妙法蓮華經玄義 本十妙

Did the Buddha before our eyes truly attain buddhahood only today? If one looks only at the attainment of the path beneath the bodhi tree, the answer seems to be yes. Yet the Lotus pushes time back to a remoteness that even the dust-mote simile cannot calculate: today’s attainment of the path is the Trace, while the first true attainment is the Origin.

This does not mean that what appears before us is false. When the moon is reflected in water, its light, cassia tree, and round disk are all clearly visible; precisely because people see the moon in the water, they know to raise their heads and seek the moon in the sky. The problem arises only when the reflection is taken to be the whole moon, for then one will never look upward. The potter’s offerings, the brahmin youth’s scattering of flowers, Treasure-Ocean’s vigor, and even today’s attainment of buddhahood while seated at the place of practice are all genuine traces of teaching and transformation. Yet because they occurred after buddhahood had already been attained in the remote past, they cannot replace the first cause and first fruit.

The ten subtleties therefore unfold from cause and fruit onward: once the fruit is accomplished, there must be a place in which it abides; abiding in a land, the Buddha illuminates the capacities of sentient beings; when those capacities stir, supernormal power and teaching the Dharma appear; those who receive the teaching and transformation become retinues; when conditions are exhausted, the Buddha proclaims nirvāṇa; only because extinction is manifested can the length of the lifespan be discussed; and what is accomplished from beginning to end culminates in benefit. The ten are not ten separate drawers, but the complete course through which a buddha-work of the remote past takes place.

Its most powerful image is a single cow producing the five flavors according to the grasses it eats. The five flavors are originally complete within the cow. Sentient beings’ capacities are like different ways of striking, and what the Buddha teaches consequently has different flavors. Difference does not mean that something was first lacking in the Buddha’s mind, nor that everyone ought to drink the same flavor at this very moment. It shows only how perfect wisdom becomes the Dharma that is genuinely effective for this particular person.

Proclaiming entry into extinction works in the same way. That it is not actual annihilation reveals the original quiescence of permanence; that extinction is nonetheless manifested serves to discipline sentient beings. If one speaks only of permanence and cancels the manifestation of extinction, compassion loses its form within the world. If one sees only the manifestation of extinction and judges it to be final annihilation, one mistakes a single episode of teaching and transformation for the Buddha’s entirety. “Not actual extinction” and “proclaiming extinction” must be seen together.

In the end, hundreds of thousands of branches and leaves all return to a single root. The attainments, teachings, and benefits of the intermediate period, today, and the future each have their own form, yet all issue from the single first Origin. The Origin is not another tree hidden behind the branches and leaves. It is the root by which every branch and leaf can grow and by which all are recognized as belonging to the same tree.

Contemplating the mind therefore does not reduce the remote past to an image within the mind. The subtlety of the Origin is not identical with the mind, yet neither is it apart from the mind. The suchness of the Buddha and the suchness of sentient beings are nondual; thus the buddha-work of the remote past is not merely a distant biography, but a direction in which the practitioner can vow to move: may I too deliver sentient beings through long life and teach the Dharma fearlessly at the place of practice.

The heart-essence of the ten subtleties of the Origin is to recognize the inexhaustible Origin from the visible Trace and then, carrying the Origin, to look again at every Trace. The reflection remains in the water, while the moon has been seen in the sky; when one thereafter looks again at the light on the water, one neither mistakes it nor needs to destroy it.

General List of the Ten Subtleties and Ten Analytical Stages

The second section clarifies the ten subtleties of the Origin. The first is original cause, the second original fruit, the third original land, the fourth original stimulus and response, the fifth original supernormal power, the sixth original teaching of the Dharma, the seventh original retinues, the eighth original nirvāṇa, the ninth original lifespan, and the tenth original benefit.

The explanation of these ten subtleties is itself divided into ten analytical stages. The first briefly explains the ten meanings. The second explains how they arise in sequence. The third explains the opening and combining of Origin and Trace. The fourth establishes them through cited passages. The fifth explains them broadly. The sixth presents questions and answers in terms of the past, present, and future. The seventh judges coarse and wondrous. The eighth concludes provisional and real. The ninth explains benefit. The tenth contemplates the mind.

First Analytical Stage: Briefly Explaining the Ten Meanings

The subtlety of original cause is the cause cultivated when the Buddha first aroused the mind of awakening and practiced the bodhisattva path. The sixteen princes’ propagation of the scripture and forming of affinities with sentient beings in the time of the Buddha Great-Pervasive-Surpassing Wisdom all occurred in the intermediate period after the first attainment of buddhahood; they are not the original cause.

The scripture uses the dust-mote simile to reveal the remoteness of time. Suppose the Sahā world were ground into ink, one traveled eastward through a thousand worlds before placing one dot, and then all the worlds that had or had not been dotted were ground into motes of dust. Even if each mote were counted as one eon, the time since the Buddha attained the path would exceed that number by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of eons. Maitreya is the bodhisattva who will attain buddhahood in the next life. Even if he directly used the seed-wisdom that emerges into the provisional to calculate those worlds, he could not know their number; how then could he exhaust the count of all their dust motes? This is only a simile skillfully established by the Tathāgata to reveal the aspect of remoteness. Even if worldly people were adept in wisdom and calendrical calculation, how could they fathom it? The scripture says that with the Buddha-eye the Buddha sees those remote eons as though they were today. Only the Buddha can know such remoteness.

Yet all causes practiced during that remote period are still causes of the Trace, not the original cause. If causes cultivated in the intermediate period were retained without being brushed aside, later people would find it difficult to believe the genuine event of the remote Origin. The Lotus therefore brushes aside appearances of the Trace, removes doubts, and reveals that although those causal practices were skillful establishments, they were not the first real cause. When the scripture speaks of the Buddha originally practicing the bodhisattva path, it does not mean any of these intermediate periods. The path practiced before and beyond them is called the Origin. This is the subtlety of original cause.

The subtlety of original fruit is the fruit obtained when the perfect and wondrous cause first practiced accords with ultimate permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Rocana’s attainment of buddhahood at the place of practice of quiescent extinction is not taken as the original fruit. Even fruits obtained in the intermediate period are not taken as the original fruit; still less could Rocana, attaining only today, be called original. Only the fruit first realized at the extremely remote beginning since the attainment of buddhahood is called the subtlety of original fruit.

The subtlety of original land means that once the Buddha of the Origin has accomplished the fruit, he must have a land on which he depends. Today’s Buddha of the Trace abides in the land of common residence and can also manifest in the other three lands. The intermediate period likewise has four lands, so the Buddha of the Origin must also have land. Where does he ultimately abide? The scripture says that since attaining buddhahood, the Buddha has constantly taught the Dharma and transformed beings in this Sahā world. According to this passage, that is neither today’s Sahā within the Trace nor a place of the provisional Trace in the intermediate period, but Sahā at the time of the Origin. This is the subtlety of original land.

The subtlety of original stimulus and response means that once the fruit has been accomplished, there are the twenty-five samādhis realized at the time of the Origin and vows of kindness and compassion. Sentient beings’ capacities and the Buddha’s response are mutually related, and the Buddha can remain quiescent and unmoving while illuminating all capacities. This is called original stimulus and response.

The subtlety of original supernormal power is the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation obtained in the past. Joined with the various forms of compassion from the time of the original cause, it applies teaching and transformation, manifests supernormal power, and shakes the first sentient beings who can be delivered. This is called original supernormal power.

The subtlety of original teaching of the Dharma is the Dharma that the Buddha taught through four kinds of eloquence when, in the remote past, he first sat at the place of practice, first attained right awakening, and first turned the Dharma-wheel.

The subtlety of original retinues is the group taught and transformed through the Dharma at the time of the Origin. Bodhisattvas who abide below and whom even Maitreya does not recognize are precisely the Buddha’s retinues from the time of the Origin.

The subtlety of original nirvāṇa is the nirvāṇa that is the virtue of severance realized at the time of the Origin. It is also the Buddha’s responsive manifestation in the land of common residence and the land of expedient remainder at the time of the Origin, where, after delivering all sentient beings with affinities, he proclaims entry into extinction.

The subtlety of original lifespan means that once the Buddha has proclaimed entry into extinction, the length and remoteness or proximity of his lifespan can be discussed.

The subtlety of original benefit is the eightfold and tenfold benefit obtained by retinues at the time of the Origin who are karma-born, vow-born, supernormal-power-born, response-born, and so forth.

Second Analytical Stage: The Ten Meanings Arise in Sequence

These ten meanings were originally taught directly in accordance with conditions and are scattered in different places throughout the scripture. Since they are now being arranged into a sequence, it is necessary to explain how each arises from what precedes it.

Original cause is listed first because the fruit must be obtained through a cause. Once the fruit is accomplished, there is a land on which it depends. When the ultimate fruit abides in the land, it can illuminate the root-capacities of sentient beings. When those capacities stir, the Buddha applies teaching and transformation; applying teaching and transformation entails supernormal power. Once supernormal activity is complete, the Buddha next teaches the Dharma to sentient beings. Those taught and transformed through the Dharma become retinues. When all retinues have been delivered and the conditions of teaching and transformation are exhausted, the Buddha manifests nirvāṇa. Only because nirvāṇa occurs can the length of the lifespan be discussed. The benefit produced by this long or short lifespan, including every kind of benefit after the Buddha’s extinction during the true Dharma and semblance Dharma, is included under the subtlety of benefit. Although the meanings are actually immeasurable, only ten are established here. They encompass the beginning and end from cause through benefit and at the same time form an ordered sequence.

Third Analytical Stage: Similarities, Differences, Opening, and Combining in Origin and Trace

Within the Trace, the cause is unfolded and the fruit combined: the habitual fruit and recompense-fruit are combined into the subtlety of the three dharmas. Within the Origin, the cause is combined and the fruit unfolded: the causal meanings of objects, wisdom, practice, and stages are combined as original cause; the habitual fruit is unfolded; and the subtlety of original land is separated out from the recompense-fruit. These similarities and differences are established for convenience in expressing the meaning, with something selected or omitted on each side.

Within the Trace, objects, wisdom, practice, and stages are explained in detail. Since the text of the Origin section is brief, all are gathered generally as the subtlety of cause. Once the intent is understood, one knows that this is only a difference of opening and combining. The subtlety of original fruit here is the fruit-meaning of the subtlety of the three tracks in the Trace. Stimulus and response, supernormal power, teaching the Dharma, retinues, and benefit have the same names as in the Trace. Nirvāṇa and lifespan are separately opened in the Origin because buddhas of the remote past such as Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiance and Kāśyapa entered nirvāṇa while teaching the Lotus. From the meaning, one knows that the Buddha of the Origin must have had a pure land and pure capacities; because those past affairs had already been completed, the subtleties of nirvāṇa and lifespan can be opened separately. These two meanings are not separately established in the Trace because Śākyamuni, although proclaiming in the Lotus that he would enter nirvāṇa, had not yet actually manifested extinction. That event occurred only when the Nirvāṇa Sūtra was taught, so it is not separately distinguished in the Trace. The subtlety of benefit has the same name as in the Trace.

Fourth Analytical Stage: Establishing the Ten from the Scripture of the Origin Gate Alone

To establish these ten meanings, one need not seek far in other scriptures, nor draw indiscriminately on every place in the complete scripture; passages from the Origin Gate alone suffice. The verses in Lotus Sutras taught by buddhas of the past were as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. How could the Indian original exhaustively record everything taught by today’s Buddha during eight years at Vulture Peak? China lies at the frontier and heard only the general meaning. People see the extant seven fascicles and assume that this is a short scripture, but the Indian text was extensive and distinguished everything. Even within the few pages before us, passages establishing the ten subtleties are perfectly clear.

The scripture says that the lifespan accomplished while the Buddha originally practiced the bodhisattva path is even now not exhausted. This establishes the subtlety of causal practice at the time of the Origin. It also says that since the Buddha truly attained buddhahood, immeasurable and boundless koṭis of nayutas have passed; and that since he truly attained buddhahood it has been remote like this, but he teaches and transforms sentient beings through expedients and therefore makes such statements. These two passages establish the subtlety of original fruit.

The scripture further says that after the Buddha attained complete awakening in the Sahā world, he taught, transformed, disclosed to, and guided these bodhisattvas; and that since then he has constantly taught the Dharma and transformed beings in this Sahā world and has guided and benefited sentient beings elsewhere. The land here is no longer today’s Sahā, but the land at the time of the Origin. It therefore establishes the subtlety of original land.

The scripture further says that if sentient beings come before the Buddha, he observes with the Buddha-eye whether their faculties of faith and the rest are sharp or dull. This is the wisdom that illuminates capacities at the time of the Origin and establishes the subtlety of original stimulus and response.

