瑜伽師地論 菩薩地 · 初持瑜伽處 · 菩薩功德品

In one line: This chapter is the last chapter of the First Section of Yoga; four uddānas lead off twenty-seven passages, which Dunlun judges to be "making clear the cause made complete, the fruit made full" 〔T42n1828 0560a11–a15〕 — using "the not-marvelous is what is utterly marvelous" to turn over the marks of virtue; using the two mirrors of "semblance / real merit" to tell true from false; and using the four designations-and-establishments (Dharma · truths · principle · vehicles) together with the four investigations and four thorough knowings-as-they-are (pointing back in plain words to the Chapter on the Real Meaning) to fix the bodhisattva's utmost merit as "thoroughly knowing all dharmas as they are." Its Ascertainment, the Ascertainment of the Chapter on Merits in the Section on Ascertainment, first refutes the wrongly-grasped emptiness, sets up the eight superiorities and the five characteristics of the ultimate truth, and embeds the whole Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra on a large scale (the appropriating consciousness · the store consciousness · mind-mentation-and-consciousness · tranquillity-and-insight) — the point of the doctrinal eye is fastened to this single consciousness-only line. The close knots at "it should be known that these are named true bodhisattvas," and the eighteen chapters of the First Section are wholly complete.

Three points of the eye:

1. The turning-over of the marks of virtue · the five stations of endeavor · the two mirrors of true and false (eye): five utterly marvelous (giving rise to close affection without cause or condition / constantly abiding in birth-and-death and enduring measureless suffering / being well able to tame hard-to-convert beings / being able accordingly to awaken into the reality-principle exceedingly hard to comprehend / the inconceivable great might of spirit-power 〔0545b27–c02〕, "not held in common with any of the remaining sentient beings") ↔ five not-marvelous yet named utterly marvelous (taking the suffering of benefiting others for one's own happiness, and so on 〔from 0545c06〕) — Jing "gathering others in as oneself, and so we know it is marvelous" / Ji "character / intent · measured among one's own kind or against the two vehicles" 〔T43n1829 0157a03–a05〕 / Ce "forsaking the savor of the happiness of silence to convert the beings," the three masters set side by side 〔T42n1828 0560a18–b06〕; the not-vain endeavor points back in plain words to the Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables 〔around 0546a28〕. The five kinds of unerring endeavor (safeguarding / faultless / the power of discerning-and-selecting / pure and dominant intention / falling-into-the-settled 〔0546b07〕), which Dunlun reads "the latter three by station: the power of discerning-and-selecting before the grounds · pure and dominant intention the first ground to the seventh · falling-into-the-settled the eighth, ninth, tenth grounds" 〔T42n1828 0560b06–b13〕; the five semblance merits that are really faults 〔0546c05〕 ↔ the five real merits 〔0546c12〕 (the same deportment · the same giving · the same preaching of the Dharma, parted by a single thought of true or false, "revealing the true Dharma, blocking and extinguishing every resemblance of the true Dharma"); taming unerringly in ten places 〔0546c18〕, where Dunlun records the old treatise / "handed down by tradition" / "this reading is not so," transcribed and not adjudicated 〔T42n1828 0560b13–b18〕.

2. The four designations-and-establishments · the four investigations and four thorough knowings-as-they-are · reconnecting to the Chapter on the Real Meaning (eye · the peak of the consciousness-only meaning): the four designations of Dharma / truths / principle / vehicles, "only the Tathāgatas and the bodhisattvas are able rightly to designate" 〔from 0547b17〕; the designation of the Dharma, the twelvefold teaching (Ji "compiling means the sūtras, setting-in-place means the mātṛkā, instituting means the Vinaya" 〔T43n1829 0157a19–a21〕); the designation of the truths, one truth → ten truths, "if analyzed at length it should be known to be measureless" 〔0547b25–c16〕 (the truths of the ascending gates matched by Jing, Ce, and Ji, Ji "dharma-nature means suchness" · "the first four are the four truths, the last one the non-established truth" 〔T42n1828 0560c18–0561a13〕); the designation of principle, the four principles 〔0547c16〕 (Dunlun "the old treatise points to the Chapter on the Lineage of Powers · this reading is not so · now following the Śrāvaka Stage, fascicle 25, the four principles of dependence and the rest" 〔T42n1828 0561a09–a13〕); the designation of the vehicles, the three vehicles by seven modes of character, the first mode of character of the unsurpassed great vehicle "the wisdom of deliverance that is the non-conceptual equality-nature, taking as object the matter free of verbal expression, the suchness present within all dharmas" 〔0547c26–c27〕 (two readings of "the support of this wisdom": the Tripiṭaka-master / Master [Kuiji cites] "the mind-king · concentration" ↔ Ce "the seed-support · the immediately-antecedent support," set side by side 〔T42n1828 0561a13–a15; T43n1829 0157b02–b03〕); the four investigations (name / thing / the designation of intrinsic nature / the designation of distinctions) and the four thorough knowings-as-they-are both point back in plain words to the Chapter on the Real Meaning, "these four kinds, if analyzed at length, should be known as before, in the Chapter on the Real Meaning" 〔0548a05–a13〕 (the right establishing of the well-grasped emptiness is in the Chapter on the Real Meaning 〔0488c28–0489a08〕).

3. The five immeasurables · the seven great natures · the eight dharmas that gather the great vehicle · the ten kinds of bodhisattva, knotting at the true bodhisattva (eye): the five immeasurables (the realm of sentient beings / the worlds / the dharma-realm / the realm of those to be tamed / the realm of the skillful means of taming 〔0548a14〕), the realm of sentient beings "sixty-four kinds of assemblies of sentient beings … as before, in the Stage of the Mental, itemized" 〔0548a17〕 (Dunlun matching against the Xianyang · the old treatise's sixty-one · "'Sahā' is here translated 'endurance'" 〔T42n1828 0561a17–a19〕), the realm of those to be tamed at fifty-five categories 〔0548b13〕 (Ce cites the Nirvāṇa-sūtra's case of Śāriputra's two disciples, the pearl-stringer / the laundryman, to display taming from afar and near at hand 〔T42n1828 0561b01–b08〕), the boundary between the realm of sentient beings and the realm of those to be tamed "only those who abide in the lineage, changing over at this or that phase, may be named the realm of those to be tamed" 〔around 0548b20〕; the five great fruits of preaching the Dharma 〔0548c02〕; the seven great natures (Dharma · arousing the mind · resolute conviction · dominant intention · the provisions · time · complete realization, the first six cause · complete realization fruit 〔0548c12–0549a06〕, Dunlun "the same as the Xianyang · the Abhidharma-samuccaya and the Sūtrālaṃkāra the same in substance under different names" · greatness in the provisions, Ce from the second ground up / Jing through both before and upon the grounds 〔T42n1828 0561b12–b18〕); the eight dharmas that gather the great vehicle 〔0548c28〕 (Jing by teaching-practice-fruit · Ce by station, set side by side 〔T42n1828 0561b18–b23〕); the ten kinds of bodhisattva 〔0549a07〕 (bound by one more birth · abiding in the final existence: Ji cites the Upadeśa's three births of Maitreya matched to the three bodies · Ce cites the Avataṃsaka · the Silla Master Yin glosses distinctly, three masters and three scriptures set side by side 〔T42n1828 0561c07–c25〕); the sixteen names according to virtue 〔0549a25–b01〕 (Jing cites the Abhidharma-samuccaya · "'bodhi-being' is common to the three vehicles · 'great being' is the particular name of the great vehicle alone" 〔T42n1828 0561c25–0562a03〕); the knot-point "it should be known that these are named true bodhisattvas" 〔0549b06〕.

Appended pointers:

