維摩詰所說經 見阿閦佛品第十二

Because sunlight travels over Jambudvīpa not to dwell with darkness, but to shine and dispel the gloom.

When Śāriputra hears that Vimalakīrti originally came from the world of Wondrous Joy, his first response is astonishment: Vimalakīrti can leave a pure land and come to this place filled with anger and harm. Vimalakīrti does not speak of how much he has sacrificed. He asks only: when sunlight appears, does it mingle with darkness? No. As soon as sunlight appears, every darkness vanishes. Then why does the sun still travel over Jambudvīpa? To illumine it and dispel its darkness.

A bodhisattva is the same. To be born in an impure buddha-land is not to mingle with the darkness of folly. To face the afflictions of sentient beings is likewise not to unite with that darkness. He comes in order to teach and transform sentient beings and extinguish the darkness of their afflictions. Purity does not keep him in Wondrous Joy, and darkness does not stain him and make him dark.

But from where, ultimately, does Vimalakīrti “come”? Before the Buddha names Wondrous Joy, Śāriputra has already asked where Vimalakīrti died before being born here. Vimalakīrti asks in return: Does the Dharma you have realized undergo death and birth? Do the man and woman conjured by an illusionist undergo death and birth? Since all dharmas are like illusory appearances, how could there be a fixed person who truly disappears there and truly appears here?

The sūtra therefore says both that Vimalakīrti came from Wondrous Joy and that death is the mark of disintegration of false dharmas while birth is their mark of continuity. The absence of a real entity that comes and goes does not mean that a bodhisattva does nothing. Although he dies, he does not exhaust his roots of goodness; although he is born, he does not increase the various evils. Coming and going are like illusion, yet roots of goodness are not lost. Birth is like illusion, yet the various evils do not increase.

The question at the opening is deeper still: if one wishes to see the Tathāgata, how should one contemplate Him? Beginning from contemplating the true mark of his own body, Vimalakīrti relinquishes one by one coming and going through the three limits, the five aggregates, the four great elements, the six entrances, the three realms, the two shores, direction, great and small, seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and every form of measurement. In the end, even every effort to reveal Him through speech and discrimination reaches an impasse. If one grasps the Tathāgata as a form that can come, go, abide, and be measured, that “seeing” has not yet reached the true mark.

Immediately after saying that the Tathāgata cannot be revealed through speech, the assembly nevertheless longs to see Wondrous Joy. Vimalakīrti does not refuse. Without rising from his seat, he enters samādhi and cuts away the world of Wondrous Joy: the Ring of Iron Mountains and streams, valleys, rivers, great seas, the sun, moon, stars, celestial palaces, the human world, bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, the Tathāgata Immovable, the tree of awakening, wondrous lotus flowers, and the three jeweled stairways are all within it. The sūtra uses only two images of its own: it is cut away “like a potter’s wheel” and moved into this land “as though holding a flower garland.”

Those who have attained spiritual powers perceive what is happening and cry out for protection; those who have not attained them neither perceive nor know. Although the world of Wondrous Joy enters this land, it neither increases nor decreases, and this world is not constricted. Everything remains no different from before.

The assembly says that it has seen. The Buddha immediately responds: those who wish to obtain such a pure buddha-land should learn the path practised by the Tathāgata Immovable. “Seeing” is therefore not the endpoint. Fourteen nayutas of people arouse the mind of awakening and vow to be born in Wondrous Joy, and the Buddha gives them a prediction. Once Wondrous Joy has completed the work of benefiting beings that it was to perform in this land, it returns to its original place, and the whole assembly sees it.

The world returns, but the sūtra remains. Śāriputra says that merely hearing the sūtra in the present or after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa brings good benefit; how much more trusting and understanding, retaining, reading and reciting, explaining, and practising in accordance with the Dharma. Obtaining the scripture in one’s hands is like obtaining a treasury of the jewel of Dharma. In the room where a scroll is copied and kept, the Tathāgata is present. Responding with sympathetic joy and teaching even one four-line verse to others each bring their own benefit.

Why does Vimalakīrti come from the pure land of Wondrous Joy to a place filled with anger and harm? The chapter’s answer lies in the sunlight simile: sunlight does not mingle with darkness, yet travels in order to dispel it. Wondrous Joy need not remain forever in this land. When the Land of Wondrous Joy is manifested here, fourteen nayutas of people arouse the mind and vow to be born there. The Tathāgata is not enclosed by speech, yet the sūtra can still be heard, retained, copied, spoken, and practised.

When what is seen becomes what is practised, the path of shining and dispelling darkness is not interrupted even after Wondrous Joy returns to its original place.

Base text: Kumārajīva’s Yao-Qin translation, The Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Lower Scroll, Chapter 12, “Seeing Akṣobhya Buddha.” What follows renders the chapter’s twenty-six prose passages in sequence; none of the twenty-two groups in the contemplation of the Tathāgata, the eight groups describing the Land of Wondrous Joy, or the eight benefits of hearing and retaining the sūtra is omitted.

How Should One Contemplate the Tathāgata?

At that time, the World-Honored One asked Vimalakīrti, “You wish to see the Tathāgata. In what manner do you contemplate the Tathāgata?”

Vimalakīrti answered, “As I contemplate the true mark of my own body, so do I contemplate the Buddha. I contemplate the Tathāgata in this way: looking to the prior limit of the past, He does not come from there; looking toward the later limit of the future, He does not go there; and in the present, He does not abide.”

