妙法蓮華經文句 方便品釋·偈頌（頌四佛章）

Can a single flower or one utterance of the Buddha's name truly have anything to do with becoming a buddha? We readily divide practice into two kinds: only what is sufficiently profound and concentrated counts as a genuine cause; casually joining one's palms or bowing one's head, offering one flower with a distracted mind, or even a child making a stūpa of sand are too slight and seem capable of yielding only a little immediate merit.

The Lotus Sūtra deliberately gathers in every one of these small acts.

This does not mean that bowing one's head once has already perfected the fruit of buddhahood. Nor does it mean that concentration and distraction, purity and impurity, no longer differ. Zhiyi explains through the first basket of earth used to build a mountain and the first tender shoot of a tree that will take two arms to encircle: the beginning is very small, but because it is small one cannot deny that it truly is a beginning.

The key is “opening.” Before it is opened and revealed, a slight wholesome act appears to stop at human or heavenly retribution. Once opened and revealed through the one vehicle, one sees that it can become a conditioning cause directed toward awakening. Sand remains sand, the flower remains a single flower, and a distracted mind is not pretended to be meditative concentration. What changes is our judgment of where it can ultimately lead.

This also explains why skillful means are not deception. Living beings have differing thoughts, desires, natures, and wholesome and unwholesome karma; they cannot all enter through the same door. Some must first leave suffering, some can hear the great Dharma, and some can manage only to join their palms and bow their heads. The Buddha does not mistake an entrance for the destination, nor seal it shut because it is humble.

The passage is most powerful precisely because it speaks into the depths without reserving the depths for a few. One interpretation raises the child gathering sand into a bodhisattva at a profound stage. It appears lofty, but Zhiyi says it is too narrow. That one who has entered the grounds will become a buddha is unsurprising. What is truly inconceivable is that not even an ordinary being's slightest wholesome act is left behind.

The next time you think your goodness too small to count as practice, you might ask: because I cannot yet see the destination, am I denying the first step? And when you have done a little good, you might ask again: am I cherishing a seed, or hurrying to pass the seed off as fruit?

Do not slight one flower, and do not exaggerate one thought. Let a slight wholesome act truly become the next step, and skillful means are already returning to the real.

I. Verse of Assent: Distinguishing the Assembly and Admonishing Them to Listen

The second major passage is the verse, containing one hundred and twenty-one lines and divided into two parts. The first four lines and one phrase restate the Buddha's assent to answer above; the following one hundred and sixteen lines and three phrases restate the formal answer. The assent in prose originally had three levels: compliant assent, admonition, and distinguishing the assembly. The verse does not restate compliant assent, but only distinguishing the assembly and admonition.

Distinguishing the assembly is further divided in two. The first three and a half lines restate the departure of the five thousand; the next two phrases restate that the assembly remaining was purified. The following phrase restates the admonition to listen, namely that Śāriputra should listen well.

The three faults of overweening pride, self-pride, and disbelief can occur among all four groups, monastic and lay. The two monastic groups, men and women, often cultivate the path and attain meditation; because some mistake meditative concentration for a noble fruit, they more readily generate overweening pride. Laypeople elevate themselves through their social position and more readily generate self-pride. The root treatise further repeats an ancient judgment that women possess shallow wisdom and more frequently generate deviant and one-sided views. This is the context in which the passage separately assigns the three faults to the four groups.

The scripture says that they do not see their own faults. The three faults conceal the mind, causing people to hide their defects and proclaim their virtues, unable to turn back and examine themselves. These are persons without a sense of shame. Only when one can see one's own faults is one still a monastic with a sense of shame.

As for deficiencies and omissions in the precepts, a failure in the discipline precepts is called a deficiency; a failure in the precepts shared with concentration and those shared with the path is called an omission. Because the precepts shared with the path and concentration are absent, unwholesome thoughts arise inwardly, like a flaw concealed within fine jade. Because the discipline precepts are absent, body and speech move falsely outwardly, like fine jade exposing its flaw externally. One covers one's own offenses and instead guards them, unwilling to relinquish them; this is therefore called protective attachment.

“Lesser wisdom” means not having attained the wisdom of noble persons in training or beyond training, yet possessing worldly cleverness and falsely taking contaminated wisdom to be uncontaminated wisdom. This is smaller than wisdom already called lesser, and is therefore called the lesser within the lesser.

“Lees and chaff” means that they lack the moistening of uncontaminated meditative concentration and are like wine lees alone; they also lack wisdom penetrating principle and are like grain chaff alone. Even if these five thousand possess worldly concentration, it is like lees; even if they possess textual understanding, it is like chaff. They seal themselves within wording and lose the principle the wording is meant to express, like chaff without grain. Further, lees and chaff represent their lack of the great capacity capable of giving rise to the great Dharma, while branches and leaves represent their not being good vessels able to receive it. Since they cannot be employed in either respect, they must be allowed to leave.

When the scripture says that Śāriputra should listen well, it restates the preceding admonition before permission to teach and tells him to listen single-mindedly.

II. General Outline of the Formal Answer and the Four-Buddha Chapter

From the Dharma attained by the buddhas onward are one hundred and sixteen lines and three phrases restating the formal answer above, divided into two major passages. The first, beginning with the Dharma attained by the buddhas, has seventy-three lines and one phrase and restates the four-buddha chapter. The next unit, beginning with “I too am now like this,” has forty-three and a half lines and restates the Śākyamuni Buddha chapter.

The four-buddha chapter is further divided into four gateways. First is the gateway of buddhas in general, with thirty-four lines and three phrases. Second is the past-buddha gateway, with twenty-seven and a half lines. Third is the future-buddha gateway, with six and a half lines. Fourth is the present-buddha gateway, with four and a half lines.

The verse of the gateway of buddhas in general differs from the preceding prose in three ways. First, the prose and verse each have content absent from the other: the prose praises the rarity of the Buddha-Dharma but lacks the five turbidities; the verse has the five turbidities but lacks praise of the Dharma. Second, their order is interwoven: the prose first praises the Dharma, next says the Buddha's words are not false, and then explains opening the provisional and revealing the real; the verse first explains opening the provisional and revealing the real and only at the end explains absence of falsehood. Third, their combination and separation differ: the prose combines the exhortation to believe with absence of falsehood; the verse separates the exhortation to believe, inserting the passage on the five turbidities between exhortation and absence of falsehood.

The root treatise adds a fourth point as a private observation: in the prose, Śākyamuni Buddha's skillful means explain the provisional established by the buddhas; in the verse, the real revealed by Śākyamuni Buddha explains that all buddhas reveal the one vehicle. This is an additional reading and does not alter the three expressly listed above into four.

The gateway of buddhas in general itself has five passages. First, the five lines and three phrases beginning with the Dharma attained by the buddhas restate the buddhas' establishment of the provisional. Second, the thirteen lines beginning with “I teach this as skillful means” restate the buddhas' revelation of the real. Third, the four and a half lines beginning with belief, reception, and taking refuge in the Buddha restate the exhortation to believe in the chapter on the buddhas. Fourth, the outline heading marks the nine and a half lines beginning with “If I pass among living beings” as an extended restatement of the five turbidities. Fifth, the two lines beginning with the buddhas' power of skillful means restate the preceding absence of falsehood in the Buddha's words.

III. How the Buddhas Establish the Provisional

The first passage on establishing the provisional is divided into two levels. The first four lines and one phrase positively restate the establishment of skillful means; the next one and a half lines conclude why skillful means must be established.

