大智度論 義疏通講 · 冊23Dazhidulun — Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 23

Overview

The question with which "Illumination" opens drives the numbered dharmas listed in all the preceding chapters together into one narrow place. The six perfections, the eighteen emptinesses, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas—the dharmas having been listed out in full, what Subhūti doubts lies not in how many or how few the dharmas are: if, having practised all these dharmas to the full, one 「不具足菩薩道，不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "does not make complete the bodhisattva path, he cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi", then 「菩薩摩訶薩當云何具足菩薩道，能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」 tr. "How should the bodhisattva-mahāsattva make complete the bodhisattva path, so as to be able to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?" The Buddha's answer does not set up a separate dharma; it only adds one measure at the time of practising the dharmas: 「以方便力故，行檀波羅蜜，不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜，是則照明菩薩道。」 tr. "By reason of the power of skilful means he practises dānapāramitā, not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā: this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path." Within one sentence both ends are provided for: not finding the three things, one does not fall into grasping at marks; not being far from the three things, one does not fall into annihilation; the practice is still that same practice, yet the place where it is practised has already been illumined. The eye of the chapter's name is set up right here—illumination is not another kind of light; it is that one measure of light, falling to neither side, at the time of practising the dharmas; and the treatise-author gives this name its most direct verdict: 「照明、具足是一義。」 tr. "Illumination and completeness are one meaning." Illumination is precisely completeness; only once it is complete does one obtain awakening. The whole chapter, one sūtra and one treatise, stays within the single fascicle ninety-one and does not cross fascicles: the First Part is precisely this Sūtra ①, from Subhūti's raising the question up to abiding in śīlapāramitā and teaching and transforming beings, its first half being Śāriputra's four objections and the Buddha's four answers, its latter half the Buddha's extended account, by way of the single gate of dānapāramitā, of bringing beings to accomplishment; the Last Part is precisely this Treatise ①, the treatise-author explaining the text above sentence by sentence, with six rounds of question and answer interspersed, and laying down his brush with the simile of the two monks fighting each other in the empty room and with the question whether the causes and conditions of the thirty-seven limbs of the path can be given.

In the First Part, the first half is objection and answer. Śāriputra's addressing the Buddha appears here six times in all: four times it is an objection, once it asks the reason, once it is praise. The first objection asks about training: since it has been said that one practises prajñā by the power of skilful means, how is this prajñā to be trained in? The Buddha's answer is only a negation of two ‘not’s—「不壞色、不隨色」 tr. "does not destroy form and does not follow form"—and he himself states the reason for it: 「是色性無故不壞、不隨」 tr. "Because the nature of this form is non-existent, he does not destroy it and does not follow it". The second objection turns back over from precisely this reason: 「若諸法無自性可壞、可隨者，云何菩薩摩訶薩能習般若波羅蜜諸菩薩摩訶薩所學處？」 tr. "If dharmas have no self-nature that can be destroyed or can be followed, how can the bodhisattva-mahāsattva train in prajñāpāramitā, the place where all bodhisattva-mahāsattvas train?" Since there is no nature that can be destroyed or followed, does not this 「習」 tr. "training" fall into emptiness? The Buddha's answer does not rescue it on the side of training; it cuts it off on the side of grasping: 「若有一法可得，應當取；若不可得，何所取？」 tr. "If there were one dharma that could be found, he should grasp it; if it is unfindable, what would he grasp?" He extends this to the six perfections, to the five aggregates, to awakening, and on to 「是般若波羅蜜不可取相，乃至一切諸佛法不可取相」 tr. "this prajñāpāramitā cannot be grasped as a mark, and so on up to all the dharmas of the buddhas cannot be grasped as a mark"; and what is trained in is precisely this not grasping—「是名不取般若波羅蜜乃至佛法，是菩薩摩訶薩所應學」 tr. "this is named not grasping prajñāpāramitā and so on up to the dharmas of the Buddha; this is what the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should train in"—and even training is not allowed to leave a training in one's hand: 「學相亦不可得」 tr. "even the mark of training is unfindable". The third objection presses to the root of names and marks: 「若諸法無性、無實、無根、無本，云何知是凡夫人乃至是佛？」 tr. "If dharmas are without nature, without substance, without root, and without foundation, how is it known that this is an ordinary person, and so on up to this is a Buddha?" The Buddha does not answer directly but asks in return whether the form to which ordinary people cling 「有性、有實不？」 tr. "has nature, has substance?" and Śāriputra answers 「不也！世尊！但以顛倒心故。」 tr. "No! World-Honored One! It is only by reason of an inverted mind."—the names of ordinary person and sage are not divided upon the nature of dharmas but upon inversion and non-inversion; whereupon the Buddha, following this, establishes the bodhisattva's arousing of the mind: 「見諸法無性、無根本故，能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」 tr. "Because he sees that dharmas are without nature and without root, he can arouse the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." The fourth objection is the most perilous, pressing straight at the rightness of the one matter of delivering beings: since beings are without anything existent, to teach them giving and keeping morality and so on up to causing them to obtain the fruits—is that not with something to be attained? The Buddha answers 「無有所得過罪」 tr. "there is no fault of being with something to be attained", and the reasons for it are two: first, 「不得眾生，但空法相續故名為眾生」 tr. "he does not find beings; it is only that the continuity of empty dharmas is named a being", and second, 「菩薩摩訶薩住二諦中為眾生說法：世諦、第一義諦」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the two truths and teaches the Dharma for beings: worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning"—the one who teaches the Dharma has himself first already taken his stand upon the two truths, so the Dharma taught does not become something attained, and what the listener hears does not become something attained either: 「今世吾我尚不可得，何況當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提及所用法！」 tr. "I and self in this present life are still unfindable, how much less the anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi to be obtained and the dharmas that are used!" The four objections having been exhausted, Śāriputra turns objection into praise: 「是菩薩摩訶薩心曠大！」 tr. "This bodhisattva-mahāsattva's mind is vast and great!" What he praises is precisely being able, in the place of nothing to be attained, to arouse the great oath—「無有法可得若一相、若異相、若別相，而能如是大誓莊嚴」 tr. "not one dharma is findable—whether one mark, or a different mark, or a specific mark—and yet he can thus take on the great adornment of the oath"—and following this he extends it to the end: 「眾生不縛不解；眾生不縛不解故，無垢無淨」 tr. "beings are neither bound nor released; because beings are neither bound nor released, they are without stain and without purity", and so on up to no deeds and no afflictions, and there should be no retribution. The Buddha approves his meaning and yet breaks one side again: 「若眾生先有後無，諸佛、菩薩則有過罪。」 tr. "If beings were first existent and afterwards non-existent, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have fault."—emptiness is not something first existent that is now made non-existent; it is that 「今有佛、無佛，諸法相常住不異」 tr. "now, whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, the marks of dharmas abide constantly and do not differ", that 「是諸法性常空」 tr. "the nature of these dharmas is ever empty"; precisely because the nature is empty from the first, at the time of arousing the mind there is not one dharma of which ‘I shall’ obtain it, and at the time of delivering beings there is not one being fixedly clinging who cannot get out—「但以眾生顛倒故著」 tr. "it is only by reason of beings' inversion that they cling". Here the sūtra text brings out its first simile: a conjurer conjures up hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of people and gives them all kinds of food and drink until they are full, and himself cries aloud 「我得大福！我得大福！」 tr. "I have obtained great merit! I have obtained great merit!" and the Buddha asks 「是中有人食飲飽滿不？」 tr. "Within this, has anyone eaten and drunk and been made full?" The answer too is only a refusal of four Chinese characters—「不也！世尊！」 tr. "No! World-Honored One!" The arrangement is plainly there, yet not one person is truly filled; the bodhisattva's making complete the bodhisattva path, 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands", is likewise, and yet 「無眾生法可度」 tr. "there is no dharma of beings to be delivered".

In the latter half of the First Part, the questioner changes and the topic changes too. Subhūti asks: 「何等是菩薩摩訶薩道？菩薩行是道，能成就眾生、淨佛國土？」 tr. "What is the path of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva? Does the bodhisattva, practising this path, become able to bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands?" What the Buddha answers is still the old dharmas—from the first arousing of intent onward he practises the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; and what he expounds at length below takes only the first perfection among the six perfections, speaking to the very end of a single dānapāramitā. First he speaks of giving without clinging to giving: the bodhisattva himself gives and also teaches people to give, and the very first sentence of his teaching is 「諸善男子！汝等莫著布施！」 tr. "Good men! Do not cling to giving!" The reason for this is 「汝著布施故當更受身，受身故多受眾苦」 tr. "because you cling to giving, you will receive a body again; because of receiving a body, you will receive much suffering"; and the three wheels of giving are from the first empty of self-nature, 「是性空法不可取，不可取相是性空」 tr. "this dharma of the emptiness of nature cannot be grasped, and the mark of what cannot be grasped is the emptiness of nature", so he concludes it saying 「無所得檀波羅蜜是名為檀波羅蜜」 tr. "dānapāramitā with nothing to be attained is named dānapāramitā". Next he speaks of the fruit of giving and of the gathering within the fruit: having given, he is born into a great clan, and so on up to becoming a wheel-turning sage king, yet the royal position is not for his own enjoyment; it is 「以四事攝取眾生」 tr. "gathering in beings with the four things"—「布施、愛語、利行、同事」 tr. "giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour"; having gathered them in, he little by little causes them to abide in morality, abide in meditation, abide in the limbs of the path, and on to obtaining the fruits, and with one exceedingly plain sentence he urges them to arouse the great mind: 「是阿耨多羅三藐三菩提易得耳！」 tr. "This anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is simply easy to obtain!" Why say it is easy? 「無有定法眾生所著處，但顛倒故眾生著」 tr. "There is not one fixed dharma that is a place where beings cling; it is only by reason of inversion that beings cling"—what is broken is false from the first, so it is not hard to break. Then he speaks of the mind of giving within the royal position: seeing a beggar, he thinks 「我不為餘事故受轉輪聖王果，但為利益一切眾生故」 tr. "I have not received the fruit of a wheel-turning sage king for any other matter; it is only for the sake of benefiting all beings", and thereupon gives all that he has: 「此是汝物，汝自取之，莫有所難，我無所惜！」 tr. "This is your thing; take it yourself, do not hesitate, I begrudge nothing!" And his compassion too does not grasp at a fixed mark of beings—「亦不得實定眾生相，但有假名故可說是眾生；是名字亦空，如嚮聲，實不可說相」 tr. "nor does he find a real, fixed mark of beings; it is only because there is a provisional name that one can speak of beings; this name too is empty, like the sound of an echo, and its mark is in truth unspeakable"—and so what he gives up has no bounds: 「於眾生中無所惜，乃至不惜自身肌肉，何況外物！」 tr. "Among beings he begrudges nothing, even to not begrudging the flesh of his own body, how much less outer things!" The five rounds below are all the single gate of abiding in dāna gathering in the other perfections: seeing people break morality, he says 「汝等來持戒，我當供給汝等，令無乏短」 tr. "Come and keep morality; I shall supply you, so that you have no lack or shortage", making up their lack, after which their morality can be kept; seeing people angry and vexed, he first gives them what they need, and afterwards tells them the falseness of what they are angry at—「一切法中無有堅實，汝等所瞋，是因緣空無堅實，皆從虛妄憶想生，汝無有根本」 tr. "Within all dharmas there is nothing firm and substantial; that at which you are angry—its causes and conditions are empty and without firm substance; they are all born from false recollection and imagining; you have no root"—and urges them by the difficulty of obtaining a human body: 「佛世難值、人身難得，汝等莫失好時！若失好時，則不可救。」 tr. "The age of a Buddha is hard to meet, a human body is hard to obtain; do not lose the good time! If you lose the good time, you cannot be saved." Seeing people lazy, he asks the reason and gets the one answer 「因緣少故」 tr. "Because our causes and conditions are few", and then promises them 「我當令汝因緣具足」 tr. "I shall make your causes and conditions complete"; seeing people scattered in mind, he says 「我當與汝等作因緣，以是因緣故，令汝心不隨覺觀，亦不馳散」 tr. "I shall make causes and conditions for you; by reason of these causes and conditions, your minds will not follow initial and sustained thought, nor run off scattered"; seeing people deluded, he gives them the means of seeking wisdom, and yet the reflection he teaches still returns to unfindability—when reflecting on prajñā, is there any dharma to be found, whether self, beings, or on to the fruits and the paths? Reflecting thus, then 「於般若波羅蜜中，無有法可得可著處」 tr. "within prajñāpāramitā there is no dharma that can be found, no place that can be clung to", whereupon he does not see arising and ceasing, stain and purity, and does not discriminate the six destinies or the worthies and sages. At the very end he goes one layer further: with the requisites of offering he enables people to cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, and further passes on from his own hand the things he himself has accumulated, causing them to become donors themselves: 「汝當以是攝取眾生，汝等長夜利益安樂」 tr. "you should gather in beings with these, and through the long night you will have benefit, ease, and happiness", taking them 「如己物無異」 tr. "as no different from your own things"; within a single giving, the recipient thus turns into a giver. The First Part closes with the passage on abiding in śīlapāramitā and teaching and transforming beings, and with one sentence carries the pattern through to all the perfections: 「尸羅波羅蜜為首，如檀波羅蜜說，餘四波羅蜜亦如是。」 tr. "With śīlapāramitā as the head, it is as was said of dānapāramitā; the other four pāramitās are likewise."

The Last Part is the treatise-author explaining the text above sentence by sentence, and at the vital points setting up questions and answers of his own. The very first question at the start asks about the repetition in the sūtra text: since it has already been said that if one does not make complete the bodhisattva path one does not obtain awakening, why does Subhūti ask again? The answer lies in the scope of the question—what he doubts lies not in whether one can obtain it or not, but in 「云何具足菩薩道」 tr. "how one makes complete the bodhisattva path". Thereupon the name illumination obtains its definition: 「方便力者，不決定得是布施等三事，亦不離是三事，行檀波羅蜜；是時，照明菩薩道。」 tr. "The power of skilful means is this: not definitely finding the three things of giving and the rest, and yet not parting from these three things, he practises dānapāramitā; at that time, this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path." And then one sentence settles the whole chapter: 「照明、具足是一義。」 tr. "Illumination and completeness are one meaning." The faults of the two sides become clear along with it: 「若菩薩決定得布施等三事，直墮常顛倒、取相著法等過罪；若不得是三事，則墮斷滅邊，著空，還起邪見等諸煩惱，便離菩薩道。」 tr. "If the bodhisattva definitely finds the three things of giving and the rest, he falls straight into the inversion of permanence, grasping at marks, clinging to dharmas, and the other faults; if he does not find these three things, he falls to the side of annihilation, clings to emptiness, and gives rise again to wrong views and the other afflictions, and so parts from the bodhisattva path." For one who is free of these two sides, the place where he practises is a twofold reliance—「因空捨是施等假名字虛誑法，因諸法實相離是著空無施者、無受者」 tr. "because of emptiness he gives up giving and the rest, which are false and deceptive dharmas of provisional names; because of the real mark of all dharmas he parts from this clinging to emptiness that holds there is no giver and no recipient"—and its measure takes the ground of the fruit as the standard: 「如阿耨多羅三藐三菩提相，觀是布施亦爾無異。如是布施名為具足。」 tr. "As the mark of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is, so he contemplates this giving too, without difference. Giving such as this is named complete." The section on not destroying and not following the treatise-author divides into four layers of explanation, each layer deeper than the last: 「色不壞者，不言是色無常，不言是色空無所有，是名不壞色。」 tr. "Not destroying form means not saying that this form is impermanent, not saying that this form is empty and without anything existent; this is named not destroying form." 「不隨色者，不如眼見色取相生著。」 tr. "Not following form means not, as the eye sees form, grasping at marks and giving rise to clinging." Next, he does not speak of form as permanent or impermanent, as suffering or happiness, because 「常、無常等皆非色實相」 tr. "permanence, impermanence, and the rest are all not the real mark of form"; next, he does not say that the root of form comes from the nature of the world, from atoms, from the Great Sovereign Heaven, or from time, nor does he say that it arises spontaneously or is forcibly born without cause and without condition—the four layers sweeping it all away, he sums it up: 「如是等名為不隨、不壞」 tr. "things such as these are named not following and not destroying". And the reason for it the treatise-author brings back to one sentence on the dharma of causes and conditions: 「是色從一切四大和合，假名為色；是中無定一法名為色」 tr. "this form is provisionally named form from the coming together of all the four elements; within it there is no fixed single dharma named form", and so 「從因緣和合生故，即是無性；若無性，即是性空」 tr. "because it arises from the coming together of causes and conditions, it is without nature; if it is without nature, it is the emptiness of nature". The closing words of the section on not grasping are especially steep: 「無取尚不可得，何況般若等諸法！一切法無性故。」 tr. "Not grasping itself is unfindable, how much less prajñā and the other dharmas! Because all dharmas are without nature." Below this, explaining the conjurer's teaching of the Dharma, the treatise-author first supplies a layer of the mind-ground that the sūtra had not made clear: 「菩薩自立如幻師，種種神通變化，說法度人，如幻所作，無憎無愛，等心說法」 tr. "the bodhisattva sets himself up like a conjurer, and with various supernormal powers and transformations teaches the Dharma and delivers people, like what is made by conjuring, without hatred and without love, teaching the Dharma with an equal mind"—being like what is made by conjuring, his teaching of the Dharma is therefore without hatred and without love. The next round of question and answer most needs careful looking at: beyond the six perfections, what dharma is there that is superior, and why does it say that he further teaches a superior dharma? The treatise-author's discrimination lies in the initial and the later—the giving, morality, and the rest spoken of here 「不說波羅蜜」 tr. "are not spoken of as pāramitā", but are the worldly wholesome dharmas of teaching giving to the stingy and wisdom to the deluded, the initial part of 「諸佛、菩薩法，有初、有後」 tr. "the Dharma of the buddhas and bodhisattvas has an initial part and a later part"; while the superior dharma is this: 「一切聖人所行法，名為聖法；出三界生死，名為出法」 tr. "the dharma practised by all the sages is named the holy Dharma; going forth from birth and death in the three realms is named the dharma of going forth". That the retribution of blessings and happiness in the heavens is not spoken of also has its reason: 「但眾生意劣故，自取小乘」 tr. "only because beings' resolve is low, they themselves take up the Small Vehicle". The section on the two truths the treatise-author tells most plainly: 「菩薩住二諦中，為眾生說法，不但說空、不但說有；為愛著眾生故說空，為取相著空眾生故說有；有、無中二處不染。」 tr. "The bodhisattva abides in the two truths and teaches the Dharma for beings, not teaching emptiness alone and not teaching existence alone; for beings who love and cling he teaches emptiness; for beings who grasp at marks and cling to emptiness he teaches existence; in the two places of existence and non-existence he is stained by neither." The section on the vast and great mind the treatise-author illustrates by trading in the market: 「如人市買，必須交易；大心人則不然。」 tr. "As when a person buys in the market, there must be an exchange; the person of great mind is not so." The reason the person of great mind is not so is that 「無所依止而能發大莊嚴」 tr. "taking support in nothing, he is able to arouse the great adornment"; and the marvel of making adornment within ultimate emptiness the treatise-author exclaims over, saying 「是為希有」 tr. "this is rare", and closes it with a simile: 「譬如人虛空中種樹，樹葉花果，多所利益。」 tr. "It is as a person plants a tree in space, and the tree's leaves, flowers, and fruit give much benefit." The Buddha's approving and answering is also divided into two sides: 「舍利弗難是空故，佛亦答、亦可——以其說空故可，以其難空故答」 tr. "Because Śāriputra raised a difficulty against this emptiness, the Buddha both answers him and approves him—he approves him because he speaks of emptiness, and answers him because he raises a difficulty against emptiness"; what he answers is the fault of 「先有今無」 tr. "existing before and not existing now"—「過罪者，所謂令眾生入無餘涅槃，永滅色等一切法」 tr. "the fault is this: causing beings to enter nirvāṇa without remainder, forever extinguishing form and all dharmas". The simile of the conjurer in the sūtra the treatise-author here matches item by item: 「幻師即是菩薩，幻師所作園林、廬觀即是六波羅蜜等度眾生法，幻師所作象馬、男女即是菩薩所度眾生」 tr. "the conjurer is precisely the bodhisattva; the gardens, huts, and pavilions that the conjurer makes are the six perfections and the other dharmas for delivering beings; the elephants, horses, men, and women that the conjurer makes are the beings whom the bodhisattva delivers", and the place of its sickness he too lays bare in a word: 「若幻師以所幻作事為實，於所幻人求其恩惠，即是狂人！」 tr. "If the conjurer takes the things he has conjured as real and seeks favour from the people he has conjured, he is a madman!" At once someone uses the simile to object to the simile: the dharma of conjuring and spell-craft really exists while what is conjured is unreal; now beings are empty and the bodhisattva too is empty, so how can the simile hold? The treatise-author's answer has two sections: the first breaks the lack of parity in what the objector sets up—「眾生異名，名為幻師，幻師實無」 tr. "another name for beings is conjurer; the conjurer really does not exist"; the second establishes the general rule of similes: 「取其少許相似處為喻，何以盡取為難？」 tr. "Taking only a little point of likeness in it as the simile—why take the whole of it to make a difficulty?" And he takes the simile of a lion for a king as proof: the lion among the beasts is fearless, the king among his subjects is sovereign and without difficulty, so it is taken as a simile—「復何可責四腳負毛為異也？」 tr. "Why then must one find fault over the difference of four legs and the bearing of fur?"