“I do not contemplate form as the Tathāgata, nor do I contemplate the suchness of form or the nature of form as the Tathāgata. I do not contemplate feeling, perception, formations, or consciousness as the Tathāgata, nor do I contemplate the suchness of consciousness or the nature of consciousness as the Tathāgata. The Tathāgata does not arise from the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind; He is like space. The six entrances have not accumulated into Him, and He has passed beyond the range of the six faculties: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.”

“He is not within the three realms of desire, form, and formlessness. He has left the three defilements, accords with the three gates of liberation, possesses the three knowledges in full, and yet is equal with ignorance. He is neither one mark nor a different mark, neither a mark of self nor a mark of another; He is neither utterly signless nor a mark that can be grasped.”

“He is not on this shore of saṃsāra, not on the farther shore of nirvāṇa, and does not remain in the midstream between the two shores, yet He still teaches and transforms sentient beings. He contemplates quiescent cessation, yet is not forever extinguished. He is neither this nor that, depends neither upon this nor upon that. He cannot be known by wisdom as its object, nor cognized by consciousness as its object.”

“He has neither obscurity nor brightness, neither an established name nor a graspable mark, neither strength nor weakness. He is neither pure nor impure. He is not fixed in any direction, yet does not depart from direction; He is neither conditioned nor unconditioned. No mark can indicate Him, and no dharma can express Him.”

“He falls neither within giving nor stinginess, neither ethical discipline nor transgression, neither patience nor anger, neither diligent effort nor indolence, neither meditation nor distraction, neither wisdom nor folly, and neither truthfulness nor deceit. He neither comes nor goes, neither exits nor enters. Here every path on which language can travel is cut off.”

“He is neither a field of merit nor not a field of merit, neither worthy of offerings nor unworthy of offerings. He neither takes nor relinquishes and is neither marked nor signless. He is the same as the true limit and equal to the Dharma-nature. He cannot be named or measured and passes beyond all naming and measuring.”

“He is neither great nor small, neither visible nor audible, neither perceptible nor knowable. He is far removed from every bond. He is equal with every wisdom, the same as sentient beings without difference, and makes no discrimination among any dharmas.”

“In all things He is without fault, turbidity, or affliction; without fabrication, origination, arising, or cessation. He has no fear, sorrow, joy, aversion, or attachment. He did not exist in the past, will not exist in the future, and does not exist in the present.”

“No speech or discrimination can reveal Him. World-Honored One, the body of the Tathāgata is such as this. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation.”

Vimalakīrti’s answer does not replace a visible form with another thing called the “real Tathāgata.” Instead, it relinquishes layer by layer coming, going, and abiding; the five aggregates; the four great elements; the six entrances; the three realms; marks and signlessness; the two shores; direction; the conditioned and the unconditioned; the opposing pairs of the six perfections; seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing; existence in the three times; and revelation through words. Yet the sūtra retains both “yet teaches and transforms sentient beings” and “is not forever extinguished.” It does not turn right contemplation into an annihilation in which nothing exists.

Where Did You Die before Coming to Be Born Here?

Śāriputra then asked Vimalakīrti, “Where did you die before being born here?”

Vimalakīrti asked in return, “Does the Dharma you have realized undergo death and birth?”

Śāriputra answered, “It undergoes neither death nor birth.”

Vimalakīrti then asked, “If all dharmas originally bear no marks of death or birth, why ask where I died before being born here? What do you think? Suppose an illusionist conjures a man and a woman by illusion. Do those illusory people undergo death and birth?”

Śāriputra answered, “They undergo neither death nor birth.”

Vimalakīrti asked again, “Have you not heard the Buddha teach that all dharmas are like illusory appearances?”

Śāriputra answered, “Yes, I have.”

Vimalakīrti said, “If all dharmas are like illusory appearances, why ask where I died before being born here? Śāriputra, what is called death is the mark of disintegration displayed by false and unreal dharmas; what is called birth is the mark of continuity displayed by false and unreal dharmas. Although a bodhisattva manifests death, he does not exhaust his roots of goodness; although he manifests birth, he does not cause the various unwholesome dharmas to increase.”

This exchange does not stop after calling death and birth illusory. The sūtra still distinguishes four points: death is the mark of disintegration of false dharmas; birth is the mark of continuity of false dharmas; although a bodhisattva dies, he does not exhaust his roots of goodness; and although he is born, he does not increase the various evils. That no real entity perishes in one place and arises in another does not prevent a bodhisattva, while manifesting death and birth, from preserving his roots of goodness and not increasing evil.

Why Leave a Pure Land and Come to a Place Filled with Anger and Harm?

The Buddha then told Śāriputra, “There is a land called Wondrous Joy, where the Buddha is called Immovable. Vimalakīrti died in that land and was born here.”

Śāriputra exclaimed, “Never before has there been such a thing! World-Honored One, this layman can leave behind a pure land and willingly come to this place filled with anger and harm.”

Vimalakīrti asked Śāriputra, “What do you think? When sunlight appears, does it mingle with darkness?”

Śāriputra answered, “No. When sunlight appears, all darkness vanishes at once.”

Vimalakīrti asked again, “Why does the sun travel over Jambudvīpa?”

Śāriputra answered, “To shine its light and dispel the darkness of Jambudvīpa.”

Vimalakīrti said, “A bodhisattva is the same! Although born in an impure buddha-land, he does so in order to teach and transform sentient beings. Thus he does not mingle with the darkness of folly, but only extinguishes the darkness of sentient beings’ afflictions.”

