瑜伽師地論 菩薩地 · 究竟瑜伽處 · 地品

In one line: The advance through the stations of practice is, in essence, a switching-over of the basis — transcending the evil destinies is not skirting around the evil destinies, but the power of the compassionate vow expelling, within "one's own basis," the coarse heaviness of the class of evil-destiny afflictions and gaining the transformation of the basis, so that from the root the cause of the evil destinies is produced no more: "all the coarse heaviness belonging to the class of afflictions of the evil destinies is expelled within one's own basis; because of this severing, the bodhisattva before long gains the transformation of the basis" 〔0565a24-26〕.

Three points of the eye:

1. Transcending the evil destinies = the coarse heaviness expelled · the transformation of the basis gained (the point of the eye · the weightiest · the Consciousness-Only point of the eye): the causal chain = worldly pure meditative absorption + cultivating compassion toward the one hundred and ten sufferings → the intent of compassion (pity) and the intent of pity (compassion, Kuiji's distinction 〔T43n1829 0167a14-15〕) → "vowing to abide in the evil destinies as though in one's own home" 〔0565a18〕 → vowing to receive in their stead the maturational fruit of all evil-destiny karma → raising the right vow → the coarse heaviness expelled → the transformation of the basis → the evil karma in the end not performed, the evil destinies assuredly not gone to; the collation of the three translations' terms: Xuanzang's "coarse heaviness / basis / transformation of the basis" · Dharmakṣema's "the defiled body received is severed / transforming the evil-destiny body" · Guṇavarman's "the latent tendencies / transforming the body of the four great elements" — transcended upon the basis, not upon the realm of the grounds.
2. The thirteen abidings gathered into seven grounds · the seventh, the Mixed Ground, takes the Buddha in as well (the point of the eye): the Ground of Practicing the Right Practice gathers up six abidings in one, and the Ground of Reaching the Ultimate gathers together the Supreme Fully Perfected and the Abiding of the Tathāgata; "earlier it spoke only in terms of the causal position, and so passed over and did not mention the Buddha; now, recording things as they truly are, it takes the Buddha in as well" (Kuiji 〔T43n1829 0166c28-0167a02〕); the Ground of the Abiding of the Tathāgata is given advance notice as "to be expounded at length" in the Chapter on Establishing 〔0565a10-11〕.
3. The ten dharmas that purify and cultivate = the maintenance procedure of a ground (the point of the eye): the establishment of the ten counters (from "counter having altogether not raised the aspiration with faith" … to "counter hesitation and doubt toward the Great Teacher with making offerings to the Tathāgata") + the brief meaning's two purities (the first three, purity of intent / the latter seven, purity of exertion 〔0565b25-28〕) + the sequential causal chain (deep faith → compassion → pity → relinquishment → without weariness → knowing the treatises well → knowing the world → shame and dread of blame → the nature of firm sustaining strength → making offerings to the Tathāgata); Dunlun divides it into three sections 〔T42n1828 0581b15-21〕, and Kuiji gives no gloss on this passage (marked as it stands).

Appended pointers:

• The three certainties (of lineage / of raising the aspiration / of undeceptive conduct), Jing's and Kuiji's two placements set forth side by side: Jing, using the eighth ground as self-corroboration, places "the prior seven grounds = the certainty of raising the aspiration, everything before the grounds = the certainty of lineage" ("before those others there is as yet no uncontaminated activity in operation, but only matured uncontaminated seeds," transcribed as the Taishō text stands) 〔T42n1828 0581a28-b07〕; Kuiji cites the Xianyang, fascicle seven, "the certainty of raising the aspiration means the entry into the First Ground" 〔T43n1829 0167a03-13〕; Dharmakṣema's translation renders this phrase as "the first certainty" (Xuanzang: "the third") — see Apparatus, Headings Two and Three.
• The seven grounds of the Sūtra of the Wholesome Precepts, "the remaining one ground shared by śrāvaka and bodhisattva," is a peculiar variant reading of its own (both Xuanzang and Dharmakṣema read "the Tathāgata" for the shared ground) — see Apparatus, Heading Two.
• The two kinds of pure intent (the uncontaminated = from the entry into the grounds and above / superior and so named pure = before the grounds), Kuiji 〔T43n1829 0167a16-18〕; the one hundred and ten sufferings are found cross-referenced in fascicle 44 (Dunlun 〔T42n1828 0581b12-13〕).
• Next comes the Chapter on Practice (the fourth) — "though there be positions to rely upon, what practice-dharmas are to be practiced"; the positions and grounds being established, the four bodhisattva practices are clarified next.

