妙法蓮華經玄義 辨體·入實相門

Why can four gateways all lead to the true mark and still confine people? Because a gateway can give someone passage, and it can also be grasped.

The true mark is like a deep mountain beyond an impassable ravine; teaching and practice are the flying ladder. Without the ladder, there is no way to climb. Hold the ladder tightly against your chest, however, and you will never reach the summit. A gateway means something that gives access, not a new possession.

The four gateways are therefore also like four entrances to a cooling pool. Those of sharp and dull faculties, with concentrated or scattered minds, can all enter through a corresponding gateway. They are also like a great fire: if you do not reach out to grasp it, it can warm your body and cook your food; once you become attached, the fire of wrong views burns you instead. The question is never merely which gateway you choose, but whether walking through it turns the gateway into an attachment.

Teaching and practice are not two unrelated roads. Some people hear the Dharma and, like a swift horse seeing the shadow of a whip, enter the right road. Some cultivate contemplation and, like seeing lightning in the dark, see the road clearly. Many more must contemplate after hearing and hear again after contemplating. Teaching gives contemplation direction; contemplation lets what is heard become direct realization. Only through mutual support does the gateway truly open.

Yet knowing the direction is not the same as knowing how to walk. The treatise examines a road through ten matters: whether the object is seen correctly, the resolve genuinely aroused, concentration and wisdom harmonized, attachment pervasively broken, passage and obstruction clearly distinguished, the factors of the path and counteractives properly used, stages clearly known, obstructions endured, and finally attachment to virtues that accord with the path avoided. If even one link is missing, the finest gateway-name may become an obstruction.

The sweet and poisonous fruits make this point sharply. Nine parts poisonous fruit remain poison; one part sweet fruit remains sweet. A thousand pounds of layered blossoms do not equal one ounce of real gold. Practice does not prevail through many names or grand momentum, but through the actual accomplishment of each item.

This is also why four fingers can point at one moon. Sentient beings’ past cultivation, desires, suitability, and illnesses differ, so the Buddha draws them in through four gateways. There are not four moons, yet one cannot force all the fingers to disappear but one. When a gateway corresponds to faculties, it is wondrous; when it opposes them or is grasped, it becomes coarse.

The final opening and revelation therefore do not merely announce that one gateway is highest. They open affliction as bodhi, birth-and-death as nirvāṇa, and ordinary beings as wondrous persons. They also open the śrāvakas’ Dharma, teaching, practice, and principle, layer by layer, into reality. What is already wondrous needs no further opening. People, Dharmas, gateways, and principles not yet wondrous are where compassion must actually arrive.

The heart-essence of the gateway is thus simple: choose a road truly suited to you, walk it completely, and walk until you no longer grasp the road. Once the flying ladder crosses the ravine and the finger points to the moon, the gateway has completed its work.

1. Why Speak of Gateways into the True Mark?

Fourth is the clarification of gateways into the true mark. The true mark is subtle and hidden, its meaning profound and far-reaching. It is like trying to climb an impassable ravine: one must rely on a flying ladder. To accord with the true source, one must likewise rely on teaching and practice, and so both teaching and practice are called gateways. A later passage says, “Through the gateway of the Buddha’s teaching one can leave the suffering of the three realms.” It also says, “After the Buddha’s disciples have completed practice of the path, in a future life they will attain buddhahood.” The name “gateway” means precisely that which can give access.

This long section is divided briefly into four aspects: first, briefly showing the characteristics of the gateways; second, showing the contemplations through which one enters a gateway; third, showing which gateways are coarse and which wondrous; and fourth, showing how the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous.

2. The General Meaning of Gateway Characteristics

First, the characteristics of the gateways are shown. The Buddha-Dharma cannot originally be disclosed directly through language. Yet when the Buddha teaches in accord with sentient beings’ conditions, he must use four propositions to express principle, enabling practitioners to enter the ground of reality through them. The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom says in meaning: “Concerning such a Dharma, the siddhānta of ultimate meaning is taught, namely: everything is real; everything is unreal; everything is both real and unreal; everything is neither real nor unreal.” All of these are called the true mark of dharmas. The true mark cannot even be fixed as one, so how could it really be four? One should therefore understand that the four propositions are only four gateways into the true mark.

The treatise also says that all four gateways enter the cooling pool. This means the gateways are unobstructed. Not only people of sharp faculties can enter; people of dull faculties can enter as well. Not only those whose minds are concentrated can enter; those with scattered minds, those intent on a single purpose, and those diligent in effort can all enter through a gateway. The treatise further says that prajñā has four kinds of characteristic: the characteristic of existence, the characteristic of nonexistence, and so forth through the characteristic of neither existence nor nonexistence. Prajñā itself is not fixed as one characteristic, so how could it truly have four? These four characteristics should likewise be understood only as gateways into prajñā.

The treatise further says: “Prajñāpāramitā is like a great blaze. None of its four sides can be grasped, because the fire of wrong views will burn one.” If people do not touch the fire, it can warm their bodies and cook their food. If they reach out and touch it, it burns them. Once the body has been burned, the functions of warming the body and cooking food can no longer be received. The four gateways originally serve to give access to prajñā, remove afflictions, and accomplish the great matter. If one becomes attached to a gateway, however, the four gateways instead become wrong views and burn the Dharma-body. Once the Dharma-body has been burned, what could the four gateways still access? Thus, so long as one does not grasp the fire, the gateway continues to give access.

If the Buddha’s teaching is called a gateway, teachings are divided briefly into four kinds. Each kind of teaching expresses principle through four propositions and therefore has four gateways; four times four produces sixteen gateways. If practice is called a gateway, one receives the teaching, cultivates contemplation, and enters through reflection, taking practice as the gateway. If one relies on teaching and gives rise to true understanding, teaching is the gateway.

Some people first hear the teaching and, like a swift horse seeing the shadow of a whip, immediately enter the right road without needing further cultivation of contemplation. Others begin by cultivating contemplation and, like seeing lightning in the night, immediately see the path without needing to hear more teaching. Both kinds have matured wholesome roots through cultivation in the past. Those who gain access through a gateway of teaching are called practitioners through faith; those who gain access through a gateway of contemplation are called practitioners through Dharma. If someone does not immediately awaken after hearing, that person should cultivate contemplation; awakening through contemplation turns that person into a practitioner through Dharma. If someone cultivates contemplation without awakening, that person must hear the Dharma again; awakening through hearing turns that person into a practitioner through faith. Teaching can therefore become the gateway into contemplation, and contemplation can in turn become a gateway for understanding teaching. One contemplates after hearing the teaching and listens to teaching again through contemplation. Only when teaching and contemplation mutually support one another do they become gateways giving access to the true mark.

When teaching and contemplation are discussed together, there are thirty-two gateways; this is still only a large round number. Examined closely, gateways are actually immeasurable. There are five hundred causes of embodiment and thirty-two gateways of nonduality. Sudhana travels through the Dharma realm, meets immeasurable spiritual advisers, hears immeasurable gateways of teaching, and cultivates immeasurable contemplative practices. The city Joyful to Behold has twelve hundred gateways; how could the Dharma-city of the true mark have only one road? The sutra says, “They teach various Dharma-gateways and reveal the road to the Buddha-path.”

3. The Four Gateways of the Tripiṭaka Teaching

The sixteen gateways are now explained according to the four teachings. First come the four gateways of the Tripiṭaka Teaching.

First is the gateway of existence. The dharmas of birth-and-death are not created by a primordial nature of the world, atoms, or parents. They arise through ignorance as right causes and conditions, which gives rise to formations and in turn to afflictions, karma, and suffering. All three paths—afflictions, karma, and suffering—are established as existent. All conditioned dharmas are impermanent, suffering, empty, and without self. Through this one can give rise to warmth, summit, and the foremost worldly dharma, arouse the true uncontaminated cause, and then use the true understanding attained to cultivate the path. This is the truth of the path, and it too is discussed as existent. Once the two bonds of the seeds of affliction and their results have been severed, one attains nirvāṇa with remainder and nirvāṇa without remainder. The meaning cited from the Great Vaipulya Collection Sūtra is: “The profound principle cannot be spoken; the first real meaning has neither sound nor graph. The monk Chenru attained true knowledge and vision concerning all dharmas.” Through the cessation of the cause one converges upon truth, and the truth converged upon is also discussed as existent. This is the route upheld by the Abhidharma treatises; seeing existence and thereby attaining the path is called the gateway of existence.

Second is the gateway of emptiness. According to this teaching, right dependent origination is analyzed: from ignorance through aging-and-death belongs to the truths of suffering and accumulation. The three provisional constructions are floating and unreal; grasping at both the provisional and the real is broken, and all enters the equality of emptiness, from which the true uncontaminated is aroused. Through emptiness one sees truth, and emptiness is the gateway to ultimate meaning. In the stone chamber, Subhūti contemplated arising and ceasing as impermanent and entered emptiness; through emptiness he attained the path and saw the Buddha’s Dharma-body. Zhiyi says with reservation that this is perhaps the gateway upheld by the Satyasiddhi Treatise.

Third is the gateway both existent and empty. This teaching explains that right causes and conditions arising and ceasing are both existent and empty. By receiving it, one can break views that cling partially either to existence or nonexistence, see the existence and emptiness of causes and conditions, arouse the true uncontaminated, and see truth through existence and nonexistence. Existence and nonexistence thereby become the gateway to ultimate meaning. Kātyāyana entered the path through this gateway and therefore composed the Kunle Treatise, which in turn upholds this gateway.

Fourth is the gateway neither existent nor nonexistent. This teaching explains the principle that right causes and conditions arising and ceasing are neither existent nor nonexistent. By receiving it, one can break wrong attachments falling into the extremes of existence and nonexistence, see causes and conditions as neither existent nor nonexistent, arouse the true uncontaminated, and see truth through neither existence nor nonexistence. Neither existence nor nonexistence thereby becomes the gateway to ultimate meaning. Channa of harsh speech entered the path through this gateway, but no treatise upholding it has yet been seen. Some say that the Vātsīputrīya Abhidharma upholds this meaning: that treatise places the person in a fifth, inexpressible category. The person does not belong to the three times of past, present, or future, and therefore it is not an existent self; nor is the person an unconditioned dharma, and therefore it is not a nonexistent self. Zhiyi considers this claim not yet certain enough to adopt.

4. The Four Gateways of the Shared Teaching

Second are the four gateways of the Shared Teaching. These are Mahāyāna gateways, shared by the Shared and reaching into the Distinct; one side cannot be taken in isolation. For now, the four gateways are discussed only in terms of what is shared by the Shared.

The preceding four Tripiṭaka gateways all extinguish form in order to enter emptiness. This resembles analyzing the head of a supposedly real person into six parts and seeking the person in each part until none can be found; it is therefore called empty. The four gateways of the Shared Teaching instead teach that form itself is immediately empty. This resembles looking at a mirror image: the head and its six parts are empty just as they appear, without waiting for analysis to exhaust them before they become empty. The meaning cited from the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is: “The Buddha told the monk: contemplating emptiness is precisely cloth, and contemplating cloth is precisely emptiness.” This is how a gateway that embodies dharmas differs from one that analyzes them.

The Tripiṭaka Teaching first contemplates the emptiness of sentient beings and attains the path, then afterward contemplates the emptiness of dharmas; the two objects of sentient beings and dharmas do not interpenetrate. In a Shared gateway, however, the emptiness of sentient beings is precisely the emptiness of dharmas, and the emptiness of dharmas precisely the emptiness of sentient beings, without distinction. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that the nature of form is like the nature of self and the nature of self is like the nature of form; both are like an illusion.

Some say that the Tripiṭaka Teaching merely breaks the imputation of a real self-nature and, because no self can be found in supposedly real dharmas, contemplates only emptiness of nature, whereas the Great Vehicle understands the self-nature of characteristics to be empty without any need to examine them. This is only a provisional generalization. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that dharmas are constantly empty in nature, with no moment when they are not empty in nature. One should understand all dharmas as illusions, a moon in water, and images in a mirror; how could this concern only the emptiness of characteristics?

The four gateways can be determined through this meaning of illusion. The treatise says: “Everything is real; everything is unreal; everything is both real and unreal; everything is neither real nor unreal.” The Buddha broadly teaches the siddhānta of ultimate meaning through these four propositions.

The first proposition, “everything is real,” establishes the gateway of existence. Karma and fruit, wholesome and unwholesome, and even nirvāṇa are all like illusions. A mirror image has no real nature but still displays illusory parts such as a head; on this basis the gateway of existence is established. Second, since dharmas are like illusions, illusions originally have no real substance. Because there is no real substance, they are empty; even nirvāṇa is like an illusion. A mirror image provisionally displays form, yet when sought it cannot be found. This is the gateway of emptiness.

Third, dharmas are called existent because they are like illusions and empty because the illusion cannot be attained. A mirror image can be seen yet cannot be found as something seen; it cannot be found and yet appears to be seen. This is the gateway both empty and existent. Fourth, even illusory existence cannot be attained, so how much less can a separate illusory emptiness be grasped as attainable? Relinquishing both extremes of existence and emptiness establishes the fourth gateway. These are the four gateways of the Shared Teaching’s immediate emptiness.

Śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas of the three vehicles receive this teaching together, yet their faculties differ. Each enters ultimate meaning through the proposition suited to them, and all four propositions are therefore called gateways. Piṅgala’s commentary on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā says, “The true mark of dharmas has three kinds.” Here, the three kinds of person enter this gateway together and see ultimate meaning; this is precisely one kind of immediate emptiness.

5. Gateway Characteristics in the Distinct and Perfect Teachings

Third are the four gateways of the Distinct Teaching. If the phrase “also called a provisional name” in the verse of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is used to distinguish four gateways, it carries the same intent as the four propositions in the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom.

It is called distinct because below it differs from the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings in seven ways, while above it also differs from the Perfect Teaching. Practitioners enter the Middle through sequential distinctions, and it is therefore called distinct. This meaning comes mainly from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, though the scripture teaches it dispersed across many places. The four gateways of the Distinct Teaching are now shown through milk and related similes.

The scripture says that buddha-nature is like curds present in milk, gold present in stone, or a jewel present in a strongman’s forehead; this is the gateway of existence. Saying that stone has no nature of gold and milk no nature of curds, that the buddha-nature of sentient beings is like empty space, that great nirvāṇa is empty, and that Kapilavastu is empty establishes the gateway of emptiness. The scripture also says that buddha-nature both exists and does not exist. Why does it exist? Because all sentient beings possess it. Why does it not exist? Because it can be seen only through wholesome skillful means. It further compares this to milk that both has the nature of curds and lacks the nature of curds; this is the gateway both existent and nonexistent. Saying that buddha-nature is the Middle Way, negating and dispelling both extremes, and comparing it to milk that neither has nor lacks the nature of curds establishes the gateway neither empty nor existent.

Bodhisattvas of the Distinct Teaching receive the teaching of these four gateways, see buddha-nature through them, and abide in great nirvāṇa; the four propositions are therefore the four gateways of the Distinct Teaching. This only provisionally correlates scriptural passages with the Distinct gateways. The same wording may sometimes bear a Perfect meaning, and this will be analyzed in detail later.

The four gateways of the Perfect Teaching enter the ultimate meaning of buddha-nature. At first sight their names and meanings resemble those of the Distinct gateways, but close examination reveals many different paths of intent. Their similarities and differences will be distinguished in detail later.

6. What the Gateways Access

The second major division, showing contemplation for entering a gateway, has two parts: first, briefly showing the point accessed by the gateway; second, briefly showing the contemplations through which one enters.

First is the point accessed by the gateways. Broadly, there are sixteen gateways that give access, but only two kinds of principle accessed: partial truth and perfect truth. The first eight gateways all enter partial truth, and the latter eight all enter perfect truth.

Why is the principle of partial truth only one, while eight gateways give access to it? The four gateways of the Tripiṭaka Teaching follow a winding and narrow route and are called a clumsy crossing. The four gateways of the Shared Teaching are Mahāyāna, broad and direct, and are called a skillful crossing. Because skillful and clumsy differ, the gateways giving access number eight; because truth is not two, what is accessed remains one. It is like a provincial city with gateways on all four sides. The four oblique gateways represent the Tripiṭaka Teaching, and the four direct gateways represent the Shared Teaching. Oblique and direct gateways differ, making eight means of access, yet there is only one governor in the city and the point accessed is not two.

The four gateways of the Distinct Teaching are partial and not yet interpenetrating; the four gateways of the Perfect Teaching are perfect and interpenetrating. Because partial and perfect differ, the gateways giving access likewise number eight; because perfect truth is not two, what is accessed remains one. It is like an imperial capital with gateways on all four sides. The four oblique gateways represent the Distinct Teaching, and the four direct gateways represent the Perfect Teaching. Oblique and direct gateways differ, making eight means of access, yet there is only one emperor and the point accessed is one.

