集諸法寶最上義論

I take refuge in all the Buddhas

I take refuge in all the Dharma-treasuries

I bow in homage to the Wise Ones

Vastly, for the sake of the most profound principle

I now compose a treatise, named the Supreme Jewel. Within the most supreme, true Dharma, it determines and elucidates the meaning with certainty.

The treatise says: From beginningless time until now, the darkness of delusion has been the cause that gives rise to humans, gods, and all the classes of sentient beings. There is a fundamental evil path; if anyone wishes to enter the joyful place of the pure all-knowing wisdom, then one must take refuge in the light of the Buddha. Herein, it causes us to depart from all natures and all causes, so as to know all suffering and affliction, the karma of defilements, which gives rise to all the variously defiled dharmas.

They have no beginning, no abiding, and yet no real substance. There is only the place of arising and dreamlike illusion. Because dreamlike illusion arises from discrimination, one should know that all dharmas are born from conditions.

Therefore the Buddhas, within that meaning of conditioned arising, then proclaim that all dharmas, all things, are empty of nature, without self-nature; and yet they do not abide in the place of conceiving them as truly nonexistent. Therefore the ālaya-consciousness is pure. Although it has that which it receives, yet it is not stained by defilement.

This meaning is profound, and moreover exceedingly vast. The sūtra teaches:

"All is spoken thus. Those who joyfully wish to seek liberation should, in this way, clearly understand all dharmas. One must know that all dharmas do not depart from Consciousness. If they depart from consciousness, then that nature is at once severed. Therefore, within that Dharma, there is truly no existent nature."

The Dharma-Saṃgīti Sūtra (Sūtra of the Collection of Dharmas) records thus:

"If a dharma is real, or a dharma is unreal. If it has self-nature and is without self-nature. Both do not correspond with the simile of illusion.

All dharmas are not existent in nature, yet also not nonexistent in nature. Here it is said: if one truly takes them to be without nature, then that absence of nature is called emptiness, and this very emptiness then becomes annihilation. If one truly takes them to have nature, then that very nature must be permanent, and so one should know that to speak of emptiness is not other than emptiness.

Apart from emptiness, the non-empty likewise cannot be obtained. Again, like light and darkness, the two affairs are not alike. Apart from darkness, apart from light, both likewise cannot be obtained.

Therefore one must know that here it is said: that which does not manifest the darkness, how then does it depart from it? The wise one and the foolish one are two things that are not alike. Apart from the wise and apart from the foolish, again there is nothing to be obtained.

Neither wise nor foolish—these two, in the middle, when I reflect upon them, are both empty. All those dharmas are without inside, without outside, and moreover have no intermediate. There is no dharma to be held and no dharma to be relinquished."

The Ratnakūṭa Sūtra (Heap of Jewels Sūtra) records thus:

"If one says this has one side; or says there is not the two sides; or says one; or two; or the intermediate—all are without mark, and so cannot be seen. Having no mark to be seen, therefore it again cannot be spoken. Without shape, without image, therefore it cannot be displayed.

It has no species; the Dharma has no place where it is gathered and converted and retained. Nor does it abide in the middle so as to be established. Here is spoken the word of truth.

Nature and absence of nature are originally just so. Wishing to make explanation of this, one must clearly contemplate the Noble Truth, which can depart from craving and the faults of affliction. Even if affliction has a place of arising, with respect to the Noble Truth there is no place of attachment.

If one knows it thus, this is the matter clearly understood. Then one attains the accumulation of merit upon the body of the Tathāgata. Making the lion's roar, turning the great Dharma-wheel.

Causing all to be able to see and hear."

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra records thus:

"I speak of marklessness, which cannot be grasped. In the Vivartana-vijñāna Sūtra (Sūtra of the Turning of Consciousness) it is said: To posit a Dharma-principle apart from Consciousness does not correspond. In the Vyākaraṇa Sūtra (Sūtra of Prophecy) it is said: One must know that Consciousness, transformed by Mind, produces all dharmas."

