摩訶止觀 助道對治

The contemplating mind is clear, yet at the touch of wealth you cannot let go. You wish to abide in samādhi, yet one unwelcome sentence ignites anger. You know life is impermanent, yet night after night you still delay. The problem is not necessarily the absence of a direct path. Your faculties may be dull and your obstruction heavy: before the gate of contemplation has opened, old habits have already dragged the mind away.

This is where aids to the path arise. When stinginess appears, giving opens the hand. When body and speech lose restraint, moral discipline gathers them in. When anger poisons the mind, tolerance bears it. When advance turns into retreat, diligence keeps the fire alive. When distraction shakes like a lamp in the wind, meditative concentration brings stability. When annihilation, permanence, person, and self leave one facing a wall, wisdom illuminates and breaks through. More medicine is not necessarily better; it must fit the illness present now.

If one medicine does not fit, rotate skillfully. Treat directly, change treatments, combine them, or illuminate from the ultimate meaning that neither what treats nor what is treated can be grasped. Practice does not impose one fixed prescription on everyone, nor use “emptiness” as a reason to do nothing. It asks concretely: Did this method actually break the obscuration and assist the Dharma gate in opening?

The hardest thing to illuminate is often the gap between understanding and practice. Your mouth says body, life, and wealth are illusory, while your hands refuse to release a hair’s worth. You know no-self, yet praise and insult make you stick “me” everywhere. You know impermanence, yet treat a hundred years as guaranteed. Zhizhe compares concrete practice to lamp oil. Without light, oil alone cannot show the way; when the oil runs dry, the light already burning cannot continue.

The six perfections and factors of the path therefore need not compete for rank. When the factors cannot meet the true, the perfections break obscuration. When the perfections cannot reach the shore, the factors bring awakening and entry. Each can break and cultivate the other, and each can immediately be the other. Direct and assisting resemble eyes and feet: eyes know the direction so feet can reach it; feet keep moving so the road seen does not remain only in the mind.

The five gates are the same. When initial and sustained application are excessive, count breaths. When desire blazes, contemplate impurity. When anger chases objects, cultivate loving-kindness. When deviant inversion is rigid, contemplate dependent origination. When torpor and wrongdoing obstructing the path arise, recollect the Buddha. Distinguish the illness first, then choose the gate. If you select only methods you enjoy, you may keep using a familiar medicine to avoid the real disease.

Finally, the treatise unfolds the six perfections through the six faculties, ten powers, fearlessnesses, eloquence, superknowledges, dhāraṇīs, and marks and excellences. This does not pile up labels. It says that seeing form, hearing sound, meeting adversity, making decisions, and teaching another can each become a place for breaking obscuration and practicing direct and assisting together. Aids to the path are not a set of assignments remote from the direct path. When old habits are about to pull correct contemplation down, they let understanding grow back into action.

Today, do not begin by asking how much you understand. Look first: which obscuration is moving? Is it still only within mind, or has it already flowed through body and speech? At this step, should you open the hand, preserve a precept, endure, continue, gather the mind, or illuminate and break through? Find the illness and let the corresponding perfection truly occur. The gate may then begin to loosen precisely where it was obstructed.

Why Counteraction through Aids to the Path Is Needed

The seventh item is counteraction through aids to the path. The Explanatory Treatise says, “The three samādhis are the basis of all samādhis.” Entering the three samādhis enables one to accomplish the four kinds of samādhi. Human faculties and obstructions fall into four cases.

First, those with sharp faculties and no obstruction easily enter the cooling pool and need no separate counteraction. Second, those with sharp faculties and obstruction need only concentrate on cultivating the three gates of liberation. Obstruction cannot hinder them, and they do not need aids to the path. Third, those with dull faculties but no obstruction need only use the factors of the path to regulate their practice into proper balance. Their dullness turns sharp, so they too do not need aids. Fourth, those with dull faculties and deep obstruction cannot immediately open the three gates of liberation because their faculties are dull, while the weight of their obstruction disturbs and damages the contemplating mind. Precisely for this reason, they must use a path of counteraction to break obstruction and enter the three gates of liberation securely. When the Great Treatise calls the various counteractions “methods that assist in opening the gates,” this is its meaning.

A noble one who has attained the first fruit has sharp uncontaminated faculties and sees principle clearly, yet still has afflictive obstructions in everyday matters and therefore cannot yet be called a good person. One who has attained the second fruit has weakened the five lower fetters but still is not a good person. Although that person cannot be called good, in reality he is no ordinary being. Conversely, one who has severed delusion through worldly wisdom has no obstruction in concrete matters but in reality is not a noble one. If even these two cases require aids to the path, how could those with dull faculties and heavy obstructions who cultivate no counteraction at all enter liberation? Dharma gates assisting the path are immeasurable. The preceding item on passage and obstruction explained obstruction through the six obscurations, so the six perfections must now be used as their counteractions in explaining aids to the path.

The Six Obscurations and Six Perfections

Someone cultivates the four kinds of samādhi and has properly regulated the factors of the path, yet the gate of liberation still does not open and stingy attachment suddenly arises, shaking the contemplating mind. Such a person guards and clings to body, life, and wealth. Thoughts of desire arise, and mind chases what it wants. Even when one intends to check them, stinginess and greed recur. At this point dāna, the practice of giving, should be used as the counteraction.

While cultivating samādhi, a mind that breaks precepts may suddenly arise. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying down become coarse and unruly; one no longer values or gathers oneself in. Bodily and verbal actions violate norms and transgress established discipline. If one’s precepts are impure and insubstantial, samādhi is difficult to produce. At this point śīla, moral discipline, should be used as the counteraction.

While cultivating samādhi, one may become angry and defiant, habitually bearing resentment, speaking harshly or divisively, and arguing over right and wrong. Such poison obstructs samādhi. At this point tolerance should be cultivated as the counteraction.

While cultivating samādhi, one may indulge indolence and give body, speech, and mind free rein, passing days aimlessly in open and deserted places, without shame or strenuous self-control. This resembles drilling wood for fire but stopping repeatedly before the wood has even grown warm. An indolent person cannot accomplish even worldly affairs, much less a Dharma gate of samādhi. At this point diligence should be used as the counteraction.

While cultivating samādhi, one may become scattered and unstable, the body like something solitary and fallen with nothing to rely on, the mouth like a frog in spring croaking without cease, and the mind like a lamp flame wavering in the wind. Because of such dissipation, correct Dharma cannot appear. At this point meditative concentration should be used as the counteraction.

While cultivating samādhi, one may become deluded and confused, cling to annihilationism or eternalism, and suppose there truly is a person, self, being, or lifespan. Meeting any matter is like facing a wall; every advance, retreat, movement, and stillness comes up short and fails to meet others’ expectations. One’s thought is obstinate and clumsy, without intelligence or agility. At this point wisdom should be used as the counteraction.

The illnesses that obscure mind vary in thickness. When an illness is thin, mind may move while body and speech do not necessarily follow. When it is thick, body and speech cannot move unless mind has already moved first. Once the internal illness grows strong, its marks appear outside. If direct counteraction removes it, that method precisely fits the illness. If direct counteraction does not remove it, one should rotate methods according to the four adaptations to assist cultivation of the path.

Even in treating stinginess and greed alone, each point must be weighed. The person may enjoy practicing giving or may not. During giving, a wholesome mind or an unwholesome mind may arise. Giving may break stinginess or fail to break it. It may help the gate of liberation open or fail to open it. One should judge skillfully, perhaps treating it directly with the opposite Dharma, rotating to another Dharma, combining several Dharmas, or treating it through the ultimate meaning, and so forth. The other five counteractions are the same. If the six assisting perfections are understood as isolated things, they cannot aid cultivation of the path. One must contemplate these assisting practices as inconceivable and capable of including all Dharmas, as will be explained below.

Some say, “Speaking of six perfections extends through the teaching, while speaking of ten extends through the tenet.” This is wrong. The Great Sūtra says the six perfections are buddha-nature; the Great Version says the six perfections are the Great Vehicle. Even one perfection includes every Dharma—how much more so six? Once the meaning of expansion and contraction is understood, one need not accept one and reject the other between six and ten.

The perfection of dhyāna, for example, originally contains vows, wisdom, and power. Opening out vows yields the praṇidhāna-pāramitā. Dhyāna also contains the power of superknowledge; opening this out yields the bala-pāramitā, while concentration remains in the original place of the perfection of dhyāna. Prajñā contains wisdom of the varieties of the path; opening this out yields the upāya-kauśalya-pāramitā. It also contains wisdom of all modes; opening this out yields the jñāna-pāramitā. Wisdom of all dharmas remains in the original place and continues to bear the name prajñā. Expanded, these are ten perfections; contracted, six. How could the Great or Small Vehicle be judged merely by whether the list of names is longer or shorter?

The six perfections as aids to the path will now be shown to include all Dharmas. What follows briefly explains how they include the various factors of the path, regulate the six faculties, and include the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive qualities, six superknowledges, three illuminations, four means of gathering in, four kinds of eloquence, dhāraṇīs, thirty-two marks, eighty accompanying excellences, and every remaining Dharma.

The Perfection of Giving Includes the Awakening Factor of Equanimity

How do the six perfections include the various factors of the path? Every set of factors contains the awakening factor of equanimity, and this is included by the perfection of giving. Although the awakening factor of equanimity in the Tripiṭaka Teaching has not yet entered the substance of principle, it can still relinquish body, life, and wealth. The Great Treatise asks, “Loving-kindness, compassion, and joy can benefit beings; what benefit does equanimity provide?” Equanimity can fulfill the six perfections and benefit beings extensively, and is therefore called a great benefit. It also resembles oil that increases the light of the other five perfections. Thus the perfection of giving includes the awakening factor of equanimity.

The awakening factor of equanimity in the Shared Teaching sees body, life, and wealth as like illusions and transformations, with all three empty. This equanimity too is included by the perfection of giving. Equanimity in the Distinct Teaching relinquishes ignorance concerning body, life, and wealth; this too is included by giving.

The awakening factor of equanimity in the Perfect Teaching relinquishes the forms and bodies of the ten Dharma realms, the lives continuously maintained throughout those realms, and their dependent recompenses. None of these bodies, lives, or forms of wealth falls into either extreme, emptiness or existence. Why? Wealth consists of the six objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharmas. If one clings to these six as truly existent things that can be relinquished, supposes a real recipient stands before one, and takes oneself as the real giver, this giving falls into the extreme of the six objects’ real existence. If one dissolves all three matters into a single emptiness, one falls into the extreme of empty nonexistence.

Now contemplate wealth as immediately empty and thus do not fall into the extreme of existence. Contemplate wealth as immediately provisional and thus do not fall into the extreme of emptiness. This nondual relinquishment is equal to the later limit of birth-and-death. It enables one to leave aging, illness, and death and obtain indestructible permanence. The extreme of existence is birth-and-death and belongs to the earlier limit; the extreme of emptiness is nirvāṇa and belongs to the later limit. Both limits are entirely empty and quiescent, unobtainable, and therefore called equal. Leaving aging and death means that because the earlier limit is empty, one leaves the aging and death of fragmentary birth-and-death; because the later limit is empty, one leaves the aging and death of transformational birth-and-death. Both kinds are forever escaped, hence “leaving.” Obtaining indestructible permanence means the Dharma-nature of the Middle Way, the teacher of all buddhas. Because Dharma-nature permanently abides, the buddhas also permanently abide.

No one can damage such permanently abiding wealth, bind such a body, or extinguish such a life. Through these, the ultimate dāna-pāramitā is accomplished and one’s own body adorned. The Diamond Prajñā therefore says, “Someone may give bodies equal in number to the sands of the Ganges in the first, middle, and final portions of the day, yet this does not equal retaining a four-line verse of prajñā.” Know that only perfect relinquishment within contemplation of principle can enter the factors of the path and be included by the perfection of giving.

