妙法蓮華經玄義 三法妙

Where are the three tracks to buddhahood to be found? If true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment are imagined as three tools, one will ask which must first be obtained and which cultivated later. Yet if one says only that they are one, practice can easily be made to sound as though nothing need be done. The subtlety of the three dharmas releases both attachments at once: three are not fixed as three, and one is not fixed as one. True nature is what one relies upon, contemplative illumination is lucid seeing, and supporting accomplishment is the multitude of practices. The three are not confused with one another, yet they have never been separate.

Thus, the three tracks do not hide outside affliction, karma, and suffering. Ignorance is like ice and illumination like water; when ice melts, water is not fetched from somewhere else. Evil is like the potential for fire within bamboo: when conditions meet, fire arises and then burns the bamboo; good likewise takes concrete form from evil that can be transformed and turns back to break evil. The path of suffering is like mistaking south for north: although the direction is misapprehended, the true south has not disappeared. Practice does not flee to some other kind of material. It lets the very place of delusion be seen and opened through.

The simile of the great cart expresses this most completely. The Dharma-body is the body of the cart, while prajñā and liberation are its adornments and equipment. The tathāgata-garbha reveals the cart’s breadth, and the emptiness of ultimate meaning reveals its height. The great white ox is unstained, powerful, even in its gait, and swift as the wind. The body of the cart, its jeweled adornments, and the white ox together make one cart. They cannot be split into three carts, nor can their distinct functions be erased merely because one speaks of a single cart.

The three paths, three consciousnesses, three buddha-natures, three prajñās, three bodhis, three Great Vehicles, three bodies, three nirvāṇas, the Three Jewels in one substance, and three virtues may look like many different names, but they form one road from saṃsāra to the secret treasury. The names change according to those being taught: some first need to establish right understanding, some to make wholesome roots grow, some to counteract the illness of delusion, and some can enter ultimate meaning directly. A thousand carts can follow the same track; Dharma gates need not bear the same name.

The heart of the subtlety of the three dharmas is therefore not to discard coarse dharmas and exchange them for a new set of wondrous dharmas. The treasure has always been in the house, but the whole family did not know and so could not use it. Opening and revealing means clearing away the weeds so that the hidden gold appears. An ordinary person’s single thought already possesses the three dharmas; practice makes what was concealed become manifest. At the ultimate, they remain the same three dharmas, neither vertical nor horizontal. Seen from here, the “half wish-fulfilling jewel” does not mean that only half of truth has been obtained. It means that the cause and fruit of self-practice have been brought to completion, while the compassionate work of carrying sentient beings is about to unfold.

The Purpose of the Subtlety of the Three Dharmas and Its Seven Gates

Fifth is the subtlety of the three dharmas. These three dharmas are what people at the wondrous stages abide in after realizing the fruit described above.

The so-called three dharmas are the three tracks. “Track” means a rule or standard. Because the three dharmas can serve as the normative tracks followed by practitioners, they are called the three tracks. This major section has seven gates: first, explaining the three tracks in general; second, explaining each of the three tracks separately; third, judging coarse and wondrous; fourth, opening and revealing that coarse dharmas are originally wondrous; fifth, explaining the beginning and ultimate end of the three dharmas; sixth, using the three tracks to integrate the various sets of three dharmas; and seventh, resolving questions through the four siddhāntas.

First Gate: Explaining the Three Tracks in General

The three tracks are, first, the track of true nature; second, the track of contemplative illumination; and third, the track of supporting accomplishment. Although there are three names, in reality there is only one Great Vehicle Dharma.

The meaning of the scripture is this: search carefully throughout the ten directions and there is no other vehicle, only the One Buddha-Vehicle. This One Buddha-Vehicle itself fully possesses the three dharmas and is also called ultimate truth, the emptiness of ultimate meaning, and the tathāgata-garbha. These three dharmas cannot be fixed as three separate Dharmas. Precisely because they cannot be fixed as three, one can discuss one through the three. This one Dharma also cannot be fixed as a solitary Dharma. Precisely because it cannot be fixed as one, one can discuss three through the one. Their relation is inconceivable: the three are neither aligned side by side nor separated from one another. They are like the three dots of the siddham letter i, or like three eyes on a single face.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra therefore says that buddha-nature is also one, is not one, and is neither one nor not-one. “It is also one” because all sentient beings alike possess the One Vehicle; this statement refers to ultimate truth. “It is not one” because it can be described as enumerated dharmas such as these; this statement refers to the tathāgata-garbha. “It is neither one nor not-one” because enumerated and non-enumerated dharmas cannot be fixed; this statement refers to the emptiness of ultimate meaning. Each of the three statements includes “also” as an emphatic, repeated clarification. In reality there is only one Dharma, which can also bear three names. One therefore cannot take only one aspect, nor can several aspects be overlaid into a composite thing. They are neither vertically ordered before and after nor horizontally arranged left and right, but always three as one and one as three.

The various truths explained earlier—whether opened or combined, judged coarse or judged wondrous—have already disclosed the characteristics of the track of true nature. The various kinds of wisdom explained earlier—whether opened or combined, coarse or wondrous—have already disclosed the characteristics of the track of contemplative illumination. The various practices explained earlier—whether opened or combined, coarse or wondrous—have already disclosed the characteristics of the track of supporting accomplishment. The various stages explained earlier are simply the fruit realized by cultivating these three dharmas.

Since the preceding four subtleties have already explained them, why must the three dharmas be stated again? There are three reasons.

First, the preceding subtleties of objects, wisdom, and practice are the three tracks ridden by practitioners at the causal stages. The Great Vehicle discussed now has already reached the place of awakening and consists of the three tracks abided in after realization of the fruit.

Second, the preceding sections used the distinct names objects, wisdom, and practice and explained them separately. Here they are all called dharmas and explained together.

Third, the preceding sections explained their separate characteristics directly without tracing beginning and end. Traced to the most remote beginning, they are the three tracks of nature-virtue, also called the Tathāgata’s treasury. Traced to the ultimate end, they are the three tracks of cultivated virtue, also called the secret treasury. Between beginning and end they contain all Dharmas. From the three dharmas of nature-virtue arise the three dharmas of designation. On the basis of the three dharmas of designation, one cultivates the three dharmas of contemplative practice. From the three dharmas of contemplative practice arise the three dharmas of resemblance; these proceed through the three dharmas of partial realization and finally reach the three dharmas of the ultimate. One can both accomplish the three dharmas oneself and use them to transform others. For these three reasons, they should be explained again.

Zhang’an’s Appended Explanation

The recorder Zhang’an adds here: one statement is immediately three statements, and three statements are immediately one. This is called the Perfect Buddha-Vehicle. The master’s explanation recorded above opens various skillful means from the single statement on the tathāgata-garbha. Since that is only a specific judgment, by analogy all three statements should be opened generally.

“It is not one, because it consists of enumerated dharmas” indicates the tathāgata-garbha, from which open the phenomenal skillful means of the three vehicles in the Tripiṭaka Teaching. “It is neither one nor not-one, because enumerated and non-enumerated dharmas cannot be fixed” indicates the emptiness of ultimate meaning, from which open the paths of the three types of practitioners in the Shared Teaching who realize the true directly within phenomena. “It is also one, because all sentient beings alike possess the One Vehicle” indicates ultimate truth, from which opens the Distinct Teaching’s vehicle solely for bodhisattvas. All these skillful means open from the Perfect Buddha-Vehicle. The scripture therefore says that three vehicles are distinguished within the One Buddha-Vehicle. This is its meaning.

Second Gate: Explaining the Three Dharmas Separately

Before explaining them one by one, one must first know how the Tathāgata opens skillful means and then combines them back into the One Vehicle. Only after understanding this opening and combining can one understand how the three dharmas are comprehensively gathered to form one Great Vehicle.

From what Dharma does the Buddha open the various provisional vehicles? The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that buddha-nature is not one because three vehicles can be taught. One should therefore know that all vehicles distinguished by number are encompassed by the tathāgata-garbha. From this treasury the Buddha opens the vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, as well as the Shared and Distinct vehicles of bodhisattvas.

Why is this said? Since the various vehicles are skillful means, while the tathāgata-garbha in this correspondence belongs to phenomena, skillful means open from phenomena. The various provisional vehicles are therefore said to be encompassed by the tathāgata-garbha.

Scripture provides a threefold basis. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that the śrāvaka Saṅgha is called a conditioned Saṅgha. It also says that the six pāramitās are the adornment of merit, and that śrāvakas, because their power of concentration is great, do not see buddha-nature. From this one knows that the power of concentration belongs to merit and merit is conditioned. Within the three realms, for example, the delusions of views and thought have not yet been broken, so activity still occurs and is called conditioned. The principle attained does not accord and is therefore called contaminated. Because it is not the Dharma of Middle-Way wisdom, it is called merit. Looking from a lower stage toward a higher one should now be understood in the same way: those of the Two Vehicles have not yet broken through transformational birth-and-death and therefore remain conditioned; they have not yet escaped ignorance and are therefore called contaminated; what they have attained is not Middle-Way wisdom and is therefore called merit.

It follows that the various skillful vehicles are all encompassed by the track of supporting accomplishment. Each opens partially from the single statement of the Great Vehicle and is not ultimate Dharma. The scripture’s statement that three are distinguished within the One Buddha-Vehicle has precisely this meaning. One can likewise say that five, seven, or nine are distinguished within the One Buddha-Vehicle. Under this explanation, the single statement on the tathāgata-garbha opens the various skillful means and all Dharmas of the provisional vehicles.

The Three Dharmas of the Tripiṭaka Teaching

The three dharmas are next explained according to each of the Four Teachings.

In the Tripiṭaka Teaching, unconditioned wisdom is called the track of contemplative illumination and serves directly as the substance of the vehicle. Dharmas that assist the path become the vehicle’s equipment and are called the track of supporting accomplishment. The primary and auxiliary aspects of the vehicle sever delusion and enter the true; the truth entered is the track of true nature. Because the teaching comes to express these three, verbal teaching itself is called a vehicle.

