大乘莊嚴經論 真實品

What the "truest real" is, and how one walks up to it in person

At dusk you glimpse a "snake" in the corner and swing wide to avoid it; step closer, and it is only a rope — the snake was never there, it was added on by a mistaken glance. Our clinging to a "self," and to this world, is for the most part just such a mis-seen snake.

Following the treatise, this chapter distinguishes reality without stating it one-sidedly as either "existent" or "non-existent," and uses adventitious dust to discuss defilement and purity. What suffers is a continuity of suffering; no separate "self" is posited as sitting through it from beginning to end. The treatise also says that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are "not two, with not the slightest difference" with respect to no-self. 〔exposition-borrowed simile〕 The rope-and-snake image only assists in reading the removal of deluded grasping; it does not prove that the two are one identical substance.

To see through the snake and recognise the rope — this real can not only be seen clearly, it can be walked up to, step by step, in person. So follow this road that runs from "seeing clearly" all the way to "entering and realising."

---

Having spoken of practice in accord [with the path], the text next speaks of the character of the ultimate truth (第一義, the supreme reality).

Neither existent nor non-existent, neither the same nor different, neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither pure nor impure — these five, free of duality: this is called the ultimate truth; the practitioner should know it.

Non-duality is the ultimate truth, shown through five pairs:

1. Not existent: because the two marks — the wholly-imagined nature (分別性; 遍計所執性, parikalpita-svabhāva, what is falsely discriminated) and the other-dependent nature (依他性; 依他起性, paratantra-svabhāva, what arises through conditions) — do not truly exist.
2. Not non-existent: because the true nature (真實性; 圓成實性, pariniṣpanna-svabhāva, the perfectly-accomplished reality) does exist.
3. Not the same: because, though those two marks are unreal, the true nature is a single substance.
4. Not different: because those two [unreal] marks have no substance apart from [the true nature].
5. Not arising or ceasing: because [the ultimate truth] is unconditioned.
6. Not increasing or decreasing: because, whether the pure and impure portions arise or cease, the dharma-realm abides just so, neither growing nor shrinking.
7. Not pure: because its own nature is without defilement and needs no purifying.
8. Not impure: because the adventitious defilements can be removed.

These five non-dual marks are the character of the ultimate truth.

---

Having stated the ultimate truth, the text next blocks the distortions that arise toward it.

Self-view does not see a self; it is not without an object; apart from the two there is no self — so liberation is just the end of delusion.

• Self-view does not actually see a "self": because there is no such mark as "self." Why? Because the so-called "self"-mark is only [the mind's] false discrimination.
• Yet it is not without an object: it is aroused by the latent tendencies of the afflictions, taking the five appropriated aggregates (五受陰, the grasped body-mind) as its object.
• Apart from these two there is no self: "the two" are self-view and the five aggregates; apart from them there is no further "self"-mark. So self-view is mere delusion; no "self" can in fact be found.
• Liberation is just the exhaustion of delusion: even if one gives rise to a thought of "liberation" with respect to oneself, that too is only the exhaustion of delusion; there is no separate "self" to be called "the one liberated."

---

Having blocked false views, the text next rebukes distortion.

Why, relying on self-view, does one not see the nature of suffering? [There is] confusion about suffering and the sufferer, about the reality-of-dharmas and [its] no-nature.

• "Why, relying on self-view, does one fail to see the nature of suffering?" — Alas! Why do worldly people, relying on self-view, give rise to all kinds of confusion, unable to grasp that "the conditioned activities are themselves the nature of suffering," and instead keep chasing [self-view]?
• "Confusion about suffering and the sufferer; the reality-of-dharmas and its no-nature": "suffering" means undergoing the contact of suffering [painful feeling]; "the sufferer" means suffering unbroken in continuity — not that "there is a self joined to suffering, which is then called the sufferer." "Confusion about suffering" is failing to understand the nature of suffering; "confusion about the sufferer" is failing to understand no-self. "Reality-of-dharmas" means "there are only dharmas [and no person]," because the person is without self; "no-nature" means "[the dharmas too] are not [substantial] dharmas," because the dharmas are without self.