The Dharma attained by the buddhas refers to the various skillful Dharmas attained after the Buddha cultivated the path. The scripture says that he possesses the power of immeasurable skillful means, restating that he expounds the dharmas through innumerable skillful means and various causes and conditions. It also speaks of the thoughts in living beings' minds, restating that the Buddha teaches the Dharma according to what is appropriate for living beings. The verse gives a broader list of what responsiveness looks like: the Buddha illuminates the capacities of living beings in the nine Dharma realms and teaches them seven kinds of provisional means. The nine kinds of capacities and seven provisional means cannot be assigned in fixed one-to-one pairs and are therefore described collectively as manifold.

According to the capacity of what living beings presently enjoy, the worldly siddhānta is applied. According to the natures habituated in their past, the individual siddhānta is applied. According to what in their wholesome and unwholesome karma requires treatment, the counteractive siddhānta is applied. Hope arising in the present is called thought; the difference among Dharma gateways is called manifold; what was habituated in the past is called nature; and present delight and seeking are called desire. It may also be said that repeatedly habituating a desire gradually forms a nature, and that after a nature is formed it in turn gives rise to corresponding habits and desires. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

As for wholesome and unwholesome karma, the seven provisional means can be divided into wholesome and unwholesome according to their relations to one another. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕 The Buddha illuminates living beings' manifold provisional means, natures, and desires through provisional wisdom, then uses various causes and conditions and similes to teach the nine divisions according to what is appropriate for each. The meanings of the twelve divisions are as explained in the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra.

The one and a half lines beginning with dull faculties and delight in a Lesser Dharma conclude the intent behind establishing the provisional. Because living beings had dull faculties in past lives, in this life they lack the capacity to hear the great Dharma and cannot hear and receive the profound and wondrous path. Because they were deeply attached in past lives, in this life they are oppressed by various sufferings and are suited only to hear a Lesser Dharma first. The Buddha therefore teaches them nirvāṇa.

IV. Revealing the Real: Principle, Persons, Teaching, and Practice Return to One

The thirteen lines beginning with “I teach this as skillful means” are the second passage, restating the buddhas' revelation of the real, and are divided into four levels.

The first level, three lines, restates one principle. Causing living beings to enter buddha-wisdom restates the preceding statement that the Buddha appears in the world because of the causes and conditions of the one great matter. The determination to teach the Great Vehicle collectively includes opening, showing, awakening to, and entering the Buddha's knowledge and vision. Teaching the nine divisions with entry into the Great Vehicle as their foundation restates entry into the Buddha's knowledge and vision. The truth toward which skillful means lead is only one.

The second level, the four and a half lines beginning with children of the Buddha whose minds are pure, restates that the buddhas and tathāgatas teach only bodhisattvas and explains one class of persons. The prose directly says only that they teach bodhisattvas; the verse broadly explains that persons of every provisional identity become genuine children of the Buddha. Children of the Buddha whose minds are pure are persons of the Separate teaching. When the Buddha teaches the Great Vehicle scripture to such children of the Buddha and they rejoice after receiving predictions, they become genuine persons of the Perfect teaching.

The śrāvakas spoken of in the scripture also include pratyekabuddhas, and its bodhisattvas also include bodhisattvas who cultivate the six perfections, bodhisattvas of the Shared teaching, and others. That all will become buddhas without doubt means that not one of the people of the seven provisional means is not a child of the Buddha. This is the restatement of one class of persons.

The third level, the one line and three phrases beginning with buddha-lands throughout the ten directions, restates that the Tathāgata teaches living beings only through the one buddha vehicle, without other vehicles of two or three. The buddhas throughout the ten directions teach only one Dharma: this is one teaching. The other provisionally established names are only provisional teachings used to guide living beings. The scripture cites the provisional names of the three teachings and manifests the one teaching of buddha-wisdom; the wording is clear.

The root treatise explains “no other vehicle” as the absence of a distinction remaining after the Perfect principle within the Separate teaching enters the Separate teaching. “No two” means the absence of the two opposed half-word and full-word teachings within the Shared teaching. “No three” means the absence of the three vehicles within the Tripiṭaka teaching. These twos and threes are only provisionally established names used to guide various classes of living beings. What is now revealed is only the complete one buddha vehicle.

The fourth level, the three lines and three phrases beginning with the buddhas' appearance in the world and only one real matter, restates that everything the buddhas constantly do is only for the one great matter. This is one practice. “Matter” means practice. That the Buddha ultimately does not liberate living beings through the Lesser Vehicle restates that everything he constantly does is only for the one great matter. That the Buddha himself dwells in the Great Vehicle and liberates living beings through the Dharma he has attained restates that he uses only the Buddha's knowledge and vision to open and show living beings and cause them to awaken and enter. The final line explains why he does not use the Lesser Vehicle as ultimate liberation.

V. Exhorting Belief through Effect and through Cause

The four and a half lines beginning with living beings believing, receiving, and taking refuge in the Buddha are the third passage, restating the exhortation to believe. The prose has already said that the assembly should believe what the Buddha teaches. The verse is further divided into two levels: the first two and a half lines raise the Buddha's effect to exhort belief; the two lines beginning with “Śāriputra, you should know” raise the Buddha's cause to exhort belief.

Exhorting belief through effect is further divided into inner mind and outward form. When living beings believe, receive, and take refuge in the Buddha, they should know that the Tathāgata does not deceive. The Buddha's mind is pure: ignorance, the stain of stinginess, and every evil have been removed. He teaches the Dharma from a pure mind and can therefore be trusted. The one line beginning with the Buddha's adornment of his body with dignified marks explains outward form. His bodily marks are brilliant, upright, and adorned. Inwardly there is no darkness or delusion, while outwardly radiance is manifest; there is therefore no deception in his speech. He is revered by the assembly, and what he teaches bears the seal of the Great Vehicle; it should be believed and received.

The two lines beginning with the vow originally established by the Buddha raise the cause to exhort belief and are also divided into two levels. First, the one line beginning with the Buddha's original establishment of the vow raises the vow made in the past. Second, the one line beginning with the former vow explains that the vow has now been fulfilled. The vow formerly made by the Buddha was not only to seek awakening for himself, but that living beings would together enter buddha-wisdom. He teaches this Dharma now to fulfill that vow, and it too is therefore credible.

The Buddha's awakening has now been perfected, and through it living beings can enter buddha-wisdom. Since Śāriputra personally realizes and knows buddha-wisdom, he can verify that the Buddha's former vow was not false. This concludes the exhortation to believe through the Buddha's cause.

Someone asks: Since the Buddha's original vow universally embraces all living beings and living beings are still so numerous, how can it be said that the vow has been perfected?

The answer is that the Buddha benefits living beings throughout the past, present, and future. Here the fulfillment of the vow is discussed only in relation to his present work of transformation.

VI. General Explanation of the Five Turbidities and Three Meanings of “Living Beings”

The nine and a half lines beginning with the scripture's “If I encounter living beings” are the fourth passage, presenting the five turbidities. The prose places the five turbidities after the Śākyamuni Buddha chapter; the verse first places them at the end of the general gateway of the buddhas, and the later Śākyamuni Buddha gateway will teach them again. This shows that the buddhas likewise appear in evil worlds of the five turbidities, first establish the three vehicles, and afterward reveal the one vehicle.

