妙法蓮華經玄義 感應妙神通妙

If no auspicious sign has been seen, does it still count as stimulus and response? Yes. What is visible before one’s eyes is only one form of stimulus and response.

Someone planted wholesome roots in the past and, before voicing any request in the present life, already receives benefit from the Buddha in secret. Someone’s past stimulus has matured, and in this life one suddenly encounters the Buddha and hears the Dharma. Someone now practices prostration and repentance diligently and sees an auspicious sign at once. Someone else labors throughout a lifetime without seeing any outward sign, yet wholesome roots are already growing in what remains hidden. Hidden stimulus and manifest stimulus, hidden response and manifest response, form four combinations precisely in order to separate “not seeing” from “there being no response.”

The real question is not whether the Buddha possesses kindness and compassion, but whether the stimulus has matured. The sick can all summon a physician, yet some recover and others do not recover for the time being. Lotus blossoms may already have grown, be just beginning to grow, or not yet have grown; all must meet sunlight before they can open. Sentient beings in whom good and evil are carried together always have some point from which growth can begin. Response may be near or distant, and benefit may likewise be manifest or hidden.

Stimulus and response are also not one side calling out and the other passively answering. Stimulus has the meanings subtle incipience, junction, and suitability: a wholesome root subtly begins to move, suffering and happiness stand in relation to kindness and compassion, and the Dharma needed in each case has its own suitability. Response has the meanings going forth, corresponding, and responding: the noble one goes forth to the stimulus, the two sides correspond, and then an appropriate Dharma removes suffering and gives happiness. It is like a crossbow that already possesses a trigger ready to be released: only when the archer pulls it does the arrow advance. Benefit is accomplished when conditions on both sides meet.

What, then, is supernormal power? It is not a display of the extraordinary. It enables going forth to a stimulus to become actual teaching through body, speech, and mind. The body of the King of Medicine Trees breaks evil, while the body of the king of wish-fulfilling jewels engenders good. The poison drum proclaims a Dharma that breaks evil, while the heavenly drum proclaims a Dharma that engenders good. Whatever body is manifested and whatever Dharma is taught are governed by the wheel of mind that knows the stimulus.

Intentional transformation is like laboriously drawing a picture; spontaneously going forth to a stimulus is like a bright mirror presenting an image. The mirror does not select the comely and reject the ugly: when a form comes, its image appears. The moon does not descend and the water does not rise, yet a hundred waters reflect the moon at the same time. Wondrousness lies not in the number of transformations or the distance illuminated, but in never losing sight of a single sentient being even though no private intention is involved.

The heart-essence of stimulus-and-response and supernormal power can therefore be gathered into one sentence: when nothing is seen, do not treat one’s practice lightly; when something is seen, do not cling greedily to auspicious signs. Ask only whether one’s good is coming into being and one’s evil is turning, and let every lowering of the head and raising of a hand become a stimulus to which response can go forth.

The Fruit Is Complete, Yet Every Stimulus Necessarily Meets a Response

The sixth topic is the subtlety of stimulus and response. The four subtleties already explained—objects, wisdom, practice, and stages—are called the complete cause, while the secret treasury of the three dharmas is called the complete fruit. When the subtlety of objects is revealed ultimately, it is named Vairocana. When the subtlety of wisdom is complete ultimately, it is named Rocana. When the subtlety of practice is complete ultimately, it is named Śākyamuni. The three buddhas are neither one nor different. They are neither a vertical relation of before and after nor a horizontal relation of parallel things, and are therefore called the wondrous fruit.

The Explanatory Treatise says, “I bow to the Buddha of Wisdom’s Perfection who has no son.” At the fruit-stage, completeness has reached its utmost and is no longer the causal stage; hence the words “has no son.” Fruitional wisdom is quiescent and able to illuminate. Whenever sentient beings provide a stimulus, its response must become manifest. The subtlety of stimulus and response is therefore explained next.

The subtlety of stimulus and response has six divisions: first, explaining the names stimulus and response; second, clarifying the characteristics of stimulus and response; third, clarifying the various differences among stimuli and responses; fourth, clarifying how stimulus and response are correlated; fifth, judging coarse and wondrous; and sixth, clarifying contemplation of mind.

The first division, explaining the names, itself has three levels: first directly explaining the names, then explaining them in correlation with the four siddhāntas, and finally analyzing them through questions and answers.

The Three Meanings of Stimulus: Subtle Incipience, Junction, and Suitability

The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra says that the Buddha broadly teaches the scriptural Dharma in innumerable worlds and that such is the stimulus and response involved in what the World-Honored One does. “Stimulus and response” is therefore taken as the present name. What the scriptures call stimulus and condition are different names for the side of sentient beings that stimulates. For the time being the explanation proceeds from stimulus because its meaning is easier to see; condition and stimulating can be understood by analogy.

Stimulus has three meanings.

First, stimulus means subtle incipience (微). The Changes says that the trigger is the subtle beginning of movement, the first appearance of an auspicious event. An Āgama says that when sentient beings possess a stimulus of wholesome Dharma, the noble one comes to respond. Within a sentient being is good about to arise. At the extremely subtle point when it has only begun to move, it can be called stimulus. If only good about to arise were called stimulus, the scope would be narrow. The present account includes all good capable of arising and is therefore broader.

A crossbow, for example, possesses a trigger that can be released, and so an archer can pull it. When it is pulled, the arrow advances; when it is not pulled, the arrow does not advance. Sentient beings possess good capable of arising. When the noble one responds, that good arises; when the noble one does not respond, it does not arise. In this sense, stimulus means subtle incipience.

Second, the Old Commentary on the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says that stimulus means junction (關). Why? Sentient beings possess both good and evil, and both stand in relation to the kindness and compassion of the noble one. Stimulus is therefore junction.

Third, stimulus means suitability (宜). If sentient beings are to have the suffering of ignorance removed, compassion is precisely suitable. If they are to obtain the happiness of Dharma-nature, kindness is precisely suitable. Stimulus therefore has the meaning of suitability.

The Three Meanings of Response: Going Forth, Corresponding, and Responding

Response likewise has three meanings.

First, response means going forth (赴). Since the stimulus in sentient beings contains the principle of good capable of arising, when that stimulus is just beginning subtly to move, the noble one goes forth to it and enables the good to arise. Response is therefore explained as going forth.

Second, response means corresponding (對). It is like two people conducting a transaction and making a decision in relation to one another. If one wishes to sell and the other does not wish to buy, they cannot correspond. If buyer and seller are of one mind, the transaction can be completed, and neither regrets whether the price was high or low. Here the sentient being represents the buyer and the Tathāgata the seller. From the side of the sentient being’s stimulus there is junction; from the side of the noble one’s response there is correspondence. Response is therefore explained as corresponding.

Third, response means responding to what is suitable (應). Since stimulus means suitability, what Dharma is ultimately suitable? Sentient beings’ stimuli of good and evil are suitable for a response through the Dharma of kindness and compassion. Compassion is suitable for rescuing them from suffering, and kindness is suitable for giving them happiness. Whatever Dharma is suitable to sentient beings is used in response. Response is therefore explained as responding to what is suitable.

Correlating Stimulus and Response with the Four Siddhāntas

The three meanings of stimulus and the three meanings of response already contain the meanings of the four siddhāntas.

Explaining stimulus as subtle incipience and response as going forth means going forth to the minds of sentient beings in accordance with their wishes. Not only good capable of arising in the mind is called a wish. Although grasses and trees have no mind, they can be said to be able to grow, to wish to grow, and to be about to grow. The noble one’s going forth to this good capable of arising is therefore precisely an accordance with wishes. This explains stimulus and response through the worldly siddhānta.

Explaining stimulus as junction and response as corresponding means the two sides correspond: compassion corresponds to sentient beings’ stimulus of suffering, and kindness to their stimulus of good. This explains stimulus and response according to the counteractive siddhānta.

Explaining stimulus as suitability and response as responding includes the individually adapted siddhānta and the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. These Dharmas should go forth to sentient beings’ stimuli because Dharma and stimulus suit one another. What is suitable for producing phenomenal good belongs to the individually adapted siddhānta; what is suitable for producing the good of principle belongs to the siddhānta of ultimate meaning.

Three Rounds of Analysis

Someone asks: Why is the arising of the good of principle called the siddhānta of ultimate meaning?

The answer is that once the good of principle becomes clear, ignorance in principle necessarily ceases. It never waits for some supposed evil in principle to cease before the good of principle begins to arise. The good of principle can therefore be called the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. When phenomenal good arises, phenomenal evil has not necessarily been removed; when phenomenal evil is removed, phenomenal good does not necessarily arise at once. Phenomena remain distinct from one another. The counteractive siddhānta is precisely medicine corresponding to illness, and therefore the siddhānta of ultimate meaning is not opened separately on that level.

Another question is asked: sentient beings are stimulus and the noble person is response. Are they ultimately the same or different? If the same, they could not be divided into stimulus and response. If different, how could they stand in relation and be discussed as stimulus and response?

The answer is that stimulus and response are neither one nor different. In principle, sentient beings and the Buddha alike possess suchness and are therefore not different. Phenomenally, there are sentient beings’ stimulus and the noble one’s response, and so they are not one. It is like the natural relation between father and son. The child’s body of flesh and bone is received from the parents, and so complete difference cannot be established. Yet if they were completely the same, the father would be the son and the son the father, which likewise cannot be established. Precisely because they are neither one nor different can father and son be spoken of.

Sentient beings’ nature of principle does not differ from the Buddha’s and is therefore not different. The nature of principle in sentient beings is hidden and unmanifest, while that of the Tathāgata is manifest and clear, and so they are not one. Precisely because they are neither one nor different can stimulus and response be discussed. It can also be said that neither is a fixed phenomenon or a fixed principle, and in that sense they are not different. Yet phenomenally sentient beings possess stimulus while in principle the noble one possesses response; conversely, the noble one manifests phenomenally while ordinary beings possess that principle. From this side of distinction they can still be spoken of as different.