The scripture further speaks of the Tathāgata’s power of secret supernormal penetration. Passages concerning the intermediate period also say that the Buddha sometimes manifests his own body, another’s body, his own affairs, or another’s affairs. This means extending forms throughout the ten Dharma realms and creating various images. Since this occurs in the intermediate period, one can verify that it also occurred at the Origin, establishing the subtlety of original supernormal power.

The scripture further says that these bodhisattvas were all transformed by the Buddha, who caused them to arouse the mind of the great path; they now abide in nonretrogression and cultivate and study the Buddha’s path-Dharma. A passage on the intermediate period further says that the Buddha sometimes speaks of his own affairs and sometimes another’s affairs. Since this occurs in the intermediate period, one can verify that the Buddha also taught the Dharma at the Origin, establishing the subtlety of original teaching of the Dharma.

The scripture further says that the bodies of these bodhisattvas are all golden and that they abide in empty space below; they are the Buddha’s children, and since the remote past the Buddha has taught and transformed this assembly. This establishes the subtlety of original retinues.

The scripture further says that the Buddha has also spoken of himself as entering nirvāṇa and that all such statements are distinctions made through expedients. It also says that his extinction is not now actual, yet he proclaims that he will take extinction. When the conditions of a period of teaching and transformation in the past were exhausted, the Buddha proclaimed entry into extinction. Since the intermediate period had such proclamations of nirvāṇa, the Origin must have had nirvāṇa by the same principle. This establishes the subtlety of original nirvāṇa.

The scripture further says that in different places the Buddha speaks of himself with different names and greater or lesser ages. Age is lifespan, while greater and lesser are long and short and also include permanent and impermanent. Since this occurred in the intermediate period, the lifespan at the time of the Origin must likewise have been such. This establishes the subtlety of original lifespan.

The scripture further says that the Buddha again teaches the subtle and wondrous Dharma through expedients and can cause sentient beings to arouse joy; this is benefit in the intermediate period. It also says that when sentient beings hear the Buddha teach that the number of eons in his lifespan is remote like this, immeasurable and boundless asaṃkhyeyas of beings obtain great benefit; this is benefit in the Trace. Since the Trace and intermediate period both have benefit, the Origin must have had it by the same principle. This establishes the subtlety of original benefit. These ten bases are all clearly recorded in the scripture and are not human inventions.

Fifth Analytical Stage: Broadly Explaining the Ten Subtleties of the Origin

Without the Origin, there would be no basis for extending the Trace; if one can understand the Trace, one can know the Origin. For those who have not yet understood, further distinctions will now be made. The ultimate Dharma-body at the time of the Origin is subtle, wondrous, profound, and remote. If the Buddha had not personally taught it, even Maitreya would remain obscure and unknowing; how much more so bodhisattvas at lower stages, and how much more ordinary people. Even so, one cannot remain ignorant even of one’s parents’ ages; how then could one fail to know the Tathāgata’s merit? The following therefore makes an approximate investigation according to the intent of the scripture.

The Subtlety of Original Cause

The scripture speaks of the lifespan accomplished while the Buddha originally practiced the bodhisattva path. “Life” here is wisdom-life and reveals the subtlety of wisdom at the time of the Origin. In “originally practiced the path,” practice means advancing and tending toward, and reveals the subtlety of practice at the Origin. In “while on the bodhisattva path,” a bodhisattva is a person at a causal stage and reveals the subtlety of stages at the Origin. A single scriptural sentence thus establishes the three subtleties of wisdom, practice, and stages. Combined, they are the subtlety of cause at the time of the Origin, not a cause of the Trace.

Causes of the Trace are presented in many ways. One account says that in the past the Buddha was a potter who encountered a prior Śākyamuni Buddha and offered three things: grass for a seat, a burning lamp, and sugarcane syrup. No sooner had he voiced his vow than he received a prediction that the names of his future parents, disciples, and attendant would all be the same as those of the earlier Buddha. This was the arousing of the mind in the first asaṃkhyeya eon. The passage does not say that he severed delusive obstructions, so one knows that this is the aspect of causal practice for a Tripiṭaka buddha.

Another account says that in the past the Buddha was a brahmin youth who encountered Dīpaṃkara Buddha, offered and scattered five flowers, spread his hair over the mud, leapt into empty space, and attained patience with the nonarising of dharmas. The Buddha predicted that in the future he would be named Śākyamuni. The Large Prajñā also says that he received a prediction within the city Flower-Adornment, which has the same meaning. These accounts all mention severing delusion, so one knows that they present causal practice for a Shared-teaching buddha.

Another account says that in the past the Buddha was the brahmin Treasure-Ocean, who practiced great vigor at the place of the Buddha Jewel-Treasury in the land Śāntiraṇa and received flowers sent as offerings by buddhas of the ten directions. He was both the father of the Buddha Jewel-Treasury and the teacher of Amitābha, and his merit was called inconceivable. One therefore knows that this presents causal practice for Distinct- and Perfect-teaching buddhas.

For three reasons, all the causes just described are causes of the Trace. First, they are relatively near to the present. Second, the depths described differ. Third, all are brushed aside by the scripture. Every causal practice in the intermediate period, from after the original attainment of buddhahood until before the present life, is an expedient and therefore a cause of the Trace.

If one clings to a cause of the Trace as the original cause, one knows neither Trace nor Origin. It is like a person who does not recognize the moon in the sky and sees only its reflection in a pool. From the light, cassia tree, and round disk in the reflected moon, one can know the moon above by relying on the reflection below. The light represents the subtlety of wisdom, the cassia tree the subtlety of practice, and the disk the subtlety of stages. If one recognizes the three subtleties in the Trace and then brushes aside the Trace to reveal the Origin, one can know the subtlety of cause on the ground of the Origin, as if brushing away the reflection in the water and pointing to the sky. If a person keeps facing the basin, how could he fail to raise his head and look at the sky? How can someone so deaf, blind, and foolish discuss the path? If this is understood, the Origin of the appearances of the Trace is not the Origin, and the Trace extended from the Origin is not the Trace. Although Origin and Trace differ, they are the inconceivable one.

Someone asks: When the scripture speaks of the time the Buddha originally practiced the bodhisattva path, it should mean the time he obtained the true path at the first abode. The intermediate period should mean the grounds, where he increased the path and diminished birth-and-death. Today’s place of practice of quiescent extinction should be wondrous awakening. Since wondrous awakening reveals the Origin, what it points to should be the former first abode. Can this explanation stand?

The answer is that neither text nor meaning permits it. The scripture says that the Buddha completely practiced all path-Dharmas possessed by the buddhas and that he fully practiced all paths. Only when every causal practice is complete is there original cause. The first abode cannot be called complete in every respect and therefore is not the original cause indicated by the scripture. Furthermore, fruits obtained in the intermediate period are all brushed aside as provisional; how could a fruit obtained today at the place of quiescent extinction become real in turn? If even the fruit of the intermediate period is brushed aside, how could its cause be the real original cause? The proposed interpretation therefore cannot stand.

The Subtlety of Original Fruit

The scripture says that since the Buddha attained buddhahood it has been extremely remote. “I” reveals the track of true nature. “Buddha” means awakening and reveals the track of contemplative illumination. “Since” means coming by the path of reality to attain right awakening and thereby reveals the track of supporting accomplishment that initiates responsive function. The three tracks have been accomplished for a remote time; this is the subtlety of original fruit.

The original fruit was perfected long ago in the remote past, not first accomplished today within the Trace. Nor is there only one appearance of attaining buddhahood within the Trace. The first account says that the Buddha sat on a grass seat beneath the tree of the path and through thirty-four moments of mind simultaneously severed all delusions of views and thoughts. Awakening brilliantly, he knew all worldly and world-transcending dharmas and was therefore called Buddha. There is only this one Buddha, not buddhas of the ten directions; all buddhas of the past, present, and future are other buddhas, not his emanations. This is the appearance of the fruit of a Tripiṭaka buddha.

The second account says that beneath the tree of the path the Buddha used heavenly robes as his seat and attained buddhahood by severing residual habits through wisdom corresponding in one thought. The Large Prajñā says that during the shared prajñā, a thousand buddhas appeared in the ten directions, and all those who posed questions about prajñā were named Subhūti and Śakra Devānām Indra. These too were other buddhas, not his emanations. This is the appearance of attaining the fruit for a Shared-teaching buddha.

The third account says that at the place of practice of quiescent extinction the Buddha used a seven-jeweled flower as his seat, with his body proportioned to the flower dais. On each of a thousand petals was one bodhisattva and again a hundred koṭis of bodhisattvas, making a thousand hundred koṭis of bodhisattvas in all. White-tuft radiance and emanated-body radiance were released throughout the ten directions. White-tuft radiance entered the crowns of the bodhisattvas on the flower dais, while emanated-body radiance entered the crowns of the bodhisattvas on the petals. This was called receiving the rank of Dharma king; they exhausted the bottom of all buddha-dharmas and attained buddhahood. The one on the flower dais was called the recompense-buddha, those on the petals response-buddhas. Recompense and response relate to one another but are not mutually identical. This is the appearance of attaining the fruit for a Distinct-teaching buddha.

The fourth account says that at the place of practice empty space is the seat: when one attains, all attain. Vairocana pervades every place, and the attainments of Rocana and Śākyamuni likewise pervade every place. The three buddhas are complete without the slightest deficiency; they are mutually identical and neither one nor different. In the Lotus, each of the eight directions contains four hundred myriads of koṭis of nayutas of lands, and every Śākyamuni placed among them is Vairocana. The Contemplation of Samantabhadra says that Śākyamuni is named Vairocana. This is the appearance of attaining the fruit for a Perfect-teaching buddha.

For three reasons, all these fruits are fruits of the Trace. First, they are attained only in the present life. Second, the depths described differ. Third, all are brushed aside as expedients of the intermediate period. If they were original fruits, how could they be attained only today? The original fruit should be one fruit that is all fruits; how could it have differences of before and after? Before the present life but after the original attainment of buddhahood, the Buddha practiced causes, obtained fruits, proclaimed birth, and proclaimed extinction hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of times. All belong to the intermediate period and are brushed aside as expedients. How could today’s attainment of buddhahood beneath the king of trees at the place of practice of quiescent extinction not be the Trace?

If one clings to a fruit of the Trace as the original fruit, one knows neither Trace nor Origin. Extending the Trace from the Origin is like the moon appearing in water; brushing aside the Trace to reveal the Origin is like brushing aside the moon’s reflection and pointing to the moon in the sky. One should brush aside the fruit first attained today, know that all such fruits are fruits of the Trace, and then point to the fruit attained in the remote past, knowing that only it is the original fruit. With this understanding, doubts about the fruits of the intermediate period suddenly disappear and faith in the remote past becomes clear. Although Origin and Trace differ, they are the inconceivable one.

The Subtlety of Original Land

The scripture says that since attaining buddhahood, the Buddha has constantly taught the Dharma and transformed beings in this Sahā world and has guided and benefited sentient beings elsewhere. Sahā is the land of common residence at the time of the Origin; elsewhere means the other three lands at the time of the Origin. This points to the lands inhabited by the true body and response-bodies at the time of the Origin, not lands within the Trace.

There is likewise more than one account of lands in the Trace. Some say that the world encompassing three thousand hundred koṭis of suns and moons is the defiled land of common residence. Some say that in the west is a land named Unsurpassed whose adornments are all like Sukhāvatī; this is the pure land of common residence. Some say that the Lotus-Treasury Ocean in the Flower-King World is the land of true recompense. Some say that the place where the Buddha abides is named eternally quiescent light; this is the ultimate land.

The principle of quiescent light is universally pervasive like a mirror or a vessel; the lands differ like distinct images in the mirror or different portions of rice in the vessel. Sentient beings are separated by their individual karmic powers and therefore experience and see different lands. The Vimalakīrti says that the buddha-land is originally pure, but sentient beings cannot see it. This describes difference in what sentient beings experience and perceive, not in the buddha-land itself.

From another perspective, all three realms today belong to the Buddha. Whether lands are pure or defiled, their disciplining and embracing are entirely established by the Buddha for sentient beings. It is like people dwelling on land that does not thereby belong to them, or like a father who constructs a house that remains after he departs. The Tathāgata is the same: he acquires a buddha-land for sentient beings and manifests extinction when teaching and transformation are complete. Though the Buddha departs, the land remains. From this perspective, it is the Buddha’s land and does not lie with sentient beings.

Again, when the lands are purified three times in the scripture, some see the defiled land of common residence transformed into the pure land of common residence. Some see the pure land of expedient remainder, as when the “Lifespan” chapter says that those with profound faith and understanding see the Buddha constantly on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa together with great bodhisattvas and the Saṅgha of śrāvakas. Some see the pure land of true recompense, as when they see the Sahā land made entirely of dark-blue beryl and populated only by bodhisattvas. Others see quiescent light. Through the power of the Lotus samādhi, sentient beings see differently.

