妙法蓮華經玄義 釋名·功德利益妙

Why do grasses and trees grow differently when the same rain falls upon them? Although the rain falls equally, their roots, stems, branches, and leaves each have their own time of ripening. The Buddha’s manifestation, radiance, and teaching are like a great cloud, thunder and lightning, and universal rain. Only when sentient beings truly leave suffering, engender good, and awaken have the grasses and trees grown; only within this reception of benefit are retinues formed.

Benefit is not merely something newly acquired. The poison drum makes delusion die, while the heavenly drum makes good arise. On one side, the fires of hell are stilled and evil causes no longer continue; on the other, discipline, concentration, and wisdom mature and wisdom gradually becomes clear. If either side is missing, the turning of a life remains incomplete.

Benefit therefore begins with coolness amid the fruit of recompense and then returns to the causes made in a single thought. Hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, and even the gods all have moments when former good can be activated. When greed, anger, and jealousy are taking shape in the mind, there is likewise a juncture at which evil can turn into good. Once suitability is activated, sentient beings’ wish to leave suffering and accomplish good meets the compassionate power that goes forth to their stimulus.

The seven benefits are like a picture of grasses and trees receiving moisture, while the ten benefits unfold that picture into a path: fruit, cause, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, the six perfections, and onward to the Land of Expedient Means and the Land of Real Recompense. Although the first account already comprehensively treats the twenty-five modes of existence, delusion still has shallow and deep layers. As long as realization is not yet fully clear, benefit does not stop at the first level.

Distant benefit is also not merely one Dharma assembly in the remote past. Some awakened in their seats; some did not forget across another birth; some once lost their original mind and later met a good spiritual friend who caused former good to arise again. Distant causes and conditions mature time after time and can still become proximate benefit today. The earlier net and the later net each make a catch; no encounter with light or hearing of Dharma passes in vain.

Circulating the scripture keeps this rain falling. Dharma-body bodhisattvas, embodied bodhisattvas, and ordinary teachers each have their own reach; even an ill boatmaster can ready a boat and ferry others across. When those who teach Dharma bring benefit to others, the merit of transformation also returns to sustain them, increasing the path and diminishing birth. Circulation does not merely carry words into the next generation. It enables the next generation still to leave suffering, engender good, and enter the real through the Dharma itself.

Contemplation of mind gathers distant and proximate benefit back into the present. Mind arises through causes and conditions and is immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle. Inward contemplation loosens attachment, while teachers, teachings, scriptures, and the Buddha’s protective power provide outward conditions. A tree grows within itself while also receiving the bounty of sun, moon, wind, and rain. Only when inward seeking and outward protection stand together is benefit complete.

The heart-essence of meritorious benefit is to see whether the Buddha-Dharma is actually taking place within a life: whether suffering has been stilled, evil causes have turned, wholesome roots are growing, and wisdom is becoming clear—and whether what has been received can become rain for another person. Benefit to oneself is called merit; benefit to others is called benefit. The two directions join as one buddha affair that never passes in vain.

Merit and Benefit

Tenth is meritorious benefit. Merit and benefit are in fact one and the same affair, without difference. If they are distinguished, benefit received by oneself is called merit, while benefiting others is called benefit. This topic has four parts: first, why benefit is introduced here; second, benefit within the main teaching; third, benefit within circulation; and fourth, benefit within contemplation of mind.

1. Why Benefit Is Introduced

Nothing the buddhas do ever passes in vain. The Explanatory Treatise says: “The Buddha enters the king samādhi. He first emits light to deliver those who were to be delivered earlier, and afterward emits light to deliver those who were to be delivered later.” This resembles catching fish with a net: the earlier casting makes a catch, and the later casting also makes a catch. Sentient beings who see the Buddha’s light or hear the Dharma never do so fruitlessly. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: “The treasure of Dharma shines universally and rains down sweet dew.” These are the two benefits of body and speech. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra and Sūtra of Questions by Brahmā both say that the Buddha emits light capable of breaking stinginess, anger, and delusion; the details are given in those scriptures.

In the present scripture, the four great disciples received the benefit of the Buddha’s opening the three to reveal the one. The Buddha said that the Tathāgata possesses further immeasurable merits that they could never exhaust by speaking. The great cloud rising in the world represents the benefit of form. Thunder sounding and lightning flashing represent the benefit of supernormal power. Rain falling equally represents the benefit of teaching the Dharma. The various grasses and trees each growing means that all four kinds of retinue receive the seven benefits. The subtlety of benefit therefore follows the subtlety of retinues.

2. Benefit within the Main Teaching

Benefit within the main teaching has three parts: first distant benefit, next proximate benefit, and third benefit in the present text.

Distant Benefit: The Poison Drum and the Heavenly Drum

Distant benefit began when the sixteen princes at the time of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence assisted in transformation and spread the teaching, striking both the poison drum and the heavenly drum. The arising of good can be shallow or deep, while the death of delusion can be slow or swift. From the goodness of humans and gods through the great tree is shallow benefit. From what is most real in the first mind through what is most real in the later mind is deep benefit. From breaking unwholesomeness through breaking dust-and-sand delusion is slow death. From the first breaking of ignorance through the later breaking of ignorance is swift death. Slow and swift death are the power of the poison drum; shallow and deep birth of good are the power of the heavenly drum. The scripture therefore says: “The Dharma king who breaks existence appears in the world and teaches the Dharma according to the desires of sentient beings.” This is the textual and doctrinal meaning of the two drums. The meaning of breaking existence has already been explained.

The Seven Benefits and Guanding’s Private Explanation

The benefit produced by teaching Dharma may first be summarized as seven kinds:

First is benefit to the fruit of recompense in the twenty-five modes of existence, also called the benefit of coolness on the ground. Second is the benefit of opening the causal blossom in the twenty-five modes of existence, also called the benefit of the small grass. Third is the analytical-dharma benefit of the samādhi of the true truth, also called the benefit of the middle grass. Fourth is the benefit of five supernormal powers from the samādhi of the conventional truth, also called the benefit of the upper grass. Fifth is the integral-dharma benefit of the samādhi of the true truth, also called the benefit of the small tree. Sixth is the benefit of six supernormal powers from the samādhi of the conventional truth, also called the benefit of the great tree. Seventh is the benefit of the king samādhi of the Middle Way, also called the benefit of the most real affair.

Those who receive the causal and fruit benefits of the twenty-five modes of existence can become karma-born retinues. Those who receive the analytical and integral benefits of the samādhi of the true truth can become vow-born retinues. Those who receive the benefits of five and six supernormal powers from the samādhi of the conventional truth can become supernormal-power-born retinues. Those who receive the benefit of the king samādhi of the Middle Way can become response-born retinues.

Guanding adds a separate private explanation here. In principle there should be four pairs and eight benefits. They are stated as seven only because the first item is opened into two while the final two are combined. If the final item is opened and the first is combined, there are likewise seven benefits. If both beginning and end are opened, there are eight: the sequential benefit of the Middle Way and the nonsequential benefit of the Middle Way are then listed separately. If both beginning and end are combined, there are six. The remaining combinations can be understood accordingly.

Expanding into Ten Benefits

The seven benefits have now been explained in brief. They may next be expanded into ten: first, benefit of fruit; second, benefit of cause; third, benefit to śrāvakas; fourth, benefit to pratyekabuddhas; fifth, benefit through the six perfections; sixth, benefit in the Shared Teaching; seventh, benefit in the Distinct Teaching; eighth, benefit in the Perfect Teaching; ninth, benefit in transformational birth-and-death; and tenth, benefit in real recompense.

1. Benefit of Fruit

Benefit of fruit is benefit to the fruit of recompense in the twenty-five modes of existence.

There are eight great hells: Avīci, Perception, Black Rope, Crushing Together, Screaming, Great Screaming, Scorching Heat, and Great Scorching Heat. Each great hell has sixteen small hells as its retinue, making a total of 136 places. These principal hells lie twenty thousand yojanas below the earth. Auxiliary hells may be on the earth or between the Iron-Enclosure Mountains. Suffering in the auxiliary hells is lighter, and suffering in the principal hells heavier. Those with the heaviest recompense pass through all 136 places; those of middling recompense do not pass through them all; and those with lighter recompense pass through still fewer. Beings there are constantly pressed by burning suffering. It cannot be described in full, and those who hear of it are terrified. The Sūtra of the Four Liberations calls this the path of fire. Two times—their first entry and their first emergence—permit transformation. When roots of good from former lives have ripened into a corresponding suitability, a noble one goes forth in response. Some are illuminated by light, some receive rain that extinguishes the fires, and some are shown and taught the Dharma by Devadatta or Vasu. They revive from oppressive heat, their bodies become cool, they receive hidden and manifest benefit, and their sufferings cease.

The eight freezing hells, including Apapa and the others, likewise comprise 136 places. Beings there can also receive hidden and manifest benefit so that their bodies become warm and comfortable. This is the benefit of coolness received amid the fruit of hell.

Animals are broadly of three kinds: aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial. Terrestrial animals further have three grades. The heaviest live under the earth and see no light; the middle live in mountains and forests; the lightest are kept by humans. The strong subdue the weak, drinking blood and eating flesh amid innumerable fears. The Sūtra of the Four Liberations calls this the path of blood. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response and frees them from fear, bringing hidden and manifest benefit. This is the benefit of coolness amid the fruit of animal life.

Hungry ghosts may dwell on ocean islets or among the mountains and forests of the human world. Some resemble humans and others beasts. Those with heavy recompense have fires of hunger blazing between their joints and never even hear the name of broth or water. Those of middling recompense seek fluids from pus, blood, excrement, and other filth. Those with lighter recompense occasionally obtain one meager meal, while being driven with knives and clubs to dam seas and fill rivers. The Sūtra of the Four Liberations calls this the path of knives. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response, produces fragrant milk from the hand, and gives it to them until they are full, bringing hidden and manifest benefit. This is the benefit of coolness amid the fruit of hungry-ghost existence.

Asuras may live in caves halfway up Mount Sumeru, beside the great ocean, or on the ocean floor. They constantly resent the gods and dwell in fear. When thunder sounds they take it for the heavenly drum, and rain from dragons turns into swords. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response and subdues them with gentle speech, bringing hidden and manifest benefit. This is the benefit of coolness amid the fruit of asura existence.

Although humans in the four continents possess better and worse recompense, all undergo birth, aging, illness, and death and share the lighter recompense of a hell. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response, enabling them to leave what they seek to leave and obtain what they seek, bringing hidden and manifest benefit.

Among the six desire heavens, the earth-dwelling gods separately suffer warfare with the asuras, while all six share the five signs of decline, the marks of death, and other hell-like sufferings. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response and brings hidden and manifest benefit.

The gods of the four dhyānas, Brahmā kings, the Heaven without Perception, the nonreturners’ heavens, and the other form-realm heavens do not suffer as beings in the lower realms do, yet they remain confined by form. At death, if they do not delight in entering dhyāna, wind contacts and blows upon the body. Apart from eye-consciousness, all the other consciousnesses then undergo suffering. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response and brings hidden and manifest benefit.

Although the gods of the four formless attainments do not undergo the sufferings of the desire and form realms, subtle afflictions remain like sores, tumors, delusion, or arrows entering the body. When roots of good from former lives can activate suitability, a noble one goes forth in response and brings hidden and manifest benefit.

