大智度論 隨喜迴向品之上Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Rejoicing and Dedication, Part 1 of 2

Rejoicing and Dedication, First Part: The Merit of Rejoicing, Dedicated, Is Supreme and Foremost; Grasping at Marks, It Cannot Be Found as It Is Thought Of; How One Who Has Newly Aroused the Mind Rightly Dedicates

What Is Being Asked

This unit opens by changing the one who speaks the Dharma. In the preceding several chapters it was Śakra going back and forth with the Buddha and with Subhūti; as soon as this chapter opens, it is the bodhisattva Maitreya who sets out a thesis to Subhūti: the bodhisattva’s merit of rejoicing, shared with all beings, dedicated to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, unsurpassed, right, and complete awakening, with nothing to be attained—its merit is 「最上、第一、最妙、無上、無與等」 tr. "supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal"—surpassing the giving, the keeping of morality, the cultivation of concentration, and the rejoicing of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and all beings. The treatise-author points out the intent of this change of scene: in the earlier seven chapters the Buddha commanded Subhūti to speak on prajñā, and in between Śakra asked much about matters of merit; now Maitreya, in accord with the Buddha’s original intent, wishes to have Subhūti 「因隨喜法廣說般若」 tr. "speak broadly on prajñā by way of the dharma of rejoicing". So although on its face the chapter’s title is ‘rejoicing and dedication’, this gate of the practice of merit, in its bones what it asks about is still prajñā: what rejoicing thinks of is buddhas long since passed into extinction and roots of goodness long since ceased; the object thought of is 「無所有」 tr. "without anything existent"—then, thinking of it by grasping at marks and dedicating by grasping at marks, can it be as it is thought of? If not, does one not fall into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view? And if all is ultimate emptiness, then what is the object, what is the matter, what is dedication?

So the whole unit unfolds around a dilemma: not grasping at marks, there seems to be no way to rejoice and dedicate; grasping at marks, one cannot find it as it is thought of, and on the contrary falls into inversion. Maitreya and Subhūti, one asking and one answering, draw this dilemma tight, and then it is untied along two roads—‘those who have long practised the six perfections are able to dedicate without grasping at marks’ and ‘those who have newly aroused the mind, through the two causes and conditions of sharp faculties and the good friend, are also fit for right dedication’; at the end it comes back to one pivotal sentence—the mind that thinks of the buddhas and of the roots of goodness is, thought after thought, exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed, enters together into the nature of dharmas, and is without discrimination: 「若能如是迴向，是為正迴向」 tr. "if one is able to dedicate in this way, this is right dedication". What the First Part establishes is exactly the skeleton of this ‘right dedication’.

Passage by Passage

1. Rejoicing and dedication set out as the thesis—its merit is supreme and foremost. Maitreya tells Subhūti: a bodhisattva-mahāsattva has the merit of rejoicing, 「與一切眾生共之」 tr. "shares it with all beings", dedicates it to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, 「以無所得故」 tr. "with nothing to be attained"; compared with the giving, the keeping of morality, the cultivation of concentration, and the rejoicing of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and all beings, its merit is supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal. This sentence is the general outline of the whole chapter: that rejoicing and dedication alone surpasses rests on three links, not one of which may be missing—rejoicing (the mind taking another’s goodness as its object), sharing with beings (not keeping the merit private), and nothing to be attained (not grasping at its marks). Everything in the chapter from here on is the unfolding and the testing of these three links.

2. The causes and conditions of its surpassing—their own taming, their own purification, their own deliverance, against arising for the deliverance of all beings. Why can rejoicing in the mind surpass diligent work of body and speech? The sūtra text itself states the causes and conditions: the two vehicles and beings cultivate goodness 「為自調、為自淨、為自度」 tr. "for their own taming, for their own purification, for their own deliverance", and what they cultivate is no more than the four foundations of mindfulness, and so on up to the eight limbs of the noble path, emptiness, signlessness, and non-action; the bodhisattva who rejoices and dedicates, holding this merit, 「為調一切眾生、為淨一切眾生、為度一切眾生故起」 tr. "arises for the taming of all beings, for the purification of all beings, for the deliverance of all beings". Victory and defeat lie not in how much or how little there is in the outward matter, but in how broad or narrow is the reach covered by the aroused mind: cultivated for one’s own person, the measure of merit is confined to that person; arising for all beings, the measure of merit is as broad as its object.

3. Subhūti’s broad question—all roots of goodness brought together and rejoiced in: can grasping at marks find it? Subhūti first spreads the object of rejoicing out to the widest: the buddhas who have passed into extinction in the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions, from the first arousing of the mind to attaining awakening, entering nirvāṇa without remainder, and on until the Dharma is exhausted—the roots of goodness in between, the roots of goodness corresponding to the six perfections, the roots of goodness of śrāvakas in training and beyond training, the five aggregates of the buddhas (morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation), omniscience, great kindness and great compassion, those who attain the path within the Dharma left behind, and the roots of goodness planted by other beings—all brought together, rejoiced in, and dedicated. Then one stitch draws it tight: one who practises the bodhisattva vehicle thinks, ‘I dedicate with this mind’; this is giving rise to a mind, having an object, having a matter—「若善男子取相迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，如所念可得不」 tr. "if a good man grasps at marks and dedicates to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, can it be found as it is thought of?" The wider the object, the sharper the question of grasping at marks.

4. Maitreya’s answer—grasping at marks, it cannot be found as it is thought of. Maitreya’s answer is a single sentence: the mind of dedication is what takes the object, taking the matter as its object; 「若善男子取相，不得如所念」 tr. "if a good man grasps at marks, he does not find it as it is thought of". This is the first ruling of this unit: it is not saying that rejoicing and dedication cannot be practised, but that if it is practised by way of grasping at marks, what is thought of and what is found will surely not correspond—the roots of goodness of the buddhas that are thought of are fundamentally not things with marks; thinking of them by grasping at marks, what one thinks of is already not they. This ruling adds no explanation and leaves no room, precisely in order to drive the problem on to what follows—if one does not grasp at marks, how then is one to dedicate? The whole chapter turns on this one sentence.

5. The difficulty of inversion and the five questions of ‘what’. Subhūti at once presses the difficulty to the bottom: if the objects and the matters are without anything existent and one still rejoices and dedicates by grasping at marks, is this not the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view—「無常謂常」 tr. "taking the impermanent as permanent", taking the impure as pure, suffering as pleasure, non-self as self? Conversely, if it is as the objects are and as the matters are (the objects and matters being fundamentally empty), then awakening too is so, the mind of dedication too is so, the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas too are so—then 「何等是緣？何等是事？」 tr. "what is the object? what is the matter?" What is awakening, what are the roots of goodness, what is the dedication of the mind of rejoicing? These five ‘what’s are the eye of the question for the whole chapter: both sides are blocked off—grasping at marks falls into inversion, while not grasping at marks, subject and object both vanish, and there seems to be no way to dedicate. All that follows answers this.

