維摩詰所說經 菩薩行品第十一

Not by dividing the world into one side that is pure and another that is useless, but by letting compassion and wisdom continue without stopping within every kind of cause and condition.

This chapter begins with a concrete act: Vimalakīrti places the assembly, together with their lion seats, in his right palm and carries them before the Buddha. Yet the scripture does not stop at the wonder of supernormal power. The dialogue quickly turns to the fragrance in their pores, the remainder of a Buddha’s meal from the Land of Myriad Fragrances, and the point at which that rice is completely digested. Its power disappears only after the Dharma benefit due to the person who ate it has been accomplished. The scripture then uses a medicinal simile: the medicine disappears only after all the poisons in the body have been eliminated.

One serving of rice therefore no longer merely nourishes the body. It can cause one who has not entered the fixed position to enter it, one who has not aroused the Great Vehicle mind to arouse it, and one who has already aroused that mind to advance to acceptance of non-arising. The scripture also calls it capable of performing the Buddha’s work. What has never happened before is not merely that fragrance pervades every pore, but that ordinary food can become a gateway for entering the Dharma.

The Buddha then opens this gate still wider. Light can perform the Buddha’s work; bodhisattvas can perform it; created persons, the bodhi tree of awakening, clothing, bedding, food, groves and pavilions, excellent marks, the Buddha’s body, and space can all perform it. Dreams, illusions, shadows, echoes, reflections in mirrors, moons in water, and mirages in the heat can perform the Buddha’s work. Sound, language, and written words can perform it, and silent wordlessness can perform it as well.

These forms are not arranged as a ladder from low to high. Discourse can be an entrance, and silence can also perform the Buddha’s work; visible things can lead people into the Dharma, and so can space. The key is not whether a form appears majestic, but whether sentient beings enter disciplined conduct through the cause or condition that corresponds to them. Even the four Māras and eighty-four thousand gateways of affliction that weary sentient beings can be used by the buddhas according to the illness to perform the Buddha’s work. This does not praise affliction; it says that affliction cannot seal off the Buddha’s work.

In the same way, buddha-lands differ in purity and impurity, yet a bodhisattva is not carried away by joy or sorrow. On seeing a pure and beautiful buddha-land, the bodhisattva is neither greedy nor proud; on seeing an impure one, the bodhisattva is neither obstructed nor submerged. The scripture holds up ground and space as a mirror: ground has many differences, while space does not; the buddhas’ physical bodies have many differences, while unobstructed wisdom does not. Difference continues to be seen, and equality does not therefore disappear.

It is at this point that the bodhisattvas from the world of Myriad Fragrances reproach themselves. When they first saw this land, an inferior perception arose, but they later abandoned that mind and requested a portion of Dharma to carry back to their own land. What the Buddha gives them is not another method belonging only to a pure buddha-land, but two practices that must be held simultaneously: not exhausting the conditioned and not abiding in the unconditioned.

Not exhausting the conditioned means not allowing compassion to stop before saṃsāra. A bodhisattva regards meditative concentration as a hell, saṃsāra as a garden grove, and a person who comes seeking something as an excellent teacher. The bodhisattva breaks the thieves of affliction with the sword of wisdom and subdues Māra’s armies through great diligent effort, yet still shoulders sentient beings. Having few desires and knowing contentment, the bodhisattva does not abandon worldly dharmas; seeking transcendent dharmas without weariness, the bodhisattva can accord with worldly convention without damaging proper deportment. Non-exhaustion does not mean surrendering to the flow of the conditioned. It means not bringing teaching, protection of the Dharma, giving, rescue, seeking the Dharma, or teaching the Dharma to a premature end.

Not abiding in the unconditioned means not allowing wisdom to turn any contemplation into a final destination. A bodhisattva cultivates emptiness without taking emptiness as realization in which to stop, contemplates impermanence without becoming weary of wholesome roots, contemplates the world as suffering without becoming averse to saṃsāra, contemplates no-self while teaching others without weariness, contemplates quiescent cessation without entering permanent cessation, and contemplates emptiness and voidness without abandoning great compassion. Each time emptiness, suffering, no-self, or quiescent cessation is seen, an original vow remains unfulfilled and sentient beings remain to be shouldered.

The chapter therefore returns at the end to Dharma medicine. A bodhisattva must gather the medicine and also give it according to the illness, must know the illnesses of sentient beings and also eliminate them. If medicine is only gathered and never given, it does not reach the sick; if the illness is merely observed and never eliminated, great compassion does not complete its practice. Merit supports not abiding in the unconditioned, and wisdom supports not exhausting the conditioned; loving-kindness and compassion bring the bodhisattva close to sentient beings, and original vows keep the bodhisattva from stopping halfway.

Fragrant rice can perform the Buddha’s work, and even afflictions can be used by the buddhas to perform the Buddha’s work. How, then, does a bodhisattva practice? The bodhisattva neither labels all dharmas “pure” nor escapes into a silence without sentient beings. As this chapter says, knowing the illnesses of sentient beings means not abiding in the unconditioned, and eliminating their illnesses means not exhausting the conditioned. The bodhisattva contemplates all dharmas as empty and void, yet still does not abandon great compassion. At the chapter’s opening, Vimalakīrti arrives bearing the assembly in his right palm; at its end, the bodhisattvas from Myriad Fragrances return home carrying the Dharma. The path left between arrival and return is this: until the original vows have been fulfilled, merit, meditative concentration, and wisdom must not be allowed to come to nothing.