Someone asks: the Lesser Vehicle has only one set of four gateways; why does the Mahāyāna have three sets? The answer is that the Lesser Vehicle is shallow and near, severing bonds within one lifetime, like a small household. The Great Vehicle is profound and distant, and the path of access is long, like a great household requiring a thousand gateways and ten thousand doors. How could three sets of four be considered many?

Another question asks: how can a Mahāyāna gateway let three kinds of person see truth together? The answer is that this gateway is primarily intended to access the Great Vehicle and only secondarily accesses the Lesser. A kingdom has a public gateway and a special gateway. The special gateway leads to officials at court, while the public gateway also leads to the market. It cannot be called a gateway for commoners simply because ordinary people also pass through it. The Mahāyāna public gateway is the same: it primarily accesses the true mark and secondarily accesses true truth. People of the three vehicles reduce the body to ashes and extinguish cognition partly by using this gateway; the fact that it additionally accesses partial truth does not make it a Lesser Vehicle gateway.

7. The Ten Contemplations of the Tripiṭaka Gateway of Existence

Next is a brief showing of the contemplations through which one enters. First come the contemplations of the Tripiṭaka gateway of existence. This gateway includes both practitioners through faith and practitioners through Dharma. Those who awaken immediately on hearing a teaching have swift and sharp minds, and the way they attain the path is difficult to display clearly to others. The text therefore provisionally treats the gateway of contemplation for practitioners through Dharma in ten items: first, recognizing the object contemplated; second, genuinely arousing resolve; third, following and cultivating concentration and wisdom; fourth, pervasively breaking through all dharmas; fifth, clearly knowing what gives passage and what obstructs; sixth, skillfully using the factors of the path; seventh, skillfully using counteractives; eighth, clearly knowing the stages; ninth, skillfully enduring; tenth, not producing Dharma attachment.

The Abhidharma contains all ten meanings, though its passages are scattered. Even if treatise masters wish to cultivate the path, without knowing which route to follow they resemble people confused at a fork, not knowing where to go. The essential meanings are now gathered so that the ten items run through cultivation from beginning to end, making the contemplative method of entering the path through the gateway of existence recognizable.

1. Recognizing the Object Contemplated

First, one must recognize how ignorance as right causes and conditions gives rise to all dharmas. Saying that worldly suffering and happiness are produced by Viṣṇu, a primordial nature of the world, or atoms is arising from wrong causes and conditions. Saying that everything is naturally so, with no maker, is arising without causes and conditions. The claim of no causes and conditions destroys causes without destroying the evident results, while wrong causes and conditions also destroy right cause and result. None of these is an object of right causes and conditions, and they should not be contemplated.

Abhidharma enumerators preserve the smallest particle, while discursive treatises refute it. This dispute over existence and nonexistence is easily confused with claims of wrong cause and no cause, and is perhaps not the object of right causes and conditions. Why? Taking the smallest particle as existent or nonexistent does not escape the two views of existence and nonexistence and remains ignorance and inversion. From inversion comes accumulation, and from accumulation one experiences results such as coarse and subtle form. Since ignorance and inversion themselves are not real, how can the painful results they produce be fixed as existent or nonexistent? Thus the meaning cited from the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is: “Whether form is coarse or subtle, contemplated as a whole it is impermanent and without self.” Because it is without self, it has no master. Coarse and subtle, cause and condition, suffering and accumulation, dependent and primary recompense are all impermanent and masterless, produced by ignorance and inversion. The Abhidharma gateways discuss this extensively. This is recognizing the object of right causes and conditions, unlike the wrong causes and absence of causes taught by non-Buddhists.

2. Genuinely Arousing Resolve

Second is genuinely arousing resolve. Once one recognizes that ignorance and inversion keep formations and consciousness revolving through aging-and-death like a spinning firebrand, one should wish to bring afflictions and karma to rest, rightly seek nirvāṇa, arouse the mind of the two vehicles, and leave the delusions of views and craving. This resolve does not seek reputation or gain. It seeks only to break all modes of existence, no longer increase suffering and accumulation, and direct itself solely toward nirvāṇa without remainder. A mind that is pure, unmixed, and sincere is called genuinely arousing resolve, unlike the resolve of non-Buddhists and heavenly Māras.

3. Following and Cultivating Concentration and Wisdom

Third is following and cultivating concentration and wisdom. Having vowed to seek liberation, practitioners abide by the prātimokṣa discipline and cultivate the path. Yet the obstructions of wrongdoing race about in confusion, and the mind cannot settle; how could the path be accomplished? They therefore cultivate the four establishments of mindfulness, train in the five meditations for settling the mind, and break the five obstructions. The concrete contemplations of the five meditations are concentration; the mindfulness arising from concentration is wisdom. Because wisdom and concentration are balanced evenly, this is called settling the mind; because concentration and wisdom are harmonized, it is also called calming the mind.

Having neither concentration nor wisdom, having only concentration or only wisdom, or having concentration and wisdom without balanced harmony cannot be called worthy. A worthy person in the world must possess both wisdom and virtue: wisdom makes the person knowledgeable in every matter, while virtue leaves beautiful conduct complete. Only Xu You and Chao Fu could be called worthy. One with much wisdom but little virtue is called mad; one with much virtue but little wisdom is called foolish; neither the mad nor the foolish are worthy. “Worthy” carries the meanings capable and wholesome: because one is wholesome, one has virtue; because one is capable, one has wisdom. Only one possessing both wisdom and virtue is called worthy. Practitioners are the same: they cultivate the wisdom of the four establishments of mindfulness and train in the concentration of the five meditations for settling the mind; concentration and wisdom must both be complete.

How are concentration and wisdom both complete when counting breaths? One gathers in every scattered thought, counts from one to ten, and at the same time clearly knows that both breathing and counting arise and cease impermanently, never remaining for one thought. In contemplation of impurity, one must deeply reject foul and unwholesome characteristics while also knowing that the contemplating mind and contemplated object both arise and cease impermanently, rapidly decay, and are false, having long deceived sentient beings. If this contemplation of repulsiveness gives rise to anger, it must be balanced with the concentration of kindness. On seeing others attain happiness, one must likewise know that both this concentration and the other person’s characteristic of happiness arise and cease impermanently.

When contemplating causes and conditions, horizontally contemplate the four kinds of birth—womb, egg, moisture, and transformation—as all dependently arisen dharmas; vertically contemplate the desire, form, and formless realms as likewise all dependently arisen dharmas. Everything arising from conditions is impermanent and without self. When any obstruction arises, one should recollect the Buddha, likewise cultivating both concentration and wisdom in the act of recollection. Thus all five meditations for settling the mind cultivate concentration and wisdom together.

Because one has concentration, one is not mad; because one has wisdom, one is not foolish. Taking this settlement as the foundation of all practices, one gives rise to warmth and summit and enters the true illumination of receptivity to suffering. Being near the noble stage is the reason one is called worthy. Non-Buddhists do not know how to churn and agitate milk; even obtaining milk serum is difficult for them, much less making curds, ghee, and the other products.

4. Pervasively Breaking through All Dharmas

Fourth is pervasively breaking through dharmas and thereby accomplishing the path through seeing existence. After settling the mind in concentration and wisdom, if one cultivates the shared establishments of mindfulness following the five meditations, contemplation of impurity and the others are carried along and all dharmas are pervasively broken through, accomplishing both concrete and principle contemplation. If one instead cultivates only the establishment of mindfulness concerning nature, one attends solely to principle and pervasively breaks all views through the wisdom of impermanence. The contemplation that breaks views is explained in the final two chapters of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

When the Buddha first turned the Dharma wheel, he taught no other Dharma, but only impermanence. Through impermanence he pervasively broke the sixty-two views of all non-Buddhists—existence, nonexistence, both existence and nonexistence, neither existence nor nonexistence, and whether spirit and world are permanent or impermanent—purifying them. Some Abhidharma masters were then challenged with the claim that impermanence belongs to the Lesser Vehicle and permanence to the Great Vehicle, that permanence can break impermanence but impermanence cannot break permanence. If the preceding meaning is understood, this cannot stand.

Before attaining the path, whatever an attached mind calculates as permanent, impermanent, both permanent and impermanent, neither permanent nor impermanent, and so forth consists of views produced when Dharma-objects meet the mind faculty. Views arise from conditions, and everything arising from conditions is impermanent. How then could the permanence, happiness, self, and purity grasped by non-Buddhists be established? These four inversions can all be broken through impermanence. Thus five hundred monks told Datou, “Simply cultivate impermanence: one can attain the path and attain supernormal power.” The group of six monks likewise taught others nothing but impermanence. One should understand that all views, whether deep or shallow, are broken through impermanence, unlike the old physician who treated every illness only with milk medicine.

5. Clearly Knowing Passage and Obstruction

Fifth is knowing passage and obstruction. Although the preceding section pervasively broke the faults of views, it had not yet shown their virtues. Fault is obstruction; virtue is passage. The eighty-eight compulsions within the view of existence, and the eighty-eight compulsions within views up through neither existence nor nonexistence and the inexpressible, all arise from conditions and are called obstruction; because they obstruct, they must be broken. One must also recognize passage within them: the truths of path and cessation within the view of existence, and the truths of path and cessation within views up through neither existence nor nonexistence and the inexpressible, likewise arise from causes and conditions and are called passage. Since they give passage, why should they be broken?

If people do not recognize views, take their own view as fact, and call all other claims false speech, attachment to the view becomes karma, craving moistens the karma, and a result is experienced. Is this not obstruction? If in each view they know it to be impermanent and inverted and do not form calculated attachment, then without attachment there is no karma, and without karma there is no result. Such penetration contains the truths of path and cessation; is it not passage? This differs from a non-Buddhist resembling a worm eating wood: its gnawing accidentally forms a shape, but the worm itself does not know whether the shape is a written graph.

6. Skillfully Cultivating the Factors of the Path

Sixth, one cannot merely recognize passage and obstruction, but must cultivate the factors of the path and advance through the various Dharma-gateways. Contemplate views from the view of existence through the inexpressible as all depending on the body of form, which is filthy and impure: this is the establishment of mindfulness of body. Contemplate feelings from existent feeling through inexpressible feeling as never apart from pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, and feeling itself as suffering: this is the establishment of mindfulness of feeling. Contemplate the perceptions and formations arising from views as all without self: this is the establishment of mindfulness of dharmas. Contemplate the mind producing the various views as impermanent from thought to thought: this is the establishment of mindfulness of mind.

Cultivating these four contemplations is gaining right recollection among conditioned dharmas. Through this right mindfulness, the four inversions are subdued; these are called the four establishments of mindfulness. Diligently cultivating the four contemplations is called the four right efforts. Cultivating them within concentrated mind is called the four bases of supernormal power. When the five wholesome roots arise, they are called the five faculties; when the five faculties grow and ward off unwholesome dharmas, they are called the five powers. Harmonized concentration and wisdom are called the seven factors of awakening. Traveling securely on the path is called the noble eightfold path. Here the factors of the path are not arranged by stage; the thirty-seven factors are discussed together as a common cultivation. A single meditation for settling the mind can generate all thirty-seven factors, and the other meditations are the same. The truth of the path in the Abhidharma distinguishes them more broadly.

These thirty-seven factors are the Dharmas for traveling the path and carry the practitioner toward three gateways of the city of nirvāṇa. Two aspects under the truth of suffering form the gateway of liberation through emptiness. The four aspects under accumulation and the four under path, together with two further aspects under suffering, form the gateway of liberation through non-activity. The four aspects under cessation form the gateway of liberation through signlessness. When the gateway of nirvāṇa opens, the practitioner can enter. Thus the Buddha issued a definitive lion’s roar in the scene called the Subhadra Sūtra: “Only in my Dharma is there a noble eightfold path; non-Buddhist Dharmas do not have even one path, much less eight.”

7. Skillfully Using Counteractives

Seventh is skillfully cultivating counteractives. People of sharp faculties can enter through the primary path. Those who cannot enter must cultivate auxiliary practices. Thus the treatise says that the twelve meditations and related practices are all methods assisting in opening the gateway. When the power of right wisdom is weak, obstructing conditions arise, and auxiliary paths must be cultivated as support. The treatise lists: “When desire arises, teach the contemplation of impurity, the liberations, and so forth. When someone lacks mastery of objects, teach the spheres of mastery. When the objects are not broad and universal, teach the totalities. When merit is slight, teach the immeasurable minds. When someone wishes to transcend the form realm, teach the four formless attainments.” All these are auxiliary paths helping the primary path open the gateway, unlike non-Buddhists who give rise to craving, views, and pride within the fundamental meditations.

8. Clearly Knowing the Stages

Eighth is clearly knowing the stages. Even after cultivating the primary and auxiliary practices just described, one cannot immediately claim to be a noble person, confuse true with resembling attainment, and fail to distinguish worthy and noble stages. When one understands the difference between true and resembling stages and knows one is not yet noble, overweening pride cannot arise. This differs from non-Buddhists who produce attachment to discipline and views and mistake dharmas of birth-and-death for nirvāṇa.

9. Skillfully Enduring

Ninth is skillfully cultivating endurance. The separate establishments of mindfulness remain weak and not yet fully open and fluent, and so one turns to cultivate the general establishments of mindfulness: one may contemplate one generally, two generally, and so forth through all four generally. At this point one must endure so that contemplation of the truths matures, enters the warmth-dharma, and gives rise to smoke resembling the true path. The meaning cited from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is: “Although the warmth-dharma is contaminated and conditioned, it can nevertheless destroy what is contaminated and conditioned.” It also says, “My disciples possess it; non-Buddhists do not.”

If one endures, the summit-dharma is accomplished; when summit is complete, one is said to have reached the margin of receptivity. If one cannot endure, one falls back to this side. Thus it is said that someone who loses the summit-dharma may commit the five heinous acts, while someone who loses the warmth-dharma may become an icchantika. For this reason practitioners must skillfully endure every inner and outer obstruction, unlike non-Buddhists who cannot endure subtle obstructing dharmas.

10. Not Producing Dharma Attachment

Tenth is not producing Dharma attachment. The four wholesome roots of warmth, summit, receptivity, and the foremost worldly dharma have now arisen. If Dharma attachment arises at this point, one will not regress to committing the five heinous acts or becoming an icchantika, yet one cannot enter seeing the truths. The object is therefore contracted in three successive rounds, advancing to accomplish higher receptivity and arouse the foremost worldly dharma and the true illumination of receptivity to suffering. Within sixteen moments one attains the first fruit, or directly attains a higher fruit; one may also apply the contemplation again, sever the five lower and five higher fetters, and become one beyond learning.

People of sharp faculties can enter at each successive step when applying contemplation; people of dull faculties must pass through all ten. Although the Abhidharma explains the matter broadly, it never leaves these ten meanings.

Five hundred arhats composed the Vibhāṣā precisely to uphold attainment of the path through the gateway of existence. How could the gateway of existence be described merely as a means of regulating the mind? When properly adjusted, all four gateways enable attainment of the path; when grasped, none enables attainment. If one says only that seeing existence enables the path while seeing emptiness does not, how is this different from non-Buddhists? Thus the meaning cited from the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is: “Without the skillful means of prajñā, one falls into the extremes of existence and nonexistence.” The ten Dharmas now serve as skillful means for directly entering the gateway of truth, forever differing from non-Buddhists. This is the contemplation for entering truth through the gateway of existence.

The other gateways—emptiness, both emptiness and existence, and neither emptiness nor existence—each have their own beginning-to-end skillful means for entering truth. Compared with the gateway of existence, each differs in detail; yet all converge upon partial truth, sever delusions of the three realms, and do not differ in realization. Following the gateway of existence as their model, the other three should each contain ten contemplations. They are broadly the same with minor differences and are not recorded at length here.

8. The Ten Contemplations of the Shared Gateway of Existence

Next come the contemplations of the Shared Teaching’s gateway of existence, likewise unfolded through ten items with the same names. First, one embodies and understands all dharmas as illusory. Second, the resolves aroused by śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas are broadly the same with small differences.

One Madhyamaka master says that these are Great Vehicle śrāvakas; Zhiyi disagrees. The sutra plainly says, “Those who wish to attain śrāvakahood or pratyekabuddhahood should study prajñā.” The treatise likewise says, “Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas obtain the path of liberation and nirvāṇa entirely from prajñā.” Neither scripture nor treatise fixes them under the name asserted by that later teacher; that is a teacher’s mistaken claim.

