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 profound principle

I now compose this Treatise, named the Supreme Jewel. Within the supreme, true Dharma it determines and clarifies the meaning.

The Treatise says: From beginningless time until now, delusion and darkness have been the cause that gives birth to humans, gods, and all sentient beings. There is the fundamental evil path; if anyone wishes to enter the joy of the pure all-knowing wisdom, then one must take refuge in the radiance 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 that gives rise to all defiled dharmas.

Without beginning, without abode, and without true substance. There is only that which is born, like a dream and an illusion. Because dream and illusion arise from discrimination, one should know that all dharmas arise from conditions.

Therefore the Buddhas, within that meaning of conditioned arising, immediately declare that all dharmas, all things, are empty of nature, void and without self-nature; and yet do not abide in conceiving that which is done as truly without substance. Therefore the ālaya-consciousness is pure. Although there is that which is received, yet it is not stained by attachment.

This meaning is deep and profound, and also exceedingly vast. The Sūtra teaches:

"All is spoken in this way. Those who joyfully wish to seek liberation should, in this manner, clearly know all dharmas. One should know that all dharmas are not apart from Consciousness. If one departs from consciousness, then that nature is at once severed. Therefore, within this Dharma, there is truly no existent nature."

The Dharma-Collection Sūtra (Dharmasaṃgīti) records thus:

"If a dharma is real, or if a dharma is unreal. If it has self-nature and is without self-nature. Both are not in accord with the simile of illusion and delusion.

Dharmas are neither of existent nature, and also neither of nonexistent nature. Here it is said: if truly without nature, then that absence of nature is called emptiness; and emptiness then becomes annihilation. If it truly has nature, then that very nature must be permanent; thus one should know that 'empty' is spoken, yet it is not different from empty.

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

Therefore one should know that what is here called 'not present darkness'—how then is it departed from? The wise one and the foolish one are two that are not the same. Apart from wisdom and apart from folly, again there is nothing to be obtained.

Neither wise nor foolish—these two, in the middle, when we reflect, are both empty. All those dharmas have no inside, no outside, and again no intermediate. There is no dharma to be grasped and no dharma to be relinquished."

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

"If one says here there is one side; or says there is no second side; or says one; or two; or intermediate—all are without characteristic, and so cannot be seen. Having no characteristic to be seen, therefore it again cannot be spoken. Without form, without image, therefore it cannot be displayed.

Having no kind or category; the Dharma has no place where it is gathered, transformed, and retained. Again it does not abide in the middle to be established. What is here spoken is the truthful word.

Nature and non-nature are originally thus. To explain this, one must clearly contemplate the Noble Truth, which can depart from craving and the faults of affliction. Suppose afflictions had a place of arising; with respect to the Noble Truth there is no place of attachment.

If one knows it thus, this is what is clearly understood. Then one attains the accumulation of merit in the body of the Tathāgata. One makes the lion's roar and turns the great Dharma-wheel.

One causes all to see and hear it."

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra records thus:

"I speak of the characteristic-less, which yet cannot be grasped. The Sūtra on the Turning of Consciousness says: Apart from Consciousness, a Dharma-principle is not in accord. The Sūtra of Prophetic Prediction says: One should know that Consciousness is, through the Mind, the transformation that produces all Dharmas."

The Ten Stages Sūtra (Daśabhūmika) records: "Form-dharmas are not real and cannot be grasped or relinquished. The Anavatapta Sūtra says: If one clearly knows the nature of all Dharmas, then that which is not known shall be known. Therefore herein there is truly nothing to be obtained. The substance of wisdom is unreal yet ever-knowing, like an illusion, and all the sūtras teach and speak in this way.

The Bodhisattvas turn according to the various characteristics; yet this characteristic has no real meaning and nothing to be obtained. In the realm of the Ultimate Truth (Paramārtha-satya), it cannot be established."

The Jewel-Cloud Sūtra (Ratnamegha) records:

"If the root is empty, it cannot be said to exist. Consciousness departs from discrimination, and so is called that which cannot be established. The Ultimate Truth—that true principle departs from words, and the nature of all things is truly without anything to be attained. Here is spoken a determinate word, which the Buddha employs with intention in order to refute those without wisdom."