In the latter half of the Last Part, following the sūtra's extended account, he explains section by section the reasons for it. Subhūti asks again about the path of bringing beings to accomplishment, and the treatise-author first explains why he asks again: 「須菩提雖知菩薩道，以中說甚深性空故，聽者生疑，是故發問。」 tr. "Though Subhūti knew the bodhisattva path, because the very deep emptiness of nature is spoken of within it and those who listen will give rise to doubt, he therefore asked." The reason for teaching them not to cling to giving lies in a chain by which happiness gives birth to pride and pride destroys the good: 「眾生以布施生貴樂處，貴樂因緣故生我憍慢，我憍慢增長故破善法，破善法故墮三惡道」 tr. "because of giving, beings are born in places of nobility and happiness; because of the causes and conditions of nobility and happiness they give rise to the pride of self and to arrogance; because the pride of self and arrogance increase, they destroy wholesome dharmas; because they destroy wholesome dharmas, they fall into the three evil destinies". Why does practising oneself come before teaching others? The treatise-author gives three layers: first, to spare himself people's reproach that his words and deeds do not match, 「是故菩薩先自布施」 tr. "therefore the bodhisattva first himself gives"; second, 「菩薩深愛善法，布施是初門」 tr. "the bodhisattva deeply loves wholesome dharmas, and giving is the first gate"; third, kindness and compassion, though great, have a power that does not reach everywhere, 「以慈悲心雖大，而不能充滿眾生，是故先行布施，令其心濡，可以引導」 tr. "though the mind of kindness and compassion is great, it cannot fill all beings; therefore he first practises giving, so that their minds become soft and they can be guided". The mind of rejoicing at others' practising giving is also told most intimately: 「如慈父見子行善，心則歡喜。」 tr. "As a kind father, seeing his son do good, is glad at heart." Why is he a wheel-turning sage king life after life? Here there is a choosing among places of birth: 「菩薩多生欲界」 tr. "the bodhisattva is mostly born in the desire realm", because 「以無色界中無形故，不可教化；色界中多味著禪定樂，無厭惡心故難化」 tr. "in the formless realm there is no shape, so they cannot be taught and transformed; in the form realm they mostly relish the pleasure of meditative concentration and have no mind of aversion, so they are hard to transform", nor is he born among the gods of the desire realm, because they are 「著妙五欲多故難化」 tr. "hard to transform because they cling too much to the wonderful five desires"; among humans they can be transformed, so he receives the body of a wheel-turning king and gathers in the multitude with the four things. The section on breaking morality the treatise-author first divides into two: 「一者、持戒因緣不具足故，如貧窮人，飢寒急故作賊；二者、持戒因緣雖具足，以習惡心故，好行惡事。」 tr. "The first is because the causes and conditions for keeping morality are not complete, as poor people, pressed by hunger and cold, become thieves; the second is that, though the causes and conditions for keeping morality are complete, because of a mind habituated to evil they like to do evil things." What the sūtra treats is the former kind, so when the lack is made up, morality stands of itself; this is named 「因布施生戒」 tr. "morality born from giving". The section on calming anger sets up a question very close to the facts: the poor and needy can be kept from anger by giving to them, but for the anger at people who do not suit one's wishes, what use is giving? The answer brings out one thing and one concentration: 「以如意珠施之，則使人皆稱意」 tr. "giving him a wish-fulfilling jewel can make every person suit his wishes", the reason being 「珠之威德故，人無瞋者」 tr. "because of the majestic virtue of the jewel, people have no anger", and he takes the practitioner's concentrated mind as comparison—「如行者入慈三昧故，人無瞋者」 tr. "as when a practitioner enters the samādhi of kindness, people have no anger". Below this the treatise-author further supplies a counter-measure on the side of principle: the causes and conditions of anger are all false, deceptive, and indefinite—「汝莫以虛誑無實事故，而受大罪！」 tr. "Do not, for the sake of false, deceptive, and unreal things, receive great sin!" To prove this principle, the treatise inserts a quite ordinary affair: in a Buddhist monastery in the mountains there was an empty room, which, because a ghost harassed people there, everyone had abandoned; two guest monks, one after the other, each relying on his own strength, went in to stay: 「小鬼何所能？我能伏之！」 tr. "What can a little ghost do? I can subdue it!" In the dark of night the one who came later knocked at the door seeking to enter; 「先入者謂為是鬼，不為開戶」 tr. "the one who had gone in first took him for the ghost and did not open the door to him", whereupon inside and outside resisted each other, each using his full strength and fighting fiercely; 「至明旦相見，乃是故舊同學，各相愧謝」 tr. "when they saw each other the next morning, they were after all old fellow-students, and each apologised to the other in shame", while as for the bystanders, 「眾人雲集，笑而怪之」 tr. "the people gathered round like clouds, laughing and finding it strange". What the simile points to the treatise-author then makes plain: 「眾生亦如是，五眾無我、無人，空取相致鬪諍；若支解在地，但有骨肉，無人、無我。」 tr. "Beings are likewise: the five aggregates are without self and without person, and vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife; if the body is dismembered upon the ground, there are only bones and flesh, without person and without self." The section on the difficulty of obtaining a human body the treatise-author lists difficulty by difficulty: the burning, roasting, butchering, and cutting of the hells, the mutual harming and killing of the animals, the hunger, thirst, heat, and vexation of the hungry ghosts—none of these can be transformed; 「若生長壽天，千萬佛過，著禪定味故，皆不覺知」 tr. "if one is born in the heavens of long life, thousands of myriads of buddhas pass by, and because he clings to the flavour of meditative concentration, he is wholly unaware and does not know"; those born in a border land, though they have human bodies, are dull and cannot be taught; 「雖生中國，或六情不具、或四支不完、或盲聾瘖啞、或不識義理」 tr. "though born in the Middle Country, some lack the six faculties, some have the four limbs incomplete, some are blind, deaf, mute, and dumb, some do not recognise meaning"; and so on up to those whose faculties are penetrating and keen and who yet 「深著邪見、言無罪福，不可教化」 tr. "cling deeply to wrong views and say there is no sin and no merit, and cannot be taught and transformed". The last three questions bring the whole treatise section to a close: abiding in dāna, he has already practised the five perfections in sequence, so why speak again of the six perfections? The answer: 「上一度中次第具足五，今則一時總說」 tr. "above, within one perfection the five were made complete in sequence; now they are spoken of all together at one time", and 「先但說六波羅蜜，今通說三十七品及諸道果」 tr. "earlier only the six perfections were spoken of; now the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the fruits of the paths are spoken of throughout". Since the thirty-seven limbs of the path come forth from the mind, how can their causes and conditions be given to people? The answer lands on exceedingly concrete things: 「菩薩供給坐禪者衣服、飲食、醫藥、法杖、禪毱、禪鎮，令得好師教照，令得好弟子受化；與骨人令觀，與禪經，令人為說禪法」 tr. "the bodhisattva supplies those who sit in meditation with clothing, food and drink, medicine, a Dharma staff, a meditation ball, and a meditation prop, so that they can get a good teacher to instruct and look after them, and so that they can get good disciples to receive their transformation; he gives them a skeleton so that they may contemplate it, gives them the meditation scriptures, and asks people to expound the dharma of meditation for them"—the dharmas of the mind cannot be handed over, but the conditions that help in cultivating the mind can be given. Last he speaks of the passing on from hand to hand of the dharma of the Mahāyāna, and those who take the things are also told the same sentence: 「是布施性皆空，汝等莫著是施及以果報。」 tr. "The nature of this giving is all empty; do not cling to this giving or to its retribution." The whole treatise section closes with one sentence of sequence: 「眾生得是性空，漸漸得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，入無餘涅槃。」 tr. "Beings, obtaining this emptiness of nature, little by little obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi and enter nirvāṇa without remainder."

The difference between the two parts can be settled in a word: the First Part is the sūtra listing the practices; the Last Part is the treatise explaining their reasons. What the First Part lists are all matters that can be pointed to—practising giving without finding the three things, teaching people keeping morality, patience, vigour, meditative concentration, and wisdom, becoming a wheel-turning king and gathering in the multitude with the four things, using the requisites of offering to cause them to cultivate the limbs of the path, using one's own things to cause them to give them on in turn; what the Last Part explains are all principles that cannot be pointed to—why illumination is precisely completeness, why with the nature non-existent one neither destroys nor follows, why without grasping there is still something to be trained in, why teaching the Dharma by the two truths is without the fault of something to be attained, why within ultimate emptiness one can still make the great adornment. Between the two parts there is also one thread strung through, namely the two Chinese characters 「方便」 tr. "skilful means". The skilful means of the First Part is seen in matters: when the Buddha answers about making complete the bodhisattva path, his opening words are 「以方便力故」 tr. "by reason of the power of skilful means"; afterwards, in teaching the Dharma there is not one place that is not skilful means—seeing stinginess he teaches giving, seeing anger he teaches patience, seeing laziness he asks what causes and conditions they lack, seeing a scattered mind he makes causes and conditions for them. The skilful means of the Last Part is settled in principle: 「不決定得是布施等三事，亦不離是三事」 tr. "not definitely finding the three things of giving and the rest, and yet not parting from these three things"—not definitely finding them, it does not become the view of permanence; not parting from the three things, it does not become the view of annihilation. Skilful means is not a makeshift expedient; it is that one real road between the two sides; apart from it, practising all the numbered dharmas to the full is still not named complete, and that is why the name of the whole chapter is not set up upon the six perfections but upon the two Chinese characters of ‘illumination’. There is also one matter of which the two parts each tell one side, most worth reading against each other, namely the simile of the conjurer. The conjurer in the sūtra is told from the side of the recipients: the people conjured are not filled, so beings are delivered and yet there are no beings to be delivered; the conjurer in the treatise is turned round to be told from the side of the one who conjures: if the conjurer takes what he has conjured as real and seeks favour from it, he is a madman. One simile with two uses, together making one meaning—what is delivered being unreal, the one who delivers should not set up merit for himself either.

Therefore, in reading each section of this chapter, one can ask at least three layers. First, does what this sentence negates belong to the side of permanence or to the side of annihilation—almost every sentence of the whole chapter comes in pairs: not finding the three things and yet not being far from the three things, not destroying form and yet not following form, not grasping and yet having something to train in, beings being unfindable and yet abiding in the two truths to teach the Dharma. Whenever one reads a sentence that sweeps everything away and finds it exhilarating, first ask where its paired sentence is; the treatise-author has already set up the line of defence beforehand: leaning to one side, 「直墮常顛倒、取相著法等過罪」 tr. "he falls straight into the inversion of permanence, grasping at marks, clinging to dharmas, and the other faults"; leaning to the other side, 「則墮斷滅邊，著空，還起邪見等諸煩惱，便離菩薩道」 tr. "he falls to the side of annihilation, clings to emptiness, and gives rise again to wrong views and the other afflictions, and so parts from the bodhisattva path". Second, is what this section speaks of practice for oneself or the transforming of others—the great passage of the latter half of the First Part is entirely matters of transforming others, yet where it sets its hand is entirely practice for oneself: he himself gives and then teaches giving, keeps morality and patience himself and then teaches others, and the things he gives are what he himself has accumulated through the long night. So whenever one sees a passage on delivering beings, first look at what the bodhisattva himself has done first; the sentence the treatise-author states most plainly is that kindness and compassion too must have concrete hands—「以慈悲心雖大，而不能充滿眾生，是故先行布施，令其心濡，可以引導」 tr. "though the mind of kindness and compassion is great, it cannot fill all beings; therefore he first practises giving, so that their minds become soft and they can be guided". Third, my strength now being slight, what use is this chapter to me—precisely in those most trivial things. What makes this chapter rare is that it carries the two characters ‘skilful means’ all the way to clothing, food and drink, medicine, a Dharma staff, a meditation ball, and a meditation prop; to making up people's lack and only then can their morality stand; to giving people what they need and only then can their anger be calmed; to one wish-fulfilling jewel, one skeleton, one scroll of meditation scripture. Even that episode of the two monks fighting each other in the empty room is no more than setting the one sentence 「空取相致鬪諍」 tr. "vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife" in the most everyday place, so that people may recognise it. Reading on along the one sūtra and one treatise, one will in the end fall back upon that sentence at the opening of the chapter: the practice is still that same practice, and what differs is only that one measure of light at the time of practice—「不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā"; and once this one measure of light is obtained, its name is precisely completeness, and its fruit is precisely 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands".

Reading On in the Order of the Treatise

Illumination, First Part: How the Bodhisattva Path Is Made Complete; Not Destroying, Not Following, and Not Grasping; Dharmas Are without Nature, and Yet Ordinary People and Sages Are Known; Teaching the Dharma While Abiding in the Two Truths; the Extended Account of Practising Dāna to Bring Beings to Accomplishment

What Is Being Asked

The preceding chapters have already told out in full the numbered dharmas that bodhisattvas practise—the six perfections, the eighteen emptinesses, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, the eighteen unshared dharmas—listing them one by one and stating their marks one by one. The dharmas having been told out in full, Subhūti, right at this point, raises a most vital doubt: however complete the list of dharmas, if one 「不具足菩薩道」 tr. "does not make complete the bodhisattva path", one still 「不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". Then between having practised these dharmas to the full and 「具足菩薩道」 tr. "making complete the bodhisattva path", where after all does the difference lie? The chapter opens with precisely this question. The Buddha's answer has the backbone of only one sentence: by the power of skilful means one practises dānapāramitā, and 「不得施、不得施者、不得受者」 tr. "does not find the giving, does not find the giver, does not find the recipient", and further 「不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "is not far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā"—this is called 「照明菩薩道」 tr. "the illumination of the bodhisattva path". The illumining in the chapter name 「照明」 tr. "Illumination" is not the setting-up of a separate dharma; it is that share of clarity, while practising dharmas, that does not fall to either of the two sides; illumination is precisely completeness, and only when complete does one obtain awakening.

Once the backbone is set up, the difficulties come straight after, and they press downward layer by layer. Śāriputra's addressing the Buddha occurs six times in all in this unit: four of these are difficulties, one asks the reason, and one is praise. The four difficulties go deeper layer by layer: since the nature of dharmas is non-existent, how does one train in prajñā (the first difficulty); since there is no self-nature that can be destroyed or followed, where does this 「習」 tr. "training" still land (the second difficulty); since dharmas are without nature, without substance, without root, and without foundation, on what ground can ordinary people and the Buddha still be told apart (the third difficulty); since beings are from the first without anything existent, to teach them giving and keeping morality and make them obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the fruit of arhat—is that not being with something to be attained (the fourth difficulty)? Each of the four difficulties is deeper than the one before, and the last presses straight at the legitimacy of the bodhisattva's delivering of beings—if beings are all without anything existent, can the one matter of delivering beings still stand or not? The Buddha's four answers follow step by step: he does not destroy form and does not follow form, and because the nature is non-existent he does not destroy and does not follow; because not one dharma is findable he does not grasp, and even the mark of training is unfindable; dharmas are without nature, and ordinary people cling by reason of an inverted mind, and from this the names of the worthies and sages are distinguished; the bodhisattva abides within the two truths, worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning, and teaches the Dharma, and so is without the fault of being with something to be attained. At the last Śāriputra closes the preceding difficulties with one word of praise, 「心曠大」 tr. "the mind is vast and great", and the Buddha in turn breaks his holding with 「先有後無，諸佛、菩薩則有過罪」 tr. "if first existent and afterwards non-existent, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have fault", and brings out the simile of a conjurer conjuring hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of people—the food and drink are set out plainly there, and yet not a single person is truly filled.

The latter half changes hands: Subhūti asks again 「何等是菩薩摩訶薩道」 tr. "What is the path of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva?", and the Buddha does not set up a new dharma; he takes only the first of the six perfections—dānapāramitā—and explains it at length to the end. Giving oneself, teaching giving, praising giving, rejoicing in giving; being born in a great clan and becoming a sage king, and gathering in beings with the four things; abiding in dāna, making people keep morality, making people be patient, making people be vigorous, making people cultivate meditation, making people cultivate wisdom; and so on up to making them cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path with the requisites of offering, and having them, with the things they need, turn and gather in beings in their turn. Within one gate are gathered in all six perfections, all four means of gathering, all the fruits of the three vehicles. What the First Part has to answer is just these two questions: whether illumination and completeness are two matters; and how, among no beings, the matter of delivering beings is established.

Passage by Passage

1. Subhūti's question—the dharmas practised to the full and yet the path not complete, awakening is still unfindable. At the opening of the sūtra text, Subhūti says to the Buddha: if a bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises the six perfections, the eighteen emptinesses, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the Buddha's ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed knowledges, and the eighteen unshared dharmas, and 「不具足菩薩道，不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "does not make complete the bodhisattva path, he cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". So he asks: 「菩薩摩訶薩當云何具足菩薩道，能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提？」 tr. "How should the bodhisattva-mahāsattva make complete the bodhisattva path, so as to be able to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?" This question is very sharp. The dharmas spoken in the preceding chapters have already been listed without omission; a practitioner practising according to them should by rights lack nothing; yet here the sūtra text sets up a threshold—having the dharmas is not the same as the path being complete. What is asked is not ‘which dharma is still missing’ but ‘with these same dharmas, how must one practise for it to count as complete’. The guiding rope of the whole chapter hangs on this one question.

2. The Buddha's answer—not finding the three things and yet not being far from the three things: this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path. The Buddha tells Subhūti: when the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, 「以方便力故，行檀波羅蜜，不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜，是則照明菩薩道」 tr. "by reason of the power of skilful means he practises dānapāramitā, not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā: this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path". The crux of the answer lies wholly in the four Chinese characters 「亦不遠離」 tr. "and also not being far from". If one said only that the three things are not found, people would take giving to be dispensable; if one said only that one practises dānapāramitā, people would take the three things to be graspable. The power of skilful means is precisely still practising within not finding, and still not finding within practising. The Buddha further says plainly: 「菩薩以方便力故具足菩薩道；具足已，能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "By reason of the power of skilful means the bodhisattva makes complete the bodhisattva path; having made it complete, he can obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." Illumination and completeness are joined here—illumination is not another matter outside completeness; it is that share of clarity by which completeness can be accomplished. At the end, with the one sentence 「持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧乃至十八不共法亦如是」 tr. "keeping morality, patience, vigour, meditative concentration, wisdom, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas are likewise", it extends to all the dharmas by analogy: as with one perfection, so with every perfection.

3. Śāriputra's first question—how does one train in prajñā. Here the questioner changes: before it was Subhūti; now Śāriputra says to the Buddha: 「世尊！云何菩薩摩訶薩習般若波羅蜜？」 tr. "World-Honored One! How does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva train in prajñāpāramitā?" The question is extremely brief, yet it comes on from what went before—since the Buddha has said that the power of skilful means is the key, and the power of skilful means comes forth from prajñā, then how should prajñā itself be 「習」 tr. "trained in"? What the one foremost in wisdom asks is not its merit; he asks only where to set one's hand.

4. The Buddha's answer—not destroying and not following; because the nature is non-existent, there is no destroying and no following. The Buddha tells Śāriputra: practising prajñāpāramitā, 「以方便力故，不壞色、不隨色」 tr. "by reason of the power of skilful means, he does not destroy form and does not follow form". Why? 「是色性無故不壞、不隨」 tr. "Because the nature of this form is non-existent, he does not destroy it and does not follow it", and so on up to consciousness, likewise; dānapāramitā is the same, 「檀波羅蜜性無故」 tr. "because the nature of dānapāramitā is non-existent", and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas, likewise. Each of the two sides has a sickness: to destroy form is forcibly to call form impermanent, empty and without anything existent, counting it as contemplating emptiness only once form has been smashed; to follow form is to grasp at marks and cling just as the eye sees. The answer does not lie in compromising in the middle but in taking the firewood from under the cauldron—the nature of form is from the first non-existent; since there is nothing to destroy, there is also nothing to follow. Training in prajñā is not doing a thing; it is recognising clearly something that is so from the first.

5. Śāriputra's second difficulty—if there is no self-nature that can be destroyed or followed, where is the place of training. Śāriputra presses further: 「若諸法無自性可壞、可隨者，云何菩薩摩訶薩能習般若波羅蜜諸菩薩摩訶薩所學處？」 tr. "If dharmas have no self-nature that can be destroyed or can be followed, how can the bodhisattva-mahāsattva train in prajñāpāramitā, the place where all bodhisattva-mahāsattvas train?" And he states for himself why he cannot but ask: 「菩薩摩訶薩不學般若波羅蜜，不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "If the bodhisattva-mahāsattva does not train in prajñāpāramitā, he cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." This difficulty is a true difficulty: without training one certainly does not obtain awakening, and yet the dharma to be trained in has no self-nature to set one's hand to; both ends are blocked. Śāriputra sets the contradiction out squarely; this is not wrangling, but seeking a footing on behalf of all who cultivate and train.

6. The Buddha's answer—because one is not apart from the power of skilful means it can be obtained; because not one dharma is findable one does not grasp, and the mark of training too is unfindable. The Buddha first grants what he says: 「菩薩不學般若波羅蜜，不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "If the bodhisattva does not train in prajñāpāramitā, he cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." Then at once he points out the key: 「不離方便力故可得。」 tr. "Because he is not apart from the power of skilful means, it can be obtained." Next he establishes the meaning with a pair of suppositions—「若有一法可得，應當取；若不可得，何所取？」 tr. "If there were one dharma that could be found, he should grasp it; if it is unfindable, what would he grasp?" Namely the six perfections prajñā, dhyāna, vīrya, kṣānti, śīla, dāna; form, feeling, perception, constructions, consciousness; and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi—each is named one by one and each in turn is returned to the mark of what cannot be grasped. Therefore 「是名不取般若波羅蜜乃至佛法，是菩薩摩訶薩所應學」 tr. "this is named not grasping prajñāpāramitā and so on up to the dharmas of the Buddha; this is what the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should train in"—the place of training is not some one dharma; it is 「不取」 tr. "not grasping". A layer further: 「菩薩摩訶薩於是中學時，學相亦不可得」 tr. "when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva trains within this, even the mark of training is unfindable", how much less the dharmas trained in. At the end, by non-nature, names and words are shown in reverse: since among dharmas not one dharma has nature, to what are the names ordinary person, srota-āpanna, and so on up to bodhisattva and Buddha attached? 「若無是諸賢聖，云何有法？」 tr. "If there are none of these worthies and sages, how could there be dharmas?" Name and dharma each rely on the other and both are without self-nature; this is just the fuse for the next difficulty.

7. Śāriputra's third difficulty—without nature, without substance, without root, and without foundation, how are the ordinary person and so on up to the Buddha known. Śāriputra at once presses on this: 「若諸法無性、無實、無根、無本，云何知是凡夫人乃至是佛？」 tr. "If dharmas are without nature, without substance, without root, and without foundation, how is it known that this is an ordinary person, and so on up to this is a Buddha?" The previous difficulty asked where 「學」 tr. "training" lies; this difficulty asks on what 「知」 tr. "knowing" relies. If all names and words have nothing to attach to, then the stages of cultivation and realisation, and the difference between ordinary people and sages, should collapse as well—this is the pass at which the meaning of emptiness is most often blocked.

8. The Buddha's counter-question—does the form at which ordinary people cling have nature and substance or not. The Buddha does not answer head-on but returns a question: 「凡夫人所著處色，有性、有實不？」 tr. "The form that is the place where ordinary people cling—does it have nature, does it have substance?" This is the skill of debate: since the difficulty lies in ‘without nature, ordinary people and sages are not distinguished’, he first examines the 「有」 tr. "existence" that ordinary people hold to—whether after all it exists or not. The problem is handed back to the asker, and the answer comes out of the asker's own mouth.

9. Śāriputra's answer—No; it is only by reason of an inverted mind. Śāriputra answers: 「不也！世尊！但以顛倒心故。」 tr. "No! World-Honored One! It is only by reason of an inverted mind." Feeling, perception, constructions, consciousness, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas are likewise. With the one sentence 「但以顛倒心故」 tr. "it is only by reason of an inverted mind", the ground of the distinction between ordinary people and sages shows itself on the spot: it is not that in dharmas there is a real ordinary nature or a real sagely nature; it lies only in inversion and non-inversion. The third difficulty here resolves itself—the distinction is not set up by dharmas but by delusion and awakening.

10. The Buddha's conclusion—because he sees that dharmas are without nature and without root, he can arouse the mind of awakening. The Buddha concludes on his answer: 「菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜時，以方便力故，見諸法無性、無根本故，能發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」 tr. "When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is practising prajñāpāramitā, by reason of the power of skilful means, because he sees that dharmas are without nature and without root, he can arouse the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." This conclusion is most worth savouring: seeing non-nature not only does not obstruct the arousing of the mind; it is precisely what makes arousing the mind possible. If dharmas had fixed nature, the ordinary would forever be ordinary and suffering forever suffering, and the arousing of the mind would have nowhere to apply its strength; only because they are without nature and without root can delusion be turned, beings be delivered, and awakening be sought. Emptiness does not cut off the road; emptiness is precisely why the road goes through.

11. Śāriputra further asks the reason—how does one see non-nature and arouse the mind. Śāriputra still does not let it go and asks again on this: 「云何菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜時，以方便力故，見諸法無性、無根本故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心？」 tr. "When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is practising prajñāpāramitā, how, by reason of the power of skilful means, because he sees that dharmas are without nature and without root, does he arouse the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?" The preceding sentence was a conclusion; this question wants the process: between seeing and arousing, what after all does the bodhisattva pass through in his mind. Because the question is fine, the answer is thereby able to spread out the whole breadth of the latter half of this chapter.

12. The Buddha's answer—not retreating and sinking, not slack; he sets himself up like a conjurer, giving medicine according to the sickness. The Buddha's answer is in two parts. First a blocking: the bodhisattva 「不見諸法根本住中退沒、生懈怠心」 tr. "does not, on seeing the root of dharmas, halt there in retreat and sinking and give rise to a mind of slackness"—having seen that the root of dharmas is in reality 「無我、無所有、性常空」 tr. "non-self, without anything existent, its nature ever empty", he does not stay in that emptiness and sink down or grow lax. This is the most dangerous place to lose one's footing at the gate of emptiness, and the sūtra text blocks it one step ahead. Next an affirmation: knowing that beings cling to the aggregates, the sense-fields, and the elements 「但顛倒愚癡故」 tr. "only by reason of inversion and delusion", the bodhisattva therefore 「自立如幻師，為眾生說法」 tr. "sets himself up like a conjurer and teaches the Dharma for beings"—「慳者為說布施法，破戒者為說持戒法，瞋者為說忍辱法，懈怠者為說精進法，亂想者為說禪定法，愚癡者為說智慧法」 tr. "for the stingy he teaches the dharma of giving, for those who break morality he teaches the dharma of keeping morality, for the angry he teaches the dharma of patience, for the slack he teaches the dharma of vigour, for those of scattered thought he teaches the dharma of meditative concentration, for the deluded he teaches the dharma of wisdom". Six sicknesses and six medicines, each matched to each: this is where the setting-up of the six perfections comes from—it is not that six Dharma-gates hang there, but that six kinds of sickness call forth six kinds of medicine. After making beings abide in giving and so on up to wisdom, 「然後為說聖法能出苦」 tr. "he then proclaims for them the holy Dharma that can lead out of suffering"—first he settles their minds with worldly wholesome dharmas, afterwards he brings them out of suffering with the world-transcending holy Dharma; the sequence is plain. And the three Chinese characters 「如幻師」 tr. "like a conjurer" run all the way through: the medicine is truly given and the sickness truly cured, and yet the giver and the receiver are both unfindable.