---

Why, when the dependently-arisen substance is plainly seen, does a contrary view arise? Through darkness one does not see what is [there], and also sees what is not.

• "Why, when the dependently-arisen is plainly seen, does a contrary view arise?" — Alas! Why do worldly people, plainly seeing that "the activities each arise from conditions," nonetheless, relying on this very dependently-arisen substance, generate a contrary view — supposing that the substance of the eye and the other faculties is not dependently arisen?
• "Through darkness, the existent is not seen and the non-existent is seen": because of ignorance, the dependently-arisen dharma, which exists, is not seen to exist; while the substance of "self," which does not exist, is on the contrary seen [as existing].

Question: If so, how is Nirvāṇa attained?

Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa are not two, with not the slightest difference; abiding well in no-self, when birth is exhausted one attains Nirvāṇa.

Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa are not two, and not even slightly different. Why? Because in "no-self" they are equal. If one abides well in no-self and cultivates wholesome action, then saṃsāra is exhausted and Nirvāṇa is attained.

---

Having blocked distortion, the text next states its remedy (the following five verses show, in order, the five stages of the bodhisattva's practice).

Merit and wisdom, boundless, grow and are wholly fulfilled; having settled the contemplation of dharmas, one penetrates the nature of the categories of meaning.

This verse shows the first, the Stage of Amassing the Great Store (the stage of equipment, 資糧位).

• Merit and wisdom, boundless: because the merit and wisdom cultivated are countless in kind and endless in duration.
• Grow and are wholly fulfilled: because the bodhisattva amasses this great store and reaches the far shore.
• Having settled the contemplation of dharmas: because one contemplates relying on a concentrated mind.
• Penetrates the nature of the categories of meaning: one understands that the categories of the dharma-meanings contemplated all have "mental speech" (意言, inner conceptual designation) as their nature.

Having known the nature of the categories of meaning, one abides well in the light of mind alone; because one then plainly sees the dharma-realm, one is freed from the two marks.

This verse shows the second, the Stage of Penetration (the stage of intensified effort, 加行位). Because one understands that all dharma-meanings have "mental speech" as their nature, one realizes that all dharma-meanings are in fact "the light of mind" (心光, what the mind manifests); the bodhisattva is then said to "abide well in consciousness-only" (唯識, vijñaptimātra). Thereafter, plainly seeing the dharma-realm and fully grasping the "two marks" (grasper and grasped), one is freed from grasping and the grasped.

Outside the mind there is no object; the object being absent, the mind too is absent; because one understands the absence of both, one abides well in the true dharma-realm.

This verse shows the third, the Path of Seeing (見道位), for the bodhisattva now plainly sees the dharma-realm. One understands that "outside the mind there is no grasped object"; the grasped object being absent, the grasping mind too is absent. Because one has left the two marks of grasped and grasper, the bodhisattva abides well in the very nature of the dharma-realm.

By the power of non-conceptual knowledge, ever equal and all-pervading in operation, it destroys the mass of faults — as a medicine can remove poison.

This verse shows the fourth, the Path of Cultivation (修道位). Having entered the wisdom of the ultimate truth and accomplished the transformation of the basis (轉依, the root turning of the defiled into the pure), the bodhisattva, with non-conceptual knowledge, ever practices "equally" and "everywhere." Why? In order to destroy "the mark of the dense, thicket-like accumulation of faults perfumed upon the other-dependent nature." Question: What is this power of wisdom like? Answer: Like the great agada medicine (阿伽陀, a panacea that neutralizes every poison), which can remove all poisons — such is the power of this wisdom.

Taking as object the dharmas well established by the Buddha, with the mind as root settled in the dharma-realm, understanding that thoughts are mere discrimination, one swiftly reaches the end of the ocean of qualities.

This verse shows the fifth, the Ultimate Stage (究竟位).

