瑜伽師地論 菩薩地 · 究竟瑜伽處 · 行品

In one line: However elaborately the bodhisattva path unfolds, gathered up it is only four conducts — the perfections (cultivating wholesome conduct), the factors conducive to awakening (penetrating the true meaning), the supernormal powers (perfectly realizing power), maturing sentient beings — four things buckling together in turn, sealed twice over (the six perfections sealed within the three trainings, the four conducts within the four things), "beyond these there is nothing that surpasses or adds to them," "no other conducts whatever are established."

Three points of the eye:

1. The twofold division of wisdom and knowledge = turning without discrimination toward the ultimate / turning with discrimination toward the conventional (the point of the eye): "the purified sublime wisdom that grasps the ultimate and turns without discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of wisdom; the purified sublime knowledge that grasps the conventional and turns with discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of knowledge" 〔0565c26-29〕; Dunlun, "the sixth takes the true as its object, the tenth the conventional" 〔T42n1828 0581c04-05〕; the two older translations divide by the two truths (knowing the ultimate truth = prajñā / knowing the conventional truth = knowledge), while Xuanzang's language locks in the turning "without discrimination / with discrimination" — one and the same vein of meaning as the Chapter on Wisdom's twofold division of the wisdom of intrinsic nature into non-conceptual knowledge and subsequently-attained knowledge.
2. The ten perfections = the six perfections + four helper-companions (the point of the eye): "these four, skillful means and the rest, are helper-companions to the former six" (Dunlun 〔T42n1828 0581b28-29〕); the Continuity-and-Liberation Sūtra gathers them in by particular conduct (skillful means the companion of the former three · vow the companion of vigor · power the companion of meditative absorption · knowledge the companion of wisdom) / the Scripture of the Grounds has the latter four as companions in common to the former six; "on the actual" the latter four are gathered into the former six, "on the sense" they are set up separately for their superiority (Kuiji 〔T43n1829 0167b09-16〕) — the names are ten, the substance returns to six.
3. The double sealing = the proof of neither-more-nor-fewer (the point of the eye): the three trainings gather the six perfections (the former four perfections as provision / intrinsic nature / retinue / guardianship accomplish the training in higher discipline — Dunlun's assignment: giving the provision · discipline the intrinsic nature · patience the retinue · vigor the guardianship; meditative absorption = the training in higher mind; prajñā = the training in higher wisdom), hence "only six" 〔0566b20-27〕; the four things to be done (cultivating wholesome conduct / penetrating the true meaning / perfectly realizing power / maturing sentient beings) set up the four conducts in turn, hence "no other conducts whatever are established" 〔0566b28-c04〕 — the four conducts fold back respectively into the Chapter on Reality, the Chapter on Power, the Chapter on Maturation: the Section on Ultimate Yoga draws the whole backbone of the First Grounds into four legs.

Appended pointers:

• The threefold explanation of the name "perfection" (the long time of three great eons / intrinsic-nature purity / surpassing the wholesome roots of the two vehicles and drawing in the most superior fruit) = Kuiji's "three reachings of the other shore" (time / essence / awakening); "the Dharma-master (the Tripiṭaka-master) further said," adding the reaching of the other shore of wholesome roots to make four 〔T43n1829 0167a29-b08 · T42n1828 0581c19〕 — see the Apparatus, Heading Three.
• Three ways of reading the sequence of the six perfections: counteraction (the prescription against six ailments) / arising (giving → discipline → patience → vigor → concentration → wisdom, a self-verifiable chain of cause and effect) / the fruit of maturation (giving draws external wealth · discipline and the rest draw the fivefold inner completeness of the body) — the three causes stand side by side; the sequence of a set of numbered phenomena has more than a single layer of reasoning.
• Alternate translations: the Bodhisattvabhūmi (Dharmakṣema) "supernormal power / maturing beings" · the Bodhisattva-Śīla (Guṇavarman) "conduct of awakening / conduct of maturing beings"; the Bodhisattva-Śīla alone has a "three disciplines" passage (the discipline that accords with discipline / the discipline that accords with mind / the discipline that accords with knowledge); on the fourth sense of the three trainings the Bodhisattvabhūmi has "inexhaustible" where Xuanzang has "guardianship"; on the third of the four things to be done both older translations have "increasing wholesome phenomena" where Xuanzang has "perfectly realizing power" — see the Apparatus, Heading Two.
• Next follows the Chapter on Establishment (the fifth) — the four conducts are the overall heading of the causal stage; the Chapter on Establishment clarifies the fruit-stage: the Tathāgata's one hundred and forty exclusive buddha-dharmas, the final chapter of the five chapters that "discern the fruit against the conduct."