For three reasons, all these lands are lands of the Trace. First, they are places inhabited by today’s Buddha. Second, they were established through earlier and later cultivation. Third, they are brushed aside by the scripture as belonging to the intermediate period. If a land were original, it would not be the land in which today’s Buddha abides; what today’s Buddha inhabits is a land of the Trace. If a land were original, it should be one land that is all lands, without being established through earlier and later cultivation or differing in depth. Everything before today’s land and after the land at the time of the Origin is called intermediate; all of the intermediate is expedient, so how could today’s land not be Trace? The Trace is extended from the Origin; if one clings to the Trace as Origin, one knows neither Trace nor Origin. Now the Trace is brushed aside and the Origin pointed out: only the four lands inhabited at the time of the Origin are the subtlety of original land. Although Origin and Trace are distinguished, the principle that is neither Trace nor Origin remains the inconceivable one.

The Subtlety of Original Stimulus and Response

The scripture says that if sentient beings come before the Buddha, he observes with the Buddha-eye whether their faculties of faith and the rest are sharp or dull. Their coming is the stimulus that strikes the Dharma-body; the Buddha-eye’s observation is compassion going forth in response. The faculties being sharp or dull means that sentient beings of the ten Dharma realms differ in hidden or manifest, longing or aversion. This refers to stimulus and response arising from the twenty-five samādhis realized at the time of the Origin, not stimulus and response in the Trace.

Response and transformation in the Trace have several forms. The first account says that three times each day the Buddha enters concentration and observes capacities that can be delivered. This is the Tripiṭaka buddha illuminating capacities in the nine Dharma realms within the defiled land of delimited birth-and-death and responding through analytical emptiness. The second says that the conventional is itself true; without emerging from or entering concentration, the Buddha can know spontaneously. This is the Shared-teaching buddha illuminating capacities in the nine Dharma realms within the pure land of delimited birth-and-death and responding through embodied emptiness. The third says that the Buddha employs the king samādhi to illuminate the capacities of the ten Dharma realms in distinct sequence. This is the Distinct-teaching buddha illuminating the land of expedient remainder and responding sequentially. The fourth says that the king samādhi simultaneously illuminates capacities in the ten Dharma realms. This is the Perfect-teaching buddha illuminating capacities in the land of quiescent light of the ten Dharma realms and responding perfectly.

For three reasons, these forms of stimulus and response are Trace rather than Origin. They are first accomplished today, each has earlier cultivation and later study and a different depth, and all are brushed aside by the scripture as expedients. Partial and perfect became complete only beneath the tree at the place of quiescence, so this is known to be Trace. Earlier and later cultivation with differences in depth show that it is provisional. Since everything from the intermediate period onward is brushed aside as expedient, how could it not be Trace? Since the Trace issues from the Origin, it cannot be grasped as Origin. One should relinquish the Trace, point to the Origin, and know that the principle in which Origin and Trace are mutually identical is the inconceivable one.

Four statements can be made. Original stimulus can be coarse and stimulus in the Trace wondrous; original stimulus can be wondrous and stimulus in the Trace coarse; both can be wondrous; or both can be coarse. The Buddha’s response should be treated in the same four ways. Again, original stimulus can be broad and stimulus in the Trace narrow; stimulus in the Trace can be broad and original stimulus narrow; both can be narrow; or both can be broad. The Buddha’s response should again be treated in the same four ways. Yet this Origin section distinguishes Origin and Trace only according to today and the past, not according to coarse and wondrous or broad and narrow.

The Subtlety of Original Supernormal Power

The scripture says that the Tathāgata possesses the power of secret supernormal penetration and that the Buddha sometimes manifests his own body and another’s body, his own affairs and another’s affairs. Manifesting his own body and affairs is perfect supernormal power; manifesting another’s body and affairs is partial supernormal power. Calling it secret reveals its wondrousness. Whether partial or perfect, it is wondrous as supernormal activity. What is indicated here is supernormal power at the time of the Origin, not supernormal power in the Trace.

Supernormal power in the Trace has several forms. The first cultivates fourteen transformations based on the eight liberations and spheres of mastery and obtains the six supernormal powers, surpassing non-Buddhists and excelling the two vehicles; this is the supernormal power of a Tripiṭaka buddha. The second obtains the six powers through uncontaminated wisdom that embodies dharmas, surpassing the powers obtained through the eight liberations; this is the power of a Shared-teaching buddha. The third gathers the preceding six powers into five and then, based on the Middle Way, arouses uncontaminated supernormal penetration; this again forms six and is the supernormal power of a Distinct-teaching buddha. The fourth possesses the six powers and every transformation through the dhyāna of morally indeterminate transformation upon transformation of the Middle Way. Without emerging from the concentration of extinction, the Buddha can manifest every deportment; speech and silence do not obstruct one another, and movement and stillness are nondual. The six auspicious signs and purification of lands in the present scripture also belong to the supernormal power of a Perfect-teaching buddha.

The same three meanings—newly obtained, recently cultivated, and brushed aside—show that these powers are Trace, not Origin. Their four statements are the same as in the section on stimulus and response. When the Trace is extended from the Origin, the Trace is not the Origin; when the Trace is brushed aside to reveal the Origin, one should relinquish the Trace, point to the Origin, and know that Origin and Trace are the inconceivable one.

The Subtlety of Original Teaching of the Dharma

The scripture says that these bodhisattvas were all transformed by the Buddha, who caused them to arouse the mind of the great path and now all abide in nonretrogression. Saying that they were transformed by the Buddha indicates that he taught them the Dharma. Saying that he caused them to arouse the mind of the great path distinguishes this from a Lesser Vehicle teaching. It refers to teaching the Dharma at the time of the Origin, not teaching in the Trace.

Teaching the Dharma in the Trace has many forms. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra expressly says that the first and last of the five flavors issue from the cow; by inference, the middle three must likewise issue from it. An ordinary calf eats only ordinary grass and can produce only milk. Because it has not eaten the grasses of the five levels of patience, it cannot produce the other four flavors. A good and well-trained calf does not eat grasses growing too high or in places too wet, but suitable food such as wine lees and wheat fodder. Milk, curds, raw ghee, refined ghee, and clarified essence are thus fully present in the cow and only await feeding and milking before issuing according to the milking.

When milked after eating ordinary grass, the cow produces milk. After eating the grass of lower patience, it produces curds; after the grass of middle patience, raw ghee; after upper patience, refined ghee; and after highest patience, clarified essence. The cow’s producing the five flavors in sequence represents the gradual Dharma. Its producing clarified essence directly represents the sudden Dharma. Its producing three flavors represents the indeterminate Dharma.

The Buddha is the same. Partial and perfect Dharmas are completely present in the Buddha’s mind and only await sentient beings’ capacities striking before the teaching differs. When a capacity for wholesome destinations strikes, he teaches the Dharma-wheel for humans and gods. When a capacity for analyzing dharmas strikes, he teaches the Dharma-wheel of the two vehicles. When a capacity for embodying dharmas strikes, he teaches the Dharma-wheel of skillful crossing. When a capacity for successive differentiation strikes, he teaches the sequential Dharma-wheel. When a capacity for the perfect and sudden strikes, he teaches the Dharma-wheel of nonfabrication.

The flavor produced also differs according to how capacities strike simultaneously. When two capacities strike, the fourth and fifth flavors are produced. When one capacity strikes, only the second flavor is produced. When four capacities strike, four flavors are produced, excluding the first. When three capacities strike, three flavors are produced, excluding the first and second. When one capacity strikes, only the fifth flavor is produced, excluding the other four.

Consider also what four kinds of buddha attain at the place of practice. The Dharma attained there by a Tripiṭaka buddha is like milk already in the cow; on rising from the place of practice he teaches the Dharma-wheel of milk. The Dharma attained there by a Shared-teaching buddha is like curds already in the cow; on rising he teaches the Dharma-wheel of curds. The Dharma attained there by a Distinct-teaching buddha is like all five flavors already in the cow; on rising he teaches the Dharma-wheels of the five flavors in sequence. The Dharma attained there by a Perfect-teaching buddha is like clarified essence already in the cow; on rising he immediately teaches the Dharma-wheel of clarified essence.

Someone asks: The “Great Scripture” says that after eating milk-gruel one needs no other food. Should this not be the Dharma-wheel of the milk flavor? The answer is that milk has many kinds. Milk from a coarse and inferior cow can cause harm; milk from a good calf is the finest milk.

The questioner asks again: If there are many kinds of milk, are there not also several kinds of clarified essence? The answer is that the scripture calls the attainment of arhats and pratyekabuddhas clarified essence, showing that clarified essence can also be superior or inferior. Many meanings are contained here and should be considered carefully.

By applying the same three meanings upward, all the various teachings just described are Trace, not Origin. They were first perfected and first taught today, while what was perfected and taught in the intermediate period is itself entirely brushed aside as expedient. How much more must what was perfected and taught today be Trace? If one clings to the appearances of the Trace, both meanings—Trace and Origin—are lost together. If one brushes aside those appearances, both meanings become clear together. What is neither Trace nor Origin is the inconceivable one.

The matter may also be distinguished from another angle. What was already taught can be called Trace and what is taught now Origin; what was already taught can be Origin and what is taught now Trace; both can be Trace; or both can be Origin. Four statements can likewise be made concerning real Origin and provisional Trace, and further four statements through substance and function and through phenomena and principle.

At this point the Fahua Xuanyi passes from the first half of fascicle seven to its second half. The attribution remains “taught by the Great Master Zhiyi of Tiantai.” Although the fascicle changes, the thread of the ten subtleties of the Origin continues to unfold.

The Subtlety of Original Retinues

The scripture says that these bodhisattvas abide in empty space below. They are all children of the Buddha, and the Buddha is their father. In “below,” below means the bottom limit of the Dharma. The Large Prajñā has the samādhi of the bottom limit of all dharmas. The Explanatory Treatise says that on the great path of wisdom’s perfection, only the Buddha can exhaust the bottom limit. One should thus know that these bodhisattvas are close to the fruit of buddhahood and have brought wisdom’s perfection to its bottom limit.

“Empty space” is the quiescent light of the empty space of Dharma-nature. From the empty space of quiescent light at the time of the Origin, they appear in the empty space of quiescent light today. The assembly in today’s empty space of quiescent light does not recognize the retinues from the Origin, which is why Maitreya says that although he has traveled through many lands, he does not recognize a single one of them. The bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust motes of a thousand worlds who well up from the earth are all response-born retinues from the Origin.

The other three kinds are not separately mentioned because the time is extremely remote and provisional relations have become real relations, so only one is revealed rather than all three. It can also be understood that once one kind is presented, the other three can be known by the same principle.

When the Trace is extended from the Origin, the Buddha also has four kinds of retinue at his first attainment within the Trace: karma-born, vow-born, supernormal-power-born, and response-born. Those transformed in the intermediate period likewise form four kinds. Mañjuśrī, Perceiver of the World's Sounds (Guanshiyin/Avalokiteśvara), Devadatta, and others are at times called the Buddha’s teachers and at times disciples. Those who are confused do not understand the Origin–Trace relations involved. If the entire intermediate period is brushed aside as Trace, both Origin and Trace can be understood; if one clings to the Trace and doubts the Origin, both are lost.

Someone asks: Comparing Trace and Origin, the retinues today as numerous as the dust motes of a thousand worlds are fewer, while the retinues increasing the path since the remote past are more numerous. Do the Dharma-bodies of Origin and Trace therefore differ in depth? The answer is that the Buddha’s Dharma-body has long been complete, with neither increase nor decrease. The distinction here concerns only breadth and narrowness of the conditions of teaching and transformation.

The questioner asks again: If this is so, bodhisattvas of the first and second abodes also differ in the amount of their conditions for teaching and transformation. Should their Dharma-bodies likewise have no differences of depth? The answer is that bodhisattva stages have not yet been exhausted and must be judged as deep or shallow according to each bodhisattva’s actual realization. The Buddha-stage is complete and only breadth or narrowness of provisional transformation is discussed; four statements may be made.

The questioner asks again: When the subtleties of cause, fruit, and the rest are taught, the Buddha of the Origin is pointed out through the Buddha of the Trace. Why, when retinues are taught, are persons from the Origin summoned into the Trace? The answer is that Dharmas such as cause and fruit are subtle and hard to understand, so the remote Origin is pointed out through appearances of the Trace before one’s eyes. Retinues are persons, and it is easier to summon persons as witnesses. One may also bring persons of the Origin to reveal persons in the Trace or use Dharmas in the Trace to reveal Dharmas at the Origin; the two mutually disclose one another.

