摩訶止觀 觀陰入界境·不思議境

A thought arises and ceases, seemingly the most insignificant of things. Yet the Mohe Zhiguan gathers the five aggregates, twelve sense fields, and eighteen elements back into consciousness-mind, then unfolds from this thought the ten Dharma realms, three kinds of world, and ten suchnesses, finally saying: the three thousand are in one moment of mind.

This does not mean that mind is an infinitely large chest already packed with three thousand things. To say mind exists first and later produces all Dharmas arranges mind and Dharmas as before and after. To say all Dharmas are arrayed simultaneously inside mind arranges them as inside and outside. Zhiyi accepts neither side. He says only that mind is all Dharmas and all Dharmas are mind—neither vertical nor horizontal, neither one nor different.

If you ask whether the three thousand belong to mind, conditions, mind and conditions together, or something apart from both, none of the four answers can stand. If dream came only from mind, you should dream while awake. If only from sleep, a corpse should dream. If from mind joined with sleep, why is sleep sometimes dreamless? If apart from both, empty space should dream forever. No fixed birthplace of dream can be found, yet hundreds, thousands, and myriads of events appear vividly within it.

Thus unobtainable does not mean nothing exists, and inexpressible does not mean silence forever. Although none of the four alternatives can be grasped, the Buddha still teaches according to capacity through the worldly, individually adapted, counteractive, and ultimate siddhāntas—sometimes producing delight, sometimes faith, sometimes counteracting an illness, sometimes enabling one to see principle. Speaking all day without speaking; not speaking all day while speaking: breaking and establishing are not two separate acts.

A wish-fulfilling pearl is as small as a mustard or millet seed yet manifests treasures according to what is sought, neither storing them inside nor receiving them from outside. The three poisons have no fixed place, yet when conditions meet they expand into countless afflictions. A long dream passes through a hundred years, yet on waking it was still only one mind. All three similes remind us: “possession” is not storage, and “emptiness” is not annihilation. Existing without fixed existence, not fixedly existent yet appearing—this is the entry into contemplation of mind.

The real question, then, is not “How can my mind contain the world?” It is this: if the thought before me cannot be separated from all Dharmas, can I still treat my own delusion, another’s suffering, and the path of practice as three unrelated things? Once the object is illuminated, compassion, calming-and-contemplation, breaking attachment, and nonclinging take root together. Explanation follows a sequence; practice is wholly within one mind.

1. First Fix the Object to Be Contemplated

The first object to contemplate is the object of aggregates, sense fields, and elements—that is, the five aggregates, twelve sense fields, and eighteen elements. “Aggregate” carries the meaning of covering wholesome Dharmas, a name derived from the causal side; it also means accumulation, because layer upon layer of birth and death accumulates, a name derived from the resultant side. A “sense field” is an entry and is also called a gate of revolving transmigration. An “element” is a differentiated boundary and is also called a nature with its own division.

The Vibhāṣā explains how these three categories expand and contract. For someone chiefly deluded concerning mind, mind is expanded into the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, while form is contracted into one aggregate; hence the five aggregates. For someone chiefly deluded concerning form, form is expanded into the five faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body and the five objects of form, sound, scent, taste, and touch, making ten sense fields; the small portion of the Dharma sense field belonging to form is also counted. Mind is the mental sense field together with the small portion of the Dharma sense field belonging to mind; hence the twelve sense fields. For someone deluded concerning both form and mind, they are expanded into the eighteen elements.

One Abhidharma school says the five aggregates arise simultaneously: consciousness is mind as ruler, and the other four aggregates are mental factors arising in dependence on mind. Because this school expounds its meaning through the gate of existence, it holds that mind-ruler and mental factors support one another and arise at the same time. The treatise masters instead say that consciousness first discriminates, feeling subsequently receives, perception then takes up the mark, formations thereupon initiate oppositional or concordant activity, and form is finally produced through formative action. Because this school expounds its meaning through the gate of emptiness, it holds that the five aggregates produce one another in sequence. Viewed through producer and produced, the order goes from subtle to coarse, placing consciousness first; viewed through practice, it goes from coarse to subtle, placing form first. However the order is established, mental factors cannot be used to separate out mind-ruler. According to the four establishments of mindfulness, mind-ruler is placed in the middle; that is merely an expedient arrangement for speech, not another fixed and unchanging sequence.

The five aggregates can further be divided into nine kinds. Form and mind in one lifetime are the five aggregates of recompense. Ordinary neutral perception and feeling are the indeterminate five aggregates. The arising of delusion of views and the arising of delusion of craving form two kinds of defiled five aggregates. The activation of bodily and verbal karma divides into the five aggregates of wholesome karma and the five aggregates of unwholesome karma. Transformational manifestation is the five aggregates of craftsmanship. The form and mind of people at the stages of the five wholesome roots are the five aggregates of preparatory means. The form and mind of those who have realized the four fruits are the uncontaminated five aggregates. These nine kinds of five aggregates differ in every way, yet their source is mind.

The Saddharma-smṛty-upasthāna uses a painter’s hand as a simile. The hand paints what it calls five colors, listing black, blue-green, red, yellow, white, and very white—six items in all. The painter’s hand symbolizes mind. Black symbolizes the five aggregates of hell beings; blue-green, those of hungry ghosts; red, those of animals; yellow, those of asuras; white, those of humans; and very white, those of gods. These six kinds of aggregates extend only within the three realms. The Buddhāvataṃsaka, however, says that mind is like a skillful painter, able to paint the various five aggregates: not only within the three realms, but throughout all worlds beyond them, there is nothing not constructed from mind.

Even the form and mind of the world cannot be exhaustively investigated, much less can Dharmas beyond the world be known by the mind of an ordinary person. The eyes of ordinary people are screened by cataracts; when they cannot see what is near, how could they see what is far away? After wandering through immeasurable kalpas, they have not clearly seen even one corner within the three realms, much less the boundary beyond them. This is like a thirsty deer chasing a mirage or a mad dog biting at thunder: how could either gain the true principle? Even if one has some understanding of the Small Vehicle, it is ultimately not the great path. Thus the Mahāsaṃnipāta says that those attached to permanence claim delusion is severed in a different thought, while those attached to annihilation claim it is severed in one thought. Both fall into two extremes and fail to accord with the Middle Way.

How much more so after the Buddha’s passing, when the faculties of later people gradually grew dull. Merely through attachment to names and marks, they raised disputes, each declaring itself right and the other wrong, until all fell into deviant views. Nāgārjuna therefore refuted claims that the five aggregates are one or different, simultaneous or before and after. The aggregates are wholly like mirages, illusions, echoes, and transformations, utterly unobtainable; how could one still cling to whether mind-ruler and mental factors ultimately arise at the same or different times? Nevertheless, all aggregates and sense fields within and beyond the three realms truly do arise from mind. The Buddha told the monks that one Dharma can encompass all Dharmas, and that one Dharma is mind. A treatise likewise says that all worlds contain only name and form; if one wishes to contemplate them as they truly are, one should contemplate name and form. Since mind is the root of delusion, contemplating delusion requires cutting down its root, just as cauterizing an illness requires accurately locating the point. We now leave a fathom and take a foot, then leave the foot and take an inch: for the moment setting aside form and the other three aggregates, we contemplate the aggregate of consciousness alone. This aggregate of consciousness is mind.

2. The Ten Dharma Gates That Contemplate

Contemplation of mind fully contains ten Dharma gates. First, contemplate the inconceivable object. Second, arouse a compassionate mind. Third, skillfully establish calming and contemplation. Fourth, pervasively break through all Dharmas. Fifth, discern passage and obstruction. Sixth, cultivate the factors of the path. Seventh, use counteractive Dharmas to aid the opening of the path. Eighth, know the stages of practice. Ninth, be capable of patient endurance. Tenth, give rise to no attachment to any Dharma.

Having oneself penetrated the wondrous object, one vows compassionately to rescue others. One next fills the vow with practice; once vow and practice are skillful, the breaking of Dharmas becomes all-pervasive. While pervasively breaking through all Dharmas, one precisely distinguishes passages from obstructions. This sets the factors of the path in motion and then uses aids to the path to help open the correct path. One can distinguish for oneself and others the stages along that path. One patiently endures honor and insult from within and without. Finally, one does not cling even to attachment to the Dharma of the Middle Way. The practitioner can thereby enter the bodhisattva stage swiftly.

