阿差末菩薩經

Fascicle Five

A Sai Mat said:

“Venerable Sariputra! A bodhisattva’s supernormal knowledge of the thoughts of others is likewise inexhaustible. What is meant by knowing minds?

It is comprehending the past intentions, future thoughts, and present ideas of all beings. Moreover, because that bodhisattva knows that minds are like illusions, he admonishes beings at the appropriate time. He speaks of the consequences of actions and the paths of misfortune and blessing.

He knows that this person’s mind is gentle and will receive the recompense of wholesome virtue; that this person’s actions are middling and will receive a middling recompense; and that this person’s actions are inferior and will receive an inferior recompense. He knows that this person’s disposition delights in generosity; that this person delights in observing precepts, patience, diligence, single-mindedness, and wisdom; that this person’s disposition delights in loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; that this person’s disposition aspires to study the Mahayana; and that this person’s disposition delights in studying the vehicles of the sravakas and pratyekabuddhas.

He knows that the seeds originally planted in these persons’ natures are each different, and which medicine must be used to treat the roots of virtue of each. Because one has cultivated little merit, one is born in a lowly place. This person practices pure virtue, but his mind is not luminous.

This person’s mind is pure and his conduct undefiled. This person’s mind is pure and his conduct settled and clear. The bodhisattva knows all such distinctions.

“When beings lived in ages long past, their inward intentions differed and their practices were not the same. The bodhisattva teaches them the Dharma in accordance with their conduct. This is called knowing the thoughts of others.

He knows the aspirations that people will have in future lives. He knows that in a future life this person will receive such-and-such recompense through upholding the precepts, and likewise through generosity, patience, diligence, single-mindedness, and wisdom. Those who act according to worldly karma receive worldly consequences.

He knows that in a later life a certain person will study the Mahayana and receive such-and-such consequences from his conduct, rules of deportment, dignified bearing, and ritual observances. The movements, conduct, deportment, karma, and thoughts of future beings will differ from person to person. The bodhisattva thoroughly understands the fruits they will later receive from what they have planted.

Those whose dispositions and conduct are not mature will undergo all manner of inverted afflictions. Knowing their mental conduct, the bodhisattva liberates them and teaches them the Dharma according to their capacities as Dharma vessels. What he teaches is certain and free from confusion or error; he gives medicine according to the illness.

“When teaching the Dharma, the bodhisattva fixes his mind on nothing, yet clearly sees and comprehends the present thoughts of beings, discerning right and wrong with certainty and clarity. He knows that a certain person harbors greed and desire, that another is very prone to anger, and that another is narrow-minded, deluded, and dark. He knows that this person is free from desire, that this one is free from anger, and that another is dull-witted.

Understanding the thoughts of these beings through the defiled and unrestrained nature of their minds, he teaches them the Dharma in relation to those toilsome impurities and causes them all to gain understanding and comprehension. When the bodhisattva enters an assembly, he observes the roots of their minds, gives medicine according to their illnesses, and proclaims the teaching to each of them without obstruction.

“If people harbor uncertainty, their resolve is undecided, and they wander in delusion; if, though they advance and retreat, they remain oppressed by doubt, their wisdom is not luminous, their minds are confused, their actions evil, and the objects of their thoughts cannot be fully understood—the bodhisattva clearly understands their dispositions, cuts off defilements, removes obstructions, parts from impurities, and becomes pure, radiant, and manifestly luminous.

Accepting nothing and establishing nothing, he abandons faults and uses the light of Dharma to illuminate the mental conduct of all beings. He teaches them the Dharma according to the appropriate time for their entry into the teaching, causing them all to attain complete comprehension. This is the bodhisattva’s third deed: the inexhaustible supernormal knowledge of the thoughts of others.”

A Sai Mat said:

“The bodhisattva’s recollection and knowledge of the distant past is inexhaustible. Whatever he recollects, he clearly knows back to its very origin. All kinds of beings, through the blessing of the Tathagata’s sacred instruction, abide firmly in the dharma-dhatu.

Maturity is the one true nature, immovable and unmanifest, complete in meditative concentration, free from resentment and expectation, and abiding in truth as it really is. The bodhisattva knows fifty lives, a hundred lives, and a thousand lives. He recognizes events extending through hundreds of millions of years beyond reckoning, and the formation and destruction, gathering and dispersal, advance and decline of worlds through one kalpa, ten kalpas, a hundred kalpas, and a thousand kalpas.