The Subtlety of Original Nirvāṇa

The scripture further says that the Buddha has spoken of himself as entering nirvāṇa; it also says that extinction is not actual, yet he proclaims that he will take extinction. That extinction is not actual reveals original quiescence in permanence; proclaiming extinction serves to discipline sentient beings. These are all nirvāṇa at the time of the Origin, not nirvāṇa in the Trace.

Nirvāṇa in the Trace has several aspects. The “Great Scripture” says that the assembly summoned by sound and radiance extended from the first disciples through vipers and scorpions. The bodhisattva Immeasurable Body, though still in the position of a disciple, already had an immeasurable body. How could his great teacher truly have needed to recline with pain in his back? It was only the birth-body manifesting illness and entry into extinction. The Dharma-body has no illness, remains constantly, and does not change.

The first kind takes emptiness reached through analyzing dharmas: when the cause is extinguished, the fruit disappears, and nirvāṇa with remainder and without remainder are taught. The second takes emptiness reached through embodying dharmas and likewise uses extinction of the cause and disappearance of the fruit to teach nirvāṇa with and without remainder.

The appearance of extinction in the Trace of the birth-body is described in an Āgama. This was a body born from parents through karma concluded in the past. The Buddha abandoned his land and royal position, practiced austerities for six years, and severed the bonds through thirty-four moments of mind to attain the path. At eighty-two, in the body of an old bhikṣu, he went to Cunda’s dwelling, carried his bowl to seek food, ate sandalwood-tree-ear soup, and taught the Dharma after eating. The lifespan of his recompense was exhausted at midnight; he entered nirvāṇa without remainder, was cremated by fire, and relics were collected. This is the appearance of nirvāṇa for a Tripiṭaka buddha.

According to the Explanatory Treatise, bodhisattvas on the sixth ground have exhausted delusions of views and thoughts. From the seventh ground onward, vows support residual habits as they receive a body in birth-and-death, until the ascent and descent immediately preceding buddhahood; then wisdom corresponding in one thought severs those habits and buddhahood is attained. Once all sentient beings who can be delivered have been delivered and the conditions of teaching and transformation are exhausted, the manifested body ceases and enters nirvāṇa without remainder. This is the appearance of nirvāṇa for a Shared-teaching buddha.

According to the masters of the Dilun school, conditioned cultivation reveals true nature; cultivating awakening perfects the virtues of the fruit and accomplishes great nirvāṇa, also called the nirvāṇa of expedient purity. The “Great Scripture” says that through extinguishing this body of form one obtains permanent form, and that feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise. These are called liberation of form, liberation of feeling, liberation of perception, liberation of formations, and liberation of consciousness. When the two causes of delimited and transformational birth-and-death are exhausted, permanent nirvāṇa with remainder is obtained; when the recompense-bodies of the five aggregates in the two places are exhausted, permanent nirvāṇa without remainder is obtained. This differs from the first two and is the appearance of nirvāṇa for a Distinct-teaching buddha.

The “Great Scripture” further says that great parinirvāṇa is permanent and unchanging, yet can establish various manifestations to discipline sentient beings, as broadly taught in the Śūraṃgama. This is called great nirvāṇa and possesses permanence, bliss, self, and purity. It differs from the first three and is the appearance of perfect nirvāṇa.

The scripture says that in today’s assembly innumerable beings each see differently. Some see the Tathāgata enter nirvāṇa. Some see him remain in the world for one eon or less than one eon. Some see him remain for immeasurable eons. Some see a sixteen-foot body; some a small body or a great body. Some see the recompense-body seated in the Lotus-Treasury World-Ocean teaching the Dharma-gateway of the mind-ground to hundreds of thousands of koṭis of Śākyamuni Buddhas. Some see the Dharma-body like empty space, without distinctions, signs, or obstruction, pervading like the empty space of the Dharma realm. Some see the śāla grove as nothing but soil, sand, grasses, trees, and stone walls. Some see it purified and adorned with gold, silver, and seven jewels. Some see it as a place visited by the buddhas of the past, present, and future. Some see it as the inconceivable real Dharma-substance of the buddhas’ realm. This shows that principal recompense in the Buddha-body and dependent recompense in the land each have four aspects, which are the four aspects of nirvāṇa just described.

The “Great Scripture” and the present scripture have the same meaning. The “Great Scripture” takes permanence as its purport; Kāśyapa’s first question concerns long life, and the Buddha’s answers everywhere reveal future permanence while saying little about the lifespan from a prior attainment, because the Lotus had already taught it. Although that scripture speaks of the lifespan from prior attainment in only one or two places, it cannot therefore be judged to teach that the Buddha attained only recently and has a short lifespan. The present scripture directly clarifies disclosing the Trace to reveal the Origin and takes immeasurable lifespan as its purport, saying little about future permanence; although it mentions that permanence briefly in only one or two places, it cannot therefore be judged impermanent. The two scriptures each present one side. Those of sharp faculties know that if the Buddha was originally permanent, he will also be permanent in the future; understanding future long life, they also understand original long life. The two scriptures therefore have the same meaning.

The present scripture also repeatedly manifests birth and entry into extinction. Birth is not actual birth, and extinction is not actual extinction; precisely this reveals permanence. The twenty thousand Buddhas Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiance and Kāśyapa Buddha did not teach a separate Nirvāṇa Sūtra. They clarified original and future permanence within the Lotus Sutra alone, making the meaning of permanence in the Lotus Sutra still clearer.

For three reasons, all the nirvāṇas just described are Trace rather than Origin: extinction is first manifested today; the Buddha can appear again after extinction; and nirvāṇas manifested in the intermediate period are all brushed aside. If every nirvāṇa in the Trace is extended from the Origin, how could the Trace be grasped as Origin? That would mean recognizing neither Trace nor Origin. When the Trace is brushed aside to reveal the Origin, neither meaning is confused. What is neither Trace nor Origin remains the inconceivable one.

The Subtlety of Original Lifespan

Under original cause above, wisdom was taken as life. This wisdom-life is neither long nor short. Precisely because wisdom-life is neither long nor short, it can be manifested as long or short; the present section directly concerns long and short lifespans.

The scripture says in place after place that the Buddha speaks of himself with different names and greater or lesser ages. Age is lifespan; greater and lesser are long and short. When the scripture speaks of different ages throughout the intermediate period, it uses appearances of the Trace to point from afar toward the Origin.

Lifespans in the Trace are not the same. The body of a Tripiṭaka buddha is born from parents; at eighty-two his lifespan ends, his body turns to ash, his wisdom is extinguished, and he is never born again. The body of a Shared-teaching buddha is produced by vows; once the conditions of teaching and transformation are exhausted, he too returns to ashen extinction and is not born again after extinction. The lifespans of these two buddhas extend only as far as karmic power or conditions of teaching and transformation. They do not have wisdom-life that is neither long nor short and therefore cannot spontaneously manifest long or short lifespan or greater or lesser age.

When the Distinct-teaching buddha enters the grounds and breaks ignorance, he obtains the Tathāgata’s one body and immeasurable bodies. The one body abides serenely; through the immeasurable bodies he becomes a buddha in a hundred Dharma realms and also manifests bodies in the other nine realms. His age can therefore be said to be greater or lesser. Greater is the permanent lifespan of the Great Vehicle, lesser the impermanent lifespan of the Lesser Vehicle. Perfect-teaching bodhisattvas are the same when they enter the abodes. Since bodhisattvas within the causal stages can already be neither permanent nor impermanent and yet manifest permanent or impermanent, greater or lesser lifespans, how much more so the final mind, and how much more wondrous awakening.

Reasoning from the three meanings, all these lifespans are lifespans of cause and fruit within the Trace. They are entirely extended as Trace from the perfection of cause and fruit on the ground of the Origin. If even the Trace is like this, how much more the Origin. The scripture says that the lifespan accomplished while the Buddha originally practiced the bodhisattva path has even now not been exhausted; this indicates original cause. Since the lifespan at the causal stage has not been exhausted, how much more the lifespan of the original fruit. If one clings to the Trace, one does not know the Origin. Now that the Trace is brushed aside, one simultaneously recognizes the Origin and the inconceivable one.

The Subtlety of Original Benefit

The scripture says that the Buddha causes sentient beings all to obtain joy. Joy is the mark of benefit. In the Trace, the common ten grounds of the three vehicles—that is, the ten grounds traversed in common by the three vehicles—and the separate ten grounds have such benefits as wondrousness according to stage and wondrousness of entering a stage when opening the provisional to reveal the real. Even hearing the Buddha’s lifespan, increasing the power of the path, and diminishing birth-and-death are all benefits within the Trace. Benefits obtained from every provisional and real teaching in the intermediate period likewise belong to benefits of the Trace. When the Origin is inferred by looking from the Trace, the time of the Origin must also have benefits from partial and perfect Dharmas. All the bodhisattvas below abide in empty space, which indicates that all dwell in quiescent light; this is original benefit. Thus the first Origin is taken as Origin and various Traces are extended from it, after which the Origin is known through the Traces. The items need not be recorded at length here.

Sixth Analytical Stage: Analysis through the Three Times

The scripture speaks of the Tathāgata’s power of sovereign supernormal penetration, his power of great might and valor, and his power of the lion’s vigorous advance. This passage concerns benefiting sentient beings of the past, present, and future.

The provisional and real Dharmas first realized in the past are called the Origin. Only after realizing the Origin did the Buddha teach and transform others through expedients. Whether opening the three to reveal the one or disclosing the Trace to reveal the Origin, the first is still designated as Origin. The intermediate manifestations and disclosures of the Trace to reveal the Origin also designate the first as Origin. Today’s disclosure of the Trace to reveal the Origin designates the first as Origin. A future disclosure of the Origin to reveal the Trace likewise designates the first as Origin. Although the three times differ, the one Origin, Vairocana, does not differ, just as hundreds of thousands of branches and leaves all converge on a single root.

Someone asks: All the immeasurable buddhas now visible are emanations of Śākyamuni. Are there ultimately other buddhas? Do other buddhas each have emanations? The answer is that the Contemplation of Samantabhadra says that in the east is a buddha named Excellent Virtue, and that Excellent Virtue Buddha also has emanated buddhas. One thereby knows that there are other buddhas and that each has emanations. The “Supernormal Powers” chapter further says that the two sounds of snapping fingers and clearing throats reached buddha-worlds throughout the ten directions. The four assemblies in those lands offered from afar; the scattered objects came from the ten directions like heaps of snow and covered the buddhas in this place. This also shows that there are other buddhas and that each has emanations.

The questioner asks again: If the buddhas of the three times all have emanations, why is it said that the Tathāgata Prabhūtaratna’s whole body did not disperse and was as if he had entered meditation? If his whole body did not disperse, why is it also said that he traveled through the ten directions to attest the Lotus Sutra? How can these two meanings be reconciled?

The answer is that when explaining recollection of the Buddha, the Explanatory Treatise says that because no one requested Prabhūtaratna Buddha to teach the Dharma, he entered nirvāṇa; later he manifested a buddha-body and a seven-jeweled stūpa to attest the Lotus Sutra. According to the treatise, this was the manifestation of a whole body, not the absence of emanations.

The Nanyue master further said: If Prabhūtaratna Buddha was wholly incapable of teaching the Dharma, how could he have told the four assemblies to erect a great stūpa after his extinction? Clearly he did not refrain from all Dharma teaching; he must only have refrained from teaching the Lotus. He therefore made the great vow not to divide the bones of his birth-body into relics, but to keep his whole body undispersed and appear to attest the perfect scripture. Being as if in meditation expresses non-extinction; appearing to attest the scripture of permanence expresses non-partiality. Because he is neither partial nor extinguished, the meaning of perfect permanence is revealed. His mouth proclaims the great Dharma true and pure: true indicates permanence. Only the virtues true and pure are briefly presented here, but the virtues self and bliss can also be known. People of dull faculties read the words and still cannot perceive this for themselves.

The questioner asks again: If buddhas of the three times can all reveal the Origin, how does the first buddha to attain true buddhahood reveal the Origin? The answer is that not every buddha must reveal the Origin. First consider the side on which it can be revealed. The first wondrous awakening can point to the first abode as Origin; if the first abode receives empowerment and manifests wondrous awakening, it can likewise point to the first abode as Origin. Before the first abode, there is no earlier stage to designate vertically, but horizontally there are still substance and function, and substance can be designated as Origin. Because the Buddha had also made vows, he could teach that his lifespan was remote, as the scripture clarifies.