Every element of this simile corresponds: sunlight appears without mingling with darkness; it travels over Jambudvīpa in order to illumine and dispel the gloom. A bodhisattva born in an impure buddha-land likewise does not mingle with the darkness of folly; he comes among sentient beings in order to teach and transform them and extinguish the darkness of their afflictions. The sūtra says neither that the bodhisattva is defiled by dwelling in an impure land nor that he abandons sentient beings in pursuit of his own purity.

The Assembly Wishes to See Wondrous Joy, and the Buddha Commands Vimalakīrti to Manifest It

At that time, the assembly single-mindedly longed to behold the Tathāgata Immovable in the Land of Wondrous Joy, along with the bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvakas there. The Buddha knew the thoughts of everyone in the gathering and said to Vimalakīrti, “Good man, manifest for this Dharma assembly the Tathāgata Immovable of the Land of Wondrous Joy, together with its bodhisattvas and assembly of śrāvakas. Everyone wishes to see them with their own eyes.”

Vimalakīrti then thought, “Without rising from my seat, I should take the Land of Wondrous Joy and bring it here: its Ring of Iron Mountains and streams; its valleys and rivers; its great seas and springs; its Mount Sumeru and other mountains; its sun, moon, stars, and constellations; the palaces of its devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, Brahmā gods, and others; its bodhisattvas and assembly of śrāvakas; its cities, towns, and villages; its men and women, old and young; all the way through the Tathāgata Immovable, his tree of awakening, and the wondrous lotus flowers that perform buddha-work throughout the worlds of the ten directions. I should bring them all together.”

“The world of Wondrous Joy also has three stairways made of precious substances, rising directly from Jambudvīpa to the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. The devas descend by these three jeweled stairways in order to pay reverence to the Tathāgata Immovable and to hear and receive the sūtra and Dharma. The people of Jambudvīpa also climb these jeweled stairways to the Heaven of the Thirty-Three and see the devas there with their own eyes. The world of Wondrous Joy has accomplished immeasurable qualities such as these.”

“With my right hand, I will cut away this portion extending from the highest Akaniṣṭha Heaven down to the waters below, as though taking a round wheel made by a potter. I will then move it into this world, as one might hold a flower garland in one’s hand, and display it to the entire assembly.”

After thinking this, Vimalakīrti entered samādhi and manifested the power of spiritual mastery. With his right hand he cut away the world of Wondrous Joy and placed it within this land.

Wondrous Joy Enters This Land, and Both Worlds Remain Just as Before

The bodhisattvas and śrāvakas who had attained spiritual powers in the world of Wondrous Joy, together with the other devas and humans, all cried out, “Yes, World-Honored One! Who is taking us away? May the World-Honored One protect us.”

The Buddha Immovable told them, “This is not my doing. It is being done by Vimalakīrti through the power of his spiritual mastery.”

As for the others who had not attained spiritual powers, they neither perceived nor knew where they were being carried. Although the world of Wondrous Joy entered this land, it neither increased nor decreased; this world likewise did not become constricted or narrow. Everything remained no different from before.

The sūtra describes three states separately: those who have attained spiritual powers perceive the movement and cry out for protection; those who have not attained them neither perceive nor know; and when the two worlds enter one another, Wondrous Joy neither increases nor decreases, while this land does not become constricted. All three occur within Vimalakīrti’s manifestation of spiritual power, and none can replace either of the others.

Having Seen the Pure Buddha-Land, One Should Learn the Path Practised by the Tathāgata Immovable

Śākyamuni Buddha then said to the assembly, “Now behold the Tathāgata Immovable in the world of Wondrous Joy. Behold the adornments of that land, the purity of the bodhisattvas’ conduct there, and the stainlessness of the śrāvaka disciples.”

The assembly answered together, “Yes, we have seen them.”

The Buddha said, “If bodhisattvas wish to obtain a pure buddha-land such as this, they should learn the path practised by the Tathāgata Immovable.”

When the Land of Wondrous Joy was manifested here, fourteen nayutas of people in the Sahā world aroused the mind of unsurpassed, complete and perfect awakening. They all vowed to be born in the buddha-land of Wondrous Joy. Śākyamuni Buddha immediately gave them a prediction: “You will be born in that land.”

Once the world of Wondrous Joy had completed the work of benefiting sentient beings that it was to perform in this land, it returned to its original place. The entire Dharma assembly saw it return with their own eyes.

From “we have seen” to “you should learn,” the sūtra does not let the assembly stop at the display of spiritual power. The Buddha first points out, one by one, the land’s adornments, the purity of the bodhisattvas’ conduct, and the stainlessness of the disciples, and then says that bodhisattvas who wish to obtain a pure buddha-land should learn the path practised by the Tathāgata Immovable. The fourteen nayutas of people do not merely feel admiration: they arouse the mind of awakening, vow to be born in Wondrous Joy, and receive the Buddha’s prediction.

Śāriputra’s Two Vows, His Rejoicing, and the Eight Benefits of Hearing and Retaining the Sūtra

The Buddha asked Śāriputra, “Have you seen the world of Wondrous Joy and the Buddha Immovable?”

Śāriputra answered, “Yes, World-Honored One, I have seen them. May all sentient beings obtain a pure land like that of the Buddha Immovable. May all sentient beings also obtain spiritual powers like those of Vimalakīrti.”

“World-Honored One, today we rejoice that we have obtained such excellent benefit: we have been able to see Vimalakīrti, draw near to him, and make offerings to him. All sentient beings, whether while the Buddha still dwells in the world or after His parinirvāṇa, likewise obtain excellent benefit if they can hear this sūtra. How much more is this so if, after hearing it, they trust, accept, and understand it, retain it without loss, read it, recite it from memory, explain it for others, and practise in accordance with the Dharma as the sūtra teaches.”