A further question is asked: Does the Dharma-body respond, or does the response-body respond? If the response-body responds, it lacks a permanently abiding basis; how could it respond? If the Dharma-body responds, once something that responds is asserted, it is no longer the Dharma-body.

The answer is that, pressed to the ultimate, Dharmas originally belong neither to past, present, nor future and are neither response nor nonresponse, yet response can occur. One can therefore speak of the response of the Dharma-body, called “Dharma-response,” and also of the response of the response-body, called “response-response.” Dharma-response brings hidden benefit, while response-response brings manifest benefit. When hidden and manifest are distinguished, they open into the four meanings explained below.

How Good and Evil Become Stimulus

The second division clarifies the characteristics of stimulus and response. It first explains the characteristic of stimulus through good and evil and then explains the characteristic of response through kindness and compassion.

As stimuli, are good and evil each taken alone, or do the two form stimulus together? Explanations have differed since ancient times.

One explanation takes only evil as stimulus. A scripture says that the Buddha removes sentient beings’ grave illness of sores and tumors. It is also like a person with seven children whose heart is fundamentally impartial but who is particularly concerned for the sick child. The Tathāgata is likewise not partial among sentient beings, yet gives particular weight to those suffering under wrongdoing. Another passage says that the Tathāgata does not abide in the world for unconditioned sentient beings. Although the morally indeterminate has no manifest characteristic of good or evil, it remains ignorance and ultimately belongs with evil. This is taking evil alone as stimulus.

Another explanation takes good alone as stimulus. The “Great Scripture” says that when the Buddha contemplates sentient beings, he does not distinguish the old, young, and middle-aged or the poor, rich, noble, and lowly. Whenever there is a wholesome mind, he immediately regards it with kindness. This is taking good alone as stimulus.

A further explanation holds that neither good nor evil can independently form stimulus. Why can good alone not do so? The final mind of the vajra-like stage is immediately buddhahood; all good has been gathered there, and none is higher. How could such good again serve as a stimulus awaiting production? Although one may say generally that buddhas are mindful of one another, there is no longer suffering to remove or happiness waiting to be given. Good alone therefore cannot be stimulus.

Why can evil alone not do so? The icchantika’s evil has reached the extreme and cannot stimulate the Buddha. The “Great Scripture” says that only a single hair cannot lift the body; nevertheless, the icchantika still possesses the good of principle as a virtue of nature. Although this good of principle is a universal stimulus, it is not yet sufficient to become present stimulation. Evil alone therefore cannot independently become stimulus.

The final explanation takes good and evil carried together as stimulus. Beginning when an icchantika produces a mind of reform and remorse and continuing through equal awakening, good and evil are carried together and can therefore form stimulus. The treatise explains the characteristic of stimulus through good and evil carried together in this way.

How Kindness and Compassion Become Response

The characteristic of response is next explained through kindness and compassion, also in three ways.

Some take kindness alone as response. The power of cultivating wholesome roots of kindness, for example, can make an elephant see lions and thereby be subdued, as explained in detail in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra.

Some take compassion alone as response, as in the Sūtra of Inviting Avalokiteśvara, or when a bodhisattva enters hell in play and, out of great compassion, undergoes suffering in place of sentient beings.

Others combine kindness and compassion as response. Compassion perfumes wisdom and can remove the suffering of others; kindness perfumes concentration and can give them happiness. A passage below says that the Buddha adorns himself with the powers of concentration and wisdom and uses these to deliver sentient beings. A treatise also says that only the combination of mercury and true gold can coat various colored images; when qualities combine with the Dharma-body, manifestation can go forth everywhere. Neither mercury nor true gold can coat an image by itself. Kindness and compassion must therefore be joined when response is discussed.

Good and Evil in the Three Times, and Kindness and Compassion in the Three Times

Someone asks: sentient beings’ good and evil occur in past, present, and future. Which time can be stimulus? The Dharmas of the noble one can likewise be discussed through three times. Which time can be response? The past is already extinguished, the present does not remain, and the future has not arrived. None seems able to be stimulus or response, so how can stimulus and response be discussed?

The answer is that when ultimate principle is investigated, none of the three times can be apprehended, and there is therefore neither stimulus nor response. A scripture says that awakening does not actually possess past, present, and future; the three times are spoken of only as a convention of worldly words and numbers. The present explanation likewise relies on the power of the four siddhāntas to speak of the three times in accordance with sentient beings.

Past good can be stimulus. Thus a scripture says that because of blessings and felicity from former lives, we now encounter the World-Honored One. Again, people in the five preparatory grades who cultivated skillful means in the past find it easier to activate true wisdom, while those who did not find it more difficult. Past good can therefore serve as stimulus.

Present good can likewise be stimulus. When this thought arises in the present, the Buddha appears in the sky. This is present stimulus.

Future good can also be stimulus because good not yet arisen requires something to make it arise. Although uncontaminated good has no already established habitual cause, it can stimulate the Buddha. The Great Treatise uses lotus blossoms as a simile. Those in water may already have grown, be beginning to grow, or not yet have grown. If they do not receive sunlight, they become blighted and die. If the good of sentient beings in the three times does not encounter the Buddha, it likewise has no path to completion.

Evil in the three times is the same. Transgressions committed in the past are all repented of in the present. Evils currently being committed are likewise repented of now. For transgressions that may be committed in the future, the mind of continuation is severed in advance so that they do not arise; all of this is called rescue. Past evil karma obstructs present wholesome Dharmas from arising, and the Buddha is therefore invoked to remove that evil obstruction. Present painful results press upon sentient beings and make them seek protection. Future evil is about to meet its occasion, and the noble one prevents it before it arises. Evil in all three times can therefore be stimulus.

Response in the three times is the same. Past kindness and compassion can be response, as when the Buddha says that he originally established a vow to enable sentient beings to obtain this Dharma. Present kindness and compassion can be response, as when all gods, humans, and asuras are told to come and hear the Dharma so that those not yet delivered can be delivered. Future kindness and compassion can also be response, as when the “Lifespan” chapter speaks of benefiting sentient beings in future lives and the “Peaceful Practices” chapter says that when the Buddha attains complete awakening he will guide sentient beings and enable them to abide in this Dharma.

In the general account, good and evil in all three times can serve as stimulus. In the specific account, only future good and evil are taken as the proper stimulus. The past has already disappeared and the present has already taken shape; what the noble one does is directed to removing future evil and making future good arise.

The Four Right Efforts, Illumination of the Future, and the Fourfold Agent-Object Relation

Someone asks: If the future alone is the proper stimulus, why do the four right efforts speak of good and evil already arisen and not yet arisen?

The preceding answer was given from the general meaning. In a more specific answer, one diligently severs past evil because it can obscure future good. Past good itself no longer increases; what is called increase is in fact the increase of future good. Although the language of the four right efforts includes the past, its real intent still lies in the future.

Another question is asked: How can the Buddha illuminate what does not yet exist in the future?

The answer is that the Tathāgata’s wisdom is like a bright mirror and knows things as they really are. Lower stages cannot know this. It can only be accepted in trust and must not be forcibly measured by the discriminating mind of a lower stage.

Another question is asked: Are sentient beings themselves that which can stimulate, or is stimulation brought about by the Buddha? Is the Tathāgata himself that which can respond, or is response brought about by sentient beings?

The answer is that none can be established as one of four fixed intrinsic natures—arising from self, other, both, or no cause. Since all four theories of intrinsic nature are absent, stimulus and response possess no fixed intrinsic nature. Precisely because they lack intrinsic nature, worldly provisional names are used within the four siddhāntas to speak of agent and object in stimulus and response.

According to these provisional names, that which can respond belongs to the Buddha, and that to which response is made belongs to sentient beings; that which can stimulate belongs to sentient beings, and that which is stimulated belongs to the Buddha. If these terms are repeatedly inverted to manufacture further layers of agent and object, worldly language becomes confused and distinctions can no longer be made. Even when the names are established in this way, they do not abide. Names themselves possess no substance; everything is like a dream or illusion.

A further question is asked: If both good and evil can serve as stimulus, who lacks good and evil? Should everyone benefit at the same time?

The answer is that sick people in the world can all summon a physician, yet after treatment some recover and some do not. Stimulus is the same: some stimuli have matured and others have not. Response is therefore near or distant and does not manifest uniformly at the same time.

Four Combinations of Hidden and Manifest Stimulus and Response

The third division explains differences among stimuli and responses at three levels: first through four combinations, then through thirty-six statements, and finally through the ten Dharma realms. Sentient beings’ faculties and dispositions differ in hundreds and thousands of ways, while the buddhas’ skillful responses are immeasurable; each is delivered differently according to kind. A scripture speaks of different names and forms and many kinds, like superior, middling, and inferior roots, stems, and leaves, each growing according to its own nature. This precisely describes differences among stimuli and responses.

The four combinations are stated briefly: first, hidden stimulus and hidden response; second, hidden stimulus and manifest response; third, manifest stimulus and manifest response; and fourth, manifest stimulus and hidden response.

First, one cultivated good through bodily, verbal, and mental action in the past but does not now employ body and speech in an active practice. Because the power of past good remains latent and continuous, this is called hidden stimulus. Although no numinous response is now visible, the Dharma-body secretly gives benefit. Awareness that occurs without seeing or hearing is called hidden benefit.

Second, good was planted in the past and the hidden stimulus has now matured. In the present life one can therefore encounter the Buddha, hear the Dharma, and receive benefit before one’s eyes. This is called manifest benefit. When the Buddha first appeared in the world, did those delivered first only then begin to practice? The buddhas illuminated their past stimuli and personally went to deliver them. This is hidden stimulus and manifest response.