6. The reason for the change of scene—Maitreya accords with the Buddha’s original intent. The treatise-author first explains why Maitreya is brought in as the questioner: in the earlier seven chapters the Buddha commanded Subhūti to speak on prajñā, and in between Śakra asked much and spoke much about matters of merit; now Maitreya, 「順佛本意，還欲令須菩提因隨喜法廣說般若波羅蜜」 tr. "according with the Buddha’s original intent, wishes again to have Subhūti speak broadly on prajñāpāramitā by way of the dharma of rejoicing". This sentence settles the character of the whole chapter: rejoicing and dedication is the entrance, prajñā is the true topic; wherever merit is discussed below, it should all be brought back to prajñā. Remember this placement when reading the chapter, and one understands why what follows tests merit layer upon layer with ultimate emptiness, and does not feel it to be a branch growing off the main stem.

7. Checking Śakra’s sense of his own abundance. The treatise-author adds a further reason from human feeling: Śakra, hearing that offering flowers, incense, music, banners, and canopies to prajñā brings very much merit, rejoiced deeply at his own good fortune that these things were ‘what only we are able to provide, not something renunciants possess’. Maitreya deliberately says to Subhūti that the bodhisattva, 「但以心隨喜」 tr. "only by rejoicing in the mind", surpasses the giving and the like of the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and all beings, and all the merits without outflows—「何況華香、供養經卷等」 tr. "how much more flowers, incense, offerings to the scroll of the sūtra, and the like". This checks his sense of his own abundance: however grand offerings of outer things may be, they do not reach a single thought of the rejoicing mind—moving the centre of weight of merit from material things back to the ground of the mind.

8. The meaning of the merit of rejoicing—humans and animals share three things. What is the merit of rejoicing? 「不勞身、口業作諸功德，但以心方便見他修福，隨而歡喜」 tr. "without toiling with the karma of body and speech to make merits, only by the skilful means of the mind, seeing others cultivate merit and rejoicing along with them", thinking that among all beings those able to cultivate merit and practise the path are the most excellent. The treatise-author also brings out, from the reverse side, the weight of merit: apart from merit, humans and animals practise the same three things—「婬欲、飲食、戰鬪」 tr. "lust, eating and drinking, and fighting". What makes humans differ from birds and beasts lies exactly in being able to cultivate merit and practise the path; the mind of rejoicing is precisely the cherishing of, and gladness at, this point by which humans are human. So the gate of rejoicing is set at the lowest place—it needs neither the power of wealth nor the power of the body, only a single thought of a mind that sees goodness and is glad.

9. The simile of the cool full moon and the simile of the great gathering. Those who cultivate merit are revered and loved by all beings, and the treatise-author uses two similes in succession: as in hot weather, 「清涼滿月，無不樂仰」 tr. "the cool full moon—there is no one who does not delight to look up to it"; as when a great gathering is announced, with music and fine food all fully provided, and people near and far all gladly come. Both similes take the meaning of ‘not summoned, yet people come of themselves’—the way merit moves people does not wait to be proclaimed; like the coolness of the moon and the abundance of the gathering, beings naturally delight to draw near. This is also exactly why rejoicing is easy to practise: the goodness of others is in itself something to be glad at; rejoicing along with it follows the naturalness of the human mind. Of the two similes one is still and one is moving: the moon simile shows the coolness of virtue that can be looked up to, the gathering simile the abundance of merit that can be gone to—both are the spontaneous longing of beings.

10. Two kinds of merit—with outflows and without outflows are both called merit. The treatise-author sorts out the boundary of merit: merit is the causes and conditions of two kinds of happiness, worldly and world-transcending. The world-transcending: 「諸無漏法，雖無福報，能生福德，故名福德」 tr. "dharmas without outflows, though they have no reward of merit, are able to produce merit, and so are called merit"—dharmas without outflows do not bring about results within the three realms; why are they named merit? Because they are able to produce merit. Therefore 「有漏、無漏，通名福德」 tr. "with outflows and without outflows are both called merit". This sorting leaves room for the earlier ‘rejoicing surpasses all the merits without outflows’: what rejoicing takes as its object is not limited to goodness with outflows; the merits without outflows of the buddhas are also among what is rejoiced in.

11. Merit is the root of the bodhisattva. The treatise-author praises it head-on: merit is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva’s 「根本，能滿所願」 tr. "root, able to fulfil what he vows", praised by all the noble ones; the kings of humans, the wheel-turning sage kings, the kings of the gods, arhats, pratyekabuddhas, the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, up to great kindness and great compassion, the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, omniscience of all kinds, and unobstructed sovereignty—「皆從福德中生」 tr. "all are born from merit". Of all the honoured and excellent positions and virtues, worldly and world-transcending, not one does not take merit as its foundation—so to rejoice in the merit of others is to rejoice in the causes of all the worthy and noble. This passage also says that merit is praised by the noble and disparaged by those without wisdom, which shows it to be exactly the watershed between the wise and the foolish.

12. Why the mind of rejoicing arises—the vow to give happiness and the feeling of companionship. Why is the bodhisattva glad on seeing others cultivate merit? The treatise-author gives two causes: first, the bodhisattva thinks to himself, ‘I ought to give happiness to all beings’; now, seeing beings able to practise merit by themselves, his vow is fulfilled, and so gladness arises in his mind; second, all beings who practise goodness are 「與我相似，是我同伴」 tr. "like me; they are my companions", and fellow travellers on the same path, seeing one another, rejoice. The former is the fulfilment of the mind of great compassion; the latter is the closeness of those who practise together—rejoicing is not the approval of an onlooker; it is one who vows seeing the vow fulfilled, one who practises seeing a fellow practitioner.

13. Shared with all beings—the result can be given; the cause is spoken of in the result. How is merit ‘shared with all beings’? The treatise-author states it directly: 「是福德不可得與一切眾生，而果報可與。」 tr. "This merit cannot be given to all beings, but its result can be given." The bodhisattva obtains the result of merit—clothing, food, and things of pleasure with which to benefit beings; a pure body and speech with which to teach the Dharma to beings; at the end becoming a Buddha and manifesting in the three things, with the major and minor marks and with light, to deliver immeasurable beings; after parinirvāṇa, the body broken into relics given to people for offerings so that they attain the path—this result can be given to all beings; 「以果中說因故」 tr. "because the cause is spoken of in the result", it is said that 「福德與眾生共」 tr. "merit is shared with beings". The substance of merit is bound to one’s own mind and cannot be transferred; what is called sharing is that the enjoyment of the result can be shared.