Taken together, these benefits of coolness arise through the power of wholesome roots of kindness in ordinary and noble beings. Distinguished in detail, they originate when a bodhisattva first contemplates the evils to be prevented within the twenty-five modes of existence and gives rise to compassion, contemplates the good that can prevent those evils and gives rise to kindness, and perfumes the king samādhi with this kindness and compassion. Not abandoning sentient beings, the bodhisattva goes forth to correspond to their suitability and brings them benefit. This is broadly the first of the ten accounts implied when the “Great Scripture” speaks of the twenty-five samādhis breaking the twenty-five modes of existence.

2. Benefit of Cause

The second account concerns benefit to causes cultivated within the twenty-five modes of existence. The causes and fruits of self and other can each be raised from one convenient side according to the meaning, making the explanation easier. In the preceding benefit to the fruit of recompense, places and times of recompense differ; all benefits cannot be discussed in a single body, so they are easier to display through many people in many places. A single person’s mind, however, can produce immeasurable karma. The causal benefit of the twenty-five modes of existence is therefore explained through one person.

What is benefit of cause? Four causes can be destroyed and twenty-one causes accomplished. It can also be said that one cause is destroyed, one cause accomplished, and the remaining twenty-three causes both accomplished and destroyed.

If a person has no discipline to restrain the self and lets body and speech create karma for the four destinies, that person is called a hell person. If that person abandons evil and maintains discipline, the person is called a human or god. Yet if the prohibitions are severe and rigid, the person may waver and retreat when conditions arise, and evil karma will return. One may commit the four grave offenses and five heinous offenses or burn and destroy stūpas and monasteries. When such a mind arises, evil appears and discipline disappears; once this karma ripens, one necessarily falls into an evil destiny. If one wishes to leave this mind and accomplish discipline and goodness, there is a capacity whose suitability can be activated, drawing the Stainless Samādhi to go forth in response. The evil mind suddenly breaks open, the cause of hell ceases, and hidden and manifest benefit is received. Even when people today enter a place of practice to repent, if the evil mind does not turn, evil karma is not destroyed. If evil karma is not destroyed, the binding rope is not severed and the offense cannot be extinguished.

If a person is stingy, greedy, and flattering, hunts after reputation, lacks genuine virtue within, yet wants others to praise them, this evil arises and discipline is suppressed, leading to hungry-ghost existence. If one lacks shame and conscience, fails to repay debts, has no reverence, and is proud, angry, greedy, and gluttonous, this evil arises and discipline is suppressed, leading to animal existence. If one envies the worthy and capable, cultivates merit in order to defeat others, harbors a maggot-like poisonous mind, uses skillful devices to bring others down, and terrifies them, this evil arises and discipline is suppressed, creating asura karma. If one wishes to leave these three evil minds and accomplish disciplined goodness, good possesses a suitability that can be activated, and the noble function goes forth in response. The evil mind suddenly breaks open and disciplined goodness becomes complete. This is called the destruction of causes for the four destinies and the accomplishment of causes for humans and gods, bringing hidden and manifest benefit. This explanation is made in terms of cultivating causes in the human destiny.

Viewed in terms of the various destinies, wishing to leave hell and enter animal existence, leave animal existence and enter hungry-ghost existence, leave hungry-ghost existence and enter asura existence, or leave asura existence and enter the human path each has a cause transmitted from one stage to the next. When the cause is accomplished, karma turns. The remaining cases can be understood accordingly.

Firmly maintaining the five precepts, practicing humaneness and righteousness, being filial toward one’s parents, and possessing trust, reverence, shame, and conscience constitute human karma. Human karma has four grades: upper, middle, lower, and lowest. Viewed from fruit as recompense, Jambudvīpa is the lowest; viewed from entry into the path, Uttarakuru is the lowest. At times a wholesome mind fades while evil thoughts alone become strong. Good can still be accomplished and evil extinguished, so a stimulus of suitability exists and the noble function goes forth in response. Causes for the four evil destinies are destroyed, the four grades of human goodness are accomplished, and hidden and manifest benefit is received.

When the ten wholesome acts are maintained spontaneously without interruption and the wholesome mind matures, this is heavenly karma. Hence it is said that a purely evil mind without an intervening wholesome thought is karma for the evil destinies, because its fruit is pure suffering. Alternating wholesome and evil thoughts are human karma, because human recompense mixes suffering and happiness. The ten wholesome acts accomplished spontaneously are heavenly karma, because heavenly recompense occurs naturally.

There are further distinctions within the cultivation of the ten wholesome acts. When accompanied by a mind that protects the Dharma, they form the karma of the Four Great Kings. When accompanied by kindness that transforms others, they form the karma of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. When the mind becomes subtler and matures spontaneously, never harming sentient beings while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down and continuing goodness skillfully and without interruption, they form the karma of the Yāma Heaven. When the ten wholesome acts are joined to dhyāna, gather the mind, and attain coarse and fine abiding, they form the karma of Tuṣita Heaven. Desire-realm concentration is the karma of the Heaven of Delighting in Transformations. Access concentration that breaks phenomenal obstruction is the karma of the Heaven of Mastery over Others’ Transformations. The four dhyānas form karma of the form realm. When joined to kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity and concentration is attained among the associated mental factors, they form the karma of a Brahmā king. Extinguishing mind and cultivating the concentration without mind form the karma of the Heaven without Perception.

Someone asks: The Heaven without Perception is a heaven of wrong views. How can it become a capacity that provides a stimulus?

The answer is that the Great Collection Sūtra says: “Bodhisattvas train sentient beings in many ways, deviant or correct. They practice what is not the path and penetrate the buddha path.”

An older explanation says that a noble one places one portion of contaminated practice between two portions of the uncontaminated and perfumes it until it becomes uncontaminated. The present explanation instead says that the nine successive concentrations perfume contaminated practice into the uncontaminated; this forms the karma of a nonreturner. The four formless concentrations form karma of the formless realm.

Beings in these twenty-one modes of existence are repelled by the coarse suffering of their own plane and wish to cultivate escape, but cannot obtain what they seek or leave what they wish to abandon. At that moment, they are called capacities whose suitability can be activated. They draw the compassionate power of the twenty-one samādhis, which breaks their cultivated causes, enables them to leave what they wish to leave and accomplish what they seek, removes suffering and gives happiness, and brings hidden and manifest benefit. This is what the scripture means when it says: “The small grasses, small roots, small stems, small branches, and small leaves all obtain growth.”

Taken together, this arises through the power of wholesome roots of kindness in ordinary and noble beings. Distinguished in detail, it originates when a bodhisattva first maintains the 250 precepts, cultivates the root dhyānas and the others, and gives rise to kindness and compassion within every good dharma capable of preventing evil. The original vow of kindness and compassion perfumes the king samādhi. Not abandoning sentient beings, the bodhisattva goes forth to their suitability so each receives benefit. This is broadly the second of the ten accounts implied when the “Great Scripture” speaks of the twenty-five samādhis breaking the twenty-five modes of existence.

3. Benefit to Śrāvakas

The third account is benefit to śrāvakas. A person becomes weary of birth and death, receiving birth after death and returning to death after birth, exhausting the spirit in an endless round. Desire conceals the person, like a shaggy ox protecting its tail, so liberation cannot be gained. It is therefore said that when a person meets suffering and becomes weary of aging, illness, and death, nirvāṇa is taught so that every limit of suffering can be exhausted. Once revulsion has been inwardly resolved and the aspiration for escape firmly set, the person cultivates the śrāvaka path for this purpose.

While discipline is being maintained, the rākṣasas of affective attachment and views may damage the flotation bladder and make discipline impure. Because discipline is impure, samādhi does not appear. Without discipline and concentration, the uncontaminated cannot arise. The person therefore single-mindedly cultivates discipline, concentration, and wisdom, forming a capacity whose suitability can be activated and drawing the power of the four samādhis, including the Stainless, to empower the practice. Karma of the four destinies ceases to arise and discipline becomes pure.

When concentration and wisdom are cultivated evenly, wisdom with concentration is not mad and concentration with wisdom is not foolish. This is called worthiness, and worthiness means being near the noble. Cultivating such concentration and wisdom, the person strives single-mindedly as urgently as if extinguishing a fire on the head and longs for dhyāna and wisdom like a thirsty person longing for drink. Yet the twenty-one kinds of contaminated karma disturb the practice. If the power of the samādhis empowers the person, concentration arises, contemplation becomes clear, the four wholesome roots are accomplished, and the path of suppression fully matures. In one instant a turn occurs, true realization arises, and the person becomes a stream-enterer, breaking the afflictions seen by the truth and the eighty-eight compulsions within the twenty-five modes of existence.

This is the common empowerment of the twenty-five samādhis, enabling one to sever delusions seen by the truth and also remove four delusions of thought. Hence it is said that the sixteenth mind enters the path of cultivation. Next, upon entering the path of cultivation, one who leaps over stages at once uses the power of ten samādhis to break the thought-delusions of the five lower fetters. A person of dull faculties severs thought-delusion part by part and receives the empowerment of samādhi part by part, finally exhausting the delusions of the three realms and completing the benefit of the samādhi of the true truth. This is benefit to the middle grass.

Taken together, this arises through the power of wholesome roots of kindness in ordinary and noble beings. Distinguished in detail, it arises from original kindness and compassion: one first contemplates the goodness that analyzes emptiness and extinguishes form within the ten Dharma realms, gives rise to a great vow, and perfumes the king samādhi. Not abandoning sentient beings, one brings the benefit of the middle grass. This is broadly the third of the ten accounts implied when the “Great Scripture” speaks of the twenty-five samādhis breaking the twenty-five modes of existence.

4. Benefit to Pratyekabuddhas

The fourth account is benefit to pratyekabuddhas. A person whose former good is deep and sharp becomes weary of birth and death in an age without a buddha, delights in solitary quietude, and deeply contemplates causes and conditions. The scripture says: “One who has made offerings to buddhas and aspires to a superior Dharma is taught the pratyekabuddha path.” Such a person has great merit capable of activating suitability. A noble one goes forth in response, causing blossoms to fly and bangles to move, and the person receives hidden and manifest benefit and awakens to the pratyekabuddha path. This still belongs to the benefit of the middle grass.

5. Benefit through the Six Perfections

The fifth account concerns bodhisattvas of the six perfections. They contemplate the four truths and practice the six perfections.

When practicing giving, people may ask for one’s head, eyes, kingdom, city, wife, or children. The mind may waver, preventing the perfection of giving from being accomplished. Knowing this to be evil and wishing to accomplish the goodness of giving, the practitioner forms a capacity whose suitability can be activated. Empowered by samādhi, the obstruction of stinginess is suppressed; this breaks hungry-ghost existence. Once the obstructing mind has gone, the practitioner gives joyfully as if drinking sweet dew and knows that conditioned dharmas are frail, perilous, and impermanent. This is the hidden and manifest benefit received through the Mind-Joy Samādhi.

When discipline is accomplished, it suppresses the obstruction that destroys discipline, breaks hell existence, and brings the benefit of the Stainless Samādhi. When patience is accomplished, it suppresses the obstruction of anger, breaks animal existence, and brings the benefit of the Nonretrogression Samādhi. When dhyāna is accomplished, it suppresses the obstruction of distraction, breaks human existence, and brings the benefit of four samādhis. When vigor is accomplished, it suppresses the obstruction of laziness, breaks asura existence, and brings the benefit of the Gladness Samādhi. When wisdom is accomplished, it suppresses the obstruction of delusion, breaks heavenly existence, and brings the benefit of seventeen samādhis.

