華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊6Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 6

Where This Chapter Joins On, and Why It Does Not Open the Scene Afresh

The preceding chapter, The Ten Practices, had a very large scene: the bodhisattva Merit Grove entered concentration, the buddhas of the ten directions appeared before him and stroked his crown, and only after he emerged from concentration did he open his mouth and speak the ten practices; and when he had finished there were more than two hundred lines of repeated verse, closing at the end with “though measureless and boundless buddhas should speak for measureless kalpas, they could not exhaust it.” The reader has only just come out of a setting like that, and the first sentence of this chapter is of the utmost brevity: “At that time the bodhisattva Merit Grove spoke again to the bodhisattvas.” A single word, ‘again’, and the concentration, the sustaining power, the assembly, and the thread of speech of the preceding chapter are all carried over, without one sentence being restated.

This has to be seen clearly at the outset, because it settles how the chapter is to be read. That the text does not open the scene afresh shows that this chapter is not raising another topic; it goes on speaking from where the preceding chapter left off. Chengguan, determining the reason this chapter comes, opens five senses, and the second of them is exactly this — “second, earlier what was set forth was the correct station, and now practice is raised in dependence on the station.” The preceding chapter set forth the station of the ten practices; this chapter sets forth the practice raised in dependence on that station. The treasury is not some other thing standing outside the station; it grows out from within it.

The first sense draws the line longer still: “first, in order to answer the question about the ten treasuries at the beginning of the earlier second assembly.” At the very opening of the second assembly, the question the bodhisattvas set out already listed “the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten treasuries, the ten grounds, the ten vows, the ten concentrations, the ten penetrations, the ten summits” — the name of the ten treasuries had appeared there, and had never been answered. The question stands at the opening of the second assembly, the answer at the close of the fourth, with two assemblies in between. This is a way of proceeding common in this scripture: the question is set down and left, and is answered only when the sequence of stations has arrived.

There is one further matter of form worth remembering: this chapter is prose from beginning to end, without a single verse. Of the four chapters of the fourth assembly, the first three all have verses — Ascent to the Palace of the Yāma Heaven has ten verses, the chapter of Verses of Praise has two hundred and four lines, The Ten Practices has two hundred and two lines — and this chapter alone has none. This is not an omission. Where there are verses, it is generally because something is to be praised, or restated, or spoken in another voice; this chapter is ten openings upon a single matter from beginning to end, and when the speaking is done it closes, leaving no room for praise and no layer needing restatement.

What ‘Treasury’ Means, and Which Word ‘Inexhaustible’ Falls Upon

First a question: why is it called a ‘treasury’?

What an ordinary person thinks of on hearing ‘treasury’ is a storehouse — a place for putting things, and the more it holds the better. Read that way, the ten treasuries become ten storehouses of merit, and reading the chapter is like taking inventory of the family property. That reading must be cleared away first. The scripture itself gives the clue: the chapter title reads ‘the ten inexhaustible treasuries’, and yet not one of the ten names of the treasuries in the text carries the word ‘inexhaustible’ — the treasury of faith, the treasury of the precepts, the treasury of shame, the treasury of abashment, the treasury of learning, the treasury of giving, the treasury of wisdom, the treasury of mindfulness, the treasury of retention, the treasury of eloquence, all simple names. The two words ‘inexhaustible’ are not on the names; they are on the ten inexhaustible dharmas of the closing passage.

Fazang, in explaining this chapter's title, distinguished one point in particular. He says: “As for the explanation of the name, the person is indicated and the dharma is distinguished, and so it says ‘the ten treasuries of the bodhisattva’; it is not a title in which person and dharma are joined — that is to say, these ten kinds are the dharmas practiced by the bodhisattvas.” ‘The bodhisattva's ten treasuries’ is not ‘bodhisattva’ plus ‘ten treasuries’ set side by side; it is ‘the ten treasuries of the bodhisattva’, and the treasuries are the dharmas practiced by the bodhisattva. The distinction looks fine-drawn, and its effect is large: the treasury is not property that the bodhisattva owns, it is what the bodhisattva is doing. The storehouse reading is cut off from this point on.

Li Tongxuan, for his part, is brief in the extreme, saying only: “First, as for explaining the title of the chapter: because these ten kinds of treasury are named in accordance with the dharma, it can be known.” The names of the ten treasuries are each set up according to the dharma upon which each depends — the treasury of faith is set up upon faith, the treasury of the precepts upon the precepts — there is no hidden mechanism, and one knows it by looking at the name. The elaborate way and the brief way: the ancient masters each state what they depend upon, and both stand.

Brought down to oneself: read ‘treasury’ as ‘what one is in the middle of doing’ and not as ‘what has already been stored up’, and only then does this chapter move. A storehouse fills up; the thing one is in the middle of doing does not.

The Sequence of the Ten Treasuries: From Faith at the Start to Being Able to Speak at the End

The ordering of the ten treasuries is not arbitrary. The treasury of faith stands first — without faith the other nine have no footing. Next come the precepts, shame, and abashment, and these three are all on ‘one's own side’: the precepts govern not doing hereafter, shame and abashment govern looking back at what has been done. Then come learning, giving, and wisdom, and these three open outward: learning is receiving, giving is handing over, wisdom is discriminating. Then mindfulness and retention, and these two hold fast: mindfulness is not forgetting what has been passed through, retention is not losing what has been received. Last comes eloquence — being able to speak it to others.

From faith to eloquence one line is clear: first able to believe, then able to guard, to be abashed, to learn, to relinquish, to judge, to remember, to retain, and at last to speak. The scripture itself, at the close of the first treasury, has already pointed out the end of this line in advance — “a bodhisattva who dwells in this treasury of faith is then able to hear and to retain all the Buddha's dharmas and to expound them for beings, causing them all to be awakened”: once the treasury of faith is firmly dwelt in, it already points toward ‘hearing and retaining’ and ‘expounding for beings’, which is to say the later treasuries of learning, of retention, and of eloquence. The ten treasuries are not ten items set side by side; they are ten stages of a single matter.

Clear away one misreading: do not suppose that those placed later are of a higher grade. The scripture's closing formulas for the ten treasuries are near to one another — ‘this is called / this is the such-and-such treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva’ (“this is called” occurs seven times, “this is” three times; the treasury of faith alone has no ordinal, reading “this is called: the treasury of faith of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva”) — and there is not one sentence saying that one treasury surpasses another. The sequence speaks of before and after, not of high and low.

Zhiyan, in the Kongmu zhang, sets up a separate chapter in which he takes these ten treasuries and sets them against the three treasuries of the lesser vehicle and the five kinds of treasury of the three vehicles, judging them to be the treasury of the teaching of the One Vehicle; and there the eighth in his list reads “the treasury of right mindfulness,” differing by one graph from this scripture's “treasury of mindfulness.” This is a use belonging to the judging of the modes of the teaching, on a different track from the masters who gloss the treasuries one by one following the text; it is recorded.

The First, the Treasury of Faith: What Is Believed Is Not How Great the Buddha Is, but That Dharmas Are of Themselves So

The treasury of faith is unexpected from its first words. Ordinarily one would suppose that ‘faith’ should mean faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, or faith in cause and effect. The scripture does not say so. The ten clauses it lists are: “he believes that all dharmas are empty, believes that all dharmas are without marks, believes that all dharmas have nothing to be wished for, believes that all dharmas are without making, believes that all dharmas have nothing that can be discriminated, believes that all dharmas have no place to lean upon, believes that all dharmas cannot be measured, believes that all dharmas have nothing above them, believes that all dharmas are hard to surpass, believes that all dharmas are from the first unborn.”

All ten clauses are stated by negation — empty, without marks, without anything wished for, without making, without discrimination, without anything to lean on, immeasurable, with nothing above, hard to surpass, unborn: not one of them says ‘there is such-and-such’, all of them say ‘it is not such-and-such’. First a question: how is a thing like this to be believed? Faith ordinarily needs an object, and here even the object has been taken apart.

The answer is in the next passage. The scripture goes on to say that once one has thus accorded with all dharmas and given rise to pure faith, a certain phenomenon appears: hearing that the dharma of the buddhas is inconceivable, the mind does not shrink; hearing that all buddhas, the realm of beings, the Dharma realm, the realm of space, the realm of nirvāṇa, the age past, the age to come, the present age, and entering into all kalpas are inconceivable, the mind in every case does not shrink. Ten occurrences of ‘does not shrink’ stand over against the earlier ten of ‘believes that all dharmas’. So the verifying mark of faith is not ‘I feel sure of myself’; it is ‘hearing something that exceeds the range of my understanding, my mind does not contract’.

Why does it not contract? The scripture sets its own question and answers it: “Why is this? Because this bodhisattva, toward the buddhas, believes firmly and without wavering, and knows that the wisdom of a buddha is boundless and inexhaustible.” — because he knows that the wisdom of a buddha is boundless and inexhaustible, it is only to be expected that he himself cannot understand this matter. There follows at once that most weighty passage of ten negations: in the measureless worlds of the ten directions there are measureless buddhas in each, who have attained, are attaining, and will attain awakening, who have come forth, are coming forth, and will come forth into the world, who have entered, are entering, and will enter nirvāṇa, and yet “the wisdom of those buddhas neither increases nor decreases, neither arises nor ceases, neither advances nor retreats, is neither near nor far; there is in it no knowing that discriminates, nor is there any forsaking.” The buddhas are measureless and the times are three, and yet the wisdom of a buddha does not move. What is believed does not move, and only then can the mind that believes be unmoved.

Clear away one misreading: these ten clauses of negation are not asking anyone to believe in nothing at all; they are asking that faith be turned from ‘believing in a thing’ into ‘believing that matters are of themselves so’. Believe in a thing, and that thing may change, may be lost, may be overturned by someone; believe that dharmas are of themselves so, and there is nowhere for an overturning to take hold.

The eleven marks that follow upon gaining this faith the scripture lists very concretely: “his mind does not turn back, his mind is not confused, it cannot be broken, it is defiled by nothing, it always has a root, it accords with the noble ones, it dwells in the house of the Tathāgata, it guards and upholds the seed-nature of all the buddhas, it increases the faith and understanding of all bodhisattvas, it accords with the roots of goodness of all the tathāgatas, and it gives birth to the skillful means of all the buddhas.” — from the state of the mind (not turning back, not confused, not broken, undefiled), to the belonging of one's standing (having a root, according with the noble ones, dwelling in the house of the Tathāgata), to the unfolding of function (guarding the seed-nature, increasing faith and understanding, according with roots of goodness, giving birth to skillful means). Three layers pushed out in one run.

The closing sentence matters most: “a bodhisattva who dwells in this treasury of faith is then able to hear and to retain all the Buddha's dharmas and to expound them for beings, causing them all to be awakened.” The fruit of the treasury of faith is not that one is at ease oneself; it is that one can speak it to others. Brought down to oneself: if a person says that he believes, and yet panics the moment he is questioned and evades wherever the reasoning will not go through, then most likely he has not yet reached the ‘treasury of faith’; one who has reached it can go on speaking even where the reasoning will not go through, because what he believes is not that his own reasoning goes through.

The Second, the Treasury of the Precepts: Ten Names Given First, Then Asked Back One by One

The treasury of the precepts is of a different form from the treasury of faith. It first lists the ten names all at once — “the precept of universal benefit, the precept of not receiving, the precept of not dwelling, the precept of no regret, the precept of no contention, the precept of not injuring or troubling, the precept of no defiled admixture, the precept of no greedy seeking, the precept of no fault, the precept of no transgression” — and then asks back one by one with ten occurrences of ‘what is such-and-such a precept’, a question and an answer each time. In the whole chapter ‘what is’ occurs twenty times, ten of them in the treasury of the precepts and ten in the treasury of giving, and nowhere else. These are the only two places in the chapter where the fine items are opened out.

There is one matter here that must be recorded as it stands: in two places the name in the list and the name in the question-and-gloss are written with different graphs. The list reads “the precept of not injuring or troubling,” the question reads “what is the precept of not troubling or harming”; the list reads “the precept of no defiled admixture,” the question reads “what is the precept of no admixture.” In the same passage of the same scripture, two forms one after the other. So the base text stands; both are recorded verbatim, neither altered nor evened out. A reader who meets such a place need not be alarmed, and need not pick one of them as the ‘correct’ one — this is how the transmitted texts have come down from of old.

Look first at the form as a whole, then at each item. The glosses of the ten items have one syntax in common: nearly every one closes with ‘he only ... and so upholds the precepts’ or ‘it is fundamentally for the sake of ...’ — the precept of universal benefit, “fundamentally for the sake of benefiting all beings”; the precept of no contention, “he only wishes that all beings may be constantly joyful in mind, and so upholds the precepts”; the precept of not troubling or harming, “he upholds the precepts only in order to rescue and protect all beings”; the precept of no admixture, “he only contemplates dependent origination and upholds the precepts of emergence”; the precept of no greedy seeking, “he upholds the precepts only for the sake of fulfilling the dharma of emergence”; the precept of no fault, “he upholds the precepts only by making his mind one.” What these ten items distinguish is not precept-rules but the sake for which the precepts are upheld. With one and the same precept, why it is upheld decides which kind of precept it is. This is the eye of the whole treasury of the precepts.

The Second, the Treasury of the Precepts, One to Five: Benefit · Not Receiving · Not Dwelling · No Regret · No Contention

One, the precept of universal benefit — “This bodhisattva receives and upholds pure precepts, and this is fundamentally for the sake of benefiting all beings.” First a question: are the precepts not upheld in order to make oneself pure? The scripture sets the very first item upon the benefit of others. The misreading to be cleared away is this: supposing that the precepts are a wall guarding oneself from trouble. If a precept is only a wall, then however strictly it is kept it is no more than self-protection. The three words ‘universal benefit’ turn the direction the other way round — the receiving and upholding of pure precepts is itself something done for all beings. Brought down to oneself: when a person keeps his word and does not speak falsely, the first to be benefited is every person around him who trusts him. The first meaning of the precepts is to give others a place where they may be at ease.

Two, the precept of not receiving — “This bodhisattva does not receive and practice any of the precepts that the outer paths possess; he is simply of his own nature diligent, and he practices and upholds the equal pure precepts of the tathāgatas, the buddhas of the three times.” The name is easily misread: ‘the precept of not receiving’ does not mean not receiving the precepts. What it does not receive is specified: “any of the precepts that the outer paths possess”; what it does receive and uphold is “the equal pure precepts of the tathāgatas, the buddhas of the three times.” And there is an important clause in between: “he is simply of his own nature diligent” — it is not that some outside force keeps him from receiving them, but that his very nature is of itself diligent upon the right road. Clear away one misreading: this item is not belittling the strictness with which others keep their precepts; it is saying that what the precepts depend upon must not be mistaken; if what they depend upon is mistaken, the stricter they are the further they go.

Three, the precept of not dwelling — “When this bodhisattva receives and upholds the precepts, his mind does not dwell in the desire realm, does not dwell in the form realm, does not dwell in the formless realm.” First a question: when one upholds the precepts, where does the mind dwell? The scripture answers: ordinarily, when a person upholds the precepts his mind dwells upon the fruit of retribution — having upheld the precepts, where will he be born hereafter? Once the three realms are listed, every destination of retribution is enclosed. The scripture asks and answers the reason itself: “Why is this? Because it is not in order to seek birth in those places that he upholds the precepts.” Not upholding the precepts in order to seek birth there, the mind of itself does not dwell there. Brought down to oneself: if in doing a right thing one is all the while calculating what it will fetch in return, that thing is bounded by the calculation.

Four, the precept of no regret — “This bodhisattva constantly gains a dwelling in a mind that has no regret.” This item speaks of the state of mind in upholding the precepts. The scripture glosses the reason itself: “Why is this? Because he does not commit grave offenses, does not practice flattery and deceit, and does not break the pure precepts.” Three things — not committing grave offenses, not practicing flattery and deceit, not breaking the pure precepts — and once they are done, regret has no material. Clear away one misreading: absence of regret is not gained by consoling oneself; it is gained by there being nothing to regret. Brought down to oneself: sleeping soundly is something cultivated, not something one is talked into.

Five, the precept of no contention — this is the longest item and the most easily read past. “This bodhisattva does not disparage what was laid down before, nor does he set up new precepts besides” — he does not disparage the precepts laid down earlier, nor does he set up new rules of his own. First a question: why should setting up new precepts count as ‘contention’? Because the precepts are by nature a dharma held in common; when one person sets up a set of his own, those who live together then have two standards, and contention begins there. Then comes the positive side: “his mind constantly accords, and heads toward the precepts that go to nirvāṇa, which he receives and upholds in full without transgressing them”; and the last sentence weighs most: “he does not, because he himself upholds the precepts, trouble and disturb others so as to make them give rise to suffering; he only wishes that all beings may be constantly joyful in mind, and so upholds the precepts.” — he does not take his own keeping of the precepts and use it to trouble others. Brought down to oneself: this is what one who keeps precepts offends in most often — keeping them well himself, he begins to find others disagreeable to look at, and the precept becomes a knife. The scripture says plainly that the precepts are to make people joyful in mind.

The Second, the Treasury of the Precepts, Six to Ten: Not Troubling or Harming · No Admixture · No Greedy Seeking · No Fault · No Transgression

Six, the precept of not troubling or harming — “This bodhisattva does not, on account of the precepts, go and study spells and techniques of every kind, or compound medicines, so as to trouble and harm beings; he upholds the precepts only in order to rescue and protect all beings.” First a question: what have the precepts to do with studying spells and compounding drugs? The connection is in the three words “on account of the precepts” — because upholding the precepts has brought him repute and a following, he borrows that position to study spells and compound medicines, and turns them round to trouble and harm people. What this item guards against is the power that the precepts bring. Clear away one misreading: the scripture is not forbidding medicine or the bright spells in themselves; what it forbids is taking them and “troubling and harming beings.” The sentence that follows at once gives the positive side: “he upholds the precepts only in order to rescue and protect all beings.”

Seven, the precept of no admixture — “This bodhisattva does not cling to extreme views, does not uphold precepts that are of mixed admixture; he only contemplates dependent origination and upholds the precepts of emergence.” The source of the ‘admixture’ is “extreme views” — views that hold to one side. If precepts are upheld in dependence on a partial view, the precept is dyed and mixed by that view. The right understanding that the scripture gives is “he only contemplates dependent origination and upholds the precepts of emergence”: see dependent origination clearly, and the precept is a precept of emergence, not an exchange of one bondage for another. Brought down to oneself: two people may equally refrain from eating a certain thing, the one because he contemplates dependent origination and cannot bear its suffering, the other because he is convinced that eating it will bring him bad luck — the outward act is the same, but the one is a precept of emergence and the other a precept of admixture.

Eight, the precept of no greedy seeking — “This bodhisattva does not display an appearance different from others so as to make manifest that he himself has virtue; he upholds the precepts only for the sake of fulfilling the dharma of emergence.” To ‘display an appearance different from others’ is deliberately to make oneself look unlike everyone else. First a question: why should deliberately appearing to have virtue count as ‘greedy seeking’? Because that different appearance is there to be exchanged for something — respect, offerings, standing. The upholding of precepts has not itself changed; but once the mind of trade arises, the precept has become capital. Brought down to oneself: letting people know what one keeps, and deliberately letting people see that one keeps it, differ by no more than a single thought, and yet the difference lies in the very nature of the precept.

Nine, the precept of no fault — “This bodhisattva does not exalt himself, saying that he upholds the precepts; and seeing those who break the precepts, he does not despise or disparage them so as to make them ashamed and mortified; he upholds the precepts only by making his mind one.” Two things: toward oneself, no exalting; toward others, no despising. First a question: when one sees a person breaking the precepts, is not saying a word or two to him for his own good? The scripture adds a qualification — “so as to make them ashamed and mortified.” If the aim is to put the other to shame, then it is not for his good. So the right understanding is “only by making his mind one”: gathering the mind back to oneself. Brought down to oneself: the most hidden fault in keeping precepts is not in what one has broken, but in taking what one has not broken and measuring others by it.

Ten, the precept of no transgression — this item returns to concrete matters and lists the ten courses of good action one by one: “he forever cuts off killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, divisive speech, and harsh speech, together with meaningless speech, greed, anger, and wrong views, and receives and upholds in full the ten kinds of good action.” The first nine items all distinguish the mind in upholding precepts; the tenth comes back down to the actual boundaries of body, speech, and mind — however finely one distinguishes, it must in the end be proved upon these ten things.

Most important is the thought attached after this item. When the bodhisattva upholds this precept of no transgression he thinks: “All beings who transgress the pure precepts do so through inversion; only the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is able to know by what causes and conditions beings give rise to inversion and transgress the pure precepts. I ought to accomplish unsurpassed awakening and to expound the true Dharma widely for beings, causing them to leave inversion far behind.” — he does not think ‘I have kept the precepts and they have not’; he thinks ‘why is it that they are like this’, and then assigns the answer to the wisdom of a buddha and takes the responsibility onto his own becoming a buddha. This is precisely why the precepts are a treasury: the precepts do not stop upon oneself, they push out a vow to go and deliver others. The closing sentence: “This is called: the second treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of the precepts.”

The Third, the Treasury of Shame: Founding Shame upon ‘We Have Been One Another's Parents’

The treasury of shame is extremely short, and yet it is one of the weightiest passages in the chapter. The scripture says: “This bodhisattva recalls the evil deeds of every kind that he did in the past and gives rise to shame.” Shame is produced by recollection, not produced by being reproached.

What, then, is recollected? The bodhisattva's own words: “From beginningless ages, life after life, I and all beings have all in turn been one another's father and mother, elder and younger brother, elder and younger sister, man and woman.” First a question: why is this sentence placed at the very front of shame? Because it takes apart the boundary between ‘I’ and ‘beings’. If beings have nothing to do with me, then what I have done to them is merely something past; if they and I have been one another's parents and children, then those things become things done to my own closest kin. The weight of shame comes from here.

Then come the evils done: “because we possessed greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, flattery and deceit, and all the remaining afflictions, we troubled and harmed one another, we bullied and plundered one another in turn, we committed adultery, injury, and slaughter, and there was no evil we did not do,” and then six clauses of ‘did not ... one another’ — “we did not respect one another, did not honor one another, did not serve and comply with one another, did not humble ourselves to one another, did not rouse and guide one another, did not cherish and protect one another.” These six clauses are the center of the treasury of shame. What they list is not crimes but the rupture of relation: no respect, no honor, no compliance, no humility, no guidance, no cherishing. What is truly to be ashamed of is not that something bad was done, but that of the six ways of treating one another that ought to have been there, not one was.

Next comes the mechanism of shame: “I consider for myself this body of mine and all beings: past, future, and present, what we practice is the dharma of no shame, and there is no buddha of the three times who does not know it and see it. If I do not now cut off this conduct that has no shame, the buddhas of the three times will likewise see me. How then shall I go on practicing thus and not stop? This is by no means to be allowed.” — the buddhas of the three times all see it. Clear away one misreading: this is not a threat; the scripture does not say what the buddhas will do. What it says is only the fact of ‘being seen’. A person is unrestrained where no one is present because he supposes no one sees; once he knows that he is seen at all times, the conduct stops of itself. So the definition of shame is very clear here: shame is the self-restraint that arises within ‘being known and seen’.

The vow with which it concludes is exactly the same as that of the treasury of abashment: “I ought with a concentrated mind to cut it off, to attain unsurpassed perfect awakening, and to expound the true Dharma widely for beings.” Shame does not stop at self-reproach; it pushes out the vow to teach the Dharma and deliver beings. The closing sentence: “This is called: the third treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of shame.”

Brought down to oneself: true shame does not need anyone standing by to point it out. It grows from the concrete recollection of ‘what I once did to whom’, and not from an abstract estimate of oneself.

