摩訶止觀 攝法

The Buddha-Dharma has so many names: principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching, along with countless samādhis, factors of the path, and scriptures. Can it really be enough to say only “calming-and-contemplation”?

Zhiyi first gives two similes. Calming is like cauterizing an illness and finding the point: once the point is accurate, every ailment can be removed. Contemplation is like obtaining the jewel king: with this one jewel in hand, all treasures follow. The key is not how many names there are, but whether one has found the root that makes mind quiescent and principle clear.

A complete road then appears. The nature of principle constantly abides. Confusion about principle gives rise to delusion; accord with principle gives rise to wisdom; understanding is implemented as practice; practice realizes stations; and, when stations are fulfilled, one turns to teach others. From principle to delusion, from delusion to wisdom, from wisdom to practice, and onward to stations and teaching, not one step leaves calming-and-contemplation.

Yet embracing the Dharmas is not merely arranging six items in a row. At the end, the treatise says that one principle can embrace the other five Dharmas, and that one delusion, one wisdom, one practice, one station, and one teaching each likewise embraces the whole. For if principle had nothing to do with confusion and awakening, it would be an empty name. If wisdom could not become practice, it would never arrive anywhere. If a station could not transform others, realization would stop with oneself.

Calming-and-contemplation is therefore not a box into which all Dharmas are stuffed. It is more like the quiescence and illumination within every Dharma. Delusion must be illuminated and must also cease. Practice needs the eyes of contemplation and the steady feet of calming. One speaks of stations without grasping them, and of emptiness without destroying cause and result. Teaching unfolds from mind and returns to illuminate mind.

Names can be few, but no step on the road can be omitted. Truly embracing the Dharmas does not mean memorizing that “everything is in calming-and-contemplation.” It means asking within this very Dharma before me: have I seen it clearly, and have I actually brought to rest the mind that keeps it turning?

How Can the Two Names Calming and Contemplation Embrace All Dharmas?

The fourth chapter explains Embracing the Dharmas. Someone doubts that the two names “calming” and “contemplation” are too concise and perhaps cannot gather all Dharmas comprehensively. What follows shows that this is not so. Calming-and-contemplation has the function of total inclusion and can universally gather every Dharma.

Why? Calming can make all Dharmas quiescent, just as finding the right point when cauterizing an illness removes every ailment. Contemplation can illuminate truth, just as obtaining the king of jewels brings every treasure with it; all Buddha-Dharmas are thereby complete. The Great Perfection of Wisdom lists 120 items and all Dharmas, and in every case says that prajñā should be studied. Prajñā is contemplative wisdom. Since contemplative wisdom embraces all Dharmas, nothing is outside contemplation. Calming, moreover, is the king samādhi into which all samādhis enter.

The comprehensive embrace of Dharmas by calming-and-contemplation is now explained broadly through six intents: first, embracing all principle; second, embracing all delusion; third, embracing all wisdom; fourth, embracing all practice; fifth, embracing all stations; and sixth, embracing all teaching.

Why are these six arranged in this order? Whether a Buddha appears in the world or does not appear, the nature of principle constantly abides unchanged. Because sentient beings lose sight of principle, the delusions of cyclic birth and death arise. Because they contemplate in accord with principle, wisdom is discussed next. With understanding, practice is established. Through practice, stations are realized. Once stations are fulfilled, one teaches and transforms others. Phenomena and principle, understanding and practice, cause and result, self and others, and every other preceding and following sequence are all embraced by calming-and-contemplation.

1. Embracing All Principle

The three calmings and three contemplations embrace all principle. Principle is the Dharma of truths. As explained earlier, it may be opened and gathered in different ways and distinguished as partial or perfect, but in summary it does not exceed the two principles provisional and real. Beyond provisional and real there is no other principle. Just as there is no sandalwood anywhere apart from Mount Moli, to say that another principle exists outside provisional and real would be false speech. Since calming-and-contemplation discloses the real essence, it also embraces all principle.

2. Embracing All Delusion

Calming-and-contemplation also embraces all delusion. Because sentient beings are confused about the principle of truth, they give rise to the delusions that perpetuate cyclic birth and death. What is called confusion is ignorance.

Delusions within the Realms from Confusion about Provisional Principle

Confusion about provisional principle gives rise to associated ignorance, solitary-head ignorance, and the rest within the three realms. Ignorance joined with the various dispositions of the delusions of views and thoughts is called “associated.” Ignorance not associated with them is called “solitary-head.”

Because one does not understand the present matter, craving arises. Not understanding is “ignorance.” The activation of craving is “formations.” The mind that craves is “consciousness.” Consciousness arising together with the remaining aggregates of feeling, perception, and formations and with form is “name-and-form.” The material body activating the faculties is the “six entrances.” The six entrances reaching toward an object is “contact.” Contact conforming to the object conditioned is “feeling.” Delight arising toward the object felt is “craving.” Craving together with the bonds born along with it is “grasping.” The karma producing a future birth is “existence.” The arising of the five aggregates in the future is “birth.” The maturation of the five aggregates is “aging.” Their abandonment is “death.”

These twelve links turn like a wheel and in succession become causes and results for one another. Affliction communicates with karma, karma with suffering, and suffering again with affliction; together they are therefore called the “three paths.”

The wording of the Satyasiddhi Śāstra says that the functions of intention operate first within the latter three kinds of karma, while the actions of body and speech operate later within the former seven. The former seven are both karma and paths leading toward later lives. The latter three are not karma, but they lead to the former seven and therefore may also be called paths.

Scripture also calls the twelve links the “twelve entangling connections” and the “twelve wheels.” Because their binding is not exhausted, they are called wheels. Because births in the three times—past, present, and future—are separated from one another, this is called segmentary birth and death. These delusions cover the true truth and prevent sentient beings from liberation; this is illness. Once illness is clarified, its medicine can be known. The medicine is the calming-and-contemplation that enters emptiness from provisionality. Contemplating the medicine can also disclose the illness it treats. Delusions of this kind are therefore embraced by calming-and-contemplation that enters emptiness.