13. Śāriputra's fourth difficulty—beings are without anything existent, yet they are taught and made to obtain the fruits: is this not being with something to be attained. Śāriputra restates it and challenges it: the bodhisattva 「得是眾生無所有」 tr. "has come to know that these beings are without anything existent", yet teaches them giving, keeping morality, and so on up to wisdom, then proclaims for them the holy Dharma that can lead out of suffering, and by this they obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. This difficulty is the deepest: the first three difficulties asked about dharmas, about knowing, about training; this difficulty asks about practice—if beings are from the first non-existent, would not all this teaching and transforming and realising of fruits be the bodhisattva himself falling into being with something to be attained? The contradiction between delivering beings and the meaning of emptiness is here laid open face to face.

14. The Buddha's answer—the continuity of empty dharmas is named a being; abiding in the two truths he teaches the Dharma for beings. The Buddha says decisively: 「菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜時，無有所得過罪。」 tr. "When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is practising prajñāpāramitā, there is no fault of being with something to be attained." Why? When practising prajñā, 「不得眾生，但空法相續故名為眾生」 tr. "he does not find beings; it is only that the continuity of empty dharmas is named a being"—a being is not some really existent thing that is delivered, nor is it that there is nothing at all to speak of; it is that empty dharmas continue without break, and this provisional name is set upon them. With this meaning established, there follows the most vital criterion of this chapter: 「菩薩摩訶薩住二諦中為眾生說法：世諦、第一義諦。」 tr. "The bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the two truths and teaches the Dharma for beings: worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning." In the truth of the highest meaning beings are unfindable; in worldly truth one teaches the Dharma and delivers beings by provisional name; the two truths go together, and so although one teaches the Dharma there is no fault of being with something to be attained. At the end it further proves this meaning by the content of what is taught: beings hearing the Dharma find that even 「今世吾我尚不可得」 tr. "I and self in this present life are unfindable", how much less the awakening that is to be obtained and the dharmas that are used—the Dharma taught itself dissolves the obtainer and the obtained; teaching the Dharma does not become being with something to be attained precisely because this is what is taught.

15. Śāriputra's praise—the mind is vast and great; with no dharma findable, he can yet take on the great adornment of the oath. Śāriputra here turns difficulty into praise: 「是菩薩摩訶薩心曠大！」 tr. "This bodhisattva-mahāsattva's mind is vast and great!" Not one dharma is findable—whether one mark, or a different mark, or a specific mark—and yet he can thus take on 「大誓莊嚴」 tr. "the great adornment of the oath". Because of this adornment he is not born in the realm of desire, the realm of form, or the formless realm, does not see the conditioned nature, does not see the unconditioned nature, and yet within the three realms he delivers beings and also does not find beings. The words of praise at once push out a further linked chain: beings are 「不縛不解」 tr. "neither bound nor released", and therefore without stain and without purity; being without stain and without purity, there is no discrimination of the five destinies; being without discrimination, they are without deeds and without afflictions; being without deeds and without afflictions, there should be no retribution, nor should they by retribution be born in the three realms. This chain is pushed to the utmost: it praises the bodhisattva's doing what is hard to do, and it also presses the question ‘are there after all beings to be delivered’ to its last layer—if one pushes on all the way down, the birth and death of the three realms would turn out to be set up in vain.

16. The Buddha's answer—if first existent and afterwards non-existent, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have fault; the marks of dharmas abide constantly and do not differ, and so, arousing the great oath, he does not retreat. The Buddha first seals it: 「如是！如是！如汝所言。」 tr. "Just so! Just so! It is as you say." Then at once he gives a turning word to break a possible one-sidedness: 「若眾生先有後無，諸佛、菩薩則有過罪。」 tr. "If beings were first existent and afterwards non-existent, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have fault." Dharmas and the birth and death of the five destinies are likewise. These words are the sharpest cut in the whole chapter: if the meaning of emptiness were understood as ‘originally existent and then emptied away’, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would become destroyers of beings, and the fault would be extremely great. So next he establishes the right meaning—「今有佛、無佛，諸法相常住不異」 tr. "now, whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, the marks of dharmas abide constantly and do not differ"; within this mark of dharmas there is already no self, no being, no life, and so on up to no knower and no seer, how much less form, feeling, perception, constructions, and consciousness. Since these dharmas do not exist, the going and coming of the five destinies and 「拔出眾生處」 tr. "a place where beings are pulled out" can none of them be established. Therefore 「諸法性常空」 tr. "the nature of dharmas is ever empty", and the bodhisattva, hearing this mark of dharmas from the buddhas of the past, arouses the intent of awakening: within it 「無有法我當得」 tr. "there is no dharma that I shall obtain", nor is there any dharma where beings definitely cling that cannot be left behind; 「但以眾生顛倒故著」 tr. "it is only by reason of beings' inversion that they cling". Since what is clung to is only inversion, he arouses the great adornment of the oath and 「常不退阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "constantly does not retreat from anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi"—the bodhisattva does not doubt whether he shall obtain it or not, but knows decisively 「我必當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "I shall certainly obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi", and having obtained it he 「用實法利益眾生，令出顛倒」 tr. "benefits beings with the real Dharma and makes them leave inversion". Emptiness without annihilation lies just here: what is removed is inversion, not beings. At the end the Buddha raises a simile and puts a question: it is as a conjurer conjures up hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of people, gives them all kinds of food and drink and makes them full, and, delighted, cries aloud 「我得大福！我得大福！」 tr. "I have obtained great merit! I have obtained great merit!"—and he asks Śāriputra: 「是中有人食飲飽滿不？」 tr. "Within this, has anyone eaten and drunk and been made full?"

17. The answer is No, and the Buddha concludes—making complete the bodhisattva path, and yet there is no dharma of beings to be delivered. Śāriputra answers: 「不也！世尊！」 tr. "No! World-Honored One!" The illusory people are without reality; though food and drink are given, no one is filled. The Buddha at once concludes on this: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, from the first arousing of intent onward, practises the six perfections, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless absorptions, the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, the fourteen emptinesses, the three gates of liberation, the eight liberations, the nine successive absorptions, the Buddha's ten powers and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; 「具足菩薩道，成就眾生、淨佛國土，無眾生法可度」 tr. "he makes complete the bodhisattva path, brings beings to accomplishment, and purifies buddha-lands, and there is no dharma of beings to be delivered". The simile of the conjurer here covers both sides: as regards the conjurer, the giving of food and drink is plainly not empty; as regards the illusory people, the reality of being filled is utterly unfindable. The bodhisattva's delivering of beings is just like this—in the matter of phenomena not one dharma is reduced; in principle not one person is found. And the five Chinese characters 「具足菩薩道」 tr. "makes complete the bodhisattva path" appear here once more, sealing from afar the answer in passage 2: what is called completeness is, from beginning to end, this kind of practice.

18. Subhūti asks again—what is the bodhisattva path, practising which one can bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands. Here the questioner changes: Subhūti says to the Buddha: 「何等是菩薩摩訶薩道？菩薩行是道，能成就眾生、淨佛國土？」 tr. "What is the path of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva? Does the bodhisattva, practising this path, become able to bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands?" The first half of the text pressed out, through Śāriputra's four difficulties, the conclusion in principle—there are no beings to be delivered; the latter half is taken up by Subhūti, who asks the route in practice—then what after all is this 「道」 tr. "path", and how is it walked. The two questions, of principle and of practice, belong to two people, and the structure of the sūtra text turns at this point.

19. The Buddha's answer—from the first arousing of intent he practises the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas. The Buddha's answer is extremely plain: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, 「從初發意已來，行檀波羅蜜，行尸羅、羼提、毘梨耶、禪、般若波羅蜜，乃至行十八不共法，成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "from the first arousing of intent onward, practises dānapāramitā, practises śīla, kṣānti, vīrya, dhyāna, and prajñāpāramitā, and so on up to practising the eighteen unshared dharmas; he brings beings to accomplishment and purifies buddha-lands". He does not set up some extraordinary path of another kind—asked ‘what is the bodhisattva path’, he still answers with these few old dharmas. One can see that the meaning of 「具足」 tr. "completeness" established above, when it comes down to practice, does not change the dharmas practised; it changes only the eye of the person practising them.

20. Subhūti asks separately about dānapāramitā—how does one practise dāna and bring beings to accomplishment. Subhūti does not ask broadly about the six perfections but singles out the first perfection: 「云何菩薩摩訶薩行檀波羅蜜成就眾生？」 tr. "How does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva practise dānapāramitā and bring beings to accomplishment?" It is a question that enters deeply by one gate. All the Buddha's extended explanation below arises from this one question, right to the end of this unit—and this is just where the bulk of this unit lies: of the six perfections only dāna is spoken of, and yet the one gate of dāna already gathers in all the other perfections.

21. The Buddha's extended explanation, one—giving by himself and teaching giving while not finding the three things, gathering in with the four things, and urging them to arouse the mind of awakening. In answering this question, the Buddha first says that the bodhisattva 「自布施，亦教眾生布施」 tr. "himself gives and also teaches beings to give", and within the teaching first breaks the clinging of those taught: 「汝等莫著布施！汝著布施故當更受身，受身故多受眾苦。」 tr. "Do not cling to giving! Because you cling to giving, you will receive a body again; because of receiving a body, you will receive much suffering." Next he tells them why—「諸法相中無所施、無施者、無受者，是三法性皆空」 tr. "within the marks of dharmas there is no thing given, no giver, no recipient; the nature of these three dharmas is all empty", and 「是性空法不可取，不可取相是性空」 tr. "this dharma of the emptiness of nature cannot be grasped, and the mark of what cannot be grasped is the emptiness of nature". Therefore when the bodhisattva practises dāna he gives to beings and yet 「不得布施、不得施者、不得受者」 tr. "does not find the giving, does not find the giver, does not find the recipient", and he explains its name for himself: 「無所得檀波羅蜜是名為檀波羅蜜。」 tr. "Dānapāramitā with nothing to be attained is named dānapāramitā." Precisely because he does not find the three dharmas, he can teach beings and make them obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the fruit of arhat, the pratyekabuddha path, and anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. Next he speaks of the four marks of this practice—himself practising giving, teaching others to practise giving, praising the dharma of giving, rejoicing in and praising those who practise giving: the four marks of urging and following, for himself and for others, are all complete. Next he speaks of the use of its retribution: being born in a great kṣatriya clan, a great brahmin clan, or a great householder family, or becoming a minor king, or becoming a wheel-turning sage king, 「以四事攝取眾生。何等四？布施、愛語、利行、同事」 tr. "he gathers in beings with the four things. What are the four? Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared endeavour"—the retribution is not for enjoyment; it is the means of gathering in beings. Having gathered them in, he makes beings little by little abide in morality, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurable minds, the four formless absorptions, the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path, and the emptiness, signless, and non-action samādhis, obtain entry into the right position and realise the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the fruit of arhat and the pratyekabuddha path, or he teaches them so that they obtain awakening, and spurs them on with one word: 「是阿耨多羅三藐三菩提易得耳！」 tr. "This anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is simply easy to obtain!" Why does he say it is easy? 「無有定法眾生所著處，但顛倒故眾生著」 tr. "There is not one fixed dharma that is a place where beings cling; it is only by reason of inversion that beings cling"—what should be removed is only inversion; there is from the first no real dharma to be broken; therefore he says it is easy. At the end he urges benefit for both self and others: 「汝當自離生死，亦當教他離生死」 tr. "You should yourselves leave birth and death, and should also teach others to leave birth and death".

22. The Buddha's extended explanation, two—the retribution of practising dāna is constantly to be a wheel-turning sage king; seeing those who beg, he begrudges nothing. Next it makes clear the long-range retribution of practising dāna: by the causes and conditions of practising dāna, from the first arousing of intent onward he 「終不墮惡道，常作轉輪聖王」 tr. "never, from beginning to end, falls into the evil destinies, and constantly becomes a wheel-turning sage king"; the reason is that 「隨其所種，得大果報」 tr. "according to the cause he has planted, he obtains great retribution". And in receiving this kingship the bodhisattva has his own thought: 「我不為餘事故受轉輪聖王果，但為利益一切眾生故。」 tr. "I have not received the fruit of a wheel-turning sage king for any other matter; it is only for the sake of benefiting all beings." So on seeing those who beg he says: 「此是汝物，汝自取之，莫有所難，我無所惜！」 tr. "This is your thing; take it yourself, do not hesitate, I begrudge nothing!" And he states for himself why he can begrudge nothing—「我為眾生故受生死，憐愍汝等故具足大悲。」 tr. "For the sake of beings I receive birth and death; out of pity for you I am complete with great compassion." Practising great compassion he benefits beings, and yet he 「不得實定眾生相」 tr. "does not find a real, fixed mark of beings"; it is only because there is a provisional name that one can speak of beings; 「是名字亦空，如嚮聲，實不可說相」 tr. "this name too is empty, like the sound of an echo, and its mark is in truth unspeakable". The simile of the echo continues the earlier simile of the conjurer: the one makes clear that what is delivered is not real, the other that the name which speaks is not real either. At the end it pushes to the utmost: among beings he begrudges nothing, 「乃至不惜自身肌肉，何況外物」 tr. "even to not begrudging the flesh of his own body, how much less outer things"; and what can bring beings out of birth and death is not the gift of wealth alone, but the six perfections dāna, śīla, kṣānti, vīrya, dhyāna, and prajñā, and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas. That 「法」 tr. "dharma" beyond the gift of wealth, the sūtra text here makes plain.

23. The Buddha's extended explanation, three—abiding in dāna, he supplies what they lack and makes them keep morality. The five passages below are all 「住檀波羅蜜中」 tr. "abiding within dānapāramitā" while making beings cultivate the other perfections; this is where this unit most shows the bodhisattva's hand and eye. The first passage makes them keep morality: having given, the bodhisattva says to them: 「汝等來持戒，我當供給汝等，令無乏短」 tr. "Come and keep morality; I shall supply you, so that you have no lack or shortage", and clothing, food, bedding, and so on up to the things needed to sustain life, he will give them all. The reason, the sūtra text states most down-to-earth—「汝等乏少故破戒」 tr. "You break morality because of lack and shortage". The cause of breaking morality is not necessarily in the mind and not in the body; under the press of hunger and cold, keeping morality is hard to accomplish; so first he removes their lack, afterwards he makes them abide in the restraint of the precepts, and 「漸漸當得盡苦，成於三乘而得度脫」 tr. "little by little they shall end suffering, accomplish the three vehicles, and be delivered". Supporting morality with wealth: this is the first meaning of the bodhisattva's gathering in morality with dāna.

24. The Buddha's extended explanation, four—abiding in dāna, he removes their wanting and makes them practise patience. The second passage makes them patient. Seeing beings angry and vexed, the bodhisattva first asks their causes and conditions and first grants what they need: 「我當與汝所須；汝等所欲，從我取之」 tr. "I shall give you what you need; whatever you want, take it from me"—again first removing their lack. Only then does he teach the principle of patience: 「一切法中無有堅實，汝等所瞋，是因緣空無堅實」 tr. "Within all dharmas there is nothing firm and substantial; that at which you are angry—its causes and conditions are empty and without firm substance", all born from false recollection and imagining; 「汝無有根本」 tr. "you have no root". Next he shows the fruit of their anger: anger ruins the mind, they revile with evil mouths, set upon one another with knives and staves, even to taking life, and by this fall into the hells, among the animals, among the hungry ghosts, and into the other evil destinies, receiving immeasurable suffering; and so on, by these sinful deeds they 「尚不得人身，何況得生佛世」 tr. "will not even obtain a human body, how much less be born in the age of a Buddha". Next he spurs them with the thought of what is hard to obtain: 「佛世難值、人身難得，汝等莫失好時！若失好時，則不可救。」 tr. "The age of a Buddha is hard to meet, a human body is hard to obtain; do not lose the good time! If you lose the good time, you cannot be saved." And the bodhisattva himself still has the four marks of practising himself, teaching others, praising, and rejoicing all complete, making beings abide in patience and 「漸以三乘得盡眾苦」 tr. "little by little by the three vehicles end all suffering". First giving things and afterwards giving the Dharma; the previous passage cured lack, this passage cures anger—the things given are the same, the sickness cured is different.

25. The Buddha's extended explanation, five—abiding in dāna, he completes their causes and conditions and makes them vigorous. The third passage makes them vigorous. The bodhisattva, seeing beings slack, asks 「汝等何以懈怠」 tr. "Why are you slack?", and beings answer 「因緣少故」 tr. "Because our causes and conditions are few". This answer is most honest: slackness is not necessarily all laziness of mind; a lack of means too makes a person's resolve sink. The bodhisattva at once grants it: 「我當令汝因緣具足，若布施、若持戒、若忍辱。」 tr. "I shall make your causes and conditions complete, whether giving, or keeping morality, or patience." By the causes and conditions of obtaining this benefit, beings have vigour of body, vigour of speech, and vigour of mind; because of vigour in the three places of body, speech, and mind, 「一切善法具足，修聖無漏法」 tr. "all wholesome dharmas are complete, and they train in the noble dharmas without outflows", and thereby obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the fruit of arhat, the pratyekabuddha path, and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. The sūtra text here says plainly that the bodhisattva 「住精進波羅蜜，攝取眾生」 tr. "abides in the vigour pāramitā and gathers in beings"—his person is practising dāna, and yet what he abides in is vigour: this is precisely the mark of one gate gathering in all gates.

26. The Buddha sets up a question himself—within practising dāna, how does one make them cultivate meditation. For the question of the fourth passage, the sūtra text brings out a separate interrogative sentence: 「須菩提！云何菩薩摩訶薩行檀波羅蜜時，教化眾生令修禪波羅蜜？」 tr. "Subhūti! How does the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, when practising dānapāramitā, teach and transform beings and make them cultivate dhyānapāramitā?" The first three passages the Buddha spoke continuously, one after another; here the Buddha sets up a question himself and then answers it himself, and the flow of the text pauses. The place where it pauses is just where it turns from outer matters into the inner mind—giving, keeping morality, patience, and vigour still have outward matters to draw on; meditative concentration belongs purely to inward gathering, and so it is asked separately and answered separately.

27. The Buddha's answer—giving them causes and conditions so that the mind does not follow initial and sustained thought; they enter the four dhyānas and the four immeasurables and never lose the path. The bodhisattva, seeing beings with scattered minds, urges them to cultivate meditative concentration, and beings again answer 「我等因緣不具足故」 tr. "Because our causes and conditions are not complete". The bodhisattva says: 「我當與汝等作因緣，以是因緣故，令汝心不隨覺觀，亦不馳散。」 tr. "I shall make causes and conditions for you; by reason of these causes and conditions, your minds will not follow initial and sustained thought, nor run off scattered." By reason of these causes and conditions beings sever initial and sustained thought, enter the first dhyāna, the second dhyāna, the third dhyāna, and the fourth dhyāna, and practise the minds of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; again, with these dhyānas and immeasurable minds as causes and conditions, they can cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness and so on up to the eightfold noble path; when cultivating the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, 「漸入三乘而得涅槃，終不失道」 tr. "little by little they enter the three vehicles and obtain nirvāṇa, never, from beginning to end, losing the path". Dhyāna does not stop at dhyāna—from dhyāna one enters the limbs of the path, from the limbs of the path one enters the three vehicles; the thread is clear. And what the bodhisattva does is still only the three Chinese characters 「作因緣」 tr. "make causes and conditions": he cannot enter concentration on another's behalf; he can only remove the obstacles to their entering concentration.

28. The Buddha's extended explanation, six—abiding in dāna, he gives them the means of wisdom and makes them reflect that in prajñā there is no dharma to be found. The fifth passage makes them cultivate wisdom. Beings answer 「因緣未具故」 tr. "Because our causes and conditions are not yet complete", and the bodhisattva at once says that the means of wisdom they need may be taken from him, 「所謂布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、入禪定」 tr. "namely giving, keeping morality, patience, vigour, and entering meditative concentration"—the first five perfections are precisely the provisions for wisdom, and this sentence tells out the whole sequence of the six perfections at once. When the causes and conditions are complete, he then teaches them to reflect: when reflecting on prajñāpāramitā, is there any dharma that can be found? Can self, beings, a life, and so on up to a knower and a seer be found? Can form, feeling, perception, constructions, consciousness, the three realms, the six perfections, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the fruit of srota-āpanna, sakṛdāgāmin, anāgāmin, the fruit of arhat, the pratyekabuddha path, and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi be found? When reflecting thus, within prajñāpāramitā 「無有法可得可著處」 tr. "there is no dharma that can be found, no place that can be clung to"; because they do not cling to dharmas they do not see that dharmas have arising and ceasing, have stain and purity, and they also do not discriminate hells, animals, hungry ghosts, the host of asuras, gods, humans; keeping morality, breaking morality; srota-āpanna, sakṛdāgāmin, anāgāmin, arhat, pratyekabuddha, Buddha. The content that this passage has beings reflect on for themselves is precisely the meaning of the Buddha's answers to Śāriputra in the first half of this unit—in the first half the Buddha spoke it for Śāriputra; here the bodhisattva has beings reflect on it themselves: the principle is the same and the position different.

29. The Buddha's extended explanation, seven—benefiting beings with the requisites of offering, he makes them cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path. Next it gathers up in general the other perfections and the limbs of the path: the bodhisattva abides within dānapāramitā and 「以供養具利益眾生」 tr. "benefits beings with the requisites of offering"; by the causes and conditions of this benefit beings can cultivate 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, and the eightfold noble path; practising these thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, they 「於生死中得解脫」 tr. "obtain liberation within birth and death". The sūtra text concludes it: 「菩薩摩訶薩以無漏聖法攝取眾生」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva gathers in beings with the holy Dharma without outflows"—the requisites of offering are things with outflows, while the dharma into which beings are gathered is the holy Dharma without outflows. Leading practice without outflows by means with outflows: here the use of dānapāramitā reaches its utmost.

30. The Buddha's extended explanation, eight—he has them take the things they need and in turn gather in beings, with benefit, ease, and happiness through the long night. A layer further: the bodhisattva not only gives things to people, but also has the recipients take these things and go to gather in others—「汝等從我取所須物」 tr. "Take from me the things you need", food and drink, clothing, bedding, incense and flowers, and so on up to the seven jewels and the various other things needed to sustain life—「汝當以是攝取眾生」 tr. "you should gather in beings with these". And he breaks beforehand their thought of keeping themselves outside: they are not to have this thought, 「是物非我所有」 tr. "these things are not mine", because 「我長夜為眾生故，集此諸物」 tr. "through the long night, for the sake of beings, I have accumulated these things", and so 「汝等當取是物，如己物無異」 tr. "you should take these things as no different from your own things". The recipient turns into a giver, and the one matter of giving thus does not end in one person's hands. What they are taught is still giving and so on up to wisdom, the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path, the Buddha's ten powers and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas, and the fruit of the dharma without outflows, and what is hoped for is 「令得離三惡道及一切生死往來苦」 tr. "to make them leave the three evil destinies and all the suffering of going and coming in birth and death".

31. The Buddha's extended explanation, nine—abiding in śīlapāramitā, he makes them practise the ten wholesome paths; the other four perfections are likewise. The final passage turns out of dānapāramitā and into śīla: the bodhisattva abides in śīlapāramitā and teaches and transforms beings, still first asking what they lack—「汝等少何因緣故破戒？」 tr. "For lack of what causes and conditions do you break morality?"—and still first granting them complete causes and conditions, 「若布施乃至智慧及種種資生所須」 tr. "whether giving and so on up to wisdom, and the various things needed to sustain life". Then he benefits beings, 「令行十善，遠離十不善道」 tr. "makes them practise the ten wholesome paths and be far from the ten unwholesome paths", makes them keep the precepts and 「不破戒、不缺戒、不濁戒、不雜戒、不取戒」 tr. "not break the precepts, not let the precepts be deficient, not let the precepts be turbid, not let the precepts be mixed, not grasp at the precepts", and 「漸以三乘而得盡苦」 tr. "little by little by the three vehicles end suffering". At the end, with one sentence it extends to all the perfections: 「尸羅波羅蜜為首，如檀波羅蜜說，餘四波羅蜜亦如是。」 tr. "With śīlapāramitā as the head, it is as was said of dānapāramitā; the other four pāramitās are likewise." One perfection is explained at length, and the other five are known by analogy—the sūtra text of this unit stops here; the Buddha's extended explanation is not yet ended, but its pattern is already sufficient.