14. The substance of wholesome dharmas cannot be given to others. The treatise-author further proves it by reasoning: if merit could be given directly to others, 「諸佛從初發心所集福德盡可與人，然後更作」 tr. "the buddhas could give to people all the merit they have gathered since first arousing the mind, and then make more"—with the great compassion of the buddhas, how could there be something that could be given and yet is not given? It is evident that the substance of wholesome dharmas fundamentally cannot be given to others; what is given now is 「無畏、無惱」 tr. "fearlessness and freedom from vexation"—because of merit one neither encroaches upon nor vexes people, and beings are able to enjoy peace and security. This passage settles the words ‘shares it’, from an emotional sharing, into a strict matter, in cause and effect, of what can be given and what cannot. What can be given is given without stinting; what cannot be given is known as it truly is—the vow to share is not lessened by this, but made true by it.

15. The meaning of nothing to be attained, and three explanations of their own taming, purification, and deliverance. 「無所得故」 tr. "Because of nothing to be attained"—the meaning is as explained before: rejoicing and dedication must take nothing to be attained as its seal, and this is the thread running through the chapter. Why the merit of rejoicing is the most excellent among the three kinds of merit—the cause of its surpassing is that the two vehicles 「皆為自調、自淨、自度」 tr. "all act for their own taming, their own purification, their own deliverance": keeping morality is their own taming, cultivating dhyāna is their own purification, wisdom is their own deliverance; again, it is matched with the eight limbs of the noble path—their own taming is right speech, right action, and right livelihood; their own purification is right mindfulness and right concentration; their own deliverance is right view, right thought, and right effort; again, because of giving, their own taming; because of keeping morality, their own purification; because of cultivating concentration, their own deliverance. The three layers of matching all make clear that the goodness of the two vehicles does not go beyond benefiting one’s own person, while the bodhisattva rejoices for all beings, and so it surpasses.

16. Question and answer one—since in fact not all beings are delivered, why say it surpasses? The questioner objects: in fact not all beings have been delivered; why say ‘it surpasses because it is for the deliverance of all beings’? The answer: 「諸佛菩薩功德力能度一切眾生，但以眾生無和合因緣故」 tr. "the power of the merits of the buddhas and bodhisattvas is able to deliver all beings; it is only because beings lack the coming together of causes and conditions"—as a great fire always has the power to burn, 「薪不近，故不得燒，近則能燒」 tr. "the firewood is not near, so it cannot burn it; when it is near, it can burn it". The surpassing lies in the power to deliver extending to all, not in the number already delivered; that beings are not delivered is that the occasion has not come together, not that the power leaves anything out. Taking fire as a simile for the power: the power is always present, and burning waits on the firewood; the vow-power to deliver beings is likewise always present, and deliverance waits on the conditions.

17. The difficulty of ultimate emptiness—answering ‘No’ for two causes and conditions. The treatise-author restates the question and answer in the sūtra, drawing out its main thread: Subhūti, with the wisdom of ultimate emptiness, challenges Maitreya—in rejoicing in and dedicating the merit of the buddhas that one thinks of, what is thought of is a past matter; 「是事如所念不」 tr. "is this matter as it is thought of?" Maitreya answers ‘No’ for two causes and conditions: first, the buddhas of the past have long since passed into extinction with nothing left remaining, and the bodhisattva either lacks the knowledge of past lives, or has it but cannot reach them, 「但以如所聞憶想分別，故不如所念」 tr. "only by recollection, imagining, and discrimination according to what he has heard, and so it is not as it is thought of"; second, the buddhas and their merits 「出三界、出三世，斷戲論語言道，如涅槃相，畢竟空清淨」 tr. "go beyond the three realms, go beyond the three times, have cut off the path of idle discourse and speech, are like the mark of nirvāṇa, ultimately empty and pure". One concerns the capacity of the thinking mind falling short, the other concerns the object thought of being fundamentally apart from marks—examined together from both sides, a thought that grasps at marks can surely not be true to what is.

18. The object of rejoicing explained broadly—four sections of merit. The treatise-author explains the sūtra sentence by sentence: thinking of the buddhas who have passed into extinction—the Buddha is the 「福德主」 tr. "lord of merit", so one thinks of the Buddha, and because one hears the names of past buddhas in the sūtras and books, one thinks broadly of all of them; 「從初發心」 tr. "from the first arousing of the mind"—at first one vows to deliver all beings; this mind corresponds to the three roots of goodness, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, and the karma of body, speech, and mind arising from the roots of goodness, coming together, is called merit; from the first arousing of the mind, practising the six perfections, entering the bodhisattva position, attaining the ten grounds, sitting at the seat of awakening, and on to the relics and the Dharma left behind after his passing—all is the coming together of the Buddha’s merits. Next it makes clear the merit corresponding to the six perfections (the other practices are all included in the six perfections), the roots of goodness of śrāvakas in training and beyond training (those in training and beyond training are purely noble ones; the major and minor marks are indeterminate form-dharmas and not wholesome merits, and so only the five aggregates of one beyond training are spoken of), those who attain the path within the Dharma left behind, and the roots of goodness of other beings—「是上四段福德」 tr. "these four sections of merit above": the practitioner’s mind takes them all as its object, recollects them, rejoices in them, and dedicates them, and this is called unsurpassed rejoicing.

19. Question and answer two—why not make merit oneself, instead of practising rejoicing in the mind? The questioner objects: why does one who seeks the Buddha path not make merit himself, but only practise rejoicing in the mind? The answer: 「諸菩薩以方便力，他勤勞作功德，能於中起隨喜者，福德勝自作者。」 tr. "The bodhisattvas, by the power of skilful means—when others toil diligently to make merit and they are able to give rise to rejoicing in it, their merit surpasses that of those who make it themselves." These words are very steep and must be well understood: it is not saying that those too lazy to cultivate themselves can discharge their duty by rejoicing, but that rejoicing is what the power of skilful means accomplishes—able, before the diligent toil of others, to give rise to no jealousy and no contempt, seeing truly how it excels and being glad; the breadth and the purity of this mind surpass making merit oneself confined to one’s own person.

20. Rejoicing is real merit—the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, and the definition of object and matter. The treatise-author goes a layer further: the merit of rejoicing 「即是實福德」 tr. "is precisely real merit". Why? Thinking of the past buddhas is precisely the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, and is also, among the six recollections, the recollection of the Buddha, of the Dharma, of the Saṅgha, of morality, of relinquishing, and of the gods; because pure morality, entering dhyāna, and giving rise to ultimate wisdom come together, one is able to give rise to right rejoicing—「是故不但隨喜而已，亦行是實法」 tr. "therefore it is not only rejoicing, but also practising this real dharma". It also defines the names: the dedication of the mind is precisely the mind of rejoicing; the 「緣」 tr. "object" is what the mind of rejoicing takes as its object, namely the merits done by the buddhas and by beings; the 「事」 tr. "matter" is the basis of the object, the place where the merits abide, namely the buddhas and beings, together with lands, mountains and forests, and monasteries as dwelling places. At this point, among the five ‘what’s of the earlier text, the two questions of object and matter have been given a clear definition in terms of worldly truth.