The six obstructions are karma of the six destinies and are explained in detail in the Bodhisattva Discipline Manual. Because karma of the six destinies is suppressed, the practitioner is no longer troubled by the obstructions, obtains the five supernormal powers, travels through the six destinies, and accomplishes the practice of the six perfections. This is the benefit of the upper grass. The generally shared response is as explained above. Distinguished in detail, it arises when one originally contemplated good and evil among the phenomena of the ten Dharma realms, gave rise to a great vow, perfumed the three samādhis, and did not abandon sentient beings.

6. Benefit in the Shared Teaching

The sixth account is benefit received by practitioners of the Shared Teaching, those who cultivate in common among the three vehicles. At the dry-wisdom ground, nature ground, ground of eight persons, and ground of seeing, they receive benefit through the twenty-five samādhis. From the ground of diminishing onward through the tenth ground, the twenty-one samādhis empower them to break delusions of thought and begin removing ignorance of particulars. This is called the benefit of the small tree. Kindness and compassion in their general and particular forms can be understood as above.

7. Benefit in the Distinct Teaching

The seventh account is benefit received by practitioners of the Distinct Teaching. Binding conditions to the Dharma realm in a sequential mind, they enter the ten abodes through one thought of the Dharma realm and receive the benefit of the samādhi of the true truth; enter the ten practices and ten dedications and receive the benefit of the samādhi of the conventional truth; and enter the ten grounds and receive the benefit of the samādhi of the truth of the middle. This is the benefit of the great tree. General and particular kindness and compassion can be understood as above.

8. Benefit in the Perfect Teaching

The eighth account is benefit received by practitioners of the Perfect Teaching. They cultivate the one real principle of the three truths, binding conditions to the Dharma realm within one thought of the Dharma realm. When they pass through conditions and face objects, every lifting and lowering of the foot is a place of awakening. Their every thought corresponds to the perfections as they cultivate the four samādhis and contemplate the ten kinds of object. When suitability can be activated, a noble one goes forth in response and they suddenly awaken. Whether resemblance or truth is attained, they receive hidden and manifest benefit. This is the Perfect Teaching’s perfect use of the twenty-five samādhis to empower them, break the twenty-five modes of existence, reveal true-self nature, and bring the ultimate benefit of the most real affair.

9. Benefit in Transformational Birth-and-Death

The ninth account is benefit in transformational birth-and-death, the benefit received by people in the Land of Expedient Means with Remainder. Among the first eight accounts are four places, or counted more fully nine: śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas of the Shared Teaching, practitioners in the thirty minds of the Distinct Teaching, and practitioners with resemblance-understanding in the Perfect Teaching. These people have broken only views and thought and have not removed ignorance. Ignorance moistens the uncontaminated so that they undergo birth in the Land of Expedient Means. The later passage therefore says: “I become a buddha in another land and have a different name. In that land they seek the Buddha’s wisdom and hear this scripture.” This is their entry into the One Vehicle in that land.

The Śrīmālā Sūtra says: “Three kinds of person are born in the land of transformational birth-and-death: powerful arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas.” The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra speaks of three kinds of mind-made body. First is the mind-made body of the blissful Dharma, which represents the intent of people of the two vehicles to enter nirvāṇa and attain bliss. Second is the samādhi mind-made body, which represents the intent of the Shared Teaching to emerge into provisional existence, transform beings, and use supernormal-power samādhi. Third is the self-nature mind-made body, which represents the intent of the Distinct Teaching to cultivate the self-nature of the middle way.

In the general term “mind,” bliss is the intent to make emptiness, samādhi is the intent to make provisional existence, and self-nature is the intent to make the middle. Practitioners with resemblance-understanding in the Distinct and Perfect Teachings have not yet produced true realization and are therefore all said to act through intent. Hence a treatise says: “At that time one passes beyond the ground of intent and abides in the activity of wisdom.” Only when true realization has arisen can this be the activity of wisdom; before true realization arises, one still remains on the ground of intent.

When these people are born in that land, those who analyze dharmas are duller and those who comprehend them in their integrity are sharper. Practitioners of the Distinct Teaching have already cultivated provisional contemplation and are somewhat sharper; practitioners of the Perfect Teaching previously understood the immediate middle and are sharpest. Because sharp and dull differ, their cultivation in that land produces sequential and nonsequential benefits, with sequential and nonsequential uses of the twenty-five samādhis in response. Thus nine kinds of person are born in the Land of Expedient Means, begin there to see true-self nature within the modes of existence, and receive the benefit of the most real affair.

When distinguished, the Land of Expedient Means lies beyond the three realms. When phenomena are immediately true, it need not be far away. A later passage says: “If one can deeply trust and understand, one thereby sees the Buddha constantly present on Vulture Peak, surrounded by great bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvaka monks, teaching the Dharma.” This is the meaning of the Land of Expedient Means.

10. Benefit in Real Recompense

The tenth account is benefit in the Land of Real Recompense, the benefit received by people in that land. In the eighth account, two kinds of person are born in the Land of Expedient Means; another two kinds have completely broken ignorance and seen the true mark, and only then are born in the Land of Real Recompense. Yet ignorance has very many layers. Although the three worthy and ten noble ones dwell in Real Recompense, their recompense is not exhausted and residual delusions remain. They must further receive forty-one rounds of benefit from the king samādhi. At wondrous awakening, they exhaust vertically and pervade horizontally and are neither born nor destroyed. Because ignorance is forever exhausted and wisdom perfectly complete, this is called neither birth nor death. Because stimulus and response are also fulfilled and benefit consummated, it is likewise called neither birth nor death.

When distinguished, the Land of Real Recompense lies beyond the Land of Expedient Means. When phenomena are immediately true, it too is not far away. The scripture says: “One sees the Sahā world with lapis lazuli as its ground, level and even, with terraces, towers, and observatories made of precious things and bodhisattvas alone dwelling throughout.” This is the meaning of the Land of Real Recompense.

Gathering the Ten Benefits and Three Rounds of Questions and Answers

Whether capacities are coarse or wondrous, responses Distinct or Perfect, lands pure or impure, and benefits shallow or deep, none lies outside these ten accounts. The ten embrace the Dharma realm, and the range of benefit has now been treated in outline. The main meaning can be understood without further prolixity. Thus, at the time of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence, the poison drum diminished delusion and birth-and-death; hearing occurred at distant and proximate times, and death was slow or swift. The heavenly drum increased the path; hearing likewise occurred at distant and proximate times. Benefit was therefore deep or shallow and produced benefits for karma-born, supernormal-power-born, vow-born, and response-born retinues.

Someone asks: If the first account has already broken the twenty-five modes of existence and brought benefit, nothing remains to be broken and no further benefit remains to discuss. Why must the explanation continue through the tenth account?

The answer is this. First, the suffering of fruit as recompense in the twenty-five modes of existence is broken and the benefit of recompense obtained. Next, the suffering of causes in those modes is broken and benefit to cultivated causes obtained. Next, the suffering of views and thought within the twenty-five modes is broken and the benefit of the samādhi of the true truth obtained. Next, emptiness within the twenty-five modes is broken, enabling emergence from emptiness into provisional existence and bringing the benefit of the samādhi of the conventional truth. Next, the two extremes of existence and emptiness within the twenty-five modes are broken, revealing the benefit of the king samādhi of the Middle Way. Next, the Land of Expedient Means with Remainder is broken; one emerges from the twenty-five provisional existences and obtains the two benefits of the conventional and king samādhis. Next, the Land of Real Recompense is broken, only revealing the benefit of the king samādhi more deeply. As long as the three truths are not yet completely clear, the meaning of benefit does not cease. This is why there are ten accounts.

Someone next asks: Do the three truths belong only to the ultimate ground, or do they also extend to ordinary beings?

The answer is as follows. The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra says: “The form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness of sentient beings.” It also says: “Unequaled form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.” The Sūtra for Humane Kings says: “Dharma-nature form and Dharma-nature feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.” The “Great Scripture” says: “Because the cause of this form is extinguished, constant form is attained; so too for feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.” Thus, from ordinary to noble, all are existence; this is the conventional truth.

The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: “The suchness of sentient beings, the suchness of Maitreya, and the suchness of worthy and noble ones are one suchness, not two suchnesses.” The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra says: “Form is empty; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are empty. If there were any dharma beyond nirvāṇa, it too would be like illusion and transformation.” Thus ordinary and noble are all empty; this is the true truth.

The “Great Scripture” says: “Is there a self within the twenty-five modes of existence? The answer is that there is a self. Self is buddha-nature, and buddha-nature is the middle way. Among dharmas born through causes and conditions, not one color or one fragrance is outside the middle way.” Thus, from ordinary to noble, all are the middle way, the truth of the first meaning.

Someone further asks: In discussing distant benefit, many passages from the scripture remain available. The first says, “From distant kalpas I have praised and shown the path of nirvāṇa, forever exhausting the suffering of birth and death; I have always spoken in this way.” The second says, “In the past, in the presence of two trillion buddhas, I taught the unsurpassed path.” The third says, “The causes and conditions from former lives I will now explain.” Which passage should be taken as the definite basis?

The answer is this. The first passage says only “from distant kalpas.” The word “distant” is indeed remote and vast, but it does not yet reveal the original ground and may refer only to an intervening time. The second passage says only “formerly, in the presence of two trillion buddhas.” It gives no number of kalpas, so its distance is hard to know; compared with the later passage, it seems quite near. The present discussion of distant benefit therefore takes the explicit passage following the third: “Grind the earth of a three-thousandfold world into ink, travel eastward through one thousand worlds before placing one dot, grind into dust all the worlds that were dotted and not dotted, count one kalpa for each particle of dust, and then pass immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhya kalpas beyond that number.” In light of this explicit passage, the time of the two trillion buddhas was only yesterday.

From the time of that buddha onward began the connection of the Great Vehicle. That buddha taught the scripture for eight thousand kalpas, and the sixteen princes repeated its teaching for eighty-four thousand kalpas. The scriptural and exegetical teaching was extensive and the time profound. Some listeners may have awakened in their seats, some may have been transformed in the intervening time, and some may have ripened only recently. They all finally reached the place of treasure, received Dharma-nature bodies, and became response-born retinues. Inwardly concealing their true virtue and outwardly manifesting various identities, they matured sentient beings together and performed buddha affairs. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: “Though they have attained the path and turned the Dharma wheel, they still practice the bodhisattva path.” This is the meaning.

Among those who listened at that time but did not receive real benefit, some received benefit of resemblance and did not forget across another birth. Those who received only benefit of names or contemplative practice forgot across another birth, though some did not. If those who forgot met a good spiritual friend, their former good arose again; if they met a bad friend, they lost the original mind and therefore needed many kinds of treatment in the intervening time. Some were ripened principally through the Great Vehicle, others principally through the Small Vehicle. Those born in the Land of Expedient Means heard various paths, yet these were in reality all for the One Vehicle. They too were brought to the place of treasure, received Dharma-nature bodies, and obtained the ninth and tenth real benefits in that land. The bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust particles of a thousand worlds belong to this stream. Those who had already reached consummation earlier are called recipients of distant benefit. Sentient beings among them who remain on the śrāvaka ground today receive the further discussion of proximate benefit that follows.

The lower half of fascicle six of the Fahua Xuanyi ends here. What follows is the first half of fascicle seven, still headed “Taught by the Great Master Zhiyi of Tiantai.”

Proximate Benefit

Proximate benefit begins at the place of quiescent extinction. As soon as the Buddha first completed awakening, he turned the Dharma wheel and struck the poison drum and heavenly drum, benefiting sentient beings through the period before the Lotus Sutra. The benefits still had shallow and deep levels, while death still occurred slowly or swiftly. Why? The teaching is originally addressed to conditions. Conditions are broadly of four kinds, the teachings likewise four, and the masters of the teachings likewise four. All are called Dharma kings and all possess the king samādhi. They themselves break the twenty-five modes of existence and benefit sentient beings through the seven benefits, just as explained above.

