大智度論 四攝品之上Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · The Four Means of Gathering, Part 1 of 3

The Four Means of Gathering, First Part: Why Dharmas Are Still Distinguished within Ultimate Emptiness; Why the Buddha First Speaks of Ordinary People Still Giving Rise to the Three Kinds of Deeds within Dreams and Conjurations; Teaching the Dharma in the Two Emptinesses and the Pulling Out in Sequence by Skilful Means; Why the Dharma Rare and Hard to Equal Begins from the Six Perfections Obtained as Retribution; One and the Same Giving and the Distinction of Fields of Merit; Not Giving Rise to Two Minds When the Body Is Begged; Making Dānapāramitā Complete within Ultimate Emptiness; the Six Things Seen by the Buddha-eye; Gathering In by the Four Things and the Two Gifts of Wealth and Dharma; the Noble Dharma without Outflows and Its Fruit; How the Bodhisattva Differs from the Buddha; the World-transcending Dharmas Not Shared with Ordinary People, Item by Item

What Is Being Asked

The preceding chapter, "The Six Similes", spoke of the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration, and went on to speak of the signless, of what cannot be discriminated, and of the emptiness of specific marks. With the talk come this far, a very impolite sentence will rise in the hearer's mind: since everything is a dream, are good and evil still to be distinguished or not? Are the four fruits still accomplished or not? At the opening of this chapter, what Subhūti asks is exactly this sentence—「若諸法如夢、如響、如影、如焰、如幻、如化，無有實事、無所有性、自相空者，云何分別是善法、是不善法」 tr. "If all dharmas are like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration, without real substance, without any existent nature, and empty of specific marks, how is it distinguished that this is a wholesome dharma, this is an unwholesome dharma", counting all the way to with outflows and without outflows, conditioned and unconditioned, the four fruits of the śramaṇa, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. This is not a new question; it was already asked once at the end of the preceding chapter; asking it again here is retying the same dead knot tighter from another angle: what was asked before was ‘why one still cultivates within emptiness’; what is asked this time is ‘why one still distinguishes within emptiness’.

The Buddha's answer has a posture well worth noticing: he does not argue from the principle of emptiness, but first speaks of a fact—「凡夫愚人得夢、得見夢者，乃至得化、得見化者，起身口意善業、不善業、無記業」 tr. "ordinary foolish people find the dream and find the one who sees the dream, and so on up to finding the conjuration and finding the one who sees the conjuration, and give rise to wholesome deeds, unwholesome deeds, and indeterminate deeds of body, speech, and mind". The dream is false, yet the deeds that arise in the dream truly arise; though dharmas are without anything existent, on the side of ordinary people they really and substantially come to be existent. That distinction can stand is not because dharmas have self-nature; it is because inversion is actively present. This move answers with great steadiness: it does not deny emptiness, and it does not deny deeds either.

Next the Buddha at once turns the head of the talk to the bodhisattva, and says two sentences in one breath—the bodhisattva 「住二空中——畢竟空、無始空」 tr. "abides in the two emptinesses—ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness" and teaches beings that the aggregates, the sense-fields, and the elements are all empty and all like a dream; having said this, at once 「以方便力故，於慳法中拔出眾生，教行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "by reason of the power of skilful means he pulls beings out from the dharma of stinginess and teaches them to practise dānapāramitā", and after that morality, after that dhyāna, after that the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the three gates of liberation, and so on up to the four fruits and the three vehicles. The one who speaks of emptiness most thoroughly is precisely the one who pulls people upward step by step. Read these two sentences together and the joint of the whole chapter lies within them: emptiness is spoken in order to pull out, not in order to stop. Subhūti therefore praises 「甚希有難及」 tr. "very rare and hard to equal", and the Buddha, having approved, says that this is a matter which 「一切聲聞、辟支佛不能報」 tr. "no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha can requite"; Subhūti presses on to ask what this dharma rare and hard to equal is after all, and the Buddha answers 「一心諦聽！」 tr. "Listen attentively with one mind!", and begins from the six perfections, the five supernormal powers, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the dhāraṇīs, and the unobstructed knowledges obtained as retribution—first the capital is made clear, and only then is it told how it is used.

The first thing it is used for is giving. Here the sūtra is extraordinarily detailed: making offerings to the Buddha and giving to birds and beasts 「無有異」 tr. "are without difference", 「皆無分別，等一布施」 tr. "all without discrimination, one and the same giving"; if the thought arises 「佛是福田，我應供養；禽獸非福田，不應供養」 tr. "The Buddha is a field of merit, I should make offerings; birds and beasts are not a field of merit, I should not make offerings", it is judged outright 「是非菩薩法」 tr. "this is not the bodhisattva's dharma"; when humans and non-humans come to beg the limbs and joints of the body, 「不應生二心」 tr. "he should not give rise to two minds"; and so on until at the last giving is pushed to the bottom—「是中誰與、誰受？所施何物？」 tr. "Who here gives, who receives? What thing is given?" The three things are all unfindable; abiding in ultimate emptiness, inner emptiness, outer emptiness, and so on up to the emptiness of specific marks, he gives, and only this is called 「具足檀波羅蜜」 tr. "making dānapāramitā complete". One and the same, not picking and choosing, not sparing the body, not seeing the three things—four layers, each deeper than the last: this section is the place of densest doctrine in this unit.

Further on, the Buddha begins with 「我以佛眼」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I", and in one row names six things that bodhisattvas of the ten directions are doing: entering the great hells and making the fire go out and the boiling water grow cold; serving as attendants to the buddhas and never in the end forgetting or losing; giving up their lives and cutting and severing their bodies for the sake of animals; removing the suffering of hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts; teaching the Dharma in the six heavens of desire and showing fire burning their palaces; making the Brahmā gods be far from wrong views. They begin from the place of greatest suffering and stop at the place of greatest pleasure and greatest pride—the places of suffering are rescued by supernormal power and by teaching the Dharma, the place of pleasure is startled awake by impermanence, the high place by breaking wrong views. These six things are the actual proof of the earlier 「希有難及」 tr. "rare and hard to equal", and also the lead-in to the four means of gathering below: only when they have been told does the sūtra formally mark out 「以四事攝取眾生。何等為四？布施、愛語、利益、同事。」 tr. "He gathers in beings by four things. What are the four? Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour." And among the four means of gathering, only the one gate of giving is unfolded first; giving is further divided into the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma; the gift of wealth lists the things given and the dharmas taught; the gift of Dharma is divided into worldly and world-transcending; and the world-transcending is further brought home to 「聖無漏法」 tr. "the noble dharma without outflows" and 「聖無漏法果」 tr. "the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows". In between are inserted two questions of Subhūti's—「菩薩摩訶薩得一切種智不？」 tr. "Does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds?" 「菩薩與佛有何等異？」 tr. "What difference is there between the bodhisattva and the Buddha?"—what they ask about is the relation between name and status and what is actually obtained, and the Buddha answers decisively: having obtained the omniscience of all kinds he is named Buddha, because 「菩薩心與佛心無有異」 tr. "the bodhisattva's mind and the Buddha's mind are without difference". At the end a long section lists item by item the world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people, counting from the four foundations of mindfulness all the way to the thirty-two marks, and then closes with the light illumining everywhere and the voice pervading everywhere.

So what the single unit of the First Part has to answer is in fact three questions: why within emptiness there is still the distinction of good and evil and of the various fruits; why the one who speaks of emptiness is precisely the one who gathers in the living most strongly; and why giving, the first of the means of gathering in the living, must reach 「無與、無奪」 tr. "no giving and no taking away" before it counts as complete.

Passage by Passage

1. Subhūti's question—within dream, echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration, without real substance, without any existent nature, and empty of specific marks, how are dharmas distinguished? At the opening of the sūtra, Subhūti says to the Buddha: 「若諸法如夢、如響、如影、如焰、如幻、如化，無有實事、無所有性、自相空者，云何分別是善法、是不善法，是世間法、是出世間法，是有漏法、是無漏法，是有為法、是無為法」 tr. "If all dharmas are like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration, without real substance, without any existent nature, and empty of specific marks, how is it distinguished that this is a wholesome dharma, this is an unwholesome dharma; this is a worldly dharma, this is a world-transcending dharma; this is a dharma with outflows, this is a dharma without outflows; this is a conditioned dharma, this is an unconditioned dharma", and so on up to 「是法能得須陀洹果，能得斯陀含果、阿那含果、阿羅漢果，能得辟支佛道，能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」 tr. "that this dharma can obtain the fruit of the srota-āpanna, can obtain the fruit of the sakṛdāgāmin, the fruit of the anāgāmin, the fruit of the arhat, can obtain the path of the pratyekabuddha, can obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?" The six similes come first, the four pairs of mutually dependent dharmas after, and at the end the question is concluded with the four fruits of the śramaṇa, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and unsurpassed awakening. The whole force of this question lies in the three Chinese characters 「自相空」 tr. "empty of specific marks": if even specific marks are empty, then the one who distinguishes and what is distinguished fall into emptiness together; good and evil are not accomplished, and the noble fruits do not stand. It is not that Subhūti does not believe in emptiness; on behalf of those hearing the Dharma he pushes the meaning of emptiness to its very end, to see how the Buddha stands firm at that end.