These ten Dharmas are like Viśvakarman constructing the Supreme Hall: its structure is neither sparse nor dense, and each seam admits only a single thread. The whole hall towers in majestic vastness through the heavens, beyond the estimation or imitation of clumsy craftsmen. They are also like a skillful painter who first fixes the outlines and then depicts a lifelike image. With subtle and spirited bone-method, its vital energy moves and soars; how could a person capable only of filling in colors add anything to it? These ten levels of contemplation are wondrously and skillfully gathered and bound both horizontally and vertically. At the beginning they distinguish true from false objects; in the middle they make principal and auxiliary practices enhance one another; at the end they patiently endure without attachment. Their purport is complete, their Dharma gates skillful, and their embrace comprehensive and entire. They establish standards for those first arousing the mind and escort practitioners to wisdom of all modes. This is beyond a dhyāna master who merely certifies inwardly in darkness or a Dharma master who only recites words. It is precisely the Dharma the Tathāgata sought with hardship over accumulated kalpas and wondrously awakened to at the seat of the path, as well as the purport requested three times by Śāriputra and opened by the Buddha in three teachings, including teaching by Dharma and by simile.

3. First Explain the Conceivable Ten Dharma Realms

The first Dharma is to contemplate mind as the inconceivable object. Because this object is difficult to explain, the conceivable object is taught first so that the inconceivable becomes easier to reveal. Among conceivable Dharmas, the Small Vehicle also says that mind produces all Dharmas, referring to causes and results in the six paths and transmigration in the three realms. When one rejects the ordinary and aspires to the noble, one abandons lower realms and escapes upward, finally reducing the body to ash and extinguishing mental knowing. This still falls under the constructed four truths and remains conceivable.

The Great Vehicle also says that mind produces all Dharmas, but here it speaks of the ten Dharma realms. When mind is contemplated as truly existent, there is good and evil within it. Evil has superior, middling, and inferior grades, the causes and results of the three evil paths of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals. Good likewise has three grades, the causes and results of asuras, humans, and gods. One next contemplates all six grades as impermanent, arising and ceasing, while the mind contemplating them cannot remain from thought to thought. Contemplator and contemplated both arise from causes and conditions; what arises from causes and conditions is empty. These are the causal and resultant Dharmas of the Two Vehicles, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.

If contemplation of emptiness and existence falls into two extremes—sinking into emptiness or becoming stuck in existence—the bodhisattva thereby arouses great compassion and enters provisional existence to transform beings. There is in reality no fixed body, yet a provisional body is expediently manifested. There is in reality no emptiness to grasp, yet the meaning of emptiness is expediently taught to guide beings. These are the causal and resultant Dharmas of bodhisattvas. One then contemplates all Dharmas that deliver and are delivered as the true mark of the Middle Way, ultimately pure: which is wholesome, and which unwholesome? Who exists, and who does not? Who delivers anyone, and who remains undelivered? All Dharmas are entirely thus. These are the causal and resultant Dharmas of the Buddha realm.

These ten Dharmas penetrate more deeply at each level, and all emerge from mind. Although encompassed by the Great Vehicle’s immeasurable four truths, they remain a conceivable object rather than the object actually contemplated by calming-and-contemplation here.

4. The Ten Dharma Realms and Three Kinds of World

The inconceivable object is as the Buddhāvataṃsaka teaches: mind is like a skillful painter, constructing the various five aggregates; throughout all worlds, there is nothing not constructed from mind. The “various five aggregates” here are the respective five aggregates of the ten Dharma realms just explained.

“Dharma realm” has three meanings. First, the number ten is what depends and Dharma realm is that upon which it depends; because dependent and basis are named together, they are called the ten Dharma realms. Second, each of these ten Dharmas has its own cause and its own result, unmixed with the others; hence ten Dharma realms. Third, the intrinsic substance of every one of these ten Dharmas is entirely Dharma realm, and so they are also called the “ten-times realm”〔and so forth〕.

All ten Dharma realms are generally called aggregates, sense fields, and elements, but their actual contents differ. The three evil paths of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals are contaminated and unwholesome aggregates, sense fields, and elements. The three good paths of asuras, humans, and gods are contaminated and wholesome aggregates, sense fields, and elements. The Two Vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas have uncontaminated aggregates, sense fields, and elements. Bodhisattvas have aggregates, sense fields, and elements that are both contaminated and uncontaminated. Buddhas have aggregates, sense fields, and elements that are neither contaminated nor uncontaminated. The Great Treatise says that the unsurpassed among Dharmas is nirvāṇa, which is neither contaminated nor uncontaminated. The Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings says that a buddha has no great aggregates, sense fields, and elements, meaning none belonging to the first nine Dharma realms. To say now that the Buddha has aggregates, sense fields, and elements means the permanent and abiding ones of nirvāṇa. The Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra says that by extinguishing impermanent form one obtains permanent form, and feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise. The accumulation of permanence and bliss accords with the meaning of accumulation; the universal covering of loving-kindness and compassion accords with the meaning of aggregate as covering. Because the ten kinds of aggregates and elements differ, this is called the world of the five aggregates.

When the five aggregates are gathered, they are generally called a being, yet beings also differ. The gathering of the five aggregates in the three evil paths forms beings burdened by offenses and suffering. The gathering of human and divine aggregates forms beings enjoying happiness. The gathering of uncontaminated aggregates forms truly noble beings. The gathering of the aggregates of loving-kindness and compassion forms great bodhisattva beings. The gathering of permanently abiding aggregates forms the highest and ultimate being. The Great Treatise says that the Buddha is unsurpassed among beings; how could the Buddha be regarded as the same as lowly ordinary beings? The Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra says that beginning with the kalala stage, each succeeding stage has a different name, and the name remains different all the way through old age. Likewise, a plant has one name when sprouting and a different name through the time it bears fruit. Such differences already appear in the ten stages of a single lifetime; how could the beings of the ten Dharma realms lack differences? This is therefore called the world of beings.

The places inhabited by the ten classes of beings are generally called the world of lands. Hell beings live upon red-hot iron ground. Animals live upon the earth, in water, or in the air. Asuras live beside or beneath the ocean. Humans live upon the earth, and gods in palaces. Bodhisattvas practicing the six perfections live upon the earth like humans. If bodhisattvas of the Shared Teaching have not exhausted delusion, they live among humans and gods in the human and celestial realms; once delusion is exhausted, they inhabit the Land of Expedient Means. If bodhisattvas of the Distinct and Perfect Teachings have not exhausted delusion, they live together with humans, gods, and beings in the Land of Expedient Means; once delusion is exhausted, they inhabit the Land of True Recompense. The Tathāgata abides in the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light. The Humane Kings Sūtra says that the three worthies and ten sages dwell in the land of recompense, while only the Buddha alone inhabits the Pure Land. Because these lands differ, this is called the world of lands. Each of the ten Dharma realms thus possesses the five aggregates, beings, and lands, making thirty kinds of world, all constructed from mind.

5. General Explanation of the Ten Suchnesses

Each of the ten kinds of five aggregates possesses ten Dharmas: suchness-mark, suchness-nature, suchness-substance, suchness-power, suchness-function, suchness-cause, suchness-condition, suchness-result, suchness-recompense, and the suchness of the ultimate equality of beginning and end. They will first be explained generally and then by class.

“Mark” is spoken from what can be seen externally and distinguished after observation. The Great Treatise says that because it is easily known, it is called a mark; for example, because water and fire have different appearances, they are easy to distinguish. Or a person’s complexion displays various signs of fortune and misfortune, allowing the inner to be known by observing the outer. Formerly the marks of Sun Quan and Liu Bei were manifest, while Cao Cao’s were hidden; on seeing them, a physiognomist raised his voice and wept, saying the realm would be divided into three and the people suffer poison. If marks truly exist, dull people nevertheless cannot know them; if marks do not exist at all, skilled physiognomists nevertheless penetrate them. One should therefore follow those skilled at reading marks and trust that the external marks of the human face fully possess all marks. Mind is likewise and fully possesses every mark. The marks of ordinary beings are hidden and unmanifest, while Maitreya’s are manifest. The Tathāgata knows them skillfully and can therefore predict events both near and far. Those unskilled in contemplating mind do not believe that mind possesses all marks. One should follow those who contemplate in accord with reality and trust that mind possesses them all.