• Taking as object the dharmas well established by the Buddha: the bodhisattvas take, as a total gathered object, all the wondrous dharmas well established by the Buddha.
• Question: What is this "total gathered object"? Answer: the mind as root settled in the dharma-realm — this means the bodhisattva has entered the wisdom of the ultimate truth. Because this wisdom abides settled in the dharma-realm, this "mind" is called "root."
• Question: And after this? Answer: understanding that thoughts are mere discrimination — thereafter one again gives rise to contemplation; as in the earlier contemplation of phenomena, thought turns moment by moment, and one understands that all thoughts are mere discrimination, not truly existent.
• Question: Having known thus, what stage does one reach? Answer: one swiftly reaches the end of the ocean of qualities — having known thus, one can swiftly reach the far shore of the ocean of the Buddha-fruit's qualities.

(Here the chapter on Reality ends.)

The Chapter on Reality treats one of this treatise's "eyes": what the ultimate truth (第一義, the supreme reality) is, and how one comes to realize it directly. The ten verses of the chapter form a single complete line — first they establish the character of the ultimate truth (fixing the middle way of the three natures with a "fivefold non-duality"), then one by one they block the four distortions that arise toward it, and finally they open out the five stages of practice by which one enters it. In a phrase: from "seeing clearly what reality looks like" to "realizing reality for oneself."

One key runs through the whole chapter and must be laid out first: the three natures (三性) — the skeleton of all Consciousness-Only doctrine. The reason worldly "existence" and "non-existence" become so hopelessly tangled is that three things belonging to different levels get lumped together. The three natures pull them apart:

• The wholly-imagined nature (分別性; 玄奘系 遍計所執性, the falsely wholly-imagined) — the subject-facing-object opposition that the mind superadds and grasps out of "an I confronting a realm." It never held together in the first place; it is what false discrimination fabricates, and is in fact unreal.
• The other-dependent nature (依他性; 依他起性, what arises through conditions) — the activity of consciousness itself as it arises through this and that condition. It exists (not that it has a real self-nature, but that it exists as dependently arisen).
• The true nature (真實性; 圓成實性, the perfectly-accomplished reality) — the reality that shows forth right upon the other-dependent, once the wholly-imagined has been left behind. It is suchness itself, which is exactly what this chapter calls the ultimate truth.

Hold these three levels and the whole chapter falls open below: the ultimate truth = the true nature = suchness, and to see it one must, upon the other-dependent, empty out the wholly-imagined.

There is an excellent old comparison that says all three natures at one stroke — the rope and the snake. At dusk you see a "snake" coiled in the corner and start with fright; you draw near and look closely — it is only a rope; you press further, asking what the rope is — nothing but hemp twisted together. Here:

• That "snake" was never there at all; it was misperception, forcibly added — this is the wholly-imagined nature (superadded by calculation and grasped, in fact unreal).
• That "rope" is hemp, the twisting, that coiled shape — a mark that shows only once many conditions come together — this is the other-dependent nature (existent through conditions, not real, yet not wholly nothing either).
• What makes the rope a rope, the "hemp" on which it rests (its ultimate substance) — this is the true nature (the reality behind the other-dependent).

The whole work of practice lies in this one picture: see through the "snake" (empty the wholly-imagined), recognize the "hemp" (realize the true) — while that "rope" (the other-dependent's conditionally-arisen mark) is present throughout, and need not, indeed cannot, be denied along with it. Whatever follows below — the ultimate truth, no-self, the five stages — can all be held up against this rope.

I. The character of the ultimate truth: the five "non-dualities"

In the chapter's first verse, the prose commentary first marks that, having finished the earlier "practice in accord," it next states the character of the "ultimate truth."

Neither existent nor non-existent, neither the same nor different, neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither pure nor impure — these five, free of duality: this is called the ultimate truth; the practitioner should know it.