Base text: Kumārajīva’s Yao-Qin translation, The Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Lower Scroll, Chapter 11, “The Conduct of the Bodhisattva.” What follows renders the chapter’s twenty-nine passages in their transmitted sequence. Not one of the fourteen kinds of Buddha-work, fifty items under not exhausting the conditioned, fifteen items under not abiding in the unconditioned, or final four pairs is omitted.

The Āmra Grove First Displays an Auspicious Sign

At that time, the Buddha was teaching the Dharma in the Āmra Grove. The ground in the grove suddenly became broad and majestic, and the entire assembly present took on a golden color.

Ānanda asked the Buddha, “World-Honored One, what cause and condition have made this auspicious sign appear here? This place has suddenly become broad and majestic, and the entire assembly has taken on a golden color.”

The Buddha told Ānanda, “Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, and the assembly, respectfully gathered around them, have already formed the intention to come here. This auspicious sign has therefore appeared first.”

Vimalakīrti Holds the Assembly in His Palm and Goes with Them to See the Buddha

Vimalakīrti said to Mañjuśrī, “We can go together to see the Buddha and, together with the bodhisattvas, pay reverence, attend upon him, and make offerings.”

Mañjuśrī replied, “Excellent! Let us go. Now is the time.”

Vimalakīrti immediately exercised his supernormal power. He lifted the entire assembly together with the lion seats on which they sat, placed them in the palm of his right hand, and went to where the Buddha was. After arriving, he set the assembly and their seats on the ground, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated the Buddha seven times to the right, stood to one side with palms joined and mind collected. The bodhisattvas also all rose from their seats, bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated him seven times, and stood to one side. The great disciples, Śakra, Brahmā, the Four Heavenly Kings, and the others likewise rose from their seats, bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, and stood to one side.

After the World-Honored One had greeted the bodhisattvas according to Dharma protocol, he invited each of them to return to his seat, and everyone respectfully accepted the instruction. Once the assembly was seated, the Buddha asked Śāriputra, “Have you seen everything done through the sovereign supernormal power of this bodhisattva-mahāsattva?”

Śāriputra replied, “Yes, I have seen it.”

The Buddha asked again, “What do you think of this?”

Śāriputra replied, “World-Honored One, everything I see him do is truly inconceivable. It cannot be conceived by the mind or measured by calculation.”

Fragrance from Their Pores Remains until the Power of the Fragrant Rice Is Exhausted

At this point, Ānanda asked the Buddha, “World-Honored One, I now smell a fragrance I have never smelled before. What fragrance is this?”

The Buddha told Ānanda, “This fragrance issues from the pores of those bodhisattvas.”

Śāriputra then said to Ānanda, “The same fragrance also issues from our pores.”

Ānanda asked, “Where does this fragrance come from?”

Śāriputra replied, “The elder Vimalakīrti brought back the remainder of a Buddha’s meal from the Land of Myriad Fragrances. Everyone who ate that rice in his house emits this fragrance from every pore of the body.”

Ānanda then asked Vimalakīrti, “How long will this fragrance remain on the body?”

Vimalakīrti replied, “Until the rice is completely digested.”

Ānanda asked again, “How long will it take for the rice to be completely digested?”

Vimalakīrti replied, “The power of this rice itself lasts for seven days and is exhausted only afterward. Yet, Ānanda, if the person who eats it has a Dharma benefit that should be accomplished, the power of the rice disappears only after that benefit has been accomplished.” The five cases, in order, are:

1. If a śrāvaka who has not yet entered the fixed position eats this rice, its power is exhausted only after he enters the fixed position.
2. If a śrāvaka who has already entered the fixed position eats this rice, its power is exhausted only after his mind is liberated.
3. If someone who has not yet aroused the Great Vehicle mind eats this rice, its power is exhausted only after he arouses the Great Vehicle mind.
4. If someone who has already aroused the Great Vehicle mind eats this rice, its power is exhausted only after he attains acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.
5. If someone who has already attained acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas eats this rice, its power is exhausted only after he reaches the stage of one life remaining.

“It is like a medicine called Supreme Flavor. The medicine’s power disappears only after every poison throughout the body of the person who takes it has been eliminated. This rice is the same: its power disappears only after every poison of the afflictions has been eliminated.”

Ānanda praised this before the Buddha: “Such a thing has never happened before! World-Honored One, fragrant rice such as this can actually perform the Buddha’s work.”

Light, Food, Language, and Silence Can All Perform the Buddha’s Work

The Buddha said, “So it is, so it is, Ānanda! The ways in which buddha-lands perform the Buddha’s work are not all the same.” In the scripture’s sequence there are fourteen kinds:

1. Some buddha-lands perform the Buddha’s work through the Buddha’s light.
2. Some perform the Buddha’s work through bodhisattvas.
3. Some perform the Buddha’s work through persons created by the Buddha.
4. Some perform the Buddha’s work through the bodhi tree of awakening.
5. Some perform the Buddha’s work through the Buddha’s clothing and bedding.
6. Some perform the Buddha’s work through food.
7. Some perform the Buddha’s work through groves, terraces, towers, and pavilions.
8. Some perform the Buddha’s work through the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics.
9. Some perform the Buddha’s work through the Buddha’s body.
10. Some perform the Buddha’s work through space.

