觀音玄義

In general, the Dharma-realm is perfectly interfused; forms are not truly forms; true suchness is pure; transformation has no locus of transformation. Although forms are not that which is formed, where there is no locus, neither is there any form. Transformation is not that which is transformed; although there is no locus, neither is there non-transformation.

Therefore, he neither abides nor fails to abide, but manifests transformation bodies throughout the nine destinies. There he does not remain entirely quiescent, but enters only into nonduality. Thus, by means of the three karmic activities, beings make supplication and are broadly delivered from the shores of suffering.

The Four Great Vows cause the grace of benefit and joy to extend everywhere. Therefore, in the Sahā world he received the name Bestower of Fearlessness. Buddha Ratnagarbha, relying upon Avalokitesvara’s divine eye as the awakened lineage, brought to fulfillment the title Radiance of the True Dharma.

He will next attain the status of a bodhisattva in the place of succession and will be called Universal Radiance of Merit. If his origin and manifested traces are thus understood, they may thereby be examined and clarified. As an expedient means responsive to conditions, one name is selected from among these.

We shall now speak of Avalokitesvara. According to the proper pronunciation of the Western Land, India, the name is A Già Bà Sô Kiết Đệ Luân (Avalokitesvara). Rendered according to its meaning, it is Quán Thế Âm, “Contemplator of the Sounds of the World.” His wondrous contemplation is perfect and complete; being and nonbeing pervade all things.

Its illumination accords with true nature and reaches the ultimate limit; therefore, he is called “Contemplator.” The “sounds of the world” are the objects perceived: all things flow and move, distinct and dissimilar. Whenever subtle sounds are uttered, he causes all to escape suffering. With compassion, the bodhisattva saves all universally in a single instant and causes everyone to attain liberation; therefore, he is called Avalokitesvara, the Contemplator of the Sounds of the World.

Here, both object and wisdom are set forth, and they may meet at a single point. The sūtra arises from this meaning. Its words and principles are manifested and woven into the practitioner’s mind; therefore, it is called a sūtra.

As for the Universal Gateway, “universal” means all-pervading, while a gateway is that through which one may pass. With the one true mark, the Ten Universal Gateways are opened without obstruction; therefore, it is called the Universal Gateway. “Chapter” means a category. Because it follows the characteristics of its category, it is called a chapter. The great work comprises five sections that elucidate its meaning. Here, this chapter is taken as an example in order to explain the matter. The five points are: first, explaining the name; second, revealing the essence; third, clarifying the central purport; fourth, distinguishing the function; and fifth, the characteristics of the teaching.

The explanation of the name is further divided into two parts: first, explaining the general meaning, and second, explaining the particular meaning. In the general explanation, person and Dharma are jointly clarified. In the particular explanation, person and Dharma are each separately distinguished.

Why is this so? Depending upon whether faculties are sharp or dull, the teaching is given broadly or briefly. The general explanation is now divided into four parts: first, the many designations; second, their sequence; third, their explanation; and fourth, analytical clarification.

First, the many designations comprise ten meanings, by which the general meaning is explained. Why is this so? The pure principle is without name or mark, neither Dharma nor person.

It transcends number and is neither one, two, nor three. Yet the wondrous principle is empty and universally penetrating; although it has no names or characteristics, it is provisionally described through names and characteristics. Thus, a name is established where there is no name, and person and Dharma are provisionally designated.

Although there is no number, numbers are nevertheless spoken of. Therefore, the Great Treatise says: “Prajnaparamita is a single Dharma, yet the Buddha spoke of it under many different names. According to the capacities of sentient beings, he established different terms for it.” Here, ten meanings are briefly employed to explain the general purport.

The ten meanings are: first, person and Dharma; second, loving-kindness and compassion; third, merit and wisdom; fourth, the true body and the responsive body; fifth, medicine and jewel; sixth, concealed and manifest; seventh, expedient and real; eighth, origin and manifested traces; ninth, conditional and complete understanding; and tenth, wisdom and severance.

The second part, their sequence, has two aspects. The first is a general sequential clarification of contemplation. The second is a general sequential clarification of the teaching.

The general clarification of contemplation comprehensively explains the initial, intermediate, and final minds that lead to the fulfillment of the great and perfect fruition. The general clarification of the teaching comprehensively encompasses the gradual and sudden, great and small teachings of the sūtras. In the general clarification of contemplation, person and Dharma are placed first.

To clarify the activity of contemplation, there must necessarily be a person, and the person must necessarily possess a Dharma. It is like a person who undergoes the recompense of one lifetime and thereby becomes a being of the lower realm. Although endowed with immeasurable virtues, one must necessarily first identify the person by name.

Therefore, person and Dharma are placed at the beginning. This meaning may also be understood from the following example. That person and Dharma stand at the head of the other nine meanings can be understood, but what is the significance of arranging person and Dharma in that order?

This is based upon the sūtra, which states: “For this reason, he is called Avalokitesvara.” This first speaks of the person. Afterward, it speaks of the power of expedient means by which the Universal Gateway manifests itself. This discusses the Dharma.

The person is able to uphold the Dharma; therefore, person and Dharma are spoken of.

Second are loving-kindness and compassion. When Avalokitesvara contemplates the true mark of the person, the Dharma, and the Universal Gateway, he realizes the principle of the true mark that is neither person nor Dharma. All sentient beings are likewise so.

Therefore, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: “The mind, the Buddha, and sentient beings are without distinction.” This principle is complete and lacks nothing. Why, then, although sentient beings are complete in this principle, are their emotions deluded and inverted, and why do they suffer affliction? Having contemplated in this manner, he immediately gives rise to a mind of loving-kindness and vows to eradicate their sufferings and bring them happiness.

Thus, loving-kindness and compassion are clarified. Furthermore, if explained generally for the sake of expedience, loving-kindness comes first and compassion afterward. It is also the bodhisattva’s fundamental intent to bestow happiness through great loving-kindness.

When beings do not attain happiness, he then employs great compassion to eradicate their sufferings. Therefore, loving-kindness comes first and compassion afterward. If arranged according to another sequence, great compassion is first employed to remove suffering, and only afterward is great loving-kindness employed to bestow happiness.

Furthermore, generally speaking, practitioners first escape suffering and afterward obtain benefit and joy. Therefore, compassion is spoken of first and loving-kindness afterward. Here, however, we follow the former meaning.

Third are merit and wisdom. First, the characteristics of person and Dharma are established, and faith in this is grounded upon them. Next, loving-kindness and compassion, together with the removal of suffering, clarify the vow.

To fulfill this vow, one must necessarily cultivate practice. Practice does not go beyond merit and wisdom. Wisdom is prajnaparamita, while merit consists of the other five perfections.

They mutually guide one another so that practice accords with the vow and both principle and activity are complete. If wisdom increases and becomes luminous, the vow of great compassion is fulfilled and the meaning of eradicating suffering is accomplished. If merit and wisdom become profound and abundant, the vow of great loving-kindness is fulfilled and the meaning of bestowing happiness is accomplished.

Therefore, merit and wisdom occupy the third place. Furthermore, this may also be explained expediently with merit first and wisdom afterward. If the fundamental intent is to transform others, one first wishes to benefit them through true wisdom; in such a case, merit is not indicated first.

Moreover, loving-kindness takes merit first, while the Path takes wisdom first.

Fourth are the true body and the responsive body. If wisdom becomes increasingly luminous, it accords with the Dharma-nature. That Dharma-nature is called the true mark and constitutes the Dharma-body. When the Dharma-body becomes manifest, the responsive body can arise from the true body. The manifestation of the true body and the arising of the responsive body occur solely through the development of merit and wisdom. Therefore, they belong in the fourth place. This is also an expedient means of transforming beings, in which the responsive body is placed first and the true body afterward. Here, however, we follow the former meaning and sequence.

Fifth is the clarification of the two bodies as medicine and jewel. The preceding section clarified the true body and the responsive body and spoke directly of realization, but it had not yet addressed the benefiting of others. Now it clarifies that both bodies are capable of benefiting beings. The true body destroys attachment to characteristics and is like medicine. The responsive body accords with the myriad kinds of faculties and is like a precious jewel. These two terms are clarified sequentially. They correspond in this way to loving-kindness and compassion.

Sixth is to reveal what is hidden. Previously, the principle of the two bodies was elucidated; thus manifest benefit could be revealed. Now it is explained that those beings who are responsive to conditions obtain unseen benefit or manifest benefit. Therefore, these latter two bodies are elucidated.

Seventh is to elucidate the provisional and the real. Why, among those who previously obtained benefit according to conditions, were the meanings not the same? Because skillful provisional means have no fixed method, they are next set forth in full.

Without losing sight of this, the power of the two kinds of wisdom is expounded. Therefore, this is taken as the next stage in the sequence. The provisional comes first and the real afterward.

In general, this sequence proceeds from the shallow to the profound. Yet according to the wording of the text, real benefit is employed first, and provisional means are subsequently used to deliver beings. This is a sequence established in accordance with beings.

In terms of the Buddha’s original intention, at first it was solely for the sake of the one great causal condition: real benefit was revealed at the outset; but because sentient beings had not yet developed profound understanding, provisional means were afterward used to deliver them.

Eighth is to elucidate the Original and the Trace. Although benefiting beings through the provisional and the real is an ingenious and wondrous undertaking, this ingenuity has degrees of superiority that must be distinguished as upper, middle, and lower through knowledge of the particular qualities of the Original and the Trace. The provisional and the real are summarized, leaving aside their horizontal dimensions.

Now, in order to discern their subtle gradations of higher and lower, their respective positions must be clearly illuminated. If this Original is lofty, then the provisional and real functions manifested through its Trace are wondrous applications. Therefore, in the ensuing sequence, a general yet subtle explanation is given of what makes this possible.

Without the Original, the Trace could not be manifested; hence the Original is first elucidated. Without the Trace, the Original could not be revealed; hence the Trace comes first.

Ninth is to elucidate the revealing cause and the conditioning cause. As explained above, practitioners arouse the aspiration and cultivate practice, proceeding from cause to effect; in transforming others and benefiting beings, the degrees of profundity differ. From person and Dharma through the true and responsive bodies is the sequence of one’s own practice.