2. The first move of the Buddha's answer—ordinary people still give rise to the three kinds of deeds within dreams and conjurations. The Buddha does not first speak of principle; he first raises a fact: 「凡夫愚人得夢、得見夢者，乃至得化、得見化者，起身口意善業、不善業、無記業，起福業、若起罪業、作不動業。」 tr. "Ordinary foolish people find the dream and find the one who sees the dream, and so on up to finding the conjuration and finding the one who sees the conjuration, and give rise to wholesome deeds, unwholesome deeds, and indeterminate deeds of body, speech, and mind; they give rise to deeds of merit, or give rise to deeds of sin, or do immovable deeds." To find the dream is to receive the dream-world; to find the one who sees the dream is to receive along with it even that ‘I who am dreaming’. Within these layer upon layer of unreality, people just the same give rise to the three kinds of deeds of body, speech, and mind, just the same make good, make evil, make the indeterminate, just the same incur the retributions of merit, of sin, and of the immovable. ‘Immovable deeds’ refers to the absorption-deeds of the four dhyānas and the four formless absorptions, which incur retribution in the form realm and the formless realm, and so differ from the shaking of good and evil in the desire realm. With this answer the Buddha moves the centre of gravity of the question from ‘whether dharmas exist or not’ to ‘what has become of people’: that distinction can stand does not hang on dharmas having self-nature; it hangs on inversion being actively present. The dream is false; the terror and craving within the dream truly arise—this is where good and evil and their retribution come to be established.

3. The bodhisattva abides in the two emptinesses and teaches beings that the aggregates, the sense-fields, and the elements are empty. Next the Buddha speaks of what the bodhisattva practises: 「是菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜，住二空中——畢竟空、無始空，為眾生說法」 tr. "This bodhisattva-mahāsattva, practising prajñāpāramitā, abides in the two emptinesses—ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness—and teaches the Dharma for beings". The Dharma that is taught, the sūtra spreads out without leaving out a single character: form is empty and without anything existent; feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness are empty and without anything existent; the twelve sense-fields and the eighteen elements are empty and without anything existent; form is a dream, feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness are a dream; and so on up to the twelve sense-fields and the eighteen elements are a dream, are an echo, are a shadow, are a mirage, are an illusion, are a conjuration. And then it goes one layer further, removing even the side that is able to receive—「是中無陰、入、界，無夢亦無見夢者」 tr. "within this there are no aggregates, no sense-fields, no elements; there is no dream and also no one who sees the dream", and so on up to there is no conjuration and also no one who sees the conjuration. At the end it points out the root of the sickness: 「一切法無根本實性無所有」 tr. "all dharmas are without root, without real nature, without anything existent", while you 「於無陰中見有陰、無入見有入、無界見有界」 tr. "within what has no aggregates see that there are aggregates; within what has no sense-fields see that there are sense-fields; within what has no elements see that there are elements"; all of it arises from the coming together of causes and conditions, arises from an inverted mind, and belongs to the retribution of deeds; 「汝等何以故於諸法空無根本中而取根本相？」 tr. "why do you, within dharmas that are empty and without root, grasp at the root-mark?" The ‘two emptinesses’ are raised together here, each breaking one side: ultimate emptiness breaks the real existence of dharmas, beginningless emptiness breaks the first limit of time—people always want, at the very front of time, to find a starting point for birth and death, and beginningless emptiness is exactly what cuts off that thought. The bodhisattva's teaching begins from breaking the dharmas that are seen and stops at breaking the person who sees, and finally lands on a question in return, without pronouncing a verdict—handing the matter of 「取根本相」 tr. "grasping at the root-mark" back to the hearers to look at for themselves.

4. The pulling out in sequence by the power of skilful means—pulled out from stinginess, set in nirvāṇa without remainder and in the path to nirvāṇa. Emptiness having been spoken to the full, the sūtra immediately turns around: 「是時，菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜，以方便力故，於慳法中拔出眾生，教行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "At this time the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, practising prajñāpāramitā, by reason of the power of skilful means pulls beings out from the dharma of stinginess and teaches them to practise dānapāramitā"; by the merit of holding to giving they obtain a great reward of merit; he pulls them out from the great reward of merit and teaches them to keep morality; the merit of keeping morality brings birth in a noble place among the gods; again he pulls them out and makes them abide in the first dhyāna; the merit of the first dhyāna brings birth in the place of Brahmā; the second, third, and fourth dhyānas and the four formless absorptions are also like this. And then the whole is gathered up: by all kinds of causes and conditions—giving and its retribution, keeping morality and its retribution, meditative concentration and its retribution—he pulls them out and 「安置無餘涅槃及涅槃道中」 tr. "sets them in nirvāṇa without remainder and in the path to nirvāṇa", namely the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, the three gates of liberation, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, and the eighteen unshared dharmas; 「令住聖無漏法——無色、無形、無對法中」 tr. "he makes them abide in the noble dharma without outflows—within the dharma without form, without shape, without resistance", and according to what each can obtain he sets them in the four fruits, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. What is most worth savouring in this section is that the two Chinese characters 「拔出」 tr. "pull out" appear again and again: pulled out from stinginess, pulled out from the great reward of merit, pulled out from the first dhyāna. The retribution of the preceding step is precisely the place the next step must pull away from—even good places must be pulled out of, because one who stops in a good place cannot go up. And the three expressions ‘without form, without shape, without resistance’ say that the noble dharma without outflows is not a thing that can be caught and held in the hand: without material obstruction, without shape or mark, without anything set over against it; therefore to be set in it is not the same as to be set in a noble place among the gods. Speaking of emptiness and setting up a sequence join into one matter in this section.

5. Subhūti's praise and the Buddha's approval—what the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot requite. Subhūti says to the Buddha: 「諸菩薩摩訶薩甚希有難及，能行是深般若波羅蜜，諸法無所有性，畢竟空、無始空，而分別諸法是善、是不善」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are very rare and hard to equal: they can practise this deep prajñāpāramitā, where dharmas are without any existent nature, are ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness, and yet distinguish dharmas as wholesome, as unwholesome", and so on up to as conditioned, as unconditioned. The Buddha answers 「如是！如是！」 tr. "Just so! Just so!", restates his words and approves them, and goes one sentence further: 「須菩提！汝等若知是菩薩摩訶薩希有難及法，則知一切聲聞、辟支佛不能報，何況餘人！」 tr. "Subhūti! If you know this dharma of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, rare and hard to equal, then you know that no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha can requite it, how much less other people!" Subhūti speaks again: 「何等是菩薩摩訶薩希有難及法，諸聲聞、辟支佛所無有？」 tr. "What is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's dharma, rare and hard to equal, that the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas do not have?" Praise—approval—further question: within these three turns the topic shifts from ‘why there is distinction within emptiness’ to ‘how the bodhisattva can be like this’. The phrase ‘cannot requite’ is worth pausing on: it does not say that those of the two vehicles are not as honoured as the bodhisattva; it says that, toward the bodhisattva's acting in this way, those of the two vehicles cannot even speak of answering or repaying—they are not of the same order of magnitude, so there is no way to repay in kind. Subhūti's further question forces out the main text of the whole chapter.

6. The general statement of the dharma rare and hard to equal—abiding in the six perfections and the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution, he gathers in according to what is fitting. The Buddha answers: 「一心諦聽！」 tr. "Listen attentively with one mind!", and then says that the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, 「住報得六波羅蜜中及住報得五神通、三十七助道法，住諸陀羅尼、諸無礙智」 tr. "abides in the six perfections obtained as retribution, and abides in the five supernormal powers and the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path obtained as retribution, abides in the dhāraṇīs and the unobstructed knowledges", and goes to the worlds of the ten directions: those who can be delivered by giving he gathers by giving, those who can be delivered by keeping morality he gathers by keeping morality, and patience, vigour, meditative concentration, and wisdom likewise—「隨其所應而攝取之」 tr. "he gathers them in according to what is fitting for them"; the first dhyāna and so on up to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception likewise, kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity likewise, the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, and the emptiness, signless, and non-action samādhi likewise. The two Chinese characters ‘obtained as retribution’ are the eye of this section: these are not cultivated on the spot, but are complete of themselves in retribution—the six perfections, the five supernormal powers, the dharmas that aid the path, the dhāraṇīs, and the unobstructed knowledges are all incurred by former causes, and are ready to hand when used. Only when the capital is sufficient can one speak of 「隨其所應」 tr. "according to what is fitting"; without the equipment obtained as retribution, so-called responding to beings according to their capacities is nothing but empty talk. This section is the general statement; the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma below, and so on up to the six things seen by the Buddha-eye, are all the unfolding of this one sentence.

7. Benefiting beings by giving, one—one and the same giving, not making the distinction of field of merit and not field of merit. Subhūti asks: 「菩薩摩訶薩云何以布施饒益眾生？」 tr. "How does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva benefit beings by giving?" The Buddha answers that when the bodhisattva practises prajñā he gives, and according to what each needs—food and drink, clothing, carriages and horses, incense and flowers, necklaces, all kinds of things needed—he gives it all; and then he states the criterion: 「若供養佛、辟支佛、阿羅漢、阿那含、斯陀含、須陀洹等無有異；若施入正道中人及凡人，下至禽獸，皆無分別，等一布施。」 tr. "Whether he makes offerings to the Buddha, the pratyekabuddha, the arhat, the anāgāmin, the sakṛdāgāmin, the srota-āpanna, and so on, there is no difference; whether he gives to people who have entered the right path or to ordinary people, down to birds and beasts, all is without discrimination, one and the same giving." The reason is 「一切法不異、不分別故」 tr. "because all dharmas are not different and without discrimination"; having given thus, 「當得無分別法報，所謂一切種智」 tr. "he will obtain the retribution of the dharma without discrimination, namely the omniscience of all kinds". The reverse side is judged outright: if the mind arises 「佛是福田，我應供養；禽獸非福田，不應供養」 tr. "The Buddha is a field of merit, I should make offerings; birds and beasts are not a field of merit, I should not make offerings", 「是非菩薩法」 tr. "this is not the bodhisattva's dharma". It is pushed one step further: the bodhisattva who has aroused the mind does not have the thought 「是眾生應以布施饒益，是不應布施」 tr. "this being should be benefited by giving; this one should not be given to"; if one comes to beg, he also does not give rise to the different mind that discriminates 「應與是，不應與是」 tr. "I should give to this one, I should not give to that one". Why is the judgement made so heavy? The sūtra itself states the reason—「是菩薩為是眾生故發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 tr. "this bodhisattva aroused the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi for the sake of this being"; since he aroused the mind for the sake of all beings, picking and choosing is destroying his own vow; therefore he falls into the place of rebuke by the buddhas and bodhisattvas and so on up to all the gods and humans of the world: 「誰請汝救一切眾生？汝為一切眾生舍、一切眾生護、一切眾生依，而分別簡擇應與、不應與？」 tr. "Who asked you to rescue all beings? You are the house of all beings, the protection of all beings, the refuge of all beings, and yet you discriminate and pick and choose whom you should give to and whom you should not give to?" What matters most in this section is this: that fields of merit are superior and inferior is the principle of seeking merit in the world; the bodhisattva's giving is not established on seeking merit but on 「無分別法報」 tr. "the retribution of the dharma without discrimination"—what he seeks is the omniscience of all kinds, and therefore in the cause he must first be without discrimination.

