that Sudhana is asking at wearisome length. The four clauses each point to something of their own, and moreover they answer to each other two by two — undertaking and realm are what is accomplished, skillful means and beholding are what is able to accomplish. Chengguan gives his judgment upon this very layer, saying that the four questions are “first, asking after the working that is set in motion; second, asking after the realm that is walked in; third, asking after the skillful means that is able to set in motion, which accomplishes what is set in motion above; fourth, asking after the beholding that is able to behold, which accomplishes what is walked in above.” Brought down to the ground: if a Dharma gate is to be asked after clearly, one must ask at once both what it has brought about and what it is that brings it about.

She Does Not Answer in the Order He Asked, and This Is the One Thing in This Section Most Worth Looking At

The order Sudhana asks in is undertaking · realm · skillful means · beholding; the order the night goddess answers in is skillful means · undertaking · beholding · realm. Four questions, four answers, not one of them out of place — and yet the order is not the same.

Why? Chengguan sets up a section of discrimination here, saying, “in the question, because it is meant to display the difference between what is able and what is accomplished, what is accomplished is asked after first and what is able afterward; in the answer, because it is meant to display that what is able and what is accomplished accomplish each other, they are fastened together clause by alternate clause. And further, since what is able gives rise to what is accomplished, what is able is set out first.” When one asks, the able and the accomplished are to be kept apart, and so the accomplished comes first and the able after; when one answers, the able and the accomplished are to be shown as accomplishing each other, and so they are matched at one clause’s remove — the third answers the first, the fourth answers the second. The Yanyi chao states this matching still more firmly: “within the question the first two are what is accomplished, and the third and fourth questions are both what is able, the third accomplishing the first and the fourth accomplishing the second.”

A misreading must be set aside: that the order of the scripture text is disordered, or that the translator’s brush was careless. Were it careless, the four answers would not fall out matching the four questions one by one. Brought down to the ground: a matter may be asked after in pieces, but a matter can only be answered in the order in which it itself grew — first there is the mind that sets it in motion, and only then the deed that is done.

Seeking in Accord with the Teaching: He Comes Carrying What the One Before Gave

The opening sentence of this section is not written about the road; it is written about what is carried. At the place of the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, Sudhana “heard the bodhisattva liberation gate of universally manifesting in all worlds and subduing sentient beings, understood it clearly and had faith in it, and dwelt within it at ease,” and only then “went on to where the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound was.”

Why must this sentence come first? Chengguan outlines it as the seeking in accord with the teaching — before the two Chinese characters ‘seeking after’ come the two Chinese characters ‘in accord with the teaching,’ and the teaching accorded with is the dharma the friend before had conferred. The Dharma gate of the one before was universally manifesting in all worlds and subduing sentient beings, which is to manifest everywhere and convert; the Dharma gate of this one is the vast joy that comes forth in thought after thought, which is the joy born of converting beings and of beholding the Buddha. The former is the deed that is done; the latter is the mind that arises within the doing of the deed; and the two are exactly continuous.

A misreading must be set aside: that to study under a teacher is to begin all over again with each change of teacher. The scripture text says plainly that toward the dharma of the one before he “understood it clearly and had faith in it, and dwelt within it at ease” — he dwelt in it, and then he walked. Brought down to the ground: whether you can see anything at all at the next one’s place depends on whether you can carry away what the last one gave.

Seeing, Paying Respect, and Inquiring: He Bows to Her Feet, Circles Her, Joins His Palms, and Only Then Speaks

Having met her, Sudhana first “bowed to her feet, circled her numberless times, joined his palms before her,” and only then spoke. The first thing he says is not a question; it is a report of where he himself stands: “I have already raised, before this, the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.” And then he tells what he seeks: to rely upon a good friend, to learn the bodhisattva practices, to enter them, to cultivate them, to abide in them.

Learn, enter, cultivate, abide — these four characters are four layers: to learn is to hear and to imitate; to enter is to go through it in one’s own person; to cultivate is to do it continuously; to abide is no longer to fall back. The four characters run on together, and they tell the whole course of seeking the Dharma at one stroke.

A misreading must be set aside: that the paying of respect is mere ceremony and may be passed over. In the scripture text Sudhana at every friend’s place first pays respect and afterward asks; and here what he circles is “numberless times,” not counted. Brought down to the ground: first to report that one has already raised the mind, and then to ask how one is to cultivate — before asking after the Dharma one stands still and says where one is, and only then can the asking go forward.

Praise: What She Praises First Is Not Sudhana, but That upon Which Sudhana Relies

The night goddess’s first words are “good, good! Son of good family! You are able to rely upon a good friend in seeking the bodhisattva practices.” What the praise falls upon is the four Chinese characters ‘rely upon a good friend’ — not upon Sudhana’s cleverness, nor upon how far he has walked.

Why praise this? Because in this assembly there are more than fifty good friends, and each one confers one dharma, and not one of them is complete; each one, at the end, must point to the superior and point out the one who comes next. Only one who can rely upon good friends in his seeking can keep walking; one who cannot rely upon them may listen to ever so much, and it remains so many separate holdings.

A misreading must be set aside: that praise here is a courtesy. Were it courtesy, what would be praised is the one who came; here what is praised is the road that the one who came is walking. Brought down to the ground: what deserves praise is often not what you have managed to do, but that you are willing to hand yourself over to an order of steps.

Briefly Setting Forth the Name and Substance: In the Name of the Dharma Gate, ‘Joy’ Is the Eye

The name the night goddess tells is “the bodhisattva liberation gate of the vast joy adorned that comes forth in thought after thought.” The most important word in the name is ‘joy’ — not concentration, not knowledge, not compassion, but joy.

Where does this joy come from? Chengguan judges here that it has two sources, saying, “from what follows there are two meanings: first, that beings are converted and their aims are met, and therefore joy arises, which is the adornment of merit; second, that one beholds the excellent working of the buddhas and bodhisattvas and therefore rejoices, which is the adornment of wisdom. Since the beholding and the converting are without break, the joy too comes forth in thought after thought.” One source is that the delivering of beings comes out right; the other is the seeing of the excellent working of the buddhas; the former is matched to the adornment of merit, the latter to the adornment of wisdom. And the reason it is said to “come forth in thought after thought” is that what is beheld and what is converted have no break in them, and so the joy has no break in it either.

These two sources are not set up by Chengguan out of the air; the prose of this section itself bears witness to them. At the end of the passage answering what undertaking it is, the scripture text closes of itself, “at that time I gained the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy” — this is the joy of converting beings. In the passage answering what beholding it carries out, the eight passages each close with “having seen this, great joy arose” — this is the joy of beholding the Buddha. Of the former Chengguan says plainly, “because she sees beings brought to profit, there is great joy; this is the first meaning within the glossing of the name.” As for the word ‘adorned’ in the name, Chengguan, reading this friend over against the passage upon the night goddesses in 〈The Wondrous Adornments of the World’s Lords〉, brings out two further senses — “first, seeing the Buddha, she cultivates the cause of joy and it adorns her, because she delights to see the fruit; second, gathering up this joy, the goddess adorns herself”: the first is that seeing the Buddha she cultivates the cause of joy, and that cause is itself the adorning; the second is that gathering this joy up, the goddess is adorned of herself. Joy is what adorns, and ‘adorned’ is what is thereby accomplished; the two words are not two matters standing side by side.

A misreading must be set aside: that joy in the Buddha-Dharma is a certain state of mind that is cultivated, and that one must set about cultivating it on its own. The joy here is the by-product of two matters — the deed came out right; the Buddha was seen. Brought down to the ground: if joy is to come forth in thought after thought, then first what is converted and what is beheld must go on without break in thought after thought.

Answering What Skillful Means It Sets in Motion: The Nineteen Clauses of ‘I Raise a Mind …’

The first of the four answers answers what skillful means it sets in motion. Skillful means, so called, is just those minds that set this Dharma gate going. The night goddess says out in one breath ‘I raise such and such a mind,’ and by the graphs of the base text it comes to nineteen clauses.

The first nine clauses face upward: pure and equal delight; the firmly adorned delight apart from the dust and defilement of the world; the laying hold of the station of no turning back and never turning back; the adorning of the jewel mountain of merit and virtue without shaking; having nowhere it dwells; universally manifesting before sentient beings and rescuing and protecting them; seeing the sea of buddhas without ever having enough; seeking the pure power of the vows of the bodhisattvas; dwelling in the sea of the light of great knowledge. The latter ten face downward, and, apart from the sixth, clause after clause is ‘causing all sentient beings’: to pass beyond the wilderness of grief and vexation; to cast off sorrow, grief, suffering, and vexation; to cast off the six objects that are not to their liking; to cast off the parting from what is loved and the meeting with what is hated; to cast off evil conditions and delusion and the like sufferings; to be a refuge for sentient beings in danger and hardship; to come forth from the place of the suffering of birth and death; to cast off the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death; to accomplish the unsurpassed joy of the Dharma of the Tathāgata; and all to receive joy and delight.

Chengguan outlines this passage as “now the first, within the skillful means that is able to set in motion there are twenty minds,” and judges that “the first ten raise the mind that seeks great knowledge above,” the latter ten being the mind of great compassion that converts below. Here one thing must be set down as it is: the outline of the commentary makes it twenty, while the eighty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to nineteen clauses; Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, says “within the first, there are first ten minds, one short”; and this passage in the forty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to twenty clauses. The number of clauses is uneven among the three witnesses from the start, and the outlines of the several houses follow each its own witness. Recorded together without adjudication.

A misreading must be set aside: that seeking above and converting below are two separate stretches of work, one stretch cultivated and then the other. Here the nineteen minds run on in one breath, with no turn of phrase between them. Brought down to the ground: raising the mind is not raising one mind but raising a string of minds; and within this one string, what faces upward and what faces downward are one and the same breath.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (1): The First Fifteen Gates, Curing the Ten Veils with the Ten Perfections

The passage answering what undertaking it is is the longest passage in this section. Its frame is the one sentence “having raised these minds, I then expound the Dharma for them, causing them to arrive by degrees at the ground of all-knowledge”; and below it the gates are set out one by one, by the graphs of the base text thirty-seven gates, of which thirty-two read ‘if I see sentient beings such and such, I expound the Dharma for them, causing them such and such,’ and the remaining five read “I expound for those ones,” “I display for them,” and “I expound for them” — the sentence pattern is not uniform.

The first fifteen gates Chengguan judges as “the first fifteen gates, converting and curing their ten veils with the ten perfections as is convenient for each,” and he divides them finely, saying, “within these, the first five gates make clear both giving and discipline, since when all clinging is given up the discipline is thereby pure; the latter ten minds make clear the remaining eight perfections, and wisdom and vows have two gates each.” What the first five gates cure is palaces and houses, father and mother and brothers and sisters, wife and child, the royal palace with its court women, and objective realms — all five are things clung to; and so Chengguan says these five gates make clear both giving and discipline: when all clinging has been given up, the discipline is pure of itself. The latter ten gates are then matched one by one to the remaining eight perfections: anger and hatred to forbearance; indolence to vigor; scatteredness to meditation; the thicket of views and the want of knowledge, two gates, to wisdom; the being defiled by and attached to the three realms to skillful means; the low and mean purpose and the dwelling only in the practices that benefit oneself, two gates, to the vows; feebleness in the strength of purpose to the powers; delusion and darkness of mind to knowledge.

A misreading must be set aside: that counteraction is one illness and one medicine, matched off mechanically. Here wisdom and the vows take two gates each, precisely because the illnesses they cure have two faces from the start. Brought down to the ground: what is cured is the ‘veil,’ not the thing — a palace is not itself an illness; the delighting in it and clinging to it is.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (2): The Middle Twelve Gates, Causing Them to Gain the Merit and Virtue of the Buddha’s Cause and Fruit

From the sixteenth gate the breath of it turns. What was cured before was the afflictions; what is cured here is ‘not having’ — form and marks not complete, appearance ugly, form and marks coarse and ill, feelings much given to grief and vexation, affliction by poverty; and then dwelling in groves and gardens, walking upon the road, being within a village, dwelling among human beings, living within a walled city, dwelling in the four corner quarters, dwelling in the several quarters.

Chengguan judges this group, saying, “there are twelve gates, converting sentient beings who are without merit and virtue, causing them to gain the merit and virtue of the Buddha’s cause and fruit and to see the first principle.” Those converted are ‘sentient beings who are without merit and virtue’ — not those who do evil, but those who lack; and what is given them is the merit and virtue of the Buddha’s cause and fruit — the pure body of form, the unsurpassed Dharma body, the subtle and wondrous body of form, ultimate peace and joy, the jewel treasury of merit and virtue, and the way of all-knowledge, the city of the King of the Dharma, and the wisdom that is equal in the three times.

Within this group the latter seven gates are especially to be noticed: groves and gardens, the road, the village, the dwelling among human beings, the walled city, the four corner quarters, the several quarters — every one of them tells of a place where people are. Wherever a person is, from there the Dharma is given him: on the road he is told of the way that goes toward all-knowledge; in the city he is told of dwelling in the city of the King of the Dharma.

A misreading must be set aside: that to expound the Dharma one must wait for people to come to a place of the Way. Here, of the twelve gates, seven expound the Dharma on the spot. Brought down to the ground: the place where a person is, is the very capacity to be cured; there is no need to move him away first.

Answering What Undertaking It Is (3): The Last Ten Gates, Breaking Down the Hindrances of Delusion by Gates of Counteraction

From the twenty-eighth gate it turns once more. To those much given to the practice of greed she expounds the contemplation of impurity; to those much given to the practice of anger, the contemplation of great kindness; to those much given to the practice of delusion, she causes them to gain a bright knowledge and to behold the sea of all dharmas; to those whose practice is in equal parts, she causes them to enter the sea of the vows of the several vehicles; and then, to those who delight in the joys of birth and death she causes weariness and turning away; to those weary of the sufferings of birth and death who are fit to be converted, she causes the manifesting of birth by skillful means; to those who love and cling to the five aggregates she causes them to dwell in the realm that has nothing to lean upon; to those low and mean in mind she displays the way of excellent adornment; to those in whom conceit and arrogance arise she expounds the forbearance of the Dharma that is equal; to those crooked and flattering in mind she expounds the straight mind of the bodhisattva.

Chengguan judges this group, saying, “ten gates, which merely break down their hindrances of delusion by gates of counteraction.” It differs from the two groups before: the first fifteen gates convert veils by the perfections, the middle twelve gates make up with merit and virtue what was lacking, and these last ten gates break down the hindrances of delusion directly, applying the medicine one to one.

Here there is one pair to be looked at: to those who delight in the joys of birth and death she causes weariness and turning away, while to those weary of the sufferings of birth and death she causes the manifesting of birth by skillful means. It is the one same birth and death; the one is to be drawn out of it, the other to be put back into it. A misreading must be set aside: that the Buddha-Dharma has only one attitude toward birth and death. Brought down to the ground: the medicine is not prescribed to the name of the illness, but to which side this person is leaning toward now.

Summing Up the Undertaking: This Is Where the Joy Is Born

The thirty-seven gates told, the night goddess closes of herself: “with these measureless gifts of the Dharma I gather in sentient beings, and with every kind of skillful means I teach, convert, and subdue them, causing them to leave the evil destinies, to receive the joys of devas and human beings, to be freed from the bonds of the three realms, and to dwell in all-knowledge; and at that time I gained the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy, and my mind was glad and free, at peace and content.”

Leaving the evil destinies, receiving the joys of devas and human beings, being freed from the bonds of the three realms, dwelling in all-knowledge — these are four layers rising; and yet the last three phrases are written about herself: glad and free, at peace, content. This is precisely the first source of the ‘joy’ in the Dharma gate’s name. Chengguan says it straight out: “because she sees beings brought to profit, there is great joy; this is the first meaning within the glossing of the name.”

A misreading must be set aside: that to deliver sentient beings is to give out and to be diminished oneself. Here the scripture text is the other way about: the gift of the Dharma went out, and what came back was the sea of the light of the Dharma of vast joy. Brought down to the ground: this sentence is the first footing of the word ‘joy’ in this passage — joy is not the recompense; it is the other face of the same matter.

Answering What Beholding It Carries Out (1): Beholding the Bodhisattvas — a Passage That Uses Only One Word

The third answer is beholding. Chengguan divides it in two, saying “first, beholding the realm of the bodhisattvas,” and afterward beholding the excellent working of the Buddha.

The passage on beholding the bodhisattvas is very strange: the whole passage runs on with only the one word ‘every kind’ — every kind of vow and practice, every kind of pure body, every kind of constant radiance, every kind of light, every kind of skillful means, every kind of samādhi, every kind of spiritual transformation, every kind of sea of sound … down to “sit upon every kind of adorned throne.” Within the whole passage not one separate name comes out.

Why is it written so? Because what is beheld is “the assemblies at the places of the Way of all bodhisattvas,” not some one bodhisattva. Whatever can be listed by name has a number; and what is to be displayed here is exactly the numberless. And so the closing sentence is “knowing that the Buddha’s spiritual power is measureless and boundless, great joy arises” — what is beheld is in the bodhisattvas, but where it comes home is the spiritual power of the Buddha.

A misreading must be set aside: that ‘every kind’ is a lazy stroke of the translating brush. Were it exchanged for a listing of names one by one, it would turn the measureless into the measured. Brought down to the ground: there are some things that can only be listed by not being named.

Answering What Beholding It Carries Out (2): Eight Passages of Beholding the Buddha, Each Closed with Joy

In the passage of beholding the Buddha, the scripture text opens its clauses with “I behold,” “again I behold,” “again I see,” and the eight passages each close with “having seen this, great joy arose”: the pure body of form; the sending forth of a great light; the seas of light from the pores; the clouds of mountains of jeweled flame from the crown and the two shoulders; the clouds of fragrant light from the pores; the clouds of tathāgata bodies from each and every mark; the clouds of the Buddha’s transformations from the pores; the clouds of the bodies of the kings of the devas from the pores. After the eight passages, the clouds of the bodies of nine kings — the nāga kings, the yakṣa kings, the gandharva kings, the asura kings, the garuḍa kings, the kiṃnara kings, the mahoraga kings, the human kings, and the Brahmā kings — are gathered up as being of the same kind, and carried by the general clause “having seen these, in thought after thought great joy arose.” Chengguan outlines this passage as “what is truly displayed has ten gates within it.”

What the eight passages behold goes from coarse to fine: first the whole body of form, then the light, then into the pores, then into each and every mark; and what comes forth goes from thing to person — clouds of mountains of jeweled flame, clouds of fragrant light, and after them clouds of bodies, clouds of transformations, clouds of the bodies of the kings of the devas.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is description repeated. Brought down to the ground: it is one and the same buddha, and the finer one looks the more one sees; and that “great joy arose” comes eight times over says just this, that the joy is not had after one whole looking is done, but that each layer has its own.

After the Beholding of the Buddha: Six Clauses of ‘What in the Past Had Never … Now for the First Time …’

After the eight passages and the nine kings, the scripture text brings out a set of six clauses: “what in the past had never been gained, now for the first time was gained; what in the past had never been realized, now for the first time was realized; what in the past had never been entered, now for the first time was entered; what in the past had never been fulfilled, now for the first time was fulfilled; what in the past had never been seen, now for the first time was seen; what in the past had never been heard, now for the first time was heard.” Gaining, realizing, entering, fulfilling, seeing, hearing — six matters, and clause after clause of one type.

And then the scripture text raises a question of itself: for what reason? The answer has four clauses — because she is able to understand the mark of the Dharma realm; because she knows that all dharmas are of one mark alone; because she is able to enter the way of the three times equally; because she is able to expound all the boundless dharmas. Chengguan glosses this raising of the question, saying, “because the great knowledge that beholds answers to the substance and marks of the Dharma realm, the faith and the rest that are born of it are equal to all-knowledge.” And so such a ‘now for the first time’ is possible not because the looking was long, but because the knowledge that beholds has already come to answer to the substance and marks of the Dharma realm.

A misreading must be set aside: that “what in the past had never been gained, now for the first time was gained” is a report of progress in cultivation. Were it merely progress, there would be no need to follow it with a “for what reason?” Brought down to the ground: how much can be seen depends on whether the eye fits the measure of the Dharma realm, not on the length of the looking.

Answering What Realm It Walks In (1): The Ten Gates Expounded as Dharma

The fourth answer is the realm. Chengguan divides it into three, saying “the first, ten gates expounded as dharma,” next twenty-two gates expounded by simile, and last one sentence summing up and exhorting to cultivate.

The ten gates expounded as dharma are: without bound (because it enters universally the gates of all Dharma realms); without exhausting (because it raises equally the mind of the nature of all-knowledge); without limit (because it enters into the thoughts in the minds of all sentient beings, which have no limit); deep (because it is the realm known to tranquil wisdom); vast (because it pervades the realms of all tathāgatas); not to be destroyed (because it is what the bodhisattva’s eye of knowledge knows); without a floor (because it exhausts the very source and floor of the Dharma realm); and then three gates in which the sentence pattern turns — it is the universal gate itself (because within a single matter it universally sees all spiritual transformations); in the end not to be laid hold of (because all Dharma bodies are equal and undivided); in the end without arising (because it is able to understand that dharmas are like an illusion).

The first seven gates tell of measure: bound, exhausting, limit, depth, vastness, destroying, floor — all seven words are the bounds of a measure, and all seven clauses tell that it has no such bound. The latter three tell of nature: the universal gate is pervasion; not to be laid hold of is that there is nothing gained; without arising is that it is like an illusion.

A misreading must be set aside: that ‘without bound and without exhausting’ are words of praise. Here beneath every clause there stands a ‘because,’ and clause by clause the reason is given. Brought down to the ground: to say that a Dharma gate is vast, one must be able to say why it cannot be measured out.

Answering What Realm It Walks In (2): Twenty-Two Similes, and the Similes Divide the Work Among Themselves

From “like a reflected image” onward the scripture text runs on with twenty-two similes. Chengguan judges these as expounded by simile, and makes clear why similes are needed — “twenty-two gates expounded by simile, because the marks of its depth and vastness are hard to know.”

Each of the twenty-two similes has its own work to do, and the work is fastened every time upon that one word ‘because’ which the scripture text itself supplies — under each simile there follows a reason, and simile and reason are to be looked at together; the name of the simile alone does not show why it is there.

The first two similes tell where this liberation comes from. It is like a reflected image, “because it is born of the light of the vow of all-knowledge” — the image is born of the light of the vow, and so this liberation did not grow of itself; it is cast from the vow of all-knowledge. It is like a transformation, “because it transforms and gives birth to all the excellent practices of the bodhisattvas” — what is transformed and born is the excellent practices of the bodhisattvas, and so this liberation does not stand still either; it goes on transforming practices into being. One simile tells out of what it comes; the other tells what comes out of it; taken together the two have told the whole matter of practice arising out of the vow.

The next four similes are earth, water, fire, and wind, and each of the four great elements is taken for its working and not for its substance: the great earth, “because it is the place all sentient beings rest upon,” taken for its bearing; the great waters, “because with great compassion they are able to moisten all,” taken for their moistening; the great fire, “because it dries up the water of the greed and craving of sentient beings,” taken for its drying — and what the fire dries is ‘the water of greed and craving,’ set right over against the moistening of the simile before; the great wind, “because it causes all sentient beings to go swiftly toward all-knowledge,” taken for its driving.

The next four similes are the ocean, the mountain, the city, and space: the great ocean, “because with every kind of merit and virtue it adorns all sentient beings”; Mount Sumeru, “because it brings forth the sea of the Dharma-jewels of all-knowledge”; the great walled city, “because it is adorned by all the wondrous dharmas”; empty space, “because it universally holds the spiritual power of the buddhas of the three times.” Notice the difference between the ocean and the city — the ocean adorns sentient beings with merit and virtue, while the city is what the wondrous dharmas adorn; the one adorns, the other is adorned, and they are not to be run together into one group of ‘vast holding.’ Nor is the sense taken from the mountain its height; it is its bringing forth: what it brings forth is the sea of the Dharma-jewels of all-knowledge.

