瑜伽師地論 菩薩地 · 發心品

In one line: Lineage is the stuff, arousing the mind is the first right vow set up upon the stuff — arousing the mind has, as its intrinsic nature, the "first right vow" (universally gathering in the remaining vows, with aspiration, faith, and resolute conviction as its essence); it arises from the four conditions (remote), the four causes (intimate), and the four powers (their union), and whether it is firm turns wholly on whether it comes forth from one's own seed and one's own vow.

Three points of the eye:

1. The five marks and the four other names of arousing the mind: intrinsic nature (the first right vow) · mode of activity (resolute seeking of awakening and the welfare of beings) · object (great awakening and the welfare of beings) · quality · supremacy; the four other names = subsumed under entering · the root of awakening · an outflow of great compassion · the basis of training. Arousing the mind is the entrance ticket, the foundation, the outflow of compassion, and the basis of training.
2. The four conditions, four causes, four powers · the criterion of firmness: the four conditions (seeing or hearing supernormal transformation / hearing the bodhisattva-canon / seeing the Dharma about to be lost / arousing the mind hard to come by in the final age) = remote; the four causes (completeness in lineage 〔= surpassing in the six sense-spheres, by the very nature of things · same as the Chapter on Lineage〕 / being gathered in by good friends / compassion / not fearing suffering) = intimate; the four powers (one's own / another's / cause / intensified practice) = the driving force of their union. Arousing through one's own power or the power of cause = firm and unmoving; arousing through another's power or the power of intensified practice = not firm. The four causes-and-conditions of turning back are the reverse of the four causes.
3. The firm bodhisattva's qualities · the merit free of harm: the two most-rare dharmas (gathering in beings as retinue · unstained by the faults of gathering in a retinue) · the two inclinations · the two intensified practices · the two gateways of great wholesome dharmas · the two surpassings of cause and fruit · the two benefits (the revered field of merit · the merit free of harm). The merit free of harm = the doubled protection of a wheel-turning king · little sickness · efficacy of spell-phrases · coarse heaviness turned lighter · swift release even upon falling into an evil destiny, giving rise to compassion (same as the Chapter on Lineage).

Appended pointers:

• Read across with the Chapter on Lineage (15-01-01) — the first of the four causes, "completeness in lineage," is drawn word for word out of the Chapter on Lineage's innately-abiding lineage 〔0481b10 = 0478c13〕; the swift release even upon falling into an evil destiny is of the same tune 〔0482b ≈ 0480a18〕. Lineage (cause) → arousing the mind (vow) → the twofold benefit (conduct) form one line.
• Among the three alternate translations, the fifth mark reads supremacy / surpassing / growth, and the fourth power reads intensified practice / skillful means / adornment; the Section on Ascertainment re-ascertains the sequence of positions by the "ten arousings of the mind" (see the Apparatus, Heading Two).
• The distinction of vow from arousing the mind (Master Yuan), the four conditions as remote and four causes as intimate (Jing / Kuiji), final turning-back (Jing / Tai), and the doubled protection of a wheel-turning king (Jing / Woncheuk) are found under the Apparatus, Heading Four — recorded only, not adjudicated.

The Five Marks of Arousing the Mind

This chapter belongs to the First Section of the fifteenth stage in the Basic Section, the Bodhisattva Stage.

Further: the mind that the bodhisattva first arouses is, among all the right vows held by all bodhisattvas, the "first right vow" — it is able to gather in, universally, all the remaining right vows. And so "arousing the mind" has, as its intrinsic nature, this "first right vow."

Again, when bodhisattvas rouse the mind of right vow and seek awakening, they arouse this mind and speak these words: "May I be resolved to realize unsurpassed perfect awakening, able to work every benefit and welfare for sentient beings, and finally to settle them in the ultimate nirvāṇa and in the vast wisdom of the Tathāgata." Such an arousing of the mind is, resolutely and of oneself, a seeking of unsurpassed awakening, and a seeking to work the benefit and welfare of sentient beings. And so "arousing the mind" has, as its mode of activity, this "resolute seeking."

Again, bodhisattvas arouse the mind and seek in dependence on great awakening and in dependence on all the benefit and welfare of sentient beings; it is not without an object. And so "arousing the mind" has, as its object-field, "great awakening and all the benefit and welfare of sentient beings."