Great and Small Vehicle scriptures further say that the Buddha enters the king samādhi, emits light, and teaches Dharma so that beings undergoing suffering as fruit in wholesome and evil destinies receive benefit. The Āgamas, for example, say that beings see the Buddha’s radiance and receive the Buddha’s touch, whereupon all the sufferings of the six destinies are healed. The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra also says that the Buddha emits light upon hell beings, immediately removing their suffering and causing them to be born as high as the sixth heaven. Removal of suffering is benefit of fruit, while heavenly birth is benefit of cause. The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra calls these benefits of blossoms and leaves.

When the Buddha emits light, places of darkness likewise become completely bright. Beings there each think: “How have sentient beings suddenly appeared here?” This too is benefit of fruit. Buddhas who serve as masters of all four teachings can give these benefits of cause and fruit.

When benefits are distinguished, they differ in depth. Śrāvakas sever the principal compulsions, while pratyekabuddhas further wear away habitual tendencies; both are called the middle grass. Bodhisattvas suppress delusion and also deliver sentient beings. Hence the scripture says: “Seeking the place of the World-Honored One, I shall become a buddha and practice vigor and concentration.” This is called benefit to the upper grass and is the character of benefit arising through the Tripiṭaka Teaching master’s power of wholesome roots of kindness.

The scripture says: “If bodhisattvas possess firm wisdom, comprehend the three realms, and seek the highest vehicle.” These three kinds of person contemplate non-arising together. Beyond the preceding benefit of analytical wisdom, they possess a separate skillful means of deliverance that comprehends truth in its integrity. This is called the growth-benefit of the small tree and is the character of benefit bestowed by the master of the Shared Teaching.

The scripture says: “There are also those who abide in dhyāna, obtain supernormal power, hear that all dharmas are empty, and rejoice greatly in mind.” Abiding in dhyāna means abiding in the nine great dhyānas. Great rejoicing in mind means ascending to the ground of joy and delivering countless hundreds of thousands of koṭis of sentient beings; this is called the growth of the great tree. Beyond the preceding benefits of analytical and integral approaches to cause and fruit, they separately obtain discriminative wisdom of paths through the knowledge of all modes. This is the character of benefit bestowed by the master of the Distinct Teaching.

The scripture says: “I will now teach you the most real affair.” This does not merely include the preceding benefits; it immediately breaks ignorance, reveals buddha-nature, and brings ultimate real benefit. This is the character of benefit bestowed by the master of the Perfect Teaching.

The benefits of the first three teachings are such that the inferior cannot include the superior, while the superior can include the inferior. The meaning can be understood.

Explained through the five flavors, the milk teaching has only four benefits: cause, fruit, the great tree, and the real affair. It does not teach the three grasses and one tree because Great Vehicle scriptures did not enter the hands of people of the two vehicles, who were like the deaf and mute. The curds teaching has only the four benefits of the three grasses and the others. Raw ghee possesses all seven benefits. Refined ghee lacks the three grasses that analyze dharmas but possesses the seven benefits that comprehend dharmas in their integrity and the others. Clarified essence has only the benefit of the real affair. All preceding benefits are coarse; the present benefit is wondrous.

From the place of quiescent extinction through the Lotus Sutra, embodied bodhisattvas receive only the first eight accounts and do not receive the ninth and tenth. There is another sense in which benefit is obtained: bodhisattvas come from Dharma-nature bodies into limited bodies, become vow-born, supernormal-power-born, response-born, and other retinues, proceed to break ignorance, and sever residual grades. In this sense, they can also be said to receive the ninth and tenth benefits. Thus the ten benefits are taught in outline from the place of quiescent extinction through the Lotus Sutra.

Someone asks: When a Dharma-body bodhisattva hears a responsive-body buddha teach Dharma and receives benefit within the responsive body, does the Dharma-body also receive benefit?

The answer is: It is like polishing a mirror. As the mirror becomes brighter, the reflected forms also become bright.

Someone asks again: If the responsive body hears Dharma and benefits and the Dharma-body also benefits, then when the responsive body manifests illness, does the Dharma-body also become ill?

The answer is: If this illness were real, the responsive body’s illness would mean that the Dharma-body was also ill. The responsive body manifests illness only because the illness is not real. Since it is not real, the responsive body is without illness and the Dharma-body is likewise without illness. Furthermore, if the responsive body manifests illness only narrowly, one should know that benefit to the Dharma-body is likewise narrow. If the responsive body can manifest illness broadly, benefit to the Dharma-body is likewise broad.

The cases can now be analyzed through several sets of propositions. First: fruit benefits while cause does not; cause benefits while fruit does not; both benefit; or neither benefits. These can be understood through present examples.

Second: there is benefit through destruction, benefit through accomplishment, benefit through both destruction and accomplishment, and benefit through neither destruction nor accomplishment. Benefit through neither destruction nor accomplishment is the benefit of coolness. Causes for the four destinies receive benefit through destruction. The cause of neither perception nor nonperception receives benefit through accomplishment. The causes between them receive benefit through both accomplishment and destruction.

Third: in some cases, benefit of cause is itself benefit of fruit and benefit of fruit is itself benefit of cause. This is the meaning of the cause shifting and the fruit changing in transformational birth-and-death. In other cases, benefit of cause is not an increase of the path and benefit of fruit is not a diminution of birth; when attained they are benefits of cause and fruit, and when not attained they are still benefits of cause and fruit. These are the recompense-causes and recompense-fruits of limited birth. In still other cases, benefit of cause is increase of the path and benefit of fruit is diminution of birth; when not attained they are not benefits of cause and fruit, and when attained they are benefits of cause and fruit. These are habituated cause and habituated fruit.

Fourth: true benefit without conventional benefit belongs to the two vehicles. Conventional benefit without true benefit belongs to bodhisattvas of the six perfections. Conventional benefit first and true benefit later likewise belongs to bodhisattvas of the six perfections. True benefit first and conventional benefit later belongs to bodhisattvas of the Shared Teaching. True and conventional benefits without benefit of the middle, and benefit of the middle that is not true or conventional benefit, belong to the Distinct Teaching. True benefit that is itself conventional benefit and also itself the benefit of the Middle Way belongs to the Perfect Teaching.

Benefit in the Present Text

Third is benefit in the present text. The present scripture fully possesses the seven benefits. Although they differ, they are immediately without difference. Sprouts, stems, branches, and leaves grow differently but arise from the same ground. The seven benefits truly have shallow and deep levels, yet none is outside the true mark. They are therefore said to be differentiated and undifferentiated. The differentiated coarse benefits of the various scriptures all enter the present scripture’s undifferentiated wondrous benefit. Some advance and enter the various wondrous benefits; others remain in their stage and become wondrous benefits.

In the benefit of advancing and entering, what was originally coolness on the ground now advances to engender the Great Vehicle, and the mind of understanding becomes bright and pure. One may advance into the subtlety of contemplative practice, resemblance, or partial realization. What was originally the causal benefit of humans and gods now enters resemblance and partial realization. What was originally benefit to trainees and adepts of the Small Vehicle now advances to break ignorance and receives the wondrous benefit of partial realization, like an echo entering a horn and turning from small to great. Advancement and entry in the Shared and Distinct Teachings can be understood accordingly.

In benefit through remaining in one’s stage, what was originally coarse fruit—coolness on the ground—becomes the benefit of wondrous principle in its own place. Remaining with coarse causal benefit becomes the benefit of the subtlety of contemplative practice. Remaining with the coarse benefit of trainees and adepts becomes the wondrous benefit of resemblance. Opening the coarse is itself the wondrous, and no separate advance and entry is required. The Shared and Distinct Teachings can be understood accordingly.

Advancing and entering wondrous benefit is relational wondrousness revealed in relation to coarse benefit. Benefit through remaining in one’s stage is absolute wondrousness.

When retinues are classified according to the various coarse benefits, the two benefits of fruit and cause can form karma-born retinues. The middle and upper grasses, small tree, and the others can form vow-born and supernormal-power-born retinues. From the great tree’s vision of nature onward, all are included among response-born retinues. When retinues are classified according to advancement and remaining in one’s stage, wondrous principle, provisional names, and the subtlety of contemplative practice can form karma-born retinues. Wondrous resemblance can form vow-born and supernormal-power-born retinues. Partial realization can form response-born retinues. This is the character of benefit in the present scripture.

3. Benefit within Circulation

Benefit within circulation has three parts: first, the teachers; second, the methods; and third, the benefits.

The Teachers

Those who circulate the scripture include both ordinary and noble persons. Dharma-body bodhisattvas are adorned by vows and can bring sentient beings in this land, other lands, lower lands, and upper lands the seven, nine, and ten provisional and real benefits. The merit of transformation returns to them, sustaining the Dharma-body and increasing the path while diminishing birth. Embodied bodhisattvas can also circulate the scripture in this and other lands, enabling others to receive the seven provisional and real benefits. The merit of transformation returns to them and increases the path while diminishing birth, but they cannot benefit upper lands. Ordinary teachers can likewise circulate the scripture in this land, enabling others to receive the seven provisional and real benefits. The merit of transformation returns to them and increases their own grade and stage.

The Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings therefore says: “An ill guide remains on this shore yet prepares a boat and raft and ferries others to the other shore.” This is the meaning.

Someone asks: Can an ordinary person circulate the scripture only for ordinary people and cause only ordinary people to benefit, or can an ordinary person also cause noble ones to benefit?

The answer is: There are two kinds of noble one—noble ones of the Small Vehicle and noble ones of the Great Vehicle. The scripture says: “If one has truly attained arhatship but conceives that one has entered extinction, then upon encountering another buddha one comes to resolution.” Master Nanyue says that a teacher of the first reliance is called “another buddha.” Because ignorance is not yet broken, such a teacher is called “other”; because the teacher can know the Tathāgata’s secret treasury and deeply awaken to perfect principle, the teacher is called “buddha.”

After the Buddha’s extinction, a person who has truly attained arhatship may not yet understand provisional and real. Upon meeting a teacher of the first reliance, that person can come to resolution, accomplish the benefit of resemblance, and advance into the benefit of partial realization. This passage can therefore serve as supporting evidence that an ordinary teacher can circulate the scripture for noble ones of the Small Vehicle and cause them to benefit.

The scripture also says: “When a person whose six faculties are purified teaches the Dharma, the buddhas of the ten directions all delight in seeing that person and all face the place where that person dwells as they teach Dharma; all gods and dragons who hear what that person teaches rejoice greatly.” This is explicit textual evidence that an ordinary teacher can teach Dharma to great noble ones.

The Methods

Second are the methods for circulating the scripture, explained through the words of noble ones. The scripture says: “If sentient beings do not trust and accept, then within other profound Dharmas one should show, teach, benefit, and delight them.” “Other” means accompanied by skillful means; “profound” means revealing the Middle Way. Revealing the Middle Way while accompanied by skillful means is the Distinct Teaching. Skillful means alone, without revealing the Middle Way, belongs to the Shared, Tripiṭaka, and other teachings. The scripture permits use of the Distinct Teaching to assist the Perfect Teaching; by analogy, the Shared Teaching should likewise be usable to assist the Perfect Teaching.