1. The Overall Heading: The Four Kinds of Bodhisattva Conduct

From the Stage of Resolute-Conviction Conduct onward, all the way to the last Stage of Reaching the Ultimate, throughout all these bodhisattva stages, it should be understood that, stated briefly, there are four kinds of bodhisattva conduct. Which four? First, the conduct of the perfections; second, the conduct of the factors conducive to awakening; third, the conduct of the supernormal powers; fourth, the conduct of maturing sentient beings.

2. The Conduct of the Perfections: The Ten Perfections

To the six perfections spoken of before are added the perfection of skillful means, the perfection of vow, the perfection of power, and the perfection of knowledge — these ten perfections, taken together, are named the conduct of the perfections.

Among them: the skillful means of the twelve modes, spoken of before, should be understood to be precisely what is named the perfection of skillful means. The five great vows, spoken of before, should be understood to be named the perfection of vow. All the purified preparatory practice of the ten powers should be understood to be named the perfection of power. The purified sublime knowledge that establishes all phenomena just as they are should be understood to be named the perfection of knowledge.

And here, one must further distinguish the two, wisdom and knowledge: the purified sublime wisdom that grasps the ultimate and turns without discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of wisdom; the purified sublime knowledge that grasps the conventional and turns with discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of knowledge. This is the difference between the two (wisdom and knowledge).

There is also another account (an alternate approach): immeasurable knowledge should be understood to be precisely what is named the perfection of skillful means. The aspiring after the superiority of ever-further knowledge should be understood to be named the perfection of vow. The nature of the path that no demon-foe can destroy should be understood to be named the perfection of power. The nature of awaking to the knowable just as it is should be understood to be named the perfection of knowledge.

3. The Conduct of the Factors Conducive to Awakening, the Conduct of the Supernormal Powers, the Conduct of Maturing Sentient Beings

The four foundations of mindfulness and all the rest — all the thirty-seven factors conducive to awakening — together with the four investigations and the four kinds of knowledge-of-things-as-they-are, all as spoken of before, are together named the bodhisattva's conduct of the factors conducive to awakening.

As spoken of before in the Chapter on Power, all the bodhisattva's six supernormal powers are named the conduct of the supernormal powers.

The two kinds of immeasurable spoken of before — first, the immeasurableness of the realm of those to be disciplined; second, the immeasurableness of the realm of the means of disciplining — together with all the maturing of sentient beings spoken of in the Chapter on Maturation, are together named the bodhisattva's conduct of maturing sentient beings.

These four kinds of bodhisattva sublime conduct should be understood to gather up universally all the wholesome conduct that bodhisattvas practice.

4. Why It Is Called "Perfection": A Threefold Explanation of the Name

It should be understood that here the ten phenomena, giving and the rest, are perfectly realized only through the long cultivation of three great incalculable eons; their intrinsic nature is pure and their essential character is superior; they surpass all the other wholesome roots of the worldly, the śrāvaka, and the pratyekabuddha, and are able to draw in the most superior fruit of awakening. These ten phenomena are perfectly realized only through the utmost length of time, their intrinsic nature is of the utmost purity and superiority, and they are able to attain the utmost sublime fruit of awakening — and therefore they are called "perfection."

5. The Sequence of the Six Perfections: Three Kinds of Cause

It should be understood that such perfections are established in sequence through three kinds of cause. Which three? First, by way of counteraction; second, by way of arising; third, by way of the fruit of maturation.