Third, sentient beings now cultivate diligently through body and speech and, without laxity, move the noble one to arrive. Sudatta knelt and invited the Buddha, and the Buddha went to Jetavana. Moon Canopy bowed, and the noble one came to the city gate. Practitioners now prostrate and repent in a place of practice and bring forth numinous signs. All are manifest stimulus and manifest response.

Fourth, a person may labor diligently throughout a lifetime and deeply amass present wholesome practices without seeing a manifest response, yet benefit has already been obtained secretly. This is manifest stimulus and hidden response.

Understanding these four meanings, one knows that no merit from lowering the head or raising a hand is ever discarded. Even if no response is seen all day, one remains free of regret all day. Seeing someone fond of killing live long or someone who delights in giving remain poor does not cause wrong views. Without understanding the four meanings, one thinks one’s labor has been wasted and one’s calculation mistaken, and loses right principle through anxious regret. The Explanatory Treatise says that present illness and pain all arise from the past, while blessings cultivated now bring recompense in the future, and right mindfulness must not be distorted. This is precisely the benefit of penetrating the four combinations.

Thirty-Six Statements and 64,800 Stimuli and Responses

The preceding account discussed only hidden and manifest together and briefly gave four combinations. In the full distinction there are four root stimuli: hidden stimulus, manifest stimulus, both hidden and manifest stimulus, and neither hidden nor manifest stimulus. Hidden belongs to the past, manifest to the present, both hidden and manifest joins past and present, and neither hidden nor manifest belongs to the future, as when the Buddha teaches an icchantika.

Each of the four stimulus statements opens into four responses. Hidden stimulus, for example, can be joined with hidden response, manifest response, both hidden and manifest response, or neither hidden nor manifest response. Manifest stimulus, both hidden and manifest stimulus, and neither hidden nor manifest stimulus likewise each open into four responses. Four multiplied by four makes sixteen statements.

As stimulus can call forth response, response can also go forth to stimulus, and the response side therefore has another sixteen statements. One kind of stimulus can call forth four kinds of response, and one kind of response can go forth to four kinds of stimulus. Sixteen stimulus statements and sixteen response statements make thirty-two; adding the preceding four root statements makes thirty-six statements of stimulus and response.

Extended through the ten Dharma realms, one person’s single bodily-action stimulus already has thirty-six statements. Applied to bodily, verbal, and mental action, these make 108. Multiplied again through the three times—past, present, and future—and the three actions, they make 324. What holds for one realm extends through the ten realms and makes 3,240 different stimuli and responses.

This accounts only for one’s own practice. Teaching others likewise has 3,240, and together they make 6,480 when the ten realms are calculated separately one by one. If the ten realms are then calculated through mutual inclusion, nine times more are added, for a total of 64,800 stimuli and responses.

Correlating the Twenty-Five Existences and Twenty-Five Samādhis

The fourth division explains the correlation of stimulus and response on four levels: first, suffering and happiness within the various existences are correlated with the kindness and compassion of samādhi; second, subtle incipience, junction, and suitability in stimulus are correlated with going forth, corresponding, and responding in response; third, the thirty-six statements are correlated; and fourth, separate and perfect-universal accounts are correlated.

However numerous the stimuli of sentient beings may be, they do not go beyond the twenty-five existences. However numerous the responses of noble ones may be, they do not go beyond the twenty-five samādhis. Only the hell existence is explained in detail here; the others can be understood by analogy.

Within the hell existence are both good and evil stimuli, standing in relation to the response of kindness and compassion in the Stainless Samādhi. On the side of evil there are the evil of black karma, evil views, the evil of thought, the evil of dust-and-sand, and the evil of ignorance. On the side of good there are the good of white karma, the good of immediate emptiness, the good of immediate provisionality, and the good of the immediate middle. Together these are called the stimuli of the hell existence.

When the Stainless Samādhi is cultivated and the hell realm contemplated, there can be the kindness and compassion of contemplation through causes and conditions, the kindness and compassion of the contemplation of immediate emptiness, those of the contemplation of immediate provisionality, and those of the contemplation of the immediate middle.

In contemplation through causes and conditions, compassion removes the suffering of black karma in hell and kindness gives the happiness of white karma. In contemplating immediate emptiness, compassion removes the suffering of views and thought and kindness gives uncontaminated happiness. In contemplating immediate provisionality, compassion removes the suffering of dust-and-sand and kindness gives the happiness of path-variety wisdom. In contemplating the immediate middle, compassion removes the suffering of ignorance and kindness gives the happiness of Dharma-nature. The good and evil stimuli of the hell existence thereby stand in relation to the response of kindness and compassion in the Stainless Samādhi; removing suffering and giving happiness correspond to one another.

The second level correlates the six meanings. The evil of black karma in hell possesses the three meanings of stimulus: subtle incipience, junction, and suitability. When it stands in relation to the Stainless Samādhi, kindness and compassion possess the three meanings of response: going forth, corresponding, and responding. The white karma of hell likewise has these six correlated meanings. Immediate emptiness with views and thought, dust-and-sand with path-variety wisdom, and ignorance with the Middle Way each likewise possesses the six correlated meanings.

The third level correlates the thirty-six statements. Black and white karma in hell each have hidden stimulus with hidden response, hidden stimulus with manifest response, manifest stimulus with manifest response, and manifest stimulus with hidden response. They stand in relation to the four hidden and manifest responses of the kindness and compassion of the Stainless Samādhi going forth to hell. Views and thought with immediate emptiness, dust-and-sand with path-variety wisdom, and ignorance with the Middle Way likewise each possess four stimuli correlated with four responses. In general, the thirty-six hidden and manifest stimuli of the hell existence are correlated with thirty-six responses of the Stainless Samādhi.

The fourth level correlates separate with perfect-universal accounts. If the hell existence has a stimulus distinguished realm by realm, samādhi likewise makes a response distinguished realm by realm. If there is a perfect and universal stimulus, the response of samādhi is likewise perfect and universal.

When a separate stimulus arises, samādhi makes a differentiated response. The karma of one existence may be extinguished while that of the others is not necessarily extinguished. Views and thought in the three evil destinies may be exhausted while those in the other existences are not necessarily exhausted. Path-variety wisdom in hell may become clear while it is not necessarily clear in the other existences. Buddha-nature in hell may become perfectly clear while it is not necessarily perfectly clear in the other existences.

In the perfect stimulus and perfect response, if sovereign freedom over the karma of the hell existence is not ultimate, neither is sovereign freedom over the other existences. If views and thought in one existence are not exhausted, neither are they exhausted in the other existences. If path-variety wisdom in one existence is not clear, it is not clear in the others. If buddha-nature in one existence is not perfectly clear, it is not perfectly clear in the others. If it is perfectly clear in one existence, it is perfectly clear in all the others; and if sovereign freedom over the karma of one existence is attained, sovereign freedom over the karma of all the others is likewise attained. The correlation of stimulus and response in the hell existence is as described above; the remaining twenty-four existences follow by analogy.

Response to the Stimulus Has No Fixed Direction

Someone asks: Can there be a good stimulus that receives a response with an evil appearance, an evil stimulus that receives a response with a good appearance, a partial stimulus that receives a perfect response, or a perfect stimulus that receives a partial response?

The answer is that noble response has no fixed direction and seeks only to fit the stimulus at the time; these cases therefore occur. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says that a bodhisattva may manifest wind and fire to illuminate and break sentient beings’ perception of permanence and make them know impermanence. This is an evil-seeming response to a good stimulus. King Wondrous Adornment accepted wrong beliefs, while three bodhisattvas manifested as his wife and children. This is a good-seeming response to an evil stimulus.

A perfect stimulus can receive a partial response. Sentient beings’ aspiration to seek all-wisdom still remains and has never been lost. Its not being lost is the perfect stimulus, yet the Buddha first teaches them a śrāvaka Dharma, which is a partial response. A partial stimulus can receive a perfect response, as when beings are first guided by the three carts and later given the one great cart. Their understanding is expressed by saying that the unsurpassed cluster of jewels came without being sought. This is a partial stimulus receiving a perfect response. Apparent reversals that remove happiness or give suffering can be understood in the same way.

Coarse and Wondrous Stimuli and Responses

The fifth division judges coarse and wondrous in three levels: first judging coarse and wondrous stimulus, then judging coarse and wondrous response, and finally opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous.

First, stimulus. A temporary pleasant interval in hell, for example, comes from a small wholesome cause. The Lokasthānābhidharma Treatise says that people who raised the six kinds of domestic animal in the human world and gave them food, warmth, and coolness obtain a cool interval in a hot hell and a warm interval in a cold hell. In this sense, even a pleasant interval in hell can be discussed as stimuli of the ten Dharma realms.

Avīci hell has no pleasant interval and seems to lack phenomenal good. How, then, can it possess the stimuli of the ten realms? The natural good of Avīci beings is never severed. Even if no phenomenal good exists in the recent past, good may have been cultivated in distant eons. Evil is merely strong and good weak, so wholesome roots remain hidden and have not been activated. If conditions are encountered, how could activation be categorically impossible? Avīci therefore also possesses the stimuli of the ten realms.

Coarse and wondrous are judged accordingly. The stimuli of the nine realms are coarse, while the stimulus of the buddha realm is wondrous. A coarse stimulus calls forth a skillful response. The stimulus can be mature or immature, and the response shallow or deep. A mature stimulus meets response, while an immature stimulus does not do so for the time being. The depth of response can be seen in progressing from uninterrupted hell to a hell with intervals, from hell to animal birth, from animal birth to hungry-ghost birth, from the three evil destinies to human or heavenly birth, and from humans and gods to the two vehicles. All of these are the maturation and immaturity of stimulus and the shallowness and depth of response, and all remain within coarse stimulus.

