摩訶止觀 觀陰入界境·發心安心

You know that beings are like space, afflictions unobtainable, Dharma gates quiescent, and buddhahood without possession. Then whom is there to deliver, what to sever, what to cultivate, and what to accomplish?

The Mohe Zhiguan answers neither by retreating into real existence nor by stopping in emptiness. A bird flies through space without abiding there, and its trace cannot be found. Precisely here the bodhisattva vows: though beings are like space, vow to deliver them; though afflictions have no existence, vow to sever them; though Dharma gates are quiescent, vow to know them; though the Buddha-path is not an attainment, vow to accomplish it. “True” does not mean speaking sincerely; it means that the vow is neither poisoned nor false. “Correct” does not mean taking one side; it means abiding neither in emptiness nor existence.

Yet after vows arise, mind can remain dark and scattered. Try to calm it and it runs faster; try to contemplate it and it grows blacker. The greatest danger then is turning a method of calming-and-contemplation into a creed. Some permit only calming, others only contemplation; both demand that everyone use the one gate through which they themselves benefited.

Zhiyi changes the question: what illness does this present mind actually have? Does it delight in quiescence or hearing? Do wholesome Dharmas fail to arise, or unwholesome thoughts fail to break? Does it race excessively, or sink into unconscious dullness? Calming is like water and contemplation like food; calming like a pill and contemplation like powdered medicine; calming like yin rain and contemplation like wind and sun. No medicine is eternally correct. What matters is whether it accords now.

Faith-practice can therefore be sharp or dull, and Dharma-practice sharp or dull. What hearing cannot clarify may be decided by one reflection; what contemplation cannot penetrate may open upon one hearing. Faith and Dharma shift, hearing and reflection mutually support, and calming and contemplation exchange places according to illness. The 512 ways of settling the mind are not 512 rungs of a ladder but a Dharma-net that omits no difference among beings.

A net must have many meshes, yet the bird lands in only one. If mind has settled in the truth, one sentence is enough; only while it remains unsettled is another entrance needed.

Truly settling the mind does not mean finally finding one eternally unchanging method. It means that whenever mind inclines again toward one side, you can still see Dharma-nature, remember the four great vows, and ask honestly: which medicine, at this moment, can turn vow into practice?

Seeing All Suffering through One Suffering

Second, arouse the true and correct mind of awakening. Having deeply recognized the inconceivable object, one knows that one suffering is all suffering. One feels compassion for the suffering one has undergone in the past: through giving rise to delusion, drowning in coarse objects of form and sound, and indulging body, speech, and mind in unwholesome actions, one has repeatedly revolved through evil destinations. Enclosed by every kind of burning affliction, body and mind both suffer, and one continuously harms oneself. Even now one is wrapped in the cocoon woven by craving and burned by the lamp of delusion. Across hundreds, thousands, and myriads of kalpas, how immense this suffering has been!

Even when one wishes to leave the three evil paths and seeks the five precepts and ten wholesome acts, cultivating merit with a mind that grasps marks is like exchanging goods in a marketplace: one kind of suffering and pleasure is merely traded for another, while karmic offenses increase. It is like a fish swimming into the mouth of a trap or a moth flying into a lamp. Cleverly imagining oneself to be calculating correctly, one instead becomes more lost and more distant at every step, like drinking saltwater when thirsty. Dragon whiskers wrapped around the body bind more painfully in water; ox hide tied to the body contracts more tightly in the sun. It is also like a blind person entering a thorn forest or drowning in a circling torrent; grasping a blade in one hand and a torch in the other, how could the suffering be fully told? It is like touching a tiger’s tail or approaching a snake’s head, making one tremble in terror. Thinking of oneself in this way, one knows that others are the same.

Compassionate Vows: Delivering Beings and Severing Afflictions

Suppose someone flees an enemy country and follows a narrow, dangerous road, undergoing every hardship, nearly dying and coming back to life. At last this person reaches a poor village, but accepts employment for one day, sleeps that night in a grass hut, and refuses to go farther, taking pleasure instead in lowly work. Neither trusting that a road remains ahead nor knowing the true place of return—how pitiable and strange! Reflecting on oneself and others, pain catches in the throat like a bone, and one aches for both self and others. Great compassion then arises and establishes two vows: “Beings are boundless; I vow to deliver them. Afflictions are numberless; I vow to sever them.”

Although knowing that beings are like empty space, one still vows to deliver those space-like beings. Although knowing that afflictions have no possession, one still vows to sever those possessionless afflictions. Although knowing that beings are exceedingly numerous, one still delivers those exceedingly numerous beings. Although knowing that afflictions have no bottom or boundary, one still severs those bottomless afflictions. Although knowing that the thusness of beings and the thusness of the Buddha are nondual, one still delivers beings who share the Buddha’s thusness. Although knowing that afflictions are themselves the true mark, one still severs afflictions that are themselves the true mark.

Why speak this way? If one removes only one side, the cause of suffering, without removing suffering as result, the vow is mixed with the poison of partial attachment; emptiness must therefore be contemplated. If one becomes partial to contemplating emptiness, one sees no beings who can be delivered and becomes what is called a person attached to emptiness, whom the buddhas cannot transform. If one sees only beings everywhere who can be delivered, one falls into compassion governed by craving and views, not the path of liberation〔and so forth〕.

Because it is now neither mixed with poison nor false, it is called “true.” Because it is partial neither to emptiness nor existence, it is called “correct.” It is like a bird flying through the sky that ultimately does not abide in the sky, while the trace of its flight can be found nowhere. Knowing emptiness yet still delivering beings, and delivering beings yet still knowing emptiness, the vows are said to struggle together with empty space. This is the meaning of “truly and correctly arousing the mind of awakening.”

Loving-Kindness Vows: Knowing Dharma Gates and Accomplishing the Buddha-Path

Having further recognized the inconceivable mind, one knows that one mind of happiness is every mind of happiness. Although beings and I sought happiness in the past, we did not know its true cause, like holding rubble and taking it for a wish-fulfilling jewel or pointing to a firefly and calling it the sun or moon. Only now does understanding begin. Great loving-kindness consequently arises and establishes two more vows: “Dharma gates are immeasurable; I vow to know them. The unsurpassed Buddha-path—I vow to accomplish it.”

Although knowing that all Dharma gates are eternally quiescent like empty space, one still vows to cultivate those eternally quiescent gates. Although knowing that awakening has no possession, one still seeks awakening within possessionlessness. Although knowing Dharma gates to be like space and without possession, one still vows to adorn space like a colored painting. Although knowing that the Buddha-path is not an attainment that can be accomplished, one remains like a person planting a tree in empty space and causing it to flower and bear fruit. Although knowing Dharma gates and buddhahood to be neither truly existent things that can be cultivated nor things that can be left uncultivated, one nevertheless cultivates. Though neither realization nor attainment truly exists, one realizes and attains through having nothing realized or attained.

