入楞伽經

Volume Nine

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: SUMMARY

I. At that time, the Blessed One, wishing to restate the profound meaning of this sutra, spoke these verses:

As in summer, birds and beasts,

Their minds deluded, see billowing waves;

The birds and beasts delight in water,

But that water is not truly real.

So too, the seeds of consciousness

See the realm of objects stirring;

Foolish sentient beings

See things as though their eyes were veiled.

Thought, that which is thought,

And the thinker are all transcended;

Seeing the Real Truth beyond discrimination,

One immediately realizes liberation.

Dharmas are not enduring;

They arise from false discrimination.

False discrimination is empty,

Yet discrimination arises in dependence upon it.

The five skandhas, consciousness, and all dharmas

Are like a tree’s reflection immersed in water,

Like illusions and dreams;

Within consciousness, make no distinctions.

Illusions arise, displaying contrivances;

Dreams, lightning, and clouds ever appear.

Sever the continuity of the three dharmas,

And sentient beings attain liberation.

Depending upon wrong thoughts concerning dharmas,

Consciousness therefore arises;

The eight or nine kinds of consciousness

Are like waves surging upon water.

Depending upon dharmas perfumed by habitual seeds,

The body is continually bound and firmly held;

The mind flows through the realm of objects,

As iron follows a lodestone.

Sentient beings arise in dependence,

Apart from all cognitions and true nature;

Far removed from all activities,

Apart from the knower and the knowable.

Practicing the samadhi of illusion,

One gives rise to the practices of the Ten Grounds.

Contemplate the mind as sovereign,

Apart from the characteristics of mind, objects, and consciousness;

Then you will know that the mind continually turns,

And will forthwith abide eternally, without change.

Abiding in the lotus palace,

Like the appearance of an illusory realm,

Having abided in that supreme place,

One attains mastery of all practices.

Like a mani jewel manifesting appearances,

One performs the karma of liberating sentient beings;

Neither the conditioned nor the unconditioned exists,

And discriminating thoughts are extinguished.

The ignorant and unwise employ them,

Like a barren woman dreaming of a child;

Quiescence and non-arising—

A person is but the continuity of the five skandhas.

All realms arising through causes and conditions

Are neither existent nor nonexistent;

By skillful means I expound them,

But no real characteristic is thus established.

The ignorant take them to be truly real,

Though there is neither a characterizer nor the characterized.

I comprehend all dharmas,

Yet nothing whatsoever is comprehended.

I possess omniscience,

Yet there is no omniscience;

Ignorant ordinary beings discriminate

And themselves speak of worldly knowledge.

I have never cognized anything,

Nor do I cause sentient beings to cognize.

All dharmas are mind-only,

Like circles of hair and the skandhas;

The characteristics of those circles are ultimately empty—

Where, then, can discrimination exist?

Things have never arisen from beginningless time,

Nor do they exist within conditions;

Like a barren woman’s child or a flower in the sky—

If one could see conditioned things as such,

Then one would be able to see;

Yet seeing dharmas through delusion, one abides in them.

I do not enter nirvana,

Nor do I extinguish the characteristics of karma.

When discriminating consciousness is extinguished,

This is the Buddha’s nirvana;

The characteristics of dharmas are not extinguished—

The ignorant falsely discriminate them.

As when turbulent water dries up,

No waves then arise;

The various consciousnesses are extinguished,

Extinguished so that they arise no more.

The characteristic of non-consciousness is also empty,

Originally unborn, like an illusion;

Existence and nonexistence are free from existence and nonexistence;

These dharmas are like a dream.

I teach one true Dharma,

Apart from all examination and reflection:

The wondrous realm of the noble ones,

Apart from the substance and characteristics of dual dharmas.

Like seeing the appearance of fireflies,

Manifold yet unreal;

Seeing the world of the four great elements

In its manifold forms is likewise so.

As, depending upon stones, grass, and trees,

Various illusory appearances are displayed,

Those illusory appearances are empty;

The substance of all dharmas is likewise so.

There is neither grasping nor anything grasped,

Neither liberation nor bondage;

Like an illusion, like a blazing fire,

Like a dream or a film before the eyes.

If one thus sees reality

And is free from the defilement of discrimination,

One immediately abides in suchness-samadhi

And beholds me without doubt.

Within this there is no mind or consciousness,

Like a flame or empty space;

Thus one knows all dharmas,

Yet does not know a single dharma.

Apart from the conditions of existence and nonexistence,

No dharmas arise;

The three realms delude the mind,

And therefore manifold appearances are seen.

Dreams and worldly dharmas—

These two are equal.

The visible and thought arise together,

As do all contacts and measures;

The worldly body is impermanent,

And the various forms are likewise so.

The Venerable One speaks of the world

And of deeds performed in this manner;

The seeds within the mind of the three realms,

Obscured by delusion, have not yet become manifest.

Know that the discriminated world

Is unreal in just this way.

Seeing the world in this manner,

One can transcend birth and death.

Arising and non-arising alike

Are seen by the practitioner of wisdom;

The wondrous realm of Akanishtha

Is free from the domain of evil practices.

Constantly practicing without discrimination,

Free from the mind that enumerates dharmas,

One attains mastery of spiritual powers

And reaches the domain of the samadhis.

There perfect enlightenment is attained;

Within it, transformation Buddhas are produced.

Dharmas are neither extinguished nor born;

Such is the substance of all dharmas.

Immeasurable hundreds of millions of responsive manifestations

Appear in the world within that substance.

When fools hear the Buddha’s principle,

It is like an inconceivable echo,

Far removed from beginning, middle, and end,

And free from the dharmas of existence and nonexistence.

Pervading all, unmoving and pure,

With no characteristics or manifested signs,

The nature of consciousness obscures the Dharma-body;

Everything exists within the body.

Delusion exists like an illusion,

Yet illusion is not the cause of delusion;

The dharma of delusion exists in the mind,

Yet it is not that nothing at all exists.

Depending upon the two dharmas that bind the mind,

Alaya consciousness arises;

Seeing in this way that all is merely mind,

My Dharma is like a torrent.

When one thus contemplates the world,

The various states of mind are then transformed;

Such a one is truly my child,

Having perfected the practice of the true Dharma.

Heat, moisture, fluidity, and solidity—

Fools discriminate these dharmas;

Though unreal, they continually conceive them to exist,

But there is neither a characterizer nor the characterized.

Eight kinds of things constitute one body;

There are bodily form and the faculties.

Fools discriminate that form exists,

And the net of delusion envelops the body.

Through the conjunction of causes and conditions,

The discriminations of fools arise;

Not knowing dharmas to be thus,

They revolve within the three realms.

Dharmas and words

Are the discriminations of sentient beings;

Yet all dharmas are empty,

Like illusions and dreams.

Contemplating dharmas in this way,

One abides neither in the world nor in nirvana.

The mind, containing various seeds,

Manifests the mind’s realm of objects.

Discrimination of the visible arises;

Fools delight in dual dharmas.

Ignorance, craving, and karma

Are causes of mind and mental dharmas.

Dharmas arise in dependence upon other-power;

Therefore they are called dharmas of other-power.

Depending upon discriminated things and dharmas,

The mind is deluded by the realm of objects;

Thus discrimination is not established,

Being deluded, false discrimination.

The mind is bound in dependence upon causes and conditions,

And therefore the various bodies arise;

If one is free from all causes and conditions,

I say that no dharma is seen.

Free from the causes and conditions of all dharmas,

Free from all characteristics of dharmas,

Dharmas do not abide within anything;

I say that no realm of objects is seen.

As an elder or a king

Might gather many kinds of birds and beasts

Together in a wilderness

To show them to his children,

So too do I display various appearances,

The manifold images of dharmas within a mirror;

Those endowed with inner wisdom are my children,

To whom I teach the Dharma of ultimate reality.

As waves rise upon the great ocean,

Born from the causal condition of wind,

They can arise and become manifest

Without interruption.

Alaya consciousness continually

Arises depending upon the wind of the realm of objects;

The manifold waves of consciousness upon the water

Surge forth and arise without cease.

The characteristics of the grasper and the grasped

Are seen in this way by sentient beings;

The characteristics of the visible do not exist,

Yet ordinary fools see them in this manner.

Alaya consciousness,

Manas, and mental consciousness—

When grasper and grasped have been transcended,

I explain their characteristics in this way.

