大智度論 義疏通講 · 冊21Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 21

The Six Similes: Why within the Signless, the Indiscriminable, and the Emptiness of Specific Marks the Six Perfections Can Still Be Made Complete; Why the Buddha Does Not Answer Oneness and Difference Directly but First Sets Up the Five Aggregates as Like a Dream, Like an Echo, Like a Shadow, Like a Mirage, Like an Illusion, Like a Conjuration; Why the Six Similes Return All the Way to No Self-nature, Which Is the Signless, Which Is One Mark; Why Giving Being Signless, the Giver Signless, and the Recipient Signless Is the Ground for the Dānapāramitā Being Complete; Why Signless Morality First Cuts Off the Vow for a Place of Birth and the Vow for Retribution; Why the Four Alternatives of the Signless and of Marks Are Not a Cutting Off of Cultivation and Realisation; Why the Two Similes of a Conjured Wheel-Turning Sage King and the Buddha Suśānta Are Set Side by Side at the End of the Passage on Morality; Why the Acceptance toward Beings and Acceptance of Dharmas Can Accomplish the Acceptance of the Non-arising of Dharmas; Why the Knowledge and Severance of the Two Vehicles Are on the Contrary Named the Bodhisattva's Acceptance; Why Bodily Vigour and Mental Vigour Are Divided into Two Roads; Why Entering All the Samādhi and Not Receiving Their Flavour Is the Signlessness of the Dhyānapāramitā; Why That Being with Something to Be Attained Is Not the Position and Being with Nothing to Be Attained Is the Position Is the Criterion of the Position; Why Not Seeing the Dream and Not Seeing the One Who Sees the Dream Removes the One Who Can See Together with It; Why Not Clinging to the Six Perfections Can on the Contrary Make Complete the First Ground and So On up to the Tenth Ground; Why That within the Real Mark of All Dharmas Wholesome and Unwholesome Are Unspeakable Does Not Destroy the Setting-up of Worldly Truth; Why Ordinary People Seeing Existence and the Bodhisattva Seeing Emptiness Do Not Hinder Each Other; Why the Pāramitā Obtained as Retribution Is Likened to the Eye-Faculty Obtained as Retribution; Why the Sages, within Non-discrimination, Still Count the Dharmas That Have Been Entered; and Why the Preceding Chapter's Being Complete with All the Perfections in a Single Thought and This Chapter's Being Complete with All the Perfections in Emptiness and Signlessness Differ

What Is Being Asked

What this chapter asks about is a dead knot that a practitioner runs into sooner or later: since dharmas are empty, what is there still to cultivate?

Subhūti takes this dead knot apart into four sentences and sets them before the Buddha. The first sentence asks about ‘the matter’: within dharmas that are signless, indiscriminable, and empty of specific marks, how does one make complete the cultivation of the six perfections? The second sentence asks about ‘the speaking’: within dharmas that have no difference, why are differing marks still spoken of with distinctions? The third sentence asks about ‘the gathering’: how does prajñāpāramitā gather the other five perfections? The fourth sentence asks about ‘the fruit’: what is cultivated are dharmas of differing marks, yet the fruit is obtained by the path of one mark. The four questions press closer one sentence after another, and pressed to the end it comes down to whether one and difference can stand together.

The Buddha's answer does not go straight back to reasoning about oneness and difference; instead he first gives an abiding-place—「菩薩摩訶薩住五陰如夢、如響、如影、如焰、如幻、如化」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration". First the abiding-place is settled, then the gate of practice is spoken: abiding in this, he practises giving, keeps morality, cultivates patience, is diligent in vigour, enters meditative concentration, and cultivates wisdom. This sequence deserves attention: it is not first breaking marks and then cultivating; it is practising while abiding within the actual state that the six similes reveal. The six similes are not six comparisons; they are six ways of keeping the five aggregates in view; once they are kept in view, the six perfections naturally become the signless six perfections.

Next the Buddha pushes the principle of the six similes all the way to the bottom: a dream has no self-nature, and echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration likewise have no self-nature; because there is no self-nature it is signless, because it is signless it is of one mark, and one mark is precisely the signless. Thus 「無相」 tr. "the signless" and 「一相」 tr. "one mark" are not two matters, and the fourth question's 「以一相道得果」 tr. "obtaining the fruit by the path of one mark" has here already been answered in advance. Below this the sūtra text opens the gates of the six perfections one by one—dānapāramitā speaks of giver and recipient both being signless; śīlapāramitā speaks of not making the vow for a place of birth or the vow for retribution; kṣāntipāramitā speaks of the acceptance toward beings and acceptance of dharmas accomplishing the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas; vīryapāramitā speaks of the two kinds of vigour, bodily and mental; dhyānapāramitā speaks of entering all the samādhi and not receiving their flavour; and at the very end it says generally that all dharmas are like a dream, an echo, a shadow, a mirage, an illusion, a conjuration, and that one does not cling to form and so on up to not clinging to the six perfections. When the six gates have been opened in full, the Buddha gathers them with the one sentence 「應善學諸法性」 tr. "one should train well in the nature of dharmas".

The treatise-author's explanation is extremely short, yet it is the lock of the whole chapter. He first sets up a question: Subhūti asks with emptiness and the Buddha answers with emptiness; how can any difference be made out between this question and this answer? In the answer a simile of clouds and mist appears: gazing from afar one sees something; drawing near, nothing is seen; ordinary people are far from the real mark and so see existence; the bodhisattva is near the real mark and so sees emptiness. Next he sets up a question: all dharmas are empty and signless; how can one know that each is complete with the other pāramitā? In the answer he cites the example of the śrāvaka entering the seeing of the truths: within the dharma without outflows, signless, and without discrimination, the other sages still count the dharmas he has entered as right view, right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Lastly he sets up a question, collating this chapter against the preceding chapter, and judges out the single Chinese character 「異」 tr. "difference". Three rounds of question and answer, each gathered in more tightly than the last.

Passage by Passage

1. Subhūti sets up four questions: within the signless and the emptiness of specific marks, how does one make complete the cultivation of the six perfections? At the head of the chapter it is Subhūti who asks. What he asks is not whether the six perfections should be cultivated or not; it is whether, within the 「無相、不可分別、自相空」 tr. "signless, indiscriminable, and empty of specific marks" that he has already received, the six perfections can still find a place. The four questions stand side by side: the first asks about making complete the cultivation of the six perfections; the second asks 「云何無異法中而分別說異相」 tr. "how, within dharmas without difference, are differing marks spoken of with distinctions"; the third asks why prajñā can gather the other five perfections; the fourth asks 「云何行異相法，以一相道得果」 tr. "how does one practise dharmas of differing marks and obtain the fruit by the path of one mark". In reading this passage one must first see clearly that these four questions are four faces of one and the same difficulty—in the matter, in words, in gathering, in the fruit; they are not four scattered doubts. Whenever one meets questions strung together like pearls in the sūtra, first find the one knot they share; only then will one not read the answer into scattered pieces.

2. The Buddha answers: abiding in the five aggregates within the six similes, one practises the six perfections; because there is no self-nature it is signless; because it is signless it is of one mark. The Buddha's way of answering is first to give the abiding-place and afterwards the gate of practice. The abiding-place is 「住五陰如夢、如響、如影、如焰、如幻、如化」 tr. "abides in the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration"; the gate of practice is 「住是中行布施、持戒、修忍辱、勤精進、入禪定、修智慧」 tr. "abiding in this he practises giving, keeps morality, cultivates patience, is diligent in vigour, enters meditative concentration, and cultivates wisdom". Below this the reasoning takes three steps: a dream has no self-nature, and echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration likewise have no self-nature; 「若法無自性，是法無相」 tr. "if a dharma has no self-nature, that dharma is signless"; 「若法無相，是法一相，所謂無相」 tr. "if a dharma is signless, that dharma is of one mark, namely the signless". When the three steps have been walked, the second question and the fourth question are answered together—speaking of differing marks does not obstruct obtaining one mark, because what is called one mark is precisely the signless. Next it comes down onto dānapāramitā: 「菩薩布施無相、施者無相、受者無相」 tr. "the bodhisattva's giving is signless, the giver is signless, the recipient is signless"; if one can know giving in this way, then from the single gate of dānapāramitā one passes through to the four foundations of mindfulness, the emptinesses, the samādhi, the supernormal powers, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas. At the end it says that this bodhisattva, abiding in the dharmas without outflows obtained as retribution, flies to the immeasurable lands of the east and makes offerings to the buddhas, benefits beings with the four means of gathering, receives a worldly body and yet is not defiled by birth and death, and knows the four fruits and the pratyekabuddha path and yet does not abide in them. The most crucial sentence of this passage is 「不與聲聞、辟支佛共」 tr. "not shared with the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas"—it is equally a knowing that dharmas are signless, but the bodhisattva's signlessness leads through to the omniscience of all kinds; it is not a place of stopping.

3. Signless śīlapāramitā: keeping all morality and yet not making the vow for a place of birth, not making the vow for retribution. From dāna it turns to morality. The sūtra text first establishes the virtuous marks of morality: 「是戒不缺、不破、不雜、不著」 tr. "this morality is not deficient, not broken, not mixed, not clinging"; it is the morality without outflows praised by the sages, and it enters into the eightfold noble path. Next it lists the items of morality that are kept—the morality of names, the morality of itself, the morality of restraint, the morality of making, the morality without making, the morality of deportment, and the morality that is not of deportment. The seven items stand side by side, which shows precisely that the four Chinese characters 「持一切戒」 tr. "keeps all morality" are not loose words. Next the proper meaning of signlessness comes out: this bodhisattva does not make the vow to be born among the gods or to be born noble, nor does he make the vow seeking the four fruits and the pratyekabuddha path. Why does he not make them? The sūtra text answers itself: 「一切法無相，所謂一相」 tr. "all dharmas are signless, namely of one mark", and then brings out the four alternatives—a signless dharma cannot obtain a signless dharma, a dharma with marks cannot obtain a dharma with marks, a signless dharma cannot obtain a dharma with marks, a dharma with marks cannot obtain a signless dharma. The four alternatives together block off entirely the mind of ‘obtaining that by means of this’. Below this it speaks of what this morality accomplishes: entering the bodhisattva's position, obtaining the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, practising knowledge of the kinds of paths, obtaining the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution, abiding in the five hundred dhāraṇī gates, obtaining the four unobstructed knowledges, going from one buddha-land to another buddha-land to make offerings to the buddhas, and, though entering the five destinies, not being defiled by the retribution of the deeds of birth and death. At the end come two similes: a conjured wheel-turning sage king, though sitting, lying, walking, and standing, is not seen to have a place from which he comes, a place to which he goes, a place where he stands, a place where he sits, or a place where he lies, and yet he can benefit beings and does not find beings; the Buddha Suśānta obtained awakening and turned the wheel of the Dharma for the three vehicles, and there was no one who obtained the prediction; having conjured a conjured buddha, he gave up his body and life and entered nirvāṇa without remainder. The two similes are set side by side: the former shows ‘doing without a doer’, the latter shows ‘conjuring without a trace of the conjuring’; both speak of the practice of morality being signless and yet of use.

4. Furthermore, turning into kṣānti: abiding within the six similes, one makes complete the signless kṣāntipāramitā. The sūtra text turns into the perfection of patience with one short sentence: when the bodhisattva practises prajñā, abiding within the six similes of the five aggregates, he makes complete the signless kṣāntipāramitā. Here only a heading is set up and its marks are not yet spoken, precisely in order to draw out the next question. When reading the sūtra and meeting short passages of this kind, do not treat them as transitions that can be skipped—the blank the sūtra text itself leaves is exactly the place that the text below is to fill.

5. Subhūti asks: how does one make complete the signless kṣāntipāramitā? Subhūti asks, following on from above. This question is asked most naturally: signless giving can still be imagined, and signless morality also has the four alternatives to go by, but the one matter of patience involves someone who really and truly reviles me and harms me—how is that signless? Among the passages of the six perfections, the density of question and answer in the perfection of patience is second only to that in dhyānapāramitā, and its root lies in the same doubt that arises at this point in the reader's mind as well.

6. The Buddha answers with the two kinds of acceptance: the acceptance toward beings and acceptance of dharmas, up to not giving rise to a single evil thought, and reflecting on who it is that reviles and who it is that harms. The Buddha's answer first gives the name and number: 「菩薩摩訶薩住二忍中，能具足羼提波羅蜜」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the two kinds of acceptance and can make complete kṣāntipāramitā"; the two kinds of acceptance are the acceptance toward beings and acceptance of dharmas. The acceptance toward beings is acceptance of the vexations that beings inflict; acceptance of dharmas is acceptance toward the real mark of all dharmas; the former faces objects, the latter faces principle. Next he gives the span of time: 「從初發意乃至坐道場」 tr. "from the first arousing of intent up to sitting at the seat of awakening"—it is not an acceptance of one moment. Next he gives the marks of the situation: beings come to revile with harsh and evil words, or assail him with tiles, stones, knives, and staves. Next he gives the working of the mind: 「乃至不生一念惡」 tr. "up to not giving rise to even a single evil thought", and he reflects of himself: 「罵我者誰？害我者誰？以惡言加我、以瓦石刀杖害我者誰？」 tr. "Who is it that reviles me? Who is it that harms me? Who is it that assails me with evil words and harms me with tiles, stones, knives, and staves?". This reflection is the pivot of the whole passage—it is not forcibly suppressing anger; it is, with regard to the situation inflicted, turning back to ask who the one inflicting it is: all three questions are framed as 「者誰」 tr. "who is it that", and what is sought is the person who can revile and can harm, and when sought, he is unfindable. The sūtra text itself gives the reason: 「是菩薩於一切法得無相忍故」 tr. "because this bodhisattva has obtained signless acceptance toward all dharmas"; once signless acceptance has been obtained, the thought 「是人罵我、害我」 tr. "this person reviles me and harms me" has no means of being established. At the end it concludes: because this kṣāntipāramitā is complete, he obtains the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. The perfection of patience and the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas are joined here, and the four passages below all arise from this sentence.

7. Subhūti asks: what is the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, what does it sever, what does it know? Subhūti does not let the newly appeared name pass, and asks straight away about three matters: what the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas is, what it severs, what it knows. The excellence of this question lies in his not asking about its merits but asking about its substance and its function. Toward the names of every gate of the Dharma, the reader can learn these three questions—what it is, what it severs, what it knows; only when the three questions have somewhere to land is the name not an empty name.

8. The Buddha answers concerning the severance and the knowledge of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. The Buddha's answer divides into three parts. The first explains the name: 「得法忍，乃至不生少許不善法，是故名無生法忍」 tr. "obtaining acceptance of dharmas, and so on up to not giving rise to even a little unwholesome dharma—therefore it is named the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas"—what is called non-arising is said first with regard to unwholesome dharmas not arising; it is not abstruse talk. The second explains severance: 「一切菩薩所斷煩惱盡，是名斷」 tr. "all the afflictions that all bodhisattvas should sever are exhausted: this is named severance". The third explains knowledge: 「用智慧知一切法不生，是名知」 tr. "knowing by wisdom that all dharmas are unarisen: this is named knowledge". The two occurrences of 「不生」 tr. "not arising" must be distinguished by level: the not arising in the explanation of the name is, in practice, not giving rise to even a little of the unwholesome; the not arising in the explanation of knowledge is, in principle, thoroughly understanding that all dharmas are from the first unarisen. Only when practice and principle both stand is this acceptance whole.

9. Subhūti asks: what difference is there between the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas of the two vehicles and the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas of the bodhisattva? Subhūti advances one step further. Since the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas also have the name of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, how does the bodhisattva's acceptance differ from theirs? This question is the reappearance, in the perfection of patience, of this chapter's theme of ‘one and difference’—the earlier question of one and difference was about dharmas; this question of one and difference is about persons.

10. The Buddha answers: whether the knowledge or the severance of the two vehicles, all are named the bodhisattva's acceptance. The Buddha's way of answering is unexpected. He does not compare higher and lower; instead he says that whether the knowledge or the severance of the srota-āpannas is named the bodhisattva's acceptance, and that whether the knowledge or the severance of the sakṛdāgāmins, the anāgāmins, the arhats, and the pratyekabuddhas is likewise all named the bodhisattva's acceptance—「是為異」 tr. "this is the difference". What is called difference does not lie in there being some other thing, but in being able to contain: what the two vehicles realise is, in the bodhisattva's share, only one portion of acceptance. Therefore the sūtra text goes on to say 「成就是忍，勝一切聲聞、辟支佛」 tr. "accomplishing this acceptance, he surpasses all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas", and it is not that another acceptance is set up to press down that acceptance. Below this it says that, abiding in the acceptance of non-arising obtained as retribution, he practises the bodhisattva path and makes complete knowledge of the kinds of paths, is never apart from the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path and the emptiness, signless, and non-action samādhi, and is never apart from the five supernormal powers, and therefore can bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands, and will obtain the omniscience of all kinds. In reading this passage do not give rise to a mind that slights the two vehicles: what the bodhisattva surpasses in lies in the breadth of what is contained and the distance of where he tends; it does not mean that the dharma realised by the two vehicles is wrong.

11. Signless vīryapāramitā: bodily vigour raises supernormal powers; mental vigour enters the eightfold noble path. With the perfection of patience fully spoken, it turns into vigour. The sūtra text divides vigour into two roads: bodily vigour and mental vigour. The effect of bodily vigour is outward—raising supernormal powers, going to the lands of the ten directions to make offerings to the buddhas and enrich beings, and with the power of bodily vigour teaching and transforming beings, causing them to abide in the three vehicles. The effect of mental vigour is inward—「以心精進、聖無漏精進，入八聖道分中」 tr. "with mental vigour, with the noble vigour without outflows, he enters into the eightfold noble path", and so vīryapāramitā gathers all wholesome dharmas; the sūtra text immediately lists the thirty-seven limbs of the path, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless absorptions, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, as well as the Buddha's ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four unobstructed knowledges, and eighteen unshared dharmas. Only the two roads taken together are vigour whole: walking only the outer road, one labours with little result; walking only the inner road, the wholesome dharmas are not broad. At the end it says that this bodhisattva, having made complete the omniscience of all kinds, severs all the afflictions and their habitual residues, makes complete the thirty-two marks, emits light unequalled and immeasurable, and turns the wheel of the Dharma of three turnings and twelve aspects, and the three-thousand great-thousand world quakes in six ways, and beings are delivered by the dharma of the three vehicles. What this great passage shows is the utmost fruit of vigour; in reading it one should remember that it still lies beneath the two Chinese characters 「無相」 tr. "signless"—what is accomplished, though great, has not one thing that can be clung to.

12. Furthermore, turning into dhyānapāramitā: abiding within the six similes, one can make complete dhyānapāramitā. Again a short sentence sets up a heading. It is the same method as the fourth passage's turning into the perfection of patience: at the entrance of each perfection the sūtra text sets up only one sentence and waits for Subhūti to come and ask. This pattern is itself a teaching—only when what is asked is deep is what is answered deep.

13. Subhūti asks: how, abiding within the six similes, can one make complete dhyānapāramitā? Subhūti asks in the same way. The difficulty that most easily arises in the gate of meditative concentration is this: meditative concentration must have an object, must have a sequence, must have the pleasure of something attained—how can these be compatible with the signless? The Buddha's answer below takes apart precisely these three points one by one.

14. The Buddha answers: entering all the dhyānas and samādhi, he both realises and enters all of them, and yet does not receive their flavour and does not receive their fruit. The Buddha's answer first spreads out the breadth of what is entered: the first dhyāna and so on up to the fourth dhyāna, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless spheres, the emptiness, signless, and non-action samādhi, the like-lightning samādhi, the like-vajra samādhi, the noble right samādhi; apart from the samādhi of the buddhas, all the rest, even the samādhi shared with the two vehicles, 「皆證皆入」 tr. "he both realises and enters". Right after the broad spreading-out there is at once a turn: 「亦不受三昧味，亦不受三昧果」 tr. "yet he does not receive the flavour of the samādhi, nor does he receive the fruit of the samādhi". How can he not receive them? The sūtra text answers itself: since he knows that the samādhi is signless and without any existent nature, then 「當云何於無相法受無相法味、無所有法受無所有法味」 tr. "how then could he receive the flavour of a signless dharma within a signless dharma, or receive the flavour of a dharma without anything existent within a dharma without anything existent". The result of not receiving the flavour is not being born, following the power of meditative concentration, in the form realm or the formless realm. Asked again why he does not follow it, the answer lies in four not-seeings: 「不見是二界，亦不見是禪，亦不見入禪者，亦不見用法入禪者」 tr. "he does not see these two realms, also does not see this dhyāna, also does not see the one who enters dhyāna, also does not see the one who enters dhyāna by means of some dharma". Realm, dharma, person, and means—when all four are unseen, object and attainment have nowhere to be established, and therefore he can make complete the signless dhyānapāramitā and can pass beyond the śrāvaka ground and the pratyekabuddha ground. What is most worth learning in this passage is that 「皆證皆入」 tr. "both realises and enters" and 「不受味」 tr. "not receiving the flavour" go together without contradiction—the signless is not a not-entering of concentration; it is entering and not taking its flavour.

15. Subhūti asks: how, because he makes complete the signless dhyānapāramitā, can he pass beyond the grounds of the two vehicles? Subhūti seizes on the sentence 「能過聲聞、辟支佛地」 tr. "can pass beyond the śrāvaka ground and the pratyekabuddha ground" and presses his question. What he asks about is the mechanism: meditative concentration is a dharma shared by the three vehicles; why can this dhyāna go beyond their grounds? This question joins dhyānapāramitā to 「諸空」 tr. "the emptinesses" and 「菩薩位」 tr. "the bodhisattva's position" below; it is the turning axle of the latter half of the whole chapter.

16. The Buddha answers: training well in the emptinesses, and the emptinesses too being empty, one can enter the bodhisattva's position. The Buddha's answer does not speak from dhyāna; it speaks from emptiness: 「菩薩善學內空，善學外空，乃至善學無法有法空」 tr. "the bodhisattva trains well in inner emptiness, trains well in outer emptiness, and so on up to training well in the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas"; thereupon within the emptinesses there is no dharma that can be abided in—the four fruits of the śramaṇa and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds have no place to abide; at the end he adds one sentence, 「是諸空亦空」 tr. "these emptinesses too are empty". This sentence is the eye of the answer: if emptiness could be abided in, emptiness would become a new abiding-place, and one still could not pass beyond the grounds of the two vehicles; only when emptiness too is empty is there truly no abiding. One who can practise the emptinesses in this way 「能入菩薩位中」 tr. "can enter into the bodhisattva's position".

17. Subhūti asks: what is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's position? What is not the position? As soon as a new name appears, Subhūti asks as usual. The way of asking here follows the same road as the seventh passage—first ask about its substance, then ask about its opposite. Asking about the opposite is especially important: if a criterion cannot say what it excludes, it is not yet a criterion.

18. The Buddha answers: all that is with something to be attained is not the bodhisattva's position; all that is with nothing to be attained is the bodhisattva's position. The Buddha's answer is only one sentence, yet it is the neatest criterion of the whole chapter: with something to be attained is not the position; with nothing to be attained is the position. This criterion does not consider the height of the method cultivated or the before and after of stages; it considers only whether the mind attains or does not attain. Shining this on what went before: morality that does not make the vow for a place of birth or the vow for retribution, dhyāna that does not receive the flavour of the samādhi, concentration that does not see the one who enters dhyāna—each item is a particular aspect of the same criterion.

19. Subhūti asks: what is with something to be attained? What is with nothing to be attained? Subhūti asks again about its marks. Once the criterion is established, one must know where it lands; otherwise the three Chinese characters 「無所得」 tr. "nothing to be attained" would on the contrary become a new attachment. This question is asked on the reader's behalf.

20. The Buddha answers: form and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds, with something to be attained, are not the position; the bodhisattva's position is that dharmas are unshowable and unspeakable. The Buddha's answer divides into two parts. The first part lists the marks of being with something to be attained: form, feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, the six faculties, and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds, with something to be attained, are not the bodhisattva's position—what is cited runs from the ordinary to the sage all the way to the end, which shows that 「有所得」 tr. "with something to be attained" is not exempted because what is attained is noble. The second part properly shows the mark of the position: 「菩薩位者，是諸法不可示、不可說」 tr. "what is called the bodhisattva's position is that these dharmas are unshowable and unspeakable", and itself explains why it is so—the nature of form and so on up to the nature of the omniscience of all kinds is unshowable and unspeakable. Next it speaks of the marks of practice after entering the position: complete with all meditative concentrations and samādhi, he is still not born following their power, how much less does he abide in lust, anger, and delusion and give rise to sinful deeds; 「菩薩但住如幻法中饒益眾生，亦不得眾生及如幻法」 tr. "the bodhisattva abides only in dharmas like an illusion and enriches beings, and does not find beings or dharmas like an illusion either". At the end it concludes: this is named making complete the signless dhyānapāramitā, and so on up to being able to turn the wheel of the Dharma, namely 「不可得法輪」 tr. "the unfindable wheel of the Dharma". The single gate of dhyānapāramitā is here gathered in full, and the place where it is gathered is already the turning of the wheel of the Dharma, which shows that signless dhyāna is not withered stillness.

21. Furthermore, the general statement: knowing that all dharmas are like a dream, like an echo, like a mirage, like a shadow, like an illusion, like a conjuration. With the six perfections spoken one by one, the sūtra text returns to the six similes at the head of the chapter, but the place abided in widens from 「五陰」 tr. "the five aggregates" to 「一切法」 tr. "all dharmas". This turn is most worth savouring: the six similes above were the place of abiding; the six similes here are the realm known; from abiding to knowing, from the five aggregates to all dharmas. The general statement of this chapter's last passage begins from this sentence.

22. Subhūti asks: how does one know that all dharmas are like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration? What Subhūti asks about is the manner of 「知」 tr. "knowing". Since the six similes have turned from abiding to knowing, then what is known, and how one knows without its becoming a new grasping at marks, becomes the proper question of the last passage.

23. The Buddha answers: not seeing the dream, not seeing the one who sees the dream, and so on up to not clinging to the six perfections and yet making complete the first ground and so on up to the tenth ground. The Buddha's answer at the outset removes subject and object together: not seeing the dream, not seeing the one who sees the dream; not seeing the echo, not seeing the one who hears the echo; shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration are all likewise. Why is even the one who can see removed? The sūtra text answers itself: 「是夢、響、影、焰、幻、化皆是凡夫愚人顛倒法故」 tr. "because this dream, echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration are all the inverted dharmas of ordinary foolish people"—since what is seen is inverted, the one who sees is not established either. Next it says that the arhat and so on up to the pratyekabuddha, the bodhisattva, and the buddhas also do not see; this proves the meaning by the noble stations. Next it brings out the principle relied on: 「一切法無所有性、不生、不定」 tr. "all dharmas are without any existent nature, unarisen, and not fixed"; this being so, to grasp the mark of arising or the mark of fixity when practising prajñā is 「是處不然」 tr. "there is no such principle". Next it speaks of not clinging item by item: not clinging to the five aggregates, not clinging to the three realms, not clinging to the dhyānas, liberations, and samādhi, not clinging to the thirty-seven limbs of the path, not clinging to the three samādhi, not clinging to the six perfections. At the end it brings out a conclusion that seems the opposite: 「不著故，能具足菩薩初地，於初地中亦不生著」 tr. "because he does not cling, he can make complete the bodhisattva's first ground, and within the first ground he gives rise to no clinging either", and so on up to the ten grounds, all likewise; practising prajñā he also does not find prajñā, and at the time of not finding prajñā, 「見一切法皆入般若波羅蜜中，亦不得是法」 tr. "he sees all dharmas enter into prajñāpāramitā, and also does not find these dharmas". The reason is that 「是諸法與般若波羅蜜無二無別」 tr. "these dharmas and prajñāpāramitā are without duality and without difference", and 「諸法入如、法性、實際故無分別」 tr. "because dharmas enter into suchness, the nature of dharmas, and the limit of reality, they are without discrimination". Not clinging and thereafter being complete—this is the one and the same line of reasoning of this chapter from beginning to end, and here it is said most clearly.

24. Subhūti asks: within the signless and non-discrimination, how are wholesome and unwholesome, with outflows and without outflows, worldly and world-transcending, conditioned and unconditioned spoken of? Subhūti raises the last difficulty, which is also the difficulty of the whole chapter that lies closest to the reader. Since all dharmas are signless and without discrimination, are not the various paired names in the Buddha's Dharma set up in vain? This question corresponds head to tail with the second question at the head of the chapter, 「云何無異法中而分別說異相」 tr. "how, within dharmas without difference, are differing marks spoken of with distinctions", which shows that the sūtra text has never, all along the way, left this knot.

25. The Buddha answers with a counter-question: within the real mark of all dharmas, is there any dharma that can be said to be wholesome or to be unwholesome, and so on up to being awakening? The Buddha does not answer directly but asks Subhūti in return: within the real mark of all dharmas, is there any dharma that can be said to be wholesome, to be unwholesome, and so on up to being conditioned or unconditioned, being the four fruits, being a pratyekabuddha, being a bodhisattva, being anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi? The method of the counter-question is most powerful here—the answer must be spoken by the questioner himself; only when he has spoken it is it truly his own knowledge and view.

26. Subhūti answers: it is unspeakable. Subhūti's answer is extremely brief: 「世尊！不可說也！」 tr. "World-Honored One! It is unspeakable!" As soon as these four Chinese characters land, the earlier question resolves itself. Here the reader should take note of the pattern of the sūtra text: when the Buddha sets up a counter-question and the disciple takes it on himself, its force equals the Buddha's own saying, and moreover leaves nothing to push off.

27. The Buddha concludes: all dharmas are signless, without discrimination, non-arising, not fixed, and unshowable; when I formerly practised the bodhisattva path there was likewise no dharma whose nature could be found; one should train well in the nature of dharmas. The Buddha takes up Subhūti's answer and concludes: 「以是因緣故，當知一切法無相、無分別、無生、無定、不可示」 tr. "for this reason, know that all dharmas are signless, without discrimination, non-arising, not fixed, and unshowable". Next he takes himself as witness: 「我本行菩薩道時，亦無有法可得性」 tr. "when I formerly practised the bodhisattva path, there was likewise no dharma whose nature could be found", whether form or feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, and so on up to the conditioned and the unconditioned, the four fruits and so on up to awakening, all likewise. This sentence is where the weight of the whole chapter lies—the signless that is spoken of is not a theory; it is the Buddha himself telling the actual state of his practising the path. At the end comes the gate of practice: from the first arousing of intent up to awakening, 「應善學諸法性」 tr. "one should train well in the nature of dharmas"; training well in the nature of dharmas is precisely the path of awakening; practising this path one can make complete the six perfections, bring beings to accomplishment, and purify buddha-lands, and, having obtained awakening, deliver beings by the dharma of the three vehicles and not cling to the three vehicles. The sūtra section is gathered to a close with 「以無相法應學般若波羅蜜」 tr. "one should train in prajñāpāramitā by the signless dharma", which fits the question at the head of the chapter exactly, like tenon and mortise.

28. The treatise-author's first question: Subhūti asks with emptiness and the Buddha answers with emptiness; how can this question and answer be told apart? At the start of the treatise section, the treatise-author first cites the question and answer of the sūtra text: Subhūti asks 「若諸法無相無分別，云何差別說六波羅蜜」 tr. "if dharmas are signless and without discrimination, why are the six perfections spoken of with distinctions", and the Buddha answers 「菩薩住是如夢五眾中，能具足六波羅蜜」 tr. "the bodhisattva abides in these five aggregates that are like a dream and can make the six perfections complete". Next he brings out his doubt: both sides are speaking of emptiness; does this question and answer not become a mere repetition of the same words—where is the difference? This question is asked most finely—what it asks is not whether a doctrine is right or wrong, but why a question and an answer can stand at all. When reading the treatise and meeting such a question, know that what the treatise-author wants to take apart is the layer that the reader reads past without noticing.

29. The treatise-author explains the intent of Subhūti's question: if dharmas are empty, yet now one sees with one's own eyes the bodhisattva practising the six perfections and becoming a Buddha. The treatise-author first restores the mind of the questioning side. Subhūti's question is not an abstract debate over emptiness and existence; it is a present conflict: if dharmas are empty, why does one plainly see before one's eyes the bodhisattva practising the six perfections and becoming a Buddha? Only when the intent of the question is restored to the two Chinese characters 「眼見」 tr. "seeing with one's own eyes" does the Buddha's answer below, which brings out the simile of clouds and mist, have somewhere to land.

30. The treatise-author explains the intent of the Buddha's answer: ordinary people are far from the real mark and so see existence; the bodhisattva is near the real mark and so sees emptiness, as clouds and mist seen from afar are seen and, drawing near, nothing is seen. The treatise-author explains the mind of the answering side, in three sections. The first points out the sickness of the objector: 「凡夫遠實智慧，取相」 tr. "ordinary people are far from real wisdom and grasp at marks", seeing the bodhisattva practising the six perfections and becoming a Buddha, and again 「著是空法故難」 tr. "because they cling to this empty dharma, they raise the objection"—grasping at marks and also clinging to emptiness, holding fast at both ends, so it becomes an objection. The second is the proper answer: though the bodhisattva abides in the five aggregates, he abides in the five aggregates 「如幻、如夢空法中」 tr. "as in the empty dharma of what is like an illusion and like a dream", 「亦以空心行布施」 tr. "and also practises giving with an empty mind", so that though he practises all dharmas and makes the six perfections complete, this does not hinder emptiness. The third brings out the simile: 「譬如雲霧，遠視則見，近之則無所見」 tr. "it is as with clouds and mist: seen from afar they are seen; drawing near, nothing at all is seen"; ordinary people are far from the real mark and so see existence; the bodhisattva is near the real mark and so sees all as empty. What is most worth savouring in this simile is that it does not judge existence or non-existence, only far and near—the difference in what is seen comes from where one stands, not from there truly being two things seen. The last sentence turns from not hindering to a positive use: 「不妨故，能於檀波羅蜜一念中具足行諸善法」 tr. "because they do not hinder each other, he can, within a single thought of dānapāramitā, practise all wholesome dharmas to completion"; the meaning of completeness in a single thought comes out from here.

31. The treatise-author goes on to explain the pāramitā without outflows obtained as retribution: like the eye-faculty obtained as retribution, which of itself can see forms. The treatise-author goes on to speak of a matter on the side of the fruit. This person constantly cultivates the pure pāramitā without outflows, and after he changes bodies he obtains the pāramitā without outflows obtained as retribution. What is obtained as retribution? The treatise-author explains it himself: 「報得名更不修行，自然而得」 tr. "what is called obtained as retribution means obtained of itself without further cultivation", and brings out the simile 「譬如報得眼根，自然能見色」 tr. "it is as the eye-faculty obtained as retribution can of itself see forms". This simile is extremely plain and extremely useful: the eye-faculty's ability to see does not wait to be learned anew in this life; it is accomplished by past deeds; the pāramitā obtained as retribution is likewise. Having obtained this pāramitā obtained as retribution, he can transform one body into immeasurable asaṃkhyeya bodies, hears the Dharma to completion in the presence of the buddhas of the ten directions, delivers the beings of the ten directions, little by little purifies buddha-worlds, and becomes a Buddha according to his vow. In reading this passage do not give rise to a mind that trusts to lucky chance—the reason the retribution comes of itself is precisely that before it there were the two Chinese characters 「常修」 tr. "constantly cultivates".