8. When the limbs and joints of the body are begged, not giving rise to two minds. The sūtra turns one layer deeper: if a human or a non-human comes wishing to beg the limbs and joints of the bodhisattva's body, 「是時不應生二心：『若與？若不與？』」 tr. "at that time he should not give rise to two minds: ‘Shall I give? Or shall I not give?’" Why? 「是菩薩摩訶薩為眾生故受身，眾生來取，何可不與？」 tr. "This bodhisattva-mahāsattva receives his body for the sake of beings; when beings come to take it, how can he not give?" It also records the words of the bodhisattva's own thought: I received this body for the sake of benefiting beings; even if beings do not beg, I should still give it, how much less may I not give when they have begged. The preceding section is not picking and choosing among things outside the body; this section is not hesitating over what is a part of the body itself. The criterion is still the same sentence—since the reason for receiving the body is for the sake of beings, the body is from the first not one's own possession, and one who comes to take it only takes what he should get. The two Chinese characters ‘two minds’ are set down precisely: it does not ask a person to force himself to cut away and give up; it says that the very thought which wavers between ‘giving and not giving’ has in itself already departed from prajñā.

9. Giving within ultimate emptiness—who gives, who receives, what thing is given; because he abides in the emptinesses he makes dānapāramitā complete. Where giving is pushed to the bottom: when the bodhisattva sees one who begs, he should give rise to this thought—「是中誰與、誰受？所施何物？是一切法自性皆不可得，以畢竟空故；空相法，無與、無奪。」 tr. "Who here gives, who receives? What thing is given? The self-nature of all these dharmas is unfindable, because of ultimate emptiness; in the dharma of the mark of emptiness there is no giving and no taking away." The reason is 「畢竟空故，內空故，外空、內外空、大空、第一義空、自相空故」 tr. "because of ultimate emptiness, because of inner emptiness, because of outer emptiness, inner-and-outer emptiness, great emptiness, the emptiness of the highest meaning, and the emptiness of specific marks"; 「住是諸空布施，是時具足檀波羅蜜」 tr. "abiding in these emptinesses he gives, and at that time he makes dānapāramitā complete". And after it is made complete, even if his body is cut and severed, he has this thought: 「截我者誰？割我者誰？」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me off? Who is it that severs me?" The giver, the recipient, and the thing given—the three are all unfindable; the sūtra does not set up a general name for this, yet the matter is here. The two preceding sections are not picking and choosing and not hesitating in the mind; this section is not seeing that the three things exist, in wisdom; the former is the function of kindness and compassion, the latter the substance of prajñā. The four Chinese characters 「無與、無奪」 tr. "no giving and no taking away" most deserve attention: it is not that he does not give; he gives without the mark of giving; precisely because there is no mark of giving, when he is cut he can ask 「截我者誰」 tr. "who is it that cuts me off"—that question is not forced endurance; it is real seeing.

10. What the Buddha-eye sees, one—entering the great hells, the fire goes out and the boiling water grows cold, teaching and transforming by three things. The sūtra turns to actual proof, beginning with 「我以佛眼見東方如恒河沙等諸菩薩摩訶薩入大地獄」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I see bodhisattva-mahāsattvas as many as the sands of the Ganges in the eastern direction entering the great hells". The bodhisattvas 「令火滅湯冷，以三事教化：一者、神通，二者、知他心，三者、說法」 tr. "make the fire go out and the boiling water grow cold, and teach and transform by three things: first, supernormal power; second, knowing others' minds; third, teaching the Dharma": by the power of supernormal power they put out the fire of the hells and cool the boiling cauldrons, they know where the minds of those beings tend, and then with kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity they teach the Dharma according to their intent; the beings give rise to a pure mind toward the bodhisattvas, gain release from the hells, and little by little by the three vehicles come to reach the end of suffering; the southern, western, and northern directions, the four intermediate directions, above and below, are also like this. The sequence of the three things cannot be reversed: when the press of suffering is too urgent, nothing that is said can be taken in, so first supernormal power stills their suffering; if the suffering is stilled but their capacity is not known, what is said will not fit, so next comes knowing others' minds; once the capacity is known, then the Dharma is taught. Rescuing from urgency, recognising the capacity, imparting the Dharma—this is the general sequence of gathering in the living; the hells are only the most extreme example.

11. What the Buddha-eye sees, two—serving as attendants to the buddhas, receiving and upholding without forgetting. 「我以佛眼觀十方世界，見如恒河沙等國土中諸菩薩，為諸佛給使，供養諸佛，隨意愛樂恭敬」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I look upon the worlds of the ten directions and see, in lands as many as the sands of the Ganges, bodhisattvas serving as attendants to the buddhas, making offerings to the buddhas, loving, delighting in, and revering them according to their wishes"; whatever the buddhas teach they can all receive and uphold, 「乃至阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，終不忘失」 tr. "and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, never in the end forgetting or losing it". Among the six things, only this one does not benefit the living below but serves the buddhas above. ‘Attendant’ is the name for one who performs service, and the bodhisattva does not take it as a humiliation; loving, delighting, and revering, and receiving and upholding without forgetting—this is the account of where the capital for gathering in the living is accumulated from: above it was said 「報得六波羅蜜」 tr. "the six perfections obtained as retribution", and here its cause is seen. The power to benefit beings is first obtained from the place of serving.

12. What the Buddha-eye sees, three—giving up their lives for animals; those who eat the flesh get to leave the animal destiny. 「我以佛眼觀十方如恒河沙等國土中諸菩薩摩訶薩，為畜生故，捨其壽命，割截身體，分散諸方。」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I look upon lands as many as the sands of the Ganges in the ten directions, and in them bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, for the sake of animals, give up their own lives, cut and sever their bodies, and scatter them in all directions." And then it tells the effect: 「諸有眾生食是諸菩薩摩訶薩肉者，皆愛敬菩薩；以愛敬故，即得離畜生道」 tr. "All beings who eat the flesh of these bodhisattva-mahāsattvas love and revere the bodhisattvas; because of love and reverence, they at once get to leave the animal destiny"; they meet the buddhas, hear the Dharma, cultivate the practice, and little by little by the three vehicles attain parinirvāṇa in nirvāṇa without remainder. What is hardest to conceive in this matter lies here: the condition for deliverance is not hearing the Dharma but eating flesh; not understanding, but love and reverence. With his body as the condition, the bodhisattva forcibly joins up a stretch of causes and conditions that had no gate of Dharma by which to enter. The sūtra gives no explanation in principle here and only records the matter—as for why it is so, in the single unit of the Middle Part the treatise-author has his own question and answer. What is to be noticed here is that this is the extreme, in the realm of events, of the earlier ‘not giving rise to two minds when the limbs and joints of the body are begged’: there it was not hesitating; here it is actively scattering in all directions.

13. What the Buddha-eye sees, four—removing the suffering of hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts. 「我以佛眼見十方如恒河沙等國土中諸菩薩摩訶薩除諸餓鬼飢渴苦」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I see, in lands as many as the sands of the Ganges in the ten directions, bodhisattva-mahāsattvas removing the suffering of hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts"; the hungry ghosts all love and revere the bodhisattvas, and because of love and reverence they get to leave the hungry-ghost destiny, meet the buddhas, hear the Dharma, cultivate the practice, and little by little by the three vehicles attain parinirvāṇa. The last sentence is where this section lands: 「菩薩摩訶薩為度眾生故，行大悲心。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, for the sake of delivering beings, practises the mind of great compassion." The suffering of the hungry ghosts lies in hunger and thirst, so what is given is food and drink; it is woven on the same loom as the preceding section's taking the fleshly body as the condition, and here the sūtra explicitly marks the name ‘great compassion’. Among the three evil destinies, the hells are relieved of suffering by supernormal power, the animals have the flesh of the body as their condition, the hungry ghosts are relieved of suffering by food and drink—though what is given differs, the road to deliverance is one: all enter through love and reverence.

