妙法蓮華經文句 藥草喻品 · 廣述成·長行

We readily imagine equality to mean that everyone receives the same words, the same amount, and the same result.

The “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” does not speak this way. Dense clouds cover all and one rain reaches everywhere; the rain favors no plant or tree, yet each still grows roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits according to its own kind and nature.

Difference does not mean that the rain is partial. Equality does not mean that all plants and trees must become the same plant.

The Tathāgata knows the illness and also recognizes the medicine. Some need precepts and goodness to sustain their present lives, some leave suffering through the four truths or dependent origination, and some resolve to advance toward the Buddha Way. The teachings differ not because truth has fractured but because each seed can presently receive a different measure of water. The small are not flooded with excess and the great are not given less; this is what it means to accord with their kinds and natures.

We also repeatedly make another mistake: seeing one leaf that has grown upon us, we take it for the whole rainstorm. Receiving some peace, we cling to that peace; receiving one understanding, we take our own understanding as the only reality. The root treatise says that plants and trees are moistened and grow, yet do not know their own superior, medium, or inferior capacities. Only the Tathāgata simultaneously knows their seeds, forms, practices, causes and fruits, and final destinations.

This does not erase the qualities you have already gained. It only reminds you that having attained something is not the same as seeing the whole of what has been attained.

If the Buddha knows all of this, why does He not say everything at the outset? Because He must still observe living beings’ desires and protect them. Genuine compassion does not consist only in uttering the deepest words; it also sees whether the listener can bear them. A young shoot needs rain that can enter its roots, not proof of how much water the cloud contains.

The next time you think, “How can that person still not understand?” or “Why am I not as advanced as someone else?” first ask: am I comparing the shapes of plants and trees, or am I receiving the rain that can truly make me grow at this moment?

One earth bears you and has never left you out; one rain universally moistens precisely so that the seed already present may grow. What you can do is allow the Dharma rain that has already fallen truly to enter faith, discipline, concentration, and wisdom, slowly flowering and fruiting from root to leaf.

I. Confirmation First through Direct Teaching

The extensive confirmation of the principle understood by the four great disciples is divided into prose and verse. The prose again divides in two: first, confirmation of opening the three to reveal the one; second, beginning with the scripture’s address to Kāśyapa and the others, conclusion and praise. The first part has three levels: direct teaching, simile, and application of the simile. Direct teaching again has two levels. First, the Tathāgata is presented as the Dharma King, indicating that His speech is not false and thereby encouraging belief. Second, beginning with “concerning all dharmas,” opening the three to reveal the one is directly confirmed.

A human king in the world has nothing to fear outwardly and does not reverse his speech inwardly. The Dharma King is the same: He has exhausted all evil, and whatever He says is true and not false.

An old explanation holds that the Tathāgata here confirms the truth and reliability of the medium-faculty disciples’ understanding while encouraging those of lesser faculties to believe and receive. The present explanation instead says this: although the Buddha Dharma is manifold, it never goes beyond the provisional and the real, and outside provisional and real there is no other kind of dharma. Yet the scripture says that the Tathāgata’s qualities are immeasurable, a meaning difficult to believe. It therefore first presents the Dharma King to encourage faith and also to establish the basis for the great-cloud simile that follows.

Beginning with “concerning all dharmas,” the text explains opening the provisional to reveal the real from the side of teaching. Beginning with the Tathāgata’s observing and knowing, it explains opening the provisional to reveal the real from the side of wisdom. The two teachings of the provisional and real reveal the two wisdoms of the provisional and real; the two wisdoms of the provisional and real in turn proclaim the two teachings of the provisional and real. Wisdom and teaching mutually accomplish one another.

“All dharmas” means the seven kinds of skillful means, which are horizontally arrayed. Setting the seven kinds of skillful means against the one reality produces a vertical contrast. Were it otherwise, why would someone first arouse the great mind in the presence of two myriads of koṭis of buddhas, attain a lesser fruit midway, and then circulate through the five destinies? Even one person fully contains the ten Dharma realms, much more the seven kinds of skillful means. Although the Dharma gates are many, the perfection of skillful means illuminates all of them, exhausting them without omission; the Buddha also teaches through the speech of every class of living being and never fails to accord. He teaches precepts and goodness to humans and gods; the four truths and dependent origination to the two vehicles; the six perfections in terms of concrete activities to bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka Teaching; non-arising in the Shared Teaching; and the sequential revelation of the tathāgata-garbha in the Distinct Teaching. This confirms Kāśyapa and the others’ understanding of opening the three.

Beginning with “the dharmas He teaches,” the text confirms the revelation of the real from the side of teaching. “Ground” means the real mark. Because there are ultimately not two, it is called “one”; because its substance is vast, it is called “all”; because it is quiescent yet constantly illuminates, it is called “wisdom”; because it is the basis of nonabiding and can establish every dharma, it is called “ground.” This is the real teaching of the Perfect Teaching.

Everything the Tathāgata teaches brings living beings to this ground of wisdom. The wording that reveals the real shines as brightly as the sun; how could one speak dream-words in the dark and offer some other explanation? The Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, for example, extensively enumerates dharmas and calls them all Mahāyāna. “Yāna” means the Great Vehicle, the vehicle is the real mark, and the real mark is the ground of all-knowledge. When the preceding text says, “Only this one matter is real,” it refers to this ground; when it says, “The other two are not real,” it refers to the seven kinds of skillful means. In terms of the gradual and sudden teachings, this confirms opening the provisional to reveal the real.

Beginning with “the Tathāgata observes and knows all dharmas,” the text confirms opening the provisional to reveal the real from the side of wisdom. Observing the destinations of all dharmas is the capacity to illuminate provisional dharmas; ultimate comprehension of all dharmas is the capacity to illuminate real dharmas. The Buddha freely penetrates the partial and perfect objects illuminated by provisional and real wisdom and can therefore teach the provisional and the real. This presents wisdom to explain teaching.

Knowing the destinations of all dharmas is recognizing the medicine; knowing the practices deep within living beings’ minds is knowing the illness. Illnesses and medicines both belong to provisional dharmas, while each provisional dharma has its own destination. Precepts and goodness proximately lead to rebirth among humans and gods; viewed as conditions for the future, even bowing one’s head or raising one’s hand can lead distantly to buddhahood. The applications of mindfulness and factors of the path proximately lead to nirvāṇa; viewed as the adornment of merit, “what you practice is the bodhisattva path,” and they lead distantly to the place of jewels. The Dharma gates of the six perfections in the Shared and Distinct Teachings likewise each have proximate and distant destinations; the roads and tracks they follow are not the same. The meaning may be understood accordingly.

Again, precepts and goodness are medicine for humans and gods; truths, conditions, and perfections are medicines for persons of the three vehicles; the medicines of the Shared and Distinct Teachings may be understood by analogy.

Practices deep within the mind are of two kinds. One is deep attachment to the body and mind upon which one depends and to the environment one inhabits; the other is deep attachment to the dharma one has grasped. Those attached to body, mind, and environment produce grave ten evils that obstruct the human and deva vehicles. Those attached to the dharma they grasp produce the four inversions, three paths, six coverings, four abiding afflictions, five abiding afflictions, and so forth, obstructing the vehicles of the noble ones. The forms of illness in the deep mind are thus not the same, and provisional wisdom sees them all with unhindered penetration.

“Furthermore, ultimately comprehending all dharmas” describes what real wisdom illuminates. Every provisional dharma enters the real, without exception, so it is called ultimate; because real wisdom knows it, it is called comprehending; because the Buddha-eye sees it, it is called clear.

If one wisdom illuminates only one medicine and one illness but cannot illuminate another medicine and illness, while a different wisdom illuminates only the other side and not this side, each class remaining different from the others, this is what provisional wisdom illuminates. If one wisdom universally illuminates every medicine and every illness, this is what real wisdom illuminates. Because the Buddha can reveal such a perfect object and wisdom to living beings, the scripture calls it all wisdom.

“All dharmas” can also be interpreted as the ten Dharma realms. The nature, marks, and desires of each of the ten differ, as do the recompenses they obtain and the destinations toward which they go. Knowing all dharmas to exhaustion is called knowing the illness; knowing the deep attachments in the minds of all living beings is called knowing the medicine. Medicines may be profound or shallow. The Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that wisdom in accord with reality knows the mind of greed, the mind of hatred, and the mind of delusion. Knowing through wisdom in accord with reality is called knowing the deep mind: one penetrates in accord with principle and without obstruction. As for all Dharma medicines such as precepts, goodness, truths, conditions, and perfections, knowing them all through wisdom in accord with reality is called unhindered penetration.