A wondrous stimulus calls forth an ultimately wondrous response. Wondrous stimulus likewise can be mature or immature, and wondrous response shallow or deep. The Maiden of Kindness, for example, gave rise in hell to an aspiration to undergo another’s punishment and was immediately born in heaven. This is a wondrous stimulus already matured with a response that remains shallow, reaching only near the heavens. The other cases can be understood by analogy.

Next, the coarse and wondrous in response. The compassionate vows of the noble one support practice through the power of vow, like glue on an object that spontaneously adheres to the stimulus. The power of wholesome roots of kindness can therefore make lions appear from the fingers. Without vows, one could observe sentient beings’ suffering and happiness but could neither remove suffering nor give happiness. Because the power of kindness is present, response follows coarse or wondrous stimuli: what matures first receives response first, and what matures later receives it later.

Noble ones of the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings can also respond, but they must intentionally employ supernormal power. They are like a painted image that is completed only through planning and arrangement. Investigated deeply, they lack a permanently abiding basis. Once body and wisdom are reduced to ashes, on what permanently abiding basis could response arise? In “the Distinct receiving the Shared,” the meaning of the Distinct Teaching receives a person within the Shared Teaching, but distinct delusion is not yet severed, and spontaneous response to beings is impossible. Even if benefit goes forth to sentient beings, it is still called coarse response.

Beginners in the Distinct and Perfect Teachings who have only suppressed delusion still cannot give rise to such response. At the first ground or first abode, the three contemplations become present, the twenty-five samādhis are realized, and the Dharma-body is pure and unstained like empty space; only then does it serenely respond to all. Without thought or conception, it corresponds immediately to the stimulus. The moon, for example, never descends and the hundred waters never rise, yet the moon’s reflection appears universally and at once according to the length of rivers and the shape of vessels, without earlier or later. A bright mirror is clear inside and out; it selects neither one image nor a thousand, expends no effort, and spontaneously manifests a corresponding likeness. This is inconceivable wondrous response, the relational wondrousness of stimulus and response.

Opening the Coarse to Reveal the Wondrous

If one says only that stimuli of the nine realms are coarse and the stimulus of the buddha realm wondrous, or that response without the Dharma-body is coarse and response with the Dharma-body wondrous, then in Mahāyāna scriptures such as the Avataṃsaka coarse and wondrous remain separated. People of the two vehicles neither hear nor understand and are as deaf and mute. The Sūtra of Innumerable Meanings likewise says that coarse and wondrous emerge from one principle as immeasurable stimuli and responses: the one principle is wondrous and the immeasurable things produced are coarse. This is the wondrous producing the coarse, with the two still separated and unjoined.

The present scripture returns the immeasurable to the one and opens skillful means to reveal the real; the coarse is wondrous immediately. Why? The Buddha originally devised various skillful means in order to reveal one principle, and skillful means themselves are real. Everything the Buddha does is therefore for the sake of one matter; his buddha-work has never ceased even briefly.

Three grasses and two trees, for example, all grow from the same great earth: their source is the same and their stimulus one. They are all nourished by rain of one flavor: what they receive is the same and their response one. Fools do not understand and believe that grasses and trees are made from four subtle elements and can therefore never be earth. The wise understand that the arising of the four subtle elements is only earth transforming and their dispersal only a return to earth. How could grasses and trees ever be separate from earth? This is opening skillful means to reveal the real, bringing the Dharma of śrāvakas to resolution, and becoming king among scriptures. All stimuli of the nine Dharma realms are stimuli of the buddha realm, and every response of the four noble realms is a wondrous response.

The root treatise only lists the sixth division, contemplation of mind, and omits its body text.

Why the Subtlety of Supernormal Power Follows Stimulus and Response

The seventh topic is the subtlety of supernormal power, which has four divisions: first clarifying its sequence; second clarifying its name and number; third clarifying sameness and difference among kinds of supernormal power; and fourth judging coarse and wondrous.

First, the reason it follows. The preceding passage only distinguished how sentient beings possess good capable of arising and how the noble one can go forth to the stimulus. To explain directly how transformative activity benefits others, the three inconceivable forms of teaching—the wheel of body, wheel of speech, and wheel of knowing others’ minds—must be discussed.

The wording on the surface of the “Universal Gateway” chapter presents only two, but its meaning includes all three. The bodhisattva’s roaming in the Sahā world is the wheel of body; teaching Dharma to sentient beings is the wheel of speech. Seeing a large lotus blossom allows one to know that the pool is deep; seeing the breadth of the Dharma taught likewise allows one to know that the speaker’s wisdom is great. The two wheels of body and speech therefore also reveal the wheel of knowing others’ minds.

In transforming others, the wheels of body and speech are manifested frequently, while the wheel of mind is rarely displayed directly. The text mentions two wheels only because it speaks from what is most frequent and does not list the wheel of mind separately. A scripture says that all who see and hear are delivered.

To manifest the wheel of body is to display the body of the King of Medicine Trees and the body of the king of wish-fulfilling jewels. To manifest the wheel of speech is to proclaim Dharmas like the poison drum and heavenly drum. When kindness and compassion perfume body and speech, there are two bodily manifestations and two proclaimed drum-sounds. To manifest the wheel of mind is to reveal following one’s own intent and following others’ intent, as well as manifesting in accord with sentient beings through the practice of illness and the practice of an infant.

The preceding passage only distinguished how stimulus and response stand in relation, while wondrous principle remained difficult to reveal. Supernormal power must therefore be activated, auspicious signs manifested, and wondrous principle indicated secretly. When people see a spider lowering itself, they say that happy news will come; when they hear the bird written 𮬧 in 𮬧鵲 cry, they know a traveler will arrive. If even small matters possess signs, how could a great matter possess none? Near events can thus represent distant principle.

The Names and Number of the Six Powers and Their Real Transformative Activity

Scriptures differ in the names and numbers of supernormal powers they list. For the time being the present account uses six: the divine eye, divine ear, knowing others’ minds, knowing past lives, magical-body power, and extinction of the contaminants. All six are called supernormal powers.

The Necklace Sūtra says that “supernormal” names the heavenly mind and “power” names wisdom-nature. The heavenly mind is the natural mind, and wisdom-nature penetrates without obstruction. The Abhidharma likewise says that when the ignorance obstructing supernormal power is removed, wisdom-nature emerges. When natural wisdom-nature corresponds with the six Dharmas, one can transform freely; hence the name supernormal power. The “Chapter on Powers” in the Bodhisattvabhūmi says that “supernormal” is difficult to fathom and “power” is free of obstruction. This agrees with the Necklace Sūtra: the heavenly mind is difficult to fathom, and wisdom-nature is unobstructed.

The six Dharmas have no fixed order when cultivated, no fixed sequence when realized, and no fixed order when used. Their sequence therefore differs among scriptures.

The Explanatory Treatise says that illusion is a false and deceptive Dharma. Applied to grass or wood, it deceives people’s eyes while the object itself does not change. Supernormal power is different: it can actually change things. Earth, for example, possesses the principle of becoming water, and water the meaning of becoming earth. Gold and silver melt when they meet fire, while water freezes when it meets cold; fire and cold are the conditions that cause melting and freezing. What freezes actually freezes and what melts actually melts. When natural wisdom-nature is attained, such transformations can likewise be made freely and in fact. Other people can really use the water or fire transformed in this way. It is not their recompense, but only something produced for a time by supernormal power.

Differences among Kinds of Supernormal Power

Beings in the ghost destiny obtain powers through recompense. Humans can obtain them by taking medicines. Non-Buddhists activate them through fundamental dhyāna. Gods obtain them through recompense. Practitioners of the two vehicles cultivate fourteen transformations through the liberations, spheres of mastery, and totalities and thereby activate supernormal powers. Bodhisattvas of the six pāramitās attain the five powers through dhyāna and the six powers when seated at the place of awakening. Bodhisattvas of the Shared Teaching attain the five powers through dhyāna and the power of extinction of the contaminants through wisdom that embodies the Dharma. Bodhisattvas of the Distinct Teaching activate the five powers through dhyāna before the grounds and, upon entering a ground, activate the true power of extinction of the contaminants; they illuminate constantly and spontaneously and do not see buddha-lands through two opposing characteristics.

In the Perfect Teaching’s account of powers, the nose and tongue faculties are included among the six according to the present scripture and the Sūtra on Contemplating Samantabhadra. The Bodhisattva in the Womb Sūtra does the same. Knowing others’ minds and knowing past lives are included in the mind faculty. The scriptural text explains the power of the nose most fully, taking it from the six faculties’ mutual functioning without obstruction. The tongue faculty is taken from the four unobstructed eloquences, which enable one wondrous voice to fill the three-thousandfold world; it is not taken from knowing flavors, since knowing flavors is a Dharma of recompense. The scripture says that the faculties penetrate keenly and wisdom is clear. All six faculties are wisdom, directly revealing their mutual functioning.

These powers of the six faculties do not arise through phenomenal dhyāna but are the truth of the Middle Way. True principle inherently possesses supernormal power; it is accomplished spontaneously and does not require intention. It is therefore called the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation. Because no separate intention is formed, it is called morally indeterminate. It remains spontaneously and constantly luminous, like the asura’s lute sounding without anyone playing it. Because what has been transformed can itself produce another transformation, it is called transformation upon transformation. The true powers of the Middle Way function spontaneously in this way and differ from other supernormal powers.