14. What the Buddha-eye sees, five—teaching the Dharma in the six heavens of desire and showing fire arising. 「我以佛眼見諸菩薩摩訶薩在四天王天上說法」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I see bodhisattva-mahāsattvas teaching the Dharma in the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings"; in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, the Yāma heaven, the Tuṣita heaven, the Heaven of Delight in Transformation, and the heaven of the gods Sovereign over Others' Transformations they also teach the Dharma; the gods, hearing the Dharma, little by little by the three vehicles attain passing into extinction. Among them are those who crave and cling to the five desires: 「是菩薩示現火起，燒其宮殿，而為說法」 tr. "this bodhisattva shows a fire arising and burning their palaces, and teaches the Dharma for them", saying these words: 「諸天！一切有為法悉皆無常，誰得安者？」 tr. "Gods! All conditioned dharmas are wholly impermanent; who can obtain security?" The sickness of the evil destinies lies in suffering; the sickness of the heavenly destiny lies in pleasure. In the place of suffering, the suffering must first be removed before the Dharma can be taken in; in the place of pleasure, the pleasure must first be destroyed before they can wake up—the fire burning the palaces is not a disaster; it is the preliminary skilful means of teaching the Dharma, and the Dharma taught is only one sentence on impermanence. 「誰得安者」 tr. "who can obtain security" is a question, not a verdict: it lets the gods themselves go looking for that place of secure abiding; when they cannot find it, the principle of impermanence stands up of itself.

15. What the Buddha-eye sees, six—making the Brahmā gods be far from wrong views. 「我以佛眼觀十方世界，見如恒河沙等國土中諸梵天著於邪見」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I look upon the worlds of the ten directions and see, in lands as many as the sands of the Ganges, Brahmā gods clinging to wrong views"; the bodhisattvas teach them to be far from wrong views, saying these words: 「汝等云何於空相虛妄諸法中而生邪見？」 tr. "Why do you give rise to wrong views within dharmas whose mark is empty and which are false?" And then it concludes: 「菩薩摩訶薩住大慈心，為眾生說法。須菩提！是為諸菩薩希有難及法。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the mind of great kindness and teaches the Dharma for beings. Subhūti! This is the bodhisattvas' dharma, rare and hard to equal." The Brahmā gods have already parted from the defilement of desire; their sickness lies not in craving pleasure but in views—upon dharmas whose mark is empty and false they falsely reckon real existence, and so wrong views arise. Therefore the medicine used is not supernormal power, not food and drink, not impermanence, but directly pointing out that the dharmas they cling to are from the first empty and void. With this the six things form one series: the hells, extreme suffering; the animals, without knowing; the hungry ghosts, hunger and thirst; the gods, clinging to the five desires; the Brahmā gods, clinging to views; and serving as attendants to the buddhas—told from the suffering of the body to the delusion of the mind, the higher, the subtler the sickness. And as for what runs through the six things, the first five hang on compassion and this one hangs on 「大慈心」 tr. "the mind of great kindness", and the last sentence further gathers all up with 「希有難及法」 tr. "the dharma rare and hard to equal", answering Subhūti's further question in the fifth section.

16. The general heading of gathering in by the four things. The sūtra formally sets up the heading: 「我以佛眼觀十方世界如恒河沙等國土中，諸菩薩摩訶薩以四事攝取眾生。何等為四？布施、愛語、利益、同事。」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I look upon lands as many as the sands of the Ganges in the worlds of the ten directions, and the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas gather in beings by four things. What are the four? Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour." The names of the four are here only marked and not yet explained—‘giving’ is giving wealth and Dharma to people; ‘kind speech’ is meeting them with agreeable words; ‘beneficial action’ is encouraging and guiding their practice so that they gain benefit; ‘shared endeavour’ is sharing in what they do and then transforming them. The sūtra's explanation is completed only in the single unit of the Last Part; this unit unfolds only the one gate of giving. The chapter name 「四攝」 tr. "the four means of gathering" comes precisely from these four Chinese characters; and as for why the whole chapter puts giving first and alone treats it broadly, in the single unit of the Middle Part the treatise-author has his own question and answer, which is not anticipated here.

17. Gathering in by giving is of two—the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma. 「云何菩薩以布施攝取眾生？須菩提！菩薩以二種施攝取眾生：財施、法施。」 tr. "How does the bodhisattva gather in beings by giving? Subhūti! The bodhisattva gathers in beings by two kinds of giving: the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma." The division of the two gifts is the skeleton of this section: the gift of wealth gives the things that are needed; the gift of Dharma gives the dharmas to be practised. In the section on the gift of wealth below, the things given are listed first and immediately followed by the dharmas taught; in the section on the gift of Dharma, it is divided into worldly and world-transcending. An arrangement can be seen in advance: the end of the gift of wealth always comes home to teaching the Dharma, the end of the gift of Dharma always comes home to the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows—among the bodhisattva's gifts, not one road stops at the thing given.

18. Gathering in by the gift of wealth—the things given and the dharmas taught. 「何等財施攝取眾生？」 tr. "What is gathering in beings by the gift of wealth?" The sūtra first lists the things: gold, silver, beryl, sphaṭika, pearls, conch-shell, coral, and other precious things, or food and drink, clothing, bedding, dwellings, lamps and candles, flowers, incense, necklaces, or men, or women, or oxen, sheep, elephants, horses, and carriages, or his own body, given to beings; and he tells beings: 「汝等若有所須，各來取之，如取己物，莫得疑難！」 tr. "If you have any need, each of you come and take it, as if taking your own things; have no hesitation!" And then it lists the dharmas: having given, he teaches the three refuges, or teaches the five precepts or the one-day precepts, or teaches the first dhyāna and so on up to the absorption of neither perception nor non-perception, or teaches kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, or teaches recollection of the Buddha, recollection of the Dharma, recollection of the Saṅgha, recollection of morality, recollection of giving, and recollection of the gods, or teaches the contemplation of impurity and the ānāpāna contemplation, 「或相、或觸」 tr. "or the marks, or contact"; or teaches the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, the three samādhi, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas, great kindness and great compassion, the thirty-two marks, and the eighty minor marks; or teaches the four fruits of the śramaṇa, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. At the end it gathers up the whole: teaching beings by the power of skilful means, 「財施已，後教令得無上安隱涅槃」 tr. "having given the gift of wealth, he afterwards teaches them and makes them obtain the unsurpassed nirvāṇa of peace and security"; this is named the bodhisattva's dharma rare and hard to equal. The things listed run from precious jewels down to his own body, corresponding to ‘begging the limbs and joints of the body’ in the eighth section—his own body listed at the end of what is given shows exactly where the bottom line of the gift of wealth lies. The dharmas taught begin from the three refuges and the five precepts and rise all the way to unsurpassed awakening, the sequence plainly in view. Among them, the two expressions 「或相、或觸」 tr. "or the marks, or contact", said in close sequence with the ānāpāna contemplation, the sūtra only names and does not explain further; they are the marks to which one is bound and the places that are touched in the practice of mindfulness of the breath; this unit does not force an explanation on them. The joint of the whole section lies in 「財施已，後教令得」 tr. "having given the gift of wealth, he afterwards teaches them and makes them obtain"—wealth is the first step of drawing them in, not the end point of giving.

19. The two kinds of gift of Dharma—worldly and world-transcending. 「須菩提！菩薩云何以法施攝取眾生？須菩提！法施有二種：一者、世間，二者、出世間。」 tr. "Subhūti! How does the bodhisattva gather in beings by the gift of Dharma? Subhūti! The gift of Dharma is of two kinds: first, worldly; second, world-transcending." The worldly gift of Dharma is 「敷演、顯示世間法，所謂不淨觀、安那般那念、四禪、四無量心、四無色定」 tr. "setting forth and expounding, disclosing and pointing out worldly dharmas, namely the contemplation of impurity, mindfulness of ānāpāna, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, and the four formless absorptions", 「及諸餘共凡夫所行法，是名世間法施」 tr. "and the other dharmas practised in common with ordinary people—this is named the worldly gift of Dharma". And the bodhisattva, having made this worldly gift of Dharma, 「以種種因緣教化，令遠離世間法」 tr. "teaches and transforms them by all kinds of causes and conditions and makes them far from worldly dharmas"; when they are far from them, by the power of skilful means he 「令得聖無漏法及聖無漏法果」 tr. "makes them obtain the noble dharma without outflows and the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows". The criterion of this section is the five Chinese characters 「共凡夫所行」 tr. "practised in common with ordinary people": the contemplation of impurity, counting the breaths, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions can be cultivated and obtained even by ordinary people and those of the outside paths, so they are included in the worldly. And when the bodhisattva gives these worldly dharmas, his intent is not to make people abide in them—first he gives them, then makes them part from them, and then imparts the world-transcending. It is wholly the same in structure as the section on the gift of wealth: first give him what he wants, then give him what he ought to want.

20. The noble dharma without outflows and the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows. The sūtra sets itself two questions: 「何等是聖無漏法？何等是聖無漏法果？」 tr. "What is the noble dharma without outflows? What is the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows?" First it answers: 「聖無漏法者，三十七助道法、三解脫門。聖無漏法果者，須陀洹果乃至阿羅漢果，辟支佛道，阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "The noble dharma without outflows is the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path and the three gates of liberation. The fruit of the noble dharma without outflows is the fruit of the srota-āpanna and so on up to the fruit of the arhat, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." And then it says it once more, on the bodhisattva's own side: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's noble dharma without outflows is the wisdom within the four fruits of the śramaṇa, the wisdom within the path of the pratyekabuddha, the wisdom within the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the wisdom within the six perfections, and so on up to the wisdom within great kindness and great compassion—all such dharmas as these, 「若世間若出世間智慧、若有漏若無漏、若有為若無為，是法中一切種智，是名菩薩摩訶薩聖無漏法」 tr. "whether worldly or world-transcending wisdom, whether with outflows or without outflows, whether conditioned or unconditioned: the omniscience of all kinds within these dharmas—this is named the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's noble dharma without outflows". Its fruit is: 「斷一切煩惱習，是名聖無漏法果。」 tr. "Cutting off all the afflictions and their habitual residues—this is named the fruit of the noble dharma without outflows." The difference between the two answers must be seen clearly: the first answer speaks generally of what the three vehicles share; the second is the meaning peculiar to the bodhisattva's side—the bodhisattva's noble dharma without outflows is not the thirty-seven limbs of the path themselves, but the omniscience of all kinds that arises pervading all dharmas (whether worldly or world-transcending, with or without outflows, conditioned or unconditioned); and its fruit too does not stop at cutting off the afflictions but lies in 「斷一切煩惱習」 tr. "cutting off all the afflictions and their habitual residues", cutting off completely even the last embers of the habitual residues. This answers precisely Subhūti's question in the first section: the distinctions of wholesome and unwholesome, worldly and world-transcending, with and without outflows, conditioned and unconditioned, far from hindering prajñā, are precisely the sphere the omniscience of all kinds illumines.

