大智度論 六度相攝品之中Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · The Six Perfections Contain One Another, Part 2 of 3

The Six Perfections Contain One Another, Middle Part: Patience, Vigour, Meditation, and Prajñā, Each Gate Taking Up the Other Five—the Shared Frame and the Distinct Marks of Twenty Groups of Mutual Containing

What Is Being Asked

In the First Part, what Subhūti asked about was ‘abiding in one perfection and taking up the other five’, and the sūtra text opened its teaching with the two gates of giving and morality at the head: abiding in giving and taking up morality, taking up patience, taking up vigour, taking up meditation, taking up prajñā; abiding in morality, likewise each taking up its five; ten groups of questions and answers, each set out in its own text. The treatise-author then opened the fascicle and explained them, pointing out the two grounds on which practising one and containing five is possible—first, the power of skilful means; second, that conditioned dharmas complete one another because their causes and conditions continue one into another—and set down the general frame 「以一波羅蜜為主，餘波羅蜜有分」 tr. "one perfection is taken as the master, and the other perfections have a share". The Middle Part carries this on and pushes the same form of question on to the remaining four gates: abiding in patience, abiding in vigour, abiding in meditation, abiding in prajñā, each taking up the other five perfections; all twenty groups are set out in full.

This unit has only sūtra text and no treatise explanation—the treatise-author's explanation comes only in the Last Part, where he answers them all together. So in reading the Middle Part, what one reads is twenty patterns issued from the Buddha's own mouth. And when the patterns are many, the doubts most easily born are three: first, are the twenty groups perhaps only the same sentence with a few names changed? Second, since abiding in one perfection can contain the five, is not setting the six perfections apart superfluous? Third, what do these 「取」 tr. "take up" take up in the end—an act, a kind of mind, or a fruit?

The sūtra text itself buries the answers in its format. The frame of each group is by and large one and the same: first it gives the present practice of the perfection in which he abides, next the matters of the other perfections born from this practice; nine of the groups moreover close with the sentence in which 「持是功德」 tr. "he holds this merit" in common with beings and 「迴向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "dedicates it to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi" (its text reads either 「與一切眾生共之」 tr. "holds it in common with all beings" or 「與眾生共之」 tr. "holds it in common with beings"); and at the end all twenty groups seal it with ‘This is the bodhisattva abiding in such-and-such a perfection and taking up such-and-such a perfection’. The frame is the same, yet the flesh and blood differ—the giving born of abiding in patience is, while being cut and severed, still to think of giving food and giving drink; the giving born of abiding in vigour is to walk through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds only in order to teach one person; the giving born of abiding in meditation is, with the concentrated mind not scattered, to practise the gift of Dharma and the gift of wealth; the giving born of abiding in prajñā is to contemplate the three things—giver, receiver, and wealth—as all empty, so that stingy clinging does not arise. The same character 「檀」 tr. "dāna" shows an entirely different face under each of the four gates. From this it can be seen that mutual containing is not a shifting of names; it is the power of one perfection reaching through into the matters of another perfection: the matter is still that same matter, but the power that sets it moving has changed its root.

Look again at the character 「取」 tr. "take up". In the twenty groups, the perfection taken up is never a new piece of homework set up separately; each is a face brought out of itself when the perfection in which he abides itself turns: patience carried to its utmost of itself does not begrudge giving; vigour carried to its utmost of itself passes through all the worlds without weariness; meditation carried to its utmost of itself keeps the mind unscattered, and all goodness gets practised; prajñā carried to its utmost of itself has nothing to be attained in any dharma, and all practices are pure. Therefore 「取」 tr. "take up" is not taking a thing from outside; it is, upon the practice itself, bringing to light the share the other practices already have in it. This is precisely the working-out in practice of the frame the treatise-author set up in the First Part, 「以一波羅蜜為主，餘波羅蜜有分」 tr. "one perfection is taken as the master, and the other perfections have a share".

What is to be seen clearly in the Middle Part, then, is two things: what the one frame is that the twenty groups keep in common, and where, beneath the frame, the distinct mark of each gate lies.

Passage by Passage

1. Abiding in patience, taking up giving—while being cut and severed, still forming the thought that he should give. The sūtra text first brings out the gate of patience. The bodhisattva, 「從初發心乃至坐道場」 tr. "from the first arousing of the mind until he sits at the seat of awakening", in the interval, if all beings come with hatred to revile and curse him, and even 「若節節支解」 tr. "if they cut him apart joint by joint", abides in patience, and yet at this very time forms the thought that he should give: if they need food he gives food, if they need drink he gives drink, and so on up to giving them everything needed to sustain life. The crucial point lies in the timing—it is not practising giving on a day when nothing is happening; it is thinking of giving at the very moment of being cut apart. That patience can give rise to giving is precisely because patience has already cut off the opposition of ‘I am being harmed’; once the opposition is cut off, what the eye sees is no longer an assailant, only one who is asking for something, and the mind of giving connects of itself. At the end, 「是菩薩迴向時不生二心」 tr. "when this bodhisattva dedicates, he does not give rise to two kinds of mind": the two kinds of mind that do not arise are—who is the one who dedicates? To where is it dedicated? Since the mark of giving and the mark of patience have both vanished, in dedication too no agent and no object can be set up.