Yet even though this awakening factor of equanimity has profound and subtle contemplation of principle, there is partiality if concrete practice is entirely discarded. Conversely, concrete giving in the Tripiṭaka Teaching may be heroic—carving one’s body into lamps, saving another, trading flesh for a being, and relinquishing kingdom, city, wife, and children—while possessing not the slightest contemplation of principle. Both extremes are faulty.

What is taught now is that concrete giving assists in breaking the obscuration of stinginess and thereby fulfills contemplation of principle. How could the two be separated? Someone may understand the contemplation of perfect relinquishment through the true mark and thump his chest while discussing practice, yet turn stingy and harsh when concrete matters arise. He guards his wealth and refuses to give even a hair’s worth, fears hardship and calculates how much effort everything will cost him, cannot inconvenience himself to benefit another, and so cherishes life that he could never hasten to sacrifice himself at a crisis and yield the route of survival to someone else. Whatever he encounters, he clings to it stingily, hard and unmoving. With understanding but no practice, how could such heavy obscuration be broken? How could the three gates of liberation open?

One should now repent earnestly at the site of practice, give rise to a decisive mind, and make a great vow: never cherish body, life, or wealth. Practice giving oneself and teach others to give; praise the Dharma of giving and rejoice in and praise those who practice it. After making the vow, invoke the buddhas of the ten directions and ask them to witness and protect it.

If this mind is genuine and without deceit, it can elicit from the Tathāgata the light of the perfection of giving, which illuminates and breaks the obscuration of stinginess, as taught in the Siyi and other scriptures, and so forth. After receiving that light, one corresponds with the awakening factor of equanimity in each set of factors of the path; every level of the relation must be distinguished. When concrete practice and contemplation of principle are both perfect, one can give ultimately: regarding wealth as excrement, the body as a poisonous vessel, and life as a passing cloud, one relinquishes all three as if spitting out saliva. Once the obstruction of stinginess is broken and the path of treatment established, liberation can be attained. When there are no conditions for benefiting beings, one entrusts body, life, and wealth to practicing the path. When such conditions are present, one relinquishes them like throwing away a mustard seed. This is using the oil of concrete practice to increase the light of the factors of the path, open the three gates of liberation, and see buddha-nature. Without this, assisting counteraction brings no benefit.

Śīla, Kṣānti, and Vīrya

Practicing as above should lead to awakening. If it still does not, one should reflect: contemplation of principle within the factors of the path includes correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood, all gathered in by śīla. In the Tripiṭaka Teaching these mean carefully guarding deportment so that precepts are neither broken nor deficient, neither punctured nor mixed. In the Shared Teaching, body and speech are both unobtainable; concrete matters themselves are true, becoming precepts that follow the path, precepts without attachment, and the rest. In the Distinct Teaching, these include precepts praised by the wise, autonomous precepts, and the rest. In the Perfect Teaching, all are contemplated as Dharma-nature and become complete precepts and the rest. The Vimalakīrti says, “One able to do this is called an upholder of the discipline.” This is the meaning.

The precepts in contemplation of principle are intrinsically complete within mind, yet someone may understand them this way while bodily and verbal conduct remains deficient. Perhaps this life’s conduct is coarse and unruly, or perhaps obstructions from previous lives remain unrepented and cover samādhi so that the gate of liberation cannot open. Reflecting in this way, one should feel compassion for oneself and reform deeply. From today onward, sever the continuous mind of transgression and vow to preserve the precepts so that every matter is without flaw. Cherish the Dharma of precepts like a flotation bladder for crossing the sea, preferring to lose the body rather than damage a precept.

The poisonous dragon preferred to let small creatures eat its hide rather than damage the precept it had received. King Sudāma preferred to lose his kingdom and keep his word and ultimately obtained a wholesome verse. Preserve precepts oneself and teach others to preserve them; praise the Dharma of precepts and praise those who uphold them. With the great vow firm and unmoving, invoke the names of the buddhas and ask them to witness and protect it. A sincere mind elicits the Buddha’s light of pure precepts. When one who has violated prohibitions is touched by this light, obstructions from wrongdoing in present and past lives are extinguished, and one comes to correspond with correct action and the other principial contemplations. Every level must be distinguished. With both concrete practice and contemplation of principle perfect, one can ultimately preserve moral discipline, enter the three gates of liberation, and see buddha-nature. This is using the oil of assisting practice to increase the light of the factors of the path.

If cultivating moral discipline this way still does not bring entry, one should reflect again: every set of factors has the faculty of mindfulness, power of mindfulness, awakening factor of mindfulness, correct mindfulness, and the rest. These are precisely the meaning of tolerance and are included by kṣānti. Correct mindfulness in the Tripiṭaka Teaching is the tolerance of suppression; in the Shared Teaching, the tolerance of concordance; in the Distinct Teaching, the tolerance of nonarising; in the Perfect Teaching, the tolerance of quiescent cessation.

If a person’s power of mindfulness is strong, the bandit of anger cannot break in. If it does enter, perhaps mindfulness was wholly lost, or perhaps its power was weak and allowed the obscuration of anger to arise. Anger may arise in the present life or come from a previous one. One may become angry at fellow practitioners or supporters, at a present matter, or through recalling a past grievance. It may begin as a petty dissatisfaction or blaze violently from the start. If the poison is allowed to act, it overturns and sweeps away everything. Even if it cannot harm someone else, it resembles a snake turning back to bite itself. Anger obstructs hundreds and thousands of Dharma gates. How could it be indulged without rebuke? One should know that one has only a principial understanding, not real strength of tolerance.

Once this is known, one should repent deeply and make a great vow. Lower oneself like rivers and seas into which every impurity can flow; become yielding like a bridge on which people and horses may tread. Endure hardship like an archery target receiving a convergence of arrows, without resentment. When Pūrṇa was insulted, he rejoiced that he had not yet been struck by hand; even when injured by a blade, he rejoiced that his suffering body could be extinguished quickly. When troubled without fault, one’s strength of tolerance should grow still more, like polishing gold or grinding a mirror, which becomes brighter the more it is worked. The sage Kṣānti remained secure and unmoving before both harsh and gentle objects.

Cultivate tolerance oneself and teach others to cultivate it; praise the Dharma of tolerance and praise its practitioners. With the great vow firm and unmoving, invoke the buddhas of the ten directions and ask them to witness and protect it. The Buddha emits the light of tolerance, extinguishing heavy wrongdoing created by anger in present and past lives, and one comes to correspond with the various concrete and principial Dharmas of mindfulness. The power of tolerance is fulfilled before every adverse object. This is using the oil of concrete practice to assist in increasing the light of the factors of the path.

If this cultivation still does not bring entry, reflect again: each of the four kinds of factors of the path has eight kinds of diligence, all included by vīrya. The Great Treatise says, “The first three are easy to accomplish and require no special diligence; the last two are difficult and require it.” Only through diligence can the three kinds of awakening be attained. When Ānanda spoke of the awakening factor of diligence, the Buddha rose from his seat. One must be like the bodhisattva Great Gift vowing to empty the great sea before one can correspond with diligence.

Yet now one may be heedless, leaning and lying down, lax, lazy, forgetting the mind first aroused, and lacking all power to advance. Though the body is at the site of practice, mind is mixed with every deviant and evil conception; this is defilement. Each day is worse than the one before; this is retreat. Retreat is not advance, and defilement is not purity. How could one enter true principle? Perhaps the obstruction of past-life indolence covers mind, like livestock whose noses are pierced but lack a hook and tether, rushing everywhere crazed and intoxicated.

In the first, middle, and final watches of the night, one refuses to discipline oneself and compete with time, instead delaying continuously and wasting days and months at will. One should now make a vow, engrave it on bones and inscribe it in the heart, entrust body and life to the path, and regard death as close at hand. For immeasurable eons one has only cherished this body in vain. Now, to seek samādhi, one should decisively relinquish it. Day and night without interruption, rebuke faults, cultivate the Dharma gate without further indolence, hold the body upright, and no longer regard practice as difficult or painful. Even illness and distress should not be treated as calamities. If the task cannot be accomplished in this life, continue for many eons without stopping.

Apply diligence oneself and teach others to do so; praise the Dharma of diligence and its practitioners; invoke the buddhas of the ten directions and ask them to witness and protect the vow. Eliciting the Buddha’s light of diligence, one can correspond with the eight kinds of diligence in contemplation of principle. Correspondence with the Tripiṭaka Teaching becomes diligence of arising and arising. Correspondence with the Shared Teaching becomes diligence of arising and nonarising. Correspondence with the Distinct Teaching becomes diligence of nonarising and arising. Correspondence with the Perfect Teaching becomes the firm and vigorous diligence of nonarising and nonarising. One thereby opens the gate of nirvāṇa and sees buddha-nature. This is using the oil of concrete practice to assist in increasing the light of contemplative practice. Diligence also has a substance extending throughout and substances separately enumerated, and so forth.

The Perfection of Dhyāna and Five Gates

If practice according to the above still has not led to awakening, one should reflect: each kind of factors of the path in contemplation of principle has eight concentrations, included by the perfection of dhyāna. What one now possesses is only understanding, not actual realization. Though one speaks of root dhyāna, concrete concentration has not been fulfilled. Even though one speaks of nonconstructed concentration, the Śūraṃgama samādhi has not been fulfilled. Without the power of concentration, one stumbles and falls even on level ground. Or perhaps agitation in this and former lives prevents samādhi from developing.

One must therefore decide single-mindedly to straighten the body and quiet the mind in the first, middle, and final watches of the night. The moment fatigue, pain, or deviant thought arises, extinguish it quickly. Cultivate dhyāna oneself and teach others to do so; praise the Dharma of dhyāna and its practitioners. With the great vow firm and unmoving, set the exhaustion of this body and life as the limit, and if realization has still not occurred, continue in later lives without stopping. Invoke the buddhas of the ten directions and ask them to witness and protect the vow. This elicits the Buddha’s light of meditative concentration, breaks the obstruction of agitation, develops concrete dhyāna, and brings correspondence with the four contemplative methods.

When the Great Treatise explains the perfection of dhyāna, it first lists various Dharmas of dhyāna, next uses nothing attained to reveal the mark of perfection, and finally explains the nine perceptions, eight recollections, and other Dharmas extensively. All open out from dhyāna. Its Dharmas are exceedingly numerous; here only five gates are taken as aids to the path.

First is counting breaths. When sitting in dhyāna and reflecting, if there is much initial and sustained application in mind and it universally chases the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion, one should counteract them by counting breaths. If the count breaks, one knows mind has wandered. Knowing this, immediately bring it back and begin counting again from one. Preventing distraction and gathering mind in this way is an excellent counteraction. After mind abides, desire-realm concentration may arise, and one may even enter the seven support concentrations. Without the preparatory means of prajñā, these become only ordinary Dharmas; with those means, they become the Great Vehicle. The Sūtra of Inviting Avalokiteśvara therefore says, “If counting breaths brings the mind into concentration, one can see buddhas in one’s pores, abide in the Śūraṃgama samādhi, and attain irreversibility.” Counting breaths thus opens the gate of liberation, first corresponding with the eight concentrations of the Tripiṭaka Teaching and eventually those of the nonconstructed teaching. This is also using the oil of concrete practice to assist in increasing the light of the factors of the path.

