華嚴經 義疏通講 · 冊7Avataṃsaka Sūtra · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 7

First a Question: Why the Speaking Must Begin from a Samādhi

The first sentence of this chapter is not about dedication but about entering concentration — the bodhisattva Vajra Banner, sustained by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, entered the samādhi of the bodhisattva's light of wisdom.

Why must the speaking of the Dharma begin from the entering of concentration? Chengguan explains this by saying that the one who enters concentration is Vajra Banner because he is the chief among the assembly of this gathering; and that the four graphs “sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power” state the condition of the entering — it is not that he enters because he wishes to enter, but that he enters by being sustained. As for the name of the samādhi, he explains it very finely: it is called “bodhisattva” in order to mark it off as not being a concentration of the fruition ground of a buddha; “wisdom” is the substance of this concentration, and means fundamental wisdom; and “light” has three senses — first, the aspect that comes before the arising of realizing wisdom, and this is said with respect to the station lodged at the end of the three worthy stages; second, the function of fundamental wisdom, which is able to counteract ignorance; third, subsequently attained wisdom, which is able to make out what is taken as object. That the two wisdoms interpenetrate without obstruction and shine bright upon the Dharma realm — this he explains with respect to Vajra Banner's own substance and virtue.

Fazang explains this by establishing four senses — the concentration of preparatory practice, the concentration of fundamental wisdom, the concentration of subsequently attained wisdom, and the concentration of sovereign wisdom — and says that in this the wisdom is the substance and the brightness is the function; and he further determines that if it is spoken of with respect to the station lodged within the three vehicles it answers only to the first concentration, that if it is discussed with respect to Vajra Banner's own virtue it is furnished with both wisdoms, the fundamental and the subsequent, and that if it is set forth with respect to the perfect teaching then only the one gate of the concentration of sovereign wisdom is taken.

One misreading to clear away: do not read the entering of concentration as a pause in the speaking of the Dharma. Concentration is not an interruption of the speaking; it is where the speaking draws its source. The whole of the words of the ten dedications that follow come out of this one entering of concentration.

Brought down to how one reads: before reading a long stretch of scripture, look first at what its opening sentence is stating. What this sentence states is — the words that follow have a provenance.

The Buddhas of the Ten Directions Are All Named Vajra Banner: Why the Names Should Be the Same

After the entering of concentration, in each and every one of the ten directions, beyond worlds as many as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand buddha-lands, there were in each direction buddhas as many as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand buddha-lands appearing before him, and all these buddhas bore one and the same title, which is Vajra Banner. Together they praised him, saying: “Excellent! Excellent! Good man! You have indeed been able to enter this samādhi of the bodhisattva's light of wisdom.”

First a question: why should the buddhas who come bear the same name as the bodhisattva who has entered concentration? Chengguan classes this as the passage that “displays in general what does the sustaining,” and within it he divides five segments — first, the marking out of the cause, namely the sentence “having entered this samādhi”; second, the telling of the nearness or distance from which the buddhas come; third, the telling of the number of the buddhas; fourth, the displaying that the names of the buddhas are the same; fifth, the proper making clear that the buddhas arrive. And he attaches to it what the number betokens, saying: a hundred thousand is said here in order to display that the station surpasses the practices that went before. As for the sameness of the name, Fazang explains this by saying that its import is the same as in the preceding assemblies: in every case the sameness of name is used to display that what does the sustaining and what is sustained are one dharma. The segment of praising Chengguan again opens into three: first the marking of the calling him excellent, next the particular extolling of his having gained the concentration, and last the displaying of the cause of his having gained it.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read “bearing one and the same title” as a coincidence or a figure of speech. The scriptural text goes straight on to say that this is the buddhas sustaining him together by their spiritual power, and the sameness of name is precisely the shape of that joint sustaining — the ones who sustain and the one who is sustained have, in the Dharma, a single name.

Brought down to how one reads: when one reads that the buddhas of the ten directions appear, look first at what they are called; in this scripture the name of those who sustain in any assembly is setting the title for the Dharma of that assembly.

The Five Powers: The Sustaining Is Not One Person's Affair

The buddhas next declare the source of his being able to enter concentration: this is the spiritual power of the buddhas as many as the dust-motes of a hundred thousand buddha-lands in each of the ten directions sustaining you together; and it is also the power of the past vow and the awesome spiritual power of the Tathāgata Vairocana; and it is further because your own wisdom is pure, and because the roots of goodness of the bodhisattvas have grown and become excellent — and only so are you made to enter this samādhi and expound the Dharma.

First a question: why must so many layers be listed? Chengguan explains this by saying that these are five kinds of cause — first, the spiritual power of the companion buddhas; second, the former vow of the host buddha; third, the present awesome power of the host buddha; fourth, the purity of the wisdom of the speaker himself; fifth, the roots of goodness of the hearers. And he compares it with the two preceding assemblies: the assembly of the ten abodes did not list the roots of goodness of the hearers, the assembly of the ten practices lacked the speaker's own power, and this assembly is furnished with both. Why is there this shadowing and abridging? He explains that the ten abodes betoken one's awakening by oneself upon first entering, that the ten practices betoken relinquishing oneself and benefiting others, and that by this assembly the mind of compassion embraces both self and others, so that on neither side is there obstruction. He points out further the reason why the five powers are required — cause, fruit, host, and companion, all four, must be furnished: the cause of the Dharma is long-standing and the vow is about to ripen into the converting of beings, and therefore host and companions alike come to sustain with awesome power; what is not a vessel of the Dharma is not transmitted to, and this displays the host within the cause, his own power; and where there is no stimulus there is no response, and this displays the companions within the cause, their roots of goodness.

Fazang explains this by establishing here four clauses — that by Rocana's former vow he causes us to do the sustaining; that by Rocana's present spiritual power there is a mutual stimulus and a joint sustaining; that because Vajra Banner's wisdom is pure and stimulates from below, therefore the sustaining is done; and that because the roots of goodness of the bodhisattvas are ripe in faculty and they ought to hear this Dharma, they stimulate the buddhas to sustain. The number of segments he opens differs from Chengguan's; the outlines of the two masters are recorded together in the final section, Lineage, without adjudication.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read the sustaining as an outer power poured in. Among the five powers three lie outside (the companion buddhas, the host buddha's vow, the host buddha's awesome power) and two lie within (the purity of one's own wisdom, and the roots of goodness of the hearers); lacking the two inner powers, the three outer powers would have nowhere to come down.

Brought down to how one reads: that an assembly of the Dharma can come about is never one person's affair. Behind every sentence you read there lies both the speaker's preparation and the hearers' preparation.

The Twenty-Two Clauses of “In Order That”: First Look at What the Ten Clauses Before Them Accomplish

Next comes the longest string in the whole passage — twenty-one clauses of ‘… because of that’, together with one last clause concluding what they belong to, twenty-two clauses in all. Chengguan classes this as “distinguishing what the sustaining is for,” and says that the first twenty-one clauses make clear in particular what it is for and that the last one clause concludes what they belong to; and that within the first twenty-one, the first ten mark out what is accomplished and the latter eleven make clear what is done.

Look first at the ten clauses before the rest: gaining purity and fearlessness; being furnished with eloquence that has no obstruction; entering the ground of wisdom that has no obstruction; abiding upon the great mind of omniscience; accomplishing roots of goodness that have no exhaustion; fulfilling the white dharmas that have no obstruction; entering the Dharma realm of the universal gate; displaying the spiritual power of all buddhas; the knowledge of recollection reaching to the limit of the past not being cut off; gaining the guarding and upholding of the faculties by all buddhas.

Chengguan peels this apart layer by layer from the back forward. He says: among these ten clauses, the first nine are inner virtues and the last one, “gaining the guarding and upholding of the faculties by all buddhas,” is the sustaining from without; among the first nine, the first eight are furnished crosswise with the many virtues, while the ninth, “the knowledge of recollection reaching to the limit of the past not being cut off,” is the vertical continuing without a break; among the first eight, the first seven are the substance of the Dharma, while the eighth, “displaying the spiritual power of all buddhas,” is the great function; among the first seven, the first six make it clear in particular, while the seventh, “entering the Dharma realm of the universal gate,” is the general statement — because within a single gate the many gates are furnished, gathering in merit and wisdom together, layer upon layer inexhaustibly; among the first six, the first five are what is furnished, while the sixth, “fulfilling the white dharmas that have no obstruction,” is the being free of fault — the merit and wisdom furnished do not correspond with the two hindrances and with what is subject to outflows; among the first five, the first four are wisdom, while the fifth, “accomplishing roots of goodness that have no exhaustion,” is merit; among the first four, the first three are one's own portion, while the fourth, “abiding upon the great mind of omniscience,” is the advance to what is superior, because it abides upon the wisdom of a buddha; among the first three, the first two are the speaking of the teaching, while the third, “entering the ground of wisdom that has no obstruction,” is the entering of realization, because to enter the mark of the Dharma realm of dependent origination is itself sovereign wisdom; and among the first two, fearlessness is not being afraid before conditions, and eloquence is constant speaking without a break. This way of reading he himself calls the folding back from the end.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read these ten clauses as a flat list on one and the same level. It is a structure that gathers in layer by layer from outer to inner, from function to substance, from the advance to what is superior back to one's own portion; if one cannot read out the layers, one reads only a string of fine-sounding descriptions.

Brought down to how one reads: whenever one meets a string of parallel clauses, first find which clause is the general and which the particular, which is the substance and which the function, and the whole string will stand.

The Latter Eleven Clauses: What the Sustaining Is to Bring About

The latter eleven clauses are these: expounding the many dharmas widely by measureless gates; having heard, understanding it all and making it plain, receiving and upholding it and not forgetting it; gathering in all the roots of goodness of the bodhisattvas; bringing to completion the aids to the path that go forth from the world; the wisdom of omniscience not being cut off; opening forth the great vow; explaining the real meaning; knowing the Dharma realm; making the bodhisattvas all be gladdened; cultivating the equal roots of goodness of all buddhas; guarding and upholding the lineage-nature of all tathāgatas.

First a question: how does this string differ from the ten clauses before it? Chengguan explains this by saying that the ten clauses before mark out what is accomplished while these eleven make clear what is done; and he draws a comparison by way of likeness — this is just as, in that passage of the ten grounds, the first ten clauses are for one's own benefit and the latter ten for the benefit of others. Among these eleven clauses, the first one, “expounding the many dharmas widely by measureless gates,” is the general, because it is a wide expounding; and the remaining ten are the particular. Within the particular he again divides four groups: the first one clause, “having heard, understanding it all and making it plain, receiving and upholding it and not forgetting it,” is with respect to the Dharma; the next three are with respect to station — “gathering in all the roots of goodness of the bodhisattvas” is gathering in those before the grounds, “bringing to completion the aids to the path that go forth from the world” is settling those upon the grounds, and “the wisdom of omniscience not being cut off” is illumining the fruit of buddhahood; the next three are with respect to cultivation — “opening forth the great vow” is causing the great vow of the ten dedications to be opened forth, “explaining the real meaning” is causing the true limit to be understood, and “knowing the Dharma realm” is causing it to be known that dedication is vast and equal to the Dharma realm; and the last three are with respect to persons — “making the bodhisattvas all be gladdened” is suiting their faculties and making them glad, “cultivating the equal roots of goodness of all buddhas” is, out of that gladness, learning the dedications of the buddhas of the three times, and “guarding and upholding the lineage-nature of all tathāgatas” is, because all sentient beings are rescued and guarded, the seed of buddhahood not being cut off.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read “explaining the real meaning” and “knowing the Dharma realm” as two branches of learning. What Chengguan attaches to them is “causing the true limit to be understood” and “causing it to be known that dedication is vast and equal to the Dharma realm” — the one clause points to the true limit among the three places of dedication, the other points to the measure of dedication; and the two clauses together are precisely the depth and the breadth of dedication.

Brought down to how one reads: what the sustaining is to accomplish comes down in the end upon “making the bodhisattvas.” Even the single item of gaining eloquence oneself is in order that it be spoken for others to hear.

The One Clause That Concludes What They Belong To: That Is to Say, Expounding the Ten Dedications of the Bodhisattvas

The twenty-one clauses once spoken, the scriptural text gathers them up with one clause only: “That is to say: expounding the ten dedications of the bodhisattvas.”

First a question: why should this one clause be counted as a clause by itself? Chengguan classes it as “concluding what they belong to,” and explains: if the ten dedications are spoken, then all the benefits spoken of above are accomplished, and therefore what the sustaining is for is exactly what the speaking of the Dharma is for. He at once adds a sentence — that here the six characteristics interfuse and gather one another in, and one should ponder it according to principle.

A further question: are the preceding twenty-one clauses then superfluous? They are not. Those twenty-one clauses open out one by one what a whole speaking of the Dharma is able to accomplish, and this one clause draws them all back into a single matter: expounding the ten dedications. The opening out is so that one may see how wide the benefit is; the drawing back is so that one may know that there is only one place to lay hold.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read this clause as a polite closing formula. Chengguan further marks off in particular that the outline of this assembly differs from that of the ten grounds — there it is with respect to the speaking of the grounds, here with respect to dedication; and moreover the meanings there run in sequence, while here it is the reverse.

Brought down to how one reads: if after a long string of vows there stands a clause beginning “that is to say,” that clause is the landing place of the whole string. Find the landing place when reading a scripture, and the long string will not read as scattered.

The Ten Clauses of the Sustaining by Speech: The Speaking of the Dharma Comes About Only When Self and Other, Cause and Fruit, Are Joined

The buddhas next say: “Son of the Buddha! You should, sustained by the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, expound this Dharma,” and below it nine clauses of “because of” — gaining the guarding mindfulness of the Buddha; abiding in the house of the Buddha; increasing the merit that goes forth from the world; gaining the light of the dhāraṇī; entering the Buddha-dharma that has no obstruction; the great light universally illumining the Dharma realm; gathering together the pure dharmas that are without fault; abiding upon the vast realm of wisdom; gaining the light of the Dharma that has no obstruction.

First a question: how does this section differ from the earlier “in order that”? Chengguan classes it as the first of the three karmas of sustaining — the karma of speech, exhorting him to speak so as to increase his eloquence, which is the sustaining by speech; and he says that the sustaining by speech comes first because it follows upon the convenience of the speaking just before. He further classes this text as ten clauses, the first one general and the rest particular; and the general clause says that the “expounding of this Dharma” has two kinds of power: first, the power of another, namely the scriptural words “because he gains the guarding mindfulness of the Buddha,” which is also called the power of the fruit and the power of the dominant condition; and second, one's own power, namely the eight clauses below, also called the power of the causal station and the power of causes and conditions. And so he sets down a sentence of great weight — this Dharma comes to be accomplished only when self and other, cause and fruit, near and far, are fused together.

The eight clauses of one's own power he also matches layer by layer: the first three are the power of pure dharmas that involve doing, and among them “abiding in the house of the Buddha” is the general — since one dwells in the house of the Buddha, one ought properly to proclaim the Dharma and carry on the family business; and the two clauses below it are the particular — “increasing the merit that goes forth from the world” is the growing of merit free of outflows, and “gaining the light of the dhāraṇī” is entering the wisdom of the all-holding. The next two clauses are the power of pure dharmas that involve no doing — “entering the Buddha-dharma that has no obstruction” is being free of the hindrances that are to be purified, meaning that the two hindrances are absent; and “the great light universally illumining the Dharma realm” is gaining the wisdom that is to be purified, meaning that phenomena and principle are universally illumined. The last three clauses display the power of the purity of the body, and are three kinds of exhaustive completion — “gathering together the pure dharmas that are without fault” is the exhaustive completion that is unlike the two vehicles, because compassion and wisdom are gathered together and the fault of relinquishing compassion and entering quiescence is left behind; “abiding upon the vast realm of wisdom” is the exhaustive completion of a bodhisattva, because mind, mentation, and consciousness are left behind and one relies solely upon the realm of the dharma-body of great wisdom; and “gaining the light of the Dharma that has no obstruction” is the exhaustive completion of a buddha, because wisdom without obstruction is itself the Buddha-dharma.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not suppose that because this is the station “before the grounds” the three exhaustive completions cannot be spoken of here. Chengguan himself raises this difficulty and answers it himself — that there are three exhaustive completions is, first, because the station of Samantabhadra in the perfect teaching interfuses and gathers all in, and second, because with respect to Vajra Banner's inner virtue the station is already at its utmost. And he sets down a further note: in those two assemblies of the ten abodes and the ten practices, what the sustaining was for had only ten clauses and the sustaining by speech proper had only one clause, whereas here both exceed what went before, and this betokens that the station increases in ascent and is near neighbor to the ten grounds.

Brought down to how one reads: for a person to be able to bring the Dharma out in words, the Buddha's guarding mindfulness alone is not enough, and one's own effort alone is not enough either. These ten clauses say precisely this.

The Ten Clauses of the Sustaining by Mind: What Is Given Is Not a Thing but the Capacity to Speak

At that time the buddhas gave the bodhisattva Vajra Banner ten things: measureless wisdom; eloquence that neither lingers nor is obstructed; the skillful means that distinguishes the phrases and their meaning; the light of the Dharma that has no obstruction; the equal body of a tathāgata; pure sounds of voice differentiated without measure; the bodhisattvas' inconceivable samādhi of good contemplation; the knowledge of the dedication of all roots of goodness that cannot be marred or destroyed; the fine skillful means accomplished by contemplating all dharmas; the eloquence that expounds all dharmas in all places without being cut off.

First a question: why ten graphs of “gave” one after another? Chengguan classes this as the karma of mind, sustaining him unseen so as to increase his wisdom, and says that of these ten clauses the first one is the general and the remaining nine the particular; and he sets down a further note — that these ten clauses are in the main the same as that passage of the ten grounds, only that the fifth and the sixth are exchanged in order, the rest running in the same sequence. The nine clauses he matches one by one to nine kinds of eloquence: “eloquence that neither lingers nor is obstructed” is the eloquence of non-attachment, for the Dharma is spoken without a break and there is neither lingering nor obstruction; “the skillful means that distinguishes the phrases and their meaning” is the eloquence of capability, because a wisdom well purified and capable has four kinds — object, dharma, act, and completion — and therefore it speaks of distinguishing the phrases and their meaning; “the light of the Dharma that has no obstruction” is the eloquence of free release, for when he speaks he need not wait to arrange it, his words are unbroken, and he is at ease everywhere; “the equal body of a tathāgata” is the eloquence of no admixture, because the body of wisdom is equal and knows the three marks throughout; “pure sounds of voice differentiated without measure” is the eloquence of being able to speak, because there are sounds that are pure; “the bodhisattvas' inconceivable samādhi of good contemplation” is the eloquence that issues in teaching, because stillness and discernment flow together; “the knowledge of the dedication of all roots of goodness that cannot be marred or destroyed” is the eloquence of fearlessness — and he even asks back: if wisdom cannot be destroyed, what is left to fear? — and he notes himself that the sixth and the seventh may perhaps be exchanged; “the fine skillful means accomplished by contemplating all dharmas” is the eloquence that is measureless, because the knowledge of all dharmas is able to proclaim, in accordance with beings, every kind of right teaching; and “the eloquence that expounds all dharmas in all places without being cut off” is the eloquence of converting alike, because he gains the fearless body and the rest belonging to all buddhas, and displays the excellent spiritual transformations of the three karmas according to those whom he delivers.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read “gave” as handing in from outside some ready-made thing. Not one of these ten things is an object; all of them are capacities — and nine of the ten bear directly upon the speaking of the Dharma. What the sustaining by mind sustains is the very mind by which he can bring this Dharma out in words.

Brought down to how one reads: true sustaining is not the doing of the thing for you; it is the making you able to bring it about.

Why Is This: Why the Sustaining Falls upon Him in Particular

The ten clauses of giving once done, the scriptural text sets itself a question: “Why is this?” — and answers itself: “Because of the power of the roots of goodness by which he entered this samādhi.”

First a question: whom is this question asking? Chengguan explains this by saying that it explains the reason for the sustaining falling upon one in particular — why do the buddhas sustain Vajra Banner in particular and not someone else? The answer does not lie on the side of the buddhas but on the side of Vajra Banner: because of the power of the roots of goodness by which he entered this samādhi.

A further question: is that not to come back again to the first sentence? Precisely. This passage began from the entering of concentration, spoke of the buddhas appearing, spoke of the five powers, spoke of the twenty-two clauses of what the sustaining is for, spoke of the sustaining by speech and the sustaining by mind, and in the end draws back once more upon that sentence about entering concentration. The sustaining falls upon him because he first entered this concentration; and that he was able to enter this concentration was said above to be brought about by the five powers. Hook the two ends together, and the circle of this passage closes.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read this sentence as a modest formula. It is a criterion — the sustaining is not a favor bestowed at random; it is a correspondence that has a cause.

Brought down to how one reads: if one would gain strength, ask first whether one has that corresponding power of roots of goodness. This sentence of scripture says it very plainly.

The Stroking of the Crown and the Coming Out of Concentration: Only When the Sustaining of the Three Karmas Is Complete Does the Speaking Begin

At that time the buddhas each with the right hand stroked the crown of the head of the bodhisattva Vajra Banner; and the bodhisattva Vajra Banner, having had the crown of his head stroked, thereupon rose from concentration and said to the bodhisattvas.

First a question: which kind of sustaining is the stroking of the crown? Chengguan classes it as the third of the three karmas — the karma of body, the stroking of the crown so as to increase his awesome power. At this point the sustaining of the three karmas, speech, mind, and body, is complete. As for the section of coming out of concentration, Chengguan classes it separately as one portion, calling it the portion of rising; but in the text of his commentary he passes over it in a single sentence, saying that the sustaining by body and the portion of rising are “in every case as spoken of before and after,” and does not open it out any further. This is a place where his outline of this chapter is spare, and it is set down as it stands, with no outline supplied on his behalf.

A further question: why must the coming out of concentration be listed as a portion of its own? Because the four portions of this prologue — the samādhi, the sustaining, the rising, and the main portion — are one single line: first there is the entering of concentration, next the sustaining, next the coming out of concentration, and only then the words. The sustaining of the three karmas all falls upon a person who is within concentration, and the coming out of concentration is the joining of the sustaining received within concentration onto speech.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read “thereupon rose from concentration” as meaning that the samādhi was over. What the scriptural text says is that he rose up out of concentration, not that the samādhi was exhausted; the whole speaking of the ten dedications that follows stands upon this one concentration.

Brought down to how one reads: between the sustaining and the speaking of the Dharma there is one step, and that step is the coming out of concentration. The scriptural text marks it out separately for us.

The Great Vow Fills the Dharma Realm: What the Substance of Dedication Is

After coming out of concentration, the first sentence Vajra Banner speaks is: “Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has an inconceivable great vow that fills the Dharma realm and is universally able to rescue and guard all sentient beings — that is to say: he learns and cultivates the dedications of all the buddhas past, future, and present.”

First a question: why, in speaking of the ten dedications, must the great vow be spoken of first? Chengguan classes this as the “general display of the substance and the characteristic” within the main portion, and says that if one goes straight by the scriptural text it may be divided into three: the first sentence marks out in general that the substance of the vow is hard to conceive — to hope and to seek is called vow, and this is the deep and wide inconceivability of Samantabhadra's inexhaustible ocean of vows; the second, from “fills” onward, displays the characteristic of that inconceivability — its substance fills and pervades the Dharma realm and is therefore hard to conceive, and its function universally rescues and guards and is therefore called great; the third, from “that is to say” onward, explains how it comes to be inconceivable, because what is practiced is the same as a buddha's. And beyond these three sentences he separately opens ten characteristics — the substance is deep, the function is wide, it gathers virtue inexhaustibly, it gives birth to the many practices, nothing else can destroy it, it does nothing at all for itself, it bears suffering without weariness, it does not turn back when kindness is met with ingratitude, it meets what goes against and what goes with it in many ways, and it goes to the very end of the ages to come; the first five are gathered under “fills the Dharma realm,” and the latter five under “universally able to rescue and guard.”

As for the substance of dedication, he opens it in three layers: first, the substance relied upon, which is the samādhi of the light of wisdom; second, spoken of by way of determining its very nature, which is the great vow just above; and third, spoken of by way of what it contains in general, which runs through six dharmas — concentration, wisdom, vow, compassion, the Dharma realm relied upon, and the working of penetrating wisdom. At the end he concludes that it takes inconceivable liberation as its substantial nature, and that only perfect fusion without obstruction is the substance of dedication.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read dedication as a supplementary act appended after a deed is done. The scriptural text attaches it to the “great vow” — without that vow which fills the Dharma realm, what is called dedication would be no more than a sentence spoken after a good deed. Chengguan sets down a further note: in the ten abodes and the ten practices there is the cause of the impermanent and beloved fruit, which is lacking here, because compassion having increased there is only the vow to rescue and guard, and one no longer seeks the fruit of awakening for oneself.

Brought down to how one reads: ask first how great one's own vow is, and then ask how far one's own dedication can reach. The vow is the substance; dedication is the turning.

How Many Kinds: A Way of Asking in Which One Questions Oneself and Answers Oneself

Next Vajra Banner asks himself and answers himself: “Son of the Buddha! How many kinds are there of the dedications of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva? Son of the Buddha! The dedications of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva are of ten kinds, which the buddhas of the three times all together expound. Which are the ten?”

First a question: whom is he asking? No one has asked him. From beginning to end of this passage no second speaker of the Dharma comes forward to make request — unlike that assembly of the ten grounds, where Vimukticandra makes request again and again. Vajra Banner raises the question himself and answers it himself: first he raises the name of dedication and asks after its number; next he marks out the number and says that this is what the buddhas expound together; and then he raises the question once more and lists the names. Chengguan classes this as the “particular showing of the names and their characteristics,” and divides it into four — first, raising the name and asking after the number; second, marking out the number and displaying its excellence (because it is what the buddhas expound together); third, asking after the number and listing the names; fourth, concluding the number and citing attestation.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read the asking and answering of oneself as a rhetorical talking to oneself. It is a way of setting up the teaching — first the question is raised on the hearer's behalf, so that he knows what he is listening to; then it is marked out that this is what the buddhas of the three times expound together, so that he knows what he hears is not the word of one school.

Brought down to how one reads: when one meets a place in a scripture where the question is raised and answered by the same speaker, one may well take up that question first — it was asked on your behalf to begin with.

The Ten Names: The Whole Outline of the Chapter Is Here

The ten names run one by one thus: first, the dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings; second, the indestructible dedication; third, the dedication equal to all the buddhas; fourth, the dedication that reaches every place; fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit; sixth, the dedication of entering all equal roots of goodness; seventh, the dedication that accords equally with all sentient beings; eighth, the dedication of the mark of suchness; ninth, the dedication of liberation without bondage and without attachment; tenth, the measureless dedication of entering the Dharma realm.

First a question: how are these ten names constituted? Chengguan explains this by saying that, spoken of as to their common characteristic, there are two layers of sense. The first: the two graphs “dedication” are in every case the vow that does the dedicating, and names such as “rescuing and guarding” are in every case the practice that is dedicated, and therefore all ten names receive their name by dependence upon what governs them. The second: names such as “rescuing and guarding” are in every case the particular characteristic of dedication, and the two graphs “dedication” are the common name of those particular characteristics — regarding the names in relation to one another, rescuing and guarding is just dedication; but if they are marked off from one another, then it is the dedication of rescuing and guarding and not the dedication that is indestructible, and that too runs through the naming by dependence upon what governs. At the end he says: follow whichever sense is convenient, and do not fix it. As for the explanations of the ten names one by one, he says these are to be left to the expounding portion and explained dedication by dedication, and that here only the common name is explained.

Now look at the names in relation to one another. The main portion only lists the ten names and does not explain their particular characteristics; and Chengguan too, in this passage, explains only the two senses of the common characteristic, the particular characteristic of each of the ten names being opened out only where the expounding portion raises each dedication in turn (the first dedication beginning at “what is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings”). Here the reader need only hold the ten names in the order of the scriptural text: “first, the dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings; second, the indestructible dedication; third, the dedication equal to all the buddhas; fourth, the dedication that reaches every place; fifth, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit; sixth, the dedication of entering all equal roots of goodness; seventh, the dedication that accords equally with all sentient beings; eighth, the dedication of the mark of suchness; ninth, the dedication of liberation without bondage and without attachment; tenth, the measureless dedication of entering the Dharma realm” — the names being set down in order, the doctrine of each dedication is left to be read in that dedication itself, and this passage supplies no explanation in advance.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not suppose that the ten names here must agree graph for graph with the headings of the ten dedications that follow. Reading them side by side graph by graph one finds that the third is here “the dedication equal to all the buddhas” while the raising clause in the later text has “the dedication equal to all buddhas,” one graph fewer; that the sixth is here “the dedication of entering all equal roots of goodness” while the later text has “the dedication that accords with and makes firm all roots of goodness”; that in the ninth the two graphs of “without bondage, without attachment” stand in the later text as “without attachment, without bondage,” the two being exchanged; and that the tenth is here “the measureless dedication of entering the Dharma realm” while the later text has “the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm.” These are variant forms within the base text itself; they are read as they stand, and there is no need to make them uniform on the text's behalf.

Brought down to how one reads: these ten names are the table of contents for the text of the ten dedications below. Before reading one dedication, come back and glance at its place among the ten names, and one will not lose the way.

Have Spoken, Will Speak, Now Speak: The Closing of a Passage

The last sentence: “Son of the Buddha! These are the ten kinds of dedication of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva; the buddhas of the past, the future, and the present have spoken them, will speak them, and now speak them.”

First a question: why must the buddhas of the three times be raised again at the close? Earlier, when the number was marked out, it had already been said that “the buddhas of the three times all together expound them,” and here it closes again with “have spoken, will speak, now speak” — Chengguan classes this as the fourth of his four divisions, “concluding the number and citing attestation.” To raise the buddhas of the three times when marking out the number is to display the excellence of what is spoken; to raise them when concluding the number is to attest that what is spoken is not empty: this is not the view of Vajra Banner alone, but a matter on which the buddhas of the three times speak with one voice.

The misreading to clear away is this: do not read the three times as a spreading out of time. The three phrases “have spoken,” “will speak,” and “now speak” fix one and the same matter firmly in all three times — which is to say, there is no age in which the Dharma of dedication is not spoken.

Brought down to how one reads: the prologue ends here. Within eight hundred graphs and more — entering concentration, the sustaining, coming out of concentration, setting up the vow, raising the question, listing the names — not one item is lacking, and yet not one sentence of the proper exposition has begun. Only from the next sentence does it begin: “What is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings?”

Lineage

In the gate on the explanation of the name, placed before the chapter, Chengguan gathers the objects toward which the two graphs “dedication” are directed into three places — sentient beings, awakening, and the true limit; the first two accord with characteristics, while the true limit is free of characteristics. He further opens these three places into ten senses: turning from oneself and directing it toward others; turning from the few and directing it toward the many; turning from one's own causal practice and directing it toward the causal practice of others; turning from cause and directing it toward fruit (which he again divides into directing it toward one's own fruit and directing it toward the fruit of others); turning from the inferior and directing it toward the superior; turning from inference and directing it toward realization; turning from phenomena and directing it toward principle; turning from differentiated practice and directing it toward perfectly fused practice; turning from the worldly and directing it toward what goes beyond the world; and turning from practice that accords with principle and phenomena and directing it toward the phenomena that principle brings about. The ten senses he then gathers back into the three places — the first three all dedicate toward sentient beings, the next three all dedicate toward awakening, the next two dedicate toward the true limit, and the last two run through both fruit and the true limit. This set of three places and ten senses is a way of reading that Chengguan established; the scriptural text itself does not have these designations.

Under the same gate, at the sense of “turning from cause and directing it toward fruit,” he cites the treatises of the lineage, and verbatim there is but one sentence, saying that the Jie shenmi jing, the Yogācārabhūmi, the Liang She lun and the rest are largely in agreement with this account. The Yanyi chao opens it out on his behalf: the Jie shenmi jing explains the name of perfection by five causes and conditions, of which the fifth is right dedication, and explains that as taking the perfections one has gathered and dedicating them in quest of the fruit of unsurpassed great awakening; the Yogācārabhūmi establishes three gates of undistorted dedication — skillfulness in means, benefiting others, and the taking in of everything in the ages past, future, and present; and the Liang She lun says that by wisdom one dedicates the six perfections that come before it, in order to gain great awakening. The author of the Chao also notes that the two explanations of Asvabhāva and Vasubandhu are both in agreement with this account, and himself remarks that the commentator points at it only briefly because those texts are easy, and so does not cite them at length. All of the above is recorded following what Chengguan cited.

The dividing of the outline differs between the two masters. Chengguan divides the explanation of the text of this chapter into ten portions — the samādhi, the sustaining, the rising, the main portion, the expounding, the auspicious responses, the concluding extension, the attestation, the verses of praise and exhortation to cultivate, and the comparative measure of merit; Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, divides only six — the samādhi, the sustaining, the rising, the main portion, the expounding, and the attestation — and gives his own reason for it, saying that because the verses are set apart according to the practices, no portion of verses is established, which is the same case as in the chapter of the ten grounds below. What this section answers to is, in Chengguan, the first four portions, and in Fazang also the first four; the names of the four portions are wholly the same in the two masters, and what differs is the opening and joining of the latter half. Both are recorded without adjudication.

The chapter title differs between the two texts. The eighty-fascicle text has “The Ten Dedications,” while the sixty-fascicle text has “The Bodhisattva Vajra Banner's Ten Dedications.” Chengguan notes that if one follows the general title and says “the ten dedications,” it is an explanation that carries a number; whereas if one takes the Sanskrit text and the Jin scripture, which both have “The Bodhisattva Vajra Banner's Ten Dedications,” then person and dharma are raised together, or it is taken as the dharma of a person, the person of a dharma, or a person who has a dharma, running through the two explanations. The text Fazang commented on is precisely the sixty-fascicle one, and so he sets out straight from the displaying of the dharma by lodging it in a person, saying that the name is marked out from the virtue and the dharma displayed by dependence on the person. The two accounts are recorded together without adjudication.

The explanation of the name of the samādhi likewise differs between the two masters. Chengguan explains the eighty-fascicle text's “light of wisdom,” establishing three senses of “light”; Fazang explains the sixty-fascicle text's “bright wisdom,” establishing four senses, with the one further gate of the concentration of sovereign wisdom, and citing the Dilun to explain brightness as counteracting ignorance. The number of the causes of the sustaining differs as well — Chengguan establishes five causes, while Fazang establishes four clauses at the place where that buddha himself explains the reason for doing the sustaining. In the comparison of the causes of the sustaining across three assemblies, Chengguan says that the ten abodes lacked the hearers' roots of goodness and that the ten practices lacked the speaker's own power, while Fazang says that the ten abodes had only the power of one's own roots of goodness and not the power of the bodhisattvas, and that the ten practices had the power of the bodhisattvas and not the power of one's own goodness; what the two masters point to as lacking differs in each case. It is recorded without adjudication.

Li Tongxuan, for his part, does not enter by way of the dividing of the outline at all, but sets up the meaning straight by symbolic reading. He says that in the ten abodes one is first born into the house of the wisdom of the buddhas, and that the ten practices are the gate of practice going forth from the world which dwells among the common and benefits the living; the wisdom gained in the preceding station is put to use among the common so as to benefit the living, and therefore it is called dedication — turning from the true and entering the common so as to benefit the living, and therefore it is named dedication. And he takes as a symbol the good friend of this station, the elder who sells incense, whose name is Blue Lotus: the Dharma-gate of the ten dedications is like the compounding of the many kinds of incense, taking the incense of the fivefold dharma-body together with great kindness and great compassion, the perfections, the four means of gathering, the four measureless minds, and on to the gates of nirvāṇa and of birth-and-death and all the toils of the dusts, and compounding them into one pellet, so that together they make one true incense of the Dharma realm, all of them taking the great vow as their head; and blue lotus among the many flowers is first in color and fragrance, and therefore betokens that this station is first among the gates of practice of the five stations. He explains separately, too, why this chapter is spoken in the Tuṣita Heaven — this heaven is the most excellent within the three realms, and the buddhas of the three times all in this heaven nourish the mind of awakening and fulfill the converting of the world; the upper realms delight in purity, the lower realms are attached to pleasure, and the heaven of the four heavenly kings is not the proper station, while this heaven alone stands in the middle of the desire realm; and he says that this heaven is the place where those who cultivate the three merits of giving, of keeping the precepts, and of concentration are born together. The track he establishes is wholly different from that of the two commentaries; it is recorded without adjudication.

The narrative text and the text listing the names in this passage are not found presented and cited graph for graph in the treatises of the Huayan school; what a scan of the Wujiao zhang and the Shixuan men yields is in every case a loose listing of stations, the Zhigui returns no occurrence, and what the Kongmu zhang lists is the table of subsidiary chapters for the whole division of the ten dedications — none of them belonging to this passage. The lack is recorded as it stands, and no text from elsewhere is used to fill it out.

As for the ten names established in this passage, what follows them is the outline of the text of the ten dedications: the expounding portion begins at “what is a bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings,” raising and answering each dedication in turn, each with its repeated verses, and the last sub-unit is the auspicious responses, the concluding extension, the attestation, the verses of praise and exhortation to cultivate, and the comparative measure of merit — the latter five of Chengguan's ten portions. The samādhi entered in this prologue is still what is relied upon when that point is reached.

Why the Name of the First Dedication Is So Long

Of the ten dedications, nine have short names — Indestructible, Equal to All Buddhas, Reaching Every Place, the Treasury of Inexhaustible Merit — and only the first is as long as a sentence: “the dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings.” This is no rhetorical flourish; the whole content of this station is written out in its name.