2. Abiding in patience, taking up morality—not taking life, not taking what is not given, and so on up to no wrong views. The same gate of patience turns out the mark of morality: from the first arousing of the mind until he sits at the seat of awakening, 「終不奪他命、不與不取，乃至不邪見」 tr. "he never takes the life of another, does not take what is not given, and so on up to not holding wrong views", and moreover 「不貪聲聞、辟支佛地」 tr. "does not covet the ground of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha". The items of the ten wholesome paths have their middle bracketed by 「乃至」 tr. "and so on up to", with only the two ends, head and tail, set out in the text; this is the constant form of this sūtra and must not be read as upholding only three. The crucial point lies in the last sentence: not coveting the ground of the two vehicles is also counted within morality—morality as morality does not here stop at body and speech not transgressing; it also means that one's aspiration does not lean aside; seeking to settle one's own matter alone is itself a lacking share of morality. What does not arise at dedication in this group is 「三種心」 tr. "three kinds of mind": who dedicates to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi? With what dharma is it dedicated? To where is it dedicated? It has one question more than the previous group. Two kinds of mind in the previous group, three kinds in this group: the difference in number is not a copying error; it is argued by increasing the number at this place—the one who dedicates, the dharma used, and the place towards which it goes: only when all three things have vanished together is the purity of dedication spoken of to the end.

3. Abiding in patience, taking up vigour—passing through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds to teach one person to uphold the five precepts. The gate of patience turns out vigour: the bodhisattva abides in patience and gives rise to vigour, thinking that he should go one yojana, and so on up to hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of yojana, passing through one world, and so on up to passing through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds, 「乃至教一人令持五戒」 tr. "even if only to teach one person and cause him to uphold the five precepts", how much more to cause him to obtain the four fruits, the pratyekabuddha path, anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The force of this group lies wholly in the proportion—the road extremely far and the hope extremely small: as far as hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds, only so that one person may keep five precepts. Reckoned by results, this journey is in any case not worth making; only with patience holding it up from beneath can one walk it. What patience endures is not only harm but also futility: doing without yet seeing its effect, practising without yet seeing its reward, and still non-retrogressing—this is exactly the difficulty of vigour, and patience resolves it on vigour's behalf.

4. Abiding in patience, taking up meditation—the dhyānas and the limbs of dhyāna all unfindable. The gate of patience turns out the mark of meditation: departing from desire, departing from evil and unwholesome dharmas, with initial and sustained thought, with joy and bliss born of separation, he enters the first dhyāna, and so on up to the fourth dhyāna; 「是諸禪中淨心、心數法，皆迴向薩婆若」 tr. "the pure mind and the mental-factor dharmas within these dhyānas he dedicates, all of them, to sarvajñā". The reason meditation is tied to patience is that what entering concentration fears most is hatred and worry and regret—once a single thought is vexed by someone, the mind cannot abide securely; once patience goes first, the gate of concentration opens of itself. And the close of this group is most important: 「迴向時，是菩薩諸禪及禪支皆不可得。」 tr. "When he dedicates, this bodhisattva's dhyānas and the limbs of dhyāna are all unfindable." Having entered the four dhyānas he does not cling to the state of concentration; even the limbs of dhyāna are unfindable—unfindable does not mean non-existent; it means not forming the thought that they really exist; if a thought of grasping and clinging arises towards the concentration attained, the dhyāna becomes a retribution within the three realms and does not become a pāramitā.

5. Abiding in patience, taking up prajñā—the mark of separation, the mark of quiescence, the mark of inexhaustibility, and yet not realising. The gate of patience turns out prajñā: he contemplates dharmas 「若離相、若寂滅相、若無盡相」 tr. "as either the mark of separation, or the mark of quiescence, or the mark of inexhaustibility", yet 「不以寂滅相作證」 tr. "does not take realisation by the mark of quiescence", and so on up to sitting at the seat of awakening and obtaining the omniscience of all kinds; rising from the seat of awakening, he then turns the wheel of the Dharma. The key here lies in the two Chinese characters ‘not realising’—seeing quiescence and not taking realisation is the place where the bodhisattva and the two vehicles part ways. Why can patience accomplish this not-realising? Because not realising is exactly the hardest thing of all to bear: nirvāṇa is before one's eyes and one does not enter it; this is practising great patience with regard to dharmas. The last sentence of the sūtra text further sets out its reason: 「不取不捨故」 tr. "because of neither taking nor giving up"—not taking quiescence, and not giving up quiescence either; both sides are left behind, and prajñā is then accomplished. This sentence also concludes the five groups of the gate of patience.