Another passage says: “Use still other skillful means to help reveal the first meaning.” How could this exclude the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings? A bodhisattva has already obtained real wisdom and also understands the intention of the provisional. The bodhisattva neither confuses the real with the provisional nor calls the provisional real. Yet when the real Dharma is being circulated and sentient beings do not trust it, the provisional must be applied for the sake of the real, using the shallow to assist the profound without falsehood. This is circulating the scripture through the joint use of provisional and real.

The “Peaceful Practices” chapter says: “If difficult questions are asked, do not answer with a Small Vehicle Dharma. Explain only through the Great Vehicle and cause the questioner to attain the knowledge of all modes.” This permits only the real to be used in circulating the scripture. Yet it also says: “Teach according to what is suitable,” which does not exclude the provisional.

People who teach Dharma today may use only the Great Vehicle or only the Small Vehicle; neither understands the Buddha’s intent. One who circulates the scripture well uses methods appropriate to the time. Though the mouth teaches the provisional, the inward mind does not depart from the real Dharma. When sentient beings receive the seven provisional and real benefits, the circulation of the scripture is fulfilled.

The Benefits

Third are the benefits. Benefit within circulation does not have to wait until the scripture’s third, circulation division. The main teaching already points to the benefits of circulating the scripture in the future.

After “The Parable” chapter, at the end of the “Bestowal of Predictions” chapter, and within “The Dharma Teacher” chapter, the scripture teaches the meritorious benefits of circulating it. One who hears a single verse after the Tathāgata’s extinction receives a prediction of unsurpassed complete awakening; how much more one who circulates and proclaims it. One who secretly teaches even a single person already has great merit; how much more one who teaches broadly in an assembly. The sympathetic-joy merit of even the fiftieth person in the chain of transmission is beyond the sphere of the two vehicles; how much more that of a person who first hears and rejoices in the assembly. Never Disparaging circulated even a single sentence and obtained purification of the six faculties; how much more one who circulates the scripture in full.

Even the merit of a disciple of the first grade who circulates the scripture cannot be compared with practicing the five perfections for immeasurable koṭis of kalpas. How much more is this true of the fifth grade, whose merit is like the space of the ten directions—how could it have a boundary? The merit of those in the five grades who circulate the scripture cannot be exhausted. All are said to “enter the Tathāgata’s room, wear the Tathāgata’s robe, and sit on the Tathāgata’s seat.” All the Tathāgata’s Dharmas transcend number. How then could the eighty thousand great beings and bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust particles of a thousand worlds be fully spoken or fully known? No one but the Tathāgata can know them exhaustively.

An ordinary teacher who circulates the scripture can bring the seven benefits to ordinary people. The scripture says: “This scripture is good medicine for the illnesses of the people of Jambudvīpa. If one hears this scripture, one neither ages nor dies.” This means recognizing the true mark of aging and death amid aging and death. Aging and death are dharmas of recompense; recognizing their true mark brings the cool benefit of wondrous principle and is also benefit of recompense.

Because one can retain this scripture, one is born in the Land of Bliss, dwells within a lotus blossom, and is not troubled by desire. This is also freedom from the ten disturbances, the wholesome practice of the bodhisattva path, the benefit of names, the subtlety of contemplative practice, and the subtlety of cultivated causes. Attaining dhāraṇī and being able to turn provisional existence and enter emptiness are the benefits of the lower, middle, and upper medicinal grasses and also the benefit of the small tree. Attaining the dhāraṇī of hundreds of thousands of turnings is benefit to the great tree. Attaining the dhāraṇī of skillful means in the sound of Dharma is real benefit of resemblance. If one hears for even a moment and attains ultimate complete awakening, this is real benefit.

Again, when someone digs into a high plateau and sees dry soil, this represents the benefits of the lower, middle, and upper medicinal grasses. Seeing mud represents the benefits of the small and great trees. Reaching water represents the benefit of the most real affair. Such benefits can still be obtained in the last five hundred years; how then could circulating the scripture for the benefit of others today fail to bring the seven benefits?

4. Benefit within Contemplation of Mind

The Small Vehicle says that when a thought arises but has not yet moved body or speech, it is not called karma. The Great Vehicle says that an offense made in one instant can cause one to fall into Avīci. Avīci is the place of the greatest suffering as recompense; an instant is the shortest time in which karma can arise. If a heavy karma is already complete when so brief a mind arises momentarily, how could the other nine Dharma realms not also be fully present? If one can purify the mind, all karma is purified.

Contemplation of a pure mind means contemplating every mind as a dharma born through causes and conditions, immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle, with the three contemplations in one mind. Through this contemplation, one knows that mind is not a real mind and that mind has only a name; knows that dharmas are not real dharmas and that dharmas are without self; knows that names are nameless and thus equal to self; and knows that dharmas are no dharmas and thus equal to nirvāṇa.

When this understanding arises, attachment to self and what belongs to self becomes like cloud and illusion. This is the benefit of coolness on the ground. Wholesome minds of trust, reverence, shame, and conscience arise and the aspiration toward emptiness, provisional existence, and the middle becomes courageous. This is benefit of cause. Thought after thought corresponding to immediate emptiness brings the benefits of the middle grass, upper grass, small tree, and the others. Thought after thought corresponding to immediate provisional existence brings the benefit of the great tree. Thought after thought corresponding to the immediate middle brings the benefit of the most real affair. The seven benefits can be distinguished within the benefiting mind of one thought.

A person who practices only the contemplation of non-arising and believes only in inward benefit to mind, without believing in the benefit of the Buddha’s empowering force from without, falls into delusion concerning self-nature. A person who believes only in the Buddha’s external empowerment and does not seek benefit within the mind falls into delusion concerning other-nature. Delusion concerning shared nature and delusion concerning causelessness can be understood accordingly.

A person attached to self-nature sees with their own eyes that someone unable to pull a heavy object forward requires assistance from a force to the side. Why then not believe that a person burdened by the weight of defilement and offenses can have contemplative wisdom benefited through the establishment of the Buddha’s power? Again, from where did you obtain this inward contemplation of non-arising? From a teacher, from a scripture, or through your own awakening? Teacher and scripture are your outward conditions. Even if you awakened on your own, you necessarily received hidden empowerment but do not recognize the kindness, like a tree that fails to recognize the kindness of the sun, moon, wind, and rain.

Three further matters show that you do not recognize outward empowerment: first, you do not trust the teaching; second, you do not yourself seek outward empowerment; third, you do not teach others to do so. This is only your own lack of trust, not an absence of outward benefit.

A scripture says: “Neither inward nor outward, yet inward and outward.” Because it is inward, the liberation of the buddhas is sought within the mind. Because it is outward, the buddhas protect and keep one in mind. How can outward benefit be disbelieved? Delusions concerning other-nature, shared nature, and causelessness can be understood accordingly. Because dharmas are immediately provisionally existent, there is no self-nature. Because they are immediately empty, there is no other-nature. Because they are immediately the middle, there is no shared nature. Because both are illuminated, there is no causeless nature.

5. Concluding Provisional and Real

Guangzhai says: “Illuminating the objects of the three threes is provisional, while illuminating the objects of the four ones is real.” The present explanation does not use this interpretation. If the fruit of the Great Vehicle is taken as great principle, why not take the fruit of the Small Vehicle as small principle? Guangzhai answers that the small fruit is not true and therefore its fruit is not made principle. But if so, how are the provisional teaching and those who practice provisionally ever real? If a provisional teaching and provisional practitioners can be established, why not establish provisional principle? Moreover, if the provisional has no principle, the conventional should not be called a truth. Since it is called the conventional truth, the provisional should not stop at three.

Guangzhai further says that the real has four items. But cause and fruit are two dharmas; how can two dharmas be made the one principle? The scripture says: “Contemplate all dharmas as the true mark, neither practicing nor discriminating.” Why then discriminate cause and fruit and establish one principle? On this account there would be no true mark, which would be the speech of Māra. The present explanation therefore does not use it.

The present explanation says instead that illuminating the ten coarse objects is provisional, while illuminating the ten wondrous objects is real. The ten coarse are the various coarse truths and wisdoms of the three causal conditions within the first nine Dharma realms, through coarse benefit; all are called provisional. Illuminating the ten wondrous means the subtlety of principle through the subtlety of benefit, and they are called real because they are wondrous.

Further, the ten coarse are opened precisely for the sake of the ten wondrous, like the blossom existing for the lotus. The intent lies in the lotus, yet the lotus remains hidden and does not appear. Sentient beings are shown, taught, benefited, and delighted within other profound Dharmas. Those other Dharmas possess the real, but the real has not appeared. The scripture says: “The Tathāgata’s intent in skillful means is difficult to understand.” When the blossom opens and the lotus appears, it represents opening the ten coarse to reveal the ten wondrous. The ten coarse then no longer remain; there is only the inconceivable realm of the one great affair, through inconceivable benefit. Master Sengzhao says: “From the buddha land at the beginning through the offering of Dharma at the end, all reveal the inconceivable.” The present explanation is likewise so. Once the coarse has been opened, everything from beginning to end is wondrous.

Explained through the five flavors, in the milk flavor the ten coarse are taught for the sake of the ten wondrous and the ten coarse are opened to reveal the ten wondrous, producing one provisional and one real. Through the four siddhāntas, this gives six provisional and two real. Through the four gates, it gives twelve provisional and four real.

In the Tripiṭaka Teaching, everything is provisional. The conjured city and yellow willow leaf remain within the Tripiṭaka Teaching. In terms of transforming others, it is provisional; in terms of one’s own practice, it is real. Through the four siddhāntas, it has three provisional and one real. Through the four gates, it has twelve provisional and four real.

The Vaipulya teaching completely possesses the four teachings and therefore has thirty kinds of provisional and ten kinds of real. Through the four siddhāntas, it has fourteen provisional and two real. Correlated with the four gates, it has fifty-six provisional and eight real.

The Great Perfection of Wisdom has discarded the Tripiṭaka Teaching and uses only the other three. Twenty kinds from the Shared and Distinct Teachings are provisional and ten kinds from the Perfect Teaching are real. Through the siddhāntas, it has ten provisional and two real. Across the four gates, it has forty provisional and eight real.

At the Lotus Sutra, all that came before is entirely set aside and only the one real is taught. This real is not without skillful means, but these are skillful means of the true mark and are all called real. In terms of the siddhāntas, there are three provisional before awakening and one real at awakening. Across the four gates, there are twelve provisional and four real. On a first reckoning these names and numbers match those of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, but their meanings differ as greatly as heaven and earth. The Tripiṭaka Teaching’s twelve provisional and four real are entirely provisional; those of the Lotus Sutra are entirely real. They also differ from the Vaipulya and Perfection of Wisdom teachings. The scripture therefore says: “Only teach the unsurpassed path and reveal the true mark.” This is the meaning.

The Nirvāṇa Sūtra fully explains the four teachings and therefore likewise has thirty provisional and ten real. On a first reckoning this resembles the Vaipulya teaching, but their meanings are completely different. In the Vaipulya, two teachings enter the real and two do not; in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, all four enter the real. At the causal stage there are three provisional and one real; at the fruit there are four real and no provisional. Through the four siddhāntas, there are fourteen provisional and two real. Across the four gates, there are fifty-six provisional and eight real. If the three causal gates are further applied, there are fifty-six provisional. If the fruit gate is applied, the four real are only real; four are spoken of because their original causes are still retained. Thus all four gates enter the real. In terms of the fruit, four real and twelve provisional match the meaning of the Lotus Sutra.