From the Medicine and the Pearl through the Original and the Trace is the sequence of transforming others. This accords with the course of the discussion, but the fundamental basis has not yet been examined. Now we trace these back to the seeds of the virtues inherent in one’s nature.

A person’s contemplative wisdom and compassionate vows adorn and bring forth the true body. All these constitute the seeds of the revealing cause. As for the Dharma of the Universal Gate, the compassionate mind forms vows, and the adornment of merit reveals and brings forth the responsive body.

All these constitute the seeds of the conditioning cause. Therefore, these are placed ninth in the sequence.

Tenth is to elucidate wisdom and severance. Previously, the conditioning cause was elucidated; this was a discussion of the initial cause. Now wisdom and severance are clarified in accordance with the discussion of the ultimate culmination. At the beginning, the true revealing cause arises, and at the end it becomes the great wisdom of bodhi. At the beginning, the true conditioning cause arises, and at the culmination it becomes the virtue of severance that is nirvana. Upon entering nirvana, all practices come to rest. Therefore, this is placed at the tenth stage.

Second, with reference to the teachings, these are elucidated in sequence. Furthermore, they may be considered in terms of the general and the particular. The general meaning may be understood.

The particular meaning will now be explained. The Sudden Teaching of the Avatamsaka, as set forth in the Great and Vast Buddha Avatamsaka Sutra, begins by relying on the first categories to elucidate person and Dharma. The person who upholds this Dharma is fully endowed with compassion.

Bodhisattvas cultivating the causes of practice, through merit and wisdom, immediately enter the stages and certainly realize the true and responsive bodies. They can then benefit beings; this is the explanation of the Medicine and the Pearl. The benefits these beings obtain may be unseen or manifest, but the provisional and the real, the Original and the Trace, the conditioning and revealing causes, and wisdom and severance have not yet been discussed separately.

In the general meaning, they are present; in the particular intention, they are absent. Why is this so? The Buddha’s periods of transforming beings reveal the sudden and gradual teachings.

Although the Sudden Teaching speaks of the stages of the Gradual Teaching as obstructions, it still does not clarify these four meanings. Why does it not clarify them? That sutra explains that those of the lesser teaching are separated from the great as though deaf and mute.

Because they were obscured, the provisional had not yet been revealed to them, nor had this reality been disclosed. Therefore, it is said that for a long and distant period there was silence, because there was not yet an immediate need to expound the essential point. Thus, it is said that the provisional and the real are absent.

To say that the Original and the Trace are absent means that the sutra had not yet disclosed as a Trace the birth of that body in the royal palace, nor as a Trace the quiescence of the Dharma body at the place of enlightenment. Nor had the snapping of fingers and joyful smiles yet disclosed the exceedingly remote past as the Original of the two bodies, the physical body and the Dharma body. Therefore, it is said that the Original and the Trace are absent.

To say that the conditioning and revealing causes and wisdom and severance are absent means that the faculties and natures of those in the Lesser Vehicle and those who possess aspiration were not clarified. Their Original inherently abides in the eternal cause and will assuredly realize the wisdom and severance of bodhi, the Original Fruit. Therefore, these are said to be absent.

Next, generally speaking, the Tripitaka Teaching usually clarifies three meanings: person and Dharma, compassion, and merit and wisdom. It lacks the true and responsive bodies and the other seven categories. Why is this so?

The teaching of the Two Vehicles explains that the body turns to ashes and wisdom is extinguished. How, from that state, could one give rise to a responsive body from the true body? If there are no true and responsive bodies, how could beings be benefited?

A particularized explanation is indeed difficult. In the general discussion, all ten are included; in the particular exposition, there are three. If these three generally pertain to ultimate truth, then according to the general meaning they should be fully endowed with all ten meanings.

Why should they stop at three? If one speaks in particular terms, then that particular meaning should correspond to the Middle Way. If the Middle Way is present, there should consequently be the three categories of the Middle Way, person, and Dharma.

Why, then, are the other seven absent? A particular reply is as follows: the general discussion covers all ten meanings, broadly applying them to the Three Vehicles. The particular exposition sets forth three categories and speaks extensively about bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattvas of the Tripitaka Teaching possess compassion, merit and wisdom, and the meaning of subduing delusions. Yet they only subdue delusions and do not sever them; therefore, the true and responsive bodies and the other seven dharmas are absent. The master said: the uniform teaching stops at three.

As for the Vaipulya Teaching, it contrasts the lesser with the great and elucidates the great. It attains the Mahayana of the Middle Way and sets forth the Middle Way, person, and Dharma, through the two benefits of the unseen and the manifest, comprising six meanings. It then uses other directions as analogies and afterward disciplines sentient beings.

Therefore, it cannot yet be said to contain the four meanings of the provisional and the real, and so forth. Although the Prajnaparamita Teaching is explicit, it does not yet encompass persons of the Lesser Vehicle, even though it encompasses the dharmas of the Lesser Vehicle; all are Mahayana. It elucidates person and Dharma together with the six meanings.

Yet it still retains skillful means and has not clearly revealed the provisional and the real, and so forth. Generally speaking, in the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, one immediately encounters persons of the Lesser Vehicle: “You truly are my children, and I truly am your father. You practice this bodhisattva path.” It opens the provisional and reveals the real, and discloses the Original and reveals the Trace.

Its meanings are definitively clear, without doubt or difficulty. Therefore, it is known that the Lotus Sutra clearly sets forth the eight meanings, from the Middle Way, person, and Dharma through the Original and the Trace.

In the teachings given earlier, certain points remained unclear and were only explained in the Lotus Sutra. Therefore it is said: “Never before have I spoken to anyone of such a matter.” What is now spoken is precisely this: “I will now explain to you the most true matter.” The Buddhas of the three times mature sentient beings, and the great causal condition for their ultimate, perfect fulfillment rests upon the Lotus Sutra.

Therefore, the twenty thousand Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiance Buddhas expounded the Lotus Sutra and then entered parinirvana. The Tathagata Kasyapa did likewise. If nirvana is discussed, there are two kinds of capacities: sharp and dull.

Those of Sariputra’s lineage all awakened and entered through the Lotus Sutra. For them, the eight meanings were complete, and there was no need to await the Nirvana Sutra. Disciples of dull faculties who had not awakened through the Lotus Sutra were again instructed through an examination of the underlying causes; the causes of condition and comprehension were extensively explained, and the three Buddha-natures were clarified.

If one discusses the seed of the cause of comprehension inherent in the virtue of nature, then through cultivated virtue it becomes prajna, and ultimately becomes the wisdom-virtue of bodhi. The virtue of nature serves as the condition for the causal seed. Through cultivated virtue it becomes liberation—the severance-virtue of nirvana.

If the virtue of nature is neither the conditioning cause nor the comprehending cause, then it is the direct cause. When cultivated virtue is perfected, it becomes the three points of the Dharma-body, which are neither horizontal nor vertical. Thus it is clear that the Nirvana Sutra was employed to set forth how the eight dharmas, from beginning to end, become wisdom and severance.

The ten meanings are thereby complete. Across the five periods, these ten dharmas are discussed in succession. In general, the four modes of instruction make this understandable.

Thus it is clear that, when the ten dharmas are gathered together and examined, the teaching has both a beginning and an end. This is only a brief statement of the essential meaning. What contemplation is not encompassed?

What teaching is not included? Its purport is vast and far-reaching, and its principles and meanings are profoundly ultimate. From beginning to end, the successive distinctions between coarse and subtle are without discrepancy.

Explanation is used to bring forth the meaning.

Question: Before the Lotus Sutra, the teachings similarly possessed six meanings; how, then, were they different?

Answer: The Avatamsaka possessed six meanings. For those of sharp faculties it became clarified butter; for those of dull faculties it became fresh milk. Within the Tripitaka teaching, there were those three meanings. For those of sharp faculties it was secret; for those of dull faculties it became curds. The Vaipulya teachings possessed six meanings. For those of sharp faculties they became clarified butter; for those of dull faculties they became butter. The Prajnaparamita possessed six meanings. For those of sharp faculties it became clarified butter; for those of dull faculties it became refined butter. The Lotus Sutra, however, possessed eight meanings. For those of dull faculties it became clarified butter.

The third mode of explanation is that a person is merely a provisional designation, while that which constitutes the person consists of dharmas. Those dharmas are the five skandhas, which are able to constitute the person. Here, person and dharmas apply to both ordinary beings and sages.

Form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are the dharmas of ordinary beings. More broadly explained, these dharmas constitute the person who undergoes birth and death. Moral discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation are supramundane dharmas.

More broadly, these constitute the supramundane sage. Therefore, the Great Treatise says: “The unsurpassed among sentient beings is the Buddha; the unsurpassed among dharmas is nirvana.” Although these terms apply to both ordinary beings and sages, distinctions nevertheless exist. Evil deeds of superior, middling, and inferior grades constitute the persons and dharmas of the three realms.

Good deeds of superior, middling, and inferior grades constitute the persons and dharmas of the three wholesome destinies. Thus, all six destinies differ from one another. If explained clearly and in detail, they may be discussed in hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of categories.

The persons and dharmas of sages are likewise not identical. According to the teaching of the Tripitaka, through the gate of emptiness one regards sentient beings, self, and person as like a tortoise’s hair or a hare’s horn—ultimately unobtainable. The five skandhas exist as dharmas; thus the person is empty, but dharmas are not empty.

One contemplates these dharmas as impermanent, arising and ceasing, and not abiding, thereby giving rise to the stages of warmth, summit, and so forth. Broadly speaking, these are the dharmas of expedient means, which constitute one as a worthy who preserves the Way. If one gives rise to true realization and becomes a sage, one is born in the Land of Expedient Means with Residue.

There the nature of dharmas broadly manifests form and consciousness, together with the practitioner of that land. Through the gate of non-emptiness, one clearly knows the substance of real dharmas and, by taking hold of these real dharmas, obtains the person as a provisional designation. One contemplates the three provisional designations as insubstantial and illusory and enters impartial emptiness.

