萬善同歸集

When a single thought is swiftly perfected, the three virtues are fully complete; not a single dharma can transcend the source of mind.

Even if one cultivates the myriad practices, they are all accomplished from within the true Dharma realm. Or, to counter habitual tendencies, one should eliminate them through the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. This is called accomplishment without accomplishment, which does not obstruct wondrous practice; severance without severance—how, then, could this obstruct perfect cultivation in all its aspects? Even extremely evil adverse conditions can help increase one’s understanding; how could wholesome deeds and virtuous qualities not be the path leading to awakening?

Question:

Why not directly penetrate the Original Limit? Once the root is established, the Dharma of the Way arises. If the gates of cultivation are extensively presented, I fear one will become obstructed and stagnant.

Answer:

Principle is the root of the Way; practice is the branches of the Way.

The branches arise from the root. Without the root, how could the branches function? Through the branches, the root is revealed. Without the branches, how could the root stand alone? Therefore, it is said that although root and branches differ, in the realm of the inconceivable they are one. Thus, one should know that only after first comprehending the essential principle can one advance along the Way. If one merely pursues the outer branches, there will indeed be obstruction.

A sutra says:

“None can accomplish the practice of the Way without comprehending true suchness. Otherwise, it would be like an illusion—seemingly existent but not real. Moreover, those of perfect and sudden faculties receive and understand it swiftly. Although there is both dispelling through the contemplation of emptiness and illuminating through the contemplation of provisional existence, they remain unobstructed.

In the very act of dispelling, there is illumination; thus, both are negated while both are practiced. In the very act of illumination, there is dispelling; thus, both are practiced while both are eliminated. Without impairing the root, one constantly employs the branches, and therefore the myriad practices arise. Without impairing the branches, one abides in the root, and therefore the one mind remains ever quiescent.”

Question:

The Dharmapada Sutra says: “If the mind does not arise, that is boundless diligence.” Why, then, establish phenomenal forms and give rise to mental activity, contrary to the unconditioned Way?

Answer:

Within mind itself there is no-mind; phenomena do not obstruct conditions.

Therefore, National Master Xianshou said:

“The essence of dependent arising is quiescent; although it arises, it constantly does not arise. Penetrating the essence that accords with conditions, although it does not arise, it constantly arises.”

The Mahasamnipata Sutra says:

“The Buddha declared that diligence is of two kinds:

– First, the diligence of initial resolve.

– Second, the diligence of ultimate accomplishment.

Through the diligence of initial resolve, a bodhisattva cultivates and accomplishes all wholesome dharmas. Through the diligence of ultimate accomplishment, the bodhisattva discerns that all dharmas are without intrinsic nature.”

The Golden Light Sutra says that even after attaining Buddhahood, one’s diligence never ceases; thus, before the great assembly, the Buddha bowed to a pile of dry bones. How much less could ordinary beings accomplish anything by folding their arms and doing nothing? Therefore, among the Eighteen Exclusive Qualities is the quality of Unfailing Diligence.

The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom says:

“A bodhisattva knows that all diligence is false and illusory, yet constantly accomplishes non-retrogression. This is called true diligence.”

Question:

All dharmas are empty and ultimately return to signlessness. Why, then, present wholesome deeds and give rise to a mind that apprehends characteristics?

Answer:

Because ultimately there is nothing whatsoever in any dharma, the myriad wholesome deeds can be practiced. If dharmas possessed fixed natures, nothing at all could be established.

Therefore, a Prajnaparamita Sutra says: “If dharmas were not empty, there would be neither the Way nor its fruit.”

The Dharmapada Sutra says: “Within ultimate emptiness, bodhisattvas vigorously establish wholesome deeds.”

The Vajrasamadhi Sutra says:

“If one asserts that a single dharma exists, its appearance is like a flower seen in empty space or like a mirage. Through delusion and inversion, all kinds of false appearances come into being.

If one sees dharmas as sheer nonexistence, regarding all dharmas as identical to empty space, one is like a blind person without eyes who perversely declares that dharmas resemble the hair of a turtle.”

The sutra also says: “It is better to cling to existence as vast as Mount Sumeru than to cling to emptiness as small as a mustard seed.”

A treatise says:

“Within the true characteristic of all dharmas, no fixed characteristic can be found; therefore, this is called non-attainment. Yet this does not mean that merit, wisdom, and wholesome roots do not increase.”

It also says:

“Those with wrong views demolish dharmas in order to make them conform to emptiness. Those who contemplate emptiness know the nature of true emptiness in all dharmas and neither destroy nor impair them. It is like an ignorant rustic who initially knew nothing of salt and saw a wealthy man seasoning vegetables and meat with salt before eating them.

The rustic asked:

– Why do you do that?

The wealthy man replied:

– This salt can make food taste better.

The rustic then thought, ‘If this salt can make all foods taste better, its own flavor must surely be exceedingly delicious.’ He therefore scooped up a handful of salt, filled his mouth with it, and ate it, causing his tongue to shrivel and his mouth to burn.

He then asked:

– Why did you say that salt could make food delicious?

The wealthy man told the fool:

– One must measure the proper amount and blend it into the food to make the food delicious. Why did you eat only salt?”

When people without wisdom hear of the gate of liberation through emptiness, they cease practicing meritorious deeds and seek only to attain emptiness. This is the wrong view that annihilates wholesome roots.

Great Master Huiyuan of Mount Lu explained in his commentary on the Nirvana Sutra: “It is asked:

– If there is nothing to attain, why should one perform wholesome deeds?

The Buddha answered:

– Clearly knowing that all sentient beings inherently possess Buddha-nature, one will certainly attain the fruit, just as an infant in the womb will certainly be born. Therefore, according to principle, one must cultivate goodness.

It is also asked:

– At present, I do not know where to enter; how can I perform wholesome deeds?

The Buddha answered:

– There is the Tathagatagarbha into which one can enter; therefore, one should cultivate wholesome karma.”

The Collection for the Propagation and Clarification of Buddhism says:

“Some mistakenly cling rigidly to emptiness and give rise to a view of annihilation. When speaking of emptiness, their words may appear the same; but when applying emptiness, their minds are entirely different.

The true Dharma uses emptiness to eliminate attachment; false teachings use emptiness to nourish craving and defilement. Great beings realize the nature of emptiness and advance in virtue along the Way; petty persons speak of the nature of emptiness in order to retreat from goodness. This occurs because they employ correct words perversely and thereby give rise to erroneous attachments.”

They do not contemplate the nature of emptiness to eliminate the burden of suffering, but merely cling to emptiness and abandon every wholesome deed. Moreover, wholesome and unwholesome dharmas are originally alike in being empty and signless. Nevertheless, wholesome dharmas assist progress along the Way, while unwholesome dharmas produce karmic obstructions.

One should therefore know that the true nature of the myriad dharmas is originally one and the same suchness, while among dependently arisen dharmas there is no obstruction to their thousands upon thousands of distinctions.

Therefore, a sutra says: “Have profound faith in cause and effect, and do not malign the Mahayana.”

The Buddha does not deceive concerning cause and effect throughout the three times. The One Possessed of the Ten Powers exhorts and instructs us; those who hear should not harbor doubt. How could one claim that good and evil are both empty and that neither harm nor benefit exists? The Dharma eye is luminous and comprehends every dharma; from the broad and long tongue, every utterance is true.

When existence is analyzed, a single hair can be divided into tens of thousands of parts; when the equality of empty nature is expounded, the myriad things are all one. To guard against the errors of clinging to annihilation or permanence, both the malady of emptiness and the malady of existence must be eliminated.

Those who malign the sages will certainly encounter misfortune; those who accord with the Way will ultimately attain auspiciousness. Do not say that this is unworthy of belief, for it is as plain as the sun at midday. Therefore, the Treatise on the Middle Way says:

“The Buddhas teach emptiness in order to cure the illness of attachment to existence. If one becomes attached to emptiness in turn, the Buddhas cannot bring such a person to liberation.”

The Vajrasamadhi Sutra says:

“If one abandons emptiness to grasp existence, or demolishes existence to grasp emptiness, that is false emptiness, not true emptiness. Now, although one relinquishes existence, one does not abide in emptiness; only in this way does one attain the true emptiness of all dharmas.”

Therefore, the Zhao Lun says:

“If one regards existence as truly existent, one will regard emptiness as truly empty. Since existence is not truly existent, emptiness likewise is not truly empty. When one contemplates all dharmas without abiding in emptiness, one may be said to perceive the true nature of dharmas.”

Why use emptiness to impair existence, or existence to impair emptiness, thereby turning away from the source of the single flavor and producing the error of dualistic views? This is entirely due to relying upon words and thereby losing their meaning, abandoning wisdom to follow emotional discrimination.

Although one claims to demolish existence, one has not yet penetrated the source of existence; and although one rigidly clings to emptiness, one has not fully understood the purport of emptiness. I shall now briefly distinguish these matters clearly in order to dissolve the obstructions caused by erroneous attachments.

When we speak of “existence,” it is not truly existent, though it exists; such existence is not real existence. Emptiness is not sheer nonexistence, though it is empty; such emptiness is not annihilative emptiness.

If existence were definitively real, it would not be illusory existence and would create division, obstruction, and hindrance. If emptiness were sheer vacuity, it would be the same as empty space and would possess no wondrous functioning.

Therefore, existence arising from conditions is emptiness devoid of inherent nature. Because this emptiness is devoid of inherent nature, emptiness does not obstruct existence. Because existence arises from conditions, existence does not impede emptiness. Existence is established through emptiness; hence perfect wisdom gives rise to the myriad practices. Emptiness arises from existence; therefore wondrous wisdom is awakened while the One Truth remains ever empty and quiescent.

How could this be the same as those who cling exclusively to emptiness and give rise to the annihilationist view, thereby drying up the ocean of merit; or those who rely upon real existence and produce the eternalist attachment, thereby causing the mountain of self-conceit to tower aloft?

Thus, when the Buddhas teach emptiness, they empty out ignorance and thereby accomplish meritorious karma; they eliminate the imagined nature [24] to reveal wisdom of the perfectly accomplished nature. When foolish people speak of emptiness, they give rise to erroneous understanding, slander the purport of the Buddhas, increase their attachment to emptiness, and destroy wholesome causes.

Furthermore, to speak of annihilative emptiness is to say that there is neither good nor evil, neither cause nor effect. In the emptiness of ultimate meaning, however, karma and its retribution certainly exist, yet no agent who creates them is perceived.

Question:

Why not penetrate deeply into non-arising and naturally accord with the Way? Conditioned activities are fraught with faults; how could they benefit those who have newly aroused the aspiration?

Answer:

Through worldly compassion one enters true compassion, and from patience regarding beings one perfects patience regarding dharmas. Cultivation and study have beginning and end; how could the stages be presented in confusion? Moreover, arising itself is non-arising—how could it transcend the nature of emptiness? The unconditioned itself is the conditioned—how could it stand outside the true characteristic? One need only relinquish the mind of grasping and rejecting, and the principles of the ultimate and the conventional will become manifest.

Therefore, the sutra says: “Bodhisattvas do not utterly abandon the conditioned, nor do they abide in the unconditioned.”

Dharma Master Sengzhao said:

“Although the conditioned is false, if one abandons it, one cannot accomplish the great work. Although the unconditioned is true, if one abides in it, wisdom will not shine forth.”

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Understand clearly that the body of the Tathagata is not like empty space, for all immeasurable virtues and wondrous dharmas are perfected within it.”

The Mahasamnipata Sutra says:

“To abandon the mind of great compassion and contemplate non-arising is the work of Mara. To become weary of and abandon conditioned merit is the work of Mara.”

Question:

The undefiled virtues of the nature are originally complete in themselves. Why must one rely upon external cultivation, thereby diminishing the wholesome virtues within?

Answer:

There are originally the two virtues of cultivation and nature, together with the two conditions, internal and external. To say that the virtues of the nature are originally complete is like saying that fire exists within wood but has no function; one must rely upon the virtues of cultivation, just as the conditions of friction are required before fire can be produced. Therefore, cultivation reveals the nature, and the nature brings cultivation to fulfillment. If the nature did not originally exist, cultivation could not be accomplished. Cultivation and nature are nondual; only through their harmonious conjunction are they perfected.

Furthermore, inwardly, original awakening constantly permeates the seeds of sagehood; outwardly, wholesome conditions assist in opening and revealing awakened wisdom. If the inward is present but the outward is lacking, awakening will not be perfected.

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Such is the Dharma: inwardly, there is the inherently existent nature of awakening; outwardly, one receives the support of the spiritual power of the Buddhas.”

Therefore, cultivating the myriad wholesome deeds accords with the Dharma-nature; by using purity to subdue defilement, the virtues of the nature arise. Ordinary beings are originally endowed with the undefiled virtues of the nature, but by committing evil they turn against their original nature. Because their original nature is not revealed, they do not accomplish wondrous functioning.

Question:

The teachings clearly state that one should swiftly forget conditions and enter directly. Why, then, do you now mistakenly pursue conditioned dharmas?

Answer:

The single gateway of the Sudden Teaching is a Dharma suited to those of superior faculties. To forget conditions and purify the mind is true cultivation. What is said here is directed toward those who cling to dharmas and give rise to one-sided views, who uniformly destroy phenomenal characteristics without comprehending the tenet of perfect interfusion. It merely explains deluded emotional attachments; how could it eliminate the teachings of the Dharma?

For example, in the single matter of seeing the Buddha, there are five different ways of seeing:

1/ Those of the Lesser Vehicle see the Buddha’s body as a body born of parents, existing outside the mind and endowed with excellent marks. They distinguish the perfuming of consciousness and retain discrimination. Because they do not understand the meaning of Consciousness-Only, they see the Buddha as coming from outside.