Sentient beings each enter disciplined and right conduct through the particular cause or condition suited to them.

11. Some perform the Buddha’s work through seven similes: dreams, illusions, shadows, echoes, reflections in mirrors, moons in water, and mirages in the heat.
12. Some perform the Buddha’s work through sound, language, and written words.
13. Some pure buddha-lands are quiescent and silent, without words, discourse, indication, discriminating cognition, fabrication, or the conditioned; they perform the Buddha’s work through just such silence.
14. In summary, nothing in the buddhas’ deportment—walking, standing, advancing, or stopping—or in anything they do fails to be the Buddha’s work.

The Buddha further said, “Ānanda, the world has the four Māras and eighty-four thousand gateways of affliction, by which sentient beings are wearied and troubled. The buddhas use these very dharmas to perform the Buddha’s work. This is called entering the Dharma-gate of all buddhas.”

“A bodhisattva who enters this Dharma-gate sees every pure and beautiful buddha-land without becoming pleased by it, greedily attached to it, or proud; and sees every impure buddha-land without becoming sorrowful, obstructed, or submerged. The bodhisattva gives rise only to a pure mind toward the buddhas and, with joy and reverence, praises this as something never before experienced.”

“The merit of all buddhas, the Tathāgatas, is equal. It is only in order to teach and transform sentient beings that they manifest different buddha-lands. Ānanda, consider this: the lands of the buddhas have many different kinds of ground, but space does not have these many differences. In the same way, the physical bodies manifested by the buddhas have many differences, but their unobstructed wisdom does not.”

The Buddhas’ Merits Are Equal, and Their Wisdom and Eloquence Cannot Be Measured

The Buddha continued to tell Ānanda, “The physical bodies, majestic virtue and appearance, lineage, ethical discipline, samādhi, wisdom, liberation, knowledge and vision of liberation, various powers, fearlessnesses, exclusive qualities, great loving-kindness, great compassion, ordinary deportment and conduct, lifespans, teaching and transformation through the Dharma, bringing sentient beings to fulfillment, purification of buddha-lands, and complete possession of all Buddha-dharmas of the buddhas are all equal. They are therefore all called Samyaksaṃbuddha, all called Tathāgata, and all called Buddha.”

“Ānanda, if I were to explain the meanings of these three names extensively, even if your lifespan lasted an eon, you could not receive them all. Even if the great trichiliocosm were filled with sentient beings, every one of them foremost in learning like Ānanda and each endowed with mnemonic retention, and all of them listened for the whole of an eon-long lifespan, they still could not receive them all. So it is, Ānanda: the unsurpassed perfect awakening of the buddhas has no measure, and their wisdom and eloquence are inconceivable.”

Ānanda said to the Buddha, “From now on, I no longer dare to call myself learned.”

The Buddha told Ānanda, “Do not give rise to a mind of retreat! Why? I say that you are the most learned among the śrāvaka disciples; I do not say that you are the most learned among the bodhisattvas. Enough, Ānanda! A wise person should not try to measure the bodhisattvas. All the oceans and deep pools can still be measured, but the bodhisattvas’ meditative absorptions, wisdom, mnemonic retention, eloquence, and every merit cannot be measured.”

“Ānanda, set aside for the moment everything practiced by the bodhisattvas and consider only the supernormal power Vimalakīrti has displayed on this occasion. Even if all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas spent hundreds of thousands of eons exhausting their strength in every kind of transformation, they could not do what he has done.”

The Bodhisattvas from Myriad Fragrances Reproach Themselves and Request the Dharma

At that time, the bodhisattvas who had come from the world of Myriad Fragrances joined their palms and said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, when we first saw this land, an inferior perception arose in our minds. We now repent and reproach ourselves and have abandoned that mind. Why? The domain of the buddhas’ skillful means is inconceivable. In order to liberate sentient beings, they manifest different buddha-lands in accordance with what is suitable for those beings. Indeed, World-Honored One, please bestow upon us a small portion of the essentials of the Dharma so that, after we return to our own land, we may continue to recollect the Tathāgata.”

The Buddha told these bodhisattvas, “There is a Dharma-gate of liberation called Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion, which you should cultivate and study. What is called exhaustion? It is conditioned dharmas. What is called non-exhaustion? It is the unconditioned. A bodhisattva does not exhaust conditioned practice and does not abide in the unconditioned.”