32. The treatise-author's second question: if dharmas are empty and signless, how does one discriminate, and how can one know that each is complete with the other pāramitā? The treatise-author sets up the second question, and what it asks about is a difficulty of cognition: since all is empty and signless, from where is discrimination set up? And how can one know that, while practising dāna, each is complete with the other five perfections? This question comes from the preceding passage's 「一念中具足行諸善法」 tr. "within a single thought practising all wholesome dharmas to completion"—the preceding passage says that one can be complete; this question asks how one knows that one is complete.

33. The treatise-author answers: though the practitioner does not himself discriminate, the buddhas and bodhisattvas say that he practises dāna and practises śīla and is complete with all the practices. The answer is only one sentence, yet it divides out two subjects: the practitioner himself makes no discrimination, while the buddhas and bodhisattvas count it out on his behalf. This answer places 「分別」 tr. "discrimination" on the side of the speakers and not on the side of the practitioner—the practitioner's non-discrimination is a matter of the gate of practice; the buddhas' and bodhisattvas' having discrimination is a matter of teaching and transforming; the two do not obstruct each other. Whoever, reading the sūtras, sees talk of discrimination and suspects that it goes against emptiness can hold to this one sentence to resolve it himself.

34. The treatise-author takes the śrāvaka entering the seeing of the truths as an example: within what is without outflows, signless, and without discrimination, the other sages still count the dharmas he has entered as right view, right speech, right action, right livelihood, vigour, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The treatise-author takes a ready-made example accepted in common by the three vehicles to prove the preceding answer. When the śrāvaka enters the seeing of the truths, what he enters is the dharma without outflows, signless, and without discrimination, and yet the other sages still count the dharmas he has entered: knowing the real mark of all dharmas, namely the mark of the signless, is right view; right view gaining strength is named right practice; not vexing beings and doing no evil is right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Here the treatise-author especially points out a difficulty and resolves it himself: at this time 「雖無所說、亦無所造，而名為正語、正業」 tr. "though nothing is said and nothing is made, yet it is named right speech and right action"—how is it that with no saying and no making the names right speech and right action are obtained? The answer says 「是名深妙正語、正業，所謂畢竟不惱眾生故」 tr. "this is named the deep and wondrous right speech and right action, because he ultimately does not vex beings". If ultimately not vexing beings is taken as the substance of speech and action, then without waiting for something said or something made, speech and action are accomplished of themselves. Below this he goes on counting: arousing the mind and making something is vigour; binding thought to the object is right mindfulness; gathering the mind in one place is right concentration. Among the eight limbs each one in turn has a name, while the dharma entered is throughout without discrimination—this is the actual proof of the preceding answer.

35. The treatise-author continues the example: the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the seven limbs of awakening are likewise counted by the sages. The treatise-author extends it one step further: 「見身、受、心、法實相，是名「四念處」」 tr. "seeing the real mark of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas is named ‘the four foundations of mindfulness’", and so on up to the seven limbs of awakening, it is likewise; 「於四念處中，亦如八直聖道中，諸聖人為數」 tr. "within the four foundations of mindfulness too, just as within the eightfold straight noble path, the sages count them for him". Citing the eightfold noble path and then citing the four foundations of mindfulness and the seven limbs of awakening is to show that this principle is not limited to one group of the limbs of the path; all the thirty-seven limbs of the path are so. When reading the treatise and seeing the treatise-author, once one example is established, cite yet another, know that he is establishing a general rule, not supplementing details.

36. The treatise-author returns to the bodhisattva: practising signless dāna, he can make complete śīla and the other wholesome dharmas. With the general rule established, it returns to the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva, practising this signless dānapāramitā, can make complete śīlapāramitā and the other wholesome dharmas; and not only is dānapāramitā so: 「如檀波羅蜜，尸波羅蜜等攝諸善法亦如是」 tr. "as with dānapāramitā, so too śīlapāramitā and the rest gather all wholesome dharmas". Among the six perfections, whichever one is raised can gather the other perfections and all wholesome dharmas—this is precisely the final answer to the third question at the head of the chapter, 「云何般若波羅蜜攝檀、尸、羼、精進、禪」 tr. "how does prajñāpāramitā gather dāna, śīla, kṣānti, vigour, and dhyāna", only answered more broadly than it was asked: not only can prajñā gather; the six perfections gather each other.

37. The treatise-author's third question: the preceding chapter has one pāramitā complete with all the pāramitā, and this chapter has signlessness gathering all dharmas; what difference is there? The last question looks back to collate with the preceding chapter. The preceding chapter has already said that one pāramitā is complete with all the pāramitā; this chapter says that signlessness can gather all dharmas; the two statements look repetitive, so why set up a separate chapter? With this question the treatise-author sweeps away on the reader's behalf the doubt of ‘repetition’, and it is also where this chapter's position in the sequence of the whole treatise is fixed.

38. The treatise-author answers: above, it is that within a single thought one can be complete with all the pāramitā; here, it is that though dharmas are empty and signless one can be complete with all the pāramitā—this is the difference. The answer is only one sentence, yet its boundary is extremely clear: what the preceding chapter establishes lies in 「一念」 tr. "a single thought", speaking of completeness in terms of the non-duality of time; what this chapter establishes lies in 「空無相」 tr. "empty and signless", speaking of completeness in terms of the signlessness of the nature of dharmas. The one enters from the one-pointedness of the mind, the other enters from the signlessness of dharmas; where they arrive is the same but where they come from differs, and so they may not be merged into one chapter. The whole chapter begins from Subhūti's question 「云何無異法中而分別說異相」 tr. "how, within dharmas without difference, are differing marks spoken of with distinctions" and ends with the treatise-author's judging the difference between this chapter and the preceding chapter—what is asked and answered from head to tail is the same single Chinese character 「異」 tr. "difference", but the former doubts that difference can be established, whereas the latter, within the signless, establishes difference as it really is without obstructing its oneness.

Do Not Misread

Do not read the six similes as six disparaging comparisons. Dream, echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, and conjuration are not used in this chapter to say that the five aggregates are ‘unreal and so need not be attended to’; they are used to say that the five aggregates have no self-nature. The reasoning of the sūtra text is 「夢無自性」 tr. "a dream has no self-nature", therefore 「無相」 tr. "signless", therefore 「一相」 tr. "one mark", heading all the way toward the proper meaning that one mark is the signless, never heading toward nihilism. If one reads it as: since all dharmas are like a dream and an illusion, practice too is in vain—then why would the Buddha, in the same sentence, say 「住是中行布施、持戒、修忍辱、勤精進、入禪定、修智慧」 tr. "abiding in this he practises giving, keeps morality, cultivates patience, is diligent in vigour, enters meditative concentration, and cultivates wisdom"? The abiding-place and the gate of practice are two halves of one and the same sentence; one may not take only one half.

Do not read 「不作是願」 tr. "does not make this vow" as not permitting the making of vows. What the sūtra text blocks are two specific vows—by the causes and conditions of keeping morality to seek birth in a great kṣatriya clan and so on up to the gods Sovereign over Others' Transformations, and by the causes and conditions of keeping morality to seek to obtain the four fruits of the śramaṇa and the pratyekabuddha path; what is blocked is the bargaining mind that uses morality as a cause to trade for some place of birth or some fruit-station, and the sūtra text itself gives its reason, namely the four alternatives of the signless and of marks. As for the bodhisattva's own aspiration to 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands", and so on up to seeking the omniscience of all kinds, the sūtra text states it plainly in the same passage. Therefore this passage blocks the mind that grasps at fruits; it does not block the arousing of the mind.

Do not read the four alternatives of the signless as an annihilation of cause and effect. 「無相法不能得無相法，有相法不能得有相法；無相法不能得有相法，有相法不能得無相法」 tr. "A signless dharma cannot obtain a signless dharma, a dharma with marks cannot obtain a dharma with marks; a signless dharma cannot obtain a dharma with marks, a dharma with marks cannot obtain a signless dharma"—what the four alternatives block is the opposition of subject and object hidden in the single Chinese character 「得」 tr. "obtain"; they do not block practice from having its efficacy. The evidence lies right after the four alternatives: the sūtra text immediately goes on to say that he can make complete the signless śīlapāramitā and enter the bodhisattva's position, obtain the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, practise knowledge of the kinds of paths, and obtain the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution. If the four alternatives were truly annihilation, this string of things accomplished below would have nowhere to be placed.

Do not read 「諸須陀洹若智、若斷，是名菩薩忍」 tr. "whether the knowledge or the severance of the srota-āpannas, this is named the bodhisattva's acceptance" as levelling the three vehicles. These words of the Buddha do not say that the two vehicles are the bodhisattva; they say that what the two vehicles realise is, in the bodhisattva's share, only one portion of acceptance; therefore the sūtra text immediately goes on to say 「成就是忍，勝一切聲聞、辟支佛」 tr. "accomplishing this acceptance, he surpasses all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas". What differs lies in the breadth of what is contained and the distance of where one tends. If one reads it as the three vehicles being without distinction, then the earlier 「不與聲聞、辟支佛共」 tr. "not shared with the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas" and the later 「能過聲聞、辟支佛地」 tr. "can pass beyond the śrāvaka ground and the pratyekabuddha ground" both become empty settings-up.

Do not read 「不受三昧味」 tr. "not receiving the flavour of the samādhi" as not entering meditative concentration. The sūtra text says plainly that the first dhyāna and so on up to the fourth dhyāna, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless spheres, and the samādhi are 「皆證皆入」 tr. "all realised and all entered", and only then speaks of not receiving the flavour and not receiving the fruit. What is not received is the flavour and the fruit, not concentration. If the practitioner because of this passage slights meditative concentration and abandons its work, he falls precisely into having the name of the signless without the reality of the signless.

Do not read ‘within the real mark of all dharmas it is unspeakable whether this is wholesome or this is unwholesome’ as wholesome and evil being without distinction. These words come within the Buddha's counter-question, and what is discussed is the ground of the real mark of all dharmas, not the ground of the practitioner's daily use. At the end of the same passage of sūtra text, the Buddha still teaches 「應善學諸法性」 tr. "one should train well in the nature of dharmas", 「能具足六波羅蜜，成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "he can make complete the six perfections, bring beings to accomplishment, and purify buddha-lands", 「以三乘法度脫眾生」 tr. "delivers beings by the dharma of the three vehicles"—not one sentence of the setting-up of wholesome dharmas is abolished. The treatise-author's explanation says it more directly: though the practitioner does not himself discriminate, the buddhas and bodhisattvas say that he practises dāna and practises śīla; when the śrāvaka enters the seeing of the truths, within dharmas without discrimination, the other sages still count the dharmas he has entered as right view, right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Non-discrimination is said with regard to the dharma entered; having names is said with regard to the setting-up for teaching and transforming; the two stand at the same time.

Bearing on Practice

The first use is to treat the six similes as an abiding-place and not as a conclusion. The syntax of the sūtra text is 「住五陰如夢、如響、如影、如焰、如幻、如化」 tr. "abides in the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration" and only then 「住是中行布施、持戒、修忍辱」 tr. "abiding in this he practises giving, keeps morality, cultivates patience" and so on—the six similes are the ground where one settles oneself, not a remark of comment outside the gate of practice. In daily use one can hold to it thus: before doing a thing, first keep in view the object faced as like a dream, like an illusion; once it is kept in view, go and do it just as before. If one only says afterwards ‘it is all like a dream and an illusion’, the six similes become words of evasion, the exact opposite of the sūtra's intent.

The second use is to take 「一切有所得是非菩薩位，一切無所得是菩薩位」 tr. "all that is with something to be attained is not the bodhisattva's position; all that is with nothing to be attained is the bodhisattva's position" as one general sieve. This criterion is extremely simple and extremely widely applicable: it can be used when giving, to check whether there are marks of a giver and a recipient; when keeping morality, to check whether there is a vow for a place of birth or for retribution; in meditative concentration, to check whether there is a mind that receives the flavour and receives the fruit; when hearing the Dharma and understanding its meaning, to check whether there is the thought ‘I have obtained this Dharma’. Wherever the answer at some point is ‘with something to be attained’, one knows that this point is still outside the position, and one need not seek any other test.

The third use is that sentence of turning-back reflection in the perfection of patience. When one meets people who revile and assail and wishes to be patient, what the sūtra text teaches is not forcible suppression; it is to ask 「罵我者誰？害我者誰？」 tr. "Who is it that reviles me? Who is it that harms me?". This question is not rhetoric; it is asking, with regard to the other person, 「者誰」 tr. "who is it that": the person who can revile and can harm, when sought, is unfindable. [Pushing it further: since the one who can insult is unfindable, the self that is insulted also has no place to be established—this is an extension following the meaning of the sūtra, not the sūtra text's own question.] Since there is neither the one who acts nor the one acted upon, anger has no means of arising. The principle relied on the sūtra text itself gives, namely 「於一切法得無相忍故」 tr. "because he has obtained signless acceptance toward all dharmas". The practitioner can first try it at the slightest unpleasantness, without waiting for a great situation to appear.

The fourth use is to check oneself by dividing vigour into two roads. The effect of bodily vigour lies in function—running about, serving, teaching and transforming; the effect of mental vigour lies in entering the path—「聖無漏精進，入八聖道分中」 tr. "the noble vigour without outflows, entering into the eightfold noble path". Neglecting either becomes a sickness: leaning to the body, one labours with nowhere to return; leaning to the mind, one is still and of no use. Every so often one can check each of them once, to see whether both roads are being walked.

The fifth use is that the simile of clouds and mist can serve as a ruler for the distance of one's view. Whoever feels that the meaning of emptiness and practice hinder each other knows, by this simile, that the sickness lies in standing too far away. The treatise-author does not say which of existence or non-existence is true; he says only that seen from afar they are seen and, drawing near, nothing is seen; therefore the remedy is not debate but moving one's steps one share nearer to the real mark. One share nearer, one share less hindrance, until 「不妨故，能於檀波羅蜜一念中具足行諸善法」 tr. "because they do not hinder each other, he can, within a single thought of dānapāramitā, practise all wholesome dharmas to completion".

The sixth use is that the simile of what is obtained as retribution can remove the trust in lucky chance and can also remove weariness. The pāramitā obtained as retribution 「更不修行，自然而得」 tr. "is obtained of itself without further cultivation", as the eye-faculty obtained as retribution can of itself see forms; yet the reason it can be obtained as retribution lies in 「常修無漏清淨波羅蜜」 tr. "constantly cultivating the pure pāramitā without outflows". So this simile is useful at both ends: one who sees others naturally in accord with the Dharma and feels ashamed of himself knows that they have past cultivation and need not envy them; one who feels that today's work has not yet shown its effect knows that the retribution lies in the change of bodies and need not grow weary.

Further Resonances

The backbone of this chapter is one section of sūtra text and one section of treatise explanation. Sūtra ① begins from Subhūti setting up four questions—within dharmas that are signless, indiscriminable, and empty of specific marks, how does one make complete the cultivation of the six perfections; how, within dharmas without difference, are differing marks spoken of with distinctions; how does prajñā gather dāna, śīla, kṣānti, vigour, and dhyāna; how does one practise dharmas of differing marks and obtain the fruit by the path of one mark. The Buddha answers that one practises the six perfections abiding within the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration, threads it through with the principle that because there is no self-nature it is signless and because it is signless it is of one mark, and opens the gates of the six perfections one by one: dānapāramitā speaks of giving being signless, the giver signless, and the recipient signless, and yet being able to make complete the four foundations of mindfulness, the emptinesses, the samādhi, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas, of abiding in the dharmas without outflows obtained as retribution, making offerings to the buddhas, and benefiting beings with the four means of gathering, of receiving a worldly body and not being defiled by birth and death, and of knowing the four fruits and the pratyekabuddha path and not abiding in them; śīlapāramitā speaks of morality not deficient, not broken, not mixed, not clinging, of keeping the morality of names and so on up to the morality that is not of deportment, of not making the vow for a place of birth and not making the vow for retribution, brings out the four alternatives of the signless and of marks, speaks of accomplishing entry into the position, obtaining the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, and so on up to purifying buddha-lands, and at the end cites the two similes of a conjured wheel-turning sage king and the Buddha Suśānta; kṣāntipāramitā speaks of abiding in the acceptance toward beings and acceptance of dharmas, up to not giving rise to a single evil thought, of reflecting on who it is that reviles and who it is that harms, and of accomplishing the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas because signless acceptance has been obtained, with three rounds of question and answer in between distinguishing the severance and knowledge of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas and the difference between the two acceptances of the two vehicles and of the bodhisattva; vīryapāramitā speaks of bodily vigour raising supernormal powers and mental vigour entering the eightfold noble path and gathering all wholesome dharmas, and so on up to the turning of the wheel of the Dharma of three turnings and twelve aspects and the three-thousand great-thousand world quaking in six ways; dhyānapāramitā speaks of entering all the dhyānas and samādhi, all realised and all entered, and yet not receiving their flavour and not receiving their fruit, of not seeing the two realms, not seeing the dhyāna, not seeing the one who enters dhyāna, not seeing the one who enters dhyāna by means of some dharma, of training well in the emptinesses while the emptinesses too are empty, of with something to be attained being not the position and with nothing to be attained being the position, of the bodhisattva's position being that dharmas are unshowable and unspeakable, of abiding in dharmas like an illusion and enriching beings without finding beings, and so on up to being able to turn the unfindable wheel of the Dharma; the last passage says generally that one knows all dharmas to be like a dream, like an echo, like a mirage, like a shadow, like an illusion, like a conjuration, not seeing the dream and not seeing the one who sees the dream, and so on up to not seeing the conjuration and not seeing the one who sees the conjuration; that all dharmas are without any existent nature, unarisen, and not fixed; that not clinging to the five aggregates, the three realms, the dhyānas, the thirty-seven limbs of the path, the three samādhi, and the six perfections, one can on the contrary make complete the first ground and so on up to the tenth ground; that practising prajñā one also does not find prajñā, and yet sees all dharmas enter into prajñā; that dharmas and prajñā are without duality and without difference, entering into suchness, the nature of dharmas, and the limit of reality, and so are without discrimination. Then Subhūti asks how, within the signless and non-discrimination, wholesome and unwholesome, with outflows and without outflows, worldly and world-transcending, conditioned and unconditioned are spoken of; the Buddha by a counter-question makes him answer himself that it is unspeakable; and the Buddha then concludes that all dharmas are signless, without discrimination, non-arising, not fixed, and unshowable, that when he formerly practised the bodhisattva path there was likewise no dharma whose nature could be found, and that one should train well in the nature of dharmas and train in prajñā by the signless dharma. Treatise ① gathers it up with three rounds of question and answer. The first asks how, when Subhūti asks with emptiness and the Buddha answers with emptiness, there can be any difference, and answers that ordinary people grasp at marks and also cling to emptiness and so raise the objection, while the bodhisattva abides in the five aggregates as in the empty dharma of what is like an illusion and like a dream and practises giving with an empty mind and so does not hinder emptiness; it brings out the simile of clouds and mist, seen from afar and seen, drawing near and nothing seen, and at the end turns out the meaning of the pāramitā without outflows obtained as retribution, taking as its simile the eye-faculty obtained as retribution, which of itself can see forms. The second asks how, if dharmas are empty and signless, one can know that each is complete with the other pāramitā, and answers that though the practitioner does not himself discriminate, the buddhas and bodhisattvas say that he practises dāna and practises śīla; it cites the śrāvaka entering the seeing of the truths, where within the dharma without outflows, signless, and without discrimination the other sages still count the dharmas he has entered as right view, right practice, right speech, right action, right livelihood, vigour, right mindfulness, and right concentration, cites further that the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the seven limbs of awakening are likewise counted by the sages, and concludes that the bodhisattva practising signless dāna can make complete śīla and the other wholesome dharmas, and that the six perfections gathering each other is likewise. The third asks what difference there is between the preceding chapter's being complete with all the pāramitā by one pāramitā and this chapter's signlessness gathering all dharmas, and answers that the difference is that the preceding chapter is complete with all the perfections within a single thought, and this chapter is complete with all the perfections though dharmas are empty and signless.

The veins of meaning between this chapter and the chapters before and after it can be seen in three threads. First, continuing from what precedes: the preceding chapter made clear the meaning of one mind complete with all practices, and this chapter, carrying on its momentum, asks—since all practices are fully present within one mind, how are these practices established within the signless and the emptiness of specific marks; therefore the six similes of this chapter are precisely another way of speaking of the gates of practice that the preceding chapter set up, not a fresh start from nothing. Second, within the chapter there is a turn of its own: the first half speaks of each perfection separately and threads them through with the signless; the latter half speaks generally of all dharmas as like a dream, an echo, a shadow, a mirage, an illusion, a conjuration and threads them through with not clinging; the two halves pivot on the sentence 「不著故，能具足菩薩初地」 tr. "because he does not cling, he can make complete the bodhisattva's first ground"—not clinging and thereafter being complete is precisely the gathering-in, at the general statement, of the line of reasoning held in common by all the passages of the six perfections in the first half. Third, reaching toward what follows: this chapter ends with 「以無相法應學般若波羅蜜」 tr. "one should train in prajñāpāramitā by the signless dharma", and the next chapter, "The Four Means of Gathering", turns to speaking of the skilful means of outward transformation that gathers in beings by the four means of gathering; turning from the signless of inner realisation to the skilful means of outward transformation, the two chapters read in sequence show the succession from practising for oneself to transforming others.

Of the explanations of the ancient masters, for this chapter one master can be recorded. Jizang, in his sectioning, first fixes this chapter's position within the whole sūtra, saying: 「此下第二就譬說一心具萬行正意。」 tr. "From here on, the second, by way of simile, speaks of the proper intent of one mind complete with all practices." He also says: 「就譬說中明住空無相無作具六度，喻上品第三段也。」 tr. "Within the speaking by simile, it makes clear that abiding in emptiness, signlessness, and non-action one is complete with the six perfections; it is a simile for the third section of the preceding chapter."—taking this chapter as the simile-speaking aspect of the preceding chapter, which bears out precisely the meaning of continuing from what precedes spoken of above. Explaining why this chapter comes, he lists three meanings of his own: the first says that the three perfections made clear in the preceding chapter easily lead people to attach to them and give rise to clinging, 「如此等皆夢幻有也，何有耶？」 tr. "all such as these are dreamlike and illusory existence; how do they exist?"; the second concerns the difficulty of emptiness and existence being unobstructed, 「若畢竟空，云何能具所為？若有所為，云何是畢竟空？」 tr. "If it is ultimate emptiness, how can it be complete with what is done? If there is something done, how is it ultimate emptiness?"; the third is said with regard to persons, saying that the bodhisattva of the preceding chapter practises within ultimate emptiness, and since there is no dharma of a bodhisattva he ought not to be seen, yet now he is actually seen—「云何無菩薩耶？故舉六喻曉之眼也。」 tr. "how is there no bodhisattva? Therefore the six similes are raised to enlighten the eye." His division of this chapter says: 「品為二：第一、正舉喻釋上六事；第二、乘釋疑。」 tr. "The chapter is in two: first, properly raising similes to explain the six matters above; second, following on to resolve doubts." He further divides the Buddha's answer: 「佛答中為二：初總答，次得六度別答。」 tr. "Within the Buddha's answer there are two: first a general answer, next separate answers by the six perfections." His judgement of the boundary between this chapter and the preceding chapter is especially apt: 「上法說中一一度具四事，今喻說中亦一一度具四事，但法譬不同，故有兩品也。」 tr. "In the speaking by dharma above, each perfection is complete with four matters; now in the speaking by simile, each perfection is likewise complete with four matters; only dharma and simile differ, therefore there are two chapters."—judging the two chapters by the difference between speaking by dharma and speaking by simile, compared with this treatise's last passage, which judges the difference by completeness in all the perfections in a single thought and completeness in all the perfections in emptiness and signlessness, the meaning taken is not the same but the boundary pointed to is close; the two are recorded side by side without judgement. Of Huiying's Commentary, the extant text does not reach the fascicle where this chapter lies; this chapter's explanation is lacking, and this is recorded as it really is, which does not mean that he had nothing to say. Junzheng's book is in the genre of profound meaning, speaking across by theme, and does not explain chapter by chapter in order; therefore for this chapter there is no text to cite, and it is recorded as 〔not found〕. The variant names of this chapter, the differences of chapter order among the texts, and the citations by later masters are detailed in the Apparatus layer.

Overview

"The Four Means of Gathering" is the chapter in which, as the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa's explanation of the Larger Sūtra draws near its end, the bodhisattva's practice is turned toward beings. What the preceding chapter, "The Six Similes", spoke of is that within the signless one can still make the six perfections complete; the six similes—dream, echo, shadow, mirage, illusion, conjuration—are the eye that the preceding chapter set up; the very first sentence of this chapter takes these six Chinese characters over just as they stood, yet what it asks about is no longer one's own practice but beings: 「世尊！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. "World-Honored One! 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". With emptiness spoken of as far as this, a most practical difficulty rises to the surface: if everything is like a dream, why need beings be delivered, and from where are good and evil to be told apart? The Buddha's answer does not turn round by way of principle; it enters from 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 person in the dream does not himself know that it is a dream, yet the deeds truly arise and the suffering is truly undergone. So what the bodhisattva practises becomes two halves that are one matter: on one side he 「住二空中——畢竟空、無始空，為眾生說法」 tr. "abides in the two emptinesses—ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness—and teaches the Dharma for beings", on the other side 「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", pulling them out layer upon layer until he 「安置無餘涅槃及涅槃道中」 tr. "sets them in nirvāṇa without remainder and in the path to nirvāṇa". The reason the chapter's name is set on 「四攝」 tr. "the four means of gathering" lies just here: gathering is the hand that receives and leads, and this hand itself abides in ultimate emptiness. The whole chapter, two sūtras and two treatises, spans fascicles eighty-eight and eighty-nine, and by the boundaries of the fascicles and of sūtra and treatise it is divided into a three-part arc: the First Part, one sūtra, lists the matters of gathering beings; the Middle Part, one treatise, asks item by item for their reasons; the Last Part, one sūtra and one treatise, turns from the matters into the non-abiding of the one who teaches the Dharma himself, and ends with 「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas" as its closing stroke.

The First Part speaks of the matters of gathering. The sūtra text first establishes where the bodhisattva abides—he 「住報得六波羅蜜中及住報得五神通、三十七助道法」 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"—and only then speaks of gathering: those who can be delivered 「隨其所應而攝取之」 tr. "he gathers them in according to what is fitting for them". Below this it enters giving, and the one gate of giving is opened widest. First it speaks of equality: when the bodhisattva gives, 「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", and the reason for it is only one sentence—「一切法不異、不分別故」 tr. "because all dharmas are not different and without discrimination". The reverse side too is spoken with great weight: 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", the sūtra text rules outright, 「是非菩薩法」 tr. "this is not the bodhisattva's dharma"; if, toward those who come to beg, he discriminates whom he should give to and whom he should not, he falls under the rebuke of the buddhas and the sages and so on up to the gods and humans of the world: 「誰請汝救一切眾生？」 tr. "Who asked you to rescue all beings?" One layer further is giving up the body: when humans and non-humans come to beg his limbs and joints, 「不應生二心」 tr. "he should not give rise to two minds", and the reason again does not lie in whether he is brave or not, but in the original meaning of receiving a body—「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?" A layer further still is giving within emptiness: at the time of giving he should think, 「是中誰與、誰受？所施何物？」 tr. "Who here gives, who receives? What thing is given?"; the three wheels are all unfindable, 「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 even when his body is cut and severed he has only one thought—「截我者誰？割我者誰？」 tr. "Who is it that cuts me off? Who is it that severs me?". Below this the Buddha proves the breadth of gathering beings by six matters seen with the Buddha-eye: they enter the great hells and 「令火滅湯冷」 tr. "make the fire go out and the boiling water grow cold", teaching and transforming by three things, 「一者、神通，二者、知他心，三者、說法」 tr. "first, supernormal power; second, knowing others' minds; third, teaching the Dharma"; they serve as attendants to the buddhas, and what they hear they 「終不忘失」 tr. "never in the end forget or lose"; for the sake of animals they 「捨其壽命，割截身體，分散諸方」 tr. "give up their own lives, cut and sever their bodies, and scatter them in all directions"; they remove the hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts; among the gods they show the palaces burning and tell them, 「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?"; among the Brahmā gods they break their wrong views and ask, 「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?". Only at this point is the name of the four means of gathering marked out in general: 「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 giving is further opened into two gates: 「菩薩以二種施攝取眾生：財施、法施」 tr. "the bodhisattva gathers in beings by two kinds of giving: the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma". The items of the gift of wealth run from gold, silver, and precious jewels to his own body, and the words in it most worth reciting are that one call—「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 the gift of wealth does not stop at things: having given, he always follows with teaching, ending in 「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". The gift of Dharma 「有二種：一者、世間，二者、出世間」 tr. "is of two kinds: first, worldly; second, world-transcending": the worldly is the contemplation of impurity, ānāpāna, and so on up to the four formless absorptions; the world-transcending is the thirty-seven limbs of the path, the three gates of liberation, and so on up to awakening; and as for what is called the fruit, there is only one sentence—「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". At the end of the First Part, Subhūti asks the shortest and sharpest question of the whole chapter: 「菩薩與佛有何等異？」 tr. "What difference is there between the bodhisattva and the Buddha?" The Buddha's answer does not go round either: 「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. "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." Below this he lists item by item the world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people, from the four foundations of mindfulness and the four right efforts all the way to the eighteen unshared dharmas and the thirty-two marks, and stops at the end with the passage on 「光明遍照三千大千世界」 tr. "his light illumines all the three-thousand great-thousand world"—the list is long, yet its position is exactly beneath the gift of Dharma: ‘this long string of names and marks is what the bodhisattva is to give to beings’.

The Middle Part speaks of the reasons for gathering. At the opening the treatise-author first asks, on the reader's behalf, a question that seems superfluous: this question of emptiness and of good and evil has already been asked many times before; why is it asked again? His answer is fourfold in all; the first, 「是事上已答」 tr. "this matter has already been answered above", points back to the preceding chapter, and the three below it are: first, 「眾生從無始生死已來著心深難解故，須菩提復作是重問」 tr. "because beings, from beginningless birth and death onward, have a clinging mind that is deep and hard to undo, Subhūti asks this repeated question once more"; second, 「是般若波羅蜜欲說是空，義要故，數問」 tr. "what this prajñāpāramitā wishes to speak is this emptiness; because the meaning is essential, he asks again and again"; third, where the compassionate mind shows most—「佛滅度五百年後，像法中眾生愛著佛法，墮著法中」 tr. "five hundred years after the Buddha's passing into extinction, beings in the semblance Dharma love and cling to the Buddha's Dharma and fall into clinging to dharmas", and so, out of pity, he makes it clear again. The use of the two emptinesses the treatise-author also settles here in one sentence: 「畢竟空破諸法；無始空破眾生相」 tr. "ultimate emptiness breaks dharmas; beginningless emptiness breaks the mark of beings". Below this he explains the sūtra item by item. Giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration are taught alike and were spoken of in the earlier text; what is different here? 「先說生身菩薩，今說變化身。先說一國土，今說無量世界。」 tr. "What was spoken of before was the bodhisattva in a fleshly body; what is spoken of now is the transformation body. What was spoken of before was one land; what is spoken of now is immeasurable worlds." How can the Buddha be made level with animals? It is not making light of the Buddha; it is cultivating the mind of ultimate emptiness toward all dharmas, and so 「是故知一切法畢竟空故，不輕畜生，不著心貴佛」 tr. "therefore, knowing that all dharmas are ultimately empty, he does not hold animals in contempt, and does not with a clinging mind prize the Buddha"; and the treatise-author at once adds a further layer, lest people misread this as mixing good and evil together—「菩薩有二法門：一者、畢竟空法門，二者、分別好惡法門」 tr. "The bodhisattva has two dharma-gates: first, the dharma-gate of ultimate emptiness; second, the dharma-gate of distinguishing the good and the bad": entering the gate of emptiness, he contemplates all equally; entering the gate of distinguishing, even the arhat and the pratyekabuddha do not come up to the Buddha, how much less animals. Where the ancient treatise's way of recording side by side without judgement shows most is the item on being cut and severed: 「菩薩身非木石，云何眾生來割截而不生異心？」 tr. "The bodhisattva's body is not wood or stone; how is it that when beings come and cut and sever it, he does not give rise to a different mind?" The treatise-author sets out four sayings and does not rule among them: one says, 「菩薩久修羼提波羅蜜故，能不愁惱；如羼提仙人被截手足，血皆為乳」 tr. "because the bodhisattva has long cultivated kṣāntipāramitā, he can be without sorrow and vexation; just as when the sage Kṣānti had his hands and feet cut off, his blood all became milk"; one says that he has long cultivated kindness and compassion, 「譬如草木無有瞋心」 tr. "just as grass and trees have no mind of anger"; one says that, having obtained the empty mind that is the retribution of prajñā, his mind does not move; one says, 「是菩薩非生死身，是出三界法性生身」 tr. "this bodhisattva's body is not a body of birth and death; it is the body born of the dharma-nature that has gone beyond the three realms". Since he can enter the hells and deliver beings, why are the three evil destinies not emptied? The answer is that beings are many times more numerous, and he delivers them according to the causes and conditions of those who can be delivered, 「譬如大赦，及者得脫，不及者則不蒙」 tr. "It is as a great amnesty: those it reaches are freed, those it does not reach receive nothing". Those who eat the bodhisattva's flesh ought to have sin; why are they instead delivered? The answer lies in the bodhisattva's original vow—「若有眾生噉我肉者，當令得度」 tr. "If there are beings who eat my flesh, may they come to be delivered"—and the treatise-author makes a special point of showing where cause and fruit lie: 「非以噉肉故得度，以起發慈心故，得免畜生，生善處，值佛得度」 tr. "It is not because of eating the flesh that they are delivered; it is because of the kind mind that is roused that they can escape from the animal destiny, be born in a good place, meet a Buddha, and be delivered". Why is the human destiny alone spoken of broadly? Because 「三惡道中苦多故，眾生少疑」 tr. "within the three evil destinies there is much suffering, beings have little doubt"; the gods have the divine eye and see sin and merit for themselves; only humans 「以肉眼不見罪福因緣果報，又多著外道邪師及邪見經書」 tr. "with the fleshly eye do not see the causes, conditions, and retributions of sin and merit, and moreover many cling to the wrong teachers of the outside paths and to the scriptures of wrong views". Why, among the four means of gathering, is only giving spoken of broadly? 「布施中攝三事故」 tr. "Because giving contains the three things"—raising one gives the pattern for the other three. Why, within giving, is the gift of Dharma again spoken of broadly? 「財施少，法施廣故」 tr. "Because the gift of wealth is little and the gift of Dharma is broad"—「財施，有量果報；法施，無量果報」 tr. "the gift of wealth has a measured retribution; the gift of Dharma has an immeasurable retribution", 「財施，能與三界富樂；法施，能與涅槃常樂」 tr. "the gift of wealth can give the riches and pleasures of the three realms; the gift of Dharma can give the constant pleasure of nirvāṇa". Why must Subhūti ask whether the bodhisattva obtains the omniscience of all kinds? The treatise-author sees that this is a question that leaves no way forward or back, and answers it by time and position: 「今得一切種智，名為菩薩；已得一切種智，名為佛」 tr. "now obtaining the omniscience of all kinds, he is named bodhisattva; having already obtained the omniscience of all kinds, he is named Buddha". The nine successive absorptions, the thirty-two marks, and the eighty minor marks are originally held in common by the world; why are they called world-transcending and unshared? The answer has two parts: 「滅受定，但聖人能得」 tr. "the absorption of the cessation of feeling only sages can obtain"; and as for the marks and minor signs being the same as the wheel-turning sage king's, 「名字雖同，而威德、具足、淨潔、得處則不同於佛」 tr. "though the names are the same, in majesty, completeness, purity, and the place of their obtaining they are not the same as the Buddha's". Why, when the whole treatise is about to close, are the marks and minor signs only then spoken of? Because 「佛有二種身：法身、生身」 tr. "the Buddha has two kinds of body: the Dharma body and the fleshly body": the Dharma body benefits more, so it is spoken of broadly first; the marks and minor signs of the fleshly body are the retribution of what is without outflows, so they are placed at the end. Why are the ten powers only ten? 「佛實有無量智力，但以眾生不能得、不能行故不說」 tr. "The Buddha truly has immeasurable powers of knowledge; only because beings cannot obtain them and cannot practise them, they are not spoken of"—the ten powers are the ten kinds by which the matter of delivering beings who can be delivered can be accomplished, so the treatise-author takes the physician as a simile: 「譬如良醫，觀其病相，審定知其可活則治之，不可活者則捨之」 tr. "it is as a good physician observes the marks of the sickness and, judging and knowing for certain that the patient can live, treats him, and where he cannot live, gives him up". Below this he distinguishes nature from desire, in words extremely brief and extremely discerning: 「性在內，欲在外。性重，欲輕。性難除，欲易捨。性深，欲淺。」 tr. "Nature is within, desire is without. Nature is heavy, desire is light. Nature is hard to remove, desire is easy to give up. Nature is deep, desire is shallow."; distinguishing the power of the paths leading everywhere from the divine eye, he says, 「天眼但見生死時」 tr. "the divine eye sees only the time of birth and death", while this power also knows cause and fruit before death; distinguishing why the last three powers belong to the Buddha alone, he returns to one sentence—「是故說法，初無空言」 tr. "therefore his teaching of the Dharma has never been empty words". At the end of the Middle Part there is once more a setting side by side without judgement: why does the Buddha's body have the thirty-two marks exactly as the wheel-turning sage king does? One saying is, 「三十二相不多不少，義如先說」 tr. "the thirty-two marks are neither more nor fewer; the meaning is as explained before"; one saying is that the marks are not fixed, 「隨眾生所好，可以引導其心者為現」 tr. "according to what beings like, whatever can lead their minds, that he shows for them"; one saying is, 「此三十二相實定，以神通力變化身，隨眾生所好而為現相」 tr. "these thirty-two marks are really fixed; by the power of supernormal powers he transforms his body and, according to what beings like, shows the marks for them"; one saying is, 「佛有時神通變化，有時隨世界處生，當生處不得言神通變化」 tr. "the Buddha is sometimes a supernormal transformation, and sometimes is born according to the place in the world; where he is born, it cannot be said to be a supernormal transformation", and this last saying further cites a sūtra by way of illustration: 「或現金色、或現銀色、或日月星宿色，或長、或短，隨可引導眾生則為現相」 tr. "he shows a golden colour, or shows a silver colour, or the colour of the sun, the moon, and the stars, long or short; according to the beings who can be led, he shows marks for them".

