大智度論 往生品之上Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Rebirth, Part 1 of 3

If beings are ultimately unfindable, and even the name ‘bodhisattva’ is only a provisional name with no real dharma behind it, then is it not a superfluous question to ask from where one’s life ended, whence one came to be born here, and where one will be reborn next? The Chapter on Rebirth sets this hard question on the table at its very opening, and at once gives the pivot of the whole chapter: in the Buddha’s Dharma there are two truths; for the sake of the worldly truth it is said that there are beings, and for the sake of the truth of the highest meaning it is said that beings have no existence. To ask about rebirth is in fact to ask about the bodhisattva’s place of practice, and the bodhisattva’s place of practice falls exactly on this non-dual ground, where there is no self and no coming or going, and yet beings and rebirth are not abandoned. So the Buddha first answers where the bodhisattva comes from with three places: from another Buddha-land, from the Tuṣita heaven, or from among humans; then he distinguishes at length where the bodhisattva goes, laying out the many marks of rebirth. Those who come from elsewhere are of keen faculties and those who come from among humans of dull faculties, and the difference lies only in whether they constantly meet the Buddhas and whether, by the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, they come swiftly into accord with prajñā. Everything listed thereafter deepens this one matter: there are bodhisattvas who have obtained the body born of dharma-nature, whose transformation bodies enter the three realms everywhere without being bound by karma; there are bodhisattvas who by the power of skilful means enter the meditations yet are not born according to the meditations, but return to a great clan of the desire realm to deliver beings; there are bodhisattvas whom the Brahmā king entreats to turn the wheel of Dharma, bodhisattvas in Tuṣita who are one birth from buddhahood, and bodhisattvas who with the six supernormal powers roam at play through the ten directions praising the Three Jewels. By the middle fascicle, skilful means and concentration and wisdom are gathered deeper still: the bodhisattva can enter the leaping absorption without falling under the limits of the small vehicle’s laws of absorption, can decline the four fruits and yet, by the eightfold noble path, bring beings to attain the fruits, and indeed the fruits and knowledge of all arhats and pratyekabuddha are, on the bodhisattva’s side, but one corner of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas; and the division of pure from coarse karma turns from outward marks to the inside, where to grasp the mark of a dharma is itself offence, and the unfindability of dharmas is what is called purifying the Buddha path. The last fascicle closes with the sequence of the five eyes: the fleshly eye and the heavenly eye seek to see; the wisdom eye breaks through falsehood and sees the real mark; the Dharma eye distinguishes beings’ capacities and stages; the Buddha eye enters the vajra samādhi and illumines all without remainder. Prajñā can give birth to the five eyes, and one who trains in the five eyes attains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. So too the supernormal powers: each of the six is empty of own-nature and apart from own-nature, cultivated for nothing but the mind set on sarvajñā; and the six perfections each dwell in ultimate emptiness, like a vajra mountain with winds coming from four sides while the mind does not stir. At the end it returns to giving rise to an equal mind toward all beings and attaining the equality of all dharmas, being held in mind in this very life by the Buddhas of the ten directions, and closes with the case of three hundred bhikṣu who offered their robes and aroused the mind, the Buddha smiling and predicting their buddhahood sixty-one kalpas hence, and ten thousand people vowing to be born in a pure land under the name King of Adornment: the continuity of karma, cause, condition, and fruit is inconceivable. In reading this chapter there is no need first to fit rebirth with a real place gone to or come from; one need only see the same one thing in every mark of rebirth: whether where one goes still faces omniscience and all beings, and whether deliverer and delivered have already been made light in ultimate emptiness. With no being to be found, one is born everywhere to deliver beings; with no coming or going to grasp, one constantly meets the Buddhas. This is the very path of rebirth that prajñā’s two truths open.

Śāriputra Asks: From Where Does the Bodhisattva Who Cultivates Prajñā Die and Come, and Where Does He Go?

Śāriputra said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva who practises prajñāpāramitā in this way and is able to be in accord with prajñā in this way—from where did he die before coming to be born here? And when he dies from here, where will he go to be reborn?’

The Buddha told Śāriputra: ‘A bodhisattva who cultivates prajñā in this way and is able to be in accord with it in this way—some die in the Buddha-lands of other quarters and come to be born here, some die in the Tuṣita Heaven and come to be born here, and some die in the human path and come to be born here.

‘Śāriputra! Those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters are quickly able to be in accord with prajñāpāramitā; because they are in accord, when they give up their former body and come to be born here, all kinds of deep and wondrous essentials of the Dharma appear before them, and afterwards they are again able to be in accord with prajñā, and wherever they are born they are always able to meet the Buddhas.

‘Śāriputra! There is the bodhisattva bound to one more birth, who dies in the Tuṣita Heaven and comes to be born here; this bodhisattva does not lose the six perfections, and wherever he is born, all the dhāraṇī gates and all the samādhi gates are able to appear before him swiftly.

‘Śāriputra! There are also bodhisattvas who die among humans and are born again among humans; apart from the avaivartika, bodhisattvas of this kind are of duller faculties, cannot swiftly be in accord with prajñā, and the dhāraṇī gates and samādhi gates also cannot appear before them swiftly.’

Beings Are Ultimately Empty, So Why Still Ask “Whence Do They Come, Whither Do They Go”?—Answered by the Two Truths

What follows is the treatise's explanation.

Question: In prajñāpāramitā, beings are ultimately not to be found. As was said in the previous chapter: ‘Śāriputra! All beings are not to be found; even the various other names for beings—life-holder, living one, and so on up to knower and seer—are all empty and without real substance.’ Since this is so, why is it asked here, ‘whence do they come, whither do they go’? Another name for beings is precisely bodhisattva; since beings do not exist, bodhisattvas do not exist either; and the sūtra also says that a bodhisattva is only a name and has no real dharma. Why does Śāriputra ask this question?

Answer: In the Buddha's Dharma there are two truths: the first is worldly truth, the second is the truth of the highest meaning. In terms of worldly truth, it is said that there are beings; in terms of the truth of the highest meaning, it is said that beings are without anything at all.

Beings can moreover be divided into two kinds: those who know the mark of names and those who do not know the mark of names—just as when a secret password is set up in an army, some know it and some do not. They can also be divided into two kinds: those who are beginners and those who have trained long; those who cling and those who do not cling; those who are able to know the intent of others and those who are not. For those who do not know the mark of names, are beginners, cling, and do not know the intent of others, it is said, ‘there are no beings’; for those who know the mark of names, have trained long, do not cling, and are able to know the intent of others, it is said, ‘there are beings’.

Śāriputra, by the clarity of the divine eye, sees the births and deaths, the good and evil, of the beings of the six paths, and has no doubt about this; it is only that he does not know those bodhisattvas who come from immeasurable asaṃkhyeya worlds of other quarters, and so he asks. Again, there are great bodhisattvas who die from here and are born in immeasurable asaṃkhyeya Buddha-lands of other quarters; this is something Śāriputra's divine eye cannot see, and so he asks.