A Bodhisattva’s Not Exhausting the Conditioned

The Buddha said, “What is called not exhausting the conditioned? It means not leaving great loving-kindness and not abandoning great compassion.” The scripture then lists the following fifty items in order:

1. Deeply arouse the aspiration to omniscience and never forget it.
2. Teach and transform sentient beings without ever growing weary.
3. Constantly remember and practice in accord with the four means of gathering: giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and shared activity.
4. Protect the true Dharma without begrudging body or life.
5. Plant every kind of wholesome root without fatigue or satiety.
6. Keep one’s resolve firmly established and skillfully dedicate the merit cultivated.
7. Seek the Dharma without indolence.
8. Teach the Dharma without stinginess.
9. Diligently make offerings to the buddhas.
10. Therefore enter saṃsāra without fear.
11. Face honor and humiliation without sorrow or joy in the mind.
12. Do not slight those who have not yet learned.
13. Respect those who have learned as one would respect the Buddha.
14. Devise means to cause those who have fallen into afflictions to arouse right mindfulness.
15. Do not regard the joy of seclusion as something precious and desirable.
16. Do not become attached to one’s own happiness.
17. Rejoice in the happiness of others.
18. While in the various meditative absorptions, regard them as hells and do not greedily abide in them.
19. While in saṃsāra, regard it as a garden grove and do not retreat because of saṃsāra.
20. Regard a person who comes seeking something as an excellent teacher.
21. Be able to relinquish everything one possesses.
22. When giving, understand in the mind that this practice tends toward omniscience.
23. Upon seeing someone violate ethical discipline, arouse the intention to protect and rescue that person.
24. Regard the perfections as one’s parents.
25. Regard the factors of the path as one’s family and companions.
26. Cultivate wholesome roots without any limit.
27. Adopt the adornments of pure lands to bring one’s own buddha-land to fulfillment.
28. Practice boundless giving to perfect the excellent marks.
29. Eliminate every evil action and purify bodily, verbal, and mental karma.
30. Pass through countless great eons in saṃsāra.
31. Keep one’s resolve courageous and vigorous, without retreating because of long eons.
32. Hear of the Buddha’s immeasurable merits without weariness in one’s aspiration.
33. Use the sword of wisdom to break the thieves of affliction.
34. Transcend the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, shoulder sentient beings, and cause them forever to attain liberation.
35. Subdue Māra’s armies through great diligent effort.
36. Constantly seek the practice of true-mark wisdom that does not grasp characteristics; no-thought here does not mean making the mind entirely devoid of thoughts.
37. Have few desires and know contentment with respect to worldly dharmas, while seeking transcendent dharmas without weariness.
38. At the same time, do not abandon worldly dharmas.
39. Do not violate the proper rules of deportment, yet be able to act in accord with worldly conventions.
40. Arouse supernormal wisdom to guide sentient beings.
41. Attain mnemonic retention so that nothing heard is forgotten.
42. Skillfully discern the different capacities of sentient beings and dispel their doubts.
43. Possess eloquence that delights in teaching and expound the true Dharma without obstruction.
44. Purely practice the ten wholesome paths and receive the blessings of birth among gods and humans.
45. Cultivate the four immeasurable minds of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, opening the way to birth in the Brahmā heavens.
46. Request the teaching of the Dharma, rejoice in and praise wholesome deeds, and perfect the Buddha’s voice.
47. Make bodily, verbal, and mental karma wholly good and perfect the Buddha’s deportment.
48. Cultivate wholesome dharmas deeply so that one’s practice becomes progressively more excellent.
49. Bring the bodhisattva saṅgha to fulfillment through Great Vehicle teaching.
50. Keep the mind free from heedlessness and lose none of the wholesome dharmas.

The Buddha concluded, “Practicing these dharmas is called a bodhisattva’s not exhausting the conditioned.”

A Bodhisattva’s Not Abiding in the Unconditioned

The Buddha then said, “What is called a bodhisattva’s not abiding in the unconditioned?” The scripture next lists the following fifteen contemplative practices in order:

1. Cultivate emptiness without making realization of emptiness a stopping place.
2. Cultivate signlessness and wishlessness without making realization of signlessness and wishlessness a stopping place.
3. Cultivate non-origination without making realization of non-origination a stopping place.
4. Contemplate the impermanence of all things without becoming weary of wholesome roots.
5. Contemplate the world as suffering without becoming averse to saṃsāra.
6. Contemplate no-self while still teaching sentient beings without weariness.
7. Contemplate quiescent cessation without becoming permanently submerged in cessation.
8. Contemplate seclusion while still cultivating wholesome dharmas in body and mind.
9. Contemplate all dharmas as having no destination while personally taking wholesome dharmas as one’s destination.
10. Contemplate non-arising while using dharmas of arising to shoulder all sentient beings.
11. Contemplate freedom from outflows without cutting off the outflows through which one remains together with sentient beings.
12. Contemplate all things as without fabrication while teaching sentient beings through various practices.
13. Contemplate all things as empty and void without abandoning great compassion.
14. Contemplate the position of the true Dharma without following the Lesser Vehicle and stopping there.
15. Contemplate all dharmas as illusory, without solidity, person, master, or fixed form; yet, while one’s original vows remain unfulfilled, do not let the cultivation of merit, meditative concentration, and wisdom be in vain.

The Buddha concluded, “Cultivating these dharmas is called a bodhisattva’s not abiding in the unconditioned.”

