妙法蓮華經玄義 標章

If one can recite explaining the name, discerning the substance, clarifying the purport, discussing the function, and classifying the teaching perfectly, yet recollection, faith, concentration, wisdom, and diligence do not arise, the five chapters remain only a table of contents.

Name shows where to begin. Substance keeps one from mistaking the signpost for the destination. Purport gives cause and fruit a single governing thread. Function keeps one’s own practice from ending in self-liberation alone. The characteristics of teaching keep the same words of Dharma from being forced upon every faculty. The five chapters do not cut the scripture into five pieces; through five indispensable questions, they allow the whole scripture to stand upright.

The lotus blossom reveals their relationship most clearly. The flower opens for the sake of the lotus fruit: skillful means are directed toward the real from the very beginning. The flower opens and the fruit appears: the real does not lie outside skillful means. The flower falls and the fruit ripens: what is released is attachment to skillful means. If one wants only the flower, one remains at the provisional gate. If one refuses to let the flower open, there is no path into the real.

Substance is likewise so. Ordinary people see only difference, people of the two vehicles see only thusness, and others seize a separate Middle beyond the two extremes. The Buddha’s vision is confined to no side. Emptiness is not annihilating nonexistence, existence does not leave emptiness, and the Middle does not stand outside emptiness and existence. The true mark pervades all things: the one inside filthy clothing is still the elder’s son, and the jewel inside the clothing remains a priceless treasure.

The purport is like the headrope of a net: cause gathers immeasurable wholesome qualities, and fruit gathers immeasurable virtues. Function is like drawing the royal ancestor’s bow to the full and then releasing an arrow through the many drums: illuminating principle pervasively is power, and discerning faculties pervasively is function. The characteristics of teaching are like sunlight, first illuminating the high mountains, then secluded valleys and level ground, until finally it shines everywhere, high and low. The sun is not partial; the vessels that receive it differ.

The heart of Setting Out the Chapters is therefore not the addition of more terms. It is to make the reader’s mind able to retain, trust, remain unconfused, discern, and practice. When the five gates truly open, what opens is not a set of headings on a page, but the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing.

This is the first part of Fascicle One of the Fahua Xuanyi (Profound Meaning of the Lotus), whose title states that it was taught by Master Zhiyi of Tiantai.

The Five Chapters, Shared Explanation, and Separate Explanation

To explain the Lotus Sutra, five chapters are first established: first, explaining the name; second, discerning the substance; third, clarifying the purport; fourth, discussing the function; and fifth, classifying the teaching.

The explanation of these five chapters has a shared treatment and a separate treatment. “Shared” means held in common; “separate” means individually distinct. All five chapters can be applied broadly to explain the scriptures, and thus they have a shared dimension. Yet each scripture has a different title, and even the characteristics of its teaching differ from those of every other scripture, and thus they also have a separate dimension.

For example, many Buddhist scriptures establish five matters at their opening. This is what they share. Yet the teaching indicated by “thus” differs, the person who heard the Dharma in “I have heard” differs, the responsive occasion meant by “at one time” differs, the place where the Buddha dwelt differs, and the various members of the assembly also differ. This is what is separate.

Within a single scripture, shared means explaining it in common, while separate means treating each chapter individually. The shared explanation of this work has seven passes: first, setting out the chapters; second, citing evidence; third, showing how the chapters arise in sequence; fourth, opening and combining; fifth, resolving questions; sixth, contemplating the mind; and seventh, integrating differences. The separate explanation extensively treats each of the five chapters in turn later in the work. It is like meeting people of sharp and dull faculties: both concise and extensive approaches must be prepared. The shared and separate dimensions among the many scriptures will be set aside for now; what is discerned here is the shared and the separate within a single scripture.

Setting out the chapters makes the outline clear and easy to remember and retain, thereby giving rise to the mind of recollection. Citing evidence relies on the Buddha’s words, thereby giving rise to the mind of faith. Showing how the chapters arise keeps their sequence from becoming confused, thereby giving rise to the settled mind. Opening and combining, resolving questions, and integrating differences enable one to discern the meanings, thereby giving rise to the mind of wisdom. Contemplating the mind enables one to put the teaching into practice in the very act of hearing it, thereby giving rise to the mind of diligence. Once these five minds are established, they become the five faculties, remove the five obstructions, accomplish the five powers, and lead as far as entry into the three gates of liberation. Such, in brief, is the overall meaning of the seven passes of shared explanation.

When the five chapters are extensively explained later, each chapter will more fully give rise to these five minds and five faculties, enabling sentient beings to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing.

The First Chapter, Explaining the Name: Establishing the Name

The five chapters are first set out. The first, explaining the name, is further divided into four steps: establishing the name; distinguishing coarse from wondrous; concluding; and using the lotus blossom as a simile.

First comes establishing the name. When the original intent for which a sage establishes a scripture’s title is traced, it is to open a profound principle and advance beginners, so that all who can see and hear may have vision and hearing; it is also to enable people to follow a road toward the distant goal until they reach the ultimate place. The Buddha therefore uses names to indicate the Dharmas he teaches and uses those names to establish means for transforming sentient beings.