2/ The Initial Teaching of the Mahayana sees the Buddha as merely a transformation, without excellent marks, his true substance empty and possessing nothing. Therefore, it is said that if one contemplates the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks, then a wheel-turning sage-king would be the Tathagata.

3/ The Final Teaching of the Mahayana sees the Buddha’s excellent marks and radiance, each and every one identical with the true nature. The body is precisely non-body, and non-body is precisely the body; principle and phenomena are unobstructed.

4/ The Sudden Teaching sees that, since there is no distinction between before and after in the Buddha, how could there be different responsive manifestations? Nor are there excellent marks that can be established. Because all discrimination is contrary to truth, the reality that transcends such thoughts is called seeing the Buddha.

5/ The Perfect Teaching of the One Vehicle sees the Buddha as precisely this reality beyond thought. Not only does the essential principle not give rise to those forms, but it also does not obstruct the arising of the myriad things. It fully encompasses the dependent and primary recompenses, embracing phenomena and principle, persons and things, all perfectly complete and luminous. A single phenomenon pervades the ten directions, and all worlds are simultaneously reflected within it, like the jeweled net of Lord Shakra.

Furthermore, regarding the single gateway of dependent origination: in the Sudden Teaching, dependent origination is not discussed, for phenomenal characteristics cause truth not to appear. Only when characteristics have been completely extinguished is the true nature revealed. If dependent origination is mentioned, it is likened to seeing flowers in the sky because of an eye disease. If it is the arising of the Dharma-realm according to the Perfect Teaching, however, the one and the many mutually encompass each other, and power and powerlessness are thereby established. The one and the many enter and contain one another without obstruction and simultaneously; this is called the gateway of great dependent origination.

All five gateways above are entrances to the Dharma. One does not even rebuke the Lesser Vehicle, for fear of discarding the provisional gateway. Why, then, reject the Perfect Teaching and obstruct the true virtues?

The teachings of the Tiantai School say:

“If, upon seeing the Mahayana, one ceases to propagate the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, one loses the Buddha’s gateway of skillful means.”

As for the eminent virtuous masters of old, even when they spoke words of refutation, it was always for the sake of freeing people from attachments. People today merely imitate their words, without understanding the intention of the ancients. Moreover, having not yet entered the gate of the Sudden Teaching at all, they recklessly disparage it. This is truly a grave error! They should therefore be regarded with compassion.

The chapter “Transcending the World” in the Avatamsaka Sutra, which expounds the Perfect and Sudden Teaching, states:

“Disciples of the Buddha! A great bodhisattva should reflect thus:

The mind is the foundation of the path to unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment. If the mind is pure, one can perfect all roots of goodness and will certainly attain mastery in the Buddha’s enlightenment. If one wishes to accomplish the path to unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment, one can accomplish it at will. If one wishes to sever all conditions of grasping and abide in the path of the single direction, one can also do so, yet one does not sever them. Because one wishes to attain the ultimate enlightenment of the Buddha, one likewise does not immediately realize unsurpassed bodhi.

Why is this?

It is in order to fulfill one’s original vows, practice the bodhisattva conduct, and teach and transform sentient beings throughout all worlds. Such is the mind of the Great Vehicle vow, which is like vajra.”

Therefore, pursuing conditions in opposition to the intrinsic nature and accumulating defilements makes one an ordinary being; abandoning conditions to seek realization and becoming submerged in emptiness makes one a follower of the Lesser Vehicle.

When conditions and intrinsic nature are unobstructed, that is great bodhi. Without severing the gateway of worldly afflictions, one can bring to fruition the seeds of the unconditioned; without sinking into the ocean of ultimate reality, one can follow the measure of the waves of conditioned activity. The ultimate and the conventional interpenetrate, and existence and emptiness are unobstructed. This may rightly be called practicing what is not the path while penetrating the true path, and fully possessing the Buddha Dharma right within worldly dharmas.

Question:

The myriad wholesome actions and the inferior practices of the sravakas come to a halt at the conjured city, where they conceal themselves in a thatched hut. How can these be called the vast mind, and how can they become the Perfect and Sudden Teaching?

Answer:

Those who are beginning their studies in the Three Vehicles are not ignorant concerning the Dharma. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra says: “If there is a bhiksu who has truly attained the fruit of arhatship yet does not believe this Dharma, that is utterly impossible.”

It also says: “What you practice is the bodhisattva path. By gradually cultivating and learning, you will all become Buddhas.”

All such people cling to an attainment reached midway and give rise to an abiding attachment. Therefore, the Buddhas rebuke them and exhort them to continue their practice.

Furthermore, those of the Two Vehicles have all ascended to the rank of sages, transcended the afflictions of the nine realms, put an end to the karmically obstructed body within the three realms, and together taken their seats upon the couch of liberation. Since they are endowed with wisdom and supernormal powers, how can they be compared with ordinary beings bound by many fetters, who merely pursue understanding based on what they have relied upon and possess no actual cultivation or realization whatsoever?

Therefore, Great Master True Enlightenment said:

“What fault is there in the Dharma of the Two Vehicles that one refuses to practice it? When the teachings sometimes disparage and sometimes praise it, this is merely a matter of elevating or lowering it according to the circumstances. Ordinary beings, failing to understand, fear being rebuked. How could they know that as long as craving and views remain, they are still very far from the Lesser Vehicle!

Although they claim to cultivate the path, their outflows and fetters are not eliminated. Not only are their bodies and speech not yet upright, but their minds remain crooked. They cling to their own opinions, understand things contrary to reality, do not follow the teachings of the sages, and have never drawn near to an enlightened teacher.

They have not accumulated the causes and conditions of roots of goodness over many lifetimes. As for their understanding, they are not among those born with innate knowledge, but are merely adept at comprehending matters through worldly intelligence. They engage in discussion all day long, sometimes even citing words from the sutras, yet their understanding is erroneous and based upon their own opinions.

They use false doctrines to deceive the ignorant, reject cause and effect, and denigrate wrongdoing and merit.

When things accord with their feelings, they rejoice with delight; when things oppose their wishes, they flare up in anger. The characteristics of the three kinds of feeling are plainly manifest, yet they claim to be equal to bodhisattvas. They have not even escaped the four parajikas, while their minds harbor resentment and constantly seek superiority over others. They do not cultivate the Great Vehicle, yet they disparage the Lesser Vehicle. Their momentary boastful talk and loud slanders will bring the painful retribution of many kalpas revolving through the three evil destinies.

An ancient text says:

“One who is about to speak is fearful; one who utters words is apprehensive.”

It also says:

“To keep water from boiling, nothing is better than removing the firewood; to put an end to faults, nothing is better than refraining from speech.”

The sutras also say that when an ordinary being, with a distracted mind subject to outflows, utters a single phrase, ‘Namo Buddha,’ or even merely bows the head slightly, through those causes and conditions that person will still attain the Buddha path. How much more so for sages of the Two Vehicles, whose minds are free from outflows, who have forever ended any body of future existence, personally realized the wisdom that thoroughly penetrates non-self, and accumulated wholesome practices? How could they fail to ascend to the true position?

Question:

Merit produced through conditioned activity ultimately returns to decay, whereas only merit not produced through conditioned activity remains eternally and ultimately. Why, then, abandon the purport that “all dharmas neither move nor change” and expound conditioned practices?

Answer:

The Treatise of Sengzhao says:

“The merit of the Tathagata is transmitted through ten thousand generations, and his Dharma of the path endures eternally; though passing through a hundred kalpas, it becomes ever more steadfast.”

The sutra says: “Although the three calamities arise everywhere, the karma of these practices remains quiescent.”

Now I believe this with certainty. One should therefore know that even the slightest wholesome deed, though conditioned, assists bodhi and, proceeding directly toward Buddhahood, will never perish. Even when the great conflagration burns the entire world, it cannot burn empty space; although the waves of birth and death are boundless, they cannot submerge genuine goodness.

Question:

Dharmas have no real substance and arise illusorily from causes and conditions. Causes and conditions have no basis upon which to depend and, in turn, arise from dharmas. Conditions and dharmas have no intrinsic nature and are ultimately all empty—without a master, without a person, neither arising nor ceasing.

Why, then, discuss at length the impermanent characteristics of phenomena and speak of illusory karmic retribution?

Answer:

Because the true mind does not preserve its intrinsic nature, it follows conditions and creates various kinds of karma. Although phenomena appear to exist, they are themselves empty; although their essence is empty, phenomenal characteristics arise. They are like the shadow of a tree: although empty, it serves to provide cool shade. They are also like an unreal dream that nevertheless gives rise to feelings of anxiety and joy. Although there is no agent, karmic retribution arising from causes and conditions is never lost.

Therefore, the Vimalakirti Sutra says: “There is no self, no doer, and no recipient, yet wholesome and unwholesome karma is never lost.”

Furthermore, the emptiness expounded in the teachings means that things are unobtainable and lack real nature; it is not the emptiness of annihilation. Why, then, give rise to the notion that it is like a tortoise’s hair or a hare’s horn? To give rise to the view of adding legs to a painted snake—how is this different from the fool who ate salt!

Question:

For those who have newly aroused the aspiration and entered the path, it is reasonable that words and deeds should support one another and perfume the mind with myriad wholesome qualities. But as for those who have reached the ultimate fruition, for whom the great matter is finished and whose objects and wisdom are open and quiescent, what need is there to perform such practices?

Answer:

The virtuous qualities of fruition at the ultimate Buddha stage are unconditioned, while the boundless gates of practice and the eight manifestations of attaining the path all belong to the conduct of Samantabhadra after Buddhahood has already been attained. They continue naturally and perpetually, exhausting the limits of the future.

The Vimalakirti Sutra says:

“Although one attains the Buddha path, turns the wheel of Dharma, and enters nirvana, one does not abandon the bodhisattva path. This is the practice of a bodhisattva.”

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Clearly knowing that the dharmadhatu has no boundary and that all dharmas have the single characteristic of no characteristic—this is called the ultimate dharmadhatu, without abandoning the bodhisattva path.

Although he knows that the Dharma realm has no bounds, he also knows all its distinct characteristics. He brings forth the mind of great compassion to liberate all sentient beings until the end of the future, without ever becoming weary or discouraged. This is called the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.”

Question:

Among the Six Paramitas, apart from prajna, the other five are said to be like blind people and must be guided by prajna. Why, then, does this work now praise wholesome practices alone and extensively discuss wholesome deeds cultivated with a distracted mind?

Answer:

The reason wholesome practices are discussed here is precisely to bring the wisdom of prajna to fulfillment. When the Buddha’s teachings censure conditioned phenomena, their purpose is solely to destroy craving and attachment.

If the mind no longer gives rise to attachment, grasping, acceptance, or rejection, then everything is unobstructed. If the wisdom of prajna has not yet become clear, the myriad practices should be used as supporting conditions.

The Lotus Sutra says:

“The Buddha’s name resounds throughout the ten directions,

Vastly benefiting sentient beings;

All possess wholesome roots

To support the unsurpassed mind.”

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Just as all dharmas

Arise through manifold conditions,

Seeing the Buddha is likewise so:

It necessarily depends upon wholesome karma.”

If one has already penetrated the wisdom of prajna, one must adorn it with every kind of practice.

The Lotus Sutra says: “The elder gave his children a great carriage. That carriage was lofty and spacious and adorned with various precious things,” and even “he assigned many servants to accompany, attend upon, and guard it.”

Therefore, this work is also called THE COLLECTION ON THE COMMON RETURN OF THE MYRIAD GOOD DEEDS.

All Dharma gates of cultivation return to prajna. Apart from prajna, there is no other Dharma gate. Just as all rivers flow together into the great ocean and share its single taste, so too, when birds of many different kinds fly near Mount Sumeru, they retain no differing colors but become entirely golden.

If one does not deeply trust in the wisdom of prajna but cultivates conditioned dharmas, one merely creates causes for birth and death; how could one attain the fruit of nirvana?

– If one practices generosity without prajna, one gains only a lifetime of glory and prosperity, while in a later life one again suffers many calamities.

– If one observes the precepts without prajna, one is temporarily reborn in a heaven of the Desire Realm but ultimately must still fall into hell.

– If one practices patience without prajna, one gains only the karmic reward of a handsome and well-formed body but does not realize the Patience of Quiescent Extinction.

– If one practices diligence without prajna, one merely exerts oneself within arising and ceasing and does not reach the great ocean of true permanence.

– If one practices meditative concentration without prajna, one merely cultivates the meditations of the Form Realm and cannot enter Vajra Right Concentration.

– If one cultivates all wholesome practices without prajna, one merely accomplishes empty causes tainted by outflows and does not accord with the unconditioned fruit.

From this, it is fully evident that the wisdom of prajna:

– Is the guide along dangerous and evil paths.

– Is the bright lamp within a darkened house.

– Is the vessel of wisdom upon the great ocean of painful birth and death.

– Is the skilled physician who cures the illness of afflictions.

– Is the mighty wind that shatters the mountain of falsehood.

– Is the valiant general who vanquishes the armies of Mara.

– Is the radiant sun that illuminates the darkened road.

– Is the peal of thunder that awakens the deluded mind.

– Is the instrument that removes the film from the eyes of the blind.

– Is the amrita that dispels the thirst of craving.

– Is the keen sword of wisdom that cuts apart the net of ignorance.

– Is the precious jewel bestowed upon the poor and destitute.

Without the wisdom of prajna, all cultivation would be no more than an empty contrivance.

The Fourth Patriarch Daoxin said:

“If one cannot comprehend the wondrous and profound purport, sitting in meditation and contemplating stillness will be arduous and fruitless.”