He clearly knows names, clans, languages, food and drink, and the changes, suffering, and happiness throughout countless hundreds of thousands of millions upon millions of kalpas.

“The bodhisattva knows his own origins and sees the origins of all others. He knows the virtues and roots of goodness separately planted by beings from ancient times until now; the meritorious deeds established through the body; the dedication of merit toward the Buddha Way; and the illumination of beings’ minds so that they know their roots of goodness and are encouraged to arouse the aspiration for enlightenment. The suffering and happiness, security and danger of former lives have all passed in an instant and return to impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self.

Fools, deluded by form, rely upon power and wealth, become arrogant and unrestrained, indulge their disorderly retinues, pride themselves upon noble rank and authority, covet the offices of Sakra and Brahma, aspire to become one of the Four Heavenly Kings or a Wheel-Turning Sage King, delight in the destinations and final outcomes of the five paths of samsara, long to reach exalted stations within the realm of sensual desire, and rejoice in seeking imagined security for their own bodies.

“Relying upon these desires, the bodhisattva transforms and liberates others. When presenting the desirability of worldly status, he has them contemplate impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self. He comprehends the roots and branches of actions in past kalpas and knows that present phenomena have no fixed abode.

He would rather lose his life than commit an unrighteous deed. All roots of merit established in former times he dedicates fully to the Great Way. With his present roots of virtue he guides and restrains beings, causes them to abandon wrong conduct and karma, prevents the Three Jewels—the Buddha, Dharma, and Noble Sangha—from being severed, and arouses omniscience.

This is the fourth inexhaustible supernormal knowledge: the bodhisattva’s personal realization of knowledge of former lives.

“What is the bodhisattva’s supernormal power of miraculous flight? One whose supernormal knowledge has become inexhaustible examines his own mind, delights in diligently gathering the Dharma treasury, and through cultivating its practices can immediately achieve accomplishment. He always possesses self-mastery, constantly practices with certainty, manifests the four bases of supernormal power before him, and attains all supernormal abilities without exception.

That bodhisattva manifests miraculous powers through innumerable forms, displaying immeasurable awesome transformations. From one body he produces innumerable bodies, and he returns innumerable bodies to a single form. He flies swiftly in the space of a single thought.

Walls, ramparts, and the Iron Encircling Mountains do not obstruct him; he passes through them freely, like a bird flying through space. He sits in the sky as though seated upon the ground, and walks upon water as though walking on level earth. He enters and departs without obstruction, as though there were no gateways.

“With these miraculous powers, the bodhisattva observes people’s faculties and transforms them. For beings who can be instructed in this way, he manifests miraculous powers. He may display an incomparably handsome appearance; emit great light from his pores; or establish awesome spiritual power and assume forms corresponding to theirs in order to transform and liberate them.

Giving medicine according to the illness, he causes them all to be cured. He may manifest the form and appearance of a sravaka or pratyekabuddha in order to establish them in the teaching. He may manifest the body of a Buddha to transform them.

He may manifest the form and appearance of Brahma, Sakra, the four guardian kings, a Wheel-Turning Sage King, or all other kinds of forms to teach living beings. He may manifest the form and appearance of an animal according to what those people delight in, teach them the Dharma, and thereby nurture them.

“For those who are powerful and obdurate, harbor much poison, and are greatly prone to anger, he develops loving-kindness in accordance with what suits them. He may display great strength: the strength to subdue the four continents, the strength of half a hook-and-chain, or the strength of a complete hook-and-chain. The awesome power of these strengths is boundless and immeasurable. Mount Sumeru, the great king of mountains, is lofty and immense, measuring 3,360,000 miles in breadth and height above and below the sea, yet even that is not its equal. With a single finger the bodhisattva lifts such mountains and casts them into another Buddha-land as one would toss a fruit, without diminishing his strength in the slightest.