The same applies to pratyekabuddhas. Bodhisattvas take contemplation of impermanence as the track of contemplative illumination, the enrichment of merit as the track of supporting accomplishment, and sitting at the place of awakening, severing the bonds, and seeing the true as the track of true nature. This teaching comes to express the true and is therefore the teaching-vehicle. Practitioners emerge from the three realms and abide in sarvajñā. At that point the work of verbal teaching is exhausted, so no teaching-vehicle remains. The truth realized cannot itself continue to transport, so realization is no longer a vehicle. Hence there is the wish to seek the great cart from the Buddha.

The Three Dharmas of the Shared Teaching

The Shared Teaching takes the track of true nature as the substance of the vehicle. Why? Form itself is emptiness; principle is originally present within phenomena, and this principle is true, so it serves as the vehicle’s substance. Wisdom that sees immediate emptiness is the track of contemplative illumination, and the various practices are the track of supporting accomplishment.

This teaching expresses the true and is therefore the teaching-vehicle. Practitioners leave the three realms and abide in sarvajñā. After emerging from the three realms, bodhisattvas continue to use practice as a vehicle, purify buddha-lands, and transform sentient beings; only when they reach the place of awakening can they be said to abide. This can also be described as teaching without a fixed person who abides in what is attained. When verbal teaching withdraws and realization returns to quiescence, the meaning of transport no longer remains. Thus there is likewise the wish to seek the great cart.

The Three Dharmas of the Distinct Teaching

The Distinct Teaching takes contemplative illumination cultivated through conditions as the substance of the vehicle, while the various practices are supporting accomplishment. These two Dharmas together form wisdom cultivated through conditions. Wisdom can break delusion and reveal principle, while principle itself cannot break delusion. If principle itself could break delusion, then since all sentient beings fully possess principle-nature, why would their delusions not be broken naturally? Only after practitioners obtain this wisdom can they break delusion; wisdom is therefore used as the vehicle’s substance.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra accordingly teaches that what is unconditioned and uncontaminated is called the bodhisattva Saṅgha, and that the wisdom of the first ground, second ground, through the tenth ground is called the adornment of wisdom. Because this wisdom transports practitioners through the ten grounds, it is the vehicle’s substance.

The Mahāyānasaṃgraha, however, is said to teach three vehicles: the vehicle of principle, the accompanying vehicle, and the attained vehicle. The vehicle of principle is suchness before cultivation of the path. The accompanying vehicle is the wisdom that contemplates suchness and accords with its object. The attained vehicle is the perfuming of nondiscriminating wisdom by all practices and vows, through which that wisdom accords with the nondiscriminating object and corresponds with suchness. At first glance these three levels resemble the three tracks, but their before and after have not yet been perfectly integrated.

Where does the problem lie? The ninth consciousness is described as suchness after cultivation of the path. Suchness itself does not engage phenomena, while the basic seeds of wisdom and practice are all perfumed and brought to fulfillment within ālaya-consciousness, after which the light of nondiscriminating wisdom is attained and true nature accomplished. The vehicle of principle is therefore originally present, while the accompanying and attained vehicles exist only now; only suchness after the path can finally transform sentient beings. Is this not a vertical sequence? If the three vehicles are also all encompassed by ālaya-consciousness, they become a horizontal arrangement and can easily be confused with primordial darkness giving birth to awareness. Vertical and horizontal at once, they conflict with the relation of the true siddham letter i.

When the Tathāgata first appeared in the world, he wished to teach the real directly. Because sentient beings could not bear it, he first used impermanence to dispel inversion, next used emptiness and purity to wash away attachments, then used sequentially differentiated Dharma gates to arouse their minds step by step, and only afterward revealed permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Nāgārjuna composed a treatise to clarify this intent of the Buddha. He first used the emptiness in which nothing can be obtained to wash away fixed attachments. When practitioners become accustomed to corresponding with the emptiness of all Dharmas, this is called corresponding with prajñā. Does this emptiness not empty ignorance? If ignorance is empty, where can its seeds be placed? Once all Dharmas have been purified, Dharmas are taught on the basis of emptiness and formed into four alternatives, but what is said remains profound and does not abide in attachment. It is like eating only after an illness has been cured, while the food eaten must still be digested.

How could one begin by insisting that all Dharmas arise from ālaya-consciousness? When the original views and conceit have not been subdued at all, rigidly grasping newly learned words only adds water to long-standing ice and thickens attachment. Thus the teaching of this treatise was not given specifically for heavily attached sentient beings of the latter age; it is only one Dharma gate beyond the realms.

One may ask further: if ālaya-consciousness fully possesses all Dharmas, how could it fail to possess suchness after cultivation of the path? If it possesses suchness, how can suchness be said not to be the eighth consciousness? This is perhaps still a skillful means opened from the tathāgata-garbha. If a skillful means is grasped as ultimate, it gravely obstructs the real. Even when its basis is real, attachment to it becomes a view made of words. This is like feeding an infant too much ghee and endangering the infant’s life. If one can understand well the intent of refutation and establishment, one can meet the various scriptures and treatises with purity and without obstruction.

The Three Dharmas of the Perfect Teaching

The Perfect Teaching takes the track of true nature as the substance of the vehicle. It is not false and is therefore called true; it does not change and is therefore called nature. It is the permanently abiding direct cause, the Dharma honored as teacher by all buddhas. All sentient beings alike possess the One Vehicle. Sentient beings are immediately the mark of nirvāṇa and cannot be extinguished again; nirvāṇa is immediately birth-and-death, without establishing an extinction apart from birth-and-death or a birth apart from nirvāṇa. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra is therefore cited as saying that this vehicle does not move and does not emerge. This is precisely the vehicle of the Perfect Teaching.

The track of contemplative illumination simply points out within true nature itself the aspect that is quiescent yet constantly illuminating; this is the emptiness of ultimate meaning. The track of supporting accomplishment simply points out within the Dharma realm of true nature the aspect that contains all practices and fully possesses immeasurable supporting conditions; this is the tathāgata-garbha.

The three dharmas are neither wholly identical nor different from one another. They are like separately speaking of a wish-fulfilling jewel’s radiance and treasure. Radiance and treasure do not bear the same name as the jewel, yet neither exists apart from it. The three dharmas are the same: they are also one, are not one, and are neither one nor not-one. They are the inconceivable three dharmas.

If one is deluded about these three dharmas, they become the three obstructions. First, dust-and-sand delusions within and beyond the realms obstruct the tathāgata-garbha. Second, the delusions of views and thought treated in the Shared and Distinct Teachings obstruct the emptiness of ultimate meaning. Third, fundamental ignorance obstructs the principle of ultimate meaning.

If one penetrates immeasurable Dharma gates right within dust-and-sand delusions, the track of supporting accomplishment is revealed. If one penetrates the emptiness of ultimate meaning right within the delusions of views and thought, the track of contemplative illumination is revealed. If one penetrates ultimate truth right within ignorance, the track of true nature is revealed. The revelation of the track of true nature is called Dharma-body; the revelation of contemplative illumination is called prajñā; the revelation of supporting accomplishment is called liberation. Contemplative illumination and supporting accomplishment are the adornment of concentration and wisdom that adorns the Dharma-body. The Dharma-body is the substance of the vehicle, while concentration and wisdom are its various pieces of equipment.

The scripture’s description of the cart as high and broad and adorned with many jewels has precisely this meaning. Practitioners of the Perfect Teaching ride this vehicle to sarvajñā. Once they pass beyond the graph 茶 (“tea”), no further graph can be spoken. Since no graph can be spoken, it would seem that no vehicle should remain to transport. In one’s own practice, when transport is complete, the function of the vehicle temporarily ceases. If the work of transforming others is not yet complete, transport of others does not cease. The scripture therefore means that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and, according to the Dharma he has attained, adorns it with the powers of concentration and wisdom and uses it to liberate sentient beings.

When a driver has brought a cart to its destination, the implement is still called a cart. The vehicle at the fruit-stage is likewise still called transport.

Moreover, why must a vehicle be explained only through “transport”? In terms of true nature, it neither moves nor emerges and cannot be called only transport or only nontransport. In terms of contemplative illumination and supporting accomplishment, they can move and emerge and are therefore called transport. Yet moving and emerging are immediately not moving and not emerging; not moving and not emerging are immediately moving and emerging. Speaking from function to substance, moving and emerging are not moving and not emerging. Speaking from substance to function, not moving and not emerging are moving and emerging. Substance and function are originally nondual, yet may be spoken of as two aspects.

For example, turning and not turning can both be called avaivartika, nonretrogression; moving and not moving can both be called vinaya, discipline. According to this principle, setting forth and not setting forth can both be called a vehicle.

Third Gate: Judging Coarse and Wondrous

First consider the Tripiṭaka Teaching. It discusses the three dharmas as a vehicle within conditioned merit. The four establishments of mindfulness are wisdom from hearing, which rides the teaching-vehicle to the four wholesome roots. The four wholesome roots ride the practice-vehicle to seeing the truths. Seeing the truths then rides the realization-vehicle to the stage beyond learning. This is a provisional skillful Dharma. After leaving the three realms, practitioners take the true as realization, but after realization there is no further transport and the real Great Vehicle has not been seen. They therefore lament and blame themselves, wishing to ask the World-Honored One whether they have lost or not lost it. The half-word teaching is only gradual guidance, not ultimate meaning, so all three dharmas within it are coarse.

The Shared Teaching uses the wisdom of immediate emptiness as the vehicle of the three dharmas. Its method is more skillful, while the remaining meaning is largely the same. The ground of dry wisdom rides the teaching-vehicle to the ground of nature. The ground of nature rides the practice-vehicle to the ground of eight persons and the ground of seeing. Those grounds ride the realization-vehicle into realization. This is still a partial teaching and is therefore coarse.

The Distinct Teaching uses supporting accomplishment to assist contemplative illumination and contemplative illumination to open and reveal true nature; the three dharmas together form the vehicle. The ten faiths ride the teaching, the ten abodes ride the practice, and the ten grounds ride realization until abiding in sarvajñā at wondrous awakening. Once cultivation through conditions is accomplished, it withdraws and only true cultivation remains. On this account, supporting accomplishment comes first, contemplative illumination comes in the middle, and true nature comes last. The three are vertically separated before and after and cannot form the Great Vehicle. They are also separately juxtaposed and horizontally divided, and likewise cannot form the Great Vehicle. This remains a skillful Dharma and is therefore coarse.