(i) By Way of Counteraction

What is meant by being established in sequence by way of counteraction? It is that stinginess, evil conduct, resentment and vexing-harm toward sentient beings, indolence, distraction, and dull-witted delusion — these six phenomena are able to obstruct awakening; and the six phenomena, giving and the rest, are able to serve as their counteraction, and, matched accordingly, the six perfections are established. It should be understood that the remaining perfections (skillful means, vow, power, knowledge) are then gathered into these six perfections. This is what it is to be established in sequence by way of counteraction.

(ii) By Way of Arising

What is meant by being established in sequence by way of arising? It is that bodhisattvas first have no clinging attachment to wealth and position, leave home and turn from desire, and receive pure śīla (the discipline). Because they revere the discipline, they can endure the harm done by others while doing no harm to others. After receiving and upholding pure discipline and cultivating patience, their conduct in discipline is pure and unmoved, and, without gap and without break, they diligently cultivate the preparatory practice in all wholesome matters. Because they cultivate diligent energy in this way, they leave far behind all kinds of heedlessness and are able to touch and realize the fine and good one-pointedness of mind. Because the mind attains concentration, they can then know just as they are and see and contemplate all the knowable objects. It should be understood that this is what it is to be established in sequence by way of arising.

(iii) By Way of the Fruit of Maturation

What is meant by being established in sequence by way of the fruit of maturation? It is that bodhisattvas, in this very present life, diligently cultivate and study the wholesome phenomena of giving and the rest, and through this cause they obtain, in future lives, all sorts of external, fine, precious wealth, complete without lack — this should be understood to be brought about by the causal power of the perfection of giving. The obtaining of the fivefold inner completeness of one's own body is brought about by the causal power of the remaining perfections, discipline and the rest.

What is the fivefold inner completeness of one's own body? A divine body or a human body subsumed under the fortunate destinies, superior to other sentient beings in lifespan and the like — this should be understood to be named the first completeness. If there be, inborn, an endurance that is ever without weariness toward the wholesome preparatory practice, an ability to endure the harm done by others and no delight in harming others — this should be understood to be named the second completeness. If there be, inborn, a firm and courageous vigor toward all the tasks to be done — this should be understood to be named the third completeness. If there be, inborn, a natural disposition thin in the dust of the afflictions, an ability to turn one's own mind at will, a mind capable and quick to realize the penetrating wisdom of all matters of meaning — this should be understood to be named the fourth completeness. If there be, inborn, a wisdom vast, sharp, and quick toward all matters of meaning — this should be understood to be named the fifth completeness. It should be understood that this is how, by way of the fruit of maturation, the sequence of the six perfections is thus established.

6. The Gathering under the Three Trainings: The Perfections Are Only Six

Since the first four perfections serve as the provision, the intrinsic nature, the retinue, and the guardianship, it should be understood that they are able to perfectly cultivate the bodhisattva's training in higher discipline; through the perfection of meditative absorption, it should be understood that one is able to perfectly cultivate the bodhisattva's training in higher mind; through the perfection of prajñā, it should be understood that one is able to perfectly cultivate the bodhisattva's training in higher wisdom. Beyond these three trainings, there is no further bodhisattva path of training to be found, and so these three trainings gather up universally all the bodhisattva's path of training. From this it is established: the perfections are only six, and beyond these there is nothing that surpasses or adds to them.

7. Conclusion: The Four Things to Be Done, Buckled Back to the Four Conducts

Further, bodhisattvas, stated briefly, have four things to be done, and by these all that is done is gathered up universally. Which four? First, to cultivate all sorts of wholesome conduct in order to realize awakening; second, taking this as the forerunner, to penetrate the true meaning; third, to perfectly realize power; fourth, to mature sentient beings. These four things done by bodhisattvas should be understood to be precisely the four conducts spoken of before, established according to what each is done for and in their sequence (the conduct of the perfections is established for cultivating wholesome conduct; the conduct of the factors conducive to awakening is established for penetrating the true meaning; the conduct of the supernormal powers is established for perfectly realizing power; the conduct of maturing sentient beings is established for maturing sentient beings). Therefore, beyond these four conducts, no other conducts are established.