This is neither false nor mixed with poison and is therefore called “true.” It is partial neither to emptiness nor to compassion governed by craving and views and is therefore called “correct.” These vows of loving-kindness and compassion and the object-wisdom of the inconceivable arise neither before nor after but simultaneously together. Loving-kindness and compassion are wisdom; wisdom is loving-kindness and compassion. One neither grasps the object engaged nor gives rise to a thought that engages it, yet universally covers and protects all. One naturally removes beings’ suffering and spontaneously gives them happiness. This differs from poisoned vows, from seeing only the side of emptiness, and from compassion governed by craving and views. This is the meaning of “truly and correctly arousing awakening in the mind.” Compassion for oneself and for beings is as explained above; by applying it to contemplation of one’s own mind, it can be understood.

General Settling: Settling Calming-and-Contemplation in Dharma-Nature

Third, skillfully settling the mind means skillfully using calming-and-contemplation to make the mind abide in Dharma-nature. The inconceivable object has already been deeply penetrated, its meaning profound, wondrous, and subtle. Loving-kindness and compassion have already been exercised broadly, covering this vast object. Practice must now give substance to the vows, and that practice is calming-and-contemplation.

Ignorance and delusive confusion originally never depart from Dharma-nature. Because of delusion, Dharma-nature appears as ignorance, giving rise to the various inversions and distinctions of wholesome and unwholesome. It is like water freezing into solid ice when cold arrives, or like sleep arriving and mind transforming into the many objects of dream.

One should now see the intrinsic substance of every inversion as Dharma-nature, while the two can be called neither wholly identical nor separately divided. Although inversion appears to arise and cease like a wheel of fire seen when a torch is spun, the practitioner does not grasp its marks of arising and ceasing but trusts only that the intrinsic substance of this mind is Dharma-nature. Arising is the arising of Dharma-nature; ceasing is the ceasing of Dharma-nature. On examination, there is originally no arising or ceasing; delusive thought merely calls them arising and ceasing. Point to every one of these delusive thoughts as Dharma-nature; focus Dharma-nature upon Dharma-nature, recollect Dharma-nature with Dharma-nature. It is constantly Dharma-nature, without an instant that is not Dharma-nature. Once this embodied penetration is accomplished, delusive thought is unobtainable and Dharma-nature cannot be grasped. Returning in this way to the original source, the entire Dharma realm becomes quiescent together. This is called “calming.” When such calming is accomplished, all the preceding currents of transmigration cease.

Contemplation means contemplating the mind of ignorance. Upward through Dharma-nature, it is originally all empty; downward through every wholesome and unwholesome delusive thought, all are likewise empty space, neither two nor different. It is like the great fire at the end of an eon burning from the earth up to the first dhyāna: amid the raging flames, nowhere is not fire. It is also like the manifestation of Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva, in which everything is empty, or the manifestation when Ocean-Wisdom Bodhisattva first arrived, in which everything is water. Even when only the subtlest thought arises, the object thought and the mind thinking it are both empty in their intrinsic substance; even emptiness is unobtainable. Again, as explained above, fire and wood cause firewood to burn, and it burns naturally. The Dharma realm is penetratively bright and clear, everything becoming great illumination. This is called “contemplation.”

Calming and Contemplation Settle as One Substance

Calming is simply wisdom, and wisdom is simply calming. Unmoving calming is unmoving wisdom, and unmoving wisdom is unmoving calming. When unmoving wisdom illuminates Dharma-nature, contemplative wisdom is settled and therefore calming is settled. When the mind does not move and accords with Dharma-nature, calming is settled and therefore contemplation is settled. There is no difference between them.

What should be done if neither calming nor contemplation can settle the mind? The human spirit is dark, swift, floating, indistinct, and unsettled, arising and ceasing at great speed and difficult to hold. It suddenly departs and suddenly returns, not easily restrained. Though one wishes to gather it through calming, it races like leaping flame. Though one wishes to inspect it with contemplation, it becomes darker than black lacquer. With painful effort, distraction and delusion only double. Darkness and distraction are powerful enemies, while one’s contemplative strength is weak; the two lock together like a snipe and clam. One can neither advance nor retreat. At such a time one must resolve to offer body and life to the path, not sparing one’s bones and never turning back. Vow to settle the mind skillfully, turning preparatory means until calming and contemplation correspond and the stage of contemplative practice is accomplished.

Teaching Another to Settle the Mind: Noble and Ordinary Teachers

Settling the mind has two kinds: first, teaching others; second, one’s own practice. Teaching others again has two kinds: first, the noble teacher; second, the ordinary teacher.

A noble teacher has the power of the wisdom-eye and understands every Dharma-medicine; the power of the Dharma-eye and can recognize beings’ illnesses and obstructions; and the power of transformation and can administer medicine according to illness, enabling people to take and practice it in accord with Dharma. Upagupta, for example, knew that a disciple should awaken through faith and made him climb a tree; knew another should awaken through food and made him consume milk and curds; and knew another should awaken through rebuke and conjured a female form. Every time, he enabled the disciple to open into clear understanding without the slightest mistake. He neither forces transformation before the occasion is ripe nor misses an occasion that has ripened; one utterance makes the person awaken and enter.

After the Buddha’s passing, such teachers are exceedingly difficult to encounter. How could a blind turtle happen upon the hole in a floating yoke? How could a falling mustard seed happen to pass over a needle’s point? Difficult! Difficult! Second is the ordinary teacher. Although ordinary teachers lack the three powers above, they can still teach and transform. A good physician, for example, precisely distinguishes medicines and illnesses, knows how to inspect complexion, listen to sounds, and examine the pulse, and administers a fitting medicine so the illness is cured. Yet if the patient’s lifespan is exhausted, even that physician cannot restore the dead to life. A physician unable to read the pulse can still ask about the symptoms and prescribe according to the patient’s account, possibly removing and curing the illness. Śāriputra already possessed noble virtue yet once misjudged faculties. How much more so an ordinary person still bound by afflictions who claims to be a guide capable of curing illness?

Faith-Practice and Dharma-Practice: First Examine the Faculties

Noble teachers are set aside here; the discussion concerns how an ordinary teacher teaches another to settle the mind. Students are of two kinds: first, faith-practitioners; second, Dharma-practitioners. A Sarvāstivāda lineage says that both are at the stage of the path of seeing: those entering the path through hearing are called “faith-practitioners,” and those entering through reflection are called “Dharma-practitioners.” The Dharmaguptaka lineage instead says: “They occupy a stage of preparatory means. Those who see Dharma less by themselves and rely more on the power of hearing, and who must later hear Dharma in order to awaken, are called faith-practitioners. Those who rely less on hearing and see Dharma more by themselves, and who must later reflect in order to awaken, are called Dharma-practitioners.”

If the markless mind on the path of seeing is extremely sharp and accords with truth as soon as it arises, how could faith-practice and Dharma-practice be distinguished within it? Yet the Abhidharma masters speak according to the stage at which practice is accomplished, while the treatise masters speak according to faculties. Each side has a basis and should not negate the other.