The Perfect Teaching points directly to the true mark as the emptiness of ultimate meaning. If one looks only at the word “emptiness,” it seems to fall into a vertical sequence. Yet the emptiness of ultimate meaning is immediately the true mark. Since the true mark is not vertical, how could this emptiness be vertical? It also points directly to the true mark as the tathāgata-garbha. If one looks only at the word “treasury,” it seems to fall into horizontal arrangement. Yet the tathāgata-garbha is immediately the true mark. Since the true mark is not horizontal, how could this treasury be horizontal? It cannot be conceived vertically or horizontally and is therefore called the inconceivable Dharma, which is wondrous.

Someone may object: if emptiness and the treasury are pointed out as the true mark, while emptiness seems vertical and the treasury horizontal, how can the true mark be neither vertical nor horizontal? The answer must be seen in their immediate identity. When emptiness is pointed out as the tathāgata-garbha, since emptiness is not horizontal, how could the treasury be horizontal? When the tathāgata-garbha is pointed out as emptiness, since the treasury is not vertical, how could emptiness be vertical? When the true mark is pointed out as emptiness and the treasury, since the true mark is neither vertical nor horizontal, emptiness and the treasury are likewise neither vertical nor horizontal. The three turn and are immediately identical with one another. They are inconceivable and therefore called wondrous.

Breadth is pointed out in terms of the tathāgata-garbha, so the great cart is said to be high and broad. Height is pointed out in terms of the emptiness of ultimate meaning, so the cart is said to be high and broad. Because the tathāgata-garbha is the true mark, the cart cannot be fixed as broad. Because the emptiness of ultimate meaning is the true mark, the cart cannot be fixed as high. Yet the true mark is immediately emptiness—how could it not be high? The true mark is immediately the tathāgata-garbha—how could it not be broad?

The true mark is further pointed out as the tathāgata-garbha, so the cart is said to be adorned with many jewels and attended by many servants. The true mark is pointed out as the emptiness of ultimate meaning, so there is said to be a great white ox, strong and powerful, walking evenly and running as swiftly as the wind. Wisdom is unstained and is therefore called white. It can break delusion and is therefore called powerful. Middle-Way wisdom is called even. Entry into effortless practice is said to be swift as the wind. The inconceivable three dharmas together form one great cart. How could there still be differences of vertical and horizontal, juxtaposition and separation?

This teaching-vehicle, neither vertical nor horizontal, is ridden by practitioners of the five grades and reaches understanding by resemblance. This practice-vehicle, neither vertical nor horizontal, is ridden by those with understanding by resemblance and reaches the ten abodes. This realization-vehicle, neither vertical nor horizontal, is ridden by those at the ten abodes and reaches abiding in sarvajñā at wondrous awakening. It is therefore called the wondrous vehicle. Scripture also calls this vehicle wondrous, pure, and foremost.

When a lecture was given at Waguan Temple, someone dreamed that listeners rode out in carts and carriages, filling the gate. When a lecture was given elsewhere, someone dreamed of people in yellow robes filling the road. Judged by these signs, wrong and right were already clear.

The various coarse and wondrous vehicles can further be judged according to the five flavors: the milk teaching has one coarse and one wondrous; the curds teaching has only one coarse; raw ghee has three coarse and one wondrous; refined ghee has two coarse and one wondrous. Other scriptures all carry vertical and horizontal skillful means while teaching the reality that is neither vertical nor horizontal, so their aspect of skillful means is called coarse. The present scripture directly casts aside skillful means and is therefore specially given the name wondrous.

Fourth Gate: Opening the Coarse to Reveal the Wondrous

Opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous is explained through the three statements on buddha-nature in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra.

First, the scripture says that buddha-nature is also one because all sentient beings alike possess the One Vehicle. This is the One Vehicle that neither moves nor emerges. It originally fully possesses the three dharmas and is neither vertical nor horizontal. All who have mind possess this principle, yet it is like every member of a family, old and young, failing to know about the treasure in their own house; it is therefore called coarse. Now the treasury of awakening is shown to sentient beings, the weeds are cleared away, and the hidden gold is opened and revealed. All unobstructed people leave birth-and-death along one path. Search carefully throughout the ten directions: there is no other vehicle, only the One Buddha-Vehicle. It is therefore called wondrous.

Second, the scripture says that buddha-nature is neither one nor not-one because enumerated and non-enumerated dharmas cannot be fixed. If one grasps that wisdom cultivated through conditions must necessarily reveal principle, while wisdom itself is not principle, then the function of illumination remains unclear and buddha-nature is not seen; this is therefore called coarse. Now that wisdom is opened from fixed attachment into unfixed wisdom: wisdom is immediately principle, and principle immediately wisdom. One does not cling to enumerated dharmas by fixing them as three or one; nor does one cling to what is not enumerated by fixing it as neither three nor one. Only this is called unattached wondrous wisdom.

This wisdom can break every fixed and unfixed characteristic without clinging to what breaks or what is broken. It is like a wheel-turning king who both quells disorder and brings peace, like the sun that dispels darkness and nurtures living things, and like a physician who removes a film from the eye and then cares for the eyeball. This is the wondrous wisdom of the Great Vehicle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.

Third, the scripture says that buddha-nature is not one because three vehicles can be taught. This includes the three, five, seven, and other kinds of skillful vehicles. If one abides in these vehicles, what is attained is only phenomenal good and partial truth; the place entered remains near and is therefore called coarse. If the various vehicles are now decisively understood as immediately the tathāgata-garbha, while the treasury is called buddha-nature, then from the wholesome deeds of humans and gods through the Distinct Teaching’s bodhisattva vehicle, every Dharma enters the wondrous immediately without moving from its original basis.

Thus, the three statements encompass all Dharmas. No Dharma is other than buddha-nature, and every Dharma is wondrous. With no separate coarse Dharma left to stand in relation, this is absolute wondrousness.

Fifth Gate: The Beginning and Ultimate End of the Three Dharmas

The beginning of the three dharmas is not taken to be the teaching-vehicle at the five grades. Instead, the beginning of the three dharmas is one thought in the mind of an ordinary person, which fully possesses the ten Dharma realms and the ten suchnesses in each realm.

Why? The ten suchnesses are precisely the three tracks. Such-a-substance is the track of true nature. Such-a-nature, spoken in terms of the inner, is the track of contemplative illumination. Such-a-mark, spoken in terms of the outer, is merit and thus the track of supporting accomplishment. Such-a-power is the understanding-cause and belongs to contemplative illumination. Such-a-function is diligent performance of the myriad practices and belongs to supporting accomplishment. Such-a-cause is the habituation-cause and belongs to contemplative illumination. Such-a-condition is the recompense-cause and belongs to supporting accomplishment. Such-a-fruit is the habituation-fruit and belongs to contemplative illumination. Such-a-recompense is habituated recompense and belongs to supporting accomplishment. Within such-a-consummation-of-beginning-and-end, equality in emptiness belongs to contemplative illumination, equality in provisionality to supporting accomplishment, and equality in the Middle to true nature. This first discusses the three tracks solely in terms of the ten suchnesses of a single Dharma realm.

Proceeding further, a single thought of an ordinary person fully possesses the ten Dharma realms. Every realm has the nature and characteristics of affliction, the nature and characteristics of evil karma, and the nature and characteristics of the path of suffering.

When the nature and characteristics of ignorance and affliction are present, they are immediately the nature and characteristics of the wisdom of contemplative illumination. Why? Ignorance arises because illumination is misconstrued. If ignorance is understood, it is immediately illumination. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra means that when ignorance is transformed, it becomes illumination. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra means that ignorance itself is illumination. Thus, illumination cannot be found apart from ignorance, just as ice is water and water is ice.

The ten realms fully possessed in an ordinary person’s single thought likewise all have the nature and characteristics of evil karma. The nature and characteristics of evil are immediately the nature and characteristics of good. Because there is evil, there is good to be disclosed; apart from evil there is no good that can be transformed into. Transforming the various evils is precisely the supporting accomplishment of good. Bamboo, for example, has the potential for fire. Before it becomes actual fire, it possesses the potential without burning. When conditions make fire an actual event, it can burn things. Evil immediately possesses the nature of good but has not yet become a wholesome event. When conditions make it an event, it can transform evil. Fire emerges from bamboo and turns back to burn the bamboo; good exists within evil, and when good is accomplished it turns back to break evil. Therefore, the nature and characteristics of evil are immediately the nature and characteristics of good.

An ordinary person’s single thought also possesses the nature and characteristics of the path of suffering—the consciousness, name-and-form, and so forth—of all ten realms. Deluded about this path of suffering, birth-and-death stretches vast and boundless. This is the Dharma-body misconstrued as the path of suffering; there is no separate Dharma-body apart from the path of suffering. It is like mistaking south for north, when there is no other south elsewhere. When one awakens to birth-and-death, birth-and-death is immediately the Dharma-body. Thus, the nature and characteristics of the path of suffering are the nature and characteristics of the Dharma-body.

All who have mind possess the nature and characteristics of the three paths—affliction, karma, and suffering—and these are immediately the nature and characteristics of the three tracks. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra therefore means that the class of afflictions is precisely the seed of the Tathāgata.

Such-a-power and such-a-function mean that the aspiration for bodhi arises and the three dharmas, including true nature, begin to stir. Such-a-cause is the stirring of contemplative illumination. Such-a-condition is the stirring of supporting accomplishment. Through the stirring of contemplative illumination, such-a-fruit becomes a habituation-cause and brings the habituation-fruit of prajñā to fulfillment. Through the stirring of supporting accomplishment, such-a-recompense becomes a conditioning cause and brings the recompense-fruit of liberation to fulfillment. When fruit and recompense are fulfilled, the Dharma-body is likewise fulfilled. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the three virtues and is called the secret treasury.