“Nature” is spoken from the interior and has three meanings. First, being unchanging is called nature. The “unmoving nature” taught in the Sūtra of the Nonpractice of All Dharmas means being unchanging. Second, nature is also natural division, meaning that different kinds have their own boundaries: their parts differ from one another, and each part is unchanging. Third, nature is real nature, and real nature is principial nature: it is ultimately real, with nothing beyond it, and is another name for buddha-nature. Unmoving nature supports the meaning of emptiness, kind-nature supports the meaning of provisionality, and real nature supports the meaning of the Middle.

The inner nature now under discussion is unchanging, like fire-nature within bamboo. Though fire-nature cannot be seen, it cannot be said not to exist; as soon as a fire-maker uses dry grass to draw it out, the fire can burn through everything. Mind is likewise: it possesses the natures of every one of the five aggregates. Although those natures cannot be seen, they cannot be said not to exist. Contemplating with the wisdom-eye, one knows that mind possesses every nature.

Some views in the world are truly laughable: on the basis of fragmentary hearing, people classify scriptures of the Perfect Teaching. When the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says the Buddha knows that beings possess buddha-nature, they judge it to be ultimately permanent and abiding; when the Lotus Sutra says the Buddha knows the suchness-nature of all Dharmas, they judge it impermanent. Does knowing less somehow count as permanent, while knowing more becomes impermanent? The Lotus Sutra also says the Buddha knows that all Dharmas are entirely of one kind and one nature. That statement says little as well, so why is it still judged impermanent?

Other Dharma masters classify the ten suchnesses of the Lotus Sutra by saying that the first five belong to ordinary beings and are provisional, while the latter five belong to noble ones and are real. Under such a classification, ordinary beings would lack the real and could never become noble, while noble ones would lack the provisional and therefore would not be perfectly and universally enlightened. This arbitrary pronouncement both slanders the Buddha and belittles ordinary beings. When the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says all beings without exception possess buddha-nature, they classify it as permanent; when the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa says all beings are themselves the mark of awakening, they classify it as impermanent. If buddha-nature and the mark of awakening differed, perhaps one could be permanent and the other impermanent. If they do not differ, this classification is gravely mistaken. When a skilled physiognomist sees a sovereign’s mark and a sovereign’s nature, both foretell that the person will eventually ascend the imperial throne. Why, then, would buddha-nature and the mark of awakening differ?

“Substance” is the principal material, hence it is called substance. All five aggregates in the ten Dharma realms take form and mind as their substantial material.

“Power” is the strength capable of assuming and exercising a function. A king’s wrestler, for example, originally has a thousand and myriad skills but appears wholly powerless while ill; as soon as the illness is cured, his power can function. Mind is likewise: it originally possesses every kind of power and function, but the illness of affliction prevents them from operating. By contemplating in accord with reality, one knows that mind possesses every power.

“Function” is active construction and the establishment of things. Apart from mind there is nothing else capable of functioning, and so one knows that mind possesses every function.

“Cause” is what can bring about a result and is also called karma. Every karma in the ten Dharma realms is initiated from mind. Whenever mind is present, the various karmas are fully present, hence suchness-cause.

“Condition” is an assisting condition through which something occurs. Every circumstance assisting karma to ripen is called a condition. Ignorance, craving, and the like can moisten karmic seeds; mind is therefore condition.

“Result” is what is actually obtained from a cause. A habituated cause continues beforehand, and its habituated result is actually obtained afterward, hence suchness-result.

“Recompense” is the response to causal karma. In relation to the recompense of a later life, both habituated cause and habituated result can generally be called causes. They draw forth later recompense, and that later recompense responds to the preceding cause, hence suchness-recompense.

“Ultimate equality of beginning and end” means that mark is the beginning and recompense the end. Beginning and end both arise from causes and conditions; because they arise from causes and conditions, they are empty. Beginning and end are equally empty: this is their equality according to emptiness. Next, mark is only a provisionally established name and recompense only a provisionally established name; both exist through provisional designation. This is their equality according to provisional naming. Next, beginning and end can indicate one another: by observing the initial mark, one can know the later recompense; by seeing the later recompense, one can know the original mark. Seeing someone give, one knows that person will later be wealthy; seeing someone wealthy, one can know that person previously gave. Beginning and end mutually exist: this is equality according to provisionality. Again, mark originally lacks mark, yet manifests mark from marklessness, and is therefore neither mark nor no-mark. Recompense originally lacks recompense, yet forms recompense from no-recompense, and is therefore neither recompense nor no-recompense. Every Dharma enters the limit of reality: this is equality according to the Middle Way.

6. Classifying the Ten Suchnesses into Four Groups

Next comes explanation by class, gathering the ten Dharma realms into four groups.

The three evil paths take manifest suffering as their mark, fixed membership in an evil class as their nature, the breaking down of form and mind as their substance, climbing mountains of knives and entering boiling cauldrons as their power, initiating the ten unwholesome acts as their function, contaminated unwholesome karma as their cause, craving and grasping as their conditions, an unwholesome habituated result as their result, falling into the three evil destinations as their recompense, and beginning and end being formed entirely from delusion as their ultimate equality.

The three good paths take manifest happiness as their mark, fixed membership in a wholesome class as their nature, form and mind rising upward beyond the evil paths as their substance, experiencing happiness as their power, observing the five precepts and ten wholesome acts as their function, pure karma as their cause, wholesome craving and grasping as their conditions, a wholesome habituated result as their result, and birth among humans or gods as their recompense. Their ultimate equality should be understood according to provisional naming, because the initial mark and later recompense mutually exist.

The Two Vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas take nirvāṇa as their mark, liberation as their nature, the fivefold Dharma body of precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation as their substance, freedom from bondage as their power, the factors of the path as their function, the practice of uncontaminated wisdom as their cause, one practice aiding the accomplishment of another as their condition, and the four fruits as their result. Because they will no longer be born in the field of later existence, they have no later recompense〔and so forth〕.

The group of bodhisattvas and buddhas takes the conditioning cause as its mark, the revealing cause as its nature, the correct cause as its substance, the four great vows as its power, the six perfections and myriad practices as its function, the adornment of wisdom as its cause, the adornment of merit as its condition, complete awakening as its result, and great nirvāṇa as its recompense〔and so forth〕.

Cause and condition further have contrary and concordant sides. When following birth and death within the three realms, contaminated karma is cause and craving, grasping, and the like are conditions. When reversing birth and death within the three realms, uncontaminated correct wisdom is cause and the mutual assistance of various practices is condition; cause and condition together diminish birth and death and break delusion. When following transformational birth and death beyond the three realms, uncontaminated wisdom is again cause and ignorance and the like are conditions. When reversing birth and death beyond the three realms, wisdom of the Middle Way is cause and the myriad practices are conditions; cause and condition together diminish transformational birth and death. Since cause and condition have these contrary and concordant aspects, those of the remaining items can be inferred by analogy.

According to the śrāvaka meaning, only nine items are established, with no tenth recompense. According to the Great Vehicle teaching of the three buddha bodies, a buddha again has a recompense body. According to the meaning of exhausting delusion, there is no later recompense. Whether nine or ten are listed should be weighed and understood according to the respective meaning.

The world of beings is only a provisional name and has no independent substance of its own. It merely gathers such real Dharmas as the five aggregates and expediently designates them “beings.” One may therefore distinguish the mark, nature, substance, and power through ultimate equality of beings in the evil paths〔and so forth〕; those of beings in the good paths; those of uncontaminated beings; and those of beings in the Dharma realms of bodhisattvas and buddhas. All can be understood according to the preceding pattern.

The world of lands also fully possesses the ten Dharmas: the mark, nature, substance, power, and so forth of evil lands〔and so forth〕. Wholesome lands, uncontaminated lands, and the lands of buddhas and bodhisattvas likewise each have mark, nature, substance, power, and so forth〔and so forth〕.

7. The Three Thousand Are in One Moment of Mind

One mind fully possesses ten Dharma realms, and each Dharma realm in turn possesses all ten, making one hundred Dharma realms. Each Dharma realm possesses the three kinds of world—the five aggregates, beings, and lands—and each of these has ten suchnesses, so one realm contains thirty kinds of world. The hundred Dharma realms thus contain three thousand kinds of world. The three thousand are in one moment of mind. If there were no mind whatsoever, that would be the end of it; but whenever the slightest trace of mind is present, the three thousand are fully present.