The next three similes are the cloud, the sun, and the moon: the great cloud, “because it rains the rain of the Dharma universally for sentient beings”; the pure sun, “because it is able to break the darkness of the unknowing of sentient beings”; the full moon, “because it fills up the vast sea of merit.” Raining, breaking, filling — these three answer each to one lack in sentient beings: the lack of Dharma, the lack of light, the lack of merit.

The next four similes are suchness, one’s own shadow, the echo answering a call, and the reflected image: suchness, “because it is able to pervade everywhere throughout,” is pervasion, and the three below it all manifest in accord with what is met, yet what each accords with is other — one’s own shadow, “because it is transformed forth out of one’s own good deeds,” accords with one’s own good deeds; the echo answering a call, “because it expounds the Dharma in accord with what each is fit for,” accords with the capacity it meets; the reflected image, “because it shines forth in accord with the minds of sentient beings,” accords with the minds of sentient beings.

The last five similes are the tree, the vajra, the wish-fulfilling jewel, and the two maṇi jewels: the great tree king, “because it opens out all the flowers of spiritual powers”; the vajra, “because from the very beginning it cannot be broken”; the wish-fulfilling jewel, “because it brings forth measureless sovereign powers”; the maṇi jewel king of the stainless treasury, “because it displays all the spiritual powers of the tathāgatas of the three times”; the maṇi jewel of the banner of joy, “because it is able to bring forth equally the sound of the wheel of the Dharma of all buddhas.” Opening out, not being broken, bringing forth, displaying, bringing forth sound — these five come home to the one word ‘forth’; and the name of the last simile carries the word ‘joy’ in it, answering to the ‘joy’ in the name of the Dharma gate — the twenty-two similes, walked to their end, come back to the eye of this section.

Notice that the one name ‘reflected image’ comes out twice, before and after, and the sense taken from it is not the same: the first time it is “because it is born of the light of the vow of all-knowledge” — the image is born of the light of the vow; the second time it is “because it shines forth in accord with the minds of sentient beings” — the image appears in accord with the mind that meets it. One name used twice: the one told from the side of what gives birth, the other from the side of what is felt and answered.

A misreading must be set aside: that a simile is what stands in when a thing cannot be told clearly. The night goddess says of herself at the end, “I have now spoken these parables for you; you should ponder them, and in accord with them awaken and enter” — a simile is a doorway given to a person for pondering, not an abridgment of the telling. Brought down to the ground: the twenty-two similes are not twenty-two retellings; they close in from twenty-two directions upon one and the same matter that cannot be told outright.

Summing Up and Exhorting to Cultivate: She Hands the Matter Back to the One Who Listens

The similes told out, the night goddess adds only one sentence: “son of good family! I have now spoken these parables for you; you should ponder them, and in accord with them awaken and enter.”

Within the one sentence there are three matters: what the speaker does is only to “speak these parables”; what the listener does is to “ponder”; and where it arrives is “in accord with them, awaken and enter.” The one who speaks goes this far and no farther; the rest the listener must walk himself.

A misreading must be set aside: that to confer the Dharma is to hand the Dharma over. Here it is said plainly that what is handed over is only the parables. Brought down to the ground: what a good friend can give is a doorway; the walking in through it is a thing nobody can do in another’s place.

Making Clear the Cause of Gaining the Liberation: Sudhana Asks Once More ‘How Is It Cultivated’

The four answers finished, Sudhana raises a further question: “great sage! How is one to cultivate, so as to gain this liberation?”

Why ask again? The four answers before told what this Dharma gate is and how it turns; this question wants the place to take hold of — what must I do, to walk there. Chengguan outlines this as making clear the cause of gaining the liberation, which is exactly to ask apart ‘the marks upon the fruit’ and ‘the practice upon the cause.’

A misreading must be set aside: that to have understood a Dharma gate is to have gained it. Sudhana, having heard the four answers, does as the first thing ask once again how it is cultivated. Brought down to the ground: to be able to tell a Dharma gate through completely, and to know what one is to do tomorrow, are two different matters.

The Answer: The Ten Great Treasuries of the Dharma Are the Ten Perfections

The night goddess answers with “when a bodhisattva cultivates ten great treasuries of the Dharma, he gains this liberation,” and sets them out one by one: giving (making all content in accord with the minds of sentient beings), pure discipline (entering universally into the sea of the merit and virtue of all buddhas), forbearance (being able to ponder throughout the nature of all dharmas), vigor (going toward all-knowledge and constantly not turning back), meditative concentration (being able to extinguish the burning vexation of all sentient beings), wisdom (being able to understand throughout the sea of all dharmas), skillful means (being able to ripen throughout the seas of sentient beings), the vows (throughout all buddha-lands and all seas of sentient beings, cultivating the bodhisattva practices to the end of the kalpas to come), the powers (in thought after thought manifesting within all seas of Dharma realms and all buddha-lands the accomplishing of right and universal awakening, constantly without rest), and pure knowledge (gaining the knowledge of the Tathāgata, and knowing throughout all the dharmas of the three times without hindrance).

Chengguan lays down here only six Chinese characters: “the answer is that the ten perfections are the cause.” Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, judges the same, saying “because he cultivates the practice of the ten perfections, he gains this Dharma gate.” Li Tongxuan goes a step further and sets up host and companion for this particular ground, saying “taking the perfection of meditation for host and the remaining nine for companions, it cures the hindrance of not being at ease in the working of tranquillity, and causes ease to be gained” — the ten perfections are all cultivated, and upon this ground meditation is the host.

A misreading must be set aside: that a Dharma gate out of the ordinary must rest upon a way of cultivation out of the ordinary. What is answered here is just the ten perfections, with not one thing added. Brought down to the ground: the name of a Dharma gate may be one of a kind; the road in is still those ten.

Making Clear How Long Ago the Mind Was Raised: This Question Asks More Than Time

Sudhana’s third question: “holy one! You raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi: how long has it been until now?”

What is the good of asking after years of standing? Chengguan breaks it open, saying that this question is “making clear how long ago the mind was raised, in order to display that the root of the way is deep” — what is asked after is not the years, but how deep the root is. And he points out further that this one question in fact holds another within it: what the night goddess answers below, after the raising of the mind, is all a telling of gaining the Dharma through kalpas, and so “the first question also holds within it the asking after how long ago the Dharma was gained.”

A misreading must be set aside: that to ask how long is curiosity. Brought down to the ground: to ask a person how long he has walked is to want to know how solid the ground he stands on is.

The Answer (1): First the Place Is Made Clear

The answer does not begin from time; it begins from a place. To the east of the World-Sea of the Adornment of the Flower Treasury, past ten world-seas, there is a world-sea named All Pure Light Jewel; within it a world-seed named Light and Sound of the Vows of All Tathāgatas; within that a world named Pure Light and Golden Adornment. This world has for its substance every kind of fragrant vajra maṇi king, its shape is like a storied pavilion, it has clouds of many wondrous jewels for its bounds, it rests upon a sea of every kind of jeweled necklace, and clouds of wondrous palaces cover it over — and the last four graphs are “the pure and the defiled are mingled together.”

Chengguan outlines this as “the first, displaying the sea of lands in general.” Notice those four graphs, “the pure and the defiled are mingled together”: everything before them is the speech of adornment, and yet the last sentence says that pure and defiled are mingled. This world is not a pure land.

A misreading must be set aside: that a bodhisattva must raise the mind within a pure buddha-land. Brought down to the ground: the place where she raised the mind is a place of the same kind as the place we are in.

The Answer (2): At One Buddha the Mind Was Raised, Under Nine Buddhas the Matter Went On, and Ten Samādhis

The place told, the time is told. Within that world, in an age long past, there was a kalpa named Universal Light Banner, a country named Wondrous Treasury Universally Full, a place of the Way named Light of the Wondrous Moon of the Treasury of All Jewels, and a buddha named Sound of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back who accomplished the way there; and she at that time was a spirit of the tree of awakening, named Banner of Light of the Lamp Furnished with Merit, guarding that place of the Way. Seeing the Buddha accomplish the way and manifest his spiritual power, at that very time she raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and gained a samādhi named Universally Illumining the Sea of the Tathāgata’s Merit and Virtue.

Chengguan takes the sense from the name of her body, saying “that the spirit is named Furnished and so forth also signifies that upon the fifth ground one enters the worldly, and that merit and knowledge are high and excellent.” Named ‘furnished with merit,’ it signifies just this: that upon this ground one enters the worldly, and merit and knowledge are high and excellent.

For the nine buddhas that follow, Chengguan outlines “briefly raising the nine buddhas that come next”: Mountain of Majestic Virtue of the Dharma Tree; King of the Sound of the Sea of All Dharmas; King of the Banner of the Lamp of Jeweled Light; Light of the Sumeru of Merit and Virtue; King of the Sound of the Dharma Cloud; King of the Shining of the Lamp of Knowledge; Banner of Wondrous Virtue and Valor in the Dharma; Lamp of the Knowledge of the Dharma, Lion-Valiant; King of the Mountain of the Power of Knowledge; and at each buddha she gains one samādhi — Universally Illumining All Realms Free of Greed; the Ground That Gives Birth and Growth to All Good Dharmas; Universally Manifesting Clouds of the Light of Spiritual Power; Universally Illumining the Sea of Buddhas; Lamp of the Sea of All Dharmas; Pure Lamp of Light That Extinguishes the Sufferings of All Sentient Beings; Treasury of the Light of the Tathāgatas of the Three Times; Wheel of Wisdom Unhindered in All Worlds; Universally Illumining the Faculties and Practices of the Sentient Beings of the Three Times.

In these nine passages there is one place that is uneven: under the first buddha it reads “I at that time came to the end of my life and was born again in that same place as the night goddess who presides over the place of the Way, named Light of Wondrous Merit and Knowledge,” while under the remaining eight it reads “I at that time, being a night goddess, was able to see the Buddha and served and made offerings to him.” The first passage alone records the coming to the end of one life and the changing of body; the remaining eight say straight out that she was a night goddess.

A misreading must be set aside: that to list so many names of buddhas and names of samādhis is display. At each buddha one samādhi is gained, and this tells one thing — one buddha seen, one dharma gained, and not one seeing was in vain. Brought down to the ground: what is called a deep root of the way is just this, counted off one buddha at a time.

The Answer (3): Buddhas as Many as the Motes of Dust in One Kalpa, and the Four Buddhas of the Sahā World

After the nine buddhas the scripture text draws in, saying that within that one kalpa “tathāgatas as many as the motes of dust in buddha-lands, so many as this, arose in the world,” and that she among them was sometimes a king of the devas, sometimes a nāga king, sometimes one of the kings of the eight classes, sometimes a human king or a Brahmā king, sometimes in the body of a deva or of a human being, of a man or of a woman, of a boy or of a girl, and with every kind of offering made offerings to all those tathāgatas and heard the dharmas they expounded. Chengguan outlines this as “concluding the brief and displaying the broad; this raises the buddhas as many as the motes of dust within one kalpa, all served and made offerings to.”

And then it turns to the Sahā world: coming to the end of her life there, she was born again within this world and passed through kalpas as many as the motes of dust in buddha-lands cultivating the bodhisattva practices; then she was born in the Sahā world of this World-Sea of the Adornment of the Flower Treasury, and met with the tathāgata Krakucchanda and gained the samādhi Light Free of All Dust and Defilement; next met with the tathāgata Kanakamuni and gained Universally Manifesting All Seas of Lands; next met with the tathāgata Kāśyapa and gained Setting Forth the Sea of the Speech and Sounds of All Sentient Beings; next met with the tathāgata Vairocana, who at this place of the Way accomplished right and universal awakening and manifests in thought after thought the power of his great spiritual transformations, and she was able to see it and so obtained this Dharma gate. Of the last passage Chengguan says, “it displays the meeting with her own teacher and the gaining of the present liberation” — all that was gained before, looked at from here, is cause.

A misreading must be set aside: that the sixteen kinds of body are a performance of spiritual transformation. The scripture text says plainly that the changing of body was for the sake of making offerings and hearing the Dharma. Brought down to the ground: how many stations one has passed through does not matter; what matters is that within every one of them the same one thing was being done.

The Answer (4): After the Dharma Was Gained — the Sea Entered, and the Fourfold Unfolding

Having gained the Dharma, what does she do? The scripture text says she is able to enter seas of the establishing of the Dharma realm as numerous as the dust-motes in ten untellable-untellable buddha-lands; and to see, in all those seas of the establishing of the Dharma realm, all the motes of dust of all buddha-lands, and within each and every mote of dust buddha-lands as numerous as the dust-motes in ten untellable-untellable buddha-lands; and within each and every buddha-land the tathāgata Vairocana seated at the place of the Way, in thought after thought accomplishing right and universal awakening and manifesting every spiritual transformation, and of the transformations he manifests each and every one pervading all the seas of the Dharma realm; and she sees also her own body in the presence of all those tathāgatas, and hears also the wondrous Dharma they expound, and sees also from each and every pore of all those buddhas seas of transformations coming forth and the power of spiritual powers manifested, turning the wheel of the right Dharma in accord with the minds of sentient beings.

Chengguan judges this as a layer upon layer of entering deeper, saying, “briefly it is fourfold: first, the motes of dust within the sea of lands; second, the lands within the motes of dust; third, the buddhas within the lands” — and the fourth is the transformations within the buddhas’ pores. The fourfold is one road going inward: within the sea there are motes of dust; within the motes of dust, lands; within the lands, buddhas; and within the buddhas’ pores again seas of transformations.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is a telling of how large the cosmos is. The direction of the fourfold is toward the small, not toward the large. Brought down to the ground: when the Avataṃsaka speaks of the vast, it speaks of it for the most part out of a single mote of dust.

The Tenfold Entering, Step by Step: Within Each and Every One There Is Again All

Below this the scripture text turns again, saying that she gained the power of swift dhāraṇī, and with clear knowledge, sovereign knowledge, pervading knowledge, and equal knowledge entered universally into the dharmas; and then comes a linked chain: she awakens to and understands all Dharma gates; within each and every Dharma gate, all clouds of sūtras; within each and every cloud of sūtras, all seas of the Dharma; within each and every sea of the Dharma, all classes of the Dharma; within each and every class of the Dharma, all clouds of the Dharma; within each and every cloud of the Dharma, all streams of the Dharma; within each and every stream of the Dharma there come forth all seas of great joy; each and every sea of great joy brings forth all the grounds; each and every ground brings forth all seas of samādhi; from each and every sea of samādhi she gains all seas of seeing the buddhas; from each and every sea of seeing the buddhas she gains all seas of the light of knowledge; and each and every sea of the light of knowledge universally illumines the three times and enters throughout the ten directions.

Chengguan says, “now the first: there are ten repetitions of ‘all,’ displaying the inexhaustible Dharma gates. Of the ten, the first five are upon what is awakened to,” the latter five upon what is able to awaken; and the last passage upon the light of knowledge he judges to be an eleventh repetition, saying, “second, the separate displaying of the working of the light of knowledge is the eleventh repetition; but it broadens only the last repetition, whose working is boundless, and thereby the repetitions before it are of the same kind, layer upon layer, and cannot be exhausted.”

Notice the middle of this linked chain: what comes forth within the streams of the Dharma is the ‘sea of great joy’ — the ‘joy’ of the Dharma gate’s name comes out here once more, and this time as the thing brought forth. A misreading must be set aside: that joy is merely a feeling of cultivation. Brought down to the ground: the joy here is a station able to bring forth ‘grounds’ and ‘seas of samādhi’; it is not a state of mind at the end of the road.

The Thirty Clauses of Knowing and Seeing: Both the Crosswise and the Upright Are Within Thought After Thought

Next come thirty clauses of “I know measureless tathāgatas.” The first twelve clauses know the practices of the buddhas upon the cause: the seas of the practices of ages past, the seas of their former deeds, the seas of the giving that is hard to give, and the seas of the nine perfections of discipline, forbearance, vigor, meditative concentration, wisdom, skillful means, vows, powers, and knowledge. The next six clauses know their stations upon the cause: passing beyond the bodhisattva grounds in ages past, dwelling upon the bodhisattva grounds within measureless seas of kalpas and manifesting the power of spiritual powers, entering the bodhisattva grounds, cultivating them, putting them in order, beholding them. The next five clauses know the working upon the cause: when in ages past they were bodhisattvas, constantly seeing the buddhas; seeing the seas of buddhas to the full and dwelling together with seas of kalpas; being born throughout the seas of lands with measureless bodies; cultivating vast practices throughout the Dharma realm; manifesting every kind of gate of skillful means, subduing and ripening sentient beings. The next five clauses know the working upon the fruit: sending forth a great light that universally illumines the seas of lands; manifesting great spiritual power and appearing universally before sentient beings; the vast ground of knowledge; the turning of the wheel of the right Dharma; the manifesting of a sea of marks. Two clauses more: the manifesting of a sea of bodies, and the vast sea of powers. And at the end it is gathered up: “those tathāgatas, from their first raising of the mind until the Dharma comes to its end — in thought after thought I am able to know and see it all.”

Chengguan judges this passage as first general and then particular, saying, “the first clause takes in the crosswise and the upright together,” and below it the particular displaying, divided into five and closed with “the three above know the cause” and “knowing cause and fruit together.”

A misreading must be set aside: that so much knowing and seeing must take a great deal of time. The last sentence of the scripture text is “in thought after thought I am able to know and see it all.” Brought down to the ground: the crosswise is the pervading of all buddhas; the upright is the going through one buddha from beginning to end; and these two matters happen within one and the same thought.

Concluding by Answering His Question: The Number Comes Out at Last

After going round so wide a circle, the night goddess comes back at last to Sudhana’s question: “son of good family! You asked me, saying, ‘how long has it been since you raised the mind?’” The answer is: past kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands, within the world Pure Light and Golden Adornment, as a spirit of the tree of awakening, she heard the tathāgata Sound of the Dharma Realm That Does Not Turn Back expound the Dharma and raised the mind; and within kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands she cultivated the bodhisattva practices, and only then was born within the Worthy Kalpa of this Sahā world.

And below she reaches on into the time to come: from the buddha Krakucchanda to the buddha Śākyamuni, and all the buddhas yet to come within this kalpa, she draws near to and makes offerings to them all in this way; and in all worlds and all kalpas, to all the buddhas yet to come, likewise. The last two sentences are most to be looked at: “that world Pure Light and Golden Adornment is even now present, and the appearing of buddhas there goes on without break. You should with a concentrated mind cultivate this bodhisattva gate of great valor.”

Chengguan points out here that the eighty-fascicle witness wants one graph, saying that if the kalpa Universal Light be taken as one of the motes of dust in lands, then the number of kalpas concluded here still wants one graph; and he cites the Jin scripture, “within that world he passed through kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands,” as his witness, which then accords with the words about two kalpas below.

A misreading must be set aside: that when the past has been told the matter is over. What she says at the end is that that world “is even now present” — the past is not a past tense. Brought down to the ground: this is why the last sentence can be “you should with a concentrated mind cultivate this bodhisattva gate of great valor” — that road is open still.

The Night Goddess’s Ten Verses: One Verse Admonishing to Listen, Eight Verses of Her Practice of Old, One Verse Concluding the Bounds

After the prose the night goddess, “wishing to set forth again the meaning of this liberation,” speaks ten verses. Chengguan outlines them as “second, the verses, ten verses, divided into three,” and judges their division thus: “the first one admonishes to listen and exhorts to cultivate; the next eight truly make clear her practice of old, of which the first four are the practice of knowledge making offerings above and the latter four the mind of compassion rescuing below; the last one concludes the bounds of the practice.”

The first verse: Sudhana, listen as I tell of the pure gate of liberation; having heard it let joy arise, and cultivate it diligently until it is brought to the end — first he is told to listen, then to cultivate.

The next four verses are the practice of knowledge making offerings above: in ages past, within seas of kalpas, she raised a mind of great faith and delight, pure as empty space, and constantly beheld all-knowledge; toward the buddhas of the three times she raised a mind of faith and delight, and toward their assemblies wished constantly to draw near; in ages past she saw the buddhas and made offerings for the sake of sentient beings, and came to hear the pure Dharma, and in her mind was great joy; constantly she honored father and mother and revered them and made offerings to them, without rest or indolence, and so entered this gate of liberation. The fourth verse is especially worth pausing over — the making of offerings to father and mother and the entering of the gate of liberation, the scripture text writes them within one and the same verse.

The latter four verses are the mind of compassion rescuing below: the aged, the sick, the poor, and those whose faculties are not complete, all pitied and relieved and caused to gain peace; peril of water and fire, of the king and of thieves, and terrors within the sea, all for the rescuing of those beings; the afflictions constantly blazing, beings covered and bound by the hindrance of their deeds and fallen into perilous roads, and she rescues those beings; within all the evil destinies measureless bitter torments, and birth and old age and sickness and death, all of which she shall extinguish.

The last verse concludes the bounds: she vows that to the end of the kalpas to come she shall, for all the multitude of beings everywhere, extinguish the suffering of birth and death and cause them to gain the ultimate joy of the Buddha. To conclude the bounds of the practice, so called, is to gather all the practices told before within the one limit of ‘to the end of the kalpas to come’ — and this limit is in fact no limit at all.

A misreading must be set aside: that verses repeating the prose merely tell the prose over again. What the prose tells is how many buddhas she saw and how many samādhis she gained; what the ten verses tell is faith and delight, offerings, and relieving. Brought down to the ground: the prose records what was gained; the verses record what was done.

Humbling Herself and Pointing to the Superior: Her ‘I Know Only This’

After the ten verses the night goddess says: “son of good family! I know only this liberation of the vast joy adorned that is born in thought after thought. As for the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, they enter deeply into all the seas of the Dharma realm, they know entirely the number of all the kalpas, they see universally the forming and the breaking up of all lands — but how could I know or tell of their merit and their practice?”

Notice that the name of the Dharma gate here is not the same as when the name was first set forth: at the setting forth it read “the liberation gate of the vast joy adorned that comes forth in thought after thought,” and here it reads “the liberation of the vast joy adorned that is born in thought after thought,” wanting the graph for ‘comes,’ and at the end wanting the graph for ‘gate’ as well. By the graphs of the base text, it is not even.

The three matters raised in pointing to the superior are: entering deeply into the seas of the Dharma realm; knowing entirely the number of the kalpas; seeing universally the forming and breaking up of the lands. These three matters are exactly what she has just been telling of herself — she has entered the sea of the establishing of the Dharma realm, she has counted kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands, she has seen the buddhas within the lands. The same three matters: she says the great bodhisattvas can do them, and that she herself cannot.

A misreading must be set aside: that this is modest speech. Brought down to the ground: to be able to say that what one knows is ‘this one gate’ and not ‘everything’ — this sentence is the last dharma this good friend gives.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Guarding All Cities and Increasing Majestic Power

The one she points to next is a night goddess “within this assembly of the Tathāgata at this site of awakening,” named Guarding All Cities and Increasing Majestic Power.

Chengguan sets up a gloss upon this name and this place, saying, “wisdom is what is upheld in the gaining of buddhahood, and so it says the site of awakening. When wisdom appears, then the city of the mind and the city of all-knowledge are well guarded, and the myriad practices are born of it, which is the increasing of majestic power.” It is said to be at the site of awakening because wisdom is what is upheld in the gaining of buddhahood; and she is named guarding the cities and increasing majestic power because, once wisdom appears, the city of the mind and the city of all-knowledge can be held, and the myriad practices are born of this. This is a signifying set up by Chengguan; the scripture text itself gives only the name and the place.

