攝大乘論 第三分　所知相分

The world in front of you — mountains and rivers, sounds, this very page in your hand — looks so real, so plainly "out there." But press the question even a little: how much of it is "really there, outside the mind," and how much has the mind itself added on? With that one question you step onto the single most important map in all of Yogācāra.

The third topic of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, "the characteristic of the knowable," exists to answer just this: everything we know — what does it actually look like? Asaṅga's answer is the three natures — three angles from which to see all things.

First, the other-dependent: nothing in the world springs up on its own; all of it is "consciousness" in flux, a momentary convergence of conditions, arising and perishing in an instant. Second, the wholly-imagined: there is really only this flux of consciousness, yet we insist on seizing, upon it, a "thing that exists outside the mind" — a layer that seems utterly vivid and present, yet, search as you will, is nowhere to be found, and was never there. Third, the perfectly-accomplished: right upon this condition-born flux of consciousness, to see through completely that "the falsely-grasped external object is forever void" is to disclose, then and there, suchness — and that is the perfectly-accomplished.

Here is the insight that can make everything fall open at once: the three natures are not three things side by side, but three faces of one and the same other-dependent. The perfectly-accomplished is nowhere else — it just is "the eternal absence, upon the other-dependent, of what we falsely grasp." See this, and many a seemingly contradictory word of the Buddha comes loose: birth-death and nirvāṇa turn out to be not two (one other-dependent — its grasped face is birth-death, its grasp-fallen-away face is nirvāṇa), permanent and impermanent are not two, and even the afflictions can be turned into the very stuff of awakening. Asaṅga leaves us a lovely image: the mind is like a lump of gold-bearing ore — before the fire of wisdom has burned, only the "soil" (the false appearance) shows; once the fire works, the soil hides and the true gold (suchness) appears. Practice is just this smelting of ore to bring out the gold.

How the three natures work, how eleven kinds of consciousness weave our entire world, why "breaking the false" need not collapse into the void, and how to wield that key that "resolves every contradictory word of the Buddha" — you can follow these one stretch at a time. But you need not dive in all at once — for now, it is enough to take in this one map of the "three natures."

The previous chapter dealt with "the basis of the knowable," and explained clearly that root consciousness which holds all things in store (the storehouse consciousness, ālaya-vijñāna). This chapter goes on to ask: those "things that are to be known" (the knowable) — what sort of characteristics do they show, and how are we to look at them? Asaṅga's answer is the famous three natures. What follows runs straight through his words.

1. The Overview: the characteristics of the knowable are, in brief, of three kinds

Asaṅga says: "the basis of the knowable" has already been covered, so how should "the characteristics of the knowable" be observed? In brief, there are three kinds:

1. The other-dependent mark (paratantra) — the side that arises only in dependence on other conditions (a web of conditions);
2. The wholly-imagined mark (parikalpita) — the side that ordinary beings everywhere (all-pervadingly) calculate over and grasp at;
3. The perfectly-accomplished mark (pariniṣpanna) — the side that is perfectly-accomplished, real, and not empty.

Each is explained below, one by one.

2. What the other-dependent mark is

What is called the other-dependent mark? It is those consciousnesses that take the storehouse consciousness for their "seeds" (the latent cause of all phenomena) and are gathered up by all manner of "false discrimination" (the activity of unreal discrimination).

And which consciousnesses are these? Asaṅga lists a whole string of them —

• the body consciousness: the sense-body (the support of the senses — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind);
• the body-possessor consciousness: that "I" which fancies itself the "owner," the one who enjoys;
• the enjoyer consciousness: the side that does the receiving;
• the consciousness of what is received: the objects received (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and so on);
• the consciousness that receives: the side that does the receiving of them (the six consciousnesses);
• the time consciousness: the showing-forth of time (past, present, future);
• the number consciousness: the showing-forth of number;
• the place consciousness: the showing-forth of place and location;
• the speech consciousness: the showing-forth of language and words;
• the self-and-other-difference consciousness: the showing-forth of the distinction between oneself and others;
• the consciousness of death and birth in good and bad destinies: the showing-forth of being reborn into good or evil paths, dying and being born again, and all the rest.

From what seeds do these consciousnesses arise? Asaṅga accounts for them in three groups —

• The first group (the nine consciousnesses: body, body-possessor, enjoyer, received, receiving, time, number, place, and speech) arises from the seeds of "verbal perfuming" (the latent force left behind by the repeated impression of everyday language and concepts);
• the "self-and-other-difference consciousness" arises from the seeds of "the perfuming of self-view" (the force left behind by clinging to an "I" and the repeated impression of it);
• the "consciousness of death and birth in good and bad destinies" arises from the seeds of "the perfuming of the limb of existence" (the "becoming" limb among the twelve links of dependent arising — the force that, having made karma, summons forth a future existence).

By these consciousnesses, all the defiled other-dependent characteristics that belong to the three realms and six destinies — all that false discrimination — come fully into showing. And these consciousnesses, every one of them, are gathered up by false discrimination; their very nature is nothing but consciousness (consciousness-only their nature). They are the support upon which that meaning — "in truth there is nothing there, it is not real" — shows itself forth. This is what is called the other-dependent mark.

3. What the wholly-imagined mark is

What is called the wholly-imagined mark? It is this: within "what is in truth without any object, where there is only consciousness," there seems nonetheless to appear an object (the appearance-as-if-of-an-object) — and this side, seeming to be there yet truly without substance, is the wholly-imagined mark.

4. What the perfectly-accomplished mark is

What is called the perfectly-accomplished mark? It is this: within that very other-dependent mark just described, that characteristic of "seeming to have an object" (the appearance-as-if-of-an-object) is, utterly and forever, absent (its nature is to be eternally without it) — and this side, in which the seeming-object is for ever cut off and the real is just as it is, is the perfectly-accomplished mark.

5. Where that string of consciousnesses is matched up

Asaṅga turns back and matches that string of consciousnesses against the familiar categories:

• the three — "body, body-possessor, enjoyer" consciousnesses — are just the six inner elements (the six faculties): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind;
• the "consciousness of what is received" is just the six outer elements (the six objects): form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas;
• the "consciousness that receives" is just the six consciousness-elements: from the eye-consciousness on through the mind-consciousness;
• the remaining consciousnesses (time, number, place, speech, and so on) are the various unfoldings and differentiations of these consciousnesses.

6. Consciousness-only, without a real object, illustrated by the dream and the like

Asaṅga then sets out his thesis: all these consciousnesses are nothing but consciousness; there is simply no real object at all (in every case, without an object). And what does he use to make the point plain? You should know he uses the "dream" and the like as illustration —

Just as a person in a dream has no real object at all, and there is purely the working of consciousness; though in the dream too there appear all manner of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches — houses, woods, the earth, the mountains — like the shadows of real objects, yet within it there is in fact not a single real object. From this dream-illustration you should infer: at all times and in all places, there is only consciousness.

Following this kind of comparison, Asaṅga says there are further illustrations: like an "illusion" (the false display conjured by magic), like "deer-thirst" (the mirage — the thirsty deer that mistakes the shimmer of water on the heat for water), like "eye-disease and dizziness" (the eye, sick with a cataract, seeing flowers in the empty air; the dizzied eye seeing things awry), and so on.

But then a question arises: if, while awake, all times and places are likewise only consciousness just as in a dream, why does a person not, like "waking from a dream," turn it round and recognize then and there that this is only consciousness? Asaṅga answers: when the awakening of true wisdom (true-wisdom-awakening) comes to the fore, it does turn round in just this way — just as a person in a dream has no arising of the awareness "this is a dream," and only after waking does that awareness arise; in the same way, before true-wisdom-awakening is gained, this awareness "it is only consciousness" does not turn round, and only once true-wisdom-awakening is gained does this awareness turn round.

7. How one who has not yet gained true-wisdom-awakening may infer consciousness-only: by teaching and by reasoning

Someone asks: then how can one who has not yet gained true-wisdom-awakening have any cognizance of "consciousness-only"? Asaṅga answers: by two roads, "teaching" (the holy word) and "reasoning" (principle), one may infer it.

First, teaching (the Buddha's holy word). As in the Daśabhūmika-sūtra the Blessed One says: "These three realms, such as they are, are nothing but mind." And the Blessed One says likewise in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra — for in that sūtra the bodhisattva Maitreya asks the World-Honored One: "Those reflected images that are the objects of meditative absorption — are they to be called different from this mind, or to be called not different (one and the same)?" The Buddha tells Maitreya: "They are to be called not different. Why? Because that reflected image is nothing but consciousness; what I call the object of consciousness is nothing but what consciousness itself shows forth." Maitreya asks again: "World-Honored One! If the reflected image that is the object of absorption is not different from this mind — one and the same with it — then how is it that this mind takes hold of this mind itself?" The Buddha says: "Maitreya! There is no slightest dharma that takes hold of a slightest dharma; it is only that when this mind arises in such a way, there is just such a reflected image showing forth along with it. It is like taking the original thing as condition (looking into a mirror): what is seen is still the original thing, yet a person says, 'I am now seeing a reflected image,' and supposes that, apart from the original thing, there is some separate reflected image showing forth. This mind is just so: when it arises in such a way, it is as if there were a separate object seen, an image showing forth."

Next, reasoning (principle). Why does reasoning too bring consciousness-only to light? Because: within the mind in absorption, those "bruised-blue" images you observe and see as you wish (the corpse turning blue and rotting, and the like, seen in the contemplation of impurity) have no separate outer bruised-blue thing at all — what is seen is nothing but one's own mind. By this principle, the bodhisattva may infer of all consciousnesses that they are nothing but consciousness, with no outer realm. Moreover, these bruised-blue and similar images are not the objective support of a consciousness that is "remembering" (not a later recollection), for they stand present right before one. And the two remembering consciousnesses formed through hearing and reflection take the past as their object, so the images they show forth equally establish "only consciousness." By inference of this kind, the bodhisattva, though he has not yet gained true-wisdom-awakening, may yet infer "consciousness-only."

8. Since the eye-consciousness and the rest have form, how are they too only consciousness

It has already been said that the various consciousnesses are like the dream and the other illustrations, so that among these the eye-consciousness and the rest can be set down as only consciousness. But since the eye-consciousness and the other consciousnesses carry form (they have shape, are visible, occupy a place), how can it be said that they too are only consciousness? Asaṅga answers: this likewise rests on the two roads spoken of before, "teaching" and "reasoning" (by which one infers that, though they show a form-characteristic, they still do not pass beyond consciousness).

Someone presses further: if these consciousnesses are themselves consciousness, why do they show forth a characteristic like "form" — abiding solidly, kind by kind, flowing on in unbroken succession? Asaṅga answers: because this form-characteristic must serve as the support for "inversion" and all manner of defiled dharmas. Were it not so (were it not to show as solidly abiding and continuous), then the inverted error of grasping "this really is an object" amid "what is in truth without a real object" could not occur; and if this inversion did not exist, then the two defilements — the affliction-obstruction and the obstruction-to-the-knowable — would not exist; and if these two obstructions did not exist, then the various pure dharmas (the merits won by countering defilement) could not be spoken of either. Therefore these consciousnesses must flow on just so (showing forth as a solidly abiding, continuous form-characteristic).

Here there is a verse, the gist of which is this: that which serves as the "disordered appearance" (the deranged characteristic that shows forth) and as the "disordered substance" (the underlying basis that gives rise to derangement) should be granted to be the "form-consciousness" (the consciousness that shows a form-characteristic); together with the consciousness that shows no form-characteristic (the non-form-consciousness) — these two sides, if one is gone, the other too is gone (they stand by mutual dependence, neither can do without the other).

9. Why this string of consciousnesses turns together, in concord, within the body

Someone asks: why do the several consciousnesses — body, body-possessor, enjoyer, received, receiving — turn together, all in concord, within every body? Asaṅga answers: because only thus can "enjoyment" (the receiving and partaking of objects) arise in full — they arise together precisely to display this full enjoyment.

10. Why, again, there are time, number, and other such differentiations that turn

Someone asks: and why do such things as the "time consciousness, number consciousness" spoken of before show forth so many differentiations as they turn? Asaṅga accounts for each:

• because birth-and-death has flowed on without beginning, never once cut off — hence there is the "time consciousness" (the continuity of time);
• because the realm of sentient beings (the world of beings) is beyond all count — hence there is the "number consciousness";
• because the receptacle worlds (the material world of mountains, rivers, and great earth) are beyond all count;
• because the deeds done between one another, and the speech passed back and forth, are beyond all count — hence there is the "speech consciousness";
• because the differences in what each grasps and enjoys are beyond all count — hence there is the "self-and-other-difference consciousness";
• because the maturations of karmic fruit, lovely and unlovely, are beyond all count in the enjoying of them;
• because the differences of the death and birth one undergoes are beyond all count — hence there is the "consciousness of death and birth in good and bad destinies."

11. How the consciousnesses establish "consciousness-only": the three aspects

Asaṅga asks again: how, then, are these consciousnesses set down, and said to be "only consciousness" (the nature of consciousness-only)? In brief, by three aspects —

1. By "consciousness-only": because all consciousnesses in truth have no real object (no object), "only consciousness" is established;
2. By "the two-fold nature": because consciousness has the distinction of the "characteristic" (the side that is cognized, the image-part) and the "view" (the side that cognizes, the seeing-part);
3. By "the manifold": because consciousness shows forth manifold modes as it arises.

How is this so? Since all these consciousnesses have no real object, "consciousness-only" is established. And because there is a characteristic-side and a view-side, two kinds are distinguished: taking the first five consciousnesses, the eye-consciousness and the rest, the form-consciousness and so on serve as the "characteristic" (the side that is the object), and the eye-consciousness itself as the "view" (the side that cognizes), on up to the body-consciousness itself as the "view"; while the mind-consciousness takes all the consciousnesses, from the "eye" as the first to "dharmas" as the last, as its "characteristic," and the mind-consciousness itself as its "view." It is precisely because the mind-consciousness discriminates that it can arise as if showing forth all those consciousnesses.