Delusions beyond the Realms from Confusion about Real Principle

Confusion about real principle gives rise to associated ignorance, solitary-head ignorance, and the rest beyond the three realms. Why? Although associated and solitary-head ignorance within the realms has been severed, habituations remain. Hīnayāna Dharma does not classify habituations as primary dispositions, but the Mahāyāna, speaking according to real meaning, treats them as another kind of delusion: ignorance beyond the realms.

The Ratnagotravibhāga therefore says that although people of the Two Vehicles have cultivated counteractions such as impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, they remain inverted with respect to the Buddha’s Dharma body. This inversion corresponds to “ignorance” and belongs to solitary-head ignorance. The karma activated by non-outflow wisdom is “formations.” The three kinds of mind-made body may also, by opening and gathering, be explained as five kinds. Mind there is “consciousness,” while body comprises “name-and-form,” the “six entrances,” “contact,” and “feeling.” The subtle delusions of ignorance and conceptual play not yet exhausted are “craving” and “grasping.” The stains of affliction, karma, and birth not yet exhausted are “existence.” The transference of the causes of the three kinds of mind-made body is “birth,” while the transformation of their retribution is “aging and death.”

Gathering these twelve links together gives the four obstructions in the realm of non-outflow: condition, characteristic, arising, and destruction. Condition belongs to the path of affliction, characteristic to the path of karma, and arising and destruction to the path of suffering. One can therefore know that the twelve links of dependent origination also exist beyond the three realms.

Why? Every station below buddhahood still has ignorance. Ignorance moistens karma; once karma is moistened, how could there be no suffering? Although these twelve links neither retreat into the three realms nor fall into a lower realm, ignorance can still revolve toward aging and death, and aging and death toward ignorance. The delusion that obstructs real principle is precisely this. It is treated by the two contemplations that enter provisionality and the Middle.

Discerning Sharp and Dull Faculties in Mind-Made Bodies

A further distinction is needed. Why? The three kinds of mind-made body include several different situations.

People of the Two Vehicles who enter emptiness by analyzing Dharmas or embodying Dharmas, bodhisattvas of the Shared Teaching, and others first exhaust delusions within the three realms but have never cultivated the provisional or middle contemplation. When born beyond the realms, none of their delusions there has been subdued, so their faculties are dull. In contemplating beyond the realms, they must cultivate successively for many eons, learning Buddha-Dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges and first breaking delusions like dust and sand. Although dust-and-sand delusions do not directly moisten birth, they obstruct the path of teaching and transforming sentient beings and must therefore be severed first. Severing dust-and-sand delusions is only an expedient for disciplining one’s mind and can subdue delusions beyond the realms. They then sever the three paths beyond the realms, removing associated and solitary-head ignorance as well as branches and root. Provisional contemplation therefore directly embraces dust-and-sand delusions and also embraces ignorance along with them.

Practitioners of the Separate and Perfect Teachings, by contrast, have first exhausted shared delusions within the realms and have also subdued the distinct delusions beyond the realms. When born beyond the realms, their faculties are sharp. They cultivate only the middle contemplation to treat the three paths beyond the realms. From the first ground through the later grounds, every ground has three paths. At each ground a portion of ignorance is extinguished, karma is extinguished accordingly, and suffering is likewise extinguished. When the associated ignorance of a ground is removed, its solitary-head ignorance is also removed.

Although every ground already has wisdom, that wisdom remains mixed with ignorance not yet exhausted. Because it is mixed, this too may be called an obstruction of wisdom, for it obstructs the next portion of wisdom. Only the Buddha’s mind is entirely free of ignorance, so only there is the path of affliction ultimately exhausted. Because affliction is exhausted, karma is exhausted; because karma is exhausted, suffering is exhausted. Only in the Tathāgata are the three paths ultimately extinguished. Middle contemplation therefore embraces the treatment of delusions beyond the realms.

3. Embracing All Wisdom

Calming-and-contemplation also embraces all wisdom. The ways in which the various kinds of wisdom are opened and gathered have already been explained. When gathered back through the three contemplations, none remains unembraced. Worldly wisdom cannot illuminate principle and has already been included within the eleven wisdoms; if twenty wisdoms are explained broadly, they too are embraced by the three contemplations.

4. Embracing All Practice

Calming-and-contemplation also embraces every practice. The preceding item, wisdom, belongs to understanding; with understanding but without actual practice, one can never reach the goal. Practice has two kinds: wisdom-practice and practice-practice. From the two practices in the Tripiṭaka Teaching through those in the Perfect Teaching, none lies outside these two classes. Wisdom-practice is primary practice, while practice-practice is auxiliary practice.

Vipaśyanā can break afflictions, yet it still needs the power of śamatha to assist right knowledge and vision. Primary and auxiliary practices move with wisdom, like two feet advancing behind the eyes.

In the Tripiṭaka Teaching, contemplating impermanence and analyzing Dharmas to enter emptiness are wisdom-practice; contemplation of impurity, contemplation of kindness, and the rest are practice-practice. Both kinds of practice follow the wisdom that analyzes Dharmas into emptiness.

In the Shared Teaching, directly comprehending all Dharmas as illusions and transformations is wisdom-practice. Cultivating mindfulness of breathing and the establishments of mindfulness through every conditioned Dharma, as well as phenomenal calming-and-contemplation, is practice-practice. Both kinds follow the wisdom that embodies Dharmas and enters emptiness.

When one cultivates wisdom of the varieties of the path to teach and transform sentient beings, conditioning the principle of conventional truth is wisdom-practice, while conditioning the differentiated phenomena of the conventional is practice-practice. Both kinds follow wisdom of the varieties of the path and enter provisionality.