Third, although one knows concentration and wisdom to be unattainable, one still settles the mind through these two Dharmas. Fourth, with wisdom like an illusion one pervasively breaks the four views of existence, nonexistence, both, and neither, the sixty-two views, and all dharmas. Fifth, one knows suffering and accumulation within illusion as obstruction and path and cessation within illusion as passage. Sixth, with a mind of nonattainment one cultivates the thirty-seven factors of the path. Seventh, with nothing to be counteracted one trains in every counteractive. Eighth, one clearly distinguishes the dry-wisdom ground through the buddha-ground. Ninth, wisdom like an illusion is not shaken by outer Māras or driven back by inner obstructions. Tenth, although dharmas do not arise and prajñā arises, one does not become attached to the Dharma attained.

When the ten are accomplished, one can enter true truth and, whether discussed as wisdom or severance, attain receptivity to the nonarising of dharmas. This is more skillful than the preceding analytical gateway. The ten contemplations of the Shared gateway of existence can be understood accordingly and are not described further. The other gateways of emptiness, both emptiness and existence, and neither emptiness nor existence likewise have ten items, broadly the same with minor differences, and are also not recorded at length.

9. The Ten Contemplations of the Distinct Gateway of Existence

Next come the contemplations of the Distinct Teaching’s gateway of existence, likewise with ten items.

First is contemplating the object. This object transcends the four views and four gateways of ordinary beings, is not the Dharma of the two vehicles’ four gateways, and is not the Dharma of the Shared Teaching’s four gateways. If the preceding gateway-Dharmas are made objects, they still cannot be called the true mark and cannot be fixed as either birth-and-death or nirvāṇa. Only the tathāgata-garbha is called wondrous existence and contains real Dharma. This wondrous existence supports all dharmas, and all dharmas arise from it; it is the object contemplated by the Distinct gateway of existence.

Second is arousing resolve. Bodhisattvas deeply contemplate the wondrous existence of the true mark as unmoved by birth-and-death, yet see sentient beings like a treasury of gold covered by weeds, a jewel in the strongman’s forehead lost amid fighting, or a poor orphan exposed outside. They are deeply worthy of compassion. Bodhisattvas therefore give rise to great kindness and compassion and arouse the four universal vows. The Sūtra Requested by Brahmā Viśeṣacintin has thirty-two kinds of great compassion. The meaning cited from the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra is: “Not for one person, one country, or people as numerous as the dust motes in one realm, but for all sentient beings of the Dharma realm does one arouse the mind of bodhi.” Such a resolve has great power, like a lion’s roar.

Third is settling the mind. After arousing resolve, one settles and advances in cultivation, relying on the various forms of concentration and wisdom described earlier. When a particular concentration is suitable at a given time, cultivate that concentration; when a particular wisdom is suitable at another time, cultivate that wisdom. Concentration cares for the mind and wisdom spurs it forward. One settles in cultivation of the path and relies only on these two Dharmas, not on anything else; this is the method of settling the mind.

Fourth is pervasive breaking. With the wisdom of wondrous existence, one pervasively breaks every view within birth-and-death, including the sixty-two views, and does not accept either merit or darkness. One also pervasively breaks attachment to nirvāṇa, neither sinking into emptiness nor grasping realization, like a great tree that does not host a hostile bird.

Fifth is discerning passage and obstruction. Within each dharma, a bodhisattva clearly distinguishes passage and obstruction, like the Snow Mountains holding both poisonous plants and the king of medicines. The bodhisattva must know that one kind of mind belongs to the suffering and accumulation of the six paths and is obstruction, while another belongs to the path and cessation of the two vehicles and is passage. At the next level, the suffering and accumulation of the two vehicles are obstruction and the bodhisattva path and cessation are passage. Again, bodhisattva suffering and accumulation are obstruction and only the Buddha’s path and cessation are passage. Being able to recognize what is not the path within suffering and accumulation gives access to the Buddha-path. Yet one also knows that attachment to the Buddha-path can itself produce obstruction. Clearly understanding each layer without impediment is discerning passage and obstruction.

Sixth is skillfully cultivating the factors of the path. The thirty-seven factors are the bodhisattva’s jeweled-torch dhāraṇī. The four establishments of mindfulness break inversions; the four right efforts make cultivation diligent; the four bases of supernormal power gather the mind in concentration; the five wholesome roots arise and can expel the five evils; with concentration and wisdom harmonized, one travels on a secure path. Leaving the ten characteristics is called the samādhi of emptiness; not seeing even a characteristic of emptiness is called the samādhi of signlessness; not constructing aspirations is called the samādhi of non-activity. These are Dharmas for traveling the path and already approach the gateway of nirvāṇa.

Seventh is skillfully cultivating gateways of counteraction. The paired counteractives contemplated are permanence and impermanence, constancy and inconstancy, peace and absence of peace, conditioned and unconditioned, severance and nonseverance, nirvāṇa and non-nirvāṇa, supreme and nonsupreme. Bodhisattvas continually contemplate these gateways of counteraction to help open the true mark.

Eighth is clearly knowing the stages. From the ten faiths, ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, and ten grounds through equal awakening and wondrous awakening, one understands the depth of noble stages without error and never claims to have falsely occupied the highest stage.

Ninth is skillfully enduring. Inwardly, one endures wholesome and unwholesome impulses and guards against the two thieves of accordance and opposition. Outwardly, one endures the eight winds of gain, loss, disgrace, praise, commendation, ridicule, suffering, and happiness. Through the power of endurance, one is not shaken by inner or outer objects.

Tenth is not giving rise to Dharma attachment. Even after realizing a resembling Dharma, one does not let Dharma attachment arise and therefore does not fall at the summit of the bodhisattva stages. If attachment arises, it is called Dharma attachment. Only without this attachment does one enter the proper bodhisattva stage, break the weeds of ignorance, reveal the treasury of wondrous existence, see buddha-nature, and enter the true mark. This is contemplation for cultivating entry into the true mark through the Distinct gateway of existence.

The contemplations for entering the true mark through the other gateways of emptiness, both emptiness and existence, and neither emptiness nor existence likewise each have ten items. Although the skillful means of the gateways differ, all converge upon perfect truth, and the principle realized is not two. The contemplations of the other three gateways can be understood from the gateway of existence and are not recorded in detail.

10. Tenfold Distinctions between Perfect and Distinct Gateways

Next come contemplations for entering the true mark through the Perfect gateways. First, the Perfect gateways are distinguished; second, Perfect contemplation is explained. The Tripiṭaka gateways extinguish supposedly real form to access truth and, when misunderstood, produce much contention. The Shared gateways embody illusory form as immediately empty and access truth, revealing a Dharma free of contention. The Distinct gateways first embody and extinguish the form of birth-and-death, then sequentially extinguish the form of Dharma-nature to access the Middle; misunderstood, they too produce much contention. A Perfect gateway teaches that the form of birth-and-death is precisely the form of Dharma-nature and accesses the Middle in that very form, revealing a Dharma free of contention. Thus the sutra speaks of “the unsurpassed path” and “practicing the profound and wondrous path”; this is their meaning.

The Tripiṭaka and Shared gateways do not access the Middle and need no further distinction here. Both Distinct and Perfect gateways access the Middle. Their similarities and differences are distinguished broadly in ten respects: first, interpenetration and noninterpenetration; second, immediacy and nonimmediacy to dharmas; third, buddha-wisdom and non-buddha-wisdom; fourth, sequential and nonsequential practice; fifth, severing through severance and severing without severance; sixth, real and unreal stages; seventh, vertically ordered and nonvertical fruit; eighth, perfect and imperfect expression; ninth, examination through questions and answers; tenth, examination through similes. Closely examining these ten meanings makes the similarities and differences of the eight gateways clear.

1. Interpenetration and Noninterpenetration

Each of the four Distinct gateways has a definite basis. The gateway of existence is based on true, good, and wondrous existence without involving emptiness. The gateway of emptiness is based on ultimate emptiness without involving existence. The gateways both existent and empty and neither empty nor existent likewise each remain within their own portion. The four gateways are sequentially distinct and give access separately. Those who misunderstand them grasp fixed characteristics, mistake wondrous existence for the real existence posited by non-Buddhists, and come close to confusing it with the claim that awakening is born from the primal darkness.

The preceding Tripiṭaka gateway of existence has already broken the wrong claims of non-Buddhists first and completely, so the other three gateways of emptiness and so forth have fewer wrong views left to break. The four skillful gateways of the Shared Teaching then break the clumsiness of the Tripiṭaka, and the Distinct gateways break the nearness and shallowness of the Shared. They no longer share a path with the two vehicles, much less can they be confused with non-Buddhist claims of awakening born from the primal darkness. Wondrous existence distinguishes four gateways through the tathāgata-garbha; how could it equal the real nature posited by Nirgranthas? The raw jade of Zhou and the “raw jade” mouse of Zheng share the same name but differ in substance, their value separated as far as heaven from earth.

Some students of the Treatise on the Grounds at that time turned away from the path and returned to lay life, secretly appropriated the meaning of wondrous existence, and found illicit comfort in Zhuangzi and Laozi. Mixing gold with stone, they caused wrong and right to become confused, so that blind and benighted people could no longer distinguish the Jing and Wei Rivers. If the intent of the gateways is truly understood and true and false are examined with precision, this theft and confusion cannot arise. Although the Distinct gateways make definite statements that can produce contention, they still concern the realm of the buddhas, which even the two vehicles do not know; how could they be equated with non-Buddhists?

Perfect gateways are open, interpenetrating, and wondrous and cannot be grasped as fixed. Speaking of existence does not separate it from nonexistence; nonexistence is discussed precisely through existence. Speaking of nonexistence does not separate it from existence; existence is discussed precisely through nonexistence. Existence and nonexistence are nondual and have no fixed characteristic. Existence is only provisionally borrowed as the opening of discourse. This gateway of existence is immediately the other three gateways. One gateway is immeasurable gateways, and immeasurable gateways are one gateway. They are neither a fixed one nor a fixed four; four are one and one is four. This is the characteristic of a Perfect gateway.

Interpenetration and noninterpenetration can be considered again through breaking and integration. Breaking only wrong views of non-Buddhists while leaving the deviations of the two vehicles and Great Vehicle skillful means unbroken is breaking that is not perfect. Integration that is not perfect appears, for example, when the Vimalakīrti Sūtra integrates vacillating ordinary beings but not śrāvakas: it integrates the company of defilements as the seed of the Tathāgata, while those who have entered the correct unconditioned stage cannot turn back. Unwholesome people in birth-and-death and the unwholesome Dharma of afflictions are integrated, while the wholesome Dharmas of the two vehicles and noble persons of the four fruits are not. This belongs to a Distinct gateway.

Prajñā teaching also says that the establishments of mindfulness and factors of the path practiced by the two vehicles are all Mahāyāna, and that desire, ignorance, views, craving, and the like are all Mahāyāna. Wholesome and unwholesome Dharmas are integrated, yet unwholesome people and people of the two vehicles are not, nor is it explained that they will become buddhas. This too belongs to a Distinct gateway.

In Perfect breaking, everything from the Distinct Teaching downward is judged a skillful means. Kāśyapa breaks his former position by saying, “Before this, we were all called people of wrong views.” If they are called people of wrong views, they have no Dharma of the perfectly right path, and so both people and Dharmas are broken. This is true even of the people and Dharmas of the Distinct Teaching, much more of those in the thatched hut. It is true even of the two vehicles, much more of ordinary beings. Perfect breaking leaves nothing fixed and preserved.

In Perfect integration, all ordinary beings attached to dharmas are integrated. The sutra tells them, “You all shall become buddhas” and “I would not dare slight you.” Devadatta, who committed the five heinous acts, receives a prediction; the dragon girl and other animals receive predictions; how much more the two vehicles and bodhisattvas. The sutra also says, “Worldly livelihood and productive activity are all not contrary to the true mark.” This integrates all unwholesome Dharmas. It says, “What you practice is the bodhisattva-path.” Even the analytical two vehicles are integrated, much more the Shared and Distinct. It says, “You are my child, and I am the father.” No person and no Dharma remains unintegrated; all interpenetrate as wondrous Dharma. This belongs to a Perfect gateway.

Perfect and nonperfect can also be judged from the sequence of a scriptural passage. If it first teaches a noninterpenetrating gateway, indicating stages before dedication, and later still teaches a noninterpenetrating gateway yet says realization interpenetrates, indicating stages after dedication, it belongs to a Distinct gateway. The same is true if it first speaks of interpenetrating realization, indicating stages after dedication, and later teaches a noninterpenetrating gateway, indicating stages before dedication.

If it first teaches an interpenetrating gateway and realization likewise interpenetrates, indicating stages after faith, and later says realization does not interpenetrate, indicating stages before the abodes, it belongs to a Perfect gateway. The same is true if it first says realization does not interpenetrate, indicating stages before the abodes, and later says realization interpenetrates, indicating stages after faith. One cannot classify a passage by seizing the single word “interpenetration”; its position in the sequence and stages of practice must also be examined.

2. Immediacy and Nonimmediacy to Dharmas

When the Distinct gateway of existence teaches existence, this is not the existence of birth-and-death, but true, good, and wondrous existence separately taught outside birth-and-death. The gateway of emptiness separately teaches ultimate emptiness outside the true truth of the two vehicles; the gateways both existent and empty and neither existent nor nonexistent are the same. These are the characteristics of the four Distinct gateways.

When the Perfect gateway of existence teaches existence, the existence of birth-and-death is immediately the existence of the true mark. All dharmas converge upon existence; existence is the Dharma realm, and outside the Dharma realm there is no further Dharma to discuss. Birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, and nirvāṇa is birth-and-death, without duality or difference. Existence is merely raised as the opening of discourse; in reality it contains all dharmas and is perfectly penetrating without obstruction. The other three gateways are the same. These are the four Perfect gateways as the present dharmas of birth-and-death.

Immediacy to dharmas may further be pervasive or not pervasive and is judged Perfect or Distinct according to whether immediacy extends throughout the five abodes of delusion, as distinguished above. When immediacy or nonimmediacy occurs earlier or later in a passage, Perfect and Distinct are likewise judged by the preceding model.

3. Buddha-Wisdom and Non-Buddha-Wisdom

When a gateway of existence distinguishes all-wisdom as understanding empty dharmas and knowledge of path varieties as illuminating the differences among buddha-dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, this is bodhisattva-wisdom and belongs to the four Distinct gateways. When it distinguishes the knowledge of all modes, possesses the five eyes, and perfectly illuminates the Dharma realm with right and universal knowledge, this is the wisdom of the buddhas and belongs to the four Perfect gateways.

At times a Distinct gateway teaches perfect wisdom and a Perfect gateway teaches distinct wisdom; at times a Distinct gateway realizes perfect wisdom and a Perfect gateway realizes distinct wisdom. Whether the statements occur earlier or later, Perfect and Distinct must be judged from the context according to the preceding model, not from the name of the wisdom alone.

4. Sequential and Nonsequential Practice

In cultivation according to a Distinct gateway of existence, one gradually passes through differentiated stages from subtle to manifest and cannot contain immeasurable practices immediately within one practice. The other three gateways are likewise sequentially distinct. These are the four Distinct gateways.

In cultivation according to a Perfect gateway of existence, all dharmas converge upon the gateway of existence and all practices converge upon the practice of existence. One practice immediately contains immeasurable practices and is called pervasive practice. The other three gateways are likewise the same. These are the four Perfect gateways. Sometimes a Distinct gateway teaches perfect practice and a Perfect gateway distinct practice; when these appear earlier or later, they must again be judged by the preceding model.

5. Severing through Severance and Severing without Severance

Ultimate principle is empty and quiescent, and the nature of ignorance originally does not exist; where could a separate wisdom be needed? If understanding and delusion cannot be attained, how could Perfect and Distinct be fixed? The meaning cited from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is: “Who possesses wisdom? Who possesses afflictions?” The meaning cited from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is: “The nature of lust, anger, and delusion is precisely liberation.” It also says, “Without severing delusion and craving, one gives rise to luminous liberation.” From this side, no fixed discussion of severance or nonseverance is made.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra also says, “When it is dark there is no light, and when it is light there is no darkness. When wisdom is present, there are no afflictions.” From this side, wisdom is used to sever afflictions.

The Distinct gateway of existence commonly speaks through definite divisions, gradually severing the five abodes of delusion. This is conceivable wisdom and severance; the other three gateways are likewise gradual and belong to the four Distinct gateways. The Perfect gateway of existence instead teaches the nonduality of understanding and delusion and commonly speaks of severing without severance. All five abodes are inconceivable; this is inconceivable severance. The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Perfect gateways. Sometimes a Perfect gateway speaks of severance and a Distinct gateway of severing without severance; when these occur earlier or later, they must again be judged by the preceding model.