The Last Part turns from gathering to the one who teaches the Dharma himself. Fascicle eighty-nine starts again with the title continued as 「之餘」 tr. "the remainder"; the sūtra text first lists the eighty minor marks item by item to the end, closing with 「是八十隨形好，佛身成就」 tr. "these eighty minor marks are what the Buddha's body accomplishes"; then the remaining three things of the four means of gathering are each closed with one sentence—kind speech is 「菩薩摩訶薩以六波羅蜜為眾生說法」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva teaches the Dharma for beings by the six perfections", beneficial action is 「菩薩摩訶薩長夜教眾生，令行六波羅蜜」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva through the long night teaches beings and makes them practise the six perfections", shared endeavour is 「菩薩摩訶薩以五神通力故種種變化，入五道中，與眾生同事」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, by the power of the five supernormal powers, transforms himself in all kinds of ways, enters the five destinies, and shares in endeavour with beings". With the four means of gathering closed, the sūtra text turns into the forty-two gates of letters: 「一字皆入四十二字，四十二字亦入一字」 tr. "one letter enters all forty-two letters, and forty-two letters also enter one letter", and their sequence has an end and a beginning—「善學四十二字已，能善說字法；善說字法已，善說無字法」 tr. "having trained well in the forty-two letters, they can speak well of the dharma of letters; having spoken well of the dharma of letters, they speak well of the dharma without letters", the last sentence weighing most: 「過一切名字故，名為佛法」 tr. "Because it passes beyond all names and letters, it is named the Buddha's Dharma". At this point Subhūti raises the tightest objection of the whole chapter: beings are unfindable, dharmas are unfindable, the nature of dharmas is unfindable, the six perfections and so on up to the eighty minor marks are all unfindable, so 「菩薩尚不可得，何況當有菩薩法！」 tr. "The bodhisattva is unfindable, how much less should there be the dharmas of a bodhisattva!"—that being so, who is it that teaches the Dharma, and to whom? The Buddha's answer does not evade; first he empties out the eighteen emptinesses and all the gates of dharma one by one, and then gives a posture that falls on neither side: the bodhisattva, 「如是見一切法空，為眾生說法，不失諸空相」 tr. "thus seeing all dharmas as empty, teaches the Dharma for beings and does not lose the marks of the emptinesses". How can he not lose them? By the simile of the conjured person: a person conjured by the Buddha further conjures immeasurable people and teaches them giving and keeping morality, and 「是化人無心、無心數法，云何分別破壞諸法？」 tr. "this conjured person is without mind and without mental-factor dharmas; how could he discriminate and destroy dharmas?"—he speaks without the mind of one who speaks, and so his speaking does not destroy dharmas. Below this he speaks of the real mark of those who are pulled out: 「是色不縛不脫，受、想、行、識不縛不脫」 tr. "This form is neither bound nor liberated; feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness are neither bound nor liberated"; and he speaks of the non-abiding of the one who speaks: 「無所有法不住無所有法，所有法不住所有法，自性法不住自性法，他性法不住他性法」 tr. "the dharma without anything existent does not abide in the dharma without anything existent; the existent dharma does not abide in the existent dharma; the dharma of self-nature does not abide in the dharma of self-nature; the dharma of other-nature does not abide in the dharma of other-nature". Since 「色不異法性、不異如、不異實際」 tr. "form does not differ from the nature of dharmas, does not differ from suchness, does not differ from the limit of reality", why still distinguish the black and white retributions of deeds and the four fruits of the śramaṇa? The Buddha's answer stands on the two truths: 「世諦故，分別說有果報，非第一義；第一義中不可說因緣果報」 tr. "By reason of worldly truth, retribution is spoken of with distinctions; it is not the highest meaning. Within the highest meaning, causes and conditions and retribution are unspeakable". Subhūti, taking this opening, presses one step further—if within the highest meaning there is no discrimination, should ordinary people not then have the noble fruits? The Buddha's way of breaking it is extremely sharp: he only asks in return whether ordinary people know the two truths: 「以凡夫人實不知世諦、不知第一義諦、不知道、不知分別道果，云何當有諸果？」 tr. "Because ordinary people really do not know worldly truth, do not know the truth of the highest meaning, do not know the path, and do not know how to distinguish the fruits of the path, how should they have the fruits?"; conversely, 「聖人知世諦、知第一義諦，有道、有修道，以是故聖人差別有諸果」 tr. "the sages know worldly truth and know the truth of the highest meaning; they have the path and have the cultivation of the path; for this reason the sages have the various fruits with distinctions". Asked again whether cultivating the path one obtains the fruit, the Buddha blocks all four alternatives: 「修道不得果，不修道亦不得果，亦不離道得果，亦不住道中得果」 tr. "Cultivating the path, one does not obtain the fruit; not cultivating the path, one does not obtain the fruit either; nor does one obtain the fruit apart from the path; nor does one obtain the fruit abiding within the path". And then, with a string of questions in return, the Buddha draws out Subhūti's own answer: are the fruits conditioned or unconditioned? He answers, 「皆是無為！」 tr. "They are all unconditioned!"; within the unconditioned is there distinction? He answers, Not so; when one penetrates all dharmas as one mark, is there distinction? He answers, Not so—and the objection disperses of itself. Treatise ② here first adds explanations of two small items: why is 「識滿足」 tr. "consciousness full", among the eighty minor marks, listed among the marks of the body? Because 「此識是果報生識，世間好醜自然而知」 tr. "this consciousness is a consciousness born of retribution, which knows of itself the fair and the foul of the world"; how is 「住處安」 tr. "secure in his dwelling-place" to be understood? 「住處安者，如白衣勇士，牢持器仗，安據住處，則不可動」 tr. "Secure in his dwelling-place is like a white-robed warrior who, firmly holding his weapons, securely occupies his dwelling-place and cannot be moved". Next it explains the gates of letters and returns them to one sentence—「無字即是諸法實相義」 tr. "being without letters is precisely the meaning of the real mark of all dharmas", the reason lying in 「諸法義中，諸法無名字」 tr. "within the meaning of dharmas, dharmas have no names or letters". Next it distinguishes three ways in which the one who teaches the Dharma loses: to make all dharmas empty while what is said is not empty is the first losing; 「若以所說不空，則為失空相」 tr. "if he holds that what is said is not empty, then that is losing the mark of emptiness" is the second; the mouth speaking emptiness while the mind holds existence is the third—「若口說空而心是有，是亦為失」 tr. "if the mouth says emptiness while in the mind there is existence, this too is losing"; the meaning of non-abiding it makes clear by three similes: 「譬如虛空不住虛空」 tr. "It is as space does not abide in space", 「譬如火不住火中」 tr. "It is as fire does not abide within fire", 「譬如水性中無火性」 tr. "It is as within the nature of water there is no nature of fire". Next it sets itself a question: 「此中何以但說二空名為法？」 tr. "Why, here, are only two emptinesses spoken of as named the Dharma?" The answer is that what exists is only the two matters, dharmas and beings: 「若言畢竟空，則破諸法；若言無始空，則破眾生」 tr. "if ultimate emptiness is spoken of, dharmas are broken; if beginningless emptiness is spoken of, beings are broken", and the reason ultimate emptiness alone is taken is that 「餘空如火燒木，猶有灰燼；畢竟空無灰無燼」 tr. "the other emptinesses are like fire burning wood, which still leaves ashes and embers; ultimate emptiness is without ashes and without embers"—below which a differing saying is still kept without judgement: 「若說十八空無咎，略說故說二空」 tr. "even if the eighteen emptinesses were spoken of, there would be no fault; it is because it is spoken of in brief that two emptinesses are spoken of". The last great passage most deserves close reading: the treatise-author judges Subhūti's objection to have arisen from a clinging mind—「今須菩提以著心問，欲從道中出果，如麻中出油」 tr. "now Subhūti asks with a clinging mind, wishing to take the fruit out from within the path, as oil is taken out from sesame"; fearing, too, that the hearers will in turn cling to not cultivating, he blocks it at once: 「修尚不得，何況不修！」 tr. "Even cultivating, it is not obtained, how much less without cultivating!", and gives the simile of two people who do not arrive: 「譬如二人欲有所到：一者、住，不行；二者、失道。二俱不到。」 tr. "It is as two people who wish to reach somewhere: one stays and does not go; the second loses the road. Neither of the two arrives."; at the end he points out that only the mind at the time of realisation is true and real—「唯是心為真實，餘時皆虛誑」 tr. "only this mind is true and real; at other times all is false and deceptive". The whole chapter ends with one sentence of posture: 「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中；於法性中不疑、不悶而說法，無罣、無礙、無遮，是則通達法性。」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas; within the nature of dharmas he teaches the Dharma without doubt and without oppression, without hindrance, without obstruction, without blocking: this is to penetrate the nature of dharmas."

The difference among the three parts of the arc can be settled in one word: the First Part speaks of the matters of gathering, the Middle Part speaks of the reasons for gathering, the Last Part speaks of the non-abiding of the one who gathers. The First Part gives item after item—giving wealth, giving Dharma, giving the body, giving the long list of names and marks; the Middle Part pursues question after question—of one and the same matter, asking by what it can be accomplished; the Last Part sweeps round after round—sweeping until even the one who teaches the Dharma himself is not allowed to stand. And through the three parts runs one thread, namely the three Chinese characters 「不分別」 tr. "without discrimination": not discriminating in the First Part is not discriminating between a field of merit and what is not a field of merit, between whom he should give to and whom he should not; not discriminating in the Middle Part is not holding animals in contempt and not with a clinging mind prizing the Buddha, while at the same time not abandoning the gate of distinguishing the good and the bad; not discriminating in the Last Part is teaching the Dharma for beings without discriminating dharmas and without grasping at the mark of the nature of dharmas. The reason the four means of gathering can be accomplished is precisely that the one who gathers does not abide in his gathering; if he abides, then giving becomes selective giving, teaching the Dharma becomes clinging to the Dharma, and at the last even the nature of dharmas becomes a place in which one can abide. The chapter's name is set on 「四攝」 tr. "the four means of gathering", and its end returns to 「通達法性」 tr. "penetrating the nature of dharmas"; the meaning of the whole chapter lies entirely between this one going out and this one return.

Therefore, in reading each passage of this chapter, one can ask at least three layers of questions. First, is what this passage speaks of a matter of what is given, or of the posture of giving—the places where the sūtra text lists marks and items at greatest length all stand beneath the gift of Dharma, which shows that the long list is not embellishment but an inventory; and beyond the inventory, the phrase 「等一布施」 tr. "one and the same giving" is the standard. Whenever one feels one has already practised giving, first ask about the thing given, then ask whether at the time of giving there was a mind that picks and chooses; the treatise-author says it plainly: the sickness of picking and choosing lies not in distinguishing clearly, but in not giving once one has distinguished. Second, if this passage were turned against its purpose, what would it become—the danger of this chapter lies wholly in the Chinese character 「空」 tr. "emptiness": speaking of emptiness and not giving, speaking of not discriminating and making light of good and evil, speaking of nothing to be attained and abandoning the cultivation of the path. The treatise-author has blocked all three of these misuses: setting up, beyond ultimate emptiness, a separate dharma-gate of distinguishing the good and the bad blocks the second; 「修尚不得，何況不修！」 tr. "Even cultivating, it is not obtained, how much less without cultivating!" blocks the third; and the first is blocked earliest—the first of the four means of gathering is giving, and the first use of emptiness is being able to give up, not being able to push away. Third, what I am now not strong enough to reach—of what use is this chapter to me—the Last Part is set up exactly for this. The eighty minor marks and the ten powers I cannot learn; but 「不失諸空相」 tr. "does not lose the marks of the emptinesses" and 「不取法性相」 tr. "does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas" can be used anywhere: when teaching the Dharma, not setting oneself up as the one who speaks is not grasping; when praised by others, not taking it that one has really attained anything is not abiding. Reading on along the two sūtras and two treatises, one will come at last to rest on that simile of the treatise-author—one who seeks the fruit with a clinging mind is 「如麻中出油」 tr. "as oil is taken out from sesame", thinking that within the path there is a fruit that can be pressed out; and what the end of the whole chapter grants is no more than an unobstructedness at the time of teaching the Dharma: 「於法性中不疑、不悶而說法」 tr. "within the nature of dharmas he teaches the Dharma without doubt and without oppression". Without doubt does not mean already realised; it means not raising, at the time of speaking, another thought to doubt. Without oppression does not mean without difficulty; it means the difficulty does not become an obstruction. The practice of gathering beings has a thousand heads and ten thousand threads; where it comes to rest is only this one sentence.

Reading On in the Order of the Treatise

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.

The Four Means of Gathering, Middle Part: Why the Same Meaning of Emptiness Is Asked Again in Chapter after Chapter; Why the Buddha First Raises Ordinary People Still Giving Rise to the Three Kinds of Deeds within Dreams; Teaching the Dharma in the Two Emptinesses and Pulling Out in Sequence by Skilful Means; the Difference between the Fleshly Body and the Transformation Body; How the Buddha and Animals Can Be Equal; the Four Sayings on Not Giving Rise to a Different Mind When Cut and Severed; Why the Three Evil Destinies Are Not Empty; Why Eating the Bodhisattva's Flesh Instead Leads to Deliverance; Why the Human Destiny Alone Is Spoken of Broadly; Why among the Four Means of Gathering Giving Alone Is Spoken of Broadly and Why within Giving the Gift of Dharma Is Spoken of Broadly; Why the Question of Obtaining the Omniscience of All Kinds Is a Difficulty of Advance and Retreat; Why the Marks and Minor Signs Are Named World-Transcending and Unshared; Why the Fleshly Body Is Spoken of Only When the Sūtra Is About to Close; Why the Powers Are Only Ten; the Two Faculties, Sharp and Dull, and the Distinction between Desire and Nature; the Difference between the Power of the Paths Leading Everywhere and the Power of the Divine Eye; Why Only the Buddha Has the Last Three Powers; the Four Sayings on Whether the Thirty-two Marks Are Fixed or Not Fixed

What Is Being Asked

The unit of the First Part has sūtra and no treatise. The difficulties left in the earlier portion of the sūtra text, the sūtra itself does not go back to account for: the matter of giving up the body and being cut and severed is recorded only as an event with its proven effect, and its principle is not stated; the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor marks are listed among ‘the world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people’, yet the marks and minor signs are something the wheel-turning sage king and others have in common—why they are called unshared, the sūtra only lists and does not explain; the four means of gathering are marked in general as four things, yet only the one gate of giving is opened, and why the three things from kind speech onward are left out it does not say either. The unit of the Middle Part is exactly where the treatise-author goes back one by one to gather up these blanks.

The way the treatise-author gathers them up shows from the very start where his concern lies. He does not begin from the meaning of emptiness itself; first he asks about something almost impolite: the same question, ‘the nature of dharmas is empty; how are the wholesome and the unwholesome distinguished’—why has Subhūti, since the preceding several chapters, asked it again and again under changing names? The answer has four layers—it has already been answered above; the clinging mind of beings is deep, and one answer cannot break it; emptiness is the essential meaning of prajñā, so he does not shrink from asking repeatedly; beings in the semblance Dharma five hundred years after the Buddha's passing instead fall into clinging to dharmas because they love and cling to the Buddha's Dharma, and Subhūti asks on behalf of the people of dull faculties of the future. Of these four layers the last is the weightiest: the repeated question is not that the asker does not understand; it is that the asker asks on behalf of those who have not yet understood. The pattern of question and answer of the whole treatise here speaks out its own reason.

Next, the treatise-author takes apart the sūtra's sentence ‘abiding in the two emptinesses, he teaches the Dharma for beings’. What emptiness speaks is twofold: ultimate emptiness breaks dharmas, and beginningless emptiness breaks the mark of beings; and what follows close upon the speaking of emptiness is pulling beings out from inversion by the power of skilful means—pulling them out from stinginess and making them give, again pulling them out from the retribution of giving and making them keep morality, again pulling them out from the retribution of keeping morality and making them cultivate meditation, and only at the last setting them in nirvāṇa and the path to nirvāṇa. Here the treatise-author lays down an extremely weighty sentence: 「若布施、持戒、禪定是定實法，則不應令遠離。」 tr. "If giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration were definitely real dharmas, one should not make people go far from them." The reason why giving and keeping morality must still be given up is precisely that they too are born from inversion and change in the long run. The meaning of emptiness here does not abolish wholesome dharmas; it explains how wholesome dharmas can be passed beyond one step after another.

Next again, the treatise-author answers one by one the difficult places left by the sūtra: how the Buddha and animals can be given to as one and equal; the bodhisattva's body is not wood or stone, so how, when cut and severed, does he not give rise to a different mind; since bodhisattvas are immeasurable, why are the three evil destinies not empty; beings who cut and sever and eat the flesh are making evil deeds, so why does this instead become a condition for deliverance; why among the four means of gathering giving alone is spoken of broadly, and why within giving the gift of Dharma alone is spoken of broadly; why Subhūti must ask ‘does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds or not’; the nine successive absorptions and the thirty-two marks are things the world has in common, so why are they listed among the world-transcending and unshared; why only when the sūtra is about to come to an end are the marks and minor signs of the fleshly body spoken of; the Buddha's powers of knowledge are immeasurable, so why are only ten powers spoken of; why beings have keen and dull faculties, and why keen and dull are traced back to desire and traced back to nature; the last question comes back to the marks and minor signs—since the Buddha's bodily marks surpass those of the kings of the gods, why are they exactly thirty-two marks, the same as the wheel-turning sage king's.

Among the treatise-author's answers there are two places where several sayings are plainly set side by side without judgement: not giving rise to a different mind when cut and severed, where four sayings are listed; and whether the thirty-two marks are fixed or not fixed, where four sayings are also listed. These two places are the key to how this unit is to be read—setting side by side without judging is not that the treatise-author has nothing to say; it is that these two matters differ according to the bodhisattva's stage and the aptitude of beings, and forcing one saying to be fixed would instead lose it.

Passage by Passage

1. The reason for the repeated question—the four layers of the answer. The treatise opens at once with a question: 「諸法性空，云何分別有善、不善？」 tr. "The nature of dharmas is empty; how are the wholesome and the unwholesome distinguished?" This sentence has already been said everywhere above—「須菩提何以從後已來，品品中義無異而作種種名問？」 tr. "Why does Subhūti, from the later chapters onward, in chapter after chapter where the meaning has no difference, still ask under all kinds of names?" The treatise-author's answer has four layers in all. The first layer is the simplest: 「是事上已答。」 tr. "This matter has already been answered above." The second layer traces it to how deep the sickness of beings is: 「眾生從無始生死已來著心深難解故，須菩提復作是重問。」 tr. "Because beings, from beginningless birth and death onward, have a clinging mind that is deep and hard to undo, Subhūti asks this repeated question once more." The clinging mind is not a delusion of one moment; it is accumulated habit from beginningless time, so one answer is not enough to break it, and the answer must be repeated. The third layer traces it to the substance of prajñā: 「是般若波羅蜜欲說是空，義要故，數問。」 tr. "What this prajñāpāramitā wishes to speak is this emptiness; because the meaning is essential, he asks again and again." Asking repeatedly is not repetition; it is because what is asked is precisely the vital point of the whole sūtra. The fourth layer traces it to the times and the hearers: 「佛在世時，眾生利根易悟；佛滅度五百年後，像法中眾生愛著佛法，墮著法中」 tr. "When the Buddha was in the world, beings had keen faculties and were easily awakened; five hundred years after the Buddha's passing into extinction, beings in the semblance Dharma love and cling to the Buddha's Dharma and fall into clinging to dharmas", and they give rise to the doubt 「若諸法皆空、如夢、如幻，何以故有善、不善？」 tr. "If all dharmas are empty, like a dream, like an illusion, why are there the wholesome and the unwholesome?"; Subhūti 「憐愍未來眾生鈍根不解故重問」 tr. "asks again because he pities the beings of the future with dull faculties who do not understand". Of the four layers, the first three say ‘why it is worth asking again’, and the fourth says ‘on whose behalf it is asked’. The last layer turns the whole pattern of question and answer over: Subhūti's question is not his own doubt; it is a difficulty set up on behalf of people of later ages.

2. The Buddha himself states the causes and conditions—because of the inverted mind of ordinary people, within a dream they still cling to what is seen in the dream. The treatise-author takes up the question in the sūtra, 「世尊！若諸法皆空，云何分別有善、不善等？」 tr. "World-Honored One! If all dharmas are empty, how are the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the rest distinguished?", and then points out that the Buddha's answer is in fact his own statement of the causes and conditions: 「凡夫顛倒心故，於法皆作顛倒異見，乃至不見一法是實。凡夫於夢中，著夢、得夢、見夢者，亦著夢中所見事。」 tr. "Because ordinary people have an inverted mind, toward all dharmas they make inverted and divergent views, up to not seeing a single dharma as real. Ordinary people, within a dream, cling to the dream, find the dream, find the one who sees the dream, and also cling to the things seen within the dream." Notice that this answer lands not on dharmas but on people: it does not say that dharmas are real; it says that the inversion of ordinary people is really and truly at work. ‘Clinging to the dream’ is seizing upon that dream; ‘finding the dream’ is taking it in; ‘the one who sees the dream’ is taking in, along with it, even oneself who is dreaming. Once these three are set up, the things seen in the dream are naturally all held as real along with them. The root of why discrimination can stand lies here.

3. The three kinds of deeds and the three kinds of retribution. Following on from the above, it distinguishes their fruits: 「是人若不信罪福，起三種不善業；若信罪福，起三種善業。」 tr. "If this person does not believe in sin and merit, he gives rise to the three kinds of unwholesome deeds; if he believes in sin and merit, he gives rise to the three kinds of wholesome deeds." Then it marks out the names of the three deeds and what they bring: 「善名欲界中善法，喜樂果報；不善名憂悲苦惱果報；不動名生色、無色界因緣業。」 tr. "The wholesome means the wholesome dharmas within the desire realm, with the retribution of joy and pleasure; the unwholesome means the retribution of sorrow, grief, suffering, and vexation; the immovable means the deeds that are the causes and conditions of birth in the form realm and the formless realm." The name ‘immovable’ needs explaining: the good and evil of the desire realm sway and move with their objects, while what the deeds of concentration of the form realm and the formless realm bring does not move and turn with the objects of desire, and so it is named immovable. Here the three deeds—wholesome, unwholesome, and immovable—are set against the three kinds of retribution precisely to make firm what the passage above said: of the deeds and retributions that arise within inversion, not a single one is lacking.

4. The bodhisattva abides in the two emptinesses and teaches the Dharma for beings. The difference between the bodhisattva and ordinary people lies not in his not seeing these deeds, but in his 「知是三種業皆是虛誑不實」 tr. "knowing that these three kinds of deeds are all false, deceptive, and unreal". Knowing them to be false and deceptive, he then teaches the Dharma, and what he teaches is the two emptinesses: 「畢竟空破諸法；無始空破眾生相。」 tr. "Ultimate emptiness breaks dharmas; beginningless emptiness breaks the mark of beings." The division of labour between the two emptinesses is very clear—grasping on the side of dharmas is broken by ultimate emptiness, grasping on the side of persons by beginningless emptiness. As for ‘beginningless’: if the mark of beings had a beginning, its root could be traced back, and once its root is traced back it becomes really existent; speaking of beginninglessness is exactly what cuts off this tracing. And after the two emptinesses have been spoken, the treatise-author follows closely with a sentence, 「住中道，為眾生說法」 tr. "abiding in the middle path, he teaches the Dharma for beings"—to speak of emptiness is not to abide in emptiness; it is to abide in the middle path and take emptiness as what is spoken. The marks that are spoken are precisely the words of the sūtra: 「五眾、十二入、十八界皆是空，如夢、如幻乃至如化，是法中無夢、亦無見夢者。」 tr. "The five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, and the eighteen elements are all empty, like a dream, like an illusion, and so on up to like a conjuration; within this dharma there is no dream, nor anyone who sees the dream." The last sentence exactly counters ‘clinging to the dream, finding the dream, the one who sees the dream’ of the second passage: what ordinary people grasp is three, and what the bodhisattva sends away is also three.

5. Because of your inverted mind you give rise to all kinds of clinging upon empty dharmas. A sentence of verdict that the bodhisattva speaks to beings, the treatise-author records word for word: 「汝等於空法顛倒心故生諸著！」 tr. "Because of your inverted mind, you give rise to all kinds of clinging upon empty dharmas!" This sentence is the pivot of the whole passage. It does not say ‘dharmas exist’, nor does it say ‘your clinging is empty’; what it says is—what is clung to is empty from the first, and what clings is inversion. That being so, the way of breaking cannot be to overturn dharmas; it can only be to pull out the inversion. The two Chinese characters ‘pull out’ in the next passage connect on from exactly here.

6. Pulling out from inversion by the power of skilful means—the sequence of four steps. For the sequence spoken of in the sūtra, the treatise-author here gives the reason step by step. The first step: 「慳貪是顛倒，以布施破慳貪法。」 tr. "Stinginess and greed are inversion; by giving he breaks the dharma of stinginess and greed." Breaking one inversion by another inversion—this is the beginning of skilful means. The second step: beings turn and cling to giving, and so 「為說布施果報無常、實空；從布施拔出眾生，令持戒」 tr. "he tells them that the retribution of giving is impermanent and in reality empty; he pulls beings out from giving and makes them keep morality". The third step: the retribution of keeping morality is birth in the heavens, so he warns them upon that very retribution—「天福盡時，無常苦惱！」 tr. "When the merit of the heavens is exhausted, there is impermanence, suffering, and vexation!"—and by this 「拔出眾生，令離欲、行禪定」 tr. "he pulls beings out and makes them part from desire and practise meditative concentration". The fourth step: meditative concentration and its retribution are likewise 「虛誑不實，能令人墮顛倒中」 tr. "false, deceptive, and unreal, and can make a person fall into inversion", and so at the end 「種種因緣，為說布施、持戒、禪定無常過失」 tr. "by all kinds of causes and conditions he tells them of the fault of impermanence in giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration", and then 「令住涅槃、得涅槃方便，所謂四念處乃至十八不共法」 tr. "makes them abide in nirvāṇa and in the skilful means of obtaining nirvāṇa, namely the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas". The principle running through the four steps is one and the same: the retribution of the step before is precisely the place from which the next step must pull away. When a practitioner tastes the retribution at some step and settles down there, he has given rise to a new inversion at that step; the reason the power of skilful means is named a power lies just in its being able to lift a person up again from the very place where he has only just sat down at ease.

7. If they were definitely real dharmas, one should not make people go far from them. From the passage above a doubt is easily read out: since giving and keeping morality are wholesome dharmas, why are they too among what beings are pulled out from? The treatise-author here answers it himself: 「若布施、持戒、禪定是定實法，則不應令遠離。」 tr. "If giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration were definitely real dharmas, one should not make people go far from them." In other words, teaching people to give them up is precisely the proof that they are not definitely real dharmas. Then he fills in why: though giving, keeping morality, and the rest can break the dharmas of ordinary people, 「此則因顛倒而生，雖少時益眾生，久則變異，能生苦惱故，亦教令捨離」 tr. "these, then, are born from inversion; although for a short time they benefit beings, in the long run they change and can give rise to suffering and vexation, and so he also teaches them to give these up". The phrase ‘born from inversion’ must be looked at precisely: it does not say that giving and keeping morality are inversion; it says that they are set up to counter inversion—the medicine that cures exists according to the sickness it cures, and when the sickness is gone the medicine too does not remain. The two phrases ‘for a short time they benefit’ and ‘in the long run they change’ state the weight of wholesome dharmas very exactly—not denying their benefit, nor allowing anyone to take them as the ultimate.

8. The general statement of the threefold sequence. The treatise-author gathers the text above into one sentence that holds it all: the bodhisattva, by the power of skilful means, 「先教眾生捨罪，稱讚持戒、布施福德」 tr. "first teaches beings to give up sin, praising the merit of keeping morality and giving"; 「次復為說持戒、布施亦未免無常苦惱」 tr. "next tells them further that keeping morality and giving too do not escape impermanence, suffering, and vexation"; 「然後為說諸法空，但稱讚實法，所謂無餘涅槃」 tr. "then tells them of the emptiness of all dharmas, and praises only the real dharma, namely nirvāṇa without remainder". The three terms ‘first’, ‘next’, and ‘then’ are the bones of the whole passage. The first layer is establishing the good and breaking the evil; the second layer is speaking of impermanence upon the good that has been established; only the third layer speaks of emptiness and returns to nirvāṇa without remainder. If one does not first establish but goes straight to speaking of emptiness, what is spoken only becomes an excuse for people's laxity; if one establishes and does not break, people stop at the fruits of humans and gods. That the sequence cannot be skipped—the meaning lies here.

9. Subhūti's joy and the Buddha's approval—one kind of rarity. Here the sūtra takes a turn, and the treatise-author records it as it is: Subhūti rejoices and exclaims, 「甚希有！菩薩能如是知是諸法實相，所謂畢竟空，而為眾生說法，令至無餘涅槃。」 tr. "Very rare! The bodhisattva can thus know the real mark of all dharmas, namely ultimate emptiness, and teach the Dharma for beings, bringing them to nirvāṇa without remainder." The Buddha's answer judges this exclamation to be 「是一種希有」 tr. "this is one kind of rarity", and opens a separate, deeper question—of the bodhisattva's rare dharmas, 「一切聲聞、辟支佛不能報是菩薩，何況餘人！」 tr. "all the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot requite this bodhisattva, how much less other people!" Subhūti at once presses on and asks, 「何等是更有希有法？」 tr. "What are the further rare dharmas?" The treatise-author stops here and notes, 「佛答，如經中說」 tr. "The Buddha answered, as is said in the sūtra". The treatise-author's not restating the sūtra here is a matter of pattern: what the sūtra already has in full the treatise does not say again. The four Chinese characters ‘one kind of rarity’ are set down with great weight—knowing ultimate emptiness and yet still being able to teach the Dharma and deliver people is only one end of the rarity, not the whole; the whole must wait for the matters seen by the Buddha-eye and the unfolding of the four means of gathering below before it is seen.

10. The fleshly body and the transformation body—the difference in its being said once more now. The treatise-author sets himself a question: 「經中教令布施、持戒、禪定，今復更說，有何等異？」 tr. "In the sūtra people have been taught giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration; now it is said once again—what is the difference?" This question is asked on behalf of the reader: it is the same teaching of the six perfections, spoken in two places, earlier and later—is that not repetition? The answer is only two sentences, yet the boundary is very clear: 「先說生身菩薩，今說變化身。先說一國土，今說無量世界。」 tr. "What was spoken of before was the bodhisattva in a fleshly body; what is spoken of now is the transformation body. What was spoken of before was one land; what is spoken of now is immeasurable worlds." What was spoken of before is a body that has received birth carrying out transformation within one land; what is spoken of now is a transformation body pervading immeasurable worlds. Since the bodies that transform are different, the realms reached are different too, and so it is not repetition. The phrase ‘such differences as these’ leaves room—the two matters raised are examples, not an exhaustive list.