The “unhindered penetration” in the passage on provisional wisdom treats the real within provisional dharmas. When the passage on real wisdom again speaks “concerning all dharmas,” it treats provisional dharmas within the real. The two passages mutually reveal that the real contains the provisional and the provisional contains the real. Ultimately, it is neither the provisional alone nor the real alone; neither differentiated nor entirely undifferentiated. Through wisdom’s skillful means, the provisional differs; because all arrives at the ground of wisdom, there is no difference. The earth itself, for example, is undifferentiated, yet the plants it produces are many: the many are precisely not many, and the not-many are precisely many.

It is also like discussing dharmas in terms of mind and mind in terms of dharmas: there are various numbers within mind, while within dharmas there are no various numbers; mind does not depart from dharmas, nor do dharmas depart from mind. What is unnumbered appears numbered, and what is numbered is originally unnumbered. The provisional and real are the same. [The remainder is omitted.]

II. Opening the Similes of Earth, Plants, Clouds, and Rain

Beginning with “it is like,” the second part is teaching through simile. The passage divides in two: first the simile, then a return to the main subject in praise. The simile again consists of opening the simile and applying it. Opening the simile has two levels: first, the simile of difference, representing the preceding provisional teaching and provisional wisdom; second, the simile of non-difference, representing the preceding real teaching and real wisdom.

The three herbs and two trees differ as delicate and robust and are therefore called differentiated; one earth universally bears and one rain universally moistens and are therefore called undifferentiated. Looking only at the branch streams, one sees each as different; tracing them to their root and flourishing, one finds none that is not borne by the earth and moistened by rain. The skillful wisdom inwardly applied sees the seven kinds and five kinds as each different; real wisdom sees that they ultimately return to one reality. The one reality does not depart from the seven and five, nor do the seven and five depart from the one reality: difference is precisely non-difference, and non-difference appears as difference. [The remainder is omitted.]

The simile of difference has six items: first, earth; second, plants and trees; third, dense cloud; fourth, falling rain; fifth, receiving moisture; and sixth, growth.

1. The Simile of Earth

First is the simile of earth. An old explanation takes the earth of the trichiliocosm as the general presentation and then distinguishes mountains, rivers, streams, and valleys, correlating them with habituation-causes of the five vehicles: a valley receives much water and represents bodhisattvas; a stream represents pratyekabuddhas; a river represents śrāvakas; and a high mountain, receiving little moisture, represents the human and deva vehicles.

The present explanation holds that a habituation-cause should be represented by a seed receiving moisture and gradually growing. Although earth, mountains, and rivers also receive moisture, they lack the two meanings of seed and growth. Moreover, the later application speaks of sound reaching universally throughout the world among gods, humans, and asuras, and the verse says that within every assembly of gods and humans there is none who does not receive it; nowhere are earth and the rest used to represent habituation-causes. The old explanation is therefore not adopted.

The great-thousand world now represents the world of living beings, while mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth represent the world of the five aggregates. A world is not something that exists apart from mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth but is constituted by them; neither is a living being something that exists apart from the five aggregates but is constituted by them. Earth in general represents the aggregate of consciousness, while mountains, rivers, streams, and valleys represent the other four aggregates.

Although the dependent plants and trees rely upon earth and the rest, earth and the rest are not themselves the plants. The forms, branches, and trunks of plants are simply called plants. A plant’s seed does not have another object-name either: it is called “seed” only in reference to its function of producing, while the produced form, branches, and trunk are called the plant. Every plant fixes its roots in the earth, so earth is the basis.

Inwardly applied, these are habituation-cause and habituation-fruit. Although they depend upon the five aggregates, the five aggregates themselves are not identical with cause and fruit. Habituation-cause can exist only in dependence upon the five aggregates; only when the habituation-cause grows and is accomplished is it called habituation-fruit. Fruit and cause arise in dependence upon the aggregates. In this way the simile of mountains, rivers, and earth is established, and every aspect represented by the plant’s seed receiving moisture and growing is also established.

A further level of the particular simile may also be revealed. Although a mountain is lofty, it still has five kinds of form, such as depressions and elevations; even level earth has five kinds of form, such as hills and ponds. This represents the five aggregates possessed by each of the five vehicles: the high mountain represents the bodhisattvas’ five aggregates, the river the pratyekabuddhas’ five aggregates, the stream the śrāvakas’ five aggregates, the earth the devas’ five aggregates, and the low valley humans’ five aggregates. Each class of five aggregates supports habituation-causes and habituation-fruits, just as mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth can all support seeds and the forms, branches, and trunks.

The trichiliocosm may further represent the principle as direct cause, the common basis of all things; mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth may represent the recompense body and mind formed from living beings’ aggregates, elements, and sense fields; and plants, groves, and forests may represent living beings’ habituation-causes. These three dharmas do not depart from one another: habituation-causes depend on the aggregates and sense fields, while the aggregates and sense fields do not go beyond Dharma-nature, just as plants depend upon mountains and rivers and mountains and rivers depend upon the world. [The remainder is omitted.]

The scripture’s six levels are plainly visible. Why fabricate a different sequence? The scriptural order is already thus; why jumble and mix it, copying the later text to the front and moving the earlier text to the back?

2. The Simile of Plants and Trees

Beginning with “the plants and trees it produces,” this is the second, the simile of produced plants and trees. “Plants” is the general name for grasses, and “trees” the general name for woody plants; grasses gathered together form a grove, and trees gathered together form a forest. Those that treat illnesses and possess especially strong functions are called medicines. In the same way, every wholesome dharma can treat evil, but uncontaminated goodness has a stronger function in removing afflictions and is therefore specially called medicine.

Among the plants and trees below, tree groves possess extensive branches and trunks that give broad shade and have great functions, so they represent the two classes of bodhisattvas. “Various kinds” means that the cause-and-fruit seeds of the five vehicles and seven kinds of goodness each differ. Each class has its own designation, which is its name; each has its own embodied appearance, which is its form.

3. The Simile of Dense Cloud

Beginning with “dense cloud,” this is the third, the simile of dense cloud. Clouds possess visible form and provide shade, while the later verse also speaks of thunder resounding far away. Shade represents the Buddha’s compassion, visible form represents the Buddha’s responsive manifestation in the world, and thunder represents the Buddha’s verbal teaching. The dense cloud is therefore the three esoteric treasuries: compassion is the esoteric treasury of mind, visible form the esoteric treasury of body, and thunder the esoteric treasury of speech.

“Spreading” means pervading. Because it is both dense and universally covering, the text says it spreads. Perfumed and impelled by compassion, the Buddha manifests a responsive body and teaches throughout the ten Dharma realms; this is why it is said to spread.

The Scripture and Vinaya in Assorted Selections records that clouds have five colors: blue clouds contain much wind, red clouds much fire, yellow and white clouds much earth, and black clouds much water. There are four masters of lightning: the eastern is named Shenwei, the southern Baizhu, the western Ajieluo, and the northern Azhulan. Thunder occurs because the four masters of lightning contend with one another; it also occurs when water, fire, wind, and earth contend. Five things prevent rain from falling: first, wind arises and scatters the clouds; second, fire arises and scorches the clouds; third, asuras take the clouds in their hands and carry them into the ocean; fourth, the rain master engages in sexual misconduct; fifth, the king governs without the Way, angering the rain master so that no rain falls. [The remainder is omitted.]

4. The Simile of Falling Rain

Beginning with “pouring down equally at one time,” this is the fourth, the simile of falling rain. It represents the Buddha proclaiming the Dharma rain through the eight tones and four eloquences of the esoteric treasury of speech, giving living beings benefit and moisture.

5. The Simile of Saturating Moisture

Beginning with “its moisture universally reaches,” this is the fifth, the simile of saturating moisture. The Dharma treasure rains universally and moistens the seeds of habituation-causes already present in the mind-ground of the seven classes of living beings, causing wisdom born of hearing to arise. This is called saturation.

The scripture speaks of branches, leaves, roots, and stems. The root treatise interprets them by function: faith is the root, discipline the stem, concentration the branch, and wisdom the leaf. Because the four progressively support one another, they are used as the simile. Small roots and stems are the faith and discipline of humans and gods; medium roots and stems are the faith and discipline of the two vehicles; great roots and stems are the faith and discipline of bodhisattvas.