Four Pairs of Merit and Wisdom, Loving-Kindness and Vows, and Dharma Medicine

The Buddha finally explained the matter through four pairs of alternating statements:

1. Being complete in merit means not abiding in the unconditioned; being complete in wisdom means not exhausting the conditioned.
2. Having great loving-kindness and great compassion means not abiding in the unconditioned; seeking to fulfill one’s original vows means not exhausting the conditioned.
3. Gathering the medicine of the true Dharma means not abiding in the unconditioned; giving Dharma medicine according to what sentient beings need means not exhausting the conditioned.
4. Knowing the illnesses of sentient beings means not abiding in the unconditioned; eliminating the illnesses of sentient beings means not exhausting the conditioned.

The Buddha said, “Good sirs, a bodhisattva who cultivates this Dharma-gate practices not exhausting the conditioned and not abiding in the unconditioned. This is called the Dharma-gate of liberation of Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion, which you should cultivate and study.”

Hearing the Dharma, They Rejoice, Make Offerings, and Return to Their Land

At that time, the bodhisattvas who had come from the world of Myriad Fragrances heard this Dharma and gave rise to immense joy. They scattered many wondrous flowers of various colors and fragrances throughout the great trichiliocosm as offerings to the Buddha, this scriptural Dharma, and the bodhisattvas. After making their offerings, they bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, praised this as something never before experienced, and said, “Śākyamuni Buddha can exercise skillful means so well in this land.”

After saying this, they suddenly disappeared from the assembly and returned to their own land.

Vimalakīrti places the assembly and their lion seats in his right palm and carries them from his residence to the Āmra Grove, but the scripture does not stop at supernormal power. Once everyone is seated, the dialogue turns from inconceivable power to the fragrance in their pores, from fragrance to rice, from rice to Dharma benefit, and finally from a single portion of fragrant rice to the immeasurable ways in which the buddhas perform the Buddha’s work. As the story proceeds, its question draws ever closer to the conduct of a bodhisattva: if light, food, language, and silence can all perform the Buddha’s work, how should a bodhisattva face a pure land and an impure land, the conditioned and the unconditioned, saṃsāra and quiescent cessation?

The answer this chapter gives the bodhisattvas from the world of Myriad Fragrances is not to leave the world and seek one fixed form of purity. The Buddha first says that the Buddha’s work has many entrances according to the causes and conditions of sentient beings, then says that the buddhas manifest different buddha-lands in order to transform sentient beings, and finally grounds the conduct of a bodhisattva in two opposed but inseparable statements: not exhausting the conditioned and not abiding in the unconditioned. The first unfolds from not leaving great loving-kindness and not abandoning great compassion; the second unfolds from cultivating emptiness without taking emptiness as a realization in which to stop.

Why Is Fragrant Rice More Than a Marvel?

Ānanda first smells a fragrance he has never smelled before, and the Buddha points out that it comes from the pores of the bodhisattvas. Śāriputra then says that the same fragrance issues from their own pores. As the questions continue, the assembly learns that Vimalakīrti brought back the remainder of a Buddha’s meal from the Land of Myriad Fragrances and that everyone who ate it inside the room emits this scent. The fragrance remains until the rice is completely digested, and the rice’s power lasts for seven days. If the person who ate it still has a Dharma benefit to attain, however, it disappears only after that attainment has been accomplished.

The scripture divides this Dharma benefit into five stages: a śrāvaka who has not entered the fixed position reaches that position; one who has entered it reaches liberation of mind; one who has not aroused the Great Vehicle intention arouses it; one who has aroused it attains acceptance of non-arising; and one who has attained that acceptance reaches the stage of one life remaining. At each stage, the rice disappears only when the corresponding attainment has been accomplished. The following simile of Supreme Flavor medicine then gathers all five stages into one point: just as the medicine disappears only after all poisons in the body have been eliminated, the fragrant rice disappears only after every poison of affliction has been eliminated.

What Ānanda praises, therefore, is not merely the persistence of fragrance in the pores or the seven-day strength of the rice. It is that such fragrant rice can actually perform the Buddha’s work. Here the rice becomes a cause and condition through which sentient beings enter the Dharma and attain benefit. The chapter unfolds from this unprecedented point and enables the reader to see that the Buddha’s work is not confined to verbal teaching alone.

Why Can Light, Space, and Silence All Perform the Buddha’s Work?

The Buddha first lists ten distinct entrances: the Buddha’s light, bodhisattvas, persons created by the Buddha, the bodhi tree of awakening, the Buddha’s clothing and bedding, food, groves and pavilions, the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, the Buddha’s body, and space. Sentient beings enter disciplined conduct from among them through the cause or condition corresponding to each. The list includes visible light, trees, clothing, groves, marks, and the Buddha’s body, as well as food that can be eaten, bedding on which one can rest, and space without visible form.

The scripture next gives dreams, illusions, shadows, echoes, reflections in mirrors, moons in water, and mirages in the heat; it then gives sound, language, and written words; and finally it speaks of the silence of a pure buddha-land: without words, discourse, indication, discriminating cognition, fabrication, or the unconditioned, it too can perform the Buddha’s work. Discourse can become an entrance, and silence can become an entrance; something with form can become an entrance, and so can space. The scripture does not tell readers to choose only one of these forms. It gathers them all with 「諸佛威儀進止，諸所施為，無非佛事。」 — “Nothing in the buddhas’ deportment of advancing and stopping, or in anything they do, fails to be the Buddha’s work.”