Distinguishing Coarse Dharma from Wondrous Dharma

Dharmas differ as coarse and wondrous. When the three truths are separated from one another and traversed one by one without interpenetration, this is coarse Dharma. When the three truths perfectly interpenetrate, this is Wondrous Dharma. This wondrous truth is originally ever-present. The general sense of the scripture is that dharmas abide in their Dharma-position and the marks of the world constantly abide; only the Buddha knows this mark, and the buddhas of the ten directions know it in the same way. Even non-retrogressing bodhisattvas and those of the two vehicles who have entered realization cannot know it completely, much less ordinary humans, gods, and other sentient beings.

Although the Buddha knows this Wondrous Dharma, he does not hasten to teach it immediately. The general sense of the scripture is that if the Buddha were directly to praise the Buddha-Vehicle, sentient beings, unable to believe, would sink into suffering; by slandering the true Dharma, they would instead fall into evil paths. Thus, when the first teaching separately established what is integrated and what is not integrated, people of lesser faculties could not even hear the integrated meaning. The next teaching established only what is not integrated, and people of great faculties did not regard it at all as ultimate. The next teaching after that established both the integrated and the non-integrated, using the integrated Dharma to rebuke the non-integrated so that people of lesser faculties would be ashamed of the non-integrated and look up to the integrated Dharma. Still another teaching placed both side by side, allowing people of lesser faculties to rely on their admiration for the integrated Dharma while learning within what was non-integrated, and allowing people of great faculties to turn from the non-integrated toward the integrated.

Although many different establishments were made, all were devised for sentient beings and taught in accord with the intentions of others. They were not yet the Buddha’s original intent in appearing in the world, and thus it is said that the Buddha did not hasten to teach. With this scripture, the non-integrated is directly cast aside and only perfect integration is taught, so that the sentient beings in the same assembly all receive one flavor of Dharma and the Tathāgata’s original intent in appearing in the world is fully expressed. This scripture is therefore established and called wondrous.

In conclusion, the Avataṃsaka includes different faculties together; the Tripiṭaka addresses only one kind of faculty; the Vaipulya teachings set the great and small in contrast; and the Prajñā teachings carry the small within the great Dharma. This scripture no longer includes, addresses only, sets in contrast, or carries along. It exclusively teaches the direct and unsurpassed path and is therefore called the Wondrous Dharma.

The Lotus-Blossom Simile for the Coarse and the Wondrous

When the lotus blossom is used as a simile, coarse and wondrous must also be distinguished. There are six coarse relationships between blossom and fruit.

First, a wild blossom has a flower but no fruit. This represents non-Buddhist practitioners who cultivate brahmā conduct in vain and ultimately attain nothing at all.

Second, one blossom produces many fruits. This represents ordinary people who perform the single wholesome deed of making offerings to their parents but expect many kinds of reward in the Brahmā heaven.

Third, many blossoms produce only one fruit. This represents śrāvakas who cultivate many kinds of ascetic practice but ultimately seek only the single fruit of nirvāṇa.

Fourth, one blossom produces one fruit. This represents pratyekabuddhas who cultivate only the one practice of seclusion and likewise attain only nirvāṇa.

Fifth, the fruit comes first and the blossom opens afterward. This represents a stream-enterer who has already attained the first fruit but must continue cultivating the path thereafter.

Sixth, the blossom opens first and the fruit follows. This represents a bodhisattva who first cultivates by relying on supporting conditions, from which preliminary practice then gives rise to the later true practice.

All six are merely coarse blossoms and cannot represent Wondrous Dharma. The lotus blossom, however, has many extraordinary features that skillfully disclose meaning. First, the blossom opens for the sake of the lotus fruit, and blossom and fruit are present together; this can represent establishing the provisional in the very midst of the real. Second, the blossom opens and the lotus fruit appears; this can represent how the provisional itself is the real thereby revealed. Third, the blossom falls and the lotus fruit ripens, and once the fruit is ripe even the fruit is no longer clung to; this can represent what is neither provisional nor real. Because the lotus blossom possesses all these features suited to disclosing meaning, it is used as a simile for Wondrous Dharma.

The Second Chapter, Discerning the Substance

Discerning the substance has four steps: explaining the graph “substance”; citing the same meaning as evidence; excluding what does not accord; and concluding by returning to the correct substance.

Here the graph for “substance” can be explained through the graph for “ritual propriety.” Ritual propriety means conforming to standards: drawing close to those one should draw close to, children each keeping to the place of a child, and ruler and minister mutually observing restraint. Without ritual propriety, conduct does not accord with the norm. The substance of supramundane Dharma is likewise so: wholesome and unwholesome, ordinary person and sage, bodhisattva and buddha—all without exception do not go beyond Dharma-nature. Here the true mark is directly indicated as the correct substance of this scripture.

The general meaning of “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” chapter is that the Tathāgata does not see the three realms as sentient beings within them do. He sees the three realms as they truly are, neither thus nor different. Ordinary beings in the three realms see the three realms as different; people of the two vehicles see the three realms only as thus; bodhisattvas see the three realms as both thus and different; the Buddha does not fix the three realms as either thus or different, yet simultaneously illuminates both thus and different. The true mark as seen by the Buddha is here taken as the correct substance.