At the stages of warmth and summit, one takes hold of the dharmas of expedient means and becomes like a worthy within the Way. If one gives rise to true realization, becomes one beyond learning, and is born in the Land of Expedient Means, one takes the five skandhas of Dharma-nature and thereby becomes a practitioner in that land. The remaining two gates concerning person and dharmas may be understood by analogy with these.

Within the Mahayana, person and dharmas are clarified. It is not said that the person is empty while dharmas are not empty. Nor is it said that their substance exists with provisional characteristics.

Rather, one contemplates provisional designation, the skandhas, and the ayatanas as inherently empty in their original nature. Therefore, the Larger Prajnaparamita Sutra says: “The nature of form is like the nature of self; the nature of self is like the nature of form.” From the initial aspiration to the final mind, one constantly contemplates both person and dharmas as empty. Therefore, the Great Treatise says: “The bodhisattva constantly contemplates nirvana while practicing the Way.” Contemplation of the emptiness of person is the seed of the comprehending cause.

The treatise says: “The unsurpassed among sentient beings is the Buddha.” Buddha means awakening, and awakening is wisdom. First one clearly knows the emptiness of person; afterward one clearly knows the emptiness of dharmas. Thus it is clear that contemplation of the emptiness of person is the seed of the comprehending cause.

Contemplation of the emptiness of dharmas is the seed of the conditioning cause. The Great Treatise says: “The unsurpassed Dharma is nirvana.” The skandhas of birth and death and the skandhas of nirvana after severance are one and the same. The Great Nirvana Sutra says: “When the cause is extinguished, form also attains eternal form.” The same applies through consciousness.

The Larger Prajnaparamita Sutra says: “When a bodhisattva practices prajna, the bodhisattva attains unequaled form and unequaled feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.” Nirvana is constantly understood as the unsurpassed Dharma. Broadly explained, this Dharma becomes the unsurpassed Dharma of sentient beings, and its designation is Buddha. Thus it is clear that contemplation of the emptiness of dharmas is the seed of the conditioning cause.

Through contemplating the emptiness of person and dharmas, one clearly knows the three kinds of Buddha-nature. Therefore, the Great Nirvana Sutra says: “The emptiness of the Buddha-nature of sentient beings is precisely the six dharmas, yet it is not separate from the six dharmas.” “Not precisely” clarifies the Buddha-nature as the direct cause, which is neither the skandhas nor the self. Because it is not the skandhas, it is not dharmas; because it is not the self, it is not a person.

Because it is not a person, it is not the comprehending cause; because it is not the skandhas, it is not the conditioning cause. Therefore, it is said that it is not precisely the six dharmas.

“Not separate from the six dharmas” means that apart from the emptiness of sentient beings there is no comprehending cause, and apart from the emptiness of the skandhas there is no conditioning cause. Therefore, it is said not to be separate from the six dharmas. From the Buddha’s initial arousing of the aspiration, he contemplated both person and dharmas as empty.

This itself is Buddha-nature. Passing through six stages, the positions are likewise established as six; these are precisely person and dharmas. Avalokitesvara has not yet reached the ultimate realization of person and dharmas, but has attained a partial realization of person and dharmas.

The first question and answer above explained the partially realized unsurpassed person called Avalokitesvara. The following question and answer broadly explain the partially realized unsurpassed Dharma; therefore it is called the Universal Gate. One should know that these are the causal conditions of person and dharmas.

Therefore it is called “Avalokitesvara’s Universal Gate.”

Second is the explanation of loving-kindness and compassion. Compassion means sympathetic concern; loving-kindness means affectionate mindfulness. Because of sympathetic concern, one removes suffering; because of affectionate mindfulness, one bestows happiness.

If a bodhisattva constantly gives rise to loving-kindness and compassion, he does not abide in quiescence. Therefore, he can make great vows and empower them so that they become firm. It is like a carpenter building a residence for an official: everything must be properly fitted together.

If it is not firmly fastened, it will immediately collapse. Vows are likewise like glue, binding everything firmly together. With a sorrowful and sympathetic heart, one strikes down and removes the worldly causes and effects of suffering and accumulation, together with two vows.

Therefore: “However boundless sentient beings are, I vow to deliver them; however immeasurable the afflictions are, I vow to sever them.” These two vows arise from the mind of great compassion and employ a heart of loving-kindness. Wishing to bestow the supramundane happiness of the causes and effects of the Path and cessation gives rise to two further vows. Therefore it is said: “However boundless the Dharma gates are, I vow to know them; I vow to accomplish the unsurpassed Buddha Path.” These two vows arise from the mind of great loving-kindness.

Previously, persons and dharmas, ordinary beings and sages, were clarified as not being the same. The present discussion of whether loving-kindness and compassion are great or small is likewise no different.

If practitioners of the Tripitaka Teaching contemplate separately birth, aging, sickness, death, and the eight sufferings, they immediately give rise to the vow: “However boundless sentient beings are, I vow to deliver them.” If, by contemplating separately inverted views, bonds, and karma, they give rise to a vow, it is: “However immeasurable the afflictions are, I vow to sever them.” Wishing to enable sentient beings to contemplate these causes and effects as impermanent, arising and ceasing, and flowing onward thought after thought, and to cultivate the factors of the Path, they immediately give rise to the vow: “However immeasurable the Dharma gates are, I vow to know them.” If they contemplate the unconditioned ultimate truth as the principle,

they immediately give rise to the vow: “I vow to accomplish the unsurpassed Buddha Path.” Loving-kindness and compassion such as these take conditioned existence as their object and arise through the Four Truths.

Furthermore, the Shared Teaching contemplates aging, sickness, and the eight sufferings as like illusions and transformations. Sentient beings, through inversion, regard them as real; therefore one immediately gives rise to the vow. Greed, anger, and delusion are also like illusions and transformations.

Sentient beings, through inversion, experience affliction because of them; therefore one immediately gives rise to the vow. Contemplate that form is emptiness and consciousness is also emptiness. Therefore greed, anger, and delusion are also empty.

It is not that form is annihilated; rather, the nature of form is itself empty. Emptiness itself also cannot be apprehended, yet sentient beings are unable to understand that form itself is emptiness; therefore one immediately gives rise to the vow.

Furthermore, in contemplating nirvana, if there were even one dharma that surpassed it, I would also declare that nirvana to be like an illusion or transformation. Yet sentient beings still regard the Buddha Path as something that can be sought; therefore one immediately gives rise to the vow. This, in general, is how loving-kindness, compassion, and vows arise from the Four Truths of non-arising.

The Separate Teaching contemplates dharmas as provisional names amid the myriad phenomena in all their profusion. Therefore, it must distinguish them fully, guide sentient beings, and bring them benefit. Therein, one enters emptiness and attains realization. Contemplating that the fruit of suffering is not limited to a single kind, one immediately gives rise to the vow. Immeasurable suffering arises from immeasurable accumulation. Because accumulation is immeasurable, the methods of counteracting it are also immeasurable, and cessation is likewise immeasurable. Vows such as these take as their objects the causes and effects of suffering and accumulation both within and beyond the realms, and arise from the immeasurable Four Truths.

The Perfect Teaching contemplates the Dharma realm as perfectly interfused. Fundamentally, it is neither contrary nor compliant, neither clear nor obscure, neither bright nor dark; yet beings turn against it. This opposition entails the causes and effects of suffering and accumulation.

Because wisdom is luminous, beings may accord with it again. Such accord entails the causes and effects of the Path and cessation. Taking these opposing and accordant causes and effects as objects, loving-kindness and compassion arise, just as a magnet, without any conscious intention or movement, draws iron to itself.

This loving-kindness and compassion do not cause sentient beings to conceive of them as dharmas or as the activity of removing suffering and bestowing happiness. Therefore, they are called objectless loving-kindness and compassion. From the first arousal of the aspiration, a bodhisattva cultivates objectless loving-kindness and compassion through the six stages of identity.

In the present case, Avalokitesvara possesses loving-kindness and compassion at the stage of partial realization. The preceding question and answer clarified how this objectless great compassion removes suffering: by single-mindedly invoking his name, one immediately attains liberation. The subsequent question and answer explains how the Universal Gate, through objectless great loving-kindness, bestows happiness and enables all beings to attain deliverance.

Therefore, know that it is through the causes and conditions of great loving-kindness and great compassion that he is called Avalokitesvara, the Universal Gate.

Third is the explanation of merit and wisdom, which are also called concentration and wisdom. Concentration is called the “tranquil love”; wisdom is called the “contemplative goad.” The Great Treatise says: “Concentration is the love; wisdom is the goad.” Wisdom illuminates while remaining tranquil and still, neither dark nor glaring, like a bright mirror reflecting from a lofty hall. The pure and abundant merit of meditative concentration develops distinctly, like a bright lamp supplied with pure oil. It is also said that, with both eyes and feet complete, one can enter the cool pond. That pond is precisely nirvana. Nirvana is said to possess two kinds of adornment, which adorn the Dharma body.

There are naturally many ways to explain concentration and wisdom. The Tripitaka Teaching takes contemplation of impermanence and its principle as wisdom, and takes the various practices within meditative concentration as merit. Through the concentration of contemplation and the wisdom born of reflection, it brings forth the true, uncontaminated, naturally inherent principle.

This is called the Dharma body. The Shared Teaching employs a distinct understanding of dharmas in their essential emptiness, unlike the preceding analysis that separates dharmas individually. The Separate Teaching employs wisdom cultivated in relation to conditions together with various meditative concentrations to assist the Dharma body of the Middle Way.

The Perfect Teaching takes contemplation of the true aspect as wisdom and the tranquil concentration of the true aspect as merit. When that principle is revealed in its entirety, it is neither concentration nor wisdom. This is called the Dharma body of the true aspect.

From the first arousal of the aspiration, bodhisattvas of the Perfect Teaching cultivate this nondual concentration and wisdom through the six stages of identity. Therefore, Avalokitesvara uses luminous wisdom to illuminate and clearly perceive suffering. Such suffering is the inversion and delusion present therein.

Wisdom is the dharma that destroys delusion; therefore, wisdom can remove suffering. The Avatamsaka Sutra says: “He again emitted a ray of light called Wisdom. He again emitted a ray of light called Freedom from Affliction.” The Visesacintibrahma Sutra likewise teaches this.