When one conditions true mark through the Middle Way, the one path pure, this is wisdom-practice. Passing through every Dharma gate, knowing that all perfections are Mahāyāna, that the twelve links of dependent origination are themselves buddha-nature, and that the establishments of mindfulness are themselves sitting at the place of awakening, and so forth, is practice-practice. Both kinds follow wisdom of the Middle Way and enter true mark.

The various gates of practice can be embraced through further distinctions:

• In the four root dhyānas, concentration and wisdom are equal, so both calming and contemplation embrace them. Concentration in the desire realm has little concentration and much wisdom and belongs to the embrace of contemplation; the intermediate dhyāna is the same. The four formless concentrations have much concentration and little wisdom and belong to the embrace of calming.
• Among the four immeasurable minds, the first three belong to the embrace of contemplation, while equanimity belongs to calming. The nine perceptions, eight recollections, and ten perceptions all belong to contemplation.
• Of the eight liberations, the first three belong to the embrace of contemplation and the last five to calming. The nine successive concentrations, Lion’s-Spring Samādhi, Transcending Samādhi, and the rest all belong to calming.
• The four establishments of mindfulness take wisdom as their nature and belong to the embrace of contemplation. In the terminology of the Four Intentional Calmings, making mind retain contemplations such as impurity is a calming function and belongs to calming, but contemplation remains primary in the end.
• The four right efforts accomplish the four establishments of mindfulness and in general belong to contemplation. More finely distinguished, preventing the two kinds of evil Dharma from arising belongs to calming, while causing the two kinds of wholesome Dharma to arise belongs to contemplation.
• The four bases of spiritual power attain concentration through four conditions and are named from the result attained; they therefore belong to calming.
• Among the five faculties, faith, effort, and wisdom belong to the embrace of contemplation, while mindfulness and concentration belong to calming. From another perspective, faith and mindfulness may both extend across calming and contemplation. The five powers are the same.
• Among the seven factors of awakening, investigation of Dharmas, joy, effort, and the others apart from equanimity and concentration belong to contemplation. Equanimity and concentration belong to calming, while mindfulness extends across both.
• Among the eight right practices, right view and right intention belong to contemplation. Right action, right speech, and right livelihood belong to precepts and therefore to calming. Right mindfulness, right concentration, and right effort also belong to calming.
• Among the Four Truths, suffering, origin, and path are conditioned practices and belong to the gate of contemplation; cessation is an unconditioned practice and belongs to the gate of calming. All sixteen aspects belong to contemplation.
• The four great vows arise in dependence on the Four Truths, so their assignments follow the preceding meanings.
• Among the eighteen distinctive Dharmas, the three kinds of action following wisdom belong to contemplation, while the three kinds of freedom from error belong to calming. Knowledge of the three times belongs to contemplation; the remaining items may be inferred according to their meanings.
• Among the four fearlessnesses, fearlessness in omniscience belongs to contemplation, freedom from outflows to calming, the path leading to every destination to contemplation, and what obstructs the path to calming.
• The three gates of samādhi belong to calming, while the three gates of liberation belong to contemplation.
• The six perfections can be embraced in three ways. The first three are merit and belong to calming, while the latter three are wisdom and belong to contemplation. Or the first five may all be merit-adornment embraced by calming and prajñā alone embraced by contemplation. Or all six may be described generally as merit-adornment and entirely embraced by calming.

Thus the nine kinds of great dhyāna and the 108 samādhis all belong to the embrace of calming, while the eighteen emptinesses, ten similes, and five hundred dhāraṇīs belong to contemplation. In this way, no wisdom-practice or practice-practice remains outside calming-and-contemplation. One should know that although its name is concise, the meaning it embraces is vast.

5. Embracing All Stations

Calming-and-contemplation also embraces every station.

Someone may say: “One ground is itself the second ground, and the second is itself the third. In quiescent true thusness, where could successive stations exist?” From that perspective there are indeed no successive stations. Yet throughout the Mahāyāna scriptures all stations are also taught. Dharmas neither arise nor cease, and right wisdom has nothing attained, yet it can treat affliction, karma, and suffering. Since purification of the three paths has greater and lesser depths, differences exist within the unconditioned Dharma. What obstruction is there to establishing stations?

When the three paths are severed through analyzing Dharmas and entering emptiness by the four gates of existence, nonexistence, and the rest, the Abhidharma describes the distinctive station-characteristics of seven worthies, seven sages, and four fruits of a śramaṇa; the Satyasiddhi Śāstra describes twenty-seven worthies and sages. Through to stations in the gate of neither existence nor nonexistence, all are embraced by analytical contemplation of emptiness.

When the three paths are severed by directly embodying Dharmas and entering emptiness through the four gates, the shared stations of the Three Vehicles taught in the Great Perfection of Wisdom, from the ground of dry wisdom through the eighth ground, are all embraced by the same calming-and-contemplation that enters emptiness.

If one enters provisionality from emptiness and cultivates differentiated practices without grasping their profound intent, this becomes the stations of the thirty minds that subdue delusion and is embraced by the contemplations of emptiness and provisionality. If one has grasped the intent, can break the three paths, and accomplishes the stations of the ten grounds, it is embraced by the third, middle contemplation. The embrace may also be explained solely through provisional contemplation, and likewise through distinctions according to the four gates.

In the Perfect Teaching, one has faith, understanding, and practice while immediate phenomena are themselves principle. From the station of contemplative practice one enters the station of resemblance, then breaks ignorance and opens, shows, awakens to, and enters the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. The forty-two stations together mount the jeweled vehicle and go directly to the place of awakening. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says that by the fifteenth day the function of moonlight becomes increasingly manifest, a simile for the virtue of wisdom; from the sixteenth day its function gradually diminishes, a simile for the virtue of severance. One may also say that the fourteen prajñās are causal stations while the fifteenth, such as wondrous awakening, is the resultant station. All are embraced by middle contemplation and can likewise be distinguished through the four gates.

Questions and Answers on Stations and No Stations

Question: The Mahāyāna does not teach grounds and stations. What stations could calming-and-contemplation embrace?