6. Abiding in vigour, taking up giving—passing through worlds without obtaining a single person, and still not lazy. The gate of vigour first brings out the mark of giving. The bodhisattva abides in vigour, 「身心精進，不懈不息」 tr. "with vigour of body and of mind, not lazy, not resting", thinking: I must certainly obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, and should not fail to obtain it. For the sake of benefiting beings, he goes one yojana, and so on up to passing through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds; this group and the third group look like repetition, but in fact they complete each other as obverse and reverse: that one is being able, because of patience, to travel far for one person; this one supposes that he travels far and 「不能得一人」 tr. "cannot obtain one person" to teach and cause to enter the Buddha path, or obtains only one person to teach to practise the ten wholesome paths, and is still 「精進不懈」 tr. "vigorous and not lazy", causing him to be fulfilled with the gift of Dharma and the gift of wealth. The crucial point is that the worst outcome has already been allowed for in advance—even if not a single person is delivered, he walks on just the same. Vigour as vigour is not tied to whether there is a fruit or not; and precisely because it is not tied to the fruit, the gift of Dharma and the gift of wealth given to others are truly pure giving.

7. Abiding in vigour, taking up morality—the fourfold: not doing it oneself, teaching others not to do it, praising the dharma, praising the person. The gate of vigour turns out the mark of morality: himself not killing, not teaching others to kill, 「讚不殺生法，歡喜讚歎不殺生者」 tr. "praising the dharma of not killing, and joyfully praising those who do not kill"; and so on up to the single item of wrong views, likewise with the fourfold complete. One precept opens into four matters—upholding it oneself, urging others, praising its dharma, praising its people; this is exactly the mark of vigour upon morality: morality could of itself guard only one's own person, and vigour pushes it on until it pervades others, pervades the dharma, pervades persons. What follows further states his aim: not seeking the merit of the three realms, not seeking the ground of the two vehicles, and at dedication not giving rise to three kinds of mind—「不見迴向者，不見迴向法，不見迴向處」 tr. "he does not see that there is one who dedicates, does not see that there is a dharma of dedicating, does not see that there is a place to which it is dedicated". Read these three sentences against the three questions of the second group: that one makes them vanish by questioning, this one makes them vanish by not seeing; the words differ and the meaning is the same.

8. Abiding in vigour, taking up patience—the thought ‘Who is it that cuts me?’ and the thought that the body he took is being taken back. The gate of vigour turns out the mark of patience: if a human or a non-human comes and cuts him apart joint by joint, the bodhisattva thinks: 「割我者誰？截我者誰？奪我者誰？」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me? Who is it that severs me? Who is it that robs me?" And then he forms a second thought: 「我大得善利，我為眾生故受身，眾生還自來取。」 tr. "I greatly obtain the good benefit; it is for the sake of beings that I took a body, and beings come back of themselves to take it." The first thought breaks the self; the later thought turns harm into giving—this body was originally taken for the sake of beings, and beings today come of themselves to take it for use: it is precisely a thing returning to its original owner. After the two thoughts, 「是時菩薩正憶念諸法實相」 tr. "at this time the bodhisattva rightly recollects the real mark of all dharmas". The crucial point is that the patience of this group is not suppression: first, by questioning, it breaks the self that undergoes; then, by the original vow, it releases the matter undergone; last, it abides securely in the real mark; the three layers go in sequence, each deeper than the last, and all three require effort, and so it is tied to the gate of vigour.

9. Abiding in vigour, taking up meditation—holding the concentrations without receiving their retribution, and being born where he benefits beings. The gate of vigour turns out the mark of meditation: he enters the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, and so on up to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, and yet 「持是禪、無量心、無色定，不受果報」 tr. "he holds these dhyānas, immeasurable minds, and formless absorptions, yet does not receive their retribution"; he is born in a place where he benefits beings, brings beings to accomplishment with the six perfections, goes from one buddha-land to another buddha-land, draws near to the buddhas and makes offerings to them, and plants roots of goodness. The most important thing in this group is the four Chinese characters 「不受果報」 tr. "does not receive their retribution"—having cultivated and attained the four dhyānas and the eight concentrations, he ought by retribution to be born in the form realm or the formless realm, yet the bodhisattva does not receive this retribution, preferring to be born where he can be of use. Giving up the long-lived bliss of the heavens and taking up the conditions for delivering beings in the human world—this giving up is exactly what vigour does: concentration already accomplished, yet unwilling to rest, and so he does not receive its retribution.

10. Abiding in vigour, taking up prajñā—not seeing the dharma, not seeing the mark; what he does is as what he says. The gate of vigour turns out prajñā: he does not see the dharma of dānapāramitā and does not see the mark of dānapāramitā, and so on up to dhyānapāramitā likewise; the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds—「亦不見法，亦不見相」 tr. "he neither sees their dharma nor sees their mark"; 「不見一切法，非法、非非法」 tr. "he does not see any dharma; it is not a dharma, and it is also not what is not a dharma", and within all dharmas he clings to nothing. The last sentence is especially important: 「是菩薩所作如所言。」 tr. "What this bodhisattva does is as what he says." All along the way before, it spoke of not seeing and of not clinging; if this were only grasped in the mouth, it would become empty talk; the sūtra text at once makes it solid with one sentence on word and deed agreeing—one who truly does not see will surely do as he says. The prajñā under the gate of vigour has its weight not on the height of understanding, but on understanding and practice not being two.