The teacher now traces the matter back to its distant source. Some people have repeatedly heard and studied over many kalpas; others have repeatedly sat in dhyāna over many kalpas. These become seeds of faith-practice or Dharma-practice. After being perfumed life after life, they form respective faculties through which awakening occurs by hearing or reflection. In terms of sharpness and dullness, Dharma-practitioners can be called sharp because they can contemplate Dharma inwardly for themselves, and faith-practitioners dull because they must hear Dharma through another’s words. The account can also be reversed: faith-practitioners are sharp because they awaken upon hearing once, while Dharma-practitioners are dull because they must investigate each Dharma. Both types can also be sharp or dull in different ways: a faith-practitioner’s wisdom of hearing is sharp while cultivated wisdom is dull; a Dharma-practitioner’s cultivated wisdom is sharp while wisdom of hearing is dull.

Having determined the present person’s sharp or dull faculties, how should the teacher settle that person’s mind? The teacher should ask, “Toward which do your aspirations incline: meditative concentration or wisdom?” If the person says, “I heard the Buddha teach that a spiritual friend is like the moon’s form and light, gradually growing full and manifest, or like climbing a stairway, rising one step at a time. Skillful exposition of Dharma can transform the mind; attainment of the path depends entirely on causes and conditions. My mind admires and longs for it like a calf following its mother,” the teacher knows this is a faith-practitioner. If the person says, “I heard the Buddha teach that if a bright mirror’s substance remains unmoving, images clearly appear; if pure water has no waves, fish and stones are naturally visible. I aspire to relinquish unwholesome thoughts as one casts off a heavy load,” the teacher knows this is a Dharma-practitioner. Once the faculties are known, eight modes of settling can be applied within one person.

Teaching Calming to a Faith-Practitioner: Four Siddhāntas

First, settle the mind through calming according to inclination. The teacher should admonish and encourage: Good person! For immeasurable kalpas you have drunk the poison of madness and scattered mind, pursuing the five sensory objects of form, sound, scent, taste, and touch, rising and sinking in the three realms. You are like soft, light tūla cotton whirled about by a violent wind, or beans ceaselessly rising and sinking in a boiling cauldron. You pass from suffering into affliction and from affliction back into suffering. Why not calm this mind, penetrate its root, and make thought single? Once thought becomes single, what undertaking could not be accomplished? If suffering and its accumulation return to one, they no longer revolve. If ignorance calms into one, it no longer conditions formations and therefore never reaches old age and death. Once a great tree is felled, old karma ends and new karma is not made. If the six obscurations return to one, one can reach the farther shore; only this is most peaceful and joyful. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and various similes, the teacher praises calming broadly and causes delight to arise in the student’s mind. This is called “settling the mind through calming according to inclination.”

Second, settle the mind through calming according to suitability. The teacher further says: Good person! Suppose the sky has been dry for a long time, rivers and ponds have entirely dried up, myriad grasses and trees are scorched, and the hundred grains have withered. Sāgara Dragon King builds cloud banks for seven days and sends rain down in the four directions. The earth is thoroughly moistened, every seed sprouts, every root and stalk grows, every branch and leaf flourishes, and every flower and fruit opens. People are the same. Through laxity and carelessness, wholesome Dharmas that should arise cannot arise, while those already arisen retreat and disappear. The river of meditative concentration dries up; the trees of the path’s factors wither; myriad wholesome qualities are scorched and the hundred merits damaged; flowers of cultivated causes and fruits of the path cannot ripen. If one can abide in a quiet forest, gathering oneself into one mind so the inner does not race outward and external objects do not enter, a cloud of serene concentration rises and the arising of various meditative concentrations becomes rain. The forest of merit; preparatory stages such as warmth and summit; eye, wisdom, illumination, and awakening; the forbearances of faith, accord, nonarising, and quiescent cessation; and ultimately unsurpassed awakening can all be attained one by one. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises calming broadly and causes wholesome roots to arise. This is called “settling the mind through calming according to suitability.”

Third, settle the mind through calming as counteraction. The teacher further says: Good person! Scattered mind is the worst of evils. It is like a drunken elephant without an iron hook to subdue it, trampling flower ponds; or like a camel controlled by a pierced nose that still overturns the load on its back. It is faster than lightning and more poisonous than a snake’s tongue. Like five overlapping screens of smoke, cloud, dust, mist, and the like, it hides the bright sun layer by layer. Eyelashes are near and the sky far, yet when screened, a person sees neither. If one cultivates concentration, it is like a lamp in a sealed chamber breaking great darkness, or a golden scalpel opening an eye membrane so space and forms become clearly visible and one, two, and three fingers can all be seen. Heavy rain subdues billowing dust; great concentration pacifies mad scattering. Calming breaks distraction, and falsity then ceases. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises calming broadly and breaks through torpor and distraction. This is called “settling the mind through calming as counteraction.”

Fourth, settle the mind through calming according to the ultimate meaning. The teacher further says: Good person! If mind abides in concentration, it can know the marks of worldly Dharmas that arise and cease and also the marks of world-transcending Dharmas that neither arise nor cease. Even after attaining the path, the Tathāgata delighted in meditative concentration; how much more should an ordinary person? One who possesses concentration is like someone who sees a flash of lightning at night, immediately sees the road, and thereby sees the path. Such a person can break innumerable billions of layers of profound dark evil and ultimately accomplish wisdom of all modes. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises calming broadly and enables the student to accord with thusness. This is called “settling the mind through calming according to the ultimate meaning.”

Teaching Contemplation to a Faith-Practitioner: Four Siddhāntas

First, settle the mind through contemplation according to inclination. If the person says, “When I hear the Dharma of quiescent cessation, my mind cannot receive it at all; when I hear discerning explanations, I can listen without weariness,” the teacher should explain: The blazing fires of the three evil paths, the heavy whippings endured by camels and donkeys, and the hunger and thirst tormenting hungry ghosts are not the greatest suffering. The truly great suffering is delusive darkness, not hearing Dharma and not distinguishing direction. Extensive hearing and discernment are joy. Seeing Dharma and giving rise to Dharma-joy are joy. Attacking evil with good is joy. The arhat without attachment is called supremely joyful. Hear the joy of ambrosia from one of extensive learning; contemplate according to the teaching; know what is and is not the path; avoid pits and ravines; proceed straight ahead without turning back. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises contemplation broadly and causes delight to arise in the student’s mind. This is called “settling the mind through contemplation according to inclination.”

Second, settle the mind through contemplation according to suitability. The teacher further says: Good person! Moonlight opens lotus flowers, while sunlight raises people to their work. A merchant must follow the caravan leader; a colored painting requires glue. If an earthen brick is not fired, it cannot be used even for a moment. Without a guide, a blind person cannot advance one step. Practice without contemplative wisdom is the same. Wisdom of all modes takes contemplation as its root and is adorned by immeasurable merit. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises contemplation broadly and causes merit to arise. This is called “settling the mind through contemplation according to suitability.”