Chengguan glosses the name thus: great compassion widely relieving is what is called rescuing and guarding all sentient beings; great wisdom without attachment is why it says free of the mark of sentient beings. That is to say, wedged inside this one name are two things that on their face are contrary: on the one side sentient beings really are to be lifted out, and on the other no mark of ‘a sentient being’ may be had in the mind at all. Lacking the first half, the dedication becomes empty talk; lacking the second, the dedication becomes a fresh bondage.

First let a common misreading be set aside: being free of the mark of sentient beings is not ‘paying no heed to sentient beings’. From beginning to end the scriptural text speaks of rescuing, of undergoing suffering in their place, of making the body a pledge; not one sentence of it urges anyone to let go. What is left behind is the mark, not the matter.

Chengguan therefore divides the prose portion into two great sections: the first half is the dedication that follows marks, that is, dedicating to sentient beings and to awakening, which explains the words ‘rescuing and guarding all sentient beings’ in the name; the second half, beginning from ‘I should be like the sun’, is the dedication free of marks, that is, dedicating to the true limit, which explains the words ‘free of the mark of sentient beings’. He adds one further sentence that matters: every single clause that follows marks is itself already furnished with the freedom from marks spoken of below, and only the words have a before and an after — the practice is in a single mind. Brought down to the ground: in reading this passage, the first half and the second half are not to be taken as two exercises, but as the two eyes of one and the same thing.

What Is Dedicated: The Six Perfections and the Four Immeasurables

A dedication must have something to dedicate. The scriptural text opens not by speaking of dedication but by first declaring the roots of goodness that are dedicated: “he practices the dāna-pāramitā, purifies the śīla-pāramitā, cultivates the kṣānti-pāramitā, raises the pāramitā of vigor, enters the dhyāna-pāramitā, dwells in the prajñā-pāramitā, and great kindness, great compassion, great joy, great equanimity — cultivating measureless roots of goodness such as these.” The six perfections plus the four immeasurables: this is what this station dedicates.

What is of interest is that the six perfections take six different verbs: giving is ‘practiced’, the precepts are ‘purified’, patience is ‘cultivated’, vigor is ‘raised’, concentration is ‘entered’, wisdom is ‘dwelt in’. Li Tongxuan sets a question to each perfection in turn, and this is just his point — he says that the substance of patience requires the additional effort of study, because patience guards against the insults of others and is not, like giving, a matter of one's own being able to let go; and he says that the reason vigor must be ‘raised’ is that patience merely stills one's own resentment and is not a practice of gladly benefiting things, and so a practice of benefiting things must be raised besides. The verbs differ because the point at which each perfection is taken up differs.

Then is the ‘substance’ that is dedicated the six perfections and the four immeasurables, or something else? Chengguan records that the ancients had two accounts: on one account, since this station is named rescuing and guarding and freedom from marks, then rescuing and guarding is compassion and freedom from the mark of sentient beings is wisdom, and so compassion and wisdom are taken as the substance of the practice; on the other account, since it is for the sake of dedicating that the manifold roots of goodness are cultivated, then those roots of goodness may themselves be called the substance. He preserves both and does not adjudicate. Fazang, for his part, takes the roots of goodness of the practices — the six perfections, the four immeasurables, and the rest — straightforwardly as the substance of the practice. Li Tongxuan sets up yet another way, taking the dharma-body of great wisdom as the substance of what is left behind, while the ten perfections and the four immeasurable minds are what is taken as the object in rescuing and guarding sentient beings within birth-and-death. Each of the three has his own track; they are recorded here, and no adjudication is made among them.

At the very moment of cultivating the roots of goodness the scriptural text at once attaches the first vow: “May these roots of goodness be universally able to benefit all sentient beings, causing them all to be pure, on to the ultimate, and forever to leave behind the measureless suffering and distress of the hells, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the place of Yama, and the rest.” Note the sequence of this vow — first universal benefit, then purity, then the ultimate, and only at the last does it speak of leaving the evil destinies. Getting free of suffering is not the terminus; it is the lowest rung.

Ten Times ‘I Shall Be, for All Sentient Beings’

Next comes the first set of parallel clauses in this passage: to be for sentient beings a house, a guard, a refuge, a resort, a security, a light, a torch, a lamp, a guide, a great guide. All ten clauses take the form ‘for all sentient beings I shall be such-and-such … for the sake of …’ (the first clause is capped with the two words ‘I shall’, and the seventh clause, ‘for the sake of breaking apart all their darkness of ignorance’, and the tenth, ‘for the sake of giving them the great wisdom that is unobstructed’, do not use the word ‘causing’), and they read like a text of vows.

These ten clauses are not ten pleasant metaphors set side by side; they have a sequence from shallow to deep. Chengguan adjudicates them clause by clause: the first clause leaves behind the fruit of suffering, the second the cause of suffering, and the third runs through both cause and fruit, because within the five fears the three paths are contained; these first three run through both shallow and deep. The latter seven, however, are solely in terms of the ultimate — the fourth is the gaining of awakening, the fifth the gaining of nirvāṇa, the sixth extinguishes the source of the afflictions, root unawareness, and one who extinguishes this is like the great brightness of the sky, the seventh extinguishes the darkness of the knowable, and so the scriptural text says ‘breaking apart all their darkness of ignorance’, like a person holding a torch who sees everything in detail; the eighth causes the gaining of liberation and is therefore called a lamp; the ninth causes the realization of the dharma-body, and so it says ‘leading them to enter the true Dharma’; the tenth causes the accomplishment of prajñā, that is, the wisdom free of the two obstructions, which is also the wisdom in which the expedient and the real are unobstructed.

Set aside a misreading: being a house and being a guard is not care of a charitable kind. The house spares people from things of suffering; the lamp causes people to dwell in the place of ultimate purity — the landing point of the ten clauses climbs the whole way up, and comes to rest at last on ‘giving them the great wisdom that is unobstructed’. This is why Chengguan says the first three run through shallow and deep while the latter seven are solely the ultimate. The last thing the bodhisattva gives a person is wisdom, not shelter.

When the ten clauses are done, the scriptural text closes them with a sentence of its own: “When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dedicates his manifold roots of goodness in this way, he benefits all sentient beings equally, and ultimately causes them all to attain omniscience.” Chengguan adjudicates this as the general conclusion, saying that since the preceding ten clauses run through shallow and deep, here they are caused ultimately to gain the one great matter.

Neither Kin nor Friend, Guarded Just the Same

The second division of the dedication that follows marks Chengguan names rescuing and guarding under vexation — the object of rescue and guard has become the very person who is doing you harm.

The scriptural text says that the bodhisattva “toward those who are neither kin nor friend guards and dedicates, with no difference from kin and friends.” It then asks itself “Why is this?” and answers itself: “Because the bodhisattva-mahāsattva has entered the equality of all dharmas, and does not give rise, toward sentient beings, to a single thought that they are not kin, not friend.”

The position of this reason must be seen clearly. It is not ‘because my cultivation is good, therefore I bear it’, but ‘because he has already entered the equality of all dharmas, therefore not even the single thought that this one is not kin or friend arises’. The former is suppression; in the latter there is simply no such discrimination there to be suppressed. The scriptural text goes further still: “Suppose sentient beings give rise, toward the bodhisattva, to a mind of enmity and harm: the bodhisattva still looks upon them with kindly eyes, and from first to last has no anger.” And it does not stop at not being angry — “universally he acts as a good friend for sentient beings, expounding the true Dharma and causing them to cultivate it.” The one doing harm has become instead the one to be transformed.

Brought down to the ground: examine at which layer your own equanimity has been cultivated. If it is still at ‘he treats me thus, and I am still good to him’, that is patience; what the scriptural text speaks of is that even the compartment of division between ‘he’ and ‘I’ has already entered equality. The reason this section is placed after the ten clauses of vows is precisely that vows are easy to make, and not turning back when vexed is the real thing.

The Great Sea Is Not Spoiled by the Many Poisons

The scriptural text sets up two similes for rescuing and guarding under vexation, the first of which is the great sea: “It is like the great sea, which none of the many poisons can alter or ruin. So it is with the bodhisattva”

Chengguan fits the three legs of this simile together one by one: the sea is a simile for the bodhisattva, because his capacity is great; the many poisons are a simile for evil sentient beings; the not being altered is a simile for the bodhisattva's not being disturbed — and what the whole simile means to say is that he meets evil conditions and yet his original mind is not altered.

The marks of what vexes him the scriptural text lists without the least softening: “all who are foolish and benighted, who have no wisdom, who do not know kindness received, who are hate-filled, stubborn, and vicious, who are arrogant and self-important, whose mind's eye is blind, who do not recognize good dharmas … evil sentient beings of such kinds, pressing and vexing him in every manner, are unable to shake or disturb him.” Seven marks, and every clause is a person one really does meet.

The teaching weight here falls on the word ‘capacity’. The reason the sea is not spoiled by the many poisons is not that the sea has found a method for dealing with poison; it is that the sea is big enough. And so the road for counteracting hatred and vexation is pointed by the scriptural text not toward technique but toward volume. Set aside a misreading: not being disturbed is not the same as feeling nothing — what the scriptural text says is “unable to shake or disturb him,” that is, those pressings and vexings cannot move him; not that he is numb.

The Sun Rises, and Does Not Fail to Rise Because Someone Cannot See It

The second simile is the sun-disc, and it is the longest simile in this passage.

The scriptural text says: the sun god-son appears in the world, and does not, because those born blind cannot see him, hide himself and fail to appear; nor does he, because of the city of the gandharvas, the hand of an asura, the trees of Jambudvīpa, towering crags, deep valleys, dust and mist, smoke and cloud, and things of that sort covering and obstructing him, hide himself and fail to appear; nor does he, because the seasons alter and change, hide himself and fail to appear.

Chengguan adjudicates this simile as ‘meeting evil and not ceasing to benefit’, dividing it into the three sections of simile, matching, and question-with-explanation; and within the simile there are two further parts, first the sun-disc being furnished with virtues, then its not ceasing when it meets conditions. He fits the ten clauses of the matching one by one to the ten virtues of the sun: the wheel of merit already full; the use of wisdom deep and vast and hard to fathom; right mindfulness roaming the sky with neither high nor low; the wind of kindness employed without turning back and without tiring; the round wheel of merit and wisdom manifestly illumining the dharma of emptiness; the mountains and valleys of the three vehicles universally illumined without partiality; causing the eye to behold the myriad images and to comprehend the meaning of the real and the conventional; causing those who abide in the karma of their own vehicle to accomplish it by wisdom; ever benefiting, without rest by day or night; and not speaking of forsaking even the vessel-less one born blind. And the scriptural text at the matching does indeed correspond clause for clause: “he has great merit, his mind is deep and vast, he observes with right mindfulness, and does not shrink back; because he wishes to bring merit and wisdom to their ultimate accomplishment, toward the surpassing dharmas above he gives rise in his mind to aspiration and delight; the light of the Dharma shines everywhere and he sees every meaning; toward the manifold dharma-gates his wisdom is sovereign; always for the sake of benefiting all sentient beings he cultivates good dharmas, and he has never mistakenly given rise to a thought of forsaking sentient beings”

The side of the obstructing conditions is matched item by item as well. Chengguan matches them separately thus: viciousness is matched with being born blind; wrong views with the city of the gandharvas, because that city causes people falsely to suppose it real; hatred and turbidity with the hand of an asura, since the sun is the vanguard of Śakra and the asura, being hateful, covers and obstructs it; not knowing to repay kindness with the trees of Jambudvīpa and with the towering crags and deep valleys; ‘not because he dwells in one place together with the common and the foolish’ with the foregoing dust and mist, smoke and cloud, because these can fill the whole sky, just as the common and the foolish dwell in one and the same place; and ‘not because sentient beings again and again give rise to faults’ with the foregoing alteration and change of the seasons, because frequently arising faults and delusions, now good and now evil, are just like day and night and the light and dark forces losing their measure. Chengguan matches these evil conditions as eleven items — the obstructing conditions named in the base text are seven, and there are besides the two conditions of being born blind and of the seasons altering and changing, together with the general gathering-up of ‘things of such kinds’; the number in which they are opened or combined follows the commentary.

The matching in the scriptural text has in all four clauses of ‘not because’: not because their nature is vicious and hard to tame does he forsake them and cultivate the dedication no more; not because they do not know to repay kindness does he fall away from the bodhisattva's practice and forsake the path of awakening; not because he dwells together with the common and the foolish does he cast off the roots of goodness that accord with reality; not because they again and again give rise to faults does he give rise to a mind of weariness. And on the positive side there is only one clause — “rather he takes the bodhisattva's great vow as his armor and adorns himself with it, rescuing and guarding sentient beings, constantly without turning back.” Brought down to the ground: the four openings through which the mind falls back are each stopped up by the scriptural text one by one, and the stopping is done in one way only — by vow.

The Sun Does Not Appear for One Matter Only: Compassion and Wisdom Illumine at Once

At the end of rescuing and guarding under vexation the scriptural text again asks itself “Why is this?” and cites the simile of the sun once more: “It is like the sun god-son, who does not appear in the world for one matter only.”

Chengguan lays bare the sense of this question: the question is asking ‘why does he not weary of and forsake the evil?’, and the explanation answers ‘because compassion and wisdom are even’. He divides the matching into two — first the great compassion is matched with the sun, evil being its object; from the beginning it is for all, so how should it single out the evil for exclusion? As the sun benefits universally, would it forsake even the withered tree? Then, from ‘so too’ onward, wisdom is matched with the sun, since good and evil are illumined evenly.

The matching in the scriptural text is one set of negations plus one set of affirmations. The negations: not for one sentient being, not for purifying one buddha-land, not for having faith in one buddha, not for seeing one buddha, not for comprehending one dharma. The affirmations: “for the sake of universally purifying all buddha-lands, of universally having faith in all the buddhas, of universally serving and making offerings to all the buddhas, of universally understanding all the buddha-dharmas, he raises the great vow, cultivates the manifold roots of goodness, and dedicates them to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi.”

This section is the close of the whole of rescuing and guarding under vexation, and it is also the first place in the passage where the second of the three places of dedication — awakening — is brought out. The ten clauses of being a house and a guard above were dedicating to sentient beings; here four occurrences of ‘dedicates to unsurpassed perfect awakening’ come one after another, and this is dedicating to awakening. Of the three places of dedication, this passage has now two of them.

Taking the Buddha-Dharma as the Object: The True Dedication of Ten Kinds of Mind

After rescuing and guarding under vexation, the scriptural text turns to the marks of dedication. Chengguan divides this in two: first the mind of dedication is distinguished, then the vow of dedication.

The part on the mind speaks first of the object: “The bodhisattva-mahāsattva takes the dharma of the buddhas as his object, raises a vast mind and a mind that does not turn back, and through measureless kalpas gathers up the jewel of the mind that is rare and hard to obtain, and is completely equal with all the buddhas.” Chengguan glosses this as meaning that the object taken is vast, that above it is equal to the mind of the buddhas, taking the dharma of the cause and fruit of perfect awakening as the object of contemplation; and because it is perfectly clear and to be prized, it is called a jewel.

Then two kinds of mind are produced: first, toward the buddhas above, gaining the mind of pure faith; second, below, being of one substance of great compassion with sentient beings — and the scriptural text says exactly “his faith is pure, his great compassion is firm.” It is in dependence on these two that the ten minds are accomplished: “a most profound mind, a joyful mind, a pure mind, a most excellent mind, a gentle mind, a kind and compassionate mind, a pitying mind, a mind that gathers and guards, a mind that benefits, a mind that brings peace and joy” Chengguan glosses the first five: the first is called most profound because it tallies with principle; the second is called joyful because one congratulates oneself and congratulates others; the third is called pure because it is apart from faults; the fourth is called most excellent because it surpasses the two vehicles; the fifth is called gentle because it corresponds with the joy of concentration; and the remaining five may be known.

The last sentence is the true blade of this section: “universally for sentient beings he makes a true dedication, not merely with the words of his mouth.” Chengguan glosses it: because the mind accords with the mouth it is called true. Brought down to the ground: the ten minds are the measuring rule of the mind — if a dedication reaches only as far as the lips, not one of these ten minds will be present.

May All Sentient Beings: From Merit Complete to Dwelling Where the Buddhas Dwell

The vow of dedication is divided into two rounds of ‘he gives rise to this thought’.

The first round vows that sentient beings become vessels of the Dharma: “By my roots of goodness, may all who are born in any of the destinies, all sentient beings, gain purity; may their merit be complete, indestructible, and without end; may they always be honored, their right mindfulness unforgotten; may they obtain settled wisdom and be furnished with measureless knowledge; and may their bodily, verbal, and mental deeds, and all their merit, be complete and adorned.”

The second round vows that sentient beings gain the fullness of the Dharma, and Chengguan adjudicates it as four sections. The first is the general raising of meeting the conditions and gaining the Dharma — serving and making offerings to all the buddhas with none of it in vain, pure faith toward the buddhas indestructible, hearing the true Dharma and cutting off every doubt, holding it in memory unforgotten, and practicing as it is spoken. The second is the fullness of the virtues of one's own portion — raising a mind of reverence, bodily deeds pure, dwelling in measureless and vast roots of goodness, “forever leaving poverty behind, the seven riches complete”; and Chengguan notes in particular that these seven riches are the first seven of the ten treasuries in the chapter “The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries”. The third is the completeness of the virtues of advancing further — in the presence of the buddhas always following them in study, accomplishing measureless surpassing and wondrous roots of goodness, awakening and understanding equally, dwelling in omniscience, looking upon sentient beings equally with an unobstructed eye, and on to the manifold marks adorning the body, speech pure and subtle, the faculties tamed, the ten powers accomplished, the good mind fulfilled, and dwelling upon nothing. The fourth clarifies the fullness of the fruit gained — “causing all sentient beings universally to gain the happiness of a buddha, to gain measureless dwelling, and to dwell where the buddhas dwell.” At this clause Chengguan makes a further cross-reading, pointing out that the third dedication briefly sets forth ten kinds of happiness, that is, the inconceivable happiness of dwelling where the buddhas dwell and the rest, and that the chapter “The Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddha” briefly sets forth ten kinds of measureless dwelling, that is, ever dwelling in great compassion and the rest.

Set aside a misreading: this long string is not a heaping-up of benedictions. It has four clear grades — meeting the conditions, one's own portion, advancing further, gaining the fruit — and it is a complete road to buddhahood written out in the shape of a vow.

Undergoing Suffering in Their Place: Can Such a Vow Stand?

The third division of the dedication that follows marks is rescuing and guarding by undergoing suffering in their place, and this is the heaviest section of the whole passage, and also the one most easily called into question.

The scriptural text begins from a seeing: the bodhisattva sees sentient beings making evil karma and undergoing manifold grave sufferings, and because of these obstacles they do not see the Buddha, do not hear the Dharma, do not recognize the Saṅgha. Thereupon he makes a vow: “I shall, within those evil destinies, undergo the manifold sufferings in place of the manifold sentient beings, causing them to gain liberation.”

Immediately after the vow come the marks of a firm mind, seven negations in a row in the scriptural text: “he does not forsake, does not evade, is not startled, is not frightened, does not draw back, is not faint-hearted, and has no weariness.” Chengguan names these seven marks one by one: not forsaking what he practices; not evading things of suffering; not being startled by their sudden arrival; not being frightened into confusion and inversion; not drawing back from great compassion; not being faint-hearted at much suffering; not being wearied by long suffering.

Then the scriptural text asks itself “Why is this?” Chengguan says that this question contains two senses: first, the suffering sentient beings have made for themselves — what has that to do with the bodhisattva, and why should he undergo it in their place? Second, the suffering is severe and hard to bear — why is he not wearied? And the answer in the scriptural text is a single sentence: “because just as he has vowed, he is determined to shoulder all sentient beings and cause them to gain liberation.” Chengguan glosses it: because his original vow shoulders them; if on meeting suffering he were wearied, how could he shoulder anything?

Further down, the scriptural text speaks of the sufferings to be rescued in two layers. First it rescues from the eight sufferings and the eight difficulties: “all sentient beings, in the places of the manifold sufferings and difficulties of birth, old age, sickness, and death, turn along with their karma, are of wrong views and without wisdom, and have lost the manifold good dharmas — I ought to rescue them and cause them to get out.” Chengguan points out that turning along with their karma is the suffering of being bound by karma, and being of wrong views and without wisdom is the suffering of delusion. Then it rescues from the suffering of being deluded about the four truths: “bound by the net of craving and covered over by the canopy of delusion” — Chengguan says this is not knowing origination, delusion and craving being the root, which is the path of the afflictions; “dyed and attached to the manifold existences, pursuing them and not letting go, entering the cage of suffering, performing the deeds of demons, their merit and wisdom alike exhausted” — this is the path of karma, like birds and beasts that, because of their craving for food, enter into the cage; “always harboring doubt, not seeing the place of peace and security” — this is the path of no birth, the cause of seeing cessation; “not knowing the road out” is the truth of the path; “turning without cease within birth-and-death, constantly sunk in the mire of the manifold sufferings” is the truth of suffering. The four truths are deluded about one by one, and only so does the suffering run on unbroken.

Having seen this, the bodhisattva gives rise to two minds, which the scriptural text calls “a mind of great compassion, a mind of great benefit.” Chengguan divides them: he gives rise to the mind of great compassion in order to free them from suffering and origination; to the mind of great benefit in order to cause them to gain the purity of cessation and the path. Compassion answers to suffering and origination, benefit to cessation and the path — the four truths are matched here once again.

How Can Suffering Be Undergone in Another's Place: Chengguan's Seven Senses and Three Answers

In the section on undergoing suffering in their place, the largest question of old is this: the suffering of sentient beings is drawn on by their own karma and transformed by their own mind — on what ground can a bodhisattva undergo it in their place?

Chengguan here sets the question himself, and answers with seven senses, which are recorded here one by one with their attributions. The first is that by suffering he binds himself and increases the thought of compassion — he cites the text of the ground of pure and surpassing intent in the Yogācārabhūmi, saying that the bodhisattva cultivates pity toward the many suffering beings, and in order to remove the sufferings of things vows to undergo them in his own body, and that by the power of this compassionate vow he gains entry to the first ground; Chengguan glosses it himself, saying that in this sense there is only the intent of the compassionate vow, and the body cannot substitute, but by the decisiveness of compassion he himself obtains the surpassing benefit. The second is that the bodhisattva, from the outset seeking the Dharma for the benefit of beings and undergoing austerities, is already said to be undergoing in their place; and being afterwards able to act as a dominant condition for things is likewise called undergoing in their place. The third is that he retains the defilements to share in their affairs, receiving a body that has suffering, and speaks the Dharma for sentient beings so that they do not make the causes of suffering — the cause perishing and the fruit being lost, this too is called undergoing in their place. The fourth is that when sentient beings are about to make the karma of the unremitting hells and the rest, the bodhisattva transforms and stops them, and when they do not comply he cuts off their lives and himself undergoes the karmic recompense of the evil destinies, causing them to be spared the great suffering of the unremitting hells; Chengguan says this follows the account in the Liang translation of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, and that the Nirvāṇa's King Sudarśana of the immortals accords with this sense too — it is not merely intent. The fifth is that at the outset he cultivates the right vow of undergoing suffering for beings, and at the ultimate station the vow is accomplished as sovereignty, so that he is constantly within the evil destinies rescuing and undergoing for sentient beings, like the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and Manifest Adornment King and the rest. The sixth is that this vow tallies and is one with suchness, the suffering of sentient beings being of the same nature as suchness, so that by a vow of the same suchness he steals in to the suffering that is itself the real. The seventh is that Samantabhadra takes the Dharma realm as his body, and all sentient beings are the Dharma realm, so that the suffering sentient beings undergo is always the bodhisattva's — and this is called undergoing in their place.

Chengguan himself further sets these seven senses in layers: the first is only intent; the next two are only in terms of acting as a dominant condition; the fourth and fifth senses are really able to undergo in the body; the sixth and seventh senses are a fusion in the contemplation of principle. He also poses a difficulty: if we follow the fourth and fifth senses, he ought to be able to undergo universally in their place — why then are there still sentient beings undergoing suffering? The answer has three senses — first, there is having a connection and having no connection, and only those who have a connection with the bodhisattva can be undergone for; second, karma is either fixed or unfixed, and the unfixed can be undergone for; third, if undergoing the suffering is of benefit, the bodhisattva lets him undergo it, for only so can he ultimately get free of suffering, as parents teach a child and hand him to a strict master to be disciplined — a hidden benefit of this kind is not what the ordinary and the lesser can know.

All of the above is Chengguan's adjudication, recorded here without adjudication of my own. Brought down to the ground: the reason this section is to be read is not to settle whether undergoing suffering in another's place is real or hollow, but to see clearly how many layers of reality a vow can have.

I Would Rather Undergo It Alone: The Body as the Pledge

The mind of undergoing suffering in their place is pushed forward layer by layer through five rounds of ‘he again gives rise to this thought’. Chengguan adjudicates the first three rounds as clarifying the mind of undergoing suffering in their place, and the latter two as clarifying the mind of dedication.

The first three rounds: the first is a single-minded universal rescue with no thought for himself — “it is not for my own body that I seek liberation, but only to rescue and relieve all sentient beings”; the second is undergoing the manifold sufferings to the full with no mind of sloth — “I shall universally, for all sentient beings, undergo the manifold sufferings to the full, causing them to get out of the great ravine of the measureless sufferings of birth-and-death”, and Chengguan glosses ‘great ravine’ as being like the ravine at the tail-gate of the ocean, which drinks in and swallows sentient beings without a moment's pause; the third is a settled resolve to protect with no mind of falsity — “I vow to protect all sentient beings and in the end not to forsake them; what I say is truthful, without falsity.”

Within the second round stand the two most famous sentences of this passage: “I would rather undergo such manifold suffering alone than have sentient beings fall into the hells. I shall, in those places of danger and difficulty — the hells, the animals, the place of Yama, and the rest — make my own body the pledge, ransoming all the sentient beings of the evil destinies and causing them to gain liberation.”

The four words ‘make my own body the pledge’ must be taken exactly — a pledge is something pawned. This is not the pathos of taking another's punishment; it is the language of a transaction in which one's whole self is put in to get another out. The ground on which the scriptural text dares to say this sentence lies in the question-with-explanation of the preceding section: because his original vow shoulders them.

Set aside a misreading: this is not telling anyone to go seeking suffering. Chengguan's gloss on the sense of the question in this section is perfectly clear — the suffering of one body causes the liberation of many, and therefore he vows to undergo it himself, which shows the depth of his compassion. The measure lies in ‘causing the liberation of many’, not in the undergoing of suffering itself.

Not Seeking the Path for His Own Body: The Fault of the Five Desires

After the third round of thought, the scriptural text again asks “Why is this?”, and the answer is in two layers. Chengguan says: the first is that he differs from the lesser vehicle, in that it is not for himself; and the second, from ‘nor is it to seek’ onward, clarifies that he differs from the fault of the common person's attachment to desire.

The layer that differs from the common person is stated by the scriptural text with the utmost weight: “Of the pleasures of the world there is not one that is not suffering. They are the realm of the demons, what fools covet, what the buddhas censure; all suffering and calamity arise from them” It then lists their fruits: “the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals, the place of Yama, wrath and anger, quarrels and litigation, mutual reviling and disgrace. Evils of such kinds all come about through coveting and attachment to the five desires.” It then lists their obstruction: “To be besotted with the five desires is to be far from the buddhas and obstructed from birth in heaven — how much more from attaining anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!”

Chengguan glosses these three layers thus: in the text, the substance is itself suffering, it is further able to give birth to suffering, it obstructs the near — the pleasures of heaven — how much more the great awakening, where delusion and its habits are both done away with. The substance is suffering, it further gives birth to suffering, it obstructs the near fruit, it obstructs the far fruit besides — four layers pressing down one after another. He appends a word of warning as well: when it is said nowadays that lust is itself the path, one had better get the sense of it aright.

The scriptural text's conclusion is a contrast: “The bodhisattva contemplates in this way that the world covets a little savor of desire and undergoes measureless suffering; in the end it is not for the sake of that pleasure of the five desires that he seeks unsurpassed awakening and cultivates the bodhisattva practice; but only to bring peace and joy to all sentient beings does he raise the mind and cultivate, fulfilling the great vow, cutting through the snares of the manifold sufferings of sentient beings and causing them to gain liberation.” What is coveted is ‘a little savor of desire’, and what is undergone is ‘measureless suffering’ — this pairing of small against great is the arithmetic of the whole section.

The Ten Kinds of Happiness and Three Offices

The latter two rounds of ‘he again gives rise to this thought’ are the mind of dedication. Chengguan divides them: the first round thinks of causing them to gain happiness, the latter round thinks of the body as their protection.

The round on gaining happiness lists ten kinds of happiness: “the ultimate happiness, the happiness of benefit, the happiness of not receiving, the happiness of stillness, the happiness of no dependence, the happiness of no movement, the measureless happiness, the happiness of not forsaking and not turning back, the happiness of not ceasing, the happiness of omniscience.” Chengguan adjudicates their structure: the first clause is the general, and the remaining nine are the particular; and within the particular, the first eight belong to nirvāṇa and the last one to awakening. He glosses the first eight one by one as well — dwelling in nirvāṇa one is able to establish great matters, and so it is called benefit; the second is the extinction of the mental factors, and so it is called not receiving; the third is the realization of the unconditioned, and so it is called stillness; the fourth is that there is no grasper and no grasped, and so it is called no dependence; the fifth is that marks cannot shift it, and so it is called no movement; the sixth is that it is vast and without measure, and so it is called measureless; the seventh is that the true nature of birth-and-death is itself nirvāṇa, and so there is nothing forsaken, and wisdom is merged with the true principle, and so there is no turning back; the eighth is that once gained it is forever constant, clear and unceasing. He also cross-reads the five happinesses of the Jiejie jing — the happiness of leaving home, the happiness of seclusion, the happiness of stillness, the happiness of awakening, the happiness of nirvāṇa — and points out that those run through gods and humans, while here it is solely the ultimate.

The round on protection gives three offices: the taming master, the minister of the army, and the ship-master. The scriptural text says “holding aloft the torch of great wisdom, showing them the road of peace and security, causing them to leave danger and difficulty behind, and by skillful means causing them to know the true meaning; and in the sea of birth-and-death being the skilled ship-master of omniscience, ferrying the manifold sentient beings and causing them to reach the other shore”. Chengguan divides it: the first shows the road of peace and security and causes them to gain awakening, which is called knowing the true meaning; the latter causes them to cross the sea of birth-and-death and to gain great nirvāṇa, which is called reaching the other shore. The first half is awakening and the latter half is nirvāṇa — the two fruits are once again present at the same time.

Rescuing and Guarding as Is Fitting: The Seven Things the Dedication Accomplishes

For the conclusion of rescuing and guarding by undergoing suffering in their place, the scriptural text uses a single ‘that is to say’ to head a string of items. Chengguan adjudicates it: first the general indication, then from ‘that is to say’ the particular display; and within the particular the first clause is rescuing and guarding, while all the rest are the benefits accomplished.

The seven things, one by one, are these: rescuing and guarding all sentient beings as is fitting and causing them to get out of birth-and-death; serving and making offerings to all the buddhas and gaining the unobstructed wisdom of omniscience; forsaking the manifold demons; keeping far from bad friends; drawing near to all bodhisattva good friends; extinguishing every fault and offense and accomplishing pure karma; being furnished with the bodhisattva's vast practices and vows and measureless roots of goodness.

What is worth noting is the sequence: first getting out of birth-and-death, then making offerings to the buddhas and gaining wisdom, and only then forsaking the demons, keeping far from bad friends, and drawing near to good friends, and at the last extinguishing offenses and accomplishing karma and being furnished with vows and practices. The benefits accomplished are not a scattered list of advantages; they are a single line running from getting free of suffering to accomplishing practice. And the first clause of the whole line, ‘rescuing and guarding as is fitting’, is the echo of this dedication's own name within this section — the words ‘as is fitting’ show that rescuing and guarding is not one fixed set of methods, but differs according to the occasion.

I Alone: One Sun Is Enough

The fourth division of the dedication that follows marks Chengguan names rescuing and guarding by drawing them out from afar, and he glosses its sense: standing alone with a great resolve, universally for sentient beings and with no expectation.

The scriptural text first sets up the similes. The simile of illumining alone: “It is not because the sentient beings of the four continents are many that many suns appear; let but one sun rise, and it can universally illumine all sentient beings.” The simile of accomplishing benefit: sentient beings do not know day and night, travel about and observe, and set up their manifold undertakings by a light of their own bodies; all this is accomplished because the sun god-son appears, “and yet that sun-disc is one only, and there is no second.”

The matching contains the boldest sentence in the passage: “Those sentient beings cannot save themselves — how could they save others? I alone, my resolve solitary and without companion, gather roots of goodness and dedicate them in this way.”

This sentence is the one most easily read as conceit, and so its landing point must be looked at. The scriptural text goes straight on to list ten occurrences of ‘for the sake of’: for the sake of widely delivering, of universally illumining, of showing and guiding, of awakening, of looking back upon and nurturing, of gathering in, of bringing to accomplishment all sentient beings, and of causing all sentient beings to rejoice, to delight, and to cut off doubt. All ten clauses are for others; not one is for himself. The provenance of the words ‘looking back upon and nurturing’ Chengguan notes in particular, saying that illumining means illumining their capacities and the sense of looking back upon and nurturing, and that the phrase is found in the Book of Odes — looking back upon and nurturing is the parents' turning their heads to watch over and rear the child. And so ‘I alone’ is not a boast; it is the solitude of one who takes it on: not that I am the strongest, but that if no one shares this task I shall still do it.

Brought down to the ground: this section, read together with ‘they cannot save themselves — how could they save others?’ above, sets aside precisely one misreading — it is not a contempt for sentient beings, but a clear recognition of their present plight, and therefore a refusal to push the responsibility back onto them.

I Should Be Like the Sun: What Deserves the Name of Dedication

From ‘I should be like the sun’ onward, the scriptural text turns into the dedication free of marks. Chengguan adjudicates this passage in two: first, by the wisdom that forgets contrivance he leads the great compassion above into being without object; then, from ‘setting’ onward, he properly clarifies how great wisdom is free of the mark of sentient beings.

The former section first clarifies the absence of self-interest: “I should be like the sun, universally illumining all, seeking no return of kindness. When sentient beings have evil, I can bear with all of it, and in the end I do not on that account forsake my vow; I do not, for the evil of one sentient being, forsake all sentient beings.” Chengguan glosses it: because he seeks no return of kindness he is able to bear with evil; because he is for universal illumination he does not, for one evil, forsake the many — and he sets up the force of a question and answer: suppose that sentient beings should all turn their backs on kindness, there would still be no resentment; how much less when it is only one? The latter section shows the accomplishing of vastness: “though the roots of goodness be few, they universally gather in sentient beings, and with a joyful mind he dedicates them vastly.” Chengguan says: because great wisdom leads compassion it can take a universal object, as a sound entering a horn is small and yet heard from afar.

Then comes the sentence in the whole passage that most resembles a definition: “If there are roots of goodness but one does not wish to benefit all sentient beings, that is not called dedication; take any single root of goodness, and only when it universally takes sentient beings as its object is it called dedication.”

One negation and one affirmation settle the measure of dedication for good: it lies not in how many the roots of goodness are, but in whether the object is universal. That this sentence is set at the head of the section on freedom from marks rather than in the section that follows marks is itself deliberate — the reason universally taking sentient beings as object can be done at all is that the wisdom of forgetting contrivance in the preceding sentence, ‘seeking no return of kindness’, has gone first. Brought down to the ground: to judge whether your own dedication is real, ask one thing only — does this root of goodness take all sentient beings as its object?

Twenty-One Clauses Ending in ‘Dedicating’: Taking the Marks Apart One Clause at a Time

Next comes the second set of parallel clauses in this passage, and it is the backbone of the whole. From “setting sentient beings in the dharma-nature to which nothing clings, and dedicating” to “contemplating that the manifold dharmas are far from craving and desire, and dedicating”, every clause closes with the word ‘dedicating’, twenty-one clauses by actual count.

Chengguan adjudicates these twenty-one clauses as four layers: the first fourteen clauses leave behind the marks that are grasped; the next two clauses leave behind the perception that grasps; the third is one clause leaving behind the names and words that express; the fourth is four clauses displaying the principle of suchness — and he explains the reason: because by leaving behind false perception right knowledge is accomplished, the names and marks above become suchness itself.

Within the fourteen clauses he divides further: the first clause is the general, the rest the particular; and within the particular the first ten enter the principle and the latter three leave behind faults. The general clause is “setting sentient beings in the dharma-nature to which nothing clings, and dedicating” — causing the sentient beings dedicated toward to tally with the true limit dedicated toward. Within the particular the first ten dispel one by one: the first dispels the sentient beings dedicated toward, comprehending their self-nature and so not clinging, still and unmoving and yet following conditions without altering; the second dispels the compassionate vow that dedicates, not depending on compassion and not grasping the mark of the vow; the third dispels the roots of goodness dedicated; the fourth dispels the fruit and recompense obtained; the fifth and sixth clauses together clarify the body that raises the practice and the marks of the sentient beings dedicated toward, which, being the real, are not clung to, and, being the conventional, are not ruined — and this is precisely the resolution of that pair of seemingly contradictory clauses in the scriptural text, “not clinging to the marks of the five aggregates, and dedicating; not ruining the marks of the five aggregates, and dedicating”; the seventh dispels the karmic practice accomplished; the eighth dispels the marks of the recompense obtained; the ninth generally displays that the manifold matters are able to accomplish causes and conditions; the tenth generally clarifies that the foregoing matters arise from conditions. The latter three that leave behind faults are these: not clinging to empty names, not clinging to the place of recompense, not clinging to such false and empty dharmas as reverence and support.

