妙法蓮華經玄義 白話全本 · 冊3

From Explaining the Name to Revealing the Substance

The second chapter reveals the sutra’s substance. The preceding explanation of the name gave a general account whose words and meanings were exceedingly extensive. Now the most essential principle is to be pointed out at once: the substance of this sutra is directly revealed by discerning true nature. Speaking directly of true nature does not mean that the other two tracks, contemplative illumination and supporting accomplishment, are absent from it. True nature is stated directly only to make the matter easy to understand under the present heading of discerning the substance. When clarifying the purport and revealing the function later, true nature will not be absent there either; in each case, the track most closely corresponding to the name then under discussion is singled out.

Substance is the destination of an entire sutra and the place where its many meanings jointly converge. It is extremely difficult to meet, and it is also difficult to express in words. The meaning of the Lotus Sutra is that this Dharma cannot be shown through forms and that the characteristics of words are originally quiescent and extinct. The meaning of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is that what is unborn and unborn cannot be spoken; it also says that because the appropriate causes and conditions exist, it can nevertheless be taught.

Discerning the substance is briefly opened into seven topics: first, directly revealing the sutra’s substance; second, broadly distinguishing a false substance; third, explaining the different names of one Dharma; fourth, explaining the gateways for entering the sutra’s substance; fifth, explaining how it universally serves as the substance of the sutras; sixth, explaining how it universally serves as the substance of all practices; and seventh, explaining how it universally serves as the substance of all dharmas.

The first of these seven topics, directly revealing the sutra’s substance, has four intents: first, presenting old interpretations; second, discussing why a substance must be established; third, directly clarifying the substance; and fourth, citing scripture as evidence.

First Intent: Distinguishing Earlier Interpretations

Masters of the North took the One Vehicle as the sutra’s substance. This statement is too broad and not yet concise or precise. The term One Vehicle applies to both the provisional and the real. If it means a One Vehicle of provisional teaching, it is entirely contrary to the intent of the present sutra. If it means the real One Vehicle, its meaning includes all three tracks of true nature, contemplative illumination, and supporting accomplishment, so it still fails to reveal the substance separately. This interpretation is therefore not adopted.

Others say that true truth is the substance. This is likewise too general. Both the Lesser and Great Vehicles clarify true truth. Lesser Vehicle true truth need not be discussed here, while the Great Vehicle also has multiple kinds of true truth. If only true truth is named, which kind of Great Vehicle true truth is the sutra’s substance remains undetermined. This interpretation is therefore likewise not adopted.

Others say that the cause and fruit of the One Vehicle are the substance. This too is not adopted. The reason is that the expression One Vehicle is general, as already explained, and the two Dharmas of cause and fruit still have not departed from phenomenal affairs. How could they directly be the sutra’s substance? If affairs lack the seal of true principle, they are no different from a scripture taught by Māra. How could they be used?

Still others explain that the substance of the vehicle pervades cause and fruit: the fruit takes myriad qualities as its substance, while the cause takes myriad wholesome deeds as its substance. They cite the meaning of the Twelve Gate Treatise, saying that this is what the great persons, the buddhas, ride and what Mañjuśrī, Perceiver of the World's Sounds (Guanshiyin/Avalokiteśvara), and others ride. They further cite the present sutra’s statement that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and interpret this as fruit, while interpreting the children’s riding the jeweled vehicle as the causal vehicle. They then cite the Sutra on the Practice of Contemplating Bodhisattva Samantabhadra as meaning that the cause and fruit of the Great Vehicle are entirely the true mark.

Zhang’an privately asks here: does this vehicle of cause and fruit change or not change? If it changes, who is that which passes through and what is that through which it passes? If it does not change, cause and fruit remain side by side, which is equally untenable. If another Dharma passes through cause and fruit, one should know that cause and fruit themselves are not the sutra’s substance under discussion.

The cited Twelve Gate Treatise also says that because the great person, the Buddha, does not travel, it is called a vehicle. How could the Buddha’s not traveling be used instead to prove a vehicle of cause and fruit? When the Lotus Sutra says that the Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle, it means that he rides principle to guide and transform sentient beings, not that he abides in the qualities of the fruit. The Sutra on the Practice of Contemplating Bodhisattva Samantabhadra clarifies that cause and fruit both point to the true mark. How could one reverse this and use the true mark to prove that cause and fruit themselves are the substance? This interpretation is therefore not adopted.

Others divide the causal vehicle into root and branches, taking prajñā as the root and the other five perfections as branches. They likewise divide the fruitional vehicle into root and branches, taking sarvajñā—that is, omniscience—as the root and the other qualities as branches. They further say that the causal vehicle is narrow and the fruitional vehicle broad; that a mind corresponding with prajñā is a one-body vehicle, while a mind not corresponding with it is a different-body vehicle; that practice corresponding with nonattainment is a near vehicle, while bowing one’s head or raising one’s hand with a sense of attainment is a distant vehicle; and that because the six perfections mix worldly and world-transcending Dharmas they are a distant vehicle, whereas the thirty-seven factors of the path are solely world-transcending and are therefore a near vehicle.

This old interpretation also lists four alternatives: both the six perfections and the factors of the path are practiced with a mind of nonattainment; both are practiced with attainment; the six perfections mix worldly and world-transcending Dharmas while the factors of the path do not; or the factors of the path are mixed while the six perfections are not. The root text uses these four alternatives to indicate further distinctions in brief.

Zhang’an next privately judges: if prajñā is made the basis of the vehicle, then in the present sutra’s ox-cart simile prajñā is only the great white ox and is not the sutra’s substance. If sarvajñā is made the basis of the vehicle, it is the fruit accomplished at the place of awakening and likewise is not the substance of the vehicle. The causal vehicle’s narrowness is a vertical meaning, while the fruitional vehicle’s breadth is a horizontal meaning; neither is the substance of the vehicle taught in the present sutra. A mind corresponding with prajñā, nonattainment, the near vehicle, the distant vehicle, and the rest all belong, in the present sutra, to the cart’s adornments and attendants and are not the substance of the vehicle. Why suddenly raise disputes over nothing more than fur, twigs, and leaves? When argument becomes this noisy and angry, who can still distinguish what is actually intended?

Others cite the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom and take the six perfections as the substance of the vehicle, saying that skillful means transports practitioners out of birth-and-death while compassion transports and gathers sentient beings. Applying the present sutra’s ox-cart simile, Zhang’an judges prajñā to be the ox, the five perfections the cart’s adornments, skillful means the attendants, and compassion the carriage. None is the substance of the vehicle.

Zhang’an Uses Five Treatises to Clarify the Substance of the Vehicle

Zhang’an then cites five treatises to find within each account of the vehicle what is intended as its substance.

First, the Madhyānta-vibhāga says that a vehicle has five meanings. The first is the vehicle-basis, namely true suchness and buddha-nature. The second is vehicle-practice, namely merit and wisdom. The third is vehicle-gathering, namely compassion. The fourth is vehicle-obstruction, namely the various obstructions: afflictions are the afflictive obstruction, while practice, understanding, and the like are the cognitive obstruction. The fifth is vehicle-fruit, namely buddhahood.

Second, the Vijñaptimātratā Treatise says that a vehicle has the meanings of issuing forth and carrying. From true suchness and buddha-nature issue practices such as merit and wisdom; from these practices issues buddhahood; and through buddhahood sentient beings are carried forth. This is a successive relation extending from true suchness through practice and buddhahood to the liberation of sentient beings.

Third, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says that a vehicle has three meanings. The first is vehicle-cause, namely true suchness and buddha-nature. The second is vehicle-condition, namely the myriad practices. The third is vehicle-fruit, namely buddhahood.

Fourth, the Treatise on the Lotus Sutra says that the substance of the vehicle is the Tathāgata’s equal Dharma-body and also speaks of the Tathāgata’s great nirvāṇa. Zhang’an judges that these two passages appear to speak of the hidden and manifest aspects of one substance. Arousing the mind, bowing one’s head, raising one’s hand, and the like are called conditions of the vehicle.

Fifth, the Twelve Gate Treatise says that the vehicle-basis is the true mark of all dharmas, the vehicle-master is prajñā, and the vehicle-assistant is every practice that supports accomplishment; by this vehicle one reaches sarvajñā.

The five treatises clarify the same substance of the vehicle: each points to true suchness, buddha-nature, or the true mark of all dharmas. Their adornments and arrangements differ slightly. The substance of the vehicle clarified in the present sutra is precisely the true mark, not those adornments. If the adornments were taken as the substance of the vehicle, this would not be the true vehicle ridden by the Buddha.

Second Intent: Why the Sutra’s Substance Must Be Established

Second comes the intent of establishing the substance. Why must this substance be used? The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that if a Lesser Vehicle scripture bears the three Dharma seals of impermanence, no-self, and nirvāṇa, it is the Buddha’s teaching, and practicing it enables one to attain the path. If it lacks the three Dharma seals, it is Māra’s teaching. A Great Vehicle scripture uses only one Dharma seal, the true mark of all dharmas. Only when it bears the seal of the true mark is it called a sutra of definitive meaning and able to lead one to the great path; if it lacks the seal of the true mark, it is taught by Māra. Śāriputra therefore says that the World-Honored One teaches the real path and that Māra Pāpīyas can do no such thing.

Someone asks: why does the Lesser Vehicle require three seals while the Great Vehicle uses only one? The answer is that the Lesser Vehicle separates birth-and-death from nirvāṇa. Birth-and-death is sealed first by impermanence and second by no-self; these two seals jointly confirm the Dharmas of birth-and-death. Nirvāṇa is sealed only by the single seal of quiescent cessation. Three seals are therefore required in all.

The Great Vehicle clarifies that birth-and-death is immediately nirvāṇa and nirvāṇa immediately birth-and-death; the two are neither dual nor different. The meaning of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is that all sentient beings constantly bear the mark of quiescent extinction, which is great nirvāṇa. It further says that what is originally unborn is now therefore unextinguished. Originally unborn means that it is not explained through the marks of impermanence and no-self; now unextinguished means that it is not the mark of quiescent cessation selected by the Lesser Vehicle. What is indicated is only the one true mark. Because it is the true mark, the constant quiescent extinction of sentient beings is itself great nirvāṇa, and only one seal is required.

These Great and Lesser Vehicle Dharma seals respectively confirm the scriptures of the half-word and the full word, preventing non-Buddhist teachings from being mixed in and Māra from destroying them. This is like an official document becoming trustworthy once it bears a seal. One should therefore know that the sutras must possess the seal of the true mark before they can be called Great Vehicle scriptures of definitive meaning.

Third Intent: Directly Revealing the One Seal of the True Mark

Third, directly revealing the sutra’s substance means precisely the one seal of the true mark. Among the three tracks, the track of true nature is selected; among the ten Dharma realms, the Buddha Dharma realm is selected; and among the ten suchnesses of the Buddha Dharma realm, such-a-substance is selected.

Among the four kinds of twelve links, the inconceivable, unborn, and unextinguished twelve links are selected; among the twelve links, the path of suffering itself as the Dharma-body is selected. Among the four kinds of Four Truths, the unconstructed Four Truths are selected; within the unconstructed Four Truths, only the truth of cessation is selected.

Among the seven kinds of Two Truths, five kinds are selected; within these five kinds, only true truth is selected. Among the five kinds of Three Truths, the five kinds of the Middle Way’s ultimate truth are selected. Among the various one truths, the Middle Way’s one-real truth is selected; among the various no-truths, the Middle Way’s no-truth is selected.

Once this method of selection is grasped, the true substance can be selected within the subtlety of wisdom, and likewise from each of the ten subtleties. The remaining cases can be understood by analogy.

How the Three Groups of Similes Reveal the Substance

To explain the meaning through simile, consider how beams and columns jointly frame a house. What is neither beam nor column is the space within the house that can receive. Columns and beams represent cause and fruit, while the interior space that is neither beam nor column represents the true mark. The true mark is the substance, not the beams or columns.

If a house had no interior space, it could receive no person or thing. If cause and fruit lacked the true mark, they too would have no basis upon which to stand. The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that if this emptiness did not exist, nothing could be established or done.

It is also like the sun and moon spanning the sky, and dukes and ministers assisting a sovereign. Sun and moon can be two, while vast empty space and the sky cannot be divided into two. Ministers and generals can be many, while the sovereign cannot be many. This is why the true substance must be selected from among the various Dharmas.

The three tracks together form the vehicle. They are not vertically arranged or horizontally juxtaposed; they are neither entirely identical nor separate. Only to make what is revealed clear does discerning the substance distinguish it from contemplative illumination and the other tracks and point solely to true nature as what most directly corresponds to the name of substance. The three tracks are understood in this way, and the remaining Dharma gates can be understood by analogy.

Fourth Intent: Citing Scripture as Evidence

Fourth comes citation of scripture as evidence.

The meaning of the “Introduction” chapter is that the Buddha now emits light to help reveal the meaning of the true mark. It also says that the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas has already been taught to the assembly.

The meaning of the “Skillful Means” chapter is that only a buddha together with a buddha can ultimately exhaust the true mark of all dharmas. Its verse further says that after the Dharma of the buddhas has remained for a long time, the real must be taught. It also says: I adorn my body with marks … and teach the seal of the true mark.

When Śāriputra expresses his understanding, he says that the World-Honored One teaches the real path and that Māra Pāpīyas can do no such thing. He further says that, abiding in real wisdom, he will certainly become a buddha.

The meaning of “The Dharma Teacher” chapter is that the gateway of skillful means is opened and the true mark shown. The “Peaceful Practices” chapter teaches one to contemplate all dharmas as the true mark. “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” chapter says that the Tathāgata knows and sees as it really is.

The meaning of the Sutra on the Practice of Contemplating Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is that in the past on Vulture Peak the Tathāgata extensively taught the path of the one reality. It further teaches one to contemplate the sphere of the one reality.

One can therefore know that the buddhas appear in the world because of the conditions of one great matter solely to enable sentient beings to open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing and to see this principle of the one reality that is neither cause nor fruit. The scriptural passages are present in these locations and provide clear evidence for directly revealing the sutra’s substance.

The True Substance Is Difficult to Know, So First Distinguish Fish Eyes from Bright Pearls

The second topic is broadly distinguishing false semblances. The sutra’s true substance is profound and transcendent and at first difficult to recognize. Deviant teachings and the Lesser Vehicle also use names resembling those of correct and great Dharma, confusing false and true, like fish eyes mixed among bright pearls. False semblances must therefore be distinguished from six perspectives: first, in relation to ordinary worldly dharmas; second, in relation to non-Buddhist dharmas; third, in relation to Lesser Vehicle dharmas; fourth, in relation to partial Great Vehicle dharmas; fifth, through similes; and sixth, in relation to whether there is true awakening.

I. Distinguishing in Relation to Ordinary Worldly Dharmas

First comes distinguishing in relation to ordinary worldly dharmas. The Explanatory Treatise says that worldly classics also call what they teach real, but this means only that it protects the country and governs the household. Non-Buddhists also call their teachings real, but this means that through deviant wisdom and distorted understanding they take them to be real. The Lesser Vehicle also speaks of the real, but this means finding respite through weariness of suffering and taking a partial truth to be real. Such teachings possess only the name “real,” not the meaning of the real intended here.

