新華嚴經論 1

English (machine translation) 1

Language: English

Now, the origin of sentient beings relies on the ocean of wisdom as its source; the stream of conscious beings integrates the dharmakāya as its essence. It is solely because sentiments arise that wisdom is blocked, and because conceptions transform that the essence appears distinct; when one penetrates the origin, sentiments perish, and knowing the mind, essence is unified. Now, this Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra illumines the fundamental limit of sentient beings and demonstrates the fruition-source of all buddhas. As for its being the origin, it cannot be accomplished through effort; as for its being the source, it cannot be attained through practice. When effort is extinguished, the origin is attained; when practice is exhausted, the source is completed. The source-origin is without effort, yet able to accord with conditions with sovereignty: this is precisely Vairocana. With fundamental nature as light, wisdom responds according to capacities; using great compassion to deliver beings, he is named from this. Relying on the origin, he thus establishes his beneficial teachings, profusely flowing through the dharmadhātu to moisten conscious beings. Thereupon, temporarily lodging his stages in the four heavens and manifesting his forms in the eight phases, he manifests the araṇya within the bodhimaṇḍa as his initial enlightenment, and abides in the Universal Light Hall of the Dharma as the great mansion of the saṃbhogakāya. Samantabhadra, the eldest son, raises the fruition-virtues in the hidden body; Mañjuśrī, the youngest son, first initiates the unenlightened in the golden color. Using the ocean-seal samādhi, he descends in spirit pervading the dharmadhātu; employing the Dharma gate of universal vision, he displays oceans of lands within dust motes. The two fruitions—circumstantial and primary—body and land interpenetrate; the two gates of cause and effect, essence and function, thoroughly penetrate each other. With the jeweled net of the king of gods, he reflects the ten lands layer upon layer; taking the defilement-free maṇi jewel, he clarifies the ten bodies in subtle concealment. Boundless realms of lands, self and other, are not separated by the tip of a fine hair; the past and present of the ten time periods, beginning and end, do not shift from the present thought. As for its vastness, it takes empty space as its measure; as for its minuteness, it resides in an infinitesimal dust mote without a trace. The ten directions are never rolled up, yet do not diminish within small marks; a fine dust mote is never expanded, yet contains the ten directions without obstruction. Constantly abiding in the ocean of wisdom, he distributes fruition-virtues into the gates of the five stages; perpetually dwelling in the Dharma hall, he demonstrates progressive cultivation above the nine heavens. Just as it is in this world, so it is in the ten lands. The noble assemblies are like clouds, the ocean-like gatherings interpenetrating. Wisdom and worldliness do not obstruct each other, like multiple mirrors receiving a multitude of forms; self and other do not hinder each other, like a thousand lamps sharing a single room. This sūtra contains forty chapters of magnificent scripture in total, profoundly opening the Dharma gates of fruition-virtues; its hundreds of myriad kotis of wondrous words all raise the ocean of practices of the Buddha's flowers. Ten bodies and ten assemblies expound tenfold tenfold Dharma gates; ten places and ten directions initiate ten supernormal knowledges and express ten eloquence-powers. Within the "Chapter on the Manifestation [of the Tathāgata]," it demonstrates cause and effect to conclude beginning and end; at Anāthapiṇḍada's Park, it benefits humans and devas while clarifying the dharmadhātu. Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra were blocked in seeing and hearing face to face; six thousand monks initiated the ten illuminations along the road. To the east of the City of Enlightenment the five assemblies all arrived, and before the ancient Buddha shrine they together mounted the ten wisdoms. Sudhana initiated and was the foremost guide, thereby manifesting that the coming assemblies were all alike. Furthermore, accomplishing the Dharma gates of the five stages endowed with virtues, he practiced their models and norms, enabling the unenlightened to easily comprehend understanding and practice without doubt; thereupon, faith was foremost before Mañjuśrī, and true realization occurred at the summit of Mount Sugopita. Passing through fifty-three [kalyāṇamitras], he accomplished one hundred and ten Dharma gates; reaching the garden of Maitreya, he brought together the Buddha fruit of a single lifetime. Returning, he was shown Mañjuśrī as his initial friend, clarifying that fruition is identical with cause; subsequently, he entered the body of Samantabhadra, manifesting that essence and function are consummate and ultimate. This sūtra is named the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra: "Mahā" (great) has the meaning of having no direction or boundary; "vaipulya" (square/correct) takes principle and wisdom as its efficacy; "broad" means fine hairs and lands mutually containing one another; "Buddha" is the uncreated nature of essence and function; "flower" is an analogy for the delightful gates of practice, capable of unfurling the efficacy of principle and phenomena; "adornment" is the adornment of circumstantial and primary fruitions; "sūtra" is that which threads and stitches together. Regarding the "Chapter on the Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the World," bodhisattvas manifesting birth are all rulers of the world; together they arrive at the ocean-like gathering, hence it is called "wondrous adornments." A "chapter" means that which groups categories into the same stream, sectioning the Dharma gates equally into chapters. This sūtra contains forty chapters of magnificent scripture in total; this chapter stands at the beginning, hence it is called the first. Therefore it is called Chapter One of the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra: Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the World.