It can also be explained this way: although the first buddha had no remote and recent, provisional and real, or other Origin–Trace relations of remoteness and proximity to reveal, he could still reveal Origin and Trace through substance and function, teaching and practice, principle and teaching, or phenomena and principle. From the side on which the Origin could not be revealed, when the first buddha had just attained buddhahood he had only then obtained the Origin. Extension of the Trace from the Origin had not yet been discussed, so there was no remote appearance of Trace to disclose and no remote event of Origin to reveal.

For a buddha who had attained in the remote past, the east could be used as a simile, as with Śākyamuni. If the attainment were even more remote, the four directions could be used; if still more remote, the ten directions. If it were more recent, the number of eastern worlds in the simile could be reduced. If there were no remoteness at all, there would be no simile to make.

The questioner asks again: If this is truly the first attainment and no event of the remote Origin can be revealed, why does the scripture say that this is the Buddha’s expedient and that the other buddhas are likewise? The answer is that although there is no long-lasting Origin, if an expedient is needed, the Buddha has wisdom that lengthens and shortens eons and can expand seven days into immeasurable eons.

The questioner asks again: If buddhas include those who attained remotely and those who first attain, and if some disclose the Trace while others do not, should there also be cases of opening the three to reveal the one and cases of neither opening the three nor revealing the one? The answer is that where bodhisattvas and śrāvakas together compose the Saṅgha, there is opening the three to reveal the one. Where the Saṅgha consists purely of bodhisattvas, why would such opening and revelation be needed?

The questioner asks again: If the three are not opened to reveal the one, how should the chapter on the five buddhas be explained? The answer is that the five buddhas are likewise described in this way only when śrāvakas and bodhisattvas compose the Saṅgha together and the buddhas appear in an evil world of five turbidities. If a buddha appears in a pure land, the situation differs.

The questioner asks again: Breaking the ten coarse and revealing the ten wondrous exhausts the delusion of ignorance and reveals the one real principle. Now the wondrous within the Trace is again broken as coarse and the Origin taken as wondrous. What delusion is ultimately broken, and what principle revealed? The answer is that ignorance has extremely many layers and the ocean of the true mark is immeasurably deep and broad. Breaking and revelation can therefore occur repeatedly without fault.

The questioner asks again: If so, the wondrous is being used to break the wondrous, and the wondrous that is broken becomes coarse. By the same reasoning, coarse should also be used to break coarse, and the coarse that is broken should become wondrous. Should the delusions of the four abodes that are broken also be wondrous? The answer is that according to the sudden meaning, the delusions of the four abodes are themselves immediately wondrous; how much more could the wisdom that breaks them fail to be wondrous?

The questioner asks again: If so, there is only the sudden meaning and there should be no gradual meaning. The answer is that when gradual and sudden are distinguished, both what breaks and what is broken in the gradual Dharma are coarse, while both what breaks and what is broken in the sudden Dharma are wondrous.

The questioner asks again: The intermediate period has partial and perfect, provisional and real, yet all are called provisional. By the same principle, should all not also be called partial? The answer is that in a general sense they could be, but not in a differentiated sense. Partial and perfect are judged according to the Dharma taught. The Dharma’s character is fixed, so partial is not perfect and perfect is not partial. Provisional and real are judged according to teaching. Every establishment within the Trace is provisionally posited, so all may be called provisional from the perspective of provisional establishment.

The questioner asks again: If there are wondrousness carrying the coarse and wondrousness not carrying the coarse, should there not also be coarseness carrying the wondrous and coarseness not carrying the wondrous? The answer is that four statements may be made. Wondrousness carrying the coarse is the Distinct Teaching. Wondrousness not carrying the coarse is the Perfect Teaching. Coarseness carrying the wondrous is the Shared Teaching. Coarseness not carrying the wondrous is the Tripiṭaka Teaching.

Another four statements can be made. Wondrousness carrying the coarse is like the Shared Teaching. Wondrousness not carrying the coarse is like the Perfect Teaching. Both carrying and not carrying the coarse is like the Distinct Teaching. Neither carrying nor not carrying the coarse is like the Perfect Teaching drawing in the Distinct Teaching, or the Perfect and Distinct Teachings drawing in the Shared Teaching.

Four statements can further be made according to the five flavors. Coarse without carrying the wondrous is like curds. Wondrous without carrying the coarse is like clarified essence. Both carrying and not carrying the coarse is like raw and refined ghee. Neither carrying nor not carrying the coarse is like milk.

The questioner asks again: Since the two kinds of coarse differ, why are both suddenly called coarse? The answer is that phenomenal aspects are shallow or deep and are therefore divided into two kinds; because neither accords with wondrous principle, both are called coarse.

The questioner asks again: Should there also be real carrying expedients and real not carrying expedients? The answer is that this can be known from the foregoing model. The questioner asks again: Should there also be one carrying two and one not carrying two? The answer is again that this can be known from the foregoing model.

In a general discussion, Origin and Trace are simply provisional and real. To distinguish higher and lower, Origin and Trace should be used. To distinguish true and false horizontally, provisional and real should be used. Origin and Trace are discussed according to body and stage; provisional and real according to wisdom and teaching.

The questioner asks again: To which of the six levels of Origin and Trace do the ten subtleties on the ground of the Origin belong? The answer is that they do not belong only to the past and today, nor only to the intermediate period, but discuss the ten subtleties together through relations such as substance and function, teaching and practice, and principle and teaching.

Seventh Analytical Stage: Judging Coarse and Wondrous

When the ten coarse are realized within the Trace, the ten coarse are called coarse and the ten subtleties wondrous. Before the ten coarse are opened and revealed, they remain coarse; after opening and revelation, the ten coarse become wondrous, as explained in detail above. Within the Trace, whether it is relational wondrousness established in relation to the coarse or wondrousness accomplished by opening the coarse, its wondrous principle does not differ from original wondrousness. Yet because it is obtained only today, new attainment is called coarse. In the Origin, whether coarse, wondrous, or wondrousness accomplished by opening the coarse, its wondrous principle does not differ from wondrousness in the Trace. Yet because it was accomplished earlier, prior attainment is called wondrous.

Phenomena and principle within the Trace are both newly attained and are therefore called coarse; phenomena and principle within the Origin were both attained earlier and are therefore called wondrous. Relations between principle and teaching, teaching and practice, substance and function, provisional and real within the Trace are judged in the same way.

Before the Trace is disclosed to reveal the Origin, one can understand only coarse and wondrous in the phenomena and principle of the Trace and can never understand the coarse phenomenal aspects of the Origin, still less its wondrous substance of principle. Even Maitreya cannot penetrate it, much less anyone else. If phenomena and principle in the Trace are disclosed, phenomena and principle in the Origin are revealed; one knows that only because there are phenomena and principle in the Origin can phenomena and principle in the Trace be extended. Because the Trace comes from the Origin, the Origin is wondrous and the Trace coarse. Since there is a distinction between Origin and Trace, coarse and wondrous are taught. Wondrous principle itself, however, is neither Trace nor Origin, but the inconceivable one. Relations of principle and teaching, teaching and practice, substance and function, provisional and real, past and today can all be understood in the same way.

Eighth Analytical Stage: Clarifying Provisional and Real

Wisdom illuminating the ten coarse objects within the Trace is called provisional; wisdom illuminating the ten wondrous objects within the Trace is called real. Even through the three times of the intermediate period, the ten coarse objects illuminated are called provisional and the ten wondrous objects illuminated real. Yet provisional and real alike all belong to the Trace; because they are Trace, both are called provisional in a general sense.

Intermediate stages like these are immeasurable and boundless and cannot be expressed. Every one has provisional and real. Other scriptures do not even teach one instance of the provisional in the intermediate period, much less one instance of the real; they do not teach even one instance of intermediate provisional and real, much less immeasurable instances; they do not teach even intermediate provisional and real, much less provisional and real on the ground of the Origin. All provisional and real throughout the intermediate period are called provisional, while what illuminated the ten coarse and ten wondrous at the first time of the Origin is entirely called real.

The provisional of the Trace and real of the Origin are equally inconceivable; inconceivability is Dharma-nature. The principle of Dharma-nature is neither ancient nor present, neither Origin nor Trace, neither provisional nor real. Only on the basis of Dharma-nature are Origin, Trace, provisional, real, coarse, and wondrous established. Worldly words include past, future, and present, but this does not mean that awakening itself truly migrates through the three times.

Provisional and real are further distinguished as practice for oneself, transformation of others, and practice for oneself together with transformation of others, as explained under the subtlety of objects above. The provisional and real wisdoms accorded with in the Buddha’s own practice on the ground of the Origin are called his provisional and real in practice for himself. From the time of the Origin through the Deer Park, the Buddha taught these two wisdoms through various expedients in accordance with the wishes of others, changing their application without a fixed location; these are called his two provisional and real wisdoms in transforming others. Although transformation of others has both provisional and real, both are called provisional. Although practice for oneself has both provisional and real, both are called real. This is provisional and real stated by combining practice for oneself with transformation of others.

It can also be explained through applying, abolishing, and opening the provisional. Within the Trace, expedients are established on the basis of the real and the intent originally lies in the real, yet the intent of the real is difficult to fathom. Why? The conjured city is an expedient, but people understand it as the real destination and thus recognize neither provisional nor real.

When the provisional is abolished to reveal the real, the emphasis instead lies in enabling people to understand the provisional, making it easy to fathom. Why? Once one knows that the phenomenal affair of the conjured city was provisionally established by the Buddha, one can comprehensively understand buddha-dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges and remotely understand expedients in eons of the distant past. The Avataṃsaka therefore explains many phenomena and numbers for the avaivartikas; this is precisely the meaning.

When the provisional is opened to reveal the real, after sentient beings have understood phenomenal Dharmas, their intent to cling to expedients ceases. They need not leave expedients and seek the real elsewhere in the distance. Expedients themselves are real; there is no separate provisional in addition. This is called opening the provisional to reveal the real.

Since the Trace has the three levels of practice for oneself and transformation of others and of applying, abolishing, and opening, and since all these Traces are extended from the Origin, the same can be said of the time of the Origin. Although Origin and Trace differ, they are the inconceivable one.

Ninth Analytical Stage: Benefit

First comes the benefit obtained by the birth-body, then the benefit obtained by the Dharma-body. The birth-body obtains benefit in two places.

The first is the Trace Gate’s gathering the three into the one and opening the provisional to reveal the real. Birth-body bodhisattvas obtain five kinds of benefit among the ten subtleties. Why? The subtlety of objects is universally pervasive and originally complete in all sentient beings. The subtlety of the vehicle is different and ultimate only at the buddha-fruit. Stimulus and response, supernormal power, and teaching the Dharma are benefits at the fruit-stage; because they are not discussed before the fruit is realized, these three benefits do not apply. The five benefits obtained are therefore wisdom, practice, stage, retinues, and merit.

According to the stages of the six identities, bodhisattvas obtain benefits at four of them. Identity in principle and ultimate identity are excluded by the same principle as above. What is obtained begins with identity in name: at identity in name there are wisdom, practice, stage, retinues, and merit, and through identity in partial realization there are likewise wisdom, practice, stage, retinues, and merit. For example, when Śāriputra received a prediction, the four assemblies, gods, and dragons rejoiced and praised him in verse: Śāriputra of great wisdom had received an honored prediction that day, and they too would all become buddhas. This is the aspect of benefit obtained when birth-body bodhisattvas hear the Dharma taught in the Trace Gate.

The second place is disclosure of the Origin to reveal the Trace: teaching the remoteness of the Buddha’s lifespan greatly increases the samādhi of contemplating the Buddha. Here too birth-body bodhisattvas obtain five of the ten benefits and four benefits among the six identities, diminishing birth-and-death and increasing the power of the path.

From the second abode through bodhisattvas with only one remaining birth, all obtain the five benefits through the Dharma-body. Why? Response-born bodhisattvas hear the merits of the ground of the Origin, and their samādhi of contemplating the Buddha becomes still deeper and broader, beyond measure and incomparable with the benefits obtained earlier within the Trace. As the Buddha-object becomes deeper, merit also grows. The “Distinguishing Qualities” chapter therefore says that the Buddha taught a rare Dharma never heard before; the World-Honored One has great might, and his lifespan cannot be measured. The scripture says that those who hear the Dharma and obtain benefit are filled throughout their bodies with joy; some abide on the ground of nonretrogression and some obtain dhāraṇī. These are the aspects of benefit obtained by the two kinds, birth-body and Dharma-body.

If only realization on the real path is discussed, the two places do not differ; if the phenomenal function of provisional wisdom is discussed, they cannot be compared. The wisdom-liberated and those liberated both ways, for example, do not differ in uncontaminated wisdom, yet their merits are superior or inferior. Attainment of the path in the earlier Trace Gate reaches at most patience with the nonarising of dharmas; attainment in the Origin Gate reaches as high as only one remaining birth. The assemblies obtaining benefit are counted by dust motes. How could their numbers and depth of realization be the same as before? The scripture must be distinguished carefully: the place of arousing the mind is the stage of purification of the six faculties, while only one remaining birth is the last stage of partial realization.