Answer: Mahāyāna scriptures and treatises explicitly teach grounds and stations. Afraid of stations, you enter what you call no stations, but still do not escape attachment to “no bondage.” The nature of written words is free and is itself liberation. Although stations are spoken, stations still have no intrinsic nature.

The meaning of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā is this: if, like an opponent of emptiness, one destroys worldly cause and result, then there is no present or future life; if one destroys world-transcending cause and result, then there are no Three Jewels, Four Truths, or four fruits of a śramaṇa. Which kinds of Three Jewels would be absent in the end? If delusions of views were not extinguished, the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa in the Tripiṭaka Teaching could not be established, much less those of the later Shared, Separate, and Perfect Teachings. This rebukes non-Buddhist paths for denying all four kinds of Three Jewels and the rest.

If one rebukes only the clumsy method of crossing, one retains only the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa in the Tripiṭaka Teaching and has none of the fruits of the path in the later three teachings.

After the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā has performed its own refutation, the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa remain established. When analytical Dharma breaks affliction, karma, and suffering within the realms, there are the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa of the Tripiṭaka Teaching. When emptiness that embodies Dharmas breaks delusions, there are those of the later three teachings. Pointing out this key statement can both treat the inner obstructions of Buddhist practitioners and break external paths so as to guard against wrong views. Once the errors of the two extremes and the obstructions retained by the Hīnayāna are removed, the Three Jewels and Four Truths can be rightly established. How could one say that everything is wholly absent?

As for stations and no stations, one cannot ultimately know them without personal realization. For now, one trusts what the Buddha’s teaching says. When the teaching says they exist, the graded stations stand distinctly present; when it says they do not, they open unobstructedly into empty, quiescent purity. No meaning of a phrase is the bodhisattva’s meaning of a phrase. When stations are pointed out within emptiness, the stations themselves cannot be attained, so there should be no contention over them.

The four clauses of the verse in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā can also disclose the meaning of stations.

“Dharmas arising from causes and conditions, I say, are emptiness itself” means breaking affliction, karma, and suffering. There is therefore the stream-enterer’s wisdom and severance of delusion, as well as the bodhisattva’s endurance of nonarising Dharmas. The sixth ground is equal to the Two Vehicles, the seventh cultivates skillful means, and the tenth is like a buddha. The sequence of stations is naturally distinct—how could it be absent?

“They are also called provisional names” means successively breaking the three paths beyond the realms. There are therefore the forty-two stations of worthies and sages—how could they be absent?

“They are also called the meaning of the Middle Way” means perfectly breaking the afflictions of the five dwellings. There are therefore the stations of the six identities—how could they be absent?

These four clauses alone can embrace every station. No station lies outside the four clauses, and the four clauses do not lie outside calming-and-contemplation. This is why the section is called Embracing Stations.

6. Embracing All Teaching

Calming-and-contemplation also embraces all teaching. A Vibhāṣā says that mind can establish names for all Dharmas; without mind, there would be no names for any Dharma. One should therefore know that every worldly and world-transcending name and teaching arises from mind.

If one contemplates mind in a partial and wrong way, departing from right principle and following the stream of ignorance, every evil teaching arises, such as the ninety-five kinds of teaching of wrong views represented by Sāṃkhya and Vaiśeṣika. Mind also gives rise to many wholesome worldly teachings, including the five phases and six cyclical signs, yin and yang and the eight trigrams, the Five Classics, philosophers, histories, and other writings. These are all names and teachings established by worldly wisdom that cannot penetrate the world-transcending path, and all arise from mind.

How Does World-Transcending Teaching Arise from Mind?

How do all world-transcending names and teachings also arise from mind? The Ratnagotravibhāga by Sthiramati says that it is like an immense scripture scroll the size of a great trichiliocosm, recording every matter in that entire cosmos. Scrolls of different sizes corresponding to the medium and small chiliocosms, the four continents, the three realms, and the rest likewise record their matters and are stored in a single mote. This is true of one mote and of every mote.

Later, a person appears in the world and with a pure divine eye sees the immense scroll inside the mote. The person thinks: “Why is such an immense scroll stored inside a mote, unable to benefit all sentient beings?” Skillful means are then employed to break open the mote and bring forth the scroll for the benefit of others.

The scripture scroll of the Tathāgata’s unobstructed wisdom exists complete within the bodies of sentient beings. Only because inversion covers it are sentient beings unable to believe or see it. The Buddha teaches them to cultivate the Eightfold Noble Path and break every falsehood, causing them to see their own wisdom as equal to the Tathāgata’s. This is a simile based on a mote and established by lodging in conditioned phenomena.

There is also a simile stated in dependence upon space. The Treatise on Arousing the Mind of Awakening says that it is like someone who sees the Buddha-Dharma approaching extinction and writes the Tathāgata’s twelve divisions of scripture upward upon space, with every phrase and graph clearly complete, although no sentient being knows of them. After a long time, another person travels through space, sees the scriptural text, and laments: “Why do sentient beings neither know nor see it?” That person copies down the text, displays it, and guides sentient beings.

What does it mean to copy the scripture? It means causing sentient beings to cultivate the Eightfold Noble Path, break falsehood, and so forth.

There are several modes of cultivation. If one contemplates mind’s causes and conditions as arising and ceasing and impermanent and accordingly cultivates the Eightfold Noble Path, one writes out the scripture of the Tripiṭaka Teaching. If one contemplates mind’s conditionally arisen Dharmas as empty in their very essence and accordingly cultivates the Eightfold Noble Path, one writes out the scripture of the Shared Teaching. If one contemplates the Dharmas discriminated and reckoned by mind as immeasurable, beyond the knowing of ordinary beings and the Two Vehicles and visible only to bodhisattvas possessing the Dharma eye, and accordingly cultivates immeasurable forms of the Eightfold Noble Path, one writes out the scripture of the Separate Teaching. If one contemplates mind in its very essence as buddha-nature and perfectly cultivates the Eightfold Noble Path, one writes out the scripture of the Middle Way. Thus all Dharmas are disclosed as coming forth from mind. Mind is itself Mahāyāna; mind is itself buddha-nature; practitioners personally see their own wisdom as equal to the Tathāgata’s.

