瑜伽師地論 菩薩地 · 分品

In one line: The four dharmas by which the bodhisattvas of the two divisions, householder and renunciant, strive rightly to cultivate and train and swiftly realize supreme perfect awakening — the good cultivation of undertakings (the four modes of cultivation upon the six perfections) · skillful means (the ten kinds accomplishing five deeds) · the benefiting of others (the four means of gathering) · undistorted dedication (the roots amassed by the three gates, dedicated to bodhi alone) — the four dharmas being exhaustive, "beyond this there is nothing that exceeds them and nothing more"; the close shows that the renunciant is, in comparison with the householder, greatly different and loftier (five deeds).

Three points of the eye:

1. The four dharmas · the four modes of cultivation (the eye). The four dharmas are named 〔0550c12〕; the good cultivation of undertakings = the four modes of cultivating the six perfections — resolutely (one will certainly give · none can make the mind waver) · thoroughly (when one can bestow even one's own body and life, how much more the things outside the body) · constantly (giving away then and there whatever one obtains) · faultlessly (keeping far from the defiled giving of the Chapter on Giving 〔0550c29〕) 〔0550c15〕; undistorted dedication amasses through the three gates 〔0551b07〕, "with a mind of pure single-flavored, sublime, clear faith, dedicating in quest of supreme perfect awakening"; the practitioner of the four dharmas "draws near to and presses close upon the supreme bodhi so hard to attain, so hard to realize" 〔0551b16〕.

2. The ten skills accomplishing five deeds · the naming by seed and manifest activity (the eye). The ten kinds of skillful means 〔0551a07–08〕 (the first four = the whole process of delivering people, removing anger and vexation → causing to enter → bringing to maturity → causing liberation · heterodox theories · observing the discipline · the right vows · the three vehicles) are able to accomplish five deeds 〔0551a18〕; "according to their lineage, their faculties, and their resolute inclination, speak the fitting dharma" 〔0551a27〕 — the Tripiṭaka-master says: "the seed is called family-lineage, the manifest activity is called faculty" 〔Dunlun T42n1828 0563a04〕.

3. The chapter title's history of translation · the five superiorities of the renunciant (the eye). "The Sanskrit sound is bhāga [薄刃]; this word holds three senses: a phase · a distinction of kind · a wing" 〔Dunlun 0562c24 · for the character 刃, the CBETA collation note (following the Jin-canon variant, CB) reads "文"〕; the old name, the Chapter on the Wings, "just as a bird, relying on its wings, swiftly reaches somewhere" 〔0562c25〕 (Dharmakṣema's version titles the chapter "the Chapter on the Wings"); Xuanzang took "the two divisions" for the naming (Kuiji T43n1829 0157c28–0158a01). The renunciant's five superiorities 〔0551b22〕: liberated from the perils of taking in kin · liberated from the anxiety and suffering of farming, trading, and serving the king · the hook-and-chain pure conduct 〔0551b28 · Kuiji: "'hook-and-chain' takes the sense of mutual restraint and entanglement" T42n1828 0563a15〕 · swiftly realizing penetrating knowledge · whatever they utter the multitude all trust and honor.

Appended pointers:

• Chapter order: carrying on from the Chapter on the Characteristics (the support of the five characteristics is not apart from the two divisions, Dunlun 0562c27–28); leading on to the Chapter on the Superior Intent (the practice that is set in motion must arise from intent, Dunlun 0563a21).
• The Section on Ascertainment verifies the ascertainment passage on the section of following-dharma yoga 〔from 0736c20〕, but establishes no separate ascertainment-chapter for the Divisions (see the Apparatus, Heading Two).
• Alternate translations: Dharmakṣema, the Chapter on the Wings (the four dharmas: good cultivation of undertakings / skillful means / gathering in sentient beings / dedication · four deeds of the renunciant) · Guṇavarman, the "Chapter on Meditation" (the chapter title is anomalous but the content is in fact the four dharmas · the four dharmas: wholesome-activity skillful means / good skillful means / benefiting others / good making of vows · four deeds of the renunciant); see the Apparatus, Heading Two.
• The Consciousness-Only eye: this chapter is an overall summary of practice; its sole dharma-mark anchor = the Tripiṭaka-master's naming by seed and manifest activity, an eye, and light — not to be forced (see the Apparatus, Heading Three).
• The collation eye: 0551a27 性【大】 / 姓【宋元宮聖知】 ("according to their lineage" · both Dunlun's cited text and the Tripiṭaka-master's gloss read "姓"); all three Taishō collation notes for this chapter's span are recorded in full (see the Apparatus, Heading Two).

