維摩詰所說經 義疏通講

At the beginning of this chapter, the Buddha sits upon a lion throne adorned with many jewels in the Āmra Grove at Vaiśālī. Eight thousand bhikṣus, thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas, ten thousand Brahmā kings, twelve thousand lords of the devas, devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, and the fourfold community all come and sit in the assembly. The sūtra first devotes a long passage to the bodhisattvas’ virtues, then lists fifty-two bodhisattvas by name. Before the question about a buddha-land has even been posed, upholding the Dharma, benefiting sentient beings, the six perfections, skillful means, knowing the faculties of sentient beings, prescribing medicine according to illness, and purifying buddha-lands have already unfolded in the members of the Dharma assembly.

Jewel Accumulation and five hundred householders’ sons next offer canopies of the seven jewels to the Buddha. The many canopies merge into one and cover the three-thousand-great-thousand world-system. The world’s length and breadth, its ten mountains, great oceans and rivers, streams and springs, sun, moon, stars, palaces of the devas and nāgas, palaces of the honored spirits, and the buddhas of the ten directions together with the Dharma those buddhas teach all appear within it. Seeing this spiritual transformation, Jewel Accumulation praises the Buddha in thirty-six verse lines. The verses move from the Buddha’s pure eyes, pure mind, and pure karma into causes and conditions, the non-loss of karma, the subjugation of Māra, the Dharma-wheel, the Three Jewels, and the great king of physicians. They then return through what the jeweled canopy revealed to the assembly contemplating the Buddha and the teaching in one voice, and finally close with repeated bows to the Buddha who comprehends the marks of dharmas and is unsupported like space.

These two passages are not a prologue detached from the question and answer about a pure land. The small canopies that are offered reveal a vast world, and within that world buddhas are teaching the Dharma. From what he sees, Jewel Accumulation praises the Buddha; from that praise, he proceeds to ask how a buddha-land is purified. The sūtra first lets the land be seen, then questioned, and only afterward enters the answer concerning the bodhisattva’s practice of a pure land.

The Single Voice Teaches the Dharma, with Three Distinct Outcomes

Jewel Accumulation’s verses say three times that the Buddha expounds the Dharma in a single voice. The first group says that sentient beings each understand according to their own kind and each thinks the World-Honored One is using its own language. The second says that sentient beings each hear according to their own understanding and are universally able to receive the teaching, put it into practice, and gain benefit. The third says that, while hearing the Dharma together, some become afraid and others rejoice, while some develop disenchantment and others cut off doubt.

The three groups of verse lines do not merge understanding, language, practice, and responses to hearing into one event. Jewel Accumulation first praises the fact that sentient beings each understand, then that each receives the teaching and puts it into practice to gain benefit, and finally lists the four responses of fear, joy, disenchantment, and the cutting off of doubt. This passage is still praise of the Buddha. Each group concludes with the exclusive qualities of the Buddha’s spiritual power, after which the verses proceed into continuous bows to the ten powers, fearlessnesses, exclusive qualities, the great guide, the one who cuts the bonds, and the one who has reached the other shore.

Why Does the Question about a Pure Land Begin with Sentient Beings?

Jewel Accumulation asks on behalf of the five hundred householders’ sons about the practice of a pure land. The Buddha’s first answer does not concern jewels, palaces, or level ground. It says that the kinds of sentient beings are the bodhisattva’s buddha-land. The sūtra immediately unfolds this statement in four levels: a bodhisattva chooses a buddha-land according to the sentient beings to be transformed; according to those to be disciplined; according to the land in which sentient beings should enter the Buddha’s wisdom; and according to the land in which sentient beings should produce bodhisattva roots. After these four statements, the Buddha explicitly says that choosing a pure land is entirely for the benefit of sentient beings.

The simile of building upon open ground also occurs here. Someone who builds a palace on open ground may do so freely and without obstruction, but one who tries to build it directly in empty space can never complete it. A bodhisattva vows to choose a buddha-land in order to bring sentient beings to accomplishment, and the sūtra then says that this vow to choose a buddha-land is not accomplished out of empty space. By placing “sentient beings are the buddha-land” beside “bringing sentient beings to accomplishment,” the sūtra gives the question of a pure land a definite direction from the outset.

Seventeen Practices, Each Bringing a Land to Accomplishment

The Buddha next lists seventeen practices of a pure land. Each is more than the name of a virtue. First the sūtra states what the bodhisattva cultivates, then what kind of sentient beings are born in that bodhisattva’s land when he becomes a Buddha, or what kind of merit the land displays.

The land brought to accomplishment by a straightforward mind has sentient beings free of deceit. The land brought to accomplishment by a profound mind has sentient beings complete in merit. The land brought to accomplishment by the mind of awakening has sentient beings of the Great Vehicle. These three minds come before all the specific practices.

The land brought to accomplishment by giving has sentient beings able to relinquish. That brought to accomplishment by ethical discipline has sentient beings who practice the ten wholesome paths and fulfill their vows. That brought to accomplishment by patience has sentient beings adorned with the thirty-two marks. That brought to accomplishment by diligent effort has sentient beings who diligently cultivate every merit. That brought to accomplishment by meditation has sentient beings whose minds are gathered and undistracted. That brought to accomplishment by wisdom has sentient beings established in right concentration. The six practices unfold in sequence, without any one of them replacing the other five.

The land brought to accomplishment by the four immeasurables has sentient beings who accomplish loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. That brought to accomplishment by the four means of gathering has sentient beings gathered into liberation. That brought to accomplishment by skillful means has sentient beings who employ skillful means without obstruction with respect to all dharmas. That brought to accomplishment by the thirty-seven factors of the path has sentient beings complete in the establishments of mindfulness, right efforts, bases of spiritual power, faculties, powers, factors of awakening, and the path. Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; gathering sentient beings; skillful means without obstruction; and cultivation of the factors of the path each form a distinct item in the sūtra.

The mind of dedication brings to accomplishment a land complete in every merit. Teaching the removal of the eight difficulties brings to accomplishment a land without the three evil destinies and the eight difficulties. Guarding one’s own precepts without criticizing the faults of others brings to accomplishment a land in which even the name of violating a precept is absent. The ten wholesome actions then unfold all ten results: a life not cut short, great wealth, brahmacarya, truthful speech, constant gentle speech, families that do not separate and skillfully reconcile disputes, speech that invariably benefits, freedom from envy, freedom from anger, and right view.

From the first three minds and the six practices through the four immeasurables, four means of gathering, skillful means, factors of the path, dedication, removal of difficulties, refraining from criticism, and the ten wholesome actions, this chapter places the adornment and purification of a buddha-land within a sequence of practices that can each be carried out. The fruit of the land is not separate from practice, and practice is directed toward one kind of sentient being after another.

The Pure Land Teaching of Mind and Buddha-Land Has Twelve Successive Movements

After the seventeen practices, the sūtra does not immediately stop with the pure land teaching that when the mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure. It first presents twelve successive links. A straightforward mind brings practice forth, and practice gives rise to a profound mind. A profound mind disciplines intention, and disciplined intention enables one to practice according to what has been taught. Practice in accord with the teaching leads to dedication, and dedication leads to skillful means. Skillful means bring sentient beings to accomplishment, and the accomplishment of sentient beings purifies the buddha-land. The purification of the buddha-land purifies the Dharma that is taught; the purification of that teaching purifies wisdom; the purification of wisdom purifies one’s own mind; and the purification of mind purifies every merit.

Only at this point does the Buddha exhort the bodhisattva who wishes to attain a pure land to purify his own mind, concluding that as the mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure. The concluding sentence is short, but it is preceded by seventeen practices and twelve successive movements. A straightforward mind is not the endpoint, and a pure mind is not an isolated starting point. The sūtra presents a path that begins with bringing practice forth and proceeds through profundity of mind, discipline, practice according to the teaching, dedication, skillful means, and bringing sentient beings to accomplishment before reaching the purity of buddha-land, teaching, wisdom, mind, and every merit.

Why Are There Two Perceptions of the Same Buddha-Land?

Śāriputra’s doubt arises precisely after he hears the pure land teaching that when the mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure. If a bodhisattva’s mind purifies the buddha-land, was the World-Honored One’s mind impure when He practiced the bodhisattva path in the past? Why, then, does the present buddha-land appear so impure? The Buddha first asks him about the sun and moon. A blind person’s inability to see them does not mean that the sun and moon themselves are impure. The Buddha then states directly that sentient beings fail to see the adornment and purity of the Tathāgata’s buddha-land because of their wrongdoing. His land is pure, but Śāriputra has not yet seen it.

Brahmā King Conch-Crest and Śāriputra describe two perceptions in the same passage of the sūtra. The Brahmā king sees Śākyamuni Buddha’s buddha-land as pure, like a palace in the Heaven of Mastery. Śāriputra sees hills, pits, thorns, gravel, soil, rocks, and mountains, everywhere filled with impurity and evil. The Brahmā king says that if the mind has high and low and does not rely upon the Buddha’s wisdom, the land is seen as impure; if a bodhisattva regards all sentient beings equally, has a pure profound mind, and relies upon the Buddha’s wisdom, that bodhisattva can see the buddha-land as pure.

The chapter does not let the two statements remain a debate. The Buddha presses the earth with His toe, and the three-thousand-great-thousand world-system is immediately adorned with hundreds of thousands of precious jewels. Everyone in the assembly sees himself seated upon a jeweled lotus. Śāriputra acknowledges that he had never before seen or heard of the adorned and pure buddha-land now revealed.

The Buddha then says that His buddha-land is always as pure as this and that He manifests a land filled with many evils and impurities only to liberate people of inferior faculties. He next gives the simile of the devas eating together from a jeweled vessel: although they share a single vessel, the color of the rice differs according to each one’s merit. When a person’s mind is pure, that person sees the meritorious adornments of this land. The four successive passages of the sun and moon, the two kinds of terrain, the Buddha’s pressing the earth with His toe, and the different colors of rice bring Śāriputra’s initial doubt back to the relation between pure and impure perception and the purity of mind.

After the Manifestation, the Sūtra Records Four Classes of Dharma Benefit

When the Buddha reveals the adorned and pure buddha-land, five hundred householders’ sons attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, and eighty-four thousand people produce the mind of unsurpassed awakening. The Buddha withdraws His spiritual power, and the world returns to its former appearance. Thirty-two thousand devas and humans seeking the śrāvaka vehicle know that every conditioned dharma is impermanent, leave dust and defilement behind, and attain the pure Dharma-eye. Eight thousand bhikṣus do not receive any dharma; their outflows are exhausted and their intentions liberated.

The four classes of Dharma benefit are presented side by side exactly as the sūtra records them. What the five hundred attain, what the eighty-four thousand produce, what the thirty-two thousand devas and humans see, and what the eight thousand bhikṣus realize all occur within the same narrative passage at the chapter’s end. The sūtra does not make one class the cause of another. The manifestation of the adorned and pure land and the world’s return to its former appearance likewise stand one after the other within the same chapter: what is perceived can change, while the sequence of practice that has been heard and the Dharma benefits attained are preserved item by item in the text.

This chapter begins with the assembly’s virtues and the world appearing within the jeweled canopy, passes through Jewel Accumulation’s praise and question, and then grounds a buddha-land in sentient beings, the seventeen practices, the twelve successive movements, and the purification of one’s own mind. Finally, it has Śāriputra and Brahmā King Conch-Crest state different perceptions of the same buddha-land, after which the Buddha personally reveals its adornment and purity. The question “If the buddha-land is always pure, why are hills and gravel seen?” is not reduced to an abstract sentence. The sūtra first asks how the mind practices and how sentient beings are brought to accomplishment, then asks how perception becomes pure, and closes the entire chapter with four classes of Dharma benefit.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed Kumārajīva’s Chapter “Buddha-Lands” alone. When the ancient masters addressed sentient beings as the land, the seventeen practices, the pure land teaching of mind and buddha-land, and the manifestation of purity and impurity, each taught according to the recension he received. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented below. Each path is returned to its own recension, and neither adjudicates the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Three Causes, the Sequence of Practice, and Different Perceptions of the Same Land

Kumārajīva lists the causes and conditions of a pure land as three things: the bodhisattva’s merit, sentient beings, and the merit of sentient beings. He says, 「三因既淨，則得淨土。」 — “When the three causes are pure, a pure land is attained.” He further explains a straightforward mind, a profound mind, and the mind of awakening through sincerity, depth of mind, and correct orientation toward the Buddha’s wisdom. When treating the twelve successive movements, he explains each stage through the arising of practice, discipline, practice according to the teaching, dedication, skillful means, and bringing sentient beings to accomplishment, so that the concluding statement still has a sequence that can be followed.

Sengzhao emphasizes the differing perceptions of the same land, saying, 「土之淨穢繫于眾生，故曰眾生之類是菩薩佛土也。」 — “The purity or impurity of a land is tied to sentient beings; therefore it is said that the kinds of sentient beings are the bodhisattva’s buddha-land.” At the conclusion concerning mind and land, he uses echo and shadow as similes for their correspondence. When the Buddha presses the earth with His toe, he further says, 「佛土常淨，豈待變而後飾？」 — “The buddha-land is always pure; how could it wait to be transformed before being adorned?” Daosheng first distinguishes practice from land, saying, 「淨土行者，行致淨土，非造之也。」 — “The practice of a pure land is conduct that brings one to a pure land; it is not the construction of one.” Concerning the manifestation of purity when the Buddha presses the earth, he separately explains the revealing of the impure as pure and the display of no fixed mark. All three masters follow Kumārajīva’s recension, yet each has his own point of emphasis.

The Ci’en Mirror: Sentient Beings and the Physical World, Eighteen Causes of Adornment, and Purifying One’s Own Mind

Following Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first explains the land by dividing it: 「凡土有二：一有情世間、二器世間。」 — “Lands are generally of two kinds: first, the world of sentient beings; second, the physical world.” He divides the question of purifying a buddha-land into the land’s characteristics and the causes for its cultivation. Following the fivefold statements about sentient beings in his recension, he emphasizes the bodhisattva’s work of increasing and benefiting sentient beings and causing them to produce pure merit. The syntax of this path differs from the fourfold choosing in Kumārajīva’s recension.

Concerning the practices, Kuiji explicitly records, 「今有十八嚴淨土行，舊有十七，無此第三。」 — “The present text has eighteen practices that adorn and purify a land; the old translation has seventeen and lacks this third item.” The additional item is the land of excellent preparatory practice; therefore the Ci’en line’s eighteen practices and the Kumārajīva line’s seventeen should be read separately by recension. On the relation between mind and land, he says, 「諸修行者自心嚴淨，外感有情器土亦淨。」 — “When practitioners adorn and purify their own minds, the sentient beings and physical lands they outwardly bring forth are likewise pure.” He also explains the perceptions of purity and impurity before and after the Buddha presses the earth through a transformation-land that manifests according to what is appropriate for the assembly. This path neither supplements the practice-items of Kumārajīva’s recension nor rewrites its persons.

Both mirrors connect sentient beings, practice, mind, and land within the same chapter, yet they use different levels and vocabularies. The Kumārajīva line distinguishes the three causes, the sequence of the three minds, and differing perceptions of purity and impurity. The Ci’en line distinguishes sentient beings and the physical world, eighteen causes of adornment, and the purification of one’s own mind. Setting them side by side does not fuse the two paths into one statement; it makes clear which recension each begins from and where each places its emphasis.

What this chapter truly leaves for later transmission is also more than the four words “when the mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure.” The Kumārajīva line preserves the sequence of the seventeen practices and twelve transitions, as well as its analysis of different perceptions of the same land. The Ci’en line preserves a different classification of sentient beings and the physical world, eighteen practices, and the manifestation of a buddha-land. The sūtra remains between the two mirrors: Jewel Accumulation still asks about the practice of a pure land; the Buddha still begins His answer with sentient beings; and the chapter still closes through the manifestation of the land and four classes of Dharma benefit. Later light may reveal the pattern, but it does not replace this scriptural sequence.

「欲度人故，以善方便居毘耶離；」 — “To liberate people, he dwelt in Vaiśālī through skillful means.” This sentence is a key to reading Chapter 02, “Skillful Means.” Vimalakīrti does not live in the city because he cannot leave it behind, nor does he first live there and only later happen to perform a few beneficial acts. The sūtra states the purpose clearly: he lives in the city in order to liberate people, and his way of living there is skillful means.

But what is skillful means? If we understand it only as flexibility in speech or tact in action, we read the chapter too narrowly. The chapter first devotes a long passage to the virtues Vimalakīrti already possesses. It then describes how he enters different settings of life and faces different people, and only at the end does it say that he manifests bodily illness. Skillful means is therefore not technique without a foundation, but the functioning of pure conduct wherever sentient beings are found.

Apart from “mastered skillful means” in the list of virtues, three more occurrences mark his conduct with “skillful means” in this chapter: first, he dwells in Vaiśālī through skillful means; in the middle, immeasurable skillful means gather up his benefiting of sentient beings; and later, through skillful means he manifests bodily illness. All four occurrences stand within the chapter’s own text.

Skillful Means Begins with Virtues One Truly Possesses

The sūtra first says that Vimalakīrti had made offerings to immeasurable buddhas, deeply planted roots of goodness, and attained acceptance of non-arising. These three phrases make his point of departure clear. He does not suddenly appear merely as an elder skilled in social dealings; he has long made offerings to buddhas, cultivated goodness, and personally entered the non-arising of dharmas.

The sūtra next lists eloquence, supernormal powers, dhāraṇīs, and fearlessness. It also says that he could subdue Māras and harassing adversaries, enter profound Dharma-gates, master the perfection of wisdom, and master skillful means. Eloquence, supernormal powers, dhāraṇīs, fearlessness, wisdom, and skillful means all appear before “to liberate people.” This long list first describes the virtues he possesses; only afterward does the text describe the acts he performs in the city.

The sūtra further says that his great vows had been fulfilled, that he understood the inclinations of the minds of sentient beings, and that he could discern whether their faculties were sharp or dull. Vimalakīrti understood where sentient beings wished to go and whether they could receive the teaching quickly or slowly. Therefore, when he later teaches, he gives the supreme Dharma to elders, removes attachment from householders, teaches patience to kṣatriyas, and removes pride from brahmins. He does not say the same sentence to everyone.

Next, long cultivation of the Buddha-way, a mind already pure and mature, and firm establishment in the Great Vehicle show that his direction was settled. Careful consideration of every act and abiding in the Buddha’s dignified conduct show that his actions were not hasty reactions. A mind as vast as the ocean, the praise of all buddhas, and the reverence of human and heavenly lords together reveal both the measure of his mind and the trust placed in him. Only then does the sūtra arrive at his dwelling in the city in order to liberate people. First possess the virtues, then exercise the means: this sequence cannot be reversed.

Six Practices, Six Paths for Gathering In Sentient Beings

Vimalakīrti has immeasurable wealth, but the sūtra does not stop at his being rich; it says that with his resources he gathers in the poor. Keeping ethical discipline pure does not stop at guarding himself; he uses it to gather in those who violate the precepts. Patience is not merely a way to restrain himself but becomes a power for gathering in those prone to anger. Diligent effort is not solely a means for his own progress but gathers in the indolent. Meditative stillness is not a solitude he enjoys alone but gathers in those whose minds are distracted. Decisive wisdom is not proof of his own intelligence but gathers in those without wisdom.

The syntax of these six statements repeats: the practice he possesses directly answers an obstruction suffered by sentient beings. Wealth answers poverty, ethical discipline answers violation of the precepts, patience answers anger, diligent effort answers indolence, meditative stillness answers distraction, and wisdom answers lack of wisdom. The sūtra does not separate practice from gathering in sentient beings as two successive matters. Every practice, as it appears in this chapter, is already directed toward one class of sentient beings.

How Can Household Life and Seclusion Both Be Present?

The next twelve statements repeatedly unfold through “although this is so, he is not bound by it.”

Although Vimalakīrti is white-robed, he upholds the pure discipline of a renunciant. Although he lives at home, he is not attached to the three realms. He manifests having a wife, yet constantly cultivates brahmacarya. He appears to have a retinue, yet constantly delights in seclusion. The sūtra neither erases his white robes, household life, wife, and retinue nor understands seclusion as physically seeing no one. What it explicitly states is that identity and forms of life can be manifested without attachment being established along with them.

Although he wears precious ornaments, what truly adorns his body are his marks and excellences. Although he eats food, he takes meditative joy as its taste. Precious ornaments and food remain present, but the sūtra shifts the center of adornment and savor: what matters is not external decoration or appetite, but marks and excellences and meditative joy.

When he reaches places of games and gambling, he guides people there. He encounters the teachings of the various non-Buddhist paths without impairing right faith. He understands the writings of the world, yet continually delights in the Buddha-Dharma. These three statements especially reveal the skillful means of this chapter. The sūtra does not first exclude unfamiliar or defiled settings. It asks whether Vimalakīrti can maintain right faith and delight in the Buddha-Dharma within them while benefiting those who accompany him.

Everyone who sees him reveres him, and among recipients of offerings he is the most revered. He upholds the true Dharma and gathers in old and young. He engages in the various occupations of livelihood and brings each one into harmony. Yet even when he gains worldly profit, he does not delight in it. The ability to act and attachment to what is gained are not the same thing.

Crossroads, Government, Halls of Debate, Schools, Brothels, and Wine Shops

The sūtra next extends the sphere of activity to public places throughout the city.

The crossroads are where people coming from every direction meet, and there he benefits sentient beings. Government and law are where public affairs are handled, and there he protects everyone. Halls of debate center on verbal argument, so there he guides people toward the Great Vehicle. Schools face children beginning to learn, so there he draws them out and awakens them. The settings are not the same, and neither are his acts, yet none departs from benefiting, protecting, guiding, and awakening.

The sūtra does not stop at the entrance to brothels and wine shops. He enters brothels to show the faults of desire and enters wine shops to enable people to establish their resolve. These places are not beautified merely because Vimalakīrti enters them: entering a brothel still means showing the faults of desire, and entering a wine shop still means establishing resolve. Skillful means does not mean complying with every desire. Where sentient beings already are, it still speaks directly of the faults of desire and the need to establish resolve.

Facing Eleven Classes of People without Giving One Uniform Teaching

Among elders, householders, kṣatriyas, brahmins, ministers, princes, palace officials, and ordinary people, Vimalakīrti becomes the one most revered by each class. The same is true among Brahmā gods, Śakra gods, and world-protecting heavenly kings. Each time, the sūtra first says that he is the most revered among them and then states what he teaches. All eleven classes retain both their identity and the Dharma taught to them; neither side can be omitted.

The elders receive the supreme Dharma; householders, the relinquishment of attachment. Kṣatriyas are taught patience; brahmins have their pride removed. Ministers are taught the true Dharma; princes are shown loyalty and filial devotion. Palace officials can correct the palace women; ordinary people can arouse the strength of merit. Brahmā gods are taught supreme wisdom; Śakra gods are shown impermanence; world-protecting heavenly kings are directed to protect sentient beings.

Each of the eleven classes has its own situation and need. If this series is reduced merely to “teaching according to circumstances,” the care of the text is lost: not only are the recipients different, but the Dharma spoken, the attachment to be loosened, and the virtue to be aroused also differ in each case. Through precisely such immeasurable skillful means, the elder Vimalakīrti benefits sentient beings.

Why Does Skillful Means Culminate in Manifesting Bodily Illness?

「其以方便，現身有疾。」 — “Through skillful means, he manifested bodily illness.” Previously, Vimalakīrti actively went to the many places where people were found. Here, kings, ministers, elders, householders, brahmins, princes, and officials come because of his illness. The direction of movement seems opposite: earlier he went where others were; now others come to him. Yet the two passages do the same thing. Each allows an encounter to become a condition for teaching the Dharma.

Countless thousands of people come to inquire about his illness. This chapter does not record the separate questions they ask. It records only that Vimalakīrti uses his bodily illness to teach the Dharma extensively and immediately says, “This body is impermanent.”

Those who come, in the order given by the sūtra, include kings, ministers, elders, householders, brahmins, princes, and the remaining officials and attendants. Although their stations differ, the sūtra records their common arrival in the single statement “countless thousands of people all went to inquire about his illness” and does not separately record what each asked.

He first says generally that the body is impermanent, without strength, power, or firmness, quick to decay, and untrustworthy. He further says that it is suffering and affliction and the gathering place of the many diseases. This passage first dismantles trust in the body as a lasting refuge. Only then does he use ten similes to contemplate it from different sides.

Ten Similes Are Not Ten Repetitions

The sūtra attaches a distinct ending to each simile, and not one of the ten hangs empty: like a mass of foam, it cannot be grasped in the hand; like a bubble, it cannot remain for long; like a mirage, it arises from thirst and craving; like a plantain tree, it has no solid core within; like an illusion, it arises from inverted apprehension; like a dream, it is seen through false discrimination; like a shadow, it appears through karma and conditions; like an echo, it belongs to various causes and conditions; like a drifting cloud, it changes and vanishes in a moment; like lightning, it does not remain for even a thought-moment. Each of the ten similes is paired with one statement. They do not say the same thing ten times: “cannot be grasped” concerns the impossibility of taking hold; “cannot remain for long,” the impossibility of abiding; “arises from thirst and craving,” its source; “has no solid core within,” the absence of internal substance; “arises from inverted apprehension” and “seen through false discrimination,” the error of the perceiver; “appears through karma and conditions” and “belongs to various causes and conditions,” that on which it depends; “changes and vanishes in a moment” and “does not remain for even a thought-moment,” its ceaseless change.

An illusion arises from inversion, and a dream is falsely seen. A shadow appears according to karma and conditions, and an echo exists in dependence on various conditions. A drifting cloud changes and vanishes in a moment, and lightning never remains for even a thought-moment. Some of the ten similes focus on being impossible to grasp, some on being unable to remain, some on being seen through inversion, some on arising through conditions, and some on rapid change. If one remembers only “the body is like a dream and an illusion,” what the other eight similes illuminate disappears.

The text continues with the similes of a shadow, an echo, a drifting cloud, and lightning, each with its own ending: appearing through karma and conditions, belonging to various causes and conditions, changing and vanishing in a moment, and not remaining for even a thought-moment. Simile and ending remain connected; the sūtra establishes no separate explanation.

What Do No Master, No Self, No Lifespan, and No Person Address?

After the ten similes, the sūtra uses earth, fire, wind, and water to speak of the body’s lack of a master.

The body has no master and is like earth; it has no self and is like fire; it has no lifespan and is like wind; it has no person and is like water. The sūtra then states directly: the body is unreal and takes the four great elements as its home; the body is empty, apart from self and what belongs to self; the body has no awareness, like grass, trees, tiles, and stones; the body has no independent maker and turns under the force of the wind. The first four statements use the four great elements as similes; the following statements directly express their meaning. From unreality and emptiness they proceed to the absence of awareness and an independent maker: even an “agent who acts” is not established.

Next, the body has no awareness, like grass, trees, tiles, and stones; it has no independent maker and turns under the force of the wind. Although it can move, the sūtra does not permit an independent maker to be established on that account. The body is also impure and filled with filth. Even when tended with bathing, clothing, and food, it must still wear away and perish.

One hundred and one diseases reveal that it is a calamity; the abandoned well reveals that it is oppressed by age. Its lifespan is uncertain, yet it must finally die. The sūtra next states one by one that the body is impure and filled with filth; that the body is a calamity afflicted by one hundred and one diseases; that the body is like an abandoned well oppressed by age; and that the body is unstable and certain to die. Venomous snakes, hostile bandits, and an empty village bring the body’s peril to its conclusion. The sūtra says that this body is jointly compounded by the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields. From impermanence, lack of strength, power, and firmness, and rapid decay to impurity, calamity, oppression by age, and certain death, the sūtra throughout states only the actual condition of this body and never changes course to beautify it.

Why Does the Sūtra Turn Immediately toward the Buddha-Body after Revulsion toward This Body?

「諸仁者！此可患厭，當樂佛身。」 — “Good sirs! This should be regarded with revulsion; you should delight in the Buddha-body.” The sūtra does not leave the reader within terror at the body’s inevitable destruction, nor does it make revulsion the culmination of the chapter. It immediately asks: if this body cannot be relied upon, what should one delight in seeking? The answer is the Buddha-body, and the Buddha-body is precisely the dharma-body.

The long list of sources from which the Buddha-body arises forms a clear turn from the preceding similes for the body. This body compounded from the four great elements decays; the body of the Tathāgata is born of immeasurable pure dharmas. The sūtra therefore does not merely say, “Do not want this body.” It leads the practitioner toward the question, “Which pure dharmas should be cultivated?”

First come immeasurable merit and wisdom, then ethical discipline, meditation, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation, followed by loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. These are not accomplishments directed only inward. Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are already oriented toward sentient beings.

Next come giving, ethical discipline, patience, gentleness, diligent effort, meditation, liberation, samādhi, great learning, wisdom, and all the perfections, without omitting one. Skillful means, the six superknowledges, the three knowledges, the thirty-seven factors conducive to the path, and calm and insight follow. The ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and eighteen unique qualities are also all included in the long list from which the Buddha-body arises.

Finally, the sūtra concludes with abandoning every unwholesome dharma, gathering every wholesome dharma, truth, and heedfulness. The exalted causes of the Buddha-body do not leave behind the most direct practices of abandoning all that is unwholesome, gathering all that is wholesome, truth, and heedfulness. “Immeasurable pure dharmas” gathers all these items together; none is said to replace all the others by itself.

Why Does the Whole Chapter Conclude with Arousing the Mind?

「欲得佛身、斷一切眾生病者，當發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心。」 — “Those who wish to attain the Buddha-body and eliminate the illnesses of all sentient beings should arouse the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening.” The wish to attain the Buddha-body is one end; eliminating the illnesses of sentient beings is the other. The sūtra joins both ends with the same mind of awakening. It places “wishing to attain the Buddha-body” and “eliminating the illnesses of all sentient beings” together under the same arousing of the mind, without ranking them or establishing a separate sequence.

Thus, the chapter begins with “to liberate people” and concludes with “eliminate the illnesses of sentient beings.” Dwelling in the city, gathering in sentient beings, entering the many settings, manifesting illness, teaching bodily affliction, and urging delight in the Buddha-body: not one passage departs from the initial purpose. At the end, the sūtra directly says that Vimalakīrti “taught the Dharma in accordance with what was fitting” and explicitly records that he “caused countless thousands of people all to arouse the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening.” The benefit attained in this chapter rests only on this sentence; no cause or result unstated by the sūtra is added.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed only Chapter 02, “Skillful Means,” in Kumārajīva’s recension. When the ancient masters read the same chapter, they separately illuminated the textures of the presentation of virtues, expedient conduct, manifestation of illness, contemplation of the body, Buddha-body, and arousing the mind. What follows presents the three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line as two paths, each returned to its own recension, without using either mirror to adjudicate the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: How Possessed Virtues Become Skillful Means within the World

Kumārajīva first says that this chapter’s presentation of the virtues of Pure Renown records what the compiler had heard from the World-Honored One’s constant praise of his skillful means and eloquence. Sengzhao instead says that the one who produced the sūtra wished to preserve this person in order to propagate the Way and therefore presented his virtues throughout the chapter. Kumārajīva connects the presentation of virtue with reliance on the World-Honored One’s praise, while Sengzhao connects it with preserving the person to propagate the Way. The two explanations are presented side by side and are not combined into one.

On the six ways of gathering, Sengzhao says, 「肇曰：至人不現行；現行六度者，為攝六弊耳。」 — “Sengzhao says: The consummate person does not manifest practices; he manifests the six perfections only to gather in the six defects.” His focus is on “manifesting practices”: the six practices appear in the world in order to gather in the six obstructions that correspond to them. At places of games, among non-Buddhist paths, at crossroads, and in halls of debate, Kumārajīva and Sengzhao further explain, respectively, manifesting reception of non-Buddhist teachings, using play to stop play, transforming through sameness and difference, and guiding people toward the Great Vehicle. What each illuminates is how Vimalakīrti enters the present place of sentient beings without losing right faith.

On manifesting illness, Kumārajīva connects the preceding gathering of people through giving and ethical discipline with the multitude who come to inquire. Sengzhao says, 「肇曰：同我者易信、異我者難順，故因其身疾，廣明有身之患。」 — “Sengzhao says: One who is like me is easy to trust; one who differs from me is difficult to follow. Therefore, using his bodily illness, he broadly clarifies the affliction of having a body.” One side illuminates how earlier skillful means makes people willing to come; the other illuminates how sharing the condition of having a body makes the teaching easy to trust. These are the commentators’ explanations, not an exhaustive list of motives stated by the sūtra itself.