The character of the ultimate truth is just "non-duality" — it falls to neither extreme. It shows forth through five pairs of "non-duality," which the prose commentary unfolds one pair at a time:

• Not existent: to say it "is not existent" is because the two marks, the wholly-imagined and the other-dependent, do not truly exist — the subject-object opposition (the wholly-imagined) was never there, and the conditionally-arisen stream of consciousness (the other-dependent) has no self-nature. So it cannot be grasped as truly existent.
• Not non-existent: to say it "is not non-existent" is because that real mark (the true nature) does exist. When the two graspings are emptied out, the suchness that remains is not sheer nothing.
• Not the same, not different: these two lines are the subtlest — they speak of the three natures' "neither one nor separate." To say "not the same (not identical)" is because the two marks, the wholly-imagined and the other-dependent, are themselves false and non-existent, while the real is but one single substance — suchness is not equal to those two layers of falsity. To say "not different (not a separate thing)" is because those two marks (as falsities) have no substance of their own apart from the real — leave suchness aside, and even the falsity has nowhere to be established. The true and the false are neither one and the same, nor two things each apart. This layer of "neither one nor separate" can be felt through water and waves: a wave is not simply equal to water (waves have rising, falling, arising, and ceasing, which water as water does not have; hence "not one"), yet a wave has no substance of its own apart from water (leave water aside, and where is a wave? hence "not different"). Between suchness and the false marks of the other-dependent and the wholly-imagined, it is just so — not one and the same, and not two things each minding its own.
• Not arising, not ceasing: because the ultimate truth is an unconditioned dharma — it does not run on the track of conditioned arising and ceasing, so there is no arising, no ceasing to speak of.
• Not increasing, not decreasing: because however the pure portion and the defiled portion may arise or subside, the dharma-realm abides just so, ever unchanged, never decreasing by a fraction on account of defilement, nor increasing by a fraction on account of purity.
• Not pure, not impure: to say "not pure" is because its own nature was never defiled to begin with, and needs no further purifying; to say "not impure" is because the adventitious defilements that arise later can be removed — they are no filth belonging to its very nature. This can be felt through a white robe: a white robe is clean to begin with, and looks dirtied when dust settles on it, but the dust is from outside, not the cloth's own color — the dust can be washed away, so we say "not impure"; and it is clean of itself and need not be "bleached" all over again, so we say "not pure." Suchness, in relation to the adventitious defilements, is exactly so. For this very layer, another chapter of this treatise already supplies a ready-made simile — in the Chapter on Practice in Accord the prose commentary says: "It is like clear water: when filth comes, it turns turbid; if later it clears, the filth alone is removed. The clarity does not come from outside, for its nature is clarity. The skillful purifying of the mind is likewise: the mind's nature is originally pure and is defiled by the adventitious, and when later it is purified, the adventitious alone is removed; the purity does not come from outside, for its nature is purity." (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, Chapter on Awakening, Chinese T31n1604.) That the water is turbid is because filth has come, not because the water has lost its original clarity; remove that filth and clarity appears — this clarity was inherent in the water, not added from outside. The mind in relation to the adventitious defilements is exactly this: the defilement is the defilement of the adventitious, the purity is the purity that was inherent. The Śrīmālā Sūtra says the same: "The intrinsically pure mind is yet defiled," and "this intrinsically pure tathāgata-garbha is yet defiled by the adventitious defilements and the derivative defilements" (Chinese T12n0353, Chapter on Intrinsic Purity). So we say "not impure" (the adventitious can be removed) and "not pure" (the intrinsic purity is not gotten from outside).

Taking the five pairs together: the ultimate truth is not something an assertion from any one side can seize. Grasp "existent" and you fall into superimposition; grasp "non-existent" and you sink into denial; say "arising-ceasing, increasing-decreasing, pure-impure" and you drag the unconditioned suchness back into the calculations of the conditioned. So the prose commentary closes with a line: these five "marks free of duality" are the character of the ultimate truth, and the practitioner should recognize it thus. The very manner of recognizing it is itself the middle way that leaves both extremes.