11. How the Buddha and animals can be equal—by the power of prajñā he cultivates the mind of ultimate emptiness. The sūtra judges the thought 「佛是福田、眾生非福田」 tr. "the Buddha is a field of merit, beings are not a field of merit" to be not the bodhisattva's dharma, and the treatise-author here presses on to ask why: 「菩薩以何力故能令佛與畜生等？」 tr. "By what power can the bodhisattva make the Buddha and animals equal?" The answer says: 「菩薩以般若波羅蜜力故，一切法中修畢竟空心，是故於一切法無分別。」 tr. "Because of the power of prajñāpāramitā, the bodhisattva cultivates the mind of ultimate emptiness within all dharmas, and therefore within all dharmas he is without discrimination." Below this he explains it by coming together and provisional names: 「如畜生，五眾、十二入、十八界和合生，名為畜生；佛亦如是，從諸善法和合，假名為佛。」 tr. "Just as an animal is born from the coming together of the five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, and the eighteen elements, and is named an animal, so too the Buddha comes from the coming together of wholesome dharmas and is provisionally named the Buddha." Both alike exist by coming together and have provisional names, and so upon the provisional names no high and low is made. But the treatise-author at once adds an extremely important sentence that sets limits to ‘equal’: 「若人憐愍眾生，得無量福德；於佛著心，起諸惡因緣，得無量罪。」 tr. "If a person pities beings, he obtains immeasurable merit; if toward the Buddha he gives rise to a clinging mind and gives rise to evil causes and conditions, he obtains immeasurable sin."—the difference between merit and sin is not reduced in the least. What is equal is the non-discrimination of the giving mind; what is not equal is the difference in retribution; the last sentence, 「不輕畜生，不著心貴佛」 tr. "he does not hold animals in contempt, and does not with a clinging mind prize the Buddha", is said precisely with regard to the giver's mind, not with regard to the realm given to.

12. Within signlessness the Buddha and animals are not discriminated—grasping at marks is to lose it. On the same meaning the treatise-author goes in one layer further: 「諸法實相，是一切法無相，是無相中不分別是佛、是畜生；若分別即是取相，是故等觀。」 tr. "The real mark of all dharmas is that all dharmas are signless; within this signlessness he does not discriminate whether it is the Buddha or an animal; to discriminate is to grasp at marks; therefore he contemplates them as equal." The passage before speaks of ‘being able to make equal’ from the power of prajñā; this passage speaks of ‘there being nothing to divide from the first’ from the real mark of dharmas. The two passages face different directions: the former says how the bodhisattva can practise thus, the latter says that dharmas are so from the first. The phrase ‘to discriminate is to grasp at marks’ points out the name of the sickness clearly—what is barred is not the wisdom that tells good from evil; it is that one thought of picking and choosing in the mind, grasping at marks, at the time of giving.

13. The bodhisattva's two dharma-gates—in the gate of emptiness, equal contemplation; in the gate of distinction, differences of rank are plainly there. The passage most easily read askew. The treatise-author plainly sets up two gates: 「一者、畢竟空法門，二者、分別好惡法門。」 tr. "First, the dharma-gate of ultimate emptiness; second, the dharma-gate of distinguishing the good and the bad." Then he judges what each accomplishes: 「入空法門，則得等觀；入分別法門，諸阿羅漢、辟支佛尚不及佛，何況畜生！」 tr. "Entering the dharma-gate of emptiness, he obtains equal contemplation; entering the dharma-gate of distinction, even the arhats and pratyekabuddhas do not come up to the Buddha, how much less animals!" This is the most important sentence in this chapter—in the gate of distinction, even the Buddha and the arhats are as far apart as heaven and earth, how much more the Buddha and animals. From this it can be seen that the ‘equality’ the sūtra speaks of in no way says that the Buddha and animals are without difference; it says that at the time of giving one should enter the gate of emptiness and not enter the gate of distinction. The last sentence says it more directly still: 「為其輕眾生不憐愍布施故，教不分別。」 tr. "It is because he holds beings in contempt and gives without pity that he is taught not to discriminate." Teaching not to discriminate is a word of counteraction; what it counters is the mind that holds beings in contempt, not the abolishing of the differences of rank among all dharmas. The two gates stand side by side, each with its own use; whoever reads this passage must not hold to one and discard the other.

14. The body is not wood or stone, yet when cut and severed he does not give rise to a different mind—four sayings recorded side by side. The treatise-author sets a question: 「菩薩身非木石，云何眾生來割截而不生異心？」 tr. "The bodhisattva's body is not wood or stone; how is it that when beings come and cut and sever it, he does not give rise to a different mind?" The answer lists four sayings, each headed with ‘some say’, and the treatise-author himself gives no verdict. The first saying comes back to patience: the bodhisattva has long cultivated kṣāntipāramitā, and so can be without sorrow and vexation, and one matter is raised as proof—「如羼提仙人被截手足，血皆為乳。」 tr. "Just as when the sage Kṣānti had his hands and feet cut off, his blood all became milk." The second saying comes back to kindness and compassion: for immeasurable lifetimes he has deeply cultivated the mind of great kindness and compassion, so though cut and severed he is not sorrowful or anxious, 「譬如草木無有瞋心」 tr. "just as grass and trees have no mind of anger". The third saying comes back to the retribution of prajñā: he deeply cultivates prajñā, and after turning to another body obtains the empty mind obtained as retribution, knowing emptiness clearly and distinctly, and so 「割截身時心亦不動；如外物不動，內亦如是」 tr. "when his body is cut and severed his mind too does not move; just as outer things do not move, so too is the inner". The fourth saying comes back to the kind of body: 「是菩薩非生死身，是出三界法性生身」 tr. "this bodhisattva's body is not a body of birth and death; it is the body born of the dharma-nature that has gone beyond the three realms"; he abides within the retribution of the noble mind without outflows, and so 「身如木石，而能慈念割截者」 tr. "his body is like wood or stone, yet he can think with kindness of those who cut and sever him". The four sayings each come back to their own place—patience, kindness, knowledge, body—their layers going from shallow to deep, and the treatise-author records them all side by side, closing at the end with 「是為菩薩希有法」 tr. "this is the bodhisattva's rare dharma". The intent of recording them side by side lies in this: the stages of bodhisattvas are not one, and the reasons they can be unmoved are not one either, so no single saying can be held to sum up the whole. The second saying and the fourth both use the simile of ‘grass and trees’ / ‘wood and stone’ yet point to different things, and this especially must be told apart: the second saying uses grass and trees being without anger as a simile for his not giving rise to anger; the fourth saying uses the body being like wood or stone to say that his body is not a body of birth and death, and the sentence immediately following, 「能慈念割截者」 tr. "he can think with kindness of those who cut and sever him", is exactly to guard against its being misunderstood as insentience.

15. Citing the sūtra to prove the rarity—entering the hells and teaching and transforming by three things. After the four sayings, the treatise-author further raises the sūtra text as proof: 「我以佛眼見十方如恒河沙等世界中菩薩，入地獄中，令火滅湯冷，以三事教化眾生。」 tr. "With the Buddha-eye I see bodhisattvas in worlds of the ten directions as many as the sands of the Ganges, who enter the hells, make the fire go out and the boiling water grow cold, and teach and transform beings by three things." And he notes, 「如經中說」 tr. "as is said in the sūtra". This is one pattern of the treatise's form: what is proved is already complete in the sūtra, and the treatise only marks its heading without restating it. Citing this one matter brings the ‘not moving’ discussed above down to the real—not moving is not the not moving of a withered tree; it is being able to do the work of rescue in the place of greatest suffering.

16. Bodhisattvas are immeasurable, so why are the three evil destinies not empty? The question following from the above comes very naturally: since bodhisattvas can enter the hells to rescue, and their number is immeasurable, then 「若爾者，不應有三惡道！」 tr. "if so, there should be no three evil destinies!" The treatise-author's answer does not slip away into principle; first he discusses their number: 「三惡道眾生無邊無量；菩薩雖無邊無量，眾生倍多無量。」 tr. "The beings of the three evil destinies are boundless and immeasurable; although bodhisattvas are boundless and immeasurable, beings are immeasurably more than they." Next he discusses the conditions: the bodhisattva 「隨眾生可度因緣，若於三惡道中有餘功德者，菩薩則度；重罪者則不見菩薩」 tr. "follows the causes and conditions by which beings can be delivered; if within the three evil destinies there are those who have remaining merit, the bodhisattva delivers them; people of heavy sin do not get to see a bodhisattva". Whether one is delivered or not lies not in whether the bodhisattva is willing, but in whether beings have the conditions by which they can be delivered. Next again he discusses the mind: 「菩薩一相見無分別心故，不一一求覓眾生」 tr. "because the bodhisattva sees with one mark and is without a mind of discrimination, he does not seek out beings one by one"—precisely because the bodhisattva sees with one mark and does not give rise to discrimination, he does not go searching one by one for who ought to be delivered. At the end he closes with a simile: 「譬如大赦，及者得脫，不及者則不蒙。」 tr. "It is as a great amnesty: those it reaches are freed, those it does not reach receive nothing." The decree of a great amnesty reaches everywhere and does not choose among people; yet those outside the prison, and those whose crimes are not within the articles of the amnesty, naturally do not receive it—not that the decree is partial. This simile is excellent: it both keeps the universality of the bodhisattva and explains the non-universality in fact.

17. Why cutting and severing and eating the flesh instead become a condition for deliverance. Another difficulty: 「若眾生割截菩薩、或食其肉，應當有罪，云何得度？」 tr. "If beings cut and sever the bodhisattva or eat his flesh, they ought to have sin; how can they come to be delivered?" The treatise-author's answer falls into three layers. The first layer is the original vow: 「若有眾生噉我肉者，當令得度。」 tr. "If there are beings who eat my flesh, may they come to be delivered." The condition for deliverance is tied to the vow the bodhisattva set up beforehand, not tied to the deed of eating flesh. The second layer is the proof from the sūtra: 「眾生食菩薩肉者，則生慈心。」 tr. "Beings who eat the bodhisattva's flesh then give rise to a kind mind." The third layer is a sifting distinction, and it is the most important: the treatise-author first takes form, sound, scent, and touch as a simile—with one and the same object, what people give rise to is either joy or anger—「味亦如是，有瞋者、有起慈心者」 tr. "so too with flavours: there are those by which anger arises, and those by which a kind mind arises"; he also cites the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, 「服食香飯，七日得道者，有不得者」 tr. "of those who eat the fragrant rice, there are some who obtain the path within seven days, and some who do not", as proof—eating the same fragrant rice, some obtain the path and some do not. From this he decides: 「非以噉肉故得度，以起發慈心故，得免畜生，生善處，值佛得度。」 tr. "It is not because of eating the flesh that they are delivered; it is because of the kind mind that is roused that they can escape from the animal destiny, be born in a good place, meet a Buddha, and be delivered." The deed of eating flesh has its own retribution; the cause of deliverance is something else, the kind mind; the two matters must not be confused as one. If this layer of sifting is lost, it becomes the mistaken understanding that ‘even doing evil can lead to deliverance’.

18. Why he gives his body—outer things are not enough to move people. The treatise-author goes on to set out the meaning of giving up the body, in two layers. The first speaks from the bodhisattva's mind: there are bodhisattvas who for immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas deeply practise a kind mind, and 「外物給施眾生，意猶不滿，并自以身布施，爾乃足滿」 tr. "giving outer things to beings, their minds are still not satisfied; when they also give their own bodies, only then are they satisfied"; and he raises as an example the Bodhisattva Medicine King in the Lotus Sūtra, who made offerings to the Buddha with precious jewels and his mind was still not satisfied, and made his body a lamp as an offering to the Buddha and only then was satisfied. The second speaks from the recipient's mind: 「人得外物，雖多，不以為恩。所以者何？非所愛重故。得其身時，乃能驚感，是故以身布施。」 tr. "When people obtain outer things, though they are many, they do not take them as a kindness. Why? Because these are not what they love and prize. Only when they obtain his body are they startled and moved; therefore he gives his body." The former says that when the giver's kindness reaches its utmost it naturally must give the body; the latter says that only at this can the recipient be startled and stirred. Seen together, the two layers make the meaning of giving up the body complete—it is not taking self-inflicted suffering as virtue; it is that both sides, the kind mind and the occasion for transformation, have reached the point where nothing but this will do.

19. Why the other four destinies are spoken of briefly and the human destiny alone broadly. Among the six destinies the sūtra speaks broadly of the four means of gathering only in the human destiny, and the treatise-author asks the reason. The answer goes destiny by destiny and distinguishes their aptitudes. Of the three evil destinies: 「三惡道中苦多故，眾生少疑，若見菩薩大神通希有事，則直信愛著得度」 tr. "because within the three evil destinies there is much suffering, beings have little doubt; if they see a bodhisattva's rare deeds of great supernormal power, they straightaway believe, love, and cling, and are delivered"—pressed by suffering, their doubting minds are few, and seeing supernormal power they at once believe. Of the gods: 「諸天有天眼故，自見罪福因緣；菩薩少現神足則解」 tr. "because the gods have the divine eye, they themselves see the causes and conditions of sin and merit; the bodhisattva need only slightly show the supernormal power of travel, and they understand"—they themselves see cause and fruit, so a brief showing and they awaken. Of the human destiny: 「人以肉眼不見罪福因緣果報，又多著外道邪師及邪見經書」 tr. "humans, with the fleshly eye, do not see the causes, conditions, and retributions of sin and merit, and moreover many cling to the wrong teachers of the outside paths and to the scriptures of wrong views"—they cannot see for themselves, and moreover are stained by wrong views, so they are the hardest to deliver. The place that is hard to deliver is exactly the place that must be spoken of broadly.

20. The two portions, views and craving—the three poisons make a heavy sin only on obtaining the power of wrong views. Following on from the above, it deepens the reason. The treatise-author divides the afflictions into two: 「一者、屬見，二者、屬愛。」 tr. "First, those belonging to views; second, those belonging to craving." Then he sets down a verdict: 「若但有一事，則不能成大罪。」 tr. "If there is only one of these, it cannot make a great sin." Greed and craving alone, or wrong views alone, are still not enough to make the heaviest evil; when the two obtain each other, it is made. So it says, 「三毒人得邪見力，能盡作重惡；邪見人得貪欲、瞋恚，能大作罪事」 tr. "a person of the three poisons who obtains the power of wrong views can commit heavy evils to the full; a person of wrong views who obtains greed and anger can commit sinful deeds on a great scale". The proof from the reverse side lies in the position of the sages: 「如須陀洹雖有三毒，無邪見故，不作墮三惡道重罪。」 tr. "Just as the srota-āpanna, though he has the three poisons, because he has no wrong views, does not commit the heavy sins that make one fall into the three evil destinies." The srota-āpanna has severed the defilements of views but has not yet severed greed and anger; he still has the three poisons and yet does not make the heavy deeds that make one fall into the evil destinies—this one example shows best of all that views are a graver affliction than craving. At the end it comes back to its conclusion: 「是故人中多有三毒、邪見」 tr. "therefore among humans there are many with the three poisons and wrong views", and the difficulty of delivering humans is settled by this too. The last sentence of the whole passage restates the earlier meaning: 「又眼不見罪福因緣故難度，難度故多說。」 tr. "Again, because their eyes do not see the causes and conditions of sin and merit, they are hard to deliver; because they are hard to deliver, much is said."

21. Why among the four means of gathering giving alone is spoken of broadly. The treatise-author asks again: that being so, 「於四事中何以多說布施，餘三略說？」 tr. "why among the four things is giving spoken of much, and the other three spoken of briefly?" The answer has two layers. The first speaks of what giving gathers: 「布施中攝三事故，以財施、法施教化眾生，則無所不攝。」 tr. "Because giving contains the three things; teaching and transforming beings by the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma, there is nothing it does not gather." The treatise-author only says that it contains the three things and does not separately match which giving contains which thing; the meaning of the four containing one another is clear of itself, and so giving is spoken of broadly and the other three are within it. The second speaks of the pattern: 「四事中初廣開布施，則知餘三亦如是。」 tr. "Among the four things giving is opened up broadly at the very first; then one knows that the other three are likewise." Since the first of the four has already opened up its pattern broadly, the rest can be known by the example and need not be spoken again. This second layer is the treatise-author's general practice in explaining the sūtra, seen again and again elsewhere—raising the first as the example for what follows.

22. Why within giving the gift of Dharma is again spoken of broadly. Again he asks: 「若爾者，何以略說財施而廣說法施？」 tr. "If so, why is the gift of wealth spoken of briefly and the gift of Dharma spoken of broadly?" The answer says: 「財施少，法施廣故」 tr. "because the gift of wealth is little and the gift of Dharma is broad", and then it makes clear why by six layers set against each other: first, 「財施，有量果報；法施，無量果報」 tr. "the gift of wealth has a measured retribution; the gift of Dharma has an immeasurable retribution"; second, the gift of wealth is a retribution bound to the desire realm, while the gift of Dharma 「亦三界繫果報，亦是出三界果報」 tr. "has a retribution bound to the three realms as well, and is also a retribution that goes beyond the three realms"; third, 「財施，能與三界富樂；法施，能與涅槃常樂」 tr. "the gift of wealth can give the riches and pleasures of the three realms; the gift of Dharma can give the constant pleasure of nirvāṇa"; fourth, 「又財施從法施生，聞法則能施故」 tr. "moreover, the gift of wealth arises from the gift of Dharma, because having heard the Dharma one can give"—this layer is the most important: the very mind that can give comes only after hearing the Dharma, so the gift of Dharma is the root of the gift of wealth; fifth, 「財施果報，但富樂，無種種」 tr. "the retribution of the gift of wealth is only riches and pleasure, without variety"; sixth, 「法施亦有富樂，亦有餘事，乃至佛道涅槃果報」 tr. "the gift of Dharma has riches and pleasure and also has other things, up to the retribution of the Buddha path and nirvāṇa". Of the six layers, the first three divide by the measure, the realm, and the pleasure of the retribution; the fourth divides by root and branch; the last two divide by the retribution's being single or manifold. It concludes, 「以是等因緣故，廣說法施」 tr. "by such causes and conditions as these, the gift of Dharma is spoken of broadly", and then notes, 「二施義，如經中佛自廣說」 tr. "the meaning of the two gifts is, as in the sūtra, spoken of broadly by the Buddha himself"—again the pattern of the treatise not repeating the sūtra. This passage must be read together with the question: the question says 「略說財施」 tr. "the gift of wealth is spoken of briefly", while what the answer sets out lies wholly in the breadth of the gift of Dharma; the wording of the treatise-author's question and the centre of gravity of his answer are the outside and the inside of each other, and there is no contradiction in the text.

23. Does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds or not—the difficulty of advance and retreat and the division of the two truths. The treatise-author asks why Subhūti in the sūtra has this question, and then speaks out the asker's intent on his behalf: 「若菩薩時得一切種智，則不名菩薩，云何未得佛而能得一切種智？得一切種智故名為佛；若先作佛，何用一切種智為？」 tr. "If while a bodhisattva he obtains the omniscience of all kinds, then he is not named a bodhisattva; how could one who has not obtained buddhahood obtain the omniscience of all kinds? It is because of obtaining the omniscience of all kinds that one is named Buddha; if one has already become a Buddha first, what use is the omniscience of all kinds?" The reason this question is difficult lies in there being no ground to stand on either in advancing or in retreating—say that he obtains it while a bodhisattva, and the bodhisattva is already a Buddha; say that he obtains it after becoming a Buddha, and what further need has the Buddha to obtain it? The gist of the Buddha's answer is only two sentences: 「今得一切種智，名為菩薩；已得一切種智，名為佛。」 tr. "Now obtaining the omniscience of all kinds, he is named bodhisattva; having already obtained the omniscience of all kinds, he is named Buddha." At the very moment of obtaining he is named bodhisattva; having finished obtaining he is named Buddha; the two names are tied to the obtaining's being under way and being complete, not to two different persons. Here the treatise-author turns in one layer further, taking the words to the highest meaning: 「真實之言：菩薩不得，佛亦不得。」 tr. "Speaking truly: the bodhisattva does not obtain it, and the Buddha too does not obtain it." Why? The bodhisattva has not yet obtained it, and the Buddha has already finished obtaining it and does not obtain it further—what can say ‘is now obtaining’ is in fact only worldly speech. So it says, 「第一義中，則無一切法，何況佛及菩薩！」 tr. "Within the highest meaning there are no dharmas at all, how much less a Buddha and a bodhisattva!" At the end he cites the sūtra as proof, 「佛心不異菩薩，菩薩不異佛心」 tr. "the Buddha's mind is not different from the bodhisattva, the bodhisattva is not different from the Buddha's mind", and explains it with 「次第相續不斷故，有二心如，無異、無分別故」 tr. "because the sequence continues without break, there is the suchness of the two minds, because they are without difference and without discrimination": because the continuity of mind is unbroken, the suchness-nature of the two minds, earlier and later, is without difference, and so it is said that they are not different. That names and positions differ lies in worldly truth; that the suchness of mind is without difference lies in the highest meaning; the two statements must be read together, and taking either side alone loses it.

24. Why the nine successive absorptions and the marks and minor signs are named world-transcending and unshared. The treatise-author asks: 「九次第定、三十二相、八十隨形好，此是世間共有法」 tr. "the nine successive absorptions, the thirty-two marks, and the eighty minor marks are dharmas the world has in common"—why then are they named 「出世間不共法？」 tr. "world-transcending unshared dharmas?" The answer falls into three sections. The first explains the nine successive: 「四禪、四無色定、滅受想，名九次第。滅受定，但聖人能得。」 tr. "The four dhyānas, the four formless absorptions, and the cessation of feeling and perception are named the nine successive. The absorption of the cessation of feeling only sages can obtain." Of the nine, the last only sages can obtain; and the reason the first eight are unshared lies in the way they are cultivated—「不雜餘心而入二禪」 tr. "without mixing in any other mind he enters the second dhyāna", and from the second dhyāna up to the absorption of the cessation of feeling, 「念念中受，不雜餘心，名為次第」 tr. "receiving it in every thought, without mixing in any other mind—this is named successive". Though ordinary people can enter the four dhyānas and the four formless absorptions, they cannot enter them in continuity, unmixed in every thought, and so the names are the same but the reality is different. The second explains the thirty-two marks, first setting up its difficulty with a question: 「凡夫是罪人鈍根，云何能得三十二相？」 tr. "Ordinary people are sinners with dull faculties; how can they obtain the thirty-two marks?" Then it compares the marks of the wheel-turning sage king, Devadatta, and Nanda with the Buddha's marks: 「名字雖同，而威德、具足、淨潔、得處則不同於佛」 tr. "though the names are the same, in majesty, completeness, purity, and the place of their obtaining they are not the same as the Buddha's", and points out that the text before has already had a statement distinguishing the marks of the wheel-turning sage king from the Buddha's. The reason they differ lies in the cause, not in the marks of the fruit: 「又是相，聖無漏法果報，故自在隨意，無量無邊；轉輪聖王等相，是福德業因緣，不能自在，有量有限。」 tr. "Further, these marks are the retribution of the noble dharma without outflows, and so they are sovereign and as he wishes, immeasurable and boundless; the marks of the wheel-turning sage king and the like come from the causes and conditions of deeds of merit, cannot be sovereign, and are measured and limited." Again it distinguishes them by the facts: 「提婆達、難陀有三十相，無三十二相；轉輪聖王，雖有三十二相，無威德、不具足、不得處，與愛等煩惱俱。」 tr. "Devadatta and Nanda have thirty marks, not thirty-two marks; the wheel-turning sage king, though he has the thirty-two marks, is without majesty, is not complete, and does not obtain their place, and they are together with craving and the other afflictions." The third explains the eighty minor marks: 「八十隨形好具足，唯佛菩薩有之」 tr. "the eighty minor marks in completeness only the Buddha and bodhisattvas have"; what other people have is no more than a little, such as slender long fingers or the mark of the belly not showing, 「有如是等無威德之好，不足言」 tr. "there are such minor marks as these without majesty, not worth mentioning". When the three sections are finished, it concludes that to say 「出世間不共凡夫法」 tr. "world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people" is 「無咎」 tr. "without fault". The principle of the whole passage is one: in judging shared and unshared, one does not look at the names of the marks; one looks at the cause from which they come and the virtue they possess.

25. Why the marks and minor signs of the fleshly body are spoken of only when the sūtra is about to close. Another question: 「從初來處處說諸法五眾乃至一切種智，不說是三十二相、八十隨形好；今經欲竟，何以品品中說？」 tr. "From the very first, everywhere, it has spoken of dharmas—the five aggregates and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds—without speaking of these thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks; now that the sūtra is about to close, why are they spoken of in chapter after chapter?" The answer is by the judgement of the two bodies: 「佛有二種身：法身、生身。於二身中，法身為大；法身大，所益多故，上來廣說。」 tr. "The Buddha has two kinds of body: the Dharma body and the fleshly body. Of the two bodies, the Dharma body is the greater; because the Dharma body is great and what it benefits is much, it was spoken of broadly above." Since what the Dharma body benefits is much, it is spoken of broadly first within the whole work; 「今經欲訖故，生身義應當說，是故今說」 tr. "now, because the sūtra is about to end, the meaning of the fleshly body ought to be spoken, and so it is spoken now". Again, it speaks by the sequence of retribution: 「是生身相好莊嚴是聖無漏法果報，今次第說；上雜諸波羅蜜說。」 tr. "The adornment of the marks and minor signs of this fleshly body is the retribution of the noble dharma without outflows; now it is spoken of in sequence; above, it was spoken of mixed in among the perfections." Before this, the meaning of the marks and minor signs was spoken of piecemeal, mixed in among the perfections; now it is spoken of on its own according to its rank as retribution. At the end of the passage the treatise-author makes clear the weight of what follows: 「四念處等諸法義，如先說。十力等是佛法甚深義，今當更略說。」 tr. "The meaning of the four foundations of mindfulness and the other dharmas is as was said before. The ten powers and the rest are the very deep meaning of the Buddha's Dharma, and should now be spoken of briefly once again."—the former has already been said and so is abbreviated; the latter is very deep, and so though it is called a brief speaking it is in fact a broad explanation. The broad explanation of the ten powers in the six passages below connects on from exactly this sentence.

26. Why the powers are not set up as thousands of myriads of koṭi according to the dharma, but only ten are spoken of. The treatise-author asks: the Buddha's power, if spoken of in general, is only the power of the omniscience of all kinds; if spoken of separately, there are thousands of myriads of koṭi of kinds, named according to the dharma; why is the number ten taken exactly? The answer does not speak from the reasoning of numbers; it speaks from beings: 「佛實有無量智力，但以眾生不能得、不能行故不說。」 tr. "The Buddha truly has immeasurable powers of knowledge; only because beings cannot obtain them and cannot practise them, they are not spoken of." What is not spoken of is not non-existent; it is that speaking of it is of no benefit. Then he sets the standard for what is taken and what is left: 「是十力，可度眾生事辦。」 tr. "With these ten powers, the work of delivering beings who can be delivered is done."—the ten powers are enough to accomplish the work of delivering beings, and so ten are taken. This one answer shows very well the character of this treatise: the setting up of the numbers of dharmas is tied not to how many the dharmas themselves have, but to how many their use requires.

27. The power of what is possible and what is impossible gathers all—the other nine powers all enter into this power. The treatise-author explains the ten powers one by one, and takes the first power as the general one. What is possible and what is impossible: knowing decisively, of cause and fruit within all dharmas, what can be and what cannot be: 「行惡業，墮惡道，有是處；行惡業，生天上，無是處」 tr. "one who does evil deeds falls into the evil destinies—there is such a thing; one who does evil deeds is born in the heavens—there is no such thing", and so too with the wholesome; again he takes the dharmas of the path as an example—「不離五蓋、不修七覺得道者，無有是處；離五蓋、修七覺得道者，有是處。」 tr. "That one obtains the path without parting from the five hindrances and without cultivating the seven limbs of awakening—there is no such thing; that one parts from the five hindrances, cultivates the seven limbs of awakening, and obtains the path—there is such a thing." Then he sets down a general verdict: 「餘九力盡入此力中。」 tr. "The other nine powers all enter into this power." What the nine powers know—deeds and retribution, meditative concentration, faculties, desire, nature, the paths to where one arrives, former lives, the divine eye, the exhaustion of outflows—not one is not a matter of cause and fruit, and so all are gathered into the one power of what is possible and what is impossible. The use of this power lies in weighing and measuring: with it the Buddha measures which beings in the six destinies of the ten directions can be delivered and which cannot: 「可度者，以種種因緣、神通變化而度脫之；不可度者，於此人中修捨心」 tr. "those who can be delivered he delivers and liberates by all kinds of causes and conditions and by supernormal transformations; those who cannot be delivered, toward such a person he cultivates the mind of equanimity". The three Chinese characters ‘cultivates the mind of equanimity’ must not be read as setting aside and paying no heed—equanimity is one of the four immeasurables; toward those who cannot be delivered, abiding in equanimity without giving rise to sorrow and vexation is precisely the other face of kindness and compassion. The simile says, 「譬如良醫，觀其病相，審定知其可活則治之，不可活者則捨之」 tr. "it is as a good physician observes the marks of the sickness and, judging and knowing for certain that the patient can live, treats him, and where he cannot live, gives him up"—the physician's giving up is not a lack of humanity; it is knowing, after judging, that it cannot be cured.

28. The two powers for delivering beings—the power of deeds and the power of concentration. Under the general power the treatise-author first raises two powers: 「度眾生方便者，所謂二力：業力、定力。」 tr. "The skilful means of delivering beings are namely two powers: the power of deeds and the power of concentration." Why raise these two alone? Because the pivot of birth and death and of liberation lies exactly here: 「人以業因緣故受身、縛著世間，禪定因緣故得解脫。」 tr. "Because of the causes and conditions of deeds, people receive bodies and are bound and attached in the world; because of the causes and conditions of meditative concentration, they obtain liberation." Seek out their causes and conditions of deeds and one knows why they are bound; seek out their causes and conditions of concentration and one knows why they are freed. So it says, 「行者必應求苦從何而生、由何而滅。是故用二力。」 tr. "The practitioner must seek out where suffering arises from and by what it ceases. Therefore the two powers are used." Below, he further analyses deeds into two portions: 「淨業名禪定、解脫、諸三昧；不淨業者，能於三界中受身。」 tr. "Pure deeds are named meditative concentration, the liberations, and the samādhis; impure deeds can receive bodies within the three realms." Then by the nature of their faculties he judges people into two kinds: 「鈍根，為受身故作業；利根，為滅身故作業。」 tr. "Those of dull faculties make deeds for the sake of receiving a body; those of keen faculties make deeds for the sake of extinguishing the body." Both alike make deeds, but where they are directed is, for one, receiving a body and, for the other, extinguishing the body—this sentence already lays the ground for the question of keen and dull below.

29. The linked chain of four questions on keen and dull—the distinction between desire and nature. From here the treatise-author sets himself four questions that follow on linked one to another, each layer pushing on from the last. The first question: 「若爾者，何以不皆令作淨業？」 tr. "If so, why does he not make them all make pure deeds?" The answer: 「以眾生根有利鈍故。」 tr. "Because the faculties of beings are some keen and some dull." The second question: 「眾生何因緣故有利鈍？」 tr. "By what causes and conditions are beings keen or dull?" The answer comes back to desire: 「以有種種欲力故」 tr. "because they have all kinds of power of desire"—people of evil desire constantly enter into evil and so are dull: 「欲名嗜好，嗜好罪事、生惡業故鈍。善欲者樂道、修助道法故利。」 tr. "Desire is named relish; because they relish sinful things and give rise to evil deeds, they are dull. People of good desire delight in the path and cultivate the dharmas that aid the path, and so are keen." The third question: 「眾生何以不皆作善欲？」 tr. "Why do beings not all take up good desire?" The answer comes back to nature: 「是故佛說世間種種性，惡性、善性」 tr. "that is why the Buddha says that the world has all kinds of natures: evil natures and good natures"; those of evil nature are precisely those of evil desire, and so their faculties are dull; and then he sets down a sentence of verdict that stops the further search—「如火熱性、水濕性，不應責其所以。」 tr. "Just as the hot nature of fire and the wet nature of water—one should not demand why they are so." Pushed as far as nature, it stops; there is nothing further to push to, just as in asking why fire is hot. The fourth question presses straight at the division between the two: 「惡欲即是惡性，有何差別而作二力？」 tr. "Evil desire is precisely evil nature; what difference is there, that they are set up as two powers?" The answer distinguishes them by six pairs: 「性先有，欲得因緣而生」 tr. "nature is there first; desire arises on obtaining causes and conditions", with the simile 「譬如先有瘡，得觸因緣則血出」 tr. "it is as there is first a sore, and on meeting the condition of a touch, blood comes out"; next it lists 「性在內，欲在外。性重，欲輕。性難除，欲易捨。性深，欲淺」 tr. "nature is within, desire is without. Nature is heavy, desire is light. Nature is hard to remove, desire is easy to give up. Nature is deep, desire is shallow"; at the end it divides them by whether the receiving of retribution is fixed or not: 「用性作業必當受報，用欲作業不必受報。」 tr. "Deeds made through nature must surely receive retribution; deeds made through desire do not necessarily receive retribution." Of the six pairs, the last pair bears most closely on practice—a deed done out of desire still has room to turn about; a deed done out of nature receives retribution with certainty. At the end of the passage the treatise-author records a further divergent saying: 「欲常習增長，遂成為性；性亦能生欲」 tr. "desire, through constant habit, grows and increases and so becomes nature; nature too can give rise to desire"—by this saying, nature and desire are cause and fruit of each other: desire of long habit becomes nature, and abiding within nature one does good or does evil: 「若住善性則可度，若住惡性則不可度」 tr. "if he abides in a good nature he can be delivered, if he abides in an evil nature he cannot be delivered". This saying stands alongside the former: the former takes nature as there first, this one takes nature as able to be formed by habit; the treatise-author records it and does not judge. At the end he closes with the Buddha's knowing the two natures and knowing their retributions: 「惡性者墮三惡道，善性者有四種道：人、天、阿修羅、涅槃道。」 tr. "People of evil nature fall into the three evil destinies; people of good nature have four kinds of path: humans, gods, asuras, and the path of nirvāṇa."

30. The difference between the power of the paths leading everywhere and the power of the divine eye. The treatise-author asks how the two powers differ. The answer says: 「天眼但見生死時；此中未死時知，見因知果。」 tr. "The divine eye sees only the time of birth and death; this power knows before death, seeing the cause and knowing the fruit." What the divine eye sees is the matter of beings at the moment of dying here and being born there, belonging to what is seen of retribution present before it—「天眼，見現前罪福果報」 tr. "the divine eye sees the retribution of sin and merit present before it"; whereas the power of the paths to where one arrives already knows, before they die, where they will arrive, knowing the fruit from the cause. The difference of the two powers lies in time and order: one sees the fruit at the time the fruit appears; the other knows the fruit at the time the cause appears.