Under the bodily similes, Kumārajīva sometimes emphasizes impermanence, while Sengzhao sometimes emphasizes emptiness and unreality. The two do not subsume every simile under precisely the same category. When the text says that the Buddha-body is precisely the dharma-body, Sengzhao says, 「肇曰：經云法身者，虛空身也。」 — “Sengzhao says: When the sūtra speaks of the dharma-body, it means a body like space.” Daosheng instead begins from another side: 「生曰：夫佛身者，丈六體也。」 — “Daosheng says: The Buddha-body is the sixteen-foot body.” He then explains “precisely the dharma-body” by saying that the sixteen-foot response-body issues from the dharma-body and is named after that from which it issues. Two ancient interpretations stand under the same cited phrase and should be preserved just as they are. At the chapter’s end, Sengzhao further says that arousing the mind not only eliminates one’s own illness but also relieves the illnesses of the many sentient beings, completing the chapter’s line of benefiting others.

The Ci’en Mirror: Subsequently Attained Wisdom, Bodily and Verbal Skillful Means, and the Cause of the Two Benefits

Following Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first explains the chapter through four approaches and says of its essence, 「出品體者，用後得智為體。」 — “As for identifying the chapter’s essence, it takes subsequently attained wisdom as its essence.” He further regards manifesting illness as bodily skillful means and teaching the Dharma and urging others to arouse the mind on account of the illness as verbal skillful means. This mirror places the chapter’s skillful means where wisdom activates body and speech and divides the period before the illness into three paths: using what one has to gather in those who lack it, benefiting those of the same class, and becoming revered in order to guide those below.

On the section concerning revulsion toward the body, Kuiji says, 「初文有五，教生五種厭壞觀故。」 — “The opening text has five parts, because it teaches the arising of five contemplations of revulsion toward decay.” He organizes them in order as impermanence, suffering, emptiness, selflessness, and impurity. These five contemplations can help the reader see the sequence of the long passage on bodily similes, but they remain the commentator’s structural analysis; Kumārajīva’s text does not itself list five subheadings.

At the passage on the Buddha-body, Kuiji says, 「贊曰：下顯示相。有二：初示法身相、後示報化相。此初文也。」 — “The Commentary says: The following reveals their marks. There are two parts: first, revealing the mark of the dharma-body; second, revealing the marks of the enjoyment and transformation bodies. This is the first passage.” He first speaks of the dharma-body, then reads the listed causes of virtue through the enjoyment and transformation bodies, and finally explains arousing the mind with 「正等覺心，二利因故。」 — “The mind of perfect awakening is the cause of the two benefits.” Attaining the Buddha-body benefits oneself; eliminating the illnesses of others benefits others. This path emphasizes the distinctions among the dharma, enjoyment, and transformation bodies and their shared cause in the benefits for self and others. Its vocabulary differs from the Kumārajīva line’s language of the dharma-body’s responsive manifestation, bodily affliction, and the illnesses of sentient beings.

Neither mirror reduces skillful means to a technique of response. The Kumārajīva line sees skillful means through the presentation of virtues, the six ways of gathering, ease of trust among those sharing the same condition, bodily similes, and the responsive manifestation of the dharma-body. The Ci’en line sees it through subsequently attained wisdom, bodily and verbal forms of expedient means, five contemplations of revulsion toward decay, the dharma, enjoyment, and transformation bodies, and the shared cause of the two benefits. The two paths shine side by side without needing to become a single system. The sūtra remains centered between the two mirrors: Vimalakīrti enters the places where sentient beings dwell through pure conduct, then uses the shared condition of bodily illness to lead everyone toward the Buddha-body and the mind of awakening. This path from the city into illness and from bodily affliction to arousing the mind is precisely what this chapter transmits to later generations.

Vimalakīrti merely lies ill and reflects to himself, and the Buddha knows his thought. Yet from Śāriputra all the way to Ānanda, not one of the ten great disciples sets out directly when the Buddha asks. They are not making the excuse that the road is long, nor do they not know where Vimalakīrti lives. Each remembers a former event: amid the very practice he knew best, Vimalakīrti had questioned him until he had no words in reply.

The chapter thus turns “Who will inquire about the illness?” into another question: when a person can already sit in meditation, teach the Dharma, seek alms, explain meanings, see afar, observe the disciplinary code, leave home, and attend upon the Buddha, is the Dharma with which he is familiar still enclosed by bodily marks, speech, reception, discrimination, and attainment?

Meditative Sitting and Teaching the Dharma: Dharma Does Not Arise Only after Leaving the World

Śāriputra sits beneath a tree in the forest. The sūtra does not erase this fact, yet Vimalakīrti first says that meditative sitting does not necessarily require assuming this seated posture. Each of the next six statements simultaneously brings two apparently exclusive sides into meditative sitting:

「夫宴坐者，不於三界現身、意，是為宴坐；」 — “Meditative sitting means not manifesting body or mind within the three realms; this is meditative sitting.” Yet it also means not rising from the absorption of cessation while manifesting all the dignified postures; not abandoning the Dharma of the path while manifesting the affairs of ordinary people; letting the mind abide neither within nor without; remaining unmoved amid the various views while still cultivating the thirty-seven factors of the path; and entering nirvāṇa without cutting off the afflictions.

This does not say that sitting is unimportant, nor does it establish another posture. The sūtra simply prevents “sitting” from stopping at the bodily form beneath a tree. If entering absorption means no longer manifesting the dignified postures, keeping to the path means being unable to manifest the affairs of ordinary people, leaving views means being unable to cultivate the factors of the path, and only the complete cutting off of afflictions permits entry into nirvāṇa, then meditative sitting remains bounded by two sides. After hearing this, Śāriputra remains silent and can add no reply.

Maudgalyāyana’s setting moves from the forest to a lane in Vaiśālī. He is teaching the Dharma to lay householders when Vimalakīrti says, 「夫說法者，當如法說。」 — “One who teaches the Dharma should teach in accord with Dharma.” What follows is not a more ornate set of expressions, but a progressive loosening of speaker, spoken Dharma, listener, and attainment.

Dharma has no sentient being, no self, no lifespan, and no person. Dharma is quiescent, apart from marks, without names, without speech, without form, and without conceptual proliferation. Dharma has nothing belonging to self, no discrimination, nothing comparable, and does not belong to a cause. Dharma is identical with Dharma-nature, accords with suchness, abides at the limit of reality, does not depend upon the six objects, and neither goes nor comes. It also accords with emptiness, follows signlessness, and corresponds to wishlessness. It is apart from beauty and ugliness, increase and decrease, arising and cessation, and any place of return; it surpasses the six faculties, is neither high nor low, constantly abides without moving, and is apart from every activity of observation. The teacher has nothing to speak or show, and the listener nothing to hear or attain, like an illusory person teaching the Dharma to another illusory person.

Yet the sūtra does not stop at “it cannot be spoken.” It immediately requires the teacher to understand whether the faculties of sentient beings are sharp or dull, possess unobstructed knowing and seeing, praise the Great Vehicle with great compassion, remember and repay the Buddha’s kindness, and keep the Three Jewels unbroken before teaching the Dharma. Nothing spoken does not mean closing one’s mouth, and nothing attained does not mean disregarding the listener. After speaking of nothing taught and nothing heard, the sūtra still explicitly states the faculties of the people before one and the direction in which the teaching should lead. Eight hundred householders then arouse the mind of awakening, while Maudgalyāyana declares that he lacks such eloquence.

A Bowl of Rice: Beggar, Giver, and Food Cannot Be Selectively Grasped

Mahākāśyapa enters a poor neighborhood for alms. His motive is compassion, but Vimalakīrti points out that the compassion is not universal: by passing over the wealthy and going to the poor, he still chooses among the households from which he seeks alms. The sūtra therefore first says, 「住平等法，應次行乞食。」 — “Abiding in the Dharma of equality, one should go for alms in sequence.” It does not cancel almsround; it prevents the distinction between rich and poor from determining it.

The sūtra next speaks of food from three sides: going for alms for the sake of not eating, taking morsel-food for the sake of breaking the compounded mark, and receiving food for the sake of not receiving. Entering a settlement as though entering an empty settlement; seeing form as though blind, hearing sound as an echo, smelling scent as wind, tasting flavor without discrimination, and receiving contact as wisdom realizes; knowing all dharmas as illusory appearances, with no nature of their own and no nature from another; originally there was no real burning and now there is nothing to extinguish. This does not shut the gate outside the settlement. Within settlement, faculties and objects, and receiving food, it refrains from grasping a real mark of food.

The same equality continues into wrong and right, absorption and emergence, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa: entering the eight liberations without abandoning the eight wrong practices; entering the true Dharma through wrong marks; with one portion of food giving to all and making offerings to the buddhas and the many worthies and sages; the recipient of food neither possessing afflictions nor having left afflictions behind, neither entering absorption nor rising from it, neither abiding in the world nor in nirvāṇa; the giver having no established great or small merit, benefit or loss. This is true entry into the Buddha’s path and not consuming another’s offering in vain. From then onward, Kāśyapa no longer encourages people to practice only the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha path.

Before Subhūti there is likewise a bowl of rice, already filled by Vimalakīrti. This time the sūtra lets food and Dharma illuminate one another: 「若能於食等者，諸法亦等，諸法等者，於食亦等；」 — “If one can be equal toward food, all dharmas are also equal; if all dharmas are equal, one is also equal toward food.” Food is not a small daily matter separate from the myriad dharmas, and the equality of the myriad dharmas cannot be sought apart from the bowl of rice before one.

The long statement that follows does not let Subhūti stand securely in any pure identity: not cutting off lust, anger, and delusion, yet not dwelling with them; not destroying the body, yet according with the one mark; not extinguishing ignorance and craving, yet giving rise to understanding and liberation; the five heinous acts and liberation, bondage and freedom from bondage, seeing and not seeing the truths, attaining and not attaining the fruit, ordinary person and sage—none can become an identity-position to which one clings. The six teachers, wrong views, the eight difficult states, afflictions, non-contention, field of merit, evil paths, hosts of Māra, enmity, slandering the Buddha, destroying the Dharma, not entering the assembly, and cessation are likewise enumerated in the sūtra’s sequence.

Subhūti becomes bewildered and puts down the bowl, intending to leave. Vimalakīrti then asks him about a person conjured by the Tathāgata: if such a conjured person were questioned in this way, would it be afraid? When Subhūti says no, the exchange returns to the illusory marks of all dharmas and all speech. The wise do not cling to written words and therefore are not afraid. The nature of written words is separate; there are no written words. This is liberation, and the mark of liberation is all dharmas. The sūtra does not let Subhūti abandon the bowl and flee equality; it instead tells him to pick up the bowl and not be afraid. Two hundred devas then attain purity of the Dharma-eye.

Teaching and Explaining Meanings: One Must Still See with What Mind and to What Faculties One Speaks

Pūrṇa teaches the Dharma to newly trained bhikṣus beneath a tree in the Great Forest. Vimalakīrti first says, 「先當入定，觀此人心然後說法。」 — “First enter absorption and contemplate these people’s minds; only then teach the Dharma.” Each simile that follows shows that what is taught and the people addressed cannot be mismatched: impure food must not be placed in a jeweled vessel, nor beryl mistaken for crystal. One who has no wound must not be injured; one who wishes to travel the great road must not be pointed toward a small path; the great ocean cannot be poured into an ox’s hoofprint, nor sunlight equated with a firefly.

The sūtra itself gives the former circumstances of these bhikṣus. They had long ago aroused the mind of the Great Vehicle but forgotten it along the way. In the presence of five hundred buddhas they had planted many roots of virtue and dedicated them to awakening. Vimalakīrti enters absorption and causes them to know their former lives. They suddenly recover the minds they had originally aroused and bow to Vimalakīrti. When Vimalakīrti then teaches them the Dharma, they become irreversible from unsurpassed awakening. Pūrṇa consequently reflects that one should not teach without discerning people’s faculties.

What Kātyāyana explains is not an assortment of meanings from elsewhere. After the Buddha briefly teaches the essentials of the Dharma, he elaborates the five meanings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and quiescent cessation. Vimalakīrti identifies the crucial point: 「無以生滅心行說實相法。」 — “Do not teach the Dharma of the true mark through mental activity of arising and cessation.”

The sūtra immediately restates all five meanings in sequence: all dharmas ultimately neither arise nor cease—this is the meaning of impermanence; the five aggregates subject to grasping are penetrated as empty, with nothing arising—this is the meaning of suffering; all dharmas ultimately have no possession—this is the meaning of emptiness; self and no-self are nondual—this is the meaning of no-self; dharmas originally had no real burning and now have nothing to extinguish—this is the meaning of quiescent cessation. Not one of the five is omitted, and the fifth is not merged into the first four. The minds of those bhikṣus are then liberated, while Kātyāyana still closes his recollection by declaring himself unable.

The Divine Eye and the Disciplinary Code: What Is Seen Is Questioned through Fabrication, and the Defilement of Offense through Within, Without, and In Between

Aniruddha first tells Brahmā king Majestic Purity that with his divine eye he sees the billion-world universe within Śākyamuni Buddha’s buddha-land as one sees an āmalaka fruit in the palm. Vimalakīrti does not compare how far he can see, but asks, 「天眼所見，為作相耶，無作相耶？」 — “Is what the divine eye sees a fabricated mark or an unfabricated mark?” If it is fabricated, it is equal to the five superknowledges of the non-Buddhists; if unfabricated, it is unconditioned and should not have another act of seeing.

Aniruddha remains silent. The Brahmā assembly then asks who in the world has the true divine eye. Vimalakīrti answers that the Buddha, the World-Honored One, does: constantly abiding in absorption, completely seeing all buddha-lands, and not seeing through two marks. The sūtra retains both “completely seeing” and “not through two marks.” It does not replace true seeing with not seeing, nor does it supply another answer for Aniruddha. Brahmā king Majestic Purity and five hundred members of his retinue then arouse the mind of awakening and suddenly cease to appear after bowing at Vimalakīrti’s feet.

Before Upāli are not distant worlds, but the immediate shame, doubt, and remorse of two bhikṣus who violated the disciplinary code. He has already explained the code to them when Vimalakīrti first stops him: 「無重增此二比丘罪！當直除滅，勿擾其心。」 — “Do not add still more weight to the offenses of these two bhikṣus! Eliminate them directly; do not disturb their minds.” The sūtra joins not adding to their offenses, directly eliminating them, and not disturbing their minds.

From the nature of offense the sūtra proceeds to mind, and then to all dharmas. The nature of offense is not within, not without, and not in between. Mind is likewise not within, without, or in between. As it is with mind, so it is with the defilement of offense and all dharmas; none goes beyond suchness. When the mark of mind is liberated, there is no defilement within it, and the undefiled marks of the minds of all sentient beings are likewise. Defilement and purity are then assigned in sequence to false conception, inversion, and grasping at self, and to their abandonment: the sūtra says in turn that false conception, inversion, and grasping at self are defilement, while separation from them is purity.

All dharmas arise and cease without abiding, like illusion and lightning. They do not wait upon one another, and do not abide for even a single thought-moment. What is seen is like a dream, a mirage, the moon in water, and an image in a mirror, arising from false conception. The sūtra finally says “one who knows this” twice: knowing this is called observing the disciplinary code; knowing this is called skillfully understanding the disciplinary code. The two bhikṣus’ doubt and remorse are then dispelled, they arouse the mind of awakening, and they wish for all sentient beings to attain such eloquence.

Leaving Home and the Buddha’s Body: No Benefit Does Not Mean No Practice, and Absence of Illness Does Not Delete Manifestation

The sons of elders ask Rāhula what benefit there is in leaving home. Rāhula teaches in accord with Dharma about the meritorious benefit of leaving home, yet Vimalakīrti says, 「無利、無功德，是為出家；」 — “Having no benefit and no merit is leaving home.” Benefit and merit can be counted within conditioned dharmas, whereas the direction of leaving home is the unconditioned and cannot be measured by conditioned gain.

The sūtra does not thereby make leaving home blank. In one sustained sequence, it lists the marks of true renunciation: no place there, here, or in between; separation from the sixty-two views and resting in nirvāṇa; being received by the wise and practiced by sages; subduing Māra, crossing the five paths, purifying the five eyes, attaining the five powers, and establishing the five faculties; not harming others and being apart from mixed evils; subduing non-Buddhist paths and surpassing provisional names; emerging from mud and being without attachment; having nothing belonging to self and nothing received; being free of disturbance while cherishing joy within; protecting others’ intentions, according with meditation, and being apart from every fault. No benefit and no merit cancel none of these.

When the sons of elders say that they cannot leave home because their parents have not permitted it, Vimalakīrti first answers, “That is so,” without erasing the condition stated by the Buddha. He then tells them to arouse the mind of awakening, saying that this is leaving home and this is full ordination. All thirty-two sons of elders then arouse the mind of awakening.

Ānanda’s bowl is meant to hold cow’s milk. Because the World-Honored One is slightly ill, he comes early in the morning to the gate of a brahmin household. Vimalakīrti first says that the Tathāgata’s body is adamantine, with all evil cut off and all wholesome qualities universally gathered. He also says, 「諸如來身，即是法身，非思欲身。」 — “The bodies of all tathāgatas are precisely the dharma-body, not bodies born of sensual thought.” The Buddha’s body surpasses the three realms, is free of outflows, has exhausted all outflows, is unconditioned, and does not fall within any enumeration; it therefore should not be spoken of in terms of ordinary illness and distress.

Ānanda does not therefore throw away the bowl. Just as he feels ashamed and wonders whether, despite attending closely upon the Buddha, he has heard incorrectly, a voice from the sky affirms what Vimalakīrti has said and supplies another side: the Buddha manifests the practice of this Dharma in the evil world of the five degenerations to liberate sentient beings. It finally tells him to fetch the milk without shame. The dharma-body’s freedom from illness and the manifestation of illness in the world stand one after another in the same scriptural passage. The milk must still be fetched, while the shame can be put down.

Ten Declarations of Inability Pass the Inquiry to the Next Person

The ten disciples’ recollections close in different ways. Śāriputra and Aniruddha remain silent. Maudgalyāyana says that he lacks such eloquence. Kāśyapa no longer encourages the two-vehicle practice. Pūrṇa reflects that teaching must be preceded by discerning faculties. The remaining episodes record the concurrent benefits attained by devas, bhikṣus, Brahmā devas, and sons of elders. The sūtra does not rank these results, but transmits each episode in turn.

The final sentence moves the scene from ten disciples to five hundred great disciples. Each tells the Buddha of his own former encounter, recounts Vimalakīrti’s words, and says that he cannot go. Five hundred declarations of inability extend the shared ending of the ten episodes to the many disciples and prevent the reader from standing only within the disciples’ former answers. Each episode asks: if Dharma is present precisely within meditative sitting, a city lane, a bowl of rice, beneath a tree, walking meditation, doubt and remorse, leaving home, and fetching milk, can the practice now before us avoid being sealed shut by its own name?

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The two mirrors below are presented side by side only here. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line are individually attributed in accordance with the scriptural sentences of the Kumārajīva recension, while the Ci’en line classifies according to the terminology of the Xuanzang recension. Both sides help illuminate the layers of the chapter, but neither is rewritten as a classification stated by the sūtra itself.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Three Individual Attributions, from Ten Repeated Praises to Practice without Abiding

Concerning the structure of the whole chapter, Kumārajīva says, 「復命餘人者，欲令各稱其美，明兼應辯慧無方也。」 — “He further instructs the others because he wishes each to praise Vimalakīrti’s excellence and make clear that he possesses both responsive eloquence and wisdom without limit” (T38n1775 0344a08). This reads the ten instructions as repeated praise of Vimalakīrti’s excellence. Within each episode, “Kumārajīva says,” “Sengzhao says,” and “Daosheng says” are individually marked. In the episode on meditative sitting, Daosheng develops the meaning from dwelling at leisure, Kumārajīva from the utmost absorption, and Sengzhao along the six statements. The words of the three cannot all be attributed to Sengzhao alone.

In the episode on equality of food, Sengzhao says, 「言萬法同相，準一可知。」 — “This says that the myriad dharmas have the same mark and can be known by taking one as the standard” (T38n1775 0350a11). In the episode on discerning faculties, Sengzhao says, 「此新學比丘根在大乘、應聞大道，而為說小法，故誨其入定也。」 — “The faculties of these newly trained bhikṣus lie in the Great Vehicle, and they should hear the great path; yet Pūrṇa teaches them a lesser Dharma, so Vimalakīrti instructs him to enter absorption” (T38n1775 0353a03). The former uses one meal as a standard for knowing the myriad dharmas; the latter interprets the original mind stated by the sūtra as faculties rooted in the Great Vehicle. These are Sengzhao’s interpretations and are not rewritten as self-designations in the sūtra.

In the Maudgalyāyana episode, Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng separately take up the statements on personal and Dharma emptiness. In the divine-eye episode, Kumārajīva develops the true eye from the fabricated mark of form, while Sengzhao explains the fabricated mark through the faculties of a recompense-body. In the offense-nature episode, Daosheng, Kumārajīva, and Sengzhao separately discuss the location of offense, false conception, and the mark of mind. The three masters retain their separate attributions and are not combined into a ruling by a single commentator.

In the episode on leaving home, Daosheng says, 「正以無利無功德為出家理也。」 — “Precisely having no benefit and no merit is the principle of leaving home” (T38n1775 0357c13), while Sengzhao says, 「無為無利無功德，當知出家亦然矣。」 — “The unconditioned has no benefit and no merit; one should know that leaving home is likewise” (T38n1775 0357c25). In the Ānanda episode, Kumārajīva separately distinguishes three kinds of dharma-body, while Daosheng and Sengzhao each discuss manifesting illness to liberate sentient beings. The Kumārajīva-line mirror opens different directions through short comments close to the scriptural sentences; the three masters sit together without their attributions being mixed.

The Ci’en Mirror: Classification into Five Pairs, with Multiple Interpretive Approaches Still Kept within the Xuanzang Recension

Following the Xuanzang recension, Kuiji gives the overall classification, 「十大聲聞，略為五對。」 — “The ten great śrāvakas are arranged, in brief, into five pairs” (T38n1782 1041a12). The five pairs join inner quiescence of body and mind with outward display of words and principles; partial aid to the poor and suffering with equal manifestation of loving-kindness and compassion; instruction of beginners with teaching that brings previously trained people to completion; exercising superknowledge to guide the wholesome with causing remorse over wrongdoing to cease; and praising leaving home with correcting the search for offerings while attending upon the Buddha. This is the overall classification of the Ci’en commentary and is not poured down into the sequence explicitly listed by Kumārajīva’s sūtra.

Within the individual interpretations, meditative sitting is divided through dependent origination, consciousness-only, signlessness, suchness, and other approaches. Equality of food can be divided into emptiness-principle and correct-principle readings. On Kātyāyana’s five meanings the commentary says, 「應理義云：此五實義，性即真如。」 — “According to the correct-principle interpretation, the nature of these five true meanings is suchness” (T38n1782 1050a26). In the Upāli episode it likewise says, 「應理義云：罪性者真如理，此理不依內根外境及住兩間。」 — “According to the correct-principle interpretation, the nature of offense is the principle of suchness; this principle depends neither on inner faculties nor outer objects and does not abide between the two” (T38n1782 1052c19). Both are explicit statements of the commentator and do not backfill “suchness” as a direct statement of Kumārajīva’s sūtra.

In the Rāhula episode, Kuiji explains having neither merit nor benefit through the breaking of discriminating attachment and further distinguishes bodily renunciation when parents have not given permission from mental renunciation accomplished through arousing the mind. In the Ānanda episode he says, 「真身者報身也，是實功德，從因修生，故名真身。」 — “The true body is the recompense-body. It consists of real meritorious qualities and arises from cultivating causes; therefore it is called the true body” (T38n1782 1056c29), and explains freedom from illness and manifested illness through the true body and transformation-body. The Ci’en mirror always relies on the terminology of the Xuanzang recension; when it illuminates the Kumārajīva line, its names and scriptural sentences still return to their own recension.

One mirror follows the phrase-by-phrase comments of three masters close to the Kumārajīva recension; the other unfolds multiple approaches and classifications from the Xuanzang recension. Meditative sitting, teaching the Dharma, almsround, the five meanings, the divine eye, the nature of offense, leaving home, and the Buddha’s body all receive different developments in the two ancient mirrors. Their purpose in shining side by side is to preserve difference, not to pronounce a final ruling for either one. As this is transmitted to the present, the sūtra still comes first: the Buddha’s instructions, the disciples’ recollections, Vimalakīrti’s questions, and the benefits concurrently attained should first be read in the full sequence of this chapter, so that the light of the ancient commentaries does not obscure the scriptural sentences it illuminates.

Why do all four bodhisattvas say that they are not equal to the task of inquiring about the illness, and what, ultimately, did Vimalakīrti see? 「汝行詣維摩詰問疾。」 — “Go to Vimalakīrti and inquire about his illness.” The Buddha issues this same command four times in this chapter, successively addressing Maitreya, Radiant Adornment, World-Upholder, and Excellent Virtue. None refuses directly. Instead, each relates a past event: meeting Vimalakīrti while teaching the Dharma, traveling, dwelling in a quiet chamber, or holding a giving assembly, and hearing in that encounter a path that went beyond what he had previously seen.

All four passages begin with “I am not equal to the task” and end with the speaker’s inability to inquire about the illness, yet the subject between these frames is never the same. Maitreya had been teaching the practices of non-retrogression, but Vimalakīrti asked on which life a prophecy could depend. Radiant Adornment merely asked where he had come from, but Vimalakīrti spoke of coming from thirty-two places of awakening. World-Upholder mistook Māra for Śakra; Vimalakīrti first discerned Māra’s appearance and then led the goddesses from delight in the five desires to delight in the Dharma. Excellent Virtue was holding a seven-day assembly of material giving; Vimalakīrti carried giving as far as making offerings to all sentient beings in a single moment. What the whole chapter illuminates are precisely those places in bodhisattva practice that are habitually taken as an already acquired attainment, fixed location, established delight, or determinate gift.

On Which Life Does a Prophecy Ultimately Depend?

Maitreya was teaching the practices of the stage of non-retrogression to the king of the Tuṣita devas and his retinue, but Vimalakīrti first asked, 「為用何生得受記乎？過去耶？未來耶？現在耶？」 — “On which life do you receive the prophecy? A past life? A future life? The present life?” If it depends on a past life, the past has ceased. If it depends on a future life, the future has not arrived. If it depends on the present life, the present does not remain. Once all three times have been questioned in turn, the prophecy cannot be settled upon an unchanging “life” that stands still.

The sūtra immediately carries the question into non-arising. Non-arising is the correct position, yet within that position there is no prophecy that can be received and no unsurpassed perfect awakening that can be attained. If one then asks whether the prophecy is received from the arising or the cessation of suchness, suchness itself has neither arising nor cessation. This does not simply erase the “prophecy,” because the sūtra continues, 「一切眾生皆如也，一切法亦如也，眾聖賢亦如也，至於彌勒亦如也。」 — “All sentient beings are suchness; all dharmas are also suchness; all sages and worthies are also suchness; even Maitreya is suchness.” If Maitreya can receive a prophecy, all sentient beings should also receive one. If Maitreya attains awakening, all sentient beings should also attain it, because all sentient beings are the mark of awakening. If Maitreya attains cessation, all sentient beings should also attain it, because the buddhas know that sentient beings are ultimately quiescent, already bear the mark of nirvāṇa, and do not undergo some further cessation.

Thus Vimalakīrti does not push the devas from one prophecy toward another, but asks them to relinquish discriminating views of awakening. The sūtra says, 「菩提者不可以身得，不可以心得；」 — “Awakening cannot be obtained through the body and cannot be obtained through the mind.” The following twenty-five statements loosen the notion that “awakening can be attained” from different directions.

Quiescent cessation is awakening because all marks cease. Non-contemplation is awakening because all conditions are left behind. Non-activity is awakening because there is no recollection. Severance is awakening because all views are relinquished. Detachment is awakening because deluded conceptions are left behind. Obstruction is awakening because it bars all wishes. Non-entry is awakening because there is no craving attachment. These first seven statements, moving through marks, conditions, recollection, views, deluded conceptions, wishes, and craving attachment, allow awakening to become an object of pursuit nowhere.

Accordance is awakening because it accords with suchness. Abiding is awakening because it abides in Dharma-nature. Arrival is awakening because it arrives at the limit of reality. Nonduality is awakening because it leaves behind mind faculty and dharmas as two. Equality is awakening because it is equal to space. The unconditioned is awakening because it has no arising, abiding, or cessation. Knowing is awakening because it knows the thoughts and conduct of sentient beings. These seven statements do not obtain awakening through body or mind, yet neither do they fall into knowing nothing at all. The sūtra still speaks of accordance, abiding, arrival, and knowing, but does not turn any of them into an attainment that body or mind can cling to.

Non-convergence is awakening because the sense-spheres do not converge. Non-combination is awakening because the habituations of the afflictions are left behind. Placelessness is awakening because it has no form or shape. Provisional naming is awakening because names are empty. Being like a transformation is awakening because there is neither taking nor relinquishing. Non-confusion is awakening because it is constantly quiescent of itself. Excellent quiescence is awakening because its nature is pure. Non-grasping is awakening because it has left clinging to conditions behind. Non-difference is awakening because all dharmas are equal. Incomparability is awakening because nothing can serve as a simile. Subtlety is awakening because all dharmas are difficult to know. At this point, convergence, form, names, taking and relinquishing, clinging to conditions, difference, and simile are all unable to fix awakening in place.

Yet this passage does not end with “there is nothing at all.” When Vimalakīrti teaches, two hundred devas attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. In a single movement, the sūtra refuses to let awakening become something obtained through body or mind while still recording the devas’ attainment of acceptance. The two sides stand together, warning readers not to mistake non-attainment for the absence of an awakening mind, hearing the Dharma, or benefit from the Dharma.

Is the Place of Awakening Inside the City, Outside It, or in Every Step?

Radiant Adornment was leaving the great city of Vaiśālī while Vimalakīrti was entering, and the two met. Radiant Adornment asked where he had come from, and Vimalakīrti answered, 「吾從道場來。」 — “I have come from the place of awakening.” When Radiant Adornment then asked where the place of awakening was, the answer gave him no direction; it proceeded from the upright mind all the way to knowing all dharmas in a single thought.

The upright mind is the place of awakening because it is without falsity. Initiating practice is the place of awakening because it accomplishes what should be done. The profound mind is the place of awakening because it increases merit. The mind of awakening is the place of awakening because it is without error. These opening four all come down to mind and practice: the mind is not false, practice accomplishes its work, the profound mind increases merit, and the mind of awakening does not err.

Giving is the place of awakening because it expects no reward. Ethical discipline is the place of awakening because it brings vows to fulfillment. Patience is the place of awakening because the mind has no obstruction toward sentient beings. Diligent effort is the place of awakening because it is neither lax nor retrogressing. Meditation is the place of awakening because the mind is regulated and pliant. Wisdom is the place of awakening because it directly sees all dharmas. The six perfections are not merely preparations leading toward the place of awakening. Each is itself called that place in its expectation of no reward, fulfillment of vows, non-obstruction, non-retrogression, pliancy, and direct seeing.

Loving-kindness is the place of awakening because it treats sentient beings equally. Compassion is the place of awakening because it endures weariness and hardship. Sympathetic joy is the place of awakening because it takes delight in the Dharma. Equanimity is the place of awakening because hatred and attachment have ceased. Supernormal powers are the place of awakening because the six powers are accomplished. Liberation is the place of awakening because it can turn away and relinquish. Skillful means is the place of awakening because it teaches and transforms sentient beings. The four means of gathering are the place of awakening because they gather sentient beings in. These eight place one’s own mind together with transforming others: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity do not leave sentient beings behind, and supernormal powers, liberation, skillful means, and the four means of gathering all appear within conduct.

Learning widely is the place of awakening because one practices according to what one has heard. Subduing the mind is the place of awakening because it correctly contemplates all dharmas. The thirty-seven factors are the place of awakening because they leave conditioned dharmas behind. Truth is the place of awakening because it does not deceive the world. Dependent origination is the place of awakening because the sequence from ignorance through aging and death is inexhaustible. Here wide learning does not stop at hearing, truth does not leave non-deception behind, and dependent origination is not flattened into a mere label.

The afflictions are the place of awakening because they are known as they truly are. Sentient beings are the place of awakening because one knows there is no self. All dharmas are the place of awakening because one knows they are empty. The sūtra does not call only pure dharmas the place of awakening. Even afflictions, sentient beings, and all dharmas become the place of awakening when seen through knowledge of what is real, no-self, and emptiness.