The teachings are next classified and embraced through contemplation of mind. Contemplating mind in its very essence as provisional and as Middle embraces the Avataṃsaka scriptures. Contemplating conditionally arisen Dharmas in mind as arising and ceasing embraces the Tripiṭaka Teaching of the Four Āgamas, like the flavor of milk. Contemplating mind as empty in its very essence embraces the shared prajñā, like the flavor of curds. Contemplating conditionally arisen Dharmas in mind fully as empty, provisional, and Middle in their very essence embraces the Vaipulya Teaching, like raw cream. Employing only the three contemplations of immediate emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle embraces the Great Perfection of Wisdom, like clarified cream. Contemplating mind with only immediate middle contemplation embraces the Lotus, opening the one great work of the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, the scripture of upright ghee. Contemplating mind through the mutual identity of the four clauses gives the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, in which all equally see buddha-nature, also a scripture of ghee.

The simile of the five levels—milk, curds, raw cream, clarified cream, and ghee—further explains indeterminate teaching. If one contemplates dependent origination and also contemplates dependent origination as itself buddha-nature and buddha-nature as itself the Tathāgata, this is called killing a person in milk. If one contemplates analytical Dharma-emptiness and also contemplates analytical emptiness as itself buddha-nature and buddha-nature as itself the Tathāgata, it is called killing a person in curds. If one contemplates emptiness in the very essence and also contemplates immediate emptiness as itself buddha-nature, it is called killing a person in raw cream. If one contemplates provisional names and also contemplates provisional names as themselves buddha-nature, it is called killing a person in clarified cream. If one contemplates the immediate middle and also contemplates the immediate middle as itself buddha-nature, it is called killing a person in ghee.

Here “killing a person” throughout means that the two kinds of birth and death have been severed and the three paths of affliction, karma, and suffering purified. This is how calming-and-contemplation embraces indeterminate teaching.

The foregoing only explains the embrace of teaching in brief. Explained broadly, every scriptural teaching can be embraced by calming-and-contemplation; none remains outside its reach.

Mind’s embrace of all teachings also has two meanings in brief. First, all Dharma gates are complete within the minds of sentient beings. The Tathāgata clearly examines and sees the Dharmas in their minds, then teaches according to those minds; immeasurable teachings therefore issue from mind. Second, in the past the Tathāgata cultivated gradual and sudden contemplation of mind, complete in partial and perfect forms. According to those contemplations of mind, the Tathāgata teaches sentient beings and instructs disciples to learn from the Tathāgata’s breaking open the mote and bringing forth the scroll, and also to learn to write the scriptural text upward upon space. Every scriptural teaching is therefore embraced by the three calmings and three contemplations.

One Dharma Can Also Embrace All Dharmas

The preceding six intents embrace Dharmas in sequence and are readily understood. Now it is stated directly that any one of the six Dharmas can embrace all Dharmas.

First, one principle embraces not only all principle but also every delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching.

Second, one delusion embraces not only all delusion but also every principle, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching.

Third, one wisdom embraces not only all wisdom but also every principle, delusion, practice, station, and teaching.

Fourth, one practice embraces not only all practice but also every principle, delusion, wisdom, station, and teaching.

Fifth, one station embraces not only all stations but also every principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, and teaching.

Sixth, one teaching embraces not only all teaching but also every principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, and station.

Thus, although calming-and-contemplation has a name of only two words, nothing in principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, or teaching—and nothing in the complete opening and gathering of any one Dharma—lies outside it.

“The names calming-and-contemplation are concise; their embrace of Dharmas is incomplete.” The doubt is entirely natural. Worldly and world-transcending Dharmas are so numerous: principle may be provisional or real, delusion internal or external, wisdom and practice shallow or deep, while stations and gates of teaching each unfold in their own way. If only calming and contemplation are spoken, do two simple names merely cover over the differences among Dharmas?

The treatise does not answer by first adding more names. It points out that calming-and-contemplation already stands at the vital point of all Dharmas. Calming makes them quiescent, like cauterizing illness and finding the point: once the point is accurate, every ailment is removed. Contemplation illuminates principle, like obtaining the jewel king: with this one jewel in hand, all treasures are acquired. Calming is not another Dharma outside the many samādhis, but the king samādhi into which they all enter. Nor is contemplation one wisdom outside the many wisdoms; none of the Dharmas that prajñā should study departs from contemplative wisdom. There are only two names, yet their function reaches the root directly.

The Six Embraces Are Not Six Boxes

The embrace of Dharmas by calming-and-contemplation first opens six intents: principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching. They do not pack the Buddha-Dharma into six unrelated boxes. They form one complete sequence extending from principle to persons.

Whether a Buddha appears or does not appear, the nature of principle constantly abides. Sentient beings are confused about principle, and so the delusions of birth and death arise. They contemplate in accord with principle, and so there is wisdom. Understanding without implementation can never reach its destination, so practice is established from understanding. Practice leads to realization of stations. When stations are fulfilled, one turns to teaching and transforming others. Principle and phenomena, understanding and practice, cause and result, and self and others follow one another within this sequence.

First is embracing principle. Although the principle of truths may be opened and gathered according to faculties, and although partial and perfect or provisional and real differ, no separate principle exists outside provisional and real. Just as there is no sandalwood beyond Mount Moli, establishing another principle would be a false addition. Since calming-and-contemplation can disclose Dharma-essence, no principle is left outside what it discloses.