Overall Heading: The Four Dharmas by Which the Bodhisattvas of the Two Divisions Swiftly Realize Bodhi

Bodhisattvas of the two divisions, the householder and the renunciant — how many dharmas are there by which, when they rightly cultivate and train, they can swiftly realize supreme perfect awakening? A summary verse (uddāna) says: the bodhisattvas of the two divisions — first, the good cultivation of undertakings; next, skillful means and the benefiting of others; and dedication is the very last. That is to say, when the bodhisattvas, whether resting on the householder division or on the renunciant division, turn distinctly, there are in brief four dharmas that, one should know, enable these householder and renunciant bodhisattvas of the two divisions to strive rightly, to cultivate and train, and to swiftly realize supreme perfect awakening. Which four? First, the good cultivation of undertakings; second, skillful means; third, the benefiting of others; fourth, undistorted dedication.

One · The Good Cultivation of Undertakings: The Four Modes of Cultivation upon the Six Perfections

What is the bodhisattva's good cultivation of undertakings? It is that the bodhisattvas, with respect to the six perfections, cultivate them resolutely, cultivate them thoroughly, cultivate them constantly, and cultivate them faultlessly.

What is the bodhisattva's resolute cultivation of the perfection of giving? It is that when the bodhisattvas have present all sorts of goods and dharmas that may be given, and beggars are present right before them, then — whether the other party has been kind or unkind, has virtue or has faults, without any distinction — they will certainly give; and no one, neither human nor non-human, nor any recluse, brahmin, or other worldly person, is able by any means, however lawful, to make the bodhisattva's mind of giving waver in the least.

What is the bodhisattva's thorough cultivation of the perfection of giving? It is that when the bodhisattvas have present all sorts of goods and dharmas that may be given, and beggars are present right before them, they give it all, with not the least thing that they cannot let go of for the sake of sentient beings; when they can bestow even their own body and life, how much more the things outside the body?

What is the bodhisattva's constant cultivation of the perfection of giving? It is that the bodhisattvas cultivate giving without weariness, constantly and unbrokenly, at all times, giving away then and there whatever they obtain, with not the least grudging.

What is the bodhisattva's faultless cultivation of the perfection of giving? It is that the bodhisattvas keep far from the various defiled kinds of giving spoken of before in the Chapter on Giving, and cultivate instead the other, undefiled giving.

Thus the bodhisattva is able to cultivate well the perfection of giving. Just as one is able to cultivate well the perfection of giving, so too — in the manner appropriate to each — one should know it is the same with the perfections of discipline, patience, vigor, meditative absorption, and wisdom. The above is called the bodhisattva's cultivating, by four modes, the six perfections resolutely, thoroughly, constantly, and faultlessly.

Two · Skillful Means: The Ten Skillful Means Accomplish the Five Deeds

What is the bodhisattva's skillful means? One should know that this skillful means is, in brief, of ten kinds. Which ten? First, the skillful means, toward sentient beings who detest and turn away from the sacred teaching, of removing their anger and vexation; second, the skillful means, toward sentient beings who are in the middle, of causing them to enter in; third, the skillful means, toward those who have already entered in, of bringing them to maturity; fourth, the skillful means, toward those already matured, of causing them to attain liberation; fifth, the skillful means with respect to all the heterodox theories of the world; sixth, the skillful means of rightly observing the keeping and the transgressing of the bodhisattvas' pure discipline and restraint; seventh, the skillful means with respect to the right vows; eighth, the skillful means with respect to the śrāvaka vehicle; ninth, the skillful means with respect to the pratyekabuddha vehicle; tenth, the skillful means with respect to their Great Vehicle. All this skillful means is as has been widely distinguished, place by place, before within this very Bodhisattva Stage, and should be known accordingly.

These ten skillful means that the bodhisattvas possess are able to accomplish five deeds. By the first four kinds of skillful means, the bodhisattvas are enabled rightly to establish the sentient beings they convert in their own aim and benefit. By the skillful means with respect to all the heterodox theories of the world, the bodhisattvas are enabled well to subdue all heterodox theories. By the skillful means of rightly observing the keeping and the transgressing of the bodhisattvas' pure discipline and restraint, the bodhisattvas are enabled not to transgress what ought not to be transgressed; and having transgressed, to repent and remove it swiftly and in accord with the Dharma, and, with respect to the well-purified pure discipline and restraint that the bodhisattva has received, to mend and burnish it well until it is lustrous. By the skillful means with respect to the right vows, the bodhisattvas are enabled to realize the fullness of every cherished matter and aim that is to come. By the skillful means with respect to the three vehicles, the bodhisattvas are enabled, toward the sentient beings, according to their lineage (the five editions — Song, Yuan, Palace, Sheng, Zhi — read "family-lineage"), their faculties, and their resolute inclination, to speak the fitting dharma and to speak the dharma in accord with right principle. The above is called the ten skillful means enabling the bodhisattvas to accomplish five deeds. By these five deeds, the bodhisattva is enabled to bring to culmination every matter and aim, in the present dharma and in the time to come.