6. The Simile of Growth

Beginning with “the trees, great and small,” this is the sixth, the simile of growth. Here the text again briefly presents the plants, each receiving moisture according to its own measure. Once the wholesome dharmas of the two kinds of cause—habituation and recompense—receive the Dharma rain, the two kinds of fruit, habituation and recompense, each grow.

“According to their kinds and natures” means that the Buddha establishes provisional dharmas in precise accord with capacities: what the small receive does not exceed their measure, nor is what the great receive diminished. These are the habituation-causes and recompense-causes of the seven classes of living beings. Flowers blooming and fruits ripening are habituation-fruits and recompense-fruits.

Growth may also be divided into three meanings. “According to their kinds and natures” is the basis of growth, because the Buddha establishes the teachings according to capacities; “each obtains growth” directly states growth; flowers blooming and fruits ripening are the appearance in which growth becomes manifest.

7. The Undifferentiated Simile of One Earth and One Rain

Beginning with “although produced by one earth,” this is the second major section, the undifferentiated simile of one earth and one rain, which reveals the one reality. It has three levels.

First, produced by one earth: living beings arise from the mind-ground before the path and finally take the wisdom-ground after the path as their destination. Second, rained upon by one cloud: the Dharma gate of the One Vehicle is proclaimed in one voice, developing the five kinds of wholesome roots along the path, and ultimately it remains the equal teaching in one voice. Third, the three herbs and two trees receive benefit without knowing it themselves: the five kinds of wholesome roots receive the Buddha’s Dharma rain and grow according to their respective measures, yet do not know it themselves; they do not know that the five kinds of causes all depend upon one Buddha-nature; they do not know that the teachings of the five vehicles are all the Great Vehicle; and they still do not know that they return together to Buddha-wisdom. Only the Tathāgata knows.

III. Applying the Six Similes One by One to the Buddha’s Teaching

Beginning with “Kāśyapa, you should know, the Tathāgata,” this is the application of the simile. Applying the differentiated simile has two levels: first the direct application, then a renewed presentation of the simile fitted to the scriptural wording. The opening simile has six items, but the application does not follow the original sequence. The opening simile begins from the side of capacities and speaks of living beings; the application begins from the side of stimulus and response and speaks of the Tathāgata, because the Tathāgata is the lord of transformation.

The first passage directly applies the third opening simile, the dense cloud, while also applying the first, the world. The second applies the fourth, falling rain. The third applies the first, the world and the mountains, rivers, streams, and valleys. The fourth applies the second, plants and trees. The fifth applies the fifth, saturating moisture. The sixth applies the sixth, growth.

The application is arranged this way because when the Tathāgata responsively manifests in the world, there is teaching through the eight tones; when there is teaching, there are living beings to be transformed; when living beings hear the Dharma, each receives the moisture of the path; and although the moisture received is the same, their growth remains different. [The remainder is omitted.]

1. Applying the Dense Cloud

First is the application of the dense cloud. It first presents the Buddha’s esoteric treasury of body, applying the cloud’s visible form, and then presents the Buddha’s esoteric treasury of speech, applying the cloud’s sound.

“The Tathāgata likewise appears in the world” directly applies the responsive body’s appearance in the world. “Like the arising of a great cloud” presents the simile and fits it to the text, saying that the Tathāgata manifests His body through great loving-kindness, sheltering and nurturing all. “With a great sound” presents the Buddha’s esoteric treasury of speech and applies the cloud’s sound.

Gods, humans, and asuras are the three good destinies enumerated separately as recipients of benefit from the esoteric treasury of speech. That is, the thirty ranks of buddha-sons who possess the capacities of the three vehicles each receive the benefit of the voiced teaching. “Like that great cloud” again presents the simile and fits it to the cloud’s sound. “Universally covering the great-thousand world” presents all living beings together as buddha-sons, all receiving the benefit of the esoteric treasury of speech.

Sometimes only five similes are applied, taking the passage beginning with “universally throughout the world” also to apply the world and earth. “World” is the world as land; gods, humans, and asuras are the world of provisional designation and the five aggregates. Provisional designation applies the preceding world, while the five aggregates apply the preceding mountains, rivers, streams, and valleys.

2. Applying the Falling Rain

Beginning with “proclaiming in the great assembly,” this is the second, applying the fourth opening simile, falling rain. It first marks out six gateways and then exhorts living beings to hear and receive.

The six gateways are these: first, the ten epithets, including Tathāgata and Worthy of Offerings; second, the four universal vows, including causing those not yet delivered to be delivered; third, the three penetrations, including this life and later lives; fourth, the three wisdoms in one mind, meaning complete knowledge; fifth, the five eyes, meaning seeing; sixth, the wisdom-conduct shared by the three karmas. “Knowing” means that the karma of mind needs no guarding; “opening the path” means that the karma of body needs no guarding; and “teaching the path” means that the karma of speech needs no guarding. Together these may also be called the guide: the one who knows the path, opens the path, teaches the path, and so forth.

Beginning with “you gods and humans,” the text exhorts living beings to hear and receive. The Buddha proclaims the six Dharma gates through the eight tones; speaking in terms of the majority, He particularly exhorts living beings in the three good destinies to come hear the Dharma.

3. Applying Mountains and Rivers

Beginning with “at that time immeasurable koṭis of kinds of living beings” and extending through “came to hear the Dharma,” this is the third, applying the first opening simile, mountains and rivers. Living beings exist only through the aggregation of recompense, just as a world is constituted only in dependence upon mountains, rivers, and the rest. “Hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis” means the living beings of the ten Dharma realms. What is directly described here is the differentiation among living beings of the seven kinds of skillful means; the correlations are as above. Another division takes the entire passage beginning with “you gods and humans” as applying the simile of mountains and rivers.

4. Applying Plants and Trees

Beginning with “the Tathāgata at that time” and extending through “diligent or lax,” this is the fourth, applying the second opening simile, plants and trees.

An old explanation holds that this passage adds something not present in the preceding simile and therefore has nothing to apply. The present explanation instead says that the preceding simile explicitly described plants as differing in greatness and smallness, while the present passage says that living beings’ faculties are sharp or dull and their conduct diligent or lax. These are precisely differing depths of habituation-causes and have the same meaning as the plants. How could this be only an addition without a corresponding simile?

“At that time,” if stated from the beginning of the gradual teaching, means the first teaching of the three vehicles in the Deer Park; if stated in terms of the various intermediate occasions, each occasion may likewise be called “at that time.”

Sharp and dull may first be judged generally. Because those in the three evil destinies have evil causes and painful fruits and cannot receive the path, they are called dull; because living beings of the seven kinds of skillful means hear the teaching and benefit, they are called sharp. A particular judgment can then be made: because humans and gods accept only recompense and refuse the Dharma of the path, they are called dull; because the capacities of the three vehicles can sever afflictions and leave the three realms, they are called sharp. Again, because śrāvakas contemplate arising and extinction, they are called dull, while because bodhisattvas contemplate neither arising nor extinction, they are called sharp. Distinctions can likewise be made within the Shared, Distinct, and Perfect Teachings. [The remainder is omitted.]

Diligence and laxity are also judged according to living beings’ conduct. Those in the three evil destinies are heedless and are called lax; humans and gods uphold the five precepts and ten good deeds and are called diligent. Humans and gods do not weary of suffering and are called lax; the two vehicles fear impermanence and are called diligent. The two vehicles cling to realizing attainment and do not seek buddhahood and are called lax; bodhisattvas resolve to seek the Buddha Way and are called diligent. [The remainder is omitted.]

5. Applying the Reception of Moisture

Beginning with “according to what they can bear” and extending through “quickly obtain wholesome benefit,” this is the fifth, applying the fifth opening simile, receiving moisture. “According to what they can bear” means that the Buddha’s teaching precisely accords with capacities, without the faults of increase or decrease. Rejoicing and obtaining wholesome benefit means that each receives the moisture of the Dharma rain and benefits.

6. Applying Growth

Beginning with “after these living beings hear the Dharma,” this is the sixth, applying the sixth opening simile, growth. Peace in the present life and birth in a good place afterward are the recompense-fruit brought forth by the recompense-cause and apply the growth of flowers. Beginning with “they are also able to hear the Dharma” and extending through “gradually enter the path,” the habituation-cause draws forth the habituation-fruit and applies the growth of fruit. “After hearing the Dharma” applies the basis of growth; “peace in the present life” directly applies growth; and “birth in a good place afterward” applies the appearance of growth.