Second is contemplation of impurity. If mind chases the form of a woman, remains infatuated, and will not relinquish it, with craving lodged in the heart, contemplate impurity as the counteraction. Observe the beloved at the first moment of death. A moment ago she was speaking; where has she suddenly gone? The body cools and changes color, insects and pus flow out, and foul impurity fills it. Cast among the graves like rotten wood, what can now be seen of what was formerly cherished? It was originally a vile and filthy thing, yet it made me worry and labor. Recognizing the defects of desire stops the mind of lust. The other eight perceptions can also counteract lust.

The Great Treatise says, “Teach someone with much lust to contemplate the nine perceptions; one unable to master an object to contemplate the liberations; one unable to make an object vast and pervasive to contemplate the spheres of mastery; one unable to transform objects to contemplate the ten totalities; and one whose mind is fearful to cultivate the eight recollections.” All these Dharmas take impurity as their initial gate. They entirely counteract the fire of lust, open the gate of liberation, correspond with four kinds of eight concentrations, and use the oil of assisting practice to increase the light, and so forth.

Third is loving-kindness. If mind chases anger, use loving-kindness to counteract it. The preceding perfection of tolerance treats anger generally; here the discussion proceeds specifically from the immeasurable mind of loving-kindness. The other three minds—compassion, joy, and equanimity—can be distinguished according to the four adaptations of delight and desire, and so forth. To use immeasurable compassion as counteraction is to take beings’ suffering as object, produce profound pity, and wish to remove their suffering. Entering concentration with this mind as object brings correspondence with the concentration of compassion. Loving-kindness imagines beings obtaining happiness; entering concentration with this mind as object brings correspondence with the concentration of loving-kindness. Joy imagines beings obtaining happiness, produces great gladness oneself, and enters concentration with this mind as object, bringing correspondence with the concentration of joy. Equanimity relinquishes distinctions of love and hate, abides in impartial contemplation, and enters concentration with this mind as object, bringing correspondence with the concentration of equanimity. Once these four concentrations are obtained, anger toward any being has no basis. They will be explained extensively below.

Fourth is contemplation of dependent origination. If mind chases deviant views and inversions, counteract them through dependent origination. The Abhidharma breaks attachment to self through contemplation of elements as preparatory means; here dependent origination breaks self. Dependent origination through three lives breaks annihilationism and eternalism; through two lives it breaks attachment to self; in one thought it breaks attachment to intrinsic nature. If this concentration is fulfilled, it corresponds with contemplation of principle and assists in opening the gate of nirvāṇa.

Fifth is contemplation recollecting the Buddha. If karma that induces torpor and obstructs cultivation of the path arises, counteract it through recollection of the Buddha. Take as object the markless marks of the Buddha’s response body. When the contemplated marks are clearly discerned, one can break wrongdoing obstructing the path, see the buddhas of the ten directions, correspond with contemplation of principle, and open the gate of nirvāṇa.

The Perfection of Wisdom Breaks the Four Inversions

If practice according to the above still does not bring entry, perhaps the preceding methods do not fit one’s illness. One should reflect: contemplation of principle possesses ten Dharmas—the four foundations of mindfulness, faculty of wisdom, power of wisdom, awakening factors of investigation and joy, correct view, and correct intention—all included by the perfection of wisdom. This is contemplation of principle. One cannot understand it because delusion, confusion, and deviance in present and past lives darken and cover the spirit, preventing samādhi from appearing. One should now reform, make a great vow, examine concrete marks clearly, and break the four inversions of purity, pleasure, permanence, and self.

First examine this body carefully. From head to foot it is only five kinds of impurity: impurity of seed, impurity of dwelling place, impurity of intrinsic mark, impurity of intrinsic nature, and ultimate impurity.

First, this body takes components left by one’s parents. Two drops, red and white, unite; consciousness lodges within them and forms the body’s material. This is impurity of seed.

Second, the fetus dwells between the two repositories of urine and excrement, steeped in foul turbidity, now suspended, now pressed, now hot, now cold. It changes once every seven days and is carried for ten months. When the six embryonic membranes are complete, the bodily form fully developed, and the days and months fulfilled, it turns toward the birth canal. The Great Treatise says, “This body is not born by transformation or from a lotus; it emerges only through the urinary passage.” This is a low and filthy place, the basest evil location, and is called impurity of dwelling place.

Third, after birth an infant lies amid excrement and urine, is fed milk and reared by others, and grows from small to large. Earwax accumulates in its ears, rheum and tears flow from its eyes, pus-like mucus hangs from its nostrils, and its breath constantly smells foul. Thick grime on the head resembles thin manure; sour sweat between the thighs and under the arms resembles water splashed from urine; garments against the body seem smeared with oil. This is impurity of intrinsic mark.

Fourth, the body contains only heaps of excrement and urine, pus, blood, fat, marrow, and the rest: large and small intestines, fat and brain membranes, sinews entwining and blood coating them. Every foul discharge and putrid place is a gateway for congregating worms. Even all the water of the sea could not wash it clean. The treatise says, “This body is unlike Mount Malaya, which can produce sandalwood. From infancy to maturity, its intrinsic nature is impure.” Excrement smells equally foul whether abundant or scarce. This is impurity of intrinsic nature.

Fifth, once life ends, the provisionally borrowed four great elements each return to their place. Wind departs, fire cools, earth collapses, and water flows out. Worms eat and birds peck; head and hands separate; filth spills everywhere. Downwind, the stench can be smelled three or five li away, and rank, vile vapors strike the nose. Dark, bruised, decaying colors pollute the eye and are more terrifying than a dead dog. This is ultimate impurity.

All five are truthful observations of concrete marks, not merely conceptual visualizations. How could one suddenly reckon these impurities pure, nurture and protect them with fine clothing and food, stroke head and neck, and guard this poisonous body? This resembles a dung beetle rolling deer droppings into a ball. People likewise cherish their bodies until death, never becoming disenchanted and refusing to let others touch them. To nourish this body they instead create every kind of wrongdoing. Clearly seeing its defects and impurity from beginning to end breaks the inversion of purity.

Next know that the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind compose the body, two rising and two sinking, mutually opposed. Earth blocks water, while water soaks and erodes earth. Wind disperses earth, while earth blocks wind. Water extinguishes fire, while fire boils water; they continually harm each other. The body resembles a box containing four snakes and is like an abscess, thorn, or arrow. It is originally suffering—where could real pleasure be? Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, beating, binding, birth, aging, illness, and death are suffering of suffering. The four elements’ mutual injury and destruction are suffering of change. Each thought flows like flame without abiding; this is suffering of conditioned formations. To produce an idea of pleasure within such base suffering is perverse. Clearly seeing the mark of suffering, like a thorn in an abscess causing pain at every moment, prevents even one inverted thought of pleasure toward this body.

Next contemplate how past ignorance and wholesome and evil karma drive and bind consciousness, forcing it into the prison of the womb like a bird shut in a cage, unable to leave though it wishes. Consciousness is likewise: the four elements are its cage, and acquired karma its rope. Mind travels everywhere within the cage of the form body. Until the rope of karma is severed, it returns after leaving. Only when the cage breaks and the binding is cut does consciousness depart without returning, leaving an empty cage. This body disintegrates and another forms. One leaves this cage and enters that. The mold breaks and the impression forms; never does a single thought abide.

Wind-energy adhering to the body is called inhalation and exhalation. Breath moves on and passes away; on exhaling there is no assurance of another inhalation. The Abhidharma says, “Life is neither a Dharma of form nor a mental Dharma.” The Great Collection says, “Inhalation and exhalation are called life.” When one breath goes out and does not return, life has ended. A bhikṣu said to the Buddha, “I cannot guarantee living seven more days, down to even one exhalation and inhalation.” The Buddha praised him: “Excellent. Only this is skillful cultivation of impermanence.”

Contemplate further how the various karmas resemble enemies or a flock of crows fighting for a piece of meat. A scripture says, “An evil thought arising in a single instant brings calamity and a fall into the uninterrupted hell.” If so brief a moment can create grave karma, how much more boundless is karma created by evil thoughts arising throughout the long night without cease? Karma resembles creditors and enemies constantly waiting for an opening. While this debt is being repaid, the other karmas do not pull at one. As this debt nears repayment, the rest compete to seize one. Whether one ultimately leaves or remains has no fixed date.

The murderous ghost of impermanence does not choose between the powerful and the worthy. Life is fragile, unstable, and difficult to rely on. How could one calmly plan on certainly living a hundred years? People rush in the four directions seeking, storing, accumulating, and amassing wealth, then suddenly die before gathering enough. All property and goods pass uselessly into others’ possession, while one leaves alone through the dark. Who then investigates the rights and wrongs of one’s life? Some monastics fill their breasts with intellectual understanding; some strive as if extinguishing fire on their heads, yet do not awaken to impermanence. A proverb says, “Pitifully without the five charms, diligent yet lacking a true mind of the path.” It speaks of precisely such people.

If one recognizes impermanence as swifter than a flood, violent wind, or flash of lightning, with no place of escape in mountain, sea, sky, or marketplace, this contemplation produces great fear. One cannot rest securely in sleep or taste sweetness in food, as if rescuing one’s head from flames. The white colt and black hare symbolizing sun and moon—the latter commonly written with the graph for hare—race day and night. Competing with time oneself, one seeks the essential way of escape. How could one still crave worldly wealth, construct the three modes of existence, perform useless acts, or create karma of birth-and-death? One should immediately sever entanglements and go straight beyond them, like a jackal leaping through a net, racing out of the burning house and seeking rescue as soon as possible. This breaks the inversion of permanence.

Boundary between the Upper and Lower Halves of Fascicle Seven

Mohe Zhiguan (Great Calming-and-Contemplation), Fascicle Seven [Upper]

Mohe Zhiguan, Fascicle Seven [Lower]

Taught by the Tiantai Great Master Zhizhe of the Sui Dynasty

Recorded by his disciple Guanding

Next contemplate how, throughout immeasurable eons, people have mostly attached to self and person through name-and-form, perception, and formation. Once a real self is assumed, hearing praise or insult prompts one to say that another praises or insults “me.” Standing, walking, stopping, sitting, or lying down, one reckons a self in every situation, like glue smeared on a hand that sticks to whatever it grasps. A scripture says, “It is impossible for an ordinary being to leave the mind of self.” Meeting poverty, one keeps reckoning self even after losing former composure. Attaining wealth and rank, one relies on power, unleashes poison, cruelly harms the world, and in rage causes innocent people to suffer injustice. Every karma originates from one’s own grasping at self. Who will bear it for one in the future? Raising fire against the wind, how could it fail to burn one’s own hand first? This resembles mistaking someone in a room at night for a ghost and only at dawn seeing that he is an old acquaintance.

It is precisely from lack of wisdom that one reckons a real self. Examined with wisdom, no self exists. Where could it be? Carefully inspect head, feet, and every limb and joint one by one; nowhere can a self be found. Where then are real person and being? There is only a mechanism driven by karmic power, an empty aggregate provisionally named and produced through conditions, without a ruling master. It resembles someone lodging overnight in an empty pavilion and seeing two ghosts fight over a corpse. When contemplated this way, the inversion of self ceases.

Similes for the Three Vehicles’ Escape

After cultivating the four contemplations and breaking the four inversions, the mind of the path arises vigorously and the heart becomes profoundly afraid. It resembles being pursued by enemies, fleeing a hostile country one has betrayed, or traveling a dangerous road, terrified and uneasy at every thought and seeking only a way out. A roebuck hearing hunters close their circle immediately starts and bolts. Even when it encounters water or grass, it has no time to drink or eat and thinks only of escape. A śrāvaka is like this.

A deer breaks out of the enclosure and gains brief relief from danger. While running forward it looks back, cries sorrowfully, chokes with grief, and pities its companions still inside. Even if it lingers and stops, what help can it offer? It can only swallow its grief and move on. A pratyekabuddha is like this: leaving birth-and-death oneself and feeling pity for beings, yet unable actually to rescue them despite pain and sorrow.

