新華嚴經論 2

English (machine translation) 2

Language: English

Eighth, taking the protection of the true Dharma as the central tenet in the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra: This is because this sūtra sets up a jeweled hall above the desire realm and below the form realm, gathering all humans and devas. The devas, humans, Māras, and Brahmās of the two realms above and below, as well as the eight classes of ghosts, spirits, dragons, and the like, and bodhisattvas from other directions, all assemble at the jeweled hall. If there are ghosts, spirits, and the like who do not go, the Four Heavenly Kings release glowing iron wheels to pursue them and make them go to the Buddha's place, where the Tathāgata commands them all to protect the true Dharma. Among all the demon kings, there is only a single demon king who does not obey the Buddha's command, [saying]: 'Wait until all sentient beings have fully attained Buddhahood, and then I shall generate the bodhicitta.'

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Ninth, taking the elucidation of the Buddha nature as the central tenet in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra: It has ten kinds of difference and one kind of commonality with the Avataṃsaka. The ten kinds of difference are: first, difference in the place where the Dharma was taught; second, difference in the adornments of the realm; third, difference in the assembled multitude that came to the great gathering; fourth, difference in the host and companions of the wheel of Dharma set up; fifth, difference in the assembly that came hearing the Dharma; sixth, difference in the purity and defilement of the reward land; seventh, difference in the provisional and ultimate natures of the Buddha body; eighth, difference in the manifestations of appearance in the world and passing into extinction; ninth, difference in the characteristics of the revealed teachings and practices; tenth, difference in the norms of serving as spiritual companions from the beginning.

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The one kind of commonality: For instance, in the Snow Mountains there is a grass called 'Rich and Fertile'; if cows eat it, they yield pure ghee, without any blue, yellow, red, white, or black color.

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First, the difference in the place where the Dharma was taught: The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was taught between the twin śāla trees by the bank of the Hiraṇyavatī River in the kingdom of Kuśinagara, whereas the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was taught under the jeweled bodhi tree in the bodhimaṇḍa in the kingdom of Magadha; therefore it is said that there is a difference in the place where the Dharma was taught.

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Second, the difference in the adornments of the realm: When this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was spoken, the auspicious and blessed ground of the twin śāla trees measured thirty-two yojanas in length and breadth, filled by the great assembly without any empty space. At that time, the Bodhisattvas of Boundless Body from the four directions, along with their retinues, occupied seats [measuring] perhaps like the point of a needle or the tip of an awl; great bodhisattvas from as many Buddha-worlds throughout the ten directions as fine dust motes all gathered and assembled. Furthermore, the text says: 'At that time, through the Buddha's spiritual power, the great trichiliocosm became completely supple and soft, free of hills, ruins, sand, earth, gravel, stones, thorns, and poisonous weeds, adorned with various jewels, just like the Sukhāvatī world of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life in the west. At that time the great assembly all saw the Buddha-worlds throughout the ten directions as numerous as fine dust motes, just as one observes one's own body in a bright mirror; observing all the Buddha-lands was also like this.' Furthermore, the later text says that the twin śāla trees suddenly turned white, as extensively recounted in the sūtra.
When the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was spoken, there were ten oceans of worlds of the Lotus Treasury, with twenty tiers above and below. In the lowest tier, to speak briefly, there is a circumference of vast lands as numerous as the fine dust motes of ten Buddha-worlds, each land having as its retinue small lands as numerous as the fine dust motes of ten Buddha-kṣetras, multiplying progressively above. In these ten worlds of the Lotus Treasury, diamond forms the ground; trees, terraces, towers, pavilions, palaces, halls, ponds, and oceans are all adorned with various jewels, as the sūtra says: 'Thus have I heard: At one time the Buddha was in the country of Magadha, in the bodhimaṇḍa of the Dharma of the araṇya, having first attained true awakening. The ground was firm and made of diamond, adorned with supreme, wondrous jewel wheels, various jewel flowers, and pure maṇi gems, with boundless oceans of forms and appearances manifest. Thus down to all the adornments of all Buddha-lands across inconceivable kalpas were completely contained and manifest.' The text spanning two sheets in between is praise of all the adornments of the Buddha's realm. Furthermore, the later text of the 'Chapter on the Flower Treasury World' extensively describes such adornments; these are precisely the adornments of the Tathāgata's own true saṃbhoga[kāya], not a temporary transformation brought about through the Buddha's spiritual power to purify it for the sake of sentient beings as in this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Why is this so? Because the assembly that came for this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was a mixed assembly of the faculties of the three vehicles; if not sustained by the Buddha's spiritual power, they would lack the capacity to see it on their own. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the faculties of the One Vehicle are pure, without any mixed assembly. Because the śrāvakas had different faculties, even though present within that assembly, they did not see it from the beginning. Although the sūtra also mentions [manifestations] 'through the Buddha's spiritual power', the later text also states 'because the Dharma is naturally so.' Furthermore, as for the expression 'the Buddha's spiritual power': responding to the genuine is called 'spiritual'; unlike what is real, it is for ordinary persons that he adds [power] to let them see temporarily—this is named 'spiritual'. One should know that the adornments of the Lotus Treasury fundamentally illuminate the true saṃbhoga[kāya], whereas the spiritual power of the Mahāparinirvāṇa [Sūtra] is a temporary, provisional application. Moreover, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra places the Buddha's pure land in the west, beyond Buddha-lands as numerous as thirty-two sands of the Ganges, and not in this place; thus one clearly knows it is a transformation and not the real.

