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

Rejoicing and Dedication, Last Part: Rejoicing Apart from Marks and Dedication by the Mark of Passing into Extinction; Dedication Mixed with Poison, Right Dedication, and True Dedication; All Dharmas Not Bound to the Three Realms; Dedication with the Mind Unattached as Supreme; Rejoicing Equal to Liberation; the Three Kinds of Marks and the Five Contrasts

What Is Being Asked

The First Part set up the tenet of this chapter and its difficulty: Maitreya declared that when a bodhisattva dedicates the merit of rejoicing to the unsurpassed path, that merit is 「最上、第一、最妙、無上、無與等」 tr. "supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal"; Subhūti at once raised a difficulty from ultimate emptiness—the roots of goodness of the buddhas in which one rejoices are all matters of the past, already ceased; if one dedicates by grasping at marks, it cannot be found as it is thought of—will one not fall into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view? On one side, the merit of rejoicing and dedication is supreme; on the other, dedication that grasps at marks must fall into inversion: how these two ends can hold at the same time is precisely the compass of the whole chapter. The Last Part takes up this difficulty and unfolds the answer layer by layer. First it shows rejoicing apart from marks—merit is apart from the five aggregates, the self-nature of all dharmas is apart, and dedication by the mark of passing into extinction does not fall into the three inversions. Then, with the single simile of food mixed with poison, it judges the sickness of dedication that grasps at marks to be 「毒」 tr. "poison", establishes rejoicing as the buddhas know as right dedication, and sets up the simile of shooting at the ground to make clear that it cannot miss. Next the sūtra text goes a step further: all dharmas are not bound to the three realms and are not named by the three times; if a dharma is unarisen then there is no dharma, and within no dharma there can be no dedication—and from this it presses out that dedication without poison is dedication that is signless and without attainment. Then the Buddha himself comes forward: three levels of weighing reveal that dedication 「心不著」 tr. "with the mind unattached" is supreme; the gods come in four rounds to praise the greatest dedication that does not fall into dual dharmas; and at last the answer is given to 「云何名隨喜最上乃至無與等」 tr. "what is called the supreme rejoicing, and so on up to without equal"—neither grasping nor relinquishing, equal to liberation. At the end the treatise-author gathers up the whole chapter with the three kinds of marks, the linked chain of meanings, three rounds of question and answer, and the five contrasts. What the Last Part asks, when all is said, is only one thing: how can a mind of dedication that is without anything existent and unfindable dedicate to an awakening that is without anything existent—and yet its merit is, on the contrary, supreme?

Passage by Passage

1. Rejoicing apart from marks: merit is apart from the five aggregates, and the self-nature of all dharmas is apart. The two opening passages of the Last Part first place the merit of rejoicing itself under the contemplation of emptiness. The first passage says: the bodhisattva knows that the merit he gives rise to is apart from the five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, and the eighteen elements, and knows too that prajñāpāramitā, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas, are all of the mark of being apart; with such a mind of rejoicing he gives rise to merit and dedicates it. The second passage goes further: he knows that 「隨喜福德自性離」 tr. "the merit of rejoicing is apart in its self-nature"; the buddhas are apart from the nature of a buddha, the roots of goodness are apart from the nature of roots of goodness, and the mind of awakening, dedication, the bodhisattva, and so on up to dānapāramitā—the nature of each one is also apart. Only by practising the prajñā of being apart in this way is it called giving rise to the merit of rejoicing within prajñā. The earlier passage says that within merit there are no aggregates, elements, or sense-fields; the later passage says that merit, together with everything that dedicates and everything dedicated to, is fundamentally apart in its self-nature. Rejoicing is not abandoned, yet the mark of rejoicing is first emptied—this is the foundation of every answer in the Last Part.

2. Dedication by the mark of passing into extinction does not fall into the three inversions. How are the roots of goodness of buddhas who have passed into extinction in the past to be dedicated? The sūtra teaches the bodhisattva to form this thought: 「如諸佛滅度相，諸善根相亦如是，滅度法相亦如是；我用心迴向，是心相亦如是。」 tr. "As is the mark of the buddhas' passing into extinction, so too is the mark of the roots of goodness, so too is the mark of the dharma of passing into extinction; the mind with which I dedicate—the mark of this mind is so too." The mark of the buddhas' passing into extinction is precisely quiescent cessation, the signless; the roots of goodness, the dharma of passing into extinction, and even this one thought of dedication of mine are not two with it in their mark. One who can dedicate in this way is dedicating to unsurpassed awakening, and does not fall into the three inversions of perception, of mind, and of view. Conversely, to grasp at the mark of the buddhas and the mark of the roots of goodness and then dedicate is not called dedication—because the buddhas of the past and their roots of goodness are 「非相緣、非無相緣」 tr. "neither an object for marks nor an object for the signless": they cannot be taken as object by grasping at marks, nor can they be taken as object by clinging to a signless. Grasping at marks, one falls into the three inversions. This passage takes the First Part's difficulty of inversion head-on: it is not that dedication is not allowed; it is that dedication that grasps at marks is not allowed.

3. Maitreya asks how one can dedicate without grasping at marks; within prajñā the three things are unfindable. Since one does not grasp at marks with regard to the roots of goodness and yet is able to dedicate, this matter is extremely hard; so Maitreya asks Subhūti: how can it be so? Subhūti answers: precisely because of this matter, one should know that within the prajñā one trains in 「應有般若波羅蜜方便力」 tr. "there should be the power of skilful means of prajñāpāramitā"; if merit is apart from prajñā, it cannot be dedicated. Why? Within prajñā, 「諸佛不可得」 tr. "the buddhas are unfindable", 「諸善根不可得」 tr. "the roots of goodness are unfindable", and the mind that dedicates to awakening is also unfindable—the mind that takes the object, the object taken, and the fruit toward which one turns: all three things are unfindable. That one can dedicate without grasping at marks does not rely on forcing oneself not to think, but on the power of skilful means by which prajñā sees that the three things are empty from the beginning. Here the three words 「方便力」 tr. "power of skilful means" are the eye of the passage: the wisdom of emptiness and the practice of dedication run together at the same time without obstructing each other, and this is precisely the skilful means of prajñā.

