華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 3.4

3.4

The ten grounds are: first, the Ground of Joy; second, the Ground of Freedom from Defilement; third, the Ground of Luminous Radiance; fourth, the Ground of Blazing Radiance; fifth, the Ground Difficult to Conquer; sixth, the Ground of Manifestation; seventh, the Ground of Far-Reaching Practice; eighth, the Ground of Immovability; ninth, the Ground of Good Intelligence; tenth, the Ground of the Cloud of Dharma. Because they generate and support the Buddha's wisdom, they are called grounds; 'ground' means a stage. Now, these ten grounds subsume the Buddha's causal stage; the Ekayāna, Triyāna, śrāvakas, humans, and devas are all included within them, and they are contemplated by the people of the five vehicles. The stage of Samantabhadra's realization subsumes and employs the Buddha fruit, unimpeded and sovereign, exhausting all without exception. Why is this? Because the Dharma of the ten grounds is the very first gateway among those that gather sentient beings. The Dharma of the grounds is extremely profound and most difficult to discern; it is briefly distinguished in its demarcation according to the five vehicles. As for the five vehicles: humans, devas, and so forth form one, called the vehicle of humans and devas; śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas together form one, called the Hīnayāna; that for which the gradual teaching is intended forms one, called the vehicle of gradual enlightenment; that for which the sudden teaching is intended forms one, called the vehicle of sudden enlightenment; and the Ekayāna forms one, called the ultimate vehicle. Regarding the first, humans and devas, there are three ways of attaining buddhahood: first, to rescue those in the three miserable destinies, the Buddha manifests a body distinct from them, and outside of the three miserable destinies he immediately attains the Buddha-body, as when the Buddha manifests the foot of a black elephant, and so forth; second, to guide those in the human destiny, he presents himself in the body of a Buddha, as when the Buddha manifested the body of a tree spirit for the elder Trapuṣa; third, to guide humans and devas, he manifests his noble body for them, as when humans, devas, and others recognize that the Buddha is a noble one and make offerings, thereby accomplishing mundane merit. Second, regarding the two vehicles, there are seven meanings: first, in terms of grounds, outside of the nine grounds, ten grounds, eleven grounds, and so forth of the three realms, one immediately attains buddhahood; second, in terms of stages, outside of vision and cultivation, one immediately attains buddhahood; third, in terms of practice, departing from the stage of training, one immediately manifests buddhahood within the body of no-training; fourth, in terms of bodhisattva practices, outside of the thirty-three minds, one immediately attains buddhahood; fifth, in terms of time, outside of the sixty kalpas or three asaṃkhyeyas of the Hīnayāna, one immediately attains buddhahood; sixth, in terms of saṃsāra, upon the final body of samsaric death in portions, one immediately attains buddhahood; seventh, relying on the twelve abodes of the Hīnayāna, the twelfth, the supreme arhat abode, is identical to buddhahood. Third, regarding the teaching gate of initial turning of the mind, there are eight meanings: first, in terms of ground stages, in the ten grounds such as the ground of dry wisdom, one immediately attains buddhahood in the tenth ground—the reason it is said that one attains buddhahood equally in the ten grounds is that the Buddha descends to conform with the causal stages, which is why this is stated; second, in terms of the nine grounds of the three realms, outside of the eleventh ground and so on, one immediately attains buddhahood; third, in terms of stages, outside of vision and cultivation, one immediately attains buddhahood; fourth, in terms of practice, outside of the stage of training, identical to the non-training arhat stage, one immediately attains buddhahood; fifth, in terms of time, relying on the Mahāyāna, outside of the three asaṃkhyeyas, one immediately attains buddhahood; sixth, in terms of bodhisattva practice, outside of the thirty-three minds, one immediately attains buddhahood; seventh, in terms of non-discrimination, in a single thought of the principle of emptiness, one immediately attains buddhahood; eighth, in terms of saṃsāra, upon the final body of samsaric death in portions, one immediately attains buddhahood—this refers to the transformation body; if spoken of in terms of the recompense body, after the body of samsaric death in portions, one immediately attains buddhahood. Furthermore, regarding the direct progress stages of the initial teaching, there are seven gates: first, in terms of stages, from the stages of the ten faiths and so on up to the Ground of Joy and so on, after fulfilling the ten grounds, one immediately attains buddhahood—this is because the body of samsaric death in portions of the Buddha's realm is not the same as the body of samsaric death in portions of the bodhisattva grounds; second, also in terms of stages, from the Ground of Joy through the end of the ninth ground, in the tenth ground one immediately attains buddhahood without regress—this is also spoken of to address the lower stages