The next two clauses leave behind the perception that grasps. The scriptural text has “not clinging to the mark of sentient beings, the mark of worlds, or the mark of mind and thought, and dedicating; not giving rise to the inversion of mind, the inversion of perception, or the inversion of view, and dedicating.” Chengguan glosses the three inversions: toward the foregoing matters to give rise to a mind that discriminates permanent and impermanent and the rest is called the inversion of mind; toward objects such as the permanent to grasp marks of division is called the inversion of perception; to grasp marks as real is called the inversion of view; because they turn their backs on right faith, the name of inversion is set upon them. He cites in evidence a passage of question and answer between Maitreya and Subhūti in the Larger Prajñā — a bodhisattva of newly raised intent, having rejoiced in the roots of goodness of the buddhas and the buddhas' disciples and dedicated them to awakening, how does he not fall into the inversions of perception, mind, and view? Subhūti answers: toward those roots of goodness the mind gives rise to no perception, and with this mind he dedicates to awakening, and toward this dedicating mind too he gives rise to no perception of mind; dedicating in this way is not the three inversions; if he dedicates by grasping marks, that is the three inversions. He further cites this scripture's own chapter “Awakening by Light” in support: “if toward omniscience one gives rise to a mind of dedication, and sees that the mind has no arising, one will obtain a great name.”

The third is the one clause leaving behind the names and words that express, namely “not clinging to the way of words and speech, and dedicating.” The fourth is the four clauses displaying the principle of suchness: contemplating the true nature of all dharmas, contemplating the equal mark of all sentient beings, sealing the manifold roots of goodness with the seal of the Dharma realm, and contemplating that the manifold dharmas are far from craving and desire. Chengguan glosses these four clauses: the first generally displays the real nature, the second particularly is in terms of sentient beings, the third seals the manifold matters that are good, the fourth is a mind that cuts off coveting and seeking; and he first sets up a general adjudication — what was clarified above is the emptiness of the false, all being empty; what is displayed here is the reality of what is, all being wondrously existent; and further, the emptiness of the former is just the reality of the latter, and the two senses not being two is the true seal of the Dharma.

Set aside a misreading: the twenty-one clauses are not twenty-one methods of practice; they are one and the same freedom from marks spoken severally at twenty-one points of application. Chengguan has a sentence of his own that stops up any attachment to sequence — “the words have a before and an after; the practice is in a single mind.”

The Double Conclusion of Planting and Dedicating · Karma Is Like a Shadow Cast by Light

After the parallel clauses, the scriptural text makes a double conclusion: “Understanding that all dharmas are ‘nothing’, what is planted as roots of goodness is likewise so; contemplating that the manifold dharmas are not two, are unborn and unceasing, the dedication too is likewise so.”

Chengguan adjudicates this as a double conclusion of two marks: one clause concludes the roots of goodness dedicated, the other concludes the practice of dedicating. He explains too the fineness of the wording — roots of goodness may be cultivated alone, and so it says only ‘planting’; dedication must have a grasper and a grasped, and so it must ‘contemplate that they are not two’. The result is that the root of virtue is unborn and the root of delusion unceasing; and further, the encumbrance of delusion is still and unborn while true virtue is clear and unceasing.

Further down, the scriptural text brings the foregoing dedication to awakening into the true limit, and speaks the most difficult and most essential set in the passage: “He does not make two marks: it is neither in terms of karma that he cultivates omniscience, nor apart from karma that he dedicates to omniscience; omniscience is not itself karma, and yet it is not apart from karma that omniscience is gained.”

Chengguan divides it into two pairs. The first pair sets the roots of goodness dedicated against the practice and vow that dedicate, distinguishing that they are neither identical nor apart, and clarifying that within the cause there are not two: the first clause says karma is not the dedication, because grasper and grasped are distinct; the second clause says they are not apart, because apart from karma there is nothing to dedicate. He cites the Vimalakīrti in support: giving and dedicating to omniscience are two, and yet the nature of giving is itself the nature of dedicating to omniscience; therefore they are not apart, and this is non-duality, while because they are not identical there is no absence of duality either. The second pair sets cause and fruit over against each other: the first clause says the fruit is not the cause, the latter that apart from the cause there is no fruit; he says this is an abbreviation in the wording, and that in principle cause and fruit should each have both the sense of not being identical and the sense of not being apart.

Then comes the simile: “Because karma is pure like a shadow cast by light, the recompense too is pure like a shadow cast by light; because the recompense is pure like a shadow cast by light, the wisdom of omniscience too is pure like a shadow cast by light.” Chengguan glosses the ground of the simile: a shadow thrown by riding upon light, and the reflection of the moon in water, are both arisen from conditions and without nature, neither identical nor apart, and therefore it says pure; and he adjudicates their allotment — the first two clauses set the cause against the recompense, because the recompense runs through the ten grounds; the latter two clauses set the recompense against the fruit.

Set aside a misreading: neither identical nor apart is not a compromise. What it means to block are two real diseases — grasping ‘identical’, and then making karma the equivalent of cultivating wisdom; grasping ‘apart’, and then breaking roots of goodness and their recompense into two severed halves. The scriptural text uses light and shadow precisely because a shadow and its light are not one and the same thing, and yet are never for a moment apart.

Dedicating Without Dwelling in the Marks of Dharmas: The Conclusion of This Passage

At the end of the section on freedom from marks the scriptural text brings the dedication to a conclusion: “Being far from all the agitated thinking and discrimination of ‘I’ and ‘what is mine’ — knowing thus, he dedicates the manifold roots of goodness by skillful means.” Chengguan glosses it: the ‘I’ that dedicates and the ‘mine’ that is dedicated, whether followed or left behind, are both called agitation; now, illumining and yet constantly still, he is free of this discrimination and yet does not ruin the marks, and this is why it is called skillful means.

Then it concludes the benefit: “When the bodhisattva dedicates in this way, he liberates sentient beings without ever resting, and yet he does not dwell in the marks of dharmas; though he knows that the manifold dharmas have no karma and no recompense, he is well able to bring forth all karma and recompense without contradiction or contention — thus by skillful means he well cultivates the dedication.” Chengguan says that because following marks and being free of marks are not two, the benefit of being unobstructed and free of faults is accomplished.

These two sentences are the final closing of the two prongs of the whole passage — “liberating sentient beings without ever resting” is rescuing and guarding; “not dwelling in the marks of dharmas” is freedom from marks; “knowing that the manifold dharmas have no karma and no recompense” is freedom from marks; “being well able to bring forth all karma and recompense without contradiction or contention” is rescuing and guarding. The four half-sentences are hooked across each other, and not one of them may be let go.

Last comes the general conclusion and the concluding of the name: “When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dedicates in this way, he is far from every fault and is praised by the buddhas. Son of the Buddha! This is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's first dedication of rescuing and guarding all sentient beings while free of the mark of sentient beings.”

Here there is one structural feature worth recording. Chengguan says that the pattern of the prose portion of the ten dedications is first the practice of the station and then the fruit of the station, and that within the practice of the station there are the three sections of restating the name and raising the question, explaining broadly in accordance with the question, and concluding the name in accordance with the explanation; and that this passage is exceptional — he states plainly that the text of this first dedication lacks the fruit of the station. And so the first dedication of rescuing and guarding has only the three sections of question, explanation, and conclusion, plus the repeated verses, and does not, as the later dedications do, speak separately of the marks of the fruit.

The Repeated Verses and Their Correspondences

When the prose portion has been spoken, the scriptural text narrates the ceremony: the bodhisattva Vajra Banner observed all the assemblies of the ten directions and the whole Dharma realm, entered deeply into the meaning of the phrases, cultivated surpassing practice with a measureless mind, with great compassion universally covered all sentient beings, did not cut off the seed of the tathāgatas of the three times, entered the treasury of the merit-dharmas of all the buddhas, brought forth the dharma-body of all the buddhas, was well able to discriminate the minds of the manifold sentient beings, knew that the roots of goodness they had planted were ripe, and, dwelling in the dharma-body, manifested a pure form-body for sentient beings, and, receiving the Buddha's spiritual power, spoke the verses. Chengguan adjudicates this narration of ceremony: the first and last clauses are the ceremony of the speaking; ‘entering deeply into the meaning of the phrases’ is what the speaking depends upon; and what follows ‘with a measureless mind’ is likewise what the speaking depends upon — depending upon this he speaks, and it is at the same time that for the sake of which he speaks, for it is for this that he speaks.

The verses are twenty-eight in all. The sense of the repeated verses is already complete in the prose portion, and here they are only set in correspondence; they do not teach a second time.

Chengguan's outline is as follows, recorded here word for word: the twenty-eight verses divide into two — the first eight and a half verses sing the roots of goodness dedicated, and within these the first six are the four immeasurables — one for kindness, two for compassion, one and a half for joy, one and a half for equanimity, because it is like the earth, which has no mind, and one verse concluding their universality — and the latter two and a half clarify the six perfections; then from ‘thus’ onward nineteen and a half verses sing the practice of dedication, dividing in two: the first seven and a half sing what follows marks, the first one and a half of these singing the dedication of benefit and joy and the latter six singing the dedication of undergoing suffering in their place, the rest being omitted and not sung; and from ‘never’ onward twelve verses sing the foregoing freedom from marks, within which the first five sing the proper clarification of freedom from marks and the latter seven, from ‘the ten directions’ onward, sing the foregoing accomplishing of benefit.

By this outline one thing can be verified: the seam between the first eight and a half verses and the latter nineteen and a half falls exactly in the middle of the ninth verse — the upper half of the ninth, “within all the worlds of the ten directions he is furnished with the cultivating and refining of pure practice”, still belongs to the roots of goodness dedicated, while the lower half, “merit such as this he dedicates entirely, because he wishes to bring peace and joy to all the conscious”, is the beginning of the nineteen and a half verses that Chengguan points to under ‘thus’. Likewise the seventeenth verse, “he has never been dyed by or attached to the manifold forms, and so it is with feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness”, is precisely the first of the twelve verses he points to under ‘never’, and the twenty-second verse, “in the measureless lands of the ten directions”, is precisely the first of the seven verses he points to under ‘the ten directions’. All three seams answer to the scriptural text.

The correspondence verse by verse is roughly as follows. Verses one to six speak of the four immeasurables and of universality: cultivating the path through inconceivable kalpas, wishing to benefit the kinds of living beings; the peerless one who tames the world, raising the mind to deliver universally all the conscious; brave and vigorous effort, his mind able to bear patiently and not tilting; his mind dwelling well, like the great earth which universally bears all; not seeking pleasure for his own body, raising the mind of great compassion; gathering in the sentient beings of the worlds of the ten directions, and thus studying the manifold dedications. Verses seven to the upper half of nine speak of the six perfections: giving, pure precepts, vigor, and dedicating to the omniscience of the Tathāgata; his mind vast and without bound, the power of patience dwelling, concentration most profound, wisdom subtle; within the worlds of the ten directions being furnished with the cultivating and refining of pure practice.

From the lower half of verse nine the practice of dedication is sung. From the lower half of nine to verse eleven the benefit and joy and the undergoing of suffering in their place, which follow marks, are sung: merit such as this dedicated entirely, because he wishes to bring peace and joy to all the conscious; the great being diligently cultivating manifold good deeds, causing them to dwell in the unsurpassed wisdom that is hard to conceive; universally for the sake of all sentient beings, dwelling in the hells through inconceivable kalpas, bravely and decidedly dedicating constantly. Verses twelve to sixteen continue to sing the undergoing of suffering in their place and the leaving behind of desire: not seeking form, sound, scent, taste, or touch, but only to deliver the kinds of living beings; wisdom pure like space, constantly studying as the Buddha practices; the great being travelling the manifold worlds, cultivating the bodhisattva practice without being satisfied; extinguishing every poison of the mind, not seeking peace and joy for himself, wishing only that sentient beings get free of suffering. Between verses sixteen and seventeen lies the boundary of freedom from marks — verse sixteen, “this person's dedication reaches the ultimate, his mind ever pure and far from the many poisons; he is entrusted by the tathāgatas of the three times and dwells in the unsurpassed city of the great Dharma”, is the close of what follows marks.

Verses seventeen to twenty-one sing the proper clarification of freedom from marks: never dyed by or attached to the manifold forms, and so too with feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, his mind forever going out from the three existences; the manifold sentient beings whom the Buddha knows and sees gathered in entirely, with the vow to cause them to gain liberation; his mindfulness dwelling constantly thought after thought, far from delusion, right mindfulness constantly still, all his manifold deeds pure; those bodhisattvas dwelling within the world, clinging to no dharma inner or outer, like the wind travelling in space without obstruction. Verses twenty-two to twenty-eight sing the foregoing accomplishing of benefit: bodily deeds and verbal deeds pure, able to make the buddhas all rejoice; going to every place where there are buddhas in the lands of the ten directions, revering and gazing upon and serving them; his mind ever pure and far from the manifold faults, acting moreover as a great Dharma-pool for the three existences; diligently contemplating all dharmas, pondering in accord ‘existent’ and ‘not existent’, gaining entry to the most profound place of no contention; by this cultivating and completing the firm path, universally throughout the three times clinging to nothing; dedicating in this way and reaching the other shore, gaining entry to the ultimate place of no support; the ways of speech of all sentient beings, which the bodhisattva is able to discriminate and speak while his mind clings to nothing; and the last verse, “the bodhisattva cultivates the dedication in this way; his merit and skillful means cannot be spoken; he is able to cause, within the worlds of the ten directions, all the buddhas alike to praise him”, concluding with praise of what has been spoken.

Li Tongxuan, reckoning these verses in terms of the eighty-fascicle text, says that there are “fifty-six lines of verse”, and says “two lines make one verse”, which agrees with the fifty-six lines of verse in the base text and the twenty-eight verses reckoned by actual count.

Lineage

For the text of this dedication, the threads by which it is carried on further have already been drawn out by the ancient worthies within their commentaries, and are recorded here as they cite them.

The first is the establishing of the sense of the three places of dedication. Chengguan sets up the general sense of the ten dedications, saying that within each and every dedication there are three kinds of dedication — dedicating to sentient beings, dedicating to awakening, dedicating to the true limit; and he glosses the name of dedication, saying that ‘dedicate’ means to turn and ‘direct’ means to head toward, turning one's own myriad practices to head toward these three places. As to why the places must be three, he sets forth ten senses: depending on three dharmas, extinguishing three paths, purifying the threefold pure precepts, displaying three buddha-natures, accomplishing the three jewels, gathering the three bodies, being furnished with the three virtues, gaining the three awakenings, realizing the three nirvāṇas, and dwelling securely in the three kinds of secret treasury. Each of these ten senses allots the three places: as for depending on three dharmas, these are the true nature, contemplative illumination, and what assists in completing — that is, the substance, marks, and function of the Qixin lun — the true limit depending on the substance, awakening depending on the marks, and sentient beings depending on the function; as for displaying three buddha-natures, the true limit is the direct cause, awakening the revealing cause, and dedicating to sentient beings the conditioning cause; as for accomplishing the three jewels, the true limit accomplishes the Dharma, awakening accomplishes the Buddha, and dedicating to sentient beings accomplishes the Saṅgha of the same substance. That the three places of dedication have become the common track for expounding dedication in the Han transmission has its ground of argument just here.

The second is the sense of the three places mutually assisting one another. Chengguan does not take the three places as set side by side; he says that “one is furnished with three, and only so is that one accomplished”, and cites in evidence the Vimalakīrti, “if one is oneself bound, that one should be able to loose another's bonds is impossible,” and the Sūtra of the Ten Grounds, “wishing to deliver sentient beings, one is not apart from the unobstructed wisdom of liberation,” concluding that in any one of the matters the virtues and functions of the Dharma realm are wholly contained, and entering into one another without obstruction — only then are they truly the three matters of dedication. This one sentence is the distinctive place of the Huayan line's reading of dedication: dedication is not moving merit to another spot; it is one matter being furnished with the Dharma realm.

The third is the stream of the teaching of undergoing suffering in another's place. The seven senses Chengguan opens in answering the question of undergoing suffering in another's place take up in turn the ground of pure and surpassing intent in the Yogācārabhūmi, the Liang translation of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha together with the matter of King Sudarśana of the immortals in the Nirvāṇa, the teaching of the original vows of the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and the rest, and the sense of Samantabhadra's Dharma-realm body. Later expositions of the bodhisattva's undergoing suffering in the place of sentient beings mostly do not go beyond these seven senses in their grounds; and Chengguan's own adjudication that among them only the fourth and fifth senses are really able to undergo in the body, while the sixth and seventh are a fusion in the contemplation of principle, is a distinction that must especially not be passed over.

The fourth is the dispute over the position within the stations. As to where the ten dedications are placed among the five stations, Chengguan records the several masters and does not make them one: some hold it to be the end of the station of the provisions that accord with the portion conducing to liberation, citing the Ornament treatise, the Cheng weishi lun, and the Abhidharmasamuccaya in evidence; some hold it to be the station of the applied practices, and within this one account takes the ten understandings as heat, the ten practices as the summit, the first nine dedications as patience, and the tenth dedication as the highest worldly dharma, recording that the meaning of Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang inclines to this explanation, while another account takes it as contained within the highest worldly dharma among the four applied practices, citing the Mahāyānasaṃgraha as translated by Paramārtha in evidence; and there are some again who take the three worthy stations together as the expedient means for heading toward the noble, without dividing near and far provisions and applied practices, and others who say that all practices and stations cannot be spoken of at all. At the end Chengguan clarifies the sense of this scripture itself — within one station the manifold stations are wholly contained without obstructing before and after, and where the station is full is precisely where the cause is complete; and he makes four clauses to gather the several teachings, of which the two clauses ‘taking the substance according to the marks’ and ‘fusing the marks by the nature’ are the ones that answer to the text of this scripture. The several accounts are recorded together without adjudication.

The fifth is the difference of the several masters' outlining of the text. Chengguan, in terms of the eighty-fascicle text, sets up the twofold division of following marks and being free of marks, and the four divisions of rescuing and guarding; Fazang, in terms of the sixty-fascicle text, makes the twofold division of first raising the substance of the practice and then properly clarifying dedication, and matches the two sections of dedicating to sentient beings and to awakening, and dedicating to the true limit, with rescuing and guarding and with freedom from marks; Li Tongxuan does not use this twofold division, but outlines it at length straightforwardly into ten sections, sets up in addition the five conditions that accomplish the first dedication, and adjudicates this station as having the dāna-pāramitā for its lord and the nine perfections for its companions, with the perfume-selling elder Blue Lotus, whom Sudhana visits, as the person who displays the meaning in symbol. The Pusa yingluo benye jing, for its part, glosses the name of this dedication otherwise, as “within a mind free of marks constantly practicing the six destinies and entering into the fruit and recompense, not receiving and yet receiving the manifold feelings, turning and transforming”, which Chengguan cites at the place where the name is restated. Coarse and fine differ severally; they are recorded together without adjudication.

A passage of scriptural text somewhat over four thousand graphs sets up, on the one side, the whole ground of argument for the bodhisattva's vow to undergo suffering in the place of sentient beings; on another, it shifts the definition of the word ‘dedication’ from how many the roots of goodness are to how universal the object is; and on another again, with twenty-one parallel clauses it takes the marks apart layer by layer until only suchness is left — and the reason the ten dedications begin from here is precisely that the very first step requires these two things to be done at once.

The Second of the Ten Dedications: Why Its Name Has No “Roots of Goodness” in It, but Only “Indestructible”

The first of the ten dedications is named ‘rescuing and guarding all beings while free of the marks of beings’, which says where the goodness that is dedicated is put to use; the tenth is named ‘the measureless dedication equal to the Dharma realm’, which says what the measure of the dedication is. The second, set between them, has a name of only three syllables — indestructible. Indestructible in what? The scripture answers as soon as it opens its mouth: ten clauses of “gains an indestructible faith.”

And so this dedication is named not from the goodness that is dedicated but from the faith that dedicates. Chengguan, explaining the name, says that it is “toward the ten surpassing objects, the truths, the jewels, and the rest, his deep faith is firm, and hence it gains the name indestructible” — ten surpassing objects appear before him, and within them faith is firm and is not shifted; this is what is called indestructible.

One misreading is to be set aside: indestructible does not mean ‘vowing with great determination’. Determination is strength of mind, and strength of mind can fall back. Beneath every one of the ten objects the scripture lists there hangs a “because” — “because he is able to serve all buddhas,” “because he vows to cultivate all the roots of goodness of a bodhisattva without weariness” — faith is indestructible because something is being actually done behind it that holds it up. Faith with no practice holding it up is merely a feeling. Brought down to the ground: to examine whether your own faith has been destroyed, do not ask whether the mind has wavered; ask whether that “because” is still being done.

The Second Layer of “Indestructible”: It Does Not Abide in Thought After Thought, and So There Is Nothing That Can Be Destroyed

Chengguan does not stop after explaining the name; he turns at once to the side of principle. He says, “Yet the ten betoken the endless, and faith reaches through both phenomenon and principle,” and then cites a sentence of the Benye jing: “Contemplating that all dharmas have only function and only name, in thought after thought they do not abide, and therefore it is called indestructible.”

At first glance the sentence says the opposite of itself. Not abiding in thought after thought is plainly impermanence, and impermanence is precisely the mark of destruction; how does it turn out to be called indestructible? Chengguan's Chao unties the knot: “If one takes only the not abiding, that is momentary impermanence, which properly is the sense of destruction. It is because there is nothing that abides that it is called indestructible — this then is the sense of being indestructible on the side of principle.”

That is to say: if one looks only at the side of ‘not abiding’, then indeed it is destruction. But precisely because dharmas from the first have nothing they abide in and no place to come to rest, there is nothing there that can be destroyed. Destruction can be spoken of only where there is something that abides. And so “indestructible”, on the side of phenomenon, is the firmness of faith, and on the side of principle it is the non-abiding of dharmas. From this Chengguan concludes with a sentence that is the doctrinal eye of this dedication — “Know then that the dedication of roots of goodness reaches throughout the unobstructedness of phenomenon with phenomenon, and only so is it truly indestructible.” Brought down to the ground: to believe firmly only on the side of phenomenon is still to be destructible; only when phenomenon and principle both run through is it truly indestructible.

The First Two of the Ten Faiths: The Jewel of the Buddha and the Jewel of the Saṅgha

Of the ten clauses of indestructible faith, the first two are one toward the buddhas and one toward the bodhisattvas. Chengguan determines what they belong to, saying, “The ten clauses do not go beyond the three jewels and the four faiths: the first clause is the jewel of the Buddha, the next clause the jewel of the Saṅgha, and the rest are all the jewel of the Dharma.”

The first clause, “toward all the tathāgatas of the past, the future, and the present he gains an indestructible faith, because he is able to serve all buddhas” — what is believed in is all the buddhas of the three times, not one buddha only; and what makes it indestructible lies in “he is able to serve.” Serving is actual doing, not admiration.

The second clause is the jewel of the Saṅgha, and the way the scripture takes the jewel of the Saṅgha is remarkable: “toward all bodhisattvas, down to one who has only just given rise to a single thought of the mind that seeks omniscience, he gains an indestructible faith.” The lower limit of faith is drawn all the way down to the bodhisattva of “a single thought just given rise to” — one who has only this moment stirred a single thought seeking omniscience is also within the compass of faith. This sets aside a common sickness of the mind: a student easily believes only in the great ones already accomplished, and looks down upon fellow travelers who have just given rise to the mind. The scripture pushes faith in the jewel of the Saṅgha all the way down to the first single thought, and the reason too hangs behind it: “because he vows to cultivate all the roots of goodness of a bodhisattva without weariness” — because he himself vows to cultivate all the roots of goodness of a bodhisattva, therefore any single thought upon that road is an object of his faith.

The Two Clauses of the Dharmas of the Buddhas and the Teachings of the Buddhas: One Is General, One Is Particular

The third clause is “toward all the dharmas of the buddhas he gains an indestructible faith, because he gives rise to a deep aspiration and delight”; the fourth is “toward all the teachings of the buddhas he gains an indestructible faith, because he guards them and upholds them.” The two look like a repetition, but in fact one is general and one particular.

Chengguan determines that the remaining eight clauses are all the jewel of the Dharma, and within them that “the first clause is the general one, and it also contains the dharma of principle; the remaining seven clauses are particular. Among the particular, the first one is the dharma of the teaching.” That is to say: the “dharmas of the buddhas” of the third clause is spoken generally, and even the dharma of principle (the true mark of the dharmas) is contained within it; the “teachings of the buddhas” of the fourth clause is spoken particularly, and points to the teaching that expresses — the spoken teaching that the Buddha has brought forth.

The “because” of the two clauses is likewise clearly divided. Faith in the general, the dharmas of the buddhas, hangs upon “gives rise to a deep aspiration and delight” — deep aspiration and delight are inward; faith in the particular, the teachings of the buddhas, hangs upon “he guards them and upholds them” — to guard it, to shoulder it, is an outward burden. One misreading is to be set aside: to suppose that faith in the dharma is agreement in the mind. The scripture says plainly that the second layer is guarding and upholding — the dharma stays only if someone shoulders it, and faith that does not shoulder is not the faith of this ground.

Beings · The Pure and Immaculate Dharmas · The Path of Dedication · Dharma Masters: Faith in Four Dharmas of Practice

The next four clauses Chengguan determines to be “dharmas of practice”, and he attaches a practice to each: “first, the practice of great compassion; second, the practice of stopping evil and doing good, a practice that also takes in the precepts; third, the practice of dedication; fourth, the practice of drawing near to friends.”

“Toward all beings he gains an indestructible faith, because he looks upon them equally with kindly eyes, dedicates his roots of goodness to them, and benefits them universally” — this is the practice of great compassion. Notice the very saying ‘faith in beings’: what is believed in is not what beings look like now, but what is seen when they are looked upon equally with kindly eyes.

“Toward all the pure and immaculate dharmas he gains an indestructible faith, because he universally amasses the boundless several roots of goodness” — this is the practice of stopping evil and doing good, which also takes in the precepts. The pure and immaculate dharmas are the dharmas of goodness that are pure and unstained; to believe in them is to believe that dharmas of goodness can really be amassed.

“Toward the path of dedication of all bodhisattvas he gains an indestructible faith, because he has fulfilled the several surpassing wishes and resolute understandings” — this is the practice of dedication. To believe that this road of dedication can itself be walked hangs upon the fulfilling of resolute understanding.

“Toward all bodhisattva dharma masters he gains an indestructible faith, because toward the bodhisattvas he gives rise to the thought that they are buddhas” — this is the practice of drawing near to friends. Fazang's Tanxuan ji places this clause among the “objects that are hard to know”, and gives an extreme instance: “first, faith in the master who expounds the dharma — even when a yakṣa expounds the dharma one gives rise to the thought that he is a buddha” — if even a yakṣa expounding the dharma calls forth the thought that he is a buddha, how much more a bodhisattva. Brought down to the ground: these four clauses are the joint at which faith turns from object into practice, and each one of them can be taken as a day's exercise.

The Sovereign Supernormal Powers of the Buddhas and the Practice of Skillful Means of the Bodhisattvas: One a Dharma of the Fruit, One a Raising Again of the Dharma of Practice

The ninth clause, “toward the sovereign supernormal powers of all buddhas he gains an indestructible faith, because he deeply believes that the buddhas are hard to conceive of,” Chengguan determines to be the “dharma of the fruit” — what is believed in is the virtue of the fruit that the buddhas have already accomplished, and what makes it indestructible hangs upon acknowledging that they are “hard to conceive of.” This clause in fact teaches one thing: the standing of faith does not require that one first understand it through. If one must understand it through before believing, then what is believed in is only as much as one's own understanding.

The tenth clause, “toward the practice of skillful means of all bodhisattvas he gains an indestructible faith, because he takes in the several measureless and innumerable objects of practice” — with this the ten clauses return again to the dharma of practice. Chengguan points out that this is a deliberate raising again: “The last one raises again the dharma of practice, the intent being to gather in altogether the dharma of principle within it, that is, to have faith in suchness.” Why should the raising of the practice of skillful means be a gathering in of the dharma of principle? Because skillful means can be measureless precisely by reason of dharmas having no fixed nature; to be able to take in measureless objects of practice is itself to have faith in suchness. And so the end of the ten clauses does not come to rest upon the virtue of the fruit that is supernormal power; it comes to rest upon suchness.

One misreading is to be set aside: the ten clauses are not ten articles of belief laid side by side; they are a single line — from the Buddha, the Saṅgha, and the dharma of the teaching, to the dharmas of practice, to the dharma of the fruit, and at the end gathered back into the dharma of principle. The fullness of faith is a circling back to the nature of the dharmas.

After Dwelling in Indestructible Faith: Planting Roots of Goodness, and Dedicating Those Roots to Omniscience

Faith having been set up, the scripture goes on to say what is done. “When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dwells in indestructible faith in this way,” then amid the objects that are the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, the teachings of the buddhas, and beings, he “plants roots of goodness measureless and boundless” — the ten objects believed in are precisely the field in which roots of goodness are planted. Faith is not a second matter set up beside it; it is the hand that tills the field.

After the planting, the scripture sets out a string: causing the mind of awakening to increase, loving-kindness and compassion made vast, contemplating equally, following and studying what the buddhas do, taking in pure roots of goodness, entering the real meaning, amassing the practice of merit, performing great giving, cultivating the several merits, contemplating the three times equally. Only then does it turn into dedication: “with roots of goodness and merit such as these, he dedicates them to omniscience,” and below it comes a passage of vows — from ‘may I always see the buddhas, draw near to good friends, and dwell together in one place with the bodhisattvas’ down to ‘may I cultivate the great vows and cause them all to be fulfilled’.

Chengguan determines this passage of vows to be ten clauses, and divides it into three sections: “the first three are the conditions of practice; the next two the causes of practice; the last five the practice that is accomplished.” The first three are the conditions that assist practice (seeing the buddhas, drawing near to friends, dwelling together with the bodhisattvas); the next two are the causes of practice (being mindful of omniscience without letting it go, receiving and upholding the teaching of the Buddha and guarding it diligently); the last five are the practice that is accomplished. Within those last five he divides further still: “The first accomplishes the practice of benefiting others, which is the sense of dedicating to beings; the next three are for one's own benefit; the last one runs through both benefits.” — teaching, transforming, and ripening beings is benefiting others; the mind ever dedicating to the path that goes beyond the world, making offerings to and looking after and serving dharma masters, and understanding the dharmas and holding them in memory without forgetting are for one's own benefit; and the last, “may I cultivate the great vows and cause them all to be fulfilled,” runs through both. Brought down to the ground: making vows is not a matter of one general vow and no more; the vow of the scripture has a structure, and all three layers — condition, cause, and practice — must be there.

The Nine Clauses of Amassing Roots of Goodness: From Hearing to Reflecting to Cultivating

The vows said, the scripture closes with a string of nine verbs: “he amasses roots of goodness, accomplishes roots of goodness, increases roots of goodness, reflects upon roots of goodness, binds his mindfulness to roots of goodness, discriminates roots of goodness, delights in roots of goodness, cultivates roots of goodness, and dwells in roots of goodness.”

The nine words look like a repetition of one and the same sense, and Chengguan determines them very finely: “the first three display in common the gathering in, and are also the wisdom born of hearing — first, amassing one and reaching to many; second, causing it to reach the ultimate; third, following upon one and causing increase; the next four are all the wisdom born of reflection; the last two are the wisdom born of cultivation, the raising of practice being cultivating, and being in accord being dwelling.”

The first three are the wisdom born of hearing — amassing is going from one to many, accomplishing is causing it to reach the ultimate, increasing is following upon one and causing it to grow. The middle four (reflecting, binding the mindfulness, discriminating, delighting) are the wisdom born of reflection — reflecting is the raising of the thought, binding the mindfulness is holding it fast, discriminating is sorting and choosing, delighting is the mind's own inclining toward it. The last two are the wisdom born of cultivation — cultivating is the raising of practice, dwelling is being in accord.

These nine clauses are in fact a flight of stairs of the three wisdoms of hearing, reflecting, and cultivating, hidden inside a string of parallel phrases. One misreading is to be set aside: skipping over parallel phrases as one reads them, supposing them to be no more than a spreading out of words. The parallelisms of the scripture are very often a sequence. Brought down to the ground: to check against these nine clauses which rung one stands upon is the most usable thing in this passage.

The Sixty-Seven Clauses of Offerings: Why the Offering Has to Be Arrayed to Such a Degree

Next comes the longest passage in this dedication. With the fruit of dependent retribution obtained by his roots of goodness the bodhisattva cultivates the bodhisattva practice, and in thought after thought sees measureless buddhas, “according with what is fitting, serving them and making offerings to them,” and below this run sixty-seven clauses of “asaṃkhyeya.”

First, the gloss of “according with what is fitting.” Chengguan says there are two senses: “First, whatever is required, he offers as is fitting; second, the offering that is fitting to the object-realm of a buddha — that is to say, because without an offering that matches the Dharma realm one cannot make offerings to a buddha who matches the Dharma realm.” The first sense is according with what the other requires; the second is the weighty one — the object-realm of a buddha matches the Dharma realm, and therefore the offering too must match the Dharma realm, or it cannot be offered at all. Here is the reason the sixty-seven clauses have to be arrayed to such a degree: it is not exaggeration; it is matching.

The sixty-seven clauses divide into six gates, which Chengguan determines as “the first twenty clauses are the mixed gate, making clear the offering of what is inner and of what is outer; those below are all pure gates — second, seats; third, walking places; fourth, palaces; fifth, adornment by trees; sixth, adorning the palaces.” The twenty clauses of the mixed gate are the most worth turning over: the first fourteen items are jewels, flowers, garlands, robes, canopies, banners, pennants, articles of adornment, attendants, the plastering of the ground, and four kinds of incense, all of them outward things; but the last six items are deep faith, delight, a pure mind, reverence, praise, and homage — these are mind. Outward things and mind stand side by side in one and the same string and are not parted from one another; this is what “making clear the offering of what is inner and of what is outer” means.

The five gates below are pure gates, one gate to a kind, entering into one another layer upon layer: seats, walking places, palaces, the trees that adorn the palaces, and the adornment of the palaces themselves. Chengguan's comment upon them is “the pure and the mixed are likewise unobstructed.” Brought down to the ground: the measure of an offering is not a comparison of who spends more; it is whether it can match the object-realm of the one to whom it is offered — and the first step of matching is to count one's mind in among the articles of offering.

Offering to the Buddhas and to the Relics · The Eleven Purposes

The articles listed, the scripture says how they are used: “throughout measureless, innumerable, unspeakably unspeakable kalpas, he makes offerings with a pure mind, with reverence and respect, to all the buddhas, constantly without turning back and without rest”; and then a further sentence is added, “all the relics that are left after each and every tathāgata has passed into extinction, these too he honors and makes offerings to in just this way.” Chengguan determines these as two parts — first offering to the present buddhas, then offering to the relics. Both use the one phrase “these too, in just this way,” that is, the mind in offering to a buddha and in offering to relics is not different, and does not lessen because the Buddha has already passed into extinction.

Then come eleven occurrences of “because”, saying for whose sake all this is done: in order that all beings may give rise to pure faith, may take in roots of goodness, may leave the several sufferings behind, may gain a vast understanding, may adorn themselves with the great adornment; in order to adorn with measureless adornment; in order that all that is done may reach the ultimate; in order to know that the arising of buddhas is hard to meet with; in order to fulfill the measureless powers of a tathāgata; in order to adorn and make offerings to the stūpas and shrines of the buddhas; in order to uphold and maintain the dharma of all the buddhas. Chengguan determines outright that “it makes clear the intent of the offering, which has eleven clauses.”

These eleven clauses are the eye of the passage. The first five say plainly that it is for beings, and those below turn from what is done toward the dharma and the buddhas — the intent of the offering is spoken of beginning from beings and returns to upholding the dharma of the buddhas. At the end the scripture concludes its own extent: “Those offerings of his could not be exhausted in the telling even through asaṃkhyeya kalpas.” Chengguan glosses this conclusion as saying that it is not only what has been listed above, and therefore it says they cannot be exhausted — the sixty-seven clauses are not the whole of the list; they are instances given. Brought down to the ground: an offering without these eleven ‘in order that’s is only display, and the sixty-seven clauses no more than that.

From “Without Turning Back” to “Sealing the Several Objects”: How the Offering Turns into Dedication

The intent of the offering said, the scripture changes key: “In this way he cultivates and amasses measureless merit, all of it for the ripening of all beings,” and then a run of “without” — without turning back, without rest, without weariness, without attachment, without anything to lean upon; and then a run of “leaving” and “cutting off” — leaving behind the several imaginings of the mind, cutting off forever what is leaned upon, leaving behind the self and what belongs to the self.

Chengguan determines this passage to be “the mind of the dedication”, and opens it into three sections: first, not departing from great compassion, which also carries the sense of dedicating to beings; from “without attachment” onward, leaving the false and joining with the true, which is the sense of freedom from marks; and last, from “the buddhas” onward, concluding what precedes and giving rise to what follows.

