菩提資糧論

Question: The Perfection of Patience has been explained. Now the Perfection of Diligence should be discussed.

Answer: A vigorous essential character, vigorously undertaking action, is precisely diligence. In this regard, from their initial generation of bodhicitta until their ultimate arrival at the seat of enlightenment, bodhisattvas establish all wholesome actions of body, speech, and mind that accord with the factors of enlightenment. This is called the Perfection of Diligence.

Furthermore, the diligence that is not shared with ordinary beings, trainees and non-trainees among the sravakas, or pratyekabuddhas is called the Perfection of Diligence.

Diligence is of three kinds: bodily, verbal, and mental. Bodily and verbal diligence are preceded by mental diligence. Briefly, there are three kinds of meritorious activity:

If the body accords with meritorious activity, this is bodily diligence;

If speech accords with meritorious activity, this is verbal diligence;

If the mind accords with meritorious activity, this is mental diligence.

Furthermore, in wholesome conduct, whether for one’s own benefit or that of others, vigorous bodily action is bodily diligence; vigorous verbal action is verbal diligence; vigorous mental action is mental diligence.

Furthermore, bodhisattvas have thirty-two kinds of diligence: diligence in preventing the lineage of the Three Jewels from being severed; diligence in bringing immeasurable kinds of sentient beings to maturity; diligence in embracing immeasurable rounds of cyclic existence; diligence in making immeasurable offerings and rendering service; diligence in accumulating immeasurable roots of goodness; diligence in giving rise to immeasurable diligence; diligence in speaking skillfully so that sentient beings rejoice; diligence in bringing peace and security to all sentient beings; diligence in acting in accordance with all that sentient beings do; diligence in practicing equanimity toward sentient beings; diligence in undertaking the precepts of training;

diligence in cultivating the gentle strength of patience; diligence in giving rise to the dhyanas, samadhis, and samapattis; diligence in perfecting unattached wisdom; diligence in accomplishing the four Brahma-abodes; diligence in giving rise to the five superknowledges; diligence in making the qualities of all Buddha-fields into one’s own Buddha-field; diligence in subduing all maras; diligence in defeating the doctrines of all non-Buddhist schools; diligence in perfecting the Buddha-Dharmas, such as the ten powers and four fearlessnesses; diligence in adorning body, speech, and mind; diligence in accomplishing all that must be done; diligence in destroying the afflictions; diligence in bringing across those who have not yet been brought across;

diligence in liberating those who have not yet been liberated; diligence in awakening those who have not yet awakened; diligence in bringing to nirvana those who have not yet attained nirvana; diligence in accumulating the marks produced by a hundred merits; diligence in embracing all Buddha-Dharmas; diligence in seeing all Buddhas; and diligence in reaching immeasurable Buddha-fields.

These forms of diligence arise from great compassion, are free from body, speech, and mind, neither grasp nor reject, attain neither high nor low, and embrace non-arising and non-origination. Having understood these thirty-two forms of diligence, the Perfection of Diligence will become completely pure. Here there are also sacred verses:

Question: The Perfection of Diligence has now been briefly explained. The Perfection of Dhyana should next be discussed.

Answer: Dhyana is of four kinds: With initial and sustained application, and with the joy and bliss born of seclusion, one enters the first dhyana; without initial or sustained application, and with the joy and bliss born of concentration, one enters the second dhyana; free from joy, practicing equanimity, mindful and clearly knowing, and experiencing bliss, one enters the third dhyana; with the cessation of pain and the purification of mindfulness by equanimity, neither painful nor pleasant, one enters the fourth dhyana. When these four kinds of dhyana are separated from realization on the grounds of sravakas and pratyekabuddhas and dedicated toward the state of Buddhahood, they are called the Perfection of Dhyana.