Such-a-consummation-of-beginning-and-end means that the three tracks of nature-virtue are concealed yet neither vertical nor horizontal, while the three tracks of cultivated virtue are manifest yet likewise neither vertical nor horizontal. Concealed, they are equal in suchness, equal in number, and equal in wondrousness. Manifest, they are also equal in suchness, equal in number, and equal in wondrousness; hence they are called equal. They can also be spoken of as equality in emptiness, equality in provisionality, and equality in the Middle.

Sixth Gate: Integrating Ten Sets of Three Dharmas

The preceding account extends from the beginning of the three tracks to their ultimate end. This is unobstructed vertical integration from lower to higher. Now the various Dharmas are also to be integrated horizontally so that they are unobstructed everywhere. The various sets of three dharmas are therefore compared and connected with the three tracks. Their names differ only in response to different causes and capacities; once the meaning is understood, one knows that their referents agree. Ten sets are presented as an outline, from which the rest can be understood: the three paths, three consciousnesses, three buddha-natures, three prajñās, three bodhis, three Great Vehicles, three bodies, three nirvāṇas, the Three Jewels in one substance, and the three virtues.

There are immeasurably many sets of three dharmas. Only ten are selected here in order to present the essentials and explain their beginning and end. The round of the three paths is the fundamental Dharma of birth-and-death and is therefore placed first. To reverse the current of birth-and-death, one must understand the three consciousnesses, know the three buddha-natures, bring forth the three wisdoms, arouse the three aspirations for bodhi, practice the three Great Vehicles, realize the three bodies, and accomplish the three nirvāṇas. One becomes the Three Jewels and benefits all sentient beings. When the conditions for transformation are exhausted, one enters the three virtues and abides in the secret treasury.

1. Integrating the Three Paths

The track of true nature is the path of suffering, the track of contemplative illumination is the path of affliction, and the track of supporting accomplishment is the path of karma.

The path of suffering is the track of true nature because a later passage says that the characteristics of the world constantly abide. Does this not disclose the Dharma-body right within birth-and-death? Affliction is the track of contemplative illumination because contemplative illumination originally illuminates delusion; without delusion, there would be no illumination to discuss. This is the emptiness of all Dharmas. The scripture says that all Dharmas from the beginning constantly bear the characteristics of quiescent extinction, which precisely discloses that affliction is contemplative illumination. Illumination is also like fire arising from fuel. The scripture further says that before the buddhas of the past, those who heard even one statement all already accomplished the Buddha-path; it also says that those who deeply penetrate the characteristics of wrongdoing and merit illuminate throughout the ten directions. This is precisely hearing the wondrous statement that penetrates affliction at its root.

The track of supporting accomplishment is the path of karma because evil can serve as a supporting condition for good; without evil there would be no way for good to become manifest. The scripture says that evil spirits enter the minds of those people and cause them to abuse and insult me; because we are mindful of the Buddha, we should all endure this. If evil did not come and press upon one, there would be no occasion to employ mindfulness of the Buddha. Mindfulness of the Buddha arises precisely because evil presses upon one.

Again, in the time of the Buddha King of Majestic Sound, people attached to existing Dharmas heard what Bodhisattva Never Disparaging said and abused, reviled, struck, and threw things at him. Precisely because of this evil karma, they later encountered Never Disparaging again, received his teaching, and all attained nonretrogression. Devadatta is likewise called a wholesome spiritual friend. Does this not show evil immediately becoming support?

Thus, the three tracks are the three paths. At the level of principle, one practices in what is not the path and penetrates the Buddha-path. At the five grades, contemplative practice proceeds in what is not the path and penetrates the Buddha-path. At purification of the six sense faculties, resemblance proceeds in what is not the path and penetrates the Buddha-path. From the ten abodes onward, partial realization proceeds in what is not the path and penetrates the Buddha-path. At wondrous awakening, one ultimately proceeds in what is not the path and penetrates the Buddha-path.

2. Integrating the Three Consciousnesses

Amala-consciousness is the track of true nature, ālaya-consciousness is the track of contemplative illumination, and ādāna-consciousness is the track of supporting accomplishment.

Masters of the Treatise on the Ten Grounds say that ālaya-consciousness is encompassed by true, permanent, pure consciousness. Other Mahāyāna masters say that ālaya is a karmically indeterminate consciousness of latent ignorance, also called the non-disappearing consciousness, while only the ninth consciousness is called pure consciousness. The two sides dispute one another. A nearby situation can now be used to infer what is remote. How could one person’s mind have a fixed, unchanging nature? When one does good, it is wholesome consciousness; when one does evil, it is unwholesome consciousness; when one does neither good nor evil, it is karmically indeterminate consciousness. How could these three consciousnesses suddenly be mutually incompatible like water and fire? In fact, turning away from good is doing evil, turning away from evil is doing good, and turning away from both good and evil is becoming indeterminate. They are simply three minds arising in one person. The three consciousnesses should be understood in the same way.

If seeds of birth-and-death in ālaya-consciousness are perfumed and grow, they become discriminating consciousness. If seeds of wisdom within it are perfumed by hearing the Dharma and grow, the basis is transformed into suchness after attainment of the path and is called pure consciousness. If it differs from both these conditions, it is simply ālaya-consciousness. This is again speaking of three within one Dharma and one within the three.

The Mahāyānasaṃgraha uses gold, earth, defilement, and purity as a simile: defilement represents the six consciousnesses, gold represents pure consciousness, and earth represents ālaya-consciousness. The explicit text stands here; why labor over dispute?

Scripture further gives the simile of someone who visits a close friend’s house and lies down drunk. Is this not ālaya-consciousness? Wandering madly and confused in the world after discriminating consciousness has arisen, seeking food and clothing—is this not ādāna-consciousness? The seeds perfumed by hearing gradually arise and grow; the person meets the close friend, who points out the jewel in the robe—is this not amala-consciousness? Amala-consciousness is called the light of nondiscriminating wisdom.

If ālaya-consciousness has this seed of wisdom, then at the level of principle it is the light of nondiscriminating wisdom. At the five grades, it is the light of nondiscriminating wisdom in contemplative practice. At purification of the six sense faculties, it is the light of nondiscriminating wisdom by resemblance. From the first abode onward, it is the light of nondiscriminating wisdom in partial realization. At wondrous awakening, it is the ultimate light of nondiscriminating wisdom. Coarse and wondrous can likewise be judged in this way.

3. Integrating the Three Buddha-Natures

The track of true nature is buddha-nature as direct cause, the track of contemplative illumination is buddha-nature as understanding-cause, and the track of supporting accomplishment is buddha-nature as conditioning cause.

A later passage therefore says: “You truly are my son; I truly am your father.” This is buddha-nature as direct cause. It also says that because I formerly taught you the unsurpassed path, the vow for all-wisdom still remains and has not been lost. Wisdom here is buddha-nature as understanding-cause, while the vow is buddha-nature as conditioning cause. It further says: “I do not dare disparage you; all of you will become buddhas.” This is buddha-nature as direct cause. At that time the fourfold assembly read and recited the various scriptures, which is buddha-nature as understanding-cause; they cultivated various merits, which is buddha-nature as conditioning cause.

The scripture further says that the elder’s sons may number ten, twenty, or even thirty. These are the three kinds of buddha-nature. It also says that the meanings of the various natures and characteristics have all been known and seen. Since it speaks of various natures, the three kinds of buddha-nature are included.

Knowing that the three tracks are the three buddha-natures is called buddha-nature at the level of principle. At the five grades, one sees buddha-nature through contemplative practice. At purification of the six sense faculties, one sees buddha-nature by resemblance. From the ten abodes through equal awakening, one sees buddha-nature through partial realization. At wondrous awakening, one ultimately sees buddha-nature. It is therefore called wondrous.

4. Integrating the Three Prajñās

The track of true nature is prajñā of the true mark, the track of contemplative illumination is prajñā of contemplative illumination, and the track of supporting accomplishment is prajñā of written words. Their characteristics are as already explained in the preceding subtleties of objects, wisdom, and practice.

A later passage therefore says, “Stop, stop, there is no need to speak; my Dharma is wondrous and difficult to conceive.” It also says, “This Dharma cannot be shown; the characteristics of words are quiescent and extinct.” This is prajñā of the true mark. It further says that only I and the buddhas of the ten directions can know this characteristic; only a buddha together with a buddha can ultimately exhaust it; and the wisdom I have attained is wondrous and foremost. These are prajñā of contemplative illumination.

It also says: I always know whether sentient beings practice the path or do not practice it, and according to how they may be liberated I teach various Dharmas for them. Various expressions offered as skillful means according to what is suitable are prajñā of written words. It further says that the Tathāgata’s knowing and seeing is vast, great, profound, and far-reaching. Vastness, greatness, profundity, and far-reachingness are prajñā of the true mark. The Tathāgata’s knowing and seeing that accords with this vastness, greatness, profundity, and far-reachingness is prajñā of contemplative illumination. When skillful means and knowing and seeing are said to be fully complete, that is prajñā of written words.

Thus, the three tracks are simply different names for the three prajñās. If the three kinds of wisdom are divided among three minds and belong to three people, they are coarse. If the three kinds of wisdom are in one mind, neither vertical nor horizontal, they are wondrous at the level of principle. At the five grades are the three prajñās of contemplative practice; at purification of the six sense faculties, the three prajñās by resemblance; at the forty minds, the three prajñās of partial realization; and at wondrous awakening, the ultimate three prajñās.

5. Integrating the Three Bodhis

The track of true nature is bodhi of the true mark, the track of contemplative illumination is bodhi of real wisdom, and the track of supporting accomplishment is bodhi of skillful means.

A later passage therefore says: Did I not previously say that all of you would attain unsurpassed complete awakening? It also says, “Neither real nor false, neither thus nor different, not seeing the three realms as [beings in] the three realms see them.” This is bodhi of the true mark. It further says that since I attained the path, an exceedingly long time has passed. This is bodhi of real wisdom. It also says that I was young when I left home, and attained bodhi near Gayā City. This is bodhi of skillful means.