Again, because the bodhisattva's first arousing of the mind takes for its foremost the surpassing wholesome roots of all the factors of awakening, it is wholesome, utterly wholesome; it is worthy, utterly worthy; it is fine, utterly fine; and it is joined with the quality of "running counter to the three kinds of evil bodily, verbal, and mental conduct toward all the sites of sentient beings."

Again, the right vow that arises from the bodhisattva's first arousing of the mind is, compared with all the other fine and wholesome right vows that seek the welfare of this world and of what is beyond this world, the foremost and the unsurpassed. In this way one should know that the first arousing of the mind has five marks: first, its intrinsic nature; second, its mode of activity; third, its object; fourth, its quality; fifth, its supremacy.

The Four Other Names of Arousing the Mind

Again, once bodhisattvas have first aroused the mind, they are at once named "entering upon unsurpassed awakening," listed in advance among the number of the bodhisattvas of the Great Vehicle — this is said according to the principle of conventional speech, and so arousing the mind is "subsumed under entering." Again, bodhisattvas must arouse the mind before they can, by gradual stages, swiftly realize unsurpassed perfect awakening; it is not that they can do so without having aroused it. And so arousing the mind is able to serve as "the root of unsurpassed awakening." Again, bodhisattvas, taking pity on all beings that have suffering, arouse the mind of awakening in order to rescue and deliver them. And so arousing the mind is "an outflow of great compassion." Again, bodhisattvas take the first arousing of the mind as their basis and their establishment, and thereupon are universally able to train, within the bodhisattva-training in all the factors of awakening and in working the welfare of sentient beings. And so arousing the mind is "the basis of all bodhisattva-training." In this way one should know that the first arousing of the mind is subsumed under entering, the root of awakening, an outflow of great compassion, and the basis of training.

Coming Forth for Good and Not Coming Forth for Good · Turning Back and Not Turning Back

Again, the bodhisattva's first arousing of the mind is, put briefly, of two kinds: first, that which comes forth for good; second, that which does not come forth for good. As for "coming forth for good," it is that, after the mind has been aroused, it follows on to the very end and turns no more back. "Not coming forth for good" is that, after the mind has been aroused, it cannot follow on thoroughly, and turns back again. This "turning back of the aroused mind" is again of two kinds: first, final; second, not final. Final turning-back is that, once one has turned back, one cannot again arouse the mind that seeks awakening. Not-final turning-back is that, having turned back, one again and again arouses the mind that seeks awakening.

Four Conditions · Four Causes · Four Powers

One should know that the bodhisattva's first arousing of the mind arises through four kinds of condition, four kinds of cause, and four kinds of power.

The Four Conditions

What are the four conditions? First: there is a son of good family or a daughter of good family who sees that the buddhas and the bodhisattvas possess an inconceivable, most marvelous and rare might of supernormal transformation, or who hears of such a thing from one who is trustworthy; and having seen or heard it, thinks: "Unsurpassed awakening possesses great majestic power, able to make those who abide in it and practice it accomplish such a might of supernormal transformation." Through the dominant power of this seeing and hearing, one deeply gives rise to a settled conviction in great awakening, and thereby arouses the mind of great awakening — this is the first condition for first arousing the mind. Second: there is a class of person who, though not seeing or hearing the might of supernormal transformation as above, yet hears expounded "the marvelous right Dharma and the teaching of the bodhisattva canon that depend upon unsurpassed perfect awakening," and having heard it, deeply believes; through the dominant power of hearing the right Dharma and of deep belief, one deeply gives rise to a settled conviction in the Tathāgata's wisdom, and, in order to attain the Tathāgata's marvelous wisdom, arouses the mind of awakening — this is the second condition. Third: there is a class of person who, though not hearing the right Dharma, yet sees that all the phenomena of the bodhisattva canon are about to be lost and to sink away; and having seen it, thinks: "If the phenomena of the bodhisattva canon long abide in the world, they can extinguish the great suffering of measureless beings. I ought to uphold and maintain the phenomena of the bodhisattva canon, and arouse the mind of awakening, in order to extinguish the great suffering of measureless beings." Through the dominant power of guarding and upholding the phenomena of the bodhisattva canon, one deeply gives rise to a settled conviction in the Tathāgata's wisdom, and, in order to attain the Tathāgata's marvelous wisdom, arouses the mind of awakening — this is the third condition. Fourth: there is a class of person who, though not seeing the right Dharma about to be lost, yet, in the final eon, the final age, the final time, sees that the various defiled and evil beings are, in body and mind, troubled and disturbed by the "ten accompanying afflictions" — that is, much stupidity, much lack of conscience and shame, much stinginess and envy, much grief and suffering, much coarse heaviness, much affliction, much evil conduct, much heedlessness, much indolence, much disbelief; and having seen it, thinks: "In this greatly defiled and evil age, at the very time when the various accompanying afflictions arise and disturb, even those able to arouse the inferior mind of awakening of the śrāvaka or the pratyekabuddha are hard to find, how much more those able to arouse the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening. I ought therefore to arouse the great mind of awakening, so that the measureless sentient beings of this evil age may train in accord with me and rouse the vow of awakening." Through the dominant power of seeing how, in the final eon, arousing the mind is hard to come by, one deeply gives rise to a settled conviction in great awakening, and thereby arouses the mind of great awakening — this is the fourth condition.