Here there is a verse, the gist of which is this: the three aspects — "consciousness-only," "the two (image-part and seeing-part)," and "the manifold" — the one who practices contemplation can enter by way of the mind-consciousness; and once he has awakened into "this is mind alone," that contemplator too can subdue and turn away from (all manner of inversion and defilement).

12. The doctrine of the single mind-consciousness

Asaṅga then cites a certain school of masters who hold that there is only "one mind-consciousness," which, turning in dependence now on this faculty, now on that, comes to bear this name and that — just as the "intention" (the mental act of willing) within the mind, once issued through body and speech, is called bodily karma and verbal karma (though it is one and the same willing). They say further: when it turns in dependence on the various faculties, two kinds of image turn forth: one is the "object-image" (the side that seems to have an object), the other the "discrimination-image" (the side that discriminates). And in all places too it turns as if showing forth a tangible image; and in the realms that have form (the desire realm and the form realm), this very mind-consciousness, because it takes the sense-body as its support, is just like the other form-faculties (eye, ear, and so on) that take the body for their support.

Here there is a verse, the gist of which is this: that which travels far, journeys alone, has no body, and lies hidden in the deep cave (pointing to this subtle, fathomless mind) — whoever can tame that hard-to-tame mind, him I (the Buddha) call a true seeker of the Way.

Asaṅga cites scripture again as proof: as the sūtra says, "the objects ranged over by these five faculties — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body — the faculty of mind can each receive, and mind is their support"; and as is said of the twelve bases (the six faculties and six objects), the whole body of the six consciousnesses is given the name "mind-base" (showing that the consciousnesses are alike gathered under mind).

Then Asaṅga sets down a scheme of "characteristic-consciousness / view-consciousness": if the storehouse consciousness is set up as the "object-consciousness" (the root consciousness that shows forth the seeming-object), then within this all the remaining consciousnesses are the "characteristic-consciousness" (the side that is cognized), while the mind-consciousness together with its support is the "view-consciousness" (the side that cognizes). Because that "characteristic-consciousness" is the very condition and objective-support-characteristic for the arising of this "view-consciousness," when the seeming-object shows forth, the "characteristic-consciousness" can serve as the support for the arising of the "view-consciousness." It is in this way that the consciousnesses are set down as having the nature of "consciousness-only."

13. Though objects appear plainly before one, they are not real: the four kinds of knowledge

Someone asks: those objects show forth plainly and clearly right before one's eyes — how can it be said that they are in truth not real? How can this be known? Asaṅga cites the World-Honored One's words in answer: if a bodhisattva accomplishes four dharmas, he can step by step awaken into "all is only consciousness, with no real object at all" —

1. The accomplishment of "the knowledge of the mutually contradictory characteristics of consciousness": faced with one and the same thing, hungry ghosts, beasts (animals), gods, and humans each see it differently — one thing, yet the cognitions of it differ; from which one sees that the thing is not outwardly real, not fixed and so.
2. The accomplishment of "the knowledge that consciousness without an objective-support can be found to show forth": just as a consciousness arising from the support of the past, the future, a dream, or an image has no present real object, yet arises all the same — from which one sees that consciousness can come to be without waiting upon a real object.
3. The accomplishment of "the knowledge, free of effort, that is without inversion": if there were really a real object, then a consciousness that takes a real object as its support ought naturally to be without inversion, without need to labor at correction; but the fact is that one must exert effort (cultivate the counter-practice) before the real is seen — from which one sees there is no real object after all.
4. The accomplishment of "the wondrous knowledge that follows along with the three excellent knowledges." Which three? First, the bodhisattvas who have gained "mastery of mind," and those who have gained meditative absorption: following the force of their excellent resolve (the power of their contemplative vision), the various objects show forth just as they will (from which one sees that objects turn along with mind). Second, those who have gained "calm-abiding (śamatha)" and cultivate the contemplation of dharmas: the moment they direct attention, the various objects show forth (from which one sees that objects show forth by the act of attention). Third, those who have gained "non-conceptual wisdom (nirvikalpa-jñāna)": when this non-conceptual wisdom comes to the fore, all objects whatsoever fail to show forth at all (from which one sees that objects are not real to begin with — when the wisdom appears, they vanish).

By this "wondrous knowledge that follows along with the three excellent knowledges" just spoken of, together with the "three causes and conditions" spoken of before, the principle that "all objects are in truth without a real object" is established.

14. The naming and the reasoning of each of the three natures

Asaṅga goes on to account, one by one, for "why each of the three natures bears its name" —

The other-dependent. Someone asks: that other-dependent nature is in truth nothing but consciousness, merely the support for "the appearance-as-if-of-an-object" — how does it count as "other-dependent"? Why is it called other-dependent? Answer: because it is born from the seeds of its own perfuming and arises in dependence on other conditions, it is called "other-dependent"; and because, once arisen, after a single moment it has no power to abide of itself (it must, moment by moment, depend on conditions to continue), it is called "other-dependent."

The wholly-imagined. Someone asks: that wholly-imagined nature, resting on the other-dependent yet in truth without anything at all, merely "the appearance-as-if-of-an-object" — how does it count as "wholly-imagined"? Why is it called wholly-imagined? Answer: because it is a characteristic that the mind-consciousness brings forth by calculating everywhere, by inverted error, with measureless modes, it is called "wholly-imagined"; its own characteristic is in truth nothing, and all that can be found is the shadow that has been "wholly-imagined and grasped," and so it is called "wholly-imagined."

The perfectly-accomplished. Someone asks: that perfectly-accomplished nature is the side that is "the eternal absence of the wholly-imagined" — how does it count as "perfectly-accomplished"? Why is it called perfectly-accomplished? Answer: because it has no alteration (it does not change with conditions), it is called "perfectly-accomplished" (perfectly-accomplished and real); and because it is the pure objective-support (the pure object of the holy wisdom) and the most excellent nature among all good dharmas, by this most-excellent meaning it is called "perfectly-accomplished."

15. The imaginer, the imagined, and the wholly-imagined

Asaṅga distinguishes further: there must be "an imaginer" (that which does the imagining and grasping) and "an imagined" (the object that is imagined and grasped) for "the wholly-imagined nature" to be established. So among these, which is the imaginer? Which the imagined? Which the wholly-imagined nature?

• The imaginer is just the "mind-consciousness," because it discriminates. Why? Because this mind-consciousness has its own verbal perfuming for seed, and the verbal perfuming of all consciousnesses for seed, and so it can give rise to boundless modes and discriminate as it turns, imagining and measuring everything pervadingly — and so it is called "the imaginer."
• The imagined is just the "other-dependent nature" (it is the object imagined and grasped by the mind-consciousness).
• And since this (grasped) characteristic makes the other-dependent nature into "the imagined object," that within it (the part that seems to be there yet is truly without substance) is called "the wholly-imagined nature." This is what "by this characteristic" means.

Asaṅga asks more closely: how does this "imaginer" do its imagining and measuring? What object does it take as its support? What appearance does it grasp? On what does it cling? On what does it set the train of thought? On what does it speak? And what does it add on (superimpose)? Answer: it takes the "name" (the designation) as its object; in the other-dependent nature it grasps the appearance that the name points to; by "view" (fixed opinion) it clings; by "investigation" (deliberation) it sets the train of thought going; by the four grounds of speech — seen, heard, sensed, and known — it speaks; and so, amid "what is in truth without a real object," it forcibly adds on (superimposes) a "real existence" — and in this way the imaginer does its imagining and measuring.

16. Whether the three natures are different or not different

Someone asks: these three natures — are they, in the end, different (other) or the same (not different)? Asaṅga answers: it should be said they are "not different, yet not not-different" (neither wholly other, nor wholly one). The meaning is this: one and the same other-dependent nature, looked at from one angle (one approach), becomes "the other-dependent"; this same nature, looked at from another angle, becomes "the wholly-imagined"; and still this same nature, looked at from yet another angle, becomes "the perfectly-accomplished."

• From which angle does this other-dependent become "the other-dependent"? — From the side of its arising in dependence on the seeds of perfuming.
• From which angle does this same nature become "the wholly-imagined"? — From the side of its being the characteristic that the imaginer takes as its object, the thing the imaginer imagines.
• From which angle does this same nature become "the perfectly-accomplished"? — From the side that "in the end it is not, as the imaginer takes it, truly so" (as wholly-imagined, it is in the end without being).

17. Into how many kinds each of the three natures divides

Asaṅga says that each of the three natures may be further divided —

• The other-dependent is, in brief, of two kinds: one, "arising in dependence on the seeds of perfuming"; two, "in dependence on it, the natures of defilement and purity are not settled" (one and the same other-dependent: defiled, it falls to the wholly-imagined; pure, it returns to the perfectly-accomplished — it is not fixed); by these two sides of "dependence," it is called the other-dependent.
• The wholly-imagined is likewise of two kinds: one, "the imagining-and-grasping of self-nature" (grasping at the essence of a thing itself); two, "the imagining-and-grasping of difference" (grasping at the manifold differences of a thing); by this it is called the wholly-imagined.
• The perfectly-accomplished is likewise of two kinds: one, "the perfectly-accomplished of self-nature" (the self-nature of suchness, pure from the first); two, "the perfectly-accomplished of purity" (the purity won by leaving defilement behind); by this it becomes the perfectly-accomplished.

18. The four kinds and five kinds of imagining

Asaṅga divides "imagining" more finely. Imagining is of four kinds: first, the imagining of self-nature (grasping at a thing's own essence); second, the imagining of difference (grasping at differences); third, imagining with cognizance; fourth, imagining without cognizance. "With cognizance" means being versed in names and words (understanding the sense of names and characteristics); "without cognizance" means not being versed in names and words (not grasping the sense of names and characteristics).

Such imagining is further of five kinds:

1. relying on the "name" to imagine the self-nature of the "object" — supposing "where there is this name, there is such an object";
2. relying on the "object" to imagine the self-nature of the "name" — supposing "where there is this object, there is such a name";
3. relying on the "name" to imagine the self-nature of the "name" — calculating over a name whose meaning is still unclear;
4. relying on the "object" to imagine the self-nature of the "object" — calculating over an object whose name is still unclear;
5. relying on both "name and object" to imagine the self-nature of "both" — calculating that "this name and this object are an essence of just such a sort."

19. Gathering up all discrimination — in brief, ten kinds

Asaṅga gathers all "discrimination" up into ten kinds —

1. Root discrimination: namely the storehouse consciousness (the root of all discrimination);
2. Object-characteristic discrimination: namely the form-consciousness and the rest (grasping the objective-support-characteristic);
3. Appearing-characteristic discrimination: namely the eye-consciousness and the rest, together with their supporting consciousness (showing forth the cognizing characteristic);
4. Discrimination of the alteration of the object-characteristic: the manifold alterations of the objective-support-characteristic, such as: the alteration of aging and the like, the alteration of pleasant feeling and the rest (the feelings of pain, pleasure, and neither), the alteration of greed and the rest (greed, anger, delusion), the alteration of oppression and harm and of the turning of the seasons, the alteration of falling into the various destinies such as the hells (Naraka), and the alteration of the various realms such as the desire realm;
5. Discrimination of the alteration of the appearing-characteristic: namely the alterations (on the side that shows forth the cognizer) that accompany the alterations just spoken of;
6. Discrimination drawn forth by another: discrimination roused by another — the discrimination arising from hearing the class of teachings that are "not the true Dharma," and from hearing the class that is the true Dharma;
7. Improper discrimination: the discrimination of the various non-Buddhists arising from hearing the class of teachings that are not the true Dharma;
8. Proper discrimination: the discrimination arising, within the true Dharma, from hearing the class that is the true Dharma;
9. Clinging discrimination: the class of improper attention — discrimination that has the "view of the perishable composite as self" (the self-view that grasps the body as a self) for its root, and answers to the sixty-two false views;
10. Distracting discrimination: the ten "distractions" that bodhisattvas are to counter (discriminations of the mind running outward and astray): one, the distraction of no-characteristic; two, the distraction of a characteristic; three, the distraction of superimposition (adding on what is not there); four, the distraction of denial (erasing what is there); five, the distraction of oneness (grasping unity); six, the distraction of difference (grasping difference); seven, the distraction of self-nature (grasping an essence); eight, the distraction of differentiation (grasping distinctions); nine, the distraction of grasping the object after the name (rigidly grasping the object by the name); ten, the distraction of grasping the name after the object (rigidly grasping the name by the object).

Asaṅga says: in order to counter these ten distractions, all the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras proclaim "non-conceptual wisdom." In this way, taking together what is countered (the ten distractions) and what does the countering (non-conceptual wisdom), the whole meaning of the Prajñāpāramitā is gathered up complete.

20. Set up by way of differing angles, why the three natures do not run together

Someone asks: since, by differing angles (differing approaches), the one other-dependent nature can become the three natures, are these three natures not then left without distinction, run together into a single mass? Asaṅga answers: no. Because — what becomes "the other-dependent" by one angle does not, by that very same angle, become "the wholly-imagined" or "the perfectly-accomplished"; what becomes "the wholly-imagined" by one angle does not, by that very same angle, become "the other-dependent" or "the perfectly-accomplished"; what becomes "the perfectly-accomplished" by one angle does not, by that very same angle, become "the other-dependent" or "the wholly-imagined." (The angles being each distinct, the three natures stand clear and unconfused.)

21. Why the wholly-imagined "shows forth without answering to the substance"

Someone asks: how is it known that the wholly-imagined nature "shows forth upon the other-dependent, yet does not answer to (the other-dependent's) substance" (it shows forth but does not answer to the substance)? Asaṅga gives three points in proof —

1. By "before the name there is no awareness": before a name has been set up, there is no such awareness; from which one sees that the characteristic the name grasps is at odds with the substance (it is not what the substance has of itself);
2. By "one thing has many names": one and the same thing can have many names; if the name were the substance, then where names are many, substances ought to be many — which is at odds with "the substance is one";
3. By "names are not fixed": names are not fixed (the same name for different things, different names for the same thing); if the name were the substance, this would be at odds with "the substance is determinate."