• This chapter = the eighteenth chapter of the First Section · the last chapter of the First Section 〔0545b22–0549b06; the closing chapter of fascicle 46, 0549b08〕; carrying forward, before it, the Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables (15-01-16) · the Chapter on the Factors of Awakening (15-01-17); the four investigations and four thorough knowings-as-they-are point back in plain words to the Chapter on the Real Meaning (15-01-04) 〔0548a08, 0548a13〕; for the four principles of the designation of principle the ancient masters turn the pointer to the Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13) 〔T42n1828 0561a12〕; the sixty-four of the realm of sentient beings points back to the Stage of the Mental (Stage 3) 〔0548a17〕.
• It has an ascertainment in the Section on Ascertainment: the Bodhisattva Stage's Ascertainment of the Chapter on Merits 〔T30n1579 0713b01–0736c21, the closing phrase "thus has been stated the ascertainment of the Chapter on Merits"〕 — the refutation of the wrongly-grasped emptiness 〔0713b02〕, the eight superiorities 〔0713c21〕, the five characteristics of the ultimate truth (free of name-and-word / non-duality / surpassing the range of applied-and-sustained thought / surpassing the sameness-or-difference of dharmas / pervading all with one taste 〔0713c24–c28〕), the embedding of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra (Viśālamati on mind-mentation-and-consciousness · the appropriating consciousness · the store consciousness 0718a07 · Maitreya on tranquillity-and-insight 0723b20, and the rest); the point of the doctrinal eye is fastened here (see Apparatus Headings II and III). The right establishing of the well-grasped emptiness is in the Chapter on the Real Meaning, the refutation of the wrongly-grasped emptiness is in the Section on Ascertainment — the boundary is set down as it truly is.
• The eighteen chapters of the First Section are here wholly complete, and below follows the Second Section of Practice-in-Accord-with-the-Dharma of Yoga, the Chapter on the Characteristics of the Bodhisattva, first 〔fascicle 47, 0549b11–b16, the chapter-title of the Characteristics at 0549b15〕: this chapter makes clear the virtue of the "true bodhisattva," the next chapter makes clear "the characteristics of the true bodhisattvas" 〔0549b17〕.
• Alternate translations: Dharmakṣema's Chapter on the Merits of the Bodhisattva, eighteenth 〔T30n1581 0935c01〕, prose without summary verses · a whole set of variant renderings (marvelous → marvelous-and-unprecedented · pratyekabuddha → solitary-awakener · the designation of principle → the designation of skillful means · sixty-four → sixty-one · the sixteen names contracted to ten); Guṇavarman's Chapter on Merits, twentieth 〔T30n1582 0998a13〕, recast the most heavily (the designation of the truths changed to "the real, spread abroad" · the designation of principle changed to "skillful means, spread abroad" · the fifth of the seven great natures "greatness of adornment" · the realm of sentient beings tied to "the bodhisattva abiding in the Joyful Ground" · the chapter's close drawn to an end by distinguishing, by the bodhisattva precepts, the caṇḍāla); the name of the middle vehicle standing tripartite among the three houses (the pratyekabuddha vehicle / the solitary-awakener vehicle / the pratyekabuddha [-as-transliterated] vehicle). See Apparatus Heading II.
• Left in doubt · two transmitted variant readings left for ruling: the realm of sentient beings sixty-four (Xuanzang) ↔ sixty-one (the Dharmakṣema · Guṇavarman lineage 〔T42n1828 0561a17–a19〕); of the ascending seven-gate of taming, "tamed by the most yielding (耎) speech" (Kuiji T1829, his own work 〔0157b04–b08〕) ↔ "tamed by the most warm (煗) speech" (Dunlun recording Master Jing T1828); Guṇavarman's chapter-close "not-named named a bodhisattva," with the doubled character of the base text as it stands 〔T30n1582 1000b09–b12〕. Set down together and not adjudicated (see Apparatus Headings II and IV(12)).

(The root text here enters with the stage-heading: the Bodhisattva Stage, fifteenth, within the Basic Section — the First Section of Yoga.)

Overall Heading

What are the merits that a bodhisattva possesses?

The First Uddāna

Summary Verse

The uddāna (summary verse) says: the marvelous, the not-marvelous, the mind of equanimity, benefiting, requiting kindness, and rejoicing-and-praising, and the character of not-vain endeavor.

The Five Utterly Marvelous Dharmas

That is: when the bodhisattvas diligently train in the vehicle of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, it should be known that there are five utterly marvelous dharmas.

Which five? First, toward all sentient beings, without any cause or condition, they give rise to close affection; second, solely for the sake of benefiting the sentient beings, they abide constantly in birth-and-death and endure measureless suffering; third, toward sentient beings who are heavy with affliction and hard to teach and tame, they are well able to understand the skillful means of taming them; fourth, into the reality-principle that is exceedingly hard to comprehend, they are able accordingly to awaken and enter; fifth, they are complete in the inconceivable great might of spirit-power.

These five utterly marvelous dharmas that a bodhisattva possesses are not held in common with any of the remaining sentient beings.

The Five Not-Marvelous Dharmas That Are Named Utterly Marvelous Dharmas

Further, the bodhisattvas accomplish five not-marvelous dharmas, and yet these are named the accomplishment of utterly marvelous dharmas.

Which five?

That is: the bodhisattvas take "suffering incurred through benefiting others" for their own happiness; and so the bodhisattva constantly and universally receives and undertakes "the suffering that comes through benefiting others." This is named the bodhisattva's accomplishment of the first not-marvelous dharma, which is named the accomplishment of an utterly marvelous dharma.

Further, the bodhisattvas, though well able to know the faults of birth-and-death and the merits of nirvāṇa, take "causing all sentient beings to be pure" for their own happiness; and so the bodhisattva, for the sake of the dominant power of purifying sentient beings, vows to receive and take up birth-and-death. This is named the bodhisattva's accomplishment of the second not-marvelous dharma, which is named the accomplishment of an utterly marvelous dharma.

Further, the bodhisattvas, though well able to know the savor of the happiness of silence (quiescent stilling), take "causing all sentient beings to be pure" for their own happiness; and so the bodhisattva, for the sake of the dominant power of purifying sentient beings, constantly and diligently makes skillful means to proclaim the true Dharma for their sake. This is named the bodhisattva's accomplishment of the third not-marvelous dharma, which is named the accomplishment of an utterly marvelous dharma.

Further, the bodhisattvas, though they amass all the wholesome roots of the six perfections, take "causing all sentient beings to be pure" for their own happiness; and so the bodhisattva, for the sake of the dominant power of purifying sentient beings, with a pure intention gives to the sentient beings, yet does not seek the maturation-fruit of giving. This is named the bodhisattva's accomplishment of the fourth not-marvelous dharma, which is named the accomplishment of an utterly marvelous dharma.

Further, the bodhisattvas take the matter of benefiting others as the matter of benefiting themselves; and so the bodhisattva constantly manifests and undertakes the matter of benefiting all sentient beings. This is named the bodhisattva's accomplishment of the fifth not-marvelous dharma, which is named the accomplishment of an utterly marvelous dharma.

The Mind of Equanimity in Five Aspects

Further, by five aspects it should be known that the bodhisattvas keep a mind of equanimity universally toward all sentient beings.

Which five? First, when the bodhisattva first arouses the mind, aspiring to great awakening, this too is for the sake of benefiting all the sentient beings, and so he gives rise to a mind of equanimity. Second, the bodhisattva abides, toward the sentient beings, in a mind of equanimity "arisen together with pity." Third, the bodhisattva, toward the sentient beings, deeply and from the heart gives rise to a mind of equanimity "arisen together with the love of an only child" (regarding beings as an only son). Fourth, the bodhisattva, toward the conditioned things (saṃskāra) that have arisen from a concurrence of conditions, having come to know that this is the matter of the imagined "sentient being," knows that the dharma-nature possessed by one sentient being is the very dharma-nature of all sentient beings; and with a mind "arisen together with the equality of dharmas," he abides in a mind of equanimity toward the sentient beings. Fifth, the bodhisattva, just as he performs the action of benefiting toward one sentient being, so too performs the action of benefiting toward all sentient beings; and with a mind "arisen together with benefiting," he abides in a mind of equanimity toward the sentient beings. By these five aspects, these bodhisattvas keep a mind of equanimity toward the sentient beings.

Benefiting in Five Aspects

Further, by five aspects the bodhisattvas are able to perform every deed of benefiting toward the sentient beings.

Which five? First, they proclaim and confer right livelihood (a proper mode of making a living), and thereby benefit; second, toward tasks and undertakings that are unfavorable yet able to draw forth meaning and welfare, they proclaim and confer a favorable dharma, and thereby benefit; third, toward those without refuge or protection, who have suffering and have poverty, they are well able to make themselves a refuge and a protection for them, and thereby benefit; fourth, they proclaim and confer the path that can lead to good destinies, and thereby benefit; fifth, they proclaim and confer the three vehicles, and thereby benefit.

Requiting Kindness in Five Aspects

Further, by five aspects the bodhisattvas, present before those sentient beings who have shown kindness to them, make requital.

Which five? First, they set the sentient beings so as to make them train in one's own (the bodhisattva's) virtue; second, by skillful means they set them so as to make them train in the virtue of others; third, toward those without refuge or protection, who have suffering and have poverty, according to their strength and ability they make themselves a refuge and a protection for them; fourth, they exhort them to make offerings to the buddhas, the Tathāgatas; fifth, they cause them, toward the true Dharma spoken by the Tathāgata, to receive and uphold, to read and recite, to copy out, and to make offering to it.

Rejoicing-and-Praising in Five Places

Further, the bodhisattvas should constantly rejoice at and praise five places.

Which five? First, to meet with a Buddha's appearance in the world and constantly to attend upon him; second, at the buddhas' seats constantly to hear the bodhisattva-basket Dharma of the six kinds of perfections; third, in every mode of maturing sentient beings, constantly to have the power for it; fourth, to be fit to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening swiftly; fifth, after realizing awakening, that the assembly of disciples is constantly harmonious and without dispute.

Not-Vain Endeavor in Benefiting, by Five Causes and Conditions

Further, by five causes and conditions the bodhisattvas are able to perform not-vain endeavor in benefiting toward the sentient beings.

Which five? That is: the bodhisattvas, toward the sentient beings, first arouse a mind that seeks to perform benefit and ease; toward the benefit and ease of the sentient beings they know it as it truly is, and are aware of it without error. All of this, just as was stated earlier in the Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables, should be known as to its character.