The Buddha then places the four Māras and eighty-four thousand gateways of affliction after this list. Sentient beings are wearied by these dharmas, and the buddhas use these very dharmas to perform the Buddha’s work. The scripture is speaking of how the buddhas act according to the illnesses of sentient beings, not telling sentient beings to treat the afflictions that weary them as objects of desire. With the first ten kinds, it says that sentient beings enter disciplined conduct through an appropriate cause or condition; with the four Māras and the gateways of affliction, it says that the buddhas use these dharmas to perform the Buddha’s work. In both places the point is sentient beings’ entry and the buddhas’ transformative activity.

Since Buddha-Lands Differ in Purity, How Are the Buddhas’ Merits Equal?

A bodhisattva who enters the Dharma-gate of all buddhas sees pure and beautiful buddha-lands without becoming pleased, greedy, or proud, and sees impure buddha-lands without becoming sorrowful, obstructed, or submerged. The bodhisattva does not fail to see the difference between the two kinds of land; rather, the agreeable and disagreeable are not allowed to become greed, pride, sorrow, or submersion. The bodhisattva gives rise only to a pure mind toward the buddhas, together with joy and reverence.

The Buddha then states expressly that the merit of the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, is equal and that different buddha-lands are manifested in order to transform sentient beings. The scripture uses ground and space as a simile: the grounds of lands have many differences, while space does not; the physical bodies of the buddhas have many manifestations, while unobstructed wisdom has no such differences. Physical bodies, majestic appearances, lineages, ethical discipline, samādhi, wisdom, liberation, knowledge and vision of liberation, the various powers, fearlessnesses, exclusive qualities, great loving-kindness, great compassion, deportment, lifespans, teaching and transformation through the Dharma, bringing sentient beings to fulfillment, purification of buddha-lands, and all Buddha-dharmas are likewise said to be equal.

When Ānanda hears that the meanings of the three names of a Buddha cannot be exhausted, he says that from then on he no longer dares to call himself learned. The Buddha does not let him stop in retreat, but defines the scope within which he is foremost in learning: Ānanda is the most learned among the śrāvaka disciples; this does not mean that he is the most learned among bodhisattvas. Oceans and deep pools can still be measured, but the bodhisattvas’ meditative absorptions, wisdom, mnemonic retention, eloquence, and every merit cannot. Even if śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas spent hundreds of thousands of eons exhausting their strength in transformations, they could not perform the supernormal act Vimalakīrti has displayed on this occasion. Ānanda’s learning is not erased; it is no longer used as a measure capable of exhausting the conduct of bodhisattvas.

What Do the Bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances Truly Carry Back?

When the bodhisattvas from the world of Myriad Fragrances first saw this land, they formed an inferior perception. After hearing about the buddhas’ skillful means and the differences among buddha-lands, they reproach themselves, abandon that mind, and request a small portion of Dharma to carry back so that they may recollect the Tathāgata in their own land. The Dharma-gate the Buddha gives them is called Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion: conditioned dharmas are exhausted, while the unconditioned is non-exhaustion; bodhisattvas neither exhaust conditioned practice nor abide in the unconditioned.

These two sides are not a matter of first choosing one and then repairing it with the other. The scripture first opens not exhausting the conditioned through great loving-kindness and great compassion, then opens not abiding in the unconditioned through fifteen structures of “contemplating, yet not stopping,” and finally gathers both sides simultaneously through four pairs: merit and wisdom, compassion and original vows, gathering and giving medicine, and knowing and eliminating illness. What the bodhisattvas from Myriad Fragrances carry back is precisely this complete path of neither exhausting nor abiding.

Not Exhausting the Conditioned: How Does Compassion Take Shape in Every Matter?

Not exhausting the conditioned begins with not leaving great loving-kindness and not abandoning great compassion. If only these two names were retained, the fifty concrete forms of conduct that follow would be hidden. The compassion written in the scripture takes shape, one item at a time, in aspiration, transformation, protection of the Dharma, seeking and teaching the Dharma, offerings, giving, ethical discipline, diligent effort, wisdom, and freedom from heedlessness.

First, bodhisattvas deeply arouse the mind of omniscience without forgetting it, teach and transform sentient beings without growing weary, and constantly remember and practice in accord with the four means of gathering. They protect the true Dharma without begrudging body or life, plant wholesome roots without fatigue, remain established in their aspiration and dedicate merit through skillful means, seek the Dharma without indolence, teach it without stinginess, and diligently make offerings to the buddhas. This section joins aspiration to action: the mind that has been aroused must be continuously sustained by gathering sentient beings, protecting the Dharma, seeking the Dharma, and teaching it.

Next, bodhisattvas enter saṃsāra without fear and meet honor and humiliation without sorrow or joy. They do not slight those who have not learned, respect those who have learned as buddhas, and cause those fallen into afflictions to arouse right mindfulness. They do not treat the joy of seclusion as precious, are not attached to their own happiness, and rejoice in the happiness of others. They regard meditative absorptions as hells and saṃsāra as a garden grove; regard a person who comes seeking something as an excellent teacher; relinquish everything they possess with the thought of omniscience; and arouse a protective mind toward those who violate ethical discipline. These sentences repeatedly push practice from self-protection toward benefiting others: even seekers, violators of discipline, and those fallen into affliction are not excluded from rescue.