6. Real and Unreal Stages

The Distinct gateway of existence speaks of severing views and thoughts within the realms and judges this the thirty minds; severing views, thoughts, and ignorance beyond the realms is judged the ten grounds; at the final mind of equal awakening, ignorance is completely severed; the constant fruit of wondrous awakening is beyond all bonds with nothing further to do. This actually takes the cause-stage of another tradition as the fruit-stage of one’s own and remains a skillful means rather than a real stage. The other three gateways are broadly the same with minor differences and all belong to the four Distinct gateways.

The Perfect gateway of existence instead begins from the initial arousal of resolve, cultivates the three contemplations in one mind, severs delusions within the realms, and perfectly subdues ignorance beyond the realms, judging this the ten faiths. It then advances and arouses true wisdom, perfectly severs views, thoughts, and ignorance beyond the realms, and judges this the forty minds. At the final mind of equal awakening, ignorance is forever exhausted; wondrous awakening is beyond all bonds. These are ultimate and real stages. The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Perfect gateways. Sometimes a Distinct gateway teaches real stages and a Perfect gateway unreal stages; sometimes a Distinct gateway realizes real stages and a Perfect gateway unreal stages. Wherever they occur, they must be distinguished according to context.

7. Vertically Ordered and Nonvertical Fruit

In a Distinct gateway of existence, the three virtues of Dharma-body, prajñā, and liberation form a vertical and horizontal sequence in the fruit: the Dharma-body is originally present, prajñā is accomplished through cultivation, and liberation becomes complete only at the end. Not only are the virtues of the fruit vertically ordered; causal practice is also confined. Masters of the Treatise on the Grounds say that the first ground completely fulfills the perfection of giving. The other perfections are not left entirely uncultivated, but are practiced according to one’s power and degree. Giving is completed at the first ground and does not extend into later grounds. The other Dharmas are present only in part and not complete, leaving this meaning unfinished. The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Distinct gateways.

In a Perfect gateway of existence, the three virtues are complete in the fruit, neither vertically sequenced nor horizontally arrayed. Causal practice is likewise one Dharma-gateway containing all Dharma-gateways and extends through the buddha-ground. The meaning cited from the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra is: “From the very first ground one possesses the virtues of all grounds.” The meaning cited from the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra is: “The initial graph 阿 possesses the virtues of the other forty-one graphs.” The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Perfect gateways. Sometimes a Distinct gateway teaches nonvertical fruit and a Perfect gateway vertical fruit; when these occur earlier or later, they must again be judged by the preceding model.

8. Perfect and Imperfect Expression

The gateway of existence in the Distinct Teaching does not interpenetrate perfectly; it may interpenetrate only one gateway or two. The opening of the section before the gateway provides a partial lead-in. The body within the gateway expresses noninterpenetration, nonimmediacy, bodhisattva-wisdom, and so forth through partial similes. The conclusion after the gateway returns to noninterpenetration, nonimmediacy, and related meanings. The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Distinct gateways.

In the Perfect Teaching’s gateway of existence, one gateway is immediately the other three. The lead-in before the gateway is perfect. The body within the gateway expresses interpenetration, immediacy, buddha-wisdom, and so forth through perfect similes. The conclusion after the gateway again establishes interpenetration, immediacy, and related meanings. The other three gateways are likewise the same and belong to the four Perfect gateways. Sometimes a Distinct gateway uses perfect expression and a Perfect gateway distinct expression; when they occur earlier or later, they must again be judged by the preceding model.

9. Determining through Questions and Answers

If the meaning taught through a gateway of existence has not yet been distinguished as Perfect or Distinct, one should trace the questions and answers in the text and repeatedly examine and verify them. Its Perfect or Distinct intent will then become apparent. The other three gateways are likewise judged through questions and answers.

10. Determining through Similes

Before and after the gateways, gold, silver, and precious objects may be used as similes, or wish-fulfilling jewels, the sun, and the moon may be used. Some similes are correlated according to a Distinct meaning and some according to a Perfect meaning. Following how simile and Dharma are correlated naturally reveals the characteristics of Perfect and Distinct.

When these ten meanings are used for a profound survey of the scriptures, the two kinds of Perfect and Distinct gateways become luminously clear.

11. Ten Meanings in the Present Sutra and Its Four Perfect Gateways

The number of sets of gateways may again be distinguished through the five flavors: the milk teaching has two sets of four gateways, the curds teaching one set, the raw-ghee teaching four sets, the refined-ghee teaching three sets, and the present sutra only one set.

The ten meanings above can be seen in the present sutra. It says to “contemplate all dharmas as empty, as the true mark,” definitively resolves the Dharma of śrāvakas, calls itself king among the sutras, and speaks of opening the gateway of skillful means. These interpenetrate the people and Dharmas of ordinary beings, the Lesser Vehicle, and the Great Vehicle. It says, “All worldly livelihood and productive activity are not contrary to the true mark,” showing that the former hired laborer is the elder’s son. This is the meaning of immediacy to dharmas.

The sutra speaks of opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing and says that what must now be done is only buddha-wisdom. This is buddha-wisdom. It speaks of putting on the Tathāgata’s robe, together with seat, room, and so forth; this is nonsequential practice. It also speaks of purifying the faculties without severing the five desires. It says “and further passes five hundred yojanas”; this is severing without severance.

The five grades, purification of the six faculties, and riding the jeweled vehicle to travel in the four directions are real stages. The Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle, is adorned by the powers of concentration and wisdom, and uses it to liberate sentient beings; this is nonvertical fruit. Joining palms with a reverent mind and wishing to hear the complete path is perfect expression before the passage of the present Buddha. Saying that the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas has already been taught to all is perfect expression after the passage of an ancient Buddha. The questions and answers between Wisdom Accumulation and the dragon girl reveal the Perfect; the wheel-turning king’s jewel at his crown and the high, broad jeweled cart are Perfect similes. With all ten meanings complete, the Perfect gateway is clear.

The four characteristics of the perfectly interpenetrating gateways can now be stated. The sutra says that the Buddha’s wisdom is subtle, wondrous, and foremost, and that the Buddha uses the Tathāgata’s wisdom to contemplate the distant past as if it were today. Wisdom illuminating and knowing wondrous Dharma is the gateway of existence. All dharmas are empty, constantly bearing the characteristic of quiescent extinction and ultimately returning to emptiness; this is the gateway of emptiness. Dharmas constantly lack self-nature, yet the buddha-seed arises from conditions; this is the gateway both empty and existent. Neither such nor different, neither false nor real, it negates both and relinquishes the two extremes; this is the gateway neither empty nor existent.

The four characteristics mark the gateways and the ten meanings distinguish Perfect and Distinct. One can therefore know that the present sutra clearly teaches the four Perfect gateways.

12. The Ten Contemplations of the Perfect Gateway of Existence

The four Perfect gateways are now known. Contemplation is next cultivated according to the gateway of existence, again in ten items.

1. The Inconceivable Object

In contrast with the preceding twelve conceivable gateways, the present object is called inconceivable. The inconceivable object is the Four Truths of the one reality.

The truth of the suffering of birth-and-death is inconceivable and is immediately empty, provisional, and middle. Because it is empty, it is called purity of skillful means; because it is provisional, perfect purity; because it is middle, purity of nature. The three purities are attained in one mind and called great nirvāṇa. The meaning cited from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is: “All sentient beings are precisely great nirvāṇa.” These are therefore called the inconceivable Four Truths. Since all sentient beings originally are great nirvāṇa, they cannot be extinguished again. The present truth of the suffering of birth-and-death is thus unconstructed cessation and simultaneously accumulation and path.

The truth of accumulation in afflictions is likewise inconceivable and immediately empty, provisional, and middle. Because it is empty, it is called all-wisdom; because it is provisional, knowledge of path varieties; because it is middle, the knowledge of all modes. The three wisdoms are attained in one mind and called great prajñā. The meaning cited from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is: “All sentient beings are precisely the mark of bodhi; it cannot be attained separately again.” The present truth of accumulation in afflictions is thus unconstructed path and simultaneously suffering and cessation. These are called the inconceivable Four Truths of the one reality.

This is also true, good, and wondrous form. Because birth-and-death is empty, it is called true; because birth-and-death is provisional, it is called good; because birth-and-death is middle, it is called wondrous. This is the inconceivable object of the Perfect gateway of existence.

2. Genuinely Arousing Resolve

All sentient beings originally are great nirvāṇa, so why do they remain inverted and mistake original happiness for suffering? A bodhisattva therefore gives rise to great compassion and makes two vows: to liberate those not yet liberated and to sever what has not yet been severed. All afflictions originally are bodhi, so why do sentient beings remain benighted and mistake the path for what is not the path? A bodhisattva therefore gives rise to great kindness and makes two more vows: to enable those who do not yet know to know and those who have not yet attained to realize.

This is objectless kindness and compassion and pure vows. The power of the wholesome root of kindness naturally draws in all sentient beings and abandons no one.

3. Settling the Mind through Concentration and Wisdom

Once embodiment and understanding of the true mark are complete and resolve fully aroused, how can one merely stand beside a pool watching fish but refuse to make a net? How can one pack provisions and bind one’s legs for a journey yet remain seated and not go? The first simile means that one who knows the wondrous object contemplated must begin practice. The second means that one who has aroused universal vows must advance. Neither level may stop at preparation.

The essentials of cultivation do not go beyond concentration and wisdom. When yin and yang are harmonized, the myriad things flourish and bear fruit; when rain and drought lose their proper measure, things only scorch or rot—how could they grow? When the two wheels of a cart are level, it can carry; when both wings of a bird are complete, it can rise in flight. Embodying birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa is called concentration. Penetrating affliction as precisely bodhi is called wisdom. Skillfully cultivating concentration and wisdom in one mind completes all practices.

4. Pervasively Breaking through All Dharmas

This wondrous wisdom is like a vajra axe, shattering everything it strikes, and like a sun without cataract, illuminating everything it reaches. If birth-and-death is precisely nirvāṇa, the truths of suffering consisting in segmented and transformational birth-and-death are entirely broken. If afflictions are precisely bodhi, the truths of accumulation consisting in the four and five abodes of delusion are entirely broken. Although breaking is spoken of, no fixed object is broken, because birth-and-death itself is precisely nirvāṇa.

5. Skillfully Discerning Passage and Obstruction

Discerning passage and obstruction is like a commander’s treasure making the proper choice: it restrains the strong and makes them retreat, and soothes the weak and makes them advance. Knowing the faults of birth-and-death is called obstruction; knowing birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa is called passage. Afflictions bring disturbance and are called obstruction; knowing afflictions as precisely bodhi is called passage.

From the four views of non-Buddhists all the way to the four gateways of the Perfect Teaching, practitioners must discern passage and obstruction. Attachment at any step is obstruction; losing attachment and revealing the wondrous at any step is passage. If one cannot distinguish smooth from dangerous roads among dharmas, not only will practice fail to advance, but the precious treasure carried along will also be lost.

6. Skillfully Discerning the Factors of the Path

Contemplating birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa, one sees the form aggregate in the birth-and-death of the ten realms as neither pure nor impure, and so forth through the consciousness aggregate as neither permanent nor impermanent. This breaks the eight inversions of permanence, happiness, self, and purity, and impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity; it is the four establishments of mindfulness of Dharma-nature. Within the establishments are all the factors of the path, the three gates of liberation, and all dharmas.

Knowing nirvāṇa as precisely birth-and-death reveals four withered trees. Knowing birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa reveals four flourishing trees. Knowing birth-and-death and nirvāṇa as nondual is the truth of the one reality, neither withered nor flourishing, and abides in great nirvāṇa. These three levels of withered, flourishing, and neither together reveal the meaning of the factors of the path.

7. Skillfully Cultivating Counteractives

When the primary path faces many obstructions, auxiliary paths must be cultivated. Contemplating birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa treats the obstruction of recompense; contemplating afflictions as precisely bodhi treats karmic obstruction and the obstruction of afflictions.

8. Clearly Knowing the Stages

The dharmas of birth-and-death originally are nirvāṇa; this is nirvāṇa as principle. Understanding birth-and-death as nirvāṇa is nirvāṇa in name. Diligently contemplating birth-and-death as nirvāṇa is nirvāṇa in contemplative practice. The arising of wholesome roots and virtues is resembling nirvāṇa. The arising of real wisdom is partial realization of nirvāṇa. Reaching the bottom of birth-and-death is ultimate nirvāṇa. Contemplating afflictions as precisely bodhi is explained through the same six levels of principle, name, contemplative practice, resemblance, partial realization, and ultimate.

9. Skillfully Enduring

Practitioners must endure strong and soft inner and outer obstructions without allowing the contemplating mind to be destroyed. While contemplating birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa, they are not shaken or damaged by the aggregates, entrances, objects, illness, karma, Māras, dhyāna, the two vehicles, bodhisattvas, and other objects. While contemplating afflictions as precisely bodhi, they are not shaken or damaged by views or overweening pride.

10. Freedom from Dharma Attachment

After all obstructing difficulties have been passed and the root of the path established, various virtues arise. Because one contemplates birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa, the virtues of dhyāna and samādhi arise. Because one contemplates afflictions as precisely bodhi, dhāraṇīs, fearlessnesses, distinctive Dharmas, and various forms of prajñā arise. Because one contemplates birth-and-death and nirvāṇa as nondual, the Dharma-body and true mark arise.

When resembling virtues arise in accord with principle, the mind easily produces attachment to Dharmas that accord with the path; this is called Dharma attachment. Dharma attachment prevents further ascent without immediately causing descent and is called falling from the summit. As soon as Dharma attachment arises, it must be swiftly extinguished. Only after it is extinguished can one break ignorance, open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing, and realize the substance of the true mark.

Because one contemplates birth-and-death as precisely nirvāṇa, one realizes liberation. Because one contemplates afflictions as precisely bodhi, one realizes prajñā. Because one knows the two as nondual, one realizes the Dharma-body. One body is immeasurable bodies, like an unsurpassed heap of jewels and a perfect wish-fulfilling jewel, containing all dharmas. This is called entering the real through the gateway of existence and realizing the sutra’s substance. The other three gateways likewise possess all ten contemplations and enter the real.

13. Dispersed Passages in the Present Sutra Complete the Ten Contemplations

These ten contemplations are fully present in the text of the present sutra. It says, “This Dharma cannot be shown; the characteristics of words are quiescent and extinct. None among the remaining kinds of sentient beings can understand it.” It also says, “My Dharma is wondrous and difficult to conceive.” These reveal the inconceivable object.

One gives rise to great kindness toward all sentient beings and great compassion toward those not yet bodhisattvas. The sutra says, “When I attain complete awakening, I will draw them with the power of supernormal penetration and the power of wisdom and enable them to abide in this Dharma.” This reveals genuinely arousing resolve. The sutra further says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and, according to the Dharma attained, is adorned by the powers of concentration and wisdom. This is settling in the two Dharmas of concentration and wisdom, accomplishing oneself and others.

The Dharma-king who breaks existence reveals pervasive breaking. The light of the sun and moon can also dispel every darkness. The sutra says, “This person travels through the world and can break the darkness of sentient beings.” This too reveals pervasive breaking. It says, “There is a guide leading the people, clear and resolute in mind, who saves the people amid dangers.” This reveals skillfully discerning passage and obstruction.

Pure Store and Pure Eye skillfully cultivate the thirty-seven factors of the path and the perfections, encompassing both factors of the path and counteractives. Increasing the path and diminishing birth, traveling in the four directions, reveals discerning stages. Abiding unmoved like the summit of Mount Sumeru and putting on the Tathāgata’s robe reveals endurance. Hearing all these sounds without attachment, the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind all pure in this way, together with the phrase “the truly pure great Dharma,” reveals freedom from Dharma attachment.

The passages proving the ten contemplations are dispersed throughout the sutra, and people often fail to see them. They are now gathered into ten items and placed under the gateway of existence as contemplation. The other three gateways are broadly the same with minor differences and likewise enter the real through ten contemplations.

Moreover, the intent of these ten contemplations appears not only in the present sutra; scriptures and treatises of both the Lesser and Great Vehicles contain them. Just as Mount Malaya produces only sandalwood, this Dharma-gateway is certainly not found in the four Vedas of non-Buddhists or in the works of Zhuangzi and Laozi in this land. People everywhere lecture and read scriptures and treatises but cannot recognize the ten contemplations when facing the words. If they wish to learn the path, they have no skillful means at all. This is truly lamentable.