Look at the order of this turn: first great compassion (all of it for the ripening of all beings), and only then the leaving of the false and joining with the true. It is not that one first empties out and then speaks of compassion; compassion comes first and emptiness follows after it. The last four clauses, “with the seal of the dharma as it truly is he seals the several gateways of karma; he gains the non-arising of dharmas and dwells where the buddhas dwell; he contemplates the nature of non-arising and seals the several objects” — the seal of the dharma here is not the seal of a doctrinal classification; it is a sealing and settling: with the nature of non-arising one seals all karma and all objects, and after the sealing the karma is still that same karma, but the attachment is gone.

One misreading is to be set aside: reading “leaving behind the several imaginings of the mind” as a prohibition upon giving rise to thought. Immediately after it come twelve clauses of dedication, and there is no lack of thought in them. What is left behind is the “imagining of and attachment to” — the sticking part of it, not the thought itself.

The Eleven Clauses of the Aspects of Dedication: The First Six Free of Marks, the Last Five According with Marks

Next twelve clauses of “dedicates” run on one after another. The first, “he dedicates with the mind aroused that the buddhas protect and keep in mind,” Chengguan places within the preceding section's “concluding what precedes and giving rise to what follows”; the eleven clauses from “he dedicates in accord with the nature of the dharmas” onward are what properly makes clear the aspects of dedication, and his determination is clean-cut: “Within these there are eleven clauses: the first six are free of marks, the last five accord with marks.”

The first six are free of marks: in accord with the nature of the dharmas; entering the dharma that is without making and the skillful means that accomplishes what is done; casting off all imagining of and attachment to affairs; dwelling in measureless skillfulness; coming forth forever from all the states of existence; practicing the several practices without dwelling upon marks. What the six have in common is “not dwelling” — being in accord with the nature of the dharmas is not dwelling in phenomena, entering the dharma without making is not dwelling in making, casting off imagining and attachment is not dwelling in imagining, coming forth forever from the states of existence is not dwelling in existence, and not dwelling upon marks says it outright.

The last five accord with marks: universally taking in all roots of goodness; universally purifying the vastness of all the bodhisattva practices; giving rise to the unsurpassed mind of awakening; dwelling together with all roots of goodness; fulfilling the mind of the highest faith and understanding. What the five have in common is ‘something accomplished’ — taking in, purifying, giving rise, dwelling together, fulfilling: every one of them is a setting up.

Freedom from marks and according with marks stand side by side and do not quarrel, and this is the actual content of why this dedication is named “indestructible”: if there were only freedom from marks, the roots of goodness could never be dedicated out; if there were only according with marks, the goodness dedicated would in the end be destructible. In the next passage Chengguan says it outright: “Because of the foregoing freedom from marks, not only is there no obstruction to according with marks, but this according with marks is thereby accomplished.” Freedom from marks not only does not hinder the setting up; it is the very reason the setting up stands.

The Accomplishment of the Practice in Accordance with Marks and Free of Marks: The Scripture's Own One-to-One Correspondence

The eleven clauses said, the scripture begins again with “Son of the Buddha” and speaks of the aspects accomplished at the time of dedicating. Chengguan determines this as “the accomplishment of the practice of dedication”, opening three sections: the accomplishment of the practice in accordance with marks, the accomplishment of the practice free of marks, and the twofold conclusion that the two practices are unobstructed.

In the section on the accomplishment of the practice in accordance with marks, the scripture lists ten matters: following along with birth and death without changing; seeking omniscience and never turning back; the mind not stirred into confusion amid the states of existence; being able to deliver beings; not being stained by conditioned dharmas; not losing the unobstructed wisdom; the causes and conditions of the bodhisattva's practice and station being without end; the several dharmas of the world being unable to make them shift; being complete in the pure perfections; being able to accomplish the powers of omniscience. Chengguan restates and matches these ten matters one by one with the foregoing eleven clauses of dedication — “first, because of the foregoing being in accord with the nature of the dharmas, he follows along with birth and death and does not change; second, because he enters the dharma without making and accomplishes what is done, he seeks omniscience and has never turned back” — and so on all the way to “tenth, because he dwells together with roots of goodness, he is complete in the ten powers,” concluding at the end with the phrase “matched in order with what is above.”

In the section on the accomplishment of the practice free of marks, what the scripture lists is those five ‘likes’: knowing that karma is like a conjuring, that the retribution of karma is like an image, that the several activities are like transformations, that the dharmas born of causes and conditions are like an echo, that the several practices of a bodhisattva are like a shadow; and above and below them it adds such clauses as “he understands that all dharmas appear entirely in accordance with the mind,” “he brings forth the pure eye of dharma that clings to nothing,” “he realizes the nature of quiescence and understands that the dharmas are not two,” and “toward all marks he clings to nothing.” Chengguan likewise matches them clause by clause with what precedes, and says “likewise matched in order with what precedes.”

This correspondence is the place in this dedication most worth looking at closely: the eleven clauses before are ‘how one dedicates’, and the two passages after are ‘what comes of having dedicated’, and Chengguan points out that the two are one clause answering to one clause. Brought down to the ground: this means that dedication is not a vague raising of the mind — whichever clause of dedication has been done, that clause of fruit is bound; one can check oneself clause by clause.

At the end the section “In this way the bodhisattva reflects with skill: he has no confusion, he does not go against the dharmas, he does not destroy the causes of karma” Chengguan determines to be the twofold conclusion that the two practices are unobstructed, and he glosses the words “reflects with skill” as “not deluded about principle nor confused about phenomena” — not deluded as to principle, not confused as to phenomena, losing neither of the two sides: this is what is called skill.

The Purpose of the Dedication: One Clause in General, and Below It the Particular Display

Another passage begins again, “when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dedicates the several roots of goodness in this way,” and speaks of what he dedicates for. Chengguan determines that “the first clause makes it clear in general; then, from ‘he does not cut off’ onward, it displays it in particular.”

The general clause is “in order to deliver all beings” — the general purpose of the dedication is this one thing only. Below it comes the particular display: not cutting off the lineage of the buddhas; leaving forever the deeds of Māra; seeing that omniscience has no bound; having faith and delight and not casting away the objects of the world; cutting off the several defilements; and, further, vowing that beings may gain pure wisdom, enter the deep skillful means, come forth from the dharmas of birth and death, obtain the roots of goodness of a buddha, cut off forever all the works and deeds of Māra, seal the several kinds of karma universally with the seal of equality, give rise to the mind that goes forward into the knowledge of all modes, and accomplish all the dharmas that go beyond the world.

Within this, “the deeds of Māra” and “the works and deeds of Māra” occur in two places, and Chengguan divides them very finely: “the earlier ‘leaving the deeds of Māra’ runs through all evil; the later ‘the works and deeds of Māra’ runs through all marks, because whatever goes against the seal of the dharma is a work of Māra.” The former points to evil, the latter to marks — any clinging to a mark that goes against the seal of the dharma already counts as a work of Māra. And he points out that the scripture itself gives the remedy: therefore the gloss below says that sealing the several kinds of karma universally with the seal of equality is the leaving behind of Māra.

One misreading is to be set aside: supposing Māra to be an obstruction that comes from outside. By this determination of Chengguan's, to cling to a mark and thereby go against the seal of the dharma is already a work of Māra, and no outward condition need be waited for. Brought down to the ground: within the list of what the dedication is for, it is those last clauses, “sealing the several kinds of karma universally with the seal of equality,” that are the actual dharma for warding off Māra.

The Fruit of the Station: What One Who Dwells in This Dedication Gains

The last passage of the prose closes the name with “Son of the Buddha! This is the second, the indestructible dedication, of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva,” and then speaks of the fruit. Chengguan determines this to be the fruit of the station and likens it to the ten grounds: “the fruit of the station, which is likewise as the fruits of pliancy and the rest in the ten grounds,” and its text divides in three — “first it restates the time of gaining; next, from ‘he gains the sight’ onward, it properly distinguishes the aspects of the fruit; last, from ‘the bodhisattva’ onward, it concludes in general what it belongs to.”

The restating of the time of gaining is “when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dwells in this dedication.” The aspects of the fruit run from “he gains the sight of all the innumerable buddhas” onward: accomplishing measureless pure and wondrous dharmas; gaining universally an equal mind toward beings; having no doubt about any dharma; being sustained by the spiritual power of all the buddhas; subduing the hosts of Māra and leaving forever the deeds of Māra; accomplishing the noble birth and fulfilling the mind of awakening; gaining the unobstructed wisdom, which need not be expounded to him by another; being well able to open up the meaning of all dharmas; being able, following the power of his thought, to enter all lands and universally illuminate beings. It concludes what it belongs to with “with the power of this indestructible dedication the bodhisattva-mahāsattva takes in the several roots of goodness and dedicates them in this way.”

Two clauses among the aspects of the fruit should be pointed out. One is “he gains the unobstructed wisdom, which need not be expounded to him by another” — not expounded to him by another, that is, he no longer needs someone else to explain things for him; and this clause answers exactly to the earlier clause of the ten faiths, “toward all bodhisattva dharma masters he gains an indestructible faith”: faith in dharma masters carried to its utmost turns out to be that he himself needs no one else's exposition. The other is “he accomplishes the noble birth” — the nobility of being born in the family of the buddhas; this is a fruit of station in the ranks, not a fruit of the state of one's mind. Brought down to the ground: the fruit of the station is listed so as to give practice a measuring stick — not to be used for reckoning that one has already arrived, but for recognizing where one still falls short.

The Correspondence of the Repeated Verses

The prose finished, “at that time the bodhisattva Vajra Banner surveyed the ten directions and, sustained by the spiritual power of the Buddha, spoke these verses,” and below are twenty-five verses. Chengguan determines them as three sections: “the first two put into verse the roots of goodness that are dedicated, together with the dedication of the first section; the next eighteen verses put into verse the practice of offering that is accomplished, and the dedicating of it again; the last five verses put into verse the purpose of the dedication.” The middle eighteen he divides again into two: the first eight put into verse the roots of goodness that are dedicated, the last ten the practice of dedication; and those last ten divide again into “the first four put into verse the mind of the dedication, the next two the aspects of the dedication, the last four the accomplishment of the practice of dedication.”

Since verses and prose correspond, what the prose has already taught is not taught here again; only three places where the verses excel by themselves are pointed out.

First, the verses put the prose's freedom from marks more sharply. “With the most surpassing wisdom he contemplates the dharmas, and within them there is not one dharma that arises,” “all the dharmas, with none left over, enter wholly into suchness and are without substance-nature” — the prose says “he contemplates the nature of non-arising”; the verses say outright that not one dharma arises.

Second, the verses set a guard upon “emptiness”. “Though they know that all is empty and quiescent, they do not give rise to a thought upon emptiness” — to know emptiness and yet not raise a further thought upon emptiness: this is the verses' definition of the prose's clause “leaving behind the several imaginings of the mind,” and it is the sentence most easily read past.

Third, the verses say the whole use of dedication in one simile: “dedicating with an eye pure as this, he opens up that prison of birth and death of the world.” The prose listed more than ten clauses of what the dedication is for; the verses close it with the single word “opens” — dedication is not putting one's merit away safely; it is going to open the door of another's prison. And the last verse, “with a single adornment he adorns all, nor does he give rise to discrimination among the dharmas,” sets the two practices of freedom from marks and according with marks within one and the same sentence as its conclusion.

Lineage

The text of this dedication: the stream it opens below lies not in the treatises but along two lines, the line of the name and the line of the sense.

The first is the line of the name. The name “the indestructible dedication” is already listed second among the ten minds of dedication in the Pusa yingluo benye jing, and Zhiyan's Huayan jing kongmu zhang, in its chapter on the ten dedications, has the same name; the two translations, the sixty-fascicle and the eighty-fascicle, likewise share the name unaltered. And the sentence of the Benye jing that Chengguan cites in explaining this name, “in thought after thought it does not abide, and therefore it is called indestructible,” is precisely the joint at which a name of a station is turned into a sense of the dharma — the name is the same, but where the sense is attached lies here.

The second is the line of the sense, and each of the ancient masters takes his own. Chengguan takes ‘both phenomenon and principle running through’, and so his concluding words are that the dedication of roots of goodness must reach throughout the unobstructedness of phenomenon with phenomenon before it is truly indestructible; this is the eye by which the Huayan line reads this dedication. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, sets up the three parts of the practice of the station, and divides the ten clauses of indestructible faith into three clauses for the objects that are the three jewels, four clauses for what is practiced, and three clauses for objects hard to know — the numbers obtained and what they are assigned to both differing from Chengguan's outline of the three jewels and the four faiths. Li Tongxuan sets up another track, taking the perfection of the precepts as the substance of this station and explaining the indestructible by the true nature suffering no loss and flowing along with others into the common world, so that the weight for him falls not on the firmness of faith but on the purity of the substance itself. And Zhiyan disposes of it in one phrase — the indestructible means that one's own practice is firm. What these several masters set up has each its own track; they are recorded, without adjudicating which is higher.

As for the Yogācāra line, the Cheng weishi lun, the She dasheng lun, the Yuqie shidi lun, and the Jie shenmi jing, all four works are without the name “the indestructible dedication”, and Chengguan too, in the general explanation of the chapter, speaks only in a broad way of the common sense of turning the cause and directing it to the fruit, and does not point to the proper name of this dedication; and so, for the lineage of the proper name of this dedication, the four works searched show nothing, and its line is seen only among the several masters of the one Huayan school.

The text of this dedication is faith in its first half, and offering and dedication in its second. Faith stands, and then roots of goodness have a place to be planted; roots of goodness are planted, and then there is something to dedicate — the sequence of the second, the indestructible dedication, lies wholly in this one ‘and then’.

The name of this dedication — what, in the end, is it equal to?

The third of the ten dedications is named “the dedication equal to all buddhas.” At first glance the name invites a misreading: how could a bodhisattva be equal to a buddha?

The answer lies in the very first sentence the sutra utters. The sutra says, “this bodhisattva-mahāsattva follows and studies the path of dedication of the world-honored buddhas of the past, of the future, and of the present” — what is equalled is not the buddhas' fruition-station but the buddhas' “path of dedication,” that way in which the buddhas of the three times handle their own roots of goodness. Then in the later portion the sutra adds another sentence, “just as those roots of goodness of all the Tathāgatas of the past were dedicated, so do I too dedicate in this way,” and only then does the scope of what is equalled take in the roots of goodness as well. It is precisely upon these two sentences, the earlier and the later, that Chengguan explains this name, saying, “as for the first, the statement of the name: if one goes by the text that follows, it is only equal to the path of dedication of the buddhas of the three times, but going by what comes below it is equal to the roots of goodness as well”; and he determines that the name is established from the side of what is equalled — “this name is established from what is equalled, that is, the dedication that is equal to all buddhas.”

Clear away one misreading: to be equal to all buddhas is not ‘I am already the same as a buddha,’ but ‘I handle my roots of goodness after the buddhas' own manner.’ Brought down to the ground it is a single sentence: to study the Buddha is first to study how he disposes of merit.

Why does the sutra first speak of “giving rise to neither love nor hate,” before it has spoken of dedication at all?

The second sentence of the sutra is very strange: it is discoursing on dedication, and yet it first discourses on the six faculties meeting their objects. “Seeing all forms and so on down to objects of touch and objects of mind, whether they be beautiful or ugly, he gives rise to neither love nor hate, and his mind attains sovereign freedom” — form, sound, scent, taste, touch, and dharmas are counted off one after another, and only then does it say that he obtains ease and joy.

This is first stating ‘where the roots of goodness that are to be dedicated come from.’ Dedication must have something to dedicate, and that something is nothing other than the measure of sovereign freedom refined out upon the objects. The sutra then gives four layers: the mind attains sovereign freedom; there are no faults, and it is vast and pure; there is joy and gladness, and every sorrow and vexation is left behind; the mind and thought are supple and all the faculties are cool and clear. Chengguan determines these to be four kinds of pure mind, saying that they are “when he studies as the buddhas cultivated, upon the six objects, favorable and unfavorable, four pure minds are accomplished,” and he attaches them one layer at a time — because he is not dragged along by objects, it is called the mind's sovereign freedom; because compassion and wisdom are vast, the afflictions are purified; because sorrow and fault are left behind, there is joy, gladness, and equanimity; because of the pliancy of meditative concentration, the mind and thought are supple.

Clear away one misreading: dedication is not treating merit as a sum of money and transferring it out of an account; it first requires a mind that is not dragged along by objects, and that is the thing that can be dedicated.

The buddhas' joy is already complete — why then vow that a buddha should obtain joy?

The first object of dedication in the sutra is the buddhas: “he further gives rise to the thought of dedicating it to the buddhas,” vowing to “cause the joy of the buddhas to turn and increase yet further,” and there follow ten kinds of joy — the joy of the buddhas' dwelling place, the joy of the buddhas' samādhi, the joy of great loving-kindness and compassion, the joy of liberation, the joy of the great spiritual penetrations, the joy of great sovereign freedom, the joy of measureless power, the joy of stillness, the joy of constant right concentration, and the joy of not changing or altering.

Here a question inevitably arises: the Buddha's virtue is already full and his joy already utmost — is there any need for a bodhisattva to vow that it increase? And if he does vow it, will the Buddha's virtue thereby grow? Chengguan sets himself this question and answers it himself: it is not that the Buddha needs it, but that the bodhisattva “out of reverence and the bearing of gratitude sets forth his sincerity and respect,” and he offers a comparison — “it is just like presenting celery to one's superior, or offering incense and flowers to the Buddha: not that they must wait upon such things.” Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, asks it still more bluntly: “the buddhas' virtue is full and their joy complete; what need is there to vow that a buddha obtain joy? And supposing one vows it, how would a buddha's virtue increase?” His answer runs the very same way: what need has a buddha of the incense and flowers of the human world? They are the expression of a feeling of filial reverence.

Brought down to the ground: in making offerings and dedicating to the buddhas, the function lies not in changing the Buddha but in changing the capacity of the one who offers.

The ten clauses of dedicating to the bodhisattvas: one line running from the arising of faith to the attaining of buddhahood

The second object is the bodhisattvas. The sutra lists ten clauses: may vows not yet fulfilled be fulfilled; may minds not yet pure be purified; may the perfections not yet satisfied be satisfied; may they abide in the vajra mind of awakening; may they attain non-retrogression with respect to omniscience; may they not cast away great vigor but guard all the roots of goodness of the gate of awakening; and then, may they be able to cause sentient beings to cast away the conceit of self and give rise to the mind of awakening so that what is vowed is accomplished and fulfilled; may they abide in all the places where the bodhisattvas abide; may they obtain the bright and keen faculties of a bodhisattva and cultivate roots of goodness; and may they realize Sarvajñā.

Chengguan determines that of these ten clauses “the first six are practice for oneself and the latter four are benefiting others,” and he matches the first six one by one to the stations: the first clause is the vow of according with conditions at the station of faith (he points to this sutra's own “Pure Conduct” as an instance); the second is purifying the mind of understanding of the ten abodes; the third is perfecting the ten practices; the fourth is perfecting the ten dedications (the bodhisattva precepts being named the ten vajras); the fifth is realizing non-retrogression from the first ground upward; the sixth is the effortless practice from the eighth ground upward, and so it is named great vigor. The latter four are then causing sentient beings to give rise to the mind, settling them throughout the grounds, obtaining the virtues within the grounds, and causing them to realize the fruit of buddhahood.

Clear away one misreading: dedicating to the bodhisattvas is not ‘sending a gift to someone of higher rank’; it is vowing that every practitioner should get through his own successive stage. Brought down to the ground: when you see a fellow traveler stuck at some stage, vow that he pass that stage — this is the use of the present passage.

Dedicating to sentient beings: even the good of a single finger-snap counts

The third object is sentient beings who possess some good. The sutra particularly supplies a measure: “down to the very least of them, lasting no longer than the snap of a finger, they see the Buddha, hear the Dharma, and revere the holy Saṅgha.”

Why mark out so small a measure? Because what this passage faces is people whose roots of goodness are exceedingly few. Chengguan says that such beings are “likewise beings deluded as to the real meaning, who possess a little good but use it only to seek the vehicle of gods and humans within existence” — they have a little good, and yet they take it only in exchange for a recompense among gods and humans. The bodhisattva's dedication is to join that very little good onto the Buddha vehicle. The sutra then lists this passage: being removed from hindrances; recollection of the Buddha fulfilled; recollection of the Dharma skillful in means; recollection of the Saṅgha reverent; not parted from the sight of the Buddha; the mind attaining purity; obtaining the dharmas of the buddhas; gathering measureless virtues; purifying every kind of spiritual penetration; casting off doubting thoughts about the Dharma; dwelling in accordance with the teaching. Chengguan determines these to be ten benefits, and says that “the first three cause the recollection of the Three Jewels, the next three the recollection of the virtues one has oneself accomplished, and the last three the benefits accomplished by virtue,” the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha being able to give rise to the penetrations, and so the purifying of the penetrations is attached to the portion on the benefits accomplished.

Brought down to the ground: do not make light of another's momentary flash of a good thought — what this passage teaches is precisely how to join that single thought onto the path.

The two vehicles and the evil destinies: dedication does not pick and choose its objects

The fourth and fifth objects show the breadth of this dedication most of all. The sutra passes over the two vehicles in a single sentence: “just as he dedicates in this way for sentient beings, so he dedicates in the very same way for the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas”; and of beings in evil places it says, “and may all sentient beings be forever parted from the hells, the hungry ghosts, the animals, King Yama, and every evil place.”

Why is the order sentient beings first and the two vehicles after? Chengguan's explanation is very down-to-earth: “yet sentient beings are easily turned back and forth with respect to the Buddha's Dharma, and therefore he dedicates to them first. The two vehicles will in the end turn their minds around, and therefore they too are not abandoned; the benefits are accomplished as before” — ordinary beings retrogress easily, and so are attended to first; the two vehicles must sooner or later turn their minds, and so are not abandoned. As for the passage on evil places, Chengguan says it is “not leaving out the icchantika; they are likewise beings deluded as to ripened recompense, since they do not see the fruit of suffering,” and he determines that the first half causes them to leave the fruit of suffering and accomplish good causes, while the latter half (from “never slander the true Dharma of the buddhas” onward) causes them to leave evil causes and accomplish a future fruit.

Taking the five portions together, Chengguan makes one concluding sentence: “of the five portions above, the first one dedicates to awakening and the remaining four dedicate to sentient beings.” Clear away one misreading: dedication is not given by picking out those who deserve it.

What does the word “rightly” in “rightly giving rise” mean?

The sutra goes on to say that all the roots of goodness are “by great vows given rise to and rightly given rise to, gathered and rightly gathered, increased and rightly increased.” Each of the three matters is said twice over, and the second time there is one extra word, “rightly” — this repeated word is the eye of the present passage.

The three matters are themselves easy enough to understand: good not yet arisen is by great vows given rise to and made to arise; good already arisen is by great vows gathered and made much; good already made much is caused to grow more excellent one by one. Why then say “rightly” a second time? Chengguan explains it with great precision: “that is to say, whatever is given rise to, gathered, and advanced must be directed toward the three places and not seek any other destiny. To be apart from every fault is what is called rightly.” In other words, no matter how much good is done, if it is not directed toward the three places (awakening, sentient beings, and the true limit), it is not yet called right. The Jin translation has “equally” here rather than “rightly,” and Chengguan, on the authority of the Sanskrit text, explains that the two words run into each other; he also records that certain of the ancients determined this passage to be a conclusion of what precedes, a divergent reading which he does not adopt.

Brought down to the ground: this passage carries the sharpest sentence in the whole text for a practitioner — how much good you have done is not the question; the question is where it is going.

Dwelling in the house together with wife and child: why is this passage placed here?

The ten dedications have reached only the third when suddenly there appears “dwelling in the house together with wife and child, and yet never for a moment casting away the mind of awakening,” which speaks of household life. Is this off the subject?

It is not. It was said just above that “all the roots of goodness” are by great vows given rise to, gathered, and increased; here an actual instance must be raised, to make clear that in whatever conditions one finds oneself the good can be gathered in. Chengguan determines this passage to be “the dedication that accords with defilement without being polluted,” and points out two forces at work: “by loving-kindness he accords with defilement; by wisdom he abides in the pure path and is mindful of Sarvajñā” — loving-kindness keeps him in the place of defilement, and wisdom keeps him from losing the path in that place of defilement. The sutra itself writes both sides out in full: “by his original great compassion he abides in the household, and out of a heart of loving-kindness he accords with wife and child” is the according; “although he dwells together with them, in his mind there is nothing to which he clings” is the not being polluted. There is besides one sentence often skipped over — “with skillful means he converts and guides his own family, causing them to enter the wisdom of a bodhisattva”: abiding in the household is not only a matter of not losing it oneself, but of bringing those in the house in as well.

Clear away one misreading: the household is not a second-class condition for practice. Brought down to the ground: in judging whether one has lost the path while abiding at home, what is looked at is not whether one has a household, but whether there has been a single moment of casting away the mind of awakening.

Dressing, eating, sleeping and waking — how can these be dedication?

The sutra lists eight matters of the household: putting on clothing, eating flavored food, taking medicinal broths, washing and rinsing and anointing, turning about and looking round, walking and standing and sitting and lying down, the actions of body and speech and mind, and being asleep or awake — and then says, “in all such doings as these his mind constantly dedicates and directs them to the path of Sarvajñā, and he fixes his thought upon it and ponders it, and at no time lets go of it.”

This changes dedication from ‘a procedure carried out after a good deed is finished’ into ‘the direction of everything one does at the very moment of doing it.’ Chengguan determines this passage to be “movement that accords with the path; the dedication is everywhere and without interval,” everywhere meaning that there is not one matter left outside it, without interval meaning that there is not one moment when it is broken off. The sutra then turns into the aspect of the general display, and there Chengguan opens ten further clauses, determining them as leaving the afflictions, rightly tending toward, not grasping other paths, right contemplation, casting off defilement, fully cultivating the causes, casting off the two hindrances, upholding and reciting in the ground of wisdom, gathering good by wisdom, and being undefiled by worldly practice while receiving the transcendent Dharma; and he says that the ten clauses are “all virtues of oneself, able to be directed toward awakening,” while if one carries down the earlier phrase “universally rescuing all beings,” then the ten clauses are also every one of them for the sake of sentient beings. The passage concludes with “abiding in the household, he universally gathers in roots of goodness and causes them to increase, dedicating them to the unsurpassed awakening of the buddhas” — the household is not an obstruction to dedication; it is precisely the field of dedication.

Brought down to the ground: if dedication happens only in the last three minutes of the liturgy, then the teaching of this passage has not been put to use.

A single ball, a single grain given to an animal: what is measured is not the size of the good

The sutra suddenly descends to the very lowest: “giving to an animal so much as a single ball or a single grain of food.” The whole piece has been discoursing on the path of the buddhas of the three times, and here it discourses on a lump of rice and a grain of it.

This is exactly where the passage exerts its force. Chengguan says it plainly: “down to a single ball and a single grain, the merit is exceedingly slight, and giving to an animal, the field is exceedingly poor; yet gathering this slight good, one likewise causes it by great vows to be rightly given rise to and to become the practice of dedication” — what is given is slight in the extreme, the object given to is poor in the extreme, both ends are low, and yet it still becomes dedication. This is proving that the four words “all the roots of goodness” in the preceding passage admit of no exception. And the vow the sutra makes is itself not small: it vows that these beings “cast off the destiny of animals” and so on to “reach ultimate liberation.”

Clear away one misreading: it is not that dedication is needed because the good is small, but that dedication has never turned upon the size of the good — what determines its measure is the vow, not the thing. Brought down to the ground: feeding a stray animal once can itself be a complete dedication.

The sufferings that are left behind: counted from the feeling of suffering all the way to the root of suffering

Within that vow there is a long string of clauses: “to cross over the sea of suffering forever, to extinguish the feeling of suffering forever, to remove the aggregates of suffering forever, and to cut off forever the perception of suffering, the mass of suffering, the actions of suffering, the causes of suffering, the root of suffering, and every place of suffering.” Nine clauses come down in a row, seeming like a tautology, but they are in fact a peeling away layer by layer.

Chengguan attaches their designations word by word: the first clause, “crossing over the sea of suffering forever,” displays the depth and breadth in general, and the eight clauses below make clear the aspects of suffering in particular — feeling is the own-nature of suffering; the aggregates are what suffering rests upon (the five flourishing aggregates); the perception of suffering is the mark of suffering (taking in also the perception of meeting what one hates and parting from what one loves); the mass is birth, aging, sickness, and death, the three sufferings and the eight sufferings; the actions are sinful karma; the causes are the afflictions; the root is craving; and the places are the three evil destinies. Counted from fruit down to cause, from mark down to root, it comes to rest at last upon “craving” and “the three evil destinies.”

Brought down to the ground: this string is not a heaping up of rhetoric but a chart of the anatomy of suffering — when the sutra teaches one to vow that beings leave suffering, it requires that the one who vows know how many layers suffering has and where its root lies.

Already gathered · to be gathered · now gathering: can good not yet done also be dedicated?

The sutra says, “all the roots of goodness that are already gathered, that are to be gathered, and that are now gathering, he dedicates them all.” What has been done and what is being done can be dedicated; how is what has not yet been done to be dedicated?

Chengguan answers here in great detail: “a single ball and a single grain and the like are what is now gathering. From the first arising of the mind onward is what is already gathered. As for the good to be gathered, although it has not yet arisen, the force of the vow anticipates and binds it, so that when it does arise it must of itself pour toward the three places.” The key lies in the words “the force of the vow anticipates and binds it” — the vow is set up there beforehand, so that when the future good is born it goes of itself toward the three places, with no need to dedicate it afresh at the time. This is why the passage must begin from “the first arising of the mind of awakening”: at the bodhisattva's first arising of the mind he has already “universally taken in sentient beings,” and that single arising of the mind has already fixed in advance the direction of every good to come.

Clear away one misreading: this is not drawing merit in advance; it is setting the direction in advance. Brought down to the ground: make the vow early — made once early, the good that follows need not be arranged all over again one item at a time.

Not relying on form · not clinging to feeling: dedicating with nothing to which one clings

Here the sutra turns, and speaks of the way the buddhas of the past did it: “diligently cultivating all roots of goodness, and dedicating them all without anything to which they clung,” and then it lists what is not relied upon — not relying on form, not clinging to feeling, not making inverted perceptions, not producing formations, not grasping consciousness, casting off the six sense-bases, not dwelling in the dharmas of the world, and delighting in what transcends the world.

This is the turn from following marks into being apart from marks. The five aggregates and the six sense-bases are pointed out one by one; Chengguan attaches them, saying “first the aggregates, next the sense-bases,” and says further that “not dwelling in the dharmas of the world is the eighteen elements, since faculty, object, and consciousness are the world. Not relying and not clinging is precisely the transcending of the world.” It must be noted that the sutra does not tell one to stop cultivating good — just above it said “diligently cultivating all roots of goodness,” and just below it says “constantly delighting to practice the roots of goodness of the universal gate.” What is left behind is not the practice but the grasping upon the practice.

Clear away one misreading: having nothing to which one clings is not having nothing that one does. Brought down to the ground: in judging whether you are clinging, what is looked at is not whether you act, but whether after acting there is still a ‘I did it’ left over in the mind.

Like empty space: where does the reason for not clinging lie?

The preceding passage spoke of not clinging; this passage gives the reason: “knowing that all dharmas are like empty space, with nowhere that they come from, neither arising nor ceasing, without anything real to be obtained and without anything to which one is defiled.”

Chengguan here divides the dharma from the simile: “the first clause is the simile; the text below ‘with nowhere that they come from’ contains both dharma and simile.” That is to say, “like empty space” is the comparison, and the five clauses below are both doctrinal meaning and comparison together, while the five clauses explain one another in turn — because they come from conditions and are without own-nature, therefore there is nowhere they come from; because there is nowhere they come from, therefore they neither arise nor cease; because they neither arise nor cease, therefore there is nothing real to be grasped; because there is nothing real, therefore there is nothing to which one is defiled. Pushed along in this way, not clinging is not an attitude forced down by main strength, but the natural result of having seen clearly.

Brought down to the ground: to force oneself not to cling is suppression; to see clearly that what is clung to is of itself without own-nature is release. The path the sutra walks is the latter.

Abiding in the true limit, without marks and apart from marks, being only a single mark

Going one layer further, the sutra speaks to the very utmost: “abiding in the true limit, without marks and apart from marks, being only a single mark.” These three clauses have the fewest words and the most perilous meaning — what is the true limit? And what again is being without marks? And if it is only a single mark, is that one mark not still a mark?

Chengguan here sets three questions in a row and answers them layer by layer: “What is the true limit? It is just the absence of marks. What is called the absence of marks? The substance is apart from the ten marks, and is only a single mark. What is the single mark? It is just the absence of marks.” Questioned to the end, it returns to where it began; this is not going in a circle, but saying that at this place one may not pursue it further by way of names and marks. He at once divides two gates in explanation: “the absence of marks is with respect to principle, since it is of itself originally absent. Being apart from marks is with respect to wisdom, since it is being apart from the grasping of marks.” The absence of marks is stated with respect to principle — it was never there to begin with; being apart from marks is stated with respect to wisdom — it is the contemplating mind's not grasping. As for “being only a single mark,” he says it is “because mind and object are merged.”

Clear away one misreading: a single mark is not ‘only one kind of mark left over’; it is the non-duality of grasper and grasped, in which there is nothing to be discriminated. Brought down to the ground: this passage is the deepest place in this dedication, and when one cannot read it through there is no need to force an explanation — hold first to the two words “not clinging” from the passage above.

“I too dedicate in this way”: what is equalled is that way of doing it

When the being apart from marks has been spoken, the sutra gathers back to the name of this dedication: “just as those roots of goodness of all the Tathāgatas of the past were dedicated, so do I too dedicate in this way,” and then, “I understand such a dharma, I realize such a dharma, I rely upon such a dharma, I give rise to the mind and cultivate it, and I do not go against the true mark of the dharma.”

This sentence is where the explanation of the name of the whole piece comes home. Chengguan divides it into two halves: the earlier raises what is equalled (how the Tathāgatas of the past dedicated), the later displays what does the equalling (how I come up to it). The four clauses of what does the equalling he also attaches clearly — “the first two clauses vow to be equal to the Buddha's understanding and realization” (understanding such a dharma, realizing such a dharma), “relying upon it, one cultivates and does not go against it” (relying upon such a dharma, giving rise to the mind and cultivating it, not going against the true mark of the dharma), and “reaching the ultimate ground is the fruit of cultivation.”

Clear away one misreading: to be equal to the Buddha is not to imitate the Buddha's outward marks, but to understand what he understood, realize what he realized, and rely upon what he relied upon. Brought down to the ground: the four words “I too in this way” are the whole formula this dedication gives to a practitioner.

Like an illusion, like a shadow, like the moon in water: knowing the practice without destroying the practice

When the four clauses of what does the equalling have been spoken, the sutra turns back and looks at its own practice: “knowing that the practice cultivated is like an illusion, like a shadow, like the moon in water, like an image in a mirror, made manifest by the coming together of causes and conditions, and so on up to the ultimate ground of the Tathāgata.”

The four similes share one principle, and the sutra itself states the principle outright — “made manifest by the coming together of causes and conditions.” An illusion, a shadow, the moon in water, an image in a mirror are all appearing and yet not real: one cannot say they are nothing, since they are seen; one cannot say they are real, since no own-substance can be found in them. Just so is the practice cultivated. What most demands notice is the closing clause: “and so on up to the ultimate ground of the Tathāgata” — even the fruit of buddhahood is within this string. Plainly, then, these four similes are not used to belittle practice, but to take away the grasping at practice as real.

Clear away one misreading: to say the practice is like an illusion is not to say that cultivating is cultivating in vain. Brought down to the ground: one who knows the practice is like an illusion in fact practices the longer, because he will not lose heart for failing to see any ‘real result.’

The nineteen names of dedication: nineteen faces of one single thing

When the portion on being equal to the present and the future is reached, the sutra suddenly lists a string of names: the foremost dedication, the excellent, the most excellent, the high, the unsurpassed, the unequalled, the equal to the unequalled, the incomparable, the matchless, the revered, the wondrous, the impartial, the upright, of great merit, the vast, the good, the pure, apart from evil, and not following after evil. It is one and the same dedication — what need is there of nineteen names?

Chengguan says this is because the being apart from marks has already been set forth at length in the earlier chapter on the past, and here the text is no longer elaborated; it “simply praises what is excellent, the meaning being kept by way of abbreviation” — in other words, these nineteen names gather up the doctrinal meaning of the preceding text once again by way of praise. He explains them in two portions: the first nine are “distinguishing excellence by setting one thing over against another,” that is, comparing it with others so as to display its excellence (in general it stands out at the head, hence “foremost”; it surpasses the ordinary and the lesser; it goes beyond the stations of the cause; it stands out alone; there is nothing that can be added above it; there is nothing that can be its peer; there is not a second that could be its equal; it is without match; it is without adversary); the latter ten are “displaying excellence with respect to its own substance” (revered is that it is precious and to be honored; wondrous is that words and thought do not reach it; impartial is that being in accord with principle there is no unevenness; upright is that it is not directed toward any other destiny; of great merit is that it gathers in virtue; vast is that it pervades the Dharma realm; good is that it is apart from the indeterminate; pure is that it is apart from stain and defilement; apart from evil is that of itself it has no evil practice; not following after evil is that it does not follow evil conditions).

Brought down to the ground: in reading this string one need not memorize it as nineteen matters, but take it as nineteen checkpoints upon a single matter — every one of the names is asking, ‘Is your dedication like this?’

After rightly dedicating: the three kinds of action are of themselves made pure

The sutra says, “when the bodhisattva has in this way rightly dedicated his various roots of goodness, he accomplishes pure actions of body, of speech, and of mind,” and from there runs down to “forever pulls out the root of all clinging.”