“If someone obtains this scripture with their own hands, it is as though they have already obtained a treasury of the jewel of Dharma. If someone reads and recites this sūtra, explains its meaning, and then practises as it teaches, that person is watched over and kept in mind by the buddhas.”

“If someone makes offerings to a person who reads, recites, explains the meaning, and practises as taught, know that this is the same as making offerings to the Buddha. If someone copies and keeps a scroll of this sūtra, know that the Tathāgata is present in the room where that person dwells.”

“If someone hears this sūtra and responds with sympathetic joy, that person is taking hold of omniscience. If someone can trust and understand this sūtra, even if only a single four-line verse within it, and can explain it to others, know that this person has received the prediction of unsurpassed, complete and perfect awakening.”

Śāriputra’s conclusion advances item by item: merely hearing this sūtra already brings good benefit; after hearing it, trusting and understanding, retaining, reading, reciting, explaining, and practising deepen that benefit; obtaining the scripture in one’s hands is like obtaining a treasury of the jewel of Dharma; reading, reciting, explaining its meaning, and practising as taught bring the buddhas’ mindful protection; making offerings to a person who lives by the sūtra is like making offerings to the Buddha; where a scroll is copied and kept, the Tathāgata is present in that room; responding with sympathetic joy upon hearing the sūtra is to take hold of omniscience; and trusting and understanding one four-line verse and explaining it to others brings a prediction of awakening. The chapter begins by asking “How should one see the Tathāgata?” and ends by placing the Tathāgata in the room where the sūtra scroll is copied and kept. What is seen does not stop with a single manifestation of spiritual power, but continues to be transmitted through hearing, retaining, and practising as taught.

「汝欲見如來，為以何等觀如來乎？」 — “You wish to see the Tathāgata; by what do you contemplate the Tathāgata?” With this question, the World-Honored One presses beyond the wish to see and asks how one contemplates. Vimalakīrti does not begin by describing the Tathāgata’s appearance. He answers, 「如自觀身實相，觀佛亦然。」 — “As I contemplate the true mark of my own body, so do I contemplate the Buddha.” The question thus turns from searching outwardly for a form to contemplating the true mark of the body. If we identify even our own body solely through coming, going, abiding, form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, by what would we identify the Tathāgata?

The first passage of the chapter proceeds all the way to “He cannot be revealed by any speech or discrimination.” Yet later, when the assembly longs to see Wondrous Joy, Vimalakīrti actually manifests the world of Wondrous Joy in this land and lets everyone see the Tathāgata Immovable with their own eyes. The two passages do not cancel each other. Through two kinds of “seeing,” the sūtra presses the reader with two questions. Does seeing the Tathāgata mean acquiring a form that can be measured, discriminated, and spoken? After seeing a pure buddha-land, does one stop at seeing, or turn toward the path practised there?

Right Contemplation Does Not Seek Another Tathāgata to Grasp

Vimalakīrti begins with the three limits. If the Tathāgata is treated as an object that comes from the past, departs toward the future, and temporarily abides in the present, one is still contemplating Him through coming, going, and abiding. The sūtra instead says that He does not come from the prior limit, does not go to the later limit, and does not abide now. After the three limits, contemplation turns to form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness: one does not contemplate form, the suchness of form, or the nature of form; one does not contemplate feeling, perception, formations, or consciousness, nor the suchness or nature of consciousness. The Tathāgata does not arise from the four great elements, and the six entrances have not accumulated into a Tathāgata who can be acquired through the six faculties.

The sūtra next dismantles, layer by layer, every range within which He might be established. He is not in the three realms and has left the three defilements, yet He accords with the three gates of liberation, possesses the three knowledges in full, and is equal with ignorance. He is neither one mark nor a different mark, neither a mark of self nor a mark of another, neither signless nor a mark that can be grasped. Each “neither” does not leave the opposite side as a new place of abiding: not being one mark does not mean abiding in a different mark; being neither marked nor signless does not mean shifting one’s abode from one to the other.

This shore, the farther shore, and the midstream cannot delimit Him, yet the same sentence still says that He “teaches and transforms sentient beings.” He contemplates quiescent cessation but is not forever extinguished. Within one sentence the sūtra writes both that He is not on this shore, the farther shore, or in the midstream yet teaches sentient beings, and that He contemplates quiescent cessation but is not forever extinguished.

The source arranges the denials in this long passage with extraordinary density, and it should not be read in abridgment: He does not come from the prior limit, go to the later limit, or abide now; one does not contemplate form, the suchness of form, or the nature of form, and the same holds for feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness; He does not arise from the four great elements and is like space; the six entrances do not accumulate and He has passed beyond eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; He is not in the three realms, has left the three defilements, accords with the three gates of liberation, possesses the three knowledges in full, and is equal with ignorance; He is neither one mark nor a different mark, neither a mark of self nor a mark of another, neither signless nor a grasped mark; He is not on this shore, the farther shore, or in the midstream yet teaches sentient beings; He contemplates quiescent cessation but is not forever extinguished; He cannot be known by wisdom or cognized by consciousness; He has neither obscurity nor brightness, name nor mark, strength nor weakness, purity nor impurity; He is neither within nor apart from direction, neither conditioned nor unconditioned, without indication or discourse; He is neither giving nor stinginess, discipline nor transgression, patience nor anger, effort nor indolence, meditation nor distraction, wisdom nor folly, truthfulness nor deceit, coming nor going, exiting nor entering, and every path of language is cut off. What each item blocks is not merely one statement, but every coordinate that could be used to establish the Tathāgata: time, the five aggregates, the four great elements, the six entrances, the three realms, marks, shores, wisdom and consciousness, name and appearance, strength and weakness, purity and impurity, direction, the conditioned and the unconditioned, and even the two poles of the six perfections.