The Sutra on Invoking Avalokitesvara says that he emits brilliant light that illuminates and dispels the darkness of doubt. Thus, one clearly knows that the preceding question and answer describe how he responds to beings’ capacities and removes suffering. This name derives from the adornment of wisdom.

From the question and answer concerning his abiding in the Surangama Samadhi and universally manifesting physical bodies—without emerging from the samadhi of cessation, he manifests these majestic deportments; peacefully abiding in dhyana, he is praised by a thousand verses as the Dharma King—it is therefore clearly known that the manifestations of the Universal Gate derive their name from merit. Thus, merit and wisdom are the causes and conditions by which he is called Avalokitesvara, the Universal Gate.

Fourth is the explanation of the true and the responsive. The true is so called because it is neither false nor mutable. The responsive is so called because it accords with faculties and conditions.

The aggregate of the treasury is called the body. It takes the pure, neither false nor mutable true aspect as its principle. Thus, it can respond in accordance with the capacities of beings.

It is like a broad mirror facing forms and images. This is the true and the responsive, which cannot be separated from appearances. Non-Buddhist practitioners painfully direct their minds to cultivate supernormal powers; although they may be able to perform transformations, they are like bricks and stones in which no radiance appears.

How could this be regarded as responsiveness, when they have not yet destroyed the four abiding delusions to reveal the universally manifest true principle? Their neglect lies in regard to the true responsiveness of the Middle Way. If the transformations of the Two Vehicles are supernormal powers attained through cultivation, these too are not genuine responsiveness.

They are like painted images deliberately fashioned and are not real. The Mahayana is not so. Attaining the true aspect is likened to obtaining a bright mirror.

Without deliberately forming the shapes and images of the Dharma realm, when an object is present, it is immediately reflected; this is responsiveness. Just as a mirror depicts an image without being separate from the truth, this is then called the responsive body of true quiescence. From the time a bodhisattva first arouses the aspiration, the bodhisattva passes through the six identities.

In this sutra, as clarified in the preceding questions and answers, true quiescence does not move from the Dharma realm, yet brings vast benefit. Avalokitesvara receives this name from the true body. The subsequent questions and answers clarify how, in accordance with beings’ capacities, vast benefits are conferred and beings are delivered from manifold troubles.

Universal Gateway receives its name from the responsive body. Therefore, through the causes and conditions of the true and the responsive, it is called Avalokitesvara, Universal Gateway.

Fifth is the explanation of the body of the King of Medicine Trees and the body of the King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels. The Medicine King cures suffering and affliction. The Sutra of the Maiden Who Emerged from the Mango Tree states that this jewel is the Wish-Fulfilling Treasure.

Broadly speaking, according to the various schools, this elucidates how healing is highly valued. Here, from the perspective of the Perfect Teaching, both are elucidated. As the Avatamsaka Sutra says: Above there is a medicinal tree whose roots penetrate deeply, while its branches and leaves spread in the four directions.

Its roots, branches, and leaves can cure every disease. When it blossoms, anyone who touches it cannot fail to benefit. A bodhisattva is likewise.

The bodhisattva perfumes the body with great compassion and, upon hearing of beings, benefits them; therefore, the bodhisattva is called the Great Medicine King. The body is also like a wish-fulfilling jewel. That jewel can rain down a thousand kinds of precious treasure at will, inexhaustibly and without end.

A bodhisattva perfumes the body with great compassion and shares it completely with sentient beings. That joy is called the King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels. This body, too, is considered according to the six identities and the stages of realization.

In general, the questions and answers concern transformations that rescue beings from suffering, distress, hardship, and calamity. This is named after the body of the Medicine King. The subsequent questions and answers speak of responding to what is sought.

It rains down the rain of the true aspect, enabling beings to attain the bliss of nirvana. This is named after the body of the King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels. Thus, it is clearly known that through the causes and conditions of these two bodies, it is called Avalokitesvara, Universal Gateway.

Sixth is the implicit and manifest twofold benefit. The implicit means hidden and secret; the manifest means revealed and evident. The Great Sage constantly employs these two kinds of benefit to bring peace to all, yet sentient beings, like everything beneath the sun, do not understand.

It is also like the sun shining upon the world: although the blind do not see it, in truth they receive its profound kindness. Therefore, the Parable of the Medicinal Herbs says: “The trees and grasses neither know nor understand, although they alike grow upon the same earth.” Those below do not understand, while those above confer the implicit and manifest twofold benefit. Thus, Manjusri did not understand the wondrous voice and supernormal power that were manifested.

Because what is done is not understood, it is called implicit benefit. This, from the perspective of the Teaching, involves the six identities and the stages of realization. As in the preceding questions and answers, although beings do not see the form or hear the voice, they secretly receive something profound and abundant.

This is called implicit benefit. The sage only performs deeds of benefit and joy, although beings may be unable to understand them clearly. When the sage wishes to make them clear, even insects can know.

Thus, in the subsequent questions and answers, beings clearly see the physical body and hear the Dharma being taught. Through seeing and hearing, obstructions are removed, and the benefit of the illuminating Dharma becomes manifest. Therefore, it is known that Avalokitesvara is so named from implicit benefit, while Universal Gateway is so named from manifest benefit.

Through the causes and conditions of the implicit and the manifest, it is called Avalokitesvara, Universal Gateway.

Seventh is the explanation of the provisional and the real. The provisional is temporarily employed; the real is not temporary. Briefly speaking, there are three kinds of provisional and real.

First is the discussion of the provisional and the real in one’s own practice. Contemplation of the Middle Way is the real, while the other two contemplations are provisional. Second is the discussion of the provisional and the real in teaching others.

Because their faculties and dispositions differ, what is provisional may be taught as real, and what is real may be taught as provisional. No fixed determination can be made; nevertheless, the general intent is to clarify the provisional and the real. Third is the combined clarification of the provisional and the real in one’s own practice and in teaching others.

In one’s own contemplation of the three truths, there are both the provisional and the real; all are called real. In teaching others according to conditions, there are likewise both the provisional and the real; all are called provisional. These three meanings extend throughout the Four Teachings.

Furthermore, the provisional and the real in one’s own practice clarify the stages according to the six identities. Seeking the intent of this chapter, it first clarifies one’s own practice and the teaching of others and discusses the provisional and the real. The earlier questions and answers concern benefiting beings through the real wisdom of one’s own practice and the teaching of others.

The later questions and answers concern benefiting beings through the provisional means of one’s own practice and the teaching of others. Therefore, it is clearly known that through the causes and conditions of the provisional and the real, it is called Avalokitesvara, Universal Gateway.

Eighth is the explanation of the original and the traces. The original means actual attainment, while the traces mean responsive manifestations. If the original and the traces are established midway along the path, the worldly wisdom of ordinary beings will find the essential meaning difficult to fathom.

This remains so even regarding the original and the traces in the Separate Teaching. In the Perfect Teaching, there is no initial arousal of the aspiration. Upon first destroying ignorance, one immediately attains the Dharma body; this is called the original.

Manifesting forms tall or short in a hundred koṭis of ways without fixed limit is called the traces. In one approach, this is described as the true and the responsive. Many take what is above the grounds as true and original, and what is below the grounds as responsive and traces.

This judgment is passed down from ground to ground. Although the true and the original are assigned only to the higher levels, while the responsive and the traces are assigned only to the lower levels, this interpretation is untenable. The original and the traces as clarified here differ from the responsive and the true.

The original is actual attainment. First sitting at the bodhimaṇḍa and attaining the Dharma body at the first abiding stage—this itself is the original. The Buddha manifesting above the grounds and acting as a bodhisattva of the higher grounds are all called traces.

One cannot call something the original merely because it is above. If the higher grounds were the original, the first attainment of the first abiding stage would have to be regarded as a trace. Why is this?

If actual attainment did not occur at the higher grounds, then the higher grounds would not be the original. If actual attainment occurred at a lower ground, then the lower ground would not be a trace. Therefore, the Life Span chapter says: “In accordance with one’s own intent and in accordance with the intent of others.” This is the meaning of the original and the traces.

In general, the original and the traces clarify the six identities. The preceding questions and answers cannot state this openly but secretly supplement what came before. The name is derived from the ground of the original.

In the subsequent questions and answers, distinct forms are responsively manifested according to circumstances in order to deliver beings. The name is derived from the ground of the traces. Therefore, it is clearly known that through the causes and conditions of the original and the traces, it is called Avalokitesvara, Universal Gateway.

Ninth is the explanation of the Revealing Cause and the Conditioning Cause. “Revealing” means bringing forth and making manifest; “conditioning” means assisting and supporting. By assisting the Revealing Cause, the Dharma body is made manifest.

This Revealing Cause is precisely the contemplative wisdom of prajna. It is also called the adornment of wisdom through wisdom-practice and the right path. The Conditioning Cause means liberation: practicing the auxiliary path as the adornment of merit.

The Great Treatise says: One person can plow, and another can sow. Sowing illustrates the Conditioning Cause; plowing illustrates the Revealing Cause. Speaking generally of all the teachings, every one of them fully possesses the meanings of conditioning and revealing.

Here, we specifically clarify the two kinds of adornment as causes in the Perfect Teaching. The Buddha fully possesses the two kinds of adornment as fruits. The basis of these causes and fruits is the conditioning and revealing inherent in the virtues of nature.

These virtues of nature have existed originally in themselves; they are not something that has come into being only now. The Great Sutra says: All dharmas are originally empty by their own nature; moreover, because bodhisattvas cultivate emptiness, they see that all dharmas are empty. This means that the seed of the Revealing Cause has originally existed in itself.

It also says: All sentient beings possess the dhyana of the first stage. Brahma Viśeṣacintin says: All sentient beings are themselves in the samadhi of cessation. This means that the seed of the Conditioning Cause has originally existed in itself.

Through these two kinds of skillful means, one practices and gradually causes them to increase and grow. Beginning at the tip of a white hair, one attains accomplishment; what is attained through cultivation joins with and encompasses the great tree: Mahaprajna and the Surangama Samadhi. This is one instance in which the six identities are not discussed, but which is treated generally as the meaning of the fundamental virtues of nature.