The Daśabhūmika Sūtra (Sūtra of the Ten Grounds) records: "Form-dharmas are not real; they cannot be grasped or relinquished. In the Anugupta Sūtra it is said: If one understands the nature of all dharmas, then the matter that was not known will be known. Therefore herein there is truly nothing to be obtained. The substance of wisdom is not real, ever knowing as illusion, and all the sūtras teach and speak thus.

The Bodhisattvas turn in accord with the various marks; yet these marks have no real meaning, nothing to be obtained. In the Truth of Supreme Meaning, it cannot be established."

The Ratnamegha Sūtra (Jewel-Cloud Sūtra) records:

"If the root is empty, it cannot be said to exist. Because Consciousness departs from discrimination, it is called that which cannot be established. The Truth of Supreme Meaning—that true principle departs from speech, and the nature of all things is truly without anything to be attained. Here is spoken the determinative word, which the Buddha, using intention, speaks in order to refute those who are without wisdom."

The Sūtra of Manifesting Love (Hiển Ái Kinh) records:

"If one says there is a thing, it is in fact empty. The karmic retribution of sentient beings, then, has the defiled and the pure. If there is the defiled and the pure, then there is a place of activity. If there is a place of activity, then each and every thing turns in accord with the marks of the world. Because there is the turning of marks, therefore one sees there is a place of accomplishment. If one can abide steadfastly in the place of conception that is without inversion, then one knows that the nature of things has no separate real substance. This is like the meaning of what the Bodhisattva Maitreya asked:

World-Honored One! Speaking as it truly is, the Self is originally boundless, and therefore Bodhi too is boundless. Because Bodhi is boundless, there is no Bodhi to be attained. The Self is boundless, therefore there is no one who seeks Bodhi. Moreover there is no minute dharma whatsoever by which the known can be known. Only the wisdom of the Buddhas can illumine it clearly. That Dharma of True Suchness is precisely Naturelessness. Naturelessness is precisely the Tathāgata. The Tathāgata means the Nature of Non-Arising.

The Sūtra Phong Bát Đa Thiết Đa records:

All those dharmas, if one says they are permanent, and grasps them as empty, this then becomes the view of annihilation. If they are neither existent nor empty, then again the intermediate is not established."

The Ratnakūṭa Sūtra (Heap of Jewels Sūtra) records:

"All those dharmas are defiled by craving and affliction; the one who is liberated has no mark of exhaustion. If one understands that the self-nature of affliction is originally pure, then with respect to the Truth of Supreme Meaning, that escape cannot itself be escaped. Whoever wishes to contemplate the truth within the Tathāgata should contemplate the place of arising of the Tathāgata's liberation.

It does not arise from a cause, it does not arise from a condition. It has no mark of arising, nor does it arise from discrimination. It is far removed from all the differentiated designations.

It has no form-mark, has no form; the True Suchness, even up to the non-consciousness-mark and non-consciousness. True Suchness is neither dark nor bright. It is neither identical nor apart, neither seen nor known.

Departing from all consciousness-dharmas, it has nothing that is distinctly cognized. It does not abide within any of the consciousness-dharmas. If one can contemplate the Tathāgata thus, this is called Right Contemplation.

If that one's contemplation is named wrong contemplation. Because of wrong contemplation, that one cannot see the truth of the Tathāgata. Here is spoken the meaning as it truly is, departing from existence, departing from emptiness; neither natured, nor without nature.

Such is called clearly seeing the Tathāgata.

The Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Flower Garland Sūtra) records:

"There was a god who descended and asked the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Diệu Cát Tường): What is true speech and untrue speech? How are all afflictions to be subdued?

The venerable Mañjuśrī answered:

Like a person who in a dream sees a great serpent there—though this person sees it, he is not harmed by its venom; though affliction arises, its nature is not real. This nature is pure and subdues itself. This is true speech, and not-true speech.