Therefore, one must not carelessly turn away from the wisdom of prajna or forget its illuminating awareness even for a moment. Even upon reaching the ultimate stage and attaining Buddhahood, one must still be adorned with the powers of meditative concentration and wisdom and use them to liberate sentient beings.

Thus the Buddha said: “Every day, I constantly speak only of prajna.”

Question:

The quiescent and extinct characteristic of all dharmas cannot be expressed in words. Why not point directly to this matter instead of speaking extensively about causes and conditions and presenting questions and answers?

Answer:

The Lankavatara Sutra says:

“The Buddha told Bodhisattva Mahamati:

If all dharmas were not taught, the teaching would perish. If the teaching perished, there would be no Buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, or sravakas. If none of these existed, who would teach the Dharma, and to whom would it be taught?

Therefore, Mahamati, great bodhisattvas should not become attached to words but should skillfully employ expedient means and expound the dharmas extensively according to what is appropriate.”

One should understand that dharani is without written words, yet it is through written words that dharani is revealed. Apart from the principle of the true nature, there is no verbal teaching; apart from verbal teaching, there is no principle of the true nature. Because the true nature pervades everywhere, that which cannot be spoken is no different from that which can be spoken. Because causes, conditions, and cultivation have no self-nature, that which can be spoken is no different from that which cannot be spoken.

If considered in terms of the Four True Natures and the individual characteristics of dharmas, all can be spoken. If considered according to the Four Siddhantas and the common characteristics of dharmas, all can likewise be spoken. Therefore, the Buddhas always teach the Dharma on the basis of the Two Truths. One need only penetrate the purport of perfect interpenetration; then speaking entails no fault. If one were invariably to remain silent, how could understanding ever arise?

One is led to seek the principle through words and thereby clearly know that the principle is perfect and complete. It is only because speech is partial that it is said words cannot reach it; this does not mean that nothing should be said. Moreover, although the nature transcends language and cannot be spoken, it is only through language that one can comprehend what cannot be spoken.

If one wishes to reach the source of the Way and perpetuate and cause the Buddha’s lineage to flourish, one must first penetrate the wisdom of prajna and clearly recognize the true mind. Prajna is the teacher of the myriad practices and the mother of the thousand sages. The true mind is the root of the myriad beings and the source of all dharmas.

If one has not yet penetrated the wisdom of prajna, one remains obscure and confused concerning the true mind. One must take refuge in the Three Jewels of One Essence and repent of offenses committed throughout the three times. Use the precepts to examine faults and prevent wrongdoing. Use meditative concentration to eliminate torpor and gather in distraction; draw near to wholesome spiritual friends, praise, read, and recite the Mahayana scriptures. Employ the myriad good deeds to correct and refine oneself, and put extensive learning into practice, thereby helping to reveal the True Nature and advancing directly toward bodhi.

When karmic hindrances are exhausted, wondrous meditative concentration naturally shines forth. When wisdom arises, the true mind becomes pure. Having become capable of benefiting oneself, one also feels compassion for those who have not yet heard or understood. Therefore, one extensively creates every cause of merit, fully practices the Six Paramitas, carries on the Buddha’s family vocation, raises the banner of the great Dharma, sends down the Dharma rain of the single taste, completely extinguishes all outflows, defilements, and worldly toil, and kindles the lamp of unconditioned wisdom to illuminate those lost in darkness.

Thus, the merit and virtue of the myriad practices arise from beginning to end; such has always been the Dharma within the Buddha’s teaching.

Therefore, the Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Great bodhisattvas do nothing that oppresses or distresses sentient beings; they speak only of matters that benefit the world.”

The Lotus Sutra says:

“If a person receives, upholds, reads, and recites this sutra, explains it to others, copies it personally, or causes others to copy it;

And is also able to erect stupas, establish monasteries, make offerings to and praise the Sangha of sravakas, and employ hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of forms of praise to extol the merit and virtue of bodhisattvas;

And further, through all manner of causes and conditions, explains this Lotus Sutra to others according to its meaning.

Furthermore, one is able to uphold the precepts purely, dwell together with gentle people, practice patience without anger, maintain steadfast resolve and mindfulness, always esteem seated meditation, attain the profound gates of samadhi, advance with vigorous diligence, practice wholesome dharmas, possess keen faculties and wisdom, and skillfully answer difficult questions….”

And further: “Wherever that person sits, stands, or walks, a stupa should be erected there, and all devas and humans should make offerings to it as they would to a stupa of the Buddha.”

Generally speaking, wholesome dharmas may be summarized in four kinds:

1. Intrinsically wholesome: the three wholesome roots of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion.

2. Wholesome through association: when a wholesome mind arises, the mind and its mental factors all arise simultaneously.

3. Wholesome through activation: initiating bodily actions and speech that express the thoughts within the mind.

4. Wholesome in the ultimate sense: namely, the pure essential nature.

Summarized further, there are two kinds:

1. Wholesomeness at the level of Principle: namely, the ultimate meaning.

2. Wholesomeness at the level of Phenomena: namely, the six paramitas and the myriad practices.

People today mostly rely upon wholesomeness at the level of Principle. Yet if one speaks of wholesomeness at the level of Principle, even an icchantika possesses it fully; why, then, does such a person not become a Buddha?

Therefore, one must practice wholesomeness at the level of Phenomena in order to adorn and reveal the nature of Principle. Only by accumulating vast merit can one accomplish the wondrous body. It is like gold contained within ore, jade concealed within a mountain, fire contained in stone, or an underground spring within the earth. Unless the necessary causes and conditions are encountered, none can serve any function; although inherently complete, they are as though nonexistent.

The three causes in sentient beings are likewise. All who possess mind are fully endowed with the direct cause, but unless supporting causes and conditions assist in revealing it, the Dharma-body cannot be accomplished. The revealing cause is the adornment of wisdom—correct understanding and contemplation. The conditional cause is the adornment of merit—the assistance and activation of wondrous practices.

When the three causes are complete, the ten epithets shine brilliantly, and the meaning of benefiting oneself and others reaches its consummation.

Therefore, the Lotus Sutra says:

“With marks of adornment, I

Shine light upon the world.

Revered by all beings,

I proclaim the seal of True Suchness.”

Moreover, those of meager virtue and scant merit cannot receive this Dharma.

Alas! Wholesome roots are easily lost, while evil karma is difficult to eliminate. The Nirvana Sutra says: “It is like carving words upon stone: those words remain for a long time. But words written upon water quickly dissolve and do not endure. Anger is like carving upon stone, while wholesome roots are like writing upon water. Therefore, this mind is difficult to tame.”

Thus one should know that wholesome deeds are easily forgotten and the human body is difficult to obtain. One must not procrastinate, for in the flash of an instant one may already have passed into another life.

The Tiwei Sutra says:

“Suppose a person atop Mount Sumeru were to lower a thread, while another person at the foot of the mountain held up a needle to receive it. Between them, whirlwinds and fierce gales blow. It would be exceedingly difficult for that thread to enter the eye of the needle. Obtaining a human body is even more difficult than this.”

The Bodhisattva Womb Sutra also says:

“A blind turtle and a floating log’s opening

May still meet at the proper time.

But once this body has been lost,

For millions of kalpas it is difficult to regain.

The vast ocean, broad and deep,

Measures three hundred and thirty-six;

A needle sunk upon its floor

Might yet be found again.”

It also says:

“Throughout incalculable kalpas,

I have traversed the paths of birth and death,

Casting off one body and receiving another,

Never departing from the womb.

Counting all that I have undergone,

I recall one part but not the second.

As white dogs alone were my bodies,

Their bones would pile to millions of Sumerus.

Were needles driven throughout the earth,

Each would pierce a former body of mine;

How much more the dogs of varied colors—

Their number cannot be measured.

Therefore, I restrain and master my mind,

Neither craving nor clinging, nor indulging in heedlessness.”

Therefore, having temporarily obtained a human body, throughout the twenty-four hours of the day one must not forget wholesomeness even for an instant, nor allow evil to increase even for a moment. This body is difficult to obtain; how could one let time pass in vain? Moreover, impermanence comes swiftly. Thought after thought, all things change and shift, like a flash of lightning, a lamp hung before the wind, or a flowing stream; they are no different from the setting sun or the morning dew.

The impermanence of this body is swifter still than these analogies convey.

The Dharmapada Sutra says:

“The Buddha told the brahmin:

In this world there are four things that cannot endure for long:

1. Whatever abides will certainly become impermanent.

2. Wealth and honor will certainly turn into poverty and lowliness.

3. Gathering together will certainly end in separation.

4. Health and strength will certainly end in death.

The sutra also says:

“Not in the sky or in the ocean,

Nor by entering mountains and forests—

There is absolutely no place at all

Where one can escape being seized by death.”

As set forth above, the myriad virtues and all wholesome deeds are provisions for bodhi, except that two dharmas can create obstructions:

1. Lack of faith.

2. Anger.

– Lack of faith obstructs wholesome deeds not yet practiced and those one wishes to practice.

– Anger destroys wholesome deeds already practiced and those presently being practiced.

Lack of faith is like a spoiled seed: it utterly severs wholesome roots, destroys the true teaching, and increases wrong views.

Anger burns up merit, obstructs bodhi, opens the gate leading to the evil paths, and firmly closes the way leading to the human and heavenly realms.

Furthermore, freedom from anger arises from compassion, while vast faith is accomplished through wisdom. As soon as the sword of wisdom is raised, the root of doubt is severed; when clouds of compassion gather and rain down their moisture, the fire of anger gradually dies away. Therefore, through wisdom one crosses the sea of suffering, and by faith one enters the gate of bodhi; through compassion one dwells in the house of Great Awakening, and through patience one dons the Tathagata’s robe.

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Faith is the foundation of the Way and the mother who gives birth to all merit; it nurtures and increases all wholesome roots. Faith can increase merit and wisdom. Faith assuredly leads to the station of the Tathagata. Faith enables wholesome roots to become pure and luminous. The power of faith is steadfast and cannot be destroyed by anything. Faith can completely eliminate the root of afflictions. Faith can enable one to devote oneself wholly to the Buddha’s merit. Faith is the indestructible seed of merit. Faith can cause the tree of bodhi to grow. Faith can increase the most excellent wisdom. Faith can manifest all Buddhas.”

The Sutra of the Dharma Gate of Great Adornment says: “Anger can destroy wholesome karma accumulated over a hundred kalpas.”

The Avatamsaka Sutra says: “When a bodhisattva gives rise to a single angry thought, myriad thousands of obstructions arise.”

The sutra also says: “Among thieves that rob one of merit, none surpasses anger.”

Moreover, as soon as a thought of anger arises, one has already become a hostile brigand upon the great Way!

Question:

The practice of myriad wholesome deeds is entirely intended to assist bodhi. Why, then, is there stagnation and failure to attain accomplishment, or rapid attainment of perfection?

Answer:

Because of heedlessness and indolence, accomplishment is not attained; through courageous and vigorous diligence, it is swiftly completed.

The Sutra of Parables says:

“There was a bhiksu who, after eating his fill, entered his room, closed the door, and went to sleep. Cherishing his own body, he regarded this as happiness. Seven days later, that bhiksu was about to die.

Out of compassion, the Buddha told that bhiksu:

– In the time of Vipasyin Buddha, you once left the household life, but you neither recited nor contemplated the scriptures and precepts. After eating your fill, you would sleep. When your life ended, your consciousness was born among centipedes. After fifty thousand years, when that lifespan was exhausted, you became a snail and then fell into existence as a wood-boring grub. Each such existence lasted fifty thousand years.”

Those four kinds are born in places of darkness. Cherishing their bodies and lives, they delight in dwelling in gloom and take it as their home; they do not enjoy the light. Whenever they fall asleep, they do not awaken for a hundred years. Tightly bound by the net of transgression, they do not seek deliverance.

Now that the transgressions of your present life have been exhausted and you have become a śramaṇa, why do you still indulge tirelessly in sleep?

Upon hearing this, the bhikshu felt ashamed and reproached himself. He immediately eliminated the Five Hindrances and attained the fruit of arhatship.”

In the Mahāratnakūṭa Sutra, the Buddha said:

“Suppose a person had silk cloth wrapped around his head and the cloth caught fire; he would have no leisure even to extinguish the flames. Why is this? Because the task of investigating ultimate truth is exceedingly urgent.”

All the matters discussed above clearly set forth the teaching and its practice. How could one dare to regard them lightly, following one’s private opinions and uttering useless words? May everyone heed these sincere and earnest words and not act contrary to the teaching of the ultimate Way!

Question:

To perform all wholesome deeds with a mind of loving-kindness and compassion accords with the conduct of the Buddhas. Yet in the teachings of the patriarchs, such conduct is sometimes criticized and sometimes praised, thereby giving rise to doubt.

Although this has been explained clearly and extensively above, a slight uncertainty still remains. It is not yet clear what the essential purport of the Buddhas is and where the ultimate refuge lies.

Please explain this clearly, so that the obstruction in my mind may be removed once and for all!

Answer:

The patriarchs established their sayings, and the Buddha expounded the teachings, solely to eliminate attachment to the wholly imagined nature; they did not destroy the Dharma-gate of dependent arising. According to deluded feelings, the wholly imagined nature exists, but according to principle it does not—like mistaking a rope for a snake or imagining that the place where leaves are moving is haunted by demons. One arbitrarily clings to what does not exist; it is entirely empty.

The dependently arisen nature [25] is causes and conditions. If one follows pure conditions, one becomes a sage; if one follows defiled conditions, one becomes an ordinary being. Therefore, because what arises according to conditions has no intrinsic nature, it is called the perfectly accomplished nature.

The Lotus Sutra says:

“The Buddhas, Honored Ones Perfect in Wisdom and Merit,

Know that all dharmas are eternally without intrinsic nature;

The seed of Buddhahood arises according to conditions,

Therefore they teach the One Vehicle.”