The Manifesting-Love Sūtra records:

"If one says there is a thing, it is in fact empty. The karmic recompense of sentient beings must have defilement and purity. If there is defilement and purity, then there is that which is created. If there is that which is created, then each and every one turns according to the characteristics of the world. Because there is the turning of characteristics, therefore one sees that there is that which is accomplished. If one can abide in the place of conceiving without inversion, then one knows that the nature of things has no separate true substance. This is like the meaning of the question that the Bodhisattva Maitreya asked:

World-Honored One! Speaking as it truly is: the Self is fundamentally boundless, and therefore Bodhi is also boundless. Because Bodhi is boundless, there is no Bodhi to be attained. The Self is boundless, and therefore there is no one who seeks Bodhi. Furthermore there is also no small dharma by which that which is known can be known. Only the wisdom of the Buddhas is able to illuminate it clearly. That Dharma of Suchness (Tathatā) is none other than No-Nature. No-Nature is none other than the Tathāgata. The Tathāgata means the Nature of Non-Arising.

The Phong-Bát-Đa-Thiết-Đa Sūtra records:

All those Dharmas—if one says they are permanent, grasping as empty, this becomes the view of permanence; and to grasp this as empty becomes the view of annihilation. If neither existent nor empty, then again the intermediate is not established."

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

"All those Dharmas are defiled by craving and affliction; the liberated one has no characteristic of utter exhaustion. If one clearly knows that the self-nature of affliction is originally pure, then with respect to the Ultimate Truth, that escaping cannot be escaped. Whoever wishes to contemplate the truth in the Tathāgata should contemplate the place from which the Tathāgata's liberation is born.

It is not born from a primary cause, not born from conditions. It has no characteristic of arising, and again it is not born through discrimination. Far removed from all designations of difference.

Without form-characteristic, without form, suchness, and even to non-consciousness-characteristic and non-consciousness. Suchness is neither dark nor bright. Neither identical to nor apart from, neither seen nor known.

Departed from all consciousness-dharmas, it has nothing to be distinguished. Not abiding in any consciousness-dharma—if one can contemplate the Tathāgata in this way, it is called Right Contemplation. If that other one contemplates, it is called false contemplation.

Because of false contemplation, that one cannot see the truth of the Tathāgata. Here is spoken the meaning of suchness: apart from existence, apart from emptiness; non-nature, non-non-nature. Such is called seeing the Tathāgata clearly.

The Flower-Adornment Sūtra (Avataṃsaka) records:

"There was a god who came down and asked the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: What is true speech and untrue speech? How are all afflictions subdued?

Mañjuśrī replied:

Like a person in a dream who sees that great serpent—this person, though seeing it, is not harmed by its venom; afflictions, though arising, have a nature that is not real. This nature is pure and subdues itself. This is true speech, and not-true speech.

Furthermore, the Bodhisattva Sāgaramati asked the Brahmā-Heaven Inconceivable:

Dharma fundamentally is not realized, and again there is nothing to be spoken—then how can there be Buddha and Buddha-Dharma?

The Brahmā-Heaven Inconceivable replied:

If a Buddha, a Tathāgata, appears in the world together with that expounding, this is the Dharma of the Buddha. Whether existent or nonexistent, its root is of itself thus. From first to last there is nothing spoken, and again nothing realized.

Because nothing is spoken, therefore nothing is heard. Because nothing is realized, therefore nothing is attained. It is only for the sake of sentient beings—through the karma of affliction the various recompenses are born.

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

With respect to all conduct, one does not constantly practice; without seeking, without vowing. That nature of affliction is wholly pure. The Buddhas again neither realize nor speak.

Furthermore, the Youth Sudhana said: One should know that all dharmas are entirely like an illusion, and that I, within that illusion, seek liberation. As that meaning is spoken in the Flower-Adornment Sūtra:

One should know that all Dharmas are like an illusion, like a dream, like the heat-shimmer of the sun, like gathering and dispersing. Again, like the city of the Gandharvas. All the Dharmas of the three realms are born from mind-consciousness. The mind is like an illusion, and therefore the three realms are also like an illusion. If there were some single thing that had true substance, this would be a simile of illusion whose principle is not in accord. So it is spoken in the Samādhi-King Sūtra (Samādhirāja). At the same time, the other sūtras also speak of the same meaning as above.