Three · The Benefiting of Others: In Reliance on the Four Means of Gathering

What is the bodhisattva's benefiting of others? It is that the bodhisattvas, in reliance on the four means of gathering — namely giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and shared undertaking — are able to give benefit to one portion of sentient beings, able to give ease to one portion of sentient beings, and able to give benefit together with ease to one portion of the sentient beings they convert. This is called, stated in brief, the benefiting of others that the bodhisattva possesses. Stated at length, it is as before in the Chapter on the Aim of Self and Others; one should know its characteristics there.

Four · Undistorted Dedication

What is the bodhisattva's undistorted dedication? It is that the bodhisattvas take up all the roots of goodness amassed by the three gates — namely the good cultivation of undertakings, skillful means, and the benefiting of others — in their entirety, past, future, and present, and, with a mind of pure single-flavored, sublime, clear faith, dedicate them in quest of supreme perfect awakening; and in the end they do not use these amassed roots of goodness to seek any other worldly fruit or maturation, save only supreme perfect awakening.

Conclusion: The Four Dharmas Are Exhaustive · The Renunciant Is Loftier

All the dharmas to be trained in that the World-Honored One has expounded for the bodhisattvas of the householder division or the renunciant division — one should know that all are gathered within these four dharmas: the good cultivation of undertakings, skillful means, the benefiting of others, and undistorted dedication. Therefore, the assembly of bodhisattvas who thus cultivate well their undertakings, their skillful means, their benefiting of others, and their undistorted dedication, draw near to and press close upon (approach and bear right up against) that supreme bodhi so hard to attain, so hard to realize. One should know that all bodhisattvas of the past, the future, and the present — whether of the householder division or of the renunciant division — who strive diligently to cultivate and train, and who have realized, will realize, or are realizing their supreme perfect awakening, do so all by these four dharmas. Beyond this, there is nothing that exceeds them and nothing more.

Again, though the bodhisattvas, whether of the householder division or of the renunciant division, likewise strive rightly to cultivate and train in these four dharmas, the renunciant is, in comparison with the householder, greatly different and greatly loftier. Why? One should know that all renunciant bodhisattvas are liberated from the perils of taking in father and mother, wife and child, and kin; the householder bodhisattva is not so. Again, all renunciant bodhisattvas are liberated from the anxiety and suffering of the manifold arduous and pressing affairs — farming, trading, and serving the royal business — undertaken to take in father, mother, and kin; the householder bodhisattva is not so. Again, all renunciant bodhisattvas can, without turning aside, practice the hook-and-chain pure conduct (the precepts, restraining and entangling, guarding the three kinds of action, as hook and ring interlock); the householder bodhisattva is not so. Again, all renunciant bodhisattvas, in every dharma conducive to bodhi, swiftly realize penetrating knowledge, and whatever wholesome dharmas they set themselves to cultivate they can all swiftly bring to culmination; the householder bodhisattva is not so. Again, all renunciant bodhisattvas abide in resolute and pure discipline and restraint, and whatever they utter the multitude all trust and honor; the householder bodhisattva is not so. Such measureless wholesome dharmas as these — one should know that in all of them the renunciant bodhisattva is, in comparison with the householder, greatly different and greatly loftier.

What Is "Division"? — A History of Translation Hidden in a Chapter Title

The "division" of the Chapter on the Divisions refers to the householder division and the renunciant division — the two statuses of a bodhisattva. This chapter title has a history of its own. Dunlun set down its Sanskrit sound and its threefold sense: "The Sanskrit sound is bhāga [薄刃]; this word holds three senses: first, the sense of a phase; second, the sense of a distinction of kind; third, the sense of a wing". The old translation named the chapter precisely from this third sense — Dharmakṣema's version titles this chapter "the Chapter on the Wings", and Dunlun explains: "The old name, 'the Chapter on the Wings,' means that practicing the four dharmas can swiftly attain the fruit, just as a bird, relying on its wings, swiftly reaches somewhere" — the four dharmas are like a bird's pair of wings, bearing the bodhisattva to fly swiftly to bodhi. Xuanzang instead took the sense of "division," and Kuiji set out the reason: "Both the householder and the renunciant cultivate; because it is cultivated by the two divisions, it is called 'division,' and so it is titled 'the Chapter on the Divisions'". One chapter title, two generations of translators, each taking one sense: the old translation took the metaphor (the wing), the new took the fact (the division) — and yet the metaphor of the bird's wing still lives on within the ancient masters' glosses.