11. Abiding in meditation, taking up giving—with the mind not scattered, practising the two gifts. The gate of meditation first brings out the mark of giving: he enters the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, and so on up to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, 「住禪波羅蜜中，心不亂」 tr. "abiding within dhyānapāramitā, his mind not scattered", and practises the two gifts to bestow on beings: the gift of Dharma and the gift of wealth; practising them himself, teaching others, praising their dharma, praising those who practise them—the fourfold complete. This group is of the same format as the fourfold of the seventh group, but what it is tied to differs: that one is tied to the pervasiveness of vigour, this one to the concentrated mind not being scattered. What giving fears most is a floating mind—when giving, reckoning how much, reckoning whether the receiver deserves it, reckoning fame; once the power of concentration is deep, these floating movements cease of themselves, and giving can then be pure. Concentration giving rise to giving does not mean doing, within concentration, a separate piece of homework called giving; it is only that where the mind is not scattered, giving is of itself without admixture.

12. Abiding in meditation, taking up morality—not giving rise to the minds of the three poisons, not giving rise to a mind of vexing others. The gate of meditation turns out the mark of morality, and the text is extremely brief: 「不生婬欲、瞋恚、愚癡心，不生惱他心，但修行一切智相應心。」 tr. "He does not give rise to a mind of lust, of hatred, or of delusion, does not give rise to a mind of vexing and harming others, and cultivates only the mind associated with omniscience." The marks of morality in the groups listed before are mostly set out in the text from matters of body and speech; this group alone sets it out from the mind—the morality of the gate of concentration is morality at the place where the mind has not yet arisen. The three poisons of lust, hatred, and delusion, and the mind of vexing others, are all subdued by meditative concentration; subdued and not arising—this is the highest grade of morality. And the last sentence especially must not be passed over: it is not only not giving rise to an evil mind; it is also 「但修行一切智相應心」 tr. "cultivating only the mind associated with omniscience"—beyond stopping evil there is also a direction, and only then does morality not fall into a dry guarding.

13. Abiding in meditation, taking up patience—the five aggregates like a mass of foam, a bubble, a mirage, a plantain tree, an illusion. The gate of meditation turns out the mark of patience: he contemplates form as like a mass of foam, feeling as like a bubble, perception as like a mirage, constructions as like a plantain tree, consciousness as like an illusion; when he contemplates thus, 「見五眾無堅固相」 tr. "he sees that the five aggregates have no mark of firmness", and then thinks: Who is it that cuts me? Who is it that severs me? Who is feeling, who is perception, who is constructions, who is consciousness? Who is it that reviles? Who is it that is reviled? Who gives rise to hatred? The five similes correspond one by one to the five aggregates and must not be lumped together vaguely: the mass of foam is a simile for form, heaped up and hollow; the bubble for feeling, arising in an instant and ceasing in an instant; the mirage for perception, which seen from afar looks like water and approached is nothing; the plantain tree for constructions, peeled layer by layer to the end with nothing real; the illusion for consciousness, appearing yet not existing. The five similes once clear, the six questions follow—from 「割我者誰」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me?" straight through to 「誰生瞋恚」 tr. "Who gives rise to hatred?", questioning into emptiness both the one who is angry and that at which he is angry. This group and the eighth group both begin with 「割我者誰」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me?", but that one breaks the self by questioning and turns the matter by the original vow, while this one first scatters the five aggregates with the five similes and then exhausts agent and object with the six questions; one is tied to vigour, the other to meditative concentration: their points of entry are clearly distinct.

14. Abiding in meditation, taking up vigour—grasping at marks to give rise to the five supernormal powers, and going to and fro among buddha-lands. The gate of meditation turns out vigour: having entered the four dhyānas, 「是諸禪及支，取相」 tr. "upon these dhyānas and their limbs he grasps at marks", and gives rise to the various supernormal powers—the supernormal power of going at will, walking on water as though on the ground and entering the earth as though entering water; the supernormal power of the divine ear, hearing the two kinds of sound, of gods and of humans; the supernormal power of knowing others' minds, knowing the collected mind, the distracted mind, and so on up to the surpassable mind and the unsurpassable mind; the supernormal power of former lives, recollecting various former lives; the supernormal power of the divine eye, seeing beings receive retribution according to their deeds. The bodhisattva abides in these five supernormal powers and goes from one buddha-world to another buddha-world, draws near to the buddhas and makes offerings to them, plants roots of goodness, brings beings to accomplishment, and purifies buddha-worlds. In this group one must attend to a usage that looks contradictory: the fourth group says 「諸禪及禪支皆不可得」 tr. "the dhyānas and the limbs of dhyāna are all unfindable", while this group says 「取相」 tr. "grasps at marks". The two do not obstruct each other—that one speaks with regard to dedication, and so they are unfindable; this one speaks with regard to giving rise to the powers, and so marks must be grasped. Supernormal powers arise by grasping at marks within concentration; that is how such dharmas are; grasping at marks to give rise to the powers, and, the powers accomplished, using them to go to and fro among buddha-lands and bring beings to accomplishment—this is exactly the matter of vigour. Concentration without grasping at marks has no powers; powers not used for beings have no vigour—take the two sentences together, and only then is the meaning of this group complete.