When the three bodhis are explained in terms of disciples, the scripture says that whenever I encounter sentient beings, I teach them all the Buddha-path. This is bodhi of the true mark. It also says: abiding in real wisdom, I will certainly become a buddha; buddha-children who have completed the practice of the path will become buddhas in a future life; and riding this jeweled vehicle, they go directly to the place of awakening. These are all bodhi of real wisdom accomplished through cultivation. Bestowing on disciples a prediction of awakening through the eight signs is bodhi of skillful means.

They cannot be said to be one, nor can they be said to differ; this is called suchness. When they are not decisively understood, they are called coarse; when decisively understood, wondrous. All sentient beings possess bodhi at the level of principle. At the five grades is bodhi in designation; at purification of the six sense faculties, bodhi by resemblance; at the forty-one stages, bodhi through partial realization; and at wondrous awakening, ultimate bodhi.

6. Integrating the Three Great Vehicles

The track of true nature is the vehicle of principle, the track of contemplative illumination is the accompanying vehicle, and the track of supporting accomplishment is the attained vehicle.

A later passage therefore says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and, according to the Dharma he has attained, adorns it with the powers of concentration and wisdom. Abiding in the Great Vehicle is the vehicle of principle, the adornment of concentration and wisdom is the accompanying vehicle, and the Dharma attained is the attained vehicle. One can also say that the Buddha himself abiding in the Great Vehicle is the vehicle of principle; knowing at the place of awakening is the accompanying vehicle; and the guide’s skillful teaching is the attained vehicle.

It further says to Śāriputra that the Dharma of three vehicles is taught because of an original vow. This is the attained and accompanying vehicles. It also says that this vehicle is wondrous, pure, and foremost. This is the vehicle of principle. When it says that three are distinguished within the One Buddha-Vehicle, “the One Buddha-Vehicle” is the vehicle of principle, while “distinguished as three” is the attained and accompanying vehicles.

The three vehicles are neither vertical nor horizontal and are therefore wondrous. How the coarse is opened into the wondrous can also be understood according to the preceding meaning, and the stages can be explained accordingly. At the five grades is the vehicle in designation; at purification of the six sense faculties, the vehicle by resemblance; at the forty-one stages, the vehicle through partial realization; and at wondrous awakening, the ultimate vehicle.

7. Integrating the Three Bodies

The track of true nature is the Dharma-body, the track of contemplative illumination is the recompense-body, and the track of supporting accomplishment is the response-body.

The “New Golden Light” says that on the basis of the Dharma-body there can be a recompense-body, and on the basis of the recompense-body there can be a response-body. This is precisely like the preceding explanation that the subtlety of wisdom arises on the basis of the subtlety of objects, and the subtlety of practice arises on the basis of the subtlety of wisdom. Another scripture says that the Buddha’s true Dharma-body is like empty space and appears in response to things like the moon in water. The recompense-body is like the moon in the sky.

The scripture cited by this treatise says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle. This is the body of the true mark, like empty space. It also says that he is adorned by the powers of concentration and wisdom: wisdom is like the moon in the sky, while concentration is like the moon in water. It further says that only a buddha together with a buddha can ultimately exhaust the true mark of all dharmas; this is the Dharma-body. “The wisdom I have attained is wondrous and foremost” is the recompense-body. “His name is universally heard” is the response-body.

Not being born yet manifesting birth and the like belongs to the response-body. Sometimes the Buddha manifests his own body, which is the Dharma-body and recompense-body; sometimes he manifests another’s body, which is the recompense-body and response-body. It is further said: “I adorn my body with marks, light illuminates the ten directions, and I teach the seal of the true mark for sentient beings.” The seal of the true mark is the Dharma-body, illumination of the ten directions is the response-body, and the body adorned with marks is the recompense-body. It is also said that deeply penetrating the characteristics of wrongdoing and merit and universally illuminating the ten directions is the recompense-body; the wondrous and pure Dharma-body is the Dharma-body; and possessing the thirty-two marks is the response-body.

Thus, the three tracks differ only in name and mean the three bodies. The Sūtra on the Practice of Contemplating Bodhisattva Samantabhadra says that the Buddha’s three kinds of body arise from the vaipulya teachings. The Treatise on the Nature of the Dharma Realm uses the simile of mercury combined with true gold, which can coat images of many colors: qualities combined with the Dharma-body can likewise appear responsively everywhere.

When these three bodies are neither vertical nor horizontal, they are wondrous. When the three bodies are decisively understood as all entering the Dharma-body, they are likewise wondrous. The wondrousness of the various stages can also be explained accordingly.

8. Integrating the Three Nirvāṇas

Masters of the Treatise on the Ten Grounds say that there are only two kinds: nirvāṇa of intrinsic purity and nirvāṇa of expedient purity. The true mark is called nirvāṇa of intrinsic purity, while what is accomplished through cultivated causes is called nirvāṇa of expedient purity.

Here, however, originally endowed principle is called nirvāṇa of intrinsic purity, while what is accomplished through cultivated causes is called nirvāṇa of complete purity; this better accords with the meaning. The exhaustion of fuel and extinction of fire is called nirvāṇa of expedient purity, which better accords with the scriptural wording. If what is accomplished through cultivated causes is called nirvāṇa of expedient purity, what kind of nirvāṇa would the exhaustion of fuel and extinction of fire be? Thus, one knows that there should be three kinds of nirvāṇa, and these three nirvāṇas are the three tracks.

The scripture says that this Dharma cannot be shown and the characteristics of words are quiescent and extinct; it also says that all Dharmas from the beginning constantly bear the characteristics of quiescent extinction. This is nirvāṇa of intrinsic purity. It further says that all are made to attain extinction through the Tathāgata’s extinction. This is nirvāṇa of complete purity. It also says that since I became a buddha, an exceedingly long time has passed. This was attained through the long cultivation of karmic practices, with the light of wisdom illuminating immeasurably; it too belongs to nirvāṇa of complete purity.

Repeatedly proclaiming birth, manifesting extinction everywhere, and even attaining extinction on this very night like fire going out when its fuel is spent—how could this not be nirvāṇa of expedient purity?

The title of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is “Great Parinirvāṇa,” translated as great extinction and crossing over. “Great” refers to the breadth of its nature and is explained through intrinsic purity. “Crossing over” means reaching the other shore and the fulfillment of wisdom and is explained through complete purity. “Extinction” means that afflictions are forever exhausted and the virtue of severance accomplished and is explained through expedient purity. These three nirvāṇas are the three tracks.

9. Integrating the Three Jewels in One Substance

The track of true nature is the Dharma Jewel, the track of contemplative illumination is the Buddha Jewel, and the track of supporting accomplishment is the Saṅgha Jewel.

Dharma-nature is unmoving and is not itself called awakening. Buddha-wisdom accords with principle, so Buddha is called awakened. The Saṅgha is called harmonious because there is harmony in phenomena and harmony in principle. The Viseṣacintibrahma-paripṛcchā Sūtra says: knowing awakening is called Buddha, knowing separation is called Dharma, and knowing nothingness is called Saṅgha. These are the Three Jewels in one substance.

A later passage therefore says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle: Buddha is the Buddha Jewel and the Great Vehicle the Dharma Jewel. It also says that according to the Dharma he has attained, he uses it to liberate sentient beings. This means harmony above with principle and harmony below with sentient beings and is therefore the Saṅgha Jewel. “The characteristics of the world constantly abide” is the Dharma Jewel. “Knowing at the place of awakening” is the Buddha Jewel. “The guide teaches through skillful means” means harmony above with principle and harmony below with sentient beings and is the Saṅgha Jewel.

The Three Jewels in one substance are one substance without erasing the three, and three without separating from one another. These three and one are neither vertical nor horizontal and are therefore called wondrous. The stages can also be explained accordingly.

10. Integrating the Three Virtues

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra teaches that the three virtues together accomplish great nirvāṇa; the present scripture teaches that the three tracks together accomplish the Great Vehicle. The former teaches the virtue of Dharma-body, while the present scripture teaches the true mark. The former says that buddha-nature is also one because all sentient beings possess the One Vehicle, which is likewise to point out the true mark as the One Vehicle.

The former teaches the virtue of prajñā. The present scripture says that the Buddha’s gateway of wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. It further says that the wisdom I have attained is wondrous and foremost, continuing through decisively clarifying the Dharma of śrāvakas and being king among the scriptures. All these belong to prajñā.

The former teaches the virtue of liberation. The present scripture says that the Buddha manifests repeatedly, manifesting birth and manifesting extinction wherever sentient beings should be trained. The Buddha himself is free of fetters and also brings others to liberation; he gathers the merits in all wholesome activities and enables sentient beings to realize the fruit. How could this not be liberation?

The meanings of the two scriptures agree, yet dull people who fail to examine them understand them differently merely because the names differ. This is like hearing the name Heavenly Lord and not recognizing that it is Kauśika. They know only the passages on buddha-nature in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra but fail to see that beneath the twin śāla trees there is also the purport of the One Vehicle. That scripture itself says that buddha-nature is also one, and one is the One Vehicle. Yet some say that only the One Vehicle of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is buddha-nature, while the One Vehicle of the Lotus Sutra is not buddha-nature.

If the Lotus Sutra did not reveal buddha-nature, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra should not refer back to eight thousand śrāvakas receiving predictions in the Lotus Sutra, like autumn harvest and winter storage, seeing the Tathāgata’s nature, and having nothing further to do. Some again say that although the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra has this passage referring back, the present scripture does not contain the term buddha-nature.

Now, according to the present scripture, the Buddha says that he has seen all the meanings of the various natures and characteristics. Since it says “various,” why should buddha-nature alone be excluded? The scripture further says that the characteristics of the world constantly abide, that this was known at the place of awakening, and that the guide teaches it through skillful means. Is this not wording concerning buddha-nature? The treatise also speaks of “the water of buddha-nature [and] Never Disparaging,” showing that Never Disparaging knew sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra further takes the three virtues as the secret treasury, saying that the children are placed in the secret treasury and that the Buddha himself will soon enter it. This means that both self and others enter the secret. The present scripture says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and uses it to liberate sentient beings; he will never use the Lesser Vehicle to save sentient beings, but will make them all attain extinction through the Tathāgata’s extinction. This likewise means that self and others both enter the Tathāgata’s extinction. Extinction is nirvāṇa, and nirvāṇa is the secret treasury. The “Commentary Treatise” says that the Lotus Sutra is the secret treasury; the wording and meaning of the two scriptures have always plainly agreed.