This does not mean that one mind exists first and all Dharmas appear afterward, nor that all Dharmas exist first and one mind appears afterward. Consider the eight marks of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing as they move things. If the thing existed first and the moving mark arrived later, the original thing should not be moved. If the moving mark existed first and the thing arrived later, the moving mark would have no thing to move. Neither priority nor posteriority can be established. One can speak of a moving mark only in relation to the thing, and only in relation to the moving mark can one speak of the thing’s movement.

Mind is likewise. To say that one mind produces all Dharmas successively would make them a vertical sequence. To say that mind contains all Dharmas at the same time would make them a horizontal array. Neither vertical nor horizontal can be established. One can say only that mind is all Dharmas and all Dharmas are mind. Thus it is neither vertical nor horizontal, neither one nor different. Mysterious, wondrous, profound, and utterly transcendent, it cannot be known by discriminating consciousness or expressed in words. This is what it means to call it the inconceivable object〔and so forth〕.

8. Inquiring through the Four Natures into How the Three Thousand Are Present

Question: When mind arises, it necessarily depends upon assisting conditions. Do the three thousand Dharmas ultimately belong to mind itself, to the assisting conditions, to mind and conditions together, or to something apart from mind and conditions? If mind possesses them, its arising should not require assisting conditions. If conditions possess them, the conditions already possess them themselves and have nothing to do with mind. If mind and conditions possess them together, each is wholly without them before they meet, so how could they suddenly become present when the two meet? If they are present apart from mind and conditions, then once separated from mind and conditions, how could one suddenly say that mind possesses them? If none of these four alternatives can be obtained, how can it be said that mind possesses the three thousand Dharmas?

Answer: The Dilun masters say that all understanding and delusion, truth and falsity, depend upon Dharma-nature and are sustained by it. Dharma-nature sustains truth and falsity, while truth and falsity depend upon Dharma-nature. The Mahāyānasaṃgraha school instead says that Dharma-nature is neither stained by delusion nor purified by true wisdom and is therefore not the support. The support is the ālaya, here also called “non-disappearing ignorance”: ālaya-consciousness has been constantly present without beginning and never disappears, and it holds and sustains all seeds. According to the Dilun masters, mind possesses all Dharmas; according to the Shelun masters, conditions possess all Dharmas. Each school establishes its account from only one side.

If Dharma-nature produces all Dharmas, Dharma-nature is originally neither mind nor condition. Although it is not mind, all Dharmas can nevertheless be produced from mind. Then although it is also not condition, all Dharmas should likewise be produced from condition; why say only that Dharma-nature supports truth and falsity? If Dharma-nature is not the support and only ālaya is, this establishes ālaya as support outside Dharma-nature, unrelated to Dharma-nature. If Dharma-nature is not separate from ālaya, then ālaya’s serving as support is itself Dharma-nature’s serving as support; how could one say that only ālaya is the support?

Such fixed attachments also contradict scripture. A scripture says that all Dharmas are neither internal, external, nor in between, and are not eternally self-existent. They also contradict Nāgārjuna’s statement that Dharmas arise neither from themselves, from another, from self and other together, nor without a cause.

Examine this further through a simile. Does a dream occur in dependence on mind, in dependence on sleep, through the conjunction of sleep and mind, or apart from mind and sleep? If dependence on mind were sufficient for a dream, one should dream while not asleep. If dependence on sleep were sufficient, a corpse—which appears to be sleeping—should also dream. If the conjunction of sleep and mind produced dreams, why does a sleeping person sometimes not dream? Moreover, if sleep and mind each had a dream, perhaps bringing them together could produce a dream; but since neither has a dream separately, their conjunction should have none. If a dream existed apart from mind and sleep, empty space, which is apart from both, should dream forever.

When a dream cannot be obtained through any of the four alternatives, how does a sleeping person nevertheless dream of everything? In the simile, mind symbolizes Dharma-nature and sleep symbolizes ālaya. How could one cling exclusively to either Dharma-nature or ālaya and say it can produce all Dharmas? Know that when mind is sought through the four alternatives, mind is unobtainable; when the three thousand Dharmas are sought, they too are unobtainable.

Since the arising of the three thousand Dharmas through the horizontal four alternatives is wholly unobtainable, should one say instead that they arise through the ceasing of one thought of mind? The ceasing of mind cannot produce even one Dharma, so how could it produce three thousand? If the three thousand Dharmas arose from mind as both ceasing and not ceasing, ceasing and not ceasing have opposing natures, like water and fire, and cannot be established simultaneously; how could they produce three thousand Dharmas? If they arose from mind as neither ceasing nor not ceasing, neither ceasing nor not ceasing is either producer or produced; how could producer and produced be established to produce three thousand Dharmas? Seeking through both vertical and horizontal, the three thousand Dharmas are unobtainable. Seeking through neither vertical nor horizontal, they are also unobtainable. Here the road of words is cut off and the place of the mind’s activity becomes quiescent; it is therefore called the inconceivable object.

The Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra says that arising-arising is inexpressible, arising-not-arising is inexpressible, not-arising-arising is inexpressible, and not-arising-not-arising is also inexpressible. This is its meaning. Know that within the ultimate truth even one Dharma is unobtainable, much less three thousand; yet within the conventional truth, one mind fully possesses immeasurable Dharmas, much less merely three thousand.

9. Inexpressible, Yet Expressible Because Causes and Conditions Are Present

The Buddha asked the woman Dharmadattā, “Does ignorance exist internally?” She answered no. The Buddha asked, “Does it exist externally?” She answered no. “Does it exist both internally and externally?” She answered no. “Does it exist as neither internal nor external?” Again she answered no. Yet the Buddha said that it exists precisely in this way. Nāgārjuna says that Dharmas arise neither from themselves, from another, from self and other together, nor without a cause. The Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra proceeds from arising-arising being inexpressible through not-arising-not-arising being inexpressible, then says that because causes and conditions are present, they can nevertheless be expressed. The causes and conditions here are those of the four siddhāntas. Although all four alternatives are secluded, quiescent, and markless, out of compassionate care for beings a bodhisattva still teaches within what originally lacks name and form by provisionally establishing names and forms.

10. The Four Alternatives of the Worldly Siddhānta

Sometimes, according to the worldly siddhānta, mind is said to possess all Dharmas so that listeners delight—for example, the three realms have no separate Dharma and are constructed only by one mind. This is the alternative of arising from mind. Sometimes assisting conditions are said to produce all Dharmas so that listeners delight—for example, the five desires make people fall into evil paths, while a spiritual friend is the great cause and condition that transforms and guides beings so they can see the Buddha. This is the alternative of arising from conditions. Sometimes cause and condition together are said to produce all Dharmas so that listeners delight—for example, mercury combined with pure gold can coat images of every form. This is the alternative of joint arising. Sometimes the alternative of arising apart is stated as causelessness and being so of itself, so that listeners delight—for example, the twelve links of dependent origination are made neither by the Buddha nor by gods, humans, or asuras; their nature is originally so. These four alternatives together form the worldly siddhānta and explain how mind produces the three thousand and all Dharmas.

11. The Four Alternatives of the Individually Adapted Siddhānta

What is the individually adapted siddhānta? First it is said that mind produces all Dharmas. For example, the Buddha-Dharma is like the ocean, and only faith can enter it; faith is the source of the path and mother of merit, and all wholesome Dharmas arise from faith. It is also said that if only you arouse the mind of awakening, this itself is leaving home and possessing the precepts in full. The listener thereby gives rise to faith. This is the alternative of arising from mind.

Sometimes conditions are said to produce all Dharmas. For example, had someone not encountered the Buddha, that person would have fallen into hell and suffered for immeasurable kalpas; because the person saw the Buddha, rootless faith was gained, like sandalwood growing from the eraṇḍa. The listener thereby gives rise to faith. This is the alternative of arising from conditions.

Sometimes the conjunction of cause and condition is said to produce all Dharmas. For example, when the water of mind becomes limpid, the precious jewel’s form naturally appears; through the power of roots of loving-kindness, such a matter can be seen. The listener thereby gives rise to faith. This is the alternative of joint arising.

Sometimes the alternative apart from the four alternatives is taught as nonattachment. For example, wisdom is not gained through contemplation inwardly, nor through contemplation outwardly, through not being gained through internal-and-external contemplation together. If the mind abides in attachment, not even the slight faith of the brahmin Śreṇika can be attained, much less the abandonment of deviant views and entry into the correct path. The listener thereby gives rise to faith. This is the alternative of arising apart. These are the four alternatives of the individually adapted siddhānta, through which it is explained that mind produces the three thousand and all Dharmas.