Do Not Misread

Do not read 「照明」 tr. "illumination" as another dharma. The 「照明」 tr. "Illumination" of the chapter title has its fixed place in the sūtra text: 「不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜，是則照明菩薩道。」 tr. "Not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā: this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path." Illumination is not a further perfection added outside the six perfections, nor is it a kind of light obtained separately after the dharmas have been practised to the full; it is just that share of clarity, in the very moment of practising dharmas, that does not fall to the two sides of existence and non-existence. So the Buddha goes on to say 「菩薩以方便力故具足菩薩道」 tr. "by reason of the power of skilful means the bodhisattva makes complete the bodhisattva path"—illumination and completeness are two ways of saying one and the same matter, not two layers in sequence.

Do not read 「不得施、不得施者、不得受者」 tr. "not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient" as there being no need to give. The sūtra text immediately adds the sentence 「亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā" precisely to prevent this error. The three things not being found is said of their emptiness of nature; the practice of dāna not being abandoned is said of their provisional names; if because of not finding one abandons the practice, one falls to the side of annihilation that the later text of the sūtra breaks. That whole long passage in the latter half of this unit explaining the practice of dāna at length—giving by oneself, teaching giving, supplying what they lack, giving what they need, even to not begrudging the flesh of one's own body—is the entire commentary on the three Chinese characters 「不遠離」 tr. "not being far from": the one who speaks most emptily acts most solidly.

Do not read 「無眾生法可度」 tr. "there is no dharma of beings to be delivered" as there being no need to deliver beings. Only after the Buddha himself has said that one makes complete the bodhisattva path and 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "brings beings to accomplishment and purifies buddha-lands" does he go on to 「無眾生法可度」 tr. "there is no dharma of beings to be delivered"; the simile of the conjurer is the same—that the illusory people are not filled is true, and yet the giving of food and drink is plainly there. The sūtra text further blocks this error from the reverse side: 「若眾生先有後無，諸佛、菩薩則有過罪。」 tr. "If beings were first existent and afterwards non-existent, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have fault." If emptiness is understood as emptying beings away, the buddhas and bodhisattvas become destroyers of beings. What is removed is inversion, not beings.

Do not read 「見諸法無性」 tr. "seeing that dharmas are without nature" as leave to stop. The very first thing the sūtra text blocks is just this: the bodhisattva 「不見諸法根本住中退沒、生懈怠心」 tr. "does not, on seeing the root of dharmas, halt there in retreat and sinking and give rise to a mind of slackness". To abide within the root of dharmas and retreat, sink, and grow slack is a misstep peculiar to the gate of emptiness—not falling into evil, but falling into doing nothing. Right after this the sūtra text joins on the various teachings of 「自立如幻師」 tr. "setting himself up like a conjurer", precisely so that people will know: the movement after seeing non-nature is not stopping but rising.

Do not read 「是阿耨多羅三藐三菩提易得耳」 tr. "this anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is simply easy to obtain" as a light and slighting mind. These words have their reason: 「無有定法眾生所著處，但顛倒故眾生著。」 tr. "There is not one fixed dharma that is a place where beings cling; it is only by reason of inversion that beings cling." The ease lies in what is to be broken being only inversion, there being from the first no real dharma to oppose; it does not lie in the work of practice being reducible. In the same passage, immediately after, comes 「汝當自離生死，亦當教他離生死」 tr. "you should yourselves leave birth and death, and should also teach others to leave birth and death"—ease is spoken of to break the timid and weak mind, not to open the door to slackness.

Do not read the teaching of the Dharma while abiding in the two truths as the provisional and the real being two separate stakes. The sūtra text says 「菩薩摩訶薩住二諦中為眾生說法：世諦、第一義諦」 tr. "the bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the two truths and teaches the Dharma for beings: worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning"—it is 「住二諦中」 tr. "abiding within the two truths", not sometimes abiding in this and sometimes in that. If the two truths are cut into two pieces, then when teaching worldly truth one would truly take beings to be findable, and when teaching the highest meaning one would truly take it that there is no Dharma to teach; the mark the sūtra text shows is that, within one and the same teaching of the Dharma, the provisional name is plainly there and yet in reality unfindable; therefore it says 「無有所得過罪」 tr. "there is no fault of being with something to be attained".

Bearing on Practice

When practising any wholesome dharma, check both ends at the same time: ‘are the three things found?’ and ‘is one far from it?’. After giving, keeping morality, listening to the Dharma, or doing work, when the matter is done one may well ask oneself two questions: does the mind still keep a mark of I give, he receives, this thing?—this is the sickness of finding the three things; and, having grown used to hearing of the emptiness of nature, has one done what should be done more thinly, more coldly?—this is the sickness of being far from it. The place to set one's hand to the illumination of the bodhisattva path is nowhere else; it is just that share of unbiased clarity between these two sicknesses.

Recognise the distinction between ordinary people and sages by 「但以顛倒心故」 tr. "it is only by reason of an inverted mind", not by searching in dharmas. Seeing one's own afflictions present, there is no need to suspect that one's own nature truly has an ordinary person's bedrock; seeing another practise the path with strength, there is also no need to put it down to an inborn difference of lineage. The sūtra text says plainly that the form at which ordinary people cling is without nature and without substance, and exists 「但以顛倒心故」 tr. "only by reason of an inverted mind". What can be turned is inversion, and this is just why practice is possible—put the distinction of ordinary and sage back onto delusion and awakening, and effort has a footing.

Seeing non-nature, rise to practice; do not, seeing non-nature, stop. When one's work begins to gain some strength, it is easiest to give rise to a flavour of ‘since it is ultimate emptiness, why make so much ado’; the sūtra text has long since named this sickness 「住中退沒、生懈怠心」 tr. "halting there in retreat and sinking and giving rise to a mind of slackness". The remedy lies in the same passage—after seeing that there is nothing existent and that the nature is ever empty, what the bodhisattva does is 「自立如幻師，為眾生說法」 tr. "set himself up like a conjurer and teach the Dharma for beings". So whenever one feels the state of mind turning emptier and practice in deed turning lazier, that is exactly the time to rise into function.

In working together with people and in teaching people to practise, first remove their lack, then give them the Dharma. The five passages of extended explanation in this unit all follow one pattern: beings answer 「因緣少故」 tr. "because our causes and conditions are few", 「我等因緣不具足故」 tr. "because our causes and conditions are not complete", 「因緣未具故」 tr. "because our causes and conditions are not yet complete", and the bodhisattva in every case first grants what they need and then teaches them right practice. Urging people to practise today is the same—when a person has present lack, anger, scatteredness, or not-knowing, first give him a condition in which he can settle, and only then can the Dharma be heard. Not first removing the lack and yet blaming him for not progressing is not understanding the use of dānapāramitā.

Whoever receives kindness from others in turn becomes a giver. The sūtra text has those who receive giving take what they received and go to gather in others, and first breaks their thought 「是物非我所有」 tr. "these things are not mine". All who obtain the Dharma or things from teachers and elders, from a place of practice, or from others may conduct themselves accordingly: there is no need to feel ashamed at receiving, nor may one stop at receiving; take it as one's own and pass it on to others—only then does the line of giving not end with oneself.

Settle one's resolve by 「我必當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "I shall certainly obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". The sūtra text says that the bodhisattva does not doubt 「我當不得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "shall I be unable to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi?" but knows decisively that he will certainly obtain it. This is not overweening pride—what it rests on is precisely that the nature of dharmas is ever empty and that what beings cling to is only inversion, so that there is no one dharma that can decisively obstruct me. That one's resolve can be settled lies exactly in seeing that no dharma has fixed nature.

Further Resonances

The one unit of the First Part has the sūtra without the treatise; it sets up the entire sūtra framework of the chapter "Illumination". At the opening comes Subhūti's one question—the dharmas and practices all present and yet the path not complete, awakening is still unfindable; the Buddha, with the one sentence 「不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā", fixes the meaning of 「照明」 tr. "illumination", and at once seals that illumination is completeness with 「具足已，能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "having made it complete, he can obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". In the middle section Śāriputra's four difficulties go deeper layer by layer—how does one train in it, how does one train, how are ordinary people and sages known, how are beings who are without anything existent delivered—and the Buddha gathers them in with four answers: not destroying and not following, not grasping dharmas, only by reason of an inverted mind, and teaching the Dharma while abiding in the two truths; and with the one simile of a conjurer conjuring hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭi of people he illumines both phenomena and principle together: the setting-out is plainly there, and yet no one is filled. In the latter section Subhūti asks again about the bodhisattva path, and the Buddha does not set up a separate new dharma but takes dānapāramitā alone and explains it at length to the end: giving by oneself, teaching giving, praising giving, rejoicing in giving; gathering in with the four things; constantly being a sage king and begrudging nothing; abiding in dāna, making them keep morality, making them patient, making them vigorous, making them cultivate meditation, making them cultivate wisdom; making them cultivate the limbs of the path with the requisites of offering; making the recipients turn into givers; and at the end, with abiding in śīla to make them practise the ten wholesome paths and with the one sentence 「餘四波羅蜜亦如是」 tr. "the other four pāramitās are likewise", it extends to all the perfections. Emptiness without abandoning practice, practice without clinging to marks—the First Part has set this one principle firmly in the sūtra text. As for how the treatise-author explains this sūtra following its text—why illumination and completeness are one meaning, where the fault of the two sides lies, the fourfold explanation of not destroying and not following, why the nature of form is non-existent, why beyond the six perfections the superior dharma is further spoken of, the distinction between the initial dharma and the superior dharma, why within the two truths one teaches neither only emptiness nor only existence, together with the six rounds of question and answer the treatise-author sets up for himself and the various similes that follow the text—the Last Part of this chapter unfolds it in continuation; here it is not anticipated.

Illumination, Last Part: Illumination and Completeness Are One Meaning, Not Destroying and Not Following Form, the Prajñā without Grasping, Teaching the Dharma in the Two Truths and the Vast and Great Mind, the Simile of the Conjurer, and the Path of Bringing Beings to Accomplishment and Purifying Buddha-lands

What Is Being Asked

The First Part is sūtra; the Last Part is treatise. The sūtra passage of the First Part is made up of questions and answers taken in turn among three parties, Subhūti, Śāriputra, and the Buddha: first Subhūti asks 「菩薩摩訶薩當云何具足菩薩道」 tr. "how should the bodhisattva-mahāsattva make complete the bodhisattva path", and the Buddha answers him that practising dāna by the power of skilful means while not finding the giving, not finding the giver, and not finding the recipient is named the illumination of the bodhisattva path; then Śāriputra turns to ask about training in prajñā, and the Buddha answers with not destroying form and not following form; again he asks how dharmas without nature can be trained in, how it can be known that there are ordinary people and so on up to there being a Buddha, and how what has nothing to be attained can cause beings to have something to be attained; at the last Subhūti asks again about the path of bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands, and the Buddha answers that the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas are precisely the bodhisattva path, and concludes it with the simile of the conjurer. The Last Part is the treatise-author explaining this whole passage sentence by sentence as it goes.

So in the Last Part there is no new sūtra text, only one thing: taking apart the three places in the sūtra text of the First Part that are most easily misread. The first place is in the two Chinese characters 「照明」 tr. "illumination". The sūtra says that practising dāna by the power of skilful means and not finding the three things is named the illumination of the bodhisattva path; the text below further says that by the power of skilful means one makes complete the bodhisattva path. Are illumination and completeness two different things? The treatise-author's very first sentence fixes it firmly: illumination and completeness are one meaning. Only once it is fixed can the content of the power of skilful means be spoken—it is not that there is a separate ability called skilful means; it is not falling to either of the two sides, 「決定得」 tr. "definitely finding" and ‘not finding at all’. The second place is in 「不壞、不隨」 tr. "not destroying, not following". Destroying and following look like an ordinary pair of words, yet the treatise-author explains them along two separate roads: not destroying is not pronouncing form to be impermanent, empty, and without anything existent; not following is not following what the eye sees and so grasping at marks and giving rise to clinging. The former guards against the fault of entering emptiness by destroying its marks; the latter guards against the fault of following what the eye sees and grasping at marks. The third place is in 「成就眾生」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment". All dharmas are empty of nature and beings too are empty of nature; then who is it that is brought to accomplishment? The treatise-author does not answer from principle; he answers from practice—beginning from teaching people not to cling to giving, he speaks all the way on to supplying those who sit in meditation with clothing, food and drink, a meditation ball, and a meditation prop, setting down the four Chinese characters 「成就眾生」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment" as things that can be done one by one.

Within the treatise section there are also six sets of questions and answers, questions the treatise-author sets for himself. Of what the six questions ask, not one is a general discussion: the first asks why Subhūti asks again; the second asks what more superior dharma there is beyond the six perfections; the third asks how the simile of the conjurer can hold; the fourth asks how those who are angry because people do not suit their wishes can be supplied to the full; the fifth asks why, the five perfections having been spoken of, the six perfections are spoken of again; the sixth asks how, since the thirty-seven limbs of the path come forth from the mind, they can be said to be causes and conditions that can be given. Strung together, the six questions are exactly one line running from principle into practice.

The treatise section also has two similes. One is the simile of the conjurer that the sūtra text already has; the treatise-author makes the matching for it—the conjurer is the bodhisattva, the gardens, huts, and pavilions are the dharmas of the six perfections for delivering beings, the elephants, horses, men, and women are the beings delivered; and he blocks a difficulty raised against it: the conjurer himself is still empty, so how can he serve as a simile? The other is the simile of the haunted room that the treatise-author adds himself: two guest monks each take the other for a ghost, and on either side of the door they fight each other until dawn, and only on seeing each other's faces do they find that they are old fellow-students. This simile is not in the sūtra text; the treatise-author sets it up for 「五眾無我、無人，空取相致鬪諍」 tr. "within the five aggregates there is no self and no person; vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife". The most vivid passage of the whole unit is here, and the heaviest passage is here too—what follows right after the simile is a long string: a human body is hard to obtain, the age of a Buddha hard to meet, and those in the eight difficulties cannot be taught and transformed.

So what is to be read in the Last Part is a line that begins from ‘illumination is completeness’ and ends at 「如布施為首生五波羅蜜」 tr. "as giving, being the head, gives birth to the five perfections": the first half speaks of principle, and the principle lies in being free of the two sides; the second half speaks of practice, and the practice lies in bringing beings to accomplishment. And the reason principle and practice are one matter lies in the three Chinese characters 「方便力」 tr. "the power of skilful means".

Passage by Passage

1. The treatise-author's first self-set question: why ask again. The opening of the treatise section is not an explanation of the text but the setting of a difficulty: 「先說『菩薩行六波羅蜜等諸助道法，不具足菩薩道，則不能得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提』，今須菩提應自知『行六波羅蜜等，具足菩薩道，應得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提』，何以更問？」 tr. "It has already been said earlier: ‘If a bodhisattva practises the six perfections and the other dharmas that aid the path but does not make complete the bodhisattva path, he cannot obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi’; now Subhūti ought himself to know ‘practising the six perfections and the rest, and making complete the bodhisattva path, one should obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi’—why then does he ask again?" First ask a question: where does the difficulty of this difficulty lie? It lies in the sūtra's question seeming already to contain its answer—since it has been said that without making it complete one cannot obtain, then conversely it follows naturally that making it complete one can obtain; why must Subhūti ask once more? The treatise-author brings this ‘seeming’ forward precisely so that the reader will not slide past it. Here the treatise's way of explaining the sūtra can be seen: first it voices the question on the reader's behalf, and then it answers. Without this question, the answer of the next passage would have nothing to be tied to.

2. Answer: what is asked lies in making complete, not in obtaining. The treatise-author answers: 「須菩提不疑『云何得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提』，今但問『云何具足菩薩道，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提』。」 tr. "Subhūti is not in doubt about ‘how one obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi’; what he now asks is only ‘how one makes complete the bodhisattva path and so obtains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi’." In one sentence he picks out where the question lies: what Subhūti wants to ask is not the fruit but how to walk the whole of the stretch of road that leads to the fruit. What is in doubt lies in the two Chinese characters 「具足」 tr. "make complete", not in the Chinese character 「得」 tr. "obtain". This is the treatise's standard way of distinguishing questions—within one sentence there are two topics; first make clear which one is asked, and the answer will not be out of place. All the explanations of the treatise in the text below are tied to this: what the whole passage explains is the dharma of making complete, not the mark of obtaining the fruit.

3. Taking up the Buddha's answer: the content of the power of skilful means. The treatise-author takes up the Buddha's words: 「用六波羅蜜等諸法，以方便力和合故能行；是時，具足菩薩道。方便力者，不決定得是布施等三事，亦不離是三事，行檀波羅蜜；是時，照明菩薩道。」 tr. "Employing the six perfections and the other dharmas, one is able to practise because they come together by the power of skilful means; at that time, one makes complete the bodhisattva path. The power of skilful means is this: not definitely finding the three things of giving and the rest, and yet not departing from these three things, one practises dānapāramitā; at that time, this is the illumination of the bodhisattva path." What matters most in this passage is the definition from 「方便力者」 tr. "the power of skilful means is this" onward. Skilful means is not a separate dharma; it is an attitude toward the three things: on the one side not finding them definitely, on the other side not departing from them. 「三事」 tr. "The three things" are the giving, the giver, and the recipient listed in the sūtra text of the First Part. The former phrase guards against their becoming real; the latter guards against their becoming non-existent. Only when the two phrases stand together is it one skilful means. One should also note: within the Buddha's words, completeness and illumination are spoken of as tied to two separate places—when they come together and one is able to practise, it is called completeness; when one does not find and yet does not depart, it is called illumination. This is the ground on which the treatise-author in the next passage joins them together.

4. Illumination and completeness are one meaning—free of the two sides, giving is then accomplished. The treatise-author next lays down a verdict: 「照明、具足是一義。」 tr. "Illumination and completeness are one meaning." How does he dare to join them? Because what the two point to are two faces of the same matter: being able to be free of the two sides, it is called illumination; being free of the two sides so that the six perfections are accomplished, it is called completeness. Having joined and fixed them, the treatise-author then explains the reason along two roads, the negative and the positive. The negative, two roads: 「若菩薩決定得布施等三事，直墮常顛倒、取相著法等過罪」 tr. "If a bodhisattva definitely finds the three things of giving and the rest, he falls straight into the inversion of permanence and the faults of grasping at marks, clinging to dharmas, and the rest"—this side is existence; 「若不得是三事，則墮斷滅邊，著空，還起邪見等諸煩惱，便離菩薩道」 tr. "if he does not find these three things, he falls to the side of annihilation, clings to emptiness, and on the contrary gives rise to wrong views and the various other afflictions, and so parts from the bodhisattva path"—this side is non-existence. Note the phrase 「著空，還起邪見等諸煩惱」 tr. "clings to emptiness, and on the contrary gives rise to wrong views and the various other afflictions": clinging to emptiness does not make the afflictions fewer; on the contrary it raises a further kind of affliction—this is the treatise's consistent verdict on the sickness of emptiness. The positive road then speaks of the actual way of being free of the two sides: 「因空捨是施等假名字虛誑法，因諸法實相離是著空無施者、無受者」 tr. "because of emptiness he gives up giving and the rest, which are false and deceptive dharmas that are only provisional names; because of the real mark of all dharmas he parts from this clinging to emptiness that holds there is no giver and no recipient"; the Chinese character 「因」 tr. "because of", occurring twice, each time has what it faces—because of emptiness, to break their reality; because of the real mark, to break their emptiness. At the end it is gathered in with 「如阿耨多羅三藐三菩提相，觀是布施亦爾無異」 tr. "as the mark of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is, so he contemplates this giving too, without difference": the mark of giving and the mark of awakening are seen in one and the same way. Only at this point does he draw the conclusion: 「如是布施名為具足。」 tr. "Giving such as this is named complete." And he extends it to everything with 「乃至十八不共法亦如是」 tr. "and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas: it is likewise".

5. Why Śāriputra asks about training in prajñā. The treatise-author explains the occasion of Śāriputra's question: 「舍利弗在會中，聞佛與須菩提說：『般若甚深果報，大有利益。』雖有利益，無決定性，云何可習？」 tr. "Śāriputra, in the assembly, heard the Buddha say to Subhūti: ‘The retribution of the very deep prajñā is of great benefit.’ Though there is benefit, there is no definite nature; how then can one train in it?" This is a supplementary stroke the treatise often uses—the sūtra text records only his question; the treatise-author supplies his mind. The doubt supplied is precisely the doubt of the ordinary reader: a matter that is both deep and beneficial—if it is also said to have no definite nature, then how is one to set one's hand to training in it? Note the turn between 「無決定性」 tr. "there is no definite nature" and 「云何可習」 tr. "how then can one train in it": the questioner has already tacitly assumed ‘what can be trained in must have a fixed mark’, and it is this tacit assumption that the text below is to take apart.

6. The Buddha answers with not destroying and not following; the treatise-author supplies its sequence. The treatise-author takes up the Buddha's answer: 「菩薩行般若波羅蜜時，不壞色、不隨色，如是名習般若波羅蜜。」 tr. "When a bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, he does not destroy form and does not follow form; this is named training in prajñāpāramitā." The answer is only this one sentence, and the treatise-author at once supplies the sequence of the gate of practice: 「菩薩初發心，為知實法故，常行般若波羅蜜；次第隨其所宜，行布施等諸法。」 tr. "From the first arousing of the mind, in order to know the real dharma, the bodhisattva constantly practises prajñāpāramitā; next, according to what is fitting, he practises giving and the other dharmas." This supplement is most important—it makes clear that between prajñā and the other perfections there are not two stages, one before and one after; there is the one practised constantly and the rest according to what is fitting. So the treatise-author further cites the general formula as proof: 「菩薩行般若波羅蜜時，行布施等諸法。」 tr. "When the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, he practises giving and the other dharmas." The Chinese character 「時」 tr. "when" is the joint: it is not practising giving after having finished practising prajñā; it is practising giving at the very time of practising prajñā.

7. The meaning of not destroying form. 「色不壞者，不言是色無常，不言是色空無所有，是名不壞色。」 tr. "Not destroying form means not saying that this form is impermanent, not saying that this form is empty and without anything existent; this is named not destroying form." First ask: not saying impermanent, not saying empty—does this not on the contrary turn into permanence, into existence? It does not. What is blocked here is the procedure of ‘pronouncing’ form to be impermanent, ‘pronouncing’ it to be empty and without anything existent—that is, breaking and destroying its marks by analysis and only then calling it empty. Destroying has the meaning of breaking and destroying. So not destroying is not preserving the reality of form; it is not using the method of breaking and destroying to see its emptiness. What this road treats is precisely this way of seeking emptiness by breaking and destroying.

8. The meaning of not following form. 「不隨色者，不如眼見色取相生著。」 tr. "Not following form means not, as the eye sees form, grasping at marks and giving rise to clinging." It is the opposite of the road above: not destroying treats breaking too far; not following treats following too smoothly. When the eye sees form it at once grasps its marks and at once gives rise to clinging; this is a road one can travel without any learning, and so it is called following. Looking at the two roads together, one can see that 「習般若」 tr. "training in prajñā" walks between the two failings: neither following what the eye sees nor breaking and destroying its dharma.

9. Further: not making the judgements of the four alternatives. The treatise-author pushes one layer further: 「不說『是色若常、若無常、若苦、若樂等』，是名不隨色。」 tr. "Not saying ‘this form is permanent, is impermanent, is suffering, is happiness, and so forth’—this is named not following form." And he judges it: 「常、無常等皆非色實相。」 tr. "Permanence, impermanence, and the rest are all not the real mark of form." The not following of the previous passage speaks of grasping and clinging when faculty and object meet; the not following of this passage speaks of passing judgement on form within the mind. The point lies in the last sentence: of the pair permanence and impermanence, and the pair suffering and happiness, to cling to either one is not the real mark—it is not saying that one who takes permanence is wrong and one who takes impermanence is right. Whoever thinks ‘contemplating impermanence is the very height of right view’ should here know the bounds the treatise lays down.

10. Further: not setting up causes that give birth. 「不說『是色根本從世性中來、若從微塵中來、從大自在天中來』，亦不說『從時來』，亦不說『自然生』，亦不說『無因無緣而強生』。」 tr. "Not saying ‘the root of this form comes from the nature of the world, or comes from atoms, or comes from the Great Sovereign Heaven’, nor saying ‘it comes from time’, nor saying ‘it arises spontaneously’, nor saying ‘it is forcibly born without cause and without condition’." This passage blocks the various causes that give birth set up by the outside paths: the nature of the world, atoms, the Great Sovereign Heaven, time, spontaneity, no cause—six in all. Though what the six set up differs, all alike look for a root for form. The treatise-author lists them one by one and takes none of them—it is not that he breaks them one by one; it is saying that one who practises prajñā does not follow any of them at all. Here one can see how broad the two Chinese characters 「不隨」 tr. "not following" are: not following what the eye sees is not following the matter; not making the four alternatives is not following judgements; not setting up causes that give birth is not following where it comes from. At the end he gathers it all: 「如是等名為不隨、不壞。」 tr. "Things such as these are named not following and not destroying."