4. What the buddhas do not permit: because it grasps at marks and has something to be attained. The bodhisattva should reflect: the bodies of all the past buddhas and their disciples have ceased, and their roots of goodness have also ceased; if I now grasp at marks and discriminate upon them and then dedicate, the buddhas do not permit it—「取相、有所得故」 tr. "because it grasps at marks and has something to be attained". In explaining this passage the treatise-author speaks still more piercingly: to grasp at marks and discriminate, saying this is a buddha, this is a disciple, this is a root of goodness, is 「與諸法實相異故」 tr. "because it differs from the real mark of all dharmas"; when one has received its result for a long time it will surely be exhausted, and because it has something to be attained one cannot reach the Buddha path quickly; to recollect, imagine, and discriminate about the buddhas of the past is itself a great loss—「過去佛空無，而我憶想分別」 tr. "the buddhas of the past are empty and non-existent, and yet I recollect, imagine, and discriminate"! The buddhas do not permit it, not because they dislike the practitioner's arousing the mind and dedicating, but because they pity him for building empty recollections where there is empty non-existence, and for taking a result that has an end to be without end.

5. The simile of food mixed with poison: of good colour and good fragrance, with poison inside. The sickness of dedication that grasps at marks the sūtra gathers up entirely in one simile: 「譬如美食雜毒」 tr. "it is like fine food mixed with poison". The food has good colour and good fragrance and is craved by people; a fool eats it with delight, and when the food is about to be digested he suffers death or suffering equal to death. It is not that the merit of dedication that grasps at marks is absent—colour and fragrance are both fine, and the wealth and pleasures of humans and gods appear in every form; the sickness lies only in the one taste of poison mixed within, and when enjoyment is about to be exhausted, the painful result follows at once. Dedication with something to be attained 「有相、有動、有戲論」 tr. "has marks, has movement, has idle discourse", and so the dharma it attains never amounts to right dedication. The measure of this simile must be seen precisely: what is rejected is the poison, not the food; the grasping at marks, not the merit.

6. Teaching others without truly receiving: like food mixed with poison, it slanders the Buddha. The sūtra pushes a layer further: suppose someone does not himself truly receive, does not truly grasp the marks, does not truly recite and read, does not understand the meaning within, and yet teaches others to weigh together and join all the roots of goodness of the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times, from the first arousing of intent up to the end of the Dharma, and the roots of goodness planted by gods, nāgas, and spirits, and to rejoice and dedicate them by grasping at marks—because this dedication attains its dharma by grasping at marks, it too is like food mixed with poison; such a teacher 「則為謗佛」 tr. "thereby slanders the Buddha", does not follow the Buddha's teaching, does not speak according to the Dharma. The sickness passes from misleading oneself to misleading others: when one person grasps at marks, the poison is in one meal; when he teaches others by it, the poison spreads through his whole assembly. So this passage is spoken especially for teachers—if the Dharma one transmits is mixed with the poison of something to be attained, the wider the teaching, the deeper the loss.

7. What is right dedication: as the buddhas know, so too do I. Having refuted this far, the sūtra establishes the tenet head-on: one who seeks the Buddha path and does not wish to slander the Buddha should dedicate thus—「如諸佛所知無上智慧，是諸善根相、是諸善根性，我亦如是隨喜」 tr. "as the buddhas know with their unsurpassed wisdom the mark of these roots of goodness and the nature of these roots of goodness, so too do I rejoice"; as the buddhas know, so too do I dedicate. Whatever the mark and nature of the roots of goodness may be, I do not grasp them by my own view, but take as my standard entirely what the unsurpassed wisdom of the buddhas knows. Dedicating in this way, one does not slander the Buddha; it is as the Buddha taught, as the Buddha's Dharma speaks, and the dedication is without poison. The method of right dedication is utterly plain: it is not seeking some other mysterious state of mind, but only exchanging ‘as I grasp it’ for ‘as the buddhas know it’—setting down one's own mind's grasping at marks and taking the real mark of the Buddha's wisdom as the standard.

8. The treatise explains that merit is empty of specific marks: the general mark and the particular mark, the mind of awakening and the mind of dedication. In explaining the two opening passages, the treatise-author first points out their order: 「先但說過去事，今說自起隨喜福德」 tr. "earlier only matters of the past were spoken of; now the merit of rejoicing that one gives rise to oneself is spoken of"—what the First Part emptied was the past roots of goodness in which one rejoices; here it goes on to empty the merit, arisen from oneself, of the one who rejoices. He also defines the various terms: the merit of rejoicing is the mark of all merit spoken of in general; the merit arising from rejoicing in roots of goodness is spoken of by its particular mark; to take as one's own object the unsurpassed path one seeks is called the mind of awakening; that the fruit of the merit of the mind of rejoicing seeks only the unsurpassed path is called the mind of dedication; and the practitioner is provisionally named a bodhisattva within the five aggregates. The final sentence gathers it all: earlier it was said that within merit one is apart from the five aggregates; now it is said that 「福德自相空」 tr. "merit is empty of its specific marks". Advancing from the emptiness of objects to the emptiness of mind, and from being apart from the marks of others to being apart from one's own mark, the treatise-author sets out clearly the order of depth in the two passages of the sūtra text.

9. Thinking of the quiescent-cessation mark of the past buddhas; leaving the two extremes and walking the middle way. The treatise-author goes on to explain dedication by the mark of passing into extinction: the bodhisattva should think that, as the past buddhas entered nirvāṇa without remainder, 「無相、無戲論，性常寂滅」 tr. "signless, without idle discourse, their nature constantly quiescent and ceased", so too are this merit and the mind of dedication—dedicating in this way, one does not fall into inversion. He also explains why grasping at marks is not called dedication: 「有相是一邊，無相是一邊，離是二邊行中道，是諸佛實相。」 tr. "Having marks is one extreme; being without marks is one extreme; leaving these two extremes and walking the middle way is the real mark of the buddhas." The past buddhas do not fall within the reckoning of marks, nor do they fall within the reckoning of the signless; to grasp at the reckoning of marks is certainly a fall, and to cling to the signless is also a fall. This passage sets the balance-marks of the middle way for the whole chapter: dedication by the mark of passing into extinction is not contemplating a 「無」 tr. "nothingness", but leaving the two extremes of existence and non-existence and taking the real mark of quiescent cessation as its mark; the ruling in the three kinds of marks below, that the mark of the signless too should not be grasped, has its root right here.