Third, settle the mind through contemplation as counteraction. The teacher further says: Good person! A wise person can recognize an enemy, so the enemy cannot inflict harm. A general with strategy can break a powerful foe. Without wind, what could sweep clouds away? Without clouds, what could screen the heat? Without water, what could extinguish fire? Without fire, what could dispel darkness? What can surpass wisdom—the ax that splits wood, the knife that cuts bonds? With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises contemplation broadly and causes the student to break unwholesome Dharmas. This is called “settling the mind through contemplation as counteraction.”

Fourth, settle the mind through contemplation according to the ultimate meaning. The teacher further says: Good person! The seven treasures in a well and jars and basins in a dark room must await the sun’s illumination. Only after the sun rises does everything appear clearly. One must use the wisdom-eye to contemplate in order to know the true mark of all dharmas. Among all Dharmas, enter through equal contemplation; the perfection of wisdom is the most brilliantly illuminating. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises contemplation broadly and enables the student to gain awakened understanding. This is called “settling the mind through contemplation according to the ultimate meaning.” These eight modes are the methods of settling taught to faith-practitioners.

Teaching Calming to a Dharma-Practitioner: Four Siddhāntas

First, settle the mind through calming according to inclination. If the person says, “I delight in calming this mind, becoming silent and still more silent, diminishing and still more diminished until finally reaching the unconditioned. I do not delight in discrimination. If mind races outward following words, even sitting is futile,” these are faculties of Dharma-practice and calming should be taught: Do not seek outwardly; simply guard the one within. The flow of cognitive engagement and awakened thought all arises from deluded mind. A wheel of fire is seen only when a torch is spun; as soon as the hand stops, the wheel ceases. Surging waves are stirred by wind; once wind becomes still, the water clears. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa says: “What is cognitive engagement? It means engaging with the three realms. What is calming cognitive engagement? It is the mind’s nonattainment.” The Auspicious Response Sūtra says: “When a person attains one-pointed mind, the myriad falsities are all extinguished.” Nāgārjuna says: “The real Dharma is not inverted; reflective and perceptual contemplation has been removed, and verbal Dharmas are all extinguished. Immeasurable offenses are removed, and the pure mind remains constantly single; such a revered and wondrous person can see prajñā.”

Even a secluded mountain forest is a place praised by immortals; how much more is nirvāṇa, clear and quiescent, revered by worthies and nobles. The Scripture of the Buddha’s Words says: “When a monk lives in a settlement and exerts body and speech, all buddhas are concerned for him. When a monk lives in the mountains, ceases activity, and lies at ease, all buddhas rejoice.” How much more so when one sits cross-legged, gathers both hands, closes the mouth and stops speech, and reflects on the mark of quiescent cessation. When mind’s origin returns into calming, the Dharma realm becomes quiescent together. Is this not the most essential path? Only this gate is most precious; nothing else compares. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and various similes, the teacher praises calming broadly and causes delight to arise. This is called “settling the mind through calming according to inclination.”

Second, settle the mind through calming according to suitability. If the person says, “When I contemplate the marks of Dharmas, confusion and disturbance only increase and wholesome Dharmas fail to become clear,” calming should be taught: Calming is the level and upright good field of the Dharma realm; what Dharma could it lack? Upward relinquishment of cognitive engagement is giving. The nature of calming contains no evil and is therefore keeping precepts. Its nature is unmoving and is therefore patient endurance. Calming is uninterrupted and unmixed and is therefore diligence. It is decisively unmoving and is therefore meditative concentration. The Dharma of calming is unobtainable, and the person who calms is unobtainable; this is wisdom. Through calming, one enters what is neither calming nor noncalming; this is preparatory means. One calming being all calming is vow. Calming attachment to calming and calming the grasping of views concerning calming is power. This calming is like the Buddha’s calming, neither two nor different; this is knowledge. Calming fully possesses all Dharmas and is the secret treasury. One need only abide in calming; why cultivate Dharmas separately? With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher causes wholesome roots to arise. This is “settling the mind through calming according to suitability.”

Third, settle the mind through calming as counteraction. If the person says, “When I contemplate Dharma-marks, distraction and torpor still cannot be removed,” the great power of calming should be taught. Calming is like a concentration chamber built with solid walls, into which the eight winds and unwholesome thoughts cannot intrude. It is like pure water that washes away craving and the eight inversions, which are like morning dew drying when the sun appears. Calming is great loving-kindness, equally caring for enemy and intimate and capable of breaking anger and rage. Calming is a great illumination spell that can dispel delusion and doubt. Calming is itself the Buddha and can break Dharmas that obstruct the path. It is like agada medicine, universally curing every illness, or a skillful good physician whose spell-power revives the withered dead. With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher causes the student to break unwholesome Dharmas. This is called “settling the mind through calming as counteraction.”

Fourth, settle the mind through calming according to the ultimate meaning. If the person says, “I cannot awaken through contemplation,” calming should be taught: Calming is embodied penetration of true principle, illuminating while constantly quiescent. Calming accords with causes and conditions, quiescent while constantly illuminating. Calming is the calming that is no calming, simultaneously stopping and illuminating both extremes. Calming is the mother of buddhas; calming is the father of buddhas. The father is the mother and the mother the father. Calming is the Buddha’s teacher, body, eye, marks and excellences, treasury, and dwelling. What does it not possess, and what can it not remove? With skillful preparatory means, various causes and conditions, and similes, the teacher praises calming broadly. This is called “settling the mind through calming according to the ultimate meaning.”

Teaching Contemplation to a Dharma-Practitioner and the Shifting of Faculties

First, settle the mind through contemplation according to inclination. If the person says, “The form of calming is silent and quiescent and not what I love,” contemplation should be taught, searching and investigating principle. Among the seven factors of awakening is investigation of Dharmas; within the eightfold correct path is correct view; among the six perfections is prajñā. Contemplative wisdom serves as master and guide within every Dharma gate, all the way through buddhahood. Correct awakening, great awakening, and universal awakening are different names for contemplative wisdom. Know that it is supremely honored and wondrous. Praising contemplation broadly in this way is “settling the mind through contemplation according to inclination.”

Second, settle the mind through contemplation according to suitability. Diligent cultivation of contemplation can produce faith, precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation. It enables one to know illness and recognize medicine, lets the path of transformation circulate widely, and gathers every wholesome quality universally. Nothing surpasses contemplation. This is “settling the mind through contemplation according to suitability.”

Third, settle the mind through contemplation as counteraction. Contemplation can break darkness, illuminate the road, eliminate enemies, and obtain treasure. It can topple the mountain of deviant views and drain the ocean of craving; all are powers of contemplation. This is “settling the mind through contemplation as counteraction.”

Fourth, settle the mind through contemplation according to the ultimate meaning. When Dharmas are observed through contemplation, contemplator and contemplated are both unobtainable. Thought within the mind becomes spacious and clear, and what has been dim is about to open into understanding. At this time one should diligently cultivate contemplation alone in order to open, reveal, awaken, and enter. This is “settling the mind through contemplation according to the ultimate meaning.” These eight modes are the methods of settling taught to Dharma-practitioners.