11. The Buddha himself states the causes and conditions: because the nature of form is non-existent. The treatise-author points out that in the sūtra the Buddha himself explains the reason: 「是色性無故，不隨、不壞。」 tr. "Because the nature of this form is non-existent, there is no following and no destroying." He at once explains the two Chinese characters 「性無」 tr. "the nature is non-existent": 「是色從一切四大和合，假名為色；是中無定一法名為色。」 tr. "This form is provisionally named form from the coming together of all the four elements; within it there is no definite single dharma called form." He further cites the earlier text of the treatise: 「如先『破色』中說。」 tr. "As was said earlier in ‘the refutation of form’." Then he draws out a chain of cause and effect: 「是色從因緣和合生故，即是無性；若無性，即是性空。」 tr. "Because this form arises from the coming together of causes and conditions, it is without nature; if it is without nature, it is the emptiness of nature." The last sentence matters most: 「若得是色相性空，即是習般若波羅蜜。」 tr. "If one obtains the emptiness of nature of this mark of form, that is training in prajñāpāramitā."—so the content of 「習般若」 tr. "training in prajñā" is precisely obtaining the emptiness of nature of the mark of form; it is not some other kind of cultivation. Looking back at Śāriputra's doubt in passage 5, 「無決定性，云何可習」 tr. "there is no definite nature; how then can one train in it", only here is it resolved: precisely because there is no definite nature, there is something that can be trained in; what is trained in is this very being without nature. At the end it is extended with 「乃至十八不共法亦如是」 tr. "and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas: it is likewise".

12. Śāriputra asks again: without self-nature there is nothing that can be destroyed or followed. 「世尊！若諸法無自性可壞可隨者，云何菩薩習般若波羅蜜？不學般若波羅蜜，不得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提！」 tr. "World-Honored One! If dharmas have no self-nature that can be destroyed or followed, how then does the bodhisattva train in prajñāpāramitā? Not training in prajñāpāramitā, one does not obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!" This question presses one layer harder than the previous one: the previous question only doubted that what has no fixed nature is hard to train in; this question points out that even the two words 「不壞、不隨」 tr. "not destroying, not following" fall empty—since there is no self-nature, there is from the first nothing that can be destroyed or followed; why say not destroying and not following? The last sentence, 「不學般若波羅蜜，不得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "not training in prajñāpāramitā, one does not obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi", adds a further weight: if this road does not go through, then awakening too is unfindable. The question is asked with the greatest weight, and so in the text below the Buddha does not rebut his difficulty but first acknowledges his meaning.

13. The Buddha approves his meaning and himself states the causes and conditions—the prajñāpāramitā without grasping. The treatise-author records the Buddha's way of answering as 「佛可舍利弗意，自說因緣」 tr. "the Buddha approves Śāriputra's meaning and himself states the causes and conditions". First approving and then answering—this is the pattern of this passage; in the text below 「佛可舍利弗意」 tr. "the Buddha approves Śāriputra's meaning" is seen several times, all in this same frame. The causes and conditions stated are: 「若菩薩用方便力行六波羅蜜，是人雖知諸法空，而能起般若波羅蜜。」 tr. "If a bodhisattva practises the six perfections by employing the power of skilful means, this person, though he knows that dharmas are empty, is able to give rise to prajñāpāramitā." The four Chinese characters ‘though he knows … is able to …’ are the eye of the whole passage: knowing emptiness and giving rise to practice do not hinder each other, and what is relied on is still the power of skilful means. Next the Buddha sets up a supposition as a contrasting mirror: 「若菩薩求一切法，若得少許定性，則可取可著」 tr. "if a bodhisattva seeks all dharmas and finds even a little fixed nature, then they can be grasped and clung to"—only where there is fixed nature can grasping and clinging be spoken of; but the fact is 「今菩薩實求覓一切法，不得定實」 tr. "now the bodhisattva truly seeks and searches out all dharmas, yet does not find anything definite and real", and so 「不可得故，何所取？」 tr. "because they are unfindable, what is there to grasp?" From this the name is set up: 「是名菩薩無取般若波羅蜜。菩薩應學無取般若波羅蜜。」 tr. "This is named the bodhisattva's prajñāpāramitā without grasping. The bodhisattva should train in the prajñāpāramitā without grasping." At the end the treatise-author pushes one more sentence, loosening this name too along with it: 「無取尚不可得，何況般若等諸法！一切法無性故。」 tr. "Not grasping itself is unfindable, how much less prajñā and the other dharmas! Because all dharmas are without nature."—if one holds on to 「無取」 tr. "without grasping" as something attained, one falls again into a further layer of grasping.

14. Śāriputra asks again: without nature, where does the distinction between the ordinary and the sage lie. 「若一切法無性，云何知是凡人乃至佛？」 tr. "If all dharmas are without nature, how then does one know that this is an ordinary person, and so on up to a Buddha?" This question turns from dharmas to persons: since dharmas are without nature, then the division between the ordinary and the sage too has nothing to rest on. This is the question that touches one most closely under the meaning of emptiness—if there is neither ordinary nor sage, the matter of practice loses both its ends. It is asked most simply and most sharply.

15. The Buddha answers: ordinary people cling because of inversion. 「一切法雖無根本定相，但凡人顛倒故著。菩薩行般若波羅蜜時，以方便力故，見一切法無根本，而發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」 tr. "Though all dharmas have no fixed mark that is their root, ordinary people cling because of inversion. When the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, by the power of skilful means he sees that all dharmas have no root, and arouses the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." The way of answering is the same as the road of the earlier answer on stain and purity: the ground of the ordinary and the sage is not sought in dharmas; it is divided by the mind's being inverted or not inverted. An ordinary person is an ordinary person not because there is an ordinary nature in dharmas, but because he is inverted and clings; a bodhisattva is a bodhisattva not because there is a holy nature in dharmas, but because he sees there is no root and arouses the mind. So the distinction between the ordinary and the sage can be spoken of, and the meaning that all dharmas are without nature is not destroyed.

16. The treatise-author explains why the bodhisattva is not slack and does not retrogress—teaching the Dharma like a conjurer. This passage is the treatise-author's own exposition, and shows most of all his intent in teaching. First he says why he does not retrogress: 「是菩薩深行諸法性空故，不見一切法有根本，不見故不懈不退」 tr. "because this bodhisattva practises deeply in all dharmas being empty of nature, he does not see that any dharma has a root; because he does not see it, he is not slack and does not retrogress". Why does not seeing make him, on the contrary, able not to be slack? Because all slackness arises from seeing something that can be gained or lost; when no root can be seen, nothing is lost, and so he does not retrogress. Next he says what he knows: 「了了知一切法無我、無所有性、性常空。」 tr. "He knows clearly and distinctly that all dharmas are non-self, without any existent nature, their nature ever empty." Then he says why beings are not so: 「但眾生愚癡顛倒故，著是陰、界、入。」 tr. "It is only that beings, because of delusion and inversion, cling to these aggregates, elements, and sense-fields." After setting the two side by side, he speaks of what the bodhisattva does: 「菩薩自立如幻師，種種神通變化，說法度人，如幻所作，無憎無愛，等心說法」 tr. "The bodhisattva sets himself up like a conjurer, and with various supernormal powers and transformations teaches the Dharma and delivers people, like what is made by conjuring, without hatred and without love, teaching the Dharma with an equal mind"; the four Chinese characters 「無憎無愛」 tr. "without hatred and without love" are the main point of this simile—the conjurer has no partiality toward the things he conjures, and so can have an equal mind. At the end he speaks of the sequence of his teaching: 「所謂慳者教施等六法；復為說轉勝法，令出生死，得須陀洹果乃至阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」 tr. "That is, for the stingy he teaches giving and the rest of the six dharmas; further he teaches them a still more superior dharma, causing them to leave birth and death and obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi." The three Chinese characters 「轉勝法」 tr. "a still more superior dharma" at the end of this sentence are where the question and answer of the next passage arise from.

17. The treatise-author's second self-set question: what superior dharma is there beyond the six perfections. 「六波羅蜜外更有何法為勝？何以言更為說勝法？」 tr. "Beyond the six perfections, what dharma is there that is more superior? Why does it say that he further teaches them a superior dharma?" This question has its grounds: the six perfections are already the whole practice of the Great Vehicle; if it is said that there is a further superior dharma, does that not mean the six perfections still have something lacking? What the questioner holds to is reading the 「施等六法」 tr. "giving and the rest of the six dharmas" of the previous passage straight off as the six perfections. What the treatise-author answers below, in its very first sentence, takes apart this misreading.

18. Answer: giving and the rest of the six dharmas are not the six perfections but the initial dharmas. 「此中不說波羅蜜，但為慳者說施，乃至癡者為說智慧。」 tr. "Here it is not the pāramitās that are spoken of; it is only that for the stingy giving is taught, and so on up to for the deluded wisdom is taught." In one sentence the misreading is undone: the six dharmas spoken of in the text above are six kinds of wholesome practice that treat the six obscurations; they are not the six perfections. Having made this clear, the treatise-author sets up a general formula: 「諸佛、菩薩法，有初、有後。」 tr. "The Dharma of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas has an initial part and a later part." The initial dharmas are 「布施、持戒；受戒施果報，得天上福樂」 tr. "giving and keeping morality; receiving the retribution of morality and giving, one obtains the blessings and happiness of the heavens"; going further, 「為說五欲味利少失多，受世間身，但有衰苦；讚歎遠離世間、斷愛法」 tr. "they teach them that the flavour of the five desires has little benefit and much loss, and that to receive a worldly body is only decline and suffering; they praise the dharma of being far from the world and severing craving"; and then 「為說四諦，令得須陀洹果」 tr. "they teach them the four truths, causing them to obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna". Here one should note a sentence the treatise-author adds: 「此中菩薩但說欲令眾生得佛道故，先教令行六法」 tr. "here the bodhisattva, only because he wishes to cause beings to obtain the Buddha path, first teaches them to practise the six dharmas"—the intent with which the bodhisattva teaches the initial dharmas lies not in gods and humans but in the Buddha path; only the sequence is so. He also gives a definition especially for the item wisdom among these six dharmas: 「此中善智慧不名為三解脫門所攝；是善智慧能生布施等善法，能滅慳貪、瞋恚等惡法，能令眾生得生天上。」 tr. "The wholesome wisdom here is not named as included in the three gates of liberation; this wholesome wisdom can give rise to giving and the other wholesome dharmas, can extinguish stinginess and greed, anger, and the other evil dharmas, and can cause beings to obtain birth in the heavens."—it is worldly wholesome wisdom, not the contemplative wisdom that transcends the world. At the end he proves it himself with one question and one answer: 「何以知之？更有勝法故。」 tr. "How is this known? Because there is still a superior dharma."

19. The superior dharma is the holy Dharma of the four truths, the dharma of going forth. 「勝法者，所謂四諦聖法、出法。」 tr. "The superior dharma is the holy Dharma of the four truths, the dharma of going forth." He at once explains the meaning name by name: 「一切聖人所行法，名為聖法；出三界生死，名為出法。」 tr. "The dharma practised by all the sages is named the holy Dharma; going forth from birth and death in the three realms is named the dharma of going forth." The two names each take one aspect—named holy with respect to persons, named going forth with respect to the matter. Its use is: 「以是四諦說法故，隨眾生根因緣，令得須陀洹果乃至得一切種智。」 tr. "Because the Dharma is taught by way of these four truths, according to the causes and conditions of beings' faculties, they are caused to obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to obtaining the omniscience of all kinds." The last sentence fills in the account for the sūtra text: 「此中雖不說初六法，說布施等，當知已攝。」 tr. "Here, though the initial six dharmas are not spoken of, since giving and the rest are spoken of, one should know that they are already included."—the sūtra text does not list the names of the initial six dharmas, yet in reality they are already contained; one must not say the matter is absent because the words are absent.

20. Further: because beings' resolve is low, the initial six dharmas are not spoken of. 「菩薩為佛道故說是六法；但眾生意劣故，自取小乘，是故不說『布施、持戒生天受報等初六法』。」 tr. "The bodhisattva teaches these six dharmas for the sake of the Buddha path; only because beings' resolve is low and they themselves take up the Small Vehicle, therefore ‘giving and keeping morality, birth in the heavens and receiving retribution, the initial six dharmas, and so forth’ are not spoken of." This supplies another reason for the same matter. The previous passage says they are already included; this passage says why they are not spoken of. Why are they not spoken of? Because if the blessings and retribution of gods and humans were spoken of, those of low resolve would stop right there. From this it can be seen that the choosing and setting aside in teaching the Dharma depends not only on principle but also on the capacity of the hearer—this is the treatise's consistent point of focus when it discusses the gates of teaching the Dharma.

21. Śāriputra's difficulty: is not nothing to be attained something to be attained. 「世尊！先說菩薩是畢竟不可得法；今為無所有眾生說法，令得無所有法，所謂須陀洹果乃至一切種智。世尊！菩薩今得無所有法故，能令眾生得無所有法——無所得是有所得？」 tr. "World-Honored One! Earlier it was said that the bodhisattva is a dharma ultimately unfindable; now he teaches the Dharma for beings who are without anything existent, causing them to obtain the dharma without anything existent, namely the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the omniscience of all kinds. World-Honored One! The bodhisattva now, because he has obtained the dharma without anything existent, is able to cause beings to obtain the dharma without anything existent—is nothing to be attained then something to be attained?" This difficulty is set most cleverly: it puts 「無所有」 tr. "without anything existent" in three places—what the teacher of the Dharma has obtained is without anything existent, the beings for whom he teaches are without anything existent, and the dharma he causes them to obtain is also without anything existent; in all three places there is nothing existent, and yet there can after all be 「得」 tr. "obtaining" and 「令得」 tr. "causing to obtain", and so the last sentence presses: then does not this nothing to be attained become a kind of something to be attained? This is the most finely made difficulty in the whole unit; its difficulty lies in not attacking the meaning of emptiness but turning the meaning of emptiness to its own use.

22. The Buddha answers: not seeing beings and dharmas, a being is a provisional name. 「菩薩行般若波羅蜜時，無有有所得過！何以故？菩薩行般若波羅蜜時不見眾生及法，但諸因緣和合，假名眾生。」 tr. "When the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā, there is no fault of having something to be attained! Why? Because when the bodhisattva practises prajñāpāramitā he does not see beings and dharmas; it is only the coming together of causes and conditions that is provisionally named a being." The answer does not lie in arguing over the Chinese character 「得」 tr. "obtain"; it lies in pointing out that what is called obtaining has from the first no such person and no such dharma: when neither the one who obtains nor what is obtained is seen, the phrase 「有所得」 tr. "something to be attained" has nowhere to be set up. The last sentence, 「但諸因緣和合，假名眾生」 tr. "it is only the coming together of causes and conditions that is provisionally named a being", is where the answer comes to rest—it is not that there are no beings; it is that beings exist only as provisional names. The reason the one raising the difficulty can turn nothing to be attained into something to be attained is precisely that there still remains in his mind a really existent one who obtains.

23. The treatise-author explains: the bodhisattva abides in the two truths and teaches the Dharma. The treatise-author supplies for this answer one more layer, the way of teaching the Dharma: 「菩薩住二諦中，為眾生說法，不但說空、不但說有」 tr. "The bodhisattva abides within the two truths and teaches the Dharma for beings, not teaching emptiness alone and not teaching existence alone". Why not alone? The text below at once gives its use: 「為愛著眾生故說空，為取相著空眾生故說有」 tr. "for the sake of beings who love and cling he teaches emptiness, for the sake of beings who grasp at marks and cling to emptiness he teaches existence"—emptiness and existence are each one dose of medicine, given according to the sickness. Since they are given according to the sickness, the speaker himself cannot dwell partially on either, and so it says 「有、無中二處不染」 tr. "in the two places of existence and non-existence he is stained by neither". At the end he concludes with the words of the bodhisattva teaching beings: 「眾生！現在我身及我尚不可得，何況當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提！」 tr. "Beings! Now my body, and I myself, are still unfindable, how much less being about to obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi!" These words are precisely a real instance of using the two truths together: in terms of worldly truth he calls out 「眾生」 tr. "beings", in terms of the highest meaning he says 「我尚不可得」 tr. "I myself am still unfindable"; within one sentence both truths are present.

24. Śāriputra joyfully praises the vast and great mind. 「舍利弗歡喜白佛言：『世尊！曠大心是菩薩！』」 tr. "Śāriputra joyfully said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Vast and great of mind is the bodhisattva!’" Here one should note a turn: before this, Śāriputra all along raised difficulties; here he turns to praise. When the difficulties are exhausted, praise arises, because the previous answer has untied his knot. The two Chinese characters 「歡喜」 tr. "joyfully" are not mere accompaniment; they mark the turning point in the course of the questions and answers—from this passage on, there are no more questions raising difficulties against emptiness.

25. The causes and conditions of the vast and great mind—without bondage and without release; planting a tree in space. The treatise-author first points out that the sūtra text explains the name itself: 「曠大心者，此中自說因緣，所謂：『無有法可得若一相、若異相。』」 tr. "As for the vast and great mind, here the causes and conditions are themselves stated, namely: ‘There is no dharma that can be found, whether as one mark or as a different mark.’" Why is not finding one or different precisely vast and great? The text below shows it by contrast with a simile: 「如人市買，必須交易；大心人則不然。」 tr. "As when a person buys in the market, there must be an exchange; the person of great mind is not so."—one who buys in the market has taking and giving, and his mind must be tied to the thing exchanged; the person of great mind 「無所依止而能發大莊嚴」 tr. "taking support in nothing, is able to arouse the great adornment", and so is vast. Since there is no support, the use of the adornment is twofold: 「不生三界，亦拔眾生令出三界」 tr. "he is not born in the three realms, and he also pulls beings out, causing them to leave the three realms"—not entering himself, yet able to pull others out. And the beings pulled out 「不可得」 tr. "are unfindable"; as for why they are unfindable, the treatise-author pushes it to the bottom: 「不縛不解故，一切法空。」 tr. "Because they are neither bound nor released, all dharmas are empty." He further explains the reason for not being bound: 「從久遠以來，煩惱顛倒皆是虛誑不實，是故名無縛；縛無故亦無解。」 tr. "From long ago, the afflictions and inversions have all been false, deceptive, and unreal, and so it is named without bondage; since bondage does not exist, there is also no release." The text below is a chain: 「縛即是垢，解即是淨。無淨無垢故，無六道分別；不分別六道故，無罪福業；罪福業無故，無煩惱能起罪福業者；不起罪福業，亦不應有果報。」 tr. "Bondage is stain; release is purity. Because there is no purity and no stain, there is no discrimination of the six destinies; because the six destinies are not discriminated, there are no deeds of sin and merit; because deeds of sin and merit do not exist, there are no afflictions that can give rise to deeds of sin and merit; when deeds of sin and merit do not arise, there also should be no retribution." The six links cause one another ring by ring; in reading, one must keep hold of them link by link and may not skip. At the end it comes back to where the rare lies: 「如是諸法畢竟空中而作大莊嚴，是為希有！」 tr. "Thus, within the ultimate emptiness of all dharmas, to take on the great adornment—this is rare!" And he gathers it with a simile: 「譬如人虛空中種樹，樹葉花果，多所利益。」 tr. "It is as a person plants a tree in space, and the tree's leaves, flowers, and fruit give much benefit."—space does not receive planting, and yet there is the benefit of leaves, flowers, and fruit; this is the mark of taking on the great adornment within ultimate emptiness.

26. The Buddha approves Śāriputra's meaning. 「佛可舍利弗意。」 tr. "The Buddha approved Śāriputra's meaning." One sentence, six Chinese characters. The 「可」 tr. "approve" here seals what he praises, not what he raises as a difficulty—in the next passage the treatise-author is going to distinguish exactly this point. Looked at alone, this sentence is easily overlooked; only with the next passage does its use appear.

27. Both answering and approving—if they existed before and do not exist now, the worthies and sages have fault. The treatise-author gives an explanation of the sentence above: 「舍利弗難是空故，佛亦答、亦可——以其說空故可，以其難空故答」 tr. "Because Śāriputra raised a difficulty against this emptiness, the Buddha both answers and approves—he approves because he speaks of emptiness, and answers because he raises a difficulty against emptiness". One person's words hold both difficulty and teaching, and so the Buddha's response holds both answer and approval, each facing its own object. This is a fine point of the treatise in analysing debates, worth noting: approving and answering are not the same thing, and in reading debate texts they should be looked at separately. What is answered is the text below: 「舍利弗！若眾生及諸法先有今無，諸佛賢聖有過罪。」 tr. "Śāriputra! If beings and all dharmas existed before and do not exist now, then the buddhas, the worthies, and the sages have fault." The treatise-author at once explains the two Chinese characters 「過罪」 tr. "fault": 「所謂令眾生入無餘涅槃，永滅色等一切法；入空中皆無所有，以斷滅眾生及一切法，故有過罪。」 tr. "That is, causing beings to enter nirvāṇa without remainder, forever extinguishing form and all dharmas; on entering into emptiness, everything is without anything existent; because they annihilate beings and all dharmas, there is fault."—if dharmas existed from the first and only became non-existent on entering nirvāṇa, then nirvāṇa would become annihilation, delivering beings would become extinguishing beings, and the blame would go back to the worthies and sages who deliver. This uses the unacceptability of the effect to show by contrast that the cause cannot stand.

28. All dharmas are non-existent from the first, abiding constantly and not differing. 「眾生及一切法先來無，若有佛、無佛，常住不異，是諸法實相」 tr. "Beings and all dharmas are from the first non-existent; whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, they abide constantly and do not differ; this is the real mark of all dharmas". The passage above having broken 「先有今無」 tr. "existed before and do not exist now", this passage squarely sets up 「先來無」 tr. "non-existent from the first". The point lies in 「若有佛、無佛，常住不異」 tr. "whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, they abide constantly and do not differ"—this non-existence does not wait for the Buddha's speaking before it comes to be, and so it is not something the Buddha makes. Since it is from the first non-existent, then 「無六道生死，亦無眾生可拔出」 tr. "there is no birth and death in the six destinies, nor are there beings who can be pulled out". At this point it seems the earlier difficulty is pressed out again, and right here the treatise-author turns out the bodhisattva's arousing of the mind: 「一切法先空，是故菩薩於諸佛所聞諸法如是相故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 tr. "all dharmas are empty from the first; therefore the bodhisattva, because he hears in the presence of the buddhas that dharmas have such a mark, arouses the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi"—arousing the mind is not arousing it in disregard of emptiness; it is precisely arousing it on hearing of emptiness. What he thinks is: 「菩提中亦無有法可得，亦無實定法令眾生著而不可度，但眾生癡狂顛倒故，著是虛誑法。」 tr. "Within awakening too there is no dharma that can be found, nor is there a real, definite dharma that makes beings cling so that they cannot be delivered; it is only because beings are deluded, mad, and inverted that they cling to this false and deceptive dharma." This thought contains two matters: one, that in the fruit there is nothing that can be found; two, that what beings cling to has from the first no real dharma, so they can certainly be delivered. The second matter is the ground for the arousing of the mind not retrogressing.

29. Arousing the great adornment and not turning back. 「是故菩薩發大莊嚴，不轉於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」 tr. "Therefore the bodhisattva arouses the great adornment and does not turn back from anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi". What he thinks: 「我必當得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，非不得；得已，用實法利益眾生；利益眾生故，眾生從顛倒得出。」 tr. "I shall certainly obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi; it is not that I shall not obtain it; having obtained it, I shall benefit beings with the real dharma; because beings are benefited, beings will get out from inversion." Note how affirmative the tone of this passage is—「必當得」 tr. "shall certainly obtain", 「非不得」 tr. "it is not that I shall not obtain". The text before has all along spoken of the unfindable, and here suddenly a decisive word is spoken; this is not self-contradiction: what is unfindable is the fixed nature of dharmas; what shall certainly be obtained is the non-retrogression of practice and vow. What the two speak of is not on the same layer; if a reader uses that one to make a difficulty against this one, he is mixing layers.