The Stages Are Set; Now, upon Them, What Is Practiced?

The Chapter on the Stages gathered the bodhisattva's positions into seven stages; the Chapter on Conduct then, right after, asks the next question. Kuiji puts the question plainly on the treatise's behalf: "The stages above set forth the positions on which learning rests; but although there are positions to rest on, what conduct, what conduct-phenomena, is there to practice…" — the positions are set, so upon this position what, exactly, is done? Dunlun's outline, for its part, marks out where this chapter stands among the five chapters: the first three chapters (Arising, Gathering-in, Stages) have finished discerning the conduct of one's own portion, and this one chapter discerns the conduct of further advancement — "conduct arises in dependence on the stages, and so, after the stages, conduct is set forth…"

The treatise's answer is crisp: from the Stage of Resolute-Conviction Conduct to the Stage of Reaching the Ultimate, throughout all the bodhisattva stages, what the bodhisattva practices "briefly has four bodhisattva conducts" — the conduct of the perfections, the conduct of the factors conducive to awakening, the conduct of the supernormal powers, the conduct of maturing sentient beings. Four classes, gathering up the whole of a bodhisattva's wholesome conduct. What this chapter sets out to do is to make each of these four headings solid, one by one, and then to prove that they are indeed "neither more nor fewer."

The Ten Perfections: The Six with Four Helpers Added

The first conduct is laid out the most fully. Beyond the six perfections, the treatise adds four to make ten: skillful means, vow, power, knowledge. Dunlun fixes their character in a single phrase: "these four, skillful means and the rest, are helper-companions to the former six" — the latter four perfections do not start a new hearth apart from the six; they are the helpers of the six. Their several contents the treatise passes over with "as spoken of before," and Kuiji points out each source in turn: the skillful means of the twelve modes and the five great vows are in the Chapter on the Factors Conducive to Awakening (the great vows are in fact ten, but "on the account that takes the superior ones, it says the former five"); the skillful means of the ten powers is in the Chapter on the Lineage of Power.

If the latter four perfections are gathered into the former six, why still set up ten? The ancient masters leave us a comparison of two scriptures (Kuiji): the Continuity-and-Liberation Sūtra takes them "as gathered in mutually by particular conduct" — skillful means is the companion of the former three perfections, vow the companion of vigor, power the companion of meditative absorption, knowledge the companion of wisdom; the Scripture of the Grounds, on the other hand, says the latter four perfections are companions in common to the former six. Kuiji's reconciliation is: "on the actual" it is as the two scriptures say (the latter four are gathered into the former six); "on the sense, for the reason of their superiority" — on account of their superior function, they are set up under four separate names. The names are ten; the substance returns to six.

Wisdom and Knowledge: A Precise Cut Drawn by the Two Words "with Discrimination"

Among the ten perfections, the treatise stops in particular to distinguish the difference between the sixth, wisdom, and the tenth, knowledge: "the purified sublime wisdom that grasps the ultimate and turns without discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of wisdom; the purified sublime knowledge that grasps the conventional and turns with discrimination should be understood to be named the perfection of knowledge." Wisdom grasps the ultimate and turns without discrimination; knowledge grasps the conventional and turns with discrimination. Dunlun settles it in six characters: "the sixth takes the true as its object, the tenth takes the conventional."