Here there are two verses, the gist of which is this: by these three points — "before the name there is no awareness," "one thing has many names," "names are not fixed" — one may know that the characteristic the name grasps is at odds with "answering to the substance," with "the substance is one (else, many substances)," and with "the substance is determinate (else, a jumble)" — and so the wholly-imagined is but a seeming-appearance, not real. And it says further: that (grasped) dharma is in truth nothing, yet seems to be findable; it has no defilement of itself, yet purity can be accomplished in it — you should know it is just like an "illusion" and the like (seeming to be there yet truly without substance), and also like empty space (without characteristic, yet all-pervading).

22. The other-dependent is not, after all, simply nothing

Someone asks: since what shows forth (the seeming-object) is in truth nothing at all, why is it that the other-dependent nature is not "everything-whatsoever-utterly-nothing"? Asaṅga answers: because if this other-dependent too were gone, the perfectly-accomplished nature would be gone along with it; and if this (the perfectly-accomplished) too were gone, then all would be nothing. Were both natures — the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished — to be gone, one would fall into the fault of "there being neither defilement nor purity." But defilement and purity are plainly to be found before us (beings truly have defilement; sages truly have purity), and so one should not say "all is nothing."

Here there is a verse, the gist of which is this: if there were no other-dependent, the perfectly-accomplished too would be gone; and were all these seeds (of the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished) gone, then for all time there could be no talk of defilement or of purity.

23. The three natures in the Mahāyāna Vaipulya teaching, with the eight illusion-and-the-like illustrations, and the four purities

Asaṅga cites what the Buddhas proclaim in the Mahāyāna "Vaipulya teaching" (the vast and upright teaching) — for in that teaching it is said:

• How should the wholly-imagined nature be known? You should know that, by another way of putting it (another approach), it is "nothing at all."

• How should the other-dependent nature be known? You should know that it is like the eight illustrations spoken of: illusion (the conjuring of magic), flame (the mirage), dream, image (the mirror-reflection), shadow (the cast shadow), valley-echo (the echo in the mountain valley), water-moon (the moon in the water), and conjuration (what is wrought by transformation) — all eight seeming to be there yet truly without substance, showing forth the moment conditions present them.

• How should the perfectly-accomplished nature be known? You should know that it is the "four kinds of pure dharma" proclaimed. Which four?

  1. Self-nature purity: the nature pure from the first — that is, suchness, emptiness, the genuine limit, the no-characteristic, the supreme truth, the dharma-realm (these are its several other names);
  2. Purity from defilement: namely this (self-nature purity) as the purity made manifest by leaving behind all obstructing defilement (the defilement acquired later);
  3. Purity of the path that attains this: the path by which this purity can be realized — that is, all the limbs of awakening and the perfections, and so on (the methods of practice);
  4. Purity of the realm that gives rise to this: that which can give rise to this pure realm — that is, the wondrous true teachings of the Dharma of the Great Vehicle (the true Dharma to be heard and studied).

  The scripture says further: precisely because these (the latter two) come by way of the teaching and have purity for their condition, they do not belong to the wholly-imagined nature; and because they are the "outflow of the utterly pure dharma-realm" (flowing forth from the pure dharma-realm), neither do they belong to the other-dependent nature. In this way these four dharmas gather up all pure dharmas complete.

Here there are two verses, the gist of which is this: what is spoken of by "illusion" and the other eight is meant to speak of the "arising" of the other-dependent (its arising from conditions); what speaks of "nothing at all" speaks of the wholly-imagined; and what speaks of "the four kinds of purity" speaks of the perfectly-accomplished. Self-nature purity, purity from defilement, purity of the path (its objective-support), purity of the realm that gives rise to it — all pure dharmas are gathered up by these four aspects.

24. Why "illusion" and the other eight illustrations are told of the other-dependent: to dispel eight doubts

Someone asks: why, as the scripture says, are the illustrations "illusion" and the rest told of the other-dependent nature? Asaṅga answers: it is to dispel the various false doubts that others raise about the other-dependent. And what doubts do others raise? Asaṅga unties them one doubt to one illustration —

• Doubt: "How can it be that there is in truth no real object, and yet it becomes an objective realm?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the illusory event" is told (the magic conjuring is plainly without substance, yet presents a realm).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how do mind and the mental factors turn?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the mirage" is told (no water, yet a water-characteristic shows forth).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can there be the difference of lovely and unlovely enjoyment?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the dream" is told (in a dream there is no substance, yet there is the enjoyment of pain and pleasure).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can pure karma and impure karma give rise to the difference of lovely and unlovely fruit?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the image" is told (the mirror-image has no substance, yet shows fair or foul according to the thing).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can the various consciousnesses turn forth?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the shadow" is told (the shadow has no substance, yet shows forth according to the shape).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can the various elaborations and speech turn forth?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the valley-echo" is told (the echo has no substance, yet rises up answering the sound).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can there truly be grasping, and the showing-forth of the various objects ranged over in meditative absorption?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of the water-moon" is told (the moon in water has no substance, yet is vividly to be seen).
• Doubt: "Without a real object, how can there be bodhisattvas who, with a mind free of inversion, in order to accomplish the various benefits and joys of sentient beings, deliberately (with intention) take on birth?" — to dispel this doubt, the "illustration of conjuration" is told (the conjured body has no substance, yet can do the work of benefiting beings).

25. Spoken by hidden intent: birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are without difference

Someone asks: on what hidden intent does the World-Honored One, in the Brahma-paripṛcchā-sūtra, say "the Tathāgata neither finds (falls into) birth-and-death, nor finds (abides in) nirvāṇa"? Asaṅga answers: this is the hidden intent of saying, upon the other-dependent nature — distinguishing the wholly-imagined nature and the perfectly-accomplished nature — that "birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are without difference." Why? Because, taking this same other-dependent nature, looked at from the wholly-imagined side it becomes "birth-and-death," and looked at from the perfectly-accomplished side it becomes "nirvāṇa" (birth-and-death and nirvāṇa alike rest on the one other-dependent, and so are said to be without difference).

26. Spoken by hidden intent, the threefold division: the illustration of the gold-earth-ore

Asaṅga cites what the World-Honored One says in the Abhidharma Mahāyāna Sūtra: "Dharmas are of three kinds: one, the defiled portion; two, the pure portion; three, the portion that runs through both." On what hidden intent is this said? — Within the other-dependent nature, the wholly-imagined nature is the "defiled portion," the perfectly-accomplished nature is the "pure portion," and the other-dependent itself is that "portion running through both"; it is on this hidden intent that it is so said.

And what does he use to illustrate this principle? Asaṅga uses the "gold-earth-ore" (the ore-bearing earth that holds gold) as illustration to make it plain —

Just as in the gold-earth-ore of the world three things are to be found: one, the earth-element (the solid quality of the soil, the underlying ground); two, the earth; three, the gold. Within that earth-element, the "earth" is in truth not real, yet shows forth and is to be found; the "gold" is in truth real, yet (before smelting) cannot be made out. When it is smelted with fire, the "earth" characteristic shows no more, and the "gold" characteristic shows forth. And further: of this one same earth-element, when the "earth" shows forth it shows forth falsely, and when the "gold" shows forth it shows forth truly — and so this earth-element is precisely that "portion running through both."

Consciousness is just so: while the fire of "non-conceptual wisdom" has not yet smelted it, all the false "wholly-imagined nature" in this consciousness shows forth, and all the real "perfectly-accomplished nature" does not show forth; once this consciousness is smelted by the fire of non-conceptual wisdom, all the real "perfectly-accomplished nature" in this consciousness shows forth, and all the false "wholly-imagined nature" shows forth no more — and so this false-discriminating other-dependent nature runs through that twofold portion, just like the "earth-element" in the gold-earth-ore (earth gone, gold made manifest; defilement gone, purity made clear).

27. Spoken by hidden intent: the permanent, the impermanent, and the manifold "without-duality"

Someone asks: the World-Honored One sometimes says "all dharmas are permanent," sometimes says "all dharmas are impermanent," and sometimes says "all dharmas are neither permanent nor impermanent" — on what hidden intent is this said? Asaṅga answers: this is said upon the other-dependent nature — from the side of its "perfectly-accomplished nature" it is "permanent" (suchness unchanging); from the side of its "wholly-imagined nature" it is "impermanent" (seeming to show forth, it shifts at once); taken as "running through both portions," it is "neither permanent nor impermanent"; it is on this hidden intent that it is so said.

And just as "permanent / impermanent" is told as "without-duality" (not falling to either extreme), Asaṅga says: pain / pleasure are without-duality; pure / impure are without-duality; empty / not-empty are without-duality; self / no-self are without-duality; calm / not-calm are without-duality; having-self-nature / without-self-nature are without-duality; arising / not-arising are without-duality; ceasing / not-ceasing are without-duality; primordially-calm / not-primordially-calm are without-duality; nirvāṇa-by-nature / not-nirvāṇa-by-nature are without-duality; birth-and-death / nirvāṇa are without-duality — all are so likewise (each told upon the three natures and three portions, and so they come to be "without-duality"). All such differences set in pairs are the hidden-intent speech of the Buddhas, and should be settled one by one in accordance with "the three natures" (discerning which portion each is told upon), just as one threads through the gate of "permanent / impermanent" and the rest spoken of before.

Here there are several verses, the gist of which is this: dharmas, spoken of as to their "reality," are not truly there (looked at by the perfectly-accomplished and wholly-imagined, they are not real), and spoken of as to their "showing-forth," are not of just one sort (arising by conditions, manifold and not one); being neither (real) dharma nor (wholly) no-dharma, they are said to be "without-duality." Disclosed in dependence on a "single portion" (taken just as one portion), there comes the saying "either there is, or there is not"; said in dependence on "two portions" (running through both), there comes the saying "neither there-is nor not-not-there." With respect to the side that "what shows forth is in truth nothing," it is said to be "without"; with respect to the side that "there is, after all, this showing-forth," it is said to be "with." It is not naturally there, its own substance is empty; its self-nature does not abide solidly either (moment by moment in dependence on conditions); just as it is grasped, so it is in truth nothing, and therefore one grants it "without-self-nature." Precisely by being "without (the wholly-imagined) nature," it accomplishes that (perfectly-accomplished) upon which all the later stages (the holy levels) rest; it is without arising and ceasing, primordially calm, by self-nature in parinirvāṇa.

28. The four kinds of intent and the four kinds of secret

Asaṅga says: in all the Buddha's teachings there are, besides, "four kinds of intent" (the bearing behind the words) and "four kinds of secret" (the hidden import), and these too should be settled in accordance (their true sense grasped).

The four kinds of intent:

1. The intent of sameness: as when the Buddha says, "I, of old, at that time, in that portion, was named the very 'Vipaśyin, the Perfectly Awakened One' (a certain Buddha of the past)." — this is said with reference to "the sameness of the dharma-body, the way of all Buddhas being one," and is not to say that this Buddha is that Buddha.
2. The intent of another time: as when it is said, "if one recites the name of the 'Tathāgata of Many Jewels,' then with respect to unsurpassed perfect awakening one is already determined (sure to realize it)." Or as when it is said, "merely by making the vow, one can be reborn in the Land of Bliss." — this takes a fruit that will be accomplished "only at another time (in the future)" and tells it as though it were gained then and there, so as to spur the practitioner on.
3. The intent of another meaning: as when it is said, "only after one has served Buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges can one truly understand the meaning of the Mahāyāna Dharma." — there is in fact some other meaning intended (it is not as simple as the words make it).
4. The intent of a person's disposition (spoken according to a being's faculties and likings): as when, with respect to a certain person, generosity is first praised (catering to what he likes, to draw him in), and later generosity is disparaged again (to break his clinging to it); as with generosity, so should it be known with the keeping of precepts and with a portion of cultivation (teaching to suit the person, the earlier and later seeming opposed, each with its own purpose).

These are called the four kinds of intent.

The four kinds of secret:

1. The secret that leads one in: in the Vehicle of the Hearers or in the Great Vehicle, in accordance with the truth of conventional reality, it is said that "there is a person (a self)" and that "dharmas each have their own natures and differences" — in order to lead one in through the door first.
2. The secret of characteristics: in certain places the characteristics of dharmas are spoken of, making clear the principle of the "three natures."
3. The secret of the counter-practice: in certain places the methods of countering (the afflictions) are spoken of, together eighty-four thousand.
4. The secret of transformation: in certain places, words are spoken in another sense, so that the same letters and words disclose a further import.

There is a verse that is just an example of the secret of transformation. The verse says: taking what is "not firm" and awakening to it as "firm," abiding well within inversion, and there at the place of the gravest afflictions and their torment, gaining, on the contrary, the supreme awakening. — On the surface it looks inverted, yet what it discloses is another meaning entirely; this is just where the secret of "speaking in another sense, the same letters and words then disclosing a further import" lies.

29. Whoever would compose a treatise on the Mahāyāna Dharma should do so by three aspects

Asaṅga says: should anyone wish to make an exposition of the Mahāyāna Dharma (to compose a treatise glossing the scriptures), in brief he should do so by three aspects: first, "stating the dependent arising" (telling how the dharmas come to arise); second, "stating the characteristics of the dharmas born of conditions"; third, "stating the sense of the words" (explaining the meaning of the text).

First, "the dependent arising." As is said (in a verse), the gist of which is: the various dharmas born of "verbal (name-and-word) perfuming" — this comes from that — "maturation (the storehouse consciousness)" and "the turning consciousnesses (the first seven)" arise as conditions one for the other (the storehouse gives rise to the seven turning consciousnesses, the seven turning consciousnesses perfume the storehouse, arising by turns one from the other).