Cultivation of these powers always takes the permanently abiding principle of the true mark as its object. The scripture says that one attains purification of the permanent eye faculty. Because it says permanent, this is purification inherent in nature, and permanent nature is fundamentally undefiled. The Vibhāṣā says that the six entrances are excellent by nature from the beginning. The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra says that the eye faculty in all tathāgatas is permanent, cultivated completely and without diminution, and sees distinctly and clearly. The ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are likewise permanent in the Tathāgata, cultivated completely and without diminution, and hear and know distinctly and clearly.

“That” refers to oneself from the Buddha’s perspective and is called “that” only from the perspective of sentient beings. Sentient beings regard the six faculties as impermanent, but in the Tathāgata they are permanent. Cultivation based on dhyāna is called cultivation with diminution; cultivation based on the true mark is called cultivation without diminution. Not seeing buddha-nature is called being unable to see distinctly; seeing buddha-nature is called seeing distinctly. It can also be said that seeing the principle of the true mark is distinct, while knowing the phenomena of the Dharma realm is clear.

There are two kinds of seeing: resemblance-vision and partial-true vision. Resemblance-vision is distinguished in the purification of the six faculties. True vision is like the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind of the Buddha explained in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

The present scripture likewise explains the characteristics of true bodily power. Universally manifesting physical bodies and displaying whatever body all sentient beings delight to see is outward bodily power. Manifesting a body like beryl in which all buddhas of the ten directions appear is inwardly manifest bodily power. Inward and outward manifestations of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and other faculties follow by analogy. Perfect-Teaching supernormal power thus differs from all those described before it.

Why the Merits of the Six Faculties Increase and Decrease

Someone asks: If the six faculties are taken as the six powers, why do the numbers of their merits still increase and decrease?

The answer is that fascicle forty of the Great Treatise calls the three consciousnesses of nose, tongue, and body “awareness,” the eye “seeing,” the ear “hearing,” and mind “knowing.” The ranges known by nose-, tongue-, and body-consciousness form one class together, while those known by eye-, ear-, and mind-consciousness are separately distinguished.

The three consciousnesses of eye, ear, and mind assist the path in many ways and are therefore discussed separately; the three of nose, tongue, and body are not the same and are therefore discussed together. Again, the three of nose, tongue, and body know only worldly matters and are therefore combined, while eye, ear, and mind know both worldly and world-transcending matters and are therefore separated. Again, the three of nose, tongue, and body take only morally indeterminate Dharmas as objects, while eye, ear, and mind can take good, evil, and morally indeterminate Dharmas as objects. Again, the three consciousnesses of eye, ear, and mind can produce the conditions for the three actions and are therefore discussed separately.

According to this analogy, the various activities of the eye, ear, and mind faculties are stronger, and each therefore has 1,200 merits. The activities of the nose, tongue, and body faculties are weaker, and each therefore has 800. This is only one route of differentiated explanation and is not the scripture’s complete intent. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra instead says that their merits are equal, each having one thousand.

The present scripture reveals the mutual functioning of the six faculties. It completes the three faculties by adding two hundred to each and turns them toward the other three so that they function mutually. They are equally capable and unobstructed, as the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra says. They can also contract, as with the 800 merits of body, eye, and nose, and expand, as with the 1,200 merits of ear, tongue, and mind. The scripture says that if one can uphold this scripture, one’s merits are immeasurable like boundless space and one’s blessings cannot be limited. The meaning of the six faculties’ mutual functioning is thereby made clear.

Supernormal Power Transforms Principal Recompense

The fourth division judges coarse and wondrous supernormal power. When supernormal power delivers sentient beings, it transforms not only one’s own body into the same principal recompense as sentient beings but also one’s own land into the same dependent recompense as theirs. The Necklace Sūtra speaks of bringing forth responses of all lands and responses of all sentient beings. Responding in accord with principal recompense means manifesting the forms of the ten Dharma realms. Responding in accord with dependent recompense means manifesting the places upon which sentient beings of the ten realms depend.

To respond in accord with the four evil destinies, the Buddha uses kindness and compassion contemplating evil karma to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation and manifests the physical forms of hell beings and others: black hair wrapping the body, or the images of monkeys, apes, deer, horses, great vultures, the 鵽 bird, asuras, and so forth. Sentient beings of each kind see a body whose activity is the same as their own.

To respond with a human or heavenly body, the Buddha uses kindness and compassion contemplating good karma to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation and manifests bodies of the good destinies. A bodhisattva in the final body, for example, enters the womb with right wisdom; after birth he takes seven steps, washes his hands and feet, cleans himself with a toothstick, takes a wife and fathers a child, becomes disenchanted with the world, and renounces home. The same applies to forms of gods and humans. Sentient beings of each kind see a body whose activity is the same as their own.

To respond in accord with the two vehicles of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, the Buddha uses kindness and compassion analyzing emptiness to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation. He manifests the form of an old bhikṣu, performs the poṣadha together with the Saṅgha, and observes the disciplines and rules, allowing sentient beings to see a body whose activity is the same as their own.

To respond in accord with the Shared Teaching, he uses the kindness and compassion of immediate emptiness to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation. He manifests a response embodying the Dharma, contemplates the habituation of non-arising, and contemplates suffering, emptiness, and all Dharmas as unobtainable, allowing corresponding sentient beings to see a body whose activity is the same as their own.

To respond in accord with the Distinct Teaching, he uses the kindness and compassion of immediate provisionality and the immediate middle to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation. He brings forth gradual and sudden responses and displays cultivation of buddha-Dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, allowing sentient beings of each kind to see a body whose activity is the same as their own.

To respond in accord with the Perfect Teaching, he uses the kindness and compassion of the immediate middle to perfume the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation. He brings forth a perfect and sudden response and displays cultivation of the immeasurable within the one middle and the one within the immeasurable, allowing sentient beings of each kind to see a body whose activity is the same as their own. Responses in accord with principal recompense are thus beyond calculation and can only be comprehended in meaning, not exhausted in words.

Supernormal Powers in the Five Flavors and Auspicious Signs in the “Introduction” chapter

Having understood the meaning of supernormal power in principal recompense, one can look back at the gradual and sudden teachings. However many supernormal powers are used in the milk teaching, they reveal only one coarse and one wondrous. However many are used in the Tripiṭaka Teaching of the curds, they reveal only one coarse. However many are used in the Vaipulya teaching of raw ghee, they reveal three coarse and one wondrous. However many are used in the Prajñā teaching of refined ghee, they reveal two coarse and one wondrous. However many are used in the present scripture of clarified essence, they reveal only one wondrous.

The ten auspicious signs in the “Introduction” chapter therefore all represent the wondrous. The earth becoming entirely pure represents the subtlety of principle. Light emitted from between the eyebrows represents the subtlety of wisdom. Entering samādhi represents the subtlety of practice. The heavenly rain of four flowers represents the subtlety of stages. The fragrant sandalwood wind represents the subtlety of the vehicle. The doubts of all four assemblies represent stimulus; seeing eighteen thousand lands represents response; together these two represent the subtlety of stimulus and response. The earth’s six kinds of movement represent the subtlety of supernormal power. The heavenly drum sounding by itself and teaching Dharma to sentient beings represent the subtlety of teaching the Dharma. The joy of the great assembly of gods and dragons represents the subtlety of retinues. Seeing buddha-children cultivating various practices represents the subtlety of benefit.

Whether these marvelous transformations are few or many, they all represent the wondrous. The text says that today the Buddha enters samādhi, something inconceivable, and manifests a rare event. This rare event is wondrous supernormal power.

Supernormal Power Transforms Dependent Recompense: What Sentient Beings Bring About

Responding in accord with dependent recompense has two levels. First, suffering and happiness in a land are brought about by the karma of sentient beings and are not made by the Buddha; the Buddha merely manifests a corresponding land. Second, in order to discipline or embrace sentient beings, the Buddha illuminates the stimulus and manifests either a painful or a happy land. In this case suffering and happiness arise through the Buddha’s supernormal power and are not brought about by sentient beings’ karma.

First, the first level. The Great Treatise says that some lands have only a community of śrāvakas, some only a community of bodhisattvas, and some a community formed jointly by bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. Whether the land is pure or impure and all its differences arise from whether vehicle and precepts are lax or urgent.

In the first case, precepts are lax while vehicle is both urgent and lax. This is an impure land with śrāvakas and bodhisattvas together as the community. Because precepts are lax, the land has the five turbidities and is impure. Because vehicle is lax, three vehicles are opened and taught; because vehicle is also urgent, one vehicle is revealed. The Sahā world is of this kind.

In the second case, precepts are urgent while vehicle is both lax and urgent. This is a pure land. Because precepts are urgent, the land lacks the five turbidities. Because vehicle is lax, three vehicles are opened and taught; because vehicle is also urgent, one vehicle is revealed. The Land of Peaceful Nurture is of this kind.

In the third case, vehicle is lax while precepts are urgent. This is a pure land with only śrāvakas as the community.

In the fourth case, precepts are lax while vehicle is urgent. This is an impure land with only bodhisattvas as the community.

From this level, therefore, differences in purity and impurity among lands and in the higher and lower conditions, suffering, and happiness of the sentient beings within them are all brought about by sentient beings’ vehicle and precepts and do not involve fabrication by the Buddha.

Supernormal Power Transforms Dependent Recompense: The Buddha Disciplines and Embraces

From the perspective of disciplining and embracing, the land arises through the Buddha’s supernormal power and does not involve the karmic stimulus of sentient beings.

The Buddha unites kindness and compassion contemplating evil with the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation and brings forth an impure land to discipline and embrace sentient beings of the four evil destinies. The Buddha unites kindness and compassion contemplating good karma with that dhyāna to discipline and embrace sentient beings of the human and heavenly destinies.