Bodhisattvas have sixteen kinds of Perfection of Dhyana that sravakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot possess. What are these sixteen? They are: the dhyana that does not apprehend meditation as truly existent; the dhyana that does not cling to the flavor of meditation; the dhyana in which great compassion follows its objects; the dhyana that redirects samadhi; the dhyana that activates superknowledges; the dhyana of mental capability; the dhyana of the samapattis; the dhyana of tranquility beyond tranquility; the immovable dhyana; the dhyana free from adverse conditions; the dhyana that enters wisdom; the dhyana that accords with the mental conduct of sentient beings; the dhyana that prevents the lineage of the Three Jewels from being severed; the irreversible dhyana;

the dhyana of mastery over all dharmas; and the dhyana that destroys distraction.

These sixteen kinds of dhyana are precisely the Perfection of Dhyana.

The dhyana that does not apprehend meditation as truly existent is for perfecting the Tathagata’s dhyana; the dhyana that does not cling to the flavor of meditation is for not craving one’s own happiness; the dhyana in which great compassion follows its objects is for demonstrating the means of eliminating sentient beings’ afflictions; the dhyana that redirects samadhi is for taking the Desire Realm as its object; the dhyana that activates superknowledges is for knowing the mental conduct of all sentient beings; the dhyana of mental capability is for accomplishing wisdom and mastery of mind; the dhyana of the samapattis is for transcending the Form and Formless Realms; the dhyana of tranquility beyond tranquility is for transcending the samapattis of sravakas and pratyekabuddhas;

the immovable dhyana is for ultimate consummation; the dhyana free from adverse conditions is for escaping all worldly states; the dhyana that accords with the mental conduct of sentient beings is for delivering sentient beings; the dhyana that prevents the lineage of the Three Jewels from being severed is for the inexhaustible dhyana of the Tathagata; the irreversible dhyana is for constantly entering concentration; and the dhyana of mastery over all dharmas is for perfecting all activities. (The sixteenth, the dhyana that destroys distraction, is not explained because it is missing from the original text.)

Furthermore, there are: purity of mindfulness, purity of wisdom, purity of approach, purity of moral conscience, purity in maintaining a mind of aspiration, purity of not apprehending true existence, purity in activating superknowledges, purity of mental capability, purity of bodily seclusion, purity of inner tranquility, purity of not engaging externally, purity of views involving attainment, purity of no sentient being, no life, and no person, purity of not abiding in the three realms, purity of the gateways to the factors of awakening, purity of gaining luminosity by abandoning obscurations, purity of opening the treasury of the marks of wisdom and jewels, purity of embracing skillful preparatory means, purity from obstructions at the seat of enlightenment,

purity of not clinging to sravakas or pratyekabuddhas, purity of abiding in dhyana and producing luminosity, purity of the undistracted samadhi of a Buddha, purity of observing the conduct of one’s own mind, and purity of teaching the Dharma appropriately through knowing sentient beings’ faculties. (Two purities are missing from the original text.) Through these thirty-two kinds of purity, the sixteen kinds of Perfection of Dhyana become purified, enabling entry into the Tathagata’s ground.

Here there is a sloka:

Question: The brief explanation of the Perfection of Dhyana has been completed. The Perfection of Prajna should now be discussed in sequence.

Answer: The Perfection of Prajna, as explained before, is the foremost provision. I shall now further explain its characteristics, as stated in the preceding verse:

Beyond these kinds, there are four other perfections: the Perfection of Skillful Means, the Perfection of Aspiration, the Perfection of Power, and the Perfection of Knowledge. All four are embraced by the Perfection of Prajna.

The Perfection of Prajna is this: beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha, the Blessed One, with a single thought corresponding to knowledge, fully awakened to all dharmas. This is the Perfection of Prajna.

Furthermore, it has the characteristic of being unobstructed because it has no body; the characteristic of being boundless because it is equal to space; the characteristic of being unequaled and equal because nothing can be attained in any dharma; the characteristic of being remote because it is ultimately empty; the characteristic of being unconquerable because nothing can be apprehended; the characteristic of being without phrases because there is no collection of names; the characteristic of not assembling because it is free from coming and going; the characteristic of having no cause because it is free from an agent; the characteristic of non-arising because arising does not exist; the characteristic of not proceeding because it is free from cyclic movement;

the characteristic of being indestructible because it is free from boundaries of before and after; the characteristic of being undefiled because it cannot be grasped; the characteristic of being free from conceptual proliferation because it is free from all conceptual proliferation; the characteristic of being unmoving because it is the essential nature of the dharmadhatu; the characteristic of not originating because it is free from discrimination; the characteristic of being immeasurable because it is free from measurement; the characteristic of having no support because no support exists; the characteristic of being stainless because it is unborn; the characteristic of being unfathomable because it has no boundary;

and the characteristic of being natural because it knows the intrinsic nature of all dharmas.