Next, "the characteristics of the dharmas born of conditions." That dharma which is the characteristic of the "turning consciousnesses" has a "characteristic" (the side that is the object) and a "view" (the side that cognizes), with consciousness for its self-nature. It also has the "support-place (the other-dependent)" for characteristic, the "wholly-imagined" for characteristic, and the "dharma-nature (the perfectly-accomplished)" for characteristic — and by this the characteristics of the three natures are displayed. As is said (in a verse): upon "having a characteristic" and "having a view" (the other-dependent), you should know those three characteristics (the other-dependent, the wholly-imagined, and the perfectly-accomplished all rest upon it).

And how are these three characteristics to be explained? Thus: the wholly-imagined mark, within the other-dependent mark, is in truth nothing at all; the perfectly-accomplished mark, within this other-dependent, is in truth there. By this "the one being nothing, the one being something," there comes "the not-yet-realized (the wholly-imagined being in truth nothing, so there is nothing to find) and the realized (the perfectly-accomplished being in truth there, so it can at last be found)" — the one who has not yet seen the real, and the one who has already seen the real, both facing this one same other-dependent (the one seeing only the wholly-imagined, the other already seeing the perfectly-accomplished). The meaning is: with respect to the other-dependent nature, there is no wholly-imagined (so it is said to be "nothing"), yet there is the perfectly-accomplished (so it is said to be "something"). And when this (the transformation of the basis) takes place: gaining that (the perfectly-accomplished), one no longer gains this (the wholly-imagined); gaining this (the wholly-imagined), one does not gain that (the perfectly-accomplished). As is said (in a verse), the gist of which is: upon the other-dependent, the grasped (the wholly-imagined) is not there, and the perfectly-accomplished is in truth there within it; and so "the gaining (of the perfectly-accomplished) and the not-gaining (of the wholly-imagined)" — these two stand equal and side by side upon the other-dependent (resting on the one same place, the one hidden, the one made manifest).

30. Stating the sense of the words: by way of merit, by way of meaning

Asaṅga lastly states the "sense of the words": it is to state the opening line (the summary line) first, and then with the remaining lines display it severally apart. This may be done either by way of "merit" (the merits of the Buddha) or by way of "meaning" (the meaning of the bodhisattva).

By way of merit (displaying the merits of the Buddha), as in the statement of the Buddha's various merits: the utterly pure awakening; the non-dual conduct; turning toward the dharma of no-characteristic; abiding in the abode of the Buddhas; attaining the equal nature of all Buddhas; reaching the place of no obstruction; the dharma that cannot be turned back; conduct without hindrance; the establishing of him that is beyond conceiving; ranging in the dharma-nature equal throughout the three times; his body spread through all worlds; in all dharmas a wisdom without doubt or hesitation; in all conduct accomplishing the great awakening; in the various dharmas a wisdom without any doubt; whatever body he shows being beyond discriminating; the wisdom sought by all bodhisattvas and the rest; gaining the Buddha's "non-dual abode" and surpassing the far shore; the wondrous wisdom of the Tathāgata's unmixed (pure and unalloyed) liberation, brought to the end; realizing the equality of the Buddha-stage "without middle, without bound"; reaching the very end of the dharma-realm; exhausting the nature of empty space; penetrating to the boundless reach of the future.

Asaṅga points out how to read it: this opening line "the utterly pure awakening," you should know, is displayed severally by all the remaining lines (the summary line sets the warp, the remaining lines set it forth) — and only thus does it become "well-spoken of the dharma-nature" (the merits of the Buddha's dharma-nature fully proclaimed).

Asaṅga makes it clear further: what is called "the utterly pure awakening" — that is to say, the utterly pure awakening of the Buddha, the World-Honored One — you should know it gathers up the Buddha's twenty-one kinds of merit —

the merit of turning, with respect to the knowable, ever (for all time) without obstruction; the merit of being able to enter, by the most excellent purity, the suchness that is the "non-dual characteristic" of "being and non-being"; the merit of abiding, without effort, in Buddha-work that never rests; the merit of there being, within the dharma-body, no difference of support, of resolve, or of activity; the merit of cultivating the counter to every obstruction; the merit of subduing all non-Buddhists; the merit of being born within the world yet unobstructed by worldly dharmas; the merit of establishing the true Dharma; the merit of bestowing prophecies; the merit of showing forth the body-of-enjoyment and the body-of-transformation in all worlds; the merit of cutting off doubt; the merit of leading one into the various forms of conduct; the merit of the wondrous wisdom that will be born in time to come; the merit of showing forth according to a being's excellent resolve; the merit of disciplining sentient beings, and of the preparatory practice for them, through measureless supports; the merit of the equal dharma-body and the full accomplishment of the perfections; the merit of showing forth Buddha-lands differing according to a being's excellent resolve; the merit of the three kinds of Buddha-body being without limit of place; the merit of, to the very end of birth-and-death, ever showing forth benefit and joy to all sentient beings; and the merit that is without end, and the rest (twenty-one in all).

By way of meaning (displaying the meaning of the bodhisattva), as it is said: if a bodhisattva accomplishes "thirty-two dharmas," only then is he called a bodhisattva. These thirty-two dharmas are —

raising, toward all sentient beings, the surpassing resolve of "benefit and joy" (the deep wish that they may gain benefit and gain joy); leading all sentient beings to enter the "wisdom of the wisdom of all" (the Buddha's wisdom); knowing of himself, "by what now, by what wisdom do I borrow my standing" (not self-satisfied); crushing pride; a firm and surpassing resolve; a compassion not feigned (a true heart of compassion); a mind level toward kin and not-kin; being ever a good friend, to the very last limit of nirvāṇa; speaking to measure (saying just what is fitting); speaking first with a smile (meeting others warmly); a great compassion without limit; not flinching from any task taken on; a mind without weariness; never tiring of hearing the meaning; with respect to his own wrongdoing, deeply seeing the fault; with respect to others' wrongdoing, not being angry but counseling well; ever cultivating the awakening-mind through all the postures (walking, standing, sitting, lying); giving without craving the fruit; upholding the precepts without leaning on any thought of a "destiny (a future existence)"; practicing patience toward sentient beings without anger or hindrance; vigorously exerting himself in order to take up all good dharmas; forsaking the formless realm (and its delight in absorption) to cultivate meditative absorption (not coveting the joy of absorption); cultivating wisdom in accord with skillful means; making the means of attraction through the "four means of attraction" — generosity, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and shared work; a mind without duality toward the precept-keeper, the precept-breaker, and the good friend; hearing the true Dharma with an earnest heart; abiding in the wilderness (the place of quiet) with an earnest heart; taking no delight in worldly miscellany; never once yearning after the lesser vehicle; deeply seeing the merit within the Great Vehicle; keeping far from evil friends; drawing near to good friends; ever cultivating the "four divine abodes" — loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; ever disporting in the five higher knowledges; making wisdom his resort (taking wisdom for his refuge); not forsaking the various sentient beings, whether they abide in right conduct or do not abide in right conduct; being settled in his word (his word holding good); prizing truthfulness and sincerity; ever making the great awakening-mind his forerunner (all led by the awakening-mind).

Asaṅga points out: all these many lines, you should know, are the "several details" of the opening line — namely, "raising, toward all sentient beings, the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy." And this line "the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy," you should know, holds within it the differences of sixteen kinds of "deed" (function).

These sixteen kinds of deed are — one, the deed of preparatory practice carried on by turns; two, the deed without inversion; three, the deed of preparatory practice undertaken of itself, without waiting for another's request; four, the deed that does not waver or break; five, the deed without seeking-and-defilement (practicing not for the sake of a defiled return), and this one has three lines of difference: namely, without defiled bondage, without love or anger toward those who have shown kindness or no kindness, and turning along life after life; six, the deed of fitting speech-deed and body-deed, and this one has two lines of difference; seven, the deed that is level amid pleasure, amid pain, and amid the neither-of-the-two; eight, the deed that is not lowly; nine, the deed that does not turn back; ten, the deed of the means of attraction; eleven, the deed of loathing what is to be countered, and this one has two lines of difference; twelve, the deed of unbroken attention; thirteen, the deed of advancing conduct, and this one has seven lines of difference: namely, the right preparatory practice of the six perfections, together with the right preparatory practice of the four means of attraction; fourteen, the deed of the preparatory practice brought to fullness, and this one has six lines of difference: namely, drawing near to good people, hearing the true Dharma, abiding in the wilderness, keeping far from evil deliberation, the merit of attention (this again having two lines of difference), and the merit of the helping companion (this again having two lines of difference); fifteen, the deed brought to fullness, and this one has three lines of difference: namely, measureless purity, gaining great might, and realizing merit; sixteen, the deed of establishing them (sentient beings), and this one has four lines of difference: namely, the merit of governing the assembly, instruction and admonition that are settled and without doubt, the joining of attraction-by-wealth and attraction-by-Dharma into one, and a mind without defilement. All these many lines, you should know, are likewise the details of that opening line.

Lastly, as it is said (in a verse), the gist of which is: from that "first line" (the summary line) are divided out the various classes of "merit" (the way of merit); from that "first line" are divided out the various differences of "meaning" (the way of meaning).

Scriptural and Commentarial Ground

This division grounds the three natures, consciousness-only, and the four purities in Mahayana scriptural teaching, drawing also on the Ten Grounds and Samdhinirmocana scriptures. The two ancient commentaries explain the relations among the other-dependent, wholly-imagined, and perfectly-accomplished and the establishing of the consciousnesses; later formulations are not read back into the root.

The world is plainly right here before our eyes — the mountain stands over there, the sound carries across, reach out a hand and you touch the cup. On what grounds do we say we have seen it wrongly?

That is the hard problem this chapter makes you face the moment it opens. The previous chapter, "The Basis of the Knowable," asked: on what, in the end, do all dharmas rest? — on the alaya-consciousness, that deepest layer of mind that stores all the seeds. But "support" stated only the foundation; it had not yet stated the appearance. So this chapter turns at once to the next question: resting upon that foundation, all the dharmas we are to know — what, exactly, do they look like? Asanga's answer is the single most central, and most moving, map in all of Yogacara — the three natures (三自性). And what this map really sets out to answer is precisely that scalding question: at which layer is the world mistaken, and how is it to be seen rightly?

Understand these three words and more than half of Yogacara opens up. What follows takes Asanga's words and explains them, one section at a time.

I. The three natures: three identities of one and the same world

All dharmas can be viewed from three angles — this is the "three natures" (the three kinds of "self-nature," that is, three modes of existence). But first hold fast to the one most crucial sentence: they are not speaking of three things, but of three identities of one and the same thing.

The first layer, other-dependent (依他起) — "arising in dependence on other, manifold conditions." In this world before us not a single thing pops up on its own: all are an assembly of conditions, arising and perishing in an instant, unable to hold themselves the moment they arise, needing conditions to prop them up next. This mode of "condition-born, condition-perished, unable to subsist on its own" is the other-dependent. And in Yogacara's view, the concrete content of this "other-dependent" is not brick and stone, grass and tree outside the mind, but the various "consciousnesses" that arise with the alaya-consciousness as their seed — it is the flowing of mind-consciousness itself.

The second layer, wholly-imagined (遍計所執) — "the thing pervasively reckoned up and grasped at." Originally there is only consciousness flowing; yet our mind forcibly adds a layer on top: it takes the image manifested by consciousness and grabs at it as "a thing really existing outside the mind." This "real outer realm" that we falsely add — which in fact does not exist at all — is the wholly-imagined. Its mark is this: it looks vividly present, yet is utterly unfindable. This is exactly the layer where the world before our eyes goes wrong.

The third layer, perfectly-accomplished (圓成實) — "the perfectly-accomplished real." Right upon the other-dependent, that "outer realm outside the mind" which we falsely grasp as real is in truth eternally absent — search as you will, it is nowhere to be found. And this "eternal falling-away of the falsely-grasped realm" is itself the most real of principles — this is the perfectly-accomplished, which is suchness (真如).

Be sure to hold the relation of the three, for it is the key to the whole chapter: the perfectly-accomplished is not some other thing, but "the eternal falling-away, upon the other-dependent, of the wholly-imagined." In other words, when, upon the manifold of dependent arising, you see through utterly that "there is no outer realm outside the mind," the emptiness, the suchness, disclosed at that seeing-through is the perfectly-accomplished. So the three natures are never three things ranged side by side, but one and the same other-dependent: its condition-born side is the other-dependent, its falsely-grasped side is the wholly-imagined, the side where the false grasp eternally falls away is the perfectly-accomplished. One block of ore, three layers of reading; the gold-earth-ore figure further on will fire this sentence into you.

II. The eleven consciousnesses: what we call "the world" is in fact the arising of eleven kinds of mind

Asanga fears you will hear "other-dependent = consciousness" as an empty slogan, so he spreads this "consciousness" open and counts it out for you — it is in fact eleven kinds of consciousness, and these eleven gather up the whole "external world" we take ourselves to live in.

First come three consciousnesses concerning the "body": the body-consciousness (身識), the consciousness of the six faculties — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; the body-bearer-consciousness (身者識), the portion that grasps this bodily frame as "I"; the enjoyer-consciousness (受者識), the portion that receives and makes use. Then the two ends of reception: the received-consciousness (彼所受識), the six sense-objects received — form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharmas; the receiving-consciousness (彼能受識), the six consciousnesses that receive. Then it spreads further outward: the time-consciousness (世識, of temporal succession), the number-consciousness (數識, of quantity and counting), the place-consciousness (處識, of space and locale — that is, the receptacle-world), the speech-consciousness (言說識, of language and naming), the self-and-other-distinction-consciousness (自他差別識, that divides oneself from others), and last the good-destiny-and-bad-destiny-death-and-birth-consciousness (善趣惡趣死生識, of cyclic birth-and-death, rising and sinking through the six paths). Eleven kinds, counted to the end.

Where do these eleven consciousnesses come from? They correspond exactly to the three perfumings (the three sources of seeds) taught in the previous chapter — a beautiful joint. The first nine — body, body-bearer, enjoyer, received, receiving, time, number, place, speech — are all born of the seeds of name-and-speech perfuming (名言熏習): the habit-energy we have laid down since beginningless time by discriminating through language and concept. The self-and-other-distinction-consciousness is born of the seeds of self-view perfuming (我見熏習): laid down by the defiled mind at the base that constantly grasps an "I." The good-destiny-and-bad-destiny-death-and-birth-consciousness is born of the seeds of existence-member perfuming (有支熏習): laid down by good and evil karma (the twelve members of existence), which draws future fruits of pain and pleasure.