31. Why only the Buddha has the last three powers. The treatise-author sets a difficulty of great weight: 「聲聞、辟支佛亦得涅槃、亦能化眾生，何以無是力？」 tr. "The śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas too obtain nirvāṇa and can also teach and transform beings; why do they not have this power?" The answer says: 「是故說後三力」 tr. "that is why the last three powers are spoken of"—precisely to show this difference, the three powers of former lives, of the knowledge of birth and death by the divine eye, and of the exhaustion of outflows are set at the end. Their use lies in knowing the three times completely: 「三世中眾生事盡能通達遍知」 tr. "of the affairs of beings in the three times he can penetrate and know all throughout"; by the power of former lives he knows completely the past, root and branch; by the power of the knowledge of birth and death by the divine eye he knows completely the immeasurable affairs of the future; having known past and future, he then 「知現世中眾生可度者為說漏盡法」 tr. "knows which beings in the present world can be delivered and teaches them the dharma of the exhaustion of outflows". Knowing all three times and only then teaching the Dharma—so only the Buddha can do it. The treatise-author raises one matter as proof: there was a person who should have obtained arhatship that day; Śāriputra at midday judged him, saying, 「汝無得道因緣」 tr. "You have no causes and conditions for obtaining the path", gave him up and did not deliver him; when late afternoon came, 「佛以宿命神通見過去八萬劫前得道因緣，今應成就，晡時說法，即得阿羅漢道」 tr. "the Buddha, with the supernormal power of former lives, saw his causes and conditions for obtaining the path from eighty thousand kalpas before in the past, which should now come to accomplishment; in the late afternoon he taught him the Dharma, and he at once obtained the path of the arhat". The knowledge of the two vehicles cannot reach back beyond eighty thousand kalpas, and so it missed him; this one example makes ‘only the Buddha has it’ as concrete as it can be. Below this the treatise-author further matches the ten powers one by one with what they know—the first power knows who can be delivered and who cannot; the second power knows whether they are covered by the three obstructions or not; the third power knows whether their meditative concentrations and liberations are pure or impure; the fourth power knows whether their faculties are keen or dull and whether they penetrate the nature of dharmas or not; the fifth power knows that the causes and conditions of keen and dull lie in good desire and evil desire; the sixth power knows that the causes and conditions of the two desires lie in the various natures; the seventh power knows the seven kinds of path of good and evil retribution; the eighth power knows whether the deeds of former lives obstruct or do not obstruct; the ninth power knows those who cannot yet be delivered in this present life but can be delivered in the place where they will be born in a future life; the tenth power knows by which gate—emptiness, signlessness, or non-action—they will enter nirvāṇa, and also knows the fetters they cut off in each thought within the path of seeing the truths and the path of reflection. The ten powers arise one from another in sequence, what an earlier power knows being what a later power relies on; and so it concludes, 「以是十力籌量眾生所應度緣而為說法。是故說法，初無空言。」 tr. "With these ten powers he weighs and measures the causes and conditions by which beings should be delivered, and teaches them the Dharma. Therefore his teaching of the Dharma has never been empty words."—the four Chinese characters ‘never been empty words’ are where the whole passage comes home: behind a single sentence of the Buddha there is the weighing and measuring of the ten powers.

32. Why the Buddha's body has exactly the thirty-two marks, the same as the wheel-turning sage king—four sayings recorded side by side. The last question comes back to the marks and minor signs: the Buddha's wisdom is immeasurable, so his bodily marks too should be immeasurable; moreover the Buddha's body surpasses the kings of the gods, so why is it exactly the same in number as the wheel-turning sage king's? The treatise-author first blocks the question with what was said before: 「三十二相不多不少，義如先說。」 tr. "The thirty-two marks are neither more nor fewer; the meaning is as explained before."—this is the first saying; the three sayings below are each headed with ‘some say’, and the four sayings are recorded side by side without judgement. The second saying holds that the marks are not fixed from the first: 「佛、菩薩相不定，如此中說；隨眾生所好，可以引導其心者為現。」 tr. "The marks of buddhas and bodhisattvas are not fixed, as is said here; according to what beings like, whatever can lead their minds, that he shows for them." Under this saying three matters are raised as proof: first, 「又眾生不貴金而貴餘色——琉璃、頗梨、金剛等」 tr. "further, there are beings who do not prize gold but prize other colours—beryl, sphaṭika, vajra, and the like", and in such worlds the Buddha does not show the golden colour but follows what they like; second, there are beings who do not prize slender long fingers and the webbing, 「以長指利爪為羅剎相，以網縵為水鳥相，造事不便，如著手衣，何用是為？」 tr. "they take long fingers and sharp nails as the mark of a rākṣasa, and the webbing as the mark of a water-bird, inconvenient for doing things, like wearing gloves—what use is this?", and he also raises a bodhisattva of the land of Jibin whose hands had webbing, which his father loathed and cut off with a knife, saying, 「我子何緣如鳥？」 tr. "Why is my son like a bird?"; third, 「有人不好肩圓大，以為似腫；有以腹不現，無腹如餓相；亦有人以青眼為不好，但好白黑分明。」 tr. "Some people do not like round, large shoulders, thinking them like a swelling; some take the belly not showing to be having no belly, like the mark of starving; there are also people who take blue eyes as not good, and like only black and white clearly distinguished." What the three matters make clear is one and the same principle: views of the fair and the foul differ from place to place. So it concludes, 「是故佛隨眾生所好而為現相好。如是等，無有常定。」 tr. "Therefore the Buddha shows the marks and minor signs according to what beings like. Such as these have nothing constant and fixed." The third saying holds that the marks are fixed in themselves while what is shown changes: 「此三十二相實定，以神通力變化身，隨眾生所好而為現相。」 tr. "These thirty-two marks are really fixed; by the power of supernormal powers he transforms his body and, according to what beings like, shows the marks for them." What is fixed is the original marks; what changes is the transformation body that is shown. The fourth saying further divides two cases: 「佛有時神通變化，有時隨世界處生，當生處不得言神通變化」 tr. "the Buddha is sometimes a supernormal transformation, and sometimes is born according to the place in the world; where he is born, it cannot be said to be a supernormal transformation"—the body that receives birth according to place cannot be spoken of across the board as a transformation; below this, following on from this saying, he comes to the difference of lands: within the three-thousand great-thousand world he is born according to the places of beings who can be delivered and shows marks for them, and he cites the Sūtra of Secret Traces as proof: 「或現金色、或現銀色、或日月星宿色，或長、或短，隨可引導眾生則為現相。」 tr. "He shows a golden colour, or shows a silver colour, or the colour of the sun, the moon, and the stars, long or short; according to the beings who can be led, he shows marks for them." After the four sayings, the treatise-author closes the whole passage with what the one region of India in Jambudvīpa likes: 「天竺國人于今故治肩髆令厚大、頭上皆以有髻為好」 tr. "the people of the land of India to this day still work at their shoulders to make them thick and large, and all take having a topknot on the head as good"; again, according to the sayings on the marks of people, five places being long is good, and the marks of the eyes, nose, tongue, arms, fingers, thighs, and hands and feet are like a wheel, like a lotus flower, like a conch, or like the sun and moon; 「是故佛手足有千輻輪、纖長指、鼻高好、舌廣長而薄」 tr. "therefore the Buddha's hands and feet have the thousand-spoked wheel, slender long fingers, a high and fine nose, and a tongue broad, long, and thin"—all surpassing what they had always prized, and so able to make them give rise to a mind of reverence. Yet in other regions and other lands it need not be so: 「有國土佛為現千萬相，或無量阿僧祇相，或五、六、三、四相。」 tr. "In some lands the Buddha shows for them thousands of myriads of marks, or immeasurable asaṃkhyeya marks, or five, six, three, or four marks." The number thirty-two is shown according to what this region likes; it is not a fixed measure of the Buddha's body. With this, the two questions left by the sūtra of the First Part—‘why the marks and minor signs are listed among the unshared’ and ‘why they are exactly the same in number as the wheel-king's’—have both been answered; while the listing of the eighty minor marks item by item belongs to the next unit.

Do Not Misread

Do not read ‘the repeated question’ as Subhūti not understanding. The last of the treatise-author's four layers of answer says it plainly: he asks for the sake of 「佛滅度五百年後，像法中眾生愛著佛法，墮著法中」 tr. "five hundred years after the Buddha's passing into extinction, beings in the semblance Dharma love and cling to the Buddha's Dharma and fall into clinging to dharmas"; it is 「憐愍未來眾生鈍根不解故重問」 tr. "asking again because he pities the beings of the future with dull faculties who do not understand". The asker sets the question on behalf of those who have not understood—this is the pattern of question and answer in this treatise, not the asker's own doubt. If the repeated question is read as the asker's dullness, then all the passages of self-posed question and self-given answer everywhere in the whole treatise become the author's going back and forth, and the teaching structure of this treatise is read away.

Do not read ‘pulling out’ as negating the wholesome dharmas of the step before. The treatise-author himself sets a guard: 「若布施、持戒、禪定是定實法，則不應令遠離。」 tr. "If giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration were definitely real dharmas, one should not make people go far from them." Teaching people to give them up does not say that giving and keeping morality are evil; it says that 「雖少時益眾生，久則變異」 tr. "although for a short time they benefit beings, in the long run they change". What beings are pulled out from is the new clinging mind that arises upon the retribution of wholesome dharmas, not the wholesome dharmas themselves. If it is read as the meaning of emptiness abolishing wholesome dharmas, then the sentence below, 「先教眾生捨罪，稱讚持戒、布施福德」 tr. "first teaches beings to give up sin, praising the merit of keeping morality and giving", has nowhere to rest—the treatise-author plainly says that the head of the sequence is precisely establishing the good.

Do not read ‘the Buddha and animals are equal’ as the Buddha and animals being without difference. Within the same passage the treatise-author has already set his own limit: 「若人憐愍眾生，得無量福德；於佛著心，起諸惡因緣，得無量罪」 tr. "if a person pities beings, he obtains immeasurable merit; if toward the Buddha he gives rise to a clinging mind and gives rise to evil causes and conditions, he obtains immeasurable sin", and the difference of retribution is not reduced in the least; he also sets up two dharma-gates and judges, 「入分別法門，諸阿羅漢、辟支佛尚不及佛，何況畜生！」 tr. "Entering the dharma-gate of distinction, even the arhats and pratyekabuddhas do not come up to the Buddha, how much less animals!" What is equal is the mind's not picking and choosing at the time of giving, not the realm given to being without superior and inferior. Teaching not to discriminate is set up to counter the sickness of 「輕眾生不憐愍布施」 tr. "holding beings in contempt and giving without pity"; it is not a general rule that can be applied everywhere.

Do not read the four sayings on not moving when cut and severed as one saying. The four sayings each come back to their own place—long cultivated patience, deep kindness and compassion, the empty mind obtained as the retribution of prajñā, the body born of the dharma-nature—and the stages of the bodhisattvas they address are different. The treatise-author sets them side by side and does not judge precisely because the reason one can be unmoved differs with the stage. Above all, the fourth saying's 「身如木石」 tr. "his body is like wood or stone" must not be read as insentience: the very next sentence is 「而能慈念割截者」 tr. "yet he can think with kindness of those who cut and sever him"; the body unmoved and the kind thought unceasing—this is the full meaning of what is to be said.

Do not read ‘beings who eat the bodhisattva's flesh then give rise to a kind mind’ as even doing evil being able to lead to deliverance. The treatise-author himself makes the most important sifting distinction: 「非以噉肉故得度，以起發慈心故」 tr. "it is not because of eating the flesh that they are delivered; it is because of the kind mind that is roused", and proves it by two similes—form, sound, scent, and touch being one object at which some rejoice and some are angered, and the same fragrant rice eaten with some obtaining the path and some not—with one and the same matter, those who give rise to kindness are delivered, and those who give rise to anger are not. The cause of deliverance is the kind mind, not the deed of eating flesh; the deed of eating flesh has its own retribution. If this layer is lost, this passage is read as sin and merit being undistinguished.

Do not read ‘the three evil destinies are not empty’ as the bodhisattva picking and choosing whom to deliver. The treatise-author's answer is threefold: the number of beings is many times that of bodhisattvas; whether one is delivered or not is tied to whether beings have the conditions by which they can be delivered; the bodhisattva 「一相見無分別心故，不一一求覓眾生」 tr. "because he sees with one mark and is without a mind of discrimination, does not seek out beings one by one". The simile of the great amnesty is set up exactly for this: the decree of amnesty reaches everywhere and yet not everyone receives the amnesty, not that the decree is partial. If it is read as the bodhisattva choosing whom to deliver, it contradicts the equal contemplation of 「不輕畜生」 tr. "not holding animals in contempt" in the text before.

Do not read ‘only ten powers are spoken of’ as the Buddha having only ten kinds of power of knowledge. The treatise-author says plainly, 「佛實有無量智力，但以眾生不能得、不能行故不說」 tr. "the Buddha truly has immeasurable powers of knowledge; only because beings cannot obtain them and cannot practise them, they are not spoken of". The number ten is set up by what the work of delivering beings requires, not reckoned by what the Buddha has. In the same way, the number of the thirty-two marks in the last passage too must not be read as a fixed measure of the Buddha's body—「有國土佛為現千萬相，或無量阿僧祇相」 tr. "in some lands the Buddha shows for them thousands of myriads of marks, or immeasurable asaṃkhyeya marks"; thirty-two is the number shown according to what this region likes.

Do not read ‘nature is hard to remove, desire is easy to give up’ as nature being unable to turn. Right after the six pairs, the treatise-author records a divergent saying: 「欲常習增長，遂成為性；性亦能生欲」 tr. "desire, through constant habit, grows and increases and so becomes nature; nature too can give rise to desire"—by this saying, nature itself too is formed by long habit, and so it can also be turned by habit. The two sayings stand together and the treatise-author does not judge; one who takes the former should know that it speaks of ease and difficulty at hand, and must not use it to assert that the nature of beings is fixed and does not shift.

Do not read ‘the Buddha's mind is not different from the bodhisattva’ as the bodhisattva being the Buddha. Within the same passage the treatise-author first judges names and positions: 「今得一切種智，名為菩薩；已得一切種智，名為佛」 tr. "now obtaining the omniscience of all kinds, he is named bodhisattva; having already obtained the omniscience of all kinds, he is named Buddha"; only then does he speak of the suchness of mind being without difference. That names and positions differ lies in worldly truth; that the suchness of mind is without difference lies in the highest meaning; going a layer further, 「真實之言：菩薩不得，佛亦不得」 tr. "speaking truly: the bodhisattva does not obtain it, and the Buddha too does not obtain it", and even obtaining and not obtaining cannot be spoken of. The three layers must be read down in order; taking one layer and discarding the rest all become one-sided understandings.

Bearing on Practice

Take 「若布施、持戒、禪定是定實法，則不應令遠離」 tr. "if giving, keeping morality, and meditative concentration were definitely real dharmas, one should not make people go far from them" and shine it on the share of good you are now guarding. When practice reaches some point and you taste ease—the openness after giving, the self-respect after keeping morality, the lightness and ease after sitting in stillness—it is easiest to settle down there. Take this sentence and ask yourself: what I am now guarding—is it a place from which I am to be pulled out, or have I already taken it as my home? The treatise-author says it plainly: the retribution of the step before is precisely the place from which the next step must pull away.

Take 「入空法門，則得等觀；入分別法門，諸阿羅漢、辟支佛尚不及佛」 tr. "entering the dharma-gate of emptiness, he obtains equal contemplation; entering the dharma-gate of distinction, even the arhats and pratyekabuddhas do not come up to the Buddha" and tell two kinds of occasion clearly apart. When giving, enter the gate of emptiness: do not pick and choose, do not weigh whether the other is worth it; when deciding the meaning of the Dharma, choosing a teacher and choosing a path, enter the gate of distinction: what ought to be told apart must not be blurred by a hair. The sickness of most people is exactly the reverse: when giving they reckon closely, when choosing a dharma they are blurred throughout. Whenever it is time to give or to help, first ask yourself which gate you are entering.

Take 「非以噉肉故得度，以起發慈心故」 tr. "it is not because of eating the flesh that they are delivered; it is because of the kind mind that is roused" and check your own rough reading of cause and fruit. When one and the same matter comes to different people, the rising of kindness and the rising of anger each become a cause. When someone treats you with evil and it later turns out a good thing, do not say on this basis that evil deeds have no retribution; when you do good for a time and see no proven effect, do not say on this basis either that good deeds are of no use. Where the cause lies is in what arises in the mind, not in the surface of the matter.

Take 「不一一求覓眾生」 tr. "he does not seek out beings one by one" and ease your frustration at not being able to deliver everyone. Those who sincerely wish to help people often blame themselves over the few they could not help. The treatise-author says that even the bodhisattva delivers 「隨眾生可度因緣」 tr. "following the causes and conditions by which beings can be delivered", and people of heavy sin do not get to see a bodhisattva; a great amnesty reaches everywhere, and those it does not reach naturally do not receive it. Doing all that lies in oneself and not forcing what one cannot—this is not shirking; it is not presuming to put one's own strength in place of other people's causes and conditions.

Take 「行者必應求苦從何而生、由何而滅」 tr. "the practitioner must seek out where suffering arises from and by what it ceases" to fix the direction of daily effort. The treatise-author raises the two powers, the power of deeds and the power of concentration, and the reason lies in this very sentence. Whenever you feel your practice is scattered with nowhere to put your strength, come back to these two questions: from what conditions of deeds have I received my present suffering? By what power of concentration is it to be extinguished? Once the two questions are set up, what should be severed and what should be cultivated become clear of themselves.

Take 「用性作業必當受報，用欲作業不必受報」 tr. "deeds made through nature must surely receive retribution; deeds made through desire do not necessarily receive retribution" and look at your own habitual residues. An evil done on a passing impulse still has room to turn about; an evil done out of a nature formed by long accumulation receives retribution with certainty. The use of this sentence lies not in judging others but in examining oneself: this thought of mine—is it a desire that arose by chance, or has it already been perfumed into nature? If it has already become nature, one must not excuse oneself again with ‘just this once’. And what the divergent saying calls 「欲常習增長，遂成為性」 tr. "desire, through constant habit, grows and increases and so becomes nature" tells us exactly that the road to forming a nature lies in the habit of a single thought each day.

Take 「是故說法，初無空言」 tr. "therefore his teaching of the Dharma has never been empty words" and check the weight of your own speaking. Behind a single word of the Buddha there is the weighing and measuring of the ten powers—knowing whether one can be delivered or not, knowing whether the faculties are keen or dull, knowing desire and nature, knowing the obstructions of former lives. Ordinary people lack this weighing and measuring, and should be all the more careful in opening their mouths: before speaking, first ask one question—how much do I know about this person? To speak much without knowing his aptitude is of no benefit to him and becomes a fault for oneself.

Further Resonances

The unit of the Middle Part has treatise and no sūtra. What the treatise-author explains is the difficulties left in the earlier portion of the sūtra text of the First Part unit; so what is taken up here is the ancient masters' sectional divisions and questions and answers on the same passage of the sūtra, and the answers of this unit and the questions that wait for the next unit.

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra has a sectional division of the whole of this chapter, and where it explains the sūtra passage corresponding to this unit, it often meets with the treatise-author's questions and answers. Explaining why Subhūti asks again, it directly records three meanings of this treatise: 「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 treatise of old brings this forward with three meanings. First, it says that this question has already been asked above; asking it again now is because the sickness of having something to be attained, from beginningless time, is hard to break. Second, the teaching of the sūtra is about to end, and emptiness is the essential of entering the path—as it says, apart from the three liberations, asking about not-knowing and not-seeing—therefore he asks again about the meaning of emptiness. Third, when the Buddha was in the world, the multitudes had keen faculties and were easily awakened; five hundred years after the Buddha's passing into extinction, beings have dull faculties and are hard to awaken, often give rise to a clinging mind, and on hearing emptiness spoken of at once say: if emptiness is like a dream or an illusion, why are there the retributions of good and evil? Subhūti pities the beings of the last age, and therefore he asks."—the three meanings correspond one by one to the last three layers of the answer in the first passage of this unit (the first layer, 「是事上已答」 tr. "this matter has already been answered above", points back to the earlier chapters, and Jizang does not record it); its second meaning reads 「空是入道之要」 tr. "emptiness is the essential of entering the path", which is just the sense of this treatise's 「是般若波羅蜜欲說是空，義要故，數問」 tr. "what this prajñāpāramitā wishes to speak is this emptiness; because the meaning is essential, he asks again and again". And the boundary it draws between this chapter's answer and the previous chapter's answer says: 「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 chapter above makes clear that being without anything existent breaks the sickness; this chapter's answer makes clear that though dharmas are without anything existent, for ordinary people they exist." This agrees with where the second passage of this unit lands.

Its explanation of the Buddha's first move in answering says: 「初中云凡夫著夢，著夢者此是著空亦著實，如是空有一切著也。以內有所著故起身口意三業，生三界諸法，雖無所有於凡夫成有也。」 tr. "In the first, it says that ordinary people cling to the dream; clinging to the dream is clinging to emptiness and also clinging to the real—thus clinging to everything, empty and existent. Because there is clinging within, they give rise to the three deeds of body, speech, and mind and produce the dharmas of the three realms; though without anything existent, for ordinary people they become existent."—taking clinging to the dream as gathering both sides, clinging to emptiness and clinging to the real, opens one more meaning than this treatise, which speaks only of inversion. Its explanation of the passage on pulling out in sequence by skilful means says: 「直為說實相不空有不虗實，但為眾生故漸漸化之。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. "Directly, the real mark would be spoken of as neither empty nor existent, neither false nor real; but for the sake of beings he transforms them little by little. 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 concentration; 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, and pulls them out from the Great Vehicle and makes them awaken to neither three nor one."—this treatise's sequence stops at nirvāṇa and the limbs of the path, while Jizang continues it with the three steps of the two vehicles, the Great Vehicle, and neither three nor one; this is his own school's division, recorded side by side without judgement.

On the reason why among the four means of gathering some are broad and some brief, it sets a question and answer: 「問：何故廣釋布施？若布施在初既廣，後亦例廣，後略明亦略也。布施具財、法，故釋人也。」 tr. "Question: why is giving explained broadly? If giving, coming first, is broad, then what follows is broad by its example; when what follows is made clear briefly, it too is brief. Giving includes wealth and Dharma, and therefore it explains people."—sharing the same purport as this treatise's two answers, 「四事中初廣開布施，則知餘三亦如是」 tr. "among the four things giving is opened up broadly at the very first; then one knows that the other three are likewise" and 「布施中攝三事故」 tr. "because giving contains the three things". Explaining Subhūti's question ‘does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds or not’, it judges it 「此是進退難也」 tr. "this is a difficulty of advance and retreat", and sets out its two ends of advancing and retreating in detail: 「此問應云：為先得種智故作佛？為先作佛故得種智？若菩薩時先得種智者，既作佛云何佛？云何先得種智？若前作佛後得種智，既作佛竟何用一切種智？又未得種智云何作佛？」 tr. "This question should be put: is it by first obtaining the knowledge of all kinds that one becomes a Buddha? Or is it by first becoming a Buddha that one obtains the knowledge of all kinds? If while a bodhisattva one first obtains the knowledge of all kinds, since one has become a Buddha, how is one a Buddha? How does one first obtain the knowledge of all kinds? If one first becomes a Buddha and afterwards obtains the knowledge of all kinds, since one has finished becoming a Buddha, what use is the omniscience of all kinds? Again, without having obtained the knowledge of all kinds, how does one become a Buddha?" And it takes 「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" as the intent of the answer—the same as this treatise's answer.

On the two questions about the marks and minor signs it also has something to say. Explaining why the marks and minor signs are world-transcending dharmas, it says: 「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 day by day from deeds without outflows." This is the same as this treatise's judgement, 「是相，聖無漏法果報」 tr. "these marks are the retribution of the noble dharma without outflows". Explaining why the marks and minor signs are made clear only here, it says: 「問：上來何故不明相好，至此始明耶？答：生、法二身。上來明法身，法身最勝故；次明生身，生身劣故也。」 tr. "Question: why were the marks and minor signs not made clear above, and only made clear here? Answer: there are the two bodies, the fleshly and the Dharma. Above, the Dharma body was made clear, because the Dharma body is the most excellent; next the fleshly body is made clear, because the fleshly body is inferior." This is the same as this treatise's answer of the two bodies, but its phrase 「生身劣故」 tr. "because the fleshly body is inferior" is something this treatise does not have; this treatise says only 「法身大，所益多故」 tr. "because the Dharma body is great and what it benefits is much", and does not speak of the inferiority of the fleshly body; the weight the two give in their judgements differs, recorded without judgement. Jizang also sets himself a question that this treatise does not have: 「問：小般若以色見我，是人行邪道，今何云說相好為法施耶？答：經說相是般若，相即是非相。如作解相，起行耶道，不見如來。若見相非相，見佛；只見非相，相亦見佛也。」 tr. "Question: the Smaller Prajñā says that one who sees me by form is a person practising a wrong path; how is it now said that speaking of the marks and minor signs is a gift of Dharma? Answer: the sūtra says that the marks are prajñā, and marks are precisely non-marks. If one makes an understanding of marks, one rises up to practise a wrong path and does not see the Tathāgata. If one sees marks as non-marks, one sees the Buddha; seeing only non-marks, in the marks too one sees the Buddha."—harmonising the divergent sayings of the two sūtras by the non-duality of marks and non-marks; this is Jizang's own contribution, not the text of this treatise, recorded side by side to show where an ancient master turned his attention on this difficulty.

The extant text of Huiying's Commentary stops in the middle of chapter sixty-nine; for this chapter there is no commentary to take up, and his explanation is lacking—it is not that it was abbreviated and left unexplained. Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises has one citation on this chapter, but what it cites belongs to the sūtra passage of the next unit, and so it is not listed here; this is not an omission.

The next unit, carrying on from the end of this unit, goes on to speak of the eighty minor marks item by item, and then turns to the three means of gathering—kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour—and 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. What this unit has not explained and leaves for the text below is twofold: first, the names of the eighty minor marks and the meaning of the one minor mark among them, ‘consciousness full’, on which the treatise-author has a separate question and answer in the next unit; second, the distinction between worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning—this unit, on the question ‘does the bodhisattva obtain the omniscience of all kinds’, has for the first time raised the judgements 「世俗法故」 tr. "because it is a dharma of worldly convention" and 「第一義中，則無一切法」 tr. "within the highest meaning there are no dharmas at all", while the direct unfolding of the two truths is in the passage of the next unit where ordinary people do not know worldly truth and do not know the truth of the highest meaning.

The Four Means of Gathering, Last Part: The Listing of the Eighty Minor Marks and the Separate Explanation of Two Items among Them; the Close of the Four Means of Gathering and the Opening of the Forty-two Gates of Letters; How, within Ultimate Unfindability, the Dharma Can Still Be Taught; How Teaching the Dharma While Seeing Emptiness Does Not Lose the Mark of Emptiness; the Simile of the Conjured Person without Mind; Neither Bound nor Liberated, and Abiding by Not Abiding; Since Form Does Not Differ from the Nature of Dharmas, How Retribution Is Still Distinguished; the Weight of the Sentence That Ordinary People Do Not Know the Two Truths; the Four Alternatives on Whether Cultivating the Path Obtains the Fruit, All Denied; Since All the Fruits Are Unconditioned, on What the Teaching of Obtaining the Fruit by Cutting Off the Fetters Rests; the Treatise-Author Explains Consciousness Full and Secure in His Dwelling-Place; the Mutual Entering of One Letter and the Forty-two Letters; the Form of Named Question and Answer; the Three Ways of Losing, in Not Losing Emptiness; Space Does Not Abide in Space and Fire Does Not Abide in Fire; Why Only Two Emptinesses Are Spoken of as Named the Dharma; an Objection Made on the Highest Meaning, and a Refutation Only at Not Knowing; Seeking the Fruit with a Clinging Mind Is Like Taking Oil from Sesame; Even Cultivating, It Is Not Obtained, How Much Less without Cultivating; the Close Returns to Thoroughly Penetrating the Nature of Dharmas

What Is Being Asked

The First Part unit has sūtra without treatise; the Middle Part unit has treatise without sūtra. The Last Part unit has both complete—its first half is the later portion of this chapter's sūtra text, its second half is the treatise-author's commentary on that later portion. Sūtra and treatise adjoin each other within the same fascicle, and in reading one can set what comes before and what comes after side by side: the openings the sūtra leaves, the treatise-author takes up and settles at once within the same fascicle.

This passage of the sūtra sets out from the listing of the eighty minor marks. The listing itself has one strange point: of the eighty items, by far the most are bodily marks—nose, eyebrows, ears, bones, nails, knees, fingers, veins, ankles, hair, body hairs, teeth, tongue, navel, belly; yet in the middle there is inserted a ‘consciousness full’, and inserted again a ‘secure in his dwelling-place, and nothing can shake him’, and these two are not features of appearance; and in the later section there appears a whole string—‘he looks upon beings equally’, ‘he does not belittle beings’, ‘he teaches the Dharma without error’, ‘he teaches the Dharma for beings following their languages’, ‘he teaches the Dharma in sequence and with causes and conditions’, ‘those who look upon him are never sated’—and these are already wholly not matters of the body, but matters of the Buddha's meeting with beings. Here the sūtra lists without explaining, the eighty items one sentence to an item, and reading on it is like a list. In the later section the treatise-author picks out only two items to explain—precisely the two inserted among the bodily marks that look least like bodily marks: ‘consciousness full’ and ‘secure in his dwelling-place’. This picking out is itself an indication of how to read: what truly needs accounting for in the list is those few places that look out of kind.

When the eighty items have been listed, the sūtra uses one sentence to gather up the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma spoken of in the two preceding units, and then with three extremely short sentences finishes kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour. The four means of gathering were given their general heading in the First Part unit, and the single gate of giving was spoken of broadly from there all the way to here; for the remaining three things, the sūtra gives only one sentence each. In the Middle Part unit the treatise-author has already answered the reason for the breadth and the brevity—within giving are contained the two things of wealth and Dharma, and the first is raised as the pattern for what follows. So the shortness of the three sentences here is not an omission; it is the method of brevity already accounted for earlier, carried out here.

When the three means of gathering are finished, the sūtra suddenly turns to the forty-two gates of letters: beings are taught to train well in one letter, and so on up to forty-two letters; one letter enters the forty-two letters, and the forty-two letters enter one letter; having trained well in the dharma of letters one can then speak well of the dharma of letters, and having spoken well of the dharma of letters one can then speak well of the dharma without letters. At first sight this turn is abrupt—the four means of gathering were just speaking of shared endeavour; how does it pass to knowing letters? Yet Subhūti's question that follows forces out the purpose of this turn: since beings are unfindable, dharmas are unfindable, and the nature of dharmas is unfindable, by what does the bodhisattva still abide in the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution and teach the Dharma for beings? Letters are names, and names are what teaching the Dharma relies on; passing from the four means of gathering to the gates of letters is exactly coming down from ‘gathering’ to ‘speaking’; and from the one question about ‘speaking’ it comes down to the difficulty that ‘what is spoken is ultimately unfindable’. From here on, the doctrinal centre of gravity of this unit lies wholly on this one difficulty.

The Buddha answers this difficulty not by resolving it but by deepening it. Subhūti says that beings are unfindable, and the Buddha, following that sentence, counts down through the eighteen emptinesses all the way—the five aggregates are empty, the twelve sense-fields are empty, the eighteen elements are empty, the twelve links of causes and conditions are empty, the four truths are empty, the self and its sixteen kinds of different names are all empty, the four dhyānas are empty, the limbs of the path are empty, the ten powers are empty, the four fearlessnesses are empty, and so on up to the four fruits of the śramaṇa being empty, the path of the pratyekabuddha being empty, the bodhisattva ground being empty, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi being empty. In the answer not one reason for ‘how one can speak’ is given; he only pushes ‘emptiness’ through more thoroughly. Only then does he say: the bodhisattva, thus seeing all dharmas as empty, teaches the Dharma for beings and does not lose the marks of the emptinesses. The reason comes after, and the simile comes after that—a person conjured by the Buddha further conjures immeasurable people and teaches them giving and keeping morality: does this conjured person discriminate and destroy dharmas? Subhūti answers himself: no; the conjured person is without mind and without mental-factor dharmas. What the simile illustrates lies not in the dharma that is spoken but in the mind of the one who speaks: what is spoken is still giving and keeping morality, not one sentence less; that discriminating and destroying do not come about is because on the speaker's side there is no mind that can discriminate.

Below this, the sūtra pushes all the way to the two truths. Do form and the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality differ? They do not differ. Since they do not differ, why are black dharmas with black retribution and white dharmas with white retribution still distinguished, and so on up to the four fruits of the śramaṇa? By reason of worldly truth retribution is spoken of with distinctions; it is not the highest meaning. Subhūti immediately pushes this sentence back: if so, ordinary people too should have the fruit of the srota-āpanna. The Buddha's way of refuting is extremely simple and falls on only one sentence—ordinary people really do not know worldly truth and do not know the truth of the highest meaning. That distinction stands up for the sages and does not stand up for ordinary people lies not in the matter of distinguishing itself but in knowing and not knowing. This sentence is the pivot of the whole unit's account of the two truths, and in the later section it is precisely on this sentence that the treatise-author spends the most ink.

In Treatise ② there is one point of form that must be explained first. When the treatise-author has explained as far as the forty-two gates of letters, he suddenly changes to using named question and answer such as ‘Subhūti asks’, ‘The Buddha approves Subhūti, saying’, and ‘The Buddha answers’ to set out the meaning, and does not use the ‘Question:’ and ‘Answer:’ customary in this treatise. This section runs from the question ‘if dharmas are ultimately empty and without names’ to the sentence ‘The Buddha's meaning: only this mind is true and real; at other times all is false and deceptive’; the closing words below it the treatise-author speaks himself, no longer named. In reading one must keep this clear: this is the treatise-author taking up and recounting the questions and answers in the sūtra in order to go on setting out their meaning; the words of Subhūti and the words of the Buddha he frames are, sentence by sentence, the treatise-author speaking as he takes up the sūtra, not a separate passage of sūtra text quoted in. Within the same section, the treatise-author's own standard question-and-answer form still appears in two places—‘why, here, are only two emptinesses spoken of as named the Dharma’ and ‘above, the Buddha spoke with distinctions of cultivating the path and obtaining the fruit of the path; why does he now say no’—and the two forms interlace, which shows exactly that the named ones are recountings and the ‘Question:’ ones are the treatise-author asking himself.

At the end of the whole unit the treatise-author closes the whole chapter with one sentence: one who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas. If the one who teaches the Dharma grasps at the mark of the nature of dharmas, he shares the same sickness as the ordinary people who grasp at marks and whom he refutes; if he abides within the nature of dharmas, he loses the meaning of abiding by not abiding. Not grasping, not abiding, and yet still teaching the Dharma, and teaching it without hindrance, without obstruction, without blocking—this is where the chapter on the four means of gathering, setting out from giving and speaking all the way through the gates of letters and the two truths, wishes in the end to arrive.