The Buddha’s wisdom taught by Vajragarbha is extremely subtle. Although his wording differs, its purport is the same. He teaches it through four meanings: emptiness-and-existence, nonduality, nondifference, and inexhaustibility. Emptiness is not annihilating nonexistence, and so it is called emptiness-and-existence. Existence itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is existence, and so it is called nonduality. There is no Middle Way apart from emptiness and existence, and so it is called nondifference. It pervades every place, and so it is called inexhaustibility.

This also accords with Nāgārjuna’s purport. The Treatise on the Middle is cited as saying that a Dharma arisen through causes and conditions is itself empty, itself provisional, and itself the Middle. To say that a Dharma arisen through causes and conditions is empty does not mean annihilating nonexistence. To say that it is provisional is nonduality. To say that it is the Middle is nondifference. To speak of a Dharma arisen through causes and conditions precisely indicates that it pervades every place.

Thus, in the true-mark substance now being taught, the provisional itself is the real, enabling one to leave the slander of annihilating nonexistence; the real itself can give rise to the provisional, enabling one to leave the slander that establishes Dharma as a fixed entity; the provisional and the real are themselves not a provisional and real that can be grasped, enabling one to leave the slander that judges the two to be eternally different; and it can simultaneously illuminate both provisional and real, pervading every place, enabling one to leave the slander that the true Dharma can be exhausted. This brings together the excellent meanings of the two scriptural passages, elucidates the common purport of the two treatises, shows that the meanings of the two traditions correspond across the distance, and also reveals the correct substance of this scripture.

Zhang’an’s Supplementary Analysis of the Meaning of Substance

The recorder Zhang’an Guanding adds the following explanation here. The Dharma of the true mark can horizontally break the four attachments of ordinary people and vertically break the three kinds of sages’ attachment to the realms they have attained as ultimate. Breaking the attachments of ordinary people is relatively easy to understand; the three kinds of sages are analyzed in detail below.

First, those of the two vehicles within the Tripiṭaka Teaching take emptiness alone as ultimate. This is like a glass bead: at first glance it seems a genuine jewel, but further examination reveals that it is false. Śāriputra and the others lament that although all had entered Dharma-nature together, they had lost the Tathāgata’s immeasurable knowledge and vision. The meaning of emptiness-and-existence is precisely what breaks this attachment to attainment.

Second, practitioners of the Shared Teaching combine mere emptiness and emptiness that is not merely empty and take the combination as ultimate. This is like wrapping a jewel in various colors so that its radiance changes with the color of its covering. People pursue only the colored light seen through causes and conditions and instead forget the jewel itself; as the covering shifts among dark and yellow colors, they fall back into the two vehicles. The meaning of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is that śrāvakas see only emptiness and do not see non-emptiness, while bodhisattvas see not only emptiness but also non-emptiness. Because what is seen divides into two extremes, the meaning of nonduality is precisely what breaks this attachment to attainment.

Third, practitioners of the Distinct Teaching take only emptiness that is not merely empty as ultimate. They leave the extremes of emptiness and existence, like the moon rising high above the clouds. Yet if they abandon the two extremes and select a separate Middle, it is still like abandoning space in order to seek space elsewhere. The meaning of nondifference is precisely what breaks this attachment to attainment. If one believes that the true Dharma exists over there but not here, it cannot pervade everywhere; the meaning of inexhaustibility also breaks this attachment to attainment.

None of these views is the Buddha’s extremely subtle wisdom or accords with Vajragarbha’s intent. They are not the originally present and constantly abiding Dharma realized by the Buddha and do not accord with the “Skillful Means” chapter. They cannot pervade every place and do not accord with “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” chapter. Since they do not meet the correct substance, to what Dharma should they be assigned? Mere emptiness is the real taught for transforming others. Teaching mere emptiness together with emptiness that is not merely empty is the real taught for one’s own practice and the transformation of others. Going beyond the two extremes and selecting a separate Middle is the provisional used in one’s own practice. All these are taught in other scriptures and teachings; they are not the correct substance of the present scripture.

The substance of the present scripture is to embody that the provisional and real used to transform others are themselves the provisional and real of one’s own practice, just as the person in filthy clothes is in truth the elder’s son. It is also to embody that the provisional and real of one’s own practice and of transforming others never depart from the provisional and real of one’s own practice, just as the jewel sewn inside the clothing is originally a priceless treasure. The provisional in one’s own practice is itself the real in one’s own practice. Thus, all worldly occupations and means of livelihood do not contradict the true mark; not even one color or fragrance fails to reveal the Middle Way. Since the provisional in one’s own practice is already so, how much more its real—how could it not be the true mark?

The Third Chapter, Clarifying the Purport

Clarifying the purport has three steps: revealing it, distinguishing it, and concluding.

“Purport” means the governing aim of a scripture. Here the cause and fruit of the Buddha’s own practice are taken as the purport. Why are they called the governing aim? Immeasurable wholesome practices can all be gathered by the word “cause”; immeasurable realizations can all be gathered by the word “fruit.” It is like lifting the headrope of a net, so that not a single mesh fails to move with it; it is also like pulling up the corner of a garment, so that not a single thread fails to follow. It is therefore called the governing aim.