10. Maitreya asks again, and the power of skilful means: the undeceiving path is prajñā itself. Not grasping at marks with regard to any dharma and yet being able to dedicate—this matter is very hard, so Maitreya asks again. The treatise-author says of Subhūti that 「是中不得決定答處」 tr. "here he found no place for a definitive answer"—this matter fundamentally has no definitive name or word that can be set on it—so he answers only: because of this matter, the bodhisattva trains in prajñā to seek the power of skilful means. He also explains why merit apart from prajñā cannot be dedicated: among all dharmas one dharma is real and does not deceive, namely anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi; only by walking the undeceiving path in accordance with this awakening can it be attained, and 「不誑道者，即是般若波羅蜜」 tr. "the undeceiving path is precisely prajñāpāramitā". Prajñā is 「畢竟空，無有分別」 tr. "ultimate emptiness, without discrimination"; whether merit is apart from prajñā or not apart from it, neither can be attained and dedicated. The reason dedication can be not in vain is only that what one walks is the undeceiving path; and the undeceiving path is nothing other than the prajñā of ultimate emptiness.

11. The simile of food mixed with poison explained phrase by phrase. The treatise-author matches each phrase of the simile to the Dharma one by one: 「食」 tr. "the food" is the merit of rejoicing; 「毒」 tr. "the poison" is the afflictions of craving, views, and the like, born of grasping at marks; 「好色」 tr. "the good colour" is becoming, through the causes and conditions of merit, a king of humans, a wheel-turning king, or a king of the gods and obtaining blessed pleasure; 「好香」 tr. "the good fragrance" is good fame, wealth and rank, and power; 「愚癡人」 tr. "the fool" is 「新發意取相著心菩薩」 tr. "the bodhisattva who has newly aroused the mind, grasps at marks, and has an attached mind"; 「食之歡喜」 tr. "eating it with delight" is receiving such wealth and pleasure among gods and humans. As for suffering death or what is equal to death when the food is about to be digested: when wealth and pleasure, being impermanent, break down and scatter, grief leads to death or next to death, and one suffers all manner of affliction. He also gives a twofold explanation: to lose one's own life-faculty is called 「死」 tr. "death", and to lose the things one clings to is called 「死等」 tr. "what is equal to death"; or, because affliction is great, 「失智慧命」 tr. "losing the life of wisdom" is called death, and 「妨行善道」 tr. "obstructing the practice of the wholesome path" is called what is equal to death. The second explanation deserves the closest attention—beyond the suffering of death in the world, there is the death of the wisdom-life and the obstruction of the practice of the path; the poison of grasping at marks reaches all the way into the practitioner's Dharma body and wisdom-life.

12. The four kinds of not-truly and right dedication; the simile of shooting at the ground. The treatise-author explains the four faults: 「不審諦受」 tr. "not carefully and truly receiving" is 「不取其義，但著語言」 tr. "not taking its meaning, but clinging only to the words"; not truly grasping the marks is discriminating not according to the Dharma; not truly reading and reciting is 「忘失句逗」 tr. "forgetting and losing the phrasing and pauses", losing it oneself or receiving it incompletely; not understanding the meaning is 「不得經意」 tr. "not attaining the intent of the sūtra". When a teacher of such small wisdom instructs disciples, he slanders the Buddha. What runs contrary to this is called right dedication. He further sets up a simile to show that right dedication cannot miss: 「譬如射地，無不著時」 tr. "it is like shooting at the ground: there is no time it does not hit"; if one shoots at other things, one may hit or may not hit. 「如諸佛所知隨喜，如射地無不著」 tr. "Rejoicing as the buddhas know is like shooting at the ground, which never fails to hit"; rejoicing by other paths is like shooting at other things. What the Buddha knows is surely the real mark, and the real mark pervades every place, as the ground lies beneath one's feet; so rejoicing by the standard of what the Buddha knows, every arrow hits; relying on one's own view to grasp at marks, whether it hits or not has no standard at all.

13. The sūtra: all dharmas are not bound to the three realms and are not named by the three times. The sūtra text advances into a further realm: form is not bound to the desire realm, the form realm, or the formless realm; 「不繫法者，不名過去、不名未來、不名現在」 tr. "a dharma that is not bound is not named past, not named future, not named present". Feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness; the twelve sense-fields and the eighteen elements; the six perfections; inner emptiness and so on up to the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas; the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; suchness, the nature of dharmas, the mark of dharmas, the abiding of dharmas, the position of dharmas, the limit of reality, and the nature of the inconceivable; the aggregates of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation; omniscience of all kinds, the dharma of being free of error, and the practice of constant equanimity—each one is not bound to the three realms and not named by the three times; this dedication, the place dedicated to, and the practitioner, and so on up to the buddhas, the roots of goodness, and the roots of goodness of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, are also all not bound. The preceding text spoke of being apart from marks and of self-nature being apart; here it speaks of not being bound and not being named by the three times: all dharmas, in terms of their real mark, fundamentally do not fall within the bounds of the three realms, nor do they fall into the positions of the three times; so to set up upon them the mark of past roots of goodness and dedicate by grasping at marks loses, at the very root, the ground it stands on.

14. If a dharma is unarisen then there is no dharma; within no dharma there can be no dedication. From not being bound to the three realms, the sūtra presses out the ultimate principle of dedication: since dharmas are not named past, future, or present, 「不可以取相有所得法迴向」 tr. "one cannot dedicate by a dharma that grasps at marks and has something to be attained". Why? 「是色無生。若法無生則無法，無法中不可迴向。」 tr. "This form is unarisen. If a dharma is unarisen then there is no dharma, and within no dharma there can be no dedication." The six perfections, and so on up to the practice of constant equanimity, are likewise. Dedicating in this way, there is no poison. These few sentences are the deepest point of the meaning of the Last Part: because there is no arising there is no dharma; because there is no dharma there is nothing that can be dedicated—this is not cancelling dedication, but cancelling every mark within dedication that could be grasped; precisely because within no dharma there can be no dedication, whoever wishes to dedicate by 「有所得法」 tr. "a dharma with something to be attained" is surely false, while one who accords with the real mark with nothing to be attained—his dedication is true. Dedication without poison takes its name from right here.