Why is this so? Strange and delusive arts of the world also call themselves real, though many are methods by which ghosts and spirits bewitch people. Once these methods enter the mind, they make a person intoxicated, confused, and deranged. Practitioners boast about themselves, imagining that they are good and excellent and surpass what is genuinely real; they deliberately establish something different to excite the crowd and display extraordinary appearances. Some fill skulls with excrement, then open their mouths and swallow it before a crowd. Some make a display of eating raw fish and putrid meat as though it were fine food. Some go naked or wear ruined clothes and use this to defy accepted standards. Some simply come and go directly, neither asking nor answering. All these treacherous and bizarre acts deceive and entice people without wisdom, causing them to believe, become tainted, fall into delusion, and cling.

Once they cling, escape is extremely difficult. Inwardly, these practices bring illness and injury to their own bodies. Outwardly, they may even cause an entire household to be executed and a clan destroyed, with disaster extending to relatives and neighbors. They undergo many sufferings in the present and afterward endure the suffering of hell through the long night. Life after life, their path is obstructed, with no time of liberation. These are things plainly visible in the world; what reality could be discussed in them? They fall within theories of attachment governed by the dull proclivities.

The classics of the Zhou and Confucius, by contrast, teach methods of government, ritual, military affairs, medicine, astronomy, geography, the eight trigrams, the five phases, and the ancient canons of the world. Through filial conduct they govern the family, and through loyalty the country. People cherish their own kin and care kindly for their own children; they respect those above and care for those below, practice benevolence, righteousness, and courteous deference, bring security to the people, and establish hegemony and the state. If these methods are lost, the strong oppress the weak, the realm becomes scorched and anxious, the people have no way to live, birds have no time to perch, and animals no time to lie down. If these methods are followed, the realm is at peace and cattle and horses turn homeward. One should understand that these teachings are called real because they care for the people and govern the country.

The Golden Light Sūtra speaks of Śakra’s various superior discourses, and this is the meaning intended. Broadly, they amount to the ten wholesome deeds. Cultivating the ten wholesome deeds accords above with the minds of the gods, makes the gods rejoice, and seeks the natural reward of heaven. Because this teaching is excellent, it is called a superior discourse. Great Brahmā also teaches a discourse on leaving desire—that is, cultivating concentration and emerging from the mud of desire—but this too remains within theories of attachment. The world also has esoteric arts in which people take drugs to seek long life, refine their bodies and alter their complexions, fly as immortals or make themselves invisible, and call these prescriptions secret, essential, and real. These too are encompassed by theories of attachment belonging to the dull proclivities.

II. Distinguishing in Relation to Non-Buddhist Dharmas

Second comes distinguishing in relation to non-Buddhist dharmas, meaning the scriptures of non-Buddhist paths. Some take drugs in pursuit of knowledge. When the drug makes them intelligent, sharp, and capable of investigating principles, they call the prescription supreme and real. Yet the knowledge and views produced by the drug are shallow and cannot discern what is remote. They are lost if the drug is counteracted and also when its effect subsides; they therefore are not real.

The teachings of Zhuangzi and Laozi in this land exalt nonaction, freedom from desire, naturalness, empty stillness, the cessation of boastful striving, and the rejection of sageliness and wisdom. Yet this is only an attitude that embraces emptiness and nonbeing. It has not even left the simple four views, so how could it concern noble Dharma? Even if it left the simple four views, it would still fall among the compound four views. It proceeds within the net of views and is not a path of liberation.

In a foreign land, a man named Lunli accepted a commission from the Licchavis and composed the Five Hundred Lucid Challenges. One of his questions was: “Does Gautama teach one ultimate path or many ultimate paths?” The Buddha said, “There is only one ultimate path.” Lunli asked, “If so, why does every teacher claim to teach an ultimate path?” The Buddha pointed to Deer-Head and asked, “Do you recognize him?” Lunli replied, “I do. Among those who have attained the ultimate path, he is foremost.” The Buddha then asked, “If he attained the ultimate path, why did he abandon his own path and become my disciple?” Lunli awakened on the spot and praised the Buddha-Dharma as alone possessing the one ultimate path.

Dīrghanakha also said, “Every thesis can be refuted and every statement overturned. I have contemplated the true mark of all dharmas for a long time without finding a single dharma that could enter my mind.” The Explanatory Treatise says that Dīrghanakha clung to the view that things both exist and do not exist. It also says that he conceived a view of the inexpressible.

Views of this kind number in the hundreds, thousands, and myriads. They are all false conceptual proliferation that deludes people and keeps them circulating. The net of views spreads immensely, deviant wisdom surges without limit, and attachment arises whenever an object is encountered. At times the views are folded and stacked repeatedly: existence and nonexistence are gathered under existence; the nonexistence of existence and the nonexistence of nonexistence are gathered under nonexistence; existence, not-existence, and not-nonexistence are gathered under existence; and nonexistence, not-existence, and not-nonexistence are gathered under nonexistence. Though these combinations are repeated through hundreds and thousands of layers, all remain inverted views and fall among the extremes of birth-and-death; they are not real. The Great Sūtra says that beings wear the cangue of ignorance, are bound to the pillar of birth-and-death, and circle through the twenty-five modes of existence without escape. This is the meaning intended.

III. Distinguishing in Relation to Lesser Vehicle Dharmas

Third comes distinguishing in relation to Lesser Vehicle dharmas. The śrāvaka teaching also says, “Leaving existence and leaving nonexistence is called the middle way of the noble ones.” The Great Collection Sūtra further says, “The śramaṇa Kauṇḍinya was the first to obtain real knowledge and vision.” Yet the Lesser Vehicle does not activate great compassion, does not rescue sentient beings, possesses little power of merit, does not seek buddhahood, and does not deeply exhaust the true mark; its wisdom is therefore weaker.

Although it calls leaving existence and nonexistence the middle way of the noble ones, the two extremes it leaves are only the views of annihilation and permanence, and it takes true truth to be the middle way. Genuine uncontaminated wisdom is called vision, and realization of the Dharma of nirvāṇa is called knowledge. Though views and thoughts are severed and segmented birth-and-death extinguished, practitioners remain in a grass hut and do not reach the ultimate principle. In contrast to the preceding extreme of existence in birth-and-death, their nirvāṇa becomes an extreme of nonexistence. Both extremes can be broken and destroyed; they are not the real path and therefore are not called the true mark.

IV. Distinguishing in Relation to Partial Great Vehicle Dharmas

Fourth comes distinguishing in relation to partial Great Vehicle dharmas. Some expedient teachings in Great Vehicle scriptures use the same names for Great Vehicle practitioners and people of the two vehicles. Though the names are the same, their meanings must still be distinguished.

The Same Inexpressible Path, Yet Different Depths of Wisdom

The Mahāyāna says, “People of the three vehicles all sever afflictions through the inexpressible path.” The Treatise on the Middle says, “The true mark of all dharmas is obtained in common by three kinds of person.” Although people of the two vehicles receive the same inexpressible path, they seek only to escape suffering for themselves. Lacking a mind of great compassion, they stop upon attaining emptiness; bodhisattvas of dull faculties do the same. Bodhisattvas of sharp faculties, however, arouse great compassion for sentient beings and deeply seek the true mark.

Wisdom of the true mark obtained in common is like a firefly’s light and therefore is not real. Wisdom of the true mark not obtained in common is like sunlight and therefore is real. The Great Sūtra says, “Emptiness in the ultimate meaning is called wisdom.” The two vehicles attain only emptiness, an emptiness without this wisdom. Bodhisattvas attain emptiness that is not merely empty, which is precisely Middle Way wisdom. This wisdom is quiescent yet constantly illuminating. The two vehicles attain only its quiescence and not quiescent illumination and therefore do not attain the true mark. Bodhisattvas attain both quiescence and quiescent illumination, and this is the true mark.

Within Nonemptiness, Again Distinguishing Sequence from Perfect Inclusion

Seeing nonemptiness also has several forms. The first sees nonemptiness and severs the bonds in sequence, proceeding from shallow to deep. This is only a semblance of the real, not the correct real. The second sees nonemptiness as fully containing all dharmas. Upon first entering the gate of the syllable A, one understands every meaning: immediately the Middle, immediately provisional, immediately empty; neither one nor different, with neither a fixed three nor an isolated one. The two vehicles possess only one immediate identity, the Distinct Teaching only two, while the Perfect Teaching possesses all three; only the three immediate identities are the true mark.

The Explanatory Treatise says, “What is the true mark? A bodhisattva enters one mark and knows immeasurable marks; after knowing immeasurable marks, the bodhisattva again enters one mark.” The two vehicles enter only one mark and cannot know immeasurable marks. Although the Distinct Teaching enters one mark and then immeasurable marks, it cannot again enter one mark. Bodhisattvas of sharp faculties enter one mark because it is immediately empty, know immeasurable marks because it is immediately provisional, and again enter one mark because it is immediately the Middle. Such bodhisattvas deeply seek the great ocean of wisdom’s perfection. All three are immediate in a single mind, and this is the substance of the true mark.

Distinguishing the Correct Real through What the Scriptures Teach

The Avataṃsaka is not shared with the two vehicles and speaks only in relation to bodhisattvas. Sequential attainment of the three wisdoms is still not the correct real; nonsequential attainment is the correct real. In the vaipulya teachings, four kinds of person attain the three wisdoms: three are false and one real. The Large Prajñā, through three wisdoms, teaches three knowledges as belonging to three people. The first two do not seek deeply and are shallow and unreal; the last deeply seeks the three wisdoms in one mind and is therefore real.

The present sutra says, “You truly are my son,” and no longer retains the preceding distinctions among four and three kinds of person. Searching carefully throughout the ten directions, there is no other vehicle. There is only the one wisdom of the true mark: the śrāvaka Dharma is decisively understood, only the unsurpassed path is taught, and there is purely the one real substance.

Here the first half of Fascicle Eight of the Fahua Xuanyi ends. What follows is the second half of Fascicle Eight; after its fascicle title it is again inscribed “Tiantai Master Zhiyi spoke.”

Why Is the One Real Truth without Duality?

The Great Sūtra says, “The one real truth is without two; because it is without two, it is called the one real truth. Again, the one real truth is called free from falsity. Again, the one real truth is without inversion. Again, the one real truth is not spoken by Māra. Again, the one real truth is called permanence, bliss, self, and purity.” Within permanence, bliss, self, and purity there is no difference among emptiness, the provisional, and the Middle. Difference would make two, and what is two is not the one real truth. The one real truth is immediately empty, immediately provisional, and immediately the Middle. Because the three do not differ and are not two, it is called the one real truth.

If the three differed, there would be falsity, and a false dharma is not called the one real truth. Because there is no difference among the three, there is precisely the one real truth. If they differed, inversion would remain unbroken, and this would not be the one real truth. Because there is no difference among the three, there is no inversion; because there is no inversion, it is called the one real truth. What differs is not called the One Vehicle. When the three dharmas do not differ and are perfectly complete, this is called the One Vehicle. This vehicle is lofty and broad and adorned with many jewels and is therefore called the one real truth.

Although Māra does not realize distinct and differentiated emptiness and provisional existence, Māra can still speak of distinct and differentiated emptiness and provisional existence. When emptiness, provisional existence, and the Middle do not differ, Māra cannot speak of them; what Māra cannot speak is called the one real truth. If emptiness, provisional existence, and the Middle differ, this is called inversion; if they do not differ, it is called noninversion. Because there is no inversion, there are no afflictions, and this is called purity. With no afflictions there is no karma, and this is called self. With no karma there is no recompense, and this is called bliss. With no recompense there is no birth-and-death, and this is called permanence. Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are called the one real truth.

How Immediate Emptiness, the Provisional, and the Middle Both Break and Include

The one real truth is the true mark, and the true mark is the sutra’s true substance. This true mark is immediately empty, immediately provisional, and immediately the Middle. Because it is immediately empty, it breaks all ordinary beings’ theories of attachment and all non-Buddhists’ theories of views. Because it is immediately provisional, it breaks the lesser reality grasped through the four gates of the Tripiṭaka and the lesser reality seen in common by the three kinds of person. Because it is immediately the Middle, it breaks the partial reality attained in sequence. There are then no longer the various inverted dharmas of cause and fruit and the Four Truths belonging to the lesser and partial teachings, nor even the names of the lesser and partial Three Jewels. Only the cause and fruit, Four Truths, and Three Jewels of the true mark remain, distinctly and completely present. It also fully includes the cause and fruit, Four Truths, and Three Jewels of the various skillful means. Why? Because the true mark is the ocean of the Dharma realm. Only these three truths—emptiness, provisional existence, and the Middle—are the true mark.

Again, opening the sequential real reveals it as the perfect real, because the path realized is the same. Opening the real obtained in common by the three kinds of person enables those who seek deeply to reach the bottom. Opening the real of the Tripiṭaka decisively clarifies the śrāvaka Dharma. Opening the reality within the various theories of views enables one to cultivate the factors of the path without moving from views. Opening the reality within the various theories of attachment reveals that the realm of Māra is precisely the realm of the Buddha, so that by practicing what is not the path one penetrates the Buddha-path. Within all dharmas there is a nature of ease and joy. This clarifies the real in absolute terms and is the substance of this sutra.

V. Distinguishing through Three Similes

Fifth comes distinguishing through similes. Three similes are now borrowed primarily to reveal the false and the true, while also clarifying the meanings of opening, combining, breaking, and converging.

Three Animals Crossing a River

The first simile is of three animals crossing a river. All three animals enter the water. Their strength differs, and the river has both a bottom and a far bank. The rabbit and horse are weak; though they cross to the far bank, they float at a shallow level without penetrating deeply or reaching the bottom. The great elephant is strong and reaches both the bottom and the far bank.

The three animals represent the three kinds of person. Water represents immediate emptiness, and the bottom nonemptiness. The two vehicles possess little wisdom and cannot seek deeply, like the rabbit and horse; the bodhisattva possesses deep wisdom, like the great elephant. The water’s softness represents emptiness. All three see emptiness, but they do not all see nonemptiness. The bottom represents the true mark, and the bodhisattva alone reaches it. The wise see both emptiness and nonemptiness.

Reaching the bottom itself has two forms. A small elephant reaches only the mud at the bottom, while a great elephant penetrates deeply to solid earth. Although Distinct-Teaching wisdom sees nonemptiness, it remains sequentially differentiated and is not real. Perfect vision sees nonemptiness and exhaustively reveals reality. Thus the simile not only distinguishes and rejects the two vehicles represented by the rabbit and horse as unreal; it also distinguishes the small elephant’s nonemptiness as unreal. Only the nonemptiness reached by the great elephant is taken as the substance of this sutra. Here emptiness and the Middle are combined as true truth in making the distinction.

The Crystal Jewel and the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel

The second simile is of a crystal jewel and a wish-fulfilling jewel. The two resemble each other and are almost identical in shape, but the crystal jewel is merely empty and cannot rain down treasures, whereas the wish-fulfilling jewel is both empty and able to rain down treasures. The crystal’s lack of treasures represents partial emptiness; the wish-fulfilling jewel’s ability to rain them down represents the Middle Way. Here existence and nonexistence are combined as conventional truth to distinguish the false and reveal the true. The substance of this sutra is like the wish-fulfilling jewel.

Again, only a single wish-fulfilling jewel is used as the simile. One person obtains the jewel but does not know its power or function and treats it merely as a jewel. A wise person obtains it and gains many things. The two vehicles attain emptiness and rest after realizing emptiness. A bodhisattva attains emptiness and uses skillful means to benefit sentient beings and liberate all universally. Here the true truth that contains the Middle is used to distinguish attainment from failure. The present sutra is like a wish-fulfilling jewel obtained by a wise person, and this is taken as the sutra’s substance.