Next comes benefit from transmission. In the earlier transmission of the Trace Gate, bodhisattvas who had vowed to propagate the scripture and arhats who had received predictions propagated it in this and other lands, and the scripture discussed their merit. Examining that passage, it speaks only of hidden benefit and not manifest benefit.

In the present Origin Gate, the Buddha entrusts to the bodhisattvas all Dharmas possessed by the buddhas, including the Dharmas of the Trace Gate. The secret and essential treasury is the true mark in Origin and Trace; all profound affairs are cause and fruit in Origin and Trace. The Buddha entrusts these Dharmas to bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust motes of a thousand worlds. When bodhisattvas at the stage of the Dharma-body propagate the scripture, how could they be limited, like birth-body bodhisattvas, to this and other lands? They travel through lands in bodies of the ten Dharma realms and therefore have both hidden and manifest benefit.

Someone wonders: Where the Dharma-body abides there are always buddhas, so why are bodhisattvas still needed to propagate the Dharma? The answer is that propagation requires a person and must await the right time and companions. Even while the Buddha was in the world, Mañjuśrī entered the dragon palace to propagate the Dharma. Although there are buddhas where the Dharma-body abides, external conditions are still needed. The Buddha therefore entrusted the Dharma solemnly, manifested his broad and long tongue, stroked their crowns with his hand, and earnestly charged them through various appearances to propagate this Dharma and obtain immeasurable wondrous merit. The wondrous benefit obtained by all who hear cannot be counted. The scripture therefore says that if anyone hears the Buddha teach his lifespan, all sentient beings rejoice and obtain the recompense of immeasurable uncontaminated merit. This is the meaning.

Tenth Analytical Stage: Contemplation of Mind

How can a subtlety of the Origin so remote be contemplated in one’s own mind? It is not directly identical with the mind, yet neither is it apart from the mind. Why? The suchness of the Buddha and the suchness of sentient beings are the same suchness, not two. Since the Buddha obtained this subtlety of the Origin through contemplating the mind and extended the Trace in activity so vast that it cannot be described, my suchness is likewise the Buddha’s suchness. I too should therefore contemplate the mind and produce such vast benefit. I should also vow that my suchness quickly accord with the Buddha’s suchness.

The scripture therefore says that one who hears that the Buddha’s lifespan is immeasurable and believes deeply for a very brief time obtains merit surpassing the earlier merit. It also speaks of vowing that in the future one will deliver sentient beings through long life, like today’s World-Honored One, king of the Śākya clan, who roars the lion’s roar at the place of practice and teaches the Dharma without fear. The practitioner vows that in the future all sentient beings will honor him and that, seated at the place of practice, he will teach lifespan as the Buddha does. This is the aspect of obtaining benefits of the six identities by contemplating the subtlety of the Origin in the mind.

Three Pairs and Six Statements of Great and Wondrous

Someone asks: How should great and wondrous be explained? The answer is that they should be distinguished through three pairs and six statements. The first pair is that the wondrous is the great and the great is the wondrous. The second is that the great breaks the wondrous and the wondrous breaks the great. The third is that the great cultivates the wondrous and the wondrous cultivates the great.

The scripture says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle, speaks of such great recompense, and speaks of a great cart, yet the title of the scripture says wondrous. The Nirvāṇa says that great parinirvāṇa is a subtle and wondrous scripture, yet the title says great. Thus the wondrous is the great, and the great is the wondrous.

The Large Prajñā says that form is neither profound nor wondrous, and that feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise neither profound nor wondrous. This is the great breaking the wondrous. The present passage says that all dharmas are empty and quiescent, uncontaminated, unconditioned, neither great nor small. This is the wondrous breaking the great. Again, a great arhat, although already called great, must still cultivate the wondrous. Extinction, cessation, wondrousness, and separation include the word wondrous, yet one must still cultivate the great.

Someone asks: If great and wondrous are entirely equal, all the other scriptures should also be called wondrous. The answer is that in a general discussion, according to principle, the great and wondrous clarified in the various scriptures do not differ. In a differentiated discussion, other scriptures still carry expedients, while the present scripture does not carry expedients and is therefore especially called wondrous. Practitioners of the Lesser Vehicle can enter, and the Trace is disclosed to reveal the Origin; it is therefore especially called wondrous.

The questioner asks again: Great and Lesser Vehicles can both be called wondrous and both teach permanence. If the Lesser Vehicle is first criticized in general by saying that its extinction, cessation, wondrousness, and separation share only the name while differing in meaning and cannot count as permanent, should it not likewise be said in general that the Lesser Vehicle cannot be called wondrous?

The answer is that wondrous is a name for inconceivability. The truth of the Lesser Vehicle also transcends language and thought and can in a general sense be called inconceivable. It can therefore bear the name wondrous in a general sense.

One should next provisionally concede the opponent’s point: the Lesser Vehicle can also call the three unconditioned dharmas—empty space, analytical cessation, and nonanalytical cessation—permanent. Its permanence nevertheless differs from that of the Great Vehicle.

The questioner asks again: Since both are called permanent, do both also integrate and return to the One Vehicle? The answer is that the Lesser Vehicle integrates various views so that all enter the truth. Although this can be called integration, the meaning of what is integrated differs.

One may ask in return: If identical names establish identical meanings, can the Great and Lesser Vehicles both be called impermanent, both be called coarse, and both be said not to integrate and return? Analogies can be generalized while meanings remain different. How could the Great Vehicle be called impermanent? It not only lacks impermanence but also lacks any permanence that can be grasped; precisely because no permanence can be grasped, the name impermanent can be used. How could the Great Vehicle be called coarse? Wherever there is speech, the term coarse can be used. How could the Great Vehicle be said not to integrate and return? All dharmas are buddha-dharmas; what other Dharma remains to be integrated?

The ten subtleties of the Origin unfold the Buddha’s attainment in the remote past into ten aspects: cause, fruit, land, stimulus and response, supernormal power, teaching the Dharma, retinues, nirvāṇa, lifespan, and benefit. These ten aspects are not ten worlds isolated from one another. If the cause is not accomplished, the fruit has no basis; once the fruit is accomplished, there must be a place in which it abides; once there is a place of abiding, the capacities of those who can be delivered are illuminated; when the conditions of those capacities stir, supernormal power and teaching the Dharma arise accordingly; those who hear the Dharma and receive transformation become retinues; when conditions are exhausted, nirvāṇa is manifested; only when extinction is manifested can the length of the lifespan be discussed; and what is accomplished from beginning to end culminates in the benefit obtained by sentient beings.

This sequence first brings one fact into view: remoteness is not a matter of adding an earlier date before today’s attainment of buddhahood, but of understanding anew everything seen today. The attainment of the path, the land, the Dharma assembly, and nirvāṇa before one’s eyes are not denied, yet they are no longer taken as the whole. The Trace has a genuine function of teaching and transformation; the Origin shows where those functions come from. If one clings only to what is before one’s eyes, the remote past becomes unknowable. If one abandons what is before one’s eyes to seek the remote past elsewhere, the Origin loses the Trace through which it can be approached. Through one aspect of the Trace after another, the ten subtleties lead people back to recognition of their Origin.

If the Original Cause Is First, Why List So Many Causes Practiced in Former Lives?

The dust-mote simile first pushes time beyond the reach of calculation. The Sahā world is ground into ink, and only after passing through a thousand worlds is one dot placed; then both the dotted and undotted worlds are ground entirely into dust, with each mote counted as an eon, yet the time since the attainment of buddhahood exceeds even that number. The point is not to make the reader calculate a still larger number, but to let calculation exhaust itself within the simile. Even Maitreya cannot know it, and worldly intelligence and calendrical reckoning have still less prospect of exhausting it; only the Buddha-eye sees the remote past as though it were today.

Yet even the causes practiced during those dust-mote eons are not the original cause. The potter offered grass, a lamp, and syrup to a buddha; the brahmin youth presented and scattered five flowers and spread his hair over the mud; and the brahmin Treasure-Ocean practiced vigorously before the Buddha Jewel-Treasury. These three pictures each give bodhisattva practice concrete form and each has its own depth. Their purpose is not to replace the original cause, but to teach people to look back from causes of the Trace that can be known. Because they are near, because their depths differ, and because the scripture brushes them aside, all three belong to the Trace. Only the perfect cause practiced first, prior to all these causes practiced in the intermediate period, is called the original cause.

The moon-in-water simile turns this transition into an action. The moon’s reflection in a pool has light, a cassia tree, and a disk: from its light one can know wisdom, from the cassia tree practice, and from the disk the stage. A person beside the water first recognizes the moon above through the reflection below, then brushes aside the reflection and points to the sky. Without the moon in the water, it would be hard to point out the moon in the sky; if the moon in the water were taken to be the moon in the sky, one would never raise one’s head. The relation between original cause and causes of the Trace is the same: wisdom, practice, and stages in the Trace make the original cause knowable, while brushing aside the Trace prevents one from mistaking a proximate cause for the first.

Someone asks: Since the scripture speaks of originally practicing the bodhisattva path, why not take the first abode as the original cause, the grounds as the intermediate period, and today’s wondrous awakening as the revelation of the Origin? The answer holds firmly to “practiced completely” and “fully practiced.” The first abode cannot yet be said to have fully completed all causal practices. Moreover, the fruit of the intermediate period is itself brushed aside as provisional, so its cause certainly cannot be established in turn as real. This answer does not disparage the first abode; it preserves what “original cause” denotes. That cause must account for the perfect causal practice before the attainment of buddhahood in the remote past and cannot be an arbitrarily selected stage merely because its temporal position is earlier.

If the Original Fruit Is One Fruit, Why Does the Scripture Present Four Pictures of Attaining Buddhahood?

The original fruit is read through the three tracks of true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment. “I” reveals true nature; “Buddha” reveals awakened illumination; and coming by the path of reality to attain right awakening reveals supporting accomplishment. The three tracks did not first converge today: the original fruit was already perfect in the remote past.

What appears within the Trace, however, comprises four pictures of attaining buddhahood. The first is marked by a grass seat beneath the tree of the path and the severing of delusion through thirty-four moments of mind. The second is marked by heavenly robes as the seat and wisdom corresponding in one thought severing the remaining habits. The third is marked by a seven-jeweled flower seat, flower dais and petals, and the conferral of the rank of Dharma king through white-tuft and emanated-body radiance. The fourth is marked by empty space as the seat: when one attains, all attain, and the three buddhas are complete and mutually identical. Each of the four pictures is complete in itself, yet all have the three features of first attaining today, differing in depth, and being brushed aside as expedients of the intermediate period. They are therefore all fruits of the Trace.

Two misconceptions arise especially easily here. One imagines that because the Trace is brushed aside, it has no value. The other imagines that the most perfect of the four pictures can simply be promoted to the original fruit. In fact, it is precisely because the moon appears in water as a reflection that one can point to the sky; yet however bright the reflection may be, it is not the moon in the sky. The original fruit is one fruit that is all fruits and cannot be replaced by any picture attained only today and differentiated into before and after. What is brushed aside is the attachment that takes the Trace to be the Origin, not the teaching and transformation of attaining the path that the Buddha carries out within the Trace.

Does the Buddha-Land Lie with the Buddha or with What Sentient Beings See?

Once the Buddha of the Origin has accomplished the fruit, there must be something on which he depends. The scripture says that since attaining the path the Buddha has constantly taught the Dharma in Sahā and also benefited sentient beings elsewhere. Sahā indicates the land of common residence at the time of the Origin, while elsewhere indicates the other three lands. What is seen today again has four aspects: the defiled land of common residence, the pure land of common residence, the land of true recompense, and eternally quiescent light. Even when the lands are purified three times, some see defilement changed into purity, some see expedient remainder, some see true recompense, and some see quiescent light.

The mirror and its images, and the vessel and its rice, first explain that principle is pervasive while appearances differ. The principle of quiescent light is like the mirror and the vessel, pervasive and unobstructed; because the karmic powers of sentient beings differ, the lands they experience are like the various images in the mirror and the different portions of rice in the vessel. Differing conditions produce differing perceptions. From the perspective that the buddha-land is originally pure although sentient beings do not see it, the difference lies in what sentient beings experience and perceive.

The people dwelling on the land and the father building a house present the other perspective. That people dwell on a tract does not mean that the land was established by them. After a father constructs a house and departs, the house remains. The Buddha acquires a land for sentient beings, disciplines and embraces them, and manifests extinction when teaching and transformation have been completed, yet the land remains. From this perspective, the land is made by the Buddha for sentient beings; it is not constituted only by sentient beings’ own experience and perception.