The Four Causes

What are the four causes? First: that bodhisattvas are complete in lineage — this is the first cause for first arousing the mind. Second: that bodhisattvas are gathered in by the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, and good friends — this is the second cause. Third: that bodhisattvas often give rise to a heart of compassion toward all beings — this is the third cause. Fourth: that bodhisattvas, in the face of the great suffering of birth-and-death and of the hard and painful practices — over an exceedingly long time, of many kinds, fierce, uninterrupted, and unremitting — have no timidity or fear — this is the fourth cause.

"Complete in lineage" means: if bodhisattvas are surpassing in the six sense-spheres, transmitted on and on from the beginningless world and attained by the very nature of things, this, one should know, is being complete in lineage. "Complete in good friends" may be known by four marks: the good friend one meets is by nature not dull or foolish, but clever, sharp, and wise, and does not fall into evil views (one); he never teaches others to practice heedlessness, nor bestows the instruments of heedlessness (two); he never teaches others to practice evil conduct, nor bestows the instruments of evil conduct (three); and he never urges others to cast off the surpassing faith, aspiration, undertaking-of-training, vigor, skillful means, and quality, and to practice instead the inferior ones — that is, he never urges casting off the Great Vehicle to practice the Two Vehicles, nor casting off the cultivation of wisdom to practice reflection, nor casting off reflection to practice hearing, nor casting off hearing to practice deeds of merit, nor casting off keeping the precepts to practice the giving of wisdom; he never urges casting off surpassing qualities of this kind to practice inferior qualities of this kind (four). "Often giving rise to a heart of compassion" may be known by four causes-and-conditions: though bodhisattvas have, in the ten directions, measureless and boundless worlds without suffering, they are yet born in a world that has suffering, wherein constantly there are the many sufferings to be found; or they see another oppressed by a single suffering, or see themselves oppressed by a single suffering, or see self and others undergoing suffering, or see both alike oppressed for a long time by fierce and uninterrupted great suffering; and this bodhisattva, relying on his own lineage, being by nature kind and worthy, in dependence on these four kinds of situation, though not yet practiced in it, is able to give rise to compassion — lesser, middling, and greater — without break. "Not being timid or fearful in the face of the suffering of birth-and-death" may be known by four causes-and-conditions: bodhisattvas are by nature brave and hardy, enduring and strong (one); by nature keen and clever, able to reflect rightly, complete in the power of discernment (two); able to accomplish, toward unsurpassed perfect awakening, a settled conviction of the highest purity (three); and able to accomplish, toward all beings, a compassion of deep heart of the highest degree (four).