Within the five skandhas there is no self,

No person and no sentient being;

Birth is the arising of the consciousnesses,

And death is the cessation of the consciousnesses.

As in a painting there appear high and low,

Yet no visible thing exists as such;

So too with the substance of all things:

Their characteristics are seen, yet do not exist.

Like a city of the gandharvas,

Or water desired by thirsty birds and beasts,

The “visible” is seen as described above,

But wisdom does not contemplate it thus.

Free from conception and the measurable,

It is neither effect nor cause;

Free from the cognizer and the cognized,

Free from the seer and the seen.

Cognition depends upon the skandhas as causes and conditions;

There is no person who sees the “visible.”

If the visible is not seen,

How can that Dharma be cultivated?

Conditions, causes, and analogies,

Propositions and causal reasoning;

Dreams, cities of the gandharvas, circles,

Flames, the sun and moon,

Light, illusions, clouds, and so forth—

By these I refute the arising of all dharmas.

Like dreams, illusions, and delusions

(Empty) “Emptiness” discriminates among sentient beings

Relying not upon the three realms,

Within and without are likewise empty.

Seeing that all modes of existence are unborn,

One then attains the patience of non-arising,

Attains the Illusion-like samadhi,

And also the wish-fulfilling body,

The various supernormal powers and masteries,

The powers, and all manner of mental dharmas.

All dharmas are originally unborn;

“Emptiness” has no defining characteristic of a dharma.

The deluded neither understand nor penetrate this,

And follow causes and conditions in arising and ceasing.

As the ignorant discriminate,

The mind perceives its own mind

And sees all manner of external characteristics,

Though truly there is no dharma that can be seen.

They see images of Buddhas and the characteristics of bones,

And the dissolution of the great elements.

Skillfully understanding what the mind can know,

They sustain the characteristics of the world.

The body is sustained by the necessities of life.

It selects among the three realms;

Consciousness selects the objects of consciousness;

Manas, consciousness, and discrimination are three.

The discriminator and the discriminated

Exist only in the realm of words;

The true Dharma cannot be seen,

And the deluded do not see that awakening.

All dharmas lack self-nature;

The wise awaken to this.

Only when practitioners act thus do they come to rest

And abide in the signless state.

Like a painted image of a chicken,

A fool insists, “That is my chicken.”

Thus foolish ordinary beings grasp

The three vehicles as being one.

There are not only shravakas,

Nor are there pratyekabuddhas;

The visible forms seen as shravakas,

And those seen as Buddhas,

And the greatly compassionate bodhisattvas,

Are manifested transformation bodies.

The three realms are mind-only,

Apart from the two kinds of essential characteristics.

When those characteristics are transformed,

That itself is Suchness.

Dharmas and the characteristics of human activity,

The radiance of the sun and moon, blazing fire,

And great mani jewels

Perform their functions without discrimination.

Thus is the Dharma of the Blessed One.

Like the blind grasping at circles of hair,

Thus do they discriminate dharmas—

The ignorant body of false delusion.

Free from arising, abiding, and ceasing,

And free from permanence and impermanence,

Abandoning the defilement and purity of “what can be seen,”

Like circles of hair in empty space.

As one intoxicated by henbane

Sees images upon the ground,

All forms appear to be gold,

Yet there is no gold therein.

So too, foolish people,

Whose minds have been defiled by dharmas since beginningless time,

See illusions and flames as arising and existing,

And fools take them to be real.

One seed and no seed;

The great ocean is a single seed,

And it is also immeasurable seeds—

Contemplate the seeds within the mind.

The single seed, being pure and clear,

Is transformed into seedlessness;

In equality there is no discrimination,

Yet when arising occurs, there is samsara.

It can produce all manner of offspring,

And therefore it is called a seed.

Causes and conditions do not produce dharmas;

Causes and conditions do not extinguish dharmas.

The arising of dharmas is only causes and conditions—

Thus does the mind discriminate.

The three realms are merely provisional names;

In truth, they have no substantial dharma.

Contemplate the true essence of all dharmas;

Delusion does not obstruct me.

The true essence does not produce dharmas;

Contemplating thus, one is immediately liberated.

I do not see illusion as nonexistent,

Nor say that all dharmas exist.

Inverted, like a sudden flash of lightning,

Therefore they are said to be like illusions.

Not originally arisen, yet appearing to arise,

All causes and conditions are without substance;

They have neither location nor essence,

And exist only in verbal expressions.

I do not deny conditioned arising and cessation,

Nor deny the conjunction of conditions;

I refute the views of the ignorant

Who discriminate arising from causes and conditions.

In truth, consciousness has no substantial dharma;

Phenomena and the fundamental consciousness are empty.

The ignorant give rise to discrimination,

Like a perverse thought concerning a corpse.

The three realms are mind-only;

When the Buddha’s children are able to see this,

They immediately attain bodies of every kind,

Apart from the fabrication of conditioned dharmas.

They attain powers, mastery, supernormal knowledge,

And the corresponding dharmas,

Manifesting all forms whatsoever.

Mental dharmas arise in this manner,

Yet there is neither mind nor form.

The mind has been deluded since beginningless time;

Then the practitioner

Comes to perceive the signless state.

Examining within wisdom,

One sees no sentient beings,

Only characteristics and conventionally named phenomena

That manas grasps as moving dharmas.

My children who have gone beyond

Practice without discrimination.

Illusions, cities of the gandharvas,

Circles of hair, and flames—

Though unreal, they are seen as real;

Such is the essence of all dharmas.

Seeing all dharmas as mind,

Their essential characteristics are likewise nonexistent.

All dharmas are unborn;

Only deluded dharmas are seen.

Those of the hair-path are deluded and discriminate

Because they abide in the two extremes.

The initial consciousness gives rise to discrimination,

Perfumed by all manner of seeds.

Consciousness surges like turbulent water;

When cut off, it does not arise.

If all manner of contemplated dharmas

Arise only within the mind,

Then, like empty space within a wall,

How could they fail to arise?

If there is even the slightest relation,

Then mind exists through conditions.

If it arises from causes and conditions,

It cannot be called mind-only.

Mind grasps its own mind;

There is no dharma and no cause that produces it.

The dharma-nature of mind is pure,

And no perfuming occurs within empty space.

It falsely grasps its own mind;

Therefore, mind does not arise.

External dharmas cannot be seen;

Therefore, I teach mind-only.

The fundamental consciousness is only mind;

Manas can recollect its objects

And can grasp all objects;

Therefore, I teach mind-only.

Mind is always an indeterminate dharma;

Manas selects characteristics and the two extremes;

Consciousness selects manifest dharmas—

These are wholesome and unwholesome.

Freedom from the two characteristics of consciousness

Is the gateway of the Ultimate Truth.

The distinctions among the three vehicles are taught,

But the characteristic of quiescence is empty.

If the mind abides in quiescence

And practices on the Buddha-ground,

This is the teaching of the Buddhas of the past,

And those of the present and future likewise.

The first through seventh grounds are mind;

The quiescent eighth ground,

The second ground, is the sphere of practice;

My Dharma is the remaining ground.

One’s own inner body is pure and clear;

That is my ground of mastery.

The ultimate place of mastery

Is manifested in Akanishtha.

Like flames, clouds, and so forth,

It sends forth radiance,

Creating all manner of delightful mental states

And transforming them within the three realms.

Or, prior to existence, it manifests transformations

And transforms itself into the three modes of existence.

There the Dharma is proclaimed;

That is my ground of mastery.

The grounds are beyond time;

The transformation of lands is likewise so.

Passing through those Dharma-grounds of mind,

One abides in the fruit of quiescence.

In truth, nothing can be called truly real,

Yet all manner of things are perceived.

Fools grasp invertedly;

These are the many kinds of inversion.

Just as wisdom is without discrimination,

Phenomena do not correspond to it.

Form is not produced by mind;

Therefore, there is no discrimination.

The dhyanas and immeasurable states,

And the formless samadhis—

All their characteristics ultimately cease;

Therefore, they are absent within the mind.

The dharma of the fruit of stream-entry,

Once-returning and non-returning,

And the fruits of arhatship—

All are delusions of the mind.

Momentariness, emptiness, impermanence,

And the conditioned are discriminated by fools.

Analogies, seeds, and rivers

Differentiate the meaning of momentariness.