Furthermore, there are śrāvakas who see the bodhisattva cultivating the six perfections and long abiding in the midst of birth and death, who, because his afflictions are not yet exhausted, accumulates all kinds of worldly scriptures, inner and outer, yet does not realise and enter the limit of reality, and still has not escaped birth, old age, sickness, and death; and so, with pity and also with contempt, they say: ‘When these people die, since the three poisons are not yet exhausted, where will they fall? As the Buddha has said, ordinary people always keep the gates of the three evil paths open; in the three good paths they are only passing guests, while in the three evil places it is as if they had come home. The power of the three poisons is strong, and the sinful deeds accumulated through immeasurable past kalpas are thick, yet they do not take nirvāṇa; they will undergo the host of sufferings—truly pitiable!’ People of the small vehicle such as these pity and belittle the bodhisattva in just this way. Śāriputra, as the foremost great general of the Dharma among all the śrāvakas, knows that there is such a thing and wishes to make beings give rise to a mind of reverence toward the bodhisattva, and so he asks.

The Buddha then answers with three matters: the first is coming to be born from the Buddha-lands of other quarters, the second is coming from the Tuṣita Heaven, the third is coming from within the human path.

The Distinctions among the Three Places of Origin: Why the Tuṣita Heaven Alone Is Named and the Evil Paths Are Not Listed

Question: Those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters, because they are far away, Śāriputra does not know; but those who come from the Tuṣita Heaven and from within the human path—why does he not know them either? Answer: Śāriputra did not know only those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters, and so he asked; the Buddha then made distinctions according to what was fitting and answered that there are three places from which one comes to be born.

Question: Again, there are six paths in the world; why, among the gods, is coming from the Tuṣita Heaven specially spoken of, while within the human path the places are not distinguished in detail, and for those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters the path of gods and the path of humans are not distinguished either? Answer: Among the six destinies, three paths are evil paths; those who come from the evil paths, because of the causes and conditions of undergoing suffering, are slow and dull of mind and not equal to attaining the path, and so they are not spoken of.

Question: Again, among those who come from the three evil paths there are also some who attain the path. Like Śāriputra's great disciple, the bhikṣu Ox-Foot, who was born among oxen for five hundred lives and at last gained a human body with feet still like an ox's, yet realised arhatship; and again the bhikṣu Motouposhita, who was born among monkeys for five hundred lives and at last gained a human body and realised arhatship with the three clear knowledges and six supernormal powers, only he still liked to leap and jump, because of residual habit. These all attained the path; why is it said they are not equal to it? Answer: Although there are some who attain the path, they are few and not worth mentioning. Moreover, such people in former lives had deeply planted roots of goodness for nirvāṇa, and fell into the evil paths only because of some small error; once their sin was repaid and their roots of goodness had ripened, they attained the fruit of the path. What is spoken of here is not the śrāvaka path, but the sequence of former and later bodies of one who heads straight for unsurpassed awakening. It is like this: arising from a defiled mind, one cannot pass directly into the undefiled; in between there must be a wholesome defiled mind. Because the undefiled mind is precious, it is said that people who come out of the three evil paths are not equal to directly obtaining, in sequence, the mind of unsurpassed awakening. Gods, humans, and asuras are not like this.

The fetters of the lower three heavens are sharp and deep; the fetters of the upper two heavens are deep but not sharp; the fetters of the Tuṣita Heaven are neither deep nor sharp. Why is the Tuṣita Heaven alone spoken of? Because there a bodhisattva is always teaching the Dharma; from the other heavens some may come, but because they are rare they are not spoken of. Of the gods of the form realm, those who have attained the path no longer come down, and those who have not attained the path are attached to the taste of meditation and do not come down; because they relish that taste, their wisdom is dull, and so they are not spoken of. The asuras are the same as the lower two heavens and are not spoken of either.

Those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters come to be born here from before the seats of the Buddhas, and their faculties are keen and sharp. Why? Because they have removed the sins of immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, and have also met the Buddhas, who instructed them according to their minds—like a knife sharpened on a good stone; and furthermore, because they constantly hear and recite prajñāpāramitā and rightly keep it in mind, they become sharper still. These causes and conditions make the bodhisattva's mind sharp. Those who come from among humans are the Buddha's disciples here who have heard prajñā and accumulated merit, who give up the body and are born again here or in another country; although there is no Buddha in the world, they meet the Buddha's Dharma, hear and receive it, write it out, rightly keep it in mind, and according to their strength cultivate merit and wisdom. Although the faculties of such people are dull, they are still equal to receiving prajñā; it is only because they have not seen a present Buddha that their minds are dull. Those who come from the Buddha-lands of other quarters have sharp faculties, and when they cultivate prajñā they are swiftly in accord with it; because they are in accord they always meet the Buddhas; the causes and conditions of meeting the Buddhas are as said before.

Question: Again, in the Tuṣita Heaven, why is only the one bound to one more birth spoken of, and not those bound to two or three more births? Answer: The human body is the place where sinful deeds, fetters, and afflictions gather; only a great bodhisattva dwells in it without being stained or burdened by it; as when a goose enters the water, the water cannot wet it, so too the bodhisattva is not stained by any worldly dharma. The Buddha himself stated its causes and conditions: ‘He does not lose the six perfections, and the dhāraṇī gates and samādhi gates swiftly appear before him.’ This bodhisattva ought to benefit beings in this world, while the other bodhisattvas are distributed through the ten directions; it is like this: when a person of great wisdom is already in one place, the other great wise ones go to other places; and so they are not spoken of. Again, some say that only the great one is mentioned, without being limited to the lesser. Again, some say that those who come to be born from the other heavens will be spoken of at length elsewhere. As for those who die among humans and are born among humans, they are not equal to the two places above; because in the human body the earth element is predominant, the body is heavy and the mind dull, and mind and the mental factors turn according to the strength or weakness of the body; and also because they are born through the causes and conditions of all kinds of deeds and fetters. Those who come from the two places, other quarters and the Tuṣita Heaven, are dharma-body bodhisattvas, who transform their bodies without measure to ferry beings across, and only so come to be born here; those who come from within the human path are all of fleshly body.

Question: Again, the avaivartika bodhisattva does not receive a body because of fetters and deeds; why is he still classed within the human path? Answer: He comes to be born here and attains avaivartika here, and has not yet given up the fleshly body; because his faculties are dull, the dhāraṇī and samādhi gates cannot appear before him swiftly, and therefore he also cannot swiftly be in accord with prajñā.

The Buddha Answers at Length about Later Lives: From One Buddha-land to Another Buddha-land, Never Apart from the Buddhas

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! As for what you asked, “when a bodhisattva in accord with prajñā dies from here, where will he be born”—such a bodhisattva goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, always meets the Buddhas, and is never apart from the Buddhas.

‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who, without skilful means, enters the first meditation and so on up to the fourth meditation, and also cultivates the six perfections; because this bodhisattva has attained meditative absorption, he is born in a long-life heaven, and when his lifespan there comes to its end he comes again to be born here, gains a human body, and meets the Buddhas, only his faculties are not sharp.

‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who enters the first meditation and so on up to the fourth meditation and also cultivates prajñā, yet, because he does not use skilful means, he gives up the meditations and is born in the desire realm; the faculties of this bodhisattva are also dull.

‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who enters the four meditations, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, and practises the ten powers and so on up to great kindness and great compassion; this bodhisattva, by the power of skilful means, is not born according to the meditations, not born according to the immeasurable minds, not born according to the four formless absorptions, but receives birth where there is a Buddha, and is never apart from the practice of prajñā. Such a bodhisattva will realise unsurpassed awakening in the Auspicious Kalpa.’

Why Later Lives Are Spoken of at Length: Is There or Is There Not Death and Birth?

Question: Śāriputra asked about former lives and later lives at the same time; why did the Buddha give only a threefold answer about former lives, but make extensive distinctions about later lives? Answer: People, with the fleshly eye, cannot see the past and the future, and so give rise to wrong doubt; although they doubt about both, the future world is where they will in the end receive recompense, and so distinctions are made about it at length. It is like this: a fire already extinguished need not be put out again, yet one must guard in many ways against a fire not yet arisen; and again, as in treating illness, an illness already cured need not be treated again, yet one must treat the illness about to break out.

Furthermore, the Buddha's eloquence is immeasurable and sovereign; though what Śāriputra asked was little, the Buddha expounded it at length. Just as when asked the one matter ‘in accord with prajñā’, the Buddha made all kinds of distinctions; it is like a poor man begging from a very rich person who loves to give—what he seeks is little, but what he is given is very much. The Buddha is also like this: complete in the wealth of immeasurable undefiled Buddha-dharmas, with great kindness and compassion he delights in giving; because Śāriputra asked briefly, he spoke at length for the great assembly.

Furthermore, in prajñā, by all kinds of causes, conditions, and similes, the dharma of emptiness is much spoken of. There are people who have newly aroused the mind who seize on the mark of emptiness and cling to this dharma of emptiness, and give rise to doubt regarding the causes and conditions of the deeds of birth and death: ‘If all dharmas are ultimately empty, without coming and without going, without leaving and without entering, how can there be birth again after death? Even the dharmas seen before our eyes should not exist—how much less receiving birth elsewhere after death, which cannot be seen!’ It is to cut off such wrong doubt and inversion that the Buddha, by all kinds of causes and conditions, speaks at length of there being death and there being birth.

Is There Truly Rebirth after Death?—The Treatise-Author Refutes the View of Annihilation

Question: There are no causes and conditions of death and birth at all. Why? Once a person dies he returns to extinction, and extinction is of three kinds: the first is being burned by fire into ash, the second is being eaten by worms into dung, the third is in the end returning to earth. Now we see only its extinction, and do not see some other thing coming out to receive a later body; because it cannot be seen, we know it does not exist!

Answer: If you say, ‘when the body is extinguished there is nothing’, then why do beings have the sorrow and joy, fear and dread practised in former lives? Just as a small child, as soon as it is born, either cries or laughs—this is because in a former life it was accustomed to sorrow and joy, and now, though no one teaches it, sorrow and joy continue of themselves. Again, just as a calf, as soon as it is born, knows to go toward its mother's milk, and pigs, sheep, and the like, not long after birth, know the coupling of female and male. Although sons and daughters are born of the same parents, yet in beauty and ugliness, wealth and poverty, intelligence and dullness, each is different; if there were no causes and conditions from former lives, there should not be such differences. By these causes and conditions it can be known that there truly are later lives.

You also say, ‘one does not see some other thing departing’: in the human body it is not only the eye faculty that can see; each of the six sense-faculties has what it knows—there are dharmas that can be heard, smelled, tasted, touched, and known; if even dharmas that can be heard cannot be seen, how much less dharmas that can be known! The dharma of there being birth and there being death is also something that can be seen and can be known; it is only that you, with the fleshly eye, cannot see it, while one with the divine eye sees it clearly. Just as one sees a person go out of one room and enter another room, so too is giving up this body and arriving at a later body. If the fleshly eye could see it, why seek the divine eye? If the fleshly eye could see it, then there would be no distinction between the divine eye and the fleshly eye, between the foolish person and the sage; since you take as your ground what is seen on a par with the animals, how could you see later lives?

As for the reasoning by which it can be known: when a person dies and is born, although there is no one thing that comes and goes, yet because the afflictions are not exhausted, body, sense-faculties, and mind continue and give rise again to body, sense-faculties, and mind; as for the deeds done by body, sense-faculties, and mind, it is also not that some one thing runs off to a later life, but from these causes and conditions one is born again and receives the recompense of a later life. It is like putting poison into milk: milk turns into curd, curd turns into butter; milk is not curd or butter, curd and butter are not milk, and although milk and curd change, all of them contain the poison. This body is also like this: the five aggregates of this life serve as causes and conditions and give rise again to the five aggregates of a later life; the continuity of constructions and deeds is not different, and so one receives recompense. Again, it is like a tree in winter: although it has no flowers, leaves, or fruit yet, once it meets its season they come forth in sequence. By such causes and conditions it is known that there truly are death and birth.

Furthermore, in the present world there are people able to know their past lives, just as a person who has travelled far, exhausted, falls asleep, and on waking remembers the road he has passed along. The inner and outer scriptures of all the sages also all say that there are later lives. Furthermore, when in the present world one does unwholesome dharmas and they stir too heavily, because anger, jealousy, doubt, and regret arise and trouble one within, the body then withers and the complexion is unhappy; if unwholesome evil dharmas do harm even like this, how much more when one actually produces deeds of body and deeds of speech! If one gives rise to wholesome dharmas and takes pure faith as the causal deed, the mind is pure and one obtains wisdom that accords with reality, the mind then becomes glad, the body light and supple, and the complexion harmonious and at ease. Since there are causes and conditions of suffering and pleasure, there is the wholesome and the unwholesome; since there truly is the wholesome and the unwholesome, it should be known that there must be later lives. It is only that beings do not see with the fleshly eye and their wisdom is thin and weak, and so they give rise to wrong doubt, and though they cultivate deeds of merit these too are shallow and thin. It is like a physician treating a king's illness: the king secretly had a mansion built for him, and the physician did not know it; only when he returned home and saw it did he regret not having done his utmost in treating the king.

Furthermore, what the sages say about present matters is true and trustworthy, and what they say about matters of later lives is all trustworthy too; just as when a person travels a dangerous road by night and a guide reaches out a hand to him, because he knows the guide is trustworthy he follows and goes along. By the wisdom of inference and by the words of the sages, it can be known that there truly are later lives. Since your fleshly eye is heavy with sin, your inferential wisdom is also thin, and you have no divine eye, and you are yourself without wisdom and also do not believe the words of the sages—how could you know later lives?

Ultimate Emptiness Does Not Rule Out Rebirth: The Samādhi of Recollecting the Buddha and the First Bodhisattva

Furthermore, in the Buddha's Dharma all dharmas are ultimately empty, yet they are not annihilated either; although birth and death continue, they are not permanent either; although the causes and conditions of deeds of immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas have passed away, they are still able to produce their recompense and are not extinguished—this is the subtle place that is hard to know. If all dharmas were entirely empty, then this chapter should not speak of rebirth—what wise person would contradict himself before and after? If the mark of death and birth really existed, then how could it be said that ‘all dharmas are ultimately empty’? In fact, ultimate emptiness is spoken of only to remove craving and clinging, wrong views, and inversions regarding dharmas; it is not spoken of in order to refute later lives. You doubt later lives because you lack the clarity of the divine eye, and so you wish to plunge yourself into sin and evil; it is to ward off these causes and conditions of sinful deeds that the Buddha speaks of all kinds of rebirth.