The preceding questions and answers take their name from receiving the seed of the Revealing Cause. The subsequent questions and answers take their name from the seed of the Conditioning Cause. Thus, the Revealing Cause and the Conditioning Cause are clarified.

For this reason, it is called Avalokitesvara’s Universal Gate.

Tenth is the explanation of wisdom and severance. To explain the general meaning: Wisdom is the perfection of conditioned merit. It is also called Perfectly Pure Nirvana.

“Conditioned merit” refers to wisdom at the causal stage. It has the illuminating function employed in cultivation; therefore, it is called conditioned. Although the cause is impermanent, the fruit is permanent.

Taking the cause that is approaching and designating it as the fruit, it is therefore spoken of as the perfection of conditioned merit. Severance is the perfection of unconditioned merit. It is also called liberation and is further called Nirvana of Skillful Purity.

As for the term “unconditioned,” the Lesser Vehicle clings to the cessation of afflictions and to unconditioned severance. Because one has also departed from falsehood, this is called liberation. Yet this is not truly the attainment of complete liberation.

Moreover, this is the virtue of severance that lacks substance. In the Great Vehicle, severance has substance. One does not cling to cessation or to unconditioned severance, but abides in accord with whatever is required to tame sentient beings.

Evil cannot defile one. Because one acts freely and is without bondage, this is called the virtue of severance. This alone is termed unconditioned merit and is therefore called purity.

Without severing delusion and craving, luminous liberation arises. It is also said: While remaining unmoved amid views, one cultivates the thirty-seven factors. Craving and views are proximate.

This is also called the seed of the Tathagata. Even the five heinous offenses are all liberation. Being nowhere defiled or obstructed is called complete liberation.

This is precisely the unconditioned virtue of severance. Being quiescent yet constantly illuminating is precisely the virtue of wisdom. In the Lesser Vehicle, the body turns to ashes and wisdom is extinguished.

If this body no longer exists, what will enter samsara? Under such circumstances, how could one speak of taming beings without obstruction or defilement? If wisdom is extinguished, what will illuminate quiescence?

When wisdom and severance are thus entirely perfected, the Dharma body becomes manifest. The meaning of the three kinds of Buddha-nature is thereby complete. The Dharma body is fully endowed; it is neither cause nor fruit, and the direct cause is complete.

Thus, while concealed it is called the Tathagatagarbha; when manifest, it is called the Dharma body. Although it is not a cause, it is called the direct cause. Although it is not a fruit, it is called the Dharma body.

The Great Sutra says: That which is neither cause nor fruit is called Buddha-nature. This is precisely the Buddha-nature of the direct cause and the direct fruit. It also says: This cause is not the fruit; it is called Buddha-nature.

Based on the conditioning and revealing inherent in these virtues of nature, all are called causes. It also says: This fruit is not the cause; therefore, it is called Buddha-nature. Based on the conditioning and revealing cultivated as virtues, all are fully complete.

When the Revealing Cause is transformed, it is called prajna; when the Conditioning Cause is transformed, it is called liberation. It is also called the fruit of bodhi and the fruit of nirvana. As fruits, all of these are fruits.

Buddha-nature pervades both cause and fruit and is neither horizontal nor vertical. The virtues of nature are threefold; as causes, they are neither vertical nor horizontal. When fully complete at the stage of fruition, they are called the three virtues.

Therefore, the Contemplation of Samantabhadra says: The cause of the Great Vehicle is the true aspect of all dharmas. The fruit of the Great Vehicle is also the true aspect of all dharmas. When the virtue of wisdom is complete, it serenely illuminates.

In accordance with capacities, it responds and liberates at once. Through the virtue of severance, it tames beings everywhere, enabling all to attain deliverance. The preceding questions and answers take their name from the complete differentiation of the virtue of wisdom.

The subsequent questions and answers take their name from the complete differentiation of the virtue of severance. Thus, one clearly knows that, through the causes and conditions of wisdom and severance, it is called Avalokitesvara’s Universal Gate.

Question: The names of these ten meanings are found outside this sutra. Which of them are used to explain this chapter?

Answer: The meanings of the Great Vehicle are shared throughout the sutras and have a common function. If this were not so, Buddha-nature could not be taken from the Nirvana Sutra, nor the five abiding afflictions and the two kinds of birth and death from the Srimala Sutra. How, then, could the masters adopt and employ meanings shared throughout those sutras? Although the passages of this chapter do not fully contain all ten names, the two sets of questions and answers together encompass all ten meanings. Therefore, they can indeed be used to explain it. Now, as above, we shall separately cite the passages, sentence by sentence, to substantiate those ten meanings. As the text says:

Dĩ hà nhơn duyên danh Quan Thế Âm. It also says: Dĩ thị nhơn duyên danh Quan Thế Âm. These are based on the name of the person.

The later passage says: Phổ Môn Thị Hiện. This clarifies the Dharma.

Hữu như thị đẳng đại uy thần lực đa sở nhiêu ích. This refers to compassion.

Mẫn chư tứ chúng. This refers to loving-kindness.

To clarify wisdom, the passage stating that there are nineteen ways of expounding the Dharma refers precisely to wisdom.

Nhứt thời lễ bái đắc vô lượng vô biên phước đức chi lợi. This refers to merit.

Tự tại chi nghiệp. This refers to the Dharma body.

Why is this so? The Dharma body attains mastery over all things. Wisdom is distinctively this; therefore, it is called its activity.

The Lifespan chapter says: Huệ quang chiếu vô lượng, cửu tu nghiệp sở đắc. Uy thần chi lực nguy nguy như thị. Như thị mãn túc chi danh. This refers to the true body.

Phổ Môn thị hiện thần thông lực. This refers to the response body.

Du chư quốc độ, độ thóat chúng sanh. This refers to the body of the King of Medicine Trees.

Ư bố úy cấp nạn chi trung năng thí vô úy. This refers to the body of the King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels.

Phước bất đường quyên. This refers to hidden benefit.

The thirty-three bodies refer to manifest benefit. The Buddha body is real wisdom. Manifesting the other bodies is provisional wisdom.

The body of Avalokitesvara is the Origin; the other bodies are the Traces. Furthermore, the great awe-inspiring spiritual power is the Origin, while the power of skillful means is the Traces. Hearing of this Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva—if someone hears this chapter—substantiates the Revealing Cause.

Công đức bất thiểu. This refers to the Conditioning Cause. Not accepting the offering, the constant practice of relinquishment, and immediately contemplating this sound—this contemplation is wisdom.

Giai đắc giải thóat, chủng chủng điều phục chúng sanh, bát vạn tứ thiên phát tâm đẳng. These are benefits and thus refer to severance. The fourth analytical determination.

Question: The person corresponds to Avalokitesvara, and the Dharma corresponds to the Universal Gate. In the Vaipulya teachings, however, there is the Dharma Prince Universal Gate, where the designation rests upon the person. How should this meaning be understood? Are they the same or not?

Answer: This is the method of differentiation by means of the four propositions. The person is not the Dharma, and the Dharma is not the person. The person is precisely the Dharma, and the Dharma is precisely the person. According to the Avatamsaka, this pertains to the successive stages of the mind-ground. Before cultivating the practices concerning birth and death, the practitioner is not yet the Dharma of true reality. This Dharma is likewise not that person. If one practices without following the successive stages of the mind-ground, then that person is precisely true reality, and that true reality is precisely the person. Person and Dharma are not two.

If, according to the Tripitaka teaching, one uses the approach that elucidates nonexistence, provisionality, and the person, then the real dharmas of this teaching are not the person. If the gate of emptiness subsumes all real dharmas, then they constitute the provisional person. Person and dharmas are therefore distinct from one another. Yet if one does not discuss dharmas apart from the person, one likewise does not discuss the person apart from dharmas. This is precisely the meaning of the Two Truths; it is not the person and Dharma of the Middle Way.

In the Vaipulya teachings, the Great Vehicle is elucidated in contrast to the Lesser Vehicle when discussing person and Dharma. The elucidation of the Lesser is like that in the Tripitaka teaching, while the elucidation of the Great is like that in the Avatamsaka. The Prajnaparamita and Nirvana teachings may likewise be understood by analogy.

Here, within the Vaipulya teaching, the Universal Gate is elucidated; this is the meaning of the Great Vehicle. Now, when elucidating the Dharma of the Universal Gate, how could there be Dharma without a person? When that teaching elucidates the Universal Gate as a person, how could one possess the Dharma yet have no person?

Thus person and Dharma mutually proclaim and designate one another. In that sutra the person is the subject of the title, while here the Dharma is the subject of the title.

It is like the Lesser Vehicle’s declaration that Shariputra was foremost in wisdom. The other disciples were each also foremost in their accomplishment of particular Dharma gates. Fundamentally, they relied on wisdom to sever delusions and bring forth the true state of non-outflow. How could those others have entered the Way without wisdom? When they attained the fruit of the Way, that fruit clearly included wisdom. Thus each was extolled as foremost with respect to one particular entrance. It is like the point of a knife cutting an object: it must necessarily rely on the part behind it to exert its effect. The particular capacities are like the knife, while wisdom is like its blade.

The meaning of the Universal Gate is also like this. Because of this Dharma of causes and conditions, it is called the Universal Gate. How could a person attain it without the cause of comprehension? Here the person is likewise named Avalokiteshvara. This clearly shows that, in order that the conventional truth not be confused, different names are mutually applied. Just as the body possesses all six faculties and yet one speaks of “pure eye” and “pure mind,” could this mean that the other faculties are absent? This concludes the brief explanation in terms of loving-kindness and compassion.

Question: If great compassion removes suffering, then once suffering has been eliminated, happiness is immediately attained. Great compassion bestows happiness, and bestowing happiness is precisely the removal of suffering. Why, then, are these divided into two parts?