Subduing Māra is the place of awakening because one is not shaken. The three realms are the place of awakening because there is nowhere toward which to proceed. The lion’s roar is the place of awakening because it is without fear. The powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive qualities are the place of awakening because they have no fault. The three knowledges are the place of awakening because no obstruction remains. Knowing all dharmas in a single thought is the place of awakening because omniscience is accomplished. These final six reach non-disturbance, nowhere to proceed, fearlessness, faultlessness, unobstructedness, and omniscience, yet they never leave the practice named in each preceding item.

Vimalakīrti’s conclusion, then, is not that “the place of awakening cannot be found anywhere,” but 「舉足下足，當知皆從道場來，住於佛法矣！」 — “With every lifting and placing of the foot, know that you have come from the place of awakening and abide in the Buddha-Dharma!” If a bodhisattva teaches and transforms sentient beings in accord with the perfections, every action and every step lifted and placed comes from that place. When this Dharma is taught, five hundred devas and humans give rise to the awakening mind. The place of awakening has not been reduced to one location, yet giving rise to the mind and abiding are both still present in the sūtra.

What Delight Can There Be in Māra’s Palace?

World-Upholder was dwelling in a quiet chamber when the king Māra Pāpīyān came with twelve thousand goddesses, having assumed the appearance of Śakra. World-Upholder counseled him to contemplate the impermanence of the five desires and cultivate what is steadfast with respect to body, life, and wealth, but failed to recognize that the visitor was Māra. Vimalakīrti arrived and immediately said, 「非帝釋也，是為魔來嬈固汝耳！」 — “This is not Śakra; it is Māra, who has come to trouble you!”

The narrative then turns twice. First, Māra treats the goddesses as objects with which to tempt a śramaṇa, but Vimalakīrti asks Māra to give them to him and immediately causes them to give rise to the awakening mind. Second, after the goddesses have given rise to that mind, Vimalakīrti does not merely tell them to suppress what they had enjoyed. He says, 「有法樂可以自娛，不應復樂五欲樂也。」 — “There is delight in the Dharma with which you can gladden yourselves; you should no longer delight in the pleasures of the five desires.”

Delight in the Dharma begins with the Three Jewels and leaving desire behind: constantly trusting the Buddha, wishing to hear the Dharma, making offerings to the Saṅgha, and leaving the five desires behind. Next come contemplating the five aggregates as hostile thieves, the four elements as venomous snakes, and the internal sense-spheres as an empty village. These three similes are linked in the sūtra’s sequence, and each is something one delights in contemplating. Then come guarding the mind that seeks the path, benefiting sentient beings, and reverently serving teachers, joining aspiration, benefit to others, and respect for teachers.

Extensively practicing giving, firmly maintaining ethical discipline, patience and gentleness, diligently gathering roots of goodness, meditation without distraction, and bright wisdom free of defilement encompass the six perfections. Making the awakening mind vast, subduing the many Māras, severing all afflictions, purifying buddha-lands, accomplishing the marks and excellent characteristics, cultivating every merit, and adorning the place of awakening then list aspiration, subduing Māra, ending affliction, pure lands, marks, merit, and the place of awakening in turn. Accomplishing the marks and cultivating merit are joined within the scriptural sentence, and neither can be omitted.

Hearing the profound Dharma without fear means hearing its depth without the mind shrinking back. One delights in the three gates of liberation while not delighting in what is untimely. One draws near to fellow students while remaining free of anger and obstruction among those whose learning differs. One watches over bad spiritual friends with care while drawing near to good spiritual friends. One’s mind rejoices and is pure, and one cultivates the immeasurable factors of the path. Thus delight in the Dharma is found not only in favorable circumstances one draws near to, but also in not losing one’s mind when facing different learning and bad spiritual friends.

When Māra wants to take the goddesses back to his palace, they no longer delight in the five desires. Vimalakīrti lets Māra take them and teaches them to practice the Inexhaustible Lamp in Māra’s palace. The image in the sūtra is utterly clear: 「譬如一燈，燃百千燈，冥者皆明，明終不盡。」 — “It is like one lamp lighting hundreds of thousands of lamps: all dark places become bright, yet the light never comes to an end.” One bodhisattva guides hundreds of thousands of sentient beings; that bodhisattva’s own mind that seeks the path is not extinguished, and the Dharma taught increases every wholesome dharma within that bodhisattva. Precisely by returning to Māra’s palace, the goddesses can cause innumerable male and female devas to give rise to the awakening mind, repay the Buddha’s kindness, and benefit sentient beings.

This passage does not postpone practice until after Māra’s palace has been left behind. The goddesses do in fact return with Māra, and the sūtra does in fact entrust them with the Inexhaustible Lamp. What they carry back is not a continuation of delight in the five desires, but a Dharma-gate through which one lamp can kindle hundreds of thousands and its light never come to an end.

If Material Giving Already Reaches the Poor, Why Speak of Dharma-Giving?

Excellent Virtue held a great giving assembly in his father’s house, making offerings for seven days to śramaṇas, brahmins, followers of other paths, the poor, people of low status, the solitary, and beggars. This assembly was not narrow in reach. What Vimalakīrti questioned was why the gathering was established only as material giving. When Excellent Virtue asked what Dharma-giving meant, Vimalakīrti answered, 「法施會者，無前無後，一時供養一切眾生，是名法施之會。」 — “An assembly of Dharma-giving has neither before nor after; it makes offerings to all sentient beings in a single moment. This is called an assembly of Dharma-giving.”

The next thirty-two statements do not leave the gates of practice. Directed toward awakening, give rise to loving-kindness. To rescue sentient beings, give rise to great compassion. To uphold the true Dharma, give rise to sympathetic joy. To gather wisdom, practice equanimity. The four immeasurables are first placed before all sentient beings.

To subdue stinginess and craving, give rise to the perfection of giving. To transform those who violate ethical discipline, give rise to the perfection of ethical discipline. Based on no-self, give rise to the perfection of patience. Based on leaving behind the marks of body and mind, give rise to the perfection of diligent effort. Based on the mark of awakening, give rise to the perfection of meditation. Based on omniscience, give rise to the perfection of prajñā. Each of the six perfections has something it treats and something it brings forth; they are not merely six names in a list.

To teach and transform sentient beings, give rise to emptiness. Without abandoning conditioned dharmas, give rise to signlessness. By manifesting birth, give rise to wishlessness. Emptiness does not make the bodhisattva abandon teaching; signlessness does not make the bodhisattva abandon the conditioned; and wishlessness stands in the same statement as manifesting birth. To uphold the true Dharma, give rise to the power of skillful means. To liberate sentient beings, give rise to the four means of gathering. By reverently serving everyone, give rise to the Dharma that removes pride. Skillful means, gathering in, and removing pride all come down to upholding the Dharma, liberating sentient beings, and reverent service.

With respect to body, life, and wealth, give rise to the three steadfast things. Within the six recollections, give rise to the Dharma of recollection. Within the six forms of harmonious respect, give rise to an upright mind. By correctly practicing wholesome dharmas, give rise to pure livelihood. With inward purity and joy, give rise to drawing near to the worthy and noble. By not hating bad people, give rise to subduing the mind. Body, life, and wealth; the six recollections; harmonious respect; pure livelihood; drawing near to the good; and not hating the bad follow continuously, so that Dharma-giving concerns not only teaching others but also how one uses body, life, and wealth, recollects, lives harmoniously with the community, makes a livelihood, draws near to the good, and refrains from hating the bad.

Based on the Dharma of going forth, give rise to a profound mind. By practicing according to what has been taught, give rise to wide learning. Based on non-contention, give rise to a secluded place. To proceed toward the Buddha’s wisdom, give rise to seated meditation. To untie the bonds of sentient beings, give rise to the stages of cultivation. Going forth, hearing the Dharma, seclusion, and seated meditation do not become an endpoint apart from sentient beings, for the next statement still concerns untying their bonds.

To perfect the marks and excellent characteristics and purify buddha-lands, give rise to the karma of merit. By knowing the thoughts of all sentient beings and teaching the Dharma according to their needs, give rise to the karma of knowledge. By knowing that all dharmas are neither taken nor relinquished and entering the gate of the one mark, give rise to the karma of wisdom. By severing all afflictions, all obstructions, and all unwholesome dharmas, give rise to every wholesome karma. To attain every wisdom and every wholesome dharma, give rise to all dharmas that assist the Buddha’s path. The final five move from merit, responsive teaching, and neither taking nor relinquishing through ending evil, generating good, and assisting the Buddha’s path; only here does the assembly of Dharma-giving come to completion.

Dharma-giving does not cancel Excellent Virtue’s original mind of generosity. After two hundred brahmins give rise to the awakening mind, Excellent Virtue offers his jeweled necklace. Vimalakīrti divides it into two parts, giving one to the beggar of the lowest status in the assembly and offering the other to Tathāgata Hard-to-Overcome. The assembly sees the Land of Radiance, Tathāgata Hard-to-Overcome, and the four-pillared jeweled terrace, and then hears, 「若施主等心施一最下乞人，猶如如來福田之相，無所分別，等于大悲，不求果報，是則名曰具足法施。」 — “If a donor gives with an equal mind to a beggar of the lowest status just as one would face the Tathāgata as a field of merit, without discrimination, equal in great compassion, and seeking no reward, this is called the complete fulfillment of Dharma-giving.”

The sūtra places the lowest beggar and the Tathāgata within the same act of giving. What it explicitly teaches is an equal mind, non-discrimination, great compassion, and seeking no reward. The lowest beggar sees the supernatural power, hears the Dharma, and likewise gives rise to the awakening mind. Dharma-giving is not abstract speech that leaves concrete recipients behind; through loving-kindness and compassion, the six perfections, the three gates of liberation, the dharmas of cultivation, and the actual destination of one jeweled necklace, it is directed toward all sentient beings in a single moment.

Why, after Four Declarations of Being Unequal, Do the Remaining Bodhisattvas Still Speak Together?

In Maitreya’s passage, two hundred devas attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. In Radiant Adornment’s, five hundred devas and humans give rise to the awakening mind. In Excellent Virtue’s, two hundred brahmins and the lowest beggar give rise to that mind. World-Upholder’s passage sends the goddesses back to Māra’s palace carrying the Inexhaustible Lamp. The four men declare themselves unequal to the task, but the sūtra records a benefit of the Dharma in every passage. “Unequal to the task” does not mean that these past circumstances bore no result; it means that all four personally saw Vimalakīrti illuminate another dimension of bodhisattva practice from exactly where each then stood.

At the chapter’s end, the other bodhisattvas likewise relate their past circumstances, praise what Vimalakīrti said, and 「皆曰不任詣彼問疾。」 — “all say that they are not equal to the task of going there to inquire about his illness.” The sūtra does not set out every one of their encounters in full, but with this statement extends the four passages to all the bodhisattvas. The next time readers hear the Buddha command someone to inquire about the illness, they already know that this is not merely a visit to a sick person; it will also cause the one commanded to relate how the Dharma once illuminated him.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension alone. When the ancient masters read the four past encounters, each used the Chinese recension he followed to illuminate different patterns. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented separately below. The former retain the names Vimalakīrti, Maitreya, the place of awakening, delight in the Dharma, and Excellent Virtue; the latter retain Stainless Renown, Compassionate One, wondrous awakening, delight in the Dharma garden, and Sudatta. The two paths are recorded side by side, without moving the scriptural words of one mirror into the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Dispelling Attainment without Abandoning the Myriad Practices, Transmitting One Lamp through All-Pervading Dharma-Giving

In the passage on prophecy, Daosheng explains what prophecy depends upon with 「夫受記者，要以四事合成，一一推之皆無也。」 — “A prophecy necessarily requires four things to come together; when each is examined in turn, none is found.” Sengzhao points to the three routes of past, future, and present with 「別推三世明無生也。」 — “Examining the three times separately clarifies non-arising.” Kumārajīva explains the correct position through the constant settledness of the true mark. When the text reaches all being suchness, Daosheng turns again to the absence of any difference between attainment and non-attainment. The three masters all unfold Kumārajīva’s scriptural sentences, but do not use one identical vocabulary. Prophecy, the three times, the correct position, and suchness must therefore be read through each master in turn.

In the passage on the place of awakening, Kumārajīva says, 「萬行是道場因，而言道場者，是因中說果也。」 — “The myriad practices are causes of the place of awakening; calling them the place of awakening speaks of the result within the causes.” Sengzhao says that there is nowhere the path does not reach and nowhere the place is absent, and explains the upright mind as inwardly true and upright, outwardly free of falsity. This mirror places the place of awakening within the myriad practices without reducing it to a site outside those practices. Every lifting and placing of the foot can therefore come from that place precisely because everything from the upright mind to knowing all dharmas in one thought lies within conduct.

In the passage on delight in the Dharma, Sengzhao focuses on the goddesses’ first relinquishing heavenly pleasures and being shown delight in the Dharma, while Daosheng focuses on replacing their former delight in the five desires lest they think of it again and retreat. At the Inexhaustible Lamp, Sengzhao says, 「自行化彼則功德彌增、法光不絕，名無盡燈也。」 — “As one practices oneself and transforms others, merit increases ever more and the light of Dharma does not cease; this is called the Inexhaustible Lamp.” Delight in the Dharma does not end with one’s own experience. When one returns to Māra’s palace and transforms others, one’s own wholesome dharmas instead increase.

In the passage on Dharma-giving, Kumārajīva explains its absence of before and after by contrasting material giving, which cannot reach everywhere at once, with Dharma-giving, which reaches all in a single moment. Daosheng explains the precedence of the four immeasurables through the intention to rescue beings. Sengzhao separately discusses the three steadfast things and six recollections, while Kumārajīva separately discusses the six forms of harmonious respect and the karmas of knowledge and wisdom. At the two fields, Kumārajīva sees identical fields of merit through the dense mind of giving to a buddha and the deep compassion of giving to the poor. This path places insight into non-attainment together with the myriad practices, transformation of others, and giving; it does not abandon practice when it dispels attachment.

The Ci’en Mirror: Seeing Suchness through the Provisional Establishment of the Three Times, and the Gates of Practice through the Sequence of Wondrous Awakening

Following Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first classifies the four bodhisattvas as four virtues in two pairs. In the Compassionate One passage, he explains prophecy as giving and differentiation, recognition and verification, and says that the three times are provisionally established in dependence on one existent dharma. He then interprets the correct nature of non-arising through suchness: all sentient beings, all dharmas, all sages and worthies, and Compassionate One all depend on suchness. This mirror uses the vocabulary of Compassionate One and the correct nature of suchness, without replacing Xuanzang’s scriptural wording with Kumārajīva’s “correct position.”

In Radiant Adornment’s passage, Kuiji explicitly says that the old translation “place of awakening” displays awakening as cause, and reads “wondrous awakening” through five paths: the nature, function, cause, companions, and object of awakening. The thirty-two items are further divided into six groups: true setting forth, the perfections, maturing sentient beings, all roots of goodness, preserving the true Dharma, and making offerings to the Tathāgata. This sequence belongs only to the Ci’en mirror; the exposition’s body remains grounded in the thirty-two places of awakening of Kumārajīva’s recension.

In World-Upholder’s passage, Kuiji records thirty-five statements of delight in the Dharma garden in Xuanzang’s recension, noting that three statements—objects having no dependent abode, correct engagement with parinirvāṇa, and skillful means that gathers well—are not found among the old sūtra’s thirty-two. He also records a difference in the syntactic boundary between the marks and the cultivation of merit. At the Inexhaustible Lamp, his emphasis is on the unbroken transmission of the Dharma. The separate numbers of the recensions are presented side by side so that the three additional Xuanzang statements remain visible without being backfilled into Kumārajīva’s recension.

In Sudatta’s passage, Kuiji explains “neither before nor after” through equality of mind and divides the thirty-two Dharma-giving statements into five groups: the four immeasurables, the six perfections, the three concentrations, nine miscellaneous practices, and ten sequential practices. His six recollections are Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, giving, ethical discipline, and cultivation; his six forms of harmonious respect are body, speech, mind, ethical discipline, giving, and view. At the two fields, he distinguishes the buddha-field from the compassion-field while continuing to illuminate the beggar through the donor’s mind. This path reads Dharma-giving through sequence and basis and retains its own language beside the Kumārajīva line; the two do not need to be merged into one account.

Neither mirror reads the four declarations of being unequal to the task as the termination of Dharma practice. The Kumārajīva line moves from dispelling an attained prophecy into the myriad practices as the place of awakening, the transmission of delight in the Dharma as a lamp, and Dharma-giving that reaches all in a single moment. The Ci’en line moves from the provisional establishment of the three times and the correct nature of suchness into the five kinds of wondrous awakening, the sequence of delight in the Dharma garden, and the five groups of Dharma-giving. They illuminate different patterns and follow different scriptural recensions. The transmission of this chapter should preserve those distinct recensions and masters, leaving Kumārajīva’s sūtra at the center and not allowing the light of one lineage to obscure that of the other.

The Buddha's instruction that Mañjuśrī inquire about the illness is originally only a single charge, yet Vimalakīrti first removes every object and every attendant from the room, leaves only one bed, and lies upon it in illness. From that moment, illness is no longer merely a matter of the body: coming and going, seeing and not seeing, emptiness and discrimination, body and mind, self and dharmas, wisdom and skillful means are all raised one by one within this empty room.

One sentence stated explicitly in this chapter is 「菩薩病者，以大悲起。」 — “A bodhisattva's illness arises from great compassion.” But the sūtra does not stop at praising great compassion. It goes on to ask: If illness arises from great compassion, how does a bodhisattva avoid attachment to self while ill? How does he contemplate emptiness without abiding in emptiness? How does he have compassion for sentient beings without letting his compassion carry affectionate views? And after disciplining his own mind, how does he still not abide in discipline? The entire chapter begins with an inquiry about illness and finally comes to the thirty-two statements of bodhisattva conduct. None of them seeks purity somewhere apart from the world; each acts within what is practiced without abiding on one side.

Why Does Mañjuśrī Go Even Though He Knows Vimalakīrti Is Difficult to Answer?

When the Buddha tells Mañjuśrī to inquire about the illness, Mañjuśrī first says that Vimalakīrti is difficult to answer. What he lists is not merely eloquence: Vimalakīrti has profoundly comprehended the true mark, skillfully teaches the essentials of the Dharma, knows all the rules of bodhisattva practice, can enter the secret treasuries of the buddhas, can subdue the many Māras, and has mastered wisdom and skillful means. These words show the gravity of the encounter, yet they do not become an excuse. Mañjuśrī still says that he will accept the Buddha's sacred command and go.

When the assembly hears that the two great beings will speak together, eight thousand bodhisattvas, five hundred śrāvakas, and a hundred thousand heavenly beings all wish to accompany them. Thus an individual charge to inquire about illness becomes a Dharma assembly in which the multitude travels together. The sūtra does not have Mañjuśrī enter the city alone. With bodhisattvas, disciples, and heavenly beings surrounding him in reverence, he enters Vaiśālī.

This makes the empty room that follows all the more conspicuous. Many have come, yet the room contains no seats arranged for the multitude; there is only one bed and one sick layman. The sūtra brings the assembly's expectations to the doorway, then removes every visible furnishing and lets the dialogue begin with “welcome.”

The Empty Room Is Not Without Questions; It Is Where Every Question Begins

Vimalakīrti knows that Mañjuśrī and the assembly are coming, so through spiritual power he empties the room, removes every object and attendant, and leaves only the one bed upon which he lies ill. Mañjuśrī sees the room empty with his own eyes, yet Vimalakīrti begins by speaking neither of the room nor of the illness. He says, 「不來相而來，不見相而見。」 — “You come with no mark of coming and see with no mark of seeing.”

Mañjuśrī follows this statement in his reply: one who has already come does not come again; one who has already gone does not go again. Coming has no identifiable place from which it comes, going has no identifiable place to which it goes, and what is seen cannot again be fixed as some visible object. The two do not deny that Mañjuśrī has entered the room and that they have met. Within the fact of having come and having seen, they refrain from grasping the one who comes, the one who goes, and what is seen as marks that can be obtained again.

Mañjuśrī then sets this exchange aside for the moment and returns to the illness about which the Buddha charged him to ask. He asks whether the illness is bearable, whether treatment has brought relief, and whether it has worsened. He also conveys the Buddha's immeasurable and earnest greetings, then asks about the illness's cause, its duration, and its removal. Not one of these questions is omitted. He asks both about what the body presently undergoes and about where the illness arose and when it can end.

The empty room therefore does not erase concrete bodily suffering. Vimalakīrti lies sick upon one bed, and Mañjuśrī truthfully asks about his condition and treatment. Signless coming and going and bodily illness open to inquiry appear together in the same conversation. Every later formulation in this chapter of “contemplating without abandoning” has already begun within this meeting.

The Illness of Sentient Beings Arises from Delusion and Craving, While the Bodhisattva's Illness Arises from Great Compassion

Vimalakīrti first says that his illness arises from delusion and craving for existence, then immediately turns to all sentient beings: because sentient beings are ill, he is ill; if the illnesses of sentient beings end, his illness also ends. This does not attribute the bodhisattva's illness to his own delusion and craving. The sūtra goes on to say that a bodhisattva enters saṃsāra for the sake of sentient beings, and where there is saṃsāra there is illness; if sentient beings can leave illness behind, the bodhisattva will no longer be ill.

The simile of the only child brings this relation close. An elder has only one child. When the child falls ill, the parents fall ill; when the child recovers, the parents recover. A bodhisattva cherishes all sentient beings as his child, so when sentient beings are ill, he is ill, and when they recover, he recovers. The sūtra does not describe someone observing the suffering of sentient beings from afar and then feeling compassion from the sidelines. Through parents suffering with their child, it shows that the bodhisattva does not leave the illness of sentient beings outside himself.

Only then does Vimalakīrti return to the initial question: the bodhisattva's illness arises through great compassion. The root of sentient beings' illness is delusion and craving for existence; the root of the bodhisattva's illness in company with sentient beings is great compassion. The sūtra connects the two illnesses without merging their sources into one matter.

This sentence also determines the scale on which the illness ends. The bodhisattva does not wait merely for his own body to recover and then declare the illness finished. Vimalakīrti clearly says that his illness ends only when the illnesses of all sentient beings end. Great compassion causes him to be ill with sentient beings, and it also keeps the end of his illness inseparable from their recovery.

Why Should Emptiness Be Sought within the Sixty-Two Views?

Only after asking about the cause of illness does Mañjuśrī ask why the room is empty and has no attendants. Vimalakīrti does not begin by explaining where the furniture went. He says that all buddha-lands are likewise entirely empty. The questions therefore move from the room before their eyes to buddha-lands, then from the emptiness of buddha-lands to what makes them empty, why emptiness is used, whether emptiness can be discriminated, and where emptiness is finally to be sought.

The answers remove one place of grasping after another. The sūtra asks where emptiness is to be sought and answers that it is to be sought within the sixty-two views; it asks where the views are to be sought and answers that they are to be sought within the liberation of the buddhas. It also says that emptiness is empty because it is without discrimination, asks whether emptiness can be discriminated, and answers that discrimination itself is empty. The sūtra proceeds only through question and answer and establishes no additional reason.

Vimalakīrti does not then tell people to leave wrong views and seek emptiness somewhere pure and separate. He says that emptiness should be sought in the sixty-two views, that the sixty-two views should be sought in the liberation of the buddhas, and that the liberation of the buddhas should be sought in all the activities of sentient beings' minds. From wrong views to liberation and from liberation to the activities of sentient beings' minds, the sūtra establishes no emptiness in some other place unrelated to their present mental activity.

The answer concerning the attendants corresponds to this. The many Māras delight in saṃsāra, yet the bodhisattva does not abandon saṃsāra. Followers of other paths delight in the various views, yet the bodhisattva remains unmoved among those views. Māras and followers of other paths are therefore called attendants. The bodhisattva neither abandons saṃsāra because it is saṃsāra nor is moved by views because they are views. The place he neither abandons nor is shaken within is precisely the place where sentient beings are.

The Illness Has No Form, Yet It Is Not Apart from the Four Elements of Sentient Beings

Mañjuśrī next asks what form the illness has, and Vimalakīrti answers that it has no form and cannot be seen. Asked whether the illness is conjoined with body or mind, he says that it is not conjoined with the body because the mark of body is separate, and not conjoined with the mind because the mind is like an illusion.

Yet having no visible form does not mean that illness is wholly unrelated to the body. Mañjuśrī presses further: among the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, which one is ill? Vimalakīrti gives the same level of answer for each: the illness is not the earth element, yet neither is it apart from the earth element; the same applies to water, fire, and wind.

Here “not identical with” does not become “entirely separate from.” The illnesses of sentient beings arise from the four elements, and Vimalakīrti is ill because sentient beings are ill. Illness cannot be fixed as an entity within any one of the four elements, nor has it been moved somewhere outside the four elements and sentient beings. Within one exchange, the sūtra records both that illness has no fixed mark and that sentient beings presently undergo illness.

When Comforting the Sick, Why Must One Not Tell Them to Detest This Body?

Mañjuśrī asks how a bodhisattva should comfort a sick bodhisattva. Vimalakīrti's answer is not the single sentence “everything is empty,” but nine counsels that proceed in pairs.

First explain that the body is impermanent, but do not speak of detesting and leaving the body. Explain that the body is suffering, but do not speak of taking nirvāṇa as delight. Explain that the body is without self, while still speaking of teaching sentient beings. Explain that the body is empty and quiescent, without speaking of ultimate quiescent cessation. Impermanence, suffering, absence of self, and empty quiescence must all be taught truthfully, yet in teaching each one, the sick person is not allowed to abandon the body, abandon sentient beings, or stop in cessation.

Next, speak of repenting of former wrongdoings but not of entering into the past; through one's own illness, have compassion for others who are ill; know the suffering undergone over countless eons in the past and think at every moment of benefiting all sentient beings. The sick person not only looks back to see where his own suffering came from; he also makes his illness the point from which compassion for the illnesses of others and benefit for sentient beings begin.

Finally, recollect the merit cultivated, attend to a pure way of life, give rise to neither sorrow nor distress, and constantly arouse diligent effort; then make oneself a king of physicians who cures the many illnesses. The counsel does not end by having the sick person merely seek care. It causes him to rejoice and renew both diligent effort and the resolve to cure the many illnesses.

These nine counsels block two deviations at once. On one side, they do not conceal impermanence, suffering, absence of self, or empty quiescence. On the other, they do not turn these contemplations into rejection of the body, delight in cessation, abandonment of teaching, or abandonment of sentient beings. Comforting the sick is therefore already practice in bodhisattva conduct: contemplate the body as it truly is while not abandoning what should be done.

The First Step in Disciplining the Mind: No Fixed Recipient of Illness Can Be Found

To discipline his mind, a sick bodhisattva must first trace where the illness came from. The sūtra says that the illness arises from false discrimination, inversion, and the various afflictions of past lives. Since no real dharma exists that can be obtained, who is the recipient of the illness? The four elements come together and are provisionally called the body; there is no ruler among them, and the body has no self. The illness further arises from attachment to self, so one should no longer be attached to self.

This step does not deny that suffering is felt. Earlier, the illness was earnestly inquired about; later, the sūtra says that if the body suffers, one should recollect sentient beings in the evil destinies. What is removed here is the establishment of a ruler within the body provisionally composed of the four elements and then the fastening of illness securely upon it. Once the root of illness is known, the conceptions of self and sentient being are removed.

After the conception of self is removed, the sūtra has the sick bodhisattva give rise to a conception of dharmas: this body is only a composite of many dharmas; when it arises, only dharmas arise, and when it ceases, only dharmas cease. The dharmas do not know one another. When they arise, they do not say, “I arise,” and when they cease, they do not say, “I cease.” From a fixed self, the contemplation turns to seeing the arising and ceasing of dharmas as they truly are.

But the conception of dharmas is not the final place of abiding. The sūtra immediately says that the conception of dharmas is itself inverted and a grave affliction, and must still be left behind. If “there are only dharmas” becomes a new attachment, the conception of self has merely been exchanged for the conception of dharmas, and the illness has not been ultimately removed.

From Leaving Self and What Belongs to Self to 「空病亦空。」 — “The Illness of Emptiness Is Also Empty”

How does one leave the conception of dharmas? The sūtra begins from leaving self and what belongs to self. To leave self and what belongs to self is to leave the two relative dharmas; to leave those two is not to think in terms of inner and outer and to let all dharmas proceed in equality. Equality is then explained through self and nirvāṇa: both are empty, are established only through names, and have no fixed and unchanging own-nature.

This course does not first affirm a real self and then pull it into equality with a real nirvāṇa. The sūtra has already removed the conception of self and then says that both are empty only by virtue of names. Within equality, no self remains to be tightly held, and no nirvāṇa remains that can be appropriated as one's possession.

Even after reaching this point, attachment to emptiness may remain. The sūtra therefore says that there is no other illness and only the illness of emptiness remains; it immediately adds 「空病亦空。」 — “The illness of emptiness is also empty.” The sūtra places only these two sentences together and gives no further reason.

The sick bodhisattva therefore 「以無所受而受諸受」 — “undergoes the various feelings while there is nothing received.” Not grasping what is received does not prevent him from still undergoing the various feelings. Before the Buddha-Dharma is fulfilled, he does not extinguish feeling in order to seek realization. Disciplining the mind during illness neither cuts feeling off nor uses emptiness to end prematurely the Buddha-Dharma that remains to be completed.

Removing Only the Illness and Not the Dharmas: How Does One Move from One's Own Suffering toward Sentient Beings?

If the body suffers, the sick bodhisattva should recollect sentient beings in the evil destinies and give rise to great compassion. Since he seeks to discipline himself, he should also discipline all sentient beings. Here the sūtra draws a clear boundary: 「但除其病，而不除法」 — “Remove only the illness, and do not remove the dharmas.” What must be cut off is the root of illness, not all dharmas together.

What is the root of illness? Engagement with objects. What are its objects? The three realms. How is engagement cut off? Through non-attainment. What is non-attainment? Leaving the inner and outer views. This chain of questions traces the root of illness to the two views of inner and outer. As long as inner and outer are still held in thought, engagement retains a place to land. Only after leaving the two views is there non-attainment; only through non-attainment is engagement cut off.

This is how the sick bodhisattva disciplines his mind, and it is the bodhisattva's awakening that cuts off the suffering of aging, illness, and death. Without this discipline, his self-cultivation has neither wisdom nor benefit. The sūtra uses the simile that only one who defeats an enemy is called a warrior: only one who can remove aging, illness, and death not merely for himself but for sentient beings as well is a bodhisattva.

Thus recollecting the suffering of others from one's own suffering is not an additional wholesome deed appended after the contemplation of emptiness. Earlier, the sūtra spoke of undergoing the various feelings while there is nothing received; here bodily suffering leads to recollecting the evil destinies. Earlier, it said that the illness of emptiness is also empty; here it removes only illness and not dharmas. Disciplining the mind and liberating sentient beings are not divided into two roads, first completing oneself and only later attending to others.

Since Great Compassion Is the Root of Illness, Why Must Great Compassion Entangled with Affectionate Views Still Be Abandoned?

Vimalakīrti first says that the bodhisattva's illness arises from great compassion, then later says that if great compassion entangled with affectionate views arises, it should be abandoned. The first statement describes the bodhisattva falling ill with sentient beings; the second explicitly says that great compassion entangled with affectionate views makes the bodhisattva weary of saṃsāra.

The sick bodhisattva first contemplates that his own illness is neither real nor existent, and likewise contemplates that the illnesses of sentient beings are neither real nor existent. If great compassion entangled with affectionate views arises while he makes this contemplation, the sūtra says only that it should be abandoned. What should be cut off are the afflictions of adventitious dust; what should still be aroused is great compassion. The sūtra does not abandon great compassion when abandoning affectionate views, just as earlier it removed only illness and did not remove dharmas.

Leaving affectionate views behind, the bodhisattva is not weary within saṃsāra. Wherever he is born, he is not covered by affectionate views. Only when his own birth is not bound does he have the capacity to teach the Dharma to sentient beings and release their bonds. The rule spoken by the Buddha is perfectly clear: for one who is bound to release the bonds of others is impossible; for one who is unbound to release the bonds of others is possible.

Compassion entangled with affectionate views makes the bodhisattva weary of saṃsāra. If he can leave it behind, there is no weariness, and wherever he is born, he is not covered by affectionate views. Only when his own birth is unbound can he teach the Dharma to sentient beings and release their bonds.

Why Does Wisdom without Skillful Means Also Become Bondage?

The sūtra first uses meditation as an example: craving the flavor of meditation is a bodhisattva's bondage; taking birth through skillful means is a bodhisattva's liberation. The problem is not meditation itself but craving its flavor and therefore stopping within it. Skillful means lets the bodhisattva take birth without being bound by that birth.