21. Question and answer three—the order in which inversions arise and are cut off, and the simile of the drop of water. The sūtra says that dedicating by grasping at marks falls into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view; the treatise-author first makes clear that this is a simile—「無佛而憶想念佛，猶如無常而念常、不淨而念淨」 tr. "where there is no Buddha, to recollect and imagine and think of the Buddha is like thinking of the impermanent as permanent and of the impure as pure". The questioner objects: view is the root of all the inversions, and a person of the first fruit has already cut off the inversion of view; why speak of all three kinds together? The answer: the inversions are 「生時異、斷時異」 tr. "different at the time of arising and different at the time of cutting off"—in arising, perception comes first, then mind, then view; in cutting off, view is cut off first, because it is what is cut off by seeing the truths, and the substance of the inversions is all the mark of view. Those still in training who are not yet free from desire, losing right mindfulness, grasp at the mark of purity and give rise to fetters; regaining right mindfulness, these cease at once, 「如渧水墮大熱鐵上，即時消滅」 tr. "like a drop of water falling on greatly heated iron, vanishing at once"; it is a small error and so is provisionally named inversion, not real inversion—therefore ordinary people have three kinds of inversion, and those in training two kinds.

22. The close of Treatise Section One—within ultimate emptiness, what is the object, what is the matter? The treatise-author gathers up this round of question and answer: the objects and the matters are 「如實畢竟空」 tr. "truly ultimately empty"; the thought too is empty, awakening too is empty, the mind of rejoicing too is empty, dānapāramitā and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas too are empty; if all dharmas are of one mark, namely the signless, ‘what here is the object? what is the matter? what is the mind dedicating to the unsurpassed path?’ Note: this is not the ending of a sceptic, but setting Subhūti’s five ‘what’s, just as they are, on the ground of ultimate emptiness, to drive out what follows—right dedication must be established on the premise of not destroying ultimate emptiness.

23. Sūtra Section Two—those long practised, with the five causes and conditions, dedicate without grasping at marks and by way of non-dual dharmas. Maitreya answers head-on: if the bodhisattva has 「久行六波羅蜜、多供養諸佛、種善根、與善知識相隨、善學自相空法」 tr. "long practised the six perfections, made many offerings to the buddhas, planted roots of goodness, kept company with the good friend, and trained well in the dharma of the emptiness of specific marks"—the five causes and conditions complete—then, toward these objects, these matters, the buddhas, the roots of goodness, and the merit of rejoicing, he dedicates 「不取相」 tr. "without grasping at marks", and moreover dedicates 「以不二法非不二法、非相非不相、非可得法非不可得法、非淨非垢、不生不滅法」 tr. "by way of dharmas that are non-dual and not non-dual, neither marked nor not marked, neither findable dharmas nor unfindable dharmas, neither pure nor defiled, neither arising nor ceasing", and this is called dedication. Conversely, for one in whom the five causes and conditions are not complete, all his minds grasp at marks and dedicate, and 「是不名迴向」 tr. "this is not called dedication". The key to the answer lies in the provisions: dedication without grasping at marks is not something a verbal understanding can practise; it is a power perfumed into being by long practice.

24. This meaning should not be spoken to those new to the training. Maitreya at once sets a boundary: such a meaning of prajñā, and so on up to the meaning of omniscience of all kinds—inner emptiness up to the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas—「不應為新學菩薩說」 tr. "should not be spoken to bodhisattvas new to the training", because those new to the training 「所有少許信樂恭敬清淨心皆亡失」 tr. "would lose whatever little faith, delight, reverence, and pure mind they have"; it should be spoken before avaivartika bodhisattvas, or to those protected by the good friend who have long made offerings to the buddhas and planted roots of goodness—such people, hearing it, are 「不沒、不驚、不畏、不怖」 tr. "not sunk, not startled, not afraid, not terrified". The Dharma has no partiality, yet hearers are fit or unfit: talk of ultimate emptiness is sweet dew to those who are fit, while to those not yet fit it instead ruins their first mind—that in teaching the Dharma there is a choice of season and capacity is exactly compassion.

25. The mind exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed—the difficulty that two minds are not together. Maitreya further applies the test of impermanence to the mind that dedicates: when the bodhisattva uses the mind to rejoice and dedicate, 「是心盡、滅、變、離」 tr. "this mind is exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed", and the objects, the matters, and the roots of goodness are likewise exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed—what here is the mind of rejoicing, what are the objects, the matters, the roots of goodness? Moreover 「二心不俱」 tr. "two minds are not together"—the mind of rejoicing and the mind of dedication (and so on to the mind of awakening) cannot stand side by side at the same time, and the nature of mind too is unfindable—how does the bodhisattva dedicate with the mind of rejoicing? The answer is in the last sentence: when practising prajñā, one knows in this way that 「般若波羅蜜無有法」 tr. "prajñāpāramitā is without any dharma", and so on to dānapāramitā, form, feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, and on to awakening—all without any dharma; 「應如是隨喜功德，迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "in this way one should rejoice in merit and dedicate it to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi"—rejoicing and dedicating within the absence of any dharma: only this is called the dedication of the merit of rejoicing.

26. Treatise Section Two—dharmas are very deep and the mind of rejoicing is subtle; the simile of iron entering the furnace. The treatise-author explains Maitreya’s intent: 「不壞諸法相，而隨喜心迴向無上道，是事甚難」 tr. "not destroying the marks of dharmas, and yet dedicating the mind of rejoicing to the unsurpassed path—this matter is very difficult"; the minds of ordinary people are hard and unyielding and cannot practise it. Those who have long practised the six perfections have deep and thick merits and so are unmoved, able to have faith and able to practise; because they have made many offerings to the buddhas and planted roots of goodness, their fetters are broken down and their minds are soft—these are causes and conditions from former lives; in this life they gain good teachers and good fellow students, and themselves learn that the real mark of all dharmas is empty, and with skilful means do not cling to this emptiness. So 「譬如鐵雖堅䩕，入鑪則柔軟，隨作何器」 tr. "it is like iron: though hard and stiff, when it enters the furnace it becomes soft, and whatever vessel one wishes can be made of it"; the bodhisattva’s mind, perfumed and refined by long practice and protected by the good friend, is tamed and pliant, and only so is it able, amid the buddhas, the objects, the matters, and the roots of goodness, to give rise to rejoicing without grasping at marks and to dedicate by means of the signless. The difference between hard and pliant is exactly the root, in the ground of the mind, of the difference between grasping at marks and being apart from marks.