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Third, the difference in the assembled audiences that arrived: When this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was spoken, all the arriving assembly belonged to the lineage of humans and devas, and the multitude of the three vehicles all recollected the Tathāgata with eyes full of tears, carrying and presenting fragrant firewood, lamenting with sorrow and grief, longing for and relying upon the sun of the Buddha. Such an assembly was fit to hear the Buddha's extinction. Aside from the bodhisattvas of the One Vehicle who had entered the Buddha's wisdom and similar groups, the rest were all of this kind. The assembly that came to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra was entirely composed of bodhisattvas within the stage of the Buddha-fruit in the ocean of nature-wisdom, purely of the One Vehicle with no other kind. The humans, devas, and spirits all shared the same faculty, entering the stream of the Buddha's wisdom and possessing the Buddha's vision and knowledge. The bodhisattvas as numerous as the fine dust motes of ten Buddha-worlds in the initial assembly were all born from the ocean of the Tathāgata's roots of goodness. The ocean of roots of goodness is precisely the ocean of wisdom of the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, born of great wisdom; all Buddhas are born taking the fundamental wisdom of the dharmakāya as their foundation. Were it not so, all doors of practice would pertain entirely to the conditioned. Such an assembly, from the initial resolve, enters the ocean of the Buddha's wisdom; taking residence, they cultivate the six stages of the ten faiths, ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications of merit, ten grounds, and virtual awakening, with shallow and deep practices differing from one another. The Mahāparinirvāṇa [Sūtra] embraces the three vehicles alike, and the good seeds among humans and devas arrive together at the assembly. The multitude of the three vehicles in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra does not partake in that assembly; even if present within the assembly, they are like the deaf who do not hear. One should know that the Mahāparinirvāṇa [Sūtra] gathers the three vehicles, bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, humans, and devas; unlike the Avataṃsaka, here are bodhisattvas in the stages of the One Vehicle, whose stage of initial resolve is equal to the Buddha stage, who enter the stream of the Buddha's wisdom, share the Buddha's vision and knowledge, and are true children of the Buddha.

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Fourth, the difference in the hosts and companions who established the wheel of the Dharma: The leaders of the entreaty in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra are precisely Bodhisattva Kāśyapa, Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, Bodhisattva Siṃhanāda, Śāriputra, and so forth, who serve as the leaders of the entreaty for the standard of the Dharma. The demon king Pāpīyas entreated the Tathāgata to enter nirvāṇa. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the leaders who established the Dharma are precisely Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, Bodhiśīrṣa, Dharmamati, Guṇavanamālā, Vajradhvaja, Vajragarbha, and so on—such great bodhisattvas within the stage of the Buddha-fruit as the ten leaders, ten matis, ten vanas, ten dhvajas, and ten garphas—because they establish the practices and Dharma doors of the Buddha-fruit across the five stages, and through these stages illuminate that there is the Buddha-fruit within each and every stage. Therefore, as in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, all the bodhisattvas who establish the Dharma standards and engage in dialogues are assemblies of bodhisattvas from this land and the ten directions; all of them spiritually penetrate the true source and their wisdom equals the dharmadhātu. Manifesting in response throughout the ten directions, they arrive without coming and reach without going; this is an arrangement conforming to the nature of phenomena, not brought about by coming and going. Within a tiny dust mote there are boundless clouds of bodies; within a fine hair there are manifest oceans of inconceivable forms; it is like this throughout the dharmadhātu of the ten directions. In all places they suddenly exist, coming from nowhere; suddenly they cease, going nowhere. At all places and at all times, in the bodies, forms, and realms of sentient beings, in mountains, rivers, great oceans, and the empty space of the ten directions, they manifest bodily forms, free in existence and non-existence, endless and layer upon layer—they are all such great bodhisattvas. Therefore, they are not like Bodhisattva Kāśyapa and the śrāvaka Śāriputra in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, who were born in human households and appeared identical to ordinary stages, leading that lineage of the three vehicles, who felt grief upon seeing the Buddha's nirvāṇa and gathered with eyes streaming with tears.