The Second Uddāna

Summary Verse

Next, the uddāna (summary verse) says: unerring endeavor, falling-back-and-declining, and surpassing-advance, the semblance, the real merits, and the good taming of sentient beings.

The Five Kinds of Unerring Endeavor

That is: the bodhisattvas have five kinds of endeavor, and it should be known that these gather universally all the unerring endeavor of the bodhisattvas.

Which five? First, the endeavor of safeguarding; second, the faultless endeavor; third, the endeavor of the power of discerning-and-selecting; fourth, the endeavor of pure and dominant intention; fifth, the endeavor of falling-into-the-settled.

The Endeavor of Safeguarding (Five Kinds)

What is the bodhisattva's endeavor of safeguarding? It should be known that this too has, in brief, five kinds.

First, safeguarding acuteness. That is, by innate wisdom, swiftly to grasp and retain the Dharma.

Second, safeguarding right mindfulness. That is, by this right mindfulness, whatever Dharma is grasped is held so as not to be forgotten.

Third, safeguarding right knowledge. That is, by this right knowledge, in the Dharma that is held one is well able to contemplate its meaning and to penetrate it with right wisdom. It requires that one keep far from all the causes and conditions favorable to the declining portion of "acuteness, right mindfulness, and awakened wisdom," and that one draw near to all the causes and conditions favorable to the abiding portion and the surpassing portion.

Fourth, safeguarding one's own mind. Because one is well able to guard and defend the gates of the faculties.

Fifth, safeguarding the minds of others. Because one is able rightly to follow and turn along with the minds of others.

The Faultless Endeavor

What is the bodhisattva's faultless endeavor? That is: the bodhisattvas, toward all wholesome dharmas, unerringly, ardently (diligently and boldly), measurelessly and without interruption, dedicate them toward awakening.

The Endeavor of the Power of Discerning-and-Selecting

What is the bodhisattva's endeavor of the power of discerning-and-selecting? That is: the bodhisattvas — all of this lies within the Stage of Resolute-Conviction Practice, and its character should be known there.

The Endeavor of Pure and Dominant Intention

What is the bodhisattva's endeavor of pure and dominant intention? That is: the bodhisattvas — all of this lies within the Stage of Pure and Superior Intention and the Stage of Practicing Right Practice, and its character should be known there.

The Endeavor of Falling-into-the-Settled

What is the bodhisattva's endeavor of falling-into-the-settled? That is: the bodhisattvas — all of this lies within the Settled Stage, the Stage of Settled Practice, and the Stage Reaching the Ultimate, and its character should be known there.

These five kinds of the bodhisattva's endeavor gather universally all unerring endeavor.

The Five Dharmas Favorable to the Declining Portion

Further, the bodhisattvas' dharmas favorable to the declining portion — it should be known that there are five kinds.

Which five? First, not revering the true Dharma and the Dharma-preaching master. Second, heedlessness and slackness. Third, drawing near to and clinging to the afflictions. Fourth, drawing near to and clinging to evil conduct. Fifth, measuring superiority and inferiority against the remaining bodhisattvas and giving rise to overweening pride; and, being perverse about the Dharma, giving rise to overweening pride.

The Five Dharmas Favorable to the Surpassing Portion

Further, the bodhisattvas' dharmas favorable to the surpassing portion — it should be known that there are five kinds.

Which five? That is: they are, in sequence, the opposites of the foregoing five dharmas of the black class, and their character should be known so.

The Five Kinds of Semblance Merit (Really Faults)

Further, the bodhisattvas have, in brief, five kinds of semblance merit, and it should be known that in reality these are the bodhisattva's faults.

Which five? First, toward those sentient beings who are violent and evil and who transgress and break the pure precepts, by this cause and condition to perform the deed of not-benefiting; second, feigning and displaying every kind of complete deportment; third, in the dharmas that accord with worldly belles-lettres, spells and incantations, and the writings and treatises of the outer paths, contriving to be counted among the wise and the acute; fourth, cultivating the faulty practice of giving and the other wholesome deeds; fifth, proclaiming and setting up a "resemblance of the true Dharma" (a counterfeit true Dharma that resembles it) and causing it to be spread far and wide.

The Five Kinds of Real Merit

Further, the bodhisattvas have, in brief, five kinds of real merit.

Which five? First, toward those sentient beings who are violent and evil and who transgress and break the pure precepts, by this cause and condition to give rise to an exceptional mind of compassion; second, by their very nature to be accomplished and complete in deportment; third, in the pure, subtle, and real — whether teaching or realization — that is spoken by the Buddha, to contrive to be counted among the wise and the acute; fourth, cultivating the faultless practice of giving and the other wholesome deeds; fifth, revealing the true Dharma, and blocking and extinguishing every resemblance of the true Dharma.

Taming Unerringly in Ten Places

Further, the bodhisattvas, in brief, in ten places tame unerringly the sentient beings to be trained.

Which ten places? First, the place of keeping far from evil conduct; second, the place of keeping far from the desires; third, the place of being intent, precise, and without transgression, and of being able to emerge once one has transgressed (to confess and emerge); fourth, the place of secretly guarding all the gates of the faculties; fifth, the place of dwelling with right knowing; sixth, the place of keeping far from clamor and bustle; seventh, in a place of seclusion, the place of keeping far from all evil ponderings; eighth, the place of keeping far from hindrances; ninth, the place of keeping far from all the entanglements of the afflictions; tenth, the place of keeping far from all the coarse-and-heavy states of every class of affliction.

The Third Uddāna

Summary Verse

Next, the uddāna (summary verse) says: the bodhisattvas' receiving of prediction, falling into the settled, the surely-to-be-done, the always-to-be-done, and the utmost is placed last.

Receiving Prediction in Six Aspects

That is: the bodhisattvas, in brief, by six aspects receive from the Tathāgatas the conferral of a distinct prediction of their unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Which six? First, the phase of abiding in the lineage but not yet having aroused the mind; second, the phase of having aroused the mind; third, the phase of being present [before the Buddha]; fourth, the phase of not being present; fifth, having a fixed time-span — that is, "at such-and-such a time you shall realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening"; sixth, having no fixed time-span — that is, not proclaiming a settled time-span, yet conferring the prediction.

The Three Kinds of Falling into the Settled

Further, the bodhisattvas have, in brief, three kinds of falling into the settled.

Which three? First, abiding in the lineage as a falling into the settled; second, arousing the mind of awakening as a falling into the settled; third, not-vain practice as a falling into the settled.

As for abiding in the lineage as a falling into the settled: that is, the bodhisattvas who abide in the phase of the lineage are thereby named bodhisattvas who have fallen into the settled. Why? Because this bodhisattva, if he meets with an exceptional condition, is bound to be fit to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

As for arousing the mind of awakening as a falling into the settled: that is, there is a certain class of assemblies of bodhisattvas who have, toward unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, given rise to a settled mind, and thereafter, up to the realizing of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, never again turn back.

As for not-vain practice as a falling into the settled: that is, the bodhisattvas who have gained mastery, universally in every practice of benefiting the sentient beings, according to what they wish and according to what they set about cultivating, in the end have nothing that passes in vain.

Among these three kinds of falling into the settled, it is upon the last phase of falling into the settled that the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, confer upon the bodhisattvas the prediction of falling into the settled.

The Five Places That Are Surely to Be Done

Further, the bodhisattvas have, in brief, five places that are surely to be done. If they are not done, one is in the end not fit to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Which five? First, to arouse the mind of awakening; second, toward the sentient beings to give rise to deep pity; third, to be ardent in vigor; fourth, in all the domains of learning to cultivate by skillful means; fifth, to have no weariness.

The Five Places That Are Always to Be Done

Further, the bodhisattvas have, at five places, that which is always to be done.

Which five? First, at heedfulness, that which is always to be done; second, toward those sentient beings without refuge or protection, who have suffering and have poverty, always to make themselves for them a refuge, a protection, and so forth; third, toward the Tathāgatas always to make offering; fourth, always to know universally what is faulty and what is faultless; fifth, in all that is done — whether walking, whether standing — among all the attentions, the great mind of awakening is ever the foremost that guides. These five kinds are what the bodhisattvas are always to do.

The Ten Kinds of Utmost Dharma

Further, the bodhisattvas have ten dharmas which all bodhisattvas grant to be the utmost, especially set as first and established among the highest dharmas.

Which ten? First, the bodhisattva-lineage, most exceptional among all the lineages; second, the first arousing of the mind, most exceptional among all right aspirations; third, vigor and prajñā, most exceptional among all the perfections; fourth, the gathering-deed of kind speech, most exceptional among the means of gathering; fifth, the Tathāgata, the World-Honored One, most exceptional among all sentient beings; sixth, pity for the sentient beings, most exceptional among all the immeasurables; seventh, the fourth meditative absorption, most exceptional among all the meditative absorptions; eighth, the samādhi of emptiness, most exceptional among the three concentrations; ninth, the attainment of cessation, most exceptional among all the meditative attainments; tenth, all the pure skill-in-means as stated before, most exceptional among all skill-in-means.