27. Guarding those new to the training against clinging to emptiness—the simile of the fledglings’ wings. Why is it not spoken to those new to the training? The treatise-author lays bare the root of the sickness: those of scant merit and roots of goodness, hearing of ultimate emptiness, 「即著空」 tr. "at once cling to emptiness", and think, ‘if all dharmas are ultimately empty and without anything existent, why should I make merit?’—「則忘失善業」 tr. "and then they lose wholesome karma". So a bodhisattva who has newly aroused the mind is 「先教取相隨喜，漸得方便力，爾乃能行無相隨喜」 tr. "first taught rejoicing that grasps at marks; gradually he gains the power of skilful means, and only then is he able to practise signless rejoicing"—「譬如鳥子，羽翼未成，不可逼令高翔；六翮成就，則能遠飛」 tr. "it is like fledglings: while their wings are not yet grown, they cannot be forced to soar high; once their six quills are formed, they can fly far". This is an extremely important order of teaching in the whole chapter: rejoicing that grasps at marks is not a wrong road but the first step; signless rejoicing is not a separate start but the ripening of rejoicing that grasps at marks. Destroy a person’s first step and force him to soar high, and his fall can be foreseen.

28. Two kinds of people hear the Dharma with gladness—terror comes out of the mind of self. Those fit to hear are of two kinds: avaivartikas who have entered the position of dharmas and attained the acceptance of dharmas; and those who, though not avaivartikas, have long practised the six perfections, keep company with the good friend, and are helped by the power of inner merit and outer causes and conditions. These two kinds of people, hearing this Dharma, have 「心清淨，歡喜信受」 tr. "a pure mind, and gladly have faith in it and receive it"—like one long hungry and thirsty who obtains good food and drink, one in great heat who finds coolness, one in great cold who finds warmth. They think to themselves: through this wisdom I am able to deliver immeasurable beings—how much less could there be fright, fear, and terror! 「恐怖從我心中出」 tr. "Terror comes out of the mind of self"—in the Dharma even the marks of all dharmas are empty; how much less is there a self that fixedly grasps at the marks of dharmas and is startled on hearing of the signless. The source of terror does not lie in the depth of the Dharma, but in clinging to self not yet dissolved; this sentence can serve as a mirror that shows what lies within, whenever the mind is stirred on hearing the Dharma of emptiness.

29. The mind exhausted and ceased thought after thought, entering together into the nature of dharmas—right dedication first established. The treatise-author explains ‘the mind exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed’: the mind of dedication is 「念念盡、滅、變、離，無有住時」 tr. "thought after thought exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed, with no time of abiding"; the roots of goodness of the buddhas taken as object ceased long ago, and the mind of rejoicing now also ceases—「既滅無異」 tr. "since they have ceased, there is no difference": they enter together into the past, enter together into the real mark of all dharmas, and so there is no discriminating ‘this is the mind, this the object, this the matter, this the root of goodness’. 「若能如是迴向，是為正迴向。」 tr. "If one is able to dedicate in this way, this is right dedication." The first formal definition of right dedication is established here: it is not seeking some other mind that does not cease with which to dedicate, but truly knowing that subject and object are alike exhausted and alike enter the real mark, and dedicating within non-discrimination.

30. The two minds do not come together—cutting off love of dharma and relinquishing the attached mind. The treatise-author further explains ‘two minds are not together’: within one moment two minds do not occur side by side; at the time of the mind of rejoicing there is no mind of awakening; moreover 「一切心相畢竟空，不可以取相迴向」 tr. "the marks of all minds are ultimately empty; one cannot dedicate by grasping at marks". The bodhisattva knows that prajñā is empty and without fixed dharma; as with prajñā, so with all dharmas, up to the unsurpassed path; at that time he 「斷法愛、捨著心，於空無諍」 tr. "cuts off love of dharma, relinquishes the attached mind, and is without contention in emptiness", and this is called the bodhisattva’s right dedication. This passage completes Passage 29: right dedication is not only without the discrimination of others and self, but even love of dharma is cut off—only when one neither contends with nor clings even to emptiness is it thoroughgoing.

31. Sūtra Section Three—Śakra asks on behalf of those who have newly aroused the mind. Śakra Devānām Indra rises from his seat and asks: 「新發意菩薩聞是事，將無驚懼、怖畏？」 tr. "Will not bodhisattvas who have newly aroused the mind, hearing this matter, be startled and afraid, terrified and fearful?" How does a bodhisattva who has newly aroused the mind dedicate his roots of goodness? How does he dedicate the merit of rejoicing? Earlier Maitreya said plainly that this meaning is not to be spoken to those new to the training; Śakra deliberately asks on behalf of those new to the training—this question makes the gate of teaching of the whole chapter complete: those of superior faculties have the practice of superior faculties, and the beginning mind too must have a road for the beginning mind; without this question, signless right dedication would become a dharma for the few. Śakra asked repeatedly about merit in the preceding several chapters; here he again pleads on behalf of the beginning mind, which is exactly his constant office of protecting beginners.

32. Subhūti’s answer—the practice for one who has newly aroused the mind. Subhūti answers with a whole set of rules for beginners: practising prajñā yet 「不受是般若波羅蜜，以無所得故、無相故」 tr. "not receiving this prajñāpāramitā, with nothing to be attained, because of signlessness", and so on to dānapāramitā, likewise; 「多信解」 tr. "having much faith and understanding" in inner emptiness up to the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas, and in the four foundations of mindfulness up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; always keeping company with the good friend, who explains for him the meaning of the six perfections, opening, showing, and distinguishing, so that he is never apart from prajñā, and so on to all dharmas; he is also taught about the deeds of Māra, and having heard of the deeds of Māra he 「不增不減」 tr. "neither increases nor decreases", because he does not receive any dharma; he is never apart from the buddhas, plants roots of goodness among them, is born into the family of the bodhisattvas, and on until attaining awakening is never apart from roots of goodness. The beginner cannot practise the signless all at once, but can be gradually perfumed through five things—not receiving, faith and understanding, relying on a teacher, recognising Māra, drawing near to the buddhas—this is the staircase laid down for those whose wings are not yet grown.

33. The object of rejoicing for one who has newly aroused the mind—the praises such as ‘cut off the path of birth and death’. What the bodhisattva who has newly aroused the mind takes as the object of rejoicing: the buddhas of the ten directions in the past—who have 「斷生死道、斷諸戲論、道盡、棄重擔、滅聚落刺、斷諸有結、正智、得解脫」 tr. "cut off the path of birth and death, cut off all idle discourse, exhausted the path, cast off the heavy burden, destroyed the thorns of the village, cut off the fetters of existence, have right knowledge, and attained liberation"—and the merits done by their disciples, together with the roots of goodness planted by the great kṣatriya clans, the great brahmin clans, the great householder families, and the gods from the heavens of the Four Heavenly Kings up to the Pure Abodes; 「一切和合稱量，以隨喜心」 tr. "all brought together and weighed, with the mind of rejoicing", supreme and without equal, he dedicates. This is of one pattern with the object in Subhūti’s broad question earlier, only the practice is set up for the beginning mind: bringing together and weighing and then rejoicing is exactly the carrying out of ‘first teaching rejoicing that grasps at marks’.