The Fourth, the Treasury of Abashment: What He Is Abashed at Is the Insatiability of the Five Desires, and the Buddhas of the Three Times Who Are Deceived

Shame and abashment are commonly used as one word, and this chapter divides them into two treasuries, each with its own object, and this is the key to reading the passage. What shame is set against is “the evil deeds of every kind that he did in the past”; what abashment is set against is being “abashed at himself, that from of old, amid the five desires, he sought greedily in every way and never had a time of satiety.” Shame is set against evils already done, abashment against the insatiability of greedy seeking; the one is set against deeds, the other against desire.

First a question: why is it a matter for abashment that greedy seeking is never satisfied? The scripture answers directly: “and thereby increased greed, hatred, delusion, and all the afflictions.” Greedy seeking is not merely one occurrence; it is the mechanism by which the afflictions increase — the more one seeks the more there is, and the more there is the more one seeks. The bodhisattva's first decision is extremely simple: “I now ought not to practice these things again.”

Then comes the second thought, which is the body of this passage. It looks first at beings: “Beings are without wisdom; they give rise to afflictions of every kind, they practice evil dharmas of every kind in full, they do not respect one another, they do not honor one another, and so on until they become in turn one another's enemies and foes.” — note that the words ‘one another’ appear here again, answering to the treasury of shame. Then it adds a layer that the treasury of shame did not have: “Of evils such as these there is none they do not do in full; and having done them they rejoice, they pursue and praise them, they are blind and without the eye of wisdom, and there is nothing they truly know and see.” Having done evil they rejoice in it, and go on to pursue it and to praise it — this is a layer deeper than the doing of evil itself. It is precisely this layer that abashment is set against.

Further on, the scripture turns to the body: “Within a mother's womb they enter the womb and receive birth, and accomplish this defiled and impure body, which must come in the end to white hair and a wrinkled face. One who has wisdom contemplates that this body is but an impure dharma born of sexual desire.” Entering the womb, defilement, white hair and wrinkled face — the two ends of a lifetime set side by side to be looked at. Clear away one misreading: this is not world-weariness, nor is it saying that the body is shameful; the scripture's landing place is in the next sentence — “and the buddhas of the three times all know it and see it. If to this day I still practice these things, then I am deceiving the buddhas of the three times.”

The words “deceiving the buddhas of the three times” are the core of abashment. The mechanism of shame is ‘being seen’; the mechanism of abashment is ‘knowing that one is seen and yet still pretending otherwise’ — and that becomes deception. So the distinction between shame and abashment is clear in this chapter: shame is knowing that one is seen and stopping oneself; abashment is knowing that if one does not stop, it amounts to deceiving.

The concluding vow is the same as that of the treasury of shame: “I ought to cultivate abashment, swiftly to accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening, and to expound the true Dharma widely for beings.” The closing sentence: “This is called: the fourth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of abashment.”

The Fifth, the Treasury of Learning: Much Learning Is Not Hearing Much, It Is Knowing What May Be Declared and What May Not

The treasury of learning is the passage of the most distinctive form in the whole chapter. It does not list ‘how many scriptures have been heard’, but sets out ten classes of the dharmas that are known, each first indicated and then questioned — ‘what is such-and-such’ — ten questions and ten answers.

Look first at the four clauses of dependent origination. The scripture indicates them: “This bodhisattva knows: because this thing exists, therefore that thing exists; because this thing does not exist, therefore that thing does not exist; because this thing arises, therefore that thing arises; because this thing ceases, therefore that thing ceases,” and then questions and glosses them one by one: “What is ‘because this thing exists, that thing exists’? It is: because ignorance exists, formations exist.” “What is ‘because this thing does not exist, that thing does not exist’? It is: because consciousness does not exist, name-and-form does not exist.” “What is ‘because this thing arises, that thing arises’? It is: because craving arises, suffering arises.” “What is ‘because this thing ceases, that thing ceases’? It is: because becoming ceases, birth ceases.” — the four clauses each raise one pair from among the twelve links of existence: ignorance and formations, consciousness and name-and-form, craving and suffering, becoming and birth. Existence, non-existence, arising, cessation: on these four sides, both the forward and the reverse statement of dependent origination are covered in full. First a question: why is the first item of much learning dependent origination? Because however much one hears, if one does not know that things depend upon one another, what has been heard is only a heap of accounts unrelated to one another.

Next come three pairs of dharmas: “What are the dharmas of the world? They are: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. What are the dharmas beyond the world? They are: the precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation.” The five aggregates set against the five parts of the dharma-body; the worldly and the world-transcending each indicated by five dharmas. “What are the conditioned dharmas? They are: the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, and the realm of beings. What are the unconditioned dharmas? They are: space, nirvāṇa, cessation through reckoning conditions, cessation not through reckoning conditions, and the abiding of the dharma-nature of dependent origination.” The conditioned is indicated by four realms, the unconditioned by five dharmas — among which “cessation through reckoning conditions” is the cessation gained by the power of discriminating investigation and “cessation not through reckoning conditions” is the cessation gained without discriminating investigation, while the fifth, “the abiding of the dharma-nature of dependent origination,” places the dharma-nature of dependent origination too among the unconditioned, and is what is distinctive in this chapter's listing of the unconditioned.

The item of the dharmas that can be determinately declared lists the regular curriculum of cultivating the path: “the four noble truths, the four fruits of the ascetic, the four eloquences, the four fearlessnesses, the four stations of mindfulness, the four right exertions, the four bases of supernormal power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of awakening, and the eight branches of the noble path.” — apart from the four truths and the four fruits, all of them are the fine items of the thirty-seven factors of the path. ‘Determinately declarable’ means that they can be answered with a determination.

Last come the dharmas that are indeterminate, and this is the longest in extent. Four gates of four clauses each: the four clauses of the world's having or not having an end, the four clauses of the world's being or not being eternal, the four clauses of the Tathāgata's existing or not existing after his cessation, the four clauses of the existing or not existing of I and beings; and then a long string of “In the past, how many tathāgatas have entered parinirvāṇa,” “In the future, how many tathāgatas will there be? How many śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas?”, “What sort of tathāgata came forth first,” “From what place does the world come, and to what place does it go,” “What is the first limit of birth-and-death,” and so on. The scripture answers not one of them; it merely sets them out and then says “these are called the dharmas that are indeterminate.”

First a question: what kind of much learning is it to set out the questions one does not answer? The answer lies exactly here. The accomplishment of much learning is not only knowing the answers; it includes knowing which questions cannot in their very nature be answered by way of determination. Clear away one misreading: ‘indeterminate’ does not mean ‘the Buddha does not know’, nor does it mean ‘these questions do not matter’; it says that these ways of asking are themselves diseased, and that to answer them as they are put only deepens the disease. Brought down to oneself: when a person's learning has reached a certain point, the most useful single skill he has is being able to tell which questions are to be pursued and which are to be left alone.

The concluding thought of the treasury of learning is one of the pivots of the chapter: “All beings, within birth-and-death, have no much learning and are unable to understand clearly all these dharmas. I ought to rouse the intention, to hold the treasury of much learning, to attain unsurpassed perfect awakening, and to expound the true Dharma for all beings.” — much learning is not laying in stock for oneself; it is because beings have no much learning that the intention to hold it is roused. The closing sentence reads “this is called: the fifth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of much learning,” differing by two graphs from the “treasury of learning” indicated in the question earlier; so the base text stands, and both are recorded without alteration.

The Sixth, the Treasury of Giving: Ten Kinds of Giving, the Names Given First, Then Asked Back One by One

The treasury of giving is the passage of greatest extent in the chapter, and its form is the same as that of the treasury of the precepts — first the ten names are listed, then they are asked back one by one with ten occurrences of ‘what is the bodhisattva's such-and-such giving’: “the giving that divides and reduces, the giving that exhausts all, inward giving, outward giving, inward and outward giving, the giving of everything, the giving of the past, the giving of the future, the giving of the present, and ultimate giving.”

Look first at the ordering of these ten names. The first six run from little to entire in what is relinquished: dividing and reducing (parting with a portion), exhausting all (relinquishing to the last), inward (relinquishing the parts of the body), outward (relinquishing the royal throne), inward and outward (body and throne relinquished together), everything (measureless people each seeking what they wish, and all of it given). The last four change axis: past, future, present, ultimate — no longer saying what is relinquished to whom, but speaking of relinquishment toward the dharmas of the three times. With one and the same word ‘giving’, the first six are the giving of goods and of the body, and the last four are relinquishment upon the plane of dharmas. This turn is the place in the treasury of giving most easily read past; a reader who comes to the seventh, ‘the giving of the past’, and still reads in the manner of the first six will feel it has suddenly wandered off the subject. It has not wandered off; it has pushed ‘giving’ through to the bottom.

The Sixth, the Treasury of Giving, One to Three: Dividing and Reducing · Exhausting All · Inward Giving

One, the giving that divides and reduces — “This bodhisattva is by nature kind and loves to practice giving. If he obtains a fine flavor, he does not take it for his own use alone; he must first give it to beings and only then eat.” First a question: why is the first step of giving set upon ‘eating a meal’? Because that is what happens every single day, and is the hardest of all to yield. The scripture then gives an extremely fine observation: “Within my body there are eighty thousand families of worms that dwell in dependence on me; when my body is full and at ease, they too are full and at ease; when my body is hungry and in distress, they too are hungry and in distress.” — even the beings within one's own body are counted in, so that this one mouthful of food is already itself an act of giving. The second thought goes a layer further: “Through the long night of birth-and-death I have loved and clung to this body, and it is in order to make it full that I have received food and drink. Now with this food I give bounty to beings, and I vow that toward this body I may forever cut off craving and clinging.” The same action, with the sake for which it is done changed, turns from nourishing the body into cutting off craving. Brought down to oneself: giving need not wait until one has a surplus; the sense of the giving that divides and reduces is precisely this — to divide something out when there is not enough.

Two, the giving that exhausts all — the condition is far more severe than that of dividing and reducing: “if he uses them himself he will be at ease and his years prolonged, and if he spares his own portion and gives it to another he will be destitute and die young.” This is not dividing out of surplus; it is that giving means he cannot go on living. Someone comes and says: “All that you now have you ought to give to me.” The bodhisattva's reflection is: “From beginningless ages, for hunger's sake, I have lost body and life countless times, and I have never gained so much as a hair's tip of the good profit that comes of benefiting beings.” — first a question: how does he persuade himself? Not by heroic feeling, but by a reckoning: in the past he has already died of hunger countless times, and not one of those deaths benefited anyone, whereas this one at least does. Clear away one misreading: this passage is not urging people to relinquish their lives; it is distinguishing the measure proper to giving — the giving that divides and reduces is the constant rule, and the giving that exhausts all is what is done when that situation has actually arrived.

Three, inward giving — the scene changes: this bodhisattva is “in the very prime of youth, upright and fair,” has just received the anointing of the crown and ascended the throne of a wheel-turning king, is furnished with the seven treasures, and rules as king over the four continents. Someone comes to beg his “hands and feet, blood and flesh, head and eyes, bones and marrow.” His reflection is a single sentence: “This body of mine will certainly die hereafter, and there is not the least benefit in it; I ought in good time to relinquish it quickly, and with it to relieve beings.” — first a question: why must a king at the very height of his fortune be set up first? Because the premise of being able to relinquish is having in the first place. For one who has nothing at all to say that he will relinquish his body is empty talk. The scripture heaps what is to be relinquished to the highest, and only then says “having thought thus, he gives it to him, and in his mind there is no regret afterward”; only so does the weight of the relinquishing hold.

The Sixth, the Treasury of Giving, Four to Six: Outward Giving · Inward and Outward Giving · The Giving of Everything

Four, outward giving — again a wheel-turning king in the prime of life; this time the one who comes does not want the body but the throne: “relinquishing this royal throne to relieve me; let me govern, and enjoy the blessings and happiness of a king.” The bodhisattva's reflection: “All that flourishes must certainly decay, and when it decays one can no longer benefit beings. I now ought to accord with what he seeks and to fill his heart's desire.” — first a question: is relinquishing a throne easier or harder than relinquishing the body? The scripture does not compare; the reason it gives is time: flourishing must in the end decay, and once it has decayed this throne can no longer benefit anyone. Therefore it is yielded while it is still of use. Brought down to oneself: position, resources, and influence all have a term, and what this passage speaks of is spending them while they are still in force.

Five, inward and outward giving — the one who comes wants both: “I only pray that the great king will relinquish it to me, and, together with the great king's own body, that he will serve as my subject and servant.” The bodhisattva's reflection is the famous sentence of this passage: “My body, my wealth and treasure, and my royal throne are all impermanent dharmas that will come to ruin. I am now in the fullness of vigor and possess the riches of the world; one who begs stands before me, and I ought to use what is not firm to seek the firm Dharma.” — to use what is not firm to seek the firm Dharma. Body and throne are not firm, and to exchange what is not firm for a Dharma that is firm is a reckoning that pays. The scripture adds a most weighty clause: “even with his own body he respectfully and diligently performs labor for him, and in his mind there is no regret afterward” — not only is the throne yielded, but he actually goes and performs the labor of a servant. Clear away one misreading: this is not self-abasement; it is that both ‘king’ and ‘servant’ are seen as things not firm, and so neither side binds him.

Six, the giving of everything — the scene is the largest: measureless poor and destitute people come all together, “some beg his land, some beg his wife and children, some beg his hands and feet, blood and flesh, heart and lungs, head and eyes, marrow and brain.” The bodhisattva's reflection turns to love and affection: “All love and affection must come in the end to parting, and there is no benefit in it for beings. I now, wishing forever to relinquish craving and love, take all these things that must certainly be scattered and use them to fulfill the wishes of beings.” — first a question: the first five givings spoke of goods; why does this one speak of love and affection? Because ‘wife and children’ have been listed in. Once there are persons among what is relinquished, the reckoning can no longer be made of goods alone. The scripture's reasoning is: love and affection must in the end come to parting, and at the parting there is no benefit in it for beings either; better to use it now to fulfill the wishes of beings. At the end it adds one more clause: “in his mind there is no regret, nor does he give rise to a mind that loathes and despises beings” — having given, he not only does not regret it, he also does not think the less of those who came to beg. This clause is the finest requirement laid upon the giver's mind among the ten kinds of giving.

The Sixth, the Treasury of Giving, Seven to Nine: The Giving of the Past · The Giving of the Future · The Giving of the Present

From here on, what is given is no longer goods and body, but the not-grasping of the dharmas of the three times.

Seven, the giving of the past — “This bodhisattva hears of all the merits that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past possess, and having heard of them he does not cling to them; he understands clearly that they are not truly existent, he gives rise to no discrimination, he neither craves them nor savors them, nor does he seek to take them, and he has nothing to lean upon; he sees all dharmas as a dream, in which there is nothing firm; toward roots of goodness of every kind he gives rise to no notion that they truly exist, and has nothing to lean upon.” First a question: hearing of the merits of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past and not clinging to them — to whom is this given? The answer is in the next clause: “it is only in order to teach and transform those beings who grasp and cling, and to bring the Buddha's dharma to maturity, that he expounds it for them” — it is not that he does not speak of those merits; he expounds them for beings just as before, only he does not himself come to rest there. What is relinquished is the yearning admiration that says ‘I too must be like that’. At the end it is pushed to the bottom: “The dharmas of every kind that are past, though sought throughout the ten directions, are altogether unobtainable.” “Having thought thus, toward the dharmas of the past he relinquishes them all in the end.” Brought down to oneself: to admire the ancients is a good thing; to turn admiration into self-hypnosis is not.

Eight, the giving of the future — what it is set against is the practice of the buddhas of the future. The scripture's analysis here is finer than in the giving of the past, because the future most easily breeds two diseases: longing, and weariness. So it blocks both sides — “he does not take particular delight in being born in the lands of those buddhas, he neither savors nor clings, and neither does he give rise to weariness; he does not dedicate and direct his roots of goodness to that place, nor does he thereby lose his roots of goodness there.” He does not particularly want to go there, nor is he weary of it; he does not dedicate and direct his roots of goodness there, nor does he on that account lose them. What then? “He constantly and diligently cultivates, and has never abandoned or forsaken it; he only wishes, by means of that realm, to gather in beings.” He cultivates as before, only not for the sake of that future. The last sentence is the most thorough of all: “If a dharma is not truly existent, then there is nothing that cannot be relinquished.” — since dharmas are not truly existent, there is nothing that cannot be let go.

Nine, the giving of the present — what it is set against is the merits of the gods of the present and of the two vehicles. The scripture lists in one breath twenty-eight names of heavens, from the gods of the retinue of the four heavenly kings, the gods of the Thirty-Three, the Yāma gods, and the Tuṣita gods all the way to the gods of the highest form, “and on to hearing of the merits with which śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are furnished.” First a question: why list so long a string? Because the temptation of the present is concrete, is graded, and lets one see the rung above — the more minutely it is listed, the more the pull of that ladder shows. The four negations of the bodhisattva who has heard them: “his mind is not confused, does not sink, does not gather, and is not scattered” — not confused (not drawn in), not sinking (not falling into it), not gathering (not hoarding), not scattered (nor thrown into disorder by it). The clause he depends upon is “he only contemplates that the formations are like a dream and are not real, and has no craving or clinging.” The landing place is still the benefit of others: “in order to cause beings to relinquish the evil destinies, his mind gives rise to no discrimination, and he cultivates the bodhisattva path.”

The Sixth, the Treasury of Giving, Ten: Ultimate Giving

Ten, ultimate giving — it returns to the body, but is more thorough than inward giving. Those who come to beg are “measureless beings — some without eyes, some without ears, or without nose and tongue and hands and feet,” and they say: “This body of mine is of thin blessing, and my faculties are maimed and lacking. I only pray that you will be kind, and by skillful means relinquish what you yourself have, so as to make me complete.” The bodhisattva, “hearing this, gives to him at once.”

Where is the ‘ultimate’? In the next sentence: “even if because of this, for asaṃkhyeya kalpas, his own faculties are not complete, he does not give rise to a single thought of regret or of begrudging.” — it is not that he does not regret it in the moment of relinquishing; it is that for measureless long kalpas thereafter, with his body maimed, there is still not one thought of regret. ‘Ultimate’ is not fastened to how much is relinquished, but to how long the relinquishing lasts afterward. First a question: how can a person hold out under so long a consequence? What the scripture gives is not willpower but contemplation: from the impure and minute form at the first entering of the womb, the segments of the womb and the faculties, and birth, old age, sickness, and death, on to “this body has nothing real about it, has nothing of shame or abashment, is not a thing of the worthy and the noble, is foul and unclean, held together by the joints of its bones, smeared over with blood and flesh, its nine apertures constantly flowing with impurity, loathed and despised by others.” Eight clauses stated straight out, with no simile set up. Only when one has seen clearly what this body is does one “not give rise to a single thought of love and clinging” — no regret is not something endured, it is something seen.

The last thought gathers up the whole treasury of giving: “This body is perilous and brittle and has nothing firm about it. Why then should I now give rise to fondness and clinging? I ought to give it to another and fill his wish. Just as I do this, so with this shall I guide and open the way for all beings, causing them to give rise to no craving and love toward body and mind, and all to accomplish the pure body of wisdom.” — what is relinquished is an impure body, and what is accomplished is “the pure body of wisdom.” Moreover he does not merely relinquish it himself; he means also “with this to guide and open the way for all beings”: this one act of giving is at the same time a demonstration. The closing sentence: “This is the sixth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of giving.”

The Seventh, the Treasury of Wisdom (1): Twenty-Eight Occurrences of ‘Knows as It Really Is’ and Six of ‘Cannot Be Destroyed’

The form of the treasury of wisdom changes again. It lists no names, but spreads out a table directly: seven gates, each gate with four branches.

The four gates of form, of feeling-perception-formations-consciousness, of ignorance, and of craving are each set forth with the four branches of suffering, arising, cessation, and path — “he knows form as it really is, knows the arising of form as it really is, knows the cessation of form as it really is, knows the path to the cessation of form as it really is,” and feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, ignorance, and craving follow the same pattern. In the three gates of the śrāvaka, the pratyekabuddha, and the bodhisattva the four branches are changed to ‘knows such-and-such as it really is, knows the dharma of such-and-such as it really is, knows the arising of such-and-such as it really is, knows the nirvāṇa of such-and-such as it really is’. Seven gates of four branches: ‘knows as it really is’ occurs twenty-eight times in the whole passage.

First a question: why should the treasury of wisdom use the form of the four truths to look at ignorance, at craving, and even at the śrāvaka and the bodhisattva? Because the form of the four truths asks four things — what it is, where it comes from, whether it can be ended, and how it is ended. Fit these four questions upon anything at all, and that thing is seen through. Wisdom is not knowing a great many things; it is having a complete way of putting questions to things.

Then the scripture sets its own question: “How does he know this?” The answer: “He knows that all of it is produced from the causes and conditions of the formations of karmic retribution, that all is false and empty and without reality, is not self and is not firm, and that there is not the least dharma that can be obtained as established.” — the conclusion of what is known is “there is not the least dharma that can be obtained as established.” And then: “Wishing to cause beings to know its true nature, he expounds it widely for them.”

Here there is a pass. The scripture asks itself “What is it that he expounds?” and answers itself “He expounds that the dharmas cannot be destroyed”; then asks again, “What dharmas cannot be destroyed?” and answers again: “Form cannot be destroyed; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness cannot be destroyed; ignorance cannot be destroyed; the dharma of the śrāvaka, the dharma of the pratyekabuddha, and the dharma of the bodhisattva cannot be destroyed.” — having just said “empty and without reality,” it says at once “cannot be destroyed,” and here the reader is most easily brought up short.

To clear away this misreading, look at the next sentence: “Why is this? Because all dharmas are without making, without a maker, without speech, without a place, unarisen, unoriginated, not given, not taken, without movement, and without function.” The reason they cannot be destroyed is precisely that they have from the first no substance that could be destroyed. If there were a real thing, then it would be liable to be destroyed; since there is no making and no maker, no arising and no origination, there is nothing that could destroy them. So “empty and without reality” and “cannot be destroyed” are not two statements; they are two sides of one statement. The highest point of the treasury of wisdom lies in just this turn.

The mark of wisdom accomplished: “The bodhisattva accomplishes measureless treasuries of wisdom such as these, and with but little skillful means he understands all dharmas, is of himself clear and penetrating, and does not need another to awaken him.” — the verifying mark is “does not need another to awaken him.” Brought down to oneself: when one's study has reached a certain point, one need no longer go and ask someone when a new question comes, because that way of seeing turns of itself. This is what wisdom accomplished looks like; it does not look like having memorized the answers.

The Seventh, the Treasury of Wisdom (2): The Ten Kinds of What Cannot Be Exhausted — the One Place in the Chapter Where ‘Inexhaustible’ Is Glossed by the Scripture Itself

The passage that follows is the most crucial matter of form in the whole chapter. The scripture says: “This inexhaustible treasury of wisdom is said to be inexhaustible because of ten kinds of what cannot be exhausted.” — of the ten treasuries, only the treasury of wisdom explains in the scripture itself why it is called ‘inexhaustible’. The other nine treasuries have no such gloss of their own. So if one would ask ‘what does inexhaustible mean’, it is here alone that one may look.

The ten kinds of what cannot be exhausted, one by one: one, skill in much learning cannot be exhausted — since what is heard is inexhaustible, the skillful use of it is inexhaustible too. Two, drawing near to good friends cannot be exhausted — a good friend is not one person, but those one goes on meeting all along the road. Three, being well able to discriminate the phrases and their meaning cannot be exhausted — one and the same sentence has different meanings in different places; can the discriminating be finished? It cannot. Four, entering deeply into the Dharma realm cannot be exhausted — the Dharma realm is boundless, and there is no time when entering it is exhausted. Five, adorning with the wisdom of one flavor cannot be exhausted — with the wisdom of one flavor one adorns all things, and what is adorned is inexhaustible. Six, accumulating all merit with a mind that does not tire cannot be exhausted — merit can be finished accumulating; a mind that does not tire cannot. Seven, entering all the gates of dhāraṇī cannot be exhausted — the gates of total retention enter one into another, gate upon gate. Eight, being able to discriminate the speech and the sounds of all beings cannot be exhausted — the speech of beings is measureless, and the discriminating is measureless too. Nine, being able to cut off the doubts of all beings cannot be exhausted — doubts are cut off and arise again, and the cutting off is likewise inexhaustible. Ten, manifesting for all beings the spiritual power of all buddhas, teaching and taming them, and causing them to cultivate without ceasing cannot be exhausted — the longest of the items, and the one that gathers up: manifesting, teaching, taming, and causing cultivation not to cease, four matters in succession.