It is like knowing only how to milk but not how to churn and agitate milk into curds and ghee. If one knows the ten meanings, all four Lesser Vehicle gateways can use them to enter truth and all four Great Vehicle gateways to enter the real. Once one has entered the real, it is like eating milk gruel and needing nothing further. One may receive half or all of a wish-fulfilling jewel and wish to give it to all sentient beings, yet if beings refuse to value the path over bodily life, refuse diligent cultivation, and will neither receive nor use it, what benefit comes from giving in vain? Zhiyi voices regret over this. Even without immediate benefit, the teaching can still plant the cause of the poisoned drum. Those who wish to know the ten contemplations fully should consult the Mohe Zhiguan.

14. Judging Coarse and Wondrous through Access and What Is Accessed

The third major division explains the coarse and wondrous among the gateways in two parts: first, judging coarse and wondrous through what gives access and what is accessed; second, judging coarse and wondrous through the gateways themselves.

Access and what is accessed form four propositions. The gateway is what gives access, and principle is what is accessed: in one case both are coarse; in another, access is wondrous while what is accessed is coarse; in another, access is coarse while what is accessed is wondrous; and in another, both are wondrous.

The four Tripiṭaka gateways support concrete matters and are shallow and near, so what gives access is coarse. They express only partial truth, so what is accessed is likewise coarse. The four Shared gateways are the Great Vehicle’s embodiment of dharmas, truthful and skillful in crossing, so what gives access is wondrous. Yet the three vehicles each realize partial truth, and what is accessed remains coarse. The four Distinct gateways belong to skillful means of the teaching-path, so what gives access is coarse. They express entry into perfect truth, and what is accessed is wondrous. The four Perfect gateways teach truly from the realization-path, so what gives access is wondrous. They are perfect immediately in present matters, and what is accessed is wondrous as well.

Considering the four flavors again, in the raw-ghee teaching both what gives access and what is accessed carry the coarse. In the milk teaching neither carries the coarse. In the refined-ghee teaching what is accessed carries the coarse while what gives access does not. The Perfect Teaching receiving the Shared and receiving the Distinct, together with the gateways in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, have access that carries the coarse while what is accessed does not.

15. Questions and Answers on “One Gateway, and Moreover Narrow”

Someone asks: the sutra says, “There is only one gateway, and moreover it is narrow.” Is it called one and narrow because it is coarse, or because it is wondrous?

The answer is that this meaning applies broadly and cannot be confined to a single kind of gateway. The four Tripiṭaka gateways are called four because they are taught differently in response to faculties; they are called one because all are the Buddha’s teaching. They are called four because each has different skillful means; they are called one because all face nirvāṇa. They are called four because what is accessed follows what gives access; they are called one because what gives access converges upon what is accessed. The absence of bodhi from the words is narrowness in teaching. A constricted path that cannot admit two people side by side is narrowness in practice. The difficulty with which the gateways of teaching and practice grasp and accord with truth is narrowness in principle.

The Shared Teaching is the same. It is four because it is taught separately in response to different conditions and one because all are the Buddha’s teaching. It is four because the contemplations differ and one because all face nonarising. It is four because what is accessed follows what gives access and one because what gives access follows and converges upon what is accessed. In the Shared Teaching, present matters are immediately true and the words already contain bodhi. Wholesome and unwholesome are both contemplated as unattainable, allowing them to travel side by side. The Shared Teaching is therefore not called narrow in teaching or practice through this meaning; it is called narrow in principle only because teaching and contemplation have difficulty grasping and according with true principle.

The four Distinct gateways are the same. They are four because they are taught for four kinds of faculties and one because all are the Buddha’s teaching. They are four because the contemplations for entering the real differ and one because all face the one reality. They are four because what is accessed follows what gives access and one because what gives access converges upon what is accessed. Birth-and-death is not yet immediately nirvāṇa, so teaching is narrow. Afflictions are not yet immediately bodhi, so practice is narrow. Teaching and practice have difficulty grasping and according with real principle, so principle is narrow.

The four Perfect gateways are likewise the same. They are four because they respond to four kinds of faculties and one because all are spoken by the Buddha. They are four because contemplations for entering the real differ and one because the four contemplations all face the true mark. Placing the name of the gateway on the principle makes four; having principle respond to the gateways makes one. This teaching immediately says birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, so teaching is not narrow. It immediately says afflictions are bodhi, so practice is not narrow. Yet teaching and contemplation may still fail to grasp and accord with real principle, and so principle is still called narrow.

According to the sutra’s statement “There is only one gateway, and moreover it is narrow,” the proper meaning is that gateways of teaching and practice are called narrow when they fail to grasp principle correctly. This single sentence is now opened out and takes different meanings in each place. How could one grasp a single passage as fixed? Understanding this makes coarse and wondrous clear.

16. Judging Coarse and Wondrous through the Gateways of the Four Teachings

Second, coarse and wondrous are judged through the gateways themselves.

The Four Gateways of the Tripiṭaka Teaching

All four Tripiṭaka gateways give access. When any is grasped, all four obstruct. Judged through success and failure, they have no fixed ranking and cannot be judged partially.

If only the gateway-Dharma itself is considered, the gateway of existence adheres to conventional truth and enters the path clumsily, while the gateway of emptiness lies close to true truth and enters skillfully. Thus the meaning cited from the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is: “The emptiness of sentient beings is taught for people of dull faculties; the emptiness of dharmas is taught for those of sharp faculties.” The gateway both existent and nonexistent is skillful relative to the first two, but clumsy relative to the final gateway. The gateway neither existent nor nonexistent is skillful. The treatise further says, “A person who is half in existence and half in nonexistence is called dull.” This judges coarse and wondrous according to the Dharmas of the four gateways.

If suitability to faculties is considered, when faculties are suited to the gateway of existence, that gateway succeeds and the other three fail. When suited to the gateway of emptiness, that gateway succeeds and the other three fail. When suited to the gateway both existent and nonexistent or neither existent nor nonexistent, each is judged successful or failed in the same way.

If a single gateway’s possession of the four siddhāntas is considered, completely attaining all four is called success and losing them is called failure. Still within the same gateway, according with desire is gain and going against the person’s disposition is loss; meeting what is suitable is gain and not meeting it is loss; treating the illness is gain and failing to treat it is loss; seeing ultimate meaning is gain and failing to see ultimate meaning is loss. Each gateway can have success or failure, and coarse and wondrous are discussed accordingly.

The ten contemplations provide a further judgment: an object of causes and conditions that is right is gain, while a deviant object is loss; genuinely arousing resolve is gain, while insincere resolve is loss; settling the mind properly is gain, while concentration and wisdom out of balance is loss; pervasively breaking through dharmas is gain, while incomplete breaking is loss; knowing passage and obstruction is gain, while not knowing them is loss; and so forth through not producing Dharma attachment to what accords with the path as gain and producing it as loss. If all ten Dharmas in one gateway are accomplished, that gateway is wondrous and the others coarse. If another gateway accomplishes all ten while this one does not, this gateway is coarse and the other wondrous.

The Four Gateways of the Shared Teaching

The principle accessed by the Shared Teaching is only one. Because that one principle cannot be spoken, how could characteristics be compared as coarse or wondrous? Yet among gateways taught in response to faculties, there can still be superiority and inferiority; the depth of the four gateways may be judged as in the Tripiṭaka Teaching.

Within each gateway, teaching that meets faculties through the four siddhāntas is called wondrous, while going against the four kinds of faculties is coarse. When each proposition in the ten contemplations of a gateway is cultivated appropriately, the gateway is wondrous; when each misses its place, the gateway is coarse. When coarse, one is burned by the fire on the four sides of prajñā and cannot enter the cooling pool. The opposite is called wondrous.

The Four Gateways of the Distinct Teaching

If only Dharma characteristics are discussed, the gateway of existence adheres to matters and is therefore coarser, while the gateway of emptiness lies close to principle and is more wondrous. The gateway of emptiness preserves only a single principle and is therefore coarse relative to the gateway both empty and existent, which penetrates both. The gateway both empty and existent still preserves both extremes and is therefore coarse relative to the gateway neither empty nor existent, which relinquishes both.

When faculties and conditions are considered, the gateways cannot be fixed in that order. When a being’s desires correspond to the gateway of existence, that gateway is wondrous and the other three coarse. When the gateway of existence fits what is suitable, it is wondrous and the others coarse. When it counteracts the relevant evil, it is wondrous and the others coarse. When it enables the person to see ultimate meaning, it is wondrous and the others coarse. The gateways of emptiness, both emptiness and existence, and neither emptiness nor existence are judged in the same way according to their own desires, suitability, counteraction, and ultimate meaning.

The ten contemplations are next illustrated through the sweet Zhentoujia fruit and poisonous Jialuojia fruit. Recognizing the object of true, good, and wondrous form in the gateway of existence is called Zhentoujia; failing to recognize the object is called Jialuojia. Genuinely arousing resolve is Zhentoujia; incorrect resolve is Jialuojia. Settling the mind through concentration and wisdom is Zhentoujia; failing to settle in the two Dharmas is Jialuojia. Pervasively breaking through dharmas is Zhentoujia; incomplete breaking is Jialuojia. Skillfully discerning passage and obstruction is Zhentoujia; failing to discern them is Jialuojia.

Cultivating the thirty-seven factors of the path is Zhentoujia; failing to cultivate them is Jialuojia. Skillfully understanding counteractives is Zhentoujia; failing to understand them is Jialuojia. Clearly knowing the stages is Zhentoujia; failing to recognize them is Jialuojia. Enduring without being moved is Zhentoujia; failing to endure is Jialuojia. Freedom from Dharma attachment that accords with the path is Zhentoujia; the arising of such attachment is Jialuojia.

The root treatise says that the Jialuojia fruit has nine parts while the Zhentoujia fruit has only one. When all ten contemplations are accomplished, there are ten parts Zhentoujia and all ten are wondrous. When nine parts are Jialuojia, the Jialuojia is coarse; when one part is Zhentoujia, the Zhentoujia is wondrous. A thousand pounds of layered blossoms do not equal one ounce of real gold, and coarse and wondrous may therefore be judged in this way. The gateway of existence is so; the other three gateways are likewise judged through the success or failure of their ten contemplations.

The Four Gateways of the Perfect Teaching

All four Perfect gateways are wondrous and none coarse. The gateway of existence is the Dharma realm and encompasses all inconceivable dharmas; it is immediately all dharmas, much more the other three gateways. The gateway of emptiness is likewise the Dharma realm and encompasses all dharmas, much more the other three. The gateways both empty and existent and neither empty nor existent are the same. Dharma characteristics are equal, with no fixed superiority or inferiority.

If the four gateways are equal, why are there four? The Buddha gives four teachings only in accord with sentient beings’ faculties, like four fingers pointing toward one moon: the moon is one, while the fingers are four.

Sentient beings have cultivated these four gateways lifetime after lifetime and formed dispositions through them. In the past they investigated principle within the four gateways and wished to overturn ignorance, thereby forming wisdom dispositions. In the past they cultivated goodness within the four gateways and wished to overturn unwholesome karma, thereby forming meritorious dispositions. The conditions of merit and wisdom produce present name, form, contact, and feeling, and each person then gives rise to craving and grasping according to the gateway formerly cultivated. Through these ten dharmas, they become sentient beings with dispositions for the Perfect Teaching.

Sentient beings’ desires differ, as do what suits them and what must be treated. Buddha-wisdom illuminates clearly and discerns faculties without error. Through the worldly siddhānta, the Buddha responds to four kinds of disposition and desire by teaching four gateways. Through the individually adapted siddhānta, he gives rise to four kinds of goodness. Through the counteractive siddhānta, he treats four kinds of attachment. Through the siddhānta of ultimate meaning, he enables four kinds of person to see principle. Without these four kinds of condition, the Buddha does not teach the corresponding Dharma. Because conditions are not one, they are summarized as four. All four gateways straightforwardly set aside skillful means and teach only the unsurpassed path. Their characteristics perfectly interpenetrate, and all four are wondrous.

Coarse and wondrous can be judged further through the gateways of teaching. If the intent of the four siddhāntas is not understood, treatises contend against one another; who can integrate them? For example, the Treatise on the Grounds split into southern and northern paths, and later the Mahāyānasaṃgraha tradition arose. Each regarded itself as true and rejected the others, seeking to place opponents in defeat. Without the intent of the four siddhāntas, all four gateways fail.

Although the Perfect gateways interpenetrate purely and their teaching is open and profound, if one cannot use them to resolve scriptural and treatise disputes, why does contention continue? If one truly wishes to enter the path, what gateway cannot give access? On awakening to principle, why preserve attachment to four? During cultivation, why allow any gateway to obstruct? Yet the four forms of obstruction differ in weight.

The Distinct gateways are separated from one another. Those who have awakened do not conflict, but those who have not easily contend, and their attachment is heavy, like a dull horse that moves only after a painful blow. The Perfect gateways are open and profound; before awakening, attachment to them is lighter, like a swift horse that moves on seeing the shadow of the whip. Even if such light attachment has not gained the benefit of ultimate meaning, it does not lose the benefits of the worldly, individually adapted, and counteractive siddhāntas. Thus the treatise says all four siddhāntas are real and not false.

Why are they all real? The worldly siddhānta is real within worldly conditions, and so forth through the siddhānta of ultimate meaning, which is real when ultimate meaning is seen. Though all are real, reality has depths. From another perspective, they can all be false. Taking the gateway of existence as an example, the worldly siddhānta is real for corresponding desires and false for other desires. The individually adapted siddhānta is real when it produces goodness in the corresponding person and false in other situations. The counteractive siddhānta is real when it breaks the corresponding evil and false for other illnesses. The siddhānta of ultimate meaning is real when it enables the corresponding person to see principle and false for other functions. The other three gateways are the same.

Within the gateway of existence, the worldly, individually adapted, and counteractive siddhāntas are real in worldly establishments and false from the standpoint of ultimate meaning. The siddhānta of ultimate meaning is real in ultimate meaning and false in worldly establishment. The real side is called wondrous and the false side coarse. The other gateways may be distinguished broadly by analogy.

17. Judging Coarse and Wondrous through the Five Flavors

When the preceding coarse and wondrous are placed within the five flavors, the milk teaching has eight gateways, four coarse and four wondrous, while all the principles accessed are wondrous. The curds teaching has four gateways; the gateways are coarse and the principle accessed is also coarse. The raw-ghee teaching has sixteen gateways, twelve coarse and four wondrous; two kinds of principle accessed are coarse and two wondrous. The refined-ghee teaching has twelve gateways, eight coarse and four wondrous; one kind of principle accessed is coarse and one wondrous. The Lotus Sutra has only four gateways, all wondrous, and its one principle accessed is likewise wondrous.

Before the Lotus Sutra, the gateways giving access and principles accessed by śrāvakas were coarse. At the Lotus, both gateway and principle interpenetrate and become wondrous. Bodhisattvas are not fixed: some already made gateway and principle interpenetrate as wondrous during the vaipulya or prajñā teachings, while those of the dullest faculties remained like the two vehicles until the Lotus.

The Nirvāṇa Sūtra has sixteen gateways, twelve coarse and four wondrous, while all principles accessed are wondrous. Why? The earlier gateways each led through coarse or wondrous gateways to corresponding coarse or wondrous principles and still preserved principles of skillful means. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra instead teaches that all dharmas possess the nature of peace and happiness and all sentient beings possess buddha-nature. No separate principle of skillful means remains, but only one wondrous principle. Yet coarse gateways are preserved as skillful means for that wondrous principle, and all gateways are taught to enter the real.

It is like a brahman asking the Buddha: if the cause is impermanent, why is the fruit permanent? The Buddha answers by questioning him in return. From this one knows that the hundred rivers finally enter the sea and all gateways converge upon the real. Real principle is most urgent and must therefore interpenetrate; yet coarse skillful means are retained to draw in people of dull faculties.

The Lotus Sutra uses subduing to break gateways and principles of skillful means, like the Golden-Sand River with no further bend. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra instead embraces and again permits gateways of skillful means, drawing people in according to different conditions. The establishments of preserving and retiring differ, but the Golden-Sand River and the hundred rivers all finally return to the sea, and the real principle to which they return does not differ.

18. Opening Coarse Gateways to Reveal Wondrous Gateways

The fourth major division opens coarse gateways to reveal wondrous gateways.

Someone asks: the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā first teaches Great Vehicle gateways and later gateways of the two vehicles. Why does the present treatise first teach Lesser Vehicle gateways and later Great Vehicle gateways?

The answer is that the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā addressed fixed diseases of views among people of its time and therefore first used Great Vehicle emptiness to sweep away views, then revealed gateways through which śrāvakas enter truth. The present sutra addresses sentient beings who no longer have that disease of views but remain in the thatched hut and refuse to advance. It must therefore open gateways of skillful means and reveal the perfectly interpenetrating true mark, first listing lesser gateways and then clarifying greater ones. Opening and breaking must each suit the time; both orders have their excellence.