Why must people force the two to oppose one another? If wording and meaning truly conflicted, there would still be no fault in understanding them as the same. Here wording and meaning originally agree; what benefit could there be in forcibly separating them? The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra simply takes buddha-nature as its purport without failing to teach the meaning of the One Vehicle, while the present scripture takes the One Vehicle as its purport without failing to teach the meaning of buddha-nature. The teaching differs in response to capacities, while the meaning penetrated remains continuous.

If the three virtues are understood as vertically sequential or horizontally divided, they are coarse. When the three virtues are neither vertical nor horizontal, they are wondrous. The stages can also be explained accordingly.

Seventh Gate: Resolving Questions through the Four Siddhāntas

Someone asks: if the ten sets of three dharmas and all other sets of three dharmas are the three tracks, should one not speak only of the three tracks? Why establish various different names?

Answer: The capacities and needs of sentient beings differ. Teachings should therefore be established according to capacities so that they precisely meet them. These are simply the skillful means of the four siddhāntas used to draw in sentient beings. The teaching differs in accord with worldly usage; it differs in accord with what is suitable for each; it differs according to what each must counteract; and it differs in order to bring sentient beings into the Buddha-path.

Giving three in the morning and four at night pacifies the monkeys and makes them all happy. A mother smears something bitter on her breast, then after the medicine has taken effect washes it clean with water and calls the infant to nurse; in this way she cares for the infant in accord with the right time. Skillful means respond to capacities, taking square or round form entirely according to what receives them. It is like a thousand carts traveling in the same track. How could one rigidly cling to a single name and doubt all the others?

The four siddhāntas are now applied throughout the ten sets of three dharmas to judge wondrous and not-wondrous. A complete teaching of the three tracks together accomplishes the Great Vehicle. Within the Great Vehicle, the three dharmas and all Dharmas are fully present without being confused with one another; this is the worldly siddhānta. Supporting accomplishment supports the arising of wisdom and causes wholesome Dharmas to arise; this is the individually adapted siddhānta. Contemplative illumination breaks delusion and causes the various evils to be extinguished; this is the counteractive siddhānta. True nature is real principle; this is the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. One class of sentient beings is suited to hearing the name Great Vehicle and thereby obtains the four benefits.

A complete teaching of the three virtues together accomplishes great nirvāṇa. Although the three dots may be drawn one above another, they are not vertically ordered before and after; they may also be described as inner and outer, yet are not horizontally divided. One is not confused with the three, and the three do not leave the one substance; this is the worldly siddhānta. Wholesome benefit arises, calamity and the burden of wrongdoing cannot invade, and one therefore stands free beyond fetters; thus liberation is the individually adapted siddhānta. Prajñā is like a vajra, shattering whatever it strikes; this is the counteractive siddhānta. The Dharma-body is the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. One class of sentient beings hears the name three virtues and thereby obtains the four benefits. Here the first set, the three tracks, and the last, the three virtues, are presented; the intervening eight sets can be understood by analogy.

Next, wondrous and not-wondrous are distinguished. The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom says that the first three siddhāntas are conventional truth and are where the mind can operate; they can be broken and destroyed. The siddhānta of ultimate meaning is where the mind cannot operate, the Dharma attained by the minds of buddhas and noble ones; it cannot be broken and destroyed and is true truth.

If so, the four siddhāntas are encompassed by the conventional and true Two Truths. Yet there is also the Middle Way—where would it be included? If the Middle is not included, this is only the meaning of the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings, and such siddhāntas are coarse.

Here conventional truth is said to be existence and true truth nonexistence. When existence and nonexistence remain separate, they are precisely the first three siddhāntas where the mind can operate and which can be destroyed. The Middle Way as ultimate meaning is neither existence nor nonexistence. When existence and nonexistence are nondual, there is no separation; only where there is no difference is there true truth. The first three siddhāntas reach only the conjured city. The conjured city is not real and can therefore be destroyed; what can be destroyed is coarse. Here the Middle Way is without difference and reaches all the way to the treasure-place. Nothing can surpass it and nothing can extinguish it, so it cannot be destroyed and is called wondrous.

If other scriptures also teach the Middle Way as the siddhānta of ultimate meaning, they do not differ from the present scripture. They are not called wondrous only because they also carry what arhats attain as the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. The present scripture directly casts aside skillful means and contains only the perfect and real four siddhāntas; it is therefore wondrous.

If one cannot decisively understand that each of the first three siddhāntas enters the siddhānta of ultimate meaning, they remain coarse. If one decisively understands that each siddhānta itself possesses ultimate meaning, it is wondrous.

Disciples of the five grades possess the four siddhāntas in designation. Those at purification of the six sense faculties possess the four siddhāntas by resemblance. Those from the first abode through equal awakening possess the four siddhāntas through partial realization. At wondrous awakening are the ultimate four siddhāntas. They are therefore called wondrous.

The preceding five treatments have clarified the half concerning the wondrousness of self-practice within the ten subtleties, from cause through fruit. At this point, the work’s structure of the half wish-fulfilling jewel is complete.

Question: If true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment are only one Great Vehicle Dharma, why not speak directly of one Dharma instead of establishing three names?

Answer: If one speaks only of one, reality can easily be understood as an isolated substance without function. If one speaks only of three, the three can easily be placed in a sequence or set side by side. The subtlety of the three dharmas lies precisely in the fact that three are not fixed as three, while one is not fixed as one. When three are spoken, they have not departed from one; when one is spoken, the three have not been erased.

This section therefore does not add three components to the Great Vehicle. It explains how the Dharma in which wondrous stages abide becomes a normative track: true nature is the real principle relied upon, contemplative illumination is quiescent yet constantly illuminating, and supporting accomplishment contains the multitude of practices. The three cannot be taken singly, nor can they be fused into an undifferentiated mass. They are neither three objects placed alongside one another nor three steps that arise successively.

One Dot, Three Dots; One Eye, Three Eyes

The three dharmas are like the three dots of the siddham letter i, and like three eyes seeing together on one face. The three dots occupy distinct positions yet together form the letter; the three eyes can be discussed separately yet belong to one face. Neither simile permits the three to be piled into one dot, nor does either permit them to be split into three unrelated objects.

Ultimate truth, the emptiness of ultimate meaning, and the tathāgata-garbha are likewise three names for one Dharma. Ultimate truth discloses that all sentient beings alike possess the One Vehicle. The tathāgata-garbha discloses that various enumerated dharmas can be opened from within it. The emptiness of ultimate meaning discloses that enumerated and non-enumerated dharmas cannot be fixed. Each aspect is emphatically qualified as “also,” not out of hesitation, but so that no one name may monopolize the whole.

This also answers the question that immediately follows: were objects, wisdom, practice, and stages not already explained? Why are they stated again under the subtlety of the three dharmas?

The objects, wisdom, and practice previously discussed are the three tracks ridden in the causal stage. Here they are viewed from the fruit-stage of the Great Vehicle, as what is realized and abided in after reaching the place of awakening. Previously the distinct names objects, wisdom, and practice were used; here they are gathered together as three dharmas. Previously their individual characteristics were explained separately without being connected from beginning to end; here the account extends from the originally endowed three tracks of nature-virtue to the secret treasury accomplished through cultivation. From designation one passes to contemplative practice, from contemplative practice to resemblance, from resemblance to partial realization, and finally to the ultimate. One both accomplishes the three dharmas oneself and uses them to transform others. Repetition here is not repetition of words. It is a change to a vantage point from which the whole course can be seen.

Zhiyi’s teaching has now fully stated the three reasons for repeating the subject. The recorder then adds a private explanation: one statement is immediately three statements, and three statements are immediately one. He further uses the three statements to explain separately how skillful means open from the complete One Vehicle. Keeping this change of voice clear lets one see both the lecturer’s main line and the recorder’s elaboration without merging two speakers into one passage of self-explanation.

From Where Are Skillful Means Opened, and Where Are They Gathered Back?

Before explaining the three dharmas one by one, opening and combining must first be understood. The Buddha does not find several smaller Dharmas outside the One Vehicle and then carry them in. From the phenomena encompassed by the tathāgata-garbha, he opens the different vehicles of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas according to what sentient beings can bear. Because these are all skillful means, they remain encompassed by the Great Vehicle. Whether three, five, seven, or nine vehicles are distinguished, none has departed from the One Buddha-Vehicle.

The Tripiṭaka Teaching takes wisdom as contemplative illumination, qualities that assist the path as supporting accomplishment, and the truth seen by severing delusion as true nature. The teaching can carry a person out of the three realms. Once the realization is reached, the carrying work of words comes to an end; the truth realized does not itself continue to carry. Practitioners therefore still wish to seek the great cart.

The Shared Teaching sees principle directly within phenomena. It takes true nature as the substance of the vehicle, wisdom that sees immediate emptiness as contemplative illumination, and the various practices as supporting accomplishment. Its teaching likewise carries a person beyond the realms, and the bodhisattva further uses practice to purify buddha-lands and transform sentient beings. Yet when the abiding place is reached, the teaching withdraws and the meaning of transport becomes quiescent in realization.

The Distinct Teaching uses the wisdom of contemplative illumination to break delusion and reveal principle, with the various practices supporting that wisdom. The problem arises when principle is described as originally present before the path, while wisdom that accords with suchness and what is attained through perfuming are arranged afterward. The three then stand vertically in sequence. If seeds, wisdom, and suchness are in addition gathered into separate consciousnesses, the three become horizontally divided. Such an account may serve as a provisional means for a time, but it cannot be grasped as ultimate.