15. Wrong dedication and true dedication. The sūtra at once establishes names on both sides: to dedicate by a dharma attained by grasping at marks 「是名邪迴向」 tr. "is called wrong dedication", which the buddhas do not praise; using this wrong dedication one cannot fulfil the six perfections, the four foundations of mindfulness, and so on up to the practice of constant equanimity, cannot purify buddha-worlds or bring beings to maturity, and so cannot attain unsurpassed awakening—because this dedication is mixed with poison. Conversely, one should form this thought: to dedicate the roots of goodness as the buddhas know 「是真迴向」 tr. "is true dedication"; I too should dedicate by this mark of the Dharma, and this is called right dedication. The harm of the wrong is spoken of as extremely grave: it is not merely that the merit is small, but that the three matters on the bodhisattva path—the pure land, the maturing of beings, and becoming a buddha—are all blocked along the way. The judgement between wrong and right is still that one line—as the buddhas know, or as I grasp.

16. The Buddha praises "Excellent!": the linked chain of the dharma one should dedicate. The Buddha himself praises Subhūti: 「善哉！善哉！如汝所為，為作佛事」 tr. "Excellent! Excellent! What you have done is doing the Buddha's work"—he has spoken to the bodhisattvas the dharma they should dedicate, because it is signless, without attainment, without emergence, neither stained nor pure, without any nature of dharmas, the emptiness of specific marks, the constant emptiness of nature, the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality. These ten headings run on in one breath, and they are precisely the whole skeleton of the dharma of dedication: from the signless to without attainment, from without attainment to without emergence, entering stage by stage until at last it is the same as the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality. This praise at the same time discloses one thing: to speak this dharma of dedication is itself 「作佛事」 tr. "doing the Buddha's work"—talk of the wisdom of emptiness does not overturn merit; it is precisely the family business the Buddha has entrusted.

17. Three levels of weighing: dedication with the mind unattached is supreme. The Buddha sets up three levels of weighing and asks Subhūti: if the beings of the three-thousand great-thousand world all attained the ten wholesome paths, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless absorptions, and the five supernormal powers, would the merit be much? If they all became srota-āpanna, and so on up to arhats and pratyekabuddhas, and someone made offerings to them for the whole of his life, would the merit be much? If they all aroused the mind of awakening, and each being in worlds of the ten directions as many as the sands of the Ganges made offerings to them for kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, would the merit be much? Subhūti three times answers "very much", and at the last level adds that if the merit had shape, the worlds of the ten directions as many as the sands of the Ganges could not contain it. The Buddha judges each time: it does not equal a good man or good woman who, 「於諸善根心不著」 tr. "with the mind not attached to the roots of goodness", dedicates to unsurpassed awakening, which is supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal; the merit of unattached dedication, compared with the earlier merit, surpasses it a hundred thousand koṭi times, and so on up to what numbers and similes cannot reach. The reason is that the earlier ones, practising the ten wholesome paths and so on up to making offerings to bodhisattvas, all 「取相得法」 tr. "attain dharmas by grasping at marks". The scale of the weighing lies not in the size of the deed, but in whether the mind is attached or unattached.

18. The gods' four praises: the greatest dedication, which does not fall into dual dharmas. The gods of the Four Heavenly Kings with twenty thousand gods join their palms and pay homage to the Buddha; Śakra Devānām Indra with the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-three makes offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, and music; the kings of the Yāma, Tuṣita, Delight in Transformation, and Sovereign-over-Others'-Transformations heavens each come with a thousand gods; and with one voice they praise, saying: the greatest dedication of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, 「以方便力故、以無所得故、以無相法故、以無覺法故」 tr. "because of the power of skilful means, with nothing to be attained, because of the signless dharma, because of the dharma of non-awareness", dedicates the roots of goodness to unsurpassed awakening, and 「不墮二法」 tr. "does not fall into dual dharmas". The Brahmā king with a hundred thousand koṭi nayuta gods, and the gods from the Heaven of Light-Sound up to the Akaniṣṭha heaven, come as well and exclaim at what has never been: the bodhisattva is 「為般若波羅蜜所護」 tr. "protected by prajñāpāramitā", and because of the power of skilful means he surpasses those earlier ones who grasp at marks with something to be attained. The four phrases the gods praise—the power of skilful means, nothing to be attained, the signless, non-awareness—are precisely the unfolding of the power of skilful means of prajñā spoken of earlier; not falling into dual dharmas is not falling into the duality of existence and non-existence, grasping and relinquishing, subject and object. That the gods of the desire realm and the form realm praise with one voice shows that the virtue of this unattached dedication shakes gods and humans.

19. The Buddha tells the gods: rejoicing that grasps at marks and joins together, and supreme rejoicing with five negations. The Buddha tells the gods, making one more level of weighing: suppose the beings of the three-thousand great-thousand world all aroused the mind of awakening and thought of all the roots of goodness of the buddhas of the three times and of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, from the first arousing of intent up to the abiding of the Dharma, together with the roots of goodness of all other beings—giving, morality, patience, vigour, one-pointedness of mind, and wisdom, dānapāramitā and so on up to prajñā, and the meritorious dharmas of the five aggregates—and joined them all together, rejoiced, and dedicated them, yet 「以取相有所得故」 tr. "because of grasping at marks with something to be attained"; and suppose again someone likewise joined and weighed them together, but 「以無所得故、無二法故、無相法故、不著法故、無覺法故」 tr. "with nothing to be attained, because of non-dual dharmas, because of the signless dharma, because of the unattached dharma, because of the dharma of non-awareness"—this is the supreme rejoicing, and its merit surpasses the former a hundred thousand koṭi times, and so on up to what numbers and similes cannot reach. The roots of goodness rejoiced in on the two sides do not differ by a single word; the difference lies only in the five words of 「無」 tr. "without". Whether rejoicing is superior or inferior depends not on the breadth or narrowness of what is taken as object, but entirely on whether the mind that takes it is attached or unattached—this is the general principle of the meaning of weighing for the whole chapter.