Yet the various causes and fruits must be clearly distinguished. Even the causes and fruits of the Distinct Teaching are not adopted, much less other causes and fruits. Among these other causes and fruits, in some the three causes differ greatly while the three fruits are only somewhat alike; in some the three causes are generally alike while the three fruits differ slightly; in still another, one cause far surpasses the other causes while the fruit attained remains non-integrated. These causes cannot gather every wholesome quality, and these fruits cannot gather every virtue. They therefore are not the cause of the Buddha’s own practice or the fruit realized by the Buddha at the place of awakening.

Also to be excluded are the many causes and fruits of the Buddha’s past practices taught in other scriptures. In the present scripture, all are swept away and judged to be skillful means rather than its governing aim. To state the essential meaning, the cause must reach to the end of true practice throughout the distant past, and the fruit must reach to the end of true realization throughout the distant past. Such a cause vertically surpasses the seven kinds of skillful means and horizontally embraces all dharmas in the ten Dharma realms. The initial cultivation of the practice of the true mark is called the Buddha-cause; what is realized at the place of awakening is called the Buddha-fruit. This can only be known through wisdom and cannot be fully expressed in words. Such cause and fruit are briefly set forth here as the governing aim of the scripture.

The Fourth Chapter, Discussing the Function

Discussing the function also has three steps: revealing it, distinguishing it, and explaining the benefit. “Function” means effective power. The two kinds of wisdom produced by the three kinds of provisional and real are both the effective power of this scripture.

A further distinction is made within this effective power. The two kinds of wisdom in one’s own practice illuminate principle without failing to pervade it and are called “power.” The two kinds of wisdom used to transform others discern sentient beings’ faculties without failing to pervade them and are called “function.” In truth, the wisdom of one’s own practice is the wisdom for transforming others, and the wisdom for transforming others is also the wisdom of one’s own practice. Illuminating principle is discerning faculties, and discerning faculties is illuminating principle.

It is like Prince Siddhārtha drawing to its fullest the bow handed down by his royal grandfather. This is called power. The arrow struck seven iron drums, passed through one ring of iron mountains, and plunged through the ground to the water-wheel. This is called function. The power and function of the other skillful teachings are weak, like the bows and arrows of ordinary people.

Why are they called weak? In the past, sentient beings received the two kinds of wisdom used to transform others. Their illumination of principle could not be pervasive, the faith they produced was not deep, and their doubts could not be ended. Now sentient beings receive the two kinds of wisdom of one’s own practice all the way to the Buddha’s realm, giving rise to faith that pervades the Dharma realm, increasing the perfect and wondrous path, severing fundamental delusion, and also diminishing transformational birth-and-death.

Those who benefit are not only bodhisattvas who still have bodies delimited by birth and death and bodhisattvas who attain acceptance while in such bodies. Bodhisattvas who have realized the Dharma body and bodhisattvas at the final mind of the Dharma body all also receive benefit. This scripture’s work of transformation is vast and its nourishing benefit profound: this is precisely its effective power.

The Fifth Chapter, Classifying the Teaching: Integrated and Non-integrated Faculties

The characteristics of the teaching have three aspects: first, the characteristics of whether sentient beings’ faculties are integrated or non-integrated; second, the characteristics of whether the Buddha’s transformation and guidance are complete from beginning to end; and third, the characteristics of how distant or recent are the provisional and real realized by teacher and disciples. “Teaching” is the verbal teaching that a sage addresses downward to sentient beings of different faculties; “characteristics” distinguish sameness and difference.

First come integrated and non-integrated faculties. It is like the sun at its first rising, which first illuminates the high mountains. Those who have deeply cultivated wholesome roots are moved to receive a great teaching all at once. This teaching was originally not intended for people of lesser faculties. Although people of lesser faculties also sit in the assembly, they are like the deaf and mute, because lesser faculties cannot bear the great Dharma and the great Dharma is separated from lesser faculties. This is like the Avataṃsaka. From the perspective of Dharma fitting faculties, people of great faculties receive vast benefit, and this is called the characteristic of sudden teaching. From the perspective of the sequence of teaching, it is like milk first coming from the cow, and this is the characteristic of the flavor of milk.

The sun next shines into secluded valleys. People whose practice is shallower gradually understand only the portion to which they correspond. This is like the Tripiṭaka Teaching. This teaching was originally not intended for people of great faculties. Although those of great faculties also sit in the assembly, they display the forms of training called duo-tuo and the accents of habitual speech called po-he, concealing themselves within the practices characteristic of beginners in the lesser Dharma. Actual practitioners of lesser faculties cannot recognize their profound intent. The lesser Dharma thus obstructs the great faculties, while the great faculties are concealed within the lesser Dharma. From the perspective of Dharma fitting faculties, this is called the characteristic of gradual teaching. From the perspective of the sequence of teaching, it is like milk changing into curds, and this is the characteristic of the flavor of curds.