Map these eleven consciousnesses back onto the traditional "eighteen elements" and the skeleton shows even more clearly: the three — body, body-bearer, enjoyer — are the six faculties (the six inner elements); the received-consciousness is the six objects (the six outer elements); the receiving-consciousness is the six consciousnesses (the six consciousness-elements); and the rest — time, number, place, speech, self-and-other-distinction, good-and-bad-destiny-death-and-birth — are the manifold differentiated aspects of these faculties, objects, and consciousnesses in their various positions. One sentence closes it: we take it that "there is an external world, and an I living and acting within it," but the whole picture is nothing but the arising of these eleven kinds of consciousness — and this is the other-dependent. The world is not out there; it arises within eleven kinds of mind.

III. Consciousness-only-without-a-real-object: that one dream says it all

Since the other-dependent is only consciousness, then the "real realm outside the mind" (which Asanga gives a name — "object," 義) simply does not exist. But — back to our opening problem — the realm is plainly, vividly there before us; on what grounds do we say it is not there?

Asanga does not argue head-on with you; first he asks you to recall a dream.

In a dream a person plainly sees mountains and rivers, houses, groves — there is form, there is sound, all as if present; form, sound, smell, taste, touch, groves, ground, mountains, "the image of a seeming-object manifests," set out there alive. Yet upon waking one knows: in the dream there were no such "outer realms" at all — there was only the image the dreaming mind itself manifested. The waking world is just the same — at all times, in all places, it is only consciousness manifesting; there is no real thing outside the mind. Asanga adds, in passing, a few shadows of the same kind: the elephants and horses a conjuror produces (the illusion, 幻誑); the thirsty deer that takes a mirage for water and rushes toward it (the deer-thirst, 鹿愛, that is, the mirage / 陽焰); the man with eye-disease (翳眩) who sees flowers in empty space — all of them "look distinctly present, yet are utterly not there." The world before our eyes is one and the same affair as the dream, the illusion, the mirage, the sky-flower.

Here you will at once object — and this is exactly the question Asanga asks for you: if waking is also like dreaming, why is it that a person, on waking from a dream, can turn back and recognize "that just now was a dream, was consciousness-only," yet facing the waking world can in no way recognize that it too is consciousness-only?

Asanga's reply is exquisite: only when "true wisdom" (真智) comes forth does this "recognition" flip over. While you are still in the dream you cannot recognize that you are dreaming — only on waking do you recognize it; likewise, before the awakening of true wisdom is attained you cannot recognize that the waking realm too is consciousness-only — only when true wisdom is attained do you recognize it. So the ordinary being's failure to recognize is not because the waking realm really has outer things, but because the "waking of true wisdom" has not yet arrived. At this moment we are simply persons in a dream who have not yet woken.

Then how is one who has not yet attained true wisdom to "infer" that all this is consciousness-only? Asanga gives two roads: scripture (聖教) and right reasoning (正理).

The road of scripture has two most forceful passages. One is the Buddha's plain saying in the Dasabhumika-sutra — "Thus the three realms are mind-only": all that is in the three realms does not depart from one mind. The other is a very fine dialogue between the Buddha and Maitreya (Cishi 慈氏) Bodhisattva in the Samdhinirmocana-sutra. Maitreya asks: the image that appears in the mind during meditative concentration, and the mind that observes it — are they one or two? The Buddha says: not two — because that image is from the start only consciousness; I have always said that what the mind takes as object is only what the mind itself manifests. Maitreya presses again: if the image is just this mind, does it not become "the mind grasping its own self"? The Buddha answers with great subtlety: in truth there is no thing that can grasp another thing; it is only that this mind, when it arises, arises bearing just such an image. It is like looking in a mirror — plainly what is reflected is one's own face, yet one says "I see an image," and takes it that the image exists apart from the person, separately. The mind is exactly so: the moment it arises, it is as though "a thing different from itself, a thing seen," floats up; but in truth the seer and the seen are this one mind, and there is no outer realm to grasp.

The road of right reasoning Asanga illustrates with meditation. One who practices the contemplation of impurity, in the concentrated mind, fixes attention on a bloated, livid corpse, and the livid image is utterly clear — yet where outside the mind is there really a corpse? What is seen is nothing but the manifestation of one's own mind. From this ready example one can infer: all consciousness is only consciousness, with no outer realm. Asanga adds one finer cut: this image in concentration is not "recollected" (it is present-abiding, here and now); and the two kinds of memory that arise from hearing and from reflecting take as their object what is "past," long since perished — since the object is not an existing outer thing at all, that it can still manifest an image proves all the more: everything is consciousness-only.

IV. Why consciousness insists on manifesting as "a real thing"

Still someone is unconvinced: granted the dream-simile holds, yet the form before our eyes is plainly "substantial and resistant" — touchable, visible — and moreover "of one kind, firmly abiding, continuous and unbroken," not changing in an instant like a thought; how can a thing this solid also be consciousness?

Asanga does not duck; he turns it around and asks a deeper question: if these consciousnesses are themselves only consciousness (with no outer form), why do they insist on manifesting "as if there were resistant form," and manifest it so stably, for so long?

The answer is unexpected, yet goes to the heart: precisely in order to serve as a foothold for "inversion" and the various defiled dharmas. Consciousness must manifest a stable, seemingly-real form-realm so that our inverted false grasp has somewhere to hang. Follow it through: if consciousness did not manifest a seemingly-real outer realm, then the inversion of "there being no outer realm from the start, yet forcibly grasping that there is one" could not arise; if inversion cannot arise, then the defilements — affliction-obstruction and the obstruction-to-the-knowable — cannot be spoken of; and if defilement is altogether gone, then the "pure dharmas set up to counter defilement" (practice, liberation) fall away with it. In other words — the whole play of cycling-and-returning, defiled-and-pure, needs a "seemingly-real world" as its stage: this is why consciousness must manifest as if it were substantial form. Here Asanga sets down a verse and closes it into one line: the so-called "form" (the seen, the seemingly-real aspect) and the consciousness that sees it are in fact two sides of one consciousness — the grasped "form-consciousness" and the grasping "non-form-consciousness," mutually dependent, neither dispensable, neither apart from consciousness.

V. Establishing consciousness-only: the image-portion and the seeing-portion

Asanga next gathers "how the consciousnesses are established as consciousness-only" into three points. First, consciousness-only: all consciousnesses have no outer realm, so we say "only consciousness." Second, the two natures: the moment consciousness arises it divides into "the grasped side" (the image-portion, 相分, like the realm seen) and "the grasping side" (the seeing-portion, 見分, the consciousness that sees) — and both sides are still consciousness's own transformation. Third, the manifold: one consciousness can manifest many different appearances, one mind manifesting many realms.

This "image-portion and seeing-portion" deserves a finer word. The first five consciousnesses — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body — each take their own portion of "the realm seen" as image-portion, and "the consciousness that sees" as seeing-portion. The sixth, the mental consciousness, is special: it can take all as object — from the eye all the way to dharmas — so its image-portion is broad enough to embrace the whole manifold, while it takes "the discriminating mental consciousness" as its seeing-portion. Precisely because the mental consciousness discriminates best, it can manifest as if all consciousnesses arose within it. Asanga's verse here makes the point: consciousness-only has "two" (image-portion and seeing-portion) and "the manifold"; one who contemplates enters by wisdom; and once one awakens into "all dharmas are mind-only," along with that one can subdue and grow free of the grasped realm (and even the grasping mind) — this is exactly where practice takes hold: first see consciousness-only, then leave behind the grasping-grasped duality.

VI. The three names, and where each is got from

Why are these three layers named "other-dependent, wholly-imagined, perfectly-accomplished" in just these words? Each has its own reason; the doctrine is hidden inside the names.

The naming of the other-dependent: it is only consciousness, the support upon which "seeming-to-have-an-outer-realm" arises. It is called "other-dependent," first, because it "is born from its own perfuming-seeds and arises only in dependence on the manifold conditions" — depending on other conditions, hence other-dependent; second, because "the moment it arises, the very next instant it has no power to subsist on its own" (it perishes in an instant, needing conditions to continue) — this character of depending-on-other everywhere, unable to stand on its own, is also why it is called other-dependent.

The naming of the wholly-imagined: it arises in dependence on the other-dependent, yet is in fact nothing at all, merely the false appearance of "seeming-to-have-an-outer-realm." It is called "wholly-imagined" because it is "the mental consciousness, of measureless aspects, pervasively reckoning up and invertedly producing this seeming-appearance" — it is reckoned out, grasped out; its own substance-appearance does not exist at all, all there is is "the appearance reckoned and grasped," hence wholly-imagined.

The naming of the perfectly-accomplished: it is the truth that "the wholly-imagined is eternally absent." It is called "perfectly-accomplished" in three senses: one, it is "unchanging and unaltering" (suchness is constant, not following false change), hence perfectly-accomplished and real; two, it is "the object of pure wisdom" (the realm faced by the pure mind); three, it is "the most excellent, most ultimate meaning among all good dharmas" (the supreme among the supreme). By these three it is called perfectly-accomplished. — One reminder again of the key to the whole chapter: the perfectly-accomplished keeps the reading of "the character of dharmas," that is, the suchness disclosed by "the falsely-grasped realm eternally falling away" upon the other-dependent; it is not the setting up of some separate permanent real substance.

VII. Who is doing the "imagining," and who is the wholly-imagined

For the wholly-imagined to be established, there must be the two ends: "the one that imagines" and "the one that is wholly-imagined."

Who imagines? — the sixth, the mental consciousness. Why it? Because it discriminates best: it takes its own name-and-speech habit-energy as seed, and also takes the name-and-speech habit-energy of all consciousnesses as seed, so it can raise boundless discriminating aspects, must reckon up everything, hence the name imagining (the one that pervasively reckons up). Who is the wholly-imagined? — the other-dependent, those condition-born dharmas it reckons up. And when the mental consciousness, with this "reckoning-grasping appearance," takes the other-dependent as object and grasps at it, that added layer, the appearance of seeming-real-realm, is called the "wholly-imagined nature." In one line: the mental consciousness is the hand that reckons, the other-dependent is the material reckoned, and the false appearance of "really existing outside the mind" reckoned out is the wholly-imagined.

How, concretely, does the mental consciousness "reckon"? Asanga asks in a string — on what realm does it take object, what appearance does it grasp, by what does it attach, by what does it raise speech, by what does it speak, what does it superimpose? The answers thread into one: it takes "name" (concept) as object, grasps that seeming-realm's appearance upon the other-dependent, attaches by false view, raises speech by inquiry-and-investigation, speaks by the four kinds of speech (seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing), and finally "superimposes as real, upon a place where there is no outer realm at all." Object-by-name, grasp-the-appearance, attach, raise-speech, superimpose — this string is the whole working of imagining.

VIII. Are the three natures one, or different? And into how many can each be further opened?

Are the three natures one or different? — Asanga answers cleanly: "neither one, nor different." For they are from the start one and the same other-dependent, divided into three only by being viewed from different "angles" (gateways, 異門): from the "arising in dependence on conditions" angle it is the other-dependent; from the "reckoned and grasped by the mental consciousness" angle it is the wholly-imagined; from the "the false grasp eternally falling away" angle it is the perfectly-accomplished. One and the same thing, three angles — so one cannot say they are three separate things (not different), nor say they are simply one and the same affair with no distinction (not not-different).

Then will the three natures blur into one, distinction lost? — No. The "angle" that constitutes one nature is not the angle that constitutes another: what the "arising in dependence on conditions" angle constitutes is the other-dependent — it does not thereby simultaneously constitute the wholly-imagined or the perfectly-accomplished; and so for the other two. So the three natures, though resting on one substance, are by angle distinct, their distinctions clearly drawn, not running together.

Asanga further opens each nature finer. The other-dependent has two kinds (one, arising from perfuming in dependence on conditions; two, its defiled-or-pure character not settling itself, needing conditions to be constituted). The wholly-imagined has two kinds (one, reckoning a dharma's "self-nature," as "this is form"; two, reckoning a dharma's "distinction," as "this form is permanent, is pleasant"). The perfectly-accomplished has two kinds (one, the suchness inherent in all dharmas — the "self-nature perfectly-accomplished"; two, the "purified-of-defilement perfectly-accomplished" disclosed when separated from defilement). And imagining itself has four kinds — reckoning self-nature, reckoning distinction, having-awareness (good at name-and-speech, knowing-and-reckoning), without-awareness (not good at name-and-speech, reckoning blindly); and five kinds more, which speak of how name and object reckon each other up: reckoning object by name, reckoning name by object, reckoning name by name, reckoning object by object, reckoning both by name-and-object together. These are split this fine for one purpose only: to lay open, layer by layer, "how the false mind circles between name-and-speech and realm-appearance."

IX. Ten discriminations → ten distractions → why prajna teaches only "non-discrimination"

This is one supremely beautiful close of the chapter, joining Yogacara to prajna.

Asanga first gathers all "false discrimination" into ten kinds: ① root-discrimination (this is the alaya-consciousness, the root of all discrimination); ② object-appearance discrimination (the image-portion taken as object, that is, form-and-the-rest consciousness); ③ manifesting-appearance discrimination (the seeing-portion that manifests, that is, the eye-consciousness and the rest, with their supports); ④ object-appearance-alteration discrimination (the manifold alterations of the object-appearance: aging, pleasant feeling, greed, suffering and the change of seasons, even the destinies such as the hells, the alterations of the realms such as the desire-realm); ⑤ manifesting-appearance-alteration discrimination (the alteration arising in the manifesting portion accordingly); ⑥ other-led discrimination (raised by another's teaching, whether hearing false dharma or hearing true dharma); ⑦ improper discrimination (raised by the outer paths hearing false dharma); ⑧ proper discrimination (raised within the true dharma by hearing true dharma); ⑨ attachment discrimination (improper attention, the sixty-two wrong views rooted in the view of self, satkaya-drsti); ⑩ distraction discrimination (the "ten distractions" the bodhisattva is to counter).

