摩訶止觀 次位安忍無法愛

At the beginning of practice, enemies are easy to recognize: distraction, affliction, reputation and gain, and the mind of retreat. When the gate of contemplation gradually opens, scriptures and treatises suddenly become intelligible and people enjoy listening to one's teaching, but danger instead changes its appearance. It no longer calls one away from the Buddha-Dharma. It causes one to believe: I have already arrived.

Zhizhe therefore establishes three successive gates at the point where the ten dharmas are nearly complete.

The first gate is knowledge of stages. The stage of the real and the stage of semblance resemble vermilion and purple: close at first glance, they cannot be called the same. Having a treasury at home does not mean its treasure has been brought forth; possessing perfect understanding in one thought does not mean ignorance has been broken. Discerning one's stage does not belittle the present thought. It simultaneously guards two things: one does not shrink back because realization has not yet occurred, and one does not pass off the unattained as attained.

The second gate is patient endurance. When wisdom first becomes keen, it resembles a sharp blade that severs whatever it touches; one phrase can resolve another's doubt, and people begin to gather. Yet a young elephant may be buried amid blades and arrows, and a handful of hot water poured into an icy pool may instead thicken the ice. If one's strength is not yet full, temporarily concealing the precious jade, declining reputation and gain, and departing from familiar places do not mean abandoning beings. They allow the strength capable of liberating beings truly to mature. The body may temporarily be far away; mind does not depart.

The third gate is most subtle: freedom from attachment to dharmas. Inner obstruction has been removed, like a boat not touching sand; outer obstruction has passed, like a boat not touching the bank; yet when the wind ceases, the boat still remains upon the water. What one loves is not an evil affair but precisely the present lucidity, stability, and apparently flawless wholesome Dharma. This remaining may not be regression, yet it likewise cannot reach the shore. Only by releasing attachment to the Dharma attained does the boat move forward again.

The ten dharmas thus become one complete great carriage: high because it penetrates the three truths, broad because it encompasses the ten Dharma realms, sheltered by loving-kindness and compassion, secured by vows, adorned by the factors of the path, and, after attachment to dharmas is broken, empowered with speed like the wind. Yet if the great carriage remains only on paper, it still cannot carry anyone. The real test comes when the foot is raised and lowered, when form is seen and sound heard, and at the instant reputation suddenly arrives or affliction suddenly arises: can contemplative method operate on the spot?

The final three similes state the answer gravely. One who knows military strategy but does not use it in battle cannot serve the state. One who knows a medical formula but does not take it cannot cure illness. One who understands principles and meanings yet grows timid when questioned cannot become a master of the Dharma. To hear calming-and-contemplation without using it is like a black serpent carrying a jewel: however precious the jewel, it does not illuminate the serpent's life.

Once the road has become smooth, what must truly be released is often no longer an obstruction but the thought “I am already walking very well.” Knowledge of stages prevents reckless advance; patient endurance prevents one from being carried away; freedom from attachment to dharmas prevents one from stopping. Only after all three gates have been passed does what one has learned become not merely knowledge of a road but a vehicle one can truly ride forward.

First Distinguish the True Stage from the Analogous Stage

Eighth is the explanation of stages in cultivation. Both true and analogous stages possess knowledge and vision of liberation, yet they are as clearly distinguishable as vermilion and purple. One never says an attainment not reached has been reached, mistakes the four wholesome roots for the first fruit, or mistakes the first fruit for the stage beyond training. Practitioners know for themselves which afflictions have been severed and which not, which Dharmas realized and which not. Although the names and stages established by the four gates differ, the afflictions severed and truths realized are visibly not different.

The Two Vehicles often teach the exhaustion of fetters within one lifetime. Because cultivation is brief, the various gates of teaching are broadly similar, differing only in adjustments of sequence. Bodhisattva gates involve not merely longer time and more remote journeys but differences of wisdom and severance. Though the routes differ, their final destination is the same.

Bodhisattvas of the Tripiṭaka Teaching cultivate the six perfections. During the first asaṃkhyeya eon, they do not yet know they will become buddhas. During the second, they know but do not proclaim it. During the third, they know themselves and proclaim it to others. They then cultivate the marks of a great person for a hundred eons and fully possess five merits; this is called the ground of nonretreat. All these remain analogous stages. Only sitting at the site of awakening and becoming a buddha is the true stage. Even the initial gate of this still-shallow teaching has clear stages. How could ordinary beings, upon a thought’s first arising, claim to have reached a higher stage? If this is not overweening pride, to whom could overweening pride be assigned?

The true and analogous stages of the Two Vehicles in the Shared Teaching differ in wisdom from those of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, yet their severances and stages do not differ. Its bodhisattva stages, by contrast, differ in an orderly and explicit way. Combinations of general and particular names and meanings can be understood through the distinctions made in the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, and so forth.

The afflictions, severances, wisdom, and stages taught by the Distinct Teaching are not what the Two Vehicles can hear or understand; it is therefore called Distinct. Viewed broadly through stages taught in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and Avataṃsaka, this meaning becomes visible. Yet the gates of meaning in the Distinct Teaching are numerous and taught differently for different faculties. Horizontally, the four gates differ; vertically, stages differ in depth. One cannot grasp one scripture as fixed and then judge every other scripture and treatise right or wrong.

Bodhisattvas sometimes compose general treatises explaining scriptures and sometimes particular treatises. Nāgārjuna composed a thousand treatises; how could the works of Vasubandhu and the other bodhisattvas be counted to exhaustion? Few people penetrate these treatises. How could one painfully cling to one meaning and denounce all other Dharma gates? Arbitrarily lowering one gate and elevating another loses the original intent of the Buddha’s preparatory means and brings damage upon oneself. Seeking passage, one instead chokes the road.

The stages of the Distinct Teaching are now explained. Its four gates offer many different accounts; although roads interweave horizontally and vertically, the purport reached is one. Many treatises have not been transmitted here, yet they can still be inferred from the four gates above. When the Shared Teaching speaks of various stages, know that they realize the true truth together. When the Distinct Teaching speaks of them, know that they realize the Middle Way together. Although scriptures teach various paths, in reality they return to the One Vehicle; every Dharma taught reaches the ground of omniscience. Grasping this purport readily ends doubt and prevents contention. The preceding passage on breaking the provisionality of thought briefly explained the various stages; for details, return there, and so forth.

Ten Capacities for Interfusing the Buddha Dharma

The Buddha Dharma will now be interfused through ten meanings.

First, understand that principle is originally quiescent and cut off, far from thought and discussion. The four truths can open into three, two, and one, return to none, and expand or contract according to beings’ attachments or noble wisdom. Understanding this makes provisional and real principles clearly illuminate themselves.

Second, grasp the framework and skeleton of the gates of teaching so esoteric and exoteric, Great and Small Vehicle Dharmas each have boundaries. These are gradual, sudden, indeterminate, and esoteric; and Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect. Understanding this reveals how the vocal teachings expand and contract and how the Buddha guides and transforms.

Third, scriptures and treatises may contradict one another on the surface, their wording and meanings seeming opposed. They cannot be reconciled merely through ordinary sentiment or forced through extensive learning. Since antiquity, attached disputes have persisted for generations without resolution. Understanding the four siddhāntas opens and interfuses these knots, analyzes petty tangles of doubt in mind, and allows Dharma gates to be used freely without doubting one and being confused by another.

Fourth, know that mistaken attachment creates blockage and use skillful methods to break it completely. Break simple, repeated, or complete constructions, or pursue them to exhaustion through the ineffable. Since both the method that actively breaks and the attachment broken are unobtainable, what remains to grasp?

Fifth, connect correct Dharma gates with corresponding practices and stages. Cultivation has preparatory means and realization has gradations. Provisional and real, Great and Small, worthy and noble do not become conflated. From where could the wrongdoing of overweening pride arise?

Sixth, move vertically and horizontally without obstruction within one Dharma gate, its threads joining in sequence and forming a dense pattern.

Seventh, open chapters and divisions whose earlier and later parts link ring by ring, with the order of arising clear and pleasing.

Eighth, interpret in close correspondence with scriptural text, its wording and meaning subtle and finely woven. Apply all the foregoing methods to explain each passage, making meaning coherent and wording apt.

Ninth, understand Sanskrit-to-Chinese translation and lists of names and numbers, so different regional languages do not become obstructions.

Tenth, practice genuinely according to every sentence and verse heard, bringing Dharma meaning into mind as contemplation. When contemplative practice corresponds with scripture, contemplation has the teaching’s confirmation. Use scripture to seal mind and produce contemplation, rather than merely counting another person’s treasury of jewels.

Zhizhe did not yet have time to investigate translation and lists of names and numbers extensively. The other nine meanings differ both from Dharma teachers who handle only worldly letters and from meditation masters who handle only concrete matters of dhyāna. One class of meditation masters understands only the single meaning of contemplating mind, and even that shallowly or falsely, while lacking the other nine entirely. This is no empty statement; discerning worthies in later generations will verify it themselves. Stages are one of these ten meanings.

Perfect-Teaching Stages Begin by Entering through the Five Repentances

An extensive explanation of Perfect-Teaching stages should properly distinguish them in detail under the object of bodhisattvas. That passage, however, emphasizes what is realized, while this one emphasizes present cultivation, so a brief distinction must first be made. Preparatory means common to cultivation of the four kinds of samādhi were explained above. Only the Lotus Samādhi separately practices the five repentances at the six times of day and night, adding another level of preparatory means. The marks of its stages will now be explained through these five.