The sūtra continues: He is neither this nor that and depends neither upon this nor upon that; He cannot be known by wisdom or cognized by consciousness; He has neither obscurity nor brightness, is without name and signless, and has neither strength nor weakness, purity nor impurity; He is neither within nor apart from direction, neither conditioned nor unconditioned, without indication or discourse. At this point, every way of enclosing the Tathāgata within this and that, light and dark, strong and weak, pure and impure, direction, or the conditioned and unconditioned has lost its footing.

The six perfections and their opposing sides are also taken up one by one: neither giving nor stinginess, discipline nor transgression, patience nor anger, diligent effort nor indolence, meditation nor distraction, wisdom nor folly. The sūtra omits none of these pairs. It continues with neither truthfulness nor deceit, coming nor going, exiting nor entering, and finally arrives at the cutting off of every path of language. It does not rename the Tathāgata “giving” or “not giving,” “wisdom” or “not wisdom.” Any opposed category, once made graspable, cannot delimit the Tathāgata.

Neither a field of merit nor not a field of merit, neither worthy of offerings nor unworthy of offerings; neither taking nor relinquishing, neither marked nor signless. These statements likewise permit no one to deny one side and hide in the other. The Tathāgata is the same as the true limit and equal to the Dharma-nature, impossible to name or measure and beyond all naming and measuring. He is neither great nor small, neither visible, audible, perceptible, nor knowable, and is free from every bond. The sūtra removes not only a visible form, but also naming, measurement, seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing.

The closing movement proceeds from equality with all wisdoms, sameness with sentient beings, and non-discrimination among dharmas to the absence of fault, turbidity, affliction, fabrication, origination, arising, and cessation. It then speaks of no fear, sorrow, joy, aversion, or attachment, and of there being no describable “existence” in past, future, or present. Vimalakīrti therefore concludes, 「世尊！如來身為若此，作如是觀，以斯觀者，名為正觀；若他觀者，名為邪觀。」 — “World-Honored One, the body of the Tathāgata is such as this. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation.” The distinction between right and wrong contemplation does not lie in acquiring a more refined form, but in whether one still uses the three limits, the five aggregates, the three realms, opposing terms, measurement, or speech and discrimination to reveal the Tathāgata.

These twenty-two groups do not repeat a single “nothing.” The three limits first loosen coming, going, and abiding in time. The five aggregates, four great elements, and six entrances then loosen the aggregation of body and mind. The three realms, three defilements, three gates of liberation, and three knowledges bring contemplation into the domains of defilement, liberation, and knowledge. One and different, self and other, marks and signlessness, this and that, and the two shores loosen opposed positions. The six perfections and their opposites prevent even paths of practice from being fixed. Only at the end do measurement, great and small, seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, joy and aversion, and existence in the three times all cease, and the passage closes with the impossibility of revelation through speech and discrimination. The sūtra moves layer by layer; an earlier group cannot be treated as a synonym for a later one.

At the same time, the long answer still contains positive traces of conduct: the three defilements have been left, the three gates of liberation are followed, the three knowledges are fully possessed, every bond has been left behind, and there is no discrimination among dharmas; moreover, while being on none of the three shores, He “teaches and transforms sentient beings.” Every one of these phrases belongs to the sūtra. If we read only a string of denials, we miss teaching, freedom from bonds, and non-discrimination. If we read only the traces of conduct, we miss the sūtra’s refusal to let any one of them become a graspable mark of the Tathāgata. Right contemplation must let both sides be seen together.

Before Asking Where Someone Came From, Ask Whether There Is Any Real Death or Birth

Śāriputra next asks Vimalakīrti where he died before being born here. Vimalakīrti does not immediately name the world of Wondrous Joy, but asks in return, 「汝所得法有沒生乎？」 — “Does the Dharma you have realized undergo death and birth?” Śāriputra answers that it has neither death nor birth. This answer first exposes the root of the original question: if the realized Dharma has no death or birth, why continue asking about Vimalakīrti as though he were a person who truly vanished from one place and truly arose in another?

The man and woman conjured by an illusionist make the question still clearer. They seem to appear and disappear, yet no real entity vanishes here and is born there. Śāriputra acknowledges both that the illusory people undergo neither death nor birth and that the Buddha teaches all dharmas to be like illusory appearances. Vimalakīrti therefore asks again: if all dharmas are like illusions, why ask “where did you die before being born here?”

The sūtra does not stop with the two words “like an illusion,” but explicitly says, 「沒者為虛誑法，敗壞之相；生者為虛誑法，相續之相。」 — “Death is the mark of disintegration of false dharmas; birth is the mark of continuity of false dharmas.” Death and birth each have a displayed appearance: one appears as disintegration and the other as continuity, and both are false dharmas. Yet the bodhisattva’s conduct does not therefore disappear: 「菩薩雖沒，不盡善本；雖生，不長諸惡。」 — “Although a bodhisattva dies, he does not exhaust his roots of goodness; although he is born, he does not increase the various evils.” No real death or birth does not mean failing to distinguish whether roots of goodness are exhausted or evils increased. The chapter preserves the unreal marks and the bodhisattva’s conduct together.