A great elephant king hears the enclosure closing and cannot bear to escape alone. Knowing its own tremendous power and ability to block blades and arrows, it protects the young elephants and brings the entire herd safely beyond injury. A bodhisattva is like this. When contemplations of impermanence and no-self become clear, fear of birth-and-death presses on the heart as if one had stepped into water and fire. At the same time compassion arises, like a mother thinking of her child. Beings are blind and dark, unaware that the fire of suffering burns them. How could I abandon them and leave alone? The bodhisattva therefore patiently remains in birth-and-death and uses wisdom and preparatory means to teach and transform them, gradually maturing them and creating conditions for their crossing. The bodhisattva’s own merit, Dharma body, and wisdom-life also increase in turn. When the faculties of beings with conditions mature, the bodhisattva sits at the site of awakening, becomes a buddha, and leaves the three realms together with them, like the great elephant bringing both itself and the herd to safety.

Even if a small elephant wants to block blades and arrows, it will certainly be struck, benefiting neither itself nor others. When beginning bodhisattvas wish to enter birth-and-death, objects there may violate them, causing them to lose wholesome roots and damage the Dharma body. Yet they can arouse great compassion, and their merit remains worthy of praise. Thus although bodhisattvas fear birth-and-death, they continuously seek wholesome roots and bear the burden of beings, differing from the Two Vehicles. Although they dwell in birth-and-death, they do not crave the five desires but remain solely to rescue beings together, differing from ordinary beings.

A scripture says, “Abide neither in discipline nor indiscipline. Though knowing no-self, instruct others without weariness. Though knowing nirvāṇa, do not become eternally extinguished. Though knowing impurity, do not teach disgust and detachment.” This is precisely the meaning. Extensively cultivating the meritorious roots of the six perfections resembles a sheep’s body becoming plump. Diligently contemplating impermanence so that evil karma diminishes resembles a sheep constantly threatened by wolves and therefore without fat. This is the appearance of cultivating concrete prajñā. Cultivate it oneself and teach others to do so; praise this Dharma and its practitioners; invoke the buddhas of the ten directions and ask them to witness and protect the vow. Empowered by the buddhas’ majestic strength, one leaves obstruction, attains liberation, and corresponds with the ten kinds of wisdom within the four sets of factors of the path. This is using the oil of concrete practice to assist in increasing their light, and so forth.

How Direct and Assisting Are Practiced Together

If contemplation of principle is wholly absent, concrete repentance nonexistent, and one nevertheless casually hopes to obtain the Buddha’s confirmation while seeking gain and reputation, the Buddha cannot confirm such a person. If contemplation of principle has never been interrupted and concrete practice is additionally used to break obscurations while one repents with a genuine mind, confirmation becomes possible.

Concrete aids to the path are needed just as someone once taught the Great Vehicle at the places of two trillion buddhas and bearing a precious jewel sewn into his garment later forgets the Great Vehicle. He cannot immediately be taught through it again. Over six hundred eons, a Small Vehicle Dharma must awaken him, make him fear birth-and-death, and gradually lead him toward his father’s house. Thus a lesser Dharma should be borrowed to assist a great Dharma. Again, when the Buddha first wished to teach directly through the Great Vehicle, the buddhas did not confirm him. When he considered using preparatory means, they praised him, “Excellent.” Or it resembles the sick son of a wealthy family whose illness calls for yellow-dragon broth. How could his parents begrudge good medicine? Yet the condition of his illness is such that they have no choice but to make him swallow it, after which he recovers. The Buddha originally vowed to make beings equal to himself; how could he begrudge the Great Vehicle? Only because conditions then required it did he adapt counteraction to their faculties, assist cultivation of the path, and open the Dharma gate. Such is the meaning of aids to the path.

Someone asks: If samādhi cannot be accomplished without cultivating aids to the path, must the six perfections surpass the factors of the path?

Answer: There are three pairs and six statements. In the first pair, the six perfections can break the factors of the path, and the factors can break the six perfections. In the second, the six perfections can cultivate the factors, and the factors can cultivate the perfections. In the third, the six perfections are precisely the factors, and the factors are precisely the six perfections.

If the factors described above cannot enter true principle, cultivating the six perfections can break their obscurations. Is this not the six perfections breaking the factors? Sometimes the six perfections cannot bring one to the other shore, but cultivating the factors enables awakening and entry; this is the factors breaking the six perfections. If one first cultivates the six perfections, breaks the six obscurations, and then cultivates the factors, those factors naturally come to fulfillment; this is the perfections cultivating the factors. The preceding explanations of each perfection including the factors show the factors cultivating the six perfections.

As for the immediate identity of the six perfections and factors of the path, the perfection of giving is the Great Vehicle and the four foundations of mindfulness are also the Great Vehicle. Giving and the factors are therefore nondual and indistinct, ultimately unobtainable. Speaking generally of all Dharmas: when they do not benefit practice, each can break the other; when they do benefit it, each can cultivate the other; seen from principle, each immediately is the other. If explained through the existent, nonexistent, and neither existent nor nonexistent of the four truths and dependent origination, these three relations extend broadly through every Dharma. Understanding this meaning brings freedom in teaching Dharma, and so forth.

The Six Perfections Regulate the Six Faculties

How do the six perfections also include the meaning of regulating the six faculties? Begin with the Tripiṭaka Teaching.

When the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind do not receive the six objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharmas, they accord with the awakening factors of equanimity and tranquility within the various factors of the path. This is the perfection of giving regulating the six faculties. When the faculties are not harmed by the objects, they accord with correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood; this is moral discipline regulating the six faculties. When the six objects oppose one’s feelings yet one patiently remains unmoved, they accord with the four kinds of mindfulness; this is tolerance regulating the faculties. Continuously guarding faculties and objects without indolence accords with the eight kinds of diligence; this is diligence regulating them. A concentrated mind that is not confused by the six objects accords with the eight concentrations; this is dhyāna regulating them. Knowing the six objects as impermanent, suffering, empty, and quiescent accords with the ten kinds of wisdom; this is wisdom regulating them. Such is the Tripiṭaka Teaching’s regulation of the six faculties and fulfillment of the six perfections.

Next is the Shared Teaching. Knowing the eye faculty to be empty, one does not receive the eye; knowing the object of form to be empty, one does not receive form. With both faculty and object empty, this is called constantly practicing relinquishment. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are the same. Knowing the mind faculty to be empty, one does not receive mind; knowing the object of Dharmas to be empty, one does not receive Dharmas. This too is constantly practicing relinquishment. It accords with the awakening factors of tranquility and equanimity and is called the perfection of giving regulating the six faculties.

Empty form cannot harm empty eye, nor can empty eye harm empty form. Empty sound cannot harm empty ear, nor can empty ear harm empty sound. Nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are likewise. Even empty Dharmas cannot gain an opening against empty mind, nor can empty mind gain an opening against empty Dharmas. This accords with correct speech, correct action, and correct livelihood and is called the perfection of śīla regulating the six faculties.

Eye and form are both empty, so there is neither opposition nor accord, neither tolerance nor intolerance. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are the same. Mind and Dharmas are both empty, so there is neither opposition nor accord, neither tolerance nor intolerance. This accords with the four kinds of mindfulness and is called the perfection of tolerance regulating the six faculties.

Eye and form are constantly empty, without an instant when they are not. Repeated cultivation and correspondence in this way correspond with prajñā. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are likewise. Mind and Dharmas are constantly empty, without an instant when they are not; this too is called corresponding with prajñā. It accords with the eight kinds of diligence and is called the perfection of diligence regulating the six faculties.

Because eye and form are empty, mind is neither distracted by them nor craves their flavor. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are likewise. Because mind and Dharmas are empty, there is neither distraction nor craving of flavor. This accords with the concentrations within the factors of the path and is called the perfection of dhyāna regulating the six faculties.

Because eye and form are empty, there is no graspable delusion and no graspable wisdom. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are likewise. Because mind and Dharmas are empty, they are neither deluded nor wise. This accords with the ten kinds of wisdom in the factors of the path and is called the perfection of wisdom regulating the six faculties. Such is the Shared Teaching’s regulation of the faculties and fulfillment of the six perfections.

Next is the Distinct Teaching. Eye faculty and form-object fully possess the ten Dharma realms. Each realm has superior and inferior recompenses, and the causes cultivated within each differ in depth and shallowness. Causes and fruits are immeasurable and inexhaustible. Practitioners remove ignorance concerning these Dharma-marks and distinguish every mark without grasping attachment. Ear and sound, nose and fragrance, tongue and flavor, body and touch are likewise. Mind and Dharmas fully possess the ten realms; distinguishing their immeasurable causes and fruits without attachment accords with the awakening factors of tranquility and equanimity and is called the perfection of giving regulating the six faculties.

Practitioners distinguish the immeasurable appearances of eye and form through mind and Dharmas, respond to capacities without error, and do not harm others’ wholesome roots. Nor are they themselves harmed by immeasurable faculties and objects. This accords with correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood and is called the perfection of moral discipline regulating the six faculties.

Facing the various faculties and objects of the ten Dharma realms, whether objects oppose or accord with one’s feelings, mind does not move. Abiding in the conventional truth, one can tolerate and accomplish the work of the Buddha path. This accords with the kinds of mindfulness in the factors of the path and is called the perfection of tolerance regulating the six faculties.

While distinguishing every faculty and object, even if a sense of difficulty or distress arises, one does not retreat midway but advances bravely within birth-and-death. This accords with the kinds of diligence in the factors of the path and is called the perfection of diligence regulating the six faculties.

While distinguishing every faculty and object, mind is not damaged or disturbed, does not waver, and does not incline. This accords with the concentrations in the factors of the path and is called the perfection of dhyāna regulating the six faculties.

While distinguishing every faculty and object, the power of wisdom of the varieties of the path gives medicine according to illness at precisely the proper time, skillful in preparatory means yet without defiled attachment. This accords with the kinds of wisdom in the factors of the path and is called the perfection of wisdom regulating the six faculties. Such is the Distinct Teaching’s regulation of the faculties and fulfillment of the six perfections.

Last is the Perfect Teaching. The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra says, “That eye faculty, among all tathāgatas, is permanent, complete in cultivation without decrease, seeing distinctly and definitely.” “That” means the eye faculties of the nine Dharma realms. “Permanent among the tathāgatas” means the nine realms each suppose themselves not real, while the Tathāgata contemplates these eye faculties as immediately the Buddha Dharma realm, nondual and indistinct from one another.

“Complete in cultivation without decrease” means contemplating the eye faculty of every being as immediately the Buddha eye. One mind fully possesses the three truths of emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle; the complete cause is entirely present without the slightest decrease. “Seeing distinctly and definitely” means that seeing real Dharma is distinct and seeing provisional Dharma is definite. The three wisdoms are in one mind, and the five eyes—physical, divine, wisdom, Dharma, and Buddha—fully and perfectly illuminate. Thus it is called distinctly seeing buddha-nature. In terms of seeing, this is complete realization; in terms of cultivation, complete cause.

“Complete cultivation” can also be explained through each perfection. Contemplating the eye faculty and relinquishing loss into the two extremes of emptiness and existence is the perfection of giving. The eye faculty not being harmed by those extremes is śīla. The eye faculty quiescent and not shaken by them is kṣānti. The eye faculty and eye-consciousness naturally flowing into the ocean of omniscience is diligence. Contemplating the eye faculty’s real intrinsic nature is superior concentration. Illuminating the Middle Way within the eye faculty through wisdom of all modes is wisdom. This is the eye faculty’s complete cultivation without decrease.