Two pairs of bondage and liberation follow. The first pair is wisdom and skillful means: wisdom without skillful means is bondage; wisdom with skillful means is liberation. Adorning buddha-lands and bringing sentient beings to maturity with a mind of craving and attachment to views, while merely disciplining oneself within emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, is the bondage of wisdom without skillful means. Not using a mind of craving and attachment to views to adorn buddha-lands and bring sentient beings to maturity, and disciplining oneself within emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness without becoming weary, is the liberation of wisdom with skillful means.

The second pair is skillful means and wisdom: skillful means without wisdom is bondage; skillful means with wisdom is liberation. Planting the various roots of virtue while still abiding in such afflictions as desire, anger, and wrong views is the bondage of skillful means without wisdom. Leaving those afflictions behind, planting the various roots of virtue, and dedicating them to unsurpassed perfect awakening is the liberation of skillful means with wisdom.

The four formulations preserve both sides. Contemplating emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness cannot carry affectionate views and cannot make one weary of bringing sentient beings to maturity. Planting the various roots of virtue cannot abide in desire, anger, and wrong views or lack dedication to unsurpassed awakening. Wisdom cannot lose skillful means, and skillful means cannot be separated from wisdom.

The sūtra then uses the sick body to state wisdom and skillful means twice more. Contemplating the body as impermanent, suffering, empty, and without self is wisdom; while ill, remaining in saṃsāra to benefit all without weariness is skillful means. Contemplating that body is not apart from illness, illness is not apart from body, and body and illness are neither new nor old is wisdom; while ill, not seeking eternal cessation is skillful means. Wisdom contemplates body and illness as they truly are, while skillful means prevents that contemplation from taking eternal cessation as its endpoint.

After the Mind Has Been Disciplined, Why Can One Still Not Abide in Discipline?

A sick bodhisattva should discipline his mind as described above, yet he cannot abide either in discipline or in non-discipline. Abiding in non-discipline is the practice of fools; abiding in discipline is the practice of śrāvakas. The bodhisattva abides on neither side. Only by leaving these two dharmas does he enter bodhisattva conduct.

The thirty-two statements of bodhisattva conduct all unfold from this non-abiding. The first leaves discipline and non-discipline; the second brings saṃsāra and nirvāṇa into one statement: remaining in saṃsāra without being defiled and abiding in nirvāṇa without entering eternal cessation. Later statements speak of being neither an ordinary person nor a sage, neither defiled nor pure; transcending the conduct of Māra while still manifesting the subjugation of Māra; seeking omniscience without seeking it at an untimely moment; contemplating that dharmas do not arise without entering a fixed right position; and contemplating the twelve links of dependent origination while still entering among the various wrong views.

The sequence continues: gathering in sentient beings without attachment, delighting in seclusion without relying on the extinction of body and mind, and practicing within the three realms without destroying the Dharma-nature. One practices emptiness while still planting the roots of virtue, signlessness while still liberating sentient beings, wishlessness while still manifesting reception of a body, and non-activation while still arousing all wholesome practices. Each statement preserves the dharma contemplated and the action undertaken for sentient beings.

The six perfections, six higher knowledges, four immeasurables, and meditations, liberations, and samādhis are likewise not omitted. The bodhisattva practices the six perfections while fully knowing sentient beings' minds and mental factors; practices the six higher knowledges without stopping at the exhaustion of the outflows; practices the four immeasurables without craving birth in the Brahmā world; and practices meditation, liberations, and samādhis without taking birth in accordance with meditation. Each cultivation is listed, and the sūtra also states for each where the bodhisattva does not abide.

The four establishments of mindfulness, four right efforts, four bases of spiritual power, five faculties, five powers, seven factors of awakening, and Noble Eightfold Path are listed in sequence. The bodhisattva practices the four establishments of mindfulness without forever leaving body, feeling, mind, and dharmas; practices the four right efforts without abandoning bodily and mental diligent effort; practices the four bases of spiritual power and attains mastery in spiritual powers; practices the five faculties and knows whether sentient beings' capacities are sharp or dull; practices the five powers and delights in seeking the ten powers of a buddha; practices the seven factors of awakening and discerns a buddha's wisdom; and practices the Noble Eightfold Path while delighting in the immeasurable Buddha-Way. None of these groups of factors supporting the path is abandoned, and none becomes an endpoint separated from sentient beings.

The final statements include calm and insight, non-arising and non-ceasing, the dignified conduct of the two vehicles, the mark of purity, buddha-lands, and the work of a buddha. One practices calm and insight as supports for the path without ultimately falling into quiescent cessation; practices the non-arising and non-ceasing of dharmas while adorning the body with the marks and excellent characteristics; manifests the dignified conduct of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas without abandoning the Buddha-Dharma; accords with the ultimate pure mark of dharmas while manifesting bodies according to beings' needs; contemplates buddha-lands as eternally quiescent like space while manifesting various pure buddha-lands; and even attains the Buddha's Way, turns the Dharma wheel, and enters nirvāṇa without abandoning the bodhisattva path.

These thirty-two statements do not blend every pair of relative expressions into one mass. In every practice they make a single point clear: the bodhisattva practices this dharma without abiding on one side, contemplates its empty quiescence without abandoning benefit, and does not abandon what is practiced even after attaining something. The chapter begins from a single sickbed and here unfolds the non-abandonment of sentient beings into a complete path of practice.

The Arousal of Awakening by Eight Thousand Sons of the Gods Does Not Mean That the Illness Has Been Completely Explained

As Vimalakīrti speaks these words, eight thousand sons of the gods in Mañjuśrī's assembly arouse the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening. The sūtra uses “while these words were being spoken” to record the benefit of the Dharma occurring at that time. It does not turn the event into a separate inference or say that the illness in the empty room has been cured.

The chapter stops at the arousal of awakening, not at recovery from illness. The measure for the illness's end stated at the beginning still stands: only when the illnesses of all sentient beings end does the bodhisattva's illness end. At this moment, the eight thousand sons of the gods arouse the mind of awakening, and the inquiry about illness concludes with this benefit of the Dharma.

The room remains empty, and the one bed remains in place. Yet the inquiry about illness has unfolded into discipline of mind, and discipline of mind has unfolded into the thirty-two statements of bodhisattva conduct. If illness has no form, it cannot be grasped; if illness arises from great compassion, it cannot be brought to an end solely for oneself. Bodhisattva conduct lies in not losing either of these two sides.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

On one side, this chapter directly says that because sentient beings are ill, the bodhisattva is ill; on the other, it removes in sequence the conception of self, the conception of dharmas, and the illness of emptiness. On one side, it says that illness arises from great compassion; on the other, it requires great compassion entangled with affectionate views to be abandoned. At these interwoven points, the Kumārajīva line and the Ci'en line each develop an interpretation according to the Chinese recension they transmit. What follows records only how the two paths illuminate the same Dharma assembly of inquiry about illness. Neither mirror is used to judge the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Entering through Compassionate Illness into the Threefold Dispelling of Illness

Kumārajīva first sees the empty room as an empty mark that arouses the chapter's cardinal purport, and also says that it responds to Mañjuśrī's delight in emptiness and quiescence. Daosheng sees in the empty room a mind that can receive what is empty and says that removing everything secretly marks the cardinal purport. Sengzhao treats the removal of the attendants and the placing of the bed separately, reading them as the starting points for the later dialogue and the manifested illness. None of the three reads the empty room merely as “there is nothing.” Each explains why the empty room can give rise to what follows.

Regarding the illnesses of sentient beings and of the bodhisattva, Sengzhao distinguishes two roots, delusion and craving on one side and great compassion on the other: the illness of the multitude is rooted in delusion and craving, while the bodhisattva's illness has great compassion as its source. Daosheng says that the purpose of manifesting illness is to draw sentient beings out of beginningless delusion and craving, and explains the bodhisattva's recovery through the ending of sentient beings' illnesses. Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng do not attribute the bodhisattva's manifested illness to his own delusion and craving or detach great compassion from the illness of sentient beings.

On the seven questions of the empty room, Kumārajīva distinguishes the wisdom of emptiness from the emptiness of dharmas, Sengzhao elucidates wisdom and dharmas through one another, and Daosheng says that the mark of emptiness is itself empty. The three use different language for “empty by emptiness,” “emptiness without discrimination,” and “discrimination is also empty.” When they reach the sixty-two views and liberation, they all follow the sequence of the sūtra in saying that wrong and right, views and liberation, should not be grasped as two fixed own-natures.

In disciplining the mind, Kumārajīva describes the process as first using dharmas to dispel self and then using emptiness to dispel dharmas. Sengzhao says that although the conception of dharmas serves as medicine in counteracting the conception of self, abiding in it remains an illness. Daosheng likewise explicitly says that arousing a conception of dharmas does not teach people to become attached to dharmas. When the illness of emptiness is also empty, Kumārajīva says that if emptiness has not been dispelled, emptiness becomes a burden; Sengzhao speaks of removing self through dharmas, removing dharmas through emptiness, and then emptying emptiness; Daosheng locates the illness in attachment to emptiness, not in the principle of emptiness. Each statement bears a different attribution, and no one interpretation can be given the general heading “Sengzhao.”

Regarding undergoing the various feelings while there is nothing received, Kumārajīva uses the three feelings of suffering, pleasure, and neither suffering nor pleasure to explain understanding that feelings are not received while taking birth for sentient beings. Daosheng says that one contemplates all feelings as absent while still retaining the intent to enter feeling for the sake of transformation. Sengzhao says that by being stained neither by existence nor by emptiness, one can undergo the various feelings together with the multitude. Concerning great compassion entangled with affectionate views, Kumārajīva focuses on attachment arising from seeing sentient beings as existent, Daosheng on affectionate thoughts and perceived sentient beings remaining within contemplation, and Sengzhao on the fact that although this compassion is wholesome, when mixed with affectionate views it does not escape entanglement. All three paths keep abandoning affectionate views separate from abandoning great compassion.

The Ci'en Mirror: Clarifying Wondrous Wisdom and Skillful Means through Disciplining the Two Minds

Following Xuanzang's recension, Kuiji first divides the entire passage into disciplining the mind of ordinary people, disciplining the mind of the two vehicles, and jointly disciplining both minds. In the first part, he has non-discriminating wisdom and great compassion support one another: contemplating emptiness leaves attachment behind, while arousing compassion prevents abiding in emptiness. He also uses attachment to self, attachment to dharmas, and the two obstructions to explain why the conception of dharmas must still be removed after the conception of self is removed. This is an analysis made in the terminology of Stainless Renown and Wondrous Auspiciousness; it is not written back as a scriptural statement by Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī.

Regarding the arising and ceasing of dharmas and their not knowing one another, Kuiji first contemplates the body in general as composed through the combination of dharmas and arising and ceasing from moment to moment, then separately contemplates the continuity of dharmas and each one's lack of knowledge. At the grave affliction of the conception of dharmas, he distinguishes breaking attachment to self from breaking attachment to dharmas. Regarding the equality of self and nirvāṇa, he further presents both the emptiness-principle interpretation and the accord-with-principle interpretation: one path explains equality through everything being empty in ultimate truth; the other explains it through the lack of own-nature in the imagined self and imagined nirvāṇa. The commentary places both readings side by side, and this presentation does not choose between them.

At the illness of emptiness being empty, Kuiji likewise preserves two paths. The emptiness-principle interpretation says that attachment to existence is an illness, attachment to emptiness is also an illness, and in ultimate truth the illness of emptiness is ultimately empty. The accord-with-principle interpretation says that the imagined object of emptiness is not real and the mind that grasps emptiness is likewise not real. He separates receiver from received in “undergoing the various feelings while there is nothing received,” saying that one leaves the falsely received yet still undergoes the various feelings, thereby leaving both the illness of existence and the illness of emptiness.

Entering the discussion of great compassion and bondage and liberation, Kuiji connects not giving rise to compassion through affectionate views with not becoming weary of saṃsāra, then distinguishes craving the flavor of meditative concentration as bondage from gathering in birth within existence through skillful means without attachment as liberation. His wondrous wisdom and skillful means are not two separate roads. Wondrous wisdom without skillful means cannot bring sentient beings to maturity or adorn buddha-lands; action that abides in afflictions is likewise not skillful means endowed with wisdom. Contemplating the impermanence of body and illness and the other marks belongs to wondrous wisdom; while ill, enduring the work of transforming sentient beings belongs to skillful means. Only their mutual support reveals bodhisattva conduct.

At the chapter's end, Kuiji counts thirty-seven statements in Xuanzang's recension and divides them into conduct differing from that of ordinary people and the two vehicles, and conduct that attains what is superior without abandoning what is lesser. Kumārajīva's recension, by contrast, unfolds through thirty-two occurrences of “this is the conduct of the bodhisattva.” The difference in number comes from the Chinese recensions on which they rely, and neither is increased or reduced to match the other. The Kumārajīva line emphasizes successively dispelling self, dharmas, and emptiness without losing great compassion; the Ci'en line emphasizes disciplining the two minds and practicing without abiding through the mutual support of wondrous wisdom and skillful means. Both mirrors extend the inquiry about illness into the bodhisattva's conduct of not abandoning sentient beings, and each preserves its own vocabulary and divisions, which cannot be mixed across recensions.

Śāriputra merely notices that there are no beds or seats in the room and wonders where the bodhisattvas and great disciples will sit. The thought is entirely ordinary, yet Vimalakīrti immediately presses the question to its root: when someone comes to a Dharma assembly, has he come for the Dharma, or to settle his body comfortably? Śāriputra answers, 「我為法來，非為床座。」—“I have come for the Dharma, not for beds and seats.” The entire chapter unfolds from this one sentence.

What is remarkable is that the scripture does not end with “nothing to seek.” After saying that one who seeks the Dharma does not seek beds and seats, Vimalakīrti instead asks Mañjuśrī about the finest lion thrones; thirty-two thousand lofty thrones immediately enter the small room. From a thought about one seat, to Mount Sumeru entering a mustard seed and the four seas entering a pore, and finally to the manifestations of Māra kings and great beggars, the chapter keeps asking: if the mind no longer fixes large and small, long and short, coming and going, gain and loss into immovable boundaries, what freedom can wisdom and skillful means reveal?

What Does “Seeking Nothing” Actually Not Seek?

Vimalakīrti begins with what is closest to the body: one who truly seeks the Dharma does not covet body and life, much less beds and seats. This is not merely a rebuke to Śāriputra for wanting to sit down. The long passage that follows unfolds, layer by layer, the entire range of what might be sought.

The first layer consists of the classifications that constitute body, mind, and world. Form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness cannot be what is sought; the elements and entrances cannot be what is sought; the desire, form, and formless realms cannot be what is sought either. If seeking the Dharma still means wanting to acquire something from among these dharmas, “Dharma” has been placed opposite the mind and made into a possession.

The second layer is the Buddha, Dharma, community, and the modes of the Four Truths. The scripture does not merely say not to cling to worldly things. It also says not to seek while clinging to the Buddha, not to seek while clinging to the Dharma, and not to seek while clinging to the community. Even the thought “I will see suffering, cut off its origination, realize cessation, and cultivate the path,” if established as my attainment, becomes conceptual proliferation. This does not erase suffering, origination, cessation, and the path; rather, the scripture directly identifies the formulation “what I must do” as conceptual proliferation. Seeking the Dharma cannot proceed by having a seeker constantly add further attainable things to himself.

The third layer is subtler still. The Dharma is called quiescence; if one pursues arising and ceasing within it, what one seeks remains arising and ceasing. The Dharma is called unstained; if even nirvāṇa becomes an object of attachment, this still is not seeking the Dharma. The Dharma has no place of practice, grasping or discarding, or location. If one establishes a place in which to proceed, a dharma to grasp or discard, or a ground upon which to dwell, the mind has once again created a position upon the Dharma. The Dharma is called signless; to recognize by following signs becomes the seeking of signs. The Dharma cannot be abided in; to abide in Dharma once again becomes an abiding in Dharma.

Finally, the scripture also relinquishes seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing. The Dharma cannot be treated as an object that can be seen, heard, sensed, or known. If one pursues it only within these four activities, what one obtains remains seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing. The Dharma is called the unconditioned; if one tries to acquire it through conditioned fabrication, what one seeks remains conditioned. The whole passage therefore concludes, 「若求法者，於一切法，應無所求。」—“If one seeks the Dharma, one should seek nothing in any dharma.”

This conclusion does not select, from among many objects, another object that deserves to be sought. It illuminates every possible place of abiding at once. The scripture immediately records that, when these words were spoken, five hundred sons of the gods attained purity of the Dharma eye among all dharmas. It merely records the benefit alongside “when these words were spoken”; it does not construct a separate causal explanation.

Why Ask for the Best Seats Just after Saying Not to Seek Beds and Seats?

The scripture next makes a forceful turn. Vimalakīrti does not remove beds and seats from the Dharma assembly. Instead, he asks Mañjuśrī: which buddha-land has lion thrones that are supremely wondrous and perfect in merit? Mañjuśrī says that eastward, beyond lands as numerous as the sands of thirty-six Ganges Rivers, lies the world Sumeru-Sign, where Buddha Sumeru-Lamp-King is presently dwelling. The buddha's body is eighty-four thousand yojanas tall, and his lion throne is likewise eighty-four thousand yojanas high.

When the thirty-two thousand thrones enter the room, the scripture says not only that they are lofty, broad, adorned, and pure, but also that the bodhisattvas, great disciples, Śakra, Brahmā, and the Four Heavenly Kings have never seen their like. More importantly, it says, 「其室廣博，悉皆包容三萬二千師子座，無所妨礙。」—“His room was broad and expansive, containing all thirty-two thousand lion thrones without obstruction.” The room contains every lofty throne, while the city of Vaiśālī, Jambudvīpa, and the four-continent world are not constricted and remain visible just as before.

This passage does not accommodate the great thrones by destroying the small room, nor does it cut the lofty thrones down to fit the room. The scripture allows the “small room” and the “lofty, broad thrones” to exist at the same time, then explains through “without obstruction” and “all seen as before” that neither side has been damaged. The compatibility of large and small first becomes an event before the assembly's eyes; only then does Vimalakīrti begin explaining inconceivable liberation.

The scripture also relates, step by step, who can mount the lofty thrones. Bodhisattvas who have attained spiritual mastery make their bodily forms correspond to the thrones and can then sit. Newly inspired bodhisattvas and the great disciples cannot mount them. Even after being invited, Śāriputra says that he cannot ascend. Vimalakīrti tells him to pay homage to the Tathāgata Sumeru-Lamp-King, and only after paying homage can the newly inspired bodhisattvas and great disciples sit. Here the thrones arrive first; bodily dimensions are then made to correspond, and homage to the buddha precedes sitting. Every step remains within the narrative, and there is no need to import from another recension the statement that novice bodhisattvas acquire spiritual mastery.

Within the Inconceivable, What Still Remains “Just as Before”?

Śāriputra marvels at the unprecedented sight of a small room containing the thrones, and Vimalakīrti then says that the buddhas and bodhisattvas have a liberation called inconceivable. The scripture thereafter enumerates each display: Sumeru enters a mustard seed with neither increase nor decrease, and Sumeru, king of mountains, remains in its original form just as before; the four great seas enter a pore without disturbing aquatic creatures, and the seas remain in their original forms just as before; a world is cast beyond Ganges-sands like a potter's wheel, and its sentient beings do not perceive or know it. The accompanying language differs according to each event.

Sumeru, king of mountains, is placed in a single mustard seed. The mustard seed does not increase, Sumeru does not decrease, and 「須彌山王本相如故」—“Sumeru, king of mountains, remains in its original form just as before.” The Four Heavenly Kings and the gods of Trāyastriṃśa do not know that they have entered it; only those who should be liberated see it. This is not one strange spectacle that everyone is compelled to see alike. The scripture explicitly retains the words “only those who should be liberated see it.”

The waters of the four great seas are placed in one pore. Fish, soft-shelled turtles, giant turtles, alligators, and other aquatic creatures are not disturbed; the seas remain in their original forms; dragons, ghosts, spirits, and asuras do not know that they have entered a pore; and other sentient beings are not disturbed. After the great has entered the small, the great has not lost its original form, the small is not described as expanding, and the lives within have not become the price of the display.

A three-thousand-great-thousand world is cut out, set in the right palm like a potter's wheel, cast beyond worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and then returned to its original place. The scripture specifically says that the sentient beings within do not know where they have gone and do not form a thought of going or returning; the world remains in its original form just as before. Freedom here lies not only in moving a world, but also in the world's being moved without sentient beings developing a sense of movement.

Time, too, can be extended or contracted, but not as an arbitrary display. Some sentient beings delight in dwelling in the world for a long time and can be liberated only in that way; the bodhisattva therefore extends seven days into a kalpa and causes them to think that a kalpa has passed. Others do not delight in dwelling long and can be liberated only in that way; the bodhisattva therefore contracts a kalpa into seven days and causes them to think that seven days have passed. Long and short both appear in response to those who can be liberated; the scripture does not separate the alteration of time from the beings to be liberated.

The displays that follow become ever more extensive: the adornments of all buddha-lands are gathered in one land for sentient beings to see; the sentient beings of one buddha-land are placed upon the right palm and flown throughout the ten directions so that everything is shown to them, yet their original place does not move; the implements with which sentient beings throughout the ten directions make offerings to the buddhas can all be seen in a single pore; and the suns, moons, and constellations of the ten directions are likewise manifested throughout a single pore.

All the winds of the ten directions are drawn into the mouth, yet the bodhisattva's body is unharmed and the trees outside are not broken. The fires that consume the worlds of the ten directions at the end of a kalpa are taken into the belly: 「火事如故而不為害。」—“The fires continue just as before and do no harm.” The fires are not said to be extinguished, and the bodhisattva is not harmed. The bodhisattva also descends past buddha-worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, takes up one buddha-land, and raises it beyond countless worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, as if lifting a jujube leaf with the tip of a needle, yet without disturbance.

The displays do not alter scale alone. A bodhisattva can manifest the body of a buddha, a pratyekabuddha, a śrāvaka, Śakra, a Brahmā king, a lord of the world, or a wheel-turning king; none of the seven bodily forms is omitted. Every superior, middling, or inferior sound in the worlds of the ten directions can in turn be transformed into a buddha's voice, expounding impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, together with the various dharmas taught by the buddhas of the ten directions, so that sentient beings everywhere can hear them.

At this point Vimalakīrti deliberately draws the account to a close: this is only a brief account; were the power of inconceivable liberation explained extensively, a whole kalpa would be exhausted without reaching the end. The scripture does not let the reader treat the fourteen enumerated displays as a complete boundary. By calling the account “brief,” it reminds us that every stated display is only something glimpsed within the gate.

Why Does Mahākāśyapa Use the Simile of a Blind Person Seeing Forms?

After hearing the account, Mahākāśyapa first marvels that it is unprecedented, and then says, 「譬如有人，於盲者前現眾色像，非彼所見；」—“Suppose someone displays many colors and forms before a blind person; they are not seen by him.” Although colors and forms are present, the blind person cannot see them. Śrāvakas who hear inconceivable liberation but cannot understand it are the same. The simile does not say that the Dharma-gate has failed to appear; it says that a distance remains between what is displayed and what is seen.

Mahākāśyapa then asks: what wise person, on hearing this, would fail to arouse the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening? He further says that the śrāvakas are like spoiled seeds within the Great Vehicle and should weep aloud, whereas the bodhisattvas should rejoice and reverently receive the teaching upon their heads. The scripture places all these words within Mahākāśyapa's own lament; it does not extract “spoiled seeds” from a speaker's words and turn it into a separate doctrinal judgment.

He finally says that no Māra host can do anything to a bodhisattva who accepts in faith and understands the Dharma-gate of inconceivable liberation. As Mahākāśyapa says these words, thirty-two thousand sons of the gods arouse the aspiration for unsurpassed perfect awakening. As with the earlier purity of the Dharma eye attained by five hundred sons of the gods, the scripture again records the benefit with language of simultaneity.

Why Are Māra Kings and Great Beggars Also Placed within the Gate of Inconceivability?

Following the statement that Māra cannot disturb them, Vimalakīrti continues: among the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions, many who manifest as kings Māra are bodhisattvas abiding in inconceivable liberation, who employ the power of skillful means to teach and transform sentient beings. The scripture does not stop at the external appearance “king Māra,” but places that appearance alongside the liberation in which they abide and the skillful means they employ.

The passage on great beggars is sharper still. The scripture does not vaguely say “they demand various things,” but lists each one: hands, feet, ears, and noses; heads, eyes, marrow, and brains; blood, flesh, skin, and bones; villages and towns; wives, sons, daughters, and servants; elephants, horses, and carriages; gold, silver, and beryl; giant clamshells and agate; coral and amber; pearls and conch shells; clothing, drink, and food. Body, family, land, treasure, and daily necessities all fall within what is demanded.

The scripture immediately says that many who come to demand these things are bodhisattvas abiding in inconceivable liberation, who go through the power of skillful means to test others and make their resolve firm. It further says that only those possessing the power of awe-inspiring virtue can manifest pressure and display difficult deeds; ordinary persons are inferior and lack strength, so they cannot act in this way. The restriction and the action occur in the same passage. One cannot take only the appearance of pressure and omit the boundary that it requires awe-inspiring virtue and cannot be done by ordinary persons.

The final simile is, 「譬如龍象蹴踏，非驢所堪。」—“It is like the trampling of a dragon-elephant, which a donkey cannot bear.” It distinguishes clearly between what can and cannot be done. The chapter's last sentence no longer names large and small, long and short, or individual displays, but directly calls this the gate of wisdom and skillful means of bodhisattvas who abide in inconceivable liberation.

From “Coming for the Dharma” to Wisdom and Skillful Means, What Path Does This Chapter Unfold?

At the beginning of the chapter, Śāriputra says that he has come for the Dharma; Vimalakīrti presses seeking the Dharma all the way to seeking nothing in any dharma. In the middle, thirty-two thousand lofty thrones enter a small room: Sumeru and the mustard seed, the four seas and a pore, a world and the palm, a long kalpa and seven days. The scripture attaches a distinct phrase to each event—neither increase nor decrease, original form just as before, no disturbance, or neither perception nor knowledge. At the end, the outer appearances of Māra kings and great beggars likewise cannot be read in isolation; the scripture requires that their abiding in liberation, their power of skillful means, and the restriction that ordinary persons cannot do this all be seen together.

Thus, seeking nothing is not the chapter's blank starting point; it means not fixing either side into an attainment. Lion thrones may be set out, bodies may sit, buddha-lands may be adorned, and many sounds may expound the Dharma. Yet beds and seats, size, time, bodily form, kings Māra, and demands cannot be fixed solely by their surface appearance. Through “just as before” and “without disturbance,” the scripture safeguards sentient beings; through wisdom and skillful means, it safeguards the purpose of the displays. From a thought of seeking a seat to wisdom and skillful means, this is the complete path left by the chapter itself.

At several points the scripture specifically connects transformation to the liberation of sentient beings. When Sumeru enters the mustard seed, not everyone sees it; only those who should be liberated can see it. Extending seven days into a kalpa and contracting a kalpa into seven days correspond respectively to sentient beings who delight in long dwelling and those who do not, each capable of liberation in that way. The adornments of buddha-lands are gathered into one land in order to be shown to sentient beings; the sentient beings of one buddha-land are placed on the palm in order to be shown throughout the ten directions; sounds become a buddha's voice in order that the various dharmas may be heard everywhere. Even with kings Māra and great beggars, the scripture still says that their skillful means teach and transform or make resolve firm. If one looks only at scale, speed, and power, one misses the “for whom is this manifested?” that immediately accompanies each passage.

At several other points, the scripture expressly connects the displays with non-harm: aquatic creatures are not disturbed, the sentient beings within the world form no thought of going or returning, trees are not broken, and sentient beings are without disturbance. Even when fire is taken into the belly, the fires remain just as before while the bodhisattva is unharmed. In each instance above, the scripture attaches its own phrase; the chapter's final sentence itself concludes with 「住不可思議解脫菩薩智慧方便之門」—“the gate of wisdom and skillful means of bodhisattvas abiding in inconceivable liberation.”

Two Mirrors Shining Together

Everything above has followed only the chapter itself in Kumārajīva's recension. When ancient masters read its seeking of Dharma, establishment of seats, displays, Mahākāśyapa, and great beggars, each saw different patterns through his own scriptural recension. The two mirrors below present the three Kumārajīva-line commentators and the Ci'en tradition separately. Each keeps to the recension it follows; they shine with equal authority, and one mirror does not adjudicate the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Not Grasping the Marks of Dharmas, Outer Traces and Inner Virtue, and the Two Gates of Provisionality and Wisdom

Kumārajīva's comment begins with the mind that seeks the Dharma: 「不取法相、理會於法，名為求法。若取相生著，心與法乖，非求法也。」—“Not grasping the marks of dharmas and inwardly meeting the Dharma is called seeking the Dharma. If one grasps marks and gives rise to attachment, the mind diverges from the Dharma; this is not seeking the Dharma.” Sengzhao says, 「真求乃不求法，況安身之具乎。」—“True seeking does not even seek the Dharma; how much less the implements that support the body.” At the conclusion he again says that if one truly wishes to seek, only seeking nothing is true seeking. Daosheng offers another concise conclusion: 「夫求法者，非謂求也，以無復諸求為求耳。」—“One who seeks the Dharma is not said to seek; taking the absence of all further seeking as seeking, that is all.” All three discuss non-seeking, but Kumārajīva focuses on grasping marks and generating attachment, Sengzhao on true seeking as not seeking, and Daosheng on there being no further seeking. Their three attributions cannot be merged into “Sengzhao says.”

On inconceivable liberation, Kumārajīva says, 「能然而莫知所以然，故曰不思議也。」—“It can be so, yet no one knows how it is so; therefore it is called inconceivable.” Regarding Sumeru entering a mustard seed, he also says, 「巨細相容物無定體，明不常也。」—“The immense and the minute contain one another; things have no fixed substance, which clarifies impermanence.” Sengzhao's extended explanation, by contrast, regards outward displays as showing the root through its branches and entrusting the subtle to coarse manifestations; it seeks the inner virtue of inconceivability. At the chapter's end he further says, 「智慧遠通、方便近導，異迹所以形、眾庶所以成，物不無由而莫之能測，故權智二門為不思議之本也。」—“Wisdom penetrates afar, while skillful means guide what is near. By them extraordinary traces take form and the multitude is brought to fulfillment. Events do not lack a cause, yet no one can fathom them; therefore the two gates of provisionality and wisdom are the root of inconceivability.” One reading illuminates the absence of a fixed substance through mutual containment; the other follows outward traces back to wisdom and skillful means. The two stand side by side without replacing one another.

In the passage on great beggars, Kumārajīva says that the perfection of giving is nearing completion but has not yet reached its utmost, so a great being forcefully comes to make demands, bringing the giver's mind without reluctance to complete firmness. Sengzhao, however, warns that those equipped with spiritual powers discern a person's capacities in advance and do not need to test in order to know, asking, 「豈待試而後知耶？」—“Would they wait to test before they know?” One account emphasizes making resolve and practice firm; the other emphasizes knowing without waiting for a test. Each remains intact.

The Ci'en Mirror: Ten Sections on Seeking the Dharma, Six Rounds, and Multiple Explanations

Following Xuanzang's recension, Kuiji first divides seeking the Dharma into a general explanation, a detailed explanation, and a conclusion, and then arranges the detailed explanation into ten sections. He says, 「所求，謂作證法。所不求者，雖可求知，不求證獲，故名不求。」—“What is sought means a dharma to be realized. What is not sought may be sought as knowledge, but is not sought as realized attainment; therefore it is called not seeking.” He concludes with, 「於是法中無求而求，是為求法。」—“Within these dharmas, seeking without seeking: this is seeking the Dharma.” This mirror also explains the purity of the Dharma eye attained by five hundred sons of the gods as attainment of stream-entry, unlike Sengzhao's statement that it is purity of the Great Vehicle Dharma eye. The two explanations are recorded together without choosing one.

For the small room and the great thrones, Kuiji lists several explanations, including that the room becomes large and that the small can contain the great; he does not retain only one. He divides the displays of inconceivability into six rounds: 「一大小相容、二寬狹相納、三往來自在、四延促任情、五運轉隨心、六同類往趣。」—“First, great and small mutually contain; second, broad and narrow mutually receive; third, coming and going are free; fourth, extension and contraction follow intent; fifth, movement and turning follow the mind; sixth, those of the same kind proceed toward one another.” In the mutual containment of mountain and mustard seed, he first lists an interpretation through the principle of emptiness and then eight Consciousness-Only explanations. One of these says, 「五、迷心執境，實境難容；識境皆心，何礙不得。」—“Fifth, a deluded mind grasps objects, so real objects are difficult to contain; when consciousness and object are both mind, what obstruction could prevent it?” This is only one of eight explanations. It cannot obscure the other seven, much less be retrojected as something directly stated by Kumārajīva's recension.