Furthermore, I now, relying on the sūtras, will briefly speak of the various meanings. As the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī said: Bodhi is not attained by means of the body, not attained by means of the mind. If there is no mind, then there is no body. Body and mind being thus apart from each other, there is nothing created. Like an illusion, like a magical conjuration. Thus it is called Bodhi. The Buddhas say that this is Bodhi, which can enter the realm of equality of the Buddhas; and therefore it is also called the Adornment of Wisdom, which yet adorns nothing—that all-wisdom. The nature of all-wisdom cannot be obtained. Bodhi is unborn and again it ceases. Neither one nor different, neither here nor there. The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, have spoken thus.

Furthermore, it is like all the seeds in the world that all give birth and produce; all bring forth sprouts. If there were no seeds, then the various sprouts would not be born. The Bodhisattva Śākya, sitting at the Bodhi site of enlightenment to accomplish Perfect Awakening—this meaning is also thus.

It is only from the Dharmas, following along with conditions, that arising occurs. Although there is that which is realized, yet in truth this is not real. This is called the Sport of Spiritual Penetration (the Divine Play of Spiritual Powers).

Therefore one should know there is no outer dharma. The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, again have no nature. Therefore, apart from Consciousness, there is truly not one Dharma.

If one departs from Consciousness, Dharma is not born. If the Mind can give birth, that Mind is then unborn. If Dharma is that which gives birth to Dharma, yet Dharma again is unborn—this is that meaning.

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

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

Mañjuśrī says this is the supreme truth. Within the realm of the Buddha as it truly is, he speaks:

Furthermore, all Dharmas arise from conditions; yet in that arising there is again no self-nature. Therefore all Dharmas are entirely like an illusion. It is said to be like an illusion. Therefore it is spoken as it truly is. The Bodhisattva Maitreya appears within the illusion-like Samādhi. Therefore the World-Honored One, within this Samādhi, bestows the prophetic prediction upon him—this is the symbol thereof.

Furthermore, the World-Honored One, within countless sūtras, all say that all Dharmas are manifested through transformation from Consciousness. Departed from arising, departed from ceasing, non-existent-characteristic, non-gathering-and-storing, having no initiating activity and having no stopping or resting. Neither existent nor empty, neither permanent nor annihilated. One should know that the nature of wisdom is entirely like an illusion. How much more so the dharmas that have something to be discriminated. If there is one who grasps attached to the words "annihilation" and "permanence," that one is not of right conduct. The Buddha does not permit it. If one knows that all Dharmas are non-annihilation, non-permanence, that one is then in accord. This is named the truth.

With respect to oneself and to the outer, there is no dharma to be clung to in attachment, and again there is no dharma abiding in the mind as an antidote. Although with respect to the dharmas one speaks many kinds of phrases, yet following along with the dharmas to make that which displays them clearly, one should know that it is one's own Consciousness and not another's consciousness. Herein, the outer meaning has not even a slight dharma that is a place able to give rise to joy.

One's own consciousness is without nature; another's consciousness is also without nature. With respect to self and other, again there is no other nature. That true wisdom departs from existence and emptiness.

One should know that the consciousness of self is also nonexistent. The aggregates of the pudgala (the aggregates of self) are said to have that which is gathered; 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 what is meant by departing from existence, departing from emptiness.

This is the profound meaning, which the Buddhas all speak of as this Subtle and Wondrous Dharma. Far removed from all places of clinging and discrimination. Apart from this matter, again there is no discrimination to be spoken.

Those who are deluded and confused are perhaps clinging attached to existence, which is to have good and evil, the two kinds of difference. If clinging attached to emptiness, then there is no reflection upon this momentary arising. Therefore clinging to existence and clinging to emptiness are both not the same.

The Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, out of the compassionate mind and as skillful means, speak this meaning. That is to say, all Dharmas depart from existence and depart from emptiness. Thus what is spoken is the supreme phrase.

Therefore this says that all dharmas are true. The Dharma has no nature of clinging-attachment, and again it is not a place for observation. Without clinging-attachment, that nature is precisely departing from existence and departing from emptiness.

If one knows it thus, one is the wise person. One who can constantly contemplate empty space—neither increasing nor decreasing, without measure, boundless. From this empty space, all is produced.

The pure mind-consciousness is also thus. This mind is no-mind, and all comes forth from it.

Again, like the Pure Maṇi-Jewel which, being mind-less, reflects and manifests all. Should someone ask: why is it divided yet cannot be retained?—then one should answer: There, empty space does not create; it has limits, and so cannot be retained. If that empty space had no created limit, then with what could it be compared to attain it?