A misreading must be set aside: that pointing out the next friend is merely the giving of an address. Here even the words of the asking are laid down: “how is a bodhisattva to learn the bodhisattva practices and to cultivate the bodhisattva way?” — the same one question, which Sudhana asks over and over of the friends along this road. Brought down to the ground: the question does not change, and it is the answer that goes down layer by layer.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave: This Time Sudhana First Looks, Then Praises, Then Pays Respect

In the last passage Sudhana “beheld with a concentrated mind the body of the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, who presides over the night,” and spoke ten verses, and then bowed to her feet and took his leave. Chengguan outlines this as cherishing her virtue and taking leave, and judges its three joints thus: “first with the mind he beholds, next with verses he praises, last with the body he pays respect”; and of the verses he judges, “within the verses, the ten verses are divided into four: the first one makes clear that it is through the friend that he came to see; the next two display her excellence by setting up a contrast; the next six display her excellence in her very marks; the last one sums it up in perfect fusion.”

The first verse makes clear that it is through the friend that he came to see: because of the teaching of a good friend I have come here to the deva-spirit, and see the deva-spirit dwelling upon a jeweled throne, her body’s measure without any bound — that he is able to see is because of the friend’s teaching.

The next two verses display her excellence by setting up a contrast: it is not those who cling to form and marks and reckon dharmas to exist, poor in knowledge and shallow in awareness, who are able to know it; the devas and human beings of the world may behold her for measureless kalpas and be unable to fathom her, because her form and marks are without bound. The setting up of a contrast, so called, is to take those who cannot know and by them display, in reverse, how hard the thing known is.

The next six verses display her excellence in her very marks, telling of the night goddess herself clause by clause: she is far apart from the five aggregates, nor does she dwell in any place, and has cut off forever the doubts of the world and manifests her sovereign power; she lays hold neither of inner nor of outer dharmas, unshaken and unhindered, and with the pure eye of wisdom sees the spiritual power of the buddhas; her body is the treasury of the right Dharma and her mind the knowledge that is unhindered, and having gained the shining of the light of knowledge she turns back and shines upon the multitude of beings; her mind gathers up boundless deeds and adorns the several worlds, and she understands that the world is wholly mind and manifests a body equal to sentient beings; she knows that the world is like a dream, the buddhas like reflections, the dharmas like echoes, and causes the multitude to cling to nothing; for the sentient beings of the three times she manifests her body in thought after thought, and yet her mind dwells nowhere and she expounds the Dharma throughout the ten directions.

The last verse sums it up in perfect fusion: the boundless seas of lands, the seas of buddhas and the seas of sentient beings, are all within a single mote of dust — this is the power of this venerable one’s liberation.

A misreading must be set aside: that verses of praise are politeness. Sudhana’s ten verses are clause by clause what he himself has seen, and the last verse says outright that what is seen is “the power of this venerable one’s liberation.” Brought down to the ground: what one is able to praise a good friend as being shows what one has been able to see.

Lineage

For the text of this section there are four threads that open out from it.

The first is the thread of the sense of the name of the Ground Hard to Conquer. Chengguan’s Yanyi chao glosses the name of the ground, saying, “that is, because the practice-marks of the two knowledges, the true and the conventional, are at odds with each other, and to join them and cause them to answer to each other is exceedingly hard to conquer” — the hardness is that the practice-marks of the two knowledges are at odds and must be made to answer to each other. Li Tongxuan does not speak from the two knowledges but from meditation and worldly knowledge: “the reason this ground is named the Ground Hard to Conquer is that upon this ground, within meditative concentration, one learns worldly knowledge well, and knows all the five sciences and the worldly arts, the working of concentration reaching that far.” Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, makes yet another road of it, saying, “upon the fifth ground meditation increases, and therefore the name Tranquil Sound,” fastening the sense of the ground’s name upon the name of the good friend. The three houses have each their own track; recorded without adjudication.

The second is the thread of what the good friend’s name signifies. Chengguan glosses the name, saying, “because of meditation, tranquil; entering the worldly and setting forth the Dharma, converting beings deeply and widely, and therefore it says ocean of sound” — concentration is the tranquil, and the deep and wide converting of beings is the ocean of sound. Li Tongxuan glosses the name, saying, “it makes clear that the tranquil and the working pervade everywhere. The tranquil is concentration; the ocean of sound is the working,” and sets up signifyings upon her throne and her retinue as well, saying, “it makes clear that the substance of concentration is stainless, without any defilement or attachment” and “it makes clear that the substance of concentration pervades everywhere, and the practice too pervades everywhere”; and he sets up one further meaning, saying, “this night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound is the mother of the night goddess Wondrous Virtue Who Saves All Beings, which signifies that concentration is able to accomplish the practice of vigor,” and adds a sentence, “were there no concentration, all practices would have weariness in them.” Chengguan too sets up mother and child: in the Shu, under this goddess’s name, he says that it “signifies that true vigor comes forth from concentration,” and the Yanyi chao draws the sense out further, saying, “true vigor is apart from body and mind, and without concentration there is no such thing.” Both houses alike make concentration the mother of the vigor of the friend before, though the words each sets up are other; recorded without adjudication.

The third is the thread of the divergent interpretations of the commentators, each with its own track, recorded without adjudication. As to the outline of this section, Chengguan makes six divisions (seeking in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respect, and inquiring · praising and conferring the Dharma · humbling herself and pointing to the superior · pointing out the next friend · cherishing her virtue and taking leave); Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, opens seven gates beneath the true conferring of the Dharma (displaying the name and substance of the dharma · setting out the working of the dharma · making clear the realm of dharmas beheld · skillful means · the ground of gaining the dharma · the depth or shallowness of the faculties · concluding the name and bringing it home to herself); Zhiyan makes three passages and within her own portion opens four further; and Li Tongxuan outlines the Dharma gate of truly entering the present position in ten passages for this friend, and at the end sets up five gates of pointing to virtue and advancing upward (the six gates at the end of the previous friend’s passage, which point to this friend, are a reference from outside the bounds). As to the clauses of the raising of the minds, Chengguan, upon the eighty-fascicle witness, outlines twenty minds, and Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, says “first ten minds, one short,” while the eighty-fascicle witness by its own graphs comes to nineteen clauses and the forty-fascicle witness by its own graphs to twenty. As to the number of gates that meet the capacities, Chengguan upon the eighty-fascicle witness makes thirty-seven gates in three groups, and Fazang upon the sixty-fascicle witness makes thirty-three kinds in five groups. As to the number of the similes, Chengguan upon the eighty-fascicle witness makes twenty-two gates, and Fazang upon the sixty-fascicle witness twenty-three. As to the division of the verses, Chengguan makes the first one · the next eight · the last one, and Zhiyan makes “the first one commands to listen and exhorts to cultivate; the next four are verses upon the causes and conditions of the Dharma gate gained above; the five below are verses upon the meaning of the practice accomplished above and the benefiting of sentient beings.” All these divergent interpretations are settled sayings of the ancient worthies.

The fourth is the thread of the separate glosses the ancient worthies made upon the very phrases of this section, scattered through their several books, all of them touching upon it.

After his discrimination upon this section, the Yanyi chao sets out three matters further. The first is the answer to why what is able is answered first: Chengguan raises a question of his own — why, in the asking, is what is able not asked after first? — and answers it himself, “he asks because, seeing what is accomplished, he seeks what is able. It is seeing the fruit and tracing back the cause, just as with the four truths.” This sentence is most to be looked at: Sudhana asks after what is accomplished first because he is tracing back from the fruit he has seen to the cause, just as the four truths set forth the fruit, suffering, before tracing back its cause, arising, and show the fruit, cessation, before expounding its cause, the path. The second is his faulting of the matching made by the men of old: the men of old took both the first, the skillful means, and the second, the undertaking, as answering the first question, and took the third answer as answering both the second and the fourth questions; and Chengguan faults it, “if it be glossed in this way, then not only are the marks of the four answers not clear, but the answers are out of order and confused as well.” The third is his gloss upon the number of kalpas in the last passage: the passage before has the name of the great kalpa without the number of the small kalpas, and this passage has the number of the small kalpas without the name of the great kalpa, and the two texts take each other over by reflection, so that “there are together kalpas as numerous as the dust-motes in two buddha-lands”; and therefore he says that the eighty-fascicle witness ought to have one graph ‘two’ here. Beyond these are two things more: one is how the knower and the known cross — “within contemplation, though there is what is contemplated, it is for the sake of accomplishing the contemplator, just as within prajñā, though there is the real mark, it is for the sake of accomplishing wisdom; within the objective realm of practice, whether knower or known, both are what is practiced”: contemplation is set up upon the contemplator, while in the realm of practice both knower and known are what is practiced, so the two questions do not overlap; the other is where the four questions belong — “as against the bodhisattva’s gate of liberation, the undertaking is only one of the four,” all four questions belonging to the working of this liberation, while “under any one profound dharma there are many kinds,” “as one perfection of giving has nine gates and so on,” a single gate having branches of its own.

Li Tongxuan, glossing the fifth ground in 〈The Ten Grounds〉, had already set up his signifying upon the friend of this section: he glosses ‘as for its saying “not far”’ as “because it is without departing from the substance of awakening that there is the practice of the perfection of meditation”; he glosses her name as “it makes clear that meditation is the tranquil; and ocean of sound signifies that concentration is able to bring forth the working of wisdom”; he glosses the adorning of her throne as “because by the working of the meditation of the nature that is without contriving the myriad practices are adorned,” the banner as “the substance of the concentration of the Dharma-nature does not move with objects” — object and mind settled in their very substance, because both are without self-nature — and the lotus as “practice without stain” — the nature of practice not other than the meditation without contriving; and he glosses the three terms within the name of the Dharma gate apart from one another — “the delight of meditation without grief is named joy; to adorn wisdom with concentration is named adorned; not to be deluded about stillness and disturbance is named liberation.” And at the end he lays down a judgment upon the capacities the four questions meet: those who dwell in the desire realm with much mind are caused to cultivate the tranquil concentration, while those with much meditation of the form and formless realms are caused to raise knowledge and skillful means and to deliver sentient beings widely, “so that they may not be left guarding purity and dwelling in the pleasure of meditation.” That sentence is the eye of Li Tongxuan’s passage — the meditation of the fifth ground is not a bidding to settle down in the pleasure of concentration. As for his direct gloss upon this assembly, he glosses the name of the Dharma gate as “principle and practice adorn each other, and this is named adorned”; he judges its station as “the Dharma gate of one ground entering the ten grounds and the eleventh ground”; he matches the ten buddhas to the ten grounds, “from here the first buddha is matched to the first ground, the next to the second ground, the next to the third ground”; and he gathers it up with “it makes clear that within this fifth ground the knowledge of the eleventh ground is complete and the practice of Samantabhadra is full, and takes the “offerings to four buddhas” of her former life to signify the fruit within the first four grounds before the fifth — the four buddhas are the four grounds already walked.” His gloss upon the phrase ‘the pure and the defiled are mingled together’ is especially to be noticed — “it makes clear that in the gate of the great tranquil concentration of the Dharma realm knowledge and compassion advance together, and that the land of the buddhas and the land of sentient beings are one substance without hindrance”: pure and defiled can be mingled because the land of the buddhas and the land of sentient beings are one substance from the start.

Fazang’s Tanxuan ji, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, brings out four further glosses: upon the passage ‘what arises is not arisen’ he says, “what arises is then not arisen, which makes clear that the working is ever tranquil; and what rejoices and what is rejoiced in are alike equal and without own-nature”; after the similes he concludes, “in truth of principle this dharma is not what a worldly simile can liken; a small portion of it is briefly raised by simile” — saying plainly that what is taken for a simile is what no simile can reach; upon what is entered after the Dharma is gained he says, “the bringing forth and the rest are because the working raised upon realization is differentiated,” and counts the repetitions, “in this way, layer upon layer, the bringing forth goes on to eleven repetitions, each and every one of them”; and upon the sixty-fascicle witness’s sentence “and that world Stainless Light Adorned with Golden Color is present still even now” (which Fazang abbreviates in his lemma as “that Stainless world is present still”) he says, “because it is the past within the ten times, and the present is then the present of the present,” glossing that ‘still present’ by the ten times. Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji outlines the sixty-fascicle passage ‘arising is not’ as ‘the wiping out of marks and the entering into the real.’ And in the gate upon the good friends of the stations of realization of the ten grounds, Zhiyan’s Kongmu zhang brings out separately the sense of this friend: “the fifth friend. Upon the separate teaching of the one vehicle. At the place of becoming a buddha. Near to the holy purport. Tranquil, and answering to the capacities. Skillful means advancing to the higher. Every kind of skillfulness. The sense of the Dharma gate of guarding sentient beings and benefiting them.” — not merely a name upon a table of sequence.

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

As to the assigning of position: the judgment matching the good friends of this assembly to the ten grounds is an outline Chengguan carries on from the ancient worthies, and is not marked by the scripture text itself. Chengguan sets out his reason under the five marks of this assembly, saying, “masters such as Guangtong all matched them to the stations of the grounds,” and then keeps both sayings standing, saying, “both have their reason: since each single station is furnished with many Dharma gates, how should the mind of an ordinary person be denied the practice of seeking the dharma of the good friends? Therefore not to match them has its reason. And yet, within what has no order of stations the order of stations is not hindered, and to display the stations is the constant rule, so that to match them also is without fault.” As to this section’s judgment of assignment to the Ground Hard to Conquer, the four houses of Chengguan, Fazang, Li Tongxuan, and Zhiyan agree. And the table of the sequence of the good friends in Zhiyan’s Kongmu zhang lists this section as the thirty-sixth.

Further: in the eighth of the ten gates expounded as dharma the scripture text tells of this liberation of itself, “it is the universal gate itself, because within a single matter it universally sees all spiritual transformations.” When Chengguan glosses the gate of the subtle containing and establishing among the ten mysterious gates in the Yanyi chao, he takes up this one clause and judges explicitly, “since it says universal gate, it is the same as the gate of simultaneous completion and mutual correspondence” — the universal gate of this section is the gate of simultaneous completion and mutual correspondence among the ten mysterious gates.

One question in four clauses, and four answers not in the same order. It is not that she does not answer as you asked; it is that she answers in the order in which the matter itself grew — first there is the mind, and then the deed; first the beholding, and then the realm.

What This Section Expounds: One Name, Three Senses

Sudhana's thirty-sixth good friend is the night goddess Guardian of All Cities. The Dharma gate she confers is called the liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound. Why is the prose of this section laid out so evenly? Because it first sets forth the name, then expounds it in three passages of the working in order, and gathers it up at the last in a single sentence; and which graph of the name each of these three passages glosses is the matching made by Chengguan's outline — he outlines the one part that is the particular displaying of the working, saying that within it there are three, first glossing the profound, next glossing the sovereign, and last glossing the wondrous sound, and so the ten contemplations of the Dharma realm are matched to profound, the ten dhāraṇī wheels of great majestic virtue to sovereign, and the twenty-three clauses of expounding the Dharma to wondrous sound.

At the place where the name is set forth, Chengguan glosses it graph by graph, saying that to be in accord with the principle upon the very thing is what is called profound; that provisional and real being unobstructed, and wondrous eloquence being held within, is what is called sovereign; and that expounding the Dharma in reliance upon this, answering everywhere to the capacities of the many, is what is meant by wondrous sound.

A misreading to set aside: that the name of a Dharma gate is only a label, to be read past and done with. This section is precisely otherwise — the name is the net-rope and the three great passages below are the meshes, and if one does not read by following the name, those three passages become three heaps of terms lying side by side. Set upon the ground: in reading this section, hold these six graphs in hand first, and at every passage ask once which of them is being glossed here.

Chengguan Assigns This Friend to the Manifest Ground, and How That Judgment Came to Be

That the good friends of this assembly are matched to the stations of the ten grounds is set up by Chengguan following the ancient worthies; it is not said by the scripture itself.

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

At the place where he discusses this chapter as a whole, Chengguan sets out both readings and at the last judges plainly which he takes: as for the sixth, the division into five aspects, Dharma Master Yi and the treatise of Terrace Mountain merely gloss as the text runs and make no separate matching, while Guangtong and the masters of his sort all match them to the stations of the grounds; both have their reason, for since each single station is furnished with many Dharma gates, how should the mind of an ordinary person be forbidden to practice and seek the dharmas of the good friends — and so not matching has its reason; yet within there being no sequence of stations the sequence of stations is not obstructed, and to display the stations is the usual rule, so that matching too is not amiss — both paths have their reason, and so he takes the matching of the ancient worthies without discarding the other path.

When he comes to this friend, what Chengguan fastens her to is the sixth, the Manifest Ground, saying that the sixth, the night goddess Guardian of All Cities, is assigned to the Manifest Ground. In the Yanyi chao he sets forth the reason, saying that it is because she abides in the knowledge of dependent origination and draws forth the most excellent wisdom that is without discrimination and causes it to be manifest.

A misreading to set aside: that assigned to the Manifest Ground is a judgment of the scripture. From beginning to end the scripture has no name of a ground in it. Set upon the ground: in reading the doctrine of assigned stations, remember that it is a stair built by the ancient worthies for the reader, not a threshold set up by the scripture itself.

Calling to Mind the Teaching of the Friend Before: He Comes to This Station Carrying the Last One

This section begins not with walking but with calling to mind. Sudhana accords with the teaching of the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, pondering and contemplating the Dharma gate she expounded, and moreover of its phrases, one by one, not one is forgotten.

Why is it written so? Because the night goddess before was named Ocean of Tranquil Sound, and the Dharma gate she conferred was named the liberation gate of Bringing Forth Vast Joy and Adornment in Thought after Thought; and what this section does at its opening is exactly to accord with the teaching of the night goddess Ocean of Tranquil Sound, pondering and contemplating the Dharma gate she expounded, and of its phrases, one by one, not one forgotten — he walks to this station carrying what he received at the last one, and not one sentence is dropped on the way. The scripture says further that upon the measureless deep minds, the measureless natures of dharmas, and all the skillful means, spiritual powers, and wisdom, he called them to mind and pondered and chose among them, one following upon another and never breaking off — calling to mind is not recollection; it is continuity.

A misreading to set aside: that a good friend's teaching is delivered up and done with at the moment of taking leave. The order of the scripture is exactly the reverse: what was gained at the station before is the very provision for walking toward the next. Set upon the ground: what turns in the heart along that stretch of road after leaving a teacher decides what one is able to hear on reaching the next.

The Ten Bodies Manifested: Rising from Sentient Beings, Reaching Their Utmost in the Tathāgata, Returning to Sentient Beings

When Sudhana sees this night goddess, the scripture does not write what she said; it writes first what she manifested — ten clauses of manifesting a body. From manifesting a body of the form and appearance of all sentient beings it passes through facing all beings everywhere, being undefiled by any world, being equal in number to sentient beings, surpassing the worlds, ripening beings, swiftly going to the ten directions, and gathering in everywhere the ten directions, to manifesting a body of the ultimate substance and nature of the Tathāgata, and closes with manifesting a body ultimately subduing sentient beings.

The order of these ten clauses has a turning in it: the place it rises from is the form and appearance of sentient beings, the place of its utmost is the substance and nature of the Tathāgata, and the place it closes at returns again to subduing sentient beings. One must be able to go up, and one must also be able to come down.

A misreading to set aside: that the ten bodies are ten displays of spiritual power. Every body the scripture manifests is fastened to a thing done — to meeting a capacity, to being undefiled, to ripening, to going swiftly. Set upon the ground: in looking at a good friend one need not first listen to what she says; look first at where her body is set.

Sudhana's Four Questions: What He Asks After Is Practice, Not Principle

What Sudhana asks after having paid respect is four clauses: how is a bodhisattva to benefit sentient beings? How is he to gather sentient beings in with the unsurpassed gathering-in? How is he to accord with the teaching of the buddhas? How is he to draw near to the station of the Dharma king?

Why does he ask these four? Because he states of himself that he has already raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi and yet does not know how a bodhisattva is to act when cultivating the bodhisattva practice — the mind is raised, the practice is not known. The four questions run from the outer to the inner: first the matter of benefiting others, next the method of gathering in, then according with the teaching, and last drawing near to the station. What is asked after is wholly the gate of practice; not one clause asks after principle.

A misreading to set aside: that studying under friends is seeking understanding. The manner of asking in this section is plainly a seeking of practice. Set upon the ground: to have raised the mind and yet not to know what one ought to do tomorrow morning — this is the very thing Sudhana asks after here.

The Night Goddess Does Not Answer First but Praises First: You Have Come to Ask for the Sake of Ten Things

The night goddess opens her mouth not to expound the Dharma but first to count over the intent with which Sudhana has come — ten clauses of for your sake and because you wish: for the sake of rescuing and guarding beings, for the sake of adorning and purifying buddha-lands, for the sake of making offerings to the Tathāgatas; because you wish to abide in all kalpas and rescue beings, because you wish to guard the lineage of the buddhas, because you wish to enter everywhere the ten directions and cultivate the practices, because you wish to enter everywhere the sea of Dharma gates, because you wish with a mind of equality to pervade all things, because you wish to receive everywhere the Dharma wheels of the buddhas, because you wish to rain down the rain of Dharma according to what beings delight in. Only at the last does she say that he asks after the gate of practice the bodhisattvas cultivate.

Chengguan outlines this passage as the earlier part of praising and conferring the Dharma, saying that it first praises the marks of the raising of the mind.

A misreading to set aside: that this is a courtesy. What the ten clauses praise is not the merit and virtue Sudhana already has; it is the intent underneath his question — a single question restored to ten layers of vow. Set upon the ground: whether a question is worth answering is seen first from where the one asking it stands.

Setting Forth the Name and Substance: Profound, Sovereign, Wondrous Sound — Six Graphs, Three Senses

What the night goddess states of what she has gained is that she has gained the bodhisattva liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound. How are these six graphs to be understood? Chengguan glosses them graph by graph: to be in accord with the principle upon the very thing is what is called profound — upon things themselves one is in accord with principle, and one need not depart from things to seek principle, and so it is called profound; provisional and real being unobstructed, and wondrous eloquence being held within, is what is called sovereign — skillful means and the real do not obstruct one another, and wondrous eloquence is contained within, and so it is called sovereign; expounding the Dharma in reliance upon this, answering everywhere to the capacities of the many, is what is meant by wondrous sound — expounding the Dharma in reliance upon such profundity and sovereignty, answering everywhere to capacities of every kind, and so it is called wondrous sound.

A misreading to set aside: that the profound is the object, the sovereign the mind, and the wondrous sound the mouth — three separate things. Chengguan's gloss runs straight through: because it is profound it can be sovereign, and because it is sovereign it becomes wondrous sound — three faces of one thing. Set upon the ground: that expounding the Dharma can answer to capacities has its root not in eloquence but in whether one can be in accord with principle upon things themselves.

The Ten Virtues of the Giving of Dharma: Ten Clauses That All End with a Because

Straight after the setting forth of the name come ten clauses, each of which states a virtue first and then says the reason for it with a because. First, she is a great master of Dharma with nothing to obstruct her, because she is well able to reveal the Dharma treasuries of the buddhas — what it is for is the opening of the treasury, not the speaking. Second, she is furnished with great vows and the power of great kindness and compassion, because she would have all beings abide in the mind of awakening — what the vow and the compassion are turned toward is the raising of the mind in beings. Third, she can do all that benefits beings, because she gathers roots of good without ever resting — the strength to benefit comes of gathering that never breaks off. Fourth, she is the tamer and guide of all beings, because she would have all beings abide in the way of Sarvajñā — taming is not curbing; it is setting a person upon the way of all-knowledge. Fifth, she is the pure sun of Dharma for all the world, shining everywhere upon it, because she would have roots of good brought forth — the use of a sun is the growing of things, not the shining itself. Sixth, her mind is equal toward all the world, because she would have beings everywhere increase in good dharmas — the reason an equal mind must be equal is that it may reach everyone and not some. Seventh, her mind is pure amid all objects, because she would have all unwholesome deeds destroyed — to be undefiled before objects is precisely so that beings’ unwholesome deeds may be cut off. Eighth, she vows to benefit all beings, because her body ever manifests everywhere in all lands — a vow that is to be made good needs a body that can reach the place. Ninth, she displays all the causes and conditions of her former deeds, because she would have beings abide in good practice — telling of one’s own past is not reminiscence; it is giving another a road he can walk. Tenth, the last clause, that she ever serves all good friends, because she would have beings abide in the teaching of the Buddha — serving a teacher, too, is for the sake of beings.