Delusion Is Not a Mass of Darkness but a Turning Wheel

Second is embracing delusion. Delusion arises from confusion about principle, and confusion is ignorance. Confusion about provisional principle gives rise to associated and solitary-head ignorance within the three realms. Ignorance joined with the dispositions of views and thoughts is called associated; ignorance not associated with them is called solitary-head. From this one thought of not knowing, craving is activated, and the establishment of birth and death can be seen along the twelve links. Not knowing is ignorance; the movement of craving is formations; the craving mind is consciousness. Consciousness arising with the other aggregates is name-and-form; form activating the faculties becomes the six entrances; faculties adhering to objects become contact; contact conforming to objects becomes feeling; delight within feeling becomes craving; the bonds born from craving become grasping; making future karma becomes existence; the future aggregates arising become birth; the aggregates maturing become aging; abandoning them becomes death.

The twelve links do not stop when their list reaches aging and death. Affliction communicates with karma, karma with suffering, and suffering again with affliction; the three paths are bound together. Aging and death can still revolve back to ignorance, hence the name wheel. Births in the three times are separated from one another, hence segmentary. This wheel covers the true truth and prevents liberation, so it is the illness to be treated. Once the illness is known, the medicine is known as calming-and-contemplation that enters emptiness from provisionality. Observing the medicine’s action can in turn clarify the illness. All delusions within the realms are therefore embraced by calming-and-contemplation that enters emptiness.

Confusion about real principle means that associated and solitary-head ignorance remain beyond the three realms. Although delusions within the realms have been severed, habituations remain. Although the Two Vehicles treat them through impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, inversion remains with respect to the Buddha’s Dharma body. Karma produced by non-outflow wisdom may therefore correspond to formations; mind-made bodies to consciousness, name-and-form, the six entrances, contact, and feeling; subtle delusions and conceptual play not yet exhausted to craving and grasping; the three stains not yet exhausted to existence; and the transference of mind-made causes and transformation of their results to birth, aging, and death. The twelve links then gather into four obstructions—condition, characteristic, arising, and destruction—without leaving the three paths of affliction, karma, and suffering.

Although the twelve-spoked wheel beyond the realms does not fall back into the three realms, it still turns from ignorance to aging and death and from aging and death to ignorance. Those of dull faculties first sever delusions within the realms but have not cultivated the provisional and middle contemplations. Born beyond the realms, they must spend eons learning Buddha-Dharmas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, first breaking dust-and-sand delusions that obstruct teaching others and then advancing to sever the three paths beyond the realms. Provisional contemplation directly treats dust-and-sand delusions and can also subdue ignorance. Those of sharp faculties have exhausted shared delusions and subdued distinct delusions; they need only cultivate middle contemplation. From the first ground through the later grounds, portions of ignorance are extinguished and karma and suffering extinguished portion by portion along with it. Only in the Buddha’s mind is ignorance entirely absent and the three paths ultimately pure. What calming-and-contemplation embraces as delusion is therefore not merely a temporary affliction, but the whole picture of how birth and death begin, continue, and cease layer by layer.

Eyes Still Need Feet

Third is embracing wisdom. Worldly wisdom does not illuminate principle, while every kind of world-transcending wisdom, however extensively opened or gathered, can be embraced by the three contemplations. Yet understanding without implementation reaches nowhere, so the fourth intent immediately follows: embracing practice.

The treatise does not list the eleven or twenty wisdoms again here; “as explained above” carries forward the preceding discussion. Although worldly wisdom cannot illuminate principle, it has already been included among the eleven wisdoms. If twenty wisdoms are explained more broadly, the three contemplations still embrace them completely. Classifications may open or gather, but no function of contemplative wisdom illuminating principle is omitted.

Practice divides into wisdom-practice and practice-practice. Wisdom-practice is primary and practice-practice auxiliary. Vipaśyanā can break afflictions, yet śamatha is still needed to assist right knowledge and vision. Primary and auxiliary practices move with wisdom like two feet following the eyes: the eyes discern direction and the feet make arrival possible. The Tripiṭaka Teaching takes impermanence and analytical Dharma as wisdom-practice and impurity, kindness, and the rest as practice-practice. The Shared Teaching takes embodying Dharmas as illusion for wisdom-practice and mindfulness of breathing, establishments of mindfulness, and phenomenal calming-and-contemplation for practice-practice. Conditioning conventional principle to transform sentient beings is wisdom-practice, while passing through conventional phenomena is practice-practice. Conditioning the true mark of the Middle Way so the one path is pure is wisdom-practice; passing through every Dharma gate and seeing all perfections as Mahāyāna and the twelve links as themselves buddha-nature is practice-practice.

This primary and auxiliary pair can expand to embrace all gates of practice on the path. Where concentration and wisdom are equal, calming and contemplation both embrace the gate. Little concentration and much wisdom inclines toward contemplation; much concentration and little wisdom toward calming. The four immeasurable minds, nine perceptions, eight recollections, ten perceptions, eight liberations, and nine successive concentrations are assigned according to quiescing or illuminating. The four establishments of mindfulness take wisdom as their nature and emphasize contemplation; when termed the Four Intentional Calmings and used to make mind retain impurity and the other contemplations, they also have a calming function. The four right efforts may generally belong to contemplation but may be distinguished so that preventing evil belongs to calming and causing goodness to grow to contemplation. The four bases of spiritual power obtain concentration through causes and are named from the result, so they belong to calming.

The five faculties, five powers, seven factors of awakening, and Eightfold Path are likewise divided according to function, with mindfulness sometimes extending across both sides. Among the Four Truths, conditioned practices belong to contemplation and unconditioned cessation to calming; the sixteen aspects belong to contemplation. The four great vows arise from the Four Truths. The eighteen distinctive Dharmas and four fearlessnesses enter calming or contemplation according to the functions of threefold action, freedom from error, knowledge of the three times, omniscience, exhaustion of outflows, the path to destinations, and obstruction of the path. The three gates of samādhi are embraced by calming and the three gates of liberation by contemplation. The six perfections may be divided so that the first three belong to merit and the latter three to wisdom, or the first five to merit and prajñā to contemplation, or all six as merit-adornment to calming. Through to the nine great dhyānas and 108 samādhis, the eighteen emptinesses, ten similes, and five hundred dhāraṇīs, no wisdom-practice or practice-practice escapes calming-and-contemplation.