This mirror also preserves features distinctive to Xuanzang's recension: novice bodhisattvas mount the thrones after attaining the five spiritual powers, whereas the śrāvakas sit after paying homage to the buddha; and at the chapter's end another eight thousand bodhisattvas enter the realm of inconceivable liberation. These passages are not found within this chapter of Kumārajīva's recension and therefore remain only within the Ci'en mirror. Regarding the great beggars, Kuiji divides what is demanded into inner and outer wealth and associates those capable of applying pressure with the eighth stage and above. This stage-based interpretation likewise belongs only to this mirror and is not poured downward into the text of Kumārajīva's recension.

Both mirrors read from seeking the Dharma through the displays and great beggars, yet they employ different recensions and vocabularies. The three Kumārajīva-line commentators unfold the chapter through not grasping the marks of dharmas, non-seeking, outer traces and inner virtue, and provisionality and wisdom; the Ci'en tradition unfolds it through ten sections, six rounds, the principle of emptiness, and Consciousness-Only explanations. Both lines of reception can illuminate the chapter at once, but need not be merged into one common interpretation. The scripture remains at the center, giving everything disclosed by each mirror both its source and its boundary.

「菩薩云何觀於眾生？」—“How does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings?” Mañjuśrī's question does not stop at whether sentient beings exist or do not exist. Vimalakīrti first answers with thirty similes and then immediately says that, after contemplating in this way, the bodhisattva thinks, 「我當為眾生說如斯法」—“I should expound this Dharma to sentient beings”; this is true loving-kindness. The tension of the entire chapter lies here: if sentient beings cannot be grasped as fixed entities, does loving-kindness and compassion also lose its direction? The scripture's answer neither retreats to real existence nor stops teaching and transforming. Without abiding in the marks of sentient beings, it still carries out, one by one, the teaching of Dharma, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity, liberation, and past vows.

From thirty similes to thirty practices of loving-kindness, from tracing the fear of saṃsāra backward to non-abiding, and from heavenly flowers clinging to bodies through the liberation of written words, the indeterminacy of female form, awakening without abiding, and non-attainment, this chapter repeatedly asks the same question: when the mind grasps sentient beings, what accords with Dharma, liberation, male and female, the three vehicles, or awakening, has what it grasps once again become a place of abiding? What follows reads only through this chapter itself, step by step, without first borrowing another tradition's answer to replace the scripture.

Why Can None of the Thirty Similes Be Omitted?

Vimalakīrti's first answer does not end with the single statement “sentient beings are like illusions.” He first speaks of an illusionist seeing a conjured person, then of a wise person seeing the moon in water, a face in a mirror, a mirage in the heat, the echo of a call, clouds in the sky, foam gathered on water, a bubble on water, solidity in a plantain, and lightning remaining for a long time. Some of these ten images are visible but cannot be grasped; some temporarily appear through conditions; some gather without solidity; some do not remain even for a moment. The scripture does not compress them into a single image, but lets the reader look from different directions: appearance does not mean that a fixed self-nature dwells within what appears.

The fifth great element, sixth aggregate, seventh faculty, thirteenth entrance, and nineteenth element then continue the sequence item by item. Form in the formless realm, sprouts from scorched grain, the body-view of a stream-enterer, a non-returner's entry into a womb, the three poisons in an arhat, greed, anger, and broken precepts in a bodhisattva who has attained acceptance, and habitual residues of affliction in a buddha are likewise enumerated one by one by the scripture and then returned to the statement that a bodhisattva contemplates sentient beings in this way. This passage only lists the names; it does not unfold here which afflictions have or have not been cut off at each named stage.

Finally, a blind person seeing visible form, breathing in and out within the absorption of cessation, bird tracks in the sky, the child of a sterile woman, a conjured person giving rise to afflictions, still seeing a dream after awakening, one who has passed into cessation receiving another body, and fire without a cause each press what is contemplated toward non-apprehension. A blind person cannot see visible form; the sky contains no bird tracks; a sterile woman has no child; after waking, the dream has passed; and fire does not arise without a cause. Vimalakīrti concludes three times: this is precisely how a bodhisattva should contemplate sentient beings.

If only the simile of the illusionist were retained, one could not see how the scripture proceeds layer by layer through images, gathering and dispersal, fixed enumerations, stages of attainment, and impossible things. The common function of the thirty similes is not to tell people to deny the sentient beings before them who are suffering and capable of hearing the Dharma, but to prevent the establishment upon sentient beings of an eternally unchanging entity that one can grasp. This point must be tested by the next question: if contemplating sentient beings led only to indifference, Mañjuśrī would not immediately ask about loving-kindness, and Vimalakīrti would not immediately answer with true loving-kindness.

Where Does Loving-Kindness Begin When One Does Not Abide in the Marks of Sentient Beings?

「菩薩作是觀已，自念：『我當為眾生說如斯法。』是即真實慈也。」—“After contemplating in this way, the bodhisattva thinks, ‘I should expound this Dharma to sentient beings.’ This is true loving-kindness.” This sentence joins contemplation to action. After completing the thirty contemplations, the bodhisattva does not say, “Since they are like illusions, there is no one to liberate.” The very thought he raises is to explain this same Dharma to sentient beings. True loving-kindness is not established by grasping sentient beings as entities, nor does it use the contemplation of emptiness as a reason to stop acting.

The thirty practices of loving-kindness then unfold one by one. Quiescent loving-kindness is grounded in nothing arising; non-burning loving-kindness in the absence of afflictions; equal loving-kindness is equal toward the three times; non-contentious loving-kindness gives rise to nothing; nondual loving-kindness does not establish an inner and an outer and then join them; indestructible loving-kindness reaches ultimate exhaustion; firm loving-kindness has a mind that is not destroyed; pure loving-kindness sees the purity of the nature of dharmas; boundless loving-kindness is like space; arhat loving-kindness destroys the thieves that are the bonds. The first ten already carry loving-kindness from quiescence, non-burning, equality, non-contention, and nonduality through to purity, boundlessness, and the destruction of bonds.

Bodhisattva loving-kindness brings sentient beings peace; Tathāgata loving-kindness attains the mark of suchness; Buddha loving-kindness awakens sentient beings; spontaneous loving-kindness is attained without a cause; awakening loving-kindness is equal and of one flavor; unequaled loving-kindness cuts off all craving; great compassion loving-kindness guides by means of the Great Vehicle; untiring loving-kindness contemplates emptiness and non-self; Dharma-giving loving-kindness keeps nothing back; precept-keeping loving-kindness teaches those who violate the precepts. These ten connect loving-kindness with bringing sentient beings peace, awakening sentient beings, cutting off craving, guiding through the Great Vehicle, contemplating emptiness and non-self, giving Dharma, and keeping precepts. Loving-kindness is not a vague goodwill; in each item it has a direction within practice.

Patient loving-kindness protects the other and oneself; diligent loving-kindness bears the burden of sentient beings; meditative loving-kindness does not receive the flavor of meditation; wisdom loving-kindness knows the right time; skillful-means loving-kindness lacks no manifestation; undisguised loving-kindness has an upright and pure mind; profound-mind loving-kindness has no mixed practice; non-deceptive loving-kindness is not false; peace-and-happiness loving-kindness enables attainment of the Buddha's bliss. Together with true loving-kindness at the beginning, all thirty are complete. Patience does not merely endure one's own pain but protects both sides; diligent effort does not merely seek one's own progress but bears sentient beings; meditation does not abide in its flavor, wisdom does not miss the right time, skillful means does not omit manifestations, and peace-and-happiness loving-kindness is directed toward the bliss of the Buddha.

Mañjuśrī next asks about compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Vimalakīrti's answers are all brief, yet leave no vague remainder. Compassion means that every merit produced by the bodhisattva is shared with all sentient beings. Sympathetic joy means rejoicing without regret after bringing benefit. Equanimity means performing blessed deeds without expectation. Compassion comes to rest in sharing merit with sentient beings, sympathetic joy in having no regret after benefiting them, and equanimity in performing blessings without expectation. Each of the three answers keeps to its own sentence; the scripture establishes no additional general theory here.

Why Does Fear of Saṃsāra Lead All the Way to Non-Abiding?

After the four immeasurables, Mañjuśrī turns the question toward the bodhisattva himself: while amid the fear of saṃsāra, upon what does he rely? Vimalakīrti answers that he relies upon the power of the Tathāgata's merit. If he is to rely upon this power, where should he abide? The answer is in liberating all sentient beings. These two answers directly join reliance to benefiting others: reliance is not for withdrawing from sentient beings, but for abiding in their liberation.

The questions and answers then trace backward layer by layer. To liberate sentient beings, remove afflictions; to remove afflictions, practise right mindfulness; right mindfulness practises non-arising and non-ceasing. Mañjuśrī does not let “non-arising and non-ceasing” remain an easily misunderstood phrase. He further asks what does not arise and what does not cease. Vimalakīrti answers clearly: unwholesome dharmas do not arise, and wholesome dharmas do not cease. Here non-arising and non-ceasing have a definite referent in practice: do not allow the unwholesome to arise, and do not allow wholesome dharmas to disappear.

The exchange then pursues the root still further. Wholesome and unwholesome have body as their root; body has craving and desire as its root; craving and desire have false discrimination as their root; false discrimination has inverted perception as its root; inverted perception has non-abiding as its root. Each answer takes what was seen at the preceding layer to a deeper one, until Mañjuśrī asks what, in turn, is the root of non-abiding. Vimalakīrti does not provide another dharma behind it, but answers that non-abiding has no root and that all dharmas are established from the root of non-abiding.

The two ends of this exchange cannot be separated. If one takes only the final sentence on non-abiding, one loses the sequence that begins with the fear of saṃsāra and proceeds through the Tathāgata's merit, the liberation of sentient beings, the removal of afflictions, and right mindfulness. If one takes only the first half on cultivating the wholesome and cutting off the unwholesome, one misses how the scripture traces back to body, craving and desire, false discrimination, and inverted perception as without abiding. A bodhisattva neither abandons sentient beings because of fear in saṃsāra nor reestablishes the wholesome dharmas he practises as a final root in which to abide.

The Flowers Make No Discrimination—Who Says They Fail to Accord with Dharma?

When the exchange on non-abiding ends, the scripture does not add another abstract explanation but has the goddess scatter flowers. Flowers that reach the bodhisattvas fall away, whereas those that reach the great disciples cling and do not fall; the disciples use spiritual powers to remove them but still cannot make them go. Śāriputra says that the flowers fail to accord with Dharma, but the goddess points out that the flowers themselves make no discrimination—it is Śāriputra who gives rise to discriminating thought. She moves the question of what accords and fails to accord with Dharma from the flowers back to the mind of the renunciant: to discriminate is to fail to accord with Dharma; to be without discrimination is to accord with Dharma.

The goddess then takes clinging and not clinging still deeper. The flowers do not cling to the bodhisattvas because they have cut off all discriminating thought. The scripture reads, 「譬如人畏時，非人得其便；如是弟子畏生死故，色、聲、香、味、觸得其便也」—“It is like a person in fear, when nonhuman beings gain an opening; likewise, because the disciples fear saṃsāra, visible form, sound, scent, taste, and touch gain an opening.” For those who have left fear behind, none of the five desires can do anything. When residual habits of the bonds are not exhausted, the flowers cling to the body; when those residual habits are exhausted, the flowers do not cling.

The scripture does not stop at the appearance of the flowers: Śāriputra's spiritual power cannot make them leave his body, while the goddess takes the dialogue toward discriminating thought, fear of saṃsāra, and residual habits of the bonds. Whether the flowers fall becomes, in this chapter, a visible exchange about whether inward grasping has fallen away.

If Liberation Cannot Be Spoken, Can One Still Leave Written Words Behind?

Śāriputra asks how long the goddess has dwelt in the room, and she answers: as long as the elder's liberation. When Śāriputra presses her on whether she has dwelt there long, the goddess asks how long liberation has lasted. Śāriputra remains silent, saying that liberation is beyond speech and therefore he does not know what to say. If the exchange ended here, silence might appear to be the final answer; the goddess immediately says instead that speech and written words are all marks of liberation.

Her explanation does not depart from the sentences of this chapter: liberation is neither within, nor without, nor between the two; written words are likewise neither within, nor without, nor between the two. The scripture then says that one cannot leave written words behind and separately speak of a liberation, because all dharmas are marks of liberation. She directly places written words and all dharmas together as marks of liberation.

Śāriputra again asks whether liberation does not consist in leaving sexual desire, anger, and delusion behind. The goddess's answer preserves the different audiences addressed by the two teachings: for people with overweening pride, the Buddha teaches that leaving sexual desire, anger, and delusion behind is liberation; for those without overweening pride, he teaches that the nature of sexual desire, anger, and delusion is itself liberation. The scripture attaches the two teachings respectively to those with and without overweening pride; it does not remove the condition concerning the listener.

Thus, when Śāriputra praises the goddess's eloquence and asks what she has attained and realized, the goddess answers that she has no attainment and no realization, and precisely for this reason speaks with such eloquence. If she saw an attainment and a realization, she would have overweening pride within the Buddha-Dharma. From liberation not being apart from written words to eloquence arising from no attainment and no realization, the chapter returns both language and realization to a contemplation in which there is no abiding and no self-elevation.

To Which Vehicle Does the Goddess Belong, and What Appears within This Room?

Śāriputra asks which of the three vehicles the goddess aspires to. She does not select a fixed identity: when she teaches sentient beings with the śrāvaka Dharma, she is a śrāvaka; when she teaches sentient beings with the Dharma of conditions, she is a pratyekabuddha; when she teaches sentient beings with the Dharma of great compassion, she is the Great Vehicle. Teaching sentient beings stands at the syntactic center of all three answers. The Dharma employed differs, but the work of teaching continues.

She then uses the champak grove to explain what is heard in the room: entering the grove, one smells only the fragrance of champak; entering this room, one smells only the fragrance of the Buddha's merit. Śakra, Brahmā, the Four Heavenly Kings, gods, dragons, ghosts, and spirits enter this room, hear Vimalakīrti teach the Dharma, delight in the fragrance of the Buddha's merit, arouse aspiration, and depart. The goddess has dwelt in the room for twelve years without hearing the Dharma of śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas; she has heard only the bodhisattvas' great loving-kindness and great compassion and the inconceivable Dharma of the buddhas.

The eight unprecedented and rare events likewise cannot be abbreviated into one marvel. First, golden light in the room makes no distinction between day and night and does not depend on the sun or moon. Second, those who enter are not affected by defilements or distress. Third, Śakra, Brahmā, the Four Heavenly Kings, and bodhisattvas from other regions come to assemble without interruption. Fourth, the six perfections and the Dharma of nonretrogression are constantly taught. Fifth, the finest music of gods and humans plays, and its strings produce immeasurable Dharma sounds of teaching and transformation. Sixth, four great treasuries are filled with jewels and support the poor and relieve the needy, while what is sought and taken is inexhaustible. Seventh, Buddha Śākyamuni, Buddha Amitābha, Akṣobhya Buddha, Jewel-Virtue, Jewel-Flame, Jewel-Moon, Jewel-Adornment, Hard-to-Conquer, Lion's Roar Accomplishing Every Benefit, and the immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions come when Vimalakīrti recollects them, extensively teach the secret and essential treasury of Dharma, and then return. Eighth, all the palaces of the gods and the pure lands of the buddhas appear within the room.

Only after stating all eight does the goddess ask: who, on seeing these inconceivable events, would still delight in the śrāvaka Dharma? The scripture does not merge the answer on the three vehicles with the eight events into one paragraph. The former explains how she manifests through the three vehicles in accordance with teaching; the latter explains what she has heard and what has appeared during the twelve years in this room. The two passages follow one another, and each bears responsibility for its own exchange.

After the Female Form Is Transformed, Can a Fixed Mark of Woman Still Be Found?

Śāriputra asks why the goddess does not transform her female body. She does not first answer when she will transform it, but says that throughout twelve years she has sought the mark of woman and found it utterly unattainable; she finds it signless, with no mark to attain, and therefore there is nothing to transform. Using an illusory woman conjured by an illusionist, she asks in return: if one asked the illusory woman why she did not transform her female body, would the question itself be correct? Śāriputra answers that an illusion has no fixed mark and no fixed self that could be transformed.

The goddess does not stop at the simile. Through spiritual power, she makes Śāriputra manifest the body of the goddess and herself manifest the body of Śāriputra; she then asks Śāriputra why he does not transform his female body. Appearing as the goddess, Śāriputra replies that he does not know how he has been transformed into a female body. From his immediate experience the goddess then says: if Śāriputra can transform away this female body himself, all women should also be able to transform. Śāriputra was originally not a woman yet manifests a female body; all women likewise manifest female bodies but are not fixed female entities. Therefore, the Buddha says that all dharmas are neither male nor female.

After withdrawing her spiritual power, the goddess asks where the visible form of the female body just displayed now is. Śāriputra replies that it is neither located nor not located, and the goddess says that all dharmas are likewise neither located nor not located. This passage moves from the non-apprehension of the mark of woman, through the absence of a fixed mark in an illusory woman and the exchange of appearances, to the visible form of the female body as neither located nor not located. Every step occurs within the scripture's narrative; there is no need to invent a slogan detached from the exchange.

How Are No Death or Birth, Attaining Awakening, and Non-Attainment Gathered Together?

Śāriputra asks where the goddess will be born after her life here ends. The goddess answers: where one conjured by the Buddha is born. Śāriputra says that a person conjured by the Buddha has no death or birth, and the goddess says that sentient beings likewise have no death or birth. This answer echoes the contemplation of a conjured person at the beginning: the chapter first contemplates sentient beings as conjured people, and later again answers a question about death and birth through one conjured by the Buddha.

Śāriputra then asks when she will attain awakening, and the goddess answers: when he returns to being an ordinary person. Śāriputra says that his returning to ordinary status has no possible place, and the goddess says that her obtaining an apprehensible awakening likewise has no possible place, because awakening has no place of abiding and there is no one who attains it. When Śāriputra asks further about the present, past, and future buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges who attain awakening, the goddess says that the three times are spoken of through conventional words and numbers; awakening itself does not possess a past, future, or present.

Finally, the goddess asks Śāriputra whether he has attained the path of an arhat. Śāriputra answers, 「無所得故而得。」—“Precisely because there is no attainment, it is attained.” The goddess then says that the buddhas and bodhisattvas likewise attain precisely because there is non-attainment. Attainment and non-attainment are not converted into two answers from which one can choose. The scripture first lets Śāriputra speak of non-attainment through his own realization and then carries the same sentence form to the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

At the end, Vimalakīrti lists six virtues of the goddess: having made offerings to 9.2 billion buddhas, freely exercising the spiritual powers of bodhisattvas, having fulfilled her vows, having attained acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, abiding in nonretrogression, and manifesting at will through past vows to teach and transform sentient beings. These six items invite the reader to look back over the whole passage: the goddess does not claim attainment and realization through her eloquence; Vimalakīrti explains her long history of offerings, spiritual powers, vows, acceptance, nonretrogression, and teaching and transformation.

The chapter has now traversed the opening question completely. Contemplating sentient beings as illusory does not delete them from loving-kindness and compassion; practising true loving-kindness does not once again grasp an existent sentient being. Flowers, written words, female form, death and birth, the three times, and awakening can all appear, be spoken, and be used before us without becoming fixed self-natures in which the mind abides. The bodhisattva's line of reception falls precisely along this path: not abiding in marks yet not abandoning action, and with non-attainment still manifesting at will through past vows to teach and transform sentient beings.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

Everything above has followed only this chapter of Kumārajīva's recension. When the ancient masters read its contemplation of sentient beings, true loving-kindness, non-abiding, scattered flowers, written words, female form, and non-attainment, each mirror revealed different patterns. Here the three Kumārajīva-line commentators and the Ci'en tradition are each returned to their own recension and presented without adjudication. What is seen in the mirrors enters only this section and is not retrojected as something directly stated earlier by the scripture.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Illusory and without Reality, Yet the Contemplation of Emptiness Does Not Abandon the Practice of Loving-Kindness

Kumārajīva first establishes a warning between existence and emptiness: 「若常在有則累於想著，若常觀空則捨於善本。若空有迭用則不設二過，猶日月代用萬物以成。」—“If one constantly remains in existence, one becomes burdened by conceptual attachment; if one constantly contemplates emptiness, one abandons wholesome roots. If emptiness and existence are used by turns, neither fault is established, just as the sun and moon alternate and the myriad things come to completion.” This mirror neither lets contemplation of sentient beings abide only in existence nor lets contemplation of emptiness become the abandonment of the wholesome. Daosheng safeguards both sides of the illusion simile with one sentence: 「非不有幻人，但無實人耳。」—“It is not that the conjured person does not appear; there is simply no real person.” The conjured person appears, yet there is no real person. Sentient beings seen through this simile likewise do not fall into annihilation.

Sengzhao directly joins contemplation of emptiness to teaching the Dharma: 「眾生本空，不能自覺，故為說斯法令其自悟耳，豈我有彼哉？」—“Sentient beings are originally empty but cannot awaken to this themselves; therefore this Dharma is taught so that they may awaken for themselves. How could it be that I possess them?” He further gathers the thirty practices of loving-kindness within a single body of loving-kindness, saying, 「名行雖殊，而俱出慈體，故盡以慈為名焉。」—“Although their names and practices differ, they all issue from the body of loving-kindness; therefore all are named loving-kindness.” Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng each take a different stand on quiescent loving-kindness: one speaks of knowing quiescence and non-arising yet giving rise to loving-kindness; one of loving-kindness that is signless and without conditions; one of establishing illusory loving-kindness because sentient beings are illusory. All three remain without being compressed into one explanation.

In the exchange on non-abiding, Kumārajīva speaks of dharmas lacking self-nature and arising in response to conditions, hence having no place of dependence. Sengzhao lists non-abiding, inverted perception, discrimination, craving, body, wholesome and unwholesome, and the myriad dharmas in reverse. Daosheng says that non-abiding is precisely the principle of having no root. At the scattered flowers, Sengzhao condenses the hinge into 「如法不如法，在心不在華。」—“What accords or fails to accord with Dharma lies in the mind, not in the flowers.” At the liberation of written words he again asks, 「三處求文字解脫俱不可得，如之何欲離文字而別說解脫乎？」—“When written words and liberation are sought in the three places, neither can be apprehended; how could one wish to leave written words behind and speak of a separate liberation?” The Kumārajīva-line reception proceeds from illusion without reality and the practice of loving-kindness within emptiness to discrimination in the mind and liberation that cannot be separated from written words.

The Ci'en Mirror: What Is Taught Is Not Real, while Three Kinds of Loving-Kindness, Discrimination, and Dharma-Nature Each Have Their Levels

Following Xuanzang's recension, Kuiji titles the chapter “Contemplating Sentient Beings”; its system of personal names also differs from that of Kumārajīva's recension. The alternative names are detailed in the Apparatus; this layer continues to use Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī. He first preserves both sides of “capable of being taught yet not real,” and then divides the contemplation through illusion into an emptiness-principle interpretation and a Consciousness-Only interpretation, saying, 「依他起性猶如幻事，似非真故。」—“The other-dependent nature is like an illusory event, appearing yet not real.” This mirror does not let one judgment swallow both paths, but gives conventional provisional existence, ultimate original emptiness, the other-dependent, and the imagined their own places within its analysis.

The corresponding passage in Xuanzang's recension contains thirty-eight statements of loving-kindness. Kuiji first divides them into the first thirty and the last eight, then reorganizes them through loving-kindness without conditions, loving-kindness conditioned by dharmas, and loving-kindness conditioned by sentient beings. This is the Ci'en reading based on Xuanzang's recension; it does not rewrite the thirty practices of loving-kindness in Kumārajīva's recension. At non-abiding he says, 「無住即真如。由迷真如，倒境生故。」—“Non-abiding is suchness itself. Through delusion about suchness, inverted objects arise.” He further clarifies, 「故言無住立一切法，不言生也。」—“Therefore it says that non-abiding establishes all dharmas; it does not say that it produces them.” Establishing and producing cannot be confused within this mirror.

At the scattered flowers, Kuiji explains the flowers' absence of discrimination through general grasping and differentiated discrimination, further saying, 「菩薩無二分別，故花不著；聲聞有二分別，故花著身。」—“Bodhisattvas lack the two discriminations, and therefore the flowers do not cling; śrāvakas possess the two discriminations, and therefore the flowers cling to their bodies.” At written words he says, 「於音聲上假名安立，無實文字，何有內外？」—“Written words are provisionally established as names upon sounds; there are no real written words, so how could there be an inner or outer?” At the exchange of female forms he preserves, 「相有男女，實無男女。事有男女，理實無故。」—“In appearance there are male and female, but in reality there are no male and female. Conventionally there are male and female, but in principle they are truly absent.” At no attainment and no realization he further says, 「諸法本空，無得無證。」—“All dharmas are originally empty; there is no attainment and no realization.” This line of reception emphasizes levels of what is taught, the three kinds of loving-kindness, discrimination, Dharma-nature, and non-attainment.

Both mirrors begin from the same chapter's contemplation, loving-kindness, non-abiding, flowers, written words, female form, and attainment and realization, yet unfold them through different Chinese translations and different vocabularies. The Kumārajīva-line mirror preserves the reciprocal use of emptiness and existence, the conjured person as unreal while loving-kindness is not abandoned; the Ci'en mirror preserves what can be taught as not real, its classification into three kinds of loving-kindness, and levels of discrimination. Shining side by side is not harmonization, and reception is not choosing a side: each path keeps its own sentence and stands with equal authority. The scripture remains before both mirrors, leaving non-abiding in marks and non-abandonment of action open at the same time.

「菩薩云何通達佛道？」 — “How does a bodhisattva comprehend the Way of the Buddha?” Mañjuśrī’s opening question appears to ask about a straight road. Vimalakīrti’s answer reverses the direction: 「若菩薩行於非道，是為通達佛道。」 — “If a bodhisattva travels the ways contrary to the Way, this is comprehending the Way of the Buddha.” This does not rename harmful conduct the Way of the Buddha, nor does it tell anyone first to become defiled and then seek purity. The thirty-one contrasting statements that immediately follow make “traveling contrary ways” extremely concrete: one’s body may manifest amid such ways, yet one’s mind and conduct are not turned by their wrongdoing, defilement, attachment, pride, or wrong views. Nor does the bodhisattva enter these places merely to free himself; wherever he goes, there are teaching the Dharma, compassion, and transformation of sentient beings.

The chapter’s real question is this: if a bodhisattva is willing to stand only where things are already pure, secure, and ideal, who will enter the places where sentient beings now suffer, become deluded, and create karma? Yet once he enters, how does he avoid being turned by the afflictions found there? The sūtra does not pass over this with one abstract answer. It first lists thirty-one situations, then asks why the afflictions are seeds of the Tathāgata, and finally uses forty-two verses to unfold the bodhisattva’s household, resources, and immeasurable manifestations.

Traveling Contrary Ways: What Is Manifested and Where One Abides Must Not Be Confused

From the Five Heinous Acts to the Paths of the Form and Formless Realms

The first group begins with the five heinous acts and the evil destinies. A bodhisattva may manifest committing the five heinous acts, yet has no anger or resentment; may go to hell, yet has no defilement of wrongdoing; may go among animals, yet has none of the faults of ignorance or pride; and may go among hungry ghosts, yet possesses complete merit. Each item is bound to its own language: traveling among the five heinous acts yet having no anger or resentment; arriving in hell yet having none of the defilements of wrongdoing; arriving among animals yet having none of the faults of ignorance, pride, and the like; and arriving among hungry ghosts yet possessing complete merit.

The fifth item turns to the paths of the form and formless realms. These are no longer evil destinies, yet the sūtra still says: 「行色、無色界道，不以為勝」 — “He travels the paths of the form and formless realms, yet does not regard them as supreme.”

From Greed, Anger, and Delusion to a Mind That Remains Constantly Pure

The sūtra next turns its gaze toward afflictions and practice. The bodhisattva manifests greed, yet remains apart from attachment; manifests anger, yet bears no resentment or obstruction toward sentient beings; and manifests delusion, yet disciplines his mind through wisdom. In these three statements, the outward appearance of greed, anger, and delusion and whether the mind is controlled by the three poisons are not the same thing.

The text then contrasts obstacles in practice one by one. The bodhisattva manifests stinginess, yet can relinquish everything within and without, begrudging not even body or life. He manifests violation of precepts, yet abides in pure ethical discipline and greatly fears even minor wrongdoing. He manifests anger, yet constantly practices loving-kindness and patience. He manifests indolence, yet diligently cultivates merit. He manifests a scattered mind, yet constantly recollects meditative concentration. He manifests delusion, yet comprehends worldly and transmundane wisdom. The sūtra does not call stinginess giving or the violation of precepts ethical discipline; within the same statement it preserves the contrast between what is manifested and what is practiced.

It then says that he manifests flattery and falsity, yet uses skillful means in accord with the meanings of the sūtras; manifests pride, yet is like a bridge that lets sentient beings cross over him; and manifests all afflictions, yet his mind remains constantly pure. The sūtra places pride and the bridge in one statement, preserving the contrast between the appearance manifested and the burden borne for sentient beings.

From Māra and the Two Vehicles to Poverty, Illness, and Worldly Life

From the eighteenth item onward, what the bodhisattva manifests includes not only afflictions but also identities and paths. He manifests entering Māra’s domain, yet follows the Buddha’s wisdom and not another teaching. He manifests as a śrāvaka, yet teaches sentient beings Dharma they have never heard. He manifests as a pratyekabuddha, yet perfects great compassion and teaches and transforms sentient beings. In sequence, the three statements preserve buddha-wisdom, Dharma teaching, and great compassion, so that the identity manifested does not cut off conduct for others’ benefit.

Next come visible forms of deprivation and bodily condition. He manifests poverty, yet has a treasure-producing hand and inexhaustible merit. He manifests physical impairment, yet possesses the excellent marks. He manifests low status, yet is born into the Buddha’s lineage and possesses complete merit. He manifests weakness and ugliness, yet obtains the body of Nārāyaṇa and is gladly beheld by sentient beings. He manifests aging and illness, yet has forever cut off the root of illness and transcended the fear of death. The sūtra does not deny the outward appearance of poverty, impairment, lowliness, weakness, aging, or illness, but it does not let those appearances determine the merit, adornment, and fearlessness the bodhisattva actually possesses.

It then says that the bodhisattva manifests possessing the necessities of life, yet constantly contemplates impermanence and truly has no greed for them; manifests having wives, concubines, and attendants, yet remains apart from the mud of the five desires; manifests slowness of speech, yet perfects eloquence and faultless retention; manifests entering a wrong crossing, yet ferries sentient beings by the right crossing; manifests entering every path, yet cuts off the conditions that perpetuate those paths for sentient beings; and finally manifests nirvāṇa, yet does not cut off saṃsāra.

This last statement carries the thirty-one items all the way to the side of nirvāṇa. If a bodhisattva took departure from saṃsāra as his sole endpoint, after manifesting nirvāṇa he would have no need to return among sentient beings. Yet the sūtra places “manifesting nirvāṇa” alongside “not cutting off saṃsāra.” From the five heinous acts to nirvāṇa, neither extreme is a place in which to abide. Comprehending the Way of the Buddha does not mean selecting one position from which one will never move again. It means never losing purity, compassion, wisdom, or the transformation of sentient beings in any place.

Why Are the Afflictions Called Seeds of the Tathāgata?

Vimalakīrti next asks Mañjuśrī: 「何等為如來種？」 — “What are the seeds of the Tathāgata?” Mañjuśrī does not first list pure virtues. Instead, he successively names having a body; ignorance and craving for existence; greed, anger, and delusion; the four inversions; the five hindrances; the six entrances; the seven stations of consciousness; the eight wrong dharmas; the nine sources of vexation; the ten unwholesome paths; and finally gathers them under the sixty-two views and all afflictions.

Not one item in this list of eleven may be omitted. It begins with having a body; passes through ignorance, craving, greed, anger, delusion, and various coverings and obstructions; reaches the entrances, stations of consciousness, wrong dharmas, vexations, and unwholesome paths on which sentient beings rely; and concludes with all mistaken views and afflictions. The sūtra does not select one comparatively acceptable affliction as a symbol. It places the entire series from having a body through all afflictions within the question of the “seed.”

Vimalakīrti immediately presses the question: 「何謂也？」 — “What does this mean?” If the afflictions themselves were buddhahood, the question would be unnecessary. If the afflictions bore no relation whatsoever to the Buddha-Dharma, Mañjuśrī would not call them seeds. The sūtra answers not with a definition, but with three similes that cannot substitute for one another.