Furthermore, people’s faculties are not fixed and sometimes shift. The Sarvāstivādins say dull faculties can turn sharp. The Satyasiddhi Śāstra says repeated practice makes the faculties sharp. These speak of sharpness and dullness across the period from beginning through completion of practice and cannot distinguish changes within the same moment. What is explained now is that beings’ mental activities are unfixed: they can become dull for a moment and sharp again a moment later, naturally so, neither involving a long-term transformation of faculties nor necessarily produced by repeated practice. Some cannot penetrate by contemplating for themselves but awaken immediately upon hearing. Others fail to understand after long hearing but decide the matter clearly after reflecting briefly.

It is therefore still necessary to explain how the mind is settled when faculties shift. If a Dharma-practitioner shifts into a faith-practitioner, the teacher follows the new faculty and administers eight siddhānta modes of settling. If a faith-practitioner shifts into a Dharma-practitioner, the teacher likewise follows the new faculty and administers eight siddhānta modes. Once this meaning is understood, one can freely teach broadly or briefly. Shifting and not shifting together make thirty-two ways of teaching another to settle the mind.

Eight Modes Each for Faith-Practice and Dharma-Practice in Self-Practice

In settling the mind through one’s own practice, one should first contemplate what this mind actually inclines toward. Wishing to calm delusive thought and make reflective thought quiescent is inclination toward Dharma-practice. Delighting in hearing and wishing thereby to penetrate directly to the root of ignorance is inclination toward faith-practice.

First come the eight modes of Dharma-practice in self-practice. If one delights in quiescence, contemplate that delusive thoughts emerge from mind; calm this mind, and all delusions become quiescent. This is calming according to inclination. If one wishes to illuminate and know, one must know the root of mind. The root of mind is nondual, and all Dharmas are also like empty space. This is contemplation according to inclination. If the mind discriminates broadly concerning self and Dharmas yet exceedingly subtle wholesome Dharmas such as faith and diligence cannot arise, one should concentrate the spirit and calm, not allowing the mind to move. Various wholesome merits arise from quiescence. This is calming according to suitability. If concentrated calming makes one even more sunken and quiescent, wholly unable to enter a stage of forbearance, one should compare and weigh, stirring this mind so it arises. This is contemplation according to suitability.

If thought after thought never stops and races wantonly like a blood-sweating horse, calming should counteract its galloping. If silent darkness accords with sleep, contemplation should be cultivated to break every dull obstruction. If one has long cultivated calming without anything opening, cultivate contemplation: contemplate all Dharmas as unobstructed and undifferentiated, making mind gradually close-fitting, clear, and sharp until Dharmas progressively feel like empty space. If one has long cultivated contemplation yet dark obstruction remains, change to calming: still the various engaged thoughts so that contemplator and contemplated, grasped object and self-grasping become quiescent together, and the wisdom of emptiness is about to arise. These are the eight modes of Dharma-practice in self-practice, skillfully arranged in sequence so the mind settles〔and so forth〕.

Next come the eight modes of faith-practice in self-practice. If one wishes to hear of quiescent concentration like Mount Sumeru, unafraid of shaking by the eight winds, one should hear about calming. This is calming according to inclination. If one wishes to hear how sharp contemplation breaks affliction like the sun dispelling darkness, one should hear about contemplation. This is contemplation according to inclination. If one hears too much contemplation, like sunlight scorching a tender shoot, one should change to hearing calming so the water of concentration moistens it. This is calming according to suitability. If hearing concentration causes one to stagnate too long, like a tender shoot rotting without growing, one should change to hearing contemplation so wind and sun stimulate it and wholesome Dharmas appear. This is contemplation according to suitability.

If the mind sometimes races through cognitive engagement and thought and cannot abide for even one moment, one should hear calming to counteract the scattered mind. If the mind sinks into dimness as if sitting in fog, one should hear contemplation to break heavy sleep. If hearing calming makes the mind spacious and clear, one should concentrate on continuing to hear calming. If hearing contemplation makes it bright and open, one should concentrate on continuing to hear contemplation. These are the eight modes of skillfully settling the mind in faith-practice for oneself.

If a Dharma-practice mind shifts to faith-practice, or a faith-practice mind shifts to Dharma-practice, skillfully investigate according to what is fitting at that moment. Self-practice has thirty-two modes and teaching others also has thirty-two, making sixty-four ways of settling the mind.

Hearing and Reflection Support Each Other

Furthermore, faith-practice and Dharma-practice cannot stand isolated; hearing and reflection must support each other. Take a Dharma-practitioner. On hearing the one sentence, “The essential nature is quiescent and limpid; all delusive thoughts in dream are dispelled,” the person returns, sits, reflects, and gives rise to delight. Someone else hears calming and then adds reflection, giving rise to meditative concentration; hears calming and immediately reflects, breaking every delusive thought; or hears calming and adds reflection, so the mind becomes bright and is about to awaken and enter. Another hears contemplation and adds reflection, giving rise to great delight; or hears contemplation and adds reflection, becoming able to generate good, break evil, and approach awakened entry. The remainder can be known by analogy. Because hearing is lesser and reflection greater, this is called Dharma-practice; it is not wholly without hearing Dharma.

A faith-practitioner sits upright and reflects on quiescent cessation, but joy and exhilaration have not yet arisen. After rising from the seat and hearing about calming, joy arises and feels sweet and happy. Sitting upright and recollecting wholesome Dharmas, wholesome Dharmas fail to arise; after rising and hearing calming, faith, precepts, and diligence grow twofold. Sitting upright and counteracting unwholesome Dharmas, the unwholesome Dharmas cannot be dispelled; after rising and hearing calming, distraction and disturbance are broken. Sitting upright and contemplating true principle, the real path fails to open; after rising and hearing calming, one suddenly seems to awaken to quiescent cessation. This is faith-practice: reflection while seated is less and hearing greater, but reflection is not wholly absent.

The foregoing treated cases inclined toward a single faculty; the present discussion treats faculties in which hearing and reflection support each other. Mutual support further divides into shifting and not shifting and also has thirty-two ways of settling the mind. Mutual support in teaching others has thirty-two as well, making sixty-four. Combined with the preceding sixty-four, there are 128 ways of settling the mind.

Harmonizing Calming and Contemplation and Breaking Two Partial Attachments

The ground of mind is difficult to settle and always wishes to turn from suffering and follow happiness. One therefore follows each person’s wishes and settles the person in accordance with the faculties. To sustain life, for example, one may drink water or eat food, both regulating the body and preserving life. Sustaining the Dharma body is the same, with calming as drink and contemplation as food. Medicine also has two kinds, pills and powders, used to remove cold and heat. To treat the illness of ignorance, calming is the pill and contemplation the powder. Or consider the operation of yin and yang: yang brings wind and sun, yin cloud and rain. Excessive rain rots a tender shoot; excessive sun scorches it. Yin is like meditative concentration and yang like wisdom. When either wisdom or meditative concentration is excessive, buddha-nature cannot be seen. The eight modes of calming and contemplation harmonize each other; what matters most is grasping their purport.