II. Blocking the view of self: the so-called "self" is only discrimination

The ultimate truth established, the text next blocks the distortions that arise toward it. The first and most rooted distortion is the "view of self."

Self-view does not see a self; it is not without an object; apart from the two there is no self — so liberation is just the end of delusion.

The prose commentary takes it apart line by line:

• "Self-view does not actually see a self" — because there is no such mark as "self" at all. Why? Because the so-called "self" is only the mind's false discrimination, and what is discriminated out cannot be taken as real.
• "Yet it is not without an object" — do not misread this as "self-view arising out of nowhere." It is aroused by the latent tendencies of the afflictions, and its object is the five appropriated aggregates (the five grasped aggregates — form, sensation, perception, formations, and consciousness, the body-mind grasped as one's own). Where self-view goes wrong is just here: it takes the five aggregates as object, yet falsely posits a "self" upon the five aggregates.
• "Apart from these two there is no self" — "the two" are self-view and the five appropriated aggregates. There is no "self"-mark within self-view, none within the five aggregates, and none apart from these two either. So self-view is sheer delusion; no "self"-mark can in fact be found.
• "Liberation is just the exhaustion of delusion" — this line matters most, for it cuts off every retreat. Even if someone gives rise, with respect to himself, to a thought of "I have attained liberation," that too is merely the exhaustion of delusion, and no separate "self" is set up to be called "the one who is liberated." Not even a "self" who is "the liberated one" is posited — this is thoroughgoing no-self of persons.

This "the five aggregates in combination, and no self" is precisely what is figured by the famous chariot simile in the Saṃyukta Āgama. Long ago the nun Vajrā was harassed by the evil Māra; Māra asked, "This 'sentient being' you speak of — who made it?" and the nun answered, breaking the challenge with a verse: "You suppose there is a sentient being — this is Māra's view. There is only an empty heap of aggregates; there is no sentient being here. As, when many parts are combined, the world names it 'a chariot,' so, when the aggregates come together through conditions, the provisional name 'sentient being' is given." (Chinese T02n0099, scroll 45, sūtra 1202.) When many materials are put together, the world gives it a name and calls it a "chariot"; when the five aggregates — form, sensation, perception, formations, consciousness — come together through conditions, the world gives it a provisional name and calls it a "sentient being," a "self." Leave aside the combination of those materials, and there is no separate thing called "chariot" to be singled out; leave aside the combination of the five aggregates, and there is no "self" that can be singled out either. The same can be felt through a house: take a house apart and it is only beam, pillar, wall, and tile put in one place; apart from the combination of these materials, no "house" can be found that stands on its own. The essential point is this: though the provisional name has no substance, its function is not thereby abolished — the chariot still carries people, the continuing aggregates still bear the fruit of action; it is only that within that function there is no "self," which was never there, doing the driving. The error of self-view lies precisely here: confronting this one heap of combination, it forcibly fixes upon it a "self" that was never there.

III. Rebuking distortion: relying on self-view, one cannot see "suffering"

The second distortion the prose commentary opens with a cry of "Alas!" — a shout struck straight at the world's deluded grasping.

Why, relying on self-view, does one not see the nature of suffering? [There is] confusion about suffering and the sufferer, about the reality-of-dharmas and its no-nature.

• "Why, relying on self-view, does one fail to see the nature of suffering?" — worldly people rest upon self-view and give rise to every kind of confusion, and so cannot understand one root matter: the conditioned activities are themselves suffering. Not only do they fail to understand this, they constantly circle along after self-view.
• The prose commentary then explains the two pairs, "confusion about suffering and the sufferer, the reality-of-dharmas and its no-nature." Suffering means undergoing that oppressive contact of suffering (painful feeling); the sufferer means the unbroken continuity of suffering — note the prose commentary's careful correction: it is not that "there is a self joined to suffering, which is then called the sufferer"; the sufferer is only the continuity of suffering, with no "self" within it that undergoes suffering. Confusion about suffering is failing to understand the nature of suffering; confusion about the sufferer is failing to understand no-self. A layer deeper: the reality-of-dharmas means "there are only dharmas (and no person)," because of the no-self of persons; no-nature means "(these dharmas too) are not real dharmas," because of the no-self of dharmas.
• The weight of this verse lies in its pressing no-self to two levels: not only is grasping a "self" a distortion (the no-self of persons), but grasping "suffering and dharmas" as truly existent is also a distortion (the no-self of dharmas). Suffering is truly suffering, but the "self" that undergoes it is false; dharmas are conditionally-arisen dharmas, but a truly existent "substance of dharmas" is false too.