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Fifth, the difference in the hearing of the Dharma by the arriving assembly: This Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was for the śrāvakas and the provisional bodhisattvas of the two vehicles who cultivated various contemplative practices but had not yet abandoned the obstacle of attachment, being attached to various practices and clinging to the forms of practice, confused with regard to these forms of practice about the uncreated dharmakāya and the original self-nature that is without realization and without cultivation. Taking practice and cultivation as arising, and cultivation as manifesting establishment, they posited subject and object in realizing bodhi and nirvāṇa. Because of these faculties, the Tathāgata spoke in this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra: 'All conditioned phenomena are impermanent; they are the phenomena of arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing have ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.' Because the good practices performed and the bodhi that can be realized are phenomena of arising, and the realized nirvāṇa is a phenomenon of ceasing, the mind already preserves subject and object, and arising and ceasing never rest. Because arising and ceasing never rest, one is obstructed from the true principle. Now, in this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, he therefore spoke of all practices, and that both the bodhi that can realize and the nirvāṇa that is realized are extinguished, only then conforming to the true principle; hence: 'All conditioned phenomena are impermanent; they are the phenomena of arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing have ceased, tranquil extinction is bliss.' Therefore, the Tathāgata hid his body and did not appear, and when all minds of subject and object were exhausted, it was named Great Nirvāṇa. The nirvāṇa of the two vehicles can admit subject and object, cultivation and realization; therefore it is named conditioned undefiled [dharmas]. Therefore, the Tathāgata's nirvāṇa has no subject or object. For this reason, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Cunda said to Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: 'Do not say that the Tathāgata is the same as conditioned phenomena. Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, do you speak knowing or speak not knowing, when you say that the Tathāgata is the same as conditioned phenomena? If you say that the Tathāgata is the same as conditioned phenomena, then he cannot be called the sovereign King of the Dharma among humans and devas within the three realms.' Therefore, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra causes those of the three vehicles to know that all practices, the bodhi that can realize, and the realized nirvāṇa are all impermanent; that which arises originally does not exist, and one does not realize various extinctions; being without practice and without cultivation is named Great Nirvāṇa, and this is called perfect tranquility. Therefore, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra causes those of the three vehicles who delight in and cling to practice to abandon practice and cultivation, and causes those who have realization to practice without realization and without cultivation.
As for the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, all the assemblies coming from other regions, as well as the humans and devas of this land who partake in the stages of that assembly, from the initial resolve penetrate the sovereignty of principle and phenomena and the non-obstruction of principle and practice. Mañjuśrī is principle and Samantabhadra is practice, sealed simultaneously and suddenly, like a seal stamping clay. Sealed simultaneously and suddenly, there is no before, after, middle, and so on; all rely on the fundamental Dharma, naturally fitting in this way. If one preserves beginning, end, cause, effect, before, and after, these are all ordinary sentiments, all arising and ceasing, with formation and destruction, all breaking attachments according with faculties, and failing to reveal the authentic lineage of achieving buddhahood. When the doorways of induction in the various teachings enter the Avataṃsaka's ocean of the fruit of principle and wisdom, only then are they properly matched. The teaching is clear and distinct, like a mirror before us; one should peruse the sūtra text, let contemplative wisdom illuminate accordingly, and suddenly attain great awakening. The sun of wisdom parts the clouds; one immediately ascends the Wondrous Peak and suddenly enters the ocean of wisdom; the two views of the ordinary and the holy are washed away by the water of samādhi; the two gates of compassion and wisdom are manifest through the dharmakāya. This Avataṃsaka Sūtra is spoken directly for those of the highest, great minds, like conferring a treasured throne directly upon an ordinary person, or like a thousand-year dream at night vanishing upon awakening. As the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra states: 'In the Snow Mountains there is a grass called Feini; if cows eat it, they yield pure ghee, without blue, yellow, red, white, or black colors.' Those of the highest, great minds are also like this: suddenly seeing the Buddha-nature, they immediately achieve true awakening, not arriving gradually from lesser stages. Therefore, we now say there is a difference in the hearing of the Dharma by the arriving assemblies, because the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra gathers the branches back to the essence, not yet discussing the unimpeded, simultaneous functioning of wisdom and compassion, the ultimate and the conventional.

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Sixth, the difference in the purity or defilement of the dwelling in the reward land: In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Buddha's reward land is indicated to be in the west; beyond Buddha-lands as numerous as thirty-two sands of the Ganges, there is Śākyamuni's reward land. Because the defilement and purity of provisional learners of the three vehicles had not yet been eliminated, they saw this Sahā world as defiled, evil, and impure; the Tathāgata thereupon provisionally indicated that the reward land was in the west. In the Dharma door of the ultimate teaching of the Avataṃsaka, this Sahā world itself is pure and undefiled, and the worlds of the ten directions are pure and flawless; because the defilement and purity of the bodhisattvas of the ultimate teaching have been exhausted, the realm is purely clean. For bodhisattvas of the provisional teaching, where there is no defilement or purity, they spontaneously produce defilement; hence he pointed to the reward land as being in the west.

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Seventh, the difference between the provisional and the ultimate in the Buddha's body: In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Tathāgata of the thirty-two marks is provisional, and the true principle of nirvāṇa's perfect tranquility is ultimate, because all the immeasurable adornments of the reward marks exist in reliance on the true. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, for Vairocana Buddha, principle and phenomena are non-dual; without destroying the dharmakāya, he accords with the boundless and inexhaustible ocean of marks; form is identical to nature, and the reward is identical to principle, sovereign and unobstructed like light and shadow. We have briefly clarified the provisional and ultimate for now; the extensive explanation awaits the text below.