21. Subhūti's two questions—does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds, and what difference is there between the bodhisattva and the Buddha. Subhūti says to the Buddha: 「菩薩摩訶薩得一切種智不？」 tr. "Does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds?" The Buddha says: 「如是！如是！須菩提！菩薩摩訶薩得一切種智。」 tr. "Just so! Just so! Subhūti! The bodhisattva-mahāsattva obtains the omniscience of all kinds." Subhūti asks again: 「菩薩與佛有何等異？」 tr. "What difference is there between the bodhisattva and the Buddha?" The Buddha says: 「有異。菩薩摩訶薩得一切種智，是名為佛。所以者何？菩薩心與佛心無有異。」 tr. "There is a difference. The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, having obtained the omniscience of all kinds, is named Buddha. Why? The bodhisattva's mind and the Buddha's mind are without difference." And then he continues: 「菩薩住是一切種智中，於一切法無不照明，是名菩薩摩訶薩世間法施。須菩提！菩薩摩訶薩因世間法施，得出世間法施。」 tr. "The bodhisattva abides within this omniscience of all kinds, and there is nothing among all dharmas that he does not illumine; this is named the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's worldly gift of Dharma. Subhūti! Because of the worldly gift of Dharma the bodhisattva-mahāsattva obtains the world-transcending gift of Dharma." These two questions are linked like a chain: since above it was said that the bodhisattva's noble dharma without outflows is precisely the omniscience of all kinds, then is the bodhisattva not simply the Buddha? Subhūti raises this pressing question on the reader's behalf. The Buddha answers with great measure—first he says 「有異」 tr. "there is a difference", yet he speaks of the difference not in the mind but in the name: having obtained the omniscience of all kinds he is named Buddha, while the mind is without difference. What differs is name, status, and rank; what does not differ is the mind that realises. This answer is of one vein with the earlier 「一切法不異、不分別」 tr. "all dharmas are not different and without discrimination": even the difference between bodhisattva and Buddha falls only on the names and words of worldly truth. At the end the talk is brought back to the gift of Dharma: abiding in the omniscience of all kinds, and there being nothing among all dharmas that he does not illumine—this is the bodhisattva's worldly gift of Dharma; only when one illumines clearly can one give; and that the world-transcending gift of Dharma is brought forth from the worldly gift of Dharma is exactly the same sequence as ‘first give them, then make them part from it’ in the section above.

22. The general heading of the world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people. 「須菩提！何等是菩薩出世間法不共凡夫法同？」 tr. "Subhūti! What are the bodhisattva's world-transcending dharmas, not the same as the dharmas of ordinary people?" The sūtra lists the headings: the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of supernormal power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven limbs of awakening, the eightfold noble path, the three gates of liberation, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas, the thirty-two marks, the eighty minor marks, and the five hundred dhāraṇī gates—「是名出世間法」 tr. "these are named world-transcending dharmas". This list stands in direct contrast with 「共凡夫所行法」 tr. "the dharmas practised in common with ordinary people" in the nineteenth section: there the criterion was being shared with ordinary people, here it is not being shared with ordinary people. It is worth noticing that the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor marks are also listed among the 「不共」 tr. "unshared"—the marks and minor signs are in themselves form-dharmas; why do they enter the number of the world-transcending and unshared? The sūtra does not explain this here; in the single unit of the Middle Part the treatise-author has his own question and answer. What follows unfolds item by item, and is the longest stretch of this unit; since the sūtra names item by item and then itself explains item by item, here the explanation follows what it explains, and where it only names and does not explain, nothing is forcibly added either.

23. The four foundations of mindfulness. 「菩薩摩訶薩觀內身循身觀、觀外身循身觀、觀內外身循身觀，勤精進，以一心智慧觀身、觀身集因緣、觀身滅、觀身集生滅；行是道，無所依，於世間無所愛。受、心、法念處，亦如是。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva contemplates the inner body, contemplating by following the body through; contemplates the outer body, contemplating by following the body through; contemplates the inner-and-outer body, contemplating by following the body through; diligently and with vigour, with the wisdom of a single mind, he contemplates the body, contemplates the causes and conditions of the body's arising, contemplates the cessation of the body, contemplates the arising of the body together with its birth and cessation; practising this path, he has nothing he relies on, and toward the world he has nothing he craves. The foundations of mindfulness of feeling, of mind, and of dharmas are also like this." ‘Contemplating by following the body through’ is contemplating the body with respect to the body, not leaving the object contemplated to raise imaginings elsewhere; inner, outer, and inner-and-outer are one's own body, others' bodies, and both contemplated together. Then the four turns—contemplating the body, contemplating the causes and conditions by which the body arises, contemplating the cessation of the body, contemplating the body's arising together with its birth and cessation—are seeing, from the mark now present, how it comes and how it goes. The last two phrases are why the bodhisattva's foundation of mindfulness differs from ordinary people's contemplation of the body: 「無所依」 tr. "he has nothing he relies on" is not taking a footing on the dharma contemplated; 「於世間無所愛」 tr. "toward the world he has nothing he craves" is the contemplation accomplished and yet not grasped. The three foundations of mindfulness of feeling, mind, and dharmas the sūtra exemplifies with 「亦如是」 tr. "are also like this".

24. The four right efforts. 「未生惡不善法，為不生故，勤、生欲、精進；已生惡不善法，為斷故，勤、生欲、精進；未生善法，為生故，勤、生欲、精進；已生諸善法，為增長修具足故，勤、生欲、精進；是名四正勤。」 tr. "For evil and unwholesome dharmas not yet arisen, in order that they not arise, he strives diligently, gives rise to desire, and is vigorous; for evil and unwholesome dharmas already arisen, in order to cut them off, he strives diligently, gives rise to desire, and is vigorous; for wholesome dharmas not yet arisen, in order that they arise, he strives diligently, gives rise to desire, and is vigorous; for the wholesome dharmas already arisen, in order to increase them, cultivate them, and make them complete, he strives diligently, gives rise to desire, and is vigorous; this is named the four right efforts." The four things divide into two pairs: evil dharmas not yet arisen and already arisen, answered by not arising and by cutting off; wholesome dharmas not yet arisen and already arisen, answered by arising and by increasing, cultivating, and making complete. Every one of them is bound to the same three terms—「勤、生欲、精進」 tr. "striving diligently, giving rise to desire, being vigorous": striving diligently is spurring on, giving rise to desire is raising a mind of glad wishing, being vigorous is continuing without falling back. The crucial point is 「生欲」 tr. "giving rise to desire": right effort is not forcing oneself to hold on; it is first to raise the mind that wants to do it, for the strength of compulsion cannot last long.

25. The four bases of supernormal power. 「欲三昧斷行成就初如意足，精進三昧、心三昧、思惟三昧斷行成就如意足。」 tr. "The first basis of supernormal power, accomplished by the samādhi of desire and the practice of cutting off; and the bases of supernormal power accomplished by the samādhi of vigour, the samādhi of mind, and the samādhi of reflection and the practice of cutting off." The four are distinguished by desire, vigour, mind, and reflection, and all take 「三昧」 tr. "samādhi" as their substance and 「斷行成就」 tr. "accomplished by the practice of cutting off" as their cultivation. Desire is glad wishing, vigour is exertion, mind is one-pointedness, reflection is investigation; by four gates one enters absorption, each following its own strength. ‘The practice of cutting off’ is cutting off the practices that go against or along with it, so that the absorption is accomplished. Here the sūtra is extremely brief: it only marks their names and the mark of their accomplishment, and does not further explain their function.

26. The five faculties and the five powers. 「云何為五根？信根、精進根、念根、定根、慧根。」 tr. "What are the five faculties? The faculty of faith, the faculty of vigour, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of wisdom." 「云何為五力？信力、精進力、念力、定力、慧力。」 tr. "What are the five powers? The power of faith, the power of vigour, the power of mindfulness, the power of concentration, the power of wisdom." The two share the same names under different designations: the five things faith, vigour, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom are named ‘faculties’ with respect to their being able to give rise to wholesome dharmas, and named ‘powers’ with respect to their not being destroyed. Here the sūtra only lists their names and does not further explain their marks—since these names are, together with the four foundations of mindfulness and what follows, items of the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, their meaning lies of itself in the way the items run through one another; this unit explains according to what the sūtra has, and does not add according to what the sūtra does not have.

27. The seven limbs of awakening. 「念覺分、擇法覺分、精進覺分、喜覺分、除息覺分、定覺分、捨覺分。」 tr. "The mindfulness limb of awakening, the limb of awakening that investigates dharmas, the vigour limb of awakening, the joy limb of awakening, the removal-and-rest limb of awakening, the concentration limb of awakening, the equanimity limb of awakening." These seven too are only listed by name. As to the literal meaning of each: mindfulness is binding the mind without forgetting; investigating dharmas is sorting the true from the false; vigour is spurring on without falling back; joy is joy in the Dharma; removal-and-rest is removing coarse heaviness so that body and mind are light and at ease; concentration is the mind's one-pointedness on its object; equanimity is not grasping, not clinging, and being even. 「覺分」 tr. "limb of awakening" means a branch that accomplishes awakening. The sūtra does not explain here, so nothing further is set out.