First a question: what have these ten in common? What every one of them is set against is measureless — what is heard is measureless, good friends are measureless, the meaning of the phrases is measureless, the Dharma realm is boundless, merit is measureless, the dhāraṇīs are measureless, the speech of beings is measureless, doubts are measureless, beings are measureless. So ‘inexhaustible’ does not say that a great deal has been packed into this treasury; it says that what it is set against has no edge, and that therefore this work can never be finished. Clear away one misreading: that it cannot be finished is not bad news. A storehouse can be finished, and once finished there is nothing left to do; a treasury cannot be finished, and therefore it stays alive.

The closing sentence: “This is the seventh treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of wisdom. One who dwells in this treasury attains inexhaustible wisdom and is universally able to awaken all beings.”

The Eighth, the Treasury of Mindfulness (1): What Is Recalled Is Ten Layers, Each Finer Than the Last

The treasury of mindfulness states its premise in its opening words: “This bodhisattva relinquishes folly and confusion and attains mindfulness complete in full” — the premise of mindfulness is the relinquishing of folly. While folly is there, what is remembered is all mistaken.

What is recalled the scripture spreads out in layers. The first layer is lives: one life, two lives, ten lives, a hundred lives, a thousand lives, a hundred thousand lives, measureless hundreds of thousands of lives. The second layer is kalpas: the kalpa of formation, the kalpa of decay, the kalpa of formation-and-decay, and more than one of each of these, then a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, pushed all the way to “kalpas beyond number, measureless, boundless, without equal, uncountable, unweighable, unthinkable, immeasurable, unspeakable, and unspeakably unspeakable” — ten extreme names of number set side by side.

From here on the syntax changes, all of it ‘he recalls one ... and on to unspeakably unspeakable ...’: the names of buddhas, buddhas coming forth into the world and declaring predictions, buddhas coming forth into the world and declaring sūtras — and when it comes to the sūtras, the scripture lists in passing the whole of the twelve divisions of the teaching: “and as with the sūtras, so also with the geya, the predictions, the gāthā, the nidāna, the udāna, the accounts of former things, the accounts of former births, the extensive teachings, the unprecedented, the parables, and the discussions,” meaning that each of these twelve classes is handled on the same pattern. Then come the assemblies, the expounding of one kind of dharma, the various natures of one faculty, the measureless various natures of one faculty, the various natures of one affliction, and the various natures of one samādhi.

First a question: why is ‘faculty’ spoken of twice — first “various natures” and then “measureless various natures”? This is a fine point of the passage. The various natures of a faculty means that the capacities of beings fall into various classes; the measureless various natures of a faculty means that within each class there are again measureless differences. The treasury of mindfulness recalls both layers. Brought down to oneself: truly to remember a person is not merely to remember which class he belongs to, but to remember where he is unlike others of that class.

Clear away one misreading: this passage is not boasting of powers of memory. Of the ten layers recalled — lives, kalpas, buddha-names, predictions, the teachings, assemblies, the dharmas expounded, the faculties of beings, the delusions of beings, and the concentrations entered — not one is for himself; all are so that when he teaches the Dharma he may know who his hearers are, what they have heard before, and where they are stuck.

The Eighth, the Treasury of Mindfulness (2): The Names of the Ten Kinds of Mindfulness, and the Eight Marks After Dwelling in Mindfulness

The names of the ten kinds of mindfulness: “mindfulness that is still, mindfulness that is pure, mindfulness that is unmuddied, mindfulness that is clear through, mindfulness apart from dust, mindfulness apart from dusts of every kind, mindfulness apart from defilement, mindfulness that shines, mindfulness that may be loved and delighted in, and mindfulness that is unobstructed.”

Look at the division of labor among them one by one. Mindfulness that is still — mindfulness is quiet, not agitated. Mindfulness that is pure — mindfulness is itself undefiled. Mindfulness that is unmuddied — unmixed; one thought is one thought. Mindfulness that is clear through — it illumines through, and is not a blurred impression. Mindfulness apart from dust — apart from the dust that is its object. Mindfulness apart from dusts of every kind — not apart from one kind of dust only, but from every kind; the difference between this item and the one before it is just like the difference between the “various natures” and the “measureless various natures” of a faculty. Mindfulness apart from defilement — apart from the defilement that dyes. Mindfulness that shines — mindfulness has an illumining function of its own. Mindfulness that may be loved and delighted in — mindfulness is a joy, not a grim endurance. Mindfulness that is unobstructed — mindfulness carried to unobstructedness.

First a question: what is recalled has already been stated; why then state the ten aspects of mindfulness as well? Because what is recalled and the mind that recalls are two different things. However much is recalled, if the mind that recalls is muddied, agitated, or grimly enduring, that mindfulness does not amount to a treasury. All ten of these items speak of the quality of the mind that recalls.

The marks after dwelling in this mindfulness the scripture lists in eight clauses: “none in all the world is able to disturb him, none of the differing doctrines is able to move him, the roots of goodness of former ages are all made pure, he is undefiled toward the dharmas of the world of every kind, the hosts of Māra and the followers of other paths cannot destroy him, and when he changes his body and receives birth he loses nothing; past, present, and future, he teaches the Dharma without end; within all the worlds he dwells together with beings and has never had a fault; he enters the assemblies and the sites of awakening of all the buddhas without obstruction, and gains a drawing near to the places of all the buddhas.” — among these the clause “when he changes his body and receives birth he loses nothing” matters most: he is born into another body, and what he remembers is not lost. It is here that the treasury of mindfulness is a treasury; ordinary memory cannot cross birth-and-death, and this mindfulness can. The closing sentence: “This is called: the eighth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of mindfulness.”

The Ninth, the Treasury of Retention: A Passage Extremely Like the Treasury of Mindfulness — Where Does the Difference Lie

The syntax of the treasury of retention is almost the same as that of the treasury of mindfulness, both of them the layered pushing of ‘one ... and on to unspeakably unspeakable’. That being so, ask first: what is the difference between mindfulness and retention?

Look at the scripture's own choice of words. The treasury of mindfulness opens: “he relinquishes folly and confusion and attains mindfulness complete in full; he recalls one life past and two lives” — the direction of mindfulness is toward the past, and what is recalled is what has been passed through. The treasury of retention opens: “This bodhisattva retains the sūtras spoken by all the buddhas, and of the phrases therein and their meaning he loses nothing” — what retention is set upon is the dharma received, the stress falling on “of the phrases therein and their meaning he loses nothing.” Mindfulness is remembering what was undergone; retention is holding fast the dharma received so that it does not go awry.

Look next at the difference between the two lists, and it becomes clearer still. The treasury of mindfulness has “recalls one buddha coming forth into the world and declaring predictions” and “recalls one buddha coming forth into the world and declaring sūtras,” stressing the occurrence of that teaching; the treasury of retention reads “retains the prediction of one buddha” and “retains one sūtra,” dropping the words “coming forth into the world and declaring,” so that what is held is directly the dharma itself. The treasury of mindfulness has the two items “the various natures of one faculty” and “the measureless various natures of one faculty,” while the treasury of retention has only “retains the measureless various natures of one faculty,” but has in addition an item the treasury of mindfulness does not have, “retains one number of kalpas.” The two tables are not a repetition; each has its own charge.

The concluding words of the treasury of retention differ from those of all the other treasuries, and are the weightiest passage of praise in the chapter: “This treasury of retention is boundless and hard to fill, hard to reach the bottom of, hard to draw near to; none is able to subdue it; it is measureless and inexhaustible, possessed of great majestic power; it is the realm of a buddha, and only a buddha is able to know it fully.” — after seven clauses of ‘hard’ and ‘none / without’, it comes to rest on “it is the realm of a buddha, and only a buddha is able to know it fully.” First a question: is this not raising the treasury of retention too high? Clear away one misreading: the scripture says “only a buddha is able to know it fully,” and what is fully known is the extent of this treasury, not that a bodhisattva cannot retain it. The bodhisattva retains as before; it is only how far his retaining goes and how much remains unretained that a buddha alone knows. Brought down to oneself: this sentence is a measure given to one who holds the Dharma — what you hold is always less than you suppose. The closing sentence: “This is called: the ninth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of retention.”

The Tenth, the Treasury of Eloquence (1): The Number of the Kalpas May Be Exhausted, the Meaning Is Hard to Exhaust

The treasury of eloquence is the last of the ten treasuries, and also the one that gathers up the other nine.

Its opening words first set up what it depends upon: “This bodhisattva has deep wisdom and understands the character of reality; he expounds the dharmas widely for beings and does not go against the scriptures of any of the buddhas.” Four things: having deep wisdom (the capacity), understanding the character of reality (what it depends on), expounding widely for beings (the sake for which), not going against the scriptures of the buddhas (what it keeps to). First a question: what is the first condition of eloquence? Not fluency of speech, but “understanding the character of reality” and ‘not going against the scriptures’. These two clauses, one before and one after, hold eloquence between them — realization within, accord with the teaching of the scriptures without; only the ability to speak that stands between the two is called eloquence.

Then comes the layered pushing again: he expounds one chapter of dharma and on to unspeakably unspeakable chapters of dharma; he expounds the names of buddhas, worlds, predictions, sūtras, assemblies, the setting forth of one dharma, the measureless various natures of a faculty, the measureless various natures of an affliction, the measureless various natures of a samādhi. And then time too is pushed open: “Or he expounds for one day, or expounds for half a month or for a month, or expounds for a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred thousand years, or expounds for one kalpa, a hundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand kalpas, or expounds for a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, or expounds for kalpas beyond number and measureless and on to unspeakably unspeakable kalpas.”

Pushed this far, the scripture turns all at once, and this is the finest sentence in the chapter: “The number of the kalpas may be exhausted, but the meaning of one letter and one phrase is hard to exhaust.”

First a question: after taking such pains to push time out to unspeakably unspeakable kalpas, why overturn it in a single sentence? Because this contrast is exactly what is to be established — however long the time of speaking is pushed, it is still a ‘number’, and a number has an end; whereas the meaning within one letter and one phrase is not a number, and so has no end. The most direct evidence in the chapter for the two words ‘inexhaustible’ is in this one sentence. Clear away one misreading: this is not saying that the meaning of the Dharma is too much to be finished in the telling; it is saying that meaning does not lie on the scale of ‘how much’ at all, and therefore cannot be measured by time.

The scripture asks the reason itself: “Why is this? Because this bodhisattva has accomplished the ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury.” — eloquence is inexhaustible because the nine treasuries before it, together with itself, have all been accomplished. The treasury of eloquence is the fruit of the ten treasuries, not a tenth item set alongside the others.

The Tenth, the Treasury of Eloquence (2): Dhāraṇī, the Broad and Long Tongue, and the Boundless Body

After this treasury is accomplished: “he attains the gate of dhāraṇī that gathers in all dharmas present before him, with a million asaṃkhyeyas of dhāraṇīs as its retinue” — first he gains a gate of total retention, and this gate brings with it a million asaṃkhyeyas of dhāraṇīs as its retinue. And having gained it, what does he do? “With the light of the Dharma he expounds the Dharma widely for beings.”

The marks of his teaching the Dharma: “With a broad and long tongue he sends forth a subtle and wondrous sound that fills all the worlds of the ten directions; according to the faculties of beings he causes them all to be satisfied, their minds to gain joy, and all the bonds and stains of the afflictions to be extinguished.” — note the sequence here: filling the ten directions is extent, according with their faculties is fitness to the hearer, and causing satisfaction, joy, and the extinguishing of afflictions is benefit. Pervasion and responsiveness run together: however widely one speaks, if it does not accord with their faculties it does not amount to benefit.

Then: “He is well able to enter deeply into all sounds, speech, letters, and eloquence, causing the buddha-seed of all beings not to be cut off and their pure minds to continue unbroken; and with the light of the Dharma too he expounds the Dharma without end, and does not give rise to weariness.” — the fruit of eloquence is not the praise of the audience; it is “causing the buddha-seed of all beings not to be cut off and their pure minds to continue unbroken.”

The second “why is this” is the floor of this passage: “Because this bodhisattva has accomplished the boundless body that exhausts space and pervades the Dharma realm.” First a question: for teaching the Dharma without end, why is the reason “the boundless body”? Because teaching requires that the one who speaks be present; if the body has bounds, then there are places the teaching does not reach. The body pervades the Dharma realm, and only then does the teaching pervade the Dharma realm. Brought down to oneself: what this sentence recalls to us is that where one who expounds the Dharma reaches in his speaking is in fact how far he himself has been able to go.

The seven clauses of concluding praise: “This treasury is without end, without segment, without interval, without break, without alteration, without partition and obstruction, and without turning back; it is profound and without bottom, hard to enter into, and universally enters the gate of all the Buddha's dharmas.” — the last clause is the general gate of the ten treasuries: the treasury of eloquence “universally enters the gate of all the Buddha's dharmas.” From the first treasury's “believes that all dharmas are empty” to this “universally enters the gate of all the Buddha's dharmas,” an opening and a closing. The closing sentence: “This is the tenth treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, the treasury of eloquence.”

The Concluding Praise: The Ten Inexhaustible Dharmas Are the Ten Reasons Why the Ten Treasuries Are Inexhaustible

The ten treasuries having been spoken, the scripture does not stop there but sets up another passage: “Son of the Buddha! These ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury have ten kinds of inexhaustible dharma, which are able to cause the bodhisattvas ultimately to accomplish unsurpassed awakening.”

First a question: are these ten inexhaustible dharmas an eleventh treasury? They are not. One knows it by the syntax — all ten clauses end with ‘because’. ‘Because’ states a reason, not an item. These ten clauses are the ten reasons why the ten treasuries can be inexhaustible, not another ten things to be cultivated.

One by one: one, because they benefit all beings — what they are set against is all beings, and since beings are inexhaustible the treasuries are inexhaustible. Its being placed first shows that the first root of inexhaustibility is the scope of benefiting others. Two, because they dedicate and direct well by the original vow — the time when the original vow was made was already without limit, and when it is well dedicated and directed, what is done does not fall back upon oneself. Three, because in all kalpas they are not cut off — no interruption in time. Four, because to the exhausting of the realm of space they awaken beings and their minds have no limit — in space to the exhausting of the realm of space, and the mind able to awaken them without limit. These with the three before them make four sides all boundless: persons, vow, time, and space. Five, because they dedicate and direct toward the conditioned and yet do not cling — this is the most important: dedication must fall upon conditioned dharmas (upon concrete matters and concrete people), and yet without clinging to that conditioned thing. Not dedicated toward the conditioned, merit has nowhere to land; clinging to the conditioned, merit has an end. Six, because within the realm of a single thought all dharmas are inexhaustible — the realm within a single thought already contains all dharmas, so one need not wait for measureless thoughts to become inexhaustible; this present thought is already inexhaustible. Seven, because the mind of the great vow does not alter — the vow does not change, and so is not interrupted. Eight, because they are well able to gather in the dhāraṇīs — what is received and held is gathered in by total retention, and so is not let slip. Nine, because they are borne in mind and protected by all the buddhas — one is not holding out alone. Ten, because they understand clearly that all dharmas are like an illusion — if dharmas were truly existent, using a portion would leave that much less; it is precisely because they are like an illusion that the use of them is not used up.

The first clause and the tenth are to be looked at together: it begins at “they benefit all beings” and ends at “they understand clearly that all dharmas are like an illusion.” The one end is the most concrete matter — going and benefiting concrete beings; the other end is the emptiest of views — that all is like an illusion. Take away the former, and being like an illusion becomes an excuse for doing nothing; take away the latter, and the benefiting of beings will be carried on until it runs dry. That the ten inexhaustible dharmas can stand at all lies in these two ends, the one concrete and the one empty.

The closing sentence: “These are the ten kinds of inexhaustible dharma, which are able to cause all that is done in all the world to attain the ultimate great inexhaustible treasury.” — note the words “all that is done in all the world.” What is accomplished is not some other great treasury outside the world; it is that all that is done in the world is turned into an inexhaustible great treasury. Only here does the “inexhaustible treasury” of the chapter title truly come down to the ground.

Lineage

Of the meaning of this chapter, what the ancient masters have carried on runs in four tracks, all recorded without adjudication.

The line of Chengguan: he establishes the place of this chapter by the five senses of the reason for its coming, of which the first two, verbatim, may be adduced — “first, in order to answer the question about the ten treasuries at the beginning of the earlier second assembly; second, earlier what was set forth was the correct station, and now practice is raised in dependence on the station.” The former sense attaches this chapter to the question about the ten treasuries at the opening of the second assembly, an attachment of question and answer across assemblies; the latter attaches this chapter to the station of the preceding chapter, The Ten Practices, an attachment of raising practice in dependence on the station. His proper explanation of the text then follows the scripture's own three parts of the general indication, the several glosses of the ten treasuries, and the concluding praise; and within the several glosses each treasury is again divided into the four branches of indication, question, gloss, and conclusion — and these four branches accord entirely with the form of the ten treasuries in the scripture: each treasury is indicated by “Son of the Buddha,” questioned by ‘what is the such-and-such treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva’, glossed by the text of that treasury, and concluded by ‘this is called / this is the such-and-such treasury of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva’ (the treasury of faith alone has no ordinal in its concluding clause, reading “this is called: the treasury of faith of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva”). The commentary sets up no outline differing from the scripture's own, and this is what marks Chengguan's gloss upon this chapter. Of the remaining three senses and of the explanation of the name and of the tenet and aim, what is recorded verbatim in the apparatus is an excerpt only; they are not recorded.

The line of Fazang: what he glosses is the sixty-fascicle text's “The Bodhisattva's Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries, Chapter Eighteen.” His weightiest determination upon this chapter lies in the structure of the chapter's name — “the person is indicated and the dharma is distinguished, and so it says ‘the ten treasuries of the bodhisattva’; it is not a title in which person and dharma are joined — that is to say, these ten kinds are the dharmas practiced by the bodhisattvas.” What he thereby sets aside is the reading that takes ‘the bodhisattva's ten treasuries’ as ‘bodhisattva’ and ‘ten treasuries’ named side by side as two things; Fazang judges it a title taken from its lord, the ten treasuries being what the bodhisattva practices, not another dharma standing alongside the bodhisattva.

The line of Zhiyan: in the Kongmu zhang he sets up a chapter on establishing the treasuries of the teaching of the One Vehicle, the three vehicles, and the lesser vehicle within the chapter of the Ten Treasuries, listing first the three treasuries and the two treasuries of the lesser vehicle and the five kinds of treasury of the three vehicles, and bringing out last the ten treasuries of this chapter, which he judges to be the treasury of the doctrine of the One Vehicle; and he sets up his own question and answer to distinguish why the ten treasuries and the three treasuries may be set against each other — his answer being that the three vehicles and the lesser vehicle speak according to the modes of concrete matters, and that there the teaching is not the meaning, whereas the One Vehicle takes the teaching as teaching and takes the meaning also as teaching. This chapter of his does not lemmatize the scripture clause by clause; it takes the names of the ten treasuries in order to establish the modes of the teaching, and its use is different from that of the commentators who gloss the meaning following the text. That the eighth in the list of that chapter reads “the treasury of right mindfulness,” differing by one graph from the base text's “treasury of mindfulness,” is recorded without adjudication.

The line of Li Tongxuan: he makes no distinction as to the structure of the name, nor does he open several senses, but says only “because these ten kinds of treasury are named in accordance with the dharma, it can be known” — the names of the ten treasuries are each set up according to the dharma upon which each depends, and one knows them by the name. The determination he leaves upon this chapter lies not upon the chapter but upon the assembly: “The part of the preface. The two chapters below are the part of the proper exposition. Within the two chapters, down to the shaking of the earth and the raising of offerings, is the part of the circulation. The Dharma-gate of the ten dedications spoken in the palace of the Tuṣita heaven — within this station there are three chapters of scripture, which together complete this station.” This determination is attached to the three parts of the fourth assembly, and it also reaches to the three chapters of the one assembly in the palace of the Tuṣita heaven completing a single station. To read this chapter by the structure of the assembly is a different track from glossing the meaning chapter by chapter following the text; the ancients had this account, and it is recorded.

The differences among the three masters gather at two places: the explanation of the name — Fazang distinguishes the structure and judges it a title taken from its lord, Li Tongxuan makes no distinction of structure but says “it can be known,” and what may be adduced of Chengguan is the five senses of the reason for its coming and not an explanation of the name; and the object of what is judged — Chengguan attaches this chapter to the question of the earlier assembly and to the station of the preceding chapter, Fazang attaches it to the doctrinal structure of the chapter's name, and Li Tongxuan passes over this chapter and judges the three parts of preface, proper exposition, and circulation of a whole assembly. The three masters run side by side; all are settled accounts of the ancient masters, and they are recorded without adjudicating which is higher.

Besides this there are two matters to be recorded together. First, the ten inexhaustible treasuries of this chapter and the ten inexhaustible treasuries of the chapter Clarifying the Dharma share a name but differ in their items: the tenth of the sets of ten dharmas in the chapter Clarifying the Dharma is likewise called “the ten inexhaustible treasuries,” and its ten items are universally seeing the buddhas, total retention without forgetting, resolving all dharmas, the great compassion that rescues and protects, samādhis of every kind, the vast merit that fulfills the minds of beings, the profound wisdom that sets forth all dharmas, the supernormal powers gained as retribution, dwelling for measureless kalpas, and entering boundless worlds — wholly different, item by item, from this chapter's ten of faith, precepts, shame, abashment, learning, giving, wisdom, mindfulness, retention, and eloquence, only the three graphs meaning ‘inexhaustible treasury’ being the same. The two chapters share a name and differ in their items; this is recorded as the facts stand, without adjudicating which of them is the proper one. Second, this chapter has no separately circulating treatise that lemmatizes and glosses it clause by clause: in the Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang, the Shixuan men, and the Huayan jing zhigui, these three books, the two terms meaning ‘the ten treasuries’ and ‘inexhaustible treasury’ yield zero hits, and the absence is recorded as the facts stand; the Pusa yingluo benye jing in one place names side by side “the ten grounds and the ten knowledges, the ten practices and the ten castings, the ten treasuries and the ten vows, the ten illuminations and the ten concentrations, the ten manifestations and the ten seals,” which is a sentence of general praise naming ten categories side by side and not a gloss of the meaning, and it is recorded.

A scripture moves house for the third time, and each time the manner of the moving is harder to understand

In this chapter the World-Honored One does not speak one sentence of Dharma with his own mouth. The whole of the prose of the chapter is the narration of the compilers, and there are only three places of direct speech: a single thought raised at one and the same moment by the gods of the palace of Tuṣita; the few sentences in which the heaven-king invites the Buddha to dwell in the hall; and the ten verses spoken by the heaven-king at the end. From beginning to end the Buddha does two things only — he comes, and then he sits down.

What, then, is this chapter doing? Chengguan's answer is quite clear: it is the “occasioning,” not the “proper doctrine.” He determines that this assembly has three chapters of scripture, of which the first two are the passage that raises the matter and the third, “The Ten Dedications,” is the proper exposition; and of those first two, this chapter comes first and speaks of “the lord of transformation coming to the capacities,” while the next chapter speaks of “those who assist the transformation praising the Buddha.” So if in reading this chapter one does not first see that it is setting up a field, one will feel it to be no more than a string of description lavish enough to leave one breathless.

It is not description. It is answering a question: on what ground does the field in which the ten dedications are to be spoken stand up at all?