A treatise says:

“One who sees the Dharma of causes and conditions is said to see the Buddha.”

Thus, one should know that not a single particle fails to accord with principle and phenomena, and not a single dharma is outside the Buddha Vehicle. It is solely because people do not comprehend the original source of the myriad dharmas or the intrinsic nature of a single particle that emotional attachments arise. They become obstructed by appearances and deluded by names, falsely discriminating between self and others and forcibly creating separation and union, even provoking conflict between principle and phenomena, as though they were water and fire that could not coexist. Each person clings to one of the two extremes and fails to realize the truth of the single flavor.

Because one’s own eyes are diseased, one sees flaws in a luminous jewel; when one looks with an attached mind, myriad wholesome deeds become faults. Even the nature of lust, anger, delusion, wrong views, and what is contrary to the Way constitutes the myriad liberations. How, then, could honoring the Three Jewels and performing wholesome practices for the benefit of all beings become obstacles?

Therefore, with penetrating understanding, tiles and stones become pure gold; with attachment, wondrous medicine becomes poison.

A sutra says:

“False speech is also true speech, because it eliminates erroneous attachments. True speech is also false speech, because it gives rise to rigid attachment to words.”

One need only eliminate the mind of acceptance and rejection, and everything leads to the wondrous and unobstructed path of profound truth. Once every mistaken perception has been eliminated, only the one true mind remains; when the afflictions and defilements have completely dissolved, the world as it is becomes a pure Buddha-land.

Therefore, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sutra says:

“The Buddha declared:

Because there is no attachment to any dharma, I call this Prajnaparamita. Dwelling impartially in this nonattachment, I was able to attain a true golden-hued body, constantly surrounded by an aureole extending one fathom.”

If one wishes to understand the Buddhadharma accurately and without error, one need only harmoniously unite phenomena and principle, ensure that practice and vows accompany each other, and cultivate compassion and wisdom together.

Therefore, the Treatise on the Avataṃsaka Sutra says:

“If one’s cultivation is biased toward principle, one becomes obstructed by stillness. If cultivation is biased toward wisdom without relinquishing compassion, and if cultivation is biased toward compassion, habitual defilements increase; if one merely makes vows, the conditioned mind will readily arise. Therefore, bodhisattvas harmoniously integrate the Dharma, neither grasping nor rejecting.”

Chan Master Guifeng Zongmi said:

“In the transmission between master and disciple, one must know how to prescribe medicine according to the illness and in accord with the actual circumstances. Following the skillful means of the ancients, the master must first reveal the originally pure nature, and only afterward instruct the disciple to practice meditation in accordance with that nature.

Most people cling to appearances and therefore find it difficult to awaken to their original nature. Thus, if the original nature is to be revealed, attachments must first be eliminated. As a skillful means for breaking attachments, one must at once sweep away both ordinary beings and sages and relinquish both merit and worldly undertakings, enabling one’s own mind to remain unattached. Only then can one practice meditation.”

Later students of shallow understanding immediately cling to these words and regard them as the ultimate truth. Yet in the course of practice, most people become lax and undisciplined. Therefore, later teachers extensively expressed approval and disapproval: they censured greed and anger, praised diligence and austerity, and taught people to regulate the body and breath and enter the Way by successive stages.

Those who came afterward heard this but forgot the function of original awakening, and they single-mindedly devoted themselves to external phenomenal forms. In this way, they became obstructed by the words of the teachings and also turned against the essential purport of the Chan school.

Moreover, some people of shallow learning know only that purity is attained by leaving defilement behind and that liberation is attained by abandoning karmic hindrances; consequently, they attack the Chan teaching that “the mind itself is Buddha.” Others know only that the intrinsic nature is originally pure and that the purity of the mind-nature is itself liberation; therefore, they disparage practices taught in the doctrinal teachings, such as observing the precepts, seated meditation, and self-discipline.

They do not understand that, after sudden awakening to the purity of the intrinsic nature and attainment of the liberation of natural purity, one must still pass through gradual cultivation before reaching perfect purity and ultimate liberation. Then, whether regarding the physical body or the mind-nature, one penetrates everything freely and without obstruction, with no remaining attachments.

There are also those who maintain that the Emptiness School presents only negations, such as:

– Neither ordinary being nor sage.

– Nothing whatsoever can be apprehended.

The Nature School, by contrast, presents both negations and affirmations.

People today all consider negation profound and affirmation shallow. Therefore, they exclusively esteem such expressions as “neither mind nor Buddha.” This is chiefly because they regard negative formulations as profound and subtle, while having no desire whatsoever to personally realize the Dharma-essence. Hence this situation has arisen.

In the passages cited above, the patriarchs’ intent is exceedingly clear. What they refuted were two kinds of attachment:

– First, attachment to appearances apart from nature, which gives rise to the view of permanence.

– Second, attachment to nature apart from appearances, which results in the view of annihilation.

What they approved were two kinds of awakening:

– First, awakening to appearances precisely within nature, wherein function does not depart from essence.

– Second, awakening to nature precisely within appearances, wherein essence does not depart from function.

Therefore, one should know that phenomenal appearances are precisely the function of the essential nature, and the essential nature is precisely the substance of phenomenal appearances. To praise the essential nature is therefore to praise phenomenal appearances. To destroy phenomenal appearances is likewise to destroy the essential nature itself.

Why, then, falsely arouse a mind of acceptance and rejection and thereby create the two mistaken views described above?

If one enters the Dharma gate of true equality, both disparagement and praise cease to exist.

Question:

The answers above are very reasonable. Yet, judging from the present situation, most people delight in comprehending principle, while few wish to put it into practice. They consider themselves to have grasped the wondrous and profound teaching, to have transcended phenomena and gone beyond worldly defilements. Such people even disdain the attainment of Buddhahood and refuse to cultivate it; how, then, can they be expected to practice minor wholesome deeds? I do not know whether matters were the same in ancient times.

Please go one step further and dispel these doubts, so that people may avoid falling into the net of falsehood and perversity!

Answer:

The sages and worthies of old possessed lofty aspirations and minds of pure sincerity. When they investigated the Buddha’s teaching, they did not forget it even for a moment. They cultivated in secret, so profoundly that even spirits could hardly fathom them. Day and night they remained vigilant, as though approaching a deep abyss or treading on thin ice, urgently seeking the day of realization as though extinguishing a fire blazing upon their heads.

They valued truth and regarded falsehood lightly; they esteemed cultivation and kept verbal exposition concise. They engaged with phenomenal appearances without clinging to them, and practiced the principle of emptiness without appropriating emptiness as an attainment.

Beginning with the smallest wholesome deeds, they accumulated immeasurable merit; relying upon the slightest causes, they brought about magnificent results.

Now we encounter a defiled age and a disorderly world, an era of turmoil. Sentient beings have meager aspirations and dull faculties; their arrogance is grave, and most are indolent. They accomplish not even a single practice, yet imitate many erroneous ways. Wisdom and discipline alike have disappeared; neither essential principle nor phenomenal appearances remain. They have fallen into the deep pit of ignorance and sit within a dark prison. Unable to understand that phenomenal appearances and essential principle are identical, they merely memorize empty phrases intended to demolish attachment. Seeing this, the wise express sorrow, while fools imitate it. These erroneous modes of thought and conduct have spread widely for a long time, and it is extremely difficult to change them swiftly.

Therefore, I cannot refrain from citing the teachings of the Buddhas and patriarchs and presenting comprehensively the essential meaning of the sutras and treatises, in the hope that this will cause some people to relinquish their former attachments and correct their past errors.

May everyone follow in the footsteps left by the ancient sages and together receive the compassionate teaching of the King of Enlightenment. Thus they will not fall short of their long-held aspirations, nor fail to repay the four kinds of kindness. Together they will enter the gate of liberation and widely proclaim the principle of nirvana, which transcends birth and death.

They will accomplish the work of the Buddhas and patriarchs, perfect the wisdom of great bodhi, block the path of wrong views, open the true and proper way, strengthen faith, and dispel doubts. They will prepare the vessel that crosses to the other shore, pilot the compassionate ship of prajnaparamita, cross the painful ford of birth and death in the three realms, and enter the ocean of the great vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.

They will rescue sentient beings drowning in the ocean of birth and death and establish them within the great citadel of nirvana.

Therefore, I vow to journey back and forth amid worldly defilements, receiving sentient beings throughout the five destinies without rest or interruption. Neither before nor after will I cease to persevere. Even if the future should come to an end, my resolve will not end; even if empty space should be exhausted, my aspiration will remain inexhaustible.

I reverently pray that the Buddha-eye bear witness to my sincere intent. It is for the sake of all sentient beings in the world that I have respectfully composed this collection of writings.

Question:

Those of superior faculties suddenly awaken to their own minds. Do they still need to rely upon the myriad practices to support the path and continue their cultivation and purification?

Answer:

Chan Master Guifeng Zongmi set forth four propositions by which to evaluate and distinguish this matter:

– First, “Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Awakening”: like chopping down a tree, cutting it away piece by piece until it suddenly falls.

– Second, “Sudden Cultivation and Gradual Awakening”: like a person learning archery, with every arrow aimed at the target.

– Third, “Gradual Cultivation and Gradual Awakening”: like ascending a nine-story terrace; as one’s feet gradually climb higher, what one sees also extends gradually farther.

– Fourth, “Sudden Awakening and Sudden Cultivation”: like dyeing a single strand of silk, whereupon all ten thousand strands are immediately dyed the same color.

The four propositions above are mostly stated from the perspective of “realization through direct attainment.” Only “Sudden Awakening and Gradual Cultivation” is stated from the perspective of “awakening through understanding.” “Sudden Awakening and Gradual Cultivation” may be compared to the sun suddenly appearing, while the frost and dew beneath its light disappear only gradually.

The Avatamsaka Sutra states:

“When one first arouses the mind of bodhi, one immediately accomplishes the path of Right Enlightenment; only afterward does one enter the First Bhumi and gradually cultivate and attain realization.”

If one cultivates before awakening, it is not true cultivation. Only this Sudden Awakening and Gradual Cultivation accords with the teaching of the Buddha Vehicle and does not contradict the guiding principle of the Perfect Teaching.

As for Sudden Awakening and Sudden Cultivation, in reality one must also have passed through gradual cultivation over many former lives before sudden awakening can occur in this life.

This must be intimately experienced by practitioners through their own cultivation. If speech and conduct are one, and conduct accords with speech, the capacity of the mind will become boundlessly vast and can accord with the true principle. At that time, the eight worldly winds can no longer cause disturbance; the mind remains tranquil amid the three kinds of feeling; both the seeds and their active manifestations in the alaya consciousness disappear; and the fundamental afflictions and secondary afflictions are simultaneously extinguished.

If this is considered solely from the perspective of benefiting oneself, why would one still need the cultivation and purification of the myriad practices? If there is no illness, why take medicine?

If this is considered from the perspective of benefiting others, however, no practice should be abandoned. If one does not cultivate oneself, how can one exhort and guide others?

Therefore, the Buddhist sutras state:

“Only if one personally observes the precepts can one exhort others to observe the precepts. Only if one personally practices seated meditation can one exhort others to practice seated meditation.”

The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom states:

“It is like a hundred-year-old man dancing and leaping in order to teach his children and grandchildren.”

Bodhisattvas first use the hook of what sentient beings delight in to guide them, and only afterward cause them to enter the wisdom of the Buddha.

If a person’s attachment to external things has never been severed and the habitual tendencies of the afflictions remain grave; if, upon seeing things, emotional attachment immediately arises, and upon encountering external conditions, the mind becomes obstructed and cannot pass freely—then even though that person has understood the principle of non-arising, because their strength is still insufficient, they must not cling to that understanding and say, “I have already thoroughly understood that the nature of the afflictions is merely empty and quiescent. If I arouse the intention to cultivate, I will instead fall into delusion.”

Nevertheless, although the nature of the afflictions is empty and quiescent, they can still produce karmic results. Although karmic results lack self-nature, they can still give rise to the causes of suffering. Although suffering is illusory and unreal, ultimately it remains difficult to endure. It is like a person who is gravely ill: if the nature of illness is originally empty, why invite a physician or take various medicines?

Thus, it is fully evident that when speech and conduct contradict one another, falsehood and truth can thereby be tested. One should measure one’s own faculties and strength and not deceive oneself. One must examine matters earnestly and maturely, scrutinize every thought, and guard against error.

Question:

Laozi also opened a Dharma gate of cultivation, while Confucius devoted himself to proclaiming the Way and skillfully guiding people step by step.

Why, then, do you one-sidedly praise Buddhism and regard it alone as supremely wondrous?

Answer:

Laozi advocated severing attachment to sages and knowledge, abiding in single-mindedness—the emptiness of vital energy—and preserving gentleness. He established his teaching with purity, emptiness, simplicity, and detachment as its foundation, and with cultivating good and abhorring evil as its content. As for karmic recompense, his teaching goes no further than a single lifetime, and its aim is merely to preserve one’s own life.

Such things are merely shallow worldly views and are in no way superior to the doctrines of Buddhism. Such thought runs contrary to the principle of universally delivering sentient beings and possesses no true meritorious benefit.

Confucius advocated the practice of loyalty and filial piety and promoted benevolence, righteousness, and virtue.

Such teachings merely extend goodness within the world and do not yet enable one to forget words and inwardly realize their spirit. Therefore, they are likewise not a method leading to ultimate awakening.

Confucius once replied to Zilu: “You do not yet understand life and human affairs. How could you understand death and spirits?”