Furthermore, the Bodhisattva Sāgaramati (Hải Tuệ) asked the Inconceivable Brahmā-deva:

The Dharma is fundamentally not realized, and moreover has nothing to be spoken—then how can there be a Buddha and the Buddha-Dharma?

The Inconceivable Brahmā-deva answered:

If a Buddha, a Tathāgata, appears in the world together with that exposition, this is the Dharma of the Buddha. Whether it exists or does not exist, its root is of itself just so. From beginning to end it is not spoken, and moreover not realized.

Because it is not spoken, therefore it is not heard. Because it is not realized, therefore it is not attained. Only because of the afflictions and karma of sentient beings do the various fruits of retribution arise.

That nature still arises within the great Bodhi-mind of the Buddhas. Within the realm of the compassionate mind of the Bodhisattvas. If the afflictions of sentient beings—those natures can subdue themselves.

With respect to all the practices, the constant non-practice, without seeking, without vow. The nature of those afflictions is wholly pure. The Buddhas, moreover, neither realize nor speak.

Furthermore, the youth Sudhana (Thiện Tài Đồng Tử) said: One must know that all dharmas are entirely like illusion, and that I, within that illusion, seek liberation. As that meaning is spoken in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra:

One should know that all dharmas are like illusion, like a dream, like the sunlight, like a gathering and scattering. Again, like the city of the gandharvas. All the dharmas of the three realms arise from the mind-consciousness. Because the mind is like illusion, therefore the three realms too are like illusion. If there were any one thing that had real substance, this would mean the illusion-simile does not correspond to the principle. This is spoken in the Samādhi-rāja Sūtra (Sūtra of the King of Samādhis). At the same time, the other sūtras also speak in accord with the meaning above.

Furthermore, I now, relying upon the sūtras, will speak the various meanings in brief. As the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī said: Bodhi is not attained by means of the body, nor attained by means of the mind. If there is no mind, then there is no body. Body and mind being thus mutually departed, there is nothing to be done. Like illusion, like a phantom-creation. Thus is it called Bodhi. The Buddhas say that this is Bodhi, by which one can enter the realm of the equality of the Buddhas, and therefore it is also called the Adornment of Wisdom, which yet does not adorn, that all-wisdom. The nature of all-wisdom cannot be obtained. Bodhi is unborn and also ceased. Neither one nor different, neither this nor that. The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, have spoken thus.

Furthermore, it is like all the seeds of the world: all of them generate; all of them put forth sprouts. If there were no seeds, then the sprouts would not be born. The Bodhisattva Śākyamuni sat at the seat of awakening, the Bodhi-maṇḍa, to accomplish Right Enlightenment; this meaning too is just so.

It is only from the various dharmas, following along with conditions, that arising arises. Although there is a place of realization, yet in truth this is not real. This is what is called the Sportive Spiritual Power (vikrīḍita-abhijñā).

Therefore one must know there is no outer dharma. The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, moreover have no nature. Therefore, apart from Consciousness, there truly is not a single dharma.

If apart from Consciousness, the Dharma does not arise. If the Mind can arise, that Mind is then unborn. If a dharma is that which gives rise to a dharma, and the dharma again is not born—this is that meaning.

The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, within Non-Arising, use that mind to speak the meaning of Bodhi. Therefore the Buddha says that the Mind-Consciousness can give rise to Bodhi. And again, it is not that the Mind-Consciousness can give rise to it.

Why is this? Because the Nature of Consciousness is originally empty!

The venerable Mañjuśrī said: This is the supreme truth. Within the realm of his own Buddha-realm, he speaks as it truly is:

Furthermore, all dharmas arise from conditions; yet in that arising there is again no self-nature. Therefore all dharmas are entirely like illusion. It is said to be like illusion. Therefore one speaks as it truly is. The Bodhisattva Maitreya manifests within the illusion-like Samādhi. Therefore the World-Honored One, within this Samādhi, bestowed the prophecy upon him; this is the emblem.