“Furthermore, this three-thousand-great-thousand world system is boundless in breadth and length, reaching downward to the limits of the earth and upward through the thirty-two heavens to the utmost heights above. The bodhisattva can lift it all and place it upon his right palm. Even if he supports it for that many kalpas, he does not grow weary. Establishing the power of miraculous transformation and displaying this noble wisdom, the bodhisattva, through the majestic virtue of this noble wisdom, attains whatever he wishes. He can lift the great ocean and cast it into the hollow of an ox’s hoofprint, yet the hoofprint is neither compressed nor filled to overflowing. He can transform the hollow of an ox’s hoofprint into a great ocean.

“If the kalpa fire should burn and heaven and earth be on the verge of destruction, the bodhisattva establishes his awesome spiritual power and transforms it into a great flood, turning the disaster by the sacred instruction of the Way into a calamity of water. If he then wishes to turn the water calamity into a fire calamity, it immediately accords with his thought. In brief, wherever he manifests, nothing obstructs him.

His transformations are illusory, and whether the Dharma is superior, middling, or inferior, everything is accomplished according to his wishes. No one can shake, alter, harm, or abolish it. Sakra, Brahma, Mara, the devas, and beings of other regions, when acting in accord with the Dharma, follow the teaching of the sutras.

Apart from the Buddhas’ inexhaustible majestic spiritual Way, no one among devas or humans can exert power to displace the bodhisattva’s virtue.

“With this awesome power, the bodhisattva displays such transformations for the people, joyfully works together with them, and widely proclaims the teachings of the sutras and the Way. Possessing these miraculous powers, his mind is steadfast and never retreats. He passes beyond the defiled dust of Mara’s domain and enters the domain of the Buddhas, where no one can trouble him. Whatever beings lack, he causes them to obtain in full. The roots of virtue created by the bodhisattva in former lives cannot be destroyed by the maras or their retinues. This is the bodhisattva’s miraculous power of transformation, the fifth inexhaustible supernormal knowledge.”

A Sai Mat again said to Sariputra:

“The essential meaning of the bodhisattva’s supernormal knowledge of the exhaustion of the outflows is that he does not abide in the conditioned and does not remain in the unconditioned. Through great loving-kindness, he does not create samsara; through great compassion, he does not abide in cessation. Wishing to perfect the virtue of the Way, he does not cling to beginning or end.

Wishing to manifest a Buddha-body, he does not abide in cessation. He cherishes all beings without becoming deluded by sensory desire; because he transforms and liberates beings throughout the ten directions, he does not grasp at cessation. He practices generosity, morality, patience, diligence, single-mindedness, and wisdom at the appropriate times without becoming deluded by the flowing outflows, and he practices skillful means without aspiring to the unconditioned.

Wishing to fulfill his original vows, his resolve and nature are pure, and he does not turn away from the wisdom of the Way or the skillful means of transforming beings.

“While dwelling in the five paths of samsara, he remains serene and lucid and does not delight in the unconditioned. His six supernormal knowledges are impartial and correct, yet he does not abandon the five paths, the six paramitas, the four immeasurable minds, the four means of embracing beings, the four kinds of eloquence, or the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. He treats birth, sickness, and death; brings that Buddha-land to completion; and purifies the three fields. He abides in neither existence nor nonexistence. He contemplates samsara, existence, and nonexistence as naturally equal, like empty space, neither advancing nor retreating. This is the bodhisattva’s sixth inexhaustible supernormal knowledge.”

A Sai Mat said:

“Venerable Sariputra! A bodhisattva-mahasattva has four inexhaustible practices of beneficence. What are the four? The first is generosity; the second, kind speech; the third, beneficial conduct; and the fourth, impartiality.

“Generosity has two aspects. The first is giving clothing, gold, silver, precious treasures, carts, horses, and attendants. The second is the gift of Dharma: widely bestowing the scriptures so that they circulate everywhere. Kind speech also has two aspects: when someone makes a request, giving freely according to that person’s wish; and when someone wishes to hear a sutra, teaching that person the Dharma. Beneficial conduct also has two aspects: perfecting one’s own practice and fulfilling the vows of others. Impartiality also has two aspects: establishing merit in accordance with one’s own thoughts; and, when people come seeking clothing, food, or anything else they lack, giving it to them and further encouraging them to abide in the work of the Way.

“Furthermore, generosity means rejoicing upon seeing a petitioner and giving to that person, one’s expression not changing but becoming all the more joyful. Kind speech means seeing petitioners and compassionately cherishing them like newborn children. Beneficial conduct means encouraging petitioners to abide serenely upon the ground of equality. Impartiality means that if anyone’s bodily actions, speech, and thoughts are all deficient and flawed, one instructs that person to guard these three in harmony and causes that person to enter the Mahayana.