20. How rejoicing is supreme: neither grasping nor relinquishing; as the mark of suchness, the nature of dharmas, the abiding of dharmas, the position of dharmas. Subhūti asks: what is called the supreme rejoicing, and so on up to without equal? The Buddha answers: to think of the dharmas of the three times as 「不取不捨、不念非不念、不得非不得」 tr. "neither grasped nor relinquished, neither thought of nor not thought of, neither found nor not found"; within these dharmas there is no dharma that arises or ceases, nothing defiled or pure; dharmas neither increase nor decrease, neither come nor go, neither join nor scatter, neither enter nor leave; as the marks of the dharmas of the three times, as the mark of suchness, the nature of dharmas, the abiding of dharmas, the position of dharmas, so too do I rejoice, and having rejoiced I dedicate to awakening—this dharma of rejoicing surpasses other rejoicing a hundred thousand koṭi times, and so on up to what numbers and similes cannot reach. Here the practice-aspect of the supreme rejoicing is laid out in full: toward dharmas there is not a hair's breadth of the mark of grasping, relinquishing, attaining, or thinking, and yet one rejoices in accord with the original mark of dharmas. The mind of rejoicing and the real mark of all dharmas are like a seal pressed into clay—this is the real meaning of the word 「最上」 tr. "supreme".

21. Equal to liberation: because it neither arises nor ceases, one will quickly attain awakening. The Buddha further teaches the way of forming the thought of rejoicing: 「布施與解脫等」 tr. "giving is equal to liberation"; morality, patience, vigour, dhyāna, and wisdom are equal to liberation; form, feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, inner emptiness and so on up to the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas, the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to omniscience of all kinds, and the meritorious dharmas of the five aggregates are all equal to liberation; rejoicing is equal to liberation; the dharmas of the three times, the buddhas of the ten directions, the dedication of the buddhas, the buddhas and their passing into extinction, the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas and their passing into extinction, the mark of the buddhas' Dharma and the marks of all dharmas—all are equal to liberation; and the merit of rejoicing according to the marks of these roots of goodness, which I dedicate, is also equal to liberation—「不生不滅故」 tr. "because it neither arises nor ceases". This is called the supreme rejoicing; one who accomplishes the merit of this rejoicing 「當疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "will quickly attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". All dharmas, all noble ones, all practices alike take liberation, which neither arises nor ceases, as their limit of reality; and when rejoicing and dedication are also placed upon this limit of reality, the mind that rejoices and the virtue rejoiced in are equal, of one taste. To regard all things as equal and quickly attain the unsurpassed—this is precisely the great function of the dharma of nothing to be attained.

22. The last level of weighing: dedicating by the power of skilful means in the six perfections surpasses lifelong offerings. The Buddha makes the last level of weighing in the Last Part: suppose that the buddhas and disciples of the ten directions, as many as the sands of the Ganges, were present, and someone made offerings of all that they need for the whole of his life, and after the buddhas' extinction diligently cultivated offerings day and night, and moreover kept morality, patience, vigour, and meditation and cultivated wisdom—all because of grasping at marks with something to be attained; and suppose again someone aroused the intent to seek unsurpassed awakening and, while practising the six perfections, dedicated the roots of goodness 「以不取相、無所得法方便力」 tr. "by the power of skilful means of not grasping at marks, the dharma of nothing to be attained"—this merit is supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal, surpassing the former a hundred thousand koṭi times, and so on up to what numbers and similes cannot reach. The depth of this level of weighing lies in this: what the former practises is no longer the worldly ten wholesome paths, but offerings to the buddhas and the practice of five of the perfections; yet because he practises them grasping at marks, they still fall short of dedication with nothing to be attained. The concluding words bring it back to the gate of practice: when the bodhisattva practises the six perfections, the roots of goodness should be dedicated by the power of skilful means, because of not grasping at marks and the dharma of nothing to be attained.

23. The treatise explains: not bound to the three realms and not contained in the three times—this is called right dedication. In explaining the fifth sūtra section, the treatise-author first establishes the general mark of right dedication: the bodhisattva should think that all dharmas, from form up to the practice of constant equanimity, 「不繫三界故，三世不攝」 tr. "because they are not bound to the three realms, are not contained in the three times"; the buddhas and their disciples together with all their merits, and 「隨喜心、迴向處、所用迴向法、迴向者」 tr. "the mind of rejoicing, the place dedicated to, the dharma used to dedicate, and the one who dedicates", are likewise—this is called right dedication. He also explains why: that form goes beyond the three realms 「即是色實相，初、後生相不可得」 tr. "is precisely the real mark of form: the mark of arising, first or later, is unfindable", as is said in the chapter "Refuting Arising"; a dharma without arising is precisely without anything existent, so how could a mind of dedication without anything existent dedicate to a mind of awakening without anything existent? This is called dedication without poison, namely dedication that is signless and without attainment. 「雜毒」 tr. "Mixed with poison" means that the buddhas do not praise it, that it cannot fulfil the six perfections and so on, and so on up to its being unable to attain awakening. The mind that dedicates and the awakening dedicated to are alike without anything existent, and so dedication is ultimately pure—the treatise-author nails the meaning of non-arising in the sūtra text onto the real mark.

24. Giving rise to the mind, thinking, and contemplating as the buddhas know; the three sections of a bodhisattva's worship of the buddhas. The treatise-author goes on to make clear: the bodhisattva should think that, as the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times know, so one should give rise to the mind, so think, so contemplate, so dedicate, and 「是功德直至無上道」 tr. "this merit goes straight to the unsurpassed path"; so too do I rejoice and dedicate—this bodhisattva is sure to attain real rejoicing, and his dedication is not in vain. He also gathers up the kinds of dedication in general: this is a brief account of the sections on dedication; a bodhisattva's worship of the buddhas has three sections, 「一者、悔過品，二者、隨喜迴向品，三者、勸請諸佛品」 tr. "first, the section of repentance; second, the section of rejoicing and dedication; third, the section of entreating the buddhas", and spoken at length they are measureless and boundless. What this chapter details is precisely the one section of rejoicing and dedication among the three; repentance and entreaty stand alongside it as ways of worshipping the buddhas, and from this one can see the place of rejoicing and dedication in the bodhisattva's daily observance—it is not abstract talk; it is a regular practice in the same class as repentance and entreaty.