Chengguan judges this to be the general statement of the displaying of the working, saying that ten clauses first set out the virtues of the giving of Dharma.

A misreading to set aside: that these ten clauses are praise of herself. The weight of every clause lies after the because — that is what it is for, not what it is. Set upon the ground: to test a good deed, see whether a clause beginning so that beings may can be joined on behind it.

The Intent of the Giving of Dharma: Giving Dharma Is to Turn a Person's Mind into Vajra

After the ten virtues the night goddess changes her form of address, calling him son of the Buddha, and states the intent of the giving of Dharma: with these dharmas she gives Dharma to beings, causing them to bring forth white dharmas and to seek all-knowledge, their minds firm as the vajra treasury of Nārāyaṇa.

Why take the vajra and Nārāyaṇa for a simile? Because if the giving of Dharma only makes people glad, a breath of wind scatters it; only when it makes them well able to contemplate the power of the Buddha and the power of Māra, able to tell the one power from the other, is it called firm. What is listed below is likewise all hard work — drawing near to good friends, breaking down the mountain of obstruction that is deeds and afflictions, gathering the dharmas that aid the way, the mind never forsaking the ground of all-knowledge.

A misreading to set aside: that giving Dharma is telling people the doctrine. What the scripture says is causing them to bring forth white dharmas, to seek all-knowledge, and to have minds like vajra — something is to grow in the other person. Set upon the ground: whether a giving of Dharma has taken effect is seen from whether the hearer can tell the next day what is pushing him forward and what is pulling him back.

The Ten Contemplations of the Dharma Realm: These Ten Clauses Are Practices, Not Ten Conclusions

The passage that glosses the profound is ten clauses of I know that the Dharma realm is thus and thus. At first sight they are ten conclusions about the Dharma realm; Chengguan will not read them so. He says that within the Dharma realm ten distinct senses are listed, and that they are displayed by way of ten kinds of practice, since practice must accord with principle and principle is displayed by practice — the ten distinct senses are the principle, and the scripture uses ten practices to display it.

The proof lies in the form of the clauses: after every I know that the Dharma realm is thus there follows a practice ending with a because. Thus, I know that the Dharma realm is without limit, because I enter everywhere into all the lands of the buddhas and reverently make offerings to the Tathāgatas — without limit is the principle, entering everywhere and making offerings is the practice. Principle is not thought out; it is walked out.

Chengguan further marks the sense of the first five one by one, saying that the first is without measure, the second without bound, the third without limit, the fourth without shore, the fifth vertically without breaking off, and that the rest may be known — the first four are spoken crosswise and the fifth, the unbroken, uprightly, and all five are spoken by way of quantity without end.

The latter five, of which Chengguan says only that the rest may be known, the scripture itself writes out with both principle and practice, and they may be read clause by clause. The sixth: I know that the Dharma realm is of one nature, because with the one voice of the Tathāgata there is not one sentient being that does not understand — the one nature is the principle, and the one voice understood by all is the practice; that the Dharma realm is one is proved in the one voice reaching everyone. The seventh: I know that the nature of the Dharma realm is pure, because I understand the Tathāgata’s vow to deliver all sentient beings everywhere — the purity of nature is the principle, and what one knows it by is the understanding of the buddha’s universal vow; a vow that chooses no one is where the original purity shows. The eighth: I know that the Dharma realm pervades sentient beings, because the wondrous practice of Samantabhadra is everywhere complete — pervasion is the principle and the completeness of that practice is the practice; whether the Dharma realm pervades is seen from whether the practice arrives. The ninth: I know that the Dharma realm is of one adornment, because the wondrous practice of Samantabhadra adorns it well — the one adornment is the principle, and again it is Samantabhadra’s practice that does the adorning; the eighth and the ninth take the same practice for their reason, and what they display is in the one case pervasion and in the other adornment. The tenth: I know that the Dharma realm cannot be destroyed, because the roots of good of all-knowledge fill the Dharma realm and cannot be destroyed — indestructibility is the principle and the filling by roots of good is the practice; as far as the roots of good fill, so far does the indestructible show.

A misreading to set aside: that contemplating the Dharma realm is a kind of visualization done while sitting. Set upon the ground: if one wishes to know how wide the Dharma realm is, the way is to walk one step further forward, not to think one layer deeper with the eyes shut.

The Ten Dhāraṇī Wheels of Great Majestic Virtue: A Holding-Together That Can Turn

The passage that glosses the sovereign is ten dhāraṇī wheels. A dhāraṇī is a holding-together, and the added graph wheel carries the sense of what can turn. Of the names of the ten wheels, the first three are set up upon dharmas — entering everywhere, holding everywhere, expounding everywhere all dharmas; the next three upon the buddhas — calling to mind everywhere the buddhas of the ten directions, expounding everywhere the names of the buddhas, entering everywhere the sea of the vows of the buddhas of the three times; the next three upon those to be converted — entering everywhere the sea of the vehicles, entering everywhere the sea of the deeds of beings, swiftly turning all deeds; and the last upon the fruit — swiftly bringing forth all-knowledge.

Chengguan glosses this passage, saying that it glosses the sense of sovereign, that is, because it holds together both the provisional and the real, and that each name is set up from what it holds — the standing of the sovereign lies in this, that both the provisional and the real can be held; and the name of each wheel is set up from that portion which it holds.

A misreading to set aside: that a holding-together is a good memory. The scripture says that these ten wheels have besides ten thousand dhāraṇī wheels for their retinue and ever expound the wondrous Dharma for beings — a holding-together is for expounding, not for storing. Set upon the ground: the mark of really having kept hold of a dharma is that you can take it out when another person has need of it.

The Twenty-Three Clauses of Expounding the Dharma: The First Three Are the Three Kinds of Wisdom, the Latter Twenty Are Ten Pairs

The passage that glosses the wondrous sound is the longest, twenty-three clauses of at times I expound for beings. Chengguan divides it with great clarity: now the first, there are twenty-three clauses; the first three are by way of the three kinds of wisdom, and the latter twenty clauses make ten pairs, distinguished by way of broad and brief.

The first three clauses are the wisdom that comes of hearing, of thinking, and of cultivating — spoken by way of the stage at which the hearer stands. The latter twenty clauses make pairs two by two, and every pair sets one against all, each of the ten pairs having its own province: the first pair, the Dharma of one existence against the Dharma of all existences, is spoken by way of dharmas as a whole; the second is spoken by way of the names of the buddhas, the Dharma of the sea of the name of one Tathāgata against that of all Tathāgatas; the third by way of place, the Dharma of the seas of worlds; the fourth by way of time, the Dharma of the seas of the prophecies of the buddhas — a prophecy records when one will become a buddha; the fifth by way of the assembly, the Dharma of the seas of the assemblies and places of the Way of the Tathāgatas; the sixth by way of the teaching that is turned, the Dharma of the seas of the Dharma wheels of the Tathāgatas; the seventh by way of the teaching set down in writing, the Dharma of the sūtras of the Tathāgatas; the eighth by way of the gathering of the assembly, the Dharma of the gatherings of the Tathāgatas; the ninth by way of the mind, the Dharma of the seas of the mind of Sarvajñā; the tenth by way of the going forth upon a vehicle, the Dharma of the going forth of one vehicle against that of all vehicles. The order of the ten pairs runs from dharmas to buddhas, to place, to time, to assembly, to teaching, to writing, to gathering, to mind, and closes with the going forth upon a vehicle — the expounding of Dharma begins with a single dharma and ends with a road out. Chengguan takes the first pair for an example, saying that the one existence read by way of principle is because the twenty-five existences are not two in principle, and the one existence read by way of things is because they are alike in being conditioned — one one existence may be read by way of principle and may also be read by way of things.

A misreading to set aside: that to say all is higher than to say one. Broad and brief are only two ways of taking up a matter to suit a capacity; they are not two levels of depth. Set upon the ground: speaking to one person, to say one is enough; only in speaking to a crowd must one say all.

Concluding the Benefit: Abiding in the Practice of Samantabhadra, Thought after Thought Filling the Dharma Realm

The three passages of the working being expounded, the night goddess closes with two sentences: one concludes the profound in particular — she enters the sea of the gates of the undifferentiated Dharma realm of the Tathāgata, expounds the unsurpassed Dharma, gathers in beings everywhere, and to the end of the kalpas to come abides in the practice of Samantabhadra; and one concludes the sovereign and the wondrous sound in general — she has accomplished this liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound, and in thought after thought increases all the gates of liberation, and thought after thought fills all the Dharma realm.

Chengguan judges these two sentences, saying that first the benefit of the profound is concluded in particular, since by entering the undifferentiated one abides through kalpas without weariness; and that afterward, from I have accomplished onward, the wondrous sound and the sovereign are concluded in general, since by the holding-together liberation is increased and by the wondrous sound the Dharma realm is filled. Entering the undifferentiated, therefore abiding measureless kalpas without weariness — this is the benefit of the profound; the holding-together, therefore liberation increases, and the wondrous sound, therefore the Dharma realm is pervaded — this is the benefit of the sovereign and the wondrous sound.

A misreading to set aside: that to the end of the kalpas to come is an exaggerated quantity of time. It follows upon the undifferentiated, for only because there is no differentiation is there no weariness, and only because there is no weariness can one speak of the end of the kalpas to come. Set upon the ground: whether one can do a thing for long depends on whether the mind discriminates while doing it.

Sudhana Asks How Long: This One Question Draws Out the Whole Account of the Former Life

The Dharma being expounded, what Sudhana asks after is not the doctrine but the time: how marvelous, deva-spirit! This gate of liberation is rare indeed! How long is it since the holy one realized it?

Why does he ask this? Chengguan outlines this part as distinguishing how deep the root of the Dharma is — how deep the root of a dharma goes cannot be told by telling; it can be displayed only by a stretch of the past. And so this one question of Sudhana's draws out the longest passage of this section, the account of the former life.

A misreading to set aside: that asking how long is curiosity. Within this chapter the question of how long ago has a settled rule to it — it is the way a seeker of the Dharma makes sure of the weight of a Dharma gate. Set upon the ground: to ask where a teaching comes from before hearing it is not doubt but respect.

The Former Life (One): The Kalpa Named Undefiled Light, the World Named Cloud of the Merit and Virtue of the Dharma Realm

The night goddess's answer begins at the furthest point: in an ancient age gone by, past kalpas as many as the dust motes of the turnings of worlds, there was a kalpa named Undefiled Light, and there was a world named Cloud of the Merit and Virtue of the Dharma Realm.

What quantity is kalpas as many as the dust motes of the turnings of worlds? Chengguan unravels it very finely: as for saying the turnings of worlds, it means that a world is made into dust motes, that one dust mote is one land, and that these are ground into dust motes again, and so it too is as though measureless. A world is crushed into dust motes, one grain of dust counts as one land, and those lands are crushed into dust motes again — turning about in this way, and so it is said to be as though measureless. As for the adornment of that world, the scripture says it has for its substance a sea of maṇi kings manifesting the deeds of beings, that its shape is like a lotus flower, and that every set of four continents has hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of unspeakably unspeakable cities.

A misreading to set aside: that these numbers are a rhetorical lavishness. They lay the ground for the one word long below — without first drawing the time out, the question how long is it gets no answer. Set upon the ground: because the cities are many, the title Guardian of All Cities below carries its weight.

The Former Life (Two): The First Buddha of All, and the King Who Received the Sūtra and Afterward Went Forth

Within one set of four continents of that world there was a royal city named Light of the Universal Jewel Flower and a site of awakening named Palace of the Dharma King Universally Made Manifest; Tathāgatas as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru appeared there, and the first buddha of all was named King of the Light of the Thunder-Sound of the Sea of Dharma. At that time there was a wheel-turning king named Pure Countenance of Sunlight, who in the presence of that buddha received and upheld the sūtra of the Whirling of the Sea of All Dharmas; and after the Buddha's nirvāṇa that king went forth from the household life and guarded the true Dharma.

Chengguan outlines the former life in six parts, and these are the first two — first, the raising of the buddha's appearing; second, from when that buddha appeared onward, the father king going forth from the household life.

A misreading to set aside: that the wheel-turning king's going forth was a laying down of his station in search of ease. What the scripture joins on is the four graphs guarded the true Dharma — he went forth not to withdraw but to guard. Set upon the ground: when a person lays down the position in his hands, look at what he took up after laying it down.

The Former Life (Three): When the Dharma Was about to Perish, Someone Rose into the Sky and Said a Sentence

Next come the marks of an evil age: when the Dharma was about to perish there were a thousand divisions of differing assemblies and a thousand kinds of expounding; the many evil monks were often quarrelling, delighting in clinging to objects, not seeking merit and virtue; and what they delighted to talk of was the talk of kings, of thieves, of women, of the state, of the great sea, and all the talk of the world.

Thereupon that king who was a monk said a sentence: how strange! How bitter! Through measureless great seas of kalpas the Buddha gathered together this torch of Dharma; how is it that you would destroy it together? Having spoken, he rose into the sky to the height of seven tāla trees, and from his body there came forth clouds of flames of measureless colors and he sent out nets of great light of every color, causing measureless beings to be rid of the fever of the afflictions and to raise the mind of awakening. Through these causes and conditions the teaching of that age flourished again for sixty-five thousand years.

Chengguan outlines these two parts as the third, from when the Dharma was about to perish onward, the rising of the faults of an evil age; and the fourth, from at that time that king who was a monk onward, the putting down of the faults and the spreading abroad of the Dharma.

A misreading to set aside: that he held down the scene by spiritual power. The scripture writes it plainly: what the light did was to rid beings of the fever of the afflictions and to make them raise the mind of awakening — it worked upon people's minds, not upon the scene. Set upon the ground: the torch of Dharma is gathered together, and it is also thrown away one sentence at a time; and the way to catch it is often only that someone is willing to say the first sentence.

The Former Life (Four): The King's Daughter, Who Gained This Dharma Gate by Hearing Her Father's Words and Seeing the Spiritual Power

That king who was a monk had a daughter, the nun Light of the Transformations of the Dharma Wheel, with a hundred thousand nuns for her retinue. She heard her father the king's words and saw his spiritual power, raised the mind of awakening never to turn back, gained a samādhi named Lamp of the Teaching of All Buddhas, and gained besides this liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound; and having gained it, her body and mind became soft and pliant and straightway she was able to see before her all the spiritual powers of that Tathāgata.

Chengguan points out in particular that this part is the direct answer to that question of Sudhana's — the fifth, from at that time there was a nun onward, the king's daughter seeing and hearing, raising the mind and gaining the Dharma, which is the direct answer to how long since the Dharma was gained.

A misreading to set aside: that the key to her gaining the Dharma was her being a king's daughter. The causes and conditions the scripture fastens it to are two things: hearing the words and seeing the spiritual power — one a hearing and one a seeing. Set upon the ground: when a Dharma gate comes into your hands, it is usually just such two things working together, and nothing more mysterious than that.

Bringing Together Past and Present: The Two People of That Time Are the Two of Today

The account of the former life closes with a question and an answer: son of good family! What do you think? That wheel-turning sage king who accorded with the Tathāgata in turning the wheel of the true Dharma and who, after the Buddha's nirvāṇa, made the last age of the Dharma flourish — could he be another? He is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra of today. And that nun Light of the Transformations of the Dharma Wheel is this very body of mine.

Chengguan outlines this as the sixth, from what do you think onward, the bringing together of past and present and the accomplishing of benefit. The night goddess goes on to state what she did at that time — causing a hundred thousand nuns to reach the point of no turning back from unsurpassed awakening, causing them to gain the samādhi of seeing all buddhas before them, causing them to gain the dhāraṇī of the vajra light of the Dharma wheel of all buddhas, causing them to gain the prajñā-pāramitā of entering everywhere the sea of all Dharma gates.

A misreading to set aside: that the bringing together of past and present is only a disclosure of identities. Its work is to set the one question of how long upon solid ground — the Dharma gate was not gained out of the air; it was gained within that one guarding of the Dharma. Set upon the ground: what a person is able to give today is mostly equal to what he held fast in the hardest place back then.

The Listing of a Hundred Buddha-Names: One Next a Buddha Arose Repeated to the End

After the former life comes a long passage of buddha-names, all of one form — next a buddha arose, named such and such. This clause appears ninety-eight times in the scripture, and together with the first buddha of all, King of the Light of the Thunder-Sound of the Sea of Dharma, and the last, Lamp of the Wisdom of the City of the Dharma Realm, they make the order of the buddhas within one kalpa. Chengguan does not gloss them name by name but judges them with a single sentence, saying that this is a brief raising of the hundred buddhas that come next before.

Why list so many? Because what was said above was Tathāgatas as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru, and if not one name were raised, that number would be only a number; with nearly a hundred names raised, the number falls into a sequence. And among these nearly hundred names, most are built of Dharma, knowledge, light, cloud, and banner — King of the Wondrous Sound of the Sea of Dharma, Lamp of Wisdom of the Sun of Dharma, King of the Banner of the Mountain of Dharma Flames, Light of the Lion of the Dharma Realm — and what the names are fastened to is still the one graph Dharma.

A misreading to set aside: that this passage may be skipped. That nearly a hundred buddha-names are set out one by one is the very substance of the sentence toward them all I was reverent, drew near to them, made offerings to them; without the names set out, that sentence never comes down to the ground. Set upon the ground: what is called making offerings to all buddhas, brought down to the ground, is just such meeting of them one by one and serving them one by one.

The Last Buddha of All, and the Continuity of Measureless Kalpas Thereafter

The listing ended, the scripture closes: son of good family! Of such Tathāgatas as these, as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru, the last buddha of all was named Lamp of the Wisdom of the City of the Dharma Realm, and they all arose in the world within the kalpa Undefiled Light. The night goddess says that toward all these Tathāgatas she was reverent, drew near, made offerings, heard and received and upheld, and moreover that in the presence of all those Tathāgatas she too went forth from the household life and studied the way and guarded the teaching of the Dharma, and with every kind of skillful means taught and ripened measureless beings. She says further that from that time onward, through kalpas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land, all the buddhas who have arisen in the world she has made offerings to, and has cultivated their Dharma.

Chengguan outlines what follows here as the displaying of the like through many kalpas and the accomplishing of benefit, saying that afterward, from that time onward, the like is displayed through many kalpas and benefit accomplished.

A misreading to set aside: that once the Dharma was gained in the first kalpa the matter was finished. The scripture says plainly that after gaining the Dharma she still went forth and studied the way and guarded the teaching of the Dharma — gaining the Dharma is not the terminus; it is going on doing the same thing in another capacity. Set upon the ground: whether a person has really gained anything is seen from whether, having gained it, he is still willing to do the same small tasks as before.

Birth and Death Are the Night, Ignorance Is the Sleep: Where the Night Goddess's Name Comes Down

The closing sentence of the displaying of the like through many kalpas is the most recognizable sentence of this section: son of good family! From that time onward, amid the sentient beings who lie in the night of birth and death and in the slumber of ignorance, I alone am awake; and I cause sentient beings to guard the city of their own mind, to forsake the city of the three realms, and to abide in the unsurpassed Dharma city of all-knowledge.

This sentence sets the whole title in its place. Birth and death are the night and ignorance is the slumber, and therefore she is a night goddess; and the three cities the scripture speaks of are three things she causes sentient beings to do — she causes beings to guard the city of the mind, causes beings to forsake the city of the three realms, causes beings to abide in the unsurpassed Dharma city of all-knowledge. Guarding, forsaking, and abiding, three acts each matched to one city, three turns within a single sentence; the doers are the beings, and she is the one who causes them to do it.

Li Tongxuan says of this good friend's title that it signifies ever guarding the city of the mind of all sentient beings — the same place where the scripture's sentence comes down.

A misreading to set aside: that Guardian of All Cities means she has many walled cities in her charge. The cities the scripture itself gives are the city of the mind, the city of the three realms, and the Dharma city. Set upon the ground: the first business of guarding a city is to make out which city it is that you are to guard.

Humbling Herself and Pointing to the Superior: She Says First That She Knows Only One

Coming to the part of humbling herself, the night goddess says that she knows only this liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound, and straightway raises the four kinds of verbal action of this liberation — causing the worlds to leave off frivolous talk, not to make two-tongued talk, ever to speak true talk, and always to speak pure talk.

How are these four clauses to be read? Chengguan gives two gates. Read by way of the wondrous sound, they are the four good verbal deeds — if read by way of the wondrous sound, then not flowery, not divisive, not false, not harsh, matched to them in order: not flowery speech, not divisive speech, not false speech, not harsh speech, each of the four leaving off one kind of verbal evil; read by way of the profound, the standard is raised a level — if read by way of the profound, then whatever does not join with principle is called frivolous talk, and to utter speech outside principle is two-tongued talk. The first gate is not to speak ill; the latter gate counts as frivolous every word that does not join with principle.

A misreading to set aside: that the second gate is too severe. It is precisely the natural conclusion of the Dharma gate this friend confers — being named profound, even speech must take principle for its measure. Set upon the ground: first come up to the former gate, and then take the latter for a mirror.

Pointing to the Superior and Its Breadth: What the Bodhisattvas Know Is the Own-Nature of Speech

After the part of stating her own comes the pointing to the superior. What the night goddess points to is no other spiritual power but still speech — the bodhisattvas are able to know the own-nature of all speech, and from knowing the nature of speech “in thought after thought freely awaken all sentient beings,” able to enter the sea of the sounds and speech of all beings and to distinguish and understand all forms of speech; from distinguishing speech they see clearly the seas of all Dharma gates; from seeing the Dharma gates clearly they gain sovereignty in the dhāraṇī that gathers in all dharmas everywhere; from that sovereignty of holding-together they can expound the Dharma according to what beings’ minds doubt; from expounding according to doubt they utterly subdue all beings and gather in all beings everywhere; and from that gathering in they skillfully cultivate the unsurpassed works of a bodhisattva, enter deeply the subtle knowledges of a bodhisattva, and contemplate well the treasuries of the bodhisattvas, until at the last they can expound the dharmas of a bodhisattva sovereignly — from knowing the own-nature of speech to expounding the bodhisattva dharmas sovereignly, these are not thirteen matters lying side by side but one line, each clause being what makes the next one possible; and at the last she asks and answers herself in a sentence: why is this so? Because they have already accomplished the dhāraṇī of the wheel of all dharmas.

The direction of these words of pointing to the superior is worth looking at: what she points to is still within her own gate, only deeper and broader — to know sounds and speech is one layer, to know the own-nature of speech is another.

A misreading to set aside: that humbling oneself and pointing to the superior is a matter of manners. What the scripture does is to push the gate one has gained to its very utmost and then say that one cannot reach there. Set upon the ground: to know where the top of one's own gate is matters more than knowing how many gates one has.

Pointing Out the Next Friend: Go and Ask Who Opens the Blossoms of All Trees

At the last comes the pointing of the road: son of good family! Within this assembly of the Buddha there is a night goddess named Who Opens the Blossoms of All Trees. Go to her and ask: how is a bodhisattva to study all-knowledge? How is he to establish all beings in abiding in all-knowledge?