“Furthermore, abandoning greed and jealousy is called generosity. Unceasing diligence is called kind speech. Benefiting others with a peaceful and gentle disposition, and afterward harboring no resentment, is called beneficial conduct. Encouraging others to enter the Mahayana without letting them fall into lesser aspirations is called impartiality.

“Furthermore, harmonious loving-kindness is called generosity. Arousing joy, forgiveness, and affectionate concern is called kind speech. Arousing great compassion, donning the armor of virtuous precepts, and patiently enduring every suffering for the sake of beings is called beneficial conduct. Nurturing and protecting all practices so they do not diminish, and encouraging omniscience, is called impartiality.

“Furthermore, being able to give the Dharma to those who seek it without the slightest stinginess is called generosity. Kind speech means that whatever one gives, one also uses the Dharma to transform the recipient and bring that person serenity. Beneficial conduct means vigorously promoting the transformation of the Way for oneself and others alike. Impartiality means arousing the aspiration for enlightenment and minds of penetrating wisdom for the sake of all beings.

“Furthermore, being able to relinquish all internal and external possessions without deluded thought is called generosity. Praising the merits of omniscience and not opposing teachers or spiritual friends is called kind speech. Relinquishing one’s own peace and bodily comfort while being mindful of others is called beneficial conduct. Gathering the essential practices even while dwelling amid suffering, diligently cultivating contemplative wisdom, attaining the Way and seeing it as plainly as an object in one’s palm, and then giving it to others without regret is called impartiality.

“What is the gift of Dharma? It is teaching others the Dharma one has heard. Kind speech means teaching without coveting clothing, food, work, or gain. Beneficial conduct means that when one teaches others to read and recite the scriptures, one instructs them at the appropriate time without ever growing weary. What is impartiality? It is never departing from the aspiration for omniscience and always following the Dharma’s instruction without regarding it as a hardship.

“What is generosity? Those who delight in the Dharma are not left without clothing, food, alms bowls, footwear, beds, bedding, or medicines for treating illness. Having received these things, they can give them to others they see in need. One then observes those people’s dispositions and immediately teaches them the Dharma so that they may obtain such provisions. Impartiality means increasing one’s giving to others, purifying the three fields, expecting no recompense, and dedicating it toward the mind of unsurpassed, right, true, and perfect enlightenment.

“Furthermore, among all gifts, the gift of Dharma is foremost and most honored. Having formed this contemplation, one then gives the Dharma. Kind speech means that one’s sincere heart reveals compassionate meaning. Beneficial conduct means reflecting upon the principles of the Way without accepting adornment. Impartiality means fully proclaiming the wisdom of the Way found in the Buddha-Dharma.

“Furthermore, generosity means completely perfecting all the boundless paramitas. Kind speech means perfecting the paramitas of morality and patience. Beneficial conduct means the boundless paramita of diligence, without falling into inversion, thoughts of retreat, or increasing faults. Impartiality means vast meditative contemplation and the boundless paramita of wisdom.

“Furthermore, generosity corresponds to the practice of a bodhisattva who has newly aroused the aspiration for enlightenment. Kind speech means reverently cultivating right conduct in accordance with the bodhisattva’s foundation. Beneficial conduct means accomplishing the Dharma teaching of a non-retrogressing bodhisattva. Impartiality refers to the vocation of a bodhisattva bound to only one more birth.

“Furthermore, generosity establishes the foundation of the Way. Kind speech may be compared to perfecting the Way’s teaching as a tree completes its shoot, trunk, branches, leaves, and crown. Beneficial conduct may be compared to the consummation of the Way, like luxuriantly blooming flowers spreading their rich fragrance. Impartiality is the ultimate work of the Way’s virtue, like flowers and fruit coming into season. These are called the bodhisattva’s four beneficences.”

A Sai Mat said:

“Venerable Sariputra! A bodhisattva-mahasattva also has four inexhaustible kinds of eloquence. What are the four? The first is eloquence concerning meaning; the second, eloquence concerning Dharma; the third, responsive eloquence; and the fourth, eloquence of expression.