1. The Thirteen Abidings Establish Seven Grounds

In accordance with the thirteen abidings set forth above, one should know that seven grounds are established following upon them. The first six are the Bodhisattva Ground alone; the seventh is a single ground established by taking the bodhisattva and the Tathāgata together. Which are the seven grounds? First, the Lineage Ground; second, the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction; third, the Ground of Purified Superior Intent; fourth, the Ground of Practicing the Right Practice; fifth, the Ground of Certainty; sixth, the Ground of the Practice of Certainty; seventh, the Ground of Reaching the Ultimate. Among these seven bodhisattva grounds, the last one is named the Mixed Ground.

Matching them one by one: the Lineage Abiding set forth above is named the Lineage Ground; the Abiding of Conduct through Resolute Conviction is named the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction; the Abiding of Utmost Joy is named the Ground of Purified Superior Intent; the Abiding of Higher Discipline, the Abiding of Higher Mind, the three Abidings of Higher Wisdom, and the Signless Abiding with Effort and Function are together named the Ground of Practicing the Right Practice; the Signless Abiding without Effort and without Function is named the Ground of Certainty — because the bodhisattva of this ground has already fallen within the third certainty; the Abiding of Unobstructed Understanding is named the Ground of the Practice of Certainty; the Abiding of the Supreme Fully Perfected Bodhisattva and the Abiding of the Tathāgata are named the Ground of Reaching the Ultimate. As for the Ground of the Abiding of the Tathāgata, it will be expounded in detail later, in the Chapter on Establishing the Buddha's Dharma.

2. Question and Answer: How, upon Entering the Ground, One Transcends the Evil Destinies

Question: When the bodhisattva, from the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction, enters the Ground of Purified Superior Intent, how is it that he transcends the evil destinies and the rest?

Answer: These bodhisattvas, relying on worldly pure meditative absorption, have already well amassed the provisions for awakening in the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction; toward the sentient beings amid the one hundred and ten kinds of suffering set forth above, they cultivate compassion, contemplating them without any omission. By this cultivation as cause and condition, toward that class of sentient beings they gain the intent of compassion and the intent of pity. By this cause and condition, in order to benefit the sentient beings of the evil destinies, they vow to abide in the evil destinies as though dwelling in their own home. Thus the bodhisattva vows: "Even if it is only by abiding in such a place that I can realize supreme perfect awakening, I too can endure it." In order to extinguish the suffering of all sentient beings, for all the various evil-destiny karma of all sentient beings, the bodhisattva, with a pure intent, is entirely willing to take upon his own body the receiving, in their stead, of the maturational fruit of suffering. In order that all evil karma may in the end never come into activity, and all wholesome karma may constantly come into activity, the bodhisattva raises up a right vow within his mind.

Because the bodhisattva cultivates the power of this compassionate vow of worldly pure meditative absorption, all the coarse heaviness belonging to the class of afflictions of the evil destinies is expelled within his own basis. Because of this severing, the bodhisattva before long gains the transformation of the basis: as to all the evil karma of the evil destinies, in the end he does not perform it; and as to the evil destinies, he assuredly does not go there. Reaching this point, this bodhisattva is named one who has transcended all the evil destinies; he is also named one who has transcended the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction; and he is also named one who has entered the Ground of Purified Superior Intent.

3. The Ten Dharmas That Purify and Cultivate the Grounds

As was said above in the Chapter on the Abidings, the ten dharmas — faith and the rest — are able to purify and cultivate the abidings; now, here too, one should know that they are likewise able to purify and cultivate the grounds. The establishment of these ten dharmas (what is to be countered and what does the countering), their brief meaning, and their sequence, should all be understood. That is to say, those ten dharmas that purify and cultivate the grounds are established precisely because they are able to counter the dharmas that each is respectively meant to counter.