The two sets of similes do not exclude one another. One explains why the same pure principle is seen differently; the other explains how a place of teaching and transformation is established by the Buddha. Read together, the buddha-land is neither reduced to a private state of mind nor hardened into a place unrelated to the karmic experience of sentient beings. Abiding there today, being established through prior and later cultivation, and being brushed aside in the intermediate period cause these lands to be judged lands of the Trace. Only the four lands in which the Buddha abided at the time of the Origin are the original land.

In Stimulus-and-Response and Supernormal Power, Does the Buddha Move First or Do Sentient Beings?

Sentient beings coming before the Buddha are the stimulus that strikes the Dharma-body; the Buddha-eye observing whether their faculties of faith and the rest are sharp or dull is compassion going forth in response. Stimulus and response are not two unrelated actions: the capacity and condition lie with sentient beings, while illumination of the capacity lies with the Buddha; sentient beings have hidden and manifest longing and aversion, while the Buddha can illuminate in the very midst of quiescence. Original stimulus and response are precisely the samādhis realized at the time of the Origin joined with vows of kindness and compassion. The capacity to illuminate capacities was not first acquired today.

Within the Trace, many forms of stimulus and response appear according to entering concentration to observe capacities, knowing spontaneously, illuminating in sequence, and illuminating perfectly and simultaneously. They may be compared in terms of coarse and wondrous or in terms of broad and narrow: an original stimulus may be coarse and a stimulus of the Trace wondrous, or the original stimulus wondrous and that of the Trace coarse, or both coarse, or both wondrous; broad and narrow may likewise form four statements. Yet these comparisons do not determine Origin and Trace. Origin and Trace are judged only by the first, the intermediate, and today. Replacing remoteness and proximity with coarse and wondrous or broad and narrow would confuse a level of Dharma-meaning with the time at which buddhahood was attained.

Supernormal power works in the same way. Manifesting one’s own body and one’s own affairs is perfect supernormal power; manifesting another’s body and another’s affairs is partial supernormal power; secrecy reveals the wondrousness of both partial and perfect. Within the Trace one may obtain the six supernormal powers through fourteen transformations, through uncontaminated wisdom that embodies dharmas, or on the basis of the Middle Way; one may even manifest every deportment without emerging from the concentration of extinction, with speech and silence posing no obstruction to each other and movement and stillness being nondual. All these are genuine functions of teaching and transformation, yet they are judged Trace because they were newly obtained, recently cultivated, and brushed aside. Original supernormal power, by contrast, arises from the compassion of the original cause in the remote past and at the first moment shakes sentient beings who can be delivered.

One therefore cannot ask whether stimulus or response ultimately came first, as though the two were competing within time. In causal sequence, the capacity stirs and transformation is then applied; in the functioning of the Dharma-body, quiescence itself already illuminates, and response occurs as soon as the stimulus arrives. Nor can one praise the marvel of supernormal power while severing it from compassion. Original supernormal power is original precisely because it accords with the compassion of the original cause and appears in order to deliver the first sentient beings.

What Exactly Does One Cow Producing Five Flavors Represent?

A good calf eats grasses, the five flavors are complete in the cow, and they issue according to the milking. Eating ordinary grass produces milk; eating the grass of lower patience produces curds; eating that of middle patience produces raw ghee; eating that of upper patience produces refined ghee; and eating that of highest patience produces clarified essence. Producing the five flavors in sequence represents the gradual; producing clarified essence directly represents the sudden; and producing three flavors represents the indeterminate. It is not that the cow first lacked some flavor within its body and then obtained it from outside. The difference occurs through the grass eaten and the conditions of milking.

When the simile is joined to teaching the Dharma, partial and perfect Dharmas are originally complete in the Buddha’s mind; differing Dharma-wheels occur when the capacities of sentient beings strike it. A capacity for wholesome destinations produces the Dharma for humans and gods; a capacity for analyzing dharmas produces the Dharma of the two vehicles; a capacity for embodying dharmas produces the Dharma of skillful crossing; a capacity for successive differentiation produces the sequential Dharma; and a capacity for the perfect and sudden produces the Dharma of nonfabrication. Again, two capacities produce the fourth and fifth flavors; one capacity produces the second flavor; four capacities produce four flavors while excluding the first; three capacities produce three flavors while excluding the first and second; and one capacity produces only the fifth flavor while excluding the other four. These combinations show that producing flavors is not merely a fixed sequence of five periods; it has openings and combinations according to the capacities that strike.

What the four kinds of buddha attain at the place of practice is likewise like flavors already present in the cow. One attains milk and rises to teach the Dharma of milk; one attains curds and rises to teach the Dharma of curds; one has all five flavors present and teaches them in sequence; and one attains clarified essence and rises to teach clarified essence immediately. Someone therefore asks: if the scripture says that after eating milk-gruel nothing more is needed, is milk not ultimate? The answer is that milk, although one name, has superior and inferior forms: the milk of a coarse cow can harm, while the milk of a good calf is best. Asked whether clarified essence also differs, the answer points out that the attainment of arhats and pratyekabuddhas is likewise called clarified essence, showing that things with the same name can still be superior or inferior.

The five flavors also have openings and combinations according to the capacity that strikes: the Buddha’s mind is complete, a capacity comes and strikes, and the teaching consequently differs. What was first completed and first taught today, as well as what was completed and taught in the intermediate period and then brushed aside as expedient, is entirely teaching of the Trace. Original teaching of the Dharma is the Dharma-wheel turned when the path was first attained in the remote past. What was already taught and what is taught now may in turn be treated as Origin and Trace; they may also be distinguished as real Origin and provisional Trace, substance and function, or phenomena and principle. Sequence in teaching the Dharma does not divide Dharma-nature.

Where Do the Bodhisattvas from Below Come From, and Why Does Even Maitreya Not Recognize Them?

“Below” is explained as the bottom limit of the Dharma, and “empty space” as the quiescent light of Dharma-nature. The bodhisattvas who well up from the empty space below do not simply rise from some underground direction. From the empty space of quiescent light at the time of the Origin, they appear in the empty space of quiescent light today. Although Maitreya has traveled through many lands, he does not recognize a single one of them; this reveals the temporal distance between today’s assembly and the retinues of the remote past.

The Buddha as father and these beings as children state the relation of retinue directly. Because the time has been so long, expedient relations of teacher and disciple have become real; although only one class is presented, the other three can be known from it. The attainment of buddhahood within the Trace has four kinds of retinue—karma-born, vow-born, supernormal-power-born, and response-born—and those transformed in the intermediate period likewise form four kinds. Mañjuśrī, Perceiver of the World's Sounds (Guanshiyin/Avalokiteśvara), and Devadatta are at times called teachers and at times disciples, all as reciprocal changes within the extension of the Trace. If a single appearance of the Trace is grasped as determining an eternal teacher-disciple relation, those transformed at the time of the Origin cannot be understood.

The thousand-world dust-mote number seems small, while the assembly increasing the path since the remote past seems large. Does this mean that the Dharma-body also increases and decreases? The answer is that the Dharma-body at the Buddha-stage has long been complete, so numerical magnitude can be discussed only according to the breadth or narrowness of transforming conditions. Because bodhisattva stages are not yet exhausted, their depth is still judged according to actual realization. Only when the Buddha-stage is complete is breadth or narrowness discussed solely according to provisional transformation. Here, number measures conditions of teaching and transformation, not the thickness or thinness of the Dharma-body.

Dharmas such as cause and fruit are subtle and difficult, so that Origin is pointed out through this Trace; retinues are persons and can more easily be summoned as witnesses. Thus persons from the time of the Origin can reveal persons within the Trace, and Dharmas of the Trace can reveal Dharmas of the time of the Origin. The welling forth from the earth does not seal the Origin away in a remote place; it causes the retinues of the remote past to become witnesses in person at today’s Dharma assembly.

How Does Proclaiming Entry into Extinction Reveal Permanence at the Same Time?

That extinction is not actual reveals the original quiescence of permanence; proclaiming that extinction will be taken serves to discipline sentient beings. Original nirvāṇa therefore does not merely say that the Buddha never enters extinction, nor does it take manifested extinction as final annihilation. The birth-body can manifest illness and extinction; the Dharma-body has no illness, constantly remains, and does not change. Only when both sides stand together can the pedagogical intent of proclaiming extinction be seen.

Within the Trace there are four pictures of nirvāṇa. The first two use emptiness reached by analyzing dharmas and emptiness reached by embodying dharmas to explain the extinction of the cause and disappearance of the fruit, and nirvāṇa with and without remainder. The third says that when the causes of delimited and transformational birth-and-death are exhausted, permanent nirvāṇa with remainder is attained, and when the two kinds of aggregate-fruit body are exhausted, permanent nirvāṇa without remainder is attained. The fourth says that great nirvāṇa is permanent and unchanging, yet can establish various manifestations to discipline sentient beings and possesses permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Each of the four aspects has its own closed boundary of meaning; their differences cannot be flattened merely because all bear the name “nirvāṇa.”

The differing perceptions of those in today’s assembly place all four aspects in a single Dharma assembly. Some see the Buddha enter extinction; some see him remain in the world for one eon or less than one eon; some see him remain for immeasurable eons. Some see a sixteen-foot body, a small body, or a great body; some see the recompense-body seated in the Lotus-Treasury Ocean and the Dharma-body pervading like empty space. Some see the śāla grove as nothing but soil, sand, grasses, trees, and stone walls; some see it adorned with seven jewels; some see it as the place visited by the buddhas of the past, present, and future; and some see it as the inconceivable real Dharma-substance of the buddhas’ realm. Principal recompense in the Buddha-body and dependent recompense in the land each display four aspects. Perceptions differ without dividing the Buddha’s realm.

The two scriptures each reveal permanence from one side. One speaks often of permanence in the future and little of the lifespan already attained in the past; the present scripture directly teaches the remote lifespan and speaks little of permanence in the future. One cannot judge the Buddha to have attained recently and to be short-lived merely because the former says little about prior attainment; nor can one judge the Buddha impermanent merely because the latter says little about the future. Knowing original permanence, one knows future permanence; understanding future long life, one also understands original long life. Present birth and present extinction are therefore neither actual birth nor actual extinction, and precisely reveal permanence.

If Wisdom-Life Is Neither Long nor Short, Why Speak of Greater and Lesser Ages?

The wisdom-life taught under original cause is neither long nor short; precisely because it is unrestricted by length, it can manifest as long or short. The greater and lesser ages taught under original lifespan speak directly of long and short lifespans within teaching and transformation. The two do not convert wisdom into years; they move from freedom from length to the ability to manifest length.

The lifespans of the first two kinds of buddha within the Trace end according to karma and conditions and cannot spontaneously manifest as long or short through a life that is neither long nor short. In the latter two, beginning from the breaking of ignorance upon entering the grounds or entering the abodes, one can abide in a single body and also become a buddha in many realms and manifest bodies in all the realms through immeasurable bodies. One can therefore speak of the permanent lifespan of the Great Vehicle and the impermanent lifespan of the Lesser Vehicle. Bodhisattvas within the causal stages can already manifest permanence or impermanence while being neither permanent nor impermanent; how much more so the final mind and wondrous awakening.

The scripture says that the lifespan accomplished while the Buddha originally practiced the bodhisattva path has not yet been exhausted. Since the causal lifespan is not exhausted, the lifespan of the original fruit can readily be known. All long and short lifespans within the Trace are extended from the perfection of cause and fruit on the ground of the Origin. One therefore should not use eighty-two years or any single episode of manifestation to restrict the wisdom-life of the remote past. Nor should the pedagogical phenomena of greater and lesser ages in the scripture be canceled because wisdom-life is neither long nor short.

Why Do the Branches and Leaves of the Three Times All Return to One Root?

The provisional and real Dharmas first realized are the Origin; only afterward does the Buddha teach and transform others through expedients. However the intermediate period, today, and the future may disclose the Trace to reveal the Origin or disclose the Origin to reveal the Trace, they all point back to the first. The three times differ while the single Origin does not, like hundreds of thousands of branches and leaves all converging on a single root. The branches and leaves are not superfluous, nor is the root another tree outside them. The root gives the branches and leaves a source; the branches and leaves make the life of the root visible.

Other buddhas also have emanated bodies. Prabhūtaratna’s whole body does not disperse, yet he can also bear witness through a transformation body and jeweled stūpa. The whole body’s non-dispersal expresses non-extinction; emerging to attest the scripture of permanence expresses non-partiality; because it is neither partial nor extinguished, the meaning of perfect permanence is revealed. If the first buddha to attain buddhahood has no remote Trace and remote Origin to reveal, Origin and Trace can still be explained through substance and function, teaching and practice, principle and teaching, and phenomena and principle. If an expedient is needed, the Buddha can also use wisdom that lengthens and shortens eons to expand seven days into immeasurable eons. Revealing the Origin is not limited to pushing today back into the remote past.