The order of the chapter, too, falls out naturally: the Chapter on the Characteristics had just finished setting out the five characteristics of a true bodhisattva, and "the support of the five characteristics is not apart from the two divisions, householder and renunciant; hence, after the Chapter on the Characteristics, the Chapter on the Divisions is next discussed" (Dunlun). Having the characteristics, one asks next: a person of what status can cultivate these characteristics into being? The answer is — householder and renunciant, both can.

The Four Dharmas: The Good Cultivation of Undertakings, Skillful Means, the Benefiting of Others, Undistorted Dedication

The treatise opens with a question: "The bodhisattvas of the two divisions, householder and renunciant — how many dharmas are there by which, when they rightly cultivate and train, they swiftly realize supreme perfect awakening?" The answer is four dharmas.

First, the good cultivation of undertakings — cultivating the six perfections to the mark. What counts as "to the mark"? The treatise gives four standards, taking giving as the example: resolute cultivation (when a beggar is present, whether kind or unkind, of virtue or of faults, without any distinction, "one will certainly give," and no one can make the mind of giving waver); thorough cultivation ("when one can bestow even one's own body and life, how much more the things outside the body"); constant cultivation (without weariness, giving away then and there whatever one obtains); faultless cultivation (keeping far from the various defiled kinds of giving spoken of in the Chapter on Giving). The other five — discipline, patience, vigor, meditative absorption, wisdom — are extended by analogy from these four modes. Four adverbs raise a threshold: to cultivate is not merely to have cultivated, but to cultivate resolutely, to cultivate thoroughly, to cultivate unbrokenly, to cultivate cleanly.

Second, skillful means — ten kinds of skill. The first four are the complete process of delivering people: toward those who detest and turn away from the sacred teaching, first remove their anger and vexation; toward those in the middle, cause them to enter in; those already entered in, bring to maturity; those already matured, cause to attain liberation. The fifth is skill with respect to the world's heterodox theories; the sixth, rightly observing the keeping and transgressing of the bodhisattva's pure discipline; the seventh, skill with respect to the right vows; the eighth, ninth, and tenth, skill with respect to the three vehicles of śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and Great Vehicle. The ten skills are drawn together into five deeds: establishing sentient beings in their own aim and benefit; subduing all heterodox theories; guarding the pure discipline (not transgressing what should not be transgressed, and having transgressed, swiftly repenting); realizing the fullness of cherished matters to come; and, according to lineage, faculties, and resolute inclination, speaking the fitting dharma. Dunlun even made an index for the reader: these ten skills — "the first four are as stated in the twelve skillful means, the fifth as in the section on the science of reasoning, the sixth as in the discipline, the seventh as in the five vows, and the last three appear in more than one place, nearest as stated in the Chapter on the Factors of Bodhi" — the Chapter on the Divisions does not itself unfold them, because the earlier text of the Bodhisattva Stage has long widely clarified them.

The line "according to their lineage, their faculties, and their resolute inclination, speak the fitting dharma" carries an essential gloss that Dunlun set down from the Tripiṭaka-master Xuanzang: "The Tripiṭaka-master says: the seed is called 'family-lineage,' the manifest activity is called 'faculty'" — lineage is the phase of the seed, the faculty is the phase of manifest activity; to observe the capacity and suit the teaching to it is to look at what is in this person's seeds and where they stand in manifest activity. This line is also bound to a single-character collation: the treatise reads "according to their lineage [種性]," but the five editions — Song, Yuan, Palace, Sheng, Zhi — all read "family-lineage [種姓]" — Dunlun's cited text and the Tripiṭaka-master's gloss both read "姓," corresponding with the five editions (see the collation, Heading Two of the Apparatus). A difference of one character, and the ancient masters' gloss and the ancient editions' transmission bear mutual witness to each other.