15. Abiding in meditation, taking up prajñā—not finding, and so not making; suchness, the mark of dharmas, and the nature of dharmas abiding constantly. The gate of meditation turns out prajñā: he does not find form or feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, does not find the six perfections, does not find the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds, does not find the conditioned nature or the unconditioned nature; 「不得故不作，不作故不生，不生故不滅」 tr. "because he does not find, he does not make; because he does not make, it does not arise; because it does not arise, it does not cease". These three sentences, pushing straight down one from another, are the bone of this group. And at the end it sets out its reason: 「有佛、無佛，是如、法相、法性常住、不生不滅。」 tr. "Whether there are buddhas or there is no buddha, this suchness, the mark of dharmas, and the nature of dharmas abide constantly, neither arising nor ceasing." Neither arising nor ceasing is not something cultivated into being; it is so from the beginning; what the bodhisattva does is only not falsely to find something to attain upon it. The closing sentence, 「常一心應薩婆若行」 tr. "he constantly practises with a single mind associated with sarvajñā"—practising in association with a single mind is exactly the true colour of the gate of meditation: prajñā here is understood not as contemplative wisdom but as concentration and wisdom not two.

16. Abiding in prajñā, taking up giving—within the fourteen emptinesses, the three things of giver, receiver, and wealth are empty. The gate of prajñā first brings out the mark of giving; of the twenty groups it is a long passage second only to the last group. First it sets out the meaning of emptiness: inner emptiness, and inner emptiness is unfindable; outer emptiness, inner-and-outer emptiness, the emptiness of emptiness, and so on up to the emptiness of all dharmas, and the emptiness of all dharmas is unfindable; the bodhisattva 「住是十四空中」 tr. "abides within these fourteen emptinesses", does not find the mark of form to be either empty or not empty, and so on up to not finding anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi to be either empty or not empty, does not find the conditioned nature or the unconditioned nature to be either empty or not empty. Here the double denial 「若空、若不空」 tr. "either empty or not empty" is the eye of the passage—not only is clinging to existence not allowed, even clinging to emptiness is not allowed. Next it enters giving: whatever he gives, food and drink, clothing, and the various things that sustain life, 「觀是布施空」 tr. "he contemplates this giving as empty", and he himself sets a question and answers it: 「何等空？施者、受者及財物空」 tr. "What is empty? The giver, the receiver, and the wealth are empty", and so the mind of stingy clinging does not arise. The crucial point lies in the ground given in what follows: the bodhisattva practising prajñā, 「從初發意乃至坐道場，無有妄想分別」 tr. "from the first arousing of intent until he sits at the seat of awakening, has no false thinking and discrimination"; just as the buddhas, when they obtain awakening, have no mind of stingy clinging, so too is the bodhisattva. The reason stinginess can be cut off is not holding it down so as not to be stingy; it is that the three things are already empty and stinginess has nowhere to cling. The last sentence, 「是菩薩所可尊者，般若波羅蜜」 tr. "what this bodhisattva honours is prajñāpāramitā"—within the one passage what is honoured lies only in prajñā, and giving is what issues from it.

17. Abiding in prajñā, taking up morality—because the ground of the two vehicles is unfindable, the mind for it does not arise. The gate of prajñā turns out the mark of morality: he does not give rise to the mind of the śrāvaka or the pratyekabuddha. Why does it not arise? The sūtra text answers for itself: 「聲聞、辟支佛地不可得，趣向聲聞、辟支佛心亦不可得。」 tr. "The ground of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha is unfindable, and the mind that tends toward the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha is also unfindable." This takes a different direction from the 「不貪」 tr. "does not covet" of the second group—that one is not coveting in aspiration, this one is unfindability in principle; because it is unfindable there is nothing to tend toward, and without waiting for suppression the mind of itself does not arise. Below it the text of the fourfold ten wholesome paths is still given: himself not killing, not teaching others to kill, praising the dharma of not killing, joyfully praising those who do not kill, and so on up to the single item of wrong views. And the closing sentence sets out its utmost: 「以是持戒無法可取，若聲聞、若辟支佛地，何況餘法！」 tr. "With such upholding of the precepts there is not one dharma to be taken—not even the ground of the śrāvaka or of the pratyekabuddha, how much less the other dharmas!" Upholding the precepts with not one dharma to be taken—here the mark of morality is entirely pure; not taking even the highest fruit-positions of the two vehicles, let alone the rest.