28. The eightfold noble path. 「正見、正思惟、正語、正業、正命、正精進、正念、正定。」 tr. "Right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right vigour, right mindfulness, right concentration." These eight too are only listed by name. View and thought belong to wisdom; speech, action, and livelihood belong to morality; vigour, mindfulness, and concentration belong to concentration—the three trainings of morality, concentration, and wisdom are here divided into eight limbs. Since the sūtra does not explain them separately, here too the explanation stops at rendering their names in present-day language.

29. The three samādhi. 「云何為三三昧？空三昧門，無相、無作三昧門。」 tr. "What are the three samādhi? The gate of the emptiness samādhi, and the gate of the signless and the non-action samādhi." And then it explains each itself: 「云何為空三昧？以空行、無我行攝心，是名空三昧。」 tr. "What is the emptiness samādhi? Holding the mind by the practice of emptiness and the practice of non-self—this is named the emptiness samādhi." 「云何為無相三昧？以寂滅行、離行攝心，是為無相三昧。」 tr. "What is the signless samādhi? Holding the mind by the practice of quiescent extinction and the practice of separation—this is the signless samādhi." 「云何為無作三昧？無常行、苦行攝心，是為無作三昧。」 tr. "What is the non-action samādhi? Holding the mind by the practice of impermanence and the practice of suffering—this is the non-action samādhi." All three take 「攝心」 tr. "holding the mind" as the mark of accomplishment, yet the practices held differ: the emptiness samādhi with the two practices of emptiness and non-self, breaking dharmas and the self; the signless samādhi with the two practices of quiescent extinction and separation, stilling all marks; the non-action samādhi with the two practices of impermanence and suffering, cutting off the wishing and seeking of fabrication. Unlike the items listed above, for these three the sūtra itself explains their practices, so their meaning has explicit text to rely on. They are called 「門」 tr. "gate" because the three are the doorways for entering liberation.

30. The eight liberations. 「內色相外觀色，是初背捨；內無色相外觀色，是二背捨；淨背捨，是三背捨；過一切色相，滅一切對相，不念一切異相故，觀無邊虛空，入無邊空處；乃至過一切非有想非無想處，入滅受想背捨。是名八背捨。」 tr. "Having the mark of form within, he contemplates form without—this is the first liberation; not having the mark of form within, he contemplates form without—this is the second liberation; the liberation of purity—this is the third liberation; passing beyond all marks of form, eliminating all marks of resistance, and because of not thinking of all different marks, he contemplates boundless space and enters the sphere of boundless space; and so on up to passing beyond all of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, he enters the liberation of the cessation of feeling and perception. This is named the eight liberations." The difference between the first two liberations lies in whether the inner mind still keeps the perception of form or is already without the perception of form, while both take outer form as what is contemplated; the third, the liberation of purity, turns to contemplating pure form. From the fourth on are the four formless absorptions: passing beyond the marks of form, eliminating the marks of resistance and obstruction, not thinking of the various different marks, one enters the sphere of boundless space, and so on up to the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception; the eighth is the liberation of the cessation of feeling and perception. The name 「背捨」 tr. "liberation" comes from its very matter—turning one's back on and giving up, layer after layer giving up what one clings to.

31. The nine successive absorptions. 「行者離欲、惡不善法，有覺有觀，離生喜樂，入初禪；第二、第三、第四禪；乃至過非有想非無想處，入滅受想定。是名九次第定。」 tr. "The practitioner, having parted from desires and from evil and unwholesome dharmas, with initial thought and with sustained thought, with joy and pleasure born of separation, enters the first dhyāna; the second, the third, and the fourth dhyāna; and so on up to passing beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, he enters the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception. This is named the nine successive absorptions." The four dhyānas, the four formless absorptions, and the absorption of the cessation of feeling and perception make nine together; 「次第」 tr. "in sequence" means entering in order, not skipping stages. For the first dhyāna the sūtra gives its marks in full—parting from desire and from evil and unwholesome dharmas, with initial and sustained thought, joy and pleasure born of separation—and the rest it exemplifies with 「乃至」 tr. "and so on up to". What it covers overlaps much with the eight liberations of the preceding section, but the intent of the naming differs: there it takes their turning away from and giving up what is clung to, here their entering in sequence.

32. The Buddha's ten powers. The sūtra lists them one by one: 「是處、不是處，如實知」 tr. "what can be and what cannot be, he knows as it really is"—knowing what in principle may be and what in principle cannot be; knowing beings' past, future, and present deeds and dharmas of receiving, knowing the place where deeds are done, knowing their causes and conditions, knowing their retribution—the power concerning deeds and retribution; knowing as it really is the marks of defilement, purity, and distinction of the meditative concentrations, liberations, samādhi, and absorptions—the power concerning meditative concentration; 「知他眾生諸根上下相」 tr. "he knows the higher and lower marks of the faculties of other beings"—the keenness and dullness of faculties; 「知他眾生種種欲解」 tr. "he knows the various desires and resolute understandings of other beings"—the difference between glad wishing and resolute understanding; 「知一切世間種種無數性」 tr. "he knows the various innumerable natures of all the world"—the immeasurability of the kinds of nature of beings; 「知一切到道相」 tr. "he knows the marks of all the paths that lead everywhere"—all the paths that can arrive; 「知種種宿命，一世乃至無量劫，如實知」 tr. "he knows all kinds of former lives, from one life up to immeasurable kalpas, as it really is"—the power concerning former lives; 「天眼見眾生，乃至生善惡道」 tr. "with the divine eye he sees beings, and so on up to their being born in good destinies and evil destinies"—the power of the divine eye; 「漏盡故，無漏心解脫，如實知」 tr. "because the outflows are exhausted, the mind without outflows is liberated, and he knows this as it really is"—the power of the exhaustion of outflows. 「是為佛十力。」 tr. "These are the Buddha's ten powers." Of what the ten powers know, the first three hang on the principle of dharmas and on beings' deeds and absorptions, the middle four on beings' faculties, natures, desires, understandings, and paths, the next two on the beginning and end of birth and death in the three times, and the last one on his own realisation. They are called 「力」 tr. "powers" because they know and nothing can destroy them, nothing can bend them.

33. The four fearlessnesses. The sūtra says them four times in the same sentence pattern: the Buddha makes a truthful declaration, 「我是一切正智人」 tr. "I am a person of all right knowledge"; if there is a śramaṇa, a brahmin, a god, Māra, Brahmā, or any other assembly that says in accordance with fact 「是法不知」 tr. "this dharma you do not know", 「乃至不見是微畏相」 tr. "and so on up to his not seeing even the slightest mark of anything to fear"; for this reason he obtains security and obtains fearlessness, abides in the place of the holy lord, roars the lion's roar in the great assembly, and can turn the Brahmā wheel, while those assemblies 「實不能轉」 tr. "truly cannot turn it"—this is the first fearlessness. In the next three rounds, what is truthfully declared is in turn 「我一切漏盡」 tr. "all my outflows are exhausted", 「我說障法」 tr. "I proclaim the dharmas that obstruct", and 「我所說聖道，能出世間；隨是行，能盡苦」 tr. "the holy path that I teach can lead out of the world; practising in accordance with this, one can bring suffering to an end", and the difficulties posed are in turn 「是漏不盡」 tr. "these outflows are not exhausted", 「受是法不障道」 tr. "receiving this dharma does not obstruct the path", and 「行是道不能出世間、不能盡苦」 tr. "practising this path one cannot leave the world and cannot bring suffering to an end". What the four face are precisely the four places where one who teaches the Dharma may be challenged: what is known, what is cut off, what is blocked, and what is practised. And the Buddha's fearlessness is spoken of not in terms of refuting the other side but in terms of 「乃至不見是微畏相」 tr. "and so on up to his not seeing even the slightest mark of anything to fear"—not even the shadow of a trace of timidity can be found; only this is the reality of fearlessness.

34. The four unobstructed knowledges. 「一者、義無礙智，二者、法無礙智，三者、辭無礙智，四者、樂說無礙智。」 tr. "First, the unobstructed knowledge of meaning; second, the unobstructed knowledge of dharmas; third, the unobstructed knowledge of expression; fourth, the unobstructed knowledge of delight in speaking." The sūtra explains each itself, and all its explanations take the same sentence pattern: 「緣義智慧，是為義無礙智」 tr. "the wisdom that takes meaning as its object—this is the unobstructed knowledge of meaning", and likewise for dharmas, expression, and delight in speaking—each named by what it takes as its object. Meaning is the principle that is expressed, dharmas are the teaching that expresses it, expression is fluency in words, delight in speaking is the inexhaustibility of teaching the Dharma in response to capacities. Taken together, the four are the fourfold penetration of one who teaches the Dharma: penetration of principle, of teaching, of words, and of responding to capacities. The sūtra's explanation is extremely brief, only pointing out ‘the wisdom that arises taking such-and-such as its object’, without further dividing their marks.

35. The eighteen unshared dharmas. The sūtra lists them item by item: the buddhas' bodies are without fault, speech without fault, mindfulness without fault, without different perceptions, without an unconcentrated mind, without a mind that lets go without knowing—these six concern the Buddha's three kinds of deeds and his mind: body, speech, and mind are all without fault, there are no different perceptions, there is no mind that has not entered absorption, there is no mind that lets go without first having come to know; desire without decline, vigour without decline, mindfulness without decline, wisdom without decline, liberation without decline, the knowledge and vision of liberation without decline—these six concern the non-retreating of his virtues: the six things are all without decline or loss; all bodily deeds proceed following wisdom, all deeds of speech proceed following wisdom, all mental deeds proceed following wisdom—these three concern the three kinds of deeds all being led by wisdom; wisdom knows the past world without obstruction, knows the future world without obstruction, knows the present world without obstruction—these three concern knowledge of the three times being without obstruction. The eighteen things together are all not shared with śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. The first six are being without fault, the middle six being without decline, the last six following wisdom and being without obstruction—from being without fault to not retreating, from not retreating to knowing everywhere.