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Explaining this single sūtra is done overall through ten sections of distinctions:

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First, explaining the division of traditions based on the teachings; second, explaining the distinctions of doctrines based on the traditions; third, explaining the differences in doctrinal meanings; fourth, explaining the identity and difference of attaining buddhahood; fifth, explaining the differences in seeing the Buddha; sixth, explaining the periods of expounding the teachings; seventh, explaining the provisional and ultimate pure lands; eighth, explaining the realms of gathering and transforming; ninth, explaining the extension and brevity of cause and effect; tenth, explaining the beginning and end in unifying the teachings.

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Regarding the first, explaining the division of traditions based on the teachings: When the Tathāgata attained the Way, his essence corresponded to the true source; the two gates of principle and phenomena, the one and the many, thoroughly penetrated each other. When wisdom and object are perfectly tranquil, what dharma is not pervaded? It is only because vessels have differences and rules and standards are distinct, and because beginning and end, gradual and sudden, differ according to capacities, that teachings were devised to accord with suitability, so that the great and the small are completely distinct; the periods of time and the extension and brevity of cause and effect are not the same; the transformed buddhas and the fundamental body set forth explanations differently; the purity and defilement, increase and decrease of lands are different; and the stages and cause and effect naturally have their appropriate shares. Those who are beginning to study are not yet familiar with the traces of the teachings; clinging to the provisional as ultimate, they are deluded and do not advance in practice. If one does not comprehensively raise the various traditions and categorize their harms and benefits, there will be no way to understand their delusion and stagnation. Now, I briefly divide into ten dharmas to distinguish and elucidate the path, enabling students to know the traditions, to shift from the provisional toward the ultimate without stalling their practice, and quickly realize bodhi.

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First: The Hīnayāna vinaya sūtras, which take sentimental existence as their tradition. Second: The Bodhisattva Precepts, which take the simultaneous manifestation of sentimental existence and the real as their tradition. Third: The Prajñā teachings, which take expounding emptiness to reveal the real as their tradition. Fourth: The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, which takes neither empty nor existent as its tradition. Fifth: The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, which takes the five dharmas, three natures, eight consciousnesses, and two kinds of selflessness as its tradition. Sixth: The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, which takes the harmonization of the two views of defilement and purity and manifesting the inconceivable as its tradition. Seventh: The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, which takes converging the provisional into the ultimate as its tradition. Eighth: The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra, which takes guarding and maintaining the true Dharma as its tradition. Ninth: The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which takes clarifying the Buddha-nature as its tradition. Tenth: The Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, which takes the fundamental wisdom-compassion of all buddhas, the consummation of cause and perfection of fruition, the mutual penetration of the one and the many, and the Buddha Vehicle of the unimpeded pratītyasamutpāda of principle and phenomena of the dharmadhātu as its tradition. The divisions of traditions above are all tenets established by preceding worthy predecessors. Even if there are minor additions or subtractions due to differing viewpoints, their main meanings and headings are largely similar. As for the traditions established by various worthies of the Western Regions and this land, they will be further clarified below.

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Regarding the first, the Hīnayāna vinaya taking sentimental existence as its tradition: This is because the Tathāgata, initially addressing the places where ordinary beings create karma, stated that this should be done and this should not be done, expounding the wholesome and the unwholesome. Setting up teachings in this manner is not yet the truly existent. Such teachings of existence merely take the false notions of ordinary sentiment to horizontally restrain various evils, checking them through teaching so as to cause them to be born in human and heavenly realms. Therefore, the preface to the vinaya says: 'If one wishes to be born in the heavens / or to be born among humans, / one should always guard the feet of precepts / and not let them be damaged.' The conditioned actions of sentient beings are false and unreal; not having attained the dharmakāya and the wisdom-body, this is not the tradition of true existence, but provisionally the tradition of sentimental existence. Among the Hīnayāna, it is the teaching of rules and upholding. Upholding precepts as in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is not like this. The sūtra says: 'Is the body the brahmacarya? Are the bodily actions, the four deportments, and even the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, the ten assemblies, the seven obstructions, the preceptor, the karmadāna, the platform master, and so on, the brahmacarya? When one thoroughly examines and seeks the practitioner of brahmacarya in this way, they are entirely unattainable.' Therefore, it is called pure brahmacarya, as expounded in the 'Chapter on Brahmacarya': 'A practitioner of such purity is called one who upholds the Buddha-nature precepts, because they attain the Buddha's dharmakāya. Even at the moment of first generating the mind, one immediately attains true awakening; because one upholds the Buddha-nature precepts, one is equal in essence with the Buddha, principle and phenomena are equal, blending into the true dharmadhātu. Upholding precepts in this way, one does not see one's own body as able to uphold precepts, nor does one see another's body as having broken precepts; it is not the practice of ordinary beings, nor the practice of worthies and nobles; one does not see one's own body generating the bodhimind, nor does one see all buddhas attaining complete, true awakening. If there is good or evil, or if there is the slightest dharma to be attained, it is not called pure practice.' One should know that this nature precept is precisely the dharmakāya; the dharmakāya is the wisdom of the Tathāgata; and the wisdom of the Tathāgata is true awakening. Therefore, it is not like the Hīnayāna, which involves grasping and rejection.