The Buddha's Dharma does not cling to existence, does not cling to non-existence, does not cling to both existence and non-existence, does not cling to neither existence nor non-existence, and does not cling even to ‘not clinging’; such a person then allows no one to find fault with him, just as when one hacks at empty space with a knife, in the end nothing is wounded. For beings he teaches the Dharma according to conditions, yet he himself clings to nothing. Therefore it is said in the Middle Treatise: all dharmas are real and also false; the reality of dharmas is itself false, yet they are neither real nor false; the limit of nirvāṇa is true and the limit of the world is also true; between nirvāṇa and the world there is no distinction, and even the finest difference between them is utterly not to be found. This is the mark of ultimate emptiness. Ultimate emptiness does not block the causes and conditions of the deeds of birth and death, and so it is said that there is rebirth.

Question: If prajñā is of one mark, that is to say, signless, how can there be ‘in accord with prajñā, going from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, always meeting the Buddhas’? Answer: Prajñā gathers in all dharmas, like the great ocean, which has nothing it does not contain; therefore one should not raise this as a difficulty. Furthermore, you yourself say that prajñā is of one mark and signless; if it is truly signless, how could any difficulty arise? You are seizing on a mark within the signless, and this is unreasonable. Furthermore, because of prajñā one cultivates the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha and other wholesome dharmas, and so one is born and meets the Buddhas. Furthermore, one who cultivates prajñā enters deeply into great compassion: just as a loving father, seeing his child die for the sake of something worthless, deeply pities him, because this child is dying only for a false and deceptive thing; the Buddhas are also like this—they know that all dharmas are ultimately empty and not to be found, yet beings do not know this and cling deeply within empty dharmas, and because of clinging fall into the great hells; therefore the Buddha enters deeply into great compassion. Through the causes and conditions of great kindness and compassion one obtains immeasurable merit, and because of immeasurable merit one is born and meets the Buddhas, going from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land. This bodhisattva dies here and is born there, dies there and again goes to be born elsewhere, and so on until he becomes a Buddha, never apart from the Buddhas—like a person with merit who goes from one great assembly to another great assembly. Or there are some who die here and are born there, and there, by the power of the five supernormal powers, go from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, making offerings to the Buddhas and ferrying beings across to liberation—this is the first kind of bodhisattva.

What is called ‘Buddha-land’ is three-thousand great-thousand worlds as many as the sands of the Ganges in the ten directions, which together are called one Buddha-field. Although the spiritual power of the Buddhas can pervade everywhere, sovereign and unobstructed, the beings they ferry across still have their limits. What is called ‘the Buddhas being present’ means that a Buddha is actually dwelling within his Buddha-land.

The second kind of bodhisattva, without skilful means, enters the first meditation and so on up to cultivating the six perfections. What is called ‘without skilful means’ is that when he enters the first meditation he is not mindful of beings, and when he abides in it and when he emerges from absorption he is not mindful of beings either; he is only attached to the taste of meditation, and cannot join the first meditation with prajñā and practise them together. This bodhisattva's mind of kindness and compassion is thin, and his merit is also thin and scant; because his merit is thin and scant, he is drawn by the recompense of the first meditation and is born in a long-life heaven. Furthermore, he cannot dedicate the merit of the first meditation, together with beings, to unsurpassed awakening. Such being-without-skilful-means has immeasurable further meanings. What is called ‘long-life heaven’ refers to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, whose lifespan is eighty thousand great kalpas. Some also say that all the formless absorptions are collectively named long-life heavens, because being without form they cannot be taught and are not equal to attaining the path, and they are always places of ordinary people; some also say that the heaven of non-perception is named long-life, likewise not equal to attaining the path; some also say that from the first meditation to the fourth meditation, except for the Pure Abodes, all are named long-life, because through relishing the taste and through wrong views they cannot receive the path. What is called ‘being born again among humans and meeting the Buddha’ is because he had already aroused the mind of unsurpassed awakening, or had gathered merit while in meditation. Why is this point stressed? Because there, attached to the taste of meditation, a wholesome mind is hard to produce. As is said in the sūtra: the Buddha asked the bhikṣus, ‘Is the soil on the fingernail more, or the soil on the ground more?’ The bhikṣus answered, ‘The soil of the ground is exceedingly more; there is nothing to compare it with.’ The Buddha then said that those who die in the heavens and are born again among humans are like the soil on the fingernail; those who fall into the hells are like the soil of the great earth.

Question: Again, the ‘dull faculties’ spoken of here—which of the twenty-two faculties is it? Answer: Some say it is the faculty of wisdom, which is able to contemplate dharmas, and which becomes dull through long attachment to the taste of meditation; some say it is the five faculties beginning with faith, which all help to accomplish the dharmas of the path, and which become dull through receiving recompense and relishing the taste; some say that the bodhisattva's eighteen faculties are all sharp because of pure merit and wisdom, and dull because of sin. The six faculties beginning with the eye are as said in the Lotus Sūtra. When the life faculty is not troubled by old age, sickness, poverty, or want, and one is at ease and receives pleasure, the life faculty is sharp. When the five faculties beginning with joy and pleasure are clearly aware, they are sharp; again, when receiving pleasure, one is able to know that pleasure has faults such as impermanence and does not give rise to greed and desire, and so it is sharp; the other feelings are also like this. The faculty of faith is firm, deep, and solid, able to believe what is hard to believe, and so it is sharp; the others too should be distinguished according to their marks in this way. The male faculty is pure, obtaining the mark of the sheathed organ, not attached to smooth and fine touch, and knowing desire to be a fault—this is sharp. Furthermore, because the three wholesome faculties are sharp, it is called sharp; the bodhisattva sometimes, in the three undefiled faculties, does not realise the limit of reality, and thereby shows their sharpness. What runs contrary to sharpness is dull.

Question: Again, since the third kind of bodhisattva is able to give up meditation, why is it said ‘without skilful means’? Answer: This bodhisattva, at the time of death, enters an unwholesome mind and gives up the skilful means of the meditative absorptions; or he enters a wholesome mind or an indeterminate mind bound to the desire realm and gives up the meditations, enters a mind of kindness and compassion and pities beings, thinking, ‘If I am born according to meditative absorption, I will not be able to benefit beings widely.’ Those born in the desire realm have ten places: the humans of the four continents and the six desire heavens; the three evil paths are where the bodhisattva is not born. The meaning of his dull faculties is as said for the second kind of bodhisattva.