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Eighth, the distinction in manifesting the marks of taking birth and passing into extinction: This Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, for the sake of humans, devas, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas of the two vehicles, sets forth the eight marks of attaining the Way, descending in spirit from the Tuṣita heaven to take birth and entering nirvāṇa. It also explains for the great vehicle bodhisattvas that [the Buddha] does not descend in spirit from the Tuṣita heaven into a mother's womb, explaining the permanent, blissful, self, and pure, without beginning or end, neither arising nor ceasing. Yet it temporarily conceals his body so that it does not appear, still relegating his saṃbhogakāya land to the west, where beyond thirty-two Ganges sands of Buddha-lands there is Śākyamuni's saṃbhogakāya land. Considering this Sahā [world] to be a nirmāṇakāya land and an impure realm, it employs this circumstantial distinction to attract those of provisional faculties. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is not like this: it directly reveals the fundamental body and fundamental Dharma, transcending sentiment and view, devoid of beginning or end, with the marks of the three periods of time severed. It is the Dharma-gate of the single, perfect, true saṃbhoga, neither arising nor ceasing, neither permanent nor annihilated, the ocean of fruition wherein nature and marks are unhindered and sovereign, directly conferred upon people of the highest of high faculties. The characteristics of the teaching and practice possess an impetus like this. It is unlike provisional learning, which is accomplished gradually according to sequence. It is just like ascending a peak of nine fathoms: one cannot obliterate one's tracks; one who treads the levels of a ten-tiered flight cannot dispense with their footprints. Seeing ordinary officials of the first rank, they are regarded merely as ministers. Hearing of a gentleman of old suddenly ascending the imperial throne, the bright jewel illuminates at once and sees universally without bounds; the moisture pours into the great ocean, drop by drop completely filled. The empty nature of a single dust mote is the undifferentiated dharmadhātu. Different classes of sentient beings forcibly give rise to attachments; because their capacities are unequal and the provisional and ultimate are different, on this account the teachings are manifold in their thousands of distinctions. One must know the provisional and ultimate, recognize the conventional and cultivate the real, and not remain long in provisional tenets while bewildered about the ultimate teaching.

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Ninth, the distinction in the characteristics of revealing teaching and practice: As in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the tenth-ground bodhisattva is spoken of in the "Chapter on the Tathāgata-Nature." Even a bodhisattva who has reached the rank of the tenth ground still does not clearly know and see the Buddha-nature. Thus, from the rank of the ten abodes after the ten faiths of an ordinary person, one sees a small portion of the Tathāgata-nature, establishing the ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications of merit, and ten grounds in descending grades to be cultivated gradually, and only in the stage of equal enlightenment does one clarify the fruition practice, while the rank of wondrous enlightenment is at last the Tathāgata. It also says that on the Snow Mountains there is a grass named "Rich and Glossy"; if cattle eat it, they produce pure sarpirmaṇḍa, without any colors of blue, yellow, red, white, or black. It likewise explains a teaching of sudden accomplishment. One should know that this sūtra still contains the lineages of Dharma-gates of the five vehicles, six vehicles, seven, eight, nine, and ten vehicles. Moreover, in this sūtra, besides the remaining śrāvaka vehicle and pratyekabuddha vehicle, there are three kinds of bodhisattva vehicles, which together with those two vehicles make five vehicles. Adding the five precepts and ten virtues of humans and devas, these become six vehicles and seven vehicles. Furthermore, when people of the three vehicles hear the same [teaching] and each attain [their own], mutually crossing over their own Dharmas, there are nine vehicles. What are the characteristics of those three kinds of bodhisattva vehicles? First is the vehicle of cultivating the Dharma-gate of selflessness. Second is the vehicle of gradually seeing Buddha-nature from the ten abodes to the ten grounds. Third is the vehicle like the Rich and Glossy grass of the Snow Mountains which, if eaten by cattle, produces pure sarpirmaṇḍa, not being formed gradually through milk, curd, raw butter, cooked butter, and so forth. In the "Chapter on the Tathāgata-Nature," it says: "Having seen their nature, the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas all spoke thus: 'How marvelous, World-Honoured One! We have transmigrated through boundless birth and death, constantly bewildered by selflessness.'" This is [the meaning of] the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra it says: "There are bodhisattvas who have cultivated the six pāramitās and attained the six supernormal powers for immeasurable kalpas, and who recite and are thoroughly versed in the eighty-four thousand treasuries of the Dharma, yet they still do not believe in this profound classic." This is an example of it. The supernormal powers they attain do not arise from the nature; because they cultivate manifold virtues, the contemplation of selflessness, and so forth, their retribution surpasses that of the devas. It is also like the people of Uttarakuru: having also cultivated the contemplation of selflessness in previous lives, their retribution is to be born in that land with a lifespan of a thousand years, where clothing and food come naturally, non-glutinous rice is seven inches long and cooked by fire-pearls, and wherever the aroma reaches, all come together to eat. Lacking the Buddha-Dharma, they do not attain liberation; all this is because their past practice and understanding were erroneous, thereby causing this fault, so that what they have attained can never be undone. Thus this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra universally gathers the distinctions of humans, devas, non-Buddhists, and the three vehicles, all of which ultimately return to the Buddha-nature, the true principle of nirvāṇa's tranquil extinction devoid of nature; but it has not yet revealed the marks of retribution as devoid of self and other, completely encompassing principle and phenomena with unhindered, manifold wisdom and function, and it still establishes distinctions such as self and other, pure and impure. Therefore it says that Śākyamuni's saṃbhogakāya land lies beyond thirty-two Ganges sands of lands to the west. Because their faculties are not yet fully receptive to the teaching, it guides them in accordance with their faculties. Those of the three vehicles have attachments, so it directly manifests the principle-gate of Buddha-nature, tranquil extinction, and suchness; it has not yet revealed the manifold marks of retribution, [for fear that] this would obstruct those with views of existence, who would then give rise to delusions and attachments, and thereby obstruct the dharmakāya. The Dharma-gate of the Buddha fruition after the tenth ground in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra is precisely the place seen at the initial mind of the ten abodes in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra; it is precisely the grass of the Snow Mountains named Rich and Glossy, which, if cattle eat it, produces pure sarpirmaṇḍa, without any colors of blue, yellow, red, white, or black. In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, when the bodhisattva of the ten abodes sees the Way with the initial mind, they suddenly see that self and other are without beginning or end, without past or present, fundamentally Buddha, and the nature and marks of body and mind are fundamentally born of Buddha. Using this Buddha-gate as liberation, they ride the Tathāgata vehicle straight to the bodhimaṇḍa. The youth Sudhana, the ten thousand nāgas, the six thousand monks, the five hundred upāsakas, the five hundred upāsikās, the five hundred boys, and the five hundred girls suddenly manifest the five stages, universally equalling the gate of principle and wisdom of the Buddha fruition: the first abode is itself the ten grounds, and the first abode is itself the Buddha stage. If the first abode were not itself the Buddha stage, it would be like worldly ministers who, from the initial ninth rank up to the first rank, can only be called ministers and cannot be called kings. One should know that the provisional teaching establishes the sequence of the five stages and various grounds, ascending them one by one until the completion of three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, yet one remains merely a bodhisattva and is not called a Buddha, nor is it called riding the Tathāgata vehicle straight to the bodhimaṇḍa. Merely cultivating the contemplation of selflessness, their compassion surpasses that of the two vehicles, yet not seeing the Buddha-nature, they are called bodhisattvas. If one has seen the nature in a small degree, one also attains the Buddha Vehicle, just as in a single drop of hair-tip size or even many drops from the great ocean, within each and every drop one completely obtains the great ocean. In this way, among the five stages of a bodhisattva, within each and every stage of the ten abodes and ten grounds there is the Buddha fruition, just like that single hair-tip drop of ocean water; because one practices manifold practices without departing from the Buddha-nature, one advances and cultivates by means of that Buddha-nature. As in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, it directly shows ordinary people the complete fruition of the Buddha, the immovable wisdom, and the ten wisdoms of the Tathāgatas for their faith and cultivation, just as an ordinary person might suddenly ascend the precious throne, personally holding the kingly position, fully knowledgeable of ministerial governance, encompassing all varieties of beings without exception. The Dharma-gate and characteristics of bodhisattva practice in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are likewise like this: from the initial resolution at the beginning of the ten abodes, one suddenly sees such a Tathāgata dharmakāya, the unconditioned fruition of wisdom of the Buddha-nature, and universally practices all the ten thousand practices of Samantabhadra, flowing with conditions without obstruction, all being unconditioned. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'The Buddha-nature is not something made; it is only covered by adventitious defilements.' Now, from the initial stage of the ten abodes, with the unconditioned samādhi the self-essence accords with the real, and adventitious defilements completely lack an essence. It is solely true essence and function, free from greed, anger, and delusion, spontaneously being Buddha. Therefore, corresponding in a single thought, one accomplishes Buddhahood in a single thought; corresponding in a single day, one accomplishes Buddhahood in a single day. Why should one need to cultivate gradually over kalpas? If one accumulates cultivation over many kalpas and reaches the fruition after three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, when will the view-obstruction of the mind dwelling on the measure of kalpas ever cease? The Dharma-gates of the Buddhas are fundamentally not subsumed by time; calculating time and establishing kalpas is not the Buddha Vehicle.