Therefore, the two teachings of Confucianism and Daoism have not transcended worldly understanding and remain confined within the sphere of mundane defilements. How, then, could they thoroughly discern the wondrous and profound purport of the Dharma realm and apply boundless wondrous practices?

Question:

The unsurpassed Way propagated by the Buddha was revered by philosophers of later generations. The teachings of Confucius and Laozi both expressed admiration and respect for Buddhism. Why, then, were there people among their later followers who slandered it and refused to believe?

Answer:

The ancient sages who founded the two teachings of Confucianism and Daoism were themselves bodhisattvas. They opposed evil and propagated truth, jointly praising and supporting the Buddha Vehicle.

Laozi once said:

“My teacher is the Buddha. ‘Buddha’ means one who enables all people to attain awakening.”

The Scripture of the Western Ascension says: “My teacher traveled and taught in India and skillfully entered nirvana.”

The Master said: “Laozi’s teacher was named Shakyamuni.”

Liezi says: “Fei, the Grand Steward of Shang, asked Confucius: ‘Is the Master a sage?’

Confucius replied: ‘I, Qiu, am merely broadly learned and possessed of a good memory; I am not a sage.’

He asked again: ‘Were the Three Kings sages?’

Confucius replied: ‘The Three Kings were skilled in employing wisdom and courage; they were not sages.’

He asked again: ‘Were the Five Emperors sages?’

Confucius replied: ‘The Five Emperors were skilled in employing benevolence and righteousness; I, Qiu, do not clearly know.’

He asked again: ‘Were the Three Sovereigns sages?’

Confucius replied: ‘The Three Sovereigns were skilled in employing their close associates and seizing opportune moments; I, Qiu, do not clearly understand.’

The Grand Steward Fei was greatly astonished and said: ‘Then who is a sage?’

The Master’s expression changed, and he said: ‘I, Qiu, have heard that in the West there is a sage who governs not, yet there is no disorder; speaks not, yet everyone naturally trusts him; and teaches not, yet everyone naturally practices. His Way and virtue are so vast that no one knows what words could worthily describe him.’”

The History of Wu says: “Sun Quan, ruler of Wu, asked Kan Ze, the Director of the Imperial Secretariat: ‘Are Confucius and Laozi equal to the Buddha?’

Kan Ze replied: ‘If Confucius and Laozi are compared with the Buddha Dharma of India, they fall far short. Thus it is said that when Confucius and Laozi established their teachings, they formulated them in accordance with Heaven and dared not contravene the principles of Heaven.

When the Buddhas establish their teachings, the devas respectfully follow and practice them, not daring to contravene the Buddha. From this it is clear that Confucius and Laozi cannot be compared with Buddhism.’”

The ruler of Wu was greatly pleased and appointed Kan Ze Grand Preceptor to instruct the Crown Prince.

The Scripture on the Arising of the World says:

“The Buddha declared:

I sent two sages to Zhendan—China—to teach and transform its people. One was named Laozi, who was the bodhisattva Kashyapa; the other was named Confucius, who was the bodhisattva Rudong.”

Everyone knows that, from ancient times to the present, whatever benefits humankind belongs to the bodhisattvas’ hidden work of teaching and transformation. Yet because the thought and conduct of these great beings are lofty and profound, ordinary people cannot understand them. Consequently, those of narrow experience and shallow understanding clamorously give rise to slander.

Some, because they do not clearly understand even the Confucian and Daoist traditions themselves, groundlessly give rise to many foolish and deluded attachments. Those who cultivate the way of Laozi make talismans fly and seals move, smelt stones and burn gold, offer foul-smelling fish and goats in sacrifice, and follow the absurd teachings of immortals. Those who enter the gate of Confucius cherish intentions contrary to simplicity and favor ostentatious display. They pursue glib talent on the tongue like parrots and devote themselves to petty cleverness like spiders spinning webs.

All their actions contradict the thought of the ancient sages and have also caused Confucianism and Daoism to lose their original countenance. If such people did not slander, how could the loftiness and profundity of Buddhism be revealed? If men of inferior capacity did not laugh at it, it would not be the Way.

Therefore, it is said that the Buddha Dharma is as vast as the ocean, containing everything; its ultimate principle is like empty space, with no gate through which one cannot enter. All philosophers secretly converge upon it, and all sages return to it. Ultimate truth and conventional truth function together, while delusion and wisdom are equally illumined.

When conventional truth is fully expounded, “loyalty” is used to admonish ministers, “filial piety” to admonish children, “succession” to admonish the state, and “harmony” to admonish families. To propagate goodness, the joys of heaven are clearly explained; to warn against evil, the seven sufferings of hell are set forth. How could its vastness be confined merely to the single word “One,” or its admonitions be limited to only the five punishments?

When ultimate truth is expounded, right and wrong simultaneously cease, and perceiver and perceived are both empty and quiescent.

The myriad phenomena are gathered into the One True Reality, and the Three Vehicles are brought together in the ultimate Buddha Vehicle. Even the Two Truths cannot reach the ultimate realization of Buddhism; how, then, could the doctrines of the Hundred Schools and various philosophers compare with it?

Question:

The Way pervades everywhere, and the True Nature never changes. Whether or not a Buddha appears, nature and characteristics eternally abide. This is the Three Jewels of the One Essence, ever present in the world. Why, then, must images be carved from gold or sandalwood, scriptures copied on bamboo or silk, and heads shaved to leave the worldly life, thereby establishing the Three Jewels?

Answer:

Those of superior faculties who penetrate the wondrous and profound have no need to practice through phenomenal forms, but those of dull faculties must necessarily rely upon phenomenal forms to arouse the aspiration.

If people do not behold true forms, they will merely be influenced by false traditions. Before the Dharma teachings and images of the Buddha reached this land, only non-Buddhist paths flourished; how, then, could people distinguish truth from falsehood or recognize wondrous and sacred traces?

After Emperor Ming of the Han dreamed of a golden body and the ruler of Wu witnessed the auspicious manifestation of relics, kings and elders came to know that they should take refuge in and revere the Buddha Dharma, while philosophers and wise men came to understand where to entrust their spirits. Therefore, one should know that traces can reveal the source, that through forms one may penetrate reality, and that by means of the fish trap one obtains the fish. Principle and phenomena are not to be discarded.

Thus, the image of the mother changed color, and the golden image emitted light. The Way depends upon people for its propagation, and objects respond according to sentiments, thereby giving rise to seeds of purity. By venerating provisional images, the mind is opened. Without faith, even if one encountered the true Buddha, it would be as though one had not seen him.

When deluded, both root and branches vanish; when enlightened, both the real and the provisional are fully understood. If one carefully examines this collection of writings, one will certainly not give rise to a mind of grasping and rejecting. If one makes extensive offerings and arouses a mind of utmost sincerity, the cultivation of mental karma will be profound and the power of the causal practice will be vast. Thus, a poor woman offered rice-washing water and advanced to the realization of a pratyekabuddha, while a young boy offered ten pieces of dry provisions and gained the merit to become a Wheel-Turning Sage King.

Question:

According to the principle of causes and conditions, all dharmas are empty, and self and others have no intrinsic nature. Nirvana and samsara are identical in essence and not different.

Why, then, should one practice compassion and carry out vast teaching and transformation?

Answer:

Although persons and dharmas are originally empty, and self and others are quiescent, the delusion of sentient beings resembles events in a dream, yet they do not understand this. Therefore, bodhisattvas arouse compassion and impart true instruction.

The Great Prajnaparamita Sutra states:

“The Buddha said to Subhuti: You should know that although sentient beings are empty in intrinsic nature and free from all characteristics, there are nevertheless defilement and purification.”

The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith states: “Although one contemplates that the intrinsic nature of all dharmas is originally unborn, one immediately also contemplates that through the conjunction of causes and conditions, good and evil karma arise, and that their painful and pleasurable results are neither lost nor destroyed. Although one contemplates that the karmic results of good and evil arise through the conjunction of causes and conditions, one also contemplates that their intrinsic nature is originally unreal.”

Therefore, by contemplating dependent arising, one does not abide in nirvana; by penetrating the emptiness of intrinsic nature, one does not abide in samsara.

Question:

Each of the ninety-six kinds of non-Buddhist schools in India established its own method of cultivation and diligently endured hardship in performing wholesome deeds. Why did their rewards, once exhausted, lead them back into samsara without liberation?

Answer:

Because they had not truly penetrated the unborn, they cultivated only causes subject to arising and cessation. They gave rise to craving and attachment and harbored deluded intentions, seeking to abandon suffering by means of suffering. Thus, they compounded delusion upon delusion, sinking and rising, ascending and descending in endless samsara. This is like boiling sand and hoping it will become rice—utterly unreasonable!

Question:

Not only do non-Buddhists who cultivate goodness fail to attain liberation; even among those who practice within the Buddha-Dharma, some do not attain the Way. Why is this?

Answer:

It is entirely because they possess a view of self and therefore cannot sever the fetters. Whenever they do something, they say, “I have done it well.” Following circumstances, they perceive attainment and become entangled in cause and effect. If they understand the principle of the twofold absence of self, they realize the One Mind, remain unmoved by worldly defilements, and are liberated at that very moment.

Question:

In the very act of doing something, how can one fully understand the absence of self?

Answer:

In the very act of doing something, action arises from conditions. Although there are movements and activities, there is no sovereign agent. Whatever words are uttered are like the passing wind; acting responsively according to circumstances is like a wooden puppet. Actions occur solely through the power of karma, without any real self. The four great elements gather and disperse, arising and ceasing according to conditions. Even taking birth in the six realms is likewise; in truth, there is no one who comes or goes.

The Avatamsaka Sutra states:

“Like a mechanical wooden puppet

That produces various sounds,

It has neither self nor what belongs to self;

The nature of karma is likewise.”

A treatise states: “Through conditions, one is born in the heavenly realm. Through conditions, one falls into hell.”

If the self were not subject to causes and conditions, why would an evil person not be born in heaven but instead fall into hell? Could the self possibly delight in enduring the sufferings of hell?

Having committed evil, one does not receive happiness. Therefore, one should know that the experience of good and evil karmic results is due solely to conditions and not to a self. Yet, amid the absence of self and of an agent, sentient beings deludedly imagine that there is a self and an agent, forcibly asserting that there is a sovereign controller. They do not understand that actions are produced by consciousness and that there is definitively no agent.

Non-Buddhists all cling to action and assert the existence of a divine self. They say that if there were no divine self, who would act and perform deeds?

The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom refutes this attachment as follows:

“Because the mind has the characteristic of consciousness, it can direct the body without requiring a divine self, just as fire by its own nature can burn things without depending upon a person.”

The Treatise on Consciousness-Only states:

“If one maintains that a real entity of self exists, does that entity think or not think?

If it thinks, it must be impermanent, because it does not think at all times. If it does not think, then it must be like empty space, unable to perform karma or undergo karmic results. Therefore, this attachment to a self cannot reasonably be established.”

From this one should know that there is definitively no real self. There are only the various consciousnesses, which since beginningless time have ceased before and arisen afterward, with cause and effect continuing in succession. Through deluded perfuming, they appear as though bearing the characteristic of a self, and foolish people deludedly grasp this as a self.

Furthermore, the absence of self means the absence of intrinsic nature. Nature means essence, and essence signifies a sovereign basis. Every dharma is formed from various conditions and in truth has no inherent essence. Because it has no inherent essence, it is merely empty.

Therefore, sentient beings cling to real existence within the emptiness of intrinsic nature. Inwardly they are bound by the self, and outwardly they are confined by sensory objects. Thus, in their cultivation they do not transcend mind and objects, and even when attaining a result they do not depart from its cause. Although their ascent and descent differ, they remain perpetually bound within the various realms. At times high and at times low, they revolve through samsara again and again. Whenever fears arise, the self is their root.

Question:

Since the myriad dharmas have no real essence and have always been empty in themselves, how can all dharmas be established?

Answer:

It is precisely because they are empty and lack essential nature that they arise according to conditions. If they possessed an essence of their own, they would not depend upon conditions to arise. If they did not arise from conditions, the myriad dharmas would possess fixed essential natures.

If fixed characteristics were established, this would entail the error of eternalism: good and evil could not change, and cause and effect would consequently be thrown into confusion. One who commits evil ought then to be born in heaven, while one who does good ought to sink into samsara, because there would be no causes. Performing good ought to yield no merit, while committing evil ought to incur no offense, because there would be no karmic results.

Therefore, the myriad dharmas have no essential nature and are not fixed; they manifest solely according to conditions. Because they arise from conditions, they have no intrinsic nature. All dharmas are empty because they lack intrinsic nature, yet because they arise from conditions, all dharmas can be established.

The Avatamsaka Sutra states that bodhisattvas establish all Buddha-activities within that which has no intrinsic nature. Thus, existence is established on the basis of emptiness, and therefore existence is not real; emptiness is discerned from existence, and therefore emptiness has no essence of its own.

Question:

At present, we see all dharmas arising. Why, then, is it said that they have no intrinsic nature?

Answer:

At the very point of arising, there is no arising; therefore, there is no real nature. If it is said that arising exists, does something arise from itself, arise from other things, arise from the conjunction of many things, or arise without a cause?

If it is said to arise from itself, consider one’s own body: without parents, how could it be born? Therefore, it should be said that this body comes into existence through one’s parents, with past karma serving as the internal cause and the bodies of one’s parents serving as the external conditions. Since it comes into existence through the conjunction of internal and external causes and conditions, it does not arise from itself.

Or suppose it is said to arise from other things. Without its own former causes and conditions, it could never enter the womb; it must in every case come into existence through its own karma. For example, even if soil and water are fully present outside, without a seed, nothing can possibly grow.