This long series of assignments is not a display of technical names. It repeatedly asks the same question: how does a particular gate of practice make mind quiescent, how does it make principle clear, and how do eyes and feet accomplish one another? Names may be many, but calming and contemplation cannot be separated in cultivation.

Stations without Abiding in Stations, No Stations without Destroying Cause and Result

Fifth is embracing stations. Someone appeals to quiescent true thusness and says that one ground is the second and the second the third, so no successive stations exist in thusness. The treatise first acknowledges that there is neither arising nor cessation and that right wisdom attains nothing, but then points out that right wisdom can still treat affliction, karma, and suffering. Since purification of the three paths has greater and lesser depth, differences may be spoken even within unconditioned Dharma. Mahāyāna scriptures teach stations throughout; nothing attained does not mean erasing cause and result in cultivation and realization.

Analytical entry into emptiness has stations such as the seven worthies, seven sages, and four fruits of a śramaṇa. Direct entry into emptiness by embodying Dharmas has shared stations of the Three Vehicles. In entering provisionality from emptiness, those who have not grasped its intent attain stations that subdue delusion, while those who grasp it and can break the three paths attain the stations of the ten grounds. In the Perfect Teaching, faith, understanding, and practice lead from contemplative practice into resemblance; ignorance is broken, the Buddha’s knowledge and vision opened, shown, awakened to, and entered, and the forty-two stations together mount the jeweled vehicle to the place of awakening. Moonlight becoming more manifest through the fifteenth day can represent the virtue of wisdom; its diminishing from the sixteenth can represent the virtue of severance. Stations disclose wisdom increasing and delusion decreasing without cutting true thusness into a set of substantial levels.

When faced with the objection that Mahāyāna does not clarify grounds and stations, the treatise first asks whether attachment to no stations also destroys cause and result, the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and four fruits of a śramaṇa. The nature of written words is originally free and is liberation in its very essence. Speaking of stations therefore does not give stations an intrinsic nature, while speaking of no stations should not become a new bondage. According to teaching, when they exist the graded stations stand distinctly present; when they do not, they open unobstructedly into empty purity. Stations spoken within emptiness cannot be attained. Precisely because they cannot be attained, there is no reason to contend over the alternatives existence and nonexistence.

The treatise then distinguishes breaking attachment from destroying everything. If worldly cause and result are broken until present and future life no longer exist, and world-transcending cause and result until the Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa no longer exist, even the first fruits of the path cannot be established, much less the later three kinds. The true meaning of emptiness is not like this. When analytical Dharma breaks affliction, karma, and suffering within the realms, the Tripiṭaka Teaching’s Three Jewels, Four Truths, and fruits of a śramaṇa can be established. When direct embodiment of Dharmas breaks delusion, those of the later three teachings can also be established. What is broken is fixation on the two extremes, not cause and result or the fruits of the path.

Conditionally arisen Dharmas can be called empty, provisionally designated, and expressive of the Middle Way. Through emptiness, the three paths within the realms are broken and corresponding stations of wisdom and severance established. Through provisionality, the three paths beyond the realms are gradually broken and stations of worthies and sages established. Through the Middle, the five dwellings are perfectly broken and the stations of the six identities established. The four clauses embrace all stations, and the four clauses do not leave calming-and-contemplation. Stations without substantializing stations, and no stations without destroying cause and result in cultivation and realization: these are the two aspects preserved when calming-and-contemplation embraces stations.

How Teaching Unfolds from Mind

Sixth is embracing teaching. Mind can establish names for all Dharmas; without mind, there would be no names. Contemplating mind partially and wrongly while following the stream of ignorance gives rise to teachings of wrong views. Mind also gives rise to wholesome worldly teachings such as the five phases, six cyclical signs, yin and yang, classics, and histories. As worldly names and teachings arise from mind, so do world-transcending ones.

The treatise first explains this through the simile of a scripture scroll hidden in a mote. An immense scroll records every matter in a great trichiliocosm yet is stored complete inside one mote; every mote is the same. A person of wisdom sees the scroll, breaks open the mote, and brings it forth to benefit sentient beings. The Tathāgata’s wisdom exists complete in sentient beings’ bodies but cannot be seen because inversion covers it. By cultivating the Eightfold Noble Path and breaking falsehood, one sees one’s own wisdom as equal to the Tathāgata’s.

Another simile writes the twelve divisions of scripture upward upon space. Every phrase stands clearly present but sentient beings cannot see it. Someone sees it in space, copies it down, and discloses it to them. Contemplating mind’s causes and conditions as arising, ceasing, and impermanent and cultivating the Eightfold Path writes out the Tripiṭaka scripture. Contemplating conditionally arisen Dharmas as empty in their very essence writes out the Shared-Teaching scripture. Contemplating the immeasurable distinctions complete in mind writes out the Separate-Teaching scripture. Contemplating mind as buddha-nature writes out the scripture of the Middle Way. Breaking the mote and writing in space—one discloses from concealment, the other establishes written teaching within emptiness. Both say that teaching is not something alien added to mind.

Contemplating mind as immediately provisional and Middle therefore embraces the Avataṃsaka. Contemplating dependent origination as arising and ceasing embraces the Four Āgamas. Contemplating emptiness in the very essence embraces shared prajñā. Fully contemplating immediate emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle embraces the Vaipulya teachings. The three contemplations embrace the Great Perfection of Wisdom. Middle contemplation that opens the Buddha’s knowledge and vision embraces the Lotus. Contemplating mind through the mutual identity of the four clauses embraces the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Five levels of contemplation also disclose indeterminate teaching: contemplating dependent origination while seeing it as itself buddha-nature is killing in milk; contemplating analytical emptiness while seeing it as buddha-nature is killing in curds; contemplating immediate emptiness while seeing it as buddha-nature is killing in raw cream; contemplating provisional names while seeing them as buddha-nature is killing in clarified cream; contemplating the immediate Middle while seeing it as buddha-nature is killing in ghee. The treatise itself explains that killing here means that the two kinds of birth and death are severed and the three paths purified.