Momentariness is without discrimination,

Apart from all fabricated dharmas.

All dharmas are unborn;

This is what I call the meaning of momentariness.

Existence and nonexistence are said to arise;

The Samkhyas and others falsely proclaim this.

All dharmas are inexpressible,

Yet those people speak of them.

There are four ways of expounding the Dharma:

A direct answer, an answer by counter-question,

A discriminating and differentiated answer,

And a silent answer, which restrains non-Buddhists.

In conventional truth, all things exist;

In the Ultimate Truth, they are empty.

That their real essence is without characteristics

Is the Ultimate Truth.

Having seen that dharmas are false and delusive,

One therefore speaks of conventional truth.

It arises by virtue of language

And has no real essence.

Where there is no phenomenon, there are verbal expressions;

Within conventional truth, it is truly nonexistent.

This itself is an inverted phenomenon,

And what can be seen is also empty.

If inverted phenomena exist,

Ultimate quiescence is nonexistent.

Relying upon inverted phenomena,

One sees all dharmas arise.

Ultimately and certainly they are empty;

That is, they lack essential characteristics.

All the various things perceived

Arise from the perfuming of afflictions.

The mind sees external delusions

And presently grasps the objects appearing before it.

Discrimination and non-discrimination—

The true characteristics of dharmas are empty.

All characteristics are like illusory images,

Like trees and leaves colored yellow.

What a person sees as perceptible

Is the mind perfumed by ignorance.

Sages do not see deludedly

And do not see a reality in between.

Delusion itself is the real;

Because of the real, there is the intermediate.

If, after leaving all delusions far behind,

Any characteristics could still arise,

Then those themselves would be delusions,

Like a veil that makes the eyes unclear,

Or blurred vision seeing circles of hair;

Relying on delusion, one grasps all dharmas.

Amid all objects,

The ignorant grasp them as dharmas.

All dharmas are like circles of hair,

Flames, and illusory water.

The three realms are like illusions and dreams;

Through practice, one attains liberation.

The discriminator and the discriminated

Are able to produce discrimination.

Bondage, that which can be bound, and the cause.

The six kinds of causes of liberation.

There are no bhumis or Truths,

No lands or transformation-bodies;

Pratyekabuddhas and shravakas

Are only discriminations of mind.

The human body and the five skandhas,

Conditions and minute particles,

Are made by a supreme, sovereign creator—

These are only discriminations of mind.

Mind pervades every place;

Every place is nothing but mind.

Because mind does not contemplate skillfully,

The characteristics of mind appear to exist.

Within the five skandhas there is no self;

Within the self there are no five skandhas.

Discrimination is not the Dharma,

Yet the Dharma is not nonexistent.

As the ignorant discriminate,

All dharmas appear to exist;

If they truly existed as thus perceived,

Then all that exists should be seen as real.

If all dharmas were nonexistent,

Neither defilement nor purity would exist.

The ignorant see things in this way,

But those dharmas are not so.

The delusive characteristic of differentiation

Is the discrimination of other-power;

That characteristic inherently has a name,

And the name is the characteristic of discrimination.

Name and characteristic are discrimination,

The conjunction of causes and conditions.

If that mind does not arise,

This is the characteristic of ultimate truth.

The true body of the Reward Buddha,

And the characteristics of transformation Buddhas,

Bodhisattvas and sentient beings,

Together with the lands of the ten directions;

The Buddha transformed through Dharma-habits,

And the Buddha produced through activity—

All issue forth from the land

Of Amitabha.

The responsive and transformation Buddhas teach the Dharma,

And the Reward Buddha teaches the Dharma;

Though the scriptures proclaim this extensively,

You should understand the hidden intent.

What is inherently spoken by the Buddha’s sons,

And what is spoken by the World-Honored Ones,

Is all spoken by transformation Buddhas,

Not by ordinary persons.

These dharmas are unborn,

Yet they are not nonexistent;

Like illusions, a city of gandharvas,

Dreams, and magical transformations, they resemble one another.

All their varieties turn according to the mind;

There is only mind, no other dharma.

When mind arises, all varieties arise;

When mind ceases, all varieties cease.

Sentient beings falsely discriminate,

Seeing things where nothing exists.

There are no external meanings, only mind;

Freedom is attained by non-discrimination.

Beginningless worldly vain discourse

Depends upon the afflictions.

Discriminations perfume and cultivate the mind,

And therefore wrong views arise.

That which is free from discriminated meaning—

Suchness—is the object of wisdom.

Transforming that brings quiescence;

This is the realm of the noble ones.

Contemplating meanings and thinking upon them

Is the thinking of ordinary beings.

Mindfulness of Suchness and contemplation

Is the contemplation of all Buddhas.

Discriminating the substance of dharmas,

Though all dharmas are unborn,

Sentient beings deludedly discriminate

In dependence upon other-powered causes and conditions.

When other-power is purified

And separated from association with discrimination,

Its transformation is itself Suchness;

Freedom from discrimination is the practice.

Do not discriminate discrimination;

Discrimination is unreal.

Discriminating delusive dharmas,

Grasping and the grasped never come to an end.

Seeing and discriminating external objects,

One takes discrimination as a real substance.

The discriminating mind discriminates;

That dharma arises through causes and conditions.

The meanings taught by those of wrong-view outside the Way

Have no true meaning and are only mind.

Contemplation corresponding to valid knowledge

Can extinguish grasping and the grasped.

External objects do not exist;

The ignorant falsely discriminate.

Perfuming increases the mind,

And dharmas arise in semblance.

When the two discriminations are extinguished,

There is the realm of the wisdom of Suchness.

No characteristic of dharmas arises;

It is the inconceivable realm of the noble ones.

Discrimination, characteristics, and names,

And the two characteristics of real substance;

Right wisdom and Suchness

Are the perfected true substance.

Relying upon the union of father and mother,

The alaya-consciousness conjoins.

Like a mouse, the film on milk, and a vessel…(?)

Together the white and red increase.

A thick swelling and a curved corpse,

Impure and dependent upon patterned formations;

Through karmic wind the four great elements increase,

Like fruits reaching maturity.

Five, and within five, five (five and the five fives [?]),

And there are nine kinds of openings;

Hair covers the entire body—

Thus it grows and is born.

Born like a worm in excrement,

Like a person becoming conscious in sleep,

When the eyes see forms, thoughts arise,

And discrimination increasingly develops.

Discrimination and focused recollection,

Then the conjunction of lips and teeth;

The mouth begins to speak,

Like a parrot playing with sounds.

The samadhis taught by those outside the Way

Are not definitive in the Mahayana.

They depend upon the determinations of sentient beings;

Wrong views cannot draw near.

My Vehicle is inwardly realized wisdom,

Not an object of deluded cognition.

After the Buddha’s nirvana,

In the future there will be one—

O Mahamati, listen!

There will be one who upholds my Dharma.

In a great country of the South (?)

There will be a virtuous bhikshu,

A bodhisattva named Nagarjuna,

Skilled in refuting views of existence and nonexistence.

He will teach my Dharma to human beings—

The unsurpassed Mahayana Dharma.

He will realize the Ground of Joy

And be reborn in the Land of Peace and Bliss.

Wisdom contemplates dharmas

And does not see their true substance;

Therefore their substance cannot be spoken,

And the substance that is spoken is also nonexistent.

If dharmas arise through causes and conditions,

They cannot be said to exist or not exist.

Regarding things within causes and conditions,

The ignorant discriminate existence and nonexistence.

Wrong views and the two erroneous doctrines,

Wrong understanding separated from my Dharma—

All dharmas of names and words

Are continually studied for immeasurable kalpas.

Having studied them, they study still more,

Discriminating them together.

If various names were not spoken,

The world would fall into delusion.

Therefore names are established

To dispel the karma of delusion.

The three kinds of discrimination depend upon

The dharmas discriminated by ignorance.

Deluded discrimination depends upon names

And can arise through causes and conditions.

Dharmas are neither born nor extinguished;

Their intrinsic nature is like empty space.

The absence of substance in dharmas is their substance;

The characteristic of discrimination is itself their substance.

Illusions and reflected images,

Flames, dreams, and echoes,

Cities of gandharvas and firebrands whirled in circles…

Dharmas arise in this manner.

Nonduality, Suchness, emptiness,

The ultimate reality and the substance of Dharma.