(1) Establishment: The Ten Things to Be Countered and the Ten That Counter Them

Which are the ten? To have altogether not yet raised the aspiration in every kind, to have altogether not yet undertaken the bodhisattva's training-precepts — this is the dharma to be countered by "faith"; in order to counter it, "faith" is established. To have a mind of harm toward sentient beings — this is the dharma to be countered by "compassion"; in order to counter it, "compassion" is established. To have a mind of anger toward sentient beings — this is the dharma to be countered by "pity"; in order to counter it, "pity" is established. To have attachment and longing toward body, life, and possessions — this is the dharma to be countered by "relinquishment"; in order to counter it, "relinquishment" is established. To seek requital from sentient beings, and — seeing others' wrong conduct and craving for gain and support — to do much of this oneself — this is the dharma to be countered by "knowing the treatises well"; in order to counter it, "being without weariness" is established. To lack skillful means in one's exertion — this is the dharma to be countered by "knowing the treatises well"; in order to counter it, "knowing the treatises well" is established. To be unyielding in temperament, unable to turn in accord with others' minds — this is the dharma to be countered by "knowing all the world well"; in order to counter it, "knowing all the world well" is established. To be heedless and slothful in cultivating wholesome dharmas — this is the dharma to be countered by "shame and dread of blame"; in order to counter it, "shame and dread of blame" is established. To sink deep into faint-heartedness before the manifold, fierce, unremitting, unbroken great suffering of birth-and-death over a long time — one should know this is the dharma to be countered by "the nature of firm sustaining strength"; in order to counter it, therefore, "the nature of firm sustaining strength" is established. To harbor hesitation and doubt toward the Great Teacher — one should know this is the dharma to be countered by "making offerings to the Tathāgata"; in order to counter it, therefore, "making offerings to the Tathāgata" is established. Such, then, is the establishment of the ten dharmas as things-to-be-countered and things-that-counter.

(2) Brief Meaning: Purity of Intent and Purity of Exertion

Now what is the brief meaning of these ten dharmas? These ten dharmas display, in brief, two layers of meaning: first, they display purity of intent; second, they display purity of exertion. One should know that the first three (faith, compassion, pity) display the bodhisattva's purity of intent; the remaining seven display the bodhisattva's purity of exertion.

(3) Sequence: From Deep Faith to Making Offerings to the Tathāgata

What is the sequence of these ten dharmas? It is that the bodhisattvas first give rise to deep pure faith toward the great awakening. Next, toward sentient beings who suffer, they raise up compassion. When raising up compassion, they vow thus: "I ought to rescue all sentient beings and set them at ease," and so give rise to a mind of pity. After giving rise to a mind of pity, they are able to relinquish everything, having no attachment or longing toward body, life, and possessions. After having no attachment or longing, they then, for the sake of others' benefit and welfare, exert themselves diligently, without weariness. After being without weariness, they are able to know the treatises well. After knowing the treatises well, they are able to know, as it truly is, how the world turns. After knowing the world, if their own afflictions should suddenly come into activity, they give rise to deep shame and dread of blame. After giving rise to shame and dread of blame, not following the afflictions and acting at their sway, they are able to gain the nature of firm sustaining strength. Because they rightly gain the nature of firm sustaining strength, they are able to be without regression in right exertion, and measureless wholesome dharmas increase and increase; they are able to offer to the Tathāgata the supreme offering of right practice and the offering of material reverence — and so, last of all, making offerings to the Tathāgata. Such is the sequential cultivation-and-realization of the ten dharmas.

One should know that these ten wholesome dharmas are able to purify and cultivate all the grounds.

Thirteen Maps, Gathered into Seven Pages

The Chapter on Rebirth tells how a bodhisattva takes on rebirth; the Chapter on Taking In tells how, with this body, he takes sentient beings in. But at what "place" do such practices occur? Kuiji, in his definition beneath the chapter's title: "The bodhisattva's positions and stages are relied upon like a ground, and so it is called the Chapter on the Grounds. Again, it is the place where one's own virtue is accomplished, where one is capable of taking on rebirth, and so it is named a ground" — the positions and stages bear up the practices as the great earth bears all things, and so it is called "ground."