That there is "suffering but no self who suffers" can be felt through a lamp-flame: a lamp burns through the night, and we say "it is still the same lamp," yet in fact the flame of the prior instant has already ceased and the flame of the next instant is newly born; there is only unbroken continuity, which looks like one flame that never moved. Suffering is likewise — a stretch of unbroken continuity of painful feeling flowing on, with no "self" seated through it from beginning to end undergoing suffering. Flowing water runs on and on with no unchanging "river" beneath it — the very same principle.

IV. Plainly seeing dependent arising, yet giving rise to a contrary view

The third distortion speaks of something still more paradoxical: people plainly see dependent arising, yet insist on generating, upon that very dependent arising, a view that runs against it.

Why, when the dependently-arisen substance is plainly seen, does a contrary view arise? Through darkness one does not see what is [there], and also sees what is not.

• "Why, when the dependently-arisen substance is plainly seen, does a contrary view arise?" — worldly people plainly see that "the activities each arise from conditions," yet, relying on this very dependently-arisen substance, they generate a contrary view, supposing that the substance of the eye and the other faculties is not dependently arisen (as if the faculties were self-formed, truly existent).
• "Through the darkness what is there is not seen, and what is not there is on the contrary seen" — the disease is rooted in ignorance. The dependently-arisen dharma is "existent" (existent because conditionally born), yet its existence is precisely not seen (this is denial); the substance of "self" is "non-existent," yet the view of "there is a self" is precisely generated (this is superimposition). A single ignorance commits both distortions at once: erasing what is there, and adding what is not.

At this point the prose commentary turns the pivot of the whole chapter out through a "question" — Question: if this is so, how is nirvāṇa attained?

Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not two, with not the slightest difference; abiding well in no-self, when birth is exhausted one attains nirvāṇa.

In this verse, the treatise says that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are "not two, with not the slightest difference" with respect to no-self; it then says that one who abides well in no-self and cultivates wholesome action exhausts birth and attains nirvāṇa. 〔exposition-borrowed simile〕 The earlier rope-and-snake image only helps illustrate the difference before and after deluded grasping is removed; it is not evidence that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are one identical substance. This exposition transmits the position advanced here without independently adjudicating such an identity. The blocking of distortions closes here: the distortions broken, the text next states the "remedy" — how one enters what the treatise calls the ultimate truth step by step.

---

V. The remedy in five stages: one road into the ultimate truth

The distortions blocked, the prose commentary says: "Next one should state its remedy." The five verses that follow display, in order, the five stages by which the bodhisattva enters the ultimate truth. These five stages are no invention peculiar to the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, but the common track of all Consciousness-Only realization (continuous with the last five verses of the Thirty Verses and with the five stages set forth in the Cheng Weishi Lun); what is distinctive to this chapter is that it strings each of the five upon this one main line: "meaning is only mental speech → consciousness-only → both graspings alike dissolved."

The stage of equipment — the great capital of amassed merit and wisdom

Merit and wisdom, boundless, grow and are wholly fulfilled; having settled the contemplation of dharmas, one penetrates the nature of the categories of meaning.

The prose commentary judges: this verse displays the first, the "Stage of Amassing the Great Store" (the stage of equipment, 資糧位) — the stage of amassing the two great provisions of merit and wisdom.