I say that discrimination does not exist,

Yet it perfects that characteristic of dharmas.

The realm is empty in speech and mind;

The real is newly established as the false (?)

The mind falls into the two extremes,

And therefore discrimination is established.

Existence and nonexistence fall into the two extremes

Because they abide within the mind’s objects.

When all objects are left far behind,

At that time the mind itself ceases.

Because the objects of grasping are abandoned,

That cessation is neither existence nor nonexistence.

It is like the realm of the noble ones,

Which the ignorant cannot know.

The cessation abiding in Suchness

Can be seen by the wise.

The wise can see

How those dharmas abide.

The substance of dharmas is not like that,

For the characteristics of dharmas are empty.

An ignorant person sees iron

And discriminates it as gold.

Though it is not gold, one sees it as gold;

Those outside the Way grasp dharmas in this manner.

It is not taught that things originally arise at the beginning,

Arise first, and afterward return to cessation.

Existence and nonexistence through causes and conditions—

I do not teach this doctrine.

Dharmas are without beginning or end,

And abide thus without characteristics.

Because they abide in worldly characteristics,

Those with wrong cognition do not understand.

Past dharmas are not nonexistent;

Future dharmas exist;

Present dharmas also exist—

Thus dharmas should not be said to arise.

At the time of transformation and active characteristics,

The great elements and the faculties

Falsely grasp an “intermediate existence” after death.

If one grasps what is not cognition, then

All Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,

Do not teach arising through causes and conditions.

Causes and conditions are themselves the worldly realm,

Like a city of gandharvas.

Dharmas merely unite through conditions;

Depending upon one dharma, another dharma arises.

Apart from the conjunction of dharmas,

There is neither cessation nor arising.

In a mirror and in water,

Through the eyes and a mani vessel,

Various reflected forms are seen.

Those reflected images are empty,

Like a beast delighting in water that is not there;

It sees all kinds of forms and colors,

All varieties appearing as though they exist,

Like dreams and an offspring of a barren woman.

My Vehicle is not a great vehicle,

Neither sound nor written character,

Neither liberation nor truth,

Nor the realm of quiescence.

Yet my Vehicle, the Mahayana,

Possesses mastery of all samadhis.

The wish-fulfilling body assumes all forms,

Adorned with flowers of mastery.

Whether one substance or distinct substances,

No dharma exists within causes and conditions.

In brief, dharmas are said to arise;

At length, dharmas are said to cease.

The unborn and emptiness are not one;

Yet arising and emptiness are not two.

The unborn and emptiness are not superior;

Arising and cessation are themselves emptiness.

Suchness, emptiness, ultimate reality,

The Dharma-realm, and nirvana;

The body and mind in their many varieties—

I teach these dharmas under different names.

Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma

Discriminate a purified self.

Those who rely not upon meaning but upon names

Do not understand selflessness.

Neither Buddha nor non-Buddhist,

Neither self, nor yet the remainder.

If dharmas come to exist through conditions,

Then how can all dharmas be nonexistent?

Whoever establishes existence,

How can they speak of nonexistence from causes and conditions?

Speaking of the arising of dharmas gives rise to wrong views,

Falsely discriminating existence and nonexistence.

If one sees that nothing arises,

And also sees that dharmas do not cease,

That person transcends existence and nonexistence

And sees the world as quiescent.

Sentient beings perceive through discriminations,

Seeing what can be seen like a hare’s horns.

Discrimination is delusion and confusion,

Like a bird enamored of a flame’s radiance.

Dharmas are falsely discriminated,

In dependence upon that discriminative seeing.

Discrimination has no cause or condition;

Without a cause, distinctions should not be made.

Like taking water by means of water,

Like grasping falsely and giving rise to attachment.

The ignorant see in this way;

The noble ones do not see thus.

The noble ones see with purity and clarity,

And thereby give rise to the three liberations;

They transcend the birth and death of all dharmas

And cultivate the state of quiescence.

Through supremely wondrous skillful means,

Knowing the wondrous affairs of the lands,

I speak for all my children,

Not for those of the Lesser Vehicle.

The three realms are impermanent,

Empty, selfless, and free from self;

Their particular characteristics and common characteristics

I teach for the sravakas.

Unattached to any dharma,

Traveling alone, apart from the world,

I teach the fruit of the pratyekabuddhas,

Which is not a realm attained through provisions.

Discriminating an external real substance,

It arises through the power of another;

Seeing one’s own body as deluded,

At that time, the various minds are transformed.

The Tenth Ground is precisely the First Ground;

The First Ground is precisely the Eighth Ground;

The Ninth Ground is precisely the Seventh Ground;

The Seventh Ground is precisely the Eighth Ground;

The Second Ground is precisely the Third Ground;

The Fourth Ground is precisely the Fifth Ground;

The Third Ground is precisely the Sixth Ground.

Quiescence has no sequence;

All dharmas are forever quiescent.

For the practitioner there is no dharma;

Existence and nonexistence of dharmas are equal.

At that time, the noble one attains the fruit.

The essential characteristics of all dharmas are nonexistent;

How, then, amid nonexistent dharmas,

Could one create equality?

Quiescent extinction is free from discrimination.

If one does not perceive the various minds,

Nor the movement of inner and outer dharmas,

Then, when dharmas have been extinguished,

One sees the equality of mind.

Since beginningless time, the ignorant have wandered on,

Grasping dharmas as though carrying them in their arms;

Deceiving ordinary beings, they continue to turn,

As cinnamon arises from a cinnamon cause.

Relying upon that cause, they contemplate;

The mind grasps the common realm of objects.

Relying upon the seeds in consciousness,

It can produce the cause of mind.

Attained through cultivation and sustained in abiding,

Bodies are obtained according to their kinds,

And there are attainments within dreams;

These superknowledges are of four kinds.

The superknowledges attained within dreams,

Those received through the favor of the Buddhas,

And those attained by assuming bodies of various kinds—

Such superknowledges are not true superknowledges.

Through the perfuming of mind and its seeds,

Dharmas seemingly turn and arise.

The ignorant do not understand this;

For their sake, the arising of dharmas is taught.

By discriminating external objects,

The characteristics of all dharmas are established.

Then the mind becomes distressed,

Not seeing its own delusion.

Why is arising spoken of?

Why is non-seeing spoken of?

How can what cannot be seen nevertheless be seen?

I pray that you explain this for me!

For whom

Are certain dharmas said to exist?

For whom

Are certain dharmas said not to exist?

The essence of mind is intrinsically pure,

Yet the manas arises together with defilement.

The manas and all the consciousnesses

Are capable of perfuming the seeds.

From the alaya comes the body;

The manas goes forth seeking all dharmas;

Mental consciousness selects its objects,

Deluded by views and greedily grasping them.

The dharmas perceived are one’s own mind;

As for external dharmas, there are no external dharmas.

Contemplating thus, delusion ceases;

One remains ever mindful of suchness.

The realm of those who practice meditation,

The great karmic deeds of the Buddhas—

These three are inconceivable;

They are the realm of the wise.

The past, present, and future,

Nirvana, and empty space:

I speak of these according to conventional truth;

Ultimate truth has no name of its own.

Those of the Two Vehicles and the non-Buddhists

All cling to wrong views;

Deluded and lost within the mind,

They discriminate external dharmas.

Pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas,

Arhats who behold the Buddhas,

Those whose seeds of bodhi are firm,

And those who attain realization within dreams.

Where? For what?

How? For what cause?

For what meaning are these deeds performed?

I pray that you explain this for me!

When the illusory mind is dispelled, there is quiescence;

Partisans speak of existence and nonexistence.

Their inner delusion is deeply entrenched;

They speak of illusion as existent and illusion as nonexistent.

The characteristics of arising and cessation correspond;

Characteristics and conceivable objects exist or do not exist.

Discrimination is merely the manas,

Together with the five kinds of consciousness.

Reflections in mirrors, waves upon water, and so forth,

Arise from the seeds of mind.

If mind and manas

No longer give rise to the consciousnesses,

One attains the mind-made body,

And ultimately reaches the ground of Buddhahood.

The skandhas, dhatus, and various conditions

Are dharmas with their own essential characteristics;

Provisional names and the causal mind

Are like dreams and circles seen around hairs.

The world is like an illusion or a dream;

Seeing its basis as truly real,

One takes its characteristics to correspond to reality,

Apart from all causes of measurement.