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Regarding the second, the Bodhisattva Precepts as in the Brahmajāla Sūtra taking the simultaneous manifestation of sentimental existence and the real as its tradition: The Tathāgata, for the sake of beings with great aspiration among ordinary beings who delight in practicing compassion and aspire to seek the Buddha fruit, designates Vairocana Buddha as the fundamental body and the thousands of hundreds of millions as nirmāṇakāyas, causing them suddenly to recognize the branches and return to the root. Thus the sūtra says: 'Such thousands of hundreds of millions / each received assemblies as numerous as dust motes, / and together came to my place.' It also says: 'If a person receives the Buddha's precepts, / they immediately enter the stages of all buddhas; / their stage being already identical with Great Awakening, / they are truly the children of all buddhas.' This refers to the nature precepts, and is therefore the real tradition. This is suddenly demonstrating the dharmakāya nature precepts for beings of great aspiration, while inferior ones receive gradual [teaching]; a single teaching responds to two types of capacities. That 'such thousands of hundreds of millions each received assemblies as numerous as dust motes and together came to my place' clarifies abandoning the provisional to approach the real; this is the teaching of real existence. Within the teaching itself, it suddenly demonstrates both provisional and ultimate; hence it differs from the Hīnayāna, where the before is impermanent and the after is also impermanent, merely aiming at birth among humans and devas. Although it establishes the tradition of real existence, it is not the same as that expounded by Vairocana in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. In this [Brahmajāla] sūtra, they still follow the transformations of the nirmāṇakāya before arriving at the fundamental body. The tradition of the Perfect Teaching, in a single stroke, suddenly reveals the fundamental body, the great wisdom saṃbhogakāya of the dharmadhātu, with cause and effect, principle and phenomena simultaneously manifest. Furthermore, the measure of the world in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and the measure of the lotus form in the Brahmajāla Sūtra are also not the same, being entirely different in breadth and narrowness, as expounded at length below.

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Regarding the third, the Prajñā teaching taking expounding emptiness to reveal the real as its tradition: The Tathāgata initially expounded the two-vehicle teachings for humans, devas, and ordinary beings, who clung to principle and phenomena as both being real and could not leave behind obstructions. For their sake, he expounded the teaching of emptiness to break their attachments. In the Prajñā sūtras, eighteen kinds of dharmas are expounded: the worldly three jewels, the four truths, the three periods of time, and all else are empty; emptiness is also empty, as expounded at length in the sūtras. This empties out the karmas of ignorance and various obstructions; when ignorance is completely exhausted and obstructing karmas are all gone, the nirvāṇa of self-nature naturally becomes manifest; this is called the tradition of true existence and non-emptiness. Although it is true existence, the Dharma gates expounded still have much emergence and cessation, and therefore cannot yet be considered perfect. As for the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, it is fully endowed with the marks and signs of the true saṃbhogakāya; it can be empty and it can be real. Within this very text and within this very chapter, the ten bodhisattvas and others from top to bottom mutually thread together; the dharmas of emptiness and existence do not proceed in isolation. Furthermore, with Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī interpenetrating, principle and phenomena thoroughly penetrating and mutually reflecting each other, in the scripture of the entire work, chapter penetrates chapter and sentence interpenetrates sentence; within the single work, all forty chapters of the sūtra enter together into a single phrase. With the simultaneous unfolding of the one hundred thousand verses, when one is established, all are established; when one is undone, all are undone; all because nature is equal and time is equal. Because equality is like that described above, the expounding of the Dharma is also equal. Because they are equal in this way, attaining buddhahood at present is equal to all buddhas of the three periods of time attaining buddhahood, because there are no three periods of time, and because there is no time; this is not like this [Prajñā] teaching, where emergence and cessation occur at different times, and cause and effect are before and after.