Lotuses Do Not Grow on the High Plain

The first simile says that lotuses do not grow on dry high ground; they grow in low, damp mud. Its corresponding point in the sūtra is that those who see the unconditioned and enter the fixed stage can no longer give rise to the Buddha-Dharma, while sentient beings in the mud of afflictions can give rise to it. The lotus is not the mud, yet it does not grow on the dry high plain. Remove all the mud and one also removes the place where the lotus can grow.

Seeds Cannot Be Planted in Space

The second simile says that a seed planted in space will never grow; only when planted in manured soil can it be nourished and flourish. This simile no longer centers on a lotus already grown, but on a seed that has yet to develop. Even if one’s view of self towers as high as Mount Sumeru, one can still give rise to the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening and cause the Buddha-Dharma to arise. In a space without any support, by contrast, there are no conditions in which a seed can grow.

Without Entering the Great Sea, One Cannot Obtain the Precious Jewel

The third simile says that without descending into the great sea, one cannot obtain the priceless precious jewel; without entering the great sea of afflictions, one likewise cannot obtain the treasure of omniscience. The lotus simile concerns arising, the planting simile concerns growth, and the great-sea simile concerns entering deeply to retrieve treasure. All three speak of the Buddha-Dharma, the awakening-mind, and omniscience amid the afflictive conditions of sentient beings, yet none renames mud, manured soil, or seawater itself as lotus, maturation, or precious jewel.

Thus, “the afflictions are seeds” has two opposite misreadings. One would leave all afflictions outside the gate, as though the Buddha-Dharma could grow in space. The other glorifies afflictions themselves and forgets that the seed must grow, the lotus must bloom, and the precious jewel must be retrieved. This chapter retains the ground of afflictions, but also the mind of awakening, practice, and the fruit of omniscience.

Why Does Mahākāśyapa Instead Lament That He Cannot Give Rise to the Mind?

When Mañjuśrī finishes speaking, Mahākāśyapa twice exclaims, “Excellent!” He first acknowledges that sentient beings amid the afflictions of sensory disturbance are seeds of the Tathāgata, then says that even a person guilty of the five heinous acts can give rise to the mind and be born into the Buddha-Dharma, while śrāvakas of his own kind are no longer capable of giving rise to the mind of unsurpassed awakening. The sharpness of this passage lies in the fact that it is not someone else reproaching the śrāvakas; Mahākāśyapa himself makes this declaration in the Dharma assembly.

He uses the simile of a person whose faculties are ruined. Once those faculties are ruined, they can no longer function in the presence of the five desires. In the same way, once the bonds of the śrāvaka have been severed, he no longer increases within the Buddha-Dharma and never again forms the aspiration. Mahākāśyapa then places ordinary people and śrāvakas side by side: ordinary people can hear the Buddha-Dharma, give rise to the mind of unsurpassed awakening, and keep the Three Jewels unbroken; śrāvakas, even if they hear throughout their lives of the Buddha-Dharma, the Buddha’s powers, his fearlessness, and the like, cannot give rise to the mind of unsurpassed awakening.

Reading this passage, one must not turn Mahākāśyapa’s lament into contempt for sentient beings with afflictions. The entire chapter says exactly the opposite: the five heinous acts, hells, animals, hungry ghosts, greed, anger, delusion, and all afflictions are all included within the range in which a bodhisattva can travel and sentient beings can give rise to the mind. What the sūtra expressly says is that ordinary people who hear the Dharma can give rise to the mind of unsurpassed awakening and keep the Three Jewels unbroken, while the śrāvaka here declares that he no longer forms the aspiration or increases within it.

Why Is Vimalakīrti’s Household Composed Entirely of Dharma?

Universally Manifested Form-Body brings the exchange back to Vimalakīrti’s ordinary identity: where are his parents, wife and children, relatives and dependents, officials, people, friends, servants, attendants, elephants, horses, and carriages? Vimalakīrti does not deny the question, but answers it layer by layer in forty-two verses. These verses do not abandon the preceding topic and open another. The earlier passage already said that a bodhisattva can enter every path; the verses now let the reader see what a bodhisattva who travels in the world actually takes as his household, resources, and work.

Parents and Children, Friends and Dependents

The perfection of wisdom is his mother and skillful means his father; all guides of sentient beings are born from these two. Joy in Dharma is his wife, compassion his daughter, a wholesome and sincere mind his son, and ultimate emptiness and quiescence his dwelling. Sentient beings amid sensory disturbance become his disciples and are transformed according to his intention. The factors of the path are his spiritual friends, through whom he perfects right awakening; the perfections are his companions, the four means of gathering his female entertainers, and chanting and reciting words of Dharma his music.

Not one position in this worldly household is left empty. The parents are wisdom and skillful means; wife, daughter, and son are joy in Dharma, compassion, and a wholesome mind; the house is emptiness and quiescence; the disciples are precisely sentient beings amid sensory disturbance; and friends and companions are the factors of the path, the perfections, and the four means of gathering. The bodhisattva is not without a household. He turns every relation within the household into a dharma that gives rise to awakening and gathers sentient beings.

Gardens, Carriages, Clothing, and Food

Retention is the garden, uncontaminated dharmas its trees, factors of awakening its pure and wondrous flowers, and liberation and wisdom its fruit. The eight liberations are the bathing pool, filled with limpid waters of concentration and spread with the flowers of the seven purities, where those without defilement bathe. The five superknowledges are fleet elephants and horses, the Great Vehicle is the carriage, one-pointed mind drives it, and it travels on the eightfold right path.

The excellent marks adorn his countenance and body; conscience and shame are his finest garments, and profound intention his flower garland. The seven kinds of Dharma wealth make the bodhisattva rich, and teaching sentient beings causes that wealth to grow; practicing as he teaches and dedicating all merit bring the greatest benefit. The four meditations are his seat and bed, arising from a pure livelihood. Broad learning increases wisdom and becomes a sound by which he awakens himself. The ambrosial Dharma is food, and the flavor of liberation is drink; a pure mind is bathing, and the qualities of ethical discipline are fragrant ointment. Finally, the bodhisattva destroys the thieves of affliction, subdues the four māras, and raises the victory banner at the place of awakening.

The trees, flowers, fruit, and pool water of the garden; the elephants, horses, carriage, and driver on the road; adornments, garments, garlands, and fragrance upon the body; and wealth, bed, food, and drink within the household are all filled by Dharma. This does not construct an imaginary residence outside worldly resources. It directly answers which dharmas a bodhisattva truly uses to abide, travel, nourish and adorn himself, and maintain his life.

Knowing Emptiness, Why Does He Still Manifest a Body and Cultivate Pure Lands?

The verses next turn from household and resources to the bodhisattva’s conduct. Although he knows there is neither arising nor cessation, for sentient beings he still manifests birth. He can manifest throughout every land like the sun shining everywhere. When making offerings to immeasurable billions of tathāgatas in the ten directions, he gives rise to no discrimination between the buddhas and himself. Although he knows buddha-lands and sentient beings to be empty, he constantly cultivates pure lands and teaches and transforms sentient beings.

These four statements place emptiness and conduct in the same rhythm: he manifests birth amid non-arising and non-ceasing, makes offerings without discrimination, and, knowing lands and sentient beings to be empty, cultivates pure lands and transforms sentient beings. If one retained only emptiness, one would delete the sūtra’s express statements of manifested birth, offering, cultivation of lands, and teaching. If one retained only conduct, one would delete non-arising and non-ceasing, non-discrimination, and emptiness. The bodhisattva’s path lacks neither side.

Sentient beings have various forms, sounds, and modes of deportment, and the bodhisattva can manifest all of them at once. He also recognizes every work of Māra, yet manifests in accord with what Māra does; with the wisdom of skillful means, he can manifest each of them as he wishes. What is manifested can differ in a thousand ways, but recognition and skillful means are never lost.

Amid Impermanence, Disaster, and Other Paths, How Does the Bodhisattva Benefit Beings?

The bodhisattva sometimes manifests aging, illness, and death in order to bring sentient beings to fulfillment, while knowing these to be like illusions and remaining unobstructed. At other times he manifests the great conflagration at the end of a kalpa, enabling sentient beings who hold notions of permanence to know impermanence. When immeasurable billions of sentient beings invite him at once, he can appear simultaneously in every household and turn them toward the Way of the Buddha.

He can manifest mastery of scriptures, spells, crafts, and every kind of art, using them to benefit sentient beings. Among the world’s various ways of seeking the path, he can manifest going forth in each, thereby freeing people from delusion while himself not falling into wrong views. He can also become a sun deity, moon deity, Brahmā, or lord of a world, or become earth, water, wind, or fire.

When an epidemic comes, he manifests as medicinal herbs that remove illness and neutralize poison in those who take them. When famine comes, he manifests his body as food, first relieving hunger and thirst and then guiding beings with words of Dharma. When armed conflict comes, he gives rise to compassion for sentient beings and establishes them in non-contention. When a great battle comes, he manifests equal power, subdues the will to fight, and brings peace to both sides. Wherever hell brings suffering, he personally goes to offer relief; wherever animals devour one another, he is born among them to bring benefit.

This succession of manifestations does not turn disaster into an abstract label. Disease calls for medicine, hunger and thirst for food, armed conflict for an end to contention, battle lines for peace, the sufferings of hell for relief, and animals harming one another for benefit. The bodhisattva does not only teach Dharma; he responds directly to the suffering now before sentient beings. After relieving hunger and thirst and bestowing fearlessness, the sūtra again expressly says that he guides them with Dharma and causes them to give rise to the mind of the Way.

Why Is Practicing Meditation amid Desire Like a Lotus Growing in Fire?

The bodhisattva manifests enjoying the five desires while also manifesting the practice of meditation, confusing Māra so that he finds no opening. The sūtra immediately supplies its own simile: a lotus growing in fire is exceedingly rare, and practicing meditation amid desire is equally rare. What is praised is not the burning of fire or the defilement of desire, but the failure to lose meditative practice while situated among objects of desire.

One verse that especially must not be severed is the bodhisattva’s manifestation as a courtesan. The sūtra explicitly gives the complete sequence: first attracting those who delight in beauty, drawing them with the hook of desire, and afterward causing them to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. If only the first half remains, the manifestation is mistaken for yielding to desire. If only the second half remains, one no longer sees how skillful means begins from the place to which the sentient being is presently attached. The two verse lines must not be separated.

The bodhisattva can also become a town leader, caravan guide, state preceptor, or minister and use that status to benefit sentient beings. For the poor, he becomes an inexhaustible treasury and urges them to give rise to the mind of awakening. For the proud, he becomes a champion, subdues their arrogance, and establishes them in the unsurpassed Way. For the fearful, he first goes before them, consoles them, and bestows fearlessness, then causes them to give rise to the mind of the Way. He can become a seer free of desire and possessing the five superknowledges, causing sentient beings to abide in ethical discipline, patience, and loving-kindness.

When he sees someone who needs service, the bodhisattva becomes that person’s attendant; he first delights and satisfies the person’s mind, then causes him to give rise to the mind of the Way. According to what sentient beings require, he causes them to enter the Way of the Buddha, and through the power of skillful means supplies all they need. From courtesan to town leader, caravan guide, state preceptor, minister, inexhaustible treasury, champion, seer, and attendant, his identity changes continually, yet the destination repeatedly returns to buddha-wisdom, the mind of awakening, the unsurpassed Way, and the Way of the Buddha.

Toward What Do the Final Verses of the Forty-Two Point?

The fortieth verse gathers all the preceding manifestations into four points: the ways are immeasurable, the range of conduct has no boundary, wisdom is boundless, and the beings delivered are innumerable. These four statements prevent us from remembering only one extraordinary identity. Any manifestation is only one place within immeasurable conduct; both the range of conduct and wisdom are without boundary, while the purpose is to deliver innumerable sentient beings.

The forty-first verse says that even if all buddhas praised the bodhisattva throughout immeasurable billions of kalpas, his merit still could not be fully expressed. The forty-second no longer describes what forms the bodhisattva can assume, but directly asks the listener: 「誰聞如是法，不發菩提心？」 — “Who could hear such a Dharma and not give rise to the mind of awakening?” The chapter began with Mañjuśrī asking how one comprehends the Way of the Buddha; here it places the question before every person who hears the Dharma. If one merely marvels at the immeasurability of skillful means but does not give rise to the mind, one remains outside the gate.

From Contrary Ways to the Way of the Buddha: Never Leaving Sentient Beings

The first half of the chapter brings the five heinous acts, evil destinies, greed, anger, delusion, obstacles in practice, Māra, the two vehicles, poverty, illness, worldly affairs, and nirvāṇa within the bodhisattva’s range of conduct. The middle calls having a body, ignorance, craving for existence, and all afflictions seeds of the Tathāgata. The final part turns parents and household, gardens and carriages, disease and famine, warfare and evil destinies, objects of desire, and various social identities into conduct for the benefit of sentient beings. The three parts appear to range widely, yet never leave the same point: wherever sentient beings are, the bodhisattva’s wisdom and skillful means can operate there.

Yet entering every place does not mean being swallowed by every place. The thirty-one items each preserve distinct reverse qualifications—non-defilement, purity, loving-kindness and patience, concentration and wisdom, great compassion, or teaching and transformation—different in each case. This is precisely why the chapter must be read with all thirty-one items, eleven seeds, three similes, and forty-two verses intact. Extract only “afflictions are seeds of the Buddha,” and one loses the mind of awakening and the retrieval of treasure. Extract only “traveling contrary ways,” and one loses non-defilement and the deliverance of beings. Extract only “a lotus in fire,” and one loses why practicing meditation amid desire is rare.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed the actual wording of Kumārajīva’s recension of this chapter alone. When the ancient masters read “traveling contrary ways,” “seeds of the Tathāgata,” and the forty-two verses, they each held up a mirror that disclosed patterns within them. What follows presents two paths—the three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line—each keeping to its own Chinese recension, recorded side by side without adjudication.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Transformative Manifestation without Fixed Direction, Dwelling amid the Contrary without Losing One’s Ground

Kumārajīva first divides contrary ways into three kinds: 「非道有三種，一者惡趣果報、二者惡趣行業、三者世俗善業及善業果報也。」 — “Contrary ways are of three kinds: first, the results of evil destinies; second, actions that lead to evil destinies; and third, worldly wholesome actions and the results of wholesome actions.” (T38n1775 0390b27) He immediately uses the simile of a skilled physician who turns whatever he touches into medicine and says that the bodhisattva 「處非而不失其本，故能因非道以弘道」 — “dwells amid the contrary without losing his ground, and therefore can use contrary ways to propagate the Way.” (T38n1775 0390c01) The boundary guarded by this mirror is clear: the place in which he dwells may be contrary, but he cannot lose his ground.

Sengzhao looks from the standpoint of the path of equality. He says that if one takes the Way as the Way and contrary ways as contrary, love and aversion arise together; only when one is not constrained by feelings of right and wrong can one pass unobstructed through circumstances. He further draws out the three poisons and six faults respectively as 「示行三毒而不乖三善也。」 — “He manifests practicing the three poisons without departing from the three wholesome roots.” (T38n1775 0391a02) and 「示行六弊而不乖六度也。」 — “He manifests practicing the six faults without departing from the six perfections.” (T38n1775 0391a07) Daosheng, meanwhile, speaks from transformative manifestation: 「應化無方為佛之道，既能體之，為通達矣。」 — “Transformative manifestation without fixed direction is the Way of the Buddha; being able to embody it is comprehension.” (T38n1775 0390b25) Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng each have their own emphasis; none is treated as the original wording of the other two.

When they reach the seeds of the Tathāgata, Kumārajīva preserves two explanations of “having a body”: the five appropriated aggregates with contamination, and the view of body. Sengzhao says that, although wrong and right differ, their transformation does not produce a separate right without a cause, so the wholesome arises through the unwholesome. Daosheng says that awakening in the Great Vehicle is not found by abandoning saṃsāra nearby and seeking somewhere far away. The three masters also read the similes of the high plain, planted seed, and great sea separately, preserving the sequence of giving rise to the mind, producing the Buddha-Dharma, and retrieving the treasure of omniscience.

In the forty-two verses, Kumārajīva explains in detail the perfection of wisdom, skillful means, the seven purities, one-pointed mind, the seven kinds of wealth, the four meditations, and the ambrosial Dharma. Sengzhao explains mother and father through 「智為內照、權為外用」 — “Wisdom illuminates inwardly; skillful means functions outwardly.” (T38n1775 0393a22) and gathers the similes of gardens, pools, and the like under Dharma as household. Daosheng distinguishes wisdom as inward understanding from skillful means as outward assistance. At the manifestation of birth amid non-arising, Sengzhao marks the beginning of the subsequent full praise of the bodhisattva’s virtue of responsive transformation; at the end he gathers it under the boundless and limitless Way of wisdom and skillful means. What the Kumārajīva-line mirror illuminates begins with transformative manifestation without fixed direction, passes through Dharma as household, and comes to rest in skillful means for benefiting beings and giving rise to the mind.

The Ci’en Mirror: The Cause of Awakening, the Seed of the Tathāgata, and the Activity of Awakening

Following the recension on which he relies, Kuiji divides the whole chapter at the outset into three parts: the cause of awakening, the seed of the Tathāgata, and the activity of awakening. The scriptural statements on which this path relies belong to Xuanzang’s recension; this exposition therefore transmits only its analysis here and does not substitute its persons or scriptural statements into Kumārajīva’s chapter.

In the section on traveling contrary destinations, Kuiji counts thirty-three statements in Xuanzang’s recension and divides them into seven groups: relying on destinations to leave evil; relying on faculties to extinguish poisons; relying on obstructions to cultivate the perfections; relying on the small to cultivate the great; relying on evil to cultivate good; relying on the inferior to cultivate the superior; and cultivating non-abiding in the middle. He also explicitly records that the old translation has thirty-one statements. This does not correct thirty-one by means of thirty-three, but preserves the number and structure belonging to each recension. The commentary’s shared explanation of “although manifesting” also consistently retains both generation in conformity with kind for the benefit of sentient beings and non-defilement by that kind’s faults.

In the passage on the seed-nature of the Tathāgata, Kuiji first says: 「種者因，性者類。佛因體類，名如來種性。」 — “‘Seed’ means cause; ‘nature’ means kind. The essential kind of a cause of buddhahood is called the seed-nature of the Tathāgata.” (T38n1782 1087c22) He then distinguishes uncontaminated and contaminated seeds, cites the Śrīmālā Sūtra, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, and the Sūtra of Entering Laṅkā, and explains that afflictions cover the principle and that wisdom arises when they are severed. Regarding the scriptural statement that the two vehicles cannot give rise to the mind, he adds multiple qualifications: it generally concerns the period before they have given rise to it and a fierce, swift form of giving rise to the mind; it does not uniformly declare that they will ultimately never do so. This qualification belongs only to the Ci’en commentary’s path of interpreting the sūtra and does not overwrite the three masters of the Kumārajīva line.

Regarding the verses, Kuiji clearly divides the first forty verses as the principal answer and the last two as the concluding exhortation. The first thirty-nine give separate answers and the fortieth gives the general answer; those separate answers are further divided into twelve, five, and twenty-two verses. Following Xuanzang’s recension, he takes the perfection of wisdom as non-discriminating wisdom and skillful means as subsequently attained wisdom; he explains the entire sequence by matching transmundane dharmas with worldly dharmas, transmundane practices with worldly affairs, and manifestations conforming to worldly affairs. What the Ci’en mirror illuminates is how the cause of awakening becomes seed and activity and how it is perfected through knowing emptiness without abandoning benefit to sentient beings.

The Kumārajīva line reads Kumārajīva’s “traveling contrary ways,” while the Ci’en line reads Xuanzang’s “traveling contrary destinations.” The Kumārajīva line preserves the blade of responsive transformation, equality, and propagating the Way while dwelling amid the contrary; the Ci’en line preserves the sequence of cause, seed, activity, and the two wisdoms in benefiting beings. The chapter’s transmission does not blend the two into one explanation. It lets each illuminate one face of the scripture while Kumārajīva’s chapter remains between the two mirrors, replaced by neither.

「諸仁者！云何菩薩入不二法門？各隨所樂說之。」 — “Good sirs! How does a bodhisattva enter the dharma-gate of nonduality? Let each speak according to what he delights in.” With this question, Vimalakīrti opens the gate of the entire chapter. He does not begin by proclaiming a single answer or by asking everyone to repeat the same sentence. Instead, he lets thirty-one bodhisattvas speak from the places in which each delights and through which each enters. The question is therefore not “Which answer alone is correct?” but: Which dharmas do we habitually cut into two sides, and how do we cease adding taking and rejecting within those two sides?

The sequence of the entire chapter has great power. First come thirty-one statements; then Mañjuśrī’s statement of no words; finally Vimalakīrti’s silence. If we remember only the “silence” from the outset, the preceding thirty-one answers seem superfluous. If we merely collect the thirty-one pairs of terms, we miss why the sūtra proceeds all the way to the absence of words and speech. Let us therefore follow the sūtra step by step. Nonduality does not leap over dual dharmas. Within every pair, it sees how duality arises and how taking and rejecting cease, until even “I am speaking of nonduality” is no longer established.

From Arising and Cessation to One Mark and Signlessness: The Two Sides Do Not Disappear by Choosing One

The first question is this: arising and cessation differ so greatly; how can they be nondual? Mastery in Dharma’s answer chooses neither arising nor cessation but returns to the fact that dharmas originally do not arise. If a dharma never arose as a real entity, no real entity now exists that could cease. Acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas begins here. Nonduality does not swallow cessation into arising; it ceases establishing arising and cessation as two realities.

Guardian of Virtue moves the question to self and what belongs to self. Why is “this is mine” so tenacious? Because a self is first taken to be real, and what belongs to self arises in its wake. If self cannot be apprehended, what belongs to self likewise loses its footing. This answer shows that dual dharmas do not always appear simultaneously: one side is grasped first, and only then does the other become established.

Unblinking speaks of receiving and not receiving. If the mind grasps a dharma, receiving and not receiving stand opposed. If the dharma is not received, the supposedly apprehensible dharma cannot be apprehended. In non-apprehension, taking and rejecting, doing and undertaking have no place to be grasped. Crown of Virtue advances in a similar way through defilement and purity: seeing the true nature of defilement, one does not establish a separate mark of purity outside it. This does not rename defilement “purity.” Rather, once the true nature of defilement is seen, the mark of purity opposed to defilement is no longer grasped.

Excellent Constellation speaks of stirring and thought. Without stirring there is no thought; without thought there is no discrimination. The sūtra proceeds from stirring through thought to the cessation of discrimination. Excellent Eye then warns that even one mark and signlessness can be made dual once again. Knowing that the one mark is signlessness is not enough: if signlessness is then grasped, equality has still not been entered. The sūtra therefore says not only that the one mark is signlessness but also explicitly that signlessness is not grasped. Neither one mark nor signlessness can become a place in which to abide.

From Two Kinds of Mind to the Worldly and Transcendent: Nonduality Does Not Create Another Pure Camp

Wondrous Arm begins with the bodhisattva mind and the śrāvaka mind. If the marks of mind are contemplated as empty, like an illusion, there is no apprehensible bodhisattva mind and no apprehensible śrāvaka mind. The two minds are no longer established as two fixed entities.

Puṣya speaks of wholesome and unwholesome: not raising wholesome and unwholesome, one enters and comprehends the limit of signlessness. Lion speaks of wrongdoing and merit: upon comprehending the nature of wrongdoing, one sees that it does not differ from merit; when vajra wisdom resolves this mark, there is neither bondage nor liberation. Neither answer performs another act of choosing between wholesome and unwholesome or wrongdoing and merit. Each places its point in signlessness and true nature.

Lion-Mind brings the same question to the contaminated and uncontaminated. If conceptions arise around contaminated and uncontaminated, one remains within dual division even when favoring the uncontaminated. The sūtra therefore says both that one does not cling to marks and that one does not abide in signlessness. This echoes Excellent Eye’s “not grasping even signlessness”: the gate of nonduality leaves behind no new extreme called signlessness.

Pure Understanding speaks of conditioned and unconditioned. If everything that changes and is fabricated is divided from unconditioned quiescence as two worlds, the mind remains constrained by counting and classification. Leaving all counting, the mind is like space and pure wisdom has no obstruction. Nārāyaṇa immediately speaks of worldly and transcendent: the empty nature of the world is itself the transcendent, and within it there is nothing to enter, leave, overflow, or disperse. Transcendence is not a move from one real world to another real place; it is seeing emptiness in the true nature of the world.

From Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa to the Six Faculties and Six Objects: Nonduality Is Seen within the Dharma Present Here and Now

Excellent Intention tightens worldly and transcendent into saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. If one sees the true nature of saṃsāra, no real saṃsāra exists to be bound and no separate nirvāṇa exists to serve as liberation. Nothing can be ignited and nothing extinguished. Jeweled Seal-Hand later returns to this threshold through delighting in nirvāṇa and detesting the world, showing that this is not a passing phrase in the chapter.

Present Vision speaks of exhaustion and non-exhaustion. Whether a dharma is said to be ultimately exhausted or still unexhausted, the sūtra calls both the mark of inexhaustibility. The mark of inexhaustibility is emptiness, and within emptiness exhaustion and non-exhaustion cannot again be set in opposition.

Universal Guardian speaks of self and no-self, taking Guardian of Virtue’s self and what belongs to self still deeper. The sūtra asks: if self cannot be apprehended, how could non-self be apprehended? Seeing the true nature of self, one no longer gives rise to duality between self and no-self.

Lightning Deity speaks of understanding and ignorance. The sūtra proceeds from the true nature of ignorance being understanding to saying that understanding itself cannot be grasped. Understanding and ignorance both leave all counting; within them is equality without duality. The point of this answer lies not at either end of understanding and ignorance, but in true nature, non-grasping, and equality.

Joyful Vision speaks of the five aggregates and emptiness. Form itself is empty; emptiness does not appear only after form ceases, for the nature of form is itself empty. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise. Emptiness is not another thing left behind after the five aggregates end; it is the true nature of the five aggregates here and now. Luminous Mark then speaks of the prior, later, and middle limits as empty through the four elements and the element of space. The elements cannot be divided into fixed separate natures, and the three times cannot establish an unchanging position for them.

Wondrous Mind returns contemplation to the contact of faculties and objects occurring every day: eye and form, ear and sound, nose and scent, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and dharmas. If greed, anger, and delusion arise as soon as faculty and object meet, dual division is not merely a concept but becomes affliction. Knowing the true nature of the faculty and giving rise to neither greed, anger, nor delusion toward the object is what the sūtra calls quiescent cessation. This does not shut down the six faculties; within the six faculties and six objects, it denies the three poisons any footing.

From the Six Perfections to Attainment: Even Practice, the Three Jewels, and the Three Karmas Cannot Abide in Marks

Inexhaustible Intention first asks: Is giving one thing and dedication to omniscience another? If giving and dedication to omniscience are cut into two sections, there is duality. The true nature of giving is the true nature of dedication to omniscience; the same is true of ethical discipline, patience, diligent effort, meditation, and wisdom. This does not cancel the sequence of the six perfections. It says that, in true nature, the six perfections and that toward which they are directed are not divided into two sections.

Profound Wisdom speaks of the three gates of liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. Emptiness is signlessness, and signlessness is wishlessness. If there are emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, there is no mind, mentation, or consciousness. The sūtra concludes by saying that one gate of liberation is all three gates of liberation; the three are not established as three externally separate entrances.

Quiescent Faculties speaks of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. Although the Three Jewels differ in name, the sūtra says that Buddha is Dharma, Dharma is Saṅgha, all Three Jewels bear the mark of the unconditioned and are equal to space, and all dharmas are likewise. This does not erase the names and functions of the Three Jewels; it does not cut their true marks into three unrelated entities.

Unobstructed Mind speaks of body and the cessation of body. If one sees the true mark of body, one raises neither a view of body nor a view of its cessation. Body and the cessation of body are nondual and indiscriminate, and within this one is neither startled nor afraid. The sūtra places the view of body, the view of bodily cessation, and fear within the same answer. Here nonduality addresses not only terms but also being neither startled nor afraid.

Supreme Goodness says that the bodily, verbal, and mental karmas all bear an unfabricated mark: the unfabricated mark of bodily karma is the unfabricated mark of verbal karma; that of verbal karma is that of mental karma; and that of the three karmas is the unfabricated mark of all dharmas. Field of Merit then says that the true nature of meritorious, wrongful, and imperturbable action is empty. Within emptiness the three kinds of action are not separately established, and one does not give rise to them.

Floral Adornment traces the root of dual division to its arising from self. When duality arises from self, there are dual dharmas; seeing the true mark of self, dual dharmas do not arise. If one does not abide in dual dharmas, there is no cognition; with nothing cognized, there is entry into nonduality. Treasury of Virtue follows with the shortest answer: the mark of attainment is duality; with non-attainment, there is neither taking nor rejecting. From “self” to “attainment,” the sūtra illuminates a single line along which dual division is formed.

From Darkness and Light to Real and Unreal: The Final Four Answers Loosen Both Release and View

Moon-Supreme uses the absorption of the cessation of perception and feeling to speak of darkness and light. Within the absorption there is no difference between darkness and light, and the marks of all dharmas are likewise. Through this simile, the sūtra speaks of entering them in equality. This is an explicit simile among the thirty-one answers, returning the duality of darkness and light to equality.

Jeweled Seal-Hand returns to delighting in nirvāṇa and not delighting in the world. If there were bondage, liberation would then be separately spoken of. If there is originally no bondage, who is seeking liberation? Without bondage or liberation, there is neither delight nor aversion. The sūtra does not tell people to cling to the world; it refuses to abide even in the dual division of “detesting this side and delighting in that one.” The question of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is first addressed through its nature by Excellent Intention, and here again through the practitioner’s delight and aversion.

Jewel-Crown King speaks of the right path and the wrong path. One who abides in the right path no longer discriminates this as wrong and that as right. Leaving the two marks of wrong and right is entry into the dharma-gate of nonduality.

Delighting in Reality speaks last, of the real and unreal. One who truly sees the true mark does not even take “the real” as an object before the eyes; how much less could such a person see an “unreal”? What the eye of wisdom sees is not an object before the physical eye, yet this eye of wisdom neither sees nor does not see. At the end of the thirty-one answers, even “I see reality” is loosened. If reality becomes an object that can be seen, attained, and held, the real and unreal once more stand as two sides.

Why Does Mañjuśrī Still Need to Answer?

The thirty-one have each already spoken of nonduality. What is still missing? Mañjuśrī adds no thirty-second pair of dharmas. He turns toward the act of teaching itself: with respect to all dharmas, no words, no discourse, no indication, no cognition, and departure from all questions and answers. With no words, terms no longer establish a graspable dharma. With no discourse, no formulation fixes it. With no indication, no mark is pointed out for someone to grasp. With no cognition, no discriminating subject is established. Leaving questions and answers, even the opposition between questioner and respondent is released.

This answer does not say that the preceding thirty-one bodhisattvas should never have spoken. Without those answers, we would not see how dual dharmas extend across arising and cessation, self and what belongs to self, good and evil, form and emptiness, faculties and objects, practice, the Three Jewels, the three karmas, nirvāṇa, and the right path. Mañjuśrī’s role is to bring all statements to their own limit. Speech can point out the road, but it cannot turn nonduality into something contained by speech.

Why Does Vimalakīrti Remain Silent?

After Mañjuśrī finishes, he turns and asks Vimalakīrti. The sūtra records only that Vimalakīrti remained silent and said nothing. If this were merely a failure to answer, Mañjuśrī would not immediately say “excellent” twice, nor would he say that only when there are no words or speech is there true entry into the dharma-gate of nonduality. The sūtra’s praise determines the point: this silence is not an omission, but the addition of no further answer that can be spoken, indicated, or cognized.

Each of the thirty-one preceding answers has a concluding statement, and Mañjuśrī likewise concludes in a sentence. When Vimalakīrti’s turn comes, the sūtra records only silence; the conclusion is supplied by Mañjuśrī’s praise. The three movements—many statements, no discourse, and silence—do not cancel one another. In sequence, they bring the marks of dharmas, verbal discourse, and words and speech to the point where nothing further is established.