This tenth is exactly the focus of countering in Mahayana practice. The so-called ten distractions are the ten directions in which the mind slips off the moment it faces suchness: no-appearance, has-appearance, superimposition, denial, oneness, difference, self-nature, distinction, grasping object after name, grasping name after object. Plainly put: on the pairs "is/is-not, adding/subtracting, one/different, self-nature/distinction, name↔object," the mind cannot help sliding out to one side.

And here a key is hidden: the whole of the Prajnaparamita, in teaching "non-conceptual wisdom" (無分別智) over and over, does so precisely to counter these ten distractions. Pair "the ten distractions to be countered" with "the non-conceptual wisdom that counters them," and the entire program of the Prajna scriptures is right here — this too is where the Yogacarins take hold of prajna: the "non-discrimination" prajna teaches is not knowing nothing, but not sliding off wildly in these ten directions.

X. The name does not match a real substance; yet the other-dependent is not sheer nothing

Asanga next sets out to prove one thing: the layer of "seeming-to-have-an-outer-realm" (the wholly-imagined) manifested upon the other-dependent in fact "matches no real substance" — it is only a name-and-speech pasted on, and corresponds to no real thing. How is this known? He gives three "mismatches." One, before a name is established there is no corresponding cognition — if a name really pointed to a real substance, then before naming there ought already to be that cognition; but in fact there is not. Two, one thing can have many names — if names each pointed to a substance, would not one thing then have many substances? Three, the pairing of name and object is altogether unsettled (same name for different things, different names for the same thing) — if a name really fixed-on one substance, how could it be so loose? By these three it is known: that seeming-realm is purely a name-and-speech pasted on, with no real substance.

But here at once springs up a dangerous question: since "what is manifested" (the wholly-imagined) is in fact nothing at all, why not simply say "the other-dependent too is entirely nothing"? Here Asanga must block a deep pit for you — nihilistic emptiness (惡取空), that annihilationist view which sweeps everything away into nothing.

He says: if the other-dependent too were gone, then the perfectly-accomplished would go with it — for the perfectly-accomplished is disclosed by "the false grasp falling away upon the other-dependent"; without the ground of the other-dependent, suchness would have nowhere to be disclosed; once the perfectly-accomplished is gone, then "all is nothing," and one falls into annihilation. Moreover, if both the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished were gone, one commits the great fault of "neither defilement nor purity" — yet cycling (defilement) and returning (purity) are plainly, actually visible, so one absolutely cannot say all is nothing. The conclusion stands: the wholly-imagined is to be refuted (it was never anything), but the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished cannot be swept into nothing. This is Yogacara's measure of "refuting without falling into emptiness" — one hand wards off nihilistic emptiness, the other hand preserves the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished natures.

XI. The great Vaipulya teaching: three natures matched to four purities; eight similes refute eight doubts

In the Mahayana Vaipulya teaching, the Buddhas point out the three natures by three questions and three answers. Asked "how is the wholly-imagined to be known?" — wherever a scripture says "there is nothing at all," it points to the wholly-imagined (which was never anything). Asked "how is the other-dependent to be known?" — wherever it uses the eight similes illusion, mirage (炎), dream, mirror-image (像), light-and-shadow, valley-echo, moon-in-water, magical-transformation, it points to the other-dependent (seeming-to-be, yet not real). Asked "how is the perfectly-accomplished to be known?" — it is where a scripture teaches "the four purities." Which four purities? One, self-nature purity (suchness itself, also named emptiness, the real limit, the markless, the supreme, the dharma-realm); two, purity of separation-from-defilement (this suchness separated from all obstruction-defilement); three, purity of the path that attains this (the path able to realize separation-from-defilement: the limbs of awakening, the perfections, and so on); four, purity of the realm that gives rise to this (the teaching able to give rise to this path, that is, the Mahayana true dharma). The latter two (path and teaching), though conditioned, count as not wholly-imagined (not nothing) because they are "conditions accomplishing purity"; and because they "flow out from the utterly pure dharma-realm," they count as not the defiled other-dependent — so both are gathered into the perfectly-accomplished. These four gather up all pure dharmas entire.

Then Asanga explains a good question: why does the scripture use just the "eight similes of illusion and the rest" for the other-dependent? — It is to refute another's eight doubts about consciousness-only, one doubt matched to one simile, each simile fitting its ailment:

Someone doubts "since there is no outer realm, how can a realm appear before one?" — use the illusion-event simile: the elephants and horses the conjuror produces, unreal yet vividly manifest. Doubts "with no outer realm, how do mind and mental factors operate there?" — use the mirage simile: the mirage has no water, yet the moving appearance is vivid. Doubts "with no outer realm, how is there the enjoyment of pain and pleasure?" — use the dream simile: in the dream there is no realm, yet pain and pleasure are vividly enjoyed. Doubts "with no outer realm, how do pure and impure karma summon the fruits of pain and pleasure?" — use the mirror-image simile: in the mirror there is no thing, yet images fair and foul vividly answer to it. Doubts "with no outer realm, how do the various consciousnesses arise?" — use the light-and-shadow simile. Doubts "with no outer realm, how do the various proliferating discourses arise?" — use the valley-echo simile: the empty valley has no sound-source, yet the echo is vivid. Doubts "with no outer realm, how, in concentration, can one still distinctly grasp a realm?" — use the moon-in-water simile: in the water there is no moon, yet the moon's reflection is vividly grasped. Doubts "with no outer realm, how can a bodhisattva, with an uninverted mind, for the benefit of beings, deliberately take birth?" — use the magical-transformation simile: like a transformation-body, undefiled by real birth-and-death, yet able to manifest taking birth.

Eight similes refute eight doubts, boring through the four words "seeming-to-be, yet not real" of the other-dependent from eight directions at once.

XII. Birth-and-death and nirvana are not two things; the gold-earth-ore figure

In a scripture, the Brahma-pariprccha (《梵問經》), the Buddha says a strange thing: "The Tathagata attains neither birth-and-death, nor nirvana." What does this mean?

Asanga explains: this says that upon one and the same other-dependent, birth-and-death and nirvana are not two separate things — one and the same other-dependent, viewed from the "falsely-grasped" portion becomes birth-and-death, viewed from the "false grasp falling away, suchness disclosed" portion becomes nirvana. Since both rest on one substance, the Tathagata "attains within it no separate birth-and-death to be got, no separate nirvana to be got." This sentence is to be received as it stands; there is no need to soften it.

And the Abhidharma-mahayana-sutra (《阿毘達磨大乘經》) says "dharmas are of three kinds: the defiled portion, the pure portion, and the portion common to both" — speaking of the same affair: upon one other-dependent, the wholly-imagined portion is the defiled, the perfectly-accomplished portion is the pure, and the other-dependent itself is the portion "common to defilement and purity."

Here Asanga brings out the most brilliant figure of the whole chapter — gold-earth-ore (金土藏), the ore that holds gold. The earlier key to the three natures, that sentence "one block of ore, three layers of reading" — now he really puts the ore into the fire and smelts it before you.

In a block of gold-ore there are three things: the earth-element (地界, the underlying matrix of the ore), the earth-soil (土), and the gold (金). Before smelting, you can see the "soil" and cannot see the "gold" — yet this is exactly the inversion: the soil-appearance is in fact falsely manifested, while the gold is what is truly there but hidden, undisclosed. Once put through fire, the soil-appearance vanishes and the gold-appearance manifests. And that "earth-element"? — when manifesting soil it manifests falsely, when manifesting gold it manifests truly; so the earth-element is "common to both," running through both defilement and purity.

This "false-discriminating consciousness" of ours (the other-dependent) is exactly this earth-element: while the fire of non-conceptual wisdom has not yet smelted it, what manifests upon the consciousness is the false wholly-imagined, with the true perfectly-accomplished hidden, undisclosed; once the fire of non-conceptual wisdom smelts it, the perfectly-accomplished manifests and the wholly-imagined hides. So this other-dependent consciousness is exactly like the earth-element in the gold-earth-ore, running through the two portions of defilement and purity. Match them up: earth-element = other-dependent, soil = wholly-imagined, gold = perfectly-accomplished, fire = non-conceptual wisdom. What is called practice is just this one smelting of ore to see gold. The world is not exchanged; the ore is still that same block of ore; what is exchanged is that the fire has come, and the gold has shown forth.

XIII. Permanent and impermanent … every opposition is "not two"

Sometimes the Buddha says "all dharmas are permanent," sometimes "all dharmas are impermanent," sometimes "neither permanent nor impermanent" — which saying counts?

Asanga says: all are correct; it depends on which portion you speak from. One and the same other-dependent: from the perfectly-accomplished portion it is "permanent" (suchness unchanging), from the wholly-imagined portion it is "impermanent" (the false appearance arising and perishing, never anything to begin with), from the portion common to both it is "neither permanent nor impermanent." Permanent and impermanent are thus "not two," and the whole long string of further oppositions is just the same — suffering and pleasure, pure and impure, empty and not-empty, self and no-self, calm and not-calm, having-self-nature and without-self-nature, arising and not-arising, ceasing and not-ceasing, originally-calm and not-originally-calm, self-nature-nirvana and not-self-nature-nirvana, and even birth-and-death and nirvana — all "not two."

Why? Because the two ends of each pair are merely spoken from different portions (angles) of one and the same other-dependent; seemingly head-on opposed, they are in truth not-two. And here a master-key to reading scripture shows itself: when you meet what seem self-contradictory words of the Buddha, do not rush to judge which saying is right — first ask "from which nature, which portion, is this spoken?" and the contradiction dissolves.

XIV. The four intentions, the four hidden teachings

The Buddha's teaching often carries a "meaning beyond the words." Asanga gathers it into four intentions and four hidden teachings, reminding us not to die under the letter.

The four intentions (四意趣) speak of "the Buddha's purpose in saying this." One, the intention of sameness — the Buddha says "in the past I was such-and-such an ancient Buddha," spoken in dependence on the sameness of the dharma-bodies of all Buddhas, not that it was literally the same person. Two, the intention of another-time — sayings like "reciting a certain Buddha's name surely gains awakening," "merely making a vow gains birth in Sukhavati" are spoken "for another time" (Vasubandhu and Asvabhava, in their two commentaries, draw out the sense): to spur the indolent, the fruit "accomplished only after long ages" is spoken as if "accomplished now," the purpose being to first urge a person onto that "cause" (reciting the name, making the vow are distant causes of the fruit; it is not that one recitation now arrives at the fruit-ground). Three, the intention of another-meaning — sayings like "only after serving Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges can one understand the meaning of the Mahayana" point to something else. Four, the intention of a person's disposition — now praising, now demoting, according to each person's capacity: to one person first praise giving, then turn and disparage giving (and likewise for keeping precepts and for cultivation), which is teaching to capacity, not self-contradiction.

The four hidden teachings (四祕密) speak of "the Buddha's hidden way of teaching." One, the hidden teaching that leads in — for those of shallow capacity, first, by conventional truth, teach "there are persons, there are dharmas, there are various distinctions," so as to draw them in the door first. Two, the hidden teaching of appearance — somewhere teaching the appearance of dharmas, disclosing the three natures. Three, the hidden teaching of countering — somewhere teaching the eighty-four thousand kinds of countering. Four, the hidden teaching of turning-around — somewhere using "a turned-around meaning," so that the same words and letters disclose another, deeper layer. Asanga cites a verse, the very living specimen of this "turning-around":

The treatise gives the verse: "Awakening the not-firm as firm, well-abiding within inversion, tormented by the most extreme afflictions, one attains the supreme awakening."

Taking the not-firm as firm, abiding within inversion, tormented by the heaviest afflictions — and yet right here one attains the supreme awakening. Line by line it reads on its face like contrary speech; this is precisely the true face of the "hidden teaching of turning-around": it must be transmitted as it stands, and may not be planed smooth.

(Note: of these, the "intention of another-time" passage has long been drawn upon to interpret the Pure Land teaching of "reciting the name, making the vow, and thereby gaining birth," and is a point of contention in the history of doctrinal classification; here we only expound Asanga's own meaning faithfully, and do not settle the later debates one way or the other.)

XV. How to compose a Mahayana commentary; the passage on "the meaning of the words"

Finally, Asanga demonstrates "to comment on a Mahayana scripture, from which three sides one takes hold": one, speaking of dependent arising; two, speaking of the characteristics of dharmas born from conditions; three, speaking of the meaning of the words.

One, dependent arising: just as taught in the previous chapter — the dharmas born of name-and-speech perfuming, this fruit arising from that seed; the alaya (the maturation-consciousness) and the seven evolving consciousnesses arise as mutual conditions. Two, the characteristics of dharmas born from conditions: the condition-born consciousness has an image-portion and a seeing-portion, with consciousness as its substance; and this other-dependent can be taken "with the cause-condition support as its character, with the wholly-imagined as its character, with dharma-nature (the perfectly-accomplished) as its character" — disclosing precisely the three natures. Here there is a crucial clasp: the wholly-imagined "in fact does not exist" upon the other-dependent, and the perfectly-accomplished "in fact does exist" upon the other-dependent; so "the absence (of the wholly-imagined) and the presence (of the perfectly-accomplished), the not-attaining and the attaining" are established simultaneously upon one and the same other-dependent — the ordinary being sees the "absent wholly-imagined," the noble one sees the "present perfectly-accomplished"; attaining this (the perfectly-accomplished), one no longer attains that (the wholly-imagined); grasping that (the wholly-imagined), one cannot see this (the perfectly-accomplished). Three, the meaning of the words: its method is to "first set up one general phrase, then use the remaining phrases to open it out one by one," and this may be spoken from either "the quality-side" (the Buddha's merits) or "the meaning-side" (the bodhisattva's dharmas). On the quality-side, the general phrase is "the utterly pure awakening," opened out by the Buddha's twenty-one merits; on the meaning-side, the general phrase is "the surpassing resolve to raise benefit and ease in all sentient beings," opened out by the bodhisattva's thirty-two dharmas, and these thirty-two phrases can in turn be classed into sixteen "deeds" (functions). A closing verse gathers it all: precisely because there is that "first phrase," the remaining phrases each disclose its "classes of quality" and its "distinctions of meaning."