Gold within Yellow Stone

The third simile is gold within yellow stone. A foolish person without knowledge sees it as stone and throws it into filth without paying it any attention. A merchant obtains it, smelts out the gold, and does no more than treasure and preserve it. A goldsmith obtains it and fashions various hairpins, bracelets, rings, and bells. An immortal adept obtains it and refines it into a golden elixir, then flies through the heavens and enters the earth, touches the sun and moon, and transforms freely without obstruction.

The rustic represents all ordinary beings, who possess the true mark but do not know to cultivate it. The merchant represents the two vehicles, who remove only the ore of affliction, preserve the gold of immediate emptiness, and do nothing further. The goldsmith represents a bodhisattva of the Distinct Teaching, who skillfully knows emptiness as nonempty, emerges from emptiness into the provisional to transform beings, adorns buddha-lands, and brings sentient beings to accomplishment. The immortal adept represents a bodhisattva of the Perfect Teaching, for whom phenomena are immediately true. At the initial arousal of the mind, this bodhisattva immediately accomplishes correct awakening, manifests immeasurable bodies from one body, and responds universally to all. The present sutra takes only the true mark represented by the golden elixir as its substance.

Viewed from their sameness, all are gold from beginning to end: ordinary beings and those of the Perfect Teaching alike possess the true mark. Viewed from their difference, stone first differs from gold, gold next differs from ornaments, and ornaments differ from elixir. The elixir’s color is pure and translucent, like clear oil; it is soft, wondrous, and fine. How could it be the same as rings and bracelets? Its form and color are different, so it is not of one kind. This distinguishes attainment and failure through granting, depriving, breaking, and converging.

The Faculties, Aspirations, and Skillful Means Revealed by the Three Similes

These three similes are cited for different purposes. The first represents faculties. Faculties are shallow or deep: those that are shallow attain emptiness, while those that are deep attain the provisional and also the Middle. The second represents three aspirations: the first seeks only escape from suffering, does not aspire to the Buddha-path, and stops upon seeing truth; the second proceeds through sequential distinctions and cannot cultivate perfectly; the last is vast and seeks throughout the Dharma realm. The third represents three kinds of skillful means: those of the two vehicles are few, and they abide while guarding the gold; those of the Distinct Teaching are weak and can only make adornments for a livelihood; those of the Perfect Teaching are profound and can therefore swallow clouds and take in the River of Heaven.

The present teaching describes the substance of this sutra’s true mark as like the great elephant reaching the bottom, firm and indestructible, representing the wondrousness of substance; the perfect jewel raining treasures universally, representing the wondrousness of function; and skillful wisdom making an immortal, representing the wondrousness of purport. These three similes are precisely the three virtues, which are neither vertical nor horizontal and are called the Great Vehicle. Within the Great Vehicle, true nature is singled out as the sutra’s substance.

VI. Distinguishing in Relation to True Awakening

Sixth comes distinguishing in relation to true awakening. The characteristics of Dharma are genuinely correct, just as explained above, but if practice has not yet accorded with principle, how can this be called seeing the truth? To labor over four descriptions only to produce delusion in pursuit of an imagined understanding is like hearing of rice flour and imagining softness, hearing of snow and imagining coldness, hearing of a shell and imagining hardness, or hearing of a crane and imagining movement. One never sees the real color of milk.

How could a mind wandering darkly through the night reach the truth? Calling out for food cannot bring satisfaction. If one grasps one’s own position as real and calls all others false, then “present here” and “absent there,” right and wrong, arise against each other and further increase restless movement. How could this be called truth?

If one wishes to see the truth, one must feel shame and remorse, know a sense of honor, and confess with piercing sincerity. One’s capacities then stimulate the buddhas; concentration and wisdom open and develop; contemplation of mind becomes bright and pure; and faith and understanding become open and interfused. Yet at this time one is still said to see a tree stump in the darkness, indistinct and unclear, unable to determine whether it is a person, a tree, an insect, or dust.

If one can abide in patient acceptance, no attachment to Dharma arises, and ignorance suddenly breaks open. Then it is like a bright mirror that does not move or clear water without waves: fish, stones, and forms appear naturally. The pure mind constantly abides as one, and such a noble and wondrous person can see prajñā. It is like opening an eye with a golden scalpel, so that one, two, and three fingers are seen distinctly.

When color is truly seen at this time, saying that it exists is correct, and saying that it does not exist is also correct. Why is it existent? It is definite, actual color corresponding to the eye; the genuine principle of truth corresponds to wisdom and is therefore called existent. Why is it nonexistent? The imagined characteristics of hardness, coldness, softness, and movement are no longer present and are therefore called nonexistent.

The treatise says: all is real; all is unreal; all is both real and unreal; all is neither real nor unreal. All these are called the true mark of all dharmas. Śāriputra, for example, abides in real wisdom and says that he will certainly become a buddha honored by gods and humans. Only at this time can one be said to have forever exhausted and extinguished everything without remainder; this is called truly seeing the substance. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra therefore says that eight thousand śrāvakas see the Tathāgata-nature in the Lotus, like harvesting in autumn and storing in winter, with nothing more to be done.

In relation to principle, nothing more to be done means that this is the ultimate principle. In relation to teaching, it means that after hearing this teaching, one need not hear another. In relation to practice, it means that after cultivating this practice, one need not change tracks. There are various further meanings of nothing more to be done.

In brief, one must follow wisdom in wondrous awakening to see the sutra’s substance. With the intent of wondrous awakening that follows wisdom, one should pass through the spheres of the various truths. At every point there are distinctions according to dispositions, according to wisdom, and according to dispositions and wisdom together. Distinguishing and setting aside the remaining affective conceptions, one takes only what follows wisdom; this is clearly seeing the true substance of the sutra.

1. Listing the Different Names of One Dharma

The third section, on one Dharma having different names, is further divided into four parts: first, listing the different names; second, explaining them; third, revealing the meaning through similes; and fourth, explaining it in terms of the four accommodations.

First come the different names. The substance of the true mark is only one Dharma, yet the Buddha teaches it under many names. It is also called wondrous existence, true, wholesome, wondrous form, the limit of reality, ultimate emptiness, suchness-suchness, nirvāṇa, empty-space buddha-nature, the tathāgata-garbha, the mind of the middle-real principle, the Middle Way neither existent nor nonexistent, ultimate truth, subtle and wondrous quiescent extinction, and so forth. The immeasurably many different names are all alternative designations for the true mark; the name true mark is likewise an alternative designation for all the other names.

Those who are deluded become stuck on names. Clinging to the names as different, they produce different interpretations. The sutra says, “Lacking wisdom, they doubt and regret; they will thereby be lost forever.” Lesser Vehicle treatise masters concentrate on names and marks and give rise to contentious rivalry. They malign the Dharma and denigrate people; later generations imitate them and instead become enemies of the true Dharma.

Great Vehicle students behave in the same way. Those who study wondrous existence claim that they have reached the highest point, but on hearing ultimate emptiness they malign it, neither accepting that Dharma nor tolerating those who study it. Those who study ultimate emptiness gather with their own kind and form factions, drawing right principle toward themselves and pushing false teachings onto others.

None of them understands that the heavenly lord has a thousand names. Some rejoice on hearing Śakra Devānām Indra but become angry on hearing Śacī’s husband; some revere Śakra yet slight and insult Kauśika. One fears that whatever merit they gain will not make up for the loss caused by their contempt. The true mark is the same: it is originally one Dharma, so how could one malign one of its names and believe only another?

2. Explaining the Four Statements through Name, Meaning, and Substance

Lesser Vehicle accounts of name and substance have always been comparatively simple, so they are set aside here. What is now distinguished concerns only the four gateways belonging respectively to the Distinct and Perfect Teachings, making eight gateways in all. Four statements are then used to explain the four possible relationships among name, meaning, and substance: first, name, meaning, and substance are the same; second, name, meaning, and substance differ; third, name and meaning are the same but substance differs; and fourth, name and meaning differ but substance is the same.

In the first statement, name, meaning, and substance are the same. The first group takes wondrous existence as the name, true, wholesome, wondrous form as the meaning, and the limit of reality as the substance. The second takes ultimate emptiness as the name, suchness-suchness as the meaning, and nirvāṇa as the substance. The third takes empty-space buddha-nature as the name, the tathāgata-garbha as the meaning, and the mind of the middle-real principle as the substance. The fourth takes the Middle Way neither existent nor nonexistent as the name, ultimate truth as the meaning, and subtle and wondrous quiescent extinction as the substance. In each group the names and principles differ, yet they point in the same direction within the gateway being used and have no difference of intent. This is therefore called name, meaning, and substance being the same.

In the second statement, name, meaning, and substance differ. Wondrous existence may be taken as the name, ultimate emptiness as the meaning, and the tathāgata-garbha as the substance. Again, emptiness may be the name, the tathāgata-garbha the meaning, and the Middle Way the substance. Again, the tathāgata-garbha may be the name, the Middle Way the meaning, and wondrous existence the substance. Again, the Middle Way may be the name, wondrous existence the meaning, and emptiness the substance. In this way the four gateways are interwoven with one another, and all three—name, meaning, and substance—are different. This is therefore called name, meaning, and substance differing.

In the third statement, name and meaning are the same but substance differs. For example, when wondrous existence is the name, wondrous form the meaning, and ultimate emptiness the substance, two are the same and one differs. This is therefore called name and meaning being the same but substance differing. Again, when emptiness is the name, suchness-suchness the meaning, and wondrous existence the substance, two are likewise the same and one differs. The remaining two gateways may be understood in the same way. This is therefore called name and meaning being the same but substance differing.

In the fourth statement, name and meaning differ but substance is the same. Names such as wondrous existence are each different, and meanings such as true, wholesome form also differ, yet they all return to one substance and have no second destination. This is therefore called name and meaning differing but substance being the same. The remaining three gateways are likewise so.

In the first three statements, names and meanings cannot interpenetrate. In the first, following one name yields only the one meaning and one substance belonging to the same gateway. Although they correspond perfectly within that gateway, they have no connection with any of the other gateways. In the second, following different names discloses different meanings and different substances; name, meaning, and substance are least able to interpenetrate, which is easy to understand. In the third, since the substances do not interpenetrate, even when name and meaning are the same they ultimately cannot unite. All three statements clarify meaning through the Distinct gateways. Those who fail to grasp their intent begin to argue from precisely this point: sometimes the Lesser Vehicle encroaches on the Great, and sometimes the Great Vehicle seizes from the Lesser.

Lesser Vehicle practitioners wish to cut off birth-and-death. When they hear that ultimate emptiness is not merely emptiness, they follow their own desires, take it to be merely empty, and begin arguing from this attachment. Because they wish to cut off birth-and-death, they also adopt “nonexistent”; because they seek to cure the illness of attachment to nirvāṇa, they also adopt “not nonexistent.” When they hear that the Middle Way is neither existent nor nonexistent, they use it to support their own Lesser Vehicle understanding, taking it to be the very “neither existent nor nonexistent” found in their own texts. They therefore engage in especially frequent contention over these two gateways.

When Lesser Vehicle practitioners hear of the mind of the middle-real principle, however, it contradicts their own understanding, so they do not begin to argue. Practitioners of the Two Vehicles delight in emptiness, yet what they now hear speaks of existence. They aim to reduce the body to ashes and extinguish wisdom, yet what they now hear speaks of mind and wisdom. Because the two do not accord, they cannot appropriate this teaching and argue over it. In this way, the Lesser Vehicle encroaches upon and steals meanings from the Great Vehicle, and contention results.

The Great Vehicle’s seizure from the Lesser takes another form. Great Vehicle students see that the gateway of the emptiness of persons shared with the Three Vehicles and the gateway neither empty nor existent bear the same names as those of the Two Vehicles. Failing to see their profound intent, they assign these two gateways to deceptive marks and schools of unreal principle. They retain only wondrous existence and the gateway both empty and existent, claiming that these alone are Dharmas of perfect permanence. When they yield two gateways to the Lesser Vehicle but do not yield the other two, the contention can still be contained to some degree.

But if they understand that emptiness is not merely emptiness and that neither existent nor nonexistent precisely blocks the two extremes, the Great Vehicle will seize all four gateways, and the Lesser Vehicle will struggle bitterly over two of them. Moreover, when the four Great Vehicle gateways do not interpenetrate in name and meaning, each gateway contends against and devours the others. How much more, then, when a Lesser Vehicle jackal encroaches upon a lion—how could the lion not turn and devour it?

The first three statements all give rise to contention and are not the proper substance adopted by this sutra. In the fourth, name and meaning differ but substance is the same. One Dharma-substance has many principles and many functions. The four gateways take various different names in accord with conditions; precisely because the Dharma-substance interpenetrates, it can respond perfectly through the many names. Since the Dharma-substance is the same, differences of name and of the meaning revealed no longer produce contention.

What is this like? A brief explanation follows. The Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings says, “Immeasurable meanings arise from one Dharma; that one Dharma is what is called the true mark.” The mark of the true mark is no-mark yet not without marks, and not without marks yet no-mark; it is therefore called the true mark. This name is established from its being truly indestructible.

Because this true mark is the Dharma realized by all buddhas, it is also called wondrous existence. Although wondrous existence cannot be seen, all buddhas can see it, so it is called true, wholesome, wondrous form. Because the true mark is not an existence falling into either extreme, it is called ultimate emptiness. Because the principle of emptiness is limpid and is neither one nor different, it is called suchness-suchness. Because the true mark is quiescent and extinct, it is called nirvāṇa. Because it is awakened to and understood without changing, it is called empty-space buddha-nature. Because it contains and receives much, it is called the tathāgata-garbha. Because it is quiescent, illuminating, and numinously aware, it is called the mind of the middle-real principle. Because it neither relies on existence nor attaches to nonexistence, it is called the Middle Way. Because it is highest and no Dharma surpasses it, it is called ultimate truth.

All these different names are called the true mark, and every reason for their difference is a function of the true mark. Because its substance is perfect, name and revealed meaning are not separated. This is precisely the proper substance of the present sutra.

From another direction, since all dharmas are different names of the true mark, they take the true mark as their substance. The true mark can likewise be a different name for all dharmas, while all dharmas themselves serve as the substance. Because wondrous existence is indestructible, it can also be called the true mark. Because all buddhas can see it, it is called true, wholesome, wondrous form. Because it is unmixed with anything else, it is called ultimate emptiness. Because it is neither two nor differentiated, it is called suchness-suchness. Because it is awakened to and understood without changing, it is called buddha-nature. Because it fully contains all dharmas, it is called the tathāgata-garbha. Because it is quiescently extinct yet numinously aware, it is called the mind of the middle-real principle. Because it blocks and leaves behind every extreme, it is called the Middle Way. Because it is unsurpassed and nothing exceeds it, it is called ultimate truth. Taking any single Dharma itself as the substance, one establishes names according to its functions; the remaining cases may all be inferred in the same way.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says, “The Dharma of liberation has many names; the hundred statements of liberation are only one liberation.” The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom says, “If one contemplates the Buddha in accordance with Dharma, prajñā and nirvāṇa—these three are one mark and in truth have no difference.” If one grasps this intent, one knows that the many names can all be called the true mark, can all be called prajñā, and can all be called liberation. The three Dharmas of true mark, prajñā, and liberation are also names of all dharmas, and all dharmas are also the substance of these three Dharmas. The remaining cases may be inferred accordingly.

3. Revealing the Meaning through Four Groups of Similes

The simile for the first statement is a person named Goldsmith who can forge gold and whose body is yellow. His name, skill, and body all point in the same direction, illustrating that name, meaning, and substance are the same.

The second statement has two similes. One person is named Blue, can make lacquer, yet has a pure white body. Another is named Black, can grind cinnabar, yet has a purple body. There can be immeasurable hundreds of thousands of people like these, each with different names, skills, and bodies. They illustrate that name, meaning, and substance differ.