“What is eloquence concerning meaning? It is understanding the true meaning of all dharmas; clearly knowing what one has attained; understanding the consequences revealed by wisdom; knowing with gentleness and not claiming merit for oneself; entering the wisdom of causes and conditions without damaging the dharma-dhatu; comprehending original purity; entering the groundless; penetrating original nonexistence; clearly abiding at the original limit, forever without boundary; understanding emptiness; practicing signlessness; dwelling in wishlessness; understanding that there is nothing to seek; establishing meritorious practices; clearly understanding all practices; entering the gate of the one wisdom; not asserting that there is a person;

seeing neither self nor ego, neither a recipient nor a life-principle; knowing the wisdom of the Way to be one; living by right and true wisdom; knowing the countless kalpas of the past; understanding the boundless meaning of the future; knowing every practice in the present; understanding that the five skandhas are like illusions, the four great elements like poisonous snakes, and the ayatanas like empty space; practicing inward quiescence without wandering outward; understanding that lands have no fixed realm; knowing that mind and thought are formless; knowing that conduct arrives nowhere; examining dispositions and clearly knowing the truth; discerning that suffering has no abode; creating nothing with respect to accumulated causes;

knowing complete cessation as the mark of what is naturally so; understanding and entering the paths, distinctions, destinations, phrases, meanings, and dharmas; penetrating all faculties; comprehending the five powers; establishing quiescence; and clearly discerning that all things are like illusions, plantain trees, mirages, images seen in dreams, echoes in mountains, and the moon in water—empty and unreal.

“By means of all these characteristics, he clearly understands the one characteristic. He knows that whatever gathers must disperse and that present joy will later become sorrow. He understands that the sravaka vehicle awakens through hearing the sound of the teaching; that the pratyekabuddha vehicle becomes quiescent through the twelve links of dependent origination and returns to unity; and that study of the Mahayana, through accumulating immeasurable roots of virtue, brings the Great Way to completion. This is called eloquence concerning meaning.

“Furthermore, eloquence concerning meaning points toward and takes refuge in meaning. All dharmas return to meaning, yet there is nowhere they return. Why is this? Because the destination of all dharmas is entirely empty. This is called meaning. All dharmas are without characteristics; penetrating this signlessness is called meaning. All dharmas are without aspiration; that wishlessness is meaning. All dharmas return to tranquility; that tranquility is called meaning. All dharmas are without person, recipient, or life-principle; precisely this absence of recipient and life-principle is called meaning. Distinguishing and understanding dharmas in this way is called eloquence concerning meaning.

“That bodhisattva teaches the Dharma as having no abode, yet speaks of an abode when necessary. His teaching is inexhaustible, and his eloquent exposition cannot be obstructed. The verbal teachings of all Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, encourage from afar his proclamation of noble wisdom. The ultimate truth does not differ, and the instruction is faultless. This is called eloquence concerning meaning.

“What is eloquence concerning Dharma? It is clearly understanding dharmas and, at the appropriate time, entering into their categories: wholesome and unwholesome, misfortune and blessing, the production of merit and offenses, with outflows and without outflows, worldly and world-transcending, suffering and happiness, danger and harm, defilement and anger. It is entering samsara as though entering nirvana and distinguishing karma, worldly conventions, and the dharma-dhatu. This is called eloquence concerning Dharma.

“Furthermore, eloquence concerning Dharma means understanding the attachments of craving and desire. If this person lusts after forms, the bodhisattva knows which medicine should be used to treat that person. He knows that this person’s lust is intense, that this person’s desire is powerful, that another has little desire, that this person can eliminate desire, and that another cannot.

He knows that one may experience desire now because of desire in the past; that one may cultivate the characteristics of desire in a future life; or that one may cultivate them in the present life. One person inwardly harbors desire but outwardly displays no affection. Another outwardly displays desire but inwardly has no affection.

Another has desire both inwardly and outwardly. One person, upon seeing another’s appearance, arouses sexual desire but remains unmoved upon hearing that person’s voice. Another arouses desire upon hearing the person’s voice but is not moved by the person’s appearance.

Another arouses sensual desire through both voice and form. Another arouses desire through fragrance, taste, touch, or mental objects. Yet another has no thoughts of form, sound, fragrance, taste, or touch.

Such are the activities of beings subject to desire.