• Merit and wisdom, boundless: the merit and wisdom cultivated are countless in kind and endless in duration. Practice must first have capital, and this capital is merit and wisdom, amassed both broadly and long.
• Grow and are wholly fulfilled: the bodhisattva amasses this great store to fullness, and so can reach the far shore.
• Having settled the contemplation of dharmas: one contemplates the Dharma with a settled mind (not scattered browsing, but concentrated, careful contemplation).
• Penetrates the nature of the categories of meaning: the contemplation reaches one key understanding — that the various dharma-meanings contemplated, their "categories," all have "mental speech" (意言, inner conceptual designation) as their nature. "Mental speech" is the concept-and-word within the mind. In other words: every "meaning" you confront, traced to the bottom, is set up by the name-words and discriminations within the mind. This line is the first seed of the whole road of Consciousness-Only contemplation: first see through the fact that "meaning" was only "mental speech."

This "meaning is only mental speech" is not easily felt; try it this way: over one and the same stretch of hill and field, the farmer sees out ridges and seasons, the painter sees out composition and light, the herb-gatherer sees out the plants' natures and medicinal uses — those meanings "seen," those sortings-out, are not laid ready over there on the hillside waiting to be picked up, but are cut and set up by the name-words and concepts within each person's mind. You suppose you are "cognizing the meaning outside," but everywhere you go you carry the fingerprint of "mental speech." Recognize this layer first, and only then can you go on to "consciousness-only."

The stage of intensified practice — turning from "meaning is only mental speech" to "consciousness-only"

Having known the nature of the categories of meaning, one abides well in the light of mind alone; because one then plainly sees the dharma-realm, one is freed from the two marks.

The prose commentary judges: this displays the second, the "Stage of Penetration" (i.e. the stage of intensified practice, 加行位). Following on from the last stage: having understood that all dharma-meanings have mental speech as their nature, one advances to understand that all dharma-meanings are in fact "the light of mind" (心光, the light-images the mind manifests, not real objects outside the mind). Reaching this step, the bodhisattva is called "abiding well in consciousness-only." Going one step further from here, one "plainly sees the dharma-realm," fully grasping the falsity of the two marks of "grasper and grasped," and so is freed from grasping and the grasped. This stage is the turning-over of "meaning → consciousness": the prior stage saw through meaning as mental speech; this stage draws it in, settling that all is only the manifestation of consciousness, and presses up to the gate of the path of seeing.

The path of seeing — outside the mind there is no thing; both graspings alike dissolved

Outside the mind there is no thing; the thing being absent, the mind too is absent; because one understands the absence of both, one abides well in the true dharma-realm.

The prose commentary judges: this displays the third, the "Path of Seeing" (見道位) — the bodhisattva now plainly sees the dharma-realm. The sequence is pressed out thus: first one understands that "outside the mind there is no grasped thing"; the grasped thing being absent, the grasping mind cannot stand either (with no object, whence a mind to grasp it?); and so the two marks of "grasped and grasper" alike are left behind. Having left the two graspings, the bodhisattva abides well in the very nature of the dharma-realm.

This is the chapter's turning point: after all the earlier talk of "the ultimate truth" and "no-self," only at this stage is there genuine direct realization — not hearsay, not inferential reasoning, but seeing with immediate perception that the two graspings are originally empty and suchness is present. The lifeline of Consciousness-Only contemplation lies in just these four steps: "object absent → mind absent → both absent → abiding in the dharma-realm."

The best way to feel these four steps is the dream. In a dream there are mountains and rivers, others and an "I," all vivid and present, as if "I" were on this side and "the realm" on that; yet the whole dream is nothing but the manifestation of the one dreaming thought of mind. Once one sees through that "the mountains and rivers in the dream were never outside the mind" (object absent), the "dreamer-self" standing over against those mountains and rivers dissolves at the same moment (mind absent) — because the grasping "I" was set up only over against the grasped "realm"; the realm once emptied, the mind set over against it has nowhere to stand (both absent). Object and mind alike dissolved, what one abides in right then is precisely the original reality (abiding in the dharma-realm). What the path of seeing realizes is just this "waking from the dream."