The inner realm of the noble ones

Constantly contemplates all wondrous practices.

Delusion obscures through causes of measurement,

Causing the world to regard them as real explanations.

Apart from all idle theorizing,

Wisdom does not abide in delusion.

The essential characteristics of all dharmas do not exist;

They are neither empty and eternal, nor impermanent.

The mind abides in ignorance,

And, because of delusion, makes distinctions.

To speak about those dharmas

Is not to speak of non-arising.

One, two, and both together (?)

Suddenly come to exist autonomously,

Relying upon time and supreme subtle particles—

Conditions discriminated by the world.

The seed of worldly existence is consciousness;

Relying upon that cause, it arises,

As an image is painted upon a wall.

To know reality is for it to dissolve.

As a person sees things in an illusion,

So too are birth and death seen.

The ignorant rely upon darkness,

And bondage and liberation arise.

All the various inner and outer

Dharmas, causes, and conditions—

Practitioners contemplate them thus

And abide peacefully in quiescence.

There is no mind within the perfuming,

Nor is the mind perfumed together with it.

The mind has no differentiating characteristics,

Yet perfuming binds the mind.

As stains are seen through perfuming,

The manas arises from consciousness.

As with silk, so too is mind:

Relying upon perfuming, it is not clearly manifest.

As an object is neither a non-object,

So do I speak of empty space.

Within the body of the alaya,

One transcends both existence and nonexistence of objects.

When mental consciousness has turned and ceased,

The mind is freed from defiled dharmas.

Completely penetrating and knowing all dharmas,

Therefore I call it the Buddha-mind.

Within the three realms, it is utterly cut off,

Freed from the dharmas of existence and nonexistence.

The world corresponds in four ways;

All modes of existence are like illusions.

These are the essential characteristics of two dharmas;

The Seventh Ground arises from mind.

The other grounds are also perfectly accomplished:

The Second Ground and the ground of Buddhahood,

The Form Realm and the Formless Realm,

The Desire Realm and nirvana.

All realms of mind

Are not separate from within the body.

If one sees all dharmas arising,

That is the deluded arising of dharmas.

To understand the delusion of one’s own mind

Is for no dharmas to arise.

Dharmas have no arising essential nature;

Arising itself is attachment to the world.

See all characteristics as illusions;

Such are the essential characteristics of dharmas.

Grasping falsely at the thinking mind,

Do not discriminate among dharmas.

For the ignorant who lack wisdom, I teach

The Three Vehicles and the One Vehicle,

And also speak of no vehicle;

The noble ones are quiescent.

My Dharma is of two kinds:

The characteristics of Dharma and realization.

The four kinds of characteristics used in measurement

Establish valid cognition and corresponding dharmas.

Forms, characteristics, and superior kinds

Are seen through deluded discrimination;

Names and spheres of activity—

The noble practice is truly pure.

Relying on discrimination, one discriminates;

Thus the characteristics of discrimination exist.

Discriminating apart from discrimination

Is the real realm of the noble ones.

Unchanging, real, and everlasting,

The nature of phenomena and their true essence—

Suchness transcends the dharmas of mind

And is far removed from discrimination.

If there were pure dharmas,

There would also be no defiled dharmas.

Because there is a pure mind,

Defiled dharmas are perceived.

The realm of the noble ones is pure;

Therefore, there is no real entity.

These are the essential characteristics of all dharmas,

The realm of the noble ones.

The world arises from causes,

Apart from all discriminations.

Seeing dharmas as illusions, dreams, and so forth,

One attains liberation.

Perfumed by manifold afflictions,

They arise in correspondence with the common mind.

Sentient beings perceive external dharmas,

Yet these are not the dharmas that constitute the essence of mind.

The dharma of mind is always pure;

It does not arise from delusion.

Delusion arises from afflictions;

Therefore, the mind is not seen.

Delusion itself is true reality;

It cannot be found elsewhere.

It is neither the skandhas nor somewhere else;

Contemplate the skandhas and practice true reality.

Transcending seeing, skillfully behold characteristics;

If one sees conditioned dharmas,

One sees the world as one’s own mind.

That person is skilled in transcending characteristics.

Do not view phenomena as Mind-only;

Do not discriminate external meanings;

Abide in True Suchness and contemplate.

Pass beyond the realm of mind;

Having passed beyond the realm of mind,

Far removed from all quiescence,

Practice while abiding in quiescence.

The practitioner abides in stillness (quiescence).

Yet does not perceive the Mahayana.

Quiescence is natural;

Relying upon vows, there is quiescence;

The wisdom of non-self is quiescent.

One should contemplate the realm of mind,

And also contemplate the realm of wisdom;

With wisdom contemplate the realm,

And amid characteristics, do not become deluded.

The realm of mind is the Truth of Suffering;

Origination is the realm of wisdom;

The Two Truths and the Buddha-stage

Are the realm of prajna.

Attainment of the fruit and nirvana,

Together with the Noble Eightfold Path—

By comprehending all phenomena,

One attains the pure wisdom of a Buddha.

The eye, form, and also light,

Space together with mind and thought:

When these are thus conjoined,

Consciousness arises from the Alaya.

Grasper, grasped, and reception—

There is neither entity nor name.

There is no cause for discrimination;

If one grasps at what is cognized,

Then within meaning there is no name,

And within name, meaning is likewise so.

A cause arises from what is not a cause;

Do not discriminate discrimination.

All phenomena are unreal;

So too are words and speech.

Meaning is thus neither empty nor nonempty.

The foolish perceive phenomena as correct,

Delusively grasping and abiding in the real;

Those of wrong views speak of provisional names.

One phenomenon becomes five kinds (?).

One who accords with reality is skilled in transcending them.

The five kinds are the dharmas of Mara;

One passes beyond existence and nonexistence.

They are not a realm to be cultivated,

But are teachings of non-Buddhist paths!

Do not seek the existence of false phenomena,

Nor hold a view of a self through characteristics.

Because these are phenomena held by oneself to be permanent,

They arise solely from language.

The truth of reality cannot be expressed;

Upon seeing quiescent cessation, one immediately sees the Dharma.

With the Alaya as support,

Mental consciousness is able to arise and turn;

Depending upon falsity, the delusive is formed.

True Suchness is the Dharma of mind.

Thus, the practitioner

Can know the nature and essence of mind;

Discriminating permanent and impermanent,

Mental characteristics and affairs,

Arising together with non-arising—

The practitioner should not grasp them.

Do not separately discriminate these two phenomena.

Consciousness arises from the Alaya;

One meaning becomes two mental phenomena,

Yet one does not know that they arise in this way.

Grasping one phenomenon or two phenomena

Is the realm of ordinary beings.

There is neither speaker nor speech;

It is not nonexistent because mind is perceived.

Because one does not perceive one’s own mind,

The net-like veil of views arises.

Causes and conditions do not arise;

The faculties are likewise so.

The dhatus and the five skandhas are empty;

There is neither the conditioned nor craving.

Originally there is no karma-producing activity;

It is neither unconditioned nor an act.

There is no removal and no bondage;

No bondage and no liberation;

Neither the indeterminate nor any entity;

Neither Dharma nor non-Dharma;

Neither time nor nirvana.

The essential nature of phenomena is also empty;

There is neither Buddha nor truth of reality,

Neither cause nor result,

Neither cessation nor inversion,

Neither cessation nor arising.

The twelve links are also empty;

The finite and infinite are likewise so.

All wrong views are transcended;

Therefore, Mind-only is taught.

Afflictions, karma, and the body,

The agent together with karmic retribution,

Are like a dream and a flame,

Like a city of the gandharvas…

Abiding within the Dharma of mind,

The characteristics of phenomena arise;

Abiding within the Dharma of mind,

One perceives phenomena as annihilated or permanent.

In nirvana there are no skandhas,

Nor even the conception of non-self.

One who can enter knows it is only mind;

Liberation does not select characteristics.

What faults are seen in another person?

Externally, sentient beings are perceived.

Mind is neither existent nor nonexistent;

Because of perfuming, it is not manifest.

Within impurity, whiteness is not seen;

Within whiteness, impurity is not seen.

As clouds conceal empty space,

So mind is not perceived.

Mind is able to produce karma;

Knowledge abides within discrimination;

Wisdom can contemplate quiescent stillness

And attain the wondrous essential nature of phenomena.