The order here must be seen clearly: it is first the right dedication and then the purity of the three kinds of action, not that one must first be pure before one can dedicate. On this passage Chengguan merely notes, “second, making clear the benefit accomplished by dedication; the text is evident and may be known,” and gives no further detailed explanation — because the sutra itself has already set it out very neatly: he abides in what the bodhisattvas abide in and is without fault; he cultivates good actions and is apart from evil of body and speech; he cultivates omniscience and knows that in dharmas there is nothing that is done; he abides in transcendent dharmas and is undefiled by worldly ones; and at the last he “accomplishes the skillful means of dedication and forever pulls out the root of all clinging.”

Clear away one misreading: dedication is not a closing gesture after practice is finished; it is itself remaking the one who practices. Brought down to the ground: the final clause “forever pulls out the root of all clinging” answers exactly to the earlier “without anything to which he clings” — dedication carried through to the end pulls out the root of grasping.

The fruit of the station: what does one who dwells in this dedication obtain?

The last portion of the prose is the fruit of the station: after “this is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's third dedication, the dedication equal to all buddhas,” the sutra says that one who dwells in this dedication enters deeply into the deeds of the Tathāgatas, tends toward the excellent and wondrous virtues of the Tathāgata, enters the deep and pure sphere of wisdom, is not parted from the deeds of the bodhisattvas, is well able to discriminate skillful and wondrous means, enters the deep Dharma realm, knows well the successive stages of the bodhisattva's cultivation, enters the family of the buddhas, by skillful means discriminates and knows all dharmas, and although he manifests a body and is born within the world, yet toward the dharmas of the world his mind has nothing to which it clings.

Chengguan determines these to be “briefly setting forth ten kinds of excellent virtue,” and explains the first three: the first is that because he cultivates the deeds of a buddha in order to dedicate equally with the buddhas, he therefore obtains entry deep into the deeds of the Tathāgatas — and he points out further that “dedicating to sentient beings is the deed of a buddha,” taking the ten kinds of buddha-deed in this sutra's “Detachment from the World” as a cross-reading; the second is tending toward the virtue of the buddha-fruit, which is being directed toward awakening; the third is that wisdom enters the deep principle, which is being directed toward the true limit. The fruits of the dedication toward the three places appear here one by one.

Brought down to the ground: the last virtue, “although he again manifests a body and takes birth within the world, yet toward the dharmas of the world his mind has nothing to which it clings,” answers head to tail with the earlier “together with wife and child” — this dedication begins from abiding at home, and it likewise concludes with dwelling in the world undefiled.

The verses matched to the prose: how do the twenty-four verses gather the whole piece?

After the prose there are forty-eight lines of verse. Chengguan determines them as “twenty-four verses, divided into three: the first twenty-one praise the practice of the station above, the next two the fruit of the station, and the last one is the concluding praise”; Li Tongxuan, on the sixty-fascicle text, says, “below there are forty-eight lines of verse, two lines to a verse,” so that his count of lines and of verses agrees with this, though he does not divide further.

Matching them portion by portion according to Chengguan's outline: the first verse is the general statement and explanation of the name (“those bodhisattva-mahāsattvas study the dharma of dedication of the past buddhas”), and the twenty verses below praise the broad explanation that precedes — of which nineteen verses properly make clear the dedication and the last one verse praises the benefit accomplished. Of the nineteen verses, the first six praise the dedication of the roots of goodness arisen from objects (the first two praising the roots of goodness dedicated together with the dedication of joy to the buddhas, the latter four praising the dedication to sentient beings that they may obtain the joy of a buddha); the next thirteen praise the dedication that gathers in the ten thousand goods, divided as the first four praising the dedication of increase, the next three praising the dedication of gathering, and the last six turning back to praise the portion on dedicating to bodhisattvas. Within these last six Chengguan further divides the first four as following marks and the latter two as apart from marks, and points them out verse by verse: “the first verse reaches the limit of dharmas; the two and the not-two, set over against each other, are both stilled,” which is precisely the verse “his mind does not weigh and measure the two dharmas”; “the latter verse comprehends the source of the false, dispelling objects by perception, and when objects are exhausted perception too is gone,” which is precisely the verse “all the worlds throughout the ten directions are entirely the discriminations of sentient beings' perceptions.” The verse praising the benefit accomplished is “when the bodies of those bodhisattvas have been made pure, then their minds too are pure and without blemish,” answering to the prose's “he accomplishes pure actions of body, of speech, and of mind.” The two verses after that praise the fruit of the station, and the last verse, “that foremost wisdom, that vast wisdom … thus does the one of most excellent wisdom speak,” concludes in praise of what has been expounded.

Brought down to the ground: the verses are not repetition but a second look with a different pair of eyes — the prose states the principle densely, the verses state it short and sharp, and reading the two side by side takes the least labor.

Lineage

The designations and the doctrinal meaning of this dedication are each taken up in their own way among the ancients; they are recorded here without adjudication of higher and lower.

The transmission of the designation: as to the name of the third of the ten dedications, the Pusa yingluo benye jing has in its enumeration of the ten dedication-minds “third, the mind of the dedication equal to all buddhas,” of the same form as the eighty-fascicle text; and Zhiyan's Huayan kongmu zhang likewise has in its enumeration of the names of the ten dedications “third, the dedication equal to all buddhas” — both of these being enumerations of names and not explanations of meaning. Chengguan, at the point of explaining the name in the present section, cites from the Benye jing the sentence “the dharma of the buddhas of the three times is practiced at all times,” in aid of the sense of ‘being equal to the buddhas of the three times.’ As for the Huayan yisheng jiaoyi fenqi zhang, the Shixuan men, and the Huayan jing zhigui, a search for this name yields no occurrence in any of them; and Chengguan's cited sentence from the Benye jing likewise yields no occurrence in those four works — this is recorded as wanting, according to the facts.

Divergence in the explanation of the name and the determining of the substance: Chengguan establishes the name from what is equalled, and takes “entering deeply into the nature of dharmas and practicing the good of the universal gate” as the nature of this dedication; Li Tongxuan, by contrast, does not follow the road of outline-determination but determines outright that “the third, the dedication equal to all buddhas, takes the perfection of patience as its substance, with the other nine as its companions,” and betokens this station by the elder Supreme Excellence, in the Grove of No Sorrow at the Banner of Great Adornment, east of the City of the Delightful, whom Sudhana visited — the city's name, the Delightful, betokening that having obtained the dharma one accomplishes patience and people find one delightful to see; dwelling east of the city betokening that patience is the head of the ten thousand practices; the Banner of Great Adornment betokening that patience is unmoved amid unfavorable objects; and the Grove of No Sorrow betokening that when patience accomplishes the fullness of practice it gives broad shade like a grove. Li Tongxuan further explains the name by way of the successive order: “moreover, above it was called the indestructible dedication, and next after it the dedication equal to all buddhas, making clear that the succession is fitting as it is.” The one explains the name by outline-determination and the other matches the perfections by symbolic betokening; their doctrinal eyes differ, and both are recorded without adjudication.

Divergence in the division of the text: Chengguan determines the prose as the practice of the station and the fruit of the station, and the practice of the station in three, as the statement of the name, the proper display of the aspect of dedication, and the general conclusion, opening the proper display by the five vehicle-objects of dedication (buddhas · bodhisattvas · sentient beings possessing good · the two vehicles · sentient beings possessing evil); Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji and upon the sixty-fascicle text, determines the prose as statement, explanation, and conclusion, and opens the proper display by the two gates of the dedication to sentient beings and awakening and the dedication to the true limit. As to the pure minds among the roots of goodness dedicated, Chengguan, following the eighty-fascicle text, determines six objects and four pure minds, while Fazang, following the sixty-fascicle text, determines two objects and three pure minds. Since the scriptural texts the two masters rely upon differ, their opening and joining differ accordingly; these are the settled sayings of the ancients, and are recorded without adjudication.

Divergence in the translated text: in the three double clauses of the great vows gathering in the good, the second word of each double clause is “rightly” in the eighty-fascicle text and “equally” in the sixty-fascicle; Chengguan attaches the note that the Jin scripture translated “rightly” as “equally,” and says that one word in the Sanskrit text runs through both “rightly” and “equally,” and further records that certain of the ancients took this passage as a conclusion of the preceding text, a divergent reading which he expressly does not adopt. In the enumeration of the names of dedication, the eighty-fascicle text has nineteen and the sixty-fascicle twenty; Chengguan points out that the one lacking is the clause “the dedication of bright purity,” because the present translation takes it as the same as “pure.” Both of these divergent readings are collations already made by Chengguan, and are recorded without adjudication.

The single word “reach”: what it is that can reach, and what it is that is reached

At the fourth of the ten dedications the sutra changes only one name: reaching every place. The bodhisattva Vajra Banner raises the question himself: “Sons of the Buddha! What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dedication that reaches every place?” Having asked, he answers himself; in the whole section no one else breaks in.

This question requires that the two ends first be told apart. Chengguan glosses this by saying that “reach” is that which reaches, namely the roots of goodness and the vessels of offering, while “every place” is that which is reached, namely the objects to which the offering is made — that is, by the great vow he causes these roots of goodness and vessels of offering to reach everywhere throughout all times and places, making offerings to all the fields of merit according to what befits each. So “reaching every place” does not say where the bodhisattva's feet walk; it says that the portion of goodness he has cultivated is able to come to rest in any place at all where it ought to come to rest.

Clear away one misreading: this is not about the far reach of the spiritual penetrations. A penetration is the body arriving; this dedication is about a root of goodness arriving. A root of goodness has no feet of its own — upon what, then, does it arrive? The whole passage that follows is the answer to that one question. Brought down to the ground: whether a good deed you have done can come to rest upon someone other than the one person in front of you turns not on how large the deed was, but on how wide was the single thought with which you dedicated it.

Just as the true limit: taking the principle as the simile for the practice

The first step of the answer is a simile: “may the power of the merit of this root of goodness reach every place; just as the true limit is such that there is no place it does not reach” — and then the places reached are set out in a list: all things, all worlds, all sentient beings, all lands, all dharmas, all of space, all the three times, all that is conditioned and unconditioned, and all speech and sound.

What is the true limit? Chengguan glosses this by saying that the true limit is the true limit of all dharmas, and that therefore there is nowhere it is not. And where does the peculiarity of this simile lie? Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji, puts his finger on it in a single phrase: here the principle is taken as the simile for the practice. An ordinary simile takes something visible as the likeness of an invisible principle; here it is the other way about, and the invisible principle is taken as the likeness of the visible practice — for only the principle truly reaches every place, and a root of goodness that is to reach everywhere must be pervasive in the way the principle is pervasive.

So this list of nine items is not rhetorical display. It is saying this: for the pervasion of a root of goodness the standard of measure is not breadth, but the everywhere-ness of the principle. Brought down to the ground: if at the moment of dedicating there is still a boundary left in the mind saying ‘this good deed ought to go to such a one,’ then it is already not the reaching of every place.

The three parts of the vow: what the buddhas of past, future, and present each receive

After the simile comes the joining. The sutra says that this root of goodness may “universally reach the dwelling places of all the Tathāgatas and make offerings to all the buddhas of the three times,” and then speaks of the three times separately: that the vows made by the buddhas of the past may all be fulfilled, that the buddhas of the future may be complete in adornment, and that the buddhas of the present, together with their lands, their places of awakening, and their assemblies, may fill all of space and the Dharma realm.

One sentence is spoken for each of the three times, and each has its own fittingness. Chengguan, glossing this passage, says that for the buddhas of the past the work they could do is already finished, and so only the fulfilling of their vows is spoken of; that for the buddhas of the future the cultivation of the cause is complete while the fruit has not yet appeared, and so completeness in adornment is spoken of; and that the buddhas of the present are in the very midst of accomplishing their transformation of beings, and so their lands and places of awakening are spoken of along with them. The three sentences do not repeat one another; they are three different ways in which an offering ‘gets through.’

As to why the offering can be accomplished at all, the sutra gives three reasons: by reason of the great majestic power of faith and understanding, by reason of vast wisdom that is without obstruction, and by reason of the dedication of all the roots of goodness. Chengguan determines these as the three causes by which the offering is accomplished — first, that by excellent understanding things are transformed in accordance with the mind; second, that by great wisdom one comprehends without obstruction; third, that by the dedication of the roots of goodness the offering is accomplished in accord with the vow. Brought down to the ground: whether an offering can be accomplished, the sutra answers, does not lie in the gift, but in which one of these three is lacking.

The buddhas are everywhere present in the Dharma realm: which is why there is anywhere for the offering to arrive

The second thought turns to the objects to which the offering is made. The sutra says that the buddhas, the world-honored ones, are universally present throughout all of space and the Dharma realm; that arisen from every kind of karma there are worlds embraced by the world-species, every kind of world of buddha-lands and buddha-domains, measureless worlds, and worlds without division, and further revolving worlds, worlds standing on their side, upturned worlds, and overturned worlds — differing each from each in shape and in orientation; and that within all these worlds the buddhas “now dwell in the world with their spans of life, and manifest every kind of spiritual penetration and transformation.”

These several names of worlds are not set down for nothing. Li Tongxuan glosses them by saying that a revolving world either revolves in a round shape or flows on like a river, and that an overturned world is like a beehive and the like — the multitude of kinds of shape being there to show that the places the buddhas pervade leave nothing out.

The work of this passage follows from the passage before it: there it was said that the root of goodness must reach everywhere, and here it is said that the objects reached are already everywhere. If the buddhas were in one place only, reaching-everywhere would have nothing to be applied to; it is precisely because the buddhas are everywhere present that the pervasion of a root of goodness has anywhere to set its foot. Brought down to the ground: what we call ‘not being able to get there’ is mostly not an absence on that side, but a boundary drawn beforehand in the mind on this side.

And there too are bodhisattvas: manifesting themselves as Tathāgatas arising in the world

Next the sutra says something that is easily read past: “there too are bodhisattvas who, by the power of their excellent understanding, for the sake of those sentient beings who are able to receive transformation, within all those worlds manifest themselves as Tathāgatas arising in the world, with the wisdom that reaches every place.” — What is offered to is not only the buddhas of the true reward body, but also bodhisattvas of high station manifesting themselves as buddhas.

Here Chengguan lets fall a weighty sentence: that the words “with the wisdom that reaches every place” are meant to show that the bodhisattva now in question — the one presently cultivating the fourth dedication — is able to do just this as well; and this is called the root being lower and the trace higher, the original ground being a bodhisattva while the trace manifested is a buddha. He adds a further sentence: if a buddha manifests as a bodhisattva, then the root is higher and the trace lower; or again both may be high or both low, cause and effect interpenetrating each other.

Why is this possible? The sutra gives three clauses: that the dharma-body universally goes forth without any difference, that it enters equally and universally into the whole Dharma realm, and that the Tathāgata-womb body is neither born nor ceasing. Chengguan explains these three clauses as showing equality with the buddha of the fruit, since both alike are the arising of the nature. Someone will want to ask: then do not sentient beings also possess the Tathāgata-womb body? And so the sutra adds three further clauses by way of explanation — by reason of having realized the true nature of dharmas and surpassed all things, by reason of having obtained the unobstructed power of non-retrogression, and by reason of being born in the family of the Tathāgata's unobstructed vision and vast majestic virtue. The difference lies in these three clauses, not in whether the womb-body is there or not. Brought down to the ground: it is one and the same womb-body — the ordinary person has it but has not realized it, while the bodhisattva of this station has realized it and is able to use it.

The ten minds of dedication: where the mind is set at the time of offering

The objects of the offering having been told, the practice that makes the offering is told next. The sutra lists the vessels of offering — manifold wondrous flowers, wondrous fragrances, garlands and canopies, banners and pennants, garments and lamps, and all the remaining vessels of adornment; and it says further that if it be an image of a buddha, or a stūpa or shrine of a buddha, to these too he does just the same. That the true buddha and the buddha who abides and sustains the teaching (the image, the stūpa and shrine) are offered to alike — this one sentence establishes a very level attitude.

Then comes the list that is most worth committing to memory in this section: “with these roots of goodness he dedicates in this way, that is to say: dedicating without distraction, dedicating single-mindedly, dedicating with his own mind's intent, dedicating with reverence, dedicating unshakably, dedicating without abiding, dedicating without depending, dedicating with a mind free of the notion of sentient beings, dedicating with a mind free of restless contention, and dedicating with a still mind.” These ten designations belong to the sutra itself; they were not fitted on by later hands.

Chengguan explains clause by clause the use of the mind in them: giving rise to no false thought; concentrating upon the right object; not awakening by another's agency; being earnest and weighty toward the field; being unmoved by the unfavorable and the favorable; not abiding in dharmas; not depending upon objects; knowing the emptiness of self; the workings of the mind being settled and considered; rightly according with nirvāṇa. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, sets up a different list: the feelings concentrated; the thought undispersed; not thwarted by conditions; deeply revering; joyfully delighting in the practice; not lingering; not defiled by attachment; being without any doer, which is also the leaving behind of what is done for; upright and apart from harm; rightly according with nirvāṇa. The order in which the two masters match them differs; both are recorded together without adjudication.

What must be seen clearly is the direction these ten clauses run: from being undistracted and single-minded (gathering the mind in), to reverence and unshakability (facing objects), to non-abiding and non-dependence (leaving behind what is clung to), to the mind free of the notion of sentient beings (leaving behind the view of a grasper and a grasped), and at the last coming home to stillness. Brought down to the ground: the merit of an offering does not lie in the price of the gift, but in which of these ten clauses your mind has come to a halt at.

And he gives rise to a thought again: what is offered to is not the one buddha before him only

The third thought opens out time as well. The sutra says that throughout the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space, within all the kalpas of past, future, and present, the buddhas, the world-honored ones, have obtained omniscience and accomplished the path of awakening, that “their measureless names are each different from one another, that at every kind of time they manifest the accomplishing of perfect awakening, and that all of them abide in their life-span to the exhaustion of the future,” and that each of them adorns his body with the adornments of the Dharma realm, his place of awakening and his assembly extending everywhere throughout the Dharma realm, arising in due season in all lands and doing the deeds of a buddha.

Chengguan determines this as making the reaching of every place clear in terms of the ever-abiding buddhas, and explains why: since through the three times they abide in their life-span to the exhaustion of the future, their responsive transformations are likewise constantly present, because the three bodies and the ten bodies interfuse without obstruction. He then points out the clauses one by one: “throughout the Dharma realm and the realm of space” is that there is no place unpervaded; “the kalpas of past, future, and present” is that there is no time unexhausted; “obtaining omniscience” is the accomplishing that is truly ultimate; “at every kind of time manifesting the accomplishing of perfect awakening” is the accomplishing that is a response — the accomplishing has a beginning while the responding has no end, and this is why it is said that they abide in their life-span to the exhaustion of the future.

Only when this passage is put together with the one before it is “every place” made complete: the earlier passage opened out the pervasion of place, and this one opens out the pervasion of time. Brought down to the ground: to make offerings to the buddhas of the three times is not to imagine some very large number, but to acknowledge that the deeds of a buddha have never once stopped.

Why the vessels of offering have to be told at such length

What comes next is the longest string in the whole section: countless canopies of fragrance, banners of fragrance, pennants of fragrance, curtains of fragrance, nets of fragrance, images of fragrance, lights of fragrance, flames of fragrance, clouds of fragrance, seats of fragrance, walking-grounds of fragrance, dwelling-places of fragrance, worlds of fragrance, mountains of fragrance, seas of fragrance, rivers of fragrance, trees of fragrance, garments of fragrance, lotus flowers of fragrance, and palaces of fragrance — twenty items. Then flowers, garlands, unguent, powdered fragrance, garments, jewels, lamplight, adornments, and maṇi jewels are each multiplied on the pattern of the fragrances by the single phrase “broadly told, on down to”; and at the last it says that within each and every domain there are countless balustrades, palaces, towers, gate-houses, half-moons, counter-terraces, windows, pure jewels, and adornments.

The ancients did the arithmetic here. Chengguan reckons that the fragrances and the rest make up the canopies and the rest, that the canopies and the rest have the balustrades and the rest, and that increasing by degrees from the countless and the measureless as far as what is beyond speaking, together with the root gates that precede them, there are two thousand in all; but he immediately makes a distinction of his own — the words “each and every” certainly run through the fragrances and the rest, yet do not run wholly through the canopies and the rest, for where would garments and lamplight get gate-houses and towers? Hence the total number is not necessarily two thousand; it is only that each and every domain is spoken of in a general way. Fazang, reckoning upon the sixty-fascicle text, arrives at two thousand two hundred and ten gates. The two masters reckon differently; this is recorded without adjudication.

What matters is not the number but that distinction of Chengguan's own: even the commentator will not let the figure be nailed down. Brought down to the ground: what this long string is to be read for is ‘it cannot be told to the end,’ not ‘how many pieces there are.’

The vow that follows the offering: from purity and escape to the wisdom of omniscience

The vessels of offering told to the end, the sutra turns to the vow: may all the worlds attain purity; may all sentient beings attain escape and abide in the ground of the ten powers, and among all dharmas obtain the unobstructed clarity of dharma; and may all sentient beings further be complete in roots of goodness and all attain subduing, their minds measureless and equal to the realm of space, going to all lands and yet arriving nowhere, entering all lands and there setting forth every kind of good dharma, constantly seeing the buddhas, planting roots of goodness, accomplishing the Great Vehicle, clinging to no dharma, complete in the manifold goods, establishing measureless practices, entering universally into the boundless whole Dharma realm, accomplishing the power of the buddhas' spiritual penetrations, and obtaining the Tathāgata's wisdom of omniscience.

Chengguan determines this passage as the dedicating to sentient beings of the roots of goodness gained by offering to the buddhas, and he notices something about the movement of the text: after the offering in the earlier passage what is spoken of is the ten minds beginning with being undistracted, while after the offering in this passage what is spoken of is the vows beginning with purity — the text abbreviates each by the light of the other, but in sense the two run through into one another. The minds and the vows are to be seen in each other; they are not two separate sets.

Among these the clause “going to all lands and yet arriving nowhere” is the most worth turning over: to go and yet arrive nowhere fastens precisely upon the name of this dedication — reaching every place, and yet what is reached is unobtainable. Brought down to the ground: what is it that sentient beings are vowed to obtain? The sutra sets it in order itself, from escape and subduing, to seeing the buddhas and accomplishing the Great Vehicle, and at the last the Tathāgata's wisdom of omniscience. Whether a vow is small or great depends on which box of that order your own vow stops at.

Just as there is no self: the second simile, which opens out the twenty clauses of universally gathering in

At this point the sutra raises a further simile: “just as there is no self, and it universally gathers in all dharmas; so too are these roots of goodness of mine.”

The earlier simile used the true limit; this one uses the absence of self. Chengguan glosses it by saying that the principle of the two kinds of selflessness universally gathers in principle and phenomena alike, leaving nothing unencompassed. Here again the principle is taken as the simile for the practice — the principle can gather in everything because it sets up no self of its own. It is the same reasoning for why a root of goodness can gather in everything: were it to set up a ‘root of goodness of mine,’ it could gather in nothing at all.

Fazang points out here what this simile is for: since this root of goodness, like the absence of self, reaches every place, it is therefore able to gather in those dharmas so as to increase one's own practice. That is to say, universally gathering in is not the taking in of things from outside; it is one's own practice increasing by reason of its pervasion.

Chengguan explains besides why a fresh passage has to be begun here: the three passages above made the roots of goodness clear severally, and spoke only of their accomplishing an offering and being offered to the buddhas; now, in order to show that this root of goodness accomplishes everything without exception, a further section is spoken. Brought down to the ground: offering to the buddhas is only one box among the uses of a root of goodness, and this simile takes the boxes away.

The twenty clauses of universally gathering in: the first twelve for oneself, the last eight for others

In the joining there are twenty clauses in all, each beginning with “universally gathers in” and ending with the word “because.” Chengguan determines that the first twelve clauses gather in and accomplish the virtue of benefiting oneself and the last eight the benefiting of others; Fazang determines the same — the first twelve gather in and accomplish the practice of benefiting oneself, and the last eight clauses the practice of benefiting others. On this the two masters agree.

The twelve clauses of benefiting oneself are, in order: the buddhas and Tathāgatas (he makes offerings to them all without remainder); all the measureless dharmas (he is able to awaken into them all without obstruction); the assemblies of bodhisattvas (ultimately he shares one and the same root of goodness with them); the practices of the bodhisattvas (by the power of his original vow they are all fulfilled); the clarity of dharma of the bodhisattvas (he penetrates all dharmas without obstruction); the great power of the buddhas' spiritual penetrations (he accomplishes measureless roots of goodness); the powers and fearlessnesses of the buddhas (he gives rise to a measureless mind and satisfies all); the samādhis, the eloquence, and the gates of dhāraṇī of the bodhisattvas (he is well able to illumine and know the dharma without duality); the skillfulness in means of the buddhas (he manifests the Tathāgata's great spiritual power); the descent into birth, the accomplishing of the path, the turning of the Dharma wheel, the subduing of beings, and the entry into nirvāṇa of the buddhas of the three times (his reverent offerings extend everywhere); all the worlds of the ten directions (his adorning and purifying of the buddha-lands is in every case ultimate); and all the vast kalpas (within them he appears and cultivates the bodhisattva practice without interruption). From buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, to practice, understanding, power, eloquence, and means, and then to the whole course of a buddha's teaching, and at the last reaching to lands and to kalpas — what is gathered in moves from the near to the far, from the virtues of one's own person out to times and places.

The eight clauses of benefiting others are: all the destinies of birth there are (he manifests the receiving of birth in them); all the realms of sentient beings (he is complete in the practice of Samantabhadra); the habit-energies of all the afflictions (by means he causes them to become pure); the faculties of all sentient beings (he knows their measureless differences entirely); the understandings and inclinations of all sentient beings (he causes them to leave defilement and attain purity); all the practices that teach and transform sentient beings (he manifests a body according to what befits them); all the ways of sentient beings that answer to their capacities (he enters entirely into all the realms of sentient beings); and the wisdom-nature of all the Tathāgatas (he guards and upholds the teaching of the buddhas). The first seven clauses step by step draw near to sentient beings, while the last clause comes to rest instead upon guarding and upholding the Buddha's teaching — the end of benefiting others is to let the Dharma abide in the world. Brought down to the ground: these twenty clauses may be taken as a sheet for examining oneself, to see how far down the list one's own roots of goodness have in fact gathered in.

Using the unobtainable as his means: following marks and being apart from marks, with no before and after

At this point the prose turns: “Sons of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva dedicates his roots of goodness in this way, he uses the unobtainable as his means, and does not, within karma, discriminate its recompense, nor, within the recompense, discriminate the karma.” The vast offering that came before is called following marks; this passage is called being apart from marks.

Chengguan opens two senses here: the first is that the unobtainable guides the following of marks that came before, so that one moves among existent things and yet is not deluded about emptiness, and this is the means for entering existence; the second is that one borrows the unobtainable in order to enter existence and yet does not keep the unobtainable itself, so that this very unobtainable is also a means, and this is the means for entering emptiness. He determines that the present text properly uses the former sense while its meaning takes in the latter as well — and this for the sake of showing that following marks and being apart from marks have no before and after.

This sentence is the pivot of this dedication. It is not that one first makes vast offerings and afterward contemplates emptiness; it is that the very moment of the vast offering is the contemplation of emptiness. Nor is it that one first empties everything out and then goes and makes the offering, for then the offering would become a mere gesture. Brought down to the ground: not discriminating the recompense within the karma is keeping no accounts while you do it; not discriminating the karma within the recompense is claiming no credit when you receive it. Only when the accounts are kept at neither end does a root of goodness truly reach every place.

Ten clauses in four joints: from gathering phenomena home to principle, on to stillness and illumination flowing together

For the contemplation that is apart from marks the sutra sets out ten clauses: he does not, within karma, discriminate its recompense, nor, within the recompense, discriminate the karma; though without discrimination he enters universally into the Dharma realm; though without any doing he abides constantly in the roots of goodness; though without any arising he diligently cultivates the surpassing dharmas; he does not believe in dharmas and yet is able to enter deeply into them; he does not hold dharmas to exist and yet knows and sees them all; both the doing and the not doing are alike unobtainable; he knows that the nature of dharmas is constantly not sovereign; though he sees all dharmas he sees nothing; he universally knows everything and yet knows nothing.

Chengguan determines that the sense of these ten clauses has four joints. The first joint gathers phenomena home to principle — the dharmas of phenomena being already empty, karma is empty and so has no substance by which to summon a recompense, and the recompense is empty and so has no substance by which to requite a cause. The next five clauses make clear that principle does not obstruct phenomena — without discrimination there is yet a wisdom that can enter and a Dharma realm that is entered, without doing there is yet doing, without arising there is yet cultivating. The third joint, of two clauses, is the mutual cutting off of phenomena and principle, which in terms of the mind is the vanishing of both calming and contemplation. The fourth joint, of two clauses, is the non-obstruction of phenomena and principle, which in terms of the mind is stillness and illumination flowing together. At the end he draws a conclusion: at first existence is gathered home to emptiness and yet existence has never been diminished; next existence is set up in dependence upon emptiness and yet existence has never been kept; next emptiness and existence are both forgotten, with nothing hidden and nothing displayed; and last emptiness and existence do not obstruct each other, and being kept and being lost are simultaneous — and only when the four clauses are fused in this way is it called the contemplation of the true limit apart from marks.

Among these the clause “he does not believe in dharmas and yet is able to enter deeply into them” is the most easily misread. Chengguan cites here from the Da bore jing, “if one believes in all dharmas, then one does not believe in all dharmas; and by not believing in all dharmas one is said to believe in all dharmas,” and then draws a distinction, saying that there the point is that not believing is the true believing, while here the point is that not believing does not obstruct believing. Brought down to the ground: this is not telling anyone not to believe in the Dharma; it is saying that one does not grasp at ‘a mark in dharmas by which they might be believed,’ and only so can belief go deep.

What the contemplation accomplishes: causes and conditions as root, and then seeing the buddhas, being apart from defilement, being like a transformation

After the contemplation comes what the contemplation accomplishes. The sutra says that the bodhisattva penetrates the objective realm in this way — knowing that all dharmas have causes and conditions as their root, seeing the dharma-body of all the buddhas, arriving at the true limit in which all dharmas are apart from defilement, understanding that the world is in every case like a transformation, clearly comprehending that sentient beings are only one dharma and have no second nature, and not casting away the skillfulness in means that works within the objects of karma; and that within the realm of the conditioned he displays the unconditioned dharma and yet does not destroy the marks of the conditioned, while within the realm of the unconditioned he displays the conditioned dharma and yet does not discriminate the marks of the unconditioned.

Chengguan determines that the first clause is the general one and the rest are particular, the general one lying in “causes and conditions as their root.” He explains that root of causes and conditions thus: because of causes and conditions there is existence, and because of causes and conditions there is emptiness; because of causes and conditions there is no existence, and because of causes and conditions there is no emptiness; because of causes and conditions there is flowing on, and because of causes and conditions there is returning to cessation; and he cites the Zhonglun in attestation: “never has there been a single dharma that did not arise from causes and conditions.” The seven clauses that follow are all explained out of this one: seeing the dharma-body is that causes and conditions do not abide, and the root of non-abiding is just the dharma-body; seeing the true limit is that the nature of causes and conditions is of itself apart; being like a transformation is that what arises from conditions is without nature; being only one dharma with no second nature is that outside principle there are no phenomena; and the two clauses on skillful means within the objects of karma and on displaying the conditioned and the unconditioned are the displaying of principle by way of phenomena without destroying phenomena, and the accomplishing of phenomena by way of principle without hiding principle.

The last section speaks of the benefit that the contemplation accomplishes: the bodhisattva contemplates in this way that all dharmas are ultimately still and extinguished, accomplishes all the pure roots of goodness, “and yet gives rise to the mind that rescues and protects sentient beings.” That word “and yet” is the joint of the whole passage — the contemplation of still extinction does not lead toward indifference; it leads toward rescue and protection. Brought down to the ground: the more emptily one sees, the less reason there is to leave anything unattended.

Matching the buddhas' mind: field of merit, guide, sun

The passage of concluding praise gathers up everything before it: the bodhisattva, dedicating his roots of goodness in this way, matches the mind of all the buddhas, adorns and purifies all the buddha-lands, teaches and ripens all sentient beings, and is complete in receiving and upholding all the Buddha-dharma; he becomes the supreme field of merit for all sentient beings, the wise guide for all merchants, and the pure sun of all the worlds; and each and every one of his roots of goodness fills the Dharma realm, is able to rescue and protect all sentient beings, and causes them all to be pure and complete in merit.

Chengguan determines this as the concluding praise of the benefit accomplished, and divides it into two layers: first the twofold benefit belonging to one's own portion, in which the opening sentence matches the buddhas' mind above while the remaining sentences of themselves accomplish the two benefits; afterward the twofold benefit of advancing higher, in which the text takes in both substance and function.

The three similes each speak of one side. The field of merit speaks of the merit that is produced — the one who makes the offering obtains merit, and this is said from the side of sentient beings. The guide speaks of the road that is shown — merchants have goods but do not know the way, which is the likeness of sentient beings who have goodness but do not know where to direct it. The sun speaks of the darkness that is broken — it shines without choosing its ground. The three similes set side by side tell at one stroke the three uses the bodhisattva has for the world. Brought down to the ground: not one of these three is a title set up for oneself; each is a position that other people can put to use.

The ten clauses of capacity: what he can actually do when he dedicates in this way

Next come ten clauses with the word “able”: able to guard and uphold the seed of all buddhas, able to ripen all sentient beings, able to adorn and purify all lands, able not to destroy any karma, able to know all dharmas, able to contemplate equally that dharmas are without duality, able to go everywhere throughout the worlds of the ten directions, able to penetrate the true limit that is apart from desire, able to accomplish pure faith and understanding, and able to be complete in bright and keen faculties.

The ten clauses may be read in three portions. The first three are the three things accomplished — the seed of buddhas, sentient beings, and lands, which are precisely the three supports by which Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha abide in the world. The middle four speak in terms of dharmas — not destroying karma is not dismissing cause and effect, knowing all dharmas is knowing their marks, contemplating equally their non-duality is knowing their nature, and going everywhere through the ten directions is their function. The last three come home to one's own person — penetrating the true limit apart from desire, accomplishing pure faith and understanding, and being complete in bright and keen faculties.

What deserves notice is that the clause “able not to destroy any karma” follows immediately upon the contemplation apart from marks. No sooner has it been said that within karma one does not discriminate the recompense than it is said that karma is not destroyed — the contemplation of emptiness may not be used to abolish cause and effect, and the sutra stops up that gap itself. Brought down to the ground: if in reading the previous section the thought should arise that ‘it is all empty anyway,’ this clause is the correction.

The concluding name and the fruit of the station: the ten kinds of “obtaining the reaching of every place”

The sutra concludes with the name: “Sons of the Buddha! This is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's fourth dedication, the dedication that reaches every place.” Here the sixty-fascicle text has “this is named” and the eighty-fascicle has “this is”; both are recorded.

After the concluding name comes the fruit of the station, ten clauses in all, each beginning with “he obtains the reaching of every place.” Chengguan determines them in three joints: the first three clauses are the pervasion of the substance of the three kinds of action — bodily action (universally able to respond and appear in all worlds), verbal action (expounding the Dharma within all worlds), and mental action (receiving and upholding the dharmas spoken by all buddhas); the next three are the pervasion of the function of the three kinds of action — the spiritual penetration of the base of power (going and responding to all according to the minds of sentient beings), the wisdom that accords with realization (universally able to penetrate all dharmas), and dhāraṇī and eloquence (causing sentient beings to rejoice according to their minds); the last four show the sovereignty of the function — entering the Dharma realm (within a single pore entering universally into all worlds), the body that enters everywhere (within the body of a single sentient being entering universally into the bodies of all sentient beings), the universal seeing of kalpas (within each and every kalpa constantly seeing all the Tathāgatas), and the universal seeing in thought-moments (within each and every thought-moment all the buddhas being present before him). Fazang too determines them as ten clauses, matching the last four to sovereignty over the receptacle world, over sentient beings, over kalpas, and over thought-moments.

The last four clauses most repay close reading: that a single pore enters universally into all worlds is the mutual entry of the wide and the narrow; that within a single thought-moment all the buddhas are present is the mutual identity of thought-moment and kalpa. This dedication is named the reaching of every place, and only here is “reach” carried through to the end — it is not a walking everywhere, but that one place is every place. The sutra closes with a single sentence: having obtained the dedication that reaches every place, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is able to dedicate his roots of goodness in this way.

The eleven verses of praise: the frame of the prose walked through once more

The prose finished, the compilers narrate a single sentence: “then the bodhisattva Vajra Banner, sustained by the Buddha's majestic power, contemplated the ten directions universally and spoke these verses.” The speaker is still Vajra Banner; there is no change of person. The verses run to twenty-two lines, two lines to a verse, making eleven verses in all.

Chengguan determines these eleven verses in three parts: the first seven praise the dedication to sentient beings and to awakening, the next three and a half praise the dedication to the true limit, and the last half verse praises the benefit accomplished; and within these, the first verse praises the summary statement of reaching every place above, while the four verses after it praise the dedication of universally gathering in. Fazang, upon the sixty-fascicle text, likewise determines eleven verses in three parts, but takes the first four verses as dedicating well in accord with the true principle and the next three as studying and dedicating with deeds that are the same as the buddhas'; his matching differs somewhat from Chengguan's, and this is recorded without adjudication.