The sun next shines upon level ground. Its reflection falls in ten thousand bodies of water: a square vessel produces a square reflection, a round vessel a round reflection, and as the water’s waves move or become still, the image moves or becomes still along with them. The Buddha manifests one buddha-land, yet sentient beings see it according to their faculties as pure or defiled. The Buddha manifests one body, yet sentient beings see it as large or small. The Buddha teaches the Dharma in one voice, yet each kind of sentient being obtains its own understanding. Some are afraid, some rejoice, some grow weary and detached, and some cut off their doubts; manifestations of supernormal power also differ. Thus some see a pure land and some a defiled land; some hear praise and some hear rebuke; some smell the fragrance of the campaka flower and some do not; heavenly blossoms fall on the bodies of some but do not touch others; and there are also many differences in wisdom. This is like the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra and other Vaipulya scriptures. From the perspective of Dharma fitting faculties, it is still gradual teaching. From the perspective of the sequence of teaching, it is like curds maturing into raw ghee, and this is the characteristic of the flavor of raw ghee.

The sun shining on level ground has another meaning. Adults obtain the light’s function, while infants’ eyes lose clear vision under its intensity; night travelers hide, while workers begin accomplishing their tasks. Thus the general meaning of the scripture is that its true matter is taught only to bodhisattvas and this true essential is not taught to people of the two vehicles. Although the three kinds of people study together, people of the two vehicles each take their own realization, as explained in detail in the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra. From the perspective of Dharma fitting faculties, it is still gradual teaching. From the perspective of the sequence of teaching, it is like raw ghee ripening further, and this is the characteristic of the flavor of refined ghee.

Finally, sunlight shines everywhere, equally illuminating high mountains and low ground. When its shadow is measured with a gnomon, it is neither diminished nor excessive. Whether sentient beings merely bow their heads to the Buddha, utter his name in a tiny voice, have distracted thoughts, or cultivate only some small wholesome deed, all eventually accomplish the Buddha path. The Buddha does not let anyone take the extinction of the Lesser Vehicle alone as ultimate but causes all sentient beings to attain extinction through the Tathāgata’s extinction, as explained in detail in the present scripture. From the perspective of Dharma fitting faculties, this is called the teaching of gradual entry into perfection. From the perspective of the sequence of teaching, it is the characteristic of the flavor of clarified essence.

The sun-illumination simile in the Avataṃsaka has the same meaning as that in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. The latter’s similes of three sons, three fields, three horses, and so forth all speak first of bodhisattvas, then extend to the two vehicles, and finally enable ordinary people and sages to receive equal benefit.

Why All Five Flavors Can Be Called Gradual

Someone asks: Since the five flavors are used to make distinctions, why are they all also called gradual? The answer is that it is precisely in relation to gradual transformation and guidance that the five flavors are revealed.

To distinguish them further: when people of lesser faculties hear none of the great Dharma, the great Dharma alone is sudden. When people of great faculties make no use at all of the lesser Dharma, the lesser Dharma alone is gradual. When the great Dharma breaks the lesser Dharma, gradual and sudden are taught side by side. When the lesser Dharma is carried along while the great Dharma is revealed, gradual and sudden mutually assist one another. When the lesser Dharma is integrated and returned to the great Dharma, gradual and sudden erase their boundary and unite. The general meaning of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings is that the three paths and four fruits attained previously through the gradual and sudden Dharmas had not yet been united; now, in this scripture, they are united. This is precisely the point.

Someone further asks: How do gradual and sudden mutually assist one another? The answer is that when people of lesser faculties hear the great Dharma, they become ashamed of the lesser Dharma and aspire to the great. This is the sudden Dharma assisting lesser faculties. When the Buddha commands Subhūti to turn and instruct the bodhisattvas, enabling bodhisattvas of great faculties to receive benefit, this is the gradual Dharma assisting the sudden Dharma.

Manifest Indeterminacy and Secret Indeterminacy

The distinctions above were made only in relation to public and manifest teaching, explaining the characteristics of the gradual and sudden five flavors. When indeterminacy is discussed, the situation differs.

Although the great Dharma is suddenly taught first upon the high mountains, without leaving the place of quiescent extinction the Buddha can also manifest going to Deer Park to transform beings. Although he teaches the Four Truths of arising and ceasing, they can simultaneously contain non-arising and non-ceasing. Although he teaches the Buddha’s realm to bodhisattvas, people of the two vehicles can at the same time possess wisdom, severance, and realization. Although the five monks realize the fruit, eighty thousand gods can at the same time attain acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. One should therefore know that the gradual is present within the sudden and the sudden within the gradual. The meaning of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is that the Buddha sometimes teaches the profound and sometimes the shallow; when a question should be asked, he may also stop it, and when a question should be stopped, he may also permit it. Within the same time, the same teaching, and even the same thought, indeterminacy can be fully present. Unlike older classifications that assign one entire scripture exclusively to one type, it can be present within every flavor. This is called manifest indeterminacy.

Secret indeterminacy is different. The Tathāgata is supremely free with respect to all dharmas. In wisdom, faculties, time, and place, his three mysteries of body, speech, and mind and his four gates for entering principle are all without obstruction. While the sudden is being taught in this assembly, the gradual or the indeterminate may be taught elsewhere throughout the ten directions. Those in the sudden-teaching assembly do not hear what is taught throughout the ten directions, and sentient beings throughout the ten directions do not hear the sudden teaching in this assembly. Or the sudden and the indeterminate may be taught throughout the ten directions while the gradual is taught in this assembly, each side unaware of what the other hears. What is manifest here is secret there.