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Fourth, taking neither empty nor existent as its essential teaching in the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra: after the Tathāgata expounded the teachings of existence and the teachings of emptiness, he expounded this singular scriptural teaching, reconciling the two views of existence and non-existence into the teaching of neither empty nor existent. It expounds the ninth consciousness as a purely clean and undefiled consciousness. Just as a raging torrent generates many waves, and all those waves rely on the water, so too the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses all rely on the ādāna-consciousness. Thus the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra says: 'Just as on the surface of a clear mirror, if the conditions for generating a single image appear before it, only a single image arises; if two or many, when the conditions for generating images appear before it, many images arise. Yet this mirror surface does not transform into the images, nor is any consumption or annihilation to be found.' This clarifies the locus of the ninth pure consciousness upon which the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses rely. It also says: 'Thus a bodhisattva, although relying on the wisdom of the abiding nature of phenomena, for the sake of establishing it...' The intent of this sūtra is to cause one, right at the locus of consciousness, to clarify that the essence of consciousness is fundamentally never separate from true wisdom; just as that raging torrent generates waves without being separate from the essence of water. It is also like a clear mirror: relying on that pure essence without making distinctions, it contains many reflected images, not obstructing their presence while being constantly devoid of them. Thus the characteristics of consciousness perceived by one's own mind are not separate from the fundamental essence of unconditioned, pure wisdom; the reflected images that appear are completely free of attachments to self and other, internal and external. Responding and functioning in accord with wisdom, it makes no distinctions. Because it shatters both bondages to emptiness and existence as neither empty nor existent, a verse in the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra says: 'The ādāna-consciousness is extremely profound and subtle; all seeds are like a raging torrent. I do not disclose it to the foolish and ordinary, lest they discriminate and grasp it as a self.' That 'the ādāna-consciousness is extremely profound and subtle' means it leads that stream of ordinary persons to approach consciousness and accomplish wisdom; unlike the two vehicles and the gradual, beginning-stage bodhisattvas who negate characteristics and end up merely in emptiness, and unlike ordinary persons who are attached to them as truly existent. Because it differs from them, it is neither empty nor existent. What dharma is not empty? It is wisdom being able to respond to conditions, illumine capacities, and benefit beings. What dharma is not existent? It is because, precisely when wisdom accords with conditions, it lacks essential nature and characteristics, and lacks arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing. For this reason, it is named 'neither empty nor existent.' Although this sūtra thus causes one to know right at the locus of mind and consciousness that emptiness and existence are non-dual, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is not like this. It solely reflects the Buddha's essence and function of the fundamental wisdom of the one reality of the original essence, the dharmadhātu. Blending the ocean of true nature, characteristics, dharma, and retribution, it directly and suddenly reveals the original wisdom of the one real dharmadhātu of the Buddha's fruit and virtue for those of superior capacities, serving as the gate to opening, disclosing, awakening, and entering, without discussing the consciousnesses that arise in accord with delusion. In the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, the Buddha appears in the world to show and awaken sentient beings with the Buddha's wisdom so as to make them pure; hence, he does not do so for the other vehicles, whether two or three. Furthermore, as for the dharmas of the Buddha's nature and characteristics, the Tathāgata did not permit people of the three vehicles to understand them with their intellect. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra says: 'The meaning of various natures and characteristics—only I and the Buddhas of the ten directions can know this matter.' Śāriputra, pratyekabuddhas, and non-retrogressing bodhisattvas are all unable to know it, because the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra converges the provisional learning of the three vehicles to return to the real dharmadhātu of the Buddha Vehicle. The three carriages before the gate temporarily represent the provisional vehicles; only the white ox in the open ground clarifies the real virtue. For this reason, there is a minor fraction of its meaning that aligns with the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. That which the dragon maiden rode was precisely the carriage of the white ox, and what she attained was identical with Sudhana. Therefore, the doctrinal gate of the Avataṃsaka directly reveals the fundamental essence, using the gate of the dharmadhātu's Buddha-fruition to bestow it directly on ordinary persons of superior capacity, causing them to awaken and enter. It is not like the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, which sets up the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth consciousnesses to establish provisional gates. When the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra provisionally sets up the ninth ādāna-consciousness, its intention follows a different path: because people of the two vehicles have long loathed birth and death, they cultivate emptiness and extinguish consciousness to head straight for empty tranquility. Furthermore, the teaching of the second period, when the prajñā teachings were expounded, was for turning the two vehicles and the gradual bodhisattvas around: it mostly used emptiness to refute existence, taking the six pāramitās as the vehicle for their practice. Among them, although the two vehicles turned their minds to a slight extent, and the gradual bodhisattvas had an intensified delight in emptiness, this served as the initial antidote gate of the three vehicles for those bodhisattvas of provisional study, which was still partially similar to the initial antidote gate of the Hinayana. They only had an intensified fraction of compassion, and had not yet realized the principle of the dharmakāya, Buddha-nature, fundamental wisdom, and the like; they merely took the gate of emptiness as what they rode, and the six pāramitās as the characteristics of their practice. Their initial antidote gate was still the same as the two vehicles: only after contemplations of impermanence, impurity, white bones, fine dust, and the like did they enter the contemplation of emptiness. The two vehicles headed for extinction; the bodhisattva remained in birth, using contemplations such as emptiness and selflessness to subdue the self and dharmas and prevent them from increasing. Originally, this was not yet the dharmakāya, Buddha-nature, or fundamental wisdom; because their vision was not yet genuine, their delight in emptiness was intensified. For this reason, the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra expediently established the ninth consciousness as the purely clean consciousness, saying that the eight consciousnesses rely on the pure consciousness as their support. If it had directly expounded the eighth seed-consciousness as the tathāgatagarbha for them, because those trainees feared the habit of suffering and would be terrified and find it hard to believe that the karmic seeds were eternally real, it therefore temporarily and provisionally established the ninth ādāna-consciousness as the pure consciousness, desiring that they would not extinguish the nature of consciousness but nurture and expand bodhi. Therefore, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra says: 'Not having perfected the Buddha-dharmas, neither does one extinguish sensation to attain realization.' Since sensation is not extinguished, conception and consciousness are also like this. As in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, it directly expounds the karmic seeds of the eighth consciousness as the tathāgatagarbha for those whose capacities are ripe, which will be further explained below. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra says: 'The thicket of defilements is the seed of the Tathāgata,' and so forth. Those who cultivate the path belong to different categories and paths; their understanding and practice differ in a thousand ways and ten thousand varieties. Aside from the two vehicles, the bodhisattva vehicle has four distinct grades: first, bodhisattvas who cultivate emptiness and selflessness; second, bodhisattvas who gradually see the Buddha-nature; third, bodhisattvas who suddenly see the Buddha-nature; fourth, bodhisattvas who, by means of the Tathāgata's naturally pure wisdom, arouse discriminating wisdom through the expedient preparations of the five stages, fulfill the practices of Samantabhadra, and accomplish great compassion, ultimately never departing from the limit of a single kṣaṇa while completely filling the ten directions in the gate of the Buddha-fruition. This briefly presents the designations; they will be explained extensively below. As the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'There is a category of bodhisattvas who practice the six pāramitās for hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, yet are not born into the Buddha's household; they are still called nominal bodhisattvas.' A detailed integration will be given below. Because although they see the Buddha-nature, they do not yet know karmic hindrances, they are still called nominal bodhisattvas.