It is therefore known that although the various teachings all possess provisional and real, the meanings of provisional and real differ. Some are entirely real, some entirely provisional, and some combine provisional and real. All correspond to the affective inclinations of the capacity then present, while conditions and principle have not yet interfused. Judged generally by teaching, the Tripiṭaka, Shared, and Distinct Teachings are provisional and the Perfect Teaching is real. Provisional and real in the various teachings before interfusion are provisional; once interfused, opening the provisional to reveal the real is real. The present Lotus Sutra is the one Perfect Teaching and is therefore real; it also opens the provisional and is therefore real.

Spoken in terms of the Perfect Teaching, illuminating the thirty coarse of the preceding three teachings is provisional and illuminating the ten wondrous is real. Spoken in terms of opening the provisional and perfect interfusion, all thirty coarse are resolved as wondrous and are called only real; this is why they are called wondrous. Spoken in terms of awakening to principle, principle is neither provisional nor real and not a single dharma is seen, like deceiving a child with an empty fist. Teaching provisional and teaching real are still coarse; principle is neither provisional nor real and is therefore wondrous.

6. Before Clarifying the Ten Subtleties of the Origin: Explaining Origin and Trace

Second is clarifying the ten subtleties in terms of the Origin. This has two parts: first, explaining Origin and Trace; second, clarifying the ten subtleties. The present unit includes only the first part.

Origin and Trace have six explanations. First, Origin is the origin of principle, the true mark and the one ultimate path; apart from the true mark of all dharmas, everything else is called Trace. Second, principle and phenomena are both called Origin, while teaching principle and teaching phenomena are called the traces of teaching. Third, teachings of principle and phenomena are both called Origin, while receiving the teaching and cultivating practice are called Trace. This resembles a person who travels from a place: there are tracks of the journey, and by following the tracks one finds the place. Fourth, practice can realize substance, so substance is Origin; function arises in reliance on substance, so function is Trace. Fifth, actual attainment of substance and function is Origin, while provisional application of substance and function is Trace. Sixth, what is revealed today is Origin, while what has already been taught is Trace. These are the six meanings through which Origin and Trace are explained.

First, Origin and Trace are explained through principle and phenomena. All dharmas are established from the origin without abode. The principle without abode is the true mark and true truth of the original time; all dharmas are the manifold phenomena and conventional truth of the original time. The true Origin of the true mark sends down the conventional Trace, and following the conventional Trace reveals the true Origin. Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture therefore says: “Contemplate all dharmas as empty, as the true mark; they exist only through causes and conditions and are born from inversion.”

Second, Origin and Trace are explained through principle and teaching. The two truths illuminated in the original time cannot be spoken and are therefore both called Origin. The former buddha taught them through skillful means; these are the teachings of the two truths, and teaching is called Trace. Without the Origin of the two truths there could be no two kinds of teaching; without the traces of teaching, how could the Origin of the truths be revealed? Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture says: “This Dharma cannot be shown, and the marks of words are quiescent. Through the power of skillful means, it was taught to the five monks.”

Third, Origin and Trace are explained through teaching and practice. The teaching first received from the former buddha is made Origin, and thereupon arises the practice that cultivates the cause and reaches the fruit. Because teaching expresses principle, practice can arise; because practice accords with teaching, principle can be revealed. Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture says: “All dharmas from the beginning have constantly borne the mark of quiescent extinction. After buddha-children have practiced the path, in a future life they attain buddhahood.”

Fourth, Origin and Trace are explained through substance and function. Through cultivation in the distant past, one first accorded with principle and realized the Dharma-body as Origin. Because the Dharma-body as Origin was first attained, the function of a responsive body arose from that substance; the Dharma-body was in turn revealed through the responsive body. Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture says: “Since I attained buddhahood, an immensely distant time has passed. Only through skillful means have I taught and transformed sentient beings and spoken in this way.”

Fifth, Origin and Trace are explained through real and provisional. The Dharma-body and responsive body actually attained in the most distant past are both called Origin. In the intervening time, birth and extinction were repeatedly proclaimed and Dharma-bodies and responsive bodies were provisionally applied in various ways; these are called Trace. Without the original Dharma-body and responsive body first attained, there could be no intermediate traces of Dharma-body and responsive body. Trace reveals Origin. Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture says: “This is my skillful means; all buddhas are likewise.”

Sixth, Origin and Trace are explained through present and already-taught. The phenomena and principles through provisional and real already taught in the preceding teachings are all Trace. The distant phenomena and principles through provisional and real taught in the present scripture are all called Origin. Without the distant Origin revealed in the present scripture, there would be no way to send down the Trace already taught; without the Trace already taught, how could the present Origin be revealed? Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one. The scripture says: “Only after a long time do the Dharmas of the buddhas necessarily teach the real.”

Gathered in reverse through already-taught and present, “already-taught” is designated Trace and includes the ten coarse and ten wondrous since Śākyamuni’s place of quiescent extinction, all called Trace. “Present” is designated Origin and gathers from afar all the coarse and wondrous of the first original time, all called Origin.

Gathered in reverse through provisional and real, provisional is designated Trace and separately includes the ten coarse and ten wondrous of the variously named buddhas in the intervening time, all called provisional. Real is designated Origin and includes the ten coarse and ten wondrous of the first time, all called real.

Gathered in reverse through substance and function, function is designated Trace and includes the five subtleties of original stimulus and response, supernormal power, teaching the Dharma, retinues, and benefit. Substance is designated Origin and includes the original subtlety of the Three Dharmas.

Gathered in reverse through teaching and practice, practice is designated Trace and includes the original subtleties of practice and stages. Teaching is designated Origin and includes the subtlety of wisdom in the first original time.

Gathered in reverse through principle and teaching, principle is designated Origin and includes the subtlety of objects in the original beginning. Teaching is designated Trace and includes the subtlety of the original teacher’s teaching and also the ten subtleties of the original teacher.

Gathered in reverse through principle and phenomena, phenomena are designated Trace and include the various coarse objects of the original time. Principle is designated Origin and includes the various wondrous objects of the original time. The very first Origin is Origin alone and not Trace. What was taught last is Trace alone and not Origin. What lies between is both Trace and Origin. Without the Origin of the original time, the intermediate and final traces could not descend; without the Trace already taught, the Origin taught in the present could not be revealed. Though Origin and Trace differ, they are inconceivably one.

The subtlety of meritorious benefit follows the subtlety of retinues because it answers an intensely personal question: after the Buddha has manifested a body, emitted light, and taught the Dharma, what have sentient beings actually received? The passage begins with a momentary respite from the fires of hell and reaches the everlasting exhaustion of ignorance. It begins with distant causes and conditions at the time of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence and reaches benefit from circulating the scripture in the last five hundred years. It begins with the Buddha’s power received from without and returns to contemplation within a single thought. Benefit is thus where all the preceding subtleties truly touch the lives of sentient beings.

1. One Affair in Two Directions

Merit and benefit are not two in their fundamental meaning. Viewed from the recipient’s own side, the accomplishment of good and the diminution of delusion and suffering are called merit. Viewed in the direction of transforming others, enabling another life to leave suffering and attain happiness is called benefit. This distinction in name already sets the two lines of the entire passage in place: one follows the benefit received by sentient beings, and the other follows how buddhas and bodhisattvas go forth to their stimuli. Only when the two meet is there one complete event of benefit.

The whole passage therefore opens into four divisions. The reason for its introduction shows why benefit must follow the preceding material. The main explanation places benefit within the vast spans and stages of distant and proximate, shallow and deep, cause and fruit, ordinary and noble. Circulation extends the benefit present during the Buddha’s lifetime beyond his extinction. Contemplation of mind shows that benefit occurs through inward mind and outward conditions at once. Although the four divisions are extensive, none departs from the movement in which “the stimulus is activated and response goes forth; response goes forth and the stimulus receives.”

2. Only When Rain Falls Do Grasses and Trees Become Retinues

Nothing the Buddha does passes in vain. The earlier and later light are like the earlier and later casting of a net: each gathers those whose ripening comes earlier or later, and neither seeing the light nor hearing the Dharma is futile. The appearance of the great cloud is the shelter of the Buddha’s form; the flashing of thunder and lightning is the arousal of supernormal power; universal rain is the equality of teaching the Dharma; and only when grasses and trees each grow is the benefit received by the retinues revealed.

The order of this simile matters. A cloud does not merely remain in the sky: there must be thunder and lightning and there must be rain. The rain does not merely display its own abundance: it must fall on grasses and trees large and small so that roots, stems, branches, and leaves grow. The four kinds of retinue all receive the seven benefits and are assigned according to what they receive. Only here, in benefit, do the preceding stimulus and response, supernormal power, teaching of the Dharma, and retinues display their common result.

The same rain produces different growth among grasses and trees; the same buddha affair is received at different depths by sentient beings. Equal bestowal and differentiated moistening proceed together. This is the fundamental image of the seven benefits and ten benefits that follow.

3. Two Drums: The Death of Delusion and the Birth of Good

Distant benefit begins when the sixteen princes at the time of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence assisted in transformation. The poison drum makes delusion die, while the heavenly drum makes good arise. Sounding the two drums together reveals both sides of benefit at once. The death of delusion can be slow or swift: the removal that extends from unwholesomeness through dust-and-sand is broad and takes a long course, while the breaking of ignorance from its first portion onward confronts the root directly. The birth of good can be shallow or deep: it may begin with the good of humans and gods, or it may begin immediately with what is most real in the first mind and advance toward what is most real in the later mind.

Benefit therefore cannot be measured only by “what has been gained.” One must also see “what no longer governs a life.” The stilling of suffering as fruit is the diminution of birth; the growth of goodness and wisdom is the increase of the path. The poison drum and the heavenly drum join both within a single teaching. When the Dharma king teaches according to the desires of sentient beings, what is taught both breaks existence and engenders good.

Distant benefit is distant not only because it began long ago. The connection formed at the time of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence passed through the sixteen princes’ repeated teaching and then ripened repeatedly in the intervening time. Some awakened in their seats, some were transformed in the interim, and some have ripened only in the present. A distant span is established by an unbroken relationship of teaching and transformation: former good may remain unforgotten across another birth, or it may temporarily be forgotten; when a good spiritual friend is met it arises again, and when a bad friend is met the original mind is lost and must undergo many further treatments. The length of time reveals precisely how deeply the Dharma rain has entered the roots.

4. The Seven Benefits Are a Picture; the Ten Benefits Are an Unfolding Path

The seven benefits gather the whole account through the image of grasses and trees receiving moisture. Coolness on the ground is the stilling of suffering as fruit. The small grass is the transformation of causes within the twenty-five modes of existence. The middle grass is the samādhi of the true truth that analyzes dharmas. The upper grass is the samādhi of the conventional truth with five supernormal powers. The small tree is the samādhi of the true truth that comprehends dharmas in their integrity. The great tree is the samādhi of the conventional truth with six supernormal powers. The most real affair returns to the king samādhi of the Middle Way. The seven names explain both the content of benefit and the kind of retinue the recipient becomes.

After the seven benefits are listed, Guanding expressly marks a private explanation and uses the opening and combining of the beginning and end to explain the totals of six, seven, and eight. The small grass can be opened into benefits of cause and fruit, while the Middle Way can be opened into sequential and nonsequential benefits. As the two ends are opened or combined, the total changes. This passage shows how the same picture of benefit can be gathered or unfolded according to the angle from which it is viewed.

The explanation then newly expands the account into ten benefits: fruit, cause, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, the six perfections, the Shared Teaching, the Distinct Teaching, the Perfect Teaching, transformational birth-and-death, and real recompense. These ten unfold, layer by layer, the capacities, sufferings, practices, things broken, things revealed, and lands only indicated within the seven. Their order begins with recompense and the making of causes, passes through the three vehicles and bodhisattva practice, and reaches the Land of Expedient Means and the Land of Real Recompense. It is at once a road that starts in suffering and one on which the benefit received becomes progressively deeper.