This cut is worth slowing down for. The earlier handling in the two [older] translations divides by the two truths: Dharmakṣema — "because it knows the ultimate truth, it is named the perfection of prajñā; because it knows the conventional truth, it is named the perfection of knowledge" — and Guṇavarman, the word-order reversed but the sense the same (see the Apparatus, Heading Two): the object known differs, and so two names are set up. Xuanzang's rendering, however, locks in one further layer: not only does the object differ (the ultimate versus the conventional), but the manner of turning differs too — when the object is the ultimate it "turns without discrimination," when the object is the conventional it "turns with discrimination." This is one and the same vein of meaning as the twofold division the ancient masters set up in the Chapter on Wisdom when treating the wisdom of intrinsic nature — non-conceptual knowledge and subsequently-attained knowledge (awaking to all the knowable / having awoken, then discerning the several phenomena): the knowledge that realizes the true carries no discrimination; only the knowledge that gives rise to function has discrimination — discrimination is not a blemish, it is the normal form of the subsequently-attained knowledge giving rise to function; but it must be preceded by the discrimination-free realizing of the true. Wisdom stands at the end of the six perfections and knowledge at the end of the ten; these two "final positions" set exactly this borderline upon the skeleton of the whole system of the perfections.

The passage on the alternate approach, for its part, changes the angle, drawing all four of the latter perfections out from "knowledge" as their substance (Dunlun: vow is "the aspiring of knowledge," power is "power that is still knowledge," and skillful means and knowledge go without saying) — among the ten perfections, the latter four were, originally, four aspects of a single knowledge.

Why It Is Called "Perfection": Three "Utmosts"

The treatise gives the name "perfection" a threefold explanation: they are perfectly realized only through the long cultivation of three great incalculable eons (utmost in time); their intrinsic nature is pure and their essential character superior (utmost in essence); they surpass all the wholesome roots of the worldly, the śrāvaka, and the pratyekabuddha, and draw in the most superior fruit of awakening (utmost in fruit). Kuiji sets it under the heading "three reachings of the other shore": reaching the other shore in time, reaching the other shore in essence ("in the cause, it is not yet manifest, being defiled; in the fruit, it is manifest"), reaching the other shore in awakening ("the two vehicles are named 'cause,' their fruit not full"; only great awakening is named the fruit that reaches the other shore). He further records his teacher's supplement — "the Dharma-master further said" (Dunlun records it as "the Tripiṭaka-master further said," that is, Xuanzang): in fact there may be four, adding "the reaching of the other shore of wholesome roots," since the treatise-text plainly says "surpass all the other wholesome roots of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha." A single lecture-hall gloss between master and disciple thus came to rest in the two commentaries.

Three Ways of Reading the Sequence of the Six Perfections

The treatise then asks itself: giving, discipline, patience, vigor, meditative absorption, wisdom — why this order? The answer gives three paths, all three passable, each revealing one facet of the six perfections. By way of counteraction: stinginess, evil conduct, resentment and vexing-harm, indolence, distraction, dull-witted delusion — six ailments that obstruct awakening; the six perfections are arranged in the order of the prescription. By way of arising: not clinging to wealth and position, and so able to give (giving) → giving, and so leaving home to receive pure discipline (discipline) → revering discipline, and so able to endure others' harm (patience) → discipline pure and unmoved, and so diligently cultivating wholesome matters (vigor) → vigor departing from heedlessness, and so touching one-pointedness of mind (meditative absorption) → the mind concentrated, and so seeing and contemplating all the knowable just as it is (wisdom) — the former giving rise to the latter, this is a chain of psychological cause and effect that a practitioner can verify upon their own person. By way of the fruit of maturation: giving draws external wealth complete; discipline and the rest draw the "fivefold inner completeness of one's own body" — superiority in lifespan and the like, inborn tirelessness and endurance, inborn firmness and courage in one's tasks, an inborn disposition thin in the dust with the mind at will and quick to realize penetrating wisdom, an inborn wisdom vast, sharp, and quick — five inborn endowments, the fruit-imprints left, each, by the five perfections of a former life.

One and the same sequence can be read as a prescription, read as a chain of cause and effect, read as a table of fruit — the treatise does not adjudicate which one is the "real" reason; the standing of the three causes side by side is itself the teaching of a method: the sequence of a set of numbered phenomena often has more than a single layer of reasoning.

A Double Sealing: The Six Perfections Neither More nor Fewer, the Four Conducts Neither More nor Fewer

At the chapter's close, in two passages, the treatise "seals the mouth" twice.