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Fifth, taking the five dharmas, three self-natures, eight consciousnesses, and two kinds of selflessness as its essential teaching in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: this sūtra was spoken on Mount Laṅkā in the Southern Ocean. When the Tathāgata passed below this mountain, the yakṣa king Rāvaṇa and Mahāmati Bodhisattva arrived riding an apparitional palace, requesting the Buddha, the Tathāgata, to expound the Dharma upon this mountain. That mountain was steep and towering, overlooking the great ocean below, with no gates or doors on its sides; only those who had attained supernatural powers were capable of ascending it. This represents that into the Dharma-gate of the mind-ground, only those devoid of mind and devoid of realization can ascend. Looking down at the great ocean represents that the ocean of mind is fundamentally pure of itself, yet stirred by the wind of objects, the waves of consciousness surge. It seeks to clarify that when objects are understood to be naturally empty, the ocean of mind becomes naturally tranquil; when mind and objects are both tranquil, there are no phenomena that are not illuminated. It is like the great ocean without wind, where the sun, the moon, and the array of stars shine forth distinctly and brightly. The intent of this sūtra is directly to expound suddenly for bodhisattvas of ripe capacities that the seed karmic consciousness is the tathāgatagarbha, so as to distinguish them from those of the two vehicles who extinguish consciousness and head for tranquility. It is also to distinguish them from those of the prajñā teachings whose cultivation of emptiness is intensified; it directly clarifies that the fundamental nature of the essence of consciousness is entirely true, and immediately clarifies that the essence of consciousness directly becomes the functioning of wisdom. Just as when that great ocean has no wind, the images of objects are even clearer, the Dharma-gate of the ocean of mind is also like this: by comprehending the truth, consciousness directly becomes wisdom. This sūtra differs from the meaning of that Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, which separately sets up nine consciousnesses to guide those of initial capacities, gradually causing them to retain delusion to nurture and expand bodhi, so as not to cause their minds to plant seeds in emptiness, nor cause their minds to be like ruined seeds. The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is the initial gate for entering delusion; the Laṅkāvatāra and Vimalakīrtinirdeśa directly reveal the fundamental reality of delusion. The Laṅkāvatāra clarifies that the eight consciousnesses are the tathāgatagarbha; the Vimalakīrti contemplates the real mark of the body, and contemplates the Buddha likewise. The Vimalakīrti is identical with the Laṅkāvatāra; the text of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is slightly different from these two scriptures. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is not like this: the Buddha's body, the realm, the Dharma-gate, and the characteristics of practice are profoundly and naturally different. The exposition of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra was spoken by the nirmāṇakāya; its realm was an abode on a peak in an impure land; its Dharma-gate spoke of the realm of consciousness as real; and its questions and answers had Mahāmati Bodhisattva as their chief. The nirmāṇakāya expounding the teaching is provisional, and Mahāmati temporarily engaged in debate and discernment. In the scriptural teaching of the Avataṃsaka, the Buddha's body is the fundamentally real dharmakāya and saṃbhogakāya; its realm is the dwelling in the Lotus Treasury; its Dharma-gate takes the dharmadhātu of the Buddha-fruition as its gate; and its questions and answers are the wondrous functioning of principle, phenomena, and wisdom of Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra. The practices and characteristics of the five stages are mutually fused in cause and effect; the ten lands and ten bodies completely penetrate and enter one another. If one were to discuss their similarities and differences, they cannot yet be fully stated, but must await a detailed differentiation according to the stages below.