Bound to its objects, mind depends upon them;

Knowledge arises depending on initial and sustained thought.

Within the supreme realm of quiescence,

Wisdom is able to function.

Mind, thought, and consciousness

Discriminate among characteristics.

Those who attain the essence free from discrimination

Are not the children of the Two Vehicles.

The supreme characteristic arises from quiescence;

The wisdom of all Buddhas is pure.

It can arise in accordance with the ultimate meaning,

Having transcended all active characteristics.

The discriminated nature of phenomena is regarded as existent;

Phenomena arising through other-power are empty.

Deluded, one grasps discrimination,

But does not discriminate other-power.

It is not that the great elements possess form,

Nor that what possesses form is the great elements.

Dreams, illusions, and cities of the gandharvas

Are like thirsty beasts craving water where none exists.

I possess three kinds of wisdom,

Attained in reliance upon the noble designation.

Within mind no phenomenon arises;

Therefore, mind is not perceived.

The sustenance that maintains the body is conceived as arising;

Sentient beings rely upon views produced by perfuming.

Depending upon those discriminated characteristics,

The various phenomena are spoken of.

Separated from the corresponding states of the Two Vehicles,

Wisdom transcends the manifest characteristics of phenomena.

Because they delusively grasp phenomena,

The sravakas perceive phenomena.

One who can enter knows that all is only Mind,

And attains the stainless wisdom of the Tathagata.

Whether real or not true,

Phenomena arise from causes and conditions.

Seeing one or two is a wrong view;

Ultimately, one remains capable of attachment.

The various causes and conditions

Are like illusions, without real existence.

Characteristics of such diverse kinds

Cannot be established through discrimination.

Depending upon the characteristics of afflictions,

Bondage arises from mind.

Not knowing discriminated phenomena,

One discriminates other-power.

When the essence of discrimination is established,

It is itself a phenomenon of other-power.

All manner of discriminative views

Exist within discriminated other-power.

The conventional meaning is foremost;

The third arises without a cause (?).

Discrimination is said to continue;

Its cessation is the realm of noble ones.

The practitioner attends to one matter,

Seeing that all varieties are only mind.

There, no mind can be found;

Such are discriminated characteristics.

A person whose eyes are veiled

Is obstructed by what is neither form nor non-form,

Like a fool who perceives other-power.

Like gold freed from dust,

Like water freed from turbid mud,

Like empty space freed from clouds,

So is discrimination purified.

There are three kinds of sravakas:

Those born through response, transformation, and vows.

They transcend the impurities of craving and delusion;

The characteristics of all Tathagatas do not exist.

Within the minds of sentient beings,

Images of the Tathagata Buddha are perceived.

Discrimination is not thus;

The essential nature of other-powered phenomena exists.

Seeing the two extremes of existence and nonexistence,

Through such seeing, one perceives discrimination.

If there were no discriminated phenomena,

How could other-power exist?

Far removed from an existent essential nature of phenomena,

A truly existent essential nature of phenomena arises.

Depending upon discrimination,

One perceives other-power.

Depending upon conjoined characteristics and names,

Discrimination arises.

Accomplished things are perpetually nonexistent;

Other-powered discrimination arises.

At that time, one knows the true essence,

The purity of the Ultimate Meaning.

Discrimination is of ten kinds;

Other-power is of six kinds.

True Suchness is the inner body;

Therefore, it has no other characteristic.

The five dharmas are true phenomena,

Together with the three kinds of true characteristics.

Thus, the practitioner

Does not destroy the Dharma of True Suchness.

Stars, clouds, and shapes

Appear like the forms of the sun and moon.

What sentient beings perceive is mind;

The perceivable arises from perfuming.

The great elements have no intrinsic nature;

They are neither the perceiver nor the perceived.

If form arose from the great elements,

Then the great elements would produce the great elements.

Thus, the great elements do not arise;

Within a great element there are no four great elements.

If the result were the four great elements,

Then earth, water, and the others would be causes.

Real and provisional name-and-form

Likewise arise as illusions.

Cities of the gandharvas and dreams,

And the fifth, thirsty beasts delighting in water;

There are five kinds of icchantikas;

The natures are likewise so.

There are five vehicles and the non-vehicle;

Nirvana is of six kinds;

The skandhas are of twenty-four kinds;

Form, moreover, is of eight kinds.

Buddhas are of twenty-four kinds;

Children of the Buddha are of two kinds;

There are one hundred gateways of deliverance;

Sravakas are of three kinds.

The land of all Buddhas is only one,

And the Buddha is also one.

Liberation is of three kinds;

Mental reflection is of four kinds;

Self and non-self are of six kinds;

Knowable objects are of four kinds.

Transcending all causes and conditions,

And also transcending the faults of wrong views,

One knows the stainless inner body—

The unsurpassed Dharma of the Mahayana.

Arising and non-arising

Are of eight kinds and nine kinds.

Whether attained successively or all at once,

The established Dharma is only one.

The formless is of eight kinds;

The distinctions of dhyana are of six kinds.

Pratyekabuddhas and children of the Buddha—

The grasper is of seven kinds.

There are no phenomena of the three times;

Permanent and impermanent are likewise so.

The fruit of karma and all deeds

Are like deeds performed in a dream.

The Buddha has never arisen since beginningless time;

The children of the Buddha and the sravakas

Have minds that transcend the perceivable.

Also ever like an illusory Dharma:

Womb-birth and turning the Dharma wheel,

Renunciation and the Tushita Heaven,

Dwelling within various lands,

The visible and the unborn,

Going, practice, and sentient beings,

Teaching the Dharma and nirvana.

Understand the true reality of lands,

And dharmas arising from causes and conditions,

The forests and trees of the world,

Selflessness and the practices of non-Buddhists.

The vehicle of meditation and the alaya,

Attainment of inconceivable fruits,

The nature of the moon and stars,

The various kings of the asuras,

Yakshas and gandharvas,

Arising through the causes of karma,

Undergoing inconceivable transformations (changes).

When regression dependent upon perfuming conditions

And all transformations are cut off,

Then the afflictions of wrongdoing are extinguished.

All bodhisattvas

Who practice in accordance with reality

Do not accumulate treasures,

Elephants, horses, silver, or gold,

Cattle, sheep, or servants…

Rice, grain, fields, or gardens…

They do not lie upon a “pierced-hole bed” (a bed pierced with holes (?)),

Nor may they “plaster the ground” (smear the earth with mud (?)).

Red copper, white copper, silver, and gold,

Utensils, cups, bowls, and so forth—

Those who practice the pure conduct

Must not accumulate any of these.

Kausheya garments

Must not be worn at all.

Kashaya and kambala robes,

Cow dung, grass, fruit, and leaves,

Blue and red mud and earth—

Use these to spoil the pure white color by dyeing it.

Bowls of stone, pottery, or iron,

Conch shell, vaidurya, and so forth—

Bowls such as these may be kept,

Filled to the Magadha measure.

For cutting and sewing garments,

One may keep a four-inch knife,

Its blade curved like a crescent moon;

One must not study technical crafts.

One who practices in accordance with reality

Does not go to markets to trade,

Does not follow worldly people

Or the upasakas,

But constantly guards the sense faculties,

Understands the meaning in accordance with reality,

Always reads and recites the sutras,

And studies the Vinaya rules,

Without mingling with the world—

Such is a practitioner.

Vacant places and charnel grounds,

Beneath forest trees and within caves,

Among the grasses of the shita forest,

Even open ground beyond the fields—

One who practices in accordance with reality

Dwells in places such as these.

The three robes always accompany the body;

One accumulates no other wealth.

When the body requires clothing,

What others offer may be accepted.

When going out to seek alms,

One does not look to the right or left,

But gazes only six feet ahead,

Proceeding serenely and directly.

As a bee draws nectar from flowers,

So should one seek alms.

Bhikshus and bhikshunis

Mingling among the assembly—

For the sake of the Buddha’s disciples, I proclaim:

This is an “evil livelihood” (a bad and unwholesome means of living).

One who practices in accordance with reality

Must not eat in such a place.

Princes, minor kings, and kings,

Great ministers and elders—

For the sake of seeking food and drink,

One must not visit any of them.

Houses where there has been a death, houses where there has been a birth,

Houses of loved ones and houses of acquaintances,

Gatherings of disorderly bhikshus—

A practitioner does not eat there.