One type of dhyāna master forbids contemplation and permits only exclusive calming, citing a verse: “Reflection upon reflection is merely self-reflection; reflection upon reflection is merely self-suffering. Calming reflection is the path; while reflection remains, one ultimately cannot see.” Another type forbids calming and permits only contemplation, citing a verse: “Calming upon calming is merely self-calming, with no basis at all in the dark. Calming again and again is the path; contemplating again and again accords with true principle.” Each teacher entered through one gate but then used the benefit personally gained to teach everyone. Students fail to see the true purport of that benefit. If they take only milk exclusively, even whey is difficult to obtain, much less ghee.

If only one-sided understanding were permitted, why would the Buddha have made so many different explanations? The sky is not forever clear, a physician does not use only powdered medicine, and people do not always eat only dry rice. Even worldly affairs are not so, much less world-transcending Dharma. Here, shifting according to faculties and illnesses makes sixty-four modes across self-practice and teaching others. Correlated further with three rounds of calming-and-contemplation, these become 384. Adding the sixty-four modes correlated with the original calming-and-contemplation of one mind makes 512.

The first three siddhāntas are worldly methods of settling the mind, like treatment by a worldly physician: even after the illness is cured, it may recur. The ultimate siddhānta is world-transcending settling of the mind, treated by the Tathāgata; the illness ultimately does not recur. Worldly and world-transcending Dharmas accomplish and illuminate one another. Apart from the three truths, there is nowhere for mind to settle; apart from calming-and-contemplation, there is no method that settles it. If mind has settled in true principle, one sentence of Dharma is sufficient. If it still cannot settle, skillfully apply preparatory means until it does.

A net with only one mesh cannot catch a bird, yet when the bird is actually caught, it is caught through only one mesh of the full net. Beings’ mental activities differ: many people may share one kind of mental activity, while one person may display many over time. When establishing a method for one person, it can be provided as broadly as for many; when establishing methods for many, each individual must still be considered. The many meshes of the Dharma-net must therefore be established broadly to catch the birds of various mental activities.

Mohe Zhiguan, Fascicle Five, First Part

The preceding contemplation has brought us before the inconceivable object: one suffering is not an isolated suffering, and one thought is not a closed thought. Yet seeing deeply does not mean that vows have already been established or practice accomplished. If old habits still draw the mind away, even the highest view remains at the threshold. This passage therefore raises two questions in succession. Having seen the object, why must one still arouse the mind? Having aroused it, how does one truly settle? The four great vows answer the first; calming-and-contemplation answers the second.

If Beings Are Seen as Empty, Who Remains to Be Delivered?

The treatise master does not begin with a grand ideal but with how a person harms oneself. Drowning in forms and sounds and indulging the three kinds of karma is clearly suffering. Yet trying to escape evil destinations while using a mark-grasping mind merely to exchange them for human and celestial fortune also remains within a trade in suffering and pleasure. A fish enters a trap for bait; a moth flies into fire for light. One drinks saltwater when thirsty and grows thirstier. Dragon whiskers bind more tightly in water, and ox hide contracts more tightly in sunlight. Every simile asks the same question: when what one does appears wholesome, why does it still fail to free one truly from suffering?

The problem lies not in precepts, goodness, or cultivation of merit, but in taking an obtainable recompense as the final destination. One leaves a dangerous place only to stop in the grass hut of a poor village. After painfully crossing a narrow road, one takes temporary rest for home. When the practitioner sees from personal transmigration that others are trapped in the same way, compassion ceases to be mere sadness and becomes two vows from which one cannot retreat: though beings are boundless, vow to deliver them; though afflictions are numberless, vow to sever them.

Yet if beings and afflictions are both unobtainable, do the vows not become empty? The treatise answers exactly the reverse. Knowing them to be like space, one still does not abandon delivering and severing. Faced with boundless numbers, one does not retreat because they are boundless. Seeing the thusness of beings as nondual with the thusness of the Buddha and seeing afflictions as themselves the true mark, one still delivers and still severs. Emptiness does not cancel vows and practice; provisional existence does not establish entities. A bird flies through the sky, neither abiding in it nor leaving any trace. Vows and practice unfold in this same nonabiding between two extremes.

Why Still Accomplish Buddhahood within Possessionlessness?

Compassion enters through suffering; loving-kindness enters through mistaking what happiness is. Beings seek happiness but take rubble for a wish-fulfilling pearl and a firefly for the sun or moon. The seeking is not wrong; the error is failure to know happiness’s true cause. Two further vows consequently arise: though Dharma gates are immeasurable, vow to know them; though the Buddha-path is unsurpassed, vow to accomplish it.

The similes here are more severe. Dharma gates are quiescent like empty space, so practice is like painting space. Buddhahood is not an obtainable thing, so becoming a buddha is like planting a tree in empty space and still making it flower and bear fruit. On the surface, every act is impossible. The treatise master uses them, however, to show that possessionlessness does not make practice futile; it frees practice from possessing an attainment. Neither cultivation nor noncultivation, yet one cultivates. Neither realization nor attainment, yet one realizes and attains. Cultivation and realization are not established as graspable entities, but neither are the acts of cultivating and realizing discarded.

Thus “true” and “correct” do not mean general sincerity and uprightness. True first excludes poison and falsity from the vows; correct then excludes partial emptiness and craving-governed views. The four great vows and wisdom of the inconceivable object are also not two matters, one first understanding principle and the other later adding compassion. The treatise master says compassion is wisdom and wisdom is compassion. If wisdom does not spontaneously remove suffering and naturally give happiness, it has not completed the object it sees. If compassion departs from objectless, thought-free engagement, it becomes bound by deliverer and delivered. The four vows therefore arise together as four directions of the same mind of awakening.

Once Vows Have Arisen, Why Must the Mind Still Be Settled?

Vows establish direction; practice fills the vows with substance. This is why settling the mind immediately follows arousing it. The treatise master does not begin with a set of external exercises but with the relation between ignorance and Dharma-nature. Delusive ignorance is itself Dharma-nature, like cold making water freeze or sleep making mind dream. Ice never leaves water and dream never leaves mind, yet the obstruction of ice and inversion of dream cannot therefore be denied. The question is whether, at the place where inversion arises and ceases, one can see that it never departs from Dharma-nature and stop chasing its marks.

“Calming” is established here. A spun torch appears as a wheel of fire arising and ceasing; if mind chases the wheel’s mark, it flows along with arising and ceasing. Now see the intrinsic substance of delusive thought as Dharma-nature and focus Dharma-nature upon Dharma-nature until delusive thought is unobtainable and even a Dharma-nature that could be held is unobtainable. Then one returns to the original source, the Dharma realm becomes quiescent together, and transmigration finally stops. Calming does not move delusive thought outside Dharma-nature and destroy it; at the place of delusive thought, one ceases to believe that it has an independently existing substance of arising and ceasing.