The first thing this chapter does is to re-gather the thirteen abidings that the Chapter on the Abidings had established, into seven grounds: the Lineage Ground, the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction, the Ground of Purified Superior Intent, the Ground of Practicing the Right Practice, the Ground of Certainty, the Ground of the Practice of Certainty, and the Ground of Reaching the Ultimate. The thirteen abidings are the detailed ledger; the seven grounds are the master list — among them, the Ground of Practicing the Right Practice gathers up six abidings in one breath (Higher Discipline, Higher Mind, the three Higher Wisdoms, and the Signless with Effort and Function), while the Ground of Reaching the Ultimate gathers the Abiding of the Supreme Fully Perfected Bodhisattva together with the Abiding of the Tathāgata into one. The treatise makes a special declaration: the first six grounds are the Bodhisattva Ground alone; the seventh is "the bodhisattva and the Tathāgata established as a ground in mixture," named the Mixed Ground. Kuiji explains for the treatise the intent behind this word "mixed": earlier (in the Chapter on the Abidings) it spoke only in terms of the causal position, and so it passed over the Buddha and did not mention him; now, recording things as they truly are, it takes the Buddha in as well — the map of the bodhisattva path ought, on its last page, to be drawn all the way up to the Buddha. As for the details of the Ground of the Abiding of the Tathāgata, the treatise gives its own advance notice: "in the later Chapter on Establishing the Buddha's Dharma, it will be expounded at length" — reserved for the fifth chapter of this Section.

A small point of textual research in passing: of the Ground of Certainty (the eighth ground) the treatise says, "because the bodhisattva of this ground has fallen within the third certainty." What are the three certainties? Master Jing cites the Chapter on Merits: certainty of lineage, certainty of raising the aspiration, and certainty of undeceptive conduct, and, using the wording of this chapter itself as self-corroboration, he fits them to their positions: since the eighth ground is named the third, the certainty of undeceptive conduct, then the prior seven grounds are the certainty of raising the aspiration, and everything before the grounds is generally named the certainty of lineage — the reason being that "before those others there is as yet no uncontaminated activity in operation, but only matured uncontaminated seeds" ("before those others" is the wording of the Taishō base text as it stands; the sentence above states plainly "everything before the grounds is generally named the certainty of lineage") — marking off the positions of certainty by uncontaminated seeds that are matured yet not in operation. Kuiji, for his part, cites the Xianyang, fascicle seven, and fixes the certainty of raising the aspiration at the entry into the First Ground. The two placements, Jing's and Kuiji's, are set forth side by side (see Apparatus, Heading Three); while Dharmakṣema's translation renders this same phrase as "of the three certainties, it is the first certainty" — the third having become the first, and this divergence between the old translation and the new is likewise recorded, as it stands, in the Apparatus.

The Heart of the Whole Chapter: A Single Question and Answer

The heaviest in bulk and the deepest in doctrine, in this chapter, is that question and answer at its center: "When the bodhisattva, from the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction, enters the Ground of Purified Superior Intent, how is it that he transcends the evil destinies and the rest?" — Why is it that, the moment a bodhisattva ascends to the First Ground (the Ground of Purified Superior Intent = the Abiding of Utmost Joy), he falls into the three evil destinies never again?

First see clearly the weight of the question. The evil destinies are impelled by karma: one who has done evil-destiny karma must go and receive the evil-destiny recompense — this is the iron law of cause and effect. On what strength, then, does the bodhisattva "transcend"? By offsetting it with merit? By pardon through the Buddha's power? The answer the treatise gives is neither of these — and, moreover, the opening move of the answer is unexpected.

One Who Would Leave the Evil Destinies First Vows to Move Into Them

The treatise's answer is a complete chain of cause and effect, worth walking through step by step.