Furthermore, the Perfection of Prajna has the characteristics of wisdom born of hearing and entry into correct contemplation. The characteristics of wisdom born of hearing are of eighty kinds, beginning with joyful aspiration; correct contemplative entry is of thirty-two kinds, beginning with abiding in shamatha.

Furthermore, the Perfection of Prajna is not associated with sixteen kinds of ignorance, beginning with ignorance of former abodes.

Such characteristics of the Perfection of Prajna have been explained according to the present scope; if stated fully, they would be inexhaustible.

The Perfection of Skillful Means embraced within this Perfection of Prajna has eight kinds of skill: skill concerning aggregates, skill concerning dhatus, skill concerning ayatanas, skill concerning truths, skill concerning dependent arising, skill concerning the three times, skill concerning the vehicles, and skill concerning all dharmas. The Perfection of Skillful Means among these has no limit.

Furthermore, in whatever modes of birth and through whatever forms of conduct, for the sake of practicing enlightenment, bodhisattvas increase their own roots of goodness, tame sentient beings, and perform practices within the various modes of birth. Concerning all these situations, the great beings have distinguished and explained every appropriate deed and every variety of means. I shall now state only a small portion, like a single drop, drawn from the sutras.

If subtle wholesome deeds already performed or now being performed can be made many, and if many can in time be made immeasurable, this is skillful means. Acting not for oneself but solely for sentient beings is skillful means. Using dana alone to perfect all the perfections is skillful means.

Thus, they use sila to embrace all places of birth; ksanti to adorn body, speech, and mind for enlightenment; virya to abide in diligence; dhyana to remain irreversible in meditation; prajna to relinquish attachment to the unconditioned; loving-kindness as the support for protection; compassion so as not to abandon cyclic existence; sympathetic joy to endure unpleasantness; equanimity to initiate all wholesome qualities; the divine eye to encompass the Buddha-eye; the divine ear to perfect the Buddha-ear; knowledge of others’ minds to know every faculty; recollection of former abodes to know the three times without obstruction; their own mastery of superknowledge to attain the Buddha’s mastery of superknowledge;

and entry into the inclinations of sentient beings’ minds to know their various forms of conduct.

Having attained deliverance, they enter again; undefiled, they manifest defilement; having laid down their burden, they take it up again; immeasurable, they appear measurable; supreme, they appear inferior. Through skillful means, although corresponding with nirvana, they remain within cyclic existence; although practicing nirvana, they do not reach final cessation; they appear as maras yet transcend all maras; they attain knowledge of the Four Truths and contemplate non-arising, yet do not enter the fixed state; although acting amid commotion, they do not conform to the latent afflictions; although practicing seclusion, they do not rely upon the extinction of body and mind; although acting in the three realms, within the three realms they do not practice according to conventional truth;

although practicing emptiness, they constantly seek the Buddha-Dharma at all times; although practicing the unconditioned, they do not realize the unconditioned as a final attainment; although practicing the six superknowledges, they do not exhaust the outflows; and although displaying the deportment of sravakas and pratyekabuddhas, they do not relinquish their joyful aspiration for the Buddha-Dharma.