Teachings after the Lotus Sutra do not await further opening. Among teachings before the Lotus, if gateway and principle have already entered the wondrous, what remains to be opened? Sometimes gateway and principle are wondrous while the person is not yet wondrous; in that case the person is opened. Since the gateway and principle themselves are already wondrous, they need no further opening. Whatever gateway, principle, or person is not yet wondrous is what is opened now.

All craving, views, and afflictions are opened and revealed as bodhi; thus the sutra says, “Contemplate all dharmas as empty, as the true mark.” All birth-and-death is opened and revealed as nirvāṇa; thus it says, “The characteristics of the world constantly abide.” All ordinary beings are opened and revealed as wondrous persons; thus it says, “All sentient beings are my children.”

All discourse born of craving and views is opened and revealed as the Buddha-Dharma; thus it says, “Even secular scriptures and writings, livelihood and productive activity, are not contrary to the true mark.” All sentient beings are opened and revealed as wondrous principle; thus it says, “To enable sentient beings to open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing; revealing, awakening to, and entering are likewise the same.”

All Lesser Vehicle Dharmas are opened and revealed as wondrous Dharma; thus it says, “It definitively resolves the Dharma of the śrāvakas and is king among the sutras.” All śrāvaka teaching is opened; thus it says, “In the past the Buddha disparaged śrāvakas before bodhisattvas, yet in truth the Buddha taught and transformed them through the Great Vehicle.” All śrāvaka practice is opened and revealed as wondrous practice; thus it says, “What you practice is the bodhisattva-path.” All śrāvaka principle is opened and revealed as wondrous principle; thus it says, “Opening the gateway of skillful means, it reveals the true mark.”

All bodhisattvas not yet perfected by wondrous Dharma are then opened so that all now attain the Perfect. Thus the sutra says, “When bodhisattvas hear this Dharma, the net of their doubts is entirely removed.” There is one kind of bodhisattva in the Distinct Teaching, one in the Tripiṭaka Teaching, and one in the Shared Teaching. All who had not previously been definitively resolved now receive opening and revelation.

Thus no gateway and no principle fails to enter the wondrous. This is called opening the provisional to reveal the real, deciding the coarse and making it wondrous.

This is a long unit taught by Zhiyi and recorded by Guanding. It does not leave “gateway” as a classification of terms, but continually asks: What does a gateway lead to? How does a person enter through it? What turns a gateway into an obstruction? What allows a coarse gateway to be opened and revealed? Gateways of teaching and practice thereby join in a single path from hearing the Dharma to realizing the sutra’s substance.

〔Section §01〕 Teaching and Practice: The Flying Ladder for Reaching the True Mark

The true mark is subtle, hidden, profound, and far-reaching, like an impassable ravine difficult to climb. Teaching and practice are the flying ladder that crosses it. Teaching lets one know the route; practice enables one actually to climb. The gateway of the Buddha’s teaching lets one leave the suffering of the three realms, while children of the Buddha who practice the path can become buddhas in a future life. These two sentences show the function of a gateway respectively through teaching and practice: the gateway is not the destination, yet it truly can bring someone to the destination.

The treatise master first unfolds the whole unit in four movements: viewing the characteristics of the gateways, cultivating the contemplation for entering them, distinguishing coarse and wondrous, and carrying out opening and revelation. The four form an internal sequence. Without knowing gateway characteristics, contemplation has no entrance. If one knows an entrance but does not distinguish coarse and wondrous, the gateway may instead become attachment. Only after success and failure have been clarified can people, Dharmas, gateways, and principles not yet wondrous all be opened and revealed.

〔Section §02〕 The Four Propositions Are Only Gateways; They Do Not Possess the True Mark

The Buddha-Dharma cannot be directly displayed through words, yet the Buddha must respond to conditions and express principle through the four propositions of existence, nonexistence, both existence and nonexistence, and neither existence nor nonexistence. Their value lies in giving access, not in dividing the true mark into four pieces. The true mark cannot even be fixed as one, much less can there truly be four true marks. The four are only four kinds of entrance.

The cooling-pool simile says that those of sharp faculties can enter and those of dull faculties can enter; not only the concentrated, but also those with scattered minds, those intent on a single purpose, and those diligent in effort can enter through a gateway. The great-fire simile deepens the distinction between gain and loss: when fire is not grasped, it can warm the body and cook food; reaching out to grasp it instead results in being burned. The four gateways originally give access to prajñā, remove afflictions, and accomplish the great matter. Once grasped, they turn into the fire of wrong views. Skillful use of a gateway does not mean abandoning it, but refusing to seize its characteristics as a real entity while using it.

Teaching and practice likewise open and combine according to faculties. Some hear teaching and, like a swift horse seeing a whip’s shadow, immediately enter the road. Some cultivate contemplation and, like seeing lightning in the night, immediately see the path. Others must contemplate after hearing or hear again after contemplating. Practitioners through faith and practitioners through Dharma can therefore turn into one another: teaching can become an entrance into contemplation, and contemplation can in turn illuminate what has been heard. The four kinds of teaching each have four gateways, first making sixteen. When teaching and contemplation are discussed together, the round number is thirty-two. Looking more closely at the causes of embodiment, spiritual advisers, and immeasurable contemplative practices, the gateways are actually beyond count. The city Joyful to Behold has twelve hundred gateways; the Dharma-city of the true mark would hardly admit only one track.

〔Section §03〕 Four Tripiṭaka Gateways: One Set of Four Truths, Four Entries into Truth

The Tripiṭaka gateway of existence establishes existence through right causes and conditions. Birth-and-death is not produced by a primordial world-nature, atoms, or parents, but ignorance gives rise to formations, afflictions, karma, and suffering. Suffering, accumulation, path, and cessation can all be discussed through existence. Conditioned dharmas are impermanent, suffering, empty, and without self; cultivating the path produces the uncontaminated; severing the two bonds of seeds and recompense brings nirvāṇa with remainder and without remainder. Seeing the path through existence is the gateway of existence.

The gateway of emptiness analyzes the provisional and the real within right causes and conditions into the equality of emptiness, giving rise to the uncontaminated and seeing the Dharma-body through emptiness. Subhūti’s contemplation of impermanent arising and ceasing in the stone chamber shows that emptiness can serve as a gateway. As for the treatise said to uphold this gateway, the root text itself retains the word “perhaps” and does not make a definitive attribution.

The gateway both existent and empty sees causes and conditions as both existent and empty, using this to break one-sided attachment to either existence or nonexistence. The gateway neither existent nor nonexistent leaves both extremes. The stories of Kātyāyana and Channa entering the path display the functions of the latter two gateways. At the end of the fourth gateway, a form of Abhidharma is also recorded that places the person in a fifth, inexpressible category: the person is not existent in the three times and is not nonexistent as an unconditioned dharma. The treatise master again leaves this undetermined. Each gateway has a transmitted exposition; all four access partial truth.

〔Section §04〕 Four Shared Gateways: Six Parts of a Mirror Image, Empty Just as They Are

The Tripiṭaka Teaching analyzes form to enter emptiness, like dividing a supposedly real person’s head into six parts and learning that no person can be found in any part. The Shared Teaching instead resembles looking at a mirror image: the head and its six parts are empty just as they appear and need not first be analyzed away. The short statement identifying cloth and emptiness marks how embodying a dharma differs from analyzing it.

Here the emptiness of sentient beings and emptiness of dharmas are no longer divided into earlier and later. Emptiness of beings is emptiness of dharmas, and emptiness of dharmas is emptiness of beings, just as the nature of form and the nature of self are alike in being illusory. “Constantly empty in nature” further means that dharmas do not become empty only after examination; there is never a moment when their nature is not empty. A moon in water and an image in a mirror appear while remaining unattainable and can therefore bear this meaning.

The four gateways are established within illusion. Illusory karma and fruit, through nirvāṇa, appear clearly and form the gateway of existence. Illusion originally has no reality and cannot be found, forming the gateway of emptiness. A mirror image can be seen and yet cannot be attained as something seen, forming the gateway both empty and existent. Neither illusory existence nor illusory emptiness can be held, and relinquishing both forms the gateway neither empty nor existent. The faculties of the three vehicles differ, and each enters ultimate meaning through a corresponding proposition. Their common entry into immediate emptiness does not erase the practices and fruits of the three vehicles.

〔Section §05〕 The Sequential Distinctions of the Distinct Gateways and the First Marking of the Perfect

The Distinct Teaching differs downward from the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings and upward from the Perfect Teaching; it enters the Middle through sequential distinctions. The treatise master gathers dispersed scriptural similes of milk, gold, a forehead-jewel, and empty space into four gateways. Curds present in milk, gold in stone, and a jewel in the forehead reveal the gateway of existence. Stone lacking a nature of gold, milk lacking a nature of curds, and buddha-nature resembling empty space reveal the gateway of emptiness. Milk both having and lacking the nature of curds reveals the gateway both existent and nonexistent. Buddha-nature as the Middle Way, with milk neither having nor lacking the nature of curds, reveals the gateway of double negation.

These similes allow a bodhisattva of the Distinct Teaching to see buddha-nature through a gateway and abide in great nirvāṇa. The same wording can elsewhere bear a Perfect meaning, so the gateway name alone does not determine its affiliation. The four Perfect gateways are only first marked here. Though they initially resemble the Distinct gateways in name and meaning, their interpenetration and noninterpenetration and the other distinctions become fully visible only through the later tenfold analysis.

〔Section §06〕 What Is Accessed Is One; What Gives Access May Be Skillful or Clumsy, Oblique or Direct

The point of entering concerns what is accessed; contemplation for entering concerns what enables entry. The sixteen gateways of teaching first collapse into two principles, partial truth and perfect truth. The eight Tripiṭaka and Shared gateways all enter partial truth. The Tripiṭaka analyzes dharmas and follows a winding, narrow path, like four oblique gateways into a provincial city. The Shared embodies dharmas and follows a broad, direct, skillful route, like four direct gateways. Oblique and direct produce eight gateways, yet there is only one governor and the partial truth accessed is nondual.

The eight Distinct and Perfect gateways all enter perfect truth. The Distinct gateways are partial and not yet interpenetrating, like oblique gateways into an imperial capital. The Perfect gateways are perfect and interpenetrating, like direct gateways. There are eight routes, yet the emperor is not two, and the perfect truth accessed is only one. Provincial and imperial cities, governor and emperor, each remain within their own simile and show the difference in what gives access together with the unity of what is accessed.

The Lesser Vehicle establishes only one set of four gateways while the Great Vehicle has three sets, because small and great households differ in depth and breadth. The route through a great household is long; even a thousand gateways and ten thousand doors would not be excessive. A Great Vehicle public gateway is also like the public gateway of a kingdom, which primarily admits officials to court while additionally admitting people to the market. Commoners passing through do not turn it into their exclusive gateway. A Great Vehicle gateway primarily accesses the true mark and secondarily accesses partial truth; people of the three vehicles partly use it to reduce the body to ashes and extinguish cognition, but this does not lower it into a Lesser Vehicle gateway.

〔Section §07〕 Ten Contemplations of the Tripiṭaka Gateway of Existence: From Right Causes and Conditions to Freedom from Dharma Attachment

For a practitioner through faith who awakens as soon as teaching is heard, the mind’s faculties are swift and sharp, and the method of attaining the path is difficult to display. The treatise master therefore takes the practitioner through Dharma and gathers the framework dispersed through the Abhidharma into ten items: recognizing the object, arousing resolve, settling the mind, pervasive breaking, passage and obstruction, factors of the path, counteractives, stages, endurance, and freedom from Dharma attachment. The ten form a road running from beginning to end so practitioners no longer become lost at forks.

The first requirement is to maintain the object of right causes and conditions. Attributing suffering and happiness to Viṣṇu, a primordial world-nature, or atoms posits wrong causes. Saying everything is naturally so posits no cause. Disputes over the existence and nonexistence of the smallest particle can still fall into two views. Right contemplation instead sees coarse and subtle, cause and condition, suffering and accumulation, and dependent and primary recompense as impermanent and without master, all produced through ignorance and inversion. The second requirement is then to turn away from the fire-wheel revolved by ignorance, purely arouse the two vehicles’ resolve for release, remain unmixed with reputation and gain, and cease increasing suffering and accumulation.

Third, concentration in the five meditations for settling the mind and wisdom in the four establishments of mindfulness are harmonized to settle the mind. Counting breaths from one through ten means also knowing each thought of breath and count to arise and cease. When contemplation of impurity gives rise to anger, kindness restores balance. Contemplation of causes and conditions sees the four kinds of birth horizontally and the three realms vertically as all dependently arisen. When obstructions arise, one recollects the Buddha. Concentration and wisdom are like the paired wisdom and virtue of a worthy person. Concentration alone resembles much virtue with little wisdom, and wisdom alone much wisdom with little virtue; neither can be called worthy. A non-Buddhist who does not know how to churn and agitate milk cannot even obtain milk serum, much less make curds and ghee.

Fourth, impermanence is used to break all views pervasively. Permanent, impermanent, both, and neither are Dharma-objects producing views through contact with the mind faculty. Because they arise from conditions, impermanence can break them. Fifth, passage and obstruction are distinguished within the views: the eighty-eight compulsions are obstruction and path and cessation are passage. Grasping one’s own view as real, craving moistening it into karma and fruit, is obstruction. Knowing a view as impermanent without attachment, and therefore producing neither karma nor fruit while opening path and cessation, is passage. A worm gnawing wood may accidentally form a written shape without knowing whether it is a graph; this reflects the loss of failing to discern passage and obstruction.

Sixth, the establishments of mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas unfold as the four right efforts, four bases of supernormal power, five faculties, five powers, seven factors of awakening, and noble eightfold path, making the thirty-seven factors. Two aspects under suffering lead to emptiness; four under accumulation, four under path, and the other two under suffering lead to non-activity; and four under cessation lead to signlessness. These three gateways of liberation lead into the city of nirvāṇa. Seventh, when right wisdom is weak, the twelve meditations and related practices provide support: desire is met with impurity and the liberations, lack of mastery with the spheres of mastery, lack of breadth with the totalities, slight merit with the immeasurable minds, and the wish to transcend form with the four formless attainments.

Eighth, one distinguishes worthy and noble, true and resembling stages, so overweening pride cannot counterfeit nobility. Ninth, one turns from separate to general establishments of mindfulness and endures inner and outer obstructions, allowing warmth, summit, and receptivity to continue. Warmth resembles smoke near the path; if endurance fails at the summit, one falls back to this side. Tenth, after the four wholesome roots have arisen, one does not become attached to what accords with the path. Although Dharma attachment does not immediately cause regression into grave wrongdoing, it blocks seeing the truths. Only by extinguishing attachment and arousing the true illumination of receptivity to suffering can one become a stream-enterer, directly attain a higher fruit, or reach the stage beyond learning.

The treatise compiled by five hundred arhats precisely upholds attainment of the path through the gateway of existence. The four gateways are therefore not merely devices for regulating the mind. When properly harmonized they all enable the path; when grasped they all obstruct it. The skillful means of prajñā prevent falling into existence or nonexistence. The ten contemplations are the complete skillful means that pass directly from the gateway of existence into partial truth. The other three gateways each have ten contemplations broadly the same with minor differences and likewise sever delusions of the three realms.

〔Section §08〕 Ten Contemplations of the Shared Teaching: Cultivating within Illusion, Entering through Nonattainment

The Shared gateway of existence likewise contains ten contemplations, all unfolded within illusion. The object consists of dharmas like illusions. The resolve of the three vehicles is broadly the same with minor differences. Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas likewise attain the path of liberation and nirvāṇa through prajñā, showing that the Great Vehicle gateway primarily accesses the true mark while secondarily admitting the three vehicles, without any need to invent another fixed identity to explain them.

Although concentration and wisdom cannot be attained, the mind is still settled through concentration and wisdom. The four views, the sixty-two views, and all dharmas are illusory and are pervasively broken through wisdom like an illusion. Suffering and accumulation within illusion are obstruction; path and cessation within illusion are passage. With a mind of nonattainment, one cultivates the thirty-seven factors; with nothing to be treated, one trains in the counteractives; stages from dry wisdom to buddhahood remain clear. Wisdom like an illusion is not shaken by outer Māras or driven back by inner obstructions. Dharmas do not arise and prajñā arises, yet prajñā is not grasped; one thereby enters truth and attains receptivity to the nonarising of dharmas. The skillfulness relative to analysis lies precisely in embodiment as illusion.

The other three gateways also each possess ten contemplations. The gateway of existence is expanded as the example; the abbreviations still leave the same ten items running through cultivation from beginning to end.