This passage is divided into four levels. First, one line generally explains that the five turbidities obstruct the great Dharma. Second, six lines separately explain that the five turbidities obstruct the three. Third, one line says that because of the five turbidities the Buddha teaches a Lesser Dharma as skillful means. Fourth, one and a half lines say that the Buddha teaches a Lesser Dharma for the sake of the great Dharma, treating the five turbidities through the Lesser Dharma so that his great vow to liberate living beings can arise.

The root treatise begins with the term zhongsheng (“living beings”). Fascicle Twelve of the Madhyama Āgama says that when the world first formed, beings from the Heaven of Streaming Light descended and were born in the world. Before there were distinctions of male and female or noble and base, all were born together in the world and were therefore called living beings. This explanation concerns their first common birth. When one says that the aggregates are gathered and the provisional name living being established, the term concerns the retribution received during one lifetime. When one says that they are called living beings because they repeatedly take birth everywhere, it concerns transmigration through the five destinies by the power of karma.

The Sūtra of the Right-Dharma Recollection gives ten kinds of living beings: long, short, square, round, triangular, blue, yellow, red, white, and purple.

What is the long birth-and-death of living beings? In hell, the body undergoes inconceivable suffering and the mind generates immeasurable and boundless unwholesome thoughts. Among animals, bodies devour one another and minds oppress one another. Among hungry ghosts, bodies are like burning mountains and minds like boiling pots; deviant views blaze, and beings are defiant, violent, deluded, and cruel. Among humans, body, speech, and mind constantly perform harmful acts that exhaust oneself, while one constantly thinks harmful thoughts that bind oneself. Among gods, beings are immersed in the six sense objects and indulge in play, do not hear the true Dharma, and obstruct the source of merit. This is called the long birth-and-death of living beings.

What is the short birth-and-death of living beings? In hell, one can quiet the mind for a single thought-moment and receive precepts. Among animals, one can quiet the mind for a single thought-moment and rely upon the Three Jewels. Among hungry ghosts, one can quiet the mind for a single thought-moment and still the faculties. Among humans, one can cultivate the six perfections, support one's parents, honor the Three Jewels, and adorn body, speech, and mind with wholesome practice. Among gods, one can relinquish heavenly pleasures, observe precepts, delight in meditation, teach others, read and recite scriptures, cultivate brahmā-conduct, and speak little. This is called the short birth-and-death of living beings.

What is the square birth-and-death of living beings? Like the people of Uttarakuru, they have no thought of possession concerning anything. After relinquishing the body they are certainly born in heaven and proceed upward from one heaven to the next, rising only toward wholesome destinations. It is therefore called angular birth-and-death.

What is the round birth-and-death of living beings? It is turning in circles only among the three evil destinies and four lower destinies, like a whirling firebrand and curling smoke. This is round birth-and-death. What is triangular birth-and-death? The three kinds of wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate karma. What is blue birth-and-death? Constantly entering dark hells with fear continually present in the mind. What is yellow birth-and-death? Hungry ghosts are starved and emaciated, their color withered and yellow. What is red birth-and-death? Animals devour one another and bright blood flows. What is white birth-and-death? The white karma and wholesome paths among humans and gods. When gods approach death, other gods tell them that they will be born in the human destiny; when humans approach death, relatives and friends tell them that they will be born in heaven. From this one can know that the human and heavenly realms are white birth-and-death. The root treatise lists purple but gives no separate explanation here.

Fascicle Five of the same scripture further says that mind paints hell black, hungry ghosts dove-colored, animals yellow, humans red, and gods white. Someone asks why this set of colors differs from the preceding passage. The answer is that the preceding passage concerns the retribution of the five destinies, while this passage concerns the karma through which living beings produce the five destinies; this is why they differ. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

When living beings such as these encounter the Buddha, they are tormented by suffering while the buddhas rescue beings through great compassion. The Buddha's compassion and living beings' suffering face one another, and this is therefore called encounter. Further, the thusness of the Buddha and the thusness of living beings are the same thusness, without two thusnesses. Their natures are mutually connected, and this too is called encounter.

Great compassion constantly feels tenderness for living beings. If the Buddha taught them only human and heavenly wholesome Dharmas, it would be as though he himself fell into dark delusion, merely freeing living beings from blue, yellow, red, purple, square, round, angular, and triangular birth-and-death without teaching them the buddha path. This is impossible. If the Buddha encountered living beings and taught them only to cultivate the Lesser Vehicle, it would be as though he himself fell into stinginess and refused to give the great Dharma. This too is impossible, because it would merely free living beings from the twenty-five modes of existence. If the Buddha taught only the Shared and Separate teachings, it would be as though he himself fell into partiality and lost the Buddha's knowledge and vision. This is likewise impossible.

The Buddha now intends to cause all living beings to attain the wondrous wisdom of the true mark and realize that everything is the Buddha-Dharma and nowhere is outside the correct path. Only this is teaching the entire buddha path to living beings and forever exhausting the suffering of birth-and-death. The Buddha constantly teaches in this way; only because living beings' faculties are dull and offenses heavy can the work not immediately be accomplished fully according to his wish.

In the past there was a buddha named Abiding in Nonabiding, who vowed that the living beings in his land would become buddhas on the same day and at the same time and would enter extinction on the same day. Before the Worthy Eon there was also a buddha named Equality, who vowed that the living beings in his own land and throughout the ten directions would all become buddhas on the same day and enter extinction on the same day.

Someone therefore asks: Since there are still buddhas and living beings today, how should this be understood? The Buddha says, “Stop, stop.” His preceding statement referred to those who had attained human bodies. Another asks whether anyone ever vowed that beings in the five destinies would become buddhas on the same day. The Buddha replies that one cannot attain the unsurpassed path directly in a bodily form incapable of receiving it. Living beings in the three evil destinies must first be transformed so that they attain human or heavenly bodies, and only then can they accomplish the path according to the vow. The three evil destinies are not wholesome paths; how could beings become buddhas in those very forms? It is like someone seeking a heap of jewels: one cannot seek it in empty space but must first have a place capable of bearing the jewels.

VII. Separate Explanation of the Five Turbidities, Provisional Teaching of a Lesser Dharma, and Absence of Falsehood

The six lines beginning with the scripture's “I know these living beings” separately explain the five turbidities in five items.

First, two lines explain the turbidity of living beings. The wholesome foundation is the true mark of thusness. Because living beings do not plant roots of goodness in accord with this wholesome foundation, they cannot elicit the great Dharma. They cling firmly to the five desires, which are also the root of every evil. From delusion and craving for existence arises the illness of attachment to self.

Second, the one line beginning with the minute form received in the womb explains the turbidity of life. Interpreted through contemplating the mind, when a single thought-moment arises it creates karma for the future. Karma is like a womb. Womb-karma has no end, continuing from life to life without interruption; noninterruption is growth. The minute form received in the womb consists of the five aggregates, which are also called world. Life continuously sustains the aggregates, causing them to enter the world, continuing from the first embryonic form like thin curds through decline, old age, and death. It is therefore called growth from life to life, and this is the turbidity of life.

The Sūtra on Receiving the Aggregate-Body says that when an ordinary being receives a body, there is no change in the first seven days. In the second seven days a form arises like thin curds. In the third it is like thick curds; in the fourth like clarified cream; in the fifth like unbaked pottery; in the sixth like a lump of flesh. In the seventh, five protrusions arise from the lump of flesh and form the head, hands, feet, and other parts. In the eighth seven days five more protrusions arise: one head, two shoulders, and two wrists. In the ninth, twenty-four more protrusions arise; four form the eyes, ears, nose, and tongue, and twenty form the twenty digits. By the seventeenth seven days, the shape of the abdomen becomes visible, and the various forms of skin, bones, and other parts gradually separate.