18. Abiding in prajñā, taking up patience—within dharmas there is no one who receives cutting and severing, and yet beings undergo suffering and vexation. The gate of prajñā turns out the mark of patience: acceptance in accord with the Dharma arises, and he thinks that within this Dharma there is no dharma that either rises or ceases, either is born or dies, either receives reviling or harsh speech, either is cut or severed, either is broken, bound, beaten, or killed. The bodhisattva, from the first arousing of intent until he sits at the seat of awakening, even if he meets all beings reviling him with harsh speech, and with knives, staves, tiles, and stones cutting, severing, and injuring him, 「心不動」 tr. "his mind is unmoved". And the most moving point of this group is the last thought: 「甚可怪！此諸法中無有法受罵詈、惡口、割截、傷害者，而眾生受苦惱！」 tr. "How strange! Within these dharmas there is not one dharma that receives reviling, harsh speech, cutting and severing, or injury, and yet beings are undergoing suffering and vexation!" The first half is the seeing of prajñā—within dharmas there is really no one harmed; the second half is the feeling of kindness and compassion—and yet beings, of all things, are suffering. The two set side by side within one thought show precisely that the bodhisattva's patience is not cold: seeing that dharmas are non-self does not obstruct seeing that beings truly suffer, and what is strange is exactly this layer of dislocation. If there were only the first half, one would fall into one-sided emptiness; if only the second half, it would be the same as ordinary feeling.

19. Abiding in prajñā, taking up vigour—teaching the Dharma for beings without abiding in the two natures. The gate of prajñā turns out vigour: he teaches the Dharma for beings, causing them to practise the six perfections, teaching them to practise the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, causing them to obtain the four fruits and the pratyekabuddha path, causing them to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The dharmas taught go from shallow to deep, the fruits obtained from the first fruit to the Buddha-fruit, set out fully all the way—this is exactly the pervasiveness of vigour. And the closing sentence makes a turn: 「不住有為性中，不住無為性中。」 tr. "He does not abide in the conditioned nature, nor does he abide in the unconditioned nature." Teaching the Dharma and delivering beings, with its matters in profusion, is the conditioned; and what prajñā abides in is neither conditioned nor unconditioned. Once these two sentences stand, none of the matters of transforming others listed before become bonds any longer—not abiding in the conditioned, he is not burdened by matters; not abiding in the unconditioned, he does not abandon beings. The vigour under the gate of prajñā has its force here.

20. Abiding in prajñā, taking up meditation—the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the lion's rousing, the leaping samādhi. The gate of prajñā last brings out the mark of meditation; this is also the end of the twenty groups, and its text is the most detailed. First the general heading: apart from the samādhi of the buddhas, all the other samādhi—the samādhi of the śrāvakas, of the pratyekabuddhas, of the bodhisattvas—he 「皆行、皆入」 tr. "practises them all and enters them all". Next it lists the eight liberations one by one: with the mark of form within, contemplating form outside is the first; without the mark of form within, contemplating form outside is the second; the pure liberation, realised in the body, is the third; passing beyond the marks of form, extinguishing the marks of resistance, and entering the sphere of immeasurable space is the fourth; passing beyond the sphere of space and entering the sphere of boundless consciousness is the fifth; passing beyond the sphere of consciousness and entering the sphere of nothing whatsoever is the sixth; passing beyond the sphere of nothing whatsoever and entering the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception is the seventh; passing beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception and entering the sphere of the cessation of feeling and perception is the eighth. Next it lists the nine successive absorptions: departing from desire, departing from all evil and unwholesome dharmas, and so on up to passing beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception and entering the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception, entered and left in reverse and forward order. Relying on these two he enters the samādhi of the lion's rousing: from the first dhyāna in sequence upward straight into the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception, then from the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception back into the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, withdrawing step by step down to the first dhyāna—going up and down and back without skipping a step, like the rousing and wheeling of a lion. Relying on the samādhi of the lion's rousing he enters the leaping samādhi: first from below in sequence up to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception and into the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception; after that it no longer goes in sequence—rising from the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception he returns into the first dhyāna, rising from the first dhyāna he enters the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception; rising from the absorption of cessation he returns into the second dhyāna, rising from the second dhyāna he enters the absorption of cessation; so too the third dhyāna, the fourth dhyāna, the sphere of space, the sphere of consciousness, the sphere of nothing whatsoever, the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, each going back and forth with the absorption of cessation; and so on up to the absorption of cessation and the scattered mind entering one another, and again from the scattered mind entering the higher absorptions step by step and returning to abide in the scattered mind, withdrawing all the way from the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception down to the first dhyāna. The sūtra text here does not weary of listing them one by one, precisely because leaping as leaping lies in these real traces, leap after leap; abridge them and only a name remains. The closing sentence, 「得諸法等相」 tr. "obtains the mark of the equality of dharmas"—the absorptions are far apart in height, yet entering and leaving them is unobstructed, and in the practitioner's mind there is no longer high or low to be found: this is the mark of equality. And what makes it possible is tied to prajñā; therefore this group closes with meditation, yet its master is still prajñā. With this the twenty groups are finished.

Do Not Misread

Do not read the twenty groups as twenty repetitions of the same sentence. The frame is by and large one and the same—the present practice of the perfection in which he abides, and the matters of the other perfections born along with it; the sentence of dedication to awakening is in half the groups, and the sealing name is in all twenty groups; yet the flesh and blood differ group by group: all alike take up giving, but the gate of patience takes it up in still thinking of giving food while being cut and severed; the gate of vigour takes it up in, even without obtaining a single person, still causing fulfilment with the two gifts of Dharma and wealth; the gate of meditation takes it up in practising the two gifts with the mind not scattered; the gate of prajñā takes it up in the three things all being empty and the mind of stinginess not arising. If one reads it as repetition and skims past, one commits precisely the fault this chapter least allows—the sūtra text lists every permutation precisely so that one may see clearly that for one matter the four gates each have their own point of entry.