The Buddha, like a great cloud, universally covers and protects all. Even those in the three evil destinies receive moisture and grow, as the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras and Vaipulya scriptures explain when they say that beings in the hells can also benefit. Other scriptures likewise say that dragons, birds, ghosts, spirits, and others hear the Dharma and attain the path.

For example, the extinguishing of hellfire and cooling of boiling water are peace in the present life; birth among gods or humans is birth in a good place afterward; and cultivating the path after birth among gods or humans is enjoyment through the path.

If humans and gods hear the Dharma and uphold precepts, using merit to support this body so that ghosts, spirits, and dragons cannot invade it, that is peace in the present life. If devas are again born among devas after death, humans are again born among humans, or devas and humans are born among one another, that is birth in a good place afterward. If they awaken after birth, that is enjoyment through the path.

When persons of the two vehicles hear the Dharma and realize nirvāṇa with remainder, that is peace in the present life. As the later text says, someone may form the thought that the qualities they have attained are extinction; the Buddha then says that He becomes a buddha in another land under another name. That person may hear this scripture in that land. The land of skillful means with remainder is the good place; hearing the scripture there is attaining the path and enjoying bliss.

If bodhisattvas with birth-bodies hear Vairocana Buddha teach and attain patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, that is peace in the present life. Later birth in the World of Pure Fullness as members of the Dharma-body retinue is birth in a good place afterward and enjoyment through the path. Leaving every obstacle is peace in the present life; gradually entering the path according to the power one can bear is enjoyment through the path in later lives.

The five vehicles are, in sequence: the vehicle of the five precepts leaves the suffering of the three evil destinies; the vehicle of the ten good deeds leaves the eight sufferings of the human destiny; the śrāvaka vehicle leaves the impermanent suffering of the three realms; the pratyekabuddha vehicle leaves the suffering of needing to hear the Dharma from another; and the bodhisattva vehicle leaves the suffering of inwardly lacking sharp wisdom and outwardly lacking marks and excellences. These are called the five vehicles.

Eight successive lines of questioning follow.

First, should only humans and gods be called mundane vehicles, and the others supramundane vehicles? Second, is Buddha the real vehicle and all others provisional vehicles? Third, is Buddha the fruit vehicle and all others cause vehicles? Fourth, should only three vehicles be established: humans and gods as lower, the two vehicles as middle, and Buddha as higher? Fifth, should humans and gods be called vehicles that do not sever afflictions, the two vehicles vehicles that sever afflictions, and Buddha the vehicle neither severing nor not severing? Sixth, should humans and gods be called non-severing, Buddha severing, and the two vehicles both severing and not severing? Seventh, can they be divided into ordinary beings, the worthy and noble, and neither ordinary nor noble? Eighth, can they be divided into vehicles of existence, emptiness, neither existence nor emptiness, and so forth? [The remainder is omitted.]

The Great Treatise speaks of five wholesome roots, while the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra distinguishes four treasuries. How do these correspond to the three herbs and two trees? In the five wholesome roots, humans and gods are opened into two kinds of goodness, the two vehicles are combined into one, and Buddha and bodhisattvas are added, making five kinds of goodness. This opens the great and combines the small. The five vehicles instead open the small and combine the great. The four treasuries combine ordinary beings and open the noble ones, while the five vehicles open both ordinary beings and noble ones. The various ways of opening and combining simply differ according to conditions.

7. Raising the Simile Again and Fitting It to the Text

Beginning with “like that great cloud,” this is the second part, again presenting the simile and fitting it to the six levels of meaning. “Great cloud” fits the first two benefits, form and sound; “raining upon all” fits the second, the six gateways of Dharma; “plants, groves, and forests” fits the fourth, in which the transformed living beings have sharp and dull faculties, lax and diligent conduct, and deep and shallow habituation-causes; “according to their kinds and natures, fully receiving moisture” fits the fifth, receiving moisture and obtaining the benefit of Dharma; and “each obtains growth” fits the sixth, peace in the present life and the attainment of growth.

IV. Applying One Earth and One Rain While Clarifying Differences among Plants

Beginning with “the Tathāgata’s teaching has one mark,” this is the second, applying the undifferentiated simile. The preceding opening simile had three levels; the present application likewise has three, though the order differs.

Beginning with “one mark and one flavor,” the text applies one earth and one rain together; beginning with “that is to say,” it explains one earth and one rain together; beginning with “those living beings,” it applies the preceding differences among plants; and beginning with “why is this,” it explains the differences and states that the Tathāgata can know both difference and non-difference.

One mark means that the minds of all living beings together possess the one mark of true suchness; this resembles one earth. One flavor means that the Dharma of the One Vehicle equally expresses one principle; this resembles one rain. In the past, seven marks were skillfully opened from within the one real mark, and seven teachings were distinctly taught within the Dharma of the One Vehicle. The Buddha knows ultimately that they finally return to one mark and one flavor.

Beginning with “that is to say,” the text explains one mark and one flavor together. Living beings’ mind-nature is the intrinsic virtue and possesses three marks: liberation, separation, and quiescent extinction. The Tathāgata proclaims these three dharmas in one voice, making three flavors. Taking these three marks as objects, one gives rise to the practice of the middle way and finally accomplishes the fruit of all-knowledge. Thus the scripture says that one ultimately arrives at knowledge of all modes.

The application of the differentiated simile of plants is explained separately below and is not recorded again here.

Sometimes the application is also divided into three meanings. First is the meaning of non-difference, applying the preceding one earth and one rain; second is the meaning of difference, applying the preceding differences among plants; third is the Tathāgata’s capacity to know, which explains and accomplishes the preceding two meanings.

Non-difference is one mark and one flavor. One mark applies the preceding one earth. The mark of liberation is the absence of any mark of birth and death; the mark of separation is the absence of any mark of nirvāṇa; the mark of extinction means that even the markless is without a mark, leaving only the real mark, and is therefore called one mark. The one mark is the basis of nonabiding and can establish every dharma. Nonabiding and marklessness are non-difference; establishing every dharma produces difference.

Difference resembles plants and non-difference one earth. Although the earth itself is undifferentiated, it can produce the differences of peaches, plums, and various plants. Although peaches, plums, and plants differ, they share the mark of solidity. Knowing that the earth fully contains peaches and plums, one can recognize the provisional within the real and understand that non-difference is precisely difference. Knowing that peaches and plums share the solid mark, one can recognize the real within the provisional and understand that difference is precisely non-difference. In this sense, one mark applies the preceding simile of one earth. One flavor is the real teaching, pure and unmixed; it may be understood in the same manner as one mark.

Next are the three marks of liberation, separation, and extinction. Liberation means that there are no karmic bonds of the two sides, segmentary birth and death and transformational birth and death, and is therefore called the mark of liberation. Separation means obtaining the wisdom of the middle way, which can leave both sides without attachment, and is therefore called the mark of separation. Extinction means that when the causes on both sides are extinguished one attains nirvāṇa with remainder, and when the fruits on both sides are extinguished one attains nirvāṇa without remainder, and is therefore called the mark of extinction. Each sentence may follow the example of one mark and be understood through both difference and non-difference.

“Ultimately arriving at knowledge of all modes” means that when the delusions of both sides are extinguished and the delusions of the Shared and Distinct Teachings are exhausted, one enters the Buddha’s knowledge and vision and practices prajñā with the mind of knowledge of all modes. The initial arousal of mind and final culmination do not differ, and it is therefore called ultimate; because this is the Buddha’s wisdom, it is called knowledge of all modes.

1. Living Beings Do Not Know

Beginning with “there are living beings who hear the Tathāgata’s Dharma yet do not themselves perceive or know,” the text clarifies difference. Here, living beings are the differences of provisional designation and real dharmas represented by mountains and rivers and also differences among seeds. The Tathāgata is the cloud, hearing the Dharma is the rain, reading, reciting, and practicing are receiving moisture, and qualities are growth. Living beings cannot know these differences themselves.

This passage has five levels: first, living beings do not know; second, the Tathāgata can know; third, the simile is presented and fitted to living beings’ not knowing; fourth, the preceding text is recapitulated to conclude and explain the Tathāgata’s knowing; fifth, a doubt is answered.

“There are living beings” presents the persons who do not know. “Dharma” is the Dharma they hear the Buddha teach in one voice. Receiving, upholding, and proclaiming directly reveal that living beings do not know. Because their receiving, upholding, and proclaiming differ, their practices also differ: humans and gods understand what they hear as precepts and goodness, while the three vehicles understand what they hear as truths, conditions, and perfections. Their understandings differ, and this is difference.