Furthermore, the World-Honored One, within countless sūtras, all speak that all dharmas are manifested through transformation from Consciousness. Departing from arising, departing from ceasing, neither having a mark, nor gathered and stored, neither rising into activity nor coming to rest. Neither existent nor empty, neither permanent nor annihilated. One should know that the nature of wisdom is entirely like illusion. How much more so the dharmas that have a place of discrimination. If there is one who grasps at the words of annihilation and permanence, then that one is not in right practice. The Buddha does not permit it. If one knows that all dharmas are neither annihilated nor permanent, that one then corresponds. It is named the truth.

In oneself and outside, there is no dharma of attachment, and moreover no dharma abiding in the mind as a counteragent. Although, with respect to the dharmas, one speaks many kinds of phrases, yet in accord with the dharmas, taking them as the place of clear display, one must know that it is one's own Consciousness and not another's consciousness. Here, with respect to the outer meaning, there is not the slightest dharma that is a place where joy can arise.

One's own consciousness is without nature, and another's consciousness too is without nature. With respect to self and other, moreover, there is no other nature. That truthful wisdom departs from existence and emptiness.

One should know that the consciousness of self too has no existence. The pudgala-skandha (the aggregate of self) is said to have a place of gathering, and therefore one knows that all Buddhas, all dharmas, each have their own. If, departing from one's own portion, one seeks, then it cannot be obtained; this is precisely what is spoken of as departing from existence, departing from emptiness.

This is the profound meaning by which the Buddhas all speak of this Subtle and Wondrous Dharma. Far removed from all the places of attached discrimination. Apart from this matter, moreover, there is no discrimination by which to speak.

Those who are deluded and confused either become attached to existence, which then has good and evil, the two kinds of difference. If one becomes attached to emptiness, then there is no reflection that this arises in an instant. Therefore attachment to existence and attachment to emptiness are both unalike.

The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, out of the compassionate mind and by skillful means, speak this meaning. That is, all dharmas depart from existence and depart from emptiness. Such is what is spoken of as the supreme phrasing.

Therefore this says that the dharmas are the truth. The Dharma has no nature of attachment, and moreover is not a place to be observed. The nature that is without attachment is precisely departing from existence and departing from emptiness.

If one knows it thus, this is the wise one. One should ever contemplate that empty space neither increases nor decreases, has no measure of division, and is boundless. It is from this empty space that all is produced.

The pure mind-consciousness too is just so. This mind is mindless, and from it all things come forth.

Again, like that pure maṇi-jewel which, being mindless, reflects all images. Should there be one who asks: Why is it that, dividing it out, it cannot be retained?—then one should answer: There, empty space is without activity, having a limit, and therefore it cannot be retained. If that empty space were without the limit of activity, then with what could it be compared so as to be obtained?

One should know that the realm of all sentient beings is like a gathering of fine motes of dust, and yet that empty space can contain all of them. The sentient beings together with the realm of empty space have no place of increase or decrease. Or all the classes of sentient beings, even unto all places.

All species, all forms and marks, each and every one is discriminated. Therein there truly is not a single nature that has a place of arising. In this meaning there is no single nature and no manifold nature.

One, many, and the middle, moreover, are all without nature. If one says a single nature definitely has something to be attained, then this is a manifold nature that has a place of difference. Having a nature of difference, there then arises discrimination.

Therefore single nature and manifold nature—these natures are all equal. Or, with respect to the outer meaning, there is no place of attachment. With respect to wisdom, moreover, there is nothing to be attained.

If, with respect to the outer meaning, there is no place of attachment, and with respect to wisdom, moreover, there is no place of arising; or if the mind, being consciousness, departs from the marks, then how can that outer dharma have any measure? If the mind's cognition has the various marks, then how can that outer dharma be measured? Therefore one must know that, with respect to that outer jewel-dharma, there is no single nature that can rise up so as to be produced.