Answer: This may be said in a general discussion, but in a specific discussion it is not so. It is like freeing someone from punishment in prison without yet providing the objects of the five senses. Although the person’s body is no longer in pain, the faculties and feelings are not yet joyful. This merely removes suffering; it does not yet bestow happiness. Again, it is like providing the objects of the five senses in prison: although the faculty of hearing may experience pleasure, this is still not called the removal of suffering. Because their meanings are distinct, each reveals one aspect. Therefore they are discussed separately.

Question: Why is there no discussion here of sympathetic joy and equanimity?

Answer: Although the four immeasurable minds have four names, they embody only three meanings. The Great Sutra states: “Upeksha: peksha means relinquishment.” This relinquishment is the relinquishing of both; it is neither loving-kindness nor compassion, and is neither of those two meanings. Though they are nondual, they are two—that is, loving-kindness and compassion.

As for sympathetic joy, it means that joy arises from the happiness bestowed through loving-kindness. At first one wishes to bestow happiness, but sentient beings are burdened by accumulated suffering and cannot experience happiness; thus there is no occasion for joy. Once their suffering has been removed, they can attain happiness.

This accords with the original intent; therefore, after happiness, sympathetic joy is added. If this were not present afterward, joy would not unfold.

It is like King Ashoka during the seven days before his impending death. Although he possessed the pleasures of the five desires, sorrow and anguish bound his mind. It is also like a body afflicted by even a slight illness, which can dominate the happiness of the entire body. Thus one clearly knows that when suffering accumulates, happiness cannot be attained.

Question: The factors of dhyana place joy before happiness, with the factor of happiness afterward. What further explanation is there?

Answer: The factors of dhyana proceed from the coarse to the subtle. Here, because one rejoices in another’s attainment of happiness, sympathetic joy comes afterward. Moreover, non-Buddhist practitioners cultivate the four immeasurables within the essence of meditative concentration, producing illusory perceptions that bring no real benefit to others. They cannot enable others to remove suffering and attain happiness; they merely construct for themselves the delusive dharmas of the world. When their karmic recompense is exhausted, they fall again and are not freed from suffering. Thus they bring no benefit at all.

If practitioners of the Two Vehicles cultivate the four immeasurables, they may remove their own suffering, but they do not benefit others. They remove their own suffering only in part and have not yet eliminated changeable birth and death. When this body is reduced to ashes and extinguished, it is clear that this is not ultimate happiness.

Bodhisattvas are not like this. Theirs is neither the practice of ordinary beings nor the practice of sages and saints. It is not that of ordinary beings because it does not resemble personally enjoying the bliss of dhyana.

It is not that of sages and saints because it is not merely the personal removal of suffering. Because bodhisattvas do not seek happiness for themselves, they bestow happiness upon others. Because they do not merely remove their own suffering, they remove the suffering of others.

Moreover, removing suffering is itself bestowing happiness, and bestowing happiness is likewise the removal of suffering. Therefore, when distinguishing them, the corresponding vows are discussed separately: first the removal of suffering is elucidated, and afterward the bestowal of happiness. This concludes the brief explanation in terms of merit and wisdom.

Question: Avalokiteshvara corresponds to wisdom and is said to remove suffering. What happiness does the Universal Gate, corresponding to merit, enable one to behold?

Answer: Wisdom is radiant illumination, rightly capable of counteracting all the darkness of delusion. Such delusions are the suffering and afflictions of birth and death. If it counteracts the darkness of delusion and suffering, how could wisdom not be explained in terms of illumination? Therefore, the person of wisdom is said to remove suffering.

The Dharma is a Dharma gate, and a gate is so called because it enables passage. It gives passage to the peace and bliss of nirvana. When one first practices this Dharma, one obtains the cause of peace and bliss. Later, when one realizes this Dharma, one obtains the fruit of peace and bliss. Therefore, in relation to the Universal Gate, this elucidates the bestowal of happiness.

Question: Merit and wisdom accompany one another and fundamentally are never separate. If concentration lacks wisdom, it is called deluded concentration. It is like a blind child riding a horse: the child will certainly fall into a pit, beyond any doubt. If wisdom lacks concentration, it is called wild wisdom. It is like a lamp extinguished by a strong wind. Once the lamp is extinguished, it cannot illuminate objects. Therefore, it should be understood that merit and wisdom must correspond to each other, like two evenly matched wheels, before the vehicle can move. If this is so, why is wisdom used to remove suffering, while merit is used to bestow happiness?

Answer: Precisely, merit is wisdom, and wisdom is merit. If there is merit without wisdom, then that wisdom is not merit. Both the Mahayana and the Hinayana elaborate this through the four propositions. For example, bodhisattvas practicing the six paramitas cultivate prajnaparamita. They divide Jambudvipa into seven parts. This is worldly wisdom, which cannot sever the afflictions. This illustrates what is subsumed under merit; thus this merit is called wisdom. This wisdom is merit that does not sever the afflictions. If a shravaka clearly understands that wisdom can sever them, it is called wisdom and not merit, as in the case of the hungry arhat. If merit is neither worldly wisdom nor supramundane wisdom, it is like the white elephant.

With regard to the four propositions of the Mahayana, in the Separate Teaching the practices of the thirty minds prior to the bhumis are called meritorious practices, while the practices of wisdom are called wisdom. This wisdom cannot destroy ignorance. Because this wisdom is, in turn, subsumed under merit and does not destroy ignorance, this merit is expedient wisdom that remedies attachment to characteristics.

Prior to the bhumis, everything is called merit; from the bhumis onward, everything is called wisdom. This wisdom is not merit, and merit is not wisdom. The Vaipulya and Prajnaparamita teachings are directed toward the four propositions.

Here, in this Universal Gate, it is called merit and wisdom. Merit itself is wisdom, and wisdom itself is merit. Merit and wisdom are nondual.

Therefore, the Great Treatise says: through such honored and wondrous causes, one can behold prajnaparamita. How could this wisdom be without samadhi? It attains the Shurangama Samadhi.

How could it be encountered without wisdom? The Treatise says that the Samadhi of Perceiving Characteristics can vanquish powerful enemies. The Great Sutra says that Buddha-nature has five kinds of names.

It is also called Prajnaparamita, the Lion’s Roar, the Shurangama, and the Vajra Buddha-nature, and so forth. These are names indicating the completeness of samadhi and wisdom. Without dhyana there is no wisdom; without wisdom there is no dhyana.

Dhyana and wisdom are nondual. Though nondual, they are two. When discussed separately according to their respective approaches, two explanations are given for samadhi and wisdom.

Therefore, when the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom explains prajnaparamita, it elucidates the eighteen kinds of emptiness; when it explains dhyana-samadhi, it elucidates the 108 samadhis. These two are spoken of as two, yet they are not two. This is a brief explanation.

There are also four distinctive propositions: neither true nor responsive; responsive but not true; true but not responsive; and both true and responsive. As for neither true nor responsive, this can be understood in terms of the general principle. It also refers to ordinary beings, who do not perceive the principle and therefore are not true; being without function, they are therefore not responsive.

This explains being responsive but not true: followers of non-Buddhist paths may attain the five superknowledges and manifest transformations for others. According to the general discussion of the Shared Teaching, this may be regarded as responsiveness, but it cannot be called true. As for being true but not responsive, practitioners of the Two Vehicles enter truth and sever the fetters.

Their bodies turn to ashes and their awareness ceases, so they cannot give rise to responsive manifestations. This, again, is the true as discussed generally in the Shared Teaching. As for being both true and responsive, this separately reveals the Middle Way as the true.

Discussing it in terms of this very truth, it functions as responsiveness: the true and the responsive are nondual. Though nondual, they are two; therefore, they are called the true and the responsive.

Now, relying upon the wording of the text, we shall offer an explanation of the true and the responsive. The preceding series of questions and answers elucidated the constant benefit of the true body. The subsequent questions and answers also elucidated the benefit of the responsive body.

Ordinarily, they can never be separated, like two birds that always fly together. From both perspectives, one may say that the true body is always present and yet is also not always present. The responsive body is intermittent and yet is also not intermittent.

If this meaning is explained according to the Hinayana, it is like the excellence of the stone grotto: through contemplating emptiness, one beholds the Buddha’s Dharma-body, yet Bhikshuni Utpalavarna did not behold it. Does this not show that within the Hinayana the true body has the meaning of always conferring benefit and yet not always conferring benefit? Among the six kinds of responsive manifestations, it is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen.

Does this not show that the responsive body has the meanings of both intermittence and non-intermittence?

The Mahayana Dharma-body is likewise so. In relation to principle, it constantly confers benefit; in relation to sentient perception, it does not constantly confer benefit. The responsive body is likewise so. When these conditions cease and other conditions arise, there is no interruption; this, too, has the meaning of non-intermittence. They have the same nature but are perceived differently in relation to this temporal meaning. They are now distinguished as follows: the preceding set of questions and answers concerns the constant conferral of benefit, while the subsequent set concerns the nonconstant conferral of benefit.

To speak briefly of the two bodies as the Medicine and the Jewel: medicine has the function of alleviating the suffering of illness. It also has the excellent function of preserving and increasing the life of the whole body. Therefore, the Sutra says: “If the life of the whole body is preserved in this way, all will be well.” The wish-fulfilling jewel of a wheel-turning king does not always send down rain, yet it can also cure illness.

The crown prince entered the great ocean and obtained the precious jewel, then returned and cured his parents’ eye disease. The Large Prajnaparamita says: “If a person’s eyes are diseased and the jewel is placed upon the afflicted body, the disease is immediately dispelled.” Thus, it is clear that both encompass these two meanings. If only one aspect is separately presented, then the removal of affliction is illustrated by medicine, while the attainment of joy is illustrated—how much more so—by the precious jewel.

In general, both are elucidated.

Altogether there are thirty-six propositions. In general, they concern the two wisdoms of provisional means and reality. The preceding questions and answers concern real wisdom illuminating the true, whereby sentient beings attain liberation.

Provisional wisdom illuminates the conventional, whereby sentient beings are delivered. Such deliverance is deliverance through the provisional, and it also delivers them into the real. Such liberation is liberation into the true, and it also liberates them from the conventional.

This explanation also comprises four propositions. Some, through true wisdom, are liberated from the provisional: this refers to the elimination of the seven calamities and the fulfillment of the two wishes. Some, through true wisdom, are liberated into the real: this refers to freedom from the three poisons.