If it is said that many things combine to produce arising, and that something is formed through deceptive conditions, how could it possess the function of an intrinsic essence? Conditions arise from causes; if there were no externally assisting function, neither causes nor conditions could exist. How, then, could there be combination? Just as a single grain of sand contains no oil, combining many grains of sand still yields no oil. One blind person cannot see; how could gathering many blind people together enable them to see?

If things arose without causes, a stone maiden could give birth to a child, and turtle hair could be made into a fly whisk. Even with a cause, nothing comes into being; how could something exist without a cause?

Moreover, causelessness is established in dependence upon causality. Since causality cannot be established, causelessness is also cut off. One need only penetrate the two propositions that things arise neither “from themselves” nor “from other things,” and all four propositions are refuted. Since there is neither self-arising nor arising from other things, what could combine, and what could exist without a cause? Thus, the four propositions naturally fall silent.

Therefore, know that because arising is non-arising, the characteristics of illusion are clearly present; because non-arising is arising, the true nature is ever quiescent. Thus, the Vajrasamadhi Sutra says:

“The meaning of arising through causes and conditions:

That meaning is cessation, not arising.

The meaning of cessation is the cessation of all arising;

That meaning is arising, not cessation.”

Question:

Since all dharmas are without intrinsic nature and do not arise, why do sentient beings cling to conditioned objects and undergo real karmic retribution?

Answer:

It is only because they do not understand that dharmas are without intrinsic nature and, in their delusion, take them to be real that they undergo retribution as though it were real. If they penetrate the emptiness of the nature of all dharmas, attachment will not arise. When there is no attachment, they may act freely without abiding in causes and ultimately undergo no karmic retribution.

Therefore, the sutra says: “When the mind arises, all dharmas arise.” It also says: “Everything is created by the mind alone.” If the mind does not arise, external objects remain ever empty and quiescent. When one understands that the nature of external objects is empty, one’s own mind naturally becomes quiescent. Once the deluded mind is quiescent, how could illusory appearances arise? When mind and objects are naturally one suchness, they accord with the Way.

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body,

Mind, mentation, and all the faculties—

All are without intrinsic nature;

The deluded mind discriminates them as existing.”

It further says:

“All worldly dharmas

Are governed by the mind alone.

Through mistaken understanding, one clings to appearances,

Inverted and contrary to reality.”

Question:

Since real karmic retribution is experienced, why is it said that everything is empty?

Answer:

It is clearly stated that sentient beings themselves deludedly take it to be real, while the intrinsic nature of karmic retribution is always empty. Although, while experiencing suffering and happiness, the mind gives rise to love and hatred, both persons and phenomena are empty, and not a single dharma is real. It is like seeing good and bad events in a dream and feeling boundless joy and sorrow; upon awakening, all is empty and nothing remains.

While awake, the events of the dream do not exist; while dreaming, the things in the dream are not nonexistent. Having become habituated to inversion, one inevitably experiences deceptive results.

Question:

Are the deluded mind and illusory objects fundamentally nonexistent from the beginning, or have they only now become nonexistent?

Answer:

Mind and objects are fundamentally nonexistent.

Question:

Since they are fundamentally nonexistent, why have sentient beings not attained liberation? Since there has fundamentally never been bondage, why speak of liberation?

Answer:

It is only because they do not penetrate “fundamental nonexistence” that they deludedly give rise to attachment to “present existence.”

Through the power of perfuming from beginningless time until now, they neither understand nor know, but follow karma and revolve in samsara. Although they dwell within the bonds of karma, their intrinsic nature is always pure.

Question:

How can ultimate purity be attained?

Answer:

This has two meanings:

1. By penetrating fundamental nonexistence, one attains the purity of intrinsic nature.

2. By purifying all deluded defilements, one attains the purity that is free from dust and impurity.

When the original nature is pure, deluded thoughts do not arise; the two obstructions both dissolve, and the three spheres—self, other, and object—are empty and transparent. Upon accord with the source, both the seeds and the active manifestations of karmic consciousness become quiescent.

Question:

The Buddha Way flourishes and extends far, and both ordinary beings and sages receive it alike. Why does it sometimes arise and flourish, at other times sink into obscurity without constancy, and even undergo destruction?

Answer:

All things undergo change, but the Three Jewels abide forever, quiescent and unmoving while responding and transforming beings. The Buddha was not first born in the royal palace, nor did he enter final extinction between the twin sala trees.

If sentient beings have meager merit, Buddhist activity wanes; if a land has profound affinities, monasteries spread everywhere. Gain and loss arise from people themselves; it is not the Buddhadharma that flourishes or declines.

Therefore, the Lotus Sutra says:

“When sentient beings see the kalpa ending,

And a great fire consuming all,

This land of mine remains peaceful and secure,

Ever filled with devas and humans.”

Question:

Since good deeds are praised and karmic responses never fail, why are there people who strive arduously in their seeking yet attain absolutely nothing?

Answer:

Those who cultivate goodness naturally receive two kinds of benefit: hidden and manifest. The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra presents four propositions by which this may be clearly examined:

1. Hidden capacity and hidden response: If one skillfully cultivated the three karmic activities in the past, then in the present, even before employing body or speech, one already receives support from the power of past goodness. This is called hidden responsive capacity.

Although no numinous response is seen, one secretly receives benefit from the Dharma body. It is neither seen nor heard, neither understood nor known; this is called hidden benefit. The response body corresponds to manifest response, while the Dharma body corresponds to hidden response.

2. Hidden capacity and manifest benefit: When roots of goodness planted in the past have matured into hidden responsive capacity, and one then encounters a Buddha, hears the Dharma, and receives benefit in the present, this is called manifest benefit. For example, when the Buddha first appeared in the world, how had those who were the first to be liberated at that time ever practiced in that very life? The Buddhas examined their capacities from former lives and came of their own accord to liberate them.

3. Manifest capacity and manifest benefit: In the present, one is diligent in body and speech, never indolent, and thereby evokes a response. Performing prostrations and repentance in a place of practice can evoke a numinous response.

4. Manifest capacity and hidden benefit: Some people, although diligent and laboring throughout their lives and accumulating much goodness in the present, see no manifest response, yet they still receive hidden benefit.

If these four meanings are clearly understood, then none of the merit from bowing one’s head or joining one’s palms is ever lost. Though one performs every kind of good deed throughout the day and sees no response, one will still have no regret.

Question:

Why is it that some people cultivate goodness throughout their lives yet presently suffer many evil karmic results, while others commit evil all day long yet encounter only favorable circumstances?

Answer:

Karma extends through all three lives; it is simply that its ripening or non-ripening is not fixed. It also extends through three kinds of retribution, with the weighty and the light overturning one another.

The tenth patriarch in India, Venerable Kumaralata, said:

“In a previous life one cultivated merit,

And more than half had already been attained;

But because of a slight breach,

One changed one’s mind and committed evil deeds.

With evil karma and little merit,

Even after death one still enjoys blessings.

Just while enjoying happiness,

The mind seems peaceful and joyful,

But sorrowful events suddenly descend,

And the family gradually declines.

This is caused by former evil karma

Continuing to produce such effects;

It is not because one now cultivates merit

That one incurs evil results.”

He also said:

“In a previous life one committed evil deeds,

And those offenses amounted to more than half;

Suddenly one encountered a wise person

Who instructed one to cultivate merit.

Although merit was then cultivated,

The good deeds had not yet surpassed the offenses.

Because merit remained less than wrongdoing,

After death one was still born into poverty.

The mind had no faith or reverence for the Buddha,

Nor did it honor the Three Jewels.

Those offenses amounted to more than half,

Yet the family gradually became wealthy,

With abundant riches and possessions.”

Because of wholesome karma from the past,

Its effects continue into this life.

It is not that evil done today

Has brought about wholesome fruit.

The Treatise says:

“The illness and suffering we presently endure are all caused by conditions created in the past. If we cultivate merit in this life, we will receive its karmic result in the future. Thus, even if we see that one who delights in killing enjoys longevity, while one who delights in giving remains poor, by trusting these words we can still refrain from giving rise to wrong views.

If one does not understand this, one will become anxious and regretful, failing to comprehend the principle that cause and effect extend throughout the three lives, and will claim that all one’s effort has been wasted and that the karmic results of good and evil have no demonstrable proof.”

One need only single-mindedly cultivate goodness without retreating or interruption, and the fruit of merit will remain ever fresh. The only concern is that one may give rise to obstacles midway. The wise and virtuous should clearly understand this meaning.

Question:

Evil can obscure goodness, causing calamities to arise and merit to collapse. Goodness can overcome evil, causing karmic obstacles to be eliminated and the Way to become manifest.

Why, then, are there people who accumulate wholesome karma throughout their lives yet suffer calamity? Emperor Wu of Liang fervently took refuge in the Three Jewels, yet in the end he was besieged and died in the imperial city during Hou Jing’s rebellion, receiving no protection whatsoever.

People are all perplexed by this and cannot understand it. Please explain it clearly.

Answer:

It has already been clearly established above that karma extends throughout the three lives of past, present, and future. The principle has also been fully elucidated.

Now, once again, in order to dispel doubts, this will be explained from the following three perspectives:

1. Buddhas and bodhisattvas respond in accordance with beings’ capacities and conditions, manifesting in many different forms and devising various modes of conduct. Conforming to worldly beings, they share their suffering and happiness, transforming in countless ways so as to guide the great multitude of afflicted beings. At times, while appearing to dwell in safety, they suddenly encounter danger, thereby revealing the principle that when things reach an extreme, they must reverse. At times, after long enjoying glory and prosperity, they suddenly meet with disaster, thereby demonstrating the law that flourishing must inevitably be followed by decline.

In this way, those infatuated with glory and prosperity are awakened to the impermanence of everything in the world. Those who are wealthy, honored, and self-assured are also made to understand that life is limited, so that their craving is imperceptibly dispelled and the defilements afflicting sentient beings are skillfully cleansed.

Sometimes they manifest what is upright; sometimes they manifest what is deviant. Sometimes they proceed contrary to ordinary ways; sometimes they act in accordance with them. All the modes of conduct devised by bodhisattvas as described above are exceptional means of inconspicuous transformation and guidance that ordinary people cannot comprehend.

2. Good and evil are by no means fixed; karmic results depend upon conditions. The power of karma is inconceivable, and its momentum cannot be obstructed.

Therefore, the Nirvana Sutra says:

“The karma created by sentient beings produces three kinds of retribution:

– First is retribution in the present life: wholesome or unwholesome karma created in this life brings the karmic result of suffering or happiness in this very life.

– Second is retribution in the next life: karma created in this life brings its karmic result only in the following life.

– Third is later retribution: karma created in this life brings its karmic result only after hundreds or thousands of subsequent lives.

The sutra also says:

“There is karma that causes a person to suffer in the present and also produces suffering as its future result. There is karma that causes a person to suffer in the present but produces happiness as its future result. There is karma that causes a person to be happy in the present and also produces happiness as its future result. There is karma that causes a person to be happy in the present but produces suffering as its future result.

Some people have not yet exhausted the residual merit of former lives, and therefore evil retribution does not immediately befall them. Others still retain calamities from former lives, yet favorable conditions arise at once.”

Furthermore, if goodness is abundant and evil is slight, one first enjoys happiness and later endures suffering; when one’s meritorious reward is exhausted, calamity immediately arises. If goodness is slight and evil abundant, one first endures suffering and later enjoys happiness; when calamity is exhausted, joys gather together. All these matters belong to later retribution.

Once wholesome or unwholesome karma has ripened, it is difficult to eliminate it completely through the power of cultivating goodness in this life alone. Therefore, even those who have severed afflictions and attained the fruit of sainthood must still repay old debts. Bhiksu Simha and Chan Master Yixing were examples of this. How much less could ordinary people, bound by the power of karma, escape such calamities?

3. Some people possess deep and abundant roots of goodness, together with steadfast resolve in cultivation, unwavering and free from doubt, and powerful, great vows. Although they undergo light retribution in the present life, they are thereby able to eliminate grave offenses.

Thus, the sutra says:

“If in this life one does little evil and much good, the heavy retribution of hell is transformed into light retribution in the present life.

If in this life one does little good and much evil, the light karma of the present life is transformed into heavy karma in hell.”

Indeed, although a person who purely cultivates wholesome conduct may temporarily suffer a minor illness such as a headache in the present life, in the end the sufferings and calamities of hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas in hell are eliminated. Therefore, a bodhisattva makes this vow: “May I repay my karmic debts in this life; I do not wish to fall into the evil destinies and undergo suffering.”

A person who creates much evil karma may enjoy peace and happiness in the present life, but their karmic retribution lies in the Avici Hell, where they will forever be tormented and scorched by the sufferings of hell without a moment’s respite.

Furthermore, when practitioners attain a certain degree of spiritual power, they will escape samsara. Although they may undergo a little suffering at the time of death, all the evil karma accumulated since the distant past will then be repaid at once.

For example, Tripitaka Dharma Master Xuanzang of the Tang dynasty had been a monk in China for nine lifetimes and was generally regarded as foremost in both merit and wisdom. During his life, he devoted himself to propagating Buddhism, expounding the Buddha-Dharma of the One Vehicle, and universally benefiting all sentient beings. His merit was immeasurable and difficult to fathom.

When he was nearing parinirvana, he lay quietly in his sickroom. Chan Master Mingzang came to visit and saw two tall figures, each holding a white lotus flower, approach the Dharma Master and say:

– All the evil karma through which the Dharma Master has harmed sentient beings from the distant past until now has been eliminated by this present minor illness. You should rejoice in this!

The Dharma Master joined his palms and gazed toward the two figures, then lay down on his right side.

A disciple asked:

– Will the Venerable Master certainly be reborn in the inner court of Tusita Heaven?

He replied:

– I will certainly be reborn there.