Among such perfections of skillful means, however many means there are for teaching and transforming sentient beings, those means should be understood as the bodhisattva’s sphere of abiding in order to teach and transform them. Here there is a sloka:

The torments within the animal realm,
And likewise birth among hell beings and hungry ghosts,
While undergoing corresponding experiences in cyclic existence,
And the various evil faults of sentient beings—
Such an aggregate of suffering cannot obstruct
Their arousing compassion toward sentient beings.
The Buddhas therefore declare that bodhisattva
To possess unobstructed compassion for all the world.
If in treatises there are skillful compendia
Of the works composed by many others,
The sciences, crafts, and other matters,
They impart them all with affectionate speech.
Through morality, wealth, learning, cultivation, tranquility, and discipline,
They use these qualities to gather and transform people;
Having gathered them, they cause continuity to be maintained.
The Supreme Sage calls this abiding on the wholesome path.
Or they manifest a female body to deliver men,
Causing them to be tamed and receive instruction.
Or they do not grow weary of defiled objects of pleasure;
Pitying those without a path, they lead them onto the path.
According to the kinds of sentient beings, they transform them in various ways,
And do not abandon even those in the greatest torment.
Or there are people who believe in and understand selflessness,
And know that all dharmas are free from intrinsic nature;
These people have not yet abandoned worldly dharmas,
But proceed merely by observing in this way.
They develop faith in and accord with karma and its fruits,
Yet there are boundless kinds of suffering;
When they must undergo those painful results,
They are unhappy and oppressed by suffering.
They may have them go forth in the sravaka path
And then establish them in peaceful tranquility;
Or establish them upon the path of pratyekabuddhas;
Or establish them in the wondrous vehicle of the ten powers,
Causing them to attain the Vehicle of Perfect Awakening;
Or they attain tranquility and the heavenly realms.
If it is appropriate to observe presently visible results,
They establish them rightly according to their deeds.
Thus, from beginning until the very end,
These heroic ones accomplish every difficult deed.
Relying upon those various skillful means,
They abandon all attachment and aversion.
This vehicle is praised by all Buddhas
And adorned with hundreds of thousands of qualities;
It inspires supremely pure faith in the world
By teaching the most excellent and wondrous wholesome path.
Those of the sravaka vehicle, the pratyekabuddha vehicle,
And the worldly vehicles of gods and humans
Are all brought to maturity through the ten wholesome deeds;
And through the human vehicle, people are also brought to maturity.

Having explained the Perfection of Skillful Means, I shall now discuss the Perfection of Aspiration. At the outset, bodhisattvas have ten great aspirations. To make offerings and render service to all Buddhas without exception is the first great aspiration.

In the presence of all Buddhas, to preserve the great true Dharma, embrace perfect awakening, and universally protect the true teaching is the second great aspiration. In all worlds where Buddhas appear and arise, from their initial dwelling in Tusita Palace, descent into the world, entry into the womb, birth, renunciation, attainment of perfect awakening, request to turn the Dharma wheel, and entry into nirvana, always to go there first to make offerings and never depart is the third great aspiration.

The conduct of bodhisattvas is vast and immeasurable. The wholesome qualities embraced by the perfections are unmixed and undisturbed; they purify the grounds and give rise to common and particular divisions, general and specific characteristics, concurrent and non-concurrent activity, and all other bodhisattva practices. To explain these truthfully and according to their grounds, cultivate and purify the perfections, then instruct and transmit them, and, having received them, preserve them and generate minds that arise in accordance with reality—this is the fourth great aspiration.

To omit none within the realm of sentient beings—those with form or without form, with perception or without perception, born from eggs, wombs, moisture, or transformation, entering throughout the three realms and dwelling throughout the six destinies, following the various modes of birth, and included among the various forms—and to bring the entire realm of sentient beings to maturity and cause them to enter the Buddha-Dharma; to eliminate the destinies and establish them in the knowledge of omniscience—this is the fifth great aspiration.

To omit none of the vast and immeasurable worlds—whether subtle or coarse, upright or inverted, dwelling evenly through time, mutually entering and following one another—and, as all the divisions of the ten directions resemble a net, to enter every division and follow them with wisdom is the sixth great aspiration.

To know that all fields are one field and one field is all fields; to make all lands equally pure and universally adorned, free from afflictions and complete in the pure path’s immeasurable marks of wisdom; to fill them throughout with sentient beings, causing all to enter the Buddha’s supremely wondrous domain; and to manifest according to sentient beings’ minds so that they rejoice—this is the seventh great aspiration.