The quality-side: the utterly pure awakening and the Buddha's twenty-one merits

These twenty-one sutra lines and the twenty-one merits — Asvabhava gives one rule for reading them all: "in all the later lines, the pairing is to be made in just this way." Each merit-name opens out the sutra line paired with it: the line is the virtue expressed; the merit-name, the gloss that expresses it. Below, the pairs are expounded one by one.

First: "the merit of turning, with respect to the knowable, ever without obstruction" opens out the sutra line "the non-dual conduct." Asvabhava glosses: the Buddha's wisdom turns upon everything knowable without obstruction — toward every thing, every class and kind, unattached and unimpeded; not like the wisdom of the sravakas, "in some places obstructed, in other places not" — two modes of conduct alternating. Since no such two modes of conduct are found here, it is called "the non-dual conduct"; and by this He is named "the utterly pure awakening" — great in capacity, full in wisdom and in severance. In the sequence, this is the first link: toward the knowable the sravakas have two modes of conduct, "right wisdom" and "undefiled not-knowing" (not-knowing that is not defiled); the Buddha has neither of the two — hence the virtue of His wisdom is complete.

Second: "the merit of being able to enter, by the most excellent purity, the suchness that is the 'non-dual characteristic' of 'being and non-being'" opens out the sutra line "turning toward the dharma of no-characteristic." The dharma of no-characteristic is suchness itself: suchness has the perfectly-accomplished mark and has not the wholly-imagined mark — "no-characteristic" is not a blank nothing; it is the absence of that grasped characteristic, and the absence itself is in truth there. This returns us to the backbone argument of this chapter: within the other-dependent, the wholly-imagined is absent, the perfectly-accomplished present. "The most excellent purity": suchness is first among all dharmas, parted from every adventitious stain. "Able to enter": having entered it himself, he leads others in as well. In the sequence, this line shows the virtue of severance complete — abiding neither in the characteristic of birth-and-death nor in that of nirvana.

Third: "the merit of abiding, without effort, in Buddha-work that never rests" opens out the sutra line "abiding in the abode of the Buddhas." The Buddha does the Buddha's work without contrivance, without interruption, among sentient beings, ever rightly abiding in the divine abode, the Brahma abode, and the noble abode — the divine abode being the four meditations; the Brahma abode, compassion and the other measureless minds; the noble abode, the abidings of emptiness, of no-characteristic, and the rest. Not like the sravakas, who must make effort before the work of benefiting beings can be accomplished; nor like the non-Buddhists, who have an abode of sorts, but not the excellent divine abode. In the sequence, a question carries forward: by what means is this nirvana gained? — because he abides well in emptiness and in great compassion, he abides neither in birth-and-death nor in nirvana.

Fourth: "the merit of there being, within the dharma-body, no difference of support, of resolve, or of activity" opens out the sutra line "attaining the equal nature of all Buddhas." Asvabhava explains "no difference" on three sides: no difference of support — all Buddhas alike rest upon the purified wisdom; no difference of resolve — all bear the surpassing resolve to bring benefit and joy to every sentient being; no difference of activity — all perform the altruistic deeds of the enjoyment-body and the transformation-body. Not like the sravakas, who have the support alone. In the sequence, the question carries on: this Buddha-abode — is it shared by all Buddhas, or does each have his own? — hence the next line, "attaining the equal nature of all Buddhas": the conduct of all Buddhas abides interfused, turn upon turn; Buddha and Buddha are equal.

Fifth: "the merit of cultivating the counter to every obstruction" opens out the sutra line "reaching the place of no obstruction." Asvabhava glosses: having long practised the noble path that counters the obstruction of the afflictions and the obstruction upon the knowable, the wisdom-of-every-kind at ease in concentration, he has arrived at the resting-place forever parted from every trace of obstruction. In the sequence, this is a hinge: to here, the fullness of self-benefit has been told; from here, the fullness of benefiting others is set forth at large — and this line first shows that he has gained the counter to every obstruction in those he is to tame.

Sixth: "the merit of subduing all non-Buddhists" opens out the sutra line "the dharma that cannot be turned back." Asvabhava glosses: the Buddha's dharma of teaching and dharma of realization can both be shaken by no one — there is no other dharma that surpasses them — and so all non-Buddhist ways are subdued of themselves. In the sequence: Maras and their kind can turn others back from the dharma, can overturn the aims and benefits sentient beings pursue; with the Buddha, no such thing occurs — hence "the dharma that cannot be turned back."

Seventh: "the merit of being born within the world yet unobstructed by worldly dharmas" opens out the sutra line "conduct without hindrance." "Conduct" means the ground one constantly walks. Though the Buddha walks in the world, the worldly dharmas that stir love and hate — "gain, loss," and the rest — cannot constrain him. Asvabhava cites the verse: "The Buddhas ever range throughout the world, / bringing benefit and joy to every kind of being; / the eight dharmas' fevered winds, deluded reckonings, / can neither sway them nor constrain them." In the sequence: amid all the deeds done for the benefit and joy of beings, nothing high or low can act as hindrance — hence "conduct without hindrance."

Eighth: "the merit of establishing the true Dharma" opens out the sutra line "the establishing of him that is beyond conceiving." "What is established" is the twelvefold teaching, the sutras and the rest — the true Dharma is called an "establishing" because it establishes the own-characteristic and the common characteristic of dharma after dharma. Such an establishing is not what a fool's awareness can walk in; being supramundane, it is "beyond conceiving." In the sequence: by the means of the previous line, "conduct without hindrance," he can do beings every manner of benefiting deed — hence what he establishes is beyond conceiving.

Ninth: "the merit of bestowing prophecies" opens out the sutra line "ranging in the dharma-nature equal throughout the three times." In the dharma-nature equal throughout the three times he ranges everywhere: within that equality of the three times, things past and future — once turned, or yet to turn — he understands as they come, all as if present; and so he can bestow prophecies. In the sequence, again a question is posed: such preparatory practice — is it the same in all Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, or does each differ? — It does not differ. Ranging in the dharma-nature equal throughout the three times, the deeds of the Buddhas of all three times for the benefit of beings are all alike.

Tenth: "the merit of showing forth the body-of-enjoyment and the body-of-transformation in all worlds" opens out the sutra line "his body spread through all worlds." Following those he is to tame, throughout all the worlds, he shows forth the two bodies — of enjoyment and of transformation — and brings them benefit and joy. In the sequence, the question follows: are these benefiting deeds done world by world, one after another? — They are not. His body is spread through all worlds: in all the worlds at once he appears, attaining Buddhahood.

Eleventh: "the merit of cutting off doubt" opens out the sutra line "in all dharmas a wisdom without doubt or hesitation." The Buddha is well settled upon every object: were he himself unsettled about the dharmas, he could not settle another's doubt; and apart from being settled, there is no "cutting off of doubt" to speak of. In the sequence: to show that he can cut off the doubts arising in this place and in that, this line is next spoken.

Twelfth: "the merit of leading one into the various forms of conduct" opens out the sutra line "in all conduct accomplishing the great awakening." On this line Asvabhava and Vasubandhu alike give only the bare pairing; its sense lies wholly in the sequence: the natures of those to be tamed differ, and the Buddha guides each by the fitting means, leading them into conduct of every kind — to show this skill in means, the line "in all conduct accomplishing the great awakening" is spoken.

Thirteenth: "the merit of the wondrous wisdom that will be born in time to come" opens out the sutra line "in the various dharmas a wisdom without any doubt." Asvabhava gives an example: a noble sravaka may say of someone, "this one has not the least root of goodness," and cast him aside; the Buddha, the Bhagavat, knows that his good dharmas will be born in a time to come — knowing by direct realization that some slight seed of goodness from another life still follows him. In the sequence: it is upon this skilled discernment of the "capable and incapable" among those to be tamed that the line is next spoken.

Fourteenth: "the merit of showing forth according to a being's excellent resolve" opens out the sutra line "whatever body he shows being beyond discriminating." Following the varied resolves of sentient beings he shows a golden hue and the rest; yet though showing such a body, the Buddha holds no discrimination within it — like the mani jewel, like pipe and flute, answering whatever strikes them while themselves without discrimination. It is told at large in the Sutra of the Tathagata's Secret (如來密經). In the sequence: among those to be tamed — the wrong, the right, and those in whom wrong and right run together — the mark he should show cannot be discriminated beforehand; to make this appear, the line is spoken.

Fifteenth: "the merit of disciplining sentient beings, and of the preparatory practice for them, through measureless supports" opens out the sutra line "the wisdom sought by all bodhisattvas." By the measureless supports of the bodhisattvas, preparatory practice is set going for the taming of beings — with the Buddha as the empowering force, and hearing the Dharma as what comes first, the wondrous wisdom is obtained; bodhisattvas of every kind receive it and are entrusted with it, and it turns onward, continuous and unbroken — by this is realized "the wisdom sought by all bodhisattvas." Vasubandhu adds a word: this does not mean that the Buddhas, having gained the equality of self and other, must still go seeking this wisdom — only that the Buddhas alone have already done such excellent deeds of taming. In the sequence: to draw on and sustain sravakas and bodhisattvas of the undetermined lineage, the Great Vehicle is praised — hence this line.

Sixteenth: "the merit of the equal dharma-body and the full accomplishment of the perfections" opens out the sutra line "gaining the Buddha's 'non-dual abode' and surpassing the far shore." Asvabhava keeps two readings: first, "non-dual" is why it is called equal — resting on the equal dharma-body, the perfections come to their fullness at the stage of the fruit; second, or "equal" means neither less nor more — within the dharma-body the perfections are complete, every one, with no increase or decrease among them, unlike the perfections on the bodhisattva stages, which still wax and wane. In the sequence: to bar the doubt that those to be tamed might raise toward the Great Teacher — "is he all-knowing, or is he not?" — this line is spoken.

Seventeenth: "the merit of showing forth Buddha-lands differing according to a being's excellent resolve" opens out the sutra line "the wondrous wisdom of the Tathagata's unmixed liberation, brought to the end." Observing the differing resolves of beings, he shows forth Buddha-lands of gold, of silver, and the rest, each unmixed with the others; when the World-Honored One's resolve stands present, whatever the assembly delights in appears, all of it, nothing unknown — hence it is called "the wondrous wisdom of the Tathagata's liberation, brought to the end." Asvabhava adds a gloss of his own: the word "liberation" here is read as "resolve." In the sequence: hearing the words "all Buddhas are equal," one might suppose that all Buddhas must then be of one single nature; to bar this doubt, "unmixed" is spoken.

Eighteenth: "the merit of the three kinds of Buddha-body being without limit of place" opens out the sutra line "realizing the equality of the Buddha-stage 'without middle, without bound'." Asvabhava keeps three readings: first, as the world is without middle and without bound, so too the Buddha-stage — its merits without limit of place. Second, or: the worlds being boundless in place, the three bodies of the Buddhas fill them equally, measured to the worlds' own measure — the dharma-body and the rest abide in just these worlds, and nowhere else. Third, or: the dharma-body and the rest fill the Buddha-stage equally — without middle, without bound, without limit of place — this dharma-body present everywhere, working benefit for sentient beings; and yet, "not that its own nature is without middle and bound" (Asvabhava's own words). In the sequence: "neither one nor different — then what is its characteristic?" To answer this question, the line "realizing the equality of the Buddha-stage without middle, without bound" is spoken.

Nineteenth: "the merit of, to the very end of birth-and-death, ever showing forth benefit and joy to all sentient beings" opens out the sutra line "reaching the very end of the dharma-realm." Because the dharma-realm is utterly pure, it can send forth the sutras and the rest — the teachings that flow out from it; reaching the very end of this dharma-realm, toward all the sentient beings of times to come, as each is fit, he can ever show forth benefit and joy. In the sequence: "permanent, impermanent — every such pair falls within the two extremes; how then is there a no-characteristic?" To step past this difficulty, "reaching the very end of the dharma-realm" is spoken — utterly pure, parted from every elaboration: such is the characteristic of the dharma-realm.

Twentieth: "the merit that is without end" opens out the sutra line "exhausting the nature of empty space." Empty space has non-obstruction for its nature, and toward resistant things, non-obstructing is its work; "nature" means realm — it holds its own characteristic. To exhaust the nature of empty space: as space is without edge or bound, without exhaustion or lessening, without birth, without ceasing, without change, at every moment presently receiving all that resists — so too the dharma-body: ever presently marked by working the benefit and joy of all sentient beings, through every realm doing beings every good, without rest.

Twenty-first: the final "and the rest" at the close of the treatise's list takes in the merit of the ultimate, which opens out the sutra line "penetrating to the boundless reach of the future." This merit reaches through the end of the future, ever unbroken — to the limit of the limitless future — showing that the Buddha's merits are never exhausted, because the beings to be tamed are never exhausted. And here the sequence too comes to rest: all these kinds of deeds for the good of beings — for how long a time? — exhausting the nature of empty space, penetrating to the boundless reach of the future.

Such are the twenty-one lines, each paired with each. Vasubandhu's commentary makes the same pairings line by line, only in the reverse direction — using the sutra lines to gloss the merit-names; the two masters' pairings agree throughout.