The fourth kind of bodhisattva enters the stage, obtains the bodhisattva path, cultivates the thirty-seven limbs of the path, and is able to abide in the eighteen emptinesses and so on up to great kindness and great compassion; only this is named skilful means. The two kinds of bodhisattva above have only meditative absorption and practise the six perfections directly, and so they are without skilful means. The fourth kind of bodhisattva, by the power of skilful means, is not born according to meditative absorption or the immeasurable minds; because he cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to great kindness and great compassion, at the time of death he pities beings and vows to be born in the Buddha-lands of present Buddhas in other quarters and to continue to be in accord with prajñā—because he loves and delights in following prajñā.

Question: What kind of bodhisattva is this? Answer: The Buddha himself says he is a bodhisattva of the Bhadra kalpa; there are also those not of the Bhadra kalpa, but here only the great ones are taken. Question: Again, what is called bhadra? What is called kalpa? Answer: As the sūtra says, a bhikṣu asked the Buddha, ‘How long is it that is called one kalpa?’ The Buddha said, ‘Although I can tell it, you cannot know it; it can be understood by means of similes’: there is a city a hundred yojanas square and round, filled full with mustard seeds; a long-lived person takes away one seed every hundred years; the mustard seeds are taken away completely, yet the kalpa is still not exhausted. Again, there is a rock a hundred yojanas square and round, and a person every hundred years brushes it once with soft Kāśi folded cloth; the rock is worn away completely, yet the kalpa is still not exhausted. Of time, the shortest is one thought-moment among sixty thought-moments; the longest is named a kalpa. Kalpas are of two kinds: the first is the great kalpa, the second is the small kalpa.

The great kalpa is as in the similes above. When the kalpa is about to end, the minds of beings of themselves delight in distant separation; because they delight in separation, they remove the five hindrances and enter the first meditation, obtaining the joy and pleasure born of separation; on rising from absorption they call out in a loud voice: ‘Beings! Most to be loathed are the five desires; most secure is the first meditation.’ Beings, hearing the call, all of themselves in mind separate from the five desires and enter the first meditation; again of themselves they extinguish initial and sustained thought and enter the second meditation, and call out likewise; leaving the second meditation and the third meditation is likewise. Beings of the three evil paths of themselves obtain a wholesome mind, and at death are all born among humans; those with heavy sins are born in the hells of other quarters, as said in the Chapter on Niraya. At this time not a single being remains in the three-thousand great-thousand world; then two suns come out, and so on up to seven suns come out, and the great earth is entirely burned up, as the marks of the arising and perishing of the kalpa are spoken of at length in the section on the Eighteen Emptinesses. Again, some say that because three of the four great elements are active, there are three kinds of kalpa: either the fire kalpa arises, burning the great-thousand world up to the four places of the first meditation; or the water kalpa arises, sweeping away and destroying the great-thousand world up to the eight places of the second meditation; or the wind kalpa arises, blowing away and destroying the great-thousand world up to the twelve abodes of the third meditation. This is named the great kalpa.

Small kalpas are also of three kinds: because the outer three great elements break out, the world is destroyed; because the inner three poisons break out, beings are destroyed—namely famine, weapons, and pestilence. Again, some say that seasons and counts of years are named the small kalpa. As is said in the Lotus Sūtra: when Śāriputra becomes a Buddha, the true Dharma will abide in the world for twenty small kalpas, and the semblance Dharma will abide in the world for twenty small kalpas; the Buddha rose from samādhi and for sixty small kalpas spoke the Lotus Sūtra; many small kalpas together are named a great kalpa. ‘Kalpa’ is rendered in the language of Qin as ‘distinguishing the seasons’; ‘bhadra’ is rendered in the language of Qin as ‘good’. For thousands of myriads of kalpas that passed, they were empty and without a Buddha, but in this one kalpa a thousand Buddhas arise in the world, and the gods of the Pure Abodes rejoice; therefore it is named the Good Kalpa. How do the gods of the Pure Abodes know that in this kalpa there will be a thousand Buddhas? After the previous kalpa is exhausted, all is vast and empty; later there is a great water, and from the bottom of the water there well up a thousand shining lotus flowers of the seven jewels, which are the sign of the thousand Buddhas; from this the gods of the Pure Abodes come to know it. Therefore it is said, ‘this bodhisattva will realise unsurpassed awakening in this kalpa’.

By Skilful Means Not Born According to Meditation, He Is Born Again in Great Kṣatriya Clans to Bring Beings to Maturity

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who enters the four meditations, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, and by the power of skilful means is not born according to the meditations, but is born again in the desire realm—born perhaps into a great kṣatriya clan, a great brahmin clan, or a great householder family—in order to bring beings to maturity.’

Born by Deeds and the Dharma-Nature Body: Two Kinds of Bodhisattva

Question: There are two kinds of bodhisattva: the first receives birth according to deeds; the second obtains the dharma-nature body and, to ferry beings across, is born in the three realms in all kinds of transformation bodies, complete with the Buddha's merits, and ferries beings across to liberation. Which kind is spoken of here? Answer: This is a body born of the causes and conditions of deeds. Why? Because only by relying on the power of skilful means in entering the meditations is one able not to be born according to the meditations; the dharma-body bodhisattva transforms sovereignly and has little need of skilful means. The meaning of the skilful means of entering meditation has already been spoken of above.

Question: Again, since he does not follow meditative absorption, why is he born in the desire realm and not in the pure worlds of other quarters? Answer: What the bodhisattvas practise is not the same for each. Some bodhisattvas, in meditation, turn the mind and are born in the Buddha-lands of other quarters; the bodhisattva turning his mind to be born in the desire realm is also like this. Question: Again, being born in a Buddha-land of another quarter—does that count as the desire realm or not the desire realm? Answer: A Buddha-land of another quarter that is mixed, evil, and impure is named the desire realm; if it is pure, then there are no three evil paths and no three poisons, and not even the name of the three poisons or the name of the two vehicles, and there are no women either. There everyone has the thirty-two marks, and immeasurable light constantly illumines the world; in the space of a single thought-moment they can make immeasurable bodies, go to immeasurable worlds as many as the sands of the Ganges, ferry across immeasurable asaṃkhyeya beings, and return again to their own place. Because such a world is on the ground, it is not named the form realm; because it is without desire, it is not named the desire realm; because it has shape and form, it is not named the formless realm. The great bodhisattvas, through the causes and conditions of the deeds of pure merit, obtain separately a pure world that goes beyond the three realms; there are also those who, with great kindness and great compassion, pity beings and are born in this desire realm.

Question: Again, since at the time of death he gives up meditative absorption, why did he at first cultivate and train in meditative absorption? Answer: The mind of the desire realm is wild, scattered, and unassured; it is to make the mind supple and gather it in that one enters meditation; at the time of death, it is to ferry beings across that one gives rise to the mind of the desire realm. Question: Again, if he is born among humans, why is he born precisely into great families such as the kṣatriya and not elsewhere? Answer: Being born a kṣatriya is for the sake of having power, being born into a brahmin family is for the sake of having wisdom, being born into a householder family is for the sake of great wealth—all these can benefit beings; if one is born poor and destitute, one cannot even benefit oneself, so how could one benefit others? As for being born in the heavens of the desire realm, that is spoken of next.