Chengguan gives a twofold gloss upon the name of the friend to come, saying that as for Who Opens the Blossoms of Trees, by way of the thing it is because she is within the pavilion of fragrant trees, and by way of the station it is because the seventh ground has practice and has opening forth, and abides in the markless. By way of the thing, it is because that night goddess is within the pavilion of fragrant trees; by way of the station, the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, has practice and has opening forth while abiding in the markless, and so takes the opening of blossoms for a name.

A misreading to set aside: that pointing out the next friend is only a change of scene. The two questions pointed to — studying all-knowledge and establishing beings in all-knowledge — are exactly what this section leaves unexhausted: this section expounds the gate of expounding the Dharma, and the friend to come is to expound the gate of studying and of establishing. Set upon the ground: a teacher's last sentence telling you whom to go and ask is often his own statement of where his boundary lies.

The Night Goddess's Eleven Verses: The First Two Restate the Substance and the Working, the Rest Restate the Deep Root

After the pointing of the road come verses. Chengguan divides them clearly: eleven verses, divided in two — the first two verses restate the substance and the working above, and the rest restate the displaying of how deep the root of the Dharma is.

The first two verses restate the substance and working above — the first verse says that the bodhisattva's liberation is deep and hard to see, a mark equal like empty space and like suchness, which restates its substance; the second says that it brings forth measureless surpassing merit and virtue, and so on to that it opens through the way of liberation of the three times, which restates its working. The remaining nine verses turn back to restate the former life, and Chengguan divides again: first restating the first kalpa, and the last one verse restating the displaying of the like through many kalpas.

A misreading to set aside: that verses restating are only the prose said over again. The verses here do something the prose does not — they press the long passage of the first kalpa of the former life into eight verses, so that that very long past runs through once within some two hundred graphs. Set upon the ground: to be able to tell a long matter short is to have really kept hold of its order.

The Three Layers of the Restating of the Former Life: General, Particular, and the Hundred Buddhas

The eight verses that restate the former life Chengguan divides again into three layers: within the former there are three — the first three restate first and last in general, the next four restate in particular the gaining of the Dharma at the first buddha, and the last one restates the hundred buddhas in between and the concluding text after.

The first three verses restate first and last in general — rehearsing the kalpa named Pure Light, the world Cloud of Dharma Flames, and the city called Light of the Jewel Flower, saying that there was a buddha named Sound of the Sea of Dharma who appeared first within this kalpa, and saying further that so on to the last buddha therein, named King of the Lamp of the Flames of the Dharma Realm — at one stroke gathering up both ends, the first and the last. The next four verses restate in particular the gaining of the Dharma at the first buddha — I saw the Buddha Thunder-Sound of the Sea of Dharma, his body everywhere of the color of true gold; for but a moment I saw that Tathāgata's body, and straightway raised the vast mind of awakening — and below this, from the raising of the mind to seeing everywhere the buddhas of the three times, to raising great compassion, to manifesting bodies of every kind. The last verse restates the hundred buddhas in between and the conclusion — I saw the second buddha and drew near to him, and saw too the buddhas of the seas of lands of the ten directions, and so on to the arising of the last buddha.

A misreading to set aside: that what the prose has already said need not be looked at again in the verses. The kalpa-name, the world-name, and the city-name in the verses are not wholly the same as in the prose — this is a divergence between prose and verses restating within one and the same section, and this work records both without adjudicating, and there is no need to force them into one. Set upon the ground: where two places differ, first see each of them clearly, and only then say whether they are to be joined.

The Last Verse, and Sudhana's Gaining of Benefit

The night goddess's last verse is: through kalpas as many as the dust motes of the turnings of lands, all the Tathāgatas are lamps that shine upon the world; toward them all I drew near and gazed up and served, causing this liberation to be made pure — this is what Chengguan calls the last one verse restating the displaying of the like through many kalpas.

The verses ended, Sudhana gains the benefit. The scripture says that because he had entered this bodhisattva liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound, he entered the boundless sea of samādhis, entered the vast sea of holding-together, gained the great spiritual powers of a bodhisattva, and obtained the great eloquence of a bodhisattva. Upon this Chengguan sets down a turning phrase, saying that Sudhana's gaining of benefit, though it runs in general from the text before, is also proximately from this — the far cause lies in all the prose above, and the near cause lies in this one passage of verses.

A misreading to set aside: that listening to verses is an entertainment before the breaking up of the gathering. The order of the scripture here is: the verses ended, and then he entered. Set upon the ground: only when a saying has been repeated until it can be sung does the hearer really catch it.

Sudhana's Ten Verses (One): The First Praises Merit and Knowledge, the Next Four Sigh at Compassion and Knowledge

Sudhana's ten verses of praise Chengguan divides into four. The first praises her merit and knowledge as beyond all — you have walked the vast sea of wondrous wisdom, and have crossed the boundless sea of the several existences — wisdom and existences, two seas raised together, one walked and one crossed.

The next four sigh at the profundity of compassion and knowledge, that is, the second verse through the fifth. Here Chengguan sets down the finest gloss of this section. The second verse says: thought after thought you lay hold of every object, and mind after mind you cut off forever the discriminations — which looks self-contradictory; and Chengguan says that thought after thought laying hold of every object does not obstruct the discriminating of things, and that mind after mind cutting off forever the discriminations is because one ever accords with principle; and he says further that the upper line is by way of contemplation and the lower line by way of stillness, which is stillness and contemplation carried on together, understanding the absence of nature, becoming without discrimination and thereupon raising great compassion. And at the last he adds a sentence of importance: laying hold is simply discriminating, and does not belong to the deluded alone.

A misreading to set aside: that laying hold is necessarily a disease. Chengguan says plainly that laying hold is discriminating, and that discriminating does not belong to the deluded alone — the upper line lays hold of things, the lower line cuts off deluded discrimination, and the two lines together are exactly stillness and contemplation carried on as one. Set upon the ground: to tell things apart in the mind and at the same time not be cut apart by them is what these two lines would have one do.

Sudhana's Ten Verses (Two): The Next Four Generally Display Virtue Full, Obstruction Left Behind, and Benefit Gathered In

Chengguan judges the third division of these ten verses to be the next four generally displaying virtue full, obstruction left behind, and benefit gathered in, and what he points to is the sixth verse through the ninth. The sixth verse, with its four clauses of you already — you already abide in all the ways of the vows of the Tathāgata, you have already received the vast teaching of awakening — may be taken up as practice fulfilled; the seventh verse, deva-spirit, your mind is pure as empty space, everywhere apart from all the afflictions, may be taken up as obstruction left behind; the eighth verse, deva-spirit, in one thought you understand it all — day and night, the sun and moon, the years, the sea of kalpas, is unobstructedness with respect to time; and the ninth verse, from where sentient beings of the ten directions are born and die, those with form and those without, those with perception and those without, down to and lead them so that they enter the road of awakening, is benefit gathered in. Chengguan in this division speaks only in general of the three matters, virtue full, obstruction left behind, and benefit gathered in; the fine matching of them verse by verse is a taking-up made upon the text of these four verses, and is not a heading he sets out in so many words.

A misreading to set aside: that the fifth verse, deva-spirit, you are the tamer and guide of sentient beings, also belongs to this division. Chengguan's four divisions are the first one, the next four, the next four, and the last one, and the fifth verse is the last verse of the division that sighs at the profundity of compassion and knowledge; it is from the sentence about the tamer and guide that the text turns into you already abide in all the ways of the vows of the Tathāgata, and there the division of virtue full begins. Set upon the ground: in reading verses that have been outlined, count the verses clearly first, and then look at the name of the division.

Sudhana's Ten Verses (Three): The Last One Accomplishes the Practice and Enters the Station

Chengguan's last division is the last one accomplishing the practice and entering the station, and it points to the tenth verse: you are already born into the family of the vows of the Tathāgata, you have already entered the sea of the merit and virtue of the buddhas; your Dharma body is pure and your mind unobstructed, and according to what sentient beings delight in you manifest bodies of every color. To be born into the family of the Tathāgata and to enter the sea of merit and virtue are the practice accomplished; to have a pure Dharma body and to manifest colors according to what beings delight in is the station entered — and here the ten verses are gathered up.

A misreading to set aside: that verses of praise are polite words. The order of these ten verses has a bone to it — merit and knowledge, compassion and knowledge, virtue full, entering the station, gathered up layer upon layer; and the being born into the family and entering the sea of the last verse is exactly where this road comes down. Set upon the ground: to be able to praise a person is already to have seen clearly the order of what she practices.

Cherishing Her Virtue and Taking Leave

The last passage is very short: at that time, Sudhana the youth, having spoken these verses, bowed to the night goddess's feet, circled her measureless times, gazed up at her earnestly, took his leave, and departed.

Speaking the verses, bowing to her feet, circling her, gazing up, taking his leave — five acts, and not one word. This section begins with according with the teaching of the friend before and closes with gazing up earnestly and departing; he comes carrying the teaching of the one before and goes carrying the teaching of this one.

A misreading to set aside: that paying respect and taking leave is a formality. Among the friends seen in this assembly, the coming and the going are mostly the same set of acts; and precisely because they are broadly the same set, the reader can make out how the content in the middle of each section differs. Set upon the ground: the places where the form is the same are exactly the rule by which difference is measured.

Lineage

Of the text of this section, the streams opened below it run in three lines.

The first is the line of the assigned station. Chengguan fastens this friend to the Manifest Ground, and the Yanyi chao sets forth the reason, saying that it is abiding in the knowledge of dependent origination and drawing forth the most excellent wisdom that is without discrimination and causing it to be manifest. Chengguan reads her across the chapters besides: where he glosses the assembly of presiding night deities in the chapter Wondrous Adornments of the Lords of the Worlds, he says that the fifth is the friend of the Manifest Ground, whom that chapter calls Guardian of All Cities, Increasing Might; upon her Sanskrit name he says that the verse says śrī, because the Sanskrit sound holds two senses within it, one called auspicious and the second rendered as guarding; and bringing the name of her Dharma gate together with it he says that because of the wondrous sound the mind is gladdened, and being gladdened the mind is pure, and being still and yet able to expound it is called sovereign — that the Sanskrit sound holds two senses is what Chengguan transmits.

Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle, marks it as within the friend of the sixth ground, the Manifest Ground; Zhiyan, upon the sixty-fascicle, marks it as a bodhisattva of the sixth ground; and Li Tongxuan states of himself, at the end of the true entering upon this friend, that this is the sixth, the Manifest Ground, and under the name of the goddess says that it signifies ever guarding the city of the mind of all sentient beings, increasing the wisdom and might within the sixth ground and of all sentient beings, and causing the three emptinesses to be manifest. At the end of the true entering he further sets up principal and companion and what is cured: “with the prajñā-pāramitā as king and the other nine as companions; this cures the hindrance whereby the stillness and the working of the wisdom of the three emptinesses are not sovereign, and causes sovereignty to be gained” — the sixth ground has prajñā as principal, and what it cures is that portion of unsovereignty in which the wisdom of the three emptinesses is still but cannot work, or works but cannot be still; and the kalpa and the world of the former life he reads together as signs: the kalpa named Stainless Light signifies the substance of principle of the three emptinesses, originally still, within prajñā; the world named Cloud of the Merit of the Dharma-realm signifies wisdom as the cloud of merit that expounds the teaching; the wheel-turning king of that time is now Samantabhadra, making clear knowledge, and the nun is the night goddess herself, making clear compassion — one former life, read by him as the two branches of knowledge and compassion. Li Tongxuan sets it forth once more under the sixth ground of the chapter of the Ten Grounds, by the dharmas Sudhana signifies: the night goddess seen there is the Guardian of All Cities, Increasing Might; the maṇi of her seat signifies that wisdom departs from defilement, from the stains of self and of others; the numberless night goddesses surrounding her signify that the practice is everywhere complete; and within these ten grounds the nourishing of kindness and compassion is made clear, and so the sixth ground and the remaining grounds are signified by a female deity — that a female deity should signify the nourishing of compassion is a track of signifying that is Li Tongxuan’s own. The words the four houses proceed by are each different, and yet the ground they come home to is alike the sixth. Recorded without adjudication.

The second is the line of the outlining. Chengguan makes five parts — seeking in accord with the teaching · seeing, paying respect, and inquiring · praising and conferring the Dharma · humbling herself and pointing to the superior · pointing out the next friend (the commentary counts from the second, so that the first part is the passage of calling to mind the teaching of the friend before and seeking and seeing the bodies; and distinguishing how deep the root of the Dharma is does not stand level with these five, being the third of the three sub-parts opened under the true conferring of the Dharma realm within praising and conferring the Dharma, of the same layer as setting forth the name and substance and displaying the working); Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle, makes four parts of the showing forth of her own Dharma realm — setting forth the name and substance of the Dharma · displaying the sense and working of the Dharma · distinguishing how deep or shallow the root of the Dharma is · concluding that it is only her own portion; Zhiyan, upon the sixty-fascicle, makes three parts of the true entering — praising that he has raised the mind and is able to ask · telling of what she has gained as her own portion · looking up and pointing to the superior; and Li Tongxuan, not depending upon the marks of the teaching in the scripture text, outlines the true entering upon this friend at length into ten passages and closes with six gates of ascending by ascribing virtue that point to the friend to come. His raising of the name of this friend and his showing of where she is are said within the five gates of ascending by ascribing virtue at the end of the passage of the friend before, Ocean of Tranquil Sound, and that is why the fourth of those five gates still states Sudhana’s verses under the name of the friend before — that gate never belonged to this section. The bone the four houses depend upon is different in each: Chengguan upon the marks of the teaching in the scripture text, Fazang and Zhiyan upon the text of the sixty-fascicle, Li Tongxuan upon the sequence of signifying dharmas. Again, as to where the good friend is, the scripture itself sets up no name of a city; Chengguan follows the scripture in saying within this assembly of the Buddha and does not gloss the place separately, while Li Tongxuan points out expressly that it is within the assembly of the Tathāgata at the site of awakening. Recorded without adjudication.

The third is the line of the parallel translations. As for the name of this friend, the sixty-fascicle has the night deva Wondrous Virtue Guarding the Cities, the eighty-fascicle has the night goddess Guardian of All Cities, and the forty-fascicle has the night goddess Guardian of All Cities, Increasing Majestic Virtue; as for the name of the Dharma gate, the sixty-fascicle has the Dharma gate of the Profound Wondrous Virtue and Sovereign Sound and Voice, and the eighty-fascicle has the liberation of Profound and Sovereign Wondrous Sound. All three witnesses are recorded without adjudication. (The divergences of the kalpa-name, the world-name, and the city-name between prose and verses restating belong to a matter internal to one and the same witness, and have been seen above; they are not fastened to the line of the parallel translations.)

What Fazang’s Tanxuan ji and Zhiyan’s Souxuan ji gloss is the sixty-fascicle, whose form of the name is Wondrous Virtue Guarding the Cities, and each of them has a gloss upon this friend in particular. Fazang glosses the name thus: as for Wondrous Virtue Guarding the Cities, in reliance upon the holding-together of the knowledge of realization the knowledge is named wondrous virtue; she ever enters all cities, and so it says guarding; and again, with the knowledge of contemplation she guards the city of the mind and causes it to leave off deluded thought, and it is from this that she is named — wondrous virtue is fastened to the holding-together of the knowledge of realization, and guarding has two senses, the ever entering of all cities being one and the guarding of the city of the mind by contemplative knowledge, so that deluded thought is left off, being the other. The name of the Dharma gate in the sixty-fascicle is the Profound Wondrous Virtue and Sovereign Sound and Voice, and so Fazang too divides it into three senses, saying that the true realization of the Dharma realm is named profound, that the eloquence held within the subsequent knowledge is named wondrous virtue, and that proclaiming the teaching according to capacity, unobstructed in the broad and in the brief, is named sovereign sound and voice; while Zhiyan marks her station, saying that she is a bodhisattva of the sixth ground who enters the Dharma gate of the Profound Wondrous Virtue and Sovereign Sound and Voice. Since the form of the name and the name of the Dharma gate in the sixty-fascicle are not those of the eighty-fascicle, the senses these two houses divide out likewise run upon a track of their own and need not be matched with the three senses of profound, sovereign, and wondrous sound that Chengguan sets up upon the eighty-fascicle. Recorded without adjudication.

Of the text of one section, the former half expounds the name of the Dharma gate and the latter half expounds how the name was come by. The name has six graphs forming three members, and so the Dharma is divided into three passages; the coming by it lies in a stretch of the past, and so it answers a single question of how long. What is called the deepness of the root of the Dharma is deep not in principle but in this, that within that age of the last Dharma there was someone willing to rise into the sky and say one sentence.

The Shape of This Section: What Is Asked Is Practice, What Is Answered Is a Passage of the Past

Sudhana comes to his thirty-seventh good friend, and what he asks is still the old question — “How is a bodhisattva to learn the bodhisattva practices? How is he to gain all-knowledge?” But the way this section answers is unlike that of all the sections before it: the night goddess first tells of what she herself does at night, sets up the name of her Dharma gate, and answers upon the working of that gate; then Sudhana presses with a single clause, “how long has it been now,” and thereupon the latter half of this section, about three quarters of the whole, becomes a passage of a former life — a king named Canopy of the Fullness of the Sound of All Dharmas, one great giving, and a daughter of an elder who offers up her necklace. Only at the very last clause is it disclosed: that maiden is this night goddess who is speaking.

Chengguan outlines this unit in four passages, saying, “The first two may be understood. Third, from ‘the night goddess said’ onward is the conferring of her own Dharma realm. Within it there are four: first, the displaying of the practice of the Dharma; second, the setting up of the name of the Dharma; third, the making clear of the working; fourth, the discriminating of the depth of the root.” Of the four passages, the first three together are about a quarter of this section, and the fourth, the discriminating of the depth of the root of the Dharma, takes up all the rest by itself.

A misreading must be set aside: that the passage of the former life is a story and the real text is the doctrine before it. Were it so, the scripture text would not need so long a stretch. What Sudhana asks after is “how long ago” — time; what the night goddess answers with is one matter — the very scene of that raising of the mind. ‘A question upon time, answered with a deed’: this is the bone of this section. Brought down to the ground: when one asks how long a person has practiced, the truest answer is not a number of years but what arose in his mind at that one moment.

Seeing, Paying Respect, and Inquiring: He Comes Carrying the Dharma Gate of the One Before

The opening clause of this section is not a walking but an “entering the bodhisattva liberation gate of the profound and unhindered wondrous sound, and advancing in his practice.” The gate conferred by the good friend before this one — Sudhana has entered it, and moreover has gone a step further upon it, and only then comes to this one.

The night goddess’s dependent recompense is written out along with it: her body is “within a storeyed pavilion made of many jewelled fragrant trees, upon a lion seat made of wondrous jewels,” with a million night goddesses circling her. Li Tongxuan sets down words of symbolizing the Dharma upon this very place of the dependent recompense, saying, “it symbolizes that the many jewelled trees are the manifold practices; this makes clear the dependent recompense,” and saying further, “the lion seat of wondrous jewels symbolizes the practice of wondrous function without fear” — the trees are the practices and the seat is the function; this is Tongxuan’s symbolic gloss, not something the scripture text sets forth of itself.

A misreading to be set aside: that in going to study, each station means a change of subject. The order of the scripture text is just the contrary — the gate entered at the last station is the foot with which one walks to this one. Brought down to the ground: what a person carries in his mind upon the road after leaving one good friend decides what he will be able to see when he reaches the next.

Displaying the Practice of the Dharma (One): When the Sunlight Is Gone, There Are Still People on the Road

The first matter the night goddess tells of herself is exceedingly narrow in its range and exceedingly concrete: “the sunlight has already sunk away, the lotus blossoms have folded their petals, the multitudes of people have left off their roaming and looking” — the sky has darkened, the lotuses have closed, the wanderers have dispersed. At this hour there are still beings upon the mountains, beside the waters, in the cities, in the open country who wish to return home; and what she does is “all of them I secretly protect, causing them to walk upon the right road, to reach the place they are going, and to be at ease through the night.”

Two graphs are to be marked: “secretly protect.” It is not showing her body and not expounding the Dharma; it is guarding in the dark. Chengguan outlines this passage as ‘first, the making clear of the practice of bringing beings to ease’, saying that this portion is “first, the making clear of the practice of bringing beings to ease.” The practice of bringing beings to ease stands before the practice of benefiting beings — first let people get home, and only then speak of cutting off evil and cultivating good.

A misreading to be set aside: that a bodhisattva’s practice must be the expounding of the Dharma and the delivering of beings. What is done in this passage is one thing only — to cause people to walk the right road at night and to reach home in safety. Brought down to the ground: what a good friend first gives a person is often not doctrine but the means to pass this one night in peace.

Displaying the Practice of the Dharma (Two): First Give Fear, Then Give Roots of Good

The second passage turns to the practice of benefiting beings. Its object is those “in the flush of their years and fair of face, arrogant and heedless, giving themselves over to the five desires at will”; and the first thing done is “I display for them the marks of old age, of sickness, and of death, causing fear to arise and causing them to forsake the many evils.”

Here is an order easily read past: first the showing of impermanence so that fear arises, and only then “I further praise for them the many kinds of roots of good, so that they cultivate them.” Fear is not the end; it is the hand that opens the door. The door once opened, there follow at once the eleven pairs of remedy and ailment: stinginess against giving, breaking the precepts against pure discipline, anger against great kindness, vexing and harming against patience, indolence against vigor, scatteredness against meditative concentration, evil discernment against wisdom, delight in the Lesser Vehicle against the Great Vehicle, delight and clinging in the three realms against the perfection of vows, weak and lowly merit and knowledge with many hindrances against the perfection of power, and a dim mind without knowledge against the perfection of knowledge. Chengguan outlines this passage, saying, “first the general, and after, from ‘to the stingy’ onward, the particular displaying of the ten perfections curing the ten veiling obstructions” — what is called the ten perfections are the six perfections with skillful means, vows, power, and knowledge added to them, and the last three pairs of this passage fall precisely upon the three perfections of vows, power, and knowledge.

A misreading to be set aside: that “displaying old age, sickness, and death” is a frightening of people. The scripture text says plainly that what is displayed are “marks” and that what is to be forsaken are “the many evils,” and that thereupon comes the teaching of the ten perfections. Brought down to the ground: a true contemplation of impermanence must have a road that can be cultivated joined onto its far end; what cannot be so joined is merely dread.

Setting Up the Name of the Dharma: Where the Joy Comes From

The name of the Dharma gate is “the bodhisattva liberation gate of giving birth to the light of vast joy.” Chengguan, at this place of setting up the name, gives a particular gloss upon this “joy” as having two sources, saying, “this has two meanings: first, looking back, the mind of compassion and knowledge that benefits creatures answers to itself, and therefore great joy is born,” and saying further, “second, looking forward, it illumines the vast compassion and knowledge with which the Buddha gathers in beings, and therefore great joy is born.”

The former is a looking back upon the secret protecting and the teaching of the ten perfections that she has done above — her own mind of compassion and knowledge has had its way, and therefore there is joy. The latter is a looking forward and a seeing of the vast compassion and knowledge with which the Buddha gathers in beings — she sees what the Buddha does, and therefore there is joy. ‘That one’s own work succeeds is one kind of joy; that one sees the Buddha at work is another kind of joy.’ The latter is what this section will truly open out, for the whole passage of the working that follows tells of nothing but “the Tathāgata’s knowledge of skillful means by which he universally gathers in beings.”

A misreading to be set aside: that “joy” is a feeling that comes when practice takes hold. The joy here has a clearly named object — the former condition is one’s own practice, the latter the Buddha’s. Brought down to the ground: to test one’s own delight in the Dharma, look whether it has an object; a gladness without an object is gone by the next morning.