“The qualities they obtain, without themselves perceiving or knowing,” means that the five classes of persons each receive the teaching but do not know that the Buddha originally taught a one-flavored, undifferentiated teaching. Nor do they know that the seven kinds of skillful means each form their own understanding and each cling to that understanding as real. They therefore neither know the provisional nor recognize the real: amid difference, they do not themselves perceive or know.

2. The Tathāgata Can Know: Four, Three, Two, and One

Second, the Tathāgata can know. The scripture omits some numbers and presents ten objects, gathered into four levels of meaning: first, knowing according to four dharmas; second, knowing according to three dharmas; third, knowing according to two dharmas; fourth, knowing according to one dharma.

Knowing according to four dharmas means kind, mark, substance, and nature.

First is kind. The three paths are the seeds of the three virtues. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says that every class of affliction is the seed of the Tathāgata, meaning that prajñā is present precisely through the path of afflictions. It further says that even the five heinous acts can produce the mark of liberation, meaning that the wholesome Dharma of liberation is present precisely through the unwholesome. All living beings are originally the mark of nirvāṇa and cannot be extinguished again: this means that birth and death are the Dharma body. This discusses kinds in terms of mutual contrast.

If kinds are discussed in terms of their own classes, every bowing of the head and raising of the hand is a seed of liberation; all worldly wisdom and every mind of understanding in the three vehicles are seeds of prajñā; and all who possess mind will become buddhas, making them seeds of the Dharma body. The various seeds differ, and the Tathāgata can know this; all kinds are only one kind, which is non-difference, and the Tathāgata can also know this; difference is precisely non-difference and non-difference precisely difference, and the Tathāgata can also know this.

Mark, substance, and nature may be explained through the ten Dharma realms and ten suchnesses. In terms of difference, there are the marks of the ten Dharma realms; in terms of non-difference, there is the mark of the single Buddha realm. The Tathāgata can know difference and non-difference; He can also know that difference is precisely non-difference and non-difference precisely difference. Substance and nature may be understood in the same way.

Beginning with “of what is one mindful,” the text says that the Tathāgata can know according to three dharmas. The three dharmas are the three wisdoms of mindfulness, reflection, and cultivation, and these three wisdoms in turn have three levels: first, the objects of the three wisdoms; second, the substances of the three wisdoms themselves; third, the conditions through which the three wisdoms arise.

“Of what is one mindful, upon what does one reflect, and what does one cultivate?” describes the functions of the three wisdoms. Mindfulness takes up that of which one is mindful, which is the object of the three wisdoms. Beginning with “how is one mindful, how does one reflect, and how does one cultivate,” mindfulness records the Dharma one has heard and is precisely the substance of the wisdom of mindfulness; reflection and cultivation likewise each have their own substance. Beginning with “through what dharma is one mindful, through what dharma does one reflect, and through what dharma does one cultivate,” the three wisdoms take their objects, while hearing the Dharma is their condition. Again, only through the union of object and wisdom as cause and condition do the dharmas of the three wisdoms exist, so the three wisdoms may also themselves be called causes and conditions.

Concerning the three wisdoms in the three vehicles, earlier explanations hold that object, substance, and conditions each differ, which is difference. If one enters the perfect and subtle three wisdoms, there is non-difference. The Tathāgata can know this difference and non-difference; He can also know that difference is precisely non-difference and non-difference precisely difference.

Beginning with “through what dharma,” the text says that the Tathāgata can know according to two dharmas. “Through what dharma” is cause; “what dharma is attained” is fruit. Each of the five vehicles has its own cause and obtains its own fruit, which is difference. The suchness of living beings and the suchness of Buddha are together one suchness; because there are not two suchnesses, there is only one cause and one fruit, which is non-difference. The Tathāgata can know difference and non-difference; He can also know that difference is precisely non-difference and non-difference precisely difference.

Beginning with “living beings abide in various grounds,” the text says that the Tathāgata can know according to one dharma. The seven kinds of skillful means each abide in one of seven positions, so they are called various grounds, which is difference. The Tathāgata sees them through the Buddha-eye in accord with reality; like many streams entering the ocean and losing their former individual flavors, this is non-difference.

When the Buddha accords with others’ intentions and teaches through wisdom’s skillful means, the Tathāgata can know difference. When every dharma He teaches arrives at the ground of all-knowledge, the Tathāgata can know non-difference. [The remainder is omitted.]

3. Plants Do Not Know, and the Tathāgata Knows All

Beginning with “like those plants and trees,” this is the third, presenting the simile and fitting it to living beings’ not knowing.

Beginning with “the Tathāgata knows all of this,” this is the fourth, recapitulating the preceding text and concluding the Tathāgata’s capacity to know. The meanings of one mark, one flavor, and the rest remain as explained above. One mark, one flavor, liberation, separation, extinction, and the rest are differentiated and opened in accord with conditions, making the immeasurable within the one; ultimate nirvāṇa and final return to emptiness are the return of the immeasurable to the one. This recapitulates the preceding text and again explains non-difference.

Why is this so? If one mark, one flavor, liberation, separation, and extinction were merely the substance of the Dharma of the two vehicles, they would still be differentiated discourse. The text now speaks of the Great Vehicle’s ultimate nirvāṇa and final return to emptiness, thereby reaching non-difference. “Ultimate nirvāṇa” concludes that none of the preceding phrases means the nirvāṇa with remainder or without remainder of the two vehicles but rather ultimate nirvāṇa.

“The mark of constant quiescent extinction” concludes that the preceding phrases do not describe the quiescent extinction of the Lesser Vehicle but constant, abiding quiescent extinction. The earlier text says that all dharmas have from the beginning been constantly quiescent and extinct; this is precisely the present meaning.

“Finally returning to emptiness” does not mean the emptiness of extinguished ashes but the emptiness of the ultimate truth of the middle way. The root treatise here solemnly distinguishes the real from provisional dharmas.

An old explanation holds that “finally returning to emptiness” means that even if one extends the lifespan through supernormal power to an immeasurable length and then manifests twice the preceding number, when the lifespan is exhausted one ultimately returns to extinguished ashes, and this is called finally returning to emptiness. The root treatise rebukes this: such an explanation imposes this great hardship upon the Buddha and the scripture—how could one speak this way?

Guangzhai says that “finally returning to emptiness” means ultimately entering nirvāṇa with remainder and relinquishing the impermanent body and wisdom. Someone objects to this explanation: if so, how would it differ from the two vehicles?

The root treatise’s direct explanation is that the scripture presents two ultimates. First, ultimately arriving at knowledge of all modes presents the fruit of wisdom in contrast to the nonultimate wisdom of the two vehicles. Second, ultimate nirvāṇa, the mark of constant quiescent extinction, and final return to emptiness present the virtue of severance in contrast to the nonultimate severance of the two vehicles. Since the scripture explicitly says “ultimate,” one can know that this is not the emptiness of the Lesser Vehicle.

Longyin says that the emptiness of great nirvāṇa is called emptiness because it has no marks of dharmas and no afflictions and finally returns to the constantly abiding emptiness of ultimate truth. Master Zhong says that it finally returns to the wisdom of emptiness in ultimate truth. Another says that the Buddha’s fruit has no faults or burdens and is therefore called empty. The annotator says that only when both emptiness and existence are thoroughly relinquished is it called emptiness.

Masters from ancient times did not interpret this through the Lesser Vehicle. Why does only Guangzhai do so?

4. Why Know the One Yet Not Immediately Teach the One?

Beginning with “after the Buddha knew, He again observed living beings,” this is the fifth, resolving living beings’ doubt. The doubt is this: if the Buddha formerly knew that beginning and end are both one, why did He not teach the real Dharma at the very beginning in the Deer Park?

The explanation is that the Buddha observes living beings’ minds and desires and protects them according to their capacities through the three siddhāntas. Concerned that living beings who cannot bear the teaching would slander it, He does not immediately proclaim knowledge of all modes.

V. Returning to Kāśyapa’s Understanding in Praise

Beginning with “you, Kāśyapa, and the others,” this is the second major section, returning to the main subject in confirmation and explaining the doubt. Someone who hears that the Buddha has immeasurable qualities may wonder why the understanding of the four disciples should be called real when they have understood only the level of teaching. The Buddha therefore commends them: although they have not yet arrived at the ground of Buddha, they are not false within the range of teaching they understand. This also prompts those of lesser faculties and enables them likewise to awaken and enter.