25. Two explanations of "Excellent!": helping the Buddha open the bodhisattva path; because it uses the signless. Why does the Buddha praise Subhūti with "Excellent"? The treatise-author gives two explanations. First: when the Buddha first aroused the mind he vowed to deliver all beings; Subhūti, though an arhat, 「而能助佛說法，開菩薩道」 tr. "is yet able to help the Buddha teach the Dharma and open the bodhisattva path", and so he is praised with "Excellent"—in the body of a śrāvaka he does the Buddha's work, and what is praised is that what he says can open the bodhisattva's path. Second: the Buddha himself states the cause—he has spoken to the bodhisattvas the dharma they should dedicate 「用無相故」 tr. "because it uses the signless"—joining the mark of merit with signless wisdom and dedicating it runs contrary to the grasping at marks above, and so it is called signless. Of the two explanations, one concerns the speaker and one concerns what is spoken: the speaker is a person who helps the Buddha; what is spoken is the signless Dharma; the praise "Excellent" raises both person and Dharma together.

26. The signless is of three kinds: the mark of provisional names, the mark of dharmas, the mark of the signless. The treatise-author opens the meaning of the signless into three levels of discernment. 「假名相」 tr. "The mark of provisional names" is like a carriage, a house, a forest, an army, a being—within the coming together of dharmas there is further this name; 「無明力故」 tr. "because of the power of ignorance" one grasps this mark of provisional names and gives rise to afflictions and karma. 「法相」 tr. "The mark of dharmas" is the five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, the eighteen elements, and the like; 「肉眼觀故有，以慧眼觀則無」 tr. "because they are seen by the fleshly eye they exist; seen by the wisdom-eye they do not exist"; dharmas too are false, deceptive, and untrue words, and one should relinquish the mark of dharmas. Leaving these two marks, there remains only 「無相相」 tr. "the mark of the signless"; someone grasps this mark of the signless, pursues it and grasps it as a mark, and 「還生結使」 tr. "fetters arise again", so it too should not be grasped. 「離三種相，故名無相。」 tr. "Because it is apart from the three kinds of marks, it is called signless." Of the three levels, the most crucial is the third: even 「無相」 tr. "the signless" may not be grasped as a mark—this echoes, head to tail, the earlier 「有相是一邊，無相是一邊，離是二邊行中道」 tr. "having marks is one extreme; being without marks is one extreme; leaving these two extremes and walking the middle way", and blocks the practitioner's retreat into clinging to emptiness once more as a thing.

27. The linked chain of meanings: from nothing to be attained to the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality. The treatise-author strings the ten headings in the Buddha's praise into one chain of cause and effect: if there is no mark, within it there is 「無所得」 tr. "nothing to be attained"; because there is no attainment there is 「無出」 tr. "no emergence"; a dharma without attainment and without emergence is precisely 「無垢無淨」 tr. "neither stained nor pure"; neither stained nor pure is precisely 「無法性」 tr. "without any nature of dharmas"; without nature is precisely 「自相空」 tr. "the emptiness of specific marks"; the emptiness of specific marks is precisely that the dharma is 「常自性空」 tr. "constantly empty of self-nature"; being constantly empty of self-nature is precisely the same as 「法性、如、實際」 tr. "the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality". Because one joins with such a dharma and dedicates the merit of rejoicing, he is praised with "Excellent". He also gives a second cause for the praise "Excellent": the merit of rejoicing greatly benefits beings and has a great result—that is, the level of weighing in which the Buddha told Subhūti of the beings of the three-thousand great-thousand world practising the ten wholesome paths and so on up to the five supernormal powers. One chain running through the ten headings shows that these headings are not ten things side by side, but ten stages of deepening entry into one meaning; and its final return to great benefit shows that ultimate emptiness does not obstruct a great result.

28. The first question and answer: why the gods came in greater and lesser numbers. Question: Why did the gods of two places in the desire realm and the Brahmā king come with many gods, while the other four heavens came with few? Answer: The gods of the Four Heavenly Kings and of the Heaven of the Thirty-three rest upon the earth and are near the Buddha, and moreover their five desires are not equal to those of the higher heavens; when the Buddha was born, when he practised austerities, when he subdued Māra, when he attained the path, and when he turned the wheel of the Dharma, they 「常來供養佛」 tr. "always came to make offerings to the Buddha", and so they are many. The palaces of the other four heavens are in the sky and do not belong to the earth; their five desires are wondrous and their attachment deep, so they cannot come in numbers; though the Tuṣita gods have sharp faculties and delight in the Dharma, in their heaven there is always 「補處菩薩說法」 tr. "the bodhisattva bound to buddhahood in one more birth teaching the Dharma", and so they do not come. 「梵天雖遠，離欲故樂法情深」 tr. "Though the Brahmā heaven is far, because they are free of desire their love of the Dharma is deep", and 「佛為法王」 tr. "the Buddha is the king of the Dharma", and so they come in numbers; moreover the Brahmā king is lord of the form realm and entreated the Buddha to first turn the wheel of the Dharma, so he should come with a great assembly, and the other gods of the form realm are all called Brahmā gods. The question looks like an idle stroke of the brush, yet the answer carries the taste of the Dharma: coming or not coming depends on the depth of attachment and on the love of the Dharma—the more wondrous the five desires, the farther one is from the Dharma.

29. The second question and answer: why supremacy is asked about again—the brief account, and a result without end. Question: Earlier, by all kinds of causes and conditions, it was said that right dedication is precisely the supreme; why is it asked about again now? Answer: Above it was spoken at length in place after place; now it is spoken briefly. That is: all dharmas of the three times and the ten directions one 「決定心知」 tr. "knows with a decided mind", that within these dharmas there is nothing that arises or ceases and so on, that all dharmas are 「不可得、不可念」 tr. "unfindable and not to be thought of"; because they are not found and not thought of, one neither grasps nor relinquishes, and 「入諸法實相中」 tr. "enters the real mark of all dharmas"; one forms this thought—as is the real mark of all dharmas, so too do I dedicate with the merit of rejoicing, 「不分別諸法，不壞法性」 tr. "not discriminating among dharmas, not destroying the nature of dharmas"—this is called the supreme dedication. Why? 「果報常無盡故。」 tr. "Because its result is constantly without end." The extended account passes through every gate; the brief account points straight to the one mind; and why the supreme is supreme is answered in the final sentence—not the nobility of name or rank, but that its result is constantly without end. Dedication with nothing to be attained, precisely because it has no mark that can be exhausted, has merit with no term at which it could be exhausted.