At the chapter’s end, the five thousand bodhisattvas attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, bringing the entire chapter back to the first answer. Mastery in Dharma began with arising and cessation and said that dharmas originally do not arise; the assembly finally attains acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas within the dharma-gate of nonduality. This correspondence between beginning and end shows that silence does not abandon the meaning of the Dharma. Rather, every preceding contemplation has reached the point where arising and cessation, speech, and questions and answers are no longer established.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension alone. When the ancient masters read the same narrative arc, each illuminated it with a mirror. A mirror can reveal its patterns, but it cannot replace the sūtra. The three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented here as two paths, each returned to its own recension, without using either mirror to adjudicate the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Dispelling Duality without Abiding in One, from Words to No Words

Kumārajīva first asks on the reader’s behalf: Since there are three, four, and even immeasurable Dharma-gates, why speak only of nonduality? His answer proceeds through dependent origination and the dispelling of grasping: the arising of the myriad dharmas requires at least two conditions, so the work begins with duality; 「二法既廢則入於玄境。」 — “Once those two dharmas are relinquished, one enters the profound realm.” Yet one must not establish one after dispelling duality. He further says, 「若以一為一，亦未離於二，遣二則一斯盡矣。」 — “If one takes one to be one, one has still not left duality; when duality is dispelled, the one is exhausted along with it.” What this mirror illuminates is not an escape from two into one; neither two nor one can be a place of abiding.

Sengzhao regards the thirty-one answers as proceeding from different causes while meeting without difference, then reads the entire chapter as three levels of conduct: the bodhisattvas place words upon the marks of dharmas, Mañjuśrī has words about no words, and Vimalakīrti has no words about no words. He marks the final turn with 「有言於無言，未若無言於無言，所以默然也。」 — “Speaking about no words does not equal having no words about no words; this is why he remains silent.” Daosheng states the danger even more directly: if there were a nonduality that could be spoken, it would again become a nonduality opposed to duality. Vimalakīrti’s silence shows that speech is not real, and Daosheng therefore asks, 「言若果實，豈可默哉？」 — “If speech were truly real, how could one remain silent?” All three masters give the thirty-one answers, Mañjuśrī’s statement, and Vimalakīrti’s silence their respective places; they do not erase the preceding statements with a single stroke.

The Ci’en Mirror: Discrimination, Grasper and Grasped, and Correct Wisdom Realizing Truth

Kuiji’s commentary follows Xuanzang’s recension, in which the personal names differ from those of Kumārajīva’s recension. The different names are detailed in the Apparatus; this layer continues to use Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī. Kuiji first distinguishes speaking of nonduality from entering nonduality. The thirty-one bodhisattvas proceed from discriminating attachment toward the principle free of discrimination; the corresponding Mañjuśrī passage points from verbal discourse toward the Dharma-nature apart from words; and the corresponding Vimalakīrti passage concerns correct wisdom realizing truth. For the thirty-one answers, he preserves both an emptiness-principle reading and a Yogācāra reading. The general statement of the Yogācāra path is: 「所執依他有二，圓成真如實無有二。」 — “The imagined and the other-dependent are dual; the perfected suchness is truly nondual.” At the three gates of liberation, he further says, 「所取無故，能取亦無。」 — “Because the grasped is absent, the grasper is likewise absent.”

If one uses later customary indices to gather this path under the phrase “a Yogācāra reading through the three natures, the twofold grasping, and transformation of the basis,” that editorial gathering must still be kept separate from the commentary’s actual words. The commentary on this chapter actually writes of the imagined, the other-dependent, the perfected, the grasped, and the grasper; it does not establish a heading by joining the four expressions “three natures,” “twofold grasping,” “transformation of the basis,” and “Yogācāra contemplation.” At the principal figure’s silence, it writes: 「故默無說，以智冥真，名入不二，最為深極。」 — “He therefore remains silent and speaks no discourse; merging with truth through wisdom is called entry into nonduality and is the deepest and most ultimate.” This exposition therefore follows the commentary’s actual terms, observing how discrimination and grasper and grasped cease and how correct wisdom realizes truth, without passing off later indexing language as the ancient text.

Both mirrors see levels among the thirty-one answers, Mañjuśrī’s answer, and Vimalakīrti’s silence, but they explain them in different vocabularies. One emphasizes dispelling duality without abiding in one, and words and no words; the other emphasizes discrimination, grasper and grasped, and correct wisdom realizing truth. The two paths shine side by side. They need not be synthesized into one system, nor need either be judged the sole true meaning of the chapter.

What this chapter truly leaves for later transmission is not merely the phrase “Vimalakīrti’s silence,” but a complete reading path. First, learn not to abide in either side among the thirty-one pairs of dharmas; next, see that speech itself cannot be a place of abiding; finally, do not turn silence into a new view. The Kumārajīva line preserves the prajñā blade; the Ci’en line preserves the principle of discrimination and realization. The sūtra remains centered between the two mirrors, allowing later readers to enter by either sourced path without letting the light of one lineage obscure that of the other.

「我土如來無文字說，但以眾香令諸天、人得入律行。」— “The Tathāgata of our land teaches without written words; he uses only myriad fragrances to enable gods and humans to enter disciplined conduct.” With this statement from the bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances, fragrance ceases to be merely an adornment of the land and becomes the Buddha’s work that brings beings into discipline and samādhi. Yet when they ask in return how the Sahā world teaches, Vimalakīrti answers with a different scene: 「此土眾生剛強難化，故佛為說剛強之語以調伏之。」— “The sentient beings of this land are forceful and difficult to teach, so the Buddha speaks forceful words in order to tame them.” On one side is smelling fragrance; on the other are painful and direct words. One does not teach through writing, while the other explains causes and results, ethical discipline, wrong, and right item by item.

The chapter does not rank the two lands as higher and lower. Before the nine million bodhisattvas depart, Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation first instructs them to draw in their fragrance, relinquish their forms, and harbor no contempt. Vimalakīrti, in turn, sets out the ten wholesome dharmas and eight forms of bodhisattva conduct in Sahā. The question is therefore not merely, “Through what medium does a buddha teach?” It is how bodhisattvas, facing different lands and different sentient beings, make everything seen, heard, and eaten into the Buddha’s work of benefiting beings.

Beginning with a Desire to Eat, the Scripture Turns Food into the Buddha’s Work

Śāriputra first thinks of something very practical: noon is approaching; where will these bodhisattvas eat? Vimalakīrti does not deny the assembly’s need to receive food, but first places the eight liberations beside the desire to eat. If, while hearing the Dharma, the mind is pulled by a craving for food, eating is no longer merely the support of life. It becomes an entrance for observing the mind’s activity.

Vimalakīrti immediately promises food never had before. He enters samādhi and enables the assembly to see the land of Myriad Fragrances beyond buddha-lands as numerous as the sands of forty-two Ganges Rivers: fragrance makes its towers, walking grounds, and parks; the fragrance of its food flows through the ten directions; Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation is eating with the bodhisattvas; and the sons of gods named Fragrant Adornment are making offerings. None of this is only for the assembly to view from afar. Vimalakīrti orders a transformed bodhisattva to request what remains of the Buddha’s meal and states the purpose plainly: bring it to Sahā to perform the Buddha’s work, enable those who delight in a lesser Dharma to promote the great Way, and cause the Tathāgata’s renown to be heard everywhere.

Thus the meaning of the fragrant rice is already fixed when it is requested. It is to enter Sahā, enter the bodies and minds of sentient beings, and enter an exchange initiated by food. If one remembers only that the land was fragrant and the rice miraculous, one misses Vimalakīrti’s own words: “perform the Buddha’s work.”

Before the Rice Is Requested, the Two Sides First Ask Who the Other Is

After revealing the land of Myriad Fragrances, Vimalakīrti asks which bodhisattva can fetch the rice. The assembly remains silent through Mañjuśrī’s spiritual power. Vimalakīrti challenges them with shame, and Mañjuśrī answers by saying not to slight those who have not yet trained. The scripture does not say that all who remain silent lack the ability, nor does Vimalakīrti appoint another bodhisattva from the gathering. Without rising from his seat, he creates a transformed bodhisattva with excellent marks, light, and surpassing majesty, and orders him to carry a complete inquiry after the Buddha’s well-being.

When the transformed bodhisattva reaches Myriad Fragrances, its great beings immediately ask three questions: Where does the visitor come from? Where is the Sahā world? What does “those who delight in a lesser Dharma” mean? Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation first explains Sahā, Śākyamuni Buddha, and the evil age of five corruptions, then explains that Vimalakīrti abides in the inconceivable liberation and teaches bodhisattvas. When those bodhisattvas ask again about Vimalakīrti’s power, Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation answers that he sends transformations throughout all worlds of the ten directions to perform the Buddha’s work and benefit sentient beings.

Thus, before one side gives away the rice, it hears about the other side’s Buddha, land, sentient beings, and bodhisattva. Before the other side welcomes nine million bodhisattvas, it lets the local assembly see their land with its own eyes. Requesting rice is not the transport of an object from afar. It first allows the two lands’ assemblies to see one another through questions and answers. The three admonitions follow just before this encounter is carried into action.

Three Admonitions before Departure Protect Both the Visitors and the Sentient Beings of This Land

Nine million bodhisattvas in the world of Myriad Fragrances wish to follow the transformed bodhisattva to Sahā. Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation allows them to go, but first gives three admonitions.

First, draw in the fragrance of your bodies so that Sahā’s sentient beings do not become confused and attached to a scent they have never encountered. Second, relinquish your original forms so that those in this land who seek the bodhisattva path do not see the visitors’ splendor and come to despise themselves. Third, once in Sahā do not harbor contempt, for that would create an obstructive perception of the land.

The three admonitions point in different directions. The first two care for the confusion, attachment, self-abasement, and shame that might arise in the sentient beings of Sahā. The third directly restrains the visitors, forbidding them to measure another land through the fragrance and forms of their own. Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation then says that the lands of the ten directions are all like empty space, and that the buddhas do not fully reveal their pure lands when teaching those who delight in a lesser Dharma. The scripture therefore does not make purity and impurity grounds for mutual contempt.

This also resolves a tempting misreading: Sahā’s appearing less pure than Myriad Fragrances does not mean Śākyamuni Buddha has less power. The bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances later praise him precisely for concealing his immeasurable powers of mastery and liberating beings through the Dharma they delight in. The land as manifested and what sentient beings receive are always discussed within teaching and transformation.

How Can One Bowl of Rice Satisfy the Assembly without Diminishing?

When the fragrant rice reaches Vimalakīrti’s house, its scent first pervades Vaiśālī and the great trichiliocosm. Brahmans, householders, the eighty-four thousand people led by Moon Canopy, earth spirits, spirits of empty space, and gods of the desire and form realms all follow the fragrance. Before the rice enters anyone’s mouth, its fragrance gathers an assembly scattered through the city and the realms.

Vimalakīrti invites Śāriputra and the other śrāvakas to eat, calling it the Tathāgata’s ambrosial rice, pervaded by great compassion, and saying it must not be eaten with a limited mind. One śrāvaka sees only one bowl and a vast assembly and concludes that the rice is little and the people many. The transformed bodhisattva redirects that measurement toward the Tathāgata’s merit and wisdom: the four oceans may run dry, but the rice cannot be exhausted; even if everyone took portions as large as Mount Sumeru and ate for an eon, it would not run out.

The scripture further connects the inexhaustible rice to five virtues: ethical discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation. It is what remains of food eaten by one complete in these merits, so everyone is satisfied while the rice does not diminish. Those who eat become physically joyful and emit fragrance from their pores. From being pervaded by great compassion, through immeasurable merit and wisdom, to the five virtues, the scripture does not allow the rice’s inexhaustibility to become merely a marvel of quantity. It expressly ties the power within one bowl—available for use yet impossible to exhaust—to the Tathāgata’s virtues.

The scripture records Śāriputra’s thought, 「日時欲至，此諸菩薩當於何食？」— “The time of day is drawing near; where will these bodhisattvas eat?” It also records another śrāvaka’s thought, 「是飯少，而此大眾人人當食。」— “This rice is little, while everyone in this great assembly is to eat.” When inviting them to eat, Vimalakīrti first speaks of great compassion; when answering the doubt, the transformed bodhisattva then speaks of the five virtues. Together the two passages lead the mind receiving food away from narrow measurement.

Fragrance and Speech Can Both Bring Beings into Discipline; What Is Appropriate Differs

The land of Myriad Fragrances does not teach through written words. Fragrance enables gods and humans to enter disciplined conduct. Each bodhisattva sits beneath a fragrant tree and, upon smelling the scent, attains the Samādhi Treasury of All Virtues. By attaining it, the bodhisattva becomes complete in virtue. Here fragrance is not only a source of physical and mental ease; it is joined to discipline, concentration, and the fulfillment of virtue.

When first revealing Myriad Fragrances, the chapter expressly says 「唯有清淨大菩薩眾，佛為說法。」— “There is only a pure assembly of great bodhisattvas, to whom the Buddha teaches the Dharma.” Later the bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances say that the Tathāgata teaches 「無文字說」— “without written words.” Both statements occur in this chapter. The scripture neither deletes the first nor changes the second into a complete absence of the Buddha’s work. The distinction specially marked here is therefore between written words and myriad fragrances: Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation indeed teaches the Dharma to bodhisattvas, while fragrance is the point of entry through which gods and humans enter discipline and bodhisattvas attain concentration.

Teaching in Sahā proceeds item by item. Vimalakīrti first lists hells, animals, hungry ghosts, difficult conditions, and places where foolish people are born; then bodily, verbal, and mental wrong conduct and their results. The ten unwholesome actions and six things that obstruct wholesome practice are each linked to their results. Next, the establishment, observance, and violation of precepts, what should and should not be done, and obstruction and non-obstruction, offense and departure from offense, purity and defilement, outflows and their absence, wrong and right paths, conditioned and unconditioned, and world and nirvāṇa are stated pair by pair.

Why speak with such density? The scripture answers directly: the minds of those difficult to teach are like monkeys and must be controlled through various dharmas before they can be tamed. They are also like refractory and untrained elephants and horses, which must undergo painful discipline before becoming compliant. The long series of forceful statements is therefore not a set of disciplinary rules detached from the chapter. It answers how sentient beings of this land enter disciplined conduct. Myriad Fragrances enters discipline through fragrance; Sahā enters it through painful, itemized speech. The skillful means differ, not the aim of bringing beings under discipline and into practice.

The exchange between the lands also prevents readers from imagining teaching only through what they themselves know. Sentient beings in Sahā are accustomed to written words, but Myriad Fragrances enters through scent. The bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances are accustomed to subtle fragrance and only upon reaching Sahā hear the dense language of causes, results, and ethical discipline. Myriad Fragrances enters discipline through fragrance; this land tames through forceful speech. The scripture has the bodhisattvas of both lands ask each other about the transformative means they employ.

A Land Difficult to Teach Produces Not Only Painful Speech but Ten Kinds of Benefit

After hearing about forceful speech, the bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances first praise Śākyamuni Buddha for concealing his power of mastery and then praise the bodhisattvas of this land for laboring humbly and being born in this buddha-land through immeasurable great compassion. Vimalakīrti confirms that their great compassion toward sentient beings is firm and says that the benefit they bring in one lifetime exceeds the other land’s practice over a hundred thousand eons. The scripture immediately explains this “benefit” through ten wholesome dharmas.

Where there is poverty, they embrace through generosity; where prohibitions are violated, through pure ethical discipline; where there is anger, through patience; where there is laziness, through diligence; where the mind is distracted, through meditative concentration; and where there is delusion, through wisdom. The first six are not an abstract list of six virtues. Each wholesome dharma faces a present deficiency in sentient beings.

The final four likewise face sentient beings: teaching Dharma that removes difficulty to those in the eight difficult conditions, transforming those who delight in the Lesser Vehicle through Great Vehicle Dharma, aiding those without virtue through wholesome roots, and always bringing sentient beings to fulfillment through the four means of gathering. Whatever gap appears in a land difficult to teach, bodhisattvas meet it with the corresponding wholesome dharma. In saying that these ten are absent from other pure lands, the scripture does not praise poverty, violation, anger, or delusion. It reveals the practice bodhisattvas undertake amid such sentient beings.

Thus, when the chapter returns from the fragrant land to Sahā, it does not leave only the statement, “Our world is painful.” It says specifically how bodhisattvas here benefit sentient beings: generosity embraces poverty, pure discipline embraces violation, patience embraces anger, diligence embraces laziness, meditative concentration embraces distraction, wisdom embraces delusion, Dharma removing difficulties liberates those in the eight difficult conditions, Great Vehicle Dharma liberates those who delight in the Lesser Vehicle, wholesome roots aid those without virtue, and the four means of gathering constantly bring sentient beings to fulfillment.

To Be Born in a Pure Land, First Observe How One Treats People in This Land

The bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances finally ask how many dharmas bodhisattvas must accomplish in order to practice without blemish in this world and be born in a pure land. Vimalakīrti answers with eight dharmas, each correcting the relationship between bodhisattvas and sentient beings or between bodhisattvas and themselves.

Benefit sentient beings without hoping for repayment; take on all sentient beings’ suffering and give them all the merit one has made. These first two remove the calculation, “I helped someone, so that person owes me.”

Hold an equal mind toward sentient beings while keeping oneself humble and unobstructed; regard bodhisattvas as buddhas; hear scriptures never heard before without doubting; do not oppose śrāvakas. These four do not allow bodhisattvas to slight other bodhisattvas because of what they themselves have learned or practiced, to doubt merely because a scripture is new to them, or to set themselves against śrāvakas.

When others receive offerings, do not become jealous; when one gains benefit, do not become arrogant; amid both, tame one’s own mind. Finally, constantly examine one’s own faults, do not dispute the shortcomings of others, and single-mindedly seek virtue. The eight dharmas begin by not seeking repayment from sentient beings and close by turning the gaze back upon oneself. Practicing without blemish concerns not only where one will be born in the future, but how one receives offerings, sees others, hears Dharma, and examines faults at this very moment.

The Benefits at the Chapter’s Close Return Fragrant Rice to Setting the Mind on Awakening and Attaining Acceptance

As Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī teach these dharmas among the assembly, a hundred thousand gods and humans set their minds on unsurpassed perfect awakening, and ten thousand bodhisattvas attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. The scripture uses the temporal phrase “at that time” to place the two kinds of benefit side by side; it does not make one the cause of the other.

The chapter begins with Śāriputra thinking of food and ends with minds set on awakening and attainment of acceptance of non-arising. Between them, one bowl of rice truly satisfies the assembly, but it also brings the bodhisattvas of Myriad Fragrances to Sahā, brings the city’s people, spirits, and gods into one room, and brings the two lands’ different transformative methods into one exchange. The fragrance flows not only through space. The Buddha’s work it performs comes to rest in setting the mind on awakening, taming, the ten wholesome dharmas, and the eight dharmas of practice.

Both Mirrors Shining

The exposition above has followed only Kumārajīva’s scripture in this chapter. Reading the same chapter, ancient masters separately illuminated the desire for food, great compassion, teaching without written words, forceful speech, the ten dharmas, and the eight dharmas with different textures. The following sets the three teachers of Kumārajīva’s lineage beside the Faxiang line, returning each route to its own scripture. Neither mirror is made master of the scripture, and neither judges the other.

Kumārajīva-Lineage Mirror: From Desire for Food to the Great Way, from Limited Measure to Great Compassion

Explaining Śāriputra’s thought of food, Kumārajīva places three intentions side by side: the body still needs support, delight in Dharma is not deep, and he infers from his own need that the assembly likewise has one. Sengzhao instead treats Śāriputra as leader of the assembly, whose thought repeatedly initiates discussion. Daosheng separately says the disciples have their own practice of begging for food. The three illuminate different aspects of the same thought without being merged into one exclusive motive.

On food never had before, Kumārajīva attends to enabling the assembly to see a pure land and using fragrant rice to promote the intent of the Way. Daosheng says, 「常食是生欲法也，除欲食為未曾有食矣。」— “Ordinary food gives rise to desire; food that removes desire is food never had before.” One side reveals the Buddha’s work accomplished by food, while the other reveals how the mind’s desire for food is turned.

For “pervaded by great compassion,” Kumārajīva distinguishes the result of great compassion, what the compassionate mind attends to, and what is viewed with loving eyes. Daosheng says that because the rice comes from great compassion it has no limit. Sengzhao says, 「此飯大悲之果，悲意所設、悲心所興」— “This rice is the fruit of great compassion, established by compassionate intent and raised by the compassionate mind,” and explains digesting the benefactor’s kindness by receiving food with the mind set on the Way. All three bring the limited mind back to the mind of the recipient, though each attends to a different point.

On teaching without written words, Kumārajīva says there may be a cause that communicates teaching with the efficacy of speech. Sengzhao says that the land is not wholly without language but takes fragrance as the basis for communicating the Way. For forceful speech, Kumārajīva distinguishes gentle and wholesome, forceful, and mixed teaching; Sengzhao gathers it up with 「聖化何常？隨物而應耳。」— “How could the sages’ transformation be fixed? It responds in accordance with beings.” Under the ten wholesome dharmas, Kumārajīva uses a good physician broadly dispensing Dharma medicine to illuminate a land difficult to teach, while Sengzhao says, 「行不在久，貴其有益焉。」— “Practice is not valued for being long; what matters is benefit,” illuminating one lifetime and a hundred thousand eons. This route emphasizes turning desire for food into Dharma food and limited measure into great compassion while preserving the commentators’ distinct readings.

Faxiang Mirror: Five-Part Analysis, Three Protective Admonitions, and Concentration Giving Rise to Wisdom

Following Xuanzang, Kuiji divides the chapter into five: Śāriputra thinks of food; Vimalakīrti rebukes and restrains him; he orders a messenger to go seek Dharma; the food is obtained and brought back; and the assembly benefits. For the bodhisattvas’ silence, he places four intentions side by side: a guest should not go, great beings seek Dharma rather than wealth and food, bodhisattvas are shown to be unstained by food, and Vimalakīrti’s supernormal power is displayed. These four belong only to the Faxiang mirror and do not cover Sengzhao’s statement that Mañjuśrī wished to reveal Vimalakīrti’s virtue.

Kuiji divides Buddha Fragrance-Accumulation’s admonition before departure into drawing in fragrance, concealing visible form, and not forming an inferior perception. The first two prevent sentient beings in this land from intoxication, confusion, attachment, and shame. The third prevents the visitors from slighting the land and thereby obstructing themselves and others. He further develops a reading through the Dharma-nature land and recompense land from the statement that lands are like empty space. This route follows Xuanzang’s text. Alternate names remain in separate columns in the apparatus; this layer continues to call the figures Vimalakīrti and Mañjuśrī rather than importing Xuanzang’s names into reader-facing prose.

Under the inexhaustible rice, he treats ethical discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation as its boundless causes. Under fragrance as Dharma, he reads smelling fragrance as attaining concentration and concentration as the basis from which wisdom arises, explaining the Samādhi Adorned with All Virtues. He divides forceful speech into four sections—evil destinies, the three kinds of action, the ten courses of action, and the six obstructions—followed by twenty pairs. He reads the first six of the ten wholesome dharmas as the six perfections embracing the six obstructions, with the final four separately illuminating the eight difficult conditions, delight in the lesser, unplanted wholesome roots, and the four means of gathering. The eight dharmas then proceed from not hoping for repayment and taking on suffering while dedicating merit through taming one’s own mind and seeking the factors of awakening.

The Kumārajīva-lineage mirror reads desire for food, great compassion, fragrance as Dharma, and response in accordance with beings through Kumārajīva’s scripture. The Faxiang mirror reads a five-part structure, three admonitions, concentration and wisdom, and a classification of evil causes and results through Xuanzang’s scripture. Both read fragrant rice as an activity benefiting sentient beings and a land difficult to teach as the place of bodhisattva practice, yet each retains its own scripture, terms, and explanations. The chapter’s reception therefore does not melt the two paths into one. It lets readers see different ancient meanings reflected in the same bowl of rice while the scripture remains centered between the mirrors, its own sequence undiminished by either one’s light.

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.

「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.

King Jeweled Canopy makes offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata for a full five kalpas, then has his thousand sons each make offerings with a profound mind for another full five kalpas. Everything required for the Buddha’s ease has been presented, and the length of time is almost unimaginable. Yet it is precisely then that Moon Canopy sits alone and reflects: 「寧有供養殊過此者？」 — “Is there an offering that surpasses this?” This question does not suggest that the earlier offerings were too small. Just before this, the sūtra said that if Tathāgatas filled the three-thousand great-thousand world-system and received offerings for a kalpa, and if after their extinction a seven-jeweled stūpa were built for each of them, even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the resulting merit. Moon Canopy’s question is this: beyond such vast and enduring offerings, is there an offering that can more fully carry forward the Dharma realized by the Buddha?

The god in the sky answers: 「法之供養勝諸供養。」 — “The offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings.” But what does it mean to make an offering through the Dharma? Does it mean possessing a sūtra, reciting it fluently, explaining it to others, or practicing it oneself? Medicine-King Tathāgata’s answer does not select only one of these. He first describes the profound sūtra to which the offering is made, then speaks of hearing, retaining, explaining, and protecting it, and finally names practice in accordance with what is taught, contemplation of dependent origination, the four reliances, and no longer giving rise to views as the supreme offering of Dharma. By answering over the course of an entire passage, the sūtra turns “the offering of Dharma” from a phrase of praise into a path that can be walked.

The Sūtra First Acknowledges the Weight of Material Offerings

This chapter compares material offerings with the offering of Dharma without calling material offerings useless. The Buddha’s comparison is immense: the three-thousand great-thousand world-system is filled with Tathāgatas, as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. For one kalpa or slightly less than one kalpa, practitioners revere, honor, praise, and make offerings to them, presenting everything required for their ease. After the buddhas pass into extinction, the practitioners build a seven-jeweled stūpa for every set of full-body relics. Each stūpa extends in length and breadth across one four-continent world, rises as high as the Brahmā Heaven, and receives long-lasting offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music.

Śakra answers that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the full measure of this merit. When the Buddha then says that the merit of hearing, retaining, and practicing this sūtra is greater, He does not first reduce the earlier merit to zero. The comparison works precisely because both sides possess merit, while the awakening connected with the offering of Dharma cannot be measured.

Nor is this continuity broken in Moon Canopy’s own conduct. After hearing the Dharma from Medicine-King Tathāgata and attaining pliant acceptance, he still removes the jeweled robe adorning his body and offers it to the Buddha. Only then does he vow that after the Buddha’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. The jeweled robe is not discarded as an error. It is followed by the vow to protect the Dharma, showing that the sūtra does not ask people to disdain material giving in the name of Dharma, but carries offering into the deeper and more enduring work of protection and practice.

Why Can Retaining a Single Sūtra Be Called Making Offerings to the Buddhas of the Three Times?

The Buddha first says that this sūtra extensively teaches the inconceivable unsurpassed awakening of the buddhas of the past, future, and present. Therefore, to receive and retain, read and recite, and make offerings to this sūtra is to make offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present. He then says that the awakening of all buddhas is born from this Dharma and that, because the mark of awakening cannot be measured, the merit arising from it likewise cannot be measured.

The sūtra joins the buddhas to whom offerings are made with the Dharma that is received and retained. If offering is understood only as presenting articles before a Buddha, then after the buddhas pass into extinction only stūpas and relics seem to remain. This chapter goes further: receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and making offerings to this sūtra are themselves offerings to the buddhas of the three times, and the sūtra explains why by saying that the awakening of all buddhas arises from the Dharma. Hearing, retaining, practicing, and circulating the sūtra-Dharma thus stand in the same scriptural sequence as making offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present.

Śakra’s vow to protect the Dharma gives this principle concrete form. He vows that he and his retinue will make offerings to anyone who receives and retains, reads and recites, and practices in accordance with the teaching. Whether in a village, town, forest, or wilderness, wherever this sūtra is found, he will go there to hear the Dharma. He will cause those who do not yet trust it to give rise to trust and will protect those who already trust it. The offering of Dharma is therefore, from the outset, more than one individual’s inward activity. It also includes enabling the sūtra-Dharma to be heard, trusted, retained, and protected among sentient beings and across places.

How Does the Sūtra Itself Describe the “Profundity” of the Profound Sūtra?

When Moon Canopy asks what the offering of Dharma is, Medicine-King Tathāgata first answers that the object of the offering is the profound sūtra spoken by the buddhas. He does not stop after saying that it is “profound,” but proceeds item by item from its being difficult to trust and receive to what it can perfect and whom it can rescue.

First consider the sūtra itself. It is spoken by the buddhas; all the worlds find it difficult to trust and receive; it is subtle and difficult to see, pure and unstained, and cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought. It is embraced by the Dharma treasury of the bodhisattvas and sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī. The sūtra does not give “profound” a separate abstract definition. It successively places side by side difficulty of trust, reception, and vision; purity and freedom from stain; non-attainment through discrimination; embrace by the Dharma treasury; and sealing by dhāraṇī. The main exposition first preserves this explicit language rather than making any one item the sole explanation.

Next consider what it enables practitioners to perfect. It brings them to non-retrogression; enables them to perfect giving, ethical discipline, patience, diligent effort, meditation, and wisdom; makes them skillful in distinguishing meaning; and allows them to accord with the Dharma of awakening. It enables them to enter great loving-kindness and great compassion, leave affairs of Māra and wrong views behind, and accord with the Dharma of causes and conditions. The profound sūtra does not carry people away from sentient beings, but brings them into great compassion. Nor does it use emptiness to destroy dependent origination: it teaches no-self, no person, no sentient being, and no lifespan while also according with the Dharma of causes and conditions.

The sūtra further lists the principles it clarifies: emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising; the true mark of all dharmas; and impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and quiescent cessation. These principles do not stop as technical terms, because the text immediately continues by saying that the profound sūtra can enable sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma, gather the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones, and proclaim the path practiced by bodhisattvas.

Finally, consider its work for sentient beings and the world. It receives the shared praise of the assemblies of gods, nāgas, gandharvas, and the other classes; rescues sentient beings who have violated the precepts; makes the hosts of Māra, followers of outside paths, and those attached through greed afraid; and receives the praise of the buddhas and the worthy and holy ones. It enables people to turn away from the suffering of birth and death and see the bliss of nirvāṇa, and it is spoken by the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times. From being difficult to trust and see to rescuing those who have violated the precepts, and from the meaning of the true mark to enabling sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, the sūtra does not let “profound” become abstruse talk remote from people.

The Offering of Dharma Does Not Hide the Dharma Away, but Makes It Clear

Only after describing the profound sūtra does Medicine-King Tathāgata explain how to make an offering to this Dharma. The sūtra lists in order: hearing; trusting and understanding; receiving and retaining; reading and reciting; using the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings; making it clearly manifest; and protecting the true Dharma. Each step fills a gap that the preceding one could leave behind.

If one hears without trusting and understanding, the Dharma still seems merely to pass by the ear. If one trusts and understands without receiving and retaining, what was understood is not kept. If one receives and retains without reading and reciting, the Dharma is not made familiar through body and speech. If one reads and recites without explaining it to sentient beings, what was attained remains with oneself alone. If an explanation does not make the meaning clearly manifest, listeners may still fail to see its purport. If the meaning is explained clearly but not protected, the Dharma may still be obstructed in transmission. The seven items named by the sūtra lead from hearing it oneself all the way to enabling sentient beings to understand and the true Dharma to be protected.

Yet the sūtra does not say that explaining the Dharma clearly is the endpoint. The next sentence uses “further” to turn toward practice in accordance with what is taught. The ability to teach the Dharma and the ability to practice it are not two unrelated roads here. If the person who explains does not practice in accordance with what is taught, the Dharma that person protects has not been carried forward in that person’s own life. If the practitioner seeks only personal benefit and does not enable the profound sūtra to be heard, understood, and protected, the offering of Dharma described in this chapter likewise lacks its dimension of circulation.

Why Are No-Self and Cause, Condition, and Karmic Result Placed in the Same Sentence?

The supreme offering of Dharma first speaks of according with the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views behind, and attaining acceptance of non-arising. It then says decisively that there is no self and no sentient being, yet immediately follows this with “neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result.” The sūtra places no-self and no sentient being directly beside neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result.

“Neither contradicting nor disputing” first requires one to face cause, condition, and karmic result as they are, without setting one’s own views against dependent origination. “Leaving behind everything that belongs to self” then loosens grasping still further: there is no fixed self and no collection of dharmas eternally belonging to it. To speak of no-self in this way does not deny actions and their results. To speak of karmic results in this way does not solidify the one who experiences them into a permanent essence.

This passage corresponds to the earlier phrase “according with the Dharma of causes and conditions.” The emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising clarified by the profound sūtra do not render causes and conditions ineffective. The cause, condition, and karmic result seen in practice according to the teaching do not reestablish self, person, sentient being, or lifespan. What the offering of Dharma protects is a profound sūtra that accords with causes and conditions while leaving the marks of self and person behind.

Why Are All Four Reliances Listed Together?

The sūtra lists four pairs at once: rely on meaning, not on words; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; rely on sūtras of definitive meaning, not on sūtras of nondefinitive meaning; rely on Dharma, not on a person. Each pair has what should be relied upon and what should not, and their sequence is clear. The first three pairs are not folded into the final sentence, nor is “rely on Dharma, not on a person” left standing as a general name for all four.