Some, through provisional wisdom, are delivered into the real: this refers to deliverance through the thirty-three bodies. Some, through provisional wisdom, are delivered within the provisional: amid fear, they are immediately rescued and attain fearlessness. Some attain both deliverance and liberation.

Now, relying upon the two halves of the passage, each presents one aspect: the preceding passage brings one out of the provisional, while the subsequent passage leads one to the real.

To speak briefly of the Original and the Manifest: generally speaking, both the Original and the Manifest can uproot suffering and bestow joy. Therefore, the chapter on the Measure of the Tathagata’s Lifespan says: “Hearing that the Buddha’s lifespan is immeasurable, they attain purity, freedom from outflows, and immeasurable rewards.” Thus, joy is attained from the Original. The Invocation of Avalokiteshvara says: “At times he roams playfully through the hells, with a mind of great compassion taking the suffering of beings upon himself.” This is the uprooting of suffering through the Manifest.

Because sentient beings do not reach the primordial Original, they subsequently wander in suffering and affliction. If they understand the principle of the Original, they are thereby liberated from that suffering. If sentient beings do not perceive the teaching through manifestations within the Original, they cannot cultivate the three kinds of merit through the three karmic activities; they therefore lack the causes of merit and virtue.

How, then, could they attain the fruit of joy? Without the Original, there is no basis for manifesting traces; without the Manifest, there is no means of revealing the Original. The preceding questions and answers elucidate this Original and Manifest, and the subsequent questions and answers also elucidate this Original and Manifest.

Question: How do the Original and Manifest differ from the true and responsive?

Answer: The true and responsive are ultimately discussed in relation to matters occurring within a single lifetime, as elucidated in the sutras. The Original and Manifest, however, are discussed generally in relation to the three lifetimes, as explained in the chapter on the Measure of the Tathagata’s Lifespan. Briefly stated, the distinction is due to conditions.

Question: Since the conditioning and illuminating causes possess virtuous qualities of the nature, do they also possess evil qualities of the nature?

Answer: They fully possess both.

Question: What good and evil are severed by an icchantika and by a Buddha?

Answer: The icchantika severs good deeds, yet eternally possesses the nature of good. The Buddha severs evil deeds, yet eternally possesses the nature of evil.

Question: Why can the good and evil qualities of the nature not be severed?

Answer: The natures of good and evil are eternally the Dharma-gates of good and evil. These natures cannot be altered throughout the three periods of time, nor can anyone possess them in their entirety. Neither can they be annihilated. For example, although Māra might burn the scriptures, how could the wholesome nature of the Dharma-gates thereby be exhausted? Conversely, even if the Buddha were to burn away evil, he still could not cause the Dharma-gates of evil to be utterly exhausted. When the Qin dynasty burned the classics in order to oppose Confucianism, could that possibly have caused good and evil to be completely annihilated?

Question: If an icchantika has not extinguished the seed of goodness, can the nature of goodness subsequently be made to arise? Since the Buddha has not extinguished the nature of evil, can evil then be made to arise?

Answer: The icchantika is unable to realize the nature of goodness. Because of this non-realization, the goodness that he subsequently practices is defiled. By cultivating goodness, he extensively arouses practices that counteract evil.

Although the Buddha has not extinguished the nature of evil, he is able to realize the actuality of evil. Because he realizes this actuality of evil, he is truly sovereign with respect to evil. Since he does not commit evil, defiled cultivated evil does not arise.

Therefore, the Buddha never again returns to evil deeds. Because of this sovereignty, he extensively employs the evil Dharma-gates to transform and deliver sentient beings. Yet even when employing them, to the end of his life he is never defiled.

Because he is undefiled, evil does not arise. How could this be likened to the icchantika? If an icchantika could realize this goodness and evil, he could no longer be called an icchantika.

According to another explanation, the icchantika has completely severed goodness, yet the ālaya—which the noble one clearly knows to be the locus of perfuming—can again give rise to goodness. The ālaya is morally indeterminate and is ignorance. Good and evil depend upon it for preservation as all their seeds.

The icchantika has not extinguished ignorance and the morally indeterminate; therefore, goodness can arise again. The Buddha has severed and eliminated the morally indeterminate and ignorance, leaving nothing that can be perfumed; therefore, his evil can never arise again. If he wishes to employ evil to deliver beings, he constantly produces transformations through spiritual powers, thereby appearing to deliver sentient beings.

Question: If, at the stage of Buddhahood, evil has been completely severed, and the Buddha produces spiritual powers and uses evil to transform beings, then evil could arise only through a deliberate act of thought. This resembles a person who, at night, cannot clearly distinguish colors, or a bright mirror that cannot reflect the colors of the forms before it. Perhaps this is inconceivable, and its principle may correspond with evil. But if it involves deliberate thought, how would such a person differ from a non-Buddhist practitioner?

Answer: We now clarify that the icchantika has not extinguished the goodness of the nature’s virtue; when he encounters wholesome conditions, it immediately manifests. The Buddha likewise has not extinguished the nature of evil. When the power of sentient beings’ conditions is strong through perfuming, he enters the Avīci hell and employs every evil deed to transform and deliver sentient beings.

Because the nature of evil exists, it is said not to be annihilated. Yet because he does not cultivate evil, it is said not to be eternal. If both the nature and its cultivation were exhausted, this would constitute annihilation, whereas it is neither annihilated nor eternal.

The icchantika is likewise so. Because the nature of goodness is not annihilated, he can again produce wholesome roots. Because the Tathagata’s nature of evil is not annihilated, he too can give rise to evil.

Although evil arises, his mind remains undefiled. Having passed beyond evil, he immediately abides in ultimate reality. He can manifest the characteristics of the five heinous offenses and yet attain liberation.

Furthermore, he is neither bound nor released; while acting on a non-path, he penetrates the Buddha-path. The icchantika is defiled and does not realize this, and thus differs from the foregoing. This briefly clarifies severance and elimination.

This is another Dharma, called inseparability. Just as in a single person, through wisdom suffering is uprooted, and through severance joy is attained. Nevertheless, the mind’s discerning understanding is called wisdom.

When the body is free of obstructive bonds, this is called severance. It is like a person who is tightly bound: the power pertaining to wisdom works together with external assistance pertaining to severance and with the operative power of the mind. Therefore, this is called the adornment of wisdom.

The assisting substance of severance, dispersed throughout the physical body, is called the adornment of merit. The present scripture says that these cannot be attained at one and the same moment. Therefore, wisdom and severance are presented together.

If these ten meanings are thoroughly understood, a thousand matters can be comprehended. Were one to explain extensively the meaning of Avalokiteśvara’s Universal Gate, it would truly be inexhaustible.

The second section separately explains the names in two parts. First, it clarifies Avalokiteśvara; next, it clarifies the Universal Gate. For what reasons is he called Avalokiteśvara?

The explanation according to the Shared Teaching is as given above. The Separate Teaching explains that he is called Avalokiteśvara because of the causes and conditions of objects and wisdom. What are objects and wisdom?

Here, objects and wisdom are again of two kinds. The first is conceivable objects and wisdom. The second is inconceivable objects and wisdom.

Conceivable objects and wisdom are again of two kinds. The first accords with the external principle; the second accords with the internal principle. The external principle is again of four kinds.

The first is naturally existent objects and wisdom. One merely asks: Is this object an object because of the object, or is it an object because of wisdom? Is this wisdom wisdom because of wisdom, or is it wisdom because of the object?

If the object is an object because of the object, then this object is an object that arises from itself. If wisdom is wisdom because of wisdom, then this wisdom is likewise wisdom that arises from itself. Arising from itself means that its nature is spontaneously so.

It is not made by Buddhas, gods, or human beings. Whether illuminating or not illuminating, objects and wisdom are constant. Therefore, these are called naturally existent objects and wisdom.

The second clarifies mutual dependence. If an object is not in itself an object, it is an object because of wisdom. Wisdom is not in itself wisdom; it is wisdom because of an object. This is the meaning of arising from the other. Why is this so? If an object gives rise to itself as an object, it is then termed the self. In relation to the object, wisdom is the other. Now, if the object arises from wisdom, is it not an object arising from the other? Wisdom is likewise so; therefore, this is called mutual dependence.

Next, the causes and conditions of object and wisdom are clarified. If the object does not arise from wisdom, neither does the object arise from itself; therefore it is an object. Because of the causes and conditions of wisdom and object, there is the object. Wisdom is likewise. This means that object and wisdom arise together through causes and conditions. As for arising together, although there are two, this falls into the categories of self-nature and other-nature.

Next, absolute opposition is used to clarify object and wisdom. It is neither object nor wisdom, yet object and wisdom are spoken of. This means being apart from object and apart from wisdom, discerning object and wisdom without causes and conditions. This is the relative form of having no causes and conditions. Even what arises from the foregoing causes and conditions cannot be apprehended, much less what has no causes and conditions. At first glance, this seems to be an absolute principle, but ultimately it does not constitute absolute opposition. This mind that practices outside the principle engages in deluded conceptual calculation. Therefore, the Madhyamaka Treatise says:

How, then, could they be apprehended according to the foregoing four alternatives? Subsequently, one clings to what is real and regards the rest as false speech. From clinging to the reality of views, and from views and craving, arise the ninety-eight proclivities. Suffering and its origin surge forth, flowing and turning without cease.

Why does this attachment give rise to suffering and its origin? Falling into attachment to one kind of object and wisdom means grasping it as such. If it accords with and pleases body and mind, one becomes attached and gives rise to joy.

This is the proclivity of greed. If someone contradicts it and reproaches what the mind delights in, anger consequently arises and gives birth to aversion; this is the proclivity of anger. When greed and anger arise, is this not the proclivity of delusion?

One thinks, “I understand this object and wisdom, whereas that person does not understand as I do,” and becomes insolent toward others because of what one clings to; is this not the proclivity of pride? One then clings to this as certainly so. Though one does not doubt it now, great doubt will arise later; what could this be if not the proclivity of doubt?