36. The thirty-two marks. The sūtra lists the marks one by one, all thirty-two complete: the soles of the feet stand level and even, as level as the bottom of a casket; under the soles of the feet are thousand-spoked wheels with rims, the wheel-marks complete; the fingers and toes long, surpassing other people; the hands and feet soft, surpassing the other parts of the body; the heels broad, complete, full, and fine; between the fingers and toes there is webbing, surpassing other people; the insteps high, level, and fine, matching the heels; the shanks like those of the king of the yiniyan deer, slender and fine; when standing level both hands can stroke the knees; the mark of the hidden private parts like a horse-king or an elephant-king; the body's height and breadth equal, like the nijulu tree; from each single pore a single hair grows, blue in colour, soft, and turning to the right; the body hairs point upward, blue in colour, soft, and turning to the right; the golden-coloured mark, its colour subtle and wonderful, surpassing jambūnada gold; the light of the body one zhang on each of the four sides; the skin thin, fine, and smooth, receiving no dust or dirt, and mosquitoes and gnats do not settle on it; the seven places full—under both soles, in both palms, on both shoulders, and in the middle of the neck, all full, and the letter-marks distinct; under both armpits full; the upper body like a lion; the body broad and upright; the shoulders round and fine; forty teeth; the teeth white, even, close-set, and deep-rooted; four teeth whitest and large; square jaws like a lion; among flavours he obtains the supreme flavour, and at two places in the throat saliva flows out; the tongue large, soft, and thin, able to cover the face up to the hairline at the ears; the Brahmā voice deep and far-reaching, like the sound of the kalaviṅka; the colour of the eyes like the essence of gold; the eyelashes like those of the ox-king; the mark of the white hair between the eyebrows, soft and white like douluo cotton; the topknot on the crown made of flesh. At the end it sums them up: 「是三十二相，佛身成就。」 tr. "These thirty-two marks are what the Buddha's body accomplishes." Among the thirty-two things, many take beast-kings, trees, cotton, and gold as similes—virtue is not spoken of in abstract words; the form is described by the highest things of the world. That the marks and minor signs are listed here among the world-transcending unshared dharmas is precisely the manifestation in the form-body of the earlier 「聖無漏法果」 tr. "fruit of the noble dharma without outflows"; as for why the marks and minor signs can be named world-transcending and unshared, in the single unit of the Middle Part the treatise-author has his own question and answer.

37. The light illumining everywhere and the voice pervading everywhere. At the end of the single unit, the sūtra closes with two things: 「光明遍照三千大千世界，若欲廣照，則遍滿十方無量阿僧祇世界，為眾生故受丈光」 tr. "His light illumines all the three-thousand great-thousand world; if he wishes to illumine broadly, it pervades the immeasurable asaṃkhyeya worlds of the ten directions; for the sake of beings he takes on a light of one zhang"; if he emits immeasurable light, then there are no sun and moon, seasons, or years. 「佛音聲遍滿三千大千世界，若欲大聲，則遍滿十方無量阿僧祇世界；隨眾多少，音聲遍至。」 tr. "The Buddha's voice pervades the three-thousand great-thousand world; if he wishes a great sound, it pervades the immeasurable asaṃkhyeya worlds of the ten directions; according to how many or how few are in the assembly, the voice reaches everywhere." The two things share one structure: the original measure pervades the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions, while what is taken on at present is no more than a light of one zhang and a voice that follows the assembly. Why he limits himself, the sūtra says plainly—「為眾生故受丈光」 tr. "for the sake of beings he takes on a light of one zhang"; if the light were immeasurable, then sun and moon, seasons, and years would all be absent, and beings would have nothing to rely on and could not abide. Light and voice are the functions of the Buddha's body; their gathering in and letting out all follow what beings can bear, of exactly the same purport as the earlier 「隨其所應而攝取之」 tr. "he gathers them in according to what is fitting for them". The single unit begins with 「攝取」 tr. "gathering in" and ends with light and voice reaching according to the assembly, head and tail answering each other.

Do Not Misread

Do not read 「等一布施」 tr. "one and the same giving" as not distinguishing good and evil and not discerning the object. What the sūtra blocks is the picking-and-choosing mind arising at the time of giving—「佛是福田，我應供養；禽獸非福田，不應供養」 tr. "The Buddha is a field of merit, I should make offerings; birds and beasts are not a field of merit, I should not make offerings"—and the reason is 「一切法不異、不分別故」 tr. "because all dharmas are not different and without discrimination", and what is sought is 「無分別法報，所謂一切種智」 tr. "the retribution of the dharma without discrimination, namely the omniscience of all kinds". This is said of the mind in the cause; it does not say that in retribution fields of merit have no superior and inferior. The bodhisattva's giving is not established on seeking merit, and therefore he does not pick and choose; if it is read as making offerings to the Buddha and feeding beasts having wholly equal merit, then the principle of worldly truth is wiped out along with it—while this chapter, from beginning to end, is speaking precisely of how, within ultimate emptiness, the distinctions of worldly truth are not destroyed.

Do not read the Buddha's answer to Subhūti's question as ‘emptiness is false’. The Buddha first raises ordinary people giving rise to the three kinds of deeds within dreams and conjurations, not in order to withdraw the meaning of emptiness: what the bodhisattva then teaches is still 「是中無陰、入、界，無夢亦無見夢者」 tr. "within this there are no aggregates, no sense-fields, no elements; there is no dream and also no one who sees the dream", still 「一切法無根本實性無所有」 tr. "all dharmas are without root, without real nature, without anything existent". What is established is ‘though dharmas are without anything existent, on the side of ordinary people they come to be existent’—what exists is not dharmas but inversion. If it is read as the Buddha acknowledging that dharmas really exist, then the later section 「住是諸空布施」 tr. "abiding in these emptinesses he gives" has nowhere to settle.

Do not read the bodhisattva's giving up his body, being cut and severed, and scattering in all directions as a practice of seeking suffering. The effect the sūtra records is 「皆愛敬菩薩；以愛敬故，即得離畜生道」 tr. "they all love and revere the bodhisattvas; because of love and reverence, they at once get to leave the animal destiny"—giving up the body is in order to join up a stretch of causes and conditions that had no gate of Dharma by which to enter; the weight lies in the benefit brought about, not in the suffering undergone. Likewise, what the section on ‘begging the limbs and joints of the body’ blocks is the two minds of 「若與？若不與？」 tr. "Shall I give? Or shall I not give?", not teaching people to seek others to come and beg. If it is read as taking self-inflicted suffering as virtue, it goes against the no giving and no taking away of 「住是諸空布施」 tr. "abiding in these emptinesses he gives" in the ninth section.

Do not read the answer to 「菩薩與佛有何等異」 tr. "what difference is there between the bodhisattva and the Buddha" as the bodhisattva simply being the Buddha. The Buddha answers plainly 「有異」 tr. "there is a difference", and the reason there is a difference lies in the name—「得一切種智，是名為佛」 tr. "having obtained the omniscience of all kinds, he is named Buddha"; the reason there is no difference lies in the mind—「菩薩心與佛心無有異」 tr. "the bodhisattva's mind and the Buddha's mind are without difference". The difference lies in name and rank, the non-difference in what is realised; the two statements must be read together. Taking only 「無有異」 tr. "without difference" and leaving out 「有異」 tr. "there is a difference" wipes out the distinctions of worldly truth; taking only 「有異」 tr. "there is a difference" and leaving out 「心無有異」 tr. "the mind is without difference" makes the earlier sentence 「一切法不異、不分別」 tr. "all dharmas are not different and without discrimination" fall empty again.

Do not read the marks and minor signs among the ‘world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people’ as worldly beauty. The thirty-two marks are listed among the unshared with respect to their being the retribution of the noble dharma without outflows; here the sūtra only lists them and does not explain, and why it is so is made clear only in the treatise-author's questions and answers in the single unit of the Middle Part. Here one should keep to what the sūtra has: since it has not explained, do not judge in advance; since they are listed among the unshared, do not read them with the view of worldly marks and minor signs.

Bearing on Practice

Use the sentence 「凡夫愚人得夢、得見夢者」 tr. "ordinary foolish people find the dream and find the one who sees the dream" to check your own contemplation of emptiness. The sickness that people learning emptiness most easily fall into is thinking that, having understood emptiness, one can disregard deeds. The sūtra's first move is exactly this: deeds in the dream truly arise, retribution in the dream is truly received. If the meaning of emptiness makes a person take good and evil lightly, that is not the meaning of emptiness; it is using emptiness as an excuse. Whenever you feel ‘anyway it is all empty’, take up this sentence and shine it on yourself—who is it that, in the dream, gives rise to deeds of body, speech, and mind?

Use the two Chinese characters 「拔出」 tr. "pull out" to regard every good thing now present. The sūtra says he pulls them out from stinginess and makes them give, pulls them out again from the great reward of merit and makes them keep morality, pulls them out again from the retribution of keeping morality and makes them cultivate absorption—the retribution of the preceding step is precisely where the next step must pull away from. When one tastes sweetness at some step of practice, it is easiest to settle down there. Take up this section and ask yourself: this share of security I am now guarding—is it a place to be pulled out of, or have I already taken it as my home?