The Four Powers

What are the four powers? First, one's own power; second, another's power; third, the power of cause; fourth, the power of intensified practice. That bodhisattvas, through their own force, are able to give rise to a deep delight in unsurpassed perfect awakening — this is the first power for first arousing the mind. That they give rise to deep delight through the force of another — this is the second power. That bodhisattvas, having in former lives practiced the wholesome dharmas corresponding to the Great Vehicle, are now able — merely by getting to see the buddhas and bodhisattvas for a moment, or merely by getting to hear their praise and acclaim — to arouse the mind of awakening swiftly, how much more so upon personally beholding their spiritual power and personally hearing the right Dharma — this is the third, the power of cause. That bodhisattvas, in the present life, draw near to good persons, hear the right Dharma, reflect on it truly, and so forth, and over a long time cultivate the many kinds of wholesome dharmas, and, through this intensified practice, arouse the mind of awakening — this is the fourth, the power of intensified practice.

Firm and Not Firm

If bodhisattvas, in dependence on the four conditions and four causes above, general and particular, arouse the mind whether through their own power, or through the power of cause, or through the combining of these two powers, one should know that this mind is firm and unmoving. If they arouse the mind through another's power, or through the power of intensified practice, or through the combining of these two powers, one should know that this mind is neither firm nor solid, and is not unmoving either.

The Four Causes-and-Conditions of Turning Back

There are four causes-and-conditions able to make a bodhisattva turn back and lose the mind of awakening. Which four? First, incompleteness of lineage; second, being gathered in by evil friends; third, being thin and slight in compassion toward all beings; fourth, that toward the great suffering of birth-and-death and the hard and painful practices — over an exceedingly long time, of many kinds, fierce, uninterrupted, and unremitting — the mind gives rise to extreme timidity, fear, and terror. These four causes-and-conditions that make the mind turn back are the reverse of the four causes for arousing the mind above; to expound their marks in full, one should know them as before (under the four causes).

The Various Surpassing Qualities of the Firm Bodhisattva

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind has, put briefly, two dharmas that are uncommon in the world and most rare and wondrous. Which two? First, he gathers in all beings as his retinue; second, having gathered in a retinue, he is not stained by the "faults of gathering in a retinue." The faults of gathering in a retinue are of two kinds: namely, "benefiting-or-diminishing" and "defiling favor-or-disfavor" toward the retinue. Of these two matters, the bodhisattva has neither.

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind gives rise, toward all beings, to two kinds of wholesome and surpassing inclination: first, the inclination to benefit; second, the inclination to bring ease. The inclination to benefit is to rescue beings out of the various unwholesome places and settle them in wholesome places. The inclination to bring ease is, toward beings who are poor and destitute, without refuge and without support, to be free of a defiling mind and to give them the many kinds of beneficial instruments of ease.

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind has two intensified practices: first, the intensified practice of inclination; second, the intensified practice of right conduct. The intensified practice of inclination is that those inclinations to benefit and to bring ease grow day and night. The intensified practice of right conduct is that day and night he is able himself to carry out the intensified practice that ripens the buddha-dharma, and, toward beings, according to what he can and to his power, in dependence on the intensified practice of inclination spoken of before, to set up the intensified practice that gives benefit and ease.

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind has two gateways for the growth of great wholesome dharmas: first, the intensified practice of self-benefit, able to realize unsurpassed perfect awakening; second, the intensified practice of benefiting others, able to release all sentient beings from the many sufferings. As with these two gateways for the growth of great wholesome dharmas, so too, one should know, are the two great gatherings of wholesome dharmas and the two measureless great treasuries of wholesome dharmas.

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind, by reason of the first arousing of the mind that seeks awakening, has wholesome dharmas gathered in that surpass, in two ways, all the other wholesome dharmas gathered in: first, surpassing in cause; second, surpassing in fruit. That is, all the wholesome dharmas the bodhisattva gathers in are the realizing-cause of unsurpassed perfect awakening, and the unsurpassed perfect awakening realized is their fruit; therefore they surpass even all the wholesome dharmas gathered in by the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, how much more all the wholesome dharmas gathered in by other sentient beings. Therefore the wholesome dharmas the bodhisattva gathers in surpass, in both cause and fruit, all the other wholesome dharmas gathered in.

Two Benefits of Arousing the Mind · The Merit Free of Harm

The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind has, put briefly, two benefits of arousing the mind. First, once he has first aroused the mind of awakening, he is at once a field of merit revered by beings, one whom all beings ought to serve and make offerings to, and he becomes as well the father and mother of all beings. Second, once he has first aroused the mind of awakening, he is at once able to gather in the "merit free of harm."