Seven hundred sinews and seven thousand channels further arise. Whatever characteristic the body requires is colored by a corresponding wind. If a white characteristic is needed, it is colored by a white wind; the other colors are likewise formed by corresponding winds. Because of fragrant winds, the body is stable and upright; because of foul winds, the body is unstable, ugly, and distorted. After leaving the womb and eating the five grains, eighty thousand households of worms arise within the body.

Third, the one line beginning with entry into a dense forest of deviant views explains the turbidity of views. The five views intersect like a dense and flourishing forest. Attachment to existence is the view of permanence; attachment to nonexistence is the view of annihilation. From these two fundamental views arise the sixty-two views.

Another explanation says that non-Buddhists have four attachments concerning the self. First, form itself is self. Second, there is a separate self apart from form. Third, form is large and self small, with self dwelling in form. Fourth, self is large and form small, with form dwelling in self. They make the same four attachments concerning each of the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, making twenty. Correlating the twenty with past, present, and future makes sixty; adding the two fundamental views of annihilation and permanence makes sixty-two. They may also be understood according to the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra.

Fourth, the one line beginning with deep attachment to false dharmas restates the turbidity of afflictions and can be understood from the scripture. Fifth, the one line beginning with thousands of myriads of koṭis of eons restates the turbidity of the eon. A long time without the Buddha-Dharma is the turbidity of the eon. It is also so called because the preceding four turbidities all gather within a period of time. The scripture says such people are difficult to transform because the five turbidities form obstructions that prevent them from believing and receiving the one vehicle, making them difficult to liberate.

Interpreted through contemplating the mind, unwholesome perceptions arise thought after thought, and from beginning to end there is no correct contemplation capable of awakening oneself; this is not seeing a buddha within the mind. The absence of the noble eightfold path within the mind is not hearing the Dharma. Such a mind is difficult to transform.

The one line beginning with the Buddha telling Śāriputra, “Therefore I establish skillful means,” is the third level: skillfully teaching a Lesser Dharma to living beings, as can be understood from the scripture.

The one and a half lines beginning with “Although I teach nirvāṇa, this is not true extinction” are the fourth level: ultimately causing living beings to enter the great Dharma. If one exhaustively analyzes the falsity of the three realms, extinguishes form, and clings to the principle of emptiness, the root treatise judges this not to be true extinction. If one can realize that ignorance is originally without intrinsic nature and constantly quiescent, only then is it true extinction. Yet even though original nonexistence is quiescent, without cultivating the path there remains no way to accord with it. The scripture therefore says that when children of the Buddha have completed cultivating the path, they will become buddhas in a future age.

The two lines beginning with the buddhas' power of skillful means are the fifth passage, restating the preceding absence of falsehood in the Buddha's words. The prose says that the assembly should believe that the Buddha's words are not false. The exhortation to believe has already been restated above; absence of falsehood is restated here. The first two phrases say that Śākyamuni Buddha first opens and shows the three vehicles; the next two phrases say that the buddhas later reveal the real, with each showing the other. The final line positively states absence of falsehood. The provisional teaching before and real teaching afterward are both truthful words and should not give rise to doubt.

VIII. Past Buddhas: From Opening Three to Revealing the One through the Five Vehicles

Beginning with immeasurable eons in the past is the second major gateway, with twenty-seven and a half lines restating the past-buddha chapter and divided into two parts. The first two lines restate the opening of three vehicles, as can be understood from the scripture. The twenty-five and a half lines beginning with the several World-Honored Ones restate the revelation of the one vehicle. The revelation of the real in the preceding prose contains the four ones of principle, persons, teaching, and practice; all are restated in this verse.

Revealing the one is further divided into two levels. First, one line briefly restates the first three ones: the buddhas all teaching the one-vehicle Dharma is one teaching; transforming immeasurable living beings is one class of persons; and causing living beings to enter the buddha path is one principle, while also including one practice.

Second, the twenty-four and a half lines beginning with the several great noble lords broadly restate revealing the one in terms of the five vehicles. This level first explains generally and then separately. The first one and a half lines generally reveal the one in terms of the five vehicles: gods, humans, and the various living beings raise the persons of each vehicle and explain one class of persons. The Buddha further transforms them through different skillful means, raising the various practices and revealing one practice, while also including one teaching. Ultimate meaning is one principle.

Different skillful means must be distinguished in two cases. Buddha-nature as direct cause is itself the principle of ultimate meaning. When one contemplates it through perfect and wondrous correct contemplation, that is itself a skillful means of the true mark and is not called a different skillful means. Only when the contemplations of the seven provisional means help disclose ultimate meaning are they called different skillful means in relative terms.

The twenty-three lines beginning with “If there are living beings...” separately reveal the real through the five vehicles and are further divided into three passages. First, two lines open and reveal the bodhisattva vehicle. Second, one line opens and reveals the two vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. Third, twenty lines open and reveal the two vehicles of gods and humans.

First, the two lines beginning with the classes of living beings open and reveal the bodhisattva vehicle. Explained through the five vehicles, this is only the Tripiṭaka bodhisattva vehicle that cultivates the six perfections. Explained through the seven provisional means, it also includes the bodhisattva vehicles of the Shared and Separate teachings. Why? Because the Great Vehicles of all three teachings cultivate the six perfections; only their orientation of mind differs. Cultivating the six perfections through a mind with marks belongs to Tripiṭaka bodhisattvas. Cultivating them through a markless mind belongs to Shared-teaching bodhisattvas. Cultivating them sequentially through what is neither marked nor markless belongs to Separate-teaching bodhisattvas. The scripture here lists only the six perfections and cannot yet be definitively assigned to any one of these.

Examining the preceding statement that they further use different skillful means shows that it does not refer only to bodhisattvas of the six perfections, but also includes the skillful means of bodhisattvas in all three teachings. Dharmas heard in the past have all been opened into one teaching. The six perfections cultivated in the past have all been opened into one practice. These persons have all been opened into one class of persons. Their all having accomplished the buddha path is one principle.

Second, the one line beginning with those of wholesome and pliant minds after the extinction of the buddhas opens and reveals that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas all enter the one vehicle. How does one know that the two vehicles are both included? The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra praises the pliant minds of arhats, while the Vimalakīrti Sūtra says that abiding in a disciplined mind is the practice of worthies and noble persons; this makes it knowable. Wholesome and pliant minds in the past have all been opened into one practice, these people are one class of persons, and accomplishing the buddha path is one principle.

Third, the twenty lines beginning with making offerings to relics open and reveal the vehicles of gods and humans. The scripture does not directly label heavenly and human vehicles but speaks of making images and raising stūpas with concentrated or distracted minds. From this the root treatise knows that these are wholesome karmas of gods and humans.

The Masters of the Grounds give another interpretation. They say that the child is at the stage of childlike truth and lacks the desirous mind of the two vehicles and ordinary beings that inclines toward either extreme. Gathering sand to make a stūpa means that sand represents nonattachment and the stūpa the accumulation of many practices, containing within it the mind of perfect awakening. The Masters of the Grounds regard this integration into nonarising as a profound understanding.