Making Clear the Working (One): Sudhana Asks after the ‘Realm’, and What He Is Really Asking Is the Bound and Measure

Sudhana asks, “what is the realm of this liberation gate.” Chengguan sets down one clause of gloss upon this very question, saying, “within the question, because it is the bound and measure of the working, it says ‘realm’” — what is called “realm” asks how far the working of this Dharma gate reaches and where its bound lies.

The answer divides into three layers. The first is the general setting forth, of which Chengguan says, “that is, that knowing the Buddha’s knowledge of gathering in beings is the bound and measure of the working” — the working of this liberation is just “knowing the Buddha’s knowledge of gathering in beings.” The second layer is the brief displaying of the marks of universal gathering in. The third is the broad displaying of the knowledge of skillful means.

A misreading to be set aside: that to ask after the “realm” is to ask after a feeling. The scripture text’s own way of answering is the best gloss upon it — what it answers is wholly how the Buddha acted in ages past, not what was seen upon entering concentration. Brought down to the ground: when one asks of a Dharma gate “what is its realm,” what should be listened for is what it can bring about, not what it feels like.

Making Clear the Working (Two): Ten Graphs of ‘Because’ — All Ease Is the Tathāgata’s

The passage of the brief displaying of the marks of universal gathering in is of an exceedingly even clause form: “all the many kinds of ease that all beings receive,” and there follow ten clauses, clause after clause closing with “because” — because of the power of the Tathāgata’s majestic virtue, because of according with the Tathāgata’s teaching, because of practicing the Tathāgata’s words, because of studying the Tathāgata’s practice, because of gaining the power the Tathāgata guards them with, because of cultivating the way the Tathāgata has sealed, because of planting the good the Tathāgata has practiced, because of relying upon the Dharma the Tathāgata has spoken, because of being illumined by the sunlight of the Tathāgata’s wisdom, because of being gathered in by the power of the Tathāgata’s nature-pure karma.

These ten clauses are the hardest point of doctrine in this section: of all the ease that beings receive there is not one item that does not come from the Tathāgata. The first clause says “all because of the power of the Tathāgata’s majestic virtue”; the next seven clauses speak from the side of beings — according, practicing, studying, gaining, cultivating, planting, relying, all of them things beings do; the last two clauses speak from the side of the Buddha — the illumining by the sunlight, the gathering in by the power of nature-pure karma, which are things the Buddha does. ‘What beings do is still what the Buddha gives; what the Buddha gives must still be accorded with by beings.’ Only when both sides are joined is there “universal gathering in.”

A misreading to be set aside: that this credits the Buddha with all the effort of beings. In the scripture’s ten clauses there are seven whose subject is beings. Brought down to the ground: when one enjoys some measure of ease and is able to remember where it came from, that measure of ease will not become the capital of arrogance.

Making Clear the Working (Three): Why Calling to Mind Can Serve as Witness

The second layer being answered, Sudhana does not ask again; the night goddess raises the question herself: “how is it known to be so?” — how do you know that it is thus? And her answer is, “I enter this liberation of giving birth to the light of vast joy and call to mind the sea of bodhisattva practices that Vairocana Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly and Rightly Awakened, cultivated in ages past, and I see it all clearly.”

Chengguan states the meaning of this layer very plainly, saying, “afterward the gloss says in its meaning: I see the Tathāgata from cause to fruit gathering in skillfully with great compassion, and therefore I know that ease is born of the Buddha.” So the working of this liberation gate is nothing other than to be able to see clearly how the Buddha, all the way from cause to fruit, gathered beings in; having seen that whole way, she dares to say that all ease is born of the Buddha.

A misreading to be set aside: that “calling to mind” is a recollecting of one’s own past. What is called to mind here is the Buddha’s sea of practice in ages past, not her own. Brought down to the ground: a judgment without direct perception beneath it is only an inference; this section sets direct perception right here, and only so does the whole passage of the working stand.

Making Clear the Working (Four): The Picture He Saw at the Outset

Within the broad displaying, first the general and after the particular. The particular displaying speaks first of “raising the mind of skillful universal gathering,” and the raising of the mind must first have something seen. What is seen is “all beings clinging to a self and to what belongs to a self, dwelling within the dark chamber of ignorance, entering the dense thickets of the many views,” bound by craving, ruined by wrath, disturbed by delusion, entangled by stinginess and envy, revolving in birth and death, poor and in distress, “unable to meet with the buddhas and the bodhisattvas.”

Chengguan outlines this as ‘first, the seeing of the objective realm in which the mind is raised’, saying, “first the seeing of the objective realm in which the mind is raised, because they are sunk in suffering and its arising” — what is seen is the truth of suffering and the truth of arising. Answering to it, the mind raised below is to “cause them to gain cessation and the path” — Chengguan says, “after, from ‘having seen a state of things such as this’ onward, the just raising of the mind of rescue, causing them to gain cessation and the path.” The four truths are used in this passage in two halves: what is seen is suffering and arising, what is raised is cessation and the path.

A misreading to be set aside: that raising the mind begins from a vow. The order of this passage is first the seeing and then the raising — without that one glance, that one thought cannot arise. Brought down to the ground: how real a person’s compassion is, is seen in what he has seen, not in what he has said.

Making Clear the Working (Five): Twenty-One Clauses of ‘Mind’ — the First Clause Is ‘Gain’, the Next Six Are ‘Without’

In the passage of the just raising of the mind of rescue, clause after clause closes with “mind,” twenty-one in all. The first clause is “he raised the mind of wishing to gain all wondrous jewelled goods with which to gather in beings” — first there must be something to give. Then six clauses that follow are all subtraction: apart from clinging in all matters, without craving and staining in all objective realms, without stinginess toward all that is possessed, without hope as to all fruits of karma, without envy as to all glory and beauty, without confusion as to all causes and conditions; with the second clause, of wishing that beings might not lack the things that nourish life, they make seven; and with the first clause, of wishing to gain wondrous jewelled goods, the first eight clauses together make a single group.

The place of this group is to be marked: it is set between ‘wishing to gain wondrous jewelled goods’ and the thirteen clauses of great kindness and great compassion that follow. ‘First wish to have something to give; then wish not to be stuck to the thing given; and only then dare to raise great kindness and great compassion.’ From the ninth clause it turns into “he raised the mind that contemplates the true nature of dharmas,” and Chengguan sets down his judgment here, saying, “first kindness and compassion are raised together; after, from ‘he raised the mind that contemplates’ onward, compassion and knowledge are carried on together” — what goes before is compassion, and from the contemplating of the nature of dharmas onward it is compassion and knowledge carried on together.

The clauses that follow are in a well-set order: rescuing and guarding all beings, entering deeply the whirlpools and back-currents of all dharmas, equal great kindness, great compassion by skillful means, being a great canopy of Dharma universally sheltering beings, breaking with the vajra-club of great knowledge the mountain of the afflictive obstructions, increasing joy and ease, ultimate ease, raining down all wealth and jewels, ripening by equal skillful means, satisfying with the wealth of the noble ones; and the last clause returns to “he raised the mind that wishes all beings ultimately to gain the fruit of the knowledge of the ten powers” — from the giving of a single article of livelihood, to the wish that a person gain the knowledge of the Buddha’s ten powers.

A misreading to be set aside: that a mind of giving needs only the willingness to give. Among the twenty-one clauses of this passage there are six that tell of not clinging, not hoping, and not envying. Brought down to the ground: to be able to give it away is the first step; that the mind is not left upon it when the giving is done is the “mind” this passage speaks of.

Making Clear the Working (Six): Displaying Great Spiritual Transformations, and Yet ‘Not Seeking Their Repayment’

After the mind is raised comes the practice. The look of the practice is that he “gained the power of a bodhisattva and displayed great spiritual transformations,” filling the Dharma realm and the realm of empty space, and before all beings “universally rained down all the things that nourish life,” satisfying their intent in accord with all they wished for, and moreover “without regret and without grudging, without gap and without break.”

The most crucial clause of this passage lies in its latter half: “causing them all to gain release from the hardships of birth and death, and not seeking their repayment.” What is given are the things that nourish life; what is wanted is that people come forth from birth and death; and having given, he seeks no return. A further step is “he washed and put in order the mind-jewel of all beings, causing them to raise up the very same roots of good as all the buddhas” — what is given is outward wealth, and what is brought about is that one jewel within the minds of beings.

A misreading to be set aside: that the giving of wealth and the giving of Dharma are two matters, and that the giving of wealth gains merit only. This passage says plainly that what the giving of wealth brings about is “the very same roots of good as all the buddhas.” Brought down to the ground: what is in the mind at the moment a thing is handed over decides whether it is giving or a transaction.

Making Clear the Working (Seven): Ten ‘In Thought After Thought’

In the passage of the all-pervadingness of the gathering in of beings, the clauses opening with “in thought after thought” are ten — in thought after thought ripening beings, purifying and adorning buddha-lands, universally entering the Dharma realm, filling the realm of empty space, universally entering the three times, accomplishing the knowledge that subdues, constantly turning the wheel of Dharma, constantly benefiting beings with the way of all-knowledge, displaying in all worlds throughout the kalpas of the future the buddhas accomplishing perfect awakening, and in all worlds and all kalpas cultivating the bodhisattva practices without giving rise to a second thought. After them there stands separately the one clause “in thought after thought cultivating the manifold bodhisattva practices,” fastened to the end of the passage upon the seas of worlds.

Chengguan judges the meaning of this passage, saying, “after, from ‘in this way the bodhisattva in thought after thought’ onward, the discriminating of the all-pervadingness of the gathering in of beings, which is the meaning of ‘vast’” — the Dharma gate is named “vast joy,” and the scriptural ground for the two graphs “vast” is right here.

The marks of the worlds spoken of below are an even set of pairings two by two: defiled yet carrying the pure / pure yet carrying the defiled, wholly mixed and defiled / wholly pure, whether small or great, whether coarse or fine, whether upright or aslant, whether overturned or upturned. Within all such worlds the bodhisattva cultivates, enters the stations, displays the powers, and displays the bodies of the buddhas of the three times. ‘Not sorting among worlds is the other face of vastness.’

A misreading to be set aside: that “in thought after thought” describes speed. The ten matters matched to this passage are each different from the others; it says that within a single thought these ten are being done at once. Brought down to the ground: true vastness is not doing much, but not sorting among places.

Making Clear the Working (Eight): The Mixed Making Clear of the Manifold Practices — Discerning Capacities First, Converting After

The last layer is the mixed making clear of the manifold practices. Chengguan divides it into two, saying that first there is the making clear of the discerning of capacities, setting out that suffering and its arising are without shore, and after there is the displaying that the cultivation is measureless. What is seen in the passage of discerning capacities is of one and the same axis as that earlier picture — not cultivating merit and virtue, without wisdom, clinging to a self and to what belongs to a self, screened over by ignorance, not thinking rightly, entering the manifold wrong views, not recognizing cause and effect, according with the karma of the afflictions, fallen into the steep pit of the hardships of birth and death.

The passage upon the dharmas of conversion is clear in its clause form: first four clauses of “he expounded for them” — he expounded for them the gates of causes and effects, expounded that karma and its recompense are not at odds, expounded the place of entering and realizing within the Dharma, expounded the desires and the understanding of all beings — and a fifth clause is “and further expounded all the lands of their receiving of birth”; and there follow more than ten clauses of “he caused them” — caused them not to cut off the seed of the buddhas, to guard the teaching of the buddhas, to forsake the many evils, and on to causing them to gain entry into the gate of the Buddha’s ease, to behold the majestic virtue of the Tathāgata, and to abide in the wisdom of the bodhisattvas. “He expounded for them” is the giving of Dharma; “he caused them” is the making of a person walk for himself.

A misreading to be set aside: that converting and delivering is just expounding the Dharma. In this passage “he expounded for them” has only four clauses (five with the clause “and further expounded”), while “he caused them” has more than ten. Brought down to the ground: telling a person is the easiest stretch; the hard part is that after the telling the person actually moves.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (One): This Question Reaches to the Bottom

Sudhana’s second question is a single clause: “Holy one, how long has it been now since you raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi?”

The night goddess’s answer is not a number of years; she tells first how hard this matter is to know: “this matter is hard to believe, hard to know, hard to understand, hard to enter, and hard to speak; all the world, and the two vehicles as well, are unable to know it.” Chengguan matches a reason to each of these five “hards,” saying, “it is hard to believe because it is not what is ordinarily seen and heard; it is hard to know because it is not the objective realm of the wisdom that comes of hearing; it is hard to understand and hard to enter because it is not of thinking and cultivating — for in all the above the place where the mind takes its object is extinguished,” and saying further, “that it is hard to speak is because the way of words is cut off” — hard to believe because it is not to be come at by ordinary seeing and hearing; hard to know because it is not the objective realm of the wisdom of hearing; hard to understand and hard to enter because it is not within the reach of thinking and cultivating, all of them come to the point where the place the mind takes its object is extinguished; and hard to speak because the way of words is cut off.

Chengguan further marks out one further layer: that this matter is hard to know not only because the age is long past. He says, “first, the setting forth that it is hard to know: it is hard to know not only because it is long ago and far off, but also because the raising of the mind at that time had already gained the profound Dharma and fulfilled the realm of a buddha” — that one raising of the mind at that time had already gained the profound Dharma and fulfilled the realm of a buddha, and this is the true reason it is hard to know.

A misreading to be set aside: that “how long ago” is hard to answer because the number of years is too great. Chengguan has already said plainly that it is not so. Brought down to the ground: how deep a person’s mind was at the moment he raised it is harder to tell clearly than how many years he has had it.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (Two): The Roll of Those Who Are Able to Know

What follows “only these are excepted” is a long string of setting apart, of which Chengguan says, “third, from ‘only these are excepted’ onward, the setting apart of those who are able to know, that is, the like of Sudhana” — what is set apart is precisely those of Sudhana’s kind.

The order of the roll is worth looking at: first the outward conditions — guarded by the spiritual power of the buddhas, gathered in by good friends; next the provisions — amassing surpassing merit and virtue, desires and delights being pure; next four kinds of “without” — without a lowly mind, without a mind of defilement, without a fawning and crooked mind, without a mind that can be destroyed; then four kinds of “raising” — gaining the mind of the light of knowledge that universally illumines, raising the mind of universally enriching the many beings, giving rise to the mind that will surely accomplish all-knowledge, the mind that does not delight in the pleasures of birth and death; and last twelve clauses opening with “able” — able to seek the wondrous pleasure of the buddhas, able to extinguish the suffering and vexation of beings, able to cultivate the sea of the Buddha’s merit and virtue, able to contemplate the real nature of dharmas, able to be furnished with pure faith and understanding, able to pass beyond the torrents of birth and death, able to enter the sea of the Tathāgata’s knowledge, able with certainty to arrive at the unsurpassed citadel of Dharma, able valiantly to enter the realm of the Tathāgata, able swiftly to go toward the station of the buddhas, able at once to accomplish the power of all-knowledge, able to have reached the ultimate in the ten powers; and it closes with three graphs, “able to hold it, to enter it, and to comprehend it.”

Below this comes a question and answer of her own: “Why is this so? This is the realm of the Tathāgata’s wisdom; all the bodhisattvas are still unable to know it, how much less the remaining beings!” Chengguan says here, “because it is the realm of a buddha, the bodhisattvas of the provisional teaching are still unable to know it — how much less those of lower rank before them” — he reads the scripture’s “all the bodhisattvas” as the bodhisattvas of the provisional teaching; this is Chengguan’s judgment.

A misreading to be set aside: that having said “hard to know” is to leave it unsaid. The scripture text goes straight on to “yet I today, by the majestic power of the Buddha … will expound it for you in accord with what you have asked.” Brought down to the ground: to state clearly first how hard the matter is and then to speak — this is a responsible way of speaking, not an evasion.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (Three): The Frame of the Twenty-One Verses of the First Set

The prose being finished, verses follow. Chengguan gives the division of these twenty-one verses in fine detail, saying, “twenty-one verses, divided into two: the first nineteen verses put into verse the praising of its depth as hard to speak; the last two verses put into verse the speaking by sustaining power,” and within the first nineteen four passages again, saying, “the first one verse puts into verse the setting forth of its depth as hard to speak; second, there are three verses putting into verse those who do not know; third, there is one verse that leaps ahead to put into verse the earlier gloss, that because it is the realm of a buddha the confused do not know it; fourth, there are fourteen verses that in general put into verse the setting apart of those who are able to know, putting into verse in their order the earlier ‘guarded by the power of the buddhas’ and the rest.” At the end he adds one clause more, “fearing prolixity I do not match them; let the one who expounds do as is fitting” — as to matching the latter fourteen verses one by one to the roll in the prose above, he does not match them in detail but leaves it to the one who expounds to weigh for himself.

The first verse, “what you have asked, son of the Buddha, is the profound realm of the buddhas,” takes up directly the “hard to speak” of the prose. The next three verses are “those who do not know”: one verse raises craving, anger, delusion, and arrogance; one verse raises stinginess, envy, fawning, and deceit; one verse raises clinging to the aggregates, elements, and sense fields and reckoning upon a view of the body, with views inverted and thoughts inverted — three kinds of persons, three reasons for not knowing.

A misreading to be set aside: that the verses after the prose are a repetition. The “leaping verse” Chengguan judges shows exactly that the order of the verses is not that of the prose — the fifth verse skips back to put into verse the earlier asking and glossing. Brought down to the ground: verses are not an abridgment of the prose; they are another arrangement of the same meaning.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (Four): One Leaping Verse — the Realm of the Buddhas Is of Itself Tranquil

The fifth verse is the pivot of the whole set: “the realm of the buddhas is tranquil, its nature pure and apart from discrimination; it is not those who cling to the many existences who can know this nature of dharmas.”

The four verses before it tell ‘who cannot know’; this verse tells ‘why they cannot know’ — because the realm of the buddhas is of itself tranquil, of pure nature, and apart from discrimination, while those spoken of cling to the many existences. ‘What is to be known is apart from discrimination; those who would know it are full of discrimination; and therefore they do not answer to each other.’ Chengguan judges this verse to be a leaping verse upon the earlier asking and glossing, saying, “because it is the realm of a buddha, the confused do not know it.”

A misreading to be set aside: that “apart from discrimination” asks a person not to think. This verse tells of the substance and nature of the realm of the buddhas, not of a method of practice. Brought down to the ground: only when one knows what the Dharma one seeks is like does one know why one’s present mind cannot reach it.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (Five): The Fourteen Verses upon Those Who Are Able to Know — from Lineage to Liberation

From the sixth verse, fourteen verses follow the roll of the prose straight down. Among the first eight verses, seven close with “this is the realm of such a one” or “the realm of the eye of knowledge” (the remaining verse closes with “hearing this Dharma and rejoicing”), and they tell of the marks of one able to know: born within the house of the buddhas, guarded by the buddhas, holding fast to the Dharma treasury of the buddhas; drawing near to good friends, delighting in the clean and pure Dharma, diligently seeking the powers of the buddhas; the mind pure and without discrimination like the vast empty space, and the lamp of wisdom breaking the manifold darknesses; with an intent of great kindness and compassion universally sheltering the worlds, and all of it equal; a joyous mind without clinging, able to give all away, giving equally to beings; the mind pure and apart from the many evils, ultimately without anything to regret, according with and carrying out the teaching of the buddhas; comprehending the self-nature of dharmas and the seeds of the manifold karmas, with a mind without stirring or disturbance; valiantly and diligently applying vigor, abiding with a mind that does not turn back, diligently cultivating all-knowledge.

The last six verses change their clause form, and five of them close with “the liberation of,” giving each such person a name: “this is the liberation of one who has realized awakening,” “this is the liberation of one who is a lamp of wisdom,” “this is the liberation of one who is upon the right way,” “this is the liberation of one who is Samantabhadra”; the verse among them tells of universally entering the gates of the Dharma realm while “the mind is in the end without discrimination”; and the last verse tells of seeing within every dust mote of the Dharma realm the Tathāgata seated beneath the tree of the Way, and calls it “the liberation of one whose eye is unobstructed.” Eight verses tell of marks and six tell of liberation — ‘first what kind of person he is, and then what kind of liberation he gains.’

A misreading to be set aside: that these fourteen verses are a piling up of parallels, so that reading one verse lets one infer the rest. The clause form changes once at the fourteenth verse, the closing turning from “realm” to “liberation,” which is precisely the place that cannot be inferred. Brought down to the ground: in reading a long parallel, what most deserves attention is where it changes its breath.

Discriminating the Depth of the Root of the Dharma (Six): The Last Two Verses — First Praising Sudhana, Then Saying That She Speaks by the Buddha’s Power

The last two verses put into verse the speaking by sustaining power. The former is spoken to Sudhana: “through measureless great seas of kalpas you have drawn near to and made offerings to good friends, and for the benefit of the multitudes have sought the right Dharma, and having heard it have kept it in mind and not forgotten it” — first the acknowledgment that the one asking is fit to ask. The latter verse is her own standing: “Vairocana’s vast realm is measureless, boundless, and beyond conceiving; sustained by the Buddha’s power I expound it for you, that your deep mind may turn ever purer.”

Taken together the two verses make one complete posture of expounding: what is expounded is beyond conceiving, the one expounding does not dare to take it upon herself, and the one listening already has the standing. ‘It is not that I am able to speak, but that I speak sustained by the Buddha’s power; it is not that anyone may listen, but that you are already able to hear.’

A misreading to be set aside: that “sustained by the Buddha’s power” is a modest phrase. The prose above has already said plainly “only those guarded by the spiritual power of the buddhas are excepted”; being sustained by the Buddha’s power is a condition of this Dharma gate itself. Brought down to the ground: when one knows, in expounding, upon what one is expounding, that clause is no courtesy.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (One): Time, Place, and the Buddha’s Arising — the Coordinates Set Out First

The opening clause of the former life is “in an ancient age long past, beyond kalpas as many as the dust motes of a sea of worlds, there was a sea of worlds named Genuine Gold Maṇi Mountain of Universal Light,” within which a buddha appeared, named “King of Tranquil Majestic Virtue Who Is a Mountain of Knowledge Universally Illumining the Dharma Realm.” Chengguan outlines this as ‘the general displaying of the time and place of the raising of the mind and of the buddha’s arising’, saying, “first, the general displaying of the time and place of the raising of the mind and of the buddha’s arising.”

Below it comes a passage of numbers pushed down layer upon layer: within the sea of worlds there are world-seeds as many as the dust motes of a world; within each single world-seed, worlds as many as the dust motes of a world; within each single world a tathāgata comes forth; each single tathāgata expounds sūtras as many as the dust motes of a sea of worlds; each single sūtra confers predictions upon bodhisattvas as many as the dust motes of a buddha-land. ‘First the stage is laid out to the boundless, and then the lens is brought down upon one set of four continents.’

A misreading to be set aside: that the numbers of this passage are embellishment. Their use is to fix a place — the royal capital about to be spoken of is at which point within such measurelessness. Brought down to the ground: to state when and where before telling of a past matter is what responsible telling looks like.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Two): The Lens Comes Down upon One Royal Capital

The passage setting out separately the time and place of the former life narrows layer by layer: the world-seed named “Banner of Universal Adornment,” the world named “Universal Light of the Colors of All Jewels,” whose substance is the maṇi-king that displays the reflected images of all the transformation buddhas, whose shape is like a city of the heavens, abiding upon a sea of all jewelled blossoms, and moreover with “the pure and the defiled mixed together”; within it four-continent worlds as many as the dust motes of Mount Sumeru, and the one at the very center named “Banner of All Jewelled Mountains”; and within its Jambudvīpa a royal capital named “Cloud-Lamp Adorned with Firm and Wondrous Jewels,” encircled by ten thousand great cities.