Repentance

First know the ten adverse and compliant minds and bind the object to the true mark; this is the first kind of repentance. Practitioners constantly repent, with no time when they do not. Yet contemplation of principle within mind remains fine, hidden, and subtle, its illuminating function light, thin, distant, and sparse. Dark evil covering and obstructing it is suddenly difficult to open and understand. Bodily and verbal karma are therefore used to assist mental karma, making all three correspond quickly; only for this are the five repentances separately added.

Repentance means declaring and exposing past evil; reform means changing what has gone before and cultivating what lies ahead. Buddha wisdom sees universally and Buddha compassion gathers in universally. I cast body and speech at the Buddha’s feet and ask the Eye of the World to witness my repentance. Since beginningless time, I have committed immeasurable wrongdoing obstructing the Buddha path. Pressed by ignorance and not recognizing the correct and true, bound within the three realms, I moved body, speech, and mind and committed the ten evils. I acted without benefit toward the Three Jewels, six kinds of kin, four modes of birth, and five destinations; damaged those who had aroused minds toward the Three Vehicles; and committed the five and seven rebellious acts. I acted myself, taught others to act, or rejoiced on seeing others act. These karmas should bring every kind of distress in the present, next, and later lives.

I repent just as bodhisattvas of the three times repented while seeking the Buddha path. Grieving that I am sunken and lack the wisdom eye, I speak these words through tears with utmost sincerity and truth, cast all five limbs to the ground like a great tree falling, and break attachment to self and person, causing every evil karma to collapse and disappear. This is called repentance.

Exhortation and Supplication

Exhortation and supplication mean making a request. Śrāvakas seek only their own crossing and directly repent their own wrongdoing. Bodhisattvas practice the path out of pity for beings and must also supplicate. I know that even I, aware of my wrongdoing, cannot escape it; beings do not know their karmic wrongdoing and circulate through long eons. Lacking power to rescue them, I ask the buddhas of the ten directions. Buddhas pity beings without distinguishing Great and Small and necessarily respond according to vows. The Great Treatise separately explains supplication and nonsupplication, and so forth.

Requesting that the Dharma wheel be turned asks the Buddha to make the three turnings of exhortation, revelation, and confirmation, producing eye, wisdom, illumination, and awakening regarding the four truths in beings; hence these are called three turnings. Some also say that asking the Buddha to teach the Three Vehicles is called three turnings. When the Buddha teaches Dharma, beings can realize nirvāṇa. Even if they have not yet realized it, he first gives them worldly peace and happiness. If the Buddha universally grants this request, all beings obtain happiness. I too am among all beings, so my wrongdoing and suffering are removed with theirs. It resembles universally asking for rain: although I have only a small field, it too receives sweet rain and moisture.

Requesting the Buddha to remain in the world is necessary because ordinary lives abide according to karmic power, while the Buddha’s transformation body abides according to mind. When the transforming mind stops, the transformed body ceases. I now ask the Buddha to benefit beings and, like a great blazing torch, not stop the transforming mind, but abide securely in the world for a long time and liberate all. This is exhortation and supplication.

Rejoicing

Rejoicing means celebrating another’s goodness. The Buddha has turned the Dharma wheel three times and beings obtain benefits in past, present, and future; I assist and complete their joy. I should further exhort and transform beings so they produce goodness, and even if their goodness arises naturally, I rejoice in it.

I rejoice in every meritorious goodness of beings in the three times, every uncontaminated goodness of the Three Vehicles in the three times, and every goodness of the buddhas in the three times from their initial arousal of mind through entry into cessation; I also teach others to rejoice. It resembles the buyer of incense, seller, and bystander all being perfumed by its fragrance. The one who transforms, the one transformed, and the one who rejoices all possess equal goodness.

Seeing beings deeply deluded should produce grief; seeing goodness in them should produce profound respect, with mind never slighting them. Know deeply that beings fully possess correct, conditioning, and discerning causes. Even if these have not yet arisen, they certainly will. It resembles the sound of a poisoned drum traveling near and far: those who hear it ultimately die. Thus respect beings as buddhas. Future World-Honored Ones are limitless in number; only this is profound rejoicing. The Lotus Sūtra raises rejoicing in Dharma and the Great Version rejoicing in persons, simply marking the two dimensions reciprocally.

Dedication

Dedication directs every goodness toward awakening. The merits of all worthy and noble ones are vast, so the merit I obtain by rejoicing is vast with them. If beings have no goodness, I give my own goodness to them; after giving it, I direct it correctly toward awakening. It resembles turning a sound into a horn so the echo travels farther. Dedication can accomplish great benefit.

True dedication severs the roads of the three realms, extinguishes every conceptual proliferation, dries the mire of afflictions, eliminates the forest of thorns, and relinquishes the heavy burden. It neither grasps nor thinks, sees, obtains, or distinguishes. The person who dedicates and the destination of dedication exist provisionally through the conjunction of Dharmas in deluded thought. All Dharmas in reality do not arise: there is neither past, present, nor future arising, and neither past, present, nor future cessation. Dharmas are originally thus. I therefore accord with Dharmas in rejoicing and dedicating, as known, seen, and approved by the buddhas of the three times.

This is called true and correct dedication and also the highest, complete, great dedication. It does not slander the Buddha and has no fault, bondage, poison, or error. This is true not only of dedication but of the preceding repentance, exhortation and supplication, rejoicing, and the following vows. A verse in the Vibhāṣā says that wrongdoing should be repented thus and the merit of exhortation, supplication, and rejoicing dedicated to awakening.

Arousal of Vows

Arousing vows means making a pledge. It resembles promising to give someone an object: without establishing a written tally, ownership cannot be fixed. If goodness is given to beings without a decisive mind as guarantor, one may later regret and retreat. Vows are therefore added to gather and sustain it.

It also resembles an unguided ox that does not know where to go. Vows come forward to gather and sustain practice, bringing it where it should reach. A vow is also called dhāraṇī, capable of retaining goodness and blocking evil. Or it resembles an unfired clay blank that can hold things only after being fired. The Two Vehicles have exhausted subsequent existence and need not establish vows. Bodhisattvas teach and transform beings life after life and require general and particular vows. The four vast vows are general; every wholesome practice and dhāraṇī taught for Dharmākara and in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra has its particular vow.

At the site of practice, cultivate the five repentances at the six times of day and night. Repentance breaks wrongdoing of grave evil karma; exhortation and supplication break wrongdoing that slanders correct Dharma; rejoicing breaks jealousy; dedication breaks seeking the three modes of existence. Vows accord with emptiness and signlessness. The merit obtained has no boundary or measure and cannot be stated to exhaustion by simile or calculation.

From the Five Grades to the Forty-Two Stages

If one diligently cultivates the preparatory means of the five repentances and assists the opening of the gate of contemplation, the three truths in one mind suddenly open and shine, like facing a clean, bright mirror and seeing every form. Perfect understanding is accomplished in one thought without further contrived effort and is naturally distinct. Correct faith becomes firm and no object can move it. This is the mind of profound faith and rejoicing, the first grade of disciples.

The “Distinctions in Merit” chapter says that if beings hear the Buddha’s lifespan is long and remote and produce even one thought of faithful understanding, the merit obtained cannot be measured and can produce the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed wisdom. If one hears this scripture without disparaging it and produces a mind of rejoicing, the marks of profound faithful understanding are known to have appeared. This is the text on which the first grade rests.

Next, use perfect understanding to contemplate mind, cultivate the five repentances, and add reading and recitation, so skillful phrases and wondrous meanings meet the inner mind like oil assisting a flame. Mental contemplation then becomes brighter; this is the second grade.

Next, cultivate the five repentances with the superior mind of an advanced grade and add teaching Dharma for others, turning inner understanding outward to guide and benefit them. Because the scope of rescue is vast, the merit of transformation returns to oneself and mind deepens another level, twice surpassing the former grade. This is the third grade. At this grade one can retain, read, recite, and teach for others; copy the scripture oneself and teach others to copy it; and make offerings to the scroll. One need not separately erect stūpas and monasteries or make offerings to the monastic community.

Next, cultivate the five repentances with an advancing mind and concurrently practice the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, tolerance, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom. The power of merit assists the contemplating mind, which advances another level. This is the fourth grade. One retains the scripture while concurrently practicing the perfections; the merit is superior, immeasurable and limitless like empty space, reaching wisdom of all modes.

Next, cultivate the five repentances with this mind and correctly cultivate the six perfections. One’s own practice and transforming others, concrete matters and principle, all become complete; mental contemplation has no obstruction and surpasses the preceding grade beyond comparison. This is the fifth grade. One can explain in various ways for others, preserve moral discipline purely, tolerate without anger, constantly value seated dhyāna, apply vigorous diligence, possess sharp faculties, and understand through clear wisdom. Know that this person has turned toward the site of awakening and drawn near unsurpassed complete awakening.

Seen this way, the five grades precede the ten faiths. According to the reconciliation in the Contemplation of Samantabhadra, they can also correspond to five minds within the ten faiths. The Buddha’s intent is difficult to know because different accounts suit different faculties. It is enough to use them to open understanding; why painfully dispute, and so forth?