Only afterward does the Buddha disclose the place from which Vimalakīrti came in the narrative: there is a land called Wondrous Joy, the Buddha there is called Immovable, and Vimalakīrti died in that land before being born here. On the level of principle there is no real death or birth; on the narrative level the sūtra explicitly says that he came from Wondrous Joy. It writes the two layers in this order, and neither needs to be deleted. If one clings only to “he came from Wondrous Joy,” one forgets the entire preceding exchange about illusion. If one clings only to “there is no death or birth,” one erases the bodhisattva’s not exhausting his roots of goodness, not increasing evil, and coming to teach and transform sentient beings.

Why Does the Sun Travel over Jambudvīpa?

When Śāriputra hears of Vimalakīrti’s native land of Wondrous Joy, he marvels that Vimalakīrti can leave a pure land and come to a place filled with anger and harm. Vimalakīrti neither denies the narrative distinction between the two lands as pure and impure nor asks Śāriputra merely to praise his renunciation. He asks instead whether sunlight mingles with darkness when it appears. Śāriputra answers that when sunlight appears, all darkness vanishes.

But if sunlight does not mingle with darkness, why does it still travel over Jambudvīpa? Śāriputra answers: to shine and dispel the darkness. Vimalakīrti then applies the simile, 「菩薩如是！雖生不淨佛土，為化眾生故，不與愚闇而共合也，但滅眾生煩惱闇耳！」 — “A bodhisattva is the same! Although born in an impure buddha-land in order to teach and transform sentient beings, he does not mingle with the darkness of folly, but only extinguishes the darkness of sentient beings’ afflictions.” A bodhisattva’s arrival in an impure buddha-land does not mean that dwelling amid the darkness of folly turns him into that darkness. Nor does refusing darkness mean abandoning sentient beings. His location and his activity are both explained by the words “in order to teach and transform sentient beings.”

This simile also answers the earlier exchange about death and birth. A bodhisattva has traces of conduct that include coming to this land, yet the sūtra does not thereby establish a real death and birth. A bodhisattva does not mingle with the darkness of folly, yet does not therefore stop entering impure lands to teach. That there is no real coming or going does not hinder shining and dispelling darkness; not mingling with affliction does not hinder coming for the sake of sentient beings.

The Assembly Longs to See, and Vimalakīrti Lets Them See with Their Own Eyes

At this point, the sentient beings in the assembly begin to long for a sight of the Tathāgata Immovable in the world of Wondrous Joy, together with the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas there. The Buddha knows the assembly’s thoughts and directly commands Vimalakīrti to manifest the land for everyone. The sūtra does not rebuke this “wish to see,” nor does it use the right contemplation at the beginning to refuse the assembly. After right contemplation of the Tathāgata, it still narrates a collective vision of a buddha-land.

Vimalakīrti thinks that, “without rising from his seat,” he will take and bring everything listed in the world of Wondrous Joy. He does not take only one palace or one Buddha, but considers item by item the Ring of Iron Mountains and streams, valleys and rivers, great seas and springs, Mount Sumeru and the other mountains, the sun, moon, stars, devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, and the palaces of Brahmā gods; the bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, cities, towns, villages, men, women, adults, and children; and all the way through the Tathāgata Immovable, the tree of awakening, the wondrous lotus flowers that perform buddha-work throughout the ten directions, and the three jeweled stairways. The devas descend by the stairways to pay reverence to the Buddha and hear the Dharma; the people of Jambudvīpa ascend by them to see the devas. Vertically, the portion extends from the Akaniṣṭha Heaven down to the waters.

The sūtra itself supplies two images for taking the land: cutting it away with his right hand “like a potter’s wheel,” and moving it into this world “as though holding a flower garland.” Vimalakīrti enters samādhi, manifests spiritual power, and places the portion of the world of Wondrous Joy that he has cut away in this land. There is no need to invent a process by which the world shrinks or the hand supports it. The sūtra speaks of cutting away and placing, and gives the two similes of the potter’s wheel and flower garland.

The bodhisattvas and śrāvakas who have attained spiritual powers, together with the other devas and humans, perceive the movement and cry out to the Buddha Immovable for protection. The Buddha Immovable explicitly states that it is not his own doing, but the work of Vimalakīrti’s spiritual power. Those who have not attained spiritual powers neither perceive nor know. These two responses appear side by side and show that a single manifestation does not give everyone the same awareness.

Still less can one omit that the two worlds remain unharmed: although the world of Wondrous Joy enters this land, it neither increases nor decreases, while this world is not constricted and remains no different from before. Wondrous Joy is not diminished because it has been transported, and this land is not compressed because the two enter one another. What the assembly sees does not come at the price of damaging one world with the other. The sūtra describes the result of spiritual power through “neither increase nor decrease,” “not constricted,” and “no different from before”; it cannot be reduced to the spectacular image of taking a world.

The Buddha Does Not Let “Having Seen” Become the Endpoint

Śākyamuni Buddha asks the assembly to behold the Tathāgata Immovable in the world of Wondrous Joy and points out the adornments of his land, the purity of the bodhisattvas’ conduct, and the stainlessness of the disciples. The assembly answers that it has seen. In the next sentence the Buddha turns what has been seen into what must be learned: 「若菩薩欲得如是清淨佛土，當學無動如來所行之道。」 — “If bodhisattvas wish to obtain such a pure buddha-land, they should learn the path practised by the Tathāgata Immovable.” A pure buddha-land is not a scene for distant gazing alone. The outcome supplied by the sūtra for those wishing to obtain such a land is to learn the Buddha’s path.