The verses match the prose thus. The first verse, “toward all the worlds, inner and outer, the bodhisattva has no attachment at all, and yet does not cast away the work of benefiting sentient beings,” properly praises the prose on being without attachment and yet not casting aside — one verse setting up the frame of the whole. The second verse says that the lands of the ten directions have nothing they depend on and nowhere they abide, and that he does not grasp at livelihood or at any other such dharma: this praises the places that are reached. The third verse, “he universally gathers in all sentient beings within the worlds of the ten directions without remainder, and contemplates that their very substance is nothing at all,” puts universally gathering in and being apart from marks together in a single verse. The fourth verse universally gathers in the conditioned and unconditioned dharmas without giving rise to false thought, and its last line, “thus does the lamp that lights the world awaken to them,” points out the awakening on which this rests. The fifth verse says that the deeds and practices he cultivates differ as superior, middling, and inferior and that all of them are dedicated to the buddhas — deeds that differ, a dedication of one taste. The sixth verse says that he dedicates and reaches the other shore, and follows the Tathāgatas in study. The seventh says that pure roots of goodness are universally dedicated so as to make sentient beings become the unsurpassed lamp that lights the world — the lamp is seen twice, the first time of the Buddha and the second of what sentient beings are to become, one simile put to two uses. The eighth verse enters upon the true limit: never discriminating or grasping at sentient beings, not falsely thinking upon dharmas, and yet still not casting away the conscious ones. The ninth says that he constantly delights in still extinction and accords with nirvāṇa, and yet does not forsake the way of sentient beings. The tenth says that he has never discriminated karma nor grasped at any recompense, and comes home to “all the worlds arise from conditions, and he does not see dharmas apart from causes and conditions” — fastening upon the prose on causes and conditions as root. The eleventh verse gathers all in: entering deeply into such objective realms and giving rise to no discrimination within them, the tamer and guide of all sentient beings clearly understands this and dedicates well. Brought down to the ground: when the prose will not go down, these eleven verses are its table of contents.

Lineage

In what the ancients have carried forward from the text of this section there are three roads; all are recorded here as follows.

The first is commentary that follows the text clause by clause. Chengguan, upon the eighty-fascicle text, sets up the two divisions of the practice of the station and the fruit of the station, opens the practice of the station into the three parts of restating, glossing, and concluding, and runs the ten matters of reaching every place through the whole section; Fazang, in the Tanxuan ji and upon the sixty-fascicle text, sets up indicating, glossing, and concluding, and opens the dedication to the true limit further into the three gates of exhausting phenomena and returning to principle, of not obstructing phenomena while displaying principle, and of principle vanishing while phenomena function. The scriptural texts the two masters rely upon are not the same, and their outline-names and their matching of clauses differ accordingly; this is recorded here without adjudication.

The second is the track of symbolic betokening. Li Tongxuan sets up a road of his own: he determines that this dedication takes the perfection of vigor as its substance with the other nine as its companions, and betokens this station by the nun Lion's Rousing Stretch whom Sudhana visited — she dwelling in the country of Shuna (which is here called the City of Valor), named Jialingjialin (which is here rendered the Time of Contention), and being able to reconcile and cut off contention, which properly betokens the aspect of the fourth dedication in which vigor benefits creatures. He further opens eleven kinds of reaching every place in terms of station, one item more than Chengguan's ten matters; and he sets up ten dharmas of dedication — dedicating what is conditioned by what is unconditioned, dedicating what is unconditioned by what is conditioned, and so on to taking the dedication in which all things are without self-nature as the means of the dharma of dedication — thus opening the two words “dedicating and directing” themselves into five pairs. This track does not follow the outline-road of the commentators, but makes up a reading of its own school.

The third is the carrying forward of a designation. The chapter on the ten dedications in Zhiyan's Kongmu zhang, and the ten minds of dedication in the Pusa yingluo benye jing, both list the name “the dedication that reaches every place,” yet neither develops the doctrine of this section further; and within the three works, the Wujiao zhang, the Zhigui, and the Shixuan men, no passage is to be found that cites the scriptural sentences of this section (the group of clauses beginning “universally gathers in,” the clauses of capacity, and the ten kinds of obtaining the reaching of every place) and argues from them. Those who carry this section forward stop at the listing of the name; this is recorded according to the facts.

In the text of this one dedication the first half exhausts the breadth of offering and the second half the depth of being apart from marks, and it closes with a single pore entering universally into all worlds and all the buddhas present within a single thought-moment — and here the sense of reaching every place is exhausted.

Putting the two graphs “inexhaustible” in their right place

Ask first: this dedication is named “the treasury of inexhaustible merit” — what is it that is inexhaustible? When ordinary people hear “inexhaustible” they think of a number so great it cannot be counted; but the roots of goodness this section dedicates are only eight clauses, and that is not many.

Chengguan explains the name of this dedication with great precision: because it is an inexhaustible object that is met when the dedication is made, an inexhaustible practice of the merit of roots of goodness is accomplished, and the fruit of ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury is obtained; the name is taken from the two ends together, the practice that does the dedicating and the fruit that is obtained. Said another way — the inexhaustible does not lie in that little root of goodness in your hand, but in the place you put it into. Eight clauses of roots of goodness are a limited thing, but “the buddhas of the three times,” “all sentient beings,” “the whole Dharma realm and the whole realm of empty space” are limitless; and a limited thing, once it is tied to a limitless object, becomes limitless along with it.

As for the graph “treasury,” Chengguan runs through two ways of taking it: with respect to the dedication set over against the practice, the dedication is what does the storing and the inexhaustible merit is what is stored; with respect to the cause set over against the fruit it is likewise. He further cites one sentence from the Benye jing saying that one constantly bestows the Three Jewels upon the person before one, and therefore it is named the treasury of inexhaustible merit.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “the inexhaustible treasury” as a warehouse packed with things. It is a relation — wherever you turn your roots of goodness toward, that place is their measure. Brought down to the ground: what this gate teaches is a way of seeing, not a feat of effort. One and the same good deed, dedicated to oneself, has an end; dedicated to all the sentient beings and all the buddhas of the three times, it is inexhaustible on the spot.

The roots of goodness dedicated are only eight clauses: repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · hearing the Dharma · a fourfold rejoicing

Ask first: a dedication must after all have something to dedicate — what is taken up here? Answer: eight clauses. Chengguan, outlining this passage, says that “the text has eight clauses,” and says that the first three may be known as they stand, that the fourth, hearing the Dharma and cultivating and realizing it, belongs to the exhortation — since if one asks the Buddha in person one will assuredly hear the Dharma — and that the latter four are all rejoicing.

The order of the eight clauses is in fact a whole method of practice. Chengguan here sets out the several masters' ways of opening out and gathering up: according to the Ligouhui suowen lifo fa jing there are eight layers in all (making offerings to the Buddha · praising the Buddha's virtue · saluting the Buddha, and the rest being the five acts of repentance), or one joins salutation and praise, or one omits the offering; or there are only five, since making a vow and dedicating differ only as the general and the particular; or there are only three, as the Zhi lun says, that in the three periods of the day and the three of the night one practices repentance · exhortation · rejoicing; and if one follows the Shanjie jing there are only the two matters of repentance and dedication. The Yanyi chao, taking up the commentary, makes it plain: the five here are repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · rejoicing · dedication, and dedication stands last. Fazang's Tanxuan ji establishes eight gates for repentance, and likewise raises seven layers of opening and gathering — eight · seven · six · five · four · three · two — and in the end says that for now he will explain according to the five matters.

Clear away a misreading: do not read repentance as an emotional remorse. Chengguan glosses the graphs: to confess is to disclose one's earlier offences, and to repent is to change what is past and cultivate what is to come, and the purpose is to remove the hindrance of evil karma. Reverent salutation removes the hindrance of conceit; exhortation removes the hindrance of slandering the Dharma and gives rise to the good of loving-kindness; rejoicing removes the hindrance of envy and gives rise to the good of impartiality — four matters, each a remedy for one disease. Brought down to the ground: these eight clauses can be done as they stand. Whatever dedication you can make today, the material for it is already among these eight, and there is no need to look elsewhere.

Why rejoicing takes four of the clauses: its merit cannot be reckoned by measure

Ask first: among the eight clauses rejoicing alone occupies four — why so heavy a weight? Chengguan says that the Shizhu and the Zhi lun both divide rejoicing into three stations — the good of the buddhas · the good of the two vehicles · the good of gods and humans; the four clauses here have a first clause that states in general that the three goods are already present in it, and among them the good of the two vehicles is precisely what ought to be reproved, and so it is not raised separately but is contained within “all sentient beings”; the latter three clauses are the particular, the second clause making the three goods plain separately and concluding them into a single rejoicing, and the last clause rejoicing over the cause and the fruit of the buddhas.

That rejoicing is worth four clauses is because its merit cannot be reckoned by measure. Chengguan cites the Dapin, its chapter on rejoicing, saying that of the sea-water of the great thousandfold world, if one splits a single hair into a hundred parts and takes up drops of the sea-water with it, one might yet know their number, but the merit of rejoicing cannot be known in number; and he cites the Fahua saying that even at the fiftieth person to whom it is passed on it is still hard to compare and measure, how much more the first rejoicing. He further makes the point that what is rejoiced over here is the Tathāgata's merit of the provisional and the real, and therefore the merit is greater still.

Clear away a misreading: do not suppose that rejoicing is a lazy gate that costs no effort. What it remedies is envy, and envy is precisely the state of mind hardest of all to notice in oneself. Brought down to the ground: rejoicing is the one kind of root of goodness that does not require you to have capital first — at every good thing another does, the moment you stir up a mind of gladness that root of goodness has entered into your own eight clauses.

The ten clauses of “all that is”: one root of goodness has ten faces

Ask first: the eight clauses have already been listed in full, so why go on to say the ten clauses that begin “all that is accumulated, all that is believed and understood”? Answer: this is to tie up the roots of goodness above once more, and vertically this time. Chengguan says that what precedes ties up horizontally what has been said and what has not been said, and that what follows ties up the preceding good vertically, meaning that whichever root of goodness it may be, it has these faces of accumulation and the rest.

The ten clauses are: accumulated · believed and understood · rejoiced over · fulfilled · accomplished · cultivated · obtained · known and perceived · taken up and held · increased and grown. Chengguan glosses four of them graph by graph — to be furnished entire is called fulfilment, to have finished learning is called accomplishment, to enter by realization is called obtaining, to penetrate the nature is called knowing and perceiving — and the rest of the words are plain in themselves.

Clear away a misreading: do not read these ten clauses as ten different roots of goodness. They are ten cross-sections of one and the same root of goodness: a single thing you have done may be spoken of from its accumulating, from your believing and understanding of it, from your gladness over it, on down to its increase. Brought down to the ground: look your roots of goodness over vertically once before you dedicate them, and you will find that there is more to dedicate than you supposed — not only ‘what I have done,’ but also ‘what I have believed’ and ‘what I have rejoiced over.’

First adorning the buddha-lands of the past: what a kind of buddha-world is

Ask first: the roots of goodness being now complete, what is the first place to dedicate them to? Answer: the lands of all the buddhas. The sutra first raises every place through which all the Tathāgatas passed in the kalpas of the past that were without bound or border, and then leads out with “that is to say” the passage on the kinds of buddha-worlds.

Chengguan here glosses it graph by graph: a kind of world is the great structure of quarters and places set out among one another, as was said in the first assembly; measureless says that it is without any measure; numberless says that its number is many; what the wisdom of a buddha knows says that it is manifested by pure consciousness and that only a buddha exhausts it; what a bodhisattva recognizes says that a bodhisattva who has ascended to the grounds can see it in part; what one of the great mind receives says that one before the grounds is able to receive it. Then the clauses “pure karmic practice, what it pours forth and draws forth, arising in accord with sentient beings” and the rest he determines as the completeness of the cause, and he distinguishes: the land of one's own enjoyment is what pure practice pours forth, while the land of another's enjoyment and the land of transformation are what pure karma draws forth; and the last clause, “all the buddhas accomplish the path within them,” he determines as the completeness of the work.

Clear away a misreading: do not read a kind of buddha-world as the name of some particular place. What it speaks of is that very structure in which worlds come to be by kinds and are set out among one another. Brought down to the ground: this passage tells the reader that a buddha-land is pure not because its materials are precious, but because it is poured forth by pure karmic practice — the cleanness of the land comes from the cleanness of the cause.

The buddha-lands of the future: the six adornments and the so-called eighteen completenesses

Ask first: after the past it speaks of the future — why does the sutra divide the buddha-lands of the three times and speak of them apart? Answer: because the buddha-lands of the three times each have their own aspect, and only taken together are they all of them. Chengguan outlines nine kinds of completeness from this passage, and says in sum that within these two passages the eighteen completenesses are present in full.

The passage on the future first states in general “to the very end of the future, all the Tathāgatas, the Worthy of Offerings, the Rightly and Fully Awakened,” and next makes plain the completeness of extent with “to the end of the Dharma realm and to the end of the realm of empty space, without bound and without border, without interruption and without exhaustion”; the clause “they all arise from the wisdom of the Tathāgata” Chengguan determines as the completeness of the fruit, and divides it: the land of one's own enjoyment arises from the wisdom of the great perfect mirror, the land of another's enjoyment from the wisdom of impartiality. From “adorned by measureless wondrous jewels” onward is the completeness of what upholds; he cites the Fodi jing saying that it is adorned by a multitude of measureless merits and that the great jewelled king of flowers is what upholds it, and then sets a limit to it himself with one sentence, that the Fodi takes it only with respect to the matter and speaks only of the lotus, whereas here it runs through both matter and principle, and therefore he speaks of the merit of the powers of a buddha. As for the six adornments — incense · flower · garment · treasury of merit · the powers of the buddhas · buddha-lands — Chengguan divides them into three adornments by things, two adornments by virtue, and one land that is upheld. “Where the Tathāgatas gather as in a capital” is the completeness of the lord, and from “inconceivable; the many pure multitudes who cultivated and practiced together and have a bond from former lives” onward is the completeness of the retinue that assists, taking in as well the completenesses of the entourage, of the quarter, of the gate in which all are alike, and of the benefit conferred.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “to the very end of the future” as a very long stretch of time. It is raised together with “to the end of the Dharma realm and to the end of the realm of empty space,” and what it speaks of is being without interruption and without exhaustion, not being very long. Brought down to the ground: the use of reading this passage is that it rescues the two graphs “adornment” from mere decoration — what is called adornment is that lord, entourage, quarter, and Dharma-gate are every one of them complete; it is not that the place looks handsome.

The buddha-lands of the present: the eleven kinds of implement of adornment

Ask first: why are the buddha-lands of the present spoken of in the greatest detail? Answer: because they are the aspect of the world in which the reader stands at this moment. The sutra first says “all the buddhas, the world-honored ones, of the present are in every way like this as well,” which Chengguan determines as a general statement that they are of a kind with the past and the future; next, “measureless shapes” makes plain the completeness of shape and “measureless light and color” the completeness of visible color, and the clause “all of them accomplished by merit” concludes them in general by the cause; from “measureless incense, measureless jewels, measureless trees” onward is the completeness of the dwelling place.

The clause “the good friends who come following upon the causes and conditions of former lives manifest the adornment of every merit” Chengguan determines as separately displaying the cause of the place — that is, the cause of another's enjoyment, and this is why it says “manifest.” Thereafter “that is to say” leads out the eleven kinds of implement of adornment — incense · garland · powdered incense · jewel · banner · jewelled silk streamer · jewelled railing · golden net · river · cloud-rain · music playing subtle and wondrous sounds; the first seven are crowned with “every,” the latter four with “asaṃkhyeya.”

Clear away a misreading: these eleven implements are not a list of eleven objects, for the closing clause, “implements of adornment measureless and numberless such as these,” has already said of itself that it is giving examples. Brought down to the ground: what deserves notice is the clause “the good friends who come following upon the causes and conditions of former lives” — the adornment of a buddha-land, the sutra says, comes from the manifesting of good friends. Adornment is not a fine landscape without people in it; there are people within it manifesting merit.

The twenty-nine names of buddha-lands: the names are taken from virtue and function

Ask first: twenty-nine names of buddha-lands one after another — how is the reader to read them? Answer: not as twenty-nine places. Chengguan says it plainly — there are twenty-nine kinds, and the names are established differently according to substance · virtue · function.

The twenty-nine names in order are: adorned · pure · impartial · fine and good · majestic · vast · peaceful and happy · indestructible · inexhaustible · measureless · unmoving · fearless · luminous · without contrariety · to be loved and delighted in · universally illumining · adorned and beautiful · fine and lovely · wondrously wrought · foremost · excellent · especially excellent · most excellent · utterly excellent · high · unsurpassed · unequalled · incomparable · beyond all likeness. The sequence begins with “adorned” and stops at “beyond all likeness”; the first half establish their names mostly with respect to virtue, while the latter half raise in a row the nine names excellent · especially excellent · most excellent · utterly excellent · high · unsurpassed · unequalled · incomparable · beyond all likeness, which is a way of forcing the praise, step mounting upon step, to the very end of what language can do. The sixty-fascicle text here has twenty-seven names, crowned with “buddha-field,” and its last name is “the equal of the unequalled” — both witnesses are recorded, without adjudging between them.

Clear away a misreading: do not look for a strict classification between one name and the next. It is a heaping up of words of praise, and the intent of the rhetoric lies precisely in the heaping. Brought down to the ground: at the words “beyond all likeness” one should stop a moment — the names run out here, and this is exactly the forewarning of the turn into being apart from marks that follows.

The first great vow: to adorn one is to adorn all

Ask first: the adornments of the buddha-lands of the three times having all been looked over, what is the first vow the bodhisattva makes? Answer: he vows to take all the pure adornments of all the lands of all the buddhas of the three times and use them entire to adorn a single world; and then, as it is with one world, so is it with all worlds.

Chengguan upon this establishes the doctrine of the pure land of Huayan, saying: what follows from “as it is with one world” gives the adorning as example, universal and all-round, and so displays the bounds of the adornment, causing the lands of the Dharma realm all to possess all the adornments of the three times; and since a single buddha-land already possesses inexhaustible adornment, then to adorn one is to adorn all, which further displays that one completeness is all completeness, layer upon layer without end, and this is what makes the completeness of the pure land of Huayan. The six clauses of the sutra, “wholly accomplished, wholly purified, wholly gathered, wholly made manifest, wholly made beautiful, wholly upheld and maintained,” are precisely this sense of ‘the whole of it falling in a single place,’ repeated six times over.

Clear away a misreading: do not read this vow as covetousness — as wanting to move every good thing into one's own land. Its bone is ‘one is all’: because one and all are of themselves mutually identical, to adorn one land is to adorn all lands, and nothing has been carried off from anywhere. Brought down to the ground: this is the first place where “inexhaustible” comes down onto the aspect of objects. If the one place you dedicate toward is truly the Dharma realm, then that one place is every place.

The second great vow: adorning the land with people

Ask first: the land has been adorned already, so why is a second vow still needed? Answer: because the adornment of a land does not lie in things. Chengguan says that what follows here is human jewels as the adornment, the same as the seventh of the ten great vows, which is to say the completeness of the retinue that assists, spoken of above.

The body of this vow is exceedingly long: he vows that all the buddha-fields he cultivates and completes have great bodhisattvas filling them full, and it lists the virtues of those bodhisattvas. Chengguan divides it into three parts: first the general vow for what is accomplished, next the separate display of the aspect of the vow, and last the conclusion in the adorning of the field. Within the separate display he further sets the vow for loftiness of virtue before the vow for breadth of work: the passage on loftiness of virtue has twenty clauses, of which the first two state in general the reality of substance and the roundness of wisdom, and the eighteen thereafter display them separately; he says that “well discriminate” is the provisional and “enter deeply” the real, and that from “accomplish the recollection of the Buddha” onward the first four only of the seven recollections are raised, while from “the sun of wisdom is fulfilled” onward is the great practice. The passage on breadth of work he divides into four, namely the completenesses of work · of vehicle · of fearlessness · of upholding. Last of all is the conclusion in the adorning of the field, where he glosses “perfumed and cultivated, utterly perfumed and cultivated” as perfuming and cultivating body and mind unceasingly with stillness and with insight, with wisdom alone and with compassion alone; that the afflictions of the present do not arise is why it says pure, and that the habits of the seeds do not stir is why it says utterly pure; tranquil means harmonious, at rest means at ease, and harmonious and at rest and still is the aspect of stillness within illumination.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “great bodhisattvas filling them full” as a crowd and a bustle. The sutra goes on to use ten layers of number — numberless · measureless · boundless · unequalled · beyond counting · beyond reckoning · beyond thinking · beyond measuring · beyond speaking · beyond speaking of beyond speaking — and Chengguan says that this is how many there are in a single quarter within a single field, and that thereafter the quarter is taken as example for the field and the field as example for the Dharma realm. Brought down to the ground: whether a land is good is a matter of what kind of people live in it. This vow moves the definition of adornment from vessels and objects onto one's fellow practitioners.

The ten skillful dedications: turning from the pure land to every place

Ask first: the two vows above have both spoken of buddha-fields — is dedication then only for the sake of buddha-lands? Answer: it is not. Chengguan says that what follows here is the dedication that gathers all in, and that it is not directed only to the pure lands of the buddhas; the text has ten clauses, the first three tying up what has already been said above and the latter seven setting forth what has not yet been made plain.

The ten clauses are: dedicating to all buddha-fields · to all bodhisattvas · to all Tathāgatas · to the awakening of all buddhas · to all vast vows · to every path of the essential going forth · to the purifying of the whole realm of sentient beings · to seeing constantly in all worlds the buddhas appearing and arising in the world · to seeing constantly that the life-span of the Tathāgata is measureless · to seeing constantly all the buddhas filling and pervading the Dharma realm and turning the unobstructed and non-retrogressive wheel of the Dharma. Of the term “path of the essential going forth” Chengguan explains it by expressly dividing the great vehicle from the small: the essential going forth of the small vehicle has only the four, vigor · mindfulness · concentration · wisdom, since the thirty-seven factors do not depart from these; the essential going forth of the great vehicle has only the three headings, the four means of gathering · the four immeasurables · and the ten perfections; the pressing essential of the three vehicles is only stillness and insight, and the pressing essential of the great vehicle is only wisdom and compassion.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten clauses as ten different goals. The first three are the places adorned, the middle ones are the practices cultivated, and the last three are the things one vows constantly to see — they are ten destinations of one and the same dedication. Brought down to the ground: these ten clauses can be used directly as a text of dedication. They give a complete table of directions: toward the field · toward people · toward the buddhas · toward the fruit · toward vows · toward the path · toward sentient beings · toward the sight of a buddha.

Once the dedication is made, three places are purified at once

Ask first: dedication is a turning of direction within the mind — how then does it have an effect outside? Answer: the sutra says it with the utmost brevity — because he universally enters all the buddha-lands, all the buddha-fields are pure; because he universally reaches the whole realm of sentient beings, all bodhisattvas are pure; because he universally vows that in all the buddha-lands there be buddhas appearing and arising, the bodies of the Tathāgatas appear standing out above all in the whole Dharma realm and in all the buddha-lands. Three graphs “because,” and three results.

Chengguan determines this passage as the conclusion in which practice accomplishes benefit, and says that it gathers up in sum the three kinds of world — the world as vessel · the world of sentient beings · the world of wisdom and right awakening. The three purities answer to them exactly one by one: the buddha-fields are the vessel, the bodhisattvas are the sentient beings, the bodies of the Tathāgatas are wisdom and right awakening.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “all the buddha-fields are entirely pure” as the bodhisattva having the power to remodel lands. What the sutra says is “because he universally enters” — it is because the mind has universally entered that there is nothing it has entered which is not pure; what is purified is the mind that sees, not an object that has been remodelled. Brought down to the ground: here is given a way of testing whether a dedication is genuine — if the dedication is real, three places turn at one time, and it will never be one place only that turns.

The mind vast as empty space: the doorway into being apart from marks

Ask first: the adornment of following marks has by now been carried to its height — where does it go next? Answer: it goes back the way it came. Chengguan says that what follows here is the dedication apart from marks, which is directing toward the true limit; and that in the text he first makes plain that the wisdom which sees the real merges with the true limit, and after that displays that the virtue of being apart from the false accords with the true limit, these two passages completing each other by turning back and forth.

The sutra says: with a dedication such as this, beyond all comparison, he tends toward Sarvajñā, his mind vast as empty space, without limit or measure, entering the inconceivable, and he knows that all karma and its fruits of recompense are entirely still and extinguished; his mind is constantly impartial, without bound or border, universally able to enter throughout the whole Dharma realm. Chengguan points out that the first clause takes up the dedication toward awakening spoken of above, and that only from “his mind” onward does it properly display the being apart from marks; that being still and without shore is why it is called entering the inconceivable, that meeting the true right in the matter is why it is constantly impartial, and that by this it is able to enter universally — whether matter, or principle, or the unobstructed Dharma realm, all of these are called “all.”

Clear away a misreading: do not read “he knows that all karma and its fruits of recompense are entirely still and extinguished” as a denial of cause and effect. The text immediately below goes on to say “he does not destroy causes, he does not destroy fruits.” Stillness and extinction speak of their nature, not of their working. Brought down to the ground: being apart from marks is not the overturning of the adornment set out above; it is the not adding, on top of the adornment, of a further thought that ‘I am adorning.’ The two passages, before and after, must be read together, and to take up one side alone is to go astray.

The ten pairs of blocking away: taking apart the grasping at being and the grasping at emptiness together

Ask first: this long string of “does not discriminate,” “does not destroy,” “does not grasp,” “does not say” — what is it blocking away? Answer: Chengguan determines it with the greatest neatness — the text has ten pairs: the first six pairs block away the false grasping at being, since what is formed by conditions is without own-nature, and moreover what is blocked away is in every case a dharma of the dedication set out above; the next one pair blocks away the false grasping at emptiness; the last three pairs block away emptiness and being together.

The first six pairs are: not discriminating self and what belongs to self · a buddha and the Dharma of a buddha · buddha-fields and their adorning purification · sentient beings and their taming · karma and the fruit of recompense of karma · not clinging to thinking and to what arises from thinking. Note that each pair answers to a passage above — not discriminating buddha-fields and their adorning purification blocks away precisely the vow to adorn fields set out above; not discriminating sentient beings and their taming blocks away precisely the purifying of the realm of sentient beings set out above. The seventh pair is not destroying causes and not destroying fruits, of which Chengguan says that because they are identical with emptiness, yet without any hindrance to their standing, the provisional names are not destroyed, and because it is the real mark that is spoken of, cause and effect are not destroyed. The last three pairs: the pair not grasping at matters and not grasping at dharmas blocks away matter and principle, of which he says that dharma is the dharma of principle, and that since the two are mutually identical they cannot be grasped as fixed; the pair not saying that birth-and-death is a thing discriminated and not saying that nirvāṇa is constantly still and quiescent blocks away the turning away from one and toward the other of birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, of which he speaks through two senses — first with respect to being apart from marks, that birth-and-death and nirvāṇa exist over against each other and both are empty and not to be got hold of; second with respect to the melting of substance, that taking the conditioned as the real, birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, and taking the real as the conditioned, nirvāṇa is birth-and-death — and he cites the Zhonglun saying that the true limit of nirvāṇa and the limit of the world, these two limits, are without the difference of a hair's breadth, and he further takes up the sixty-fascicle text saying that birth-and-death is not confused and nirvāṇa is not quiescent, the words differing and the sense being the same. The last pair, not saying that the Tathāgata has entered into and realized the sphere of a buddha and that there is not the least dharma that could stand in one place together with a dharma, blocks away the realizer and the realized, and here he cites the Lengqie saying that one is far removed from the aware and what is aware, and cites the Wenshu wen jing saying that if one realizes the Dharma realm by the Dharma realm, that is contention.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten pairs as ten negations. They have a sequence: first the grasping at being is broken, then the grasping at emptiness, and last the two extremes of emptiness and being. Brought down to the ground: these fourteen clauses are a mirror. However great the vow you made above, however adorned the land you imagined, here it asks you clause by clause — is that self who made the vow still there or not?

Dedicating to sentient beings: giving universally without falling into grasping

Ask first: after the dedication toward awakening, why does the sutra set up a separate passage on dedicating to sentient beings? Answer: Chengguan says that this is the general statement, namely that at the very time of dedicating toward awakening above he dedicates his roots of goodness to sentient beings, and that this is why it says “when he dedicates in this way.”

From “decisively” onward is the separate display of the aspect of practice, and Chengguan determines that it has seven clauses: two clauses of following marks — first, a mind that does not cast anyone off; second, no mark of enemy or intimate; and five clauses of being apart from marks — first, not seeing the mark of a sentient being; second, not grasping at the conditions of conversion; third, not weighing and measuring capacities; fourth, no self or person who does the delivering; and the last clause a general conclusion. Set against the sutra text this comes to: universally giving to sentient beings · decisively causing them to ripen · teaching and transforming them impartially belong to following marks; without marks · without any object seized upon · without weighing and measuring · without falsity · far removed from all discriminating and grasping belong to being apart from marks.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “without marks, without any object seized upon” as coldness. The clause immediately before it is “with his manifold roots of goodness he universally gives to sentient beings, decisively causing them to ripen” — only when there is first a mind decisively set upon ripening them can there be any talk of being without marks. The order cannot be reversed. Brought down to the ground: these seven clauses are a self-examination for the time when one gives to people — have I given anyone up? have I made distinctions of near and far? have I in my heart been grading another's capacity? have I felt that it is I who am delivering him?

The nine gainings of inexhaustible roots of goodness: where the inexhaustible comes back from

Ask first: the dedication has gone out — how is it that on the contrary the text says “he obtains inexhaustible roots of goodness”? Answer: Chengguan says that because following upon each practice he gives rise to an inexhaustible mind, an inexhaustible virtue is accomplished; the text has ten clauses, the first clause being the general and what follows “that is to say” the particular.

The nine particular clauses are: calling to mind all the buddhas of the three times · calling to mind all bodhisattvas · purifying the buddha-fields · purifying the whole realm of sentient beings · entering deeply into the Dharma realm · cultivating the measureless mind that is equal to the realm of empty space · deeply understanding the sphere of all buddhas · diligently cultivating the deeds of a bodhisattva · penetrating the three times. Chengguan sorts them into groups: the first four clauses are what following marks accomplishes, of which the first two are cause and fruit and the latter two are the dependent and the proper; the next two clauses are what being apart from marks accomplishes, displaying its depth and breadth; the two after that are understanding and practice, running through both following marks and being apart from marks; the last two display in general that the dedication set out above is the same as that of the three times.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “he obtains inexhaustible roots of goodness” as the wages of the dedication. It is not an exchange but the other face of one and the same thing — the object you meet being inexhaustible, your roots of goodness are inexhaustible on the spot, and there is no waiting for it. Brought down to the ground: these nine clauses may be read alongside the ten skillful dedications above — there it says where one goes, and here it says what those roots of goodness are like once one has gone.

The ten clauses of knowing: four clauses of the emptiness of self · six clauses of the emptiness of dharmas

Ask first: these ten clauses, “he knows that in the whole realm of sentient beings there is no sentient being” — do they say that sentient beings do not exist? Answer: they do not. Chengguan determines this passage as the benefit of accomplishing the wisdom of the two emptinesses, the first four of the ten clauses being the emptiness of self and the latter six the emptiness of dharmas.

For the four clauses of the emptiness of self he gives a reason clause by clause: first, no sentient being, which is being apart from the defilement of a sentient being; second, no life-span, which is being apart from birth-and-death; third, no doer, also called no self, which is being apart from the defilement of self; fourth, no one who takes up the destinies, which is that the earlier and later limits are cut off. The latter six clauses are the emptiness of dharmas — without wrath and contention · arising from conditions and having no place where they abide · all things having nothing to lean upon · all fields being entirely without any abiding · the practices of all bodhisattvas likewise having no place · all spheres being entirely without anything at all.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “there is no sentient being” as meaning there is nobody to deliver. The passage just above has only now said “with his manifold roots of goodness he universally gives to sentient beings, decisively causing them to ripen.” What is absent is the mark of a sentient being, not the matter of sentient beings. Brought down to the ground: these ten clauses are a prescription for the practitioner. Only by delivering sentient beings without seeing the mark of a sentient being will one avoid growing heavier and heavier in the midst of delivering others; but to leave off delivering on that account is to have taken the medicine for the disease.

The pure eye: even “the impure” is no longer seen

Ask first: what is meant by “his eye in the end does not see an impure buddha-field”? Have the buddha-fields really all become clean? Answer: Chengguan determines this as the virtue of accomplishing the purity of the sphere, and gives three reasons with respect to the purity of fields: first, knowing that the defiled is identical with emptiness; second, as the Brahmā king with the conch-shaped topknot saw purity in the defiled place; third, that though he sees pure and defiled there is no mark of seeing. The purity of sentient beings likewise has three senses: being of one emptiness · being of the same Tathāgata-womb · having no mark of seeing; and the purity of dharmas is spoken of with respect to distinguishing wisdom from dharmas, first that emptiness is without a grasper and a grasped, second that they are of one suchness, so that to raise one is to take in the whole — outside wisdom there is no suchness that wisdom could enter, and outside suchness there is no wisdom that could enter into suchness.

The last clause, “he understands that the body of the Tathāgata is not like empty space,” is the most essential of all. Chengguan says that this is the purity of a buddha; that in order to break the grasping at being it is said that a buddha is like empty space, and that if on this account one takes a buddha to be the same as an empty nothing, that view is not pure; here it is made plain that the virtue of the twofold benefit is complete, and that it is not like empty space in being a sheer nothing throughout.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the pure eye as a kind of extraordinary faculty. It is no longer taking up objects under the marks of pure and defiled; it is not a new pair of eyes that can see treasures. Brought down to the ground: within one passage the simile of empty space is set up three times and then at the end is hemmed in — this is the sutra itself demonstrating how a simile is to be used: a simile may be used, but one may not take up residence in it.

Obtaining the ground of the ten powers in thought after thought: why the bodhisattva becomes a field of merit

Ask first: by this point in the dedication, what has come about in the practitioner? Answer: the sutra says that in thought after thought he obtains grounds of the ten powers beyond speaking of beyond speaking, is furnished with every merit, accomplishes pure roots of goodness, and is a field of merit for all sentient beings.

Chengguan determines this as the virtue of accomplishing inexhaustible merit and wisdom, and explains: the first clause is the taking in of a buddha's wisdom from above, namely the ground of the wisdom of the ten powers, and because it has functions beyond speaking, in thought after thought much merit is obtained; from “furnished with” onward is his becoming a field of merit himself; from “this bodhisattva” onward is the inexhaustibility of merit and wisdom.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “field of merit” as a qualification for receiving others' offerings. That a field of merit comes to be is on account of the four graphs before it, “for all sentient beings” — he has first become what sentient beings rely upon, and only so can roots of goodness planted in him by others come up at all. Brought down to the ground: this sentence gives a very solid criterion: whether a person has gained anything in practice is judged not by what he has obtained, but by whether others who draw near him can grow roots of goodness.

The treasury of merit of the wish-fulfilling maṇi: here the graph “treasury” comes down to the solid ground

Ask first: the whole section is named “the treasury of inexhaustible merit” — where does the sutra actually speak of a “treasury”? Answer: just here — he accomplishes the treasury of merit of the wish-fulfilling maṇi, and according as there is anything he needs, all the implements of ease are obtained entire; according to whatever quarter he travels to, he is everywhere able to adorn and purify all the lands; according to whatever place he passes through, he causes sentient beings beyond speaking of beyond speaking to be entirely pure. The clause giving the reason is “because he takes up merit and orders his practices thereby.”

The maṇi is a jewel that manifests according as the mind seeks. The sutra uses it as a simile, and what it takes from it is that nothing need be arranged beforehand — it is not that one first stocks a storehouse of things and then takes them out to give to people, but that according as there is anything needed it is obtained on the spot. Three graphs “according” come one after another: according as there is anything needed · according to whatever quarter he travels to · according to whatever place he passes through; and what all of them speak of is the absence of prior arrangement.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the wish-fulfilling jewel as a tool for satisfying private desires. What is followed is what sentient beings need, and what is accomplished is the purity of lands; it is not that whatever one wants for oneself is there. Brought down to the ground: this passage answers the question with which the whole piece began — the treasury is inexhaustible because it is not a stock in store but a responding. A stock gets used up; a responding does not.

The conclusion in which practice accomplishes virtue: the two faces of merit and wisdom

Ask first: the prose is drawing to its close — with what does the sutra bind it up? Answer: with a passage in which practice accomplishes virtue. Chengguan determines this as the fifth virtue, namely the virtue in which merit and wisdom surpass, and divides it: the first clause displays in general the cause of merit and wisdom, and from “merit” onward properly displays the aspect of surpassing, of which the earlier part makes plain the surpassing of merit and from “his mind” onward displays the surpassing of wisdom.

On the side of merit: he cultivates all the practices of a bodhisattva, his merit is especially excellent and his form and marks beyond all comparison; his majestic power and light surpass the worlds, and the māras and the households of the māras are unable to look him in the face; his roots of goodness are furnished entire and his great vows are accomplished. On the side of wisdom: his mind becomes ever more broad, equal to omniscience; within a single thought he is everywhere able to pervade measureless buddha-fields; the power of his wisdom is measureless, he penetrates the spheres of all the buddhas, and toward all buddhas he obtains a deep believing understanding; he abides upon the power of the mind of awakening that is boundless wisdom, vast as the Dharma realm and ultimate as empty space.