The object contemplated in this chapter is the aggregates, sense fields, and elements, so stages must also be judged through them. Dark and evil aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the stages of the three evil destinations. White and wholesome aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the stages of the three wholesome destinations. Aggregates, sense fields, and elements of wholesome preparatory means are analogous Small Vehicle stages. Uncontaminated aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the true stages of the Two Vehicles. Transformational aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the stages of the five kinds of persons. The permanently abiding Dharma-nature aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness, together with sense fields and elements, are the Buddha stage, and so forth.

The provisionally named five grades gradually turn bright and pure and suddenly enter wisdom from hearing, penetrating without obstruction and believing deeply without being moved. This is the mind of faith. In sequence, one then fully possesses minds of mindfulness, diligence, wisdom, concentration, dhāraṇī, moral discipline, protection, dedication, and vows. Together these form the ten faiths, the analogous stage of purification of the six faculties. The four abiding afflictions are exhausted and, as the Prajñā of the Humane Kings says, one forever leaves the sea of suffering’s wheel in the three realms.

One then enters the first abode, breaks ignorance, and sees buddha-nature. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says that at the initial arousal of mind one immediately accomplishes correct awakening and does not awaken to the real nature through another; it points to this stage. One proceeds in sequence through the forty-two stages to ultimate wondrous awakening without usurpation or conflation. This is knowing stages.

Patient Endurance: Before Strength Matures, Do Not Let Leading Others Seize One’s Own Practice

Ninth is patient endurance. The mind able to endure matters that accomplish the path without inward movement or retreat is called sattva. From beginning contemplation of aggregates, sense fields, and elements through discerning stages, the preceding eight Dharmas make obstructions thinner and wisdom open and bright. Practitioners may not yet have entered the first grade or may just have entered it, but their spiritual understanding becomes lucid and sharp. A blade keen as flying frost severs whatever it touches; the intelligence of the initial mind can surpass even this sharpness.

Having never heard or studied before, one may suddenly understand scriptures and treatises. Reading another’s exposition, one penetrates its governing purport and route. Wishing to explain one meaning, one discovers inexhaustible eloquence. If one then resembles someone concealing a precious jade within the breast—holding understanding inwardly, hiding one’s reputation, and diligently advancing in secret—one will certainly enter the five grades or still deeper ones. With resolve firm and no one able to change it, this is the more excellent method.

Yet an awl does not remain hidden forever inside a bag. Ability is difficult to conceal and readily appears. Practitioners may see lecturers depart from meaning or cultivators depart from the correct track and, out of compassion, explain the matter. People then come and gather around. The group asks one to teach or urges one to benefit beings. The inner mind wishes to speak and outer conditions push, so one offers one or two sentences of Dharma or points out one or two sections of dhyāna. At first this is only for one person; news gradually spreads until it cannot be stopped.

At first it seems beneficial, but one’s power to benefit others is actually slight while one’s own cultivation is damaged and abandoned. Not only do one’s grades cease to advance, but conditions obstructing the path arise anew. This resembles a young elephant whose weak strength leaves its body buried under blades and arrows, or a handful of hot water thrown on ice that not only fails to melt it but enlarges the mass. The Vibhāṣā calls this a defeated and ruined bodhisattva.

In the past, a meditation master in the region of Ye and Luo became famous across rivers and seas. Wherever he went, the four directions looked to him like clouds; whenever he left, hundreds and thousands followed. His influence thundered—yet what real benefit did it ultimately bring? At death he was filled with regret. Great Master Nanyue, a man of Wujin, lamented that throughout his life he had hoped to enter the copper-wheel first abode but failed because he led a community too early. His vow text repeats four times that one should choose cautiously. These instructions left by eminent predecessors can serve as a bright mirror.

At this point in cultivation, weigh yourself carefully. If the power of wisdom is strong, one should benefit beings extensively like a great elephant leading the herd. If strength has not yet reached this level, patiently endure for now and cultivate samādhi deeply. Once cultivation has matured and strength becomes evident, it is not too late to teach and transform.

The Great Treatise asks: Bodhisattvas take crossing people as their task; why hide in deep mountains and perfect themselves alone? It answers: This resembles taking medicine to care for the body, then returning to one’s work after recovering. Though the body is far from beings, the mind is not far from them. Upon purification of the six faculties, one is called a person of first reliance; the Dharma meaning one teaches can be trusted. One sound fills everywhere and hearers rejoice. Only this is the stage of transforming others.

If one still does not emerge then to transform people, hard and soft bandits of obstruction can no longer do harm. One’s own cultivation continues to mature, and one has power to benefit others, like a great elephant resisting attack without being injured by blades or arrows, or sunlight illuminating the world until long-frozen ice naturally melts. This is the power of patient endurance.

If one becomes tangled in the birdlime of reputation, the hair rope of gain, or the great tree where retinues gather—worms eroding it within and flocks of birds exhausting its branches and leaves without—push them away early, neither accepting nor attaching. If they cannot be pushed away and instead adhere, contract one’s virtues, expose faults, and pretend to be wild so as to hide what is real, concealing one’s inner gold and shells so thieves cannot see them. If even hiding one’s traces cannot bring escape, travel ten thousand li in one move to a remote, isolated region. Reaching a place where no one knows you, freely train in the path, like Guṇavarman, and so forth.

If reputation, gain, and retinues come from outside to damage cultivation, remember these three methods and endure with teeth clenched. Even if ten million people request you, remain firm and immovable: avoid them, hide yourself, and depart far away.

If afflictions, karma, meditative concentration, views, pride, and the rest damage cultivation from within, likewise remember three techniques: immediately empty, immediately provisional, and immediately the Middle. Even if someone butchers and pulverizes one’s flesh, mind neither moves nor scatters. Even if the great earth presses down, its weight does not make one sink. Violent vaibhāra winds cannot move one, bitter ice cannot make one cold, and how could fierce fire make one hot?

Straighten the mind and illuminate as things truly are. How could one rejoice upon obtaining a small share of realization or fragment of dhyāna, or worry upon seeing a small evil object? An unfired vessel easily collapses into a heap of clay; mango flowers rarely bear fruit. The Great Version says that immeasurable people arouse the mind of awakening, yet many fall into the ground of the Two Vehicles. Accomplishing a great work requires still more patient endurance. If one can obtain this meaning of endurance within the aggregate-object, one will not activate the lower nine objects because of opposing and agreeable conditions and need not traverse them separately. If the meaning remains unclear, it will be explained extensively below.

Freedom from Attachment to Dharmas: The Final Stagnation May Be Love for a Wholesome Dharma

Tenth is freedom from attachment to Dharmas. Having cultivated the preceding nine matters and crossed internal and external obstructions, one should enter the true stage. If entry still does not occur, one is attached to the Dharma cultivated and abides without advancing.

The Abhidharma says the Dharma of warmth can still be lost. Once the five faculties are established and higher tolerance produces the true, retreat is no longer discussed. If attachment arises at the summit stage, one fails to enter when entry should occur and, after retreat, may even commit the four grave or five uninterrupted acts. The Shared and Distinct teachings each also have a meaning of falling from the summit. The practitioner described here has neither entered the true stage nor fallen into the Two Vehicles.

The Great Treatise says the three samādhis are the analogous stage of the path. Before the true arises, delight in Dharmas obtained produces attachment to Dharma; this is called falling from the summit. Among ten thousand people cultivating the path today, not one reaches this point. Anyone who truly does must guard it skillfully.

At this stage there are no internal or external obstructions, only attachment to Dharma. Such attachment is difficult to sever. To stop here is no small matter. It resembles two vessels traveling under identical sails: one advances and one stops, and stopping is abiding. Or a vessel neither sticks to a sandbar nor rests against the bank, yet halts because the wind ceases. The sandbar symbolizes internal obstruction, the bank external obstruction. Though attached to neither side, attachment to Dharma stops the wind driving one forward, leaving one neither advancing nor retreating. This is falling from the summit.

If attachment to Dharma is broken, one enters the three gates of liberation and produces the true Middle Way. The wisdom body obtained is not awakened through another but naturally flows into the ocean of omniscience, abiding in the tolerance of nonarising, also called the tolerance of quiescent cessation. Practitioners roam in superknowledges through the Śūraṃgama samādhi and possess great wisdom like seawater; only a buddha can know all their merits. The preparatory means by which calming-and-contemplation advances end here. Merits after entry into the first abode are not discussed in this passage and will be distinguished again below.

Only All Ten Dharmas Complete Are Called Great Vehicle Contemplation

These ten Dharmas together are called Great Vehicle contemplation, and those who train in this vehicle are called practitioners of the Mahāyāna. What is the Great Vehicle? The Lotus Sūtra uses the simile of a father equally giving all his children great carriages drawn by white oxen. The carriage bodies are high and broad and adorned with many jewels; railings surround them and bells hang on all sides. Canopies are spread above and ornamented with rare and varied treasures. Jeweled cords interlace, flowered tassels hang, layered soft mats are spread, and red cushions installed. White oxen harnessed to them are plump and powerful, their hides pure white, their bodies beautiful, their muscles strong, their steps even, and their speed like wind. Many attendants accompany and protect them.

The Great Vehicle of calming-and-contemplation is likewise. Contemplating each thought-moment as never separate from the true mark of Dharma-nature is the one equal great carriage. Each thought being immediately empty, provisional, and the Middle is giving each child a great carriage. Penetrating the source of the three truths is height; including the ten Dharma realms, breadth; immeasurable factors of the path, adornment with many jewels.