Precisely because there is no decrease, the eye Dharma realm can be seen distinctly and definitely. Ear, nose, tongue, and body are explained the same way. Even that mind faculty, among all tathāgatas, is permanent, complete in cultivation without decrease, and knows distinctly and definitely. Contemplating each faculty as immediately empty, provisional, and the Middle, with the three contemplations in one mind, is cultivation without decrease. Realizing the wisdom eye, Dharma eye, and Buddha eye within one mind is distinct seeing. All six faculties are as above. Since the faculties are so, the six objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharmas are likewise, and so are all Dharmas. This is the Perfect Teaching’s regulation of the six faculties and fulfillment of the six perfections. Such regulation is ultimate regulation; such fulfillment is ultimate fulfillment; such aid to the path assists the ultimate path. Know that the six perfections can universally regulate all six faculties.

The Great Version says, “Because giver, recipient, and wealth given are all unobtainable, the dāna-pāramitā is fulfilled.” Forgetting the three matters and remaining unattached is precisely the substance of the perfection of giving. Fulfillment means performing both material and Dharma giving so that the name and reality of the perfection are complete, both concrete practice and contemplation of principle perfect, and both oneself and others benefited. In concrete practice, it is a Dharma breaking stinginess and capable of giving wealth. In contemplation of principle, it breaks the mind of stinginess and can give Dharma. The two breakings and two givings make substance and function complete; it is therefore called pāramitā.

The Ten Powers Included within the Four Kinds of Factors of the Path

How do the six perfections include the Buddha’s deportment? The Buddha takes the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinctive qualities, and the rest as deportment. Cultivating four kinds of factors of the path within one mind is called cultivating the Buddha’s deportment; realizing the Buddha eye and Buddha wisdom is called obtaining it.

Following the order of the text, the ten powers will first be explained through the factors of the path. The four kinds of factors are wisdom that makes decisive judgments about the causes and fruits within the four kinds of four truths.

First is the power of knowing what is possible and impossible. Within the teaching of arising and ceasing, the truth of origination necessarily brings the suffering-fruit of the three realms; this is possible. If origination of arising and ceasing were said to lead to nirvāṇa without remainder, that would be impossible. If the path of arising and ceasing can exhaust suffering and enter nirvāṇa, that is possible; if it were instead said to lead into the three realms, that would be impossible. Extend this through nonarising and the immeasurable, even to the truth of origination in the nonconstructed teaching. Its ability to lead to transformational birth-and-death is possible; its ability to lead to unsurpassed nirvāṇa would be impossible. The truths of the path and cessation in the nonconstructed teaching can lead to wisdom of all modes; this is possible. If they led only to the Two Vehicles, that would be impossible. Clearly understanding all four kinds of cause and fruit within one mind and judging them decisively without confusion is the power of knowing possible and impossible. Thus the Tathāgata gives the lion’s roar within the Buddha Dharma: “Only within my correct Dharma are there the four fruits of recluses.” This is the meaning.

Second is the power of knowledge of karmic recompense. Knowing the four kinds of the truth of origination is knowing karma; knowing the four kinds of the truth of suffering is knowing recompense. Causes and fruits of the truths of the path and cessation are distinguished accordingly. Differentiating the depth and shallowness of the four kinds of karma and recompense without error is the second power.

Third is the power of knowledge of meditative concentration. Each of the four kinds of the truth of the path has eight concentrations. Distinguishing their depth and shallowness and illuminating them without error is the third power.

Fourth, fifth, and sixth are the powers of knowing faculties, desires, and natures. Knowing how beings’ past suffering and origination differ is the power of knowing faculties. Knowing how their present preferences and desires within suffering and origination differ is the power of knowing desires. Knowing how the gains and losses of their future suffering and origination differ is the power of knowing natures.

Seventh is the power of paths leading everywhere. Knowing where each of the four kinds of the truth of the path can lead is the seventh power.

Eighth and ninth are the powers of past lives and the divine eye. Seeing one or many past lives and knowing the goodness or badness of lineages and the length or brevity of lifespans is the power of past lives. Seeing the beauty or ugliness, superiority or inferiority, of future places of birth is the power of the divine eye.

Tenth is the power of exhaustion of contaminants. These are the uncontaminated minds, liberation through wisdom, and other Dharmas realized in each of the four kinds of the truth of cessation.

The same Dharma gate can have four explanations, just as a king utters one secret expression and a wise minister understands its meaning. The Buddha teaches the ten powers to accommodate four kinds of faculties. He prevents those of lesser faculties from slandering the great Dharma and damaging their own merit; he also prevents those of great faculties from receiving only a lesser Dharma and suppressing their wholesome roots. Different beings each hear a meaning suited to themselves and gain benefit. No contrived stratagem is prepared in advance, so the Buddha is called the Able and Benevolent One.

Bodhisattvas resemble wise ministers able to understand the secret expression. Knowing that the Buddha’s intent lies in the Tripiṭaka Teaching, they ask about Dharmas of arising and ceasing and inquire earnestly three times so that those with conditions awaken quickly. Knowing that the Buddha’s intent lies in the Shared or Distinct Teaching, they ask according to its respective meaning. Even knowing that his intent lies in the Perfect Teaching, they praise the nonconstructed in verse or ask directly about it, enabling others to understand. The Buddha teaches in one sound, yet beings hear different Dharma gates and all ten thousand kinds of hearers rejoice. This verbal mystery has no boundary and its meaning cannot be exhausted. What grounds remain to doubt the foregoing explanation of the ten powers through the four teachings?

Someone asks: The ten powers are the Buddha’s deportment. How can people at the initial arousal of mind train in them, much less obtain them?

Answer: The Great Treatise says, “When bodhisattvas practice prajñā, they should not abide in the ten powers or fearlessnesses. If buddhas have no fault whatsoever in the Buddha Dharma, they should abide; if bodhisattvas have no Buddha Dharma at all, in what could they abide?” This passage is explained as follows. When bodhisattvas cultivate the Buddha’s merit, they easily produce deep attachment; to break it, they are told not to abide. Because they possess only a share of the ten powers and fearlessnesses and have not reached the ultimate, they likewise should not abide. If one says the former sentence concerns only cultivation before attainment and the latter only matters after entry into a stage, so that neither concerns beginners, two other scriptures and treatises clearly establish that beginners already cultivate and realize them.

According to the “Ten Abodes” chapter of the Avataṃsaka, the scripture says, “Because of the initial arousal of mind, a bodhisattva obtains a share of the ten powers.” Deva Correct Mind asks Bodhisattva Dharma Wisdom, “How does a great being at the initial mind cultivate preparatory means for the ten powers? How does one know what is leaving home and what is not, and how does one leave home to train in the path? How does one skillfully cultivate pure conduct, fulfill the path of the ten abodes, and quickly accomplish awakening?”

Dharma Wisdom answers that a bodhisattva must first distinguish ten Dharmas: body and bodily karma, speech and verbal karma, mind and mental karma, and Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, and precepts. If the body itself were pure conduct, the eighty thousand households of worms within it would make that conduct turbid. If bodily karma were pure conduct, which movement among turning and looking, lifting and lowering the feet while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down would be pure conduct? If speech itself were pure conduct, sound touches thoughts while lips, teeth, and tongue move continuously. If verbal karma were pure conduct, it would be nothing but words. Mind and mental karma should be investigated in the same way. Even if precepts themselves were pure conduct, the ten participants at the ordination platform asking about purity, the preceptor proclaiming the four formal acts, shaving the head, begging for food, and the rest could not individually be called pure conduct.

Where, then, is pure conduct, and who possesses it? Contemplating the three times as equal, like empty space, is called preparatory means. The bodhisattva must further cultivate ten superior Dharmas, namely the profound and immeasurable ten powers. Contemplating this way, one quickly obtains every buddha quality, accomplishes correct awakening at the initial arousal of mind, knows the real intrinsic nature of all Dharmas, and possesses the body of wisdom, awakened by no one else. The scripture is this clear; does it not show that beginners can already cultivate and realize the ten powers?

The Bodhisattva Stages also says, “A bodhisattva knows the tathāgata treasury, uses the wisdoms of hearing and reflection as preliminary practice, cultivates intrinsic dhyāna, and thereby enters every dhyāna.” Every dhyāna has three kinds. The first is pleasant abiding in the present Dharma, called the ground of joy because it possesses such abiding. The second produces the lineage and samāpattis of the ten powers, as well as the spheres of exclusion of the Two Vehicles. The third is dhyāna benefiting beings. The ten abodes are called wisdom of hearing and the ten practices wisdom of reflection. Before hearing and reflection, one already uses cultivation of intrinsic dhyāna to enter every dhyāna and obtain these three Dharmas. Does this not show that beginners already cultivate and realize them? The three proofs from the Great Treatise, Avataṃsaka, and Bodhisattva Stages are all clear.

The factors of the path, six perfections, and Buddha’s ten powers mutually include one another in turn, as explained above. Cultivating the factors and perfections is cultivating the Buddha’s ten powers. Regulating every faculty and fulfilling the perfections is fulfilling the ten powers, no different from abiding in the Buddha’s deportment.

The Commentary on the Ten Abodes says, “Power means support, a force that cannot be exhausted.” The Bodhisattva Stages says, “Gaining superiority and having capability are called power.” Understanding the ten kinds of objects as they really are, leaving falsity, and overcoming demonic affairs means gaining superiority, because one can accomplish one’s own cultivation. Skillfully benefiting beings means capability.

Yet the Buddha’s powers are immeasurable. Why teach only ten? In reality, one wisdom takes ten classes of things as objects, so they are called ten; these ten suffice to teach and transform beings. When ten are raised, the rest can be inferred. The Aṅgulimālīya says, “The ten powers are only a tenet of śrāvakas, not the Great Vehicle; the Great Vehicle has immeasurable powers.” These two explanations reveal still more fully the meaning of four kinds of ten powers.

The Four Fearlessnesses and Eighteen Distinctive Qualities

How do the factors of the path include the four fearlessnesses?

First, fearlessness of omniscience means fully knowing the four kinds of the truth of suffering, distinguishing and explaining them for others, clearly indicating the defects of suffering, and decisively giving the lion’s roar without the least fear. No one can challenge this Dharma as not Dharma.

Second, fearlessness concerning what obstructs the path means knowing how the four kinds of the truth of origination obstruct the four kinds of the truths of the path and cessation, decisively giving the lion’s roar without the least fear. No one can challenge these as not Dharmas obstructing the path.

Third, fearlessness concerning the path exhausting suffering means knowing the four kinds of the truth of the path. Practicing these paths can exhaust suffering and leave the world. The Buddha decisively gives the lion’s roar about this without the least fear.

Fourth, fearlessness concerning the uncontaminated means that the four kinds of the truth of cessation each have what they realize and what they extinguish. The Buddha decisively gives the lion’s roar about this without the least fear.

The factors of the path and four fearlessnesses mutually include one another in turn. Cultivating the factors and six perfections is cultivating the four fearlessnesses and abiding in the Buddha’s deportment. The Great Treatise says, “Inward completeness is called power; when used outwardly, absence of timidity is called fearlessness.” The Commentary on the Ten Abodes says, “Fearlessness is only one Dharma. Why speak of four? Because there is no doubt regarding four classes of things, it is called four.” The Buddha should be fearless regarding every Dharma. Why teach only four? These simply raise the principal headings and open the beginning of the matter; there is fearlessness regarding every other Dharma as well.