Do not read 「取」 tr. "take up" as doing another piece of homework. The perfection taken up in the twenty groups is never another practice started outside the perfection in which he abides; it is a face brought out of itself when the perfection in which he abides turns. Patience going deep, the mind of giving opens of itself; vigour at its utmost, it passes through everywhere without weariness; meditation at the point of concentration, all goodness gets practised; prajñā at the very bottom, all practices are pure. If one reads it as ‘first abide in this perfection, then cultivate that perfection’, one reads ‘containing one another’ as ‘succeeding one another’, and the meaning of the sūtra text is entirely lost.

Do not use the fourth group's 「諸禪及禪支皆不可得」 tr. "the dhyānas and the limbs of dhyāna are all unfindable" to refute the fourteenth group's 「是諸禪及支，取相」 tr. "upon these dhyānas and their limbs he grasps at marks". The two sentences stand in different positions: one speaks with regard to dedication, and so they are unfindable—if one forms the thought that the concentration attained really exists, the dhyāna becomes a retribution within the three realms; one speaks with regard to giving rise to the powers, and so marks must be grasped—supernormal powers arise by grasping at marks within concentration; that is how such dharmas are. To challenge this with that, or that with this, is in either case to mix up differing positions into a contradiction.

Do not read the second group's 「三種心」 tr. "three kinds of mind" and the first group's 「二心」 tr. "two kinds of mind" as unevenness in the sūtra text. The two kinds of mind are: who is the one who dedicates, and to where it is dedicated; the three kinds of mind add one more question, 「用何法迴向」 tr. "with what dharma is it dedicated". This is argued by increasing the number at a given place, not a difference of present and absent—the person who dedicates, the dharma used, and the place towards which it goes: all three things must originally vanish; the earlier group raises two of them, the later group gives all three; the reader must not on this ground judge the sūtra text inconsistent from front to back.

Do not read the sixteenth group's 「十四空」 tr. "fourteen emptinesses" as a fixed number of emptinesses. This sūtra usually speaks of the eighteen emptinesses; here it lists only inner emptiness, outer emptiness, inner-and-outer emptiness, the emptiness of emptiness, and so on up to the emptiness of all dharmas, and calls them fourteen; the number is set according to what this passage uses, which suffices for the matter, and there is no need to seek further to complete the list. The opening and closing of emptiness differ from place to place; to cling to one fixed number becomes, on the contrary, a new attaining.

Do not read the eighteenth group's 「甚可怪」 tr. "How strange!" as a rhetorical counter-question in the manner of debate. This phrase is not the tone of argument; it is the bodhisattva's exclamation of wonder on seeing the dislocation for himself—within dharmas there is really no one harmed, and yet beings really are suffering. Seeing the first half and losing the second, one falls into one-sided emptiness; seeing the second half and losing the first, it is the same as ordinary feeling. Only when the two halves are together in a single thought is it the patience within the gate of prajñā.

Bearing on Practice

First recognise which gate you yourself abide in. The twenty groups do not ask a person to do all of them; they give you a table for comparison: one whose nature leans to patience gives rise to the other five from patience; one whose nature leans to vigour gives rise to them from vigour; meditation and prajñā likewise. Rather than spreading effort evenly and going deep nowhere, it is better to recognise the one perfection in which you yourself are most effective, and from that gate bring out the other five—this is exactly the practical use that the sūtra text's ‘abiding in one perfection and taking up the five perfections’ gives to practitioners.

When giving, first ask whether the three things have fallen empty. The sixteenth group gives the best place to set one's hand: when giving, only contemplate that the giver, the receiver, and the wealth are all unfindable, and the mind of stingy clinging has nowhere to take root. There is no need first to fight the stingy mind head-on; only see the three things as empty, and stinginess loses its support of itself. Practising this for long, look back at those moments of ‘I cannot let this go’: most often, one of the three things was being taken as real.

When vexed by someone, take the two roads of the gate of patience and the gate of prajñā. The road of the gate of patience is the eighth group: first ask 「割我者誰」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me?", removing the self that undergoes; then think that this body was originally taken for the sake of beings, and now beings come of themselves to take it for use. The road of the gate of prajñā is the eighteenth group: see that within this Dharma there is not one dharma undergoing reviling, cutting, and severing, and then towards beings' undergoing suffering give rise to the compassionate thought 「甚可怪」 tr. "How strange!". The former is near, the latter deep; whichever gives strength right now, use that one; there is no need to force oneself to the deeper.

When states appear in the course of practice, remember the difference in position between 「皆不可得」 tr. "all unfindable" and 「取相」 tr. "grasps at marks". The pure mind and mental-factor dharmas attained within concentration are all, without exception, dedicated to sarvajñā and not thought of as really existing—this is the teaching of the fourth group; if, for the benefit of others, one must set a function going, then grasp at marks to give rise to the function, and there is no need to suspect oneself of clinging to marks—this is the teaching of the fourteenth group. The criterion is only one: is what one does for enjoying the state oneself, or for going to and fro among buddha-lands and bringing beings to accomplishment?