To be of one mind with all Buddhas and bodhisattvas; to accumulate roots of goodness not shared with others; to take the same objects as all bodhisattvas and never depart from the equality of bodhisattvas; to arouse one’s own mind and enter the Tathagata’s awesome spiritual power; to attain irreversible superknowledges; to travel throughout all worlds; to have one’s own body enter the places of all sentient beings in accordance with them; to perfect the inconceivable Mahayana; and to practice bodhisattva conduct—this is the eighth great aspiration.

To ascend to irreversible bodhisattva conduct; to ensure that the actions of body, speech, and mind are never fruitless; upon being seen, immediately to establish beings decisively in the Buddha-Dharma; upon uttering a single sound, immediately to cause them to enter wisdom; as soon as they have faith, immediately to cause their afflictions to turn away; to attain a body like that of the Great King of Bliss; and to practice all bodhisattva conduct—this is the ninth great aspiration.

To truly awaken to anuttara-samyak-sambodhi throughout all worlds; within a single pore and within every other pore to manifest birth, sitting at the seat of enlightenment, turning the Dharma wheel, and entering mahaparinirvana; through wisdom to enter the vast domain of the Buddha’s awesome spiritual power; for all sentient beings, according to their deep faith, to manifest when a Buddha should appear, awaken them, and cause them to attain tranquility; truly to awaken to the fact that all dharmas bear the characteristic of nirvana; by uttering a single sound to cause the minds of all sentient beings to rejoice; to manifest mahaparinirvana without interrupting the power of conduct; to reveal the ground of wisdom upon which all dharmas are established;

and through Dharma-knowledge, superknowledges, and the Buddha’s domain to pervade all worlds—this is the tenth great aspiration.

The great aspirations give rise first to these ten great aspirations. Having perfected them, bodhisattvas establish hundreds of thousands of asamkhya other aspirations and attain abiding on the bodhisattva’s Ground of Joy. This is called the Perfection of Aspiration.

Having explained the Perfection of Aspiration, I shall now discuss the Perfection of Power. Briefly, bodhisattvas have seven kinds of power: power born of meritorious recompense, power of superknowledge, power of faith, power of diligence, power of mindfulness, power of samadhi, and power of prajna.

Power born of meritorious recompense is as follows: the strength of ten young elephants equals that of one noble elephant; the strength of ten noble elephants equals that of one fragrant elephant; the strength of ten fragrant elephants equals that of one great fragrant elephant; the strength of ten great fragrant elephants equals that of one great champion; the strength of ten great champions equals that of half a Narayana; the strength of ten half-Narayanas equals that of one Narayana; the strength of ten Narayanas equals that of one Great Narayana; the strength of ten Great Narayanas equals that of one bodhisattva who has passed beyond a hundred eons; the strength of ten bodhisattvas who have passed beyond a hundred eons equals that of one bodhisattva who has attained patience;

and the strength of ten bodhisattvas who have attained patience equals that of one bodhisattva in his final birth.

Abiding in this power, immediately after birth the bodhisattva can walk seven steps. The strength at birth of ten bodhisattvas in their final birth equals the strength of one bodhisattva in youth. Abiding in this power, he will reach the seat of enlightenment and attain complete and perfect awakening.

Having attained perfect awakening, through qualities cultivated for more than hundreds of thousands of eons, he accomplishes the Tathagata’s Right and Universal Knowledge, the power of knowing what is possible and impossible, and thus accomplishes the ten powers. This is called the power born of the meritorious recompense of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and a small number of other sentient beings.

The power of superknowledge is as follows: By skillfully cultivating and repeatedly practicing the four bases of spiritual power, bodhisattvas tame sentient beings through this rare power of superknowledge. With rare spiritual power they manifest form, power, or sustaining mastery. If certain sentient beings should be tamed through a particular form, they assume that form. To those sentient beings they manifest the form of a Buddha, a pratyekabuddha, or a sravaka; or they manifest the forms of Sakra, Brahma, a World Protector, or a wheel-turning king. They may also manifest other forms, even the form of an animal, assuming such a form in order to tame sentient beings.