Then come the persons: when the people of Jambudvīpa had a lifespan of ten thousand years, there was a king named “Canopy of the Fullness of the Sound of All Dharmas,” with five hundred great ministers, sixty thousand palace women, and seven hundred princes, whose majestic virtue reached universally throughout Jambudvīpa so that he “had no enemies.” Chengguan sets down a judgment upon this king’s standing, saying, “first, the making clear of the great king’s governing and converting; that is, an iron-wheel king, and therefore it says Jambū” — because what he rules is Jambū alone, he judges him an iron-wheel king. This is a judgment Chengguan makes upon the established scheme of the four kinds of wheel-turning king.

A misreading to be set aside: that “he had no enemies” is the reverse of the calamity that follows. The disaster the scripture text goes on to write of does not come from an enemy state; it is the five turbidities arising at the end of the kalpa. Brought down to the ground: that there is no enemy outside does not mean that this world can be held in order.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Three): The Five Turbidities and That Sound of Weeping

Upon the passage of the five turbidities Chengguan matches the names of the turbidities clause by clause, saying, “that their lifespans were short is the turbidity of life,” “from ‘goods and wealth’ onward is the turbidity of beings; from ‘they did not cultivate’ onward is the turbidity of the afflictions; from ‘following their own dispositions’ onward is the turbidity of views,” and saying further, “and the turbidity of the kalpa runs through three” — the turbidity of the kalpa is not matched separately to a clause but runs through the other three.

The marks of calamity come in a chain: they did not cultivate the ten good deeds, they made a business of evil deeds, they were wrathful and contentious with one another, they slandered and insulted one another, and thereupon “the wind and the rain came out of season, the sprouts and the crops did not ripen,” and thereupon the gardens and groves and grasses and trees withered, the people were destitute, and there were many kinds of pestilence. At last all of them “came together to encircle the great city of the royal capital,” and on all four sides cried out with a loud voice — some raising their hands, some joining their palms, some knocking their heads upon the ground, some beating their breasts, some bending their knees and wailing at length, some leaping up and shouting aloud.

In the words they said to the king there are eleven “thoughts”: the thought of gaining ease, of gaining what they love, of gaining their livelihood, of being gathered in, of gaining a jewel treasury, of meeting a ford and a bridge, of coming upon a road, of meeting a boat and a raft, of seeing an island of jewels, of obtaining wealth and gain, and of ascending to the palaces of the heavens. ‘These eleven thoughts are not what they ask for; they are what they take the king to be.’

A misreading to be set aside: that the five turbidities are background scenery. Chengguan says plainly that this is “the five turbidities are the cause and draw on the fruit of the three calamities,” and immediately below it comes “the objective realm of compassion appears before him” — this sound of weeping is the very objective realm in which the great king raises his mind. Brought down to the ground: the scene where a person raises the great mind is for the most part not pleasant to look upon.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Four): Ten Clauses of ‘Alas for Beings’

The king, having heard these words, “gained a million asaṃkhyeyas of gates of great compassion, and with a single mind he pondered, and uttered ten kinds of words of great compassion.” The clause form of the ten is entirely uniform: one clause of “alas for beings” pointing out what they suffer, one clause in the middle of “how am I to” asking of himself, and a last clause of “causing them” telling what he hopes for.

The order of the ten sufferings has its layers: the great pit of birth and death, the pressing of the afflictions, the terror of birth, old age, sickness, and death, the manifold dreads of the world, having no eye of knowledge and being ever covered by the view of the body and by doubt, being ever deluded by the darkness of folly, being ever made turbid by stinginess, envy, fawning, and deceit, long drifting and sinking in the great sea of birth and death, faculties stubborn and hard to subdue, and being like the blind who cannot see the road. The landing points of the ten wishes differ too: abiding in the ground of all-knowledge, abiding in all good karma, peace of body and mind, abiding in the way of all-knowledge, cutting away the film of doubt and view, seeing by its light the citadel of all-knowledge, realizing the pure dharma-body, gaining the further shore of awakening, being furnished with the spiritual powers of the buddhas, and gaining entry into the gate of all-knowledge.

The clause in the middle is to be marked — “how am I to.” Among the ten clauses not one is ‘I will save them’; all are ‘how am I to save them’. ‘When compassion has come to a real place, what it utters is bound to be a question upon method.’

A misreading to be set aside: that great compassion is a feeling. Every clause of this passage has a concrete suffering and a concrete hope. Brought down to the ground: real compassion presses out a ‘what is to be done’.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Five): From Beating the Drum and Proclaiming to Giving Away His Body

After the uttering comes the doing. After the four graphs “he beat the drum and proclaimed his command” there is one sentence: “I today give universally to all beings; whatever they have need of, let them all be made sufficient.” Chengguan outlines the giving carried out below it as eight, the first being “first, the command of giving spread abroad” — first the spreading abroad of the things given.

The things given come in three layers, from the outward inward. The first layer is wealth: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and maṇi; clothing and food; blossoms, incense, and necklaces; palaces and dwellings; couches and bedding; and on to the setting up of a great luminous maṇi-jewel banner whose “light, touching the body, caused all to be at peace,” together with the giving of all medicinal broths for sickness. The second layer is what he depends upon: hamlets, walled towns, mountains and marshes, woods and thickets. The third layer is the heaviest — “his wives and children and his retinue, and his royal position too,” and on to “his head, his eyes, his ears, his nose, his lips, his tongue, his teeth, his hands, his feet, his skin, his flesh, his heart, his kidneys, his liver, and his lungs,” “all that he had within and without, all of it he was able to give away.”

A misreading to be set aside: that the clause upon giving away the body is exaggeration. The scripture text sets it at the very last layer, the two layers before it being actual goods, and the order runs from what is left over to what is not. Brought down to the ground: the order of the giving states one thing — he did not begin with the hardest, but gave his way all along until he came to it.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Six): The Ground of the Assembly of Giving and the One upon the Seat

The three passages below are, in order, the great spreading of the assembly of giving, the giver surpassing his peers, and the field of giving gathering like clouds. The place of the assembly of giving is outside the eastern gate of the city, “Light of the Maṇi Mountain”; the ground is vast, broad, pure, and level, “without the manifold pits and hollows and brambles and gravel,” with jewelled trees ranged in rows, nets of blossoms and nets of incense spread over above, and the instruments of music of hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas constantly giving forth wondrous sounds; and the scripture text closes with a single clause: “all of them were the recompense of the bodhisattva’s pure karma.”

The one upon the seat is written out along with it: the lion seat with ten kinds of jewels for its ground, ten kinds of jewels for its railings, ten kinds of jewelled trees encircling it, a jewelled canopy with necklaces hanging down, and jewelled bells constantly giving forth wondrous sounds and moreover “exhorting the many beings to cultivate good karma” — even the sound of the bells is exhorting to good. The king is seated above, his form upright, with “a Nārāyaṇa-like body that could not be broken,” and “at ease both in wealth and in Dharma.”

A misreading to be set aside: that these few passages are a spreading out of pomp. The scripture text gives its own judgment — “all of them were the recompense of the bodhisattva’s pure karma”; the scene is a fruit, not something done for show. Brought down to the ground: how the ground of a giving is set out is itself a part of the giving.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Seven): How Those Who Came Saw the King, and How the King Saw Those Who Came

The passage upon the field of giving gathering like clouds writes of those who came: of manifold lands, of manifold clans, of manifold forms and features, of manifold garments, of manifold tongues, of manifold desires and delights, coming together to the assembly. Their appraisal of the king is three clauses: “this king is a man of great knowledge, he is a Sumeru of merit, he is a bright moon of merit and virtue” — one clause telling of knowledge, two clauses using similes to tell of merit and of virtue.

Then comes the king’s side, the ten kinds of mind: pity, joy, honoring, good friendship, vastness, continuity, vigor, not turning back, relinquishing and giving, and all-pervadingness. The two among these ten minds that least resemble giving are the “mind of honoring” and the “mind of good friendship” — the man comes to beg, and the king honors him and takes him for a good friend. ‘The one who is given to is, in the king’s eyes, not a receiver of favor.’ Chengguan outlines this passage as ‘the mind of giving being earnest and weighty’.

A misreading to be set aside: that the weight of giving lies in the thing given. Among the ten minds of this passage not one clause speaks of a thing. Brought down to the ground: how one regards the other person in the moment of giving is harder to cultivate than how much one gives.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Eight): The Joy of a Single Instant, Surpassing Measureless Kalpas of the Gods

“When that king saw the many beggars, his mind greatly rejoiced, and it lasted but a single instant”; and this joy of a single instant the scripture text likens to a long string of the pleasures of the kings of the heavens: the pleasure received by Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma, and Tuṣita throughout a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas cannot match it; nor the numberless kalpas of the king of the Nirmāṇarati heaven, the measureless kalpas of the king of the Paranirmitavaśavartin heaven, the pleasure of Brahmā of the king of the great Brahmā heaven throughout boundless kalpas, the kalpas beyond thinking of the king of the Ābhāsvara heaven, the unending kalpas of the king of the Śubhakṛtsna heaven, and the tranquil pleasure of the king of the Śuddhāvāsa heaven throughout kalpas beyond speaking — “none of them could match it.”

The likening is twofold: one is a likening of time — theirs is measureless kalpas, this is a single instant; the other is a likening of high and low — from the six heavens of the realm of desire all the way up to the tranquil pleasure of the Śuddhāvāsa heaven of the realm of form. ‘The side with the shortest time wins, because what is delighted in is of another kind.’ The pleasures of the gods are a receiving; this joy of a single instant is a giving.

A misreading to be set aside: that this is an exaggerating of the merit of giving. What the scripture text likens is the substance and nature of “pleasure,” not the size of a recompense. Brought down to the ground: to compare two pleasures truly, what should be asked is where each is born from.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Nine): The Simile of the Kindly and Filial Man — the One ‘It Is as When’ of This Section

This section uses “it is as when” in one place only, and it is here: “it is as when there is a man who is kindly and filial, and he meets with the troubles of the world, and his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and his sisters are all scattered and lost together, and then suddenly upon a road in the open wilds they meet one another, and they look upon one another and hold to one another and comfort one another face to face, and their feelings have no time of being sated” — a family scattered in a time of chaos, coming upon one another suddenly upon a desolate road. And the scripture text at once joins the simile: “at that time, when that great king saw those who came seeking, joy arose in his mind, and it was just like this.”

This simile is chosen with the greatest exactness. What is likened is not the giver and the beggar but kinsfolk scattered and met again; not the joy of ‘I have something I can give you’, but the joy of ‘you are still alive’. And the scripture text marks out particularly that this man is first “kindly and filial” — it is such a man in whom a meeting again brings out such feeling.

A misreading to be set aside: that a simile is only rhetoric. This simile fixes the nature of the ten minds of the passage before it — the mind of honoring and the mind of good friendship are possible because in the king’s eyes the one who comes to beg is a kinsman lost and regained. Brought down to the ground: the hardest pass in giving is not the letting go of a thing but the changing of the eyes with which one looks at the other.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Ten): His Joy Was ‘Because of a Good Friend’

The passage after the simile returns to the king himself, and its first clause gives the source: “that king at that time, because of a good friend, grew in his settled understanding of and delight in the Buddha’s awakening, accomplished his faculties, purified his mind of faith, and made his joy complete” — the cause of all this is a good friend. Chengguan outlines the two passages below this as ‘the vow of giving being vast and deep’ and ‘the wisdom of giving being subtle and profound’.

Below it he asks of himself “why is this so,” and answers with a long string: diligently cultivating the manifold practices, seeking all-knowledge, wishing to benefit all beings, wishing to obtain the measureless wondrous pleasure of awakening; ever delighting to amass roots of good, ever wishing to rescue and guard beings, ever delighting to contemplate the way of sarvajña; entering the great sea of the merit and virtue of all buddhas, breaking the mountain of the karma of the māras and the obstructions of confusion; “already able to enter deeply the current of all-knowledge, and the current of all dharmas ever present before him”; his great vows unending, acting as a great man, abiding in the dharmas of a great person; and it closes with three clauses: “departing from all clinging, not stained by the objective realms of any world, and knowing that the nature of dharmas is like empty space.”

A misreading to be set aside: that this passage is a praising of the king. It is explaining why that joy of a single instant weighed so much — because behind it stood this whole string. Brought down to the ground: how deep a joy one giving can carry depends upon where the person already stood before he gave.

Justly Requiting by Sustaining Power (Eleven): Eight Thoughts, and No Sorting

The passage of the giving being even and universal in its times first lists eight thoughts: “he raised the thought of them as an only child, raised the thought of them as father and mother, raised the thought of them as a field of merit, raised the thought of them as hard to come by, raised the thought of them as having done him kindness and benefit, and raised the thought of them as firm, the thought of them as teachers, and the thought of them as buddhas.” Among the eight thoughts, the thought of an only child and the thought of father and mother are the feeling of kinship; field of merit, hard to come by, and kindness and benefit are thoughts of gain; while the three thoughts of firm, of teachers, and of buddhas are already thoughts of reverent service — the one who comes to beg is in the end looked upon as a buddha.

Below it come three “nots”: “he did not sort out their quarter or place, did not choose among their clans, did not select by their form and features,” but as any came, in accord with what they desired. And the things given are listed once more: to those who sought food and drink he gave food and drink, to those who sought clothing he gave clothing, to those who sought incense and blossoms he gave incense and blossoms, to those who sought garlands and canopies he gave garlands and canopies, and on to banners and streamers and necklaces, palaces and gardens, elephants and horses and carriages, couches and seats and coverlets, gold and silver and maṇi, all his storehouses, and his retinue, walled towns, and villages.

A misreading to be set aside: that the eight thoughts are a method of contemplation. The scripture text sets them before “he did not sort out their quarter or place” — first the way of looking is changed, and only then is not sorting possible. Brought down to the ground: to be able not to sort among those who come rests not upon will but upon what one takes the other to be.

Justly Setting Out the Former Matter of Raising the Mind (One): Who That Daughter of an Elder Was

Only here does the chief person of the former life come forth. Chengguan divides the outline ‘justly setting out the former matter of raising the mind’ into six, saying, “fourth, the just setting out of the former matter of raising the mind, within which there are six: first, the bodily virtue of the one who raised the mind,” and below it in order the maiden’s just raising of the great mind, the king’s uttering of the words of gathering in, the maiden’s praising of the king’s virtue, the great king’s setting forth of his praise, and the gathering and sustaining of the practice of giving.

The first division writes of her bodily virtue: the elder’s daughter named “Jewel Light,” together with sixty maidens, upright and lovely, her skin the color of gold, her eyes and hair a deep blue, her body giving forth a wondrous fragrance, her mouth uttering the sound of Brahmā; and then her virtue — “she ever harbored shame and conscience, her right mindfulness was undisturbed, she was furnished with dignified deportment, she was reverent toward her teachers and elders,” the Dharma she had heard she bore in mind and did not forget, “the roots of good of her former lives flowed and moistened her mind,” which was pure and vast like empty space; she comforted beings equally, ever saw the buddhas, and sought all-knowledge.

A misreading to be set aside: that the description of her bodily marks is only a description of beauty. The order of the scripture text sets the marks first and the virtue after, and the last three clauses of the virtue are comforting beings equally, ever seeing the buddhas, and seeking all-knowledge. Brought down to the ground: the look by which a person is remembered is a look in which marks and virtue are remembered together.

Justly Setting Out the Former Matter of Raising the Mind (Two): She Says ‘I Have Obtained Good Gain’ Twice Over

She, “being not far from the king, joined her palms and bowed her head,” and a thought first arose in her mind: “I have obtained good gain! I have obtained good gain! I today have been able to see a great good friend” — the same sentence said twice over. Then come four thoughts: the thought of a great teacher, of a good friend, of one furnished with kindness and compassion, of one able to gather in.

Only then comes the act: she takes off the necklace from her body and offers it to the king, and makes a vow. The words of the vow divide in two: the former half tells of the king — “today this great king makes himself the place of reliance for measureless and boundless beings of ignorance”; the latter half tells of herself — “may I in the future be just like this,” and as with the Dharma that great king knows, the vehicle he rides, the way he cultivates, the marks of form he is furnished with, the wealth and property he has, and the assemblies he gathers in, “may I in the future obtain all of it just so,” with the last clause “wherever he is born, there may I be born along with him.”

This passage is the heart of this section. What Sudhana asked was “how long ago the mind was raised,” and here is the very scene of that raising — not raised upon hearing the Dharma but upon seeing a person; and the vow raised is not a seeking of a fruit but a seeking to be the same as he.

A misreading to be set aside: that the raising of the mind of awakening must arise from doctrine. What it takes as its object here is a person. Brought down to the ground: to see what one person does and to have the thought ‘may I too be so’ arise in the mind — that one thought is the raising of the mind.

Justly Setting Out the Former Matter of Raising the Mind (Three): The King’s Answer Is Only Two Sentences

The king, knowing that she had raised such a mind, answers in exceedingly few words: “maiden! Whatever you desire, I will give it all to you. All that I have today I give away entirely, so that all beings may universally be satisfied.”

It is short enough to be worth marking. What she wants is not a thing but “may I in the future be just like this”; yet the king still answers with “whatever you desire, I will give it all to you.” Chengguan outlines this as ‘the king’s uttering of the words of gathering in’ — these are words of gathering in. ‘What she seeks is the way; what the king answers with is giving — because for this king, giving is his way.’

A misreading to be set aside: that the king did not understand her vow. The king’s words of praise to the maiden below say plainly “that you are able to believe and know the merit and virtue of another is a rare thing,” by which it is seen that he understood. Brought down to the ground: for some people the way of answering a question is to go on doing what they have always been doing.

The Maiden Praises the King’s Virtue (One): The First Six of the Twenty-Five Verses — While the King Had Not Come Forth

The maiden’s verses of praise are fifty-two, which Chengguan divides into two passages, saying, “within the verses, fifty-two verses, divided into two: the first twenty-five verses in general display the king’s virtue; the last twenty-seven verses, from ‘the king’s father’ onward, display the king’s former life.” The first twenty-five he divides again into four, saying, “the first six verses make clear the loss while the king had not yet risen; the next two verses make clear the benefit of the king’s rising in the world; third, there are ten verses turning loss into virtue, that is, turning the ten evils; fourth, there are seven verses making clear that the dependent and the proper are beyond thinking.”

The first six verses write of the time before the king came forth: the walled city was “in no way to be delighted in, like the dwelling place of the hungry ghosts”; beings killed and harmed one another, stole, gave themselves to lewdness, spoke with a double tongue and coarse and evil words, craved the goods of others, were wrathful with a poisonous mind, held wrong views and did unwholesome deeds, and “at the end of life fell into the evil destinies”; because they were covered by folly and dwelt in inverted views, “the heavens were dry and let down no moisture”; because there was no seasonable rain, the hundred grains did not grow, the grasses and trees withered, the springs and streams ran dry; and the last verse writes the scene — “the gardens and parks were full of bones, so that they looked like the open wilds.”

The chain of cause and effect in these six verses is to be seen clearly: evil deeds first, drought after. ‘It is not that heaven sends no rain and so people do evil; it is that people do evil and so heaven sends no rain.’ This is the order this passage sets up.

A misreading to be set aside: that this blames natural calamity upon morality. What the verses tell of is the relation of shared karma to the dependent recompense, not a blaming of individuals. Brought down to the ground: how a body of people live becomes what the place they live in is like.

The Maiden Praises the King’s Virtue (Two): Two Verses upon the Benefit of His Rising

The next two verses are of the utmost brevity: “the great king ascended the jewelled throne and vastly rescued the many multitudes, and oily clouds covered the eight quarters and rained universally, and all were soaked and refreshed”; “the great king came to govern the myriad people and universally cut off the manifold cruelties, punishments and prisons were all set aside, and the orphaned and solitary were all at peace.”

The former verse uses rain — taking up directly the “the heavens were dry and let down no moisture” of the six verses before: there drought, here rain; the latter verse uses punishments and prisons and the orphaned and solitary (those who are alone and have no one to rely upon) — there cruelty, here the setting aside of punishments and prisons. The two verses each take up one of the two threads of the six verses before.

A misreading to be set aside: that ‘oily clouds raining universally’ is only a set phrase of praise. It stands as a pair with the drought of the passage before and cannot be read apart from it. Brought down to the ground: the truest way to praise a person’s merit and virtue is to point out what the place was like before he came.

The Maiden Praises the King’s Virtue (Three): Ten Verses Turning the Ten Evils

The third passage, ten verses, Chengguan judges as “turning loss into virtue, that is, turning the ten evils” — turning the ten evils listed before one by one. The clause form of the verses is exceedingly even, six groups of “in ages past / now” contrasted: in ages past they maimed and slew one another, drinking blood and eating flesh, now they all raise a mind of kindness; in ages past they were poor with little clothing, hungry and worn like hungry ghosts, now the fine rice grows of itself and wondrous garments grow within the trees; in days past they contended for petty gain and seized from one another against the Dharma, now they are alike in abundance as though roaming in the garden of Śakra; in times past people did evil and encroached upon the wives and maidens of others, now they see the women of others upright and finely adorned and their minds have “no stain of clinging, like the gods of the Heaven of Contentment”; in days past they spoke false and fawning words, today “their minds having become soft and gentle, the words they utter too are tamed and harmonious”; and the last group is that in days past they carried out wrong dharmas and bowed to cattle, sheep, dogs, and swine, while now they have heard the king’s right Dharma and “have awakened in understanding and removed their wrong views, and comprehend that the recompense of suffering and of ease all arises from causes and conditions.”

The last group is the weightiest: the groups before turn practices, this group turns a view — from bowing to beasts to comprehending causes and conditions. ‘A practice may be changed by circumstance; a view must be changed by the Dharma.’ And therefore this group does not speak of abundance but of “hearing the king’s right Dharma.”

A misreading to be set aside: that the ten verses turn the ten evils one by one, one evil to a verse. In fact they are six contrasted groups, and what they turn covers killing, stealing, lewdness, false speech, the double tongue, coarse speech, frivolous speech, craving, anger, and wrong views. Brought down to the ground: the last step in governing the world is not to make people stop doing evil but to make them understand why they should not.

The Maiden Praises the King’s Virtue (Four): Seven Verses upon the Dependent and the Proper Being beyond Thinking

The fourth passage, seven verses, Chengguan judges as “making clear that the dependent and the proper are beyond thinking” — both the dependent recompense and the proper recompense are beyond conceiving. On the side of the proper recompense it tells of the king’s voice: “the great king utters a wondrous sound, and those who hear it are all glad and delight in it; the sounds of Brahmā and of Śakra and the rest, none of them can match it.” On the side of the dependent recompense it tells of the king’s jewelled canopy: standing far off in empty space, with a shaft of lapis lazuli and covered by a net of maṇi, whose golden bells “give forth of themselves the harmonious and elegant sound of the Tathāgata, proclaiming the subtle and wondrous Dharma and extinguishing the doubts of beings.”

The three verses below tell of what that sound expounds: the lands of the buddhas of the ten directions with the tathāgatas and their retinues in all the kalpas; the lands of the ten directions in the past and all the tathāgatas within them; and further that it “reaches universally throughout the realm of Jambū, expounding at length the manifold distinctions of the karma of men and gods and the rest.” The last verse tells of the benefit to those who hear: “when beings have heard it, they know for themselves the treasuries of the manifold karmas, and they depart from evil and diligently cultivate and dedicate and direct it to the Buddha’s awakening.”

A misreading to be set aside: that verses in praise of a king only sing of worldly merit. The landing point of these seven verses is “dedicate and direct it to the Buddha’s awakening.” Brought down to the ground: whether one who governs in the world can carry people beyond the world is seen in what he has let them hear.

Setting Out the King’s Former Life (One): The Last Twenty-Seven Verses — the Former King’s Latter Age

From “the king’s father” onward, twenty-seven verses turn to the king’s former life. Chengguan divides them into four passages, saying, “the first four verses make clear the end of the age of the former king; the next eight verses make clear the signs preceding the king’s rising; third, there are seven verses justly displaying the birth; fourth, there are eight verses upon the benefit after his birth.”