And this time the answer weighs more than either of the two before it. The adornment of the seat in the preceding assembly used “a million”; this assembly uses “a million koṭis,” and uses it in one breath three hundred and two times. What has been added is exactly what this chapter would have one see.

Why the Tuṣita Heaven: Chengguan gives six reasons

The “Tuṣita” of the chapter's name Li Tongxuan renders as “the heaven of the joy of knowing contentment.” These two words, “knowing contentment,” are the pivot upon which Chengguan sets up his account.

Chengguan first states the sense of the chapter's name: Tuṣita is the place, and the Buddha, with the body of the Dharma realm, responds without rising, and hence it is called “ascending.” Then he asks a question: why is it spoken in this heaven and no other? He gives six answers himself, and the Yanyi chao counts them out one by one — first, the preceding ten practices were in the Yāma Heaven, and the dedications now spoken surpass the former station, so that he dwells up in Tuṣita: this is with respect to sequence only; second, it takes the name of this heaven, “knowing contentment”; third, it is with respect to the lord of this heaven; fourth, it explains “knowing contentment” a second time, the earlier being contentment with respect to benefiting oneself and this one contentment with respect to benefiting others; fifth, it is stated with respect to the middle way; sixth, it is explained by evenness.

Of these the fourth deserves the slowest reading. Chengguan draws a worldly comparison: a man piles up merit and accumulates distinction, and looking at his own rank always feels it not yet enough; but once he turns his distinctions over and confers them upon his son, he finds that he has more than enough. The bodhisattva is just so — while diligently and painfully accumulating practice he never feels it enough; once he dedicates it to sentient beings, he knows that he is content of himself.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to take “knowing contentment” for having few desires, for no longer pressing forward. It is not. The contentment here is the fruit of dedication — without dedicating one never knows contentment; having dedicated, one knows that there is a surplus to dedicate. So that the Dharma of the dedications should be spoken in the heaven of knowing contentment is not the taking of an auspicious place-name; it is the taking of a necessity in the doctrine.

The fifth and the sixth should be pointed out as well. Of the six heavens of the realm of desire, Tuṣita dwells in the middle — the two heavens above are heedless and the three below are coarse and heavy, and this one alone dwells in the middle, and therefore it displays that compassion and wisdom are even. Chengguan cites a further passage: to be born in this heaven one must cultivate the three merits of giving, keeping the precepts, and concentration; the other heavens either are not complete in all three or have a preponderance and are not even, and this heaven alone has the three merits even. So “middle” is not the middle of a position; it is the sense of not being partial.

Segment one, the whole assembly manifesting at once: it says first that the earlier gatherings have not dispersed

The opening sentence: because of the spiritual power of the Buddha, in all the worlds of the ten directions, within each and every Jambudvīpa of the four continents, the Tathāgata was seen seated beneath the tree of awakening, and in each place there were bodhisattvas who expounded the meaning of the Dharma upheld by the Buddha's spiritual power.

Chengguan determines this segment to be “the whole assembly manifesting at once,” and takes the first sentence apart: “spiritual power” is the cause of the pervading, and what follows “the ten directions” is the mark of the pervading. He also notes one thing in particular: this spiritual power is not necessarily the arousing of the penetration of spiritual objects; it is only the power of self-mastery of mind that cultivation has formed.

There is a place here that is easily slipped over. The sentence of the same type in the preceding assembly, “Ascent to the Palace of the Yāma Heaven,” raised two places, the southern Jambudvīpa and the summit of Sumeru; this assembly ought by rights to raise three, “beneath the tree, the summit of Sumeru, and the palace of the Yāma Heaven,” yet the scriptural text says only “seated beneath the tree.” Chengguan explains: where the text has nothing, it is abbreviating — because in the next segment, on ascending without leaving, the three places have already been raised in full, this earlier place is made a shadow only, which in reverse displays that the four preceding assemblies are all perfectly pervasive.

So this sentence is not boasting of the vastness of the Buddha's penetrations; it is declaring one thing: that the first assembly through the fourth are all still there and have not broken up. Fazang says it still more plainly: the earlier assemblies of the tree of awakening, the Hall of Universal Light, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, and the Yāma Heaven have none of them dispersed, and what is spoken on ascending here is simultaneous with those, so that it is everywhere across the ten directions and runs vertically through the assemblies, simultaneous and yet before and after, spoken without obstruction.

If the earlier assembly had to break up before the later one could open, it would become a Dharma spoken in one gathering after another by turns, and not the unobstructed assembly of the Dharma realm that the Avataṃsaka is.

Segment two, ascending without leaving: what is not left is, this time, three places

At that time the World-Honored One, again by his spiritual power, did not leave from beneath this tree of awakening, nor the summit of Mount Sumeru, nor the palace of the Yāma Heaven, and yet he had already gone to that great hall in the Tuṣita Heaven adorned with all wondrous jewels.

This sentence is the pivot of the chapter, and it is also the shape that the whole scripture has been piling up all along. In the third assembly he ascends Sumeru, and what is not left is one place, beneath the tree; in the fourth he ascends to the Yāma Heaven, and what is not left is two, beneath the tree and Sumeru; in this assembly he ascends to Tuṣita, and what is not left is three, beneath the tree, Sumeru, and the Yāma Heaven. Further on, when he ascends to the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations to speak the ten grounds, there will simply be one place more.

Here Chengguan sets down two determinations: the four assemblies in all the places of the ten directions before this are all solemnly undispersed, and yet he ascends here and speaks — the intent being to make clear that he is everywhere across the ten directions and runs vertically through the nine assemblies, the Buddha's body of the Dharma realm pervading all times and places.

The misunderstanding to be ruled out is this: it is not that the Buddha has divided his body. If one said that one buddha stayed beneath the tree, one was on Sumeru, one was in the Yāma Heaven, and yet another came to Tuṣita, that would make four buddhas. What the scriptural text says is that he goes without leaving — one and the same Buddha, not diminished here, not increased there. What is called “responding without rising” means that what rises is the response, not the body.

Brought down to the reader: what is called ‘the Buddha has come’ has never been the Buddha's walking from a far place to a near one. It is that here there is stimulus, and so here he is seen. And because the stimulus in the earlier places has not stopped, the Buddha in the earlier places has not gone away either.

Segment three, part one, the heaven-king sees the Buddha coming from afar: first the place is prepared, then the person is invited

At that time the king of the Tuṣita Heaven saw from afar the Buddha coming, and thereupon spread out upon the hall a lion seat of the Maṇi Treasury.

One must ask first: it has only just been said that the Buddha does not leave and does not move; how then can there be a “seeing from afar”?

The answer lies on the side of what is able to see. The substance of the Buddha neither goes nor comes; seeing, however, has a far and a near. That “coming” which the heaven-king beheld upon his hall is a mark manifested by his own stimulus. Fazang makes this level the tenet of the chapter: the heaven-king, with a vessel-hall that answers to the Dharma realm, is what is able to stimulate; the Tathāgata, with a cloud of body pervading the Dharma realm, is what is able to respond; stimulus and response meet without anything moving, and out of the stillness of that unmovedness the images spring up in profusion — this is what is called dependent arising complete in virtue.

And so the first thing the heaven-king does after seeing the Buddha is not to welcome him but to spread the seat. He would first prepare this place where the Buddha can be seen into a place where the Buddha can dwell. The sequence of the whole chapter is settled from here: first the place is prepared, then the person is invited; and only when the preparing has reached its end does he open his mouth.

The seat is called “the lion seat of the Maṇi Treasury.” Chengguan has taken it apart graph by graph: inexhaustible great vows arise according to the wish, and compassion and wisdom necessarily go together so that birth and death do not defile — hence “Maṇi Treasury”; practice is spread out and laid abroad — hence the word “spread.”

Segment three, part two, the ten virtues of the seat: one general sentence, ten kinds of fullness

Next the scriptural text uses eleven sentences to say what this seat is. Chengguan determines that the first sentence is the general one and the other ten are the particular ones, and that the particular part is “ten kinds of full and excellent marks.”

How are the ten sentences matched? He says: the first sentence is the mark of its own substance, since it is formed of jewels; the six that follow are marks of cause — the mark of depth and distance, the mark of excellence and wonder, the mark of vastness, the mark of sameness of substance, the mark of completeness in virtue, and the mark of firmness; and the last three display the surpassing distinction in general and are the virtuous functioning of the seat — first, its stately beauty; second, its freedom from defilement; third, its being without limit.

Set against the scriptural text it becomes quite clear. “Gathered and formed out of every kind of wondrous jewel of the heavens” is its own substance; “what the roots of goodness cultivated in the past had brought about” is depth and distance, the cause lying in the past; “what the spiritual power of all the Tathāgatas made manifest” is excellence and wonder; “born of the roots of goodness of measureless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas and asaṃkhyeyas” is vastness; “arose from the pure Dharma of all the Tathāgatas” is sameness of substance; “adorned and polished bright by the power of boundless merit” is firmness; and then “those who look upon it give rise to gladness and love, and there is no time at which they have their fill of it” is stately beauty, “it is a dharma that transcends the world, and is undefiled by the world” is freedom from defilement, and “all sentient beings come and observe it, and not one of them is able to exhaust its wondrous beauty” is being without limit.

One thing should be pointed out here: what Fazang commented upon was the sixty-fascicle text, and in the same passage he determines “thirteen kinds of full marks,” naming them one by one as the mark of its own character, the mark of cause, the mark of indestructibility, the mark of excellence, the mark of true purity, the mark of commonality, the mark of completeness in virtue, the mark of freedom from evil, the mark of subtlety and wonder, the mark of transcending the world, the mark of freedom from defilement, the mark of sameness, and the mark of inexhaustibility. The scriptural texts of the two versions themselves differ in the number of their sentences — the sixty-fascicle text has, in addition, such sentences as “commonly adorned by all sentient beings” and “arisen from the causes and conditions of all the worlds” — and so the two houses count differently. Both are recorded, and neither is adjudicated.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to read these ten sentences as ten sentences of praise. They are not praising how fine the seat looks; they are saying how the seat came to be, on what ground it stands, and why it cannot be seen to the end. The seat is the image of the Dharma of the ten dedications; wherever the Dharma comes from, from there the seat comes too.

Segment three, part three, three hundred and two kinds of “a million koṭis”: a number that can be counted

From “there were a million koṭis of tiers of steps” onward the scriptural text enters the densest passage of the chapter, and the one most easily skipped.

Here Chengguan gives a number of a kind he rarely gives: this passage, which particularly makes clear substance and function, has in all three hundred and two kinds of “a million koṭis.” He further divides these three hundred and two kinds into three great segments — first expanding the seat's own substance; next, from “there were a million koṭis of bodhisattvas of the first arousing of the mind” onward, expanding the surpassing distinction spoken of above; third, from “a million koṭis of roots of goodness” onward, expanding the mark of cause spoken of above; and he says that the first segment chiefly makes clear the adornment of the world as vessel, while the latter two display the adornment of the world of sentient beings, and that all of them are the power of the world of perfect awakened wisdom.

Then he explains why it is “a million koṭis”: because the station increases upon the million of the ten practices.

This sentence must be looked at backward before it can be understood. The preceding assembly, speaking the ten practices, used the numeral “a million” throughout; this assembly, speaking the ten dedications, uses “a million koṭis” throughout. The number itself is not there for one to reckon up; it is there so that the increase may be seen — the station rises one degree, and the adornment that answers to it thickens by one layer.

And this number can be checked. The three graphs meaning “a million koṭis” in the base text, counted through the whole chapter, come to exactly three hundred and two occurrences, which agrees with Chengguan's “three hundred and two kinds.” Segment by segment it tallies as well: ten sentences for the adornment of the body of the seat, ten for the pavilions, ten for the adornment of hangings, seventeen from “Indra adamantine jewels” onward, twelve for the necklaces, sixteen for the adornment of fragrances, twenty for the raining clouds, forty-eight for the four sides outside the seat, ten for the music, and twenty for the sounds of the Dharma; thirty-nine sentences for the benefit gained; sixty-nine in all for the five divisions of offering; and ten for the mark of cause. These numbers the scriptural text yields one by one when counted. Only in the passage on adorning the body of the seat does Chengguan determine twelve sentences where the scriptural text counts eleven — and there he himself has said beforehand that there is a doubt: the bimba hangings ought, by the pattern of like with like, to stand before the jeweled flowers, and it may also be determined as twelve sentences discerning the hangings and nine adorning the body of the seat. Since he has himself recorded his doubt, it is recorded here too, and not adjudicated.

One misreading to rule out: this is not hyperbole. Hyperbole makes one into ten; here the station is written out as a number, and a number that will stand being counted.

Segment three, part four, the ten divisions of the seat's adornment: counting from underfoot up to sound

Chengguan divides at length this great passage on “expanding its own substance” into ten: the first nine are the adornment of form and mark, and the last is the adornment of sound. He adds one general instruction for reading it: each and every matter of adornment is itself a gate of the Dharma, and this can be got by the intent.

The first division is the ten sentences on the adornment of the body of the seat: first the tiers of steps, which are the layer upon layer of the seat itself rising up; the nine sentences after that are the adornments that cover the seat — nets of gold, four kinds of hangings, three kinds of canopies, and jeweled garments. Chengguan says that although the canopies are ranged in rows on the four sides and held up by the gods, they still count as covering the seat.

The second division, ten sentences from “pavilions,” is the setting up of pavilions within the hall to encircle and adorn the seat; the first sentence is general, and the nine below it particularly display the adorning of the pavilions.

The third division, ten sentences from “hangings with jeweled bells,” discerns the adornment of hangings. Here Chengguan adds a most important sentence: the hangings too encircle the seat, since the covering of the seat has already been discerned above; and if one would discern it over again, then it is hangings with pavilions built upon them and pavilions with hangings covering them, layer upon layer without end. — In one sentence he lifts the adornment of the seat from decoration up to the Avataṃsaka doctrine of layer upon layer without end.

The fourth division, from “wondrous jeweled flowers,” discerns the adorning of the body of the seat, which is the passage of doubt spoken of above. The fifth division, seventeen sentences from “Indra adamantine jewels,” all use wondrous jewels as doors, as windows, and as covering, and also adorn the substance of the seat so as to adorn its treasury; Chengguan says that because it is a lotus treasury, the display of the Dharma in the heading differs from what went before — in the ten abodes and the ten practices the lotus is not spoken of, though by rights, in principle, it ought to have been there. The sixth division, twelve sentences from “pearl necklaces,” is the adornment of necklaces hanging down round about; he notes in passing that the two sentences from “a million koṭis of maṇi bodies” onward seem to be lacking something in the text, since below “Indra jewels of wondrous color” there is nothing to which it is bound, and it does not belong to the class of fragrances below either, so that it cannot stand alone as a division.

The seventh division, sixteen sentences from “black sandalwood,” takes fragrance as adornment. The eighth, twenty sentences from “there rained down a million,” is the raining of clouds as adornment. The ninth, forty-eight sentences from “they set up a million,” is the adornment on the four sides outside the seat; and this division Chengguan subdivides into four: the first twenty sentences are miscellaneous adornments ranged along the sides of the seat; the second, nine sentences from “jewels of radiance,” is the adornment of light; the third, nine sentences from “heavenly jeweled garments,” is the adornment of jeweled garments spread out; the fourth, ten sentences from “heavenly bell-banners,” is the adornment of jeweled banners ranged in rows.

The tenth division is the adornment of sound: first ten sentences of the adornment of the sounds of music, then twenty of the adornment of the sounds of the Dharma; and within the adornment of the sounds of the Dharma the first eleven sentences praise the three jewels and the last nine speak the Dharma and benefit beings.

Having read through these ten divisions one can see a sequence: from the tiers of steps underfoot, to the hangings and canopies above, to the jewels and fragrances round about, to the raining clouds in the air, to the rows outside the seat, and at last coming to rest upon sound. When things have come to their end, what is left is sound alone. And the last twenty sentences of that sound speak of nothing but the Dharma.

Segment three, part five, three transcribed words and two small matters

In this great passage there are several transcribed words upon which Chengguan has given glosses; they are recorded here in passing.

The bimba of “bimba hangings” means here “the substance that bears an image” — among the adornments of the hangings the images of outer things can appear, and hence “the substance that bears an image.” The aruṇa of “aruṇa fragrance” means here “the color red,” the name being established by the color. The “jeweled svastika,” fully stated, is the svastika in its longer transcription, which means here “possessing joy”; if one sees this mark one will surely gain security, and its shape is like the graph for “myriad.” The moutuoluo of “heavenly moutuoluo” means here “the leading drum,” which is struck first when the music of the heavens begins to play.

Two small matters are worth recording besides. First, on the sentence “a million koṭis of jeweled pavilions, stretching broad and splendidly ornamented,” Chengguan cites the opinion of Jingfa, who says: in Sanskrit it is bumojia, which means here “a curtained carriage”; if it were a pavilion one ought to say weimonang; and since it is not so, it is an error of translation. Chengguan's own attitude is finely measured — he says that perhaps it ought to be so, since pavilions have already appeared in the text above; but that if it is a discerning of the matter over again, there is no great fault in it either. To raise a divergent account without forcing a judgment is the constant manner of the commentary on this chapter. Second, beneath the nine sentences on jewels of radiance it says “covered with a net,” and Chengguan explains: it is like a lamp of the world covered over with a net, which is for guarding the insects of the night, so that its light becomes half-hidden. A homely comparison, which dissolves the doubt of ‘why light should have to be covered with a net.’

Segment three, part six, expanding the surpassing distinction spoken of above: the thirty-nine sentences on the benefit gained by seeing the seat

The second great segment begins from “there were a million koṭis of bodhisattvas of the first arousing of the mind.” Chengguan says that the text above only briefly said “those who see it have not their fill,” which already made the mark of gaining benefit briefly clear, and that here it is opened out and spoken of at length — and this is the virtuous functioning of the seat; while the reverence and the offerings further display it as adornment.

The part on gaining benefit has thirty-nine sentences, which he divides in four by a winding division: the first ten sentences discern benefit with respect to the stations; the next twelve, from “obtained sovereign spiritual penetrations,” miscellaneously discern the gaining of benefit; the third, ten sentences from “obtained the dāna perfection,” discern benefit with respect to practice; the fourth, seven sentences from “entered everywhere into all the lands of the buddhas,” discern benefit with respect to great functioning.

The first ten are the easiest to recognize: they are the names of the ten abodes — the first arousing of the mind, governing the ground, cultivating practice, noble birth, complete in skillful means, the abode of the rectified mind, non-retrogression, youthful truth, prince of the Dharma-king, and consecration, one station to a sentence. The ten sentences with respect to practice are the six perfections together with the great vow, the lamp of wisdom, being shone upon by the light of the Dharma, and expounding the Dharma free of delusion.

What deserves a pause is Chengguan's handling of the latter three divisions. He says that the latter three all run through all the stations; or one may also say that the second segment makes clear the dedications, the third the ten practices, and the fourth the ten grounds. That is to say, within these thirty-nine sentences there lies hidden a vertical order of stations. The Yanyi chao states the reason for this matching more finely: because the first segment, with respect to the stations, is the ten abodes, and the ten perfections of the third segment are wholly the same as the ten practices, the second segment is matched with the dedications and the fourth with the ten grounds, so that the vertical stations are complete; only, the second and third segments are inverted in order, and the second and the fourth are not very manifest, and this is why they must be matched in this way.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to think that these thirty-nine sentences are telling how impressive the bodhisattvas are. They are telling one thing — what is gained by seeing this seat. The seat is the image of the gate of the Dharma; to see the seat and gain benefit is to meet the Dharma and gain benefit.

Segment three, part seven, the five divisions of offering: who is offering, and what is offered

From “a million koṭis of heaven-kings bowed in reverence” onward is the part on offering. Chengguan divides it into five.

First, seventeen sentences that miscellaneously make clear how the eight classes, humans and gods, and the bodhisattvas set forth reverence in the three kinds of action, what each does being according to what is fitting for its own kind. This point is worth looking at against the scriptural text: the dragon kings gaze and have not their fill, the yakṣa kings join their palms above their heads, the asura kings cut off all thought of pride, the garuḍa kings hold silk streamers in their beaks — each class of being has its own manner of reverence, and the scriptural text has not written them all alike.

Second, twenty-six sentences from “a million koṭis of goddesses made offerings with concentrated minds,” which make clear only the reverence and offerings of the gods in the three kinds of action. Here Chengguan does one thing in passing: he points out that the first three sentences run from the realm of desire up to the heaven of the ultimate form, and that the “gods of every kind” spoken of afterward either run through the formless realm as well or are a general gathering up of the classes above; and that the “gods who ponder well” likewise run through all the classes.

Third, twelve sentences from “bodhisattva gods,” which make clear the bodhisattvas' offering of things — flower-hand, fragrance-hand, garland-hand, and so on down to adornment-hand, each raining down the thing that his own hand presides over. Fourth, four sentences from “divine sons came forth from the palaces of the heavens,” which are the gods' offering of their bodies — coming together with their palaces, holding up the seat with the body, raising the whole body and holding up the seat. Fifth, ten sentences from “bodhisattvas of pondering,” which are the bodhisattvas' offering of the cultivation of the Dharma, and which also make clear the gaining of benefit.

Here is a question that Chengguan himself raises: why is it that on the side of the bodhisattvas much is said of gaining benefit, while on the side of the gods only offering is spoken of? His reply is two sentences: the offering of the gods is precisely the cause of gaining benefit; and the gods' gaining benefit is itself the bodhisattvas.

Segment three, part eight, why the adornments of this assembly are so especially many

Reading this far, anyone will ask: why is it that the matters of adornment of this assembly in particular are so many?

Chengguan gives two reasons: first, that this heaven for the most part has a final-birth bodhisattva for its heaven-king; second, that the stations of the worthy have here reached their utmost and great compassion is universally complete. He also sets the three assemblies side by side for comparison: the assembly of the ten abodes had no adornment of bodhisattvas, displaying that the ordinary person is only then entering the stations; the assembly of the Yāma Heaven had it, since the stations had already been entered, and yet even so it was not extensive; only in this assembly is it extensive.

Li Tongxuan writes the same observation as a question and an answer, and asks it more finely still — he asks: in the ten abodes there were only the hosts of the gods coming to welcome the World-Honored One; in the ten practices the followers already included the hosts of gods and of bodhisattvas; why is it that in this assembly the kings of the eight classes, the vastness of the great assembly, and the kinds and colors of the adornments are so many? And why is it that in the assembly of the ten grounds, on the contrary, nothing is narrated of the heaven-king and the hosts coming to welcome him, of entering the hall, of adorning the high seat, and the like — how is it that where the station rises higher, the extensive offerings are not set out?

His own reply is: in the ten abodes there were gods but no bodhisattvas coming to welcome the Tathāgata; the offerings bestowed were for the station of the ten abodes, and only make clear that one has just been born into the house of the Buddha's wisdom, there being as yet none who have seen the path before, so that the gods only are listed and there are as yet no bodhisattvas. Following this on, in the ten practices the path has already been seen and the stations entered, and so hosts of bodhisattvas come to welcome him; and in this assembly, because the gate of the dedications harmonizes the true and the conventional and great compassion dwells in the world, the gods, the bodhisattvas, and the classes of the eight groups are the most complete of all.

The two houses fix upon different things — Chengguan speaks with respect to the utmost of the stations, and Tongxuan with respect to the sense of dedication — and yet their answers run on the same track. Both are recorded.

As to whose power this whole mass of adornment is, Chengguan gathers it up at the end in one sentence: these excellent marks are all the sovereign true virtues of the differentiations of the Dharma realm as manifested by the Tathāgata's ocean-seal, matters of adornment in which person and dharma are unobstructed and the environing and the proper are blended together. This sentence should be remembered: the adornment of the seat is not the heaven-king's private ability; the heaven-king is the side that is able to stimulate, and what is manifested is the Buddha's ocean-seal.