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Tenth, the distinction in paradigms from initial spiritual friendship: As in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, it is said that the Youth of the Snow Mountains resolved his mind upon meeting a rākṣasa, esteeming half a verse while holding life lightly, hearing: 'All conditioned things are impermanent; this is the law of arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing are extinguished, tranquil extinction is bliss.' It says that the Buddha-nature and nirvāṇa cannot be cultivated through practice, nor verified through mind. They cannot be cultivated through practice because practice is conditioned and impermanent. They cannot be verified through mind because there would be subject and object. Therefore, practice cannot cultivate its nature, and mind cannot verify its principle, because the mind is the nature, with no further subject and object. Therefore Cunda said: 'Do not say that the Tathāgata is identical to conditioned things.' As for the paradigm established by the youth Sudhana in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, from Mañjuśrī's generating the bodhicitta to the final Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the fifty-three kalyāṇamitras each and every one say: 'I have previously resolved upon anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. How should I learn the bodhisattva path and practice the bodhisattva conduct?' They do not speak of such matters as all conditioned things being impermanent. Why is this? Because this Avataṃsaka Sūtra clarifies that in the dharmadhātu gate of pratītyasamutpāda, principle and phenomena are non-dual; there is no condition that is not tranquil, no phenomenon that is not real. The one true nature-ocean of the ten directions of worlds is completely pervaded by great wisdom; because the realm of lands is entirely the nature-ocean and the one true dharmadhātu, it is not spoken according to karma as sentient or insentient. Because the purely real realm in the Avataṃsaka is entirely wisdom, the bodhisattvas of the ten abodes take insight as their land, the bodhisattvas of the ten practices take wisdom as their land, and the ten dedications of merit and ten grounds take the wondrous as their land, not speaking of the differential dual views of sentient and insentient. This is because the Avataṃsaka Sūtra reveals the fundamental Dharma, differing from the provisional teachings of the three vehicles. Insentient and sentient have arising and ceasing. Therefore, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the reason why the Youth of the Snow Mountains spoke of all conditioned things being impermanent is that because the faculties, lineages, and practices of the three vehicles are inferior, the Buddha had them soften and subdue their coarse evils through practice before they were fit to enter the Way. They then clung to practice as truly real regarding what was preached, obstructing the unconditioned nature and neglecting union with the true principle. For this reason, it speaks of all conditioned things being impermanent, and that which realizes and that which is realized are also dharmas of arising and ceasing. This is unlike Sudhana, who in a single thought of resolving the mind is suddenly devoid of subject and object, understands the nature of the three periods of time, with nature transcending past and present, and awakens for himself that his own mind is fundamentally Buddha, neither accomplishing correct enlightenment nor verifying bodhi. Nature and marks of body and mind lack any verifier or cultivator; neither formed nor destroyed, they are fundamentally thus. Moving and tranquil according to conditions, not destroying existence and non-existence, all the practices cultivated arise solely from wisdom. Therefore, it does not speak of all conditioned things being impermanent.