Passage by Passage

1. The listing of the eighty minor marks—the sūtra lists without explaining, yet what it lists has its own order. The sūtra begins with 「云何為八十隨形好？」 tr. "What are the eighty minor marks?", lists item by item up to the eightieth, and closes with 「須菩提！是八十隨形好，佛身成就。」 tr. "Subhūti! These eighty minor marks are what the Buddha's body accomplishes." The sūtra gives the eighty items one sentence to an item, adding no gloss. On the general meaning of the eighty minor marks this treatise has an explicit text elsewhere, in its explanation of the first chapter's passage ‘wishing to make complete the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor marks’: 「相麁而好細，眾生見佛則見其相，好則難見故。」 tr. "The marks are coarse and the minor marks fine: when beings see the Buddha they see his marks, whereas the minor marks are hard to see." Again it says: 「相者，餘人共得；好者，或共、或不共。」 tr. "The marks are obtained in common by other people; the minor marks are either shared or unshared."—the marks are the adornment of the large places, the minor marks the adornment of the fine places; the marks can be seen at a glance, the minor marks are seen only on looking closely. As for the separate meaning of each of the eighty items, there are only a few matters on which this treatise has an explicit text to rely on: the twenty-first and twenty-third items, on which the treatise-author sets a question and answers it in the later section of this unit (see passage 2 below and passages 18 and 19); the sixty-fifth item, 「邊光各一丈」 tr. "the light at the sides extends one zhang each way", on which this treatise, explaining the mark of the light of one zhang among the thirty-two marks in the first chapter, says: 「四邊皆有一丈光，佛在是光中端嚴第一，如諸天諸王寶光明淨。」 tr. "On all four sides there is a light of one zhang; within this light the Buddha is foremost in upright dignity, as the jewelled light of the gods and kings is bright and pure."—on each of the four sides of the body there is a light of one zhang, and within this light the Buddha is upright and dignified; the ninth item, 「爪如赤銅色，薄而潤澤」 tr. "his nails are like the colour of red copper, thin and glossy", on which this treatise, explaining in the first chapter the mark of the instep being high and full, also says 「指爪如淨赤銅」 tr. "the nails of the toes are like pure red copper", meaning that the colour of the nails is like pure red copper; the fifth item, 「身堅實，如那羅延」 tr. "his body is firm and solid, like Nārāyaṇa", on which this treatise, explaining the first chapter, has the words 「那羅延力菩薩」 tr. "the bodhisattva with the strength of Nārāyaṇa"—Nārāyaṇa is a name given for strength, and this item uses him as a simile for the firmness and solidity of the body. The other items this treatise does not explain here; below, following only the letter of the sūtra text, what each item refers to is told item by item in present-day language, and beyond the letter no meaning is set up on the treatise's behalf. Items one to ten: 「無見頂」 tr. "the crown of his head cannot be seen", no one can see the very top of his crown; 「鼻直高好，孔不現」 tr. "his nose is straight, high, and fine, and the nostrils do not show", the nose is straight and high at its tip, and the nostrils are not exposed; 「眉如初生月，紺琉璃色」 tr. "his eyebrows are like the newly born moon, of the colour of dark-blue beryl", the brows curve like the newly born moon, and their colour is dark blue like beryl; 「耳輪埵成」 tr. "the rims and lobes of his ears are formed", the rims and the lobes of the ears are fully formed; 「身堅實，如那羅延」 tr. "his body is firm and solid, like Nārāyaṇa", already seen above; 「骨際如鉤鎖」 tr. "his bones join like hooks and chains", where the bones meet they are linked like hooks and chains; 「身一時迴如象王」 tr. "his body turns round at one time, like an elephant king", when he turns, the whole body turns round together at one time, like an elephant king; 「行時足去地四寸，而印文現」 tr. "when he walks his feet are four cun off the ground, and yet the print of the patterns appears", when he walks the feet are four cun off the ground, and yet the patterns under the feet still print and appear on the ground; 「爪如赤銅色，薄而潤澤」 tr. "his nails are like the colour of red copper, thin and glossy", already seen above; 「膝骨堅著圓好」 tr. "his kneecaps are firm, close-set, round, and fine", the kneecaps are firm and set close, round and fine. Items eleven to twenty: the three items 「身淨潔」 tr. "his body is pure and clean" 「身柔軟」 tr. "his body is soft" 「身不曲」 tr. "his body is not bent" are as their text says—the body pure, the body soft, the body not bent; 「指長纖圓」 tr. "his fingers are long, slender, and round", the fingers are long, slender, and round and full; 「指文莊嚴」 tr. "the patterns on his fingers are adorned", the lines on the fingers are adorned; 「脈深」 tr. "his veins are deep", the veins are deep and hidden, not exposed; 「踝不現」 tr. "his ankles do not show", the ankles do not protrude; 「身潤澤」 tr. "his body is glossy", the body is glossy; 「身自持，不逶迤」 tr. "his body holds itself upright, not leaning or swaying", the body holds itself upright of itself and does not lean askew; 「身滿足」 tr. "his body is full", the body is complete, without lack. Items twenty-one to thirty: the two items 「識滿足」 tr. "consciousness full" and 「住處安，無能動者」 tr. "secure in his dwelling-place, and nothing can shake him" are seen below; 「容儀備足」 tr. "his appearance and bearing are complete", appearance and bearing are fully present; 「威震一切」 tr. "his majesty shakes all", his majestic virtue shakes all; 「一切樂觀」 tr. "all delight in looking at him", all people delight in looking at him; 「面不大長」 tr. "his face is not too long", the face is not overlong; 「正容貌，不撓色」 tr. "his countenance is upright, and his complexion is not disturbed", the countenance is upright and the expression does not change; 「面具足滿」 tr. "his face is complete and full", the features of the face are complete and round; 「脣赤如頻婆果色」 tr. "his lips are red like the colour of the bimba fruit", the colour of the lips is red like the bimba fruit—bimba is the name of a fruit, and its shape and colour this treatise does not explain here; 「音響深」 tr. "his voice is deep", the voice is deep and far-reaching. Items thirty-one to forty: 「臍深圓好」 tr. "his navel is deep, round, and fine", the navel is deep, round, and fine; 「毛右旋」 tr. "his body hairs curl to the right", the body hairs turn to the right; 「手足滿」 tr. "his hands and feet are full", the hands and feet are full and fine; 「手足如意」 tr. "his hands and feet are as he wishes", the hands and feet move as he wishes; the three items 「手文明直」 tr. "the lines on his hands are clear and straight" 「手文長」 tr. "the lines on his hands are long" 「手文不斷」 tr. "the lines on his hands are unbroken" all speak of the lines on the hands—clear and straight, long, not broken off; 「一切惡心眾生見者和悅」 tr. "all beings with evil minds who see him become gentle and glad", even beings who harbour evil minds become gentle and glad on seeing him; 「面廣姝」 tr. "his face is broad and fine", the face is broad and beautiful; 「面淨滿如月」 tr. "his face is pure and full like the moon", the face is pure and full like the moon. Items forty-one to fifty: 「隨眾生意，和悅與語」 tr. "according to the minds of beings, he speaks with them gently and gladly", following the minds of beings, he speaks with them gently and gladly; the two items 「毛孔出香氣」 tr. "his pores give forth fragrance" 「口出無上香」 tr. "his mouth gives forth an unsurpassed fragrance" are as their text says—both the pores and the mouth give forth fragrance; the three items 「儀容如師子」 tr. "his bearing is like a lion's" 「進止如象王」 tr. "his advancing and halting are like an elephant king's" 「行法如鵝王」 tr. "his manner of walking is like a goose king's" each take a beast or a bird as a simile, speaking of bearing, of advancing and halting, and of walking—the sūtra only raises the similes, and which mark is taken from each this treatise does not explain here; 「頭如摩陀羅果」 tr. "his head is like the moduoluo fruit", the head is like the moduoluo fruit—moduoluo too is the name of a fruit, and its shape this treatise does not explain here; 「一切聲分具足」 tr. "the divisions of all his sounds are complete", the divisions of all his sounds are complete; 「牙利」 tr. "his teeth are sharp", the teeth are sharp; 「舌色赤」 tr. "the colour of his tongue is red", the colour of the tongue is red. Items fifty-one to sixty: 「舌薄」 tr. "his tongue is thin", the tongue is thin; 「毛紅色」 tr. "his hairs are of a red colour" 「毛潔淨」 tr. "his hairs are clean", the hairs are of a red colour and the hairs are pure and clean; 「廣長眼」 tr. "his eyes are broad and long", the eyes are broad and long; 「孔門相具足」 tr. "the marks of his orifices are complete", the marks of the orifices of the body are complete; 「手足赤白如蓮華色」 tr. "his hands and feet are red and white like the colour of the lotus", the hands and feet are red and white like the colour of the lotus; 「臍不出」 tr. "his navel does not protrude", the navel does not stick out; 「腹不現」 tr. "his belly does not show", the belly is not exposed; 「細腹」 tr. "his belly is slender", the belly is slender; 「身不傾動」 tr. "his body does not lean or sway", the body does not tilt or sway. Items sixty-one to sixty-six: 「身持重」 tr. "his body is weighty", the body is grave and weighty; 「其身分大」 tr. "his bodily parts are large", the parts of the body are broad and large; 「身長」 tr. "his body is tall", the body is tall; 「手足淨潔軟澤」 tr. "his hands and feet are pure, clean, soft, and glossy", the hands and feet are pure and clean, soft and glossy; 「邊光各一丈」 tr. "the light at the sides extends one zhang each way", already seen above; 「光照身而行」 tr. "the light shines on his body as he moves", the light shines on his body as he goes. Items sixty-seven to seventy-five: 「等視眾生」 tr. "he looks upon beings equally", he regards beings equally; 「不輕眾生」 tr. "he does not belittle beings", he does not look down on beings; 「隨眾生音聲不過不減」 tr. "following the voices of beings, neither too much nor too little", he responds following the voices of beings, neither overdoing nor falling short; 「說法不差」 tr. "he teaches the Dharma without error", his teaching of the Dharma has no mistake; 「隨眾生語言而為說法」 tr. "he teaches the Dharma for beings following their languages", he teaches the Dharma for beings in their own languages; 「一發音報眾聲」 tr. "with a single utterance he answers the voices of the multitude", with a single utterance he responds to the voices of the many; 「次第有因緣說法」 tr. "he teaches the Dharma in sequence and with causes and conditions", his teaching of the Dharma has sequence and has causes and conditions; 「一切眾生不能盡觀相」 tr. "no being can see his marks to the full", no being can see his marks to the full; 「觀者無厭足」 tr. "those who look upon him are never sated", those who look upon him do not know satiety. Items seventy-six to eighty: the four items 「髮長好」 tr. "his hair is long and fine" 「髮不亂」 tr. "his hair is not tangled" 「髮旋好」 tr. "his hair curls beautifully" 「髮色好如青珠」 tr. "the colour of his hair is fine, like blue pearls" all speak of the hair—long and fine, not tangled, curling beautifully, its colour like blue pearls; 「手足有德相」 tr. "his hands and feet have the marks of virtue", the hands and feet have the marks of virtue—what these so-called marks of virtue are, this treatise does not explain here. The present-day wording of each item above stops at the letter of the sūtra text; the causes and conditions by which each item becomes a minor mark, and the meaning each expresses, this treatise does not explain at all, apart from the few matters cited above, and here too nothing is said on its behalf; what follows looks only at the order in which they are listed. From the first item to the sixty-sixth, what is listed belongs on the whole to bodily marks: crown, nose, eyebrows, ears, bones, body, feet, nails, knees, fingers, veins, ankles, face, lips, voice, navel, body hairs, the lines of the hands, hair, teeth, tongue, belly, light—all the way from above to below and from coarse to fine, closing on the light with the two items 「六十五者、邊光各一丈」 tr. "sixty-fifth, the light at the sides extends one zhang each way" and 「六十六者、光照身而行」 tr. "sixty-sixth, the light shines on his body as he moves". Yet among these sixty-six items there are already four that do not belong to form and appearance: 「二十一者、識滿足」 tr. "twenty-first, consciousness full" 「二十三者、住處安，無能動者」 tr. "twenty-third, secure in his dwelling-place, and nothing can shake him" 「三十八者、一切惡心眾生見者和悅」 tr. "thirty-eighth, all beings with evil minds who see him become gentle and glad" 「四十一者、隨眾生意，和悅與語」 tr. "forty-first, according to the minds of beings, he speaks with them gently and gladly"—the first two items have their own explanation in the later section, and what the last two speak of is also the matter of the Buddha's meeting with beings. From the sixty-seventh item onward, this kind then appears in a string: 「六十七者、等視眾生」 tr. "sixty-seventh, he looks upon beings equally" 「六十八者、不輕眾生」 tr. "sixty-eighth, he does not belittle beings" 「六十九者、隨眾生音聲不過不減」 tr. "sixty-ninth, following the voices of beings, neither too much nor too little" 「七十者、說法不差」 tr. "seventieth, he teaches the Dharma without error" 「七十一者、隨眾生語言而為說法」 tr. "seventy-first, he teaches the Dharma for beings following their languages" 「七十二者、一發音報眾聲」 tr. "seventy-second, with a single utterance he answers the voices of the multitude" 「七十三者、次第有因緣說法」 tr. "seventy-third, he teaches the Dharma in sequence and with causes and conditions" 「七十四者、一切眾生不能盡觀相」 tr. "seventy-fourth, no being can see his marks to the full" 「七十五者、觀者無厭足」 tr. "seventy-fifth, those who look upon him are never sated"—of these nine items, apart from the last two, which are said with regard to those who look, what the other seven speak of is all the matter of the Buddha's meeting with beings: looking upon beings, not belittling beings, following their voices, following their languages, teaching according to sequence and causes and conditions. After this, seventy-six to eighty return again to the hair and to the hands and feet. As for the name ‘minor marks that accompany the form’: since it says ‘accompany the form’, what is accompanied is form; yet what these nine items accompany is in fact the function of teaching the Dharma. The sūtra makes no distinction on this point; the order of its listing is recorded as it really is, and no forced judgement is made on it.

2. Two items in the list that are out of kind—consciousness full and secure in his dwelling-place. Among the eighty items, the two least fitting the name ‘minor marks of form’ are 「二十一者、識滿足」 tr. "twenty-first, consciousness full" and 「二十三者、住處安，無能動者」 tr. "twenty-third, secure in his dwelling-place, and nothing can shake him". The former speaks of consciousness, the latter of the security of the place where he dwells; neither is a mark that can be seen on the body. And these two items are exactly the only two that the treatise-author picks out to explain in the later section. The sūtra says not a word on them here, and a reader who does not read on to Treatise ② can only read past them as two entries in the list. Here their being out of kind is first marked, to await the explanation in the later section; nothing is first said on the treatise-author's behalf. For the other items among the eighty, the treatise-author gives no separate explanation in this chapter; what their letter refers to has already been told item by item in the passage above, those on which this treatise has an explicit text in other fascicles to rely on have already been cited item by item, and for those without an explicit text it is said directly that this treatise does not explain them here, and no meaning is set up on its behalf.

3. The close on the two gifts and the opening of the three means of gathering—kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour, one sentence each and no more. When the eighty items have been listed, the sūtra at once gathers up with one sentence what was spoken of in the two preceding units: 「如是，須菩提！菩薩摩訶薩以二施攝取眾生，所謂財施、法施，是為菩薩希有難及事。」 tr. "Thus, Subhūti! the bodhisattva-mahāsattva gathers in beings by two kinds of giving, namely the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma; this is the bodhisattva's matter, rare and hard to equal." Since the general heading of the four means of gathering in the First Part unit, what the sūtra has spoken of broadly is only the one gate of giving; the two headings of the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma have been opened out all the way to this point, and only here can they be counted as finished. For the remaining three means of gathering, the sūtra gives only one sentence each: kind speech is 「菩薩摩訶薩以六波羅蜜為眾生說法，作是言：『汝行六波羅蜜，攝一切善法。』」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva teaches the Dharma for beings by the six perfections, speaking these words: ‘Practise the six perfections, and you gather in all wholesome dharmas.’"; beneficial action is 「菩薩摩訶薩長夜教眾生，令行六波羅蜜。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva through the long night teaches beings and makes them practise the six perfections."; shared endeavour is 「菩薩摩訶薩以五神通力故種種變化，入五道中，與眾生同事。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, by the power of the five supernormal powers, transforms himself in all kinds of ways, enters the five destinies, and shares in endeavour with beings." It closes with 「以此四事而攝取之。」 tr. "By these four things he gathers them in." as the general gathering-up. Among the three sentences there is one thing to note: what kind speech speaks and what beneficial action teaches is one and the same dharma—the six perfections. Kind speech is speaking the six perfections to beings; beneficial action is teaching beings to practise the six perfections; of shared endeavour the sūtra says only that by the power of the five supernormal powers he transforms himself, enters the five destinies, and shares in endeavour with beings, and does not say what dharma is taught—its not saying is recorded as it really is, and nothing is supplied on its behalf. What differs is the manner of meeting people: telling them, teaching them to go and practise, and dwelling and practising together with them. The one thing ‘shared endeavour’ also specially marks out the five supernormal powers and entering the five destinies—without entering the five destinies there is no shared endeavour to speak of, and this is the only one among the four means of gathering that can be established only by means of the supernormal powers.

4. The forty-two gates of letters—from gathering down to speaking. When the three means of gathering are finished, the sūtra follows with 「復次」 tr. "Again" and turns into the gates of letters: the bodhisattva, teaching and transforming beings, tells them 「當善學分別諸字，亦當善知一字乃至四十二字」 tr. "you should skilfully distinguish the letters, and you should also know well one letter, and so on up to forty-two letters", and then speaks of the mark of their entering one another—「一字皆入四十二字，四十二字亦入一字。」 tr. "One letter enters all forty-two letters, and forty-two letters also enter one letter." Its sequence is: 「善學四十二字已，能善說字法；善說字法已，善說無字法。」 tr. "Having trained well in the forty-two letters, they can speak well of the dharma of letters; having spoken well of the dharma of letters, they speak well of the dharma without letters." It ends by taking the Buddha himself as the example—the Buddha knows well the dharma of letters, knows letters well, and knows well being without letters, and 「為無字法故說字法」 tr. "for the sake of the dharma without letters speaks the dharma of letters"; and the reason it is so is 「過一切名字故，名為佛法。」 tr. "Because it passes beyond all names and letters, it is named the Buddha's Dharma." The crux of this passage lies in the last two sentences. The dharma of letters is not spoken for the sake of the dharma of letters; it is spoken for the sake of the dharma without letters; the Buddha's Dharma is named the Buddha's Dharma precisely because it passes beyond all names and letters. That being so, the reason why training well in the forty-two letters is the bodhisattva's matter of teaching and transforming beings lies not in making beings know a few more letters but in making them know names through letters, know meaning through names, and in the end know that within meaning there are fundamentally no names or letters. The treatise-author explains this meaning in the later section; see passages 20 and 21.

5. Subhūti's question—having already granted emptiness, how does one still abide in the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution and teach the Dharma? Here the sūtra turns into the longest round of question and answer in this unit. What Subhūti asks is to push the emptiness granted before onto the matter of teaching the Dharma: 「世尊！若眾生畢竟不可得，法亦不可得，法性亦不可得，畢竟空故、無始空故。」 tr. "World-Honored One! Suppose beings are ultimately unfindable, dharmas too are unfindable, and the nature of dharmas too is unfindable, because of ultimate emptiness and because of beginningless emptiness." That being so, then though the bodhisattva practises the six perfections, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, the four formless absorptions, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the eighteen emptinesses, the three samādhi, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas, the thirty-two marks, and the eighty minor marks, 「云何住報得五神通為眾生說法？」 tr. "how does he abide in the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution and teach the Dharma for beings?" Within the question there is a pushing layer upon layer: because beings are unfindable, form is unfindable, and so on up to consciousness being unfindable; because the five aggregates are unfindable, the six perfections, and so on up to the eighty minor marks, are all unfindable; within the unfindable 「無眾生、無色乃至無八十隨形好」 tr. "there are no beings, there is no form, and so on up to there being no eighty minor marks". It ends with one sentence that pushes the difficulty to the extreme: 「菩薩尚不可得，何況當有菩薩法！」 tr. "The bodhisattva is unfindable, how much less should there be the dharmas of a bodhisattva!"—the person who teaches the Dharma, the Dharma that is taught, and the beings for whom it is taught are all three unfindable, and so the matter of teaching the Dharma has no ground on which to stand. This question does not doubt emptiness; it asks, on the basis of emptiness, about its function; all the questions and answers of this unit below come out of it.

6. The Buddha's answer—not resolving the difficulty, but pushing its emptiness through again. The first sentence of the Buddha's answer first grants the question: 「如是！如是！如汝所言。」 tr. "Just so! Just so! It is as you say." And then, giving no reason, he only pushes emptiness through more thoroughly: 「眾生不可得故，當知是內空、外空、內外空、空空、大空、第一義空、有為空、無為空、畢竟空、無始空、散空、諸法空、自相空、性空、不可得空、無法空、有法空、無法有法空。」 tr. "Because beings are unfindable, one should know that this is inner emptiness, outer emptiness, inner and outer emptiness, the emptiness of emptiness, great emptiness, the emptiness of the highest meaning, the emptiness of the conditioned, the emptiness of the unconditioned, ultimate emptiness, beginningless emptiness, the emptiness of dispersal, the emptiness of all dharmas, the emptiness of specific marks, the emptiness of nature, the emptiness of the unfindable, the emptiness of non-existent dharmas, the emptiness of existent dharmas, and the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas." When the eighteen emptinesses have been listed, he again counts down layer by layer: the five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, and the eighteen elements are empty; the twelve links of causes and conditions and the four truths are empty; the self together with the one with a life-span, the one with a life, the one who is born, the one who nourishes, the one who rears, the one counted among the multitude, the person, the doer, the one who causes doing, the one who rises, the one who causes rising, the receiver, the one who causes receiving, the knower, and the seer—the sixteen kinds of different names for the self—are all empty; the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, and the four formless absorptions are empty; the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path are empty; the three samādhi are empty; the eight liberations and the nine successive absorptions are empty; the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, and the eighteen unshared dharmas are empty; the four fruits of the śramaṇa are empty, the path of the pratyekabuddha is empty, the bodhisattva ground is empty, anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is empty. The method of the answer lies here: Subhūti makes emptiness his difficulty, and the Buddha does not reduce emptiness to seek a ground for teaching the Dharma; on the contrary he pushes emptiness until even the bodhisattva ground and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi are emptied along with the rest. That the difficulty can be resolved lies not in taking emptiness back by an inch, but in there being another road after emptiness has been pushed to the full. That road is in the next passage.

7. Seeing emptiness and teaching the Dharma without losing the mark of emptiness—knowing non-obstruction, not destroying the marks of dharmas, not two and without discrimination. Only after emptiness has been pushed to the full does the Buddha state how teaching the Dharma is possible: 「菩薩摩訶薩如是見一切法空，為眾生說法，不失諸空相。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, thus seeing all dharmas as empty, teaches the Dharma for beings and does not lose the marks of the emptinesses." And then he gives its sequence—「是菩薩如是觀時，知一切法無礙；知一切法無礙已，不壞諸法相，不二不分別，但為眾生如實說法。」 tr. "When this bodhisattva contemplates thus, he knows that all dharmas are without obstruction; having known that all dharmas are without obstruction, he does not destroy the marks of dharmas, is not two and is without discrimination, but only teaches the Dharma for beings as it really is." Here there are three steps: first seeing emptiness; next, through seeing emptiness, knowing that all dharmas are without obstruction; last, through knowing non-obstruction, not destroying the marks of dharmas. The crucial point is the third step—not destroying. Emptiness is not knocking down the marks of dharmas; it is knowing that they are without obstruction, after which there is no need to knock them down. ‘Not losing the mark of emptiness’ and ‘not destroying the marks of dharmas’ look opposed, but are in fact two sides of one matter: if one sees emptiness and destroys the marks of dharmas, what is lost is exactly the mark of emptiness, because what is emptied has been taken as a real thing to be struck down. Therefore below this follows 「不二不分別」 tr. "not two and without discrimination"—emptiness and the marks of dharmas are not two, and so in teaching the Dharma there is nothing discriminated, and still he 「如實說法」 tr. "teaches the Dharma as it really is".

8. The simile of the conjured person—what it illustrates lies in the mind of the one who speaks, not in the dharma that is spoken. The Buddha sets up a simile for this: 「譬如佛所化人，化人復化作無量千萬億人」 tr. "It is as a person conjured by the Buddha: this conjured person further conjures immeasurable thousands of myriads of koṭi of people", and among these immeasurable conjured people 「有教令布施者，有教持戒、有教忍辱、有教精進、有教禪定、有教智慧、有教四禪、四無量心、四無色定者」 tr. "some he teaches to give, some he teaches to keep morality, some he teaches patience, some he teaches vigour, some he teaches meditative concentration, some he teaches wisdom, some he teaches the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, and the four formless absorptions". Not one item of the content taught is missing; the six perfections and the four dhyānas are all fully present. Then he sets a question: 「佛所化人有分別破壞諸法不？」 tr. "Does the person conjured by the Buddha discriminate and destroy dharmas?" Subhūti answers for himself: 「不也！世尊！是化人無心、無心數法，云何分別破壞諸法？」 tr. "No, World-Honored One! This conjured person is without mind and without mental-factor dharmas; how could he discriminate and destroy dharmas?" Here the point where the simile lands appears: the reason the conjured person does not discriminate and destroy dharmas is not that he says anything less, but that he is 「無心、無心數法」 tr. "without mind and without mental-factor dharmas". What is said does not differ from what ordinary people say, but on the side of the one who can speak there is no mind that gives rise to discrimination. That the bodhisattva's teaching of the Dharma can avoid destroying the marks of dharmas is exactly this principle—it is not that he says less, but that the one who speaks is not there grasping.

9. Pulling out from the ground of inversion—by the dharma of neither bound nor liberated. From the simile he returns to the Dharma: the Buddha says that the bodhisattva 「為眾生如應說法，拔出眾生於顛倒地，令眾生各得如所應住地，以不縛不脫法故」 tr. "teaches the Dharma for beings as befits them, pulls beings out from the ground of inversion, and lets beings each obtain the ground in which it befits them to abide, because of the dharma of neither bound nor liberated". Here the two Chinese characters ‘as befits’ bear on the meaning of the four means of gathering: what is said differs according to the capacity, so there is the teaching of giving, the teaching of keeping morality, and so on up to the teaching of meditative concentration; yet what is used to pull people out is in every case the same dharma of neither bound nor liberated. Why is it said to be neither bound nor liberated? The Buddha himself states the reason: 「是色不縛不脫，受、想、行、識不縛不脫」 tr. "This form is neither bound nor liberated; feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness are neither bound nor liberated", and he follows at once with a sentence extremely easy to read past—「色無縛無脫不是色，受想行識無縛無脫不是識。」 tr. "Form's being without bondage and without liberation is not form; feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness's being without bondage and without liberation is not consciousness." This sentence guards against people setting up ‘without bondage and without liberation’ again as a new form or a new consciousness. It ends with 「色畢竟清淨故」 tr. "because form is ultimately pure" as its ground, and extends it to 「一切法若有為、若無為，亦畢竟清淨故」 tr. "because all dharmas, whether conditioned or unconditioned, are likewise ultimately pure". The root of bondage and liberation both being unfindable lies in ultimate purity; it is not that there is first a bound form and then the bond is undone for it, but that form is pure from the first, and the two names bondage and liberation have nowhere to apply.

10. Teaching the Dharma without finding beings—abiding in the marks of dharmas by way of the dharma of non-abiding. The Buddha goes a layer further: 「菩薩摩訶薩為眾生說法，亦不得眾生及一切法。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva teaches the Dharma for beings and also does not find beings or any dharma." And then he states where he abides: 「一切法不可得故，菩薩以不住法故，住諸法相中，所謂色空，乃至有為、無為法空。」 tr. "Because all dharmas are unfindable, the bodhisattva, by way of the dharma of non-abiding, abides within the marks of dharmas, namely the emptiness of form, and so on up to the emptiness of conditioned and unconditioned dharmas." The phrase ‘abides in the marks of dharmas by way of the dharma of non-abiding’ looks in its letter self-contradictory, but in fact it is exactly the advance of the previous passage's ‘not destroying the marks of dharmas’—the marks of dharmas in which he abides are, as marks, precisely the mark of emptiness; it is exactly because they are empty and there is nothing to abide in that it is called abiding. The Buddha himself states the reason: 「色乃至有為、無為法自性不可得故，無有住處。」 tr. "Because the self-nature of form, and so on up to conditioned and unconditioned dharmas, is unfindable, there is no place of abiding." Below this come the four alternatives most essential to this passage.

11. The four alternatives of non-abiding—without anything existent, existent, self-nature, other-nature. The Buddha sets out four alternatives to make non-abiding clear: 「無所有法不住無所有法，所有法不住所有法，自性法不住自性法，他性法不住他性法。」 tr. "The dharma without anything existent does not abide in the dharma without anything existent; the existent dharma does not abide in the existent dharma; the dharma of self-nature does not abide in the dharma of self-nature; the dharma of other-nature does not abide in the dharma of other-nature." The four alternatives are arranged in two pairs: without anything existent and existent form one pair, self-nature and other-nature form one pair. Their principle is exhausted in one sentence—「是一切法皆不可得故。」 tr. "Because all these dharmas are unfindable." And then he gathers it up with a question: 「不可得法當住何處？」 tr. "Where should an unfindable dharma abide?" The use of these four alternatives lies not in telling apart four kinds of dharma, but in removing the matter of ‘abiding’ one by one from every possible foothold: whether you set your foot on existence, on non-existence, on a thing's own nature, or on another's nature, there is nowhere to stand. The meaning of the four alternatives the treatise-author explains in the later section with three similes; see passage 26. At the end of this passage the Buddha again joins the matter of teaching the Dharma back to the place from which the four means of gathering come: the bodhisattva, 「以是諸空，能如是說法」 tr. "by reason of these emptinesses, can teach the Dharma thus", and practising prajñāpāramitā thus, he is 「於諸佛及聲聞、辟支佛無有過」 tr. "without fault toward the buddhas, and toward the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas"—he teaches the Dharma and does not go against what the Buddha and the two vehicles have realised. Its reason lies in 「如、法性、實際不可轉故」 tr. "because suchness, the nature of dharmas, and the limit of reality cannot be turned", and the reason they cannot be turned is 「諸法性無故」 tr. "because the nature of dharmas is non-existent".

12. Whether form differs from the nature of dharmas—it does not differ. From the phrase ‘cannot be turned’, Subhūti at once raises a question: 「若法性、如、實際不轉，色與法性異不？色與如、實際異不？」 tr. "If the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality do not turn, does form differ from the nature of dharmas? Does form differ from suchness and the limit of reality?" and he extends it to feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, and so on up to the conditioned and the unconditioned, the worldly and the world-transcending, those with outflows and those without outflows. The Buddha's answer is only two Chinese characters with a string added: 「不也！色不異法性、不異如、不異實際」 tr. "No! Form does not differ from the nature of dharmas, does not differ from suchness, does not differ from the limit of reality", and so too feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, and so on up to those with outflows and those without outflows. This answer makes solid the reason behind the previous passage's ‘cannot be turned’: the nature of dharmas cannot be turned not because it is a constantly abiding thing standing apart outside form, but because form itself does not differ from it. If the nature of dharmas were outside form, then as form changed the nature of dharmas could change along with it; since they do not differ, there is no such thing as turning.

13. Since they do not differ, why are black and white retributions still distinguished—by reason of worldly truth. Subhūti, following this, presses one step further: if form does not differ from the nature of dharmas, suchness, and the limit of reality, and feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness, and so on up to those with outflows and those without outflows, all do not differ, then 「云何分別黑法有黑報，所謂地獄、餓鬼、畜生；白法有白報，所謂天及人」 tr. "how is it distinguished that black dharmas have black retribution, namely the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals; that white dharmas have white retribution, namely gods and humans", and so on up to black-and-white dharmas having black-and-white retribution and dharmas neither black nor white having retribution neither black nor white—that is, the four fruits of the śramaṇa, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi? What this question points at is extremely concrete: the retributions of good and evil and the stages of ordinary person and sage are the whole sequence on which a practitioner relies; if all is without difference, this sequence hangs in the air. The Buddha's answer sets up the two truths to divide them: 「世諦故，分別說有果報，非第一義；第一義中不可說因緣果報。」 tr. "By reason of worldly truth, retribution is spoken of with distinctions; it is not the highest meaning. Within the highest meaning, causes and conditions and retribution are unspeakable." And then he states why the highest meaning is unspeakable: 「是第一義，實無有相，無有分別，亦無言說」 tr. "This highest meaning really has no mark, no discrimination, and no speech either", namely form and so on up to dharmas with outflows and without outflows are 「不生不滅相、不垢不淨」 tr. "of the mark of being unarisen and unceasing, neither stained nor pure", and the reason lies in 「畢竟空、無始空故」 tr. "because of ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness". The division of the two truths is first set up here, and its weight shows only at the next question.

14. The objection that ordinary people should have the noble fruits—the Buddha refutes only at the one point of ‘not knowing’. Subhūti at once pushes the account of the two truths back: 「若以世諦故，分別說有果報，非第一義者，一切凡夫人應有須陀洹果、斯陀含果、阿那含果、阿羅漢果、辟支佛道、阿耨多羅三藐三菩提！」 tr. "If, by reason of worldly truth, retribution is spoken of with distinctions, and it is not the highest meaning, then all ordinary people should have the fruit of the srota-āpanna, the fruit of the sakṛdāgāmin, the fruit of the anāgāmin, the fruit of the arhat, the path of the pratyekabuddha, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!" His way of pushing is: since retribution is distinguished only in worldly truth, and worldly truth is seen in common by ordinary people and sages, then ordinary people too should get a share of the noble fruits. The Buddha does not answer on whether worldly truth is seen in common; he asks only one sentence: 「凡夫人為知是世諦法、是第一義諦不？」 tr. "Do ordinary people know that this is the dharma of worldly truth, and that this is the truth of the highest meaning?" If they knew, ordinary people 「應是須陀洹果乃至阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "should be the fruit of the srota-āpanna, and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi"; and the actual case is—「以凡夫人實不知世諦、不知第一義諦、不知道、不知分別道果，云何當有諸果？」 tr. "Because ordinary people really do not know worldly truth, do not know the truth of the highest meaning, do not know the path, and do not know how to distinguish the fruits of the path, how should they have the fruits?" Conversely, 「聖人知世諦、知第一義諦，有道、有修道，以是故聖人差別有諸果。」 tr. "The sages know worldly truth and know the truth of the highest meaning; they have the path and have the cultivation of the path; for this reason the sages have the various fruits with distinctions." The essence of this answer is: the two truths are not two worlds but two knowings; ordinary people have no fruit not because they are excluded from worldly truth, but because they do not know even worldly truth. The phrase ‘do not know worldly truth’ most needs attention—people mostly take worldly truth to be the territory of ordinary people and the highest meaning the territory of the sages; yet here the Buddha says that ordinary people do not know even worldly truth. To know worldly truth is to know it as worldly truth; ordinary people are within worldly truth and do not know it as worldly truth, and that is exactly where inversion lies.