The Buddha unites the kindness and compassion of analyzing emptiness and the six pāramitās with the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation and brings forth either an impure or a pure land to discipline and embrace sentient beings of the śrāvaka and bodhisattva realms. He unites the kindness and compassion of embodying emptiness with that dhyāna and brings forth either a pure or an impure land to discipline and embrace sentient beings in the śrāvaka and bodhisattva realms of the Shared Teaching.

The Buddha unites the kindness and compassion of separate progression with the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation and brings forth either an impure or a pure land to discipline and embrace sentient beings of the Distinct-Teaching bodhisattva realm. He unites the kindness and compassion of the immediate middle with that dhyāna and brings forth either a pure or an impure land to discipline and embrace sentient beings of the Perfect-Teaching bodhisattva realm.

All these different lands arise entirely through transformation by the Tathāgata’s supernormal power.

Relational and Absolute Wondrousness in Supernormal Power

When the foregoing transformations of principal and dependent recompense are compared with the intentional supernormal powers of the three teachings, those intentional powers are all called coarse. They are like a painted image: even when mind and strength are exhausted, it ultimately cannot resemble the actual thing and is therefore coarse. When a bright mirror reflects a face and spontaneously manifests a corresponding likeness, it is called wondrous. Skillful supernormal power is like a coarse painting; the Middle Way spontaneously corresponds to the stimulus and immediately brings forth response, like a pure bright mirror, and is therefore wondrous.

Even within the marvelous transformations produced by the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation, coarse and wondrous can be discussed again. Whether broad or narrow, pure or impure lands manifested through skillful supernormal power for sentient beings of the nine realms are called coarse. Whether broad or narrow, pure or impure lands manifested through true supernormal power for sentient beings of the buddha Dharma realm are called wondrous.

In the scripture the Buddha emits light from between his eyebrows and illuminates eighteen thousand lands, and then transforms the lands into purity three times. Compared with the vast supernormal powers in other scriptures, this is not great in quantity, yet it is called wondrous because it opens forth the one great matter. The quantity of marvelous transformation is therefore not the sole criterion of wondrousness.

Judged again through the five flavors: milk has one coarse and one wondrous, curds has only one coarse, raw ghee has three coarse and one wondrous, refined ghee has two coarse and one wondrous, and the Lotus as clarified essence has only one wondrous.

The wondrous in the various scriptures is the same, while the coarse is of two kinds: coarse that is difficult to turn and coarse that is easy to turn. What is easy to turn has already been turned into the wondrous in the earlier scriptures; what is difficult to turn is likewise no longer left behind when the Lotus is reached. At this point there are no longer two kinds of coarse, and only the one wondrous remains.

Everything is only the one great buddha affair and condition; there has never been another affair. Although the Buddha skillfully manifests powers like those of the nine realms, sentient beings themselves regard them as other affairs. From the Buddha’s perspective, they have always been only buddha affairs. The poor son calls himself a “hired laborer” and regards himself as lowly; the elder knows clearly that he is his own son. This is relational wondrousness in supernormal power.

In earlier scriptures, various coarse supernormal powers and wondrous supernormal power remain separated. In the present scripture, all skillful means are opened, the real is revealed, and all return together to wondrous supernormal power. This is absolute wondrousness in supernormal power. The treatise records the subject only briefly here and does not exhaust all its principles.

This passage is Zhiyi’s direct explanation as recorded by Guanding. Its two subtleties follow one another: the subtlety of stimulus and response explains how the stimulus can strike and how the noble one can go forth to it; the subtlety of supernormal power explains how, after going forth to the stimulus, body, speech, and mind actually benefit sentient beings. The first establishes the relationship, and the second unfolds its activity.

If the Fruit Is Complete, Why Must There Still Be Response?

The first four subtleties are the complete cause, and the secret treasury of the three dharmas is the complete fruit. When objects, wisdom, and practice reach the ultimate, they are revealed respectively through the names of the three buddhas. The three buddhas are neither one nor different, nor are they arranged vertically in succession or horizontally alongside one another. A question then arises: if the fruit is already perfectly complete, why is stimulus and response still to be discussed?

The answer lies precisely in the two words “quiescence and illumination.” Fruitional wisdom is quiescent and therefore does not chase after objects; it illuminates and therefore must become manifest when sentient beings provide a stimulus. Quiescence is not blank immobility, nor is illumination a thought first being raised and then sent to search for beings. If only quiescence were stated, the complete fruit would seem cut off from sentient beings. If only illumination were stated, the Buddha’s response would seem intentionally contrived. Only quiescence that constantly illuminates establishes at once both the fullness of the complete fruit and the activity of going forth to a stimulus.

The subtlety of stimulus and response therefore does not begin by rushing to describe marvelous transformations. It first asks: What is meant by stimulus? What is meant by response? How are they related? Does a stimulus bring benefit at once? Does only what can be seen count as response? Unless these relations are distinguished clearly, the manifestation of bodies, teaching of Dharma, and transformation of lands that follow can easily be taken as nothing more than external wonders.

Stimulus Is Not an Occasion Encountered by Chance

Stimulus has three meanings, in this order: subtle incipience (微), junction (關), and suitability (宜).

Subtle incipience means that good has not yet become manifest but already possesses a tendency that can be set in motion. A crossbow has a trigger capable of release; when an archer pulls it, the arrow advances. Sentient beings possess good capable of being produced; when the noble response goes forth to it, that good comes into being. The arrow’s forward motion is neither fabricated from nothing by the archer nor completed by the crossbow on its own. Good already has a tendency capable of release, and when the noble response goes forth, it can arise.

Junction means that the good and evil of sentient beings stand in relation to the kindness and compassion of the noble one. Stimulus is therefore not merely a possibility within oneself; it includes the relationship between sentient beings and the Buddha. Sentient beings’ suffering stands in relation to compassion, while their good capable of arising stands in relation to kindness. If the stimulus stood in no relation whatsoever to the noble one, response would have nothing to which it could go forth.

Suitability means that suffering and happiness correspond respectively to compassion and kindness. The suffering of ignorance is precisely suitable for compassion to remove; the happiness of Dharma-nature is precisely suitable for kindness to give. This meaning prevents response from becoming an arbitrary act: the Dharma conferred must suit the stimulus for it to be called response.

Response likewise has three meanings, in this order: going forth (赴), corresponding (對), and responding (應). Going forth means proceeding to the stimulus about to move. Corresponding is like buyer and seller reaching agreement so that a transaction can be completed. Responding means giving a Dharma appropriate to what suits the stimulus. The three meanings interlock with the three meanings of stimulus: subtle incipience requires going forth, junction requires corresponding, and suitability requires responding. The worldly siddhānta follows beings’ wishes; the counteractive siddhānta meets suffering with compassion and good with kindness; the individually adapted siddhānta causes phenomenal good to arise; and the siddhānta of ultimate meaning makes the good of principle clear.

Sameness in Principle and Difference in Phenomena Make Stimulus and Response Speakable

If stimulus and response were completely the same, the distinction between that which stimulates and that which responds would be lost. If they were entirely different, they could not stand in relation to one another. The treatise uses father and son to explain neither sameness nor difference: natural kinship in flesh and bone cannot be called wholly different, yet the father is not the son and the son is not the father, so neither can they be called wholly the same.

Sentient beings’ nature of principle is not different from the Buddha, and so they are not different; sentient beings are hidden while the Tathāgata is manifest, and so they are not one. Sameness in principle does not erase the hidden and manifest on the phenomenal level, while phenomenal difference does not sever their communion in principle. The hidden benefit given by the Dharma-body and the manifest benefit given by the response-body can therefore both be called response. The former need not enter ordinary eyes and ears; the latter can be seen and heard in one’s presence. Pressed to ultimate principle, all Dharmas are originally neither response nor nonresponse. Returning to worldly conditions, hidden and manifest response can nevertheless be spoken of distinctly.

The good of principle and phenomenal good must also be distinguished. When the good of principle becomes clear, the darkness in principle ceases; there is no separate evil in principle that must first be removed. The good of principle can therefore be discussed in terms of ultimate meaning. When phenomenal good arises, phenomenal evil need not be exhausted at the same time; when phenomenal evil departs, phenomenal good need not arise immediately. Phenomena remain distinct, and medicine opposes illness: this is the domain of counteraction.

A Stimulus of Good, a Stimulus of Evil, or Good and Evil Carried Together?

The scriptures sometimes speak principally of an evil stimulus. The Buddha removes the grave illness of sores and tumors in sentient beings, just as parents may be impartial in their hearts toward seven children yet give particular weight to the sick child. The morally indeterminate can obscure the good of principle and is likewise included in an evil stimulus. At other times the scriptures speak principally of a good stimulus. The Buddha does not regard sentient beings as old, young, poor, rich, noble, or lowly; when he sees a wholesome mind, he immediately regards it with kindness.

Yet either side taken as exhaustive encounters difficulty. If good were already complete through buddhahood, there would be no suffering left to remove and no happiness left to give. If evil were so extreme that no good capable of release remained, it could not become a present stimulus for the Buddha. The treatise therefore finally takes good and evil as carried together: from the icchantika who first gives rise to a mind of reform and remorse through the bodhisattva of equal awakening whose work is not yet exhausted, stimulus can in principle be explained through the carrying together of good and evil.

This does not blend good and evil into an indistinct mass. It sees that stimulus always occurs at a point of transition. Evil can obscure good, and compassion must therefore remove suffering; good can grow, and kindness must therefore give happiness. Kindness and compassion must also function together. Compassion perfumes wisdom to remove suffering, while kindness perfumes concentration to give happiness. Like mercury combined with true gold so that colored images can be coated, only their union can become a response that goes everywhere to the stimulus. Either one alone cannot do so universally.