“One must thus enter the habitual gate of desire. There are twenty-one thousand kinds of conduct rooted in desire, twenty-one thousand rooted in anger, twenty-one thousand rooted in delusion, and twenty-one thousand of equally mixed conduct. If one can clearly understand these eighty-four thousand kinds of conduct, one can transform beings at the appropriate time without loss. When beings do not enter wisdom, the bodhisattva guides them forward without causing them to lose their integrity. He knows whether their individual capacities as Dharma vessels are excellent or inferior and proclaims the Dharma without intimidating or coercing them. This is eloquence concerning Dharma.

“What is responsive eloquence? It is the ability to enter all voices and expressions: the voices of devas, humans, dragons, ghosts and spirits, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, humans and nonhumans. The bodhisattva can hear all the voices and speech of beings in the five paths, and he teaches the sutras and Dharma to the people in accordance with those sounds. This is called responsive eloquence. Teaching the Dharma in such accord is responsive eloquence.

“He clearly understands the scriptures, knows their written characters, and penetrates their meaning. In these categories, the bodhisattva understands one language, ten languages, and a hundred languages. He understands the languages of men and women, adults and children, and also knows the meanings and implications of past, future, and present writing. He understands a single character and knows the point of entry of two characters. He knows a solitary character without a companion and also understands two characters without a companion. This is called responsive eloquence.

“In accord with ultimate truth, his speech is flawless, lucid, distinct, and free from error. His words are subtle in intent yet complete in meaning. Everyone present is pleased, and no one harbors resentment. He proclaims profound meaning in sincere words, discusses it with elegant expression, examines his own mind, follows the Buddha’s teaching, observes the inclinations of beings’ dispositions, and responds with meanings suited to them, causing their minds to open and filling them with joy so that each obtains what is desired. This is called responsive eloquence.

“What is eloquence of expression? His speech is timely, his words are not confused, and he does not stop midway. No one can obstruct him or impede the meanings he expresses. When suddenly questioned, he responds skillfully as swiftly as the wind blows. His replies are not slow but accord exactly with the questions. He omits no relevant detail and does not oppose the questioner. His eloquence is free from contention, and his eloquent speech accords with the Dharma of ultimate truth. Established in the power of patience, he proclaims the profound and subtle, expounding all these meanings. His eloquence proceeds in sequence, never overstepping the order in which meanings arise.

“He distinguishes all the passages, phrases, and meanings concerning generosity, morality, patience, diligence, single-mindedness, and wisdom. He explains the bases of mindfulness, right efforts, bases of supernormal power, faculties, powers, factors of awakening, arousing the aspiration, attaining the Way, and contemplating quiescence. He comprehends all meditations, gates of liberation, samadhis, and right absorptions.

Entering noble wisdom, he analyzes the three vehicles and delights all beings. His words are gentle and free from error, and he never speaks harshly or maliciously. When encountering one whose meaning is improper, his mouth does not expose it, nor does his tongue confusedly teach evil speech.

His words are gentle, pure, and without fault; slow, deliberate, and clear; and not a single word is untrue.

“At the appropriate time, the matters and meanings conveyed become authoritative. He neither exposes nor divulges, but employs skillful means freely. His speech contains no contradictions, nor does he whisper furtive or concealed words.

His words are open and unconcealed. He raises his voice exceedingly high, yet his words remain stable, and nothing he says is mistaken. Noble and worthy assemblies praise him, and what they commend circulates to other lands.

His wondrous voice is like the voice of Brahma, and all who hear it understand. The words of his mouth do not contradict the Dharma teaching. The bodhisattva sees the roots of all beings and teaches them the Dharma according to their thoughts.

Those who hear the Dharma immediately follow it and impartially put an end to affliction, suffering, and distress. This is the bodhisattva’s inexhaustible eloquence of expression.”

A Sai Mat said:

“Venerable Sariputra! The bodhisattva’s eloquence also possesses four inexhaustible qualities. What are the four? First, he relies upon meaning and not upon cognition. Second, he relies upon wisdom and does not grasp what is known. Third, he relies upon the essential meaning of the sutras and is not deluded. Fourth, he takes refuge in the Dharma itself and does not rely upon a person.