The four right efforts block evil and retain goodness, while vows further gather and sustain practice, joining the carriage body securely; these are railings on every side. The four unobstructed eloquences of Dharma, meaning, phrasing, and joyful teaching speak fluently and develop awakening; these are bells hanging on four sides. Loving-kindness and compassion universally cover and protect without omission or boundary; this is spreading the canopy. The ten powers, fearlessnesses, and eighteen distinctive qualities included by the factors of the path are not shared with the other vehicles; these are rare and varied treasures adorning it.

The four vast vows keep mind from retreat; these are interlaced jeweled cords. The four means of gathering in receive beings and make all rejoice; these are hanging flowered tassels. The various meditative concentrations and samādhis produce the six superknowledges; these are layered soft mats. The four gates return to the same purport and bring every practice to rest; this is installing the red cushion.

The wisdom of the four foundations of mindfulness breaks the darkness of the eight inversions; this is harnessing a white ox. The four right efforts increase two kinds of goodness; this is plump strength. They block and sever two kinds of evil and purify both; this is the pure white hide. The four bases of spiritual power and four unobstructed eloquences are autonomous; this is bodily beauty.

The five faculties are firm and cannot be moved; these are muscles. The five powers grow and block evil Dharmas; this is strength. The seven factors of awakening can make distinctions; these are the steps. The Noble Eightfold Path is secure; this is evenness. Counteraction through aids to the path extensively includes all Dharmas; these are the many attendants accompanying and protecting. Breaking attachment to Dharma and ignorance, entering the ocean of omniscience, and producing the true rapidly is speed like wind. In this way the carriage transports all the children and lets them play in joy. This Dharma gate of Great Vehicle contemplation is complete and corresponds with the great carriage in the Lotus Sūtra; it is therefore called Great Vehicle contemplation.

Speaking further from all Dharmas being the One Vehicle, no sentient being fails to possess this wondrous Dharma; this is the vehicle of principle. If the Tathāgata does not teach it, beings cannot know it. Hearing the teaching, joyfully accepting it, bearing it upon the crown, and preserving it is the vehicle of verbal identity. Hearing its name and practicing according to the teaching, one enters the five grades; this is the vehicle of contemplative practice. Obtaining purification of the six faculties is the analogous vehicle.

One leaves the three realms and abides in omniscience without abiding there. Entering the first through tenth abodes, one obtains the real vehicle and travels east. Through the ten practices one travels south, the ten dedications west, and the ten grounds north. Circling in this way has no limit. Obtaining emptiness and stopping at the center is wondrous awakening. Proceeding all the way to the site of awakening points precisely to this meaning.

Some people now suppose that merely abandoning evil and grasping emptiness is the Great Vehicle. Yet such emptiness cannot even escape the evil of the sixty-two simple and compound views. How could it move, travel, and leave as a vehicle? Even if forcibly called a vehicle, it is only a bald vehicle lacking complete Dharma gates. The great city of correct Dharma and vajra treasury are originally complete and without deficiency. What Dharma is absent there, and how could only bald emptiness remain? Such a person rides the vehicle of deviant views into a dangerous and evil road—a broken donkey cart, and so forth.

Bringing the Ten Dharmas into Walking, Standing, Sitting, and Lying Down

The preceding text explained upright sitting and contemplating aggregates and sense fields. Now it explains contemplating aggregates, sense fields, and elements amid various activities and the objects faced. The activities are the six actions of walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, and working; the objects are form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharmas. The Great Treatise says that the conception of an agent arises within the six actions and the conception of a recipient within the six objects.

The Pratyutpanna Samādhi primarily involves constant walking. The Lotus and Vaipulya samādhis involve activity half the time. Sweeping, sprinkling water, carrying objects, and working also involve bodily movement; activity is most extensive in the Samādhi of Following One’s Own Intention. If illumination is not practiced amid activity, how can one correspond rapidly with principle? The marks of the condition of walking will now be explained briefly, still arranged as the ten Dharmas above.

First is the object contemplated. When lifting and lowering the feet, the feet are a Dharma of form. Form is moved by mind and shifts from here to there; mind travels in dependence on form. This is the form aggregate. Receiving this movement is the feeling aggregate. Reckoning a self within the movement is the perception aggregate. Whether the movement is wholesome or evil is the formation aggregate. Mind within the movement is the consciousness aggregate. When the movement-object faces the mind faculty, there are elements and sense fields; the relations of eye and form, mind and Dharmas, and the rest are likewise. Between lifting and lowering a foot, aggregates, sense fields, and elements are all complete.

These aggregates, sense fields, and elements within walking arise from the conjunction of ignorance and formation as conditions. They do not differ from ignorance; ignorance does not differ from Dharma-nature; Dharma-nature is the Dharma realm. All Dharmas tend toward walking, and none surpasses it. One set of aggregates, sense fields, and elements is every set. Since one and many are fixed neither as one nor many, they do not obstruct one another. This is the inconceivable object within walking.

When this object is penetrated, loving-kindness and compassion arise together. Practitioners grieve that in their darkness, for immeasurable eons they have been confused and deceived by aggregates and sense fields. Only today do they know that all beings are entirely the One Vehicle. Beings are intoxicated and inverted, truly pitiable; one vows to break ignorance and become their refuge.

Next, establish mind through concentration and wisdom and quiescently illuminate this object. Once mind is settled, pervasively break the three-truth obstructions of the delusions of views and thought, lack of knowledge, and ignorance, exhausting them horizontally and vertically. Skillfully recognize passage and obstruction so medicine does not instead become illness during cultivation. Skillfully know the factors of the path and the flourishing and withered foundations of mindfulness, entering parinirvāṇa amid the twin trees. Skillfully know how the six perfections within walking provide counteraction and assist the opening of the gate of nirvāṇa.

Further, know stages deeply. Knowing this walking does not yet equal that of noble ones at higher stages, feel shame, advance in cultivation, and refuse to rest. Amid walking, subdue fame and gain externally and the three obstructions internally, patiently enduring without movement. Do not allow attachment to Dharma to abide or cause falling from the summit. If all ten Dharmas are accomplished, one can enter the copper-wheel stage and realize the tolerance of nonarising in this life, obtaining a great carriage high, broad, pure, adorned with many jewels, and swift as wind, riding it straight to the site of awakening.

This is contemplation according to the condition of walking: removing the husk of ignorance and revealing the grain of Dharma-nature. Lifting and lowering the foot both come from the site of awakening and fully possess the Buddha Dharma. The rest can be inferred from the preceding text.

Since the condition of walking is so, the other five conditions—standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, and working—can be understood by analogy. Of the four kinds of samādhi, the first three contain no practice of lying down, while the Samādhi of Following One’s Own Intention does. A king in the past awakened to pratyekabuddhahood while lying down; contemplation and practice can therefore occur there, and so forth.

All Ten Dharmas Complete in One Thought of Eye Seeing Form

Next is facing objects. When eye sees form and one reckons a self, one says “I can receive.” One object has three kinds of reception, making eighteen across the six. When eye sees form there are five aggregates, three elements, and two sense fields, as already explained.

The Sūtra on Maitreya’s Physical Marks says that in one thought of seeing form, thirty billion sets of five aggregates arise and cease, and each set is a being. Seen this way, how could eye facing form involve only five aggregates, three elements, and two sense fields? Contemplating eye and form only in a finite number is called decreased cultivation, not Mahāyāna.

Contemplating eye and form within the permanently abiding Dharma of all tathāgatas is complete cultivation without decrease. First understand that the arising of one thought of eye and form is the Dharma realm and fully possesses all Dharmas: it is immediately empty, provisional, and the Middle.

Searching for eye and form through the four alternatives finds them unobtainable; this is immediate emptiness. Within one thought of Maitreya’s physical form, thirty billion sets of five aggregates arise and cease. This is true from the marks and forms of the first ground through the tenth; feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are likewise. A non-Buddhist struck a skull and listened to its sound, knowing the dead person’s place of rebirth and immeasurable other matters. Fragrance, flavor, touch, and the rest can be unfolded likewise. This is immediate provisionality.

Provisionality is not fixed provisionality, and emptiness is not fixed emptiness; therefore they are neither empty nor provisional. If the one Dharma of eye is neither empty nor provisional, all Dharmas are likewise. Like empty space, existence and nonexistence are both quiescent; like sun and moon, no darkness remains unilluminated.

Although there is no fixed emptiness or provisionality, both are still illuminated together. Illuminating coarse form arising through conditions is the physical eye. Illuminating subtle form arising through conditions is the divine eye. Illuminating the emptiness of form arising through conditions is the wisdom eye. Illuminating its provisionality is the Dharma eye. Illuminating its Middle is the Buddha eye.

The five eyes are said to be complete in one mind. This does not mean possessing an ordinary being’s pus-and-blood physical eye, a divine eye obtained by celestial beings, a wisdom eye of the Two Vehicles sunk in emptiness, or a bodhisattva’s discriminating Dharma eye. It means only that the Buddha eye possesses five powers, like streams entering the sea and losing their original names. The Buddha asked Subhūti whether the Tathāgata possessed the five eyes, and Subhūti answered that he did. Since all five are called the Tathāgata’s, how could ordinary beings’ or the Two Vehicles’ eyes be involved? The Sūtra of Inviting Avalokiteśvara says that the five eyes complete accomplish awakening.