Segment three, part nine, expanding the mark of cause and the concluding extension: ten sentences on whence the seat came, one passage on the ten directions being the same

The third great segment is the ten sentences from “born of a million koṭis of roots of goodness” onward, expanding the mark of cause spoken of above. Chengguan says only “the ten sentences can be understood,” and offers no further explanation. Taken together these ten sentences say one thing: this seat comes from roots of goodness, from the sustaining of the buddhas, from merit, from excellent minds, from great vows, from good practices, from good dharmas, from spiritual power, and from merit, and it is praised with dharmas of praise.

Then comes the concluding extension. The scriptural text says: just as the king of the Tuṣita Heaven of this world set out a high seat for the Tathāgata, so too did the kings of the Tuṣita Heaven of all the worlds set out the seat in this way, adorn it in this way, keep to this manner in this way, delight in faith in this way, purify their minds in this way, take joy in this way, rejoice in this way, honor him in this way, give rise to the thought of a rare thing in this way, leap up in this way, and long for him in this way — all of them alike.

This is the first concluding extension of the chapter. It differs from the two that follow — the latter two pass over it in the four graphs meaning “it was likewise just so,” while this one lays out eleven occurrences of “in this way” one by one. The point lies in the last three graphs: all of them alike. It is not that the ten directions imitate one another; it is that one and the same power of the Buddha rises into function in the ten directions at one and the same time, so that even the layers of their thought are the same.

Segment four, part one, welcoming the Buddha and raising up offerings: the offerings come out of the body

At that time the king of the Tuṣita Heaven, having finished setting out the seat, gave rise to reverence in his mind, and together with a hundred thousand koṭis of asaṃkhyeyas of divine sons of the Tuṣita Heaven went out to welcome the Tathāgata, and with pure minds they rained down ten kinds of clouds.

Here Chengguan points out the sentence most worth recording. The scriptural text says “when those hosts of divine sons each brought forth these clouds from their own bodies” — and he says: that they all come forth from the body not only displays the power of merit of the gods, but also displays that the body is itself the offering, and that offerings are born from one's own mind.

This one sentence dissolves the thought that most easily arises in reading this long passage: where do so many offerings come from? The answer is that they come from nowhere. It is not that there is a storehouse in the heavens; it is that as soon as the mind stirs, the offering appears. Hence in the long run of sentences below, ‘again in the presence of the Buddha they gave rise to such and such a mind,’ every sentence states the mind first and the offering after — giving rise to a mind of the realm of wisdom, they burn fragrance which becomes clouds; giving rise to a mind of joy, they rain down clouds of heavenly flowers; giving rise to a mind of reverence, they rain down clouds of heavenly canopies. The mind is the cause and the offering the fruit, one pair to a sentence; the scriptural text has itself already written cause and fruit side by side.

Chengguan further divides the part on seeing the Buddha and raising up offerings into three: the first ten sentences are the offering held in garments and scattered upon the Buddha, displaying the cultivation of stillness so as to tend toward the fruit; the second, ten sentences from “hundreds of thousands of koṭis,” are the raising of the mind and the raining of offerings that adorn empty space, displaying that the myriad practices cultivated answer to the emptiness of the nature of dharmas, emptiness and existence being unobstructed, which is the sense of adorning space; the third, nine sentences from “hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of asaṃkhyeyas of divine sons,” are the setting forth of offerings of various kinds, displaying the mixed cultivation of the myriad practices. He adds one remark: “a mind tamed and still and without heedlessness” ought to be divided into two, and then there would be ten sentences.

One more thing is to be recorded. The scriptural text says that the reason the gods could see the Buddha from afar as though he were directly before their eyes is bound to three occurrences of “because”: because of the majestic spiritual power of the Tathāgata, because of the flowing forth of roots of goodness of old, and because of inconceivable sovereign power. Chengguan determines these three sentences as the three by which one sees the Buddha through sustaining power: first the present spiritual power of the Buddha, second the power of goodness of former lives, third the power of the gate of the Dharma. So “seeing the Buddha” is not a matter of the power of the eye; it is a matter of three powers meeting together.

Segment four, part two, the gods think as one: this is the chapter's first sentence of direct speech

At that time all the gods and the goddesses in the palace of Tuṣita saw the Buddha from afar as though he were directly before their eyes, and together raised up this thought — “The Tathāgata's appearing in the world is hard to meet with; today I have obtained sight of him who is complete in omniscience and unobstructed with regard to the Dharma, the Perfectly Awakened One.”

This is the first sentence of direct quotation in the whole chapter, and moreover it is not spoken out but thought within — the graphs the scriptural text uses are “together raised up this thought and said.” Chengguan determines this passage to be “rejoicing at the meeting and going out to welcome him.”

The two graphs “together raised” should be noticed. It is not that one of them thought of it first and the others thought of it after; it is that at one and the same time one and the same thought arose. This has the same structure as the “all of them alike” of the concluding extension above — one and the same power of the Buddha sustains them, and so the mind that arises is without duality.

And what is thought has two layers only: first, that he is hard to meet with; second, that today they have obtained sight of him. Put together, these two layers are “rejoicing at the meeting.” Of all the adornment in the chapter, what comes down into the minds of sentient beings is in fact just this one sentence.

Segment four, part three, the bodhisattvas raise up offerings: the four possibilities of the one and the many

The passage on the hosts of bodhisattvas who had dwelt beforehand in the palace of Tuṣita is the densest place in the chapter doctrinally, and it is also where the doctrine of the Huayan school comes down most directly upon the matters of adornment.

Chengguan divides the twenty-seven sentences of the bodhisattvas' offering of the environing recompense into three: the first ten sentences are offerings in which many causes form many fruits; the next eight are offerings in which one cause forms one fruit; the last nine are offerings in which one cause forms many fruits. Then he asks a very fine question: by rights there ought to be four propositions; where has the fourth, “many causes forming one fruit,” gone?

His reply is: many causes forming one fruit is already gathered into the first segment, since many causes are each able to form it severally. He then turns these four propositions into the language of the Huayan school: the first segment is “within all there is one” together with “within all there is all”; the next segment is “within one, one”; and the last segment is “within one, all.”

Here one should read slowly. Of the eight sentences of “one cause, one fruit,” Chengguan says that “in all of them cause and fruit resemble one another,” and he matches them one by one: what is born of the perfections is the jeweled canopy, because the canopy is able to screen off dust, as the perfections are able to remove what obscures; what is born of pure understanding is the flower hanging — the hanging is able to shelter, as compassion is the Buddha's realm, and the flower is able to open out, as understanding of awakening is pure; what is born of the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas is the garment, because the patience of the Dharma is harmonious and pleasing and may be used to adorn the dharma-body; what is born of the mind that enters the unobstructedness of the adamantine Dharma is the net of bells, because to expound the net of the teaching is to sound the wondrous note of the adamantine, and to contemplate the net of the teaching is to see the principle without obstruction from the letter; what is born of the mind that understands all dharmas to be like an illusion is the firm fragrance, because fragrance can be smelt and yet not seen, seen and yet not grasped, just as illusory dharmas are seen and yet cannot be taken, taken and yet cannot be got, and to know that illusion is without firmness is thereby to form the firm Dharma; what is born of the mind that pervades the Buddha's realms and the seat of the Tathāgata is the wondrous seat of the manifold jewels of the buddhas, because pervading the emptiness of dharmas is precisely the object upon which the body of the Buddha's wisdom rests, and this is the sense of a seat; what is born of the mind that makes offerings to the Buddha without slackening is the jeweled banner, because only by crushing the banner of sloth and pride can the excellent banner of the Dharma be raised; and what is born of the joyful mind that understands dharmas to be like a dream is the jeweled palace, because dharmas being like a dream is precisely the place where the Buddha lodges.

When the eight pairs have been read one finds one thing: the things offered and the mind that offers are not in the relation of ‘exchanging goods for merit’; they are two faces of one and the same thing. As the mind is, so the offering grows. This is what “cause and fruit resemble one another” means.

As for the last nine sentences of “one cause forming many fruits,” Chengguan says that non-attachment and non-arising are in origin one sense — non-arising is stated with respect to principle and non-attachment with respect to wisdom, and only when these two meet is there one cause. So although those nine kinds of cloud are many, the cause is one only.

Further on is the offering of the recompense proper to the body, brought forth from the body: from the body of each single bodhisattva there come forth inexpressibly many hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of bodhisattvas, filling the Dharma realm and the realm of space. Chengguan divides it into ten sentences: the first two make clear the measure of virtue of the bodies manifested — the measure of each one of them pervades the Dharma realm and their virtue is level with the Buddha's; the next three make clear the cause of their excellent eloquence; the next four display what their excellent eloquence rests upon; and the last one properly sets forth their eloquent praise. And the reason they can have such eloquence is that it flows from the treasury of eloquence of total retention. At the end he cites a sentence from Zixia's Preface to the Odes to close: feeling stirs within and hence takes form in words, and when words are still not enough, that is reverence at its utmost. — To praise until one can no longer speak is to revere to the utmost.

Segment five, part one, beholding the Buddha's excellent virtues: the twenty-one kinds of excellent merit

From “at that time all the gods and all the hosts of bodhisattvas saw the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One — the inconceivable hero among humankind” onward is the longest and the hardest passage in the chapter to read.

Chengguan first states the difficulty: this passage of scripture displays in order and in full the twenty-one kinds of excellent merit of the Tathāgata, and because the words of the text are so vast the explanations of the ancients have all alike gone astray. His own handling is to divide it into three — first the general beholding of the Tathāgata, next the particular beholding of the marks of virtue, third the concluding formation of the beholding — and he says that the twenty-one virtues are divided into twenty segments, because the last two are joined together.

The “first, the general” is the three titles “Tathāgata, Worthy One, Perfectly Awakened One.” Chengguan says that this raises three virtues in brief so as to display one hero: first, Tathāgata; second, in speaking of the Worthy One, this is the one worthy of offerings; third, the Perfectly Awakened One, which is the one of right and universal knowledge — and that this graph “worthy” also belongs to the text below, since he awakens in accordance with what is fitting.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to think that this long passage is a piling up of words of praise. It has a skeleton — twenty-one virtues, one virtue to a segment, in orderly sequence; only, there are no marks between sentence and sentence, so that it looks like a long river without divisions. In reading it one can catch hold of several turning points: “his body is measureless” is the beginning of the particular beholding of the marks of virtue; “he abides in the vast body of all the buddhas” is the gathering up of the first virtue; from “the realm of his wisdom cannot be exhausted” onward it turns into the second virtue; and so on in the same manner.

And within this passage there is one sentence of scripture that is the only place in the chapter where mind-only is directly stated — “he constantly knows by wisdom that the worlds are like an illusion, like a shadow, like a dream, like a transformation, and that all of them have mind for their own nature, and thus he abides.” In the passage above on the bodhisattvas' offerings, the “understanding all dharmas to be like an illusion” and the “understanding dharmas to be like a dream” that Chengguan matched are here spoken out by the scriptural text itself: that is not a sense added by the commentator; it is one of the marks of virtue of the Tathāgata.

Segment five, part two, the working of the light and the intent of manifesting the adornments: why the Buddha manifests these things

Next is the working of the Buddha's light: light issues from the pores, the great assembly all sees it, a great and wondrous sound issues, subtle and wondrous adornments are manifested, the buddhas arising and appearing are manifested, the transformations of the buddhas are manifested, and flames of light of wondrous jewels are manifested. The manner of this passage is quite distinctive — it does not only say what is manifested, but says all along why it is manifested, in a string of “in order to.”

Then the scriptural text says: at that time the great compassion of the Tathāgata covered all everywhere, and he displayed all the adornments that omniscience possesses, wishing that among the sentient beings in inexpressibly many worlds, those who did not yet believe should be caused to believe, those who believed should be caused to increase, those who had increased should be caused to become pure, those who had become pure should be caused to ripen, and those who had ripened should be caused to have their minds tamed.

Here Chengguan does something that he himself admits may be read otherwise: he reads this string of benefits by the stations. He says that this passage of text contains several forces, and that he will follow one determination only — first with respect to the graded array: the first five sentences are the ten faiths, from the first faith down to the taming of the mind, since the station of faith is then full; the seven sentences that follow are all the benefit of the ten abodes; three more are the benefit of the ten practices; three more are the benefit of the ten dedications; and from “constantly to see the buddhas” onward all makes clear the ten grounds, the first four sentences all belonging to the Joyful Ground, “to leave evil behind and be pure” being the second ground, relying upon omniscience and seeing the Dharma unmoved being the third and fourth grounds, obtaining entry into the assemblies of all bodhisattvas being the fifth, sixth, and seventh, and constantly being born in the house of the Buddha being the eighth ground and above.

Then he gives another reading of his own: if it is taken with respect to perfect interfusion, the first five sentences are the gathering of the stations within faith, each sentence being one station; and the Yanyi chao matches these five sentences quite plainly — the first, faith, is the station of faith; the second, increase, is the station of the abodes; the third, purity, is the station of the practices; the fourth, ripening, is the station of the dedications; the fifth, taming, is the station of the grounds. And from “to observe the profound Dharma” onward the sense runs through all the stations, because in the perfect teaching station upon station gathers in the virtues.

This is a place worth pausing at. One and the same passage of scripture: read by the graded array it is one sequence; read by perfect interfusion it is sentence by sentence a gathering of stations. Chengguan lets both readings stand and does not take one and discard the other. Those who read the Avataṃsaka knowing only one way of reading will for the most part feel that the other one is wrong.

Last are the seventeen sentences of ‘the cause of manifesting the adornments’: the adornments which the World-Honored One manifested are all formed by the roots of goodness gathered beforehand in the past, and then a string of eighteen occurrences of “in order to” (as counted in the base text; Chengguan's outline makes seventeen sentences, the clause ‘and further, in order to manifest his body as most excellent’, which carries the word ‘further’, being joined to the one before it). Chengguan determines these seventeen sentences as making clear the seeking of the Buddha's path above, the first sentence being general and the rest particular, and the first five each gathering in two virtues while the rest have one each. The closing sentence is the most important: all the merits of the sovereign Dharma-king are manifested from roots of goodness of old; and all the bodhisattvas, praising and proclaiming them throughout all kalpas, could not exhaust them.

In other words, the answer of this whole passage is: it is not that the Buddha wishes to display his splendor; it is that the causes of old have come to their fruit today in this field.

Segment six, inviting the Buddha to dwell in the hall: three sayings of “Welcome,” five titles

At that time the king of the Tuṣita Heaven, having prepared these offerings for the Tathāgata, together with hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of asaṃkhyeyas of divine sons of the Tuṣita Heaven joined his palms toward the Buddha and said: Welcome, World-Honored One; welcome, Well-Gone One; welcome, Tathāgata, Worthy One, Perfectly Awakened One; we pray only that you would take pity and dwell here within this palace.

This is the second sentence of direct speech in the chapter, and the only sentence in the whole chapter spoken aloud to the Buddha. Several things deserve to be pointed out.

First, the sequence is still that the offerings are prepared and only then is the invitation made. From spreading the seat to adorning the hall to raising up offerings, he prepares all the way to this point before he opens his mouth. He does not first invite the Buddha to come and then get things ready.

Second, he says “Welcome” three times and raises five titles. The Yanyi chao counts the five titles out: first, World-Honored One; second, Well-Gone One; third, Tathāgata; fourth, Worthy of Offerings; fifth, Right and Universal Knowledge; and it says that ordinarily the lower three only are raised in brief, while here the upper two are added, so that they are five virtues. Chengguan adds one further sentence in the commentary: these sayings of “Welcome,” and the sense of the text below, are all as expounded in the third assembly — again an instance of being bound to an earlier assembly and not set out a second time.

Third, what is asked is not ‘that he come and speak the Dharma’ but that he “dwell here within this palace.” What is invited is the dwelling, not the speaking. That the Dharma must be invited by someone is the constant rule of the Avataṃsaka throughout; and the qualification for inviting lies in the three hundred and two kinds of adornment that went before — he first prepared the place into a vessel of the Dharma, and only then had the standing to open his mouth.

In the sixty-fascicle text there are here two sayings of “Welcome” only, and two titles. Both are recorded; neither is adjudicated.

Segment seven, the Tathāgata accepts the invitation: eleven occurrences of “because,” and then he enters the hall

At that time the World-Honored One, adorning himself with the Buddha's adornment and complete in great majestic virtue, then gives a string of eleven occurrences of “in order to,” and only afterward is it said that he “accepted the heaven-king's invitation and entered the Hall Adorned with All Jewels.”

This construction deserves notice. The Buddha accepts an invitation, and the scriptural text does not directly say that he accepts it; it first states eleven reasons — in order to cause sentient beings to give rise to great joy, in order to cause the bodhisattvas to give rise to deep understanding, in order to cause the divine sons to increase in desire and delight, in order to cause the heaven-king to make offerings without having his fill, in order to cause sentient beings to take him as the object of mindfulness and to arouse the mind, in order to cause sentient beings to plant the roots of goodness of seeing the Buddha, in order to cause them constantly to give rise to pure faith, in order to cause them to see the Buddha and make offerings without seeking anything, in order to cause their aspirations to be pure, in order to cause them to gather roots of goodness diligently without slackening or rest, and in order to cause them to give rise to the great vow and to seek omniscience.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to think that the Buddha's accepting the invitation is a granting of face to the heaven-king. The scriptural text says not one graph of the sort. Not one of the eleven reasons is for the Buddha himself, and not one is for the heaven-king's dignity; all of them are for the benefit of sentient beings. So “accepting the invitation” here is an act of benefiting others, not a social act.

Next comes “as it was in this world, so also in all the worlds that the ten directions possess it was just so” — the chapter's second concluding extension. This accepting of the invitation happens in the ten directions at one and the same time.

After he enters the hall, adornments wondrous and fair appear there of themselves: all the jeweled nets cover it, seven kinds of cloud rain down everywhere, and inconceivable sounds of music issue, extolling the omniscience of the Tathāgata. Chengguan determines only one thing here: the second, the manifesting of adornments, displays that it is by the Buddha's power, and therefore surpasses those of the gods. — The adornment before was prepared by the heaven-king; the adornment here appeared of itself after the Buddha had entered the hall. The two are different and must not be confused.

Segment eight, the heaven-king gains benefit: this time the music does not stop

At that time, within the palace of Tuṣita, the music and the songs of praise blazed on without ceasing; and by the Buddha's spiritual power the mind of the king of the Tuṣita Heaven was without disturbance.

This is the sentence in the chapter that most shows the difference of station from the two assemblies before, and Chengguan raises it of his own accord.

He says: the station of the ten abodes is the weaker, and must gather in what is scattered and return to stillness, and therefore the sounds of music come to rest; this station is surpassing, and has obtained the true nature of motion, and therefore motion and stillness are not two, and the music blazes on while the mind does not move.

The sixty-fascicle text here has precisely “all the sounds of music became still and without sound, and no longer disturbed him.” On this one sentence the two texts are exactly opposite: the eighty-fascicle text has the music blazing on without ceasing and the mind not disturbed, and the sixty-fascicle has it still and without sound and only then right mindfulness. Both are recorded; neither is adjudicated — but the sense that Chengguan establishes is stated with respect to the text of the eighty-fascicle version.

This sentence should be read slowly. At the corresponding place in the preceding assembly, “Ascent to the Palace of the Yāma Heaven,” the eighty-fascicle text omitted “the sounds of music came to rest” while the sixty-fascicle had it, and Chengguan determined at that time that this was the intent of the translator — because that assembly of the ten practices stands in the middle, able to retreat and be one with what precedes and to advance and be level with what follows, and so neither side is stated. By this assembly the eighty-fascicle text simply says the thing outright on the other side: it is not that the music must be switched off before there can be concentration; it is that the music is sounding on and the mind has already ceased to move.

This is a criterion of station: the beginner must be in a still place before he can become still, and this is called gathering in what is scattered and returning to stillness; but at the station of the dedications motion is itself the true nature, and therefore stillness need not be sought. Chengguan used four graphs — motion and stillness are not two.

The benefits the heaven-king gains from this the scriptural text lists as eight: the roots of goodness of old come to fullness, good dharmas become firm, pure faith increases, great vigor arises, great joy arises, the aspiration of his deep mind is purified, the mind of awakening is aroused, and he is mindful of the Dharma without interruption and retains it entire without forgetting. Chengguan divides them in two: the first is the benefit of obtaining concentration, and from “the roots of goodness of old” onward is the benefit of advancing in goodness; while the three graphs “the Buddha's spiritual power” run through both benefits.

Segment nine, the ten verses: ten buddhas of the past, one hall

At that time the king of the Tuṣita Heaven, sustained by the majestic power of the Buddha, thereupon called to mind of himself the roots of goodness he had planted in the presence of the buddhas of the past, and spoke ten verses.

Look first at the form. The first line of each of the ten verses raises the name of one buddha; the second line is the same in all ten — “most excellent among all things auspicious”; the third line changes only the name of the hall — ‘he once entered this such-and-such hall’; and the fourth line is the same in all ten — “and therefore this place is the most auspicious of all.” In the ten verses two things only change: the name of the buddha and the name of the hall.

Chengguan's determination is very short: ten verses, one buddha to a verse, the names of the buddhas differing, with no separate virtue given in brief, the rest being the same as in the preceding assembly. This sentence must be read against the preceding assembly before its weight is known. In the ten verses of the preceding assembly the first line of each verse was in three parts, ‘a particular name, a general title, and a particular virtue,’ and Chengguan even explained the name in the upper two graphs by the virtue in the lower three; in the ten verses of this assembly the first line has the name only and no separate virtue — and this is why he says “with no separate virtue given in brief.”

Then, the place of these ten buddhas. Chengguan says that these ten buddhas are the ten buddhas of the preceding assembly; and that the ten buddhas before those ten are lodged in a station progressively deeper, and are called to mind progressively further back. Fazang says the same: this is praising the ten Tathāgatas before the ten buddhas of the Yāma Heaven above, lodged so as to display what is progressively deeper and further off, surpassing what went before; while in principle it runs through all the buddhas.

So what these ten verses are really saying is one thing: this place is auspicious because a buddha once came here — and not once only, but ten buddhas, and ten buddhas before those, pushed back without reaching an end. The “roots of goodness planted in the presence of the buddhas of the past” that the heaven-king calls to mind are likewise his own bond of old with this place.

The misreading to be ruled out is this: to think that this is praise of the hall. The hall of itself has no auspiciousness to speak of; the hall is auspicious because buddhas have entered it. And the reason the buddhas were willing to enter is that here things had been made ready. Beginning and end are locked together.

When the ten verses are finished, the scriptural text concludes and extends: just as the king of the Tuṣita Heaven of this world, sustained by the spiritual power of the Buddha, praised in verse the buddhas of the past, so too the kings of the Tuṣita Heaven within all the worlds of the ten directions praised the merits of the Buddha in just this way. This is the chapter's third concluding extension.

Segment ten, the Tathāgata takes his seat: only here does the action of the whole chapter come to the ground

At that time the World-Honored One sat with his legs fully crossed upon the lion seat of the Maṇi Jewel Treasury in the Hall Adorned with All Jewels.

Chengguan divides this last passage into four: first, making clear the taking of the seat; second, from “the dharma-body” onward, displaying his virtue — and he says that this too is much the same as the twenty-one virtues above, and that for fear of a tedious text he will not explain it in full; third, from “inexpressibly many” onward, making clear the gathering of the assembly, which is the fullness of his retinue; fourth, from “after he had sat upon this seat” onward, the manifesting of adornments, first in this world and then the concluding extension.

On the sentence about the gathering of the assembly he sets down a particular note: the gathering of the assembly in the next chapter has something that it displays, and therefore says only “ten thousand”; in the true principle the gathering is universal, and therefore here it says only “inexpressibly many hosts,” which are not necessarily only the people of the next chapter.