Like a dream, the dharma truly has no function. If one says the dharmas are this, then this has no self-mark. If one says the dharmas are that, then that too is unreal.

If, with respect to one's own mind, one clearly knows what there is, then in this very own mind too there is nothing real. If one knows as it truly is, this is named awakening, the clear knowing of the marks of consciousness. If there is all the coarse and heavy discrimination raising up that mind, one should know that all of it is the arising of the differences of affliction.

If one has already clearly known that the nature of affliction departs from the discriminating mind, then saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa are both pure. This pure nature is precisely the nature of all dharmas. This nature, moreover, has the name True Suchness, called the True Limit.

It also has the name Emptiness. With respect to these natures, whether defiled or pure, using true wisdom to observe, all are attained as equal.

Should there be one who asks: With respect to all dharmas, what is the indestructible? One should answer: The dharmas, by their own cause, are indestructible. Why are they not destroyed?

Being indestructible is the nature of the cause. If a dharma has nature, or a dharma is without nature, both do not depart from self-nature. And the meaning of the two sides—how can it be established?

If the cause of the dharmas, together with their function, has a place of destruction, then in all places that principle does not correspond. The true nature of the dharmas—how can it turn along with anything? That is, that true nature has no place of abiding.

The dharmas, being without nature, how can they have a cause? Apart from cause, moreover, there is no separate nature. Furthermore!

The true nature of the dharmas has no place of destruction. Thus that destruction, designated by that name, moreover has no place of abiding. Herein, moreover, there is no differentiated nature of the cause.

The nature of that destruction has no divided location. The truth of all dharmas is the nature of permanent abiding. That nature of permanent abiding is not a nature of impermanence.

If, departing from the real nature, there were a separate meaning, then the function of that doctrine would not correspond. Nevertheless, the nature of things, moreover, does not diminish. Furthermore, the nature that is not impermanence is the true nature.

Within that true nature, what meaning is there? Here, the function and the nature, being without difference, cannot be discriminated. All those bounds of permanence and all those places, moreover, are not a nature of impermanence but are the true nature.

Within that true nature, how is the mark attained?

Those things that are not truth—how are they established here? The various differentiated natures—how do they exist here? Therefore it is not a nature of impermanence; thus one should know.

Furthermore, one should know: The nature of impermanence, with respect to the nature of things, turns and changes into many other kinds of nature. These kinds, gathering together and then manifesting, are the cause of difference. The place of desire being the cause, they then arise.

Or, with respect to that nature of impermanence; herein, taking it as a place of determination to speak, it does not correspond with the principle of consciousness-only. That nature of impermanence has no determination. If a dharma is not destroyed, and moreover is not not-destroyed.

There is a dharma that arises within an instant. If one says it is not destroyed, how can it have the name nature of impermanence? If it is not not-destroyed, how can it be named the cause of nature?

Past and future dharmas too are just so; all things have no nature. Truly there is definitely the discrimination of the dharmas that turns along with it. Following along with this division, here it is called what cause?

That is, it has no place of abiding. Within the conditioned, before the eyes is the vanishing; that is, afterward it is destroyed, and again it arises anew. Before, it cannot be discriminated, and then afterward it leads to the arising of discrimination.

Afterward it cannot be discriminated; from there being discrimination before, it arises. If one says the dharmas here have a place of attainment. Then upon this there rises the cause of discrimination.

If one says those dharmas have a place of attainment, then upon that there rises the cause of discrimination. Past and future, having no abiding, are likewise just so! Herein there is no location; the discrimination of momentary dharmas can be said to have destruction or to be without destruction; in this meaning it is not the dharma of each instant.

If, with respect to that, the cause has thus been understood, then before and after, or in the middle, moreover cannot be discriminated.

The Compendium of the Supreme Essential Meaning of All Dharmas (Tập Chư Pháp Yếu Tối Thượng Nghĩa Luận)

End of the upper scroll