The Buddha may also teach the sudden to one person and the gradual or the indeterminate to many; or teach the gradual to one and the sudden to many, with neither knowing what the other hears and each thus secret and manifest in relation to the other. One assembly may be silent while the ten directions receive teaching; the ten directions may be silent while one assembly receives teaching; both sides may be silent or both may receive teaching, yet they remain mutually unaware and are secret and manifest in relation to one another.

Even these examples do not exhaust the Tathāgata’s power of mastery over the Dharma. This can only be known through wisdom and cannot be fully distinguished in words. Although there are many situations, none go beyond the four types gradual, sudden, indeterminate, and secret.

How the Present Scripture Differs from Other Teachings

The present Lotus Sutra is public and manifest, not secret. It gathers the gradual into the perfect and sudden, rather than making what is gradual more gradual. It unites, rather than leaving things ununited. It is clarified essence, rather than any of the first four flavors. It is determinate, rather than indeterminate. Distinguished in this way, the present scripture differs from the other scriptures and teachings.

There is another difference. Other teachings speak only of how the faculties present at the time receive benefit; they do not explain in detail the Tathāgata’s intent in establishing transformation from beginning to end. This scripture, however, reveals how, when the Buddha first established the teachings, he skillfully planted in sentient beings the seeds of sudden, gradual, indeterminate, manifest, and secret teachings. During the intervening period, he used the sudden and gradual five flavors to regulate and nurture them until the seeds matured. Once mature, he again used the sudden and gradual five flavors to bring sentient beings to liberation. Liberating, maturing, and planting can proceed at the same time, round after round without ever stopping. With mighty force, the Buddha benefits sentient beings throughout past, present, and future, as explained in detail in the “Faith and Understanding” chapter. This is one way in which the present scripture differs from the others.

There is yet another difference. The scriptures generally say that the Buddha perfected his own real wisdom only beneath the bodhi tree and began exercising skillful wisdom only after leaving the place of awakening. The present scripture, however, says that the Buddha’s real wisdom and skillful wisdom were perfected long before his manifestation beneath the bodhi tree. Other scriptures say that disciples of the two vehicles cannot enter real wisdom and cannot exercise skillful wisdom. The present scripture, however, says that the disciples entered the real long ago and long ago understood and practiced the provisional.

Other scriptures do not even discuss how recent were the provisional and real of teacher and disciples before the time beneath the bodhi tree, much less their provisional and real in the distant past. The present scripture teaches that their provisional and real before the place of awakening are exceedingly remote: even a bodhisattva bound to one more birth cannot know how far away they are by calculating the number of worlds, much less by calculating a span as distant as the number of dust motes. The general meaning of the scripture is that what had never been taught in the past will now be heard by the entire assembly. The Buddha praises this so earnestly because there is indeed a profound reason. One should therefore know that this scripture truly differs from the other teachings.

Setting Out the Chapters first lists explaining the name, discerning the substance, clarifying the purport, discussing the function, and classifying the teaching, then establishes the seven passes of shared explanation. It may look as though it merely arranges a table of contents, but in fact it first answers the most fundamental difficulty in reading a scripture: when a scripture’s words are vast, how can readers avoid losing their way without an approach they can retain? Yet if only a handful of headings remain, how can they avoid reducing living scriptural meaning to an empty frame?

The Seven Passes First Attune the Reader’s Mind

Setting out the chapters makes the outline easy to remember and retain, first preventing recollection from becoming scattered. Citing evidence returns what is taught to the Buddha’s words, giving faith a basis. Showing how the chapters arise in sequence keeps before and after from becoming confused, allowing the mind to settle. Opening and combining, resolving questions, and integrating differences enable one to discern relationships and give rise to wisdom. Contemplating the mind joins hearing the Dharma to practice, keeping diligence from retreating.

The seven passes are therefore more than seven techniques of explanation. They first attune a reader away from distraction, suspicion, confusion, and remaining within words, making the reader able to recollect, trust, settle, discern, and practice. The five chapters are meant to open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing; the seven passes first prepare eyes capable of opening and seeing.

The shared explanation and separate explanation divide their work accordingly. The shared explanation lets the five chapters illuminate one another; the separate explanation lets each chapter unfold fully. With only the shared and no separate, the five chapters easily blur together. With only the separate and no shared, they fragment. The extensive and concise approaches together serve readers of different sharp and dull faculties.

A Name Is Not a Label but a Gate into Practice

A sage establishes a name to open profound principle and advance beginners, enabling people to follow the path toward the distant goal. A name cannot replace the Dharma, yet it can let people know where they are going. A road sign is not the distant destination, but without it one can easily lose the way.

In distinguishing coarse and wondrous, the crucial point is not to arrange dharmas into a hierarchy but to ask whether the three truths are traversed separately or perfectly interpenetrate. The Buddha knows the wondrous Dharma of perfect interpenetration but does not hasten to teach it, because if sentient beings cannot believe, direct praise of the Buddha-Vehicle instead causes them to fall into suffering. Earlier teachings may prevent lesser faculties from hearing the great, cause great faculties not to use the lesser, or set great and small side by side so they rebuke or assist one another. All are established in accordance with sentient beings. Only with the present scripture does one assembly share the same Dharma flavor and the Buddha’s original intent find full expression.