Last is a case at law. Someone held that this passage on ascending the seat ought to be placed after the entering of the hall and before the praising of the place, saying that the order of the scriptural text has been inverted. Chengguan does not agree, and his reply is one sentence only: first he is invited to enter the hall, and the praising is for the sake of inviting him to sit — what in principle does this go against? The Yanyi chao states the meaning of both sides plainly: the other party's meaning is that upon entering the hall he ought to sit, and only when the sitting is done should there be praising, and so the text should be turned about; Chengguan's meaning is that after entering the hall there follows at once the praising of the place and the inviting to sit, and only then the accepting of the invitation — and what in principle is amiss in that?

It is recorded, and not adjudicated. But the matter itself is worth recording: over the order of the sections of a scripture the ancient worthies too may hold divergent views, and the settling of a divergent view rests upon the four graphs “what in principle does this go against?” — not upon altering the scripture.

And the closing sentence is still “in all the Tuṣita Heavens of the ten directions it was likewise just so” — answering, beginning to end, to the two concluding extensions before. The whole chapter runs from “not leaving” to “it was likewise just so”; the Buddha has not spoken one sentence of Dharma, and the field has been set up entire.

Lineage

• The bond with the two preceding assemblies: what this chapter does not leave is three places, among which the summit of Sumeru is the place of “Ascent to the Summit of Mount Sumeru” and the palace of the Yāma Heaven is the place of “Ascent to the Palace of the Yāma Heaven.” In many of his sections on this chapter Chengguan binds the matter to those, saying “the remaining senses are all as at the beginning of the third assembly” and “all as expounded in the third assembly,” and does not set them out a second time; and the numeral too is measured against the preceding assembly — “because the station increases upon the million of the ten practices.” The three chapters are of one type in different stations: there the place is on Sumeru and in the Yāma Heaven, here it is in Tuṣita; there the numerals used are ‘ten thousand’ and ‘a million,’ here it is “a million koṭis”; there what is not left is one place and two places, here what is not left is three. Further on, when he ascends to the Heaven of Free Enjoyment of Others' Emanations to speak the ten grounds, this shape will pile up one layer more.
• The bond with the two later chapters of this assembly: of the three chapters of this assembly Chengguan determines that “the first two are the occasioning of this assembly and the last is the proper exposition,” and of the first two that “the first is the lord of transformation coming to the capacities and the latter chapter is those who assist the transformation praising the Buddha.” The name of this assembly, with respect to the person, is the assembly of the bodhisattva Vajra Banner, and the name Vajra Banner comes from “The Ten Dedications”; this chapter sets up the place, the seat, and the invitation only, and the person who speaks the Dharma and the Dharma spoken are both in the two later chapters. In the segment on taking the seat Chengguan notes in particular: the gathering of the assembly in the next chapter says only “ten thousand” because it has something that it displays, while here it says “inexpressibly many hosts,” which are not necessarily the people of the next chapter.
• The bond with the ten dedications: what the place of this chapter displays is the ten dedications. Li Tongxuan says it most plainly — that the ten dedications are spoken in this heaven in order to make manifest the harmonizing of the true and the conventional so as to form great compassion, dwelling long in birth and death without abandoning nirvāṇa, and this is what is called dedication; and he says further that from the abode of the first arousing of the mind onward it has been such a harmonizing all along, and only at the end of this station does it particularly obtain the name. Chengguan for his part binds it by the two words “knowing contentment”: turning one's distinctions over and conferring them upon one's son, one then knows that there is a surplus; dedicating to sentient beings, one then knows that one is content of oneself. The two houses bind it differently, and both point to “The Ten Dedications.”
• Li Tongxuan's outline and his counting: Tongxuan does not use Chengguan's ten segments; he outlines this chapter at length in eleven segments, and outlines the first segment again in seven, and he further counts the lines and the numbers of the adornments segment by segment — after the first segment there are one hundred ninety-three and a half lines of scripture, within which there are one hundred seventy-seven kinds of “a million koṭis” of adorned jeweled seats and jeweled ground and space, and again one hundred and eight kinds of “a million koṭis” of bodhisattvas together with the kings of the gods and of the eight classes, and again ten kinds of “a million koṭis” of roots of goodness by which it is made clean and bright. He has besides a gate of his own, ‘the ten kinds of non-arising within one birth,’ establishing ten kinds of non-arising — of the aggregates, of the views, of emptiness, of nature, of time and kalpas, of nirvāṇa and birth and death, of the sound of speaking the Dharma and of silence, of the discriminations of wisdom, of the penetrations, and of the limit of an instant. This is one of the separately circulating tracks of the ancient worthies; it is recorded and not adjudicated.
• Fazang's different track: what Fazang commented upon was the sixty-fascicle text, and he determines that the first chapter has seven segments — the whole assembly manifesting in the round, ascending here without moving, the heaven-king adorning the place, welcoming the Buddha and setting out offerings, beholding the Buddha's excellent virtues, the heaven-king reverently inviting him, and accepting the invitation and forming benefit. The full marks of the seat he determines as thirteen kinds, naming them one by one; and for the divisions of the seat's adornment he has another reckoning of his own — miscellaneous adornment, fifty-two kinds; within the particular adornment, jewels twenty-one kinds, the kings of fragrance seventeen kinds, clouds and rain twenty-one kinds; the further clarification of miscellaneous adornment, twenty-nine kinds; garments and banners, ten kinds each; and the adornment of sound, forty-two sentences. He also explains, upon the scriptural text of the sixty-fascicle version, why the gods of the realm of form have four heavens in each of the four meditations, determining it as one general and three particular. His outline and Chengguan's each form a system of their own; both are recorded, and neither is adjudicated.
• Zhiyan's outline: Zhiyan determines that these three chapters divide in two, the first two being the introductory expedient and the last the proper doctrine; and that this first chapter has two, first substance and function and second the interfusion of substance, within the interfusion being three, namely body, speech, and mind; and that from “at that time that heaven-king” onward is the coming to conditions and gathering in for transformation, of which the text has six. He further displays by the progressive increase of the names of the halls that the marks of virtue of loving-kindness and compassion increase as they turn toward beings — the third assembly speaks of the hall only, the fourth discusses its adornment only, the fifth says “adorned with all jewels,” the sixth says maṇi jewels, and so on. It is recorded and not adjudicated.
• The ancient explanations of the ancient worthies and the appraisal of them: for the passage on beholding the Buddha's excellent virtues Chengguan takes the twenty-one kinds of excellent merit as his determination, and in the Yanyi chao he appraises two accounts of his predecessors — Xianshou explains it as ten gates, which he takes to be a gathering of particular senses under a general name, in every case not exhausting the principle, and which moreover, in its conclusion, does not set out inner virtue and outer mark, and whose inner virtue does not set out merit and wisdom, so that it cannot gather in the many virtues of the text above; and the Kanding ji outlines it as sixteen sets of the three kinds of action, which he takes to be lacking in the three kinds of action in many of its segments, so that it too does not dispose of the text. Both accounts he determines to be “near but partial,” while he grants of his own account that “on the present explanation not one sentence is left over.” It is recorded, and not adjudicated.
• The divergent translations recorded together without adjudication: the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts differ in the name of the seat (Maṇi Treasury against Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Treasury), in the number of sentences on the seat's virtues (eleven sentences against thirteen kinds of full marks), in the words of invitation (three sayings of “Welcome” with five titles against two sayings with two titles), in the heaven-king's gaining of benefit (the music blazing on without ceasing against all the sounds of music becoming still and without sound), and in the names of the ten buddhas and of the ten halls; while for the numeral the two texts alike have “a million koṭis,” the eighty-fascicle text having three hundred and two occurrences in this chapter and the sixty-fascicle three hundred and twelve within the compass of this chapter. The two texts are recorded together, with no adjudication of better and worse.
• 〔not found〕: this chapter has no separately circulating treatise that quotes the scripture and explains it, unlike “The Ten Grounds,” which has the Shidi jing lun; the lack is recorded. In the Shixuan men a search for the word for Tuṣita yields no hits at all; the lack is recorded. In the Huayan jing zhigui and the Kongmu zhang the several occurrences of the word for Tuṣita all belong to the mention of matters elsewhere or of the sequence of the chapters, and are not text that quotes and explains this chapter; they are not taken as attestation for this chapter.

Once Again the Buddha Sits Without Speaking, and This Time the Ten Who Speak Are All Called “Banner”

Anyone who has read “Verses of Praise on the Summit of Sumeru” and “Verses of Praise in the Palace of the Yāma Heaven” sees at a glance the shape of this chapter: from each of the ten directions comes one great bodhisattva, each bringing a retinue as many as the dust-motes of ten thousand buddha-lands; the Buddha emits light; then the ten bodhisattvas speak verses by turns, and the World-Honored One himself does not say a single word. Three assemblies replay the same structure three times over, and each time a different set of names is put in. In the third assembly the names of the ten bodhisattvas all carry “Wisdom”; in the fourth they all carry “Grove”; in this one they all carry “Banner.” As for the names of the worlds, in the fourth assembly they all carry “Wisdom,” and in this one they all begin with “Wondrous”; as for the titles of the buddhas, in the fourth assembly they all carry “Eye,” and in this one they return again to “Banner” — so that even the buddhas' titles share a word with the bodhisattvas', which the two preceding assemblies did not have.

Chengguan, determining the reason for this chapter's coming, says that the preceding chapter made clear the lord of the converting responding to what stimulates him, while this chapter makes clear the extolling and praising that assists the converting, and that it is further to display what the substance of this station rests upon. His gate on the tenet and the aim says it still more directly: this chapter takes the gathering of the assembly, the emitting of light, and the verses of praise as its tenet, and takes “the expounding of the dedications” as its aim — the whole chapter is the fuse for the next chapter, “The Ten Dedications.” Li Tongxuan says it more plainly still: this chapter is in order to accomplish the Dharma-gate of cause and fruit within the ten dedications, and therefore it must come.

Clear away one misreading: do not take the ten segments of verse for ten hymns of praise delivered by turns. Brought down to how one reads — these hundred verses, before you enter upon “the ten dedications,” take away one thing at a time whatever can still be grasped hold of inside the word “Buddha”; and the manner of the taking away differs from that of the two preceding assemblies, for what this assembly takes away are these five sorts of grasping: “time,” “place,” “inner and outer,” “one and many,” and “being and non-being.”

Banner: The Word at Which the Three Worthy Stages Come to Their End

The last graph of the names of the ten bodhisattvas is the same in every case: “Banner”; and the last graph of the titles of the ten buddhas is likewise the same in every case, also “Banner.” Chengguan does not read this as a figure of speech; he sets out five reasons for it. The first is the sense of standing out high, betokening that the stations of the three worthy stages have reached their summit. The second is the sense of establishing, since great compassion and great wisdom establish sentient beings and awakening. The third is the sense of turning toward and going home, since great compassion gathers in sentient beings and wisdom and vow gather in what is good, and together they turn toward awakening and toward the true limit. The fourth is the sense of crushing and destroying, like the banner of a fierce general, subduing all the armies of Māra. The fifth is the sense of extinguishing fear, like the jeweled banner of Śakra, so that one gives rise to no fear of the afflictions and of karma. And he points out further: the five senses are the general, while the particular names of the ten bodhisattvas betoken the very substance of the practice of the ten dedications, which is not displayed until one reaches the verses.

These five senses have a provenance. Chengguan explains it himself in the Yanyi chao: there were formerly seven senses, and he has left two of them out — because “firm” just is “not to be destroyed by another,” which, according to the scripture he cites, can be subsumed under establishing; and “not destroyed by another” can in turn be subsumed under the extinguishing of fear. He also cites the line in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, that one cultivates precepts, concentration, and wisdom “like the banner of Śakra, because it does not shift or turn,” as an attestation for the extinguishing of fear. What is most worth learning in this passage is not the conclusion but his manner of striking out an item: it is not that he found them too many, but that he found two items that could subsume one another, and so merged them.

Clear away one error: do not read “Banner” as merely a flag planted on a battlefield. Where it comes down: the “Banner” in the names of the ten bodhisattvas is a marker of the station one has reached — to read this chapter is to be reading the last stretch of the road of the three worthy stages (the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications); and the Yanyi chao, at the very end of the chapter, closes on just this note, saying that this passage is found neither in the two preceding assemblies nor afterward, because this is the last of the three worthy stages.

Ten “Wondrous” Worlds and Ten “Banner” Buddhas: The Names Are the Table of Contents of the Ten Dedications

The names of the ten worlds all begin with “Wondrous”: Wondrous Jewel, Wondrous Joy, Wondrous Silver, Wondrous Gold, Wondrous Maṇi, Wondrous Vajra, Wondrous Padma, Wondrous Utpala, Wondrous Sandalwood, Wondrous Fragrance. Chengguan says why they are all called wondrous — the power of dedication is slight, and yet the good fills the whole Dharma realm; and these ten particular names betoken precisely the Dharma-gates cultivated in the ten dedications. He matches them one by one: to rescue and guard sentient beings while being free of the mark of sentient beings is the most precious of all, hence Wondrous Jewel; to gain indestructible faith, which is constantly a cause of joy, hence Wondrous Joy; to be equal to the buddhas in white purity, hence Wondrous Silver; like gold, which reaches everywhere among all the forms and images, hence Wondrous Gold; issuing in a use that is inexhaustible, like the maṇi; roots of goodness firm as vajra; according with sentient beings and yet undefiled by dust; the cause that is suchness, like a flower born in water, which is most excellent of all; like white sandalwood, able to remove the bondage of the fever of affliction; like fragrance, able to reach everywhere throughout — and at the last he attaches this to the matter, further on in the scripture, of the single pellet of incense burned before Maitreya's seat, whose cloud of fragrance fills the whole Dharma realm.

The particular names of the ten buddhas are likewise a table of contents, only what they are matched with is wisdom and fruit. Chengguan says that the buddhas' titles share the name “Banner,” and that the import is no different from that of the bodhisattvas; while the particular names betoken the wisdom of the ten dedications that is cultivated, and betoken also the fruit of the present station: the mind of rescuing and guarding cannot be exhausted, hence the Buddha Inexhaustible Banner; like the wind in the sky, which neither abides nor is destroyed, hence the Buddha Wind Banner; equal to the liberation of the buddhas, hence the Buddha Liberation Banner; within the four deportments there is nowhere he does not reach, hence the Buddha Deportment Banner; clearly understanding the marks of merit, hence the Buddha Bright-Mark Banner; constantly able to accord with roots of goodness, hence the Buddha Constant Banner; according with sentient beings and being most excellent in goodness, hence the Buddha Most Excellent Banner; being the same as suchness and thereby gaining sovereign freedom, hence the Buddha Sovereign Banner; pure and undefiled and not bound, hence the Buddha Brahmā Banner; contemplation being just the entering into the Dharma realm, hence the Buddha Contemplation Banner.

Li Tongxuan travels along another track. He matches the ten bodhisattvas one by one to the ten perfections: Vajra Banner is dāna (giving), Firm Banner is discipline, Valiant Banner is patience, Light Banner is vigor, Wisdom Banner is concentration, Jewel Banner is the one who with great compassion and great wisdom well bestows the net of teaching and is therefore named Jewel Banner, Vigor Banner is the seventh, the practice of skillful means, Stainless Banner (which he presents as “Undefiled Banner”) is the eighth, the perfection of vow, Constellation Banner is the perfection of power, since like the constellations, great and small, all give light and he well knows the faculties of the multitude, and Dharma Banner is the perfection of wisdom. He also says one sentence that is easy to remember: the world takes soil and mountains and rivers for its worlds, while the man of wisdom takes the wondrous functioning of the virtue of wisdom for his world.

Clear away one error: do not take these thirty titles for thirty things to be memorized. Where it comes down: these three sets of names are the table of contents of this chapter — if, having read the ten segments of verse, you still feel them scattered, go back and lay the names out once, and you will see that each of the ten segments faces one gate of the ten dedications. As for the fact that what Chengguan matches and what Li Tongxuan matches are not the same, this is a divergence among the ancient worthies, and both are recorded without adjudication.

The Substance of the Throne Says Only “Wondrous Jewel,” and the Light Is Emitted at the Wheels of the Knees

The substance of the throne differs in the three assemblies, and Chengguan lays them out in a single line: the station of the ten abodes illumines everywhere with the light of insight, and therefore the substance of its throne is the Vairocana Treasury; the station of the ten practices is pure in practice and parted from defilement, and therefore the substance of its throne is the maṇi treasury; and by the time of the station of the ten dedications, since great compassion dwells within birth and death and comprehends the ten thousand dharmas everywhere without being confined to any one, the substance of the throne says only “wondrous jewel,” with no color or kind specified — because the teaching and the practice are everywhere complete and gather in sentient beings, just as that net of jewels is spread over the throne above. The scriptural text here reads “there was conjured up a lion throne of the treasury of wondrous jewels, with a net of jewels spread over it above, filling everywhere all around,” not one graph more, and yet from the four graphs “with no color or kind specified” Chengguan reads off the station.

The place of the emitting of light has changed as well. In the fourth assembly the Buddha emitted light from his two feet; in this assembly the scriptural text reads “from the wheels of his two knees.” Chengguan gives three reasons: as the station gradually rises, so the place of the emitting of light gradually rises; the knee has the aspect of bending and stretching and of advancing, which is precisely to betoken the turning of the cause toward the fruit; and further, compassion and wisdom lead one another, bending and stretching without dwelling anywhere. Fazang, at the same place in the sixty-fascicle text, says that “the emitting from the two knees passes beyond the former toes of the feet, betokening that the practice grows gradually more excellent”; Zhiyan says that the knee betokens the aspect of the skillful means of advancing. Li Tongxuan then lays out the places of the emitting of light at the five stations in a single line: the ten faiths in the wheels beneath the feet, the ten abodes at the tips of the toes, the ten practices on the insteps, the ten dedications upon the knees, the ten grounds between the eyebrows — what he reads off is the same matter, that the stations are rising in succession.

Clear away one error: do not go wondering how bright that light was or what posture the knees were in. Where it comes down: the function of the light in this chapter is to make ‘their seeing one another’ into something visible — the scriptural text says immediately afterward that the bodhisattvas over there saw the spiritual transformations here, and the bodhisattvas here saw the spiritual transformations over there. Without this one shining, the “contemplating everywhere the ten directions” of the ten who speak afterward would be no more than a bare assertion.

Twenty Clauses in Ten Pairs, and the Fusing of the Real and the Conventional within the Word “Number”

In the last passage of the portion on the emitting of light, the scriptural text uses twenty clauses to praise the virtues of these bodhisattvas. Chengguan binds the twenty clauses into ten pairs: leaving hindrances and perfecting the body; entering lands and drawing near the buddhas; swiftness of function and purity of mind; outward guarding and inward realizing; what is awakened to and what awakens; breadth of function and depth of realization; gaining wisdom and giving birth to the body; depth of practice and breadth of understanding; the utmost of wisdom and the depth of concentration; gaining the penetrations and establishing dharmas. Of the ninth pair he makes a special point: what is displayed within this station is precisely the name “Vajra Banner” — for the samādhi of the vajra just is the wisdom of awakening. That is to say, the lord of the assembly's name is not fastened on from outside; it grows out of these twenty clauses of virtue.

The tenth pair, “gaining the penetrations and establishing dharmas,” draws out the densest passage in the whole chapter. The scriptural text says that these bodhisattvas, “toward all numbers, although they clung to nothing, were well able to train in them and to accomplish them ultimately.” Chengguan first divides “number” into two kinds: first, number as quantity; second, whatever is form or mind and conditioned is likewise called number. He says that both senses are present here — because they do not cling to one and many, they are able to establish all things; because they do not cling to being, they are able to set things up. Then he writes down the passage of this chapter that has been most often cited: the mark of conventional illusory being is a mark from the first empty of itself; the principle of the real emptiness of the ultimate is a principle constantly of itself existing. Being is “empty being” and not “constant being,” and so this being has never not been empty; emptiness is “existent emptiness” and not “annihilating emptiness,” and so when has this emptiness ever not been existent? Empty being and existent emptiness are one in substance and different in name; because the names are different, the real and the conventional run counter to one another and stand far apart unmingled; because the substance is one, the empty and the existent accord with one another and merge darkly into no-two.

Clear away one error: this is not a playing at the tongue-twister ‘emptiness is just being, being is just emptiness.’ Chengguan's last sentence is the crux — the bodhisattva's wisdom enters into the source of it, and therefore, although utterly cut off and absolute with nothing to lodge in, he is nonetheless good at cultivating and setting up. Where it comes down: the difficulty of this station of dedication lies just here — one must on the one hand know that nothing is got, and on the other hand still set up one's roots of goodness one by one and dedicate them away; only when this passage has been understood will all those “may all sentient beings…” lines of the next chapter not be read as sentimentality.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Vajra Banner: The Vajra Is Not a Simile for Wisdom Alone

The lord of the assembly is Vajra Banner. Chengguan says that this name holds both the general and the particular: generally speaking, dedication does not go beyond the two matters of compassion and wisdom. Vajra means firm and also sharp — taking it as the wisdom within compassion, the true limit realized by the two vehicles cannot destroy it, and this is firmness; it can cut off the afflictions that are hard to cut off, and this is sharpness, and therefore the verses say “wisdom has gone to the other shore.” Taking it as the compassion within wisdom, craving and views cannot shake it, and this is firmness; there is nothing it does not rescue, and this is sharpness, and therefore the text of the verses runs throughout the buddha-lands and benefits beings.

Then he delivers a rebuttal of a kind rarely found in him: therefore one should know that the vajra is not a simile for wisdom alone. Those who work upon prajñā do not catch this import; looking only at the name, they take the vajra as a simile for prajñā alone, and do not look at how within the scriptural text compassion rescues the nine classes of beings while in truth none are delivered — for it is compassion and wisdom leading one another that is the true and uncommon prajñā. He cites the scripture in attestation: the vajra is born only from the place of vajra and the place of gold, and not from the place of any other jewel; and the vajra that is the mind of awakening is likewise, born only from the vajra-place of great compassion that rescues and guards sentient beings and from the gold-place of the excellent realm of the wisdom of omniscience. This is the one time in this chapter that Chengguan directly rebukes an earlier reader; the attribution is clear, and it must not be turned into something the scripture says of itself.

He determines the ten verses into two parts: the first eight praise the Buddha's excellent virtues, and the last two conclude by exhorting to the cultivation of practice. The first eight he divides again into three layers — the first five are stillness that is constantly functioning, the sixth is functioning that is constantly still, and the last two are unobstructed sovereign freedom; and within the first five he divides again into three: the first two say that there is no arising and perishing and yet arising and perishing are manifested; the next two say that it is not form and sound and yet form and sound are manifested; and the last says that there is no coming and going and yet coming and going are displayed.

Now verse by verse. The first is the most ruthless opening in the chapter: the Tathāgata has not appeared in the world, nor is there any nirvāṇa, but it is only by the power of the original vow that this dharma of sovereign freedom is manifested — the two ends of the Buddha's life story (the descent to birth and the passing into extinction) are taken away at the outset together. The second displays depth by way of a comparison: this dharma is hard to conceive of, it is not a place the mind can reach, and only when wisdom has gone to the other shore does one see the realm of the buddhas; Chengguan says that once the mind has a mark of mind, then in moving it cannot go there, and hence it is hard to conceive of, and that only wisdom without a mark of wisdom is called having gone to the other shore. The third takes away form and sound: the body of form is not the Buddha, and it is the same with sound; yet neither is it apart from form and sound that one sees the Buddha's power of spiritual penetration — the three graphs “neither is it apart” are the living mouth of this verse. The fourth says that those of slight wisdom cannot know it, and that only those who have long cultivated pure karma can understand it; Chengguan says that slight wisdom refers to the provisional and the lesser, and long cultivation to those of perfect capacity. The fifth takes away coming and going: the perfect awakening has no place it comes from, and when it goes there is nothing it goes from, and the pure and subtle body of form appears because of spiritual power; Chengguan says that it appears at the very place of awakening and does not come from any quarter, and is of itself absent at the place of delusion and does not go from this place. The sixth turns to functioning: within measureless worlds he manifests the body of the Tathāgata and expounds the subtle dharma at large, and yet his mind clings to nothing. The seventh and eighth are unobstructed sovereign freedom: the one says that wisdom is without bound, understands all dharmas thoroughly, and enters everywhere into the Dharma realm; the other says that sentient beings and all dharmas are understood thoroughly without obstruction and that he manifests everywhere every sort of form and image throughout all the lands; Chengguan says that the former is understanding that phenomena and principle are unobstructed and thereupon giving rise to sovereign functioning, and the latter is understanding that beings and dharmas are unobstructed and thereupon giving rise to sovereign functioning. The last two verses conclude by exhorting: the ninth exhorts to the cultivation of wisdom and the advancing of practice — one who wishes to seek omniscience and swiftly to accomplish the unsurpassed awakening should cultivate the practice of awakening with a pure and subtle mind; the tenth exhorts to the cultivation of merit and the cutting off of doubt — if one sees such awesome spiritual power of the Tathāgata, one should make offerings to the most excellent World-Honored One and give rise to no doubt.