of śrāvakas, attaining buddhahood in a lower body, which is why this is stated; third, in terms of principle, in a single thought of the non-discriminating emptiness of tathatā, one immediately attains buddhahood; fourth, in terms of a single thought realizing the fruit after the ten grounds, one immediately attains buddhahood; fifth, in terms of time, after the three asaṃkhyeyas of the Mahāyāna, one immediately attains buddhahood; sixth, in terms of practice, upon the ultimate non-training, one immediately attains buddhahood; seventh, in terms of the twelve abodes of the Mahāyāna, after the twelfth supreme bodhisattva abode, one immediately attains buddhahood. Furthermore, regarding the final teaching of the Mahāyāna, there are ten gates: first, in terms of stages, from the practices of the ten faiths up to the Ground of Joy and so forth, after the fulfillment of the ten grounds, one immediately attains buddhahood; second, from the first ground, the Ground of Joy and so forth, through the end of the ninth ground, in the tenth ground one immediately attains buddhahood, as is taught in the Brahmajāla Sūtra—this is spoken of in response to śrāvakas, realizing the fruit upon the body of an ordinary person, and this corresponds to attainment by manifestation, not actual attainment; third, in terms of stages, from the initial Ground of Joy to the third ground, these are mundane dharmas, sharing marks with the three realms; from the fourth ground onward to the seventh ground, they share marks with the outflow-free; attaining those outflow-free virtues of the three vehicles within a mundane body is called supramundane; from the eighth ground onward to the tenth ground is called trans-supramundane, and one immediately attains buddhahood—in the eighth ground one accomplishes the dharmakāya, in the ninth ground one accomplishes the saṃbhogakāya, and in the tenth ground one accomplishes the nirmāṇakāya; this is stated to distinguish the marks of the grounds among the ten grounds; fourth, attaining buddhahood in a single thought is stated in terms of non-discriminating tathatā; fifth, clarifying attaining buddhahood in a single thought in terms of realization, because of realizing in a single thought in the first ground; sixth, realizing the fruit in a single thought after the ten grounds is called attaining buddhahood in a single thought—all the above mentions of 'a single thought' mean no-thought; seventh, in terms of time, after the three asaṃkhyeyas of the Mahāyāna, one is a Buddha; eighth, in terms of practice, after the vajra-like mind, obtaining the omniscient cognition is being a Buddha; ninth, in terms of saṃsāra, after extinguishing the seven kinds of saṃsāra, one is a Buddha; tenth, relying on the *Mahāyāna-samāna-svabhāva-sūtra*, there are three kinds of ten grounds: the ten grounds of śrāvakas, the ten grounds of pratyekabuddhas, and the ten grounds of buddhas—this is stated to attract the Hīnayāna into conformity with the meaning of the final teaching of the Mahāyāna; the names of those ten grounds, and so forth, are fully as stated in the commentary. Furthermore, the differentiated marks of the ten grounds are extensively explained as in the 'Chapter on the Time of Cultivation' in the Liang translation of the *Mahāyānasaṃgraha*. Fourth, clarifying in terms of the sudden teaching, there is only one gate, namely signlessness. Why is this? Because it is accomplished through the samādhi of one practice, and because it is accomplished by vehicle of that single taste of tathatā, one cannot speak of having diverse gates of marks. Attaining buddhahood is also like this: being free from all of them is called a Buddha. Fifth, regarding the meaning of the Ekayāna: from the final mind of the ten faiths, up to the stages of the ten understandings, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the ten grounds, and the Buddha ground, in all of them one attains buddhahood. Furthermore, in the tenth ground one also distinctively attains buddhahood, as is taught in the section on the good spiritual friend Dharmaratnacūḍa. Why is this? Because the meaning of the Ekayāna is to lead the Triyāna, the Hīnayāna, and so on, to be able to attain buddhahood identically in the lower stages and within lower bodies. Furthermore, from the eighth ground onward, one immediately attains buddhahood, as in this stage one accomplishes the unimpeded Buddha, all bodies. This is stated according to the distinctive teaching. If stated according to the shared teaching, then it subsumes the principles clarified by the preceding four vehicles; all of them are the meaning of the Ekayāna. Although the texts are identical, their meanings are entirely distinct. Differentiated marks of such dharmas as these are stated in various ways according to expedient gates in order to protect the ten grounds, causing all sentient beings to be free from excessive pride regarding the ten grounds. Furthermore, relying on the six characteristics, the meaning of totality and distinction is the Ekayāna, while the meaning of distinct arrangement according to marks is the Triyāna; this is stated in terms of the division of teachings. In reality, the Dharma of the ten grounds of the Ekayāna completely permeates through the three times to the ultimate; this is stated according to realization. The remaining points are as in the separate chapter.