Three contemplations in one mind are called cultivation without decrease. One eye possessing five powers is called the gate of clear seeing, coming, and entering, which is perfect realization. Practitioners become autonomous inside and outside the eye faculty: entering correct reception through the eye faculty, they arise from the samādhi of the nose; entering through the nose faculty, they can arise through the eye. Although moving, they are quiescent, and quiescence does not obstruct movement; although quiescent, they move, and movement does not obstruct quiescence. Seeing yet not seeing and not seeing yet able to see is alone called the gate of clear seeing, coming, and entering.

Someone asks: The Buddha possesses five eyes and should illuminate five kinds of objects. Yet a scripture says that even with the five eyes the Buddha does not see the three groups; how can crazed, foolish beings without eyes claim to see? It also says seeing form is equal to blindness. If equal to the blind, how can one see coarse or subtle form?

Answer: All five objects darkly coincide with the true mark, and the true mark cannot be seen. Because it cannot be seen, it is likened to blindness. Although it cannot be seen, illumination does not decrease: the five eyes penetrate and the various objects are distinct. Though five kinds of illumination are taught, why must what they illuminate be fixed existence? Though blindness is spoken of, why must blindness be fixed nonexistence? The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says one comes through the mark of noncoming and sees through the mark of nonseeing. This is precisely the meaning.

This is the inconceivable object. My eye and the eyes of beings are not two different substances; why do beings neither awaken nor know? From this, loving-kindness and compassion arise and one vows to liberate them. To fulfill the vow, abide in concentration and wisdom and use calming-and-contemplation to break through all Dharmas pervasively.

Within eye and form, clearly recognize passage and obstruction rather than moving only along a narrow road like a small insect. Within the eye aggregate, cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness without fixing purity or impurity; dispel both withering and flourishing and enter nirvāṇa. Train in the various counteractions and assist the opening of the three gates of liberation; clearly recognize the six identities and do not produce usurpation or conflation.

Although the eye I contemplate possesses the five eyes, at present I remain only at verbal-identity or contemplative-practice identity. Gradually seeing beyond obstruction and later seeing the ten directions is as taught in the Contemplation of Samantabhadra; suddenly seeing the great thousandfold world is like Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. I have not yet reached gradual or sudden seeing or the interchangeable use of the six faculties. I should not produce pride but gradually give rise to shame and practice diligently.

If virtue becomes established and reputation evident, patiently endure internal and external obstructions, stable as Mount Sumeru. When attachment to Dharma does not arise, nothing delays one; swift as wind, one realizes the real eye and rides the one great carriage straight to the site of awakening. If awakening is entered through the eye faculty, one extensively performs Buddha activity through it, constantly emitting golden light that illuminates all. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says that in some buddha lands, light performs Buddha activity.

Since one reception of eye seeing form is so, the other two receptions are likewise. The remaining five faculties, five objects, and fifteen receptions are also so; details follow the preceding text. Transfer its purport into the functioning of the six faculties, seeking only to break afflictions without rigidly preserving fixed headings.

If one obtains the great carriage through the ear faculty, one predominantly performs Buddha activity through sound; awakening through the nose, fragrance; through the tongue, flavor; through the body, celestial garments; through mind, quiescent cessation. Buddha activity performed through one faculty can communicate with all the others. Preparatory means for benefiting beings sometimes differ, yet all finally bring ultimate peace and happiness, and so forth.

Knowing Much Must Still Become Genuinely Usable amid Objects

If one can practice diligently according to the preceding text, this life certainly will not pass in vain. Yet hearing without using resembles a black viper holding a jewel: what benefit does the jewel bring a long snake? Three groups of similes now explain gain and loss.

First, an ordinary fighter relies only on one person’s courage, trains with one blade and arrow, kills one or two enemies, and receives a reward of one piece of gold or silver, with salary sufficient to support only one wife and child. Such a person need only sharpen weapons and advance carrying a halberd, trading life for wealth. Why should he know military strategy extensively? But to become the state’s ferment, boat and oars, seasoning, and timely rain, one must master both civil and military arts, determine strategy within the command tent, and achieve victory ten thousand li away. The deeper one’s study, the greater what one breaks; the heavier the reward obtained, the broader the benefit. Yet if one understands military strategy but does not use it, or uses it and repeatedly loses, unable even to rescue oneself, how could one benefit others?

Training in dhyāna contemplation is likewise. One may know only one Dharma—either calming or contemplation—wish only to break a little evil, gather one’s thoughts and practice the path, obtain a little meditative concentration, and receive a small retinue, then consider it sufficient. This resembles only an ordinary fighter’s duel. To become a great meditation master, break great afflictions, reveal immeasurable wholesome Dharmas, and benefit immeasurable conditions, one should learn the ten Dharmas of calming-and-contemplation, penetrate their purport, and actually correspond with them within the six conditions and six receptions. When affliction suddenly arises, illumination appears immediately; contemplation surpasses affliction and accomplishes the difficult task. Only this resembles a meritorious minister receiving the bright jewel untied from the king’s topknot. If one understands but does not use, or uses inappropriately and instead lets affliction become the mind’s teacher, how can the work of the path be securely accomplished?

Second, a rustic shaman-physician knows only one technique, saves one person, and receives a small plate of dried meat as payment. Why should such a person study all of Shennong’s Materia Medica? To become a great physician, however, one must survey every treatment and heal illnesses broadly. The more pulses one diagnoses, the more refined one’s understanding; the more methods one uses, the more they are verified; only then does the benefit of saving people become vast.

Cultivators of dhyāna are likewise. Specializing in one Dharma and treating one delusion may bring slight benefit then, yet ultimately does not accord with the great route’s extensive inclusion and cannot pervasively break afflictions or enter the tolerance of nonarising. Even if one knows medicines well, how can illness heal without taking them according to the prescription? Reading and reciting calming-and-contemplation brings great benefit, yet if it is not actually applied within mind, the tolerance of nonarising will never appear.

Third, if a student of doctrine wants only to answer one question and give one response, showing off for a moment, why investigate scriptures and treatises broadly? To become a master of Dharma, one should penetrate different classes of works. Even with much understanding, someone who has never answered in an assembly remains timid and cannot bear exchanges of challenge and response. Only one without fear, turning a hundred ways as occasions arise, answering without fixed method to meet challenges in ten thousand directions, is a great Dharma teacher.

Practitioners of contemplation are the same. When contemplative practice is clear, they can pass through conditions and face objects and use it wherever they go. Without this, how can they break Māra’s army, cure the grave illness of affliction, or reveal the profound meaning of Dharma-nature? Unable to accomplish any of the three, constrained and laboring within birth-and-death, they remain ordinary beings. This is not a preparatory means for training in the Buddha path.

Mohe Zhiguan, Fascicle Seven [Lower]

The preceding contemplative methods have unfolded the contemplated object, arousal of the mind of awakening, settling the mind, breaking through dharmas, discerning passage and obstruction, the factors of the path, and aids to the path in sequence. At this point the treatise abruptly turns its gaze toward the practitioner: where, in fact, has one now arrived? When wisdom first opens, can one endure the press of people from without and disturbances arising within? Just as one is about to enter the real, might one instead become enamored of the lucidity now before one? Stages, patient endurance, and freedom from attachment to dharmas guard against different dangers, yet all three dangers arise precisely when practice has begun to yield something.

First Question: If Dharma Meaning Is Already Understood, Why Discern the Stages?

Because understanding clearly is not the same as realizing clearly. Both the stage of the real and the stage of semblance possess knowledge and vision of liberation. Their outward appearance is close, yet in actuality they resemble vermilion and purple, each with its own true color. If practitioners do not know what they have severed and realized and what they have not yet severed or realized, they may take the four wholesome roots for the first fruit or take the first fruit for the stage beyond training. On the bodhisattva path, they may also occupy an exalted stage while possessing only the mind of an ordinary person at its first arousal. Stages are not names supplied for contests over rank. They keep practitioners from declaring the unattained to have been attained.

The names of stages taught in the four teachings are not entirely alike. The śrāvaka path is comparatively brief in duration, while the bodhisattva course is long and its road far-reaching. The Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect teachings each possess different depths of practice and severance; the Distinct teaching also has many horizontal and vertical routes according to its four gates and its responses to capacities. Scriptures and treatises that appear to conflict are not necessarily negating one another. To seize upon a single scripture or treatise and denounce all other gates instead loses sight of the expedients by which teachings are established for differing capacities. If one knows that the various roads all return to the One Vehicle and the various teachings all reach the ground of all-knowledge, doubt readily subsides and contention has nowhere to arise.

The treatise accordingly proposes ten intentions through which the Buddha-Dharma may be integrated. First, understand that principle is originally quiescent and cut off from words: the four truths, three truths, two truths, one truth, and even no truth are opened or gathered according to sentient understanding and wisdom. Second, grasp the structural framework of the teachings and know how gradual, sudden, indeterminate, and secret teaching, together with the Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect teachings, encompass the spoken teaching. Third, use the four siddhāntas to penetrate the words and meanings in scriptures and treatises that appear contradictory, neither forcing them together through subjective views nor overpowering others with erudition. Fourth, know how attachment creates blockage and then skillfully break it through single, repeated, complete, and wordless gates; once breaking is exhausted, retain no dharma that performs the breaking.