12. Four Alternatives Each for the Counteractive and Ultimate Siddhāntas

What is the counteractive siddhānta? First, mind is said to counteract all evil. For example, when one attains one-pointed mind, the myriad deviations are all extinguished. This is counteraction by mind. Second, assisting conditions are said to counteract all evil. For example, through hearing the unsurpassed radiance of great wisdom, the mind becomes settled like the earth and cannot be moved. This is counteraction by conditions. Third, cause and condition together are said to counteract all evil. For example, one part of wisdom arises from one’s own reflection and one part is gained from a teacher. This is joint counteraction. Fourth, counteraction apart is taught. For example, when the Buddha sat at the seat of awakening, no Dharma whatsoever could be attained; yet like deceiving a small child with an empty fist, he expediently enticed and delivered all beings. This is counteraction apart. These are the four alternatives of the counteractive siddhānta, explaining that mind can break all evil.

What is the ultimate siddhānta? First, mind is said to see principle. For example, mind opens and intention understands, and suddenly one attains the path. This is seeing principle through mind. Second, assisting conditions are said to enable a person to see principle. For example, merely hearing the wondrous Dharma for a moment, one attains complete awakening. This is seeing principle through conditions. Third, the path is attained through cause and condition together. For example, as soon as a swift horse sees the whip’s shadow, it takes the right road. This is seeing principle jointly. Fourth, seeing principle apart is taught. For example, nonattainment is itself attainment already, and this attainment is precisely nonattainment. This is seeing principle apart. These are the four alternatives by which the ultimate siddhānta sees principle. If even the ultimate meaning can be expressed through four alternatives, how could it be impossible to say that mind produces the three thousand Dharmas?

13. Speaking without Speech: Three Truths in One Mind

The Buddha’s purport is ultimately pure and does not fall on the side of arising from cause, condition, both, or neither; the conventional truth is itself the ultimate truth. From another side, all four alternatives can be taught: arising from cause is valid, arising from condition is valid, joint arising is valid, and arising apart is valid. It is like explaining the whiteness of milk to a blind person: one person speaks of a shell, another of rice flour, another of snow, and another of a white crane. After hearing these explanations, the blind person understands milk’s color. This is the conventional truth itself being the ultimate truth.

Know that one speaks all day while all day speaking nothing, and all day speaks nothing while all day speaking. All day one negates the two extremes and all day illuminates them. Breaking is itself establishing, and establishing is itself breaking. Scriptures and treatises are all like this.

Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna were inwardly clear in illumination and outwardly accorded with the capacities of their time, expediently establishing their accounts through one gate each. Later teachers understood them narrowly, and students clung to them carelessly. They consequently argued like people hurling arrows and stones, each defending one side and departing gravely from the noble path. When this meaning is understood, all four alternatives are inexpressible and all can be expressed.

Speaking in accord with preparatory means, one may say that ignorance models itself on Dharma-nature and produces all Dharmas, as sleep models itself on mind and manifests every event in a dream. When mind and conditions join, the three kinds of world—the five aggregates, beings, and lands—and the three thousand kinds of mark, nature, and so forth all arise from mind. Although one nature appears slight, it cannot be said nonexistent. Although ignorance appears abundant, it cannot be said truly existent. Why? When many is spoken of by pointing to one, many is not fixedly many. When one is spoken of by pointing to many, one is not a constricted one. This mind is therefore called the inconceivable object.

If one understands that one mind is all minds, all minds are one mind, yet they are neither one nor all, one can also understand that one aggregate is all aggregates, all aggregates are one aggregate, yet they are neither one nor all; one sense field is all sense fields, all sense fields are one sense field, yet they are neither one nor all; one element is all elements, all elements are one element, yet they are neither one nor all; one being is all beings, all beings are one being, yet they are neither one nor all; one land is all lands, all lands are one land, yet they are neither one nor all; one mark is all marks, all marks are one mark, yet they are neither one nor all; and ultimately, one ultimate is all ultimates, all ultimates are one ultimate, yet they are neither one nor all. Proceeding throughout all Dharmas in this way, every one is the inconceivable object.

When Dharma-nature and ignorance combine and there are all Dharmas such as aggregates, sense fields, and elements, this is the conventional truth. When all elements and sense fields are one Dharma realm, this is the true truth. Neither one nor all is the ultimate truth of the Middle Way. Proceeding throughout all Dharmas in this way, no Dharma fails to be the inconceivable three truths〔and so forth〕.

When one Dharma is all Dharmas, these are Dharmas arisen from causes and conditions and therefore provisional names: this is contemplation of provisionality. When all Dharmas are one Dharma, they are what is called empty: this is contemplation of emptiness. When they are neither one nor all, this is contemplation of the Middle Way.

One emptiness is all emptiness; neither provisionality nor the Middle fails to be empty. This is contemplation of total emptiness. One provisionality is all provisionality; neither emptiness nor the Middle fails to be provisional. This is contemplation of total provisionality. One Middle is all Middle; neither emptiness nor provisionality fails to be Middle. This is contemplation of the total Middle. These are what the treatise calls the inconceivable three contemplations in one mind taught in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Proceeding throughout all Dharmas, every case is likewise.

If all Dharmas arisen from causes and conditions are expediently in accord with beings’ emotional attachments, this is the provisional wisdom of the varieties of the path. If all Dharmas are one Dharma, which is what is called empty, this is the wisdom of all Dharmas that accords with wisdom. If they are neither one nor all, which is also called the meaning of the Middle Way, this is wisdom of all modes, neither provisional nor real. Extending the preceding pattern, one provisional is all provisionals, one real is all reals, yet all are neither provisional nor real. Proceeding throughout everything, these are the inconceivable three wisdoms.

Accord with beings’ emotional attachments is speech following others’ intent. Accord with wisdom is speech following one’s own intent. Being neither provisional nor real is speech following neither one’s own nor another’s intent. Proceeding throughout all Dharmas, no Dharma fails to be an inconceivable teaching gate such as the gradual, sudden, or indeterminate teaching.

To understand the sudden is to understand mind. When mind itself is unobtainable, how could there separately be a destination or nondestination? To understand the gradual is to understand that all Dharmas entirely proceed toward mind. To understand the indeterminate is to understand that every destination does not exceed this mind. Although these names differ, their meaning is the same. As a standard for practitioners, they are generally called three Dharmas. In relation to the object and principle illuminated, they are called the three truths. In relation to the contemplative practices aroused, they are called the three contemplations. When contemplative practice is accomplished, they are called the three wisdoms. When teaching others, they are called the three modes of speech. In relation to final return, they are called the three destinations. Once this meaning of class-wide correspondence is gained, everything can become a Dharma gate. The flavors of Dharma are many; do not object to their abundance〔and so forth〕.

14. The Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, Three Poisons, and Three Kinds of Dream

Consider a wish-fulfilling pearl, a supreme treasure of the heavens. Though only the size of a mustard or millet seed, it has immense power. Pure and wondrous objects of the five desires and dazzling arrays of the seven treasures are neither stored in the pearl beforehand nor enter it from outside. The pearl does not plan before and after, select great or small quantities, or distinguish coarse from refined. Yet in response to what is sought, it rains down fullness in abundance or economy, while the pearl itself neither increases nor is exhausted. If a material Dharma can function in this way, how much more can the spiritual subtlety of mind fully possess all Dharmas?

Or consider the three poisons of craving, anger, and delusion as they confuse thought. The arising of one deluded thought brings with it the view of self, extreme views, sharp and dull agents, the eighty-eight agents, and onward through the eighty-four thousand afflictions. If these afflictions truly existed beforehand, why would they suddenly have to await assisting conditions before arising? If they were originally wholly nonexistent, they should not suddenly appear when conditions are encountered. They cannot be fixed as existent or nonexistent. To fix them as existent is a deviant view; to fix them as nonexistent is delusion. Know that they exist without truly existing and, while not truly existent, manifest existence according to conditions. If deluded mind itself is so, how much more so the inconceivable one mind?