Because this bodhisattva accomplishes such merit free of harm, he obtains the guardianship of a "doubled protection of a wheel-turning king"; and by obtaining such guardianship, whether asleep, awake, or in a swoon, all the sprites, yakṣas, house-spirits, humans, non-humans, and the like are unable to trouble or harm him. Again, when this bodhisattva takes on a further birth, held by this merit, he has little sickness or no sickness, and is not touched by long, grave illness; toward the welfare he works for beings, he is able, with body and speech, bravely to work it; he constantly expounds the right Dharma for beings, and his body is without utter weariness, his mindfulness without lapse, his mind without wearing thin. While the bodhisattva is yet in the phase of the innately-abiding lineage, all his coarse heaviness is, by its own nature, thin and slight; and once he has aroused the mind, all his coarse heaviness turns lighter still — that is, both the coarse heaviness of body and the coarse heaviness of mind. If, in order to quell epidemic and calamity, other beings use spell-phrases and bright-phrases that have no efficacy, the bodhisattva, using them, is yet able to make them efficacious, how much more those that are already efficacious. He accomplishes a surpassing gentleness and patience, able to bear the troubling of others without troubling others; seeing others trouble one another, he gives rise to deep compassionate distress. Wrath, envy, flattery, and the other accompanying afflictions he is able to crush and to make thin and slight; and if for a moment they do become active, he is able swiftly to dispel them. In whatever land or city or town he dwells, all the terrors, quarrels, and famines therein, and the epidemics and calamities worked by non-humans, do not arise if they have not arisen, and if they should arise, are straightway extinguished. Again, this bodhisattva of the first arousing of the mind may at some time be born amid the utterly evil destinies, in the hells; yet for the most part he swiftly attains release in this hell-destiny, undergoes but slight suffering, gives rise to great weariness-and-disgust, and toward the beings undergoing suffering there gives rise to a heart of great compassion — all of this by reason of having gathered in the merit free of harm. The bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind, by being able to gather in the merit free of harm, thereby comes to receive such and so many surpassing benefits.

After Lineage, Why Speak Next of Arousing the Mind

The Chapter on Lineage established the root of buddhahood — the innately-abiding lineage (the Chapter on Lineage already clarified that its Consciousness-Only reading is the naturally-present uncontaminated seeds within the store consciousness); but lineage is only a "capacity," not a "motion." Already within the Chapter on Lineage the treatise left a foreshadowing: "Again, a person abiding in the lineage, if he does not arouse the mind and does not cultivate the intensified practice of the bodhisattva's conduct, then though he has the capacity, he will not swiftly realize unsurpassed awakening" 〔Chapter on Lineage〕. And so, among the ten dharmas, the first of the "upholdings" is lineage, and the second is the first arousing of the mind — lineage is the stuff, and arousing the mind is the first vow set up upon the stuff. The Chapter on Arousing the Mind is precisely about this vow: its essence, how it arises, whether it is firm, and what merit it holds.

The treatise places arousing the mind in the position of "the upholding that is the intensified practice of conduct" 〔this treatise〕: lineage is the upholding that is the capacity-nature (the ground on which one can become a buddha), arousing the mind is the upholding that is the intensified practice of conduct (the basis on which practice sets out), and the factors of awakening are the upholding that is great awakening (the basis for the perfecting of the fruit). These three upholdings form one line; arousing the mind stands in the middle, taking up from lineage and opening onto practice.

What Is Arousing the Mind: Its Five Marks

Then what, after all, is "arousing the mind"? The treatise is not vague; it gives five facets 〔this treatise〕.