34. How not to fall into the three inversions—not giving rise to the perception of Buddha, of Saṅgha, of mind. Maitreya asks: when one who has newly aroused the mind thinks of the roots of goodness of the buddhas and their disciples, rejoices, and dedicates, how does he not fall into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view? Subhūti answers with one sentence of mind-dharma: thinking of the buddhas and the Saṅgha, 「不生佛想、不生僧想，無善根想」 tr. "he does not give rise to the perception of Buddha, does not give rise to the perception of Saṅgha, and has no perception of roots of goodness", and dedicates with this mind; 「是心中亦不生心想」 tr. "within this mind he also does not give rise to the perception of mind"—dedicating in this way, the three things are not inverted. Conversely, grasping at marks and then dedicating is called the three inversions. Not giving rise to the perception of Buddha is not not thinking of the Buddha; it is thinking without setting up a marked Buddha as the thing grasped; even for the thinking mind no perception of mind is set up—with no mark established at either end, subject or object, inversion has nowhere to arise.

35. Knowing, in the moment of thinking, that it is exhausted and ceased—right dedication, not wrong dedication. Subhūti continues: using this mind to think of the roots of goodness of the buddhas and the Saṅgha, 「是心念時，即知盡滅」 tr. "at the time this mind thinks, he at once knows it is exhausted and ceased"; since it is exhausted and ceased, this dharma cannot be dedicated; the mind of dedication that is used is also of the mark of exhaustion and cessation, and the dharma of the place dedicated to is also of such a mark—「若如是迴向，是名正迴向，非邪迴向」 tr. "if one dedicates in this way, this is called right dedication, not wrong dedication". This has the same skeleton as Passage 29 of Treatise Section Two, but is spoken for the beginning mind: the beginner too can, at the place where a thought arises, at once contemplate its ceasing, without waiting for long practice; dedicating within the mark of exhaustion and cessation is right and not wrong.

36. True dedication and unsurpassed dedication. Sūtra Section Three goes two layers further: first, knowing that these dharmas are exhausted and ceased, and that the dharma of the place dedicated to is also 「自性空」 tr. "empty of self-nature", to be able to dedicate in this way—「是名真迴向」 tr. "this is called true dedication"; second, knowing that 「無有法能迴向法」 tr. "there is no dharma that can dedicate a dharma"—because all dharmas are empty of self-nature—if one dedicates in this way it is called right dedication; practising prajñā and so on up to dānapāramitā, one does not fall into the three inversions, because one 「不著是迴向，亦不見以諸善根迴向菩提心處」 tr. "does not cling to this dedication, and also does not see the place where the roots of goodness are dedicated to the mind of awakening", and this is called 「無上迴向」 tr. "unsurpassed dedication". From right dedication to true dedication to unsurpassed dedication is a threefold deepening of one and the same meaning of being apart from marks: first not grasping at marks, next knowing the emptiness of self-nature, last seeing neither the clinging to dedication nor the place of dedication.

37. Treatise Section Three—why Śakra asks again. The treatise-author asks himself: the meaning of the fright and terror of those who have newly aroused the mind has already been asked and answered; why is it asked again now? The answer: though Maitreya said it should not be spoken to those new to the training but may be spoken to avaivartikas and to those long practised, 「已說正迴向因緣，而猶說空法」 tr. "having already spoken of the causes and conditions of right dedication, he still spoke the dharma of emptiness", and so Śakra doubted: there are in the assembly those who have newly aroused the mind—「云何更說使不恐怖」 tr. "how can it be further explained so that they are not terrified?" Subhūti, wishing to complete what Maitreya said and wishing those who have newly aroused the mind to dedicate rightly, answers Śakra: though those who have newly aroused the mind have not long practised the six perfections nor made many offerings to the buddhas, 「以利根、得善知識是二因緣故，堪任正迴向」 tr. "because of these two causes and conditions, sharp faculties and gaining the good friend, they are fit for right dedication". Those long practised rely on their provisions from past lives; those who have newly aroused the mind rely on sharp faculties and on teachers and friends—the roads differ, yet both have a gate.

38. The practice of one who has newly aroused the mind explained—Māra cannot break emptiness. The treatise-author explains Subhūti’s answer sentence by sentence: not receiving prajñā—with nothing to be attained and because of ultimate emptiness, 「亦不得、亦不著」 tr. "one neither finds it nor clings to it"; having much faith and understanding in inner emptiness—because one always cultivates and delights in entering the samādhi of the contemplation of inner emptiness; the good friend is able to explain in accord with the meaning of the six perfections, so that one is never apart from prajñā, and on to entering the bodhisattva’s position of dharmas—「有久行入菩薩位，有新發意入菩薩位」 tr. "there are those long practised who enter the bodhisattva position, and there are those who have newly aroused the mind who enter the bodhisattva position". Hearing of the deeds of Māra and neither increasing nor decreasing—because one has cultivated well the real mark of all dharmas: 「若魔欲破，為欲破空，空則無破；若有增益，如幻如夢，何所增益」 tr. "if Māra wishes to break it, he is wishing to break emptiness, and emptiness has nothing to break; if there is increase, it is like an illusion, like a dream—what is there to increase?" Obtaining these causes and conditions, one is never apart from the buddhas, is born into the family of the bodhisattvas, is not apart from roots of goodness life after life, 「與久發意無異」 tr. "no different from those who aroused the mind long ago"—the road of the beginning mind, walked to its end, returns to the same place as long practice.

39. The eight phrases of ‘cut off the path’ explained phrase by phrase—the simile of wooden clogs crushing thorns, and the four kinds of fields of merit. The treatise-author explains the words praising the buddhas: they cut off the path of birth and death and enter nirvāṇa without remainder; because idle discourse is cut off, all idle discourse is destroyed; because through the samādhi of the emptiness of emptiness and the like they relinquish the eight limbs of the noble path, 「道盡」 tr. "the path is exhausted"; because the five aggregates give rise to suffering and vexation, they are the 「重擔」 tr. "heavy burden", and the five aggregates are relinquished in two ways—nirvāṇa with remainder relinquishes the afflictions that are the causes and conditions of the five aggregates, nirvāṇa without remainder relinquishes the five aggregates as result; the houses of the white-robed laity are called the village, renunciants live relying on them, and the houses of the laity have the thorns of the five desires, as when one enters a grove of thorny fruit trees to take fruit and is pricked by the thorns; 「如人著木屐踐刺，刺則摧折」 tr. "as when a person wearing wooden clogs treads on thorns, the thorns are crushed and broken"—the buddhas, with the clogs of dhyāna and wisdom, crush the thorns of the five desires, destroying and cutting off the five lower fetters; when the fetters of the portion of existence are exhausted, the five higher fetters are cut off; the wisdom corresponding to the vajra samādhi of the real mark of all dharmas cuts off all afflictions together with their residual habits, and so it says 「正智、得解脫」 tr. "right knowledge, attained liberation". Further, the Buddha’s disciples are of three kinds (bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and śrāvakas); the great kṣatriya clans and so on up to the gods of the Pure Abodes are the 「四種福田因」 tr. "causes of the four kinds of fields of merit", places where merit is planted. The words of praise are not empty phrases; phrase after phrase is the order of path and fruit.