The Stimulus in the Three Times, and Why the Proper Stimulus Is Taken Principally as Future

Viewed from ultimate principle, the past is already extinguished, the present does not abide, and the future has not arrived; none of the three times can be apprehended. Viewed through worldly language that accords with sentient beings, good and evil in all three times can nevertheless serve as stimulus.

Good cultivated in the past makes it easier to encounter the Buddha now. A thought produced in the present can bring the Buddha’s manifestation in the present. Good of the future has not yet arisen and therefore properly requires a noble response to make it arise. The lotus-blossom simile connects the three times: blossoms already grown, beginning to grow, and not yet grown all require sunlight before they can open. Good in the three times is the same: difference in temporal position does not cut it off from the Buddha’s response.

Evil in the three times can likewise become a stimulus for rescue. Past evil obstructs present good and must be removed through repentance. Present suffering presses upon beings and makes them seek rescue. Future evil has not yet arisen and must be prevented by first severing the mind of continuation. The Buddha’s kindness and compassion can likewise be explained through the three times: past vows become the basis for going forth to the stimulus today; present teaching enables those not yet delivered to be delivered; and in the future the Buddha continues to benefit beings according to what they require.

In the general account, all three times are stimulus. In the specific account, future good and evil are taken as the proper stimulus. This is not because the future already exists, but because both rescuing from evil and promoting good are directed toward what can still be transformed. Although the four right efforts speak of severing evil already arisen and increasing good already arisen, severing past evil is still done so that it will not obstruct future good, while past good itself no longer increases. The “increase” spoken of in the four right efforts is in fact the increase of future good.

As to how the Buddha can know what does not yet exist in the future, the treatise keeps the boundary at the Tathāgata’s knowing illumination: lower stages cannot fathom it by their own discriminating measure. Nor can stimulus and response be fixed as arising from self, from other, from both, or from no cause. Only after these four theories of intrinsic nature have been broken can worldly names provisionally establish sentient beings as that which can stimulate and the Buddha as that which is stimulated, the Buddha as that which can respond and sentient beings as that to which response is made. The names can be used, but like dreams and illusions they possess no fixed self-nature.

If Everyone Has Good and Evil, Why Does Everyone Not Benefit Immediately?

When sick people summon a physician, some recover while others do not recover for the time being. The difference does not lie in whether the physician is concerned, but in whether the illness as stimulus has matured. Stimulus can be mature or immature, and response can accordingly be near or distant.

This also explains the four combinations of hidden and manifest. Good cultivated in the past while body and speech are not now employed is hidden stimulus. The Dharma-body secretly benefiting beings without entering eyes or ears is hidden response. When a past wholesome root has matured and one now suddenly meets the Buddha and hears the Dharma, there is hidden stimulus and manifest response. When one now applies body and speech diligently and brings the noble one before one’s eyes—as Sudatta knelt and the Buddha went to Jetavana, or Moon Canopy bowed and the noble ones stayed at the threshold—there is manifest stimulus and manifest response. When one labors diligently in this life but sees no auspicious sign while benefit has already been received in secret, there is manifest stimulus and hidden response.

These four combinations prevent one from treating visible auspicious signs as the whole, and they also prevent one from judging the absence of a visible sign to mean that one’s effort was in vain. The merit of lowering the head or raising the hand is never discarded. Seeing a person fond of killing live long for a time, or a person fond of giving remain poor for a time, does not overturn cause and effect. Hidden and manifest are only modes in which stimulus and response appear, not a boundary between response and no response.

Why the Thirty-Six Statements Are Further Extended through the Mutual Inclusion of the Ten Realms

The four combinations are only a brief account. In the full expansion, the four stimuli are hidden, manifest, both hidden and manifest, and neither hidden nor manifest. Each of these stimuli corresponds to four responses, producing sixteen stimulus statements. Conversely, each response goes forth to four stimuli, producing sixteen response statements. These thirty-two, together with the preceding four root statements, make thirty-six.

The thirty-six statements show that one stimulus can call forth multiple responses and one response can go forth to multiple stimuli. Thirty-six for the bodily action of one person, multiplied by bodily, verbal, and mental action, make 108. Multiplied by the three times, these make 324. Extended separately through the ten realms, they make 3,240. One’s own practice and teaching others together make 6,480. When the ten realms are then mutually included, the number increases to 64,800.

As the number grows, what it clarifies remains the different interactions of stimulus and response. The calculation first treats the ten realms separately, one by one; it then joins one’s own practice with teaching others; and finally, through the mutual inclusion of the ten realms, it adds nine more of the original number and reaches ten times that number, 64,800. Sentient beings’ dispositions number in the hundreds and thousands, while the buddhas’ skillful responses are immeasurable. This layer-by-layer expansion of the count reveals those differences.

Correlated, Yet Without Fixed Direction

However numerous sentient beings’ stimuli may be, they do not fall outside the twenty-five existences. However numerous the responses of the noble ones may be, they do not fall outside the twenty-five samādhis. The treatise explains only the hell existence in detail. Black karma, evil views, the evil of thought, the evil of dust-and-sand, and the evil of ignorance are evil stimuli; white karma and the immediate emptiness, provisionality, and middle are good stimuli. The causal, empty, provisional, and middle contemplations of the Stainless Samādhi each use compassion to remove the corresponding suffering and kindness to give the corresponding happiness.

This example can be viewed at four further levels. First, suffering and happiness within existence are correlated with kindness and compassion within samādhi. Second, the six meanings are correlated: subtle incipience with going forth, junction with corresponding, and suitability with responding. Third, the thirty-six stimuli are correlated with the thirty-six responses. Fourth, separate stimulus and response are correlated with perfect and universal stimulus and response. In the separate account, when the karma of one existence is exhausted, the other existences need not be exhausted. In the perfect and universal account, if one existence is exhausted ultimately, the others are exhausted at the same time. Each register has its place.

Correlation does not mean fixed immobility. A bodhisattva may manifest wind and fire so that those with a good stimulus recognize impermanence, or may appear as wife and children, going forth with a good body to an evil stimulus. A perfect stimulus may first receive a śrāvaka teaching, while a partial stimulus may first be guided by three carts and afterward obtain the single great cart. Noble response has no fixed direction and depends only on the appropriate time. Outward appearances may seem crossed, yet what is addressed remains the actual present stimulus.

The Wondrousness of Stimulus and Response Lies in Spontaneity That Never Loses the Vow

Coarse and wondrous stimuli can each be mature or immature, while coarse and wondrous responses can each be shallow or deep. A temporary interval of cold or warmth in hell, followed by movement from an evil destiny to human or heavenly rebirth and then to the two vehicles, shows a stimulus gradually maturing and a response gradually deepening. The Maiden of Kindness gave rise to the aspiration to take another’s punishment in hell and was born in heaven. The aspiration is a wondrous stimulus, yet the result remains close to heaven and can therefore also be called a shallow response.

Response does not lose the stimulus because vows of kindness and compassion are like glue, causing vow-supported practice spontaneously to adhere to the stimulus. Without vows, even seeing suffering and happiness would not enable one to remove suffering or give happiness. Noble ones of the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings must still form an intention before response arises, like a painter planning and arranging an image before it is completed. “The Distinct receiving the Shared” uses the meaning of the Distinct Teaching to receive one within the Shared Teaching; because distinct delusion remains unsevered, going forth to beings is still a coarse response. A response that arises when the Dharma-body is pure and the three contemplations are present is instead like the moon in water or an image in a mirror.

The moon does not descend and a hundred waters do not rise, yet its reflection appears at once according to the length of the river and the roundness or squareness of the vessel. A bright mirror is clear through and through; whether one image or a thousand arrive, it does not select among them and expends no separate effort. Spontaneity does not mean the absence of compassionate vows. It means that vow, Dharma-body, and stimulus correspond without thought or conception, so that response immediately meets the stimulus.

Opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous further opens through the barrier between coarse and wondrous. Three grasses and two trees are all born from one earth and nourished by one rain. The growth of grasses and trees is a transformation of earth, and their disappearance is a return to earth; they have never departed from earth. The various skillful means were originally established to reveal one principle, and skillful means in their own substance are real. The stimuli of the nine realms can thereby all be opened into stimuli of the buddha realm, and previous responses no longer stand apart from wondrous response.

Why Supernormal Power Must Be Explained after Stimulus and Response

The subtlety of stimulus and response reaches the point where good can be produced and response can go forth, but this establishes only the relationship. Actually benefiting beings still requires the wheel of body to manifest bodies, the wheel of speech to teach Dharma, and the wheel of knowing others’ minds to know the stimulus. The subtlety of supernormal power therefore follows immediately.

The “Universal Gateway” chapter speaks of roaming throughout the Sahā world: this is the wheel of body. It speaks of teaching Dharma to sentient beings: this is the wheel of speech. Seeing a large lotus blossom allows one to know that the pool is deep; seeing teaching of great breadth likewise allows one to know that inward wisdom is great. The two wheels of body and speech therefore also reveal the wheel of mind. The wheel of mind makes little outward display, yet it is the basis on which body and speech can fit the stimulus.

Two bodies and two drums further unfold clearly the activity perfumed by kindness and compassion. The wheel of body manifests the body of the King of Medicine Trees and the body of the king of wish-fulfilling jewels. The wheel of speech proclaims the sound of the poison drum and the heavenly drum. Kindness and compassion perfume body and speech, and so there are two bodily manifestations and two verbal proclamations. Following one’s own intent and following others’ intent, together with the practice of illness and the practice of an infant, reveal the wheel of mind’s ability to accord with sentient beings in its manifestations.

A spider lowering itself foretells a happy event, and the cry of the graph 𮬧 in 𮬧鵲 foretells the arrival of a traveler: these are ordinary similes that infer the distant from the near. When wondrous principle is difficult to see directly, an auspicious sign can first indicate its activity secretly through something visible or audible.