The simile for the third statement is a hundred people who share the same surname and personal name and all understand the same skill, yet whose bodies are each different. This illustrates that name and meaning are the same but substance differs.

The simile for the fourth statement is one person who encounters warfare and family calamity, changes surnames wherever he goes, and changes personal names from place to place, like Zhang Yi and Fan Li. He also passes through many official posts and bears many offices in a single body. If named for his many skills, he may be called a master of calligraphy, painting, goldwork, ironwork, and so forth. If named for a civil office, he may be called Rulin or Zhongsan. If named for a military office, he may be called Xiongqu or Cifei.

His changing names according to place illustrates different names. His being designated according to his skills illustrates different revealed meanings. Yet the substance throughout is only the same one person; he has not become someone else.

The sutra further says that one strongman of the royal house can equal a thousand men. This does not necessarily mean that his physical strength can truly match that of a thousand people. He is called one man equal to a thousand because his many skills enable him to surpass a thousand. He possesses the full range of many skills, with no skill he does not understand; he has passed through many posts, with no office he has not held.

Thus, the same person may also be called an indestructible person, a person of wondrous skill, a person endowed with bodily vigor, a person free of faults, a universally accomplished person, a person able to defeat enemies, a person of superior clan, a person rich in wealth and skill, a knowledgeable person, a middle-common faithful-upright person, or a canopy person. This group of names illustrates the fourth statement. Since the similes make the meaning perfectly clear, one can know that the first three statements express the Distinct intent and the last expresses the Perfect intent.

4. Explaining the Origin of Many Names through the Four Accommodations

Someone asks: since the true mark is only one Dharma, why are its names and revealed meanings so numerous?

The answer is that this accords with the many differences among sentient beings’ faculties, variously accommodating their desires, what is fitting for them, what counteracts their afflictions, and what brings them to awakening.

For example, in the world, those who study numerical Abhidharma approaches abandon the Great Vehicle; those who cultivate Mahāyāna cast aside the Lesser Vehicle; those who train in emptiness detest existence; and those versed in the Dilun criticize masters of the Madhyamaka. Because they originally do not wish to listen, they take no joy even when they hear. They have no intention of accepting in faith, their afflictions do not cease, and the mind of the path does not arise. Each becomes habituated exclusively to their own texts until this forms a disposition, yet this very disposition also becomes a root and condition for hearing the Dharma in the future.

At the appropriate time, the Tathāgata observes with the buddha-eye the faculties of faith and the rest in sentient beings, then uses various words to teach the Dharma through skillful means in accordance with what is appropriate for them.

For those whose disposition corresponds to the gateway of existence, the Buddha teaches wondrous existence and true, wholesome, wondrous form. Without opposing their disposition, he enables faith, discipline, patience, and vigor to arise in them. Their view attached to emptiness is swept away, and they can awaken, enter, and accord with the true mark.

For those whose disposition corresponds to the gateway of emptiness, the Buddha teaches ultimate emptiness, suchness-suchness, nirvāṇa, and so forth. They listen truthfully and receive truthfully, countering unwholesome Dharmas with wholesome Dharmas and taking signlessness as supreme.

For those whose disposition corresponds to the gateway both empty and existent, the Buddha teaches empty-space buddha-nature, the tathāgata-garbha, and the mind of the middle-real principle. They gladly give rise to wholesome Dharmas, leave error behind, and purify their minds.

For those whose disposition corresponds to the gateway neither empty nor existent, the Buddha teaches the Middle Way neither existent nor nonexistent, blocking the two extremes. He teaches neither coming nor going, neither annihilation nor permanence, neither one nor different, and so forth. They long to hear and rejoice as though receiving water when thirsty. Accepting in faith, delighting in it, and cultivating it, they give rise to many wholesome Dharmas; every attached view is dispelled, every unwholesome Dharma is exhausted, and the principle of ultimate truth opens forth in sudden clarity.

Because there are these four kinds of faculties, there are four gateways of different teachings. Because the teachings differ, the names differ; because their functions differ, the meanings they reveal differ. Yet the principle entered through awakening is not different, and the Dharma-substance is ultimately only one.

Guṇavarman therefore said, “The treatises each have different points of entry; the principle accorded with in practice is not two. Partial attachments produce right and wrong; those who understand have no contentious dispute.” Thus, although the four accommodations give voice to different teachings, they are ultimately only different names of the one true mark.

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.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh topics in discerning the sutra’s substance explain in sequence how the true mark serves as the substance of the various scriptures, how the various kinds of practice take the true mark as their substance, and how the true mark pervasively serves as the substance of all dharmas.

Fifth: The True Mark as the Substance of the Various Scriptures

This topic is divided into five gateways: first, the substance of the present sutra has many different names in its earlier and later passages; second, the substances of other scriptures also have many different names; third, distinctions are made from the collateral and principal aspects; fourth, other scriptures and this sutra are distinguished in relation to one another; fifth, coarse and wondrous are judged, and then the coarse is opened to reveal the wondrous.

The Various Different Names for the Substance of the Present Sutra

First consider the sameness and difference among the names established for the sutra’s substance throughout this scripture. The “Introduction” chapter says that the present Buddha emits light to help initiate the meaning of the true mark; it also says that the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas has already been taught to the assembly. “Skillful Means,” in its extensive account, calls this the conditions of the single great matter of all buddhas and opening the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing; it also calls it the unsurpassed path and the seal of the true mark. “The Parable” uses the great cart to represent the One Great Vehicle. “Faith and Understanding” calls it entrusting the family estate. “The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” calls it the ground of all-wisdom and the most real matter. “The Parable of the Conjured City” calls it the “real place,” that is, the place of reality. One passage under the shorthand “Prediction” calls it the “jewel tied in the robe.” “The Dharma Teacher” calls it the secret treasury. “Beholding the Jeweled Stūpa” calls it the great wisdom of equality. “Peaceful Practices” calls it the true mark. “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” calls it neither such nor different. “The Supernormal Powers of the Tathāgata” calls it the treasury of essentials. “The Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound” (Gadgadasvara) calls it the samādhi of universally manifesting physical bodies. “The Universal Gateway of the Bodhisattva Perceiver of the World's Sounds” (Guanshiyin/Avalokiteśvara) calls it the universal gateway. “The Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universally Worthy” (Samantabhadra) calls it “planting the roots of manifold virtues,” that is, planting the roots of the manifold virtues.

These names differ from one another, and the meanings represented by each name also differ. Principle reaches its ultimate and is true and real, taking the real as its mark, and is therefore called the “true mark.” Numinous clarity can know and quiescently illuminate, and is therefore called the “Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing.” The buddhas of the past, present, and future use only this principle in their own practice and use this principle to teach and transform others, and it is therefore called the “conditions of the great matter.” Vacuous openness that allows passage is called the “path.” Correctly determining all dharmas is called the “seal of the true mark.” Possessing the meaning of carrying is called the “vehicle.” Enabling buddha-work to be accomplished is called the “family estate.” Being the basis upon which everything relies is called the “ground of wisdom.” Being the source of all dharmas is called the “place of treasure.” Being perfectly integrated, wondrous, and difficult to conceive is called the “precious jewel.” Having no real accumulation yet containing the many dharmas is called the “secret treasury.” The essential principle’s free and unobstructed passage is called the “great wisdom of equality.” Excluding the two extremes is called “neither such nor different.” Wondrous form’s sovereign freedom is called the “samādhi of universal manifestation.” Being the route by which one enters reality is called the “universal gateway.” Being that from which dharmas arise is called the “root of virtue.”

Viewed in this way, although names and meanings differ, their substance is the true mark; this has already been explained above.

The Various Different Names for the Substance of the Various Scriptures

Someone asks: The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom says that whatever lacks the seal of the true mark is spoken by Māra. It is certainly possible to use the true mark as the substance of the present sutra, but if the other scriptures do not do the same, would they not all become teachings of Māra?

The answer is no. Different scriptures use different names: some call it true, wholesome, wondrous form; some call it ultimate emptiness, the tathāgata-garbha, or the Middle Way. Their various different names cannot all be listed, but they are all different names for the true mark, all correct seals, and each can be called foremost because each possesses the seal of reality. Only if this meaning were lost would it cease to be buddhadharma. It is in this sense that the substances of the many scriptures are said to be the same.

Distinguishing the Collateral and the Principal

The many scriptures differ as half or full and Lesser or Great, and the substance they reveal can also be collateral or principal. What is revealed principally is the true mark; what is revealed collaterally is partial truth. Partial truth sometimes contains the true mark, and the true mark sometimes carries partial truth, yet all are generally called the true mark. The Madhyamaka Treatise therefore says that the true mark is jointly attained by three kinds of people; what is jointly attained here is partial truth. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that śrāvakas see only emptiness; this emptiness is collateral. It also says that the wise see emptiness and also see nonemptiness; nonemptiness is principal. The present sutra says that in the past we entered Dharma-nature together; this Dharma-nature is collateral. It also says that today we abide in real wisdom; this real wisdom is principal.

The three Dharma seals taught by the Lesser Vehicle belong to the collateral. The Shared Teaching carries the collateral while revealing the principal. The Distinct and Perfect Teachings reveal only the principal and no longer discuss the collateral.

In terms of the five flavors, milk discusses only the principal, curds only the collateral, raw ghee and refined ghee carry both collateral and principal, and clarified essence discusses only the principal.

The principal true mark itself has many names, and collateral and principal can be further discussed among them. The Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra takes intrinsic purity as principal and the other names as collateral; the Avataṃsaka takes Dharma-body as principal; the Prajñāpāramitā takes the knowledge of all modes as principal; the Nirvāṇa Sūtra takes buddha-nature as principal; and the present sutra takes the true mark and One Vehicle as principal and the other names as collateral. Collateral and principal are provisionally established within what was originally neither collateral nor principal; whether collateral or principal, all are the sutra’s substance.

Distinguishing the Other and the Present

The preceding discussion already made distinctions according to the different names for the Dharmas of the Distinct and Perfect Teachings. Now the Lesser Vehicle, Great Vehicle, and present sutra are compared more generally and divided into four statements: first, name, meaning, and substance are all the same as in the present sutra; second, name, meaning, and substance are all different; third, name and meaning are the same but substance differs; fourth, name and meaning differ but substance is the same.

Within the Tripiṭaka Teaching, if its substance is called the true mark, its name and meaning are the same as those of the present sutra but its substance differs; if it is not called the true mark, its name, meaning, and substance all differ from those of the present sutra. Only these two statements apply here; the other two do not.

If the Shared Teaching calls the true mark its substance, its name and meaning are the same but its substance differs; if it does not use the name true mark, its name, meaning, and substance all differ. If a gateway of the Shared Teaching can reach distantly to the Middle Way, the two statements in which name, meaning, and substance are all the same and in which name and meaning differ but substance is the same can also apply. The Distinct Teaching in relation to the Perfect Teaching likewise possesses all four statements, following the distinctions previously made among the different names for one Dharma.

Next, proceeding one by one through the five flavors: the milk teaching has two cases in which name and meaning are the same and two in which name and meaning differ but substance is the same. The curds teaching is as explained above. The same applies within raw ghee and refined ghee. Within nirvāṇa, the four kinds may have different or identical names and meanings, but their substance is entirely the same; the one buddha-nature does not differ.

Judging Coarse and Wondrous, Then Opening the Coarse to Reveal the Wondrous

First comes coarse and wondrous. Although the principal true mark has different collateral and principal names, with names and meanings that differ, its substance was originally the same. From the perspective of the sameness of substance, there is no coarse and wondrous here. If judgment is made according to collateral and principal, however, the collateral alone is coarse; the collateral containing the principal, or the principal carrying the collateral, is also provisionally judged coarse; only the principal is wondrous.

Even if their names and meanings are the same, the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings have a different substance and therefore are wholly coarse. The names and meanings of the Distinct Teaching may be the same or different; its gateway of teaching differs and is therefore coarse, while its substance is the same and is therefore wondrous. Whether name, meaning, and substance are all the same, or name and meaning differ but substance is the same, they are judged wondrous from the perspective of the sameness of substance. When each is placed within the five flavors, the distinction between coarse and wondrous can be understood in the same way.

Next comes opening the coarse. Opening the coarse means opening the collateral aspect. The collateral teaching may be opened so that it is precisely the principal teaching: although the Buddha formerly reproached the śrāvakas before the bodhisattvas, in reality he taught and transformed them through the Great Vehicle. Collateral practice may be opened so that it is precisely principal practice: what the assembly practiced was originally the bodhisattva-path. A collateral person may be opened so that he is precisely a principal person: although the hired laborer received only one day’s wages, he was in reality the elder’s son. A collateral substance may be opened so that it is precisely the principal substance: the gateway of skillful means is opened to reveal the true mark; later, upon seeing the poor man, the precious jewel tied within his robe is pointed out to him. If the collateral principle is contemplated deeply, it is precisely the principal principle. Everything becomes wondrous, and no coarse Dharma remains that can stand in relation to the wondrous. This is precisely the original intent of the present sutra.

Sixth: The Substance of the Various Practices

This topic is divided into four gateways: first, sameness and difference among the various practices; second, practicing according to scripture; third, judging coarse and wondrous; fourth, opening the coarse.

Sameness and Difference among the Various Practices

The practices established by people who receive a teaching do not go beyond the two kinds of practice through faith and practice through Dharma. Those of duller faculties gain understanding through hearing and then establish practice from that understanding; this is called practice through faith. Those of sharper faculties investigate for themselves, gain understanding, and then establish practice from that understanding; this is called practice through Dharma. These two practices extend through all four teachings.

Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Tripiṭaka Teaching take the collateral true mark as their substance. Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Shared Teaching take the collateral containing the principal as their substance. Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Distinct Teaching take the principal as their substance. Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Perfect Teaching also take the principal as their substance.

Practices discussed horizontally are the perfections and such gates of practice as kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, each of which is discussed in relation to the substance of its own teaching. If the various horizontal and vertical practices possess substance, then, just as when the root is established the path arises from it, if substance possesses the various practices, substance becomes manifest through reliance upon practice.

Now to explain the vertical practice of the Perfect Teaching in particular. The five grades and the purification of the six faculties take the principal in resemblance as their substance. From the first abode through equal awakening, all take the principal in truth as their substance.

As for horizontal practice, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that all dharmas are the Great Vehicle because they cannot be attained—cannot be attained. This is the principal true mark. The present sutra says that no dharmas can be attained, whether existent or nonexistent; it also says that each child is equally given one great cart. This has the same meaning. The youth saw Dīpaṃkara Buddha and attained endurance of the nonarising of dharmas, showing that practice possesses a real substance. The Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that giving is practiced without abiding in characteristics, like a person with eyes who sees various forms; this has the same meaning.

When vertical practice has substance, the cart is high; when horizontal practice has substance, the cart is broad. Once the cart is both high and broad, it can carry greatly; its movement is level and upright, swift as the wind.

Practicing According to Scripture

The preceding practices through faith and Dharma can in meaning extend over a long duration, through a broad span of time or many kalpas, like a long siege. When particular methods of practice are explained separately according to individual scriptures, dates are fixed and periods established, like a bitter assault.

If one practices only according to phenomenal forms, the practice has no substance. If one practices in reliance upon principle, enabling this share of empty wisdom to correspond with practice, it can destroy immeasurable transgressions that obstruct the right path and can also attain endurance of the nonarising of dharmas; such practice possesses substance. The individual scriptures establish many methods of practice, of which four are now presented briefly: constant walking, constant sitting, half walking and half sitting, and neither walking nor sitting.