The eighteen distinctive qualities can also be included by the factors of the path. The first two, no fault in body and no fault in speech, are correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood within the four kinds of factors. When offerings are obtained, mind does not rise; when insult is encountered, mind does not sink. This is no mind outside concentration. The four deportments of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down remain constantly in concentration; this is no equanimity without knowledge. These two qualities are the eight concentrations in the four sets of factors.

Cultivating body, precepts, mind, and wisdom without exhaustion is desire without decrease. Using loving-kindness and compassion to cross beings while abiding in quiescent cessation, neither increasing nor decreasing, is diligence without decrease. Enduring suffering for all beings throughout immeasurable eons without weariness or aversion is mindfulness without decrease. These three are the eight kinds of diligence in the four sets of factors.

Constantly illuminating the minds of beings throughout the three times and teaching Dharma without needing to contemplate them afresh, while never losing what was previously remembered, is wisdom without decrease. Recollecting events in the three times without forgetting is liberation without decrease. Awakening naturally, unlike the Two Vehicles, is knowledge and vision of liberation without decrease. Every bodily action takes wisdom as its basis; having unobstructed wisdom and inexhaustible teaching is bodily action following wisdom. Verbal and mental actions following wisdom are likewise. The treatise says there are eleven Dharmas here, all assigned to the ten kinds of wisdom within the four sets of factors; the general intent of inclusion is the same as above.

The Four Unobstructed Knowledges, Six Superknowledges, Three Illuminations, Four Means of Gathering In, and Dhāraṇī

How are the four unobstructed knowledges included?

First is unobstructed knowledge of Dharma. Each of the four kinds of four truths has named Dharmas, and all names are distinguished by mind. If there were no mind, who would establish names? Having penetrated how one mind can open immeasurable minds, one also knows how one name can open immeasurable names. Names and marks are inexhaustible; this is unobstructed knowledge of Dharma.

Second is unobstructed knowledge of meaning. All Dharmas and names tend toward one real meaning, the meaning as it truly is. This is unobstructed knowledge of meaning.

Third is unobstructed knowledge of phrasing. The verbal expressions of beings in the ten Dharma realms all differ, and the Buddha understands them all. Expressions throughout the ten realms can be gathered into one kind; knowing one realm, one understands all ten without any obstruction. This is unobstructed knowledge of phrasing. One can also say that Dharma is the Dharma gates of the four truths, meaning is the four kinds of the truth of the path, and phrasing is the four kinds of the truth of suffering, and so forth.

Fourth is unobstructed knowledge of joyful eloquence. Skillfully use the four kinds of four truths to respond to faculties and conditions, turning and interweaving them, teaching without exhaustion and making others delight in hearing. Within one word, teach every word and every meaning; follow every sound, precisely fit each faculty, and bring each person benefit. The conclusion concerning inclusion remains as above.

Among the six superknowledges, the divine eye, divine ear, and supernatural power are as explained above under regulation of the six faculties. Knowledge of others’ minds, past lives, and the exhaustion of contaminants are as explained above under the ten powers. How the three illuminations are included should be understood according to the passage on the six superknowledges.

Among the four means of gathering in, gathering through giving is the awakening factors of tranquility and equanimity within the four kinds of factors of the path. Gathering through kind speech is correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood. Gathering through beneficial action and cooperation is the eight concentrations, for concentration has spiritual power and can therefore benefit beings and cooperate with them, and so forth.

Dhāraṇī is also included by the factors of the path. It can retain every wholesome Dharma, like an intact vessel holding water, and block every evil Dharma, like a thorn fence protecting fruit. These are the four right efforts within the four sets of factors: striving to block both already-arisen and not-yet-arisen evils, and striving to produce and increase both already-arisen and not-yet-arisen goodness. A verse in the Commentary on the Ten Abodes therefore says:

“Sever evil Dharmas already arisen, as one removes a venomous snake;
sever evil Dharmas not yet arisen, as one blocks flowing water in advance;
increase wholesome Dharmas already arisen, as one irrigates a sapling bearing sweet fruit;
produce wholesome Dharmas not yet arisen, as one drills wood to make fire.”

The Thirty-Two Marks and Immeasurable Marks and Excellences

The thirty-two marks are also included by the six perfections and factors of the path. The Vibhāṣā says, “The ‘Marks’ chapter of the Abhidharma makes three distinctions for each mark: the mark’s substance, the karma producing it, and its fruit.” The Great Treatise says, “Over a hundred eons one plants the thirty-two marks.” This is the meaning. Seen through the factors and six perfections of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, the karma producing the marks ultimately does not go beyond giving, moral discipline, wisdom, and other Dharmas. The texts are extensive and will not be written out item by item; the meaning of inclusion can be understood.

The substance, karma, and fruit of marks taught by the Shared Teaching differ from those of the preceding teaching. If the Buddha were sought merely through physical marks, a wheel-turning sage king should also be a tathāgata; anyone doing so actually practices a deviant path. The Buddha teaches the thirty-two marks, yet in their immediate substance they are not graspable thirty-two marks. Empty mind sweeps away attachment within every mark. Only correspondence with emptiness is called a true mark. The Vibhāṣā also says, “A bodhisattva should cultivate the karma of the thirty-two marks single-mindedly, all taking wisdom as their basis.” Here wisdom means the wisdom of emptiness. Thus all thirty-two marks are included by the ten kinds of wisdom in the factors of the path and by the perfection of wisdom. This is the meaning of the Shared Teaching.

Moreover, according to causes provisionally established by the first two kinds of factors, karma producing marks can be cultivated; according to fruit, the substance of marks also exists. Yet these marks are only slightly superior to those of a wheel-turning king, and Māra too can transform himself to make them. They are not extraordinary, and after entry into nirvāṇa without remainder their forms are forever extinguished. This resembles possessing only a copper sheet, unable to reflect a face clearly.

The Two Vehicles and the Buddha of the Tripiṭaka Teaching realize the true truth together and lack the myriad images of the Dharma realm. Know from this that the first two kinds of factors are not the true method for cultivating the marks of the Dharma body. The later Distinct and Perfect factors alone are such a method. The Lotus says:

“Deeply penetrating the marks of wrongdoing and merit, universally illuminating the ten directions;
the subtle and wondrous pure Dharma body possesses the thirty-two marks.”

When the Middle Way is realized, it immediately fully possesses these marks. In the Lotus, for example, people of the Two Vehicles are enabled to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter. Meeting the Middle Way in the subtle and wondrous Dharma assembly, they receive predictions of buddhahood through the eight marks. This resembles obtaining a bright mirror in which the myriad images necessarily appear. When the Great Vehicle realizes the Middle Way, there is no image it cannot manifest. Marks of the Dharma body are called true marks.

The Vimalakīrti says, “All marks and excellences belonging to the world have been relinquished.” Wheel-turning kings and Māras adorn their bodies with worldly marks, all false, so they are said to be relinquished. The bright mirror of the Middle Way originally has no fixed image. Although markless, it can manifest marks according to conditions. Beauty and ugliness depend on what is reflected, and the number of marks on conditions. Only the ability to manifest every form-body universally is a true mark.

The Contemplation of Amitāyus says, “Amitābha Buddha has eighty-four thousand marks, and each mark has eighty-four thousand excellences.” The Satyaka and Avataṃsaka both call the marks a great ocean of marks and the excellences a small ocean of excellences. Since they are called oceans of marks, how could they be limited to thirty-two? Conditions differ, so how much appears also varies with beings. Such real marks are included by the Distinct and Perfect kinds of factors. Their meaning can naturally be known and cannot be recorded here in full.

Know that the six perfections as aids to the path can include all wholesome Dharmas without measure or limit. The twelve categories raised above only reveal the beginning of this inclusion; from them it is known that all remaining wholesome Dharmas can also be included. If even aids to the path are this vast, how much more so the direct path, and so forth.

If One Is Already Cultivating the Path, Why Are Aids Still Needed?

The treatise does not rush to prescribe medicine. It first asks separately about “faculties” and “obstructions.” Whether faculties are sharp concerns the ability to understand and enter contemplation; whether obstructions are present concerns whether afflictions in concrete matters will pull away and damage the contemplating mind. These are not the same thing, so their intersection produces four cases.

Sharp faculties without obstruction resemble strong legs on a level road and easily enter the cooling pool. With sharp faculties and obstruction, affliction may disturb one, yet concentration on the three gates of liberation prevents obstruction from overwhelming lucid faculties. Dull faculties without obstruction may progress slowly but can be regulated step by step through the factors of the path, turning dullness into sharpness. Only the final case has dull faculties and heavy obstruction: before the gates have opened, obstruction has already dragged away the contemplating mind, so counteraction must first enable secure entry.

This makes a very practical distinction: seeing principle and handling affairs do not always advance together. Those at the first and second fruits have seen true principle, yet afflictions in concrete affairs can still obstruct them. Someone who suppresses and severs affliction through worldly wisdom may have light concrete obstruction without having seen noble principle. One must neither claim entry into principle because conduct happens to proceed smoothly nor belittle concrete obstruction because one already possesses understanding. Aids to the path work precisely in this gap. They do not replace correct contemplation; they keep untreated habits of life from pulling it down.

The Six Obscurations Are Not a List but the Scene of Contemplating Mind

Why are the six perfections taught first among immeasurable counteractions? Because during cultivation of samādhi the six obscuring illnesses appear in exceedingly concrete forms.

Stinginess and greed do not mean merely loving money. They grip body, life, and wealth tightly and make mind chase desirable objects; the harder one tries to suppress them, the tighter they adhere. Breaking precepts is not merely making an error against a rule. Deportment becomes coarse and bodily and verbal conduct unrestrained, rendering pure prohibitions insubstantial and samādhi difficult to produce. Anger becomes resentment, harsh and divisive speech, and disputes over right and wrong, directly poisoning concentrated mind. Indolence resembles repeatedly stopping while wood drilled for fire is about to grow hot: one cannot finish even a worldly affair, much less open the gate of samādhi. Distraction leaves the body nowhere settled, the mouth sounding without cease, and mind like a lamp in the wind, so Dharma cannot appear. Delusion runs into walls of annihilation and permanence, person and self, unable in any matter to see clearly how to advance or retreat.

Giving, moral discipline, tolerance, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom are therefore not six neatly arranged virtues but six actions forced forth by six illnesses. Giving loosens the fist. Moral discipline gathers in body and speech. Tolerance cuts off the poison of anger. Diligence prevents the fire from dying just as it begins to catch. Meditative concentration stills the windblown lamp. Wisdom keeps one from standing face-first against a wall. Each perfection begins with an illness discernible now and therefore offers a treatment practicable now.

One must ask further: if mind has moved, must body and speech already have moved? Not necessarily. When an obscuration is thin, the illness moves faintly only within mind. When it is thick, body and speech manifest outwardly only because mind has already moved first. Practice cannot wait until external marks run out of control before knowing illness is present, nor assume an internal illness has disappeared because external marks are temporarily quiet. Only by looking from within outward and discerning thickness can one know how much force is needed and at what layer to apply it.

If One Dose Fails, Should It Simply Be Increased?

The treatise’s answer is not to strengthen the same medicine without limit but to “weigh skillfully.” Take stinginess and greed. Some people enjoy giving, while others resist at its mere mention. During giving, some produce wholesome minds, while others instead compare, seek reputation, and feel dissatisfied. Some loosen the knot of stinginess with one gift; others give yet keep gripping. Some thereby help the gate of contemplation open; others still cannot enter. The name of the illness is the same, but patients need not respond identically.

There are therefore four forms of adjustment. If giving directly treats stinginess, apply the opposite head-on. If the original Dharma does not fit, rotate to another. If one Dharma is too weak, combine several. Finally, one can treat through the ultimate meaning. The other five obscurations are weighed likewise. Aids to the path therefore do not become a rigid prescription: they neither abandon concrete practice nor absolutize any one practice.