15. Does cultivating the path obtain the fruit—the four alternatives all denied. Subhūti thereupon asks more briefly: 「修道得果不？」 tr. "Does cultivating the path obtain the fruit?" The Buddha's answer too is brief and complete: 「不也！須菩提！修道不得果，不修道亦不得果，亦不離道得果，亦不住道中得果。」 tr. "No, Subhūti! Cultivating the path, one does not obtain the fruit; not cultivating the path, one does not obtain the fruit either; nor does one obtain the fruit apart from the path; nor does one obtain the fruit abiding within the path." The four alternatives seal off all four sides—cultivating and not cultivating, apart from the path and abiding in the path. And then follows a positive sentence: when the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, 「為眾生故分別果，亦不分別是有為性、無為性」 tr. "for the sake of beings he distinguishes the fruits, and yet he does not discriminate that this is the conditioned nature or that is the unconditioned nature". The negation of the four alternatives does not negate cultivating the path; it negates that way of grasping which ‘takes cultivation as the cause and the fruit as what comes out of it’; distinguishing the fruits is distinguishing for the sake of beings, not truly discriminating something oneself on the conditioned nature and the unconditioned. This passage corresponds to passages 34 and 35 of Treatise ②, where the treatise-author sets his own question and answer to explain the why of this ‘no’; see below.

16. On what the teaching of obtaining the srota-āpanna by cutting off the three fetters rests—all the fruits are unconditioned, and within the unconditioned there is no discrimination. Subhūti confronts the Buddha with words the Buddha himself has spoken: 「若不分別有為性、無為性得諸果者，云何世尊自說：『三結盡，名須陀洹果；婬、怒、癡薄故，名斯陀含果；五此間結盡，名阿那含果；五彼間結盡，名阿羅漢果；所有集法皆滅散相，名辟支佛道；一切煩惱習斷故，名阿耨多羅三藐三菩提』？」 tr. "If, without discriminating the conditioned nature and the unconditioned nature, the fruits are obtained, then why did the World-Honored One himself say: ‘The three fetters being exhausted is named the fruit of the srota-āpanna; lust, anger, and delusion being thin is named the fruit of the sakṛdāgāmin; the five fetters of this side being exhausted is named the fruit of the anāgāmin; the five fetters of the other side being exhausted is named the fruit of the arhat; all dharmas that gather and arise being of the mark of ceasing and scattering is named the path of the pratyekabuddha; all the afflictions and their habitual residues being cut off is named anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi’?" And then he lays out his own perplexity: 「我當云何知不分別有為性、無為性得諸果？」 tr. "How should I know that the fruits are obtained without discriminating the conditioned nature and the unconditioned nature?" The Buddha does not answer directly, but presses him layer by layer with three questions. The first question: are the fruits 「是有為、是無為？」 tr. "conditioned, or unconditioned?" Subhūti answers: 「世尊！皆是無為！」 tr. "World-Honored One! They are all unconditioned!" The second question: 「無為法中有分別不？」 tr. "Within the unconditioned dharma is there discrimination?" He answers: 「不也！世尊！」 tr. "No, World-Honored One!" The third question: if a person 「通達一切法若有為、若無為一相，所謂無相」 tr. "penetrates that all dharmas, whether conditioned or unconditioned, are of one mark, namely the signless", at this time 「有分別若有為、若無為不？」 tr. "is there the discrimination that this is conditioned and that is unconditioned?" He answers: 「不也！世尊！」 tr. "No, World-Honored One!" When the three answers are out, the difficulty resolves of itself—the teaching of obtaining the fruits by cutting off the fetters comes from the distinctions of worldly truth, while the substance of the fruits is unconditioned, and within the unconditioned there is fundamentally no discrimination; so speaking of the fruits and not discriminating do not conflict. In this round of question and answer, this unit throughout answers a question with a question and lets the answers refute themselves; the Buddha does not pronounce one sentence of verdict, and within Subhūti's own answers the difficulty has already dissolved of itself.

17. Himself not clinging, he also teaches others not to cling—the conjured person gives and does not receive the retribution. When the three questions are finished, the Buddha closes Sūtra ② with a passage: the bodhisattva teaches the Dharma for beings 「不分別諸法，所謂內空故，乃至無法有法空故」 tr. "and does not discriminate dharmas, namely because of inner emptiness, and so on up to because of the emptiness of non-existent and existent dharmas", and then 「是菩薩自得無所著法，亦教人令得無所著法」 tr. "this bodhisattva himself obtains the dharma without clinging, and also teaches others and makes them obtain the dharma without clinging"—the dharmas taught, from the six perfections, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, up to the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds, are not one of them outside non-clinging. Its effect is 「無所著故無所礙」 tr. "because of non-clinging, he is without hindrance". At the end he again sets up a simile corresponding to the earlier simile of the conjured person: 「譬如佛所化人布施，亦不受布施報，但為度眾生故」 tr. "It is as a person conjured by the Buddha gives and yet does not receive the retribution of giving, but does it only for the sake of delivering beings", and so on up to practising the omniscience of all kinds and yet not receiving the retribution of the omniscience of all kinds; the bodhisattva too is thus: he practises the six perfections, and so on up to all dharmas, with outflows and without outflows, conditioned and unconditioned, 「不住亦不受報，但為度眾生故」 tr. "does not abide and does not receive the retribution, but does it only for the sake of delivering beings". How can he be thus? 「是菩薩摩訶薩善達一切諸法相故。」 tr. "Because this bodhisattva-mahāsattva thoroughly penetrates the marks of all dharmas." The earlier simile of the conjured person spoke of not discriminating because of being without mind; this simile of the conjured person speaks of not receiving the retribution because of being without clinging; the two similes, one before and one after, set the two sides ‘speaking’ and ‘practising’ in the same place—not being there to grasp. Here Sūtra ② ends.

18. Why consciousness full is among the minor marks—a consciousness born of retribution, knowing without learning. The first question at the opening of Treatise ② picks out precisely the most out-of-kind item in the list: the eighty minor marks are dharmas that adorn the body, so why is 「識滿足」 tr. "consciousness full" among the minor marks? The answer first distinguishes two kinds of consciousness: 「此識是果報生識，世間好醜自然而知。」 tr. "This consciousness is a consciousness born of retribution, which knows of itself the fair and the foul of the world." A consciousness born of retribution is not obtained through learning but comes complete with the body; the fair and the foul of the world it knows of itself, without waiting to be taught. And then ordinary people are set against it: 「凡人識不具足故，學人法乃知」 tr. "because ordinary people's consciousness is not complete, they must learn human norms before they know"—the reason ordinary people must learn the norms of the human world before they know fair and foul is exactly that their consciousness of retribution is not complete. It ends by speaking of the months in the womb: 「佛一歲具足滿乃生故，身、識皆具足。餘人若八月、若九月處胎，總言十月；菩薩處胎十月，總得一歲，身根具足故，果報得識亦具足。」 tr. "Because the Buddha was born only when a full year was complete, both body and consciousness are complete. Other people stay in the womb eight months or nine months, and it is spoken of in general as ten months; the bodhisattva stayed in the womb ten months, obtaining a year in all; because the faculty of the body was complete, the consciousness obtained as retribution was complete too." The line of reasoning of this answer is: consciousness full is listed among the bodily marks precisely because it is a retribution that comes with the completeness of the faculty of the body, not knowledge obtained by cultivation and learning. Since it comes with the body, it belongs to one kind with the straight nose and the fine eyebrows, and being listed among the minor marks is not out of place.

19. How secure in his dwelling-place differs from securely abiding in a dwelling-place—firmly holding his weapons, Māra cannot move him. What the second question tells apart is two sets of names and marks that are close to each other yet refer to different things: 「足安立住處與安住處何異？」 tr. "What difference is there between the feet being securely set in a dwelling-place and securely abiding in a dwelling-place?"—「足安立」 tr. "the feet being securely set" comes from the first item of the thirty-two marks (as listed in the First Part unit, 「一者、足下安平立平如奩底」 tr. "first, the soles of his feet are set level and flat, like the bottom of a casket"), while 「住處安」 tr. "secure in his dwelling-place" comes from the twenty-third item of these eighty minor marks; the two names are close, and so the treatise-author asks how they differ. He answers with one simile and two matters: 「住處安者，如白衣勇士，牢持器仗，安據住處，則不可動。」 tr. "Secure in his dwelling-place is like a white-robed warrior who, firmly holding his weapons, securely occupies his dwelling-place and cannot be moved." A white-robed warrior is not one who has left home; taking a lay warrior holding his ground as the simile, what is spoken of is the immovability of the place where he dwells itself. And then it turns to the matter of leaving home: 「又出家時，魔民、惡鬼無能動轉令退敗者。」 tr. "Again, at the time of leaving home, neither Māra's people nor evil ghosts can shake him and make him retreat in defeat." Of the two matters, one is simile and one is fact: the simile takes the firmness of holding one's ground, the fact refers to Māra's being unable to disturb him. What is called ‘secure’ does not mean the comfort of sitting at ease; it means that when outer force is applied it cannot make him retreat. This answer also shows the treatise-author's method of explaining the list—he explains only those whose names are unclear, and those whose names are clear he does not explain.

20. The mutual entering of the forty-two letters—one letter enters all the letters to the full. The treatise-author, explaining the gates of letters of Sūtra ②, first points to their source: 「四十二字義，如摩訶衍中說。」 tr. "The meaning of the forty-two letters is as spoken of in the Mahāyāna." And then he separately explains the two sides of ‘entering one another’. First he explains one letter entering all the letters: 「一字盡入諸字者，譬如兩一合故為二，三一故為三，四一為四，如是乃至千萬。」 tr. "One letter entering all the letters to the full is like this: it is as two ones joined together become two, three ones become three, four ones become four, and thus on up to a thousand and ten thousand." He takes number as the simile—two is two ones, three is three ones, and a thousand or ten thousand is no more than an accumulation of ones; so the one is within all numbers. Next he sets up another simile to make its changes clear: 「又如阿字為定，阿變為羅，亦變為波；如是盡入四十二字。」 tr. "Again, it is as the letter a is fixed; a changes into ra, and also changes into pa; thus it enters all forty-two letters to the full." Next he explains all the letters entering one letter: 「四十二字入一字者，四十二字盡有阿分，阿分還入阿中。」 tr. "The forty-two letters entering one letter is like this: the forty-two letters all have the share of a, and the share of a enters back into a." Within the forty-two letters there is everywhere a share of a, so when they are gathered in they all return to a. Looking at the two sides together: what becomes many from one is the accumulation of number; what returns to one from many is the gathering of shares. The training in letters here is not knowing letters; it is seeing, in the arising and ceasing, gathering and scattering of names, that they are without self-nature.

21. From letters to names, from names to meaning—being without letters is precisely the meaning of the real mark of all dharmas. When the entering of one another is clear, the treatise-author pushes it to its destination in three layers: 「善知字故，善知諸法名；善知諸法名故，善知諸法義。」 tr. "Because he knows letters well, he knows well the names of dharmas; because he knows well the names of dharmas, he knows well the meaning of dharmas." Letters are what names are formed of, names are what meaning is tied to; so the three layers are cause one to another. And then a turn: 「無字即是諸法實相義。」 tr. "Being without letters is precisely the meaning of the real mark of all dharmas." Why? 「諸法義中，諸法無名字。」 tr. "Within the meaning of dharmas, dharmas have no names or letters." These words match exactly the sūtra's 「過一切名字故，名為佛法」 tr. "Because it passes beyond all names and letters, it is named the Buddha's Dharma". The reason the training in letters must take being without letters as its ultimate is not that being without letters is loftier than having letters, but that the meaning of dharmas itself carries no names—names are what we add on, not what dharmas have of themselves. So one who trains well in letters, trained to the end, obtains not more names but knowing where names do not reach. This also answers the question left in passage 4 on Sūtra ②: why the forty-two gates of letters come after the four means of gathering—the end of the four means of gathering is teaching the Dharma, what teaching the Dharma relies on is names, and the ultimate of names is namelessness.

22. One note on form—the section below is the treatise-author's framed question and answer taking up the sūtra. From the words 「須菩提問：」 tr. "Subhūti asks:" to the sentence 「佛意：唯是心為真實」 tr. "The Buddha's meaning: only this mind is true and real", the treatise-author changes to named question and answer to go on setting out the meaning: 「若諸法畢竟空無名字，云何菩薩住果報六神通，為眾生說諸法？若畢竟無眾生，則無有法！」 tr. "If dharmas are ultimately empty and without names, how does the bodhisattva abide within the six supernormal powers of retribution and teach dharmas for beings? If ultimately there are no beings, then there are no dharmas!" And then 「佛可須菩提言：」 tr. "The Buddha approves Subhūti, saying:"—「如是！以十八空故，一切法不可得，我、眾生乃至知者、見者，乃至當知佛、菩薩皆空。如是知已，而為眾生說是空法。」 tr. "Just so! Because of the eighteen emptinesses, all dharmas are unfindable; the self, beings, and so on up to the knower and the seer, and so on up to one should know that the Buddha and the bodhisattvas are all empty. Having known thus, he teaches this Dharma of emptiness for beings." In reading this one must first tell its form: this is not the treatise-author quoting a separate passage of sūtra text, but the treatise-author taking up and recounting the questions and answers in the sūtra and framing their words to go on speaking. There are two reasons this is so: first, within the same section below, the treatise-author's own ‘Question:’ and ‘Answer:’ still appear in two places, and the two forms interlace without being confused; second, the framed words are followed at once by the treatise-author's own exposition—「若眾生是有而為說空，是則不可」 tr. "If beings really existed and emptiness were taught to them, this would not be permissible" and so on—the flow of the writing goes straight on, which is not the form of a quotation. So all the named ‘Subhūti asks’, ‘The Buddha answers’, ‘The Buddha says’, and ‘The Buddha's meaning’ below belong to the treatise-author, not to the sūtra. The questions and answers of the sūtra text itself are already in Sūtra ②; here the treatise-author takes them up and speaks them once more. Again, the Buddha's answer here is written 「佛可須菩提言」 tr. "The Buddha approves Subhūti, saying"—‘approves’ is approval; with this one Chinese character the treatise-author marks that the Buddha's answer does not set up a separate new teaching, but first grants the question and then turns.

23. The three ways of losing, in not losing emptiness. The treatise-author sets out the framed answer, saying: 「若眾生是有而為說空，是則不可；以眾生空，但從顛倒有，是故菩薩不失於空而為說法。」 tr. "If beings really existed and emptiness were taught to them, this would not be permissible; because beings are empty and exist only from inversion, the bodhisattva does not lose emptiness and teaches the Dharma for them." Here the treatise-author specially defines the phrase ‘does not lose emptiness’, and his definition is set up from the reverse side of three kinds of ‘losing’: 「不失者，不作諸法皆空，所說不空」 tr. "Not losing means not holding that all dharmas are empty, yet what is said is not empty"—this is the first losing, keeping a non-empty territory in the dharma that is spoken; 「若以所說不空，則為失空相」 tr. "if he holds that what is said is not empty, then that is losing the mark of emptiness"—this is the second losing, what the first losing brings about: once what is said is set up as not empty, the mark of emptiness is lost; 「若口說空而心是有，是亦為失」 tr. "if the mouth says emptiness while in the mind there is existence, this too is losing"—this third losing is the most hidden: mouth and mind are split into two sections, what is said is emptiness while in the mind the understanding is still of existence. Of the three ways of losing, the first two lie in what is spoken, the last in the one who can speak. Only when all three are avoided is it called not losing emptiness. The treatise-author further cites the Buddha's words as proof: 「不二，不壞法相故。」 tr. "Not two, because he does not destroy the marks of dharmas." And then he marks the intent of the Buddha's setting up a simile: 「欲明了是事，說譬喻」 tr. "wishing to make this matter clear, he speaks a simile"—「如佛所化作化人，而為說法，持戒、布施諸功德。」 tr. "As the conjured person conjured by the Buddha teaches the Dharma for people, teaching the merits of keeping morality, giving, and the rest." This is the simile of the conjured person in Sūtra ②, and here the treatise-author points out that what it wishes to make clear is exactly the one matter of ‘not two and not destroying’.

24. Teaching the Dharma by skilful means is without fault—bondage and release under the two truths. The treatise-author continues: 「若以如是方便說法，是則無咎，則能拔出眾生於顛倒，無縛無解故。」 tr. "If one teaches the Dharma by such skilful means, this is without fault, and one can pull beings out from inversion, because there is neither bondage nor release." And then he sets being without bondage and without release upon the two truths: 「第一義中無縛無解，世諦故有縛有解。」 tr. "Within the highest meaning there is no bondage and no release; by reason of worldly truth there is bondage and there is release." This sentence is extremely important—if one says straight out ‘without bondage and without release’ and does not divide the two truths, then the matter of pulling beings out also has nowhere to apply; once the two truths are divided, within the highest meaning there is nothing to bind and nothing to release, while within worldly truth there really are bound people and dharmas that can release them, and so the matter of pulling out has its footing. The treatise-author further cites the causes and conditions the Buddha himself states as proof: 「色不縛不解。何以故？是不縛不解中，無色相故。乃至識亦如是。」 tr. "Form is neither bound nor released. Why? Because within this neither-bound-nor-released there is no mark of form. And so on up to consciousness, which is likewise." This has the same purport as passage 9's 「色無縛無脫不是色」 tr. "form's being without bondage and without liberation is not form" in Sūtra ②: neither bound nor released is not a new state of form; within that state there is no mark of form to speak of at all.

25. Abiding within the Dharma of emptiness and teaching the Dharma for beings—abiding by not abiding. The treatise-author gathers up the meaning before, saying: 「菩薩如是用不住法故，住空法中為眾生說法」 tr. "the bodhisattva thus, by way of the dharma of non-abiding, abides within the Dharma of emptiness and teaches the Dharma for beings", and the reason lies in 「眾生不可得，眾生及一切法不可得故」 tr. "beings are unfindable, because beings and all dharmas are unfindable". This is the treatise's explanation of passage 10's ‘by way of the dharma of non-abiding, abides within the marks of dharmas’ in Sūtra ②. What he abides in is the Dharma of emptiness, and the Dharma of emptiness is not a thing that can be abided in; the reason it is called abiding is said only with regard to its non-abiding.

26. Three similes explaining the four alternatives of non-abiding—space, fire, water. The four alternatives of non-abiding set up in Sūtra ② the treatise-author here explains separately with three similes. The first simile explains ‘the dharma without anything existent does not abide in what is without anything existent’: 「譬如虛空不住虛空。」 tr. "It is as space does not abide in space." Space has no substance, so there is neither anything that abides nor any place to abide. The second simile explains ‘the dharma of self-nature does not abide in the dharma of self-nature’: 「譬如火不住火中。」 tr. "It is as fire does not abide within fire." The nature of fire is heat, and heat cannot further abide in heat; self-nature is the thing itself, and the thing itself has no means of abiding in itself. The third simile explains ‘the dharma of other-nature does not abide in the dharma of other-nature’: 「譬如水性中無火性，又他性不定故。」 tr. "It is as within the nature of water there is no nature of fire; and again, because other-nature is not fixed." This simile has two principles: first, within the nature of water there is fundamentally no nature of fire, so other-nature has no place to abide; second, so-called other-nature is a name set up over against self-nature—A is other to B, and B too is other to A—「他性不定故」 tr. "because other-nature is not fixed"; since the name is not fixed, there is no abiding either. Apart from the three similes, for ‘the existent dharma does not abide in the existent dharma’ among the four alternatives of Sūtra ② the treatise-author sets up no separate simile—his not explaining it is recorded as it really is, and no simile is supplied on his behalf.

27. Teaching the Dharma purely is without fault toward the buddhas and the worthies and sages—four layers of likeness. The treatise-author explains the sentence of Sūtra ② 「於諸佛及聲聞、辟支佛無有過」 tr. "without fault toward the buddhas, and toward the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas", saying: 「若能如是清淨說法，是菩薩於諸佛賢聖則無有過。」 tr. "If one can teach the Dharma purely in this way, this bodhisattva is without fault toward the buddhas and the worthies and sages." And then he states in four layers why he is without fault, each layer concluding with ‘so too does the one who teaches the Dharma’. The first layer speaks of clinging and not clinging: 「諸佛、賢聖不著一切法，說法者亦不著一切法。」 tr. "The buddhas and the worthies and sages do not cling to any dharma, and the one who teaches the Dharma too does not cling to any dharma." The second layer speaks of the sphere where the mind moves: 「諸佛、賢聖以畢竟空、皆寂滅相為心所行，說法者亦如是。」 tr. "The buddhas and the worthies and sages take ultimate emptiness, wholly of the mark of quiescence, as the sphere where the mind moves, and so too does the one who teaches the Dharma." The third layer speaks of what is realised: 「諸佛、賢聖入三解脫門，得一切法實性，所謂無餘涅槃；說法者隨是法故，無咎。」 tr. "The buddhas and the worthies and sages enter the three gates of liberation and obtain the real nature of all dharmas, namely nirvāṇa without remainder; because the one who teaches the Dharma accords with this Dharma, he is without fault." The three layers follow one another and deepen: not clinging is their practice, ultimate emptiness and quiescence are the sphere of their mind, the three gates of liberation and nirvāṇa without remainder are what they realise. The fourth layer then cites the causes and conditions the Buddha himself states as proof: 「諸佛、賢聖得是法已，為眾生說法，不轉法性，法性空無相故。」 tr. "The buddhas and the worthies and sages, having obtained this Dharma, teach the Dharma for beings and do not turn the nature of dharmas, because the nature of dharmas is empty and signless." The two Chinese characters ‘without fault’ find their explanation here—it is not that the one who teaches the Dharma has sufficient qualifications, but that where the one who teaches the Dharma moves and where the buddhas and the worthies and sages move are the same place, so there is nothing in which they could go against each other.

28. Whether form and the rest differ from the nature of dharmas—the real mark is precisely the nature of dharmas. From here on, the treatise-author continues to take up the sūtra with named question and answer. 「須菩提問：」 tr. "Subhūti asks:"—「若不轉法性，色等諸法與法性異不？」 tr. "If the nature of dharmas is not turned, do form and the other dharmas differ from the nature of dharmas?" And 「佛答：」 tr. "The Buddha answers:"—「不也！何以故？色等諸法實相即是法性故。」 tr. "No! Why? Because the real mark of form and the other dharmas is precisely the nature of dharmas." The answer gives one layer of reason more than Sūtra ②—Sūtra ② answers only that they do not differ, while here it states why they do not differ: the real mark of form and the rest is precisely the nature of dharmas. The real mark and the nature of dharmas are not two things, so form and the nature of dharmas cannot be different. The treatise-author further adds a remark of his own to make clear its use: 「佛意：以菩薩說法時，亦不壞法性。」 tr. "The Buddha's meaning: because when the bodhisattva teaches the Dharma, he too does not destroy the nature of dharmas." This remark joins the meaning of not differing back to teaching the Dharma: precisely because the real mark of form and the rest is the nature of dharmas, when the bodhisattva teaches the Dharma for beings in terms of form and the rest, he has not gone off separately to disturb the nature of dharmas.

29. Why the nature of dharmas alone is prized—where the objection comes from and where the answer lies. 「須菩提問：」 tr. "Subhūti asks:"—「色等諸法亦與法性不異，何以故但貴法性？」 tr. "Since form and the other dharmas do not differ from the nature of dharmas, why is the nature of dharmas alone prized?" This question is rather sharp: since they do not differ, the division of prizing this and slighting that has nothing to rest on. Here the treatise-author does not record the Buddha's answer directly, but first records where the objection arises from—precisely because the Buddha answered 「色不異法性」 tr. "form does not differ from the nature of dharmas", Subhūti then raises a further objection: 「若不異者，云何分別有善惡、白黑、須陀洹等諸果？」 tr. "If they do not differ, how are good and evil, white and black, and the various fruits of the srota-āpanna and the rest distinguished?" From this it can be seen that ‘why is the nature of dharmas alone prized’ and ‘how are good and evil and the various fruits distinguished’ are two sides of the same objection: prizing the nature of dharmas is said with regard to what is above, distinguishing the fruits with regard to what is below, and what both call into question is how, within non-difference, there can be high and low. The Buddha's answer still returns to the two truths: 「色等法雖不離法性，以世諦故有分別，於第一義中無分別。」 tr. "Although form and the other dharmas are not apart from the nature of dharmas, by reason of worldly truth there is discrimination; within the highest meaning there is no discrimination."

30. Why those who have obtained the highest meaning have nothing they discriminate—hearing of attainment they are not glad, hearing of nothing they are not sorrowful. The treatise-author does not stop at recording the Buddha's answer, but further sets out why it is so. First he speaks of those who have already obtained: 「得第一義聖人無所分別，聞有所得不喜，聞無所有不憂」 tr. "the sages who have obtained the highest meaning have nothing they discriminate; hearing of something to be attained they are not glad, and hearing of there being nothing existent they are not sorrowful"—gladness and sorrow are the evidence of discrimination, and when both are gone, the reality of their non-discrimination shows. The reason lies in 「得空無相證故，乃至微細法尚不取相，何況分別有善惡！」 tr. "because they have obtained the realisation of emptiness and the signless, even toward the subtlest dharma they do not grasp at marks, how much less discriminate that there is good and there is evil!" Next he speaks of those who have not yet obtained: 「未得實相者，欲得第一義故，有所分別。」 tr. "People who have not yet obtained the real mark, wishing to obtain the highest meaning, therefore have something they discriminate." This sentence states where discrimination comes from extremely plainly—those who have not yet obtained discriminate precisely because they wish to obtain; discrimination is not their sin, it is the mark of their seeking the path. The two sentences set against each other fix the position of the matter of ‘discrimination’: it belongs on the road, not at the arrival. It ends by citing the causes and conditions the Buddha himself states as the conclusion: 「是法無言說，亦無生滅垢淨法者，所謂畢竟空、無始空。」 tr. "This Dharma is without speech, and also without the dharmas of arising and ceasing, stain and purity, namely ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness."

31. Why only two emptinesses are spoken of as named the Dharma—the simile of fire burning wood. Here the treatise-author returns to his own question-and-answer form: 「問曰：此中何以但說二空名為法？」 tr. "Question: Why, here, are only two emptinesses spoken of as named the Dharma?" This question is raised on what Sūtra ② says—in this passage the sūtra raises only the two, ultimate emptiness and beginningless emptiness, whereas the list of the eighteen emptinesses has already been set out earlier in the text. The answer first sets up the number of what is broken: 「一切所有：若法、若眾生。」 tr. "All that there is: dharmas and beings." All that there is does not go beyond these two. And then it matches them: 「若言畢竟空，則破諸法；若言無始空，則破眾生。破此二法已，則一切法盡破。」 tr. "If ultimate emptiness is spoken of, dharmas are broken; if beginningless emptiness is spoken of, beings are broken. These two dharmas having been broken, all dharmas are broken to the end." And the reason these two emptinesses are used here is that 「此中菩薩為眾生說法，是故以二空破二事」 tr. "here the bodhisattva teaches the Dharma for beings, and so he uses two emptinesses to break the two things"—the choice of the two emptinesses is fixed according to the occasion, not because the two emptinesses are higher than the other emptinesses. Yet the treatise-author adds a further meaning, saying that ultimate emptiness has its own irreplaceable point: 「雖有餘空，不如畢竟空甚深畢盡。」 tr. "Although there are the other emptinesses, they are not as very deep and exhaustive as ultimate emptiness." And he makes it clear with a simile: 「餘空如火燒木，猶有灰燼；畢竟空無灰無燼。」 tr. "The other emptinesses are like fire burning wood, which still leaves ashes and embers; ultimate emptiness is without ashes and without embers." Ashes and embers are what remains when breaking has not been exhausted and something is left over; what is left over is precisely a new thing clung to. Ultimate emptiness is named ultimate precisely because it does not leave even ashes and embers. At the end it records one different saying: 「有人言：若說十八空無咎，略說故說二空。」 tr. "Someone says: Even if the eighteen emptinesses were spoken of, there would be no fault; it is because it is spoken of in brief that two emptinesses are spoken of."—meaning that speaking of two emptinesses here is only speaking in brief, and speaking of the eighteen emptinesses would not be impermissible either. The two sayings are recorded side by side without judgement.

32. Subhūti's objection—made on the highest meaning, so ordinary people should be sages. The treatise-author takes up Subhūti's objection, saying: 「若以世諦故分別有善惡、白黑及諸聖果者，第一義中凡夫人應有須陀洹等聖果！」 tr. "If, by reason of worldly truth, good and evil, white and black, and the various noble fruits are distinguished, then within the highest meaning ordinary people should have the noble fruits of the srota-āpanna and the rest!" And then he sets out its way of pushing on Subhūti's behalf: 「若以世諦虛妄中分別有諸賢聖者，第一義中凡夫應作賢聖。」 tr. "If within the falsity of worldly truth the various worthies and sages are distinguished, then within the highest meaning ordinary people should become worthies and sages." The reason lies in 「須菩提分別實相、凡夫為異」 tr. "Subhūti distinguishes the real mark as different from ordinary people"—the objector first divides the real mark and ordinary people into two things, and then takes as his ground the Buddha's saying 「第一義一相」 tr. "the highest meaning is of one mark": since it is of one mark, there is no difference of ordinary person and sage, and therefore he says 「凡夫應是聖人！」 tr. "Ordinary people should be sages!" The structure of this objection appears here: what it rests on is the non-discrimination of the highest meaning, what it calls into question is the discrimination of worldly truth; if discrimination is only in worldly truth, then within the highest meaning ordinary people and sages are equal, and ordinary people should of course obtain the noble fruits.

33. The Buddha's refutation—it refutes only at ‘not knowing’, not at ‘non-discrimination’. The treatise-author takes up the Buddha's answer, saying: 「若凡夫知分別是第一義、是世諦者，凡夫人應有須陀洹等諸聖果」 tr. "If ordinary people knew how to distinguish that this is the highest meaning and this is worldly truth, ordinary people should have the noble fruits of the srota-āpanna and the rest"—this first grants the form of the objection: if ordinary people really knew the division of the two truths, the objection would stand. And then it refutes its substance: 「以凡夫實不知道，不知分別道，不知行道、修道，何況得道果！」 tr. "Because ordinary people really do not know the path, do not know how to distinguish the path, and do not know how to practise the path or cultivate the path, how much less do they obtain the fruit of the path!" The four layers of not knowing go down layer by layer: not knowing the path, not knowing how to distinguish the path, not knowing how to practise the path, not knowing how to cultivate the path, and finally ‘how much less do they obtain the fruit of the path’. The Buddha further establishes the noble fruits positively with one sentence: 「聖人能作是分別故，說是聖果。」 tr. "Because the sages can make such distinctions, the noble fruits are spoken of." The crux of the refutation lies here—the Buddha never says that within the highest meaning there is a division of ordinary person and sage, nor does he take back the saying ‘by reason of worldly truth there is distinction’; he only points out that the ‘ordinary person’ the objector posits does not possess the conditions for making this distinction. The reason the objection fails is not in principle but in the person.

34. Subhūti knows for himself that he has erred—the forced grasping that takes the immeasurable dharma as the noble fruits. The treatise-author records his turn, saying: 「爾時，須菩提自知有失，故言」 tr. "At this time Subhūti knows for himself that he has erred, and so says"—「無量、無相、無動性中，我云何取相欲量無量法？云何強以凡夫法為聖果？」 tr. "Within the nature that is immeasurable, signless, and unmoving, how could I grasp at marks and wish to measure the immeasurable dharma? How could I forcibly take the dharmas of ordinary people as the noble fruits?" His self-declaration has two matters: first, grasping at marks and wishing to measure the immeasurable dharma; second, forcibly taking the dharmas of ordinary people as the noble fruits. The former is the root of the objection, the latter its fruit. The treatise-author further records his receiving: 「爾時受佛語，知行道者得果，不行道者不得果」 tr. "At this time, receiving the Buddha's words, he knows that the one who practises the path obtains the fruit and the one who does not practise the path does not obtain the fruit", and so he asks further: 「修道得果不？」 tr. "Does cultivating the path obtain the fruit?" And the Buddha answers with a single word: 「不。」 tr. "No." This ‘no’ is exactly the opposite of what he has received before, and so there is the next question.

35. Above, the Buddha spoke of obtaining the fruit; why does he now say no—seeking the fruit with a clinging mind is like taking oil from sesame. The treatise-author sets his own question and answer to resolve this contradiction: 「佛上說分別修道、得道果」 tr. "above, the Buddha spoke with distinctions of cultivating the path and obtaining the fruit of the path"; why does he now say 「不」 tr. "no"? The answer first divides the minds of the two times: 「佛先說，非著心；今須菩提以著心問，欲從道中出果，如麻中出油。」 tr. "What the Buddha said before was not with a clinging mind; now Subhūti asks with a clinging mind, wishing to take the fruit out from within the path, as oil is taken out from sesame." The simile of taking oil from sesame is extremely apt—oil within sesame is really an existing thing that can be taken; if the path and the fruit were also like this, then the fruit would be another thing pressed out of the path. The treatise-author at once pushes on from this to its fault: 「若爾者，道之與果，同為虛誑，是故言不。」 tr. "If it were so, the path and the fruit would alike be false and deceptive; therefore he says no." If path and fruit became two things that could come out of one another, both would fall into grasping at marks, so the Buddha says no to all of it. Next he guards against the listener's misunderstanding: 「聽者生念：若修不得，不修應當得！」 tr. "The one who hears gives rise to this thought: if by cultivating it is not obtained, then by not cultivating it should be obtained!" So the Buddha says: 「修尚不得，何況不修！」 tr. "Even cultivating, it is not obtained, how much less without cultivating!" And he sets up the simile of two people: 「譬如二人欲有所到：一者、住，不行；二者、失道。二俱不到。」 tr. "It is as two people who wish to reach somewhere: one stays and does not go; the second loses the road. Neither of the two arrives." The one who stays and does not go is the one who does not cultivate; the one who loses the road is the one who cultivates but not on the path. The two alike do not arrive, yet the causes of their not arriving differ. The treatise-author further speaks, of the one who does not cultivate, the lowest of what he loses: 「若不修道，尚無少許攝心樂，何況道果！」 tr. "If one does not cultivate the path, there is not even a little of the pleasure of gathering the mind, how much less the fruit of the path!" At the end he sets out his judgement directly: 「若心取相修道，雖有攝心禪定樂，無有道果；若不取相著心修道，則有道果。」 tr. "If the mind grasps at marks and cultivates the path, though there is the pleasure of meditative concentration that gathers the mind, there is no fruit of the path; if one cultivates the path without grasping at marks and without a clinging mind, then there is the fruit of the path." The division between obtaining and not obtaining lies not in cultivating and not cultivating, but in grasping at marks and not grasping at marks. So he cites the Buddha's words as the conclusion: 「菩薩行般若波羅蜜，不分別有為、無為性故，有道果差別。」 tr. "The bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā; because he does not discriminate the conditioned nature and the unconditioned nature, there are the differences of the fruits of the path."—only by not discriminating are there differences; these words look as if said backwards, but in fact they are exactly the meaning of the two truths in the earlier passage: differences belong to worldly truth, while the one who establishes these differences does not himself discriminate on the conditioned nature and the unconditioned.