Each practice has its own phenomenal forms and method. Each requires exerting the body and applying oneself with painful diligence, yet all take correct contemplation of the true mark as their substance; from one thought to the next there is no interruption, and they are pure like empty space. A complete account of the meaning of contemplating the mind is given separately in the Calming and Contemplation.

The Lesser Vehicle Vinaya basket, however, does not permit one who has committed a grave precept to repent, whereas its sūtra basket has such a person recollect the Buddha’s body. Recollecting the Buddha’s body here means recollecting emptiness. The Lesser Vehicle also fully possesses methods such as constant walking, but takes partial emptiness as their substance. The Shared Teaching also explains these methods, but takes immediate emptiness as their substance. The gates of practice in the Distinct Teaching are sequentially distinct, while the gates of practice in the Perfect Teaching are open and interpenetrating; both take the principal true mark as their substance. Applying these four practices one by one through the five flavors, the substance of their various methods can be inferred in the same way.

The Coarse and Wondrous among the Various Practices

Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings, together with their true, resembling, horizontal, and vertical practices, all take the collateral true mark as their substance; their substance and practice are therefore wholly coarse. Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Distinct Teaching, together with its true, resembling, horizontal, and vertical practices, follow their respective distinct gateways but take the principal true mark as their substance. Because their cause is impermanent while their fruit is permanent, their practice is coarse and their substance wondrous. Practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Perfect Teaching, together with its true, resembling, horizontal, and vertical practices, are established through the perfect gateway and principal substance; their substance and practice are therefore wholly wondrous. Coarse and wondrous as explained one by one through the five flavors can be understood in the same way.

As for methods such as constant walking established according to individual scriptures, if they take the collateral as their substance, their substance and practice are wholly coarse; if they take the principal as their substance, their practice is coarse and their substance wondrous. Cases in which substance and practice are wholly wondrous can also be understood by analogy with the foregoing. Their placement one by one within the five flavors can be understood in the same way.

Opening the Coarseness of the Various Practices

Opening practice through faith and practice through Dharma in the Tripiṭaka Teaching means definitively understanding the Dharma of the śrāvakas; a scripture that brings such definitive understanding is the king of the scriptures. After hearing, one examines and reflects carefully and can thereby draw near the unsurpassed path. Hearing is practice through faith, while reflection is practice through Dharma; both draw near the unsurpassed path, meaning that the Great Vehicle’s markless practice draws near reality.

When horizontal practice is opened, one can see that the four actions of bowing the head, raising a hand, singing praise, and acting with a distracted mind have all already accomplished the Buddha-path. The Tripiṭaka Teaching is the shallowest and nearest, yet even it can be opened and immediately become wondrous; how much more can the Shared and Distinct Teachings be understood accordingly. If methods such as constant walking cultivated according to the Lesser Vehicle are opened, then not even the smallest minute goodness fails to accomplish buddhahood; this too can be understood accordingly.

The first half of Fascicle Nine ends here. The lower half of Fascicle Nine is still titled “Taught by Master Zhiyi of Tiantai” and continues with the seventh topic.

Seventh: The True Mark Pervasively Serving as the Substance of All Dharmas

The Sūtra on the Practice of Contemplating the Bodhisattva Universally Worthy (Samantabhadra) says that Vairocana pervades all places. All dharmas do not go beyond the Four Truths. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that the Dharmas not taught by the Buddha are like the soil of the earth in the ten directions, while the Dharmas he has taught are like the soil upon a fingernail.

Kāśyapa therefore asks: What has been taught is the Four Truths, so what has not been taught should include a fifth truth. The Buddha answers that there is no fifth truth; one can only say that each of these Four Truths possesses immeasurable characteristics. If expanded broadly in this way, they become the four kinds of Four Truths; the complete account is as previously explained under the subtlety of objects.

One should know that the truths of suffering and accumulation encompass all worldly causes and fruits, wholesome and unwholesome, while the truths of the path and cessation encompass all world-transcending causes and fruits. All of these take the true mark as their substance. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says that all dharmas are established from the basis of nonabiding. Is this not precisely what is meant?

Nevertheless, the substance upon which all dharmas rely is wondrous and without difference, while the dharmas established in reliance upon that substance are coarse or wondrous. As the various dharmas stand in relation to one another, the distinctions among them can be understood. Distinguished within the five flavors, their coarse and wondrous aspects can also be understood; opening the coarse to reveal the wondrous can likewise be understood. The sutra’s substance has now been explained in brief.

The Purport as the Governing Outline of Practice

The third great chapter clarifies the purport. The purport is the throat and collar of practice and the essential path for revealing the substance. It is like beams and columns supporting a house and like the governing cords that gather the meshes of a net: when the governing cord is lifted, every mesh moves with it; when the beams are secure, the rafters remain in place.

The explanation of the purport has five parts: first, distinguishing purport from substance; second, directly clarifying the purport; third, comparing the sameness and difference among the causes and fruits taught in the various scriptures; fourth, clarifying coarse and wondrous; fifth, concluding on cause and fruit.

First: Distinguishing Purport from Substance

Some say that the purport is precisely the substance and the substance precisely the purport. This interpretation is not adopted here. Why? The aim of the purport is cause and fruit, and cause and fruit are two; the substance is neither cause nor fruit and is therefore nondual. If the substance were two, it would not be the substance; if the substance is nondual, it cannot simply be called the purport. If the purport were nondual, it would not be the purport; if the purport is two, it cannot simply be called the substance. How, then, could one say that the substance is precisely the purport and the purport precisely the substance?

Beams and columns, moreover, are the governing supports of a house, while the empty space within the house is the space that the beams and columns support and accomplish. One should not call the beams and columns the house’s empty space or call the house’s empty space the beams and columns. To say that purport and substance are completely one entails this fault.

Conversely, if purport and substance are said to be wholly different, the two Dharmas become isolated from one another: the purport is no longer the purport that reveals the substance, and the substance is no longer the substance upon which the purport relies. If the purport is not a purport that reveals the substance, it becomes crooked and inverted, lacking the seal of the true mark. If the substance is not that upon which the purport relies, it becomes narrow and fails to pervade, as though causes and fruits existed somewhere apart from Dharma-nature. To say that purport and substance are definitively different entails this fault.

What is said here is that they are not separate or different, yet are distinct in meaning: causes and fruits are discussed in relation to the true mark, which is neither cause nor fruit, and for this reason the different names “purport” and “substance” are established. The meaning of the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom is that everything apart from the true mark of all dharmas is called the work of Māra. The meaning of the Sutra on the Practice of Contemplating Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is: “The cause of the Great Vehicle is the true mark of all dharmas; the fruit of the Great Vehicle is likewise the true mark of all dharmas.” This is precisely the principle at issue.

One should know that the substance of the true mark pervades everything, yet is not itself cause or fruit. Cause is distinguished at the beginning of practice, and fruit is discussed at the completion of practice. Causes and fruits are further divided into partial and perfect. Consider the substance of copper. In itself it is called neither beginning nor completion. When one prepares to cast it as an image, that is called the image’s beginning; when the finishing and polishing are entirely complete, that is called the image’s completion. This represents perfect cause and fruit. If one prepares to make a vessel and then completes it, the vessel likewise has a beginning and an end; this represents partial cause and fruit.

Arousing the mind of the seven kinds of skillful means is called partial cause; realizing nirvāṇa with remainder and nirvāṇa without remainder is called partial fruit. Opening the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing is called perfect cause; ultimate wondrous awakening is called perfect fruit. If one understands how the one copper substance relates to these two kinds of finished object, and knows that purport and substance are neither identical nor separate, the meaning of the purport becomes clear.

Take direct-cause buddha-nature as another example. Direct-cause buddha-nature is itself neither cause nor fruit, yet when it is spoken of as cause and not fruit it is called buddha-nature, and when it is spoken of as fruit and not cause it is called great nirvāṇa. Buddha-nature itself is not fixed as either future or original, yet it is also said to have been originally possessed: all sentient beings are the mark of nirvāṇa and cannot again be extinguished.

It is also said that all sentient beings possess buddha-nature, while in fact they do not yet possess the thirty-two marks and will obtain a vajra body only in the future. Because buddha-nature does not belong only to the future, it is said to be originally possessed; because it is not merely something already actual from the beginning, it is said to be attained in the future. The relation between purport and substance is the same: both rely upon the true mark, yet can be distinguished according to the beginning and end of cause and fruit.

Guanding’s Private Broad Survey of Earlier Interpretations

The following is the recorder Guanding’s separate broad survey of earlier masters’ explanations, which he analyzes one by one.

Master Yuan takes the One Vehicle—that is, the Wondrous Dharma—as the purport, citing the statement, “This vehicle is subtle and wondrous; none is above it.” Guanding says privately that if the one is established only to refute the three vehicles, and the wondrous is called wondrous only in relation to the coarse, it reaches only one end of cause and does not encompass beginning and completion.

Master Long says that fruit alone should serve as the purport. In his view, the Wondrous Dharma is the substance of the Tathāgata’s numinous wisdom: all coarse Dharmas have been exhausted, so it is called wondrous; in both activity and stillness it can serve as a standard for beings, so it is called Dharma; because this Dharma is real and wondrous, the lotus blossom is borrowed as its simile. Thus he takes the wisdom of buddhahood as the purport. Guanding says privately that fruit cannot stand by itself. How could its cause be abandoned? This interpretation also contradicts the text.

Huiguan’s preface says that gathering the three vehicles into the One Vehicle is the vehicle’s beginning; the full accomplishment of wisdom and awakening is the vehicle’s flourishing; and extinguishing appearances and clarifying spirit is the vehicle’s completion. Master Kumārajīva is recorded as praising it: “How could anyone who had not entered deeply into the scriptural treasury have offered an explanation such as this?”

Master Yin says that the true mark of all dharmas is the wondrous object of the One Vehicle and takes object and wisdom as the purport. Because the object is free from the three kinds of falsity, it is called the true mark. Guanding says that this merely adds an object while still omitting fruit, like swelling that does not add healthy flesh.

Guangzhai takes the causes and fruits of the One Vehicle as the purport, judging the earlier section of the sutra to be cause and the latter section fruit. Guanding says privately that each of the two sections has both cause and fruit. If one preserves cause and conceals fruit in one section, then preserves fruit and conceals cause in the other, one harms the scriptural text.

Some take the two wisdoms of the provisional and the real as the purport. Guanding says privately that if provisional wisdom is included in the purport, the three vehicles should also be said to be the sutra’s purport. Yet the three are precisely what the present sutra relinquishes as expedient. How could what is relinquished be taken as the purport?

Another master says that this scripture is titled Wondrous Dharma Lotus and therefore takes its name itself as the purport. Wondrous Dharma is the fundamental real Dharma-nature attained by the Buddha. This nature is not different from afflictive defilement, yet is not the same as afflictive defilement, and is therefore called wondrous; in this sense the purport is simply the name. This is the view adopted by the masters of the Daśabhūmika. They take the eighth consciousness as the ultimate fruit, whereas the Mahāyānasaṃgraha now refutes it and calls it the root of birth-and-death.

Another master says that permanence serves as the purport, but that the scripture has not yet reached the utmost highest point and therefore clarifies permanence through a concealed appearance. Guanding says privately that this is wholly contrary to the scripture’s intent. If permanence is concealed, how can the purport be revealed? If permanence is not concealed, permanence itself cannot constitute the purport.

Another master says that the present scripture clarifies permanence explicitly and that it differs from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra only as a brief account differs from an extensive one. Guanding says privately that if permanence is the purport, permanence has no cause or fruit; without cause and fruit, permanence likewise has none of the purport meant here. Further statements are omitted in the root text.

Some say that the myriad wholesome practices serve as the purport, for so long as something is wholesome it can enable one to become a buddha. Guanding says privately that if becoming a buddha is fruit, why not take fruit directly as the purport?

Others select uncontaminated good from among the myriad wholesome practices as the purport. Guanding says privately that this is far too narrow and also becomes confused with the lesser nirvāṇa of the Two Vehicles.

Still another says that if people receive these different teachings and each obtains benefit, none of the many interpretations need be wrong; if people hear them but do not awaken, none of the masters need be right. This master therefore values awakening alone and proposes awakening as the sutra’s purport. He cites the meaning of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra: “Whatever has a fixed characteristic is a Dharma of birth-and-death and a characteristic of Māra; buddhadharma has no fixed characteristic.” The Tathāgata therefore sometimes calls what is not the path the path, and sometimes calls the path not the path. One should know that awakening alone is what is to be followed.

Guanding says privately that if awakening is the purport, awakening belongs to realization of the fruit and does not explain the cause of practice. This is like being asked for the south and pointing north, throwing all directions into confusion. Moreover, if awakening is definitively established as the purport, this makes what is unfixed rigidly fixed. How, then, can it still be called unfixed? Those who offer explanations are extremely numerous and cannot all be listed.

Second: Directly Clarifying the Sutra’s Purport

From “Introduction” through “Peaceful Practices,” this sutra breaks down and abolishes skillful means and opens and reveals the real: the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing. It also clarifies the disciples’ real cause and real fruit, and the teacher’s provisional cause and provisional fruit. Although the text and meaning are extensive, their essential point is the accomplishment of the disciples’ real cause. Cause is principal and fruit collateral. Thus the earlier part clarifies the cause and fruit within the Trace.

From “Emerging from the Earth” through “The Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universally Worthy” (Samantabhadra), it reveals the Origin by disclosing the Trace, abolishes the expedient display of a recent lifespan, and clarifies the distant real fruit. It also clarifies the disciples’ real cause and real fruit, and the teacher’s provisional cause and provisional fruit; but what it seeks to reveal is the teacher’s real fruit. Fruit is principal and cause collateral. Thus the latter part clarifies the cause and fruit within the Origin.

The causes and fruits of the two parts are joined and together constitute the purport of this sutra. This is the point of the explanation. The sutra is therefore divided into an earlier and a latter part and discusses both Origin and Trace; its title raises both Dharma and simile, both lotus and blossom. Teacher and disciples, provisional and real, are all contained within these causes and fruits of Origin and Trace.

Third: Sameness and Difference among the Causes and Fruits of the Various Scriptures

The sameness and difference among the causes and fruits of the various scriptures means that causes and fruits within the Trace are sometimes the same as and sometimes different from those of the various scriptures, while causes and fruits within the Origin are fundamentally different from those within the Trace. The true mark universally seals and determines the substances of the various scriptures. What scripture does not discuss cause and fruit in relation to it? The scriptures establish different governing purports only because they address different capacities.

The Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra takes the true mark, which is neither cause nor fruit, as its substance, but principally takes cause as its purport. Prajñā clears away attachments, which is precisely the intent of cultivating cause. It is therefore said that in the mind of a bodhisattva it is called prajñā, while in the mind of a buddha it is called sarvajñā. The text also speaks of the bodhisattva’s unborn and unextinguished cause and of attaining the sarvajñā-fruit that is neither annihilated nor permanent. Sengrui’s preface says that the profound chapter begins with nonabiding and returns through the three wisdoms to nonattainment as its completion; beginning and completion are cause and fruit. The scripture also speaks of the Buddha-fruit of the knowledge of all modes, but does so to accomplish the cause of prajñā. Cause is principal and fruit collateral. The Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings speaks of Mahāprajñā and of cultivation over many kalpas. It is therefore known that the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra takes cause as its purport.

The Vimalakīrti Sūtra takes both cause and fruit of the buddha-land as its purport. Ratnākara asks fully about cause and fruit, and the Buddha fully answers concerning cause and fruit. It is therefore known that this sutra takes both cause and fruit as its purport.