Clear away one error: the first verse is not saying that Śākyamuni was never born. Where it comes down: the way of reading the whole chapter is set in this key — whatever you can point at and say ‘this is the Buddha’ (appearing in the world, nirvāṇa, form, sound, coming, going), these ten segments will take away one item at a time; and after the taking away there is not nothing, but “he manifests this dharma of sovereign freedom.”

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Firm Banner: Taking Apart “Wanting to Cultivate” into Five Things

The second is Firm Banner. Chengguan says this name has three grounds: it betokens the indestructible dedication, the firmness of the mind of awakening, and the gazing upon the Buddha without being sated. He determines that the ten verses mostly set forth the virtue by which ‘the Tathāgata is that upon which sentient beings rely,’ and divides them in two: the first three praise the Buddha's excellent virtues, and the last seven exhort to cultivation and discern its benefit.

The first three verses. The first sets forth that the Buddha's substance is apart from words: the Tathāgata is excellent beyond compare, so profound that he cannot be told, and he has passed beyond the path of words, pure as empty space. The second is the manifesting of marks by the markless: look upon that lion among men and his power of sovereign spiritual penetration — he himself has already left discrimination behind, and yet he can let others see him within their discriminating; this one line is the pivot of the whole segment, joining at a stroke “the Buddha does not discriminate” to ‘sentient beings see a discriminated mark.’ The third says why the marks are manifested at all: the Guide, for the sake of sentient beings, opens up and expounds the profound and subtle dharma, and it is because of this cause and condition that this body beyond compare is manifested — the body is manifested for the sake of expounding the dharma, not for the sake of being fine to look at.

The last seven verses raise the benefit of cultivating practice, and thereby display in reverse the depth of the Buddha's virtue. The fourth points to the virtue and exhorts one to rely on it: this is the great wisdom, the place where the buddhas walk, and one who wishes to understand it should constantly draw near to the Buddha. The fifth, sixth, and seventh display those who are able to enter, so as to make one strive to be their equal: let the karma of the mind be constantly pure and make offerings to the tathāgatas without weariness, and one is able to enter the path of the Buddha; be furnished with inexhaustible merit and abide firmly in the mind of awakening, and thereby the net of doubt is removed and one gazes upon the Buddha without being sated; penetrate all dharmas thoroughly and one is a true son of the Buddha, and such a one is able to understand the power of the sovereign freedom of the buddhas — each of these verses first raises the practice and afterward makes plain its benefit.

The eighth, ninth, and tenth verses are the proper exhortation to advance in cultivation, and here Chengguan inserts the densest passage of doctrine in the segment. He says that for advancing in cultivation there are, in brief, five dharmas: desire, vigor, recollection, skillful insight, and one-pointedness. The eighth verse sets forth “desire” — what the vast wisdom expounds: desire is the root of all dharmas, and therefore one should give rise to an excellent hope and set one's will upon seeking the unsurpassed awakening; and he says further that the last two lines are meant to distinguish away evil desire, and that only so is it called “an excellent hope.” The ninth verse sets forth “recollection” — if one reveres the Buddha and is mindful of repaying the Buddha's kindness, that person will in the end never depart from the dwelling of all the buddhas. The tenth verse sets forth “skillful insight,” and does so from the negative side — where is there a man of wisdom who, having gained the sight and hearing of the Buddha, would not cultivate the pure vow nor tread the path that the Buddha treads? He says that the first two verses set it forth directly and this one displays it in reverse; and as for one-pointedness and vigor, they are subsumed under the two graphs “set one's will upon seeking.” He also cites the nine goods of the Tihu yu jing as cited in the treatise of Maitreya: all dharmas have desire for their root, are born of attention, are gathered and arise from contact, are drawn in and taken up by feeling, have recollection for their master, concentration for their chief, insight for what is most excellent, liberation for their firmness, and going forth for their farthest bound — where the former is present the latter need not be, but where the latter is present the former must be, and therefore desire is spoken of first as their root.

Clear away one error: “desire is the root of all dharmas” is not telling anyone to give free rein to craving. Chengguan has already distinguished it beforehand — what is wanted is the excellent hope, not evil desire. Where it comes down: this passage is the most directly practicable in the chapter. If you ask ‘where am I to begin,’ the answer is to begin with the first item: first have the mind that wants it, and then the rest can be ranged in order.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Valiant Banner: Seeing the Buddha Is a Matter of Causes and Conditions Coming Together

The third is Valiant Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from seeing the Buddha to the very source and bottom by the wisdom-power of a pure mind, and thereby being equal to all buddhas; hence the name Valiant. He determines that the ten verses divide in two: the first six set forth the mutual traffic of stimulus and response, the seeing of the Buddha and the hearing of the dharma; the last four make one cast away the false and seek the true, wiping away the marks of what is seen and heard. Among the first six, in the first five the upper half is a simile and the lower half the dharma matched to it.

The first two verses speak of seeing the Buddha. The first is the bone of the segment: just as a bright and clear eye, by the light of the sun, sees every sort of form, so too is the pure mind, which by the Buddha's power sees the Tathāgata. Chengguan assigns a place to each of the three items: the pure mind is like the pure eye and is the cause of the seeing; the Buddha's power is like the sun and is the condition of the seeing; the Tathāgata is like the form and is the object of the seeing. He then raises two counter-instances — a man goes into a dark room and sees nothing at all, which is having the cause only and not seeing; and under the bright clear light of the sun a blind man still does not see, which is having the condition only and not seeing. Therefore the seeing of the Buddha is a thing accomplished only when cause and condition come together. The second verse raises the side of stimulus in particular, taking the cause in place of the condition: as by the power of vigor one can exhaust the source and bottom of the sea, so too the power of wisdom gains the sight of measureless buddhas.

The last four of the first six speak of hearing the dharma. The third displays that the cause is able to give birth to the dharma: just as in a good and fertile field what is sown must grow, so such a pure mind-ground can bring forth the dharma of the buddhas. The fourth and fifth display the benefit of gaining the dharma, and what is gained is not the same in the two: of the fourth, “just as a man who obtains a treasury of jewels is forever parted from the suffering of poverty,” Chengguan says that this is gaining provisional wisdom, which can part one from the defilement of the mind that is the object of knowledge; of the fifth, “just as the agada medicine can neutralize every poison,” he says that this is having root wisdom, which can remove the trouble of the afflictions — read together, the two verses are precisely the two wisdoms each removing one hindrance. The sixth displays the condition: the true and real good friend is one whom the Tathāgata praises, and it is because of that one's awesome spiritual power that one gains the hearing of the dharma of the buddhas.

The last four cast away the false and seek the true. The seventh displays the false so that one may cast it away: though for numberless kalpas one gave wealth and jewels to the Buddha, if one does not know the Buddha's true mark, this is still not called giving — because the giving dwells in marks. The eighth and the ninth display the true Buddha: measureless forms of every sort adorn the body of the Buddha, and yet it is not within those forms that one is able to see the Buddha; the Tathāgata, the perfectly awakened one, is still and constantly unmoving, and yet he is able to manifest his body everywhere, filling the worlds of the ten directions — Chengguan says that the former is that the very marks are markless and therefore he cannot be seen by form, and the latter is that the very stillness responds and therefore he may not be seized by “stillness” either. The tenth displays the true dharma: just as the realm of empty space neither arises nor perishes, so too is the dharma of the buddhas, ultimately without arising or perishing.

Clear away one error: the seventh verse is not saying that giving is of no use. What Chengguan points to are the four graphs “because the giving dwells in marks.” Where it comes down: read the first verse and the seventh together, and this segment gives a very practical inspection — when you cannot see and cannot advance in cultivation, ask first whether the cause is insufficient (the mind is not pure) or the condition is insufficient (you have not met a true good friend), rather than asking first whether you are devout enough.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Light Banner: The Buddha-Body Is Not a Transformation, Nor Is It a Non-Transformation

The fourth is Light Banner. Chengguan says that this name has two layers: with the power of great compassion he sets in motion the light of wisdom, illumining away that darkness upon darkness, so that there is nowhere it does not reach; and again, by wisdom he causes all roots of goodness to reach everywhere — and therefore this segment mostly displays the virtue of the Tathāgata's giving rise to the function of converting from the very substance, universally and everywhere. He determines that the ten verses divide in three: the first verse sets forth the breadth of the function of converting, the middle seven set forth its depth, and the last two conclude both.

The first verse speaks of breadth: in all the many worlds, among humans and in the heavens above, everywhere they see the Tathāgata's pure and subtle body of form — first the “places” are spread out full.

The middle seven speak of depth, and Chengguan divides them again into four layers. The first four set forth both that which depends and that which is depended on. The second verse sets forth in general that one and many are unobstructed — just as the power of one mind can bring forth every sort of mind, so one buddha-body manifests everywhere all buddhas; Chengguan says that this is transforming out many mind-kings and mental factors in dependence upon one general mind, and responding and converting in many ways within one real buddha, and therefore unobstructed. The third verse speaks of the unobstructedness of marks and of the two — awakening has no second dharma and no marks either, and yet within the two dharmas he manifests an adorned body that has marks; he says this is manifesting marks while markless, and manifesting two while not-two. The fourth verse displays arising in dependence upon nature — understanding that the nature of dharmas is empty and still and arises as an illusion arises, what he practices is without end, and thus does the Guide manifest; he says that the arising is not other than the nature, and therefore it is like an illusion and without end. The fifth verse speaks of the flowing forth from the dharma-body — the dharma-bodies of all the buddhas of the three times are wholly pure, and according to what should be converted he manifests everywhere the subtle body of form. The sixth verse wipes away the mind that does the converting — the Tathāgata does not give rise to the thought that he will make such a body, but manifests of himself and spontaneously, never having given rise to discrimination; Chengguan takes the maṇi jewel as a simile, saying that it accomplishes things without any private intent. The seventh verse wipes away the substance that is depended upon — the Dharma realm is without difference and has nothing it rests upon, and yet within the world he manifests measureless bodies; he says that the Dharma realm is of itself without difference, and that there is no definitely existent thing that could serve as the support of the converting.

The eighth verse is the densest in the segment, and is also the fourth of the four layers — the sovereign freedom in which the two are fused: the buddha-body is not a transformation, nor is it a non-transformation; within the dharma that is without transformation he manifests a form that has transformation. Chengguan first distinguishes the three graphs “nor a non-transformation”: this is borrowing “non-transformation” in order to dispel “transformation,” not saying that it is the thing called “non-transformation.” Then he opens two gates. Within the gate of opening out the senses, the real has two senses: the sense of not changing — although in transformation it is constantly of itself limpid, which the upper half of the line displays; and the sense of according with conditions — not keeping to its own nature and so there is nothing it does not manifest, and therefore it says “nor is it a non-transformation.” Transformation too has two senses: the sense of having no substance and so being empty — gathered from conditions and so without own-nature, and therefore it says “within the dharma that is without transformation”; and the sense of illusory being arisen from conditions, and therefore it says “he manifests a form that has transformation.” Within the gate of fusing, first the real and the transformed are joined each severally, forming ‘both real and not real, neither real nor not unreal’ and ‘both transformed and untransformed, neither transformed nor untransformed’; then the real and the transformed are made to interpenetrate, and at the last he closes with a single sentence: the manifesting and the transforming are in profusion and yet have never not been still, and the real nature is limpid and yet has never not transformed — the real and the transformed are fused into one unobstructed and pure Dharma realm.

The last two verses conclude both. The ninth returns and concludes upon the substance: the perfect awakening cannot be measured, is equal to the Dharma realm and to empty space, deep and vast without shore or bottom, and the path of words is wholly cut off; Chengguan says that because it is equal to the Dharma realm it is deep without bottom, and because it is equal to empty space it is vast without shore. The tenth raises the cause and explains how this comes about: the Tathāgata is well able to penetrate through and to walk the path in every place, and in the Dharma realm and all its many lands, wherever he goes there is no obstruction — so the reason the Dharma realm is unobstructed is that wisdom and practice reach everywhere.

Clear away one error: the eighth verse is not going round in circles about ‘it is and it isn't.’ Chengguan has already given a very good comparison for it (found in the Yanyi chao): at night one sees a wooden stake and takes it for a man; a wise man tells you ‘this is not a man,’ but that only negates the grasping at “man” in your mind — yet a fool, hearing it, then takes the stake to be a “non-man,” and a non-man is a ghost, so that though the grasping at man is gone the grasping at a ghost has arisen. Where it comes down: in reading this verse, whatever new answer you catch hold of along the way must be let go of once again.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Wisdom Banner: Just as the Pure Full Moon Appears Everywhere in All Waters

The fifth is Wisdom Banner. Chengguan says that this name has two layers: within the realm of the Buddha's stillness and functioning he decides without obstruction, and again with wisdom he leads the ten thousand practices and brings them forth inexhaustibly. He determines that the ten verses divide in two: the first verse announces the theme and exhorts to faith, and the last nine are the excellent virtues believed in; and among the nine, the second verse is the general and the remaining eight are the particular.

The first verse announces the theme: if one can believe and accept that omniscience is unobstructed and cultivate the practice of awakening, his mind cannot be measured — Chengguan says this is faith having the benefit of the cultivation of practice. The second verse is the general: within all lands he manifests everywhere measureless bodies, and yet the body is not in any place, nor does it abide in any dharma; he says that the upper half is functioning that is inexhaustible and the lower half is stillness that abides nowhere, so that clinging neither to the place of the response nor to the substance of dharma is precisely the double stillness of root and branch.

Within the particular, the first two verses set forth inexhaustibility. The third says that of every single tathāgata the bodies manifested by spiritual power cannot be exhausted by reckoning through inconceivable kalpas; the fourth displays it by comparison: the sentient beings of the three times may still have their number known, but the number of what the Tathāgata manifests cannot be got at. Chengguan puts it very precisely — sentient beings can be counted, the Buddha cannot.

The last six set forth unobstructedness, and Chengguan divides them into three layers. The first four are the unobstructedness of one and many, and they walk the four steps of ‘dharma, simile, matching, and explanation’ to the end: the fifth verse is the dharma — at times he manifests one body or two or on to measureless bodies, manifesting everywhere in the lands of the ten directions and yet in truth there are not two; the sixth is the simile, and it is also the most famous simile in the chapter — just as the pure full moon appears everywhere in all the waters, though the images are measureless the moon itself has never been two; the seventh is the matching — such unobstructed wisdom accomplished the right and perfect awakening, manifesting everywhere in all the buddha-lands, and yet the substance of the Buddha too is not two; the eighth is the explanation — it is not one, nor is it two, nor is it measureless, but according to what should be converted he manifests measureless bodies. Read together, the four verses are the most complete demonstration of an argument-form in this chapter. The ninth verse is the unobstructedness of the drawn-out and the compressed: the buddha-body is neither past nor future, and within a single thought it manifests birth, the attaining of the path, and nirvāṇa — the three times are pressed into a single thought. The tenth is the unobstructedness of nature and marks: as the forms made by an illusion have no birth and no arising, so too is the buddha-body, manifesting and yet without birth.

Clear away one error: the simile of the moon stamped upon ten thousand rivers is most easily read as ‘there is only one Buddha and there are many reflections.’ The seventh verse itself blocks that — what it says is “the substance of the Buddha too is not two,” not ‘the real Buddha is up in the sky and the false ones are in the water.’ And the eighth verse negates “one” as well: it is not one, nor is it two. Where it comes down: that portion of the Buddha which you see at this moment is neither a second-rate reflection nor the one true body; the very asking of ‘which one is the real one’ is what the eighth verse would have you put down.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Jewel Banner: The Tathāgata's Attaining of Awakening Is Truly Not Tied to a Day

The sixth is Jewel Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from illumining the principle of equality with the wisdom that is round and pure, not obstructing the response and manifesting, and according with everything, like the maṇi jewel. He determines that the ten verses divide in two: the first five display in general that he is hard to conceive of, and the last five that he far transcends time and number.

The first five verses. The first and second set it forth directly: the buddha-body has no measure and yet can manifest a body that has measure, and according to what sentient beings ought to see, thus does the Guide manifest — this is transcending measure and yet manifesting measure; the buddha-body has no place and yet fills every place, like empty space without bound and thus hard to conceive of — this is transcending place and yet pervading places. The third through the fifth are “an explanation carried through by stages” — Chengguan strings them together with a series of questions and answers of his own. Why is he hard to conceive of? Because neither the body nor the place is an object within the range of the mind of arising and perishing (the third verse). Why is he not an object of mind? Because the Buddha himself does not give rise to mind. Why does he not give rise to mind? Because his substance is without arising and perishing. Then if it is so, why do we plainly see him now? The fourth verse answers: it is like what is seen by an eye with cataract, which takes its own portion of form; do not take it for something real. Then if that is so, is there no appearing of a tathāgata in the world at all? The fifth verse answers: it is only one's own stimulus and perception — for the sake of benefiting sentient beings the Tathāgata appears in the world, and sentient beings see that there is an appearing, and yet in truth there is no arising in the world. And he cites the Zhufa wuxing jing in attestation: the Tathāgata does not appear in the world and does not deliver sentient beings; it is sentient beings who forcibly discriminate and make up a Buddha delivering sentient beings.

The last five verses transcend time. The sixth concludes what precedes and announces the theme: one may not see the Buddha by lands or by day and night, and the year, the month, and a single kṣaṇa should be known to be all of them likewise. The seventh through the tenth display the transcending of time in particular, and here Chengguan sets up a full argument in the manner of logic. The seventh verse sets up the thesis: the upper half, “sentient beings speak in this way: on such a day the Buddha attained the path,” is a rehearsal of the false notion, and only the lower half is the proper setting up — awakening is the subject, and “is determinately not tied to time” is what is predicated of it. The eighth verse sets up three reasons: the Tathāgata has left discrimination behind, and therefore his wisdom is without discrimination; he does not belong to the world, and therefore the three times do not shift him; he transcends every sort of number, and therefore his substance is not a number belonging to the conditioned. The ninth verse raises the positive example: just as the pure orb of the sun is not joined with the darkness of night, and yet men say a certain day and a certain night. The tenth matches and concludes: all the kalpas of the three times are not joined with the Tathāgata, and yet men speak of the buddhas of the three times. Chengguan also points out in particular that the matching statement of the tenth verse is inverted — were it stated in the straight order, it should read “all the tathāgatas are not joined with the three times.”

Clear away one error: these five verses are not a denial of the commemorations of the Buddha's birth and his attaining of the path. The ninth verse itself gives the measure — the orb of the sun is not itself joined with the darkness of night, and yet men say a certain day and a certain night all the same, and that manner of speaking is not wrong. Where it comes down: an anniversary is ‘spoken according to the reflection,’ not ‘the Buddha really tied to that day’; grasp this distinction and one need neither abolish the commemoration nor take the commemoration for the Buddha himself.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Vigor Banner: The Body Is the Same, and the Import Too Is the Same

The seventh is Vigor Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from diligently contemplating that the Tathāgata's true body and responsive body are alike the same, and thereby being able to accord equally with all sentient beings. He determines that the ten verses divide in two: the first verse is the general announcement, and the remaining nine are the particular explanation.

The first verse: all the Guides are the same in body, and so too in import; everywhere in the lands of the ten directions they manifest in every sort of way according to what is fitting. Chengguan treats “the same in body” and “the same in import” separately. As to sameness of body, the three bodies and the ten bodies are all the same. As to sameness of import, he says it holds several layers of meaning: with respect to the three bodies, the three senses of substance, support, and gathering are all the same, and what is awakened to, what awakens, and the awakening of others are the same as well; and again, “import” just means “the wherefore” — the reason one gains the name of Buddha is that right awakening, true wisdom, the powers, the fearlessnesses, and the rest are all fully present, and it is so with every buddha, and therefore the import is the same; and again, the function of responding, converting, benefiting, and gladdening is in no case different, and he cites in attestation the She lun: “the dharma-body of all buddhas should be known to be able at all times to perform the five works.” With respect to the ten bodies, they all run through the three world-realms, and looked at one against another there is no difference; and the reason it is so has three grounds: the sea of practice is equally full, the great vows are equally complete, and the dharma-nature is one and the same — and it is not merely that they are alike, but that one is all and they mutually interfuse. He also, in passing, opens “everywhere” into two senses: first with respect to all buddhas, that there is no buddha who does not pervade the ten directions; second with respect to one buddha, that there is no quarter in which he does not manifest.

The last nine verses are the particular explanation, and Chengguan divides them into the first four as the direct explanation and the last five as the turned-back explanation. The four of direct explanation: the second verse explains “everywhere in the ten directions with nothing left out” — look upon that Muni, the World-Honored One, and what he does, which is utterly extraordinary, filling the Dharma realm with nothing left out. The third verse explains “manifests” — the buddha-body is neither within nor without, and it appears because of spiritual power; he says that it is only when there is stimulus that it manifests, and therefore it is said to be not within, and that it is spiritual power that is able to manifest it, and therefore it is said to be not without. The fourth verse explains “in every sort of way according to what is fitting” — according to the karma amassed in former lives by the several kinds of sentient beings, bodies of these several sorts are manifested, each of them different. The fifth verse returns and completes the “sameness of body” of the first verse and displays that it is hard to conceive of — the bodies of the buddhas are thus, measureless and beyond counting, and save only for the World-Honored One of great awakening there is none able to conceive of them; he says that the reason it is “save only for the one of great awakening” is that buddha and buddha realize the same thing.

The five of turned-back explanation, which Chengguan says explain the four verses above in reverse order, from the last backward. The sixth and seventh verses explain the fifth verse's “none able to conceive of them”: the sixth takes “self” as a simile — as that self is hard to conceive of and mind and karma cannot get hold of it, so too is the Buddha's being hard to conceive of; he says that the falsely reckoned “self” has from the first no existence and therefore cannot be conceived of, which is a case of what is present to feeling but absent in principle and is not the object of a noble one's wisdom, used to draw a comparison with the dharma-body, which is present in principle but absent to feeling and is not what those in the lower stations can fathom. The seventh takes a buddha-land as a simile — as a land is inconceivable and yet its pure adornments are seen, so too is the Buddha's being hard to conceive of, and yet no subtle mark of his is unmanifested; he says that this is being cut off from marks and hard to conceive of, and yet not obstructing the having of marks. The eighth verse explains the fourth verse's manifesting differently according to karma — just as all dharmas arise because of a multitude of conditions, so too is the seeing of the Buddha, which must borrow a multitude of good karma. The ninth verse explains the third verse's being neither within nor without — just as the wish-fulfilling jewel can satisfy the minds of sentient beings, so, as the jewel manifests things, though it is neither within nor without it can satisfy the mind of the thing. The tenth verse explains the second verse's filling the Dharma realm — within measureless lands the Guides arise in the world, and because of the power of their vows they respond everywhere in the ten directions; he says that the reason he can fill it is that the original vow is universally all-embracing.