The Fourth Uddāna

Summary Verse

Next, the uddāna (summary verse) says: the several designations-and-establishments, the investigation of all dharmas, and the thorough knowing-as-it-is, likewise the several immeasurables, the excelling benefit of the fruit of preaching the Dharma, the nature of the great vehicle, and the gathering, the bodhisattvas being ten — and it should be known, the establishment of the several names.

The Four Kinds of Designation-and-Establishment

That is: the bodhisattvas have, in brief, four kinds of designation-and-establishment; only the Tathāgatas and the bodhisattvas are able rightly to designate and rightly to establish them; it is not within the power of any of the rest — whether gods, or humans, or the śramaṇas, or the brahmins — save only after they have heard them.

Which four? First, the designation-and-establishment of the Dharma; second, the designation-and-establishment of the truths; third, the designation-and-establishment of principle; fourth, the designation-and-establishment of the vehicles.

The Designation-and-Establishment of the Dharma

What is named the designation-and-establishment of the Dharma? That is: the sūtras (the sūtrānta, the discourses) and the rest, the twelvefold teaching spoken by the Buddha, are in sequence compiled, in sequence set in place, and in sequence instituted — this is named the designation-and-establishment of the Dharma.

The Designation-and-Establishment of the Truths

What is named the designation-and-establishment of the truths? That is: there are measureless kinds.

Or one may set up one truth. That is, in the sense of "not false and vain," there is only one truth, since there is no second.

Or one may set up two truths. First, the conventional truth; second, the ultimate truth.

Or one may set up three truths. First, the truth of characteristics; second, the truth of speech; third, the truth of function.

Or one may set up four truths. First, the truth of suffering; second, the truth of arising; third, the truth of cessation; fourth, the truth of the path.

Or one may set up five truths. First, the truth of cause; second, the truth of fruit; third, the truth of knowledge; fourth, the truth of the object; fifth, the truth of the surpassing.

Or one may set up six truths. First, the truth of the true; second, the truth of the false; third, the truth of what is to be thoroughly known; fourth, the truth of what is to be forever severed; fifth, the truth of what is to be realized; sixth, the truth of what is to be cultivated.

Or one may set up seven truths. First, the truth of relish; second, the truth of peril; third, the truth of deliverance; fourth, the truth of dharma-nature; fifth, the truth of resolute conviction; sixth, the noble truth; seventh, the non-noble truth.

Or one may set up eight truths. First, the truth of the nature of the suffering of conditioning; second, the truth of the nature of the suffering of decay; third, the truth of the nature of the suffering of suffering; fourth, the truth of coursing-onward; fifth, the truth of turning-back-and-ceasing; sixth, the truth of defilement; seventh, the truth of purity; eighth, the truth of right endeavor.

Or one may set up nine truths. First, the truth of impermanence; second, the truth of suffering; third, the truth of emptiness; fourth, the truth of no-self; fifth, the truth of the craving for existence; sixth, the truth of the craving for non-existence; seventh, the truth of the skillful means for severing them; eighth, the truth of the nirvāṇa with remaining basis; ninth, the truth of the nirvāṇa without remaining basis.

Or one may set up ten truths. First, the truth of pressing suffering; second, the truth of the suffering of dearth of wealth and position; third, the truth of the suffering of the discord of the elements; fourth, the truth of the suffering of the alteration-and-decay of what is loved; fifth, the truth of coarse-and-heavy suffering; sixth, the truth of karma; seventh, the truth of the afflictions; eighth, the truth of hearing the true Dharma and attending in accord with principle; ninth, the truth of right view; tenth, the truth of the fruit of right view.

Types such as these are named the bodhisattva's designation-and-establishment of the truths, and if analyzed at length it should be known that they are measureless.

The Designation-and-Establishment of Principle

What is named the designation-and-establishment of principle? That is, the four kinds of principle. This, if analyzed at length, should be known as before.

The Designation-and-Establishment of the Vehicles

What is named the designation-and-establishment of the vehicles? That is, the śrāvaka vehicle and the pratyekabuddha vehicle and the unsurpassed great vehicle — these three kinds, each single one designated and established by seven modes of character; this is named the designation-and-establishment of the vehicles.

The seven modes of character of the first, the śrāvaka vehicle: first, the unerring wisdom regarding the four noble truths; second, the support of this wisdom; third, the object of this wisdom; fourth, the companion-class of this wisdom; fifth, the activity of this wisdom; sixth, the provisions of this wisdom; seventh, the attained fruit of this wisdom. It should be known that by these seven modes of character the śrāvaka vehicle is designated and established with nothing left unprovided. As with the designation-and-establishment by the seven modes of character of the śrāvaka vehicle, so too, it should be known, for the pratyekabuddha vehicle.

The seven modes of character of the unsurpassed great vehicle: first, the wisdom of deliverance that is the non-conceptual equality-nature, taking as object "the matter free of verbal expression" — that is, the suchness present within all dharmas; second, the support of this wisdom; third, the object of this wisdom; fourth, the companion-class of this wisdom; fifth, the activity of this wisdom; sixth, the provisions of this wisdom; seventh, the attained fruit of this wisdom. It should be known that by these seven modes of character the unsurpassed great vehicle is designated and established with nothing left unprovided.

All the unerring designation-and-establishment possessed by the buddhas and the bodhisattvas of the past, the future, and the present — whether it was once done, or is to be done, or is now done — all of it is by these four matters. Apart from this there is nothing further or additional.

The Four Investigations

Further, the bodhisattvas, in order to gain the four kinds of thorough knowing-as-it-is, give rise, toward all dharmas, to four kinds of investigation.

Which four? First, the investigation of the name; second, the investigation of the thing; third, the investigation of the designation of intrinsic nature; fourth, the investigation of the designation of distinctions. These four kinds, if analyzed at length, should be known as before, in the Chapter on the Real Meaning.

The Four Kinds of Thorough Knowing-as-It-Is

Further, the bodhisattvas have, in brief, four kinds of thorough knowing-as-it-is regarding all dharmas. First, the thorough knowing-as-it-is drawn forth by the investigation of the name; second, the thorough knowing-as-it-is drawn forth by the investigation of the thing; third, the thorough knowing-as-it-is drawn forth by the investigation of the designation of intrinsic nature; fourth, the thorough knowing-as-it-is drawn forth by the investigation of the designation of distinctions. These four kinds, if analyzed at length, should be known as before, in the Chapter on the Real Meaning.

The Five Immeasurables

Further, the bodhisattvas, toward five kinds of immeasurable, are able to give rise to every skillful function.

Which five? First, the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings; second, the immeasurability of the worlds; third, the immeasurability of the dharma-realm; fourth, the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed; fifth, the immeasurability of the realm of the skillful means of taming.

The Immeasurability of the Realm of Sentient Beings

What is the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings? That is, the sixty-four kinds of assemblies of sentient beings are named the realm of sentient beings. As before, in the Stage of the Mental, they have already been itemized in detail. If they are reckoned by [each being's] continuum (discussed as separate continua), the distinctions are boundless.

The Immeasurability of the Worlds

What is the immeasurability of the worlds? That is, in the measureless worlds of the ten directions, the measureless names differ each from each. Just as this world is named Sahā, and the Brahmā-king of this realm is named the Lord of Sahā. All of this should be known so.

The Immeasurability of the Dharma-Realm

What is the immeasurability of the dharma-realm? That is, the wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate dharmas — the distinctions and principles of types such as these should be known as measureless.

The Immeasurability of the Realm of Those to Be Tamed

What is the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed?

That is: there may be one kind of realm of those to be tamed. All the sentient beings who can be tamed, being of one type.

Or there may be two kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, those bound by fetters; second, those not bound by fetters.

Or there may be three kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, dull faculties; second, middling faculties; third, keen faculties.

Or there may be four kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, kṣatriyas; second, brahmins; third, vaiśyas; fourth, śūdras.

Or there may be five kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, those of greedy conduct; second, those of hateful conduct; third, those of deluded conduct; fourth, those of prideful conduct; fifth, those of pondering conduct.

Or there may be six kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, householders; second, those gone forth; third, the not-yet-matured; fourth, the already-matured; fifth, the not-yet-liberated; sixth, the already-liberated.

Or there may be seven kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, the slighting; second, the middling; third, those to whom knowledge is broadly displayed; fourth, those to whom knowledge is briefly opened; fifth, those now being tamed; sixth, those to be tamed later; seventh, those tamed by the drawing-in of conditions. That is, on meeting such-and-such a condition, they change over in such-and-such a way.

Or there may be eight kinds of realm of those to be tamed. That is, the eight assemblies, from the kṣatriyas up to the Brahmā-assemblies.

Or there may be nine kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, those tamed by the Tathāgata; second, those tamed by the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; third, those tamed by the bodhisattvas. Fourth, the hard to tame; fifth, the easy to tame; sixth, those tamed by gentle speech; seventh, those tamed by rebuke and expulsion; eighth, those tamed from afar; ninth, those tamed near at hand.