“I clearly know and understand this Dharma.” Calculating a self within that Dharma—is this not the view of a self? The sixty-two views consequently fall to one extreme; is this not an extreme view? Such deluded attachment does not accord with the principle; is this not a wrong view? Clinging to this as real and regarding it as nirvana—is this not the excessive result of attachment to views? Taking this path as the basis for practice—is this not the excessive cause of attachment to precepts and observances?

All ten proclivities arise within the object and wisdom grasped above. When extended through the Three Realms and the Four Truths, there are eighty-eight proclivities. When the proclivities of contemplation are collectively reckoned throughout the Three Realms, there are ninety-eight proclivities.

This is the truth of origin: the bonds of karma and the surging forth of inversion. Thereafter comes the fruit of suffering—the uninterrupted birth and death of samsara. If one does not understand suffering and its origin within this object and wisdom, where could there be the path and cessation?

Thus one does not understand the Four Truths and thereby destroys the causes and effects of both the mundane and supramundane worlds. Since there are no mundane or supramundane dharmas, no dharma is real. Not understanding the supramundane fruit, there is no true Buddha.

Not understanding the supramundane cause means that there is no Jewel of the Sangha of worthies and sages. Everything is lost.

If one forms such an attachment, then object and wisdom arise from themselves. There is only the construction of birth and death, increasing the bonds of karma and producing a great many errors. If this is not object and wisdom outside the principle, then what would constitute being outside the principle?

Therefore, the Great Treatise says: “Ordinary beings speak of three kinds: views, pride, and words. Sages speak of only one kind, namely words.” Now ordinary beings, through views, pride, and attachment, falsely claim to speak the Buddha’s words. By extolling what they cling to as the principle, they engender disputes.

Though they slander the sutras and treatises, they nevertheless cite scriptural passages, like insects boring into wood and accidentally forming characters. If one sincerely investigates, one finds that they cannot explain whether they are characters or not. Their mouths speak of object and wisdom, yet they do not understand object and wisdom.

They take what cannot be explained as though imbibing ambrosia. Thus, through object and wisdom, they give rise to views, so that body and life are harmed and meet an early end. Therefore, Nagarjuna refuted this position.

We do not now adopt this notion of object and wisdom to explain Avalokitesvara.

Object and wisdom arising from themselves are thus; the remaining three propositions are likewise.

Second is the clarification of the conceivable principle of inner object and wisdom. Again, the foregoing four gates are established. Although the terminology is the same, contemplation and wisdom have matured, and no attachment to views arises.

Because they are fully endowed, nothing new is fabricated, and they constitute the path of skillful means. Warmth and Summit arise, continuing up to the sixteen moments of the clear, awakened wisdom of the eye. Having penetrated and attained awakening, one destroys the delusions of views and accords with the principle.

It is like a blind person whose ocular membrane is pierced with a needle, so that vision becomes clear and speech is no longer false. This is true contemplation and is called wisdom. The principle that it illuminates is called the object.

Because it gives rise to the undefiled, it is called the principle of inner object and wisdom. Although one sees this principle, one ultimately still forms an intention to enter reality. Therefore, it is called conceivable object and wisdom.

In clarifying Avalokitesvara, we do not derive the name from this causally conditioned object and wisdom either.

Next is the clarification of inconceivable object and wisdom. If self, other, both, and no cause—compared according to the four propositions—are all neither object nor wisdom, why do the sutras and treatises now clarify them in terms of arising from self, arising from another, arising from both, arising without cause, and so forth? If it were not so, how could object and wisdom be discerned?

Answer: The sutra clearly states that all Four Siddhantas employ provisional names and words in accordance with conditions; they do not involve attachment to the four natures. If people delight in hearing of the freedom of objects and wisdom, it is said that this object is one’s own object of wisdom and that this wisdom is one’s own wisdom. By means of what has thus been attained, their minds become eager and joyful.

Or, when they hear the teaching, they awaken and know for themselves; upon hearing it, they all give rise to goodness. At times, by way of counteraction, it is said that objects and wisdom arise of themselves. Such a teaching will assuredly destroy delusion.

At times, this teaching enables them immediately to awaken to the Way. If the Four Siddhantas afforded no benefit, the Buddhas and Tathagatas would not expound the Dharma. Although four methods are established to destroy delusion and enter the Way, it is therefore called wisdom.

Because this wisdom illuminates, it is called the object. Penetrating it in this way, one immediately clearly knows suffering, its arising, its cessation, and the path. The Three Jewels and the Four Noble Truths are naturally complete.

If wisdom is used to illuminate the object, and one enters emptiness and grasps realization, this becomes the ultimate truth—the conceivable objects and wisdom within the principle—as explained above. If one does not take the fruit as realization, one clearly knows that these objects and wisdom provisionally bear the names “object” and “wisdom.” These words are neither within, without, nor in between. These words do not abide, yet neither do they not abide.

These words possess nothing. Although four propositions are established to clarify the reality of objects and wisdom, the four propositions concerning objects and wisdom are not discriminated. Although four propositions are expressed in words concerning objects and wisdom, in reality the four propositions concerning objects and wisdom cannot be apprehended.

Although one penetrates the four propositions concerning objects and wisdom, in reality one does not construct the four conceivable propositions concerning objects and wisdom. The path of language is severed, and the domain of mental activity ceases. It cannot be reached by reflection through the four propositions; therefore, it is called the inconceivable object and wisdom.

The Golden Light Sutra states: Inconceivable wisdom illuminates this inconceivable object. This teaching on objects and wisdom is fully and extensively explained in “The Subtlety of Objects and Wisdom” in the Profound Meaning of the Great Text. Nagarjuna first refuted identity, difference, and time, and only afterward explained the meaning of “Thus have I heard.” Here, likewise, the objects and wisdom external to the principle are first refuted, and afterward the inconceivable Four Siddhantas are clarified.

The meaning of the Siddhantas is as explained in the Profound Meaning of the Great Text. Generally, when names are relied upon as skillful means, the method of contemplation and wisdom should first be clarified, and then the sounds of the world should be explained. If meaning is used as the skillful means, the worldly object should first be clarified, and then contemplation and wisdom should be explained.

As above, when an object exists, contemplation may be discussed. If there were no object, what could be contemplated? It is like the object of a drum: only afterward is the drum struck.

Now, proceeding from meaning as the skillful means, the sounds of the world are first clarified, and contemplation and wisdom are discussed afterward. The world is further divided into three: first, the world of the five skandhas; second, the world of sentient beings; and third, the world of lands. When real dharmas exist, there are consequently provisionally designated persons.

When the provisional and the real are established, there is consequently that upon which they depend. These are called the three kinds of worlds. These worlds are distinct; namely, they are the worlds of the ten Dharma realms.

There are also ten kinds of five skandhas, ten kinds of provisional designations, and ten kinds of dependent recompense. Because they are distinct and not identical, they are called worlds.

“Time” means distinctions of time. The thirty kinds of worlds are distinct and their characteristics are not confused; therefore, they are called realms. Each has its own cause, and each has its own effect; therefore, they are called dharmas.

Each has boundaries that are clearly distinguished. Within a single Dharma realm there are also ten dharmas: thus the characteristics, nature, and ultimate identity. The ten realms therefore comprise one hundred dharmas.

Since the characteristics of the ten realms mutually contain one another, they form one thousand dharmas. All such dharmas are dharmas arising through causes and conditions. The six paths are dharmas of causes and conditions belonging to delusion; the Four Noble Ones are dharmas of causes and conditions belonging to liberation.

The Great Sutra states: The unconditioned also has causes and conditions. Through these causes, ignorance is extinguished, and one thereby realizes complete enlightenment. These dharmas of causes and conditions are precisely the Three Truths.

Dharmas produced by causes and conditions, I declare, are emptiness. They are also called provisional designations and are also called the meaning of the Middle Way. Therefore, clarifying the ten kinds of Dharma realms and the thirty kinds of worlds is precisely to clarify the objects contemplated.

These objects are further of two kinds: oneself and others. “Others” means sentient beings and Buddhas. “Oneself” means that the mind is inherently complete, as the Avatamsaka Sutra says: The mind is like a skillful painter, creating all manner of five skandhas.

Throughout all the worlds, there is nothing that is not created by the mind.

Question: Do oneself and others each fully possess the ten Dharma realms?

Answer: Contemplate the true characteristic of the body; contemplation of the Buddha is likewise so. The Avatamsaka Sutra states: As the mind is, so too is the Buddha. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—these three are without distinction. How could they not each fully possess the objects of the Three Truths? “Sound” refers to the occasion for verbal karma in the ten Dharma realms. The realms are not identical in sound but are distinct from one another.

Question: Every sentient being possesses the three kinds of karma; why, then, is he always called Guanshiyin—Contemplator of the World’s Sounds?

Answer: According to the general teaching, all these names are valid. By constantly recollecting and revering him, one is freed from the three poisons; hence, he is the Contemplator of the World’s Mind. By bowing and making offerings to him, one’s prayers and wishes are fulfilled; hence, he is the Contemplator of the World’s Body. Yet he is now called the Contemplator of the World’s Sounds. The old translation explains this meaning in six ways.

First, establishing the name according to its principal purport. It would be troublesome to set forth every possible name, so one aspect is taken as the focus for establishing the name. If he were called the Contemplator of the World’s Body, one could in turn question that designation, asking why he is not called the Contemplator of the World’s Sounds. Thus, this is not a valid objection.

Second, following worldly convention. Shakyamuni Buddha taught by using sounds to perform the work of a Buddha; therefore, he is called the Contemplator of the World’s Sounds. If he were to go to other places, the designation would be proclaimed in accordance with their conventions.

Third, reciprocal designation: that which contemplates and that which is contemplated. That which is contemplated is the form and mind of sentient beings. Here, the name follows that which is capable of contemplating; therefore, it is said “Contemplator.” There are likewise that which is capable of hearing and that which is heard. That which is capable of hearing is the sage’s faculty of hearing and awareness. That which is heard is the sounds of sentient beings, and thus these sounds are what his hearing apprehends. By naming that which is heard, that which is capable of hearing is indicated. By naming that which is capable of contemplating, that which is contemplated is indicated. Therefore, he is called the Contemplator of the World’s Sounds.