The meaning-side: the thirty-two dharmas and the sixteen deeds

By way of meaning, the opening line is "raising, toward all sentient beings, the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy." Asvabhava lists three cases: there is benefit that is not joy — as when one heavy with craving forces himself to the pure practice; there is joy that is not benefit — as when a pleasure-seeker takes his fill of all manner of faulted objects; and there is what is both benefit and joy — as when one whose dust is thin delights in the pure practice. Here the bodhisattva forms this thought: how shall I bring every sentient being to gain the unsurpassed benefit and joy? "Resolve" has wish and settled conviction (欲・勝解) for its own nature; because this resolve surpasses, it is called "the surpassing resolve." All the remaining lines are the several details of this opening line — Asvabhava says the thirty-two dharmas "are displayed severally by the sixteen deeds"; below they are expounded deed by deed, and into every line, "the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy" is to be read back in.

Deed one, the deed of preparatory practice carried on by turns, explains line two, "leading all sentient beings to enter the 'wisdom of the wisdom of all'." Like one lamp lighting a thousand lamps in turn: the bodhisattva leads beings into the wisdom of the wisdom of all, and those who have entered lead others in — preparatory practice carried on by turns, lamp kindling lamp in unbroken line. By this deed, that surpassing resolve of benefit and joy is made to appear.

Deed two, the deed without inversion, explains line three, "knowing of himself, 'by what now, by what wisdom do I borrow my standing'." Even the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy can be inverted — hence one must "know of himself by what he now stands": I have just such hearing-born wisdom, such understanding of the teaching and the realization; I have in myself the capacity to set going, as is fitting, the uninverted preparatory practice. Asvabhava cites the verse: "Whoever takes his own measure, / and strives for the place to be sought, / he, not overtaken by vain toil, / arrives where there is arriving" — and adds that verses of this kind should be recited at large.

Deed three, the deed of preparatory practice undertaken of itself, without waiting for another's request, explains line four, "crushing pride." Though no one comes to ask, the bodhisattva goes to them of himself and teaches the true Dharma.

Deed four, the deed that does not waver or break, explains line five, "a firm and surpassing resolve." The manifold sufferings of birth-and-death cannot shake or break the mind he has raised — hence, "firm."

Deed five, the deed without seeking-and-defilement, has three lines of difference, explaining line six, "a compassion not feigned," line seven, "a mind level toward kin and not-kin," and line eight, "being ever a good friend, to the very last limit of nirvana." Asvabhava displays the three by a threefold contrast of defiled and undefiled. Where there is defiled bondage, compassion is feigned from a cause of craving — a taking-up for a while; where there is no defiled bondage, the compassion is not feigned, and at no time does he let go — this explains "a compassion not feigned." Where compassion rests on craving, then toward kin and not-kin there is love and there is anger, and the mind is not level; where the mind is without defilement, toward the two alike it turns evenly — this explains "a mind level toward kin and not-kin." Where compassion is made from craving, it follows only to the end of this life; where compassion is born without craving, then life after life the pitying mind constantly follows — hence the bodhisattva, to the very limit of nirvana, is a good friend for ever.

Deed six, the deed of fitting speech-deed and body-deed, has two lines of difference, explaining line nine, "speaking to measure," and line ten, "speaking first with a smile." Asvabhava says only this: the two lines are explained as the speech-deed and the body-deed that are "fitting" to the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy.

Deed seven, the deed that is level amid pleasure, amid pain, and amid the neither-of-the-two, explains line eleven, "a great compassion without limit." If great compassion arose only toward those in pain, it could not reach those in pleasure or in equanimity — the turning of one part only, not the level deed. The bodhisattva's great compassion sees the beings held in pleasure, in pain, and in the neither-painful-nor-pleasant all alike pursued by the manifold sufferings of birth-and-death, and pities them equally, without difference — hence it is called the level deed.

Deed eight, the deed that is not lowly, explains line twelve, "not flinching from any task taken on." Devoted wholly to pulling every sentient being to rescue, as one who shoulders a heavy burden: seeing the burden, his mind knows no dread; he does not lay down the toil; and as he has shouldered it, so he accomplishes it — hence, the deed that is not lowly.

Deed nine, the deed that does not turn back, explains line thirteen, "a mind without weariness." The manifold wrong and evil doings of the beings he is taming cannot make him turn back — for this is a deed joined to the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy.

Deed ten, the deed of the means of attraction, explains line fourteen, "never tiring of hearing the meaning." "Hearing" is the hearing of the sutras and the rest — not hearing at random; "the meaning" is the sense which those teachings express. Of this hearing and this meaning he never has his fill — and this is the very nature of the skillful means that gathers in and ripens sentient beings; hence it is named the deed of the means of attraction. Never sated with hearing and with meaning, he guides beings as far as each can bear, in accord with right reason.

Deed eleven, the deed of loathing what is to be countered, has two lines of difference, explaining line fifteen, "with respect to his own wrongdoing, deeply seeing the fault," and line sixteen, "with respect to others' wrongdoing, not being angry but counseling well." "What is to be countered" means craving, anger, and the rest; because he would have them far removed, it is called loathing. Only one who sees the fault deep within his own wrongdoing, and swiftly turns from it, can restrain another from what should not be done — for then his word carries weight; no other can restrain. Asvabhava cites a sutra verse: "He who himself abides in wrong conduct, / and so receives the taunts of others, / that man will never be able / to halt another's fault." And he cites also a worldly saying: "He who, having erred, / lets time pass without examining, / who does not, as reason bids, part from it — / in pride he takes no virtue from it." If one corrects another's fault while harboring anger, it is neither benefit nor means; the word carries no weight, and the other turns away instead, setting wrong conduct of every kind in motion. Hence the further verse: "With pity, as toward an only child, / counsel and raise up what he has done wrong, / so that he surely takes it and holds it, / and afterward offends no more."

Deed twelve, the deed of unbroken attention, explains line seventeen, "ever cultivating the awakening-mind through all the postures." In every deed done, everywhere, without interruption he cultivates the awakening-mind. Asvabhava cites the Sutra of Purified Conduct (所行清淨契經): "Whenever he sees one seated, / let him form this thought: / may all sentient beings / take their seat upon the seat of awakening" — and adds, "and so on, through verses of this kind."

Deed thirteen, the deed of advancing conduct, has seven lines of difference, explaining lines eighteen through twenty-four — the right preparatory practice of the six perfections (giving without craving the fruit; upholding the precepts without leaning on any destiny; practicing patience toward sentient beings without anger or hindrance; vigorously exerting himself to take up all good dharmas; forsaking the formless realm to cultivate meditative absorption; cultivating wisdom in accord with skillful means), together with the making of means through the four means of attraction. Parting from the faults to be countered, as told before, on the stage of Extreme Joy and on each stage beyond, these grow ever stronger, advancing toward fullness; they are named a "deed" because they are things done. Asvabhava says of them himself: the first four perfections are easy, and he does not gloss them; where there is something distinctive, he explains briefly. Forsaking the formless realm to cultivate absorption: the bodhisattva is not born in the formless realm, for there he sees no deeds that could be done for the benefit and joy of beings; nor does he enter again and again the formless attainments, for he sees there no support for much merit. "Forsaking" means parting. Cultivating wisdom in accord with skillful means: cultivating the wondrous wisdom joined with great compassion, by which the deeds that benefit beings can be done; were this lacking, the benefit and joy of sentient beings would have no footing at all — and it is for just this that he seeks the Buddha-fruit. The verse: "Cultivating wisdom and compassion as a pair, / he can work the good of others; / benefiting others, walking the right path, / he tends toward awakening alone." The four means of attraction: giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and shared purpose (同義 — Asvabhava's wording for the fourth). Asvabhava keeps a double pairing: first — by giving he gathers them in; by kindly speech he opens their understanding through fitting means, teaching the character of the dharmas; by beneficial conduct he urges each, as is fitting, to practice the good; by shared purpose, at the last, he brings them to gain the uncommon merits alike. Second — or: by giving he makes them vessels of the Dharma; by kindly speech he brings them settled conviction in the Dharma; by beneficial conduct, resting on that conviction, they set right practice going; by shared purpose, the practice so raised turns purer still, subtler still — and thus the nature of the means is gathered whole.

Deed fourteen, the deed of the preparatory practice brought to fullness, has six lines of difference, explaining eight lines of the sutra — Asvabhava resolves the count himself: "the six lines, 'drawing near to good people' and the rest, explain the eight lines the sutra states; for 'the merit of attention' and 'the merit of the helping companion' each explain two." By this preparatory practice, fullness is reached — hence its name; and this is the deed. Pair by pair: "a mind without duality toward the precept-keeper, the precept-breaker, and the good friend" (explaining "drawing near to good people") — one of good conduct is called precept-keeper, one of bad conduct precept-breaker; toward either of the two, if he can teach the Dharma, then — for the sake of hearing the Dharma, out of reverence for the Dharma — the thought "good friend" arises without any difference. For this reason, one is not to say of the precept-breaker, without more, that he is no good friend. The verse: "Though his footing in the precepts be weak and lame, / if he can preach well and benefit many, / like the Buddha, the Great Teacher, he should be honored — / for love of his good preaching, he is made like him." "Hearing the true Dharma with an earnest heart" — within the broad meaning as it has been taught, one should hear the Dharma by the sixteen modes. "Abiding in the wilderness with an earnest heart" — beyond a krosa's distance from the settlement is called wilderness; to dwell there is called abiding; to abide as is fitting, without slackness, is the earnest heart. "Taking no delight in worldly miscellany" (explaining "keeping far from evil deliberation") — not delighting in the world's songs, laughter, dances, and suchlike miscellany: this is precisely keeping far from the wrong deliberations joined to desire and the rest. The merit of attention (explaining two lines: "never once yearning after the lesser vehicle," "deeply seeing the merit within the Great Vehicle") — forsaking love for the vehicles of sravaka and pratyekabuddha, joined instead to love of the Great Vehicle's merit. The merit of the helping companion (explaining two lines: "keeping far from evil friends," "drawing near to good friends").

Deed fifteen, the deed brought to fullness, has three lines of difference — measureless purity, gaining great might, and realizing merit — explaining the sutra's three lines: "ever cultivating the four divine abodes," "ever disporting in the five higher knowledges," and "making wisdom his resort." Asvabhava says: the characteristic of fullness is named the deed of fullness; the word "deed" here is another name for "characteristic." Measureless purity glosses the four divine abodes: the four measureless minds — loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity — are named the four abodes of Brahma (四梵住); by them it is made known that all his inner virtues stand full and pure. Gaining great might glosses the five higher knowledges: to disport in the five knowledges is called might; the knowledge of the exhaustion of the outflows, being the wisdom of liberation, is named the great might — or, the bodhisattva's surpassing spiritual power is what is named the great might — and this too is a characteristic of fullness. Realizing merit glosses "making wisdom his resort": he has realized present mastery; each one's own inner realization is named the resort to wisdom — "not to the meaning only; for to resort to consciousness is no peace" (Asvabhava's own words).

Deed sixteen, the deed of establishing them, has four lines of difference — the merit of governing the assembly; instruction and admonition settled and without doubt; the joining of attraction-by-wealth and attraction-by-Dharma into one; and a mind without defilement — explaining the sutra's four lines: "not forsaking the various sentient beings, whether they abide in right conduct or do not," "being settled in his word," "prizing truthfulness and sincerity," and "ever making the great awakening-mind his forerunner." By this, the surpassing resolve of benefit and joy is established in them; this is the deed — hence, the deed of establishing them. The merit of governing the assembly glosses "not forsaking": toward the precept-keeping and the precept-breaking alike, whether driving out or taking in, his one wish is to bring them out of the unwholesome place and establish them in the good — this is called not forsaking. Instruction and admonition settled and without doubt glosses "being settled in his word": for so his word carries weight; a word unsettled carries none. The joining of wealth and Dharma into one glosses "prizing truthfulness and sincerity": the attraction by wealth and the attraction by Dharma are joined into one kind; amassing wealth and Dharma without discriminating between them, he distributes them evenly, as first promised — giving just so, save only what he does not presently have. The verse: "The offering of wealth can bring / beings to live out their span; / the offering of Dharma can bring / the ultimate calm divine." A mind without defilement glosses "ever making the great awakening-mind his forerunner": because he is held by the awakening-mind, in whatever he does he never covets another's service or offerings — he seeks only the realization of unsurpassed awakening.

The treatise-master closes the section on the sense of the words with a verse: "From the first line come, severally, / the classes of the way of merit; / from the first line come, severally, / the differences of the way of meaning" — the twenty-one lines of the quality-side and the thirty-two of the meaning-side all open out, in their differences, from a single first line. Asvabhava says here only: "In this gatha the meaning is easily grasped; there is no need to labor the gloss." This exposition does likewise.

Conclusion

This chapter, "The Characteristic of the Knowable," does from beginning to end only one thing — answer our opening problem: the world is plainly before our eyes, on what grounds do we say it is seen wrongly, and how is it to be seen rightly? Its answer is to settle "all that we cognize" onto the map of the three natures. Seen clearly: the world outside the mind that we grasp as real (the wholly-imagined) was never there from the start, it is that layer of false appearance forcibly pasted on; what really flows is only the condition-born, seeming-yet-not-real consciousness (the other-dependent), like a dream, like an illusion, like a mirage, like the moon in water; and right upon this seeming-yet-not-real dependent arising, seeing through that "the falsely-grasped realm eternally falls away," the suchness disclosed at that instant (the perfectly-accomplished) is the home of liberation — that is, the gold shown forth after the block of ore has been smelted by the fire of non-conceptual wisdom. The three natures rest on one substance, divided by angle, and so birth-and-death and nirvana are not two, permanent and impermanent are not two; the hidden intent of all the Buddha's words can be unlocked by this one key.

Yet to have seen the characteristic clearly is, after all, still only to "know." What the next chapter, "Entering the Characteristic of the Knowable," asks is precisely: having recognized this characteristic of the knowable, how does one truly "enter into" it, turning from ordinary to noble? — from knowing to entering, from the map to setting out on the road: that is the true gateway of practice-realization.

Later Reception

The Thirty Verses inherits the three natures and consciousness-only, Discerning the Middle and Extremes opens the same line through unreal imagining, and the Twenty Verses develops the defense of objectlessness. The Cheng weishi lun adds later distinctions, which may be compared but not read back into this division.