When doing things for the benefit of others brings no result, do not lessen the practice. The sixth group says it most clearly—even having passed through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of worlds, he still 「不能得一人」 tr. "cannot obtain one person" to teach and cause to enter the Buddha path, or obtains only one person to teach to practise the ten wholesome paths, and is still vigorous and not lazy, causing him to be fulfilled with the gift of Dharma and the gift of wealth. Examine yourself by this: if one becomes lazy because there is no result, what one was practising was originally a mind seeking results, not the perfection of vigour.

Check the mind of transforming others by 「不住有為性中，不住無為性中」 tr. "He does not abide in the conditioned nature, nor does he abide in the unconditioned nature". When one has done much teaching of the Dharma and delivering of beings, one is easily burdened by matters and grows weary—this is abiding in the conditioned; withdrawing to guard stillness and being too lazy to respond to others is abiding in the unconditioned. The nineteenth group sets both sides aside together—not abiding in matters, one is not burdened; not abiding in stillness, one does not abandon people. In the midst of daily dealings, let these two sentences shine on one at all times.

Further Resonances

The Middle Part is purely sūtra text; the pattern of twenty groups of mutual containing is here listed in full, while the treatise-author's explanation waits for the Last Part. The First Part has already set up its outline—because of the power of skilful means, practising one contains five; because the causes and conditions of conditioned dharmas continue one into another, they complete one another; one perfection is taken as the master and the other perfections have a share; what the Middle Part does is to make this outline solid, one by one, upon the four gates of patience, vigour, meditation, and prajñā. As for why the treatise-author takes only one perfection as the master, the difference in what householder bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas who have gone forth practise, and the six rounds of general-mark text in which each of the six perfections is taken as the head and each is complete with all six perfections within a single thought—all of these are in the Last Part, and are not anticipated here.

Among the ancient masters' divisions and explanations of this chapter, Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra is concise and very much to the point: from this chapter on, it says, it 「明一一行中具足眾行」 tr. "makes clear that within each single practice all practices are complete", and he himself sets up a question and answer to settle the meaning of the containing—「問：此中是何物攝耶？答：此是相生攝，以本攝末。」 tr. "Question: what kind of containing is this here? Answer: this is containing by mutual generation, the root containing the branches." The single phrase ‘containing by mutual generation’ can precisely resolve this unit's doubt about the character 「取」 tr. "take up": what is taken up arises by mutual generation out of what one abides in; it is not taking some separate thing. Jizang further distinguishes the containing of this chapter from the containing of the earlier chapter "Eloquence": the earlier one makes clear mutual containing, wishing by the many merits of the manifold practices to accomplish its power together, showing the great force of adornment; the present one makes clear the arising of all practices within each single perfection, in order to show skilful means—one shows power and function, one shows skilful means, and so the positions of the containing in the two chapters become clear.

Huiying's Commentary, explaining this fascicle, divides out its format passage by passage for this unit, judging the part from 「須菩提白佛言」 tr. "Subhūti addressed the Buddha" onward as 「第三、次明以忍為頭攝生諸波羅蜜義」 tr. "Third, next making clear the meaning of taking patience as the head, containing and giving rise to the perfections", and analysing the group of abiding in patience and taking up giving into three layers: cutting apart joint by joint and so on is the meaning of patience; from ‘he has this thought: I should give’ and so on onward makes clear the meaning of giving arising because of patience; from ‘he holds this merit’ and so on up to ‘does not give rise to two kinds of mind’ onward makes clear its meaning as pāramitā; and with one sentence he runs through all twenty groups—「一一波羅蜜相生攝中，盡於具足有此三意義也。」 tr. "Within the containing by mutual generation of each single perfection, all without exception fully have these three meanings." Every group of this unit can be read by these three layers. On the difference between the two kinds of mind and the three kinds, he says 「所以上明二心，今云三種者，為作增數辯之」 tr. "The reason that above it makes clear two kinds of mind and now speaks of three kinds is that it argues by increasing the number"; on the fourteen emptinesses, he says 「今者此中說十四空，始從內空至一切法空，於事為足，更不須故，但云十四也」 tr. "Now here fourteen emptinesses are spoken of, beginning from inner emptiness up to the emptiness of all dharmas; for the matter this suffices and no more is needed, and so it says only fourteen"; on the difference between the leaping samādhi and the lion's rousing, he says that the rousing is entering in sequence from below upward and coming back down in sequence from above, while the leaping is going up in sequence from below and, once having entered the top, leaping from above into the lower, and again leaping from below into the higher, entering and leaving in sequence and by leaps; and he records the limit of the two vehicles—「二乘但能超一，不能爾也」 tr. "The two vehicles can only leap over one; they cannot do this"; finally, on the sentence 「得諸法等相」 tr. "obtains the mark of the equality of dharmas" he judges: 「明其波羅蜜義也」 tr. "it makes clear its meaning as pāramitā". Divisions and explanations of this kind by the various masters are recorded in this exposition without judging which is better or worse.