This passage has two parts: first praise, then explanation. First, they are praised as rare. Ordinary beings are changeable, so it is already precious when they hear the Dharma and benefit; bodhisattvas originally understand these principles, so it is not especially rare; but the two vehicles abide in the fixed unconditioned position and can now leave their former realization and enter the real, making them exceedingly rare.

The scripture says that they can know the Tathāgata’s teaching according to what is fitting, confirming their ability to understand opening the three. It next says that they can believe and receive, confirming their ability to understand revealing the one. The scripture then asks why this is so, explaining the meaning of the praise: the Buddha teaches three within one path, and the principle is profound and difficult to understand, yet Kāśyapa and the others can believe it.

Zhiyi gives another explanation of his own. The preceding text says that the Tathāgata further possesses immeasurable qualities that Kāśyapa and the others could not exhaust even if they spoke of them; the later text then says that they are exceedingly rare. The Buddha’s kindness universally shelters, like clouds and rain that fail to cover and moisten nothing; the Buddha’s kindness universally bears, like the great earth that fails to produce nothing. How could it be only for one kind of capacity or one place? Hence Kāśyapa and the others cannot speak it exhaustively.

Although the Buddha’s kindness is universal, living beings use it every day without being able to know it themselves, just as the three herbs and two trees root in the earth and receive the rain’s moisture without knowing it. Kāśyapa and the others can know the ten kinds of kindness from beginning to end and are therefore exceedingly rare.

The four sentences beginning with causing those not yet delivered to be delivered confirm that they know the kindness of the Buddha’s four universal vows and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Living beings’ peace in the present life, birth in a good place afterward, and enjoyment through the path confirm that they know the kindness of the Buddha’s great loving-kindness in giving happiness and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Living beings’ leaving every obstacle after hearing the Dharma and gradually entering the path according to the power they can bear confirm that they know the kindness of the Buddha’s great compassion in removing suffering and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Wheel-turning kings, Śakra, and Brahmā are lesser medicinal herbs, confirming that they know the kindness through which the Buddha exhorts goodness and removes afflicting heat and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Knowing uncontaminated dharmas and being able to attain nirvāṇa, together with realizing pratyekabuddhahood, are medium medicinal herbs, confirming that they know the kindness through which the Buddha removes the afflicting heat of all delusions of view and attachment and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Superior medicinal herbs and small trees, through feeling shame for the Lesser Vehicle and aspiring to the Great Vehicle, confirm that they know the kindness through which the Buddha covers and removes ugliness and are therefore exceedingly rare.

Great trees confirm that they know the kindness through which the Buddha adorns people and are therefore exceedingly rare.

The most real matter, one earth, and one rain confirm that they know the kindness through which the Buddha entrusts the Dharma wealth and causes people to sit upon the Dharma seat, enabling body and mind, wealth and Dharma, to be sovereign and joyful; they are therefore exceedingly rare.

If the Buddha praises according to difference, the wording of the ten kindnesses is exhausted here. If He praises according to non-difference, all of this is one great kindness.

The Tathāgata’s teaching resembles dense clouds covering all and one rain universally moistening all. If the cloud is impartial and the rain has one flavor, why does one person obtain only present peace, another gradually leave suffering, and still another resolve to seek buddhahood? If what they receive differs, where is the equality? If all is equal, whence comes the difference?

The root treatise does not allow either side to swallow the other. It begins with the Dharma King’s truthful speech, then joins wisdom to teaching, earth to plants, and cloud and rain to growth layer by layer. In the end, the question is no longer “Is the rain ultimately the same or different?” but this: how does the same rain truly moisten every plant, though the plants are not the same?

I. Why Begin with the Dharma King Instead of Immediately Speaking of Plants?

Before beginning the simile, the root treatise first explains why the Tathāgata is called the king of all dharmas. Outwardly, a human king has nothing to fear; inwardly, he does not speak words that he later reverses. The Dharma King, having exhausted every evil, speaks only what is true and never false. This does more than praise the teacher: it first settles those who hear. Although immeasurable Dharma gates, diverse capacities, and different fruits will follow, these are not a miscellany of mutually conflicting teachings.

An old explanation places the emphasis of “not false” upon the credibility of the medium-faculty disciples’ understanding and the encouragement it gives those of lesser faculties. The present explanation in the root treatise presses the question more deeply: although the Buddha Dharma is manifold, it never goes beyond the provisional and the real; outside the provisional and real there is no other dharma. What is hard to believe is how immeasurable teachings and the single reality can both stand. The Dharma King’s truthfulness therefore becomes the basis of the great-cloud simile that follows: the cloud’s arising, the rain’s descent, universal moistening, and growth all unfold from here.

Teaching and wisdom also move back and forth at this point. The two teachings of the provisional and the real reveal the two wisdoms of the provisional and the real; the two wisdoms of the provisional and the real, in turn, proclaim the two teachings of the provisional and the real. If there were teaching without the wisdom that sees capacities, the teachings could not be appropriately established; if there were wisdom without spoken teaching, living beings could not receive it. The Dharma spoken and the wisdom that speaks mutually accomplish one another: only then does the cloud rain and the seeds in the earth receive moisture.

Thus when the Tathāgata speaks, He does not lay a system of abstract knowledge over living beings. He knows where dharmas lead and also knows the practices of living beings’ deepest minds; He recognizes the medicine and knows the illness. Precepts and goodness, the four truths, dependent origination, and the six perfections each have a proximate destination and may also become a cause leading far beyond it. Bowing one’s head or raising one’s hand may appear slight, yet as a distant cause it can lead toward buddhahood; the applications of mindfulness and factors of the path lead proximately to nirvāṇa, yet as an adornment of merit they can also lead in the distance toward the place of jewels. A dharma’s function is determined not only by its name but also by how it becomes a cause and condition within a living being’s life.

II. If All Dharmas Are Many, Why Do They All Arrive at One Ground of Wisdom?

The root treatise first interprets all dharmas as seven kinds of skillful means. The seven dharmas stand horizontally beside one another, while in relation to the one reality they form a vertical sequence. A living being may once have aroused the great mind, take a lesser fruit midway, and then wander through the five destinies; even one person contains multiple possibilities, so the Dharma gates cannot be reduced to a single flat classification.

The seven kinds of skillful means, however, are not seven closed endpoints. Through skillful wisdom, the Buddha sees them and teaches according to what is fitting for living beings; through real wisdom, He sees that every provisional dharma enters the real. This is why the dharmas taught are many yet all arrive at the ground of all-knowledge.

Here, “ground” is the real mark. Because the ultimate is nondual, it is called “one”; because its substance is vast, it is called “all”; because it is quiescent yet constantly illuminates, it is called “knowledge”; because nonabiding is its basis and it can establish every dharma, it is called “ground.” The ground is not a blank remainder produced by flattening every difference. Precisely because it can sustain and establish, every dharma can arise according to its place; and precisely because all dharmas rely on this ground together, their differences do not become worlds severed from one another.

Provisional wisdom sees different medicines and different illnesses, each in a different place; real wisdom illuminates every medicine and every illness with one wisdom. This does not mean that provisional wisdom first creates differences and real wisdom then cancels them. The real is present within the provisional, and the provisional within the real: through wisdom’s skillful means, the Dharma gates differ; because they all arrive at the ground of wisdom, they do not differ. The earth favors no plant, yet the things it produces are many; the many do not depart from the absence of multiplicity, and the absence of multiplicity manifests precisely within the many.

The root treatise also illuminates mind and dharmas through one another. Viewed from mind, there are various differentiated numbers; viewed from dharmas, no number is fixed. Mind does not depart from dharmas, nor do dharmas depart from mind, so one can speak of the innumerable as numbered and the numbered as innumerable. Thus the one reality does not obstruct immeasurable Dharma gates, and immeasurable Dharma gates do not fracture the one reality.

III. Does the Earth Represent Living Beings, the Five Aggregates, or Their Common Basis?

The opening of the simile enumerates six items: earth, plants and trees, dense cloud, falling rain, receiving moisture, and growth. An old explanation directly correlates mountains, rivers, streams, and valleys with the habituation-causes of the five vehicles. The root treatise raises a concrete difficulty: if a habituation-cause is like a seed, it should both receive moisture and grow; although mountains, rivers, and earth can receive rain, they themselves do not perform these two functions of seed and growth. Moreover, the later application explicitly speaks of living beings such as gods, humans, and asuras, not of directly applying mountains and rivers to habituation-causes.