More importantly, the six perfections cannot be seen merely as six isolated wholesome deeds. If giving once leaves only the thought “I completed an act of giving,” it may not have touched the stingy mind. If one instance of endurance merely suppresses anger, strength of tolerance may not arise. By requiring contemplation of assisting practices as inconceivable and capable of including all Dharmas, the treatise returns every concrete action to the whole path of cultivation: illness is seen, practice actually occurs, and contemplation of principle unfolds with it. The three cannot be separated.

Which Is Greater, Six Perfections or Ten?

The treatise first breaks the habit of judging by number. Some suppose that six is abbreviated and ten extensive and therefore use the two counts to judge the greatness of teachings. Zhizhe points out that six and ten are only expansion and contraction. Dhyāna already contains vows, wisdom, power, and superknowledge, which can be opened into separate names. Prajñā already contains wisdom of the varieties of the path and wisdom of all modes, which can likewise be opened into separate names. Spoken separately, they are ten; gathered, still six.

It resembles one hand spoken of as five fingers or as palm and fingers forming one hand. Expansion makes functions clearer; contraction keeps their common root from dispersing. Judging ten necessarily profound and six necessarily shallow merely because ten exceeds six mistakes the number of labels for the depth of Dharma meaning. The real question is not how many items there are but how each perfection includes Dharmas, breaks obscuration, and corresponds with contemplation of principle.

The treatise therefore begins with the perfection of giving including the awakening factor of equanimity and continues through the Buddha’s powers, fearlessnesses, distinctive qualities, unobstructed knowledges, superknowledges, dhāraṇīs, and marks and excellences. “Including” does not cram myriad Dharmas into six drawers. It reveals the functions of one practice at different levels. Relinquishment can mean releasing wealth, the emptiness of all three matters, or abandoning the two extremes. Moral discipline can guard deportment or prevent faculties and objects from harming one another. Wisdom can break the inversion of self or illuminate the immeasurable differences among faculties and objects. The names remain six, but depth and function are not sealed within six words.

Why Does Perfect Relinquishment Still Require Actually Giving Something Up?

The passage on giving states the treatise’s central tension most clearly. Perfect relinquishment in contemplation of principle does not grasp a real giver, gift, or recipient and therefore does not fall into the extreme of existence. Nor does it annihilate the three matters into empty nonexistence and therefore does not fall into the extreme of emptiness. Only when body, life, and wealth are immediately empty and provisional without entering either extreme can they meet the permanent abiding of the Middle Way. If only concrete marks are discussed, giving may be heroic yet lack contemplation of principle. If one understands only perfect relinquishment yet refuses to release a hair’s worth when concrete matters arise, contemplation remains in one’s chest and speech.

Zhizhe deliberately makes the gap sharp: the mouth can discourse on the true mark while the hands guard possessions and will not release them; one understands body and life as illusory while calculating every exertion when hardship arises; one says all three matters are empty while cherishing life when actual yielding is required. This does not demand spectacular conduct as proof. It demands that “relinquishment” truly reach the obscuration of stinginess. If the stingy mind does not move at all, this understanding has not opened the gate of liberation.

Concrete giving therefore resembles oil added to the lamp of the other five perfections and factors of the path, increasing its light. It follows a complete route: repent at the site of practice and see the obscuration of stinginess; make a decisive vow to relinquish body, life, and wealth; practice oneself and teach others, praise the Dharma and rejoice in its practitioners; finally regard wealth as excrement, body as a poisonous vessel, and life as a moving cloud, relinquishing them like a discarded mustard seed when conditions allow beings to benefit. Contemplation of principle is not replaced by concrete practice but tested and strengthened within it.

Moral discipline, tolerance, and diligence unfold along the same route. Precepts resemble a flotation bladder for crossing the sea and are not damaged on the pretext of preserving the fleshly body. Tolerance resembles rivers and seas receiving filth, bridges accepting footsteps, and targets receiving arrows; its strength grows within adverse objects. Diligence puts death directly before one’s eyes and delays no longer in the first, middle, or final watch. No perfection is a momentary surge. Each means practicing oneself, transforming others, praising the Dharma and practitioners, establishing a vow, and seeking witness until concrete practice corresponds with the factors of the path.

Why Can One Not Simply Choose the Gate One Likes?

Dharmas of dhyāna are numerous. The treatise selects only five gates—counting breaths, impurity, loving-kindness, dependent origination, and recollection of the Buddha—because this passage concerns counteraction. The five gates are not personality preferences but five illnesses and five medicines.

When initial and sustained application are excessive and mind chases the three poisons everywhere, counting breaths gathers it. If mind wanders midway, one recognizes that and brings it back, counting again from one. When lust adheres, coldness, discoloration, worms, pus, and stench after death illuminate and break what was once cherished. The nine perceptions, liberations, spheres of mastery, totalities, and eight recollections unfold according to differences in mastery of objects and fear. When mind chases anger, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity rotate it: removing suffering, giving happiness, rejoicing when others obtain happiness, and leaving love and hate for impartiality each become an object for entering concentration.

When deviant views and inversions arise, contemplation of dependent origination breaks self. Seen across three lives, annihilation and permanence cannot stand; across two, no fixed self moves from a former birth into the present; within one thought, intrinsic nature is unobtainable. When torpor and wrongdoing obstructing the path arise, recollection of the Buddha takes the markless marks of the response Buddha as object, clarifies what is contemplated, breaks obstruction, and enables one to see the Buddha. If the illness is lust but one refuses contemplation of impurity merely because one likes counting breaths, or the illness is anger but one only analyzes dependent origination ever more finely, the medicine may not fit the disease. The sequence of five gates teaches one first to distinguish the illness and then select the gate.

Does the Body Truly Deserve Such Cherishing?

The perfection of wisdom does not begin by giving an abstract answer but by contemplating the body from head to foot. It breaks the inversion of purity through five levels of impurity. The joining of components left by one’s parents is impurity of seed. Ten months in the womb amid filth is impurity of dwelling place. The constant flow of earwax, tears, mucus, foul breath, sweat, and grime is impurity of intrinsic mark. The internal gathering of intestines, pus, blood, fat, marrow, and nests of worms is impurity of intrinsic nature. The four elements dispersing at death, worms and birds pecking, and stench carrying for several li are ultimate impurity.

This contemplation is easily misread as hatred of the body. The treatise’s real question is why a body formed under such conditions and discharging filth within and without is imagined as permanently pure, and why one creates every kind of wrongdoing to cherish it. A dung beetle’s fondness for its ball does not make the dung fragrant. Fine clothing and food, stroking the head, and wiping the neck do not change the body’s composition from birth to death merely because people cherish it. Contemplation of impurity breaks an inversion; it does not fabricate another self who hates the body.

The inversion of pleasure is broken through the three sufferings. The four great elements resemble four mutually injuring snakes in one box: earth and water damage each other, wind and earth impede each other, and water and fire oppose each other. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, birth, aging, illness, and death press inwardly and outwardly. Suffering added to suffering is the suffering of suffering. The four elements attacking and destroying one another is the suffering of change. Movement from thought to thought without abiding is the suffering of conditioned formations. Once one sees a thorn in the wound, one no longer mistakes temporary relief from pain for real pleasure.

The inversion of permanence is broken through breathing. Consciousness is tied by karmic rope within the cage of the four elements. This cage breaks and another forms, like the destruction of a seal-mold followed by the appearance of its impression, without a single thought abiding. An exhalation cannot guarantee another inhalation; one breath not returning is death. Karma further resembles a group of creditors: as an earlier debt nears repayment, later debts compete to arrive. People still amass from the four directions and leave alone before they are satisfied. Seeing impermanence swifter than flood, violent wind, or lightning, with no escape in mountain, sea, sky, or marketplace, one seeks an exit as if rescuing one’s head from fire.

The inversion of self begins with the question “Where am I?” When praise or insult comes, one says another praises or insults me. One adheres to self while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, like a hand coated in glue sticking to whatever it grasps. Yet searching head, feet, limbs, and joints one by one reveals no ruler. The body is only an empty aggregate provisionally formed by the mechanism of karmic force. At night one mistakes an old acquaintance in a room for a ghost; in an empty pavilion two ghosts fight over a corpse and replace its limbs one by one. These show more clearly that the self grasped is only a provisional name assembled through conditions. Wisdom does not find a more hidden self; it causes the inversion of self to cease.

Why Is Escape through the Three Vehicles Drawn as Three Animals?

Once the four inversions are broken, the mind of the path arises and birth-and-death closes in like a hunting enclosure. A śrāvaka resembles a roebuck that hears the enclosure closing and suddenly bolts, without time even for water or grass beside the road, seeking only its own escape. A pratyekabuddha resembles a deer that has broken out yet looks back and cries sorrowfully for the herd left inside. It feels compassion but lacks the power to return and rescue them, so it can only continue in grief.

A bodhisattva resembles a great elephant king. It too fears blades and arrows and is not insensible to birth-and-death. Yet seeing the young elephants and the herd, and knowing its strength can bear the danger, it cannot bear to leave alone. When bodhisattvas’ contemplations of impermanence and no-self become clear, fear of birth-and-death presses urgently on their hearts; great compassion arises at the same time and prevents them from abandoning blind, darkened beings. They patiently remain in birth-and-death without craving the five desires. They bear beings without yet being omnipotent.

The treatise therefore also draws a small elephant. Although beginners wish to block arrows, insufficient strength may injure both themselves and others and even cause loss of wholesome roots. This prevents great compassion from being romanticized. The vow to enter birth-and-death deserves praise, yet one must still cultivate the wholesome roots of the six perfections extensively and increase the Dharma body and wisdom-life. One differs from ordinary beings by dwelling in birth-and-death without pursuing the five desires; from the Two Vehicles by fearing birth-and-death without abandoning beings; and from the Buddha fruit by the need to accumulate direct and assisting practice continuously until one can bear the task.

Which Is Superior, the Six Perfections or the Factors of the Path?

The treatise answers with three pairs and six statements. If the factors cannot meet the true, the six perfections break obscuration: the perfections break the factors. If the six perfections cannot reach the other shore, the factors bring awakening and entry: the factors break the perfections. First using the six perfections to break obscurations and then cultivating the factors until they naturally mature is the perfections cultivating the factors. Equanimity, correct action, the forms of mindfulness, diligence, concentration, and wisdom within the factors in turn cultivate the six perfections: the factors cultivate the perfections. Finally, giving is immediately the Great Vehicle and the four foundations of mindfulness are immediately the Great Vehicle. The perfections and factors are unobtainable and nondual: each immediately is the other.

This does not debate which set of Dharma gates has higher status. It asks whether they benefit practice. If one side cannot break obscuration, the other breaks it. When they advance cultivation, they cultivate one another. Seen through principle, they immediately are one another. The boundary between direct and assisting is therefore clear without becoming rigid: clear because amid illness there truly are principal and assisting medicines; not rigid because the same Dharma can at different moments be what breaks, what is broken, what cultivates, or what is cultivated.

The similes of being taught at the places of two trillion buddhas yet forgetting midway and of carrying a jewel in one’s garment without knowing it show precisely that a seed of the Great Vehicle cannot function merely because it “has always been there.” Awakening fear of birth-and-death through a lesser Dharma and gradually guiding one back to the father’s house is medicine according to illness. The sick son of a wealthy family must take yellow-dragon broth; his parents do not begrudge good medicine. The Buddha’s use of preparatory means likewise does not begrudge the Great Vehicle. The value of an assisting Dharma is not decided by whether it is ultimate but by whether it can cure the present illness and open the gate.

How Do the Six Faculties Become the Site of Practice for the Six Perfections?