Clear away one error: do not read “the same in body and so too in import” as ‘all the buddhas are really one and the same buddha.’ The lower half of the first verse has already given the other half: he manifests in every sort of way according to what is fitting. Where it comes down: this segment settles a very common doubt — since buddha and buddha share one path, why is the Buddha that each person sees not the same? The fourth verse and the eighth taken together are the answer: what differs is not on the Buddha's side, but in the karma amassed in former lives and in the multitude of conditions.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Stainless Banner: Taking the Buddha as One's Object, Single-Mindedly Recollecting Without Ceasing

The eighth is Stainless Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from the substance of suchness being pure from the first, able to accomplish the white and pure dharma, and able also to purify the world. He determines that the ten verses mostly praise the Tathāgata's virtue of purity, and divides them in two: the first six are the purifying of others, and the last four are the purifying of oneself.

Among the first six, the first two set it forth in general. The first is the purity of wisdom: the Tathāgata's light of great wisdom purifies everywhere the many worlds, and when the worlds have been purified he opens up and reveals to them the dharma of the buddhas; Chengguan says that when false afflictions have been stilled true wisdom is not absent, and that what is opened and revealed is no-self and the knowledge and vision of nature and marks, and that this is why it is called dharma. The second is the purity of body: suppose there were one who wished to see buddhas as many as the number of sentient beings, there is none that would not accord with his mind, and yet in truth there is no place from which they come; he says that this wipes away the responsive body so as to display the true body.

The last four of the six are the particular explanation, and their sequence is inverted — the first two explain the second verse and the last two explain the first verse. The third verse sets forth directly that one who wishes to see the buddhas should be single-minded upon the Buddha as object: taking the Buddha as one's object and single-mindedly recollecting without ceasing, this person gains the sight of the Buddha, and the number he sees is equal to his mind; Chengguan says that they manifest according as one recollects, and this is why it is called “equal to the mind,” and says further that to know that mind and object are just the Buddha's true nature is the point — deluded, one does not know it; recollecting, it appears at once. The fourth verse explains in turn how “single-minded recollection” is possible at all: accomplishing the white and pure dharma and being furnished with every sort of merit, toward omniscience he single-mindedly recollects and does not let go with his mind — because he is undefiled and furnished with virtue, therefore he can recollect single-mindedly. The fifth verse explains “purifies everywhere the worlds”: the Guide, for the sake of sentient beings, expounds the dharma according to what is fitting, and wherever there are those who may be converted he manifests everywhere his most excellent body — expounding the dharma and manifesting a body both purify others. The sixth verse explains “opens up and reveals the dharma of the buddhas”: the buddha-body and the world are all of them without self, and awakening to this he accomplishes the perfect awakening and again expounds it for sentient beings — Chengguan says that this displays the two no-selves to which he has awakened.

The last four are the purifying of oneself. The seventh is the differentiated function of one already purified: all the lions among men have measureless power of sovereign freedom, and they manifest bodies as many as the recollections of beings, each of those bodies different. The last three are the three virtues of inward purity. The eighth is seeing the nature and becoming a buddha, opening the dharma-body for oneself: the world is a body such as this, and the bodies of the buddhas too are thus, and to understand their own-nature is what is called the Buddha. The ninth is becoming a buddha with nothing gained, opening prajñā for oneself: the Tathāgata knows and sees everywhere and understands clearly all dharmas, and yet the Buddha's dharma and awakening alike cannot be got at; Chengguan says that the Buddha's dharma is what is awakened to and awakening is what awakens, and that what awakens and what is awakened to must depend upon one another, and therefore neither of the two can be got at, and it is the one who gains nothing who gains awakening. The tenth is becoming a buddha by leaving the false behind, opening liberation for oneself: the Guide has no coming and going nor any dwelling, and being far removed from every sort of inversion is called right and perfect awakening; he says that when the false and inverted have been stilled, this is named true liberation.

Clear away one error: the third verse's “the number he sees is equal to his mind” is not saying that you get as many buddhas as you want to see, your wishes granted. The second verse has already written it down beforehand — “and yet in truth there is no place from which they come.” Where it comes down: this segment gives a sequence that is rarely met with — first single-minded recollection, and afterward the knowing that nothing is got. It is not that one first thinks through “it cannot be got at” and then goes and recollects the Buddha; it is that only by recollecting to the point where ‘what is seen is equal to the mind’ does one come to know that what awakens and what is awakened to have from the first depended upon one another.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Constellation Banner: Who Is Able to Conceive of the Buddha?

The ninth is Constellation Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from understanding the Buddha's body that responds everywhere throughout the Dharma realm while not departing from the dharma-nature, just as those constellations are spread brilliantly across the sky and cannot be bound. He determines that the ten verses divide in three: the first three display in general the response that is one with the substance, the middle six explain in particular the sovereign freedom of the substance and its response, and the last one wipes away the traces of that sovereign freedom.

The first three verses. The first displays the pervasiveness of the body with respect to place: the Tathāgata dwells nowhere and yet dwells everywhere in all the lands, going to all lands and being seen in all places. Chengguan here divides four layers: with respect to the dharma-nature body he dwells nowhere; with respect to the self-enjoyment body there is nowhere he does not dwell, which is called dwelling everywhere; with respect to the enjoyment body for others and the transformation body, where there is stimulus he goes, and therefore it says he goes to all lands; and with respect to the ten bodies there is no place that is not the Buddha, and therefore it says he is seen in all places. The second displays the manyness of the body with respect to the faculties of beings: the Buddha, according to the minds of sentient beings, manifests everywhere every sort of body — the attaining of the path, the turning of the wheel of the Dharma, and the entering into parinirvāṇa; the matters of the eight aspects all come to be through the stimulus of sentient beings. The third concludes by sighing that he is hard to conceive of, and is the bone of the whole segment: the buddhas are inconceivable — who is able to conceive of the Buddha? who is able to see the perfect awakening? who is able to manifest the most excellent one? Chengguan says that the first line is the general announcement and the three lines below display the aspects — two of the lines are with respect to the one stimulated not being able to conceive, conceiving being spoken of with respect to the mind while seeing runs through both mind and eye, and the last line is with respect to the responsive manifesting being hard to conceive of, and therefore it says “who is able to manifest.” These three questions are the topics of the six verses that follow.

Of the middle six, Chengguan says that the first three explain in the direct order and the last three in the reverse. The three of direct explanation answer one question each. The fourth verse answers “who is able to manifest”: all dharmas are suchness and the realm of the buddhas is likewise, and there is not so much as one dharma that within suchness has arising or perishing — the manifesting is the same as suchness, because there is no arising or perishing. The fifth verse answers “who is able to conceive”: sentient beings falsely discriminate and say this is the Buddha, this is the world, while one who understands thoroughly the nature of dharmas has no Buddha and no world — to give rise to a mind and conceive is just falsely to discriminate that there is a dependent realm and a proper realm, whereas within the nature of dharmas both what grasps and what is grasped are stilled. The sixth verse answers “who is able to see”: the Tathāgata appears everywhere before sentient beings and causes them to give rise to faith and joy, and yet the substance of the Buddha cannot be got at and they too have seen nothing — the responding is according with conditions and the substance is of itself absent, so what after all has the stimulated faculty seen?

The three of reverse explanation, which Chengguan says display in reverse, out of ‘no conceiving and no seeing,’ that those who above had conceiving and seeing did not understand the Buddha's realm. The seventh is the conceiving that is no conceiving: if one is able, toward the world, to leave every attachment behind and with an unobstructed mind to rejoice, then one is able to gain awakening in regard to the dharma — one must be unattached and unobstructed for this. The eighth is the manifesting that is no manifesting: what is manifested by spiritual power is what is called the Buddha, and yet seek it throughout all the times of the three times and it is nowhere to be had — what spiritual power manifests is in its substance of itself empty. The ninth is the seeing that is no seeing: if one is able in this way to understand mind and mentation and all dharmas, then one knows and sees all of them and swiftly gains the accomplishing of the Tathāgata — treading upon the foregoing “nowhere to be had” and thereupon seeing, such a seeing in accord with the real not only sees the Buddha but also swiftly accomplishes.

The tenth verse wipes away the traces: within words are displayed all the sovereign freedoms of the Buddha, and the perfect awakening passes beyond words and is expounded only by borrowing words. Chengguan says that all this talk of sovereign freedom above is still a borrowing of verbal expression; and since perfect awakening passes beyond words, the very traces of the words must be wiped away — and the sentence “it passes beyond words” is itself likewise a borrowing, so that one should forget words and tally with it.

Clear away one error: the three questions of the third verse are not rhetorical exclamations. They are topics, and the six verses that follow answer them one topic at a time, and when the answering is done the answers themselves are wiped away. Where it comes down: this is the most thoroughgoing close of any segment in the chapter — if, having read it, you feel that ‘I have understood that the Buddha is inconceivable,’ the tenth verse was written for just that sentence.

The Ten Verses of the Bodhisattva Dharma Banner: Rather Undergo All the World's Suffering Than Fail to See Him

The tenth is Dharma Banner. Chengguan says that this name takes its sense from knowing the true and real dharma and entering everywhere into the Dharma realm, so that the practices cultivated are all beyond measure; and he says further that to know the dharma is just what is named Buddha, and therefore this segment first praises the benefit of seeing the Buddha. He determines that the ten verses display in pairs how hard both the Buddha and the dharma are to hear of, and divides them in two: the first four praise the Buddha and exhort people to hear and see him, and the last six praise the dharma and exhort people to hear and seek it.

The first four verses. The first is the direct injunction: rather would one constantly and fully undergo all the sufferings of every world than in the end be far from the Tathāgata and fail to behold his power of sovereign freedom — this is the line of heaviest feeling in the chapter, and the only line that is stated with “rather would one.” The last three explain the reason for it, and Chengguan says that they raise three matters in brief. The second is the benefit of hearing the name: if there be sentient beings who have not yet given rise to the mind of awakening, once they gain the hearing of the Buddha's name they are determined to accomplish awakening. The third is the benefit of raising the mind: if there be a man of wisdom who within a single thought gives rise to the mind that seeks the path, he will surely accomplish the unsurpassed World-Honored One; only let him give rise to no doubt. The fourth is the benefit of giving rise to faith: the Tathāgata's power of sovereign freedom is hard to meet with even through measureless kalpas, and if one can give rise to a single thought of faith one swiftly ascends the unsurpassed path. Chengguan takes the four verses together and says: since one who undergoes suffering can still gain the hearing and accomplish such excellent benefit, then one who enjoys pleasure and yet fails to see him cannot escape long sinking and drifting — and therefore one should be content to undergo suffering and draw near to the Buddha.

The last six verses praise the dharma. Chengguan says that having already met with a good physician one still needs the medicine of the dharma; and the six verses divide into three pairs, of which the first two pairs each have one negative and one positive. The first pair is that by hearing the real dharma one is able to accomplish the dharma of practice: the fifth verse is the negative — though thought after thought one made offerings to measureless buddhas, if one does not know the true and real dharma this is not called making offerings; the sixth is the positive — if one hears a dharma such as this (that the buddhas are born from just this), then though one pass through measureless suffering one will not cast away the practice of awakening. The second pair is that by hearing the wisdom of principle one accomplishes the dharma of the fruit: the seventh verse is the positive — once one hears this great wisdom, the dharma into which the buddhas enter, one is able everywhere within the Dharma realm to become a Guide of the three times; the eighth is the negative — though one journeyed to the very limit of the future through all the buddha-lands, if one does not seek this subtle dharma one will in the end not accomplish awakening. The third pair explains it by way of stimulus and response: the ninth verse says whence it is that the buddhas arise in the world — sentient beings from a beginningless beginning have long drifted and turned within birth and death and cannot understand the true and real dharma, and it is for this that the buddhas arise in the world; the tenth says what dharma it is that is expounded — the dharmas cannot be destroyed nor is there any that can destroy them, and the great light of sovereign freedom is displayed everywhere throughout the world. Chengguan explains the last verse thus: without stirring the true limit he establishes all dharmas, and therefore the nature cannot be destroyed; without destroying provisional names he expounds the real mark, and therefore the marks cannot be destroyed — and thus the demons of Māra and the outer paths and all the rest are alike the seal of the dharma, and therefore there is none that can destroy them.

Clear away one error: the fifth verse is not saying that making offerings to the Buddha is without merit. The comparison holds precisely because the side of ‘thought after thought making offerings to measureless buddhas’ is itself of the utmost weight. Where it comes down: read the first verse and the fifth together, and this segment answers the last practical question of the chapter — what then am I actually to do? The answer is: draw near to him, and seek that dharma; and as for doing only the former and not the latter, the eighth verse has already stated the outcome.

Why This Chapter Ends with No Concluding Extension to the Ten Directions

In the verses of praise of the preceding assemblies, after the verses have been spoken there is usually one further line of concluding extension to the ten directions — saying that in the worlds of the ten directions it is likewise so. This chapter has none. Chengguan for this reason sets up an explanation of his own: the reason there is no concluding extension after the verses is to display that the virtues praised in all the Tuṣita heavens of the Dharma realm are each of them different, just as with those Mañjuśrīs everywhere and their verses each distinct, which precisely displays that the Buddha's virtue is inexhaustible. That is to say, the absence of the concluding extension is not an omission; it is a deliberate letting of things stand unmatched.

Fazang explains it differently on the sixty-fascicle text. He says that after these verses there ought properly to have been words of concluding extension to the worlds of the ten directions, but that since each of the bodhisattvas before had said “contemplated everywhere the ten directions,” it has thereby already been displayed, and so it is not discussed further. The two explanations are recorded together without adjudication: the one says it is unextended in order to display each as distinct; the other says it is already extended and therefore need not be said again.

The Yanyi chao supplies a further layer of reason from the side of the station: this passage that follows is absent in the two preceding assemblies, and afterward likewise it is absent as in the two preceding assemblies — because this is the last of the three worthy stages.

At the very end of the chapter Chengguan also leaves a sentence that holds the whole together: the verses of these ten bodhisattvas should be read by the perfect interfusion of the six characteristics. The Yanyi chao matches the six characteristics one by one: the whole is the general displaying of the Buddha's virtue; the parts are the ten kinds of virtue each distinct; sameness is their setting forth the Buddha's virtue in common; difference is the ten virtues being unlike when looked at one against another; formation is their jointly forming the Buddha's virtue; and disintegration is their each abiding in its own nature. Fazang too, on the sixty-fascicle text, gathers “the hundred verses of the ten bodhisattvas above praising the Buddha” by the six characteristics, and himself lists six clauses: or generally, taking them as fused into one Dharma-realm buddha; or particularly, by the differentiation of the virtues of ten buddhas and a hundred gates; or as the same, since not one of the hundred verses fails to display the Buddha's virtue; or as different, since gate differs from gate; or as formation, since by these virtues the fruit of buddhahood is established through conditions; or as disintegration, since each abides in its own dharma and originally does not act. Both masters gather these hundred verses by the six characteristics, but the items they match are in the one case elaborate and in the other spare, and both are recorded without adjudication.

Clear away one error: do not suppose, because ‘there is no concluding extension,’ that a passage of the scripture has gone missing. Where it comes down: when in reading the Avataṃsaka one comes to a place that is unmatched, first hold it just as it stands — the unmatchedness of this chapter was read by the ancient worthies as an import in its own right.

Lineage

The import of this chapter was carried on by the ancient worthies along four tracks, all recorded without adjudication.

The line of Chengguan: he explains the chapter by four gates — the reason for its coming is attached to the extolling and praising that assists the converting and to displaying what the substance of the station rests upon; the explanation of the name is established from the bodhisattvas of the ten directions praising the Buddha's real virtues in this palace; and the tenet and aim take the gathering of the assembly, the emitting of light, and the verses of praise as the tenet, with the expounding of the dedications as the aim. In explaining the text he determines three portions — the gathering of the assembly, the emitting of light, and the verses of praise; within the portion of the gathering of the assembly he makes a long division into ten segments (the general raising of the chief ones, the number of the retinue, the nearness or distance of the place they come from, the names of the chief bodhisattvas, the lands they come from, the buddhas they originally served, the paying of reverence, the fine abiding in deportment, the emitting of light that benefits beings, and the brief praise of their excellent virtues), and in the last segment the brief praise of their excellent virtues opens ten gates; the portion of the emitting of light is divided in four, upon the wheels of the knees three senses are set up, and within it the twenty clauses praising the virtues of the assembly are bound into ten pairs; and the portion of the verses of praise is determined as ten bodhisattvas making ten segments, matched in order to the ten directions, with an explanation of the name and a classification of the verses set up for each segment. The three densest places of doctrine in the whole chapter are these: the fusing of the real and the conventional under “number is of two kinds” at the end of the portion of the emitting of light; the rebuttal of “the vajra is not a simile for wisdom alone” in the segment of Vajra Banner; and the two gates, of opening out the senses and of fusing, on arising in dependence upon the real in the segment of Light Banner. His establishing of the five dharmas of advancing in cultivation and citing of the nine goods in the segment of Firm Banner, his setting up of thesis, reason, and example in the segment of Jewel Banner with the determination that “awakening is the subject and being determinately not tied to time is what is predicated,” and his running of the three questions of who conceives, who sees, who manifests through the direct and reverse order of the six verses in the segment of Constellation Banner, are each the guiding thread of their segment. At the end of the whole chapter he gathers the ten segments by the perfect interfusion of the six characteristics and explains the import of there being no concluding extension after the verses.

Chengguan's Yanyi chao: he explains his own words in the commentary — on the five senses of the banner he points out the seven senses they derive from and explains why two were left out; for the ten pairs of the commentary he points out clause by clause where they stand in the scriptural text; for the three reasons in the segment of Jewel Banner he frames each as a formal argument, and recasts them as five-graph and seven-graph verses for ease of recitation; for the six characteristics he sets out the items one by one; and at the end he points out that the passage that follows is absent in both the preceding and the following assemblies, this being the last of the three worthy stages.

The line of Fazang: on the sixty-fascicle text, in “The Bodhisattvas Gather Like Clouds in the Palace of the Tuṣita Heaven and Praise the Buddha,” he establishes the explanation of the name upon four things — place, person, bodily karma, and verbal karma; and in explaining the text he determines four portions — the gathering of the assembly, the emitting of light, the praising of the assembly, and the praising of the Buddha — which is a different opening and joining from Chengguan's three portions. He takes the name of the lands, Firm, as betokening that the practice relied upon is accomplished and hard to destroy, and takes the buddhas and bodhisattvas sharing the name Banner as betokening that the cause and fruit of skillfulness in dedication stand out alone and subdue; at the place of the emitting of light he says that the two knees pass beyond the toes of the preceding assembly, betokening that the practice grows gradually more excellent; of the ten Dharma-gates he says explicitly that they should be gathered and interfused by the six characteristics; and his explanations of the names and classifications of the verses for each segment form a line of his own (the fourth he gives as Night-Radiance Banner and the ninth as True Banner). His setting of a question, at the line “it is not a place the mind can reach” in the segment of Jewel Banner, as to whether at the stage of buddhahood there are mind and mental factors, answered by distinguishing four gates — the initial teaching, the final teaching, the sudden teaching, and the perfect teaching — is a passage found in no other master on this chapter. At the end he gathers the hundred verses by six clauses of the six characteristics and explains the absence of a concluding extension after the verses as being because the several bodhisattvas each said “contemplated everywhere the ten directions” and so it has already been displayed.

The line of Zhiyan: his commentary is the most spare of all, and yet his classification of the verses of the ten segments is complete. He establishes the explanation of the name upon four senses — place, person, bodily bearing, and verbal karma — and determines the text into three prefaces; on the emitting of light from the two knees he says that it is the mark, within the practice of the dharma-body, of entering the realm of the Buddha and increasing in excellence and subtlety, and that the knee betokens the aspect of the skillful means of advancing; and he explains Vajra Banner as the own-substance being true and real, able to consume and destroy the encumbrance of marks, and as the path that transcends the world marking off victory from defeat. Two things in him are most worth noting. The first is that in the segment of Jewel Banner he sets himself the question “why does the classification of this scriptural text mostly follow the three vehicles?” and answers himself, “because those for whom it is meant are mostly of the three vehicles.” The second is that at the very end of the chapter he leaves himself a way out — it may also be said that the praises of the virtues of these ten bodhisattvas need no separate classification at all, since every single clause of import is itself one gate of skillful means; and this is taking the text with respect to the import of the One Vehicle.

The line of Li Tongxuan: he explains the chapter by three gates, and makes a long outline of the chapter into eleven segments (the gathering of the assembly, fifty-two lines of scripture, and the remaining ten segments each being one bodhisattva's ten lines of verse); and in explaining the meaning as he follows the text he further opens the portion of the gathering of the assembly into ten segments and sets up ten gates. What sets his track apart from all three of the others is his matching: he matches the ten perfections one by one to the ten bodhisattvas, takes the names of the ten worlds as betokening the practices cultivated in the ten dedications, and takes the names of the ten buddhas as betokening the fruit of the present station, explaining them largely by the positions of the eight trigrams; he also sets the “Grove” of the station of the ten practices against the “Banner” of the station of the ten dedications, saying that the former betokens the broad shelter and abundance of practice while the latter betokens that the practice of great compassion dwells in the great sea of birth and death while its own wisdom is never overturned. On the two verses of Constellation Banner and Dharma Banner, taken together, he says that the one breaks the attachment to being and the other the attachment to non-being, and that the two verses complete one another lest people fall into extreme views. And in two places the graphs by which he presents the scripture differ from the base text: he presents Stainless Banner as Undefiled Banner, and “sentient beings falsely discriminate” as “sentient beings have discrimination”; both are recorded without adjudication.

The number of the outline segments established by the four masters is not the same (Chengguan three portions and ten segments, Fazang four portions, Zhiyan three prefaces, Li Tongxuan eleven segments); the matchings they make are not the same (Chengguan matching the ten worlds to the Dharma-gates of the ten dedications, Li Tongxuan matching the ten perfections to the ten bodhisattvas); and the explanations of the names segment by segment are likewise not the same (the fourth Chengguan gives as Light Banner while Fazang gives Night-Radiance Banner; the ninth Chengguan gives as Constellation Banner while Fazang gives True Banner, this being caused by the difference of text between the two versions). There are divergences among the ancients, and they are recorded, with no adjudication of which stands higher.

As for the carrying on of this chapter in other books, its scantiness is recorded as it stands: Zhiyan's Kongmu zhang, in listing the chapters himself, gives “The Bodhisattvas of the Tuṣita Palace Come and Speak Verses, chapter 28,” the chapter number differing from the present text, which comes of his own differing reckoning of the chapters; the Zhigui mentions Tuṣita in five places, all of them general references to the Tuṣita Heaven or to the matter of the Tuṣita gods and the ten grounds, and not explanations of the text of this chapter; and in the Shixuan men the whole book returns no result. Nor has this chapter any treatise that presents and explains it, as “The Ten Grounds” has. Compared with “Verses of Praise in the Palace of the Yāma Heaven,” which produced the line “the mind is like a skilled painter” and was thereafter widely cited, this chapter's hundred verses show no single line that has been cited to a like degree — and this accords with the character of this chapter: from beginning to end it is engaged in taking away, not in setting up any term that might be lifted out.

Last, the joining of this chapter to what precedes and follows. Above it receives “Ascent to the Palace of the Tuṣita Heaven” — the preceding chapter is the Buddha going to the Tuṣita Heaven without leaving the foot of the tree of awakening, the summit of Sumeru, and the palace of the Yāma Heaven, and this chapter is the bodhisattvas of the ten directions coming and assembling and praising in verse; below it joins to “The Ten Dedications” — and Chengguan's one sentence on the tenet and aim has already buckled the two chapters into one matter: this chapter takes the verses of praise as its tenet and the expounding of the dedications as its aim. Li Tongxuan says it still more directly: this chapter is in order to accomplish the Dharma-gate of cause and fruit within the ten dedications, and therefore it must come. The names of the ten bodhisattvas, the ten worlds they come from, and the ten buddhas they serve, taken together, are the table of contents of the next chapter.