5. Coolness amid the Fruit: Suitability Exists Even in Places of Suffering

The benefit of fruit first surveys all twenty-five modes of existence. Beings in the eight hot hells are pressed by fire, while beings in the eight cold hells are pressed by cold. Animals include aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial kinds, while terrestrial animals further include those underground, in forests, and kept by humans. Hungry ghosts dwell on ocean islets and in forests, take forms like humans or beasts, and suffer the fires of hunger, filthy food, blades, and clubs. Asuras live in mountain caves, at the seashore, or on the ocean floor; they resent the gods, and even thunder and rain become sources of fear. Humans undergo birth, aging, illness, and death; desire-realm gods undergo battle and the five signs of decline; form-realm gods are confined by form; and formless-realm gods still possess subtle afflictions like sores, tumors, or arrows entering the body.

None of these accounts makes a place of suffering into a sealed conclusion. In every destiny comes the turn “former good can be activated.” When wholesome roots from the past ripen, suitability appears. A noble one goes forth to the stimulus, whether through radiance, rain that extinguishes fire, teaching Dharma, gentle words, or fragrant milk, so that suffering is temporarily stilled and body and mind become cool. Even while the fruit of recompense is still being undergone, hidden and manifest benefit can arise.

This coolness is not an accidental pardon. A bodhisattva contemplates the evils to be prevented within the twenty-five modes of existence and gives rise to compassion; contemplates the good that prevents those evils and gives rise to kindness; perfumes the king samādhi with kindness and compassion; and does not abandon sentient beings. Only then is there a response that goes forth to every destiny. When sentient beings’ former good meets the bodhisattva’s original vow, the very place of suffering becomes the place where benefit appears.

6. A Turning within Causes: The Twenty-Five Modes of Existence within One Mind

The benefit of fruit must be shown through many people and many places, but the benefit of cause can be explained within the mind of one person. One mind can produce immeasurable karma. The twenty-five modes of existence are therefore not only a map of worlds but an unfolding of the directions taken by good and evil in the present thought.

When discipline cannot restrain body and speech, karma for the four destinies ripens. When one wishes to leave evil and accomplish disciplined goodness, suitability likewise ripens. The cause of hell can cease; the three evil minds leading to hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras can be broken; and the goodness of humans and gods can be accomplished. Moving from one destiny to another also occurs through a sequence in which a cause is accomplished and karma turns. Human karma is established by the five precepts, humaneness and righteousness, filial obedience, trust, reverence, shame, and conscience, and it has four grades. Heavenly karma is established when the ten wholesome acts continue spontaneously, with differing directions formed through protecting the Dharma, transforming through kindness, refinement of mind, gathering the mind, desire-realm concentration, access concentration, the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, and the concentration without mind.

Here “benefit” becomes extremely concrete. Greed and flattery, pride and anger, jealousy and harming others are causes taking form. Trust, reverence, shame and conscience, continuous discipline and goodness, and transforming others with kindness are likewise causes taking form. The empowering force of samādhi suddenly breaks the evil mind and accomplishes good dharmas; these are called hidden and manifest benefit. Within is the stimulus that wishes to leave and accomplish; without is the compassionate force that goes forth in response. The stream of cause and fruit can thereby turn.

The question about the Heaven without Perception further shows that discipline and transformation are not limited to appearances of correctness. The conduct of sentient beings is immeasurable, and the means of training them are likewise many; conditions that appear deviant or correct can both be skillfully turned toward the buddha path. When beings in the other twenty-one modes of existence are repelled by the coarse suffering of their own plane and seek escape without yet finding it, suitability can be activated precisely then. Small roots, stems, branches, and leaves thus receive rain and grow; the benefit of cause becomes the moistening of the small grass.

7. From the Middle Grass to the Most Real Affair

The benefit of śrāvakas begins with revulsion toward birth and death. The shaggy ox that loves its tail depicts how desire conceals a being from liberation, and the rākṣasa that asks for a flotation bladder depicts how affective attachment and views damage discipline. When discipline is impure, concentration does not appear and the uncontaminated cannot arise. After discipline is purified, concentration and wisdom are cultivated evenly: wisdom with concentration is not mad, while concentration with wisdom is not foolish. One strives as urgently as if extinguishing a fire on one’s head and longs for concentration and wisdom like a thirsty person longing for drink. The empowerment of samādhi makes concentration arise and contemplation become clear; the path of suppression matures, one enters the paths of seeing and cultivation, and finally exhausts the delusions of the three realms. What the middle grass receives is not an abstract designation but discipline, concentration, and wisdom becoming a practicable path of liberation step by step.

Pratyekabuddhas begin with deep, sharp wholesome roots from former lives, delight in solitary quietude, and deeply contemplate causes and conditions. Blossoms flying and bangles moving are two separate conditions that can trigger awakening. The noble one goes forth to the stimulus, enabling hidden and manifest benefit and awakening to the pratyekabuddha path. This still belongs to the middle grass.

Bodhisattvas of the six perfections accomplish the six perfections amid concrete obstructions. When someone asks for head, eyes, kingdom, city, wife, or children, the mind of giving may waver. The power of samādhi suppresses the obstruction of stinginess so that giving becomes like drinking nectar. Discipline suppresses the obstruction that destroys discipline; patience suppresses anger; concentration suppresses distraction; vigor suppresses laziness; and wisdom suppresses delusion. Once the six obstructions have been suppressed, the bodhisattva can travel through the six destinies with the five supernormal powers and accomplish the practice of the six perfections. This is the benefit of the upper grass.

A practitioner of the Shared Teaching progresses through the dry-wisdom ground, nature ground, ground of eight persons, and ground of seeing, breaks views and thought, and begins to remove ignorance of particulars; this is the benefit of the small tree. A practitioner of the Distinct Teaching binds conditions to the Dharma realm in a sequential mind: at the ten abodes one receives the benefit of the samādhi of the true truth; at the ten practices and ten dedications, the samādhi of the conventional truth; and at the ten grounds, the samādhi of the truth of the middle. This is the benefit of the great tree. A practitioner of the Perfect Teaching binds conditions to the Dharma realm within one thought of the Dharma realm. In passing through conditions and facing objects, every lifting and lowering of the foot is a place of awakening and every thought corresponds to the perfections. When suitability ripens, the noble one goes forth in response and sudden awakening occurs; whether resemblance or truth is reached, true-self nature is revealed. This is the benefit of the most real affair.

The benefits of transformational birth-and-death and real recompense extend benefit beyond the three realms and into places where ignorance is not yet exhausted. In the Land of Expedient Means with Remainder, differences of sharpness and dullness produce sequential and nonsequential cultivation. When deep trust and understanding arise, that land can be precisely the constant sight of the Buddha teaching on Vulture Peak. In the Land of Real Recompense, even the three worthy and ten noble ones still have residual delusion. The king samādhi benefits them again and again until ignorance is forever exhausted, wisdom complete, and stimulus and response fulfilled. Here “neither birth nor death” speaks at once of consummate wisdom and consummate benefit.

8. Why Ten Accounts Remain after the First Breaking

The first challenge seizes the crux of the passage: if suffering as fruit has already been broken in the first account, what remains to be broken afterward? The answer does not repeat one thing ten times but unfolds the depth of suffering and delusion. First suffering as recompense is broken, and then suffering as the cause under cultivation. Views and thought are broken to gain the samādhi of the true truth; fixation on emptiness is broken so one emerges into provisional existence; the two extremes of existence and emptiness are broken to reveal the Middle Way. The account then reaches the Land of Expedient Means and the Land of Real Recompense, with each layer revealing more deeply than the preceding one. As long as the three truths are not yet completely clear, the activity of benefit does not cease.

The second question asks whether the three truths belong only to the ultimate stage. Through three sets of scriptural evidence—the existence of the five aggregates, the emptiness of the five aggregates, and buddha-nature as the middle way—the treatise shows that the three truths extend through ordinary and noble beings.

The third question selects the basis for distant benefit from among three passages concerning distant time. The passage “from distant kalpas” has not yet revealed the original ground, and the passage concerning two trillion buddhas does not specify a number of kalpas. Only the dust-kalpa passage concerning the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence expressly measures an inconceivable distance through ink, lands, dust particles, and kalpas, and can therefore establish the long ripening that followed the sixteen princes’ repeated teaching. The three questions address in turn whether benefit is repetitive, whether ordinary and noble are divided, and whether distant benefit has a textual basis. They establish the number, principle, and time of the ten benefits.

9. Proximate Benefit: The Same Drumbeat Unfolds in This Life

Proximate benefit begins with the Buddha’s first complete awakening at the site of quiescent extinction and continues to the period before the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha enters samādhi, emits light, and teaches Dharma, causing sufferings in the six destinies to cease, hell beings to leave suffering and be born among the gods, and beings in places of darkness suddenly to see one another. These first reveal generally shared benefits of fruit and cause. Differences in the depth of capacities are then distinguished: śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are like the middle grass, bodhisattvas of the six perfections like the upper grass, those who contemplate non-arising together like the small tree, those who abide in the great dhyānas and deliver beings widely like the great tree, and those who break ignorance and reveal buddha-nature receive the most real affair.

Across the five flavors, benefit may be present or absent and may analyze dharmas or comprehend them in their integrity; at the clarified essence it returns to the most real affair. Embodied bodhisattvas normally receive the first eight benefits, while those who come from Dharma-nature bodies and continue to break residual grades can also receive the last two. Distant and proximate do not name two different systems of benefit. Distant benefit explains how a connection formed in former lives ripens across births; proximate benefit explains how benefit is bestowed step by step within the Buddha’s teaching career after awakening.

The exchange concerning polishing a mirror connects the responsive body’s hearing of Dharma with benefit to the Dharma-body. As the mirror becomes brighter, the reflected forms also become bright; as the responsive body gains benefit through teaching and transformation, the brightness of the Dharma-body is likewise revealed. The exchange concerning illness instead distinguishes manifestation from actuality: illness is manifested in response to a capacity but is not real, so the Dharma-body is originally without illness; the more broadly illness is manifested, the broader the transformative benefit that is accomplished.

The sets of propositions that follow analyze benefit across intersecting axes. Of cause and fruit, one may benefit while the other does not, both may benefit, or neither may benefit. Accomplishment and destruction may be accomplishment alone, destruction alone, both, or neither. The causes and fruits of limited birth and the habituated causes and fruits relate differently to increasing the path and diminishing birth. Benefits of true, conventional, and middle likewise differ according to the sequence or mutual identity found among the three vehicles and bodhisattvas. These propositions keep “receiving benefit” from becoming a vague affirmation: they state precisely what is accomplished, what is destroyed, when benefit is received, and what is immediately identical with what.

10. In the Present Text: Differentiated Yet Undifferentiated

The present scripture completely possesses the seven benefits. Sprouts, stems, branches, and leaves grow differently but all grow from one ground. The seven benefits differ in depth, yet none departs from the true mark. The coarse benefits of earlier scriptures therefore enter the present scripture’s wondrous benefit in two ways.