2.15

The first, that of being the same, is like the simile of the nourishing grass of the Snowy Mountains in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. It is also as stated in the 'Chapter on Bodhisattva Sarvaprabhāśi-rāja-samudgata': 'All sentient beings have the Buddha-nature; the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha are without difference. The nature and characteristics of the Three Jewels are permanence, bliss, self, and purity; all Buddhas never ultimately enter nirvāṇa.' The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'The Tathāgata does not appear in the world, nor does he pass into nirvāṇa.' Just as the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra rebukes the crooked views of the two vehicles—that the Buddha descending his spirit from the Tuṣita palace to abide in the womb, and the eight phases of achieving the Way, are all crooked views—this is precisely like the Avataṃsaka Sūtra where wisdom enters the three times without coming or going, and the Buddhas of the ten directions realize great bodhi through the nature that lacks past and present. When the Way is seen in a single thought, views of past and present are exhausted, and both new and old are utterly absent; one is entirely identical with the Buddhas of hundreds of millions of kalpas and ineffable kalpas past who realized Buddhahood in a single moment, and also with the Buddhas of future ineffable kalpas who realize Buddhahood in a single moment. Because through one's own realization one sees that the three times are devoid of time, by being devoid of time there is no coming or going. Even if sentient beings do not themselves see and know that their own body and mind are originally right awakening, the complete virtue of the right awakening of their own body and mind is originally without extinction. If there are sentient beings who themselves see and know that their own body and mind are originally right awakening, then with respect to their own right awakening there is originally no arising; because it is originally thus, there is originally neither one who awakens nor that which is awakened. If there is one who awakens, they still awaken in this manner, because originally there is neither one who awakens nor that which is awakened. Such an enlightened realm of the Buddha's original awakening is without ordinary person or noble, without meditation or distraction, without practice or realization, without wisdom or foolishness, without arising or ceasing. The provisional teachings of the three vehicles are spoken for the inferior to guide them to this real teaching of the Avataṃsaka, that they may suddenly receive the Buddha gate. Although the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra speaks of the principle of the Buddha-nature and dharmakāya as being identical with the Avataṃsaka, the saṃbhogakāya, Buddha body, marks, and the functioning of wisdom it describes are completely distinct, as should be understood in accordance with the preceding ten gates. Just as with the two corpuses of teachings of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Mahāparinirvāṇa, though set forth by transformation buddhas, both intend to lead those of the two vehicles and of human and heavenly kind to accomplish the teaching of the One Vehicle. Therefore, because the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra shatters the distant attachments of the three vehicles, it causes the dragon girl, through her fundamental Dharma, to attain bodhi in the span of a kṣaṇa. Because the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra shatters the view that icchantikas lack Buddha-nature, it causes the butcher Guang'e to achieve right awakening within the Bhadrakalpa. Furthermore, if a cow eats the nourishing grass of the Snowy Mountains, it yields pure ghee; without going through milk and butter, it directly becomes the wondrous medicine, immediately and suddenly without alteration of essence, just like the fruit attained by that dragon girl. The general import and momentum of these two corpuses of teachings, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Mahāparinirvāṇa, are both to make the three vehicles abandon the provisional and enter the real, accomplishing the one true and real gate of the dharmadhātu. All the other teachings are provisional explanations; even if they discuss principle and phenomena, they treat it only in small part, and the ceremonial and practical forms therein cannot be fully complete. Only the Avataṃsaka is the fundamental Buddha gate of Vairocana's dharmadhātu, perfectly and completely equipped with principle and phenomena, nature and characteristics, to which all other gradual practices ultimately return. At times students linger along the way, and those who are bound to the provisional teachings take many kalpas to transform their disposition; the inferior and foolish bring difficulty upon themselves, and it is not the holy intention that brings about such an outcome.

2.16

Question: In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, regarding the butcher Guang'e achieving right awakening within the Bhadrakalpa: as the Buddha stated, one thousand Buddhas appear in the world within the Bhadrakalpa, and this fixed number has explicit scriptural citations. If Guang'e is added as one more person, the number of one thousand is exceeded; how can there be another realization of Buddhahood within this count?