Clear away a misreading: do not read “the māras and the households of the māras are unable to look him in the face” as a spiritual power for driving off demons. What the sutra says is “unable to look him in the face” — the māras cannot even meet him face to face, and this comes of majestic virtue, not of fighting. Brought down to the ground: merit and wisdom are here two faces of one body, and it is not that one cultivates merit and afterwards cultivates wisdom. Merit at its utmost is “his great vows are accomplished,” and wisdom at its utmost is “ultimate as empty space” — the one speaks toward fullness and the other toward emptiness, and they speak of one and the same person.

The single concluding sentence: among the ten dedications only this one says “this is called”

Ask first: what is special about this sentence, “Sons of the Buddha! This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's fifth dedication, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit”? Answer: among the concluding sentences of the ten dedications, the rest all read “this is,” and the fifth alone reads “this is called”; and the sixty-fascicle text here likewise reads “this is called.” The unevenness of form is left as the base text has it and is not levelled by us.

There is another asymmetry worth noticing: the question that opens this dedication reads “what is the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva” without the crown “the fifth,” whereas the concluding sentence does carry “the fifth”; in the sixty-fascicle text both the question and the conclusion carry “the fifth.”

Clear away a misreading: do not take unevennesses of this sort in the wording for errors and go about levelling them. The texts of the ancient translations each have their own countenance, and to keep them graph for graph is the first rule in reading a scripture. Brought down to the ground: it is useful to notice where the concluding sentence stands as well — it stands before the ten inexhaustible treasuries. Which is to say that the treasuries are the fruit obtained after “abiding in this dedication,” and are not the dedication itself.

The ten inexhaustible treasuries: the fruit opens out in ten places

Ask first: why is the fruit of the station ten treasuries rather than one? Answer: Chengguan determines that the text of the fruit of the station has four parts, the statement · the question · the explanation · the conclusion, and that in the explanation all ten clauses first state a name and afterwards explain its sense; among them the first six clauses are benefit for oneself, the next three benefit for others, and the last one gathers practice into the accomplishing of the fruit.

The first six are: the inexhaustible treasury of seeing the buddhas (within a single pore he sees asaṃkhyeya buddhas appearing and arising in the world) · the inexhaustible treasury of entering the Dharma (by the power of a buddha's wisdom he contemplates and sees that all dharmas enter entirely into a single dharma) · the inexhaustible treasury of holding in memory (he receives and holds all the Dharma taught by the buddhas without forgetting it) · the inexhaustible treasury of decisive wisdom (he well knows the secret skillful means of all the Dharma taught by the buddhas) · the inexhaustible treasury of understanding the drift of the meaning (he well knows the drift and the bounds of the principle of the dharmas) · the inexhaustible treasury of boundless awakened understanding (with a wisdom like empty space he penetrates all the dharmas of the three times). Chengguan says that the first is with respect to the gate of the subtle and minute, and upon the sense of the single hair he sets forth further — that the nature of mind of itself has neither large nor small, that awakening to it becomes wisdom, and that both body and land then become the shadows of wisdom, so that when wisdom is pure the shadow is bright, and therefore large and small are unobstructed and one and many enter into each other; the next five are the seeing of dharmas, that is, the gate of mutual entering, divided into realizing the dharma of principle · holding the dharma of the teaching · wisdom knowing the hidden intent · the meaning exhausting the drift of the intent · hearing the treasury while cultivating and realizing along with it.

The next three, benefit for others, are: the inexhaustible treasury of merit (he fills full the minds and intentions of all sentient beings inexhaustibly) · the inexhaustible treasury of valiant wisdom and awareness (he removes and extinguishes the cataract of folly of all sentient beings) · the inexhaustible treasury of decisive eloquence (he sets forth and expounds the impartial Dharma of all the buddhas and causes sentient beings to understand it clearly); Chengguan says that these are, first, merit filling the intentions of others; second, wisdom extinguishing the delusions of others; third, eloquence teaching them impartially. The last is the inexhaustible treasury of the ten powers and the fearlessnesses: he is furnished with all that a bodhisattva practices, and with a silk band free of defilement bound about his crown reaches the unobstructed omniscience — and this is the aspect of the consecration and the conferring of office. Chengguan says besides that these ten treasuries have much in common with the chapter “The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries,” and may be read alongside it.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten treasuries as ten spiritual powers. The graph “because” beneath each clause is tied in every case to an object or a function, and not to a list of capacities. Brought down to the ground: the ten treasuries may serve as ten self-examinations — can I see a buddha? can I hold the Dharma? can I speak it clearly? can I supply the intentions of others? — and the treasury is inexhaustible because each of these ten places is itself without end.

The single closing sentence: the treasury is obtained at the time of dedicating

Ask first: the ten treasuries have been listed already, so why does the sutra tie it up once more with “when he dedicates all his roots of goodness, he obtains these ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury”? Answer: because the fruit is to be buckled back onto the cause. Above, “abiding in this dedication, he obtains ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury” was said with respect to the station; this sentence, saying “when he dedicates,” is said with respect to the time — not after the dedicating but at the very time of the dedicating.

Clear away a misreading: do not read the ten treasuries as a reward after the practice has been perfected. Both times the sutra ties them to the two graphs “dedication,” once by abiding and once by time. Brought down to the ground: this returns us exactly to the sense with which the piece opened — the inexhaustible is not accumulated into being; it is that the object met is of itself inexhaustible, and therefore the moment the dedication is made the treasury is made along with it, and there is no waiting.

Matching the verses of praise

The prose being finished, the bodhisattva Vajra Banner universally contemplated the ten directions and spoke twenty-five verses. The sense of the verses is already complete in the prose, and here they are only matched up portion by portion, without teaching it over again.

Chengguan determines that these twenty-five verses divide into two: the first single verse praises the roots of goodness dedicated, and contains them fully within the text; the remaining twenty-four verses doubly praise both the roots of goodness dedicated above and the conclusion in which practice accomplishes benefit. Of the twenty-four, the first eleven praise the two passages on following marks and the latter thirteen the two passages on being apart from marks.

The first verse — “the bodhisattva has accomplished the power of the profound mind, and universally in all dharmas has attained sovereign freedom; with the merit obtained by his exhorting and his rejoicing, by unobstructed skillful means he dedicates it well” — praises the eight clauses of the roots of goodness dedicated, and the four graphs “exhorting and rejoicing” within it are the pivot of the eight clauses.

Within the eleven verses on following marks Chengguan makes three divisions: the first eight verses praise the dedication toward awakening, of which the first four praise the adorning of fields set out in the text above — the four verses “all the Tathāgatas of the three times,” “all the dharmas of the buddhas of the three times,” “though one exhaust all the kalpas of the three times,” “all buddha-fields such as these” — the third verse making plain the sense of the inexhaustible by the kalpas being exhaustible while the merits of a buddha-field are not, and the fourth verse praising exactly the adorning of one being the adorning of all with “gathering them all together he adorns a single buddha-land, and with all buddha-lands it is likewise so”; the next three verses and a half praise human jewels as the adornment — the three verses “there are sons of the Buddha whose minds are pure,” “those bodhisattvas are furnished with all,” “the bodhisattva abides within the manifold samādhis,” together with the half-verse “buddha-fields such as these, with none left out, are all of them filled full with these bodhisattvas” — among which “like a great ocean that is without end” is the one simile in the whole section that is raised expressly with the words “like”; and the latter half-verse, “they have never called to mind the vehicle of the śrāvakas, nor do they seek after the path of the pratyekabuddhas,” praises the dedication that gathers all in. Next, the one verse “the bodhisattva whose mind is pure in this way dedicates his roots of goodness to sentient beings” praises the dedicating to sentient beings. Next again, the two verses “all the multitude of māra-foes of the ten directions” and “the bodhisattva, by the power of a great vow such as this” praise the conclusion in which practice accomplishes virtue, praising the five passages throughout — and the latter verse, “he enters the treasury of inexhaustible merit; past, future, and present, it is constantly without end,” answers exactly to the name of this dedication.

Of the thirteen verses on being apart from marks Chengguan again makes three divisions: the first seven verses praise the awakening apart from marks set out above, praising it with the two aspects, the seeing of the real and the being apart from the false, interwoven, so as to display that these two complete each other — namely the seven verses “the bodhisattva well contemplates the dharmas of the formations,” “there is no dharma of form and no dharma that is formless,” “all dharmas arise from causes and conditions,” “in every place where the language of sentient beings is,” “just as the nature of sentient beings is originally still and extinguished,” “with wisdom such as this he makes his dedication,” “dedicating in this way, his mind is without defilement”; the next two verses, “all the manifold good karma that he practices” and “all the false views there are,” praise sentient beings apart from marks; the last four verses praise the being apart from marks in the conclusion where practice accomplishes virtue, of which the first two verses, “the bodhisattva does not destroy any dharma” and “he knows that the sentient beings of the three times,” praise the virtue of the purity of the sphere, and the latter two verses, “he penetrates that the nature of karma is not karma” and “he knows that sentient beings have no arising,” praise the virtue of the wisdom of the two emptinesses. The last line, “it is only in dependence upon the worldly that they are set forth by convention,” binds up the whole section — the teaching of being apart from marks is still established in dependence upon the worldly, and is not a having nothing to say.

Lineage

The text of this dedication opens out three roads below it.

The first is the stream of the method of repentance. The eight clauses of roots of goodness dedicated are just the five gates of repentance · reverent salutation · exhortation · hearing the Dharma · rejoicing, and Chengguan and Fazang both match them against the openings and gatherings of the several scriptures and treatises — eight layers · seven · six · five · four · three · two, each master differing from the others. Under the gate of reverent salutation Chengguan takes up the seven kinds of salutation spoken of by the Tripiṭaka master Ratna and adds three of his own to make ten kinds of salutation, the tenth of which is called the inexhaustible salutation, entering the sphere of the net of Indra, where whether buddhas or salutations they are layer upon layer without end — and by this the Huayan sense of the inexhaustible enters into the method of salutation. The scriptural ground of the later rites of repentance has its actual text precisely in this section.

The second is the doctrine of the completeness of the pure land. Chengguan outlines the adornment of the buddha-lands of the three times by the eighteen completenesses, cites the great jewelled king of flowers that upholds from the Fodi jing and the untainted roots of goodness of the Tathāgata-womb consciousness as cause from the Fodi lun, determines the causes of the three lands of one's own enjoyment · another's enjoyment · transformation, and establishes as the standard for the adornment of a pure land the senses that “to adorn one is to adorn all” and that “one completeness is all completeness, layer upon layer without end.”

The third is the track of symbolic exposition in the Huayan line. Li Tongxuan matches the ten perfections to the ten dedications and matches the fifth to meditation, saying that this dedication takes the perfection of meditation as its substance, and takes Vasumitrā, whom Sudhana visited, as the person who symbolizes this station; he explains that the name of the land where she dwells, Perilous and Hard, is real wisdom meeting the mundane, and that the name of the city, Adorned with Jewels, is that in meeting the mundane the substance is of itself real, making plain that concentration and disorder are both melted together and that wisdom and compassion do not hinder each other; and he further sets alongside her the elder Liberation, fifth of the ten abodes, and the elder Jewelled Topknot, fifth of the ten practices, forming a comparison of one gate across three stations. He does not follow the commentators' outlines but makes a long outline of this section into thirteen portions by counting lines — what he relies upon being different, his track too is different, and both are recorded without adjudication.

Besides this, the ten treasuries of the fruit of the station and the ten treasuries of the chapter “The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries” differ in their names while alike establishing treasuries under the word “inexhaustible,” and Chengguan says that it may be got by intent, so that the reader would do well to read them alongside each other; the ten treasuries of inexhaustible merit of the sixty-fascicle text differ from the eighty-fascicle text in the names and senses of the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth treasuries, and these too are recorded together.

A single section of text becomes on one side the ground of authority for the methods of repentance, on another side the standard for the pure land, and on yet another the support for Huayan symbolic exposition — and the fifth dedication, the dedication of the treasury of inexhaustible merit, is precisely the place from which these three roads issue together.

First, Where This Passage Stands

The sixth of the ten dedications, named the dedication that accords with and makes firm all roots of goodness. The speaker is still the bodhisattva Vajra Banner, who asks the question himself and answers it himself; within this passage no other bodhisattva interposes a question, and there are no verses. The text falls into four sections: first the name is restated and the question raised; next the body that practices this giving is made clear; next the things to be given are listed in general; and then, following the things listed, they are opened out one at a time, each one forming a dedication.

The place where this passage is most easily misread is in taking it for an inventory of acts of giving. It is not. The structure of the sutra text is a three-part cycle — first what was given, then how “may all beings” fare, and last a closing sentence, ‘this is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dedication of roots of goodness at the time of giving such-and-such.’ Between the thing given and the dharma vowed for there runs a single thread: giving food, he vows for the food of wisdom; giving clothing, for the clothing of shame and modesty; giving lamps, for the kinds of light; giving canopies, for the canopy of merit and wisdom. Giving here is not an item of good conduct; it is the ground of a simile — the one thing handed over out of the hands is used on the spot to point out a dharma. This is the bone-structure of this dedication, and the reader must keep watch on it from the first segment.

There is also a number that must be settled first, because the ancients did not say the same thing about it. The sutra text's own segmentation yields twenty-nine segments in this sub-unit, of which twenty-eight close with “this is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's … dedication of roots of goodness,” while the segment on medicinal decoctions alone closes with “he dedicates these roots of goodness in this way” and has no “this is” sentence. Chengguan's Shu gathers these twenty-nine segments into twenty-five gates — he combines the five segments of jeweled carriages into one gate, elephant and horse into one, banner and pennant into one, and jeweled crown and topknot pearl into one. Beyond this, Chengguan at the listing section counts out yet another number: he says, “if one looks toward the dedications below, they should be sixty; if one counts simply by the text, they are eighty things in all,” and he divides the eighty things — “the first twenty-seven things are the giving of outer wealth. Next comes the rescuing of prisoners: one of these takes in both inner and outer, the other is the substituting of oneself for the prisoner's life. The twenty-nine things below make clear only inner wealth.” Segments, gates, and things are three numbers each reckoned in its own way, and they must not be run together; wherever this exposition speaks of a “gate,” it is always Chengguan's outline and not something the sutra marks out for itself.

The names of the stations are the same case. ‘The station of the ten dedications,’ ‘the three worthies,’ ‘following marks,’ ‘apart from marks,’ ‘the practice of the station,’ ‘the fruit of the station’ — not one of these names appears anywhere in the sutra text. Chengguan outlines this whole passage as the first two divisions of the “dedication that follows marks” (the listing in the general aspect, and the display at length following the listing); the dedication apart from marks and the explaining of the name of dedication both lie beyond this passage. Everything said below about following marks and being apart from marks is said by Chengguan on the strength of his outline.

Restating the Name and Raising the Question: What “Accords with and Makes Firm” Means

Begin with a question about the wording: roots of goodness are roots of goodness already — why say “accords with and makes firm”?

Chengguan's way of taking it is this: what is cultivated is all good on the level of matters, and these goods of practice must “all accord with and enter into the firm nature of dharmas” before they become a dedication. He glosses “firm” as equality — the principle of equality cannot be broken, and so it is called firm; and “according with” is entering. Once one accords with this principle of equality, one accords with all roots of goodness.

Here a misreading must be cleared away: it is easy to read “firm” as ‘firmness of will’ or ‘depth of one's roots of goodness.’ The firmness the name speaks of does not lie in the mind that cultivates but in the principle toward which it is directed. Chengguan adds a further layer, saying that this name may be established from either side — on one side with respect to the roots of goodness dedicated and the true limit toward which they are directed, and on the other side one may say that “firmness is precisely the roots of goodness,” firmness itself being that root. He comes at the last to a single sentence: “it takes the unobstructed roots of goodness as its nature.”

Coming down to use: when reading the twenty-nine segments below, do not treat them as an accumulation of twenty-nine meritorious deeds. The weight of each segment falls in its second half — upon what principle that particular good on the level of matters came to accord.

The Gate of the Body Relied Upon: Why the One Who Practices This Giving Is an Emperor

The second question is more practical: in what station can a bodhisattva not practice giving? Why does the sutra single out an emperor?

Chengguan first points out that the sutra uses the word “or” — “the bodies in which a bodhisattva practices giving are of ten thousand kinds according to what is fitting, and therefore the word ‘or’ is set down” — which shows that it is not a restriction. As for why the body of a king is singled out, he gives three reasons: first, only the householder's state is the station in which one is able to give; second, what is hard to relinquish is relinquished, the higher being raised up so as to spur on the lower; third, bodhisattvas are for the most part kings. Fazang's Tanxuan ji gives four reasons, of which the two items “he has the seven treasures that can be given” and ‘in gathering in and transforming beings none dares to go against his command’ are not in Chengguan, while the other two correspond to his.

The sutra then sets out this king's virtuous marks. Chengguan divides them into two layers: first the virtue of sovereign rule, twelve clauses in all; after it the virtue of a direct recompense that surpasses its kind, possessing seven kinds of fruit — the fruit of clan, the fruit of trustworthy speech, the fruit of great form, the fruit of long life, the fruit of great strength, the fruit of renown, and the fruit of a human nature. He also explains that stretch about royal governance very closely: “without punishment and without penalty, they are moved by his virtue and follow his transforming influence” he glosses as “majestic without being fierce,” and he says, “leading them by virtue and right, none dares not to submit, and so the common people incur no punishment; ordering them by rites and music, none dares to be disrespectful, and so the great officers incur no penalty.” As for the canopy in “he holds up a single canopy that broadly shades the ten thousand quarters,” he establishes three senses — being without partiality toward the ten thousand things, equally teaching the ten goods, and the canopy of loving-kindness and compassion — and he adduces as attestation the words of King Great Light, “like the bodhisattvas who are a lofty canopy, with a mind of loving-kindness broadly shading the several beings.”

Clearing away a misreading: this passage is not praising worldly kingship. Chengguan points out in particular that the sutra's clause “by the four means of gathering he gathers in the several beings” is what “displays that he is a bodhisattva, distinguishing him from a worldly king” — the moment the four means of gathering appear, this king is set apart from the emperors of the world.

Coming down to use: the body relied upon is speaking of the capital with which giving is practiced. There is something in hand to give, there is willingness in the heart to let it go, and the station puts no obstacle in the way; only when these three are together can one speak of practicing giving on a wide scale. The reader need not literally be a king, but may ask himself: when I cannot give something away, which of the three is it that I lack?

Listing What Is Given: First the Things to Be Given Are Listed Once Through

Why list them all in general first, and only then open them out one at a time?

Because the style of this dedication is “displaying at length following the listing” — the listing first, the explanation after. Chengguan here counts out eighty things, and points out that between the listing and the explanation there are five kinds of unevenness: the divergence of presence and absence (the parasol and the topknot are present in the listing and absent from the explanation, while dwellings are absent from the listing and present in the explanation), the divergence of names, the divergence of opening and combining, the divergence of order, and the divergence of brief and full. His conclusion is that “all the rest is largely the same.”

There is an important misreading to clear away here: the listing section already contains things belonging to inner wealth — the hair of the crown with its skin, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, blood, flesh, bones, and marrow are all listed among them — but this does not mean that the section on the giving of inner wealth has begun. The proper section on the giving of inner wealth begins only after this sub-unit. The listing is the general table of contents, and the display at length is the main text; the two were never meant to agree in order or in fullness.

There is one more layer to keep watch on: not everything listed in this long passage is the giving of wealth. Chengguan says it plainly — substituting oneself for another's life and rescuing one who is being mutilated is the giving of fearlessness; announcing to others that a buddha has appeared in the world is the giving of Dharma; and as for putting a stop to killing, looking toward the one killed it is the giving of fearlessness, while looking toward the one who kills, causing him to hold the five precepts is the giving of Dharma. He says at the last, “since these are all gates of Dharma, they run through all three kinds of giving alike.” So this passage, though named the practice of giving, in fact has the giving of wealth, of Dharma, and of fearlessness all within it.

Coming down to use: read the table of contents before the main text. If the twenty-nine segments come to feel trivial as one reads through them, return to this passage and one will know that they were all along the entries of a single table.

The Gate of the Mind That Gathers In Well: The One Mind That All the Dedications Share

The fourth section is only a few sentences long, yet it is the pivot of the whole passage. The sutra says, “when he gives in this way, he gives rise to a mind that gathers in well, and dedicates it all,” and then lists six things gathered in — form; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness; the royal station; the retinue; the goods that sustain life; and his bestowing.

First the question: why “gathering in”? Chengguan's explanation is that “gathering in well” is precisely what explains the two words “according with” — when giving and dedicating, the mind does not dwell or cling with respect to the five aggregates of self and other and the rest, and does not let itself scatter and run, and this is what is called gathering in well. He further points out that this one mind runs both ways: looking backward it is the mind that is able to give, looking forward it is the mind that is able to dedicate, and “hence within the dedications of all the gates below, this mind runs through them all.”

Most important of all is the passage that follows, in which he matches gathering in well one by one to the six perfections: relinquishing dwelling and clinging accords with the good of giving; seeking nothing else accords with the good of moral discipline; enduring the profound principle accords with the good of patience; being apart from the marks of form accords with the good of vigor; not scattering and running accords with the good of concentration; understanding non-arising accords with the good of wisdom. On this showing the six perfections are not six further things to be cultivated; they are one and the same mind that gathers in well, according in six directions.

Clearing away a misreading: do not read “gathering in well” as gathering in the five aggregates and shutting the mind away. Among the six things gathered in are the royal station, the retinue, the goods that sustain life, and one's bestowing — all of them matters turned outward. Gathering in well is not refusing contact; it is contact without dwelling.

Coming down to use: the twenty-nine segments below are, segment by segment, the unfolding of this one mind. Wherever a segment will not come alive, return here and ask one question: when I gave that thing away, where did my mind come to rest?

The Gate of Giving Food: Why All Giving Begins with Food

Chengguan explains it very directly: “because food is the life of the world and high and low alike depend on it, it is made clear first.” Food is the root of staying alive, and high and low alike depend upon it, and so it is placed at the very front.

Now look at how the vow turns. The sutra vows that beings “obtain the food of wisdom,” and further that they “understand the very nature of food” — not merely that they be given a better food, but that they see through what food is, whereupon they are “without any greed or clinging, delighting only in the food of the joy of Dharma and of going forth.” The last two clauses carry the most weight: “may they pity beings and act as a field of merit for them, and so manifestly receive balled food.” Balled food is the worldly food taken up in lumps, on which Chengguan notes, “that it now says ‘balled’ is still to follow the old translation.” One who already takes the joy of Dharma as food still receives this food — not out of need, but manifestly receiving it so as to be a field of merit for beings.

Clearing away a misreading: ‘not being greedy for food’ is not disgust with food or abstention from it. The sutra's order is that understanding the nature of food comes first, and greed falls away of itself; and at the very end one comes back and receives food. This is the constant route of the Huayan — not leaving the matter behind, but not dwelling within the matter.

Coming down to use: at mealtimes one can test which end one is at — eating for the taste, or eating so as to stay alive and cultivate, or already able to receive it for the sake of others.

The Gate of Giving Drink: How Far the Quenching of Thirst Can Point

Drink and food are made two gates because what they cure differs: food cures hunger, drink cures thirst. So the vows of this gate hang entirely upon thirst — “may they cut off the thirsty craving of the world and ever seek the wisdom of a buddha.”

See how it opens out step by step: first the vow that beings “drink the water of the taste of Dharma,” cultivating with vigor and being complete in the bodhisattva path; then that they cut off the thirsty craving of the world; then that they leave the realm of desire and obtain the joy of the Dharma; then that this body is “born from pure dharmas”; then that they “ever gather in and govern their minds by samādhi”; and last that they enter the ocean of wisdom, raise the great cloud of Dharma, and pour down the great rain of Dharma. From a single mouthful of water to the sending down of the rain of Dharma, not one step is out of order: the water enters the body, the Dharma enters the mind, the mind becomes an ocean, the ocean raises clouds, the clouds become rain — the one who received the Dharma has himself become one who gives it.

Clearing away a misreading: “leave the realm of desire and obtain the joy of the Dharma” does not cancel both pain and joy. The sutra plainly says that joy is obtained; only the place in which one takes joy has been changed.

Coming down to use: thirst is the most honest of feelings. What a person truly thirsts for is most often seen only when he is most worn out. What this gate teaches is to recognize that thirst, and then to change the object of it.

The Gate of Giving Tastes: Six Tastes and Ten Tastes

The section on the practice of giving in this gate is written with extreme fineness — pungent, sour, salty, and bland, together with sweet and bitter; it speaks of the four great elements being peaceful and harmonious, the flesh full, the strength vigorous, and even of how “when swallowed and chewed they cause neither coughing nor retching.” Why write so finely? Because the more solid the thing given, the more exactly the simile points to the dharma.

The vows are ten clauses in all, and every clause turns upon “taste.” Chengguan notes in particular that in this gate the text has four parts and not three, because there is added at the end the part on that for the sake of which the dedication is made, “so that all beings may cultivate merit with vigor.” Among the ten vows, the first is to “obtain the supreme taste and be filled with sweet dew” — of which Chengguan says that sweet dew, “with respect to the Dharma, is precisely nirvāṇa, being the deathless taste of sweet dew.” Below come the taste of the knowledge of Dharma, measureless tastes of Dharma, the surpassing taste of wisdom, the taste that is one taste, the most surpassing taste, and the undifferentiated taste of Dharma, coming home at last to “increase in the taste of Dharma, and ever be satisfied with the unobstructed Dharma of the buddhas.”

Clearing away a misreading: one vow in the middle says “obtain every finest taste without greed or clinging, unstained by any of the tastes of the world,” which is easily read as teaching people to eat plainly. The sutra's wording is “unstained,” not “not eating”; and the clause that immediately follows is “ever cultivate with vigor all the dharmas of the buddhas,” which shows that what is to be countered is the staining, not the taste.

Coming down to use: taste is the most everyday of the objects one touches. Count how many times in a day the mind stirs over a taste, and one knows roughly where one's power of concentration stands.

The Gate of Giving Carriages: From Taking the Place of Walking to the Vehicles

The use of a carriage is to take the place of walking and to reach far, and so the vows hang without exception upon “vehicle” — Chengguan puts it flatly: “the ten vows of dedication are all with respect to what takes the place of walking.”

The vows list nine vehicles: the great vehicle, the vehicle that cannot be broken, the most surpassing vehicle, the supreme vehicle, the swift vehicle, the vehicle of great strength, the vehicle complete in merit, the world-transcending vehicle, and the vehicle that gives birth to measureless bodhisattvas. The wording of this gate is shorter than the others; it runs straight through in a single vow and is not set out in ten separate clauses.

One thing should be noted here in passing: Chengguan says that the practice of giving in this gate “runs in sense to horses and the rest,” but elephants and horses have a gate of their own, and jeweled carriages have five further segments, so this gate speaks only of carriages in general. That the same class of thing appears in several gates within the sutra is precisely an instance of how the display at length following the listing cannot answer to the listing item for item.

Clearing away a misreading: the nine vehicles are not a matching of nine kinds of conveyance, nor are they nine stations. They are nine faces of one and the same vehicle — with respect to its not breaking it is the vehicle that cannot be broken, with respect to its speed the swift vehicle, with respect to its power of engendering the vehicle that gives birth to measureless bodhisattvas.

Coming down to use: ask what vehicle one is now riding. If one cannot answer, most likely one has not yet boarded.

The Gate of Giving Clothing: Shame and Modesty Are a Garment

Clothing has two uses: covering the body and warding off cold. This gate takes the covering side — “may all beings obtain the clothing of shame and modesty to cover their bodies, casting off the evil dharma of the heterodox paths that bare the body.”

In this gate Chengguan adduces the Yujia to the effect that giving clothing can call forth wondrous color, the reason being that clothing wards off cold and makes the complexion glossy — this is spoken with respect to the recompense of the world. But the sutra's vow turns immediately after: glossy complexion and fine, soft skin lead straight on to “accomplish the foremost joy of all buddhas and obtain the utterly pure knowledge of all modes.”

The four graphs rendered “the evil dharma that bares the body” deserve attention. The sutra likens shamelessness and immodesty to going naked, and this simile is no rhetorical ornament — clothing is to the body as shame and modesty are to conduct; one who has no shame or modesty cannot hide his conduct from other people.

Clearing away a misreading: shame and modesty are not self-reproach. They are a sensitivity to good and evil; only the sensitive can keep covered what ought not to be bared, and this differs from despondency.

Coming down to use: shame and modesty are most easily lost when one is alone. The test this gate suggests is very simple — when no one is watching, is that garment still on one's body?

The Gate of Giving Flowers: The Opening of Flowers and the Seeing of People

The section on the practice of giving in this gate lists ten kinds of flower, and further lists the fields to which offering is made — the buddhas of the present, the stupas that remain after a buddha's extinction, those who expound the Dharma, the jewel of the Saṅgha of monks, all bodhisattvas, the good friends, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, father and mother, and clan and kin, and so on down to one's own self and the poor and orphaned. Chengguan points out in particular that “that it goes down as far as one's own body is because the body is a field of merit” — that oneself too counts as a field of merit is a clause well worth noting.

The ten clauses of the vow divide along two lines. One line takes its sense from the opening of flowers: “may all beings obtain the flower of the samādhi of all buddhas, and be able to open out all dharmas”; the other takes its sense from the visibility and loveliness of flowers: “may all beings become as the buddhas are, so that those who see them rejoice and their minds do not weary,” “may all that all beings see be pleasing and fitting to them, their minds unmoved and undisturbed.” In the middle there follow in succession the four similes of agada medicine, the sunlight of wisdom, the pure moon of awakening, and the great isle of jewels — this is the stretch densest in similes among all the gates of this sub-unit.

Clearing away a misreading: “those who see them rejoice” is not seeking popularity. The sutra's order is first “become as the buddhas are” and only then that those who see them rejoice — what is rejoiced in is that buddha-like virtue, not a face.

Coming down to use: a flower is a flower only once it has opened. It is the same with a person's virtue: unopened, it is only a seed.

The Gate of Giving Garlands: To Benefit People at a Single Sight

Chengguan glosses a garland as “flowers strung like a ring and made a head ornament, or used to festoon the body,” and says, “before one has seen it one delights to see it; when one is seeing it one loves it” — the vow of this gate is built entirely upon the word “see.”

Within the single vow, after “such as people delight to see” the nine clauses that follow all begin with “those who see them”: those who see them admire them, draw near in friendship, love them, long for them, are freed of sorrow, are gladdened, leave evil behind, ever come to draw near to a buddha, and are made pure and obtain omniscience. The line runs from rejoicing to the freeing from sorrow, from the freeing from sorrow to leaving evil, from leaving evil to drawing near to a buddha, and comes home at last to the obtaining of omniscience.

This gate is separated from the giving of flowers before it by only one segment, yet the sense taken differs: flowers take their sense from opening, garlands from adorning and being seen. That the same class of thing points to different dharmas is exactly the fineness of this dedication's way of taking similes.

Clearing away a misreading: do not read this gate as a vow that beings obtain good looks. What is vowed for is the virtue of being “such as people delight to see” — that one's presence benefits others is the working of virtue, not of a face.

Coming down to use: examine whether, when you appear before others, they become a degree more at ease or a degree more tense. This is more reliable than self-assessment.

The Gate of Giving Incense: Why Incense Is Matched with Moral Discipline in Particular

Incense has more than one gate — this gate is incense, and the next is unguent incense. Chengguan says it clearly: incense properly speaking covers the ten perfections and the ten thousand practices, all of which may be called incense; that this gate speaks of moral discipline alone is “because it overturns the filth of broken discipline.” Incense cures filth, moral discipline cures the filth of broken discipline, and so they are matched.

The vow lists ten kinds of discipline: discipline that is not deficient, unmixed, unstained, without regret, free of entanglement, without fever, without transgression, without bound, world-transcending, and the discipline that is the bodhisattva's perfection. These ten names are not ten precepts; they are ten aspects of one and the same holding of discipline — with respect to its not being deficient, it is called not deficient; with respect to its having nothing mixed in, unmixed; with respect to its being without burning vexation, without fever. On the last clause, “may all beings, by reason of this discipline, all accomplish the discipline-body of the buddhas,” Chengguan notes, “the last clause concludes that the cause accomplishes the fruit, namely one of the five portions” — the discipline-body is one of the five portions of the dharma-body.

Clearing away a misreading: “discipline without regret” is easily read as having no regret in the mind after keeping the discipline. It says rather that this discipline itself leaves nothing behind that could be regretted.

Coming down to use: the test of discipline is a smell. Whether a person has discipline about him others need not ask; in time they will simply smell it.

The Gate of Giving Unguent Incense: All Ten Perfections Can Be Incense

Unguent incense and incense are made two gates because the sense taken differs: incense lies in driving off filth, unguent incense in perfuming and arousing. Chengguan says, “all ten perfections have the sense of perfuming, arousing, and nourishing the mind of awakening, and of driving away what veils and hinders, and so all alike may be called incense.”

So the vows of this gate match the ten perfections one by one to incense: the incense of giving, of moral discipline, of patience, of vigor, of concentration, of wisdom, then of Dharma, of virtue, and of awakening, and the last clause, “may all beings have the wondrous incense of pure and white dharmas perfume all, so that every unwholesome dharma is forever extinguished.” Every clause uses the words “perfume all” — perfuming is a work of gradual soaking, not something accomplished at one stroke.

Keep watch on the second half of each clause. The incense of giving is matched with “so that they can bestow all that they have”; the incense of moral discipline with “so that they obtain the ultimate pure discipline of the Tathāgata”; the incense of patience with “so that they are far from every mind that is dangerous and harmful”; the incense of vigor with “so that they ever wear the armor of the vigor of the great vehicle.” The upper half is incense, the lower half the real sense of that perfection, and every clause is spoken in earnest.

Clearing away a misreading: matching the ten perfections to incense is not making up six perfections into ten. The nine incenses the sutra lists, together with the last clause, are established with respect to the sense of perfuming and arousing, and need not be forced into line with the names and numbers of the ten perfections elsewhere.

Coming down to use: perfuming is slow. What this gate warns against is looking for quick results — incense is not fragrant the moment it is applied; it takes time to soak through.

The Gate of Giving Couches and Seats: The Place That Settles the Body and the Place That Settles the Mind

A couch or seat is an implement for settling the body. The ten vows of this gate each begin with ‘obtain such-and-such a couch and seat,’ raising the place in which one is settled step by step: the couch and seat of the gods, of the worthy and noble, of ease and joy, the ultimate one, the equal one, the most surpassing one, the peaceful one, the pure one, the one of abiding, and last “the lion couch and seat, and ever lie down on the right side as the Tathāgata does.”

From the gods to the worthy and noble is the first turn — Chengguan here points out that what the couch and seat of the worthy and noble counters is “relinquishing the intent of ordinary folk and abiding in the mind of awakening.” From the worthy and noble to the ultimate and the equal is the second turn, in which the place of settling passes from persons to principle. It comes home at last to the lion seat, and closes with the Tathāgata's lying down on the right side — a very concrete mark, in which the manner of lying is itself the manner of being settled.

One thing to remember: couches and seats and jeweled seats are two gates in this sub-unit. Chengguan says of this gate that “the practice of giving is first raised, since the eighteenth gate below makes clear the giving of seats separately,” which shows the division of labor between them — the couch and seat are spoken of with respect to settling the body, the jeweled seat with respect to the honored station in which one is placed.

Clearing away a misreading: “ever lie down on the right side as the Tathāgata does” is not talking about a sleeping posture. It takes that mark of undisturbed settledness — lying down without losing right mindfulness.

Coming down to use: whether a person's mind is settled can be told once he lies down. That for the sake of which this gate's dedication is made is likewise “so that beings may cultivate right mindfulness and well guard their faculties.”

The Gate of Giving Dwellings: Being Able to Settle and Not Clinging to the Settling

Dwellings and places of abode are likewise made two gates. The vow of this gate has a very striking turn: it first vows that beings “abide in pure buddha-lands and cultivate every merit with vigor,” and immediately after that they “cast off all clinging to a place of abode,” and then that they “understand that all places of abode are utterly without existence.”

First the question: to vow that they have a place of abode and also that they not cling to it — is this not a contradiction? It is not. The sutra's order is dwelling first and non-clinging after, not non-clinging first and then no dwelling. So it goes on to say, “take in all the abodes of all buddhas, and abide in the abode of ease that is the ultimate path” — Chengguan glosses “all that the buddhas dwell in” as “the noble, the heavenly, the brahmic, and the rest,” and says of the last clause that “not abandoning the buddhas' supreme abiding” means “dwelling in the chamber of great quiescence.” To have a dwelling and not cling to it, and so come home at last to that supreme abiding.

Clearing away a misreading: “understand that all places of abode are utterly without existence” does not say that there is no house. What is without existence is the nature of a place of abode, not the fact of one; otherwise the next clause, “take in all the abodes of all buddhas,” could not be said at all.

Coming down to use: one's dwelling is the place where a person is most slack. That for the sake of which this gate's dedication is made is said very thoughtfully — “because he wishes to benefit all beings and, according to what befits each, to consider how to rescue and guard them” — using one's own settled dwelling to think about other people's affairs.

The Gate of Giving Places of Abode: On What One Abides

The gate before spoke of the substance of a place of abode; this gate speaks of what is relied upon. Two vows: the first, “constantly obtain what is truly good for them, their minds at ease”; the second, ten clauses all of the form ‘abide relying on such-and-such’ — relying on the Tathāgata, on great wisdom, on good friends, on what is honored and surpassing, on good conduct, on great loving-kindness, on great compassion, on the six perfections, on the great mind of awakening, and on every bodhisattva path. Chengguan has only one sentence for this gate, “twelfth, abodes, that is, monastic quarters and the like” — the sutra has said it clearly enough itself, and no further explanation is needed.