The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is a perfect and sudden teaching, and its purport has been interpreted in different ways. The first interpretation takes cause as the purport: “flower-adornment” in the title means adorning through the myriad practices and so belongs to the cultivation of cause; the text also frequently teaches the characteristics of the forty stages, and therefore takes cause as its purport. The second interpretation takes fruit as the purport: “Buddha” in the title Great, Vast Buddha Avataṃsaka names the ultimate fruit, while “flower-adornment” means that concentration, wisdom, and the myriad wholesome practices adorn the Buddha’s body, not that they adorn cause; the text also often teaches the Dharma-body of Vairocana, and therefore takes fruit as its purport. The third interpretation combines cause and fruit as the purport: Buddha is fruit, while flower-adornment is cause; because the text fully teaches both Dharma-body and the various stages, it takes cause and fruit together as its purport.

Because the various scriptures address different capacities, their governing purports differ. The Prajñāpāramitā broadly addresses three kinds of people and collaterally reveals real cause and fruit; in this respect it differs from the purport of the present sutra’s Trace Gate. When it addresses bodhisattvas in particular, it further distinguishes sharp and dull faculties: clarifying cause for those of dull faculties is likewise different, while the cause clarified for those of sharp faculties is the same. The buddha-land doctrine of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is inclusive: the causes and fruits of three kinds of buddha-land differ from those of the present sutra, while the causes and fruits of one kind are the same. The Avataṃsaka likewise addresses two capacities; what those of dull faculties receive differs, while what those of sharp faculties receive is the same, as distinguished above. Applying the same meaning throughout the causes and fruits of the five flavors makes the rest clear by analogy. These are the ways in which the causes and fruits of the various scriptures are the same as or different from the causes and fruits within the Trace of the present sutra.

Next, causes and fruits within the Origin are wholly different from those of the various scriptures. A bodhisattva of the Tripiṭaka Teaching begins only now to cultivate real cause and fruit and has no provisional cause and fruit. Even when the Buddha is said to have first accomplished the path beneath the bodhi tree, this is not the distant Origin and Trace. A bodhisattva of the Shared Teaching likewise begins with an initial cultivation of cause and discusses Origin and Trace only through supernormal transformations; this too is not the distant Origin and Trace.

The Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that bodhisattvas have Origin and Trace while members of the Two Vehicles do not; it speaks of the Buddha’s initially attaining the Origin and Trace of embodied life and Dharma-body, but does not speak of the distant past. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra does not say that śrāvakas have Origin and Trace, but only that bodhisattvas abide in the inconceivable Origin and Trace; it also says that the Buddha has a pure land, but the land seen by Brahmā Śikhī is not distant. The Avataṃsaka speaks of Vairocana and Śākyamuni as Origin and Trace, and bodhisattvas likewise have Origin and Trace; yet śrāvakas cannot even hear or understand it, so how could they themselves have an Origin and Trace?

The present sutra, by contrast, reveals that śrāvakas originally have an Origin, with causes and fruits in the Origin, while displaying these as the causes and fruits of the Two Vehicles within the Trace. It also reveals the Buddha’s Trace: the birth of the embodied life in the royal palace, the birth of the Dharma-body beneath the bodhi tree, and every manifestation of embodied life and Dharma-body in between all belong to the Trace. Only the very first attainment of the true and response bodies is called the Origin. Thus the original causes and fruits of teacher and disciples differ entirely from those of the other scriptures. The causes and fruits of teacher and disciples within the Trace of the present sutra are in some respects the same as and in some respects different from those of the various scriptures; their causes and fruits within the Origin are absent from the various scriptures. Precisely these causes and fruits constitute the wondrous purport of the present sutra.

Fourth: Distinguishing Coarse and Wondrous

If the cause belongs to the half-word teaching and its fruit is the pervasive fruit beneath the bodhi tree, this purport is coarse. The causes and fruits shared by the three vehicles in the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra are likewise coarse. Even its unshared cause, though it says that a bodhisattva who practices prajñā for one day is like sunlight illuminating darkness and that upon arousing the mind the bodhisattva can sport in supernormal powers, still carries a coarse cause, so the perfect cause cannot appear by itself. Though it says that the Dharma-body neither comes nor goes, it still carries a coarse fruit, so the perfect fruit cannot appear by itself. It is therefore called coarse.

Although the Vaipulya teachings rebuke partial causes and fruits through the simile that lotus blossoms do not grow on high dry ground, they do not distinguish how the partial can enter the perfect. The perfect meaning is not clearly revealed, and these teachings too are coarse. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is like sunlight first illuminating the high mountains: it teaches one perfect cause and, in the ultimate final body, one perfect fruit. Yet it also carries Distinct causes and fruits, and what it carries is coarse.

The present sutra gives predictions to śrāvakas and removes bodhisattvas’ doubts, opening the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing for all and bringing them together into one perfect cause. It also reveals the Origin by disclosing the Trace, bringing all to awaken to the real fruit. Its cause is perfect and its fruit real; it carries no expedient admixture and differs forever from the other scriptures. It is therefore called wondrous.

As for opening the coarse: because sentient beings’ faculties were dull in the past and they were not yet able to hear the praise of the causes and fruits of the Buddha Vehicle, the Buddha used expedient causes and fruits to meet and guide their immediate dispositions. After the five flavors had tempered and matured them, their minds gradually became open and at ease. Coarse causes were then resolved so that they together became wondrous causes, and all coarse fruits were resolved so that they together became wondrous fruits.

Thus those in the assembly who bowed their heads, raised their hands, or “adhered to the Dharma” all accomplished the Buddha-path; there was no longer any cause that was not a cause of the Buddha-path. Once the Buddha-path is accomplished, how could any fruit remain that is not buddhahood? Even the minute causes of scattered goodness are now all opened and resolved as perfect causes—how much more the practices of the Two Vehicles, and how much more the practices of bodhisattvas. None fail to become wondrous causes and fruits.

Fifth: Concluding on Cause and Fruit

The conclusion has two parts: first, concluding on cause and fruit; second, distinguishing through fourfold analyses in question and answer.

The sutra teaches cause and fruit precisely to benefit practitioners in embodied life and Dharma-body alike. When it teaches opening the provisional to reveal the real, it principally enables those in embodied life among the seven kinds of skillful means who have not yet entered to enter, while collaterally enabling those in embodied life and Dharma-body who have already entered to advance. When it teaches the distant lifespan, it collaterally enables those in embodied life who have not yet entered to enter, while principally enabling those in embodied life and Dharma-body who have already entered to advance.

When “The Supernormal Powers of the Tathāgata” speaks of “all the Tathāgata’s deeply profound matters,” that which is neither cause nor fruit is the deeply profound principle, while causes and fruits are the deeply profound matters. The first entry into the Perfect from the seven kinds of skillful means, ascending to the stage of the copper wheel, is called cause. When only one life remains and turning that one life brings wondrous awakening, it is called fruit. From the second abode through equal awakening, each intermediate stage is both cause and cause of the cause, and both fruit and fruit of the fruit.

Suppressing one part of ignorance through the uninterrupted path is called cause; severing one part of ignorance through the path of liberation is called fruit. On the basis of this liberation one again cultivates the next uninterrupted path, and it is therefore called cause of the cause. From this next uninterrupted path one again obtains liberation, and it is therefore called fruit of the fruit.

Viewed through the relation of earlier and later stages, the ten abodes are cause and the ten practices fruit; the ten practices are cause and the ten dedications fruit; the ten dedications are cause and the ten grounds fruit; the ten grounds are cause and equal awakening fruit; equal awakening is cause and wondrous awakening fruit.

Wondrous awakening is only fruit and only liberation; it is no longer called cause or uninterrupted path. The first abode is only cause and only uninterrupted path; it is not called fruit or liberation. Why? At the first abode one sees the true and takes that true opening as cause; the resemblance prior to the first abode is not a true cause.

If the initial cause is spoken of in terms of intrinsic virtue, snapping the fingers and scattering flowers is the seed of the conditioning cause, hearing even a single phrase is the seed of the revealing cause, and every being with mind is the seed of the direct cause. This speaks only distantly of the seeds of the three causes as intrinsic virtue. It is not yet their real opening and development, and therefore is not taken here as cause in the principal judgment.

First Question and Answer: Why Is There Still the Gradual within the Perfect?

Someone asks: If entering the principle at the first abode is called perfect cause and perfect fruit, why does the scripture also say, “Gradually studying and practicing, they attain the Buddha-path”?

The answer is that two kinds of fourfold analysis should be made. The first consists of gradual-perfect, perfect-gradual, gradual-gradual, and perfect-perfect: entering the Perfect gradually, cultivating gradually after entering the Perfect, advancing gradually within the Perfect, and the perfect becoming fully perfect.

Gradual-perfect is said in relation to the seven kinds of skillful means outside the principle, all of which are opened to the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing and begin to see the perfect principle. They see the perfect principle because they gradually enter perfect cause from the seven kinds of skillful means outside the principle, and it is therefore called gradual-perfect. The remaining three statements in this set are omitted at this point in the root text.

Perfect-gradual means that upon first entering this Perfect one contemplates the Three Truths together and sees the principle of the true mark. The principle seen is no different at the beginning and the end, but phenomenal practice is not yet fully complete and must still be cultivated and refined. From the perspective of initially entering the Perfect it is called perfect; from the perspective of advancing through the practices of the higher stages it is again called gradual.

Gradual-gradual extends from the second abode through equal awakening. This is the gradual-gradual within the Perfect, not a gradual-gradual outside the perfect principle. Perfect-perfect is wondrous awakening. It can also be called gradual-perfect, as well as perfect-perfect: the perfect principle was already perfect, and now phenomenal practice is also perfect, so it is called perfect-perfect.

Another set is then established entirely within the stages of the Perfect: the first abode is perfect-gradual; the second abode onward through the thirty minds is gradual-gradual; the first ground onward is gradual-perfect; and wondrous awakening is perfect-perfect.

The second fourfold analysis uses the mutual naming of worthy and noble. Although the thirty minds possess both the meanings of worthy and noble, they are called worthy by convention because they involve more suppression and less severance. The ten grounds onward are called noble because they involve less suppression and more severance. More specifically, the ten abodes are called worthy-noble, the next twenty minds noble-worthy, the ten grounds and equal awakening noble, and wondrous awakening noble-noble.

Now consider the simile of the new moon. Its outline is already round, while the function of its light is not yet complete; this represents perfect-gradual. From the second through the fourteenth day, its brightness gradually increases; this represents gradual-gradual. The fifteenth day represents gradual-perfect and also perfect-perfect. The moon itself undergoes no real waning or waxing, yet people distinguish waning and waxing according to the moon’s appearance. The principle itself has no perfect or gradual, yet people distinguish perfect and gradual according to the phenomenal work of practice in relation to the principle.

The purport of this sutra confers vast benefit, beginning with perfect-gradual and ending ultimately in perfect-perfect. The causes and fruits of the Great Vehicle thereby increase and become completely fulfilled. Further statements are omitted in the root text.

Second Question and Answer: Can the Names Mutually Occur?

Someone asks further: Since what is perfect can also be called gradual and can also be called distinct, can it likewise carry the names Shared and Tripiṭaka?

The answer says that this meaning comes from the Chapter on the Four Teachings. Its purport is as follows.

Within the Tripiṭaka Teaching, calling the teaching itself Tripiṭaka is readily understood. Its truths, conditions, and perfections are distinct and can carry the name Distinct; its realization of true truth can carry the name Shared; and its completion beyond learning can carry the name Perfect.

Within the Shared Teaching, Shared within Shared is the common realization of nonarising. The morality, concentration, and wisdom taught within path truth can carry the name Tripiṭaka. Whether primary afflictions and latent tendencies are entirely exhausted, whether one teaches and transforms others, and whether one emerges into the provisional are all matters of distinction and can carry the name Distinct. The common realization of true truth can carry the name Perfect.

Within the Distinct Teaching, Distinct within Distinct is the distinction between higher and lower stages. Cultivating morality, concentration, and wisdom within immeasurable path truth can carry the name Tripiṭaka. All four gateways entering the Middle can carry the name Shared. Exhausting the five abodes of affliction can carry the name Perfect.

Within the Perfect Teaching, Perfect within Perfect is interpenetration. The four gateways being different can carry the name Distinct; the four gateways mutually encompassing one another can carry the name Shared; and perfect path truth together with perfect morality, concentration, and wisdom can carry the name Tripiṭaka.

Since this principle applies throughout, gradual-perfect should likewise be established, and all four statements concerning gradual and perfect can be established. The conclusion on cause and fruit can therefore be established in full; thereafter judging coarse and wondrous and opening coarse and wondrous can likewise all be established.

What Is the Function of This Sutra?

The fourth great chapter begins by discussing the function and clarifies “function.” Function is the Tathāgata’s wondrous capacity and this sutra’s supreme function. The Tathāgata takes provisional and real wisdoms as his wondrous capacity; this sutra takes severing doubt and giving rise to faith as its supreme function. In fact, it is precisely the two wisdoms of the provisional and real that sever doubt and give rise to faith, while sentient beings give rise to faith and sever doubt precisely because of these two wisdoms. The former is discussed from the person and the latter from the Dharma; they are simply left and right ways of explaining the same event.

The preceding chapter discussed the purport, distinguishing purport from substance so that the two would not be confused. The present chapter discusses function, distinguishing purport from function so that they too will not be confused. Why must they be distinguished? Because the purport also carries a function, and the function also carries a purport. The function within the purport is not the function within the function, and the function within the function is not the function within the purport. The purport upon which the function relies is not the purport established within the purport, and the purport established within the purport is not the purport upon which the function relies.

The function within the purport takes cause and fruit as the purport, while cause and fruit each have the function of severing and subduing delusion. The purport within the function takes compassion as the purport upon which function relies and severing doubt and giving rise to faith as the function itself. When directly discussing the purport, one temporarily sets aside severing and subduing delusion and considers only cause and fruit. Now, in directly discussing function, one considers only severing doubt and giving rise to faith and temporarily sets aside compassion. Once this boundary is understood, it becomes clear that the provisional and real wisdoms’ ability to sever doubt and give rise to faith is the great function of the present sutra.

The discussion of function has five divisions: first, clarifying effective power; second, clarifying sameness and difference; third, explaining the successive particulars; fourth, correlating them with the four siddhāntas; fifth, discerning how the four siddhāntas in the present sutra are the same as or different from those in other scriptures.

First Division: The Effective Power Unique to the Present Sutra

First, the present sutra’s function is directly clarified. Other scriptures do not purely reveal Buddha-wisdom, so Buddha-wisdom is not fully opened. They say only that the responsive transformation outwardly manifested by the Buddha is Trace; they do not directly break or abolish the fruit of the two vehicles, sever the doubt that physically embodied bodhisattvas produce through attachment to the near Trace, and give rise in them to faith in the distant Origin. Nor do they reveal the Origin so that Dharma-body bodhisattvas increase the great path of recollecting the Buddha and diminish birth beyond the realm. Other scriptures lack this effective power, while the present sutra possesses it; it therefore establishes the title of this chapter.

The present sutra does not center the wisdom of those in the two vehicles or of bodhisattvas, but reveals only the Buddha’s wondrous wisdom. It does not open the knowing-and-seeing of the nine Dharma realms in sentient beings, but opens the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing in them. Other scriptures say only that what the Buddha transforms is Trace, not that the Buddha-body itself is Trace. The present sutra itself says that the Buddha-body is Trace; how, then, could all the other transformations not be Trace? It directly breaks and abolishes the fruit of the two vehicles, which resembles a conjured city—how much more their causal practices. It also breaks the attachment of bodhisattvas taught through skillful means who take the near Trace as ultimate. These are now all disclosed and abolished as provisional Traces. Every intervening doubt is severed, and faith arises in the profound, distant, and inconceivable Origin.