2.17

Answer: For those of the provisional study of the three vehicles whose attachments have not yet perished, there cannot be another realization. When one reaches the realization of the essence where the three times and all kalpas are exhausted, all Buddhas simultaneously and together achieve right awakening; originally there is no before or after, and no obstruction, because the fundamental essence of phenomena has no time. The delusions of ordinary consciousness form attachments across time, falsely generating concepts of time and seeing the Buddha appearing in the world within the net of false views; yet in reality the Buddhas, in accord with truth and union with the source, have neither appearance nor disappearance. Therefore the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'All Buddhas do not appear in the world, nor do they pass into nirvāṇa.' The Buddhas merely accord in their own essence with truth, are spontaneously quiescent in nature, arise dependently according to nature, and manifest physical bodies in response, being without coming or going and without fabrication.

2.18

Tenth, the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra takes the fundamental Buddha Vehicle named in this sūtra as its central doctrine, and also takes the unimpeded pratītyasamutpāda and freedom of principle and phenomena of the dharmadhātu, with causes perfected and fruits fulfilled, as its central doctrine. Because this sūtra is named the Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, it likewise takes the Buddha Vehicle as its central doctrine. This sūtra expounds the virtues of the fruit of Vairocana's essential wisdom and compassion, universally revealing them to sentient beings, so as to cause sentient beings of great aspiration to have faith in the Buddha's fruit virtues and use them to establish the causal stages. Having given rise to faith, they then cultivate the fruit virtues of the ten thousand practices of principle and wisdom and great compassion, using them to achieve initial realization. At the time of first giving rise to the mind, one immediately achieves right awakening, cultivating both principle and practice so that essence and function are free, not clinging to a single principle, and not practicing in isolation so as to foster one-sided views. This sūtra possesses ten kinds of profound, vast, and incomparable dharmas that distinguish it from all other sūtras.

2.19

First is the fundamental principle, wisdom, and great compassion of the essence of all Buddhas. It is the limitless vehicle complete throughout the dharmadhātu; because it is not a provisional establishment of the three vehicles, it is profound, vast, and incomparable.

2.20

Second, the Buddha body is adorned by the ocean of limitless marks of the dharmakāya and saṃbhogakāya's original essence. Each and every pore contains the dharmadhātu, and all realms are multifold and inexhaustible, profound, vast, and incomparable.

2.21

Third, this sūtra expounds the fundamental reward lands of all Buddhas, the oceans of the ten Lotus Treasury World Systems. The lowest world of each and every Lotus Treasury has vast lands as numerous as the dust motes of ten Buddha worlds, purely adorned; and each vast land is surrounded by retinues of small lands as numerous as the dust motes of ten Buddha worlds, multiplying progressively above. Each and every Lotus Treasury World fills empty space, mutually penetrating in multifold inexhaustibility, profound, vast, and incomparable.

2.22

Fourth, this sūtra speaks of a bodhi tree that is lofty, conspicuous, and extraordinary: vajra forms its trunk, lapis lazuli its stem, various wondrous gems its branches, and precious blossoms of varied colors and mani jewels its fruit, alternating with the flowers. It surpasses the bodhi tree manifested in the body of the Bodhisattva Vajragarbha, its trunk measuring one hundred and three thousand great trichiliocosms in circumference and one million and three thousand great trichiliocosms in height, its branches matching the tree in breadth and narrowness, vast and incomparable.

2.23

Fifth, this sūtra speaks of the Universal Light Palace containing the dharmadhātu, adorned with many wondrous jewels, its lights and reflections multifold; the multifold jeweled pavilions, terraces, kiosks, and stairways are adorned, all shining and penetrating with light, pervading the dharmadhātu, vast and incomparable.

2.24

Sixth, this sūtra has Mañjuśrī present in all places and Samantabhadra present in all places, their essence and function mutually penetrating and filling the dharmadhātu, principle and phenomena unimpeded, and within a minute dust mote an inexhaustible ocean of practices, profound, vast, and incomparable.

2.25

Seventh, this sūtra has the Tathāgata descending his spirit from the Tuṣita heaven into the mother's womb in an instant, achieving Buddhahood, expounding the Dharma, and upon completing transformations entering nirvāṇa, yet without setting aside the saṃbhogakāya's constant abiding. Oceans of assemblies of bodhisattvas fill the ten directions, their clouds of inexhaustible bodies all of pure golden color, their eyes and hair dark blue, their bodily colors and radiances mutually illuminating. Such oceans of assemblies are all coextensive with the dharmadhātu, continuous throughout the ten directions without the slightest empty or vacant space; their essences penetrate and mutually enter, forms and images multifold without obstruction or hindrance, manifesting physical bodies in response according to what is fitting and capable, causing sentient beings to give rise to the bodhi mind without missing the proper time. Such oceans of assemblies are all vast and incomparable.