Use 「二心」 tr. "two minds" as the self-examination at the time of giving. What the sūtra blocks is not not giving, but that thought which wavers between 「若與？若不與？」 tr. "Shall I give? Or shall I not give?" Whenever someone asks for something—wealth, time, the strength of heart and mind—first see whether that one-second calculation has arisen in your mind. If it has arisen, there is no need to blame yourself; to recognise it as precisely the sickness this section points to is already awareness; over time, the decision to give or not to give can still be made according to principle, and that stretch of wavering will grow shorter and shorter.

Use 「誰與、誰受？所施何物？」 tr. "Who gives, who receives? What thing is given?" to settle the mind after giving. After doing a good deed, the hardest thing to deal with is the self that did the good deed. What the sūtra gives is not the empty talk of ‘do not cling’ but three questions: who is the giver, who is the recipient, what thing is given. When the matter is done, take them up and ask yourself once through; when none of the three questions finds a footing, that share of self-satisfaction falls away of itself—not pressed down, but seen to have had nowhere to stand from the first.

Treat people by the sequence of the three things—rescuing from urgency, recognising the capacity, imparting the Dharma. The bodhisattva entering the hells first by supernormal power makes the fire go out and the boiling water grow cold, next knows others' minds, and then teaches the Dharma. People in urgent distress cannot take in reasons; this is the ordinary way of things. Seeing someone suffering, first find a way to stop the suffering; when the suffering has eased a little, first understand where the person's mind tends; once the capacity is known, only then can one speak of teaching the Dharma. If the sequence is reversed, good words become a burden.

Use 「為眾生故受丈光」 tr. "for the sake of beings he takes on a light of one zhang" to examine the measure of your teaching and of what you show to others. The Buddha's light could from the first pervade the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions, yet for the sake of beings he takes on only one zhang; his voice could from the first pervade the ten directions, yet it reaches according to how many or how few are in the assembly. The able limiting themselves is not hiding clumsiness; it is not leaving people with nothing to rely on. Whenever you know something or can do something and wish to show it to others, first ask one sentence: how much can be borne here? Beyond what can be borne, even light becomes an obstruction.

Further Resonances

In the single unit of the First Part there is sūtra and no treatise—the earlier part of the sūtra text of this chapter is all here, and the treatise-author's explanation begins from the single unit of the Middle Part. So what is carried forward here is the sūtra text's own foreshadowing and what the ancient masters' structural divisions judge.

In this unit the sūtra leaves three plain foreshadowings, all waiting for the Middle Part and the Last Part to complete them. First, the matters of giving up the body and being cut and severed in the eighth and twelfth sections: the sūtra only records the matters and their effects, and does not explain the principle of ‘why beings who eat the bodhisattva's flesh are, on the contrary, delivered’ or ‘why the bodhisattva does not give rise to anger or regret’. Second, the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor marks are listed among the ‘world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people’, which the sūtra only lists and does not explain, while the marks and minor signs are in themselves shared by the wheel-turning sage king and others, and why they are called unshared is not said. Third, the dharma of the four means of gathering marks in general the four things—giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour—while this unit opens only the one gate of giving, the three things from kind speech on are not explained, and within giving, why the gift of wealth is treated briefly and the gift of Dharma broadly is also not said. All three are places where the treatise-author questions and answers in the Middle Part and the Last Part, and are not anticipated here.

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra has a structural division of the whole chapter, and what it judges for the single unit of the First Part is as follows. It judges the general position of this chapter, saying: 「此下第二明外化方便。前是內行方便，亦前是自行今是化他，由內行滿足故能外益生。」 tr. "From here down, second, the skilful means of transforming outwardly is made clear. The preceding was the skilful means of inner practice; also, the preceding was one's own practice, and now it is transforming others; because inner practice is complete, one can benefit the living outwardly." And then it divides this chapter into two: 「初品為二：第一明菩薩化攝無邊為益無量，第二明菩薩雖能廣利不存化功。」 tr. "The first chapter is in two: first, it makes clear that the bodhisattva's transforming and gathering are boundless and his benefit immeasurable; second, it makes clear that though the bodhisattva can benefit broadly, he does not keep the merit of transforming." Again it divides the former part further into two: 「初為二：第一明生身方便益物，第二明法身菩提化物遍滿十方也。」 tr. "The first is in two: first, it makes clear the benefiting of beings by the skilful means of the fleshly body; second, it makes clear that the awakening of the Dharma body transforms beings, pervading the ten directions." On why Subhūti's first question is asked again, it lists three meanings from older sayings: 「昔論有三義生起：一者云上來已作此問，今更問者，無始來有所得病難破故也。二者說經將訖，空是入道之要，如云離三解脫問無知無見，是故更問空義也。三者、佛在世眾利根易悟，佛滅度五百歲後眾生鈍根難悟，多生著心，聞說空便言：若空如夢幻者，何以有善惡報耶？須菩提愍末世眾生，是故問也。」 tr. "The older discussions give three meanings for how this arises. First, it says that this question was already asked above; it is asked again now because the sickness of having something to be attained, from beginningless time, is hard to break. Second, the sūtra is about to close, and emptiness is the essential for entering the path—as it says, apart from the three liberations one asks about not-knowing and not-seeing—therefore the meaning of emptiness is asked again. Third, while the Buddha was in the world the assembly were of keen faculties and awakened easily; five hundred years after the Buddha's passing into extinction, beings are of dull faculties and awaken with difficulty, and many give rise to a clinging mind; hearing emptiness spoken of, they then say: if emptiness is like a dream or an illusion, why is there the retribution of good and evil? Subhūti pitied the beings of the final age, and therefore asked." And it distinguishes the answer of this chapter from the answer of the preceding chapter: 「上品末答明無所有破病，今品答明法雖無所有於凡夫有也。」 tr. "The answer at the end of the preceding chapter makes clear that there is nothing existent, so as to break the sickness; the answer of this chapter makes clear that though dharmas are without anything existent, for ordinary people they exist." Its explanation of the section on the pulling out in sequence by skilful means says: 「先於慳中拔出令持戒，持戒是中根人故；次於戒中拔出令修定，如是於三界拔出令得二乘，二乘中拔出令得大乘，大乘中拔出令悟無三無一。」 tr. "First he pulls them out from stinginess and makes them keep morality, because keeping morality is for people of middling faculties; next he pulls them out from morality and makes them cultivate absorption; thus he pulls them out from the three realms and makes them obtain the two vehicles, pulls them out from the two vehicles and makes them obtain the Great Vehicle, pulls them out from the Great Vehicle and makes them awaken to there being neither three nor one." Its division of outer giving in the section on giving says: 「外施中為二：初、正明平等施為得；次、明簡擇施為失。」 tr. "Within outer giving there are two: first, it properly makes clear that equal giving is a gain; next, it makes clear that picking-and-choosing giving is a loss." Its division of the six things seen by the Buddha-eye says: 「次我以佛眼下，第二、引證。」 tr. "Next, from ‘I with the Buddha-eye’ down: second, citing proof." Its division of the heading of the four means of gathering says: 「復次我以佛眼四攝下，第二、明四攝，即四：先釋布施。」 tr. "From ‘Again, I with the Buddha-eye … the four means of gathering’ down: second, the four means of gathering are made clear, which are four; first giving is explained." Its explanation of Subhūti's question ‘does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds’ says: 「此是進退難也。」 tr. "This is a difficulty of advancing and retreating." And it judges the intent of the Buddha's answer: 「當得種智名菩薩，已得種智名佛也。」 tr. "One who is to obtain the knowledge of all kinds is named bodhisattva; one who has obtained the knowledge of all kinds is named Buddha." Its explanation of why the world-transcending gift of Dharma lists the various categories broadly says: 「序品列成為勸學廣，大乘列為成大乘，今列為成法施。」 tr. "The listing in the Introductory chapter is for encouraging broad training; the listing in the Great Vehicle is for accomplishing the Great Vehicle; the present listing is for accomplishing the gift of Dharma." It also sets a question and answer on the marks and minor signs: 「問：三十二相云何是出世間法？答：此是無漏果無漏業日起。」 tr. "Question: how are the thirty-two marks world-transcending dharmas? Answer: these are the fruit without outflows, arising daily from deeds without outflows."

Jizang's division of the section on the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma reads 「初明財施中先明法施，如文也」 tr. "first it makes clear that within the gift of wealth the gift of Dharma is made clear first, as in the text"; yet the order of the sūtra text actually lists first the things of the gift of wealth and afterwards speaks of the two kinds of gift of Dharma, which runs counter to this wording. The extant text is so; it is recorded side by side without judgement.

The extant text of Huiying's Commentary stops in the middle of chapter sixty-nine; for this chapter there is no commentary to carry forward, and his explanation is lacking—it is not that it was passed over without explanation.

In the single unit of the Middle Part, the treatise-author, beginning from ‘above, the emptiness of nature has already been spoken of everywhere; why is the question asked again from the wholesome and the unwholesome?’, explains one by one the questions this unit leaves—the three meanings of the repeated question, not giving rise to two minds when giving up the body, the no giving and no taking away within ultimate emptiness, the four sayings on being cut and severed without anger or regret, why the three evil destinies are not delivered to the last one, why eating the bodhisattva's flesh brings deliverance, why the human destiny is spoken of broadly, why among the four means of gathering giving alone is treated broadly, why within giving the gift of Dharma is spoken of broadly, why Subhūti asks about obtaining the omniscience of all kinds, why the nine successive absorptions and the marks and minor signs are called world-transcending and unshared, why the marks and minor signs are spoken of only when the treatise is about to close, the broad explanation of the Buddha's ten powers, and so on up to the four sayings on whether the thirty-two marks are fixed or not fixed—all coming on from the sūtra text of this unit. The single unit of the Last Part then goes on to speak of the eighty minor marks, and then turns to the three means of gathering—kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour—and to the forty-two gates of letters, finally coming home to the meaning of the nature of dharmas, the two truths, and teaching the Dharma without clinging.