When Wondrous Joy is manifested, fourteen nayutas of people in the Sahā world arouse the mind of unsurpassed awakening, all vow to be born in the buddha-land of Wondrous Joy, and the Buddha immediately predicts that they will be born there. The sequence is exact: when the Land of Wondrous Joy is manifested here, fourteen nayutas of people arouse the mind, all vow to be born there, and the Buddha gives them a prediction. When the work of benefiting beings is complete, the world of Wondrous Joy returns to its original place, and the entire assembly sees it.

Wondrous Joy Returns to Its Place, but the Sūtra Remains in the Hands of Sentient Beings

At the end, the Buddha again asks Śāriputra whether or not he has seen Wondrous Joy and the Buddha Immovable. Śāriputra first vows that all sentient beings may obtain a pure land like that of the Buddha Immovable and spiritual powers like those of Vimalakīrti. He then rejoices that he has been able to see Vimalakīrti, draw near to him, and make offerings. The sūtra records that Śāriputra answers that he has seen and then makes the two vows concerning a pure land and spiritual powers.

Śāriputra next extends the benefit from the present Dharma assembly to the time after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. Merely hearing this sūtra brings good benefit; how much more trusting and understanding it, retaining it, reading and reciting it, explaining it, and practising according to the Dharma. Obtaining the scripture in one’s hands is like obtaining a treasury of the jewel of Dharma. Reading and reciting it, explaining its meaning, and practising as taught bring the buddhas’ mindful protection. Making offerings to such a person is like making offerings to the Buddha. Copying and keeping the scroll means that the Tathāgata is present in the room where it is kept. Hearing and responding with sympathetic joy is to take hold of omniscience. Trusting and understanding even one four-line verse and explaining it to others brings a prediction of awakening.

This series of benefits distinguishes its actions clearly. “Hearing” means hearing this sūtra. “Trusting and understanding, retaining, reading, reciting, and explaining” each advances another step and is embodied in “practising in accordance with the Dharma.” “Obtaining in one’s hands” says that the scripture is physically in hand, while “copying and keeping” leaves the scroll in the room where one dwells. Sympathetic joy is not another name for reading and reciting, and explaining to others is not only for one’s own use. The sūtra separately retains hearing, understanding, preservation, recitation, explanation, copying, sympathetic joy, transmission, and practice, thereby leaving sentient beings in the present and after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa a path they can actually follow.

Two sentences especially reflect the opening. The right-contemplation passage says that the Tathāgata cannot be revealed through any speech or discrimination, yet the closing passage says that the Tathāgata is present in the room where the sūtra scroll is copied and kept. Right contemplation does not allow speech to enclose the Tathāgata; the final passage likewise does not tell readers to abandon the scroll. The sūtra can be heard, copied, and spoken, but must lead to trust and understanding, and to practice as taught. Speech has its limit, and transmission still has its place. The chapter establishes each at its respective end.

The chapter begins by asking how one should see the Tathāgata, yet ends by saying that the Tathāgata is present in the room of one who copies and keeps the scroll. The world of Wondrous Joy returns to its original place after being manifested, but the scripture can be obtained in one’s hands, read, recited, copied, kept, explained, and put into practice. Seeing the Buddha is not reduced to a single spectacle before the eyes. Right contemplation prevents the viewer from confining the Tathāgata within form, measurement, and speech. Manifesting the land lets those who long to see behold it directly. The Buddha’s exhortation turns what is seen into what is practised. Śāriputra’s conclusion then carries this practice through hearing and retaining the scripture to both the present and the time after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa.

Thus, the Tathāgata’s inability to be revealed through any speech or discrimination does not mean that the assembly cannot see Wondrous Joy or the Tathāgata Immovable. What the sūtra truly cuts off is grasping what is seen as a real entity that can come, go, abide, and be measured. What the sūtra truly continues is learning the path after seeing, arousing the mind, retaining the sūtra, explaining it to others, and practising in accordance with the Dharma. Wondrous Joy can return to its place, but this path from seeing into practice does not disappear with it.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed only the present chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension. When the ancient masters read right contemplation of the Tathāgata, death and birth as illusion, sunlight dispelling darkness, the cutting away of Wondrous Joy, and the benefits of hearing and retaining the sūtra, each illuminated the pattern with a mirror. Here the three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented together. Each keeps its own Chinese recension; the doctrine of bodies, structural analysis, or translated names of one mirror are not moved into the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Three Contemplations, the True Mark, and No Death or Birth

Kumārajīva divides the opening question into three contemplations and explicitly says, 「觀佛有三種，一觀形、二觀法身、三觀性空。」 — “Contemplation of the Buddha is of three kinds: first, contemplation of form; second, contemplation of the dharma-body; third, contemplation of the emptiness of nature.” He reads Vimalakīrti’s long answer through the emptiness of nature that breaks attachment to marks. Sengzhao instead emphasizes contemplating the true mark of one’s own body, saying, 「實相之相即如來相。」 — “The mark of the true mark is the mark of the Tathāgata.” He further says, 「法身超絕三界，非陰界入所攝」 — “The dharma-body utterly transcends the three realms and is not encompassed by the aggregates, elements, or entrances,” explaining why the three limits and five aggregates are insufficient for contemplating its essence. Daosheng does not take contact through form to be seeing the Buddha: 「若能如自觀身實相，觀佛亦然，不復相異，以無乖為得見者也。」 — “If one can contemplate the Buddha just as one contemplates the true mark of one’s own body, the two are no longer different; having no discord is what counts as seeing.” The three follow the same Kumārajīva recension, yet unfold it respectively through the emptiness of nature, the true mark, and contact through form not being seeing.