40. Why one does not give rise to the perception of Buddha—arising from coming together, without self-nature. The treatise-author explains the ground for ‘not giving rise to the perception of Buddha’: 「一切法從和合生，無有自性，故無有定法名為佛」 tr. "all dharmas arise from coming together and have no self-nature, and so there is no fixed dharma named Buddha"; therefore one does not give rise to the perception of Buddha and the like; the mind of dedication too does not give rise to the perception of mind, and so does not fall into inversion; what runs contrary to this falls into inversion. The ground beneath not giving rise to the perception of Buddha is dependent arising: the Buddha too is a provisional name for the coming together of the five aggregates; to set up a perception of something fixed and real upon a provisional name for a coming together is exactly the root of inversion—this sentence sets the mind-dharma (Passage 34) on the ground of doctrine, so that the teaching of not giving rise to perception does not become a forced suppression of thought, but is the natural result of knowing as things truly are.

41. The exhausted mind enters the gate of impermanence and reaches the nature of dharmas. The treatise-author explains ‘at the time of thinking one at once knows it is exhausted and ceased’: when the mind is exhausted, one at once knows it is exhausted; the exhausted mind cannot be dedicated, 「變失滅壞故」 tr. "because it has changed, been lost, ceased, and broken down"; this mind 「入無常門，到法性中」 tr. "enters the gate of impermanence and reaches the nature of dharmas"—in the nature of dharmas there is no discriminating ‘this is mind, this is not mind; this is the Buddha, this a disciple; this is a root of goodness, this the unsurpassed path’; the mark of exhaustion of the mind of dedication and of the place dedicated to is likewise. It also defines first and later: 「初心是憶念過去諸佛等隨喜功德，後心是迴向心。」 tr. "The first mind is recollecting the past buddhas and so on and rejoicing in their merits; the later mind is the mind of dedication." If one dedicates in this way, it is called right dedication. Entering the nature of dharmas through the gate of impermanence is a real road of contemplative practice in this chapter: from the direct perception of thought-by-thought arising and ceasing, going straight into the non-discriminating nature of dharmas.

42. The difficulty of the first mind and the later mind—the real mark of all dharmas is exhaustion. The questioner objects: the first mind and the later mind have the mark of arising and ceasing and can be called impermanent; but the dharma of the place dedicated to is the unsurpassed path, which lies in the future—「云何言盡滅」 tr. "how can one say it is exhausted and ceased?" The answer: it has already been answered, 「入無常門，到法性中」 tr. "entering the gate of impermanence and reaching the nature of dharmas"—here it does not say 「盡是無常」 tr. "exhaustion is impermanence", but only says 「諸法實相是盡」 tr. "the real mark of all dharmas is exhaustion"; earlier it also said that awakening 「出三世、過三界，無受相」 tr. "goes beyond the three times, passes beyond the three realms, and has no mark of receiving". One must keep an eye on this answer: to say ‘exhaustion’ is not to say that the unsurpassed path will decay and cease, but that the real mark of all dharmas is of itself quiescent, with no mark to be received—turning ‘exhaustion’ over from the sense of annihilation in time to the sense of original quiescence in the real mark; only then does the ‘knowing of cessation’ in right dedication not fall into the view of annihilation.

43. Knowing cessation and knowing emptiness is true dedication—because nothing is done. The treatise-author gathers it up: the bodhisattva dedicates the roots of goodness of the past buddhas and so on to the unsurpassed path, 「知是事皆盡滅」 tr. "knowing that these matters are all exhausted and ceased", 「知迴向處法亦自性空，能知滅、知空」 tr. "knowing that the dharma of the place dedicated to is also empty of self-nature, able to know cessation and to know emptiness"—this is 「真迴向」 tr. "true dedication"; because past dharmas are impermanent, they cannot be dedicated into a dharma empty of self-nature; because past dharmas are empty, they also cannot be dedicated into a dharma empty of self-nature—「用如是智慧迴向」 tr. "dedicating with such wisdom" is called 「正迴向」 tr. "right dedication". Again: because all dharmas arise from causes and conditions, they have no power of their own to abide constantly; their own mark of dharma does not move—how much less can they do anything? Because nothing is done, 「一切法中無有法能迴向法」 tr. "among all dharmas there is no dharma that can dedicate a dharma", and this is called 「正迴向」 tr. "right dedication"; in this way, though the bodhisattva practises prajñā and all the other wholesome dharmas, he does not fall into inversion, 「一切法不著故」 tr. "because he does not cling to any dharma". The whole unit of the First Part is here brought to completion: right dedication is dedicating while knowing cessation, knowing emptiness, doing nothing, and clinging to nothing.

Do Not Misread

Do not read ‘only by rejoicing in the mind it surpasses making merit oneself’ as permission to give up cultivation and rejoice emptily. The treatise-author says plainly that rejoicing is precisely real merit—thinking of the past buddhas is precisely the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha, and because pure morality, entering dhyāna, and giving rise to ultimate wisdom come together, one is able to give rise to right rejoicing; moreover one who has newly aroused the mind must not receive, must have faith and understanding, rely on the good friend, recognise the deeds of Māra, draw near to the buddhas and plant roots of goodness—layer upon layer, all real practice. The surpassing of rejoicing lies in the breadth of the mind and the accomplishment of the power of skilful means, not in saving effort; read it as a door to laziness, and one falls right into the ‘losing wholesome karma’ that the treatise-author guards against.

Do not read ‘grasping at marks, it cannot be found as it is thought of’ as saying that rejoicing and dedication cannot be practised. What Maitreya rules is that dedication that grasps at marks cannot be found as it is thought of, not that dedication itself is without effect; what follows sets up head-on the right dedication, true dedication, and unsurpassed dedication that do not grasp at marks, and for those who have newly aroused the mind opens separately a staircase of first teaching rejoicing that grasps at marks. Read it as denying dedication, and the true intent of the chapter is read backwards.

Do not read ‘should not be spoken to bodhisattvas new to the training’ as keeping a secret dharma to oneself. It is not spoken to those new to the training because, hearing of ultimate emptiness, they at once cling to emptiness and lose wholesome karma, like fledglings whose wings are not yet grown, who cannot be forced to soar high—it is protective care, not stinginess with the Dharma. In the same sūtra, Śakra at once asks on behalf of those who have newly aroused the mind, and Subhūti lays out a whole set of practices for them, which shows that the Dharma-gate does not choose among people; it chooses only the season and the order of teaching.