30. The matching of the simile of the conjurer. 「欲明了是事故，經中說幻師譬喻」 tr. "In order to make this matter clear, the sūtra speaks the simile of the conjurer". The treatise-author matches it item by item: 「幻師即是菩薩，幻師所作園林、廬觀即是六波羅蜜等度眾生法，幻師所作象馬、男女即是菩薩所度眾生。」 tr. "The conjurer is precisely the bodhisattva; the gardens, huts, and pavilions that the conjurer makes are the six perfections and the other dharmas for delivering beings; the elephants, horses, men, and women that the conjurer makes are the beings whom the bodhisattva delivers." The three matches being fixed, he then speaks of the use of the simile: 「如幻師一身，以幻力故，幻作眾生、園林、廬觀等娛樂眾生」 tr. "as the conjurer, only one body, by the power of his conjuring conjures up beings, gardens, huts, pavilions, and the rest to entertain beings"—one body able to do many things; this shows the bodhisattva's power. Then he points out the warning of the simile: 「若幻師以所幻作事為實，於所幻人求其恩惠，即是狂人！」 tr. "If the conjurer takes what he has conjured as real and seeks favour from the people he has conjured, then he is a madman!" At the end he joins it to the dharma: 「菩薩亦如是，從諸佛聞一切法性空如幻，而以布施等利益眾生；欲求恩惠福報，即是顛倒。」 tr. "The bodhisattva is likewise: hearing from the buddhas that all dharmas are empty of nature, like an illusion, he benefits beings with giving and the rest; if he wishes to seek favour and the reward of merit, that is inversion."—what the simile weighs lies not in being able to conjure but in not seeking reward.

31. The treatise-author's third self-set question: the conjurer really exists, how can he serve as a simile. 「幻法呪術實有，幻所作物可虛。如眾生空，菩薩亦空，菩薩不化作眾生，何得為喻？」 tr. "The dharma of conjuring and spell-craft really exist; the things made by conjuring can be false. As beings are empty, the bodhisattva too is empty, and the bodhisattva does not conjure up beings; how can this serve as a simile?" This difficulty has two sections: first, in the simile the conjurer and the art of conjuring are real and the things conjured are false—real and false are clearly divided; but in the dharma the bodhisattva and beings are both empty, both sides false, and what illustrates and what is illustrated do not match. Second, the bodhisattva does not really conjure beings into being, so the matter too is not alike. The difficulty is raised most finely; it is a question directed at the method of simile itself.

32. Answer: taking a small share of likeness; the lion as a simile for the king. The treatise-author's answer falls into three sections. The first section answers in terms of the dharma: 「諸法實相中，法尚無，何況眾生！眾生異名，名為幻師，幻師實無，何以言『幻師有而所幻者無』？」 tr. "Within the real mark of all dharmas there are not even dharmas, how much less beings! Another name for beings is conjurer; the conjurer really does not exist, so why say ‘the conjurer exists and what is conjured does not exist’?"—the division of real and false set up by the one raising the difficulty does not itself hold; the conjurer too is only another name for beings, alike really non-existent. And he adds a sentence: 「如汝以幻師實有、所幻者無，聖人觀幻師及所幻物不異。」 tr. "As you take the conjurer to exist really and what is conjured to be non-existent, the sages contemplate the conjurer and the things conjured as not different." The second section answers in terms of the method of simile, and this is the essential point of the whole passage: 「以明了事故說譬喻，取其少許相似處為喻，何以盡取為難？」 tr. "A simile is spoken in order to make a matter clear, taking only a little point of likeness in it as the simile—why take the whole of it to make a difficulty?" And he gives an example as his own proof: 「如師子喻王，師子於獸中無畏，王於群下自在無難，故以為喻」 tr. "as when a lion is used as a simile for a king: the lion among the beasts is without fear, the king among his subjects is sovereign and without difficulty, and so it is used as a simile", and then asks back: 「復何可責四腳負毛為異也？」 tr. "Why then find fault over the difference of four legs and the bearing of fur?"—every simile takes one point; if one seeks sameness at every point, there is nothing in the world that can serve as a simile. The third section speaks of why this simile must be set up: 「佛說性空法，諸法皆空，猶有眾生，是故說幻為喻。」 tr. "The Buddha teaches the dharma of the emptiness of nature: all dharmas are empty, and yet there still are beings; therefore conjuring is spoken of as a simile." At the end he gathers it with a rhetorical question: 「我今說喻以破眾生，汝云何復以眾生為難？」 tr. "I now speak this simile in order to break beings; how is it that you turn round and again take beings to make a difficulty?"—the simile set up was meant to break the clinging to beings, yet the one raising the difficulty takes beings to attack it, using its material the wrong way round.

33. Subhūti asks about the path of bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands. 「爾時，須菩提白佛言：『世尊！何等是成就眾生、淨佛國土道？』」 tr. "At that time, Subhūti said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! What is the path of bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands?’" Here the questioner changes back to Subhūti. Through the whole passage since Śāriputra took up the questioning, only here does it return to Subhūti, and the topic too turns from 「習般若」 tr. "training in prajñā" into 「成就眾生」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment". The question of the First Part is practice for oneself; this question is transforming others—the whole second half of the unit is opened by this one question.

34. The treatise-author explains why he asks. 「須菩提雖知菩薩道，以中說甚深性空故，聽者生疑，是故發問。」 tr. "Though Subhūti knew the bodhisattva path, because the very deep emptiness of nature is spoken of within it and those who listen give rise to doubt, he therefore asked." This explanation matters: the one asking is not in doubt himself; he asks for the listeners. Wherever the treatise meets a place of ‘already knowing and yet asking again’, it mostly explains it this way—the question is not for himself but for the assembly. Here the reader can be spared one layer of misunderstanding: there is no need to think that Subhūti lost track between before and after.

35. The Buddha answers: the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas are precisely the bodhisattva path. 「菩薩從初發心，行六波羅蜜乃至十八不共法，是菩薩道；行是道，成就眾生、淨佛國土。」 tr. "The bodhisattva, from the first arousing of the mind, practises the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas; this is the bodhisattva path; practising this path, he brings beings to accomplishment and purifies buddha-lands." The answer is most plain and down-to-earth: he does not set up separately a path of bringing beings to accomplishment; practising the bodhisattva path is precisely it. So bringing beings to accomplishment is not another undertaking outside the six perfections; it is where the practice of the six perfections naturally arrives. The four Chinese characters 「從初發心」 tr. "from the first arousing of the mind" also may not be passed over: it is not that only on reaching some stage can one bring beings to accomplishment.

36. Subhūti asks again: how does one practise this dharma and bring beings to accomplishment. 「云何行是法成就眾生？」 tr. "How does one practise this dharma and bring beings to accomplishment?" The previous question asked the name of the path; this question asks the reality of its practice. One name, one reality—the way of asking has a sequence.

37. The treatise-author lays bare the intent of his question. 「須菩提意：若是法性空，眾生亦性空，云何可得成就？」 tr. "Subhūti's meaning is: if this dharma is empty of nature, and beings too are empty of nature, how then can they be brought to accomplishment?" Once again the treatise-author supplies the mind of the one asking. This supplement is most crucial—if it were not supplied, the reader would think Subhūti only wanted a set of operating details; once it is supplied, one knows that what is asked is still the mutual obstruction of emptiness and practice. The reason the whole passage below must speak from the most concrete place is just this.

38. The Buddha's answer and the explanation of 「方便者」 tr. "the skilful means is this" . The Buddha answers: 「菩薩以方便力故，以布施法教化眾生，不教令著布施以為真實。」 tr. "By the power of skilful means, the bodhisattva teaches and transforms beings with the dharma of giving, but does not teach them to cling to giving as real." The answer is only this one sentence, and the treatise-author at once explains the two Chinese characters 「方便」 tr. "skilful means": 「方便者，菩薩語眾生：『汝曹，善男子！來布施，莫著是布施。』如經中說。」 tr. "The skilful means is this: the bodhisattva tells beings: ‘You good men! Come and give, but do not cling to this giving.’ As is said in the sūtra."—skilful means is set down as two sentences: one sentence urging giving, one sentence warning against clinging. Next, saying why clinging must be warned against, the treatise-author lays out a chain of falling: 「眾生以布施生貴樂處，貴樂因緣故生我憍慢，我憍慢增長故破善法，破善法故墮三惡道」 tr. "because of giving, beings are born in places of nobility and happiness; because of the causes and conditions of nobility and happiness they give rise to the pride of self and arrogance; because the pride of self and arrogance increase, they destroy wholesome dharmas; because they destroy wholesome dharmas, they fall into the three evil destinies". Giving is a wholesome cause, yet its retribution becomes, on the contrary, a condition for the evil destinies, and what lies between is only the single Chinese character for clinging. Hence 「是故菩薩先教言：『莫著布施！』」 tr. "therefore the bodhisattva first teaches: ‘Do not cling to giving!’" The text below speaks of its right use: 「但因是布施、修持戒等善法，皆迴是法向涅槃。」 tr. "Only, by means of this giving, and by cultivating the keeping of morality and the other wholesome dharmas, he turns all these dharmas toward nirvāṇa." And he explains why: 「是性空諸法實相，不可取相。」 tr. "This real mark of all dharmas, which is the emptiness of nature, cannot be grasped as a mark." At the end he concludes: 「如是菩薩方便力故教化眾生，令得須陀洹果乃至佛道。」 tr. "Thus by the power of skilful means the bodhisattva teaches and transforms beings, causing them to obtain the fruit of srota-āpanna and so on up to the Buddha path."

39. Practising it himself and also teaching others—practising giving in four ways, he is born into noble clans. This passage explains why the bodhisattva must himself practise giving, listing four causes in all. The first cause is to stop people's doubt: 「若不自施，或有人言：『若施是好法，何不自行？』是故菩薩先自布施。」 tr. "If he does not himself give, perhaps someone will say: ‘If giving is a good dharma, why do you not practise it yourself?’ Therefore the bodhisattva first himself gives." The second cause is his own mind's love and delight: 「菩薩深愛善法，布施是初門，是故行是布施。」 tr. "The bodhisattva deeply loves wholesome dharmas, and giving is the first gate, so he practises this giving." The third cause is what kindness and compassion require: 「菩薩深慈悲眾生，以慈悲心雖大，而不能充滿眾生，是故先行布施，令其心濡，可以引導。」 tr. "The bodhisattva has deep kindness and compassion for beings; though his mind of kindness and compassion is great, it cannot fill beings, so he first practises giving, so that their minds become soft and they can be guided."—the two Chinese characters 「心濡」 tr. "minds become soft" deserve the most attention: the use of giving does not stop at relieving want; it lies in making the recipient's mind soft and able to be guided. The fourth cause is the use of retribution: 「布施因緣生於四姓及作轉輪王；以四攝法攝取眾生，漸漸以三乘法令得涅槃。」 tr. "Through the causes and conditions of giving, one is born in the four castes and becomes a wheel-turning king; with the four means of gathering he gathers in beings, and little by little with the dharma of the three vehicles causes them to obtain nirvāṇa." The four causes listed, the treatise-author further counts out the four modes of practising giving: giving by oneself, 「教他布施」 tr. "teaching others to give", 「讚歎布施法」 tr. "praising the dharma of giving", and 「歡喜讚歎行布施者」 tr. "joyfully praising those who practise giving"; and he explains the mind behind each: teaching others and praising come from 「深愛布施，見同行故」 tr. "deeply loving giving, and seeing others practising it together with him", and joyful praise comes from 「憐愍心於眾生，若見修福，則為之歡喜」 tr. "a mind of pity toward beings: if he sees them cultivating merit, he is glad for them", and he makes it clear with a simile: 「如慈父見子行善，心則歡喜。」 tr. "As a kind father, seeing his son do good, is glad at heart." At the end he concludes its retribution: 「是人四種行布施，生剎利等貴姓中。」 tr. "This person practises giving in four ways, and is born among noble clans such as the kṣatriya."

40. Having gathered them in by giving, he teaches them little by little; he is constantly a wheel-turning sage king and is mostly born in the desire realm. This passage, following the retribution of the previous passage, speaks of its use. First it speaks of the sequence: 「以布施攝已，漸漸教令持戒、禪定等，乃至令得辟支佛道。」 tr. "Having gathered them in by giving, little by little he teaches them keeping morality, meditative concentration, and the rest, and so on up to causing them to obtain the path of the pratyekabuddha." Next it speaks of one kind of difficulty—those who have aroused the great mind but are afraid of the long duration: 「或見眾生有大心者，有少許慈悲心，是人怖畏生死長遠故，其心懈退」 tr. "or he sees among beings one who has the great mind and has a little mind of kindness and compassion; this person, because he fears the long duration of birth and death, becomes slack in mind and retrogresses". The bodhisattva's words to treat this are: 「咄！眾生！阿耨多羅三藐三菩提易得，汝等何以為難？眾生所著處，此中無有定實法能遮者、難解者。」 tr. "Ho! Beings! Anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is easy to obtain; why do you take it to be hard? In the places to which beings cling, there is no definite, real dharma that can obstruct, nor any that is hard to undo."—saying 「易得」 tr. "easy to obtain" is not a light promise; it points out that the reason one feels it hard is only that one holds there is a real dharma as an obstacle; since the obstacle is not real, the hardness too is not real. Then he urges them to arouse the mind: 「汝等當發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，既自得度，復當度脫眾生！」 tr. "You should arouse the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi; having yourselves been delivered, you should also deliver beings!" The treatise-author at once explains the four Chinese characters 「度脫眾生」 tr. "deliver beings": 「菩薩自乘大乘得度，以三乘隨眾生所應度而度之」 tr. "the bodhisattva himself rides the Great Vehicle and is delivered, and with the three vehicles delivers beings according to what each should be delivered by", and divides the two benefits, of self and of others: 「既自利益，復利益他人。利益他者，既自作佛，而以三乘度脫眾生。」 tr. "Having himself obtained benefit, he also benefits others. Benefiting others means this: having himself become a Buddha, he delivers beings with the three vehicles." At the end he speaks of the mark of his places of birth: 「若菩薩能如是行般若波羅蜜者，從初發心，終不墮三惡道，常作轉輪聖王」 tr. "if a bodhisattva can thus practise prajñāpāramitā, then from the first arousing of the mind he never falls into the three evil destinies, and is constantly a wheel-turning sage king"; and he explains why he is born among humans in the desire realm—each of three places has its reason for being impossible to transform: 「無色界中無形故，不可教化」 tr. "because in the formless realm there is no shape, they cannot be taught and transformed", 「色界中多味著禪定樂，無厭惡心故難化」 tr. "within the form realm they mostly relish the pleasure of meditative concentration and have no mind of aversion, so they are hard to transform", 「亦不生欲天。所以者何？著妙五欲多故難化」 tr. "nor is he born among the gods of the desire realm. For what reason? Because they cling too much to the subtle and wonderful five desires and are hard to transform". So he concludes: 「在人中，世世以四事攝眾生故，作轉輪聖王。」 tr. "Among humans, because life after life he gathers in beings with the four things, he is a wheel-turning sage king." The line of reasoning of this section is: choosing the place of birth so as to go to the ground where beings can be transformed.

41. The Buddha himself states the causes and conditions: according to what he plants. 「此中佛自說因緣：『隨其所種，得大果報等。』如經中說布施相。」 tr. "Here the Buddha himself states the causes and conditions: ‘According to what he plants, he obtains great retribution, and so forth.’ As the mark of giving is spoken of in the sūtra." The treatise-author does not unfold it further here, stating plainly that its details are already seen in the sūtra text. Wherever the treatise says 「如經中說」 tr. "as is spoken of in the sūtra", it is pointing the reader back to the sūtra passage; it is not abridging and leaving it undiscussed.

42. Morality born from giving—the two kinds of breaking morality. This passage is the first example of the six perfections giving birth to one another. The bodhisattva, 「行檀波羅蜜時，見眾生破戒」 tr. "when practising dānapāramitā, sees beings breaking morality", and his words are: 「汝曹以因緣不具足故破戒，我當給汝所須，令無乏少。」 tr. "You break morality because your causes and conditions are not complete; I shall supply what you need, so that you lack nothing." The treatise-author at once distinguishes the occasions faced: 「破戒人有二種：一者、持戒因緣不具足故，如貧窮人，飢寒急故作賊；二者、持戒因緣雖具足，以習惡心故，好行惡事。」 tr. "People who break morality are of two kinds: first, because the causes and conditions for keeping morality are not complete, as poor people, pressed by hunger and cold, become thieves; second, though the causes and conditions for keeping morality are complete, because of a mind habituated to evil, they like to do evil things." The distinction of the two kinds is most important—what giving can rescue is only the former kind. So the text below plainly limits the object of giving: 「貧窮破戒者，菩薩語之言：『汝但持戒，我當給汝所須！汝等住持戒中，漸漸以三乘而得度脫。』」 tr. "To one who is poor and breaks morality, the bodhisattva says: ‘Just keep morality, I shall supply what you need! Abiding in the keeping of morality, you will little by little be delivered by the three vehicles.’" At the end it sets up its name: 「是名『因布施生戒』。」 tr. "This is named ‘morality born from giving’."

43. Calming anger through giving. 「眾生以不如意事故瞋」 tr. "Beings become angry because of things not going as they wish"; the treatise-author divides this into two conditions: 「若以求物不如意故瞋，人不稱意故瞋。」 tr. "Either they are angry because what they seek does not go as they wish, or they are angry because people do not suit their wishes." What the former seeks lies in things; what the latter seeks lies in people. For the former, 「菩薩住檀中，隨其意而給足之」 tr. "the bodhisattva, abiding in giving, supplies and satisfies them according to their wishes"—it can be resolved by giving. The latter cannot be resolved by things, and so there is the question of the next passage.

44. The treatise-author's fourth self-set question: what of those whom people do not suit. 「若貧乏者給施令不瞋，可爾；人不得稱意，惱之令瞋，復云何？」 tr. "If someone is poor and in want, giving to him so that he is not angry is acceptable; but when people cannot suit his wishes and vex him so that he becomes angry, what then?" This question arises from the division of the previous passage, and where it asks is most precise: what giving can supply is things, but the cause of anger lies in people not suiting one's wishes, which things cannot reach.

45. Answer: the wish-fulfilling jewel and the samādhi of kindness. 「以如意珠施之，則使人皆稱意。」 tr. "Giving him a wish-fulfilling jewel makes every person suit his wishes." How can it? 「珠之威德故，人無瞋者」 tr. "Because of the majestic virtue of the jewel, people have no anger." The treatise-author takes one more matter as a comparison: 「如行者入慈三昧故，人無瞋者。」 tr. "As when a practitioner enters the samādhi of kindness, people have no anger."—the two matters share one principle: it is not satisfying what each person seeks one by one; it is that the place where he is naturally makes people not give rise to anger. At the end he cites the sūtra's words to conclude: 「少何因緣故瞋？我當令汝所少具足。」 tr. "For lack of what causes and conditions are you angry? I shall make complete what you lack."

46. Further: do not receive great sin for the sake of false and deceptive things. The treatise-author brings out a second road of treatment, speaking not of supplying to the full but of the object of anger: 「一切法性皆空無所有，汝所瞋因緣亦皆虛誑無定」 tr. "the nature of all dharmas is empty and without anything existent; the causes and conditions of your anger too are all false, deceptive, and indefinite". Since they are indefinite, the next question is most weighty: 「汝云何以虛誑事故，瞋罵、加害乃至奪命？」 tr. "How can you, for the sake of false and deceptive things, angrily revile, harm, and even take life?" Angrily reviling, harming, and taking life grow heavier in order, yet their cause is alike false and deceptive. So its effect too is stated at its heaviest: 「起此重罪業故，墮三惡道，受無量苦。」 tr. "Because of committing such heavy deeds of sin, one falls into the three evil destinies and receives immeasurable suffering." At the end he gathers it with an admonition: 「汝莫以虛誑無實事故，而受大罪！」 tr. "Do not, for the sake of false, deceptive, and unreal things, receive great sin!"—what is to be regretted is not the matter one is angry at but the price paid for that matter.

47. The simile of the haunted room. This simile is set up by the treatise-author himself, the longest narrative of the whole unit, and one must look at its design section by section. The opening: in the mountains there is a Buddhist monastery with a separate room, where a ghost harasses people, and the men of the path all abandon the room and leave. A guest monk comes, the weina has him stay, and first tells him the facts: 「此房中有鬼神喜惱人，能住中者住。」 tr. "In this room there is a ghost-spirit that likes to harass people; if you can stay in it, stay." What the guest monk relies on is 「持戒力、多聞故」 tr. "the power of keeping morality and much learning", and his words are: 「小鬼何所能？我能伏之！」 tr. "What can a little ghost do? I can subdue it!"—relying on virtue and taking the enemy lightly; this is the first foreshadowing. At dusk another monk comes, the weina also has him stay in this room and also tells him first, and what that man says is the same: 「小鬼何所能？我當伏之！」 tr. "What can a little ghost do? I shall subdue it!"—what the two rely on is the same and what they say is the same; this is the second foreshadowing. Then comes the meeting of the matter: 「先入者，閉戶，端坐待鬼；後來者，夜闇，打戶求入。」 tr. "The one who had gone in first shut the door and sat upright waiting for the ghost; the one who came later, the night being dark, knocked at the door seeking to come in." One guarding, one knocking, each originally in the right, yet 「先入者謂為是鬼，不為開戶」 tr. "the one who had gone in first took him for the ghost and did not open the door for him"—the misrecognition arises from here. From here on, step by step they provoke each other: 「後來者極力打戶。在內道人以力拒之，外者得勝，排戶得入；內者打之，外者亦極力熟打。」 tr. "The one who came later knocked at the door with all his strength. The man of the path inside held it back with force; the one outside won, pushed open the door, and got in; the one inside struck him, and the one outside also struck back fiercely with all his strength." At daybreak the truth shows itself: 「至明旦相見，乃是故舊同學，各相愧謝。」 tr. "When they saw each other the next morning, they were old fellow-students, and each apologised to the other in shame." At the end it closes with the bystanders: 「眾人雲集，笑而怪之。」 tr. "The people gathered like clouds, laughing and finding it strange." In the whole simile there is not one ghost, and yet they fight the whole night through—what is fought is, from beginning to end, only one misrecognition.

48. Beings are likewise—vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife; those in the eight difficulties cannot be transformed. The treatise-author joins the simile to the dharma: 「眾生亦如是，五眾無我、無人，空取相致鬪諍」 tr. "Beings are likewise: within the five aggregates there is no self and no person, yet vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife", and at once tests it by one matter: 「若支解在地，但有骨肉，無人、無我。」 tr. "If the body is dismembered upon the ground, there are only bones and flesh; there is no person and no self."—the self over which they contend, when its body is analysed and it is sought, is not found. So the bodhisattva's words are: 「汝莫於根本空中鬪諍作罪」 tr. "Do not, within what is empty at the root, fight and commit sin", and he says how heavy the loss is: 「鬪諍故，人身尚不可得，何況值佛！」 tr. "Because of fighting, even a human body is unfindable, how much less meeting a Buddha!" Then he sets up the two matters hard to obtain: 「當知人身難得，佛世難值，好時易過；一墮諸難，永不可治！」 tr. "You should know that a human body is hard to obtain, the age of a Buddha hard to meet, and a good time easily passes; once you fall into the difficulties, you can never be cured!" The text below lists, place by place, the difficulties in which one cannot be transformed: those in the hells, 「燒炙屠割，何可教化」 tr. "burned, roasted, butchered, and cut—how can they be taught and transformed"; animals, 「共相殘害，亦不可化」 tr. "harming and killing one another, they also cannot be transformed"; hungry ghosts, 「飢渴熱惱，亦不可化」 tr. "hungry, thirsty, hot, and vexed, they also cannot be transformed"; those in the heavens of long life, 「千萬佛過，著禪定味故，皆不覺知」 tr. "thousands of myriads of buddhas pass by, and because they cling to the flavour of meditative concentration, they are wholly unaware and do not know"; those in the border lands, 「如安息國諸邊地生者，皆是人身，愚不可教化」 tr. "as people born in the land of Anxi and the other border lands, though all have human bodies, are dull and cannot be taught and transformed"; those born in the Middle Country yet lacking faculties, 「或六情不具、或四支不完、或盲聾瘖啞、或不識義理」 tr. "some lack the six faculties, some have the four limbs incomplete, some are blind, deaf, mute, and dumb, some do not recognise meaning"; the last difficulty is most to be feared—those whose faculties are complete but whose views are wrong: 「或時六情具足、諸根通利，而深著邪見、言無罪福，不可教化。」 tr. "Or sometimes, though the six faculties are complete and the faculties penetrating and keen, they cling deeply to wrong views and say there is no sin and no merit, and cannot be taught and transformed." This last kind differs from the several kinds before: what the former lack lies in the body; what these lack lies in view; so even having a human body and good faculties they still cannot be transformed. At the end he gathers it with concluding words: 「好時易過，墮諸難中不可得度。」 tr. "A good time easily passes; falling into the difficulties, one cannot be delivered."