The present sutra further reveals the true merit of the Origin and brings great benefit to Dharma-body bodhisattvas. The stages of benefit begin with the initial graph a and extend to the place near the final graph cha. Even if lands throughout the ten directions, in number like nayutas, were ground into dust, and that dust were used to count the bodhisattvas advancing along the path, their number could not be exhausted. All of this occurs because the Tathāgata sends down the rain of the one flavor of provisional and real wisdoms, falling equally in all four directions, so that all four gateways are simultaneously broken. It fully satisfies those who seek the complete path, severs deep doubt, gives rise to great faith, and enables entry into the One Perfect cause. Sentient beings guide the Great Vehicle cart through the four directions and proceed directly to the bodhimaṇḍa. Even so, its great function and great power, wondrous capacity and wondrous benefit, have not been fully expressed.

Why Is the Fruit of the Two Vehicles More Difficult to Break?

This power can also break the fruit of the two vehicles. Those of the two vehicles fear birth-and-death, enter the principle of emptiness, and take realization. They believe themselves already secure and already delivered, and so fall into the three pits of the unconditioned. They undergo the suffering of “death or death-equivalent suffering”—that is, death or the various sufferings equivalent to death. At this point they resemble ruined seeds that will no longer grow; the physician of wisdom can only fold his hands, and the Dharma-medicine loses its effect.

The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra can heal icchantikas, and this is comparatively easy. Their mental awareness has not yet been severed; everyone who possesses mind should become a buddha. An icchantika is not someone whose death has been definitively determined, and treatment is therefore not difficult. Those of the two vehicles, however, reduce the body to ashes and extinguish cognition: once the body has become ashes, the physical body no longer continues; once cognition has been extinguished, mental reflection is exhausted. They are like scorched sprouts and ruined seeds fallen upon high, dry ground, deaf and mute, never to recover. The lords of the teachings abandon them, and the Dharma-medicines of the scriptures cannot take effect.

Now the wisdom of the Buddha of the Origin is vast and the medicine of the Wondrous Dharma is good. It keeps the physical body from being burned to ash, making it like pure beryl within which every form inside and outside appears. It also keeps cognition from being extinguished, enabling one to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing. It enables one who had regarded himself only as a “lowly hired laborer” to inherit the family estate of awakening. Upon high, dry ground it bestows the Buddha’s lotus. The ear can hear all the sounds of the ten Dharma realms at the same time. The tongue can give voice to the Buddha’s sound in accordance with every kind of being, enabling all sentient beings to hear. Even one faculty can universally perform the functions of all the others. This is the effective power of the present sutra.

From Worldly Wisdom to the Buddha’s Two Wisdoms

The power of Buddha-wisdom has been explained above; it will now be described through successive comparison. When the realm was divided into three at the end of the Han, Cao Cao’s strategy and intelligence were foremost in his time, yet he still fell thirty-five li short of Yang Xiu. The wisdom of those in the Central Lands does not equal the wisdom of non-Buddhists in foreign lands, just as a mustard seed cannot compare with a mountain. The wisdom of all worldly people and non-Buddhists does not equal even one sixteenth of Śāriputra’s wisdom. The wisdom of the two vehicles is like a firefly, while bodhisattva wisdom is like sunlight. The wisdom of a bodhisattva of the Shared Teaching is like a wild goose whose power still cannot carry it very far. The wisdom of a bodhisattva of the Distinct Teaching is like a garuḍa able to travel from one Mount Sumeru to another. The latter wisdom is also like soil upon a fingernail, while Buddha-wisdom is like soil throughout the ten directions.

One should therefore know that Buddha-wisdom is consummately integrated, immediate, sudden, and real. It is inconceivable, neither vertical nor horizontal, perfectly interfused and wondrous beyond comparison. Neither simile nor question and answer can exhaust it. Other scriptures do not teach it purely; the present sutra alone does. Such is the vast power of the Buddha’s real wisdom.

There is also a successive scale of power: the strength of ten calves, then one dragon, ten dragons, one strongman, and ten strongmen still does not equal that of one person possessing the five supernormal powers. An outsider with the five powers does not equal an arhat; all arhats do not equal one Maudgalyāyana; Maudgalyāyana does not equal Śāriputra; Śāriputra does not equal a bodhisattva; a bodhisattva does not equal a Distinct bodhisattva; a Distinct bodhisattva does not equal a Perfect bodhisattva; and a Perfect bodhisattva does not equal the Buddha. The Trace shown by the Buddha is already immeasurably vast, yet from one transformation he can produce another, and within a transformation produce further transformations without end. Without prior contrivance he precisely fits the faculties, like an asura’s lute sounding of itself; no sage or noble one can measure him. Since the power of the Buddha’s provisional wisdom is like this, the remaining implications can be understood accordingly and need not be recorded one by one.

Second Division: The Same Names but Different Effective Power

Someone asks: Since the substance of the true mark and the purport of cause and fruit extend through the various scriptures, how should the two wisdoms of the provisional and real be distinguished?

The answer is that although the names extend generally, their power differs greatly. The Tripiṭaka and Shared Teachings use the two wisdoms to sever doubt concerning the four abiding delusions and give rise to faith in partial truth. Although the Vimalakīrti Sūtra rebukes the two vehicles and bodhisattvas practicing partial ways, it still only enables them to sever doubt and give rise to faith within the realm. It cannot enable those of the Lesser Vehicle or bodhisattvas under skillful means to sever great doubt and give rise to great faith. The general intention of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra likewise concerns doubt severed and faith arising within the realm. Although its distinct intention reaches beyond the realm, it still cannot sever doubt concerning the near Trace and give rise to faith in the distant Origin. The principal intention of the Avataṃsaka can sever doubt beyond the realm and give rise to Perfect faith, but still cannot sever near doubt and give rise to distant faith.

Thus the names provisional wisdom and real wisdom extend through the various scriptures, but their powers differ greatly. The present sutra employs the Buddha’s two wisdoms of awakening to sever the greatest ignorance possessed by the seven expedients and enable them to enter the Perfect cause together. It further breaks the views produced by attachment to the near Trace and gives rise to deep faith in the Origin. Even bodhisattvas at equal awakening thereby sever doubt and give rise to faith. How could such a supreme function be the same as that of the various scriptures?

Third Division, Part One: Ten Functions within the Trace

The third division, explaining the particulars, has two parts: first, individually explaining the Trace; second, individually explaining the Origin.

Ten functions are established within the Trace: first, breaking the three to reveal the one; second, abolishing the three to reveal the one; third, opening the three to reveal the one; fourth, gathering the three to reveal the one; fifth, abiding in the one to reveal the one; sixth, abiding in the three to reveal the one; seventh, abiding in neither three nor one to reveal the one; eighth, covering the three to reveal the one; ninth, abiding in the three and using the one; tenth, abiding in the one and using the three. These ten meanings can extend through all ten subtleties; within each subtlety all ten meanings are present and can be understood by pursuing their implications.

1. Breaking the Three to Reveal the One

The individual meanings will now be clarified. Breaking the three to reveal the one directly breaks attachment to the three vehicles and reveals the wisdom of the One Buddha. Why? In the past, had the Buddha praised the Buddha-Vehicle at the outset, sentient beings would have sunk into suffering. Because they could not bear the Great Dharma, he recalled the skillful power practiced by buddhas of the past and likewise taught the three vehicles. Once the three vehicles had been taught, beings made the teaching their boundary, enclosed themselves within attachment to the three vehicles, and no longer sought a better Dharma. Now this attachment is broken and Buddha-wisdom revealed; hence it is said that after the buddhas teach the Dharma for a long time, they necessarily teach the real.

2. Abolishing the Three to Reveal the One

Abolishing the three to reveal the one directly abolishes the teaching of the three vehicles. Even when attachment has been broken, if the teaching grasped is not abolished, the conception that it has fixed reality will grow again like a tree, and attachment to the teaching will again produce delusion. The teaching must therefore be abolished. This means directly relinquishing skillful means and teaching only the unsurpassed path: in buddha lands throughout the ten directions there is only the Dharma of One Vehicle, neither two nor three.

3. Opening the Three to Reveal the One

Opening the three to reveal the one is principally discussed from principle and secondarily from teaching. From teaching, the former teaching says that three kinds of people enter truth, while today’s teaching says that all three kinds can become buddhas. From principle, the true emptiness realized by the two vehicles intrinsically possesses the true mark. Skillful means in the past did not explain this deeply, and so it could not be seen wondrously; now it is opened and revealed that this very emptiness is the true mark. Hence the statements: definitively understanding the Dharma of the śrāvakas, it is the king of the scriptures; opening the gateway of skillful means and revealing the true mark. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra likewise speaks of opening the wisdom-eye for the śrāvakas.

4. Gathering the Three to Reveal the One

Gathering the three to reveal the one is principally discussed from practice. The gathering of the purport in the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that the four establishments of mindfulness, the four dhyānas, and so forth are all Mahāyāna. There it gathers only the Dharma practiced, not yet the person who practices it. The present sutra gathers person, Dharma, and practice together. It therefore says that what you practice is the bodhisattva-path; by cultivating gradually, all will become buddhas. Even bowing the head or raising a hand accomplishes the Buddha-path.

5. Abiding in the One to Reveal the One

Abiding in the one to reveal the one is discussed from the Buddha’s original intent. From the beginning the Buddha transforms sentient beings through real wisdom, teaching the Dharma equally like rain of one flavor. The Buddha himself abides in the Great Vehicle and, in accordance with the Dharma he has attained, adorns it with the powers of concentration and wisdom and uses it to liberate sentient beings. If he were to transform them through the Lesser Vehicle, he would fall into stinginess; that is impossible. One therefore knows that from the night he attained the path he has constantly taught the Middle Way and the Great Vehicle.

Only because sentient beings have karmic obstructions does the Tathāgata smear milk with poison and put on tattered, filthy clothing, harmonizing and enticing through skillful means to lead them toward the Great Vehicle. Thus although he teaches many paths, in reality they are all for the One Vehicle.

6. Abiding in the Three to Reveal the One

Abiding in the three to reveal the one is discussed from the Buddha’s provisional wisdom and skillful transformation. The Buddha recalls the skillful power practiced by buddhas of the past and now acts in the same way. He goes to Vārāṇasī and teaches the five bhikṣus through skillful power. Buddhas of the past likewise abided in the three vehicles while revealing the one, and the present Buddha does the same. Thus he uses different skillful means to help reveal the ultimate meaning. In the past he also reproached the śrāvakas before bodhisattvas, while in reality liberating them through the Great Vehicle.

7. Abiding in Neither Three nor One to Reveal the One

Abiding in neither three nor one to reveal the one can be discussed from both principle and phenomena. From principle, Dharma abides in its Dharma-position and the characteristics of the world constantly abide; this Dharma cannot be revealed. It is also known that Dharmas constantly lack intrinsic nature and that the buddha-seed arises through conditions. Lacking intrinsic nature is neither three nor one; arising through conditions means using three kinds of conditions to reveal the one and enable beings to gather into neither three nor one.

From phenomena, it means the human and heavenly vehicles. These two are not included within the three vehicles and are not the One Buddha-Vehicle, yet the Buddha constantly uses them to lead sentient beings into the Great Vehicle. Bowing the head and raising a hand both accomplish the Buddha-path. Whenever the Buddha encounters sentient beings, he teaches them all through the Buddha-path.

8. Covering the Three to Reveal the One

Covering the three to reveal the one is discussed from the many operations of provisional wisdom’s skillful means. The provisional Dharma previously used to liberate sentient beings removed only their illness, not the Dharma itself. The Dharma is not removed because it must remain available to transform later faculties. If that Dharma were destroyed, what could be used for later transformation? When faculties subside, the three are covered; when faculties arise, they are employed again. This is true not only of the Buddha but also of bodhisattvas who have already entered reality. If someone does not trust this Dharma, they reveal, teach, benefit, and gladden that person within other profound Dharmas.

9. Abiding in the Three and Using the One

Abiding in the three and using the one is discussed from the retinues who are wondrous responsive manifestations of Dharma-body. The preceding abiding in the three to reveal the one belongs to the teacher’s gate; abiding in the three and using the one here belongs to the disciples’ gate. Those such as Pūrṇa are in reality Dharma-body bodhisattvas, yet appear as śrāvakas. They seem to abide in the three vehicles while constantly revealing the one, benefiting fellow practitioners of the pure life and bringing benefit to both self and others.

10. Abiding in the One and Using the Three

Abiding in the one and using the three is discussed from original vows. When Flower-Light became a buddha, he vowed to teach the three vehicles even though his land was not an evil world. The present Buddha likewise vowed before Treasure-Treasury Buddha to teach these three vehicles in an evil world. The great function of the provisional and real wisdoms encompasses the entire Dharma realm; how could it be limited to ten? Ten are stated briefly only to reveal the function of the ten subtleties.

The ten functions correspond to the ten subtleties as follows: breaking the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of wisdom; abolishing the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of teaching the Dharma; opening the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of objects; gathering the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of practice; abiding in the one to reveal the one employs the subtlety of the vehicle; abiding in the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of stimulus-and-response; abiding in neither three nor one to reveal the one employs the subtlety of supernormal power; covering the three to reveal the one employs the subtlety of stages; abiding in the three and using the one employs the subtlety of retinues; abiding in the one and using the three employs the subtlety of benefit. When these ten functions are correlated with the ten subtleties, their wording and meaning are distinguished from one another and their general intent can be understood.

Third Division, Part Two: Ten Functions within the Origin

The effective power of the Origin is likewise divided into ten meanings. Following the wording of the sutra, one should call this opening the near to reveal the distant; following the meaning, one should call it Origin and Trace. The near is simply called Trace and the distant Origin. The names differ, but the meaning is the same.

The ten functions are: first, breaking the Trace to reveal the Origin; second, abolishing the Trace to reveal the Origin; third, opening the Trace to reveal the Origin; fourth, gathering the Trace to reveal the Origin; fifth, abiding in the Origin to reveal the Origin; sixth, abiding in the Trace to reveal the Origin; seventh, abiding in neither Trace nor Origin to reveal the Origin; eighth, covering the Trace to reveal the Origin; ninth, abiding in the Trace and using the Origin; tenth, abiding in the Origin and using the Trace. In the general meaning, every subtlety within the Origin possesses all ten meanings; they will now be individually explained.

1. Breaking the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Breaking the Trace to reveal the Origin likewise breaks attachment to the near Trace. Passages in the chapters “Introduction,” “Skillful Means,” and “Beholding the Jeweled Stūpa” have already shaken attachment to the near Trace and produced questions. When Mañjuśrī answered Maitreya, he said that eight princes formerly studied under Miaoguang. Miaoguang first occupied the stage of one remaining birth, and a prince later became a buddha named Dīpaṃkara. A disciple of Dīpaṃkara later became the Buddha Śākyamuni, while Miaoguang instead appeared as the disciple Mañjuśrī. This exchange of the positions of teacher and disciple shakes attachment to the near Trace and produces the question: how could this be possible?

The answer now given is that one awaiting one remaining birth did not linger without progress, and a disciple did not leap ahead out of sequence. The reality is that Śākyamuni attained the path long ago, appeared as a disciple in the past, and appears as the teacher today. Brushing away this doubt concerning the near Trace reveals the wisdom of the Origin; this is called breaking the Trace to reveal the Origin.