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Sixth, taking the inconceivable as its essential teaching in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra: the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra and the Avataṃsaka Sūtra have ten kinds of differences and one kind of identity. The ten kinds of differences are: first, the difference in the adornment of the pure land; second, the difference between the saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya in the marks of the Buddha's body; third, the difference in the supernatural powers of inconceivable virtues; fourth, the difference in matching capacities with the established Dharma-gates; fifth, the difference in the assemblies who came to hear the Dharma; sixth, the difference in establishing Dharma-gates through expounding the teachings; seventh, the difference in Vimalakīrti Bodhisattva's establishment of practice; eighth, the difference in the locations where the Dharma-gates were proclaimed; ninth, the difference in the assemblies constantly following the Buddha; tenth, the difference in the transmission and circulation of the entrusted Dharma treasury. There is one kind of identity: the expedient means of entering the path is identical.

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First, regarding the difference in the adornment of the pure land: as for the pure land expounded in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, when the Tathāgata pressed the ground with his toe, the trichiliocosm was immediately adorned with several hundreds of thousands of precious jewels, like the jewel-adorned land of immeasurable virtues of the Buddha Jewel Adornment; the entire great assembly sighed at what had never been seen before, and all saw themselves seated on jeweled lotuses. Yet it did not speak of matters such as the adornments of inexhaustible Buddha-lands within a single tip of a hair or grain of dust. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, it fully explains the ten Lotus Treasury world-oceans of the realm of the ten-bodied Buddha Vairocana; each world-ocean contains inexhaustible world-oceans, completely fulfilling the realm of the Buddhas of the ten directions and the realm of sentient beings, mutually interpenetrating without mutual obstruction, adorned with manifold jewels like light and shadows, as extensively expounded in the sūtra; it does not merely speak of the adornment and purity of a trichiliocosm alone.

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Second, regarding the difference between the saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya in the marks of the Buddha's body: the expounding of this Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra was spoken by a transformation Buddha with the thirty-two marks of a great person. The expounding of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was spoken by the real saṃbhogakāya Tathāgata, with the ninety-seven marks of a great person as well as marks of a great person as numerous as the dust motes in the ten Lotus Treasury world-oceans.

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Third, the difference in inconceivable virtues and supernatural powers: As the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra states regarding the supernatural powers of bodhisattvas, they can place the height and breadth of Mount Sumeru inside a mustard seed, can place the waters of the four great oceans into a single pore, and further, within a small room, can accommodate thirty-two thousand lion seats, each eighty-four thousand yojanas high. With eight thousand bodhisattvas, five hundred śrāvakas, and hundreds of thousands of devas and humans, Vimalakīrti placed them on the palm of his right hand and carried the great assembly to the Āmrapālī grove. Moreover, with his hand he detached and took the Buddha-realm of Abhirati in the east, brought it here to display to the great assembly, and sent it back to its original location. Such supernatural transformations were, for the time being, manifested as such matters for the assemblies of the provisional learners of the Three Vehicles—śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and so forth. Why is that? Because for the śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, and others of the provisional teachings, their vision of the path is not yet actualized and self and other are not yet eradicated; the supernatural transformations that are manifested, as seen according to their faculties, all have coming, going, demarcation, and limits. Furthermore, it was the noble intention for a single occasion, using supernatural power to transform and inspire those of lesser faculties so as to make them progress gradually; it was not due to the power of things as they naturally are. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, through the power of the fundamental Dharma—because the Dharma is just so—one can, within a single particle of dust, contain all the Buddha-realms and sentient-being realms of the ten directions entirely within that dust, while the worlds do not shrink and the fine dust does not expand; and with all the fine dust particles of the worlds of the ten directions, every single particle of dust is completely like this. As the sūtra states, within the body of a single tiny sentient being, a bodhisattva attains equal and perfect enlightenment and extensively liberates sentient beings, while that tiny sentient being neither knows nor perceives it. One should know that because the Buddha uses provisional teachings to guide those of lesser faculties, they see the Buddha outside their bodies manifesting supernatural power, which involves coming and going; whereas in the actual teaching, through one's own fundamental awakening one awakens to one's fundamental mind, where the nature and characteristics of body and mind are no different from the Buddha, free from all views of interior and exterior, or coming and going. Therefore, without moving from his original place, the body of Vairocana Buddha sits universally in all bodhimaṇḍas; and without moving from their original places, the assemblies coming from the ten directions go according to the transformation—there is completely no coming or going, nor is it brought about by supernatural power; therefore the sūtra says: 'Because the Dharma is just so.' Where the sūtra repeatedly states, 'Through the Buddha's supernatural power, because the Dharma is just so,' by 'through the Buddha's supernatural power' it honors the Buddha as supreme, and by 'because the Dharma is just so' it honors the fundamental virtue as being completely without change. Because every realm, body, mind, nature, and characteristic relies on the fundamental and does not follow delusion, the various realms—large and small—are all like light and shadows, mutually illuminating and penetrating throughout the ten directions, completely without coming or going, completely without demarcation. That is to say, within the various pores of every single sentient being, it is pervasive throughout the ten directions, unlike the provisional teachings which, with demarcated coming and going through supernatural power, carry here and send back, giving rise to these erroneous views that run contrary to the fundamental dharmakāya and obstruct true bodhi and the nature-wisdom of fundamental awakening. For this reason, Bodhisattva Vimalakīrti first displayed these supernatural transformations and only then expounded the actual teaching. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra states: 'Contemplating the true mark of the body, contemplate the Buddha likewise. When I contemplate the Tathāgata, he does not come from the past, does not go into the future, and right now does not abide.' This is extensively clarified as in the 'Chapter on Akṣobhya Buddha'. Therefore, when those of provisional faculties and lesser views take delight in and desire the marvelous and rare, the bodhisattva roughly applies expedients to guide them according to their faculties, causing them to develop delight in learning, and only then confers the gate of the actual. One must not grasp at transformations as real and remain perpetually confused about the realm of wisdom; one should recognize the provisional and turn to the actual, advancing into the gate of the dharmadhātu. Conditioned dharmas are difficult to accomplish when according with conditions, whereas the unconditioned is easily realized; one who acts toils without merit, whereas not acting accords with conditions and achieves spontaneously. The merit of no merit is merit not cast away in vain; the merit of having merit is entirely impermanent. Accumulated practice over many kalpas ultimately ends in ruin; it is not as good as a single thought of the non-arising of dependent origination, which surpasses the views of the provisional learners of the Three Vehicles and the like.