Born in the Six Heavens of the Desire Realm, Bringing Beings to Maturity and Always Meeting the Buddhas

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! Again, there is a bodhisattva who enters the four meditations, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, and by the power of skilful means is not born according to the meditations; he is born perhaps in the heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the Yāma Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Heaven of Delight in Transformation, or the Heaven Sovereign over Others' Transformations. There he brings beings to maturity, also purifies the Buddha-world, and always meets the Buddhas.’

The treatise-author says: This meaning is the same as above, only being born in the heavens is different. Question: The gods of the desire realm are attached to the five desires and hard to transform and ferry across; why is the bodhisattva born there and not among humans? Answer: Although the clinging mind of the gods is great, the bodhisattva's power of skilful means is also great. As it is said, in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three there is the Xufumo tree grove, where the noble gods among the gods, having wearied of and given up the five desires, stay and teach the gods; in the Tuṣita Heaven there is always the bodhisattva bound to one more birth, and the bodhisattvas are always able to hear the Dharma; the Secret-Traces Vajra strongman is also in the heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings. In this way the gods are taught.

Entering the First Meditation, He Is Born in the Brahmā Heaven as the Great Brahmā King and Requests the Turning of the Dharma Wheel

The Buddha said: ‘Furthermore, Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who cultivates prajñā and by the power of skilful means enters the first meditation; dying here, he is born in the Brahmā heaven and becomes the Great Brahmā King; from the Brahmā heaven he travels from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, and wherever there are Buddhas who have attained unsurpassed awakening but have not yet turned the Dharma wheel, he requests them to turn the Dharma wheel.’

Question: Since he is born according to the first meditation, what skilful means is there still? Answer: Although he is born in the Brahmā heaven, he is not attached to the taste of meditation; he is mindful of the Buddha path, remembers his original vow, enters the mind of kindness, cultivates the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, and at all times joins these with meditation; therefore it is named skilful means. Question: Again, why must he be the Brahmā king? Answer: The causes and conditions of the merit the bodhisattva has gathered are great, and life after life he is always the lord of beings; even when born among deer he becomes the deer king. Furthermore, this bodhisattva's original vow is to request the Buddhas to turn the Dharma wheel, and he should not be a god who is scattered and idle. Sometimes this three-thousand great-thousand world has no Buddha, and so he goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, seeking one who has just become a Buddha and has not yet turned the Dharma wheel; because the rule of the Brahmā king is that he should always request the Buddhas to turn the Dharma wheel.

The Bodhisattva Bound to Three More Births: Why He Still Cultivates the Practices, and the Harsh Words before Kāśyapa Buddha

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva bound to three more births who cultivates prajñā and by the power of skilful means enters the four meditations, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, enters the samādhi of emptiness, signlessness, and non-action, is not born according to the meditations, and is born where there is a Buddha and cultivates the pure life. If he is born in the Tuṣita Heaven, when his lifespan there comes to its end, complete in roots of goodness and not losing right mindfulness, surrounded and revered by countless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of gods, he comes to be born here and realises unsurpassed awakening.’

Question: This bodhisattva of three more births already dwells on the tenth abiding-ground and is complete in all merits; why does he still cultivate and practise the practices? Answer: Because the mind has not yet entered nirvāṇa, there must be something it practises, namely the four meditations and so on up to the three samādhi. Furthermore, this bodhisattva, among gods and humans, displays the ways of an ordinary person, cultivating practice and seeking the path. Furthermore, although he is on the tenth abiding-ground, he still has the habit-energies of the afflictions, and there are still dharmas he does not know, and so he cultivates the path. Furthermore, although he practises deep practices and cultivates the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the three gates of liberation, he has not yet taken realisation, and now, in order to realise, he cultivates the practices further. Furthermore, although he is a great bodhisattva, before the Buddha he is still small; it is like a great mass of fire, which, though able to illumine things, cannot show itself in the light of the sun. As in the Sūtra of the Released Bowl, Maitreya Bodhisattva said to Mañjuśrī: ‘When I become a Buddha in my last body, even if there were Mañjuśrīs as many as the sands of the Ganges, they would not know the matter of my lifting a foot and setting a foot down!’ Therefore, although he is on the tenth abiding, he should still cultivate practice.

Question: Again, why does the bodhisattva of three more births not ferry beings across widely, but must be born before a Buddha? Answer: This bodhisattva has already ferried many across, and now, drawing near to becoming a Buddha, he ought to be before a Buddha; because it is not only by ferrying beings across that one can become a Buddha—the deep dharmas of the Buddhas also ought to be heard. Question: Again, if it is in order to inquire of the Buddha about matters that he is before the Buddha, then when Śākyamuni Buddha was a bodhisattva, why did he revile and abuse Kāśyapa Buddha with harsh words before Kāśyapa Buddha? Answer: This matter has already been spoken of above: the dharma-body bodhisattva ferries beings across with all kinds of transformation bodies; at times he displays and practises the ways of an ordinary person, having hunger and thirst, cold and heat, old age and sickness, hatred and love, anger and joy, praise and scolding, and so on—apart from the grave sins, he practises all the rest.

This Śākyamuni Bodhisattva was at that time the younger brother of Kāśyapa Buddha, named Uttara. The elder brother's wisdom was mature, and he did not like to talk much; the younger brother's wisdom was not yet complete, yet he liked debate, and people at the time thought the younger brother superior. The elder brother later left home and attained the Buddha path, and his title was Kāśyapa; the younger brother became the Qiliji teacher to the king of Jambudvīpa, had five hundred disciples, and taught the brahmins with the books of the brahmins, and these brahmins did not like the Buddha's Dharma. At that time there was a potter named Nandipāla, a five-precept disciple of Kāśyapa Buddha who had already attained the three paths, and who was a good friend of the king's teacher Uttara, because his mind was good and had pure faith. At that time Uttara was riding a golden chariot drawn by four white horses, going out of the city gate with his disciples; Nandipāla met him on the road; Uttara asked, ‘Where have you come from?’ He answered, ‘Your elder brother has already attained unsurpassed awakening; I am returning from making offerings to him; you can come along with me to see the Buddha, and so I have come to meet you.’ Uttara thought: ‘If I go straight to where the Buddha is, my disciples will surely become suspicious and wonder—you were always the winner in debate and wisdom, and now you go to make offerings; could it be out of love for your kin?—and so they will surely not follow me.’ Fearing only that he would cut off his disciples' causes and conditions for seeing the Buddha, he abided in the wisdom of the real mark of all dharmas, entered the wisdom of unsurpassed skilful means, and, to ferry his disciples across, uttered harsh words: ‘This bald-headed man—how could he attain the path of awakening!’ Nandipāla, this good friend, put on a show of anger, seized him by the hair, and pulled him, saying: ‘Will you still not stop?’ Uttara said to his disciples: ‘Things being so, I cannot stop now!’ Then teacher and disciples went together to the Buddha; as soon as they saw the Buddha's radiant marks, their minds became pure, and they went forward, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and sat down to one side. The Buddha taught the Dharma according to their intent; Uttara obtained immeasurable dhāraṇī gates, and all the samādhi gates opened, and the five hundred disciples also aroused the mind of unsurpassed awakening. Uttara rose from his seat and asked the Buddha to let him leave home and become a bhikṣu; the Buddha said ‘Welcome!’, and he at once became a śramaṇa. It can be seen that these harsh words appeared for the sake of skilful means, and that there was in fact no evil intent. Empty space could still be broken, water could be made fire, and fire could be made water, but the bodhisattva of three more births cannot give rise to anger even toward ordinary people, how much less toward the Buddha!