The perfections are then regarded as parents and the factors of the path as family and companions. Wholesome roots are aroused without limit; the adornments of pure lands bring one’s own buddha-land to fulfillment; boundless giving perfects the excellent marks; and the elimination of evil purifies body, speech, and mind. Bodhisattvas pass through countless eons in saṃsāra with courageous resolve, and hear of the Buddha’s immeasurable merits without weariness in their aspiration. They break the thieves of affliction with the sword of wisdom, transcend aggregates, elements, and sense-fields while shouldering sentient beings, subdue Māra’s armies with great diligent effort, and constantly seek the practice of true-mark wisdom free from grasping thought.

Finally, bodhisattvas have few desires and know contentment with respect to worldly dharmas, seek transcendent dharmas without weariness, and yet do not abandon worldly dharmas. They preserve proper deportment while according with worldly convention, guide sentient beings through supernormal wisdom, remember everything heard through mnemonic retention, discern capacities and remove doubts, and teach the Dharma without obstruction through joyful eloquence. They purely practice the ten wholesome paths, cultivate the four immeasurables, request the teaching of the Dharma, rejoice in and praise wholesome action, make bodily, verbal, and mental karma good, and deeply cultivate wholesome dharmas so that their conduct becomes progressively more excellent. They form the bodhisattva saṅgha through Great Vehicle teaching and, with minds free from heedlessness, lose none of the wholesome dharmas. Even at the end of its fifty items, the list rests on losing none of the wholesome dharmas and never turns not exhausting the conditioned into an abstract slogan.

Not Abiding in the Unconditioned: Why Does Practice Still Follow Every Contemplation?

Not abiding in the unconditioned does not mean refusing to cultivate emptiness, signlessness, or wishlessness, nor does it reject contemplation of impermanence, suffering, no-self, quiescent cessation, and seclusion. Each time the scripture names a contemplation, it follows it with an action that does not stop at what was contemplated: cultivate emptiness without taking emptiness as realization; cultivate signlessness and wishlessness without taking either as realization; cultivate non-origination without taking non-origination as realization. The cultivation is not canceled; what is canceled is taking realization as a stopping place.

Next, bodhisattvas contemplate impermanence without becoming weary of wholesome roots, contemplate worldly suffering without becoming averse to saṃsāra, contemplate no-self while teaching others without weariness, contemplate quiescent cessation without entering permanent cessation, contemplate seclusion while cultivating wholesome dharmas in body and mind, and contemplate having no destination while taking wholesome dharmas as their destination. As contemplation deepens, wholesome conduct and transformation do not stop; quiescent cessation and seclusion do not become reasons for abandoning sentient beings.

The final six items make the same structure still clearer: contemplate non-arising while shouldering all through dharmas of arising; contemplate freedom from outflows without cutting off outflows; contemplate no practice while teaching sentient beings through practices; contemplate emptiness and voidness without abandoning great compassion; contemplate the position of the true Dharma without following the Lesser Vehicle; and contemplate all dharmas as illusory, without solidity, person, or master, and as signless, yet, until one’s original vows have been fulfilled, do not let merit, meditative concentration, and wisdom pass in vain. Each “yet” sets the principle contemplated beside the vow still unfinished and shows that bodhisattvas do not let contemplative realization end their conduct of benefiting sentient beings.

How Do Merit, Wisdom, and Dharma Medicine Gather the Two Sides?

The four pairs at the chapter’s end do not open another path. Merit means not abiding in the unconditioned; wisdom means not exhausting the conditioned. Great loving-kindness and great compassion mean not abiding in the unconditioned; fulfilling original vows means not exhausting the conditioned. Gathering Dharma medicine means not abiding in the unconditioned; giving medicine according to the needs of sentient beings means not exhausting the conditioned. Knowing the illnesses of sentient beings means not abiding in the unconditioned; eliminating those illnesses means not exhausting the conditioned.

Neither merit nor wisdom can be absent; compassion and original vows must both be put into practice. Dharma medicine must be gathered and also given according to the illness; knowing the character of an illness must proceed all the way to eliminating it. Thus, not abiding in the unconditioned keeps bodhisattvas from leaving sentient beings, while not exhausting the conditioned keeps them from abandoning their practice. The two statements answer one another repeatedly and form the complete path of the Dharma-gate of liberation of Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion.

At the chapter’s end, the bodhisattvas from the world of Myriad Fragrances hear the Dharma with great joy, offer wondrous flowers to the Buddha, the scriptural Dharma, and the bodhisattvas, bow to the Buddha, offer praise, and return to their own land. The scripture begins with Vimalakīrti arriving while holding the assembly in his right palm and ends with the bodhisattvas from Myriad Fragrances carrying the Dharma home. The fragrant rice, the Buddha’s work, pure and impure buddha-lands, and the Dharma-gate of Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion between these two movements all come to rest in the way bodhisattvas continue practicing among sentient beings.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed only this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension. When the ancient masters read the same chapter, they illuminated different patterns from the learning each inherited. The following places the three masters of the Kumārajīva line beside the Ci’en line, each keeping to its own recension, without using one family’s judgment to decide the other and without combining additions and omissions from different versions into a composite text.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: The Buddha’s Work Has No Fixed Form, and the Conditioned and Unconditioned Depend on Each Other