In monasteries and houses where smoke never ceases,

There are always all kinds of food

That should be prepared for others;

A practitioner should not eat it.

Free from factions of existence and nonexistence,

And from bondage to the perceiver and the perceived,

A practitioner contemplates the world

As free from the dharmas of arising and cessation.

When endowed with the power of samadhi

And the mastery of the superknowledges,

If discrimination does not arise,

Before long one attains accordance with the Dharma.

From the supreme person down to motes of dust…

Do not discriminate among conditions.

Causes and conditions unite in harmony;

The practitioner does not discriminate them.

The various discriminations of the worlds

Arise in manifold forms from perfuming;

A practitioner contemplates in accordance with reality

That the three realms of existence are like illusions and dreams.

Do not discriminate the three realms of existence,

Or the provisions that nourish and sustain the body.

Be free from denials of existence and nonexistence,

And also free from views of existence and nonexistence.

Take food and drink as though taking medicine;

Keep body and mind constantly upright.

Single-mindedly and reverently honor

The Buddha and all bodhisattvas.

One who practices in accordance with reality

Should understand the characteristics of the precepts,

As well as all the scriptural teachings,

And discern the characteristics of all dharmas.

The essence of the five dharmas and mind,

Practice free from the five characteristics,

The purity of the inner Dharma-body,

The stages and the Buddha-stage—

One who practices in this way

Dwells upon a great lotus flower,

And the greatly compassionate Buddhas

Stroke their crown with wish-fulfilling hands.

Coming and going throughout the six paths,

They grow weary of all forms of existence,

Give rise to true and genuine practice,

And enter the shita forest.

The forms and shapes of the sun and moon,

Together with the forms of oceans and flowers,

Fire, space, and manifold things—

The practitioner sees these dharmas.

Seeing the characteristics described above,

One adopts the teachings of non-Buddhists,

Or follows the path of the shravakas

And the realm of the pratyekabuddhas.

Having left behind such things and so forth,

One dwells in a place of quiescence;

Then the Buddha’s wondrous radiance

Travels to all lands

And strokes the bodhisattva’s crown.

This wondrous sign of stroking the crown

Accords with the Dharma of True Suchness;

At that time, one obtains a wondrous body.

The existence or nonexistence of causes and the essence of dharmas,

Free from the doctrines of annihilationism and eternalism,

And rejection of the existence or nonexistence of dharmas—

These are discriminations concerning the Middle Way.

Discriminating that there are no causes,

Causelessness is the annihilationist view;

Seeing the manifold external dharmas

Makes one a destroyer of the Middle Way.

Not relinquishing the characteristics of dharmas

For fear that their characteristics will be annihilated,

Existence and nonexistence become denials of Dharma;

Thus is the Middle Way explained.

Realize that all is merely the inner mind,

Yet do not extinguish external dharmas;

Transform false discrimination—

This is the Dharma of the Middle Way.

Mind-only cannot be seen;

Apart from mind, nothing arises.

This is the Dharma of the Middle Way

Taught by me and all the Buddhas.

Arising and non-arising,

The existence and nonexistence of things are empty;

All dharmas lack intrinsic essence—

Do not discriminate these two dharmas.

Discrimination posits the existence of dharmas;

The foolish discriminate liberation.

They do not awaken to the discriminating mind

And remain apart from freedom from the two characteristics of grasping.

When one realizes that perceptions are one’s own mind,

One is freed from the two views;

Knowing in accordance with reality, one becomes detached,

Without annihilating the characteristics of discrimination.

Truly knowing that the perceived is mind,

One then knows how discrimination arises.

Not giving rise to discriminations

Is True Suchness free from mind.

Free from all the faults of non-Buddhists,

If one sees that dharmas arise,

That wise person should accept them

Without extinguishing nirvana.

One who knows this Dharma is a Buddha—

So say I and the other Buddhas.

If one views dharmas otherwise,

One speaks of the doctrines of non-Buddhists.

The unborn appears to be born;

The non-retrogressing appears to regress,

Just as the moon in the water appears simultaneously

In hundreds of millions of bodies of water.

One body and immeasurable bodies,

Pouring down rain and blazing with fire—

Mind and the essence of mind are not different;

Therefore, it is said that all is merely mind.

Within mind there is only mind;

Mind arises while being no-mind.

All manner of forms, colors, and shapes—

What is seen is merely mind.

The bodies of Buddhas and shravakas,

Together with the bodies of pratyekabuddhas…

And all manner of other physical bodies

Are taught to be merely the inner mind.

The Formless Realm is without form;

The Form Realm and the hells,

And the forms appearing as sentient beings,

Are merely the causes and conditions of mind.

Through the samadhi of Dharmas Like Illusions,

A mind-made body is produced;

The mind, sovereign upon the tenth stage,

Is attained by the bodhisattva through transformation.

One’s own mind discriminates names,

Stirred by conceptual proliferation;

It arises dependent upon seeing, hearing, and knowing,

While the ignorant rely upon characteristics to know.

Characteristics are the essence of other-dependence;

It depends upon names and discrimination.

Discrimination constitutes the various characteristics;

Other-dependent dharmas arise.

Wisdom contemplates all dharmas:

There is no other-dependence, and characteristics are empty.

Ultimately, nothing is perfected;

Upon what could wisdom base discrimination?

If there were perfected dharmas

Apart from the dharmas of existence and nonexistence,

And apart from the essences of existence and nonexistence,

How could the two essences exist?

When the two kinds of essence are discriminated,

The two kinds of essence are said to exist,

And discrimination perceives manifold things.

The realm of the noble ones is pure within.

Discrimination is manifold;

Discrimination is other-dependence.

If discrimination were otherwise,

One would fall into the doctrines of non-Buddhists.

Discrimination is itself discrimination;

What is seen is the essential characteristic of its cause.

Discrimination speaks of discrimination;

What is seen arises from causal characteristics.

Freedom from the two discriminations

Is the perfectly accomplished Dharma,

The lands of transformation-body Buddhas,

The One Vehicle and the Three Vehicles.

There is no nirvana for all;

“Emptiness” is free from all arising.

There are thirty distinctions of Buddhas,

And separately, ten further kinds.

The vessels and implements of every land

Depend upon the minds of sentient beings;

As characteristics of dharmas are discriminated,

All manner of dharmas appear to be seen.

Those dharmas are not manifold;

The Buddha-Dharma (the Buddha’s Dharma-body) abides in the world.

The Buddha-Dharma is the true Buddha;

All else arises dependent upon it (is manifested from it).

Through sentient beings’ own seeds,

They perceive all the characteristics of Buddhas;

Dependent upon delusion, their minds turn,

And can give rise to discrimination.

Discrimination is not separate from the real,

Nor is it separate from characteristics.

Experiencing bliss and the true (real) essence

Transformations again produce further transformations.

The Buddha assembly, thirty-six (?)

Is the truly real essence of Buddha.

Like blue, red, and salt,

White milk and sugar-honey,

Leaves, fruits, flowers, and so forth,

Like the radiance of the moon,

Neither one nor different,

Like waves arising in water.

Thus the seven consciousnesses together

Join and harmonize with the mind;

As the great ocean undergoes transformation,

So waves arise.

Alaya is likewise;

The named consciousnesses are also thus:

Mind, mentation, and consciousness

Discriminate the characteristics of external objects.

The eight characteristics are not different,

Nor are there a seer and the seen;

Like waves upon the great ocean,

They have no differentiated characteristics.

The consciousnesses within the mind

Cannot be found in their transformations.

Mind is able to create various karmas;

Mentation is able to discriminate;

Mental consciousness is able to know dharmas;

The five consciousnesses falsely perceive

All manner of white, red, and blue—

The consciousnesses of sentient beings presently perceive them.

Regarding the characteristics of dharmas as waves upon water,

This is what I, the Silent Sage (Muni), teach.

All manner of white, red, and blue

Are not present within the waves of water;

The deluded perceive these characteristics

And say that they turn within the mind.

Within the mind they have no substance;

Apart from mind, nothing external is seen.

If there were an object that could be grasped,

There should also be a grasper.

The provisions that sustain and support the body

Are said to resemble waves upon water;

The manifest consciousnesses of sentient beings

All resemble waves upon water.