30. The third question and answer: all dharmas each have their own marks; how are they all equal to liberation? Question: The six perfections and the other dharmas each have their own marks, whether marks of form or marks without form; and liberation is of two kinds, 「有為解脫，無為解脫」 tr. "conditioned liberation and unconditioned liberation"—how are they all equal to liberation? Answer: Ordinary people see difference because they contemplate with the fleshly eye and the six consciousnesses in an inverted way; contemplated with the wisdom-eye, all dharmas are false, and 「唯涅槃為實」 tr. "only nirvāṇa is real". Conditioned liberation is called liberation because it 「屬無為、隨無為」 tr. "belongs to the unconditioned and follows the unconditioned"; just as one who has truly attained the path is called a person of the path, while those who have not yet attained the path, whose robes and rules of conduct follow those who have, are also called persons of the path. As nirvāṇa without remainder neither arises nor ceases, neither enters nor leaves, is neither stained nor pure, neither existent nor non-existent, neither permanent nor impermanent, is 「常寂滅相」 tr. "the mark of constant quiescent cessation", where 「心識觀滅、語言道斷」 tr. "the contemplation of mind and consciousness ceases and the way of words is cut off", neither a dharma nor not a dharma, because it uses the mark of there being nothing existent—so, contemplated by the wisdom-eye, all dharmas have this same mark: this is called the six perfections and the rest being equal to liberation. So it is said in the Buddha's Dharma: 「解脫為貴，上智慧貴解脫。」 tr. "Liberation is the precious thing; the highest wisdom prizes liberation." Difference lies in the fleshly eye; equality lies in the wisdom-eye; being equal to liberation is not erasing the marks of dharmas, but seeing that all marks return alike to the reality of there being nothing existent.

31. The five contrasts and the four kinds of people; the conclusion. At the end the Buddha makes the distinction: one person practises the six perfections for immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas and cultivates and gathers roots of goodness in every way using dharmas with something to be attained; another person uses the dharma of nothing to be attained, and simply rejoices with the mind, thinks of the merits of others, and dedicates to the unsurpassed path—the former does not reach one part in a hundred thousand ten-thousand of it. Why? 「先福德有量，今福德無量」 tr. "the former merit is measurable; this merit is immeasurable"; the former is exhaustible, this is inexhaustible; the former is mixed with poison, this is without poison; the former follows birth and death, this follows nirvāṇa; the former is uncertain, perhaps becoming a buddha, perhaps falling back, while this merit is certain to arrive and one is 「必疾作佛」 tr. "sure to make a buddha quickly". The five contrasts, each set pair against pair, gather the meaning of weighing of the whole chapter into one table. Therefore there are four kinds of people: 「凡夫人求世間樂」 tr. "ordinary people seek the pleasure of the world", people of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles seek the pleasure of nirvāṇa, and the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas seek the pleasure of the Buddha. The final sentence concludes: one should rejoice in this way and give rise to merit, and dedicate it to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, 「如此品中說」 tr. "as is said in this chapter". The practice of the six perfections over many kalpas is no match for one thought of rejoicing with nothing to be attained—not because the practice is small and the mind great, but because something to be attained makes practice exhaustible, while nothing to be attained makes the mind inexhaustible; with the whole chapter having come this far, the four Chinese characters rendered as "rejoicing and dedication" at last have their full weight.

Do Not Misread

Do not read dedication by the mark of passing into extinction as visualising the Buddha's marks and signs. The sūtra teaches dedicating 「如諸佛滅度相」 tr. "as is the mark of the buddhas' passing into extinction", and the mark of passing into extinction is precisely the signless quiescent cessation of nirvāṇa without remainder; the treatise-author explains it as signless, without idle discourse, its nature constantly quiescent and ceased. If one reads it as sketching in the mind a buddha who has passed into extinction and taking him as object in thought, one falls straight back into the sickness of grasping at marks and discriminating, 「諸佛所不許」 tr. "which the buddhas do not permit"; this dedication takes the signless as its mark, not a mark as its mark.

Do not read the simile of food mixed with poison as disparaging merit. In the simile 「食」 tr. "the food" is precisely the merit of rejoicing, fine in both colour and fragrance; neither sūtra nor treatise ever says the food is bad; the poison lies only in the afflictions of craving and views born of grasping at marks. If one reads it as saying that rejoicing and dedication are themselves poisonous and better left undone, one has read the prescription as the case of the disease—throughout, the Last Part teaches right dedication, true dedication, and the supreme rejoicing; when did it ever teach giving up rejoicing? What is removed is the poison; what is kept is the food.

Do not read 「無法中不可迴向」 tr. "within no dharma there can be no dedication" as saying that dedication cannot be established, or need not be done. This sentence blocks dedication that grasps at marks with something to be attained, not dedication itself; immediately afterward the sūtra text says that dedicating in this way there is no poison, and speaks of true dedication and right dedication. A mind of dedication without anything existent dedicates to a mind of awakening without anything existent, and precisely because both ends are without anything existent, dedication is ultimately not in vain; to read it as annihilation and give up the practice of dedication is to swing the blade that breaks attachment against the gate of practice itself.

Do not read 「與解脫等」 tr. "equal to liberation" as levelling the difference between cause and effect, good and evil. Giving being equal to liberation and the five aggregates being equal to liberation is the equality of the real mark seen by the wisdom-eye—all dharmas alike take neither arising nor ceasing as their limit of reality; it is not that, in the events seen by the fleshly eye, giving is the same as not giving, or that defiled and pure are no different. The treatise-author says plainly that the fleshly eye of ordinary people sees difference while the wisdom-eye contemplates equality; if one mixes them together at the level of events, one is passing off the fleshly eye as the wisdom-eye, and falls right into inversion.

Do not read ‘dedication with the mind unattached surpasses offerings’ as permission to slight offerings and good deeds. In the three levels of weighing—the ten wholesome paths, the four dhyānas, offerings to noble ones—the Buddha first sets the seal 「甚多」 tr. "very much" on each and never disparages their merit; what he judges is the height of grasping at marks against being unattached, not a choice between doing the deeds and not doing them. In the last level of weighing, the side that surpasses is precisely the person who practises the six perfections—practice is not given up; attachment must be left. If one reads it as giving up offerings and good deeds, that becomes yet another sickness besides the mixing in of poison.