The root treatise considers this interpretation contrary to the wording and too narrow in its vertical stages. Why? It is only proper that a bodhisattva who has entered the grounds become a buddha, like an asura crossing the sea; nothing about it is unusual. The scripture is now precisely speaking of children at play gathering sand and singing with distracted minds, showing that the slightest goodness contains a conspicuous cause of buddhahood, which is as inconceivable as an ordinary being crossing the sea. The Buddha clearly gathers the five vehicles broadly, omitting not even a hair's breadth of goodness. The Masters of the Grounds abandon this broad inclusion and directly take only nonarising. On that reading, it might fail to include even the two vehicles, much less ordinary beings. In terms of profound meaning, the destination may be the same; in terms of broad inclusion, it contradicts the scripture.

IX. Slight Human and Heavenly Goodness, the Three Buddha-Natures, and Ten Categories of Conditioning Causes

Someone asks: Slight goodness among humans and gods should remain within its corresponding recompense. Why does the scripture say that all these people have accomplished the buddha path?

The answer is that this should be explained through the three buddha-natures. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that there is one kind of buddha-nature possessed by persons with roots of goodness and absent in icchantikas. The root treatise assigns this to slight human and heavenly goodness. Bowing one's head or raising one's hand is the first basket of earth laid down when building a mountain. A tree that two arms can encircle also begins with the first minute tender shoot. Before provisional means were opened and revealed, these wholesome acts were said only to remain within retribution. Now that provisional practices are opened and revealed, one knows that they are precisely buddha-nature as conditioning cause, capable of proceeding toward awakening and accomplishing the meaning of revealing the real.

The twenty lines on gods and humans are further divided into two levels. The first nineteen lines explain revealing the real through slight human and heavenly goodness becoming seeds of conditioning cause; the last line explains revealing the real through seeds of revealing cause. The first nineteen lines are further divided into ten categories.

First, the first three and a half lines explain the heavenly vehicle through building stūpas. In the causal ground, builders of stūpas can be single-minded and sincere, exhausting their wealth and relinquishing jewels. When retribution matures, they naturally receive pleasure, and the root treatise therefore assigns this to the heavenly vehicle. Mi is a kind of timber in Chang'an and can also be used to make images. The Golden Light Sūtra says that placing buddha-relics the size of a mustard seed in a small stūpa naturally yields retribution in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, directly illustrating this meaning.

Second, the one line beginning with children at play says that children making stūpas from sand is human karma. In the causal ground the goodness is performed casually and at ease; when its fruit is experienced, intentional effort is still required to seek pleasure, and it is therefore assigned to human karma.

Third, the four lines beginning with someone establishing an image for the Buddha explain heavenly karma through making an image with a single-minded resolve. The Sūtra on the Precepts for Lay Bodhisattvas does not permit glue, and a violator incurs an offense of faulty intention, while the Lotus Sūtra here says that glue may be used. An ancient master explains that foreign lands use tree resin. Guangzhai says that in some places making an image truly requires oxhide glue and its use is then permitted; if another material is available, it should not be used. Someone else says that soybean liquid can replace clear glue. The three positions are listed separately.

The root treatise nevertheless says that oxhide is ultimately an impure substance and will later elicit impure retribution. Impure wealth is not suitable for direct use in making an image, but can be exchanged for lawful and pure wealth, which can then be used. The Treatise on the Bodhisattva Grounds does not permit orpiment and other foul-smelling materials. A precept scripture does not permit making a half-body buddha-image; otherwise one incurs an offense of faulty intention, wholesome marks cannot arise, and one falls within birth-and-death.

Each image has a posture it is meant to represent. If making a buddha teaching the Dharma in a hall, it must be a seated image. If making a buddha displaying final repose, it can be seated or reclining. If making a buddha in motion, it should be a standing image. As for disciples, one may not sit before a standing buddha-image within a stūpa or hall, because that is definitively a place occupied by the Buddha. In the home of a layperson or elsewhere, if someone before a seated buddha-image cannot remain standing long and asks to sit, permission can be given; one may not sit before a standing buddha-image. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Fourth, the one line beginning with children at play drawing images explains human karma. Fifth, the one and a half lines beginning with these people conclude revealing the real: these people all become one class of persons. Gradually accumulating merit and perfecting a mind of great compassion is one practice. Accomplishing the buddha path is one principle. Once they become buddhas, they can transform through the four ones and teach only bodhisattvas; this is one teaching. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Sixth, the three and a half lines beginning with making offerings in stūpas and temples explain heavenly karma through offerings of form, sound, and other sense objects. In Chang'an, a dew-catching basin is called a copper cymbal. Since the scripture was translated there, it uses the local term.

Seventh, the one line beginning with someone making offerings with a distracted mind explains human karma through a distracted offering of one flower or another sense object. Eighth, the one line beginning with someone bowing explains heavenly and human karma through bodily reverence. The superior bow of prostrating with the five limbs is heavenly karma; the middling bow of joining palms and bowing the head is human karma.

Ninth, the one and a half lines beginning with these offerings give another conclusion. This does not only reveal practitioners' own accomplishment of the buddha path through revealing the real. Through opening and revealing skillful means, they can also display nirvāṇa when their transformative conditions, like fuel, have been exhausted. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Tenth, the one line beginning with someone entering a stūpa or temple with a distracted mind and uttering “Namo Buddha” once explains verbal karma. According to the preceding categories, both heavenly and human karma should be present here; only human karma is stated. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The two syllables namo have many transmitted explanations. Someone explains them as “liberate me, liberate me; liberation can be bestowed upon living beings.” But if the Buddha replied, “The buddhas liberate me,” the meaning would be unsuitable, and the root treatise therefore does not adopt this explanation.

The Sūtra of the Five Precepts explains namo as fear. Fear can properly be applied to the Buddha here: the dangers of birth-and-death truly are fearful. Immediate liberation through the great Dharma cannot yet succeed, and now the Buddha, in accord with the other buddhas, first rescues living beings through a Lesser Dharma. Applying fear to the Buddha can therefore accord with principle. The scripture consequently speaks of joyfully uttering “Namo Buddha”; the joy is delight at having found a way to liberate living beings.

The Sūtra of the Five Precepts further says that namo means entrusting one's life, giving one's whole life to living beings. At death Devadatta uttered namo but fell into hell before he could pronounce “Buddha.” The Buddha predicted that after emerging from hell he would become a pratyekabuddha named Namo.

In a foreign land there is a story concerning service to an image of a god. Someone made the head of the divine image from gold. When a thief came to steal it, at first it could not be removed. He then uttered “Namo Buddha” and immediately obtained the image's head. The next day people gathered and said that since the divine image had lost its head, no god must be dwelling in it; if a god truly dwelled there, how could the head be lost? A god then possessed a person and said that when the thief took the head he uttered “Namo Buddha,” all the gods were startled, and the thief therefore gained his opportunity and the image lost its head.

The people then said: Is the god not equal to the Buddha? Since it is not, why not turn to serve the Buddha? If a thief uttering “Namo Buddha” could obtain the head of the divine image, how much more a worthy person who utters “Namo Buddha”? None of the gods revered by people throughout the ten directions dares accept this utterance of the name. One should only be diligent and never lax.

The Nāgasena Sūtra says that someone who utters “Namo Buddha” at death is spared rebirth in niraya. Why? If one stone is placed in water, it necessarily sinks. If one hundred stones are placed on a boat, they do not sink. If a person simply dies, that person necessarily enters niraya, like a stone placed directly in water. If one utters “Namo Buddha” at death, the Buddha's power prevents entry into niraya, as a boat's power keeps stones from sinking. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The Embryo Sūtra and Sūtra of Requiting Kindness further say that the nine billion two hundred million people at the third great assembly in the Flower Grove were those who had uttered “Namo Buddha” only once during Śākyamuni Buddha's residual teaching and thereby came to see Maitreya Buddha.