Step one, the provisions: the bodhisattva, relying on worldly pure meditative absorption, has already well amassed the provisions for awakening in the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction. Step two, cultivating compassion: toward the sentient beings who suffer amid the one hundred and ten kinds of suffering (Dunlun points out that this inventory of sufferings is in fascicle forty-four), he "cultivates compassion, contemplating without omission" — not skipping a single kind of suffering. Step three, gaining the intent: from this he gains the intent of compassion and the intent of pity (Kuiji's distinction: the one who "gains the intent of compassion" is pity, and what follows is compassion).

Then comes the pivotal step four: "in order to benefit the sentient beings of the evil destinies, he vows to abide in the evil destinies as though in his own home". One who would transcend the evil destinies first vows to treat the evil destinies as his own home to dwell in. The treatise even writes out the words of the vow: even if it is only by abiding in such a place that I can realize supreme awakening, I too will endure it. Step five goes further still: "for all the evil-destiny karma of all sentient beings, with a pure intent, I vow that my own body should receive, in their stead, the maturational fruit of suffering" — the evil-destiny karmic recompense of sentient beings, I am willing to take on for them entirely. (Kuiji's distinction here: "pure intent" is of two kinds — from the entry into the grounds and above it is the uncontaminated pure; that before the grounds, because it is superior, is also named pure — and the bodhisattva of this passage is still before the grounds, so it is the latter.) Step six, raising the right vow: he vows that all evil karma should never come into activity, and all wholesome karma should constantly come into activity.

The Mechanism: The Coarse Heaviness Is Expelled, the Transformation of the Basis Is Gained

The six steps above are all cause; the effect is in the last sentence — and it is also the sentence heaviest in Consciousness-Only meaning in the whole Section on the Ultimate Yoga:

"Because he cultivates the power of this compassionate vow of worldly pure meditative absorption, all the coarse heaviness belonging to the class of afflictions of the evil destinies is expelled within his own basis. Because of this severing, the bodhisattva before long gains the transformation of the basis: as to all the evil karma of the evil destinies, in the end he does not perform it; as to the evil destinies, he assuredly does not go there."

Take this sentence apart. The true cause of the evil destinies the treatise locates within one's "own basis" — the basis of one's own body-mind continuum — as "coarse heaviness": the heavy defiled portion left behind by the class of evil-destiny afflictions. That is to say, the evil destinies are not a place waiting outside; they are a batch of sedimented defiled forces buried within one's own basis. What the power of the compassionate vow and the absorption does is not to skirt around the evil destinies out in the external objective field, but to "expel" this coarse heaviness upon the basis. Once the coarse heaviness is expelled, the basis is transformed — "gains the transformation of the basis" — and the basis being transformed, the evil-destiny karma "in the end is not performed," and the evil-destiny recompense "assuredly is not gone to." It is not that he dares not go, but that from the root he can no longer produce a cause that would go to the evil destinies.

Now, looking back at that unexpected opening move, it becomes clear: why is it that "vowing to abide in the evil destinies" is, on the contrary, a cause of transcending them? Because dread and flight before the evil destinies are themselves powerless to touch the coarse heaviness within the basis; only when the compassionate vow is fierce to the very degree of "taking the evil destinies as home, receiving recompense in the stead of sentient beings" can the mind's whole attitude toward evil-destiny karma be turned over — and it is precisely this power of turning-over that expels the defiled portion within the basis. Transcending the evil destinies is transcended upon the basis, not upon the realm of the grounds. The three translations each use their own terms in this sentence: Xuanzang uses "coarse heaviness / basis / transformation of the basis"; Dharmakṣema says "the defiled body received is before long severed; the bodhisattva transforms the evil-destiny body"; Guṇavarman says "he departs far from the afflictive latent tendencies of body and mind, and by departing from the latent tendencies he transforms the body of the four great elements" (see Apparatus, Heading Two) — one and the same mechanism, the three houses differing in the fullness or brevity of their wording; what Xuanzang translated forms its chain with "coarse heaviness / basis / transformation of the basis," writing directly into the translated wording the meaning that "what is to be severed lies within the basis."