“What is meaning, and what is cognition? Entering worldly dharmas is called cognition; entering world-transcending Dharma is called meaning. It is called cognition because of generosity, disciplining the mind, clear knowledge, and peacefulness.

It is called meaning because transformation and concentration are quiescent and tranquil, returning to noble wisdom. It is called cognition because one laments samsara yet does not become weary of its afflictions. It is called meaning because, although dwelling in samsara, one does not live in inversion and can transcend all the afflictions of beginning and end.

It is called cognition because one praises the merit of nirvana. It is called meaning because all dharmas are originally pure, and cessation is free from deluded thought. It is called cognition because one distinguishes teachings for beings according to their original vehicles.

It is called meaning because one enters the one Dharma-wisdom.

“It is called cognition because one can give away all possessions without cherishing anything. It is called meaning because one purifies the three fields and returns to the one Great Way. It is called cognition because one guards body, speech, and mind, studies all the precepts, and praises the virtue of contentment. It is called meaning because one guards body, speech, and mind and understands that what cannot be attained is entirely uncreated. This is called the morality that can purify.

“It is called cognition because, on seeing those who are haughty, conceited, arrogant, unrestrained, angry, and venomous, one teaches them the peaceful virtue of patience. It is called meaning because through cultivation one personally attains the patience regarding the non-arising of dharmas. It is called cognition because one diligently and earnestly pursues the meanings of all roots of virtue despite afflictions. It is called meaning because there is nothing to which one responds or does not respond, there is neither duality nor singularity, and one practices diligence without abiding anywhere.

“It is called cognition because one understands serene meditative contemplation, gates of liberation, samadhis, and right absorptions. It is called meaning because one clearly understands the concentration of complete cessation and its right absorption. It is called cognition because one can accept and retain everything heard as the source of the Way’s wisdom. It is called meaning because one contemplates wisdom as having no abode and as unattainable. It is called cognition because one proclaims the teaching of the thirty-seven factors of the Way. It is called meaning because one reverently practices and follows the Dharma of the Buddhas’ Way and, through its results, attains the fruit of the Way.

“It is called cognition because one analyzes the truth of suffering, the truth of its origin, the truth of its cessation, and the truth of the path. It is called meaning because one reaches quiescent cessation and realizes tranquility. It is called cognition because birth arises through conditions extending from ignorance to aging, sickness, and death. It is called meaning because through the cessation of ignorance, aging, sickness, and death also cease, yet nothing is permanently eliminated. It is called cognition because one teaches contemplation of the foundation of quiescence and the origin to which things return. It is called meaning because through luminous wisdom one attains liberation and reaches subtle wisdom.

“It is called cognition because one understands that lust, anger, and delusion are equal in character and originally cannot be separately distinguished. It is called meaning because one has forever eliminated all evils and perceptions and no longer conceives or harbors resentment. It is called cognition because one is liberated from the obstructive afflictions of all dharmas, skandhas, and hindrances. It is called meaning because one enters the unobstructed gate of wisdom and liberation.

“It is called cognition because one praises the immeasurable merit of the Three Jewels. It is called meaning because one has departed from greed, does not unite with desire, and proclaims their merit. It is called cognition when a bodhisattva, from the moment of first arousing the aspiration, constantly praises the excellence of enlightening beings and the names of all precepts. It is called meaning because in a single instant of thought one can clearly understand and immediately perfect all compassionate wisdom. In brief, being able to expound all eighty-four thousand categories of the Dharma treasury is called cognition. Penetrating the unattainable meaning, which has no abode, within the words and all that is cognized is called meaning.

“What is wisdom, and what is cognition? Abiding in cognition involves four things. First, cognition abides in form, with the mind dwelling therein. Second, the mind dwells therein while harboring deluded thoughts bound by attachment. Third, living in samsara, cognition abides in revolving recurrence. Fourth, cognition is first deluded and cannot uproot itself. These are the four.

“What is wisdom? When cognition does not abide upon the ground of the five skandhas and cuts off the skandhas and hindrances—form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness—that is called wisdom. Furthermore, it is called cognition because it understands the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. If the activity of cognition does not abide in those four, does not run about, and does not damage the dharma-dhatu, that is called wisdom.

“Furthermore, it is called cognition because of the eye and forms, ear and sounds, nose and fragrances, tongue and tastes, body and tangible objects, and mind and mental objects. If one clings to that knowing, it is called cognition. If one eliminates external objects, does not pursue them unrestrainedly, and, guided by wisdom, reaches all dharmas without hoping for anything, that is called wisdom.