The lotus blossom turns this process into a visible image. A wild flower without fruit, one flower with many fruits, many flowers with one fruit, one flower with one fruit, fruit before flower, and flower before fruit each represent cause and fruit failing to correspond perfectly. The lotus, however, blossoms for the sake of its fruit, reveals the fruit as it opens, and lets the blossom fall as the fruit ripens. The provisional is established for the sake of the real; when the provisional opens, the real appears; once their work is complete, even the names provisional and real are no longer grasped. Wondrousness does not reject the process. From its very beginning, the process never leaves what it is directed toward.

If the Substance Pervades Everything, Why Must the Correct Substance Still Be Discerned?

Discerning the substance first explains Dharma through the model of ritual propriety. If there were no distinctions at all between parent and child or ruler and minister, there would be no ritual propriety. Although wholesome and unwholesome, ordinary people and sages, bodhisattvas and buddhas all remain within Dharma-nature, their being within Dharma-nature does not erase every distinction. The correct substance is the true mark, which is neither undifferentiated confusion nor separation.

Ordinary people see the three realms only as different; people of the two vehicles see them only as thus; bodhisattvas see them as both thus and different; the Buddha is confined to neither side and illuminates both. Emptiness is not annihilating nonexistence, and so there is emptiness-and-existence. Emptiness and existence do not depart from one another, and so they are nondual. The Middle does not stand outside emptiness and existence, and so they are nondifferent. Dharma pervades everything, and so it is inexhaustible. These four aspects together prevent one from seizing the true mark as emptiness, as existence, as a third Middle, or as something restricted to a few pure dharmas.

At this point Zhang’an Guanding adds a separate explanation marked “my private view,” testing in sequence the ultimate states grasped by three kinds of sages. To see mere emptiness alone is like mistaking a glass bead for a genuine jewel. To see both emptiness and non-emptiness but follow the color wrapping the jewel is to forget the jewel itself. To abandon the two extremes and select another Middle is like abandoning space to seek space elsewhere. Each establishes one aspect of realization as the endpoint.

Zhang’an’s supplement does not end with an abstract refutation but answers through two images from the Lotus. The person in filthy clothes is in truth the elder’s son; the jewel sewn inside the clothes is originally a priceless treasure. When the provisional and real used to transform others are truly embodied, they do not depart from the provisional and real of one’s own practice. The provisional in one’s own practice likewise does not depart from its real. Worldly occupations, a single color, and a single fragrance can therefore all accord with the true mark; there is no need to leave every present Dharma in order to seek the correct substance somewhere else.

The Purport Is Like a Net’s Headrope: Why Can Cause and Fruit Not Be Taken Separately?

The purport is the cause and fruit of the Buddha’s own practice. Immeasurable wholesome practices are gathered by cause, and immeasurable realized virtues by fruit. It is like lifting the headrope of a net so that every mesh moves with it, or pulling the corner of a garment so that a thousand threads come along.

Cause and fruit are not two parallel purports. A cause that cannot accomplish the real fruit throughout the distant past does not gather all wholesome qualities; a fruit that is not accomplished through true practice throughout the distant past does not gather all virtues. What the present scripture takes is true practice and true realization extending through the distant past. Cause indicates how practice begins and is carried through; fruit indicates what that practice truly accomplishes. If either side is missing, the governing aim is severed.

This cause vertically surpasses the different skillful means and horizontally embraces the ten Dharma realms. The first cultivation of the practice of the true mark is called the Buddha-cause, and what is realized at the place of awakening is called the Buddha-fruit. The headrope simile simultaneously reveals exclusion and inclusion: it does not call every thread the headrope, yet when the headrope is raised, no mesh is left behind.

Function Is Like Drawing a Full Bow and Releasing the Arrow: How Are Power and Function Identical?

The wisdom of one’s own practice illuminates principle pervasively and is called power. The wisdom for transforming others discerns faculties pervasively and is called function. Illuminating principle does not mean first completing a system of truth and only then turning around to guess at sentient beings. Truly illuminating principle is discerning faculties, and truly discerning faculties never leaves illuminating principle.

Prince Siddhārtha drawing the royal ancestor’s bow to the full is power; the arrow passing through seven iron drums, an iron ring of mountains, and the ground down to the water-wheel is function. A full bow that is never released cannot benefit anyone; an arrow released without the bow’s full power cannot penetrate. One’s own practice and the transformation of others are like drawing the bow and striking the target. Their motions can be distinguished, but they are not two systems of wisdom.

The skillful teachings of the past made illumination of principle incomplete, faith shallow, and doubt unexhausted, like ordinary bows and arrows. The present scripture enables faith to pervade the Dharma realm, cuts off fundamental delusion, and diminishes transformational birth-and-death. Its benefit reaches not only bodhisattvas at initial stages but also those with a Dharma body and those at its final mind. Vast function is therefore not a matter of imposing force: no faculty goes undiscerned, no doubt remains unbroken, and no stage goes unnourished.

Five Movements of Sunlight: How Can One Sun Reveal Many Characteristics of Teaching?