Its intrinsic nature is the "first right vow" — "among all the right vows held by all bodhisattvas it is the first right vow, universally able to gather in the remaining right vows". The measureless great vows of a bodhisattva's whole life (the four universal vows, the ten great vows…) all take root from this single thought; hence it is named "first," hence it is able to "universally gather in." Kuiji points further to its very essence: "That is, aspiration, faith, and resolute conviction are its essence, or the subsequently-attained knowledge is its essence" 〔Kuiji〕 — arousing the mind is not a passing emotion; it is a settled vow held up by aspiration, faith, and resolute conviction (and even the subsequently-attained knowledge). Its mode of activity is "resolute seeking": one arouses this mind and speaks these words, "May I be resolved to realize unsurpassed perfect awakening, able to work every benefit and welfare for sentient beings" — seeking awakening above and benefiting beings below, the two raised together. Its object is precisely these two matters: great awakening and the welfare of beings; arousing the mind is no empty vow without an object. Its quality is that it takes for its foremost the wholesome roots of the factors of awakening and runs counter to the three kinds of evil conduct. Its supremacy is that it is the very first among all the right vows of this world and beyond this world.

The treatise gives arousing the mind four other names as well: subsumed under entering (to arouse the mind is at once to be counted among the bodhisattvas), the root of awakening (without arousing the mind one cannot realize it), an outflow of great compassion (it is aroused out of pity), and the basis of training (all bodhisattva-training is cultivated on this). A single vow that is at once the entrance ticket, the foundation, the welling-up of compassion, and the basis of training — this is just the weight that "arousing the mind" carries within the bodhisattva path.

How Arousing the Mind Comes About: The Four Conditions, Four Causes, Four Powers

But how is such a vow kindled within a person's heart? The treatise speaks of it in three layers: the four conditions, the four causes, the four powers. The ancient masters put the relation of these three layers excellently: "The four conditions are remote, the four causes are intimate; because the union of cause and condition has driving force, it is named the four powers" 〔Dunlun citing Jing; Kuiji the same〕 — the conditions are the remote outer circumstance, the causes are the intimate inner endowment, and the powers are the driving force born of the union of cause and condition.

The four conditions are four outer circumstances that trigger it: seeing or hearing the might of supernormal transformation of the buddhas and bodhisattvas; hearing the right Dharma of the bodhisattva-canon teaching; seeing that the phenomena of the bodhisattva canon are about to be lost and wishing to guard them; and seeing that in the defiled and evil final age arousing the mind is hard to come by, and rousing oneself. The fourth condition is especially moving: precisely because "in this greatly defiled and evil age … even those able to arouse the inferior mind of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha are hard to find, how much more those of unsurpassed awakening," the bodhisattva instead thinks, "I ought to arouse the great mind of awakening, so that the measureless sentient beings of this evil age may train in accord with me and rouse the vow of awakening" — the harder it is, the more one must arouse it.

The four causes are four inner endowments: completeness in lineage, being gathered in by good friends, compassion, and not fearing the suffering of birth-and-death. Of these the first cause, "completeness in lineage," the treatise defines word for word out of the Chapter on Lineage: "surpassing in the six sense-spheres, transmitted on and on from the beginningless world, attained by the very nature of things" 〔= Chapter on Lineage〕 — the first cause of arousing the mind is precisely the innately-abiding lineage clarified in the Chapter on Lineage (its Consciousness-Only reading as the uncontaminated seeds within the store consciousness has already been seen in the Chapter on Lineage's apparatus). This one line locks the two chapters together: lineage is the cause within the cause, arousing the mind is the vow upon the cause. The distinction of condition from cause the ancient masters draw clearly: merely seeing supernormal transformation is "remote" (a condition); being gathered in and instructed by a good friend is "intimate" (a cause) 〔Dunlun〕.

The four powers are the driving forces of arousing the mind: one's own power, another's power, the power of cause, and the power of intensified practice. Here the treatise sets up an exceedingly important criterion: the mind aroused through one's own power or the power of cause (or the combining of the two) is firm and unmoving; the mind aroused through another's power or the power of intensified practice (or the combining of the two) is neither firm nor solid. Why? Kuiji answers it through: another's power is "a king or one who has power compelling one to arouse the mind," not the mind's own seeing of the buddha and arousing, and so it is movable; one's own power and the power of cause are aroused from one's own seed and one's own vow, and so are unmoving 〔Kuiji〕. Whether the aroused mind is firm turns wholly on whether it has grown out of one's own seed and one's own vow, or been pushed out by an outer force. Conversely, the four causes-and-conditions of turning back (incompleteness of lineage, evil friends, thin compassion, fear of suffering) are precisely the reverse of the four causes — turning back is the lack of the causes.