The ten things relied upon can be divided into three layers: the first three are persons (the Buddha, wisdom, good friends), the middle four are practice (what is honored and surpassing, good conduct, great loving-kindness, great compassion), and the last three are the path (the six perfections, the mind of awakening, the bodhisattva path). Persons, practice, and path draw tighter along the line, and one comes at last to abide upon the path.

Clearing away a misreading: it is easy to read “relying on” as relying on one particular teacher or one particular precept. Among the ten things, good friends take up only one place, which shows that what is relied upon is a whole floor of ground, not a single point of support.

Coming down to use: that for the sake of which this gate's dedication is made runs on with ten instances of “that it may be pure” — merit, ultimacy, knowledge, the path, the Dharma, discipline, aspiration, faith and understanding, vows, and every spiritual power and merit. These ten will serve exactly as a checklist: whichever of them is lacking in what one relies upon is the one that will first be impure.

The Gate of Giving Lamplight: How the Light Opens Out Layer by Layer

The use of a lamp is to break the darkness, and so all ten vows are upon light. See how it opens out layer by layer: measureless light illumines the right Dharma of the buddhas; pure light illumines and sees “the most subtle forms of the world”; light free of film understands the realm of beings to be empty and without existence; boundless light is the body sending forth wondrous light that illumines all; all-illumining light is not turning back in mind from the dharmas of the buddhas; the pure light of a buddha appears in all the lands; unobstructed light is one light illumining the whole Dharma realm; unbroken light illumines the buddha-lands unbrokenly; the light of the banner of wisdom universally illumines the world; and last, measureless colored light “illumines all lands and displays spiritual power.” From illumining dharmas to illumining forms, from illumining forms to illumining emptiness, and back from illumining emptiness to illumining the lands and displaying — a full circle that comes back to the world.

This gate has one more part than the others in its literary form. After the vows, the sutra runs on with ten clauses of “with these roots of goodness” — following after, gathering in, distributing to, showing loving pity to, sheltering and rearing, rescuing and guarding, filling, holding in mind, benefiting equally, and contemplating beings. Chengguan outlines this gate in four parts — the practice of giving, the practice of dedication, the twin conclusion of the two practices, and that for the sake of which the dedication is made — and points out part by part the opening sentences in the sutra that answer to them. This is one of the few gates in this sub-unit in which all four parts are present and distinct.

Clearing away a misreading: the film in “light free of film” is not an eye disease. What the sutra joins to it is “understands the realm of beings to be empty and without existence,” which shows that what is left behind is an obstruction on the level of view.

Coming down to use: the dark places are the first that need illumining. In every person's mind there are a few places he will not let be lit, and those few places are what this gate points to.

The Gate of Giving Medicinal Decoctions: The One Segment with No “This Is” Sentence

Of this gate one fact about the text must be noted first: among the twenty-nine segments of the whole sub-unit, this one alone closes with “he dedicates these roots of goodness in this way,” and has no closing sentence of the form “this is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's … dedication of roots of goodness.” This is not a determination that text has dropped out; it is only a record made in accordance with the actual text of the Taishō. Chengguan outlines this gate as “fourteenth, within medicinal decoctions there are three,” and so likewise makes it three parts and not four.

Now for the sense. The ten clauses of the vow begin with “ultimately come out from all coverings and entanglements” — coverings and entanglements are the veiling and binding of the afflictions, and to speak of the afflictions as an illness is the simile of the whole gate. Below: be forever parted from a body that is ill and obtain the body of a Tathāgata; become great and good medicine that extinguishes every unwholesome illness; become agada medicine and abide in the ground of non-retrogression; become the medicine of a Tathāgata able to draw out the poisoned arrows of affliction; draw near to the worthy and noble and extinguish the afflictions; become great kings of medicine, “forever removing the multitude of illnesses so that they do not arise again”; become indestructible medicine trees able to heal all; obtain the light of omniscience and draw out the arrows of illness; and the last clause, the most concrete of all — “well understand the worldly art of prescription and medicine, and heal every disease there is.” The first nine clauses speak of illness on the level of Dharma; the last clause returns to real illness and real medicine in the world.

Clearing away a misreading: the words “so that they do not arise again” deserve attention. What the sutra seeks is not the stopping of pain but the cutting of the root; a medicine that treats and then lets the thing recur does not count as a cure by the standard of this gate.

Coming down to use: what most makes affliction resemble illness is that it recurs. What this gate teaches is a discernment — is this stretch of calm the effect of the medicine, or has the root really been removed?

The Gate of Giving Vessels: How Much It Can Hold Is How Much Goes In

The section on the practice of giving in the gate of vessels is written with much articulation: first nine kinds of vessel and the jewels they hold are listed, then the fields given to, each field with a reason attached — giving to buddhas because “faith in the Buddha as a field of merit is inconceivable”; to bodhisattvas because “he knows that good friends are hard to meet with”; to the noble Saṅgha “so that the Buddha's Dharma may long abide in the world”; to father and mother “out of reverence”; to teachers and elders because they constantly lead and instruct him. It says at the last, “when he gives in this way, he clings neither to the things given nor to those who receive them.”

All ten clauses of the vow turn upon the word “vessel,” and the first clause at once sets the vessel at its largest — “become vessels of the boundless treasury equal to space, their power of mindfulness vast, able to hold all the scriptures of the world and beyond the world without forgetting or losing any.” Below come the pure vessel, the unsurpassed jeweled vessel, the vast Dharma-vessel, the vessel of the most surpassing jeweled adornment, the vessel that is the place merit relies upon, the vessel that enters into omniscience, the vessel of bodhisattva practice reaching to the end of future kalpas, the vessel of the surpassing merit of the lineage of the buddhas of the three times, and last the vessel that can contain the assemblies and seats of awakening of all the Tathāgatas. The vessel is spoken of as ever larger, until at last it is large enough to hold a seat of awakening.

Chengguan here offers a way of reading: “a single vessel gives rise to many vows; it is not necessarily that one vessel answers to one vow.” Do not take the nine kinds of vessel and match them to the ten vows.

Clearing away a misreading: the point of the simile of a vessel is not in holding things but in capacity. What the sutra speaks of is the power of holding — how much Dharma one can hold is how large a vessel one is.

Coming down to use: to hear the Dharma and not remember it, or to remember it and not be able to use it, is for the most part not a problem with the Dharma but a problem with the vessel. The vessel has first to be grown.

The Gate of Giving Jeweled Carriages in Offering to the Buddhas: The Same Thing Given, Different Recipients

The five segments that follow all use the many-jeweled carriage, while the fields given to differ: buddhas, good friends, the Saṅgha, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and fields of merit down to the poor and orphaned. Chengguan gathers these five segments into one gate, calling it “sixteenth, giving carriages.”

The first segment gives to the buddhas. Its vow has twenty clauses, the longest set in this sub-unit, and may be divided into three layers: the first six clauses speak with respect to faith and relinquishing — “understand the making of offerings to the supreme field of merit, and deeply believe that giving to a buddha obtains measureless recompense,” “begrudge nothing to the Tathāgatas, and be complete in the accomplishment of the mind of great relinquishing,” “practice inexhaustible giving in the presence of the buddhas”; the middle speaks with respect to going to them — the spiritual power of reaching everywhere without obstruction, being able to go spontaneously to all buddha-lands, dividing the body to fill the realm of space, obtaining a body beyond compare and going everywhere throughout the ten directions; and the last speaks with respect to practice — cultivating the practice of ease, obtaining swift practice, entering everywhere the lands of the ten directions throughout the Dharma realm, practicing the practice of Samantabhadra without turning back, the closing clause coming home to “mount the vehicle of wisdom that is beyond compare, according with the nature of dharmas and seeing the principle as it truly is.”

Clearing away a misreading: that large stretch of vows for spiritual powers in the middle is easily read as seeking spiritual powers. Look at where each clause lands — the purpose of every one of them is “drawing near to make offerings,” “going everywhere throughout the ten directions.” They are abilities spoken of for the sake of being able to reach where the buddhas are, not for the sake of the abilities themselves.

Coming down to use: the giving that is giving to a buddha is the giving most apt to turn into an exchange. The first vow of this gate blocks that at the outset — what is sought is the understanding of the very act of making offerings, not a recompense.

The Gate of Giving Carriages to Good Friends: To Keep Up Is What Accords

The second segment gives to good friends. Its vow has twenty clauses, and nearly every one of them speaks of one thing: not parting. Holding in mind the instruction of good friends without forgetting it, sharing one and the same benefit, honoring and making offerings and “complying with what pleases their minds,” obtaining good aspiration and following after good friends, ever meeting with them and “serving them single-mindedly and not going against their instruction,” loving them “with no interval and nothing mixed in, and with no error or fault,” being able to give one's own body to good friends and “following their instructions without disobedience.”

First the question: is this not tying a person to one other person? Look at the second half and one sees it is not. It turns immediately after: following good friends and hearing the right Dharma spoken by all buddhas, sharing with good friends one and the same pure fruit of the deeds of roots of goodness, sharing with the bodhisattvas one and the same practice and vow and reaching the utmost of the ten powers, and thence opening out to holding the right Dharma, riding the great vehicle, obtaining unobstructed knowledge, and coming and going in sovereign freedom. What is relied upon is a person; what is obtained is the Dharma.

Clearing away a misreading: “following their instructions without disobedience” is not the abandoning of judgment. The text has already said “one and the same benefit” — what is followed is that shared benefit, not a personal intention.

Coming down to use: this gate can serve as a mirror. To follow a good friend for three years and see no growth on the level of Dharma — what must be asked about is not him but oneself: what has one been following?

The Gate of Giving Carriages to the Jewel of the Saṅgha: The Door from the Ordinary into the Noble

The third segment gives to the Saṅgha. The section on the practice of giving first lists seven minds — the mind that studies all giving, the mind of wisdom that understands well, the mind of pure merit, the mind of relinquishing in accord, the mind that the jewel of the Saṅgha is hard to meet with, the mind of deep faith in the jewel of the Saṅgha, and the mind that holds and maintains the right teaching. The minds are listed first and the giving spoken of after, which shows that the weight of this gate lies in the intention with which one gives.

The vow has nineteen clauses, and the whole of the first half speaks of one thing: leaving the ordinary and entering the noble. “Leave behind the dharmas of ordinary folly and enter the place of the worthy and the noble,” “swiftly enter the noble station, able by the Buddha's Dharma to open and lead others forward in due order,” “all accomplish the unsurpassed jewel of the Saṅgha, leaving the ground of ordinary folk and entering the assembly of the worthy and the noble.” The second half turns to spiritual powers and entering everywhere — riding the vehicle of wisdom and turning the wheel of the right Dharma, going in a single thought to worlds unspeakable in number, riding upon a body of space, entering everywhere the assemblies of all buddhas, obtaining a body that rises lightly, attaining boundless and skillful spiritual footing, appearing everywhere like a shadow by spiritual power, and last “obtain the skillful means of entering the Dharma realm without obstruction, and in a single thought travel everywhere through the lands of the ten directions.”

Clearing away a misreading: the jewel of the Saṅgha is not a collective name for those who have left home. What the sutra points to is “the assembly of the worthy and the noble” — the entering vowed for in this gate is entering that Saṅgha of the fruit-station, not the changing of one's status.

Coming down to use: the most solid test of faith in the jewel of the Saṅgha is the sense that it is hard to meet with. If one takes it for granted, not one of the seven minds of this gate can arise.

The Gate of Giving Carriages to Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas: What a Field of Merit Actually Is

The fourth segment gives to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. The section on the practice of giving in this gate again lists ten minds first, of which the two, “the mind liberated from every bondage of Māra” and “the mind that crushes every host of Māra's armies,” are language about subduing Māra rarely seen in this sub-unit.

The vow has twenty clauses, of which the first ten speak again and again upon “the field of merit”: the foremost field of merit that the world trusts, the foremost pure field of merit, fulfilling the foremost pure field of merit, ever drawing near to the supreme field of merit, being complete in the field of merit of inexhaustible virtue, “a true field of merit that can bring the fruit to term.” Here there is one key sentence: “abide in the dharma without contention, and understand that all dharmas are without any doing and take non-nature as their nature.” That a field of merit can bring forth fruit is precisely because it is without any doing — not because the donor gives much.

The second ten clauses turn to hearing the Dharma: obtaining the dharma that extinguishes offenses, listening with vigor, understanding all that is heard “with nothing passing them by in vain,” penetrating it to the utmost and expounding it in accord with what was heard, casting off the ninety-six kinds of heterodox views, ever seeing the worthy and the noble, dwelling together and rejoicing with the noble and sagely, hearing the buddhas' names to no vain purpose and being able to see them, guarding those who uphold the Dharma, and holding, reciting, revealing, and illumining it, coming home at last to “relinquish all they have in reverent offering” — beginning from giving and returning to giving.

Clearing away a misreading: do not read a field of merit as a rate of return. The sutra's wording is “able to give beings the fruit of measureless and numberless roots of goodness” — the working of a field of merit lies in what it can give, not in what it can take in.

Coming down to use: whether a person is a field of merit is seen in whether other people's roots of goodness grow when he is present. This has nothing to do with his rank.

The Gate of Giving Carriages to Fields of Merit and to the Poor: The Most Reverent Giving to the Lowest of Fields

The fifth segment gives to the fields of merit and even to the poor and the solitary. The text of the practice of giving here is most worth noting: the bodhisattva not only gives, but “reproaches himself before them,” saying, “I ought to have gone myself to make offerings and provide for you; I ought not to have troubled you to come from afar and be wearied,” and having said this he “bows and kneels, asks after their health and welfare.”

First the question: why bow and kneel and reproach oneself before the poor and solitary? Because in the eye of this dedication, the one who receives the gift is the one who brings the practice of giving to completion. So although the field is the lowest, the reverence paid is the heaviest. This and what the gate before said — that a field of merit lies in what it can give and not in what it can take in — are two faces of the same principle.

The twenty clauses of the vow still turn upon “vehicle,” and divide into two halves. The first half speaks with respect to the aspect of the vehicle — the vast vehicle whose wheel is unturning and unobstructed, the vehicle of the great knowledge of Dharma whose cause is pure, the vehicle in which all dharmas are without existence, the upright vehicle without flattery or deceit. Among these, the vow of the “vehicle of four wheels” is very concrete, and the sutra itself lists the four: dwelling in a good land, relying on good persons, amassing surpassing merit, and giving rise to great vows. The second half matches the six perfections one by one to vehicles — the vehicle of great giving, of pure discipline, of patience, of great vigor that does not turn back, of meditative concentration, of wisdom and skillful means — and then the vehicle of the Dharma king, the vehicle of wisdom that clings to nothing, and the vehicle of the Dharma of all buddhas, the closing clause coming home to “ride the supreme jeweled vehicle of omniscience, fulfilling the practices and vows of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra without weariness.” At the end of the five segments Chengguan sums up: “the vow is precisely the ocean of vows of Samantabhadra, which together accomplish the carriage of the inexhaustible arising of the great Dharma realm through conditions” — the most conspicuous place of Huayan doctrine in this sub-unit is here, and this is Chengguan's determination, not something the sutra text marks for itself.

Clearing away a misreading: matching the six perfections to vehicles is not saying the six perfections over again. What is taken is the sense of a vehicle — a perfection is what is able to practice, a vehicle is what is ridden; one and the same matter, spoken of on one side as the traveler and on the other as the conveyance.

Coming down to use: to whom a person pays reverence shows his view most clearly of all.

The Gate of Giving Elephants and Horses: Only What Is Tamed Goes Far

Elephants and horses are two things, which Chengguan combines into one gate, saying that they “have ten vows in all.” The sutra writes the marks of the elephant treasure with extreme fineness — complete in its seven limbs, its six tusks pure, the color of its mouth like a lotus, its body white as a snow mountain — while the most important clause stands right at the front: “its nature is tamed and compliant.” It is the same in writing of the horse: “its pace even and level so that the rider is at ease.”

So the ten vows are all upon tameness and reaching far: abiding in the tamed and compliant vehicle, obtaining the vehicle of skillfulness, the vehicle of faith and understanding, the vehicle of setting out, being complete in the vehicle of the perfection of equality, accomplishing the jeweled vehicle, the vehicle adorned with bodhisattva practice, the boundless and swift vehicle, the most surpassing tamed and compliant great vehicle, and last “accomplish the loftiest, broadest, and firmest great vehicle, able to carry all beings everywhere.” In matching the vows Chengguan points out a small detail: elephants and horses “each have the sense of being tamed, and therefore two vows are divided out.”

There is one more sentence not to be passed over. The sutra says that the bodhisattva supports his father and mother and good friends with the elephants and horses, or gives them to beings destitute and afflicted, and that “his mind is open and free, giving rise to no regret or grudging, but only redoubling his gladness and increasing his pity” — no regret after giving, which is the hard part of giving, and the sutra points it out in particular in this gate.

Clearing away a misreading: to be tamed is not to be broken until one has no strength left. The elephant treasure “goes ten thousand leagues without ever tiring” and the horse treasure is “swift as the wind”; strength and tameness stand together.

Coming down to use: what carries one far is not ferocity but the absence of disorder. It is mostly on this point that stamina in cultivation is told apart, high from low.

The Gate of Giving Jeweled Seats: The Station One Occupies and the Dharma One Sits Upon

The section on the practice of giving in this gate is the grandest set-piece in this sub-unit: the adornment of the lion seat, the jewels worn on the king's body, the consecrated station, the majesty of ruling Jambudvīpa as king. Only at the very end is the giving spoken of — “with jeweled adorned seats such as these, hundreds of thousands of ten thousands of koṭis of them, measureless and numberless, he gives to the Tathāgata, that foremost field of merit” — and from there it counts down to the poor and orphaned.

First the question: why write the honor of the seat so fully? Because what is relinquished is the very station one occupies. The gate of couches and seats before it relinquished an implement for settling the body; this gate relinquishes one's standing itself.

The vow has ten clauses, and the first goes straight to the point — “sit upon the seat of awakening, and be able to awaken to the right Dharma of all buddhas.” Below come the seat of sovereignty, the buddhas' sovereign lion seat, seats adorned with jewels rare and wondrous of every kind, the most surpassing seat of the three kinds of world-realm, a seat pervading worlds unspeakable in number, the seat of great, deep, and secret merit, inconceivable jeweled seats of every kind, and the good and wondrous seat; the last clause gathers up all the foregoing names of seats at one stroke and comes home to “display the Tathāgata's majestic and sovereign might, accomplishing the utmost right awakening.” “The three kinds of world-realm” is a settled saying of the ancients, of which Chengguan says it is “to be taken in its usual explanation,” adducing the Zhilun for taking sentient beings, the five aggregates, and the receptacle world as the three.

Clearing away a misreading: the seat of awakening is not a location. The sutra's wording is that one sits and “is able to awaken to the right Dharma of all buddhas” — a seat here means the Dharma-station in which one is established.

Coming down to use: what a person is least willing to let go is most often not wealth but station. What this gate gives away is precisely that.

The Gate of Giving Canopies: How Much One Canopy Can Cover

The use of a canopy is to cover and shade. The vow of this gate has only ten clauses, while that for the sake of which the dedication is made runs on afterward for thirty clauses — the longest such passage in this sub-unit.

The ten vows first set up the substance: “cultivate roots of goodness with vigor so as to cover their bodies, and ever be sheltered by the buddhas” — first being covered, and only then being able to cover. Below come taking merit and wisdom as one's canopy, being sheltered by good dharmas so that dust, stain, and burning vexation are removed, obtaining the treasury of wisdom, sheltering oneself with the quiescent white dharmas, well covering one's body and reaching the utmost of the dharma-body, becoming an all-pervading canopy that “covers the world everywhere with the wisdom of the ten powers,” and last the canopy of one worthy of offerings and the supreme canopy. From being covered by others to covering the world, the line is clear.

That long string of clauses on what the dedication is for says the same thing over and over, magnified: being able with a single canopy to cover everywhere the whole realm of space, the Dharma realm, and all lands; being able with a single canopy to adorn all the worlds of the ten directions; being able with a single canopy to spread over the buddha-lands of the Dharma realm. One and all are stated most plainly in this gate — it is not many canopies covering many places, but one canopy covering all places. To this gate Chengguan adduces the Benxing jing's account of grass plaited into a canopy upon which a canopy of the seven treasures followed, and praises it as “compassion and wisdom being profound and wondrous, it may indeed be called according with all roots of goodness.”

Clearing away a misreading: one canopy covering all is not an exaggeration of rhetoric. What it rests upon is the principle of the arising of the Dharma realm through conditions, which is the doctrinal eye of the Huayan lineage; here it is attributed to Chengguan, while the sutra itself speaks only of the aspect of the matter.

Coming down to use: before sheltering others, ask under whose canopy one is oneself. The sutra's order does not skip this step.

The Gate of Giving Banners and Pennants: Only What Can Be Raised Is Called Raising

Banner and pennant are two things, which Chengguan combines into one gate, and he apportions the ten vows very finely: the first two vows speak of banner and pennant together — first, raising the good so as to overturn evil; second, honoring the Dharma so as to overturn conceit; the third vow speaks only of the pennant, because “graphs are written on pennants”; and the last seven vows are all with respect to the banner.

The verbs of the ten vows are worth noting: of the first six, all but the third mostly use “raise” — raising the banners and pennants of every root of goodness and merit, raising the banners and pennants sovereign in every dharma, raising the lofty and conspicuous banner, raising the firm banner, raising the banner of the strength of wisdom; while the third vow, “ever write the right Dharma upon jeweled silk, and uphold the Dharma-treasury of the buddhas and bodhisattvas,” answers exactly to Chengguan's remark that graphs are written on pennants. The last four vows turn to “obtain” and “be complete in,” speaking of the fruit accomplished. The final three vows turn to crushing — the Nārāyaṇa banner “crushes every banner of conceit in the world,” the banner of the great light of the sun of wisdom universally illumines the Dharma realm, and the banner of a Tathāgata “crushes and destroys all the ninety-six kinds of heterodox views.”

Clearing away a misreading: banners and pennants are not ceremonial decoration. What the sutra takes is loftiness and visibility — raised up so that people see them from afar, which is the use of a banner; written on so that people read them, which is the use of a pennant.

Coming down to use: the banner raised and the evil overturned are a pair. Only by raising the good is evil overturned, and only by honoring the Dharma is conceit overturned — to be rid of some fault, one must for the most part first raise up the thing that answers to it.

The Gate of Giving the Multitude of Jewels: The Three Jewels and the Jewel of Wisdom

The section on the practice of giving in this gate is very short — he opens his treasuries of many jewels and, with hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of wondrous rare jewels, gives to numberless beings, “granting them in accord with their intent, his mind begrudging nothing.” The sutra does not go on setting out the appearances of jewels, but enters the vow at once.

The ten vows divide into two layers. The first three are the three jewels: ever seeing the jewel of the Buddha and thereby “casting off folly and cultivating right mindfulness,” obtaining the light of the jewel of the Dharma and upholding the Dharma-treasuries of the buddhas, gathering in the jewel of the Saṅgha and “providing for them and making offerings without ever wearying.” The last seven vows turn into the jewel of wisdom: the unsurpassed jewel of the mind of omniscience, the jewel of wisdom, the jewels of the bodhisattva's merits, the jewels of measureless wondrous merit, “the sixteen jewels of knowledge of the wondrous samādhis,” the jewel of the foremost field of merit, and last “become the foremost and unsurpassed lord of jewels, and open and expound all dharmas with inexhaustible eloquence.” On the last vow Chengguan notes, “because the Buddha is the lord of the jewel of Dharma.”

Clearing away a misreading: the jewels of outer wealth are entirely given away in this gate. The treasury opened is an outer treasury, while the jewels vowed for are all inward. The sutra walks through both layers with one and the same word “jewel,” and the reader must not stop halfway.

Coming down to use: the real treasure is not in how much there is but in whether it can be opened. Stored and never opened, a jewel is no different from earth and stone.

The Gate of Giving Ornaments: Body, Speech, and Mind Each Have Their Adornment

Ornaments are things that adorn the body. The section on the practice of giving in this gate first says the most important thing: the bodhisattva “looks equally upon all the beings of the world as upon his own only child,” and only then says that he wishes to cause them all to obtain “a pure and wondrous adornment of bodily form.” The mind with which ornaments are given is the mind of a parent.

Chengguan states the division of the ten vows clearly: the first vow benefits others and the last nine benefit oneself; and within the nine, “the first three are with respect to body, the next three with respect to speech, and the last three with respect to mind.” With respect to body: the pure mark of adornment, the finest mark of adornment (adorning the body with the marks of the hundred merits), and the unconfused mark of adornment. With respect to speech: the mark of adornment of well-purified speech (complete in inexhaustible eloquence), the mark of adornment of the sound of every merit (the voice pure so that those who hear are pleased), and the lovable mark of adornment of the speech of the buddhas (causing beings to hear the Dharma with joy). With respect to mind: the mark of adornment of the mind (entering deep meditative concentration and seeing all buddhas), the mark of adornment of dhāraṇī, and the mark of adornment of wisdom. Three for each of the three deeds, gathered up in “adorn their minds with the wisdom of a buddha.”

Clearing away a misreading: adornment is not decoration. Not one of the nine marks the sutra lists is added from outside; each is virtue showing itself in body, speech, or mind.

Coming down to use: to know how far one has cultivated, look at these three faces — whether one's bodily bearing is settled, whether one's speech benefits others, and whether one's mind is concentrated.

The Gate of Giving the Jeweled Crown: Handing Over the One Thing on Top of the Head

Jeweled crown and topknot pearl are two things, which Chengguan combines into one gate. This is the last gate of the giving of outer wealth, and the position has meaning: the crown on the head and the pearl in the topknot are, among things outside the body, the most honored, the most closely worn, and the hardest to relinquish, and so they are placed at the end of outer wealth. The sutra also describes this giving with the words “he cultivates constantly and with vigor, becomes a great lord of giving, studies the wisdom of giving, increases the root of relinquishing.”

All ten vows turn upon “the crown”: obtaining the consecration of the Dharma of the buddhas, being complete in the crest of the topknot and obtaining foremost wisdom, gathering in beings everywhere with the jewel of wondrous wisdom so that they reach the utmost crown of merit, accomplishing the jeweled crown of wisdom and being fit to receive homage, adorning the head with the crown of wisdom, “binding the bright pearl of wisdom upon their crowns, which none in all the world can see,” being fit to receive the world's bowing and accomplishing the crown of wisdom that illumines the Buddha's Dharma, wearing the crown adorned with the ten powers, “reaching the crown of the great earth” and breaking the retinue of the Māras at the summit of the realm of desire, and last “obtain the foremost and unsurpassed king of crowns, and attain the crown of the light of omniscience, which none can outshine.”

Clearing away a misreading: “which none in all the world can see” is not concealment. What is bound there is the bright pearl of wisdom, which the eye of the world was never able to see — this clause speaks of the nature of what is obtained, not of hiding it.

Coming down to use: the crown of the head is where a person is least able to let go — name, station, and face are all up there. What this gate gives away is precisely that, and so it stands at the end of outer wealth.

The Gate of Rescuing from Prison: Turning from the Giving of Wealth into the Giving of Fearlessness

From this gate on, the momentum of the text changes. Chengguan outlines it thus: “up to here all has made clear outer giving; the two segments from here on make clear the giving of fearlessness,” and he determines this gate to be “one that takes in both inner and outer” — for the bodhisattva relinquishes wealth, jewels, wife, children, and retinue, and also his own body.

Look first at the section on the practice of giving. The sutra writes the suffering in the prison very concretely: fetters, manacles, cangues, and chains; unable to rise or sit at ease; the multitude of sufferings crowding upon them; without kin or acquaintance; with nothing to turn to and no rescue; naked, starving, and worn. Then the bodhisattva relinquishes all he has to rescue them, and having rescued them does not stop there — “he gives them everything in accord with what they need, removes their suffering and affliction, and causes them to be at peace; and then he gives them the unsurpassed jewel of the Dharma.” First rescue the body, then settle the body, and last give the Dharma — three steps in unbroken order. The sutra also adduces two bodhisattvas of its own: the bodhisattva Great Compassion and the bodhisattva King of Wondrous Eyes.

The ten clauses of the vow are wholly upon “bondage” and “release”: liberation from the bondage of craving, cutting off the stream of birth-and-death and rising to the shore of wisdom, extinguishing folly and being liberated from the bondage of affliction, extinguishing the bonds of the three realms, forever cutting off every knot and bond of affliction, being apart from the stirring of thought, ratiocination, and discrimination and entering the unmoving ground of knowledge, being loosed from the bonds of desire, obtaining surpassing aspiration, “obtain the liberation without clinging and without bondage, their minds vast as the Dharma realm,” and last obtaining the spiritual powers of a bodhisattva so that beings “leave the world and abide in the great vehicle.” The bondage of a prison and the bondage of the afflictions are, in this gate, the very same word.

Clearing away a misreading: that the Dharma is given only after the rescue from prison is an order that must not be inverted. The sutra does not preach the Dharma to people while they are hungry and cold.

Coming down to use: the order of helping people is given very clearly by this gate — first relieve their urgency, then settle their bodies, and only last comes the thing that matters most.

The Gate of Substituting for a Condemned Prisoner: The Last Gate of This Sub-Unit

The last gate is the giving up of body and life in place of a condemned prisoner. Chengguan says, “twenty-fifth, giving up the body in place of a condemned prisoner: wholly inner wealth” — it is already entirely inner wealth, and this sub-unit stops here, the proper section on the giving of inner wealth following immediately after.

The sutra writes the suffering of the execution with great weight: bound in five places, taken toward the place of death, set upon a high block and cut apart with a blade, run through on an upright wooden stake, wrapped in cloth and doused with oil and burned with fire. Then the bodhisattva gives up his own body and undergoes it in that one's place, and the bodhisattva Ajita and the bodhisattva King of Surpassing Practice are adduced as instances. Most important is the speech the bodhisattva makes to the one in charge — a passage of direct address: “I vow to give up my body in place of his life; sufferings such as these may be given to me.” He further says, “were the suffering to exceed his by asaṃkhyeya times over, I ought still to bear it, so that he may be set free”; and at the end he asks and answers himself: if he sees the man about to be killed and does not give up body and life to ransom him, then “I am not called one who abides in the bodhisattva's mind” — and why? “Because it is for the sake of rescuing and guarding all beings that I have given rise to the mind of awakening that is omniscience.”

The ten clauses of the vow are wholly upon “life” and “fearlessness”: obtaining the ultimate body and life never cut off or exhausted, abiding relying on the buddhas and being complete in the ten powers, rescuing everywhere all that has consciousness so that they are without dread, “obtain the life of all, and enter the deathless realm of wisdom,” being forever parted from enemies and foes, casting off swords and weapons, crushing the armies of Māra beneath the tree of awakening, going far from the dread of the great assembly and making the great lion's roar, obtaining unobstructed lion-wisdom, and last “arrive at the place of fearlessness, and ever be mindful of rescuing and guarding the beings who suffer” — having reached the place of fearlessness oneself, one still comes back to rescuing and guarding.

Clearing away a misreading: “not called one who abides in the bodhisattva's mind” is not the piling of pressure upon oneself in a vow. It is a definition — this clause is already contained in what the bodhisattva's mind means, and one who cannot do it is not that mind, quite apart from whether he is valiant.

Coming down to use: this gate closes on “ever be mindful of rescuing and guarding the beings who suffer.” From the mouthful of rice in the first gate to the single life in the last, the twenty-nine segments are walked through, and where they land is the same throughout.

Lineage

The unevenness of the three numbers — segments, gates, and things. The sutra text's own segmentation yields twenty-nine, of which twenty-eight have a “this is” closing sentence and the segment on medicinal decoctions alone has none. Chengguan establishes twenty-five gates, combining the five segments of jeweled carriages, elephants and horses, banners and pennants, and jeweled crown and topknot pearl each into one gate. Chengguan further counts out another set of numbers at the listing: looking toward the dedications below they should be sixty, while counting simply by the text they are eighty things, and he points out segment by segment the names at which the eighty arrive. He also says that the whole sixth dedication's “total gates are but sixty, by reason of opening and combining,” and lists twelve segments in which two and two are combined and two segments in which five things each are combined, reckoning fourteen gates that combine twenty things, so that “although two things are wanting, two things are added, namely dwellings, and the opening out of ‘attending’ as distinct from ‘waiting upon’ — and therefore there are sixty gates.” Fazang's Tanxuan ji likewise binds this dedication into sixty gates, its last gate reading “giving servants so that they take over the labor, and further giving up one's own body to serve as their servant — this is the sixtieth gate,” which answers to what Chengguan's gate twenty-five points to, while the ordering of the numbers is slightly arranged otherwise. Both take sixty gates as their frame, and both are recorded without adjudication.

Master Guangtong's reckoning. Chengguan further transmits a reckoning of Master Guangtong of old: binding the earlier listing by the later total gates, these too are only sixty, making one hundred and twenty gates; each gate has the ten goods, making one thousand two hundred; multiplied by the seven kinds of giving this makes eight thousand four hundred; and each being complete with the ten dedications this makes eighty-four thousand. As for the seven kinds of giving, Chengguan explains on his behalf: following marks there are six — the mind has three kinds, which are the three times, and gladness in the matter has three kinds, which are the three wheels; entering the principle has one, which is the illumining of the emptiness of the three wheels; and he says that multiplying by the seven noble riches is also admissible. This is an old determination that Chengguan records, and it is recorded here without adjudication.

The divergence of the two translations. The eighty-fascicle text reads “the dedication that accords with and makes firm all roots of goodness” and the sixty-fascicle “the dedication that accords with all firm roots of goodness,” the place to which “all” attaches being exchanged front for back; the question raised reads “what is” in the eighty-fascicle and “what is it that is” in the sixty-fascicle, which further prefixes the ordinal “the sixth.” The name of the sixth dedication as listed in the Pusa yingluo benye jing reads again otherwise, “the mind of the dedication that accords with equal roots of goodness,” and all three stand together. In the section on the body relied upon the two translations differ in fullness each from the other: the three clauses of the eighty-fascicle, “he holds up a single canopy that broadly shades the ten thousand quarters,” “with silk free of defilement he binds his crown,” and “he is sovereign in the Dharma, and those who see him all submit,” are absent from the sixty-fascicle; the sixty-fascicle clauses “peaceful and abundantly happy” and “weapons are not used, and of itself all is at peace” are absent from the eighty-fascicle; and where the eighty-fascicle reads “he obtains pure deeds and is parted from the several hindrances of deeds,” in the sixty-fascicle the two clauses stand in reverse order. As for the number of segments, the corresponding window of the sixty-fascicle yields only nineteen “this is” closing sentences together with one conclusion for the rescuing of prisoners, fewer than the eighty-fascicle, and the single gate of giving lamps is opened out in the sixty-fascicle into two closing sentences. This is the actual state of the two translations, recorded in accordance with the fact; nothing is forced into correspondence and nothing is supplied by inference.

The divergence between Chengguan's restatement and the actual text of the sutra. In establishing the name Chengguan restates the Pusa yingluo benye jing as saying, “because he practices the good that has marks and the good that is without outflows, and they are not two, it is named according with equal and all roots of goodness,” whereas the actual text of that sutra reads, “because he practices the good that has marks and the good that is without outflows, and they are not two, it is named the dedication that accords with equal roots of goodness,” the last four graphs differing. Both are recorded here without adjudication.

The divergence of the commentators' routes. Chengguan displays this dedication at length by the practice of giving and establishes the three divisions of following marks, being apart from marks, and explaining the name of dedication, outlining its text as restating, explaining, and concluding; Fazang's Tanxuan ji outlines it as statement, explanation, and conclusion, has in addition within the explanation the division “distinguishing the benefit accomplished by the practice,” and likewise establishes four intents rather than three for relying on the body of a king; Li Tongxuan does not restate the text gate by gate, but determines this dedication to be one in which “the prajñā-pāramitā is its substance,” and takes as symbolic betokening the good friend Veṣṭhila whom Sudhana visited, the city of Good Deliverance, and the buddha-stupa of the sandalwood seat. All three stand together, and are recorded here without adjudication. As for whether Chengguan's Yanyi chao has a corresponding explanation of this passage, this sub-unit has not collated it, and the matter is marked as undecided in accordance with the fact, no text from elsewhere being used to fill it.

Places for cross-reading. This sub-unit is the earlier portion of the sixth dedication; after it come the giving of inner wealth, the giving of Dharma, and the remainder of outer wealth, and after those the general conclusion of the many gates, the dedication apart from marks, the explaining of the name of dedication and the fruit of the station, and the repeated verses. What Chengguan determines about all three kinds of giving being run through, and about the division of the practice of loving-kindness and the practice of compassion, can only be seen whole when the three portions are read through together. Again, the most important outside attestation for the name of this dedication lies in the Pusa yingluo benye jing's list of the names of the ten dedications and its sentence explaining the name; and Li Tongxuan's betokening of this dedication by Veṣṭhila may be read across with “Entry into the Dharma Realm.” The three matters Chengguan adduces in the various gates — the Yujia on how giving clothing calls forth wondrous color, the Zhilun on the three world-realms, and the Benxing jing on grass plaited into a canopy — all belong to what Chengguan cites and are not attached by the sutra text of this passage itself; the reader should not transfer them to what the sutra says.