The first seals the six perfections: the former four perfections, by the four senses of provision, intrinsic nature, retinue, and guardianship, accomplish the training in higher discipline (Dunlun assigns them to fact: giving is the provision for discipline, discipline is the intrinsic nature, patience is the retinue, vigor is the guardianship); meditative absorption accomplishes the training in higher mind; prajñā accomplishes the training in higher wisdom; "beyond these three, there is no further bodhisattva path of training to be found" — the three trainings gather up the whole path of training, and the six perfections just fill out the three trainings, "from this it is established that the perfections are only six, and beyond these there is nothing that surpasses or adds to them." The number six is not something patched together; it is locked shut by the frame of the three trainings.

The second seals the four conducts: all that a bodhisattva does, stated briefly, is four things — to cultivate all wholesome conduct in order to realize awakening, taking this as the forerunner to penetrate the true meaning, to perfectly realize power, to mature sentient beings; "these four things done by bodhisattvas should be understood to be the four conducts spoken of before, established according to what each is done for and in their sequence" — the four things and the four conducts buckle together in turn: because of cultivating wholesome conduct, the conduct of the perfections is set up; because of penetrating the true meaning, the conduct of the factors conducive to awakening is set up; because of perfectly realizing power, the conduct of the supernormal powers is set up; because of maturing sentient beings, the conduct of maturing sentient beings is set up. "Therefore, beyond these, no other conducts whatever are established."

Notice the provenance of these four things: penetrating the true meaning — the Chapter on Reality; perfectly realizing power — the Chapter on Power (the treatise-text itself marks the conduct of the supernormal powers "as spoken of before in the Chapter on Power"); maturing sentient beings — the Chapter on Maturation (the treatise-text itself marks "as spoken of in the Chapter on Maturation"). The Chapter on Conduct, at the tail-end of the Section on Ultimate Yoga, gathers the backbone chapter-headings of the Section on the First Grounds one by one back into its own frame of four conducts — all that was learned in the First Grounds is, in the end, edited into these four classes of "conduct." What is called "ultimate" is not the starting of a new movement; it is the drawing-in of the whole of the foregoing places-of-learning into four legs that can walk.

The One Meaning This Chapter Lights Up

The Chapter on Conduct lays out from the four conducts to the ten perfections, from the explanation of the name to the three causes, and finally seals twice; yet it sets up, in truth, only one meaning: however elaborately the bodhisattva path unfolds, gathered up it is only four things — to cultivate wholesome conduct, to see the true, to realize power, to mature beings; and these four things are not, among themselves, a coordinate list, but a single path with a before and an after ("taking this as the forerunner"). The six perfections are sealed within the three trainings, the four conducts within the four things — the sealing is not a limitation, it is a guarantee: one walking upon this path may know for certain that the work in one's own hands is neither more nor fewer, that not one piece is done in vain, and that not one piece has been left out.

Carrying Forward

The Chapter on Conduct comes in dependence on the Chapter on the Stages (conduct arising in dependence on the stages), a standalone chapter for the "conduct of further advancement" of the Section on Ultimate Yoga. The ten perfections cross-refer to the Chapter on the Factors Conducive to Awakening (the twelve modes · the five great vows) and the Chapter on the Lineage of Power (the ten powers); the twofold division of wisdom and knowledge is of one vein with the Chapter on Wisdom's twofold division of the wisdom of intrinsic nature into non-conceptual and subsequently-attained; the four conducts fold back respectively into the Chapter on Reality (the four investigations and four kinds of knowledge-as-they-are · penetrating the true meaning), the Chapter on Power (the six supernormal powers), and the Chapter on Maturation (the two immeasurables · all maturing). The three trainings gather the six perfections and close in the conclusion that they are "only six, and beyond these there is nothing that surpasses or adds to them" (this chapter). Next follows the Chapter on Establishment (the fifth) — the four conducts are the overall heading of the conduct of the causal stage; the Chapter on Establishment turns to clarify the fruit-stage: the Tathāgata's one hundred and forty exclusive buddha-dharmas, the final chapter of the five chapters that "discern the fruit against the conduct" (Dunlun's outline).