Or consider someone who sees hundreds, thousands, and myriads of events in a dream, then suddenly wakes and finds not one of them present; how much less could hundreds, thousands, and myriads actually exist? Before falling asleep, the person neither dreams nor wakes from a dream, so one cannot speak of many or one. Through the power of sleep, events seem many within the dream; through the power of waking, they are afterward said to be few. Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he became a butterfly, flying lightly as if a hundred years passed; on waking, he knew he was not a butterfly and had not truly accumulated a hundred years. Ignorance models itself on Dharma-nature and one mind appears as all minds, like sinking into sleep. Penetrating that ignorance is itself Dharma-nature and all minds return to one mind is like waking from a dream〔and so forth〕.

Or consider a practitioner of peaceful practices who, in a single sleep, dreams of beginning with the first arousal of the mind and proceeding through becoming a buddha, sitting at the seat of awakening, turning the Dharma wheel, delivering beings, and entering nirvāṇa. On suddenly waking, the practitioner knows this entire course was only one dream. To trust the three similes of the wish-fulfilling pearl, the three poisons, and dream is to trust that one mind cannot be expressed in language or measured by discriminating consciousness.

What Dharma could this inconceivable object fail to encompass? What wisdom could fail to arise from it? From vows made in relation to this object through the tenth gate, freedom from attachment to Dharmas, what vow could fail to be complete, and what practice could fail to be fulfilled? When taught, they are explained one by one according to the preceding sequence. In actual practice, every mind is simultaneously present within one mind〔and so forth〕.

One moment of mind is very small. It is so small that it ceases as soon as it arises, so small that we ordinarily take it to be only one thing among innumerable things. Yet the Mohe Zhiguan says that whenever such a moment of mind is present, the ten Dharma realms, three kinds of world, and three thousand kinds of world are all fully present. If this is heard merely as “the mind contains the whole universe,” it immediately falls into the horizontal arrangement refuted by the treatise. If it is heard as “all Dharmas emerge successively from mind,” it falls instead into the vertical arrangement the treatise refutes.

The inconceivable object is difficult not because it hides an incomprehensible answer, but because it drives to their limit our habitual arrangements of mind and Dharma, subject and object, possession and arising, truth and falsity. The treatise master first gathers aggregates, sense fields, and elements back into one thought of consciousness-mind, then unfolds in full the ten realms, three worlds, and ten suchnesses. Having unfolded them, he asks whether all these ultimately belong to mind, to conditions, to both together, or to something apart from the two. No answer supplies a place to rest, yet the three thousand do not thereby fall into annihilating nonexistence.

Why Gather Aggregates, Sense Fields, and Elements Back into Consciousness-Mind?

The first step is not to speak immediately of mysteries but to identify clearly what is contemplated. The five aggregates, twelve sense fields, and eighteen elements are three ways of expanding and contracting the same world of form and mind. When delusion concerning mind predominates, mind is expanded into the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, while form is contracted into one aggregate. When delusion concerning form predominates, form is expanded into the ten sense fields and part of the Dharma sense field, while mind is gathered into the mental sense field and part of the Dharma sense field. When both form and mind are objects of delusion, they are expanded into eighteen elements.

There have also been two inherited accounts of the order of the five aggregates. One establishes consciousness as mind-ruler and feeling, perception, formations, and the others as mental factors, holding that ruler and factors arise simultaneously. The other follows the sequence of discrimination, reception, taking a mark, oppositional or concordant construction, and production of form, holding that the five aggregates produce one another in order. From producer to produced, the movement can proceed from subtle to coarse; when beginning from practice, it can instead proceed from coarse to subtle. The treatise master presents both accounts but does not let contemplative practice stop in a nominal dispute over which ultimately comes first.

What must actually be faced is that the recompense form and mind of one lifetime, neutral perception and feeling, the two defilements of views and craving, wholesome and unwholesome bodily and verbal karma, transformational craftsmanship, the preparatory means of the five wholesome roots, and the uncontaminated state of the four fruits—the nine kinds of five aggregates—all emerge from mind. Mind is like a painter’s hand, capable of painting the colors of hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, and gods, and also every world beyond the realms. Ordinary eyes cannot see clearly even what is near. If one merely quarrels over names and marks, one remains like a thirsty deer chasing a mirage or a mad dog biting at thunder, never touching true principle.

The treatise therefore makes a powerful contraction. From the broad three categories it gathers down to the five aggregates, like leaving a fathom and taking a foot. Then from the five aggregates it provisionally sets aside form, feeling, perception, and formations and contemplates consciousness alone, like leaving the foot and taking an inch. It is like first finding the root point when cauterizing an illness. The branching marks of objects are boundless; without a place for initial contemplation to stand, contemplative Dharma cannot operate. It therefore first finds, in the one thought of consciousness-mind presently arising and ceasing, the entry into the whole.

The Ten Dharmas Are Not Ten Rungs of a Ladder

There are ten levels of the Dharmas that contemplate: contemplating the inconceivable object, arousing compassion, skillfully settling calming-and-contemplation, pervasively breaking through Dharmas, discerning passage and obstruction, cultivating the factors of the path, using counteraction to aid the opening of the correct path, knowing stages, being capable of patient endurance, and freedom from attachment to Dharmas. On the surface, this looks like a sequence traveled from first to tenth. In practice, every Dharma prepares the conditions for all the others.

Penetrating the wondrous object prevents one from fixing compassionate vows upon a delusive object. Once beings and one’s own mind are seen together within the Dharma realm, compassionate vows immediately arise. For vows to be realized, calming-and-contemplation must be skillfully established. If calming-and-contemplation is to break through pervasively, passage must still be distinguished from obstruction. The factors of the path and aids to the path keep the preceding contemplative practice from stopping at conceptual understanding. Knowledge of stages prevents one from misrecognizing advance and retreat in oneself or others. Patient endurance prevents honor and disgrace within and without from taking away one’s resolve. Finally, one does not abide even in attachment to the Dharma of the Middle Way.

The simile of the Supreme Hall speaks of structure: neither sparse nor dense, even its seams exactly fitted. The simile of skillful painting speaks of life: outline, image, bone-method, and spirit move as one, something never accomplished by adding a few colors afterward. The ten Dharmas are likewise. Horizontally they mutually contain one another; vertically they have an order of arising. At the beginning, true and false objects are distinguished. In the middle, principal and auxiliary practices augment each other. At the end come patient endurance and nonattachment. In explanation they can be unfolded item by item, but in practice they operate simultaneously within one mind. Turn them into ten disconnected checkpoints, and the Supreme Hall becomes ten piles of material, while skillful painting becomes no more than coloring in.

Why Explain the Conceivable before the Inconceivable?

The treatise master first asks how the objects differ when both the Small and Great Vehicles say that mind produces all Dharmas. The Small Vehicle contemplates the causes and results of the six paths and transmigration in the three realms as produced by mind; rejecting ordinary stages and aspiring to noble ones, it escapes upward from below, finally reducing the body to ash and extinguishing mental knowing. The Great Vehicle can further open the Dharmas produced by mind into ten realms. Evil in three grades becomes the causes and results of the three evil paths; good in three grades becomes those of asuras, humans, and gods. Contemplating all six grades as impermanent and arising and ceasing, with the contemplating mind itself not abiding from thought to thought, one sees subject and object together as conditionally arisen and therefore empty: the causes and results of the Two Vehicles. Neither sinking into emptiness nor becoming stuck in existence, one arouses compassion, enters provisionality, and transforms beings: the causes and results of bodhisattvas. Deliverer and delivered are ultimately pure, and good and evil, existence and nonexistence, delivering and nondelivering all enter the true mark of the Middle Way: the causes and results of the Buddha realm.

Although the ten realms deepen from level to level and are encompassed by the Great Vehicle’s immeasurable four truths, they can still be differentiated in order and are therefore called the conceivable object. This layer is taught first so that the distinctions, causes and results, and pedagogical placements of the ten realms acquire clear outlines, making the inconceivable easier to reveal. If even the arising of the six paths through the Buddha realm from mind has not been made clear, “full possession in one thought” can easily be misconstrued as erasing good and evil and confusing cause and result. The conceivable teaching draws the frame; contemplation of the inconceivable makes bone-method and living energy appear at once.

How Do the Ten Realms Become Thirty Kinds of World?

Mind is like a skilled painter, constructing the various five aggregates; no world is separate from construction by mind. “Dharma realm” first has three meanings: the number ten is dependent and Dharma realm is its basis; the ten realms each have their own causes and results, unmixed with the others; and the intrinsic substance of every realm is itself Dharma realm. The first meaning says that the ten realms have a basis, the second preserves their distinctions, and the third keeps any realm from falling outside the Dharma realm.