One should know that the realm of all sentient beings is like the gathering together of fine dust-motes, yet that empty space can contain all. The sentient beings together with the realm of empty space have nothing of increase or decrease. Whether all sentient beings, even to all places.

All kinds, all forms and characteristics, each and every one is discriminated. Within them there is truly not one nature that has a place of arising. In this meaning there is not one nature and there are not many natures.

One, many, and the middle are likewise without nature. If one says one nature definitely has that which is attained, this is then many natures that have a place of difference. Having a nature of difference then gives birth to discrimination.

Therefore one nature and many natures—these natures are all equal. Whether, with respect to the outer meaning, there is no place of clinging-attachment. With respect to wisdom, again there is nothing to be obtained.

If, with respect to the outer meaning, there is no place of clinging-attachment, and with respect to wisdom there is again no place of arising; or if the mind, being consciousness, departs from the characteristics, then how can that outer dharma have any measuring? If the conscious mind has the various characteristics, how then can that outer dharma be measured? Therefore one should know that, with respect to that outer dharma-jewel, there is no one nature that can rise up to give birth.

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

If, within one's own mind, one clearly knows that which exists, then within this very mind it is again not real. If one knows as it truly is, this is named awakening, clearly knowing the characteristic of consciousness. If there is all that coarse and heavy discrimination that gives rise to that mind, one should know that all is born from the differentiation of afflictions.

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 again has the name Suchness, called the True Limit (Bhūtakoṭi).

It also has the name Emptiness. With respect to these natures, whether defiled or pure, using true wisdom to observe, all attain equality.

Should someone ask: With respect to all dharmas, what is indestructible? One should answer: The dharmas' own cause is indestructible. Why is it not destroyed?

The 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. Yet how can the meaning of the two sides be established?

If the cause of the dharmas together with their function has a place of destruction, then in all places that principle is not in accord. How could the true nature of the Dharmas turn and follow along? That is to say, that true nature has no place of abiding.

The Dharmas being without nature, how can there be a cause? Departing from the cause, there is again no separate nature. Furthermore!

The true nature of the dharmas has no place of destruction. Then that destruction—called by that name—again has no place of abiding. Herein there is again no differentiated nature of the cause.

The nature of that destruction-cessation has no division of place. The Truth of the dharmas is the nature of constant abiding. That nature of constant abiding is not a nature of impermanence.

If, departing from the true nature, there were a separate meaning, then the function of that doctrine would not be in accord. Nevertheless, the nature of the thing again does not diminish. Furthermore, the nature that is not impermanence is the true nature.

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

Within that true nature, how is the characteristic attained?

Those things that are not true—how are they here established?—How do the various differentiated natures here exist? Therefore it is not a nature of impermanence, and one should thus know it.

Furthermore, one should know: The nature of impermanence, with respect to the nature of the thing, turns and changes into many kinds of other natures. These various kinds gather together and then manifest, being the cause of differentiation. Desire acts as the cause, and then arising occurs.

Whether, with respect to that nature of impermanence; herein making it a definite point to speak, this is not in accord with the principle of Consciousness-only. That nature of impermanence has no certainty. If a dharma is indestructible, again it is not the case that it is not destroyed.

There is a dharma that arises within a single moment. If one says it is indestructible, how can it have the name of impermanent nature? If it is not that it is not destroyed, how can it be called the cause-nature?

The past and future Dharmas are also thus, all things having no nature. If there were truly definitely the discrimination of the dharmas that turns and follows along. Following along with this division, what is here called the cause?

That is to say, it has no place of abiding. Within the conditioned, what is before the eyes is a loss; then afterward, having been destroyed and ceased, it arises again. Before, it cannot be discriminated, and then afterward it leads to the arising of discrimination.

Afterward it cannot be discriminated, having arisen from the discrimination that existed before. If one says the dharmas here have that which is attained, then upon this arises the cause of discrimination. If one says those dharmas have that which is attained, then upon that arises the cause of discrimination.

The past and future, having no abiding, are also thus! Herein there is no place; the moment-by-moment dharma that is discriminated may be said to be destructible or indestructible; in this meaning it is not a moment-by-moment dharma. If, with respect to that, the cause is thus already made clear, then before and after, or in the interval, again it cannot be discriminated.

Treatise on the Supreme Meaning of the Essentials of All Dharmas (Sarvadharma-sāra-paramārtha-śāstra)

End of the upper scroll