Only where śrāvakas and bodhisattvas together compose the Saṅgha is there opening the three to reveal the one; where the Saṅgha consists purely of bodhisattvas, the same opening and revelation are unnecessary. Nor can emergence in the world of five turbidities be treated in exactly the same way as emergence in a pure land. Forms of teaching and transformation differ according to the assembly, yet the one Origin to which they return does not thereby become many origins.

How Do Prior Attainment and New Attainment Change the Names Coarse and Wondrous?

At the level of principle, the wondrous within the Trace and the wondrous within the Origin are not two kinds of wondrousness. Yet because that within the Trace is newly attained today, it is judged coarse; because that within the Origin was attained earlier in the remote past, it is judged wondrous. Conversely, even what is called coarse within the Origin can be called wondrous when prior accomplishment is compared with new accomplishment. Here coarse and wondrous do not merely evaluate whether Dharma-meaning is high or low; they also mark the remoteness and proximity of Origin and Trace.

Therefore breaking the wondrous of the Trace as coarse and revealing the Origin as wondrous does not mean that, because ignorance was already broken earlier, no delusion remains to be broken. Ignorance has immeasurably many layers and the ocean of the true mark is immeasurably deep, so breaking and revealing can proceed layer by layer. In the gradual meaning, what breaks and what is broken are both coarse; in the sudden meaning, what breaks and what is broken are both wondrous. Sharing the designation “what breaks” does not make their meanings identical.

Partial and perfect are judged according to the Dharma: because the Dharma’s character is fixed, partial does not become perfect and perfect does not become partial. Provisional and real are judged according to teaching: because the establishments of the intermediate period are all provisional, they can all be called provisional in a general sense. Wondrousness carrying the coarse, wondrousness not carrying the coarse, coarseness carrying the wondrous, and coarseness not carrying the wondrous form four statements; the five flavors can likewise be distinguished according to carrying and not carrying. Although the two kinds of coarse differ in depth, both are called coarse because neither accords with wondrous principle. The shared name refers to their common characteristic; the difference refers to depth in phenomena and principle.

If the Provisional Is Itself Real, Why Must the Provisional Still Be Abolished and Opened?

Every period in the intermediate time has both provisional and real; yet when compared with the first time of the Origin, the provisional and real of the intermediate period are all called provisional, while the coarse and wondrous illuminated at the first Origin are all called real. This does not mean that a real Dharma of the intermediate period becomes false; it means that every intermediate establishment still belongs to the extension of the Trace. Dharma-nature itself is neither ancient nor present, neither Origin nor Trace, neither provisional nor real. Past, future, and present are posited only through worldly words; awakening does not actually migrate through time.

Provisional and real are further divided into practice for oneself, transformation of others, and practice for oneself together with transformation of others. The provisional and real wisdoms with which the Buddha accords in his own practice are both called real; the two wisdoms taught in accordance with the wishes of others are both called provisional. The judgment of provisional and real here concerns whether the speaker is practicing for himself or responding to capacities, not merely what terminology is used.

When the provisional is applied, the Buddha’s original intent lies in the real, yet sentient beings may take the conjured city as the real destination and consequently recognize neither provisional nor real. When the provisional is abolished, sentient beings already know that the conjured city was established by the Buddha and can thereby understand innumerable expedients through a single affair; the emphasis is thus on understanding the provisional. When the provisional is opened, sentient beings have understood phenomenal Dharmas, their intent to cling to the provisional ceases, and they need not depart from the provisional to seek the real far away. The provisional right where it stands is real; there is no other provisional left outside the real.

Applying, abolishing, and opening do not discard the same Dharma three times. Application gives people a path to practice; abolition prevents them from dwelling there; opening makes them see that expedients have never been apart from the real. Although Origin and Trace differ, arrival at the inconceivable one does not flatten all ten aspects; it means that none of them remains separated from Dharma-nature.

How Do All Benefits Finally Return to Contemplating the Mind?

The birth-body obtains benefits in two places, from teaching the Dharma in the Trace and from the lifespan of the remote past. It can obtain the five benefits of wisdom, practice, stage, retinues, and merit and can also obtain benefits at four of the six identities. Dharma-body bodhisattvas from the second abode through one remaining birth hear the merits of the ground of the Origin and make the samādhi of contemplating the Buddha deeper and broader. If only the real path is considered, the attainments in the two places do not differ; if the phenomenal operation of provisional wisdom is considered, their depths and numbers cannot be compared. The wisdom-liberated and those liberated both ways likewise obtain the uncontaminated, yet their merits remain superior and inferior.

Transmission also differs. Birth-body bodhisattvas propagate the scripture in this and other lands, and the text chiefly clarifies hidden benefit; Dharma-body bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust motes of a thousand worlds receive the charge and can travel through many lands in bodies of many realms, so that they have both hidden and manifest benefit. Although there are buddhas where the Dharma-body abides, propagation still awaits the right person, time, and companions, just as Mañjuśrī still had to enter the dragon palace while the Buddha was in the world. The Buddha’s extending his tongue, stroking their crowns, and charging them with earnest care shows that the Dharma does not propagate automatically merely because the Dharma-body is permanent.

The final contemplation of mind does not reduce the history of the remote past to an imagined thought-moment. The subtlety of the Origin in the remote past is not identical with the mind, yet neither is it apart from the mind; the suchness of the Buddha and the suchness of sentient beings are the same and nondual. The Buddha realizes the subtlety of the Origin through contemplating the mind and extends the Trace in vast activity; through contemplating the mind, the practitioner likewise vows to deliver beings through long life and, like the Buddha, sit at the place of practice and roar the lion’s roar.

The analysis of great and wondrous follows and still asks about sameness and difference from the standpoint of contemplative practice. The wondrous is the great and the great is the wondrous; the great breaks the wondrous and the wondrous breaks the great; the great cultivates the wondrous and the wondrous cultivates the great: each of the three pairs and six statements has its own direction. Identical names can carry different principles, while different names can reveal one another. Because the Lesser Vehicle’s truth transcends language and thought, it can be called wondrous in a general sense, but does not thereby become identical in meaning with the Great Vehicle. In the end, all dharmas are buddha-dharmas; there is no external Dharma waiting to be brought over and integrated. What contemplation of mind opens is not a cancellation of the remote past, but freedom from sealing the buddha-work of the remote past outside the practitioner’s mind.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

Zhanran first illuminates the entire passage as two levels: the ten subtleties are listed above, and the ten analytical stages below explain them. Brief explanation, arising in sequence, opening and combining Origin and Trace, citation of evidence, broad explanation, analysis through the three times, judging coarse and wondrous, clarifying provisional and real, benefit, and contemplation of mind each have their own responsibility. The questions about great and wondrous remain an analysis following contemplation of mind and do not add an eleventh stage. The ten aspects of content and the ten explanatory operations are thereby no longer confused as one list.

The Mirror further indicates that the brief explanation of original cause can be divided into presenting the Origin, presenting the Trace for comparative determination, and brushing aside the Trace to reveal the Origin; the other nine subtleties may be read in the same way. In the broad explanation, each subtlety proceeds still more clearly by establishing the Origin, listing differences in the Trace, and brushing aside the Trace through three meanings. The repeatedly stated reasons—because it is near, because the depths differ, and because it is brushed aside—are not merely chronological markers but three criteria that must stand together. None can replace the complete judgment by itself.

The stage of arising in sequence is divided into stating the reason for its introduction, the actual arising in sequence, and the concluding meaning. Citing evidence is likewise divided into why passages are selected, citing them in order, and concluding the ten bases. The former explains why the ten meanings both encompass the beginning and end and form a sequence; the latter explains why a few extant pages suffice to display ten proofs. One stage governs the sequence of meanings and the other the responsibility borne by the scriptural text. One therefore cannot leave only ten names and omit the reasoning between them.

Opening and combining Origin and Trace thereby also receives a precise place. The four aspects of objects, wisdom, practice, and stages in the Trace are combined into original cause; the fruit-meaning in the Trace is unfolded at the Origin into original fruit, land, nirvāṇa, and lifespan; stimulus and response, supernormal power, teaching the Dharma, retinues, and benefit have the same names in both places but differ in time and stage. Opening and combining concern fullness and brevity of expression and convenience of meaning; they do not mean that the Origin contains another set of Dharmas in addition to the Trace.

Source discrimination in the broad explanation especially illuminates authorial layers. The three passages concerning the potter, brahmin youth, and brahmin Treasure-Ocean are respectively supported by different scriptural and treatise scenes; the material concerning the grass seat and thirty-four moments of mind comes from more than one source; and the differing perceptions in today’s assembly have another extant scripture that can be consulted. The Mirror’s work is to identify sources and doctrinal divisions, not to pour later source identifications backward into citations expressly named by the root treatise.

At the end of the section on stimulus and response, the Mirror explicitly brings the four statements of coarse and wondrous and of broad and narrow back to the criterion of remoteness and proximity; the four statements on supernormal power are to be understood by the same standard. The section on teaching the Dharma is divided into simile first and correlation afterward; following the cow, grasses, and five flavors come questions about superiority and inferiority under the same name and the four statements concerning what was already taught and what is taught now. The section on nirvāṇa first distinguishes the intent of the Trace and four differences, then brings the two scriptures together by presenting them reciprocally. These fine judgments keep each image in its original argumentative position so that, although all return to Origin and Trace, none loses its own function.

The questions about Prabhūtaratna require still more careful layering. The Great Treatise says that because no one requested the Dharma he entered extinction and later manifested a buddha-body and jeweled stūpa; this is the first layer. The teacher’s statement that follows in the root treatise is explicitly judged by Zhanran to be Nanyue’s explanation; this is the second layer. That the whole body’s non-dispersal does not preclude emanated bodies, and that the virtues true and pure reveal perfect permanence, is the Mirror’s harmonization. The three layers succeed one another but retain different speakers; the continuity of their meaning cannot be used to collapse them into one passage from the root treatise.

The remaining questions in the analysis through the three times all circle the same root: whether the buddhas each have emanated bodies, how the first buddha reveals the Origin, which Saṅgha requires opening and revelation, and how pure and defiled lands differ. The questions range widely, but the answers never turn the single first Origin into multiple sources.

When the Mirror reads original retinues, the question comparing the small thousand-world dust-mote number with the large number of those increasing the path concerns only the breadth and narrowness of transforming conditions, not increase and decrease in the Dharma-body at the Buddha-stage. When it reads original lifespan, it separates wisdom-life that is neither long nor short from the response-lifespan capable of manifesting length. When it reads original benefit, it especially explains that the two graphs 本本 are not a redundant textual corruption: although the Traces are many, all take the first Origin as Origin. Once illuminated, a few short phrases preserve the boundary of meaning in each section.

Judging coarse and wondrous cannot be collapsed into the same statement as clarifying provisional and real. The former first judges the coarse and wondrous of Origin and Trace through remote accomplishment and new attainment, then makes finer judgments through phenomena and principle, principle and teaching, teaching and practice, substance and function, provisional and real, and already-taught and present. The latter first discusses provisional and real in Origin and Trace, next differentiates practice for oneself and transformation of others, and finally discusses applying, abolishing, and opening. Zhanran concludes that the judgment is itself an opening: the three meanings that brush aside the Trace in the broad explanation are an opening at the phenomenal level, while each section’s return to the inconceivable one is an opening at the level of principle. The ten affairs remain distinct while the one principle interpenetrates them.

The analytical stage of benefit first distinguishes direct teaching from transmission. Direct teaching then divides birth-body and Dharma-body, while birth-body again divides hearing the Trace and hearing the Origin. That the real path in the two places does not differ means only that the perfect principle realized has no shallow or deep; it does not erase differences in stages and phenomenal functioning. In transmission, the earlier passage presents only the receipt of a prediction without clarifying entry into a stage and therefore chiefly concerns hidden benefit; the Origin section explicitly lists the stages attained and therefore includes manifest benefit.

Finally, contemplation of mind is illuminated as object, contemplation, and great vow. That it cannot be contemplated preserves the remote event of the Origin as not identical with the mind; that it can be contemplated preserves the nonseparation of the suchness of the Buddha and the suchness of sentient beings; the great vow turns what has been heard into a vow to deliver sentient beings through long life. This Mirror does not transform the event of the Origin into an inward symbol. It allows the first Origin, today’s Trace, and the practitioner’s contemplation of mind each to keep its own place while remaining mutually connected.