Once a Firm Mind Is Aroused, What Grows from It

The treatise last lays out, layer upon layer, a whole series of surpassing qualities of "the bodhisattva firm in the first arousing of the mind": he gathers in beings as his retinue yet is unstained by the faults of gathering in a retinue; he gives rise to the two inclinations of benefit and of ease; he raises the two intensified practices of inclination and of right conduct; he opens the two gateways of self-benefit and benefiting-others; and the wholesome dharmas he gathers in surpass, in both cause and fruit, those of the Two Vehicles. And the most concrete, the most palpable, are the "two benefits of arousing the mind": first, "he is at once a field of merit revered by beings, the father and mother of all beings"; second, he "gathers in the merit free of harm."

The merit free of harm the treatise depicts almost tenderly: the bodhisattva who has aroused the mind obtains a "doubled protection of a wheel-turning king" — Master Jing says that one wheel-turning king already has five hundred blue-clad spirits as guards, and the bodhisattva who has aroused the mind has these doubled, obtaining a thousand spirit-guards 〔Dunlun〕; asleep, awake, or in a swoon, sprites and yakṣas cannot trouble him; born again, he has little sickness or none; expounding the Dharma, his body is without utter weariness; and even the coarse heaviness that was already thin while he was yet in the innately-abiding lineage turns, once the mind is aroused, lighter still; wrath, envy, flattery, and the other accompanying afflictions he can crush and make thin; the terrors, quarrels, famines, and calamities of the land where he dwells, do not arise if unarisen, and if arisen are straightway extinguished. And the most telling stroke of all returns once more to the old tune of the Chapter on Lineage: "he may at some time be born amid the utterly evil destinies, in the hells; yet for the most part he swiftly attains release in this hell-destiny … and toward the beings undergoing suffering there gives rise to a heart of great compassion" — this is exactly the same as what the Chapter on Lineage says: "though born amid the evil destinies, by reason of the power of lineage, one should know that he differs greatly from others born into the evil destinies". The ground given by lineage and the vow set up by arousing the mind are here both redeemed into a power that "even falling into hell cannot burn away, but on the contrary gives rise to compassion."

The One Meaning This Chapter Casts into Light

The Chapter on Arousing the Mind may look like a mere specification-sheet for the "mind of awakening," but it in fact expounds through that one step between lineage (cause) and practice (conduct) — the setting-up of the vow. It tells us: arousing the mind is the "first right vow" that gathers in all vows (with aspiration, faith, and resolute conviction as its essence); it arises from remote condition, intimate cause, and the power of their union, and whether it is firm turns wholly on whether it has grown out of one's own seed and one's own vow; and once firm, it grows into the revered field of merit and the merit free of harm, so that even falling into an evil destiny becomes provisioning for compassion. The Chapter on Lineage says "whether you are the stuff"; the Chapter on Arousing the Mind says "the first vow set up upon the stuff" — to have lineage but not arouse the mind is for the stuff to remain mere stuff; to arouse a firm mind is for the bodhisattva path truly to set out.

Carrying Forward

The meaning of arousing the mind in this chapter is carried forward by the later treatise-parts and read across: the Chapter on Lineage (the same stage) clarifies that lineage is the first cause of arousing the mind (surpassing in the six sense-spheres, by the very nature of things), and the Chapter on Arousing the Mind takes it up to set up the first right vow — cause and vow taking up from one another. The Section on Ascertainment separately sets up a Chapter Ascertaining the Arousing of the Mind, which, by the "ten arousings of the mind" — from the conventionally-received and the attaining-of-the-nature-of-dharmas up to the already-fruited — re-ascertains the arousing of the mind with respect to the sequence of positions of ordinary being and sage, of defilement and purity, of cause and fruit; this and the present chapter's "marks, causes, and powers of the first arousing of the mind" set each other off on two axes. And the Chapter on the Twofold Benefit (the same stage) takes up from arousing the mind to open the conduct of self-benefit and benefiting-others — arousing the mind being the basis of training. Three chapters form one line: lineage (cause) → arousing the mind (vow) → the twofold benefit (conduct).