Or there may be ten kinds of realm of those to be tamed. First, the hell-beings (nāraka); second, the animals; third, the world of Yama; fourth, the gods and humans of the desire realm; fifth, the intermediate existence; sixth, those with form; seventh, those without form; eighth, those with perception; ninth, those without perception; tenth, those with neither perception nor non-perception.

Stated briefly like this, the distinctions of category number fifty-five kinds; and if reckoned by the principle of the distinctions of continua, they should be known as measureless.

Question: what is the difference between the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings and the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed? Answer: all sentient beings, whether they abide in the lineage or do not abide in the lineage, without difference, are altogether named the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings; only those who abide in the lineage, changing over at this or that phase, may then be named the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed.

The Immeasurability of the Realm of the Skillful Means of Taming

What is the immeasurability of the realm of the skillful means of taming? That is, as stated before, it should be known that here too there are measureless distinctions of category.

The Sequence of the Five Immeasurables

Question: why are these five immeasurables, taken altogether, stated in this sequence?

Answer: because the bodhisattvas are intent and precise in cultivating "benefiting the sentient beings," the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings is stated first. These sentient beings can be reached for training only in dependence on a location, and so the immeasurability of the worlds is stated second. These sentient beings, in this or that realm, may be found with distinctions of various dharmas whether defiled or pure, and so the immeasurability of the dharma-realm is stated third. Just within contemplating such a realm of sentient beings, some sentient beings have fitness and have great power, and are fit and able to be ultimately liberated from the mass of sufferings, and so the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed is stated fourth. It requires such skill-in-means to cause the sentient beings to be ultimately liberated, and so the immeasurability of the realm of the skillful means of taming is stated fifth. Therefore it is said: toward these five kinds of immeasurable, the bodhisattva is able to give rise to every skillful function.

The Five Great Fruits and Excelling Benefits of Preaching the Dharma

When the buddhas and bodhisattvas proclaim the true Dharma for the sentient beings, it should be known that there are five kinds of great fruit and excelling benefit.

Which five? First, when one class of sentient beings hears the buddhas and bodhisattvas preach the true Dharma, keeping far from dust and parting from stain, the Dharma-eye arises in them regarding the dharmas; second, when one class of sentient beings hears the buddhas and bodhisattvas preach the true Dharma, they gain the exhaustion of all outflows; third, when one class of sentient beings hears the buddhas and bodhisattvas preach the true Dharma, they thereupon give rise, toward unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, to a mind of right aspiration; fourth, when one class of sentient beings hears the buddhas and bodhisattvas preach the true Dharma, they realize the bodhisattva's most exceptional forbearance in the Dharma; fifth, after one class of sentient beings has heard the buddhas and bodhisattvas preach the true Dharma, they receive and uphold, read and recite, and cultivate right practice, and by turns and by skillful means cause the eye of the true Dharma long to abide and not to be extinguished. These five kinds, it should be known, are named the great fruit and excelling benefit of the true Dharma spoken by the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The Seven Great Natures of the Great Vehicle

Because the bodhisattva-vehicle is mutually joined with seven kinds of greatness of nature, it is named the great vehicle.

Which seven?

First, greatness in the nature of Dharma. That is, among the twelvefold teaching, the extensive teaching subsumed under the bodhisattva-basket.

Second, greatness in the nature of arousing the mind. That is, there is a certain class who, toward their own unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, give rise to a mind of right aspiration.

Third, greatness in the nature of resolute conviction. That is, there is a certain class who, toward greatness in the nature of Dharma, give rise to an exceptional conviction-and-faith.

Fourth, greatness in the nature of dominant intention. That is, there is a certain class who, having passed beyond the Stage of Resolute-Conviction Practice, realize and enter the Stage of Pure and Superior Intention.

Fifth, greatness in the nature of the provisions. That is, the provisions of merit and the provisions of wisdom, cultivated to fullness, are able to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Sixth, greatness in the nature of time. That is, passing through three incalculable great eons, one then realizes unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Seventh, greatness in the nature of complete realization. That is, this very unsurpassed awakening that is realized — by this the self-substance of the complete realization of awakening, compared with the self-substance of the remaining merits of complete realization, has yet nothing that can be its equal, much less anything further or additional.

It should be known that here, greatness in the nature of Dharma, greatness in the nature of arousing the mind, greatness in the nature of resolute conviction, greatness in the nature of dominant intention, greatness in the nature of the provisions, and greatness in the nature of time — these six kinds are all causes of greatness in the nature of complete realization. Greatness in the nature of complete realization is the fruit of the foregoing six kinds of greatness.

The Eight Dharmas That Gather All the Great Vehicle

There are eight kinds of dharma that are able fully to gather and contain all the great vehicle.

First, the bodhisattva-basket teaching; second, within this very bodhisattva-basket, the teaching that reveals the real meaning of dharmas; third, within this very bodhisattva-basket, the teaching that reveals the inconceivable, most exceptional, vast might of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas; fourth, hearing in accord with principle what has been stated above; fifth, with "reflecting in accord with principle" as the precursor, tending toward superior intention; sixth, with "tending toward superior intention" as the precursor, entering the characteristic of cultivating practice; seventh, with "entering the characteristic of cultivating practice" as the precursor, cultivating the fruit to fullness; eighth, by this very cultivating of the fruit to fullness, ultimate deliverance. When the bodhisattva has thus diligently trained, he is able to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

The Ten Kinds of Bodhisattva

What kind of bodhisattva, having diligently trained, is able to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening? It should be known that bodhisattvas are, in brief, of ten kinds. First, abiding in the lineage; second, having entered upon [the path]; third, of not-yet-purified intention; fourth, of already-purified intention; fifth, not yet matured; sixth, already matured; seventh, not yet fallen into the settled; eighth, already fallen into the settled; ninth, bound by one more birth; tenth, abiding in the final existence.

Here, it is precisely the bodhisattva abiding in the lineage who, arousing the mind and training, is named "having entered upon." It is precisely the one having entered upon who, until he has not yet entered the Stage of Pure Intention, is named "of not-yet-purified intention." If he has already gained entry, he is named "of already-purified intention." It is precisely the one of already-purified intention who, until he has not yet entered the Stage Reaching the Ultimate, is named "not yet matured." If he has already gained entry, he is named "already matured." Within the not-yet-matured, until he has not yet gained entry to the Settled Stage and the Stage of Settled Practice, he is named "not yet settled." If he has already gained entry, he is named "already settled." Within the already-matured, there are again two kinds. First, bound by one more birth. That is, in this birth without interval, he shall realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Second, abiding in the final existence. That is, just abiding in this birth, he is able to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Thus, as stated, from the first, the lineage, spoken at length up to the ten kinds of bodhisattva able to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening — toward the bodhisattva-training they are able rightly to train. Beyond this there is none further able to train rightly, none able to train therein, none able to train in this way. It is not that above the bodhisattvas as stated there are further bodhisattvas able rightly to train in the bodhisattva-training.

The Several Names of the Bodhisattva

All the bodhisattvas as thus stated, it should be known, further have names of types such as these, without difference, provisionally set up according to their virtue.

That is: named the bodhi-being (bodhisattva), the great being (mahāsattva), the one accomplished in awakened wisdom, the supreme illumination, the most excellent true son, the most excellent upholder, the one universally able to subdue, the most excellent sprout; also named the valiant-and-strong, also named the most holy, also named the caravan-leader, also named the greatly renowned, also named the pitying, also named the greatly blessed, also named the sovereign, also named the Dharma-master. Thus, in the boundless and limitless worlds of the ten directions, the boundless bodhisattvas, it should be known, do have, according to their inner virtues each distinct, measureless and boundless provisionally-set-up designations and titles.

If any bodhisattvas, present [before others], call themselves "I am a bodhisattva," and yet cannot rightly cultivate practice in the bodhisattva-training, it should be known that these are named semblance bodhisattvas, not true bodhisattvas. If any bodhisattvas, present [before others], call themselves "I am a bodhisattva," and are able rightly to cultivate practice in the bodhisattva-training, it should be known that these are named true bodhisattvas.

Why, When the Seventeen Chapters Have Been Expounded, Should One More Chapter Be Set Up to Expound "Merits"

Coming all the way through the First Section of Yoga — lineage, arousing the mind, the twofold benefit, the six perfections, the four means of gathering, offering-attending-and-the-immeasurables, the factors of awakening — the practice-gates a bodhisattva ought to cultivate seem already to have been expounded to the full. Why should one more chapter be set up at the end? Kuiji poses the question first and answers it: "Earlier, awakening was made clear; its theme is the practice of the cause-and-fruit factors of awakening; and since, when practicing these earlier things, there must be something they rest upon, therefore, next after that chapter, the Chapter on Merits is made clear" — what came before was "how to cultivate," and this chapter turns back to take stock: cultivating in this way, what has grown upon the bodhisattva's own person. Dunlun points to this chapter's place in the whole scheme of the First Section still more incisively: "it makes clear his own portion; next, two chapters make clear the surpassing-advance, and are done. Now this one chapter makes clear the cause made complete, the fruit made full" — the own-portion and the surpassing-advance have both been expounded, and this chapter is the overall gathering-up that rounds the "cause" full and knots the "fruit" complete. "'Merit' (功) means labor; 'virtue' (德) means the virtue of the Way; one labors and thereby gains this virtue, and that is named merit": only when effort has been spent is there this virtue; and this chapter expounds precisely that "gain."