The root treatise therefore first takes the great trichiliocosm to represent the world of living beings and mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth to represent the five aggregates constituting those beings. A world does not exist apart from mountains, rivers, and earth; neither does a living being exist apart from the five aggregates. Plants and trees grow depending on the earth but are not identical with it; habituation-causes and habituation-fruits depend upon the five aggregates but are not identical with them. This distinction lets what sustains, what serves as a basis, and what grows each occupy its own place.

The root treatise next reveals a more particular simile: mountains, rivers, streams, earth, and valleys can each correspond to the five aggregates of one class among the five vehicles. A high mountain, though high, still has rises, depressions, hollows, and ridges; level ground, though level, still differs through hills and ponds. Each class of living beings contains its own five aggregates and its own habituation-causes and habituation-fruits; no class is merely a single field of one color.

At a further level, the great trichiliocosm can represent the principle of the direct cause upon which all commonly rely; mountains, rivers, streams, valleys, and earth represent the recompense body and mind made up of living beings’ aggregates, elements, and sense fields; and plants, groves, and forests represent habituation-causes. Habituation-causes depend on the aggregates and sense fields, while the aggregates and sense fields do not go beyond Dharma-nature—just as plants depend on mountains and rivers, and mountains and rivers depend on the world. These layers do not compete to be the sole correlation. From different relations, each illuminates “dependence”: living beings are established in dependence upon the five aggregates, habituation-causes arise in dependence upon body and mind, and body and mind in turn never depart from the principle that is their common basis.

What the root treatise rejects, therefore, is not every correlation but a disordering of the simile’s sequence that deprives seed, moisture, and growth of their places. The power of the six similes lies in their order: because there is support, something can be produced; because something is produced, clouds can arise; because clouds arise, rain can fall; because rain falls, moisture can be received; and because moisture is received, growth can occur.

IV. Why Distinguish Body, Mind, and Speech within the Same Cloud?

Dense clouds possess visible form, provide shade, and make themselves known through thunder. The root treatise therefore says that the shade resembles the Buddha’s compassion, the visible form resembles the Buddha’s responsive manifestation in the world, and the thunder resembles the Buddha’s verbal teaching. Compassion is mind, manifestation is body, and teaching the Dharma is speech. The cloud is called dense not only because it is thick but because it is pervasive: perfumed and impelled by compassion, the Buddha manifests a body and teaches the Dharma throughout the realm of living beings, like a dense cloud spreading everywhere.

The cloud alone, however, has not yet completed the moistening. From cloud to rain, the simile turns to the actual function of the esoteric treasury of speech: the Dharma rain is proclaimed and poured forth through the eight tones and four eloquences. From rain to universal saturation, the Dharma treasure then descends upon the seeds of habituation-causes already present in living beings’ mind-ground and gives rise to wisdom born of hearing. Finally, from universal saturation to roots, stems, branches, and leaves, faith, discipline, concentration, and wisdom progressively support one another; only then do the plants and trees show visible growth.

This sequence also prevents compassion from being understood merely as goodwill. If compassion does not manifest a body, living beings cannot encounter it; if a manifested body does not teach, living beings cannot hear; if the teaching does not accord with the seeds already present, sound has not yet become moisture; and if receiving moisture does not take form as faith, discipline, concentration, and wisdom, the passing rain may still yield neither flower nor fruit.

Growth has three aspects: its basis, its actuality, and its appearance. “According to their kinds and natures” is the basis of growth: the teaching precisely accords with the capacities, so that what the small receive is not excessive and what the great receive is not diminished. “Each obtains growth” is growth itself. The blooming of flowers and ripening of fruit are growth’s appearance. To accord with capacities is to give neither more nor less than is fitting, allowing the seed to receive commensurate moisture and genuinely grow.

V. How Can One Earth and One Rain Contain Three Herbs and Two Trees?

The simile of non-difference has three levels: produced by one earth, rained upon by one cloud, and benefited without self-knowledge as three herbs and two trees. The one earth joins the mind-ground before the path to the ground of wisdom after the path; one rain is the Dharma gate of the One Vehicle proclaimed in one voice; and the plants receive moisture according to their respective measures, yet do not know that the causes of all five kinds share one Buddha-nature or that the teachings of all five vehicles return to Buddha-wisdom.

In applying the simile, the root treatise first applies the dense cloud, followed by falling rain, mountains and rivers, plants and trees, receiving moisture, and growth. This order differs from the opening simile because the perspective has shifted from living beings upon the earth to the Tathāgata who responds in the world: the Tathāgata first manifests a body and then teaches through sound; once He teaches, the living beings to be transformed assemble; living beings differ in the sharpness and dullness of their faculties and in diligence and laxity; the Buddha teaches according to what they can bear; and living beings consequently receive benefit and grow.

“According to what they can bear” does not mean that hearers arbitrarily select whichever teaching they prefer. It means that the Buddha sees differences in faculties and practices and gives neither more nor less than is fitting. Sharp or dull faculties and diligent or lax practice are not the same distinction. Someone may benefit upon hearing the teaching and therefore possess a sharp faculty, yet cling to what has been attained and not seek further progress, making the practice lax. Someone may still be practicing wholesome dharmas of humans and gods and be diligent while observing precepts and cultivating goodness, yet remain lax insofar as one does not weary of suffering or seek the path.

After living beings hear the Dharma, peace in the present life and birth in a good place afterward are the fruit of recompense produced by a recompense-cause; continuing to hear the Dharma, leaving obstacles, and entering the path according to one’s power are a habituation-fruit led by a habituation-cause. Flower and fruit do not merely mean vaguely “becoming better”: peace in this life, a good destination in the next, and hearing the Dharma and cultivating the path each have their place. Beings in the three evil destinies may hear the Dharma and experience flames extinguished and boiling water cooled; dragons, birds, ghosts, and spirits may also benefit. The two vehicles may hear this scripture again in the land of skillful means with remainder; bodhisattvas may attain patient acceptance in the present life and grow toward a pure land in the next. The cloud and rain are universal, but this does not mean that everyone’s growth appears in only one form.

The five vehicles are the same. In sequence, the root treatise says that the five precepts free one from the suffering of the three evil destinies, the ten good deeds from the eight sufferings of the human destiny, the śrāvaka teaching from the impermanent suffering of the three realms, the pratyekabuddha teaching from the suffering of hearing the Dharma from another, and the bodhisattva teaching from the suffering of inwardly lacking beneficial wisdom and outwardly lacking marks and excellences. Eight successive questions then reconsider the five vehicles from the perspectives of mundane and supramundane, provisional and real, cause and fruit, lower, middle, and higher, severance and non-severance, ordinary and noble, existence and emptiness, and still other openings and combinations. The force of these questions shows that the five vehicles are not a table of names readable from only one direction.

VI. If Living Beings Have Already Grown, Why Say They Do Not Know Themselves?

The application of the simile of non-difference first speaks of one mark and one flavor, then returns to differences among plants. Hearing the Dharma in one voice, humans and gods understand it as precepts and goodness, while the three vehicles understand it as truths, conditions, and perfections. What they uphold differs, what they practice differs, and the qualities they obtain also differ. The problem is not that they receive nothing at all, but that each clings to that understanding as real, not knowing that what they receive is originally the teaching of one flavor or that their skillful understanding remains skillful. Thus the provisional does not know itself as provisional, and the real is not yet recognized.

What the Tathāgata knows is then gathered progressively as four, three, two, and one.

The four are kind, mark, substance, and nature. Afflictions can become the seed of prajñā, unwholesomeness also contains the seed of liberation, and living beings in birth and death do not depart from the seed of the Dharma body. Bowing one’s head or raising one’s hand, worldly wisdom, the minds of understanding in the three vehicles, and indeed all that possess mind may each be called seeds of the three virtues from a different perspective. That the kinds are various is one side; that all kinds are only one kind is another. Marks, substances, and natures placed within the ten Dharma realms likewise possess both difference and non-difference.

The three are the three wisdoms of mindfulness, reflection, and cultivation. The scripture first asks what one is mindful of, what one reflects upon, and what one cultivates: these are the objects of the three wisdoms. It then asks how one is mindful, how one reflects, and how one cultivates: this is the substance of the three wisdoms themselves. It further asks through what dharma one is mindful, through what dharma one reflects, and through what dharma one cultivates: these are the conditions through which the object is taken and the teaching is heard. Only when object, wisdom, and conditions unite do the three wisdoms arise.

The two are cause and fruit. “Through what dharma” is cause, and “what dharma is attained” is fruit. Each of the five vehicles has its cause and attains its fruit, so there is difference; the suchness of living beings and the suchness of Buddha are together one suchness, again revealing non-difference.