What Zhiyi rebukes here is not the study of scriptures and treatises, but grasping new words before loosening old attachments. When old views and conceit remain unsubdued and one rigidly holds that ālaya-consciousness produces all Dharmas, it is like adding water to long-standing ice and making the layer of ice still thicker. Even if what is taught is real, attachment to it becomes a view made of words, like feeding an infant too much ghee and endangering its life. To understand establishment and refutation well is to know that emptiness washes away attachment while distinctions respond to capacities. Once an illness has been cured, food can be eaten, but the food must still be digested; neither medicine nor food should be made into a new enclosure.

The Perfect Teaching points out three aspects within true nature itself. True nature is neither false nor changing and is the body of the cart. True nature, quiescent yet constantly illuminating, is called contemplative illumination. The Dharma realm of true nature, containing immeasurable practices, is called supporting accomplishment. It is like speaking of the jewel, its radiance, and its treasure within a wish-fulfilling jewel: radiance and treasure are not identical to the jewel, yet neither exists somewhere apart from it.

The Three Obstructions Do Not Stand Outside the Three Tracks

When the three dharmas are lost in delusion, they appear as three obstructions. Dust-and-sand delusions obscure the tathāgata-garbha, delusions of views and thought obscure the emptiness of ultimate meaning, and fundamental ignorance obscures the principle of ultimate meaning. If obstructions are imagined as hard shells covering reality from outside, practice becomes a matter of first moving one thing away and then acquiring another. The treatise, however, repeatedly says that realization occurs “right within” them.

When immeasurable Dharma gates are penetrated right within dust-and-sand delusions, supporting accomplishment is revealed. When the emptiness of ultimate meaning is penetrated right within delusions of views and thought, contemplative illumination is revealed. When ultimate truth is penetrated right within ignorance, true nature is revealed. An obstruction is not proclaimed to be another eternal entity, nor are the three tracks brought from somewhere far away. In delusion they are called obstructions; in penetration they are called tracks.

When true nature is revealed, it is called Dharma-body. When contemplative illumination is revealed, it is called prajñā. When supporting accomplishment is revealed, it is called liberation. Prajñā and liberation are like the adornment of the Dharma-body by concentration and wisdom: the Dharma-body is the body of the cart, and concentration and wisdom are its equipment. When the cart is high and broad and adorned with many jewels, there was not first an empty vehicle onto which unrelated decorations were hung. The body of the cart and its equipment together accomplish the great vehicle that can be ridden.

When a practitioner rides the cart and arrives, does the cart therefore disappear? In one’s own practice, the carrying has been completed, so the vehicle’s function may temporarily cease. In transforming others, sentient beings must still be carried, so that function does not cease. Even after a driver brings a cart to its destination, the implement is still called a cart. The Buddha abides in the Great Vehicle and continues to adorn the Dharma he has attained with the powers of concentration and wisdom, using it to liberate sentient beings.

At a deeper level, a vehicle need not be explained solely through “transport.” True nature neither moves nor emerges, so it cannot be said only to transport, yet neither can it be said to be wholly without transport. Contemplative illumination and supporting accomplishment can move and emerge, and so are called transport. Yet function does not leave substance: moving and emerging do not depart from not moving and not emerging. Substance likewise does not leave function: not moving and not emerging are immediately able to move and emerge. Setting forth and not setting forth can both be called a vehicle within this nonduality of substance and function.

Coarse and Wondrous: Not Throwing Away an Old Cart for a New One

When coarse and wondrous are judged, the three dharmas of the Tripiṭaka, Shared, and Distinct Teachings each have a carrying function, yet still retain partial truth, temporal sequence, or horizontal division. The wondrousness of the Perfect Teaching does not merely add a higher destination. It no longer arranges the true mark, emptiness, and treasury in different positions.

When the true mark is pointed out as the emptiness of ultimate meaning, emptiness does not thereby become a vertical sequence. When the true mark is pointed out as the tathāgata-garbha, the treasury does not thereby become a horizontal division. The true mark is emptiness, and emptiness is the treasury; the three turn and are identical with one another. Only when they cannot be conceived vertically or horizontally are they called inconceivable.

The image of the great cart unfolds this point. The tathāgata-garbha is spoken of as broad, so the body of the cart is vast, adorned with many jewels, and attended by servants. The emptiness of ultimate meaning is spoken of as high, so there is a great white ox, strong and powerful, walking evenly and running like the wind. White means unstained, power means able to break delusion, evenness means the wisdom of the Middle Way, and swiftness like the wind means entry into effortless practice. The body of the cart, its adornments, and the white ox are not three carts. The three dharmas together make one great cart.

Opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous likewise does not destroy the various skillful means. The old and young in a household originally do not know that their home contains treasure. Now they are simply shown the treasure already present, the weeds are cleared, and the hidden gold is revealed. The phenomenal good and partial truth practiced in the three, five, and seven vehicles are coarse when grasped as final destinations. When they are decisively understood as immediately being the tathāgata-garbha, the original Dharmas need not be altered in order to enter the wondrous.

This opening and revelation also releases attachment to what is enumerated and what is not enumerated. If one insists that a particular cultivated wisdom must reveal a principle outside itself, wisdom and principle become separated. Here wisdom itself is principle and principle itself is wisdom; neither three and one nor neither-three-nor-one is fixed as an answer. Such unattached wondrous wisdom is like a wheel-turning king who both quells disorder and settles the people, like the sun that both dispels darkness and nourishes living things, and like a physician who both removes a film from the eye and cares for the eyeball. Breaking does not leave behind a wasteland; it lets an originally present function become fully manifest.

The Beginning Is Not Far Away: It Is in an Ordinary Person’s Single Thought

If the three dharmas exist only at the fruit-stage, from where could an ordinary person begin? The treatise does not take the teaching-vehicle of the five grades as the beginning. It begins with one thought of an ordinary person. That thought possesses the ten Dharma realms, and each realm possesses the ten suchnesses; the ten suchnesses can in turn be read through the tracks of true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment.

Such-a-substance belongs to true nature. Such-a-nature, spoken from within, and such-a-mark, spoken from without, belong respectively to contemplative illumination and supporting accomplishment. Such-a-power, such-a-cause, and such-a-fruit belong to contemplative illumination; such-a-function, such-a-condition, and such-a-recompense belong to supporting accomplishment. Such-a-consummation-of-beginning-and-end can further be penetrated through the three aspects of emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle. This does not forcibly pack ten items into separate boxes. It shows how the ten suchnesses of one realm simultaneously possess what is relied upon, what illuminates, and what assists accomplishment.

Moving from one realm to the ten realms in one thought, every realm possesses the nature and characteristics of affliction, evil karma, and the path of suffering. The beginning of the three dharmas, surprisingly, is not first to leave these three paths, but to see clearly their nature and characteristics right where they are.

Ignorance arises through delusion about illumination. If ignorance is understood, it is immediately illumination. Illumination does not exist outside ignorance, just as ice is water and water is ice. This does not say that delusion and awakening are indistinguishable. It says that transforming delusion requires no other material: when ice melts, water is revealed, and what is transformed is not separate from what appears.

The nature and characteristics of evil are likewise the nature and characteristics of good. It is because there is evil that there is good capable of transformation; if good is sought apart from evil, supporting accomplishment loses what it supports. Bamboo has the potential for fire, but before conditions make actual fire it possesses that potential without burning. Once fire arises, it turns back and burns the bamboo. Good within evil is the same: before conditions meet it has not yet become an event, but once a wholesome deed is accomplished it turns back to break evil.

The path of suffering and the Dharma-body are not two objects located north and south. Mistaking south for north does not mean the actual south has moved away. When the direction is understood, the mistaken north is released right where it is. When consciousness, name-and-form, and the other elements of suffering are misconstrued, birth-and-death expands without bound. When birth-and-death is awakened to, it is immediately the Dharma-body; the path of suffering is not discarded so that another Dharma-body may be taken up.

Thus, all who have mind inherently possess the nature and characteristics of the three paths, which are immediately the nature and characteristics of the three tracks. When the aspiration for bodhi arises, the three dharmas begin to stir. The cause of contemplative illumination gradually brings the fruit of prajñā to fulfillment; the condition of supporting accomplishment gradually brings the recompense-fruit of liberation to fulfillment; and the Dharma-body is fulfilled together with fruit and recompense. Concealed, the three are neither vertical nor horizontal; manifest, they remain neither vertical nor horizontal. What changes from beginning to end is delusion and awakening, concealment and manifestation—not the sudden production of the three dharmas from nothing.

Ten Sets of Names, One Road

The preceding account extends vertically from original endowment to the ultimate. Next the three tracks are used to connect horizontally ten sets of three dharmas. Their names differ in response to causes and capacities, yet their purport can be mutually understood. The ten sets are not ten unrelated charts. Together they form one road beginning in the round of birth-and-death and ending when the conditions for transformation are exhausted and one abides in the secret treasury.

First are the three paths. The path of suffering corresponds to true nature, the path of affliction to contemplative illumination, and the path of karma to supporting accomplishment. Fire arises from fuel and then burns it; delusion is precisely what contemplative illumination illuminates, while evil karma can itself become a condition assisting patience, transformation, and nonretrogression. To “practice in what is not the path and penetrate the Buddha-path” does not praise evil action. It refuses to banish any part of life forever from the Buddha-path.

Second are the three consciousnesses. Amala-, ālaya-, and ādāna-consciousness correspond respectively to true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment. The treatise master does not understand them as three mutually exclusive entities like water and fire, but uses the near simile of one person giving rise to a wholesome, unwholesome, or karmically indeterminate mind. When the seeds of birth-and-death in ālaya are perfumed and grow, discrimination arises; when seeds of wisdom grow through the perfuming of hearing, the basis is transformed and it is called pure consciousness. The simile of gold, earth, defilement, and purity shows that defiled and pure differ without their basis being severed.

The jewel-in-the-robe simile brings this relation still closer. Lying drunk is like consciousness obscured in delusion. Wandering in confusion and seeking food and clothing are like discriminative activity. A close friend pointing out the jewel in the robe is like the gradual revelation of the light of nondiscriminating wisdom. The jewel was not sewn into the robe later, yet the perfuming of hearing allows the treasure that had not been used to be seen and employed.