After he had spoken, his breathing gradually weakened, and he peacefully entered parinirvana.

Only one who understands the three levels of meaning above can be called a person who clearly understands cause and effect. If one does not understand these principles, one will inevitably give rise to doubt and slander.

Question:

In cultivating roots of goodness, one should practice purely and single-mindedly. Why, then, would one also commit evil? If one is capable of committing evil, what need is there for goodness? If both good and evil are practiced, I fear the effort will have been wasted.

Answer:

Since renunciant bodhisattvas are free from such encumbrances, they should cultivate goodness purely and single-mindedly, advancing directly toward bodhi. Lay bodhisattvas, however, remain bound by worldly affairs and have not yet attained complete purity; therefore, they should practice various wholesome deeds as countermeasures.

Karma is difficult to transform quickly, and how could evil be easily and completely severed? One must gradually accumulate merit and advance toward bodhi. If one accumulates evil without attending to the cultivation of goodness, wrongdoing and evil will be endless. Therefore, one must practice goodness and eliminate the causes of evil.

The Sutra of Parables says:

“Long ago, a king went hunting. On his way back, he passed by a monastery. The king entered, circumambulated the stupa, and bowed in reverence to the śramanas.

At that time, all his ministers laughed. When the king learned of this, he asked:

– Suppose there were gold in a cauldron of boiling water. Could one reach in with one’s hand and take out the gold?

The ministers replied:

– It could not be done!

The king said:

– If cold water were poured into it, could the gold then be taken out?

The ministers answered:

– It could!

The king said:

– My performance of royal duties and going hunting are like boiling water. Offering incense, lighting lamps, and circumambulating the stupa are like pouring cold water into boiling water. Whoever is a king performs both good and evil deeds; why should one do only evil and not do good?”

Question:

Must a lay bodhisattva also devote himself exclusively to cultivating wholesome karma?

Answer:

If a lay bodhisattva possesses firm resolve and unwavering faith, he will single-mindedly take refuge in and revere the Buddha and the Dharma. Like a deer caught in a net or a person whose head is on fire, he single-mindedly seeks only liberation and pays no heed to worldly affairs.

From ancient times to the present, there have been many such cases.

The Sutra of Parables states:

“Long ago, there was a king who greatly esteemed virtue and regularly practiced walking meditation while circumambulating a Buddha stupa. One day, before he had completed one hundred circuits, the king of a neighboring country led an army to attack, intending to seize his kingdom.

Upon receiving the news, a close minister became extremely alarmed and reported it to the king, imploring him to suspend his reverential circumambulation of the stupa for the time being so that he might resist the powerful enemy.

The king replied, ‘Let them come and attack. I am determined not to stop circumambulating the stupa.’

With steadfast resolve, the king continued circumambulating the stupa without stopping, and in the end, the enemy forces disintegrated.”

The foregoing sufficiently demonstrates that one need only possess single-minded faith and steadfast resolve that never wavers, and then there is nothing one cannot accomplish. Therefore, when mountains and rivers manifest no miraculous response, it is because people’s sincerity is insufficient. Once a person’s mind is sincere and resolve firm, everything will heed his command. Legends tell of a filial son who lay upon the ice and obtained fish, and another who wept beside a bamboo grove and obtained bamboo shoots. These things were by no means brought about through divine power, but were produced by the resolve of the human mind.

Question:

If people cultivate the myriad wholesome deeds, everyone will practice the Dharma gate of compassion; if they accept only the truth, this will obstruct the ordinary affairs of worldly life.

Thus, although they dwell within their own country, they will lose the ability to govern it; although they dwell within their own homes, they will find it difficult to establish the family livelihood. Although this is said to benefit everyone, it wholly fails to achieve the best of both worlds.

Answer:

The Buddha Dharma is endowed with every wholesome virtue and can permeate all sentient beings throughout the Dharma realm. Its power and function deliver both the living and the deceased, and its spirit encompasses both the spiritual and the worldly realms. For a nation, the presence of wholesome virtue will bring prosperity and strength. For a family, the presence of wholesome virtue will bring wealth, honor, and flourishing. Therefore, its benefits are immeasurably vast and its effects profoundly far-reaching.

Thus, an ancient text says:

“A family that accumulates wholesome virtue will certainly leave future happiness to its descendants. A family that accumulates wickedness will certainly leave future calamity to later generations.”

It also says:

“Performing many wholesome deeds will evoke auspicious signs, while performing many evil deeds will evoke all manner of calamities.”

According to the historical records of the Liu Song dynasty, during the Yuanjia era, Emperor Wen of Song asked Palace Attendant He Shangzhi:

– Fan Tai and Xie Lingyun often said that the Six Classics were fundamentally intended to aid the secular world, but that if one wished to reveal the true and essential purport concerning the spiritual nature, the Buddhist scriptures should be taken as the guide. If the entire nation accepted the transforming teachings of the Buddha Dharma, I could sit at ease and enjoy great peace.

The Palace Attendant replied:

– In a village of one hundred households, if ten people observe the five precepts, there will be ten people who are honest, generous, circumspect, and trustworthy. In a township of one thousand households, if one hundred people cultivate the ten wholesome deeds, there will be one hundred people who are humble, harmonious, sincere, and unspoiled. If this way of life is propagated into every street and lane, then, among the countless thousands and tens of thousands of households, there will be a million people endowed with benevolence, righteousness, and virtue.

If one can cultivate a single wholesome deed, one evil deed will be eliminated; eliminating one evil deed is precisely to avoid one punishment. If every family avoids one punishment, then, for the whole nation, ten thousand punishments will be avoided. This is precisely what Your Majesty meant by sitting at ease and enjoying great peace.

Therefore, the cultivation of wholesome deeds can encompass the Dharma realm and pervade empty space; every single wholesome deed brings benefit. It may be said to be the foundation for establishing oneself and assisting moral transformation, extending even to rectifying and supporting the nation and safeguarding every family.

If people establish themselves in accordance with this, everyone will be able to build a firm foundation. If this is used to set a nation in order, every country will be peaceful. In terms of immediate benefit, one can attain the favorable karmic rewards of the heavenly and human realms; in terms of ultimate benefit, one will finally attain Buddhahood.

Question:

When ordinary beings cultivate every wholesome practice, what should they take as the root?

Answer:

All principles and phenomenal characteristics take the mind as their root.

Speaking in terms of principle, the Buddha says in a sutra:

“Contemplate that all dharmas arise from one’s own mind; the body of wisdom is perfected not through awakening by another.”

This refers to taking contemplation in accordance with True Suchness, the true mind, as the root.

Speaking in terms of phenomenal characteristics, the Buddha says in a sutra:

“The mind is like a skillful painter,

Painting worlds in myriad hues;

The worldly realms of the five skandhas—

There is no dharma it does not create.”

This refers to taking the discerning consciousness, the mind that apprehends and deliberates upon its objects, as the root.

The “true mind” is the essence. The “mind that apprehends and deliberates” is the function. Function is precisely the “gate of the mind’s arising and cessation.” Essence is precisely the “gate of the mind’s True Suchness.”

Although divided into the two aspects of essence and function, in reality there is only one mind. Function is the function arising from essence, and function is never separate from essence; essence is the essence present within function, and essence is never separate from function.

Although the mind’s unfolding and convergence differ, its true nature remains quiescent and unmoving. The mind can become a Buddha, and it can also become a sentient being; it can create heaven, and it can also create hell.

– If the mind is stirred, the myriad things arise.

– If the mind is tranquil, the Dharma realm is serenely still.

– If the mind abides in the ordinary state, it is bound by the three poisons.

– If the mind enters the realm of the sages, it is sovereign and unobstructed throughout the six paths.

– If the mind is empty and quiescent, the one path is pure.

– If the mind is defiled and attached, the myriad objects run rampant.

It is like an empty cavern that echoes sounds: when the sound is loud, the echo is great. It is also like a bright mirror reflecting objects: if the form is crooked, its reflection will necessarily be distorted. This makes clear that the myriad practices all originate in the mind and that all good and evil lie within oneself.

If inwardly one is false, outwardly one will naturally be untrue. If inwardly one is subtle and refined, outwardly one will naturally not be coarse. Wholesome causes will ultimately encounter wholesome conditions; evil conduct will finally find it difficult to escape adverse circumstances. Treading upon misty clouds and drinking amrita are by no means bestowed by another; lying amid fire and smoke and drinking blood and pus are likewise entirely brought about by oneself.

Wholesome conditions and adverse circumstances are neither born of heaven nor created by earth; they arise solely from our own initial thought. A single wholesome or unwholesome thought leads to our subsequent rise or fall. If one wishes for outward peace and harmony, one need only keep the mind within tranquil. When one’s own mind is open and empty, external circumstances become still. When thoughts stir, the myriad things arise. When a river is turbid, its waters are murky; when a pond settles and becomes clear, the moon’s reflection shines brightly.

The key to all cultivation can never be separated from the mind. This mind may be called the gateway to all mysteries, the repository of all wonders, the basis of rising and falling, and the source of misfortune and blessings. Therefore, one need only set one’s own mind aright and need not harbor doubts about external circumstances.

A sutra says: “Practice goodness and blessings follow; commit evil and calamity is encountered.” Just as an echo responds to a sound, so too are good and evil like sounds. This is certainly not bestowed by devas, nagas, ghosts, or spirits, nor is it caused by one’s ancestors of the past or descendants of the future. The creation of good and evil depends solely on the mind, while their enactment occurs through body and speech.

The Buddha spoke this verse:

“Mind is the root of the myriad dharmas;

Mind precedes and commands them.

If an evil thought arises in the mind,

And one speaks evil and does evil,

Then suffering from wrongdoing follows one,

As a wheel follows its track.

Mind is the root of the myriad dharmas;

Mind precedes and commands them.

If a wholesome thought arises in the mind,

And one speaks well and does good,

It follows like a shadow follows the form.”

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

“Bodhisattva Chief in Wisdom asked Manjusri:

‘How can one become free from faults in the karma of body, speech, and mind, and ultimately attain unsurpassed, perfect awakening?’

Manjusri replied:

‘Child of the Buddha! If bodhisattvas skillfully employ their minds, they will attain every supreme and wondrous virtue.’”

The Ghanavyuha Sutra says:

“Just as the earth makes no distinctions, yet all things rely upon it to arise, so too is the storehouse consciousness the basis upon which the various objects depend.”

It is like a person touching their own body with their hand, like an elephant drawing up water with its trunk to bathe itself, or like children putting their own fingers into their mouths. In the same way, objects appear from within the mind, which then itself takes them as conditions. The sphere of this mind pervades the three realms.

Practitioners who cultivate contemplation for a long time can thoroughly comprehend that all worlds, both internal and external, are manifested by mind alone. Viewed from this perspective, the mind is not only the root of the myriad wholesome deeds; all sentient and insentient things, the realms of ordinary beings and sages, empty space, and the myriad phenomena all originate from the mind. It is said that non-abiding is the root; once the root is established, the Way arises.

This is precisely the principle being expressed.

Question:

If the source of the myriad practices takes the mind as its root, which Dharma of the aids to the Way stands foremost?

Answer:

Take sincerity and uprightness as foremost, and compassionate guidance and transformation as the Way. Because of uprightness, the fruit is not distorted, and one’s practice accords with True Suchness. Because of compassion, one does not fall into the Lesser Vehicle, and one’s merit equals that of the Greatly Awakened One. Through these two gates, both oneself and others receive benefit.

Question:

It was explained above that one must first understand the true tenet and comprehensively practice all Dharma gates that aid the Way. Now the gate of the myriad practices is used to dispel doubts and obstructions, but it remains unclear what is taken as its central tenet.

Answer:

The Buddha-Dharma fundamentally has no fixed tenet. It is only according to the point through which one enters and clearly sees the nature of mind that this is provisionally called the tenet.

Question:

By what skillful means can one awaken and enter?

Answer:

There is a gate of skillful means through which one must personally enter.

Question:

Can it not be pointed out clearly?

Answer:

Seeing the nature has no location; how could it be pointed out clearly?

It truly is not an object of seeing, hearing, understanding, or knowing.

Question:

If it cannot be pointed out, then when one sees, what does one see?

Answer:

One sees no thing.

Question:

If there is no thing, how can there be seeing?

Answer:

If there is no thing, there is no seeing. Non-seeing is true seeing; if there is seeing, one follows sensory objects.

Question:

If so, why does the Buddha’s teaching also speak of “seeing”?

Answer:

In accordance with worldly convention, the Buddha speaks of seeing within non-seeing; this is not the same as ordinary beings’ attachment to seeing as truly existent. Ultimately speaking, seeing the nature belongs neither to existence nor nonexistence; it is serenely and perpetually quiescent.

Question:

What, then, is it ultimately?

Answer:

You must personally awaken and examine it for yourself.

Question:

It was said earlier that there are no dharmas outside the mind. Why, then, is it said here that if there is seeing, one follows sensory objects?

Answer:

All visible objects are produced by the directly perceived image aspect of the eighth consciousness; in truth, no dharma exists outside it. When the eye sees form, discrimination has not yet arisen. Within a single instant, it is transferred into the clear and discerning mental consciousness, which discriminates its shape and appearance as an object outside, and thus becomes attached to it as an external sensory object.

Question:

By which consciousness are objects manifested?

Answer:

Sensory objects are manifested by consciousness. The internal consciousness transforms and arises, appearing as sensory objects, just as when one sees one’s own face in a mirror, it is not the image of another person that appears. The Treatise on Consciousness-Only says:

“Internal consciousness transforms and appears as though it were an external realm. Through discrimination concerning self and dharmas, when the various consciousnesses arise, each manifests its own self and dharmas. Although these appearances of self and dharmas exist within internal consciousness, through discrimination they appear as though they were external objects. Since beginningless time, sentient beings have taken these as conditions and become attached to a truly existent self and truly existent dharmas. It is like a dream: through the power of the illusory dream, the mind appears to manifest many forms of external objects.