X. Seeds of the Revealing Cause and Evidentiary Force of the Past Buddhas

The one line beginning with being before buddhas in the past is the second level and explains seeds of revealing cause. Following the explanation above, it should contain seeds of the five vehicles in the forms of marked, markless, neither marked nor markless, wholehearted, and distracted practice. All are now opened and revealed and enter the single reality. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕 Hearing one phrase wholeheartedly is heavenly karma; hearing one phrase with a distracted mind is human karma. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Someone asks: Why is the five-vehicle explanation given extensively specifically in the past-buddha gateway?

The answer is that the buddhas of the past, future, and present all have transformative teachings that open and reveal provisional means. The future buddhas' transformation has not yet occurred, however, while that of the present buddhas has only just begun, so their power to prove this meaning is weaker. The past buddhas opened and revealed provisional means long ago. The persons transformed have all accomplished the four ones of principle, persons, teaching, and practice and can in turn establish skillful means and reveal the real throughout the worlds of the ten directions. The factual proof is therefore stronger. Constructing a claim in the abstract is inferior to verifying it through accomplished events, and the five vehicles are therefore explained extensively in the past-buddha gateway.

XI. Future Buddhas: The Four Ones and Three Causes

Beginning with the future World-Honored Ones is the third major gateway, with six and a half lines restating the future-buddha chapter and divided into two parts. The first one and a half lines restate the opening of three vehicles; the following five lines restate the revelation of the one vehicle.

The line concerning liberating living beings and causing them to enter the Buddha's uncontaminated wisdom restates one class of persons. The line concerning the buddhas' original vows and the buddha path they themselves practice restates one practice: the buddhas vow that living beings will also attain the path they practice; how could this not be one practice? The two lines beginning with the buddhas in future ages restate one teaching.

Knowing that all dharmas constantly lack intrinsic nature means that the true mark constantly abides without intrinsic nature, and that even the “absence of a causeless nature” cannot be grasped. Absence of nature itself also lacks intrinsic nature; only this is called absence of nature.

The buddha-seed arising from conditions means that the middle path's absence of nature is precisely the buddha-seed. Those deluded about this principle take ignorance as condition, and living beings then arise. Those who understand this principle take teaching and practice as conditions, and right awakening then arises. For the buddha-seed to arise, one must rely on the one-vehicle teaching, and this sentence therefore still restates one teaching.

It can also be explained through the three buddha-natures: absence of nature is buddha-nature as direct cause, while the buddha-seed's arising from conditions is conditioning and revealing cause. The conditioning cause supports the revealing cause, and the seed of direct cause can then arise. When one cause arises, all three arise together. These three natures—direct, conditioning, and revealing—are called the one vehicle.

The scriptural statement that dharmas abide in their Dharma-positions and that the marks of the world constantly abide restates one principle. Living beings and right awakening are the same thusness, without two thusnesses. None departs from the principle of thusness, and all take the Dharma of thusness as their position.

The marks of the world constantly abiding means that transcendent right awakening takes thusness as both position and mark, and that position and mark constantly abide. Worldly living beings likewise take thusness as position and mark; how could these not constantly abide? This is precisely one principle. “World” can also be understood as aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, while “constantly abiding” is understood as direct cause. The direct cause is not simply these six dharmas, yet conditioning and revealing causes do not depart from them. Because the direct cause constantly abides, the conditioning and revealing causes also constantly abide; hence the marks of the world constantly abide.

The scripture says that the Buddha already knew this principle at the place of awakening, raising the fruit of buddhahood to explain why he first opened the provisional and later revealed the real. When the Buddha attained the path at the place of awakening, he had long clearly comprehended this principle; it was only because living beings' attachments and obstructions were severe that he established three vehicles as skillful means. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

XII. Present Buddhas: Revealing First and Opening Afterward to Bring Peace

Beginning with those worshiped by gods and humans is the fourth major gateway, with four and a half lines restating the present-buddha chapter. The preceding prose has four passages; only three are restated here, and the final conclusion is not restated.

The first passage, one and a half lines, restates the intent of present buddhas in transforming living beings: precisely to cause living beings to attain peace.

The second passage, the one line beginning with the buddhas' knowing the foremost quiescence, restates the preceding revelation of the real. Knowing the foremost quiescence restates one principle. Concerning the scripture's statement that this is actually for the buddha vehicle, the root treatise preserves two readings: it may be said to restate one teaching, or it may be said to restate one practice. Neither is selected here.

The third passage, the two lines beginning with the buddhas' knowing living beings' various practices and the thoughts deep in their minds, restates opening the provisional, as can be understood from the scripture. The four-buddha chapter concludes here; the Śākyamuni Buddha chapter begins in the next unit.

I. Why Does the Teaching Begin with the Departure of the Five Thousand?

When the Buddha is about to teach the real Dharma, why does he not speak directly, but first allow five thousand people to leave?

Because whether one can hear depends not only on whether the Dharma has been taught, but also on whether listeners can still see their own faults. These five thousand were not entirely without cultivation. They possessed worldly meditation and textual understanding. What truly separated them was taking an as-yet-unrealized state to have been realized, and limited cleverness to be ultimate wisdom. Unwholesome thoughts arose inwardly, while body and speech moved falsely outwardly; yet the three faults covered their minds, concealing defects and displaying only their own virtues.

Thus the scripture's lees and chaff are not merely similes that disparage people. Lees were once joined with wine, and chaff once enclosed grain. The problem is clinging only to what remains while losing what can moisten and nourish. Worldly meditation that does not lead to the uncontaminated is like retaining only wine lees; wording that does not lead to principle is like retaining only grain chaff. Branches and leaves do not mean that living beings can never become buddhas, but that at this moment a person cannot yet bear the great Dharma about to be taught.

Seen in this way, the departure is not an interlude outside the Dharma assembly, but the first self-examination in the entire verse. Before the real Dharma is disclosed, the scripture first asks: Can I see my own deficiencies and omissions? Do I use wording to illuminate principle, or use wording to conceal myself? When one can see a fault, a sense of shame remains. Complete inability to examine oneself is what truly closes the ears. Śāriputra's admonition to listen well directly contrasts with the five thousand's inability to listen well.

II. If the Destination Is Only the One Vehicle, Why Teach So Many Skillful Means?

If the buddhas intend to reveal only the one vehicle, are immeasurable skillful means not superfluous, or even as though the truth had not been taught before?

The root treatise answers by first returning skillful means to the actual workings of living beings' minds. What the Buddha illuminates is not an abstract “living being.” One person presently hopes for something; another has long habituated a certain nature; another is now joyfully seeking a particular Dharma; still another's wholesome and unwholesome karma requires a specific counteraction. Thought is a hope arising in the present, desire the direction presently delighted in, and nature what past habituation has formed. Habituated desire can cultivate a nature, and a nature in turn gives rise to new habits and desires. Because living beings' capacities are intertwined in this way, the Buddha's teaching cannot have only one entrance.

The nine kinds of capacities addressed and seven provisional teachings therefore cannot be forced into fixed pairs. Following what living beings desire, the Buddha first establishes the worldly meaning. Following the natures they have habituated, he causes the corresponding wholesome Dharma to arise. Following their unwholesome karma, he establishes the required counteraction. Causes and conditions, similes, the nine divisions, and the twelve divisions are all forms of teaching according to what is appropriate.