The one is the various grounds. The seven kinds of skillful means each abide in their own position, so there are various grounds; the Tathāgata sees them as they are through the Buddha-eye, and like streams entering the ocean and losing their former individual flavors, there is also non-difference. The Buddha accords with the intentions of living beings and teaches through wisdom’s skillful means: this is knowing difference. All the dharmas He teaches arrive at the ground of all-knowledge: this is knowing non-difference.

Living beings see only their present roots, stems, branches, and leaves, like plants that do not know their own superior, medium, or inferior capacity. The Tathāgata’s vision extends from seed, object, and practice through cause and fruit to ultimate destination, omitting neither difference nor non-difference. “Not knowing” does not deny that living beings truly possess qualities; it means only that what has been attained is not yet complete knowledge of that attainment.

VII. If the Buddha Knows All, Why Does He Not Say Everything at the Outset?

Through one mark and one flavor, the mark of liberation, the mark of separation, and the mark of extinction, the scripture proceeds to ultimate nirvāṇa, the mark of constant quiescence, and final return to emptiness. The root treatise first reads this path as the immeasurable within the one and the return of the immeasurable to the one: following conditions, it differentiates manifold teachings from one mark and one flavor; upon reaching ultimate nirvāṇa, it causes the manifold teachings to return to the one.

“Finally returning to emptiness” therefore prompts several masters’ explanations. One takes it as the extinguishing of consciousness when the lifespan ends; another as relinquishing impermanent body and wisdom to enter nirvāṇa with remainder; one says there is no mark of dharmas and no affliction; another says it is the wisdom of emptiness in the ultimate truth; one says the Buddha’s fruit is free of burdens; and another says both emptiness and existence are relinquished. Amid these explanations, the root treatise seizes upon the scripture’s two occurrences of “ultimate”: knowledge of all modes is the ultimate fruit of wisdom, while constant quiescence and final return to emptiness are the ultimate fruit of severance. Both distinguish these from nonultimate wisdom and severance, so emptiness cannot be reduced to the two vehicles’ extinguished ashes.

The sharpest question nevertheless remains at the end: if the Buddha knows from beginning to end that all return to the one, why did He not reveal the entirety of knowledge of all modes at the beginning?

The answer is not that the Buddha withholds something but that He observes living beings’ desires and protects them. If living beings cannot yet bear the teaching, hearing it prematurely may instead give rise to slander. Knowing everything and immediately saying everything are therefore not the same. The Dharma King’s truthful speech includes His not teaching in a way that exceeds what capacities can bear; one rain’s universal moisture includes the water truly entering a seed rather than washing away a young shoot.

This returns us to the rarity of Kāśyapa and the others. Ordinary beings are changeable, while bodhisattvas already understand this matter; the two vehicles, however, can leave the fixed unconditioned position they had realized and enter the real, making them most praiseworthy. They can know teaching according to what is fitting, which is their understanding of opening the three; they can believe and receive, which is their understanding of revealing the one. The Buddha’s kindness resembles clouds and rain universally moistening and the earth universally bearing, while living beings use these every day without knowing them. Kāśyapa and the others can see through the four universal vows, great loving-kindness, and great compassion the diverse benefits received by plants, and through one earth and one rain see that all these differences are together one great kindness.

The same rain does not require all plants to grow into the same form. Its equality lies in omitting none; its wisdom, in misrecognizing none; its compassion, in giving each plant the moisture that it can genuinely receive at this moment and through which it can continue to grow.

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

The Fahua Wenjuji first looks back upon the Dharma King’s truthful speech through “The great cloud universally covers all; the great rain universally moistens the trichiliocosm. Since the benefit received is real, that which bestows it is not false”〔T34n1719 0289b10〕. Cloud and rain are not ornaments added after the Dharma teaching; the capacity to cover and moisten so that the benefit is real precisely joins the Dharma King’s words to the plants’ fruit. It further illuminates teaching and wisdom as mutually accomplishing one another through “Without wisdom there is no means to speak; without teaching there is no means to express”〔0289b11〕: wisdom makes the teaching accord with capacities, and teaching makes wisdom receivable by living beings.

The seven kinds of skillful means are described here in the root treatise as horizontally arrayed, so the mirror text asks why they were earlier called vertical and answers, “In relation to persons they are vertical; in relation to dharmas they are horizontal”〔T34n1719 0289b16〕. This is the Wenjuji’s reconciliation of two passages. It reminds us that persons and dharmas are two axes of view, but it is not a new sentence separately established by the root treatise here.

Concerning the earth, the Wenjuji asks, “How does the earth here differ from the one earth below?”〔T34n1719 0290b18〕, and answers that the present earth represents the aggregates of recompense, while the one earth below represents the real principle. This question exposes the hinge of the root treatise’s layered correlations: the same object in a simile can perform different functions according to the relation being applied. Regarding the cloud and rain among the six similes of difference, it further says, “Here, however, the name ‘different’ is established from that upon which the rain falls”〔0291a21〕. What rains is itself undifferentiated; the name of difference is established from the receiving plants and therefore does not conflict with the later one earth and one rain.

The root treatise includes even the benefit received in the three evil destinies within universal moisture. The Wenjuji specially distinguishes that “The scripture speaks only of a good place”〔T34n1719 0291c22〕, and further says, “The present graph ‘also’ is merely an interpretation that draws out the meaning”〔0291c23〕. The root scripture’s direct wording, the root treatise’s extension by intended meaning, and the mirror text’s distinction each occupy their own level here. It also confirms of the five-vehicle passage that “Below the graph ‘question,’ the present text altogether has eight successive questions and answers”〔0291c28〕, and judges that these questions and answers are hypothetical constructions based on the meaning, used to reveal multiple ways of opening and combining, not eight additional questioners in the root scripture.

Concerning the five kinds of wholesome roots opened from one earth and one rain, the Wenjuji explicitly says, “‘Five kinds of wholesome roots’ means the five vehicles”〔T34n1719 0291b15〕. This is the mirror text’s explicit judgment upon the root treatise’s context, not the same wording in the extant Great Treatise. At the application of receiving moisture, it further condenses “according to what they can bear” through “Because it accords with the capacities of the five vehicles, there is neither increase nor decrease”〔0291c14〕. Equality does not give every plant the same quantity; it gives each neither more nor less than what its capacity can receive.

At one mark and one flavor, the Wenjuji further correlates the three marks of liberation, separation, and quiescent extinction with the three paths and three virtues: “The mark of liberation is the virtue of liberation precisely within the path of karma; the mark of separation is the virtue of prajñā precisely within afflictions; the mark of quiescent extinction is the virtue of the Dharma body precisely within the path of suffering”〔T34n1719 0292b06〕. This detailed correlation is an exposition in the mirror text. It illuminates the root treatise’s three marks of intrinsic virtue more deeply without rewriting them as items the root treatise itself separately enumerates.

Concerning the ten objects that the Tathāgata can know, the Wenjuji points out the decreasing four-three-two-one sequence through “The preceding six sections reveal the persons and dharmas that know; now the decreasing sequence distinguishes the persons and dharmas that are known”〔T34n1719 0292c09〕. In the passage on the three wisdoms it further says, “The substance is precisely wisdom; the object necessarily receives its name from the substance, and the substance is necessarily designated through the object”〔0293b06〕, making clearer how object and wisdom mutually receive their names. These analyses of knower and known are the mirror text’s deeper illumination; the sequence explicitly enumerated by the root treatise remains the four groups of kind, mark, substance, and nature; mindfulness, reflection, and cultivation; cause and fruit; and the various grounds.

At the end, the Wenjuji says, “The preceding praise of Śākyamuni was originally intended to praise Kāśyapa’s understanding”〔T34n1719 0293c15〕, and gathers the whole through “The three herbs, two trees, one earth, and one rain fully describe Kāśyapa’s understanding from beginning to end”〔0294a12〕. It further illuminates the entrustment of possessions and seating upon the seat as “the body receives a prediction and the mind obtains the Dharma wealth”〔0294a14〕, bringing body and mind, prediction and Dharma wealth, into correspondence. Thus the ten kindnesses are not a list suddenly appended at the end: the differences among plants and the non-difference of earth and rain are precisely the beginning and end of Kāśyapa’s understanding from opening the three to revealing the one. The rarity of being able to know, believe, and receive lies in their understanding not only the rain received by one plant but how one rain universally moistens all.