Fifth, join the correct Dharma gate to the stage currently practiced so that practicable expedients, realized gradations, provisional and real, great and small, worthy and noble are not confused with one another. Sixth, move vertically and horizontally without obstruction within one Dharma gate while still forming an ordered composition. Seventh, open the sections and divisions so that what precedes and follows interlocks in succession. Eighth, explain the scriptural text closely so that wording and meaning correspond. Ninth, also penetrate Sanskrit and Chinese names and enumerations so that language does not become an obstacle. Tenth, on hearing a phrase or verse, cultivate in accord with what one has heard so that scriptural meaning enters mind and becomes contemplation, while contemplative practice is itself confirmed by scriptural teaching, rather than counting another person's treasures outside the gate. Stages constitute one of these ten intentions: they return what has been learned to what is practiced and realized.

Second Question: From What Step Do the Stages of the Perfect Teaching Begin to Take Shape?

The answer lies in the five forms of repentance. Contemplation of mind should always include repentance, but mental activity is subtle and contemplative strength is initially slight and sparse, so grave, dark karma is not easily opened all at once. Body and speech must therefore assist the karma of intention through utmost sincerity. To repent is openly to disclose evils previously committed and to change what has passed while cultivating what is to come. Practitioners recollect how, from beginningless time, they have been pressed by ignorance and moved body, speech, and mind within the three realms, creating the ten evils and harming the Three Treasures, the six kinships, and beings in the four modes of birth and five paths, even doing evil themselves, teaching others to do it, and rejoicing upon seeing it done. At this moment one does not merely list transgressions coolly. With voice and tears pouring forth, one prostrates with all five limbs like a great tree crashing down, simultaneously toppling the elevation of self and person.

Entreaty begins in knowing one's own lack of power. Śrāvakas directly repent their own transgressions. Bodhisattvas see that beings do not understand the suffering of transgression and revolve through long kalpas, so they entreat the buddhas of the ten directions to turn the Dharma wheel and remain in the world to liberate beings. Entreating the turning of the Dharma wheel causes beings to produce eye, knowledge, illumination, and awakening with regard to the four truths. Entreating buddhas to remain in the world resembles asking that a great torch not be extinguished but continue illuminating all for a long time. Universal entreaty resembles requesting sweet rain everywhere: although one's own field is small, it too receives nourishment. What is sought appears to be for beings, yet the practitioner's own transgression and suffering are also removed within this universal peace and joy.

Rejoicing is delighting in the goodness of others. One rejoices without exception in the meritorious goodness of beings in the three times, the uncontaminated goodness of the three vehicles, and all the goodness of buddhas from their first arousal of mind through their entry into extinction; one also encourages others to rejoice. Like the buyer of incense, the seller of incense, and the person standing nearby, all three of whom receive its fragrance, those who transform, those transformed, and those who rejoice all receive the perfuming of goodness. Seeing beings deluded naturally brings sorrow; seeing goodness in beings should bring still greater reverence and the constant mind of Never Disparaging. Beings inherently possess the three causes—correct, conditioning, and revealing. Though these have not yet become manifest today, they will eventually arise. The immeasurable future buddhas are present among the beings before us who have not yet accomplished the path.

Dedication turns all goodness toward awakening. Practitioners rejoice in the vast merit of all worthies and sages but do not keep the resulting merit for themselves. If beings lack goodness, practitioners give their own goodness to beings and then turn it together toward awakening, like returning a sound into a horn so that it carries farther. True dedication does not grasp a person who dedicates, cling to a destination of dedication, or regard dharmas as really arising and ceasing. Agent, object, and result all exist through the conjunction of deluded conceptions. Only dedication that accords with the true mark of non-arising and non-ceasing avoids bondage and fault.

Vows gather and sustain the preceding goodness through solemn resolve. When an object is promised to someone without a contract, its transfer may remain uncertain; when goodness is given to beings without a determining intention, regret and retreat may arise midway. A vow resembles the driver of an ox cart, giving the course of practice a direction. It also resembles a dhāraṇī, able to retain goodness and ward off evil, and an unfired clay vessel placed into fire, thereafter becoming capable of holding things. Practitioners of the two vehicles take the exhaustion of birth as their limit, whereas bodhisattvas transform beings birth after birth. Thus they need the shared vows of the four universal vows as well as particular vows made with every wholesome practice.

Repentance breaks the transgression of grave evil karma; entreaty breaks the transgression of slandering the Dharma; rejoicing breaks the transgression of jealousy; dedication breaks the transgression of greedy attachment to the various forms of existence; and vows further direct practice toward emptiness and signlessness.

Once the Gate of Contemplation Opens, How Do the Five Grades Grow Layer by Layer?

Through diligent practice of the five forms of repentance, which assist in opening the gate of contemplation, the three truths in one mind suddenly become luminous, like viewing all colors throughout a clean mirror. Perfect understanding within a single thought becomes spontaneously distinct; correct faith is steadfast and cannot be shifted by outside force. This is the first grade, profound faith and rejoicing. Its crucial point is to hear of the Buddha's far-reaching lifespan and produce one thought of faithful understanding, hearing the scripture without disparaging it and arousing profound faith and rejoicing.

One continues cultivating the five forms of repentance upon this perfect understanding and additionally reads and recites, bringing the wondrous meaning in the scripture together with one's inner mind. Like oil added to a flame, contemplation of mind becomes more luminous: this is the second grade. One then cultivates the five forms of repentance with an increasingly excellent mind and also teaches the Dharma to others, turning inner understanding into benefit that guides others. The merit of transforming others returns to nourish one's own mind, advancing contemplative practice another layer: this is the third grade.

The fourth grade still takes the five forms of repentance as its basis and concurrently cultivates the six perfections. The power of merit doubly assists contemplation of mind and makes it deeper. In the fifth grade one directly cultivates the six perfections; self-practice and transforming others, concrete practice and contemplation of principle, gradually become complete, and contemplation of mind is unobstructed and surpasses the preceding grade. The five grades progress from faithful understanding, reading and recitation, teaching the Dharma, concurrent practice of the six perfections, to direct practice of the six perfections without discarding the preceding grade. At each advance, another layer of practice is added to the contemplative practice already present.

The five grades may be spoken of as preceding the ten faiths, or they may correspond with the five minds among the ten faiths according to teachings responsive to capacities. Here the treatise preserves the measure implicit in saying that the Buddha's intent is difficult to know and does not force differing accounts into one rigid yardstick. Returning to contemplation of the object of the aggregates, sense fields, and elements itself, the darkened aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the stages of the three evil paths; the clear and wholesome aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the stages of the three wholesome paths; the aggregates, sense fields, and elements of wholesome expedients are the semblance stage of the Lesser Vehicle; the uncontaminated aggregates, sense fields, and elements are the real stages of the two vehicles; the aggregates, sense fields, and elements of transformational birth are the stages of five kinds of persons; and form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness as the permanently abiding Dharma-nature constitute the buddha stage. Stages do not build another staircase apart from the present thought. They discern the depths of delusion and awakening upon these same aggregates, sense fields, and elements.

As the five grades gradually turn luminous and pure, one suddenly enters wisdom from hearing and faith becomes steadfast. From faith arise mindfulness, diligence, wisdom, concentration, retention, moral discipline, protection, dedication, and vows. When the ten faiths are complete, this is called the semblance stage of purification of the six faculties. One then enters the first abode, breaks ignorance, and sees buddha-nature, only then entering the stage of the real. From there one passes through the forty-two stages until ultimate wondrous awakening, each with its own measure and without usurping what does not belong to one. The purpose of knowing stages is precisely to know where one now stands and how to take the next step, not to affix the highest names to oneself in advance.

When Wisdom First Becomes Keen, Why Does the Real Test Arrive Instead?

Patient endurance is often not confronting a dull beginner who knows nothing. As practitioners move from contemplation of the aggregates, sense fields, and elements through knowledge of stages, obstruction gradually turns and wisdom gradually opens. Even before entering a grade, or just after entering the first grade, their spiritual intelligence may become lucid and keen, cutting whatever it touches like a sharp blade or flying frost. Scriptures and treatises never studied before are suddenly understood. At a glance, the organizing purport of another's commentary becomes evident. On wishing to explain one line of meaning, eloquence seems inexhaustible.

The best course is to conceal understanding as though hiding a precious jade and advance silently and diligently. Yet when an awl is placed in a bag, its point readily protrudes. Seeing lecturers depart from principle or practitioners depart from proper standards, one is moved by compassion and offers a correction. It begins with one or two sentences of Dharma or one or two sections on meditation, first spoken to one person. Word gradually spreads, a crowd gathers, and eventually one cannot stop even when one wishes to. At first this appears able to benefit others. In actuality the benefit may be very slight, one's own grade not only fails to advance, and old obstructions arise again.

The treatise uses several grave images. A young elephant with insufficient strength charges into battle and is instead buried beneath blades and arrows. A handful of hot water poured into an icy pool not only fails to melt the ice but makes the frozen layer still thicker. One's reputation may shake the four quarters and hundreds or thousands of followers may gather, an appearance of great flourishing, yet at life's end one may still regret having led a congregation too soon, unable to accomplish the original aim. The four connected repetitions of “choose” require practitioners to examine their wisdom and capacity to bear responsibility again and again.

This does not counsel abandoning beings forever. If wisdom is powerful and can truly bring vast benefit, one may emerge to transform others like a great elephant leading a herd. If strength is not yet full, first endure patiently and cultivate samādhi deeply; after practice is accomplished and strength manifest, teaching and guiding will not be too late. It resembles taking medicine to regulate and nourish the body, then returning to one's work after recovery. Though the body temporarily withdraws from people, mind has not abandoned beings. Only at purification of the six faculties, when what one says can be trusted and hearers rejoice, has one reached the stage capable of transforming others.