The path of cultivation — non-conceptual knowledge, like a divine antidote to poison

By the power of non-conceptual knowledge, ever equal and all-pervading in operation, in order to destroy the mass of faults — as a medicine can remove poison.

The prose commentary judges: this displays the fourth, the "Path of Cultivation" (修道位). Having entered the knowledge of the ultimate truth and completed the transformation of the basis (轉依, the root turning of the defiled into the pure — the store consciousness on which one rests turns over from the defiled to the pure), the bodhisattva, with "non-conceptual knowledge" (無分別智, the root knowledge that leaves off subject-object discrimination and directly realizes suchness), ever operates "equally" and "all-pervadingly." Why operate thus? In order to destroy the faults perfumed upon the other-dependent nature, densely accumulated layer upon layer like a thicket — the path of seeing was but the first realization; the residual dregs of the latent tendencies perfumed since beginningless time upon the other-dependent must be ground away by repeated application of non-conceptual knowledge in the path of cultivation.

The prose commentary closes with a simile: the power of this non-conceptual knowledge is like the great agada medicine (阿伽陀, the divine panacea of Indian legend that neutralizes every poison) — the poisons are manifold, one medicine removes them all. Non-discriminating knowledge, in relation to the mass of faults perfumed upon the other-dependent, is exactly so.

The ultimate stage — the mind settled in the dharma-realm, swiftly exhausting the ocean of qualities

Taking as object the dharmas well established by the Buddha, with the mind as root settled in the dharma-realm, understanding that thoughts are mere discrimination, one swiftly reaches the end of the ocean of qualities.

The prose commentary judges: this displays the fifth, the "Ultimate Stage" (究竟位). The prose commentary expounds it through a string of "questions and answers":

• Taking as object the dharmas well established by the Buddha: the bodhisattvas take, as a "total gathered object," all the wondrous dharmas well established by the Buddha — gathering them together as their object.
• Question: what is a "total gathered object"? Answer: the mind as root settled in the dharma-realm — this states that the bodhisattva has entered the knowledge of the ultimate truth. Because this knowledge abides settled in the dharma-realm, this "mind" is called "root" (it has become the root on which all qualities rest).
• Question: and after this? Answer: understanding that thoughts are mere discrimination — thereafter one again gives rise to contemplation, and, as in the earlier contemplation of phenomena, moment by moment as thought turns, one clearly knows that all thoughts are mere discrimination and not truly existent. (Even at the ultimate stage one does not part from this clarity of a single thought: as a thought arises, one knows it to be mere discrimination.)
• Question: having known thus, to what stage can one advance? Answer: one swiftly reaches the end of the ocean of qualities — knowing thus, one can swiftly reach the far shore of the ocean of the Buddha-fruit's qualities. Realization reaching here, buddhahood is fully accomplished.

Conclusion: the single line of the Chapter on Reality

Taking the ten verses together, the Chapter on Reality is one complete road from "seeing clearly what reality is" to "realizing reality":

The first verse uses the five non-dualities to establish the character of the ultimate truth (the true nature · suchness), gathering the middle way of the three natures at one stroke; the second through the fifth verses block the four distortions — breaking the view of self (no-self of persons), rebuking the failure to see suffering (with the no-self of dharmas alongside), breaking the contrary view upon dependent arising (ignorance's twofold distortion), and clarifying that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are equal and not-two in no-self; the sixth through the tenth verses open out the five stages of entry — equipment (seeing through "meaning is only mental speech"), intensified practice (turning over into consciousness-only), the path of seeing (both graspings dissolved, the dharma-realm directly realized), the path of cultivation (non-conceptual knowledge, the transformation of the basis, grinding away the mass of faults), and the ultimate (the mind settled in the dharma-realm, swiftly exhausting the ocean of qualities).

First establish the character of reality, then break the distortions toward it, and finally enter it through the five stages — this is the Chapter on Reality: it not only tells you what reality "is," but tells you how, step by step, to "become" one who sees reality.