The treatise, at its opening, at once asks, "What are the merits that a bodhisattva possesses?", and thereupon, with four uddānas, leads off twenty-seven passages. Dunlun reckons it clearly: "there are five verses, making clear twenty-seven Dharma-gates. Twenty-five kinds directly make clear merits; from this heading of the names on, falling-back-and-declining and the semblance are really not merits" — among the twenty-seven passages, the two passages of the declining portion and the semblance merits are in fact not merits, but a mirror held up to the reverse; those that directly expound merits are twenty-five kinds.

The "Not-Marvelous" Is What Is Utterly Marvelous: The Turning-Over of the Bodhisattva's Marks of Virtue

The first uddāna first sets up five kinds of "utterly marvelous dharma": toward all sentient beings to give rise to close affection without cause or condition; constantly to abide in birth-and-death and endure measureless suffering; toward sentient beings hard to convert to be well able to understand the skillful means of taming; into the reality-principle exceedingly hard to comprehend to be able accordingly to awaken and enter; and to be complete in the inconceivable great might of spirit-power — "not held in common with any of the remaining sentient beings." But hard upon this it turns over a face and says the bodhisattva "accomplishes five kinds of not-marvelous dharma, and yet these are named the accomplishment of utterly marvelous dharmas": taking the suffering incurred through benefiting others for one's own happiness; for the purifying of sentient beings vowing to receive birth-and-death; forsaking the savor of the happiness of silence and constantly preaching the Dharma; giving and not seeking a reward-fruit; taking the matter of benefiting others as the matter of benefiting oneself.

Why should the "not-marvelous" be, on the contrary, "utterly marvelous"? To this turning-over the ancient masters each offer, three houses of them, a reading, set side by side and left unadjudicated. Master Jing speaks from the root: "when he benefits others he takes it as if it were his own affair, and this is named not-marvelous; but trace it to the root, and there is no cause other than great compassion gathering others in as oneself, and so we know it is marvelous" — to gather others in as oneself, the root of this mind is great compassion, and this is why it is marvelous. Master Ji [Kuiji] takes it apart from the two sides of "character" and "intent": "argued from its character, all people can receive it, and it is not-marvelous; but argued from its intent, not to shrink from this task is named a marvelous dharma. Again, measured among his own kind it is not-marvelous; measured against the two vehicles it is utterly marvelous" — looked at as a matter of the deed anyone can do it; looked at in that willingness of heart is it marvelous; measured among bodhisattvas it does not count as marvelous, but set against the two vehicles the marvel shows. Master Ce [Woncheuk], for his part, speaks of the third passage, "constantly preaching the Dharma": "by applied-and-sustained thought and the rest one raises up speech; from the second meditative absorption on up, being free of that applied-and-sustained thought, the cause of raising up speech is gone, and so it is named the savor of the happiness of silence; yet in order to convert the sentient beings he forsakes the meditative absorptions and takes birth in the desire realm to benefit the sentient beings" — from the second absorption up one might well abide in the happiness of silence, yet the bodhisattva pointedly forsakes that savor of quiescent stilling, descends into the desire realm, and preaches the Dharma for the beings. The three houses — from compassion, from character-and-intent, from forsaking quiescence to convert — point to one and the same thing: the bodhisattva's marvel lies not in having done what others cannot do, but in having made benefiting others into his own happiness.

The "not-vain endeavor" with which the first uddāna closes the treatise does not expound over again for itself, but points back in plain words: "all of this, just as was stated earlier in the Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables, should be known as to its character". Both Kuiji and Dunlun take up the thread accordingly: Kuiji cites "as in the Chapter on Offering, where, if he arouses [the mind], there are five matters … third, preaching the Dharma in accord; fourth, not being wearied; fifth, compassion made equal"; Dunlun likewise cites "complete in the equal great compassion, toward the sentient beings of the low, the middling, and the superior classes with a mind without partiality". What was expounded in the earlier chapter is here only hung by a link, not brought out anew — the several chapters of the First Section are, from the first, of a single breath.

The Five Steps of Endeavor, and the Mirror That Shows People on Two Faces

The second uddāna expounds endeavor. The five kinds of unerring endeavor — safeguarding, faultless, the power of discerning-and-selecting, pure and dominant intention, falling-into-the-settled — Dunlun reads as being not a flat list but a single upward ladder of stations: "the first make clear endeavor … the latter three are by station; third, the endeavor of the power of discerning-and-selecting is stationed before the grounds; fourth, the endeavor of pure and dominant intention is entering the first ground up to the seventh ground; fifth, the endeavor of falling-into-the-settled is the eighth, ninth, and tenth grounds". Safeguarding and faultless first put forth the substance of endeavor; the latter three are before the grounds, the first through seventh grounds, and the eighth-ninth-tenth grounds — endeavor is not one single skill, but grows up rung by rung, station upon station.

What shows the most teaching-force in this uddāna is that the treatise sets up a mirror with two faces. One face is the "semblance merit": the treatise says there are five matters that seem to be merits but "should be known to be really the bodhisattva's faults" — toward the violent-and-evil, precept-breaking, on that pretext to perform the deed of not-benefiting; to feign deportment; to mingle among the writings and treatises of the outer paths and thereby gain the name of the wise; to cultivate a faulty giving; to proclaim and set up a "resemblance of the true Dharma" and spread it far and wide. The other face is the "real merit," its five items matched one by one against these: toward the violent-and-evil, precept-breaking, on the contrary to give rise to an exceptional mind of compassion; by very nature to be accomplished in deportment; in the real teaching-and-realization spoken by the Buddha to contrive to be counted among the wise; to cultivate a faultless giving; "to reveal the true Dharma, and to block and extinguish every resemblance of the true Dharma." One and the same deportment, one and the same giving, one and the same preaching of the Dharma — a single thought's difference, and merit and fault are parted by only a hair. The treatise ranks the false ahead of the real precisely so that people should first recognize the false, and only then be able to hold fast to the real.

Taming unerringly in ten places lists all ten items in full. Here the ancient masters leave a stretch of transcribed record: Dunlun first cites the old treatise, then cites a make-up reading given as "handed down by tradition," and at the end transcribes a judgment word for word — "this reading is not so". Both "handed down by tradition" and "this reading is not so" are the ancient masters' own words; we set them down together and do not adjudicate on their behalf.

Prediction, the Settled, and the "Ten Utmost Dharmas"

The third uddāna expounds three matters on the side of the fruit: receiving prediction, falling into the settled, the surely-to-be-done and the always-to-be-done, and the ten utmost dharmas. The six aspects of receiving prediction Master Jing matches one by one against six gates: abiding in the lineage but not yet having aroused the mind (whoever, from before the ten [stations of] faith on, has the great-vehicle lineage receives prediction); having aroused the mind (from the ten faiths on up to the Dharma-Cloud); being present (facing the Buddha and personally receiving it); not being present (not seeking to be in the assembly, the Buddha conferring it upon all together); having a fixed time-span (at such a time you shall realize awakening); having no fixed time-span (conferring the prediction all-inclusively, saying "you shall become a Buddha"). The three kinds of falling into the settled are then gathered into it: it is upon the "last phase of falling into the settled" that the Buddha's prediction is received — lineage and arousing-the-mind can be settled, but only when not-vain practice has reached mastery, cultivating according to wish with nothing passing in vain, does the Buddha confer the "prediction of falling into the settled."

The "ten utmost dharmas" is a table of "utmost" characters for the bodhisattva: among the lineages, the bodhisattva-lineage is the most exceptional; among right aspirations, the first arousing of the mind; among the perfections, vigor and prajñā; among the means of gathering, kind speech; among sentient beings, the Tathāgata; among all the immeasurables, pity; among the meditative absorptions, the fourth absorption; among the three concentrations, the samādhi of emptiness; among the meditative attainments, the attainment of cessation; among all skill-in-means, pure skill. Master Ce [Woncheuk] fixes these ten "utmosts" one by one in his reading: "among the three-vehicle lineages the bodhisattva-lineage is the most exceptional … among the six perfections, vigor, prajñā, and the spurring-of-the-path are the most exceptional … among two-footed sentient beings the Tathāgata is the most exceptional, and among the divine abidings pity is the most exceptional … among the four meditative attainments, the attainment of cessation is the utmost." Among the immeasurables it is pity that is utmost — and this is of one breath with the Chapter on Offering's "the bodhi of the bodhisattva is built up by compassion": take stock of the merits right up to the utmost point, and compassion is still in the midst of it.