External reputation, gain and support, and retinues resemble nets, cords of hair, and a tree where flocks of birds gather: they exhaust branches and leaves from without and bore into them from within. The first step is to decline them, neither accepting nor attaching. If they cannot be declined and instead cling to one, contract the appearance of virtue and expose flaws, appearing wild and careless outwardly while concealing reality within, so that thieves do not see the gold and jewels. If one still cannot escape, depart for another region and concentrate on studying the path where no one knows one. Faced with invitations from thousands and tens of thousands, there are only three words: decline, conceal, depart.

If what comes from within is affliction, karma, concentration, views, or pride, illuminate and break it through the three contemplations of emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle. Even if one's flesh is cut to pieces, inner mind does not move or scatter. The crushing weight of the earth does not sink the mind. Violent winds, freezing ice, and raging fire cannot alter correct contemplation. On obtaining a small measure of meditative concentration, do not rush to rejoice; upon merely seeing a little evil, do not rush to grieve. An unfired clay vessel easily collapses back into a mass of mud, and the udumbara flower rarely bears fruit. The greater the undertaking, the more patient endurance is required at precisely this moment.

Once Inner and Outer Obstructions Have Passed, Why Can There Still Be a “Fall from the Summit”?

Because what finally remains may be attachment precisely to wholesome dharmas. The preceding nine dharmas have been practiced and inner and outer obstructions have passed, so one should by rights enter the real. If one still remains in place, the reason lies not in reputation and gain or in affliction, but in attachment to the lucidity one has attained. At this point one neither enters the stage nor falls into the two vehicles. One simply fails to enter when one should enter and remains at the summit of what resembles the path.

The treatise uses two boats under the same sail as a simile: both set out together, one advances while the other remains still; the one that stops is abiding in attachment. It also compares inner obstruction to sand and outer obstruction to the bank. The boat now touches neither sand nor bank, yet remains upon the water because the wind has ceased. Neither advancing nor retreating appears secure, but the opposite shore is still distant. Attachment to dharmas is difficult to sever precisely because its object is not evil but a dharma that has already appeared within cultivation.

If one can break attachment to dharmas, one enters the three gates of liberation, arouses the real Middle Way, possesses a wisdom-body not awakened through another, naturally flows into the ocean of all-knowledge, and abides in patience with non-arising and patience with extinction. Thereafter the merit is vast and only a buddha can know it ultimately. The expedients for advancing in calming-and-contemplation taught by this treatise escort the practitioner only as far as entry into the first abode; the merit after entering the abode is not unfolded in this section.

Why Must the Ten Dharmas That Complete the Vehicle Become One Great Carriage?

Because the ten dharmas are not ten scattered implements but a complete vehicle-body capable of carrying the practitioner. The great carriage of the Lotus Sūtra is high, broad, and magnificently adorned, and every carriage part reveals one aspect of contemplation. Every thought of mind being none other than Dharma-nature and the true mark is the great carriage bestowed equally; every mind being empty, provisional, and the Middle is the carriage each person receives. It is high because it penetrates the source of the three truths, broad because it encompasses the ten Dharma realms, and adorned with many treasures like the immeasurable factors of the path.

The four right efforts block evil and sustain goodness, and vows further gather and sustain what is practiced, like railings encircling the carriage and making its body secure. Unobstructed knowledge of Dharma, meaning, diction, and eloquence proclaims the Dharma sound like bells hanging on all four sides. Loving-kindness and compassion universally shelter beings like an awning stretched above. The excellent merit of buddhas encompassed by the factors of the path resembles adornment with precious jewels. The determining mind of the four universal vows does not retreat, like jeweled cords interlaced; the four means of gathering delight beings, like flowered tassels hanging down; dhyānas and samādhis arouse superknowledges, like layered cushions spread out; and the four gates return together to one principle, in which all practices find rest, like a crimson pillow placed securely.

The wisdom of the four establishments of mindfulness breaks the darkness of the eight inversions and is the white ox that draws the carriage. The four right efforts increase wholesome dharmas, making the ox stout and powerful, and sever evil dharmas, making its hide clean. The four bases of supernormal power and the four unobstructed knowledges give it a fine form. The five faculties are firm like sinews, and the five powers can ward off evil like physical strength. The seven factors of awakening skillfully select, like its gait; the eightfold noble path is stable, like evenly placed steps; and counteractive aids to the path broadly encompass dharmas, like numerous attendants and guards. Finally, breaking attachment to dharmas and ignorance, entering the ocean of all-knowledge, and swiftly arousing the real is its speed like the wind. The great carriage is called great not only because it points high and far but because its Dharma gates are complete and it can truly carry beings directly to the place of awakening.

The same vehicle can also be spoken of in five forms according to the depth of what becomes manifest. The wondrous Dharma inherent in everyone is the vehicle in principle. Hearing the Buddha's teaching and joyfully receiving it is the vehicle in name. Practicing according to the teaching and entering the five grades is the vehicle in contemplative practice. Attaining purification of the six faculties is the vehicle in semblance. Beginning with the first abode, proceeding through the ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, and ten grounds, and reaching wondrous awakening is the vehicle of the real unfolded from that point. If merely abandoning evil and choosing emptiness is called the Great Vehicle, it resembles a bald and broken carriage, unable to contain the complete Dharma gate or truly carry the practitioner.

Beyond the Meditation Cushion, Where Are the Ten Dharmas to Be Used?

They are to be used in the six activities of walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, and acting, and also when eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind encounter forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangibles, and dharmas. Seated contemplation of the aggregates, sense fields, and elements has already been explained in detail. But if one can contemplate only while sitting upright and loses the contemplative method as soon as one rises, how could one swiftly correspond with principle?

Take walking as an example. When the foot is raised and lowered, the foot is form, and form is moved by mind. Mind arising in dependence upon form is the form aggregate; receiving this walking is the feeling aggregate; reckoning that an “I” is walking is the perception aggregate; wholesome or unwholesome walking is the formations aggregate; and the discriminating mind within walking is the consciousness aggregate. The object of walking in relation to mind also includes sense fields and elements. The aggregates, sense fields, and elements are all present within a single raising and lowering.

The aggregates, sense fields, and elements within this walking arise from the conjunction of ignorance and formations as conditions, yet do not depart from Dharma-nature. Dharma-nature is precisely the Dharma realm. All dharmas converge upon the present act of walking, and nothing surpasses it. The one contains all and the all do not obstruct this one: this is the inconceivable object within walking. When one sees this object, loving-kindness and compassion arise simultaneously. Through long kalpas one has been deceived by the aggregates and sense fields, and beings too remain in intoxication, invertedly understanding without knowing it. One therefore vows to break ignorance and become a refuge for beings.

Next, still within walking, one settles in concentration and wisdom and universally breaks the three obstructions of views and thought, lack of knowledge, and ignorance. One discerns passage and obstruction without turning medicine into illness; cultivates the factors of the path and the six perfections as counteractions; discerns one's own stage and knows that one is not yet equal to the noble ones, thereby advancing in practice through shame and conscience; subdues reputation and gain outwardly and the three obstructions inwardly, enduring patiently without movement; and does not allow attachment to dharmas to cause stagnation, thereby completely accomplishing the ten dharmas. Each step can thus winnow away the bran of ignorance and reveal the rice of Dharma-nature. Raising and lowering the foot, one always comes from the place of awakening. Standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, and acting can be unfolded according to the same structure. Although some samādhis include no practice of lying down, contemplation can still be cultivated while lying down within the samādhi of following one's own mind. A king of old awakened to pratyekabuddhahood while lying down, demonstrating precisely that bodily deportment need not become a break in contemplative practice.

When the Eye Sees One Form, Why Can the Whole of Calming-and-Contemplation Unfold?

When the eye encounters form, if one reckons there is an “I capable of receiving,” one object contains three receptions and the six objects together contain eighteen receptions. Eye seeing form also includes five aggregates, three elements, and two sense fields. If one contracts these into only a few Dharma categories, one cultivates with diminution. Complete contemplative method sees, at the arising of one thought of mind in relation to eye and form, that it is precisely the Dharma realm, contains all dharmas, and is empty, provisional, and the Middle.

Investigation through the four alternatives finds nothing obtainable, and thus it is empty. In the form of a single thought are incalculable arisings and ceasings of the five aggregates, ranging from the characteristic forms of ordinary people to the characteristic forms of those on all the grounds; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise. Some can even know a being's place of birth from the sound of striking its skull, revealing that the concrete matters encompassed by one object are immeasurable, and thus it is provisional. The provisional is not fixed as any particular provisional, nor is emptiness fixed as any particular emptiness: this is neither empty nor provisional. Like space, both existence and nonexistence are quiescent; like sun and moon, it illuminates every darkness.

From this one mind, the five eyes are taught. Illuminating coarse form arisen through causes and conditions is the physical eye; illuminating subtle form arisen through causes and conditions is the divine eye; illuminating the emptiness of conditioned form is the wisdom eye; illuminating the provisionality of conditioned form is the Dharma eye; and illuminating conditioned form in the Middle is the buddha eye. The five eyes are complete in one mind. They are not pieced together from eyes separately attained by ordinary people, devas, practitioners of the two vehicles, and bodhisattvas. Rather, the buddha eye possesses all five powers, like streams entering the sea and each losing its former name. The three contemplations in one mind are therefore cultivation without diminution. One eye possessing five powers is therefore the gate of clear seeing and entry.