Teaching is what the sage teaches to sentient beings, while characteristics distinguish sameness and difference. At sunrise the sun first illuminates the high mountains: great faculties first receive the sudden teaching, while lesser faculties sit in the assembly as though deaf and mute. It next illuminates secluded valleys: lesser faculties gradually understand what corresponds to them, while great faculties remain concealed and make no use of the lesser Dharma. It then shines on level ground and is reflected in ten thousand bodies of water: the reflection is square or round and moves or rests according to the vessel, so that purity and defilement, praise and rebuke, fragrances, blossoms, and wisdom all differ with faculties. Intense light then benefits adults but dazzles infants, showing how beings who hear the same great Dharma receive different benefits. Finally sunlight shines everywhere, high and low equally, and even a tiny wholesome act is returned to the Buddha path.

Milk, curds, raw ghee, refined ghee, and clarified essence are not five disconnected periods; they are the flavor-characteristics of one course of transformation from its initial teaching to its final integration. When lesser faculties do not hear the great, this is sudden. When great faculties do not use the lesser, this is gradual. When the great breaks the lesser, the two are taught side by side. When the lesser is carried while the great is revealed, they assist one another. When the lesser is integrated and returned to the great, their boundary dissolves. Throughout the gradual sequence of the five flavors, one can see at every point how gradual and sudden confront, assist, and integrate with one another.

Manifest indeterminacy further breaks the idea that an entire scripture can have only one function. Teaching arising and ceasing at the same time need not prevent the presence of non-arising and non-ceasing; while the five monks realize the fruit, the gods may attain acceptance. Profound and shallow, asking and stopping questions, can differ according to faculties within the same time and same teaching. Secret indeterminacy goes further in revealing the Buddha’s mastery of wisdom, faculties, time, and place. This assembly may hear the sudden while the ten directions hear the gradual; one person may hear the gradual while many hear the sudden; one place may receive teaching while another is silent. Each is unaware of the other and is thus secret and manifest in relation to it.

All these distinctions finally return to the present scripture. It is publicly manifest, integrates the gradual into the sudden, unites what was previously ununited, brings the first four flavors into clarified essence, and returns the indeterminate to the determinate. More importantly, it does not only confer an immediate benefit on the faculties present. It reveals how the Buddha throughout the distant past planted, nurtured, matured, and liberated, round after round without cease.

The distance of the provisional and real in teacher and disciples is thereby transformed as well. Other teachings mostly discuss the provisional and real after awakening at the place of practice. The present scripture, however, extends the teacher’s fulfillment of provisional and real into the distant past and teaches that disciples likewise entered the real and understood the provisional long ago. At this point classifying the teaching is not merely classifying scriptures; it reveals how an entire course of transformation throughout the distant past becomes clear in the present assembly.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

Zhanran first judges the seven passes to be a shared explanation of the five chapters, then divides Setting Out the Chapters into listing the five chapters, using the seven passes to give rise to the five minds, and broadly explaining the five chapters. The seven passes thus become not merely a table of contents but a sequence in which the reader establishes recollection, faith, concentration, wisdom, and diligence as faculties and powers.

In Explaining the Name, the mirror divides establishing the name into opening profound principle and advancing beginning practice, and uses the three meanings of the lotus blossom to illuminate establishing the provisional, opening the provisional, and relinquishing the provisional. For the meaning of substance, it clearly judges that the Master’s explanation comes first and Zhang’an’s private explanation follows. The meeting of the two scriptures and two treatises can only be read within each work’s own context; a Tiantai digest cannot be retroactively made into the root text’s original sentence.

The Purport is analyzed as setting out and listing followed by proper explanation, while distinctions concerning purport and function also prevent one’s own practice, transforming others, wisdom, and severance from becoming confused. The passage on Function is divided into revealing, distinguishing, and benefit. Drawing the bow fully and the arrow striking its mark are thereby not two examples but an account of how power becomes function and function reveals power.

The mirror’s fine distinctions within coarse and wondrous characteristics of teaching also return including, addressing only, setting in contrast, and carrying along to their respective places. They are ways in which the treatise compares whether the different teachings are integrated or non-integrated. They cannot be removed from sunlight, five flavors, and faculties and turned into slogans. Mutual assistance must also be read in both directions: lesser faculties hear the great and aspire to it, while those of great faculties receive benefit when instructed through the lesser. Each side has its function.

The three kinds of sages’ realizations broken in Zhang’an’s private explanation are strictly limited in the mirror to the passage from “my private view” up to the point before Clarifying the Purport. This boundary lets the similes of the glass bead, the jewel wrapped in different colors, the moon beyond the clouds, and the jewel in the clothing continue to bear the recorder’s supplemental analysis of the substance without being rewritten as the Master’s own teaching. The layers remain clear.

The three great aspects of the characteristics of teaching are illuminated as faculties, the course of transformation, and teacher and disciples. The sun shining from high mountains through universal illumination, the successive five flavors, manifest indeterminacy, and secret indeterminacy all prepare for the present scripture’s difference from the others. The mirror’s boundary closes only with “the initial setting out of the five chapters within the seven passes is complete.” This reminds us that even this long pass remains only the first shared explanation of the five chapters. The six passes that follow still have to complete faith, sequence, opening and combining, resolving questions, contemplating the mind, and integrating differences one by one.