The first four verses: the king’s father was named Pure Light, the king’s mother was named Lotus Blossom Light, and “at the time when the five turbidities appeared they were set in the royal position and governed all under heaven”; at that time there was a vast garden with five hundred ponds, each with a thousand trees encircling it; upon the banks of the ponds a hall of a thousand pillars was set up, its railings and adornments in no way incomplete; and then “at the end of the age evil dharmas arose, and for years on end no rain came down, and the ponds and streams all dried up, and the grasses and trees withered away.”

These four verses and the first six of the twenty-five verses before are the same scene — drought. But this drought is here to set off the auspicious signs below: the ponds must dry first, so that their sudden filling may be told.

A misreading to be set aside: that writing of drought twice is a redundancy. The drought of the earlier place is the fruit of the king’s not having come forth into the world; the drought of this place is the foreground of the king’s being about to come forth. Brought down to the ground: the same matter set in a different place says a different thing.

Setting Out the King’s Former Life (Two): Eight Verses upon the Signs Preceding

“Seven days before the king was born, marvelous and auspicious signs appeared beforehand” — and those who saw them made this thought in their minds, “the one who saves the world is now about to come forth.” In the middle of the night the great earth quaked in six ways, and there was a pond of jewelled blossoms whose “light appeared like the orb of the sun”; within the five hundred ponds the water of merit and virtue was full, the withered trees put forth branches, and blossoms and leaves flourished; the waters of the ponds being full, they flowed abroad everywhere and reached throughout the land of Jambū; the healing herbs and the manifold trees, the hundred grains and the sprouts and crops, their branches, leaves, blossoms, and fruits, “all of them flourished”; the ditches and pits and the mounds and hillocks, the manifold high and low places, “there was none of it not level”; the brambles and the gravel and all the manifold defilements “all in a single thought turned into the jade of the many jewels”; and beings, seeing these things, rejoiced and praised, “and all said that they had obtained good gain, like a thirsty man drinking fine water.”

The order of the eight verses runs from one place outward to all: first one pond, next five hundred ponds, next the flowing abroad everywhere, next the reaching throughout the land of Jambū, and only then the grasses and trees, the shape of the ground, and the defilements. ‘The auspicious signs are not a marvelous spectacle; they are that a stretch of ground long dried up is suddenly able to live again.’

A misreading to be set aside: that the auspicious signs are there to prove this person extraordinary. Every sign the verses write of is a real benefit to beings — water, grain, level ground, and no defilement. Brought down to the ground: the proof of a person’s coming into the world is seen in whether those around him live a little better.

Setting Out the King’s Former Life (Three): Seven Verses upon the Birth

Seven verses write of the birth. King Light with his retinue roamed and looked upon the gardens and parks; within the five hundred ponds there was a pond named “Gladness,” above the pond a Dharma hall, and the father-king dwelt there. The former king said to his lady: I remember that seven nights ago, in the middle of the night the earth quaked and here a light appeared. The words had scarcely fallen when within that pond of blossoms a thousand-petalled lotus blossom was born, “its light shining like a thousand orbs of the sun, and above it reached straight to the summit of Sumeru”; the blossom had vajra for its stalk, the gold of the Jambū River for its dais, the many jewels for its petals, and wondrous fragrance for its filaments and stamens; “the king was born upon that blossom, his body upright and seated cross-legged, adorned with the marks and signs, and revered by the deva-spirits”; the former king greatly rejoiced, entered the pond and himself took him up in his hands, and holding him up handed him to his lady: “your son is to be rejoiced over.”

The most moving thing in this passage is the act of the last verse — the former king himself goes down into the pond to take him up. The seven days of auspicious signs, the light of a thousand suns, and the summit of Sumeru are all gathered into a father bending down to lift up his child.

A misreading to be set aside: that the passage of the birth is myth. Its writing comes all the way down from the signs of the heavens to the affairs of men, and its last clause is the speech of a family. Brought down to the ground: however great the conditions, when they come down to earth they are one concrete small matter.

Setting Out the King’s Former Life (Four): Eight Verses upon the Benefit after His Birth

The last eight verses tell of the benefit after the king’s birth: the jewel treasuries welled up, the jewelled trees brought forth wondrous garments, and heavenly music filled the empty space; all beings raised great joy and joining their palms declared it rare, “excellent, O rescuer and guardian of the world”; the king sent forth the light of his body and illumined all universally, and was “able to cause the darkness of the four continents to be wholly gone and their sicknesses to be extinguished”; the yakṣas, the piśācas, the poisonous vermin and evil beasts, all that wished to harm men, “all hid themselves away”; evil repute, the loss of good gain, unlooked-for calamity, and being held by sickness — “the manifold sufferings such as these were extinguished”; all that were of the kinds of beings “looked upon one another as father and mother, departed from evil and raised a mind of kindness, and single-mindedly sought all-knowledge”; “he shut fast the manifold evil destinies and opened and showed the road of men and gods, proclaimed sarvajña, and delivered the many multitudes”; and the last verse is the maiden’s own words: “we, having seen the great king, have universally obtained good gain; and those without refuge and without a guide, all of them have gained ease.”

The order of the eight verses runs from things to persons and from persons to the way: first the jewel treasuries and garments and music, next the body-light removing sickness, next the evil kinds hiding away, next the extinguishing of the manifold sufferings, then beings looking upon one another as father and mother and departing from evil and raising a mind of kindness, and at last sarvajña and the delivering. The last verse falls back upon the one speaking — she is one of those “without refuge and without a guide.”

A misreading to be set aside: that the last verse is a set phrase for closing. The seven verses before tell of the multitude; the last verse tells of “we.” Brought down to the ground: when praise can at the end put the one praising into it, that praise is not a looking on from outside.

The Great King Sets Forth His Praise: To Be Able to Believe and Know the Merit and Virtue of Another Is a Rare Thing

The maiden’s praise being finished, she circled him measureless times, joined her palms and bowed her head, bent her body in reverence, and withdrew to stand at one side. Chengguan says upon the outline of the maiden’s praise, “first, the setting forth that her mind was pure; next, the uttering of the words of her mouth; last, the extending of her body in respect, and the words of her mouth” — the three karmas of mind, mouth, and body.

The king’s answer has one weighty point: “excellent, maiden! That you are able to believe and know the merit and virtue of another is a rare thing.” And at once he states why it is rare — “all beings are unable to believe and know the merit and virtue of another”; such persons “do not know how to repay kindness, are without wisdom, their minds turbid and scattered, their natures not clear and bright, having from the first no strength of resolve and falling back besides from the practice they had cultivated,” and therefore “neither believe nor know the merit and virtue, the spiritual powers, and the wisdom that the bodhisattvas and the tathāgatas possess.” At the end he turns back to her: “you today with certainty seek and go toward awakening, and are able to know such merit and virtue of a bodhisattva,” and he records that her “effort will not be spent in vain, and you too shall accomplish merit and virtue such as this.”

Below it comes the gathering and sustaining of the practice of giving: the king with his own hand confers priceless jewelled garments, and the maidens set both knees upon the ground and receive them with both hands and place them upon their heads and only then put them on; having put them on they circle the king to the right, and “from within the jewelled garments there came forth universally the light of all the constellations,” and the multitude seeing this say that they are “like the pure devas of the night adorned with the constellations.”

A misreading to be set aside: that what the king praises is her giving. The king says plainly that what he praises is her “believing and knowing the merit and virtue of another” — that capacity to recognize what is good in someone else. Brought down to the ground: to be able to praise another sincerely is rarer than to do the same deed oneself.

Joining the Ancient and the Present: The One Who Is Speaking Is That Maiden

“That King Canopy of the Fullness of the Sound of All Dharmas of that time — was he some other person?” — and after this question come four matchings: that king is the present Vairocana Tathāgata, King Light is King Śuddhodana, the lady Lotus Blossom Light is Lady Māyā, and “Jewel Light the maiden is my own self.”

At this clause the nature of the whole long passage of the former life is altogether changed. What she has told is not an ancient legend but that one raising of her own mind; and the king she praised is the very Tathāgata for whose sake she is at this moment expounding to Sudhana. And the vow she made when offering the necklace, “may I in the future be just like this,” has its answer in what she now is — she has become a goddess who guards the roads at night, still doing the work of ‘secretly protecting’.

There is one further clause below, often read past: the beings that that king at that time gathered in by the four means of gathering are “all the bodhisattvas within this assembly,” all of them having gained non-retrogression in awakening, or dwelling in the first ground and on to the tenth ground. Those who came to beg at the assembly of giving of that year are today within this place of the Way.

A misreading to be set aside: that the joining of the ancient and the present is only a disclosure of identity. It answers at the same time Sudhana’s first question — “how long has it been now.” Brought down to the ground: what a person is doing now is often the very shape of one thought he had very long ago.

The Night Goddess’s Second Set of Verses: Nine Verses Making Clear What She Knows, One Verse Concluding with an Exhortation

The last set is ten verses. Chengguan says, “these merely display in general mark what she is already able to know; within them the first nine make clear what she is able to know, and the last one concludes with an exhortation.”

The first nine verses tell one by one of the kinds of knowledge she has: with a vast eye she sees universally in the seas of lands of the ten directions the beings revolving in the five destinies, and sees too the buddhas seated beneath the tree of awakening; with a pure ear she hears universally all sounds and hears too the Buddha expounding the Dharma; her knowledge of others’ minds is “without a second and without obstruction,” and in a single thought she comprehends the seas of the minds; her knowledge of former lives is able to know within all kalpas her own self and others; in a single thought she knows the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the beings of the five paths within the kalpas as many as the dust motes of the seas of lands; she calls to mind and knows how the buddhas first raised the vow of awakening and on to their cultivating the manifold practices each one complete; she knows how the buddhas accomplished the way of awakening and with manifold skillful means turned the wheel of Dharma; she knows the seas of vehicles the buddhas have, whether the right Dharma abode long or briefly, and whether the beings delivered were many or few.

These nine verses are the very confirmation of the whole passage of the working before: she said, “I call to mind the sea of bodhisattva practices that Vairocana Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly and Rightly Awakened, cultivated in ages past, and I see it all clearly,” and it is upon these several kinds of knowledge that she does so. The last verse concludes with an exhortation: “through measureless kalpas I have studied and cultivated this Dharma gate; I today expound it for you, and you, son of the Buddha, should study it.”

A misreading to be set aside: that the telling of her own kinds of knowledge is self-praise. What comes immediately after the nine verses is “you should study it” — what is set out is a Dharma that can be studied, not a virtue beyond reach. Brought down to the ground: to tell what one has gained, if it lands upon exhorting another to study, is not a boasting.

Humbling Herself and Pointing to the Superior, and Pointing Out the Friend Who Comes Next

The clause of humbling herself is “I know only this bodhisattva liberation gate of giving birth to the light of vast joy.” What she points to as superior comes in three pairs: “they gain valiant knowledge, and within one bodhisattva ground universally enter the sea of all bodhisattva grounds”; “they gain pure vows, and within one bodhisattva practice universally enter the sea of all bodhisattva practices”; “they gain the power of ease, and within one bodhisattva liberation gate universally enter the sea of all bodhisattva liberation gates” — ground, practice, and liberation gate, each of them from one into all. What she herself knows is the “one”; what she points to is the “all.”

The friend pointed out next is another night goddess within the same place of the Way, named “Great Vow, Vigor, and Power Who Rescues All Beings.” The questions entrusted are four: how is a bodhisattva to convert beings and cause them to go toward awakening, how to purify and adorn all buddha-lands, how to serve all tathāgatas, how to cultivate all the dharmas of the Buddha — two more clauses than the two Sudhana asked when he first came. ‘The question has been lengthened by the good friend; this is what going forward in study looks like.’

The last passage is the taking of leave: “he bowed to her feet, circled her numberless times, gazed up at her earnestly, and took his leave and departed.”

A misreading to be set aside: that the humbling of herself is a courtesy. The three pairs of “within one … universally entering all” have a concrete referent; they are no vague disclaimer. Brought down to the ground: to know which gate one has gained, and also to know that beyond that gate there is a sea — these two must be known at once.

Lineage

For the text of this section, three streams open onward.

The first is the thread of assignment. Chengguan at the head of this unit sets forth “seventh, the night goddess Who Opens the Blossoms of All Trees, assigned to the Far-Reaching Ground,” matching this good friend to the seventh of the ten grounds, the Far-Reaching Ground. This matching is not something the scripture text sets forth of itself but Chengguan’s carrying on of the outline of the ancient worthies — in his general discussion of the five aspects he says plainly that it is “Master Guangtong and the rest all match them to the grounds and stations.”

Chengguan’s Explicit Judgment

The two positions having been raised, Chengguan first allows that each has its reason: “both have their reason: that is, since each single station is furnished with many Dharma gates, how could the ordinary mind be forbidden to practice and seek the dharmas of the good friends? — and therefore not to match them has its reason.” Then he sets down his judgment: “Yet within what has no sequence of stations the sequence of stations is not hindered, and to display the stations is the constant rule, and so to match them is likewise no fault.” Within what has no sequence of stations the sequence of stations is not hindered; to display the stations is the constant rule; and therefore to match is no fault at all — and only then does he say “we will for the present follow the ancient worthies and match them as five aspects.” The reader should know here that Chengguan does not set out two positions and withhold his own: he judges outright that to match is no fault, and only declines to use that judgment to throw out the position that does not match. Assignment is one reading, and it is a reading Chengguan himself allows.

Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle witness, likewise attributes this friend to the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, his outline being “within the seventh, the friend of the Far-Reaching Ground, first, within the raising of the Dharma and the exhorting to cultivation there are three: first the pointing to the station that comes after; next the putting into verse of the earlier Dharma; third, Sudhana’s gaining of benefit,” and within the one part of displaying his own Dharma realm he sets up five headings — displaying the meaning of the Dharma, setting up the name of the Dharma, making clear the working, discriminating the depth of the root, and concluding his own portion. Fazang’s gloss does not stop at setting up the name. Within the discriminating of the depth of the root he points out how Sudhana is able to know at all: “the first clause takes the sustaining power of the buddhas as the condition, and relying upon good friends and the like makes clear that the height and excellence of the inner practice is its cause; only then may it be known” — the power of the buddhas without, the height of practice within, and only the two together make knowing possible; what is hard to know is not unknowable, it is knowable upon conditions. Upon the passage of the former life he matches three fruits to it: “that they practiced the ten evils and the rest is the making of the cause of suffering; that at death they entered the evil destinies makes clear the receiving of the fruit of ripening; that their lifespans were short and the rest makes clear the receiving of the fruit of outflow of the same kind,” and below that he makes clear the fruit of dominance — the five turbidities are not scenery but a whole chain of cause and fruit. Upon the elder’s daughter taking off her necklace he glosses: it “displays her turning her back upon the recompense of the world’s glory,” while setting it before the king and making a vow is “her longing to be the same as the great practice of the bodhisattvas who go beyond the world” — what she takes off is the recompense of worldly glory, and what she seeks is the great practice beyond the world. And he closes this ground with one clause: “the Far-Reaching Ground is finished.”

Zhiyan in the Souxuan ji, upon the name-form of the sixty-fascicle witness, likewise has a gloss proper to this friend, and his opening clause settles name, station, and Dharma gate at once: “the seventh deva of the night is named Who Opens the Tree Blossoms, that is, the station of the bodhisattva of the seventh ground; she enters the Dharma gate of the light of measureless joy and knowing sufficiency.” His outline runs on a different track from Chengguan’s: the just entering is first opened into her own portion and the deferring upward to the superior portion, and her own portion is divided into five — the general making clear of the virtue and function of the Dharma gate, the just making clear of the name and substance of the Dharma gate, the making clear of the great function of the Dharma gate, the making clear of the causes and conditions of how long ago the mind was raised and the Dharma gained, and the concluding. And the virtue and function of the Dharma gate he divides further into three: causing them to gain the ease of the world, causing them to gain the practice that leaves suffering and goes beyond the world, causing them to complete the practice of good dharmas — these three layers are exactly the bone of the two passages of ‘secretly protecting’ and of the ten perfections in the former half of this section. The ten verses of the last set he divides into three: the first five know by the mastery of the five superknowledges the matter of the buddhas’ arising in the world; the next four know by the superknowledge of the exhaustion of the outflows the dharmas that go beyond the world; the last one exhorts to cultivation.

Chengguan’s Yanyi chao takes up his own commentary upon this friend clause by clause. Upon the assignment he states the reason: “that is, because she has come to the further edge of the exertion of the abiding in signlessness and has gone out beyond the worldly path and the path of the two vehicles.” Upon the three calamities he first divides two kinds — the greater three, water, fire, and wind destroying the vessel world; the lesser three, famine, pestilence, and the sword — and then limits what the scripture text means here: “what is made clear here is taken as the calamity in its small part,” not the three calamities of the kalpa’s end when human life is ten years, but those that in small part arise again and again. This limit matters: the calamity of the passage of the five turbidities is not the end of the world but the famine and pestilence that keep returning in an age. Upon the ten compassions he divides the general from the particular: the first clause makes clear in general that the beings of the three seekings all fall into the deep pit of birth and death, and the remaining nine are the particular; and within the particular he first divides those who understand wrongly from those who practice wrongly, and then matches the eight clauses of wrong practice to the three seekings — the first five have compassion for the beings of the seeking of desire, the next two for the beings of the seeking of existence, the last one for the beings of the seeking of wrong religious practice. He gathers it up in one clause: “within the ten compassions above, each has that which it faces and that which is able to cure it” — ten words of compassion, each with its own suffering faced and its own cure, not ten sighs saying the same thing.

Li Tongxuan in 〈Entering the Dharma Realm〉 does outline this friend passage by passage; it is not that he leaves the friends unoutlined. The just entering of the Dharma gate proper to this station he makes into a long outline of five passages — the just setting forth of what is sought, the conferring of the Dharma gate of her own practice, the answer upon the realm of entering this Dharma gate, the intent to tell how long ago the mind was raised, which is hard to believe, and the answer as to how long ago the mind was raised; the glossing of the meaning as the text runs he sets up in four gates, descending in order from the number of kalpas to the name of the sea of worlds, the name of the buddha, and the world-seeds; and at the end three gates of deferring to virtue point to the friend who comes next. The practice of this ground and what it cures he states most plainly: “taking the perfection of skillful means as the principal and the remaining nine as its companions, it cures the obstruction whereby, with the two minds of dwelling in the defiled and the pure, great compassion is not at ease within birth and death, and causes it to gain ease.” The name of the Dharma gate he glosses too: “at this station the dharmas of the four means of gathering in and the four measureless minds first reach all the way through.” As for the general discussion in five gates under the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, in 〈the Chapter on the Ten Grounds〉 — glossing the name of the ground, what practice gate is cultivated, Sudhana’s symbolizing of the Dharma, what realm of liberation is gained, glossing the meaning as the text runs — that is a gloss upon the ground, not the outline of this friend, and the two places are to be kept apart in the reading: there he glosses the name of the ground, saying that this ground “with the wisdom that does not contrive enters all the worlds, and equaling the practices of beings causes them universally to be all-pervading, and therefore it is named the Far-Reaching Ground,” and makes clear what is cultivated, saying that “this ground cultivates the perfection of skillful means.” The station the four houses fasten it to is the same, while the bone of their outlines differs among themselves.

The second is the thread of glossing the name. Fazang glosses this friend’s name in two ways, by station and by matter, saying, “as to ‘opening the tree blossoms’: if it is taken by station, this ground is one that has practice and has the opening forth of the abiding in signlessness, and therefore it is so named,” and saying, “taken by the matter, this deva is within a storeyed pavilion of fragrant trees, and therefore this name is set up” — the one speaking from the practice of the ground, the other from the place where she dwells. Li Tongxuan makes it a gloss by symbolizing the Dharma, saying, “that she is named Who Opens the Tree Blossoms symbolizes that upon the tree of the wondrous wisdom of signlessness the blossoms of Samantabhadra’s practice are opened,” and saying further, “it is also that she opens the blossoms of the tree of the practice of ignorance of all beings and causes them to become the blossoms of Samantabhadra’s practice” — the tree is the wondrous wisdom of signlessness, the blossoms are Samantabhadra’s practice, and what is opened reaches also to the tree of the practice of the ignorance of beings. The two houses are recorded together without judgment. Fazang further records that the name of this gate in the Indic witness is “the bodhisattva liberation of the light of contentment in the place of the birth of vast joy,” a form differing from the eighty-fascicle witness’s “liberation gate of giving birth to the light of vast joy”; both are preserved. Chengguan himself, in the passage upon the presiding night goddesses in 〈the Chapter on the Lords of the Worlds〉, turns back to join this friend’s name, saying, “that all are opened is precisely the universal putting forth” — the sense of ‘opening the blossoms’ falls upon the single word ‘universal’; and upon the ‘joy’ of the Dharma gate’s name he says, “since the Buddha with merit and knowledge fulfills the minds of creatures, the holding of joy is named a treasury” — joy is joy because the Buddha with merit and knowledge has filled the minds of beings full, and holding that joy, it is called a treasury.

The third is the thread of the former life and the parallel translations. The great passage of the former life in the latter half of this unit is present in both the sixty-fascicle and the forty-fascicle witnesses, while the personal names and the name of the Dharma gate differ in each: the sixty-fascicle witness at the place of joining the ancient and the present has “King Wondrous Sound of the Perfect Canopy of the Lion’s Roar of All Dharmas,” and the forty-fascicle witness has three graphs more in this friend’s name, “presiding … of Ease.” The passage of the joining is one and the same in all three, yet differs within that sameness: the persons pointed to are the same in all three — that king is the present Vairocana, and that maiden is the night goddess who is speaking; while the king’s name in the sixty is “Wondrous Sound of the Perfect Canopy of the Lion’s Roar,” in the forty “Wondrous Sound of the Great Lion’s Roar,” and in the eighty there is no “lion’s roar” at all. As to the father-king and the lady, all three bring them out (King Śuddhodana, Lady Māyā). As to the maiden, the eighty and the forty state outright that she is the speaker herself, while the sixty’s closing passes over her without the tie-back, an omission Fazang himself records. As to the conclusion upon the beings gathered in, the eighty has “they are all the bodhisattvas within this assembly,” the forty has “they are all the bodhisattvas gathered like clouds within the great place of the Way of this assembly of the Buddha,” and below it lists the ten grounds and the virtues of the assembly further, while the sixty has “the people of the land at that time are the present great assembly” — one and the same joining, the persons the same and the closing clause running each on its own track. The differences of fullness and brevity and of names among the three witnesses are recorded together without judgment, and no forcing of a judgment as to which is the original.

Zhiyan in the Kongmu zhang lists this friend in his table of the order of the good friends as “the thirty-eighth, a deva of the night named Who Opens the Tree Blossoms,” which is a record of order and not a gloss of meaning; but in the same book, within the passage upon the means of the stations of realization of the ten grounds, there is a gloss of meaning proper to this friend: “the seventh friend; taken by the distinct teaching of the One Vehicle; at the place of becoming a buddha; skillful means; the twofold contemplation of the real and the conventional; the meaning of the Dharma gate of cultivating the cause and drawing on the fruit at ease” — skillful means is the practice of this ground, and the twofold contemplation of the real and the conventional is the eye of that practice. The “seventh” here is the seventh of the means of the stations of realization of the ten grounds, of a reckoning other than the “thirty-eighth” of the table of order; the two numbers are not to be counted together.

The text of one section: the former half answers upon “practice,” the latter half answers upon “how long ago.” And the way it answers upon “how long ago” is to lead a person back to the day she raised her mind and let him look at it once. Only after that looking is it known: what she does upon the road tonight and the vow she made on the day she took off her necklace are one and the same matter.