1.16

Fourth, the difference in the gates of Dharma established corresponding to faculties: This Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra is addressed to the faculties of the Two Vehicles, causing them to turn their minds toward bodhisattva bodhi and enter the Mahāyāna. It is also addressed to those among the Mahāyāna, the bodhisattvas attached to purity whose compassion and wisdom are not yet complete, to make them advance in practice. That is just as when the bodhisattvas coming from the Sarvagandhasugandha world wished to return to their native land and requested the Buddha, the World-Honoured One, to grant a minor Dharma. In accordance with their faculties, the Tathāgata saw that those bodhisattvas were attached to a pure land and inferior in their minds of compassion and wisdom, and so expounded the Dharma for them, having them train in the gate of liberation of the exhaustible and inexhaustible. The text below says: 'Not departing from great benevolence, great renunciation, and great compassion; deeply generating the mind of all-knowledge without forgetting it; teaching and transforming sentient beings without ever growing weary; constantly keeping in mind and according with the practice of the four means of embracing; regarding the various dhyānas as though they were hells; regarding saṃsāra as though it were a pleasure park; regarding those who come begging as though they were good teachers'—as is extensively expounded in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra. This sūtra is addressed to those of the Two Vehicles and Three Vehicles whose compassion and wisdom are not yet complete, having them temporarily cultivate gradually to increase their compassion and wisdom; it does not straightaway abruptly reveal the Buddha gate at once, does not straightaway state that the initial mind of the ten abodes immediately achieves perfect enlightenment, and does not straightaway display its vast and wondrous matters, because all have demarcations.

1.17

Fifth, the difference in the assemblies that came to hear the Dharma: Regarding all the assemblies that came as in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, apart from the assemblies of great bodhisattvas such as Mañjuśrī and Maitreya, and śrāvakas acting as supporting influences such as Śāriputra, the remaining incoming assemblies are all assemblies of provisional learners within the Three Vehicles. Even if there were bodhisattvas among them born into the various destinies who came along with their respective kinds, all desired to accomplish the provisional learning of the Three Vehicles and make them progress gradually, and did not expound the complete fundamental vehicle of all Buddhas. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, all the assemblies that came ride the Tathāgata Vehicle, the fruit-virtue of Buddha-wisdom, and the self-essence dharmakāya; endowed with the practice of Samantabhadra, they manifest like shadows throughout the sea of realms and all bodhimaṇḍas of the ten directions, returning to accomplish the fundamental Dharma ridden by the Tathāgata, without a single capacity of the Three Vehicles. Even if there were such capacities, they would be as though blind and deaf, unaware and unperceiving, just like a blind person facing the sun and moon, like a deaf person hearing heavenly music, like an impoverished person facing a heavenly treasure store, like one of great merit placed in hell, or like a hungry ghost standing by the edge of the great ocean. Those whose capacity belongs to the Three Vehicles, whose power of the path is not yet exhausted and who have not yet turned their minds, though constantly dwelling in the ocean of the dharmadhātu, in the realm of all Buddhas, sharing the same virtue and same body with the Buddha, ultimately cannot have faith, cannot know, and separately seek a Buddha-view. As the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'O son of the Buddha! Even if there were a bodhisattva who, for immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas, practiced the six pāramitās and cultivated the various factors of enlightenment, if he has not heard this Dharma gate of the Tathāgata's inconceivable virtues, or having heard it at some time, does not believe, understand, accord with, or enter it, he cannot be called a true bodhisattva, because he cannot be born into the family of the Tathāgata.' One should know that the assembly hearing the Dharma is completely different from the assembly of Sahā in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra where self and other were not yet eradicated, and the followers of Sarvagandhapraśānta where defilement and purity fully remained. One should know that such types all have views that are not yet true; clinging to a pure realm of a single direction, though named bodhisattvas, their realization of the path is not yet complete. Followers of this kind do not yet understand the Buddha's intent; although they have the aspiration of longing for bodhi, by dwelling their minds in attachment to pure realms, they are distantly separated from the dharmakāya and the wisdom-body. Therefore the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra says: 'The non-retrogressing bodhisattvas, their number like the sands of the Ganges, likewise cannot know.' That is, like the delight of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra where one's own body is no different from the Buddha's body, one's own wisdom is no different from the Buddha's wisdom, nature and characteristics are mutually contained, the one and the many are identically differentiated; dwelling in the wisdom-water of the ocean of the dharmadhātu, one manifests as fish and dragons; abiding in the great mansion of nirvāṇa, one manifests yin and yang to transform beings. Host and companion are unhindered, mutually reflecting and intermingling; master and disciple are mutually fused, cause and effect thoroughly penetrating—such are the assemblies here.