The need for skillful means also appears among living beings of dull faculties and intense suffering. With dull faculties in former lives, they lack the immediate capacity to hear and receive the great Dharma in this life; deeply attached in former lives, they are again oppressed by many sufferings now. Teaching them first to leave suffering and attain nirvāṇa does not place them forever within a Lesser Dharma, but first gives them a road they can walk.

Provisional and real are therefore not one true and one false. The provisional is established where living beings can presently practice; the real reveals the final destination of all such establishments. Opening three vehicles before and revealing the one vehicle afterward succeed one another and together establish that the Buddha's words are not false. If skillful means are discarded, the real loses the gateway through which it can be entered. If skillful means are treated as the destination, one loses the direction in which the Buddha appears solely for the one great matter.

III. How Can the One Vehicle Be Principle, Persons, Teaching, and Practice at Once?

If the one vehicle is only one, why does the root treatise repeatedly explain it through the four aspects of principle, persons, teaching, and practice?

Because “one” does not crush every difference into an empty name. It illuminates the same destination from different positions. Causing living beings to enter buddha-wisdom is spoken from the principle entered. Persons of the various provisional identities all becoming children of the Buddha is spoken from the people who enter. The presence of only one vehicle throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions is spoken from the ultimate referent of the teaching. Everything done by the buddhas being for the single real matter is spoken from actual practice.

Here the name śrāvaka also includes pratyekabuddhas, while the name bodhisattva includes those who cultivate the six perfections in different ways. These identities are not denied, yet they are no longer final states isolated from one another. Persons become one not because they have never differed, but because the people of the seven provisional means are all opened and revealed as children of the Buddha. The teaching becomes one not because the names two and three never served a purpose, but because those names were all provisional establishments guiding living beings.

One practice especially shows that this is not a conceptual merger. The buddhas themselves dwell in the Great Vehicle and liberate living beings through the Dharma they have attained. Ultimately they do not use the Lesser Vehicle as final deliverance, because everything they do points toward the Buddha's knowledge and vision. One principle without the entry of persons would be a principle suspended in emptiness; one class of persons without teaching and practice would have no road by which to enter. The four aspects illuminate one another, making “one” neither abstract nor destructive of differences.

The exhortation to believe further returns this convergence to the Buddha's interior and exterior, cause and effect. The Buddha's mind has left ignorance, the stain of stinginess, and every evil, while his outward bodily marks are dignified and radiant; his teaching is therefore credible. Formerly the Buddha not only vowed to seek buddhahood himself but vowed that living beings would enter buddha-wisdom together; his teaching thus also has an ancient vow as its cause. Purity without deception in the fruit and a vow made in the cause and now fulfilled together establish the exhortation to believe.

IV. How Does a Universal Vow Face Living Beings Who Have Not Yet Been Liberated?

The Buddha formerly vowed to liberate all living beings. Since living beings are still many, how can it be said that the vow has now been fulfilled?

The root treatise does not interpret fulfillment to mean that no living being remains to be liberated at this moment. The Buddha continually benefits beings throughout the three times; here the vow's fulfillment is discussed only with respect to this present work of transformation. He has attained awakening and has taught the Dharma that enables living beings to enter buddha-wisdom. Fulfillment does not mean that suffering has vanished from the world, but that the direction established by the Buddha has not failed and the transformation enabling living beings to enter buddha-wisdom is now realized.

The five turbidities are the real circumstances that the vow must face. Living beings cling to the five desires and generate the illness of self through delusion and craving for existence. Life continues from a minute embryonic form through old age and death. Views of annihilation and permanence interweave like entry into a dense forest. False dharmas are grasped and held firmly. The first four turbidities gather across an extended eon. If the Buddha merely said, “All enter the buddha path,” without illuminating these obstructions, his vow would remain an empty declaration.

The Buddha therefore first establishes a path for living beings to exhaust suffering. This does not treat the Lesser Dharma as true extinction. The root treatise distinguishes: analyzing the falsity of the three realms and extinguishing form to take emptiness is still not true extinction; realizing that ignorance is originally nonexistent and constantly quiescent is true extinction. Yet even if the principle is originally quiescent, cultivating the path cannot therefore be canceled. Without actually practicing the path, there is still no way to accord with original quiescence.

The “encounter” of living beings and buddhas receives two explanations here. In terms of events, living beings are tormented by suffering and the buddhas rescue them through great compassion; suffering and compassion face one another, and this is called encounter. In terms of principle, the thusness of buddhas and the thusness of living beings are the same thusness, without two natures, and this too is called encounter. Great compassion neither departs from the present suffering of living beings nor locks them forever into an identity within suffering.

The stories of two buddhas who vowed that beings would become buddhas and enter extinction on the same day press the question further: if a vow is so vast, can beings in the three evil destinies become buddhas simultaneously while retaining those bodily forms? The root treatise answers that they are first caused to attain human or heavenly bodies and then brought to the path. This does not exclude the three evil destinies forever, but says that buddhahood requires a basis capable of receiving the path, just as one cannot seek a heap of jewels in empty space.

V. Why Does the Deepest Revelation of the Real Begin with the Slightest Goodness?

The past-buddha chapter devotes a long passage to children gathering sand to make stūpas, images made from grasses and wood, drums and horns and songs, offering one flower, joining palms and bowing heads, and uttering the Buddha's name once. Why can these slight and even distracted acts occupy the center of revealing the real?

One interpretation elevates the child to a profound stage and turns both sand and stūpa into symbols of nonattachment and perfect awakening. Such a reading can appear profound, but it loses the scripture's power to gather broadly across the horizontal range. The scripture plainly speaks of children at play and offerings made with distracted minds. If the child is first interpreted as a person already entering a profound stage, it is only proper that such a person become a buddha, and nothing inconceivable remains. What is truly astonishing is that not even an ordinary being's slightest wholesome act is omitted.

The root treatise uses the three buddha-natures to answer the doubt, “Slight goodness should yield only human or heavenly retribution; why say that it has already accomplished the buddha path?” Before provisional means are opened and revealed, bowing the head, raising a hand, gathering sand, and offering a flower appear to remain only within their corresponding recompense. Once provisional means are opened and revealed, one knows that they are conditioning causes capable of proceeding toward awakening. They have not perfected the fruit of buddhahood in the present. They are like the first basket of earth in building a mountain and the first tender shoot of a tree that will take two arms to encircle: slight, yet genuinely a beginning.

This also explains why the root treatise carefully distinguishes sincere and distracted minds, heavenly and human karma. Exhausting one's wealth to build a stūpa, making an image with concentrated resolve, and prostrating with the five limbs are wholehearted acts of goodness. Children playing with sand, offering flowers distractedly, and joining palms and bowing heads are lighter acts of goodness. The difference is not erased, but both are gathered into the causal ground of the one vehicle. Opening and revealing does not mean that every action has exactly the same power, but that no portion of goodness directed toward the Buddha is judged forever unrelated to the buddha path.

Details such as materials for making images, the postures of seated, reclining, and standing buddha-images, and whether one may sit within stūpas or halls also remind the reader that slight goodness is not only imagined in the mind; it must take form in concrete action and pure materials. The scripture permits glue and lacquer, while precept materials limit impure substances. The root treatise records positions concerning tree resin, oxhide glue, and soybean liquid side by side, but still concludes that impure materials are unsuitable for making images. Though a wholesome cause may be slight, the boundaries governing action are not thereby canceled.