The treatise concludes at last: reaching this point, he is named one who has transcended all the evil destinies, is also named one who has transcended the Ground of Conduct through Resolute Conviction, and is also named one who has entered the Ground of Purified Superior Intent — "transcending the evil destinies" and "ascending to the First Ground" are, from the start, two faces of one and the same event.

The Ten Dharmas: The Maintenance Procedure of a Ground

After the question and answer, the treatise appends the chapter's third passage: the ten dharmas — faith and the rest — spoken of in the Chapter on the Abidings are able not only to purify and cultivate the abidings, but "now, here, one should know they are likewise able to purify and cultivate the grounds." Dunlun divides this into three sections: establishment, brief meaning, and sequence.

Establishment is ten pairs of "ailment and remedy": for having altogether not raised the aspiration, counter with faith; for a mind of harm, counter with compassion; for a mind of anger, counter with pity; for attachment and longing toward body, life, and possessions, counter with relinquishment; for seeking requital and craving gain and support, counter with being without weariness; for lacking skillful means, counter with knowing the treatises well; for being unyielding in temperament and not according with others' minds, counter with knowing the world well; for heedlessness and sloth in cultivating the wholesome, counter with shame and dread of blame; for sinking into faint-heartedness before the long suffering of birth-and-death, counter with the nature of firm sustaining strength; for hesitation and doubt toward the Great Teacher, counter with making offerings to the Tathāgata. Each dharma is not a virtue-item established out of the void, but a remedy established over against a specific ailment.

The brief meaning gathers the ten dharmas into two purities: the first three (faith, compassion, pity) are purity of intent — the purity of the mind-ground; the latter seven are purity of exertion — the purity of action. The sequence, then, strings the ten dharmas into a self-verifiable chain of psychological cause and effect: deep faith in the great awakening → raising compassion toward suffering sentient beings → vowing to rescue and thereby raising pity → able to relinquish body, life, and possessions → for their sake exerting oneself diligently without weariness → knowing the treatises well → knowing the world as it truly is → giving rise to deep shame and dread of blame when afflictions suddenly come into activity → not following the afflictions, gaining the nature of firm sustaining strength → wholesome dharmas increasing and increasing, and last of all offering to the Tathāgata the offering of supreme right practice and the offering of material reverence. Beginning from a single thought of pure faith, closing with making offerings to the Tathāgata — walking the sequence of the ten dharmas all the way through is the procedure for purifying one ground; "able to purify and cultivate all the grounds" means that at every ascent to a further ground, the same set of procedures is walked through once again.

The One Meaning This Chapter Casts into Relief

The Chapter on the Grounds gathers the thirteen abidings into seven grounds at the front, sets up the ten dharmas as a procedure at the back, and runs a single question and answer through the middle — yet the whole chapter, in truth, establishes but one meaning: the advance and ascent through the stations of practice is, in essence, a switching-over of the basis — it is not arriving at a better place, but making over this very "ground" that is oneself. So it is with transcending the evil destinies (the coarse heaviness expelled, the transformation of the basis gained); so too with the ten dharmas purifying the ground (each dharma removing one ailment upon the basis). The evil destinies are not outside; the position of certainty is not in another; what the ascent from ground to ground makes over is, from first to last, the practitioner's own basis.

Carrying Forward

The Chapter on the Grounds comes following upon the two chapters on Rebirth and Taking In (Dunlun's division: the two chapters on Rebirth and Taking In are practice, and "since practice must have a basis, the Chapter on the Grounds is clarified next"). The seven grounds re-gather the thirteen abidings of the Chapter on the Abidings (in the Section on the Yoga That Accords with the Dharma); the ten dharmas turn back to point at the original wording of the Chapter on the Abidings, "as said above in the Chapter on the Abidings"; the Ground of the Abiding of the Tathāgata is given advance notice as "to be expounded at length" in the Chapter on Establishing; Master Jing's three certainties cite the Chapter on Merits (the eighteenth chapter of the first Section); the one hundred and ten sufferings are found cross-referenced in fascicle forty-four. Next comes the Chapter on Practice (the fourth) — the positions and grounds being established, "though there be positions to rely upon, what practice-dharmas are to be practiced" (Kuiji), and so the four bodhisattva practices are clarified next.