Do not cling to 「無相」 tr. "the signless" as a mark that can be grasped. The treatise-author singles out the third level: after leaving the mark of provisional names and the mark of dharmas, there remains the mark of the signless, and 「有人取是無相相，隨逐取相，還生結使，是故亦不應取」 tr. "someone grasps this mark of the signless, pursues it and grasps it as a mark, and fetters arise again; therefore it too should not be grasped". Having marks is one extreme, being without marks is one extreme; only leaving the two extremes and walking the middle way is the real mark of the buddhas; if one holds on to the thought ‘I am already signless’, fetters arise again from just this.

Bearing on Practice

Take 「如諸佛所知，我亦如是」 tr. "as the buddhas know, so too do I" as the daily heart-method of rejoicing and dedication. Whenever you rejoice in the merits of others or dedicate the roots of goodness you have cultivated, there is no need to ask yourself what the roots of goodness you take as object look like, or how great the merit is—that is the road of grasping at marks and discriminating; form only one thought: as the buddhas know with their unsurpassed wisdom the real mark of the roots of goodness, so too do I rejoice, so too do I dedicate. The simile of shooting at the ground is fit for daily use: taking what the buddhas know as the standard is like shooting at the ground, which never fails to hit; relying on what one grasps oneself is like shooting at other things, sometimes hitting and sometimes not.

Use the simile of food mixed with poison to examine how you enjoy your merit. When you cultivate merit and hope for fame, wealth and rank, power, and the blessed pleasures of humans and gods, the moment colour and fragrance appear before you is the moment to be most alert: what happens when the food is about to be digested? When wealth and pleasure break down and scatter, there is grief and affliction, even the loss of the life of wisdom and the obstruction of the practice of the wholesome path—the treatise-author describes the signs of the poison taking effect one by one. The remedy is not to refuse to enjoy merit, but not to grasp at marks or attach the mind while enjoying it; the food may be eaten; the poison must be picked out.

Use the five words of 「無」 tr. "without" to gauge the grade of your own rejoicing. Thinking of the same roots of goodness of the buddhas and joining them together in rejoicing, grasping at marks with something to be attained is one road; nothing to be attained, non-dual dharmas, the signless dharma, the unattached dharma, and the dharma of non-awareness is another road, and their merits are a hundred thousand koṭi times apart. In daily life, at the moment of rejoicing and praising, you can test yourself: in this thought is there or is there not the dual mark of subject and object, ‘I am rejoicing, he has merit’? If there is, then though it is good it is mixed; if there is not, then the same rejoicing is the supreme.

Take 「與解脫等」 tr. "equal to liberation" as the entry into the contemplation of equality. While giving, think that giving is equal to liberation; while keeping morality, think that morality is equal to liberation; and so on, when you see others cultivate good and when you see the merits of the buddhas, think of all of them as equal to liberation, because they neither arise nor cease. This contemplation does not destroy the practice of events, yet takes hold directly of the limit of reality of all dharmas; practising one good deed is then of one taste with nirvāṇa; when it has long ripened, the marks of subject and object thin of themselves, and this is precisely the road to quickly attaining awakening.

Use the five contrasts to spur on the direction of your practice. Merit measurable or immeasurable, exhaustible or inexhaustible, mixed with poison or without poison, following birth and death or following nirvāṇa, uncertain or certain to arrive—the judgement of all five contrasts lies wholly in the one thought of something to be attained or nothing to be attained. In putting forth effort there is no need first to seek breadth of practice or length of kalpas; first you must test where this one thought is turned: turned toward something to be attained, the six perfections over many kalpas still follow birth and death; turned toward nothing to be attained, one thought of rejoicing already follows nirvāṇa. What is called being sure to make a buddha quickly—the quickness lies in one turning of the ground of the mind, not in adding event to event.

Further Resonances

What the Last Part carries on from the First Part is a single line running from difficulty to answer. In the First Part Maitreya established the tenet: the merit of rejoicing, dedicated, is supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal; Subhūti raised a difficulty from ultimate emptiness: the roots of goodness of the past buddhas one thinks of have all ceased; dedicating by grasping at marks, it cannot be found as it is thought of—will one not fall into the three inversions? The First Part also left the skilful means for new trainees: a bodhisattva who has newly aroused the mind is first taught to rejoice while grasping at marks and gradually gains the power of skilful means, just as fledglings whose wings are not yet grown must not be forced to fly high; and with the mind exhausting and ceasing and entering the real mark, and with the meaning that true dedication is neither right nor wrong, it took up the difficulty of inversion in a first step. The Last Part then unfolds this line to its end: first it lays the foundation of the right answer with rejoicing apart from marks and dedication by the mark of passing into extinction; next it judges the sickness of grasping at marks with the simile of food mixed with poison, establishes the tenet of right dedication with ‘as the buddhas know’, and makes clear with the simile of shooting at the ground that it cannot miss; then, by way of not being bound to the three realms, and a dharma unarisen being no dharma, it pushes the meaning of being apart from marks to the point where there is nothing that can be dedicated, and with a turn of the hand establishes the true dedication that is signless and without attainment; then the Buddha's own three levels of weighing, the gods' four praises, the judgement of the five negations, and the teaching of being equal to liberation raise rejoicing 「心不著」 tr. "with the mind unattached" to its proper place as supreme, foremost, most wondrous, unsurpassed, and without equal—this is precisely the tenet Maitreya established in the First Part, which here passes through the gate of difficulty and gains its real meaning; at the end the treatise-author guards against the sickness of clinging to emptiness with the three kinds of marks, runs through the depth of the ten headings with the linked chain, clears the remaining doubts with three questions and answers, and gathers up the whole chapter with the five contrasts and the four kinds of people. The First Part established the tenet and met a difficulty; the Last Part breaks the difficulty and completes the tenet: why the merit of rejoicing and dedication is supreme lies not in the breadth of the object or the length of the kalpas, but in the one thought of nothing to be attained according with the real mark of all dharmas—because its result is constantly without end. From beginning to end the chapter answers the same question: how a mind without anything existent dedicates to an awakening without anything existent; and where the answer is complete, there is the supreme rejoicing.