Third, the benefiting of others — in reliance on the four means of gathering: giving, kindly speech, beneficial conduct, and shared undertaking, able to give sentient beings benefit and ease, or both together. Master Kuiji adds: in fact "each of the four means of gathering has both benefit and ease" — that giving of wealth prompts the arising of the mind is benefit, that the goods are there and then put to use is ease; each one is complete in both. Stated at length, it points back to the Chapter on the Aim of Self and Others.

Fourth, undistorted dedication — the first three dharmas are the roots of goodness "amassed by the three gates": the good cultivation of undertakings is one gate, skillful means a second, the benefiting of others a third; what the three gates amass, past, future, and present, is all taken up, and "with a mind of pure single-flavored, sublime, clear faith, dedicated in quest of supreme perfect awakening," never used to seek any other worldly fruit or maturation. Dedication is the closing seam of the four dharmas: all that the first three have earned is invested in one place alone.

The treatise then proclaims the exhaustiveness of the four dharmas: all the dharmas to be trained in that the World-Honored One has expounded for the householder and renunciant bodhisattvas are "all, one should know, gathered by these four" — and it uses a word with much momentum: the bodhisattva who thus cultivates and trains "draws near to and presses close upon" the supreme bodhi so hard to attain, so hard to realize — step by step nearing, bearing right up against that fruit-stage so hard to attain, so hard to realize.

The Five Superiorities of the Renunciant: One Same Path, Two Modes of Practice

The four dharmas are cultivated in common by householder and renunciant, but the treatise's closing passage says plainly: "The renunciant is, in comparison with the householder, greatly different and greatly loftier". Superior in what? Five deeds: first, liberated from the perils of taking in father and mother, wife and child, and kin; second, liberated from the anxiety and suffering of the arduous, pressing affairs of farming, trading, and serving the king; third, "able, without turning aside, to practice the hook-and-chain pure conduct"; fourth, in the dharmas of the factors of bodhi swiftly realizing penetrating knowledge; fifth, abiding in resolute and pure discipline and restraint, so that whatever they utter the multitude all trust and honor.

How is "hook-and-chain pure conduct" to be understood? Master Kuiji: "'Hook-and-chain' takes the sense of mutual restraint and entanglement; the renunciant has restrictions that guard against evil in the three kinds of action, and so is like a hook-and-chain" — the precepts are like hook and ring, ring linked to ring, binding the three kinds of action of body, speech, and mind onto the right track, not one link slipping loose; the Concise Compendium adds a contrast at its end: "the householder bodhisattva is not so, being wholly given to laxity". The superiority of the renunciant lies not in a nobility of status, but in bonds fully loosed and the chain of precepts unbroken — walking the one same path of the four dharmas the faster.

The One Sense This Chapter Illumines

The Chapter on the Divisions gathers the path to buddhahood into four things, and proclaims that "beyond this there is nothing that exceeds them and nothing more" — all bodhisattvas of the three times, householder or renunciant alike, realize supreme bodhi "all by these four dharmas". This is a placing of "status": there is but one path, and the four dharmas are exhaustive; status does not block a person, and the householder division can equally cultivate and equally realize — yet the treatise also does not smooth away the difference, and states the renunciant's five superiorities plainly and clearly. Not to discard a person on account of status, and not to shy from speaking of the loftier out of a wish for equality: both held to truthfully — this is precisely the measure of this chapter.

Carrying Forward

Each of this chapter's four dharmas has its predecessor: faultless cultivation points back to the defiled giving of the Chapter on Giving (15-01-09); the benefiting of others is stated at length by pointing back to the Chapter on the Aim of Self and Others (15-01-03); the sources of the ten skills are matched by Dunlun to the various earlier chapters of the Bodhisattva Stage. In chapter order it carries on from the Chapter on the Characteristics (15-02-01: the support of the five characteristics is not apart from the two divisions). The Section on Ascertainment verifies the ascertainment passage on the section of following-dharma yoga, but establishes no separate ascertainment-chapter for the Divisions — the sense of the four dharmas is self-sufficient within the Basic Section. Alternate translations: Dharmakṣema, the Chapter on the Wings, second (the four dharmas as good cultivation of undertakings / skillful means / gathering in sentient beings / dedication · four deeds of the renunciant) · Guṇavarman, the "Chapter on Meditation," second (the chapter title reads "Chapter on Meditation," but the content is in fact the four dharmas — so the Taishō base text reads; the four dharmas as wholesome-activity skillful means / good skillful means / benefiting others / good making of vows · four deeds of the renunciant) — see the Apparatus, Heading Two. It leads on to the Chapter on the Superior Intent, third: the practice that is set in motion must arise from intent (Dunlun).