〔Section §09〕 Ten Contemplations of the Distinct Teaching: Breaking the Weeds to Reveal the Treasury of Gold

The Distinct gateway of existence establishes the wondrous existence of the tathāgata-garbha as its object. It transcends the gateways of ordinary beings, the two vehicles, and the Shared Teaching, supports all dharmas, and gives rise to all dharmas. Sentient beings possess this wondrous existence yet resemble a treasury of gold covered by weeds, a forehead-jewel lost amid fighting, or a poor orphan exposed outside. Seeing this, bodhisattvas give rise to great kindness and compassion and arouse the four universal vows, not for one person, country, or a dust-mote number in a realm alone, but for all sentient beings of the Dharma realm, with the force of a lion’s roar.

Settling the mind still depends on the mutual support of concentration and wisdom: cultivate concentration when concentration is appropriate and wisdom when wisdom is appropriate, caring for the mind through concentration and spurring it through wisdom. The wisdom of wondrous existence pervasively breaks views within birth-and-death and also breaks immersion in emptiness as realization. A great tree does not host a hostile bird, showing that the grasping of nirvāṇa likewise is not allowed to remain. The Snow Mountains contain both poisonous plants and a king of medicines, showing that passage and obstruction must be recognized at each level: the suffering and accumulation of the six paths relative to the path and cessation of the two vehicles; the suffering and accumulation of the two vehicles relative to the bodhisattva’s path and cessation; and bodhisattva suffering and accumulation relative to the Buddha’s path and cessation. Even while knowing the Buddha-path, one understands that attachment to it can become obstruction again.

The thirty-seven factors are a bodhisattva’s jeweled torch. Leaving the ten characteristics enters the samādhi of emptiness; not seeing even a characteristic of emptiness enters the samādhi of signlessness; making no constructed aspiration enters the samādhi of non-activity. Permanence and impermanence, constancy and inconstancy, peace and absence of peace, conditioned and unconditioned, severance and nonseverance, nirvāṇa and non-nirvāṇa, supreme and nonsupreme become gateways of counteraction helping to open the true mark.

The depth of the ten faiths, ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, ten grounds, equal awakening, and wondrous awakening is not confused. Inwardly, one endures wholesome and unwholesome impulses and the two thieves of accordance and opposition; outwardly, the eight winds. When a resembling Dharma appears without Dharma attachment, one does not fall at the summit of the bodhisattva stages. Only without this attachment can one break the weeds of ignorance, reveal the treasury of wondrous existence, see buddha-nature, and enter the true mark. The gateways of emptiness, both, and neither each accomplish the same ten contemplations through their own skillful means.

〔Section §10〕 Ten Distinctions of the Perfect Gateway: The Full Span from Interpenetration to Simile

A Perfect gateway takes the form of birth-and-death as immediately the form of Dharma-nature and accesses the Middle in that very form, revealing the Dharma free of contention. A Distinct gateway instead sequentially extinguishes the form of birth-and-death and the form of Dharma-nature before accessing the Middle. Both access the Middle, and the treatise master unfolds their difference through ten aspects: interpenetration, immediacy to dharmas, buddha-wisdom, sequence, severance, stages, fruit, expression, questions and answers, and similes.

First is interpenetration. The Distinct gateways of existence, emptiness, both, and neither each remain within their own portion. A Perfect gateway teaches existence without blocking nonexistence and nonexistence without blocking existence. Existence and nonexistence are nondual; one gateway is the other three, one gateway is immeasurable gateways, and immeasurable gateways are one. Though true, good, and wondrous existence and the real existence of non-Buddhists may share a name, they differ in substance like the raw jades of Zhou and Zheng, with value separated as far as heaven from earth. Mixing gold and stone causes people to lose the division between wrong and right; precise knowledge of the four gateways restores it.

Interpenetration also appears in breaking and integration. Breaking only non-Buddhists while preserving the two vehicles and Great Vehicle skillful means, or integrating unwholesome Dharmas while not integrating people of the two vehicles, remains sequentially distinct. Perfect breaking breaks both people and Dharmas from the Distinct Teaching downward, leaving not even those of the thatched hut fixed. Perfect integration extends from Never Disparaging’s assembly, Devadatta, the dragon girl, and animals to worldly occupations, practices of the two vehicles, and the father-and-child simile; no kind of person or Dharma remains outside the wondrous. The sequence of a scriptural passage and its stages can alter the affiliation of language about interpenetration, so such language must be read together with the position of realization.

Second is immediacy to dharmas. A Distinct gateway separately teaches true, good, and wondrous existence outside birth-and-death and ultimate emptiness outside the two vehicles’ truth. A Perfect gateway instead teaches the existence of birth-and-death as immediately the existence of the true mark: all dharmas converge upon existence, existence is the Dharma realm, and birth-and-death is nirvāṇa. One gateway is only the opening of discourse and in reality perfectly contains all dharmas.

Third is wisdom. Distinguishing all-wisdom and knowledge of path varieties as illuminating Dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges is bodhisattva-wisdom. The knowledge of all modes together with the five eyes perfectly illuminating the Dharma realm is buddha-wisdom. Fourth is practice. Proceeding through stages from subtle to manifest, unable to contain immeasurable practices in one practice, is sequential. All practices converging upon one practice, and one practice immediately containing immeasurable practices, is pervasive practice.

Fifth is severance. The Distinct gateways gradually cut apart the five abodes of delusion and reveal conceivable wisdom and severance. Perfect gateways teach that the nature of ignorance originally does not exist and that understanding and delusion are nondual; they speak of severing within nonseverance and reveal inconceivable severance. The two sets of scriptural statements concerning wisdom and affliction, light and darkness, give both severance and nothing to be severed their place.

Sixth is stage. Assigning views and thoughts within the realms to the thirty minds, and views, thoughts, and ignorance beyond the realms to the ten grounds, with ignorance exhausted after equal awakening, gives skillful stages. Cultivating the three contemplations in one mind from the initial resolve, perfectly subduing at the ten faiths and perfectly severing throughout the forty minds up to equal and wondrous awakening, gives real stages. Seventh is fruit. Saying the Dharma-body is originally present, prajñā cultivated, and liberation completed at the end, while each causal ground is limited, arranges the three virtues vertically. Having all three virtues complete and neither vertical nor horizontal, one Dharma-gateway containing all gateways, the first ground containing the virtues of all grounds, and the graph 阿 containing the virtues of all other graphs gives Perfect fruit.

Eighth is what expresses. How the text leads in before the gateway, expresses wisdom, practice, severance, stages, fruit, and similes within the gateway, and concludes afterward must all be threaded by interpenetration and immediacy for its expression to be perfect. One gateway being the other three must be borne by the full beginning and ending of the passage. Ninth, questions and answers are repeatedly examined to verify its intent. Tenth, how gold, silver, jewels, wish-fulfilling jewels, the sun, and the moon are correlated with Dharma is examined. Only when the ten work together do Perfect and Distinct become luminously clear.

〔Section §11〕 Ten Meanings in the Present Sutra: Gateway Characteristics Revealed throughout the Whole Sutra

The treatise master first counts gateways according to the five flavors, then gathers ten meanings dispersed throughout the present sutra. Contemplating all dharmas as empty, definitive resolution of the śrāvaka Dharma, and opening the gateway of skillful means reveal the interpenetration of people and Dharmas. Worldly productive activity not opposing the true mark and the hired laborer being the elder’s son reveal immediacy to dharmas. Opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing reveals buddha-wisdom. Robe, seat, and room, together with purifying the faculties without severing the five desires, reveal nonsequential practice. Passing five hundred yojanas reveals severing without severance.

The five grades, purification of the six faculties, and the jeweled vehicle traveling in the four directions reveal real stages. The Buddha abiding in the Great Vehicle, adorned with concentration and wisdom, and liberating sentient beings reveals nonvertical fruit. The present Buddha’s passage before the text—palms joined to hear the complete path—and the ancient Buddha’s passage after the text—the meaning of the true mark already taught—reveal perfect expression before and after. Wisdom Accumulation and the dragon girl reveal questions and answers. The crown-jewel of the wheel-turning king and the high, broad cart reveal Perfect similes. These pieces of evidence do not occur in one passage; figures, stages, events, and similes from across the sutra jointly reveal the Perfect gateway.

The sutra’s meaning also establishes four perfectly interpenetrating gateways. The Buddha’s subtle and wondrous wisdom and the Tathāgata’s wisdom contemplating the distant past as today form the gateway of existence. The emptiness of all dharmas and their constantly quiescent characteristic form the gateway of emptiness. Dharmas without self-nature and the buddha-seed arising from conditions form the gateway both empty and existent. Neither such nor different, neither false nor real forms the double-negating gateway. All four are established within one Perfect intent while providing entries for different faculties.

〔Section §12〕 Ten Contemplations of the Perfect Gateway: The Four Truths of One Reality in the Present Practicing Mind

The first Perfect contemplation takes the Four Truths of the one reality as its inconceivable object. The suffering of birth-and-death is empty, provisional, and middle; the three purities are one mind and become great nirvāṇa. The accumulation of afflictions is likewise empty, provisional, and middle; the three wisdoms are one mind and become great prajñā. Suffering is unconstructed cessation, and accumulation unconstructed path. The Four Truths interpenetrate while remaining distinguishable. Birth-and-death is true because empty, good because provisional, and wondrous because middle; the object of the gateway of existence is therefore called true, good, and wondrous form.

The second contemplation arouses resolve from this object. Sentient beings originally are great nirvāṇa yet invert happiness into suffering, and so bodhisattvas give rise to compassion and vow to liberate the unliberated and sever the unsevered. Afflictions originally are bodhi yet beings invert the path into what is not the path, and so bodhisattvas give rise to kindness and vow to enable the unknowing to know and the unattaining to attain. Kindness and compassion are objectless, vows are pure, and beings are naturally drawn in.

The third contemplation settles the mind through two pairs of journey similes. Watching fish beside a pool without making a net means seeing the object without beginning practice. Packing provisions and binding one’s legs while sitting still means arousing vows without advancing. Concentration and wisdom also resemble harmonized yin and yang, balanced wheels, and complete wings. Embodying birth-and-death as nirvāṇa is concentration; penetrating affliction as bodhi is wisdom. Skillful cultivation in one mind completes all practices.

The fourth contemplation pervasively breaks like a vajra axe and an unobscured sun. Segmented and transformational suffering is broken within birth-and-death as nirvāṇa; the accumulation of the four and five abodes is broken within affliction as bodhi. There is ability to break without a fixed object broken. The fifth distinguishes passage and obstruction like a commander’s treasure choosing appropriately, restraining the strong and calming the weak. The faults of birth-and-death and disturbance of affliction are obstruction; their immediacy as nirvāṇa and bodhi is passage. From four non-Buddhist views through Perfect gateways, attachment at every step obstructs and the disappearance of attachment reveals the wondrous. Failure to examine them loses both practice and the precious treasure of understanding.

The sixth contemplation unfolds the four establishments of mindfulness of Dharma-nature from the five aggregates of the ten realms as neither pure nor impure, neither permanent nor impermanent, breaking eight inversions. The establishments contain the factors of the path, the three liberations, and all dharmas. Nirvāṇa as birth-and-death reveals the four withered trees; birth-and-death as nirvāṇa reveals the four flourishing trees; their nonduality reveals neither withered nor flourishing and abiding in great nirvāṇa. The seventh uses immediacy as nirvāṇa to treat the obstruction of recompense and immediacy as bodhi to treat karmic and afflictive obstructions.

The eighth unfolds stages from principle, name, contemplative practice, resemblance, and partial realization through ultimate realization. Birth-and-death as nirvāṇa and affliction as bodhi each proceed through the six. The ninth endures hard and soft inner and outer obstructions. Aggregates, entrances, objects, illness, karma, Māras, dhyāna, the two vehicles, and bodhisattvas do not break the contemplation of immediacy as nirvāṇa; views and overweening pride do not break the contemplation of immediacy as bodhi.

In the tenth, virtues arise after obstructions have been passed: dhyāna and samādhi, dhāraṇī and fearlessness, prajñā and Dharma-body all appear according to contemplation. Resembling virtues most easily produce attachment to what accords with the path, preventing both advance and retreat and leaving one fallen at the summit. Only by swiftly extinguishing this attachment can one break ignorance, open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing, and realize the substance of the true mark. Liberation, prajñā, and Dharma-body are thereby complete. One body becomes immeasurable, like a treasury and perfect jewel. The other three gateways also enter the real through ten contemplations.

〔Section §13〕 Dispersed Evidence, Milk, and People Who Refuse the Jewel

Evidence for the ten contemplations in the present sutra is dispersed throughout the work. The Dharma that cannot be shown, the extinction of verbal characteristics, and the wondrous Dharma difficult to conceive reveal the inconceivable object. Supernormal power and wisdom drawing beings to abide in the Dharma reveal true resolve. The Buddha abiding in the Great Vehicle, adorned with concentration and wisdom, reveals settling the mind and accomplishing self and others. The Dharma-king breaking existence and the sun and moon dispelling darkness reveal pervasive breaking. The guide saving people on the dangerous road reveals passage and obstruction. Pure Store and Pure Eye cultivating the factors of the path and the perfections reveal both factors and counteractives. Increasing the path, diminishing birth, and traveling in four directions reveal stages. Mount Sumeru unmoved and the Tathāgata’s robe reveal endurance. Hearing sounds without attachment, purification of the six faculties, and the truly pure great Dharma reveal freedom from Dharma attachment.

The intent of the ten contemplations also appears dispersed throughout Lesser and Great Vehicle scriptures and treatises, like Mount Malaya producing only sandalwood; it differs from the four non-Buddhist Vedas and the works of Zhuangzi and Laozi. If people can lecture and read but do not recognize skillful means for practice when facing the words, they resemble those who know how to milk but not how to churn and agitate milk into curds and ghee. Knowing the ten contemplations within the four gateways lets the Lesser Vehicle enter truth and the Great Vehicle enter the real, like eating milk gruel and becoming replete.

Half or all of a wish-fulfilling jewel can be given to everyone. Yet if recipients refuse to value the path over bodily life and diligently cultivate, refusing both to receive and to use it, the gift has no immediate benefit. The treatise master’s lament does not end in disappointment: even when no benefit is presently visible, the Dharma-sound can still plant the cause of the poisoned drum and leave a seed for breaking delusion later.

〔Section §14〕 The Gateway That Gives Access and the Principle Accessed

To judge coarse and wondrous, one must first distinguish access from what is accessed: the gateway is what gives access and principle is what is accessed. This yields four propositions: access and what is accessed both coarse; access wondrous while what is accessed coarse; access coarse while what is accessed wondrous; and both wondrous. Tripiṭaka gateways support concrete matters and are shallow, expressing only partial truth, so both are coarse. Shared gateways embody dharmas skillfully but the three vehicles realize partial truth, so access is wondrous and what is accessed coarse. Distinct gateways use skillful means of the teaching-path to express perfect truth, so access is coarse and what is accessed wondrous. Perfect gateways teach truly from the realization-path and are perfect immediately in present matters, so both are wondrous.

Placed within the four flavors, the raw-ghee teaching carries coarse in both access and what is accessed. The milk teaching carries coarse in neither. The refined-ghee teaching carries coarse in what is accessed but not in access. The Perfect receiving the Shared and Distinct, together with the gateways of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, carry coarse in access but not in what is accessed. This first separates the route from its destination so the name of a gateway does not silently replace the principle realized.

〔Section §15〕 The One Narrow Gateway: Teaching, Practice, and Principle in the Four Teachings

The sutra speaks of one gateway that is narrow, and the treatise master opens the statement through questions and answers. Tripiṭaka gateways are four because they respond to faculties, employ different skillful means, and give access differently. They are one because all are the Buddha’s teaching, all face nirvāṇa, and all converge upon what is accessed. The absence of bodhi from their words is narrowness in teaching. A constricted road unable to admit two people side by side is narrowness in practice. Difficulty attaining true truth through teaching and practice is narrowness in principle.

The Shared Teaching is likewise four and one according to faculties, contemplations, and access. Present matters are immediately true, and bodhi is already present in the words. Wholesome and unwholesome are both contemplated as unattainable and can travel side by side, so teaching and practice are not narrow in this sense. Difficulty in reaching the principle of nonarising is narrowness in principle.

The Distinct Teaching is four because taught for four faculties and one because all is the Buddha’s teaching. Contemplations for entering the real differ while all face the one reality. Birth-and-death is not yet immediately nirvāṇa, so teaching is narrow. Afflictions are not yet immediately bodhi, so practice is narrow. Difficulty attaining principle through teaching and practice makes principle narrow.