“Cognition arises when there is dependence and attachment. Cognition also arises from perceptions, hopes, and excessive seeking. This is called cognition. If there is no acceptance, no expectation, no lingering recollection in the mind, no delight, and no resolve that seeks recompense, that is called wisdom. Practicing conditioned dharmas, one abides in cognition. Cultivating the unconditioned practice, cognition abides nowhere. Honoring the light of the unconditioned is called wisdom. If one abides in the arising of distinctions, it is called cognition. When neither arising nor cessation occurs and cognition abides nowhere, that is called wisdom.

“What is grasping the meaning of the sutras, and what is grasping? Earnestly seeking the scriptures for the people is called grasping. Attaining the fruit of the Way through the scriptures is called grasping the meaning. Accomplishing all practices through the scriptures is called grasping. Being able to distinguish the roots and branches of the scriptures is called grasping the meaning. Entering the scriptures and creating practices and karma is called grasping. Through the scriptures extinguishing both offenses and merit and forever eliminating defilements is called grasping the meaning.

“Extracting essential wisdom from the scriptures and teaching others about the karma of defilement is called grasping. Clearly distinguishing the pure passages and phrases of the scriptures is called grasping the meaning. Becoming weary of the afflictions of samsara and sorrowful and joyless through the scriptures is called grasping. Through the scriptures contemplating samsara and cessation without regarding them as two is called grasping the meaning.

“Merely proclaiming miscellaneous phrases and ornate teachings from the scriptures is called grasping. Delighting in the profound, abstruse, lofty, far-reaching, serene, and unconditioned meaning of the scriptures is called grasping the meaning. Conceiving and cognizing the countless thoughts of beings through the scriptures is called grasping. Consciously knowing through the scriptures that the mind arises nowhere is called grasping the meaning.

“If an orthodox scripture speaks of self and ego, person and life-principle, or a living being harboring thoughts of attainment, establishes unattainable hopes, and forcibly establishes root and branch, lord and ruler, even though whatever can be spoken has no master, that is called grasping. Through the scriptures understanding the emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness of dharmas; understanding that they do not arise or come into being, that they involve no practice; not asserting self, ego, or life-principle; and teaching the three gates of liberation is called grasping the meaning.

“What is Dharma, and what is a person? If the question is raised of the person from whom one practices the Dharma, that is called a person. If, with regard to a person, one does not abandon the various dharmas but abides in their realm, that is called grasping the Dharma. Furthermore, ‘person’ refers to the nature and conduct of ordinary beings; common worldlings are called persons. Yet among ordinary beings there are those who honor the meaning taught by true persons, cultivate with wholehearted faith, uphold the scriptures, and accord with the person of the eighth stage, the person of the great fruition, the stream-enterer; the once-returner; the non-returner; the unattached one, the arhat; the pratyekabuddha; and the bodhisattva.

“Furthermore, one person appears in the world with great compassion and brings great peace and welfare, kindly cherishing the three realms. Devas, humans, and those in the three evil paths all receive his deliverance. He is called the Tathagata. The Tathagata, the Right and True One, brings peace and welfare to all, reveals the path, and teaches the people so that they enter the meaning of the Way.

“If people rely upon and cling to seeking, they have no protection. Wishing to transform these deluded people, one tells them that they should take refuge in the Dharma and not rely upon a person. Regarding the Dharma, there is no creation, no sameness, neither action nor nonaction. It abides in non-abiding and has no foundation. Its universal equality is equal in right truth and equal in wrong action. Because the wrong is equal to the right and the right equal to the wrong, wrong and right are nondual. There is nothing hoped for and no practice whatsoever. Within all dharmas, one attains what is naturally so. Its ultimate characteristic is like empty space. This is called Dharma.

“Opening and guiding the path of the Dharma, one does not conceive of it as a favor or virtue. Entering the meaning of this Dharma gate, one sees that all dharmas are the Dharma of the Way. One masters all dharmas without becoming weary. This is the meaning of the bodhisattva’s four inexhaustible refuges of intention.”

THE SUTRA OF BODHISATTVA A SAI MAT

— End of Fascicle Five —