“Contemplation” illuminates from Dharma-nature through all wholesome and unwholesome delusive thoughts, seeing them as nondual, undifferentiated, and ultimately empty and quiescent. Wherever the great fire at an eon’s end reaches, everywhere is fire. Wherever Ākāśagarbha manifests, everywhere is empty. When Ocean-Wisdom arrives, the assembly sees water everywhere. The three similes do not transform the world into one material; they reveal nonduality, nondifference, and universal emptiness. Thinker, thought, and even the subtlest thought are all empty in their intrinsic substance, while emptiness itself cannot become a new abode. The Dharma realm thereby becomes penetratively bright. This is contemplation.

If Calming Is Wisdom, Why Still Distinguish Calming and Contemplation?

The treatise master pushes general settling toward an almost contradictory sentence: calming is simply wisdom and wisdom simply calming. Unmoving wisdom illuminating Dharma-nature is both contemplation settled and calming settled. Unmoving accord with Dharma-nature is both calming settled and contemplation settled. Calming and contemplation are nondual in substance yet remain distinguishable in function. Calming discloses nonmovement and quiescence; contemplation discloses illumination and clarity. This neither forces two methods together nor erases two functions because their substance is one.

The truly difficult question immediately follows. What if the principle is understood, yet neither calming nor contemplation settles the mind? Mind is sometimes dark and sometimes swift and drifting. Thoughts rise and cease rapidly, suddenly coming and going. Try to calm them and they race faster; try to contemplate and they grow darker. The harder one works, the stronger distraction and delusion become, like a powerful enemy restraining a weak soldier or a snipe and clam locking each other in place, unable to advance or retreat. The treatise master neither blames Dharma-nature for this failure nor tells one simply to apply more force. Instead he opens “turning preparatory means”: because general settling does not yet correspond, use present faculties to find another entrance.

How Does a Teacher Know Which Medicine Fits?

Settling the mind therefore first divides into teaching others and self-practice, while teaching others divides again between noble and ordinary teachers. A noble teacher has three powers: knowing Dharma, knowing the illness, and administering medicine in accord with the illness. With different disciples, Upagupta made one climb a tree, used food with another, and rebuked another through a female image. The methods look wholly different, but all awaken the person at precisely the moment of ripening. Such teaching neither seizes the occasion too early nor misses it afterward and is therefore extremely difficult to encounter, like a blind turtle meeting the hole in a floating yoke or a mustard seed falling onto a needle’s point.

If an ordinary teacher lacks this complete vision of faculties, does that make teaching impossible? The treatise master still gives a practicable route: like a physician unable to read the pulse, first ask about the symptoms and then prescribe according to the answer. This does not guarantee perfect accuracy. Even Śāriputra once misjudged faculties; an ordinary person can still less presume to be an infallible guide. An ordinary teacher’s skill begins not by displaying how much the teacher knows but by acknowledging the need to hear the other person’s symptoms.

The teacher therefore first asks: do you delight in concentration or wisdom? Does hearing of quiescent cessation enter your heart, or do discerning explanations bring delight? The answers do not place a lifelong, unchanging label on someone; they reveal an entrance usable now. The Dharma-medicine is the same while symptoms differ, and the same person may change over time. Asking about the illness must therefore precede administering medicine.

Which Is Sharp and Which Dull: Faith-Practice or Dharma-Practice?

Entering through hearing is called faith-practice; entering through reflection, Dharma-practice. Under a single measure, one might easily say Dharma-practice is sharp because it contemplates for itself, while faith-practice is dull because it relies on hearing from another. The treatise master immediately supplies the opposite side: faith-practice may awaken upon a single hearing and therefore be sharp, while Dharma-practice may have to inspect each Dharma and therefore be dull. Even one person may have sharp wisdom of hearing and dull cultivated wisdom, or sharp cultivated wisdom and dull wisdom of hearing.

This movement back and forth dismantles fixed rankings. Faculties are formed through long habituation but do not become immovable identities. Some people contemplate for a long time without penetration and awaken as soon as they hear; others hear for a long time without understanding and decide the matter after a little reflection. If a teacher predetermines one class as necessarily sharp and the other dull, a classification intended to accord with faculties becomes a new obstruction.

More importantly, faith-practice does not mean hearing without reflection, nor Dharma-practice reflection without hearing. The mutual support explained later shows precisely that each name is established from the stronger or more prevalent side. A sentence heard can be taken back to the seat for reflection; a blockage on the seat can be opened by hearing again. Hearing and reflection are not mutually exclusive roads but two powers that assist each other.

Must All Eight Modes of Settling Be Traversed One by One?

For a faith-practitioner, the treatise first correlates calming with four needs and then contemplation with the same four. First is following inclination: one who delights in quiescent calming is delighted through calming, while one who delights in discrimination is delighted through contemplation. Second is following suitability: calming is like a dragon king raising clouds and raining so scorched wholesome roots sprout again; contemplation is like the moon opening lotuses or the sun raising people to work, enabling merit to unfold. Third is counteraction: calming is like a hook controlling a drunken elephant, a lamp lit in a sealed chamber, or a golden scalpel removing a membrane, breaking distraction and torpor; contemplation is like a general recognizing an enemy, wind sweeping clouds, water extinguishing fire, or an ax splitting firewood, breaking unwholesome Dharmas. Fourth is the ultimate meaning: calming enables one through concentration to see arising, ceasing, and nonarising; contemplation is like sunlight revealing treasure in a well or objects in a dark room, enabling one to see the true mark of all dharmas.

A Dharma-practitioner likewise receives eight modes, but the explanation first follows that person’s inclination and broadly praises calming. Cognitive engagement is like a spinning fire-wheel: when the hand stops, it ceases; when wind stops, surging waves become clear. Calming is further unfolded into the ten functions of giving, precepts, patient endurance, diligence, meditative concentration, wisdom, preparatory means, vows, power, and knowledge. According to illness it then becomes wall, pure water, morning dew, great loving-kindness, illumination spell, and good medicine. If calming makes the person sink into quiescence without delight, the teaching turns to contemplation. Investigation of Dharmas, correct view, and prajñā all take contemplative wisdom as guide. Contemplation can generate good and break evil, finally opening, revealing, awakening, and entering where contemplator and contemplated are both unobtainable.

The eight modes are not eight steps that must be completed in sequence but a Dharma-net formed by two methods responding to four needs. If delight is presently needed, first produce delight. If wholesome roots do not arise, cause them to arise. If unwholesome Dharmas are powerful, first counteract them. If mind is about to accord with principle, follow its momentum and open understanding. One person may need only one sentence, or may shift repeatedly as symptoms change. The breadth of the number serves the precision of adaptation; it does not turn practice into a complicated checklist.

What Do the Numbers from Thirty-Two to 128 Count?