All ten realms can generally be called aggregates, sense fields, and elements, yet their contents differ. The three evil paths are contaminated and unwholesome, the three good paths contaminated and wholesome, the Two Vehicles uncontaminated, bodhisattvas both contaminated and uncontaminated, and buddhas neither contaminated nor uncontaminated. To say a buddha lacks aggregates, sense fields, and elements means lacking the impermanent ones of the first nine realms. To say a buddha has aggregates, sense fields, and elements means having the permanently abiding ones of nirvāṇa. Permanence and bliss can accumulate layer upon layer; loving-kindness and compassion can cover universally. “Aggregate” has not been left solely on the side of birth and death.

Gathering the five aggregates and establishing a provisional name produces the world of beings. The three evil paths contain beings suffering for offenses; humans and gods, beings experiencing happiness; the Two Vehicles, truly noble beings; bodhisattvas, great beings; and buddhas, the supreme beings. Beings each have a place of residence, producing the world of lands: from red-hot iron, earth, water, air, ocean shore and ocean floor, the human earth, and celestial palaces through the Land of Expedient Means, Land of True Recompense, and Land of Eternally Quiescent Light. The five aggregates are real Dharmas, a being is a provisional name established by gathering aggregates, and a land is the support of primary recompense. The three kinds of world are thereby complete.

The five aggregates of every realm further possess mark, nature, substance, power, function, cause, condition, result, recompense, and the ultimate equality of beginning and end. Mark is externally discernible, while nature is inwardly unchanging. Substance is the principal material of form and mind; power is capacity for function; function actively establishes. Cause can bring about a result, condition can assist karma, result is what the habituated cause obtains, and recompense is the response to cause in a later life. From mark as beginning to recompense as end, all are ultimately equal from the three perspectives of emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle.

These ten suchnesses are not an abstract list. Mind possesses all marks, as a person’s external signs can disclose what is within. Mind possesses all natures, as fire-nature within bamboo cannot be seen yet can burn everywhere when conditions meet. Mind possesses all powers, as a many-skilled wrestler cannot exercise them while ill but reveals native ability when healed. Mark is mark without having a fixed mark; recompense is recompense without having a fixed recompense. Clinging only to the outer mark prevents one from seeing nature and substance, while saying only that everything is empty prevents one from seeing how earlier cause and later result disclose one another.

Gathering the ten realms further into four classes, the ten suchnesses of the three evil paths disclose suffering and evil; those of the three good paths, happiness and good; those of the Two Vehicles, nirvāṇa and liberation; and those of bodhisattvas and buddhas, the conditioning, revealing, and correct causes, four great vows, six perfections and myriad practices, and two adornments. Cause and condition also have concordant and contrary directions. Contaminated karma and craving and grasping follow birth and death within the three realms; uncontaminated wisdom and mutually aiding practices reverse it. Uncontaminated wisdom and ignorance can follow transformational birth and death beyond the realms; wisdom of the Middle Way and the myriad practices reverse it. Beings and lands likewise each possess the ten suchnesses. Distinction is not swallowed by perfect interfusion, and interfusion is not established elsewhere outside distinction.

Are the Three Thousand Stored inside Mind?

Each of the ten realms possesses all ten realms, making one hundred realms. One realm possesses three kinds of world, and each world has ten suchnesses, so one realm possesses thirty worlds. The hundred realms therefore become three thousand kinds of world. The treatise master consequently says that the three thousand are in one moment of mind. Whenever the subtlest moment of mind is present, the three thousand are fully present.

But “fully present” does not treat the three thousand as objects stored inside a mind-shaped container. If mind existed first and then produced all Dharmas, mind and Dharmas would form a vertical before-and-after. If mind contained all Dharmas side by side in the same instant, mind and Dharmas would form a horizontal array. The treatise accepts neither.

The simile of the eight marks moving an object sharpens the issue. If the object preceded its moving marks, an object without those marks should not be moved. If the moving marks preceded the object, what could they move before any object existed? Movement cannot be found outside the object, nor the object outside movement. One can speak of movement only with reference to an object and of the object only with reference to movement. Mind and Dharmas are likewise: one can say only that mind is all Dharmas and all Dharmas are mind. They are neither vertical nor horizontal, neither one nor different. If mind and Dharmas are first cut into two things and we then ask which contains or produces the other, the question has already begun from the wrong place.

If All Four Alternatives Are Broken, Do the Three Thousand Disappear Too?

The treatise master himself raises the strongest challenge. Since the arising of mind necessarily depends on conditions, do the three thousand belong to mind, to conditions, to both together, or apart from both? If mind already possessed them itself, its arising would not need conditions. If conditions possessed them themselves, everything would be unrelated to mind. If the two possessed them jointly, when each lacked them before conjunction they could not suddenly become present at conjunction. If they were present apart from the two, they should even less be called possessed by mind. When none of the four alternatives can stand, on what basis can the three thousand still be said to be fully present?

The Dilun masters place the support of truth and falsity in Dharma-nature, while the Shelun masters place the support of all seeds in ālaya, apparently standing on the two sides of possession by mind and possession by conditions. The treatise master does not choose one as the final answer but asks in return: if Dharma-nature is neither mind nor condition, why permit arising only from mind but not from conditions? If ālaya stands outside Dharma-nature, it is unrelated to Dharma-nature. If it is not separate from Dharma-nature, ālaya’s serving as support cannot exclude Dharma-nature’s serving as support.

Sleep and dream turn inquiry through the four alternatives into immediate experience. If dream depended on mind, one should dream while awake. If it depended only on sleep, a corpse, which resembles a sleeper, should also dream. If the conjunction of mind and sleep produced dreams, why does one sometimes sleep without dreaming? Two things that each lack a dream cannot suddenly have one when conjoined. If dream existed apart from mind and sleep, empty space, being apart from both, should dream constantly. No fixed birthplace for dream can be found in any of the four, yet during sleep hundreds, thousands, and myriads of events appear vividly.

Since the four horizontal alternatives are unobtainable, the vertical alternatives—ceasing, not ceasing, both ceasing and not ceasing, neither ceasing nor not ceasing—also fail one by one. The cessation of mind cannot produce one Dharma, much less three thousand. Ceasing and not ceasing oppose each other like water and fire. Neither ceasing nor not ceasing supplies either producer or produced. Here the road of language is severed and the place of mental activity ceases; within the ultimate truth, not one Dharma can be obtained.

Yet unobtainability does not mean that nothing exists. Although not one Dharma can be obtained in the ultimate truth, one mind possesses immeasurable Dharmas in the conventional truth. Just as dream has no fixed nature that can be found in mind, sleep, both, or neither, the many events appearing in dream cannot be denied. The four alternatives break fixed natures of arising, not dependently arisen phenomena. To read their refutation as the destruction of all Dharmas turns the inconceivable into another annihilationist view to grasp.

If It Is Inexpressible, Why Does the Buddha Still Teach?

Ignorance cannot be found internally, externally, in their conjunction, or apart from them; yet the Buddha says that it exists precisely in this way. All four modes of arising are unobtainable, yet great compassion still arises in relation to beings and provisionally establishes names and marks within what lacks them. The four siddhāntas that follow each unfold four modes of expression.

The worldly siddhānta aims to produce delight and can speak of arising from mind, conditions, both, or neither. The three realms constructed by one mind are arising from mind. The five desires causing descent and a spiritual friend enabling one to see the Buddha are arising from conditions. Mercury and pure gold coating colored images are joint arising. The twelve links of dependent origination being made by no agent and naturally so are arising apart.

The individually adapted siddhānta aims to generate faith and also has four alternatives: faith as the source of the path is through mind; rootless faith arising upon meeting the Buddha is through condition; the water of mind becoming limpid so the jewel appears, and roots of loving-kindness enabling one to see, are a conjunction of cause and condition; wisdom being gained through neither internal, external, nor internal-and-external contemplation is apart from the four alternatives. The counteractive siddhānta aims to break evil: one-pointed settlement extinguishing myriad deviations, hearing the radiance of great wisdom making the mind immovable, reflection and a teacher’s instruction each contributing a part, and no Dharma being obtainable at the seat of awakening while beings are still delivered expediently are each correlated with the four alternatives. The ultimate siddhānta aims to enable seeing principle: mind opening into understanding, hearing Dharma and attaining completion, a swift horse seeing the whip’s shadow, and nonattainment itself being attainment each provide gates of self, other, both, and neither.