Although the internal consciousness manifests what appears to be a self and what appear to be dharmas, and these appearances exist, they are not real.”

A sutra says:

“Because of attachment within one’s own mind, the mind appears to transform and manifest external objects. All things seen by sentient beings have no true existence. Therefore, it is said that all is mind-only.”

Here, from the perspective of phenomena, it is said that consciousness transforms and manifests them. If one deeply realizes True Suchness, then all dharmas have never moved from the beginning, and the intrinsic nature of mind does not depend upon transformation and manifestation.

Question:

From where are these sensory objects and this consciousness established?

Answer:

They are established through seeds perfumed by names and language. In truth, they have no intrinsic substance, yet they appear to manifest meanings and characteristics, like illusory objects.

Dharmas are established through names, and names are assigned on the basis of dharmas. Within names there are no dharmas, and within dharmas there are no names. They have no intrinsic substance and arise only through mutual combination; all appearances are quiescent.

Question:

Since this consciousness is not established, which consciousness is taken as the tenet?

Answer:

The various consciousnesses ultimately have nowhere to return. Speaking exhaustively, there is only the one True Nature. In order to eliminate objects, this deluded consciousness is provisionally established. If objects cease, consciousness also ceases; both perceiver and perceived are empty, leaving only the one True Consciousness, which is the Real Nature.

The Treatise on the Three Non-Natures says:

“First, use deluded consciousness to eliminate objects; next, use the amala consciousness to eliminate deluded consciousness; finally, only the Pure Consciousness remains.”

Question:

Principle and phenomena are unobstructed, and the myriad practices are perfected. On which teaching is this based, and to which truth does it belong?

Answer:

The Dharma-nature interpenetrates without obstruction and freely accords with conditions; the presentation of a single dharma completely encompasses the myriad practices. This is based on the Avatamsaka and belongs to the Perfect Teaching.

If one attains Buddhahood through the six paramitas and the myriad practices and then teaches and liberates sentient beings, although this is pure dependent arising, it all belongs to the conventional truth.

If one thoroughly comprehends this tenet and investigates the ocean of fruition to its utmost depths, both principle and wisdom are empty, and speech and thought are utterly cut off.

Question:

How many categories are presented in this collection?

Answer:

If the question concerns provisional concepts and names, there are innumerable categories. Here they are stated briefly under the general title The Myriad Virtues Return to the Same Source. If explained analytically, there are ten meanings.

1. The unobstructed interpenetration of principle and phenomena.

2. The parallel practice of expedient and true teachings.

3. The Two Truths are expounded together.

4. Nature and Characteristics interpenetrate harmoniously.

5. Essence and Function are free and unhindered.

6. Existence and Emptiness bring each other to fulfillment.

7. Primary Practice and Auxiliary Practice are cultivated together.

8. Sameness and Difference are equal.

9. Cultivation and Intrinsic Nature are nondual.

10. Cause and Effect never fail.

Question:

Terms are established on the basis of the meanings of things, while the meanings of things become clear through terms. Once these provisional names have been established, how are their meanings to be understood?

Answer:

1. The Non-Obstruction of Principle and Phenomena:

Principle refers to the unconditioned, while phenomena refer to the conditioned. Although one acts throughout the entire day, one has never been conditioned; although one does not act throughout the entire day, one has never been unconditioned. Since the conditioned and the unconditioned are neither one nor different, both originate in Dharma-nature and are identical with empty space.

– If they were said to be “one,” the Sutra of Benevolent Kings states: “All bodhisattvas accomplish both conditioned merit and unconditioned merit.” If they were merely “one,” it should not speak here of two kinds of merit.

– If they were said to be “different,” the Prajnaparamita Sutra also states: “One cannot speak of the unconditioned apart from the conditioned, nor can one speak of the conditioned apart from the unconditioned.”

Therefore, Principle and Phenomena are mutually identical, neither annihilated nor eternal. Arising and quiescent cessation occur simultaneously, interpenetrating perfectly and without obstruction everywhere.

2. Expedient and Ultimate Teachings Proceed Together:

The Ultimate refers to true principle, while the Expedient refers to skillful Dharma-gates employed in transforming and liberating beings. When teachings arise from the ultimate, there are no expedient means apart from the ultimate; when the foundation is attained through provisional traces, there is no ultimate apart from expedient means.

If beginning and end tacitly accord with the single essential purport, then the Expedient and the Ultimate may be practiced together without the slightest obstruction. Refutation and illumination occur simultaneously, and thus essence and phenomena are revealed together.

3. The Two Truths are Expounded Together:

The Buddhas always teach the Dharma by relying upon the Two Truths: ultimate truth and conventional truth.

Why is this so?

Because conventional truth consists of words and phrases that reveal true principle. Clearly knowing that conventional truth is originally devoid of intrinsic nature is itself ultimate truth. Therefore, it is said that if one does not penetrate conventional truth, one also cannot penetrate the truth of the supreme meaning, namely ultimate truth. Thus, ultimate truth is always manifest without needing to be established, while conventional truth is empty in itself without needing to be abolished.

The Two Truths exist simultaneously, like the relationship between waves and water. Water contains all waves, and waves and water cannot be divided; waves penetrate to the source of water, while movement and wetness are equally of one boundless expanse.

4. Nature and Characteristics Interpenetrate Harmoniously:

The Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings states: “Immeasurable and innumerable meanings all arise from a single Dharma.”

That Dharma is precisely the true mind. This single true mind fully possesses the two meanings of “immutability” and “accordance with conditions.”

“Immutability” refers to the principle of intrinsic nature. “Accordance with conditions” refers to phenomenal characteristics. The principle of intrinsic nature is the essence of phenomenal characteristics, while phenomenal characteristics are the function of the principle of intrinsic nature.

Because people do not comprehend the source within this, they mistakenly give rise to disputes. At present, some reject phenomenal characteristics because they do not understand the function of mind; others oppose the principle of intrinsic nature because they do not know the essence of mind. If these can be harmoniously understood, all grasping and rejecting will utterly cease.

5. Essence and Function are Free and Unhindered:

Essence here refers to the essential principle of Dharma-nature, while Function refers to the phenomenal characteristics of responsive wisdom. The entirety of Essence is the entirety of Function; thus, Function is not one with it. The entirety of Function is the entirety of Essence; thus, Essence is not different from it.

Function is present precisely within Essence, and Essence in no way obstructs Function. Essence is present precisely within Function, and although Function is active, Essence is never lost. Therefore, the single flavor is differentiated into two, free and unobstructed.

6. Existence and Emptiness Bring Each Other to Fulfillment:

This means that all the myriad dharmas originally have no fixed characteristics. They bring one another into being, dissolve one another, encompass one another, and support one another.

Emptiness is established in dependence upon Existence. Existence arises through causes and conditions and is empty in nature. Existence is established through Emptiness; because it has no substantial essence, it is a conjunction of causes and conditions.

Because the meanings of Emptiness and Existence are not the same, differences are revealed, and people distinguish them as opposites according to their individual understanding. As seen by deluded beings, the characteristics of the myriad things are all different; as seen by the awakened, the understanding of the sages of the Three Vehicles is not different.

Why is this so?

Suppose that a certain dharma is said to exist. The Lesser Vehicle regards it as real; the Initial Teaching of the Mahayana contemplates it as illusory existence; the Final Teaching of the Mahayana sees form and emptiness as unobstructed, because Emptiness does not preserve any intrinsic nature but, in accordance with conditions, gives rise to every kind of phenomenal characteristic; the Sudden Teaching maintains that all things are the True Nature. From the perspective of those of the Perfect Teaching, all things return to the Dharma-realm of inexhaustible dependent arising.

If one can understand these teachings harmoniously in this way, one accomplishes True Emptiness and Wondrous Existence. “Existence” can reveal the myriad virtues, while “Emptiness” can bring everything to fulfillment.

7. Primary Practice and Auxiliary Practice are Cultivated Together:

The primary is the host, while the auxiliary is the companion. The host is established because there is a companion; without auxiliary practice, primary practice cannot be perfected. The companion is established in reliance upon the host; without primary practice, auxiliary practice would have no basis upon which to be established.

Therefore, host and companion must bring each other to fulfillment, and primary and auxiliary practices must both be complete. This also means that calming and contemplation proceed in parallel, the hidden and the manifest activate one another, the inner and the outer nurture one another, and wisdom and observance of the precepts are equally valued.

8. Sameness and Difference are Equal:

Sameness refers to reliance upon the immutable essence of principle. Difference refers to phenomenal characteristics that accord with conditions. It is precisely because the essence of principle is immutable that it can accord with conditions; it is precisely because it accords with conditions that it remains immutable. Only because there is a nondiffering essence of principle can differentiated phenomenal characteristics be formed; only because there are differentiated phenomenal characteristics can corresponding Dharma-gates be established.

If Difference possessed fixed difference, it would be destroyed by difference, because the essence of principle would be lost. If Sameness possessed fixed sameness, sameness could not be established, because it would be without function.

Therefore, within Sameness there is no fixed sameness, and thus there is Difference; within Difference there is no fixed difference, and thus there is Sameness. Through attachment, one falls into the errors of annihilationism and eternalism; through harmonious understanding, one accomplishes the Buddha-Dharma.

Therefore, the sutra states:

“How marvelous! The Blessed One, within that which is without difference, expounds the differences among all dharmas.”

9. Cultivation and Intrinsic Nature are Nondual:

Intrinsic Nature here refers to that which is originally present and is by no means produced through contemplative thought. Cultivation refers to practice in the present, which is revealed through wisdom.

Through Cultivation, the originally present Intrinsic Nature can be revealed; through the fundamental Intrinsic Nature, present Cultivation arises. The entirety of the fundamental Intrinsic Nature accomplishes cultivation, while the entirety of Cultivation accomplishes the fundamental Intrinsic Nature. Cultivation and Intrinsic Nature are essentially nondual; only when viewed from the perspective of causes and conditions do they appear to be divided.

10. Cause and Effect Never Fail:

This means that the cause arises from the effect, and only when the effect is complete does it become a cause; the effect is born from the cause, and when the cause is perfected, the effect can be established.

Although cause and effect are temporally divided into before and after, from the standpoint of essential principle, they occur simultaneously, without before or after. The two support and requite one another, and the functioning of karma is never lost.

Question:

For which capacities are the teachings presented in this collection suited, and what benefits do they bring?

Answer:

They benefit both oneself and others and encompass those of both sudden and gradual capacities.

With regard to benefiting oneself, this is the teaching of the Perfect Doctrine that assists one in attaining the Way, the wondrous mirror of spiritual cultivation. With regard to benefiting others, this is the sun that shines upon those who remain stalled in the Real, the skilled physician who cures the affliction that causes attachment to annihilationism and eternalism.

From the perspective of sudden awakening, it does not contradict the Dharma-gate of Dependent Origination from the Self-Nature and can bring the practices of the Dharma-realm to fulfillment. From the perspective of gradual cultivation, it prevents the abandonment of the expedient teachings and ultimately leads back to the supreme Buddha Vehicle.

Those who are able to believe this thereby accept the Buddha’s teaching. Those who disparage it thereby slander the Buddha’s intent. Both belief and slander bear their respective fruits; cause and effect are perfectly clear.

Here, I have presented in brief but a single grain of sand from the vast ocean of the teachings and offer it universally to all sentient beings throughout the Dharma-realm. May the True Way be widely propagated, and may this serve to repay the vast benevolence of the Buddhas and Patriarchs.

The verse says:

Bodhi is not aroused, yet it is aroused;

The Buddha Way is not sought, yet it should be sought.

Wondrous functioning acts without action;

True wisdom accomplishes without doing.

Arouse compassion, awakening to the shared essence;

Practice loving-kindness, deeply entering the unconditioned.

Without relinquishing anything, practice giving;

Without guarding anything, perfect the precepts.

Advance in cultivation, knowing there is nowhere it arises;

Cultivate patience, realizing there is nothing that can be harmed.

Prajnaparamita illumines the unborn nature of objects;

Meditative concentration knows the mind to be non-abiding.

Realize that there is no body, yet perfect all marks;

Realize the inexpressible, yet expound and discuss it.

Establish a moon-in-water place of enlightenment;

Adorn worlds whose nature is emptiness.

Arrange illusory implements;

Make offerings to echo-like Tathagatas.

Repent, knowing the nature of transgressions is originally empty;

Entreat the eternally abiding Dharma-body to remain.

Dedicate merit, realizing there is nothing to attain;

Rejoice in merit equal to True Suchness.

Praise self and others, knowing both to be empty;

Make vows, knowing subject and object to be equal.

Bow before Dharma assemblies appearing like reflections;

Practice the Way, taking steps through empty space.

Burn incense, penetrating the Unborn;

Chant sutras, clearly comprehending the True Mark.

Scatter flowers, revealing non-attachment;

Snap the fingers, signifying the removal of defilement.

Practice the Six Paramitas, knowing them to be unreal;

Cultivate the myriad practices like flowers in the sky.

Enter deeply the ocean of nature and dependent arising;

Constantly roam through Dharma-gates that are like illusions.

Vow to sever undefiled worldly afflictions.

Aspire to be born in the Pure Land of Mind Only.

Tread upon the ground of principle of Ultimate Reality;

Enter and leave the contemplation-gate of non-attainment.

Subdue demonic armies that are reflections in a mirror;

Perform every Buddha-work within a dream.

Universally deliver sentient beings who are like illusions;

Together realize the quiescent extinction of bodhi.