1.18

Sixth, the difference in establishing the teaching and setting up the Dharma gates: This Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, through the householder Vimalakīrti manifesting a slight degree of inconceivable supernatural transformations, causes those of the Two Vehicles to turn their minds. Furthermore, residing in saṃsāra he manifests illness in his body to make them know that defilement and purity are non-dual. Moreover, expressing that a bodhisattva is ill out of great compassion, he fully expounds the gate of non-duality and establishes the contemplative wisdom of samādhi and prajñā, thereby manifesting that the Dharma of non-seeking is paramount. Therefore it says: 'Now, one who seeks the Dharma should seek nothing in all dharmas.' Yet it is not like the Avataṃsaka Sūtra which fully expounds the Dharma gates of the commonality and difference in practices, marks, causes, and effects across the five stages and six stages of the ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications of merit, ten grounds, and virtual enlightenment.

1.19

Seventh, the difference in Bodhisattva Vimalakīrti's manifestation of practice: Vimalakīrti, in order to express great compassion, manifested entering saṃsāra and displayed his practice of illness. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Vairocana, through great compassion, manifested entering saṃsāra to practice the attainment of perfect enlightenment, thereby illustrating that great wisdom can transcend the world.

1.20

Eighth, the difference in the locations where the Dharma gates were expounded: The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra was expounded in the city of Vaiśālī, in the Āmrapālī grove, and in Vimalakīrti's room. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra was expounded in the bodhimaṇḍa of Magadha, in all worlds, and in all particles of dust.

1.21

Ninth, the difference in the assemblies constantly accompanying the Buddha: When the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra was expounded, the śrāvakas were the assembly constantly accompanying the Buddha, numbering only five hundred. When the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was expounded, the assembly constantly accompanying the Buddha was entirely great bodhisattvas of the One Vehicle, numbering as many great assemblies as the particles of dust in ten Buddha-realms, all being assemblies endowed with the essence and function of Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī.

1.22

Tenth, the difference in the entrustment and dissemination of the Dharma treasury: In the 'Chapter on Entrustment' of this Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra it says: 'The Buddha addressed Bodhisattva Maitreya, saying: "Maitreya! I now entrust to you this Dharma of anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi, accumulated over immeasurable koṭis of asaṃkhyeya kalpas."' Thus that sūtra was entrusted to those who were already accomplished bodhisattvas and already born into the Buddha's family. In the 'Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata' of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the entrustment and dissemination is such that that sūtra is entrusted to ordinary beings of the initial mind who are just able to see the path and be born into the Buddha's family. Why is this so? Because this sūtra is difficult to enter, it allows people to realize it; and only through one's own realization is one capable of expounding it. It illustrates that the Three Vehicles are provisional, merely using holy ones to encourage practice and realization with attainments, so the Dharma has not yet become actual; thus all those who expound the Dharma are also not yet actual. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'This sūtra jewel does not enter into the hands of any other sentient beings, except for the true sons of the Dharma King, the Tathāgata, who are born into the Tathāgata's family and have planted the various roots of goodness of the Tathāgata's characteristics. O sons of the Buddha! If there were no such true sons of the Buddha, such a Dharma gate would soon be scattered and lost.'

1.23

Question: If one accepts true sons of the Buddha, they are limitless and boundless across the worlds of the ten directions. Since the dust particles of the worlds are innumerable, why must one worry that without true sons, this sūtra would immediately be scattered and lost?

1.24

Answer: The meaning of this sūtra is to entrust it to ordinary beings so as to awaken them and cause them to enter this Dharma gate, thereby causing them to be born into the Buddha's family, and have them pass on the teaching so that the Buddha-seed is not severed, thereby enabling ordinary beings to enter the true realm. If it were entrusted to the great bodhisattvas, ordinary beings would have no affinity, while the sages are already clear on their own. If there were no ordinary beings studying and practicing, the Buddha-seed within the path of ordinary beings would be severed, and this sūtra would be scattered and lost. For this reason, it is entrusted to ordinary beings to practice, and not entrusted to the previous great bodhisattvas who had long seen the path.

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新華嚴經論 — Classical Chinese