The Four Designations-and-Establishments: The Four Ways the Bodhisattva "Sets Up" the Buddha-Dharma

The fourth uddāna is where the chapter's weight lies, and it is where the doctrinal point of the eye is fastened. The treatise first sets up four designations-and-establishments — Dharma, truths, principle, vehicles — and solemnly declares: "only the Tathāgatas and the bodhisattvas are able rightly to designate and rightly to establish them; it is not within the power of any of the rest, whether gods, or humans, or the śramaṇas, or the brahmins, save only after they have heard them". To "set up" the Buddha-Dharma is the affair of buddhas and bodhisattvas; the rest — gods, humans, śramaṇas, brahmins — can only hear it and pass it on.

The designation of the Dharma is the sequential compiling, setting-in-place, and instituting of the twelvefold teaching. Kuiji's reading of these three phrases matches them exceedingly deftly: "compiling means the sūtras; setting-in-place means the mātṛkā; instituting means the Vinaya" — compiled into the sūtras, set in place into the treatises (the mātṛkā, the matrix-mother), instituted into the Vinaya.

The designation of the truths shows most the breadth of the bodhisattva's setting-up: from one truth, two truths, three truths … opening all the way to ten truths, the treatise saying of itself, "if analyzed at length it should be known to be measureless." This is not that the truth has ten separate kinds, but that a single "sense of the not-false-and-vain" can, as occasion serves, be opened into measureless gates. The ancient masters match and gloss the truths of the ascending gates one by one, the three houses of Jing, Ce, and Ji set side by side: within the ascending five-gate, "the first four are the four truths; the last one is the non-established truth" (says Ji); within the ascending seven-gate, relish and peril are matched to arising and suffering, deliverance to cessation (or reaching also to the path), while "dharma-nature means suchness" (says Ji), "fourth, dharma-nature, then, is the non-established truth" (Jing and Ce concur) — opened to the utmost breadth, one of the truths points precisely to suchness.

The designation of principle is the four kinds of principle. The treatise says only "this, analyzed at length, should be known as before," and for the source the ancient masters have two transmissions: Dunlun records, "the old treatise says: the four kinds of skillful-means designation are as stated before in the Chapter on the Lineage of Powers … this reading is not so. Now, following this treatise, the four principles are as in the Śrāvaka Stage, spoken in the twenty-fifth fascicle, the four principles of dependence and the rest" — the old translation points to the Chapter on the Lineage of Powers, the present treatise turns the pointer to the Śrāvaka Stage; "this reading is not so" is the ancient master's own word, transcribed.

The designation of the vehicles distinguishes the three vehicles by seven modes of character. The first mode of character of the śrāvaka vehicle is "the unerring wisdom regarding the four noble truths," and to the phrase below it, "the support of this wisdom," the ancient masters leave two readings side by side: the Tripiṭaka-master (Xuanzang) says "this is the mind-king, and further this is concentration"; Master Ce says "it is the seed-support and the immediately-antecedent support" — one takes the mind-king and concentration as the support, one takes the seed-support and the immediately-antecedent support as the support, and the two readings stand together. And the first mode of character of the unsurpassed great vehicle the treatise writes most deeply: "first, the wisdom of deliverance that is the non-conceptual equality-nature, taking as object the matter free of verbal expression — the suchness present within all dharmas". Where the great-vehicle wisdom differs from the two-vehicle wisdom regarding the four noble truths lies precisely in this: what it takes as object is the suchness that is "the matter free of verbal expression," is the non-conceptual equality-nature — this phrase is directly the suchness contemplated by consciousness-only (唯識, vijñaptimātra), and is precisely where this chapter's point of the eye takes its first hold.

The Four Investigations and the Four Thorough Knowings-as-They-Are: What This Chapter Reconnects to Is the Chapter on the Real Meaning

After the four designations, the treatise sets up the four investigations — name, thing, the designation of intrinsic nature, the designation of distinctions — and the four thorough knowings-as-they-are drawn forth from them; in both places it points back in plain words: "these four kinds, if analyzed at length, should be known as before, in the Chapter on the Real Meaning". This stroke is of the utmost importance: the Chapter on Merits takes stock of the bodhisattva's virtue, and when the stock-taking reaches "thoroughly knowing all dharmas as they are," the treatise itself sends the reader back to the Chapter on the Real Meaning to read the extended discussion. The Chapter on the Real Meaning is the Basic Section's deepest chapter on the meaning of consciousness-only, and the right establishing of the well-grasped emptiness is precisely there: "What again is named the one who grasps emptiness well? That is: because in this that is absent, one rightly contemplates it, by that which is absent, as empty; and further, because in this the remainder is really present, one knows, by that remainder, as it truly is, that it is present" — emptying what ought to be emptied, and knowing as it truly is the really-present remainder: this alone is named "grasping emptiness well." The Chapter on Merits' four investigations and four thorough knowings connect to just this vein; the bodhisattva's utmost merit is to see the dharmas as they truly are.

The Five Immeasurables: The Realm of Sentient Beings Is Sixty-Four; Sahā Means "Endurance"

The treatise next opens the five immeasurables — the realm of sentient beings, the worlds, the dharma-realm, the realm of those to be tamed, the realm of the skillful means of taming — saying that the bodhisattva "toward the five immeasurables is able to give rise to every skillful function." The realm of sentient beings is set at "sixty-four kinds of assemblies of sentient beings", the treatise saying of itself "as before, in the Stage of the Mental, they have already been itemized," and Dunlun takes up the thread: "the sixty-four sentient beings are as stated in the Stage of the Mental, though they differ somewhat from the Xianyang lun. According to the old treatise it says sixty-one beings" — Xuanzang's version reads sixty-four, the old translations (Dharmakṣema, Guṇavarman) read sixty-one, and the two lineages stand together: this is a variant reading to be left for the translator to rule on.

At the immeasurability of the worlds, the treatise takes this realm for its example: "just as this world is named Sahā, and the Brahmā-king of this realm is named the Lord of Sahā". Dunlun glosses, "'Sahā' is here translated 'endurance'" — Sahā is the Sahā-world, and its sense is "capable of enduring"; even the name of the Brahmā-king is "Lord of Endurance," showing exactly that this is a world in which one must endure. The names of the worlds of the ten directions differ each from each; here one "endurance"-world is raised as a specimen.

The realm of those to be tamed opens from one kind out to ten kinds, the distinctions of category coming to fifty-five in all. Among these, the first several items of the ascending seven-gate — the slighting, the middling, those to whom knowledge is broadly displayed, those to whom knowledge is briefly opened — the ancient masters Tai, Jing, and Ce each match, set side by side and unadjudicated; here Kuiji's Concise Compendium reads "tamed by the most yielding (耎) speech", while Dunlun, recording Master Jing, reads "tamed by the most warm (煗) speech" — one "耎," one "煗," two transmitted variant readings, set down together to be left for ruling. Master Ce further cites a case from the Nirvāṇa-sūtra to display "taming from afar and near at hand": Śāriputra had two disciples, one the son of a pearl-stringer, one the son of a laundryman, and Śāriputra could in the end not convert them; later, at the Buddha's place, "the Buddha then taught the laundryman the contemplation of the white bones, and taught the pearl-stringer's son the counting of the breath, and before long the two both gained the Way" — the same two men, and with a change to a skillful means that met their disposition, those who long could not gain the Way at once gained it; the immeasurability of taming lies precisely in the immeasurability of skillful means.

The treatise then poses itself a question, marking off the realm of sentient beings from the realm of those to be tamed: "all sentient beings, whether abiding in the lineage or not abiding in the lineage, without difference, are altogether named the immeasurability of the realm of sentient beings; only those who abide in the lineage, changing over at this or that phase, may then be named the immeasurability of the realm of those to be tamed" — every sentient being counts as the realm of sentient beings, and only those who abide in the lineage and can turn over by phases count as the realm of those to be tamed. The bodhisattva's object is those beings who "can be moved to being tamed."

The Seven Great Natures and the Eight Dharmas That Gather the Great Vehicle: What Alone Deserves to Be Called "Great"

The treatise glosses, by the seven great natures, why the "great vehicle" is named great: Dharma, arousing the mind, resolute conviction, dominant intention, the provisions, time, complete realization, and judges of itself that the first six are cause and complete realization is fruit — "greatness in the nature of Dharma … greatness in the nature of time, these six kinds are all causes of greatness in the nature of complete realization. Greatness in the nature of complete realization is the fruit of the foregoing six kinds of greatness". On the station at which the fifth, greatness in the nature of the provisions, is placed, the ancient masters have two readings side by side: "fifth, greatness in the provisions — Ce says: from the second ground on up. Jing says: through both before the grounds and upon the grounds"; and Dunlun judges of the seven great natures that they are "the same as the seven great natures made clear in the Xianyang. The seven great natures of the Abhidharma-samuccaya and the seven great senses of the Sūtrālaṃkāra are the same in substance under different names" — with the Xianyang, the Abhidharma-samuccaya, and the Sūtrālaṃkāra they are one in substance though the names may differ; so do the ancient masters reconcile them.