If there are powerful sentient beings who are proud, conceited, wrathful, fierce, and arrogant, and who should be tamed through power, bodhisattvas display such power: the strength of a great champion, a quarter of a Narayana, half a Narayana, or one Narayana. Through this power, they lift Mount Sumeru—which is 168,000 yojanas high and 84,000 yojanas wide—with three fingers as though lifting an amalaka fruit and cast it into another world, without troubling the gods of the Four Great Kings or the Thirty-Three, and without any diminishment of the bodhisattva’s power.

Furthermore, though this great trichiliocosm is vast, extending from the water element to the Peak of Existence, they place it upon their palm and hold it there for eons. On the path of the power of superknowledge, they fully display all such powers.

If sentient beings are proud, presumptuous, wrathful, and fierce, bodhisattvas teach them the Dharma and tame them, causing them to abandon pride, presumption, wrath, and ferocity.

Having attained such superknowledge and the knowledge of sustaining mastery, wherever they wish to exercise that sustaining mastery, they attain it as they please.

If they sustain the great ocean as an ox’s hoofprint, it becomes an ox’s hoofprint; if they sustain an ox’s hoofprint as the great ocean, it becomes the great ocean. If they sustain the conflagration at the end of an eon as a mass of water, it becomes a mass of water; if they sustain a mass of water as a mass of fire, it becomes a mass of fire; if they sustain a mass of fire as a mass of wind, it becomes a mass of wind; and if they sustain a mass of wind as a mass of fire, it becomes a mass of fire.

Thus, through this sustaining mastery, they sustain inferior, intermediate, or superior dharmas as they please. Once these have been sustained, no one can shake or make them disappear—neither Sakra, Brahma, mara, nor any similar worldly being. Apart from the Buddha, the Blessed One, no sentient being among all kinds of beings can shake or make disappear a dharma sustained by a bodhisattva.

Through the power of sustaining mastery, bodhisattvas teach the Dharma to various sentient beings who are supreme, joyous, courageous, and respectful.

That power of the bases of spiritual power rises high in mastery, transcends the mara of afflictions, enters the Buddha’s domain, awakens sentient beings, and gathers provisions of roots of goodness from former eons. Mara, the bodies of heavenly maras, and others cannot obstruct it. This is called the bodhisattva’s Power of Superknowledge.

The Power of Faith is this: Faith and understanding concerning the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and bodhisattva conduct cannot be obstructed or destroyed. Even if an evil mara manifests the body of a Buddha and attempts through some teaching to destroy that faith, because of the bodhisattva’s power of faith and understanding, mara cannot move the bodhisattva’s power of faith. This is called the Power of Faith.

The Power of Diligence is this: When a bodhisattva arouses diligence corresponding to wholesome dharmas, he gains firm power in every situation. Whatever practice he undertakes, neither god nor human can shake, destroy, or cause him to stop midway. This is called the Power of Diligence.

The Power of Mindfulness is this: While abiding among various dharmas, the mind remains completely settled, and the afflictions cannot distract it. Because mindfulness holds it firmly, it destroys the afflictions, while the afflictions cannot destroy the bodhisattva’s mindfulness. This is called the Power of Mindfulness.

The Power of Samadhi is this: Amid insecure conditions, bodhisattvas practice the conduct of seclusion. When sounds and words arise, sounds do not obstruct the first dhyana; practicing wholesome initial and sustained application does not obstruct the second dhyana; giving rise to affection and joy does not obstruct the third dhyana; and bringing sentient beings to maturity and embracing wholesome dharmas without ever abandoning them does not obstruct the fourth dhyana. Proceeding through these four dhyanas, the adverse conditions of dhyana cannot destroy them. Though bodhisattvas enter the dhyanas, they are not reborn according to the dhyanas. This is called the bodhisattva’s Power of Samadhi.