Why Supernormal Power Is Not Illusion

The six supernormal powers listed by the treatise are the divine eye, divine ear, knowing others’ minds, knowing past lives, magical-body power, and extinction of the contaminants. “Supernormal” is explained through the naturally unfathomable heavenly mind, and “power” through wisdom-nature penetrating without obstruction. The six have no fixed order in cultivation, no fixed sequence in realization, and no fixed order in their use.

Illusion applied to grass and wood merely deceives the eyes, while the thing itself has not changed. Supernormal power actually transforms such conditions as earth and water, cold and heat; the water or fire produced can be used in fact by other people. Such a transformation is not the recompense of the person who uses it, but it is nevertheless something genuinely produced at that time through supernormal power. The reality of supernormal power therefore does not mean eternal fixity; it means that the transformative activity can actually accomplish benefit while it occurs.

Different sentient beings and practitioners possess different powers: some arise as recompense, some through taking medicines, some from fundamental dhyāna, and some through the liberations, spheres of mastery, totalities, and fourteen transformations. Bodhisattvas likewise possess five powers, six powers, or spontaneous constant illumination according to the dhyāna and wisdom on which they rely and the stage they have reached.

The Perfect Teaching reveals supernormal power through the six faculties. Knowing others’ minds and knowing past lives are included within the mind faculty; the nose is included because the faculties function mutually without obstruction, and the tongue because of the four unobstructed eloquences. All six faculties are wisdom and can therefore function mutually. Because they take the permanently abiding principle of the true mark as their object, they need not form a separate intention and remain spontaneously and constantly luminous. “Morally indeterminate” means without a separate act of intention; “transformation upon transformation” means that within one transformation another transformation can arise.

Resemblance-vision and partial-true vision distinguish depths of realization. Outwardly manifesting whatever body sentient beings delight to see and inwardly manifesting a body of beryl in which the buddhas of the ten directions appear are two kinds of bodily activity. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and other faculties can likewise possess inward and outward activities. The increases and decreases between eight hundred and twelve hundred merits of the six faculties are finally shown to be free through their mutual functioning: each can contract or expand without obstructing the others.

Body and Land Are Both Activities of Going Forth to the Stimulus

Supernormal power transforms not only the body but also the land. Principal recompense means the bodily forms of the ten realms; dependent recompense means the places upon which the ten realms depend. To go forth to the stimulus of evil destinies, one may manifest the forms of hell beings, animals, asuras, and so forth. To go forth to the human or heavenly stimulus, one may display conception, birth, family life, renunciation, and other events. To go forth to the stimulus of the two vehicles, one may manifest the body of an old bhikṣu, join the Saṅgha’s poṣadha, and observe the rules of discipline. To go forth to the stimuli of the various kinds of bodhisattva, one displays bodily practices corresponding to the contemplation and Dharma cultivated in each case.

Principal recompense is immeasurable, and the auspicious signs in the “Introduction” chapter gather one by one what supernormal power represents. The purity of the earth represents principle; light represents wisdom; entering concentration represents practice; the rain of flowers represents stages; fragrant wind represents the vehicle. The doubts of the four assemblies and the vision of many lands together represent stimulus and response; the earth’s movement represents supernormal power; the heavenly drum and teaching Dharma represent teaching the Dharma; the assembly’s joy represents retinues; and the cultivation of buddha-children represents benefit. The number of supernormal changes is not the point. The point is that all appear for the sake of a rare and wondrous matter.

Dependent recompense has two meanings. From the side of sentient beings, pure and impure lands arise according to whether vehicle and precepts are lax or urgent, producing lands with only śrāvakas, only bodhisattvas, or both communities together; the Buddha merely shares what they have brought about. From the Buddha’s side, kindness and compassion unite with spontaneous dhyāna and, in accord with the stimuli of the four evil destinies, humans and gods, śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and others, bring forth pure or impure lands in order to discipline or embrace them. The first reveals the karmic stimulus of sentient beings; the second reveals the Buddha’s supernormal power. Only when the two layers are viewed together can the response of dependent recompense be seen.

Intentional supernormal power is like painting with great effort, while spontaneous supernormal power is like a pure mirror presenting a likeness. Even among spontaneous transformations, making a land pure or impure for a stimulus of the nine realms can be called coarse in relational terms, while making it pure or impure for a stimulus of the buddha realm can be called wondrous in relational terms. A ray of light illuminating eighteen thousand lands and the three transformations of the land need not exceed other scriptures in quantity; they are wondrous because they open forth the one great matter.

The poor son regards himself merely as a lowly hired laborer, but the elder has always known him as his own child. Sentient beings take the Buddha’s skillful supernormal powers to be other affairs, while everything the Buddha does has always been only a buddha affair. Finally, opening the provisional to reveal the real returns all coarse supernormal powers into wondrous supernormal power. The relationship of stimulus and response established in the preceding subtlety now becomes immeasurable bodies and lands without departing from the one great matter.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

In reading the subtlety of stimulus and response, Zhanran first grasps the two ends of its introduction: the fruit is complete and the stimulus strikes. Correlating objects, wisdom, and practice with the three bodies is only a joint account from the perspectives of principle and phenomena; each of the three mutually includes all three, and the nine remain one. Stimulus and response are therefore not an additional activity outside the complete fruit, but the activity of the quiescent illumination of fruit-wisdom becoming manifest according to stimulus. Quiescent illumination and going forth to the stimulus arise together, preventing the Buddha’s response from being imagined as two stages, first remaining still and then raising a thought.

In the dispute concerning good and evil as stimulus, the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian supplies the decisive criterion: accounts of good alone or evil alone speak from the side of whichever force is predominant in scripture, while carrying good and evil together is the account according to actual principle. This judgment gives the seven children and the sick child, the Buddha’s kindly regard for a wholesome mind, the single hair unable to lift the body, and the other scriptural evidence their respective places. They are not three mutually exclusive answers but two levels of discourse: the predominant side and actual principle.

For the three times, four combinations, and thirty-six statements, Zhanran repeatedly preserves the two levels of principle and phenomena. Ultimately there are no substantial good and evil in the three times, yet phenomenally good and evil in all three can be discussed. Stimulus is named principally from the future, but when it actually stimulates the Buddha it is called present. Hidden response remains response even when it does not enter ordinary vision; the absence of something seen cannot be declared the absence of benefit. The arithmetic of the thirty-six statements therefore has an exact register: the four root statements are added only once, while the sixteen stimulus statements and sixteen response statements respectively show one stimulus with many responses and one response with many stimuli. The roots are not listed again to make forty.

This register also gives direction to the number 64,800. The count proceeds from one person and one action to three actions, the three times, and the ten realms; it then extends from one’s own practice to teaching others and finally to the mutual inclusion of the ten realms. Each step displays differences in the nearness or distance of what can be released and in the response that goes forth. The hell realm can contain a stimulus of the buddha realm only because hearing even a single sentence can become a cause of buddhahood and the noble response can go forth to it in hidden or manifest form.

The one detailed example of the hell existence is determined by the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian as the model for the other twenty-four existences. The six meanings are subtle incipience with going forth, junction with corresponding, and suitability with responding; kindness corresponds to good and compassion to evil. Each of the thirty-six statements contains one stimulus and one response. When the discussion reaches the Distinct and Perfect Teachings, Zhanran distinguishes the registers of the teaching-path and realization-path so that separate and perfect-universal accounts do not exclude one another. The questions concerning no fixed direction display only diverse uses in response to stimuli and do not establish good stimulus with evil response or the other cross-pairs as permanent rules.

At the end of the subtlety of stimulus and response, the root treatise merely lists the heading on contemplation of mind. Only then does Zhanran explain objects as like stimulus, wisdom as like response, and their union as the communion of stimulus and response, and point onward to a broader thirty-six-statement contemplation. This supplemental explanation shows how contemplation of mind continues the whole section while still preserving the distinction between what the root treatise leaves unexpanded and what the later commentary develops.

In the subtlety of supernormal power, the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian first points out that sequence is itself the reason for introduction: only after stimulus and response have been clarified does transformative activity begin. The question in the “Universal Gateway” chapter contains the three wheels, while the answer manifests body and speech and includes mind. The Medicine Tree, wish-fulfilling jewel, poison drum, and heavenly drum respectively break evil or engender good and are unified by the kindness of mind. The six faculties manifest supernormal power at the stages of resemblance, partial realization, and ultimate realization. Inward and outward are two activities, while their substance is not two. Variations in the numbers of merits only borrow the treatise text as an example; the account still concludes in the mutual functioning of the six faculties.

Finally, principal and dependent recompense are each judged according to teaching and flavor, while dependent recompense is further divided into what sentient beings bring about and what the Buddha produces. Zhanran concludes with the mirror: the morally indeterminate is like the mirror, the many stimuli like forms, and the issuing of response like images. Forms may be comely or ugly, yet the mirror has no preference. Whatever is manifested as pure or impure, broad or narrow, arises according to the stimulus. The wondrousness of supernormal power is therefore not judged by the number of transformations but by suchness as a mirror, compassion perfuming principle, and spontaneous going forth to the stimulus. Once the provisional has been opened, transformations previously separated from wondrousness are all revealed as the same buddha affair.

This also illuminates the order of the two subtleties. The subtlety of stimulus and response first explains how fruit-wisdom becomes manifest when the stimulus strikes; the subtlety of supernormal power then explains how body, speech, and mind function according to the stimulus. Apart from the latter, stimulus and response could remain an abstract relation; apart from the former, marvelous transformations could lose the stimulus to which they go forth. Zhanran threads them together through one mirror: when a form comes, an image appears, and the image appears precisely to benefit that form. The substance of the mirror does not move, yet its activity of going forth to the stimulus never ceases.