The eight dharmas that gather the great vehicle gather the whole thread of the great vehicle into a single line: the bodhisattva-basket teaching, the teaching that reveals the real meaning, the teaching that reveals the buddhas' inconceivable might, hearing in accord with principle, tending toward superior intention, entering the characteristic of cultivating practice, cultivating the fruit to fullness, ultimate deliverance — from teaching, to hearing, to practice, to fruit, drawn down in one breath. Masters Jing and Ce match these against three axes, set side by side: Jing says "the first three argue the vehicle by way of teaching; the next three … argue the vehicle by way of practice; the seventh is the fruit of knowledge, the eighth is the fruit of severance, argued by way of fruit"; Ce says "the first five are all in the station of resolute-conviction practice; the sixth is from the first ground on up to the ninth ground; the seventh is at the tenth ground; the eighth is at the fruit of buddhahood" — one dividing by teaching-practice-fruit, one dividing by station, the two readings standing together.

The Ten Kinds of Bodhisattva and the Sixteen Names Set Up According to Virtue, Drawn to a Close in the "True Bodhisattva"

The treatise finally sets up ten kinds of bodhisattva — abiding in the lineage, having entered upon, of not-yet-purified intention, of already-purified intention, not yet matured, already matured, not yet fallen into the settled, already fallen into the settled, bound by one more birth, abiding in the final existence — spoken all the way from the first lineage out to the ability to realize unsurpassed awakening, and it affirms flatly, "above this there is none further able to train rightly … it is not that above the bodhisattvas as stated there are further bodhisattvas" — the ladder of the bodhisattva-path is here set up to the full, and above it there is no higher "one able to train."

The two names "bound by one more birth" and "abiding in the final existence," the ancient masters cite scripture and match to bodies, set side by side: Ji cites the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa [Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom]'s three births of Maitreya, matching them to the emanation body, the self-enjoyment body, the other-enjoyment body, and the dharma-body — "the self-enjoyment body before the seventh ground is named bound by one more birth; from the eighth ground on it is named the final body … the dharma-body, having no birth, then has nothing of this sense"; Ce cites the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, "receiving the station of buddhahood at the tenth ground for present-report benefit is precisely being bound by one more birth"; and the Silla Master Yin, for his part, glosses the sequence of the Upadeśa's three births of Maitreya, "the first birth in the human world, the middle birth in the heavens, coming back again to the human world for the last birth." One and the same name "one birth," and three masters cite three scriptures for three matchings, set side by side and unadjudicated.

Sixteen provisional names are set up according to virtue: the bodhi-being, the great being, the one accomplished in awakened wisdom, the supreme illumination, the most excellent true son, the most excellent upholder, the one universally able to subdue, the most excellent sprout, and the valiant-and-strong, the most holy, the caravan-leader, the greatly renowned, the pitying, the greatly blessed, the sovereign, the Dharma-master. Master Jing cites the Abhidharma-samuccaya to gloss the first name, "bodhi-being," with two readings, and distinguishes the general from the particular: "'bodhi-being' is a name common to the three vehicles, and so is a general name; from 'great being' down, it is only our own great vehicle that is named 'great sentient being,' and so it is a particular name" — "bodhi-being" is a name common to the three vehicles; "great being" is the particular name belonging to the great vehicle alone.

The whole chapter is drawn to a close upon one clean-cutting judgment: "if any bodhisattvas, present, call themselves 'I am a bodhisattva,' and yet do not rightly cultivate practice in the bodhisattva-training, it should be known that these are named semblance bodhisattvas, not true bodhisattvas; … [but if] they are able rightly to cultivate practice in the bodhisattva-training, it should be known that these are named true bodhisattvas". Having taken stock of a whole chapter's merits, in the end it comes to rest upon a single question: whether one cultivates or not. To cultivate — that alone is the true bodhisattva.

The One Meaning This Chapter Casts into Relief

The Chapter on Merits is the drawing-to-a-close of the First Section, and the twenty-seven passages are in fact doing but one thing — spreading out for view the four words "the cause made complete, the fruit made full." It first uses "the not-marvelous is what is utterly marvelous" to turn over the world's imagining of the marks of virtue (the bodhisattva's marvel lies not in strange powers, but in making benefiting others into his own happiness); then it uses the two mirrors of "semblance / real" to teach people first to recognize the false, and afterward to hold fast to the real; then, by the four designations, the four investigations, and the four thorough knowings-as-they-are, it fixes the bodhisattva's utmost merit upon "thoroughly knowing all dharmas as they are," and in plain words reconnects to the Chapter on the Real Meaning — the well-grasped emptiness, the suchness free of verbal expression, the non-conceptual equality-nature wisdom of deliverance, all gathered in on a single line here. Take stock to the utmost, and pity is the utmost of the immeasurables; take stock to the deepest, and it is the non-conceptual wisdom that takes suchness as its object; take stock to the last, and it is but the one question, "able to cultivate rightly" or not. The merits of a whole chapter arise from arousing the mind, are accomplished in seeing the dharmas as they truly are, and are made full in the four words "true bodhisattva."

Carrying Forward

This chapter is the eighteenth chapter of the First Section of Yoga, that is, the last chapter of the First Section. Dunlun fixes its place as "making clear the cause made complete, the fruit made full" — carrying forward, before it, the sixteenth Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables (the not-vain endeavor's "as stated earlier in the Chapter on Offering, Attending, and the Immeasurables" points back in plain words; the similes of the two-arrow reception, the udumbara marvelous flower, and the rest are also carried forward from that chapter) and the seventeenth Chapter on the Factors of Awakening (the First Section's practice of "surpassing-advance · inner realization"), and here draws all twenty-seven passages together. Within the chapter, the four investigations and four thorough knowings-as-they-are point back in plain words to the Chapter on the Real Meaning (15-01-04); and the right establishing of the well-grasped emptiness is also in the Chapter on the Real Meaning. For the four principles of the designation of principle the ancient masters turn the pointer to the Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13)'s four principles of dependence and the rest; and the sixty-four of the realm of sentient beings points back to the Stage of the Mental (Stage 3).

This chapter has an ascertainment in the Section on Ascertainment — the Section on Ascertainment's Bodhisattva Stage, the Ascertainment of the Chapter on Merits 〔the closing phrase "thus has been stated the ascertainment of the Chapter on Merits"〕, and this ascertainment is in fact the pivot by which this treatise embeds the whole of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra: it first refutes the wrongly-grasped emptiness, "by the conventional, all is present; by the ultimate, all is absent" (refuting it step by step in the form of interrogation, the treatise's own words, only transcribed and not adjudicated; the right establishing of the well-grasped emptiness, for its part, is in the Chapter on the Real Meaning, and the refutation of the wrongly-grasped emptiness is in the Section on Ascertainment — the boundary between the two places is set down as it truly is); it sets up the eight superiorities and the five characteristics of the ultimate truth — "first, free of the character of name-and-word; second, the character of non-duality; third, the character surpassing the range of applied-and-sustained thought; fourth, the character surpassing the sameness-or-difference of dharmas; fifth, the character pervading all with one taste"; and below this it embeds the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra on a large scale — the bodhisattva Viśālamati on the characters of mind, mentation, and consciousness (the appropriating consciousness (阿陀那識, ādāna), the store consciousness), the bodhisattva Maitreya on tranquillity and insight, and the rest — the root scriptural grounds of the store consciousness, of mind-mentation-and-consciousness, and of tranquillity-and-insight are all embedded in this chapter's ascertainment. The point of the doctrinal eye is fastened to this single line.

The chapter's closing "it should be known that these are named true bodhisattvas" is the very end of fascicle 46; below it follows fascicle 47 — the Second Section of Practice-in-Accord-with-the-Dharma of Yoga, the Chapter on the Characteristics of the Bodhisattva, first 〔the chapter-title of the Characteristics〕: this chapter makes clear the virtue of the "true bodhisattva," and the next chapter at once makes clear "the characteristics of the true bodhisattvas". The eighteen chapters of the First Section of Yoga are here brought wholly to a close, and the Bodhisattva Stage turns from here into the Second Section of Practice-in-Accord-with-the-Dharma of Yoga.

The two alternate translations are set down together and not adjudicated: Dharmakṣema's Chapter on the Merits of the Bodhisattva, eighteenth is prose without summary verses, with a whole set of variant renderings of the terminology (marvelous → marvelous-and-unprecedented, pratyekabuddha → solitary-awakener, the designation of principle → the designation of skillful means, sixty-four → sixty-one, the sixteen names according to virtue contracted to ten); Guṇavarman's Chapter on Merits, twentieth recasts it the most heavily (the designation of the truths wholly changed to "the real, spread abroad," with five reals and ten reals; the designation of principle changed to "skillful means, spread abroad"; the fifth of the seven great natures changed to "greatness of adornment"; the realm of sentient beings tied to "the bodhisattva abiding in the Joyful Ground"; the chapter's close drawn to an end by distinguishing, by the bodhisattva precepts, the caṇḍāla, with the base-text doubled character in "not-named named a bodhisattva" as it stands). The name of the middle vehicle stands tripartite among the three houses (Xuanzang's pratyekabuddha vehicle · Dharmakṣema's solitary-awakener vehicle · Guṇavarman's pratyekabuddha [-as-transliterated] vehicle). See Heading II of the Apparatus.