The waves of the great ocean arise,

Appearing to turn as though dancing;

The fundamental consciousness turns likewise—

Why is this known yet not grasped?

The deluded, devoid of wisdom,

Regard the fundamental consciousness as ocean waves;

The waves turn in response to perceived characteristics,

Therefore this analogy is taught:

The sun rises over the world,

Equally illuminating sentient beings;

Likewise, the lamp of the Blessed One

Does not teach the Dharma for fools.

Abiding in the Dharma of true suchness,

Why does he not speak the truth?

If the true Dharma were spoken,

There would be no true Dharma within the mind.

As in a dream or a mirror,

As waves upon the ocean,

As the realm of one’s own mind,

All are seen without before or after.

The objects of cognition are not simultaneous,

And therefore arise in sequence.

Consciousness is able to know all dharmas;

Mentation, in turn, is able to discriminate;

The five consciousnesses presently perceive dharmas,

Yet in quiescence there is no sequence.

Like a master painter in the world

And the master painter’s disciples,

I abide in the wondrous Dharma

And teach it for true practitioners.

Discrimination free from discrimination

Is the true wisdom realized inwardly;

I teach it for the Buddha’s children,

Not for the deluded.

Just as an illusion displays all manner of things,

What is visible is not actually so;

The teaching of manifold things is likewise:

Though taught as such, it is not such.

The Dharma is taught for one person

But not taught in the same way for another;

Just as illnesses are not alike,

A physician gives each a distinct medicine.

For the sake of sentient beings, all Buddhas

Teach various dharmas according to their minds;

Relying on the seeds of external dharmas,

They discriminatively teach presently manifest dharmas.

The mind grasps dharmas arising through other-power;

What can be grasped is discrimination.

Relying upon the seeds within the mind,

It observes and grasps external objects.

These two kinds of turning are delusion;

There is no third cause.

If, because of delusion, they do not arise,

Upon what dharma does non-arising depend?

The sixty and the eighteen dharmas—

Therefore I teach mind-only.

One’s own mind sees external dharmas

And sees them as separate from self;

If one enters into the mind’s discrimination,

One then becomes free from the characteristics of all dharmas.

Relying upon the alaya,

The various consciousnesses can arise;

The deluded enter the inner body,

While the mind sees the external ayatanas.

They grasp stars and circles of hair,

As forms are seen in a dream;

Conditioned, unconditioned, and permanent—

Discrimination is not truly so.

Illusions and cities of gandharvas,

Like birds and beasts delighting in water,

Are seen as existent though they are not;

The nature arising through other-power is likewise.

The form of self and the various faculties—

I teach the three kinds of mind:

Mind, mentation, and consciousness,

Free from characteristics of intrinsic substance;

Mind, mentation, and consciousness,

Free from characteristics of other substance;

Mind, mentation, and consciousness,

Without self and without dual substance.

The characteristics and intrinsic essence of the five dharmas

Are the realm of the Blessed One.

As to characteristics, there are three kinds,

Relying upon a single cause of perfuming,

Like a single kind of pigment

Seen as manifold upon a wall.

The two kinds of no-self,

Mentation and the characteristics of the consciousnesses,

And the essential characteristics of the five dharmas—

The nature of self is not truly so.

Far removed from all characteristics of mind,

With consciousness free from the characteristics of mentation,

Such is the essence of all dharmas;

This is My realm.

Freedom from the substance of all dharmas

Is the nature of the Tathagata;

Karmas of body, speech, and mind

Do not create pure dharmas there.

The Tathagata-nature is pure,

Free from all practices;

Masterful and pure in all superknowledges,

Adorned with the powers of samadhi,

With manifold mind-made bodies—

This is the pure nature of the Tathagata,

Free from defilement, wisdom realized inwardly,

Free from all causal characteristics.

The Eighth Bhumi and the Buddha Bhumi

Are the nature of the Tathagatas;

The Far-Going Bhumi, the Sugata Bhumi,

The Dharma-Cloud Bhumi, and the Buddha Bhumi

Are the nature of all Buddhas;

The other bhumis are viewed in terms of the three vehicles.

Relying on the distinct bodies of sentient beings,

And because the deluded abandon the characteristics,

Seven kinds of bhumi are taught;

Thus the Buddha teaches the bhumis of mind.

The obstructions of body, speech, and mind

Are absent in the Seventh Bhumi;

In the Eighth Bhumi, the wondrous body

Is like the appearance of a torrent in a dream.

In the Eighth Bhumi and the Fifth Bhumi,

They master all manner of arts;

All children of the Buddha

Become kings within the three realms of existence.

Arising and non-arising,

Neither distinguished as empty nor nonempty,

Real and also unreal—

Within the mind, it is not thus.

“This is real; this is unreal”—

Do not discriminate reality in this way.

Pratyekabuddhas and shravakas

Are not taught as the Buddha’s children.

Existence and nonexistence are unreal;

Nor is there a characteristic of emptiness.

Provisional names and real dharmas

Are all nonexistent within the mind.

Depending upon conventional truth, dharmas exist;

In ultimate truth, all are empty.

Deluded unreal dharmas

Are the dharmas of conventional truth.

All dharmas and non-dharmas

I teach as mere provisional names;

Language and objects of enjoyment

Are seen by the deluded as truly real (as they really are).

According to the dharmas of language,

A realm is held to truly exist;

From verbal dharmas, dharmas arise,

Yet the dharmas seen are not truly so.

Just as, apart from a wall, no painting exists,

And just as a reflection does not exist apart from its image,

The originally pure consciousness is likewise,

For waves do not manifest therein.

Like an illusion, mind is likewise;

Mentation is like a cunning person;

Consciousness together with the five kinds

Discriminatively sees things as variegated colors.

What is called habituation to the true Dharma,

The accumulated possessions produced by transformation,

Is the foundation of all Buddhas;

The remainder are transformation Buddhas who respond to beings.

The deluded mind dwells among visible objects,

Yet within the mind no visible object exists;

The provisions that nourish and sustain the body

Are immediately manifested by the alaya.

Mind, mentation, and consciousness,

The real essence of the five dharmas,

And the purity of the two kinds of no-self—

These are the words of the Tathagata Buddha.

False cognition has no objective realm,

And it is likewise so for the shravakas;

The inwardly realized realm—

These are the words of the Tathagata Buddha.

Long and short await one another;

This and that arise in dependence upon one another.

Existence can become nonexistence;

Nonexistence can become existence.

As for the discrimination of minute particles,

The substance of form does not discriminate.

To say that all is merely in the mind

Cannot purify wrong views;

Within it, discrimination is empty,

And non-emptiness is likewise.

Merely discriminating existence and nonexistence,

What can be spoken is not truly so;

Through the combination of the qualities of minute particles,

The deluded discriminate form.

Each individual minute particle is nonexistent;

Therefore nonexistence is the meaning.

One’s own mind sees forms and characteristics;

Sentient beings see external existence.

There are no externally visible dharmas;

Therefore nonexistence is the meaning.

The mind is like an illusion, circles of hair,

A city of gandharvas, or a dream;

Like birds and beasts delighting in a wheel of fire,

People see what is not truly there.

Oneness and permanence, impermanence,

Duality and nonduality as well—

Bound by beginningless faults,

The deluded foolishly discriminate.

I do not teach three vehicles,

But teach only the One Vehicle;

In order to gather in sentient beings,

Therefore I teach the One Vehicle.

There are three kinds of liberation;

Also taught is the no-self of dharmas.

Impartial wisdom and afflictions

Depend upon discriminated liberation.

Just as a tree in water

Is swept drifting about by waves,

So are the foolish shravakas

Tossed about by various characteristics.

They have no ultimate destination,

Nor do they return to birth again.

Having attained the samadhi of quiescent cessation,

They do not know immeasurable kalpas.

That concentration of the shravakas

Is not that of My bodhisattvas.

Though free from the secondary afflictions,

They remain bound by the afflictions upon which they depend.

Intoxicated by the blissful realm of samadhi,

They abide in that uncontaminated realm;

Like a person drunk in the worldly realm,

When the wine’s effect fades, they awaken.

Only thereafter does that person attain

The embodiment of my Buddha-Dharma,

Like one sunk deep in the mud,

Struggling bodily here and there.

Thus are the shravakas intoxicated

By samadhi, likewise submerged therein.

THE LANKAVATARA SUTRA

– End of the Ninth Fascicle –