In teaching others, faith-practice has four modes each of calming and contemplation, and Dharma-practice likewise has four each. Both faculties can shift into each other, making thirty-two. Self-practice uses the same principle to contemplate this mind: delight in quiescence or hearing, good not arising or evil not being broken, excess distraction or sinking, and impending opening each receive a corresponding calming or contemplation. Adding shifts between faith and Dharma again makes thirty-two. Self-practice and teaching others together make sixty-four.

Yet hearing and reflection do not stand alone. A Dharma-practitioner can hear one sentence concerning calming or contemplation, return to the seat and reflect, and thereby delight, generate good, break evil, or approach awakening. When reflection on the seat does not open a faith-practitioner, rising and hearing Dharma can produce the same four benefits. Less hearing and more reflection is still called Dharma-practice; less sitting and more hearing is still called faith-practice. Mutual support also has self-practice, teaching others, shifting, and not shifting, making another sixty-four. Only by combining the two groups do we reach 128.

What these numbers protect is the variability of beings’ mental activities. They preserve self and other, hearing and reflection, calming and contemplation, four needs, and shifting and not shifting one by one, allowing no side to be omitted. Remember only the number and forget the symptoms, and the reason for counting is lost. Reject the number as overly complex and merge the distinctions, and the exact medicine genuinely needed disappears.

Why Does Partial Use of One Gate Make One Lose That Gate?

Calming and contemplation are like drink and food, both sustaining life. They are also like pills and powders, medicines selected according to cold and heat, and like yin rain and yang sun: excessive rain rots a tender shoot and excessive sun scorches it. The problem is not drink or food, pill or powder, yin or yang; it is fixing one side as the eternally exclusive answer without asking about the body, examining the illness, or observing the season.

Two dhyāna masters each benefited through one gate: one permitted only calming and forbade contemplation, while the other permitted only contemplation and forbade calming. Their own entrances were not necessarily wrong. The error was using their personal way of benefiting to teach everyone. Milk can nourish, but someone who consumes milk exclusively without knowing how it is processed cannot obtain even whey, much less ghee. When a method becomes fixed, the gate that originally rescued someone becomes a partial attachment obscuring other faculties.

The treatise therefore passes the 128 through three further rounds of calming-and-contemplation and adds the original calming-and-contemplation of one mind, making 512. The number grows, yet the conclusion becomes simpler: if mind has settled in the truth, one sentence is sufficient. Only while it remains unsettled must more preparatory means be skillfully turned. The sky is not forever clear, a physician does not use only powdered medicine, and people do not forever eat one food. The functions of calming and contemplation likewise turn according to faculty, illness, and time.

If the Dharma-Net Has Many Meshes, Why Is the Bird Caught in Only One?

A net with one mesh does not spread into a net and cannot catch a bird. When a bird is actually caught, however, it lands in one particular mesh of the whole net. This simile answers the final tension in the passage: why explain hundreds of ways of settling and still say one sentence is sufficient? Teaching faces many kinds of mental activity, but entry into Dharma always occurs for a concrete person, at a concrete moment, through a concrete gate.

Many people may share one mental activity, while one person may display many over time. One cannot prepare only one Dharma for one person, yet in teaching many one cannot forget that each enters through the gate fitting that individual. Broadly establishing the Dharma-net prevents distinctions from being omitted. The bird’s being caught in one mesh prevents every method from being pressed upon one person at once.

Arousing and settling the mind thus meet here. The four great vows prevent a practitioner from abandoning beings because beings are empty. The Dharma-net prevents a teacher from erasing differences in faculties because Dharma-nature is equal. The former establishes vows within possessionlessness; the latter acts according to capacities within one Dharma-nature. Neither abides on one side, and neither abandons what must be done now.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

Zhanran first reminds us that this is not the work’s first discussion of arousing the mind. Although the meaning of arousal was already present earlier, after the inconceivable object it must be “renewed to accomplish contemplation,” engaging principle and benefiting others. This placement is crucial. Read the four great vows only as aspirations before entry, and their function of correcting direction when contemplation is obstructed disappears. Read them as a new beginning unrelated to the preceding text, and continuity among object, vows, and practice is severed.

The treatise places compassion before loving-kindness. Zhanran explicitly says this follows phenomenal sequence and convenience in practice: first remove suffering, then give happiness, while “in principle there is no before or after.” The first two vows and latter two therefore cannot be ranked in value, nor compassion treated as elementary and loving-kindness advanced. In principle all four are simultaneous and unfold textually only according to the sequence of suffering and happiness. This also explains why the treatise next says that loving-kindness and compassion and object-wisdom are neither before nor after but arise simultaneously.

General and distinct settling are also easily misread. General settling directly contemplates Dharma-nature and says calming is simply wisdom and wisdom simply calming. Distinct settling temporarily uses calming or contemplation according to faculties and can appear to retreat into two separate methods. Zhanran specifically says such partial use “is not permanently separate” but the same substance with different functions temporarily suited to practice. Distinct settling does not replace the Dharma-nature substance of general settling; when general settling does not correspond, it temporarily brings one function of same-substance calming-and-contemplation to the foreground.

Teaching others explains faith-practice before Dharma-practice, while self-practice reverses the order; neither order marks a hierarchy. Zhanran points out that teaching others takes exposition of Dharma as its basis and therefore begins with entry through hearing, while self-practice commonly occurs through reflection and therefore begins with entry through Dharma. The earlier separate explanation of calming and contemplation does not mean they never combine; the later combination in one person does not mean they never differ. Faculties, setting, and function determine the order of exposition; the order cannot be reversed into fixed identities for people.

The ultimate siddhānta especially requires restraint. In the mutual-support passage, “about to awaken” can be classified as ultimate whenever it does not belong to the first three siddhāntas and already has a quality connected with principle; realization of principle need not have occurred. Spaciousness, brightness, and dimness about to open must therefore remain signs of impending opening. A practitioner cannot be written as already awakened merely because the mode is named ultimate. This boundary keeps the four siddhāntas methods for settling the mind instead of advance announcements of a practitioner’s stage.

Zhanran explains the conclusion of 512 most clearly. First are the 128 modes of the original one mind of perfect-and-sudden contemplation; the same 128 then opens into three sequential contemplations, making four sets of 128. “One mind” returns finally to and concludes in the original perfect-and-sudden method; it is not a fourth kind of calming-and-contemplation secretly invented inside the count. The numerical unfolding thus returns to initial general settling. Broad explanation never leaves the substance, and return to the original does not cancel broad explanation.

Finally, Zhanran places “one sentence is sufficient” beside the broadly spread Dharma-net. If mind has settled in the truth, one can enter through one sentence of general settling in Dharma-nature. Only while it remains unsettled does general open into distinct, using one siddhānta or many sentences. The many meshes are prepared for one person’s changes over time and many people’s different faculties; at actual entry, no one must carry every mesh simultaneously. Broad and brief are therefore not rivals but two perspectives: the teaching’s provision for faculties and the practitioner’s actual entry.