“Skillful Means” says that from distant kalpas onward he has praised and revealed the path to nirvāṇa, that the suffering of birth-and-death is forever exhausted, and that he has constantly taught in this way. One should therefore know that his birth-and-death was exhausted long ago; he did not begin to enter nirvāṇa only at some intermediate time. The jeweled stūpa emerges, proving that the manifested cessation is in fact noncessation and thus constant precisely within Trace. All the emanation buddhas gather, countless throughout the eight directions. Since the emanation bodies are so numerous, one knows that buddhahood was attained long ago, like lotus leaves gradually accumulating until they cover a pond. When the passages in these three chapters are investigated, they have already produced a gradually building power to break the Trace.

Next the bodhisattvas emerge from beneath the earth. They were neither taught at the bodhimaṇḍa of quiescent cessation nor transformed by emanation buddhas in other directions. Maitreya knows the people of both those places, yet does not recognize the assembly that now appears and is therefore astonished and doubtful. The present sutra breaks this attachment to the near and reveals the distant Origin. Thus it says that the whole world believes Śākyamuni left the Śākya palace and attained perfect awakening not far from Gayā, yet in reality immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas have passed since he became a buddha.

The Buddha directly raises a number of worlds and questions Maitreya. Maitreya does not know even that number, much less the number of dust motes within those worlds. This breaks attachment to recent awakening and produces wisdom concerning the distant past.

2. Abolishing the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Abolishing the Trace to reveal the Origin is also discussed from teaching the Dharma. In the past, because the obstructions of the five turbidities were heavy, the distant Origin could not be taught directly and only a manifestation of recent awakening could be shown. Now that the obstructions have been removed and the faculties stirred, the Trace of recent awakening taught beneath the bodhi tree near the royal city must be abolished and revealed as entirely skillful means. Once the mind attached to recent awakening has been severed, the view that seals the teaching of recent awakening as ultimate also ceases.

The sutra says that since attaining buddhahood in the distant past, he has constantly taught and transformed beings in this Sahā world and has likewise guided and benefited sentient beings in hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of asaṃkhyeyas of other lands. This abolishes the teaching of a single period of near Trace and reveals the teaching of the distant Origin.

3. Opening the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Opening the Trace to reveal the Origin can be discussed from both Dharma and principle. Dīpaṃkara Buddha in Mañjuśrī’s account, the praise and revelation of the path to nirvāṇa from the distant past, and the emanation buddhas of every direction are teachings within Trace that originally carried the meaning of revealing the Origin; deluded people simply did not comprehend their profound intent. To reveal the Origin now, one need not leave the near Trace and search for another road. One need only open the near Trace and point out the essential meaning of the Origin within it.

From principle, when the Trace of skillful means is deeply contemplated, the principle of the Origin naturally appears. The sutra says that in reality it has been such a long time since he became a buddha, and that he merely uses skillful means to transform sentient beings and lead them into the Buddha-path. Since they enter the Buddha-path, they obtain the Origin within the Trace.

4. Gathering the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Gathering the Trace to reveal the Origin is discussed from practice. Examining the various practices within Trace, some practiced beneath this buddha and received a prediction, while others practiced beneath another buddha and received a prediction. At times one’s own body was manifested, and at times another’s body; one responded to faculties through manifestations long or short, great or small. All practices within Trace descend from the Origin. Gathering past and present therefore means gathering the various Traces to reveal the Origin. Although Origin and Trace differ, at the inconceivable point they are one.

The sutra says: Good sons, in the interval he spoke of Dīpaṃkara Buddha and the others, and also said that those buddhas entered nirvāṇa; all of these were distinctions made through skillful means. This is the meaning of gathering the Trace to reveal the Origin.

5. Abiding in the Origin to Reveal the Origin

Abiding in the Origin to reveal the Origin is discussed from the Buddha’s original intent. Bodhisattvas from beneath the earth abide in space, the Dharma-body Buddha teaches Dharma-body bodhisattvas, Dharma-body bodhisattvas cultivate the path, and only the One Vehicle is taught. The sutra says that the Sahā world is made entirely of gold and filled with humans and devas. It also says that although the people see the world burn away, his pure land is not destroyed. To perform such profound contemplation is the mark of deep faith and understanding. Constantly abiding in the Origin constantly reveals the Origin. The sutra further says that it has been immensely long since he became a buddha, that his lifespan is immeasurable asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas, and that he constantly abides without cessation. This is abiding in the Origin to reveal the Origin.

6. Abiding in the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Abiding in the Trace to reveal the Origin is discussed from the meaning of Trace: Śākyamuni abides in a physical body and reveals the one. Because he reveals the one, the jeweled stūpa of an ancient buddha emerges. Because the stūpa emerges, the emanation buddhas are summoned. Because the emanation buddhas gather, someone to propagate the sutra is sought. Because someone to propagate it is sought, the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth appear. Because they appear, Maitreya becomes doubtful and asks. Because he asks, the Buddha teaches the distant lifespan, shaking attachment to the near and dispelling doubt. This is abiding in the Trace to reveal the Origin.

The sutra says that through the Buddha-eye he observes such faculties as faith and, through various skillful means, teaches the wondrous Dharma and enables sentient beings to produce joyful minds.

7. Abiding in Neither Trace nor Origin to Reveal the Origin

Abiding in neither Trace nor Origin to reveal the Origin is a dark correspondence reached where language ceases. Precisely because it is neither Origin nor Trace, it can be Origin and can be Trace. Formerly what was not Trace sent down Trace; today what is not Origin reveals Origin. The sutra says: neither real nor false, neither such nor different. The Tathāgata clearly sees all such matters.

8. Covering the Trace to Reveal the Origin

Covering the Trace to reveal the Origin likewise has many forms according to the responses of faculties. If attachment to Trace obscures the Origin, Trace is temporarily covered so that attachment ceases. Later, for different faculties, Trace must still be used again; the lion’s vigorous power is therefore present. The sutra says that he uses various words, causes and conditions, similes, and kinds of teaching; the buddha-work he performs has never ceased even for a moment.

9. Abiding in the Trace and Using the Origin

The preceding abiding in the Trace to reveal the Origin merely accords with faculties within Trace and uses skillful means to reveal the principle of the Origin. Abiding in the Trace and using the Origin, as discussed now, proceeds through the many intervening Traces down to recent awakening beneath the bodhi tree, manifesting birth and cessation again and again. In other bodies and other affairs as well, the Buddha uses the Origin’s real cause, real fruit, and various Dharmas of the Origin to perform buddha-work for sentient beings. This explains abiding in the Trace and using the Origin from the teacher’s side.

From the disciples’ side, wondrous responsive retinues from the time of the Origin abide in provisional Trace, send down forms into the nine paths, and use the Dharma of the Origin to benefit sentient beings. The sutra says that he is not now truly entering cessation, yet proclaims that he will enter cessation; the Tathāgata uses this skillful means to transform sentient beings. This is abiding in Trace while using the cessation realized at the time of the Origin to manifest cessation.

10. Abiding in the Origin and Using the Trace

Abiding in the Origin and using the Trace means that while the Origin remains unmoved, Trace pervades the Dharma realm. What is originally unborn manifests birth, and what is originally unceasing manifests cessation, constantly employing these Traces to benefit and moisten sentient beings. This is the explanation from the teacher’s side.

From the disciples’ side, Dharma-body bodhisattvas abide in the Origin through the Dharma of nonabiding and employ provisional wisdom without contrivance, making functions within Trace inexhaustible. The sutra says: Good sons, the Dharma of the buddhas, the tathāgatas, is entirely like this; everything done to liberate sentient beings is real and not false. The Buddha disperses himself to respond to various conditions. Because the scriptural passages are brief and their sequence does not correspond completely, ten headings are now used to establish the meaning. The citations from “The Lifespan of the Tathāgata” are complete at this point.

The root treatise next correlates the ten functions within the Origin with the subtleties. Breaking the Trace to reveal the Origin and gathering the Trace to reveal the Origin respectively employ the subtlety of the original cause. Opening the Trace to reveal the Origin respectively employs the subtlety of the original fruit. Abiding in the Origin to reveal the Origin respectively employs the subtlety of the original land. Abolishing the Trace to reveal the Origin respectively employs the subtlety of teaching the Dharma in the Origin. Abiding in neither Trace nor Origin respectively employs the subtlety of stimulus-and-response in the Origin. Covering the Trace to reveal the Origin respectively employs the subtlety of supernormal power in the Origin. Abiding in the Trace and using the Origin respectively employs the subtlety of the original lifespan and also the subtlety of the original retinues. Abiding in the Origin and using the Trace respectively employs the subtlety of original nirvāṇa and also the subtlety of original benefit.

Fourth Division: Gathering the Twenty Functions into the Four Siddhāntas

The provisional and real wisdoms unfold as ten different kinds of function, like teaching with one voice while sentient beings each understand according to their kind. Breaking and abolishing within the Trace open the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing for the seven expedients; breaking and abolishing within the Origin enable bodhisattvas numerous as the sands of the Ganges to sever doubt and advance along the path. These are all meanings of the four siddhāntas and all serve to mature sentient beings. The two groups of ten functions will therefore each be gathered into the four siddhāntas: first the ten functions within the Trace, then the ten functions within the Origin.

Separate Binding of the Ten Functions within the Trace

The Trace has two forms of binding: first separate binding, then general binding.

In separate binding, opening the three to reveal the one, abiding in the three and using the one, and gathering the three into the one belong to the individually adapted siddhānta. Why? Sentient beings are already habituated to these three Dharmas; they now continue to cultivate the one through the three. They need not change roads but only deeply contemplate these three, and the one principle naturally appears. The one is originally present within the three, and no separate choosing between three and one is needed; opening the three to reveal the one therefore belongs to the individually adapted siddhānta. Abiding in the three and using the one is the same: one cultivates the One Buddha-path precisely through these three. Pūrṇa, for example, abides in the identity of a śrāvaka yet benefits both himself and fellow practitioners of the pure life. Giving rise to understanding of the one without changing the three Dharmas belongs in every case to the individually adapted siddhānta.

Breaking, abolishing, and covering the three belong to the counteractive siddhānta. Sentient beings are enclosed within the three and doubt the one, so their attachment is refuted, the provisional teaching abolished, and the provisional Dharma covertly covered. The illness of attachment is thereby removed, and they enter the path of one reality and abide in real wisdom.

Abiding in the three to reveal the one and abiding in the one and using the three belong to the worldly siddhānta. The worldly siddhānta takes the desires of sentient beings as its basis. If they seek only the paths of the three vehicles and do not wish to hear the teaching of one reality, the Buddha himself abides in the one while according with them and teaching the three. The conditions of the three vehicles differ from one another, like worlds separated from one another, and this is therefore called the worldly siddhānta. Abiding in the three to reveal the one likewise belongs to the worldly siddhānta, because the Buddha accords with persons and Dharmas, abides in skillful means, matures the faculties, and reveals the one.

Abiding in the one to reveal the one and abiding in neither three nor one to reveal the one belong to the siddhānta of ultimate meaning.

General Binding of Each Function within the Trace

When the four siddhāntas are discussed generally, even breaking the three to reveal the one alone can produce four kinds of benefit. How? A noble person delights in hearing of his faults, while a petty person hates to hear of his errors. Someone who wishes to know his faults will certainly correct them, thereby breaking attachment, removing illness, and joyfully practicing; this is the worldly siddhānta. If someone attached to the three cannot advance along the path, hearing the three broken and the one followed produces awakening and increases wholesome Dharma; this is the individually adapted siddhānta. Attachment to the three is an illness, while teaching the one enables one to attain ease; this is the counteractive siddhānta. Hearing the three broken and thereby seeing principle is the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. The other nine functions can all be inferred accordingly. One thus knows that the Buddha’s skillful means perfectly fit the faculties and enable sentient beings each to receive benefit. This is the power of the four siddhāntas.

Separate and General Binding of the Ten Functions within the Origin

The ten functions within the Origin are likewise gathered into the four siddhāntas at both separate and general levels.

In separate binding, abiding in the Trace to reveal the Origin and abiding in the Origin and using the Trace belong to the worldly siddhānta, meaning that they accord with the desires of sentient beings as explained above. Opening the Trace to reveal the Origin, gathering the Trace to reveal the Origin, and abiding in the Trace and using the Origin belong to the individually adapted siddhānta. No change of road or separate practice is needed; one still practices through the Dharma of the Origin and reveals the Origin, as explained above. Breaking, abolishing, and covering the Trace belong to the counteractive siddhānta. Abiding in the Origin to reveal the Origin and abiding in neither Origin nor Trace to reveal the Origin belong to the siddhānta of ultimate meaning, likewise as explained above.

Next, when any one division is gathered generally into the four siddhāntas, it accords with the foregoing. The remaining nine divisions can all be understood accordingly as fully possessing them.

Fifth Division: The Four Siddhāntas Share Their Names but Differ in Function

Other scriptures also employ the four siddhāntas and speak of breaking the three to reveal the one, breaking the Trace to reveal the Origin, and similar formulations, yet they differ from the present sutra. This too has two parts: first, clarifying the difference through the Trace; second, clarifying the difference through the Origin.

From the Trace, the Tripiṭaka Teaching also employs the four siddhāntas and contains meanings of breaking, abolishing, and the rest, but only for nirvāṇa with remainder and nirvāṇa without remainder. The shared prajñā of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra likewise employs the four siddhāntas and contains meanings of breaking, establishing, abolishing, and the rest, but only for awakening to truth and not yet for distant fulfillment. The vaipulya teachings likewise break the three to reveal the one and are partly the same for bodhisattvas, but those of the two vehicles cannot enter reality. Thus the ten disciples were rebuked by Vimalakīrti as falling into the eight wrongs and not entering the assembly. These are all words of refutation. Although the scripture praises the inconceivable path of the Great Vehicle and in every case employs the four siddhāntas, those of the two vehicles still do not understand.

The present sutra employs the four siddhāntas in a way that enables those of the two vehicles to sever doubt, remove attachment, enter the Buddha’s true path, and receive predictions of buddhahood. One therefore knows that its use of the four siddhāntas is supremely skillful and wondrous. The sutra speaks of gentle words that delight the minds of the assembly. When Śāriputra expresses his understanding, he also says that the Buddha teaches skillfully through various causes, conditions, and similes; the Buddha’s mind is calm as the sea, and after hearing, Śāriputra’s net of doubt is severed until he abides in real wisdom. This precisely clarifies the present sutra’s function.

Someone further asks: the Lotus reveals the one today only by relying upon earlier refutations. Without that prior training and maturation, understanding could not occur today. Why, then, is the merit attributed only to the present sutra?

The answer is that understanding today indeed depends upon rebuke and reproach in the past, but the merit of accomplishment belongs to the present sutra and cannot be named as an attainment of those former teachings. It is like a hundred people surrounding a thief together. The power of attack and encirclement truly relies upon them all, yet the one who actually captures the thief receives the merit; the merit does not belong to the hundred.

Through opening the provisional to reveal the real, the present sutra’s great function of the four siddhāntas is supremely strong and forceful. In disclosing the Trace to reveal the Origin, the four siddhāntas differ forever more from those in the various scriptures. Why? The effective power within the Trace already exceeds the various teachings. Other scriptures possess not even one of the ten functions within the Origin, much less all ten. The siddhāntas within the Trace already exceed those in the various scriptures. Other scriptures possess not even one siddhānta within the Origin, much less all four. Their intent can be pursued accordingly and need not be recorded at greater length.