2.26

Eighth, in this sūtra, if sentient beings of great aspiration give rise to deep faith in this Dharma gate, do not read other sūtras, deeply understand essence and function, and use small expedient means, they swiftly attain bodhi. At the time of first giving rise to the mind, at the head of the ten abodes, their stage is equal to the Buddha fruit. As stated in the 'Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata': 'Suppose a bodhisattva practices the six pāramitās and cultivates the various factors of bodhi for limitless hundreds of thousands of nayutas of kalpas; if they have not heard this inconceivable Dharma gate of the Tathāgata's great awe-inspiring virtue, or having heard it do not believe, understand, accord with, or enter it, they are called a nominal bodhisattva, because they cannot be born into the house of the Tathāgata. If they hear this Dharma gate of the Tathāgata's limitless, inconceivable, unimpeded wisdom, and having heard it believe, understand, accord with, and awaken to enter it, one should know that this person is born into the house of the Tathāgata, according with all realms of the Tathāgata.' It also states below: 'Sons of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva-mahāsattva accomplishes such merit, with little effort they attain the unprompted, spontaneous wisdom without a teacher.' Bodhisattva Samantabhadra said: 'Those who see the Buddha and hear the Dharma without giving rise to faith also form the wisdom-seed of liberation.' Through similes such as consuming a tiny piece of vajra, it is expounded at length as in the sūtra. This sūtra possesses such inconceivable Dharma gates of great awe-inspiring virtue, surpassing the three vehicles, vast and incomparable.

2.27

Ninth, this sūtra has the exemplar of the Dharma, the youth Sudhana, who without leaving a single thought traverses an entire lifetime, and without leaving a single place goes everywhere throughout the ten directions, visiting fifty-three kalyāṇamitras and obtaining the Dharma gates of one hundred and ten cities. The Dharma gates, arts, practices, bodily colors, appearances, and modes of gathering beings of each and every bodhisattva are all coextensive with the dharmadhātu, complete and inexhaustible. Through these vast gates of practice, without leaving a single lifetime he achieves right awakening, completely devoid of limits of beginning, end, before, or after, vast as the dharmadhātu and ultimate as empty space. Thus it is vast and incomparable.

2.28

Tenth, this sūtra has the ten Buddha realms, ten inexhaustible Dharma gates, ten wisdoms, ten grounds, ten bodies, ten eyes, ten ears, ten noses, ten eloquence faculties, ten jewels, ten mountain kings, ten dragon kings, ten lands of dust motes, and ten oceans, each possessing ten ineffable realms, with inexhaustible similes, its Dharma gates vast and incomparable.

2.29

Furthermore, this sūtra possesses ten kinds of virtues.

2.30

First, like the great ocean where all streams converge, and when all streams have entered, they immediately become vast, all sharing the ocean's virtues, this sūtra is also like this: if there are sentient beings who can give rise to faith and enter it, they become identical with the fruit virtues of the Tathāgata's ocean of nature and ocean of wisdom.

2.31

Second, just as all wells and springs in the world have the ocean as their essence, and whoever drinks from them attains the ocean's taste, of one essence without difference, though according to the power of their karma they do not perceive the salty taste, this sūtra is also like this: if sentient beings of great aspiration hear, retain, believe, and enter it, they directly attain the taste of the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, Buddha-nature, great compassion, and wisdom. Icchantikas have no capacity for it, yet the Tathāgata's wisdom-nature constantly acts as the cause of generation [for them].

2.32

Third, just as the great ocean has four precious pearls—the first named Accumulation of Treasures, the second named Inexhaustible Treasury, the third named Free from Blazing, and the fourth named Complete Adornment—and these four precious pearls cannot be seen by any ordinary persons, nāgas, or spirits, this sūtra is also like this: all those of the two vehicles and bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings who practice the six pāramitās but have not turned their minds cannot see it. Only sentient beings of great aspiration of the supreme Buddha Vehicle can see this sūtra and give rise to faith and enter it, seeing their own minds as the jewel of great wisdom identical with the Buddha's knowledge and vision. As stated in this 'Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata': 'How is it that these sentient beings possess the Tathāgata's wisdom, yet in foolishness and confusion do not know or see it? I shall instruct them with the noble path, causing them to forever leave behind false thoughts and attachments, and within their own bodies see the vast wisdom of the Tathāgata, no different from the Buddha.'

2.33

Fourth, just as in the great ocean all the dragons, fishes, and the like are together brought forth and born within the ocean, this sūtra is also like this: it can explain that within the ocean of the minds of all sentient beings, in a single thought-moment there are immeasurable Buddhas who arise in the ocean of sentient beings' minds, appear in the world, and attain equal and perfect awakening. As the 'Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata' in this sūtra states: 'Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should know that in his own mind, in thought-moment after thought-moment, there is always a Buddha attaining equal and perfect awakening. Why is this? Because the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, do not depart from this mind in attaining perfect awakening. Just as it is with one's own mind, so it is with the minds of all sentient beings.'

2.34

Fifth, just as the great ocean can receive great rain, so that immeasurable great rain pours into it at one time, yet the water and the ocean are both of the same ocean taste without before or after, this sūtra is also like this: for this sūtra explains that at the initial mind of the ten abodes, when one first arouses the mind [for bodhi], one straightaway attains perfect awakening, equally obtaining the single taste of all the Tathāgata's knowledge. The sūtra says: 'Through minor expedient means, one swiftly attains bodhi'—such persons as Sudhana, the dragon girl, and others are examples of this.

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新華嚴經論 — Classical Chinese