The treatise places the six perfections layer by layer within eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, showing that regulation does not leave contact and seek some other pure place.

At the first level, not receiving the six objects is giving; not being harmed by them, moral discipline; tolerating adverse objects, tolerance; tirelessly guarding faculties and objects, diligence; remaining undistracted before objects, dhyāna; and knowing objects as impermanent, suffering, empty, and quiescent, wisdom. At the level contemplating emptiness, faculties and objects are empty and one constantly relinquishes; they cannot harm each other; opposition and accord, tolerance and intolerance, are unobtainable; one constantly trains in emptiness without retreat; one neither becomes distracted nor savors; and one is neither deluded nor wise. The six perfections are not added to the six faculties but are six transformations as faculties encounter objects.

At the next level, each faculty and object possesses the immeasurable causes and fruits of the ten Dharma realms. Distinguishing without attachment is giving; responding to faculties without error and without harming wholesome roots is moral discipline; abiding in the conventional truth amid opposing and agreeable objects is tolerance; facing immeasurable differences without thoughts of difficulty and distress is diligence; distinguishing without mental disorder is dhyāna; giving medicine at the proper time through wisdom of the varieties of the path without defiled attachment is wisdom. Regulation now means not merely closing the senses but responding to capacities within immeasurable distinctions.

Perfect contemplation takes the eye faculty as its example. The eye faculties of the nine Dharma realms are not outside the Buddha Dharma realm, and one faculty is immediately empty, provisional, and the Middle. Relinquishing the two extremes is giving; not being harmed by them, moral discipline; not being moved by them, tolerance; naturally flowing into the ocean of omniscience, diligence; contemplating the eye’s real nature, concentration; and illuminating the Middle Way through wisdom of all modes, wisdom. What is true of eye is true of ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; what is true of faculties is true of objects and all Dharmas. At this point “regulation” no longer merely suppresses the six faculties but makes every seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing a place in which all six perfections are complete.

How Can the Initial Mind Speak of the Buddha’s Ten Powers?

The treatise extends the inclusion of Dharmas by the six perfections all the way to the Buddha’s deportment. First, the four kinds of four truths include the ten powers. Knowing which cause necessarily brings which fruit and which path necessarily leads where is unerring knowledge of what is possible and impossible. One knows karma and recompense, depth of meditative concentration, beings’ past faculties, present desires, future natures, where paths lead, past lives, the divine eye, and exhaustion of contaminants. Although the ten powers appear as ten names, at their root they are one mind’s wisdom making truthful judgments regarding ten kinds of objects.

Why can the same ten powers have four explanations? The treatise uses the simile of a king’s secret expression and a wise minister understanding his intent. The Buddha teaches with one sound, neither allowing lesser faculties to slander the great nor crushing lesser faculties beneath a great Dharma. Bodhisattvas know in which teaching the expression’s intent lies and ask corresponding questions on beings’ behalf. Wisdom knows not only the literal surface of a sentence but also through which gate this person at this time should receive benefit.

If beginners have not become buddhas, how can they cultivate the ten powers? The treatise answers in two directions. If the initial mind had no Buddha Dharma at all, there could be no question of not abiding in the ten powers. Precisely because one already cultivates and possesses a share must deep attachment be broken; precisely because they are not ultimate must one not abide. Obtaining a share of the ten powers at the initial arousal of mind does not mean the powers are full. Contemplating body and bodily karma, speech and verbal karma, mind and mental karma, and even Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, and precepts as not fixed objects, and contemplating the three times as equal like empty space, already cultivates preparatory means for the ten powers. This has the same structure as the preceding aids: what is not yet ultimate is not therefore nonexistent, and possessing one share does not authorize claiming the ultimate.

How Are Immeasurable Buddha Dharmas Still Included by the Six Perfections?

The four fearlessnesses are the outward function of the ten powers. When inward judgment regarding suffering, origination, path, and cessation is clear, one teaches outwardly without timidity. Within the eighteen distinctive qualities, no faults of body or speech are included by correct action, correct speech, and correct livelihood. The concentrated mind never lost is included by the eight concentrations. Desire, diligence, and mindfulness without decrease are included by the eight kinds of diligence. Wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and vision of liberation without decrease, together with bodily, verbal, and mental action following wisdom, are included by the ten wisdoms. Inclusion does not say Buddha qualities number only as many as the factors; it reveals how cultivated causes lead to qualities of fruition.

The four unobstructed knowledges further unfold Dharma teaching. Knowledge of Dharma knows that one name can open immeasurable names. Knowledge of meaning knows that myriad names return to meaning as it truly is. Knowledge of phrasing penetrates the expressions of the ten realms. Joyful eloquence rotates the four kinds of four truths in response to faculties so that each receives benefit. The divine eye, divine ear, and supernatural power follow from regulation of the faculties; knowledge of others’ minds, past lives, and exhaustion of contaminants follow from the ten powers; the three illuminations are as explained among the six superknowledges. Giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and cooperation return respectively to relinquishment, correct action, speech, and livelihood, and the various concentrations.

Dhāraṇī resembles an intact vessel holding water, retaining wholesome Dharmas without leakage, and a thorn fence protecting fruit, blocking evil Dharmas from intrusion. The four right efforts are thus drawn as four actions: evil already arisen is like a venomous snake to be severed; evil not yet arisen like flowing water to be blocked in advance; goodness already arisen like fruit saplings to be irrigated; and goodness not yet arisen like fire within wood to be drilled out. At the thirty-two marks the treatise still asks through what substance, karma, and fruit a mark forms. If one clings only to external marks, a wheel-turning king and Māra can resemble them too. Sweeping marks away through empty wisdom cannot end in extinction of every mark. The Middle Way resembles a bright mirror, originally without a fixed image yet reflecting myriad images according to conditions. Thirty-two is no longer a limit; eighty-four thousand and even oceans of marks remain within the inclusion of the six perfections.

Thus the conclusion that “twelve categories are raised to reveal the beginning of the meaning” does not cap all wholesome Dharmas. It lets the reader see one line running through the entire passage: wherever heavy obscuration appears, treat it there through the six perfections. When the perfections and factors are practiced together, they regulate the faculties, include the powers, accomplish fearlessness, open eloquence, retain goodness and block evil, and adorn marks and excellences. If aids to the path can unfold this far, the direct path is still more inexhaustible.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

The reading above follows the treatise’s own sequence from selecting capacities through four alternatives, treating the six obscurations, and using the six perfections to include Dharmas, through the Buddha’s deportment. Zhanran further locks several joints at which layers are most easily confused.

First, not everyone among the four alternatives separately requires this counteraction. Zhanran expressly judges that the first three do not; only those with dull faculties and heavy obstruction employ counteraction. Using the two ends represented by people at the first and second fruits and by those who sever delusion through worldly wisdom, he further shows that seeing principle and concrete obstruction cannot be conflated into one axis. “Assisting opening” therefore has a definite substance that it assists and does not call every wholesome action an aid to the path indiscriminately.

Second, the six perfections are used here because they oppose the six obscurations, first treating heavy obscurations through six practicable concrete acts. If one treatment does not remove the illness, the four adaptations can unfold into direct, rotated, combined, complete, and ultimate-meaning treatment. Zhanran further extrapolates through the four teachings: one obscuration can have twenty-three treatments, making 138 for all six. This number is obtained by the commentator’s expansion of the treatise’s formula and cannot be written backward as if Zhizhe had listed 138 Dharmas one by one.

Third, six and ten are only expansion and contraction. Zhanran expressly refutes the old explanation judging the size of a tenet or teaching by the abbreviated or extensive counts of six and ten. He points out that the textual meaning of the six perfections extends through the four teachings and that each also contains ten perfections. Still more crucial is “practicing together”: profound and subtle contemplation of principle without concrete practice and concrete giving without contemplation of principle are both partial. The treatise’s later three pairs and six statements precisely make concrete aids and contemplation of principle mutually break, cultivate, and immediately be one another.

Fourth, the five gates are selected from among the Dharmas of the perfection of dhyāna and prescribed according to five illnesses; the wisdom passage reveals the benefit of concrete aids. The literal “dwelling place” differs from “place of birth” in the Great Treatise. Zhanran says only that the two passages share one meaning and does not change the treatise’s graph. The commentary titles the Pūrṇa story as coming from the Ekottarika, but its extant direct parallel is in the Saṃyukta Āgama. It abbreviates the four brothers’ escape from death as the “Dharmapada Sūtra,” while the current work directly carrying the story is titled Sūtra of Parables in the Dharmapada. Such layers can only be preserved side by side; one text found later should not overwrite another.

Fifth, mutual breaking and mutual cultivation accomplish aids to the path in terms of provisional and real, while mutual identity opens provisional and real and accomplishes practicing together. In particular, Zhanran expressly explains the treatise’s “existent, nonexistent, and neither existent nor nonexistent” as beneficial, unbeneficial, and mutually identical, directly rejecting correlation of the three with the three truths as a loss of the passage’s purport. This judgment makes “benefiting practice” in the preceding text the center for reading the three pairs and six statements, instead of rewriting a question about gates of practice as another table of doctrinal labels.

Sixth, the four teachings each use the six perfections to regulate the faculties, and Zhanran expands this into twenty-four rounds. Including what acts and what receives yields forty-eight. These too are commentary calculations. In the Perfect Teaching’s verse on the eye faculty, the treatise reads “clearly and distinctly,” while the current scripture differs. Zhanran himself points out that the scripture lacks “clearly,” that the treatise speaks according to meaning, and that the sentence on the mind faculty likewise follows meaning. Since the commentary explicitly marks a layer of rewriting, the treatise’s sentence cannot be passed off as the current scripture’s verbatim text.

Seventh, the ten powers, fearlessnesses, distinctive qualities, and the rest are called the Buddha’s deportment because Buddha qualities lie not only in bodily marks but in complete inward wisdom and fearless outward function. Regarding the question of beginners, Zhanran uses three scriptures and treatises to establish that they already cultivate and possess a share of realization without reaching the ultimate. In the passage on the eighteen distinctive qualities, the current treatise reads “eleven Dharmas in all,” while the text Zhanran saw quotes “twelve Dharmas in all” and judges it perhaps mistaken, then reconciles the wording as eleven and supplies five Dharmas. This is a transmission difference left by two layers and cannot be silently collated into one sentence.

Eighth, although the treatise gathers everything from the four unobstructed knowledges onward in one sweep, Zhanran still distinguishes every item. Of the six superknowledges, three follow regulation of the faculties and three follow the ten powers. The three illuminations are established by removing obstructions from among the six superknowledges. Gathering in through cooperation first shares and afterward differs. Dhāraṇī, treated specifically, exists only in the Great Vehicle; treated generally, it can extend to bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, and its capacities to block and retain are correlated with the four right efforts. These judgments show that “including” does not merge items because their names are similar; each Dharma must account for the function of the six perfections or factors of the path from which it opens. The meanings must not be conflated. Dhāraṇī in this unit concerns only retaining goodness and blocking evil; no separate spell is listed and none need be added from outside the text.

Finally, the passage on marks and excellences opens from the first thirty-two into immeasurable oceans of marks. Zhanran judges the first two teachings as provisional discourse within teaching and the latter two as the Dharma body markless yet manifesting marks. This is the commentary’s conclusion and should not be poured prematurely into the treatise’s earlier passage. The whole mirror guards one boundary throughout: Zhizhe answers through gates of practice how correct contemplation can function again when obstruction is heavy; Zhanran marks which items are schematic calculations, which rewritings according to meaning, and which inclusions are judgments of provisional and real. Distinguishing the two layers prevents aids to the path from being demoted into miscellaneous practices added from outside or elevated into another road replacing the direct path.