Question: Again, if this is so, why did the Buddha undergo the recompense of the eighth sin and six years of ascetic practice? Answer: The Dharma of the small vehicle and the Dharma of the Great Vehicle are not the same; if they were not different, there should not be the distinction of great and small. In the Dharma of the small vehicle, the secret, profound, deep dharma of the dharma-body bodhisattva and the immeasurable, inconceivable spiritual powers are not spoken of; mostly spoken of is the dharma of cutting off the fetters and taking nirvāṇa directly. Furthermore, if the Buddha did not undergo this recompense of the eighth sin, then those long-lived gods, spirits, immortals, dragons, and ghosts, seeing that there was this evil deed and yet no recompense was undergone, would think that there are no causes and conditions of the recompense of deeds; therefore, although the Buddha presently has no evil deed, he displays the undergoing of recompense. There are also causes and conditions in the present life: those of the outside paths believe in and cling to ascetic practice, and if the Buddha did not practise asceticism for six years, people would not believe, saying, ‘This prince is used to enjoyment and cannot practise asceticism’; therefore the Buddha practised asceticism for six years. The ascetics of the outside paths practise for three months, half a year, or a year, but no one is able for six years to eat only one sesame seed and one grain of rice each day; those of the outside paths took this as the extreme of ascetic practice, and if such a person says there is no path, then there truly is no path; and so they believed and accepted and entered the right path. For these two kinds of causes and conditions he practised asceticism for six years; it was not really the recompense of a sin. Why? The Buddhas have cut off everything unwholesome and accomplished everything wholesome; if the Buddha really underwent the recompense of a sin, then it could not be said that he has accomplished everything wholesome and cut off everything unwholesome.

Furthermore, in the Dharma of the small vehicle, the Buddha, for beings of small capacity of mind, says that even a bodhisattva of two more births reviled the Buddha with harsh words; but the bodhisattva of two more births does not even scold a small child—how could he really revile the Buddha? This is all skilful means for the sake of beings. How is it known? This Śākyamuni Buddha, at the time of Vipaśyin Buddha, was a great brahmin; seeing the Buddha and the community of monks eating gruel because of illness, he uttered the words, ‘People of this kind ought to eat horse-barley’; because of this sin he fell into the Black Rope and other hells, and after undergoing suffering for immeasurable lives, the causes and conditions of the remaining sin made him, though he had attained the Buddha path, still eat horse-barley for three months. It is further said in the Dharma of the śrāvakas: the Buddha, passing through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, was always a man, always born in noble places, never lacked any of his faculties, always knew his past lives, and never fell into the three evil paths. From Vipaśyin Buddha until now it has been ninety-one kalpas; by your own Dharma, in ninety kalpas he should not have fallen into the evil paths at all, how much less in the last kalpa! Therefore it can be known that this is not a real event, but a teaching by skilful means.

Question: Again, the Buddha's two sins are spoken of in the Vinaya and the Miscellaneous Canon, and can be believed and accepted; but the statement that ‘after the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, for a hundred kalpas he does not fall into the evil paths’—if from the first asaṃkhyeya he should not fall into the evil paths, why is only a hundred kalpas spoken of? The Buddha did not say this; it is only the saying of the debating masters of the Abhidharma Vibhāṣā! Answer: The Abhidharma is spoken by the Buddha; it is you śrāvakas who, following the Abhidharma, debated, and only this is named Vibhāṣā; there should be no error in it. Again, just as Bakula, by giving only one harītakī fruit to the Saṅgha, did not fall into the evil paths for ninety-one kalpas—how much less would the bodhisattva, who for immeasurable lives has given his own body in giving and cultivated all merits, fall into hell because of a small sin? In such a matter the Vibhāṣā should not be in error; so it is that the people of the small vehicle do not know the bodhisattva's skilful means. Furthermore, even granting what you say, that the Vibhāṣā is not in error: the Buddha himself tells of the bodhisattva's origins—when the bodhisattva was first born he walked seven steps and said with his own mouth, ‘The reason I am born is to ferry beings across’, and having said this he fell silent; for three years he was nursed, neither walking nor speaking, and only as he grew did he walk and speak as usual. All infants when young cannot walk or speak, and only as they grow do they come to have the ways of human beings; now how could the bodhisattva be able to walk and speak when first born, yet afterwards be unable? It can be known that this is because of the power of skilful means. If one accepts this skilful means, all the Buddha's words can be reconciled; if one does not accept it, they become one real and one false. By all kinds of causes and conditions such as these, it can be known that the harsh words were displayed to ferry beings across.

Question: Again, why is the bodhisattva of three more births born only in the Tuṣita Heaven and not elsewhere? Answer: If he came from a world of another quarter, those long-lived gods, dragons, ghosts, and spirits would seek where he came from and be unable to know, and would give rise to a doubting mind, thinking him an illusory conjuration. If he died among humans and was born among humans and then became a Buddha, humans would give rise to contempt and the gods would not believe either; by right it should be gods who come to transform humans, not humans who come to transform gods; therefore he comes to be born from the heavens—from a god he becomes a human, and humans then revere and believe him. In the formless realm there is no shape, and one cannot teach the Dharma, so he is not born there; in the form realm, although there is a form body with which one could teach the Dharma, the gods are deeply attached to the taste of meditation and cannot greatly benefit beings, so he is not born there either. In the lower three desire heavens the fetters are deep and thick, and the coarse mind is confused and disordered; in the upper two heavens the fetters are thick and the mind soft and not sharp; in the Tuṣita Heaven the fetters are thin and the mind soft and sharp, and it is always the dwelling-place of bodhisattvas. It is like a crown prince about to ascend the throne, who first keeps a fast of purification for seven days in a quiet chamber and then ascends the hall and receives the throne; the bodhisattva who is to succeed to Buddhahood is also like this: the Tuṣita Heaven is like the place of fasting; there, for the last time, he enjoys heavenly pleasure; when his life ends he comes down and, for the last time, enjoys human pleasure, and then attains right awakening. Immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of gods surround him as he comes to be born here; because the bodhisattva in the past, in beginningless birth and death, went back and forth between the heavens and the human world, and this is now his last heavenly body and he will not again come to be born in the heavens, the gods all come to attend and see him off. When the bodhisattva's life there is exhausted he comes down and becomes a Buddha; among the gods, whether their life is exhausted or not, all make vows to be born below as the bodhisattva's patrons. Furthermore, the gods come down to guard the bodhisattva constantly, for fear that a koṭi of Māra-enemies might come to trouble and disturb the bodhisattva. This bodhisattva, born among humans, wearies of old age, sickness, and death and leaves home, and attains unsurpassed awakening, as said in the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva's Origins.