The Power of Prajna is this: Their knowledge of worldly and supramundane dharmas cannot be destroyed. Throughout the eons in which they are born, they acquire it without being taught by a teacher. In every activity involving the practical sciences, even the most difficult deeds and the most difficult and supreme forms of endurance in the world, bodhisattvas can make them manifest directly.

When bodhisattvas’ wisdom enters in accordance with the supramundane Dharma that delivers the world, the assemblies of gods, humans, and asuras cannot destroy it. This is called the Power of Prajna.

These seven powers of bodhisattvas have been briefly explained; if explained fully, they would be limitless. This is called the bodhisattva’s Perfection of Power.

Having briefly explained power, I shall now discuss the Perfection of Knowledge.

This includes the treatises, writing and printing, calculation and mathematics produced in the world; treatises on the elements (that is, the nature of illnesses of wind, bile, and phlegm); medical treatises and methods for treating wasting diseases, insanity, demonic possession, and other illnesses, and for neutralizing poisonous creatures. It also includes composing writings involving humor and amusing conversation that give rise to joy; producing villages, towns, gardens, ponds, wells, flowers, fruits, medicines, forests, and other things; displaying implements of gold, silver, mani, vaidurya, mother-of-pearl, gemstones, coral, and so forth; understanding eclipses of the moon and sun, the stars, earthquakes, ominous dreams, and other portents;

establishing physiognomic marks and the detailed parts of the body; and knowing the spheres of conduct governed by moral precepts, dhyana, immeasurable superknowledges, the Formless Realm, and whatever accords with perfect awakening and the other shore for the benefit of sentient beings.

Furthermore, bodhisattvas know the formation and destruction of worlds, fully understanding how worlds form and how worlds are destroyed. They also know that worlds form when karma accumulates and are destroyed when karma is exhausted. They know whether a world remains for a thousand years after forming or remains for a thousand years while being destroyed.

They know the immeasurable distinctions whereby the earth, water, fire, and wind elements are great or small. Their knowledge extends to the most minute particles: they know how many minute particles gather together and how minute particles disperse. They know the number of earth particles in a world and also the numbers of particles of water, fire, and wind.

They know the differences between the coarse and subtle bodies of sentient beings and even know the number of minute particles composing the bodies of hell beings, animals, hungry ghosts, asuras, gods, and humans.

They know the formation and destruction of the Form and Formless Realms, as well as their immeasurable differences in size.

They know the differences among bodies in lands that are great or small, pure or defiled, and among the interwoven directions in which they abide—horizontally, inverted, evenly, and so forth.

They know the different names of bodies among karmic-recompense bodies. They know the different names of bodies among the bodies of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas. Among the bodies of the Tathagata, they know the body of perfect awakening, the body of aspiration, the emanation body, the sustaining body, the body adorned with physical marks and excellent characteristics, the body of awesome radiance, the body of mental intention, the body of merit, and the Dharma-body.

Within the body of knowledge, they know skillful discernment, reasoning in accordance with reality, what is embraced by corresponding results, the worldly and supramundane, the establishment of the three vehicles, shared and unshared dharmas, the path of liberation and what is not the path of liberation, and awakening and non-awakening.

Within the body of space, they know entry into immeasurable bodies, all places that are not true bodies, and the boundless distinctions among bodies of form.

They give rise to knowledge that knows all such bodies.

Furthermore, they attain mastery of lifespan, mastery of mind, mastery of requisites, mastery of karma, mastery of aspiration, mastery of faith and understanding, mastery of superknowledges, mastery of knowledge, mastery of birth, and mastery of Dharma.

Having attained these ten masteries, they possess inconceivable knowledge, immeasurable knowledge, and irreversible knowledge. Such knowledge has eighty-four thousand modes of conduct and is known by bodhisattvas as the Perfection of Knowledge.

Thus the Perfection of Knowledge has been explained in part. If it were to be explained fully, only the Buddha, the Blessed One, could expound it.

As explained, the six perfections completely encompass the provisions for enlightenment, just as all things that move or remain within space, whether sentient or insentient, are entirely contained therein. Thus, it should be understood that all other provisions taught are embraced within the six perfections and do not differ from them in character.