These four pairs also appear after hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, explaining, making clear, protecting the Dharma, and practicing in accordance with what is taught. The earlier passage expressly says that one must explain and distinguish the Dharma for sentient beings and make it clearly manifest; the later passage simultaneously says to rely on meaning rather than words. The earlier passage says that the object of offering is the profound sūtra spoken by the buddhas; the later passage distinguishes sūtras of definitive meaning from those of nondefinitive meaning. What the main text can establish is the position and parallel form of these clauses within one answer. How meaning and words, wisdom and consciousness, the two kinds of sūtra, and Dharma and person should each be explained is left to the two mirrors of the ancient masters, each returned to its own reading.

The four reliances cannot be compressed here into a slogan of skillful means. They are four explicitly stated junctures within the supreme offering of Dharma, joined before and after to according with the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views, attaining acceptance of non-arising, neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result, leaving what belongs to self behind, and no longer giving rise to views. Readers must first preserve all four pairs given by the sūtra so that one pair does not stand in for the other three.

Having Spoken of Ultimate Extinction, Why Does the Sūtra Then Speak of Having No Mark of Exhaustion?

This chapter says that, by according with the characteristics of dharmas, there is no place of entry and no place of return. Because ignorance is ultimately extinguished, formations are likewise ultimately extinguished; through to this: because birth is ultimately extinguished, aging-and-death is likewise ultimately extinguished. The sūtra does not relist every intermediate link between “through to” and the final pair, and we do not fill out a different scriptural passage from memory. It actually writes ignorance and formations, birth and aging-and-death, using “through to” to carry the intermediate links. That is the limit of the verbatim scope.

Immediately afterward, the sūtra says that one contemplates the twelve links of dependent origination as “having no mark of exhaustion,” and only then says “one no longer gives rise to views.” Ultimate extinction, having no mark of exhaustion, and no longer giving rise to views appear consecutively and are all the explicit words of this chapter. If the exposition follows this sūtra alone, it must first preserve all three statements. It neither deletes having no mark of exhaustion on the basis of ultimate extinction, nor rewrites ultimate extinction on the basis of having no mark of exhaustion, nor selects a commentator’s explanation of the two statements in advance.

The sequence of this passage likewise cannot be broken apart: first, according with the twelve links of dependent origination and neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result; next, according with the characteristics of dharmas and having no place of entry or return; then ultimate extinction, having no mark of exhaustion, and no longer giving rise to views. The sūtra names this entire sequence the supreme offering of Dharma. How the ancient masters explain the appearance of “ultimate extinction” and “having no mark of exhaustion” in a single passage is left to the two mirrors at the end and is not poured into the main exposition beforehand.

How Does Moon Canopy Turn the Dharma He Has Heard into Protection of the Dharma?

After hearing the Dharma, Moon Canopy first attains pliant acceptance. He immediately removes his jeweled robe and offers it to the Buddha, then vows that after the Tathāgata’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. He does not merely say that he now understands the offering of Dharma to be superior to material offerings. What he asked about was the offering of Dharma, and what he vows is to practice that offering himself.

Medicine-King Tathāgata predicts that Moon Canopy will protect the city of Dharma in the final period. The following narrative explains step by step how this “city of Dharma” is protected. Moon Canopy leaves home in faith, cultivates wholesome dharmas, and through diligent effort soon attains the five superknowledges, the bodhisattva path, dhāraṇī, and uninterrupted eloquence. After the Buddha’s extinction, through the power of his superknowledges, retention, and eloquence, he spreads onward the Dharma-wheel for ten small kalpas. Protection does not mean hiding the Dharma away, but allowing the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata to continue unfolding.

The sūtra also records one by one the reach of this circulation: one million koṭis of people are established in non-retrogression from unsurpassed awakening, fourteen nayutas of people form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles, and immeasurable sentient beings are born in the heavens. Each of these three attainments is preserved separately and is not compressed into a single fruit. The result of Moon Canopy’s protection of the Dharma demonstrates precisely what the earlier description of the profound sūtra says: it can enable sentient beings to enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma, gather the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones, and proclaim the path practiced by bodhisattvas.

Why Does the Offering of Dharma Never Leave Sentient Beings Behind?

When Medicine-King Tathāgata describes the profound sūtra, He does not list only purity, the true mark, emptiness, and signlessness. He also says that the profound sūtra enables people to enter great compassion, enables sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, rescues sentient beings who have violated the precepts, and enables them to turn away from the suffering of birth and death and see the bliss of nirvāṇa. The more profound the meaning, the more clearly the sūtra lists its protection of sentient beings. The profound sūtra is not profound because it leaves sentient beings behind.

Nor does the sūtra stop at personal retention when it formally defines the offering of Dharma. Hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, and reading and reciting are immediately followed by using the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings, make it clearly manifest, and protect the true Dharma. “Skillful means” addresses different sentient beings; “make it clearly manifest” requires that the meaning heard truly become intelligible; “protect” sustains the Dharma so that it can continue to benefit those who come later. If the Dharma is merely stored by one person, none of these three steps has yet been completed.

Moon Canopy’s story extends this direction beyond the Buddha’s extinction. His superknowledges, retention, and eloquence do not end in personal enjoyment, but are used to spread onward the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata. The people he transforms then have distinct destinations: some are established in non-retrogression from unsurpassed awakening, some form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles, and some are born in the heavens. The sūtra does not restrict sentient beings to advancing toward a single result, but allows every group to receive its corresponding benefit through the protection and circulation of the Dharma.

Thus, from Śakra’s vow to go wherever the sūtra is found in order to hear the Dharma to Moon Canopy’s ten small kalpas of spreading the Dharma-wheel, the offering of this chapter always includes others. Practicing in accordance with what is taught and explaining it for sentient beings do not replace one another. The former keeps the Dharma from remaining only in one’s mouth; the latter keeps it from remaining in one person alone. With both aspects present, the offering of Dharma continues from the one who hears it to sentient beings who come later.

Why Does the Buddha Finally Say That Moon Canopy Was Himself?

At the end of the story, the Buddha reveals that King Jeweled Canopy has now become Jeweled Flame Tathāgata, that the thousand princes are the thousand buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa, and that the bhikṣu Moon Canopy was the Buddha Himself. The offering of Dharma is thus both the teaching given at that time by Medicine-King Tathāgata and the path that the Buddha personally heard, received, practiced, and protected in the past.

This revelation of identity joins the opening and closing of the chapter. At the opening, the sūtra says that receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and making offerings to this sūtra are offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present. At the end, the Buddha who teaches in the present points back to Moon Canopy, who protected the Dharma in the past. The buddhas of the three times and the offering of Dharma are not connected abstractly. In this account of a former life, the one who hears the Dharma, the one who protects it, and the one who becomes a buddha form one continuous path.

The chapter’s final exhortation is therefore not an additional slogan. Only after traversing the vastness of material offerings, the qualities and capacities of the profound sūtra, hearing and retaining and explaining, practice in accordance with what is taught, dependent origination, the four reliances, and Moon Canopy’s circulation of the Dharma does the Buddha say that the offering of Dharma is “highest and supreme, first and incomparable.” Truly making offerings to the Buddha does not mean only presenting precious things before the Buddha. It also means allowing the Dharma taught by the Buddha to become practice in oneself, become a Dharma that can be heard, understood, and retained among sentient beings, and still have protectors after the Buddha’s extinction who spread onward the Dharma-wheel He turned.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension alone. When the ancient masters read about material offerings, the offering of Dharma, the profound sūtra, the four reliances, dependent origination, and protection of the Dharma, each used a mirror to illuminate different patterns. Below, the three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented side by side. The former retains the distinct names of Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng; the latter keeps the Xuanzang recension on which it relies. The two paths bear equal witness, and neither mirror is used to judge the other.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Following the Scriptures, Spreading the True Dharma, and Conforming Inward Practice

Regarding the god in the sky’s statement that the offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings, Kumārajīva attends to the fact that the Buddha cultivated through accumulated kalpas fundamentally for the sake of sentient beings. If one follows the scriptures and practices in accordance with what is taught, the holy mind is pleased. He says: 「若奉順經典、如說修行，則稱悅聖心，乃真供養也。」 — “If one follows the scriptures and practices in accordance with what is taught, one accords with and delights the holy mind; this is the true offering.” Daosheng gathers the same juncture into one sentence: 「法供養者，行法即為供養也。」 — “As for the offering of Dharma, practicing the Dharma is itself the offering.” Both place offering in practice, but they do not use the same line of argument.

When Medicine-King Tathāgata formally begins His explanation, Kumārajīva first distinguishes the earlier long passage as praise of the profound sūtra and the later passage as clarification of receiving, retaining, proclaiming, and practicing it. Sengzhao distinguishes the two modes of practice: 「上以信解護持宣示弘布以為法養，今明內行應順為法供養也。」 — “Above, trusting and understanding, protecting and retaining, proclaiming and spreading were taken as the offering of Dharma; now the text clarifies that inward practice should conform, and this is the offering of Dharma.” The former expands the great Dharma; the latter makes one practice personally in accordance with what is taught. Daosheng further says that practice in accordance with the sūtra is the most profound aspect, and so it is explained separately. All three see the transition in the scriptural passage, while each retains his own wording.

For “cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought,” Kumārajīva retains two explanations: one in terms of the qualities of meditation and another in terms of true wisdom. Sengzhao approaches it through non-discrimination, while Daosheng says that one must accumulate merit before meeting the principle. For the four reliances, Sengzhao explains reliance on meaning rather than words with 「至義非言宣，尋言則失至。」 — “The ultimate meaning is not proclaimed by words; if one pursues the words, one loses the ultimate.” Daosheng emphasizes not chasing words, grasping their marks, and thereby obscuring the principle. Kumārajīva distinguishes at length between writing and meaning, consciousness and wisdom, nondefinitive and definitive meaning, and person and Dharma. To isolate any one of these as the sole answer would lose the many voices within this ancient commentary.

The same holds for the passage on dependent origination. Kumārajīva connects it with the Dharma as true reality under the four reliances. Sengzhao turns from non-arising to inexhaustibility and answers how ultimate extinction and having no mark of exhaustion can be spoken together with 「滅無所滅即是無盡義也。」 — “When extinction has nothing to extinguish, this is precisely the meaning of inexhaustibility.” Daosheng proceeds from “if birth does not exist, who then has extinction?” to explain no entry and no return. Regarding Moon Canopy’s attainment, Kumārajīva speaks of pliant wisdom and pliant trust, while Sengzhao speaks of a mind made gentle and wisdom made conforming, capable of receiving the true mark but not yet reaching non-arising. Only by retaining both explanations does this mirror transmit the three masters in their original form.

The Ci’en Mirror: What the Sūtra Can Do, Reliance on Teaching and Practice, and the Inexhaustibility of Dependent Origination

Opening the chapter according to Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first places it within the circulation section of praise and entrustment, then divides it into Śakra’s praise, the World-Honored One’s confirmation and restatement, and the account of the past that urges cultivation. He explains the chapter title by saying that material things sustain the body while Dharma nurtures the path. In comparing material offerings, he distinguishes offerings made while the Buddha is present from stūpa offerings made after the Buddha’s extinction. In explaining the superior merit of the offering of Dharma, he proceeds from the cause of unsurpassed awakening and the qualities of buddhahood. These are Ci’en classificatory terms and do not replace the question-and-answer spine of Kumārajīva’s chapter.

At Medicine-King Tathāgata’s teaching, Kuiji distinguishes the sūtra’s essential meaning from what it can do and presents the emptiness-principle and the principle that accords with reason as two parallel paths, deciding neither to the exclusion of the other. He then says: 「初明依教，多分地前行法供養；後明依行，多分十地行法供養。」 — “The first section clarifies reliance on the teaching and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced before the grounds; the later section clarifies reliance on practice and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced on the ten grounds.” Under reliance on teaching he lists hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading, reciting, reflecting, teaching others, and protecting the true Dharma through skillful means. Under reliance on practice he lists contemplation of dependent origination, acceptance of non-arising, no-self and no sentient being, neither contradicting nor disputing causes and conditions, leaving self and what belongs to self behind, the four reliances, and abandoning views. This mirror organizes the chapter’s long lists into levels of practice, but those levels remain the commentator’s classification.

For the four reliances, Kuiji separately explains that meaning can be relied upon, wisdom can determine, definitive meaning is clearly manifest, and Dharma can serve as a standard. When he reaches a sentence found only in Xuanzang’s recension, he writes: 「悟入真如無所攝藏，滅阿賴耶。」 — “Realize and enter suchness, in which nothing is stored or contained, and extinguish the ālaya.” Kumārajīva’s recension does not contain this sentence in this chapter. It is therefore marked here only as a Yogācāra reading within the Chinese recension on which the Ci’en commentary relies and is not inserted into the main scriptural exposition above.

Regarding the acceptance that accords with Dharma attained by Moon Canopy, Kuiji first associates it with the stage of decisive acceptance before the grounds, then uses the five acceptances to associate it with the acceptance of conformity, and finally says that either of the two explanations may be adopted. This edition likewise retains both. At the end of the chapter, Xuanzang’s recension has five expressions of supremacy, and Kuiji proposes two sets of correlations through the five-aggregate dharma-body and the four wisdoms. From the stage of acceptance to the five superlatives, the Ci’en mirror itself contains multiple readings. Recording them side by side is more faithful to the original commentary than choosing one on its behalf.

Both mirrors see that the offering of Dharma does not stop at material things or at oral recitation. The Kumārajīva line unfolds it through following, spreading, and inward practice; the Ci’en line unfolds it through reliance on teaching, reliance on practice, and the inexhaustibility of dependent origination. The former preserves the multiple voices of the three ancient commentators on Kumārajīva’s recension, while the latter preserves the levels of the Ci’en commentary on Xuanzang’s recension. The sūtra remains centered between the two mirrors: Moon Canopy asks about the Dharma, hears the Dharma, practices the Dharma, and protects the Dharma, until the Buddha identifies him as His own former self and allows the offering of Dharma to become a track of the Buddha-way that can be carried forward.

「我今以是無量億阿僧祇劫所集阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法，付囑於汝。」 — “I now entrust to you the Dharma of unsurpassed perfect awakening gathered over immeasurable kotis of asaṃkhyeya kalpas.” As the whole sūtra reaches its end, the World-Honored One does not open another new dialogue. Instead, he entrusts to Maitreya the Dharma of unsurpassed awakening gathered over immeasurable kalpas. The sūtra explicitly speaks of the latter age after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa and commands that it not be cut off. The question before the reader is therefore very practical: How can a sūtra be kept from being cut off in the future age?

This chapter’s answer is not merely to preserve the scroll. On one side, it writes of the Dharma being proclaimed and circulated widely; on the other, it writes of who accepts and retains it, who explains it, who guides others, and who protects it. At the same time, it points directly to the ways those who uphold the profound Dharma may injure themselves. Whether the sūtra can circulate is tested in the same chapter as the minds of those who hear the Dharma, the conduct of those who teach it, and their attitude toward new students.

Why Does the Entrustment First Point toward the Future Age?

The World-Honored One first says: 「如是輩經，於佛滅後末世之中，汝等當以神力廣宣流布於閻浮提，無令斷絕。」 — “After the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa, in the latter age, you must use your spiritual powers to proclaim and circulate sūtras of this kind widely throughout Jambudvīpa and not allow them to be cut off.” The time of the entrustment is explicitly the latter age after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa; the place is explicitly Jambudvīpa; and the actions are proclaiming widely, circulating, and not allowing the sūtras to be cut off. These three levels make “entrustment” not a ceremonial instruction but an explicit charge for the future.

Who in the future needs to hear it? The sūtra lists them one by one: good men, good women, devas, nāgas, ghosts and spirits, gandharvas, rākṣasas, and others. What they share is that they have raised the mind of unsurpassed awakening and delight in the great Dharma. If they do not hear sūtras of this kind, they lose wholesome benefit; if they can hear them, they give rise to faith and delight, regard them as rare, and receive and retain them upon the crown of their heads. The sūtra then adds one final instruction: explain them widely according to the benefit that sentient beings ought to gain. Circulation therefore means not only making the sound travel farther, but ensuring that what is taught truly corresponds to the benefit the listener can gain.

This passage begins before hearing the Dharma and continues through what follows the hearing. First comes raising the mind and delighting in the Dharma; then comes the fork between hearing and not hearing. After hearing come faith and delight, a sense of rarity, and receiving upon the crown of the head; only then does the passage turn to explaining widely for others. If only the word “circulation” remains, all these links are flattened.

Are Delighting in Literary Ornament and Being Able to Enter Deeply the Same Thing?

The World-Honored One next says: 「一者、好於雜句文飾之事；二者、不畏深義如實能入。」 — “The first delights in the business of miscellaneous phrasing and literary ornament; the second does not fear profound meaning and can enter it as it truly is.” The sūtra does not first rank two identity labels as higher and lower. It first gives two recognizable marks: one places what it delights in upon miscellaneous phrasing and literary ornament; the other does not fear profound meaning and enters it as it truly is.

How can “being able to enter” be recognized? This chapter immediately gives a complete sequence: one has no fear before profound sūtras that are undefiled and unattached and can enter them; after hearing, one’s mind is pure; one then accepts and retains, reads and recites; and one next practices according to what is taught. From fearlessness to entry, from hearing to purity of mind, and from accepting and retaining and reading and reciting to practicing according to the teaching—if any link is missing, it cannot substitute for the long cultivation of the Way described by the sūtra.

The sūtra lists two marks of a bodhisattva. The first is delighting in the business of miscellaneous phrasing and literary ornament; the second is not fearing profound meaning and being able to enter it as it truly is. The sūtra identifies one who delights in miscellaneous phrasing and literary ornament as a bodhisattva new to the training. One who has no fear before profound sūtras that are undefiled and unattached, can enter them, becomes pure in mind after hearing, accepts and retains, reads and recites, and practices according to what is taught is identified by the sūtra as a bodhisattva who has long cultivated the practice of the Way.

What Forms of Self-Injury Does the Sūtra List When One First Hears a Profound Sūtra?

For bodhisattvas new to the training, this chapter first speaks of two kinds of self-injury. The first occurs when they encounter a profound sūtra they have never heard before: first they are alarmed and afraid, then they give rise to doubt and cannot accord with it, and next they slander it and refuse to believe it, even saying, 「我初不聞，從何所來？」 — “I have never heard this before. Where did it come from?” The sūtra does not condemn them merely because they had not heard it before. It lays out the process by which not having heard turns into alarm, doubt, refusal to accord, and slander.

The second does not directly attack a sentence of the sūtra, but turns instead toward the person who upholds and explains the profound sūtra: one refuses to draw near, refuses to make offerings, refuses to show respect, and sometimes speaks of the other person’s faults and wrongdoing. The profound Dharma may therefore be rejected in two places: in one, the Dharma has not yet entered the mind and is denied because it is unfamiliar; in the other, the Dharma is already being upheld and explained by someone, yet arrogance toward that person prevents one from drawing near.

The World-Honored One states the result clearly: both kinds of conduct injure oneself and make one unable to discipline one’s mind within the profound Dharma. The point of the sūtra is not to condemn someone else, but to let new students see how alarm and doubt, and speaking of another’s faults, turn back and injure their own ability to receive the profound Dharma and discipline their minds.

Why May One Who Already Believes and Understands the Profound Dharma Still Injure Oneself?

This chapter does not reserve danger for beginners alone. It next asks: Once a bodhisattva already believes and understands the profound Dharma, is that bodhisattva necessarily beyond error? The sūtra replies that there are still two dharmas. First, one slights bodhisattvas new to the training and fails to teach them. Second, although one understands the profound Dharma, one still grasps marks and discriminates.

The sūtra states: Although bodhisattvas believe and understand the profound Dharma, they still injure themselves and cannot attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. What are the two? First, they slight bodhisattvas new to the training and fail to teach them. Second, although they understand the profound Dharma, they grasp marks and discriminate.

The result of these two dharmas is not an ordinary flaw. The World-Honored One explicitly says that they make bodhisattvas unable to attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. After speaking of those who have long cultivated the practice of the Way, the chapter still separately lists two ways in which those who believe and understand injure themselves: daring to hear a profound sūtra and believing and understanding the profound Dharma do not mean that one has already left behind contempt for new students or grasping and discriminating marks.

Why Must One Examine One’s Own Mind before Circulating the Sūtra’s Dharma?

The arrangement of this chapter deserves close attention. The World-Honored One has already said to use spiritual powers to proclaim and circulate the sūtra widely, yet he does not immediately proceed to Maitreya’s promise. He first inserts the two marks and the two groups of self-injury. This shows that the continuation of the sūtra’s Dharma depends not only on whether scrolls exist and whether someone speaks, but also on where the minds of its upholders abide when they face profound meaning, people who uphold the Dharma, and new students.

The first group of self-injuries occurs in those who are not yet settled in the profound Dharma. On encountering a profound sūtra they had never heard before, they may move from alarm to doubt and from doubt to slander. They may also see someone uphold and explain it yet refuse to draw near, make offerings, or show respect, and instead speak of the person’s faults and wrongdoing. These two things, on one side, prevent them from hearing the Dharma and, on the other, sever their approach to the Dharma teacher. Twice the sūtra locates the result in “injuring oneself,” rather than merely saying that such a person injures others.

The second group of self-injuries occurs in those who already believe and understand the profound Dharma. Such a person no longer rejects the sūtra because it is unfamiliar, but may use what one understands as a basis for slighting new students and failing to teach them. Such a person may also turn the profound Dharma back into marks that can be grasped and discriminated. The first group refuses to approach the profound Dharma and its upholders; the second refuses to support new students and has not loosened its own grasp on the marks of the Dharma. Their learning differs in depth, yet self-injury can still occur.

Reading the two groups together shows why this chapter speaks both of one’s attitude toward the profound sūtra and toward the person who upholds and explains it, and then also of how one who already believes and understands treats new students. The conclusion of the first group is self-injury and inability to discipline one’s mind in the profound Dharma; the conclusion of the second is likewise self-injury and inability to attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. Hearing the Dharma, drawing near its upholders, teaching new students, and not grasping marks are all placed within the self-examination of one who upholds the profound Dharma.

The verbs used earlier for long cultivation of the Way now reveal their weight again: after hearing, the mind is pure; one accepts and retains, reads and recites, and practices according to the teaching. Later, Maitreya, the bodhisattvas, and Ānanda repeatedly speak of accepting and retaining, reading and reciting, and explaining widely. These terms echo one another. What one hears must be able to enter one’s practice, and what one upholds must also be teachable to others. Either side by itself is not the complete circulation described by this chapter.

How Does Maitreya Receive This Entrustment?

After hearing, Maitreya first praises the World-Honored One’s teaching as unprecedented, promises to leave the stated faults behind, and reverently upholds the Dharma of awakening gathered over immeasurable kalpas. He then describes the future work very concretely: 「當令手得如是等經，與其念力，使受持讀誦、為他廣說。」 — “I will cause them to obtain sūtras of this kind in their own hands, grant them the power of recollection, and enable them to accept and retain, read and recite, and explain them widely to others.”

This sentence has five actions that cannot be merged. First, cause seekers of the Great Vehicle to obtain the sūtra in their own hands. Second, grant them the power of recollection. Third, enable them to accept and retain it. Fourth, enable them to read and recite it. Fifth, enable them to explain it widely to others. The scroll enters their hands, then must enter recollection, acceptance and retention, and reading and recitation, and finally be explained by this person to others. This is precisely the sequence of circulation written in this chapter.

Maitreya further says that if anyone in the latter age can accept and retain, read and recite, and explain the sūtra to others, it should be known that this was established by Maitreya’s spiritual power. The World-Honored One adds no extended teaching, but says “excellent” twice, affirms that what Maitreya has said is so, and assists his rejoicing. The entrustment now has someone who receives it, and the recipient has made an active promise concerning future sentient beings.

Why Are the Bodhisattvas, the Four Heavenly Kings, and Ānanda Also Needed?

After Maitreya receives the entrustment, all the bodhisattvas join their palms and request to uphold it. They speak of two things: after the Tathāgata’s parinirvāṇa, they will proclaim and circulate the Dharma of unsurpassed awakening widely throughout the lands of the ten directions; at the same time, they will guide the Dharma teachers in every place, enabling them to obtain this sūtra. The first extends the Dharma throughout the ten directions; the second enables the Dharma teachers themselves to obtain the scripture on which they rely.

The promise of the Four Heavenly Kings is different. They list four kinds of place: cities, villages, mountain forests, and wildernesses. Wherever there is a scroll of the sūtra and someone reads, recites, and explains it, they will lead their officials there to hear the Dharma, protect that person, and ensure that within a hundred yojanas no one who lies in wait for an opening finds an opportunity. Hearing the Dharma and protecting the person are written within the same promise.

These four kinds of place also unfold the phrase “wherever it may be.” Not only cities, but villages; not only places where people gather, but mountain forests and wildernesses. Wherever the scroll is found and wherever it is read, recited, and explained is the very place to which the Heavenly Kings promise to go, hear the Dharma, and protect. The sūtra needs no newly invented place of circulation; it situates protection within each kind of place it has already named.

Finally, the World-Honored One commands Ānanda to accept and retain this sūtra and proclaim and circulate it widely. Ānanda replies that he has already accepted and retained its essence, then immediately asks its name. This question brings out one further requirement of transmission: someone must not only remember the content but also have a name to follow, so that later recipients know what it is they uphold.

The responsibilities assumed by Maitreya, all the bodhisattvas, the Four Heavenly Kings, and Ānanda do not duplicate one another. Maitreya faces future seekers of the Great Vehicle and enables them to obtain the sūtra and the power of recollection. All the bodhisattvas face the lands of the ten directions and those who teach the Dharma. The Four Heavenly Kings face the places where the scroll is found and the people who uphold it. Ānanda accepts and retains the sūtra’s essence and asks its name. Each has a distinct emphasis, even as their work overlaps in accepting, retaining, and circulating the sūtra.

How Do the Two Names of the Sūtra Bring the Whole Sūtra to a Close?

The World-Honored One answers: 「阿難！是經名為『維摩詰所說』，亦名『不可思議解脫法門』，如是受持。」 — “Ānanda! This sūtra is named The Teaching of Vimalakīrti; it is also named The Dharma-Gate of Inconceivable Liberation. Accept and retain it in this way.” The first name identifies the whole sūtra through what Vimalakīrti taught; the second identifies its Dharma as the Dharma-gate of inconceivable liberation. The sūtra does not choose between the two names, but commands Ānanda to accept and retain it in this way.

When the Buddha has finished teaching the sūtra, the final passage brings the people in the Dharma assembly back one by one: the elder Vimalakīrti, Mañjuśrī, Śāriputra, Ānanda, and the entire great multitude of devas, human beings, and asuras hear what the Buddha has taught and all rejoice greatly. This sentence adds no further doctrine, but returns the whole sūtra from the World-Honored One’s entrustment to the shared hearing of the Dharma. What is to be transmitted into the future is precisely the sūtra heard, accepted, and retained in this assembly.

This chapter lists visible actions one by one: not fearing profound meaning, disciplining one’s mind, not slandering the Dharma, not slighting people, enabling others to obtain the sūtra, accepting and retaining, reading and reciting, explaining widely to others, guiding Dharma teachers, protecting those who uphold the sūtra, and asking its name so that it may be retained. The sūtra travels from the Dharma assembly into the future not through an abstract “circulation,” but through these actions receiving one another in sequence.

Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side

The exposition above has followed this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension alone. The ancient masters further illuminate entrustment, words and meaning, new students, and protection through two lines of transmission. What follows keeps each with its own recension and presents them with equal standing, without letting either mirror draw the other’s conclusion.

The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Words and Meaning, Injuring the Dharma and Injuring People, External and Internal Troubles

In this chapter, the actual attributions in the Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra are only “Kumārajīva says” and “Sengzhao says”; no “Daosheng says” or “Daosheng states” appears. In this chapter, the three masters of the Kumārajīva line cannot be forced into three sets of notes. Where Daosheng has no actual note, its absence is recorded plainly.

Kumārajīva first uses 「什曰：言此經是菩提之因。」 — “Kumārajīva says: This sūtra is the cause of awakening”—to identify the Dharma being entrusted. He also says that the entrustment to Maitreya is related to his future buddhahood and his circulation of the sūtra through spiritual power. When discussing the two marks, he does not reject words altogether, but says: 「什曰：若好雜句，應授之以文；若好深法，即誨之以義。要宜知其相，故為辯二相也。」 — “Kumārajīva says: If one delights in miscellaneous phrasing, one should teach that person through words; if one delights in the profound Dharma, one should instruct that person through meaning. One must know the person’s mark, and therefore the two marks are distinguished.” Words and meaning each have those to whom they correspond. The question is whether one can teach according to the person and enter meaning through words.

Sengzhao calls words 「妙旨之蹄筌」 — “the fish trap and hare snare for the wondrous purport”—and warns against 「捨本尋末唯文飾是好」 — “abandoning the root, seeking the branches, and delighting only in literary ornament.” For the two dharmas of the beginner, he uses 「肇曰：一毀法，二毀人。」 — “Sengzhao says: The first injures the Dharma; the second injures the person”—as his summary. For those who already believe and understand, he calls slighting new students and failing to teach them an external trouble, and grasping and discriminating marks on the basis of what one understands an internal trouble. This mirror illuminates the sūtra’s two groups of two as a double self-examination of Dharma and person, inner and outer, while still standing upon the two dharmas of Kumārajīva’s recension.

At the point concerning the power of recollection, Kumārajīva explains: 「什曰：以神通加其念力令不忘也。」 — “Kumārajīva says: Through spiritual powers, he augments their power of recollection so that they do not forget.” Sengzhao says: 「肇曰：冥啟其心，增其善念也。」 — “Sengzhao says: Unseen, he awakens their minds and increases their wholesome recollection.” The two masters both explain the power of recollection in different words. Presenting them side by side is enough; there is no need to combine them into a new meaning that exceeds both notes.

The Ci’en Mirror: Three Parts of Entrustment, Mark-Seals and Four Conditions, and Protecting People and Dharma

Following Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first divides the whole chapter into three parts: 「贊曰：品段有三，初付授丁寧、次問名持法、後時利既訖歡喜流通。」 — “The Commentary says: The chapter has three parts. First is entrustment with earnest instruction; next is asking the name and upholding the Dharma; last, when the timely benefit has been completed, is rejoicing and circulation.” Within the entrustment, there are again three parts: receiving the charge, the bodhisattvas’ request to uphold it, and the Heavenly Kings’ protective defense. This analysis preserves the sequence of circulation in Xuanzang’s recension and does not rewrite the names and terms of Kumārajīva’s text.

On the two kinds of mark-seal in Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji says: 「相者狀貌，印者決定。相狀決定，名為相印。此二教名印，印二菩薩故。」 — “‘Mark’ means appearance; ‘seal’ means determination. A determined appearance is called a mark-seal. These two teachings are called seals because they seal the two kinds of bodhisattva.” Xuanzang’s recension lists four conditions each for the faults of beginners and those who believe and understand. Kuiji divides the first group into the first two concerning the Dharma and the latter two concerning people; he divides the second into the first two concerning people and the latter two concerning the Dharma. This differs from the two dharmas listed in each group by Kumārajīva’s recension and can only be transmitted within its own recension.

Concerning the level of Dharma acceptance, Kuiji first says that beginners fail to attain the first ground because of the four conditions. He then says that the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas not attained by those who believe and understand is at the eighth ground, or that they may also fail to attain the first ground. Both explanations occur in the commentary; therefore neither is selected as the sūtra’s sole level. In the passage where the bodhisattvas request to uphold the Dharma, he divides protection of the Dharma from protection of people and explains protection of people as: 「一與念力，令記法不忘。二令無障礙，廣演流布。」 — “First, grant the power of recollection so that they remember the Dharma and do not forget it. Second, cause them to be without obstruction so that they may expound and circulate it widely.” At the name of the sūtra, he explains one by one “inconceivable,” “mastery,” “spiritual transformation,” “liberation,” and “Dharma-gate,” all in accordance with the composite full name in Xuanzang’s recension.

The Kumārajīva-line mirror focuses on the cause of awakening, the relation between words and meaning, injuring the Dharma and injuring people, and internal and external troubles. The Ci’en mirror focuses on the divisions of entrustment, the two kinds of mark-seal, four conditions, Dharma acceptance, and protecting the Dharma and people. One lets us see how the profound Dharma enters the mind; the other lets us see how circulation is divided into parts. Both return to accepting and retaining, explaining, and protecting, yet each has its own scriptural recension and vocabulary. The chapter’s transmission lies precisely in keeping each with its own recension: the Dharma is entrusted together with the warnings not to slight new students and not to grasp the marks of the Dharma.