Here the treatise itself raises a difficult question. If a buddha possesses five eyes, those eyes should illuminate five objects. Yet scripture says that with five eyes a buddha does not see beings in the three groups, and it also says that seeing form is like being blind. If it is like blindness, how can coarse and subtle forms be illuminated?

The answer is this: all five objects darkly accord with the true mark, and the true mark is originally invisible, so it is compared to blindness. But invisibility does not mean that illuminating function is diminished. The five eyes still penetrate completely and the various objects remain distinctly clear. To speak of five kinds of seeing does not mean that something truly exists to be illuminated; to speak of blindness does not mean total annihilation. This is precisely arrival without coming and seeing without seeing, quiescence and activity not obstructing one another.

From this inconceivable object one arouses loving-kindness and compassion, settles in concentration and wisdom, and breaks every obstruction to dharmas. Within eye and form one discerns passage and obstruction, cultivates the establishments of mindfulness, learns counteractions, and knows the six identities. Although the eye presently contemplated possesses the five eyes, one may oneself still be only at the stage of name or contemplative practice and must not thereby claim the interfunctioning of the six faculties. If virtue and reputation gradually become established, one must further patiently endure internal and external obstructions. Only when attachment to dharmas does not arise can one avoid lingering and swiftly enter the eye of the real. Those entering through the eye often perform buddha-work through light; those entering through the ear often perform buddha-work through sound. Nose, tongue, body, and mind likewise each possess expedients, while one faculty can also interpenetrate all the others. The purpose throughout is to bring beings ultimate peace and joy.

Final Question: Knowing So Much, Why Can One Still Let a Whole Life Pass in Vain?

Because hearing without use resembles a black serpent carrying a jewel: the precious jewel brings no benefit at all to the long snake itself. At the end, the treatise uses three similes—a commander, a physician, and a master of the Dharma—to join knowledge and practice together again.

An ordinary soldier trains with only one blade and one arrow, defeats one or two enemies, and receives a small reward sufficient to sustain one household. To accomplish a great affair for the state, however, one must possess both civil and martial arts, devise strategy within the command tent, and repel conflict ten thousand miles away. The study of calming-and-contemplation is the same. Knowing only calming or only contemplation, breaking a little evil, gaining a little concentration, and gathering a few followers resembles the courage of an ordinary soldier. To break great afflictions, reveal immeasurable wholesome dharmas, and benefit immeasurable beings, one must thoroughly comprehend the ten dharmas and use them amid the six conditions and six receptions as situations arise. One who merely knows without using, or uses them but repeatedly fails, cannot rescue even oneself, much less extend benefit to others.

A village shaman knows only one technique, occasionally saves one person, and receives one payment. A great physician, however, must examine treatments throughout, broadly cure many illnesses, and become increasingly refined in application as pulses change. A meditator specializing in one Dharma may temporarily treat one delusion before the eyes but cannot thereby encompass the great path. Even knowing medicinal formulas well, one will not recover if one does not take the medicine according to the formula. Likewise, although reading and reciting calming-and-contemplation brings immense benefit, patience with non-arising will never appear if mind does not put it into practice.

Someone concerned only with parrying one question and one answer may show off for a time. To become a master of the Dharma, one must know different divisions well, overcome timidity before an assembly, and turn a hundred ways in response to capacities, answering questions that range vertically and horizontally without a fixed formula. Practitioners of contemplation must likewise make contemplative method available wherever they encounter conditions and objects. Whether Māra's armies can be broken, the grave illness of afflictions cured, and the profound meaning of Dharma-nature revealed does not depend on how much conceptual understanding exists on paper. It depends on whether the ten dharmas truly operate whenever an object appears.

Through the Eye of the Fuxing

Zhanran first fixes this long section in its place within the whole fascicle: stages constitute only the fifth among the ten intentions that integrate the Buddha-Dharma; they do not rename the ten dharmas of the vehicle as the ten intentions. The ten intentions explain how teaching and contemplation form a complete composition. Within them, practice and stage accompany one another so that practicable expedients and realized gradations are not confused. The ten dharmas, by contrast, are the ten methods actually operating while contemplating the object of the aggregates. Both groups contain ten, but their functions differ.

Regarding the five forms of repentance, Zhanran establishes them as the initial causes of the Perfect stages and clarifies their sequence of arising. If old transgressions have not been removed, entreaty and the other wholesome practices lack a pure foundation. After repentance comes entreaty; having heard the Dharma, one rejoices; one universally gives the merit of rejoicing to beings through dedication; and then solemn vows hold practice to its course. The five forms of repentance thereby become not merely a parallel list but a continuous path that opens contemplation. Each of the five grades further possesses a direct explanation and scriptural verification. From the first grade until entry into the abodes, their remote causes never depart from these five expedients.

Concerning stages, Zhanran especially prevents classifying inclusion from being confused with actual function. The five grades, purification of the six faculties, and the first abode belong respectively to contemplative practice, semblance, and the real. The name “first reliance” can broadly include the preceding five grades through purification of the six faculties, but the treatise explicitly places trustworthy speech and the capacity to transform others at the culmination of purification of the six faculties. This does not mean that those in the five grades possess no mind to transform others. It means that the strength of stage required to lead a congregation and teach the Dharma cannot be borrowed prematurely merely because both are included under the first reliance.

In the section on patient endurance, Zhanran calls reputation, gain and support, and retinues the soft thieves that come from without, while calling affliction, karma, concentration, views, and pride the strong thieves arising from within. The three methods for the external are neither accepting nor attaching, contracting virtue and exposing flaws, and departing far away. The three methods for the internal are emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle. Both groups contain three, but what they treat differs. If practitioners can already endure patiently within the object of the aggregates, the subsequent nine objects will not be triggered by adverse or favorable conditions. This means only that practitioners need not personally pass through those objects; it does not delete the teaching of the subsequent nine objects.

Regarding a fall from the summit, Zhanran clearly distinguishes a fall through regression from a fall through remaining. What the Tripiṭaka and Shared teachings describe can be regression and loss of wholesome roots. What this section describes within the Perfect stages, however, is the exhaustion of inner and outer obstructions followed by remaining at the summit of semblance without advancing; it is not regression to a lower stage. The boat touches neither sand nor bank and stops only because the wind of freedom from attachment to dharmas does not arise. This is precisely remaining at the summit being called a fall. Only when this attachment to dharmas is broken do the ten dharmas carry the practitioner into the first abode. Thus this section stops after explaining entry into the real and does not unfold the vast merit after entry into the abode.

The matching of Dharmas to the great carriage also has an order easily misread. Zhanran points out that meanings here are matched one by one according to the sequence of carriage parts in the scripture, rather than reordered according to the original sequence of the ten dharmas. The carriage simile functions as a summation: beginning with the object of the aggregates, the ten dharmas have now completed one vehicle. What patient endurance endures are the adverse and favorable conditions within the five grades, enabling the practitioner to enter purification of the six faculties. What freedom from attachment relinquishes is attachment to dharmas at the semblance stage of the six faculties, enabling entry into the first abode. Its height, breadth, adornment, and speed like the wind are therefore not a static enumeration of Dharma categories but the whole contemplative practice now capable of carrying one forward.

Zhanran also supplies the color distinction in the simile for the stages of the real and semblance. Vermilion is a primary color, like the stage of the real; purple is an intermediate color, like the stage of semblance. The two colors appear close, precisely why they must be clearly distinguished, not because the knowledge and vision of liberation already present at the stage of semblance should be erased. In the section on eye and form, he further says that neither form nor consciousness departs from consciousness-only. Thus, although the entrance can open through form or mind, what is contemplated does not split into two sets of dharmas. The five eyes are likewise not five unrelated powers of sight. Within the three contemplations in one mind, their names are established from illuminating coarse conditioned form, subtle conditioned form, emptiness, provisionality, and the Middle. Like streams entering the sea, their former names disappear, yet the nature and function of water are not annihilated. This supplementation allows “invisible” and “seeing without diminution” to hold simultaneously: the true mark contains no object to be grasped, but illuminating function is not thereby diminished.

Moreover, Zhanran does not isolate knowledge of stages as a table of ranks. He repeatedly carries stages into what follows. The danger of emerging early to transform others must be measured by the distinction between the five grades and the six faculties. The danger of remaining through attachment to dharmas must be seen through the distinction between semblance and the first abode. When encountering conditions and objects, knowing that one is only at the stage of name or contemplative practice prevents the inherent completeness of the five eyes from being mistaken for realized function already attained by oneself. Knowledge of stages is thus not information explained at the beginning and then set aside. It remains a continual means of self-calibration from patient endurance and freedom from attachment through the functioning of the six faculties.

Finally, Zhanran reads encountering conditions and objects as the place where the ten dharmas are genuinely tested. Among the six activities, walking is first taken as the example; among the six objects, eye and form are then the example, and the rest are extended from these. Both form and mind can become an entrance, and one faculty can also interpenetrate the others. The concluding similes of commander, physician, and master of the Dharma all press the same question: if conceptual understanding cannot appear when an object suddenly arises, one remains a black serpent carrying a jewel. Only when one knows one's stage without usurpation, endures obstructions without moving or retreating, and breaks attachment without remaining do the ten dharmas become, from meanings heard, the vehicle that leads directly to the place of awakening.