The same treatise master breaks all four alternatives on one side and teaches them all on the other. The whiteness of milk can be explained to a blind person through four white similes: shell, rice flour, snow, and crane; each speaks from one side, and the blind person thereby understands milk’s color. The conventional truth is itself the ultimate truth, so one speaks all day without speaking all day, and does not speak all day while speaking all day. Both extremes are simultaneously negated and illuminated; breaking is establishing, and establishing is breaking. Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna each established one gate according to the needs of their time, without partial attachment. Attachment arose when later people defended one side and attacked one another.

The Three Contemplations in One Mind Are Not Three Separate Acts of Looking

If one understands that one mind is all minds and all minds are one mind, yet they are neither one nor all, one can proceed through one aggregate and all aggregates, one sense field and all sense fields, one element and all elements, one being and all beings, and one land and all lands. One then proceeds from one mark through all marks and onward through one ultimate and all ultimates. Every item remains within “one is all, all is one, yet neither one nor all”; every item is therefore the inconceivable object.

Dharma-nature combining with ignorance and manifesting aggregates, sense fields, and elements is the conventional truth. All elements and sense fields being one Dharma realm is the true truth. Neither one nor all is the ultimate truth of the Middle Way. In terms of contemplation, one Dharma being all Dharmas means they are conditionally arisen and provisionally designated; this is contemplation of provisionality. All Dharmas being one Dharma is contemplation of emptiness. Neither one nor all is contemplation of the Middle Way.

The three contemplations are not emptiness first, provisionality second, and the Middle last. One emptiness is all emptiness: neither provisionality nor the Middle fails to be empty. One provisionality is all provisionality: neither emptiness nor the Middle fails to be provisional. One Middle is all Middle: neither emptiness nor provisionality fails to be Middle. Thus, of emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle in the same mind, each contemplation encompasses the other two. According to what is illuminated, they are called the three truths; according to what is generated, the three contemplations; when contemplation is accomplished, the three wisdoms; in teaching others, the three modes of speech; and in final return, the three destinations. Names differ according to function, but the meaning disclosed is not divided.

The wish-fulfilling pearl, three poisons, and dream finally illuminate the same structure from three sides. A wish-fulfilling pearl is as small as a mustard or millet seed, yet the seven treasures and five desires emerge from it according to wish. They are neither stored inside beforehand nor brought in from outside; however much it gives, the pearl neither increases nor is exhausted. When conditions meet, the three poisons can expand into views of self and extremes, sharp and dull agents, and ultimately eighty-four thousand afflictions. If they existed beforehand, why would they need conditions? If originally nonexistent, why would they suddenly arise when conditions meet? Hundreds, thousands, and myriads of events occur in a dream, yet none is present after waking. Zhuang Zhou dreams of being a butterfly for what seems a hundred years, yet on waking is neither a butterfly nor someone who has actually passed a century. In one dream, the practitioner of peaceful practices passes from arousing the mind through buddhahood, teaching Dharma, delivering beings, and entering nirvāṇa; on waking, it was only a dream.

None of the three similes turns “possession” into finished objects already stored in a warehouse, nor turns “emptiness” into annihilating nonexistence. The pearl manifests functions according to what is sought, delusion arises when conditions meet, and dream appears in dependence on sleep. They exist without fixed existence and, without fixed existence, exist. Looking back from this point at the ten Dharmas: when the object appears, wisdom, vows, and gates of practice are all fully present. Though explanation has before and after, practice is wholly within one mind. The inconceivable object is not the first stepping-stone of the ten vehicles but the root point from which the other nine Dharmas together receive their direction.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

The reading above has followed the treatise’s own sequence from fixing the object and enumerating contemplation to properly clarifying the wondrous object. Zhanran’s Fuxing further illuminates, one by one, several joints most easily confused.

First, the object of aggregates, sense fields, and elements divides into “first, clarify the object anew” and “next, clarify cultivation of contemplation.” The three categories, nine kinds of five aggregates, leaving the fathom for the foot, and leaving the foot for the inch all clarify what is contemplated anew. Only with the general outline of the ten Dharmas does the text turn to what contemplates. Provisionally setting aside form and retaining mind among the five aggregates, then provisionally setting aside mental factors and contemplating mind-ruler among mind and mental factors, first fixes the aggregate of consciousness for initial contemplation; it does not declare form and mental factors henceforth excluded from contemplation. The ten Dharmas are also called the ten contemplations, the contemplations that accomplish, and the vehicle that is accomplished. Their explanation has an order of arising; in practice, the first four mutually contain one another, while the latter six enable the first four to penetrate, advance, and become free of attachment to Dharmas.

Second, the conceivable object is explained first to make the inconceivable easy to reveal. If one sees that the conceivable is not the proper contemplation here, discards it, and seeks another inconceivable elsewhere, both are lost. The conceivable ten realms preserve the stages of causes and results by which provisional teachings explain mind’s production of the six paths, Two Vehicles, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. Only the inconceivable object reveals original possession in one mind. The former is the introduction and the latter what is contemplated; this is not the replacement of an incorrect account with a correct slogan.

Third, mind’s construction must be divided into construction in principle and construction in phenomena. Phenomenal construction does not extend beyond actions in past, present, and future; construction in principle is mind’s original possession of all Dharmas. Phenomenal function arises in dependence on principial possession, and contemplative practice here properly contemplates principial possession. The three meanings of Dharma realm also illuminate different aspects. Having a basis reveals that all ten realms depend on Dharma-nature. Differentiated causes and results preserve distinctions within the conventional truth. Each intrinsic substance being Dharma realm reveals the Middle Way. If the three meanings are compressed into one, interfusion may swallow cause and result, or distinction may instead conceal the Dharma realm.

Fourth, the ten suchnesses are the very substance of the true mark of all dharmas. Zhanran first records Nanyue’s placement of “suchness” at the end of each phrase and then explains Tiantai’s three turns of the reading according to emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle. Unless one moment of mind is related to the ten realms, it does not universally encompass phenomena. Without the three truths, it does not fully embrace principle. Without the ten suchnesses, cause and result remain incomplete. Without the three kinds of world, dependent and primary recompense cannot be exhausted. The mutual possession of ten realms multiplied by thirty worlds makes the three thousand; differentiated causes and results and each substance being Dharma realm must therefore be maintained simultaneously.

Fifth, inquiry through the four natures does not break the three thousand into total nonexistence. Seeking them through self, other, both, and neither and finding them unobtainable returns the contemplation of cultivated virtue to original principle; it does not establish a separate annihilationist emptiness. The opposed positions of the Dilun and Shelun masters are borrowed to refute one another. The four alternatives of sleep and dream turn an abstract dispute into immediate experience. Four modes of inexpressibility conclude self-practice in nonattainment, while expression because causes and conditions are present opens transformation of others. Worldly, individually adapted, counteractive, and ultimate each receive four alternatives, making precisely sixteen modes of teaching. At the ultimate purity of the Buddha’s purport, all four are inexpressible and all can be taught according to capacity.

Sixth, the simile of the blind person and milk must preserve the treatise’s own use. The treatise says that after hearing the four accounts of shell, rice flour, snow, and crane, the blind person understands milk; the related scripture instead concludes that even with four similes the person cannot recognize milk’s true color. Zhanran explains the treatise as four gates according with principle and does not exchange wording between the two conclusions. This difference illuminates the passage’s point more clearly: teachings adapted to capacity have a function, but no single simile may be grasped as the whole of milk.

Seventh, the three truths, contemplations, wisdoms, modes of speech, and destinations are different names for the same wondrous object according to what is illuminated, what is generated, completed contemplation, teaching others, and final return. Total emptiness, total provisionality, and the total Middle each universally encompass the other two; they are not three successive projects. The wish-fulfilling pearl shows function manifesting according to conditions without increase or exhaustion; the three poisons show neither prior existence nor original nonexistence; the three dreams show that many and one, long and short, delusion and awakening never depart from one mind. The first object is also the common basis of the following nine Dharmas. If the object is misfixed, compassion, calming-and-contemplation, and breaking through Dharmas have no basis for establishment. Zhanran finally concludes with “explanation has a sequence; practice has no before and after”: the inconceivable object is both the first Dharma of the ten vehicles and actively present within every Dharma.