When Śāriputra asks about death and birth, Kumārajīva reads the two parts as two gates: 「上先以性空明無沒生，今以法化自在明無沒生。」 — “Above, the emptiness of nature first clarified that there is no death or birth; now mastery in Dharma-transformation clarifies that there is no death or birth.” Sengzhao explains through illusion: 「生猶化存、死猶化往，物無不爾，獨問何為？」 — “Birth resembles the persistence of a conjuration and death resembles its departure. Nothing is otherwise; why ask about this one alone?” Daosheng states directly that death and birth 「是生死之理，而不實也。」 — “are the principle of death and birth, yet are not real.” The three also explain separately the bodhisattva’s not exhausting his roots of goodness and not increasing evil; none takes the absence of death and birth to mean the absence of a bodhisattva’s conduct.

When Wondrous Joy is manifested, Kumārajīva presents together the ancient transmission “like cutting clay” beneath the potter’s-wheel phrase and the wording of his own translation, and says, 「斷取，明不盡來。」 — “‘Cutting away’ clarifies that it does not all come.” Sengzhao explains in sequence the spiritual power of samādhi, the two groups who have and have not attained spiritual powers, and the unharmed coexistence of the two worlds. In the passage on the qualities of the sūtra, he distinguishes obtaining the scroll in one’s hands from copying and keeping it, saying, 「書持重於手得也。」 — “Copying and keeping is weightier than obtaining it in one’s hands.” This mirror extends Kumārajīva’s right contemplation through the emptiness of nature and the responsive manifestation of death and birth into the miracle and the practice of the sūtra scroll.

The Ci’en Mirror: Real and Provisional Bodies, Emptiness and Accord with Principle, and the Ten Dharma-Practices

Following Xuanzang’s chapter “Contemplating the Tathāgata,” Kuiji establishes another structural reading. He first says, 「佛身有二，一實、二權。」 — “The Buddha’s bodies are of two kinds: first the real, second the provisional.” The earlier passage contemplates the dharma-body or also includes the self-enjoyment body; the later passage, through the buddha-work of seeing Immovable, clarifies the other-enjoyment body and also displays the transformation-body. He further presents the emptiness-principle and accord-with-principle interpretations together. The emptiness-principle interpretation says, 「真佛之體，諸法性空，無形無相，都不可見。」 — “The essence of the true Buddha is the emptiness of the nature of dharmas; formless and signless, it cannot be seen at all.” The accord-with-principle interpretation speaks separately of the true principle of the dharma-body and the self-enjoyment body. All these unfold from Xuanzang’s “I contemplate the Tathāgata and see nothing at all” and the phrases concerning the nature of suchness; they are not renamed forms of Kumārajīva’s three contemplations.

For the dialogue about death and birth, Kuiji distinguishes eight parts: direct question, counterquestion, direct answer, demand for grounds, second answer, cited question, affirmation, and direct statement. He explains death and birth through the marks of the severance and continuity of formations, and uses not cutting off wholesome conduct and not continuing unwholesome conduct to speak of freedom from the marks of annihilation and permanence. For the manifestation of Wondrous Joy, he further distinguishes seven parts: the assembly’s wish to see, the Buddha’s command to manifest, Vimalakīrti’s contemplation, the actual arousal of spiritual power, the World-Honored One’s question and exhortation, the benefit of humans and devas, and the return to the original place when the work is complete. Within the contemplation itself he distinguishes the environment and sentient beings, the Buddha and acts of benefit and joy, and the display to the assembly.

For the closing qualities of the sūtra, Kuiji uses the ten Dharma-practices as his outline and says, 「十法行者，獲福聚無量勝故、無盡故，由攝他不息。」 — “Those who perform the ten Dharma-practices gain a collection of merit because it is immeasurably excellent and inexhaustible, and because their drawing in of others never ceases.” He further comments separately on obtaining in one’s hands, trusting and understanding, reading and reciting, retaining, making offerings, copying, sympathetic joy, explaining, and contemplating, and interprets the four-line verse in Xuanzang’s recension through four meanings of non-retrogression. Kumārajīva’s closing sentence speaks of receiving a prediction of awakening, while the corresponding sentence in Xuanzang’s recension speaks of reaching non-retrogression. Each recension’s statement is preserved; the structural categories of the Ci’en commentary do not supplement or alter Kumārajīva’s wording.

Both mirrors join the opening right contemplation with the buddha-work of Wondrous Joy in the latter half, but they do so in different vocabularies. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line emphasize the emptiness of nature, the true mark, the dharma-body, illusion, and mastery in Dharma-transformation. The Ci’en line emphasizes the real and provisional bodies, the emptiness-principle and accord-with-principle interpretations, the dharma-body and self-enjoyment body, the other-enjoyment body and transformation-body, the ten Dharma-practices, and non-retrogression. The two paths shine with equal standing. They need not be fused into one doctrine of the bodies, and neither school’s structural reading adjudicates the other.

The transmission left by this chapter is precisely a complete path from seeing into practice. First, do not confine the Tathāgata within the three limits, the aggregates and elements, opposing terms, or speech. Next, do not confine the bodhisattva within real death and birth. Through sunlight dispelling darkness, see the conduct of entering an impure land; through Wondrous Joy appearing, see the path on which a pure buddha-land depends; and finally, through hearing, retaining, copying, explaining, and practising, let the Dharma-gate pass beyond a single assembly. The Kumārajīva line preserves the blade of the emptiness of nature and the true mark in Kumārajīva’s recension. The Ci’en line preserves the doctrine of bodies, structural analysis, and path of Dharma-practice in Xuanzang’s recension. The scriptural text remains between the two mirrors, with each reading returned to its own recension, so that seeing does not stop at seeing and hearing does not stop at hearing.