The Perfect Teaching is likewise four according to four faculties and four contemplations, and one according to the Buddha’s teaching and the true principle. Birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, so teaching is not narrow. Affliction is bodhi, so practice is not narrow. Yet teaching and contemplation may still fail to accord with principle, so principle can still be called narrow. “One gateway” and “narrow” are therefore not fixed labels attached to one teaching. They must be read through teaching, practice, and principle and through how the gateway responds to faculties, faces reality, and grasps principle.

〔Section §16〕 A Gateway Is Wondrous When It Fits the Faculty and Coarse When Grasped

All four Tripiṭaka gateways give access. Attachment to any obstructs; proper adjustment in any enables the path. Looking only at Dharma characteristics, the gateway of existence adheres to conventional truth and is clumsy, the gateway of emptiness lies close to truth and is skillful, the gateway both existent and nonexistent is skillful relative to the earlier gateways but clumsy relative to the double negation. Looking at faculties, however, the gateway suited to existence succeeds and the other three fail, and the same applies to whichever gateway is suitable.

The four siddhāntas make success and failure more precise: according with desire or opposing disposition, meeting what is suitable or failing to do so, treating illness or failing to treat it, seeing ultimate meaning or failing to see it. The ten contemplations likewise examine each item: right object, true resolve, harmonious settlement, pervasive breaking, discernment of passage and obstruction, through freedom from Dharma attachment. The gateway whose ten items succeed is wondrous; one whose ten items miss their place is coarse.

The one principle accessed by the Shared Teaching cannot be compared through form, and coarse and wondrous lie in response to faculties and cultivation. A gateway that meets the four kinds of faculties through the siddhāntas and whose ten contemplations each find their place is wondrous. One that opposes faculties and loses contemplation is burned by the fire on the four sides and cannot enter the cooling pool.

If the Distinct gateways are ranked only by Dharma characteristics, existence adheres to matters and emptiness lies close to principle; single emptiness is surpassed by both, and preserving both is surpassed by relinquishing both. According to faculties and conditions, however, any gateway can be wondrous by corresponding to desire, being suitable, treating an evil, and revealing principle; it can be coarse through the opposites. The two fruits Zhentoujia and Jialuojia illuminate the success and failure of the ten contemplations item by item. Recognizing true, good, and wondrous form, genuinely arousing resolve, settling concentration and wisdom, breaking pervasively, discerning passage and obstruction, cultivating the factors of the path, understanding counteractives, knowing stages, enduring, and lacking Dharma attachment are the sweet fruit. Their ten opposites are the poisonous fruit.

The root treatise uses nine parts poisonous and one part sweet to show many failures and little attainment. If all ten contemplations succeed, there are ten parts sweet fruit and all ten are wondrous. Nine parts poisonous are still coarse; one part sweet is still wondrous, as a thousand pounds of layered blossoms do not equal one ounce of real gold. Every gateway is judged by success or failure in its own ten contemplations; number and image both serve the distinction between right and wrong practice.

All four Perfect gateways are equal in Dharma characteristics and all wondrous. The gateways of existence, emptiness, both, and neither are each the Dharma realm and each encompasses all dharmas. Their differences arise only from faculties, like four fingers pointing at one moon: the moon is one, while the fingers are four. Past investigation of principle and cultivation of goodness within the four gateways formed dispositions of wisdom and merit. In this life, people give rise to craving and grasping according to prior cultivation, and desires, suitability, and counteraction differ. The Buddha clearly illuminates their faculties, responds to four desires through the worldly siddhānta, produces four kinds of goodness through the individually adapted siddhānta, treats four attachments through the counteractive siddhānta, and lets four people see principle through the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. With these four conditions, all four gateways become the direct unsurpassed path.

Success and failure in teaching follow the same principle. Without understanding the four siddhāntas, different traditions resemble the southern and northern paths and later theories, each calling itself true and rejecting the others; all four gateways fail. A Perfect gateway is open and interpenetrating and should be able to dissolve disputes among scriptures and treatises. In awakening, four attachments are not retained; in cultivation, every gateway can give access. Attachment in a Distinct gateway is heavy, like a dull horse requiring a painful blow; attachment in a Perfect gateway is light, like a swift horse moving on seeing the whip’s shadow. Before ultimate meaning is gained, the benefits of the first three siddhāntas may still remain.

Each of the four siddhāntas can be real in a corresponding condition and false where it does not correspond. The worldly, individually adapted, and counteractive siddhāntas are real in worldly establishment and false from ultimate meaning. The siddhānta of ultimate meaning is real in the principle it reveals and false as a worldly establishment. The real side is wondrous and the false side coarse. Coarse and wondrous therefore remain living judgments of correspondence to faculties, attainment of benefit, and successful contemplation, not a static sequence of gateway names.

〔Section §17〕 Retaining and Retiring Gateways through the Five Flavors Each Has Its Conditions

Placed within the five flavors, the counts are exact. The milk teaching has eight gateways, four coarse and four wondrous, with all that is accessed wondrous. The curds teaching has four gateways, with gateway and principle both coarse. The raw-ghee teaching has sixteen, twelve coarse and four wondrous, with two coarse and two wondrous principles accessed. The refined-ghee teaching has twelve, eight coarse and four wondrous, with one coarse and one wondrous principle. The Lotus Sutra has four gateways, all wondrous, and one principle that is likewise wondrous.

Before the Lotus, the gateways and principles of śrāvakas were coarse; at the Lotus, gateway and principle interpenetrate as wondrous. Bodhisattvas vary: some already interpenetrated as wondrous during the vaipulya or prajñā teachings, while those of dullest faculties still awaited the Lotus. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra has sixteen gateways, twelve coarse and four wondrous, while all that is accessed is wondrous. Because every Dharma has the nature of peace and happiness and every sentient being has buddha-nature, only one wondrous principle is accessed, yet coarse gateways remain as skillful means for drawing people in.

The Lotus Sutra subdues, breaking attachment to provisional gateways and principles like the Golden-Sand River traveling straight with no bend. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra embraces, permitting provisional gateways again like a hundred differently flowing rivers entering the same sea. Golden sands emphasize a straight course without turning; the hundred rivers emphasize different currents sharing one destination. The establishments of retaining and retiring differ, but the sea of the real is not two.

〔Section §18〕 What Is Opened Is the Person, Dharma, Teaching, Practice, and Principle Not Yet Wondrous

The final section first asks why the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā teaches Great Vehicle gateways before those of the two vehicles while this unit begins with lesser gateways and only then greater ones. The answer lies in timing. The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā addressed an already formed disease of views, first sweeping it away through Great Vehicle emptiness and then showing a gateway into truth. The present sutra addresses people remaining in the thatched hut; it must first list lesser gateways, then open skillful means and reveal perfect reality. The different orders each address the illness of their occasion.

Teachings after the Lotus need no further opening. Among teachings before the Lotus, a gateway or principle already wondrous has nothing more to be opened. If gateway and principle are wondrous but the person is not, opening applies to that person. Wherever gateway, principle, or person remains unwondrous, each is opened.

Craving, views, and affliction are opened as bodhi; birth-and-death as nirvāṇa; ordinary beings as wondrous persons; discourse born of craving and views as the Buddha-Dharma; all sentient beings as wondrous principle. Lesser Vehicle Dharma is opened as wondrous Dharma, śrāvaka teaching as Great Vehicle transformation, śrāvaka practice as the bodhisattva-path, and śrāvaka principle as the true mark. The still-unresolved bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka, Shared, and Distinct Teachings are likewise opened and attain the Perfect.

Opening and revelation therefore do not merely change a name, but give people together with Dharma, teaching, practice, and principle their full place. Everything not yet wondrous enters the wondrous, and neither gateway nor principle remains inaccessible. This is opening the provisional to reveal the real and deciding the coarse so that it becomes wondrous.

Through the Eye of the Shiqian

In the Fahua Xuanyi Shiqian (T1717), Zhanran first divides this unit into the reason for its introduction and the proper unfolding and explanation of the section, then expressly judges all sixteen gateways to be gateways into the real〔0937a21–a26〕. This first view stabilizes the unit’s direction: though the four propositions, four teachings, and sixteen gateways differ as skillful and clumsy, partial and perfect, interpenetrating and separated, all function as gateways by giving access. Their gain or loss depends on whether they correspond to faculties, complete contemplation, and avoid attachment.

The second view distinguishes teaching from practice. Zhanran says that practice is precisely contemplation〔0937b10〕, allowing the gateway of teaching and gateway of practice to support one another without being confused. Awakening upon hearing, entering through contemplation, turning from hearing to contemplation, and turning from contemplation back to hearing are paths for different faculties. Teaching and contemplation together making thirty-two is only a large count and cannot close immeasurable spiritual advisers and practices within a fixed category.

The third view distinguishes the point of entering from contemplation. “The point concerns what is accessed; contemplation concerns what enables entry”〔0938a14〕 gives the provincial-city and imperial-city similes their clear places. Oblique and direct gateways describe routes of access; governor and emperor describe the principle accessed. The first eight gateways all access partial truth and the latter eight all access perfect truth. Routes divide into eight while the destination is nondual.

The fourth view addresses abbreviation. Because the unit emphasizes the characteristics of the teaching, the Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect Teachings each commonly expand one gateway and leave the other three to be understood from it. Zhanran explicitly says that contemplative methods are abbreviated here and fully expanded elsewhere in the Mohe Zhiguan (T1911)〔0938a22–a26〕. The abbreviation is a choice of genre, not an absence of contemplative items. Every gateway must still be threaded by object, arousing resolve, settling the mind, pervasive breaking, passage and obstruction, factors of the path, counteractives, stages, endurance, and freedom from attachment.

The fifth view rests on the ten distinctions of the Distinct and Perfect. Zhanran points out that each of the first seven meanings has three sections〔0939b05〕: first properly distinguishing the meaning, next judging Perfect and Distinct, and then determining affiliation from the sequence of scripture and stages of practice. Interpenetration, immediacy, buddha-wisdom, sequence, severance, stages, and fruit cannot be classified by seizing one sentence. The eighth, perfect expression, further joins the lead-in, body, and conclusion of a gateway; the ninth, questions and answers, and the tenth, similes, then provide confirmation.

The sixth view illuminates the Four Truths of the one reality. Zhanran uses the present thought-moment containing the suffering and accumulation of the ten Dharma realms〔0940c03〕 to show that suffering and accumulation are not abstract categories in a distant place. Suffering, accumulation, path, and cessation are immediately one another while still remaining distinguishable in aspect. Precisely because they are immediate, resolve, concentration and wisdom, pervasive breaking, passage and obstruction, factors of the path, counteractives, stages, endurance, and freedom from attachment can all be cultivated in the present mind.

The seventh view notices how scriptural evidence is dispersed. The Mohe Zhiguan concentrates on the great cart to reveal contemplation, while this unit cites passages dispersed throughout the entire Lotus Sutra〔0941a23–a26〕. The Dharma that cannot be shown, the Buddha abiding in the Great Vehicle, the guide saving people from danger, purification of the six faculties, and other passages occur in different chapters. The treatise master gathers them as ten contemplations according to function. They form a common mirror without being rearranged into one continuous scriptural passage.

The eighth view judges coarse and wondrous again. Zhanran summarizes the latter half through “the four gateways are teaching, the ten contemplations are practice”〔0942a21〕. Skillfulness or clumsiness of a gateway-Dharma is only the first level. One must also consider whether the four siddhāntas fit faculties and whether each proposition in the ten contemplations is properly placed. The same gateway may obstruct when grasped and give access when properly used. The Zhentoujia and Jialuojia simile places success and failure item by item within cultivation.

The ninth view distinguishes retaining from retiring. The Lotus Sutra subdues like the Golden-Sand River traveling straight without a bend; the Nirvāṇa Sūtra embraces like a hundred rivers with different currents entering one sea. Zhanran does not show two mutually exclusive destinations, but two ways of drawing people toward the same real principle: one breaks fixed attachment to provisional gateways and principles, while the other preserves gateways by which those of dull faculties can enter. The sea to which they return is nondual.

The final view concerns the recipients of opening and revelation. Zhanran divides proper opening into ordinary beings, the two vehicles, and bodhisattvas〔0943b07〕. The two vehicles are further opened in the Dharma signified, teaching that signifies, practice undertaken, and principle realized. Opening and revelation therefore do not rename one abstract term, but bring people, Dharma, teaching, practice, and principle not yet wondrous into the wondrous, level by level. This also returns the unit to its opening: the flying ladder has value because it actually brings people across the ravine.

This mirror also preserves the layers of authorship. The unit crosses fascicles eight and nine; the fascicle titles and “taught by Great Master Zhiyi of Tiantai” join the portions into one discourse. The body has no separate marker for a private explanation by Guanding. The primary voice of all eighteen sections is therefore Zhiyi teaching, with Guanding’s record preserving the layered questions, citations, and similes. The fascicle boundary is a joint in the transmission, not a sudden change of doctrinal speaker.

The eye of the four teachings is also finer than gateway names. Tripiṭaka gateways first establish four propositions through the arising-and-ceasing Four Truths; Shared gateways reestablish them through illusion as immediately empty. Distinct gateways commonly take milk, gold, a jewel, empty space, and related similes to reveal sequential distinctions. Only later are Perfect gateways proven through the ten distinctions as one gateway not obstructing the others. Though all four sets have similar names, their objects, delusions broken, principles accessed, and stages differ. “All are real gateways” concerns their function of giving access, not a leveling of their meanings.

The ten contemplations of a Tripiṭaka gateway are each classified in the Mirror. The right object excludes wrong cause and no cause. Settling the mind harmonizes the five calming meditations and four establishments of mindfulness. Pervasive breaking uses impermanence to sweep away views. Passage and obstruction distinguish the eighty-eight compulsions from path and cessation. The factors of the path lead through the three liberations. Auxiliary practices correspond to obstructing illnesses. Knowledge of stages prevents overweening pride. Endurance allows warmth and summit to continue. Only freedom from attachment enters seeing the truths. The ten are not scattered virtues but a journey in which each earlier item supports the next.

The commander’s-treasure simile for passage and obstruction in the Perfect gateway becomes especially operational in Zhanran’s hands: strong obstruction must be restrained and made to retreat, weak passage must be soothed and made to advance〔0940c28–0941a05〕. “Choosing appropriately” is thus not merely a tone of pacification, but governs advance and retreat at every step of contemplative mind. From the four non-Buddhist views through Perfect gateways, attachment is obstruction; to penetrate yet still lose the wondrous is likewise to lose the precious treasure.

The Mirror also layers the withered-and-flourishing simile under the factors of the path. Nirvāṇa as birth-and-death reveals withering; birth-and-death as nirvāṇa reveals flourishing; their nonduality reveals neither withered nor flourishing. The three levels together establish the truth of the one reality without breaking the trees into another numerical table. Auxiliary practices, stages, endurance, and freedom from attachment then each remain in place; perfect interpenetration does not swallow the sequence of cultivation.

When judging coarse and wondrous, Zhanran strings together gateway, four siddhāntas, faculties, and ten contemplations in four layers. A gateway-Dharma may be skillful or clumsy, the response to faculties may correspond or oppose, the four siddhāntas may be gained or lost, and the ten contemplations may succeed or fail. A loss at any layer can turn even a wondrous name into obstruction. Conversely, a gateway bearing a coarse name can truly give access when it corresponds to desire, meets what is suitable, treats illness, reveals principle, and completes the ten contemplations.

In the Zhentoujia and Jialuojia passage, the Mirror first uses a grove to represent the monastery and its fruits the monastics, then transfers the fruit simile to correct and mistaken forms of the ten contemplations〔0942b14–c06〕. The root treatise’s nine parts poisonous and one part sweet emphasize that many failures do not equal a little attainment. One part sweet fruit still surpasses nine parts poisonous, just as one ounce of real gold surpasses a thousand pounds of layered blossoms. Number and simile both point toward accomplishment of contemplation, not a separate hierarchy of gateway names.

The eye of the five flavors considers both whether gateways are retained and retired and the principle accessed. The Lotus Sutra subdues, preventing crooked provisional attachment from turning back. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra embraces, reopening practicable gateways for people of dull faculties. Golden sands and the hundred rivers each reveal one side: one straight, one gathering, both returning to the sea of the real. Seen from the whole unit, opening and revelation do not destroy all former skillful means, but prevent skillful means from being grasped as the destination.

The Mohe Zhiguan broadly expands the ten contemplations as a method of practice. The Fahua Wenju (T1718) returns the figures, chapter passages, and similes dispersed through this unit to their respective scriptural contexts〔T34 0077c15／0117a04〕. This unit takes the characteristics of the teaching as its axis and links gateway, contemplation, coarse and wondrous, and opening and revelation into one discourse. Read together, the Three Great Works have distinct tasks: practice is expanded, scripture is located, and the Xuanyi shows how every gateway gives access to the sutra’s substance.