All teaching unfolds from mind in two senses. Every Dharma gate is present in the minds of sentient beings; the Tathāgata sees their minds and teaches according to their mental Dharmas, so immeasurable teachings issue from mind. The Tathāgata also cultivated gradual and sudden contemplation of mind in the past, complete in both partial and perfect forms, and according to those contemplations teaches sentient beings to break the mote and bring forth the scroll and to write scripture upon space. Mind does not reduce teaching to a kind of inward feeling. It is the source through which teaching is disclosed, established, and used to transform others.

When the Six Dharmas Mutually Embrace, What Could Remain Outside?

After the six intents unfold in sequence, the treatise does not stop with six parallel classifications. It further says that one Dharma embraces all Dharmas. One principle embraces principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching. One delusion likewise embraces the other five. One wisdom, one practice, one station, and one teaching each fully embraces all six.

The six statements spell this out item by item. First, one principle embraces not only all principle but also all delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching. Second, one delusion embraces not only all delusion but also all principle, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching. Third, one wisdom embraces not only all wisdom but also all principle, delusion, practice, station, and teaching.

Fourth, one practice embraces not only all practice but also all principle, delusion, wisdom, station, and teaching. Fifth, one station embraces not only all stations but also all principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, and teaching. Sixth, one teaching embraces not only all teaching but also all principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, and station. Each statement begins from its own gate but lists the same set: principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching. Every one gathers itself and the other five together. The direct conclusion remains that the names calming-and-contemplation are concise while their embrace of Dharmas is comprehensive. The six may be distinguished in sequence, yet no one Dharma lies outside calming-and-contemplation.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

The reading above follows the treatise’s own sequence from the six intents to the mutual embrace by one Dharma. Zhanran’s Fuxing further separates several junctures that can easily be conflated.

First, although the two names calming and contemplation are concise, their essence is not thereby incomplete. Calming-and-contemplation is what embraces; principle, delusion, wisdom, practice, station, and teaching are what is embraced. This is the higher-level relation between embracer and embraced. The text has six chapters; the meaning has two aspects, successive and nonsuccessive; the purport converges solely upon perfect-and-sudden calming-and-contemplation. Thus there are six in text, two in meaning, and one in purport. In the final passage, Zhanran separately explains how one principle through one teaching each embraces the remaining five〔T1912 0245a06–0245b16〕. Those reasons belong to the Fuxing’s explanation and are not retrojected as if the base treatise had stated them one by one.

Second, the passage on delusions within the realms cites the Satyasiddhi Śāstra immediately after the twelve links but does not use the twelve links to explain that sentence again. Zhanran distinguishes the ten paths of karma: the three intentional actions are activated first but listed later, while the seven bodily and verbal acts are activated later but listed earlier. The treatise is cited precisely to explain the three paths through the three kinds of karma. The base text also uses leading to future lives and leading to the former seven to explain mutual communication; these cannot be rewritten and passed off as verbatim sentences of the extant treatise. Reading them as the twelve links merely because of their adjacent arrangement changes the object being explained.

Third, although the same names—ignorance, formations, and so on through aging and death—are used within and beyond the realms, the essences indicated differ. The correspondence beyond the realms also opens and gathers in several ways: three mind-made bodies may open into five, while four obstructions may gather into three paths. Those of dull faculties first sever dust-and-sand delusions, then advance to break the branches and root of associated and solitary-head ignorance; provisional contemplation directly embraces dust-and-sand delusions and secondarily embraces ignorance. Those of sharp faculties use middle contemplation to treat the three paths beyond the realms directly. These are Zhanran’s layers of explanation for the treatise’s concise sentences and cannot be reversed into definitions already enumerated by the base text.

Fourth, the treatise calls wisdom-practice primary and practice-practice auxiliary as a distinction established within its immediate exposition. Zhanran separately points out that concentration and wisdom are actually both primary cultivation; only phenomenal contemplations such as impurity and kindness are auxiliary. When both levels remain present, calming is not reduced to a minor method that can only assist contemplation. Assigning different gates of practice to calming or contemplation also distinguishes their function as what is embraced; it does not lock every Dharma permanently into a single gate.

Fifth, the scripture’s statement of no stations appears only once in the passage cited by the treatise, whereas the surrounding text extensively clarifies stations. Zhanran therefore judges that attachment to no stations falls into having neither cause nor result. No stations must be read as immediately identical with stations: the unattainability of stations does not cancel differences in severing delusion and realizing fruits, while establishing stations does not turn true thusness into a graded substance.

Sixth, whatever gives indication, classification, or explanation can be included as teaching, so worldly teachings, wrong or right, and world-transcending teachings, partial or perfect, are all embraced. The two similes for embracing teaching also have separate functions. Breaking open the mote and taking out the scroll reveals the Dharma gates inherently complete in sentient beings’ minds but hidden by delusion. Writing scripture upward on space reveals the establishment of teaching-text through contemplative practice. Since gradual and sudden teachings issue both from sentient beings’ mental Dharmas and from the Tathāgata’s past contemplation of mind, the embrace of teaching by mind is not merely the abstract proposition that all names come from mind. It simultaneously points toward disclosing what is inherently complete and transforming others according to their faculties.

This mirror finally fastens concise names and expansive meaning together again. Calming-and-contemplation does not compress every Dharma into two labels. With quiescence and illumination as what embraces and the six Dharmas as what is embraced, it first displays in sequence the roads from confusion to awakening, understanding to practice, cause to result, and self to others, then discloses the whole through the mutual embrace by one Dharma. Only by preserving the base text’s sequence while also seeing the nonsuccessive conclusion can one avoid losing the one root and one point among the many names and characteristics—without using that root and point to flatten the differences among Dharma gates.