49. The other perfections are not explained again. 「餘波羅蜜，如經中廣說故，不復解之。」 tr. "The other perfections, because they are widely spoken of in the sūtra, are not explained again." The treatise-author states plainly why he stops his brush here: the sūtra text is already broad; it is not that the meaning has been abridged. Statements of this kind are seen often in the treatise, and the reader should not think that an explanation is missing.

50. The treatise-author's fifth self-set question: why speak again of the six perfections. 「住檀波羅蜜行五波羅蜜訖，何以復更說六波羅蜜？」 tr. "Abiding in dānapāramitā and practising the five perfections has been finished; why speak again of the six perfections?" Where it asks lies in the repetition in the text: earlier, within the one perfection of dāna, the other five perfections were gathered in and practised, and that was finished; why does the sūtra text then speak once more of the six perfections all together?

51. Answer: within one perfection the five are made complete, and now all are spoken of together at one time. 「上一度中次第具足五，今則一時總說。」 tr. "Above, within one perfection the five were made complete in sequence; now they are spoken of all together at one time." One sentence divides into two forms: the former, within one perfection, gathers in the rest in sequence; the latter lists the six perfections together and speaks of them at the same time. The dharma spoken of in the two is the same, but the form in which the dharma is presented differs, so it is not a repetition.

52. Further: now the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the fruits of the paths are spoken of throughout. 「先但說六波羅蜜，今通說三十七品及諸道果。」 tr. "Earlier only the six perfections were spoken of; now the thirty-seven limbs of the path and the fruits of the paths are spoken of throughout." This is the second reason, speaking of the dharmas contained: what was spoken of before stopped at the six perfections; now it includes also the thirty-seven limbs and the fruits. The former answer concerns form, this answer concerns measure; the two answers stand together and do not hinder each other.

53. The treatise-author's sixth self-set question: the thirty-seven limbs come forth from the mind of themselves, so how can their causes and conditions be given. 「三十七品自從心出，云何是因緣可與？」 tr. "The thirty-seven limbs of the path come forth from the mind of themselves; how can it be said that their causes and conditions can be given?" This question is most fine: giving can give people clothing and food, but the thirty-seven limbs of the path are dharmas of the mind-ground; dharmas of the mind have no shape, so how can they be called causes and conditions that can be given?

54. Answer: supplying the requisites for sitting in meditation. The treatise-author's answer is set down wholly on the two Chinese characters 「因緣」 tr. "causes and conditions": what is given is not the limbs of the path but the conditions that help bring the limbs of the path to accomplishment. He lists them item by item: 「菩薩供給坐禪者衣服、飲食、醫藥、法杖、禪毱、禪鎮」 tr. "the bodhisattva supplies those who sit in meditation with clothing, food and drink, medicine, a Dharma staff, a meditation ball, and a meditation prop"—clothing, food, and medicine are what sustain the body; the Dharma staff, the meditation ball, and the meditation prop are tools for sitting in meditation that drive away sleep. Next he comes to the conditions of persons: 「令得好師教照，令得好弟子受化」 tr. "so that they get a good teacher to instruct and look after them, so that they get good disciples to receive their transformation"—teacher and disciples are also causes and conditions. Further he comes to the tools of contemplation and the persons who teach the dharma: 「與骨人令觀，與禪經，令人為說禪法」 tr. "he gives them a skeleton so that they may contemplate, gives them the meditation scriptures, and asks people to expound the dharma of meditation for them". At the end he sums up: 「如是等三十七助道法因緣。」 tr. "Such things as these are the causes and conditions of the thirty-seven dharmas that aid the path." The principle of the whole answer is only one sentence: the dharmas of the mind cannot be given, but the conditions that the dharmas of the mind depend on can be given.

55. Further he asks people to expound the dharma of the Mahāyāna. The highest layer of giving is here: not only giving them requisites, but further 「令人為說摩訶衍法」 tr. "asking people to expound the dharma of the Mahāyāna for them". The words spoken have three sections: first, giving the things and removing their doubt—「汝等所須衣服、飲食，盡來取之，便是汝物，莫自疑難！」 tr. "The clothing, food, and drink that you need, come and take all of it; these are your things, do not doubt or hesitate yourselves!" Next, teaching them to practise themselves and also transform others—「汝等得是物已，自行六波羅蜜，亦教化他人令行六波羅蜜。」 tr. "Having obtained these things, practise the six perfections yourselves, and also teach and transform others, causing them to practise the six perfections." Last, warning them against clinging—「是布施性皆空，汝等莫著是施及以果報。」 tr. "The nature of this giving is all empty; do not cling to this giving or to its retribution." The order of the three sections is of a piece with the 「來布施，莫著是布施」 tr. "come and give, but do not cling to this giving" above: every giving must end in teaching not to cling.

56. Beings obtain this emptiness of nature and little by little obtain awakening. 「眾生得是性空，漸漸得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，入無餘涅槃。」 tr. "Beings, obtaining this emptiness of nature, little by little obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi and enter nirvāṇa without remainder." The two Chinese characters 「漸漸」 tr. "little by little" deserve attention: from receiving one garment and one meal up to entering nirvāṇa without remainder, in between is a road of gradual advance, not reached in one leap. The whole passage, from 「以布施法教化眾生」 tr. "teaches and transforms beings with the dharma of giving" to here, is joined head to tail.

57. As giving, being the head, gives birth to the five perfections, so it is with the rest. 「如布施為首生五波羅蜜，餘波羅蜜亦如是。」 tr. "As giving, being the head, gives birth to the five perfections, so it is with the other perfections." This last sentence extends the examples given before: everything said earlier—morality born from giving, anger calmed through giving, the conditions for the limbs of the path born from giving—is only one example with giving as the head; each of the other five perfections, with itself as the head, gives birth to the rest, and the principle is the same. In one sentence the meaning of the whole passage extends to the six perfections, and the Last Part stops here.

Do Not Misread

Do not read 「照明」 tr. "illumination" and 「具足」 tr. "completeness" as two stages. The treatise-author decides it as soon as he opens his mouth: 「照明、具足是一義。」 tr. "Illumination and completeness are one meaning." The reason the sūtra text speaks of them separately is that the faces they refer to differ—when one does not definitely find and also does not depart from the three things, it is called illumination; when the six perfections come together and one can practise, it is called completeness. If it is read as first illumination and afterwards completeness, or as illumination being shallow and completeness deep, then the passage below, 「離是二邊」 tr. "being free of these two sides", has nothing to be tied to.

Do not read 「不壞色」 tr. "not destroying form" as maintaining the real existence of form. What the treatise-author blocks is the verdict-like kind of breaking in 「不言是色無常，不言是色空無所有」 tr. "not saying that this form is impermanent, not saying that this form is empty and without anything existent"; it is not a refusal to speak of emptiness. So right after it, the causes and conditions the Buddha himself states are still 「是色性無故」 tr. "because the nature of this form is non-existent", and at the end it still returns to 「若得是色相性空，即是習般若波羅蜜」 tr. "if one obtains the emptiness of nature of this mark of form, that is training in prajñāpāramitā". The sickness of destroying lies in using breaking as a method; not destroying is not being non-empty; it is not taking emptiness by breaking.

Do not read 「不隨色」 tr. "not following form" only as not following what the eye sees. The treatise-author speaks of not following in three layers: not grasping at marks as the eye sees is one layer; not making the judgements 「若常、若無常、若苦、若樂」 tr. "permanent, impermanent, suffering, happiness" is one layer; not setting up causes that give birth, such as 「從世性中來」 tr. "comes from the nature of the world" and 「從微塵中來」 tr. "comes from atoms", is yet another layer. If one holds only to the first layer, then contemplating impermanence and searching for an original source both slip through the net, whereas the treatise-author says plainly 「常、無常等皆非色實相」 tr. "permanence, impermanence, and the rest are all not the real mark of form".

Do not read 「無取般若波羅蜜」 tr. "the prajñāpāramitā without grasping" as a gate of dharma that can be held and kept. Right after setting up the name, the treatise-author at once loosens it himself with one sentence: 「無取尚不可得，何況般若等諸法！」 tr. "Not grasping itself is unfindable, how much less prajñā and the other dharmas!" If one clings to not grasping as something attained, that is precisely the grasping it is meant to send away. This carries on in one meaning from ‘not finding even a little fixed nature’ in the earlier passage.

Do not read 「一切法無性」 tr. "all dharmas are without nature" as there being neither ordinary nor sage. The Buddha answers this difficulty with only one sentence: 「一切法雖無根本定相，但凡人顛倒故著。」 tr. "Though all dharmas have no fixed mark that is their root, ordinary people cling because of inversion." The division of ordinary and sage lies in inversion and non-inversion, not in there being, in dharmas, a separate ordinary nature or holy nature. If because of being without nature one abolishes the ordinary and the sage, then the bodhisattva's 「不懈不退」 tr. "not being slack and not retrogressing" and beings' 「著是陰、界、入」 tr. "clinging to these aggregates, elements, and sense-fields" in the text below would both have no way to be spoken of.

Do not read the 「六法」 tr. "six dharmas" the treatise-author speaks of as the six perfections. The first sentence of the treatise-author's answer to the second question is precisely 「此中不說波羅蜜」 tr. "here it is not the pāramitās that are spoken of"; what is pointed to is the initial dharmas of teaching giving to the stingy, and so on up to teaching wisdom to the deluded. If they are confused with the six perfections, then the phrase 「更有勝法」 tr. "there is still a superior dharma" becomes a claim that the six perfections are insufficient, which runs against the whole of this treatise.

Do not read the difficulty 「無所得是有所得」 tr. "is nothing to be attained something to be attained" as the Buddha granting that there is attaining. The Buddha's answer is 「不見眾生及法，但諸因緣和合，假名眾生」 tr. "he does not see beings and dharmas; it is only the coming together of causes and conditions that is provisionally named a being"—it takes away the one who attains; it does not acknowledge what is attained. The reason the one raising the difficulty can turn nothing to be attained into something to be attained is precisely that there still remains in his mind a really existent person who attains; the answer lies right there.

Do not read 「先來無」 tr. "non-existent from the first" as annihilation. The treatise-author sets up these words to break the fault of 「先有今無」 tr. "existing before and not existing now", and what he sets up is 「若有佛、無佛，常住不異，是諸法實相」 tr. "whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, they abide constantly and do not differ; this is the real mark of all dharmas"—what is from the first non-existent does not wait to be extinguished, so it is not annihilation. If it is read as annihilation, then the next sentence, 「菩薩於諸佛所聞諸法如是相故，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 tr. "the bodhisattva, because he hears in the presence of the buddhas that dharmas have such a mark, arouses the mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi", would have nothing from which to arise.

Do not read the simile of the conjurer as meaning that those the bodhisattva delivers are all set up in vain and need not be delivered. The point the simile takes, the treatise-author has already stated plainly, lies in 「若幻師以所幻作事為實，於所幻人求其恩惠，即是狂人」 tr. "if the conjurer takes what he has conjured as real and seeks favour from the people he has conjured, then he is a madman"—what is warned against is seeking reward; it is not a call to refrain from acting. So where it is joined to the dharma, what is said is 「而以布施等利益眾生；欲求恩惠福報，即是顛倒」 tr. "he benefits beings with giving and the rest; if he wishes to seek favour and the reward of merit, that is inversion"; the one matter of benefiting beings is not sent away.

Do not read 「取其少許相似處為喻」 tr. "taking only a little point of likeness as the simile" as meaning a simile can be used at will. The treatise-author sets up this rule to answer the difficulty 「幻師實有、所幻者無」 tr. "the conjurer really exists and what is conjured does not exist", and proves it himself with the lion as a simile for the king: what is taken is the one point of fearlessness and of being sovereign and without difficulty, and so there is no need to find fault over 「四腳負毛」 tr. "four legs and the bearing of fur". This says that a simile has a point it takes; it does not say that a simile need not correspond; one who uses a simile should first know where its point lies.

Do not read 「阿耨多羅三藐三菩提易得」 tr. "anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi is easy to obtain" as a light promise. These words are spoken to those who, 「怖畏生死長遠故，其心懈退」 tr. "because they fear the long duration of birth and death, become slack in mind and retrogress", and their ground is in the next sentence: 「眾生所著處，此中無有定實法能遮者、難解者。」 tr. "In the places to which beings cling, there is no definite, real dharma that can obstruct, nor any that is hard to undo." What is easy is that there is no real obstacle to block; it is not that what is practised need not be long. If one leaves the next sentence and takes only the two Chinese characters 「易得」 tr. "easy to obtain", it would run against the meaning of long practice spoken of throughout the whole treatise.

Do not read the passage on the eight difficulties as talk of fate. The reason the treatise-author lists the difficulties from the hells up to wrong views is that it follows on from fighting—「鬪諍故，人身尚不可得，何況值佛」 tr. "because of fighting, even a human body is unfindable, how much less meeting a Buddha". His intent lies in urging that the present time must not be lost, and so the concluding words are 「好時易過」 tr. "a good time easily passes". The last difficulty especially deserves attention: those who, 「六情具足、諸根通利，而深著邪見、言無罪福」 tr. "though the six faculties are complete and the faculties penetrating and keen, cling deeply to wrong views and say there is no sin and no merit", also cannot be transformed—from which it can be seen that the difficulty lies not only in circumstance but also in view.

Do not read the answer to 「三十七品自從心出」 tr. "the thirty-seven limbs of the path come forth from the mind of themselves" as meaning that the limbs of the path can be given by another. What the treatise-author answers is from beginning to end 「因緣」 tr. "causes and conditions"—clothing, food and drink, medicine, a Dharma staff, a meditation ball, a meditation prop; a good teacher, good disciples; a skeleton, the meditation scriptures, people who expound the dharma—all are conditions that help bring it to accomplishment. The dharmas of the mind must still be cultivated oneself; what is given is the outer conditions on which the cultivation of these dharmas of the mind depends.

Bearing on Practice

Take 「不決定得是布施等三事，亦不離是三事」 tr. "not definitely finding the three things of giving and the rest, and yet not departing from these three things" and examine by it your own mind when you do a good deed. To do it and think that the matter certainly exists, that there certainly is a person who receives, that there certainly is merit—this is definitely finding; to do it and think that since everything is empty anyway, doing or not doing makes no difference—this is departing. Neither failing needs to wait until it has been argued out in principle; right at the time of doing the matter one can examine oneself: is the mind stuck, or has it slid away?

Take 「照明、具足是一義」 tr. "illumination and completeness are one meaning" and reflect by it on how you imagine ‘progress’. The most common illusion in practice is to break one matter into several steps of a ladder and then fret over which step one is on. These words of the treatise-author can serve as an antidote: what are called illumination and completeness are from the first two faces of one matter, not two stretches of road.

Take 「不如眼見色取相生著」 tr. "not, as the eye sees form, grasping at marks and giving rise to clinging" and train by it in not following in the present moment. What this sentence points to is very near and does not wait for entering absorption: the moment the eye touches an object, the mark has already been grasped and clinging has already arisen, and in between there is no gap. So the place to apply effort lies not in regretting after the event but in recognising, at the first touch, that this road is 「隨」 tr. "following". To recognise it is already not wholly to follow.

Take 「常、無常等皆非色實相」 tr. "permanence, impermanence, and the rest are all not the real mark of form" and check by it the bias of your contemplative practice. Those who have long cultivated the contemplation of impermanence easily take impermanence as the ultimate view. These words of the treatise-author do not abolish the contemplation of impermanence; they say that it may not be clung to as the real mark. To use the contemplation to treat clinging to permanence is acceptable; to make a further layer of clinging out of the impermanence obtained by contemplation must again be sent away.

Take 「無取尚不可得」 tr. "not grasping itself is unfindable" and examine by it the dharma you hold on to. Whoever, applying effort, feels he has already let go, already grasps at nothing—this sentence is said precisely for him. Once 「無取」 tr. "not grasping" becomes the one thing kept in the mind, it is already grasping. Here there is no other method; only look once more at what it is that you are keeping.

Take 「為愛著眾生故說空，為取相著空眾生故說有」 tr. "for the sake of beings who love and cling he teaches emptiness, for the sake of beings who grasp at marks and cling to emptiness he teaches existence" and weigh by it your speaking of the Dharma to others. One who, speaking the Dharma to others, can go only one way is mostly so not because the Dharma has a fixed teaching but because he himself is familiar with only one way. See whether the other's sickness lies in clinging to existence or in clinging to emptiness, and then decide which side to speak—this is the use of the two truths, not a trick of expedient skill.

Take 「來布施，莫著是布施」 tr. "come and give, but do not cling to this giving" as the two-line formula for all wholesome practice. The first line accomplishes the matter, the second guards the mind; neither can be lacking. With only the first line, giving becomes a cause of arrogance—the treatise-author has already laid out that chain: nobility and happiness, arrogance, destroying wholesome dharmas, falling into the evil destinies. With only the second line, the matter is not accomplished.

Take 「令其心濡，可以引導」 tr. "so that their minds become soft and they can be guided" and reassess by it the use of giving. The most real function of giving does not stop at relieving want; it lies in making the recipient's mind soft enough to receive teaching. So in forming bonds with people there is no need to hurry to teach the Dharma; when the mind is not yet soft, what is said does not go in.

Take 「破戒人有二種」 tr. "people who break morality are of two kinds" and learn by it to distinguish the occasions faced. Those who break it because their causes and conditions are not complete—giving to them is enough; those who break it from a mind habituated to evil—giving to them is of no use. Whoever wishes to help people should first divide these two kinds—use the wrong medicine and not only is there no result, one may also wrongly think the person cannot be saved.

Take 「汝云何以虛誑事故，瞋罵、加害乃至奪命」 tr. "how can you, for the sake of false and deceptive things, angrily revile, harm, and even take life" and stop by it a moment's anger. When anger arises there is no need first to go and prove that all dharmas are empty; only look at how much reality the matter you are angry at will still have after three days or three months. What one is angry at is false and deceptive, while the retribution received is the real three evil destinies—once this account is reckoned, anger lessens of itself.

Take the simile of the haunted room and look by it at the times you contend with others. Two people who kept morality and had much learning fought each other the whole night, only because each took the other for a ghost. In the midst of contention what should be asked first is not who is right but ‘is the object I am now so sure of something I have put there myself’. Seeing each other at daybreak they at once apologised in shame, from which it can be seen that what they fought over had from the first no reality.

Take 「好時易過」 tr. "a good time easily passes" and spur by it today's diligence. The treatise-author lists the eight difficulties not to make people afraid but to make people know how precious the present time is—complete faculties, right view, and meeting the Buddha's Dharma: to have the three together is very hard. Since one already has them together, what should be cherished is time, not circumstance.

Take 「隨其意而給足之」 tr. "supplies and satisfies them according to their wishes" and train by it in the first step of treating anger. People's anger mostly arises from what they seek not being met. Give first what can be given—this is not indulgence; it is first removing the condition of their anger; once the condition is removed, the Dharma can be spoken. The treatise-author places this step before speaking of emptiness; the sequence is very clear.

Take 「令得好師教照，令得好弟子受化」 tr. "so that they get a good teacher to instruct and look after them, so that they get good disciples to receive their transformation" and look again by it at the weight of outer conditions. Though the thirty-seven limbs of the path come forth from the mind, their conditions cannot be lacking. Seeking a good teacher for someone, bringing a place of practice to accomplishment, protecting a person who applies effort—the merit of this is not below that of one's own cultivation, because this is precisely the share the treatise-author calls 「可與」 tr. "can be given".

Further Resonances

The place this unit holds within this chapter is the explanation of the whole chapter. The First Part is sūtra: the three-way questions and answers begin from 「當云何具足菩薩道」 tr. "how should one make complete the bodhisattva path" and end at the simile of the conjurer and the path of bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands; the Last Part is the treatise-author's explanation sentence by sentence as it goes. Looking at the two units together, what the sūtra asks and what the treatise answers run through from front to back: the sūtra asks about completeness, and the treatise answers that illumination and completeness are one meaning; the sūtra speaks of not destroying and not following, and the treatise explains along two roads what each treats; the sūtra speaks of bringing beings to accomplishment, and the treatise sets it down as a whole series of doable matters—himself practising giving, morality born from giving, anger calmed through giving, supplying the requisites for sitting in meditation, and so on. So the Last Part does not set up a separate meaning; it sets down every sentence of the First Part at a place where one can put one's hand to it. And the pivot of the whole chapter is still in the three Chinese characters 「方便力」 tr. "the power of skilful means"—the sūtra uses it to answer completeness, the treatise-author uses it to explain illumination, and the second half, speaking of bringing beings to accomplishment, also takes it as what it rests on.

The title of this chapter is not handed down alike in the various editions; they are recorded side by side below without forcing a judgement. The base text titles it "Illumination"; the four editions, the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions and the Palace edition, all read 「釋具足品」 tr. "Explaining the Chapter on Completeness", and their collation note records both names, saying 「釋照明品【大】，釋具足品【宋】【元】【明】【宮】」 tr. "Explaining the Chapter on Illumination (Taishō); Explaining the Chapter on Completeness (Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace)". The Shōgozō manuscript uses its own chapter numbering, reading 「釋第八十品」 tr. "Explaining the eightieth chapter", always one fewer than the base text; the Ishiyama-dera manuscript reads 「摩訶般若波羅蜜品第八十成就眾生品九十二」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā, chapter eighty, the Chapter on Bringing Beings to Accomplishment, ninety-two", which is both one fewer in the chapter count and sets up separately the name 「成就眾生」 tr. "Bringing Beings to Accomplishment", corresponding to the 「成就眾生、淨佛國土道」 tr. "path of bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands" asked about in the sūtra text of this chapter. The author's title 「龍樹菩薩造」 tr. "composed by the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna" is absent from both the Shōgozō and the Ishiyama-dera manuscripts; the translator's title reads in the base text 「後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯」 tr. "translated by Kumārajīva, Tripiṭaka master of the land of Kucha, of the Later Qin", in the four editions, the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions and the Palace edition, 「姚秦三藏法師鳩摩羅什譯」 tr. "translated by Kumārajīva, Tripiṭaka Dharma master, of the Yao Qin", while the Shōgozō and Ishiyama-dera manuscripts lack this title. In the Larger Sūtra text of the variant-translation side, the main title reads 「具足品第八十一」 tr. "Completeness, chapter eighty-one", while the interlinear note under its chapter title reads 「丹照明品」 tr. "Khitan: the Chapter on Illumination"—that is, what the Khitan edition hands down agrees with the base text of this treatise; its collation note further says 「具足【大】，照明【宮】，卷第廿六具足【聖】」 tr. "Completeness (Taishō); Illumination (Palace); fascicle twenty-six, Completeness (Shōgozō)", the Palace edition too reading Illumination—that is, the Palace edition reads 「具足」 tr. "Completeness" on the side of this treatise and 「照明」 tr. "Illumination" on the side of this sūtra, the two lines being exactly reversed; they are recorded side by side without judgement. The two names run side by side within the transmissions of the two lines, and neither is simply a corruption: 「照明」 tr. "Illumination" is set up from its illumining the bodhisattva path, 「具足」 tr. "Completeness" from its making complete the bodhisattva path, and since the treatise-author says plainly that the two are one meaning, each name gets one face of it. Further, this treatise has another chapter, chapter forty, also named "Illumination"; it shares the name with this chapter but is not the same chapter, and in reading the commentaries of the various masters one must take especial care to tell them apart.

Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra has an explanation of this chapter, and the chapter name he uses is also 「具足」 tr. "Completeness". On the general meaning of the chapter, Jizang says: 「此品初明以方便故具足菩薩道故能得佛道，名具足品。」 tr. "This chapter first makes clear that, because of skilful means, one makes complete the bodhisattva path and therefore can obtain the Buddha path; it is named the Chapter on Completeness." His divisions fall into three sections, corresponding exactly to the order of the sūtra and treatise of this unit: 「第一明方便故具足菩薩道能得佛道，二明習般若故以本方便，第三以般若成就故能化度眾生而無所度。」 tr. "The first makes clear that because of skilful means one makes complete the bodhisattva path and can obtain the Buddha path; the second makes clear that, because of training in prajñā, it is taken as the root of skilful means; the third, that because prajñā is accomplished one can transform and deliver beings and yet there is none delivered." On the meaning of skilful means in the first section, Jizang explains the Buddha's answer: 「不具二事故不墮有見中，亦不離不事故不著無也」 tr. "because he does not take up the two things, he does not fall into the view of existence; because he also does not depart from the not-things, he does not cling to non-existence", and pushes it further: 「見於一施中得中道觀，遠離二邊名為方便，然既離二邊亦不著中道始是方便，取如此而行是菩薩道也」 tr. "seeing that within one act of giving one obtains the contemplation of the middle path, being far from the two sides is named skilful means; yet having parted from the two sides, also not clinging to the middle path—only this is skilful means; taking it thus and practising is the bodhisattva path"—the phrase 「亦不著中道」 tr. "also not clinging to the middle path" goes one explanation further beyond the treatise-author's 「離是二邊」 tr. "being free of these two sides", and is recorded side by side for reference. On the second section, Jizang marks where it begins: 「舍利弗白佛下，第二、明修習般若故成方便。」 tr. "From ‘Śāriputra said to the Buddha’ onward: second, it makes clear that because of cultivating and training in prajñā skilful means is accomplished." His explanation of destroying and following assigns them to the two vehicles and to ordinary people: 「二乘折色空為壞，凡夫論眼見色墮想，心言色可見，見色想墮色，生三毒為墮也」 tr. "The two vehicles break form down into emptiness—this is destroying; ordinary people, discussing the eye's seeing form, fall into perception; the mind says that form can be seen; seeing the perception of form, they fall into form and give rise to the three poisons—this is falling", and he explains its meaning squarely: 「不觀色常無常、真俗等為不壞也，心不墮起常無等見為不墮也」 tr. "not contemplating form as permanent or impermanent, real or conventional, and the like, is not destroying; the mind not falling into giving rise to views of permanence, non-existence, and the like, is not falling"—agreeing with the treatise-author's intent in dividing not destroying and not following into two roads. On the difficulty of how one trains when there is no self-nature, Jizang answers: 「良由了法無性無取故，既是習是般若，得菩提也。」 tr. "It is truly because one understands that dharmas are without nature and without grasping that this is training, this is prajñā, and one obtains awakening." On the third section, Jizang marks where it begins and judges the division between practice for oneself and transforming others: 「菩薩見諸法無所有下，第三、明般若成就化度眾生而無所度。上來自行成，今是化他成也。」 tr. "From ‘the bodhisattva sees that dharmas are without anything existent’ onward: third, it makes clear that, prajñā being accomplished, one transforms and delivers beings and yet there is none delivered. What came above was the accomplishment of practice for oneself; now it is the accomplishment of transforming others." His explanation that the six dharmas taught are not the six perfections is the same as the treatise-author's: 「說法中先說布施乃至智慧，此非六度中，乃是凡夫世間之行。下云然後乃為說聖法，謂四諦等等，是為說出世法也。」 tr. "In teaching the Dharma he first teaches giving and so on up to wisdom; these are not within the six perfections but are the worldly practices of ordinary people. Below it says that only after that does he teach them the holy Dharma, meaning the four truths and the like; this is teaching the world-transcending dharma." On the passage of teaching the Dharma in the two truths, Jizang says: 「菩薩不得有亦所得無，但以方便住空有二，常為眾生說法，為著有者說無、著無者說有，說二令二離，菩薩亦著二，故是無所得，亦是方便也。」 tr. "The bodhisattva does not find existence, nor does he find non-existence; only by skilful means does he abide in the two, emptiness and existence, and constantly teach the Dharma for beings: for those clinging to existence he teaches non-existence, for those clinging to non-existence he teaches existence; he teaches the two to make them part from the two; the bodhisattva also clings to the two; therefore it is nothing to be attained, and it is also skilful means." On the vast and great mind, Jizang explains it with five alternatives: 「次菩薩心不依有無五句而能度，故廣大。心若有無，則是小心人也。」 tr. "Next, the bodhisattva's mind does not rely on the five alternatives of existence and non-existence and yet is able to deliver, and so it is vast and great. If the mind is in existence or non-existence, then he is a person of small mind." On why Subhūti asks again about the path of bringing beings to accomplishment, Jizang directly cites this treatise as his ground: 「論云：須菩提雖知菩薩道俱，中間說甚深空義，今聽者生疑，云何的明菩薩道耶？」 tr. "The treatise says: though Subhūti knew the bodhisattva path in full, in between the very deep meaning of emptiness was spoken, and now those who listen give rise to doubt: how is the bodhisattva path to be made precisely clear?" His divisions of the second half fall into three: 「初中三：第一、別佛六度廣化眾生；第二、總約六度道品成就眾生；第三、明展轉傳化也。」 tr. "Within the first there are three: first, separately, the Buddha's six perfections broadly transforming beings; second, in general, bringing beings to accomplishment by way of the six perfections and the limbs of the path; third, making clear the passing on of transformation from one to another." On the choosing of places of birth, Jizang says: 「色天著縛樂故不作梵王，欲天著妙五欲難化之不作天王，故但作轉輪王也。」 tr. "The gods of form cling to the bondage of pleasure, so he does not become a Brahmā king; the gods of desire cling to the subtle and wonderful five desires and are hard to transform, so he does not become a king of the gods; therefore he only becomes a wheel-turning king." On the two sections of morality born from giving and anger calmed through giving, Jizang sums them up: 「住檀攝戒成就眾生中，此是必貪故破戒，次則化之得持戒。若以富是習惡破戒者，更以餘法化之。忍中不稱意瞋者，以如意珠施之也。」 tr. "Within abiding in dāna, gathering in morality, and bringing beings to accomplishment: this is breaking morality necessarily because of greed, and next he transforms them so that they keep morality. If one is wealthy and breaks morality from habituation to evil, he transforms him further by other dharmas. Within patience, for one who is angry because things do not suit his wishes, he gives him a wish-fulfilling jewel." After the difficulties, Jizang gathers their meaning: 「今得人身無此諸過，正是受化時名好時也。」 tr. "Now having obtained a human body without these faults, it is precisely the time to receive transformation; this is named a good time." On the causes and conditions of the thirty-seven limbs that can be given, Jizang says: 「以供養具修之生道品者，菩薩以四事供養坐禪者，或以諸攸禪、或以禪經等給之，後教其禪法令得禪也。」 tr. "As for cultivating with the requisites of offering so as to give birth to the limbs of the path: the bodhisattva makes offerings of the four things to those who sit in meditation, supplying them perhaps with the various youchan, perhaps with the meditation scriptures and the like, and afterwards teaches them the dharma of meditation so that they obtain dhyāna." At the end, on the section of the dharma of the Mahāyāna, he marks its meaning of passing on: 「汝等從哉取下，第三、明展轉化菩薩以財施，令人更行施也。」 tr. "From ‘you … come and take’ onward: third, it makes clear the passing-on transformation—the bodhisattva gives by the gift of wealth and causes people further to practise giving."

Huiying's Commentary lacks an explanation of this chapter—the extant text of his commentary does not reach this chapter; it is not that there is a commentary on it that has been left unrecorded. Where Junzheng's commentary and the writings of the Tiantai masters mention "Illumination", all go back to chapter forty of this treatise and are not what this chapter is tied to, and so they are not forcibly attributed to it.

Further Resonances

What "Illumination" inherits is that the preceding chapter had said all there is to say about the principle of delivering beings and had not yet come to speak of practice. What the preceding chapter, "The Limit of Reality," discerns is that the limit of beings and the limit of reality are not different—「實際、眾生際不異，以是故，菩薩摩訶薩為利益眾生故行般若波羅蜜」 tr. "The limit of reality and the limit of beings are not different; for this reason the bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises prajñāpāramitā in order to benefit beings"; and the difficulty it raises is also the tightest: if the limit of reality is precisely the limit of beings, then is establishing beings in the limit of reality not 「建立自性於自性」 tr. "establishing self-nature in self-nature"? The Buddha's answer has already picked out the key word of this chapter: 「菩薩摩訶薩行般若波羅蜜時，以方便力故」 tr. "when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva practises prajñāpāramitā, by reason of the power of skilful means," and it comes back in the end to 「實際亦不異眾生際，實際、眾生際無二無別」 tr. "the limit of reality too is not different from the limit of beings; the limit of reality and the limit of beings are without duality and without difference"—the two characters for skilful means are set up from that chapter, and the skilful means spoken of in that chapter has also already come down upon the single gate of giving, teaching beings to give and telling them that the three wheels are all empty: 「是布施、布施相空，施者、施者空，施報、施報空，受者、受者空」 tr. "this giving—the mark of giving is empty; the giver—the giver is empty; the reward of giving—the reward of giving is empty; the recipient—the recipient is empty." At the end of the preceding chapter, the Buddha further divides the account of obtaining the path by worldly truth and the truth of the highest meaning, and concludes: 「菩薩行是諸法性，得佛時，能大利益眾生」 tr. "The bodhisattva practises this nature of dharmas, and when he attains Buddhahood he is able greatly to benefit beings." The question at the opening of this chapter takes up precisely this sentence and presses one step further: since the nature of dharmas is like this, and if, with the numbered dharmas fully practised, one still does not obtain awakening while 「不具足菩薩道」 tr. "not making complete the bodhisattva path," then where after all does the one matter of completeness lie? The Buddha's answer accordingly moves the two characters for skilful means from the preceding chapter over from principle onto practice, and fixes its name as illumination. What it opens is already half supplied within this chapter's questions and answers. What Subhūti asks in this chapter is 「何等是菩薩摩訶薩道？菩薩行是道，能成就眾生、淨佛國土？」 tr. "What is the path of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva? Does the bodhisattva, practising this path, become able to bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands?" and what the Buddha answers stops at the six perfections and so on up to the eighteen unshared dharmas being the path; what he expounds at length below covers only the one side of bringing beings to accomplishment, speaking from the single gate of practising dāna through to having them abide in śīla and practise the ten wholesome paths, while the one matter of purifying buddha-lands has only its name hung up and its practice not unfolded. The next chapter, "Purifying the Buddha-land," then takes up this half exclusively: at its opening, Subhūti no longer speaks but forms a thought in his mind—「何等是菩薩摩訶薩道？菩薩住是道，能作如是大莊嚴？」 tr. "What is the path of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, abiding in which path the bodhisattva is able to make such a great adornment?" The great adornment he has in mind is precisely what Śāriputra praises in this chapter and the treatise-author explains: 「無所依止而能發大莊嚴」 tr. "taking support in nothing, he is able to arouse the great adornment"; and the first sentence of the next chapter's answer on the pure land does not speak of the land, but speaks only of the purity of one's own three kinds of deeds. This chapter speaks of practising giving in order to bring beings to accomplishment; the next chapter speaks of purifying deeds in order to adorn the buddha-land; between the two questions, it is exactly the two matters mentioned together in a single sentence of this chapter that each obtain a chapter of their own.

On the matter of the chapter's name, what this chapter preserves is most worth recording. The base text of this treatise heads the opening of the fascicle 「大智度論釋照明品第八十一」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary on the Chapter Illumination, the Eighty-First," whereas the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions and the Palace edition all read here 「釋具足品」 tr. "Commentary on the Chapter Completeness," and the Palace edition further adds one character, 「品」 tr. "chapter," at the end of the chapter number; the Shōgozō manuscript's title is the briefest, reading 「釋第八十品」 tr. "Commentary on the Eightieth Chapter," its chapter number one step off from the base text; the Ishiyama-dera manuscript forms a style of its own, reading 「摩訶般若波羅蜜品第八十成就眾生品九十二」 tr. "Chapter of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā, the Eightieth; Chapter on Bringing Beings to Accomplishment, Ninety-Two"—it is both one step off and brings out a separate name, 「成就眾生品」 tr. "Chapter on Bringing Beings to Accomplishment," and this name corresponds precisely to the main axis of this chapter's sūtra text, 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands"; it is recorded as it is, without judgement. The author's and translator's headings also each differ: the five characters 「龍樹菩薩造」 tr. "composed by the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna" are absent from both the Shōgozō and the Ishiyama manuscripts; the translator's heading in the base text reads 「後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯」 tr. "translated by Kumārajīva, Tripiṭaka master, of the land of Kucha, in the Later Qin," the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions and the Palace edition read 「姚秦三藏法師鳩摩羅什譯」 tr. "translated by the Tripiṭaka Dharma master Kumārajīva, in the Yao Qin," and the Shōgozō and the Ishiyama manuscripts lack even this heading. The continuation title at the end of the fascicle is likewise of mixed styles: the Song edition and the Palace edition read 「大智度論釋卷第九十一」 tr. "Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa, Commentary, fascicle ninety-one," the Shōgozō manuscript reads 「大智度經論卷第九十一釋第八十品」 tr. "Great Wisdom-Crossing Sūtra-Treatise, fascicle ninety-one, Commentary on the Eightieth Chapter," and the Ishiyama manuscript reads 「大智度經論卷第九十二釋第八十品竟」 tr. "Great Wisdom-Crossing Sūtra-Treatise, fascicle ninety-two, Commentary on the Eightieth Chapter, ended"—the Ishiyama manuscript's fascicle number is one more than the base text's, and its chapter number again one less than the base text's, the two deviations appearing together within a single title. The transmitted text of the great sūtra being explained titles this chapter precisely 「具足品第八十一」 tr. "Completeness, Chapter Eighty-One," agreeing with the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace line of this treatise; and the base text has, under this title, a separate line of interlinear note, 「丹照明品」 tr. "Khitan edition: Illumination chapter," which the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, and Shōgozō witnesses lack. What especially may be recorded side by side is that the collation note of the great sūtra at this point records its variant readings as 「具足【大】，照明【宮】，卷第廿六具足【聖】」 tr. "Completeness (Taishō); Illumination (Palace edition); fascicle twenty-six, Completeness (Shōgozō)"—that is, the Palace edition reads Illumination in the sūtra and, in this treatise, on the contrary reads Completeness; the names of the two sides are exactly interchanged within one and the same edition-system, which is not a one-way corruption; it is recorded as it is, without forcing an explanation. As for the chapter-order numbers attached in the general table of contents at the head of its fascicles, this chapter and the next repeat the same number, and the same pattern is seen in several neighbouring chapters; this is a shift within the table of contents' own layer of markings, not a divergence of doctrinal meaning.

Of the ancient masters' commentaries, what can be relied on for this chapter is chiefly Jizang's Commentary on the Larger Sūtra, and before entering his book one must first clear away an obstacle of a shared name. In Jizang's book there is another chapter, which in the general table of contents at the head of the fascicle is given as 「照明品第四十」 tr. "Illumination, Chapter Forty," with the note beneath it 「亦云生般若品」 tr. "also called Giving Rise to Prajñā," and this heading is set up within the fascicle too—that is an entirely different, earlier chapter, sharing the same characters as this chapter's variant name 「照明」 tr. "Illumination" but referring to something else, and the two must not be drawn together. The name Jizang uses for this chapter follows the great sūtra he explains: 「具足品第八十一」 tr. "Completeness, Chapter Eighty-One." His explanation of the chapter's name establishes its meaning directly on skilful means: 「此品初明以方便故具足菩薩道故能得佛道，名具足品。」 tr. "This chapter first makes clear that by reason of skilful means one makes complete the bodhisattva path, and therefore can obtain the Buddha path; it is named the chapter Completeness." On the sequence, what he judges follows the same line of reasoning as the treatise-author of this treatise, and states the momentum of arising one from another more explicitly: 「此文接上品次第相生，上品具足菩薩道故得佛，今明具方便故具菩薩道，後次般若故成，方便成故能眾生無所度也。」 tr. "This text follows on from the previous chapter, arising one from another in sequence: the previous chapter is that one attains Buddhahood because one makes complete the bodhisattva path; now it makes clear that one is complete with the bodhisattva path because one is complete with skilful means; next, it is accomplished by prajñā; when skilful means is accomplished, one can deliver beings with nothing delivered." On the single question at the start, he also specially picks out how it differs from what was asked in the preceding chapter: 「初有一問答，問意但問云能所具足菩薩道故所以道耶，故異上品來問也。」 tr. "First there is one question and answer; the intent of the question asks only what, as to that by which and that in which the bodhisattva path is made complete, the path is; therefore it differs from the question brought in the previous chapter." His division of the text divides the first half into three sections—「就第二以方便故具足菩薩道中為三」 tr. "Within the second, making complete the bodhisattva path by reason of skilful means, there are three"—the first making clear that by reason of skilful means one makes complete the bodhisattva path and can obtain the Buddha path, the second making clear that skilful means is accomplished by training in prajñā, the third making clear that because prajñā is accomplished one transforms and delivers beings with nothing delivered; and for the latter half he sets up a separate great section, whose words best show how this chapter is bound to the next: 「須菩提白佛下，第二大段，上總明方便外化已竟，今別明二種要行」 tr. "From 'Subhūti said to the Buddha' onward is the second great section: above, the general account of skilful means in outward transformation is finished; now it makes clear separately two kinds of essential practice," the two essential practices being 「初、廣明成就眾生；二、廣明淨佛土」 tr. "first, making clear at length bringing beings to accomplishment; second, making clear at length purifying buddha-lands"—that is, Jizang too takes bringing beings to accomplishment and purifying buddha-lands as two parallel practices, of which this chapter expounds at length only the first, and the next chapter expounds the second. In several places his explanations especially illuminate this treatise. On skilful means as leaving the two extremes, Jizang goes one step further: 「見於一施中得中道觀，遠離二邊名為方便，然既離二邊亦不著中道始是方便，取如此而行是菩薩道也」 tr. "To see that within a single act of giving one obtains the contemplation of the middle path, far from the two extremes, is called skilful means; yet having left the two extremes, only when one also does not cling to the middle path is it skilful means; to take it like this and practise is the bodhisattva path"—the treatise-author stops at leaving the two extremes, while Jizang, beyond leaving the two extremes, further blocks a clinging to the middle path; both are recorded side by side for the reader's consideration. On the passage where the Buddha approves Śāriputra's meaning, his verdict is extremely brief: 「佛述成之，舉失明顯得。」 tr. "The Buddha declares and confirms it, raising the fault to make the gain plain." And on the fault of first existing and afterwards not existing, Jizang separately records two schools' differing explanations: 「數人謂眾生先來無，今入涅槃亦無，此義一性無過，而五陰先有後無故是過」 tr. "The masters of the enumerative treatises say that beings were non-existent from the first and on entering nirvāṇa now are also non-existent; this meaning, being of one nature, is without fault; but the five aggregates first exist and afterwards do not exist, and therefore this is a fault," whereas the treatise-masters' account takes it as a great wrong that within birth and death there are beings and there are the five aggregates while at the time of entering cessation both are non-existent; the conclusion of his own question and answer says 「佛說無餘之無，為於生死有也」 tr. "The Buddha speaks of the non-existence of the without-remainder for the sake of existence in birth and death"—that is, he speaks of the non-existence of the without-remainder over against the existence of birth and death, and does not set up a separate annihilation. As for why Subhūti asks further about the path of bringing beings to accomplishment, Jizang cites this treatise directly as his ground, and what he cites is precisely the meaning, explained by this treatise's treatise-author, of doubt arising in the hearers.

The other masters are mostly lacking, and their lack too must be distinguished. The extant text of Huiying's Commentary does not reach the fascicle in which this chapter lies; there is no commentary on this chapter, and it is recorded as an explanation lacking; only the heading 「釋照明品第四十」 tr. "Commentary on Illumination, Chapter Forty" appears several times in his book, corresponding precisely to the earlier chapter of the same name in Jizang's book; it is not a commentary on this chapter, and it must not be wrongly attached here because the wording on the surface is the same. In Junzheng's book of essentials on the four treatises, the name Illumination appears once, its text reading 「大品經第十一卷照明品云」 tr. "The 'Illumination' chapter in fascicle eleven of the Larger Sūtra says," and what it refers to is the earlier chapter of the same name, the fortieth chapter of the Larger Sūtra, not this chapter; there is a hit, and it belongs to that chapter; text referring specifically to this chapter and the heading Completeness are both nowhere to be seen. His book is in the form of essentials, not a commentary following the text, and this is no defect; it is recorded as it is. The Profound Meaning, the Words and Phrases, and the Calming and Contemplation works of the Tiantai line, searched throughout for the words peculiar to this chapter, likewise show nothing, and are not forcibly drawn in; it is recorded as it is.

Bringing this course of further resonances back to this chapter, the chapter names of the two sides exactly illumine the two faces of this chapter's doctrinal meaning. To call it illumination is to raise that by which one practises—the backbone of the whole chapter lies in the single sentence 「不得施、不得施者、不得受者，亦不遠離是法行檀波羅蜜」 tr. "not finding the giving, not finding the giver, not finding the recipient, and also not being far from this dharma as he practises dānapāramitā"; what is added is not a dharma, but that share of clarity, falling to neither side, at the time of practising the dharma; so this name points to the mind that practises. To call it completeness is to raise the roundness of the practice—the bodhisattva path is not something that the count of numbered dharmas, many or few, can make complete; with the six perfections fully practised and the mind grasping at something, it is still 「不具足菩薩道」 tr. "not making complete the bodhisattva path"; so this name points to the practice accomplished. One cause and one fruit: they look like two names, but in fact the treatise-author long ago judged them to be one matter: 「照明、具足是一義。」 tr. "Illumination and completeness are one meaning." And the separate name brought out by the Ishiyama manuscript, 「成就眾生」 tr. "bringing beings to accomplishment," raises in turn the function of this practice—illumination is its mind, completeness is its practice, bringing beings to accomplishment is what it reaches. The three names stand together without hindering one another, which accords exactly with this chapter's own sequence: by the power of skilful means one illumines the bodhisattva path; because of illumination it is complete; because it is complete one can 「成就眾生、淨佛國土」 tr. "bring beings to accomplishment and purify buddha-lands."

Therefore what "Illumination" leaves in the end is a measuring rule that can be carried into daily use. When I do one good deed and in my heart rejoice that it is good, I remember that the first sentence by which this chapter teaches people is not an exhortation to give, but 「諸善男子！汝等莫著布施！」 tr. "Good men! Do not cling to giving!" and that its reason lies in only one extremely short chain: because one clings to giving one receives a body again; because one receives a body one undergoes many sufferings. When, because emptiness is spoken of, I feel there is nothing anywhere to lay a hand to, I remember that the treatise-author sets the faults of the two sides side by side: grasping at marks and clinging to dharmas is one fault, and 「則墮斷滅邊，著空，還起邪見等諸煩惱，便離菩薩道」 tr. "he falls to the side of annihilation, clings to emptiness, and gives rise again to wrong views and the other afflictions, and so parts from the bodhisattva path" is the other; emptiness is not not practising; it is not grasping while practising. When I wish to urge people toward the path and feel that words have no power, I remember that the sequence this chapter shows lies wholly in making up what they lack—seeing one who breaks morality, he makes up his clothing and food; seeing one who is angry, he gives him what he needs; seeing one who is lazy, he hears him say 「因緣少故」 tr. "because our causes and conditions are few" and promises him, 「我當令汝因緣具足」 tr. "I shall make your causes and conditions complete"; seeing one who wishes to sit in meditation, he gives him clothing, food and drink, medicine, a Dharma staff, a meditation ball, and a meditation prop. When I quarrel with someone and think myself in the right, I remember that passage in the treatise about the empty house: two people, each relying on his own strength to subdue the ghost, fought hard the whole night, and 「至明旦相見，乃是故舊同學，各相愧謝」 tr. "when they saw each other the next morning, they were after all old fellow-students, and each apologised to the other in shame"; the treatise-author at once lays bare the reason—「五眾無我、無人，空取相致鬪諍」 tr. "the five aggregates are non-self and without person; vainly grasping at marks leads to fighting and strife." When I ask myself whether, having as yet no power to deliver beings, this chapter has anything to do with me, I remember that the bodhisattva's own practice also begins from the lowest place: 「是故菩薩先自布施」 tr. "therefore the bodhisattva first himself gives," 「布施是初門」 tr. "giving is the first gate"; and the reason he gives first is not for merit, but only 「令其心濡，可以引導」 tr. "so that their minds become soft and they can be guided." Reading all the way through, the whole chapter has said all there is to say about not finding the three things, and at the last it still comes back to one extremely plain teaching—「汝等莫著是施及以果報」 tr. "do not cling to this giving or to its retribution"—and its retribution comes of itself: 「眾生得是性空，漸漸得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，入無餘涅槃。」 tr. "Beings, obtaining this emptiness of nature, little by little obtain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi and enter nirvāṇa without remainder."