One way is entry: coolness on the ground advances into the Great Vehicle and becomes contemplative practice, resemblance, or partial realization; the causal benefit of humans and gods can likewise enter resemblance and partial realization; trainees and adepts of the Small Vehicle can advance to break ignorance, like an echo entering a horn and turning from small to great. The other way is remaining in one’s stage: coolness as coarse fruit becomes the benefit of wondrous principle in its very place; coarse causal benefit becomes the subtlety of contemplative practice in its very place; and benefit to trainees and adepts becomes the subtlety of resemblance in its very place. Entry reveals a process of advance, while remaining in one’s stage reveals opening precisely where one stands. Together the two ways accomplish differentiation that is immediately undifferentiated.

Retinues are repositioned accordingly. The benefits of fruit and cause form karma-born retinues; the middle and upper grasses and the small tree form vow-born and supernormal-power-born retinues; from the great tree’s vision of nature onward, all become response-born retinues. Viewed through entry and remaining in one’s stage, principle, provisional names, and contemplative practice belong to karma-born retinues; resemblance belongs to vow-born and supernormal-power-born retinues; and partial realization belongs to response-born retinues. As far as benefit reaches, the relation of retinue is revealed.

11. Circulation: Who Can Keep the Dharma Beneficial?

Those who circulate the scripture include both ordinary and noble teachers. Dharma-body bodhisattvas can reach lands above and below; embodied bodhisattvas can reach this land and other lands; and ordinary teachers can also circulate the scripture in this land. An ill boatmaster remains on this shore yet can ready a vessel and ferry others across. The limitations of a Dharma teacher do not erase the possibility that right Dharma can benefit sentient beings through that teacher. The merit of others’ transformation then returns to sustain the teacher, increasing the path and diminishing birth.

An ordinary person can even bring benefit to noble ones. An arhat who has truly attained but has not yet understood provisional and real may come to resolution upon meeting a teacher of the first reliance. When a person whose six faculties are purified teaches the Dharma, buddhas delight in seeing that person and gods and dragons rejoice. The stages of teacher and listener do not form a straight line that can run only from above to below. What matters is whether the Dharma being circulated corresponds to the stimulus.

The means of circulating the scripture include both provisional and real. When sentient beings do not trust and accept, they can be shown, taught, benefited, and delighted within other profound Dharmas, and different skillful means can help reveal the first meaning. When difficult questions arise, they are instead answered through the Great Vehicle. One who circulates the scripture well does not inwardly depart from the real Dharma, while outwardly using provisional or real teachings as the time requires. The aim in either case is to bring sentient beings actual benefit.

Benefits of circulation are already scattered throughout the chapters of the main teaching. A single verse, secretly teaching one person, teaching broadly in an assembly, the fiftieth person’s sympathetic joy, Never Disparaging’s purification of the six faculties, and the merits of the first and fifth grades all proceed from the lesser to imply the greater. Entering the Tathāgata’s room, wearing the Tathāgata’s robe, and sitting on the Tathāgata’s seat show where the teacher abides, what the teacher wears, and what the teacher relies upon. The good medicine treats aging and death; the lotus blossom frees one from desire; and the three dhāraṇīs correlate with the benefits of grasses and trees. Digging a well on high ground proceeds from dry soil to mud and from mud to water, showing how hearing Dharma moves from far away to drawing near and finally reaches the most real. Such benefit remains possible in the last five hundred years. Circulation keeps the rain of the Dharma assembly falling in later ages.

12. Contemplation of Mind: Inward Seeking and Outward Protection Stand Together

One instant of mind can complete heavy karma and can also turn into pure contemplation. One contemplates all minds as dharmas arising through causes and conditions, immediately empty, provisionally existent, and the middle. One thereby knows that mind has only a name, that dharmas are without self, that names are nameless, and that dharmas are no dharmas. Self and what belongs to self become like cloud and illusion, which is coolness; trust, reverence, shame, and conscience arise, which is causal benefit; thought after thought corresponding to emptiness becomes the middle grass, upper grass, and small tree; thought after thought corresponding to provisional existence becomes the great tree; and thought after thought corresponding to the middle becomes the most real affair. Within one benefiting thought, the seven benefits can be clearly distinguished.

Benefit also arises where inward contemplation and outward empowering meet. A teacher and scripture are outward conditions, and even self-awakening still receives hidden empowerment. A tree grows within itself while receiving the bounty of sun, moon, wind, and rain from without. Seeking the liberation of the buddhas within the mind is inward; receiving the protective mindfulness of the buddhas is outward. Neither inward nor outward, yet inward and outward, keeps practice from assigning everything to external power and also from sealing everything within self-power.

The four attachments are dissolved through contemplation: immediately provisional, there is no self-nature; immediately empty, there is no other-nature; immediately the middle, there is no shared nature; illuminating both, there is no causeless nature. This does not cancel causes and conditions. It prevents any inward or outward condition from being grasped as a solitary, fixed producer.

13. Benefit Gathers Provisional and Real; Provisional and Real Open into Origin and Trace

After contemplation of mind, the passage concludes provisional and real. Coarse objects illuminated are called provisional, while wondrous objects illuminated are called real. The coarse is opened for the sake of the wondrous just as the blossom exists for the lotus. While the blossom flourishes, the lotus is hidden; when the blossom opens, the lotus appears. Within other profound Dharmas the real meaning has not yet appeared, but after opening and revelation everything from objects and wisdom through benefit becomes wondrous. The value of the provisional lies in guiding, while the appearance of the real gives the preceding means their true destination.

When this is discussed across the five flavors, the four siddhāntas, and the four gates, the numbers of provisional and real vary according to teaching and capacity. At the Lotus Sutra, skillful means become skillful means of the true mark, and preceding provisional teachings are interfused and called real together. Viewed from awakening to principle, principle abides in neither the name “provisional” nor the name “real.” Provisional and real are teachings established for sentient beings; their destination is the one true mark that cannot be grasped.

The passage thereby turns into six meanings of Origin and Trace: principle and phenomena, principle and teaching, teaching and practice, substance and function, real and provisional, present and already-taught. In every pair, Origin and Trace are explained through what serves as basis and what becomes manifest. The principle without abode is Origin and all dharmas are Trace; the two truths are Origin and verbal teaching is Trace; teaching is Origin and practice arising in reliance on teaching is Trace; the realized substance is Origin and function arising from substance is Trace; actual attainment in the distant past is Origin and provisional manifestations in the interim are Trace; what is revealed today is Origin and what was taught before is Trace.

All six display the same movement back and forth: only from Origin can Trace descend, and only through Trace can Origin be revealed. Origin and Trace differ, yet their relation cannot be divided. The first Origin is only Origin and not Trace; what was taught last is only Trace and not Origin; what lies in between is both Trace and Origin. The entire history of teaching and transformation is thus not a string of disconnected events. It is a long course of benefit in which Origin never ceases to send down Trace and Trace never ceases to reveal Origin.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

The first key supplied by the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian is to place “meritorious benefit” back within the movement of the preceding nine subtleties. The first five display merit in one’s own practice, while the following four unfold the activity of benefiting others; what those transformed actually receive is separately established here as benefit. That the Buddha’s three preceding affairs never pass in vain is manifest precisely in sentient beings’ receipt of benefit, and those who receive benefit become retinues within that relation. Benefit is therefore not a further topic added after the preceding material has ended. It tests whether the whole preceding sequence has actually reached sentient beings.

The second key is a strict distinction between the Great Master’s direct account of the seven benefits and Zhang’an’s private explanation. The seven benefits are first listed through grasses and trees receiving moisture, and only then does the private explanation use opening the beginning and combining the end to explain how four pairs can be spoken of as seven. Once the ten benefits begin, the exposition returns to the Great Master’s expansive explanation. This layering keeps the opening and combining that produce six, seven, or eight from obscuring the full stimulus, practice, breaking, and attainment belonging to each of the ten benefits.

The third key is to read the ten benefits as benefit whose layers remain unexhausted. Benefit as fruit brings present coolness to the body of recompense; benefit as cause turns many people in many places back into the many minds of one person; śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, the six perfections, and the Shared, Distinct, and Perfect Teachings each possess their own causal practice and responsive approach; and ignorance remains to be broken in the Lands of Expedient Means and Real Recompense. Although the first account comprehensively names the twenty-five modes of existence, this comprehensiveness belongs to the names, while delusion still has shallow and deep layers. The principle of the three truths likewise does not have one version for ordinary beings and another for noble ones; the difference lies in realization and non-realization. Together these two judgments answer why the ten accounts are established.

The mirror-explanation also joins the three rounds of questions and answers into a single calibration. The question about the ten accounts calibrates the depth of benefit, leading the reader from suffering as fruit through views and thought, the two extremes, and residual delusion in the Lands of Expedient Means and Real Recompense. The question about the three truths calibrates the relation between ordinary and noble, holding together equality in principle and difference in realization. The question about distant benefit calibrates the ground of time, using the explicit dust-kalpa passage concerning the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence to establish the long ripening since the sixteen princes’ repeated teaching. Depth, capacity, and time support one another, so the seven and ten benefits become not mere numerical lists but the three-dimensional sequence of sentient beings’ entire reception of transformation. When later tradition gathers the subtleties through ten gates, benefit still occupies the final end of received transformation and is named precisely from the retinues’ moistening, reflecting back upon the original relation disclosed by cloud, rain, grasses, and trees.

The fourth key concerns the boundaries between scriptural passages in proximate benefit and the function of each simile. The sudden illumination of darkness belongs to the benefit as fruit in the present scripture; it follows the preceding scripture’s radiance and heavenly birth but is a separate affair. Polishing the mirror answers the question of the responsive body hearing Dharma and the Dharma-body becoming brighter, while the question concerning illness answers the distinction between manifestation and actuality. Digging a well on high ground correlates dry soil, mud, and water with grasses, trees, and the most real affair; this is the benefit structure with which the author of the treatise completes the scene from the root scripture. Each simile has its own place within a question or answer, and only together do they display the breadth of proximate benefit from generally shared benefit to consummate benefit.

The fifth key is that circulation does not wait for the third division of the scripture to begin. Wherever the main teaching mentions hearing and retaining after the Buddha’s extinction, rejoicing, teaching others, or merits received through circulating the scripture, the benefit of circulation is already present. The teacher asks who carries the Dharma; the method asks how provisional and real suit the capacity; and the benefit asks what sentient beings and the teacher receive together. Only when all three are joined does the Dharma actually travel from the Buddha’s lifetime into later ages. The simile of the ill boatmaster is especially clear: although the person who carries the transmission still has personal limitations, right Dharma can ferry others through that person’s vow and practice.

The sixth key is that contemplation of mind does not fall to one side. Inward contemplation and outward empowerment arise in mutual dependence: inwardly, mind contemplates dharmas born through causes and conditions; outwardly, there are teachers, teachings, scriptures, and the Buddha’s protective power. Immediate emptiness, provisional existence, the middle, and simultaneous illumination remove the four attachments that attribute benefit to self, other, both, or no cause. Benefit is established through causes and conditions, so inward seeking and outward protection can both be real without taking one another’s place.

Finally, the mirror-explanation joins provisional and real with the six meanings of Origin and Trace as one path of gathering and unfolding. The provisional-and-real passage uses opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous so that the various benefits of skillful means return to the one real. Every one of the Origin-and-Trace pairs then first distinguishes the relational terms, next brings their difference into inconceivable unity, and finally proves the account through scripture. The forward sequence moves from principle and phenomena to present and already-taught; the reverse gathering moves from present and already-taught back through provisional and real, substance and function, teaching and practice, principle and teaching, principle and phenomena, and the preceding subtleties. The subtlety of meritorious benefit stands at the pivot between the two sets of ten: looking back, it gathers what sentient beings receive; looking ahead, it opens out how the distant Origin sends down Trace and how Trace reveals Origin.