The third through sixth sets move from inherent causes toward wisdom, aspiration, and practice. The three buddha-natures as direct cause, understanding cause, and conditioning cause correspond to true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment. The prajñās of the true mark, contemplative illumination, and written words likewise correspond to the three tracks. The bodhis of the true mark, real wisdom, and skillful means gather both the Buddha’s and disciples’ conditions for awakening. The vehicles of principle, accompaniment, and attainment respectively state the principle in which one abides, the concentration and wisdom that accord with it, and what is realized and attained. Every set preserves three functions without assigning them to three mutually isolated people.

Seventh are the three bodies. The Dharma-body is like empty space, the recompense-body like the moon in the sky, and the response-body like the moon in water. Another simile says that mercury combined with true gold can coat images of many colors; in the same way, qualities combined with the Dharma-body can appear responsively everywhere. Dharma-, recompense-, and response-body are not three distant stages running from substance to image. Within one body they display unmoving substance, the adornment of wisdom, and appearance according to capacities.

Eighth are the three nirvāṇas. Intrinsic purity is spoken from the breadth of original endowment. Complete purity is spoken from the fulfillment of cultivated causes and wisdom’s arrival at the other shore. Expedient purity is spoken from the final exhaustion of affliction, like fire going out when its fuel is spent. If only the first two are established, there is nowhere to place the exhaustion of fuel and extinction of fire. Establishing three allows “great,” “extinction,” and “crossing over” each to have its place while together forming one great parinirvāṇa.

Ninth are the Three Jewels in one substance. True nature corresponds to the Dharma Jewel, contemplative illumination to the Buddha Jewel, and supporting accomplishment to the Saṅgha Jewel. Dharma-nature is unmoving, Buddha-wisdom awakens to principle, and the Saṅgha harmonizes in both phenomena and principle. One substance does not erase the three functions, and the Three Jewels do not depart from the one substance; thus they are neither vertical nor horizontal.

Tenth are the three virtues. Dharma-body, prajñā, and liberation together constitute great nirvāṇa, just as the true mark, wisdom, and the various benefits together constitute the Great Vehicle. Although one scripture takes buddha-nature as its purport and the other the One Vehicle, this does not mean that the first has buddha-nature but no One Vehicle, or that the second has a One Vehicle but no buddha-nature. Names in the teaching can differ in response to capacities. Its purport remains continuous in bringing both buddhas and sentient beings into the secret and enabling both to attain extinction.

From the three paths to the three virtues, saṃsāra has not been cut off from the road, nor has realization become another set of three dharmas unrelated to the initial aspiration. The three paths extend through principle, contemplative practice, resemblance, partial realization, and the ultimate. The three bodhis extend through principle, designation, resemblance, partial realization, and the ultimate. Stages differ in depth, but the substance of the three dharmas is never absent from beginning to end.

If the Names Differ, Why Are They Not Unrelated Teachings?

The final question is direct: if the ten sets of three dharmas and all the rest are the three tracks, why not always speak only of the three tracks?

The answer lies not in the names themselves but in those who hear. Some must first establish a world through distinctions they can understand; some must make existing wholesome roots grow; some must use the corresponding Dharma-medicine to break an evil illness; and some can directly enter ultimate meaning. Because the four benefits of according with worldly usage, according with what is suitable, counteracting, and entering the path differ, the names in the teaching also differ.

Giving three in the morning and four at night adjusts numbers as appropriate so that all the monkeys are pleased. A mother first smears something bitter on her breast; when the medicine has taken effect, she washes the breast clean and nurses her child at the right time. A square vessel receives a square shape and a round vessel a round shape, entirely according to what receives. A thousand carts may differ in construction while following the same track. Difference among skillful means does not mean their aims conflict.

In terms of the three tracks, the three dharmas remain unmixed, which is the worldly siddhānta. Supporting accomplishment makes wisdom arise and wholesome dharmas grow, which is the individually adapted siddhānta. Contemplative illumination breaks delusion and removes evil, which is the counteractive siddhānta. True nature as real principle is the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. In terms of the three virtues, one and three remain neither confused nor separate, which is the worldly siddhānta. Liberation brings wholesome benefit to accomplishment while wrongdoing and its burdens do not interfere, which is the individually adapted siddhānta. Prajñā is like a vajra, shattering whatever it faces, which is the counteractive siddhānta. The Dharma-body is ultimate meaning. The first and last are explained in this way; the intervening eight sets are understood by analogy.

The distinction between coarse and wondrous therefore does not mean that the first three benefits are invariably coarse and the last invariably wondrous. If conventional existence and true nonexistence remain forever separated, they reach only a conjured city that can be abandoned. If existence and nonexistence are nondual and the Middle Way is without division, every siddhānta contains ultimate meaning and can reach the indestructible treasure-place. The five grades possess the four siddhāntas in designation, purification of the six sense faculties possesses them in resemblance, the first abode through equal awakening possesses them in partial realization, and wondrous awakening possesses them ultimately. Names and stages unfold according to capacities, yet finally return to the One Vehicle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.

This section has now completed the wondrousness of self-practice from cause to fruit. The “half wish-fulfilling jewel” does not mean that half of a damaged truth has been obtained. It means that the work has completed the half concerning the cause and fruit of self-practice, while the other aspect still awaits development later in the text.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

In the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian, Zhanran first illuminates the seven gates as a directed sequence. The general explanation is the one wondrous without differentiation. Because the capacities of sentient beings are not pure, the specific opens from the general. Once the teaching gates differ, coarse and wondrous must be judged; the purpose of judgment lies in opening. Only after opening reveals pure wondrousness can beginning and end be explained. Because the wondrous tracks universally encompass, the corresponding sets are then integrated; finally the siddhāntas comprehensively resolve the preceding meanings. Seen in this light, the seven gates are not seven essays accidentally placed together. Each step answers the question left by the one before it.

The mirror also marks the layers of transmission with particular care. The three reasons for repeating the subject belong to Zhiyi’s main teaching. What follows “I privately say” is an appended statement by Zhang’an Guanding, added when the record was revised and finalized, since only then could it refer back to text already present in the record. This distinction does not weaken the appended statement’s value. It clarifies its work: the lecture first explains repetition through beginning and end, cause and fruit, and self and others; the recorder then uses “one statement is three statements” to explain how each of the three statements opens skillful means while all emerge from the perfect.

In distinguishing the Four Teachings, the mirror separates the vehicle-body of each passage strictly. The Tripiṭaka and Distinct Teachings take wisdom as body, while the Shared and Perfect Teachings take true nature as body. The Perfect Teaching first briefly explains the three dharmas, then the three obstructions, and then gathers them as the three virtues by revealing the tracks through breaking the obstructions. This sequence prevents the Perfect Teaching’s correspondences from being projected backward onto the preceding three teachings, and prevents the three obstructions, revealed tracks, and three virtues from being compressed into an abstract statement that “affliction itself is bodhi.”

For the long passage on the Distinct Teaching, Zhanran judges that it first correctly explains the three tracks, next cites another account in order to distinguish what is wrong, and finally concludes by showing the meaning. What the treatise master criticizes is the deluded claim that ālaya-consciousness produces all Dharmas before attachment has been removed. He does not dismiss every related scripture and treatise without distinction. Zhanran further judges that forming views even on the basis of reality still damages the life of wisdom. When he reaches the Perfect Teaching, he illuminates transport that is nontransport through “true nature remains unmoving from beginning to end and serves as the cart’s body”: self-practice arrives, transforming others continues to move, and the cart’s body and equipment cannot replace one another.

The mirror further distinguishes the cart’s body from its equipment. The cart’s body is explained in terms of inherent principle; the many jewels and white ox in terms of cultivated virtue. The two are immediately identical, yet completeness of adornment cannot be allowed to obscure the cart’s body, nor can guarding the cart’s body justify omitting what enables it to transport. The moon simile for the three bodies works in the same way: the moon in the sky represents the recompense-body for one’s own enjoyment, while the moon in water appears according to the many bodies of water and represents the response-body. The many reflections do not split the original moon.

The mirror also keeps judgment and opening at their distinct tasks. Judging coarse and wondrous proceeds first through the Four Teachings and then through the five flavors. Opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous uses the three statements on buddha-nature to illuminate the objects opened. “Their house” is explained as the five aggregates: neither old nor young in the house knows its treasure. Opening therefore does not create a new buddha-nature, but makes the originally present treasury of awakening that was formerly covered become manifest now. The gate on beginning and end first treats the ten suchnesses of one realm generally, then gathers them within the ten realms in an ordinary person’s single thought. If the three dharmas were wholly absent at the ordinary stage, there would be nothing to open; beginning and end therefore cannot be counted only from midway through cultivation.

The ten sets of three dharmas are gathered in the mirror as one chain from beginning to end. They begin with the deepest delusion of sentient beings being transformed and end when the transforming one’s conditions for transformation are exhausted and entry into extinction occurs. Each set can further pass through the six levels of principle, designation, contemplative practice, resemblance, partial realization, and the ultimate. This prevents two misreadings: reducing the ten sets to a chart of corresponding terms, and inventing item-by-item numerical correspondences not stated in the treatise merely for the sake of neatness. Although the names are many, the text reveals only the cause and fruit of the same vehicle.

In resolving through the siddhāntas, Zhanran notes that the main text explains in detail only the first set, the three tracks, and the last, the three virtues; the intervening eight are understood by analogy. Opening the coarse still follows judgment of the coarse. If the first three siddhāntas are permanently judged destructible, one has still not seen the text’s teaching that each siddhānta can possess ultimate meaning. Here all four siddhāntas must be read from the inconceivable, so that gates responding to capacities are not sealed into fixed ranks.

The mirror also fixes the meaning of the final “half wish-fulfilling jewel.” The ten dharmas together accomplish the Dharma of the wish-fulfilling jewel, and the subtlety of the three dharmas occupies the fifth place among the first ten subtleties. The cause and fruit of self-practice have now been completed, but the aspect of transforming others has not yet unfolded, and so it is called half a jewel. “Half” does not mean that the truth taught is deficient. It is a marker in the course of the entire Fahua Xuanyi: one half has been completely gathered, and the next half will turn from self-practice toward transforming others.