Do not read ‘not giving rise to the perception of Buddha, not giving rise to the perception of Saṅgha’ as not revering the Buddha and the Saṅgha. Not giving rise to the perception of Buddha is, while recollecting the Buddha, not setting up a fixed, real, marked Buddha as the thing grasped—because all dharmas arise from coming together and have no self-nature, there is no fixed dharma named Buddha; precisely by recollecting the Buddha in this way one does not fall into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view. Read it as permission not to recollect the Buddha and not to revere the Saṅgha, and it runs entirely contrary to the sūtra’s ‘never apart from the buddhas’ and ‘thinking of the buddhas and the Saṅgha’.

Do not read ‘exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed’ and ‘the real mark of all dharmas is exhaustion’ as annihilation. The treatise-author specially settles this: here it does not say 「盡是無常」 tr. "exhaustion is impermanence", but says 「諸法實相是盡」 tr. "the real mark of all dharmas is exhaustion"; awakening goes beyond the three times, passes beyond the three realms, and has no mark of receiving. Speaking of exhaustion and cessation is entering the gate of impermanence from the direct perception of thought-by-thought non-abiding and reaching the nature of dharmas; it is the quiescence of original quiescence, not the cessation of dying out; the knowing of cessation and knowing of emptiness in right dedication is exactly being apart from the two extremes of annihilation and permanence, not throwing oneself toward the extreme of annihilation.

Do not read the judgement that ordinary people have three inversions and those in training two as a contradiction between sūtra and treatise. The sūtra speaks generally of the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view; the treatise explains that for a person of the first fruit the inversion of view has already been cut off by the path of seeing the truths, and only the two kinds, perception and mind, remain; moreover the inversions of perception and mind in those in training are like a drop of water falling on greatly heated iron and vanishing at once, a small error provisionally named inversion—this is a difference in the order of the times of arising and of cutting off, not a dispute over numbers.

Bearing on Practice

Rejoicing is the most ordinary of practices and also the least dispensable. On seeing someone cultivate merit and practise the path, is one’s first thought gladness or calculation?—this is exactly the mirror this chapter gives for daily life. The treatise-author says that apart from merit, humans and animals practise the same three things, lust, eating and drinking, and fighting—to be glad from the heart on seeing people able to cultivate merit and practise the path beyond these three things: this one thought does not toil body or speech, yet in one’s own mind it plants a seed that corresponds with the causes of all the worthy and noble. One can first train close at hand: seeing a fellow practitioner’s vigour, seeing someone give and keep morality, rejoice along with it, thinking that those who cultivate merit and practise the path are the most excellent.

After rejoicing one must dedicate, and when dedicating use the two phrases ‘sharing it with all beings, with nothing to be attained’ as a seal. Sharing it is not keeping merit privately as an account book of my own merits; nothing to be attained is not clinging to merit as a thing that can be taken and accumulated. The treatise-author has already made clear that the substance of merit cannot be given to others while its result can—when dedicating, to vow to benefit beings with the result is the sharing that speaks of the cause in the result; to set up in the mind no mark of one who dedicates or of what is dedicated is nothing to be attained.

Contemplating the exhaustion and cessation of the mind is the direct method of contemplation this unit gives. When the mind of rejoicing arises, contemplate that this mind is thought after thought exhausted, ceased, changed, and departed, with no time of abiding; the roots of goodness of the buddhas thought of ceased long ago, the mind that thinks ceases now; since they have ceased there is no difference, and together they enter the nature of dharmas. This contemplation at first seems to snatch away what one relies on, but in fact it cuts off exactly the root of grasping at marks; if terror arises, remember the treatise-author’s words—terror comes out of the mind of self, not out of the Dharma.

Measure one’s own capacity and choose the step on which to walk. Those whose provisions from long practice are not yet sufficient need not be ashamed of rejoicing that grasps at marks—first teaching rejoicing that grasps at marks is a step the Buddha’s sūtra itself sets up, like fledglings first nourishing their wings; but one must know that this is a step and not the summit, and that, gradually gaining the power of skilful means, one is then able to practise signless rejoicing. Those already able to hear of emptiness without being startled should advance to contemplating without giving rise to the perception of Buddha or the perception of mind, and at the place where a thought arises at once knowing it is exhausted and ceased. Both steps are the right road; what is wrong is only taking the step for the summit, or skipping steps to climb.

Relying on the good friend and recognising the deeds of Māra are the two guard-rails for one who has newly aroused the mind. The sūtra text sets always keeping company with the good friend at the head of the practices for one who has newly aroused the mind, and specially teaches about the deeds of Māra—hearing of all kinds of deeds of Māra without increase or decrease, because one does not receive any dharma. On the road of practice, meeting favourable and adverse circumstances alike, answer them with the two words ‘not receiving’: when Māra wishes to break emptiness, emptiness has nothing to be broken; when Māra wishes to add increase, it is like an illusion, like a dream.

Further Resonances

The skeleton of the First Part is one line, running from setting out the thesis, to testing the difficulty, to answering along two tracks. Maitreya sets out the thesis: the merit of rejoicing, shared with all beings and dedicated with nothing to be attained, is supreme and foremost—the cause of its surpassing lies in its being for the deliverance of all beings, and not for one’s own taming, purification, and deliverance. Subhūti tests the difficulty with ultimate emptiness: the roots of goodness of the buddhas thought of are without anything existent; dedication that grasps at marks cannot be found as it is thought of, and moreover falls into the three inversions; not grasping at marks, then what is the object, what the matter, what the dedication?—the five ‘what’s block off both sides entirely. The answer is laid out on two tracks: the upper track is those in whom the five causes and conditions, long practice of the six perfections and the rest, are complete—their minds, like iron entering the furnace, are tamed and pliant, able not to grasp at marks and to dedicate by way of dharmas that are non-dual, non-arising, and non-ceasing; the lower track is those who have newly aroused the mind, who, through the two causes and conditions of sharp faculties and the good friend, are first taught rejoicing that grasps at marks and gradually gain the power of skilful means, taking the five things—not receiving, faith and understanding, relying on a teacher, recognising Māra, drawing near to the buddhas—as their steps. The two tracks converge on one and the same mind-dharma: thinking of the buddhas and the Saṅgha without giving rise to the perception of Buddha, of Saṅgha, or of mind; at the time of thinking at once knowing it is exhausted and ceased; the mind entering the gate of impermanence and reaching the nature of dharmas; knowing cessation and knowing emptiness; because nothing is done, there being no dharma that can dedicate a dharma—this is called right dedication, true dedication, unsurpassed dedication. Two sentences of the treatise-author hold up the whole unit: one is that Maitreya, according with the Buddha’s original intent, has Subhūti speak broadly on prajñā by way of the dharma of rejoicing—the gate of merit is itself the gate of prajñā; the other is that terror comes out of the mind of self—the Dharma of emptiness is not to be feared; what is to be feared is the recoil of clinging to self when it meets emptiness. The First Part answers ‘how can one dedicate without grasping at marks’ up to the point where the definition of right dedication is established; for rejoicing and dedication there still remain the deeper discussion of being apart from marks and the fine discrimination of right and wrong, which the Last Part of this chapter goes on to unfold; they are not anticipated here.