36. The objection on cutting off the three fetters, and the Buddha's answer by a question in return—within the unconditioned there is no difference. The treatise-author continues taking up: 「爾時，須菩提問：」 tr. "At this time Subhūti asks:"—「若爾者，佛何以故說斷三結得須陀洹，有如是等分別？」 tr. "If it is so, why does the Buddha say that cutting off the three fetters one obtains the srota-āpanna, with such distinctions as these?" This is the objection of passage 16 on Sūtra ②, which the treatise-author here takes up once more. And he records the Buddha's way of answering as 「佛以反問答」 tr. "The Buddha answers with a question in return"—not answering directly but asking in return. The questioning in return goes through three turns: first, 「汝以須陀洹果等是有為、是無為？」 tr. "Do you take the fruit of the srota-āpanna and the rest to be conditioned or unconditioned?" Subhūti says: 「是無為。」 tr. "Unconditioned." Second, 「若爾者，無為中有差別不？」 tr. "If it is so, within the unconditioned is there difference?" Subhūti says: 「不也！世尊！」 tr. "No, World-Honored One!" Third, since there is no difference, 「若無分別，汝云何作難？」 tr. "If there is no discrimination, how do you make such an objection?" The objection is broken from the very point he has granted. The treatise-author further records that the Buddha sets one more question—「又復問須菩提：」 tr. "Again he further asks Subhūti:"—「若善男子、善女人通達一切法一相，所謂無相，住三解脫門中，證涅槃時，是時有法分別若有為、若無為不？」 tr. "If good men and good women penetrate that all dharmas are of one mark, namely the signless, and abide within the three gates of liberation, at the time of realising nirvāṇa, is there at that time any dharma to be discriminated as conditioned or unconditioned?" The answer to it too is only the one phrase 「不也！」 tr. "No!", the same as what was already answered in Sūtra ②. And then the treatise-author points out the Buddha's meaning with one remark: 「唯是心為真實，餘時皆虛誑，汝云何作難？」 tr. "Only this mind is true and real; at other times all is false and deceptive; how do you make such an objection?"—the mind without discrimination at the time of realising nirvāṇa is true and real, and the discriminations of all other times are false and deceptive; when an objection is made from what is seen at a time of falsity, the objection does not stand of itself.

37. The closing of the last passage—one who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas. The whole treatise section closes the whole chapter with one passage. First it establishes the bodhisattva's practice: 「菩薩行般若波羅蜜，不分別一切法，住內空等諸空中，是大清淨」 tr. "The bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, does not discriminate any dharma, and abides within inner emptiness and the other emptinesses: this is great purity"; next it establishes his teaching: 「自不著，亦教眾生令無所著」 tr. "He himself does not cling, and also teaches beings and makes them without clinging", and what is taught runs from dānapāramitā up to the omniscience of all kinds, 「菩薩道中皆教令不著」 tr. "within the bodhisattva path he teaches them all not to cling". Again it uses the simile of the conjured person to correspond with Sūtra ②: 「譬如佛所化人行布施等，亦不分別布施等，亦不受布施等法果報，但為利益度眾生故。」 tr. "It is as a person conjured by the Buddha practises giving and the rest, yet does not discriminate giving and the rest, nor receive the retribution of the dharmas of giving and the rest, but does it only for the sake of benefiting and delivering beings." And then it points straight to the root: 「何以故？善通達諸法性故。」 tr. "Why? Because he thoroughly penetrates the nature of dharmas." The last sentence is where the whole chapter comes to rest: 「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中；於法性中不疑、不悶而說法，無罣、無礙、無遮，是則通達法性。」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas; within the nature of dharmas he teaches the Dharma without doubt and without oppression, without hindrance, without obstruction, without blocking: this is to penetrate the nature of dharmas." Here three layers must be looked at one by one. ‘Does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas’—the nature of dharmas too cannot be grasped as a mark; if it is grasped, one shares the same sickness as the ordinary people who grasp at marks and who are refuted. ‘Does not abide within the nature of dharmas’—not abiding is the meaning of the four alternatives of non-abiding earlier in the text; the nature of dharmas too is not a place of abiding. And since he neither grasps nor abides, he can still 「不疑、不悶而說法」 tr. "teach the Dharma without doubt and without oppression"—doubt is having something undecided about the nature of dharmas, oppression is having something stuck about the nature of dharmas; without doubt and without oppression, his teaching of the Dharma is therefore 「無罣、無礙、無遮」 tr. "without hindrance, without obstruction, without blocking". The chapter on the four means of gathering sets out from giving, passes through the broad account of the gift of wealth and the gift of Dharma, passes through the brief raising of the three means of gathering, passes through the opening of the gates of letters, and in the end returns here—the utmost of gathering beings is a person who does not grasp, does not abide, and still opens his mouth and teaches the Dharma.

Further Resonances

The Last Part unit has both sūtra and treatise complete; what is carried on here is the ancient masters' structural divisions and questions and answers on the same passages of sūtra and treatise, and the place where this chapter ends and the next chapter begins.

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra has structural divisions for the whole of this chapter; in explaining the sūtra passages to which this unit corresponds, it meets the treatise-author's explanation in four places in all.

First, explaining the item ‘consciousness full’ among the eighty minor marks, it takes the treatise's answer directly and sets out its meaning further: 「八十種好中識滿足，論云此識是果報亦生，即自然智識一切好醜也。若見凡夫識不具足，故學作人法用也。又佛一歲具足滿足乃生，故身識皆具足。餘人八月、九月處胎云十月，菩薩處胎十月，總得一歲身根具足，故果報得識亦具足也。」 tr. "Consciousness full among the eighty kinds of minor marks: the treatise says this consciousness is retribution and is also born, that is, it cognises all the fair and the foul by a wisdom that is of itself. As we see, ordinary people's consciousness is not complete, and so they learn to put human norms to use. Again, the Buddha was born only when a full year was complete and full, and so body and consciousness were both complete. Other people stay in the womb eight or nine months, and it is called ten months; the bodhisattva stayed in the womb ten months, a year obtained in all, and the faculty of the body was complete, so the consciousness obtained as retribution was complete too."—the treatise wording it cites corresponds sentence by sentence to the answer of passage 18 of this treatise, yet where it writes 「此識是果報亦生」 tr. "this consciousness is retribution and is also born", this treatise writes 「此識是果報生識」 tr. "this consciousness is a consciousness born of retribution", a small difference in the letter; and it adds the words 「即自然智識一切好醜也」 tr. "that is, it cognises all the fair and the foul by a wisdom that is of itself" to explain the function of the consciousness born of retribution, which this treatise does not have. They are recorded side by side without judgement.

Second, explaining why the forty-two gates of letters enter into this passage, beyond the old explanation it sets up a separate meaning: 「善知字門下，第二、明菩薩不教化功為人。初明不教化功故得聖道，今是初文。古解云：此中明字門應入法施中，例廣乘皆是摩訶衍也。而今不入者，上明生法二身為物皆是假名字，欲明如此名字無礙故不可得，非但生法身所施為無礙不可得，只名字亦無礙不可得也。」 tr. "From ‘knows the gates of letters well’ onward is the second, making clear the bodhisattva's merit of not teaching and transforming, for the sake of people. First it makes clear that by the merit of not teaching and transforming the noble path is obtained; this is the first passage. The old explanation says: here it makes clear that the gate of letters should be entered under the gift of Dharma, by the example that the broad vehicle is all Mahāyāna. That it is not entered there now is because above it was made clear that the two bodies, fleshly and Dharma, as they act for beings, are all provisional names and letters; it wishes to make clear that such names and letters are unobstructed and therefore unfindable—not only is what the fleshly body and the Dharma body bestow and do unobstructed and unfindable, but the names and letters themselves are also unobstructed and unfindable."—the old explanation says that the gate of letters should be entered under the heading of the gift of Dharma; Jizang does not follow it, and takes ‘names and letters too are unobstructed and unfindable’ as the reason for setting up a separate heading. This treatise here only explains the meaning of the letters and does not decide their heading; what the two give their attention to is not the same, and they are recorded side by side without judgement. Its explanation of the meaning of entering one another agrees with this treatise: 「一字生四十二字，生四十二字者，如兩一名二、百一名百等，乃至萬一名萬等也。四十二字入一字，論四十二字皆有阿分，故入阿中也。」 tr. "One letter gives rise to forty-two letters: giving rise to forty-two letters is as two ones are named two, a hundred ones named a hundred, and so on up to ten thousand ones named ten thousand. Forty-two letters enter one letter: the treatise says the forty-two letters all have the share of a, and so they enter into a."

Third, its division of the intent of Subhūti's question and of the Buddha's answer. It explains the intent of the question, saying: 「須菩提問意：乘四十二字生，若諸法畢竟空無名字者，云何定生法二身？菩薩為眾生既無，所說法亦無也。此就空有相遣作歎，菩薩心既知諸法空，無眾生、無菩薩、無所說法，而口不應為眾生說法，故以所說徵菩薩心空也。」 tr. "The intent of Subhūti's question: arising on the forty-two letters—if dharmas are ultimately empty and without names, how are the two bodies, fleshly and Dharma, fixed? Since the beings for whom the bodhisattva acts do not exist, the Dharma that is taught does not exist either. This makes a lament on the basis of emptiness and existence dispelling each other: since the bodhisattva's mind knows that dharmas are empty, without beings, without bodhisattvas, without a Dharma that is taught, then his mouth should not teach the Dharma for beings; and so by what is taught he puts the emptiness of the bodhisattva's mind to the test."—with the phrase ‘by what is taught he puts the emptiness of the bodhisattva's mind to the test’ it sums up the structure of the difficulty, which meets the question taken up in passage 22 of this treatise. It explains the Buddha's answer, saying: 「答初印其問，得法空菩薩如是菩薩法空已久，正答其問，菩薩口雖為眾生說法，此說無所說而不失空相。」 tr. "The answer first seals his question: a bodhisattva who has obtained the emptiness of dharmas—such a bodhisattva has long had the emptiness of dharmas; then it answers his question directly: though the bodhisattva's mouth teaches the Dharma for beings, this teaching teaches nothing and does not lose the mark of emptiness."—‘first seals his question’ is exactly the ‘approves’ of this treatise's 「佛可須菩提言」 tr. "The Buddha approves Subhūti, saying". Yet its dividing of the Buddha's answer into three headings this treatise does not have: 「今分佛答中為三：初、明菩薩心亦空有不違；第二、明菩薩拔出眾生空有不二故不相違；三、結歎菩薩心所住外說無過也。」 tr. "Now the Buddha's answer is divided into three: first, making clear that in the bodhisattva's mind, too, emptiness and existence do not conflict; second, making clear that the bodhisattva pulls beings out, and since emptiness and existence are not two, they do not conflict; third, concluding in praise that, where the bodhisattva's mind abides, his outward teaching is without fault." Its explanation of the simile of the conjured person says: 「空有不二未曾相違，如化人雖說意無所說也。又化人雖示種種事，竟無心而示生法二身，菩薩化物亦爾也。」 tr. "Emptiness and existence are not two and have never conflicted, as the conjured person, though he speaks, intends nothing spoken. Again, though the conjured person shows all kinds of things, in the end he is without mind in showing the two bodies, fleshly and Dharma; the bodhisattva's transforming of beings is likewise."—where it lands is the same as passage 8 of this treatise, 「是化人無心、無心數法」 tr. "this conjured person is without mind and without mental-factor dharmas".

Fourth, explaining the objection on ordinary people and sages, its account is the most detailed, and it plainly judges the explanation of earlier people to be incomplete. It first records the old explanation: 「由來諸大師云：就世諦作諍，若以世諦有各別者，凡夫亦見世諦、聖人亦見世諦，凡夫應是須陀洹也。佛答：凡夫不知世諦，故非是聖人。然望文論釋為得也。」 tr. "The great masters hitherto say: the dispute is made on worldly truth—if by worldly truth there are separate distinctions, ordinary people too see worldly truth and sages too see worldly truth, so ordinary people should be srota-āpannas. The Buddha answers: ordinary people do not know worldly truth, and so they are not sages. Yet, looking at the text, the treatise's explanation is the one that gets it." And then it sets up its own explanation, saying that Subhūti's objection is in fact made on the highest meaning, not on worldly truth: 「須菩提難云：世諦故有分別者，第一義中無有分別，凡聖不異，凡夫應是須陀洹。正難：就第一義作難，不就世諦作難。若世諦有分別、凡聖異，第一義諦無分別、凡夫無差別，凡夫豈非須陀洹耶？須陀洹是聖始，故標初為言也。」 tr. "Subhūti's objection says: if by reason of worldly truth there is discrimination, then within the highest meaning there is no discrimination, ordinary people and sages do not differ, and ordinary people should be srota-āpannas. The proper objection: it is made on the highest meaning, not made on worldly truth. If worldly truth has distinction and ordinary people and sages differ, while the truth of the highest meaning is without discrimination and ordinary people have no difference, how are ordinary people not srota-āpannas? The srota-āpanna is the beginning of the sages, so the first is raised to speak of it." At the end it explains the Buddha's answer: 「佛答：凡夫不知二諦，不語二諦也。悟世諦有即悟第一義空，悟二即悟不二，故得道也。」 tr. "The Buddha answers: ordinary people do not know the two truths; it does not speak of the two truths. Awakening to the existence of worldly truth is precisely awakening to the emptiness of the highest meaning; awakening to the two is precisely awakening to the not-two, and therefore one obtains the path."—it shares the same direction as the judgement of passage 32 of this treatise, 「須菩提分別實相、凡夫為異」 tr. "Subhūti distinguishes the real mark as different from ordinary people", while Jizang further sets up the words ‘awakening to the existence of worldly truth is precisely awakening to the emptiness of the highest meaning’ to make clear that knowing the two truths is one matter, which this treatise does not have. It also explains why the question ‘does cultivating the path obtain the fruit’ is raised: 「所以問云脩道得果不者，上即既明凡夫不知二諦故非須陀洹等賢聖，當知修道得果不脩是者，不得果故問也。以四句皆禪，以見修不修皆是有所得，故云不也。」 tr. "The reason he asks ‘does cultivating the path obtain the fruit’ is that above it has already been made clear that ordinary people do not know the two truths and so are not worthies and sages such as the srota-āpanna; one should know that cultivating the path obtains the fruit, and that one who does not cultivate this does not obtain the fruit, and so he asks. That the four alternatives are all meditation is because he sees that cultivating and not cultivating are both with something to be attained, and so it says no."—taking what the four alternatives break as ‘with something to be attained’, it is of one intent with the judgement of passage 35 of this treatise, 「今須菩提以著心問」 tr. "now Subhūti asks with a clinging mind". At its end it further concludes on the two views of ordinary person and sage: 「上明凡夫是須陀洹，則是凡夫一見，今聞異須陀洹，便作凡聖異見，皆是著故並非之也。」 tr. "Above, holding that ordinary people are srota-āpannas is the one view of ordinary people; now, hearing that they differ from the srota-āpanna, he then makes the view that ordinary people and sages differ; both are clinging, and therefore both are rejected."—it takes both views, that ordinary people and sages are the same and that ordinary people and sages differ, as clinging, and so rejects both; these words this treatise does not have, and they are recorded side by side to show where the ancient masters gave their attention on this objection.

Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises has one citation on this chapter, and what it cites is exactly this unit's passage on ordinary people not knowing the two truths: 「故大品經二十四卷四攝品云：佛告須菩提：凡夫實不知世諦，不知第一義，不知中道，不知分別道果，云何當有諸道不等也？」 tr. "Therefore the "Four Means of Gathering" chapter in fascicle twenty-four of the Larger Sūtra says: The Buddha told Subhūti: ordinary people really do not know worldly truth, do not know the highest meaning, do not know the middle path, do not know how to distinguish the fruits of the path; how should they have the inequalities of the various paths?"—its citation is in a summarising form, not word for word; and within it the words 「不知中道」 tr. "do not know the middle path" are absent from the base text of this unit, which reads 「不知道」 tr. "do not know the path". Junzheng cites this passage to prove the meaning that the two truths and the two knowledges take the Buddha-nature as their root, and so above ‘do not know the path’ he adds the one item ‘middle path’. The intent of his adding the words can be seen, and that it does not accord with the letter of the base text is also a fact; it is recorded as it really is, without judging right or wrong and without altering his words.

Huiying's Commentary in its extant text stops in the middle of chapter sixty-nine; for this chapter there is no commentary to carry on, and his explanation is lacking—it is not that it was abridged and left unexplained.

Here this chapter ends. The next chapter is "Thorough Penetration", the seventy-ninth. The sentence set up in the last passage of this unit, 「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas", joins exactly with the name of the next chapter—this chapter closes with ‘penetrating the nature of dharmas’, and the next chapter begins speaking from ‘thorough penetration’. The matter of the four means of gathering is completed in this chapter: the First Part makes clear the two gifts of giving, wealth and Dharma; in the Middle Part the treatise-author settles the doubts they left; the Last Part gathers up the two gifts and raises the three means of gathering in brief, and further opens the gates of letters and the two truths and returns to teaching the Dharma without clinging. What this unit leaves unexplained for the text below is two things: first, among the eighty minor marks, the treatise-author in this chapter explains only the two items ‘consciousness full’ and ‘secure in his dwelling-place’; of the other items, those on which this treatise has an explicit text to rely on in other fascicles are only a few matters—the light of one zhang, the red-copper nails, Nārāyaṇa—and beyond these this treatise does not explain them, and the sūtra too only lists without explaining; second, among the four alternatives of non-abiding set up in Sūtra ②, for the sentence ‘the existent dharma does not abide in the existent dharma’ the treatise-author sets up no separate simile, so of three similes one is lacking. Both matters are recorded as lacking as they really are, and nothing is supplied on their behalf.

Further Resonances

What "The Four Means of Gathering" inherits can be seen on the very surface of the words. The preceding chapter, "The Six Similes," opens with Subhūti's question—「世尊！云何無相、不可分別、自相空諸法中具足修六波羅蜜」 tr. "World-Honored One! How, within dharmas that are signless, indiscriminable, and empty of specific marks, does one make complete the cultivation of the six perfections"—and the Buddha's answer teaches one to abide in the five aggregates as like a dream, like an echo, like a shadow, like a mirage, like an illusion, like a conjuration, and within them to practise the six perfections; its verdict is 「若法無自性，是法無相；若法無相，是法一相，所謂無相」 tr. "If a dharma has no self-nature, that dharma is signless; if a dharma is signless, that dharma is of one mark, namely signlessness," and therefore it can say 「當知菩薩布施無相、施者無相、受者無相」 tr. "know that the bodhisattva's giving is signless, the giver is signless, the recipient is signless"; its treatise section closes on a single contrast—「上以一念中能具諸波羅蜜，此以諸法雖空無相而能具諸波羅蜜為異」 tr. "Above, it is that within a single thought one can be complete with all the pāramitā; here, it is that though dharmas are empty and signless one can be complete with all the pāramitā—this is the difference." This chapter's title follows directly upon that sentence, and the first sentence of its sūtra text takes up those six similes of the preceding chapter just as they were, changing only the direction: the preceding chapter asks how, within signlessness, one practises oneself; this chapter asks how, within signlessness, good and evil are distinguished so as to deliver others. Even where the bodhisattva abides was made ready by the preceding chapter—the preceding chapter says 「報得名更不修行，自然而得；譬如報得眼根，自然能見色」 tr. "obtained as retribution means obtained of itself without further cultivation; it is as the eye-faculty obtained as retribution can of itself see forms," and this chapter, opening its mouth on the root of gathering beings, says precisely 「住報得六波羅蜜中及住報得五神通」 tr. "abides in the six perfections obtained as retribution and abides in the five supernormal powers obtained as retribution." The treatise-author himself also states plainly that the questions of the two chapters are one and the same question: at the opening of this chapter's Treatise ① he sets up for himself the difficulty 「品品中義無異而作種種名問」 tr. "in chapter after chapter where the meaning has no difference, he still asks under all kinds of names," first answers with one sentence, 「是事上已答」 tr. "this matter has already been answered above," and then brings out three causes and conditions to explain the intent of the repeated question.

What it opens is likewise already glimpsed in this chapter's last sentence. This chapter ends on the posture of the one who teaches the Dharma—「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas"; the very first question at the opening of the next chapter, "Thorough Penetration," is 「世尊！云何菩薩善達諸法相？」 tr. "World-Honored One! How does the bodhisattva thoroughly penetrate the marks of dharmas?", taking up these three Chinese characters 「善通達」 tr. "thoroughly penetrates" and asking about their marks. And what the Buddha's answer uses is again precisely this chapter's simile: this chapter, by a person conjured by the Buddha who conjures immeasurable people and teaches them the Dharma while being 「無心、無心數法」 tr. "without mind and without mental-factor dharmas," makes clear that teaching the Dharma does not destroy dharmas; the next chapter then sets up its whole answer directly on the conjured person—「譬如化人不行婬、怒、癡，不行色乃至識」 tr. "It is as a conjured person does not practise lust, anger, and delusion, does not practise form and so on up to consciousness," and so on up to 「菩薩亦如是，無有是事，亦不分別是法，是名善達諸法相」 tr. "the bodhisattva too is like this: there is no such matter, nor does he discriminate these dharmas; this is named thoroughly penetrating the marks of dharmas"; and answering on the conjured person's cultivating of the path, it says 「化人修道，不垢不淨，亦不在五道生死」 tr. "The conjured person cultivates the path, neither stained nor pure, nor is he within the birth and death of the five destinies." The last great section of this chapter speaks of letters and of being without letters, saying 「過一切名字故，名為佛法」 tr. "Because it passes beyond all names and letters, it is named the Buddha's Dharma"; the next chapter, following this, speaks of what beings are bound to—「眾生但住名相虛妄憶想分別中」 tr. "beings abide only within names and marks and the false recollection, imagining, and discrimination"—and explains what makes a name a name, saying 「一切和合法皆是假名，以名取諸法，是故為名」 tr. "All dharmas of coming together are provisional names; by the name one takes dharmas, therefore it is a name." This chapter says that names and letters do not suffice to exhaust the meaning; the next chapter, starting from names and letters, speaks of the bondage of beings and the bodhisattva's pulling them out—one opening and one closing—and the traces of their continuity can be examined sentence by sentence.

What the various editions preserve of this chapter's title is most worth recording. The base text of this treatise heads it 「大智度論釋四攝品第七十八」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Explanation of ‘The Four Means of Gathering’, Chapter Seventy-eight," twelve Chinese characters; the Ming edition reads 「釋四攝品第七十八之上」 tr. "Explanation of ‘The Four Means of Gathering’, Chapter Seventy-eight, First Part," ten Chinese characters, lacking the prefix of the four Chinese characters 「大智度論」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa" and adding the two Chinese characters 「之上」 tr. "First Part"—that is, the Ming edition itself divides this chapter in two at the fascicle boundary; the Palace edition reads 「大智度論釋第七十八品四攝品」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Explanation of the Seventy-eighth Chapter, the Four Means of Gathering Chapter," thirteen Chinese characters, the order of chapter number and chapter name being exchanged; the Ishiyama-dera manuscript reads 「摩訶般若波羅蜜品第七十七四攝品八十九」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā, Chapter the Seventy-seventh, the Four Means of Gathering Chapter, Eighty-nine," eighteen Chinese characters, its chapter number being 「七十七」 tr. "seventy-seven," one step off from the base text, consistently with the Shōgozō and Ishiyama-dera manuscripts in the preceding several chapters. The Ishiyama-dera manuscript further marks at this place 「卷第八十九首」 tr. "head of Fascicle Eighty-nine"—that is, the Ishiyama-dera manuscript's fascicle order takes the chapter boundary as its boundary, and what it calls Fascicle Eighty-nine falls precisely within Fascicle Eighty-eight of the base text; the two texts each form a system of their own in dividing fascicles, and both are kept without judgement. The continuation title of fascicle eighty-nine reads 「大智度論釋四攝品第七十八之餘」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Explanation of ‘The Four Means of Gathering’, Chapter Seventy-eight, the Remainder," with the interlinear note 「卷八十九」 tr. "Fascicle Eighty-nine" attached; it uses 「之餘」 tr. "the remainder" and not 「之下」 tr. "Last Part," the same pattern as the chapters that cross fascicles. In the transmitted text of the great sūtra being explained, this chapter lies in its Fascicle Twenty-four; yet the four editions—Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace—set up a separate fascicle division within it, the continuation title reading 「摩訶般若波羅蜜經卷第二十七，四攝品第七十八之餘云」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Fascicle Twenty-seven: ‘The Four Means of Gathering’, Chapter Seventy-eight, the remainder; it says"—the points where the fascicle divisions fall differ between the two sides, sūtra and treatise; it is the same chapter, and each draws its own boundary; this belongs to differences at the level of transmission, and is recorded as it is. None of these differences touches the doctrinal meaning of a single character of this chapter, yet the difference in fascicle order among the various editions can be seen at a glance, and so they are all recorded together for the reader's collation.

Three of the ancient masters read this chapter, and what survives of each differs in form. Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra has a dedicated section dividing and explaining passage by passage, and its overall judgement of the chapter's position shows the most insight—「此下第二明外化方便。前是內行方便，亦前是自行」 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"—with the next sentence joining on directly, 「今是化他，由內行滿足故能外益生」 tr. "now it is transforming others; because inner practice is complete, one can benefit the living outwardly," taking this chapter as the hinge on which the whole great sūtra turns from one's own practice to transforming others; his division further takes three chapters as one group: 「第一此品明菩薩為化道無方巧化非一，第二善達品明為化之能，第三實際品明為化之意」 tr. "First, this chapter makes clear that the bodhisattva, for the path of transforming, is without a fixed method, and his skilful transforming is not of one kind; second, the ‘Thorough Penetration’ chapter makes clear the ability to transform; third, the ‘Limit of Reality’ chapter makes clear the intent of transforming," this chapter standing first. Within the chapter he divides it in 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"—the name of the latter part can serve exactly as the heading of this chapter's last section, on not grasping at the mark of the nature of dharmas. His linking of the questions of the preceding chapter and this one also runs parallel with the treatise-author: 「上品末問與今問同。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 question at the end of the preceding chapter is the same as the present question. 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." On the section on equal giving, Jizang opens it out more finely than the treatise-author: his division reads 「初、正明平等施為得；次、明簡擇施為失」 tr. "first, it properly makes clear that equal giving is a gain; next, it makes clear that picking-and-choosing giving is a loss," and he at once adds a further layer to guard against rigid clinging—「須知簡擇不簡擇但得失安，無明無知心中簡擇不簡擇但失」 tr. "One must know that, picking and choosing or not picking and choosing, it is only a matter of where gain and loss are settled; within a mind of ignorance and not-knowing, picking and choosing or not picking and choosing is only loss"—meaning that one who has skilful means gains whether he picks and chooses or does not, and one without skilful means loses either way: gain and loss are not tied to the outward form of picking and choosing. His two questions on the marks and minor signs wholly accord with the two questions the treatise-author sets up: 「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"; on the difficulty about the knowledge of all kinds he writes 「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," running on the same track as the treatise-author's answer 「今得一切種智，名為菩薩」 tr. "now obtaining the omniscience of all kinds, he is named bodhisattva." His explanation of the gates of letters says 「四十二字入一字，論四十二字皆有阿分，故入阿中也」 tr. "Forty-two letters enter one letter: the treatise says the forty-two letters all have the share of a, and so they enter into a"—it says 「論」 tr. "the treatise" explicitly, so it directly cites the text of this treatise's Treatise ② to explain the sūtra, and the traces of inheritance can be examined word by word. As for the difficulty on the two truths, Jizang states himself that he differs from 「由來諸大師」 tr. "the great masters hitherto": those masters judge that Subhūti makes his difficulty on worldly truth, while Jizang judges that he makes it on the highest meaning, ending with 「佛答：凡夫不知二諦，不語二諦也」 tr. "The Buddha answers: ordinary people do not know the two truths; it does not speak of the two truths," and explaining why the first fruit alone is raised—「須陀洹是聖始，故標初為言也」 tr. "The srota-āpanna is the beginning of the sages, so the first is raised to speak of it." Beyond this, his book mentions this chapter in two further places outside the chapter: explaining the fascicle order of the sūtra, he says 「論十八卷及釋四攝品云三事，謂神通、知他心說法也」 tr. "The treatise in fascicle eighteen and in explaining ‘The Four Means of Gathering’ chapter speaks of three things, namely supernormal power, knowing others' minds, and teaching the Dharma," which are exactly the three things by which, as the Buddha-eye sees in this chapter, the bodhisattva enters the hells and delivers beings; explaining "The Tree of the Path," he again says 「第二從四攝品以下，明化他行」 tr. "Second, from the ‘Four Means of Gathering’ chapter down, the practice of transforming others is made clear," which answers to his overall judgement of this chapter, the earlier and the later shedding light on each other.

Of the ancient commentaries explaining this treatise there is only one, Huiying's Commentary, and his book is fragmentary: its extant text stops in the middle of chapter sixty-nine, and a running explanation of this chapter is lacking—what is lacking is not recorded as a zero result; the lack is marked as it is. Yet his whole book mentions this chapter in two other places, and both are worth recording. The first is a structural division: 「第二從四攝品去於化品有十品經，明菩薩外化方便」 tr. "Second, from the ‘Four Means of Gathering’ chapter on to the ‘Like a Conjuration’ chapter there are ten chapters of the sūtra, making clear the bodhisattva's skilful means of transforming outwardly," and Huiying himself attributes what he bases this on to the old division of the Dharma masters of the Fu and Yao times—so the judgement ‘this chapter is the head of a section on the skilful means of transforming outwardly’ is one on which Jizang and Huiying, in different books and at different times, run on the same track, and its source lies in the masters contemporary with Kumārajīva's translation assembly; this is one of the firmest pieces of evidence at the level of this chapter's structural division. The second is a question on names and marks: 「問：依下句義品及四攝品，經云皆是出世間法，何故唯言為別無色定」 tr. "Question: according to the ‘Meaning of the Phrase’ chapter below and the ‘Four Means of Gathering’ chapter, the sūtra says these are all world-transcending dharmas; why does it say only that it is for distinguishing the formless absorptions"—what it cites as evidence is precisely this chapter's list of world-transcending dharmas not shared with ordinary people, which shows that although Huiying did not reach the point of commenting on this chapter, in reading this treatise he already took this chapter's text as a basis. Junzheng's Profound Meaning of the Four Mahāyāna Treatises preserves one citation in summarising form: 「故大品經二十四卷四攝品云：佛告須菩提：凡夫實不知世諦，不知第一義，不知中道，不知分別道果，云何當有諸道不等也」 tr. "Therefore the ‘Four Means of Gathering’ chapter in fascicle twenty-four of the Larger Sūtra says: The Buddha told Subhūti: ordinary people really do not know worldly truth, do not know the highest meaning, do not know the middle path, do not know how to distinguish the fruits of the path; how should they have the inequalities of the various paths"; the fascicle number it attaches accords with the sūtra being explained, so it is known that what he cites is the sūtra and not the treatise. Collated word by word, this citation omits the one Chinese character 「人」 tr. "people," changes 「第一義諦」 tr. "the truth of the highest meaning" to 「第一義」 tr. "the highest meaning," changes 「諸果」 tr. "the various fruits" to 「諸道不等」 tr. "the inequalities of the various paths," and in the position of 「不知道」 tr. "do not know the path" inserts the phrase 「不知中道」 tr. "do not know the middle path"—and the two Chinese characters 「中道」 tr. "middle path" are absent from both this treatise and the sūtra being explained, before and after this passage. The text just above it is discussing precisely the middle path and the Buddha-nature, so this phrase should be words of Junzheng's own interpretation and not a miscitation of the base text; it is recorded without judgement. As for the books of the Tiantai line—the Great Calming and Contemplation, the Profound Meaning of the Lotus, the Annotations on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus, the Words and Phrases of the Lotus, and the Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra—searched throughout for the heading 「四攝品」 tr. "The Four Means of Gathering," all are 〔not found〕; no forced connection is drawn, and this is recorded as it is.

Bringing this whole line of further resonances back to this chapter, what the ancient masters saw in common and the bones of this chapter are precisely one matter: the four means of gathering are the place where one turns round. What the chapters before this one speak of is mostly one's own practice—how, within signlessness, one makes the six perfections complete; how, within emptiness, one does not take realisation; from this chapter on, the very same emptiness has to be carried out to face beings. So the difficulty of this chapter has never been 「空不空」 tr. "empty or not empty"; it is ‘once it is emptied, does one still give or not’. Jizang judges this chapter to be the head of transforming outwardly and further takes 「雖能廣利不存化功」 tr. "though he can benefit broadly, he does not keep the merit of transforming" as its latter half; the old division of the Fu and Yao times transmitted by Huiying also calls it directly 「外化方便」 tr. "the skilful means of transforming outwardly"; what the two saw lies in this one same place: transforming outwardly is being able to benefit broadly; skilful means is not keeping the merit. The test this chapter itself gives likewise has precisely two faces. One face is in giving: when I think I have already practised giving, I first ask whether what I give stops at the thing, or whether 「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"; when I think I am already without discrimination, I first ask whether I can truly do this—「若供養佛、辟支佛、阿羅漢、阿那含、斯陀含、須陀洹等無有異」 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"—and, down to birds and beasts, give 「等一布施」 tr. "one and the same giving," or whether it is only that in my mind I do not divide while my hand still picks and chooses. The other face is in not abiding: when I teach the Dharma, I remember this chapter's judgement of the three ways of losing of one who teaches the Dharma—to hold that all dharmas are empty while what one says is not empty is losing; 「若口說空而心是有，是亦為失」 tr. "if the mouth says emptiness while in the mind there is existence, this too is losing"; when I have something attained, I remember the treatise-author's judgement of one who seeks the fruit with a clinging mind, 「如麻中出油」 tr. "as oil is taken out from sesame"; when on this account I grow faint-hearted and do not cultivate, I remember that sentence which blocks the way back—「修尚不得，何況不修！」 tr. "Even cultivating, it is not obtained, how much less without cultivating!" The whole chapter has said all there is to say about the matter of gathering beings and the reason for gathering beings, and what it leaves at the very end is no more than a standing one has when teaching the Dharma—「善通達者，不取法性相，亦不住法性中；於法性中不疑、不悶而說法，無罣、無礙、無遮，是則通達法性。」 tr. "One who thoroughly penetrates does not grasp at the mark of the nature of dharmas and does not abide within the nature of dharmas; within the nature of dharmas he teaches the Dharma without doubt and without oppression, without hindrance, without obstruction, without blocking: this is to penetrate the nature of dharmas." Gathering without abiding in the gathering, speaking without abiding in the speaking: the meaning of the four means of gathering is exhausted here.