The three masters each give one sentence on why the fragrant rice makes the assembly praise what has never happened before. Kumārajīva says, 「飯本充體而今得道，故歎未曾有。」 — “Rice ordinarily nourishes the body, yet now one attains the Way through it; they therefore praise what has never happened before.” Sengzhao says, 「飯本充體乃除結縛，未曾聞見也。」 — “Rice ordinarily nourishes the body, yet it removes the bonds; such a thing has never been heard or seen.” Daosheng says, 「佛以應悟為事，而香飯能之，未曾有者也。」 — “The Buddha takes bringing beings to realization as his work, and the fragrant rice can do this; that is what has never happened before.” One attends to the contrast between food’s ordinary use and the benefit of attaining the Way; one speaks of removing bonds as something never heard or seen; and one directly defines the Buddha’s work through bringing beings to realization. All three explain the same passage, but their points of emphasis are not entirely identical.

When the four Māras and gateways of affliction perform the Buddha’s work, Daosheng uses the simile of administering medicine: 「若投藥失所，則藥反為毒矣。苟曰得愈，毒為藥也。」 — “If medicine is administered in the wrong place, the medicine instead becomes poison. If it truly brings a cure, poison becomes medicine.” This reading preserves the boundary of correspondence to the illness and does not simply judge affliction itself to be a wholesome dharma. On exhaustion and non-exhaustion, Sengzhao gathers the whole passage with, 「有為雖偽，捨之則大業不成；無為雖實，住之則慧心不明。」 — “Although the conditioned is false, if it is abandoned the great work cannot be accomplished; although the unconditioned is real, if one abides in it the mind of wisdom is not clear.” He later explains the gathering of Dharma medicine through collecting medicine: 「集法藥必在險有，非無為之法所出焉。」 — “Dharma medicine must be gathered amid the dangers of existence; it does not issue from the dharmas of the unconditioned.” Kumārajīva directly explains no-thought with, 「無取相念也。」 — “It is thought without grasping characteristics.” Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng each illuminate the chapter through the Buddha’s work, the medicine simile, no-thought, and Dharma medicine, while every statement remains with its own attribution.

The Ci’en Mirror: Structural Analysis, the Three Natures, and Two Kinds of Non-Abiding

Kuiji’s commentary follows Xuanzang’s recension, whose enumerated sequence and sentence counts are not wholly identical to those of Kumārajīva’s. Concerning the seven days of fragrant rice, he first explains them according to the food’s power and then expressly records, 「此言七日，且隨世食多分為論，非要定爾，或增或減有不定故。」 — “This statement of seven days is made provisionally in accordance with the usual duration of worldly food; it is not necessarily fixed, for it may increase or decrease and is not determinate.” This is the Ci’en interpretation of the seven days. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line have their own explanations, and both sides are retained without substitution.

Kuiji divides the gateways of the Buddha’s work into the first ten kinds of distinct realization, then realization of the three natures through similes, realization of the Way through words, and realization of Dharma through silence. When discussing similes such as illusions, he writes, 「此入依他。聞言宣說幻等十喻，非有似有，誑惑愚夫因緣之事，便入依他。」 — “This is entry into the other-dependent. Hearing verbal explanations of the ten similes such as illusion—seeming to exist though not existent, causal matters that deceive the foolish—one thereby enters the other-dependent.” On the silent buddha-land, he further writes, 「此後一種，因寂悟法。」 — “In this last kind, one realizes Dharma through silence.” This route places media with marks, similes, verbal teaching, and silence within its own structural analysis. It displays one side alongside the Kumārajīva line’s emphasis that the Buddha’s work has no fixed form.

On the Dharma-gate of Exhaustion and Non-Exhaustion, Kuiji records of the recension he follows, 「今有五十五句，舊經但有五十句。」 — “The present text has fifty-five statements; the old scripture has only fifty.” Of not abiding in the unconditioned he records, 「下答。有二十一句，舊有十九句。」 — “The answer follows. It has twenty-one statements; the old text has nineteen.” Of the final paired dharmas he says, 「下第三段，以二相對雙辨二種。有十六對，舊經有四對。」 — “In the third section below, two are set in opposition to explain the two kinds together. There are sixteen pairs; the old scripture has four.” These are the commentary’s own records of the new and old recensions. This treatment of Kumārajīva’s chapter still follows fifty items, fifteen contemplative groups, and four pairs; it does not add the sentence counts of another translation to the body.

The Kumārajīva line illuminates this chapter through realization, the absence of fixed form, thought without grasping characteristics, and the mutual dependence of conditioned and unconditioned. Ci’en illuminates it through structural analysis, the three natures, and the sentence counts of two recensions. The former does not replace the latter’s analytical divisions, and the latter does not rewrite the scriptural sentences followed by the former. Placed side by side, the two mirrors show how the same narrative of fragrant rice, the Buddha’s work, pure and impure lands, and bodhisattva conduct is carried forward within two ancient commentarial traditions. This exposition transmits what each says without judging their rank and without forcing a synthesis.