The Bodhisattva with the Six Supernormal Powers: Birth-Body and Dharma-Body, Sporting in the Supernormal Powers

The Buddha said: ‘Furthermore, Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who attains the six supernormal powers and is not born in the desire realm, the form realm, or the formless realm, but goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, making offerings to, revering, honouring, and praising the Buddhas. Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who sports in the supernormal powers and goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, and wherever he arrives there is no vehicle of the śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas, and not even the name of the two vehicles. Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who sports in the supernormal powers, and wherever he arrives the lifespan is immeasurable. Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who sports in the supernormal powers, and wherever he arrives, if there is a place without Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, he praises the merits of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha; because beings get to hear the name of the Buddha, the name of the Dharma, and the name of the Saṅgha, when they die there they are born before the Buddhas.’

The treatise-author explains: There are two kinds of bodhisattva: the first is the birth-body bodhisattva, the second is the dharma-body bodhisattva; one kind cuts off the fetters, the other kind does not cut off the fetters. The dharma-body bodhisattva cuts off the fetters and attains the six supernormal powers; the birth-body bodhisattva does not cut off the fetters, or, through separation from desire, attains the five supernormal powers. What is called ‘attaining the six supernormal powers’ is not being born in the three realms, travelling through the worlds, and making offerings to the Buddhas of the ten directions. What is called ‘sporting in the supernormal powers’ is going to the worlds of the ten directions to ferry beings across, raining down the seven jewels, and in the worlds he reaches, all are of the one vehicle and pure, with lifespans of immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Question: The bodhisattva ought to ferry beings across; why does he go only into the pure worlds of Buddhas of immeasurable life? Answer: There are two kinds of bodhisattva: one kind has a mind of kindness and compassion and acts mostly for beings; one kind mostly gathers the merits of the Buddhas. Those who delight in gathering much of the Buddhas' merits go to the worlds of the one vehicle, pure and of immeasurable life; those who love to act for beings go to places without Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha and make the sound praising the Three Jewels, as a later section says.

From the First Arousing of the Mind He Attains the Four Meditations and Four Immeasurables and Is Always Born Where He Benefits Beings

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who, at the first arousing of the mind, at once attains the four meditations, the four immeasurable minds, and the four formless absorptions, and cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; this bodhisattva is not born in the three realms, but is always born where there is benefit for beings.’

The treatise-author explains: This bodhisattva is born perhaps in a world without a Buddha, perhaps in a world with a Buddha. A world that is impure has the three evil paths, poverty, and baseness; or he is born in a pure world. If he goes to a world without a Buddha, he benefits beings with the ten wholesome paths of action, the four meditations, and so on up to the four formless absorptions, causes people to believe in and turn toward the Three Jewels, proclaims the five precepts and the precepts of leaving home, and enables them to obtain the merits of meditative absorption and wisdom. Impure worlds are of two kinds: those with a present Buddha, and those after the Buddha's passing into extinction. After the Buddha's passing into extinction, whether leaving home or staying at home, he benefits beings in all kinds of ways with the giving of wealth and the giving of Dharma; if the Buddha is in the world, he makes all kinds of causes and conditions to lead beings to where the Buddha is. In pure worlds, beings whose merits are not yet complete he causes to be fulfilled; this is ‘benefiting beings in the places where he is born’.

Three Kinds of Bodhisattva of the First Arousing of the Mind: Three Similes, and the Original Vow of the Bhikṣu Dharma Treasury

The Buddha said: ‘Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who, at the first arousing of the mind, at once practises the six perfections, ascends to the bodhisattva stage, and attains the ground of avaivartika. Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who, at the first arousing of the mind, at once attains unsurpassed awakening and turns the Dharma wheel, and after bringing great benefit to immeasurable beings enters nirvāṇa without remainder; after this Buddha's parinirvāṇa, his remaining Dharma abides either for one kalpa or for less than one kalpa. Śāriputra! There is a bodhisattva who, at the first arousing of the mind, is at once in accord with prajñā, and with countless hundreds of thousands of koṭi of bodhisattvas goes from one Buddha-land to another Buddha-land, in order to purify the Buddha-worlds.’

The treatise-author explains: There are three kinds of bodhisattva, of sharp faculties and firm mind, who before arousing the mind had long since gathered immeasurable merit and wisdom; such people meet a Buddha and hear the Dharma of the Great Vehicle, arouse the mind of unsurpassed awakening, at once practise the six perfections, enter the bodhisattva stage, and attain the ground of avaivartika. Why? Because they first gathered immeasurable merit, are of sharp faculties and firm mind, and also heard the Dharma from the Buddha. It is like travelling far: some go riding a sheep, some riding a horse, some go by supernormal power; the one riding the sheep arrives only after a long, long time, the one riding the horse somewhat faster, the one riding supernormal power arrives in the moment of a single thought. Since it is the mark of supernormal power, one should not doubt, ‘how can one arrive in the space of a thought?’ The bodhisattva is also like this: when he arouses the mind of unsurpassed awakening he at once enters the bodhisattva stage.

Some bodhisattvas, at the first arousing of the mind, though their mind is good, later mix it with all kinds of evil, and from time to time give rise to the thought, ‘I seek the Buddha path, and dedicate all merits to unsurpassed awakening’; such people, over a long, long time, passing through immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, may arrive or may not arrive—because the causes and conditions of merit from former lives are thin, and moreover their faculties are dull and their minds not firm, like the one riding the sheep. Some people in former lives had a little merit and sharp faculties; after arousing the mind they gradually practise the six perfections, and passing through three, ten, or a hundred asaṃkhyeya kalpas they attain unsurpassed awakening, like the one riding the horse, who is sure to arrive. The third kind, riding supernormal power, is as said above. These three kinds of arousing the mind: the first has much sin and little merit, the second has much merit and little sin, the third practises only pure merit. The pure is further of two kinds: the first attains the bodhisattva path at the first arousing of the mind; the second stays for a while, makes offerings to the Buddhas of the ten directions, penetrates the bodhisattva path, and enters the bodhisattva stage, which is the ground of avaivartika. The meaning of ‘bodhisattva of the ground of avaivartika’ is as said before.

The next bodhisattva greatly wearies of the world; life after life he has always loved the true and loathed deceit; this bodhisattva too is of sharp faculties and firm mind and has long gathered immeasurable merit and wisdom; at the first arousing of the mind he at once attains unsurpassed awakening, at once turns the Dharma wheel, ferries immeasurable beings across, and enters nirvāṇa without remainder; his Dharma abides either for one kalpa or for less than one kalpa, and he leaves behind a transformation Buddha to ferry beings across. The Buddha has two kinds of supernormal power: the first at the present time, the second after his extinction. The meaning of ‘kalpa’ is as said above; the beings ferried across within one kalpa are also not few.

The next bodhisattva after that is also of sharp faculties and firm mind and has long gathered merit; on arousing the mind he is at once in accord with prajñā and attains the six supernormal powers, and together with immeasurable beings contemplates the pure worlds of the ten directions and adorns his own land. Just as when Amitābha Buddha, in a former life, was the bhikṣu Dharma Treasury, the Buddha led him everywhere through the ten directions and showed him the pure lands, enabling him to choose the pure and wondrous lands with which to adorn his own land.