The long passage on one utterance of “Namo Buddha” further extends slight goodness into verbal karma and the time of death. Different transmitted explanations include “liberate me,” fear, and taking refuge; the root treatise does not combine them into one definition, but assesses them within the context of liberating living beings. Stones placed directly in water sink, whereas many stones supported by a boat do not. The simile shows that isolated unwholesome karma and buddha-recollection with a support do not have the same outcome.

VI. Why Is the Past-Buddha Chapter the Most Extensive, While the Future- and Present-Buddha Chapters Are Shorter?

The buddhas of the three times all establish skillful means and reveal the real. Why does the past-buddha chapter extensively explain the five vehicles, while the future-buddha chapter has only six and a half lines and the present-buddha chapter only four and a half?

Because what has already happened gives stronger proof than what has not yet happened or is happening now. The future buddhas' work of transformation has not begun, while that of the present buddhas is unfolding. The past buddhas opened and revealed provisional means long ago; the people they transformed have entered the buddha path through various provisional means and can continue transforming others throughout the ten directions. Rather than constructing an abstract theory, it is better to verify it through accomplished events.

The past-buddha chapter therefore first briefly teaches one teaching, one class of persons, and one principle while also including one practice, then gathers the five vehicles extensively through bodhisattvas, the two vehicles, and gods and humans. All bodhisattvas cultivate the six perfections, but their orientation of mind can have marks, be markless, or be neither marked nor markless. The scripture lists only the six perfections, and the root treatise does not force them into only one category. Persons of the two vehicles are opened and revealed through wholesome and pliant minds. Gods and humans are gathered through such slight wholesome acts as building stūpas, making images, making offerings, and hearing the Dharma. The extensive explanation does not increase the number of headings, but makes visible the fact that not the slightest goodness is omitted.

The future-buddha chapter concludes instead through vows, buddha-seed, and Dharma-position. Absence of nature does not mean that nothing exists, but that the true mark is not established through intrinsic nature and that even absence of nature cannot be grasped. Deluded about this principle, living beings arise with ignorance as condition; understanding it, the rightly awakened arise with teaching and practice as conditions. The direct cause is the buddha-seed, while conditioning and revealing causes support one another so that the seed can arise. Living beings and right awakening both remain within the one thusness: this is the line of meaning in dharmas abiding in their Dharma-positions and the marks of the world constantly abiding. It does not mean that changes in the world are forever frozen and unmoving.

The present-buddha chapter returns to what is before us. The present buddhas throughout the ten directions receive offerings from gods and humans and appear in the world precisely to bring living beings peace. They first know the quiescence that is foremost and reveal the buddha vehicle, then illuminate living beings' manifold practices and the thoughts deep in their minds, establishing skillful means according to what is appropriate. The verse places revealing the real before opening the provisional because this principle has long been clear within the fruit of buddhahood; in transformation, however, the three vehicles must still be established because living beings' obstructions are severe. It is clear first in the fruit and unfolds sequentially in transforming others; the before and after do not obstruct one another.

The four-buddha chapter thus forms a complete movement. The gateway of buddhas in general explains why provisional means are established and ultimately return to revealing the real. The past-buddha chapter proves through accomplished events that slight goodness can all be opened and revealed. The future-buddha chapter shows through vows, buddha-seed, and Dharma-position that this road will not be broken. The present-buddha chapter returns everything to the work of transformation now. The four gateways differ in length, but together answer one question: with differences among living beings so profound and vast, how do the buddhas abandon no capacity and cause skillful means ultimately to return to the real?

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

Zhanran first distinguishes more clearly the two similes concerning the departure of the five thousand: “Capacity concerns whether one can be aroused; vessel speaks of whether one can bear the task”〔T34n1719 0242b03〕. Lees and chaff focus on whether the capacity can be aroused, while branches and leaves focus on whether the vessel can bear the task; they are not repeated terms of rebuke. He further unfolds the root treatise through lees yielding wine and chaff yielding grain, so that “sealing oneself within wording and losing its interpretation” means not merely a verbal error, but failing to draw out the flavor of principle carried by the words.

Concerning the outline of the gateway of buddhas in general, the mirror first confirms, “‘As for “there are three differences,” they are first listed and then explained’”〔0242b06〕, and then explicitly attributes the supplemental fourth difference to Zhang'an〔0242b16〕. The root treatise's original three differences and the subsequently added private explanation must therefore retain their distinct voices; they cannot be rewritten as four items present from the beginning.

The mirror further indicates the relation of nine and seven precisely: “Nine are the capacities addressed, while the teachings do not exceed seven; the seven are taught to the nine and gradually cause them to enter the real”〔0242b26〕. Nine belongs to living beings' capacities and seven to provisional teachings. Their inability to be definitively assigned means that when the Buddha encounters a capacity, he uses the corresponding Dharma; it does not mean arranging the two enumerations into a fixed table. This makes the responsive function of skillful means still clearer.

Concerning the question of the vow's fulfillment, the mirror answers not that the number of living beings has been exhausted, but that the vow is fulfilled when living beings enter the buddha vehicle〔0243a13〕. It divides the three meanings of “living beings” into receiving the name in relation to others, establishing the designation from oneself, and the function of transmigration〔0243a18〕. It further supplies that the purple color listed but unexplained by the root treatise refers to asuras〔0243a26〕. As for the title Sūtra on Receiving the Aggregate-Body, it says only “Perhaps it is simply the Sūtra on Entering the Womb”〔0243b14〕; this language of uncertainty cannot be converted into a definite retitling.

The key to the past-buddha chapter lies in the mirror's statement that slight goodness in the past is opened and developed through the buddhas' vows and wisdom, so that all of it proceeds toward awakening〔0244a24〕. This prevents two opposite misreadings: neither may a slight wholesome act be said already to have realized the fruit of buddhahood, nor may it be sealed forever within human and heavenly retribution. The mirror concludes with “Opening their slight goodness in the past directly strikes the present mind of attachment”〔0246b05〕. What is broken is precisely the present mind that grasps provisional means as ultimate.

In the discussion of making images and offerings, the mirror does not use the scripture's enumeration of music to cancel the boundaries of the precepts, but says that discernment is still required〔0245b29〕. It likewise supplements the prohibition on sitting before a standing image by explaining that circumstances such as danger from a king require consideration according to the time〔0245b08〕. Thus “not omitting the slightest goodness” and “action has boundaries” are established together.

In the future-buddha chapter, Zhanran explains delusion and awakening through the two dependent arisings of defilement and purity〔0246c24〕, then unfolds the three causes through the conditioning cause supporting the revealing cause and their functions mutually accomplishing one another〔0247a05〕. He finally judges, “Thus the words concerning the five buddhas differ, but the great principle does not”〔0247a22〕. In the present-buddha chapter he especially notes that the prose first opens the provisional and then reveals the real, while the verse first reveals the real and then opens the provisional〔0247c27〕. Though the verbal sequence differs, the great principle revealed does not; this provides the concluding eye for the four-buddha chapter.

At the fascicle transition, the mirror further describes the direct cause and aggregates and sense-fields, together with the cultivated conditioning and revealing causes, as neither identical nor separate〔0247c05〕. This prevents “the marks of the world constantly abide” from falling into either of two extremes: the aggregates, sense-fields, and elements are not simply identical to the direct cause, nor is an isolated buddha-seed sought apart from living beings' present body and mind. Although the present buddhas have long comprehended the principle of the fruit through the direct cause, they still illuminate the deep thoughts of living beings and establish skillful means. Principle does not depart from capacities, and capacities do not obscure principle. This is also an important boundary the mirror places on reading the present passage.