勸發菩提心集 3.54

3.54

[The *Yogācārabhūmi*], fascicle thirty-eight: How does one seek to hear the true Dharma? It means that bodhisattvas, toward well-spoken Dharma, should dwell in fierce fondness and veneration to seek to hear the true Dharma. Briefly explaining the characteristics of fierce fondness and veneration: if, in order to hear even a single well-spoken Dharma, the path lay across a great iron ground blazing with fierce flames, and there were no other means by which this well-spoken Dharma could be heard, bodhisattvas would immediately give rise to fierce fondness and veneration and enter with joy—how much more so if they wish to hear the meanings of many good words! Furthermore, when bodhisattvas compare all fondness and veneration for their own bodies and for all necessities of bodily support such as food and drink with their fondness and veneration for the Dharma, the former does not equal one hundredth part of the latter, nor even a single upaniṣad fraction. Bodhisattvas give rise to respect and veneration for well-spoken Dharma in this way, constantly delighting in hearing all well-spoken Dharma without fatigue and without satiation; their pure faith is deep and solid, their nature gentle and compliant, their minds upright and their views upright, because they cherish and revere virtue, and because they cherish and revere the Dharma. Abiding with the Dharma master, they have no intention of cross-examination or objection; they have respect and veneration, and no arrogance or pride. They act solely to seek goodness, not to display their own virtues; they wish to establish their own and others' wholesome roots, and not for the sake of material gain, reverence, or honour. Bodhisattvas endowed with such virtues go to the Dharma master with an undefiled mind and an undistracted mind to hear the true Dharma. What is an undefiled mind? It means that when listening, their mind is free from the defilement of haughtiness, free from the defilement of contempt, and free from the defilement of faintheartedness. By virtue of six marks they are free from the defilement of haughtiness: that is, when listening to the Dharma, they listen at the proper time, listen with solemn earnestness, listen with respect, not to harm, not to flatter, and not seeking faults. By virtue of four marks they are free from the defilement of contempt: when listening to the Dharma, they respect the true Dharma and respect the person (pudgala) who teaches the Dharma, not despising the true Dharma and not despising the teacher. Furthermore, when listening to the Dharma, they do not despise themselves; by virtue of this single mark they are free from the defilement of faintheartedness. What is hearing the true Dharma with an undistracted mind? It means by virtue of five marks: first, hearing the true Dharma with a mind seeking understanding; second, with a one-pointed mind; third, listening attentively with ears bent toward the sound; fourth, sweeping clean one's mind; fifth, collecting all of one's mind to hear the true Dharma. For what reason does one seek the Dharma? Bodhisattvas, when seeking inner learning (adhyātma-vidyā), do so to correctly cultivate the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma, and to broadly expound and clarify it to benefit and awaken others. When seeking the science of logic (hetu-vidyā), they do so wishing to know in accordance with reality that the treatises on logic composed by outsiders are faulty discourses, wishing to subdue all the divergent doctrines of others, wishing to make those who have not yet had pure faith in this true and noble teaching gain pure faith, and to redouble and expand [the faith of] those who already have pure faith. When seeking the science of linguistics (śabda-vidyā), they do so to cause sentient beings who have faith and delight in refined language to give rise to deep respect and faith toward the bodhisattva's person, wishing to comprehend the distinctions among glosses, phonetics, words, and phrases, and to expound with various classes of distinct sounds based upon a single meaning. When seeking the science of medicine (cikitsā-vidyā), they do so to quell the various illnesses of sentient beings, and wishing to benefit all the great assemblies. Bodhisattvas, when seeking the science of arts and crafts (śilpakarma-vidyā), do so to amass abundant wealth with little effort, for the sake of benefiting sentient beings, to give rise to the notion of the exceedingly wondrous in sentient beings, and to equally distribute [wealth] with skillful wisdom to benefit and gather in immeasurable sentient beings. Seeking these five sciences is in order to quickly bring to full completion the vast collection of wisdom for anuttarā samyaksambodhi.